Udo Lattek summed it up aptly when he said: “I want the best eleven and not the best eleven.”
When leadership teams (board of directors, management, executive committees in public authorities, etc.) are dominated by engineers, natural scientists and economists, an individual conviction can quickly develop that one’s own, analytical “skill” is a universally valid means of finding answers to given problems. You know from the outset which things are relevant for the decisions, that your own solution is the only correct one and that it is difficult to trust in the competences of your colleagues. Especially in stressful situations, these strengths can become exaggerated and give rise to dominance or (power) arrogance, which mutates into bossiness and a narrow-minded doggedness, which then consequently forms a basis for collective weakness.
How can a leadership team that is essentially made up of like-minded people hold each other accountable for success and focus primary loyalty on the leadership team and energy not just on their own area?
The abstract, common cause (vision, strategy) should be embedded in a discussion of values, which leads to a certain attitude and morale and positively influences the determinants: Feeling of manageability, feeling of meaningfulness and feeling of comprehensibility positively influenced. It allows an authenticity to emerge that does not allow the problem of “organisational silence” and unspoken “non-aggression pacts” to emerge.
An important core competence is being able to observe oneself. The art of mindful leadership, which promotes the realisation that the joint effort is worthwhile and that the whole team is responsible for the success of the company.
Self-reflection and interaction (questions) are the key to making the collective knowledge fully effective. In transformative processes, it is important to use emotional intelligence. It is the connection with an intuition that is able to quickly analyse situations and offer solutions based on experience and one’s own resources. It is a view from the respective standpoint of what is happening. It creates movement, gives positive orientation and increases the desired sphere of influence. Mindful leadership teams know that their own perception is not the only reality and can look at events from a wide variety of perspectives in order to be able to derive their own customised solution for the company/organisation from the competing options.
Various studies show that the CEO (or the head of the management team) has an important role to play. His personality and behaviour contribute decisively to the dynamics of the team. Consequently, one of his core tasks is not only to exemplify mindfulness, but to remind the team again and again of the basic pillars of successful teamwork.
In the best case, a communication pattern emerges that encourages the team to take a critical look at itself It is important to keep the agreed process going in order to be able to discuss possible decision dilemmas openly and constructively.
Holistic mentoring processes can support a shared “learning” of collaborative, mindful leadership. In the best case, this promotes self-reflection, active listening, and the identification of options for action in order to be able to take the next steps from the moment in a solution-oriented way. Networked thinking and increasing resilience has a positive impact on the productivity of business performance.
