Disruptive Leadership

Rethinking the role of Leadership in the modern world.

1. An introduction

This note is inspired by the wonderful conversation I had with Carlo Giardinetti in my latest episode of glc.live here

The topic is too important not to double down with a proper note.

1. A Leadership Crisis

Over the past year, as I reflected on the world's current status, something very apparent came to me. There is a leadership crisis.

I observed this in Business, Governments, organizations; you name it. When the universe decides to crank up the entropy dial, then Leadership shows its true colors.

One of the most common misconceptions about Leadership is confusing it with Management. There is an essential distinction between Management and Leadership.

We see way too often an Archaic leadership model where leaders typically withhold a lot of information because that's their privilege and power. They only distribute little information to people by telling them you need to do A, B, and C, and that's all you need to know.

2. Management vs Leadership

I believe Management is a specific role; just like a teacher or an engineer, it is a role that we are appointed to. It requires particular skills that can be learned.

On the other hand, leadership is the particular attitude of influencing and guiding other people to achieve a shared vision. Leadership, therefore, is a trait rather than a role.

A Leader doesn’t have to be a manager.

Anyone can exhibit leadership, regardless of their role. If you can pinpoint a problem and motivate others to work with you to solve it, then you’re leading. Leaders inspire and Enable others to maximize their true potential.

Championing Compliance

The problem with the Leadership crisis that we are facing nowadays is that the current system doesn’t incentivize

Leadership quite the opposite.

For the most part, we incentives compliance rather than Leadership.

The problem is that when we champion compliance, mediocrity sets in.

Think about this for a moment. When we champion compliance over Leadership, we are consciously choosing to make our organization mediocre.

Another misconception of modern work is that Leadership could be appointed. Like trust, Leadership is not something that can’t be granted or appointed. Leadership must earn it.

My view on Leadership is just like my role as an educator and administrator.

As an educator, my role is to inspire students and make them achieve their maximum potential.

My sole purpose as an Administrator is to be a catalyst and enabler so that my team can achieve more than every member can achieve alone.

So how can we apply this in practice?

3. Purpose, People, and Processes

I’m a firm believer in the lean management system, where the long-term success of an organization focuses on making sure that every stakeholder understands and is aligned with three simple principles:

1. PURPOSE;
2. PEOPLE, and
3. PROCESSES, or in other words,

The WHY, The WHO, and the HOW.

This might sound simplistic, but these simple principles are the foundation of a solid organization. You would be surprised to see how many “reputable” organizations fail to align with these simple principles.

I believe that the most critical role as a Leader is to provide a sense of PURPOSE, a clear vision, and express (why) does our work matter. Ensuring that the team knows what success looks like and, most importantly, feels like and provides that everyone is on board and willing to achieve it.

The second principle PEOPLE (who). As a Leader, I have to make sure that my team members are set up to succeed. I continuously assess if they have the adequate skills to perform what they are required. Are they motivated to produce great meaningful and compelling work?

Lastly, the PROCESS or the (how). Here is where leadership and management converge. I always ask myself:

• How does my team work together?
• Who should do what by when?
• What principles should govern decision-making?
• How do we prioritize and manage time?
• How do we embrace failure as part of the growth process?
• Last but not least, how do we nurture a healthy culture of respect and focus?

These are not easy questions to answer but are important ones.

When I advise start-ups or organizations on evaluating their teams, I’m always surprised when they try to avoid them.

I don’t believe that work is always cotton candy and rainbows. Still, I also think that a positive, structured, and focused working environment yields much better long-term results than a siloed hierarchical one.

I have to say that the past years in Academia taught me more about consciousness and performance management than the many years of corporate work.

You can’t “fire” or “yell” at a student not in my institution at least or focus on delivering the job and moving on to the following projects. My role as an educator is to inspire students and make them achieve their maximum potential.

It’s about producing great work and providing them with the skills and support to deliver it.

Another important lesson that my time in Academia taught me is that everyone is different and will learn at a different pace and with different methodologies.

In pedagogy, there are 4 types of learners

• Learning type 1: auditive learning (“by listening and speaking“),
• Learning type 2: visual learning (“through the eyes, by watching”),
• Learning type 3: haptic learning (“by touching and feeling”),
• Learning type 4: learning through the intellect

I wonder why in business and organizations, we expect people to fall in the same category and keep on providing the “one size fits all” management styles.

4. Culture and Practice

If you are following me, you know that I always talk about design, Innovation, experimentation, creativity, and growth. But all of these Wonderful models and methodologies are useless if not grounded in solid corporate culture.

You can read more about this in this note.

We must come to terms that The industrial age is over.

We are now in the knowledge age.

We are constantly learning new things and acquiring new information. And therefore, the "one solution fits all" doesn't work anymore.

The workforce that we are dealing with today is very different in their experiences, level of personal development, and skill level. We must approach leadership and management with other lenses.

Carlo explained that his lenses are structure, support, and clarity.

Every employee we work with will need a tailored mix of more or less structured, more or less support, or more or less clarity of information.

A practical tool I often use when I Advise an organization is a variation of the Skill Will Matrix. Derived from the model of situational leadership created by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard in the 1970s. Old But still very relevant.

The Skill-Will Matrix teaches managers to apply different management styles to suit a specific team member.

Even if you are not leading a team but want to launch a project, you can use the same techniques to evaluate who should be part of the project. And clearly what to expect from each member.

Let me simplify even further my lenses on Leadership and Management.

1. Purpose: Clearly explain WHY this specific project is worth pursuing and explaining/define what success looks and feels like.
2. People: Understand WHO you are working with, and ask yourself.How do I set them up for success?What are the skills and motivation required to create great work?
3. Process: Define HOW you want the project to be done.Who should do what by when?What principles should govern decision-making?What's the rubric/roadmap to success?

5. We need you!

Leadership and Management are not easy.

This is why we desperately need you. We need you to master and evolve the art of Leadership and Management, regardless of your role or position.

• Leadership is about enabling and empowering others, Not solely telling others what to do;
• Delegating is not Enabling; Just like cooperation is not collaboration;
• As a Leader, you got to show up and do the work;
• Great Leaders don't cut corners by using their authority and power.

As a Leader, Your primary role is to empower others and provide psychological safety.

Create an environment where teams can thrive and share ALL the information on the table, including mistakes, disagreement, timeline, deadline that they couldn't meet, and so on.

This is very hard because you must let go of control and be vulnerable.

But if You do. You will have a team that will perform up to 10 times better than any other team.

This is the only recipe for success and to create a sustainable and innovative organization.