The Simple Mindset Shift That Can Unlock Extraordinary Leadership - By Dolly Waddell with Chris Atkinson
In the latest episode of Extra-Ordinary Leaders, I sat down with Chris Atkinson, renowned international speaker (including the UN), author, and leadership consultant across the globe.
No matter what audience he is in front of, Chris’ deep understanding of human psychology allows him to connect with and inspire those around him. It was an honour to have Chris on the podcast discussing the secret mindset shift standing between ordinary leaders and great ones.
The full conversation is available here.
Striking the balance
One of the secrets to Chris’ success is his ability to strike a balance between being commercially driven and leveraging his deep understanding of the human side of business. It is this unique approach that led Chris and me to an interesting – and revealing – talking point.
It started when Chris mentioned how we engage and connect with our team.
Chris: “The vast majority of leaders are in highly operational businesses with ever- increasing challenges and targets. And truthfully, people fall quite low down the priority list when that's your day to day reality.”
This got me thinking: how often do most leaders check in with their team? And crucially, as Chris goes on to point out in the episode, do they see it as another task on their to-do list, or are they checking in from a place of genuine care?
There's a big difference.
It is within this big difference, perhaps, that the secret to great leadership lies.
Letting go of the reins
Chris: “There is a level of excuse that goes on with people [in leadership]where... maybe because of the targets and pressures we're under, and the fact that we've all got bosses shouting at us to deliver, we feel we need to be in control of what's going on... and so we hold on to those operational reins a little too tightly.”
This felt close to the mark for many people I have worked with.
I'm sure all leaders have, at some point in their career, held on to those operational reins a little too tightly. It's what Chris goes on to say after this, however, that really got me thinking. He shared this quote:
“Checking in with your people regularly is not additional work for the leader, it is the work of the leader.”
This brings about an interesting point, which is at the crux of the Extra-Ordinary Leaders podcast: to understand how to be an extraordinary leader, we must first understand what it means to be a leader.
The essence of leadership
Of course, there's no one-size-fits-all answer, and as with most things, the more perspectives we can consider, the more rounded our understanding – hence why I am delighted to be hosting so many wonderful guests over the coming weeks as we dive into this subject.
Chris’ understanding on the essence of leadership struck a chord in particular. To Chris, the essence of leadership is about working through others. It's about enabling and supporting others to execute the things that need to be done.
Chris: “Annual performance reviews, to some degree, have fallen out of favour a little bit in modern businesses and there's a lean towards a more natural and organic thing – a check- in.”
These simple check-ins, however, are a fantastic opportunity to identify what your team needs to perform to their best. We can ask, “What's causing you problems right now?” or, “How can I support or make things easier for you?”
Doing so allows us to identify problems before they arise, promote psychological safety within our team, and establish ourselves as reliable leaders. In a world of KPIs and check boxes, that’s pretty extra-ordinary.
How has leadership changed over time?
What is perhaps even more intriguing is that, to Chris, the essence of leadership, when distilled into its purest form, hasn't changed for thousands of years.
Chris: “I would like to think that what makes good leadership is a human topic, not a technological advancement topic. It's how you inspire, how you motivate, and how you engage people. That's probably as true a thousand years ago as it is now. What's changed are the tools that we have to apply that leadership.”
Which begs the question, how have those tools affected how we inspire, motivate, and engage people?
As Chris points out, in our post-Covid world, with more people working from home, great leaders now need to have the ability to deliver these things not just in person but also via technology. Creating the same depth of relationship with someone on a screen requires a whole different skill set, which, whilst still drawing upon those three fundamental elements (inspire, motivate, and engage), requires a slightly different approach.
Chris: “The advice I would give is, when you talk to people, try to separate out the process thing, which is performance, metrics, numbers, measures, from the people-side, which is, ‘How are you feeling?’ ‘How are you doing right now?’ ‘What are you enjoying?’ ‘What is frustrating you?’ ‘What is your emotional experience at work?’”
As we've already discovered, a performance-based approach to monthly or annual reviews is not the same as genuinely checking in with our team. An ordinary leadership approach might include lots of one-to-one conversations with team members, but many of those will be centred around performance. Performance, Chris says, is the process side.
It's a much rarer occurrence for a leader to spend individual time getting to know what's going on below the surface with their team and leveraging different personalities and views so that all members can be facilitated to perform at their optimum.
It's simple but not easy. A mindset shift, acknowledging that our job as a leader is to enable our team to do their job.
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The full conversation with Chris Atkinson is available here.
For more information on Chris, check out his website. Chris’ book, How To Engage And Inspire Audiences, is available to buy on Amazon.
Extra-Ordinary Leaders releases new episodes every week. Follow along on LinkedIn to be kept up to date or contact me directly at info@dollywaddell.com.
