Catalyzing Greater Value Creation – Four Keys for Executive Leaders

In an earlier blog post, I note to lead you must claim it.  This post aims to offer additional practical ways to do so.  The primary function of leadership is to create contexts for catalyzing greater value creation. Indeed, each executive has unique and specific ways they creates value for their organization. That said, the fundamental principles for catalyzing those unique value remain the same.

Catalyzing Greater Value Creation Through Your Leadership Presence

Leadership starts and ends with one’s presence. Presence is the quality of being fully aware each moment.  And the quality of this attendance is the foundation upon which the remaining principles rest. This true power of presence can be hard to grasp at first, yet it is the fundamental driver of leadership.

As leadership presence grows, the executive becomes more attentive to the nuances of any situation.  Presence is also the most essential element in listening to others.  In addition, you can do nothing about what happened yesterday or even 2 minutes ago.  And as much as we pay attention to the possibilities in the future, you can do nothing about them right now. All you can do is attend to the current moment.  And the only way you can do so is to be fully present.

We find ourselves in times that offer more and more distractions to being present. We all experience the overwhelm that hundreds of emails and texts, information overload, and others reactions bring. The potential of the overwhelm we face each day only emphasizes more the importance of being present. The good news is that presence is not something we have to cultivate.  In fact,  presence or the ability to be aware are fundamental to being human. That said, developing access to our presence that is already, always there requires some practice.

Developing access to this presence requires one to build a relationship with their selves. You do this by carving out time to be quiet and reflective. The practice of meditation is one primary means of doing this and meditation is shown to have many benefits – emotionally, mentally and physically.  There are also many mindfulness practices that support an executive to regain presence in the moment.  The key is finding a way to expand your presence that works for you then committing to do it consistently.  In the end, the most effective leaders recognize presence is the cornerstone of their impact.  Thus, they make it a priority to bring it forward.

Catalyzing Greater Value Creation By Engaging Your Team in Conversations That Matter

As leaders build their presence, they attend more and more to each conversation they have. These leaders recognize that every conversation they have each day is critically important. After all, if they are not present, they miss the opportunities inherent in those interactions.

The conversations that matter must begin with crystal clarity around your team’s mission and operating guidelines or values.   By building alignment on these foundational understandings you can then create alignment around priorities. That series conversations then become foundational to every other discussion you engage in with your team.  Such alignment increases the likelihood your team is in the same boat rowing in the same direction. Such shared alignment and ownership foster greater collaboration and ensure the next key to value creation to unfold effectively.

Catalyzing Greater Value Creation Through More Effective Commitments

As your presence and collaboration grow, they set the best foundation for generating more effective commitments. And when your commitments strengthen, you shore accountability. In short, we are more productive as well as we become more rigorous in how we establish our commitments.

What many fail to realize is that high-value commitments are a function of the quality of one’s relationships. Many think commitments are technical by nature. In other words, we believe that if I am clear enough in my request and another person says yes to the request, then everything will turn out.   However, it is critical to understand that people do not listen to your clarity of intent.  They listen to their own interpretations of the ask.  Thus, it is essential that we take the time to confirm understanding of the key qualities of commitments.  And many times doing so requires us to have more in-depth dialogue that can feel quite personal.

Making sure this such conversational depth occurs requires mutual respect and trust. Thus high-quality obligations demand a high degree of trust and a high level of relationship.  Ensuring these things allow you to have robust, honest interactions before a final commitment is made.

Catalyzing Greater Value Creation Through the Design Feedback Loops

The final key to catalyzing greater value is to generate feedback loops.  After all, we are continually learning.  We can always innovate our growth in presence, the delivery of services or the ability to work more effectively together. However, if we do not build in natural feedback loops, we tend to deteriorate our effectiveness not enhance it.

Developing greater presence requires us to continuously expand our self-awareness.  This allows us to be in the moment more and to more deeply listen to others. As we engage meditation or other self-awareness growing practices we get immediate feedback. If we genuinely care about showing up present for others, we will also seek feedback from key stakeholders to make sure they experience our presence with them.

By asking for such feedback, we are showing we genuinely care for those relationships.  As we look to deepen our ability to have conversations that matter and strengthen our commitments, feedback is also essential.  After all, other’s concerns and needs are always in flux and what may have worked last time may be outdated today.  Also, we want to continually learn how we can strengthen trust and enhance the power of our commitments.

How One Executive is Successfully Catalyzing Value Creation With His Team

So how does this all practically come together? One of my executive clients in the professional services industry realized the way he was leading status meetings with his team was not maximizing the benefit of feedback. Traditionally, at these meetings, people would just go around and update the rest of the team on the status of their projects. And there was no structure to this sharing. While these meetings were mandatory and vital, they were not something team members looked forward to. And they did nothing for the development of the team itself. So my client shifted the structure of the meetings.

Today, each member of his team is given airtime to discuss three things:

• Their take on their level of momentum towards project goals
• Where they feel most stuck on these project goals.
• Specific requests they have for assistance from the team.

By sharing these things, this executive encourages more authentic sharing, and team members can coach each other to improve both momentum and the quality of deliverables. Such dialogue also strengthens trust, strengthens relationships and enhances collaboration.

Conclusion

In the end, it all comes back to leadership presence because everything is built on this foundation. The more present a leader is, the more they are able to convene substantial conversations. As their discussions with others are more authentic and aligned with the team’s purpose, values and priorities, the more effective are the commitments made with each other. And as the team becomes more collaborative in this way, the higher the value of creating feedback loops. This leads to catalyzing more magnificent value creation and innovation.