The Modern Leadership Challenge
Every so often, the news stops being about policy, performance, or outcomes and becomes about the leader themselves.
It’s difficult to ignore the headlines about Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer struggling to unify his own team and retain his leadership but, while the focus of the press is political, we notice that the underlying challenge is somewhat universal, familiar to anyone leading an organisation, department or team. When a leader’s authority is questioned, there is usually a familiar trail of reasons that have led to this moment.
In performance coaching sessions, we tease out these tensions and support leaders to face them head-on, before they become too complex and beyond reach. Today’s Virtual Coach highlights the headline challenges that organisational leaders face and provides some practical solutions.
Misalignment
Most teams want to support their leaders, looking to them for stability and direction. But occasionally we witness a slow accumulation of doubt resulting from experiences with unclear direction, inconsistent messaging, or approaches to decision making. Over time, factions might form – some remain loyal, others become quietly sceptical, and a few are openly critical.
Crucially, this isn’t always about ‘poor’ leadership. Often, it’s more to do with misaligned expectations. A leader may believe they are being decisive, but the team feel a lack of involvement, with the leader being unnecessarily directive. A leader might de-risk decisions by being patient, the team might view this ‘patience’ as uncertainty.
The solution is more deliberate dialogue – a focus on effective and respectful communication across the organisation, with nothing left unsaid. Expectations become clear for all.
Authority vs. trust
A leader of an organisation is automatically assigned authority due to their role, but there is still a requirement to earn the trust of the team, gained via behaviour. We reference ‘casting a shadow’, behaving in a way that we would like others to mirror, which helps a leader to gain the trust and respect of their team and build a wider culture of trust within the organisation. The added benefit being, that when a difficult ‘authoritative’ decision must be made, it is usually more readily accepted.
A divided leadership team
Divisive leadership is easy to spot. Meetings feel tense, ideas are undermined, individuals are talked over, energy levels are low and there is general unease in the air.
We regularly urge teams to embrace healthy conflict. Diversity of thought and opinion often leads to the best ideas and outcomes, enabling teams to reach optimal performance. But to create the conditions for healthy conflict, there’s a required environment of openness and safety. A leader’s role is to foster and facilitate this environment, where ideas and creativity are encouraged.
There is one driving principle for strong and effective leadership – it lives and dies with relationships. When relationships weaken, even the best strategies are called into question. The leaders who navigate these moments successfully are those who take the time to reconnect, get feedback, and reset expectations. They don’t simply go to work on strategy and performance; they go to work on their relationships with their people.
