Four Mindsets of Responsible Leadership
By Sandy Thompson, LEAD Director & CEO
I have been reading about, reflecting on and studying leadership for a quarter of a century now (yes, it’s official, Sandy is a geek). What interests me most is how someone is identified as a leader by others and themselves.
I’ve been thinking about a leadership summit I went to once in Brisbane and the discussion was about the “X- factor” found in leaders. I am fully committed to the concept that everybody leads, that throughout our lives we are all leaders in different times, places, and situations. But, in my experience, in the arena of not for profit leadership, I have seen there are definitely some who consistently stand out as leaders and live and breathe their position.
I believe that one of the key components of the “X-factor” relates to the willingness of someone to step up to take on the cloak of responsibility and to embrace that responsibility. The willingness to be personally accountable for something is very fundamental to what I have observed in the leaders I work with. Others think the same. Paul Schmitz author of Everyone Leads: Building Leadership from the Community Up, includes the following in his definition of leadership: “Leadership is about taking responsibility – personal and social – to work with others for common goals.”
And, thank goodness, we have people in our communities who are willing to do this – it may not always feel like it, but humans have come a long way in the last millennium.
In my leadership coaching and teaching I have the privilege of hearing the downside of taking on leadership responsibility – sleepless nights, overwhelm, stress related illness, lack of personal life. For some, leadership is a mantle they never feel good enough to carry the weight of. We have all been there. But I have also been taught valuable lessons by leaders who step into the responsibility and thrive personally and professionally in that space. This begs the question: what it is about this group of leaders that enables them to do so well in their leadership roles and be respected as well as effective in making a difference?
Firstly, I think that NFP leaders lose sleep because of the context we work in. Many of us have no problem driving a car – being responsible for 1.5 tonne of steel that can maim and kill. We find it a normal to become a parent and take on the responsibility for the physical and emotional wellbeing of another human being. These are significant responsibilities that most of us take in our stride. Yet, we lie awake fretting over funding for wages, meeting deadlines, finding good volunteers, and conflict in our teams. I believe this is because of a perception of control. Drivers are behind the steering wheel and in charge of the brake. For the most part parents can influence the growth and development of their children (well, we think we do anyway). The work of not for profit leaders is at the mercy of funders, the economy, government policy, their organisation’s Board of the day, all of the wonderful interconnected elements that make up community organisations.
I have noticed those leaders who are fully comfortable embracing the responsibility of leadership demonstrate four mindsets: awareness of identity, focus, reflection, and joie de vivre.
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These leaders embrace their leadership identity: they know they are a leader and work towards building their leadership muscle (skills, knowledge and confidence, not spending their days at the gym). This is not to say they have a big ego – the most amazing change makers I know are incredibly humble – it’s that they have a high level of self-awareness and know what that means to be gifted the role of leader. As a leadership coach I often work with individuals who start out by saying “I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m not a leader!” It is one of my greatest joys when a few months later they are able to say “yes, I am a leader”, and are able to discuss what this means in terms of how they go about their work, build relationships and create the change they crave.
I have worked with and admire three women leaders who as far as I know have never met, but all have the same mantra “will anyone die?”. This is the benchmark they use for decision making, prioritising, and deciding what to lose sleep over. I fully acknowledge and respect some leaders are certainly doing work that does involve life and death, but when it comes to leading organisations, we need to be aware of the actual reality of consequences of acting (or not), and focus on what matters. When we focus on what matters we focus on things that add value both now and in the future. I once coached an Olympic basketball player (in leadership not basketball!) and I asked him how he gets to sleep the night before a significant game. His answer was that he knows he has done everything humanly possible to get himself ready for the game, and it is now out of his hands so he can rest well. I would like not for profit leaders to adopt this approach – to make sure they are being conscious to be the best leader but with a caveat - I am well aware of how many perfectionists there are amongst our leaders. If this is you, I encourage you to say: “I have done the best I can with the resources I have at the time”. Good enough can be good enough. Get some sleep.
What I have worked out as I get older is that pause is an important but precious tool for leading. Pause is not an empty mindless act (so there Netflix) but time taken to actually reflect, ponder, wonder and consider. I came across the word phlegmatic a few years ago and I love it. While it sounds like a symptom of some dreaded infection, what it is actually means is to be relaxed, peaceful, quiet, and easy-going as well as to be sympathetic and care about others, yet not in an overly emotional way. Phlegmatic people are also good at generalising ideas or problems to the world and making compromises. This word perfectly describes what I have observed in good leaders. They take time before jumping into a decision and are trusted to not over-react but to consider complexities and consequence. These leaders are not afraid to say “I need some time to think about that, come back to me…” When we pause we make well thought out and considered decisions but we also listen. More than once I have worked with groups who were evaluated by their contracting government agency and instead of reading between the lines as to the changes they needed to make to stay relevant to the policy, they chose to be defensive and argue their point. Their contracts were not renewed and a lot of projects cancelled with staff losing jobs. Pausing creates space to listen and analyse.
Finally, leaders who manage responsibility and thrive have a positive outlook, a sense of humour, and practice gratitude. I know is sounds a bit twee, but they know full well that life is too short to not have fun and enjoyment. When we are stressed our lizard brain is at full throttle and we are directed by chemicals and focus on our survival and the decision making parts of our brain take a back seat. But our lizard brains are hard wired for language. If you self-talk is upbeat, positive and does not catastrophise, those flight, fight and freeze responses that cause us to experience stress, will be lessened and ultimately extinguished. Those leaders who exude joy of life have followers.
Strategies for developing these four mindsets of responsible leadership will be part of our upcoming nine week online Leading Community Organisations Course beginning 2 July.
Enrolments are open now.