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Resilient leadership: don't just empower - emancipate!
11 Sep 2013
I've had many managers in my time and these individuals have had very different managerial styles. It goes without saying that the people who've led me in a nurturing and uplifting manner have had more of an impact on my development and growth as a person - both in my career and personally - than those who merely shouted at me and insulted me when I did something wrong. These managers are not just managers; they are resilient leaders.
According to Bonang Mohale, chairman and country GM: commercial at Shell South Africa and the driving force behind resilient leadership - a resilient leader is one who:
- Helps the people they manage look at themselves more positively,
- Keeps things in perspective,
- Takes care of themselves,
- Makes connections,
- Avoids seeing crises as insurmountable problems,
- Accepts that change is a part of living,
- Moves towards their goals, and
- Looks for opportunities for self-discovery.
Resilient leadership replaces the traditional stereotype of a vertical work relationship between a manager and the person he manages, a leader-follower relationship, with a horizontal model of leader-leader. Resilient leaders choose to emancipate others rather than just empower them.
What are the benefits of resilient leadership?
Bonang says that resilient leadership gives you the ability to:
- Bounce back from adversity,
- Thrive on new challenges,
- Impact others positively, and
- Reach your full potential by exercising your talents in a meaningful way.
How to become a resilient leader<'b>
'Don't just empower - emancipate!'
Bonang's passion and enthusiasm about resilient leadership completely bowled me over. I found myself getting excited about this leadership style as he gave me a breakdown of the do's and don'ts of resilient leadership, which are listed in the table below:
| Don't do this! (Leader-follower model) | Do this! (Leader-leader model) |
| Take control | Give control |
| Give orders | Avoid giving orders |
| When you give orders, be confident and unambigious | When you do give orders, leave room for questions |
| Brief | Certify |
| Have meetings | Have conversations |
| Have a montor-mentee programme | Have a mentor-mentor programme |
| Focus on technology | Focus on people |
| Think short term | Think long term |
| Have high-repetition, low-quality training sessions | Have low-repetition, high-quality training sessions |
| Limit communications to terse and formal orders | Communicate in a rich, contextual and informal manner |
| Question everything | Be curious about everything |
| Make inefficient processes efficient | Eliminate entire processes that don't add value |
| Increase monitoring and inspection points | Reduce monitoring and inspection points |
| Protect information | Pass information |
Leadership Development Conference presented by Knowledge Resources - PowerPoint slideshow by Bonang Mohale
The three Cs: Guiding mechanisms of resilient leadership
Resilient leadership is controlled, competent and clear. Each mechanism has several guiding principles leaders should try to follow.
1. Control
- Act your way to new thinking, short and early conversations make efficient work,
- Use "I intend to ..." to turn passive followers into active leaders,
- Resist the urge to provide solutions,
- Eliminate top-down monitoring systems, and
- Think out loud (both superiors and subordinates).
2. Competence
- Take deliberate action, learn - everywhere and all the time,
- Don't brief - certify,
- Continuously and consistently repeat your message, and
- Specify goals, not methods.
3. Clarity
- Achieve excellence; don't just avoid errors, build trust and take care of your people,
- Use your legacy for inspiration,
- Use guiding principles for decision-making criteria,
- Use immediate recognition to reinforce desired behaviours,
- Begin with the end in mind, and
- Encourage a questioning attitude and avoid blind obedience.
