Have you ever considered how aspirational leadership is to the emerging or future leaders within your organisation?
Through my work, I interact with many new and emerging leaders. A sentiment which many of them share, and one which is concerning, is that whilst they recognize the need to step into leadership positions for career progression, very few of them genuinely aspire to take that step.
Leadership is no longer aspirational, but rather a burden they would rather avoid if they could.
Aside from those who would prefer to remain in specialized roles, most of the younger participants on our leadership development programs buy into the idea of leadership. They have all been impacted by a leader in some way during their career and are attracted to the impact that they can make as a leader. This may include supporting others to grow, building successful teams, motivating and inspiring change, activating potential or coaching others to be successful in their role. What makes leadership daunting and quite frankly, uninviting, is what they observe as they interact with the leaders who lead them.
Most of them are stressed, burnt out, anxious, overwhelmed and flat out busy.
Not only do leaders have to take care of their specific roles and responsibilities, but they also must carry the leadership load on top of that. That is, of course, leadership but at some point organisations must ask what is realistic and sustainable. If we want healthy teams, we need healthy leaders. Healthy leaders need to create space for self-leadership and the leadership of others, aside from their fulfillment of their roles and responsibilities. It’s not always the organisations’ fault, unless it’s just one big political quagmire that is full of urgency and unrealistic demands, unempathetic or misaligned executives, ridiculous deadlines and hiring freezes. At times, leaders themselves are far too hands on, unable to let go through empowerment and delegation. Spending time in the short-term pain activities of handing over, will lead to long term gain. But if there is just too much on the plate, leaders will take the path of least resistance, and the status quo will remain.
Leaders need to create the space to lead. They either need to create this space on their own, or ideally an organisations leadership team sits together and solves that challenge together. Leaders would do well to consider the type of leadership culture they want to create and how to make leadership aspirational to the future leaders of their organisation.
At Appletree, we define leadership as creating an emotional climate that underpins high levels of performance and engagement. The holy grail of teams is to see a strong combination of performance andengagement. One without the other leads to problems down the line.
To create a healthy climate around a leader, there needs to be a healthy climate within a leader.
Leaders who are burnt out, stressed and overwhelmed will end up operating in a reactive manner, taking the path of least resistance, avoiding the intentional activities which build healthy culture in teams. If you are frazzled internally, often the team around you is frazzled as well. If everything is urgent within you, the team will feel that urgency spill out. If you are fearful, anxious or overwhelmed, the impact of that will be felt in any interaction or touchpoint.
When leaders have a plate that is too full, how will they create time for transformational one on one’s, contextual leadership, creating a learning culture, stimulating growth and development, defining individual development plans, investing in increasing levels of psychological safety, creating transformational team moments, designing team builds, communicating information and creating alignment, or coaching for increased performance?
Perhaps we have lost touch with what leadership requires! Old school leadership said, ‘leave your emotions at the door’, but modern-day leaders require emotional intelligence and need to be attentive to the emotional climate they face each day, internally and externally.
The expectation placed on leaders, I feel, is unsustainable which in turn erodes both the impact of effective leadership, as well as the perception of leadership held by future leaders. Leaders should not be running from pillar to post, but rather should be walking intentionally between a mix of activities which ensures they get their jobs done whilst shaping and sustaining a healthy culture.
If you are a senior leader within an organisation, when last did you assess the status quo of leadership health within your business? In a target driven world which is all about results, we seem to have forgotten that real people are fulfilling leadership roles and need to be looked after.
Thankfully it’s subtle adjustments that are needed, some of which are:
- Find a way to assess and discuss leadership health within your organisation.
- Align around what is required to lead, aside from the transactional roles each leader is responsible for, and work together to create the space for each leader to build those activities into their daily activities.
- Create a leadership culture that leaders want to be a part of. Emerging leaders will aspire to be a part of something that is significant, especially if leaders are afforded the opportunity to gather, learn, be inspired and engage in activities which refuel and recharge them.
- Offer leadership support through individual coaching and group check in’s, affording your leaders a chance to soundboard on a personal level as well as engage in peer-to-peer learning.
This is just too critical to ignore. A high performing organisation requires strong healthy leaders to take the helm and lead with purpose and energy.
Travis Gale is the Founder and Managing Director of Appletree Group, a company dedicated to helping organisations shape and sustain strong, healthy cultures.
An organisational culture strategist, author, keynote speaker and coach, he has spent over 15 years guiding leaders and teams to thrive through challenge and change. He is the creator of The Middle Journey (TMJ). Featured in his book The Middle, TMJ is a practical framework that helps teams build grit and resilience in pursuit of their goals. Passionate and purpose-driven, he is committed to helping people and organisations unlock potential and achieve lasting success.
