#010: Slingshot Leadership - Organizational Psychologist Dr. Alan Echtenkamp

The Jedburgh Podcast

We live in a world full of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. As leaders we must manage our teams and organizations, but we must first learn to manage ourselves and our responses.

In the first of a “how-to guide” episode, host Fran Racioppi sits down with organizational psychologist Dr. Alan Echtenkamp to understand the elements that build a strong and effective leader in times of challenge and transition. They discuss the four keys to effective communication and how leaders should approach planning with an agile and versatile attitude. They also delve into how leadership must set the conditions for a return to normalcy and how empowering employees will provide them a voice in their future while building trust across the organization.

Read the full episode transcription here and learn more on The Jedburgh Podcast Website.

Highlights:

-Fran & Alan define a VUCA environment (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity)

-Leadership in VUCA and during crisis (COVID as an example)

-VUCA requires leadership, character and caring for other people

-VUCA Prime tells us that in times of crisis and confusion, our natural tendency is to become insular and worry only about ourselves

-Discussion on the ways to look outward in crisis leadership

-Alan defines crisis leadership and tell us how to transform fear action into desire for action

-Importance of not downplaying threats and risks to organizations

-Transparency among the ranks is about empowerment, not providing all the dirty details of the company

-NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as examples of effective leadership during the early days of COVID-19

-In crisis times, leaders must act with urgency, communicate with transparency, respond productively to missteps, continuously update

-Strategies to assess when our teams are ready to return to a new normal

-Teams will be empowered to have a voice if they are given a choice, connected to a purpose, and given a bridge

Quotes:

-”A good and authentic leader recognizes the role and responsibility that comes along with being a leader and becomes the best version of themselves in that.”

-“Part of the emotion you are trying to evoke from people depends on the behavior you need from them.”

-“In any communication there is the sender, the receiver and the message.”

-”There are as many definitions of leadership in the world as there are snowflakes.”

-”Leadership is not an equal dynamic.”

-”The challenge for leaders is managing your own emotional experience.”

-“90% of people consider themselves self-aware. The real number is about 15%.”

-”The paradox of senior leadership is that the more senior you are in an organization the less likely people are to give you honest feedback.”

-“Clarity and agility help people move through complexity and ambiguity.”

-”Any organization at best only has the best strategy for right now.”

-”Do I punish failure, or do we reward failure?”

-”What are the metrics for performance that we want.”

-”Part of what we need from leaders...is to recognize what’s changing and what’s not.”

-”People are willing to give more than their share as long as they feel supported and I think loved.”