Leading is about creating the Change...

Over the course of my 15-year journey leading people, I have noticed life moving increasingly faster; change is becoming a normal constant, and we need a way to navigate this progressively more challenging world’s complexities.

As I have grown during my professional development, my leadership skills have enlarged and will continue to enlarge. Initially, I was focused on achieving goals. I was naturally impatient in this pursuit, and very task oriented. Now in my organization, I try to cultivate a culture focused on growth rather than simply checking tasks off a list.

There is a profound difference between adaptability and conformity. I hold in high esteem the courage to adjust to changing circumstances. Conformity is essentially equivalent to becoming average and refusing to stand out, or to progress. Adaptability is a personal strength based upon confidence in yourself.

In the face of change, I have watched people grapple with uncertainty; people who conform pull away to a safe place to protect themselves. In doing this, they unwittingly bar themselves from progress. I think it is human nature to desire improvement and resist to change at the same time—newness and innovation can scare us into complacency.

You need to be flexible and deal with the inevitable uncertainty of the world without losing focus—do not forget that the environment dictates the change. It is your responsibility as a person and as a leader to constantly update and re-calibrate your world view.

I have learned during my career that great leaders face their uncertainty and doubt with resolve, and they move through it swiftly to pave the way for others.

The person who believes change is essential is proactive and thinks, “I will make that change so that our team can improve.” In all my assignments, growth was and is expected, and so change is essential.

I can confidently say that every change you make to adapt yourself has the potential to make you a better and more effective leader.

You will have to find comfort in the divergence between stability and conformity that gives you security and opportunities to adapt that give you opportunity to grow as a person and that empower you to become a better leader.

Everyday, I ask myself: “Is this the best I can do today?” I try to make every day my masterpiece, but at the same time, (as those on my team know) I don’t rest on my laurels. I want to grow into tomorrow’s challenges.

I expect anyone who joins my team to be highly attracted to the prospect of personal and professional growth, and to share this zeal for owning each day.

In my early leadership days, I asked my direct manager, “How do you grow an organization?” His answer was very simple: through the growth of each team member. It took me a while to understand the gravity and importance of that statement.

In my career leading people, I have worked to cultivate an environment where the expected-accomplishment culture includes and values every individual member of the team. In this type of environment, it is highly important to understand that you cannot accomplish the growth you seek alone - you need others.

When you lead without taking the time or making the effort to understand those who are following you, the results can be catastrophic. Early in my career I made some mistakes, but I found a clearer path when I learned this African proverb:

The more solid you are as a leader, the more your team is able to shine—try to empower them by:

• Exposing them to management
• Inviting them to help you to achieve the vision
• Noticing what they do well and complimenting them on it
• Thanking them to make sure they feel valued for their contribution

I strive to do this every day with the team; as you can see, none of those actions takes a high degree of skill or eats into budget limitation, but they all have a positive impact. As leaders, it is our duty to help the team to become better every day.

The amount of value added to your team determines the possible return. Remember: “The fewer the seeds, the smaller the harvest.” While this is a good rule of thumb, keep in mind not to calculate the expected return in this process, as sometimes you may be surprised. My attitude has changed over the years of leading people in a shift to understand giving vs. helping.

As highlighted earlier, I have had the privilege to work in different organizations and different segments (B2B and B2C), under different leadership styles (organizations that valued the achievement and where KPI achievement was the destination and organizations that valued development where target is personal and professional growth.)

When you become better, the customer will sense that you add value to your relationship—this is strategic for your business, especially when you evolve in the B2B segment.

Growth is the only security that tomorrow will be better than today. If you target for growth, you will engage all the necessary actions to achieve your goals.

In every organization that I have led, I have recruited and trained team members with a “growth spirit” that embraces the challenges and is willing to learn and to be developed; a spirit that finds inspiration in the success of others.

To drive this growth spirit, it requires hard work and a lot of energy, especially when you are managing people from different cultures in your department.

Though not easy, cultivating this culture pays off in dividends, and there are concrete steps leaders can take to achieve such an environment.

1. Set high standards:

I always set standards high and keep them high. This helps me to grow and to progress; I am very demanding of myself. It is important when you are leader that you set the standards high for yourself before anyone else does it for you. You are the role model that your team will follow.

2. Consistency in your actions and communication:

When you are the leader, you have to act as a role model and be consistent. Everyone will be analyzing your words, attitudes, and actions so everything has to be aligned. Your consistency will also enhance your standards and help “brand” your leadership style.

Your direct team members will watch and judge you on these points as well. Consistency in your brand will build your reputation, and we all know that people leave managers not companies.

It is a strong challenge to be good every time, but if you rise to the occasion it won’t go unnoticed.

3. “Pleasing people” vs. “Challenging them”

There was a point in the beginning of my career where I realized that I was not leading people—I was trying to make them and myself feel good: limiting conflict, avoiding tough discussion, managing through the consensus.

At the end, the organization was not moving forward and you are fully accountable for that achievement.

One of the people who helped me improve in this area was my coach, Mrs. Cynthia Widjaja (Action Coach). She said: “Always separate what is best for you from what is best for the organization.” The simple truth is not always pleasant to hear, especially when you have always put yourself first.

I am always asking myself during my decision process:

• What is the best for the organization/department/company?
• What is the best for my team?
• What is the best for me?

It is not an easy process, and you have to repeat it in order to master it. For me, it took time and even today I am still in the learning phase.

Then, I began to focus more on what is the best for the people that I lead.

I shared the vision, challenged the team, showed them the way, asked for commitment, and stopped waiting for consensus.

The organizations that I have led in emerging markets started to take ground and grow. I allowed those who didn’t want to go with me to go their own way without expending all my energy trying to win them back. Especially in periods of business transformation in emerging countries, your adaptation to the changed environment becomes your competitive edge.

Sometimes you will get some team members that avoid challenges, give up easily and/or try to find excuses or feel insecure by the success from other team members. This situation complex, and may create a negative environment that you have to resolve rapidly.

No longer did I wait and worry about having everyone on board. The days of allowing unhappy people to manipulate the organization or even myself were over. Now, my main preoccupation when I am leading a team is: “Are we all committed to the challenge?” 

You will see some people accept your challenge and help the rest of the team to overachieve.

During a leadership summit at my previous company, I learned the principle of 25-50-25:

In any organization, 25% of your team will support your efforts, 50% will be undecided, and 25% will reject the change. Your objective is to bring the 50% to join the first 25%.

My advice is: don’t waste your energy trying to please this bottom 25%. If you are doing the right thing, try to keep them away from the 50% who have not decided the way to go. Meanwhile, ask the first 25% to positively influence the undecided 50%.

Celebrate every winning moment you achieve with those 50%, as it will help you to keep you and your organization moving in the right direction.        

4. My earning time

In my organization, I give to everyone support, resources, and vision, but the most valuable contribution I make is my time.

I practice the 80-20 rule: 80% of my time to the 20% of the team that produces 80% of the results. I used to spend a lot of time with everyone in my team, but I discovered it was very challenging to change the habits of the non-committed people—this was in my “pleasing period”. Now I am more pragmatic in my approach.

5. Tackle tough decisions

In my leadership journey, I have had to tackle tough issues that include tough discussions with certain members of your team. I learned that we should never delay those moments, as the more you wait the more complex it becomes, and consequences can be drastic for the rest of the organization. I don’t sit on issues. If I need to have a tough conversation, I have it as soon as humanly possible.

As highlighted earlier, people are watching you. If you let a problem go unaddressed, then you will lose respect and credibility internally. For this reason, I have regular 1:1 meetings with my team to deliver the right message and to help them, if needed, to become their best.

When a problem occurs, I try to define and analyze the root of the cause: is it linked to another person in the organization? Inefficiency of processes or procedures? Is it even linked to myself?

If I am the root, I will have to fix it myself. I learned that having the right attitude is as essential as your actions, and your actions often carry more weight than your words.

Bear in mind that a positive outcome may not always be possible, but it is worth a try to achieve it rather than to simply attempt an escape from your responsibility.

One of the greatest lessons in my recent leadership experience, I learned that you never know if people really support you until you ask them for commitment.

When you ask all your team for commitment, you lose the uncommitted team players and you gain the committed ones. Imagine if you don’t ask, you may run the risk of losing the committed ones in favor of the non-committed—this will prove a severe issue in a growth environment.

I also learned that respect is most often learned in tough times. In moments of pressure, your team will respect you if you make the hard decisions and lead by example instead of giving orders and blaming others.

We need to place high importance and value on the people with whom we are working.

My leadership is a journey and not a destination. These 15 years of journeying and learning have helped me to continuously improve the organizations that I have led, and achieve my personal visions as well...