The effective leadership ‘LIE’ I taught leaders to use as a decision guide (2)

The test of any leader’s strength is during adversity. Anyone can lead when there is positive momentum in place. Any football coach can win matches if all the players know what to do and are in good form. Leadership is, however, needed when things are not going according to plan. Someone needs to be in the front, confronting obstacles, influencing beliefs, and changing the behaviour of the team members toward achieving goals in a challenging and ever-changing environment.

I found my team chasing the shadow of poor performance, which must be reversed within forty days. From where I stopped in the first article, thinking without emotion, I arrive at the almighty one billion naira that can change our story if not withdrawn by the end of the year. That was on a Sunday evening when I stopped by the office to reflect on the team’s performance. Creating a private time to think about your team, leadership style, work environment, and the capacity to design ambidextrous goals to be pursued is crucial to your success as a leader. Suppose you think about problems without using your emotions. In that case, you will realise that you and your team have what it takes to achieve your team’s objectives.

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The next day, a Monday morning, I called my sales team to inform them of my previous day’s thinking activity. I distributed the one billion naira deposit we were looking for and gave a timeline for us to get it into our books. I went into detail with each of my team members on their existing customers that could salvage our dire situation with some bailout deposits. I refuse to accept that a new customer will be counted in that situation, so any mention of a new account was disregarded. Arriving at the solution is logical. I use logic instead of emotions to dissect the problems. That wasn’t enough; I had to influence my sales team members to stop blaming the bank, the internal processes, and the refusal to approve some of our requests, which would have prevented the nosedive of our performance.

I equally engage the operation team. There are thirty of them, and they have a role to play. They were aware of the performance. This time, they must use their existing relationship to ensure more deposits go into the accounts than withdrawals. In my words, we are all in it together.

“Creating a private time to think about your team, leadership style, work environment, and the capacity to design ambidextrous goals to be pursued is crucial to your success as a leader.”

The situation has changed, and so must the atmosphere. Every morning, I demand a ten-minute meeting for everyone to provide an update to the team. I stopped any other conversation or light joke. All discussions are ostensibly on the one billion naira. My behaviour became my intuition, creating an environment of focus and urgency in everyone, thereby channelling all emotions to one course—to get the one billion deposits into the branch.

On Monday evening, I visited my number one target for the deposit. I was expecting at least five hundred million naira from a multinational customer. I had built a solid relationship with the company’s treasurer and the chief finance officer. Thirty minutes into our conversation, it was all personal discussions before the law of attraction came into play. Whatever you are chasing as a leader is also chasing you. Suddenly, the treasurer changed the discussion to the need for the company to get some foreign currency to pay its concentrate, a key input for its production. We discussed how difficult it is to get allocations from the central bank and how I did an excellent job in the last six months. The treasurer asked if I could help this time. I said yes and asked what amount they were looking for. Guess what? It is one billion naira worth of dollars that is needed. My team and I have been looking for one billion naira, which must stay for forty days. What a coincidence!

To sustain the momentum, I did not disclose the expectation of the one billion naira to my team, but they noticed increased positivity and enthusiasm in me. I kept demanding that everyone do their bit. The one-billion-naira deposit came in on the third day, and it was a joyful moment for us as a team. One of my teammates was worried about keeping the money for forty days, and my response was simple: Leave that to me and concentrate on bringing your share of the bargain.

We kept the deposit for more than forty days, and our performance was restored. Some of the team members also contributed more deposits as committed. Our slogan, “We are in it together,” manifested in our behaviour and the outcome we achieved in the difficult situation.

The fitness test of your leadership capacity is the ability to use logic, intuition, and emotion in the right proportions to lead yourself and others in every situation. Assume something comes to your mind as a leader; if you cannot answer why you want to do it and justify it is not for self-aggrandisement, then it is an emotion that dominates you. Most often, leaders do things with emotions to project themselves, chase the spotlight, and seek self-gratification, which neither benefits their teams nor their organisations. Whenever leaders approach me on things that are self-gratifying, I know they want my confirmation bias. As a coach, I will never give such bias until the question of why is answered.

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Knowing that logic is indisputable, as in two plus two will always produce four, is essential. If it is not logical, it is mostly emotion and, in scarce circumstances, intuition. Intuition works like this. You have all the facts about what is rational to do or not to do. Let’s say you have a candidate who meets all the requirements, but your hunch is saying don’t because something is amiss. It could be a character problem that would be revealed later. The use of intuition is developed with experience and over time.

In conclusion, leaders must consciously prioritise logic over emotion in their thinking. Though emotion is good for taking action, it must be checked to avoid the mental block of executing without intuitive reflection on the need to change the course of action.

Babs Olugbemi FCCA, the Chief Vision Officer at Mentoras Leadership Limited and Founder of Positive Growth Africa. He can be reached on [email protected] or 07064176953 or on Twitter @Successbabs.