Leadership decisions – Max Mosley 'stay or go'

Max Mosley the somewhat embarrassed President of Motor-sports governing body, has been fighting a public battle over the allegations of a Sunday newspaper that he took part in a ‘sick Nazi orgy’ and apparently had the video evidence to prove it: mock uniforms, whippings, talking in German.

Now the Executive Coaching Guru doesn’t feel it is his right to judge others, in regards to their personal appetites, whatever you get up to in the privy of your own dungeon is your business! But there are a few things that don’t sit comfortably.

As long as no one is getting harmed, then basically do what you want, but at the same time you are the leader of an organisation that operates at a global level and has incredible power in terms of its influence, not only within a global market but to all those that look up to their sporting heroes. So you see, it’s not just as simple a thing as saying “it’s a private matter”, because once you take on the mantel of leadership, especially within a marketing led business, then this comes with it’s own level of responsibilities.

Let’s use the example of parent hood, Max has sons, who I can only believe are embarrassed by the exploits of their father. But doesn’t Max have a responsibility to those boys that goes beyond the ‘not getting caught’ to the ‘not blinking well doing it in the first place’. Why? Simply because he had no right to place his family into a ‘potential’ situation where this might occur, which it did. Because these things always come out.

In the same way the Executive Coaching Guru believes that Mr Max Mosely had a responsibility to not place the sport he represents into a place where if something goes wrong, may create a situation that adversely affects it. But Mr Ecclestone (President and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration) denied that the claims threatened Mr Mosley’s position as president of the motor sport’s governing body, saying, “Has he in anyway damaged F1? No!”; he told the Daily Mail.

Really Mr Ecclestone, you can see nothing that connects the behaviour of this individual to the sport, I bet you’d be singing a different tune if you didn’t like the guy. If you don’t already know Mr Mosley is the fourth son of British World War II fascist Sir Oswald Mosley, a friend of Adolf Hitler, now if ever there was a warning sign that you might not want to get caught up in anything that even has the word German in it as a descriptor, I reckon that’s it.

So what is the message here, well it’s a simple one. The moment you step into a leadership role, you are bestowed with a weight of office that goes beyond the mere operational tasks that come with the role, I can’t believe for one moment that if asked if he believes leadership entails ‘only making the numbers’, that Mr Mosley would agree. No, he’d say, ‘there is more than just output generation to being a leader, one must live by a code that others can aspire to, you have to stand for something bigger than the job itself”. And if he is ever asked this, and replies with that line, I’d agree.

But somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen in the immediate future.

Leader or leadership?

Are you a leader? Or just doing leadership? This rears its head a great deal, a senior executives awareness around this area really helps to define the individual in terms of whether they are really a Manager or a Leader. So let’s just define the difference:

• Leadership is the act of doing something in a finite time period and it might be task specific.
• Leader is the act of being (being a leader), it’s not time bound, it’s a state of permanence.

Often as a coach as I listen to people talk, I can hear the difference between the act of leadership and the on going  behaviour of being a leader. This isn’t just a play on words, this is a key intellectual position that signifies the true understanding a person has over their own actions and behaviours.

You may well have a task that requires you to take the lead on a project, or a situation arises where those around you are looking to you for direction, in this scenario you are doing the act of leadership. Being a leader is the way you are as a state of being, it’s permanent.

Let’s bring this to life a little through the example of ‘friendship and friend’, in terms of the workplace I may well approach someone I am not overly enthused with, but to facilitate getting something done I perform acts of ‘friendship’, that are recognised actions (get them a cup of tea, smile, engage in conversation); however in terms of being someones ‘friend’ , then I AM their friend at all times, even when I am not present with them (My best friend Gary lives in Kent, I’m not with him now doing anything that demonstrates friendship, but he is still my friend).

As an emerging leader or senior manager it is paramount that you grasp the idea that if you are moving around your business performing the act of leadership, then this will never have the level of personal authenticity and impact that you are no doubt looking for.

As yourself this simple question: Do I consider my self a leader?

If you do then, this means you acknowledge, position on an organisation chart is an indicator of only that: position, which may hold leadership responsibilities, but only your decision to BE a leader makes it so.

Time Management defines your leadership capacity

As an executive coach I often find the executive of today has lost the ability to manage time in a manner that gives the leader time to …… well……actually lead.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The world makes way for the person who knows where they are going” and this is as true today as ever. Ask any executive do you have a plan, a strategy and you’ll get some form of explanation that when run in parallel with the question, “How are you going to get there?”, normally ends in me listening to a ‘To Do List’, that can span from the short term, to plans over the next 5 years. Signaling to me: Action! Activity! Output! Do!

So I am looking for signs that leaders understand that SPACE is a key component of Time Management, the realisation that you can’t create more time and the more able you prove yourself to be the more work you will probably get, the more senior you become the greater the scope of concern. So ‘space’ is a key factor:

• Space enables you time to think.
• Deal with un-expected.
• Demonstrate flexibility.
• Shows you have control of time and not time controlling you.

I have seen again and again the most demonstrably capable (that doesn’t mean those with the most talent), are the leaders that have learned to control time in a manner that gives them time to BE a leader. Jurgen Wolff the author of The power of targeted thinking surmises,”people have an inner voice that tells them, they should be doing 3 other things as well”. This is the road to personal doubt, inner tension and probably an ulcer.

If management is the ‘doing and output’ and leadership is the ‘thinking, direction and having presence’ then leadership needs time in the diary as well, not a block that says, “11-12.30 Leadership”, but space, buffers, moments that allow things to happen, create and occur. Leadership is at it’s best a natural occurrence born out of the ‘space’ that occurs in the forming and reinforcing of relationships.

These are my observations from the executives that have this down:

1. Control of your own diary or at the very least ensuring your PA creates ‘buffers’ between events and doesn’t run you back to back.
2. Demanding expectations of all those involved, preparing for a meeting.
3. Not continuing to the end of the allotted time, when it’s finished, close it. Keep doing this and people will love have meetings with you and will come well prepared, in order to get a quick release.
4. Actually ‘slow down’, give greater value to your interventions and in this way, you’ll clean up at the end of the month/year.
5. Use IT to it’s best, understand what works well for you and determine in your own mind, that you are not a captive to the amount of emails you have. Adjust your mind set to “I’ll look at them when I have time to look at them”.
6. Reward those that interact with you on a personal level, by focusing on them. Sorry to say it, but if another person is just emailing you (outside of you requesting it), then it’s a secondary focus.
7. Build a culture of ‘call me, find me, let’s talk’, you’ll cut down on the email dialogue if you have sorted it out in a conversation.
8. Empower others to make decisions. I noticed one executive training a new member of the team as such. “OK, what would you do if I wasn’t available?” “Right so from those options, which one would you choose if you had to?” ” Why?” “I agree” and/or ”What about this option” etc….. He felt that the sooner the two of them understood the way the other thought, the quicker he could empower the individual to act in a manner that took into account his thinking.
9. Use your diary to post date follow up, on ‘positive’ output, as well as following up on problems. 
10. Understand that speed doesn’t indicate control, to increase ‘gravitas’ and to enable other to feel confident around you, you should set a ‘pace’ allowing others to align behind it, the words I have to describe this are: ‘poise, elegance, pace, control’.

When I work with a business on executive coaching, emerging leadership, assessment, talent management the truest indicator and one of the most consistent indicators of future success, is the individuals competence in the direction and control of time.

Leadership Presence: Leaders listen to the grass grow

“You have to be able to hear the grass grow” so said Bill Gates, he’s referring to the market place, and he went on to say, “If you wait for confirmed insights, all you will be able to do is scrabble for the crumbs with the rest of the procrastinators”.

I’d like to take that a step further and standing on the shoulders of the Mr Gates, aim this observation directly at business culture. Senior managers need to be able to ‘hear the grass grow’ in the primary market place of all leaders, their own back yard, the internal market, the one where Personal Brand & Reputation are integral to the internal consumers consumption of the ‘leadership agenda and communication piece’.

That’s right, ‘internal market place and internal consumers’, I have real issues with the manager who’s believes ‘we pay them, so they work’. I am at the same time still at 40yrs young, amazed when the ‘walk doesn’t match the talk’. Can you imagine a business leader (and if not I can introduce you) with turnover of up to 60% of it’s work force actually considering the delay of an Employee Satisfaction Survey, because as things are so bad, “why get told what we already know”. The answer sir is very simply, it’s not just about ‘listening’ to the grass grow (the analogy being the voice from your people), but you have to be (wait for it, revolutionary thinking coming up here) be seen to be listening, digesting, making changes and doing something proactive.

But of course this requires emotional investment, investment in relationship and worst of all time spent doing something that has on the surface an intangible output. I mean when (could take a year) will I see the difference? Where (turnover & employee satisfaction) will I measure it? How (happy staff do a better job and stay longer) will it save make me money?! This comes down to the cultural direction of a business, whether it is ‘values led or £ led’, whether or not the employee is ‘staff or colleague’.

Can you really say that you ‘hear the grass grow’ within your own business, if you can say yes to most of these then, well, then you should know your on the right path:

1.  You take the long way to get somewhere, enabling the business to know you are around.

2.  You have your own headset for the call center and pop in once a week (even if it’s to listen to 1call)

3.  Sometimes you just turn up at the depot and hop in a van for the day.

4.  You eat in the canteen.

5.  When you do eat in the canteen, which should be every day you are on a site, you walk up to people you don’t know and eat with them.

6.  On that note, you introduce yourself to every face you don’t know. For heavens sake they are in YOUR business.

7.  You don’t organise to visit any area of your business, sometimes you just turn up, see it for what it is.

8.  You ask people if they know who senior managers are and then when they don’t, you get your team to read this.

9.  Sometimes you have conversations about nothing of any consequence what so ever, if it’s the canteen, please don’t ask about figures.

10. If a face you used to see around the place has gone, you find out why and if they always seemed a decent person to you, trust that judgment and find out where they’ve gone. You locate their number, call them and find out for yourself if this is the case. Why are good people leaving my business!?