Leadership Triple Helix Model
As Drucker said, “Only three things happen naturally in an organization: Friction, Confusion and Underperformance. Everything else requires leadership!”
This is why our Business Essentials model has leadership at the centre of everything. We believe all aspects of strategy, culture and strategy execution come down to one fundamental thing - Leadership. At Pivot & Pace we see leadership as an essential and intentional difference, it is the foundation for execution. We believe that the role of a leader is to inspire, navigate the future and lead change with certainty. They set strategic intent for the business (or their functional component of it) giving clarity of direction and focus, they role model and lead culture through values, and achieve strategic momentum through strategy execution leveraging the mechanisms of tempo, and accountability. To help leaders understand this, we developed the Leadership Triple Helix model.
Our ‘Leadership Triple Helix’ identifies that there are three constants in leadership: Intra-personal Leadership, Inter-personal Leadership, and Leading & Influencing Change. We have developed this model incorporating a number of views and ideas around leadership from people such as Hillman, Spence, Zigarmi, Winsborough, Katzenbach, and Posner. So, some of the ideas may be familiar but the way we pull it together and view it is unique, just like DNA. The three strands of our ‘Leadership Triple Helix’ are:
1. Intra-personal Leadership: Leaders need to be competent in their core role, have integrity, and know who they are to be authentic in their interactions. A key aspect is self-awareness of what are they passionate about, what they are good at and not so good at, what are their stressors and how they respond to stressors, so as to be able to be consciously leading and understanding the impact they have on others. They need to be asking - how am I trying to be a better leader today than I was yesterday?
2. Inter-personal Leadership: Conscious leaders are demonstrating enthusiasm, positivity and vitality as they recognise the impact this has on those around them. They project a positive image and have presence as a role model. They also recognise that empathy is the connective tissue, and communication is the vehicle of leadership and are able to deeply understand others, and tailor their message to influence. Consequently, they are future focused and inspiring.
3. Leading Change: Leaders are always influencing positive change at some level along the spectrum of change from continuous improvement to disruptive innovation. Leaders make people aspire to have a better future then enable them to do it. If you aren’t influencing people to aspire to be more or do more, to lift team performance, to incrementally & continuously improve, create a culture of innovation, or to disrupt and change, then you aren’t leading – you are just managing. Let that sink in for a minute!
The application of these strands adapts depending on the contexts of what you are leading, namely:
Individuals. The first step in the leadership journey of leading people is typically being made responsible for the performance of a subordinate(s) who may or may not be in a team. It is about coaching them to grow as people and professionals. Setting performance goals, supporting them, holding them accountable as necessary, helping them reflect, learn and adapt, and aspire to be more.
Teams. How do you lead your team to move beyond being a working group or a team in name only, to being a high performing team that all unify to commit to a team goal and achieve together? It’s about how to get the best from everyone, get their complementary skills and ideas adding value to each other, trust each other, to challenge and collaborate with each other, and achieve amazing results together that they may not have believed possible.
Other Leaders. This step change is often the challenge for leaders. You are now leading a team of leaders, and leading the business via other people. How are you growing people as leaders? Successful leaders of other leaders have changed their mind-set. They have developed relationship-based influence, they have embraced being a generalist leader rather than be a functional specialist, they are skilled in the art of delegation of tasks and decisions, and know how to best develop their leaders as individuals.
Businesses or Organisations. Organisational leadership is about defining and communicating strategy, and connecting people to it so they feel they are part of something great as you work to grow a business or organisation. Organisational leaders break down silos and end turf wars, and they bind the functional or divisional groups together to maximise capability, and ensure return on investment to meet or exceed the organisation’s goals. Interestingly, at an organisational level, too often leaders in an executive leadership team neglect to lead across the ELT – this should be their first team. Importantly, leaders set and model the culture and know it starts at the top. Remember, the higher you are, what you do and don’t do is amplified. Leading to governance as an executive leader, is about ‘leading up’. This about executing and iterating strategy, building trust and confidence, and informing and enabling governance to fulfil its role in decision making.
Governance: Leading as part of governance is a key leadership role. In essence, leading governance sets the tone, tempo and talent for the Board to; set direction for the business to achieve desired outcomes; and taking a principles-based approach to ensure performance, compliance, and manage risk. The Chair sets the tone for dialogue and conversations, they ensure the Board has the right diversity of thought and skill around the table, and the retains ability to adjust the agenda and frequency to meet a constantly changing environment.
This article was contributed by Greg Allnutt, Partner and Strategic Advisor, Pivot & Pace.