Kia ora
We're in full swing for the year - and it's only February!
Our work over the next few weeks has us delivering workshops on how government works, managing difficult conversations, team-building, writing great reports, and championing change. We're always keen to hear what is happening for you, and how we could shape new thinking, directions, and futures.
Check out what's got us thinking to see what is informing our approach. For Hilary, it's the idea of powerful or attractive leadership; for Kristen, the necessity of values-based action; and for Dinah, the lessons we can learn from sports stars about reaching peak performance.
Dinah's first Tea & Toast for 2021 looked at emerging workplace trends, including the shift from flexibility of place to flexibility of time. Last year accelerated the move to remote working, and the next shifts are inevitable extensions that'll we'll build into our approach to building and leading teams. We recorded it so you can watch or watch again.
Ngā mihi
The Training Practice team - Hilary, Dinah, Kristen, and James
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Hilary is presenting in February. She'll touch on some familiar themes: openness, autonomy and innovation.
She'll put her practical 'how to' twist on putting people at the centre of the workplace .
Is it simple? If only.
Is is complex? Of course.
And paradox is lurking in the wings. Is it worth working towards. Yes, definitely.
So, join us for some challenging and provocative thinking and kōrero.
When: Friday 26 February, 8.30am NOTE LATER START TIME
Where: via Zoom
Cost: Free, BYO Tea & toast
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What better start to 2021 than investing in leadership? Register for yourself, or register someone you know is ready for that kickstart.
Our practical and interactive leadership development programme is delivered via Zoom - participants can attend from anywhere with an internet connection. The first programme for 2021 runs from 22 February to 3 March in four half-day sessions.
We introduce concepts and techniques to:
- Understand how to shift from delivering work yourself, to achieving results through others
- Effectively engage and motivate people, and build stronger teams
- Manage performance, provide feedback and coach effectively
- Communicate well with people with different styles
- Plan how you’ll maintain or grow your energy and resilience
- Be authentic and confident—develop your approach and strengths-based brand.
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Kristen makes the connection between getting the basics right for a team win on the court with getting the basics right for a winning team in the workplace.
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What's got us thinking
We've gone in different directions for our listening and reading over the past few weeks.
Hilary: Your leadership style: powerful or attractive?
Peterson, Abramson and Stutman have developed a tangible and practical way for leaders to understand and develop their leadership style. Their article 'How to Develop your Leadership Style' is in the November/December 2020 Harvard Business Review and will become a staple of my future leadership development programmes.
Leaders use two contrasting types of markers to communicate status: powerful and attractive. Examples of powerful ones are greater formality, serious expressions, and being more direct. Examples of attractive markers are showing empathy, being attentive to others and using inclusive language.
So, which is best?
The authors argue that most leaders fall into five categories along a spectrum: powerful, lean powerful, blended (a bit of both), lean attractive and attractive. And it's the blended style that seems to reap rewards. Leaders who can switch between different styles as needed have presence and are more successful. But how do they develop it? No surprises here.
1. Know thyself - build self-awareness.
2. Experiment with different markers.
3. Read the room.
Good advice for any leader.
But there's a final kicker. Guess what? A blended leadership style matters more for women and minority group leaders. Why? They're being judged differently against the traditional male leadership stereotype. The message for them is clear: choose your markers carefully - unconscious bias is alive and well.
Kristen: Like most Americans abroad, I've spent a lot of time and energy in January watching and worrying about the US.
Division has never seemed greater and unity has never seemed further away. This TEDTalk by Dr. Bernice King, The US needs a radical revolution of values, provided some much-needed encouragement.
"There's a lot of heart work to do in the midst of all the hard work."
Ain't that the truth. The 'wicked problems' we're left with in 2021 can't be solved with a one-off intervention. Whether we're discussing political division, social injustices, personal growth, or organisational change, they all require empathy, kindness, and openness. That's being open to reflection, listening to others, and trying things a new way.
Dr. King echoes what organisational experts have long stated: change starts with your values. Our values reflect our underlying beliefs and motivations. They play out in our priorities, what we focus on, how we treat others, and how we see the world.
Americans needs to identify what values they want to build their lives and society around. We all do. When you live abroad, you starkly see how subtle shifts in values bring about a completely different culture. For example, America's drive towards perceived personal freedoms have meant a push back against mandates of any kind (like masks). Whereas Kiwis are generally more focused on community, making them more likely to comply with suggested safety measures.
I'm left curious as to how NZ's Government that has the largest mandate of a generation will rally people around shared values to solve the wicked problems we face.
Dinah: Lessons from sporting stars.
I've chosen flexible as my guiding word for 2021. In line with that, I've broadened my reading to think about performance in a sporting context. Kristen's latest blog is about a team failing to get the basics right. I'm interested in how solo athletes achieve peak performance - and what that might tell us about how to support people at work.
I read tennis star Andre Agassi's excellent Open (Harper Collins, 2009) a few years ago—it crossed the barrier from sports writing to best seller, which brought it to my attention. What stayed with me, apart from his surprising loathing of tennis, was the team he built around himself. My recall is of the contrast between how much he leaned on that team off court, and how utterly alone he was on court.
And now I've read Valerie: The Autobiography (Hodder Moa, 2012). Valerie Adams voice is shaped by writer Phil Gifford.
While Dame Valerie's story includes some emotionally challenging experiences, it doesn't have the high-drama and drug-taking of Agassi's story. But it does share that theme of a solitary performer. Agassi slogged his way through some long tennis matches; Adams gets a minute from her name being called to making her throw. And so much has to happen for that minute to work.
The things that struck me: her coaching relationship with Didier Poppe seemed doomed to failure from the the time he declared he would change her, 'from a truck to a Ferrari'.
Her coaching relationship with Jean-Pierre Egger flourished because of her confidence in his technical knowledge. And his patient understanding of the cycle of improvement—that results may be disappointing before a new technique kicks in to action.
Dame Valerie also enjoyed that Jean-Pierre 'praises you for knowing what you've done wrong, and that you can correct it'. Words for any coach to live by, whether in sport or in business.
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