My Leadership Diaries: Are you adjusting your P Factor ?
Leadership isnt just about leading. Its about mentoring, bringing teams together and creative a value based engagement that the leader and team both can benefit out of. But in reality this all looks good in theory. In reality all organizations have to deal with the P factor..
What is a P Factor anyways?
Actually it is an aerodynamic phenomenon experienced by a moving propeller ( much like an organization), that is responsible for the asymmetrical relocation of the propeller's center of thrust (causing organizational/teams to function sub-optimally) when an aircraft is at a high angle of attack (when the teams are in an execution mode). This shift in the location of the center of thrust will exert a yawing moment on the aircraft, causing it to yaw slightly to one side. A rudder input (anchoring force of leadership) is required to counteract the yawing tendency
It is the P Factor that causes the organization to go off course because like in aerodynamics. organizations are built on their own P Factorizations.
People, aren't your biggest challenge , but what they come to work with , clearly is. Do they bring in Passion to work? Passion is what courses through your veins. Gets you all excited and always charged up. You don't need a leader to teach you passion. It flows within you. Not many of us are blessed with a job that we can be passionate about. Find your recourses. Inside or outside the organization. It helps to have something you love doing charging you up...For me its a good workout, for someone else it could a blog you just wrote or a puzzle you cracked. Keep it personal and you will soon find that enthusaiasm and passion to excel in spaces unexplored previously. Dispassionate teams while do get the job done, do not help if the organisation is experiencing a dip or skew or a course correction.
Process, Clearly organizations are defined around guiding principles of process. This is what keeps the teams stable and allow a smooth functioning. However external forces are dynamic and more often than not force upon businesses to change their processes. It could be around how you reach your market, or work with your vendors and partners or respond to Gen Z employee workforce. This will call for a significant change in the way you redefine processes. The quicker you move, the faster you change, may cause the organization to stabilise itself faster than competition. Sometimes it is not the change, but the lack of it that causes organizations to flounder and move rudderless.
Purpose, Someone had put this up on their personal profile.."Life is a flow...Be the flow"..Profound indeed. But that got me thinking..flow how? flow where? Life isn't meant to be dictated by deadlines in the long run, what is a life without purpose?Defining your pupose helps you bring in more value as you start seeing your work as a means of an extension to your purpose or for many of us- the purpose itself. It is significant at the enterprise level, in that a clear definition of purpose and approach guideline often allows leaders to galvanise teams and also take decisions quicker because they are aligned to the overall vision. At the individual level too, leaders are responsible to adjusting team dynamics and being cognizant of people on their teams, I am not saying purpose as in just wanting to be the head of your function or the CXO etc. It's more about how you can work with people to define a milestone, bring in the larger context of team glory and work assiduously towards it.
Predictability,How we succumb to pressure is another barometer leaders always observe. You can bet on that. Sometimes the pressure is just that- a benchmark to decide who amongst the teams are capable enough of leading the group in situations. Ditto in the larger context. The ability to get our act together, bring out solution or alternatives, gather the necessary ammo to address whatever the challenge is are all good indicators of how we work the system. Here too different strokes for different folks.. Some of us prefer to put our heads down and come up with a plan ourselves, others brainstorms and create resolutions. There isnt any right or wrong style. Its just what works for the situation. But what leaders look for is predictability- who in the team can hold fort, and who in the team can actually take up charge.
It is a fact that leaders are adjusting and readjusting constantly based on their readings on the radar. Both external and internal forces are equally important to ensure the organization does not bobble but remains steady and mindful of where its going. Most organizations will have 1 or 2 of it forces correctly aligned but perhaps not all.
People, aren't your biggest challenge , but what they come to work with , clearly is. Do they bring in Passion to work? Passion is what courses through your veins. Gets you all excited and always charged up. You don't need a leader to teach you passion. It flows within you. Not many of us are blessed with a job that we can be passionate about. Find your recourses. Inside or outside the organization. It helps to have something you love doing charging you up...For me its a good workout, for someone else it could a blog you just wrote or a puzzle you cracked. Keep it personal and you will soon find that enthusaiasm and passion to excel in spaces unexplored previously. Dispassionate teams while do get the job done, do not help if the organisation is experiencing a dip or skew or a course correction.
Process, Clearly organizations are defined around guiding principles of process. This is what keeps the teams stable and allow a smooth functioning. However external forces are dynamic and more often than not force upon businesses to change their processes. It could be around how you reach your market, or work with your vendors and partners or respond to Gen Z employee workforce. This will call for a significant change in the way you redefine processes. The quicker you move, the faster you change, may cause the organization to stabilise itself faster than competition. Sometimes it is not the change, but the lack of it that causes organizations to flounder and move rudderless.
Purpose, Someone had put this up on their personal profile.."Life is a flow...Be the flow"..Profound indeed. But that got me thinking..flow how? flow where? Life isn't meant to be dictated by deadlines in the long run, what is a life without purpose?Defining your pupose helps you bring in more value as you start seeing your work as a means of an extension to your purpose or for many of us- the purpose itself. It is significant at the enterprise level, in that a clear definition of purpose and approach guideline often allows leaders to galvanise teams and also take decisions quicker because they are aligned to the overall vision. At the individual level too, leaders are responsible to adjusting team dynamics and being cognizant of people on their teams, I am not saying purpose as in just wanting to be the head of your function or the CXO etc. It's more about how you can work with people to define a milestone, bring in the larger context of team glory and work assiduously towards it.
Predictability,How we succumb to pressure is another barometer leaders always observe. You can bet on that. Sometimes the pressure is just that- a benchmark to decide who amongst the teams are capable enough of leading the group in situations. Ditto in the larger context. The ability to get our act together, bring out solution or alternatives, gather the necessary ammo to address whatever the challenge is are all good indicators of how we work the system. Here too different strokes for different folks.. Some of us prefer to put our heads down and come up with a plan ourselves, others brainstorms and create resolutions. There isnt any right or wrong style. Its just what works for the situation. But what leaders look for is predictability- who in the team can hold fort, and who in the team can actually take up charge.
It is a fact that leaders are adjusting and readjusting constantly based on their readings on the radar. Both external and internal forces are equally important to ensure the organization does not bobble but remains steady and mindful of where its going. Most organizations will have 1 or 2 of it forces correctly aligned but perhaps not all.
Managing forces through adjusting your P Factor, is what determines success!
Tamer El Sagheer
Skillinside
👍👍👍
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