Thank you first for the varied and valuable feedback on our last blog.
It also made me think about a large number of confirmations about employees who have deleted loyal cooperation from their own perspective. I suspect (some media (of all kinds) specializing in sensationalism and near-criminal simplification of complex situations confirm this most sadly) that the focus is on insecurity, fear, anger and abandonment, and media unreality becomes perceived reality. The field of vision narrows to the most necessary. Also in terms of collaboration and responsibility for the team.
So how do I as a manager deal with the situation between shock and a new beginning?
Where do I start? With the entrusted employees or with us as “lighthouses in the fog”?
The perhaps already ambiguous selection already shows the solution:
– Our employees need a “place” of stability, a role model that shows ways in the thicket of uncertainties, manipulations and out of the narrowing of perception to the necessary. You are needed to lead the way, even if you yourself are sometimes uncertain.
– Our employees need indulgence when they want to give up stressed by additional tasks. Remember the wonderful Pareto principle: perfectionism can lead to inefficiency (doesn’t have to ;-))
– Our employees need our empathy and attention – if they feel more powerful and clear as a result of our guidance, we have done a good job.
– Our employees need to know that they are not alone in these situations.
The list can be continued. What is clear, however, is that leadership culture of the 90’s is out of date. How does this “work” (it sounds pretty technical, doesn’t it)?
Letting go and allowing could work.
Different models of transformation show the path, which is little different from the employee journey. For some it works faster, for some it works cautiously.
– We are rigid before the demand to change (shock)
– We practice negation: it is not us, the others who are affected (in Austria the negation state is called “Floriani principle”)
– We practice intellectual understanding of the necessity. Understanding, however, does not mean acceptance.
– We now also accept emotionally that we too are meant – we let go of the old.
– We now ask what is still fit for the future, what wonderful new things become possible.
– We dare to experiment, to be curious about alternatives, about new things. And then finally….
– We celebrate ourselves and what has succeeded, what is new, what needs to be integrated – and recognize the transience.
As the preacher Nassrudin Hotscha (probably 11th century) said: “from the flower of confusion arises the flower of wonder (of miracle, of solution). Then it becomes possible to become a rolemodel
The real challenge
…. is pointed out by Otto Scharmer in one of his last articles from the Presensing Institute. And as always, the work starts with ourselves, our clarity, attentiveness and courage…..
Otto Scharmer and team name the five criteria of successful leadership following:
– Being: staying with oneself. Let us remember: “Lighthouses” are not lemmings. From the meta level, they authentically check whether they have still stayed with themselves.
– Thinking: switch on the mind and see facts. We save time for interpretations for later.
– Relating: taking care of others
– Collaborating: social skills such as respect, attention and compassion become a prerequisite to identifying and achieving a common purpose with each other. The output of the to do list reaches into our spheres of influence. The world has become bigger, knowledge goes beyond presupposed expert knowledge. We need each other to think outside the box, to be inspired…..
– Acting: moving together from understanding to doing, driving progress. Many years ago, in our consulting-implementation world, we learned that a powerful devotion to dialogue, to creative design in the strategic run-up, significantly shortens the implementation work. Surely, however, you still find insecure control freaks in the environment, who do not let go of their old knowledge or believe to be able to flee from the unknown. And you recognize the results.
Resume: it is up to us to move responsibly in the world of VUCA, all the fog, uncertainties, ambiguities, vulnerabilities and to reach out to those who cannot do it right now for a variety of reasons.
For all realists: we simply cannot afford to lose good employees, to rely on digitalization and/or well-educated immigrants – so: get to work on Leadership 2022.
We look forward to feedback and appreciated input,
kind regards,
Michel&Barbara