Jos Groen
A leader's personal transformation to a more open and sustainable leadership style can parallel an organization's transformation a similarly sustainable open model. In this chapter, I'll outline a few ways you can shape your leadership during transformation to an open organization.
I use the word "sustainable" with good reason here. Many organizations aspire not merely to success but to sustainable success. And by "sustainable," I mean an organization that maintains balance between focus on people and focus on business, one that balances short and long term goals with stable financial performance, and one with a clear value-based footprint in the market and which (along with its executives) is transforming to an open organization.
However, in order to achieve their visions of success, many leaders in the upper echelons of these organizations still compulsively cling to the closed-off, short-term-driven patterns they've gotten comfortable with. Today, the question is: Are these practices—and their accompanying leadership styles—really sustainable for an organization in the longer term?
Knowing what this kind of transformation requires of leaders (courage and perseverance, for starters), I hope to provide some encouragement and support. And I also want to offer employees in organizations undergoing open transformation some insights into what they can expect from their leaders in such an organization (in the hope that they'll encourage their organization's leaders to begin the transformation).
The world is in the grips of multiple disruptive forces. These forces assert themselves both economically and socially and it's nearly impossible to estimate—certainly to underestimate—their consequences.
As part of these shifts, people are beginning to resist conventional thinking, exclusivity, and authoritarian systems prevalent in their organizations and with their accompanying leaders—especially when those leaders prioritize their own images, status, preservation of power, and short-term economic interests over the success of others. Regardless of the type of organization (be it a national government, a sports association, or a for-profit company) perceived egoism, misguidedness, and lust for power are becoming less acceptable.
Leaders who abide by those antiquated principles represent the past; their lack of transparency, trust, inclusion, and integrity makes people (in)visibly rebel against them.
If this is the trend, then what is the message for organizations and leaders who focus exclusively on financial gain through formal authority and excessive hierarchy?
These are outdated ways of thinking, leading, and organizing—and unsustainable at that. Many organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the need for a better balance between the their organizations'
human dimension, their people's emotional intelligence, and the company's social innovation model on the one hand and shareholder interests on the other.
This awareness, often prompting an organizational transformation, has been growing for some time. And as an organizational leader, you have the choice to opt into or out of this kind of transformation. If you want to remain relevant as a leader, then you'll recognize the necessity for change and adjust your own behavior and approach. You'll then be able to ride the energy of the ongoing transformation and utilize this momentum in the transition to a more sustainable organization model. The open organization is an example of one such sustainable model—one that fits well with both current and new generations of employees, and one that proves new forms of leadership can increase both sustainable organizational success and shareholder value.
Or, alternatively, you can stick your head in the sand and resist both this new era and the potential energy that transformation could infuse in your organization. That option will only cost you—and its chances of helping your organization survive are questionable.
Expecting an organization to one day end all its conventional thinking and practices and begin the next day a completely transformed organization is unrealistic. Beginning a transformation will inevitably cause a kind of "hybrid" situation in which elements from both worlds are at play simultaneously.
What I mean by a "conventional" organizational model is a closed organization, one in which the balance between the focus on people and the focus on the business leans strongly towards the latter. This traditional organizational model is characterized by short-term thinking and an authoritarian, hierarchical, top-down approach to decision-making aimed almost exclusively at increasing shareholder value. Open organizations focus on inclusivity, collaboration among networks of individuals, and collective decision-making that prioritizes organizational sustainability and innovation.
Chances are, if you're an organizational leader, then you're already embracing, building, and leading an open organization. People farther up the organizational chart are likely still using the conventional approach. Hence the hybrid situation.
Moreover, you can assume people (and potential leaders) within your ranks already have an increased awareness of the need for transformation and the benefits of a more open organization. Open leadership in a hybrid organization therefore demands a lot from you as a leader—guts, courage, and perseverance, as well as the skills to engage in a substantive discussion with anyone and everyone, and especially with those who are not yet aware of the transformation and don't see the need to change themselves.
One of a leader's primary roles is to train new leaders. A good leader creates a safe environment for an organization's members so they'll feel free to actively participate. Only then can they add value to the organization from a place of intrinsic motivation. Leaders who've adopted this open way of working are generally the ones we love to follow. And we do so because we want to, not because we have to. This is an essential consideration you must make if you want to achieve sustainable success.
I know many executives and managers in senior positions who can't be called "true" leaders, at least not in the sense of leadership as defined above. They may be in high organizational positions and exercise authority through that position, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we trust them and will actually want to follow them. A traditionally trained director cannot train someone to be a leader; he or she trains people to be lead through formal authority, making the traditional model a self-perpetuating phenomenon. However, a company that doesn't train new leaders is risking its survival and is therefore unsustainable.
I understand that the boardroom offers little space for reflection on a more open and modern organizational structure, due to the pressures of shareholder value and the pursuit of short-term results. But that's a missed opportunity.
If you're interested in breaking this pattern, it's time to act. Have a real look at leadership and how people are connecting, directing, organizing, and working together. Realize you're dealing with a change of conditioned behavior, beliefs that have been a part of how we lead and direct organizations for years. Entire generations have been trained in this. It takes courage from you as a director with roots in the traditional model to see that you are part of the problem. But with that realization you are also part of the solution.
So what are you waiting for?
You are the key to breaking the pattern. In order to be able to lead in our current and future global situation, you will have to act. We can certainly find examples of traditional leaders who would rather go under than be willing to change. That's their right, but it's not very effective or sustainable.
However, if you are open to transformation, then it's time for some reflection.
Ask yourself, for example:
- Are you sufficiently aware of your behavior and its effects on others?
- Are you open to discovering the real value you're adding to an organization and really questioning whether you're relevant to the organizatin's future?
- Are you willing to examine whether your beliefs, assumptions, worldview and ideas still correspond with both current realities and the requirements the future demands?
- How authentic are you? How inquisitive are you? And are you open to learning?
If you're ready to begin the work of becoming a more open leader, then I suggest the following initial steps.
We often approach things rationally, with our head, and we rely on logical thinking to reach decisions. We also prefer to solve problems immediately; that behavior is conditioned. We don't take time to delve into underlying causes of problems, even though removing the cause is actually the only sustainable solution to the problem we face.
We rarely consider our feelings, what our heart tells us, even though our intuition and social intelligence are in fact formed by the connection between our head and heart. Being aware of this and incorporating this strength into your leadership style and behavior will increase your effectiveness in an open organization.
Are you willing to listen to your feelings and share them with your colleagues? Do you trust what your heart tells you?
If you open yourself up to your intuition and social intelligence, your self-awareness and authenticity will grow—which is exactly what you need as a leader. Allow unlimited curiosity about what's going on and reflect on what you will need in order to deal with an issue.
In addition to taking on your own transformation, you'll be taking a big step by admitting transformational leaders to the table. And trust me, these leaders won't bite; they'll help you. They may think and act differently than what you're used to, but they'll also strive for the highest possible results.
In fact, I suspect there are people among the members of your organization who already have an increased awareness of (and talent for!) the leadership style necessary for this kind of organizational transformation. You can recognize them by the informal way in which they make a difference in your organization—though not always in terms of performance and result (the domains of the traditionalists).
I'm talking about the innovators, cross-thinkers, and creatives in your organization, the people who create connections connectedness, who seek a deeper understanding of the context for problems They effectively balance people and business, acting on both long-term and short-term interests. These people stand out because of the blind faith customers and colleagues alike place in them.
I often notice a certain fear of admitting these leaders to the boardroom or management track. Are tradntional leaders afraid of losing control? I think they are.
This fear is conditioned. It is an unconscious roadblock to being open and willing to learn, to allowing dissidents to enter the organization's "inner circle." Be mindful of this impulse, because sticking to the traditional model and staying in your comfort zone will be a missed opportunity.
Let's face it: The worst that can happen is that you might learn something from the experience.
If you've already displayed the courage and willingness to change yourself in service of the transformation, and to allow transformational leaders into your inner circle, then you'll find that organizational transformation can feel inspiring and empowering. And if you're a more conventional leader, then you should know that your knowledge, experience, and skills are extremely important for a successful transformation.
These transformations require a balance between conventional and innovative processes and practices (remember, you'll be in a "hybrid period" for a while). What's more, your personal transformation can happily coincide with the transformation of the organization. Qualities you've developed through conventional leadership will also come in handy during the hybrid period. For example, you already know how to focus on business and short term results, so if you make a shift and begin to emphasize focus on human interests and and the long term, you'll explore how to find a balance from your new perspective. This is about discovering what an increased focus on openness openness does to the energy within your organization, its people, and its business. Just be open and add the lessons, results, and new experiences you glean from this approach to your existing set of managerial skills.
Transformational leaders will contribute to the organization's collective learning and ensure that you maintain progress when you're at risk of falling back into former behaviors and old patterns. Here, your greatest strength as a leader is your ability to admit you don't have all the answers—that answers to transformational challenges will only emerge through collaboration with the team—and that you don't have everything "under control." It is precisely this modesty and cooperation that ensure trust and a safe environment for transformation.
More traditional models of leadership tend to recognize success through individual performance, not collective success. Work becomes a matter of individual achievement, bonuses, organizational status, and power.
In open organization, "good" leadership is about the extent to which a person can contribute to a team with honesty, integrity, courage, resilience, persistence, judgment, and decisiveness. Successful leaders are willing to listen to their feelings, demosntrate vulnerability, and trust their intuition. All this makes sustainable success more likely than failure.
During your organization's transition to an open model, communicating about the ways your organization's indicators of success are changing will be critical. If organizational leaders still act with conventional images of success in mind, transformation will be more difficult.
In traditional organizations, a manager is a de facto responsible party—held solely to account for results. This makes conventional organizations breeding grounds egocentric leadership approaches.
After all, if you're responsible, you'll want to be in control of all facets of business operations leave nothing to anyone else. You'll want to be involved in every decision, from granting employee leave to approving project margins to the purchase of coffee beans for the break room. This only impedes your team's strength and independence, and it fuels mutual distrust.
In open organizations, leaders aren't responsible for results as much as they are responsible for the people responsible for the results. The best way to enhance organizational performance is to create an atmosphere in which team members share information transparently, are open about their mistakes, and help and support each other—in short, an open working environment in which people feel safe and comfortable. As an open leader, you'll need to communicate that increased ability to assert organizational influence comes with increased responsibility for organizational outcomes.
I am often asked about the results of my most recent organizational transformation according to open organizational principles. Let me start by saying that it's a team effort, and we're not done yet. Looking at the three year period between 2017 and 2019, we can see that our culture and cultural values were transformed from "worrying" to "perfectly healthy." This is based on independent research at the start and end of this period. Besides that, we achieved a significant increase in profitability, with only a slight increase in turnover. Here are some of the most important lessons we've learned along our journey.
- People deserve an open working environment that facilitates their growth and prosperity in a high-performance organization. Throughout a transformation, the organization must remain linked to the potential that wants to unfold. To tap this potential, leaders must create a clear vision, direction, and identity. This goes hand-in-hand with optimizing the organization for its new context. By organizing this balance between people and business, we can give the organization back to its members.
- Good leadership isn't about exercising formal authority, status, or bonuses (though these will certainly play a role in your work). It's about the extent to which you can enable others to contribute to the whole organization from the standpoint of their intrinsic motivation. A leader is someone who's able to inspire confidence, someone who acts based on knowledge, experience, and intuition, someone whose head and heart are connected. Leadership in an open organization is more about whether you're willing to serve than about what you're able to demand. It's about putting collective purpose before your own interests. People will first determine whether you're sincere and trustworthy before choosing whether or not to follow you. The more authentic you are, the better off you'll be.
- Transformation isn't just something to be "managed" or "created." It's something you need to experience. This means you'll require a higher degree of awareness of the personal transformation(s) you'll need to undertake as you prepare to lead an organizational transformation. You must fully understand that transformative mindset in order to live it. And you must be able to live it in order to be able to lead it.
- You need to understand that transformation is about energy—both "brain energy" and "heart energy." If you notice the energy is great then just stimulate it, keep it flowing and growing. And if you sense it's not the right kind of energy, then just try to find the cause of the negativity and remove it so energy will start flowing in the right direction again. You need to transform the organization's energy first—and with that, the people, the business, and your organization. Not the other way around.
Early on in my career, I came to the realization that the behaviors and attitudesassociated with what I now call "traditional management" don't suit me. It's too far from who I am. At first, when I was still fighting for organizational recognition, this was a source of frustration for me.
It was a drain on my energy, and I felt like I could never "win."
Ultimately, this approach proved ineffective and unsustainable.
Only after I discovered who I really am as a leader, what my talents are, and how I can be authentic was I able to take back control and focus on adding value to an organization.
And believe me, it meant having to break many patterns and really confronting myself in order to get there. But the transformation is possible. And I wish the same for you.