Leslie Rohonczy, Executive Coach, IMC, PCC
MAY 2024
Navigating the vast landscape of leadership requires more than just a roadmap. Don’t get me wrong: roadmaps are essential to leadership – showing us the layout of well-traveled highways (eg: established strategic goals, clear objectives, and robust processes to deliver on them), residential streets (eg: organizational structure, employee and team development, team culture, and the systems that support them), and points of interest along the way (eg: refocusing the team to respond to external market forces, inspiring employees to experiment with product innovation, forming a new strategic partnership, and crisis management). Yay for roadmaps! But they don’t give us a fulsome picture of the entire leadership landscape.
To lead well, we must understand the topography of leadership and its nuances, beyond the familiar super-highways and existing structures. It’s time to hop off the beaten path and explore what else is out there.
Throughout your leadership journey, you’ll be required to navigate some diverse terrain: strategic visioning; tactical planning; risk mitigation; business and technology transformations; crisis management; collaborative innovation; hiring, development, and retention of employees; and growing an inclusive culture of accountability, to name a few.
Using the leadership topography metaphor, let’s explore the landscape of essential skills and insights leaders need for success in each locale.
SCALING STRATEGY MOUNTAIN: Gaining the Panoramic View
It may seem like a daunting journey, but strategic leadership lies at the summit of Strategy Mountain. Here, leaders gain a panoramic view of the landscape, and from this vantage point, can see a vast horizon, set a clear vision, and chart the course for a sustainable future. They anticipate challenges, make bold decisions, and collaborate with key stakeholders and employees to understand their purpose and how they deliver on that purpose to customers.
Strategic leaders know this journey is critical to the success and sustainability of their businesses. They make time for it in busy calendars, gather necessary resources and information, and determine the route of ascent. They pay attention to the timing of the climb and know how often to revisit it, and who to invite on the journey.
To successfully scale Strategy Mountain:
Craft a compelling vision for the company that you want to be in 10-20 years. This vision should inspire and motivate employees and leaders, satisfy the board and shareholders, and delight customers. When it’s used well (and not just trotted out once a year as a tick box activity), this aspirational, future state vision will be the north star from which to ‘reverse-engineer’ all tactical plans.
Align resources effectively to support the strategic goals and pause or close projects that don’t align with your strategy. Non-aligned projects (often pet projects or outdated initiatives that don’t directly support the strategic objectives) can steal valuable resources and attention from what’s strategically most important.
Encourage bold decision-making while mitigating risks. This is the time to be bold, and bravely challenge your organization to stretch in new ways, beyond what is currently possible. And just like preparing to climb a mountain, the boldness of this strategy adventure requires attention to the associated risks and how they can be tempered with thorough risk assessment and safety mitigants.
Cultivate collaboration with key stakeholders and team members in the strategic planning process. Their perspectives are valuable inputs to developing your strategy, and this collaborative approach fosters buy-in and alignment. Strategy done in a vacuum of senior leaders, without the benefit of front-line employees’ perspective, the customer’s perspective, or the competitors’ perspective, is like throwing darts in the dark.
Regularly revisit and adapt the strategic plan as needed. (And it’s likely needed more often than once a year!) Instead, use it as a business alignment lens, to ensure that tactics, branding, project management, program design, resourcing, and every other part of your business is traveling in the right direction, at the right speed, with the right resources.
STEPPING INTO TACTICAL VALLEY: Where the Rubber Meets the Road
Tactical leadership is about aligning and equipping resources to deliver on strategic objectives. Typically, it’s middle managers who spend the most time and attention in Tactical Valley. It’s about empowering employees with decision-making power as a learning opportunity (and having their backs on their decisions, even when you would have chosen differently); and supporting your team when the going gets tough. It requires resilience to endure setbacks; and empathy to support employees; it also requires leadership agility to maneuver through this rough, low-lying terrain without becoming stuck in the mud of execution.
When a more senior level of leadership is called to step in, it’s usually because a significant challenge has arisen, a strategic shift is needed, or the team must rally in the face of adversity. Sometimes, senior leaders notice their teams struggling, and want to help them navigate obstacles and challenges at the ground level, so they instinctively hop into the trenches where the work is being done. Sometimes this works, but more often, it creates challenges (eg: the perception of micromanaging, and the seeming lack of trust you have in their ability to figure it out as a team). It’s important to team health and employee engagement to have empowered employees and leaders who feel ownership of their work and skills development.
When entering Tactical Valley:
Know when to empower and support others and when to step in (and it may be less often than you think). Particularly for senior leaders, balance hands-on involvement with delegation of decisions and oversight. This will empower your team members, create leadership and employee development opportunities, and demonstrate your trust in the team to deliver.
Provide empathetic support and guidance to team members, to help them feel safe to express their concerns and speak truth to power; to experiment with innovation and learn; to challenge the status quo with new thinking; and to freely contribute authentic perspectives without fear of judgment.
Monitor the execution of tactical plans, to ensure all tactics being worked on are on the strategic path and that no unaligned projects are diverting essential resources.
Lead by example to foster a culture of accountability and execution excellence. And when you end up with ‘unintended results’ (a nicer way to say ‘failed projects’), avoid blame. Instead, demonstrate your curiosity about what valuable lessons can be applied next time. Modeling resilience in the face of setbacks can help employees build their resilience muscles, too.
NAVIGATING ADAPTIVE RIVER: Riding the Currents of Change
Sometimes it may feel like the Adaptive River of Change is threatening to flood its banks (and often, it does!) As you navigate the high water of change, adaptive leadership helps you steer your team through turbulent, ever-shifting currents, embracing change and innovation along the way. By remaining flexible, you can adjust the course as needed, and build the resilience your team needs to weather storms.
This also requires you to build and leverage your leadership super-power: emotional intelligence (EQ). Adaptive leadership is about riding the currents of change, staying agile while the ground shifts underfoot, navigating the complex interpersonal dynamics that come with change, and inspiring others to embrace innovation, even (or especially) amidst the strong undertow of uncertainty.
When navigating the Adaptive River of Change:
Develop and leverage your emotional intelligence to help you and your organization navigate the interpersonal dynamics that come with large-scale change. Go beyond the all-to-common corporate value of ‘our people are our biggest asset’, and get to know how those people are wired, what their concerns are, what inspires them, and how you might reframe aspects of the change to help them feel seen and heard as the change moves forward.
Transparently and authentically communicate both the ‘current state’ you’re moving away from and why, and the aspirational ‘future state’ you’re moving towards and why, to foster understanding, trust, and alignment. Leverage town hall meetings, team and project discussions, employee one-on-ones, collaboration platforms, leader videos, etc. to ensure a shared understanding.
Challenge the instinct to protect the ‘current state’ and invite innovation and creativity amidst the uncertainty. Great innovations and ideas often emerge from these swirling waters of change, so
Remain agile and flexible in how you respond to changing circumstances. Employees take cues from their leaders and will watch how you navigate change and follow your lead. Model a healthy, balanced, and productive approach to change for them.
Build resilience within the team to weather turbulent times by investing in key support systems: change management, team development, leadership development and coaching, culture and employee experience.
BRAVING THE DESERT OF CRISIS: Leading Through Adversity
In the arid Desert of Crisis, leaders must summon their courage and resilience, to endure the harsh conditions. Crisis leadership demands a calm and anchored stance, transparent and efficient decision-making, personal and organizational resilience, attention to self-care, and clear communication systems amid the chaos.
It also requires a culture of psychological safety within your organization that encourages open communication and support during crises. Leaders who can maintain balance under pressure, rally their teams around a common purpose, and navigate treacherous and uncertain terrain know that crisis leadership is about leading from the front lines by empowering and instilling confidence in others and by guiding the organization through the sandstorm.
When braving the Desert of Crisis:
1. Maintain a calm, clear, and connected stance to instill confidence during a crisis. Employees will follow your lead and feel more reassured by this grounded presence. Techniques like a coaching program, journaling reflection, and meditation are great ways to help you feel grounded.
2. Prioritize and model self-care. It’ll help you sustain personal and organizational resilience, by establishing boundaries to protect things like time for rest, physical activity, and email response times. This one small move has great potential, not only for your well-being but also for setting an example of self-care for employees.
3. Amidst the chaos, empower and rally the team around a common direction. Communicate clearly, effectively, and frequently. Make transparent and timely decisions to guide the organization, and share your thinking behind your decisions, not just the decision itself, to help the organization understand and adapt.
4. Seek support from trusted colleagues, an executive coach, a mentor, or your professional network, in the form of advice, reassurance, and different perspectives to strengthen your resilience
ENTERING COLLABORATION FOREST: Cultivating Healthy Ecosystems
Leaders who cultivate an ecosystem of teamwork and inclusivity in the lush Collaboration Forest empower teams, foster a culture of trust and respect, and leverage the diverse perspectives of employees and peers. Collaboration is, by its very nature, a group adventure, not a solo journey, and requires a relentless nurturing of relationships, clear communication, and continuous alignment. Collaborative leadership is about fostering a sense of belonging, embracing diversity, and harnessing collective wisdom and creativity.
As you make your way through Collaboration Forest:
1. Nurture relationships and trust among team members by creating opportunities for them to connect through team-building events, team development activities, town halls, and employee conferences. Foster a culture of transparency by creating opportunities for open dialogue and feedback exchanges within their teams, encouraging constructive input and active listening. And when you get the feedback that you asked for, do something with it.
2. Embrace diversity of thought, backgrounds, and experience, by encouraging team members to share their ideas and opinions without fear of judgment. These fresh ideas and insights can drive innovation and problem-solving.
3. Ensure collaboration goals are clearly defined and communicated across teams. Encourage knowledge sharing and cross-functional collaboration by creating opportunities for team members to share their expertise, research, ideas, and opinions, to cross-pollinate innovation.
USING YOUR UNIQUE TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP: Navigating with Confidence
As we’ve seen in this topographical journey, effective leadership requires a nuanced understanding of the terrain and skills required to navigate each area with confidence, clarity, and agility. As you continue on your leadership journey, engage in continuous learning, embrace change, and leverage the hell out of your curiosity.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Identify the specific geographic area you’re in, including specific challenges and opportunities of each locale, and reflect on what leadership approaches will best suit the demands of that specific environment. Continuously assess your readiness and leadership capabilities in each specific landmark, and frequently ask: “Am I at the right place, at the right time, with the right people, to navigate this leadership terrain?”, then adjust if your answer is anything but ‘yes’.
Notice which areas of the Leadership Topography Map you spend most of your time in, which you long to travel to more often, and which areas you tend to avoid. Challenge yourself to explore a wider leadership terrain than is your habit or comfort zone.
Speaking of habits, grow your self-awareness and develop the habit of reflection. Seek feedback and mentoring to enhance your awareness, leadership skills, and capabilities. Reach out for executive coaching support when you need to develop a new muscle. Put what you learn into action, experimenting, reflecting, and adjusting as you go.