Lane4 Wave

The Lane4 journal – insights on peak performance

Issue 4, 2012 – Inside this journal 04 Blood, Sweat & Tears14 Skill, Script and Spin19 How to Thrive in the Emotion Epidemic 22 Derailment39 Got Potential?42 Saracens Personal Development Programme

Conflict in teams – is there an upside?page 10

The Wave. Issue 4 October 2012

Published by: Lane4 Management Group LtdSt Marks House Station RoadBourne End BuckinghamshireSL8 5QF United Kingdom t +44 (0)1628 533 733f +44 (0)1628 533 766 www.lane4performance.com twitter @Lane4Group Follow us on LinkedIn

Editorial team Editor Dr. Austin Swain Assistant Editor Kelly Walsh Editorial Assistant Emma Weeks

No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including copying and recording, without written permission from the copyright owner, application for which should be addressed to Lane4. Opinions expressed in The Wave journal are not necessarily those of Lane4. Whilst every effort has been made to verify statements of fact by contributors, no responsibility is accepted for errors or omissions by them. © 2012 Lane4

Important notice:

This publication and its content is not intended to imply any association between Lane4 and the IOC, BOA, BPA, LOCOG, or the London Games 2012

Lane4 Branding and The Wave Design and Art Direction by Neon Design & Brand Consultancy www.neon-creative.com

About Lane4 With competition getting tougher all the time, the margins that separate winning businesses from their less successful rivals can often be very small. At Lane4, we’re here to ensure you have the edge. As leading experts in human performance, we’ll work with you and your people to help individuals and teams reach their fullest potential, and to build sustainable competitive advantage across your organisation. What gives us the edge over others in our field? A unique combination of skills and experience, brought together by an inspirational group of people with an outstanding track record of achievement in the three interlocking areas of business, psychology, and high level sport. Winning performance doesn’t happen by chance. If you’d like to find out how Lane4 can help you raise your game, we’d love to hear from you.

Further information For further information about how Lane4 can help your organisation, please email [email protected] General For website, speaking opportunities and media enquiries, please email [email protected] For research enquiries, please email [email protected]

Lane4: the story behind our name On 19 September 1988, Britain’s Adrian Moorhouse lined up for the final of the 100 metres breaststroke at the Seoul Olympic Games. Having qualified in the fastest time, he was in lane 4, giving him a small but potentially crucial advantage over his competitors. He came home with the Gold medal. And also – though he didn’t realise it at the time – with the perfect name for the business he would co-found just a few years later, with leading performance psychologist Professor Graham Jones and business executive Adrian Hutchinson…

CONTENTS REGULARS 02 News 07 In Transition 17 Interview:

Alan Murchison 25 Practitioner Perspective 34 Performance Matters 48 Hot Topics 50 Our Contributors 52 4U: Recommendations FEATURES & ARTICLES 04 Blood, Sweat & Tears 10 Conflict in Teams

– Is there an upside? 14 Leadership Communication –

Skill, script and spin 19 How toThrive in the

Emotion Epidemic 22 Derailment: An alternate

lens for understanding leadership talent

26 All Change – Learning from transitions in sport

28 A Mindful Approach to Performance Enhancement

31 Winning Leadership: High performance in sport and business

36 Developing Resilience – Lessons learned from Olympic champions

39 Got Potential? 42 Saracens Personal

Development Programme 46 Making Organistions

More Social

Welcome to The Wave

The 2012 Games were a resounding success in every way. Even the harshest critics succumbed to the inspiration of our greatest athletes and the nation embraced sport like never before. But what now? Sport in the UK is

facing a new challenge; will the Games be seen as the pinnacle of achievement or a catalyst for greater things? For me, this is what the current edition of The Wave is about; in a nutshell ‘Better Never Stops’. Andy Hunt, Chief Executive of the BOA, appears to be living the team’s motto. He recently went on record, telling The Telegraph that Team GB can do even better in Rio, even without the home advantage. To do this would mean bucking the trend of declining performance for host nations following a Home Games. This is a great model for business, where it’s not about hitting goals and taking the foot off the pedal, but powering through and pushing to achieve even greater things in the future. So how do we do this? We can start by recognising that performance isn’t just about outcomes; Gold medals don’t happen by chance. Behind a compelling and motivating outcome there needs to be a meticulous focus on process; the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure high performance when it counts. We touch on some of these processes throughout this edition, looking at talent development (Derailment, Saracens Personal Development Programme and Got Potential?), managing conflict in teams (Conflict in Teams – is there an upside?), bouncing back from set-backs (Triumph through Blood, Sweat and Tears) and supporting transitions (All Change). We also look at what ‘Better Never Stops’ could mean in your organisation. Finally, I believe ‘Better Never Stops’ is also a mindset. It requires ambition, courage and optimism backed up with the discipline to make stretching dreams become reality. Lord Coe epitomised this back in 2005, providing a more enticing vision for the Games than the competition. And then he delivered.

Austin Swain Research and Product Director, Lane4

The Wave, Lane4 Issue 4 – October 2012 01

On the following pages we’ve rounded up the best of Lane4’s news and events from the past six months, as featured in our monthly e-newsletter, ‘Engage’. To be kept up to date every month, sign up to Engage via our website.www.lane4performance.com/register

If you do not have a QR reader you can still access all of our news stories via our website.

Follow Lane4 on LinkedIn and Twitter. Keep up to date with Lane4’s latest news, events, research and thoughts by following us on LinkedIn and Twitter! LinkedIn – Lane4 Twitter - @Lane4Group Let us know what you think, what you want to hear more of, and what works well for you.

The Wave, Lane4 Issue 4 – October 201202

BOA event: Translating Olympic Excellence to your business team

As London was getting set to host the world’s greatest sporting

spectacle, Team GB was preparing to perform on the biggest stage of all. The one day ‘Inside Track on Team GB’ was a unique opportunity for senior executives and their business teams to hear seminars from (and spend a day in the company of) Sir Clive Woodward, Deputy Chef de Mission Team GB. The day was facilitated by Adrian Moorhouse, at Team GB House, overlooking the Olympic Park on 19th June 2012.

In particular, delegates: • Exploredtheindividualand

collective resilience required to recover from setbacks, thrive under pressure and deliver when it counted the most

• Exploredthemind-setofhighperforming individuals and what Olympic messages could mean for business

• Understoodthecomponents of the Creating Champions model – teachability, thinking correctly under pressure and attitude to win

• Identifiedpracticaltools for developing champion

behaviours and leading teams more effectively Read the full case study of this event here:

Lane4 Motivation Barometer: Morale of British workers hit by economic crisis

Lane4’s recent Motivation Barometer revealed the

detrimental impact the current economic climate is having on the British workforce with more than half (52%) saying they had not had a pay rise for at least two years and 57% admitting they have no clear path for career progression. In the midst of the government’s austerity measures, low consumer spending, the Eurozone crisis and rising unemployment, the study of 1,500 UK employees showed only half of British workers (52%) actually feel motivated. To add to this, a third of employees (33%) feel so down about work that they’re looking for a new job and a further 21% say whilst they’re not actively ‘looking’ they would consider new job opportunities if they came alon Read the full press release here:


Lane4’s Greg Searle wins bronze at The Games

Lane4’s Greg Searle and the GB men’s eight took bronze at the

London 2012 Olympics Games. The British crew led world champions Germany in the Olympic finalbeforebeingovertakeninthelast 500m. The Germans’ imposed theirauthorityinthefinalthirdofthe race to pull well clear, before Canada narrowly overtook GB to pip them to the silver medal. Here at Lane4 we are all proud of Greg’s steely determination and his incredible motivation and talent that led him to being picked to represent our country. He did a brilliant job, as did the rest of the eight, and we send him our enormous congratulations on winning bronze!

LATEST LANE4 WHITE PAPERS

How effective are your leaders? Analysis of 360 degree feedback data

This report summarises key themes from an analysis of

1,992 360-degree feedback ratings of 194 leaders, across twelve different organisations from a range of sectors. These 360-degree questionnaires were administered to leaders as part of leadership programmes that they were involved in. Download the white paper here:

Talent Tactics: How can you plug the talent gap?

The ground has shifted in talent management over

recent years. Faced with the reality of fewer upward promotions, limited pay rises and restricted bonuses, many employers feel asiftheyarefightingawarwith no ammunition. Lane4 hosted a round-table discussion for Business Leaders, Talent Managers and HR Professionals from seven largefirmsandtwoBritishsportinginstitutions, to explore current talent management challenges, share best practice, and discuss

the future of talent management. Download the white paper here:

Lane4 Blogs

Re-live the highs and lows of this summer’s Home Games in the ‘Inside Track’ – translating the sporting action into relevant business lessons.

Commentate is our new blog which shares our insights into the exciting world of communication. We talk about our experiences and observations of internal comms, offering you our views on the latest news, trends and best practice.


Triumph through Blood, Sweat and TearsARTICLE BY Christian Thing

April 12th 2009 – Tom Williams is instructed to fake an injury during the Heineken Cup Quarter

Final by biting on a blood capsule. The act enables Harlequins to make a ‘blood substitution’ which is the only way to get their kicker back on thefieldtotryandwinthematch. The scandal that became known as ‘Bloodgate’ brought the game of rugby from the back pages to the front. Bloodgate made Tom a household name throughout the country and beyond. The ramificationswereconsiderable;jobswere lost, bans were put in place, and laws were changed. On a personal note Tom had the toughest two years of his life. May 26th 2012 – Tom Williams lifts the Aviva Premiership Trophy having scored a try in Harlequins victory over Leicester Tigers at Twickenham. So the big question is how did Tom manage to turn it around from the lowest low to playing a major roleinsecuringthefirstPremiershipTrophy in the club’s history?

Firstly, we will briefly look back at the events that immediately followed the scandal. “I was naive as to my culpability; the club assured me that I would not be the main focus of attention”. As the days passed Tom quickly realised that he was to be the only focus of attention. Tom received a 12 month ban whilst others central to the scandal were not issued with any form of punishment other than afinefortheclub. “During and after the initial ruling I was physically ill with stress and lost two stone, it was the worst period of my life. I remember telling my girlfriend Alex that I had no fightleftinmeandIseriouslycontemplated walking away from rugby.” It was Alex who said something that really stuck in Tom’s mind “You canfinishonthis,orfinishonyour

own terms and be remembered for something other than Tom Williams – Bloodgate”. Tom recognised this as a turning point in his evaluation of the event. Whilst Tom acknowledged his role in the incident and regretted his actions, following independent legal counsel, he was made more conscious of the fact that he had been made a scapegoat. Tom madethedifficultdecisionto come clean about the whole thing, meaning he would have to implicate others. “This was the most stressful time of all for me, even though I was telling the truth. That was the biggest dilemma as I felt a responsibility to the other people involved, but ultimately it was my name and my life.” As a result of the new evidence, which clearly showed that Tom was not acting alone, Tom’s ban was reduced to four months whilst the head coach left the club and was

banned from rugby for three years, and the club Physio and Doctor also received lengthy bans. Tom recognised that the impact of coming clean was as long lasting as the event itself. However, he was determined to put the whole thing behind him and concentrate on his rugby when he returned after his ban.Yetthisprovedmoredifficultthanfirstthought.

“When I came back from my ban I was inconsistent at best, I cared much more about what people thought of me and was veryawareofmyraisedprofile.As a result I would no longer back myself but give the ball to someone else and support them – I did this for the best part of two years”. During this period Alex referred to watching a ‘semi-skimmed’ Tom. “Iwaspetrifiedofmakingamistake,petrifiedofpublicscrutiny. I just wanted a low profileandnottoattractanyattention.Myconfidence had gone”.

The coaches and managers quickly picked up on this and started to ask him where his ‘x-factor’ was. This was a frustrating time for Tom as he was performing consistently well in training, being one of the top trainers in the squad, week in week out, but did not convert this form onto the pitch. “I only really started coming good last season – nearly three years after Bloodgate. It was a case of something clicking in my head. I just said to myself you can do this in training so just go and do it on the pitch. It was a slow buildofconfidencetowardsbacking myself again, trusting in my ability.” Tom acknowledges that there were a number of contributing factors to this. Firstly, it was clear from talking to coaches in his mid-year appraisal that his life at Harlequins would be drawing to an end unless something changed. “This was a turning point as I made up my mind that this news would not have a negative impact on the way I played. I saw it that I had no choice but to perform.” This news of job insecurity was coupled with the fact that he was one month away from becoming afatherforthefirsttime. Tom’s performances started gettingbetterashisconfidence in his ability returned.


“I started playing for the future, as opposed to thinking aboutthepast.Myconfidencestarted to build and build – I definitelystartedtocarelessabout what people were saying, or what I imagined they were saying. All I really wanted to do was to perform to the best of my ability and go home and see my son.” “Ire-builtmyconfidencewitha succession of small things and importantly concentrating on doing the basics really well.Thisstartedonmyfirstopportunitybackinthefirstteam since returning from injury and the appraisal.”

Harlequins were playing away at European giants Toulouse and Tom came off the bench with 20 minutes to go, with Quins down on the scoreboard.Tom’sfirstactwastochase the kick off, tackle the French International winger Vincent Clerc and in the same movement turn the ball over. This was followed by several other telling contributions. Harlequins went on to win and after the game the Director of Rugby told Tom that they would not have won without his impact. “It was a combination of luck, being in the right place at the right time, but also the acknowledgment of my own skill and ability.” Tom’sconfidenceandsubsequentperformances grew from that game

andculminatedinscoringthefirsttryinthePremiershipfinal. “It’s funny in the week leading uptothefinal,Bloodgatedidnot enter my mind once. I was just really looking forward to playing, and playing well. I had the best game I’ve ever had for Quins. I was playing witharealconfidenceandevery decision that I made was the correct one.” Whenquizzedaroundthespecificsthat allowed him to re-gain this confidenceTomacknowledgedthat it was not just one point but a number of contributing factors.

1) SLOW BUILDING OF CONFIDENCE – “The Toulouse game was definitelyacatalystinre-buildingmyconfidence.” Tip – Recognise, record and most importantly learn from successtobuildconfidence

2) GOING BACK TO BASICS –“I really looked at my game and concentrated on doing the simple things really well which helpedre-buildmyconfidencein my ability.” Tip – Have a more regular focus on process goals, performance and outcome goals will take care of themselves

3) LIFE OUTSIDE OF RUGBY – “Freddie(Tom’sson)definitelygave me perspective which allowed me to play with a more care free attitude.”

Tip – It is key to have a number of identities i.e. not to see yourself solely as a rugby player or team leader

4) FIGHTING FOR MY CAREER – “This made me start playing for the future as opposed to thinking about the past.” Tip – As hard as it can be it is important to recognise what is and what isn’t in our control and then focus on the controllables.”

Over three years ago Tom was asked to do something for the greater good of the team which he did without thought and recognises that this was wrong. So what has changed? Today Tom reflects back on the past few years and acknowledges that, “I’m a better tackler than I ever was, I’m a better kicker, a better passer off both hands and I’ve got a better rugby brain than ever. I know I have all those skills and I know that if I put them all together I am the best winger at this club and I truly believe that – that beliefiswhatIhadtofindagain after Bloodgate.” Sonowwhenfacedwithadifficultdecision Tom takes a moment and asks himself ‘Is this the right thing to do? Would I be proud of the decision I make going forward?’, and then acts on this, and this alone.


Lee Fisher is a true performer in every sense of the word. His career to-date includes dancing as a soloist for

17 years at the Birmingham Royal Ballet, consulting with business on leadership and high performance and co-founding the Freefall Dance Company, a company for young dancers with severe learning disabilities. In this article he takes us through his journey and what he has learnt about performance on the way.

FINDING A PASSION

Ibelievethatfindingsomethingyoulove doing is a real gift and I was fortunate to do this early on.

I remember as a young child watching Gene Kelly dance in ‘Singing in the rain’ and just thinking ‘this guy is amazing’. Maybe not the average reaction of a kid growing up in Essex during the mid 70s, but something about the way he moved made me want to dance. So I persuaded my parents to send me to a local dance school. My teacher there, a lovely octogenarian lady, always talked about the greats of British ballet and, although I started out wanting to be a tap dancer, she convinced me that ballet was worth trying. From the beginning I fell in love with it, there was something about the attention to detail and the desired effortlessness but extreme physicality that drew me in. As I improved, I began to appreciate the motivational impact that mastery can have. The precision was exciting for me. Every day, as adanceryouarefightingforthatextra inch...get that leg higher, jump higher, do that extra turn. It was a real challenge and one that I enjoyed. By the time I’d reached 10 years old I knewIwantedtobeinthisfieldsoI joined the Arts Education School in Barbican. This was the beginning of a wonderful education. Following my father’s relocation to Chester I

decided I wanted to take my training further and had my sights set on the best: The Royal Ballet School.

THE HARD WORK BEGINS

I was 13 when I applied to the Royal Ballet School and my parents were really supportive despite not wanting me to leave home at such a young age. The auditions were extremely rigorous as the competition was so high. We even had hand x-rays so our height could be predicted by the distance between our joints. The hospital concluded I was unlikely to be successful based on this but I somehow made it though. It was hard to begin with. Leaving my comfortable family home for the basic conditions of White Lodge and being told what to do 24 hours a day, but I began to thrive on theroutine.Irememberonespecificturning point where a particularly fierceteachershoutedmedownandI felt tears well-up in my eyes. I was way behind technically as I’d started later than the other boys in my year. He told me to see him at the end of class and I thought it was over for me. Each year you need to meet strict criteria or you are selected out of the system; it’s tough but you knew that

In transition… We explore how members of Lane4 transfer their skills, learnings and approaches into the principles of high performance business practices. FEATURING Lee Fisher


when you got there. However, the teacher surprised me. He said that he had been hard on me because he thought I could do something really special. Since that moment, I’ve really understood the power of ‘belief in potential’. He showed faith in me and that helped me to believe that I could do great things. I went from strength to strength and was really buoyed by the environment. It was as though high performance was in the very fabric of the building. You were surrounded by photos of the great

British ballet dancers and as you walked through the door of the White Lodge there was a big bronze of Margot Fontain wearing a tutu with her arms stretched out. The tipsofherfingerswereallpolishedgold where little girls had brushed their hand past for luck over many years. This kind of environment really makes you want to give everything you can to your performance.

PREPARING TO PERFORM

I successfully passed through the years and reached the upper school.This is where, at age 16-19, you are prepared for moving into the industry. You are put into separate groups based on performance and directors start to know who you are.

You are exposed to potentialemployers through shows and assessments. If you are good enough you get offered apprenticeships where you perform as an extra for companies on tour. This is where it starts to become real. I still remember getting a phone call on a Friday from the school Principal with an offer to go to Hong Kong by the following Monday. I was flown out, put

into a costume three times too big, given a false beard and shoved out in to the arena. It was a massive thrill and I remember thinking ‘this is why I’ve been doing this’. From then on I really started to learn about the artistry of ballet – not just about the technique. It is this side of ballet that really continues to play a huge role in the work I do now, both in community projects and with leaders. The importance of presence, impact and storytelling transcend the arts.

TAKING THE STAGE

I feel lucky to have gone on to an amazing career in ballet; performing at The Royal Opera House and onBroadway; travelling to the Far East and New Zealand – truly worldwide. Audiences were always fascinating in their response, some reserved but respectful, others not! We were

treated like the Beatles in Japan. I had the opportunity to work with somegreat partners. I was able to dance some of the solo roles that inspiredme early on and create lovely new work that is still performed around the world. But there were also difficulttimes,forexamplecopingwith chronic injuries Then there were the nerves. People think that to be able to

perform in front of thousands of people you must be completely in control, not even noticing the pressure, but this isn’t true. Once my role had progressed to more than walk-ons I began to get quite anxious so I worked hard to prepare as well as I could. I’d know my routines inside out and have really strict pre-performance routines. For example, I’dclenchmyfistwhenIneededa surge of adrenalin. I believe that changing your physical presence can change how you feel and it really worked for me. I think I coped well through these challenges because I was goodat gaining perspective, knowing what I could affect and what I couldn’t, but also through the great support that was available to me. I worked in well resourced companies with a great


Image 1-6 Photography: courtesy of The Birmingham Royal BalletImage 7 Photography: courtesy of Usborne Publishing Image 9 Photography: courtesy of Alex Griffiths

medical centre, physiotherapists and facilities. Even more importantly, I had amazing social support. We’d train, rehearse and perform together so there was a real sense of belonging which can help get you through anything.

NO LONGER THE SOLOIST

DuringthelastfiveyearsofmycareerI began to split my time between working with groups, particularly in dance and disability settings, and performing. I also became interested in the psychology behind performance and dance, studying for a Masters in Applied Dance. This was a massive catalyst for me and introduced me to the wider world of dance and how it can influence other people’s lives. My career, up to this point, had been all about me. I began to get a new sense of belonging from working with these groups. I knew what had worked for me when being coached and wanted to bring this to group work. Dance and education in the community is not really about technique and this is one of the thingsI really like; I don’t enjoy teaching ballet classes, I enjoy enabling people to dance. At 35 I was ready to move on from my dancing career but wanted to

do so on my own terms. Something that had been such a big part of my life and was integral to my identity deserved to be ended properly. My favourite role came back into the repertoire, the one that I felt I had

performed best in my career and the one I loved the most. So I decided it would be my last. My show was perfect, I couldn’t have written the script better. It was at my home theatre in Birmingham, performing my favourite role in front of my friends and family. I’d said goodbye on my terms and was ready to embrace my other roles.

FROM LEADING MAN TO LEADERSHIP

Following my retirement I successfully applied for the Clore Leadership programme. They select 25 high potentials from the culture sector and provide a bursary to live on for a year whilst providing mentoring, coaching and secondments. It was through one of these training programmes that I was introduced to Lane4 and started to develop my ideas about what dance can bring to business. Stage craft is about owning the impact you have when you walk into a room and leaders need to do the

same thing. This isn’t about acting butauthenticallyfindingitwithinyou.Ibegantofindmanyotherparallels: performing under pressure, connecting with an audience, teamwork, coaching and performance environments to name but a few. I continue to apply these to

workplace settings providing a different take on performance.

AND FINALLY…

I feel lucky that I get to work in such different environments but I think the thread that runs through them is creating the space for people to express themselves. The biggest thing I’ve had to learn throughout these transitions is how to let go of control. For example, when I’m directing a performance I have to remember that I can’t get on the stage; I can’t do it for them but I have to encourage them to take as much responsibility as possible. From my early experiences I realise the power of someone putting their hand on your shoulder and saying ‘I know you can do this, you’re going to be great’… now it’s a joy to be able to do this for others.



Conflict in teams – is there an upside?ARTICLE BY Eleanor Hanley & Vicky Wells

“Conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional.” – Max Lucade1 As far back

asAncientGreece,fightingwasbanned during the Olympics as it was seen as disrespectful to the Gods. Fast forward a millennium or two andthisbanonfightingseemstobe no longer with us considering instancesofinfightingbetweenathletes. A recent example is that of a disagreement between Lizzie Armitstead and Nicole Cooke, both members of the GB women’s cycling team. In an interview with Cycling Weekly, Armitstead stated that Cooke “didn’t do her job properly” (as a pacemaker) which contributed to the lack of medals for the team in Copenhagen. Armitstead went on to say that she had “never seen her (Cooke) ride for a team mate” and that she was glad she had voiced this as it had been an “unspoken situation for too long.”2 In an interview in January 2012 Armitstead stated, “I’m happy I said it because it has brought the issue out and I think we’ll be a better team for

it.”3 But was involving the press the best way to deal with the issue? Clumsy tackling of conflict in teams also appears to be an issue in business. In 2008, the CIPD suggested that the estimated cost to British business due to ineffective conflict management is £24 billion a year4 in lost working days. Team working in business demands the cooperation of individuals who have their own personal agendas. This may give rise to conflict which must be managed to ensure that performance does not suffer. And what of Armitstead’s comment that the team are better for it? Is there a potential upside of conflict? This article will explore the positive side of conflict and some considerations for harnessing it within your workplace.

SO WHAT ExACTLY IS CONFLICT?

Conflict happens when a person perceives that their opinions, values or beliefs in relation to some issue differ from those of someone else.5 However, an alternative perspective on conflict is that it’s ‘something

better trying to happen’. This means that people are not satisfiedwiththingsastheyare, and there is an opportunity for things to be improved. Armitstead’s view,outlinedabove,fitsthisway of thinking. Research in performance psychology suggests that certain types of conflict, when timed correctly and in the right amount can actually improve performance.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CONFLICT?

There are three types of conflict that we should consider in relation to teams; task6, relationship7 and process8 (see sidebar). Imagine your weekly team meeting - an example of task conflict may be that you, as a team, disagree on the best route to market for a product. Relationship conflict might occur if two of your team members seem to clash in terms of personality, or rub each other up the wrong way, whereas process conflict could occur when there is disagreement on who should work on a new project.

1 http://thinkexist.com/quotation/conflict_is_inevitable-but_combat_is_optional/14239.html2 http://www.womensviewsonnews.org/2011/11/infighting-threatens-olympic-hopes-of-great-britain-womens-cycling-team/3 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-2084763/Lizzie-Armitstead-Team-stronger-Nicole-Cooke-row.html4 http://www.cipd.co.uk/pressoffice/_articles/061008Lackoftraininginworkplaceconflict.htm5 De Dreu, C.K.W., Harinck, F. & Van Vianen, A.E.M. (2001). Conflict and performance in groups and organizations. In C. L. Cooper & I. T. Robertson (Eds.), International review of industrial and organizational psychology (Vol. 14, pp. 376 – 405). Chichester, UK: Wiley6 De Dreu, C.K.W. & West, M.A. (2001). Minority Dissent and Team Innovation: The Importance of Participation in Decision Making. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(6), 1191- 1201.7 Janis, I. L. (1972). Victims of Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.8 Jehn, K.A. & Mannix, E.A. (2001). The Dynamic Nature of Conflict: A Longitudinal Study of Intragroup Conflict and Group Performance. The Academy of Management Journal, 44(2), 238-251.

THE BENEFIT OF TASK & PROCESS CONFLICT

Research suggests that task conflict stimulates creativity and aids decision-making.9 Imagine a complete absence of conflict – where a team agrees on everything? What type of decision making does that result in? This phenomenon of groupthink, occurring when highly cohesive groups fail to question information properly because of the importance that they placeonconsensus,wasidentifiedas far back as the 1970’s.10 How many times have you sat in a team meeting or group project and not voiced a dissenting opinion as you didn’t want to ‘rock the boat’. What would have happened if Armitstead had not commented on Cooke – would this have negatively impacted on Team GB’s ability to perform at the Olympics?

GETTING THE TIMING RIGHT

It is important to consider

• Thestageofataskagroupisat• Theteam’sstageofdevelopment

Taskconflictcanbebeneficialatthe start and midpoint of a project but not close to the deadline where there simply isn’t time to deal with it effectively. Process conflict, or disagreement on who does what, canbebeneficialintheformationof a group as it helps with effective delegation of roles.11 It also helps people to clarify what the role boundaries are.

HOW MUCH CONFLICT IS A GOOD THING?

While high levels of conflict decrease performance, low levels of conflict suggest that the group do not care, or are complacent about the task. If too little and too much are detrimental then moderate amounts appear to be just right for improving performance.12 Moderate levels of conflict allow groups to consider new perspectives and decide which solution to implement.

BUT WHAT IF DIFFERENCES OF OPINION ON A TASK BECOME MORE PERSONAL?

Researchers have found a link

between task and relationship conflict, suggesting both tend to happen together.13 However, these researchers highlight the importance of trust being present in a team which provides a buffer against things becoming more personal. Other conditions have been identifiedwhichmakeit more likely that conflict will escalate and become detrimental to a group. These include competition for resources, lack of clarity on who is responsible for what, and communication barriers.14

TASK CONFLICT Differences between individuals in relation to a task without it becoming personal

RELATIONSHIP CONFLICT Differences in personal taste, values and the style in which people interact with each other.

PROCESS CONFLICT Differences in how to carry out a task e.g. resourcing or delegation

“ Conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional.” – Max Lucade

9 Jehn, K.A. (1995). A Multi-method Examination of the Benefits and Detriments of Intragroup Conflict. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40(2), 256-282.10 De Dreu, C.K.W. & Weingart, L.R. (2003). Task Versus Relationship Conflict, Team Performance, and Team Member Satisfaction: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(4), 741-749.11 Reid, C., Stewart, E. & Thorne, G. (2004). Multidisciplinary sport science teams in elite sport: Comprehensive servicing or conflict and confusion. The Sport Psychologist, 18, 204-217.12 De Dreu, C.K.W. & Beersma, B. (2005). Conflict in organizations: Beyond effectiveness and performance. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 14(2), 105-117.13 De Dreu, C.K.W. & Van Vianen, A.E.M. (2001). Managing Relationship Conflict and the Effectiveness of Organizational Teams. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 22(3), 309-328.14 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/cycling/8908040/London-2012-Olympics-Dave-Brailsford-to-resolve-Lizzie-Armitstead-Nicole-Cooke-spat-behind-closed-doors.html15 Jehn, K.A. (1995). A Mult-imethod Examination of the Benefits and Detriments of Intra-group Conflict. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40(2), 256-282.16 De Dreu, C.K.W. & West, M.A. (2001). Minority Dissent and Team Innovation: The Importance of Participation in Decision Making. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(6), (p.1192)



RELATIONSHIP CONFLICT

Relationship conflict is thought to be detrimental as it distracts us, creating negative emotions which take up our attention, leaving us with less attention to focus on the task in hand.15 Relationship conflict is also suggested to decrease pro-social behaviour in a group meaning individuals are less likely to go the extra mile for each other.16 Relationship conflict is detrimental to performance so it is important that this type of conflict be managed effectively.

SO HOW CAN YOU HARNESS THE POWER OF DIFFERENCE IN YOUR TEAM?

1. IDENTIFY WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON USING DATA

Facilitate open conversation on how people are experiencing team interactions through team reflection. In commenting on the Armitstead-Cooke conflict; Dave Brailsford (GB Cycling Coach) stated; It’s up to us to manage the situation, which we will, but behind closed doors. We are a straight-talking group and everything that needs saying has been said in the back of the team bus or the proper debrief.17 While this is the ideal situation, what if the group are reticent to share their opinions? Anonymous team member surveying and team observation from an external person can help build a picture of what’s really going on. Considering personality preferences or preferred team roles may also have a bearing on sources of conflict.

2. ESTABLISH CONDITIONS OF TRUST AND OPENNESS

There needs to be conditions in place which promote receptiveness to voicing opposing views.18 Researchershaveidentifiedthe need for the team to be willing to take on, critically evaluate and apply new information to a task so that differences in opinion can benefitperformance.19 This is best done by contracting at the start of projects or when teams form. It is common for time to be spent clarifying purpose and processes but much rarer to spend time making explicit how people will work together; how they are likely to react under pressure and what support they want when that happens. Discussing this in advance creates positive expectations and lays the foundations for building trust and clear communication. Contracting also creates an atmosphere of trust where people feel they can be open without censure even if they are wrong. They may expect challenge butfeelconfidenttheywillalwaysberespected. It is important leaders are patient, good at listening and model respect at all times to develop this in a team.

3. BE CLEAR ON ROLES AND ExPECTATIONS

This often gets set up at the beginning of a task but needs to be regularly revisited as boundaries, and people’s perceptions of them, often change. This ‘team charter’ needs to include who is responsible for what and expectations on behaviour.

4. COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY

The nature of team interaction also has a bearing on the impact of conflict.20 For example, for teams that consist of members who work virtually, conflict is more likely as the nature of their interactions makes effective communication more challenging. When there is conflict it can be very helpful to get underneath the issues by breaking things down into a person’s intention with their communication and the impact it had on the recipient.

17 Hinds, P.J. & Bailey, D.E.(2003). Out of Sight, Out of Sync: Understanding Conflict in Distributed Teams. Organization Science, 14(6), 615-632.18 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/cycling/8908040/London-2012-Olympics-Dave-Brailsford-to-resolve-Lizzie-Armitstead-Nicole-Cooke-spat-behind-closed-doors.html19 De Dreu, C.K.W. & West, M.A. (2001). Minority Dissent and Team Innovation: The Importance of Participation in Decision Making. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(6), (p.1192)20 Hinds, P.J. & Bailey, D.E.(2003). Out of Sight, Out of Sync: Understanding Conflict in Distributed Teams. Organization Science, 14(6), 615-632.

The two are often assumed to be the same but frequently, where conflict arises, there is a big gap between them. It’s important to bear in mind that we tend to judge others by their actions and ourselves by our intentions.

5. ALIGN AGENDAS

Going back to our original sporting example; what may be at the root of thisissueisthedifficultyinleadingteams of people with individual agendas. What’s more important? A medal for yourself, or the overall team standing?

It may depend on what the team is incentivised to do. What is rewarded by your organisation? In business, a key aspect of leading teams is to ensure that team members are aligned behind a vision which contributes to that of the organisation. This draws attention to the role of the team leader. As Dave Brailsford comments; “What is clear is that on race day you need clarity of thought, understanding of the team’s tactics and acceptance by everybody concerned. Nothing less will be good enough.”21

Teams need to have a shared understanding and willingness to commit to what the team wants to achieve. This is about focusing on both team and individual goals rather than sacrificingonefortheother.

SO WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE US?

While conflict often has a negative impact on performance, in certain circumstances it can result in improved performance. This happens through the generation of more creative ideas and preventing consensus in a group from being reached too quickly. In order to facilitate this, teams need to understand what is going on that may be unsaid, have conditions in place which support open discussion, trust each other, be clear about who is responsible for what, communicate effectively and develop individual agendas that are aligned to those of the team. In this way the power of difference can be harnessed to improve performance.

Tips for harnessing The power of difference

1. Identify what’s going on using data

2. Establish conditions of trust and openess

3. Be clear on roles and expectations

4. Communicate effectively

5. Align agendas


21 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/cycling/8908040/London-2012-Olympics-Dave-Brailsford-to-resolve-Lizzie-Armitstead-Nicole-Cooke-spat-behind-closed-doors.html

Skill

Leadership Communication Skill, Script and Spin

ARTICLE BY Natalie Benjamin


Leaders’ communication skills are under the spotlight in an unprecedented fashion. In a world of radical transparency,

anything less than complete honesty just won’t cut it anymore. We know when we’re being spun and we don’t like it. But,findingameanstopersuadeothers that your plans are worthwhile is the cut and thrust of leadership. So,withafinelinebetweenskilledrhetoric and ridiculed spin, often associated with scripting, what are the lessons for leaders?

SKILL: THE BASICS OF GOOD COMMUNICATION

There’s no such thing as a great leader who communicates poorly and the specificskillsrequiredbyleadersfallwithin the simple acronym M.A.D. (Message, Audience, Delivery). The key message is the one big idea; it’s the reason you’re communicating and shouldn’t be confused with content (the story or words you may use to get a message across). I like to keep communication as simple as possible so I often use email as a metaphor; if you only had your subject box and fivewordstogetpeopletoact,whatwould you write? That’s your key message. Strong communicators stay

true to their key message or one big idea. They present it differently for different people (Audience) but the message remains free from ambiguity and its intent is clear. When it comes to Delivery, don’t be fooled by technological advances and the unequivocal status of social media. I simply don’t believe that employees go home thankful that they read a brilliant intranet article or saw a good vodcast from the CEO. As undeniably useful as technology is when it comes to internal communications, people will always value an honest conversation with their boss more. Tools can support this conversation but not replace it. Exceptional leaders don’t just shine in formal and structured communication environments (conferences, speeches, town hall meetings), they have proper conversations with people when they see them and when those people need it. They don’t just lurk by the water cooler because it’s ‘authentic’ to talk to the ‘troops’. They do it because they care and they want to hear what people have got to say about where they work and what it feels like to be there. They also know what being a role model is and know that everything they do, or in fact don’t do,

can communicate something to the people they lead. Finally, leadership communication must be active and actionable. In the words of Kevin Murray1 “You have not communicated well if people have not heard you, have not understood you and do not feel motivated to think differently and act differently as a result of your words.”

SCRIPT: THE ART OF PREPARATION

The capacity to create indelible messages is one of the things that make communication effective but these things rarely happen by chance. Exceptional communicators develop strong points of view on key issues. They understand the power of unintended signals and they keep getting feedback. They also plan. Aristotle called rhetoric the ability to identify the appropriate means of persuasion in a given situation and speeches are a great example of planful and powerful rhetoric. History shows that great speeches move people to action, provide great theatre and capture people’s imagination. Martin Luther King’s famed 1963 dream proclamation, John F. Kennedy ‘think not what you can do’ rhetoric and President

1 Murray (2012). The language of leaders. Kogan Page: London, Philadelphia, New Delhi

Spin

Script


Obama’s colourful inauguration speech are just a few of history’s most famous. In contrast, poor speeches are disheartening and often laced with spin. Common components of great speeches include language that ignites and inspires; compelling messages; passion and often a cry for moral and physical courage. They are well-timed and, last but not least, they are well-planned. But planning, or scripting, shouldn’t be confused with spin. Preparation and authenticity are not mutually exclusive yet the skill it takes to deliver prepared communication authentically shouldn’t be underestimated. Winston Churchill’s description of the effects of communism, ‘an iron curtain has descended’, is memorable and authentic, yet undoubtedly planned. Speech writing is a useful metaphor for planned employee communication, not because it’s feasible or desirable to start every team meeting with ‘I have a dream’, but because speeches show what good can come from preparation. Preparation allows you to consider not just what you want to say but what you want your audience to hear. Now, we know that levels of preparation will vary dependent on the scale of the communication delivery required and again, I’m not advocating penning out a team meeting word for word but merely pointing out that considering your communication in advance is beneficialand,donewell,appreciatedby employees. Furthermore, being prepared is not a challenge to your authenticity. We know that everything a leader says or does communicates, so the best leaders will be just as

skilled when they’re off script too. Language that ignites and inspires isthefinishingpoint,theglossofcommunication. Important, but nowhere near the start. Leaders have got to be able to link thought to emotion before they choose their words and it helps if any new ideas match people’s existing beliefs. For example, I’m more likely to be persuaded that communication is the most important skill a leader needs because I already value its importance and it’s the function in which I operate. It’s entirely logical, therefore, that the key to changing attitudes lies in understanding people, their values and preferences. Knowing what makes people tick, what turns them off, if you need to appeal to their emotions or logic in a given circumstance, is what sets the best communicatorsapart.SebCoe’sfinalIOC presentation in Singapore, that sealed London’s victory to host the 2012 Games, is an excellent example of this. Coe had travelled the world tirelessly to understand each IOC’s particular needs, preferences and biases. His speech was directed at them and his individual and collective understanding of them separated London’s bid communication from the rest.

SPIN: THE POLITICAL PITFALL

Spin has negative connotations in today’s politically-savvy world. A word that crept, then sped into our consciousness with New Labour’s spin doctors, it’s almost as if we didn’t realise that spinning is not a new phenomenon but an age-old technique to persuade others. To be clear, I see rhetoric and spin differently. Using rhetoric

as a powerful mechanism to influence is the role of a leader. Spin is changing meaning to suit your own objectives, often downplaying or, worse still, ignoring important inconvenient facts for your own advantage. I think the key adjective here is ‘important’. Let’s take a simple sentence as an example. “The doctor examined the child’s growth”. On reading this ambiguous quote, depending on your own bias or frame of reference, it will have thrown upafirstmeaning,perhapsfollowedby a different second meaning. Had I used some rhetorical skill leading up to the sentence, for example quoting incidents of cancer, I would have, perhaps, been able to influence your thought process. Had I wanted you to think of cancer when, in fact, the doctor was measuring height then I would have been changing meaning to suit my objectives – spinning. But what does this mean for leadership communication? Often, facts can be inconvenient andirrelevantsomaynotfindtheirway into a piece of communication, but an important inconvenient fact that is deliberately avoided is dishonest and when uncovered, erodes trust, a critical component of employee engagement. I worked with an organisation recently who had communicated many months of consecutive growth in one region without communicating widely enough that collective revenue across regions was in decline. When inevitable business change was upon them, the once seemingly inconvenient fact (that overall revenue was in decline) provided the most compelling platform for change communication. Perceived

spin, perhaps characterised by vague language or talking around a point rather than about it happens when leaders aren’t prepared. A reliance on clichéd phrases and management speak is a symptom of failure to prepare and can have a negative impact on employees and the way they feel about where they work.

concLUsions

Achieving persuasion through communication is every leader’s role but they have to remember three key things:

3. SPIN Ignoring or downplaying important inconvenient facts erodes trust. Without skill and planning, leaders can fall into the ‘spin trap’

2. SCRIPT Preparation for communication allows leaders to focus on what they want people to hear and do, not just what they want to say

1. SKILL Skilled communicators are as good in informal conversations as they are in formal communication forums. They know that you can’t persuade people if you don’t understand them


05’00”000 with Alan Murchison

by Fiona McPhee

INTERVIEW


Alan Murchison is the Executive Chef of Michelin star restaurant L’ortolan in Reading

as well as Managing Director of 10in8,thefinedininggroup. The concept of 10 in 8 is to build acollectionoffinediningrestaurants over an eight year period earning at least one Michelinstarwithintheirfirst three years of opening, which is no easy feat. 10 in 8 is not only about award winning restaurants but also about developing and harnessing raw talent in them. Each of the restaurants in the collection “strives to exceed everyone’s expectations leaving you wanting to return time and time again”.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO BECOME A CHEF? At school if you were seen as challenging or non-academic they’d put you in the building or hospitality trade because both were deemed to be low skill, low intelligence jobs. There was very little recognition that different people need different approaches in order to learn so I was put in this category. I ended up getting a job washing pots in a kitchen and I enjoyed it. There was great camaraderie, a real team mentality. If the kitchen porter didn’t turn up then it would affect the whole business. It was like a chain. If one part of the chain was missing then the whole thing would fall apart and

I think that was what got me. I also saw the opportunity for progression. The head chef had started off at the very bottom; he had been the kitchen porter and worked his way up.

IT’S A TOUGH PATH FROM KITCHEN PORTER TO HEAD CHEF, WHAT MOTIVATED YOU TO KEEP GOING?

There were clear lines of progression and I could see where the ladder was going to go. So many businesses don’t offer that, people don’t know how to get to the next step or even what the next step might be. I think in thekitchenthere’saclearlydefinedcareer path. When you’ve mastered one step you can move on to the next, but not before.


You also know how your role, whatever it is, contributes to the end product. If you don’t wash the pans quickly enough the meat can’t be cooked. If meat isn’t cooked, desserts can’t be served. You always feel, even when washing up, part of the process and because you are involved in the product you feel committed.

HOW DO YOU SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUR PEOPLE?

I try and understand their motivation and where they want to go. If they want to use this as a stepping stone I will try and give them as much experience as I can to enable them to move on. I recognise when it’s time for people to leave, allowing them to do so with my blessing and leaving the door open if they want to come back. I think so often people hold on to people for all the wrong reasons. They throw an extra 20% salary at them a year but it’s just a short term fix.Ialsotrytogetmyteamreallyinvolved with the product from the beginning so they see how their part affects the whole operation. For example, a new kitchen porter will eat in the restaurant, so they understand how important it is that the plates, glasses and cutlery are polished because this creates thefirstimpression.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE?

I would say its adaptive, different people need and want different things from me whether it’s as the Executive Chef or Managing Director. I try to create an environment where my team feel

empowered. That said, the hardest thing for me as we grow is losing control. I set up on my own to give myself that full control and now it’s like going back to the beginning where things are out of my hands at times. Even though you’ve selected those people, you’ve allowed them to make decisions and you trust them it’s still the hardest thing but it’s so important. We know what it’s like to be empowered and then have that power taken away from us. It’s probably one of the most frustrating and demotivating things that can happen. I won’t tolerate that but I still have to remind myself of it as well.

HOW DO YOU MAKE SURE YOU HOLD ON TO YOUR MICHELIN STAR?

Consistency, that’s what it’s about, consistency. People have a choice if they come; we’re a luxury item so we’ve got to be consistently brilliant. We try to evolve the product but keep the consistency. That’s the most difficultthingbecausepeoplewantto see new stuff but they also want to see things they recognise and like. You have to think about the end user and recognise you are cooking for your guests and not yourself. It’s all about them, not a vanity project. I

know we’re getting it right because the restaurant is full.

HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA OF 10 IN 8?

It was recognising what the guys wanted in our business, what motivated them. They wanted recognition by their peers, recognition in the industry; they all wanted to be developed and to learn. Michelin stars were hugely motivational to them, and that’s where it started. The main catalyst came from me recognising that Will Holland (Head Chef at Michelin star restaurant La Becasse) needed to develop or he would take the time and effort I put into him and give it to someone else. That’s where restaurant number two came from. I actually went back to Le Manoir to speak with Raymond Blanc who trained me and asked what he would have done differently. He said he would have kept some of the guys he trained close to him. Create these bonds back to the business so people would return if the opportunities were right. This is what I’m looking to do with 10 in 8. It’s a matter of recognising when it’s right to bring them back. What’s nice is that Will has been shortlisted for restaurant of the year with La Becasse (Alan’s second restaurant) in the food and travel magazine. In the article there’s a reference to me as I trained him. There is also an article about the best ten chefs who worked for Raymond Blanc and I’m listed, so you have my link to Raymond Blanc and Will’s link to me. There’s a legacy being developed but most importantly you can’t buy loyalty like that.

As a result of the Home Games, the Summer of 2012 has seen an unprecedented amount

of positivity and good cheer, particularly in the capital. This is in sharp contrast to the anger and unrest prevalent during the riots of 2011. However, both examples illustrate the ways in which moods and emotions, both good and bad, can be infectious and spread from one person to another. In this article I look at the psychology behind this emotional contagion. Psychological practice has undergone many transitions

and reincarnations. In the 1960s behaviourism gave way to the ‘cognitive revolution’ and paved the way for several decades of consultancy underpinned by the principles of rationality and appraisal. However, more recently, there has been a dramatic rise in interest in the role that emotions play in high-performance domains. This is a rather ironic turn of events due to a traditional view of emotions as an irrational inconvenience to be eliminated from decision-making processes. Yet, such perspectives are being pushed aside as researchers, practitioners, and managers

How to thrive in the emotion epidemicARTICLE BY Chris Wagstaff


1 Barsade, S. G. (2002). The ripple effect: Emotional contagion and its influence on group behavior. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47, 644-675.2 Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1993). Emotional contagion. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2, 96-99. 3 Wagstaff, C. R. D., Fletcher, D., & Hanton, S. (2012). Positive organizational psychology in sport: An ethnography of organizational functioning in a National Sport Organization, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 24, 26-47.Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T., &

Rapson, R. L. (1993). Emotional contagion. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2, 96-99.

increasingly extol the value of emotions for individual, team, and organisational success. Indeed, so marked has been the interest in emotion that psychologists have suggested that we are in the midst of an ‘affective revolution’. One consequence of this revolution is an emotion epidemic that is sweeping elite performance environments. An epidemic refers to something put upon or above people, and in our modern lexicon typically occurs when cases of a certain disease substantially exceed what is expected based on recent experience. Epidemics can be restricted to one domain (i.e. spreading within), and can also spread externally to other individuals and domains to affect a substantial number of people (i.e. spreading outside). Where this occurs at a global level, this contagion may be termed a pandemic. Emotions are intense, relatively short-term affective reactions to a stimulus in our environment. Whether our emotions are anticipated, felt ‘in the heat of the moment’, or recalled at a later time, they influence our daily thoughts, motivations, and behaviours. For example, they range from the chitchat between team members about a performance review, to the thoughts written on your manager’s face in response to the latest strategic change. These rather mundane examples illustrate the ever-present nature of emotions in our everyday experience. Yet, beyond their ubiquity, emotions set the tone of our most crucial relationships. That is, they aren’t just influential on our behaviour; they are infectious

and can be ‘caught’ by others around us. Moreover, it is likely that many of our top performers are unaware of how a single emotion or mood can influence their actions, particularly if this originated from others and not their own feelings. While the notion of ‘catching’ emotions is not new, the importance of this for performance outcomes is poorly understood. My work as a researcher and performance psychologisthasillustratedfirsthandthe contagious nature of emotions and the consequences of these infectious affections for group conflict, cooperation, decision-making and individual, relational, and organisational functioning. But what can you do to thrive in the emotion epidemic? Below I outline four key questions to assist you in this endeavour.

1. ARE YOU AT RISK OF INFECTION?

Simply being aware of the emotion epidemic can help with self-inoculation; however, some individuals may be more at risk. Whilst the transmission of emotion can occur in any relationship, it is common for leaders to infect their followers.Whateverroleyoufulfil,it is important to deploy attention to the emotions you experience prior

to and during ‘big-game’ situations. Attempt to decipher the meaning of your feelings, where they have originated from and assess how they influence your thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. If you can become aware of how others infect you with emotions, you might choose to catch or avoid them prior to or during high-pressure situations. This might afford you a greater sense of control over the infectious individuals around you.

2. ARE YOU AT RISK OF INFECTING OTHERS?

Be consciously aware of your own mood and emotions. If your current emotion does not suit the situation, change it. As the most toxic emotions arrive in short intense spikes, consider how you can act yourwayoutofdifficultsituationsby changing your facial expression, body language, and vocal tone. Interestingly, research suggests that when we change these expressions of emotion, our actual feelings tend to follow suit. Monitor how your behaviour in both mundane and important situations is received by those around you. In my work with Olympic and Paralympic athletes


4 Wagstaff, C. R. D., Fletcher, D., & Hanton, S. (2012, in press). Exploring emotion abilities and regulation strategies in sport organizations, Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology,. doi: 10.1037/a00288145 Wagstaff, C. R. D., Fletcher, D., & Hanton, S. (2012). Positive organizational psychology in sport: An ethnography of organizational functioning in a National Sport Organization, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 24, 26-47.

and coaches, business leaders, and seniormilitaryofficers,Iamoftenshocked by the lack of awareness - and occasional delusion – regarding their view of how others perceive their behaviour. Indeed, in my experience, the higher individuals climb up the success ladder in their field,themoreimportantemotionalexpression and behaviour becomes. Thus, irrespective of position, you should stimulate reflection by seeking immediate feedback regarding how any communication is received. Consider how your behaviour reflects your mood and whether the message you are sending corresponds with that received by the target audience.

3. ARE THERE ANY VACCINATIONS AVAILABLE?

In every high performance environment, there are norms, values and expectations regarding the expression of emotion. These are often unwritten rules that guide our behaviour and constitute a ‘line’ that must not be crossed. In the sporting world athlete charters have become common for reflecting such expectations regarding behaviour. Yet, what about the emotional expectations? Research conducted by myself

and my colleagues suggests that anger is the most prevalent emotion experienced in elite sport organisations. However, expressing anger is often the easiest way to ‘cross the line’ and infect others. Thus, clear expectations must be communicated and monitored by the entire team to regulate the emotional contagion that exists within the organisation’s culture.

4. CAN YOU MANAGE THE EPIDEMIC IN YOUR TEAM?

In addition to passively infecting others with emotion, you might strategically attempt to change the emotions of those around you. To

see how this might work, you might manufacture a simple experiment to test how effective your own vaccination is in your organisation. You might begin this by exposing yourself to the symptoms of the emotion epidemic in your team or organisation. Find the most cynical, sceptical and pessimistic individual you can. Engage them in a casual conversation about what they perceive to be the flaws of the current regime or a recent change. Take a mental note of their expressions of emotion and behaviour throughout. Do not intervene or pass judgment, but encourage them by actively listening.Tocompare,findthemost optimistic and enthusiastic individual in the organisation and converse with them about everything that they see as successful under the current regime or related to a recent change. Compare how you feel after just a short conversation with these key members of your own team. This may give you an idea of where to start by identifying what emotional expressions require antibodies. I am willing to bet that most of you reading this article have been thinking of examples of undesirable situations where you have caught others’ negative emotions. However, reread this article through a positive perspective. Consider each point in terms of how you might infect others with positive emotion in your team or organisation. In doing so, I hope that your mind will be racing with opportunities to engage the epidemic to facilitate a positive emotional climate rather than allow destructive emotions to run amok.


5 Fletcher, D., Hanton, S. & Wagstaff, C. R. D. (2012). Performers’ responses to stressors encountered in sport organisations, Journal of Sports Sciences, 30, 349-358

Derailment: An alternate lens for understanding leadership talentARTICLE BY Suzanne Ross


R eviews of talent matrices and succession charts can often show a disappointing amount

of talent that hasn’t lived up to its potential; ‘potential’ typically being about demonstrating the ability to fulfilkeyleadershiproles.Intheabsence of any real understanding of why talent derails we tend to conclude that perhaps the individual wasn’ttalentedinthefirstplace–that we somehow got it wrong. There is a cost involved in getting it wrong including talent disengaging, a corresponding impact on team morale, lost opportunity costs from under performance and recruitment costs if the individual leaves the business. Understanding why leadership talent stalls or derails adds a valuable dimension to developing, engaging and retaining talent.

WHAT IS DERAILMENT?

A derailed leader is one that plateaus at a lower level than expected, stalls, is demoted and may, as a result, leave the organisation voluntarily or involuntarily1. In the same way therearemanydefinitionsoftalent,there are many reasons talent may fail to live up to its potential. Some of these are the ‘flip side’ of the talent coin. For example, most definitionsoftalentencompasscompetencies; talented leaders are identifiedasthosewhorolemodelthe competencies and demonstrate superior performance2. Talent that

derails often overplays or over relies on certain competencies which have served them well in the past, whilst failing to develop others. In particular, they tend to over rely on specialist or technical competencies and a corresponding attention to detail. When under pressure this can lead to an inability to see the big picture, failure to deal with ambiguity and micromanaging. Similarly successful leaders have well developed emotional intelligence whereas derailed talent often fails to demonstrate the breadth of emotional intelligence competencies needed to succeed in more senior roles.3 Successful leaders have the capacity to continually learn and grow in the context of the environment;4 talent that derails tends to be less able to learn and adapt. Understanding this dual nature of some of the attributes of talent can help organisations to prioritise talent development, encouraging a focus on those attributes that, when developed, help generate success and if left undeveloped can lead to derailment. Whilst some derailment characteristics are the ‘flip side’ of successful talent, others open up alternate avenues for developing and engaging talent either at the individual level or through wider talent development strategies. Personality traits and psychodynamics rarely form part of talentmanagementdefinitions,yetaspects of each can cause derailment, for example, narcissistic tendencies and dependency needs of leaders and transference in followers.5 It is difficultfordefinitionsoftalentto account for every combination

of what success might look like. There will always be talent that doesn’t ‘conform’ to organisational definitions,yetgoesontoachievesuccess. In the same way, some aspects of derailment may be attributable to an individual’s own personalprofileandcircumstances.These aspects of derailment need to be managed on that 1:1 level. Key themes in derailment however open up opportunities for broader initiatives.

WHY DO LEADERS DERAIL?

Research on derailment has established a number of core themes, including the inability to develop or adapt and too narrow a functional orientation.6 We can link this to the development of the leadership pipeline and management of key leadership transitions.7

In many organisations talented high performing experts eventually hit a ceiling beyond which career progression is about taking on management responsibility. There are a number of key challenges here: Firstly, the ‘halo’ effect of the individual’s previous technical, functional or specialist talents can initially blindside an organisation to difficultiestheindividualmayhavein undertaking new management responsibilities. Secondly, individuals may not fully appreciate the mind shift needed to transition from high performing expert where progression is dependant on your

1. Zhang, Yi., & Chandrasekar, N.A., (2011) ‘When building strength is not enough: An exploration of derailment potential and leadership strength”, Journal of General Management, Vol. 36 No. 3 Spring 2011, The Braybrooke Press Ltd2. Berger, L. A., and Berger, D. R. (2004), ‘The Talent Management Handbook’, McGraw-Hill, New York 3. Goleman, D. (1996) ‘Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More Than IQ’, Bloomsbury, London.4. Lombardo, M. M. & Eichinger, R.W. (Winter 2000) Human Resource Management, vol. 39, No. 4, Pp321-329 5. Kets de Vries, M.F.R (1989) ‘Leaders Who Self-Destruct: The Causes and Cures’, Organisational Dynamics6. Zhang, Yi., & Chandrasekar, N.A., (2011) ‘When building strength is not enough: An exploration of derailment potential and leadership strength”, Journal of General Management, Vol. 36 No. 3 Spring 2011, The Braybrooke Press Ltd7. Charan, R., Drotter, S., & Noel, J., (2011) ‘The Leadership Pipeline: How to build the leadership powered company”, San Francisco. John Wiley & Sons


own knowledge, skills, capability and results to the more generalist nature of management and the need to achieve results through others. The balance shifts; it becomes less about individual excellence and more about achievement through team effort. This can be one of the mostdifficultyetfundamentaltransitions an emerging leader needs to make. Without support from the organisation, moving away from functional expertise which has been crucial to career success to date is hard. Embracing the unknown arena of people management can be a leap of faith. Individuals at this stage often keep one foot in each camp – retaining a ‘hands on’ approach to managing tasks, projects and activities whilst building people management capability. In times of stress or challenge they gravitate back to functional expert mode and micromanaging. In managing the career paths of specialist and leadership talent organisations need to ask two key questions: Firstly, how are we developing the careers of our specialist, expert talent? Secondly, how are we recognising and rewarding those individuals who may not be the best technically, but are demonstrating early management and strategic leadership capability? The consequences of not getting this piece right are that we lose our expert talent and gain mediocre, often reluctant managers or we dismiss the less gifted experts without recognising their potential leadership capability. It’s important to review the career paths you have in place for both specialists and leaders in order to answer these

questions. Do all talented experts need to move into leadership roles in order to progress? Could you, for example, develop technical/expert consultancy roles? By recognising some derailers as the converse of characteristics of talented leaders, it helps organisations to prioritise; to focus on developing those aspects of leadership that have a correlation to both success and derailment. Where derailment factors provide an additional rather than converse dimension to talent, it helps organisations to determine what needs to be addressed at the individual level and what is symptomatic of current talent management practices.

GETTING TALENT BACK ON TRACK

Whilst it’s important to understand why talent derails, how do you identify when someone is derailing and what can we do to get them back on track? Talent is at its most vulnerable during key transitions: expert to manager; manager to leader; leader to senior leader. During these key transitions there is likely to be a dip in performance as the individual assimilates into the requirements of the new role, gains an understanding of the environment and‘findstheirfeet’.Successfultalentwill quickly acclimatise and recover levels of performance. Those in

danger of derailing, will take longer to, or may not, recover their performance levels. They may also begin to demonstratespecificbehaviours such as isolating themselves as they loseconfidenceintheirability,appearing out of touch. They may be too quick to make decisions or won’t make any decisions at all failing to learn new skills and adapt. Agreeing a clear performance plan,withspecificobjectives,key deliverables and support and development needs is vital for those firstfewmonthsinanewrole,butequallyasbeneficialforanytalentedindividual whom you feel is not delivering to their full potential.


Jon joined Lane4 10 years ago and is now a Partner, managing consultant and senior consultant teams. Jon has a heritage in sport psychology and worked with the GB Hockey squad in preparation for 2012. His consulting work is with senior leaders and teams across a range of sectors with a focus on leadership development and managing organisational change.

Jonathan Zneimer talks to us about the importance of coaching supervision and what he feels it brings to coaching practice.

I believe that becoming an accredited coach is only ever the beginning of a journey. Just like when you pass your driving test, you only really learn what to do when you go out on your own. This is why, in my opinion, coaching supervision is so important for coaching practice. There are 3 key aspects to coaching supervision: support, development and evaluation1. SUPPORT

A supervisor helps you to deal with anydifficultiesthatariseduringpractice. Sometimes coaching can become ‘stuck’ as we struggle to adapt our approach. Supervision can help us to unblock blind spots andremoveanyfiltersthatmaybe affecting how we coach. The supervisor also provides space to reflect on coaching relationships and ensure we are not being drawn into our coachee’s world too much.

DEVELOPMENT Supervision helps us to be better coaches. Perhaps we can start by thinking about the coachee. Describeyourmostdifficultcoachee. What is it about their behaviour, their attitude and their style that makes them so hard to coach? Unpick that some more – what could you do in each of those situations to stretch yourself out of your comfort zone and really help this person? The supervisor supports us to become more effective reflective practitioners, develops our ability to self-supervise and suggests different theories and approaches that could be incorporated to improve our coaching practice. EVALUATION Supervision provides the quality check needed to ensure that our coachees are getting the service they deserve.

It is about supporting us to remain honest and courageous, attending to those things we could easily ignore and picking up on what is going unsaid. A supervisor also plays a role in supporting us to uphold the highest standards when it comes to ethical practice. This includes knowing when we have reached the boundaries of our expertise and need to refer a coachee to a different type of practitioner.

The aim of coaching supervision is to increase your capacity to coach – both in quantity and quality. Supervision allows coaches to reflect and re-examine their own practice, to continue to develop their skills and self-awareness and to avoid being drawn into their clients’ worlds. Checking in with a coaching supervisor is like getting an MOT for your car – you could leave it, and your car could runperfectlyfine,butwouldn’t you want the engine to purr?

JONATHAN ZNEIMERConsultant Director, Lane4

Coaching Supervision


1 Adapted from Proctor, B. 1986. Supervision: a co-operative exercise in accountability. In: Enabling and ensuring. M. Marken and M. Payne (eds). Leicester National Youth Bureau and Council for Education and Training in Youth and Community Work, Leicester. p.21-23.


All Change – Learning from transitions in sport

ARTICLE BY Janine Usher & Rick Cotgreave

As the most spectacular summer of sport Britain has ever seen comes to an end, we are seeing a great number of top athletes announcing their retirement. Victoria Pendleton, Michael Phelps and Beth Tweddle are all embarking on a new lifestyle afteryearsofsacrificeanddedicationto their sport but what happens when the good and great hang up their boots? Some will have plans in place for this new life but many others are heading into the unknown. Whilst the term ‘retirement’ is used in sport, similar transitions frequently take place in business. What are the links between the two and what can we learn from our sporting heroes? Whether it is through choice or circumstance we are likely to change jobs, or even careers, several times in our lives. Risk of redundancy, limited internal promotions or simply the desire for a new challenge can all drive change. It is therefore inevitable thatwewillfindourselves‘intransition’ at some point or another.

THE CHALLENGE OF TRANSITIONS

When the time comes for an athlete

to retire, they are leaving behind a world where fans and team-mates have looked up to them, expecting brilliance at every move. They are likely to have faced constant pressure, working for clear goals, having well-managed programmes to measure their performance and ensure they peak in time for the next Olympic final.Thenmaybetheyreachthepinnacle of their career and the gold becomes theirs. Or maybe through injury, age, or simply because someone else comes along who’s just that little bit better, it’s time for them to call it a day and walk away from the thing that has fuelled their passion, giving them a sense of identity and something to belong to. Suddenly the athlete is retired; a former-athlete, an ex-Olympian and all at an age where there’s a whole lot of life still in front of them. Perhapsit’sadifficultsituationtoimagine, but it’s a process that goes on at the end of every season and after every major championships or Olympic Games. It’s also a process that will almost certainly take place for all of us at some point in our business careers, in particular when people

makethatdifficultfirststepfrom‘technical expert’ to leader. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that this process of transition in athletes causes great stress and pressure to some sportsmen and women1 and that the associated depression has even been a contributing factor in a number of suicides. We are not suggesting that this is the case in the business world; however, it does highlight how traumatic and distressing change can be for some people.

THE PROCESS OF TRANSITION

Initial research has indicated that

there are distinct phases that an athlete goes through when making a transition beyond sport1. The TransitionModel(showninfigure1.)helps us to understand the stages of the transition process.

TRANSLATE – the process of understanding the new world beyond previous roles. In this phase the individual is coming to terms with the transition decision. This phase is associated with fear, depression and isolation as they come to

1 Cotgreave (2011) The Phoenix Project


understand the passing of time and the implications of change. It is during this phase that people are at their most vulnerable. Support may be required to help make sense of the world that, in many ways, they have been protected from by their deep immersion in their previous careers. It is here where the individual begins to take stock and evaluate their situation. They are encouraged to assess their own needs and existing skills.

TRANSFORM – the process and acceptance of change; the coming together of the old world and the beginning of something new. In this phase the individual is able to begin to rebuild their self-belief. New goals may be set and a new future can be mapped out. It is here that success canberedefined.Successmaynot be as clear and objective as in the previous world, but goals are still aspirational and provide a challenge. As an athlete makes their transformation it can become clear how big a part of their life sport has been and what needs were being met by their involvement. Perhaps

sport provided a vehicle for self-expression or a sense of belonging. When the sport is taken away these needs may no longer be met and this can be the source of a great deal of anxiety and turmoil caused by the retirement. Support at this phase can be provided by highlighting goals and opportunities that may help in fulfillingmanyofthegapscreatedbythe loss of their previous career.

TRANSCEND – the process of going beyond success in the previous role and realising new ambitions in a new world. In this phase the individual is truly moving forward and leaving behindtheformerdefinitionofthemselves. An identity is forged thatallowstheindividualtofindcontentment and personal excellence in a new and changing world. Support in this phase may help develop a stronger future-focus and maintain the momentum that has been built through the transition process. For the athletes support may also help provide greater clarity in a new world where goals are less clear than in the black and white world of success and failure in sport.

FROM SPORT TO BUSINESSTransitions are inevitable in both sport and business. If left unsupported, these transitions can derail individuals, or worse, have a negative impact on their wellbeing. In business we need to look in greater depth at the case for supporting employees going through transition and in the meantime, we offer these tips: •TRANSLATE –Support individuals

to understand their new situation and the opportunities that go with it. Help them to really understand their skills and attributes and how theyfitwiththenewworld. •TRANSFORM – Try to understand

the impact a previous role had on self-belief; what needs were being met by the role, colleagues and the organisation. Support individuals to findtheirnewdefinitionofsuccessand work out how their existing skills and attributes can help them get there. •TRANSCEND – Support individuals

to embrace the new situation and celebrate their new successes as much as their previous ones.

TRANSITION MODEL1

>TRANSCEND- Moving forward- Move beyond identification as

‘athlete’ / historical definition of self

- Integrate strength / values into new role

- Self-actualisation

>TRANSFORM- Develop old skills and apply them

to new situation- Build self-belief / recognise

existing strengths- Establish goals- Redefine success / recognise

world beyond sport

>TRANSLATE- Understanding of situation- Understanding of skill / values- Understand emotion – relief /

depression / loss

Fig. 1


A Mindful Approach to Performance EnhancementARTICLE BY Richard Briegel-Jones & Penny Mavor

Companies such as Raytheon, Proctor & Gamble, Unilever, Nortel Networks and

Comcast1 have started to integrate mindfulness into the workplace, highlighting the growing mainstream interest in this fascinating practice. While traditionally used in clinical domains, mindfulness is increasingly being applied in sport and business leadership to enhance well-being and performance. For athletes, it brings improved performance and for leaders it enhances their effectiveness in decision making, relationship management, work life balance and sustainable leadership. This article draws from current literature to explore mindfulness and how this innate quality within all of us can be cultivated to improve our present-moment focus and ultimately enhance performance in sport and business leadership.

WHAT IS MINDFULNESS?

With its roots in both Eastern philosophical traditions and Western psychology, mindfulness refers to a

way of being – non-judgementally (i.e. not good, not bad) paying attention to and being aware of present events and conscious experiences. It is a philosophy and a practice that can be developed through simple exercises that actively encourage non-judgemental attention and awareness of internal (such as bodily sensations, thoughts and emotions) and external (such as sights and sounds) experiences in the present moment.

THE LINK BETWEEN MINDFULNESS AND PERFORMANCE

Mindfulness practice is founded on the basis that one’s thoughts, feelings and sensory experiences should be considered as naturally occurring events. These events regularly come and go as normal, expected features of human existence and therefore should not be controlled for. In this manner, mindfulness is contrary to traditional mental techniques that aim to control, eliminate or suppress negative thoughts and images. A growing body of studies

in sport psychology have indicated the positive performance effects of mindfulness training interventions.2 This research has linked mindfulness to present-moment focus – the foundation of peak performance in sport. The ability to focus on aspecifictaskwhileignoringdistractions from the past, future and other current events enables an individual to completely immerse themselves in their performance which can ultimately lead to performance improvements. Otherbenefitsofmindfulnesstraining include having clearer goals, a greater sense of control, enhanced concentration and a loss of self-consciousness.3

MINDFULNESS IN LEADERSHIP

Not surprisingly, due to the growing interest in how individuals focus their attention in organisations and the subsequent effects, mindfulness is also proving of relevance to the workplace.4 Given that mindfulness brings clarity, vividness and options to how we view and respond to the world, cultivating it provides leaders

1 Carroll, M. (2011). The Mindful Leader: Awakening Your Natural Management Skills Through Mindfulness. Trumpter: Boston & London2 Bernier, M., Thienot, E., Codron, R., & Fournier, J.F. (2009). Mindfulness and Acceptance approaches in sport performance. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 4, 320-333. 3 Aherne, C., Moran, A.P., & Lonsdale, C. (2011). The effect of mindfulness training on athletes’ flow: An initial investigation. The Sport Psychologist, 25, 177-189. 4 Weick, K.E, Sutcliffe, K.M and Obstfeld, D. (1999). “Organizing for High Reliability: Processes ofCollective Mindfulness” in R.S. Sutton and B.M. Staw (eds), Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol. 1(Stanford: Jai Press, 1999), pp: 81–123


with ways of ‘doing and being’ that are potentially more effective. For example:

•Byallowingustobefullypresent, it improves our ability to break from unhelpful habitual patterns and the way we have always done things

•Asitimprovesthequantity and quality of our awareness and attention, it opens us up to new information

•Itweakensourtendencyto over-simplify and encourages us to explore issues from multiple perspectives, providing us with flexibility and choice

•Thisheightenedawarenesshelpsus to consciously choose our behaviours and make decisions, appropriate to the context

In particular, it has been suggested there are four key areas where mindfulnesscouldbebeneficialinenhancing leadership effectiveness:5

•Decision making: how mindfulness enhances one’s ability to make decisions which are ethically aligned

•Relationship management: how mindfulness brings greater empathy and compassion, and is beneficialininterpersonal relations, conflict and crisis management

•Work-life balance: how mindfulness increases ones’ ability to cope with stress and enhance wellbeing

• Sustainable leadership: how, through enhancing our interconnectedness with others and nature, mindfulness plays a critical role in developing and nurturing sustainable approaches to business

deveLoping MindfULness – a pracTiTioner’s perspecTive There are a number of ways in which we have worked with leaders to develop their mindfulness. Whilst meditation has traditionally been recognised as the key route to mindfulness, it can also be nurtured through informal day-to-day practice. Here is a selection of offerings to help you on the way:

1. BREATHING: to help you be ‘in the moment’, draw your attention to the thing that is always with you – your breath. Feel the air come in and out of your nostrils, noticing the rising and falling of your belly. One mindfulness exercise you can do is the ‘take ten breaths’ technique. Throughout your day, try and take 10 slow, deep breaths, noticing the physical sensations, thoughts and feelings passing through your body and mind. Remember to just observe (not judge, avoid, hold onto or suppress) and notice what it’s like to do this with an attitude of acceptance.

2. NOTICING: generally our minds flick from the past to the future, we ruminate, speculate, judge and evaluate. Start noticing how your mind flicks and when it ‘runs away with you’ and gently bring yourself to the present. One simple mindfulness technique you can use isthe‘noticefivethings’exercise.Look around your environment andnoticefivethingsyoucansee.Now listen carefully and notice fivethingsyoucanhear.Nownoticefivethingsyoucanfeel(e.g.yourfeeton the floor). You can do this for all your senses.

3. TURNING UP AND BEING PRESENT: breath into the present, notice your posture, your ‘being-ness’ and turn up fully giving all your attention, without distraction or judgement, to the person or task before you. The ‘body scan’ exercise is useful for practicing being present. After a number of deep breaths, direct your attention to different parts of your body for one or two minutes each (you can start at the toes and work your way up). Whilst remaining aware of your breathing, notice any sensations you have in the different body parts non-judgementally.

4. ADOPT A ‘BEGINNERS MIND’: this is the ability to see a situation freshly,asifforthefirsttime. Ask yourself – am I seeing this person/these things with fresh eyes, as he, she or it really is – or am I only seeing the reflection of my own thoughts, memories of this person/thing? (We acknowledge this is not always an easy task!)

5. START A ‘MINDFULNESS’JOURNAL: the practice of mindfully viewing events and situations of the day in retrospect enhances our ability to mindfully experience events and situations at the time they occur. Mindfulness cannot be theorised but has to be experienced to be understood and as with any technique or tool, it is about the individual‘trying’itoutandfindingwhat works for them. Think of yourself as a ‘work in progress’, adopting a mindset open to personal change and acceptance and you too can start to experience the numerous benefitsassociatedwiththis ancient practice.


5 Jagannathan, S. and Rodhain,F. (2008) What is mindful leadership? Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Integrating Spirituality and Organizational Leadership, Pondicherry, India, 9-12 February: 1-15

Winning Leadership: High performance in sport and business

ARTICLE BY Rachel Arnold, David Fletcher, Lindsay Molyneux, and Melanie Wallinger


Welcome to the 21st century – a period that necessitates leaders who not

only deliver results but who do so in the face of globalisation, evolving technology and social media, tension between short-term and long-term organisational goals and changing employee demands. This is true for leaders in all performance domains, not just business. In fact, we need look no further than the recent Team GB success at London 2012 to see the influential role that good leadership plays in sport. In this article we bring the Lane4 Leadership Framework (see Figure 1) to life using recent examples from the Home Games and interviews conducted with National Performance Directors (NPDs) who operate in the Olympic sport context.1

KNOWING YOURSELF: WORKING WITH YOUR IDENTITY

Working with your identity sits at the heart of the Lane4 leadership framework, since the ability to understand and manage yourself is

critical to leading others.2

Our identity is influenced by our values, experiences and self-perceptions.3 In reality, we do not only have one identity but rather several sub-identities that co-exist; a man in his 40s may be a father, business leader, friend and musician. Some of these identities are more fixedthatothers,suchasgender,andsome are more changeable, such as our chosen profession. Different sub-identities become more important in different situations, shaping the way we behave. For example, many leaders are also followers. When their ‘leader’ identity is salient, they may display more typical leadership characteristicssuchasconfidence.However, when the ‘follower’ identity is more salient, they may display different characteristics such as agreeableness. Of course, this is a simplifiedexamplebutthepointisthat understanding the multiple roles that inform our identity can help us to understand, and where appropriate modify, our behaviour. Jason Lee, coach of the men’s GB Hockey team, advocates the importance of

individuals understanding themselves in order to be good leaders:

“It’sverydifficulttobecoherent and act with integrity and certainty if you don’t have a good idea from what foundation you’re making those actions.”

Fig. 1 ThE LANE4 LEADERShIp FRAMEwORk

A leader who is aware of the personal journey that they have taken and knows who they are as a person, will have a good understanding of their

© Lane4

1 NPDs typically lead and manage all aspects of a sport organisation’s high performance programme. In leading and managing this program, an NPD’s main roles include: developing targets and visions; managing structures, operations, and people; creating an environment to support elite athletes; co-ordinating disciplines; leading a team culture; and making decisions.

2 Hanges, P., Lord, R. & Dickson, M. (2000). An Information-processing perspective on leadership and culture: A case for connectionist architecture. Applied Psychology, 49(1), 133 – 161.3 Brewer, M. B. (2003). The social self: On being the same and different at the same time. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 475-482.

CREATEMEANING

‘ONE TEAM’

wORk wITh YOUR

IDENTITY‘kNOwING YOURSELF’

DRIvEChANGE

‘MAkE ThE DIFFERENCE’

DELIvER RESULTS

‘pROMOTE pERFORMANCE’

Context

Context

Context


strengths and how to play to them, as well as their development areas and how to compensate for them.

ONE TEAM: CREATING MEANING

Sir Clive Woodward, British Olympic Association Director of Sport, had a visionary role at London 2012 to unite “One Team GB” under a shared set of values. These provided particularly helpful guidelines, as for many individuals thiswasthefirsttimethattheyhad encountered such a large-scale event. Sir Clive Woodward adopted an inclusive approach, getting all relevant individuals involved in both producing and agreeing to abide by a number of principles. These standardsfellunderthefivecorevalues of Performance, Respect, Unity, Responsibility and Pride. The creation of shared values is one way a leader can create meaning; they can also create meaning by forming an ultimate aspiration for the team. When developing a vision, leaders should seek collective input into its design, ensure that it is appropriately focused and flexible for adaptation, and stimulate shared ownership, as the following quote from one NPD illustrates:

“The vision for the organisation needstobeclear,andspecifictowhatyou want to achieve, where you want to go… it’s got to be stretching though at the same time remain realistic and achievable… and, I think, ultimately targets and goals need to be owned by everyone who is working towards that vision… that way, people will buy into what you are trying to do.”4

‘One Team GB’ provides an example

of a leader creating meaning by fostering a sense of collective identity and helping individuals to make sense of the world that they are operating inandhowtheirrolesfitintotheoverall vision. As this example highlights, creating meaning involves developing a shared identity, creating and sharing a compelling vision and doing so authentically. This last point is particularly important as it is this authenticity which builds follower trust and commitment5 and helps a leader to maintain their influence6. Evidence of authenticity may include leaders revealing their vulnerabilities , expressing their true beliefs and feelings8, and behaving consistently across situations. A senior leader at UK Sport illustrates this point:

“Increasingly where people seek and need leadership, they’re looking for leaders to be believable, people they can really identify with and I’m pleased to say across the spectrum of the London Games we saw incredibly authentic leadership.”

PROMOTE PERFORMANCE: DELIVER RESULTS

For many leaders, high performance means delivering results. For the best leaders this means delivering through their people which can be achieved in two ways:

•Deliveringresultsforpeoplecan be achieved by treating the whole team fairly, encouraging learning within their organisation, and driving the interest of the group as a whole9.

•Deliveringresultswithpeoplecanbe achieved through consulting and empowering individuals10.

Part of empowering others is about giving them the autonomy and the space to do their jobs well. Thiswasexemplifiedby many PerformanceDirectors and Head Coaches at London 2012. For example, Dave Brailsford (Performance Director of British Cycling) could be seen taking a back seat in the side-car during the cycling races, allowing the coaches to take to the front and do the job that they needed to do. Delivering results with people also requires a leader to adapt their style to individuals and situations. Some NPDs clearly support the benefitsofleadersbeingflexibleintheir approach, adapting their style and seeking input from others, as demonstrated in the following quote:

“I think it’s important that you show some flexibility (in work in elite sport)… I have not written the Bible in (name of sport), I don’t think anyone has, so continuous development is so important… it’snicetodevelopandtrytofindnew ways of doing things, so don’t be afraid of making mistakes. You learn from your mistakes and then you address them … I learnt very

4 Fletcher, D. & Arnold, R. (2011). A qualitative study of performance leadership and management in elite sport. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 23, 223-242.5 Avolio, B.J., Walumbwa, F.O. & Weber, T.J. (2009). Leadership: Current theories, research, and future directions. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 421 – 449.6 Haslam, S.A., Reicher, S.D. & Platow, M.J. (2011). The new psychology of leadership: identity, influence and power. Hove: Psychology Press.7 Kark, R., & Shamir, B. (2002). The dual effect of transformational leadership: Priming relational and collective selves and further effects on followers. In B. J. Avolio & F. J. Yammarino (Eds.), Transformational and charismatic leadership:

The road ahead (pp. 67-91). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier Science.8 Ladkin, D., & Taylor, S. S. (2010). Enacting the ‘true self’: Towards a theory of embodied authentic leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 21, 64-74.

quickly in my role after making initial mistakes on this that you cannot make improvements alone; it has to be as a team. The team members need to respect and listen to each other. I know that I can learn a lot from them (the rest of the team). To do this (work as a team), I need to walk the shop floor and know the reality of the sport on the ground, see what’s actually happening on a daily basis with the athletes, coaches and support staff .”11

Andfinally,theleader needs to show they are serious about and committed to performance excellence, as the following quote from one NPD illustrates:

“Your commitment to excellence and your passion, actually, are probably pretty crucial. If people don’t think that the guy at the top really believes that you can and is not realistic and focussed on what’s important, then you’ll lose the support from below.”11

MAKE THE DIFFERENCE: DRIVE CHANGE

The performance environment is not a static entity, it is changing all

the time and new developments are constantly occurring. Eighteen months ago, UK Sport announced the launch of a system using biosensors to transmit movement from athletes back to the coaches in real time, a technological advancement that wouldn’t have been dreamt of twenty years ago.12 Innovation happens fast and leaders need to be at the forefront if they want to stay ahead. This often means challenging existing ways of doing things and having an open mind to new ideas. Chris Boardman, technical director and the man in charge of British Cycling’s legendary Secret Squirrellaboratory,exemplifiesthis.With the recognition that there is little alteration that can be carried out to Sir Chris Hoy’s bike itself, Boardman encouraged Hoy to spend time working in a wind tunnel, under observation, to discover changes that he could make to his own technique which would improve his performance.10 Boardman is keen for athletes to experiment with the aim of doing things that little bit better which result in a big difference in performance.10 For a leader to drive change, it is necessary that they both demonstrate an awareness of the situation and make changes in response to events they have noticed. 13

Interviews with many of the NPDs echoed the belief that leaders ought to constantly evaluate and review the situation that they are operating in. In the words of one NPD:

“One of the great things I’ve learnt is to go in with my eyes open…Often people don’t take the time

to understand the culture of the country and the culture of the sport. They are making real errors from the beginning and I think luckily I was sensible about that when I came from(previous country) to (current country). However, I had to learn quickly that (current country) has a culture all of its own.”11

The notion of adapting strategies and approaches to meet any challenges that are faced was also supported by many of the NPDs of Olympic sports. Several of the NPDs interviewed referenced factors such as current political agendas and expectations from external stakeholders that could influence a team’s vision. They also emphasised the importance of allowing a vision to evolve and change over time such that it always remains appropriate for the team and situation. This is an eventuality which Team GB will face over the next few years as they prepare for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. The same things that contributed to their success in London will not necessarily work in Brazil, and UK Sport are already starting to consider the changes that need to be made.

IN SUMMARY

This article brings to life key elements of high performance leadership, acknowledging the similar challenges faced by leaders in both business and sport. Based on the importance of ‘working with your identity’, ‘creating meaning’, ‘delivering results’, and ‘driving change’, the framework highlights the factors that leaders should target to enhance performance.


4 Fletcher, D. & Arnold, R. (2011). A qualitative study of performance leadership and management in elite sport. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 23, 223-242.5 Avolio, B.J., Walumbwa, F.O. & Weber, T.J. (2009). Leadership: Current theories, research, and future directions. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 421 – 449.6 Haslam, S.A., Reicher, S.D. & Platow, M.J. (2011). The new psychology of leadership: identity, influence and power. Hove: Psychology Press.7 Kark, R., & Shamir, B. (2002). The dual effect of transformational leadership: Priming relational and collective selves and further effects on followers. In B. J. Avolio & F. J. Yammarino (Eds.), Transformational and charismatic leadership:

The road ahead (pp. 67-91). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier Science.8 Ladkin, D., & Taylor, S. S. (2010). Enacting the ‘true self’: Towards a theory of embodied authentic leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 21, 64-74.

10 Takeuchi, R., Chen, G., & Lepak, D. P. (2009). Through the looking glass of a social system: Cross-level effects of high performance work systems on employees’ attitudes. Personnel Psychology, 62, 1-29.11 Arnold, R., Fletcher, D., & Molyneux, L. (2012). Performance leadership and management in elite sport: Recommendations, advice, and suggestions from national performance directors.

European Sport Management Quarterly [Special Edition], 12, 317-336.12 Pattenden, M (2012). Athletes use top technology to race in the Olympics. (2010). Retreived from

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions/Future-of-technology/8177134/Athletes-use-top-technology-in-race-to-the-Olympics.html 13 Yukl, G., & Lepsinger, R., 2006. Leading change: Adapting and innovating in an uncertain world. Leadership in Action, 26, 3-7.


SPORT PSYCHOLOGY ARTICLE BY: Tara Jones Principal Consultant, Lane4

Being the best in the world is amazing and getting there is tough, but remaining there is even tougher; if you are not moving forwards you will quickly be over taken. It really is that simple. Having a ‘Better Never Stops’ mindset is what really enables performers to keep raising the bar. One of the simple strategies elite athletes engage very seriously in is setting the right types of goals. They have a clear line of sight between the long-term, highly motivational, aspirational goals (e.g. winning Olympic medals) through to the minutiae of the day-to-day goals. And they approach these goals with fanatical discipline to ensure that, as they wait for the

gun to go off, they do so with the complete belief that they have done everything possible to give them the best chance of winning. After each performance athletes will scrutinize how they did. Importantly the focus isn’t purely on what they could do better, but is also on what they did well. It is critical to thoroughly understand the factors that underpin success in order to recreate it but also to help build belief. And such success should be recognised and celebrated. The analysis should also focus on what could be better and when these things are found they should also be celebrated. And why is this important? When margins aresosmall,findingsomethingthatcould help you to gain that extra hundredth of a second is vital. A great example of this is provided in an interview with Michael Jamieson immediately after winning his silver medal in the 200m

Breaststroke. He talked of going home to look at what he did well and what he needed to work on order to win gold next time. Silver was a fantastic achievement that he worked hard for and would celebrate, but he was already looking to the next goal. And the Better Never Stops mindset doesn’t end when the athletic career is over. Just look at Michael Phelps. After winning a record 22 Olympic medals he will now apply this mindset to his golf game. Watch out Rory McIlroy! So how can we ensure that we maintain a ‘Better Never Stops’ mindset?

•Approachyourgoalsetting with fanatical discipline•Scrutiniseyoursuccesses

and celebrate them•Identifytheweaknessesand

celebrate those too

Better Never StopsTeam GB’s motto for the 2012 Games was ‘Better Never Stops’. But what does this really mean for performance? To understand this further we asked individuals across Sport Psychology, Occupational Psychology and Business to share what this means in their worlds.


BUSINESS ARTICLE BY: Paul Jewitt-Harris Practice Director, Lane4

WhenIfirstheardthemotto, I actually didn’t like it. It sounded relentless to me, like a never ending quest for the unattainable. But when I thought about it further I realised it was more akin to restlessness; always asking the questions: What else? How else? What if? In business, who wouldn’t be interested in that? For me, this is about leaders being brave enough to instigate change before they have to. Not waiting for a burning platform but shaking things up so that they are always one step ahead of the competition. In my experience, leaders who do this well:

FACE REALITY As normal human beings leaders are subject to biases in the way they think. In particular they are prone to pay attention to things that suit their way of thinking and reinforce their existing beliefs. ‘Better Never Stops’ is about seeking and attending to things that challenge our current world view.

ARE VISIBLE AND ACCESSIBLE Leaders are typically removed from what is happening ‘on the shop floor’. This in itself isn’t an issue if they are willing to listen to the people on

the front line and empower them to make decisions where they hold the expertise. They also need to be approachable. If a leader only ever wants ‘solutions not problems’ they will not be getting the full picture.

SUPPORT PEOPLE WITH CHANGE Ambiguity and change are amongst the most stressful things we encounter in the workplace. Leaders who drive change need to make sure that their people are behind them, respecting the past and providing a compelling future.

OCCUPATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY ARTICLE BY: Tom Smith Head of Talent Management and Assessment, Lane4

Sport can be a great metaphor for business providing inspirational stories and techniques for success. However, for me, ‘Better Never Stops’ means going back to basics and in my world I think that’s about revisiting performance management. In many companies, performance management is a tick box exercise that managers conduct once a year, but make no mistake, this is not going to improve performance. So how can we make this better? I suggest the following tips

for improving performance management:

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT IS FOR EVERYONE Don’t view performance management simply as a remedial tool for underperformers. Everyonecanbenefitfrom feedback and data about how they are doing, especially your best performers who will be hungry for ways to be even better

COLLECT GOOD QUALITY DATA Find out what’s important and measure people’s performance against it

BUT MAKE SURE ITS SPECIFIC TO THEIR NEEDS Only measure the things that make a difference otherwise people will become overwhelmed

SUPPORT ‘PERSONAL BESTS’ Help people to set goals that are really stretching and compelling. Then support them in working out how to get there

DON’T MIx EFFORT WITH OUTPUTEffort is important and should be rewarded but if someone is working hard and not getting results something needs to change. Similarly if someone is getting the results but going about it in a way that negatively impacts others then it needs to be addressed


Winning an Olympic gold medal is universally recognized as the

pinnacle of sporting achievement and arguably the most demanding challenge an athlete can pursue. In a fascinating book1 about the personal qualities of Olympic champions, Michael Johnson explores the sporting journeys of over a dozen Olympic legends who between them have won 50 gold medals during the past four decades. A common theme throughout the book is the ability of champions to overcome various obstacles and challenges en route to their medal winning performance. Two stories are particularly noteworthy: Ian Thorpe broke his ankle just ten months before the

2000 Sydney Games but he found ways to use his strengths in order to enhance his training, and the International Olympic Committee removed Chris Hoy’s event from the Olympic programme after the 2004 Athens Games but he subsequently took up new cycling events to continue his Olympic ambition. Why is it that such sport performers are able to withstand the pressures associated with the Olympics and attain peak performances whereas others succumb to the demands and under-perform? We aimed to address this question in a recent study2 by interviewing twelve Olympic champions from a range of sports regarding their experiences of withstanding pressure during their

sporting careers. We found that the world’s best athletes shared a unique mental resilience characterised by a number of key psychological attributes (relating to a positive personality,motivation,confidence,focus, and perceived social support) that provides support to the development of Lane4’s personal resilience framework (see sidebar). Thisarticledrawsonthefindingsof our study, using quotes from the gold medallists, to show how individuals can enhance their own personal resilience for sustained high performance.

DEVELOP A POSITIVE PERSONALITY

Olympic gold medallists possessed numerous positive personality

1 Johnson, M. (2011). Gold Rush: What Makes an Olympic Champion? London, UK: HarperSport. 2 Fletcher, D., & Sarkar, M. (2012). A grounded theory of psychological resilience in Olympic champions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 13, 669-678.

Developing Resilience

– Lessons Learned from Olympic Champions ARTICLE BY Mustafa Sarkar and David Fletcher


characteristics, including openness to new experiences, conscientiousness, optimism, competitiveness, and proactivity. The following quote illustrates how one champion evaluated missing out on selection for a major international competition in a positive manner, due to his optimistic and proactive nature:

“There were four of us challenging forthesefinaltwoplaces…andIgottold I was on the reserve list. And at the time it was devastating but it’s one of those things; if you don’t take a ticket in the raffle, you’re never going to win a prize. So you have to take the ticket… that’s part of life and it just makes you think ‘well, what can I do differently to make sure I do get success’?”

OPTIMISE MOTIVATION

Olympic gold medallists had multiple internal (e.g., achieving personally referenced goals) and external (e.g., proving their worth to others) motives for competing at the highest level. Particularly important in the context of developing resilience, the world’s best athletes recognised that they actively chose to engage with challenging situations, such as balancing work and sport, as the following quote highlights:

“We all worked. But in terms of the build up to the Olympics, we didn’t bat an eyelid in doing it… it was our choice to do it. I don’t like the word sacrifice…Sacrificetomeisaboutlast resort and there’s no alternative – that’s rubbish. We made a choice

to do that and I think that choice in what we did we highly valued and I think that inspired us, motivated us to perform on the pitch and as a group.”

STRENGTHEN CONFIDENCE

Confidencewasdeemedtobeaparticularly important factor for the resilience of Olympic champions. Varioussourcesofconfidencewererelevant to the world’s best athletes, including preparation, experience, self-awareness, visualisation, coaching, and teammates. The following quote illustrates how confidenceoriginatingfromtheteam positively affected a gold medallist’s evaluation of pressure:

“We were playing against (country) in our last game… and I looked at my opposite number and I thought ‘I’m going to give you a hard time today kid’… Now if I had that internal thought 18 months ago, I would have thought I was being schizophrenic or something, because if you’re going to lose to anybody it’s (country), but IjustfeltIhadsuchconfidencein…my team’s ability.”

MAINTAIN FOCUS

The ability to focus was an important aspect of resilience for the world’s bestathletes.Specifically,theywereable to focus on themselves, not be distracted by others, focus on the process rather than the outcomes of events, and were able to switch their sport focus on and off to suit the demands they faced. One Olympic champion recalled how his single-minded focus on

Lane4’s personaL resiLience fraMework Lane4’s Personal Resilience framework is underpinned by performance psychology research in sport and business. The framework shows that personal resilience is influenced by a broad range of factors including your Health & Wellbeing, and the Performance Environment around you

The individual characteristics of personal resilience can be grouped into: Success Strategies, Performance Mindset, and Resilient Character.

Lane4’s personal Resilience Framework

Success strategies can be viewed as the ‘pilot of the plane’. Controlled by the rational, conscious, logical brain, these conscious strategies can be taught and applied to manage emotions and attention, and make the right decisions when it counts.

performance mindset reflects the more intuitive brain; the ‘autopilot’. Dedication, tendency to thrive on challenge, and the ability to bounce back stronger following adversity all contribute towards a performance mindset.

A resilient character reflects each individual’s secure base. The stronger your self-belief and drive to succeed, the more solid your foundation from which you can stretch yourself. Drive and self-belief are mutually reinforcing – the stronger your belief in your abilities, the more driven you feel to succeed. Likewise, insatiable drive to succeed tends to breed success, subsequently reinforcing your self-belief.

personal Identity sits at the base of the model, since your personality, core beliefs and values provide the foundation for your personal resilience, which affects your approach in all of the other areas.

performance mindset

Success strategies

Resilient Character

health &

wellbeing

per

form

ance

& E

nviro

nmen

t

Identity © Lane4


himself and the team resulted in him being almost unaware of the pressures around him: “It’s funny, in a way I was kind of oblivious to pressures because I think in some ways you just go so into yourself… well, it’s a hugelyselfishthingisn’tit?You’reconcentrating on yourself and this groupoffivepeopleandyou’relivingin each other’s pockets.” RECOGNISE THE AVAILABILITY OF SOCIAL SUPPORT

Olympic champions perceived that high quality social support was available to them, including support from family, coaches, teammates, and support staff. According to one gold medallist, his parents helped to protect him from the pressures of elite sport by giving him the opportunity to air his grievances: “I’ve got injured, I’ve not got selected, all those sort of things where it’s not gone right… But… they (one’s parents) talk it through with you. My mum especially would talk it through and say ‘What are you going to do about this?’ They didn’t judge me and say, ‘You’re doing this wrong’ or ‘you’re doing that right’, they just provided me with the support that you need and a sounding board to express myself.” FINAL THOUGHTS According to the Olympic champions, an integral aspect of their resilience was their ability toutiliseandoptimisea‘specificmix’ of characteristics to withstand the pressures they encountered. Basedonthestudy’sfindings,weprovide some top tips on how to

develop resilience for sustained high performance. In view of the close link between performance excellence in sport and business,3 organisations should seek to develop the aforementioned psychological factors (i.e., positive personality, motivation,confidence,focus,and perceived social support) that employees can use to build their own personal resilience. Resilience has a critical role to play in achieving success, as illustrated in the following extract from the Harvard Business Review: “More than education, more than experience, more than training, a person’s level of resilience will determine who succeeds and who fails. That’s true in the cancer ward, it’s true in the Olympics and it’s true in the boardroom.”4

Top Tips on deveLoping resiLience for sUsTained high perforMance

1. View setbacks as an opportunity for mastery and growth. During a commencement address at Stanford University in 2005, Steve Jobs credited his early dismissal from Apple in 1985 as the key to his subsequent achievements: “GettingfiredfromApplewas the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was

replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”

2. Be proactive in your personal development. For example, you could update your skills, expand your core competencies, and engage in career planning

3. Be sensitive to different types of motivation (e.g., internal and external) and consider the decisions you make as active choices ratherthansacrifices 4.Buildyourconfidence

from multiple sources (e.g., performance accomplishments, experience, and colleagues) rather than focusing on one particular source

5 Focus on what you can control, on processes, the present, positives, and staying composed 6.Takespecificstepsto

obtain the support that you need. Possible options may include seeking suitable mentors, building cohesive teams, and hiring competent staff

3 Fletcher, D. (2010). Applying sport psychology in business: A narrative commentary and bibliography. Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, 1, 139-149. 4 Coutu, D. (2002, May). How resilience works. Harvard Business Review, 46-55.


Got Potential?ARTICLE BY Zara Whysall

Finding, developing and managing high performers is a major differentiator for

organisational success today. Yet less than 30% of European companies and only 15% of companies in North America andAsiaareconfidentabout the quality and amount of talent in their pipelines.1 Where are they going wrong? Most companies channel huge efforts into selecting the right people. But having selected your ‘high potentials’, what are you doingtohelpthemfulfilthatpromise? More than 70% of today’s top performers lack the critical attributes essential to their success in future roles.2 This is unsurprising if competency frameworks focus on current and past performance rather than future requirements.3 The ability to learn is not only an important predictor of success in sport,4 business,3 and medicine,5 but also represents potential. So how can we help leaders learn to learn?

WHY IS A LEARNING MINDSET IMPORTANT?

By the time ‘high potentials’ are nearing the top, the competencies required to succeed are likely to have changed. The increasingly dynamic nature of work places a premium on the ability to generalise knowledge and skills, adapting to new situations and problems. Learning is central to Lane4’s approach to talent assessment and development, going beyond current and past achievement to focus on potential. Building on research from sport and business, plus our experience developing high performers in both fields,ourPotential4framework(see Figure 1) reflects the four key factors that underpin potential. Three are personal characteristics: Ability, Learning Mindset, and Personal Resilience. The fourth is Opportunity, reflecting the critical role played by organisations in enabling individuals to thrive. So talent management is not just about identifying and developing core competencies (Ability), but

is also about helping individuals tofulfiltheirpotential(LearningMindset), and avoid derailment or disengagement along the way (Personal Resilience), since the journey to the top is unlikely to be smooth.

Fig. 1pOTENTIAL4 – ThE LANE4 TALENT FRAMEwORk

SO WHAT MAKES SOME TALENT SOAR AND OTHERS STALL?

On the job experience is thought to account for a great deal of senior managerial learning6,7, but experience doesn’t invariably lead to superior performance. Nobody becomes outstanding without experience,

1 Fernández-Aráoz, C., Groysberg, B., & Nohria, N. (2011). How to hang on to your high potentials. Harvard Business Review, October, 2-9.2 Martin, J., & Schmidt, C. (2010). How to keep your top talent. Harvard Business Review, May, 54-61.3 Spreitzer, G.M., McCall, M.W., & Mahoney, J.D. (1997). Early identification of international executive potential. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 6-29.4 Kitsantas, A., & Zimmerman, B. (2002). Comparing self-regulatory processes among novice, non-expert, and expert volleyball players: A microanalytic study, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 14, 91-105.5 Ericsson (2004). Deliberate Practice and the Acquisition and Maintenance of Expert Performance in Medicine and Related Domains, Academic Medicine, 79, S70-S81.6 Wick, C.W. (1989). How people develop: An in-depth look. HR Report, 6, 1-3.7 Lowy, A., Kelleher, D., & Finestone, P. (1986). Management learning: Beyond program design. Training & Development Journal,40, 34-37.

OppORTUNITY

OppORTUNITY

Learning Mindset

personalResilience

Ability

pOTENTIAL

pOTENTIAL

© Lane4

but mindless experience doesn’t automatically generate expertise (otherwise wouldn’t many avid sports fans be elite athletes?). Research with various professionals- from software designers, to wine tasters, to stock market investors- reveals that performance of highly experienced ‘experts’ is often no better than that of novices. In fact, there is evidence that physicians’ performance gets systematically worse with experience.8 It’s not safe to assume that individuals with extensive experience will be better at the job – it’s the quality of that experience and how well they have learnt from it that counts. Swedish psychologist, Anders Ericsson’s extensive research shows that dedicated, deliberate practice is necessary for the development and maintenance of many types of professional performance. Highly structured and intense, deliberate practiceisspecificallydesignedtomaximise improvement; adapted to each individual to stretch their performance beyond its current level. Immediate feedback, a focus on errors or weaknesses, problem-solving, and repetition are key ingredients. British football coach Simon Clifford found this type of practise to underpin the extraordinary success of Brazilian football. “People have this idea of Brazilian football being played on beaches and of the players being relaxed and just naturally good at it” recalls Clifford. “What I found was that they worked ferociously hard.”9 He discovered Brazilians playing ‘futsal’, an intensifiedversionoffootball

using a smaller and heavier ball and a shrunken area of play. Practiseisamplified-balltouchesare quicker and more frequent; precision, quick thinking and sharp passing are paramount.10 It makes ‘normal’ football easy.

HOW CAN YOU APPLY THIS TO BUSINESS?

Lane4 takes these principles into business using meticulously designed development centres where intense, real-role scenarios are recreated in a safe environment where people can make mistakes and learn, with rich individualised feedback focussed on performance enhancement. We equip leaders with the skills they need to maximise learning from their on-the-job experiences. In sport, the quality of learners’ strategies – planning, adaptation, self-evaluation, self-monitoring, self-motivation – has been found to be a better predictor of success than athletes’ knowledge of technique or years of experience.11 In business, we recognise four main components that shape an individual’s capacity to learn:

1. ACCURATE SELF-PERCEPTION AND A DRIVE TO LEARN

Effective learning is underpinned by a foundation of self-belief; an individual’s belief that they can make a success of most situations at work, and that their effort to

learn will enhance their performance.12 However, over confidencecanleadtoalackofcuriosity for learning – thinking you know most of what there is to know, you risk plateauing, or worse, derailing. Without an accurate perception of their strengths and weaknesses, individuals are unlikely to experience a drive to learn. And not only must individuals feel driven to learn, but this must also be paired with a drive to transfer this learning into practise.

2. EMBRACING CHALLENGE

Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck discovered that students’ success is influenced not only by their actual ability, but also by the beliefs and goals they bring to the situation.12 A growth mindset – the belief that the harder you work, the more your ability grows – creates receptiveness to challenging situations, knowing that this will promote self-improvement. Errors and feedback are embraced as valuable tools for success. In contrast, people with afixedmindsetbelievethathardwork implies a lack of ability, since they consider talent something that you either have naturally, or you don’t. This encourages people to stay in their comfort zone, avoiding new or challenging situations that could highlight lack of ability.

8 Ericsson (2004). Deliberate Practice and the Acquisition and Maintenance of Expert Performance in Medicine and Related Domains, Academic Medicine, 79, S70-S81.9 Syed, M. (2010). Bounce: The myth of talent and the power of practice. Fourth Estate: London.10 Coyle, D. (2009). The Talent Code: Greatness isn’t born, it’s grown. Random House: New York.11 Grossman, R., & Salas, E. (2011). The transfer of training: what really matters? International Journal of Training & Development, 15, 103-120.12 Blackwell, L.S., Trzesniewski, K.H., & Dweck, C.S. (2007). Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement Across an Adolescent Transition: A Longitudinal Study and an Intervention. Child Development, 78, 246-263.


3. RECEPTIVITY TO FEEDBACK

Receptivity to feedback is critical for learning. The extent to which individuals seek feedback, how they react to it, interpret it and use it, has asignificantimpactondevelopment.Elite athletes thrive on feedback – constantly seeking opinions, analysing video footage and other performance data to assess how they can improve their performance. How often does this happen in business? Effective learning requires continuous monitoring of discrepancies between intended and actual outcomes. Individuals need to be able to reflect on feedback, drawing lessons about the effectiveness of their own thoughts and actions. Leaders’ ability to step outside of themselves, observe their thinking as if from an external perspective, is vital. Without effective reflection, individuals are unable to identify the changes needed to improve performance. In contrast, unproductive reflection sees individuals ruminate excessively over what didn’t work as opposed to what’s possible and changeable.13

4. PRACTICE

As already mentioned, decades of

research shows that outstanding performance requires practising beyond the point of mastery. The reason for it was explained by Daniel Coyle in The Talent Code: “Every human skill, whether it’s playing baseball or playing Bach, is createdbychainsofnervefibres…When we practise swinging that bat or playing that note – our myelin responds by wrapping layers of insulation around that neural circuit, each new layer adding a bit more skill and speed. The thicker the myelin gets, the better insulates, and the faster and more accurate our movements and thoughts become.”10 The business equivalents include decision-making, giving feedback, closing sales, delivering presentations, writing reports. With experience, skills become automated, with less mental capacity required- this is why learner drivers struggle to simultaneously drive a car and hold a conversation. Experts are able to retrieve knowledge effortlessly, with less demand on conscious attention. How? Actual practice can be complemented, and in some cases, replaced by imagined practice in the form of detailed mental rehearsal or visualisation.14 Business simulations or case studies can be used to practise making judgments about performance of a task before and after receiving feedback. Finally, if this is how leaders can ‘learn to learn’, what are the practical implications for HR and business leaders?

•Managersshouldbeencouraged to promote quality on the job

learning experiences, based on an understanding of how to structure work experiences for best learning potential

•Managersshouldbeenlightenedabout the impact of their own beliefsaboutability(fixedorgrowth mindsets) on others’ performance – through the nature of their feedback

•Performancemanagementprocesses should recognise and reinforce learning, effort, and embracing challenge – think twice before punishing errors

•On-the-joblearningismost likely to occur when managers are faced with challenging job situations – resist the temptation to play it safe for short-term gains. Take considered risks on people, giving them opportunities to rise to the challenge, with appropriate support and feedback on their performance (regardless of the outcome)

•Exposeemployeestodifferentpeople and departments, sharing different viewpoints so that they can appreciate other perspectives

•Understandthatlearningfrom experience, particularly challenging stretch assignments, isdifficultwhenmajorcareerdecisions are at stake, and the primary focus is on performing well rather than learning

•Recognisethatexperience doesn’t necessarily lead to improved performance, and that those with more experience may not necessarily be good at helping others learn


13 Avolio, B., & Hannah, S. (2008). Developmental readiness: Accelerating leader development. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 60, 331–347.14 Fazey, J., Fazey, J.A., & Fazey, D. (2005). Learning More Effectively from Experience. Ecology & Society 10, 4-25. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol10/iss2/art4/


Working in the areas of psychology and personal development,

I am fortunate that at Saracens RFC everyone from the Chairman, the CEO, the (previous and existing) Director of Rugby and senior coaches embrace and understand the need to develop our players as people, not just rugby players. In 2009/2010 Saracens Personal Development Programme (PDP) was created with the overriding ethos of ‘caring’ for our players, and developing well-rounded human beings. Whilst similar programmes are funded and driven by Player Unions and National Governing bodies of Professional and Olympic Sports, few are funded and driven from within a club. The lofty aims of Saracens PDP are:

LESSONS FROM SPORT

Saracens Personal Development ProgrammeCaring for & Developing People

ARTICLE BY David Priestley (Saracens Performance Manager)

To improve and

develop The players growTh as a person

To ensure players are noT solely defined by Their sporTing

performances1,2 in line wiTh a subsTanTial body of research

from sporT psychologisTs all over The world, To pro-acTively alleviaTe currenT anxieTies and insecuriTies abouT whaT They will do when They reTire; To sharpen Their sporTing

ambiTions and performances in The presenT3, and ulTimaTely help players

make smooTher TransiTions ouT of Their aThleTe role4,5,6 To acT as a

buffer during difficulT periods whilsT developing a sense of perspecTive and providing emoTional balance

ThroughouT Their careers7 To aTTracT, reTain and develop

TalenTed people To gain compeTiTive advanTages

in whaT is a highly compeTiTive

indusTry.

1 Brewer, B.W., Van Raatle, J.L. & Linder, D.E. (1993). Athletic Identity: Hercules’ muscles or Achilles’’ Heal? International Journal Of Sport Psychology, 24, 237 – 254. 2 Grove, J.R., Lavallee, D., & Gordon, S. (1997). Coping with retirement from sport: The influence of athletic identify. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 9, 191-203. 3 Fogarty, G., Fraser, L., & Albion, M. (2007). Evaluation of the Athlete Career and Education Program: Phase 7. Community and Organisational Research Unit, University of Southern Queensland. 4 Werthner, P., & Orlick, T. (1986). Retirement experiences of successful Olympic athletes. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 17, 337-363. 5 Lavallee, D. (2000). Theoretical Perspectives on career termination in Sport. In D. Lavallee & P. Wylleman (Eds.), Career Transitions in Sport: International Perspectives (pp. 1-29). Morgantown: Fitness Information Technology, Inc.6 Anderson, D. & Morris, T. (2000). Athlete Lifestyle Programmes. In D. Lavallee & P. Wylleman (Eds.), Career Transitions in sport: International Perspectives (pp. 59-80). Morgantown: Fitness Information Technology.7 Brown, M., Cairns, K., & Botterill, C. (2001). The process of perspective: The art of living well in the world of elite sport. Journal of excellence, 5, 5-37

I categorically believe that ‘caring for’ and Personal Development Support in high performance sport (and high performing cultures) is crucial. It is in no way peripheral in terms of support designed to improve performance and will ultimately matter to any organisation’s legacy. Saracens PDP model is illustrated inFigure1,andcomprisesfivetiersof support for the professional players, four tiers of support for the

clubs support staff, and an additional Lifeskill & Leadership Programme for the next generation of players. Whilst it is beyond the scope here to describe each tier in detail, some elements are elaborated on below, with the model offering a concise summary of each support element. Saracens Speaker Series, once a month, challenges our people (players and staff) to push our individual and collective limits. Whether it be Michael Johnson,

Sir Jackie Stewart or Justin Langer sharing their experiences, or the Executive Director of London Air Ambulance (Dr Julian Thompson) or the Founder of Global Ethics & ‘One’ (Duncan Goose), there is a monthly commitment within our club to listen to, and learn from, other people’s experiences to help face our own challenges with a greater dignity and grace. Saracens players are regularly exposed to ‘Vocational Workshops’

Interactiveworkshopsdesignedto keepdepartmentsup to datewith the mostrecent researchand bestpractice intheir area (or outside of their discipline but related in some way to their practice. Depts. inc S&C, Medi-cal & Coaching)

Individual supportfor staffs’professionaldevelopmentinterests (withIndividualisedgraded annualbudgets)

High achievers,from a varietyof professions& disciplineswill be invitedto share theirstories andexperiences,to widen our own perspectiveson life challenges(everyone)

Involvementin a range of charitablecauses.Contributingto, and positivelyinfluencingorganisationsthat supportdisadvantagedpeople.Encouraginga socialresponsibility.

Large groupsessions designedto stimulatethinking withregards specificmattersof vocationaldevelopment(everyone)

Individualsupport for your personaldevelopmentinterests (vocationalor educational)‘alongside’ yourrugby.

From visitingspeakerstalking onareas ofbusiness,personal,sporting and professionaldevelopmentin a moreinteractiveand personalsetting (limitedplaces available)

DEpARTMENTALwORkShOpS

INDIvIDUAL STAFFpROFESSIONALDEvELOpMENT

pLANS

TRAINING GROUND STAFF

SARACENSSpEAkER

SERIES

ChARITAbLEpARTNERShIpS

vOCATIONALpERSONAL

DEvELOpMENTSESSIONS

INDIvIDUALpERSONAL

DEvELOpMENTpLANS

SARACENSLECTURE

SERIES

SARACENS LEADERShIp & LIFESkILL pROGRAMME:Surprising & challenging, monthly experiences to foster greater respect for sport and life’s core values, to expand and accelerate the maturity of our young players. Ensuring any individual’s journey through sport, and their time with the club is as meaningful and rewarding as possible.

SARACENS PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (PDP)

SARACENS PLAYERS

SENIORACADEMY

Fig. 1


on networking, negotiating, or simply hearing from the diverse and fascinating experiences of successful CEO’s from businesses as diverse as Healthcare, Property, Finance and Fashion. Players are also challenged through ‘Saracens Lecture Series’ in greater depth with theoretical underpinning and further reading on topics such as Emotional Intelligence and Conflict Management. In addition to systematic internal training, both players and staff have made a commitment to ‘Charitable Partnerships’ in which we are privileged to utilise the nature of sport in contributing to our local community and those less fortunate than ourselves. Whether it be regular visits to ‘The Choir with no name’ (a choir for homeless people) in London (where our players volunteer to wash dishes after rehearsals), or a terrifying abseil to raise funds for the Hospice of St Francis, players and staff at Saracens realise the responsibility that comes with being professional sportsmen, and the way in which we can all ‘give’ some of our time, and use sport as a vehicle to support noble causes.

Fig. 2 Saracens players with children from Great Ormond Street Hospital

It might also be of particular interest

to note that during the three most successful years in the club’s history, approximately 85% of professional players have been in structured education (with as many as 50% at university) and/or engaged in meaningful work experience placements. Every single person in the entire club has had exposure to some form of personal development activity since 2009.

Fig. 3 Saracens players at a 6-month work placement with Allianz

Saracens Lifeskill & Leadership Programme is designed to experientially foster greater respect for sport and life’s core values within our future players. Professional sports arenas can, in my experience, drive an increasingly ‘win at all costs’ mentality with a narcissistic and financiallydrivenculturewherearguably old-fashioned morals might sometimes be eroded or seen as outdated when celebrity status beckons. Saracens Lifeskill & Leadership Programme creates regular opportunities to accelerate the sporting and personal development of our finestyoungmen. Individual players are nurtured and guided through group based experiences, and reflective

Fig. 4 Saracens players at the Royal Navy Lifeboat Institute

Fig. 5 Saracens players at the McLaren Technology Centre

conversations where players are asked what they learnt aboutthemselves from the experiences, what shocked them, what was going on internally that they didn’t share in the moment but felt, and what they would do next time they experience a similar situation., This helped them to discover more about ‘themself ’ and how best to manage the unpredictable highs and inevitable lows in sport, and in life. Opportunities challenge Saracens players to leave their comfort zones and enhance the self-discovery process, which I believe is so crucial to their future. The Programme operates to ensure any individual’s journey with Saracens (whether it be as brief as one year, or as long


as ten years), is as meaningful and rewarding as possible, as we seek to develop better people, regardless of their sporting success.

RETURNS ON INVESTMENT

“The Saracens PDP has allowed the players to be exposed to experiences outside of professional rugby, to listen to and learn from the experiences of other people. The practical experiences that are facilitated allow the players to be challenged, in areas outside of our normal training and playing routine. The individual nature of the programme means each player can work to develop exactly those areas that they wish to. This programme has had enormousbenefitsforeachplayer and the group as a whole.”(Steve Borthwick, Saracens Captain)

The inception of Saracens PDP was only as recent as 2009, so I cannot espousethebenefitsofalongitudinalresearch study, nor have I conducted a control group design comparing PDP and non-PDP users. Indeed, there is much understandable ambiguity around outcomes that accompany psychological and personal development so readers may wish to explore the effect of Personal Development Programmes in other working domains. Like how NASA’s Integrated Learning and Development Programme

(Menard & Larson, 2008)8 optimises career development of the NASA workforce. Furthermore, research suggests that when PDPs in the workplace are seen as a development tool, and the supervisor is perceived as motivating, the employee is far more likely to undertake more learning activities, show more expertise-growth and flexibility, and report improved performance9. There are also strong recommendations by the government to use PDPs in order to stimulate the continuous professional development of health service in the UK10. Psychological and Personal Development Support like more recognisable sport science generally takes place amidst a myriad of other support and guidance. It is always going to be difficulttounderstandwhich,ifanyof these support inputs are salient with regards to individual and team performance at any moment in time. It seems fair to propose however, and is certainly my experience over the last 13 years in professional sport, that by investing in the personal development and holistic support of our players and staff (and maybe your employees), with an emphasis on building a culture that develops people, we will receive an incredible return on our investment11. In closing I want to stress that Saracens PDP is not just about a model, an Individual Personal Development Plans nor is it especially anything to do with my job description. It is about a collection of quality people, making a conscious commitment to better themselves in relation to their current role and their future life;

I would also hope it is now part of our culture. At Saracens there is an emphasis on humility, and I sense itisavaluethatfortifiesanyPDP,and will become integral to both our club’s legacy and any potential success in the years to come.

iMpLicaTions for YoUr BUsiness 1. Employ and empower

someone to drive an agenda of caring and personal development

2. Utilise guest speakers, arrange lectures, deliver workshops and integrate charitable partnerships to challenge your employee’s current thinking and future goals within and outside their work

3. Organise real world experiences that surprise and stimulate your workforce to unite them around a common cause and develop their self awareness and mental skills

4. Support, through words and deeds, a culture of personal development

* Saracens PDP in collaboration with Hertfordshire University, and with thanks to Peter Harvey, Richard Hill, Neil Burns, Tyrone Long and Mark Lowther.


8 Menard, R., & Larson, W. (2008). Manuscript presented at the 59th International Astronautical Congress, Glasgow, Scotland, 29 September and 3 October 2008”. www.iafastro.org9 Beausaert, S. A. J., (2011). Maastricht, The Netherlands, 2011 ISBN: 9789461590749 Cover: Jo Frenken, Jan Van Eyck Academy. Printed and bound by Datawyse, Maastricht, The Netherlands. 10 Bullock, A., Firmstone, V., Frame, J., & Bedward, J. (2007). Enhancing the benefit of continuing professional development: A randomized controlled study of personal development plans for dentists. Learning in Health

and Social Care, 6 (1), 14-2611 Priestley, D. (2008). A qualitative exploration of lifestyle oriented and non-performance based experiences of professional English county cricketers. A critique of existing support structures and practitioner

support roles. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis. British Library.

ocial media is here, and is a daily part of peoples’ lives. The majority of

organisations have embraced its use for marketing purposes – promoting new products to a wide-ranging (and ever-growing) audience, having great conversations with customers and monitoring the activity of the competition. But have organisations really embraced its use internally – for employees to connect, engage and have great conversations?

The popularity of social media is undeniable:

ocial media has grown rapidly–nearlyfourinfiveactive internet users visit

social networks and blogs1

acebook declared that there were 955 million monthly active users at the end

of June 20122

orldwide, people send on average 140 million tweets per day3

hese are big numbers we’re talking about. More likely than not, your employees

are using it outside of work to keep connected to friends, family and gather important information. If they’re familiar with the technology, and actively use it, why not use it

internally to garner the same level of engagement while at work?

‘ve spoken to three senior execs about their view on the use of social media

internally within organisations – does it, or how can it, promote employee conversations, engagement and connection?

Adrian Moorhouse: Business Leader

think the use of social media internally is an untapped area within a lot

of organisations. As a business leader, I understand that I am a role model, figureheadandveryvisible.Butit’snot just my physical presence and planned corporate messages that are scrutinised – my presence on public social media sites are just as important – and my behaviour here should be congruent with the values and messages I display elsewhere. What about those business leaders not visible and present on social media sites? According to recent research,4 only 1 CEO out of the FTSE 100 is actively using Twitter. I think leaders need to step out of their comfort zone. I think a presence on social media will be a crucial part of a leader’s role in the future – just like ‘town hall’ presentations. Whether this is a blog, a twitter feed, or a

personalprofileonasocialsite–itisan opportunity for a leader to show their personality, reinforce existing messages and start conversations with employees. Leaders can use it as a pulse check – a way to share ideas and ultimately build rapport with employees that they may not see every day. Social media is making leadership more personal – it’s an insight into my personality, getting to know me better, but also giving me the opportunity to understand my employees that little bit more. There is a whole generation who are growing up with this technology and who are going to be the future employees – and leaders – of your organisations. Why would they choose to work in your organisation if you are not engaging with them on their platform of choice? Why are they going to respect their current senior leaders if they are not visible, authentic and transparent? I’m not suggesting that there aren’t limitations to social media – discussing organisational strategy in a public forum where competitors may be present is not the best idea, andhavingdetailedorconfidentialdiscussions are a no-no. But as long asyouaresensible,thebenefitsoutweigh any potential downfalls. Social media is a great opportunity for leaders to engage with employees in an authentic and genuine way.

I

I


S

T

S

F

W

M O R E

M A K I N G

S O C I A LO SR AG TA I SN OI N

1 Nielson, December 2011 -http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/ 2 Facebook - http://newsroom.fb.com/content/default.aspx?NewsAreaId=223 Twitter, March 2011 - http://blog.twitter.com/2011/03/numbers.html.4 http://library.the-group.net/thegroup/client_upload/file/GRP_Social_Media_update_June_2012(1).pdf

ARTICLE BY Emma Weeks

These platforms haven’t been created in a corporate lab – they have been built to bring people closer together – and what business leader wouldn’t want to encourage this inter-connectivity among their employees?

Louise Oliver: Senior Communications Consultant

ocial media is a key communications tool embraced by many brands

especially in their external marketing activities. Even businesses that are not at the cutting edge cannot ignore the popularity of channels such as Facebook and Twitter. There is no doubt that social media platforms have become part of the fabric of modern society and how we communicate with our networks. For many internal communicators, social media has served to heighten collaboration among employees as well as drive participation and engagement with business objectives. It also breaks down the hierarchy, giving employees and leaders an opportunity to communicate on an even platform. In many organisations, however, it remains a slightly foreign concept, most comfortably deployed by employeesoutsideofofficehours. One of the major consequences of social media is that the lines of internal communication and external communication have been blurred beyond recognition. It is now neigh-on impossible to ensure that an internal message (whether it is spoken or written) is not shared externally. Although this may sound frightening, it is an exciting challenge for all internal communicators – make your message consistent, credible and engaging. We’ve all heard of ‘brand love’ – marketing speak for a consumer’s fondness of their favourite

brand – this is an opportunity to convert your employees, making them all brand ambassadors. Social media may not be an appropriate internal communication tactic for every business but it’s certainlyheretostay.Benefitsofits use include innovation and idea exchange, employee engagement, knowledge management and collaboration. Utilising a social media aspect in your next L&D programme feels like a no-brainer – encourage your employees to ask questions, discuss topics, share stories and get closer to each other.

Neil Morrison: HRD, Random House

he focus of social media shouldn’t be about tools, it should be about the value

that the tools can create. We seem to understand this increasingly when it comes to external marketing, but somehow lose this when it comes to employee use. Often because debates on internal use are based on fear, mistrust and control, rather than excitement, engagement and empowerment. Web 2.0, the social web, social media....whatever you choose to call it is perhaps the most liberating opportunity for businesses since the invention of the microchip. So why are we so reticent to harness the power of this internally? Allowing employees to listen and engage with consumers, customers and clients. To share knowledge and learning, amongst themselves, to ask questions. These are all elements of human management practice that we have talked about for years and the moment that we have the tools to really enable us to do so, we shy away and hide behind policies. Treating employees as adults, means trusting them to do the right

thing, giving them responsibility and accountability and accepting that sometimes things go wrong. Treating employees as adults is also counter intuitive to most organisations. Those that try to control social media, that are fearful of social media are missing outonanopportunitytoredefinetheir organisational culture. Those that trust and understand the value that their employees create will see this as an opportunity to further drive value and engagement within their organisations

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?

s our working lives involve more time spent online, it would make sense to

be able to talk to employees using their preferred platform. Do you have time to wait three days for an email reply, or two weeks to arrange a project focus group? Huge organisations are utilising instant messaging platforms, dedicated blogs and Facebook pages to engage employees directly – using technology they are familiar with. But, crucially, not every organisation is embracing the use of social media internally. There are a number of common barriers to the implementation of social media within an organisation, which often include lack of understanding, deployment without clear purpose and poor technological infrastructure. All of these can be overcome with clear planning and an understanding of how your employees will be using it. The relationship between employees and workplaces is changing - because that’s what you’re in now, and have been all along – a relationship with your employees. Organisations need to become more social, or be aware of the implications of being left behind.

TA


S

Is Internal Comms a ‘nice to have’ or essential tool of modern business?“The range of available options means that internal communications are faster and easier to distribute. This can be a double-edged sword.” HR Magazine highlight the importance of internal communications but discuss the associated dangers such as employees being bombarded with different messages, corporate jargon and lack of ownership as different departments vie for control.http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/hro/news/1019749/half-employers-refuse-flexible-2012-olympics

Patrick Mammone Communications ExecutiveLane4

Mark Richardson Principal ConsultantLane4

Good communication is crucial for engagement, and employee engagement is crucial to performance. Regardless of where internal comms sits within an organisation, a consistent and quality approach is essential. As the article describes, great internal communicators must be able to act as strategic advisors and manage multiple stakeholder relationships, whilst at the same time support the tactical delivery of everyday communication. Here at Lane4, our communications philosophy is underpinned by the M.A.D. acronym. To deliver a consistent and quality approach to communication, we ask our clients to consider what their one big idea is (the message), who they are communicating to (their audience) and how they can communicate this effectively (delivery).

Tom’s ability to compartmentalise different aspects of his life is clearly a signature strength. His ability to refocus, seize ‘control of the controllables’ and to disregard the pressures brought to bear by a ‘home’ games as well as the shadow side of social media to clinch an Olympic Bronze was nothing shortofremarkable.Tomisalsoafineexampleof what can be achieved if you set goals that command your thoughts, liberate your energy and inspire your hopes. At the age of nine he drew a picture of himself on the podium at London 2012 and he had the fortitude, resilience and learning capacity to deliver on that inspirational dream.

HOT TOPICS


How do athletes bounce back? The case of Tom DaleyTom Daley faced a lot of set-backs before winning his bronze medal at London 2012; his father dying, a particularly aggressive twitter troll and missing out on a medal in the men’s 10m synchro event.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-19209811

Dominic Mahony Client Services DirectorLane4

As Team Manager for the Modern Pentathlon, what really struck me was that this wasn’t just a management edict, stuck on a wall and then ignored forever more. I believe this was because there was as much focus placed on the process as the resultant ‘standards’. All Team Managers wereengagedinthisprocesswhichfilteredthrough to the athletes so that everyone felt they had contributed. As a result the standards moved from espoused to enacted by every single member of the team. The process was also supported by really high class materials. These included videos of ex-Olympians such as Ed Moses and Michael Johnson talking about their experiences of the Home Games alongside some of our own role models such as Dame Kelly Holmes and Sir Chris Hoy bringing the standards to life.

Has The Olympics Boosted Workplace Morale?According to a recent study by People Management magazine, seven in ten managers said that their workplace had bonded over the joint viewing experience, while 37 per cent had felt more personally productive.http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2012/08/olympics-boosted-workplace-morale-study-shows.htm

Do ‘performance standards’ such as those employed by Team GB work?Clive Woodward told The Guardian he had noticed that cycling and other leading sports had higher standards of behaviour than others in Beijing. “We weren’t one team in the cultures, the standards and how we operated, so we have comeupwithfivekeywords:performance,responsibility, unity, pride and respect.” These ‘bare minimum standards’ were set up to engender a feeling of team spirit amongst all athletes who were part of Team GB.http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jul/12/sir-clive-woodward-standards-olympic

Adrian Moorhouse Managing Director Lane4

Whentimesaredifficult,astheyhavebeen for many businesses over the past few years, we tend to focus on the daily grind. What the Olympics provided was some respite; a chance to get together socially and just enjoy each other’s company. But what’s really interesting to me is the impact on productivity. What was going on here? My guess is that watching people push themselves to the limits to reach their goals inspired a different attitude – ‘what’s the best I can be?’ rather than ‘what’s good enough?’. The challenge here is to sustain this shift. At an organisational level, companies should be looking at how they can continue to use lessons and role models from the Games to inspire high performance. On a personal level, people can look at what they did differently – a lunch time run or one less coffee break perhaps – and think about how to turn this into a habit.



OUR CONTRIBUTORS

vICkY wELLS Principal ConsultantLane4

Vicky has worked with Lane4 since 1999. She has a background in delivering large scale change projects in several sectors including Retail and Utilities. Her interest lies particularly in conflict resolution and working with organisations, teams and individuals experiencing change and conflict. She is passionate about the opportunities for delivering changes well and achieving peak performance indifficultcircumstances.

MELANIE wALLINGER Product Development ConsultantLane4

Melanie joined Lane4 in 2010. Her role as a Product Development Consultant is centred around translating academic research and theory in business and performance psychology into innovative product offerings. Prior to joining Lane4 Melanie completed her Masters in Occupational and Organisational Psychology. Outside of work she takes part in a variety of sports and enjoys travelling.

FIONA MCphEEManagement TrainerLane4

Fiona joined Lane4 in 2006 as part of the Research and Diagnostics Team, supporting clients to identify strengths and development areas. She then branched into ConsultantDevelopment before moving into the Training Team as a Management Trainer. Fiona has an MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology from Loughborough University and was scouted for England Netball trials at the age of 16 becoming a Tier Three player. She continues to play and coach for enjoyment.

RIChARD bRIEGEL-JONESBusiness Development AssistantLane4

Richard joined Lane4 having completed a Masters in Sport Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University. Before joining Lane4, Richard worked at Liverpool Football Club in the Education and Welfare Department. In collaboration with the Amateur Swimming Association and Liverpool John Moores, Richard was lead author on a research project investigating the effects of yoga on mindfulness and flow in elite youth swimmers, which was presented at the British Psychological Society 2012 Annual Conference.

NATALIE bENJAMIN Head of Communications Lane4

Natalie trained as ajournalist at Cardiff Schoolof Journalism, moving intomarketing, PR and publicaffairs within agencies beforetransitioning into employee and leadership communication roles.She has competed forGreat Britain over 1500mand also competed forWales at the 2002 and 2006Commonwealth Games.Natalie leads Lane4’sCommunications business..

ChRISTIAN ThING Management Trainer Lane4

Christian joined Lane4 in 2009 having completed an MSc in Performance Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. As part of the Training Team he works with managers to develop skills that improve team and individual performance. Christian has a keen interest in team dynamics and in particular how teams create environments which allow all members to perform at their best.

EMMA wEEkS Marketing ExecutiveLane4

Emma joined Lane4 in 2010, after graduating from Sussex University and working in marketing for 3 years. She has since gained the Professional Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing and is an Associate of the Institute. Emma works in the Lane4 marketing team and manages Lane4’s external communications via PR, social media and the Lane4 website.

pENNY MAvORAssociate Consultant Lane4

Penny joined Lane4 in 2006 and is now an Associate Consultant based in Rome. She draws her expertise, experience and energy from working in sustainable development and leadership development in New Zealand, United Kingdom and Italy. For the last 19 years she has been helping individuals, teams and organisations from multiple industry sectors enhance their performance through coaching and facilitation, and has a particular interest in mindfulness.

DR. ZARA whYSALL Head of Research and Product Lane4

Zara is responsible for the ongoing, innovative development of Lane4 Research and Product, in alignment with market and client requirements. She has an MSc in Occupational Psychology from Nottingham University and a PhD in Applied Psychology (Behaviour Change) from Loughborough University. Zara has recently been appointed a Visiting Fellow of Loughborough University in recognition of Lane4’s close work with the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences.

LINDSAY MOLYNEAUx National Sports Coordinator, English Institute of Sport

Lindsay combines her passion for achieving high performance and interest in people development by co-ordinating various national programmes at the English Institute of Sport. She is a sport and exercise science graduate from Loughborough University, where she explored performance leadership and recently published a research paper in this area. Lindsay also enjoyed working for LOCOG to support World Archery at the London 2012 Games.

JANINE UShER Management TrainerLane4

Janine is a former world class swimmer having competed at the highest level internationally. Whilst a member of the GB Senior swimming team for 8 years she competed at two Olympic Games,finishing6thintheOlympic Final in Sydney 2000, and became World Champion and World Record holder as part of the 4x200 freestyle relay in 2001. Janine has an MSc in Sport & Exercise Psychology from Loughborough University. She has been a member of the Lane4 Training team since 2010.

ELEANOR hANLEYTalent Management and Assessment ConsultantLane4

Eleanor is passionate about supporting individuals, teams and organisations to improve their performance through increased awareness of strengths and development areas. She is en route to full chartership as an Occupational Psychologist and is Level A and B accredited in Dimensions. She is also an accredited coach and uses this approach in her work with clients. She advises on, and delivers a range of talent management including development centres, assessment centres and psychometrics.

RICk COTGREAvEAssociate Management TrainerLane4

Rick is a former England lacrosse international - playing and coaching in Europe, North America and Australia. Having retired from playing he followed his passion for sharingthebenefitsofsport,teachingPEinSheffield.Hislatest transformation brings his enthusiasm to coaching and training. Rick has a keen interest in helping develop the mindset that embraces change and creates positive performance gains.

MUSTAFA SARkARPhD Research StudentLoughborough University

Mustafa is a PhD researcher in Sport and Performance Psychology at Loughborough University. His research provides an insight into how high achievers deliver sustainable performance in pressured environments. He has worked closely with sport organisations including British Triathlon, the England and Wales Cricket Board, the National Health Service, and the Youth Sport Trust.

SUZANNE ROSS Leadership Consultant

Suzanne has 20 years experience in performance development. She works as an independent talent consultant, leadership coach and facilitator. Suzanne is a fellow of Nottingham Business School, where she is completing a PhD on leadership talent, success and derailment. If you are a Senior Leader and would like to take part in this research, please contact Suzanne at [email protected] or on +44 (0)7879 559046.

DAvID pRIESTLEYPerformance Manager, Saracens RFC

Davidisfirstandforemost,afamily man. He has worked in professional sport for over 13 years, in Football, Cricket and currently works for Saracens. His Masters and PhD explored the lives of professional athletes and how to support them. He adopts a person-centered approach to sport and team psychology and supports various charities through his work in sport.

DR. DAvID FLETChER Director of the Sport Psychology Support Service, Loughborough University

David is a distinguished sport psychologist, having published ground-breaking research in the area of elite performance and consulted with world and Olympic medal winners. Since receiving his doctorate degree, David has worked as the Director of the Sport Psychology Support Service at Loughborough University –TheOfficialPreparationCamp Headquarters for Team GB prior to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

RAChEL ARNOLDPhD Research StudentLoughborough University

RachelisafinalyearPhDresearch student in Sport and Performance Psychology at Loughborough University. Her research focuses on the psychology of sporting excellence,withspecificreference to performance leadership, management, environments, and cultures. Drawing on this research and her own current experiences as an elite-level hockey player, Rachel provides psychology-related support to various sport performers and organisations.

DR ChRIS wAGSTAFF Senior Lecturer and Performance PsychologistUniversity of Portsmouth

Chris is a psychologist with expertise in the development of elite performance domains. He researches and consults with senior leaders, talented individuals and teams across sport, military, and business sectors. He worked closely with a number of Olympic and Paralympic athletes in the lead up to and during this summer’s Games.


Pleasefindbelowaselectionofinterestingarticles, urls, recommended reads, conferences and exhibitions to attend or just stuff we at Lane4 think is interesting.

4U TWITTER Our resident Tweeter, Emma Weeks recommends:

@HuffPostUK The latest news headlines, served up alongside opinions and blogs from across the UK.

@OccpsychUK Occupational Psychology relevant news, research and events.

@TalentMgtMag The Business of Talent Management. Tweets from Talent Management Magazine.

@neilmorrison HRD of Random House, contributor to this issue of The Wave and runs an award winning HR blog http://www.change-effect.com

BLOGS LANE4 COMMENTATE Commentate is our new blog which shares our insights into the exciting world of communication. We talk mostly about our experiences and observations on internal communications and offer you our views on the latest news, trends and best practice.Follow Lane4 Commentate:

http://www.lane4performance.com/blogs.aspx?sitesectionid=206&sitesectiontitle=Commentateg

BOOKS

If Not Now, When?: One man’s extraordinary quest for Olympic glory,twentyyearsafterhisfirst gold medal (Macmillan)GreG Searle

Our own Greg Searle’s story of the highs, lows and sheer hard work that it takes to perform at the top level in sport.

The New Psychology of Leadership: Identity, Influence and Power (Psychology Press) S.a. HaSlam, S.D. reicHer anD m.J. Platow

“Haslam, Reicher and Platow skilfully navigate the reader through the journey that the psychology of leadership has taken over time. Starting with the historical approach of the ‘great man’ theory, the book unfolds various theories of leadership and brings the reader to what the authors refer to as ‘the new psychology of leadership’ – an understanding of social identity and self-categorisation. Comprehensible and accessible this book paints a picture of the ‘why’ of human behaviour, and the tools at a leader’s disposal to influence it.”

Melanie WallingerProduct ConsultantLane4

The Logic of Failure: Recognizing and Avoiding Error in Complex Situations (Perseus) Dietrict Dörner

“This book provides example after example of real situations where well-meaning decisions made things worse because of a failure to understand the complexity of systems. My favourite section is where Professor Dörner reminds us that all solutions are conditional and when we think we have discovered universally applicable solutions (Golden Rules) it is only because we have forgotten this fact. Something that works (or doesn’t work) in one context will not necessarily be the same in another.”

Ken ThompsonBioteams and Lane4 Associate

How To Coach A Woman (Crown House) lynette allen anD meG reiD

“I’m always a little sceptical about books like this and, having read it, I’m not convinced about the need to coach women differently. That said, I do believe that the skill of great coaching is to adapt your style depending on the individual you are working with. Using this lens, I found the book to be very useful, providing some handy tools and great examples of coaching conversations to learn from.

Tara JonesPrincipal ConsultantLane4


Lane4 Management Group LtdSt Marks House Station RoadBourne End BuckinghamshireSL8 5QF United Kingdom

t +44 (0)1628 533 733f +44 (0)1628 533 766

www.lane4performance.comtwitter @Lane4Group

Turning pressure into a positive…

At Lane4 we are experts in helping leaders to thrive under pressure and bounce back following adversity. Our unique approach to personal resilience is underpinned by performance psychology research in business and sport. We also offer a range of diagnostic tools, helping people to reflect on their experience of pressure and identify their strengths and development areas.

For more information please contact our Client RelationshipConsultant Fran Nash on [email protected] or call +44 (0)1628 533733

Making the most

of your talent Lane4 helps organisations gain competitive advantage by making the most of talent at every level.

Measurement and feedback is critical to making effective decisions, whether it’s who to select into a role, how to create succession plans or what to focus on for personal development. Our unique approach to talent assessment and development goes beyond current and past achievement to focus on potential. We help organisations to not only identify and develop talent, but alsoenablepeopletofulfiltheirpotentialandavoidderailmentalongtheway.

Examples include: •Stayingresilientandmaintainingperformancelevelsthroughchange•Thrivingwithinatoughworkingenvironment•Copingwithincreasedworkloadsfollowingredundanciesorare-structure•Eliminatingsicknessabsenceduetostress

Our personal resilience programmes can either be delivered as a stand alone or as part of a broader leadership programme. Our interventions can be adapted to leaders at all levels within your organisation.

Examples include: •Determiningwhatpotentiallookslikeforyourbusiness•Helpingpeopletransitionfrommanagementtoseniorleadershiproles•Identifyingwhetheryouhavetherighttalentinplaceforfuturesuccess•Ensuringaconsistenttalentmanagementprocess•Creatingalearningculture

What specific issues and challenges do we help to address?

What specific issues and challenges do we help to address? For more information please contact our Client RelationshipConsultant Fran Nash on [email protected] or call +44 (0)1628 533733

Documents

Lane4 Wave