|
|
Leadership with impact
By Martin Gillespie
The wisdom of the leadership gurus
Hundreds, indeed thousands of books and articles have been written on the subject of leaders and leadership. Most attempt, in frequently contradictory ways, to describe what it means to be a great leader. After absorbing all the theories, concepts and models, however, we are often left wondering of what practical use they are to us. As pragmatic would be leaders, we strive to give a sense of purpose and direction in situations that seem more pressured, messier and less predictable than those described by the gurus.
What we all already know about great leaders
Paradoxically, most of us are perfectly capable of recognising effective leaders when we see them. We instinctively sense the difference between those leaders who have “it”, who create a sense of vision, purpose and direction, and those who frankly have not got what it takes. Sadly, in most organisations, experience tells us that there are more of the latter than the former.
So what is it that we recognise in great leaders that we find so difficult to put into words?
I would argue that, although great leaders come in wide array of shapes and sizes, they all have the rare ability to inspire a strong positive reaction from those around them. When they enter a room, they draw everyone’s attention. They have a unique and positive impact on others, something that is perhaps best captured by the ambiguous term “presence”.
Leaders that have “presence” have a solidity about them, an inner stillness and a sense of personal authority. They appear alive and vital. Their behaviour is congruent. There is no sense of personal discomfort or contradiction in the way they hold themselves, nor in the unconscious messages transmitted by their nonverbal behaviour and posture. They are authentic and real in the way they connect with and relate to other people and are very aware of the environment around them and of the impact they make. There is an energy and a life force about them.
Have you got “it”?
Those of you who are perfectly described by the previous two paragraphs need read no further. For the rest of us mortals, the good new is that great leadership is not something that just happens by accident, rather it occurs as a result of specific behaviours that can be acquired and learned over time. Below are some practical tips on how to develop your presence and impact as a leader. All are based on sound research and there is a bibliography at the end for those who want to read further.
Get rid of your inner critic. We all of us have a sabotaging inner voice. It is somewhat like a parrot sat on our shoulder, continually criticising what we do, predicting failure and comparing us unfavourable to those around us. It is the part of us that tries so hard to do well. Once you become aware of it, you will notice that it runs a non-stop commentary that is characterised by fear, self doubt, self consciousness and self judgement. It desperately wants to impress others.
All of this noise going on in your head gets in the way gets in the way of your innate capacity to learn from experience and to grow.
Tim Gallwey, of “The Inner Game of Tennis” [1] fame, suggests that our performance in any given situation is equal to our potential minus the damage caused by our ongoing and incessant self talk. Only when the mind is still is peak performance reached, whether this be as a tennis player or as a leader. It requires less thinking, calculating, judging, worrying, fearing, hoping, trying, regretting, controlling, jittering, or distracting. A state that is best achieved by the engrossed attention and relaxed concentration of a mind that is focused and still.
Learn to focus your attention. Top athletes have long been aware of the power of focused attention. This means having a clear purpose and specific goals, and then immersing yourself totally in the activities required to achieve them. Some call this focus, others call it flow, yet others call it being in the zone. When we are absolutely clear about our intentions, focus follows naturally, like a cat following a fly with its eyes. Gallwey says that focus is what distracts us from what is distracting us.
Milhay Csikszentmihalyi [2], in his bestselling book on the subject of “Flow”, talks about a state in which “action follows upon action according to an internal logic that needs no unconscious intervention by the actor”. He argues that: “Flow is a state of self forgetfulness, the opposite of rumination and worry. People in flow exhibit a masterly control of what they are doing, their responses perfectly attuned to the changing demands of the task”.
Notice and be mindful of what you do. Given what has already been written about freeing yourself from your inner critic, this may seem like contradictory advice. However, a key part of being an effective leader is noticing precisely what you do. Noticing is the opposite of judging, it is a neutral curiosity and mindfulness that constitutes the not trying of thinking. Freed from inner commentary and criticism, you are able to take in a much broader band and quality of information. The simple act of noticing and being curious frequently leads to natural and effortless change. It is part of what Beisser (1970) [3] describes as “The paradoxical theory of change”.
Be fully connected to your senses and aware of what is going on around you. A recent four year research programme into leadership effectiveness, conducted by researchers from Ashridge Business School and the prestigious HEC in France [4], identified awareness as a key leadership capability. According to their findings, highly effective leaders, although differing from each other in most other regards, were all skilled at coming alive in the moment, using all their senses. They lived in the here and now, open to their intuitions and emotions.
There are no pat formulas you can apply to being an effective leader, no one way to success. You have to be there in the moment, bringing all your faculties to bear to work it out. The most effective leaders were those who were able to use all their intelligence, sense and experience to connect with others. They were able to tolerate uncertainty, ambiguity and complexity without the urge to rush to simple minded solutions.
Awareness is a form of experience that Joyce and Sills (2001) [5] defines as, “being in touch with one’s own existence, with what is … a person who is aware knows what he does, how he does it, that he has alternatives and that he chooses to be as he is”. At its best, awareness is a non-verbal sensing or knowing what is happening here and now. It is what Sills calls, “feeing fully alive, exquisitely aware of being in the moment with a sense of connection, spontaneity and freedom”. It sounds simple when put like that!
Don’t hold your breath. When under pressure or facing difficult challenges, we all have a tendency to hold our breath, or at least to breathe poorly. Athletes, actors and singers are all taught to control their breathing as a means of controlling their emotional state. It may at first seem inconsequential, but learning to breathe properly can greatly improve your presence and impact as a leader.
Learning to breathe diaphragmatically, like a singer, will put you in a state where applying all the other advice given in this article becomes much more natural. Try the following exercise prior to any challenging situation:
Focus attention: Fix vision on something ahead of you
Release body tension: Inhale through nose and out through mouth while simultaneously releasing tension in the body. Repeat 3 or 4 times.
Breathe with rhythm: Breathe in through the nose until the lungs are full. Hold breath for same count and then exhale, taking approximately twice as long as for the inhale cycle, then hold with lungs empty for half that amount of time
Continue with breathing pattern increasing exhale until it is twice as long as inhale
Walk tall, walk straight and look the world right in the eye. Impact is a physical thing. Effective leaders impact on us with their imposing physical presence, regardless of their stature. It is about bodily awareness, an upright and confident posture, and an ease and grace of movement. An upright posture and ease of movement suggests confidence. It also sends a message to your body that all is well.
Try the following:
Stand away from your desk, imagine a string attached to the top of your head pulling you firmly upwards, gently lengthening your spine up towards the ceiling.
Allow your feet to be firmly on the ground, hip-width apart, with your weight evenly balanced on both feet.
Increase the distance between your ears and shoulders as well as that between the sternum (breastbone) and pubic bone.
Bring your shoulders back and down, allowing your chest to open out and move forward. Done properly, this will simultaneously improve the timbre and quality of your voice as well as the ease of your breathing
Keep your weight based low in your body
Watch for “leaking” gestures and movements
Use open, fluid and relaxed gestures
The above six tips are all about the being side rather than the doing side of leadership. They require you to act differently, to change your habitual patterns of behaviour. It is easy to make a significant and lasting improvement to your impact as a leader. None of what is written above is difficult or complicated, but its successful application requires sustained and committed practice by yourself.
____________________________________________________
Written by Martin Gillespie, the UK based executive coach, facilitator, leadership development expert, trainer and speaker.
References
[1] Gallwey, W. T., (1974), “The Inner Game of Tennis”, Random House
[2] Csikszentmihalyi, M., (2002 rev.), “Flow”, Rider & Co.
[3] Beiser, A. R., (1970), “The paradoxical theory of change”, in J. Fagan and I. Sheperd (eds), Gestalt Therapy Now, Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behaviour
[4] Binney, G., Wilke, G. and Williams, C., (2005), “living Leadership”, Prentice Hall
[5] Joyce, P. and Sills C., (2001), “Skills in Gestalt Counselling and Psychotherapy”, Sage Publications
|
|
