 "G Shawn Hunter")
When we feel like we can be more authentically ourselves, we care more about our work, and hold stronger commitment to our company, G Shawn Hunter tells Sangeeta Tanwar
In recent years, the command-and-control approach to management has become less and less viable. In such a scenario, what is the role and place of a leader in an organisation?
The role of a leader is to lead, not manage. Managers count things, and often attempt to exert control over people. As technology advances and predictive algorithms and big data becomes pervasive, managing is increasingly less valuable, and leading and influencing is increasingly more valuable. So I would argue that leadership is becoming more and more valuable, and management less so.
Great leaders nourish, grow and inspire those around them. They lift people up. The reason this is so valuable from a business perspective is that the biggest talent attractor is the quality of the leaders in the organisation. It's absolutely true that people view the company through the lens of the person they work for. You will never hear someone say that even though their boss is a jerk, they love and believe in the purpose and mission of the company they work for. Almost universally people are most influenced by their direct boss. This is why leadership matters more than ever now.
You have said that leaders can turn around organisations by turning a fixed mindset into a growth mindset. What are the steps to do that?
The first step is to understand the mindset of the organisation you are working in. First listen to the type of language you hear people use in the hallway, in meetings, in conversations. The first sign is when people start to talk about how smart they are. When team members start to talk about how smart someone is, or how talented someone is, look out! That language builds up heroic personalities - people who need to be called in to save the day. Have you ever been in a meeting, and the meeting can't start because a certain someone hasn't shown up yet? It's that palpable feeling that nothing can happen until the hero arrives. Growth mindset cultures don't create, and rely on, heroes.
Another clear sign is that people get defensive about feedback. When you start to see people get defensive about hearing feedback, hiding their mistakes, or assigning blame, you may be in the midst of a fixed mindset culture. When you hear people object immediately with, "But that's not true…" or "That's going to be too much work", you're in a place where people believe in protecting their reputation, not growing their capabilities.
If a fixed mindset becomes pervasive, you will see people dwell on failures instead of celebrating experiments.
So, what are the signs of a growth mindset culture?
A sign of a growth mindset culture is a constant, urgent discussion about conducting, and studying, efforts like small experiments. Up until recently Facebook had a mantra of "move fast and break things", which was an invitation to their engineers to rapidly prototype, deliver products, and then study the results. When you see a culture leaning on aging dogma and old policies because of some past experience, you know you're walking in an innovation wasteland.
Leaders enjoy employee trust only if they are authentic and straightforward. What are the signs of a great leader?
Great leaders understand that when we create a workplace where people feel comfortable and can reveal their authentic selves, remarkable things can happen. Too often, company cultures become homogenous because everyone wants to fit in. We often conceal deeply personal and honest facets of our lives. We conceal socio-economic backgrounds, religious orientations, political leanings, and even our personal health. And we do so because we don't make those around us uncomfortable.
When we feel like we can be more authentically ourselves, we care more about our work, and hold stronger commitment to our company.
Remember that partitioning our lives and identities is a trap. When we segment and partition our lives into work life, home life, sporting life, community-service life etc., we deny a truth that often our greatest strength comes from integrating all the different and diverse network interactions, and ideas into a unified and integrated whole. Great leaders respect and appreciate the unique aspects of everyone and work to bring out those unique and special qualities within us all.
In a hyper-competitive world, we run the risk of ending up with over-managed and under-led organisations. Such organisations can be vulnerable in a fast-moving world. How can leaders address this challenge?
As the world economy becomes more connected, volatile, and chaotic, one of the best prescriptions for handling the constant rate of change is to de-centralise decision-making and give autonomy and control to those who are closest to the customer, closest to the point of service and support.
Those closest to the end-user and buyer are often best suited to make discretionary decisions concerning advertising, support, and distribution of products and services. This is especially true in the global market. We, as leaders, can learn from enabling such local autonomy in how our products and services are deployed, advertised, and supported, which will inform how we manage our business overall. So, instead of a centralised headquarters dictating what to do, they should act as a support centre asking those closest to the customer to advise how the "headquarters" can best be of help.
