Wendy Born* says that by changing your focus to your own words, actions and behaviours, your influence on your team will be significant.
Photo: Laurenz Kleinheider
Cultivating a team of high performers requires your focus, but not where you think.
Counterintuitively shifting your focus to yourself will give you far more benefit within your team than the more traditional ways of developing your people.
When you focus on changing your own words, actions and behaviours, all the things within your control, your influence on your people will be significant.
This then permeates throughout your team, function and organisation and you will find that the same positive shift starts to happen in others.
Tony Robbins, author, entrepreneur and philanthropist, has famously said “where focus goes, energy flows” and when leaders focus on a particular area of their organisation, things start to change.
Daniel Goleman believes that a leader’s focus of attention directs and guides the attention of those he or she leads, providing a ripple effect across the organisation.
Take a moment to think about all the best leaders you have worked with in the past.
Now think about your own leadership.
Do you see any similarities?
I expect that you do, because we mimic those around us.
If you stay in a culture that is negative for long enough, you will start to change your behaviours to align to it.
According to neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni, our brains have a neuron called the “Mirror Neuron”, which helps us to recognise the people we know, to understand facial expressions and copy the behaviours of others.
It makes us yawn and laugh when we see others yawning and laughing.
He believes that “mirror neurons … provide some kind of inner imitation of the actions of other people, which in turn leads us to simulate the intentions and emotions associated with those actions”.
So, if all we have to do is yawn to get someone else to yawn, surely other behaviours we exhibit can be just as easily influenced.
What, then, do we need to focus on?
Having the courage and strength to lead
When we are courageous at work, we send a strong message to those around us that we are confident, in control and will lead by example.
We show that we have values and we are willing to stand up for what we believe in.
Courage is also contagious and you will find that once you start being courageous, others will too.
Strong leaders have the internal fortitude to make and stand by their decisions, to stand up for what they believe in, even if the odds are stacked against them.
They have the ability to stay strong in the face of criticism, backlash or upset they may cause and can have the difficult conversations and make the tough calls when they need to.
New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern showed the world what being a strong and courageous leader looks like in the face of the horrific attacks in Christchurch, while maintaining compassion and dignity for all.
Changing the environment and letting go of control
Utilising the environment in which you work can have many benefits to get the best outcome for all involved.
It can be as simple as taking your boss for a walking meeting.
When we walk alongside more senior people, we subconsciously reduce hierarchy, making us feel equal.
Additionally, having a separate space away from your computer to meet with your people shows that you are giving them your full attention without the chance of distraction.
Letting go of control of the outcome is also a great way to empower your people and let them shine.
Remember that five plus five equals 10, and so does three plus seven and eight plus two.
Sometimes it doesn’t matter how you get to the same outcome as long as you get there, so letting go of control of the process shows your people that you trust their ability to get the job done.
Fostering trust and being vulnerable
At the heart of any personal and professional relationship is trust.
It has to be, otherwise work wouldn’t get done, people wouldn’t turn up and customers wouldn’t buy from us.
A study completed by Paul Zak (author of The Neuroscience of Trust ) found that in comparison with organisations where there is low trust, those with high trust report 74 per cent less stress, 50 per cent higher productivity and 76 per cent more engagement.
Vulnerability is a very underestimated leadership quality that many still incorrectly see as a weakness.
As humans, we are designed to crave and create connection with others.
Connection through vulnerability makes us feel part of a tribe or family.
Nobody does anything alone, ever.
There is usually a tribe, a family, a team of high performers behind everyone who achieves something successful.
An example of this was when Josh Frydenberg was photographed hugging the cleaner at Parliament House after he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister.
The moment showed his ability to connect with people regardless of position.
* Wendy Born is a facilitator, coach and speaker and author of The Languages of Leadership. Her website is www.wendyborn.com.au.
