Individuals at all levels in organisations are continuously having to navigate through uncertain, complex, and ambiguous challenges which will not be solved by themselves alone or by a “top team” providing all the answers for the rest of the organisation to implement.
A major part of the role of leaders in today’s environment is ensuring they create the right context for people to work and find ways of engaging all the talent of their colleagues across the business. Research and experience shows that people tend to be at their very best when a unique set of circumstances come together to enable great collective performance.
In this post, we share how a group of executives got together to share experiences and learn insights around the question of “Leading for high performance”. Designed and delivered by Alan and Ragil from the Accelerance team, in collaboration with a number of carefully selected educators from the region, this group of executives explored what these circumstances are through multiple perspectives and points of view.
Seeking inspiration in a startup game developer
The 2.5 day workshop started with a small amount of theory during the first morning to help participants frame the conversation and closed with the “Oxford Union Style debate” which helped delegates consolidate their leaning via a debate around a provocative proposition.
In between, participants visited different establishments to understand if these companys’ way of thinking and behaving has relevance to the context within which the participants operate.
On this occasion, we took the group of executives to visit the offices of a game developer and publisher company which set up in 2012 in Bangkok. Building a team/company from 4 to 100 people in double quick time within a high growth, high demand context requires a strong focus and a particular way of thinking.
The founder shared his practical experiences of leading such a challenge and the issues as they relate to structure, alignment, recruitment, talent development, delivery and above all a huge sense of self belief, meaning and purpose. He also provided some concrete examples of how to retain talented individuals despite the attraction of bigger companies and higher salaries elsewhere.
For example, team leaders have complete control over how to use the budgets for their team, including salaries, as long as they achieve the agreed milestones. Ownership of this kind has resulted in unexpected anecdotes, which reflect the level of engagement of these employees. For example, one team leader, in order to improve the project his team was working on, went as far as reducing his own salary for a week in order to buy more time with a designer from the company pool.
After this discovery trip, participants heard different perspectives from senior executives from two major organisations (a global company specialised in electricity distribution and a leading food manufacturer) who shared how cultures there continuously strive for high performance and what unique operating principles their companies have implemented to guide behaviours and decision making processes.
Furthermore a psychoanalyst and former Buddhist monk led a session around personality and how a number of personality patterns are not serving us anymore but are still dominating our views and actions today. Through conscious awareness we can see these blind spots and can become intuitive and high-performing leaders that connect on an emotional level with others and start to transmit a contagious inspiration and enthusiasm.
The discovery visit and insights from these practitioners, coming from different industries and with a range of backgrounds, were not only inspiring and thought provoking, but they also left the learners with plenty of questions to ponder over:
• “What kind of environment do we need to create to achieve such commitment?”
• “If I can’t go as far as giving the division’s leaders complete control over their people’s salaries, what else can I do to empower them as much as possible?”
• “What leadership practices should I be ditching and/or adopting to achieve this success?”
• “How can we generate accountability from team members?”
Testing projects and experimentation back at work
Back at work and driven by purpose and curiosity, individuals voluntarily experimented new ways of working and leading, to see if these would contribute towards building their team performance. These trials included:
• Setting up monthly informal and voluntary dialogue sessions in a social place outside work, where anyone has a chance to talk with senior management about what’s getting in the way of high performance
• Pausing/stopping every now and then to celebrate success (no matter how big or small this) instead of continuously rushing from target to target
• Working on consciousness to connect on an emotional level with the team and aim to transmit a contagious inspiration and enthusiasm.
• Balance the BAU objectives with goals that the team has a passion about and enjoys doing (igniting purpose)
• Practicing difficult conversations: discussing perspectives rather than truths
• Leading with passion and happiness, not with authority
As Sir David Bell, former Chairman of the FT group, said: “The view from your office window seldom changes. If we want our leaders to see the bigger picture, they have to go out and see the world through other people’s eyes” (www.commonpurpose.org.)
These discovery visits are the meat of a number of our programmes. Not only do they expose executives to a range of different practices and leadership styles, but by introducing them to unique companies and people working in a range of industries, they begin to think creatively, opening their eyes to new opportunities instead of continuously looking for solutions in the same places.
As part of our commitment to providing the best solutions possible to our clients, we are undertaking a research study around innovative leadership development practices. In particular, we would like to talk to leading organisations in one of two contexts:
1. A specific programme they have developed and delivered which they are particularly proud of.
2. A generic level about their overall approach to executive development within their organisation.
If you would like to share your experience, please get in touch via email or Twitter.
