OPINION
effective solutions involve establishing behavioural routines that you can easily follow when under pressure. These won’t replace the underlying foundation of your social code, but learning how to dial up or down your skills can dramatically improve your ability to succeed as a leader. For extroverts who over-consult when making decisions, create a routine of recording your opinion before approaching others for theirs and set a time frame for taking action. Alternatively, introverts can balance their task-focus by identifying trusted individuals to approach before committing to a plan. Both optimists and pessimists can balance their tendencies by asking their team to expand more on their ideas and creating routines that discuss the risks and opportunities of any new plans. Likewise, empathy-led leaders should ask themselves and their teams what would happen if they ignored what people felt about the changes they were planning to make. The opposite is true for those with less empathy, who should consider which stakeholders are most likely to be upset by their decisions. The reason our encoded social core is so important to our position and abilities as leaders is not just because it’s what comes out when we’re under pressure, but because of the sheer extent to which it can affect us and others. Understanding its impact and developing strategies to make it your strength can, therefore, be the critical difference between success and failure.
overly positive with peers can inadvertently undermine their gravitas and how seriously their colleagues view them. Likewise, if a leader is too negative, they can be seen as inflexible and unconstructive. With direct reports, the impact of a leader being positive or negative is more dependent upon the context and the people involved. In some situations, performance levels can be better if a leader is negative. However, just as with peers, being too strongly one or the other is usually unhelpful. Adaptability The final part of our encoded social core is how much we adjust our behaviour to different situations, people and contexts. At one end of this scale, there are people who seem like chameleons, who change their style to fit in with each audience. At the other end, there are those who never seem to adjust and adapt: they just are how they are. Neither extreme is better than the other, as each style has advantages and disadvantages. Highly adaptable leaders tend to be more skilled at navigating complex social situations, while consistent leaders tend to be more able to take a stand and push change through resistance. Importantly, just as with empathy, this isn’t about whether you can adapt, but how much you tend to do so. Impact on management skills Reflecting on how each of the four tendencies apply to you will help you better understand the impact they have on your leadership when you’re operating under pressure. It forms your ability to engage and persuade others, to navigate tensions and the capacity for influence, as well as how you manage the most challenging and demanding stakeholders. Whatever your style, though, the question we end up with is what you can do about it if it is affecting your leadership negatively. There is a degree to which how you are is how you will remain, but the most
Professor Shlomo Ben-Hur is an organisational psychologist and a professor of leadership & organisational behaviour at the IMD business school in Switzerland, where he directs some of the school’s flagship programmes. He has co-authored various business books with his long-time collaborator, Nik Kinley, a London-based leadership consultant, psychotherapist and coach with over 30 years’ experience. Their new book, Re-writing Your Leadership Code: How Your Childhood Made You the Leader You Are and What You Can Do About It , is out now
Ambition | SEPTEMBER 2024 | 37 Ambition | OCTOBER 2024
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