Learn to be a more effective leader

We asked Ena Inesi, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School, what good leadership is about today – and what she enjoys so much about teaching and working with some of the world’s top companies.

One of the subjects you teach is strengths-based leadership and positive psychology. How does that approach benefit leadership?

Power hierarchies tend to get in the way of good relationships. The traditional hierarchical approach is actually quite instinctive for humans. But, in the modern business age, that’s at odds with the drive for constant innovation and change and openness to agility. The hierarchical approach tends to focus on fear and conformity and distant relationships – that tends to be the natural response to power. What we need in this age, in order to get people to be open to change, is close relationships. We need trust and approaches that help reduce fear and circumspection in a hierarchical situation. Positive psychology and strengths-based leadership is a way to counteract our natural inclination to fall into these rigid hierarchies. The idea is not to do away with hierarchy; rather it is to approach it as ‘servant leadership’ or ‘humble leadership’.

It’s not about me micro-managing and saying, “You are all here to do my bidding and ensure my glorious success”; it’s rather about saying to people who are lower in the hierarchy, “You have the tools, you are the ones with answers to these problems, I don’t have them and I need you, so I am going to do everything I can in my power to facilitate your ability to succeed, so ultimately I am going to succeed.” It’s a very different model – it’s one that reduces that distance and increases trust between higher and lower-power individuals. It’s still hierarchical, but a very different relationship.

What aspects of teaching on the Exec Ed programmes do you find particularly rewarding?

On the custom programmes [bespoke courses designed for one company or organisation], I am constantly surprised and delighted by how ideas and content are applicable to very different types of organisation, but how they resonate in very different ways.

Of course, I have my preconceived notions – this is the theory and this is the application –and I open the discussion and ask, “How do these ideas seem to you?” and I am always surprised by what participants say. It’s incredibly productive, because we can then take the ideas, play with them and talk about how participants can apply them and make them work best for themselves. That way I can have my hand on the pulse of the company, understand the different challenges they’re facing, and customise the ideas to help them find solutions to their issues.

You are really just guiding the conversation – lighting the touchpaper – as participants start talking to each other, comparing experiences and asking questions – “We are in the same company, yet we have different experiences. How can we overcome the differences and solve our problems?” It’s actually very exciting.

How does your work impact on executives?

I think we can have the biggest impact on execs who are out there working and encountering problems not by providing more and more ideas, but rather by presenting a good idea and giving examples of implementation, then allowing them time and space to talk about it, to think about how they would apply it. As a junior professor, I used to think the more ideas I can present, the happier students are going to be. Actually, it’s quite the reverse. I need to provide good ideas and present them clearly, but ultimately it’s for the participants to take something home with them. They need to have time to think, “What does this mean for me?”

In class with their colleagues, pushing them to really think about it, talk about it and come up with plans when they go back to work is a more compelling experience than providing more theories – good ideas applied well is the most compelling teaching.

Increased power affects leadership. What are the lessons for corporate execs?

A key one is the importance of perspective-taking. The more powerful you are, the less likely you are to perspective-take. That becomes problematic when you are working in large organisations. When you are increasingly successful, you get more and more power, and that tends to reduce your propensity to get outside your own perspective and get into someone else’s.

Perspective-taking is such a powerful tool, but we don’t do it very much. In negotiation and bargaining, the paucity of perspective-taking is incredible. People tend to come in, just assume they know what the other side cares about and what they want, and you end up achieving sub-optimal outcomes as a result.

How do you combat that?

Typically, a lot of people who get advancement think, “I just got a whole lot of power. Why would I want to give it away? That sounds like a really bad idea.” But people respond well to personal goals, things that are personally rewarding for them. The concept of humble or servant leadership can sound a little hippy-dippy to them, but the way I approach it is to say, “Of course, the end game is for you to be successful, or the company to be successful, and for that to happen, you need to have new ideas, change and innovation, and you cannot, as one person, generate all of that – it’s impossible. You need a team of people to help you”. That tends to be a more compelling rationale than just, “You need to make your workers happier.” In effect, you are co-opting their goal in service of positive outcomes.

Does hierarchy still have a place in the era of servant leadership?

It’s important that executives don’t abandon traditional hierarchy. With some tasks in your team, you don’t want creativity – you just want people to fulfil their designated role. You need to add new tools, new ways of acting as a leader – but don’t throw away the old ones. Recognise they have their purpose, but now we have a new purpose and, in order to be able to achieve it, you need to be able to add something new, and that is a different way of enacting leadership, a different way of interacting. It’s a way of relating, of creating trust, and it’s not going to feel good at first – it’s going to feel uncomfortable for many – but ultimately, it’s for your benefit and the organisation’s benefit.

What advice do you have for leaders thinking about undertaking executive education for the first time?

One is to come with the mentality of how much can I learn and gain from the time I’m at LBS, rather than what don’t I like about it. You are going to get the most out of it if you say, “I’m not sure about this part, but let me understand it better”, and then you can discard it. Ask yourself, “How much can I gain from this?” The best way to gain is to be open to new ideas and to really engage with exercises and discussions. It’s only by doing that that you become an active participant, rather than a passive observer.

And push yourself to really think about how you are going to do things differently when you go back to work – not on a theoretical level, but on a micro level. Ask yourself, “What are the five specific actions that I can do better?” For example, making your New Year’s resolution “I’m going to get healthier” doesn’t do anything. Saying, “I’m going to leave my running shoes by the bed”, or “I’m going to go to sleep with my running clothes on and I’m going to at least run five minutes a day” – that micro-behavioural change ultimately leads to larger changes.

So, what I would say to participants in terms of getting the most out of it, is come with an open mind on what you can get out of these ideas, engage in the discussion and exercises, then think of specific behaviours you would do differently when you get back to work.

I also like to remind myself and others that authenticity creates good connections. It sounds like jargon, but when participants are able to be themselves and allow themselves to be vulnerable and ask questions, they are going to get more out of the experience. If you are authentic, you will learn more.

Ena Inesi, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School, has taught on many Executive Education programmes since 2007, including open enrolment and bespoke courses.