opinion

Crossing horizons in behaviour

Recent months have revealed some new, unedifying perspectives in human behaviour, crossing horizons many of us could never have contemplated, or whose contemplation elicits feelings of dismay.

Isolation or interconnection?

Who could have imagined that a US ex-President, thwarted in his ambition for a second term, would incite insurrection against the very institution that preserves the democracy of his country and had enabled his own power for four previous years? What intrigues me about this is his relationship with self-interest, both in personal terms and in national terms (witness his slogan ‘America First’). It’s worth reflecting on what happens when a leader or a nation goes down this route, seeing the future not through a lens of relationship, action and impact, but through a lens of isolation, and cutting off supply routes of collaboration and support when the quid pro quo of broader contribution is unacceptable. Is this the model of leadership that we really need in a world where – like it or not – everything is interconnected?

We’re in it together

In parallel, the last year has – in extraordinary, clear and unprecedented ways – shown us that the entire world is in the COVID crisis together. Just as hard-hitting as the climate crisis, it has demonstrated that there are no boundaries to infection (and all the implications – in terms of health, society, economics and the rest – that that brings with it). No-one on the planet is safe until we’re all safe, because until we’re all immune, the COVID virus can keep mutating and reinfecting. The reverberations are like a hall of mirrors – and this isn’t so different from the implications of leadership of an organisation or a nation.

Vaccinations: me first

The one hope for safety is vaccination – for us all, worldwide. How extraordinary it has been to witness the European Commission attempting to inhibit free access for vaccines to Northern Ireland. At one level this could be seen as a playground squabble. While it is deeply disappointing when it’s between what one would expect to be mature and intelligent adults, it’s also deeply disappointing from a societal point of view, human being to human being. Again, it’s about ‘me first’.

‘We’ and ‘ours’ as a route to ‘me’ and ‘mine’

Such a ‘me first’ attitude may not be new, but the level of leadership at which it is being manifested is arresting – and it prompts my reflection on what it means for modelling leadership, and for the impact of such a model of leadership. It brings into focus how much of this kind of behaviour is present and sanctioned all around us: government ministers and advisers bending the written and unwritten rules to their own convenience, without being held accountable, CEOs setting aside corporate energy policies that could have had a positive environmental impact, individuals rushing to be vaccinated when they know they’re COVID-positive and could spread the virus to those around them (including their vaccinator). Me before you, my short-term interests before yours.

What’s fascinating is that ‘you’ and ‘yours’ can actually be the route to ‘me’ and ‘mine’ if only we choose to look through a broader lens.

My responsibility as a coach

I’ve been reflecting on what this means for me as an executive coach. First and foremost, it has sharpened my enquiry into my own responsibility as a citizen, and how that interfaces with my perception of my responsibility as a coach. It means that I may enquire with the client more explicitly into the implications of ‘I and we’ in contrast with ‘I or we’, at individual level, team level, organisation level and beyond. It’s an enquiry that encompasses organisational culture, corporate economies, purpose and performance.

The legacy

And importantly, it encompasses a consideration of the legacy that the leader wants to leave. For some leaders this may contrast generating a healthy shareholder profit for the next 5 or 10 years with nurturing an organisation in which employees take responsibility for more than the immediate task, and for healthy, caring, compassionate, kind, collaborative relationships that engender safety, trust, high levels of performance, and staff retention, and a sense of contribution to a better world.

The rewards

It seems to me that putting ‘I’ before ‘we’ risks shutting off not only precious resources but also risks shutting off precious rewards for the leader. Putting ‘I’ before ‘we’ risks shutting off not only precious resources but also risks shutting off precious rewards. Interconnected leadership -‘we’ before ‘I’ – might lead to rewards we hadn’t dreamed of.

^{Photo by Daniel Schludi}^{via Unsplash}

'I' or 'we' as a model for leadership?

What happens when a leader or a nation sees the future not through a lens of relationship, action and impact, but through a lens of isolation, cutting off supply routes of collaboration and support? Is this the model of leadership that we really need? ‘You’ and ‘yours’ can actually be the route to ‘me’ and ‘mine’ if only we choose to look through a broader lens. As a coach, I may enquire with a coaching client more explicitly into the implications of ‘I and we’ in contrast with ‘I or we’, at individual level, team level, organisation level and beyond. Putting ‘I’ before ‘we’ risks shutting off not only precious resources but also risks shutting off precious rewards. ‘We’ before ‘I’ might lead to rewards we hadn’t dreamed of.

Coaching through COVID and BMJ Leader

I'm privileged to have had a blog published in BMJ Leader, published in BMJ Leader, one of the publications in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) stable. The blog focuses on the very particular leadership style that characterises Coaching through COVID, the pro bono coaching programme for NHS and care sector staff who are directly impacted by COVID, and particularly those who don't nomally have access to coaching, from doctors and nurses to porters, cleaners, pharmacists, physiotherapists and many others, who are experiencing anxiety, uncertainty, threats to their personal safety and that of their families from contracting COVID-19, distress, trauma, exhaustion and much else.

2020: a year of learning

They say the toughest experiences are also the richest sources of learning. As 2020 closes, I look back indeed on the richest and most intense year of learning I can remember. As the hidden has erupted into the obvious in the most striking of ways, and when some of what we previously took for granted has been completely overturned, it is beyond any doubt that all of us need to beware of claiming that this or that is impossible. Being a co-founder of Coaching through COVID has meant for me the most nourishing, safe, innovative and energising team that I have ever been part of - and we have achieved extraordinary results. And working from home has shown in stark relief the extent to which health and wellbeing fall squarely into the manager’s and the leader’s responsibilities.

The washing machine and the laundry: new perspectives on leadership

If we ever wondered what it would be like to be inside the drum of a washing machine, turned upside down, and over and over, multiple times, spun, and tangled in ways we’ve never before experienced, the last 10 months, since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the UK (and the world), might give us a hint as to what it might feel like. The turbulence created by the new order will mean that there are new lenses through which leaders will need to look as they sort their parameters, their strategies and their tactics: wellbeing jumps up the agenda, communication becomes a priority, relationships and connections become critical, sustainability receives more attention, and processes now require careful thinking through.

The deafening sound of silence

Silence can denote a holding back from what needs to be pointed out or challenged, a reluctance to speak about one’s own or others’ mental health challenges, or not enquiring into experience of racial difference, which can put at risk respectful connection in a relationship – and at its worst, can create a gulf. In some circumstances silence has a cost which is greater than the benefit. The danger of silence, when people don’t use their voices to admit mistakes, question the status quo, ask questions or offer ideas, is that the thinking power of a team is diminished. When people’s mental health is in play they may continue in silence, unsupported, while their condition deteriorates, corroding their wellbeing. When we fail to enter into conversation about, or to explicitly recognise racial difference, we fail to recognise, respect and acknowledge the individual. A climate of psychological safety enables inappropriate silence to be transformed into the release of rich and fertile thinking.

Psychological safety: the secret weapon of effective teamwork

Amy Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, has been researching psychological safety for 20 years, and defines it as is a shared belief that you will not be punished, ignored or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes. Because in a climate of psychological safety, people feel free to put forward new, and even seemingly crazy, ideas, because they feel free to point out errors and risks to each other (including their seniors) and because they feel free to ask for help and surface failure, rates of creativity and innovation rise significantly. So too do trust, collaboration, engagement and discretionary effort, which link with another benefit: inclusion and the authentic embrace of diversity. I’m accredited as a Licenced Psychological Safety Guardian, which allows me to administer and debrief the Psychological Safety Index, based on Amy Edmondson’s work.

Building resilience to face the challenge of uncertainty

Uncertainty has always been a constant in organisational life, but COVID adds something new to the mix. The effects of uncertainty on individual members of the workforce include anxiety, and concomitant weariness, which seem to be an undercurrent in society at large. Many organisations have found that they’re slowed down by the inevitable precautions they need to take, and that they’ve lost some of their previous robustness, responsiveness and pace. They need more resilience – and nurturing it is one of the most important contributions a leader can make to equipping his or her team to negotiate a successful journey through uncertainty. This blog outlines some of the main contributors to resilience that leaders can usefully focus on.

Leading in complexity and uncertainty

Rather than it being the leader’s role to know all the answers, it’s their role to recognise that uncertainty and complexity demand a new approach to leadership: an approach which means the leader can enable themselves and others to ask questions, to look at things from multiple fresh perspectives, to create an environment which is psychologically safe and compassionate enough for those around them to experiment, learn, experiment again, and to move with curiosity towards some answers and new questions.

Self-care for the leader

I've been working with two leaders who are preoccupied with doing a very high-quality job at a time of significant external pressure and uncertainty – and both are experiencing extremes of stress, approaching burnout. Both are explicit that their performance is at about half the level of what they're used to delivering. Neither of them has been putting in place any boundaries or limits on what they’re asking of themselves, and both are struggling. They’re both trying to do the same job and deliver the same quality as pre-COVID, but in radically different circumstances – and it’s an impossible task. While there's no silver bullet resolution, there are options for changing approach. ‘Normal’ isn’t what it was - and we all need therefore to prioritise our self-care and have the courage to look through new lenses and do something different with what we see.

Isolation, connection and leadership in COVID-19

The isolation that has been a feature of life worldwide ever since the known beginning of COVID-19 in Wuhan is fundamentally at odds with the fact that human beings need to connect with each other in order to survive and to maintain our mental health. Dr Stephen Porges' polyvagal theory tells us that we can create ways of helping ensure that colleagues feel connected. He recommends particular awareness that a lot of modulation in a voice – rather than monotone delivery – along with a friendly face, and open body language, maintain calm and nurture engagement. Similarly, smiling conveys cues of safety and empathy because it involves movement in the muscles round the eyes which, in a smile, convey the message ‘I’m happy to be with you’ – and a sense of safety encourages both engagement and learning.

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