Why now is the time for Quiet Leaders to step forward

For several generations, the commonly held perception has been that success in the workplace, particularly in senior positions, belongs to those who demonstrate more extroverted tendencies.

However, the business environment is a very different place than it was 5, even 2 years ago. Uncertainty is at unprecedented levels, due in large part to the pandemic and the technological advancements that are impacting all aspects of our lives. Additionally, the perspective of many workers has changed, with employees considering the importance of purpose, meaning and flexibility more than ever before.

To succeed in this new and ever changing environment, organisations and individuals need to rethink what good leadership looks like. Do we need heroic, alpha-leaders charging forward and sticking their flag in the ground? Or is it time for the Quiet Leader to step up, leveraging their considered, reflective, empathetic, inclusive strengths? Let’s take a closer look at 4 of the key contemporary business challenges and consider the benefits that Quiet Leadership could bring to the table.

1) Advanced technologies are being implemented at pace

The rapid pace of development and deployment of advanced technologies is impacting the roles of leaders. Decision making and the setting and shaping of strategy needs to be faster and requires deeper input from technical experts. The tendency of a Quiet Leader to ‘Lead from Behind’ is very powerful in this environment, listening deeply to their team members and delegating decision making to the lowest possible level. 

Quiet Leaders also need to leverage their tendency to be lifelong learners to continue developing technical expertise that enables them to be close enough to the details, relate well to their increasingly technically competent team members and to explain technical issues to peers and bosses. 

High levels of empathy for employees is also critically important, given the rapid changes that technological advancements are making to job roles. Many employees may be feeling a sense of insecurity or fear that their job will become redundant or change in unforeseen ways due to the adoption of robotic process automation, machine learning or other advanced technologies. An ongoing, open dialogue around evolving role and skill requirements creates a healthy dynamic and supports employees to prepare themselves with new skills, or to get ready to focus on different, ideally higher value activities.

2) The business environment is more complex than ever

We are navigating through unprecedented levels of complexity. The aforementioned technological advancements alone are delivering change at a pace previously unfamiliar to us. Add to this the (still to be understood) implications of the pandemic, the polarized political environment and the proliferation of information availability and we end up with a very complicated environment indeed.

There is no way that any leader can pretend to know it all in this environment. A Quiet Leader who enquires, listens and challenges the thinking of their team in a respectful and thoughtful manner will obtain a richer picture of diverse viewpoints. By continually seeking new information and diving deep into a wide variety of topics, they build knowledge whilst also increasing the perspective of the team and spurring innovation. Indeed a 2021 Harvard Business Review article by Linda Hill and others proposes that there are 4 sources of perspective that are underrepresented in decision making; the customer perspective, the local (vs. global or HQ) perspective, the data-informed perspective, and the outsider perspective. A Quiet Leader who develops and nurtures the required connections is well placed to absorb and consolidate all of these perspectives to get a better understanding of complex and dynamic issues. 

Quiet Leaders also tend to excel at big-picture thinking, they recognise patterns and see situations from multiple perspectives. This is a superpower when it comes to solving complex problems. However, whilst reflection time and multiple information sources can be beneficial when making big decisions, Quiet Leaders need to guard against the perception (or sometimes reality) of their procrastination, or indecisiveness. Being conscious of how much information and consideration time is required when compared to the importance and complexity of the decision is a useful technique to combat this potential weakness. For example, for a major go/no-go decision on a new product, a Quiet Leader should communicate and assert the need for sufficient time to make a decision, whereas design decisions based upon ongoing iteration and experimentation should be managed within a framework that facilitates fast decision making, delegated to empowered experts.

3) We are living in very uncertain times

These complex and fast changing times are creating massive uncertainty for leaders and employees across industries. Macro topics such as climate change, automation, artificial intelligence, increasing inequality, not to mention pandemics and political uncertainty, leave many people wondering what’s next for their jobs, their families, and our collective futures. 

A cool, calm and collected leadership style can provide an immediate sense of stability for worried employees. Working with, or reporting to a Quiet Leader who is not jumping from decision to decision, or running around whipping up a sense of crisis can have a tremendous, calming ripple effect in times of high pressure, uncertainty, or crisis.

Quiet Leaders need to ensure they know when to step forward. They manage their assertiveness and energy levels to ensure that they are not seen as someone to be messed with, or some kind of pushover. Composed, competent and assertive, a Quiet Leader never hides from responsibilities, they stick to their principles, get their points heard and always step forward when required.

4) Employee expectations have changed

It has been evident for some time that younger generations are seeking more meaning, purpose, flexibility and autonomy in their roles. The myth of the heroic, all knowing leader, commanding and controlling from an ivory tower has long been dying out. Whilst it could be argued that a more directive, charismatic leader can be effective to inspire less motivated, or indeed less proactive employees, research by Adam Grant and others at Wharton suggests that extroverted leadership can be a potential source of friction when leading talented teams who want to take the initiative in their work.

More recently, the ‘great resignation’ provides evidence that the desire for a different kind of workplace is no longer a generational matter. In knowledge based industries, management layers have been flattening and organisational structures have become more matrix and hybrid in nature. Higher levels of talent density also changes the leadership dynamic. High caliber, technically astute employees thrive when given plenty of context on organisational goals and environmental factors, and space to innovate within frameworks for delegated decision making. 

With little desire to be the centre of attention, Quiet Leaders are naturals at giving others the chance to shine and grow into the next generation of leaders. They are compassionate and empathetic, providing support and guidance to their colleagues and direct reports whilst setting high standards. Their natural tendency to excel as coaches, mentors and facilitators builds an inclusive culture that supports talent attraction and retention.

Conclusion

There has never been a time more suited to the traits of a Quiet Leader. If the diagnosis is one of complexity, ambiguity, uncertainty and rapid change, then the prescription should be one of Leading from Behind. A Quiet Leader who develops and owns their strengths in gathering different perspectives, avoids getting caught up in the drama of the latest emergency, lets the experts have their say in decision making, and steps forward when required is the ideal leader in the contemporary business environment.

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