In last week’s newsletter, I explored the Departure stage of the journey to change leaders to become less directive and more empowering.

Before you read any further, I must declare that the source is an article in the May-June 2023 edition of Harvard Business Review. I acknowledged the authors last week. You can read the article entitled The Leadership Odyssey for yourself.

Inspiration: https://hbr.org/2023/05/the-leadership-odyssey

Image: Karen Ferris 2023

“No leader who has built a career on making expert contributions and exercising hands-on control can be expected to make the leap overnight to a people-centric style.”

To understand how leaders can successfully make the shift to a people-centric style, the authors studied 75 CEO successions, involving 235 candidates. They discovered that the transformation is not a single event but unfolds over time and takes many twists and turns. It’s a long journey with three stages: the departure, during which leaders recognise the need to change and leave behind their old ways of working; the voyage, during which they encounter obstacles and trials that teach them important lessons; and the return, when they arrive at a new understanding of what kind of leader they need to be.

This week I explore the Voyage stage of the journey.

2. VOYAGE

MAP

You must map out your journey. What skills are you going to work on in what setting? Think about your strengths and the context in which they work well. Would they translate into a different context? For example, you may have great interpersonal skills with your team – with people you have known for some time and established a level of trust. You may find it a challenge to leverage those interpersonal skills with another area of the organisation with which you have no relationship.

You may be great at encouraging collaboration across a network of people with whom you have no direct authority. They see you as a coach rather than a manager. With your own team, to whom you have direct authority, this may be more of a challenge as your encouragement of collaboration is seen as more of a directive. The challenge is how to hone that skill with your team.

You must map out how you are going to gain a true perspective of the strength of your skills when you utilise them in different roles, environments, or contexts.

I encourage leaders to make a map of their learning journey so they can set realistic learning goals with timeframes and visualise the journey. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a learning map as every individual is different. There are some basic things to include for each learning:

Which skill do you want to develop – the topic?
What do you want to achieve from this learning – the goal?
How are you going to learn – the context(s)?
What is your timeframe – target date?

These constructs will be repeated for each skill to be developed. You can also update your learning map over time as your priorities may change or you determine additional contexts to include.

CONTEXT

When you have determined the strength you wish to develop, experiment with it in different contexts as discussed above.

The authors call these contexts outside-in learning and inside-out learning.

Outside-in learning is where you put yourself in a situation in which you have no direct authority and so are compelled to develop a more indirect, empowering style. When you are working with a team you are familiar with, it can be hard to experiment with a new style of leadership.

Inside-out learning is when you change your style by taking skills that you have developed within your own team or in your personal life and using them more broadly.

Context also refers to the way in which you are going to learn as well as how you apply the learning. Contexts could include classroom learning, online learning, blended learning, self-paced learning, on-the-job learning, role assignments, side-projects, role rotation, and coaching and mentoring.

REFLECT

It is important that you regularly reflect on your progress. This is a time when you can celebrate small wins but also celebrate the setbacks as learning opportunities. You must also visualise the big picture, so you do not lose sight of the end game.

I think of this as the leader having both a microscope and a telescope. This is a concept introduced by Jon Gordon in his book “The Power of Positive Leadership.”

You may have a vision of the future and your transformation journey as a leader but whilst that vision is supposed to be energising and exciting, it can also be depressing because it seems impossible to achieve and so far away.

As Jon Gordon says:

“In these moments, it's important to remember that just because you have a vision doesn't mean it's meant to happen now. Your vision is meant to show you what's possible for your future.

Don't let it frustrate you. Let it fill you with possibility and passion. If you see it, you can create it. If you have a vision, know that you also have the power to make happen.

The key is to just keep moving forward with grit and optimism towards your vision one step at a time.

To help you do this you'll want to go through life with a telescope and a microscope.

You need both.

The telescope allows you to see the big picture.

The microscope helps you zoom-focus on what you need to do today to realize the big picture in the telescope.

If you just had a telescope and no microscope, you would have vision without execution which leads to nothing.

If you had a microscope without a telescope, you would likely lose sight of the big picture and get frustrated by all the challenges of today.

Together the telescope and microscope provide you with the right combination of inspiration and action to create your future.

The journey isn't easy but with a telescope and microscope you'll see where you are going, remember why you are going there and know what steps you need to take today.

What is important when those feelings of despair start to emerge is to remember that it is a vision and does not have to happen immediately. It is showing you what is possible in the future. It should not frustrate you but fill you with possibility and passion. If you can see it, you can create it. If you have a vision, know that you also have the power to make it happen.”

So, reflect on the vision and the steps to get there. Reflect on just how far you have come and how much you have achieved. Celebrate. You deserve it!

AWARE

Learning requires you to be self-aware and be able to self-manage.

Self-awareness is the ability to recognise your emotions and identify what triggers them. It is the capability to analyse your emotions and how they affect others. You can understand the relationship between your emotions, thoughts, and behaviours. You can identify your personal strengths and areas for growth.

Self-management means you can navigate and shift your thoughts, emotions, and behaviours in a positive way to make decisions that benefit you and others. Self-management involves regulating and expressing your emotions considerately. You can persevere and have the resilience to overcome obstacles. You have strategies for stress tolerance and impulse control. You are attentive, welcome feedback and use it constructively.

As a leader, you could be impatient that change is not happening quickly enough in your team. You react with harsh words about what has not been done and show a lack of appreciation for what has been done. A colleague gives you this feedback and you both note that your acerb self emerges when you are impatient. You put in place a plan to respond rather than react. When you feel the emotion of impatience arising, you will press your thumb against your index finger. Putting that space between the stimulus and the potential reaction enables a response that is better for you and the team.

I coached a young consultant called Mary who was experiencing bouts of severe anxiety. We worked together to recognise and label the emotion. Labelling allows you to see your thoughts and feeling for what they are: transient sources of data that may or may not prove helpful. I highly recommend reading the work of Susan David on Emotional Agility. We worked on self-awareness, and asked, “Where, when, who, why?”

Mary became aware that when she was scheduled to attend a meeting where the CIO was present, her levels of anxiety increased. The CIO was an abrasive and rude individual. We worked on self-management and being able to respond rather than react. Mary would practice breathing exercises before a meeting, knowing that the problem in the meeting was the CIO and not her. She was able to shift her emotions from being a victim to being a player. A player with intention and not being manipulated by external events over which she had no control.

You can keep a journal to recognise the patterns of behaviour that you fall into. You could keep a record of the situation in which you could have been more appreciative of others and less harsh. You can then analyse those situations in more detail and visualise other ways of responding. It is often hard to do this analysis at the time you are demonstrating poor behaviours but capturing them for later analysis provides the ability to focus, inspect, and plot a course of action.

SUPPORT

Do not do this alone. You need a support team who will cheer you on, provide encouragement and motivation, and hold you accountable for the achievement of your goals. They will provide you with honest feedback and draw your attention to unacceptable actions or behaviours.

Your support team can consist of coaches and mentors, and trusted colleagues. You need to ensure that people feel safe to provide you with feedback so you must create an environment of psychological safety.

You can encourage a wider audience to provide feedback by letting people know that you are on a journey to improve your leadership. When you share this information and have the courage to be vulnerable, you show people you care. As a result, people will help and support you, especially when you slip up, which you inevitably will.

It is imperative that you thank people for their feedback and encourage more. You must act on the feedback you receive. If you don’t, people will tire and stop providing the vital feedback you need to improve your leadership skills.

In a recent newsletter called “Just Ask”, I wrote:

You must proactively seek feedback on a regular basis regarding your performance as a leader. The key thing is to remember that feedback is generally not personal. It is not about you as a person, but about you as a leader, and how well you are performing in that role.

When a person is brave enough to give you feedback when they know it is not positive, it is your duty as the leader to take it on board and own it. Whilst you may feel upset, angry, or disappointed by what you hear, you must see this as an opportunity for improvement, growth, and development.

Just as positive feedback is an opportunity to do more of the same, negative feedback is an opportunity to do things differently.

PERSIST

Resist the urge to go back into your comfort zone. It is important to remember that each time you step outside of your comfort zone, your comfort zone gets bigger. Your comfort zone is your safe place. It is where you feel in control.

You will need to find the courage to step into the fear zone. This is why you need your map. You can build on previous experiences. In the fear zone, you may look for excuses to go back to your comfort zone. Don’t. Persevere.

When you persevere, you will enter the learning zone where you will develop the leadership skills you need. This is where you are extending your comfort zone.

After a period of learning, you will have created a new comfort zone, increasing your ability to reach new levels of leadership. This is what it means to be in the growth zone, and you can set new goals.

Persistence is fuelled by celebrating small wins whilst keeping an eye on the end goal. Remember to celebrate the setback as well as the successes. Setbacks are a learning opportunity and therefore celebrated.

The authors say the following about persisting through (and learning) from setbacks.

“By demonstrating the potential of a new style and eliciting positive feedback, small wins start to shift the leader’s motivation from necessity (“I need to be a better communicator”) to possibility (“I’m working on communicating better because it will help me accomplish my goal”) and identity (“I’m working on communicating better because that is who I want to be”). These subtle changes help leaders become more self-reflective and persistent—invaluable traits for anybody trying to define and anchor a new self.”

Next week

Now that you have completed the Voyage you are ready to return. You will embody the learning and a more empowering leadership style will emerge. I will explore the third stage of the journey next week.

CHANGING LEADERSHIP - VOYAGE - A THREE-STAGE JOURNEY