Purpose/Meaning
My purpose as a leader is to play a vital role in the discovery process an individual or organization goes through by offering insightful and thoughtful guidance, from an unbiased perspective, to assist in their growth and provoke conventional thinking.
I have spent a great deal of my life in a continuous state of change. Growing up with my mom and brother by my side was the only constant. Where we lived, what school I went to, what friends I made and even what step-father I had (there were two), was an ever-evolving situation. Believe it or not, I had an awesome childhood despite the challenges. Through all our change growing up, I had the fortunate reality of being able to look up to my mom. She was the first leader in my life and the most influential.
First and foremost, my mom taught me integrity, the ability to trust in my decisions and how to ooze confidence even in uncertain situations all while staying positive. Those qualities have been one of the foundations of my leadership style. I find that being confident as a leader translates to the people around you. I teach color guard for a local high school marching band. Color guard is a passion of mine that has been a thread running through my life since I was ten years old. One of the things I teach the kids is to be confident, even if they make a mistake. In color guard, everybody can see that you made a mistake but if you pretend like you know what you’re doing, which is what I tell them, that mistake could look like a purposeful solo performance that was supposed to happen. Their facial expression can speak for them the second they make a mistake. If their face looks unfazed and confident, they will fool anybody that looks at them. It is rewarding for me to see that happen. In essence, I believe that teaching someone to pretend like you know what you’re doing in any situation is one way to recognize and accept vulnerability.
In my professional life, I have been in many careers where vulnerability is regularly exposed. Sales and marketing, where the bulk of my experience lies, are typically competitive roles. In sales, you live in vulnerability with cold calls, asking for sales, negotiating, etcetera. In a marketing role, you are continually putting forth new ideas and concepts to leaders. In both situations, the need to recognize vulnerability as an opportunity rather than a time to put up defenses is crucial.
Lencioni (2012) asserted that trust is the foundation of any successful team and vulnerability-based trust is the most challenging kind to achieve (p. 196). Additionally, putting aside our egos, reputations and competitive mindset is necessary to trust each other in individually vulnerable situations (Lencioni, 2012). I have spent many meetings putting my ideas, which are usually unconventional, out on the table. It is a scary feeling at first because of the intense vulnerability I can feel but it has been essential to my growth as a leader. Co-workers of mine have been confident to express their ideas in the same manner when they see me do it whether they are good ideas or not. I find a great sense of pride when I see this happening with my co-workers. It is a reminder that no matter what position I might hold in the company, I am a leader.
Vision
Hagberg (2003) reminds us that a person’s quality determines whether or not they are a leader, not what position he or she has (p. 202). I wholeheartedly concur with her thoughts on that topic. I have always considered myself a leader. I believe it is a state of mind. While I may be uncertain about my future regarding what job I will have, or even where I might live, I know I will maintain as a leader. I have worked to enhance and fine-tune the way I collaborate as a leader. I had thought I was a decent collaborator but discovered I had been more impatient with people when looking at working together and listening to them expressing ideas. I have learned that respecting others opinions and ideas can enhance any ideas I might bring to the table.
As a leader, I can help collaborative situations by keeping the focus on the topic at hand rather than allowing fellow collaborators to become defensive which is when people start to lose their dignity (Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, & Switzler, 2012). As a leader, I can show others how collaboration can work when respect and trust are present. It is essential to impact conversations in a meaningful way by listening and even working toward a mutual purpose when it seems as if the dialogue is becoming tense (Patterson et al., 2012). For example, when I presented a rough-draft video to a group of two senior leaders, one was happy with the results and the other said, “I hate it.” Obviously, the dialogue was turning sour quickly, so I said that the last thing I want is a video that causes a nails on the chalkboard reaction from a senior leader. Then I asked that senior leader if we could walk through the video and he could show me what he means by “hate” throughout and we could address those aspects.
One interesting observation as we went through the video was the fact that he did not like some of the things he saw in the facility (our company) itself. I had mentioned that perhaps seeing his facility through this medium might be helpful to make some changes internally. It was an intriguing prospect, and I believe it caught him off guard in a good way. In the end, we changed the video more to his liking. I felt great about the final product and proud of the way I handled the whole situation. I had grown through the process by respecting his dislike for the first video and by helping to find a mutual purpose. Throughout the project, our Marketing Assistant was able to learn as well. She learned an impactful way to present a project or idea which is often a vulnerable situation.
I will continue to lead through situations similar to the video project by being confident, upholding integrity, and showing respect for opposing views by finding a mutual purpose. There is always a way to find something in common with other collaborators when working on a project or solving a dilemma. By moving the conversations toward a mutual purpose, I can lead the collaborators to a safe place for a respectful discussion no matter what their status in the company.
As touched on earlier, I have discovered that my level or status in the company is not nearly as important as the impact I can have as a leader who is intrinsically motivated to help others grow in their roles. Our Marketing Assistant is young and very talented. I have enjoyed working with her on expanding her skills and improving her to understand how to be a self-advocate. I am not her manager, but we work closely together. I have encouraged her to create a portfolio of her work and to ask for a much-deserved promotion. It is gratifying to watch her grow knowing that I might have played a small role and have no need for recognition to that end. Indeed at the core of who I am as a leader is my motivation to help people and organizations grow. Often I find that I am pushing the limits of convention and creating a ruckus in my quest to move people and organizations into growth.
Practice
Creating a ruckus by making little changes daily and not being afraid of taking risks is a significant component of leadership. Godin (2012) reminds us of the importance of making a ruckus to encourage growth and innovation. Poking the bear and evoking a response, any response is engaging and fosters change making. As a leader, it is my job to continually work toward helping people and organizations understand the importance of making changes to stay innovative and competitive. I must also step back to gain perspective on how the change process is affecting people around me. Heifitz and Linsky (2002) asserted that a leader should imagine getting up on an imaginary balcony to view a situation from a different perspective (p. 52). Taking a high-level view of a situation can often help a leader to look differently at how they might consider moving forward. I can offer this advice to anyone, regardless of their position in the company. A collaborator can learn they have choices by taking a high-level view. They can find autonomy in a situation where they may have felt trapped.
Autonomy, relatedness, and competence are foundational, psychological needs people must have in place to be intrinsically motivated (Fowler, 2018). I wish to learn more about how to teach leaders ways to satisfy these needs of their employees. Leaders can be taught how to focus on quality rather than quantity when it comes to the motivation of their employees which is an essential component of self-determination theory (SDT) (Fowler, 2018). SDT is an area that I would like to understand better as a leader and future consultant. Boosting intrinsic motivation in employees can lead to increased employee engagement and enhance their well being in general. Likewise, a leader can erode an employees self-determination with the wrong behavioral leadership style (Fowler, 2018, p. 187). I will further study techniques to train leaders in the appropriate way to bring out intrinsic motivation in their employees. The endpoint of SDT is to have motivated employees and a productive organization which fit nicely into my motivation as a leader.
Conclusion
I have learned, on my leadership journey thus far, that I can positively impact people and organizations around me. I will encourage collaborators, fellow employees and even company leadership to practice respect and learn the power of being vulnerable. Leaders need to put themselves out there and sometimes fail so the people around them can see it is safe, and all right to be vulnerable (Lencioni, 2002). I may not hold a position of leadership in the formal sense at my organization, but I do try to show others that speaking up and expressing yourself can be rewarding sometimes. Other times it may be a little embarrassing, but change will not come about unless people contribute ideas. By harnessing my ability to provoke and inject new ideas, I can creatively and effectively lead people and organizations regardless of my position.
References
Fowler, S. (2018). Toward a new curriculum of leadership competencies: Advances in motivation science call for rethinking leadership development. Advances In Developing Human Resources, 20(2), 182-196. doi:10.1177/1523422318756644
Godin, S., (April 7, 2012). On making a ruckus in your industry. Retrieved from https://seths.blog/2012/04/on-making-a-ruckus-in-your-industry/
Heifetz, R. A., & Linsky, M. (2002). Leadership on the line: Staying alive through the dangers of leading. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press
Lencioni, P. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team: A leadership fable. San Francisco, CA:Jossey-Bass, Inc.
Laura's Leadership Portfolio 