Leaders running fast often miss these opportunities to lift performance.

Leaders are so focused on delivering and steering their divisions and teams that we may underestimate some of the less obvious impacts.  I'd like to invite reflection on a few.

Let’s start with silence. 

Do we truly understand the cost of silence?  I know we don’t necessarily embrace whinging or complaining, and often in these scenarios our hands may be tied, or there isn't much that can be done due to regulations and governance, or we'd just prefer people bring possibilities with problems.  But I do know this, and I have seen it all too often lately, be grateful for the whinging and complaining because at least they are talking to you.  Silence and agreement is far worse and are indicators that below the surface a different current is stirring and your culture may be in trouble. 

Don't underestimate the impact of silence and agreement on performance as more detrimental and longer lasting.  

Our ability to influence. 

Executives and senior leaders often share aspirations to more powerfully influence outcomes.  Yet underestimate the day to day transactional conversations they are having that are already creating influence and impact.  That influence is often not felt or even seen until much further down the track. 

Every moment, every BAU conversation has as much power to influence as do those bigger higher risk moments.  

It's no secret every organisation and every leader wants people to collaborate because we know the collective churns out far better outcomes than the individual.  We talk about the importance of collaboration, we make decisions we feel might enhance collaborative efforts and we performance manage to protect collaboration.  Then, there is the power of aligning the team to collaborate.  We underestimate how powerful this step is and often bypass it or have a ‘set and forget’ approach. 

Alignment evokes collaboration more than anything else we do. 

Next time you sense a less harmonious team culture or a little tension or exclusive groups forming, take the team back to what's important and facilitate a discussion that creates shared understanding around these priorities and keep this front of mind.

One last invitation to reflect. 

There is a saying I love “Go slow to go fast” and I know this has many other iterations and I believe it originated from an approach taken by the Navy Seals, so I feel like we should consider this more curiously.  In my experience we are always on “the run” as leaders and slowing down is seen as a luxury not a necessity or something high performing leaders “don’t do”. 

Slowing down is a necessity for high performance, not a luxury. 

If we are constantly on the run, we miss opportunities and important signals that may indicate problems ahead. Don’t underestimate the value of slowing your division and teams to deliver productivity gains.  

PeopleQ are leaders in workplace culture and leadership development. Talk to us to find out more about our services.