Leadership

Financial Executives Need Less Ego, More Leadership


The myth of the brusque executive pushing their way through corporate culture may be popular, but the adversarial approach to problem resolution common in organizational ranks can hinder leadership development and discourage people from contributing new ideas.

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Rick Russell, chartered mediator for Agree Dispute Resolution, says forcing people to defend ideas can have merit in business, political and academic settings. However, this adversarial approach in the financial suite can short-change organizations because the role of the person proposing an idea is often more important than its merit.

"There are many folks with great ideas whose contributions aren't solicited, or if they are solicited, they're solicited in a way that's ineffective," Russell says. "We place an inherent value in a contest of ideas, and many folks won't offer ideas because they're concerned about potential objections."

Russell will be exploring the idea of promoting team engagement during a session, From Confrontation to Collaboration: Leading by Exploring, at the FEI Summit Leadership Conference taking place June 1-3.

Russell says many senior financial executives pursue a leadership framework based on the idea that the leader is expected to sort through and distill a number of suggestions from subordinates before proclaiming how the team will proceed.

"We have an ingrained notion around what leadership means, and a lot of it is colored by the media and the kinds of stories we tell one another about what leaders do and how they act," Russell says. "I think there's a lot of ego associated with leadership."

Although the idea of relying on a leader to distill competing ideas can produce a rigorous vetting process, it can also hinder the team's effectiveness if people feel their suggestions won't receive a fair evaluation.

"For those of us who engage in complex problem solving with large groups of people, if you aren't thinking and acting carefully, generally speaking you miss the boat," Russell says. "By throwing your oar in when you're only half-paying attention, you very seldom come up with a great idea."

Russell suggests leaders work to encourage collaboration within their teams by promoting a diversity of ideas. Staff members, for instance, should feel comfortable proposing and sharing ideas, instead of trying to echo what they think their boss or the team wants to hear.

"Are there skills that lead to more universal engagement of the people whom we lead?" Russell says. "We want to engage people in a way that invites them to reflect and explore, rather than to defend."

Listen and Learn

Russell also plans to discuss ways leaders can promote active discussions during team meetings by applying active listening skills that encourage detailed interaction.

"Many leadership courses are about communication skills. However one of the skills that is seldom given a lot of attention, probably because it's kind of seen as a passive skill, is listening. How do you develop the kind of curiosity that causes you to want to listen and to know what to listen for?"

According to Russell, most of us listen at one of three levels:

  • On the surface, where we passively hear ideas but spend more time thinking about what the other person will say next
  • Resistance, where we listen but are really thinking of objections we can raise
  • Listening for insight
"That's a deeper-level listening where you're trying to actually gain more appreciation of where the person's coming from," Russell says.

Crossing Generational Lines

Another challenge many leaders need to address today is a generational difference in how team members perceive the value of leadership. Younger staffers are often less likely to automatically value qualifications and organizational roles, and to instead place higher stock of what they've seen or learned for themselves.

"Our parents' generation still believed in authority with a capital A and expertise with a capital E, and the idea that a person could be an expert, and you would repose confidence in their expertise," Russell says. "What happens now more culturally around leadership is that people are more likely to repose confidence in their own experience."

You can register for Financial Executives International's 2014 Summit Leadership Conference here.