The Leadership Coaching Blog

Following on from my blog post last week discussing the article by Rob Goffe (Professor of Organisational Behaviour @ London Business school) and Gareth Jones (visiting professor @ INSEAD) I wanted to explore where they think they’re at odds with much of today’s leadership thinking.

They say that the majority think that effective leadership rests on full  self knowledge, but that their observations of leaders suggest that few develop full self knowledge.  That effective leaders have an overarching sense of purpose and sufficient self knowlwdge of their potential leadership assets.  ‘They don’t know it all, but they know enough!’

That being the case they believe that leaders need to recognise some fundamental truths in order to become more effective.  These are:

• That leadership is situational - what is required of leaders will always be influenced by their  situation. However, they do acknowledge that the situation the leader inherits is simply a starting point - that the actions of leaders help to alter their situation and that effective leaders go further, by using their personal leadership assets to reframe situations to the benefit of those they lead.
• That leadership is non hierarchical - just because you have reached the top of your organisation, or have an organisational ‘title’, this doesn’t automatuically make you a leader.  Great organisations have leaders at all levels.

That you cannot be a leader without followers - leadership is a relationship built actively by both parties.  ’Good leaders manage relationships by knowing when to be close to people and when to be distant - to keep people focused on goals and address poor performance.  Crucially, they are able to create this distance without pulling rank.’

According to Goffe and Jones, this management of social distance means that leaders are not easily stereotyped, because they both show emotions and withhold them; get close and stay apart; are like us but different.  This means that they’re often seen as enigmatic or ‘authentic chameleons.’

These leaders need to be skilled communicators who pay careful attention to how they are seen and heard, who build compelling stories about themselves and their contexts, and identify communication channels that work for them - whether that be platform presentations or intimate face to face meetings.

So, there are some fundamental principles of leadership that do apply across the board e.g leaders need to motivate followers to feel that their work is significant and part of something bigger.  But above all followers look for leaders who are authentic, and this authenticity froms the foundation of the relationship; without it there can’t be much trust on either side.

Good Leaders are fully responsible for themselves and their activities, and recognise the benefits this brings to them. 

Benefits such as always having a choice in the decisions you make and being able to influence your circumstances rather than being controlled by them. 

In addition, these leaders recognise that unless you do take personal responsibility, you are not fully self-aware, growing as an individual or in control of your work; and you can never reach your full potential.

This means that great leaders refuse to take on others responsibilities because they know it will diminish them as a person, and because they know that taking personal responsibility is the only way to tap into the hidden potential in all of us.

Exceptional leaders don’t fear mistakes, they embrace them as necessary experiences and they use them to do things better in the future. 

They foster a culture of continuous improvement, where mistakes are acceptable, provided learning takes place at the time or immediately afterwards. 

They know that most progress is often made at the point where the majority give up for fear of making a mistake. 

They also know that most learning occurs when we do make mistakes –we just need to think about learning to walk and talk – if we’d waited before uttering a sound, or taking our first step, until we could do them both perfectly, we might still be waiting!

If you have too many ideas or thoughts and don’t know which to concentrate on….. 

If you’re worried you might make the wrong decision…. 

Stop worrying and start taking action.

• Pick one idea and see it through to the end. 
• Take small actions and persist to get momentum, and the bigger results will come!

So what are you worrying about?  What are you anxious about?  What have you been putting off doing something about?

• What action can you take today to get you started?