They are rational engineers, accountants, technical experts who see leadership and all that comes with it as “soft skills”.
One of my favourite recent moments was when one of my technical clients came to me with this recognition –
“I’ve been watching the leaders around here. There’s a big difference in the consequences across the floor when different leaders are around.
The harsh, direct, ‘do what I say’, ones leave a wake of negativity that ripples for days.
The empathetic ones connect with people, and people get stuff done! It’s making me start trying to be more empathetic and I think it’s going to work better”.
Why doesn’t the old school, ‘do what I say’, model work?
Most importantly it doesn’t work because most of us are not producing widgets. Once we work in contexts where the work is complex, requiring us to access our higher levels of reasoning and creativity, then our performance is directly related with our psychological safety. Amy Edmondson’s book, The Fearless Organisation, is a wonderfully rational, scientific explanation of why ’soft skills’ are not soft skills at all.
The efficacy of our leadership is dependent on our capacity, at the level of teams, to create an environment in which people feel safe to speak up and their brains can think from a state of trust. We are unable to access higher levels of thinking when we are in a state of distrust or fear, as created by the old ways of leading. It might work for very short periods of time – but it won’t bring best performance, and it certainly won’t sustain best outcomes in the long-term.
So, if you are trying to get the best out of clever people doing innovative, challenging work – paying attention to their psychological safety is key.
To learn how to do this using evidence-based, science-driven tools, get in touch and I can help you explore leadership from a rational perspective.
I will help you be an empathetic, and a powerful leader, rationally!
They are rational engineers, accountants, technical experts who see leadership and all that comes with it as “soft skills”.
One of my favourite recent moments was when one of my technical clients came to me with this recognition –
“I’ve been watching the leaders around here. There’s a big difference in the consequences across the floor when different leaders are around.
The harsh, direct, ‘do what I say’, ones leave a wake of negativity that ripples for days.
The empathetic ones connect with people, and people get stuff done! It’s making me start trying to be more empathetic and I think it’s going to work better”.
Why doesn’t the old school, ‘do what I say’, model work?
Most importantly it doesn’t work because most of us are not producing widgets. Once we work in contexts where the work is complex, requiring us to access our higher levels of reasoning and creativity, then our performance is directly related with our psychological safety. Amy Edmondson’s book, The Fearless Organisation, is a wonderfully rational, scientific explanation of why ’soft skills’ are not soft skills at all.
The efficacy of our leadership is dependent on our capacity, at the level of teams, to create an environment in which people feel safe to speak up and their brains can think from a state of trust. We are unable to access higher levels of thinking when we are in a state of distrust or fear, as created by the old ways of leading. It might work for very short periods of time – but it won’t bring best performance, and it certainly won’t sustain best outcomes in the long-term.
So, if you are trying to get the best out of clever people doing innovative, challenging work – paying attention to their psychological safety is key.
To learn how to do this using evidence-based, science-driven tools, get in touch and I can help you explore leadership from a rational perspective.
I will help you be an empathetic, and a powerful leader, rationally!
