In my first article I discussed the environmental conditions that make systems thinking and collective leadership a necessity in today’s world, what systems aware leadership is, and the enormous benefits for organisations, if we only knew how to lead in that way. Today I want to explore further the emerging model of The Collective Leader and discuss some core principles that govern how to develop the complex set of competencies that make up leading from a systems perspective.
In traditional models the focus of leadership was on the individual – in the emerging model the focus is on the networks of collective intelligence that are spread throughout and across organisations. This is needed to solve problems in today’s VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world. Leading by harnessing the collective intelligence requires us to engage in systems thinking.
In yesterday’s model, problems could be defined and solved by individuals. In the VUCA world they cannot be defined and solved without collaboration.
The organisational conditions that supported the individual model were typically formal reporting lines, command and control, and centralised decision making. The emerging, collective leader model requires much more flexible hierarchies and loosening of centralised controls in order to foster collective decision making.
The needed leadership competencies have evolved significantly: in the individual model it was sufficient to be competent in planning, directing, organising, strategising, controlling, staying focused in own area/silo, and deciding empirically. In the emerging collective leader model, new, more advanced competencies are needed as well: self-awareness, awareness of others and the system, systems thinking, owning the shared purpose, adaptability, agility, living with ambiguity, and sensing the future.
In our collective leader model, systems aware leaders know how to generate and tap into collective intelligence – how to find insight there, how to call on everyone’s participation, and how to work within a shared clarity of purpose, while also finding direction through being alert and sensing future opportunities and possibilities ahead.
Just as in the flock of geese, the systems leader allows and trusts that each member will take the lead at the appropriate moment, stepping in as needed with their unique set of skills and perspectives. In this way, the systems leader leverages the intelligence and the creative power of the group, which has a different quality from the sum of the individual strengths. This new quality, or emergence, is where true creativity and innovation reside. It is therefore key to sustainability.
In order for teams to lead systemically, some core conditions and competencies are necessary. We describe them though three principles, which underpin our leadership theory.
The first condition is that the team members are closely connected and trust each other. Exploring who we are being with each other requires as much focus as the traditional focus on what we are supposed to be doing as leaders. We call this the balancing act of leadership.
Every leader I work with tells me they struggle to do this well. We all know that leadership is about leading high performance through people – it requires a way of being with people. Yet there also is the requirement to continually do, do, do – to plan, strategise, control, direct, execute, create results, measure – you name it, there’s a ton of doing out there that we have to take care of.
The Being side is all about being in relationship with people: being present, self-aware, engaging, connecting, sensing, observing, relating – helping them reach potential, find possibilities and be creative. Typically the corporate world has emphasised the Doing side. Yet emotional intelligence is a known driver of workplace performance. Emotions influence our behaviour, our decisions, and therefore our performance. Would you ask your boss for a raise if you knew she was having a bad day? Outstanding leaders also spend a lot of time in the Being side. Both sides are essential to achieve results.
I know you already intimately know this balancing act. The key question for you is not what you know, but how well you are actually implementing it?
Let’s think for a moment about leading change. We all need to be transformational change agents, because sustainable organisations change. If we want people to come with us on the journey, we need to be able to connect with them emotionally, because behaviour change is driven by emotional response, not data. People will follow you much less when you show them a fact that shifts their thinking than when you show them a truth that influences their feelings.
Research indicates that 80% of the difference between a competent and an outstanding leader is attributable to emotional intelligence. Effective leaders need to make sure they focus here. And the good news is that, even though emotionally intelligent behaviour involves a highly complex mix of human interactions that are not easy to master. Nevertheless emotional intelligence, or EQ, unlike IQ, can be learned.
How is all this important for systems leadership? A collective leader model requires people to be able to connect with one another openly and honestly, with the courage to be fully, authentically expressed. When we each know we can trust this from others, we have enough safety to freely offer up to the collective all our insights, talents, strengths, creativity and innovation and to show up fully.
Traditional leadership models focus on the individual as leader, out in front in command and control mode, creating impact, and inviting everyone to “follow me”. The “hero on the rock” can be very important at times – for example if you are leading troops into battle.
The issue with this model is that today’s environment is so complex that it is no longer possible for one person to know, or be good at, everything. We rely on the specialised knowledge and expertise of people reporting to us. If you think about the teams you are a part of, there will be many different talents and strengths that can make a particular contribution at different times. And this is also true of the wider organisations that you are a part of.
What does “leading from the Whole” look like? We have talked about emotional intelligence. This principle is about systems intelligence. In this model, the leader is connected to all the different talents in the team, sensing the system dynamics and aware of what the team is creating together – the emergence from this system. Most importantly, the collective leader is aware of one’s own part in that emergence. When a leader can see how he or she too is part of the system and what is being created, it is no longer possible to say “the trouble with this team is they…” We have to say “the trouble with this team is we…”
By reading the system and sensing the emergence, this leader knows moment by moment how to intervene to keep the system healthy, and how to leverage all the different talents, synergies and capabilities to accelerate the team forward as an intelligent whole to achieve business outcomes.
We call this harnessing the power of the collective. Think about it for yourself: within your team, and across your organisation, perhaps globally, there is a collective intelligence that you could be tapping into.
This requires a shift in leader perspective – that we are all part of and contributing to a larger whole. When we choose to lead from that perspective, it opens up connections and possibilities, fosters collaboration, and creates new culture for the team together.
As part of this work, our unique, proprietary, body-based assessment methodology, Embodied Leadership Strengths Profile (ELSP), enables us to identify each team member’s particular characteristics and talents and to profile the team as a whole. This methodology makes the system visible in a highly experiential way.
I will be saying more about ELSP in a future article in this series.
The future is emerging moment by moment, even as you are reading this article. Change and disruption are everywhere. So this principle addresses the issue of how to lead at the cutting edge in a fast changing, complex world. We can create the best strategic plan in the world, showing where we want to be in, say, 2021. But the reality is that the world will actually unfold differently between now and then – and the place we need to be in 2021 when that time arrives is most likely completely different.
I do not say to throw strategic planning out of the window. We need plans! I say that sticking rigidly to the plan will not get you to where you need to be. The art here is to stay in harmony with what is unfolding in the broad environment, and make fine tune adjustments to the plan as you go, being extremely agile and adaptive, in order to arrive where you need to be in 2021. If we fail to do that, we will have a painful system adjustment to make when 2021 arrives – as a history of failed businesses and global crises tells us.
This is the most intriguing question of all for leadership teams. We are constantly asked “Can you help us to lead from the emerging future?” We do profound, transformational work with executive and leadership teams on this. It begins first and foremost with knowing how to be present, aware, mindful, observing, noticing and having a level of broad systems awareness that takes in everything.
We also need to see with fresh eyes. Relying only on our past experience and applying our current mental models will not provide the level of sensitivity, insight and agility needed.
There is a mindset shift that needs to happen here: we need to be willing to let go of what we certainly know, and to shift out of our current mental models, because these hold us hostage to the past and block our ability to see the new (or the as yet unknown or unheard of). When we have fresh eyes, when confronted with ambiguity, paradox and uncertainty, we can start to learn the art of being deeply curious, asking different questions, seeing systems, and unfolding new insights and innovation from there.
In our work, we know that the greatest power is when a team can sense the emerging future collectively. Each member brings a particular talent for this. Collectively a team can develop a bigger picture and together unfold a broader range of possibilities and opportunities. Leveraging collective strengths in this way opens up the system to the innovation that is at the heart of sustainability.
As I mentioned in my last article, developing and integrating a range of complex, adaptive systems leadership competencies is a journey for both an individual and a team. It starts with self (Principle 1), transitions to the system (Principle 2), and goes from there to the broad field (Principle 3). In our process, the team gradually develops as a coherent whole in which the leaders begin to relate in new ways, hold a multi-stakeholder wide view, align together around their talents and their shared purpose, break out of silos, take full ownership for the whole system and collaborate effectively as a collective. Together they grow the emotional maturity that will support the shift to a culture of agility through systems leadership.
This is how we are able to increase overall team effectiveness and performance.
You can find more information on our unique services such as our Embodied Leadership Strengths Profile (ELSP) Assessment Method and our Collective Leadership offerings, or contact us directly.
