Star Followers Make Star Leaders!

Leadership and Followership are the two sides of the same coin. Followers play a very important role in organizational growth just as Leaders do. Understanding your leadership style makes it equally important to know who your followers are. 

This post and the video will give an interesting insight into the "Art of Followership."

Adapted from the book - "The Art of Followership: How Great Followers Create Great Leaders and Organizations" talks about five basic styles of Followership:

The sheep. Sheep are passive and look to the leader to do the thinking for them and to motivate them. If you are the boss and in your car on the way to work, and you’re thinking about what you’re going to get your workers to do and how you’re going to do that, then you’re dealing with sheep.

The yes-people. Yes-people are positive, always on the leader’s side, but still looking to the leader for the thinking, the direction, the vision. If the leader asks them to do something, they’ve got the energy, and they’ll go forward with it.When they finish that task, they’ll come back to the leader, asking, “What do you want me to do next?” However, yes-people don’t see themselves this way. One of the things I've learned is that the different styles of followers will almost always put a positive spin on their style. Yes-people will say, “I’m a doer; that’s my job.

The boss gets paid to think, and I’m the one who does the work.” But the rest of us would say there’s more to being a good follower than simply doing.

The alienated. Alienated followers think for themselves, but have a lot of negative energy. Every time the leader or organization tries to move forward, these are the ones who have ten reasons why the leader or organization shouldn't. They are not coming up with the next solution, but are skeptical, cynical about the current plan of action. They have energy, they can think for themselves, they can be smart. But they are not moving in a positive direction. However, they see themselves as the mavericks, the only people in the organization who have the guts to stand up to the boss.

The pragmatics. Pragmatics sit on the fence and see which way the wind blows. Once they see where things are headed, they’ll get on board. They’ll never be the first on board, but they will never let the leader or organization leave The Art of Followership without them. They see themselves as preservers of the status quo. Their internal dialogue goes something like this: “If I got all excited every time there was a new leader or a change of direction, my wheels would be spinning constantly. Leaders come and go. New visions come and go. If I just sit here and wait it out, I won’t have to do all that work.” So they do what they must to survive, but wait it out until the storms of change blow over.

The star followers. Star followers think for themselves, are very active, and have very positive energy. They do not accept the leader’s decision without their own independent evaluation of its soundness. If they agree with the leader, they give full support. If they disagree, they challenge the leader, offering constructive alternatives that will help the leader and organization get where they want to go. Some people view these people as really “leaders in disguise,” but this is basically because those people have a hard time accepting that followers can display such independence and positive behavior. Star followers are often referred to as “my right-hand person” or my “go-to person.”

So this was the basic model I read and found relevant to understand followership styles. It offered me a framework to think about the type of behavior that led to all the negative stereotypes, as well as to conceive of the positive followership that rarely got mentioned. If you want to explore to explore the full reality of how people follow it is important to study their motivations and situations that determine their followership behavior. Can a person be a star follower in one situation and an alienated follower in another situation? Why do people adopt a particular style? Why would someone end up as a pragmatic follower? What conditions might lead to that? Are there ways to help people move toward a chosen style?

Inviting comments to hack the followership space to make us better leaders!

The Awareness Gap – Finding The Blind Spots

If you’re in a position of leadership and don’t feel you have any blind spots, you’re either very naïve or very arrogant. All leaders have blind spots – the question is what are they doing about them? The reality is most leaders invest so much time assessing the cultural and functional dynamics of their organizations they often forget the importance of critically assessing themselves.

The learning journey doesn’t come to an end just because you reach a certain station in life – or at least it shouldn’t. It has consistently been my experience that leaders who are not growing simply cannot lead growing organizations. Moreover, leaders who fail to continue developing will always be replaced by those who do. A leader who fails to understand the value of self-awareness fails to understand their true potential as a leader. The further up the ladder a leader climbs the more they must be on top of their game as they have the broadest sphere of influence, the largest ability to impact a business, and they also now have the most at risk. It is at this place the leader should make the heaviest investment in refining their learning, because increased performance will pay the biggest dividends. The more responsibility a leader has, the bigger their obligation to be on the forward edge of learning, growth and development.

The Key To Awareness – White Space

Here’s something you might not want to hear, but you should definitely take to heart; if you’re having difficulty ordering your world, it’s nobody’s fault but yours. It has no bearing on how busy you are, but what matters is about what you accomplish – the former doesn't always lead to the latter. One of the easiest things for leaders to do is to bite off more than they can chew. All successful leaders are accomplished at working out their schedule to create more time for clear thought.

Bright and talented executives with a bias to action will often take on more than they should. These leaders don’t understand the value of white space. The reality is maximizing results and creating a certainty of execution is all about focus, focus and more focus. Here’s the thing – it’s difficult to focus in the middle of chaos. One of the hardest things for leaders to do is to learn to create white space. The best leaders are those who understand the most productive things often happen during intentional periods of isolation used for self-reflection, introspection, and the rigor of critical thought.

All good leaders have matured to understand they can be fully engaged and present and yet still be alone. Smart leaders don’t fill their calendars with useless activities. They strategically plan for white space allowing them to focus on highest and best use endeavors. Leading doesn’t always mean doing. In fact, most often times it means pulling back and creating white space so that others can do. This is true leadership that can be scaled.

  

I have found the best leaders are harder on themselves than anyone else could ever be. In fact, this is so much the case that the best leaders constantly self-assess and are relentless in challenging themselves. They relish their solitude because it gives them the ability to be alone with their thoughts, to challenge their logic, to refine their theories, and to test the boundaries of their intellect. It’s during these quiet moments that leaders willing to be honest with themselves will examine their own flaws and frailties. They are forever in search of new ways of dealing with old problems.

The beauty of leveraging white space is it helps you avoid falling into the all too common leadership rut.  It’s now time to focus on your self and your unknowns.

Culture Interview: Do you talk about your "Company Culture"?

"A poor cultural fit is the primary reason top managers fail, according to executive coaches and recruiters. But there is no perfect way to predict a match. So in addition to the traditional rounds of interviews, networking with prior staffers and review of analysts' reports, senior-management applicants are now being urged to play the role of corporate anthropologist to gauge their compatibility with potential employers—from quizzing future subordinates to dining repeatedly with the boss-to-be."  - Wall Street Journal article

Executives have to understand [personal] values before they can know whether there will be a match with the company they are going into, I have valued an atmosphere where honesty, candor and a willingness to entertain and try new ideas would exist.

Before giving the job, I have sought candid chats with people being interviewed. There has always has been a risk of losing the good candidate but giving them a preview of the culture helps build the initial trust and transparency with potential hires.

Interestingly, people liked that "there was nothing to hide", they felt safe and they opened up more to uncover unknown areas of one's personality and character.  

The key question to think about is that in the average 10 hours that we spend sourcing and interviewing a candidate, how much time do you spend on talking about the company culture and understanding the individual culture and values that the individual brings to the table.

A good way to start is to take the candidates through one "Success Story" and one "Failure Story" of a person in the company and talk about their individual journeys in the first 12 months in the company. Human Resources Team should help build these "Success Profiles" and share during the interview stage. 

I particularly liked the 5 questions that Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot talks about in his article - 

5 Quick Questions To Help Determine Culture Fit

1. Do they treat everyone as a peer, regardless of their position and title?

2. Do they immediately look for ways to help?

3. Do they actively meet and connect with people outside their immediate team?

4. Are they unafraid to express their opinions early on?

5. Do they provide feedback so future on boarding experiences are even better?

Look to build your own set of 5 Questions that every interviewer should ask and have a common scale of "Culture Fitment" in the organization. 

I found a really interesting self check on Culture Fitment type cast on RoundPegg, a Culture Building Platform for organizations. It took me 5 minutes to set my own Preferences to the Company Culture I would like to work for and it was very insightful. Here is my report and I have add it to my LinkedIn Profile now. And here is my Culture Fitment Report. 

~ dheeraj

Mentoring Culture - How Leaders Can Build a Shared Learning Culture?

How am I doing as a leader? The answer is how are the people you lead doing. Do they learn? Do they visit customers? Do they manage conflict? Do they initiate change? Are they growing and getting promoted? You won't remember when you retire what you did in the first quarter of 1994, or the third. What you'll remember is how many people you developed. How many people you helped have a better career because of your interest and your dedication to their development... When confused as to how you're doing as a leader, find out how the people you lead are doing. You'll know the answer. - Larry Bossidy

I saw this video on People Matters, shared by a LinkedIn friend this morning and this metaphor "A mentor's advice is like raindrops from heaven—recognize them" triggered a line of thought for my Sunday blog on Culture Journeys.

Great Leaders create their own classroom of learning to which they invite those who wish to learn and contribute in their development. Roger Enrico, the former CEO of PepsiCo before he became the CEO of PepsiCo devoted more than 120 days exclusively to coaching and mentoring the next generation of PepsiCo leaders. He personally designed a program called "Building the Business, and over 18 months he ran the program ten times, with classes of 9 participants each time.    

Culture Journeys To Scale Business Growth is a program that I have just launched on Udemy to develop the leadership capability to scale business growth. It is a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course ware) based curriculum to help spread the word and make it any time and anywhere learning.

Being a Culture Mentor is a responsibility that all Managers and Leaders should own and dispense to help others be successful in their journey. It can be translated into roles & responsibilities and job descriptions, but until and unless there is an internal motivation to help discover the best in others... the journey of a leader does not begin.

Hope to make a difference in the professional lives of people any where and any time!

Learn Your Company Culture First!

"The combination of your performance and your personality determines how you're viewed. Probably 95% of firings or early exits are the result of failing to fit into a company's culture.

If people don't know you, they can't trust you."

The importance of culture can't be overestimated. It is like knowing the core operating system before you get to code your products on top of it. Without the knowledge of the underlying operating code, any application of your work will fail at the test run. 

This talk summarizes the steps in an easy to understand way to learn the company culture you work for. 

(The audio quality is not up to the mark. Apologies :( Please try and adjust the volume to make it more audible :)

There are three key learning here.

One, getting to recognize the organization culture is analogous to - climate and weather. People make a sense of the world around them  by responding to patterns that they experience over time. As an example, you would normally prepare and make arrangements to pack some warm clothing when moving to a cold climate. When you move organizations or companies, you need to prepare for similar shifts by packing additional learning relevant to the new organization. To pack new things, you need to unpack a few things too. Just as you learn, prepare to unlearn a few things too.

Two, learn the context. It is like assessing the pitch/play ground that you are going to play the match on. There is nothing like a right or a wrong pitch in the game of cricket. The conditions are different and good players know how to read them well and quickly adapt to the new playing conditions. 

Three, soliciting feedback is very important to gauge that you are in the right direction. Adapting yourself to the organization culture can be very difficult at times and without having a good sense of whether you are doing things right is a very important point of validation. It is like using your GPS system when you are on the road and listening to the right cues and alerts to help navigate to your destination and goals. The role of the Manager is very crucial here to help give the right directions and support.

Thanks,

Dheeraj

How to determine "Culture Fit" in hiring?

Culture Fitment happens when the individual career journey aligns well and is in the same direction as the culture journey of the organization. As Jim Collins, author of "Good To Great" said, First Who, Then What! He explains the point on how successful companies have talent management practices to get the right people on the bus and offloading those who are not and then figuring out if people are on the right seats before taking on the journey. 

HBR  Read - "Who Are the "Right" People to Invite on Your Bus? 

So how do you determine that you are on boarding people with the right culture fit on the bus?

Giving the same analogy of a journey, here are the 5 things successful companies do.

Display Your Destination

One, the bus should clearly display the destination it is headed to. Companies that brand that and talk about it in their conversations with potential workforce are more successful in getting the right people on the bus. There are examples of companies like Facebook having a mission to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected..

Run On Time
Second, the bus should run on time. Companies that have a reputation of running their business on time with customers earn the reputation with employees too. Potential workforce like being on a bus that runs on time and also look out for those that off board who prevent running them on time.

Tell Upfront and Be Transparent
Thirdly, the bus should have more leg room and space to walk, work and relax. Letting people know that they need to wear seat belts when the ride is turbulent is an early signal to ensure that there may be a bumpy ride and the people are aware of it.

The cost of on boarding than just the return expected 
Fourthly, it helps to communicate in advance the seats/positions that the bus has and what it costs to be on that. Letting people know on the availability of the other seats and possibility to upgrade at any time during the journey is a good way to build an open system of seat preference. In the organization context it is about flexibility to do job rotation and role preference mapping.

Have Trust
Lastly, it is about focusing on the journey and having the trust in the person/s driving the bus to take the passengers home!

Great leadership happens when we do all of the above in our interaction with our potential workforce at all times. I particularly liked Dharmesh Shah article on "5 Quick Questions to help determine culture fit".
It is a great read and highly recommended.

Please do write back with your comments and experiences on this topic to me to further build on.

Thanks!

Dheeraj

Culture On boarding

Culture on boarding is a key success factor for new employees to learn and adapt to a new organization.

Edgar Schein of MIT Sloan School of Management made the point that the success of learning about an organization "is so ubiquitous and and we go through it so often during our total career, that it is all too easy to overlook it". There are constant resocialization pressures and these have an impact on the overall workforce.

In a survey conducted at IMD, 87% survey respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement,"Transitions into significant new roles are the most challenging times in the professional lives of managers."

What makes for success is the ability to fit in socially and get on in performance terms. This has little to do with technical or professional expertise of the incumbent and a lot to do with the personality and their ability to learn the culture. The combination of your performance and your personality determines how you're viewed.

The model to learn and adapt to a new culture was shared by me in a new employee orientation in my organization, MetricStream Inc. a global leader in Governance Risk and Compliance solutions.

You can find the full presentation here on Slideshare.  

Culture Journeys - A Framework To Induct & Integrate Talent Through Culture On boarding