We aim to become an HPO, but we are not after more inclusion and diversity

GOOD LEADERSHIP IS ESSENTIAL

I explained how HPO Center started working with this model every day since 2008. The simple model is very rich and indicates what you should do and, just as interesting, what you should not. If it is not in the model, it has proven not to contribute significantly to an organisation’s result. Based on the HPO model, we examined organisations on their request. Together with their teams, we determined how they could perform better by a slightly different focus and adjusted actions.

Over time, we learned to use the HPO model more skilfully. We discovered patterns of inadequate interventions and time and again, we concluded how crucial good leadership is for an organisation. When more and more organisations started working agile and switched to self-management or self-organisation, the HPO Center continuously stressed the importance of good leadership because it proved that organisations perform better. No matter what the title is, be it leader, manager, coach, or agile team coach.

Some management and leadership tasks need to be well organised and performed to optimise collaboration and performance. The HPO model screams leadership. Listed under Quality of Leadership, twelve characteristics of the total 35 characteristics are included in the model. The other four factors also contain several characteristics that the leader must initiate. Overall, the success of 23 of the 35 characteristics is primarily determined by the manager or leader. In our opinion, good teams with bad leaders do not exist, just as bad teams with good leaders don’t exist. Good leaders make or break a team and the success of an organisation. As a result, the HPO Center’s statement is: without good leadership, no good result.

HPO MODEL AND DIVERSITY

Leaders largely determine the success of teams. They have two important assignments as a leader. One of the assignments is to provide clarity and allow speed to a team. This is where the leader  uses his or her power to make decisions, bring focus and create clarity so that people can do their work in an attuned, good and fast manner. A capable leader ensures rapid decision-making in which all alternatives are expertly considered. Diversity in teams can improve decision-making. Research has often pointed out that diversity in a team can lead to a better strategy, more creativity, and faster innovation. A diverse team appears to be better at weighing up the possible alternatives when making a decision. In a more homogeneous team, people come to a decision faster without looking at all the alternatives. As a result, you miss opportunities.

HPO MODEL AND LEADERSHIP: CAN YOU DO IT?

The other side of leadership is the inclusive part of it. This part of leadership involves paying attention to individual employees by helping, coaching, inspiring, and guiding them. These tasks are often less visible but of great importance for good performance. Of the 24 focus areas of leaders in HPO organisations, 9 are about using your power as a leader. No fewer than 16 are mainly about inclusive leadership: making everyone in a team feel at home.

ADJUSTING TO THE AVERAGE?

More than half of your leadership tasks help create an inclusive environment for all employees. This means an environment in which they feel free and open to express their ideas without feeling embarrassed or insecure. Creating this safety for all employees is a challenge, especially since all employees are different. Every individual requires a personal approach. This does not only concern visible diversity (e.g. gender, age, skin color) but also invisible diversity (e.g. social class, education, experience, attitude to life, preferred style). Tailoring to your team member’s individual needs takes time and attention, but it will certainly payback. Are you unable to make time to do these tasks properly? The consequence is, perhaps unconsciously, that you ask your employees to adapt to some sort of average. Everyone gives up a little bit of themselves to make it easier for the leader to manage. That seems like a good idea, but it seriously impairs performance. Those teams often cannot perform to the max. Tensions are not pronounced, dialogues are avoided, team members who are ‘good’ together form subgroups. Without good leadership in teams, prejudices often play a role. People act on their unconscious prejudices and therefore do not make the best use of each other’s talents. Taking advantage of diversity in teams requires the inclusion of all team members. Ensuring that team members do not have to adjust too much to an average gives a team a boost. And it is the leader who must make this possible.

COMMITMENT AND APPRECIATION 

Social psychologist, university professor at Utrecht University, Noami Ellemers, whose research I always follow, comes with several striking examples. “We looked at the functioning of cultural minorities in the workplace, for example among Muslim women. If encouraged to adapt to the majority, these women felt less engaged in the work and had less ambition to perform well or progress to a higher position. Only when they felt that their cultural identity was valued and they were allowed to be themselves did their work motivation increase. Paradoxically, once valued, they turned out to be more willing to meet the wishes of the organisation. We saw a similar pattern among gay employees. Those who did their best to fit in by hiding their sexual preferences and behaving like others performed worst. In general, we see that attempts to hide a stigma make people feel less satisfied and engaged at work. They experience shame and guilt about what they are trying to keep hidden, and therefore function less well among their colleagues. Those who ‘come out’ eventually feel more accepted and involved and collaborate better – because they no longer have to hide anything.”

IT DOESN’T ALWAYS WORK 

An HPO manager ensures inclusion works and keeps learning, every day. Every time a team changes composition, a new search begins to get to know each other, to provide the new team member with a safe environment, and to adjust the team’s ways to give the other person space. Just as sports coaches do with a new player in a team, so do HPO leaders in their teams. You can imagine that an active leadership task is much more extensive than that of a leader who has only led homogeneous groups of  people. A meta-survey in the US showed that in organisations where white men traditionally dominated, more diversity often did not lead to better results. Benefiting from diversity requires a lot of attention from the leader, especially if this leader has little experience with inclusion and diversity.

INCLUSION INSTEAD OF QUOTAS

A lot of attention for inclusive leadership is needed to hire the best talent (however diverse) and to build an HPO with these people. Building High Performance Organisations is strongly linked to creating inclusion and inviting diversity to really participate. In building a strong organisation, the focus should not be on the degree of diversity, as quotas do. The emphasis should then be on the way in which managers deal with differences between employees in teams. In an inclusive climate, they communicate to employees that differences are necessary and useful. They do not expect everyone to behave exactly the same, and as a result, all employees will feel part of it, and they will combine their contributions to improve collaboration and performance.

“First, we will have to do it ourselves!”

The workshop took place one week after my conversation with the board member. As always before a training session, I arrived with a curious attitude and some light ‘pre-game’ tension. Would the members of the board recognise the link between success as HPO and diversity and inclusion?

We managed to start the dialogue and just before two hours had passed one of the members of the board said: “We have serious work to do. We are those leaders who have far too little experience with diversity and inclusion. With our leadership style, we are very good at wasting diverse talent. It is not the diversity manager who has work to do, we have. It has to start with us.” On the face of the board member that I had spoken to one week before, a cautious smile emerged. “Let’s start with a training inclusive leadership for ourselves,” he said. “It will start with us.”

The first step was taken and proved to be a success. Their journey kicked off with focussing half a day on the unconscious bias with revealing test results. And all board members started working with the results of our feedforward analysis™ which gives insight into their individual qualities to achieve inclusion. These leaders gain new insights via this 360-degree tool based on HPO. Exciting and fun. I’ll speak to the team again next week.