CO-ELEVATE OWNERSHIP

As a breakaway performance guide, I always learn from the leadership teams I am privileged to support. This last week was no different as I traveled across to Denmark to contribute to the offsite session of a leadership team from the energy sector.

I like to notice what other leaders notice. It helps me evolve my own perceptions about what enables leaders and teams to forge ahead despite the prevailing weather. The following three insights stayed with me long after the convoy of assembled leaders had departed the venue for home.

1. Co-elevate. The Wells Team Leader was an inspiring individual who has clearly earned his way to a position of influence and impact. He reviewed the leading and lagging indicators for the last year and listened carefully to the inputs of his team. He was interested in any issues, potentially invisible to him, that he could address and advance to other stake holders above his level if needed. At the end of his session, he showed a picture from his weekend. He was driving a multi-purpose farm vehicle to clear some debris. He mentioned that he listens to podcasts while working on his farm, and that an idea he recently liked was about “co-elevation”. It resonated with him given the context of a forthcoming leadership offsite, as transformation is no longer about top-down or bottom-up, it is about “together and up”. Co-elevation is not a term I have used before so I was grateful for the nuance on collaboration.

2. Climate. In my recent book Accelerating Automatic I discuss the significance of mood in a balanced approach to mastering team performance. The Well Integrity Manager who is a peer of mine from training in the Royal Marines, really liked the idea of the prevailing “mood” or atmosphere in an office or offshore on a platform or rig. He reminded everyone that leaders set the mood for the team and reflected that his epiphany on this point is that he himself impacts his own team through his daily mood. His illustration was illuminating for the team and one of the Drilling Superintendents reflected on a toxic climate he has experienced before. We can all relate to arriving at a work site and quickly sensing the prevailing mood. We can all recall places where that was an upbeat mood, and indeed where that was a depressed or even demotivating mood. For leaders, the paradigm shift needs to be that we now set that mood for others. So what are we as leaders doing to ensure that our work spaces are positive and good?

3. Change. I had a dinner conversation with one of the Engineers at the offsite: Clearly a very bright young man and certainly well informed regarding the challenges facing our planet in 2020. What struck me most was his curiosity about change. He was interested in the drivers and the differentiators for positive change. There was no resistance to change, in fact his energy was directed at embracing change. Online there have been hundreds of articles and posts about pivoting in 2020. This requires a growth mindset because a fixed perspective about how things are done will not match the pace of change wrought by a global pandemic. In general the assembled leadership team demonstrated an appetite for growth, an appetite for ownership, and an appetite for change. Change initiatives are marathons not sprints which means that a key success factor will be endurance. We simulated this with a long navigation exercise outside the conference room and outside the comfort zone. Any exercise starts with the first step. Any transformation involves change.

Extreme Ownership is one of my favourite books. The authors, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, explain how Navy Seals own their response to adversity, and own their performance under pressure. This leadership team embraced a graphic we like to use to illustrate something we at Exceed call “above-the-line” ownership. Labeling what “below-the-line” behaviour looks like is a great way to awaken awareness and to shift behaviour; to “co-elevate” up above the line.

In summary, we all need to co-elevate ownership to implement positive change. Be prepared for a marathon and set the right mood for the team. Be aware of the changing landscape and navigate together towards a better future.