Unlocking the leader inside you

INLSA

Know your own greatness: The key to good leadership lies in self-knowledge, says Discovery Healths Adrian Gore. Picture: Leon Nicholas

“I know that in everyone there is greatness, but most people don’t realise how quickly life passes them by.” (Comment by Adrian Gore in a personal interview with Adriaan Groenewald).

We learn from many leaders that the foundation of a confident leader is self-knowledge.

Shakespeare wrote: “Know thyself and to thine own self be true.” From experience we realise that an essential element of the process to get to know ourselves is the courage to face our weaknesses and negative expectations.

Only then can we more fully appreciate and value our basic strengths. When we jump to consideration of our strengths without looking honestly at our weaknesses, we tend to miss a vital step in building the kind of confidence that lasts under pressure.

Knowing the “Leadership Me”.

The leadership journey is based on knowledge of self (me), then evolves into knowledge of the “leadership me”, which is a journey in its own right.

An awareness of “leadership me” tends to bring out the best in us because we become aware of being accountable to others and to universal values, not only ourselves.

The leadership me is a multiplication of the personal me. In general, our backgrounds and training are not always geared to make the cross over from the personal me to the leadership me.

Personal leadership conversations

Over the years, we have had hundreds of personal leadership conversations for training as well research purposes. Personal leadership conversations are more than coaching and mentoring sessions. They are geared to be personal and adapt to the needs and talents of the leader concerned.

Personal leadership conversations are a superb state-of-the-art methodology to build leadership fitness and confidence.

We would like to share a few unique experiences gained in personal leadership conversations recently.

A new SA story

Henk (not his real name) is a mine overseer (mine captain) in a large gold mine group.

He is responsible for a few hundred miners in a tough and even dangerous working environment. We city dwellers may battle with the concept of working in our world-famous deep mines.

Henk has been a miner for many years. He was a provincial rugby player, a real traditional Afrikaner in many ways. Because of his experience as a mine overseer, he was assigned to supervise one of the first women to work in a gold mine.

For various reasons, he was not happy about the assignment. She was black, she was different, she was a woman in a tough physical environment that was traditionally operated by men only.

He told me that he gave her a tough time and drove her hard to live up to the stringent standards of safety and performance required in a gold mine.

Eventually, she could not take it any more and asked him why he was driving her so hard, more than the men around her. Henk asked her whether she wanted to achieve management status.

She said this was her dream. He told her that he was driving her hard because she obviously wanted to succeed and the others in the team were not really interested. She subsequently became a shift boss and, later on, a mine overseer.

On the social occasion that followed her promotion to mine overseer she addressed the group in attendance. After the function, Henk received the following e-mail: “We had our annual presentations on Friday. Prudence (name changed) paid a lot of tribute to your influence on her career and life. She said that she hated you in the beginning and didn’t like your firmness and the way you treated her. But over time she realised that what you are doing is right.

“She has a very high admiration for you. Thanks for your influence on young employees’ lives. This is the type of thing that people will always remember, and in her case, she will never forget you.”

It was signed by the chief operating oficer of the group. Henk considers this to be one of the great experiences of his career.

The Henk story is evidence that people do change in spite of social, racial and economic prejudices. Often, pressure situations tend to bring out the best in us.

Moving a challenging situation

In personal leadership conversations we often have the privilege of sharing universal principles and behavioural models that really make a difference to what seem to be “impossible situations”.

Recently one of the managers I meet monthly was going through a traumatic time after having a serious confrontation with his boss. The situation has racial undertones that could turn it into a career-threatening problem.

A matter of moral principle was involved and it seemed impossible to resolve the situation without the manager having to sacrifice a principle he believes in passionately.

We analysed the various elements of the situation together and found that we could discern between what was really principle and what was simply a confusion of perceptions that caused emotional stress.

It was an inspirational experience to see how this young leader was prepared to travel the leadership journey with courage, humility and tenacity.

The application of universal principles of movement and governance makes a real difference to our leadership confidence and performance!

Taking ownership is personal

Personal leadership conversations (as opposed to normal structured training) as a leadership development tool proves to be invaluable in helping leaders at all levels to take ownership of universal principles that boost their confidence as leaders.

Bear in mind that attitudinal changes and taking ownership in general takes place on a personal level. We may often be influenced by motivational ideas expressed in open meetings and by inspirational words in articles and books.

But actual change of behaviour is a personal experience, no matter how this may be triggered.

Personal leadership conversations can be a valuable tool, especially when backed by extensive leadership development research and experience.

The objective of these sessions is to support the leader in his or her personal leadership journey, to develop confidence in his or her own leadership style and to master universal processes that build leadership confidence to move barriers to potential. To “tell” somebody to improve performance is only a part of the process that is needed to actually bring about ownership and passion to perform.

The process should include in some form or other assistance on a personal basis to work though the emotional as well as mental elements of behavioural change.

Generally leaders are far too busy in the modern workplace to invest quality time in sharing the personal leadership journey of those who report to us.

We all have need of personal support in the leadership journey to maintain leadership fitness in the rapidly evolving challenges of our environment.