Most executives will not admit that their behaviors could be perceived as subversive; they may sincerely not realize that they are. The question is: who does notice? How about colleagues, other departments, employees at the bottom of the decision chain, or suppliers? What are people complaining about in company hallways? This article discusses the key reasons for those behaviors and how to begin to address them to elicit real positive change — Everybody Wins.
Most dedicated executives eventually reach a level of success where they become important actors in the future performance of the company. These people have a proven track record and lengthy experience delivering results. Yet, at a certain point, their style of leadership and their behavior become the talk of the hallways, a target for criticism around the coffee machine. They do not realize that every single one of their mistakes now has a bigger impact. They demonstrate how top management fails to model what it preaches: they don’t “walk the talk.” The discussion by people at lower levels revolves around, “If they don’t do it, why should I take the values and guidelines they talk about seriously? I will just do my job and look out for myself. That’s it!” Innovation and productivity suffer.
To analyze how this happens, let us consider the following three modes of leadership:
Survival leadership is focused on survival strategies:
My department and I do whatever it takes to win
I impose my know-how to insure myself as the leader.
I do not let go of my perspective and ensure that it greatly influences the final decision
I protect the loyal ones only
I annihilate the ones who threaten my position
For many: “Greed is good.” Or "The numbers and my results justify the way I got there."
Intellectual leadership is focused on imposing principles and theories to achieve success:
I impose my principles, as they have worked in the past. I am the role model
I create alliances for the time being to preserve an image of coherence and to achieve my goals
I am powerful at discrediting my opponents
I practice The Art of War
I achieve independence and protect my autonomy
I implement my agendas to win. I rule in my territory
For many: “Plotting is a necessary evil.”
Collective leadership focuses on using the power of collective intelligence to achieve greater results:
We focus on making sure that all are involved productively and feel part of the whole
We explain and share key information. We spend our time together thinking critically
We confront non-collaborative behaviors immediately. No room for error. We manifest our values on a daily basis
Autonomy is not the solution any longer. We operate in an interdependent ecosystem where all parts influence our ability to succeed. A cohesive team is a necessary means to achieving our collective goals
We practice mutual accountability and our rituals start with our individual and collective evaluation. We debrief successes and failures together
Conducting regular 360's is a minimal requirement
For many: “Win-win is possible”.
A pyramid can represent survival and intellectual leadership. A circle can represent collective leadership. Pyramids are easier and natural. Circles require purpose, true courage, and higher awareness. A circle requires a clear and persistently intentional mindset. This is how ancient tribes survived and how modern cultures can be transformed.
How do subversive behaviors show up?
The wrong mindset leads to a behavior coming from the wrong model of leadership. For instance, in a meeting to respond to a crisis, an executive may decide to be the only person talking instead of inquiring, asking questions to his/her staff. A CEO may announce an exciting vision and its strategic (intellectual) plan when the troops are focusing on surviving the previously failed strategy or lack thereof. The HR department may announce new corporate values, including being inclusive, without soliciting input from any other department. An executive may become skillful at criticizing a failing department instead of confronting the problems jointly and offering unbiased help, and so on. Here are some of the symptoms that may help detect an executive who is not in the right mindset. You may hear:
I can do it alone, as always
They don’t get it. I must keep demanding
I don’t have time to do things correctly
I do not fully understand why we are doing this, but I am following directives
It is the fault of this and that and this, again
I cannot trust anyone; those guys are Thugs!
How do we create collective leadership?
Successful executives have a very hard time acknowledging failure, but they will stretch to win a new challenge. Once they understand the options that are available, in particular, how to diagnose a bad situation and how to better intervene, they become more open to evaluating bad decisions or interactions: debriefing with peers and learning must become part of their personal success strategies.
The next step is to train executives to learn to work as a collective entity. It is easy to say, but as seen empirically by the author, hard to achieve. This is where patience, persistence, total commitment is needed. The survival and intellectual modes of leadership have created deeply ingrained habits, fears, and convictions. The learning process must privilege learning and avoid the typical emphasis on blame. “We made some errors and we will learn from them,” is a much better approach than “Let us point out whose fault it is so it does not happen again.”
How do we get started?
A strong understanding of integrity, self-responsibility, proactivity, and mutual responsibility is required. Someone must take on the vision that it is time to change the mode of leadership and begin to act in an exemplary way. This person must practice it before inviting others to join in. Who could be the first to start the change? It may be the CEO, the HR director, an influential mentor, or an executive who can manage up. This is the seminal leader and it could be the reader of this article.
The development of learning-agile executives can have three pivotal and interrelated aspects: mastering personal conduct, mastering group dynamics, and mastering organizational change. The path to success requires humility and learning from mistakes together. A proven way to develop new behaviors is to practice consistently and intently for a long time. Therefore, a well-crafted development program will involve all three areas with an increasing level of expectations and practice.
A coach can begin by focusing on the art of communicating effectively and respectfully. Then focus on developing mutual accountability. To stop non-productive behaviors, executives must learn to be accountable for what they are complaining about and explore in what ways they are at the center of creating bad situations. To go beyond, an executive coach will support the focus on the development of the executive’s integrity, self-responsibility, managerial courage, and sense of ethics. Finally, the work environment may contribute in a negative way so executives will also need to create a culture shift from technocracy to inclusivity. Innovation and productivity win. Everybody wins.
If you are facing an urgent situation or need to impulse a change right away. You can contact me and we will set up a free strategy session. If you need to accelerate your impact as an individual contributor (executive member, director, key manager), apply to my XCELERATOR leadership program here.
I look forward to creating a meaningful relationship with you.
