Shamila Mhearban, Leadership and Team Performance Coach. Working with leaders to stop reacting and start strategizing.
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If as a business leader or senior executive you consistently feel that your only work setting is "urgent" and that you are constantly putting out fires, it may be time to pause and reflect on what impact this may be having on your organizational performance and your immediate team.
This style of leadership, often described as reactive, can leave individuals feeling that challenges and problems are difficult to anticipate, and it can undermine the long-term success of an organization. It is also well-established that company culture can have a direct impact on employees’ perceived stress levels, so there is a short-term impact that can also have long-lasting consequences.
Recently, open letters from frustrated employees to their leaders have also become more commonplace, where employees harness the collective power of social media to shine a spotlight on perceived leadership failures. Coupled with recent world events, shifts in the global economic model and a new generation of employees whose idea of work vastly differs from their predecessors, it is no wonder that the buzz around high-performance leadership has increased.
What is high-performance leadership?
High-performance leadership is when a leader is able to flex their style of leadership according to the situation at hand. High-performance leaders aim to achieve exceptional results over a significant period of time and are required to manage their minds, emotions and time if they are to achieve the best possible outcomes. A high-performance leadership style requires a commitment from leaders to develop their leadership capabilities and goes some way in explaining the recent boom in leaders accessing executive coaching support.
In my experience working with senior executives and leaders, I have found that a commitment to developing a high-performance leadership style requires a senior leader to consistently reflect on what leadership style is best suited to the situation they may be facing in real time. In addition to this, the clients I work with say that they have a willingness to stand in the unknown in order to increase the commercial capability of their team and speak of their commitment to a trial-and-error approach with pride. From their perspective, getting things wrong and being able to pivot assures your stakeholders that you are a resilient leader who prioritizes long-term wins over short-term gains.
If you are interested in developing a more high-performance leadership style, here’s a good place to start:
Create a case for change.
Take the time to reflect on when others have come to you with a problem in the past; in what ways have you been frustrated? What triggered you to jump into problem-solving mode? Was this what the situation needed? Reflecting on the last three months, what percentage of the issues brought to you fall under simple versus complex categories? How often did your people attempt to rectify the issue for themselves? What was the reason for their hesitation?
Building awareness of what is really going on is key if a change is to happen. By asking the above questions, you are more likely to understand when your leadership style has not supported your personal or organizational goals.
What will you do differently?
Considering the above examples, is there a pattern that emerges and that reflects the point when your people stop attempting to figure an issue out for themselves? In what context is this most likely to occur? And what is the work that you can do as a leader that can address this trigger point?
Developing a high-performance leadership style is all about enabling your people so that they can enable the business. By asking the above questions you are more likely to empower your team to develop an ownership mentality and drive internal accountability, and over time, this will set the right foundation to build your high-performance team.
How will you know what works?
Ask yourself, who will be most impacted by a new style of leadership? And in what context is their feedback important? What are the most critical elements that need measuring?
How and when is it appropriate to create opportunities for feedback, and who should be involved? And how do you plan to make time for the necessary self-reflection required to continuously adjust your approach?
As a leader, the work you do on yourself may not always be visible externally and can sometimes be hard to track. Taking the time to reflect on what metrics are important to measure can make a massive difference to a leader's perception of where their valuable time is best spent.
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