We help leaders effectively navigate these conversations, turning potential conflict into constructive collaboration. To provide insight to our approach, we’ve asked Marin Burton, a senior faculty member in our Societal Impact group, for her perspective on how to approach challenging conversations in your organization.

What Exactly Are Challenging Conversations?

Challenging conversations are a dialogue where the people involved hold differing views on an issue, often with deep-rooted passion and commitment. The emotional charge that goes with these conversations can make them tricky to navigate, but they’re an integral part of our growth and understanding.

These conversations can crop up anywhere — within our teams at work, in our interactions with community members, or even around the dinner table with family. Recently, we’ve observed an uptick in challenging conversations surrounding post-pandemic work arrangements.

For example, we’ve seen challenging conversations emerge post-pandemic as employees and organizations struggle to find common ground on workplace location and flexibility. You probably know someone who feels strongly about having a flexible schedule or remote work. At the same time, you likely know a supervisor who feels strongly about having their entire team in the office at the same time. At first glance, it appears that these 2 parties are on opposite sides of the issue.

When we take a step back, we can recognize that neither party is wrong. It’s both good to have a flexible work schedule and also valuable to have an entire team in the office when they are collaborating. Even though both people have valid points and perspectives, it can feel like an either / or choice; therefore, setting up a challenging conversation. Neither perspective is wrong; both flexibility and collaboration hold value. However, the seeming opposition can create a challenging conversation.

In our wider communities, we see many instances where people stand on polar opposite sides of issues, from tax policies to educational reforms. Our brains naturally seek patterns, and in doing so, we may inadvertently reinforce our own views, missing potential common ground.

The key is to disrupt this either / or narrative. While these challenging conversations may seem daunting, they provide us with an opportunity to explore, understand, and ultimately bridge the gap between differing perspectives. Remember, it’s not about winning an argument, but about fostering understanding and potentially finding a common path forward.

What Sparked the Idea for This New Approach to Challenging Conversations?

I’ve always had an interest in creating meaningful dialogue and the study of polarity thinking, but my journey toward this design was largely influenced by my experiences with our clients. A particularly impactful instance was my work with a superintendent of schools and her cabinet. We had collaborated for several years when the pandemic struck, triggering a wave of divisive accusations from parents and community members during school board meetings. The situation escalated to the point of media coverage, and the leaders were grappling with how to respond.

During our scheduled 2-day leadership development retreat amid these challenges, it became clear that we needed a different approach. We needed a shift in both mindset and skillset that could facilitate a higher quality of conversation, turning conflict into collaboration.

As I delved into the design of this new approach, I found a myriad of applications. As humans, we are social beings who once depended on our groups to keep us safe. Once, our very survival depended on them; today, this hardwiring can trigger an “us versus them” mentality when faced with an interpersonal conflict. This can push us away from seeking common ground to engaging with each other in a more defensive stance.

In response, our design aims to break this cycle. I’ve facilitated this design with various nonprofit groups, public health officials, and education leaders, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. It offers a fresh perspective, a new way to navigate through challenging conversations, and ultimately, a path toward greater understanding.

What Makes Your Approach Unique?

At CCL, we’ve established frameworks for increasing understanding and providing feedback, forming the foundation of our design. However, to truly bridge the gap in challenging conversations, we needed to go beyond understanding and foster empathy for differing perspectives.

Challenging conversations often arise from differing values or worldviews, which can create tension. This is where our approach shines, incorporating one of my favorite tools — polarity thinking. This framework, offered to us from Polarity Partnerships, has profoundly changed my own worldview. It acknowledges the paradoxical nature of our complex world. It challenges us to hold 2 truths simultaneously, recognizing that the person across the table has a valid perspective, even if it differs from our own.

Our Leading Challenging Conversations approach invites people to understand and empathize with the polarity at the heart of the conversation. Through a process called polarity mapping, we learn to appreciate not only the merits of our own perspective but also the value of the opposing viewpoint.

This approach encourages us to see the humanity in others and respect their perspective, even when we fundamentally disagree. The conversation shifts from an either / or to a both / and scenario. We may disagree, but we both bring value to the conversation. The question then becomes, how can we learn from each other and leverage our differences rather than allowing them to divide us?

What’s Your Best Advice for Someone Currently Navigating Challenging Conversations?

This answer isn’t going to be popular — my advice is to slow down and be patient. Make an effort to truly, actively listen to the other person’s perspective with genuine curiosity. It’s this curiosity that paves the way for empathy. Go beyond understanding the facts and show genuine interest in how the person arrived at their viewpoint, the values that underpin their perspective, and what you can learn from them. This approach isn’t easy, especially when your own worldview is being challenged. But by taking a series of steps, you can pause, breathe, and respond differently.

When I mess up, it’s when I’m focused on my need to be understood rather than my skill of listening to understand. In a world that often labels people as right or wrong, with us or against us, it’s easy to feel misunderstood. This feeling can lead us to avoid certain conversations entirely. But when we need each other, avoiding conversation isn’t an option. We need to build skills to manage challenging situations.

In response to this need, I delved into extensive research on how to navigate difficult conversations. The common thread was the need to respect the other person as a human with values, needs, wishes, and hopes.

So, slow down. Be patient. Cultivate curiosity about someone else’s perspective. You’ll often find you have more in common than you initially thought. Once you find this common ground, there’s real hope for progress.

How Can Challenging Conversations Spark Hope?

Challenging conversations, while tough, hold a silver lining. They offer us the opportunity to embrace our human capacity to hold 2 truths simultaneously and validate multiple perspectives. This doesn’t mean we always have to agree, but we can strive to understand the roots of differing viewpoints.

In my travels across the country, working with diverse leaders and organizations, I’ve encountered individuals doing their best with the resources they have. Most people genuinely intend to make a positive impact on others, the world, or their organizational mission.

Engaging in challenging conversations can strengthen relationships. They don’t always turn out perfectly. But if done well, we can always learn something. Our world is growing more complex, and our brains often prefer familiar paths. It takes effort to retrain our deep-seated impulses to be right or defend ourselves.

Instead of retreating to our corners in a battle to be right, what if we embarked on a quest to be curious? This approach encourages us to operate from the best version of our humanity, enabling us to see the best in others and bring about the changes we desire in the world.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Enabling your team to hold challenging conversations more effectively could help to strengthen your organization. If you, like us, believe in the power of leadership to drive social change, contact us to start a conversation about how we can partner together.

The post Ask the Expert: Challenging Conversations appeared first on CCL.

Leading change successfully is one of the biggest challenges of individual leaders and one of the most common problems that modern organizations face. In today’s world, the strategic imperative to change is often clear: Without being able to do things differently, your organization is unlikely to succeed, or even to last.

At its core, change management for leaders requires working together to create a shared understanding of change required to execute the strategy, and how to best make it happen. But change-management research has demonstrated time after time that organizational change initiatives fail more often than they succeed, despite all the resources put into creating change management processes.

We know that effective leadership is essential to successful change. But we wanted to understand the differences in change leadership between successful and unsuccessful change leaders, so our researchers conducted a study and asked 275 senior executives to reflect on successful and unsuccessful change efforts they’d led.

Our goal was to characterize “change-capable leadership,” define the key leadership competencies necessary for effective leadership through change, and better understand leadership behaviors that could contribute to change failures.

The executives we surveyed were all participants in our Leadership at the Peak program, which targets executives with more than 15 years of management experience, responsibility for 500 or more people, and decision-making authority as members of top management teams. All of them were seasoned leaders. Our researchers found that the most change-capable leaders have 9 shared competencies that ensure effective leadership though change.

Our study revealed 9 competencies for leadership and change management that can be further divided into 3 main categories:

• Core competencies that we call “the 3 C’s of change leadership:” communication, collaboration, and commitment;
• Competencies related to leading the process of change; and
• Competencies related to leading people through change.

Let’s look at each in turn, as together, these 9 competencies are key in how to lead change most effectively.

The 3 C’s of Change Leadership: Communicate, Collaborate, Commit

Our researchers found that 3 core skills provide the essential connection between the process part of change and the people part of change, which is why we call them the essential 3 C’s of change leadership.

Core Skills for Leading Change

1. Communicate.

Unsuccessful change leaders tended to focus on the “what” behind the change. Successful ones communicated both the “what” and the “why.” Change leaders who explained the purpose of the change, and connected it to the organization’s values or explained the benefits, created stronger buy-in and urgency for the change. (This is why we say purpose in leadership is so important.)

2. Collaborate.

Bringing people together to plan and execute change is critical. Successful change leaders collaborated across boundaries, encouraged employees to break out of their silos, and refused to tolerate unhealthy competition. They also included employees in decision-making early on, strengthening their commitment to change. Unsuccessful change leaders failed to engage employees early and often in the change process.

3. Commit.

Successful change leaders made sure their own beliefs and behaviors support the change, too. Change is difficult, but leaders who negotiated it successfully were resilient and persistent, and willing to step outside their comfort zone. They also devoted more of their own time to the change effort and focused on the big picture. Unsuccessful change leaders failed to adapt to challenges, expressed negativity, and were impatient with a lack of results.

Leading Through Change Requires Balancing Process & People

Skills for Leading the Process of Change

Strategic change doesn’t happen on its own. Managing change as a leader requires you guide the process from start to finish. Here are the 3 key competencies that are part of how to lead change in terms of change processes.

4. Initiate.

After understanding the need for change, effective change leaders begin by making the case for the change they seek. This can include evaluating the business context, understanding the purpose of the change, developing a clear vision and desired outcome, and identifying a common goal. Unsuccessful change leaders say they didn’t focus on these tasks enough to reach a common understanding of the goal.

5. Strategize.

Successful change leaders developed a strategy and a clear action plan, including priorities, timelines, tasks, structures, behaviors, and resources. They identified what would change, but also what would stay the same. Leaders who weren’t successful said they failed to listen enough to questions and concerns, and failed to define success from the beginning.

6. Execute.

Translating strategy into execution is one of the most important things leaders can do. In our study, successful change leaders focused on getting key people into key positions (or removing them, in some cases). They also broke big projects down into small wins to get early victories and build momentum. And they developed metrics and monitoring systems to measure progress. Unsuccessful change leaders sometimes began micromanaging, got mired in implementation details, and failed to consider the bigger picture.

Remember that, as organizations evolve over time, both stability and change must coexist — which is not a problem to solve, but rather a polarity to manage. To help your organization achieve its full potential, change leaders must acknowledge both simultaneously. When change leaders find the sweet spot of “both/and,” they can present the change effort in a way that others can embrace.

Skills for Leading People Through Change

While formal change processes might be well understood, too many change leaders overlook the all-important human side of change equation.

The most effective change leaders know that another key in how to lead change is devoting effort to engaging everyone involved in the change and remembering that people need time to adapt to change — no matter how fast-moving the change initiative — to combat change fatigue and encourage embracing change. And they exhibit these 3 crucial competencies of leading people through change:

7. Support.

Successful change projects were characterized by leaders removing barriers to employee success. These include personal barriers, such as wounded egos and a sense of loss, as well as professional barriers, such as the time and resources necessary to carry out a change plan. Leaders of unsuccessful change focused exclusively on results, so employees didn’t get the support they needed for the change.

8. Sway.

Influencing others is about gaining not just compliance, but also the commitment necessary to drive change. It’s also about mapping out the critical change agents and defining what “buy-in” looks like from each stakeholder that will lead to a successful outcome. Effective change leaders identified key stakeholders — including board members, C-suite executives, clients, and others — and communicated their vision of successful change to them. Unsuccessful leaders told us they were more likely to avoid certain stakeholders rather than try to influence them.

9. Learn.

Finally, successful change leaders never assumed they had all the answers. They asked lots of questions and gathered formal and informal feedback. After all, great leaders are great learners. The input and feedback allowed them to make continual adjustments during the change. In the case of unsuccessful changes, leaders didn’t ask as many questions or gather accurate information, which left them without the knowledge they needed to make appropriate adjustments along the way.

One Last Thing: Resilience Matters for Change Leadership, Too

Lastly, managers who are tasked with leadership through change should recognize that leading people through complex change is difficult, and that all change comes at a cumulative cost. Simply put, change can drain employees — and leaders, too.

That’s why successful change leadership also requires resilience. Resilience helps people handle change’s inherent pressure, uncertainty, and setbacks. Leaders need to build their own reserves in support of their mental and physical health, and can guide others to face change in healthy and sustainable ways by learning and sharing practices for resilient leadership. In the end, that’s one other thing that change leaders need to be able to stay the course and succeed.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Build more effective change leaders at your organization by building your team’s collective capacity and understanding of how to lead change, both the people and process aspects. Explore our change leadership solutions.

The post How to Be a Successful Change Leader appeared first on CCL.

Whether it’s leading a group of people in an office setting, managing teams remotely, or more likely, leading a hybrid workforce, it’s critical for leaders to build and maintain trust with their people.

Leadership trust creates the stable foundation for employees and their organizations to flex, adapt, and thrive in times of continuous change.

The behaviors that build trust are the very behaviors that manage change. Trust building helps teams step into ambiguity, stay committed to managing the unknown with confidence, and embrace change as an opportunity to learn, grow, and do great work together.

What Is Leadership Trust?

Trust means “uncompromised by doubt.” In the workplace, people can’t do their best work if they doubt others’ intentions or capabilities, the direction or viability of the organization, or, most importantly, if they doubt their own ability to keep up with the demands placed on them. This is especially true in today’s environment of complex change and ambiguity, when employees are being asked to do more with less.

Leadership trust is reciprocal and created incrementally. To inspire trust from others, leaders need to also show trust in them. Over time these relationships build and maintain the trust that teams and organizations need to take action in a fast-paced world.

Our research underscores the need for trust in organizations. In high-trust environments, people show up and to do their best work. They gain productive energy, creativity, speed, and better results. They align around a common purpose, take risks, support each other, and communicate openly and honestly.

Effective leadership requires knowing how to build and keep trust, whether it’s with individuals, on teams, or across the organization.

How to Build Leadership Trust

Address Both Sides of the Change Equation to Maximize Leadership Trust

Leading effectively, especially in times of disruption, requires the ability to build leadership trust in challenging environments. Within organizations, change happens on 2 sides:

1. The structural side.

The structural side of change includes new external realities and the business system and process changes needed to address them, such as an organizational restructure in response to a global pandemic.

2. The people side.

The people side of change includes the internal, psychological transitions people go through to adjust mindsets, behaviors, and culture to new realities and business processes.

To address the structural side of change, leaders need to leverage strengths and create commitment across the organization.

And to address the people side of change, leaders must connect with people emotionally, recognize where they are in the transition process, and model resiliency, curiosity, and compassion.

Leadership trust is built by balancing these 2 sides of the change equation along very specific lines that often feel like paradoxes.

Balancing Paradox to Build Leadership Trust

Because Leadership Isn’t Either/Or, It’s Yes, And

Leadership often comes with choices that have no right answers.

For example, in the midst of organizational change, should leaders communicate a sense of urgency to take action, or patience with people’s need to understand and adapt to the change? Should they project a sense of optimism, or a realistic view of the challenges ahead?

The reality is, today’s leaders cannot afford to only choose one or the other. Building leadership trust and moving forward together relies on both. This is the crux of a paradox, also known as a polarity: it requires the ability to see both perspectives clearly and at the same time — and to build trust while balancing those perspectives.

Leaders cannot afford the simplicity of either addressing the structural side or people side of change. They can only advance change objectives effectively by focusing, instead, on “yes, and” approaches.

The leaders we work with in our programs have faced an incredible amount of disruption over the course of the pandemic — to both their personal and professional lives. While exhausted, they know they need to continue to move the needle for their organizations in the face of this upheaval.

To do so, these leaders need to be able to rely on their teams and move quickly, which requires trust. Teams move at the speed of trust — and whole organizations move at the speed of their teams.

This is one of the many “yes, and’s” of leadership.

Manage These 6 Paradoxes to Build Leadership Trust

Our research has found 6 critical paradoxes to balance to build and maintain leadership trust.

Participants in our Leadership Development Program (LDP)® explore these paradoxes through our “Leadership Paradox Wheel” tool. This tool helps leaders recognize the tensions they face, and how they might build stronger trust by highlighting one end of the paradox or the other at specific times, while always leading with both in mind.

For example, structural changes require a sense of urgency to move things forward, while people need realistic patience as they transition their mindsets and adapt to new conditions and processes.

Leaders lose trust when they ignore or overplay either side of this equation. A leader may be seen as lacking empathy and patience if they push too quickly toward change. Alternatively, if a leader is overly patient but lacks urgency, change may stall, causing them to lose credibility.

Either imbalance breaks trust in leadership; people count on leaders to deliver business results and care for those they lead.

Building Leadership Trust: A Collaborative Effort

In a recent study we conducted of more than 140 top leadership teams, team members reported greater psychological safety at work when they regularly shared information and developed relationships of mutual influence with others. Interpersonal trust, information sharing, and mutual influence increases overall group psychological safety — a key driver of team performance and innovation.

But what does trust mean in the context of leadership? Trust is a complex concept, and it means different things to different people. Talking about trust and establishing shared definitions are key steps to address trust across a team or organization.

A shared understanding and language to talk about the specific behaviors that affect trust can result in more productive conversations about team performance. Those conversations can even create stronger bonds between leaders and employees.

But leadership trust isn’t a one-off initiative. It requires continued effort from all team members. And it takes leaders who are willing to show integrity, change behavior, and take on the hard work of collaborating across boundaries and dealing with differences.

Research shows that trust represents a core human need we all have: to trust others, to be trusted in return, and to trust in ourselves. When trust is present, people align around the purpose of their team, embrace goals and objectives, willingly collaborate, and are empowered to do their best work.

When trust is absent, or made vulnerable, work becomes more difficult and takes longer to execute. With the pace of change in today’s organizations, leaders need trust more than ever before.

Building leadership trust amidst change and continuous disruption is a key element in our flagship Leadership Development Program (LDP)®. The longest-running program of its kind in the world, LDP is designed for managers in the middle — those who rely heavily on leadership trust to build commitment and translate strategy into effective action.

Participants of LDP examine their own leadership styles so they can develop a more balanced approach, foster authentic connections, and collaborate across all levels of the organization to produce results — even in the midst of unprecedented change.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Give your people the skills needed to build leadership trust with their teams with our Leadership Development Program, available both in person and online.

The post Why Leadership Trust Is Critical, Especially in Times of Change appeared first on CCL.

The servant leadership model has long been celebrated for helping leaders prioritize their people, and in turn, increase performance and profits for their organizations. But there are critiques of the model that suggest servant leadership can be interpreted and practiced in a way that advocates subverting self in favor of others.

Can we garner the benefits of servant leadership, and do so in a sustainable way, by encouraging leaders to take care of themselves first, in order to serve the teams they lead more effectively?

First, What Is Servant Leadership?

The servant leadership theory, first popularized by Robert Greenleaf’s 1970 piece, “The Servant as Leader,” is often cited as a best practice for creating employee engagement and increasing productivity.

There are several elements to the servant leadership model, which centers on what’s often described as “flipping the pyramid of leadership.” According to Greenleaf, “The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first, and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.”

The 4 primary tenets of the servant leadership model include:

1. Sharing power;
2. Putting the needs of others before your own;
3. Helping others develop and perform highly; and
4. Collaborating for the greater good.

This framework has many benefits, including helping to achieve direction, alignment, and commitment (DAC), our model for effective leadership:

• “Collaborating for the greater good” means that everyone is working to achieve a common, shared direction — one that is understood and seen as helping the entire organization or community.
• By listening closely and understanding employees’ roles, responsibilities, and goals, servant leaders increase alignment not only within their own teams, but across their organizations.
• And by sharing power, servant leaders create a more interdependent culture that increases commitment to those shared goals.

Common Pitfalls Associated With the Traditional Model of Servant Leadership

But the traditional idea of servant leadership can fail both leader and team when the balance tips too far in one direction and leaders completely ignore themselves in favor of others. In most cases, the model breaks down when compassionate leaders have the very best of intentions — they want to care for their employees and serve their organizations and communities. But they forget that in order to accomplish that, they must know and care for themselves as well.

According to a systematic review of the research on servant leadership in The Leadership Quarterly, this imbalance may show up in different ways, including:

• Leaders over-empathizing with their followers, resulting in their own burnout (burnout is especially common among nonprofit leaders);
• Leaders overemphasizing the relationship aspects of work, resulting in lower task completion/productivity; and
• Followers becoming overly dependent on leaders, and unable to make decisions and take action on their own.

In our work with clients around the globe, we’ve found that leaders often lean too far into putting the needs of others first, to the detriment of themselves. As their personal growth and wellbeing suffer, they find that the servant leadership style is less effective. When a leader’s own basic needs are not being met, it becomes increasingly challenging to support their team members.

3 Steps to Reimagine the Servant Leadership Model

Serving Others Better by Starting With Self

While it may seem like a paradox, the key to successful servant leadership in service of others is actually to start with self.

That’s why we help our program participants understand that there are 3 elements to positive servant leadership that are essential to achieving the original goals of the model: self-reflection, self-awareness, and self-care. By starting with a focus on yourself, you will be able to better serve your colleagues, teams, and organization as a fully realized servant leader.

1. Self-Reflection: Examine Your Values.

Servant leaders help their teams identify their values, learn from experience about themselves, uncover needs, and set goals. Do you do the same for yourself? While servant leaders are committed to helping their teams grow, you can’t forget to make time to for self-reflection to cultivate your own growth, too. It not only helps you as a leader, it sets an example for your team as well.

The first step is to look inward and examine your own values and experiences. Results from 360-degree assessments can be a useful tool here to better understand yourself, but you can also start by grabbing a journal and reflecting on a series of questions:

• What experiences stand out in your mind as critical to who you are today?
• How did those experiences shape your approach to others and your work?
• What values did you learn and/or develop from those experiences?
• What skills are you most proud of? What skills do you wish you had or could develop?
• How do those skills reflect your values?

Getting to the true heart of how you became the leader you are today depends on understanding the values that underlie your approach and connecting your values to your goals.

As organizational psychologist Adam Grant notes, “don’t ask why you’re the way you are — that often leads to rumination. Instead, ask what situations bring out the best and worst in you, and what you can do to improve.” By focusing on experiences and skills, you gain valuable insight without that potential spiral.

As you examine your values, it’s also an opportunity to ask yourself if they’ve been shaped by people with diverse perspectives and experiences. If you notice that critical moments in your life have not been as inclusive as you’d like, seek out ways to expand your network. One quick way to do so is to take a look at your contacts on LinkedIn. Do they represent the diversity of people you work with, both as colleagues and clients? If not, make a conscious effort to change that by connecting and engaging with a more diverse network. This is one small step to begin practicing more inclusive leadership.

2. Self-Awareness: Know Your Impact.

Servant leadership requires a high level of self-awareness in order to be effective. You can’t put the needs of others first if you don’t fully understand and reflect on your own values and how they shape your interactions.

Our research shows that self-awareness is one of the 4 core leadership skills necessary for effective leadership. In today’s environment, when change is a constant and solutions are complex, cultivating self-awareness is an increasingly important practice.

One of the best ways to increase your self-awareness is to focus on how you impact others by soliciting feedback. Feedback from colleagues, teammates, and family can help you understand how your behaviors and intentions align, and help you identify potential blind spots.

The key to soliciting and responding to feedback is to stay curious. Being genuinely curious about how your actions affect others can move you from feeling closed and defensive to feeling open and willing to seek knowledge. Curiosity feeds self-awareness and invites people to help you in your development.

Self-awareness through feedback creates a more effective servant leadership model by helping leaders create an environment of give and take, instead of total dependency and power imbalance. Your curiosity helps you better understand how your leadership impacts others, both in terms of your relationship and their work.

3. Self-Care: Build Your Resilience.

Resiliency has always been an important part of how we accomplish and manage our work. Pre-pandemic, the focus was often on achieving work-life “balance.” But with the onset of pandemic stress and lines between work and life becoming increasingly blurred, the conversation around resiliency in the face of setbacks has shifted from aspirational to mission-critical.

There’s no question that self-care, preventing burnout, and recovery from overworking are top of mind for many people and organizations. But the actual application of resilience practices remain a challenge for many.

In addition, the traditional servant leadership model can often bend leaders too far towards care for others instead of care for self — a balance that’s subtle, but vitally important.

At CCL, our resiliency research focuses on helping people avoid burnout. Here are a few tips for starting your own resiliency practice:

• Maximize “Time Confetti” — Breaks and pauses to recharge don’t need to be huge chunks of time. Use the few minutes you have between activities — the short moments we refer to as “time confetti” — to do something enjoyable and energizing, such as taking a few deep breaths, going for a quick walk outside, dancing to your favorite song, or calling someone you love.
• Recharge Your Battery — How many times a day do you check your phone to be sure it’s charged? How many times do you check your body for the same purpose? Each time you reach for your phone, take a moment to check in on your body as well and give yourself what you need.
• Express Your Creative Side — Do something that energizes you and engages a totally different part of your brain. Whether it’s an adult coloring book, singing, or painting a canvas, giving your brain something new to enjoy allows you to tap into your creativity and reduce your overall stress.
• Savor Joyful Moments — Savoring is defined as deliberately enhancing and prolonging your positive moods, experiences, and emotions, and is linked to increased wellbeing, happiness, life satisfaction, and decreased depression. What do you savor? A good book, a funny movie, a hike, visiting a friend? Stop, and remember to savor the moments of joy you experience.

Learn more about how to enhance and practice more resilient leadership.

As with all aspects of leadership, your ability to balance self-care and care for others will ebb and flow. Practicing servant leadership is the same. Instead of always putting the needs of others before your own, you must make time to put yourself first, too. It’s essential for both wellbeing and leadership.

Making the Servant Leadership Model More Sustainable

This reimagined servant leadership model better balances the energy focused on self and others. It leans on the leader’s self-reflection and awareness to better understand their impact on others. And it values self-care as an essential component to success.

These “self” aspects of our version of servant leadership are even more important in our increasingly complex world, where leaders are called on to make tough decisions and change is the only constant.

To prepare ourselves to bring our best to our work, we must transition away from seeing servant leadership as only about others and invite our teams and colleagues to do the same. Doing so will create an opportunity for leaders of all levels to participate in creating a culture where we achieve together and take care of one another, while we also care for ourselves.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Try on a more sustainable approach to the servant leadership model, and help your team form habits that create conditions for peak performance with our resilience-building solutions, which will help you avoid burnout — and burn bright instead.

The post How to Make Servant Leadership More Sustainable? Balance Self & Others appeared first on CCL.

In partnership with ExecOnline, we conducted a research study on today’s top leadership tensions by surveying more than 43,000 people currently in managerial roles. Together we identified 3 primary tensions facing the majority of workplace leaders, as well as steps organizations and people leaders can take to alleviate and navigate them.

This research fits into our continuing effort to understand the challenges faced and competencies needed by those in leadership and provide organizations with tools to equip their people to balance leadership tensions, prioritize resources, and manage conflicting demands. By understanding the core leadership tensions that today’s managers are grappling with, your organization can improve retention and overall performance.

Regardless of industry or geography, the majority of leaders we surveyed find themselves in a bind. In addition to focusing on their own personal development, managers are tasked with the needs of direct reports and team members who depend on them for guidance and support. Add to that external factors such as economic uncertainty, technological shifts, the rise of hybrid work, and the ongoing recovery from a global pandemic, and it’s clear that leaders today are facing new and daunting challenges that they need support to resolve.

What Are the 3 Key Leadership Tensions?

Leadership Tension 1: Addressing Social Isolation While Embracing Remote Work

Though it’s widely believed that people leaders are particularly motivated to return to office settings, 99% of those we surveyed who work virtually at least part of the time reported that they’ve found remote work offers several benefits that working in an office doesn’t. For instance, 75% of leaders reported appreciation for additional time available through avoiding long commutes, and 56% pointed to flexibility as a key advantage. Leaders also recognized other organizational benefits, especially related to attracting and retaining talent with a broader talent pool.

Although many prefer remote work, the arrangement also often leads to social isolation. Most leaders in our study reported increased difficulty building relationships with coworkers, and agreed that reduced social and professional interactions have caused strain. Feelings of isolation can negatively affect peer-to-peer and peer-to-supervisor relationships.

That’s why finding a way to embrace the benefits of remote work while also addressing social isolation is a critical leadership tension faced by today’s people managers.

Leadership Tension 2: Managing Burnout While Pursuing Development Opportunities

The cumulative effects of pandemic stress and its global aftermath have created unprecedented levels of collective exhaustion. A staggering 72% of leaders surveyed reported that they are “at least somewhat” burned out — the 6th successive quarter this figure has been above 70%. Further, nearly half (46%) of those in leadership positions told us they need more resources to be effective at work.

We know that people burn out from a lack of support and resources, conflicting or unclear work tasks, a lack of autonomy, and forced attention on matters that are unimportant. It’s important to note that the quality of relationships (or lack of them) in the workplace is also directly connected to burnout, adding an additional level of risk of exhaustion and overwork for those working virtually or in a hybrid arrangement. These elements, especially combined together over long periods of time, can lead to sustained burnout that’s difficult to overcome.

When leaders experience burnout, they struggle to find a place for growth and development in their already-hectic schedules, and they have a hard time learning, or being able to absorb and apply the things they do learn. Yet when asked what would help them be more effective in their roles, 41% of leaders reported that they desired more leadership and development opportunities than they currently receive. It’s a major challenge to fit in professional development and work toward career advancement when you’re already struggling just to manage or prevent burnout.

Organizations must look for ways to support their people leaders in spending time on growth and development opportunities while also fending off burnout.

Leadership Tension 3: Making Hard Decisions While Motivating and Engaging Talent

For organizations to thrive despite economic uncertainty (including the possibility of a recession), leaders must be able to effectively manage conflicting job demands and show strategic leadership by prioritizing resources.

Recent economic volatility and the many workplace changes relating to the global pandemic have caused managers to face heavier workloads — along with fewer personnel and resources. In fact, the top 2 responses in our survey that leaders noted as their biggest challenges in the current work environment were managing more work with smaller teams and boosting employee engagement and motivation without monetary incentives. Also, any financial incentives that leaders do have at their disposal are less effective motivational tools, due to persistent inflation.

That’s why a 3rd key leadership tension that today’s managers face is becoming skilled motivators of talent who can engage and retain their employees while also making tough decisions using limited resources.

How to Resolve These 3 Leadership Tensions

Recommended Strategies for Organizations

1. Address Social Isolation While Embracing Remote Work.

One way to enable people to move past feelings of isolation is to provide ample opportunities to enhance human connection. Facilitate chances for those who don’t interact with each other on a daily basis to discover shared interests and commonalities through working together. Be intentional about enabling social interaction through more cross-functional projects, working groups, breakout sessions during organization-wide meetings, and events like “lunch and learn” presentations open to all employees. Create virtual spaces for connection, such as coffee breaks and water cooler chats, to create opportunities for connecting on both work and non-work-related topics.

Development can play a role, too. Make sure people leaders are trained to be empathetic, show compassionate leadership, and create an inclusive work environment. Consider offering development specifically aimed at improving virtual communication effectiveness and work to build conversational skills across the organization. In addition, group or team coaching can assist with bringing leaders together to work toward a common goal and encourage better communication and collaboration.

Lastly, look for opportunities to build connections among remote teams, and facilitate as many opportunities as possible for real-time, synchronous collaboration. Research has shown that teams who take advantage of real-time technology, such as video meetings and instant messaging/chat, have a much greater connection to each other and the work they are doing. You’ll want to leverage technology thoughtfully to facilitate effective virtual collaboration, and be intentional about selecting the right technological tools and setting clear expectations for their use. Encourage leaders to establish team norms and work with team members to agree on appropriate cadences and platforms for check-ins, brainstorming sessions, and virtual social events.

These steps will help balance the leadership tension between embracing the benefits of remote work and the accompanying social isolation, loneliness, and disconnection it can bring — all while your organization improves retention through embracing flexible work arrangements.

2. Manage Burnout While Pursuing Development Opportunities.

To support today’s stretched-thin leaders, organizations must focus on providing development opportunities that mitigate burnout — or at least avoid increasing it further. This means training must be easy to access and fit into busy schedules, and should help leaders who are dealing with burnout to heal from it and alleviate its effects, while also growing needed skills.

For example, virtual leadership development programs are an effective way to provide leaders with access to learning at their own pace, without the hassle and expense of travel. Furthermore, those we surveyed reported that virtual programming, shorter modules, and on-demand options among the top reasons that would enable and encourage them to participate in learning opportunities. Leaders who put in the effort to offer professional development that meets these criteria enable exhausted individuals a chance to turn away from their daily work to focus on putting energy into reflection, growth, and self-improvement. This is way that organizations can help mitigate work-life conflicts among their employees.

Similarly, one-on-one coaching can improve performance and show support, providing a way for organizations to enable their talent to prioritize development and bring their best selves to work, while focusing on the participant’s individual needs, values, and challenges. The combination of coaching and mentoring with tailored professional development can enhance personal growth while also reinforcing learning and trying out new mindsets and behaviors — ultimately helping leaders to build their leadership skills and resilience.

To address this leadership tension, organizations should be intentional about creating an environment of support, and treat managing burnout not just as an outcome of development, but as a learning objective for development in its own right.

3. Make Hard Decisions While Motivating and Engaging Talent.

Given the impact of economic uncertainty, shifting generational expectations, and high employee turnover, organizations need leaders who are skilled at motivating and engaging employees. They must also understand how leadership development powers engagement and retention. Our research found that while a third of leaders are highly proficient at strategic prioritization and talent engagement individually, a meager 9% are highly proficient in both skills. That’s why organizations must focus on leadership development to ensure that their managers are as skilled at strategic decision-making and financial insight as they are at effective communication, showing compassion, and leading hybrid teams.

Our research with ExecOnline also found that when leaders believe their organization prioritizes and invests in their professional development, productivity is 12% higher and retention increases by a whopping 41%. This investment also helps increase people’s ability to take on daily challenges and build meaningful connections in the workplace. These aspects combined have the potential to dramatically increase employee motivation and engagement and improve your organization in a way that attracts and retains future talent, too.

Managers can ease these leadership tensions by prioritizing work tasks for themselves and team members, delegating workloads given the reality of fewer team members, and becoming comfortable making critical business decisions amid organizational uncertainty. And organizations should plan to continue to invest in leadership development even during economic downturns to ensure they’re securing their pipeline of leaders for the future.

To manage the leadership tension of keeping talent engaged while making hard decisions with limited resources, focus on supporting overall employee wellbeing and work to identify ways to motivate people without monetary incentives by building and maintaining and positive culture of inclusion in the workplace.

What These Findings on Leadership Tensions Mean for Leaders and Organizations

Managers in today’s work environment face unique and increasingly difficult challenges. Our findings show that now is the time for leaders and organizations to take the necessary steps to acknowledge and address these 3 key leadership tensions to ensure long-term success. In short, offering cross-functional opportunities for remote workers to connect, investing in professional and personal development while mitigating burnout, and being strategic about the skillsets leaders need is vital for organizations navigating these leadership tensions.

When organizations invest wisely in their people and supply leaders with the right tools to be successful, they can increase employee wellbeing, improve the culture of the organization, and cultivate a competitive edge in an increasingly volatile and unpredictable world.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Take steps to support your workforce facing these leadership tensions. We can help you foster connections within teams through group coaching and reinforce learning by pairing training with one-on-one coaching.

The post Today’s Top Leadership Tensions & How to Address Them appeared first on CCL.

A decade ago, leaders would agree on a strategy and focus on it relentlessly. Grow, grow, grow, the mantra might be; don’t get hung up on cost savings or consolidation.

Then the downside of a growth-only focus would appear — bloated infrastructure, cost overruns, inefficiencies — and the pendulum would shift the other way: Cut, trim, be efficient.

Today, if you ask the question, “Should I focus on growth or efficiency?” the answer is likely to be: Yes. Focus on both. And do both well.

The truth is, a lot goes unresolved in every workplace. You race to produce short-term deliverables, while long-term goals loom unaddressed. Individuals hammer away at their tasks, while team progress stagnates. You struggle with the balance between building workplace relationships and just getting the work done.

The bad news is that there are no solutions to these problems. The good news is that these aren’t problems. These are polarities.

This both/and thinking is making life more complicated for managers up and down the organization. But it stems from the reality that everything isn’t just another problem to solve.

What’s the Difference Between a Problem and a Polarity?

• A problem can have a right — or best — answer. A solution exists.
• A polarity — also described as a paradox, conundrum, or contradiction — is a dilemma that is ongoing, unsolvable, and contains seemingly opposing ideas.

We usually think of polarities in adversarial terms, such as:

• Growth vs. consolidation
• Short term vs. long term
• Innovation vs. efficiency
• Centralization vs. decentralization
• Change vs. stability
• Responsibility vs. freedom

And while it’s easy to see these alternatives as directly opposed and in conflict, in truth, polarities are complementary and interdependent.

Polarities aren’t just about business strategy; they show up in choices about leadership and culture, too. What is the right choice? Empathy or toughness? Keeping control or empowering others? Staying on task or working on the relationship?

How Leaders Should Handle a Polarity

To work with polarities, you need to be able to see both perspectives clearly and at the same time. The trick isn’t to solve a polarity or to make a choice and move on. Instead, you handle a polarity by first recognizing what it is, and second, learning how to mentally and practically move through the ebbs and flows a polarity presents.

Take the example of tasks and relationships. Teams who come together quickly to solve urgent problems immediately face the challenge of quickly engaging the team in the essential tasks and establishing quality working relationships.

If the team focuses exclusively on getting down to business and results, then the team can fail to bond in critical ways, which leads to a lack of trust and commitment. On the other hand, if the team overemphasizes relationship-building, the team is at risk of not meeting its objectives.

But that’s not to say that your poles must always be in balance. There will be times when a given pole must take precedent over its counterpart.

Managing polarities can also help with unnecessary conflict. Many teams incorrectly identify an issue as either/or and have “sides” as a result. Polarities let both sides be right, and the organization wins.

What does this look like in practical terms?

We draw on the work of Barry Johnson, creator of Polarity Thinking^®, in various leadership programs and in our customized leadership development engagements with clients, to help teams better understand and respond to issues that don’t have fixed solutions.

• Identify one or more key polarities that you are facing right now in your business. How are you, and the larger organization, handling it? Where can you change the conversation from either/or to both/and?
• Use a mapping technique to help spot when you are overdoing one pole to the exclusion of the other. For 2 techniques designed to help map the polarity, see how to manage paradox.

The next time you’re wrestling with a challenge or conflict, ask: “Is this a problem to solve or a polarity to deal with?”

If you stop asking “Can we have both?” and instead push for ideas and answers around, “How can we have both?” you’ll find new approaches that allow you to move forward.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Build your team’s ability to recognize a problem vs. a polarity, and their capacity for handling polarities in leadership. Partner with us to craft a customized learning journey for your leaders using our research-backed modules. Available leadership topics include Change & Disruption, Collaboration & Teamwork, Conflict Resolution, Leadership Paradox & Polarity Training, Thinking & Acting Strategically, and more.

The post Are You Facing a Problem? Or a Polarity? appeared first on CCL.

Conflicting demands and either/or tensions are the norm for many managers. They don’t get resolved by tackling one demand at a time, or by making a “final” decision.

Paradoxes — also described as polarities, and sometimes mislabeled as problems — are dilemmas that seem to defy common sense and business acumen. They can be overwhelming, difficult to understand, complex, and seemingly impossible to address.

These tensions show up in all facets of organizational life, including leadership (control vs. empowerment), teamwork (tasks vs. relationships), strategy (competition vs. collaboration), structure (centralized vs. decentralized), and within ourselves (work vs. home).

As our white paper on managing paradox notes, the research is clear: Organizations, leaders, teams, and individuals that manage paradox are better performers than those who don’t.

Here are 2 tools to help you and your organization better understand and manage paradox.

2 Techniques for Managing Paradox

Polarity Mapping and Duality Mapping

Common business models and tools are not very useful in managing paradoxes.

Instead, we suggest mapping paradoxes through Polarity Mapping^®, a concept developed by Barry Johnson, founder of Polarity Partnerships and author of Polarity Management: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems, and Duality Mapping, a new approach developed by CCL.

Using Polarity Mapping to Manage Paradox

Polarity Mapping^® is a means for managers and organizations to think about the larger value, or purpose, of balancing 2 polarities, as well as to determine specific action steps to manage paradox. You can use Polarity Mapping to:

• Articulate 2 “poles” that are competing or at odds.
• Look at the potential positive results (as well as the negatives).
• Explore the drawbacks or fears related to over-emphasizing one or the other.

Here’s an example of a Tasks and Relationships polarity map, exploring a common unsolvable tension faced when leading virtual teams, as we explored in another white paper. Using this tool, you can easily see both the positive and negative consequences of each side of the pair, which shows why virtual teams are most successful when they have both a task focus and a relationships focus.

Using Duality Mapping to Manage Paradox

Duality Mapping draws on the concept of yin and yang. Yin and yang in the Chinese classical philosophy originates from 2 of the oldest books in China, I Ching (or Book of Changes) and Tao De Ching.

The philosophy is based on the premise that everything in the world consists of 2 opposite elements that are partially conflicting and partially complementary.

The yin-yang symbol stands as a reminder that paradoxes are interrelated and interdependent. Often the yin-yang symbol is viewed as showing unity-in-opposites, balance and equilibrium. But there are variations of the yin-yang symbol. The proportions of yin and yang may vary widely, interacting with each other and working together dynamically. The ancient philosophy reminds us that paradoxical forces are not only opposed, but also cooperate with each other.

Duality Mapping incorporates the yin-yang balancing philosophy. It also highlights the existence of both extremist and moderate groups within each of the 2 opposite elements and explores harmonies and tensions as they co-exist.

Without the ability to hold competing interests in mind, organizations risk losing sight of the wisdom and opportunities that emerge when leadership pursues paradoxical thinking.

Polarity Mapping and Duality Mapping are both practical and thought-provoking approaches to managing paradox.

By blending Eastern and Western philosophies, organizations may find the most effective, transformative solution to handling complex, paradoxical demands.

How do your leaders handle the tension and conflict around conflicting demands? What’s your organization doing to cultivate people who can think in terms of both/and?

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Develop leaders who can recognize and manage paradox and polarities with a customized learning journey using our research-backed modules. Available leadership topics include Conflict Resolution, Emotional Intelligence, Listening to Understand, Leadership Paradox & Polarity, Psychological Safety, Virtual & Remote Teams, and more.

The post How to Manage Paradox appeared first on CCL.

Since the pandemic, a massive evolution of work and workplaces has occurred. From most people working in physical offices pre-pandemic (Work 1.0), to most people working virtually during the pandemic (Work 2.0) — to now, with a focus on finding the “right” balance of in-person and remote in a new hybrid world (Work 3.0).

Not only are organizations and leaders struggling to keep up with the business and digital transformations that the Work 3.0 era requires, but the inability to keep up with people’s changing expectations has manifested in global trends like the “Great Resignation” and “Quiet Quitting” movements sweeping the world.

A major shift is fundamentally changing when, where, and how work occurs — and there’s no turning back now.

Leadership Success in Work 3.0

8 Keys for Leading in the Work 3.0 Era

Our Asia-Pacific (APAC) WORK 3.0 study identifies what leaders must know about the hybrid world. It separates myths from reality; illustrates how leaders must frame the “tensions” and polarities in the new work environment; and explains how they must transform themselves and their organizations for success in the new hybrid — or “Work 3.0” — era.

1. Employees want more from work.

Recent global disruption has caused stakeholders to expect more from corporations. Employees want more meaningful work, higher flexibility, and a better quality of life.

2. Hybrid, or Work 3.0, has emerged as the preferred model.

After being fully remote through the pandemic, most organizations are now testing to see what combination of on-site and remote works best for them. They’re working to balance flexibility for employees on the one hand, and productivity and efficiency on the other hand.

3. Organization context dictates viability and version of hybrid model.

Different versions of hybrid work for different organizations. Organization culture, type of work, leader level, leader age/generation, and national culture are some of the variables that dictate its viability.

4. Success in Work 3.0 centers on people and culture.

While technology is often celebrated as the biggest enabler of hybrid working, the success of the hybrid model actually hinges on people, teams, and organizational culture.

5. Leaders’ success depends on their mindsets and attributes.

Leaders must be dynamic and agile as they align their capabilities with Work 3.0 — and mindset shifts must precede skillset changes. These shifts mostly center on trust, communication, and growth.

6. Some leaders do much better than others.

Leaders’ comfort and success with Work 3.0 exists on a broad spectrum, with those who thrive in a hybrid world and champion flexibility and collaboration on one end, and those who are struggling to find their feet on the other end.

7. Team success in Work 3.0 hinges on 4 key elements.

For teams to deliver on business needs in a hybrid work environment, they must have core agreements about how people work together, collective mindset or team culture, cohesion or intra-team relationships, and connections across teams.

8. Leaders must also play 5 roles to make Work 3.0 a success.

Leaders must lean on their Work 3.0 mindsets and attributes to navigate the tensions inherent in hybrid work. In doing so, leaders must embrace 5 key roles that will dictate whether these tensions act as “springs” or “mines.”

Work 3.0 Requires a Culture Shift

Ultimately, leaders must work toward curating a human-centric culture that puts people at the center of their hybrid work strategy. Excelling in a hybrid work environment requires leaders to build cohesion among colleagues working together from disparate locations, fending off burnout, being intentional about inclusion, and strengthening shared culture.

Based on inputs from 2,200 leaders across 13 countries, our study on Work 3.0 represents more than 8 months of research led by our APAC research team, in partnership with 15 organizations in the region. With this study, we aim to help leaders examine the current status of their collective leadership and look at how they can amplify the longer-term positive impact of Work 3.0 on their organizations, communities, and the societies they serve.

Download the WORK 3.0 Research Report

The post WORK 3.0: Reimagining Leadership in a Hybrid World appeared first on CCL.

COVID-19 has undoubtedly altered “normal” work and life for many organizations and individuals, and chief among them are healthcare-related organizations and professionals. While experts are still learning more each day about this novel coronavirus and its potential implications for our healthcare ecosystem, we can be sure the future of healthcare will be changed as a result.

As we move into this “next normal,” healthcare leaders must become even more comfortable with both polarity and paradox. Balancing what seem like contradictory tendencies is, in fact, at the heart of leading effectively through ambiguity and uncertainty. Join us as we explore the meaning of polarity and paradox within the healthcare ecosystem and what leading at your best in this new reality will require.

What You’ll Learn

In this webinar you’ll learn:

• How changes brought on by COVID-19 will affect the future of healthcare and leadership in this critical space,
• The 6 leadership paradoxes related to leading effectively in the healthcare ecosystem’s “next normal,” and
• Next steps for assessing your leadership response in a paradoxical world.
  

Prepare your healthcare leadership team for the changing world that lies ahead in the future of healthcare with scalable healthcare leadership programs that create cohesive, high-performing teams.

The post Leadership in the Future of Healthcare: Befriending Polarity & Paradox appeared first on CCL.