Transitioning into a Leadership Role: Tool #2 Building unity of thought

From isolation to community

One of the hardest adjustments for a new leader is the feeling that you have lost your friends from the previous role.

Your old teammates don’t relate to you as before, the new team is unaccustomed to your leadership, and you don’t yet have colleagues at the managerial level. This feels very isolating. It is human nature to want to be liked and to seek belonging to a group. A feeling of a loss of community can make the transition to leadership feel lonely.

Why does this happen? When there is a change of status for someone in an organization, the entire group has a sense of being off balance. There is always some upheaval before you as manager find your groove and the team feels more settled about relating to you. In my last article, “Communicate with Respect and Authority”, I explained how important it is to provide the team with a sense of your authority and credibility as you transition into your leadership role. In that article I explained how to use either stronger or more collaborative language for authority depending on the context, then ensuring everyone knows the accountability framework using the R.A.C.I tool.

This article is the second of a series covering four managerial skill sets for competent management.

The four managerial skill sets are:

a) Communicate with respect and authority
b) Motive towards unity of thought
c) Inspire a culture of emotional safety
d) Coach to build team capacity

First, why would you want to create unity of thought and what is it? Is unity of thought the same as conformity or blind obedience? Let’s clarify.

Defining unity of thought

Unity of thought is the combination of understanding and “fellow feeling” when everyone in a group has the same vision and understands the goal. It involves ensuring every voice has been heard and acknowledged, and then helps individuals to accept accountability for action towards the goal within the realm of their role and authority. Without unity of thought there is a tendency to slow things down by criticizing, stalling or using ambiguous language to give the illusion of commitment without acting.

In any group it is difficult to achieve unity of thought because of ego, cognitive distortion and cumulative stress effects on everyone. There may be a history of poor decision follow through, inappropriate managerial interference and changes made without group consultation. Often destructive personality work habits that have not been addressed in the past cause other team members to resist change.

Work with me! How to deal with resistance and the need to be right

As a manager, when you try to get projects moving, it can feel like everyone is against you and that people put more energy into pushing your boundaries than doing their jobs. This is a natural part of the leadership transition for them and for you. Resistance, as unpleasant as it may seem, is necessary to get to commitment. When people resist working with you or their colleagues to get things done, it is because they care. If they didn’t care, you would see apathy which is much harder to change.

Two things to consider when you are trying to get a project off the ground and it feels like moving through mud, are your need to be right and their need to feel seen, heard and acknowledged. Being right may feel satisfying, but it closes the door to unity. When I feel “right” I put myself in a position of superiority, effectively closing me off to important information I need to make clear headed decisions. On the team member side, employees rarely feel that they have been seen, heard and acknowledged which increases entrenched views.

The result is two opposites repelling each other. To change the magnetic pole to its normal state of attracting and attracted, you need to help your team members feel like they can also be “right” and they need to recognize that your guidance will help the team rather than hinder it. This requires – you guessed it – humility on both sides. Promote humility and forward thinking by asking and getting team members to ask powerful “what if…” questions. Here are some examples:

• What if …money and time and resources were not in the way, how would you choose to move forward?
• What if …we could trust and depend on everyone on your team to do their job?
• What if …I could contribute enthusiastically to this project? What would I need to do first?
• What if …we were wildly successful, what would that look like?

Decisions, Decisions – consensus, engagement, action using I.C.E.

Once you have some buy in from the “what if” questioning process, a collaborative decision-making tool I love for effectively creating unity of thought around a new idea, is the I.C.E. tool created by Asian Efficiency.

1. Impact
2. Confidence
3. Ease

To use it, brainstorm ideas to solve a problem or choose a project approach. If each person does this individually first, it will jump start the group process. List everyone’s ideas without judgement, then have the group vote on their top three. This is where the magic of I.C.E. comes in handy.

For each of the three remaining ideas, have everyone rate them on a scale of 1-5 with 5 as the highest.

1. How much impact will this idea have? 1-5
2. How confident to I feel to get started with this idea? 1-5
3. How easy will this be for us to implement? 1-5

After having everyone explain their rationale for their rating, average out the answers and find out which idea has the highest score all around. At this point it will feel obvious that supporting the highest rated idea as a first starting point is necessary, and because of the process, people will be inspired to work with it.

The I.C.E. tool helps a group that may have had a history of disunity to first move towards a decision, then to action. Remember to use the R.A.C.I. tool afterwards to ensure everyone knows what they are responsible for. Then either choose a team member to check in on team progress – or have the team use a collaborative tool like Monday.com, or Jira/Atlassian  to keep everyone updated on the progress.

Connecting with your new colleagues

One final word on unity of thought and getting away from managerial isolation while transitioning into your new role: Remember to spend time getting to know and asking advice from your new managerial colleagues. They will appreciate you seeking them out for advice and mentorship and you will find allies and friends within the group. As your feelings of belonging to the manager group start to take root, continue to invest in relationship building at this level and higher, while maintaining friendly and firm relationships with team members. Work friendships, particularly with others at your level and higher, are critical to career advancement and necessary for professional networking. Good managerial relationships help promote unity of thought in managerial meetings and projects and work friendships in general help reduce everyone’s feelings of isolation and loneliness.

Recap:

When you first start leading a team, there is an unsettling of previous roles and hierarchies that causes people to resist your leadership. You are likely to feel lonely and unsupported as a result. This can be mitigated by remembering that your team members need to feel seen, heard and acknowledged and that you are not trying to be the person who is always “right”. To sustain movement towards unity of thought, ask powerful “what if” questions, the I.C.E. tool for collaborative decisions with less resistance, and remember to connect with your fellow managers to build your professional network.

The next article will be about inspiring a climate of emotional safety using the S.W.E.L. tool. Stay tuned!