From the Public Health Performance Management System we grab this definition:
“Visible Leadership is the commitment of senior management to a culture of quality that aligns performance management practices with the organisation’s mission, regularly takes into account customer feedback and enables transparency about performance between leadership and staff”
Einstein was known to say “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” – so to bring simplicity to this topic – leadership visibility is all about conversations!
Why the desire to know more about visibility leadership?
It is quite simple, more people are searching for deeper insight into this topic because of its direct link to staff engagement, to your Net Promoter Scores and to the retention of the right people in the business. Then when you keep the right people, visibility enables greater certainty when building talent bench strength.
Visibility leadership is not just about both internal and external people “seeing” their leaders it is about them seeing their leaders demonstrate the values of the business through their behaviours when managing the performance of people.
What is visibility leadership?
We summarise it into three “simple” things to focus on when engaging in conversations:
Alignment
Everyone in the business is aligned to the purpose and vision through real conversations with the leader or manager they report directly to and as a result they walk away with feelings of belonging and significance – they feel like a “tribe”, one of our basic human needs
Being Present
When talking to people visibility leadership means I am truly present and listening to what the person is sharing with me – not taking a peek at my mobile phone or looking at my screen as emails “ping”
Honesty
When talking to people share what you are really thinking and feeling about the business, your role as a leader and the performance of people within the team.
How do we create visibility in leadership?
It’s all about real conversations that leaders engage in with their people to find out what is really happening for them. It is NOT anything like the old “managing by wandering around” leadership theory that far too many leaders remember – where leaders wander the halls saying “hi” to everyone, showing their faces and making sure people “see” them, maybe engaging in “trivial” type conversations that neither person will recall later. This approach brings a certain lack of sincerity and authenticity – it is showy and resulted in bigger facades for the leader!
Visibility in leadership is all about leaders being vulnerable – it has nothing to do with playing “safe” and everything to do with taking the risks of truly connecting with the people in the business.
What benefits does visible leadership create?
For the organisation it is simple – high achievement because the culture is consistently strong enabling each individual to be at their best and deliver and meet or exceed their KPIs. For the individual it is simple: they feel connected, they feel significant and they “belong”
To find out more about the nature of these kinds of conversations and more detail about the impacts – give us a call.
