Leadership Transition

Sir Isaac Newton, the famous English scientist, once said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” I am inspired by that quote and thought about it a bit more as I prepared for a sharing as part of a Branch-level Leadership Development Programme. 

The Golden Circle as popularised in Simon Sinek's book "Start with Why"

Starting with why, I unpacked the purpose of leadership and thought about servant leadership - a way to inspire the best in people. It traces its origins to Robert Greenleaf. In his 1970 essay “The Servant as a Leader,” he described servant leadership:  “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.”

We noted that the best servant leaders are relationally intelligent; and thus able to establish rapport, understand others, embrace individual differences, develop trust and cultivate influence so that they could set people up for success.

One of the examples talked about in  Simon Sinek's book  "Leaders Eat Last" is James Sinegal, the founder of Costco. Sinegal is a distinguished example of putting people and culture first as he provided a strong circle of safety to his employees and treated them like family as relationships really matter. He also exceeded the typical retail standards to make Costco a great workplace.

Reflecting on my own leadership journey in TfL and growth, I brought up points from two books  (above and below).

So, earlier we spoke about quick wins but that is not enough. Short term wins don't encourage loyalty (we could go into another hour long debate or presentation on whether loyalty is still a necessity but let’s hold that thought/space for now). In terms of leadership, the quick wins can help one reach the top, but they won't make people follow that leaders. Servant leaders recognise that optimising performance requires patience and adaptability and focusing on the Long Term -  an organization’s success—not an individual’s gain—is the priority. Great leaders think beyond “short term” vs “long term”. They set up their organisations to succeed beyond their tenure (and lifetimes), which ends up being better for everyone over time, including external stakeholders.

So the important point I’d like to make, which is also alluded to in the book shown below, The First 90 Days, is to be a long term leader. We are fortunate to get on this programme to think about our transition out of ETD early and into the respective organisations/schools we will be serving next. As we will unlikely to be there forever, we should also be mindful about transitions and successions then. An infinite-minded leader would want to leave the organisation in better shape than they when first found/joined it. (almost like the best test but at the organisational level)

An infinite-minded leader leads to keep leading. They focus on what is best for stakeholders by asking “what is best for them?”

Most of the games we play are infinite, and they require an infinite mindset. But we often approach these games with a finite mindset and try to win. Over time, this finite-mindedness erodes trust, cooperation, and innovation. But the good thing is that, as Simon Sinek says, “It can take a long time for very large organisations/companies with a finite-minded leader at the helm to exhaust the will and resources accumulated by the infinite leader that preceded them.” - Simon Sinek

One last thing about what I learnt from TfL work is relating to the last point where it is important to be intentional about the evaluation of programmes and people, and do not just look at the stock as there is also flow (economic variables).

Check out the stats on this interesting screenshot from the video above

Some potential follow-up readings for those keen about the ideas in this post:

1. https://chiefexecutive.net/the-mindset-and-methods-of-the-best-servant-leaders/ 
2. https://www.teamgantt.com/blog/servant-leadership
3. https://www.amanet.org/articles/leadership-for-long-term-success/ 
4. https://www.ricklindquist.com/notes/the-infinite-game
5. https://www.ricklindquist.com/notes/the-first-90-days  
6. https://oolipo.com/leaders-eat-last-summary-pdf/

According to Simon Sinek, if you want to adopt an infinite mindset, follow these five practices:

• Advance a Just Cause. A just cause is a vision of a future state that is so appealing that people are willing to make sacrifices in order to help advance toward that vision. “Winning” provides a temporary boost to our self-confidence, to get that feeling we need to win again. With a just cause, the need to win goes away because we are motivated by a larger purpose.

• Build Trusting Teams. When we work on a trusting team, we feel safe to express vulnerability. We feel safe raising our hands and admitting we’ve made a mistake. We feel safe being honest about shortfalls in performance. We feel safe taking responsibility for our behavior and asking for help. When we are not on a trusting team, we feel the opposite.

• Study your Worthy Rivals. A competitive mindset leads to a winning mindset, which leads to a finite mindset. In an infinite game, other players are not competition to be beaten. They are worthy rivals who can help us become better.

• Prepare for Existential Flexibility. Infinite-minded players expect surprises and are prepared to be transformed by them. They embrace the freedom of play and are open to all possibilities that keep them in the game and the game going.

• Demonstrate the Courage to Lead. The pressure we all face today to maintain a finite mindset is overwhelming. Most people’s careers are tied to how well they perform in a finite game. It takes courage to adopt an infinite mindset.

Another goal in your first 90 days is to create virtuous cycles while avoiding vicious ones. With vicious cycles, poor decision-making leads to reduced credibility. Reduced credibility leads to reduced trust. And reduced trust leads to reduced access to information and a higher risk of falling into additional traps. With virtuous cycles, good decision-making leads to increased credibility and trust which leads to access to more information that allows you to make even better decisions.

Most people fail in new roles for one of two reasons. Either they misunderstand the situation they're walking into or they fail to adapt to it.

In The First 90 Days, Michael Watkins shares some common transition traps people fall into, including:

• Sticking with what you know. You fail to embrace new concepts. You assume that what made you successful in your previous role will make you successful in your new role. Sometimes the strengths that are assets in one role can become liabilities in a new one. For example, extraordinary attention to detail as an individual contributor can turn into over-controlling micromanagement when you become a manager.

• Falling prey to the “action imperative.” You try to take action too early without the necessary context.

• Setting unrealistic expectations. You don't establish clear, achievable objectives.

• Attempting to do too much. You don't focus enough to progress key initiatives.

• Coming in with “the” answer. You make poor assumptions and reach poor conclusions about problems and solutions.

• Engaging in the wrong type of learning. You don't take time to learn the culture and politics of your new role.

• Neglecting horizontal relationships. You fail to build supportive alliances with key stakeholders who fall outside of your vertical reporting structure.