Leading the way with an agile mindset

CEOs at large have got a bad rap from some negative stories in the past few years, but there are far more hard-working and decent people in leadership than there are those who would defraud their colleagues and investors. In fact, the assumption that the big boss is always a money-grabbing jerk puts people into the false dichotomy of "us vs. them", which is hardly useful to anyone. We'll return to this concept (and its dismantling) in a future article in this series but for now, the fact of the matter is that these are people, and they want to lead their businesses to great success. They're under pressure from competitors, shareholders, and even their direct reports to unlock the collaboration that will uncover innovation. The entire business is at stake; it doesn't matter if your company has been around for over a century. You can die a dinosaur or learn how to evolve.

The price of failure for a CEO has changed. There was a time when a few seasons of low performing shares would still net the CEO their salary, bonus, and a move to a new role. The status quo was easy to maintain. This is no longer the case, as stiff competition from giant companies like Amazon now drives a poor performing business into bankruptcy and dissolution. There's now an atmosphere where these incidents are not so easy to explain away, and if you're ousted you might not recover.

So how does a person with the power that comes along with a C-level position foster an environment where collaboration can flourish and innovation can emerge?

Allow us to present a thought exercise: You're a talented individual (obviously) who's just graduated from university. You're about to enter the world of work in earnest. Would you rather work for a company with a reputation for treating people like widgets and cycling through them after they've burnt out, or one where there's an atmosphere of electricity, collaboration, and innovation, where the next big thing is bound to come from?

We know what our answer would be.

This requires accepting the fact that our relationship with power has to change. Leaders have to consider not how to force people to work together, but how to remove the constraints that keep people from collaborating.

It is imperative that the "C" level team in any organisation works at a very operational level. The CEO has a legitimate need for control and authority amongst their direct reports and can't quite simply "let go" in the way that a team lead might. However, the management practices that keep the C-suite in tune are anathema to an open, collaborative company. How do we reconcile this apparent contradiction?

First, we recognise that the power held by the CEO is legitimate and vital. But to successfully uncover the innovation that is brewing quietly amongst our workforce, the controls held at the top cannot be applied with the same discipline throughout the remainder of the organisation.

We encounter a significant challenge here. Why? Because people tend to emulate their own manager's style. It starts at the top and spirals down like a fractal, infinitely repeating.

Getting to this gradient requires that we acknowledge the informal, social aspects of our internal network and give them as much room to breathe as we can. It's in those informal structures that the sparks of innovation are lit. We've watched how a bureaucratic and operational culture can reject the organic collaboration that occurs in the informal networks. The formal can adjust to recognise this value, or it can snuff it out with policies and politics.

Changing the mindset of the individuals that make up your teams is a powerful first step in delivering greater value to your customers.

Take the first step on your journey towards meaningful transformation today.