Effective Leadership Skills
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Written by Judith E. Glaser
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Page 1 of 2 Nothing in life is neutral. Organizations are based on relationships, and most relationships involve positional power.
Think about your workplace. Think about your team. What Vital Conversations can you introduce to create a stronger WE-centric workplace ? The following are a list of topics that represent the most powerful dynamics at play in a team seeking to work together towards a common goal. When teams learn to have conversations about these vital dynamics, and learn to build rules of engagement to handle them, they are on their way to becoming a powerful team able to tackle every challenge interdependently.
Let’s explore these potential navigational obstacles – sometimes they are “perceived obstacles” and sometimes they are “real.” As you read, imagine how you might introduce these topics for discussion into your next meeting, project or team engagement. Having conversations openly about how we perceive our challenges, enables us to surface our fears and deal with them head on: these are called Vial Conversations. - Power
- Attachment to being right
- Old grooves
- Fear
- Groupthink
1. Power
Nothing in life is neutral. Organizations are based on relationships, and most relationships involve positional power. Most decision-making involves power and what we often fear most is that someone will use their power in abusive ways. We don’t open up when we feel that we will encounter and engage with other powerful people who have their own self-interest in mind. In environments where acquisitions and mergers are commonplace, or restructuring and re-engineering are day-to-day activities, we often revert to our self-protective behaviors to ensure that in the end we will hold a position of value. Any shift in relationships offers the possibility that someone might be demoted or even fired. It makes sense. Too often changes and reorganizations begin with a “housecleaning.” It’s no wonder when change is afoot that colleagues are concerned about losing rank and power.
Question: What Vital Conversations can you encourage colleagues to have with you to reduce the threat of positional power and create an openness in your communication and opportunities for learnng, growth, and nourishment?
2. Attachment to Being Right
Under stress, and in the face of dramatic business challenges, we want to have answers; we want to be right about what we believe. We want a feeling of safety and security. We want to live in our Comfort Zones. Yet, this is rarely possible. When we are attached to being right, we defend our point of view. We are not open to learning. We are persuading. We are influencing with a push energy, and most often colleagues will push back. Sometimes our desire to be right accelerates to such a level that we want to be right at all cost, even if it means losing a relationship. Being right provides false confidence in the face of complexity and ambiguity. When we are “all knowing,” we feel superior over others. Sometimes, in the spirit of being right, we explicitly prove others wrong.
Question: What Vital Conversations can you encourage colleagues to have with you to reduce the negative impact of “righteousness” and the need to be right? How will this positively impact your relationships with others, build trust and openness, and create opportunities for learning, growth, and nourishment?
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