Crafting Your Own Leadership Signature
How well can you adapt in an exponentially changing world?
In an age where even
Silicon Valley disruptors struggle to keep up, it
is more critical than ever for leaders to know themselves. Otherwise how can
they learn and develop? Or create a dream team, one that magnifies their
strengths and remedies their weaknesses? Or avoid costly blind spots?
Exceptional leaders need to have a thorough understanding of the world, their
industry, their company and – crucially – themselves.
However, as Benjamin
Franklin wrote, “There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond
and to know one's self.” Based on decades of research on leadership
effectiveness and close observation of leadership in practice, we have designed
a development and feedback tool called the x360+ to facilitate this
self-discovery.
Since its launch in
2017, some 2,000 INSEAD programme participants have used it to identify their
current leadership signature – their unique way of leading – and to explore how
they could further develop in their roles. As with other 360-degree tools, it
allows subjects to compare their self-image with how managers, peers,
subordinates and external stakeholders perceive them. Our tool’s three core
dimensions have been shown to be valid across cultures and types of
organisations.
In this article, we will describe the dimension of
adaptability, i.e. the “Who you are” component of the x360+.
Adaptability and
leadership
Our Adaptability
Index captures decades of research on what differentiates those who can deal
with stress and lead through it and those who cannot. This aspect of leadership
considers facets of the self that are relatively stable and hard to change. It
measures how well respondents are able to adapt and thrive in an exponentially
changing context. It contains five parts:
Resilience
In an environment
that requires constant experimentation, setbacks are inevitable. Resilience refers
to the ability to bounce back from such setbacks and function well in the face
of adversity. Those with resilience have strong coping mechanisms and are
less prone to anxiety and depression. Low levels of resilience may signal
the need to learn how to cope with setbacks or to stay away from more risky
leadership work.
Emotional
intelligence
When the going gets
tough, it is easy to get overcome by negative emotions, to lose one’s temper or
to feel overwhelmed. Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to properly
monitor and regulate one’s own emotions. It is also about assessing other
people’s emotions and their impact. Leaders need to understand when they (or
their team members) are incapacitated by anger or fear and need some extra time
before making decisions.
Paradoxical thinking
Change tends to
exacerbate tensions because resources are often scarce. New priorities create
competing demands and can force leaders to choose, for instance, between
long-term and short-term gains. A paradoxical mindset is the ability to embrace
contradictions and to be energised rather than overwhelmed by them. Leaders who
perceive tensions as opportunities are better able to devise fully integrated
solutions.
Learning orientation
Some people interpret
failure as an opportunity to learn; others view it as a sign of poor
performance. A learning orientation refers to the former and it helps leaders
quickly adapt both their thinking and actions to changing demands. A strong
learning orientation reflects a tendency to seek new knowledge, to keep up with
novel ideas and to constantly upgrade one’s skills. In an exponentially changing
environment, a learning orientation is critical for breakthrough performance.
Leadership confidence
When constant change
becomes the name of the game, top-down leadership is no longer sufficient. A
command-and-control style must be replaced by leadership exercised at all
levels of the organisation, what we call distributed leadership. But for this to
work, individual contributors must have the
confidence to step into a leadership role. Leadership confidence refers to the
belief in one’s ability to mobilise others and take on the next leadership
challenge. Leadership in this fast-paced world is not for the
faint-of-heart. Courage and a can-do attitude is required.
Self-awareness and
companies’ bottom line
There is no single way to lead, and no
leader is perfect. We can’t emphasise enough that the x360+ is not an assessment tool.
It is a development and feedback instrument that aims to discover your unique strengths,
experiences and values so you can build on them. Crafting your own leadership
signature is an ongoing process that begins by creating a clear, unvarnished
picture of who you are. It is about eliminating your blind spots.
Self-awareness is empowering: It will allow you to figure out which skills you
will need going forward to become the best leader you can be. Self-knowledge
will also enable you to communicate your style to others so that they can more
easily work with you.
Henrik Bresman, INSEAD Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour, and Deborah Ancona, Seley Distinguished Professor of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management | October 17, 2018
Read more at
https://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-organisations/crafting-your-own-leadership-signature-10281#GAdV4kWhclsWvvu7.99
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