Strategy Talk with Christian Underwood and Professor Dr. Jürgen Weigand
Chaos and order, yin and yang... leadership and strategy! Have you ever noticed that almost everything in the world has an absolutely necessary opposite pole, two opposing forces that are in harmony with each other? What sounds like esoteric stuff here, also influences all of our daily business life. Without a doubt, no other terms are as in demand in the corporate context as leadership and strategy, but can one exist independently of the other, or are they as elementally interrelated as the ebb and flow of the tide?
Christian and Jürgen agree: Without leadership there is no strategy and without strategy there is no leadership. If you don't have a strategy, then the organization doesn't know where to go. If you as the top executive don't give direction (note unpopular opinion - besides all agility, and even if it's really nice that everyone loves each other, it's really necessary that there is still someone to point the way in the right direction), then it's like sailing around on the sea and not knowing which port to head for.
So you always have to know, how do we get to the destination and how do we manage to organize it successfully, even if we are facing hard times with a lot of swell and quite a few icebergs. This, and where exactly the connection between good leadership and strategy lies, you will learn in our new episode in the strategy conversation of Hope is not a strategy.
SHOWNOTES:
Christian Underwood
Prof. Jürgen Weigand and https://www.juergenweigand.com
Underwood GmbH
Hope is not a strategy
WHU
Father Anselm Grün
Pre-order the book Hope is not a strategy now here.
Detailed episode description:
Table of Contents:
- Connection between leadership and strategy
- The concepts of strategy and leadership
- What makes good leadership
- Shared Leadership
- The Leadership Credo
- You never stop learning
- The role of humility
- Advice: Get feedback
- Contact
- Shownotes
Today's episode is themed around the question: Does good leadership need strategy at all?
Connection between leadership and strategy
Jürgen Weigand has a clear credo on the subject: Without leadership there is no strategy and without strategy there is no leadership. Because without leadership, it is not clear in the organization what should be done. Everyone would do what they think is best and right. If the top executive does not give any direction, it is comparable to a boat that is sailing on the sea and does not know which harbor it wants to and should enter.In the other case, however, if there is leadership but no strategy, the question of the goal is less important. In this case, the focus is on the question of how to achieve precisely this goal. How can the organization be made successful and kept alive even in difficult times? This is precisely what the combination of leadership and strategy is needed for.
The terms leadership and strategy
The close connection between the terms can already be seen in the historical context. Both terms used to be united in one word. The strategos was the leader of the army, stratos was the army and strategia was the strategy. At that time, the question was how the army could be led to the set goals. In the current, business-relevant literature, the close connection between the topics of leadership and strategy can be clearly seen. A word search by the Harvard Business Review came to the conclusion that leadership strategy is anchored at the top of the search terms. However, at the same time, it was found that top executives have extremely little time to spend on strategy. Less than 10% of their total work time can be devoted to strategic thinking, which is a worrisome trend. If leadership and strategy are equal, but hardly any time is used to lead strategically, then deeper research should take place here. What are the circumstances and why is the development proceeding in this way?
What makes good leadership
Good leadership is when one is aware of the different dimensions of leadership. The best known dimension is, "I lead others and I am qualified to lead others." However, there are two other dimensions - the self-leadership dimension: "I lead myself. I believe I can only be a very good leader if I am able to lead myself very well." and the dimension of "letting others lead": being willing to let others lead you as well. Even as the CEO of a large company, one cannot freely decide what one wants to do. Formally, a supervisory board keeps an eye on activities anyway. Nevertheless, it is always advisable to listen to others who want to support you in leadership. The outside view can sometimes be very helpful to better classify oneself and one's own approaches. It can happen that you think you are leading well, but those you are leading see it quite differently. This view from the outside is very important in order to check how well one's own leadership is being evaluated. One variant, for example, is to let God lead you. But there may also be a partner at home who guides you to some extent, and it can be very helpful to take a closer look at this perspective as well. With partners who do not work in one's own company, things can be thought through and questioned differently. Everyone can benefit from doing this for themselves.
Shared Leadership
Currently - at least in the discussions in the companies - leadership is changing a lot. Often there are old-school leaders who have gone through an old, hard school in the last 30-50 years. There was top-down decision-making, the strategy was set by the board and then the decisions had to be implemented in the company. So command and obedience - the most classic of all ways. Currently, however, the trend in organizations is that there is almost no longer an individual who leads. It is often led in teams or teams lead themselves. In order to implement a functioning strategy in such a context, communication and a strategy discourse are key. Ultimately, however, decisions must be made by someone and, above all, responsibility for these decisions must be borne by a person.
But shared leadership and the involvement of team members from different hierarchies can be very useful. It's not about ranks, but about competencies and skills in certain decision-making situations. If someone else is the subject matter expert, it makes sense and is smart not to make the final decision alone, but to seek the advice of the subject matter expert. However, it is always important to make it clear that not only must decisions be made responsibly, but that responsibility for those very decisions must also be borne. With shared leadership, it can easily happen that if the plan does not work, a blame game takes place and the team is blamed, which should not happen. Therefore, every responsible leader should be aware of the responsibility and accept the consequences. In practice, we often see leaders who put the blame on their team. However, even in this case, a good leader must stand in front of his or her own team and take responsibility, because either the team was put together incorrectly by the leader or the leader was unable to motivate or communicate with the team properly. In any case, the manager must bear the main responsibility, which unfortunately often does not happen. Managers often got into their position by having a certain level of expertise, but that doesn't mean that this leadership expertise is there.
The Leadership Credo
The Leadership Credo is the degree in the MBA programs at WHU. To better explain its purpose, it is necessary to look back to the beginning of the program. There, participants go through the course "Personal Development, Personal Growth". In this, they are confronted with the fact that they are not supposed to think about others and not present knowledge from others, but generate knowledge about themselves. The focus is on the questions: Who am I? What do I stand for? What are actually my values in life? How do I want to use these values in my daily actions as an employee or later as a manager, so that what I do is really consistent? So only then am I authentic. What I say and do is what I really feel and what I want to do. The participants are then always very shocked at first that they are supposed to think about themselves and open up. But they learn relatively quickly that this can be very helpful. Of course, the whole thing also takes place in a protected setting. Everything that is said stays in a space and the participants are free to develop. There are various elements throughout the program where this is continued and at the end comes the Leadership Credo. There all participants* have to say what they believe in. After all, Credo stands for "I believe". One's own principles and principles are to be illuminated. The presentation is linked to a story of one's own. So they can't just tell someone else's story, they have to tell their own story, an element from their story, and link that to what they stand for - for example, a value or a leadership principle. They should show the group what they stand for, who they are and how they want to lead others and themselves authentically and also ethically, morally correctly in the future.
You never learn from experience
During the financial crisis a few years ago, we saw that not everyone always acted ethically or with integrity. This authentic leadership is also quite exhausting, because you also have to present yourself at that point. Currently, there are some articles about the Volkswagen CEO Mr. Diess, who, so to speak, pays attention to the strategic goals of the company in social media and therefore cannot be so authentic in person. This exciting point is encountered more often in companies, where managers often want much more, even name it, but then sometimes stand in their own way. Even when it is pointed out to them, they do not manage to take the step of really jumping over their own shadow and being themselves. The fallacy is that you can learn this once - for example in a coaching session - however this is a process, a never ending learning journey.Many leaders at some point think that they have internalized everything in their position. They know and can do everything. Then you experience situations where you discuss with them who could participate in such a program and then they suggest an employee, thinking that they have already learned and therefore do not need more. The most important thing is always to regularly question oneself, to realize that one remains a student forever and can always learn something new - especially about oneself. This insight, which some then get, is very helpful and they then also assert themselves and implement things. With the others, unfortunately, the word is rarely followed by action. To return briefly to the Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen, Mr. Diess, it must be said that he is naturally acting under restrictions. The strategic turnaround that he is supposed to bring about is being demanded massively by the Supervisory Board. He is under great pressure, regardless of what his personal values are. The pressure comes from above, so it's not always easy to go your own way. You also have to have courage when you then realize that you can't implement it. A general piece of advice can be derived from this: The greatest power we have is the power to walk away and say no - The power to walk away. This must also be followed through when one's authenticity is no longer congruent with what one finds in the company. Then consequences must be drawn and one should walk away. Of course, this also depends on the position you are in and your age. Basically, this must be kept in mind, if one is a person of integrity, both things must really harmonize.
The role of humility
One very important thing that can be taken away from the program and that has also been mentioned frequently in our podcast episodes is called humility. So the humility also to accept not to be perfect and omniscient.A fitting quote from Father Anselm Grün on the subject, which can certainly be found in reality, is: "Humility is the courage to look at your own shadow". The Father and frequent writer of the Benedictines in Lower Franconia, whom some surely know, always emphasizes the term humility in his seminars. So very good leaders can be recognized by the fact that they are humble, that they are grateful for what they have achieved and what good has been done to them. This is not primarily about what good they have done for others, but what they personally have to be grateful for. These leaders have a different outward demeanor than those who think they are all-knowing. Humble leaders are those who will not stop learning and want to go one step further when they notice a shadow or two about themselves. Shadows are something that cannot be seen alone, for that it needs others to point out one's own shadows. For example, with people who are overly friendly, you should be a bit careful, because they might have something negative or aggressive in their shadow. If you are not aware of your own shadows, it takes others to point them out to you. If you are willing beyond that, then you are also humble.Father Anselm Grün is linked in the show notes, for those who don't know him yet and haven't heard of Him - which is almost impossible. But there are still things that can be rediscovered and that's what the podcast is for. To participate in the seminars of Father Anselm Grün is difficult, the waiting list lasts a few years. However, there are some really highly recommended videos, books and audio books by him.
Advice: Get feedback
As a leader, the easiest way to regularly review your leadership is to get feedback. This should not only come from those you trust anyway, such as friends and family. But possibly also from critical minds that may come from within your own organization or even from outside. Feedback can hurt. Everyone wants to hear good things and then it can also happen that a critical remark is made, which should make you think. It should be questioned why that person thinks that about you. So get feedback and process the feedback productively. Afterwards, when you think you have implemented the feedback well, you should go back to this person, show him the changes and ask again for his point of view - have you really developed further or where is something still missing?
Contact
We also want to pass on the topic of feedback to you listeners - please give us your feedback. What do you want to hear? Do you like what we do? Do you have any topics you are particularly interested in? Then be so kind and write your feedback in the comments or ratings, gladly on all social media channels or also as an email to christian@underwood.de. We look forward to your honest feedback and will be happy to pick it up in one of the next episodes.
SHOWNOTES:
Prof. Jürgen Weigand and https://www.juergenweigand.com
Pre-order the book Hope is not a strategy now here.