Hello and welcome to Keys For New Leaders, a podcast Serving Leaders Serving Others. This is your host, Dr. Charles Boyer, but just call me Charlie, my friend. Thank you so much for listening. Serving Leaders Serving Others is what we’re all about. In this series of podcasts, my goal is to serve you, the new leader, helping you serve others through sharing ideas, helpful hints, suggestions, inspiration, insights, encouragement and sometimes a laugh or two to lighten the load along the way.
I want to take just a moment to thank YOU for listening. I’m always amazed when I look at the statistics for the podcast. Thank you for joining listeners from 1300 cities around the world.
This is Episode #44, and we’re going to talk about your AGILITY ABILITY as a new leader. No, not the “leap tall buildings” kind of agility, but the ability to lead by being flexible, innovative, and resourceful, all things and more that a leader must be able to do and demonstrate these days.
One of the biggest challenges you will face as a new leader in today’s world is change – rapid and complex change – that can lead you to feelings of overwhelm and, if you’re not careful, to burnout. Change comes at us from many fronts – wars, geopolitical tensions, climate change, new technology, rising costs – and it doesn’t stop. Change is not only the new normal, it is indeed the only constant.
Along with the many changes that leaders must navigate are the increasing people-related responsibilities and challenges. Many leaders report difficulty finding time for reflection, for planning, for clarity when making decisions. Add to that the ever-growing need for leaders to be sensitive to the needs of the people they work with. It seems that we’re all very busy these days. This “busy-ness” has become a part of our everyday lives, and it affects how well we – and others – work together. I’m not sure technology is saving us much energy, because we all seem to be busier now than ever before. That reminds me of an old expression, “The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.”
So, if change is the new normal, the new constant, today’s leaders must learn to adapt or get left behind in the dust. My great-grandfather made harnesses and buggy whips for a living. I wonder how he would adapt to today’s workplace?
I’ve struggled a bit to understand this agility ability thing, to understand why some leaders seem to have trouble being flexible or adapting to new ways to get things done. As a young teacher, I soon learned to always have a back-up plan in case the first one didn’t work, as well as have several different ways to explain the same thing to a student who didn’t get it the first time around. We still reached our goal, but maybe there were a few detours we had to make to get there. I guess you could call that agility ability.
Just a word of caution at this point : agility does not imply that you, the leader, are wishy-washy or that you change direction every time the wind blows or there’s a bit of resistance. It does mean that you and your team have clearly established a goal and that you are flexible in how to reach that goal.
But just what IS a leader’s agility ability? Some of the key leadership principles and behaviors include:
· Servant Leadership - lead by example; serve and support your team; remove obstacles so that others can succeed
· Clear Vision, Purpose, Goals – help everyone understand clearly where the team is headed and why; repeat as much as needed!
· Communication, Collaboration – open, clear communication and regular feedback is essential; create a safe environment for your team to experiment or take risks without fear
· Trust – build a team based on mutual respect and good working relationships; show that you are trustworthy and credible – always!
· Adaptability – keep the goal clearly in front of everyone, but be prepared for some detours; accomplishing the goal is more important than fussing over each step along the way.
These few examples of principles and behaviors aren’t listed in any order of importance. There are others. They’re ALL important and they’re ALL necessary.
Don’t expect to BE an agile leader overnight. You BECOME one over time. Like building trust, it takes years of practice, all day, every day. Take another look at those principles and behaviors, and then challenge yourself on each point with these two words: SHOW ME. For example:
· Are you one who leads by serving others? SHOW ME (that is, HOW does serving others SHOW UP in your life?)
· Do you establish a clear vision, purpose, goals with your team? SHOW ME.
· Do you build trust and credibility? SHOW ME.
The ‘SHOW ME’ challenge means YOU. You can’t just BE, but you can BECOME. Make it obvious to yourself that you lead by serving others, and before long, it will become obvious to others around you.
Agile leadership is flexible, adaptive, guiding and enabling compared to traditional models of leadership. Traditional leadership tends to be top-down, directive, more controlling, and less responsive to rapid change. Agile leadership, on the other hand, is more flexible, empowering, adapts to change, and embraces failure as a learning opportunity.
That last one – failure as a learning opportunity – is a big one, and takes a lot of commitment from everyone, especially YOU. Inventor Thomas Edison once said about failure that he didn’t accept failure, he just knew thousands of ways the invention did NOT work. What a positive way to look at the concept of failure!
More than anything else, agile leadership is a mindset, a thought process that involves understanding, collaboration, learning and staying flexible. An agile leader maintains frameworks, overall goals and objectives, but stands ready to respond to change. A tall order? Yes it is – but YOU can do it! You can’t just BE. Commit yourself to BECOME an agile leader. How’s your agility ability these days?
And now, it’s time for three questions – just for you to think about and answer for yourself. Here they are:
1. On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being high), how would you rate yourself as a servant leader, one who leads by serving others?
2. How do trust and credibility show up in your life?
3. With what part of agility ability are you feeling some resistance right now?
That Special Key for this episode is, obviously, the Key of A, for your ability agility. You can BECOME an agile leader. It takes time and practice, but YOU can do it! Good luck!
The next episode will be about the AWE Question. The letters A, W, and E are short for And What Else. When you have asked and answered all the questions you and others can think of, ask the AWE Question – And What Else? - to dig a little deeper and to challenge everyone to come up with even more possibilities. It’s amazing to see how that question really works!
Until next time, my friend, take care and practice your agility ability.
