Maturing into a leadership role (3)

While there are many responsibilities attached to leadership function, perhaps the most significant involves communication. Certainly, managers have developed some communications skills over the years, but the shift here is from talking to listening.

Leadership at this level is information-intensive, and nothing clogs the pipeline faster than a manager who makes decisions and policy pronouncements without all the facts and ideas at his disposal. Soliciting ideas and information from the outside world of customers, vendors, and industry analysts, as well as the inside world of colleagues, is required.

Within that inside world, listening must be an equal opportunity endeavor. Scheduling regular listening session with people at all levels of the leadership function is absolutely necessary; it’s the only way to detect dangers and opportunities before they surface for all to see.

During these listening sessions, managers who are maturing into a leadership role should keep their ears and minds open so they can answer the following questions:

– What are people working on?

– Are they being managed, developed, rewarded, and coached properly?

– Do they understand enough of the business strategy, profit model, strategy, business challenges, competitive conditions, and short-term priorities to do the job right?

– What problems are they encountering?

– What are the obstacles?

– What ideas do they have for improving their contribution, the function or the company?

– What innovation is taking place?

– Is there sufficient speed in decision cycle times?

It is pertinent to note that listening as opposed to talking without listening is a hall-mark of a mature leader, and its one that requires patience, empathy, and approachability. Obviously, managers have to communicate with their people.

At this leadership level, there is no room for inarticulate or isolated managers or those who can only communicate with their direct reports or inner circle. With more levels to penetrate, managers must engage in dialogue with people up and down the line and in all subfunctions.

Some of this dialogue can be facilitated by the office intercoms, emails, or other messaging platforms, but there is no substitute for face-to-face conversations and the emotional engagement that results from them. Again, this means making more time for this activity and taking away time from a less important one.

To grow and mature into leadership, functional managers must master a variety of listening skills. For instance, they must be able to listen to not only what is being said but what is not being said. They must be alert for topics that are avoided, for hesitancy about addressing a particular problem.

They also must be able to cross-check frames of reference. By this we mean that each individual in a conversation has a particular set of assumptions and experiences that shape his words. This is particularly true when it comes to measurement.

One person may say the results are outstanding, while another views these same results as mediocre; it all depends on the frame of reference. The difference here is that a mature leader learn to take these frames of reference into consideration during conversations to avoid misrepresentation.

Further, the failure to seek or listen to feedback is an especially acute problem for senior managers and executives. They are always asking for feedback on new programmes and products. What they don’t actively seek or what they turn a deaf ear to is unsolicited feedback about themselves.

Specifically, they are not interested in hearing how they are leading or how and why they should do things differently. In some instances, they are not interested in this feedback because it doesn’t fit their definition of leadership.

Read also: Maturing into a leadership role (2)

To them, being a leader means staying the course in the face of adversity, which is appropriate up to a point. If they were to listen to every negative comment or critical suggestion, they had never followed through on an initiative or get anything accomplished. As we will see, leaders who avoid failure are open to feedback and skilled at analyzing whether it has merit.

Often managers have to deal with so many new and unfamiliar issues; the challenge is twofold:

– How do they learn to manage what’s new?

– How do they learn to value it?

Valuing what’s new and unfamiliar is a particular challenge for young, aggressive, ambitious functional managers. Immature, they often fall into the trap of having to know all the answers. Feeling they must “justify” their promotion, they start clogging the leadership development process the first day of on the job.

They are resolutely unwilling to ask questions or say “I don’t know” for fear of being thought undeserving of their leadership status.

Ideally, leaders love to learn what they don’t know. Their subordinates will accept questions and uncertainties early in their tenure and are eager to fill them in. Customers and end users, too, will be more than willing to provide them with knowledge and ideas.

The key is for leaders to engage others in dialogue, listen carefully and reflect on what they are told. Mature leaders value their work only when they truly understand it, and an eagerness to learn will help them adjust their values appropriately.

Please look out for a continuation of this article.