I’ve noticed that sometimes, when leaders progress through their career, skills which were once important to them seem to disappear. Senior leaders often feel that they must know all of the answers, no longer have anything to learn (or can’t admit to what they would like to learn) and become simply ‘too busy’ to respond to emails or support others. They can become disconnected from their business and worse, their people. It can be lonely and stressful.
Coachability, space for kindness and simple communication are three skills which I believe are just as essential to be effective, whether you’re an intern or a CEO. Here’s why…
Be coachable: being coachable is about being open to finding new solutions, embracing new ideas and continuing to develop on a personal and professional level. It means being willing, open and keen to learn, improve and grow. It’s about giving respect to others’ opinions and inputs and placing weight on their feedback and ideas. It’s a collaborative, low-ego, humble style; the epitome of team-work and the linchpin of most high-performing teams. It’s absolutely not about weakness, but it does require confidence in being vulnerable and a lack of traditional hierarchical thinking.
Actionable tip to start this today: ask the team you are leading or working closely with for feedback. Talk to them about why this is important to you and give them reassurance that it’s safe for them to be honest, anonymising responses for example to support this.
Be kind: a really common, but important, phrase of late. Saving space for others in your day, to help and support them, to take a genuine interest in them, to praise them, to see them, is one of the many actionable elements of kindness. As a leader, extending your kindness in this way to someone each day may have an impact on them and your team which is immeasurable.
Actionable tip to start this today: genuinely thank someone for a job well done, publicly or privately, ideally in person. Pick out and mention why you appreciate their actions.
Be communicative: it sounds obvious, but this really is the simplest but also impactful thing which actually not only touches on the basic value of respect but also impacts productivity of a team or business trying to operate at pace. You are never too important or too busy to respond to an email (not including unsolicited email, I’m talking about an email from somebody you know or have previously reached out to) – even if that response is a quick copy & paste triage to say, ‘thanks for your email, copying person x who can help you with this’ or one asking for more time to thoughtfully respond. This should always happen within 24 hours. I’ve been in teams where a whole team has been in complete paralysis for days and weeks because a leader has chosen to deprioritise any form of response to something that was once a clear priority (even a quick message to say this is no longer a priority!) and can make no time in their diary to discuss it. The alternative would be a reply or an intervention which would take 10 seconds and give much needed context to the team hoping to execute. Think about the impact of a quick response to keep things moving.
Actionable tip to start this today: whatever your day looks like, block the first and last 30 minutes to triage emails/messages and set clarity for your team.
The absolute best leaders who I’ve worked with (and worked for) always prioritise these facets. I know, even years after working with them, I could drop them a WhatsApp and they’d respond if they can, with a quick reply. They don’t put themselves on a pedestal so everybody knows them, wants to help them succeed and nobody wants to knock them off that pedestal. Even on a bad day, they have empathy for others, as others can empathise and identify with them. They’re understood.
So, whether you’re at the start of your career and you’re actively looking for learnings, growth and are a pro-active communicator, or whether you’re a C-suite executive – prioritise these and start to feel the benefits.