MSLD 633 Module 4 - Should the "Boss" always know the answers?

Should the "Boss" always know the answers?

Leadership is not necessarily a formally ranked position, it is a choice you make (Sinek, 2014). Often the "bosses" pretend to know the answer, while people on the bottom line knows it well, and pretend they do not know, constructing a system a leadership charades. (Obolensky, 2014).Since I watched Sinek’s video, two years ago, I started sharing that with my team members on my current job (including or not people on higher rank than mine, since the people I work along changes every day). The reactions are all different (eyes tighten, brief smile, nodding, or staring) but have a common background: curiosity. I concluded that because at this point everyone starts listening in a different way, willing to listen, and afterwards they often come to me to talk about it.

Since I got the sense of curiosity I started elaborating my sentence. I explain to my team members that there is no boss in our relationship, and that everyone can lead any situation. I work with inflight service as supervisor, in a large airline, where this mentality is not common seen in an organization on this field, neither within a conservative culture where the company is based. My job requires me to be adaptive, due to its dynamism and the variety of cultures that I deal with (including coworkers and customers), but more than that, requires me to count on the leadership capacity of every and single one of my team members.

Dudley (2010) explains that every single moment you decide to create an impact, you are leading. Working with safety, security and medical situation, and being accountable and responsible for every consequence, made me hesitate to “pass the torch” of leadership to my “followers”. With time and studies, I understood that a job which requires me adaptive solutions, requires me automatically an adaptive leadership approach. Northouse (2016) says that one of the behaviors of an adaptive leader is to protect leadership voice from below. I would add a behavior on this subject matter which I believe to be powerful: protect and VALUE leadership voice from below. The author explains that an adaptive leader allows low-status members to be more involved, independent, and responsible for their actions. This will lead to more engaged people, with a sense of accountability on the planning and decision making. Since I realized all this, even in high challenging scenarios, I give my team member the opportunity and the trust they need to lead.

I am always around in challenge situations, and I set this clear during every pre-meeting when talking about leadership as an equal responsibility. I am there to guide or take over if needed, to be able to report the real facts to the office, and as an extra hand in case they need me, but one risk I am always ready to take: back up my team member on their decisions.

The impact on people’s performance, since I changed my approach, and the down or upwards feedback I get is always positive. I have faced situations where higher ranked leaders disapproved my approach, and sometimes after a long conversation, if there is no agreement on my decision, I end up the conversation with a conclusion that frequently leaves them with no reasonable argument: “whatever happens I will take the consequences”.

This brings me to the Harvard article “How to Lead When You're Not the Boss.” Leading my team and need to be under a responsibility of a boss or a leader is not always an easy task. I make my decisions, knowing that the consequences will not please, and in fact will impact upwards.

To be able to lead this way, I follow some guidelines which is mentioned on the article plus some adaptive behaviors required from a leader, mentioned by Heifetz et al. (2009) and Obolensky (2014). I have my goals clear to everyone (up and downwards), and I am constant flexible for changes, based on experiences faced at the moment, or in outcomes of my decisions. I try to think systematically, getting on the balcony and looking at all possible perspectives, diagnosing in what I believe to the most accurate reality we are facing. Afterwards, through engagement and focusing on the diversity of my team I open up for opinion and any valuable inputs, for a collective creativity on decision making or problem solving (Hill, 2014; Clinch, 2015). When the day is over (or in times of lower workload) I either ask or provide feedback as a form of gathering important information, paraphrasing positive impact, motivate the lateral leadership approach, and to avoid misunderstanding from the boss of the day.

I am aware that directly I impact in a very small portion of the work force, the human beings whose run the organization, but I believe that being an adaptive leader is not giving up on solution which can be lasting, no matter how far your attitudes can reach, and how demotivating can be when the system (or the people within it) not always backs up you actions. Clinch (2015) says that people is often a solution for problems and adaptive changes, and I believe that the way I lead every day, even my small team, will have a greater impact than policies and procedures impacts, because our challenge is adaptive and not technical, and changing peoples mind and behavior towards a more horizontal leadership, will define the long term success of our organization.

References

Clinch, M. (2015). Adaptive leadership. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xxvqwv_p2g&feature=youtu.be, on September 30, 2018.

Dudley, D. (2010). Everyday leadership. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/drew_dudley_everyday_leadership/transcript, on December, 2016.

Heifetz,R. A., Linsky, M., Grashow, A. (2009). The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for changing your organization and the world. Business Harvard Review

Hill, L. (2014). How to manage for collective creativity. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/linda_hill_how_to_manage_for_collective_creativity?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare, on January 2, 2018.

How to Lead When You're Not the Boss. (2009). Harvard Management Update, 14(3), 1-2.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: theory and practice. (7^th edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex Adaptive Leadership: Embracing Paradox and Uncertainty (2^nd edition). New York, NY: Routledge.

Sinek, S. (2014). How great leaders make you feel safe. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_why_good_leaders_make_you_feel_safe, on October 5^t, 2018.