How leaders can ensure they give the right message
By Craig Burton, MD & Founder of The Works Recruitment, Leeds.
How many of us in leadership positions find that despite our good intentions, following what we believe is the right way to get people onside and up for the fight ahead, end up disappointed with the response? Time and time again, efforts by leaders to ‘get people onside’ seem to fail.
When you become a manager, or reach any position of authority in a company, other people begin to watch you. They can’t take their eyes off you. They look at everything you say, everything you don’t say; everything you do, everything you don’t do. And then they stick a label on that behaviour, they make a meaning out of what you have and haven’t done. ‘He’s a joker.’ ‘She doesn’t care.’ ‘He’s only looking out for himself’.
These meaning-labels are what we all use to make sense of our little worlds: they act like our own personal mythology. Those meanings may neither be ‘correct’ nor ‘fair’ but they prevail and we take them wherever we go. But where do the meanings come from? All of them are shaped by the individual character and psychological make-up and the personal history of the individual who creates them – but these meanings do share some common origins.
Imagine that this perennial gaze your people shine on you is like a spotlight on a stage. So there you are, playing your part, learning the lines and the moves, trying to do your best, and all the time the spotlight of your peoples’ gaze is following you about. Because the light they’re shining on you is casting shadows. They’re not looking at you alone, nor are they listening to your voice alone. Their attention is distracted – because the shadows their spotlight casts are looming above and behind you.
And furthermore, back in their own offices or on the factory floor, they talk about their views with all their work colleagues and as they do this, they make this context become more concrete and more real. Very often, the myths last for a long time; indeed, the people can change but the myths go on and become embedded.
So what can we do about the shadows? One possibility is to ask for more feedback. This can be done formally through surveys or 360 degree appraisals. Hope that it is honest and not too vicious and do not become defensive too quickly. Get the results, see what the patterns are and identify what you can do to make improvements.
One obvious counter to The Shadows is to reduce the gap between perceptions of a leader which have been made in stories, especially where the past has played a role, and the real version. People still like to see a body, not an image but a living person. An important way to deal with this is to become visible. Get involved, get to know your team, be supportive and approachable. As Sir Tim Brighouse has suggested, ‘Successful leaders are visible leaders’.
Adapted from an extract by Jeff Gold.
