LEADERSHIP ON THE GROUND S4: THE TENSIONS OF LEADERSHIP
TENSIONS_05 – 16:50
You are listening to Leadership on the Ground, season 4: The Tensions of Leadership.
A tension is a gentle pull. A stretch that causes a strain. Or an emotional trigger that can cause a positive or negative reaction. When you are in a leadership role, you are confronted with tensions constantly. It’s what you do with these critical moments that matters most.
In this series, we learn how to identify and acknowledge these tensions. How to appropriately respond to them with our next move, and how to skillfully navigate through them when leading our self, leading teams, and leading at the organizational level.
This series is made possible by the international best-selling book, Leadership Rigor: Your Guide to Achieving Breakthrough Performance in Productivity.
And now, here are your hosts, Todd Schnitt and Erica Peitler.
Todd: Good morning and welcome back to our special edition series, Leadership on the Ground, season 4: The Tensions of Leadership. And as always, I am joined by my friend and colleague Erica Peitler. Erica, good morning, my friend. Good to be with you as always in the studio.
Erica: Hey, good morning. I’m so excited. I ‘m just going to even like, jump right in there with you.
Todd: You are excited. This is a critical conversation today. It’s episode 5—the tension in leading teams, and being both a practitioner and philosopher, part 2. Well, we’re going to dive in and focus on shifting from me-ology to we-ology. Very important conversation so. Before we go there, however, Erica, remind our audience what is meant by the tensions of leadership.
Erica: Yeah, this is really going to be an exciting season 4 because we’ve been engaging in this ongoing dialogue regarding leadership being a skilled profession, so it requires conscious discipline. It requires practice. And it’s all in this pursuit of performance and productivity. So, in season 1, we really laid down some skills about how do you become a consciously competent leader. What do you need to do? How do you do it? And why do you do it?
And then we advanced into seasons 2 and 3 and we started to talk about practices of leadership. How do you practice in real time? How do you establish rhythm for working at the speed of business and putting some macro-structures in place?
In season 4, Todd, we’re going to change it up again, and we’re going to look at these tensions that leaders face as they progress in advancing their leadership practice. And these tensions are stresses. They’re pulls. They’re triggers. And they’re things that leaders must raise, wrestle with, and resolve or else. They’re going to struggle. They’re going to get stuck, and they’re going to stagnate themselves and their businesses. So, the stakes are really high on season 4.
Todd: Well, thank you for that. So, gosh, kind of in part one of leading […], we talked about re-calibrating yourself, and part two here now is more focusing on the team, and developing them. We’re talking about developing a whole different array of tensions here, though. One that comes to mind is this idea of the time—the tension of time. What do you mean by that?
Erica: So, this is a really big one for me and for a lot of the clients that I coach. Our relationship with time really has to shift. You know, a lot of what we need to do when we become a team leader is create that time for being a philosopher, right? We have to now integrate that into the mix. We got to resolve that tension. And we have to change our relationship with time. Time now has to be an investment in our people, and in our bench. It’s not a distraction. It’s not “Oh my god, that’s taking time away from my work”. That actually is your work. So there’s that shift now from the me-ology to the we-ology. My investment of time, building my bench, I have to be able to make that choice, integrate that, and sequence that in my day to day work as part of my work. Not as something that is a distraction for my work.
Todd: This is really tough for a lot of people. We sort of laughed about the example of the sales rep who does well, becomes promoted to the sales manager and struggles because we’re not used to developing that kind of time. This is not their regimen. That was not their routine. It’s a hard shift for a lot of people.
Erica: It is. And it goes back to, you know, if you’re still emphasizing too much of your practitioner, right? So this tension between the practitioner and the philosopher—you kind of got to get that balance right. We talked about calibrating ourselves in the first episode here. Now it’s really making sure we’re putting that appropriate emphasis on the philosopher part because the practitioner comes easy. It’s the philosopher where the conscious discipline and that skill set now has to come in.
And it’s coming from a lot of interesting places so, in terms of inclusion and exclusion decisions, you know. We talked in a couple of seasons ago about green dollars and blue dollars. So green dollars, money we spend. Blue dollars, the people time. Well now we have to start thinking about not just our own time, but where are our people investing and spending their time as well. So, you know, we want to make sure that we are not overly including or overly excluding people from meetings, or from discussions. We want to make sure that we are resource allocating appropriately. We now as a team leader have to think about people time and money differently.
So, our investment of time and our tension around resources really starts to escalate now as we become the philosopher part of the practitioner.
Todd: It reminds me of something you said once where you have to be—there has to be a shift from being a ‘today leader’ to a ‘today and tomorrow leader’. That’s hard for people, too.
Erica: Absolutely. And you know, the tomorrow isn’t—we’ll get to this later when we talk about, you know, leading at the organizational level. When you become a team leader, you have to start being a landscape player, and an interface player. You’re in the middle of a lot of things now. You’re not alone in your own little cave, doing your own little work. You’re really in the mix of the organization and different things happening around you. So, tomorrow is a part of today because as a leader, whether it’s a one-year or a three-year time frame, team leaders have a larger time frame than just the individual contributor.
The individual contributor needs to get work done this year. The team leader needs to think about what is today and what is tomorrow in terms of not only delivering the work, but preparing the people to have the skill set to be able to deliver the work tomorrow and beyond.
Todd: Now, this being an interface player, that’s not the whole tension, right? Of now having the focus and being cognizant of the organization. It’s the classic me-ology to we-ology. And that’s the whole other realm that’s uncomfortable for a lot of new leaders. It’s this idea of having to keep that in mind. That’s a difficult transition for a lot of people. Not— a lot of new leaders, too, yes?
Erica: Yes, it is. And I think, you know, it goes to a couple of different areas. One is, we talked in the last episode about am I a part of the team? Or am I a leader of the team? These are my people. And, you know, what you need to really think about is that objectivity of being a team leader and developing those direct reports but being a team leader and helping to serve the organizational goal. So you’re at that interface where it doesn’t just play one way. It plays both ways. In fact, it plays three ways because you also have your peers that are to your right and to your left.
So you’re the interface as a team leader at three really critical junctions where there’s tension all around you. The tension of your direct reports, making sure you invest in them. The tension of are you serving and aligning with the needs of the organization. And the tension with are you doing the appropriate peer-to-peer cross-functional accountability to make sure that work gets done collaboratively.
So you’re right in the crosshairs.
Todd: All this idea of protecting your team and my peeps, and all that, how common a scenario is that we’ve all been a part of that. We’ve probably all done it. And it made sense to me last week, but now it’s even more visceral just because of this understanding, this interface, and the tension I have to be. Because I have to […] in the organization. There’s this desire to protect your team, you know? It feels like family. You can see where people would think that’s a good thing but the goal here is the organizational success, right? And I think people say, “I’m doing good by protecting my peeps”, when in fact that could be harming the organization which is in fact what a new leader—the we-ology type leader—has to be focusing on. They just have to.
Erica: You’re exactly right. And you know here’s the risk, right? So like we said, every tension that you potentially think you’re resolving may beget another tension, right? So, the inaction like—let’s go back to taking action, not action. The inaction of the team leader to correct a problem that exists because they want instead to protect their team member, that is going to make a bigger tension problem for that leader because it’s not like other people can’t see that that leader is protecting their people. So, what happens is that leader now has a blind spot or potentially has a growth area. They’re not necessarily addressing an issue. So, they become a little bit flawed as an organizational leader because they’re not doing the right thing on behalf of the organization. Their peers see that. Their supervisor sees that. And now they become a little bit vulnerable to “are they able to fully play the role that they need to play?” And that could limit their future growth opportunities.
Todd: No doubt about it. Alright, Erica and I will return after this short break, we’ll be right back.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK, 09:00 – 10:01]Todd: Alright, Todd Schnitt back with Erica Peitler. Alright, so another tension that you have to be thinking about here when you’re talking about we-ology versus me-ology is this idea of the tension of capacity. What do you mean by that?
Erica: Yes, so back to my favorite little thing which are S-curves, you know, at the bottom, in the bevel, of that S-curve is—we’re building capabilities, right? That’s where our comfort zone is, that’s where, you know, as an individual contributor—or even a team leader—we feel comfortable.
Capacity is the game changer. Do you have the capacity to handle the breadth and the scope of work. We talked about, you know, are you a controlling leader or an empowering leader. Are you going to make the choice to be a doer or are you going to advance into manage and lead. You have to have capacity to be a good team leader. Not only do you have to have capacity but you have to have the ability to teach the skill of capacity building to your bench so that they can also expand. You have to stretch them and make sure that they are able to do that as well.
The biggest compression factor that I see in organizations, the biggest reason why organizations can’t get to the next level is, the people don’t have the capacity, and the leaders don’t have the capacity. And we don’t stretch people. We just let people be, you know, comfortable in their technical zone. Capacity is about letting go, and it’s about trusting, and it’s about getting work done through others and letting them grow and develop.
The other piece that we need to be mindful of is composure, and that’s at the top of the S-curve. So, when you think about being a team leader, or being a practitioner, being a philosopher, and resolving tension, the biggest tension is having the capacity and the composure to really lead, and having the capability to teach that to your bench is really one of the biggest tensions that a team leader has to overcome.
Todd: Define more about composure. We all can think, you know, we understand what that means but in the context of this, what does it mean?
Erica: Very timely question, right? Because one of the things that’s really come to light in the leadership world, whether it be through corporate America, political venues, is do people have the temperament to lead. That’s what we’re talking about, right? The composure is about the temperament to lead. Can you hold yourself together, take the high road, and communicate what has to happen? Or do you digress into the negative side of leadership? And do you bring anger, and do you bring judgment into your leadership practice? So having the composure to lead, how do you keep the game up at the right level, how do you keep it positive, how do you keep it focused on moving and advancing things forward without being judgmental, negative, and critical.
Todd: Well, let’s remember who we’re leading here: human beings.
Erica: Sure.
Todd: They’re going to make mistakes, so if you’re listeners and you think, “ah, I don’t need composure”, you’re dead wrong, right?
Erica: Absolutely. Absolutely. Composure’s a critical piece. You know, one of the things too that to mind when I also think of tensions for some team leaders to think about is what do we tend to deal with a lot as leaders? We get everybody’s problems that they can’t resolve, right? You know, people will just bring those monkeys and place them on our back and say, “hey, you know, Todd, I can’t solve this problem. I have this problem with Erica, can you talk to Erica and kind of resolve it?” So, we have to deal with this issue of resolving issues at the point of contact versus escalation. And if we’re able to do that, we’re able to empower our bench into being much more effective, we teach people how to resolve their issues directly, versus it’s easy for us to resolve everybody’s problems, but it causes compression for us then we’re not focused on the things that we need to focus on.
Todd: So they’re responsible for it.
Erica: Another watch out.
Todd: Well, another tension that I think is really mission critical here in terms of, especially as you begin to think about leading an organization, is this idea of silos[?] versus cross-functional collaborations. I think about Tom Peters and all the thought leadership people[?] out in the world, the one thing I think about with him is he says, “here’s one best piece of advice: when you have lunch every day, don’t have lunch with your teammates. Have lunch with someone in another department”.
Erica: Yeah.
Todd: And that’s how you begin to learn and break down these barriers. This tension between silo and cross-functional, I mean, that’s very, very critical here, yes?
Erica: Absolutely. And I’m so glad you brought that up because we’re going into the next couple of episodes at the enterprise level and one of the, let’s say, hole or traps that team leaders can fall into is working vertically only. You know, understanding that, hey, my team is getting its work done and you know, we’re great. We’re great. If everybody else could just get their act together, the whole world would be great across the organization but we’re great.
Well, we are an entity as an organization and work that’s done vertically as well as horizontally so to your point of cross-dysfunctional nature, you know. We have to realize is we are, as team leaders, responsible for this end result and outcome of work that happens across the enterprise. And that most importantly, talent is an enterprise asset. So that is a great on point comment which is, look I may be leading this functional team but as an organizational leader, which is one of my interface roles that I play, all the talent is something that I need to take interest in. And every opportunity to have a coachable moment to develop that talent is something that I need to take action on.
Todd: Yeah. There again lies that focus on protecting your team. And I keep going back to that because that’s a game changer for me in re-thinking how this kind of thing works. But if that’s your focus then you’re not thinking about the enterprise. I love this line of yours, that talent is an enterprise asset and I think we forget that. Very easily.
Erica: Absolutely.
Todd: Very quickly.
Erica: It’s where we need to focus. And, you know, it really takes us into where we’re going into the next couple of episodes. So resolving these tensions, getting into that mindset of we-ology, if we’ve left listeners today making that appropriate shift of calibrating themselves and thinking about the team as a whole, I think we’re right on the precipice of what’s next.
Todd: Alright, that’s all of the time we have for today, Erica. Should anyone have any questions, how can they find you and learn more?
Erica: Yes. As always, find me at erica@ericapeitler.com via email. You can follow me on Twitter, @ericapeitler, would love to hear from you.
Todd: Alright thank you for that. So, join us next week for episode 6: the tension in leading organizations and being either an entrepreneurial or enterprise leader and that’s just part 1. We’ll learn about diagnosing your business, life cycle stage, and establishing your leadership role clarity. Alright, so until then. And in behalf of myself and my co-host Erica Peitler, thank you for listening. We’ll see you next week in Leadership on the Ground, season 4.