The Guardian, The Defender & The Shaper
Leading at a time when everything is changing is an incredible challenge. Reassuring your team, making the right decisions and delivering results are tricky to balance, and definitions of success seem to change weekly.
There are, though, some fundamental principles of leadership that haven’t changed and probably won’t. There are three core roles that leaders play outside of strategic decision making and accountability for results that determine the destiny of their organisations. Great leaders are Guardians of the Culture, Defenders of the Mission and Shapers of Talent.
It’s easy for culture to drift over time, especially when things get difficult or a business goes through significant changes. Keeping it on track takes constant vigilance, immense discipline and relentless focus. In a series of landmark studies in 2006, researchers from the University of Washington discovered that the saying is true - a bad apple does indeed spoil the bunch. By planting actors as “bad apples” in groups trying to complete a management simulation, the research team saw performance drop by 30-40% compared to control groups. The actors mimicked behaviours of real life underperformers, playing the role of “the depressive pessimist”, “the jerk” or “the slacker”.
The real secret, though, is that it doesn’t take a whole person for this decay to begin. Each unchallenged decision, each piece of communication undermining the principles of your company and each day that passes when poor behaviour is allowed to slide compounds to gradually, inevitably, chip away at your success. While swift punishment for every transgression, no matter how minor, is unlikely to lead to high performance, missteps must be recognised and addressed. During his incredibly successful tenure at the helm of Liverpool, Jürgen Klopp found himself dealing from time to time with players who had vented their frustrations on social media. His approach to this was simple - no punishment or fine, but simply asking the player, in front of their teammates, to explain their comments so that he could address them openly. This simple action meant that no player made this mistake twice.
The premise of much of my work is straightforward: the biggest difference between the (very) few companies who succeed and the many, many that fail comes down to one factor, namely building a high performance culture that enables them to weather the storms which inevitably come on the road to success. If that’s true, then guarding that culture with your life is the most important thing you can do.
An essential part of doing so lies in constant, enthusiastic pursuit of the overall Mission of the company. Defending that Mission is the second core role of a high performance leader.
There are several elements to defending the Mission. The first is ensuring it’s clearly communicated to each member of the organisation in a way that meaningfully connects their own day-to-work to it. It’s not enough to tell people once and expect them to remember - reviewing and recapping the Mission must be a regular occurrence. The easiest way to do this is by consistently reporting on progress against it.
Objectives (company, departmental and individual) must be aligned to the Mission, and it must be kept in mind through all key decisions. Your Mission, if used correctly, will allow you to delegate key decisions to people in your team, making sure that you don’t become the bottleneck. Having a clear destination and direction, well-known to all, means that each decision is made with the goal of moving you closer to your desired goal. Without this, each decision will be made on its own merits, and even well-intentioned choices can compound to leave you a long way from your intended point of arrival.
The final role the great leader must assume is that of Shaper of Talent. Selecting the right people to join the team is the first step on this path. Following that, it’s the responsibility of the leader to help every member of the team to realise their potential. While each individual must take the opportunity in front of them, it’s the leader’s job to ensure that the correct opportunities exist, that the way to take them is clearly marked, and that the required support, guidance and sponsorship is provided. Sometimes, this will mean encouraging a team member to take on a role they don’t feel they’re ready for; at others, it may involve helping them to realise that they’re not as far along as they think they are, and helping them to develop their skills. Some people need lots of support, others a firm hand. It’s up to leaders, as the Shapers of Talent, to provide the conditions that make achieving their potential possible.
Performing these three roles, shifting between The Guardian, The Defender and The Shaper, is a crucial challenge all leaders must tackle. Those who succeed will thrive, as will their teams and organisations, whatever the future throws at us.
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