LEADERSHIP RESULTS

Leadership Results - Sebastian Salicru

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How to create Adaptive Leaders and High Performing Organisations for an Uncertain World

The quality of today’s leadership is the key to our future.

Leadership is a phenomenon. That’s what I hear myself regularly sharing with clients. We are constantly bombarded with articles about the latest model, case study, top behaviours and quotes. Yet, we seldom see this expected leadership in action.

With the recent Royal Commission into the Australian Finance Sector, we are hit again with the term ‘toxic cultures’ used to describe so many institutions which we’ve grown up with and respected or at least expected to be professional, ethical and responsible to the people who chose to work with them.

ASIC Commissioner Cathie Armour is quoted in Australian media questioning why the more experienced people don’t think leadership is important in their profession and industry. If this is the case, we have at our disposal, a manual for organisations to follow. Leadership Results is the result of the diligent work of Sebastian Salicru. A Business Psychologist, Sebastian shares his insights, inspiration and impeccable process to get your leadership making an impact which we’re expecting in 2018.

I discovered Leadership Results when I read an article on LinkedIn penned by Sebastian – ‘Ten Leadership Capabilities for 2018 and Beyond’ which has been an excellent discussion piece for workshops, meetings and coaching sessions with my clients. We are drawn to numbers and behaviours for our personal comparison to determine if we’re meeting the expectations! In that list, at number 10 is Collective/Shared Leadership which is about creating more leaders by empowering employees at all levels of the organisation. This is what I am passionate about.

Leadership Results outlines the importance of relationships – in fact, Sebastian, (like me) equates Leadership to “Relationships which are derived from the trust and integrity which is sadly lacking in “our current world of distrust, doubt and dissent”. (Contrary to this, I’ve just finished reading about the need for dissent! My review of NO! The power of disagreement in a world that wants to get along by Charlan Nemeth will be published in June.)

Today more than ever we need political and business leaders to rethink how they exercise leadership and engage their followers. As Sebastian says, “Australia has a chronic problem distinguishing between leadership, authority and power.”

The life which is not examined is not worth living.
— Plato

The book is divided into three parts: leading in context, self-leadership & collective leadership. It’s a new roadmap especially for those of you who show leadership to take your leadership to the next level to achieve the results you’ve been seeking.

This comprehensive view of leadership literature, provides practical exercises (building on from Marty Linsky’s et al The Practise of Adaptive Leadership), including a series of chapter themed ‘insight’ questions enables and encourages you to make progress with this information. For example:

·         What is your reputation as a leader? What’s the estimation held by your peers, your team and your boss?

·         What are your top five strengths? How well can you articulate them? And how present are they in your everyday life?

Here’s some language, terms and views of leadership which resonated well with me:

Relational Leadership is understanding and responding to the unspoken expectations and commitments that bind us. Only then can we build sustainable collective leadership capacity. It’s about getting back to the basics – relationships - to tackle the leadership crisis effectively. It is about the social process which emerges from the dynamics of an organisation, not the specific individual attributes.

Psychological Contracts (Chris Argyris) the glue which holds relationships together are those unspoken expectations between parties in the workplace beyond those stipulated in a written employment contract. It is at the heart of human relationships. We see the known elements of the relationship on the surface and the unseen elements remain unnoticed and unexamined – the latter will have detrimental effects if either party fails to meet these perceived expectations – what we need is trustworthy behaviour including addressing differences and listening to others to understand precisely what they are saying. Keeping your promise, becoming their word, consistently builds trust, respect and credibility.

Cultural Intelligence (CQ) is the competence of an individual to deal effectively with those from different cultural backgrounds and includes concepts such as global mindset (one of the ten leadership capabilities for 2018 identified by Sebastian.) Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness (GLOBE) an 11-year project involving 160 social scientists, management scholars from 62 cultures have identified 22 desired effective leadership attributes across cultures.

Self-Leadership is the basis of our leadership – our ability to lead ourselves to achieve the direction and motivation necessary to positively influence our own performance, believing in our own ability to reach goals and complete tasks. We have a problem when so-called, self-titled ‘leaders’ can’t perform at this basic level of leadership.

Self-leadership is achieved through consciously and purposefully building and maintaining high self-esteem, identifying and applying your strengths experiencing ‘flow’ regularly and building your psychological capital (PsyCap – the synergy of hope, confidence, resilience & optimism.)

Psychological Safety (Amy Edmondson) the shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe to interpersonal risk-taking. It’s a climate of openness and trust that enables the team to talk openly about their mistakes which allows them to learn more and solve problems better. Individuals feel comfortable being themselves without fear of being punished, rejected or embarrassed when they do so. This enables their members to voice their mistakes and concerns ask stupid questions and volunteer new ideas.

Ethical leadership requires more than values. Values such as care, justice, integrity and respect are the raw material of ethical leadership, but they require a production process to convert them into effective actions in complex and dynamic situations.

Having high ethical and moral standards was rated highest of 74 attributes and second was communicating clear expectations. Servant leadership emphasise service to others, likewise, authentic leadership advocates setting high moral and ethical standards. Ethical behaviour refers to actions judged by and consistent with one’s personal principles and the commonly held values of the group organisation or society.

These seven highlighted snippets give you a flavour of what to expect to find in Leadership Results. I have been using the book’s case studies, questions and models over the past few months to help leaders become the leaders which Australia needs now, more than ever.

To conclude using Sebastian’s’ challenge – we need the wisdom to choose what to keep from what we have been learning about leadership and what to get rid of because it no longer serves our needs. This is at the heart of the adaptation (and adaptive leadership) we need to secure our future.

I’d appreciate your thoughts and feedback about my review. I trust it will help you consider your planned reading or part of your own team’s leadership development. Please get in contact if I can help you bring these concepts and other leadership development practices to your workplace.

Source: www.louisethomson.net/leadership-thoughts/...