Be a better business leader
Want a high-performing team in a collaborative and productive workplace? Human Synergistics believes it has the answers, writes
ADanielle Wright
ccording to leadership consultant Human Synergistics, which has been operating in New Zealand since 1979, Kiwi chief executives are underperforming and could do more to lead businesses to better outcomes.
Human Synergistics’ leadership consultant Neil McGregor says the most interesting and important outcome from his years of research is that New Zealand leaders tend to be less constructive and effective and, in general, more defensive than leaders he has measured around the rest of the world.
“Our data indicates quite clearly that more constructive individuals, who focus on achievable goals, share their thoughts and opinions and support and encourage their people, are rated significantly higher (at 38 per cent) in task and interpersonal effectiveness than those relying on defensive behaviours, such as being overly concerned with status, avoiding conflict or setting unrealistic goals,” says McGregor.
Effective managers and leaders are effective at task accomplishment and interpersonal relationships, he says. They are good at what they do and they work well with others.
“We work with some of these effective leaders and the readiness and willingness of these leaders to engage in their own leadership development is critical,” says McGregor. “We see more and more leaders not only believing it’s important for them to have a mindset of ongoing mastery of leadership, but also the willingness to do something about it.”
He believes some managers need to develop a more personable approach, while many others need a more rigorous direction to create clarity of purpose — there’s no onesolution-fits-all approach to the problem.
His advice for CEOs is for all members of the executive team to have as their primary role the task of leading the business.
“All too often, executive team meetings turn into a debate around who gets their hands on scarce resources,” says McGregor. “So, rather than taking an enterprise view, they take their own functional view. This is not good for the business and it’s the CEO’s role to manage this focus.”
He sees leadership as a shared concept in a business. “No one person can lead the business — it takes a team,” says McGregor.
“CEOs need to coach their team members and others of influence in the business to come aboard the shared purpose.”
However, he says creating a high performance team isn’t easy and if it were, everyone would be doing it.
“A performance equation we like to use to identify opportunities is Performance = Capability x Motivation x Opportunity (p = m x c x o),” says McGregor. “I like the equation because a leader can use it with an individual, a team or the entire organisation to audit where the strengths and opportunities might be.”
For our CEOs to improve, McGregor believes the key will be the willingness and commitment to change.
“We are seeing more and more New Zealand leaders admitting they don’t have it all right, and they are willing to show some vulnerability from the CEO level down to say we need to be better at leading into the future and are doing something about it,” says McGregor. “We also see leaders supporting and challenging leaders at all levels to move into a more purpose driven way of leading their teams.”
Human Synergistics is holding its 13th annual conference on leadership in Auckland on November 3, featuring Google futurist Thomas Frey, young entrepreneur Jake Millar, “Nanogirl” Dr Michelle Dickinson, Cigna CEO Lance Walker and Fiona Michel, the Chief HR Officer at the Auckland District Health Board. The theme is Sharing Wisdom, which is about having a growth mindset to create truly wise, effective and responsible organisations.
One of the speakers at the conference is Lance Walker from Cigna, HRINZ Supportive CEO of the Year, who McGregor says is a good role model for those wanting to create high performing teams.
“Walker understands as CEO that the strategies of the organisation won’t be delivered unless the culture and team environment enables his people to confidently engage with them,” says McGregor. “So, he’s consciously building the culture to support performance (with the help of his senior team). He’s also a very lively and approachable character who helps his people be clear about what’s important in their roles and what the priorities are, and he’s good at recognising progress and success (both individually and collectively).”
So, if New Zealand CEOs aren’t performing well now, how will they respond in an era of disruptive change?
“The world’s moving faster and faster and the business world is really going from a mindset of, ‘How do we try to predict, plan, control and execute on a specific plan?’ to a mindset that’s more about, ‘How can we get fast feedback loops? How do we constantly 1. Trust 2. Respect 3. Willingness to voice/accept differences in a constructive way 4. Commitment to a common goal 5. Willingness to be accountable 6. Clarity of roles, objectives and expectations 7. Lack of ego sense and respond and build the organisation around adaptability and resilience and longevity?’” says McGregor. “To do this we must focus on the human value chain and create the space for our leaders to create the environment for their people to be at their best.”
Thankfully, it all comes back to the number eight wire mentality ingrained on the Kiwi psyche, which is about being inventive and adapting what you have to find a solution.
As Charles Darwin said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Synergistics Please line.