The “Just One Thing” Series at Management Excellence is intended to provoke ideas and actions around topics relevant to our success and professional growth. Use them in good health and great performance!
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Let’s face it, the new leadership role is a great testament to your prior success and the faith that your firm’s senior leaders place in your abilities to help build the future. You’ve gained their confidence and trust, but the hard work is still in front of you. You’ve got to earn the trust of your new team members.
The group of Amy J.C. Cuddy, Matthew Kohut and John Neffinger writing in the July/August 2013 Influence themed issue of Harvard Business Review with their article, “Connect, Then Lead,” suggest that you choose your approach to engaging your new team members very carefully to optimize your start-up effectiveness. In particular, they suggest that you should fight your natural instinct to initially project your strength and competence and instead, focus on displaying warmth to support building trust.
For some of this, warmth approach is no easy task!
Focus on the Goal:
Remind yourself as you plan your start-up with your new team, that to be effective, you’ve got to be trusted. Trust breeds openness, engagement, support, creativity, communion and a host of other good environmental factors on a team and between a leader and a new team. The challenge for the new leader is how to earn trust as quickly as possible.
The authors in the HBR article cite evidence from behavioral scientists who suggest that when we judge others (in this case, the new boss), we look first at two characteristics: “how lovable they are” and “how fearsome they are.” While I doubt you think in terms of “lovable” or “fearsome” you are internally processing on your reaction to their verbal presentation and non-verbal cues and your perspective on their warmth impacts your perception of their trustworthiness. The over-emphasis on competence factors and an approach that suggests, “I’m the new sheriff in town,” may raise the defenses and keep people from engaging with the new boss in a way that they need to begin creating an effective working environment.
The judgment on lovable or fearsome becomes important as we process on two key questions: “What are this person’s intentions toward me?” and “Is he/she capable of acting on these intentions?” Any answer that breeds caution or tentativeness fights the early establishment of trust and delays the ability of the new leader to truly tap into the true perspectives and best creativity of her team members.
Adding a bit of data to the mix, the authors cite a study of 51,836 leaders where only 27 of them were rated in the bottom quartile in terms of likability and the top quartile in terms of overall leadership effectiveness. By my math, that’s a poor outcome for those of us who take pride in our competence and effectiveness and prefer a no-nonsense approach to getting started.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
As always, Mom was right. The behavioral science is just getting around to concluding what she was telling us years ago. You get more cooperation with honey than vinegar.
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I don’t know Art, this post has me a bit conflicted. While I do agree that on the spectrum of behaviors, lovable is is better than being feared, there is a whole spectrum of attributes that fall between these 2 extremes, and I would generally opt for something more in the middle.
Years ago, I was promoted to a department manager from the engineering world. Although I had only been with the company for 6 months prior to that promotion, I had years of experience leading at that level in other organizations. I feel that I used my time wisely during those 6 months, not only learning the products, but also studying the organizational dynamics that existed not only in my future department, but also in the peer group that I would soon be joining. The conclusion that I came to was that there was a mandate at that level to manage by fear and strength, and that leaders that opted for the warm approach with their teams were not only showing marginal success in terms of results, but were generally not well respected by their peers. I chose an approach more in the middle.
I didn’t go into the position wanting to be warm or be loved. But I did want to be fair to everyone and promote excellence, productivity, and career development. I found that my approached worked well with everyone. The team members who felt that there were marginal performers in the department were assured that there would be improvements. And the team members who felt that they might not be meeting expectations were assured that we would collaborate on a plan which would give that person a chance to succeed. It’s all about being honest with people. And from my perspective, honesty and being loved often are mutually exclusive.
So from my perspective, perhaps being liked or being considered warm is the result of being fair and committed to improving the team. But I would be careful not to start a leadership position wanting to be liked. You might develop friendships, but I don’t think you are developing the most optimal supervisor to team member relationship.
My 2 cents…
Hi Dave! Hey, a post that made you think is a good thing. I’ve been accused of being a machine or a robot…but never too nice, so I can relate to the perspective. I do think the command and control style that many of us experienced in prior decades has given way to a very different approach. And the authors do have some science on their side. Check out their article for a deeper dive and you too may come away deciding to become lovable! (OK, I know you…that may not happen.) Thanks for sharing. I respect your different perspective. -Art
This reminds me of the Machiavelli quote/ conclusion about being in a leadership position that it it is better to be feared than loved.
That may have been true in the Renaissance and, in business, certainly in the 20th century … but these days I think the answer becomes one of knowing when to be “feared” and when to be “loved.”
I’m sure these 2 descriptors aren’t what we’d use these days … maybe it’s more “when to be directive and insistent” and when to be “consultative and collaborative”.
This is, by the way, certainly the case in the other parallel discussion about “good partenting.”
Nice statement Mark! It is good to Know both state of mind and influence they are achieving among people around us. Sometimes it is hard to recognize it when or why to use it but usually heart (love) or thought (fear) give us the answer.