Self-awareness: the key to authentic leadership

If you have a leading position within your organisation, you will be aware of biased opinions, flaws and doubts and that these are part of the human condition. The good news is that successful leaders don’t have to be perfect. However, it helps to be aware of your blindspots to be at your best in your leadership of others. 

Do you recognise this?

• You are really busy, with a lot on your plate and so you have stopped asking others for input, are not including others in decisions and prefer to go it alone.
• You are judging people not on their intentions, but by their actions and your language unbeknownst to you is coming across as devaluing and mean.
• You are treating commitments casually and as a result show up late for meetings, miss deadlines, avoid being pinned down and often have an excuse.
• You don't take a stand in meetings when you know you should. Maybe you fear the impact of this but have never really looked at what this means for you.

Your thoughts and behaviours greatly impact others

Reflecting on how our leadership style effects others takes time and a willingness to step back and look at things from different perspectives. 

Here are some reflection questions: Are you aware of your default settings? Do they help or sabotage you in achieving your personal and professional goals?  How do you unlearn the ineffective habits then grow positive thoughts and behaviours? And finally...

How can you do this within your own profession as a leader?

Something we notice is the more senior you are in leadership, the more potential there is to become isolated and the less likely you are to get feedback. Being willing to look at blind spots requires you to ask for input from others you trust and whom you respect. With the help of a skilled coach and mentor you can be supported in all of this and to find new insights and new ways of working. 

All these are actions of a spirited leader.

Be extraordinary,
Nicola and Anouk

Become a spirited leader by creating purpose

Growing your leadership into the next stage of consciousness - part 3

A new organisational paradigm is slowly but steadily developing as leaders today are tired of power games, infighting and experiencing an overall sense of emptiness. In this article of a 3-part-series we’ll explore the third principle of the Teal organisation: evolutionary purpose.

The new Teal organisation identified by Frédéric Laloux, an independent advisor and author of Reinventing Organisations: a guide to creating organisations inspired by the next stage of human consciousness, is built on three pillars:

• Self-management
• Wholeness
• Evolutionary purpose

Evolutionary purpose

While most organisations camouflage the lack of purpose with a hollow sounding mission statement, Teal leaders view their organisation as a living entity with its own energy, its own sense of direction and its own calling to manifest something in this world. They don’t define a winning strategy and then marshall their subordinates to execute it, but they listen to the natural requirements of the organisation and aim to sense and respond.

The leaders at FAVI, a French automotive supplier, think like farmers: they look 20 years ahead but plan only for the next day. Farmers need to look ahead to decide which trees or crops to grow, but they will not plan a date for the harvest as they understand that nature has its own pace. Like farmers, Teal leaders will move along with the natural phases of the organisation and harvest when the time is right, instead of sticking rigidly to plan and ending up with a ruined harvest.

Purpose leads to high levels of innovation

In a self-managing and purpose-driven organisation, change can come from any person who senses that change is needed. Innovation doesn’t happen centrally and according to plan, but at the edges of the ecosystem when adaptation to changing circumstances is called for.

At Buurtzorg, a Dutch nursing care provider, nurses found that elderly people often break their hips when they fall. They came up with a plan to advise patients on small changes in their home interiors to minimise the risk of falling. Rather than analysing the idea, then assigning a team to develop an implementation plan, their CEO suggested to share the idea with the 9,000 employees through the internal social network. It quickly caught on and within a year nearly all teams had incorporated the new prevention model into their work.

How can you practise this in your workplace?

As a middle or senior leader you can start moving towards a Teal-inspired organisation today by inviting your people to talk to you about their challenges and to share with you their solutions to bottlenecks. Listen with an open mind. Then, rather than judging their suggestions and give a go or a no-go, simply let them present it to their peers to examine and test its strengths. If successful, let the teams incorporate the improvements.

Be extraordinary,
Anouk and Nicola

Become a spirited leader by embracing wholeness

Growing your leadership into the next stage of consciousness - part 2

A new organisational paradigm is slowly but steadily developing as leaders today are tired of power games, infighting and experiencing an overall sense of emptiness. In this article of a 3-part-series we’ll explore the second principle of the Teal organisation: wholeness.

The new Teal organisation identified by Frédéric Laloux, an independent advisor and author of Reinventing Organisations: a guide to creating organisations inspired by the next stage of human consciousness, is built on three pillars:

• Self-management
• Wholeness
• Evolutionary purpose

Wholeness

In the previous three distinct organisational paradigms, which Frederic Laloux calls Amber, Orange and Green, people typically wear a mask at work. They function with an air of resolution and determination while they favour their masculine, rational selves.

Teal organisations however start from the premise, resonant with many wisdom traditions, that a person’s deepest calling is to achieve wholeness. Teal employees are encouraged to reveal the caring, inquiring, intuitive and spiritual aspects of their personalities. Workers feel at ease because they can truly be themselves. Teal organisations create vibrant workspaces while simple management practices foster a sense of personal connection, so that trust can grow and flourish.

Wholeness practices

In Teal organisations employees are invited to bring their children and animals to their workplace. The presence of children and pets reconnects people with deeper parts of themselves, enabling employees to see one another not only as colleagues, but as part of a common humanity.

At Heiligenfeld, a mental health hospital chain with 600 employees in Germany, every week the teams come together for an intensive, reflective dialogue about a theme such as dealing with risks or learning from mistakes. The chain of 5 hospitals also devotes four days per year to silence, during which the staff only quietly speaks when necessary and patients engage in forms of therapy that require no words, like taking long walks and painting.

FAVI, a French automotive supplier, train all their administrative workers to operate at least one assembly-line machine. When orders must be rushed out, white-collar workers come in to help their colleagues to run the machines: a truly community-built practice. After an in-depth onboarding process new machine operators are asked to write an open letter to their colleagues, which often describe how, maybe for the first time in their career, their voice counts at work and they are considered worthy of trust and appreciation.

How can you practise this in your workplace?

As a middle or senior leader you could start moving towards a Teal-inspired organisation today by creating a safe environment where people feel they can show more of their true selves. Ask them to bring personal items to the workplace and encourage them to feel free to be present, involved and personal rather than detached, distant and ‘professional’.

Be extraordinary,
Anouk and Nicola

Become a spirited leader by encouraging self-management

Growing your leadership into the next stage of consciousness - part 1

A new organisational paradigm is slowly but steadily developing as leaders today are tired of power games, infighting and experiencing an overall sense of emptiness. In this article of a 3-part-series we’ll explore the first principle of the TEAL organisation: self-management.

The new Teal organisation identified by Frédéric Laloux, an independent advisor and author of Reinventing Organisations: a guide to creating organisations inspired by the next stage of human consciousness, is built on three pillars:

• Self-management
• Wholeness
• Evolutionary purpose

Self-management

Teal organisations operate effectively, even at a large scale, with a system based on peer relationships. They set up structures and practices in which people have high autonomy in their domain and are accountable for coordinating with others. Power and control are deeply embedded throughout the organisations and are no longer tied to the specific positions of a few top leaders.

Self-managing practices

Buurtzorg, a Dutch nursing care provider with 9,000 employees, has incorporated Teal management structures and practices and are very successful in doing so.

The teams monitor their own performance and take corrective action if productivity drops. They don’t have team leaders. Instead, management tasks are spread across the members, all of whom are nurses.

Newly recruited team members take a course called Solution-Driven Methods of Interaction, during which they learn sophisticated listening and communication skills; techniques for running meetings and making decisions; and methods of coaching one another and providing perspective.

The nurses do their own recruiting. They also arrange for purchasing and contracting specialised medical or legal expertise when needed. They align with the larger organisation not through rules and procedures, but through the collaboration
methods they’ve learned. A powerful internal social network allows them to draw on guidance and medical expertise from fellow nurses all around the country.

How can you practise this in your workplace?

As a middle or senior leader you can start moving towards a Teal-inspired organisation today. When it’s time to recruit a new team leader, let the team one level below write up the job description, interview candidates and select their leader. Subordinates take choosing their leader very seriously, and this process will give the new leader a much stronger working relationship with the team.

Be extraordinary,
Anouk and Nicola