Create Followship: The Magic Behaviours of Global Leaders by Dr Angus I McLeod

Create Followship: The Magic Behaviours of Global Leaders

Dr Angus I McLeod works with global leaders at the prestigious Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania and consults on leadership for manufacturing industry at Krannert Management School, Purdue University, Indiana. He also delivers corporate disruptive business strategies by facilitating senior teams, with his colleague Adina Laver, via the company Courage to be Curious LLC. He is the author of several books, now in many languages.

Introduction

We want others to be inspired, to co-create with us and support us; we want followship! To achieve greater followship in others, learning more about ‘leadership’ may not be the answer. That’s because leadership development is focused on changing self. What we need to create followship are skills that create change in others; focusing there provides targeted answers to progress.

In this article, discover what you may already be doing that is great! And, find new tricks and tips, for leveraging your existing abilities. Creating Followship in others will help us to run more successful teams, as well as influencing peers and seniors more effectively. Another spin-off, is that good people are much less likely to leave. Here are some areas of focus that provide immediate results.

Focus: Authentic-Self or Personas?

Most executives do not realize that they have a choice to be themselves at work rather than adopt a ‘persona for work’. They come to work and shed their natural ‘self’ in favor of a workpersona, sometimes guided by the work-culture, sometimes not. Typically, this involves faking a work-role that is more-or-less serious, inflexible, opinion-giving and/or directing. The executives who adopt unnatural work-personas may, eventually, not notice their transition into ‘workmode’ each and every day. Family members do notice however, especially when that workpersona hangs-over and is brought home. Imagine a scenario in which a child experiences a parent who comes home stressed, is thoughtless or unkind. Later, the parent may swing to being warmer and more supportive. Research suggests that parental inconsistency like this, leads to kids with low self-esteem and then, as adults, to them being more prone to depression 1 .

Executives often think that they must role-play ‘manager’ and that showing ‘self’ is a weakness. Actually, a person is weak if they fear showing their ‘self’. This fear of showing self is not invisible. The fear appears as ‘inauthentic’ to work-colleagues; the fear leaks out in their demeanor and behaviours. Inauthenticity like that does not engender trust or Followship in others.

You are probably thinking that that there ought to be self-checks and balances in what we express at work? And if so, you are right. However, with caveats, it is safe to drop the fake work-persona! Instead, check out the effect that being more human at work 2 can make on others. What can you do differently that works?

Before you start work, change your routine a little and include some positive thoughts. Here are some questions to ask colleagues that you can adapt and use, to start personal conversations. For example: • What were you doing at the weekend? • Oh, do you have kids too by the way? • Did you watch the game last evening? • That’s a good question, but what is the first thing YOU would do, if I was not here?

Measure Progress Have six personal-interest conversations during the day and learn something about my colleagues. Share something about myself four times today when it fits into the conversation

Focus: Leveraging the Smile!

Global leadership often needs flexibility to conform to cultural differences. Perhaps surprisingly, there is a particularly advantage to a certain type of smile that is a universal sign of friendship and trust in ALL cultures! This smile involves the muscles around the eyesockets as well as those around the mouth. A smile that only involves the mouth 3 does not signal friendship and trust in everyone. Over many millennia, our brains have adapted to recognize friendly people by a smile involving the muscles around the eyes.

Before you go to work, practice this smile with family, your neighbour, your coffee-shop barista and newspaper vendor. Take this same smile to work with you and use it frequently until it becomes perfectly natural.

Measure Progress Aim to practice smiling, engaging the eyes with people you meet: outside of work four times a day and, at work three times a day

Focus: Leveraging Proximetrics Different cultures (and genders) have different emotional reactions to the space around them. People in different cultures have different distances at which they feel uncomfortable with another person being ‘too close’ to them. When people feel safe AND close, they have reached a higher level of trust without, usually, noticing their shift in trust. We can use this knowledge to gain higher levels of trust using proximetrics. Imagine someone you know at work and what their safety-boundary (distance) is; at what point does someone encroaching that space make them uncomfortable. Now, imagine them getting on a crowded train or queuing to board an aircraft. Their safe-space is reduced dramatically, because they do not have eye-contact with the people next to them. Knowing about proximetrics, we can establish safe working space INSIDE their safetyboundary by having a focus where we all look, avoiding eye-contact. At work, we can use a digital display or printed chart to suggest that one or more people take a look at it together. All eyes are now on the chart and not on one another. To get a clear view, each person moves closer together within their safety-boundary (but, without thinking about it). The result is that we are now inside their safe-space and they feel comfortable (but, do not

turn your head and look into their eyes)! There is now another level of trust with you.

Measure Progress Use a screen or printed sheets to create proximal spaces where everyone is moving closer to one another in order to view the chart. Do this three times in this week

A True Story about Applied Proximetrics My company started a long-term engagement with a very large business having an HQ in London. My team was to deliver a coaching program across two levels of management, included the female CEO. I was the CEO’s coach. She and I were in the same room, for the first time, when I gave a presentation to management. She came in last, avoided eye-contact and sat at the back-right. When we finished, she left quickly, again without eye-contact. Two weeks later we met at a different corporate office and we both sat down about four feet apart, at the corner of a large board-room table. Fairly early in the conversation, I produced a diagram, a ‘wheel-of-work’, making annotations. I invited her to look at it with me, while I asked questions. She had barely made eye-contact more than fleetingly until that point. She wheeled her chair closer, so we were side-by-side; we worked with the chart as I asked questions. In time, I noticed that her leg was physically just in contact with my own. After this, eye-contact was more frequent and would last a second or two. She always turned up to sessions and always did the home-work that we agreed upon. When the whole coaching program was over, she confided in me that nobody, other than her husband, had earned her trust to the extent that I had.

Focus: Managing People Appropriately

One size does not fit all; managers with one single-style of managing are much less effective than those who are flexible and who adapt to the needs of the others 4 . This is true with people at any level, including dotted-line, peers and bosses.

Think of a time when you were concerned about your impact with a boss; when the relationship was not working well for you? Because of that concern, you were likely reflecting on dysfunctional situations, adapting and maybe, testing new behaviours. This set of activities is exactly the type of attention that would improve our influence with ALL the people with whom we interact. But, this is a high-maintenance approach, like working in the dark. A better approach, is to step into the light where your knowledge and certainty about how to adapt is perfectly in view; and it will be more time-efficient! The most pressing example of this, that I know, is concerning how we manage others. Do you recall being over-managed? What was that experience like? No good? Do you

4. Some executives are so rigid in thinking that they think that we should treat everyone the same. They may even try and convince you that equality legislation demands it. They are wrong. Treating people fairly means that you obey a policy that treats anyone, in any given circumstance, in an equitable way. That becomes both fair to everyone and humanistic too. Rigidity is rarely fair. 5. Study on Determining Factors of Employee Retention, Bodjrenou Kossivi, Ming Xu, Bomboma Kalgora., Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2016, 4, 261-268. 6. This format is after McLeod and based upon neuroscience and neural-pathway learning, as well as the semantics of learning. The first sentence suggests that there is ‘one thing’ and the brain processes that supposition. The second sentence asks for the answer to the presupposition, using the same phrase, ‘one thing’. The second sentence is also in the PRESENT-tense, to seek the answer now.

GLOBAL LEADERSHIP IN THE AGE OF THE 4 TH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

A one-day facilitation training workshop which will reshape and push the frontier of your current thinking 24th april 2020 Venue: Labourdonais hotel

Who should attend? Senior Managers/CEOs from all sectors of the Economy

Dr Angus I. Mc Leod The coach who Makes a Dierence Dr Angus I. McLeod works with global leaders at the prestigious Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania and consults on leadership for manufacturing industry at Krannert Management School, Purdue University, Indiana. He has facilitated disruptive business planning and his client-work include Glencore-Xstrata, Liverpool Victoria, Johnson & Johnson, CBRE and Deloitte. He is the author of several books, now in many languages. explore mindsets that allow for fertile, disruptive thinking and for each participant to explore three of these relevant to their own organisation. understand and experience a number of powerful skills used by leading global executives to create ‘followship’, but not included in Business School curricula. understand the key criteria for the work-place culture-change to meet external and internal demands of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA). It will help you to: Why is This Workshop Important to You?

Workshop Fee: Rs 25000 per participant (Inclusive of course materials, certicate of attendance, lunch & tea) MQA Approval is under process and entitles Employees to claim up to 75% HRDC REFUND Companies which register more than 5 participants will get an additional discount of MUR 3,000 per Pax.

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remember being under-managed and stressed? What was that experience like? In both cases, managing too much or not enough, then the employee feels awful and wants to leave. In fact, even when workers say that they are leaving for more money, nearly all of them are leaving because of the relationship with their boss 5 . Here’s the thing, how do you know whether you have the balance of ‘checking-in’ with staff perfectly judged for each of the people you give work?

To step into the light, we must ask questions. Here are example questions that, on a 1-2-1 basis will help you to transform Followship in your people:

“If there was one thing that I could do that would improve our working-relationship, without compromising the quality of work, what is that one thing”?

“If there is one thing that I can do that will improve my managing of you, without reducing the quality of work, what is that one thing”?

In both cases, we are harnessing the plasticity of the brain 6 to encourage the individual (firstly), to provide one piece of feedback that will improve your working relationship.

Applying the ‘Managing People’ Model to Peers, Bosses and other Stakeholders We can use the same questioning format to start other conversations (that will develop from the first question you ask). In every case, the covert message we are making is, ‘I care about our working-relationship and you; I am willing to change my behaviours and my performance to achieve that’.

Here are a couple of examples; the first for a boss, the second for a peer:

“If there was one thing (that) I could change to provide you with added confidence in my work, what would that one thing be”? “When we are collaborating on projects, if there was one thing that I could change to improve the effectiveness of how we work together, what is that one thing”?

Measure Progress

Go to work and instead of answering questions, respond by asking them with a question that will help them work out the best answer for themselves! Aim to ask questions rather than give advice several times each day. If something is urgent, then revert, temporarily, to ‘telling’, before returning to the habit of questioning. Some people will find you challenging but, will soon get used to being asked questions; they will learn to come to you better-prepared; in time they will be more able to step-up to new challenges and make better decisions. Over a period, their abilities and career-advance will make them grateful to you for many years 7 .

An Investment strategy for Relationships Stakeholders are people at all levels that can help or deny your success. Some of these stakeholders are in your organization, others may be outside. At first base, it makes sense to know who these stakeholders are by listing them; remember that there are folks lower down the food-chain (than you) who punch above their weight when it comes to influencing. Have a look at the figure:

All relationships start with low-level sharing between ‘Me’ on the left and ‘Other’ on the right. As conversations continue, these investments may, or may not have more emotional loading (see higher levels). This is how emotional intimacy takes place and is exampled by the difference between ‘acquaintance’ and ‘best-friend’. The journey of sharing (at whatever level of emotional loading) should look balanced, even if there is not equal sharing in any one topic area. If unbalanced, the relationship (if it continues at all), is likely to be somewhat dysfunctional by, for example, dependency/ power games. Each investment is a small packet of information about a person that is more-or-less emotionally significant. Each step is an incremental investment that is a test. If you, or they take a large stride that is not balanced, then the development of the relationship is likely compromised. The model is liberating; it applies also to people who have known one another at low-levels of sharing information, but who could, if both parties play along, be gradually more-invested in each other.

Measure Progress

Make a list of key stakeholders and rank them by the degree of sharing that you both have in each level of the figure; add more subject areas if useful. Decide which areas to share naturally in conversation, when the opportunity arises. These acts of sharing an investment are acts of permission; each sends a message that, ‘because I am sharing, you have my permission to share also’. Do not push. If one investment does not work, think of another and leave it for some while before testing that.

A True Story about Permission

I was recently in a meeting of about 25 people in which the facilitator asked if we would introduce ourselves with a personal sharing, related to ‘influence’. I decided that 25 people, each showing off some rose-coloured story of their cleverness might be grueling, so offered to go first. I stood, gave my name and related my early journey in management from “kick-ass manager” and spoke of ‘pain and gain’ as the energy for my changing my behaviours at work and how, subsequently, I decided to stay ahead of the pain-curve by pushing myself to learn about self-development. Nowhere did I say how bright or senior I had become. I had given permission to share personal stories that showed vulnerability. What happened next was a more magical experience with others in the room, opening up and sharing their own vulnerability (some stories provided much more bravery than my own) and making powerful impressions. Afterwards, I was thanked by the two organizers for my proactivity in changing the dynamics of the meeting in a good way; we all learned more about the personal influencers of change.

Exquisite Listening

Listening to others is easier when you are anyway routinely asking questions. Such listening is at the heart of the ‘SELF-OTHER’ dynamic in the Emotional Intelligence Model (see figure). This SELF-OTHER dynamic is fed by questions that make others search for answers. These questions are often a little challenging to answer. By listening carefully, we get more awareness of ‘what makes them tick’. Combined with the other tips in this article, our growing awareness of ‘others’ enables us to influence them. When we know their kid’s names, their favourite team, their anxieties within the family, we can adapt to support them and be proactive in noting significant events in their lives, rather than being passive. This philosophy of influence was described in depth by the great Dale Carnegie 8 .

Example Questions to Help Others Develop If I was not contactable and an action was needed now, what would you do?

So, tell me about the strengths, and the weaknesses, of that approach?

And, if there was another weakness (of that approach), what is that other weakness 9 ?

We both want you to exceed expectations. If there was one thing (that) I could change to help you to have more success at {context}, what is that one thing I can do? In a nutshell, what is most important about that now? What else about that? If there was one area where we could focus, one area that would make a significant difference to achieving your outcome, what is that one area where we can focus now? And if you did know? Do you think it would be helpful to review your initial goal and outcomes and then to decide best to focus attention? If there is a root cause for this situation, what is that root cause? What do you care most about in relation to your goal? How can I best serve your interests and objectives now?

Are we REALLY Listening? When people are talking, many of us are not getting the whole message because we have ‘gone internal’ to process it in different ways. Look at the figure which shows, at the top, a message being spoken (a straight line of speaking) and how a listener may not hear some parts of the message due to internal processes, as described in the figure.

In this case, the listener is judging, comparing interpreting, anticipating (what the speaker may say soon) or rehearsing (if they are expected to speak next). During these phases of internal processing, the listener fails to hear the message. It means that if they do speak, they may repeat something said earlier (as if new information) or another error worse than that. People who wish to be better listeners may need a multi-pronged remedy. For example: Before the meeting, make positive statements such as: • If I listen really well, I shall give better answers • I trust myself to speak clearly without rehearsing

During the meeting: Notice when you go internal and force yourself to listen. Exquisite Listening is also a great place to start before using another powerful tool that is quick to learn and use; this tool adds to your impact and influence with others. This additional tool is called ‘Reflective Language’. Reflective Language Reflective Language is the process of using words or phrases (used by someone else), in your response to them. Combined with a following question, you double the efficacy of this approach. When we use someone else’s words and phrases is says to them: • I am listening • I care about what you have to say. When we interpret or use more educated language, the listener is likely troubled and going ‘internal’ to work out what we were trying to express, and therefore missing what you say next. Examples of Reflective Language The Other: “I thought my result with the client was successful.” You: “Successful result is good. What could have been improved?” The Other: “I’m not sure where to start with this project.” You: “What do you think you could do in order to move from not sure to first steps with this project?”

Measure Progress Practice using one or two significant words when responding to others. You can always follow your statement with a question, as used earlier, to seek further information, or to help them think more deeply about their subject.

Questions and the Power of Silence Earlier, we discussed using questions rather than making statements, giving information or providing directions. Many executives are shy about silences and fail to leverage them. Here is an example of a challenging question: “You have told me some strengths of this plan that sound good, thank you, but now tell me what the lesser-strengths or weaknesses are, and what unplanned consequences could take place?” When we ask challenging questions, some people will go internal to seek out the answers. During this period of introspection, we should maintain silence, since speaking to them may stall their productive learning. If they become distracted, just ask all, or only part of the question again, “.. lesser-strengths and weaknesses..?” This second time will invariably yield a starting point for learning and if it does not, you can always say, “What are your thoughts about the impression of this plan with regulators?” Another use of powerful silence is when taking leadership to speak in meetings and when taking the stage to present or facilitate. In meetings, never speak when others are speaking or when they have not yet noticed you. You may make a gesture (a raised hand, for example, or a small cough) and check that you have the space/attention before speaking. On the stage, always feel and look comfortable with your own silence; wait and watch calmly until

you have full attention. Silence is one factor in charismatic presence and the easiest one to emulate.

Measure Progress If you are wary of silence in conversations, try to sit with them longer. Be aware of how other, successful leaders use silence after asking questions. In meetings, plan to take leadership and when presenting, use silence to create charismatic presence.

Master Followship Tips 1. Step into challenge with eyes and ears open 2. Ask questions, listen and adapt 3. Take a slower path that involves and encourages others 4. Share the glory 5. Be calm rather than busy 6. Exceed your expectations and those of others too 7. Accept responsibility for failure (no blaming) 8. Know your stuff 9. Be fair, not strictly rule-based 10. Walk-the-talk, be authentic (no faking).

New Perspectives for Tricky Relating

You have had another difficult encounter with a peer or boss. You’ve tried thinking about it, over and over, but the logical approach has not yielded a working solution. The situation needs fixing, but what can you do? The figure shows your situation with this other person, but includes an imaginary observer, some distance away, who is all-seeing, hearing and sensing! This exercise is a quick way to get helpful perspectives and to test a method that is less-based on logic and more-based upon insight. Here is how we run through it. Step 1: In your mind, go back to the situation. Experience it as if real, so you are hearing, seeing, feeling and noticing in this situation, as if it is happening right now. Step 2: Think for a moment about the ‘other’; what you know about them, how they move, express, look and sound. Decide to move a short distance and ‘become the other’. As you move, take on their age, gender, appearance and then look back at yourself to experience as well as you can, what the ‘other’ experience is like. From the other, what do you notice, what do you want, what is going on in the relationship? Step 3: Think about the insights from Step 2. As ‘the Other’, maybe you discovered a need or another unexpressed vulnerability? When back, as your self, decide whether the other’s need is real; what can you do to help satisfy it; to change your next encounter? Step 4: Decide to move further, if possible, to the ‘Observer’ position. You will be detaching from any emotion in the space and be able to see, hear, feel and notice, even from a distance. When you turn, you will see yourself and the ‘other’ in that same meeting, as if happening now…. Step 5: As ‘Observer’, self-question, ‘what is happening with them; what are their individual needs; how are their behaviours being mis-interpreted by each person’? The observer perspective may discover that the ‘other’ is needing to be confident about you and is impatient for you to set out clear actions and bring them to the table. Step 6: From the real world of now, consider what these insights give you and then plan for the next encounter as if the insights are real. It is a truism that, if something is not working in a relationship, change something, anything, but do not continue to do the same thing and thereby get the same result! My own experiences and those of countless global leaders, is that a planned change of mindset and behaviours based upon this exercise is fruitful!

Energy for Dealing with Problem Relationships

When things are difficult in a relationship, many executives agonize and then bury their heads because they feel powerless. Some others go for full-frontal assault which, with confrontational spirit has little chance of changing anything for the better! If still agonizing and wondering whether to reach out or not, consider using the insights from the exercise above, then consider the 51% Rule 10 , here:

In any given interaction I am 51 per cent responsible for the result of that interaction. The 51 Percent Rule means that stalemate cannot happen; you have a bit more responsibility than the ‘other’! Now you have to do something. Different people have other rules to determine how many attempts they will make, 1, 2 or 3 times is the limit for most people!

End-Note Your author has included traits that lead to Followship that are quick to learn, test and apply. Of course there are others, perhaps for another article or book! Because our success is dependent upon relationships, it is paramount to leverage our skills to increase Followship.