The lonely leader

Leadership is a much used term and there are many courses, books and seminars available to people who wish or need to develop skills in this area. The problem with many of these activities is that too often the focus is on management and leadership theory, with too little emphasis on the practical problems that leaders face. I an often engaged by senior people to work through issues related to critical decisions that will impact of large numbers of people. As an MBA graduate the creation of strategies and assessing the risk of adopting new strategies is reasonably straightforward. This is also true of people at the top of their game. What is more difficult to capture and why leadership is often a very lonely place is the leader's ability to find a support mechanism to talk through strategic change and risk, that is truly safe. A safe place is a confidential place, it is non judgemental, its motivations are transparent and it is a place where a leader can find perspective without fear.
Picture this, you as a senior executive, need to make a decision that will result in job losses. You and you alone are responsible for the decsion. It's tough and you need to move forward. How are you to live with the knowledge that by agreeing to a particular approach many people will lose their jobs? The stress of this decision is difficult to manage and to show stress at work could be seen as a weakness. Thankfully there are things you as a leader can do to help. First take a step back and understand that this decision has been created by a set of circumstances, not all of which are or were within your control. So, take a deep breath and feel some of the stress flow out of your body. Next, you need to focus on the good that will come out of the decision - jobs saved is one such good thing. Keep focusing on the positive and keep breathing deeply.
Now that a little perspective is beginning to take shape you need to look at where you sit in the decision making tree. How did the need to reduce staff numbers come about? Who was involved in this discussion? What data has been used to calculate the reduction? What are the benefits to those left behind? Asking these questions will help gain insight and give perspective, helping you to realise that no matter how tough a decision is, it is rare that it is based on isolated events. That means you should not isolate yourself or take on too much of the stress related to this or other decisions. What you need is to create a safe place to talk through issues and decisions. Talking out a problem with someone who can listen and help find focus and clarity will help bring you back to perspective, work ethically and be more human in your approach to decsion making. A metor or coach is the ideal 'safe' place to start this journey and reduce the potential isolation that leadership can bring.
Next time I'll be blogging about how to downsize in an ethical manner!