Punks in Suits: How to lead the workplace reformation
We are on the cusp of a revolution in how we utilise the talent of people in our oganisations. "Punks in Suits" addresses the challenges and opportunities faced by today's leaders, and in these interviews she gets deeper in to these topics with other thought-leaders and experts, adding their perspectives and experiences to your thinking. Each interview is particularly pertinent to a specific chapter of the book although feel free to listen at your own pace.
Punks in Suits: How to lead the workplace reformation
Chapter 4: Not born to run: Rethinking leadership - A conversation with Diederick Janse
Diederick Janse is an Holacracy Master Coach and Trainer and a partner at Energized which supports organisations move towards self-management. Holacracy is a particular form of self-management. In this conversation we discuss self-management in more depth but with a focus on leadership and what he refers to as citizenship within organisations.
Key points
The starting point for self-management is creating roles which have accountabilities. There is no need to ‘get it right’ first time because as you work with the roles you start to notice gaps, or tensions.
Leadership isn’t a role automatically encompassing people management. People management processes are distributed to different roles.
Look at tensions as something neutral. It’s a gap between where we are and where we should be.
You don’t need to change the whole organisation at once. You can pick a place to start (for instance, clarity of roles and accountability). This immediately allows you to redistribute or let go of swathes of work which you currently do as a manager so you can actually lead.
We get pretty invested in our job titles and that becomes part of our identity. Before believing you MUST put your opinion on the table, consider: Could this decision cause harm? Does it affect my role?
Historically people have self-managed, even in ancient tribes. It’s in our DNA. But that doesn’t mean everyone wants to do it, or has to. However, with new generations coming in looking for autonomy and meaning there is more demand for this now.
Everyone can take ‘leadership’ for spotting tensions and looking to resolve them.
Citizenship goes beyond autonomy. It’s not about ‘being left to get on with your work’ but about freedom to contribute to a share purpose and objective.
Following is just as important as leading. That doesn’t mean ‘obey’. It’s about fully bringing yourself, offering your opinions and expertise and then letting it go. Followership is underrated.
The natural tendency is for people to defer to you because of your perceived authority, Be willing to look for ways to make this less so.
https://energized.org/en/what-we-do/
https://www.holacracy.org