What’s Your Leadership AQ?

by Julia Felton | Feb 5, 2020

I’m sure you’ve heard of the terms Emotional Quotient (EQ) and Intelligence Quotient (IQ); but few people have heard of Adaptability Quotient (AQ), especially as it relates to leadership. AQ is defined as “the ability to adjust course, product, service, and strategy in response to unanticipated changes in the market”—and indeed, the Harvard Business Review characterised it as “the new competitive advantage.” Specifically, leadership AQ examines how adaptive and responsive leaders are to change and how they navigate the ever-changing environment in which they find themselves.

What Low AQ Looks Like

There are many examples of companies that have failed to extol the virtues of an AQ mindset. They include Blackberry, Toys R Us, Blockbuster, and Kodak. These companies have failed to innovate and stay ahead of the rapid changes in technology, and so have fallen by the wayside. They believed and relied on the fact that their current success would be impenetrable and that consumers would remain loyal to them, but in the face of changing consumer demands they were left high and dry. Often this occurred as the companies failed to read the market and really, really understand what the customers desired.

For example, at one time Nokia, the parent of Blackberry, controlled 41% market share in the smartphone market. They believed they were invincible as their phones were more robust, when dropped from 5 feet, than Apple and Samsung. And indeed, whilst that may have been true, the durability of the phone was not what inspired customers to purchase it. It was the apps and functionality. Hence, Blackberry rapidly lost market share when Apple launched its rival, which had much better functionality and performance.

How Leaders Demonstrate High AQ

Companies with a high AQ are able to spot customer pain points and trends, and shift gears to create new opportunities that leverage the company’s core competencies and expertise. In part due to their agile and adaptable leadership style, they are able to create self-managing teams that collaborate together on projects.

Leaders with a high AQ focus on creating a culture where everyone takes responsibility for the businesses success—a place where everyone is engaged and seeking out the best options for the business to thrive and not merely survive. Leaders with a high AQ are masters at empowering their team members to be their best. They delegate decision-making to the front line team members who can make the difference, and they appreciate that in order to become more creative and innovative they have to “let go of the reins” and give team members the space and opportunity to experiment. After all, success only comes from trying new ideas, getting feedback, and recalibrating the experience until it delivers what the customer requires.

Consequently, leaders with a high AQ recognise that the current pyramid style, command-and-control leadership structures no longer work, because the hierarchical structures and fixed routines lack the diversity and flexibility required for rapid learning and change. They appreciate the need for self-managing teams and shared leadership that comes together to address a specific concern and then dissipates once the project is completed. Leaders with a high AQ are able to pivot and quickly and easily respond proactively to events happening around them. Indeed, by keeping the big picture in mind, they are able to see the potential challenges on the horizon and therefore implement adaptability strategies in advance of what is happening.

How do leaders with a high AQ stay ahead of the game?

They study the “underdogs,” the new market entrants, and quickly learn from them. They value outsider’s perspectives and wisdom that challenges the existing status quo. They never rest on their laurels, but instead are always thinking about the best way to innovate whilst paying close attention to the rapidly changing  needs of their customers. Take the hotel industry: who would have ever thought the largest “owner” of hotels would never own any bricks and mortar buildings? The same is true of the taxi industry, where Uber came onto the scene to disrupt the traditional taxi service.

Whilst actually measuring AQ is at present virtually impossible, I think we can all agree that leaders that fail to embrace an adaptable leadership style may well become the dinosaurs of tomorrow

The Confidence-Competence Matrix

by Julia Felton | Jan 21, 2020

As a leader we are all too familiar with the struggle that often exists between the need to get things done (results) and the need to build and maintain relationships, with clients and team members. As leaders we need to be able to balance both but all too often coaching and mentoring our team members gets relegated down our to do list as business critical activities take precedent. This is a fool-hardy strategy as ultimately it is our team members who get things done, and when they are engaged they deliver exceptional client service and increased productivity and productivity.

So how as a leader do we maximise the effectiveness of our time investing in our people. According to David Dye, President of Let’s Grow Leaders the secret lies in creating a series of micro-engagements. These consistent short development interventions win every time, id used at the right time. So how do you know what to do when?

When team members are struggling with activities it is often as a result of one of two things:

• Their Level of Confidence
• Their Level of Competence

The Confidence-Competence Matrix, created by Let’s Grow Leaders, provides a great framework for determining what is happening for your team members and more importantly how you can help them.

 

It enables you to identify who needs encouragement, coaching, more challenge, or training. This means that you don’t waste your time or their attention encouraging someone who needs a challenge or coaching someone who needs encouragement.

Now let’s look at each area in turn:

Challenge Me High-Competence/High-Confidence:
This could be a team member in the perfect sweet spot of positive energy and flow, or may be becoming a bit bored and longing for more. At best, they’re your A players, although the high confidence/competence combo can sometimes manifest itself in feelings of superiority, particularly if the rest of the team is weak.

Encourage Me: High-Competence/Low-Confidence:
The good news is you’ve got skills to work with. The low confidence may appear as disengagement, but don’t be fooled.

Coach Me: Low-Competence/High Confidence
This team member needs help seeing their strengths and developmental opportunities more clearly. Offering feedback through 360 assessments, specific examples, and coaching will help bring their skills in-line with their self-perceptions.

Teach Me: Low-Competence/Low Confidence:
This chicken or egg situation is still potentially solvable. Train and teach the skills the team member needs for success in the role. There may also be a skills miss-match, have deeper developmental conversations to determine if there is a better fit for them within your organisation.

I found this model to be invaluable this weekend when trying to ride out my pony Bracken. I wanted to ride her out on her own, without her friends, so I decided to take her to a place she has been before. That way I knew she would know where was going, however I knew being without her friends for support would be challenging. And sure enough whilst she had the competency of being able to get to the destination her complete lack of self-confidence derailed the process.

At first I was frustrated and then quickly realised that what she needed was encouragement. She needed to know that I knew she could do it. She needed me to help her build her trust that she could do that. So rather than ride her I led her in hand along the route. Having me by her side gently encouraging and rewarding her made her feel braver and as we went along she grew in confidence. So much so that by the time we got back to the start of the “ride” she wanted to keep going and do it again. It was a powerful lesson in how knowing how to assess what is derailing our team members performance and then knowing what intervention will best serve them in that moment.

Just imagine how effective you could be with just a few well-chosen words at the right time?. Remember effective team development conversations happen in the moment at work and not just at team review meetings.

What’s Your Leadership Wake?

by Julia Felton | Dec 5, 2019

The term wake is a boating term that refers “to the trail of disturbed water that is left as a boat moves in the water.” It can be seen from some distance away, and the size of the wake is typically determined by the speed and the size of the boat. Whatever the magnitude of the wake, the one thing that is certain is that a wake is created. A boat simply cannot move without disturbing the water around it. It’s a physical impossibility.

What Is A Leadership Wake? 

In much the same way as a boat leaves a trail behind it, so does a leader. This is all due to the law of cause and effect. Whenever a leader, or anyone else for that matter, enters into a relationship with someone else, they leave an impact (a wake). Whether this is positive or negative typically depends on the interaction, and also the self-awareness of the leader—and most leaders I know have no recognition of the type of wake they create.

Kip Tindell, cofounder, chairman, and former CEO for The Container Store, notes that:

“Someone who’s very mindful of their wake and has the mature and sobering understanding of how powerful [his or her] wake is . . . the kind of person we want to be connected to.”

The way you show up impacts how others experience you, and therefore the quality of the interaction. If you create a positive wake then it helps team members feel a sense of belonging. Consequently, a leader’s effectiveness, long-term and short-term, is directly linked to the quality of the relationships they have with their team and colleagues.

Leaders that use their position and the company hierarchy to create a big wake often create inefficient relationships that alienate team members; this, in turn, undermines the long-term viability of a company.

Great leaders fully appreciate that when they create a positive wake within the business team members feel more engaged and committed to the company. This, in turn, makes the team members feel happier as they recognize they are valued for their contribution.

The Wake of Non-Verbal Communication

Many people I work with are really surprised by the power of their wake, and are unaware of the fact that all the time they are influencing people around them. Your wake is part of the non-verbal communication that we all emit. Our non-verbal communication is the most powerful form of communication we have—and, according to some research, impacts over 55% of our interactions.

I’m sure you’ve all experienced a time when someone has said they are well, but every other visible sign is that they are not. Maybe they are shivering, coughing, hunched up. These are all non-verbal signs that the person is far from well.

Our energy is also part of the suite of non-verbal communication tools that we typically unconsciously use. Our energy creates a wake simply when we enter a room, and this too can create a positive or negative impact with others. If our energy is too large, we can become intimidating to others; conversely, if our energy is contained, we might appear as rather timid and shy. And whilst most of your team members won’t candidly let you know how they experience your wake, my horses have absolute clarity about this. If your wake is too big and rough they simply will not engage and connect with you; and although your team members might, rest assured they won’t be enjoying the interaction and won’t feel connected to you and the business.

Remember: as a leader, you are like the first domino in the pack. Your leadership wake creates a chain reaction that is felt throughout your team.

What wake are you creating—and are you doing this intentionally?