Yet another really interesting post from Glen Llopis, this one about what young leaders need to do to lead folks from older generations. His four recommendations are: 1) Be an active listener and learner, 2) Get to know them on a personal level, 3) Embrace differences, 4) Earn respect by being less authoritative.
As I read the article, I realized that Glen's suggestions are much more universal than he may have realized. All four of his recommendations apply to anyone who is new to a leadership position, no matter what their age or circumstance. Basically, Glen's four recommendations all focus around one thing: permeability.
Here's why this is important. Most new leaders think they're supposed to suddenly, magically know everything and be completely sure that they're right all the time. Our mythos about leadership is that leaders are strong, confident, John Wayne-like creatures who have all the answers. In other words, to be the opposite of permeable.
The four things that Glen recommends for young leaders are the perfect antidote to the lack of vulnerability and openness that can arise from this unfortunate belief system about leadership.
However, there's one other thing I would recommend you do first: I think of it as foundational to being able to follow Glen's advice, or any good leadership advice. In order to behave differently as a leader, you have to first shift your beliefs about what it means to be a leader.
This may be a new idea to you, but we do this “belief shifting” unconsciously all the time. For example, you might have believed at one point that you didn't like asparagus or downhill skiing - but then changed your mind after a positive experience. If you were to make this process of changing your beliefs conscious, here are the steps you’d follow:
Recognize Your Initial Belief
Question it
Gather new data
Test the data
Revise (or recommit to) your initial belief
Let’s look at this model relative to our leadership beliefs. First you have to recognize your initial belief (perhaps something like “Leaders need to have all the answers.”), and then question it. We generally start to question our beliefs when we realize it’s possible to believe something different and that there may be some benefit to us in believing something different. “Leaders need to have all the answers,” becomes “I wonder if leaders need to have all the answers?”
Then you gather new data: you look to see whether there are facts to support changing your belief. In our example, the data is all around you: you can observe leaders who are effective and don't 'have all the answers,' read well-regarded leadership books that propose openness and vulnerability, and think about leaders you've had who were most inspiring and 'followable' - and weren't the all-knowing answer person.
Then you can test the accuracy of your data by actually trying out what you observe and learn. See what happens if you try, for instance, some of Glen's advice (be an active listener, be open to differences of opinion or approach).
The new data is accurate, your test is successful; you learn that you can lead more effectively without trying to have all the answers! So, you revise your belief. (And if your test had proven your initial belief, you would have recommitted to it.)
As you've probably figured out in the course of reading it, this model can be applied to any belief. If a belief doesn't serve you - if it's not acccurate, and it limits your perceptions, relationships, or capabilities - you can let it go.
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10 days and counting - Erika's new book, Leading So People Will Follow, coming October 9th from Jossey-Bass.
Follow Erika on Twitter @erikaandersen.
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