(E1) 3 things impacting your impact
If you are struggling to take people with you to implement your strategy, if your Board is questioning your decisions and value-add, or if your team or organisation isn’t performing as you need - there are only three things that sit at the root of the problem.
Why do you need another podcast about leadership in your life?
This was the question I asked myself earlier this year when I first started plotting.
I was pulling at a thread … one that I picked up when I started my business sunday skies just over two years ago and that had woven it’s way through my How to Take the Lead collaboration with Carrie-Ann from Cat’s Pajamas.
And this thread was that there is still a long way to go to improve the standards of leadership in our companies. You don’t need me to tell you … the problems are in and out of the media and social media … and we debunk many of the myths and stereotypes through the How to Take the Lead podcast
What I realised is that whilst many people recognise the problems and want to change the way leadership is done; many people want to be a different kind of leader themselves - they’re not always sure how to go about it.
Leadership is hard, it’s lonely, but it can be so rewarding for you and your organisation if done well. And that’s why I think we need more voices talking about the realities of leadership and challenging the way we do things … we need different role models - let’s stop celebrating the old archetypes, stop repeating the mantras of these so-called gurus … let’s show there can be a different way - that you can lead with values, integrity, great communication, vulnerability and still be high-performing.
So the intention with this podcast is to prove it’s possible - by talking to those leaders who do things differently, by sharing practical changes you can make from experts that you won’t find in your typical leadership development courses, and by exploring the insights I have - as someone who worked in corporate roles for almost 20 years, was often one of the youngest female leaders in the teams I worked in, who’s a self-proclaimed introvert and has learnt the hard way by trying to follow the outdated rules.
This podcast is all about making the right impact as a leader.
And for this first episode I want to take it back to the basics of why you might not be hitting the notes that you’d hoped for when you started in post.
From the leaders I’ve worked with - both in my corporate career and through sunday skies - whilst the problems they present with are varied, ranging from operational performance issues / financial worries / low staff morale / poor customer satisfaction / falling organisational reputation … there are only three reasons that things are going in the wrong direction and they all revolve around leadership:
Reason 1: Strategy
And I don’t mean organisational strategy - although that can be an issue too. I’m talking about your personal leadership strategy. Your roadmap - it’s how you provide clarity to yourself and others about where you’re trying to take the organisation. It’s the markers you set to show the way for the bigger picture organisational strategy. If you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve as leader for your organisation, how are others expected to follow you?
High impact leaders are really clear on their personal vision and strategy. They know what their role is in delivering the aims of the organisation. They understand the state of the organisation and the elements of their leadership approach that will be most valuable - for example are they a fixer, that will come in when things are bad. Are they the turnaround person, focussed on the short-term survival. Maybe they are the culture builder, the slow-burner who will nuture and rebuild. They are clear with themselves and their board about who they are, where they will take the organisation and who they need around them to complement and balance their strengths and weakenesses.
Reason 2: Self-leadership
I believe that you can’t successfully lead others if you don’t know how to lead yourself. The best leaders know what they stand for, are clear in their style and approach, have tried and tested ways to stay in touch with what’s happening without working in the weeds, getting that balance between strategy and execution right. They are clear with others in how they work, they set and stick to boundaries, they create alignment across their teams, they take care of themselves. The nub of it is they know what conditions they need to set to be high performing themselves and to enable others to be the same.
Reason 3: Communication
It’s the thing that pulls everything together for a high-impact leader. It’s the ‘how’ you convey your strategy and self-leadership as part of the day-to-day execution of your role. It’s how you demonstrate clarity in your message, knowing who you need to engage with, having a rhythm of communications and engagement in order to build trust and reliability. It’s the cog that keeps everything else moving.
Impactful leaders are normally outstanding communicators. I’m not talking jazz hands or full of charisma - you see all styles and approaches. But a leader who does this well, first and foremost is listening and understanding the environment, context and people it works with. They’re testing what they see and hear and using that to inform their strategy and approach. They know where they need to build and nurture relationships. They work on everyone being able to tell the story of the organisation.
Strategy / Self-Leadership / Communication …
There are no other reasons that you are not making the right impact.
If you don’t have these three elements nailed as a leader then you’re going to struggle.
And you see this when leaders fail.
It’s usually because:
they’ve not taken people with them to deliver their vision and strategy
they’re chaotic in they way they manage themselves and their work, creating mistrust and disruption amongst their people
and this shows up through their communications or the lack of it - what they do (or don’t do), how it is (or isn’t) said, whether they demonstrate empathy, listening, compassion, trust, and if they show vulnerability.
These three reasons are so interlinked that to have a weakness in one area will impact the other two.
So if you’ve not been having the right impact - if your metrics are going in the wrong direction, if people aren’t getting behind your vision, or if your Board or key external stakeholders are questioning your value - you need to troubleshoot what the real issue is.
Well, that’s it for the first episode … I hope that’s given you an insight into some of the themes we’re going to be exploring in more detail through future episodes. And I hope it’s given you a chance to reflect on the type of impact you want to be having as a leader and maybe start to think about how you fare against the three reasons leaders often fall down.
