Leadership Trends and Realities

Take Off Your Corporate Mask – Step Into Your Power

Dana Theus, President,
InPower Consulting

In June, while I was giving my eSeminar to the amazing and brave people intent on developing their own Authentic Leadership Style, I explored the deep and powerful dimensions of authenticity and sharing them on the blog. One of the elephants in the room when we talk about authenticity is emotional discomfort and even fear. We assume that being authentic – and taking off our “corporate mask” – to allow our authentic self to shine at the office means revealing weaknesses about ourselves that can undermine our career and success.
 
Of course we’re all capable of undermining ourselves, but honestly the only times I see this happen as a result of taking off the corporate mask is when I (or others I know well) have gotten our authentic selves so out of sync with our masked selves that seeing the two “in the same room” (so to speak) is a shock. And when this happens, the dramatic gap is already undermining our success. It’s just that because we have our mask on, we usually don’t see it (though others usually do).
 
In my experience, taking off the corporate mask can only strengthen you.
 
Why Being Vulnerable Makes You Strong
 
The problem, of course, is that it’s a scary thing to imagine taking off our masks because we think they’re there to protect us, to keep us from becoming vulnerable. I’m here to tell you that you aren’t nearly as vulnerable as you think you are and that, in fact, when you tap into your authenticity, that vulnerability absolutely becomes a strength as well as a connection point with others that can pay off tangibly in your career. And this lesson is just as meaningful in the business world as it is in our personal lives.
 
In her book, The Power of Presence, Kristi Hedges tells a great story about a CEO who was struggling because he wasn’t gaining the trust of the Board of Directors. When she interviewed the board, it turned out that they didn’t trust him because they couldn’t figure out who he was; he was “too perfect” and inauthentic. Despite the fact that many board members didn’t trust him, he was still a competent CEO, just not a good one.
 
You take your authentic self to work every day of your career, under your corporate mask, and you’ve been doing this your entire professional life. Guess what? Your authentic self is just as good at your job as you are, it’s just more human and therefor more powerful. Your authentic self is not vulnerable and weak, it’s strong and powerful – and capable of human connections and insights you can’t dream of until you take off the mask to find out.
 
When you learn to leave your mask off, the things you used to think of as vulnerabilities actually become strengths as you learn how to use them effectively. Give it a try and see what happens.
 
How Do You Do This?
 
I’ve been discovering this lesson for years, actually, and many of the tricks I’ve learned to establish work-life balance have been peeling the layers off the onion of my authentic self, laying various masks aside as I find their protection less necessary and effective. I’ve found the secret to navigating this journey in language – both the verbal language we use with others and the inner dialog we use with ourselves. While I used to think it would take me years of therapy to overcome my “vulnerabilities” I’ve learned it’s not really that hard at all and that once you start using the clues hiding in plain sight in your words to unpeel your masks, they start coming off faster! I’ve finally documented this “language trick” and make it available in the eSeminar. Check it out below if you’re interested.

Dana is a research-based advocate for talent innovation and women’s leadership change initiatives that produce business results. As a leadership and management consultant she helps companies establish leadership teams capable of tapping into their full range of inner resources – individually InPowered and gender-partnered as a group. She also designs culture-shaping initiatives to integrate leader’s personal styles, corporate brand identity and innovation strategies. The result is improved productivity, profitability and meaning. Certified as a facilitator and trainer in The PRIMES methodologies, and as champion in Lean Six Sigma, she brings a full suite of leadership development tools and insights to every engagement. Dana is President & CEO of InPower Consulting (www.inpowerconsultinginc.com)

The Business Case for Gender Balanced Leadership

Dana Theus, President,
InPower Consulting

For some 20 years, companies have been running women’s leadership development programs a lot like sensitivity seminars, to develop awareness in both women and men that business women are, well, “different” and to help women understand how best to integrate into the existing business culture.

The good news is that these efforts, combined with education and encouragement, have helped put women on 15% of the boards of the Fortune 500. More good news is that studies show that companies with about 30% gender diversity on their boards actually outperform those with no women by a wide margin measured through multiple metrics (e.g., an 84% return on sales).

The bad news is that 15% is paltry for the Fortune 500, and it looks like midcap firms’ leadership teams may be even less gender diverse. Worse news is that progress is slowing at exactly the time we need women’s strong leadership skills in upper management more than ever; and women — especially young, highly educated women — are bailing out of the system. They’re not all leaving the workforce to have babies either — many of the best and brightest are going to start entrepreneurial ventures.

This puts business leaders interested in recruiting and developing the next generation of leadership in quite a bind. On the one hand, we have an economy — in need of powerful up-and-comers — struggling to right itself into productivity, ethics, sustainability and profitability. On the other hand, we have an up-and-coming, educated, appropriately skilled resource in plentiful supply (representing over half the workforce) who is choosing to opt out of the system.

You see the danger ahead, don’t you? We’ve identified talent pool key to our economic success who’s not making it into leadership positions where they can deploy that positive impact, and thus our leadership class is becoming systematically weakened at the very time we most need to strengthen it.

This isn’t new news — the seminal research on this subject was published by McKinsey in 2007 — but discussion and action on this subject in the U.S. is far behind Europe and even developing nations. Are we asleep at the switch? As importantly, why are so many women taking the path of least resistance?

As many women entrepreneurs tell me, “Why should I put up with a culture that doesn’t meet my needs and let me shine? I know I’m good. I’ll go make money for myself.” And then — thanks to the Internet — they do, along with many creative-thinking, industrious young men. When I talk to women both in and outside corporations about why they have left, or are tempted to leave, corporate culture is most frequently cited as the barrier to bringing more women into leadership.

Corporate attempts to support “women’s leadership programs” are often seen as a burden — another job on top of the one they already have and the family they value. But as importantly, many women’s development programs are viewed as attempts to “fix them,” which leads many to conclude they’re just round pegs being stuffed into square holes and might as well leave, taking their talent and potential with them.

It’s easy for a corporation to throw up its (metaphorical) hands and say, “It’s our culture, we can’t change,” but I submit that there’s simply too much at stake now not to change. And this change isn’t only for social justice reasons – there are hard metrics to motivate it too. Change isn’t hard when you understand what you have to lose and what you have to gain. After all, what would your financials look like with an 84% increase in return on sales or a 46% increase in return on equity?

I believe, after scanning almost 100 research studies on the subject, that by bringing more women into leadership, their mere presence in balanced numbers (i.e., 30% or more), with men will strengthen the capabilities of any organization’s leadership culture. This phenomenon, The Woman Effect, has already been validated through the research above and has the power to revitalize our economic engines to spur yet another wave of phenomenal growth.

However, to activate The Woman Effect in our economy, we’ve got to do it in our companies; and to activate it in our companies, we’ve got to stop running sensitivity seminars to adapt the women to the existing culture. We’ve got to take on the challenge of systemically adapting our culture to bring out the strengths of both female and male leaders, working together. This is a core strategic investment in profitability and sustainability, even more strategic than implementing a new ERP system.

The good news is that many of the same change management practices we use to implement technology can help us adjust to gender-partnered leadership. My colleagues and I will be running some change management pilot programs to do this and I’ll report back here. Go ahead and get started. You won’t be alone!

This post originally appeared on SmartBlog on Leadership. For more insights on business leadership, sign up for SmartBrief on Leadership.

Dana is a research-based advocate for talent innovation and women’s leadership change initiatives that produce business results. As a leadership and management consultant she helps companies establish leadership teams capable of tapping into their full range of inner resources – individually InPowered and gender-partnered as a group. She also designs culture-shaping initiatives to integrate leader’s personal styles, corporate brand identity and innovation strategies. The result is improved productivity, profitability and meaning. Certified as a facilitator and trainer in The PRIMES methodologies, and as champion in Lean Six Sigma, she brings a full suite of leadership development tools and insights to every engagement. Dana is President & CEO of InPower Consulting (www.inpowerconsultinginc.com)

 

Empowerment is Bunk

Dana Theus, Principal,
Magus Consulting

How many years of Women’s Empowerment and Employee Empowerment have we lived through? How many of us have opted out in the brain drain, tired of waiting to be really empowered and seeking something more – autonomous?

This question captivated me when I started InPower Coaching last year. In my experience and the experience of the powerful leaders I know and work with, success is not derived from the external power we’re given, but from the power we bring out of ourselves to amplify it into real world results.

Imagine my excitement when I found this video by Daniel Pink, author of Drive (and other amazing books that will blow your mind if you haven’t read them), distinguishing empowerment from autonomy.

Empowerment is a sham

Daniel declares boldly that “empowerment is a sham” and “flexibility” is something employers allow to demonstrate that “we’re slightly less maniacally controlling than we were before.” He believes that both empowerment and flexibility reflect “a mistaken view of who has the power.” He believes employers should be thanking us for showing up at work every day!

Daniel is advocating that leaders work with the human urge for self-direction and that we manage our staffs with autonomy, which requires us all to develop our internal – inpowerment – resources more intentionally. As he explains, this gives the whole idea of work-life balance a new spin too, and makes the move towards “work-life blend” more productive and rational. (For more on work-life baloney, read my earlier thoughts).

InPowering Career Coaching Tips

We all have two ways of looking at any advice like this, as leaders and as employees (unless we’re entrepreneurs, in which case it’s good to think about new ways of motivating clients). So here’s how to approach adapting autonomy into your leadership skill set.

As leaders: How can you work with your employee’s desire for autonomy and still deliver results? Each staff member will be a little different so getting in tune with each of them is a good start, but the fundamental secret is to refine your skill at describing what success looks like so clearly that they can see it and want it themselves. Give them the opportunity to contribute to that vision of success and you’ve got them bought-in. Then set them free and let them know what resources (including your time and energy) they can call on and when you need their answer. Encourage their creativity, and be sure to follow up at the due date. Hold them accountable. Some people might find this uncomfortable, but your highest performers will find it exhilarating and the rest will grow from the discomfort. Test the waters and start with small things if this seems out of character for you or them.

As employees: I can see those of you working for a controlling boss rolling your eyes and thinking I’m dreaming. But my advice to you is the same as it is to everyone else – ask for autonomy. This ask doesn’t sound like, “boss, can I go off on my own for a few weeks? See ya!” at which time you’ll get a skeptical look. It sounds like, “Hey boss! What does success on this project look like for you? How will you know we’ve made it?” Get them talking and when you can see it very clearly, say, “I’ve got an idea! Let me run with it for a few hours/days/weeks. I’ll get back to you no later than (insert specific date/time here).” And then go do it and be sure to follow up on or before that date/time. If you demonstrate that you make good use of autonomy, you can earn more of it from anyone.

In either of these scenarios, you’re getting to a point where you can see success and sharing that intention with others who want that success too. Then you’re trusting yours – or others’ – abilities to make significant progress in a self-directed fashion. In setting your intention so clearly, specific to a date/time, and delivering on your promises of accountability, you are training yourself and others you work with – above, below or alongside you – to manage autonomously.

Start with tasks appropriate to the situation, experience and skill level of those doing the work, but start. And if you’re the one doing the work, once you have the feel of how to make the best use of autonomy and have built the trust with your boss, stretch yourself and see how much you can do! Whatever you do, don’t let a failure or setback convince you that autonomy is not a powerful management tool. Adjust, revise and repeat. This is how the world gets better.

Photo Credit: Kim Seng

 

Want to Attract Talent? Be Talent!

Dana Theus, Principal, Magus Consulting

Someone recently asked me for my secret to making a good hire and attracting talented employees. I had to admit that I’ve never considered myself particularly skilled at hiring, even though I’ve made some stellar hires – if I do say so myself – so I had to dig deep for some executive coaching advice. But it came pretty quickly.

If you want to hire very talented people, BE talented. If you want to hire go-getters and innovators, BE go-getting and innovative. If you want people to think outside the box, don’t sit in your box.

Why? People like to work with and for people they like and aspire to be like. And these are qualities that many people can talk about but only those who really get it can demonstrate enthusiasm for. When you are like this and others know it, they will send you the best and the brightest. You’ll be like honey to the bee.

One other piece of advice: Deliberately look for people smarter than you and who you can learn from. One of my first bosses said it this way: “A people hire A+ people. B people hire C people.” You get a threefer when you hire above your own talent level. You get smarter, your team gets more done and you look like a smart boss for knowing how to put your ego aside and go for talent. So even if you think you’re an A- everyone else thinks you’re an A. Other talented people will notice. More honey. Spread it thick and see who comes.