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Leadership is an improvisational social accomplishment

Leadership and management are improvisational practices that take place in groups in a particular context at a particular time.

Witness Zelensky in Ukraine.

Many have expressed surprise at his performance because he does not have the traits of the hero-leader stereotype that has mythologized our understanding of leadership.

Leading is the practice or process of inspiring others to help achieve group goals (or common purpose).

Leadership is performed in the present – what you do as a leader is a response to the circumstances that you face at the time.  It is not a pre-programmed activity. It is an improvisational response to the problem or context you face at a specific time.

And to motivate the group a leader must be “seen as one of us”. A leader without followers is just a person taking a stroll in the park. Followers must identify a leader as a fellow member of their group.

As an improvisational practice, leading requires a good understanding of many processes such as motivation, people and group behavior, communication, and strategy and tactics.  It is a complex role, and a social achievement.  It is the poster child of the mantra that there is no one right way.  Having the “traits of a leader” is not enough – you must understand how is happens in practice.

Now, back to Zelensky

The comic turned president has truly become a leader for his people (the group)  to protect the Ukraine (the purpose) in wartime (context and time). He is doing things he has never done before, and probably never thought about doing.  His leadership is an improvisational practice.

Have you prepared sufficiently that you can improvise? Do you understand the process?

I acknowledge the contribution of two books to my thinking – Haslam et.al. (2020) The New Psychology of Leadership. Identity, influence, and power. (Routledge) and Fowler (2022) Complexity: A key idea for business and society (Routledge)

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Don’t pigeonhole yourself according to a “mindset”, rather use it to understand the way you function.

According to Carol Dweck, there are two basic mindsets, fixed and growth.

These mindsets are a model for how we think, and as a model they help us to explain/understand our reality. But, like all models they are not your reality – they are useful representations but are always incomplete.

Look at the following common models of thinking

  • Open/Closed
  • Divergence/Convergence
  • Exploring/Exploiting
  • Disrupting/Capturing
  • Creating/Executing
  • Unfreeze/Freeze
  • Diffuse/Focused
  • Growth/Fixed

Eight different ways to say the same things. 16 words that can be used to describe a “mindset”. And therein lies a basic problem of these models.

A useful diagnostic tool (the model) is used as if it were the reality. You get typecast (or typecast yourself); for example, as open or closed, as an explorer or exploiter. You tick a box to say, yes that’s me.

Continue reading “Don’t pigeonhole yourself according to a “mindset”, rather use it to understand the way you function.”
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The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to respond.

I don’t know the exact origins but for many years now I have often said to colleagues that we have two eyes, two ears and one mouth, and that is the proportion in which we should use them.

The management literature abounds with entreaties for us to listen better, to develop listening skills, to be reactive listeners, and to listen first before speaking.

But have we learnt the lesson? Experience would suggest not.

The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to respond. (Stephen Covey) Continue reading “The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to respond.”

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Management Heuristic 1: Know what is expected of you and your job.

The thing about becoming a manager is that we have most likely risen to that position without ever thinking about what a manager does.

In been appointed a manager we will be given a position description and perhaps a list of key performance indicators based on achieving success. There will be words about managing teams, people and resources, but the easily measurable stuff about results will be in flashing lights. There will be a lot of things to do and little guidance about how to do these. And, most likely, there is an expectation that you can get on and do the job, but no requirement nor time for you to stop and think about what the job is. It will be assumed that we know what we are supposed to be doing.

Two factors need to be considered.

The first is a purpose issue – you have to know what you’re supposed to be doing? What is the purpose of the role? What does the organisation expect of you? To understand purpose you must getting in behind the position description and understanding where you as a manager fit in the bigger picture. Why does the position exist? Why was it created?

The second is a process issue – you need to understand what it means to manage and how to manage. Your people will have three expectations of you:

  • that you know your job – know what you are supposed to do.
  • that you can be trusted – you do what you say you are going to do.
  • that you have the self-confidence to let them do their jobs

If you don’t know what your job is then you will not manage well.

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Heuristics can be mental shortcuts that ease the cognitive load in making decisions about what to do. Examples that employ heuristics include using trial and error, a rule of thumb or an educated guess.  Management Heuristics are rules of thumb that can be used by managers to be more effective.  A Rule of thumb refers to a principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation. It refers to an easily learned and easily applied procedure or standard, based on practical experience rather than just theory.  Managing is the poster child of the mantra that there is no one right way.