‘Lead from the front’ takes on a very different meaning in 2013 than it did pre 2000.

Back then there was one real understanding of a ‘leader’, and that was the guy (girl…occasionally) that everyone else followed. If these leaders left a trail of burnt out human remains in their path, it didn’t really matter. That was just the cost of fast and furious ‘competitive’ growth, and it appeared to keep the wheels of commerce turning. Until that is, a number of factors hit us at what now feels like all at once.

• Exponential speed of change – driven by global communications revolution – the Internet + the commoditisation of software.
• A global recession – driven by ‘gauging’ on money we didn’t have – greed.
• Eco-Age – driven by the sudden realisation (except in China of course) that we have dysfunctioned our planet, as well as the humans that inhabit it. But no one really cares of ‘Eco’ right now, because of the other two, but it will be back!

So now that the metaphoric ‘gastric band’ is on most of the global population and the accelerator is firmly to the floor on ‘change’, leading an organisation needs a whole new rethink. The balance of Inspirational Leadership and Systemised Leadership must be in place for an organisation to flourish in these manic times. Inspirational Leadership is essential to give the hope, belief and confidence to the stakeholders, and is outward facing. Systemised Leadership is essential to make sure the internal culture facilitates and supports the business vision and make sure that the people are going on the right journey that will lead to that vision, and this is in facing.

Systemised Leadership is about engagement, and engagement on mass only takes place if leadership is impacting across the organisation at every level. To make it easier to understanding, I define the two in balance as the Yin / Yang Leadership Model. The Systemised Leadership is the Yin, or nurturing and the Yang is the Inspirational Leadership, inspirational energy. Both are essential to make the business work, but they are polar opposites, which can cause misunderstandings everywhere. Right now I am not focusing on this entire subject as it is huge, only the element of this model that needs to be in place to cement the process.

Transformational Communications 

Transformational Communications is about creating ‘congruence’ across the many elements that go to make up both the unique organisational vision and its core values. The general belief is that one of the main reason that ‘change programmes’ fail (and a large percentage do),  is down to communications, or rather lack of it. In this complex age, and it is going to get more complex, this view is too simple, i.e.  that a ‘lack of communications’ is the cause of the failure in change programmes. The problem is communications, yes to a large degree it is, but not the lack of it, more the lack of ‘congruence’ in it when it comes to the ‘language’ that is used, the behaviour that is displayed, the misalignment of the message and the core values and the modern paradox that whilst most organisations claim they want to create an ‘open culture’, their processes and environment are still very ‘stiffing’ and by and large still in the dark ages.

Transformational Communications focuses on changing from inside out, not outside in, or top down. It starts with the core values and feeds those values into the language that we use everyday, seeping out to the behaviour of our leaders, which in turn is in line with those core values that ARE going to get us to our goal / vision. All this is built on a solid foundation of a truly ‘open culture’ where people feel safe to give proactive feedback to colleagues and managers, manage their differences and feel safe to think and speak outside the box / creatively. As long as these things are in place, we will find ourselves on a transformational journey ‘with’ our people and not trying to do transformation ‘to’ them, where we only find an exhausting resistance, dysfunctional relationships and all the costly symptoms of unhappiness. Oh my goodness! Am I talking about all that ‘fluffy’ stuff again and claiming it is costing the business money, time, productivity, reputation and competitive ground? When Transformational Communications is played out across the organisation, the people will follow the leaders naturally emulating their behaviour and they will feel inspired and excited about their journey and the new destination that is in store for them. Conversely, when it isn’t, expect to get what you have always got – a massive struggle when it comes to change. It is time to teach our leaders and everybody in the organisation a whole new language that crystallises the organisation’s vision and supports an easy journey to reach it. It’s also time to understand the importance of congruence when it comes to leading our people through tough change.

Fi Haywood

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‘Lead from the front’ takes on a very different meaning in 2013 than it did pre 2000.

Back then there was one real understanding of a ‘leader’, and that was the guy (girl…occasionally) that everyone else followed. If these leaders left a trail of burnt out human remains in their path, it didn’t really matter. That was just the cost of fast and furious ‘competitive’ growth, and it appeared to keep the wheels of commerce turning. Until that is, a number of factors hit us at what now feels like all at once.

• Exponential speed of change – driven by global communications revolution – the Internet + the commoditisation of software.
• A global recession – driven by ‘gauging’ on money we didn’t have – greed.
• Eco-Age – driven by the sudden realisation (except in China of course) that we have dysfunctioned our planet, as well as the humans that inhabit it. But no one really cares of ‘Eco’ right now, because of the other two, but it will be back!

So now that the metaphoric ‘gastric band’ is on most of the global population and the accelerator is firmly to the floor on ‘change’, leading an organisation needs a whole new rethink. The balance of Inspirational Leadership and Systemised Leadership must be in place for an organisation to flourish in these manic times. Inspirational Leadership is essential to give the hope, belief and confidence to the stakeholders, and is outward facing. Systemised Leadership is essential to make sure the internal culture facilitates and supports the business vision and make sure that the people are going on the right journey that will lead to that vision, and this is in facing.

Systemised Leadership is about engagement, and engagement on mass only takes place if leadership is impacting across the organisation at every level. To make it easier to understanding, I define the two in balance as the Yin / Yang Leadership Model. The Systemised Leadership is the Yin, or nurturing and the Yang is the Inspirational Leadership, inspirational energy. Both are essential to make the business work, but they are polar opposites, which can cause misunderstandings everywhere. Right now I am not focusing on this entire subject as it is huge, only the element of this model that needs to be in place to cement the process.

Transformational Communications 

Transformational Communications is about creating ‘congruence’ across the many elements that go to make up both the unique organisational vision and its core values. The general belief is that one of the main reason that ‘change programmes’ fail (and a large percentage do),  is down to communications, or rather lack of it. In this complex age, and it is going to get more complex, this view is too simple, i.e.  that a ‘lack of communications’ is the cause of the failure in change programmes. The problem is communications, yes to a large degree it is, but not the lack of it, more the lack of ‘congruence’ in it when it comes to the ‘language’ that is used, the behaviour that is displayed, the misalignment of the message and the core values and the modern paradox that whilst most organisations claim they want to create an ‘open culture’, their processes and environment are still very ‘stiffing’ and by and large still in the dark ages.

Transformational Communications focuses on changing from inside out, not outside in, or top down. It starts with the core values and feeds those values into the language that we use everyday, seeping out to the behaviour of our leaders, which in turn is in line with those core values that ARE going to get us to our goal / vision. All this is built on a solid foundation of a truly ‘open culture’ where people feel safe to give proactive feedback to colleagues and managers, manage their differences and feel safe to think and speak outside the box / creatively. As long as these things are in place, we will find ourselves on a transformational journey ‘with’ our people and not trying to do transformation ‘to’ them, where we only find an exhausting resistance, dysfunctional relationships and all the costly symptoms of unhappiness. Oh my goodness! Am I talking about all that ‘fluffy’ stuff again and claiming it is costing the business money, time, productivity, reputation and competitive ground? When Transformational Communications is played out across the organisation, the people will follow the leaders naturally emulating their behaviour and they will feel inspired and excited about their journey and the new destination that is in store for them. Conversely, when it isn’t, expect to get what you have always got – a massive struggle when it comes to change. It is time to teach our leaders and everybody in the organisation a whole new language that crystallises the organisation’s vision and supports an easy journey to reach it. It’s also time to understand the importance of congruence when it comes to leading our people through tough change.

Fi Haywood