7 practices to develop transformational leadership capability
I bang on about systems leadership a lot, and particularly the leadership of systems change or transformation. Most people smile, nod politely and stay awake, which I like very much and assume indicates they're engaged and interested. This is something I'm working on.
Occasionally though, someone does me a favour, stops me in my tracks, and says something like:
"Errrrr, we're loving these fancy words and everything, but would you mind explaining what you actually mean, ideally with some actual things we might actually do in order that we might lead actual transformational change in our actual systems?"
It's a good challenge.
I've recently been trained to use the Leadership Development Profile; a tool that provides a basis for the sort of developmental inquiry that underpins exceptional leadership. The LDP - and the training - is managed by a wonderful organisation called Harthill which has been supporting leaders' development for more than thirty years. During that time, the company has profiled around 13,000 people around the world, measuring the extent to which they are able to operate and lead successfully in complex environments.
Critically, this process has also enabled Harthill to identify the capabilities which enable people to successfully steward transformational change. In summary, it turns out that they simply make meaning of the world around them in a more sophisticated way than the rest of us, which enables them to more successfully engage with the three territories of human experience - the self, our relationships and the wider world - and integrate them.
Harthill calls this 'transformational intelligence' and has distilled a set of seven key developmental practices that enables its development. So, assuming we wish to grow and develop our own transformational leadership capability too, what should we do?
An inquiry-based approach to experimentation
This is the most foundational - and pivotal - practice. It's about always learning, always exploring, always questioning. Inquiry based experimentation requires you to maintain an intense interest in your self and your own experience of work, in other people and their experience of work, and in the beautiful complexity of the systems you work in. It requires you to create intelligent experiments to discover new paths towards the ends you need to achieve, weaving together action and inquiry and redefining your aims, strategies and approaches as new dynamics come to light.
Successful inquiry-based experimentation is rooted in an understanding that transformation requires innovation, which - by definition - requires novelty. To innovate and grow, we have to acknowledge that we can't have all the answers and that we must reach beyond the safe and the familiar, and seek new understandings and new skills.
How?
You - Be interested in how you respond to situations. Notice when you adopt the position of knowing and of not-knowing, and how each state makes you feel. Take the time to create space and to connect with yourself. Notice what you notice.
You with others - Ask good questions and listen carefully to others. Take a real interest in how other people think and why they act as they do. Actively seek feedback from other people about how they experience you in your interactions with them.
You in the system - Intentionally nudge the system with small (or more dramatic) experiments. Spend time thinking about their design and target them at specific leverage points to create movement. Observe the effect with passion and detachment, and nudge again.
The courageous and ethical use of power
Leadership involves the exercise of power, whether it's formal or informal, institutional or personal. Critically, it also involves choices about how that power is used the extent to which one's own drives and motivations are involved. The most successful leaders in Harthill's data are keenly aware of both the influence they have over people and events and how their own unconscious relationship with power can come into play. They are therefore mindful of using their power with both conscious intent and with the interests of others and the wider system in mind.
In the context of transformational leadership, when the status quo - and resistance to change - needs to be challenged so a novel or unfamiliar approach can be tried, this takes real courage and audacity, and not a little grit.
How?
You - Take an interest in your own agenda; in what might be driving you to push forward with something or to resist something else. Take time to reflect on how your own unconscious relationship with power might be playing into your decision making.
You with others - Create the conditions in which others can step into their authority and exercise their power, particularly those who may otherwise be marginalised. Open yourself up to the idea that their perspective might enable them to make decisions that result in a better outcome than yours.
You in the system - Look out for what might be blocking or inhibiting change and take consciously courageous action to disempower or remove it. Become an advocate for the health of the wider system and an instrument for the transformation it requires.
Passionate detachment
Leadership is very often about managing tensions or paradoxes and this practice - which is about being both deeply passionate and safely detached - is no exception.
Being both in and out simultaneously, committed yet separate, is actually really important. The craft of leadership can be totally absorbing. One can almost feel the gravitational pull of all the possibilities and potential and challenges drawing one in. Unless one is aware of this, the commitment and passion can take over and we risk burnout. But we also lose the opportunity to observe and reflect, and fail to gain access to the multiple perspectives on an issue that enable good decision-making. We lose wisdom. This practice is about finding a balance and walking the fine line between passion and detachment. It's about realising that they're two sides of the same coin.
How?
You - When you notice yourself getting really engaged and really motivated, take time to pause and reflect. How does your passion play out in your behaviour and your emotional state? What don't you see when you're so focused? What emerges as you step back?
You with others - Observe what happens with other people when you consciously use your passion to engage them and then step back to give them space to act. How do their relationships with you change when you shift from passionately committed to serenely detached?
You in the system - The more we care about how a system works, the more it can wind us up when it doesn't. When you find yourself reacting to some unexpected outcomes or behaviours in an unexpected part of the system, stop yourself and think about what might be learned instead. If you're seeing some new leverage point or interdependency, how might you best respond?
Enabling and engaging difference
We're social animals and naturally look to affiliate with people who share our cultural behaviours and beliefs. Sometimes, in some sectors, this can be seen in the language people use around trying to create cultures based on aligned or shared values. The trouble is that organisations as human systems - like ecological systems - thrive on diversity and difference. Mono-cultures of 'people like me' are rarely able to respond or adapt to external changes, and become dysfunctional.
The most successful leaders in Harthill's data understand the need to see things from as many perspectives and angles as possible, and so set out specifically to engage, enable and build the diversity in their systems. They also work hard to identify their own learned biases and blind-spots, seeking - with awareness and choice - to explore where these might inhibit their effectiveness and the performance of the wider system.
How?
You - Look out for when you edit or censor your own behaviour - even your thoughts - because of the norms of the context you're in. Reflect on how that might be experienced by others, and what might be missed. Actively seek to talk with people you don’t normally talk to. Find out about what they think and what they care about.
You with others - Explore the diversity of your team and consider how it effects the quality of decision-making. When working in a group, notice those who contribute least and actively invite their voice into the discussion. Whose contributions do you feel are likely to be most and least useful? Where do these biases come from?
You in the system - Appoint for difference into your team and champion similar approaches across the system as a whole. Enable discussions around diversity, ‘homophilia’ (a preference for people like me) and people's experience of exclusion and difference at all levels.
A reframing mindset
Whilst the idea that 'every problem is an opportunity' is a bit of a cliched example of reframing, the principle is right. The most successful leaders in Harthill's data tend to be those who avoid taking up polarised positions and instead seek to integrate seeming opposites. This is where playfulness and humour can usefully come into play as a way of de-fusing some of the tensions that can arise when unconventional or unorthodox ideas are presented, particularly in large, diverse and complex organisations.
The benefit of reframing in this way is to go beyond the existing toolbox and look for fresh perspectives and new ways of working. This is important because the rate of change in all organisations' operating environments means that what worked last time - even quite recently - is unlikely to work this time because all the variables are different. It's about contextual awareness.
How?
You - Again, this can be about pausing and trying to adopt a different perspective on an issue or challenge, or trying an approach that feels scary or uncharacteristic. Sketching or mapping is useful for some people, as it provides a way of actually seeing things from different angles.
You with others - We all feel critical of other people's work sometimes but next time you catch yourself doing so, try to see their contribution in a different light. What if they are more right than you are? How can you reframe their input? How might you engage them in a discussion so you can learn?
You in the system - Make a conscious effort to surprise people by reframing out loud and in real time. Be playful with this. You might even see yourself as a character in a Shakespeare delivering a soliloquy alongside the action, if you see what I mean. The aim - as in the plays - is to invite the audience to take a new perspective on the action unfolding in front of them.
Using language deliberatively
Whilst their actions - of course - speak a thousand words, a leader's primary deliberative tool for inspiring others is the language they use and the craft of their speech. By blending the positive and appreciative with honesty and realism, the most effective leaders build trust through their intentional use of language and create the sort of openness that enables people to work at their very best.
The key word here is deliberative. Transformational leaders understand the importance of their language and think very carefully about what they say and how they say it. They understand that language can close people down or open people up, and they structure their speech to achieve the latter, creating space for collaborative dialogue and creative debate.
How?
You - Consider your intentions before you speak, and ask how you might create the narrative you need to achieve the ends you have in mind. What language is most likely to generate the sense of inclusion and agency you need others to feel?
You with others - Use language that draws other people in, and check that they are engaged as you go, both by observing and asking. Are you seeing other people respond in the way you intended? What else might they need to hear from you?
You in the system - Use your authority in the system to influence how language is used in internal and external communications. Consider how your use of language in social media or other forms of broadcast has an influence beyond your immediate system, and in others.
Engaging with complexity
Many leaders respond to complexity by trying to simplify, perhaps breaking a challenge down into smaller parts or applying so-called 'best practice' from another context. The most successful understand that avoiding complexity in this way is very unlikely to lead to positive transformational outcomes. They see that the organisation they're changing is dynamic, adaptive and driven by sensitive interdependencies. They know that the pathways to transformation are non-linear and that the outcomes will be emergent and largely unpredictable until things start moving. Rather than taking a reductive approach and working on a part or parts, they take an holistic view and look for leverage points in the system to 'nudge' in order to create movement across the whole. Critically, they also understand how they are themselves an integral part of the system, and that their inner capacities are pivotal for any transformation (I write about this with reference to Deborah Rowland's Change Vitality model here).
Ask yourself, how easily do you move between everyday details and the big picture? How readily can you integrate the levels of vision, strategies and actions? How comfortable are you amidst ambiguity, making decisions with only partial knowledge? Do you know what to do when you don't know what to do?
How?
You - Take an intentional approach to slowing down decision-making so you have time to think things through properly with colleagues. Check your impulses. A sense of urgency is usually the best sign that reflection is most required. Take an active interest in how the system works. Read up on systems thinking and complexity.
You with others - As other people what they think might be happening in the system. "What else might be going on here that we're not seeing yet?" Invite as many diverse perspectives as possible into the mix.
You in the system - Map the system to look for leverage points, and include people from outside the system in your inquiry. 'Be the change' sounds trite as a meme but is critical in the context of transformational system change. Modelling an holistic, experimental and adaptive approach (rather than a 'predict, commend and control' one) is more likely to unlock vitality across the system.
Find out more about Harthill and the Leadership Development Framework here.