Leading those lifestyleworkstyle revolutionaries

Leading those lifestyle/workstyle revolutionaries

We are now beginning to understand a great deal about what these new-age employees expect and the criteria that fire up their ability and willingness to engage with one company as opposed to another. But what does this mean for the manager who has to make it all come together? The line manager who has to make sure that he relates to those lifestyle/workstyle needs of his individual employees.

During the course of writing this book, a close colleague of mine, psychologist Shay McConnon, the founder of People First (www.PeopleFirst-Intl.com) and one of the world's leading lecturers on motivation, negotiation and conflict resolution, produced some ideas around how we perceive each other in a work- related environment. I was so impressed, I begged him to let me use some of this material. He, being a truly kind man, said, ˜Go ahead.' What follows are essentially Shay McConnon's ideas wrapped up in some of my own words.

Shay McConnon's key concept is that we all have our own views and these are the ones that tend to dominate how we operate and how we view others. Getting through that and looking at things in a different way is a key part of beginning to understand the lifestyle/workstyle of others, all of us - including you .

Consider this dialogue: ˜How would you know you were a good team leader?' I asked Pete. ˜Have a compelling vision and then inspire and empower the team to achieve it' he replied.

˜Whose criteria are those?' ˜Mine, I suppose.'

˜What are the criteria of your team members , what do you need to be doing so they would consider you a good team leader?'

˜Not so sure, probably the same as mine. '˜Would you like to find out? '˜OK.'

Imagine then flushing out Pete's team's real, personal criteria, and finding many differences. Criteria that were important to some, were not to others. Pete was surprised that some did not want their hearts won - that concept had little meaning for them. Others did not want their minds won.

As the discussion went on amongst the team, it became clear what a difficult job Pete had if he was to meet the criteria of his team members and be accepted by all as a ˜good' leader. Things became even more complicated when we assembled the criteria of Pete's boss and his criteria for considering Pete a good or bad team leader.

The lesson to learn is that we cannot generalise on what makes a good leader, or on why minds and hearts are won. Leadership is person specific. What is critical to one person will not be for another. Some people are turned off by the outgoing, dynamic, high energy, charismatic style of leadership, but for every one of those there are ˜quiet' leaders in the workplace who have many followers making real differences.

Effective leadership

The most effective style of leadership would appear to be related to the personalities of those being lead, and what best fits with their lifestyle/workstyle notions. People follow because their criteria are met. Leaders need to measure themselves against the criteria of their people rather than the textbook or the expert criteria; they need to engage with the individual's view of the world. Successful leaders know the criteria of their people. They have fluency and flexibility in their leadership style. They individualise rather than generalise.

Management and leadership

You manage systems, budgets , and time, but you lead people. Leadership is about the people side of things. It is about rapport, communication, loyalty, creating engagement and respect, helping people believe in themselves and inspiring them to higher levels of performance within their own lifestyle criteria.

Leaders need to understand people and the dynamics of behaviour. They need to understand what motivates people and how they can be inspired, excited and moved to action within the boundaries of their very personal lifestyle/workstyle balance. They need to understand that while people react to the values, beliefs and behaviours of the leader, they respond in different ways depending on the lifestyle/workstyle expectations of the individual.