#24 “Without leadership there is no strategy, and without strategy there is no leadership”
This episode was recorded in German.
Chaos and order, yin and yang… leadership and strategy! Have you ever noticed that almost everything in the world has an absolutely necessary counterpart, two opposing forces that are in balance with each other? What sounds like esoteric stuff here also shapes everyone's day-to-day business. There is no doubt that no other terms are in higher demand in a business context than leadership and strategy, but can one exist independently of the other, or are they as fundamentally connected as the ebb and flow of the tide? Christian and Jürgen agree on this one: without leadership there is no strategy, and without strategy there is no leadership. If you don't have a strategy, the organization doesn't know where it's supposed to be heading. If you, as the top executive, don't set a direction (warning, unpopular opinion: for all the agility, and as nice as it is when everyone gets along, it really does take someone to point the way), it's like sailing around on the open sea without knowing which harbor you want to reach. So you always have to know how you'll get to the goal and how you'll make the organization successful, even when hard times with heavy seas and plenty of icebergs lie ahead. That, and exactly where the connection between good leadership and strategy lies, is what you'll hear in our new episode of the strategy call on Hope Is Not a Strategy.
SHOW NOTES:
Christian UnderwoodProf. Jürgen Weigandandhttps://www.juergenweigand.comUnderwood GmbHHope Is Not a StrategyWHUFather Anselm Grün
Pre-order the book Hope Is Not a Strategyhere.
Detailed episode description:
Contents:
- The connection between leadership and strategy
- The terms strategy and leadership
- What makes good leadership
- Shared leadership
- The leadership credo
- You never stop learning
- The role of humility
- Advice: ask for feedback
- Contact
- Show notes
Today's episode centers on one question: does good leadership even need strategy?
The connection between leadership and strategy Jürgen Weigand has a clear credo on this: without leadership there is no strategy, and without strategy there is no leadership. Because without leadership, it isn't clear in the organization what should be done. Everyone would do whatever they personally consider best and right. If the top executive doesn't set a direction, it's comparable to a boat out at sea that doesn't know which harbor it wants to and should enter. In the other case, though, when there is leadership but no strategy, the question of the goal matters less. What comes to the fore here is how to actually get to that goal. How can the organization be shaped for success and kept alive even in difficult times? That's exactly what the combination of leadership and strategy is for.
The terms leadership and strategy You can already see how closely the two terms are connected in their historical context. Both were once combined in a single word. The strategos was the leader of the army, stratos was the army itself, and strategia was the strategy. Back then, people asked how the army could be led to the goals that had been set. That question translates well to companies today. In current business literature, the close link between leadership and strategy is unmistakable. A word search of the Harvard Business Review found that leadership strategy ranks right at the top of the search terms. At the same time, however, it turned out that top executives have extremely little time available for strategy. They can devote less than 10% of their total working time to strategic thinking, which is a worrying development. If leadership and strategy are of equal value, yet hardly any time is spent on leading strategically, then this deserves a closer look. What are the circumstances, and why is the trend moving in this direction?
What makes good leadership Good leadership exists when you're aware of the different dimensions of leadership. The best-known dimension is: “I lead others and I'm qualified to lead others.” But there are two more dimensions. The dimension of leading yourself: “I lead myself. I believe I can only be a very good leader if I'm able to lead myself very well.” And the dimension of being led: being willing to let others lead you, too. Even as the CEO of a large company, you can't freely decide what you want to do. Formally, there's a supervisory board keeping an eye on your activities anyway. Still, it's always wise to listen to others who want to support you in leading. An outside view can sometimes be very helpful for assessing yourself and your own approach. It can happen that you think you're leading well, while the people you lead see it completely differently. That outside perspective is essential for checking how well your own leadership is rated. There are situations and ways to be led in private life as well. One option, for example, is letting God lead you. But at home there may also be a partner who leads you to some extent, and it can be very helpful to take a closer look at that perspective too. With partners who don't work in your own company, things can be thought through and questioned differently. Everyone can benefit from doing this for themselves.
Shared leadership Right now, at least in the discussions happening inside companies, leadership is changing dramatically. There are often old-school leaders who came up through a tough old school over the past 30 to 50 years. Decisions were top-down, strategy was set by the board, and the decisions then had to be implemented across the company. In other words, command and obey, the most classic route of all. Today, by contrast, organizations are trending toward a situation where there is almost no single individual leading anymore. Leadership often happens in teams, or teams lead themselves. To execute a working strategy in that kind of context, communication and a strategy discourse are the key. In the end, though, someone has to make the decisions, and above all, one person has to carry the responsibility for those decisions.
But shared leadership, along with involving team members from different levels of the hierarchy, can absolutely make sense. It isn't about rank, it's about competence and capability in certain decision-making situations. If someone else is the subject-matter expert, it's sensible and smart not to make the final call alone, but to bring in that expert's advice. Still, it's always important to make clear that decisions not only have to be made responsibly, the responsibility for those decisions has to be carried as well. With shared leadership, it can easily happen that when the plan doesn't work, a blame game starts and the team is made the scapegoat, which must never happen. That's why anyone who leads responsibly should be conscious of that responsibility and accept the consequences. In practice, you often see leaders pushing the blame onto their team. But a good leader has to stand in front of their own team in this situation too and take responsibility, because either the leader put the team together wrong, or they failed to motivate it properly or communicate properly. In any case, the leader has to carry the main responsibility, which unfortunately often doesn't happen. Leaders often reached their position through a certain technical expertise, but that doesn't yet mean the leadership competence is there as well.
The leadership credoThe Leadership Credo is the final element of the MBA programs at WHU. To explain its purpose, you have to go back to the beginning of the program. There, participants go through the course "Personal Development, Personal Growth." In it, they are confronted with the expectation that they should not think about others or present other people's knowledge, but generate knowledge about themselves. The central questions are: Who am I? What do I stand for? What are my actual values in life? How do I want to apply those values in my daily work as an employee, and later as a leader, so that what I do is genuinely consistent? Only then am I authentic. What I show on the outside, what I say and do, is what I really feel and want to do. At first, participants are always quite shocked that they are asked to reflect on themselves and open up. But they learn fairly quickly how helpful this can be. All of it takes place in a protected setting, of course. Everything that is said stays in the room, and participants can develop freely. Various elements throughout the program build on this, and at the end comes the Leadership Credo. There, all participants have to say what they believe in. After all, credo means "I believe." The point is to examine your own principles and convictions. The presentation is tied to a personal story. So you can't just tell someone else's story; participants have to present their own story, an element from their own history, and connect it to what they stand for, for example a value or a leadership principle. With that, they show the group what they stand for, who they are, and how they intend to lead others and themselves authentically and in an ethically and morally sound way in the future.
You never stop learningDuring the financial crisis a few years ago, you could see that not everyone always acts ethically or with integrity. Leading authentically is demanding, because it means putting yourself out there. Right now there are a number of articles about Volkswagen CEO Mr. Diess, who uses social media to advance the company's strategic goals and therefore can't really be all that authentic personally. It's a fascinating point, and you encounter it quite often in companies, where leaders want much more, even name it, but then sometimes stand in their own way. Even when it is pointed out to them, they can't take the step of getting past themselves and simply being who they are. The fallacy is that you can learn this once, in a coaching session, for instance. In reality it is a process, a never-ending learning journey.At some point, many leaders think they have internalized everything their position requires. They know everything and can do everything. Then you find yourself in conversations about who might take part in a program like this, and they suggest one of their employees, because they believe they are done learning and don't need it anymore. The most important thing is always to question yourself regularly, to remind yourself that you remain a student forever and can always learn something new, especially about yourself. Those who arrive at this insight benefit a great deal, and they are the ones who follow through and actually get things done. With the others, words are rarely followed by action. To come back briefly to Volkswagen's CEO, Mr. Diess: he is of course operating under constraints. The strategic shift he is expected to deliver is being demanded forcefully by the supervisory board. He is under enormous pressure, regardless of what his personal values are. When the pressure comes from above, going your own way isn't always easy. It also takes courage to admit when you can't deliver on something. From this you can derive a general piece of advice: the greatest power we have is the power to leave and to say no, the power to walk away. And you have to follow through on it when your own authenticity is no longer congruent with what you find in the company. Then you have to draw the consequences and go. Of course that depends on your position and your stage of life. Fundamentally, you have to keep this in mind: if you are a person of integrity, both sides really do have to fit together.
The role of humilityOne very important thing you can take away from the program, and one that has come up often in our podcast episodes, is called humility. The humility to accept that you are not perfect and not all-knowing.A fitting quote from Father Anselm Grün on the topic, one that holds up in reality: "Humility is the courage to look at your own shadow." The Benedictine monk and prolific author from Lower Franconia, whom some of you will certainly know, always emphasizes the concept of humility in his seminars. Very good leaders can be recognized by the fact that they are humble, that they are grateful for what they have achieved and for the good that has been done to them. This isn't primarily about the good they have done for others, but about what they personally have to be grateful for. These leaders come across very differently than those who consider themselves all-knowing. Humble leaders are the ones who never stop learning and who want to go a step further when they notice one shadow or another in themselves. Shadows are something you can't see on your own; you need others to point your own shadows out to you. With people who are excessively friendly, for example, you should be a little careful, because they may have something negative or aggressive in their shadow. If you aren't aware of your own shadows, you need others to make you aware of them. And if you are willing to go beyond that, then you are humble as well.Father Anselm Grün is linked in the show notes for anyone who doesn't know him yet and hasn't heard of him, which is almost impossible. But there are always things to discover, and that's part of what this podcast is for. Getting into one of Father Anselm Grün's seminars is difficult; the waiting list runs a few years. There are, however, some highly recommendable videos, books and audiobooks by him.
Advice: ask for feedbackThe simplest way for a leader to review their leadership regularly is to ask for feedback. And not only from the people you trust anyway, like friends and family, but also from critical minds, who can come from inside your own organization or from outside it. Feedback can hurt. Everyone wants to hear good things, and then a critical remark comes along, one that should make you think. Ask yourself why this person sees you that way. So: ask for feedback and process that feedback productively. Then, once you believe you have acted on it well, go back to that person, show them what has changed and ask for their view again. Have you really developed, or is something still missing?
ContactWe want to pass the topic of feedback on to you, our listeners: please give us your feedback. What do you want to hear? Do you like what we're doing? Are there topics you're especially interested in? Then be so kind as to write your feedback in the comments or reviews, on any social media channel, or send an email to christian@underwood.de. We're looking forward to your honest feedback and will gladly pick it up in one of the next episodes.
SHOW NOTES:
Prof. Jürgen Weigandandhttps://www.juergenweigand.com
Pre-order the book Hope Is Not a Strategyhere.