Visible Leadership

As I was preparing to write this blog an interesting post appeared on my LinkedIn feed. In this post, it was revealed England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, was spotted working on Covid wards during the Christmas weekend.

The consultant physician at University College London Hospitals Trust turned up for shifts on the north London hospital’s respiratory ward as the capital was swamped with new cases. I can only imagine the intense pressure that Chris Whitty is under during these unprecedented times. So, he could be forgiven if he had chosen to take a well-deserved break at Christmas. Instead, he chose to support front line Doctors by working shoulder to shoulder with them.

The impact of visible leadership is so powerful! When I worked for Virgin Direct (now Virgin Money) we were led by an inspirational CEO called Rowan Gormley. Virgin Direct was founded by Rowan & Richard Branson. It pioneered index tracking by launching a value Personal Equity Plan (Now ISA) into the market. When we launched we advertised in the national press and invited our customers to call into our in house contact centre, which was open from 8am to 10pm every day of the year, except Christmas Day. We had spent many weeks training our new staff on customer service and call handling skills. There was some training on the basics of a Personal Equity Plan, any detailed technical questions were handled by a few subject matter experts.

Like most organisations at the time the contact centre was the entry point into the organisation. However, unlike most organisations the people who worked on the telephones were treated as the most important people in the company.

Despite leading a new start-up company in a highly competitive market. Most evenings at 5pm Rowan would come out of his glass-fronted office (which was located next to the contact centre) and log on to the phones to take calls.

This action had a profound impact on the people and culture at Virgin Direct. It was more than a token back to the floor exercise, it reinforced the message that our contact centre was at the heart of our organisation. It allowed Rowan to speak directly to our customers, gather useful feedback about our products and service. During the quiet moments (there weren’t many) Rowan would talk to the staff sitting around him and he took the time to really show an interest in them.

Within 6 months of starting, we became the biggest PEP provider in the UK, outperforming organisations that were ten times larger than us. We won countless awards for outstanding customer service. If you were to ask any of the original employees who worked there at the time to reflect on what it was like, most of them would say it was a special time in their career and they worked above and beyond because they wanted to and because Rowan set a positive example through his visible leadership.

Another example of visible leadership comes from author Simon Sinek in his book ‘The Infinite Game’:

“There happens to be a coffee bar in the lobby of the hotel. One afternoon while on a business trip in Las Vegas, I went to buy myself a cup of coffee. The barista working that day was a young man named Noah. Noah was funny and engaging. It was because of Noah that I enjoyed buying that cup of coffee more than I generally enjoy buying a cup of coffee. After standing and chatting for a while, I finally asked him, “Do you like your job?” Without skipping a beat Noah immediately replied, “I love my job!”

Now, for someone in my line of business, that’s a significant response. He didn’t say, “I like my job,” he said, “I love my job.” That’s a big difference. “Like” is rational. We like the people we work with. We like the challenge. We like the work. But “love,” love is emotional. Love is something harder to quantify. It’s like asking someone “Do you love your spouse,” and they respond, “I like my spouse a lot.” It’s a very different answer. You get my point, love is a higher standard. So when Noah said, “I love my job,” I perked up. From that one response, I knew Noah felt an emotional connection to the Four Seasons that was bigger than the money he made and the job he performs.

Immediately, I asked Noah a follow-up question. “Tell me specifically what the Four Seasons is doing that you would say to me that you love your job.” Again without skipping a beat, Noah replied, “Throughout the day, managers will walk past me and ask me how I’m doing, ask me if there is anything I need, anything they can do to help. Not just my manager … any manager. I also work for [another hotel],” he continued. He went on to explain that at his other job the managers walk past and try to catch people doing things wrong. At the other hotel, Noah lamented, “I keep my head below the radar. I just want to get through the day and get my paycheck. Only at the Four Seasons,” Noah said, “do I feel I can be myself.”

Noah gives his best when he’s at the Four Seasons. Which is what every leader wants from their people. So it makes sense why so many leaders, even some of the best-intentioned ones, often ask, “How do I get the most out of my people?” This is a flawed question, however. It’s not a question about how to help our people grow stronger, it’s about extracting more output from them. People are not like wet towels to be wrung out. They are not objects from which we can squeeze every last drop of performance. The answers to such a question might yield more output for a time, but it often comes at a cost of our people and to the culture in the longer term. Such an approach will never generate the feelings of love and commitment that Noah has for the Four Seasons. A better question to ask is, “How do I create an environment in which my people can work to their natural best?”

In my line of work, I work with many Board and C-Suite executives who spend most of their time in their offices, some of them rarely coming out of them. When I discuss the notion of visible leadership, they often say they don’t have the time. I would argue the impact of visible leadership is so powerful, that it should be prioritised over many other things!

Even during a lockdown, we can work to increase our visibility, taking the time to call as many employees as you can to see how they are doing, to check if there is anything they need or anything you can do to help. It will have a profound impact on how people feel about their job, and the wider organisational culture.

According to Simon Sinek - ‘The most loyal employees feel their leaders genuinely care about them… because their leaders genuinely care about them. In return, they offer their best ideas, act freely and responsibly and work to solve problems for the benefit of the company.’

Still don’t think you have the time? If Professor Chris Whitty and Rowan Gormley can do it, why can’t you?