Is an old-world paradigm in new-world reality stifling your greatest asset?

There is a large group of people in your organisation who could transform the way you work if they were given a voice and some freedom to operate.

The question is, who are they?

You might think first of your senior level leaders – the teams who run and decide things. They can indeed be constrained by the demands of shareholders and the fear of market forces driving you out of business, but park them for now.

The next most likely group are your new hires – individuals who have been carefully selected for the leading-edge qualities you need in a time of rapid disruption and constant threat. But, you can forget about them. Within a few weeks they will have been trained by everyone they interact with to fit the status quo; they will achieve nothing unless you can deal with the real issue.

The population to worry about is your “squeezed middles”

Your “squeezed middles” are mid-level leaders who can’t decide anything without checking with their bosses (no matter how many Powerpoint presentations they have sat through telling them to empower themselves). They are squeezed between the demands coming down the pipeline from above, and the demands coming from their overburdened teams for constant support.

Many of them live a life of constant stress trying to balance these demands.

Perhaps you don’t think this applies to you after all the work you’ve done collapsing hierarchies and constructing matrix management systems so mid-level leaders are part of a fluid process of decision making. In that case, you are reckoning with how fear can stifle flexibility.

It is all about something the Center For Creative Leadership calls “Vertical Development”. Take a look below:

This chart maps the way an individual’s relationship to the world develops from the time of birth – but reminds us that adults can exhibit qualities of any stage depending on their level of maturity. 

For our purposes, we are most interested in the transition from “Independent” – the typical teenager mentality (me against the world) to “Interdependent” – the evolved adult mentality (we are all connected and, in that sense, equal).

THE PROBLEM WITH THIS TRANSITION IS THAT, UNDER STRESS, IT IS REVERSIBLE

Consider a typical mid-level leader, in an organisation that sees itself as team-oriented, flexible and flat in structure. He or she arrives at work in the morning full of good intentions and creative ideas, ready to work interdependently because, like most of us, she or he believes in the power of people to create the future.

But, by lunchtime, reeling from the protectionism of counterparties who were meant to supply vital information, a disgruntled team member at their wits’ end after being overloaded with stuff no one else will do, and an angry call from their boss because a deadline was broken, they are triggered to revert to an “Independent” mindset …

THEY HAVE TO PROTECT THEMSELVES …

Because nobody else will. They will have to ‘play the game’ in the way their boss decrees to be successful.

You can see how, when this dynamic is playing out across the organisation, well-meaning skills-based approaches to leadership development may not address the issue.

We are operating in a post-conventional age when organisations need to be both reliable and adaptable; when a business must develop the habit of disrupting itself before someone else disrupts it. Mid-level leaders are typically very good at reliability. Having their boss ring up saying, “Can you disrupt the business by next Thursday please?” is unlikely to end well. 

We need a shift of focus from “doing” to “being”

In this new age, it is culture that drives performance; not culture from a set of slides but a deeply felt culture, created by mid-level leaders in close proximity to the organisation’s points of external impact, supported from the top, who are also willing to be challenged by the mid-level, and operating interdependently from a place of authenticity, integrity and trustworthiness.

The skills of leadership driven by improved self-awareness and personal impact have greater traction, and an improved ability to engage meaningfully in dialogue with senior level leaders deepens the bonds that run through the whole organisation.

Always remember:

Real transformation starts with the individuals; not a town hall.

Holos helps leaders make change easy. How can we help you?

Reach out to us at hello@holoschange.com and let’s have a conversation.