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Hello,
Welcome to Connecting Dots, a monthly newsletter exploring innovation leadership.
This month we unpack the third of six tension scales on the Innovation Leadership Map; autonomy.
The Innovator’s Autonomy
On autonomy, I always think back to working with a debonaire CEO of an industry-leading insurer. It was a top management workshop and at a key decision point, he seemed trapped in his chair. He was no longer his normally decisive self. He fiddled with his Harvard Business School alumnus pen while staring off into the distance. I had the image of a child at the end of a diving board, wishing to jump but unable to bring himself to do so.
Fortunately, while his sense of empowerment was lost his colleagues stepped into the void. Taking up their informal authority, they deconstructed the decisions, broke them down to assess strategic fit with risk acceptance thresholds. As the group continued to progress it re-energized the CEO. Eventually, we reached the point requiring documented formal executive sign-off and he deployed his formal authority with his usual enthusiasm. It was quite beautiful after his crisis of confidence and the trusting non-persecutory group performance.
This story highlights the dynamic nature of empowerment and how we lead. To lead with empowerment is to take up the authority you have been granted to pursue the primary task you have been assigned or that of the wider firm. People tend to practice empowerment when they feel they have a sufficient degree of autonomy to work on a challenge just outside their comfort zone with a relevant set of capabilities.
I use autonomy as a diagnostic because it is a precursor and driver of whether we exercise enough, too much or too little empowerment to achieve our objectives. In many ways how we experience autonomy is shaped by the situation. Many companies talk of empowerment but undermine it in practice. Others fetishize formal processes and structure yet reward those autonomously achieving results by bending the system to their needs.
Innovation Leadership Map - Autonomy Tension Scale
Autonomy can be one of the most paradoxical or confusing aspects of an organization to manage. Both for ourselves and for those we manage or collaborate with. It deeply relates to how we see our place in the world, assumptions about how the world works and the things we fear most that could be lost by taking up our authority to do something new for the first time. To understand autonomy in the real world I’ve identified three positions as follows.
Disempowered
This is a low-energy state. When we are disempowered one can perceive little hope or capacity to act. The world can seem overwhelming and one’s authority too meagre for the task at hand. In a disempowered state there is little perceive authority that can be generated to muster the energy to progress. If you believe it can’t be done you’ll be right only because it won’t be done. Even if in practice it could be.
Not surprisingly, repeat innovation leaders, even on their bad projects, rarely find themselves in this position. They tend to be quite resourceful at working within boundaries to generate informal authority in the absence of formal authority.
Empowered
When we feel empowered there is fission between the challenge and our existing capabilities. One of these will be stretched. It’s difficult but doable and you learn along the way. Interestingly, to feel empowered is often a very thoughtful state. It is not action for action’s sake but a very considered use of authority.
When empowered, the leader creates space to test the boundaries of what’s far enough, too far or far from enough. More than a technical challenge it’s a social challenge to surface how ambitious, capable and ready the team or firm is in practice. This is important because innovation isn’t the invention, it’s taking that idea and making it real. A long, collaborative and highly social process that is propelled by empowered leaders sensitive to the needs of others.
Overpowered
Unlike disempowered repeat innovation leaders almost universally have experienced this position themselves or observed it close up. The enthusiasm to do something new or create the future can cause some leaders to think their work is the most important thing going on in the company. In this high-energy state, the distress or human consequences of the new developments are repressed.
Eventually, the overpowered may go beyond bending the boundaries and breaking them. Often with brutal personal consequences. One of my research subjects described such an experience. “I thought it was infinity. Yeah. But then real life happened.” In this case, real-life was broken relationships, shuttering of the business unit, departing the company and a career change to avoid repeat of such a painful personal loss. A tragic loss of talent and potential.
Developing Autonomy
Over a career, we will all find ourselves in different positions of autonomy. Sometimes it’s the climate of the organization and other times it’s us. How we respond to an organization is the aspect we have control over and can develop our practice of leading autonomously. Whatever the cultural climate and organizational health generating sufficient autonomy to act can only come from within a leader.
Our sense of autonomy at a given moment is driven or derailed by our deeper motivations and detractors that are mostly out of our conscious awareness. I’ll introduce these in a future post. These are the forces combining our innate self and what we have experienced in our lives and careers. Even without getting into these drivers and detractors most people intuitively know what empowerment looks and feels like for them.
Elevating Your Autonomy
The challenge is when we get stuck in the low underpowered or high energy overpowered states. How do we rebalance to generate empowerment within ourselves and your team? Here are several ways:
Ensure that all communication is two-way. Use individual 360° feedback to measure whether there is too much or too little change that can be tolerated.
Agree with your staff, team or colleagues that taking risks and making mistakes is allowed as long as mistakes are acknowledged and lessons learned.
Look for opportunities to invite contributions from your employees. Share with others the positive contributions you have received.
In team meetings, refrain from always putting your point of view forward first. Allow others the opportunity to influence decisions.
Create space as a group to gather primary data and hear weak signals of how people are feeling and thinking. Inquire about their hopes and fears, measure regularly on a scale of one to ten how they are feeling or get feedback in an I Like / I Wish survey format.
While driving to do something new is challenging and frustrating, feeling empowered is a powerful energy. It’s also fragile and painful to lose. Innovation leaders are very sensitive to empowerment threats. This is why for senior leaders we need to be very aware of the consequences of small actions to ensure our leaders can act autonomously because they feel empowered.
What are your experiences with autonomy?
Next month - the Exposure scale of feeling unexposed, composed and overexposed.
Brett’s Movements
August like July of this year is quite rooted in London. I’m in writing mode as I have a number of conferences in September. I’m working on a special session for the Innov8rs’ three-day conference on Strategy, Leadership and Organization. The session will focus on the Innovation Leadership Mirror and how we can develop innovation leadership capabilities. It is the first time I’ve spoken publicly about my leadership development private practice. It should be quite fun and I think the talk content will be valuable for company meetings or top management forums. Get in touch if interested.
As always I appreciate you forwarding this newsletter to peers or colleagues. Also, your reflections or personal experiences are immensely valuable as my research and practice continue.
Higher, faster stronger,
~ Brett