Covid Leadership Reflections and The 4 Levels Of Leadership

So, as we finally seem to be emerging from the Covid crisis, how has your leadership fared? Are you now a better or worse leader than those heady days pre-Lockdown? Ok, a fairly blunt and perhaps uncomfortable question, but as Jim Collins (Good To Great) said, we need to “confront the brutal facts” from time to time. And now seems as good a time as any.

Pat Lencioni - he of the The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, a model we know and love well at The Colour Works, provided an opportunity early on into Lockdown (1) to do just that. Running a Webinar to explore the leadership challenges being posed by Covid, he proposed that as leaders we would emerge stronger or weaker. Not the same. Covid would make such demands on our leadership abilities that the status quo could not prevail. Challenging stuff.Within a few weeks of that, myself and a number of Colour Works colleagues were working with the senior team of a large UK-based organisation, using a typical combination of Insights Discovery profiling and 1:1 coaching.

The CEO was enjoying (their word) the necessity for virtual communication. Whilst this was, and still is for some, a cause of discomfort, and not a personal choice they would otherwise make, it seemed to suit this CEO and their style well. They could plan their time efficiently, prioritise their day, communicate expectations and requirements simply and quickly, focusing on outcomes and actions. In short, they could get a heck of a lot done. If it was possible to have a good Covid-crisis, this was it. But it was short-lived. Several of the senior team began to struggle. As one of them said:

“What I need from my CEO most right now is not another 30 minutes of task – debate – decision, I just want some of them”.

The status quo had shifted. To their great credit, this CEO got it. And whilst the notion of giving time to others to focus on the person not the task was not instinctive, they recognised the need for it. And on further reflection, they also recognised the need they themselves had for it. Powerful stuff. Giving someone a damn good listening to occasionally can be a wonderful gift.

And that set me thinking some more about the individual elements of leadership and what impact the Covid crisis was having on me personally. I’ve long thought that crises don’t “build character”, or at least not initially. They tend to reveal it. How we respond and learn from it is where the character-building (dreadful phrase) comes from. So how are we equipped to respond?Notwithstanding the wonderful individuality which we all possess and nurture, as human beings we are intrinsically (think evolution) hard-wired to function in certain ways. Human hardwiring - where’s all this going? At The Colour Works we strive to keep things simple, which is of course often very difficult.As Steve Jobs once said:

"Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean".

To help bring some clean thinking into our leadership, we recommend having a rummage around in some pretty personal stuff. We know it as the four levels of leadership: the Biological – Physiological – Neurological – Psychological. None of which, paradoxically, are of course in anyway simple. But we can use them to help us think and reflect in a different, focussed and clean way:    

Biological

I don’t subscribe to the leaders are born not made philosophy. We all generally possess the same biological makeup and, last time I checked, a leadership gene has yet to be discovered, even with all the recent Covid-led advancements in genomics.

We are a product of our experiences, values, self-awareness, intent and skill. I have never reflected more on my own personal values (my core Why?) than I have in the last 12 months, challenging and ultimately reaffirming my non-negotiables.

Continuous improvement and learning (whatever happened to Kaizen?) is stronger than ever for me, but a lack of vulnerability during some Covid-struggles has sought to hide it. And I’m increasingly wanting to give something back. A maturing, life-stage thing perhaps in part, but also a painful realisation that I’ve already taken too much out. Sound familiar?

Physiological

Lockdowns have impacted on our physiology in many ways and can continue to do so. Sleep times and patterns (more dreams anyone?). More or less exercise. Weight gain or loss. Food and meal times, etc. 

I’ve just re-read Dr Alan Watkins’ excellent book Coherence – The Secret Science Of Brilliant Leadership. It reminds us to look deeper into what is happening on the inside and not just to focus on our “surface” behaviours.

How the results we achieve reflect our behaviours, but how those behaviours are driven deep down by emotions – and our emotions are directly affected by our physiological state. Sleep, nutrition, controlled breathing – ask any elite sports person how they perform at their best when it matters most.

Pre-lockdowns, five-six hours sleep was about as good as it ever got for me. I’m now typically 50% more than that, with a strong routine of 09.30 latest to bed. The management of personal energy, and how I use it during the day, is now a conscious, deliberate thing.  I’d never really got the notion of why managing energy rather than time was more important for performance. I do now.         

Neurological

A key element of our hard-wiring, and an area of significant research and clinical evaluation over recent years. How our brain function responds to various stimuli is increasingly well-understood. The brain unendingly creates neurological pathways and forges new connections. It’s perhaps happening now, reading this!

One of these stimulated-responses, the release of the hormone Oxytocin, is known to create feelings of safety, trust and cooperation. How extraordinary is that for great leadership?! And one such Oxytocin stimulus is, wait for it……………… story-telling.

How we bring things to life through our preparedness, as leaders, to share in an intensely personal and sometimes courageous way. As author Jonathan Gottschall put it:

“We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories”.

[The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human 2012].  

Psychological

The World Economic Forum has described Lockdown as The World’s Biggest Psychological Experiment [April 2020]. Burnout, absenteeism, anxiety, emotional exhaustion, stress, the emergence of FOTO (fear of the office). If ever there was a time to periodically slow down, check in with ourselves and remind us of the good and great things we are capable of and should be grateful for, surely it is now. That positive affirmation, that showing of respect to ourselves, is a necessity not an indulgence. When did you last do that?

These four levels of leadership are of course mutually related, impacting on each other. Balancing the awareness and development of each is key. But continuous learning, personal energy, story-telling and positive affirmation are perhaps not bad places to start.  So, how have you fared these last twelve months?

The qualities of great leaders, the things our people need, want and thrive on, are of course many and varied. Our ability to communicate a vision, to inspire, to build trust, to engage at a highly individual and emotional level, are all things which Covid may well have challenged us on, and in ways we did not necessarily anticipate.  

Which brings me to perhaps one of the greatest realities of leadership. Visionary, inspiring, trust-worthy, honest, time-giving? For those in our charge and care, these things are of course utterly discretionary. It’s not in their job description, the standards of performance or the competency framework. [ultimate_spacer height="50"]How they experience us, how we truly impact on them and leave them feeling, are crucial things they, not us, will determine and judge us on. A brutal fact if ever there was one.  [ultimate_spacer height="10"]Guest Writer: Howard Scott

With a powerful ability to engage and inspire people towards exceptional performance, Howard is a highly-skilled facilitator, conference presenter and coach – with an enviable ability to unlock potential and build self-confidence.