Peter Frost has a career of over 30 years in the UK financial services sector. He has had the privilege of leading and being led by people ranging from the inspirational to the highly ineffective, which has given Peter a unique perspective on what great people leadership looks like and how coaching can assist leaders in developing their authentic leadership style.
Frequently, organisations assume that people leadership and people management are the same thing, but they are not. In this blog, Peter explains how they are very different.
People Leadership vs. People Management
One personal passion of mine was ensuring the organisations I worked for always used the title Contact Centre Team Leader rather than Team Manager. Why?
Let's first explore the difference between people leadership and management.
Management is about administration and control (which, for clarity, are hugely important), whereas leadership is something completely different. Leadership is getting to know your team, understanding who they are and what motivates them, and adjusting your style to get the best out of them individually and collectively. If you think the Contact Centre example doesn't apply to senior leaders and executives, I argue that the same rules and leadership qualities are required irrespective of grade.
One facet of corporate life is that the more successful you become, the more people you manage and lead. Barclays used to have a policy whereby you got paid more according to the headcount in your area. As you can imagine, this led to some very interesting behaviours!
Ironically, the key elements that earn promotion usually revolve around factors such as commercial success, personal delivery, and subject matter expertise. However, elevation to a more senior position demands that the individual also be a great leader, irrespective of
personal skill set. As such, we have a problem.
What does great people leadership look like?
Organisations often automatically assume that anyone can lead people, but we all know from personal experience that this isn't the case. The impact of poor people leadership can be seismic. One of my favourite sayings is, "People join organisations, and people leave people." I would be amazed if anyone reading this couldn't think of multiple examples, yet we continue to elevate many individuals with inadequate leadership skills.
What is people leadership, and what does good leadership look like?
Personally, it centres around trust—trust that the leader genuinely wants to do the right thing for both the company and the group of people they are leading. The challenge here is that trust needs to be earned and built over an extended period. Displaying a consistent set of behaviours day in and day out is the key.
Another common facet of successful people leaders is the ability to communicate consistently. How many leaders do we know who have started a blog or stand-up sessions (often in response to adverse staff feedback) but stopped after a few months because they are 'too busy'? Experience tells us that good communication is vital to leadership and engagement. And remember, communication covers everything from big set-piece events to informal one-to-one conversations. Everything you say as a leader matters, so always be thoughtful of the impact you will have.
People leadership must also be authentic. How many leaders have we all worked with whose leadership style is either taken directly from a management textbook or is non-existent? Believe me when I say colleagues can 'smell' an inauthentic leader. Never pretend you are someone you are not, and never adopt a style or tone which is not you. One pet peeve is when leaders delegate their blogs to someone in Internal Comms. People know it's not you, and you have passed up on an excellent opportunity to show that you are human and reveal the things that are on your mind.
Great leadership also means you don't always have to be the cleverest person in the room! My political hero, Franklin D. Roosevelt, always sought to surround himself with people cleverer than himself and then focus on knitting them together and getting the best out of them collectively. It's quite simple when you think about it!
The role of coaching in leadership development
If great people leadership revolves around being authentic, taking responsibility for consistent communication and building trust, how can coaching help?
Firstly, a third party can step back and provide an independent and experienced critique of your perceptions as a people leader. A coach can identify and provide feedback on areas of weakness (often overlooked internally because of the relationships individuals will have with their leader) and help address these weaknesses positively.
Coaching can also help aspiring leaders or leaders improve their communication skills and challenge them to consider their written and verbal style's impacts on those around them. Some of these things may seem very simple when standing back but are often overlooked in business life's cut and thrust. A coach will also be able to help those they work with understand whether they are getting the management task vs people leadership equation right.
Let's create your authentic leadership style
Overall, a good coach should help you find an authentic people leadership style that will work for you, making suggestions and providing support to help you become the leader you want to be.
If you want to become a better leader and get the most out of your team, contact us today for a confidential chat.