The missing critical competencies leaving leaders feeling stressed…
Over the last few months, I’ve hosted five different CEO discussion groups where the topics they’ve raised have been incredibly similar.
To be fair, it’s saved me a lot of prep. But it’s highlighted that there’s a new challenge that’s probably a big factor in why leaders are increasingly feeling stressed.
It’s the critical competencies we don’t even know we’re missing.
Different people have described the problem in different ways. Some have spoken about getting teams together for things like away days, creative sessions, working through difficult issues, those times you want everyone physically in a room.
And they’ve talked about the pushback they seem to get. Of how it might feel unfair to those with obligations or commitments, who’ve set boundaries to support their mental health, or perhaps just feel more comfortable working from home.
But mostly they’ve talked about their own stress and second-guessing: “is it really unfair to demand they come in?”
Others have spoken about people who are often functionally good at their job, but their “commitment to authenticity” is clearly hacking off a whole bunch of their colleagues.
The problem is, we want people to feel able to be themselves at work, just as we want to enable people to manage their own mental health by setting boundaries. Many of us remember darker days when both concerns were ignored.
But first and foremost, we’re here for our mission, and to deliver it our organisations need to work better and more efficiently than ever, which means personal boundaries can’t justify building barriers, nor can being authentic excuse acting like an ass.
It’s this tension, magnified by the new norm of hybrid working and sharpened by the expectations of new generations joining the workforce, that seems to be creating an increasing amount of stress for leaders.
But the thing is, that’s only because they see it as their responsibility to solve. And it isn’t. It’s everyone’s problem to solve.
Because what those CEO conversations all surfaced is that there’s a set of critical competences we require from just about everyone in the modern workplace, that we’re not recruiting for, not developing, not even formally appraising. And they’re a massive pain when they’re absent.
It begins with the recognition that your role in an organisation is not simply functional – just delivering the work you’re given. Because in a modern organisation, especially a non-profit, what’s required from your role is far more than that.
The world where leaders could break all the work into neat little pieces and parcel them up like boxes in an organogram, so all you need worry about is what’s in your box between the hours of nine and five, is long gone, no matter how much we pretend otherwise.
We’re not in the 1950s on a Ford assembly line. The nature of modern work is constantly evolving, and it’s far more integrated, cross functional and collaborative, than ever before.
Which means a big part of every role is about the relationships and trust you need to build with others, both within and outside the organisation, that go far beyond your own tasks if the organisation is going to function at its best.
And more than that, it includes your impact on the wider culture, your contribution to an environment where others can also be the best version of themselves.
This is not just a leadership thing, it’s true even for the most junior of roles.
Because for our organisations to succeed, they require more collaboration and more empowerment in decision-making, at all levels. And that combination inevitably generates creative conflict between people and teams, whether of ideas or needs, resources or priorities.
This is the inescapable reality of the modern workplace. Creative tension is the one thing we can’t automate. It is an intrinsic feature of collaboration and empowerment.
Which is why resolving these tensions can’t fall solely on the shoulders of leaders. It’s not your job to parent-away the inter-personal problems between your people. With empowerment comes responsibility: to own the issue, to find a resolution.
Whether or not it’s written down, this is now a fundamental part of most jobs.
And to do that job, they need the competence and maturity to build trust and negotiate conflict, to be accountable for their impact on other people and the wider culture, and to be willing to flex and develop as the context demands.
Question is, are you actively recruiting for, appraising, developing these critical competencies? Are you even talking about them clearly and consistently to your people?
Because if you’re not, it’s no wonder your leadership is stressed.