There has been a quiet change in the meaning of leading.
For a long time, we favored the person who had the answers, the one who knew the most, made up his mind the quickest and seldom showed any uncertainty. We placed our trust in the confident voice among us.
That leader is becoming out-of-date.
I came across an article by Marcel Schwantes in Inc. magazine that expressed something I have been feeling for a long time. The competitive advantage the leader of to-morrow might have isn’t necessarily knowing more than everyone else; it might simply be noticing what everyone else fails to notice.
Schwantes refers to three human abilities that research indicates are more important than ever. Allow me to go through them, with a bit of my own touch.[1]
1. Take the time to read the situation.
With the latest smartphones coming out, you constantly hear about their cameras with automatic aperture mode. The aperture on a camera is the opening that determines how much of the picture you actually see.
A leader’s emotional aperture — a term coined by behavioral scientist Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks — refers to their ability to detect not only an individual’s emotions but also the atmosphere of the entire group.
Notice the tension that no one is willing to mention? The quiet disengagement behind the polite nods. The voices that have ceased to speak up simply because they’ve grown tired of trying?
Most managers keep an eye on the work, but very few notice how their employees are experiencing it.
That makes all the difference.
Find out what gives your team energy and what drains them. Notice who is leaning in and who is gradually checking out, then take action.
2. There is no one method of leading all people.
The same leader will modify their approach according to the individual they are dealing with and the particular situation.
This approach is known as situational leadership, and the basic idea is simple: there is no single best method for leading each person in every situation.
Imagine an experienced employee who has carried out her duties well for years. She does not require you to stand beside her and give her step-by-step instructions. Instead, give her autonomy, provide the necessary resources, and, at times, be someone she can discuss things with.
What about the person given responsibility she has never had before?
Everything will be different. She will need guidance, some coaching and feedback until she gets used to her new role.
So before you rush in, ask yourself: What does this person currently need from me? Is it direction, coaching, support or space?
We don’t want to act as a completely different kind of leader for each employee, because that would result in exhaustion. Instead, our aim should be to become flexible so as to provide people with more of what they need and less of what they do not need.
3. Be at ease with not knowing.
This one is difficult.
As the pressure increases, we usually clamp down more tightly, go back to our usual answers, defend old assumptions and look for a certainty that no longer exists.
Shimul Melwani, a professor of organizational behavior at UNC Kenan-Flagler, refers to this healthier approach as “subjective ambivalence,” which is the capacity to hold opposing ideas, accept ambiguity and remain open to opinions that challenge one’s own.
The value is moving from memorizing all the facts in your head to knowing what questions to ask.
Then substitute “I need to know the answer” with the phrase “What am I missing?”
Ask the follow-up questions: What else might be true? Is there anyone else whose viewpoint we have not heard? What assumptions are we making without even realizing it? What would actually cause us to change our minds?
Curiosity is now considered a leadership competency.
Reading the room, listening, making adjustments, questioning one’s own certainty, seeing things from someone else’s point of view and having the humility to acknowledge that you never have all the answers.
Those are exactly the sorts of things that the quiet irony of this AI age teaches us: the more artificial intelligence provides us with answers, the more valuable the human as-pect of leadership becomes.
So stay humble, stay curious and keep asking.
The moment you stop, so does your leadership.
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[1] Sources: Marcel Schwantes, Inc. — “3 Leadership Skills That Matter More Than Ever, According to Research”