Leadership and Organisational Culture - where to from here?

There is plenty to read online regarding hybrid work arrangements, impact on leadership styles and organisational culture. I don’t feel I need to add to this incredible body of work that is investigating the impact on productivity and the health and well-being of people. 

Instead I want to provide my reflections on what has become salient to me as I deliver leadership and cultural change projects across a number of different sectors starting with three critical leadership skills.

Leadership Skill One:

The greatest capability that you can have as a leader is to be able to manage your emotional state. There is no question that leadership is challenging, work demands are high, and many leaders are over achievers that already place themselves under personal pressure with their high standards (not withstanding what their role requirements might entail).

Vulnerability and authenticity in leadership are valued now more than ever before, however, this comes with the responsibility of being able to do something about how you might be feeling and responding. Transformational Leaders are role models for their people. This includes recognising and managing your emotional state. 

Brene Brown quotes Antonio Damasio, in her series Atlas of the Heart, “we are not thinking machines that feel; rather we are feeling machines that think.” Our thoughts are our way of dealing with our experience of emotions and their context. Understanding yourself and managing your mindset is a leadership gift.

Leadership Skill Two:

The second critical leadership skill is helping your people to manage their emotional state. The Transformational Leadership model is still considered the most sought-after style of leadership. A component of this is the ability to coach your people for improved performance and discretionary effort.

People are unable to be coached if they are in a state of amygdala hijack as a result of stress, uncertainty, or change. Being able to move your people into a resourceful state where they have the capacity to develop a growth mindset is critical to their wellbeing and performance.

As a leader, it is important to be able to recognise the emotional tone of situations, connect with your people so they can open up about what they are experiencing, and provide them with tools to manage their emotional state.

Leadership Skill Three:

Understand and curate the emotional culture of your team or organisation. Do you understand how your people are feeling when they are at work?

“Studies show the significant impact emotions have on how people perform tasks, how engaged and creative they are, how committed they are to their organisations and how they make decisions” – HBR.

Most organisations don’t care how their people are or should be feeling at work. They underestimate how important emotions are to building a high-performing workplace culture. As a simple example, you may feel stressed 60% of the time you are at work, but you would be more comfortable if you were only feeling stressed 20% of the time.

I think we can all understand that we may experience emotions that are undesired from time to time. This differential in experience between what you think would be manageable or acceptable to you compared to what you are experiencing, can have a large impact on personal performance and wellbeing.

What Leaders Can Do

I am incredibly fortunate to work with a variety of organisations across different levels of government through to large corporates. Although many of us understand the importance of Critical Leadership Skill Number One’ we are unlikely to learn the tools and techniques associated with emotional state management over the course of our careers.

Leaders spend a significant amount of time building their technical expertise and ensuring they stay relevant in their field compared to time spent developing their personal and leadership capability. Our leadership programs draw on expertise in neuroscience, psychology and sophisticated human communication techniques to help organisations build a thriving and engaged leadership culture.

I recently became certified in the Emotional Culture Deck which is a card game that helps leaders understand what drives and motivates their people. Conversations get very deep, very fast and have allowed Leaders to show the vulnerability and authenticity that connects them with their people.  My clients have designed human-centred approaches to creating and curating their organisation culture based on empathy and engagement. I am excited about the potential for increased wellbeing and emotional intelligence.

One of our goals at NNC is to work with our clients to develop emotionally progressive organisations. I am interested to hear your perceptions of how you would rate the emotional intelligence and culture of your organisation.