Navigating Team Leadership with Integrity
Anyone who’s served in an executive leadership role knows the challenges associated with managing people / business / strategy / execution…all of which feel like they’re compounded right now! Senior leadership is not for the faint of heart. However, to quote an ancient Latin philosopher, “Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.” Today, we’re dealing with anything but calm seas - more like uncharted waters! To navigate effectively means relying on your core value of integrity.
Integrity is that steady, unchanging force as the storm wages around you. Today, we want to offer resources and insight to help you sail confidently through the personal and professional headwinds you may be facing right now.
What Does it Mean to Lead with Integrity?
In so many of the 360 evaluations we do in our 1x1 coaching, integrity comes up as a core leadership skill. Like turning on or off a light, integrity seems to be binary: either leaders display it, or they don’t. Leaders who operate with integrity:
Allow for open discussion - encouraging authenticity and honesty from their team (and exhibit it themselves, too)
Hold themselves - and others - accountable
Own up to their own mistakes
Give credit where credit is due
Display an appreciation for diversity
Willingly dive “into the trenches” to help when needed
Can ask for help
It won’t surprise you to know that leaders who operate with integrity have higher retention, team engagement, and better business results. Let’s face it: integrity in leadership is good for business.
Results from a survey conducted by Robert Half and Associates tells us that, "Leaders who act with integrity and treat people well help maximize the contributions of their employees and build goodwill for their organization…(and)...as important as these attributes are for managing a team, they also drive business by attracting investors, customers and potential staff members."
Integrity is the compass that you can rely on: the place to reset your true north. Read on for two quick and actionable ways you can help your team navigate with integrity.
Provide the Space to Get Real
We’ve written before about the importance of being an empathetic leader and listener. Listening and being present with people is demonstrating integrity. If one of your team members’ performance is slipping, start a conversation.
We constantly remind leaders that you have NO idea what’s happening with your employees outside work: the demands, responsibilities, expectations and emotions that come into play every day, even if they’re trying to stay focused at work. Courageously and humbly offer your team the space to explore what they find challenging right now.
Approach the conversation with curiosity and comradery, versus letting your own fear, biases or defensiveness come into play. Schedule 1:1 time to prod gently into your team members’ concerns with these conversation starters:
How are you doing? Really. (Then STOP. And listen.)
Where are you feeling like you need more support?
What’s the biggest concern you have about your work right now?
How can I help you mitigate / alleviate the concern? Note: you’re looking for actionable steps here. You may find that your employee will say that even teeing up the conversation has been a tremendous help.
Describe the best possible path forward for you right now. Get your employee more future-focused and out of the current churn.
Get Comfortable with Saying “No”
One critically important idea to demonstrate integrity is by staying true to your values and priorities: just say no. So many leaders we work with struggle with saying “no.” We get it; at first glance, the road to success seems to be paved with “yes.” And we know that - high achiever that you are - you want to say yes.
But the truth is that saying NO is what allows you to say YES to the things that really matter. Saying NO also teaches you how to get comfortable navigating your own personal resistance to change, and to live into your priorities.
Saying NO leads to the creation of moments that author Bruce Feiler calls autobiographical occasions.
“An autobiographical occasion is any moment when we are encouraged or obliged to reimagine who we are. It’s a narrative event, when our existing life story is altered or redirected in some way, forcing us to revisit our preexisting identity and modify it for our life going forward. And nearly everyone goes through such moments.”
― Bruce Feiler, Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age
Bruce’s book, “Life is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age” outlines the idea that - while we’d like our lives to progress on a linear path, it doesn’t always work out that way. The book is chock full of challenging stories and powerful nuggets of wisdom on navigating change with integrity. Plan on having a highlighter in hand when you dive in.
Leadership Development Programs
We know it’s tough to lead. And leading with integrity is what defines truly great leaders - leaders worth following. We also know that leadership can be lonely. Rest assured, you don’t have to wrestle with it alone. Nova Leadership provides opportunities to challenge your thinking to influence change in yourself and in your organization. Our favorite way to spend each week is helping leaders create the space to chart their path to purpose. Get in touch today to learn more about how we can help you navigate.