To help people manage the uncertainties like the epidemic, economy, social unrest leaders must be more sensitive to each other's needs. Most breakdowns are caused by the leader's insensitiveness of the impact of their behaviour on their team. leadership self-awareness is especially important is incertain times.
Many organisations lack a systematic way to think about options for increasing self-awareness of their leaders. There are a few ways this can be done and the companies choose the option most suitable for the situation.
Why self-awareness is elusive?
It's a human tendency to judge by the intention and not the impact and this makes them blind to how others perceive their actions and this can prevent productive conversations. We are hardwired for defensive reasoning and stuck in self-deception.
Everyone views their abilities to the reason for the success and external factors the reason for failures. This self-serving bias protects but prevents accepting constructive feedback. There is also a tendency of people to overestimate their ability to do a job even if they lack the skill to do it.
So how does one overcome this? There are several possibilities and the choice depends on the tradeoffs between discussion-based or experiential experiences or personal or group training.
It is important to understand the learning experience. Experiential training can be used to trigger powerful insights leading to self-discovery. Discovering that one has missed out on crucial information is a wake-up call for the participant especially on an easy task. But this can be time-consuming and expensive, whereas in a discussion-based approach receiving feedback from the coach is more flexible and simpler.
The other consideration is if it has to be team-based or individual focussed. The choice depends on whether the main goal is to develop the team as a unit or to help an individual leader. There is also an additional constraint of scheduling the team for leadership development.
This leads to four options. Each can help experienced leaders to correct their blind spots.
- team simulation
- skilled facilitator
- Interpersonal skills development
- coach.
Participate in a team simulation:
Team exercises can be outdoor where the team has to trust one another in difficult conditions or indoor decision-making exercises. Decisions that have to be taken together help establish constructive discussion, collaboration and decision making norms. and introduce the value of synergy. The goal is to discover in a condensed time frame specific processes to help teams function effectively. This helps teams gain deep insights about problem-solving productively in an unfamiliar challenge.
Skilled facilitator for the team
The facilitator can help develop leadership's capability for effective processing of tough decisions and develop the team capabilities during the work. The consultant's role is to identify counterproductive actions and intervene to get the members to sort it out in real-time. The observations by the consultant may include how often members propose a new action, agree to build on others ideas, provide challenge or dissent.
A healthy team present a mix of these actions. it is both emotionally and intellectually challenging but can deliver powerful results especially when engaging in real work.
Coach
All of us are blocked in our attempts to make it on our own and we do not identify our contributions to setting up these blocks. We are also at a loss on how to overcome these blocks even if we can identify them. Coaches can help teammates expand their thinking to uncover their barriers and address them.
Interpersonal skills lab
Individuals are paired with actors in real decision-making situations. They are given feedback to the participants through video and data. Individuals feel uncomfortable and uncertain as they are made to lead. Individuals get real-time feedback watching their videos. They are deliberately put in stressful situations and then coached. The opportunity to experiment with new approaches in real-time helps develop skills in individuals.
By balancing the training efforts among these four aspects managers can choose an optimal approach. This will help companies increase their ability to thrive in an uncertain market.
Don’t Get Blindsided by Your Blind Spots
by Amy C. Edmondson and Aaron W. Dimmock
HBR 202011
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