There’s no doubt that certain people make a lasting impact upon our lives; the teachers that believed in us when others didn’t, strangers that stepped in and helped us in an hour of need, and the leaders who saw our potential and gave us an opportunity to share it with the world.
The concept of leadership began around 3,000 – 6,000 years ago with the creation of chiefdoms. Since then, human being’s innate desire and ability to exhibit highly collaborative behaviour to share information and ultimately survive, and thrive, is why we have the societies, schools and workplaces we do today.
“The earliest human societies were acephalous: they existed without formal rulers or leaders. For this reason, they were also probably without heroes, a pattern which is starkly at odds with what has been claimed of human history generally and which also contrasts with the contemporary leadership field.”
Source: THE INDEPENDENT
A fact that is both interesting and crucial to remember is that contrary to the messages found in volumes of literature on the topic, leadership is not purely about a person’s role to lead, it is equally about a person’s choice to follow. The inner dynamics that drive your team to ‘choose’ to engage with and follow you, and consistently so, can be particularly useful to understand.
It all Begins with Trust
Our survival, both 6,000 years ago and today, rests on whether we can trust our leaders to treat us well and provide something (encouragement, support, expertise) that enables us to thrive. Whilst conceptually we all know this to be true, still too often our human workplaces are designed for achieving KPIs rather than relationship building. It’s slightly ironic that we expect a collective of people to come together to share their skills and attributes to achieve important goals, but we don’t give them the time to build the foundation of trust that their success rests upon.
As a leader, it pays to make trust building your number one priority, but positions of high responsibility can often lead to high pressure, subsequently getting in the way of achieving this.
In a survey of 1,000 leaders quoted in HBR, 91% said compassion is very important for leadership, and 80% would like to enhance their compassion but weren’t sure how to. So what’s going on here – what is getting in the way of naturally empathetic leaders being able to lead with more empathy? Turns out it’s the pressure and responsibility that comes with the role, impairing a leader’s ability to truly pause, engage and be present with the human beings that look to them for direction and inspiration.
“It’s not that power makes people want to be less empathetic; it’s that taking on greater responsibilities and pressure can rewire our brains and, through no fault of our own, force us to stop caring about other people as much as we used to. But it does not have to be this way. Such rewiring can be avoided — and it can also be reversed.”
Source: Rasmus Hougaard, Jacqueline Carter, and Louise Chester – HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW
“Focus on building trust first, and performance will follow.”
As a leader, you have the influence to change people’s lives, it’s up to you to choose what you do with this opportunity. To help you to evolve your leadership and be intentional about the mark you wish to make, let us leave you with this important question and our Leadership Impact download activity below.
If your team were asked to sum up in 3 words the way you make them feel, what would you wish for those 3 words to be?
Our Leadership Impact Activity
Using our free activity download, take 10-15 minutes to define your leadership impact, and how to create what is fundamental to you not only being the leader you want to be, but supporting your team to thrive – a high trust culture.
But first, an intro to the concept of marginal gains that we believe in.
The concept of marginal gains was made famous by Dave Brailsford, who British Cycling hired in 2003 as its new Performance Director to help turn around the team’s fortunes after nearly 100 years of not making their mark on the world stage. It reminds us that progress is never about changing a lot of things at once.
Goal attainment is a process, and one whereby we make small, considered changes, experimenting ‘here and there’ to see what works, galvanising the learnings to help us continually course correct as we go.
