Which Leadership Question Will Unlock Your Year?
Decisions. Skill. Comms. Strategy.
I've practised, studied, and taught leadership for a few decades and have covered my 10,000 hours in facilitation.
My conclusion is this:
Leaders in charge of teams (or teams of people leaders) need to be able to answer four distinct questions without hesitation or fuzziness to be the fully realised leader they want to be.
They aren't my rules. It just is.
There are four core disciplines we need to be well-drilled in to be the trusted and respected leader our organisations need us to be: Decisions, Skills, Communication, and Strategy.
Here are the four questions you need to answer:
1.What are your principles? (Decisions)
Rules are for amateurs. They are rigid and throw professional people straight back into the schoolyard.
Principles are for pros.
Ray Dalio wrote a book on this called Principles. He notes that clear principles help us in three distinct ways:
They help us make believability-weighted decisions.
They allow us to operate by principles so clearly laid out that others can easily assess their logic and see if we walk the talk.
They systematise our decision-making.
I codified real performance principles to make it easier for leaders to create their own version to serve their specific context. This is the only way leaders can remain consistent while flexing in rapidly changing environments - an art form most simply cannot master.
2. What are your deliberate practices? (Skills)
In a recent Gartner report cited by the Australian Human Resources Institute, 77% of leaders report they do not feel equipped for the changes they are responsible for implementing.
This means the vast majority of leaders simply do not have the skills they desperately need.
I can vouch for this. Many leaders I work with have never been taught the hard skills of people and business management. They are, in essence, winging it.
Practices are the techniques we use multiple times a day. Learning, applying, and integrating them is a necessity. Yet, while some learn, most fail to apply or integrate those learnings. Without these practices, it's no wonder accountability, cohesion, and basic organisation feel near-on impossible for our leaders to achieve.
3.How do you influence others? (Communication)
I have been running the MiniMBA program at the Australian Institute of Management for over five years, working with Senior Leaders from every industry imaginable. The most commonly quoted need from this cohort is: "I want to be able to influence executive decision-making more effectively."
This is code for: "No one is listening to me!"
Leaders feel they have great insights, strong solutions, and a lot to offer - but they aren't getting cut-through. When we dig into this, we usually find they are using high school communication techniques in pro-level rooms.
Professionalising our communication as leaders is not to be sniggered at. The commitment, effort, and anxiety-inducing exposure required to become a seriously good communicator should never be treated lightly (which is mistake number one).
Practices of Communication help us grab attention, hold a room, and keep it so that better decisions and outcomes can prevail.
4.What strategic thinking do you actually do? (Strategy)
It is great to see corporate cultures putting more emphasis here, with departments running their own regular workshops. Yet, this is still the minority.
In reality, most leaders claim they are 'too busy' to strategise - an oxymoron if there ever was one! The old cliché of firefighting remains the norm.
A strategic leader creates 'programs of work' that progress business-as-usual (BAU), rather than just surviving to the next week or quarter.
Programs of Progress fill leaders with motivation. It inspires commitment from others and proves to leaders themselves exactly how much impact they can create.
The Self-Validating Leader
A leader constantly asking for help, approval, or sign-off for their own responsibilities is a cost and a risk. It doesn't feel good (it's not empowering), it is wasteful (energy-sapping), and it undermines confidence (lowering engagement).
True self-validation requires:
Leaders to have a strong set of principles guiding their decisions.
Leaders expertly driving their business with daily, deliberate practices.
Leaders communicating well-prepared, insightful, and pro-level messaging.
Leaders strategically working through the barrage of challenges and opportunities coming their way.
Leadership can be thankless, brutal, and confronting. But being a self-validating leader is entirely possible for every single professional.
When we equip ourselves with the tools to answer these four questions and practise them over and over again, your 10,000 hours in leadership ticks over quickly.
Every day spent answering the four questions is a step toward your mastery.
