Great leadership starts with self-leadership | Lars Sudmann | TEDxUCLouvain — Transcript

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1. 0:08Good afternoon. Today I want to share
2. 0:10with you my leadership utopia.
3. 0:14And when I was discussing this with a
4. 0:16friend of mine, he was asking,
5. 0:18"Leadership in utopia?
6. 0:21Would we even need leadership in utopia?
7. 0:23Isn't utopia finally the place and the
8. 0:25moment where we can get rid of all of
9. 0:27these leaders and live free?"
10. 0:30Well, I don't know.
11. 0:31I think in a utopia, there will be
12. 0:33humans, hopefully.
13. 0:35And if there are humans, they will
14. 0:37hopefully still be social beings as
15. 0:39well.
16. 0:40And whenever there are social beings,
17. 0:43they come together as well and form
18. 0:45sometimes groups, sometimes
19. 0:46organizations as well.
20. 0:49And when they are these organizations,
21. 0:50then I think the words of Peter Drucker
22. 0:52are true.
23. 0:53Only three things happen naturally in
24. 0:55organizations.
25. 0:57Friction, confusion, and
26. 0:59underperformance.
27. 1:02Therefore, you don't need anything, but
28. 1:03everything else requires leadership.
29. 1:07So, I do think also in utopia, we should
30. 1:09look at a leadership. But, the question
31. 1:11is, what kind of leadership?
32. 1:13Should we look at the hero model of
33. 1:15leadership, where the shining stars, the
34. 1:18ideal person? I don't know. Today I want
35. 1:21to explore with you a different kind of
36. 1:22leadership. And for this,
37. 1:24I want you to do a little thought
38. 1:25experiment. Think about the best leader
39. 1:28you have ever worked with.
40. 1:30Take a couple of seconds. Think about
41. 1:31that person.
42. 1:33What did he or she do,
43. 1:36say,
44. 1:37and so on.
45. 1:40Now, all of you will have experienced
46. 1:42other people, but I would dare to say, I
47. 1:44don't think you will have things like,
48. 1:45"Well, you know, the way that person
49. 1:47yelled at me in the morning, that was
50. 1:49excellent. That was That was just
51. 1:51brilliant, the way and I wanted always
52. 1:54have more." Probably not. Probably that
53. 1:56person will have done different things.
54. 1:58And I want to explore that together with
55. 2:00you. Now, I do think leadership is an
56. 2:02interesting thing and sometimes it's
57. 2:03over glorified, but whenever you you
58. 2:05become a leader, and I had the chance to
59. 2:08lead small teams, large organizations,
60. 2:10non-profit, profit organizations,
61. 2:12whenever you become a leader, you have
62. 2:14like a rendezvous with reality.
63. 2:16Leadership is a bit like parenting.
64. 2:18Right? You have all these visions and
65. 2:20ideas what you will do, and then you're
66. 2:22in the moment, and then
67. 2:24what I would call the leadership problem
68. 2:25formula kicks in.
69. 2:27And probably the people you have thought
70. 2:29about just a second ago have mastered
71. 2:31this formula. What does that formula
72. 2:32look like? Every leader and every of you
73. 2:35who has ever been in a leadership
74. 2:37position might have faced these
75. 2:38challenges. I think every leader faces
76. 2:40the leadership problem formula, and that
77. 2:41goes TLT times people times power.
78. 2:45First one is TLT, which for me stands
79. 2:47for too little time. There's just not
80. 2:49enough time to do things, and you can't
81. 2:51pass it around to "Oh, somebody will
82. 2:52take care of it." No, it's you, and then
83. 2:54you need to do something. And what many
84. 2:56people then fall back in is what I would
85. 2:58call the headless chicken syndrome. They
86. 3:00run around and say, "Oh, no, no, you do
87. 3:02that. You do that. You do that. You do
88. 3:03that."
89. 3:04And that might then not be the greatest
90. 3:06leadership.
91. 3:07Then comes as well people.
92. 3:09All leaders have to deal with people,
93. 3:11and for me, I'm always reminded of my
94. 3:13very first official leadership position
95. 3:16more than 10 years ago.
96. 3:18So, I would have my first direct
97. 3:19reports, and the first direct report was
98. 3:22coming into the room, and I had it all
99. 3:24lined up. I had the vision.
100. 3:26I had the team spirit. I had the story
101. 3:28to tell, basically.
102. 3:30And that was a very assertive young
103. 3:32gentleman who came to me and said,
104. 3:33"Lars,
105. 3:34that's all nice, but I have a question
106. 3:36for you.
107. 3:37Actually, I studied the email policy
108. 3:40of the company. And you know, I have a
109. 3:42motto I live by, and I always include
110. 3:46this, and have this for the past 5
111. 3:47years, I always include this in my email
112. 3:50signature. Can I do this as well in this
113. 3:52company?"
114. 3:54And there I was with all my stories and
115. 3:56with all my vision and so on, it was
116. 3:57like, "What?
117. 3:58Is that what leadership is all about?
118. 4:00So, was I studying the manuals for 2
119. 4:02hours and so on?" Finally, we said,
120. 4:03"Okay, yeah, let's go ahead with this
121. 4:05one." But, everybody who's ever lead
122. 4:06will see like it's not always about the
123. 4:08glorious and shiny things. It's all
124. 4:10about the little things, the little
125. 4:11discussion that we have to do.
126. 4:14The last element is power.
127. 4:15And that's an interesting one.
128. 4:17There's a very interesting study done
129. 4:19University of Berkeley in '98,
130. 4:21and they brought in random students,
131. 4:24and selected them randomly in groups of
132. 4:25three.
133. 4:28And from these groups of three, two of
134. 4:31them had to do a 2-hour assignment.
135. 4:33And one of them was randomly assigned to
136. 4:36be the supervisor.
137. 4:38And then, as social science experiments
138. 4:40goes, there was a special twist to it.
139. 4:41At half an hour, the researchers then
140. 4:43brought in cookies.
141. 4:46And of course, it was videotaped.
142. 4:49And then they observed what happens
143. 4:50actually there. They had some
144. 4:51hypothesis, and sure enough, the people
145. 4:53who were randomly assigned to be
146. 4:56supervisors
147. 4:57significantly ate more of the cookies,
148. 5:00but not only this, they actually left
149. 5:02significantly more of the breadcrumbs as
150. 5:04well on the table. Like, "I'm this."
151. 5:07And it was very visually measurable.
152. 5:09And that just shows after 30 minutes of
153. 5:11random state to higher status, this
154. 5:13power thing kicks in. It's something
155. 5:15within us in humans, and I think that is
156. 5:18also something to be need to take care
157. 5:20of. Now, I do think these are the
158. 5:21classic leadership problems that are not
159. 5:23very often taken care of, but I think in
160. 5:25a utopia, we need to address those. So,
161. 5:27how do we do that? What is the way out?
162. 5:29For this one, I think we need to travel
163. 5:31back in time.
164. 5:32Actually, almost 1,800, 1,900 years to
165. 5:35Rome,
166. 5:36to a person called Marcus Aurelius.
167. 5:39Now, some of you might know Marcus
168. 5:41Aurelius. Marcus Aurelius is one of the
169. 5:43predominant figures of the Stoic school
170. 5:46of philosophy.
171. 5:48The Stoics, like the Zen of the West,
172. 5:50almost.
173. 5:52But, Marcus Aurelius is interesting for
174. 5:53leadership, because he was running a
175. 5:55little like, you know, little side
176. 5:56business also on the side. He had a
177. 5:57little side job in moonlighting. He
178. 6:00wasn't, that's why on the statue, he's
179. 6:01also you see him there on a horse as
180. 6:03well. He was at the time as well, on top
181. 6:05of being a philosopher, he had the side
182. 6:07job of being the emperor of Rome
183. 6:09at the time.
184. 6:11And the historian William Irvine called
185. 6:14him actually the true beacon of
186. 6:16enlightened leadership. He was supposed
187. 6:18to be one of the last of the five good
188. 6:20kings of Rome.
189. 6:23Now, Marcus Aurelius, what we know of
190. 6:24him, said things like this.
191. 6:27The happiness of your life depends on
192. 6:29the quality of your thoughts.
193. 6:32He said, "So, act virtuous. Use your
194. 6:34time well, and be cheerful. Then, when
195. 6:37you drop from life's tree, you will drop
196. 6:39like a ripe fruit."
197. 6:42Now, can you imagine these words being
198. 6:43uttered by some of the leaders like
199. 6:45Trump and so on today?
200. 6:47Most likely not really.
201. 6:50What did he do? And we know a couple of
202. 6:52things that were transmitted from this
203. 6:54one, and I think that is a sign for
204. 6:56utopia leadership that we can dive into.
205. 6:59He was focusing a lot of his time on
206. 7:01field which I would call
207. 7:02self-leadership.
208. 7:04Leading oneself first
209. 7:07before going out and leading others.
210. 7:11And I think that in my leadership
211. 7:12challenges helped me enormously to
212. 7:15actually face some of the challenges of
213. 7:17the leadership
214. 7:18formula that I've shared with you.
215. 7:21The founder of Visa, Dee Hock, once
216. 7:22said, "If you want to lead, invest at
217. 7:24least 40% of your time in leading
218. 7:26yourself first before you go out to
219. 7:28others." Now, how do you do that? And
220. 7:30what I want to share with you are a
221. 7:32couple of strategies that I've tested,
222. 7:34that I've worked with, and so on, to
223. 7:35really try to see what can we do with
224. 7:37that field of self-leadership.
225. 7:40The first strategy and the first field
226. 7:43of self-leadership that's out there is
227. 7:45self-awareness.
228. 7:47When you become a leader, it's actually
229. 7:49some of the crucial things to be
230. 7:50self-aware of yourself, but it's getting
231. 7:52more and more difficult. Any of you have
232. 7:54ever been a leadership in a leadership
233. 7:56position, if you've ever asked tried to
234. 7:57ask for feedback, that's not so easy,
235. 7:59you ask your team, "Hey group, do you
236. 8:01have some feedback?"
237. 8:02And very often, what you encounter is
238. 8:03the silence.
239. 8:07Like in these ancient western movies
240. 8:08with these dust balls.
241. 8:10Come on, some feedback. Yeah, brilliant.
242. 8:12Yeah, yeah, everything's fine. And you
243. 8:14know that that's not right. Well, they
244. 8:15are I mean, you're you're signing the
245. 8:16the the paycheck, basically, and they're
246. 8:18like, "No, no, no, great, brilliant."
247. 8:21Now, there are some ways on of course to
248. 8:23learn to ask also for better feedback.
249. 8:25Well, one of the things I think every
250. 8:26leader can do
251. 8:28is to check that for themselves. And one
252. 8:29of the tools that I have is what I would
253. 8:31call the character traits check.
254. 8:35A character traits check. You can do
255. 8:36that on a rainy Sunday,
256. 8:39and do the following. Ask yourself,
257. 8:41for example, what was the worst leader
258. 8:45that you ever had? And then think what
259. 8:46your face does then with this. This is
260. 8:48me reflecting upon this.
261. 8:50And then go further and ask like, "What
262. 8:52did he or she do actually to be such a
263. 8:54worst leader?"
264. 8:55Did he yell, or did she yell? Or did he
265. 8:58maybe withhold information? When I was
266. 8:59doing this exercise, it was like that
267. 9:00bad leader withholding information. And
268. 9:02here comes now the trick in this tool.
269. 9:05Give yourself a score from 1 to 5 for
270. 9:06yourself. How good are you, for example,
271. 9:09at sharing or withholding information?
272. 9:10How bad are you at this one? And for me,
273. 9:12that was like, "Oh,
274. 9:15I'm actually not very good at this." So,
275. 9:17what is my plan to move that up, to
276. 9:19become very good at this one? Because we
277. 9:20what we find bad in others very often
278. 9:22resonates also with ourselves. One of
279. 9:25the key things to do from time to time.
280. 9:27But, if you do that, you will see also
281. 9:28the way portrayed effect. You do that
282. 9:30the next morning, you're fully engaged,
283. 9:31but then, like one of these trails at
284. 9:33the beginning, it's very sharp, but
285. 9:35later on, it goes
286. 9:36it fades away. And that's why what you
287. 9:38can do is a strategy that Marcus
288. 9:40Aurelius did every day.
289. 9:42And that is self-reflection.
290. 9:44Yeah? Taking just a couple of minutes
291. 9:47during the day,
292. 9:49and thinking about the challenges that
293. 9:51you have achieved, but also that you are
294. 9:54maybe about to have during the day.
295. 9:55Marcus Aurelius was famous for doing
296. 9:57that in the night.
297. 9:58For me, this 5-minute reflection,
298. 10:00sometimes I did in the evening,
299. 10:01sometimes often in the morning, going to
300. 10:03Pan Quotidien, having a quick coffee,
301. 10:05and then just opening my black book and
302. 10:06just asking a couple of questions.
303. 10:09What are the challenges that I'm about
304. 10:10to face? How did my leadership go last
305. 10:12today? How would the leader I would like
306. 10:14to be
307. 10:15do and face the challenges that I'm
308. 10:17about to face today?
309. 10:19Then asking this and putting this
310. 10:20answer. And just one or two minutes of
311. 10:22those, actually there are interesting
312. 10:23studies University of California, just
313. 10:25one or two mini minutes of those can
314. 10:28help raise your compassion level as well
315. 10:30for others. And maybe beat that cookie
316. 10:32problem that we've talked about easy
317. 10:34earlier as well before.
318. 10:36Self-reflection, 2 to 5 minutes.
319. 10:39And then we come to the last one, and
320. 10:40that is self-regulation. You know,
321. 10:42you've done your awareness, you've done
322. 10:43your reflection, but you still will
323. 10:45encounter the moments. You will still
324. 10:46encounter the meeting, the the
325. 10:48discussions that you have where people
326. 10:50come in who've promised you, "Yes, I
327. 10:52will do everything. I will have
328. 10:53everything ready." And they come in the
329. 10:54room and say, "And let's talk it like,
330. 10:56let's talk what?"
331. 10:58"The report you said was ready." Oh,
332. 11:00"Oh, sorry, I don't have this."
333. 11:02And all the other things, the people who
334. 11:03challenge you, think they should be on
335. 11:05your side and you should be on the other
336. 11:06side and so on. And all these moments
337. 11:08when you that you will face as a leader,
338. 11:10when these moments you think that
339. 11:12"Stop doing this. Do what I told you
340. 11:14now." And this is of course not in the
341. 11:15best leadership. But how do we best do
342. 11:18that? Self-regulation. And one tool that
343. 11:20has helped me enormously is what is
344. 11:22called reframing.
345. 11:24Reframing is a simple tool where you
346. 11:26think like where you have these
347. 11:28this coming up like
348. 11:29"I want you to you know."
349. 11:31You stop.
350. 11:33And ask yourself for one to two seconds,
351. 11:35"Well, on a scale from one to 10,
352. 11:37how important is that issue right now?
353. 11:39With 10 being really my life goal, so to
354. 11:41speak."
355. 11:42Where is that? If it's a 10, well, then
356. 11:44you better engage really fully in it.
357. 11:45But maybe very often it's more like a
358. 11:47two or three. And so on. And that
359. 11:48reframing, that taking a step back can
360. 11:50help you enormously in actually
361. 11:52addressing the situation.
362. 11:54Small strategies, small things, but what
363. 11:56I would encourage you to do is think
364. 11:58about this when you have a leadership
365. 12:00position. Invest this time in
366. 12:02self-awareness, self-reflection,
367. 12:04self-regulation, and self-leadership in
368. 12:06general before you go out and lead
369. 12:08others. Because very often we hear about
370. 12:10leadership like people want to lead
371. 12:12others, we want to do everything. Why
372. 12:14not start first
373. 12:16leading yourself.
374. 12:19I think if we all did this,
375. 12:22this will lead to leadership utopia that
376. 12:24we can strive for. And I think we can
377. 12:25start all by doing now. And hopefully if
378. 12:27you all start doing now and somebody
379. 12:29asks in 10, 20 years, maybe in our
380. 12:31utopia, the question, "Who was the best
381. 12:33leader that you've ever worked with?"
382. 12:35And maybe they think of you.
383. 12:37Thank you.