eve-olution

With Passion!

Leading in your own style, by guest feature writer Sarah Speake,
Industry Leader for Technology at Google

How many Leaders do you admire? How many do you aspire towards? How many do you find inspirational? And how many do you genuinely believe.....?

I have asked myself these questions on multiple occasions throughout my career, in the hope that I can continuously learn and improve upon my own leadership style. I now finally realise that my own style absolutely reflects who I genuinely am as a person - energetic, passionate, dynamic, a fighter for things I believe in, and one keen to forge speedy progress wherever possible.... all whilst taking the people around me on the same journey towards the same end goals. This is not only true of my leadership style at work but also true of how I rally my friends to become involved in activities and how I connect with people to raise funding for the charity I'm involved closely with. In my opinion it comes down to two key themes - authenticity, and within that, the ability to show one's vulnerability and weaknesses.

I spent some of the earlier years of my career working with a variety of different people who didn't inspire me, or whose leadership styles certainly didn't get the best out of their respective teams.Their style was often synonymous with instilling fear in others; believing that their way was the only way of conducting business; publicly taking credit for projects they had had zero direct involvement in; and certainly failing to take into account the impact on others of their words and actions. The resulting negative impact on the business in such situations tends to be a low level of morale, poorer productivity levels, far higher attrition rates, or an emulation of that bullying style of behaviour, thus creating a perception in some pockets of organisations that this is in some way acceptable. In my experience leaders that display this type of behaviour are petrified of showing anything that constitutes "weakness". And yet, in my view, the more we share of ourselves with colleagues, peers and customers the more they understand our motivations, as long as they are appropriate and within a relevant context.

I have always worked in technology-related sales, management and leadership roles, a sector which is statistically a male-dominated sector. Unfortunately the different attitudes towards, and payment of, men and women within this sector can be stark, although the level of marginalisation has definitely improved. In a company I worked for over a decade ago I attended a client meeting with a senior Marketing Officer from a key customer and my boss asked if he could join the meeting, which he duly did, and was appalled at our reception. The customer in question was a man in his late fifties who speedily displayed his view of women in the workplace by immediately asking of me, "Could you make sure you take really good notes throughout the meeting as I have a problem remembering details and my PA's on holiday?". Although I clarified exactly what my role was, vociferously verified by my boss, and conducted the meeting with even more vigour than I would usually have done, it knocked me sideways. At that stage in my career, I was already a senior International Sales Manager running a multimillion pound business division. However immediately after that meeting I felt belittled, angry and started questioning my own ability, not uncommon amongst women and men put in that situation. One thing the experience did give me though, was an appreciation of the danger in making snap judgements, believing stereotypes, and of how easily one can irreparably offend.

Since that experience I have met many wonderful people, most of whom I have been attracted to as they remain consistent in their behaviour, deliver on exactly what they promise, and don't compromise their beliefs to fit with a stereotype that would make them feel uncomfortable. Tracey's Authentic Leadership seminar yet again threw up (no pun intended) the question of being true to oneself "when the expected norm is male / macho". The underlying implication here being that the expected norm referred to is the more negative definition of "male / macho", ie aggressive, chauvinist, "crowing". I have found it useful in the past to think about the reason behind this type of behaviour in specific individuals, which is often displayed to hide an innate fear of being found out, ie their weaknesses being pinpointed and mocked - a fear that only grows with seniority. If we are able to ascertain the area of weakness that drives this fear, which is often a lack of knowledge or skills in a specific area, it is far easier to address without necessarily highlighting it directly with the person in question, particularly if they have already displayed behaviour that leads you to believe the reaction will be one of aggression, irrational behaviour and rage. In such instances, help from Learning & Development professionals in a group scenario rather than individual feedback can often help.

This complex topic continues to cause hours of hot debate, and I devote ongoing time to discussing and considering it. I have a tendency to lump things by easily-remembered acronyms or letters, hardly surprising given my career choice, and for this topic I have chosen 4 Cs: Clarity, Consistency, Credibility and Care. These Cs are driven by the question I often ask myself "As a leader, how do I want to be thought of / talked about / remembered"? And I want to be thought of as someone who is very clear as to who she is, what she stands for, where she's going and what's important to her. Without consistency in my behaviour, those around me would find it difficult to know whether I was being authentic or not, which leads to the question of credibility - to have lived and breathed what one expects of others, and to have gained experience in areas that can contribute to others' development. "Care" is a tricky one to nail, in that it means an array of different things to different individuals - for me, it's about being aware of other people, being empathetic without being fluffy, and displaying a level of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) in addition to IQ and, of course GQ or Gender Intelligence.

I have worked with many different men and women to date, all with their own styles and skillsets, not all of whom would refer to me as a brilliant leader - mainly because I struggled to find my true and genuine style until trying a few out! I've tried masking my genuine feelings to fit in (which made me depressed, exhausted and zapped my self-confidence); I've temporarily tried "being more blokey" (read aggressive and crude) in a ridiculous attempt to fit in and be more accepted (not surprisingly this ostracised me from female colleagues); I've tried the "softer female" approach (which meant I ended up as a professional agony aunt - tedious, unnecessary and not what I was employed to focus on)... and finally ended up where I have been for some years now in terms of my style.

Finally, if you have already Googled me you will know that I lost my daughter at 11 days. Amélie had an enormous impact on my overall life, and certainly in how I behave at work and as a leader. In her short life she taught me that life's too short to take anything for granted, and that we owe it to ourselves to display actions and share words that we genuinely believe in. She also taught me that life should be treated as an enriching learning curve, full of both positive and negative experiences to improve ourselves and help those around us; not a game in which we adopt different personas to fit a stereotype that epitomises a view that we may mistrust, despise or disagree with.

Make no mistake, leading in one's own style takes time to master and requires confidence and determination that we don't necessarily feel we possess on a daily basis. If I return to how I started this article, in talking about being true to myself and therefore being seen as "energetic, passionate, dynamic, a fighter for things I believe in, and one keen to forge speedy progress wherever possible.... all whilst taking the people around me on the same journey towards the same end goals" - this could be said of many leaders, but the cement between the cracks for me is filled when one is able to hold up a mirror, truly analyse oneself and be honest about the real you. Only then can we truly lead in our own style.

Written from the heart as always, in the name of authenticity,
Sarah
Sarah Speake, Industry Leader for Technology at Google

Joining the Catalyst for change in Lloyds Banking Group

eve-olution is excited to be part of an ongoing revolution in Lloyds TSB.  The first group of managers to go through the 6 month Catalyst development programme have now completed the course, with substantial positive changes on the business reported.  The group diversity team kicked off development of the Catalyst programme with an in-house trial of eve-olution’s Authentic Leadership programme and consultation on how to make the most of their emerging female talent.  

"We at Lloyds Banking Group are passionate about supporting women in business and moving them through the talent pipeline.

I was delighted to have sponsored the Lloyds TSB Catalyst Programme and Tracey's Authentic Leadership course provided valuable advice to delegates to supplement their development and learning.

I'm driving initiatives like Catalyst to create a powerful group of future female leaders that will have the full range of talent and skills to support our business and our customers."
Diana Brightmore-Armour, CEO Corporate Banking and Co-Head Corporate Markets, Lloyds Banking Group

You can read the full Lloyds case study here.

New - Gender IQ webcasts, in partnership with Cisco

Do you know that the female brain is the default brain? Every brain starts out as female and becomes male eight weeks after conception. This is when the Y chromosome dictates that the communication centre be shrunk, hearing cortex reduced and the part of the brain that produces sex becomes twice as large.   

If you aspire to lead you need to know how to work with, and get the best out of, both men and women. Based on decades of research these new, groundbreaking video webcasts will bring you the neurological facts behind the behaviour differences of the male and female brain. We call this Gender IQ or Gender Intelligence.

Gender Intelligence is the next wave in our social evolution. First we measured ourselves on IQ (intelligence Quotient)and then the EQ (Emotional Intelligence) and now GQ (Gender Intelligence). Gender IQ is not a woman's issue or a diversity topic, it is a human issue because it affects every single one of us in a myriad different ways. Smart companies and smart people realise that Gender IQ is a commercial imperative: Women make 80% of buying decisions and companies are still predominantly run by men. This means that most companies are struggling to understand the majority of their customers whilst smart Gender Intelligent companies are enjoying a 53% higher ROE (Return on Equity).

However, Gender IQ is steeped in politics, rhetoric and superstition. No other strand of our human development has created so much political comment and public debate. For the past 50 years managers have been told that men and women are the same. This isn't true. Drop it now!

Follow this link to find out more about our Gender IQ webcast programme launching in October 2009, and sign up to attend the first session FREE.