What great tribal leaders do

We hang out with people who are similar; we flock to groups and tribes. It's a natural thing - we've always formed tribes. 

Psst! Take a look around - who's in your tribe? Which tribes are you part of?

And in your workplace, space, team or community, how are you building a tribe?

As Dave Logan presents in his TED talk on Tribal Leadership, great tribal leaders connect people between tribes.

Connecting people. That's the work great tribal leaders do. They cross silos and bridge the chasms that exist in organisations. My visual notes this issue were captured as I listened to Dave Logan's talk. 

Hey, it's through our tribes that good work gets done and the important things get ticked off, shaped, shared and shipped.

I also enjoy thought leader Michael Henderson's blog, books and work as a corporate anthropologist on the topic of cultures at work. He talks about creating 'cultures worth belonging to'.  

As a leader of your tribe today, what are you doing? How are you connecting across and between tribes? 

Evolving Leadership

Meeting with a client yesterday and we were talking about how leadership continues to change and evolve. 

She is the Organisational Development manager; she's keen to see how else she can help develop the capability of the whole business. 

So the 'leadership is evolving' conversation went like this:

• Leadership used to be directive : 'you... do this'.
• It's evolved to being consultative : 'would you like to do this?'
• And continues to evolve to more facilitative : 'whats your view on what needs to be done? How will we go about doing it?'

Of course the questions will differ depending on the team, situation and needs of the business, but the shift and change is clear. 

From strong, directive statements, to questions about the work to be done, to a more facilitative, eliciting style of leadership. 

I think we can fear the facilitation style of leadership, thinking that it's going to take too long. "Who's got time to ask all those questions!?" Even the consultative style of leadership can be perceived as being a lengthy approach to achieving an outcome. "It's just quicker for me to tell them what to do."

Yeah? How much do you like being told what to do?

Our TELL bank accounts have a small balance in them. I think you need to save your directive approaches and telling for when they're really needed.

We need to use consultative approaches more, and realise they won't take longer... in the long run. If you're getting impatient or it feels like you're not getting anywhere, you'll likely save time later by getting buy-in, connection and engagement now, and to leverage that all along the process of leading the team. 

Plus, facilitative styles of leadership put more responsibility on the individuals and the team. The leader has less of the answers, which means less telling, less direction. This helps boost collaboration, trust, engagement, interest, freedom. 

Yes you'll still need to 'lead', to manage performance and to handle the tricky stuff when it comes up.

Notice how leadership continues to evolve; and so must we, if we are to engage and inspire new generations, diverse cultures, and thriving individuals who all want to make a mark on the world.

What will you do when you get to Liminality?

Liminality? Where the heck is THAT?

If you're thinking from here to eternity is a big trip, wait until you find your way to liminality!

Actually, liminality isn't that far away. You've probably been there before. If you're in the midst of a new year change or trying some new habits and rituals, you'll get to liminality sometime over the next week or so...

Liminality isn't so much a place, but a state of uncertainty, a feeling of 'where the heck are we?'

If you've been travelling a bit and then wake up during the night in a darkened and unfamiliar room wondering 'where am I? Which city? Where's the bathroom', you could well be in liminality. 

Most of all we experience liminality in a place that's a bit like a twilight zone or no man's land; we're not quite here, we're not quite there. Like a threshold of sorts. 

Though the roots of liminality come from anthropology and have a strong connection to rituals, it's a useful concept when teams and individuals are working through changes and new patterns of working or behaving. 

Think of when the school year comes to an end; students have finished their exams, but they're waiting to graduate or waiting for the results. They're not quite done being school students and they're not yet university students. 

No wonder the 'gap year' has become so popular. Is it a way to truly enjoy no man's land and uncertainty and create some new holiday rituals perhaps?

When organisations, teams and businesses set off on a path of change, they must keep a look out for liminality. From here to liminality... that point where some of the old ways are breaking down and being replaced by new ways; but those new ways are not fully embedded. There's a chance we'll revert to old ways. 

Leading a team in liminality takes patience, understanding, empathy. There can often be a lengthy period of time before an old system or process stops fully and the new one 'goes live'. There's that time in between where both might be running; or some of the team are doing a bit of this, a bit of that. A threshold to cross. 

Know that from here to liminality can involve the decision to change, the introduction of new rituals, processes and ways of working. And then from liminality onwards... that's where the real change gets created, embedded, reinforced and truly starts to take shape. 

It will be a great trip. Want to come along?

'Tis the season for late indicators

As we get all rush-rush on the roads in the last few days before Christmas and holiday seasons, I notice something: 'tis the season for late indicators.

Indicators, turning lights, flickers, flashers - those flashing lights on your vehicle that legally communicate your intentions to turn, slow, stop, move, shift, deviate. 

Cars crawling through car parks in search of a parking space. Drivers slowing, stopping, changing their minds, speeding up, and then turning on streets, can add to the tension. 

Some of the fundamentals of driving start to slip a little. Like indicating early to the drivers and pedestrians around you what your intentions are. The sooner you can indicate what you're thinking, the better. Although not SO early that you're confusing people.

Same goes for the strategy of a team or organisation.

Working with a Head of Strategy in a financial services business recentl,  he said : 'we need to communicate our intentions and strategic plan early, but not so early that people aren't interested or connected with it'.

If you've experienced that feeling of "we don't know what's going on around here", you know you need some earlier 'indicating' from and with the teams you're working with.

In crisis public relations the mantra is 'communicate early and often'. 

But when there's no crisis, just... communicate. Signal your intention. Let your team know what you're thinking, what you're wanting to do, where you're wanting to get to. 

Tensions rise when uncertainty is high. Lower the tension and deliver some certainty by indicating what's on the slate, what's up ahead, what's yet to come. 

It's better to indicate, slow down, stop, wait, reset and then begin again with certainty of where things are going than to be meandering along creating road rage!

With your strategy in 2015, communicate it early, clearly and succinctly. Indicate and the journey will be smoother. 

Take a leadership selfie this holiday season

Does the number of photos you take with your phone or smart device spike upwards at this time of year? Mine does! More social gatherings, more group or family photos, more end of year and new year stuff.

In between photos this season, you'll likely read plenty of blogs, posts and articles over the coming weeks saying it's a time of reflection, the end of the year, the start of a new one - you know the drill. They'll be saying what a great time of year it is to pause and reflect and journal and ... 

How about every time you read (or start to read) one of those articles or posts, just think 'leadership selfie'. 

Think of how you hold your camera or digital device out there, and when you're taking a selfie of you and others, or you and a scene or gathering, you're also taking a snap of you and your leadership self.

A leadership selfie. 

In writing this blog, I noticed that Tim Milburn also talked leadership selfies last year in relation to self evaluation and checking in with yourself. He said that 2013 was the year of the selfie. 

This year to get a wider perspective of you, your leadership and your team (or family, community, group or organisation), think of it like using the selfie stick - that has to be the accessory of 2014!

It gives more perspective, more background, a better view and a broader horizon. 

"Click" and "snap" - when you're smiling over the coming weeks when people tell you to 'smile', think 'leadership selfie'. 

How am I going?

How did this year go?

Did I do what I wanted to?

What would I do differently next year?

What will I do differently next year?

What about the longer horizon, the wider horizon?

What comes beyond that?

Check that selfie.

Want to take it again?

Look, there's 2015 just up ahead... <smile>