Leadership, Visibility and Presence
Author: Nicky J. Davies |
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Categories: Business Fast Track
My team and I have worked with many organisations around the world on their Leadership Competency Frameworks – basically the behaviours that organisations are looking for or looking to develop within their people so that they can be the leaders of the future.
Some of these organisations have leadership competencies relating to Visibility and Presence. They want their leaders and aspiring leaders to be visible and have a presence.
Makes sense, I hear you say, you would expect leaders and aspiring leaders to be visible (and accessible) for their people, and have a presence of authority and credibility about them.
So, what’s the problem?
Well the problem is in how Visibility and Presence becomes distorted once it becomes something that is being measured as a behaviour. Let me share with you some examples of what I see in organisations, and I wonder if you can relate to them;
Imagine you are in a business meeting with a group of peers and a more senior person is leading the meeting. Knowing that your behaviour is being assessed in some way, you feel obliged to consistently say something in these meetings when there really is nothing to add to what’s already been said. So, you end up saying something mundane or repeating something that somebody else has already said, and end up feeling a bit silly, but at least you know you can tick the Visibility Box.
Another example would be the leader who feels obliged to walk the floor and talk with their people, make some small talk, which may or may not come naturally to them, and move on quickly to what is more pressing, and probably more comfortable to deal with. They recognise that these conversations don’t go particularly well, but feel at least they too can tick the ‘visibility’ box.
I can remember an Executive I coached whose CEO had told him that he should walk the floor every other day. It worked for his colleagues and it should work for him. But his personality was very different than his peers, and the social chit chat stuff just wasn’t something that came naturally to him. Needless to say he didn’t do it for very long before I was called in to ‘fix the problem’.
Or the other example I often see when I go into organisations, is a culture that has evolved, where people feel obliged to share every win they have very publicly within the organisation in order to tick the visibility box, but hide the things that don’t go according to plan in fear of judgement.
And believe me, I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been brought in to coach a talented individual who is ear marked for leadership, with a requirement that they become more visible and have more presence.
I’m sure these outcomes were unintended from what was a desire to support people to be the next generation of leaders within the organisation. But the unintended consequence is that people are either behaving in a way that is not authentic to them, and not particularly respected by their colleagues, or not joining in with these behaviours and being labelled as needing development at best, or passed over for promotion at worst.
What I would dearly love to see is Visibility and Presence injected with sincerity and authenticity. So, what would that look like?
People having real conversations for starters – being fully present when engaging others in conversations. Of listening deeply, understanding what is truly important to the other, moving forward from that place.
Statements about aligning everyone to the purpose and the vision of the organisation would change to developing a shared purpose and vision for the organisation, by understanding each other’s aspirations and values, the things that are truly important to them, building alignment between individual aspirations and organisational goals. That way you have people taking inspired action rather than needing external motivation.
A culture within an organisation where talking about the things that didn’t work out and learning from the experience, is valued as much as talking about and being visible about the wins.
An understanding that people have different personalities and a quiet voice can be just as powerful as a loud one. In fact, I often point out that being silent in a meeting can communicate a very strong message all by itself.
Some organisations manage this, and many others don’t.
So, what does this mean for you personally?
Find the right environment for you to shine. Look at the culture of the organisation, ask about how they define leadership and what that looks like in action. Understand your own aspirations and how they fit with the organisational goals.
Look inside yourself and understand what leadership means for you.
And, if you want to improve your visibility and presence as a leader, here are a few suggestions;
1. learn to listen more intently, and take the time to understand what’s really important, the aspirations and values of the person or group of people in front of you.
2. communicate in terms of the other person’s aspirations and values.
3. when somebody’s behaviour is irritating you, look to yourself and remind yourself of where and when you have behaved in the same way – it’s a humbling experience!
4. when all has been said and done, and there is nothing more to add, don’t.
5. anybody you think has something you don’t is a lie about yourself. You are not honouring yourself. Their values will be different to yours so the trait is expressed differently to how you express it, but you do have that trait. Own it.
6. when you live congruently you wake up certainty, and it is certainty that gives you presence.
7. know that you are enough as you are right now. You are worthy.
There is nothing more courageous than being who you truly are.
And if you would like to learn more about my Developing Inspired Leaders Programme, book a call and we can talk about it: https://meetme.so/NickyDavies