"Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist."
― Pablo Picasso

Leadership is a professional 'sport'.  Forget the rest. 

Recent years have seen the emergence of leadership as a type of cult.  There are plenty of authors who feed off our need for imaginary and faith based guidance.  Social media, journals and academics bombard us daily  to 'believe' in the latest imaginary trope.

All of this may help people to feel better for a few moments.  But there is a serious flaw in this philosophy.  Most of the time it doesn't work.

It is time for a practical revolution.

The Facts 

Organisations don't just need 'leaders'.  They need managers that can also lead.  There is an important distinction.

Organisations are dynamic four dimensional systems that compete on a complex, chaotic and dynamic landscape.  They need people who can manage this complexity.

Every management position will have unique requirements and challenges - from supervisor to CEO.  However they all have three elements in common.

1. The knowledge, skill and experience needed to match the job profile and job 'size' and complexity.
2. The interpersonal or leadership skill to work with and manage and inspire people within the job and its basic requirements.
3. The ability to generate results on time.

This is not complicated.  Clearly leading people is a critical element to compete and generate results.  But.....leadership is not the full picture.  It is but one element of successful management, linked to the specific requirements of the role.

Let's not transmogrify a practical management role into a some sort of cult based leadership role.  It isn't.

Leadership as a professional artistic practice.  And not a 'woo woo' belief system. 

Think of any highly competitive, specialised and professional pursuit.  Football.  Tennis.  Golf.  Formula One.  Music composition.  Dancing. Novel writing.  Engineering.  Science. Politics (not so sure about this one).  Art - in all forms.  Add your own.

Success in any of these areas requires the following.

1. Basic biological talent and potential.
2. The essential ingredient of personal 'energy'.  Obsession and imagination.  
3. The long term vis vitae, determination, and vitality to continue practising to be the best - for as long as the person is in the role.

Leadership is an artistic behaviour, not a theory

Picasso said it beautifully.

"Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist."

There are well researched rules of effective leadership, just as there are rules for becoming a great and professional tennis player of golfer.

We could say for example that the basic rule of good golf is to be able to hit the ball straight.  Of course this doesn't tell you how to hit the ball straight, but it remains a basic truth.

Similarly we may agree on the following 'super seven' basic laws of great leadership, but without the training and methods to achieve these, it is no better or more effective that telling a golfer to hit the ball straight.

• Be the type of person people want to follow
• Create the space for people to flourish
• Inspire others to grow and perform at their best
• Together with others deliver a high performance impact
• Develop great self awareness and wisdom
• Learn continuously.  Know that you never get 'there'.
• Understand the science of managing complex systems.

How to change behaviour.  The key to evolving great leadership capability. 

It remains an eternal mystery why this most obvious of scientific facts is largely ignored.  Professional leaders need to be trained and developed along the exact same principles and practices as a professional athlete.

This means:

• Continuous measurement and feedback on behavioural performance.
• The continuous design, application and practice of new behaviours.
• The continuous application of new behaviours for the duration of the role.

The science behind changing behaviour effectively 

One hundred years ago, William James the father of modern American psychology, suggested that 99.99% of all human activity was driven by habits.  (Of course this gives us food for thought with regard to the level of free will we have in practice.)

He also suggested that new actions repeated regularly will become new habits. We call the powerful energy generating kind of habits 'energy fractals', due to the fractal nature of successful new behavioural actions.

Further and most importantly he predicted that effective new habits will have a direct and evolutionary impact on the neuronal networks in our brains.  

Current research has proved this to be true.  And of great surprise to many, the measured biological impact starts to take place in days or even hours.

This of course puts paid to the age-old but now clearly nonsense belief that people have fixed personalities.  We don't.  

Therefore:  If we want leaders to be more effective - we must change their behaviour.  

Practical application of behaviour change principles 

The most important first step is to focus on the behaviour change required.  Too often we focus on the measured kpi's or other feedback - perhaps from a 360 - but this is simply data.  And not even information.

What matters is how to change behaviour based on the data.  Sadly this is one of the greatest weaknesses in the modern organisation.  And a primary reason for the broad failure of leadership across the world.

The new leadership goal should now embrace the following.

• Leadership is a behaviour and not a cult based theory.
• Make changing behaviour the primary goal.  Thus an input and not an output focus.  (Changing the behaviour will change the output automatically.)
• Link the change of behaviour to a specific time frame.
• Regularly evaluate progress. Remember this is a living, dynamic and evolutionary process.
• Leaders cannot do this on their own.  If they want to become great they must use professional coaches who know how to customise and implement new habits to drive new higher energy behaviours.
• Build these important principles into your organisation's leadership development strategy for every leader in your organisation.
• Use scientific research and methods to drive all leadership change in behaviour.  You may wish to set up your own leadership lab to achieve this.