Leadership is a Creative Process

 Leadership has been defined and dissected in more ways than we can probably number and from a variety of authoritative sources from which I draw my inspiration - Covey, Collins, Sinek, Kouzes & Posner, to name but a few.  Each of these leadership guru's has helped me identify, refine and grow my leadership philosophy over the years.

None of their musings, mantras and models mean much, however, unless they are matched against the lived experience of an individual leader.  To become truly useful and powerful the lessons that these authors try to impart must also be applied in the real world.  As leaders, we must put the various theories to the practical test in our own unique environments.  We must see what could work for us - or not - and then evaluate to what degree our level of success in implementation was the result of quality and intensity of effort, true understanding of the model and principles being applied, or some combination thereof.  Tools on their own are not the answer.  Tools on their own are not going to turn us into better leaders.  What is required is critical and concerted application and adaptation of that tool to our environment and skill level.

This is where I believe a key - and underappreciated - aspect of leadership comes into play.  The skill or tool of creativity.

I believe one of the least understood qualities of good and even great leaders is their ability to be creative.  This goes beyond being entrepreneurial or innovative in relation to getting new products or services to market.  In my view, creativity in leadership is characterized by a spirit of curiosity, a motivation for making impactful change, for trying something different and even a commitment to exploration with all the attendant risk that comes from trying something new.  Creativity in leadership means challenging oneself and the teams that are being led.  Creativity results in conceiving of and realizing dreams never thought possible before.  Creativity does in fact lead to exponential changes or quantum leaps in thinking and being.

What makes for a creative leader?  What provides the context for creativity for a leader and thus for their teams and organizations to build, advance and succeed - perhaps out of all proportion to their perceived limitations?  I believe there are a few key factors to consider:

Ability to Defer Judgment: A rush to judgment precludes understanding of the true or real challenges or opportunities before a leader and their team and constrains perspective on possible new opportunities, options and avenues of exploration.

Passion to Seek Out Novelty: While deferring judgment opens up the mind, the novelty principle requires a leader to actively seek out and explore options that are original, unique and out-of-the-box.  You might even note that such a leader is voracious and compelled to seek out insights from all kinds of sectors and sources.  

Drive for Quantity: This quality, building on the previous two, suggests that the quantity of ideas explored is an ally of the quality of ideas ultimately achieved.  Creative leaders always seem to have a variety of ideas in their heads.  In fact, it can even be exhausting keeping up with their restless energy and stream of thought!  In this case though, quantity is intended to leverage the probability of generating several good options.

Make/Seek Connections and Applications:  Creative leaders recognize that limiting their field of view to their particular industry or sector is woefully insufficient in terms of pushing the envelope.  This is also where the drive for novelty and quantity come into play.  Creative leaders look for ideas and synergies from a variety of related and (seemingly) unrelated experiences, sectors, fields of study, stories, and genres.  

And Practical:  One of the key aspects of useful creativity is the ability to implement something of impact or effect.  The ability to translate creative ideas into practical application is one of the key elements that separates the dreamer from the effective leader.

As I noted earlier, creativity in leadership is not simply about introducing new products or services to market.  One of the hallmark distinctions between leadership and management, or between being a leader and a doer, is getting things done (bigger things done) through others.  In the context of leadership, therefore, and in the tremendously dynamic and ever-changing reality that is today's modern economy and workforce, leadership also demands creative approaches, adaptability and flexibility in responding to and achieving the potential of one's teams. How does a leader create and apply a creative process to building the capacity and capability of their teams?    

In the context of leadership, therefore, the elements noted above (and likely more) need to brought to bear on leveraging the skills and abilities of a team or organization.  Moreover, the leader has to have the vision and be actively scanning the environment to understand the challenges or opportunities available to the team. Next the leader has to build a level of awareness on the part of the team as to the importance of these challenges or opportunities and why achievement of success is so critical.  Next the team has to be engaged in an experimentation phase - brainstorming, piloting, trial balloons - that start to put ideas to the test.  And finally, and most critically, something has to be implemented.  Engaging the team throughout the creative process allows for definitive buy-in and adaptation as environmental circumstances dictate.  

Leadership is an art - you are the conductor, the sculptor, the artist or perhaps even the chef.  You are the creative inspiration and shaper of your team to something beyond what any one of you could achieve.  Commit to your creative aspirations for your leadership and to the benefit of your team.

_________________________________________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC

President & Founder - BreakPoint Solutions

gregh@breakpoint.solutions 

www.breakpoint.solutions 

780-250-2543

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

Achieving Team Success!

Teams and teamwork are ubiquitous to almost every aspect of our lives.  Unless you have not entered the workforce as yet, the reality is that in any job you are part of at least one team and sometimes can be on more than one team at any given point in time.  If your career has spanned years and even decades, you have been part of more teams than you might even be able to remember.  These team experiences have either given us fond memories of great teams we have been a part of OR have given us feelings of ongoing regret and nightmares about teams that have drained our souls!

While teams are inevitable their success is not.  Even when we believe ourselves to be in a high-functioning, gold standard team, that success can be fleeting and should not be taken for granted.  Every team will go through change over a period of years, months or even days - change in operating environment or mandate; change in team membership; change in leadership.  Any change - even seemingly small changes - can have a significant impact on the equilibrium of the team with the result being a shift from success to dysfunction.  This shift in capacity and capability of the team can be shocking and surprising but there are steps and preventative maintenance that can help support moving a team from dysfunction to success or supporting high level performance over a period of years.  Bottom line, like any system - organic or mechanical - there is a need for constant investment of time and energy in building and sustaining a team.

How do we then build and sustain a high-performing team?  What are the keys to pay attention to?  What might be some red flags (or green flags) to be aware of?  The first and most basic question to address is whether we do in fact have or are part of a team.  This may seem like a ridiculous question, but it is a core issue to address, for a leader in particular.  All too often we declare a team to be in operation, but we are missing some key qualifiers to justify that claim.  I offer two key criteria that should be addressed to determine whether you have a team or just a group of people in play:

• Do the collection of people being brought together have any significant, practical and specific goals that they are pursuing in common?

If no common goals exist (other than some vague, large-scale objective) that help to align the work of every team member than does a team really exist?  Can each individual pursue goals or objectives, without positive or negative consequence, that are important or relevant to them alone?  Worse, are the goals being pursued by each individual "team member" in conflict with those of other team members with no incentive or need to promote collaboration?

• Do the individuals need to rely upon each other to accomplish their goals or tasks?  

Does any team member need inputs, resources, energy and commitment from anybody else on the "team" in order to succeed?  Or do they just hope that other people stay out of their way while they do their work?  If I do not require any support from others and I am not called upon to tangibly support others in their work, this certainly gives the appearance and feel of ships passing in the night.  No interdependence means no team.

If you have answered the above two questions in the affirmative, you can now dig more deeply into setting up a new team for success or helping an existing team to sustain or grow in success.  First foundation to address is to confirm and clarify what, in fact, are the team's goals.  These can be established taking into account what the organization as a whole/senior leadership expects from the team, what you as the leader identify as key goals or expectations of the team, AND through discussion and debate from your team as a whole.  Considering the first two sources of direction for the team, these could be identified as non-negotiables and might fall into the category of regulatory restrictions or obligations, adherence to organizational values and policies, and your own leadership values and expectations.  Be prepared to be clear as to why these parameters are non-negotiable.  The organization and you yourself have every right to set out these types of parameters but be prepared to move beyond a simple "because I said so" if you really want team buy-in.

On the third source of goal confirmation - engaging the team - there is a lot to be said about working through and continuously touching base with/affirming team goals.  This effort implies authentic engagement that promotes understanding of the goals that will ultimately be set, the importance of those goals to each individual team member, appreciation of how individual actions can support (or inhibit) team success, promotes genuine ownership by the team for the goals, and allows each individual team member to dynamically adjust their efforts/tactics as challenges or opportunities arise.  

Beyond confirming these specific goal statements (SMART anyone?) additional work can be done at this time focusing on how the team will make decisions, how the team will balance the concepts of autonomy/empowerment and accountability/collaboration, how and when the team should communicate with each other, and by what values/operating principles the team will guide their actions.  All of this can sometimes be captured in things like terms of reference, team charter, or a code of conduct.  

Strong and successful teams vigorously and authentically engage in the work above on a regular basis.  This is not a one and done effort. Rather, the team should touch base with their shared commitments on at least an annual basis and, in reality, far more frequently.  Through this type of work they continue to reinforce and evolve their shared commitments.  This also sets the stage for ongoing trust building that is necessary to keep a team functioning at a high level.  One of my past colleagues describes trust as "the residue of promises made and kept."  I can't think of a more succinct description and call to action to a team or its individual members. A key element in building trust and a core element of a well-functioning team is through honesty, authenticity and a willingness to be vulnerable with each other in a team.  This is where leadership becomes crucial not only in leading the way in vulnerability but also in creating an environment in which all team members are supported in asking questions, posing challenges, making mistakes and in learning from each other. 

Strong and successful teams - paradoxically perhaps - also welcome and cultivate a culture of challenging each other.  Most of us might question this criterion for team success assuming that conflict is destructive.  And it can be if not understood or managed well.  High performance teams, however, do not look to promote harmony for the sake of harmony.  They appreciate the value of diversity of perspective and believe debate and CONSTRUCTIVE conflict allows them to better interrogate reality and come up with better and best solutions for the challenge or opportunity before them.  The key phrase to be taken from what has just been said is the notion of "cultivating a culture".  Culture for any team will happen naturally and organically.  But it may not evolve in ways that promote effective teamwork.  A leader and a team have to consciously decide what type of culture they want, how to promote mutual accountability, how to achieve their goals including maintenance of strong team relationships, and commit to investing in their preferred team culture on a regular and consistent basis.  Complacency in the face of team success can, in fact, lead to team failure and dysfunction.  Never take a team's success for granted.  Keep investing time and energy!

The final aspect or foundation of success for a team that I want to draw your attention to is how to promote social engagement for the team.  How to have fun!  When you think about our working lives, it is likely that you spend most of your waking time working and engaging with those on your team.  Given that reality, it is my view that enjoyment of the work and team cohesion are critical elements for personal satisfaction and team success.  The most successful teams enjoy each other's company, establish norms and traditions that allow them to develop strong bonds if not friendships, and that promote a commitment to each other's success.  This type of bond or cohesion needs to be actively and purposely facilitated and appreciated as a key element of the day-to-day work of the team (e.g., personal check-in's at each team meeting, use of simple ice-breakers) through to regular team-building sessions.  The purpose is to not only focus on achievement of hard target objectives but also on the health of the team culture.  

Team success is not inevitable.  Calling yourself a team does not make it so.  High-performing teams are glorious and attainable.  Achieving this nirvana pf team success requires disciplined thought, carried out by disciplined people, with disciplined effort (thank you Jim Collins!).  Moreover, this effort is not one and done.  Rather it requires a continued investment of time and energy of the leader and the team.  Team success - It's All About Leadership!

 _______________________________________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC

President & Founder - BreakPoint Solutions

3rd Generation Canadian Ukrainian

gregh@breakpoint.solutions 

www.breakpoint.solutions 

780-918-0009

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

When NOT to use Executive Coaching

I'm a strong advocate for the use of executive coaching.  As an executive coach myself you'd probably expect nothing else.  However, I'm not just speaking as someone who provides executive coaching services but also as someone who has benefited from - and continues to benefit from - using an executive coach.  I've experienced firsthand the power of having an unbiased sounding board and accountability partner work with me.

However, while executive coaching can be one of the most effective ways of accelerating your development as a leader it's not the panacea for all situations or circumstances.  There are in fact times when an individual and an organization should consider other options for addressing leadership or organizational challenges.  I identify some of the circumstances where executive coaching may not be your first choice below.

1. Executive Coaching in lieu of performance management.  Good executive coaching should not be substituted for good - or bad - management.  I've had a few occasions where I've been approached to undertake a coaching engagement where it's clear that a leader's perspective or that of an organization is that executive coaching will be the last-ditch effort to "salvage" an employee.  At this stage, its often relatively clear that the employee in question is on their last legs.  Unfortunately, they may have arrived at this point because of poor hiring process at the beginning of their tenure, poor expectation setting and communication on the part of their direct superior, or a combination of related factors.  Ideally, executive coaching is more often applied to advancing an organization's high potentials rather than salvaging those an organization no longer has any faith in.  More often than not in these cases I would prefer to coach both the employee as well as their direct supervisor,
2. Lack of defined outcomes or objectives.   Any good executive coach will seek to establish an understanding of specific goals and objectives for the engagement.  Whether sought out by an individual or secured through organizational endeavor, the quality of a coaching engagement is measurably improved when all parties involved are on the same page when it comes to understanding what success is supposed to look like.  If there are no clear outcomes established - whether at the outset or relatively early in the engagement - then there is a risk of "any destination will do" coming into play.  As with any initiative, being able to define and measure success is key to achieving desired outcomes.   
   
3. Client is unprepared to work.  An executive coach is there to challenge your thinking and assumptions, to move you to new levels of performance, and to enhance confidence through action.  But just as it is incumbent upon you (sometimes in partnership with your organization) to define the outcomes it is equally essential that you show up in the coaching session ready to work.  The time spent with a coach should not be akin to pulling teeth - you are addressing your current challenges, taking charge of your future, and you should be prepared to work as hard - and harder - than your coach.  You should not expect your coach to offer up ready-made solutions.  A coach is there to help you discover and execute on your own self-discovered plan of attack.  If you expect your coach to do the heavy lifting you are probably not ready for, nor will you fully benefit, from working with an executive coach. 
4. Client is unprepared to work - Part II.  The work in a coaching engagement doesn't just or even mostly happen when you are face-to-face with your executive coach.  Your time with your executive coach is designed to develop plans, explore options, test assumptions and commit to change.  While a change in perspective and perception will happen in the executive coaching session, delivery and action happens in between sessions and back at the coal face of your work.  All the best laid plans are only as effective what actually happens when you implement your plans.  If you have no interest in implementing your plans or making time for change in your work it's best not to engage an executive coach.  
5. Unprepared to Change.  If you are thinking about engaging an executive coach, be prepared to change.  Growth comes only from change.  Change is often or entirely uncomfortable.  If you are only looking for validation or affirmation there are likely other avenues for you to pursue.  Engaging with an executive coach is not about maintenance or just having a great conversation.  You - or your organization - is expecting you to evolve, grow and change as a result of the investment of time and money made in an executive coach.  You should expect that when you choose an executive coach that you will be undertaking new challenges, overcoming anxieties, and assertively progressing forward.  The coaching engagement should make you feel uncomfortable.  Be prepared for and embrace change!
   
   
6. Unprepared to drive the agenda.  Sometimes it's of benefit to think of your executive coach as your co-pilot.  You are in charge of where you need to go.  You define the work for each session.  Again, your executive coach will be there as a guide, a thinking partner, and a challenger, but you are in charge.  You are the leader in your business (and personal life) so be the leader in your own personal development.  Work with your co-pilot to plot the course at each session and, once decided, focus on your path.
7. Unprepared to be truthful, candid and honest.  Your executive coach is focused on your success.  Period.  In that regard, if you have done the best job possible in selecting your executive coach you've determined a fit does in fact exist, you trust the person in front of you and you are confident in their track record in support of your goals.  So don't beat around the bush.  Time is money and if you are going to move forward assertively be prepared to be vulnerable.  It's in your best interests and your executive coach has no other agenda than what works for you.
   
   
8. Unprepared to own the coaching relationship.  As tough as it might be for some executive coaches, you are the customer and the customer is always right.  Tell your coach - your vendor - what is working for you in the coaching engagement, what's not working and how the work can be changed to be more effective.  If you are not prepared to do that you may be disappointed in the results you get - or don't get. 

Coaching can be a powerful tool in moving leadership forward in a powerful way but much of that success depends on using it in the right circumstances, for the right reasons, and with ownership of the effort on your behalf and that of your organization. 

______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC

President & Founder - BreakPoint Solutions

gregh@breakpoint.solutions 

www.breakpoint.solutions 

780-250-2543

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.