White Paper - Power to Perform

A W H I T E P A P E R B Y Carol Yang

to perform P O W E R

Build leaders who can influence, thrive and perform under the pressure of complexity and change

‘ P E O P L E B U Y I N T O T H E L E A D E R ,

B E F O R E T H E Y B U Y I N T O T H E V I S I O N .’

John C. Maxwell

C A R O L YA N G

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Increasing diversity, rapid speed of change, globalisation – right now, you and your business are faced with a trifecta of issues that are competing for your attention and your people.

While globalisation opens up greater market opportunities, it also brings increased complexity and puts enormous pressure on your leaders to be more agile and adaptive in their approach. Volatility is now the business norm.

So if it’s imperative for your leaders to step up to these challenges, why are they faltering?

P R E S S U R E

to PerformGallup’s 2013 State of Global Workplace Report shows that in Australia, only 19% of employees in leadership positions are engaged in their jobs. This means only two out of 10 leaders in your organisation are enthusiastic and committed to their work, and looking for new and better ways to achieve their outcomes.

This has a flow-on effect to your whole organisation. Gallup also reports six out of 10 employees in Australia currently lack motivation in their work. In addition, in Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends 2014 Survey, 65% of executives rated the ‘overwhelmed’ employee as an urgent trend.

Deloitte estimates thatthis constant overload and frenetic level of activity costs mid-size companies up to $10 million a year.

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So how can your leaders be more resilient to change and be equipped to deal with today’s challenges? What can you do to have greater confidence that your team can deliver your current and future business goals?

First, you must understand where the real problem lays.

What you are saying:

• ‘Why aren’t they stepping up/taking the initiative/being more innovative/more flexible?’

• ‘I’m tired of everyone coming to me with people problems. Can’t they figure this out on their own?’

• ‘Why are they not doing what I want?’

• ‘Why aren’t they performing like they used to?’

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H OW D O YO U M A N AG E L E A D E R S W H O R E P O R T T H E Y F E E L OV E RW H E L M E D ?

Many of your leaders lack the necessary leadership competencies and depth of people skills to navigate today’s growing complexity. They struggle to manage and motivate increasingly diverse and geographically spread-out teams. They are inefficient and slow to innovate. This leads to poor results and lost opportunities and market share for you and your organisation as a whole.

It takes precious time away from higher leverage strategy work and stakeholder management – the real critical areas that require your attention.

of your organisation, is now much harder for you are frequently stepping in to solve day-to-day business and people issues.

Your life, your job as the head

H OW D O YO U I N C R E A S E YO U R O R G A N I SAT I O N ’ S P E R F O R M A N C E A N D D R I V E B E T T E R R E S U LT S ?

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On the surface it appears that your people problems are due to a lack of engagement, but this actually has to do with your team’s lack of confidence due to inexperience or a skill gap.

What your leaders are saying:

• ‘I’m out of my depth. I’ve never done this before.’

• ‘There are so many more people and stakeholders, virtual and diverse teams to deal with than before. I can’t keep up.’

• ‘I’m trying my best to adapt but I don’t know how. I’m failing and I’m getting discouraged.’

Leadership development is traditionally focused on building functional and technical skills, and your leaders are often left to develop the more complex people and collaboration skills, all while learning on the job. As a

result, success is hit-and-miss based on trial and error, leading to unproductive conflict and lack lustre results.

While you no doubt have strong potential within your leadership team, there is a significant gap between your business needs and the current leadership capabilities within your organisation.

Your workforce is stretching the capabilities of your leadership team as they struggle with matrix structures, and engaging teams that are geographically dispersed, and with gender, generational and cultural diversity. Yet key soft skills, which are critical for senior leaders to manage these issues, are sorely lacking – and this is having an impact on morale and productivity.

P R O B L E MThe underlying

and breadth of leadership and people skills to meet your increasing business demands.

Your leaders lack the depth

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• Interpersonal influencing – to secure necessary resources and commitment from multiple stakeholders and move important initiatives ahead

• People management – specifically their empathy and leadership flexibility to inspire and motivate an increasingly diverse workforce that has very different approaches to hierarchy, decision making and communication

• Leading and influencing without direct authority - as they work in cross functional teams to deliver business objectives

• Collaboration – to develop a sense of shared purpose vital to creating productive and cohesive teams that are spread out across different functions and locations

To keep up with your business needs, your leaders need to sharpen their skills in:

• Relationship building – to be more attuned to, and confidently navigate the different hierarchical, social and political agendas inherent in matrix organisations

• Mental toughness – to cope with the increasing pressure on them to perform under difficult conditions

competencies in place, your bottom-line is at risk.

Without these leadership

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If you do not address these issues then you are risking:

Missed strategic and profit goals due to ineffective,

unproductive leadership and conflict within teams

Loss of competitive edge as innovation efforts fizzle out and opportunities are passed by due to the lack

of team cohesion

Increased turnover of staff as high-performing

leaders burn out

Lack of leadership pipeline for future growth projects

Lower energy and increased frustration as you spend time putting

out fires instead of concentrating on long-term strategy

Lower business profits

R I S K YBusiness

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With the right intervention, most leaders have the potential to develop their leadership flexibility and agility, but they need the organisation to invest in cultivating their untapped potential. What’s really needed are the right tools to enhance your leaders skill level and constructive feedback to help them adjust and improve how they lead.

This is not about ‘fixing’ your people. It’s about supporting and empowering your leaders with the right skills, so they can grow their confidence and influence.

E M P O W E Ryour people

The lack of a deep internal talent bench puts more pressure on the few skilful leaders you currently have to carry the load. It adds to their work-related stress and increases the turnover risk of your most effective and productive leaders.

Data from the LinkedIn 2016 Leadership Talent Challenges Report indicates that 69% of HR decision makers in Australia/New Zealand find it difficult to fill leadership positions due to a lack of leadership competencies and soft skills among the market talent pool.

Building your internal talent bench and strengthening your leadership pipeline to meet current and future business needs is, therefore, an absolute imperative.

to up-skill your leaders, you will risk losing your best and brightest as they

get overwhelmed and burn out.

Without support and investment

COMPETITION FOR THE LIMITED POOL OF QUALIFIED

TALENT IS FIERCE; FILLING LEADERSHIP GAPS

THROUGH EXTERNAL RECRUITMENT IS CHALLENGING.

THIS IS NOT THE ANSWER.

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F R O M D I S E N G A G E D

to power performanceSo what can you do to transform your talent, your workforce and your leaders?

Figure 1 illustrates the evolution from disengaged to high-performing leaders, and the sections that follow examine the stages of the journey to transformation.

Figure 1: From disengaged to high performing

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Y O U R D I S E N G A G E D L E A D E R S A R E :

Floundering

Leaders at this stage are unable to keep up or cope with rapidly changing business needs. Organisational issues of globalisation and diversity are complex and this only adds to their workload and their worries, which puts a strain on your organisation.

Leaders here spend most of their time fire fighting because they are unfocused and reactive. They’re more ‘managing’ as opposed to ‘leading’ their teams which has an adverse impact

on your bottom-line. They complain about ‘how difficult it is nowadays to get things done’ and will miss spotting new opportunities for business growth – a key imperative for business to remain competitive today.

To start moving up the ladder, away from floundering, it’s important to identify and support your leaders who have the potential to grow and meet future business needs.

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You may have had highly effective leaders when your teams were less spread out and diverse; but now business is less local and more global. It means leaders have to learn to manage geographically spread out teams, as well as those with cultural or generational differences.

Leaders who are not used to this can appear old fashioned in their approach, that is set in their ways and hesitant to change. They only know one way to influence and get results, and that is a way that is now out-dated.


Inflexible

Leaders at this stage feel out of their depth and even afraid. Their teams are likely disengaged and frustrated as their leader doesn’t quite ‘get it’. That’s a lose-lose for the individual, the team and ultimately your business.

The opportunity here is to build on your leader’s existing strengths and help them develop broader skills to increase their leadership flexibility and agility.

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Discouraged leaders know they need a more adaptive leadership style but they don’t know how to change or where to get help. They are trying their best but without support and guidance, their efforts fail to deliver the intended results and they quickly become discouraged.

Self confidence at this stage is starting to wane, and so too is their engagement as they grow increasingly frustrated. Most likely, many of your leaders are in this category. They have the


Discouraged

potential and desire to step up, but they need the organisation to invest in cultivating their potential.

These leaders have the potential to grow quickly into high-performing leaders if they have the right support. This is the only way to develop a stronger internal leadership bench for succession planning.

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In contrast, when your leaders develop into H I G H - P E F O R M I N G L E A D E R S, they are:

Empowered

Empowered leaders have strong functional skills yet they know that isn’t enough. They understand that results come from getting the best from the people they work with. These leaders are self aware and have a good understanding of their strengths and leadership style, including how and when they influence and don’t influence effectively.

Through knowledge and skill building, empowered leaders begin to flex their leadership muscle outside their comfort zones. They learn to take on larger roles with greater ease.

They will come to you less and less with their problems as they build their confidence to solve complex business and people problems on their own.

This is the heart of your internal leadership pipeline that you must nurture.

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At this stage, innovation begins to spark. Agile leaders adapt and respond quickly to changes; and can spot hidden opportunities in problems.

Importantly, they have the leadership flexibility to influence across diverse and multiple stakeholders to achieve business goals even under challenging conditions. Grounded by a clear understanding of who they are as a leader, they have a strong

H I G H - P E F O R M I N G L E A D E R S A R E :

Agile

sense of inner confidence that helps them navigate set backs and uncertainties with greater resolve.

While these traits are more inherent in some leaders than others, greater agility can be developed. The focus is on identifying and developing your high potential talent. This is how you will improve how your business responds to marketplace shifts.

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Only resilient leaders continue to perform well under stress and thrive even under the most difficult business conditions. This is the type of leader every organisation must have today.

These are your next generation C-suite executives. Resilient leaders know how to manage their energy levels for continued peak performance. They are highly purpose driven and focused on long-term goals, and they have the resourcefulness and flexibility to create maximum value for your business.

H I G H - P E F O R M I N G L E A D E R S A R E :

Resilient

Resilient leaders balance realistic optimism with a healthy attitude towards risk taking and failure. When the going gets tough, it’s your resilient leaders who will keep the organisation focused, as they inspire and rally the troops to dig deep and go that extra mile.

This is where you start to see real positive results on your bottom-line.

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A holisticA N S W E R

Organisations often forget that their leaders are humans driven by emotions and needs, not by the work of the organisation itself. In addition to having functional and technical skills, your leaders are individuals with their own unique motivations, thoughts and behaviours while under stress. They bring all of this to work with them, and it is this that impacts not only their personal performance on a daily basis, but also has an effect on their team’s morale and productivity.

Research conducted by the Center for Creative Leadership shows that about one third of senior executives derail or plateau at some point, often due to their inability to build cohesive, high-performing teams or regulate their own emotions when stressed.

The answer to building resilient, high-performing leaders is to adopt The Whole Leader framework (shown in Figure 2) to leadership development. This holistic framework places equal emphasis on helping your leaders strengthen how they lead and manage themselves, in addition to improving their leadership influencing skills to lead and manage others with greater agility and flexibility.

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Figure 2: The Whole Leader framework

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Peak Performance

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The Whole Leader framework works similar to how our brain operates. The right and left side of our brain on its own plays a vital role. In addition, each side complements the other to create a synergistic effect that enables us to think strategically and problem solve with creativity and imagination.

“ W H E N S E N I O R M A N AG E R S AT O N E C O M PA N Y H A D A C R I T I C A L M A S S O F

E M O T I O N A L I N T E L L I G E N C E C A PA B I L I T I E S , T H E I R D I V I S I O N S O U T P E R F O R M E D Y E A R LY

E A R N I N G G OA L S BY 2 0 % .”

Goleman, D, Harvard Business Review, ‘What Makes a Leader?’

The Whole Leader framework play an important role in complementing each other to develop leaders who lead from both the head and heart.

Each of the four areas in

With The Whole Leader framework, your leaders will acquire relevant people and interpersonal skills to be persuasive influencers who can adapt to new situations, and become powerful collaborators who can engage and mobilise teams.

Let’s explore the four complementary areas of focus in more detail.

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Knowledge is power – pure and simple. The goal here is to empower your leaders to take ownership of their leadership effectiveness and their careers. When they develop greater self awareness, your leaders will have greater control over how they lead and improve business outcomes.

Your leaders will begin to play to their strengths and this will increase their confidence and help them be better positioned for success. In addition, when your leaders can connect their contribution to your wider company goals, they will operate from a place of personal congruence that will increase their engagement and commitment.

Another key aspect here is empowering your leaders to be accountable for managing their career and priorities outside work. Again the key word here is congruence. Helping your leaders get clear about their primary motivations, and make work–life choices that are congruent with their key priorities will improve their focus and productivity at work.

Leading YourselfP E R S O N A L L E A D E R S H I P1.

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Elite athletes understand the value of training their minds, in addition to their bodies to help them win under adverse conditions. In the same way, empowering your leaders with the skills to be at their best mentally and physically will help them cope with constant stress and overwhelm.

An essential component of building resilience is the ability to sustain our energy and motivation to persevere through challenges. It is important that your leaders learn how to identify and refuel their physical and mental energy reserves to cope with rapid change and uncertainty.

This will also help them to manage a healthy level of self-belief. At some point, leaders tend to hit a wall where their lack of self-belief will hold them back. Helping your leaders manage their negative self talk will strengthen their mental toughness to handle difficult issues with greater confidence on their own.

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Managing YourselfP E R S O N A L P O W E R2.

Learning to self regulate their emotions while under stress will also have a positive effect on their teams. Your teams will benefit from their leader’s ability to identify and manage non-productive leadership behaviours, which will improve team morale and productivity as a whole.

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3.It’s important that your leaders are flexible in how they influence others to manage tensions that are inherent in matrix structures and bring together multiple conflicting points of views to achieve your bottom line objectives.

The growing diversity in your teams also means that your leaders have to be more perceptive and adaptable at navigating different communication and decision-making styles to get work done quickly with minimal conflict and disruption. This involves being able to draw out the best from teams that have different genders, cultures and generations. And don’t forget your introverted team members, who often go unnoticed but have a lot to offer.

Even high-performing leaders often have unaddressed leadership behaviours that are disruptive and could derail their performance and careers in the long run. It is vital that these leaders are given the necessary guidance and support to address these leadership derailers to ensure that they can continue to feed your leadership pipeline and progress into larger roles.

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Managing OthersR E L A T I O N A L P O W E R

Learning how to develop greater empathy and interpersonal skills are some of the leadership soft skills that are important for your leaders to be more effective at building stronger and more innovative teams.

Your leaders need to be more agile and adept at leading change in the organisation. Their ability to create shared purpose and stimulate collaboration comes from the strength of their people skills and their potential to motivate and inspire others.

Similarly, given the increasing nature of matrix organisations and cross functional work, most of your leaders need to influence their peers and other teams to get work done. Building their ability to influence without direct authority is a necessary skill, and will create future leaders who have the leadership finesse to handle more senior and complex stakeholder negotiations.

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In combination, the knowledge and skills acquired through working on the four areas in the Whole Leader framework – Personal Leadership, Personal Power, Interpersonal Leadership, Relational Power - will equip your leaders with the capabilities they need to manage the pressures of increasing diversity, rapid speed of change and globalisation.

W H A Tnext?It is only by doing this that you will strengthen your leadership pipeline, increase your team’s productivity and performance, and power into the future.

one-size-fits all solution. It requires you to invest in the leaders

you have today, not necessarily to look for talent outside of your organisation.

There is no quick-fix,

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I understand the complex challenges that your leaders face everyday. I also know that most leaders do not have a confidante they can turn to for advice and guidance. As a result, I’ve seen many talented leaders leave because they did not have the right skills or support to succeed on their own terms. That is turnover that could have been prevented and is a huge lose-lose for both the organisation and the individual.

That’s why I offer customised one-on-one mentoring and coaching, and corporate training programs to help your leaders bring out the best of themselves to be successful at work and in their personal lives. I help organisations harness untapped potential, improve performance and productivity, and develop a strong internal talent bench that will feed your leadership pipeline into the future.

I have over 20 years of corporate experience, mainly in senior leadership roles with large global corporates like Procter & Gamble and The Timberland Company. I’ve also worked in the US, Japan, Singapore and Australia; which has provided me with a wealth of insights into working cross culturally.

The bulk of my experience has been in leading large global and regional teams. During that time, I’ve delivered

business objectives while managing multiple and diverse stakeholder needs which included balancing global vs local priorities, strategic vs operational needs and navigating disparate functional motivations.

I am a firm believer that helping your leaders unlock their leadership potential is where you achieve great business and personal success.

I look forward to hearing how I can help you.

H O W I C A N help

C O N T A C T M E F O R H E L P :

Carol Yangspringforward.com.au

[email protected]

+61 405 538 288

S O U R C E S

Gallup, State of Global Workplace Report 2013

Deloitte Consulting LLP, Global Human Capital Trends 2014 Survey

Waters, C 2014. ‘Distracted and overwhelmed employees are costing your business’, Smart Company

LinkedIn Talent Solutions, 2016 Leadership Talent Challenges in Australia/New Zealand

Bunker, K, Kram, K and Ting, S 2002. ‘The Young and Clueless’, Harvard Business Review

Goleman, D 1996. ‘What Makes a Leader?’, Harvard Business Review

A W H I T E P A P E R B Y Carol Yang

© C O P Y R I G H T C A R O L Y A N G 2 0 1 7

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White Paper - Power to Perform

Leadership & Management

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