As we begin to see the green shoots of recovery and a drop in unemployment, the labour market will once again become more active. What are you doing to engage and keep your best people while continuing to be firm and fair with any underperformance?
The deepest recession in living memory led to a shift in management style from easy-going to a far more authoritarian style. This may have been necessary in order to make some drastic changes to business models and tighten business practices as the economy lurched from double-dip recession to a long painful crawl out of the downturn.
However whilst people may have come to accept it as many businesses struggled to survive, recent scientific studies show that if there is a lack of trust in senior management, people will leave as soon as the opportunity arises. Unfortunately, it is often the best people who are first to go because they know what they are worth and the changing labour market means that they may make a move sooner rather than later.
This means that if leaders are not able to adapt their style they will lose their best people. The latest thinking, based on significant research by Amy Cuddy, an associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, is that leaders need to exercise a balance of compassion and power and interestingly it needs to be in that order.
Amy, and her colleagues in the Behavioural Science, have discovered that 90% of our judgements about our positive or negative impressions of people around us rely on whether we believe that they are warm, caring and trustworthy i.e. “What are their intentions towards me?” and do they have the strength and power to take action, i.e. “Is he or she capable of acting on those intentions?”
Leading with Power first
Most leaders are fearful of appearing weak or soft and want to be seen as strong, competent and in charge. This is all well and good but if it is done without warmth and compassion it undermines trust and breeds envy, disengagement and resentment. If you expect people to respect and trust you just because you are competent you are missing half the picture. You won’t engage your people and your ability to influence them is significantly reduced. They may do what you want but they won’t truly support you and your ideas – they won’t see you as their ‘Leader’ because they are not inclined to follow you. They will also be less inclined to adopt the values, culture and vision of the organisation in a sincere, lasting and meaningful way. In fact they will probably be keeping their eyes open for other opportunities to find a Leader they feel they can trust and genuinely want to follow. In a worst case scenario, they may even try and derail your efforts or your career.
Leading with Compassion first
When people evaluate us, our genuine warmth and sense of compassion contributes significantly more than our competence. Studies show that when making judgements, people are consistently quicker to pick up on warmth than competence. This is based on our ‘spontaneous trait inferences’ – the snap judgements we make (often on a below conscious level) when briefly looking at faces. The implications in business are huge. Trust increases information sharing and cooperation, it also facilitates the exchange of ideas and allows people to hear and accept the messages and thoughts of others. People allow themselves to be influenced by people they trust, this means leading with compassion provides the opportunity to change people’s attitudes and beliefs as well as their behaviour. However, it is worth noting that warmth without competence generates a sense of pity and ultimately being neglected.
Calm confidence
The best way to gain influence, engagement and trust is to combine compassion with power. The very nature of being in charge and having power increases our Testosterone and reduces our Cortisol. Testosterone makes us feel more assertive, reduces fear and increases our willingness to take risks; Cortisol is linked to sensitivity to stress and reactivity. This combination can decrease our understanding of other people’s point of view; it also diminishes our ability to see them as individuals. So wise leaders need to make conscious and consistent effort to put themselves in the shoes of others and see things from their perspective.
Once we can do this, we can demonstrate genuine awareness of others and acknowledge their points of view (we don’t necessarily have to accept them). By acknowledging others, we are addressing a deep human need to be understood. By showing understanding and compassion whilst maintaining our power to influence and make decisions, we can remain calm and confident that developing trust will encourage people to do the right things and live up to their commitments. This authentic demeanour can build and engender deep trust and respect.
It is also important to be able to demonstrate that you are able and willing to address the difficult issues like underperformance (including underperformance at a senior level) and making the difficult decisions like clarifying conflicting priorities. If these issues are not tackled competently you will undermine your leadership and authority
Amy and her colleagues have come up with some useful tips for projecting compassion and power.
Projecting Compassion
To project compassion and warmth:
1. Find the right level and be authentic, you don’t want to be too gushing or you will lose credibility, nor too cool as people will interpret it as just saying the words without meaning them.
– Speak in lower pitch and volume, as if comforting a friend.
– Share a personal story, demonstrate that you are confiding in them and being forthcoming and open. This can put you on an equal footing for a moment and help people to identify with you.
2. Validate feelings, acknowledge the elephant in the room and show you understand how they must be feeling.
– Agree with the feelings.
– Show its ok to feel as they do.
3. Smile, and mean it. A genuine smile is contagious.
– A fake or polite smile is easily detected; a real smile involves many more muscles than the mouth alone.
– Think happy thoughts. Be grateful for what you have in your life. Love them for being human and genuine. This produces the neuropeptides oxytocin, arginine and vasopressin which have been linked to our ability to form human attachments, to feel and express warmth and to behave altruistically.
– Keep your eyebrows level. Raised eyebrows can signal being over-eager to please and be liked. It also signals anxiety which can be as contagious as a smile.
Projecting Power
To project power and strength:
1. Feel in command
– This comes from within and can take some practice. To feel more powerful adopt ‘power poses’, they trigger the production of testosterone and reduce cortisol, making you feel more confident – they don’t increase your dominance over others. For example, use your body to stand erect, hands on hips, sit spread wide, head up, etc. Only do this as a warm-up when you’re about to go into a situation, not during it. (For more on this click here)
2. Stand up straight
– This can’t be emphasised enough. If you want to have credibility and authority do not slouch, you need to stand upright physically and mentally. This is not about puffing out your chest and jutting your chin out – military style – but having an upright posture with relaxed shoulders and weight balanced on both feet. Make eye contact with people, and it helps to have a calm expression.
3. Move deliberately
– Be clear about where you are moving to, move deliberately to a specific spot and then be still. Fidgeting, tapping fingers, feet or hands sends the signal that you are not in control. Stillness demonstrates calm confidence and holding yourself as above achieves what is known as ‘poise’, an important aspect of credibility and having presence.
The Crises in Engagement and Trust
There is currently massive disengagement in the workplace, many studies of staff surveys show shocking statistics of people not trusting their leaders or managers and disengaging from their work and any sense of loyalty to their employer. There is also a crisis of trust in many boardrooms and this can seriously undermine a successful business. By practicing the above, you will begin to shift the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of your people. If you don’t, you may well lose your best people over the next 12 months.
You may also want to consider the development needs of your leaders and managers so they become more competent. If you have any questions or comments, or you are interested in exploring our online resources or in-house programmes don’t hesitate to contact me.
Remember . . . Stay Curious!
With best regards
David Klaasen
www.InspiredWorking.com
