inspired leaders why they do what they do & how

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inspired leaders why they do what they do & how everyone can do it! Martyn Newman Ph.D. — Randstad Consulting Psychologist and Managing Director, RocheMartin What’s the single most important characteristic of an effective leader? Most of us agree great leaders are those that inspire us to act and give us a sense of purpose that has little to do with any external incentive or reward. They have a remarkable ability to tap into the very personal, intrinsic motivations that drive each of us and help us reach for something better in ourselves. And we know that people who love going to work are more creative and more productive, and they treat their colleagues, clients and customers better. Imagine if more people inside the organisation could learn to think, act and communicate like those who inspire us? Imagine if the ability to inspire others could be practised not just by a select few, but by the majority?

Leadership abilities such as those described by emotional intelligence (EQ) explain what leaders do, but not why they perform. Furthermore, knowing what to do is all very well, but the big question for the rest of us is how to do it. Working with some of the world’s best organisations over the last 12 years to develop and enhance leadership skills, the question of how to develop leaders who inspire is the single most consistent question I get asked. In this article I’d like to explain why inspiring leaders do what they do, and answer the question of how to develop a leadership culture that inspires the rest of us. According to more than 20 years of research in psychology, there are at least seven common factors that contribute to the how of creating positive behaviour change.

1. Engagement — “I have a dream...“ According to leadership expert and author, Simon Sinek, most of us can explain what we do at work. Some of us can also describe how we do it. Great leaders, on the other hand, can also clearly explain why they do what they do. Being clear about your aspirations and dreams, and being able to articulate the values that shape your beliefs goes to the very heart of great leadership. We are drawn to leaders and organisations who are able to communicate why they believe what they believe. True leaders are really CSOs — Chief Storytelling Officers — and the stories they tell become the stuff of dreams. It’s the energy generated by the story of why you do what you do that provides the focus, inspiration and meaning that ordinary people as well as organisations need to move forward. Your job as a leader is to tell and re-tell the story of why you do what you do, and what your business is capable of achieving — where it’s come from, where it currently is, and where it’s going. Most importantly, it is about enabling people to understand the value of their contribution to the story. In other words, the how of building leadership skills begins with engaging people in the why they do what they do. People’s engagement in the process is the single most important factor influencing the value of any leadership training. As the poet Yeats said, “Education is not about filling a bucket, but lighting a fire!”

2. Benchmarking — self-discovery & self-directed change Even when people are motivated to develop their emotional intelligence (EQ) and leadership skills, they can often remain unclear about how to work on these skills until they become aware of how they measure up. There are many ways of gaining feedback on performance, but by far the most credible and compelling way is to benchmark emotional and social competencies and provide feedback using high-quality psychometric assessment tools. Many studies have shown that self-discovery is the best catalyst for self-development. Until we know where we’re starting from and where we’re heading, it’s difficult to get excited about the journey. Comparing our skills against a well-established benchmark of peer performance clarifies where we currently stand and has the effect of engaging our internal drive to improve. Not only does benchmarking kick-start the engine of change, it also provides a reliable reference point for guiding the journey forward. In other words, engaging intrinsic motives has more sustainable impact on behaviour than simply appealing to extrinsic motives — sticks and carrots. Measuring current levels of leadership EQ helps make clear some of the skills that have been important in getting to where we are, as well as clarifying the skills that we now need to focus on to become truly inspirational.

Wanting to change is the first step, but some attempts at building leadership skills become pre-occupied with people’s ‘gaps’ rather than focusing on strengths. To encourage development, leaders also need to see where they have already been successful and learn to build their strengths into a development plan. This approach reinforces that it’s possible for them to continue to improve. And a person’s level of expectation is one of the strongest predictors of change. Genuine self-discovery is the catalyst that generates the energy required for self-directed change.

3. Create manageable, measureable goals & share them Having made clear why you do what you do, and having clarified how you measure up to the challenge of leadership, you are now ready to set goals. The research is unanimous on this point. Performance in training programs improves dramatically when participants set explicit goals for change. In fact, the motivating power of such goals is greatly enhanced when they are declared publicly and put in writing. In one particularly wellconducted study, participants in a leadership training program were much more likely to apply what they

had learned when, following the training, their supervisiors were able to remind them of their goals and had encouraged them to use their new skills. When people are ready to commit to a program of change, setting specific goals helps create and sustain lasting motivation. Even Benjamin Franklin insisted that setting daily and weekly goals was indispensible to becoming a virtuous person. And it was William James, one of the world’s most respected psychologists, who described the importance of making conscious, specific choices in driving personal change. A common reason why leadership training often falters is because people fail to set specific goals and target the leadership behaviours they wish to acquire. Setting definite targets or goals that are aligned with your vision generates and focuses your energy. In order to convert your dreams into reality, it’s necessary to break them down into achievable steps. Leaders who communicate a dream also need to have a plan. If communicating the dream or the vision is why people find you inspiring, then setting goals provide the ‘what to do’ that galvanises people’s energy and gives them something practical to focus on. In other words, average leaders provide their people with something to work on, but the most inspiring leaders give their people something to work towards.

4. Model the skills Providing people with opportunities to observe models of the skills they want to acquire greatly accelerates learning! Modeling is a more effective learning method than simply being told about the skills because it requires greater attention. You are not simply taking note of how things should be done, but actually imitating, or copying the behaviours that others have performed. And, like learning any skill, we do much better if the skills are broken down into specific building blocks. Improving our emotional intelligence and leadership performance is no different. We do much better at acquiring these skills when the components are distilled into a blueprint that we can imitate. This is much more than simply ‘monkey see, monkey do’. It’s not only copying the practical tactics and strategy that drives real change, it’s actually understanding why these behaviours work and how to practise them. For example, understanding that self-confidence is made up of two emotional components, self-liking and self-competence, not only helps you develop more confidence, but also shows you how to become inspirational to others. By communicating to others that you genuinely like them and believe in what they are capable of achieving, actually inspires their performance. In other words, by providing psychological insight and understanding, what helps or hinders how these skills work, raises your belief that you too possess these capabilities. It also enables you to understand what to appeal to when seeking to inspire others.

5. Practise new skills and provide feedback Providing clear models of the desired behaviour along with psychological insight, although important for generating the persistence necessary for change to occur, is not sufficient in itself. Nothing takes the place of repeated, deliberate practise of the skills you wish to build. A common mistake in training leaders in emotional intelligence is to think that people can acquire these behaviours quickly by attending motivational seminars — the ‘just do it’ approach. Although these activities can certainly inspire the desire to change, recent breakthroughs in neuroscience make it clear

that real behavioural change takes time, because it needs to be supported by changes in the emotional brain. As such, these behaviours require practise and repetition over several weeks or months. This allows time for the emotional and rational parts of the brain to establish the necessary neural connections. Psychologists refer to this as ‘distributed practise’ — i.e. practise over time — as compared to ‘massed practise’ that takes place in a short concentrated burst. A large recent analysis of the research evaluating these two learning models clearly identified that learners exposed to distributed practise far outperformed those employing massed practise. And, although practise may not make you perfect, it will certainly make you better. If practise is important, so too is providing feedback. Organisational psychologists have long known that consistent constructive feedback is the most effective way to motivate people and provide direction. It really is a question of ‘mirror mirror on the wall’. Providing controlled opportunities to receive feedback on your performance helps refine your ability to apply new skills and also helps sustain the motivation to pursue your goals. Records of your success help you recognise the progress you are making and create the positive momentum for continued change.

6. Provide coaching support Although others cannot tell you how you should change, other people can provide a lot of help in supporting the process of change. Research demonstrates that the value of learning is maintained, if not greatly enhanced, when people receive targeted coaching support from a reinforcing reference group or an individual. In other words, providing coaching and mentoring to people on the job greatly facilitates the transfer of learning and contributes to positive change. In recent years, there has been a rapid growth in the use of one-on-one executive coaching. Various approaches to delivering executive coaching have been used. And, by far the most powerful programs have been those that have combined the elements

of: goal-setting, feedback, skill practise, supervisor involvement, journaling, and constant evaluation of progress and end-results. However, due to the high costs associated with coaching programs, they have largely been restricted to a chosen few. In response to this challenge, we recently launched an online coaching platform, SmartCoach, that successfully integrates each of the seven elements described in the research into a dynamic interactive leadership program that can be delivered cost-effectively across an organisation. Online modalities such as this can provide the critical follow-up support that is often missing in traditional leadership programs. And, psychologists have known for a long time that this sort of support maximises skill transfer to the real world of work and helps prevents relapse.

7. Evaluate change Finally, what gets measured gets done! An important part of any leadership program is the measurement of an individual’s actual performance against the behaviours targeted for change. Ideally, when leaders themselves have been involved in setting their goals and choosing the skills for

development, they are much more likely to make progress. Documenting individual progress by evaluating changes in both understanding and behaviour reinforces learning, charts the way forward and demonstrates return on investment. Nothing succeeds like success.

wrapping-up Randstad is a Fortune 500 Company and one of the world’s largest recruitment & HR services providers. The Randstad Group employs almost 675,000 people every day with the aim of ‘Shaping the world of work’. For further information visit: www.randstad.com.au www.randstad.co.nz www.randstad.com.sg www.randstad.com.my

The evidence is impressive. Leaders who inspire others do not necessarily need to come up with all the big ideas, but rather create the right culture in which big ideas can happen. They provide a description of why the group must change, where they are going and how they will get there. That is, why we should do what we do. Similarly, programs for developing great leaders should not simply focus on what leadership skills to build, but how to build them. The seven elements described here represent the how of building sustainable leadership skills. So, the real questions for you as a leader are: • Do you as a leader make clear why you do what you do? • Do you do this for your colleagues and customers? • Most importantly, do you have the right culture that inspires leadership in everyone and that allows everyone to buy-in to the vision, product, or service that you provide? Martyn Newman is the author of the international bestseller, Emotional Capitalists — The New Leaders (John Wiley) and the Emotional Capital Report — the world’s first scientifically designed tool for measuring emotional intelligence and leadership. Martyn is the Consulting Psychologist for recruitment & HR services company, Randstad, and Managing Director of RocheMartin.