Fearless Leadership

Managing Fear, Leading with Courage and Strengthening Authenticity

Morten Henriksen, Thomas Lundby

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000403343
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

All management starts with self-management – handle fear and become an authentic leader. Often, the problem with management is not theoretical, but practical. Managers know enough about leadership, but a lot of them do not act accordingly. They know what should be done in a given situation but fear the discomfort and uncertainty that comes with it.

The fear keeps many managers from stepping up to their responsibility. Therefore, the fear in leadership is playing a decisive role in the life and effectiveness of organizations. Based on research on the theoretical knowledge and the practical behavior of managers, combined with a long-time experience as consultants, the authors argue for the importance of practical judgment and emotional courage in management. This is essential in acting as an authentic leader, who does not feel paralyzed and trapped in paradoxes. Management books typically address the question of "what is good management, " whereas this book is concerned with how to practice good management by exercising fearless leadership and emotional courage.

It is a practical book that aims at inspiring the reader to act by providing specific tools and methods and will be of value to researchers, academics, practitioners, and students in the fields of leadership, strategic management, organizational studies and behavior, management development, and industrial and organizational psychology.

1Why Fearless Leadership?

Over the years, we have worked with boosting the personal leadership performance of managers. And in the course of this work, we came to realise how large an extent of their management is affected by their personal leadership and, also, how important a role personal leadership will play. Their personal leadership will have an impact on their management in terms of operations, professional competence, human relations, and in terms of strategic management. This is because personal leadership will affect one’s capacity for managing oneself, building relations, leading relations, establishing cultures, and much more. In the Figure 1.1, the American researcher and leadership consultant, Rob Kaiser, provides a very apt illustration of the need for the personal leadership or self-management.

Figure 1.1Managing yourself in a VUCA World. (Kaiser, 2017).

We shall not discuss this model in detail but, as can be seen, all leadership is based on a person’s capacity for self-management. To develop as a leader, you must be able to control yourself, your emotions, and your behaviour. This is hard, but fundamental, work.

We have come across many leaders who, in spite of strong project-management competences, considerable professional expertise and emphasis on human resource management and strategy, have experienced difficulties in coping with the practice of good leadership, because, one way or the other, they have gone wrong as humans. On the other hand, we have also met leaders with leadership responsibility for a staff whose professional capabilities are different from their own, who, in spite of not possessing any particular leadership tools, have yet been able to create very well-run departments because of high self-confidence levels and their capacity for adapting their leadership style to specific situations and people.

In 2014 (Petrie, 2014), Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) published a whitepaper in which a researcher had performed an extensive analysis of experts’ assessment of the management of the future. A clear pattern emerged, namely that the experts were occupied by the question of how future management can be developed so as to cope with the complexity and the pace of change that is symptomatic of the world and organisations of our times. In their interviews, they would speak of the need for putting a stop to the preoccupation with the development of management tools and the training of managers therein. It would, on the contrary, be more expedient to initiate the development of a more complex and adaptable mindset in managers. According to these experts, leaders have attained considerable knowledge about ‘how’ leadership should be construed, albeit failing to establish any competence in ‘how to’ conduct leadership. Leaders have excellent qualities when it comes to understanding and discussing what is implied by good leadership but, for their own part, they do not know how to cope with own continued development. In spite of having a profusion of knowledge and tools at their disposal, leaders fail to develop themselves, even though this is what, in fact, constitutes the actual and real requirement. Leaders must develop their own sense-making processes so as to encompass increased complexity. An example, taken from the whitepaper mentioned earlier, features a researcher’s (Robert Kegan’s) division into cognitive development stages. He distinguishes between three stages/steps of cognitive development in adults:

1The Socialised Mind: Here, our surroundings’ expectations from us, as well as their expectations in respect of good behaviour (and leadership), are crucial to our way of thinking and behaving

2Self-Authoring Mind: Here, we have developed our own ideology, our own sets of values and an inner compass. We can make decisions and know how to set boundaries on the basis of this inner compass.

3The Self-Transforming Mind: Here, we can take a step back and observe the limitations contained in our own ideology and values. We recognise the fact that they are but our own ‘random’ values – that there are others. We have become capable of coping with the multiplicity of meanings and have no need of polarisation, of dissociating ourselves from other opinions.

Leaders at the highest development stages are best equipped for coping with the complex and rapidly changing realities that are predominant in modern organisations. But only about 8 per cent of all leaders will actually reach the highest development stage. Hence experts argue that, in future leadership, it will be increasingly necessary to focus on the development of the individual leader’s personal qualities. Today, we focus on leadership tools and competences. Frequently, when a leader finds it difficult to make decisions without clear instructions from his/her superior, this may be owing to the leader’s fear of how his/her superior might react in the event of the leader’s own decision-making rather than which decision-making tools should have been applied in the leader’s decision-making process. When leaders are incapable of taking responsibility on their own and instead become too dependent on others, this may often reflect the fact that their fear of making mistakes, their fear of humiliation and disapproval, and their fear of feeling even more worthless constitute fears that have far too significant implications for leaders (Stein & Book, 2011). More so, than being an expression of the leader not recognising his/her responsibility.

Psychology has practically always been focused on the way in which fear generates a more one-sided understanding of one’s surroundings. The activation of defence mechanisms may alleviate the fear. However, the reduced anxiety comes at a high cost by way of a reduced or distorted perception of reality. Thus, defence mechanisms may result in a person’s wrong assignment of responsibility, reduce a person to stereotype traits, escapism from parts of reality, etc. (Visholm, 2004; Helth & Pjetursson, 2014). This is the direct opposite of what is needed according to the experts. We therefore consider the negotiation of fear to be an important factor to incorporate in the desire to develop a more complex and flexible awareness in leaders.

A variety of contexts and managerial functions require fearless leadership. In this chapter, we shall briefly outline a few of the most central elements in fearless leadership together with some of those arenas and areas of responsibilities that constitute important examples of situations in which fearless leadership is decisive.

The Double Job

The unpaid double job exists in all layers of society – not only in the business community but also within health and safety, teaching, politics, and public administration. Everywhere in the world people are concentrating their time and energy on hiding their limitations and uncertainties, trying to show up to their advantages, and to cover up their deficiencies (Kegan & Lahey, 2016, p. 1).

These days, we witness an immense waste of resources to take place in organisations. We use by far too much energy on impression management, comprising coming across as strong, hiding our mistakes, doubts, and uncertainties. Today, most organisations have experienced situations requiring retrenchment and the wielding of the cost-cutting axe. The initial move will typically target payroll costs and, next, the multitude of meal systems, flowers, coffee, etc. Only rarely, will the organisation address the circumstance that is typically the most cost-intensive, namely the double job. The spending of so many resources on coming across as competent, certain, clever, etc. is expensive in more senses than one. It is expensive in respect of quality; we contribute far from optimally when we use so many resources on impression management and self-protection. We do not learn from our mistakes and do not receive the help we need. This represents costs in respect of absence through sickness and stress. Double jobbing requires substantial human resources. Also, it means a significant increase in loneliness. Moreover, sickness among employees and leaders will also figure in the temporary-staffing accounts. And last, but not least, it will represent costs in the development area. A person’s self-protection will lead to standstill. If one is to learn and develop, it is necessary to experience psychological confidence in oneself and to be able to reflect upon and share own shortcomings and uncertainties. In the swiftly shifting environment of today, the absence of personal development is a catastrophe for an organisation. The double job will contribute to minimise one’s development as a person, which may be a severe source of employee burnout.

The Organisation as an Arena for Adult Learning

In former times, it was believed that the development of our brain would stop around the age of 20. A belief long since disproved by brain research. We, and our brains with us, develop throughout life. However, this development, and the way in which it takes place, will depend entirely on the types of learning and development environment in which we take part.

For many years, the motto: ‘our employees are our most valuable resources’ has resounded through the management literature and in the executive offices. This is rarely practised, however – except for the odd organisation offering free lunch, table tennis, a couch room, etc. But the employees ‘are’, in fact, the most valuable resource and, provided the true intensions of unleashing this, every employee should undergo continuing development, day in and day out. Not just specifically selected talents, but each and every staff member. If organisations succeed in this, real human potential will be unleashed, which will signify the creation of the very best prerequisites for the successful performance of duties, and, at the same time, people will thrive.

The organisations of the future consider the creation of healthy development and learning environments to be their most crucial strategy. Such environments will be characterised by psychological confidence in which no one will feel compelled to hide inadequacies, uncertainties, doubts, etc. – i.e. an environment in which the individual gets an opportunity to take on responsibilities that will be experienced as challenging, in the positive sense of the word.

Investing in human development as a long-term strategy takes courageous leadership. Especially considering all the critical issues that constantly pop up, requiring immediate attention. Likewise, it takes courage to insist on everybody undergoing development – also as persons. Not least considering the discourse that, in the order of things, insists that work is work, and hence focus should neither be directed towards personality nor towards the individual. Likewise, it takes courage for a leader to spearhead a scheme designed for working with own human traits and personality – and to be open about it.

To increasing extents, we are witnessing the performance of research that underlines the importance of development cultures in respect of the creation of innovation, creativity, and change. The research purposes and objects of scrutiny, for instance, comprise the importance of the development of mental complexity (see e.g. Kegan & Lahey, 2016), the importance of connectedness (see e.g. Chapman & Sisodia, 2015), and the importance of mindfulness, altruism, and compassion (see e.g. Hougaard, 2018).

Ask yourself:

1Do you consider all human beings to be capable of undergoing development as a process running throughout life?

2Do you, yourself, and your employees have concrete development targets that are public knowledge and with which you work on a daily basis?

3Do you have a safe community against which you can lean, and which facilitates your courage to bring yourself into play?

Visionary Leadership

On the basis of research (Golemann et al., 2002) as well as experience, we know that, to the employees, visionary leaders will create commitment, a sense of community spirit and meaningfulness in the organisation and, further, that they are better equipped to retain talented employees. There is a wealth of theories occupied with the importance of visions. Most of these primarily focus on the significance of visions within and for an organisation, whereas others (e.g. Golemann et al., 2002; Goffee & Jones, 2006) also focus on the leader’s role in this respect. The general consensus is, however, that visions play a considerable role in respect of uniting employees and generating energy, involvement, and direction.

Golemann et al. (2002) analysed a number of leadership styles. Their analyses demonstrated the visionary leadership style to be the most efficient. The background for this is, for instance, owing to the fact that visions will make the individual employee’s work meaningful. You do not simply carry out a work assignment, you also contribute to a higher business goal. In practice, however, we very seldom experience leaders to be exercising this leadership style. Much too often, the leader will be completely wrapped up in operations without considering his/her visions relative to the core task for the organisation.

Asked about this, by far the majority of leaders will consider themselves to be inspirational and good role models. Actually, as many as 86 per cent (Hougaard, 2018). However, among employees asked the same question, i.e. how they experience their leaders, 82 per cent would answer that they experience their leaders as uninspiring (Hougaard, 2018). And measuring employee commitment, only 13 per cent of the world’s employees will be committed, whereas 24 per cent will be decidedly uncommitted (Hougaard, 2018). Such figures provide food for thought. Not least because, according to Gallup’s statistics, the concept of commitment constitutes the crux of the matter, signifying a major difference between committed and less committed workplaces: Relative to the most committed workplaces, their customers will be 10 per cent more satisfied, they will have 17 per cent higher productivity, and 21 per cent higher earning capacity. These workplaces have proportionally lower turnover of employees, non-attendance, and quality problems.¹

Our lectures at the master’s degree programmes in manage...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Information
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 Why Fearless Leadership?
• 2 What Blocks the Way?
• 3 The Development of Fearless Management
• Conclusion
• Index