But as I sit on the bench recovering from my game, I am not thinking about my aches and pains, I am thinking about leadership styles.

Everyone on the squash court has a different style. The young guys in court 1 are hitting the ball impressively hard and fast, while the older players in court 3 are playing with a much more seasoned approach. That seasoning means that they will be playing good squash long after their youth and power are gone.

Career success is like this too. It’s easy to command respect, authority and action based on power alone. But power is transient and not always in your control. You can lose it with acquisitions and re-drawing of organisational charts. You don’t control those. But you do control your style – your approach to the game. Here is what the squash court has reminded me about leadership:

1. Sometimes your best shot isn’t straight ahead of you.

A squash court is a 360 degree playing field, but I tend to hit most shots to the front wall. Seasoned squash players take advantage of the angles. Have you looked around lately? Is there a move you could be making to your left or your right that might serve you better in the long run? Use all of your walls. Instead of pushing relentlessly toward a single goal, take a minute to look around for a better path – something more motivating, more fun, or more strategic.

2. You don’t have to wait for the rebound.

There is nothing that irritates me more than watching that ball take a bad bounce and die at my feet. Why didn’t I just hit it sooner? Sometimes when I wait, it becomes unreturnable – what a wasted opportunity. When I just take a step forward, I control the outcome.

3. Never give up.

A bigger reach – a quicker sprint…I am amazed at the impossible shots I have actually hit when my brain doesn’t stand in my way. My body is capable of more than I give it credit for. When I change my mindset, I change the result. When I believe that anything is ‘gettable’, I return more shots.

What in life aren’t your reaching for? Go for it. It’s your game.

Those ‘heated’ moments and conversations in our work (and personal) lives are often the places we avoid.  As managers, we ignore them, or change the topic, or take it ‘off line’.  But the reality is that these territories are rich with information.   They tell you that you have just hit a nerve…that you have found a source of energy.  In other words, you have uncovered something that people really care about.

The problem, of course, with all of this caring, is that it can also come with disagreements, political game-playing and frustration.   These are the places where organisations fall into the same old stories of ‘we’ve tried that before’ or ‘that never works’ or ‘they always stuff that up’.  To turn this negativity into something more useful, people often need some help in approaching it differently.  Here are some things you can try:

1. Find a common goal – People might disagree with what has just been suggested, but what can they agree on?  If everyone can agree that this is an important issue, you have made an important first step.  You agree on something.
2. Ask permission to pursue it – Before you drag people into an uncomfortable conversation, it is useful to remind them that they are in control.  Will they agree to stay with this topic for a while?  Simply observing out loud that this seems to be an area people care about and then asking permission to pursue it will help people relax.
3. Don’t rush to solutions – Sometimes just agreeing on the problem is enough.  There is nothing wrong with ending the meeting by saying “it sounds like we have agreed that x is a problem and we would like it to look more like y – let’s leave it there for now and we can talk about that more next time.”  This agreement alone may be enough to clear the path for a solution.  People have an amazing ability to solve their own problems.  They might leave the meeting and have some side conversations or come back to the next meeting with a suggestion.  I have seen it happen countless times.
4. Build some skills in your team to help them solve these things on their own.  Listening skills, critical conversations, and parallel thinking, are organisational skills that will enable people to solve their own problems.  Maybe it’s time to invest in some training here?

So, the next time you are faced with negativity or disagreement in a group, don’t avoid it…explore it.  It is fertile ground for successful change.  And, if they aren’t disagreeing…well, maybe it’s time to stir the pot?

• It’s positive – we learn about the ‘brilliant immune system’ we create which, in turn, creates behaviours that prevent us from changing
• It’s approachable – Kegan and Lahey take some very complicated concepts on adult development and human complexity and distil them down in a way we can use, understand, and apply them
• It’s based on research  – literally a life’s work of 2 Harvard professors
• It’s about people and organisations:  One of the few books on change that addresses the inter-play between individual and collective mindsets

Summary

The reason why organisations fail to make intended changes is not a lack of motivation or desire, but of the hidden conflicting commitments carried in thier goals – their collective immunity to change.  Kegan and Lahey describe this as ’one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake’.  Take, for example, the school that set a goal of higher academic achievement for its students, yet uncovered that the administrators felt protective of demanding too much from their students.  Or the professional services firm that set a goal to create a culture of mutual trust and respect, but also a strong desire in the members for independence and entrepreneurship.  Until these conflicts are uncovered and understood, organisations simply cannot make the changes they desire.

And once these conflicts are understood, the organisation must learn to how change the way it learns.  Remember that old saying ‘we can’t solve problems using the same thinking we used to create them’?  Kegan and Lahey point out that we need to learn how to learn beyond our existing mindsets.’   Rather than focusing simply on developing skills (technical learning), we must focus on genuine development of human capacity to learn and grow (adaptive learning).   Adaptive learning requires both head and heart.

Sound hard?  Well, it is…and it isn’t.  It does not happen overnight.  It takes time.  Not so much huge amounts of time, but patience to allow change to occur.  And then it takes courage – collective courage of an entire leadership team to take personal risk.  One business leader is quoted in the book:

“Whatever you tell leaders, tell them this:  the courage to make these kinds of changes is energizing and contagious.  I saw people inside and outside my senior team go from ‘this is too personal’ to ‘I want to do this too!’”

So are businesses ready for this kind of transformation?  Our collective corporate language about ‘growth’ has traditionally been about numbers, not about the people behind the numbers.  But if Kegan and Lahey are right, growth in one cannot be achieved without growth in the other and it might just be time to look beyond the spreadsheets. 

Handspring teaches leaders about Immunity to Change in our training called ‘One foot on the gas and one foot on the break’.  Read more about that here:  http://www.handspring.com.au/for-individuals/speaking-and-training-module/

*Kegan, R. & Lahey,L.L. (2009).  Immunity to Change.  Boston, Massachusetts:  Harvard Business Press

 

Can’t everyone take more control?  Try this quick test:  Take a look at your ‘to do’ list for this week. How many items on it are ‘other driven’?  How many are ‘self driven’? If your to do’s are activities that only benefit others, you might not be doing anything to benefit your own career development.  Some ideas for changing the balance…

1.       Build a personal brand – where do you really shine and what is best left to others?  What is your personal philosophy about the work you do?   This takes a bit of reflective time, but is well worth the effort.  Half the battle of figuring out what you do well is recognising it (and ‘not it’).  Whatever ‘IT’ is, it is worth celebrating.  Take time to figure ‘it’ out.

2.       Spend more time out of the office – my favourite quote from my friends at Pragmatic (pragmaticmarketing.com) is “the answers to your questions are not in the building”.  Companies make mistakes and miss opportunities because they spend all of their time talking to each other.  Pretty soon, the truth becomes self-created and is not valuable to the rest of the world.  Get out of the office and talk to others.  Get some perspective on yourself and your organisation.

3.       Take advantage of every development opportunity.  When I think of all of the corporate training I skipped because of some urgent deadline (and what I now pay for out of my own pocket), I feel a little sick.  You know those programs that you don’t think count as ‘real work’?  Well if you would go along with an open mind, you just might learn something useful.  Better yet, how about those continuing education credits where your company puts money towards a degree?  There are tons of resources and interesting programs out there to support your growth.  What are you waiting for? 

4.       Change jobs more often.  Job and role loyalty is great to a point, but you aren’t doing yourself or your employer any favours staying in a job too long.  Movement is good for both of you.  The temporary discomfort it creates leads to perspective and new ideas. 

5.       Network.  Your network is part of your resume.  It’s an asset you carry with you.  Care for it.

It’s time to expand your job description.  Instead of just adding to your employers’ business value, spend some time developing your own.   The 2 activities don’t need to be mutually exclusive.  Done right, you can both win.

So, what was wrong with our resolutions?  Well, actually there are a few common problems.  If you are serious about making some changes in 2009, don’t stop at putting your goals on a list.  There is more you can do:

1.       Be specific…what is it that you are trying to change?  Which ones?  In which circumstances?  How many?  Don’t let yourself off the hook until you are clear.

2.       Make it motivating…what is it about this goal that appeals to you?  Remember, if it was that easy, you would have done it by now.  So, what is it about this goal that appeals to you and what will it mean to achieve it?  Arm yourself with motivation you can pull out when things get tough.

3.       Don’t try to change too much at once…there is some very interesting research showing that self-regulation is like a muscle…if you over-use it, it gets tired.  Making one change at a time and building on your success might be a better way to go.

During the coming weeks, this blog will provide tips, grounded in research, on setting and achieving meaningful goals in 2009.  If you haven’t set your goals yet, try reading my December 18^th blog on goal setting.  If you do have your goals in mind, try asking yourself the questions below.  Next week, we will discuss how to strengthen your chance of success.  Until then, happy New Year!

1.       What are you trying to achieve with this goal?

2.       What does this goal mean to you, personally?  (why are you pursuing it?)

3.       What will be different/better about your world when this goal is achieved?

4.       What would be the best thing about achieving it?

5.       What is the first thing you would notice?