Cadence Catch-up with Lewis #19

Welcome to the nineteenth edition of Cadence Catch-Up.

This time the theme I’m thinking about is aspiration. I arrived at this place recently when I read an article about Generation Z and their changing aspiration toward people leadership roles. In short, a recent Robert Walters survey revealed more than half of this cohort aspire to expertise over authority. They associate authority with stress, limited autonomy and poor work-life balance.

EXPERTISE OVER AUTHORITY

Where does this leave middle management, the glue that has held organisations together for decades, where much of the “real work” gets done?

Generation Z might be on to something here. Many of the middle managers I speak with mention unyielding compliance requests, legislation that arrives with a “just do it” message, and more and more team members complaining of burnout. And precious little in the way of investment in their own development training or additional resources. Not to mention the normalisation of sub-CPI salary increases.

It’s little wonder a highly educated cohort, with more choice before them than any generation in memory, are seeking a different path.

The attached article from Forbes by Dan Pontrefact canvasses a few ideas that organisations could consider addressing what Generation Z is telling them. It does leave me thinking though – isn’t one of the biggest opportunities for leadership growth leading a team, with all the challenges that presents? Let’s take an example. Even if project management sounds appealing to Generation Z, for any project of scale to succeed it requires sound judgement about who is best equipped to fill roles, how to delegate effectively, how to set appropriate stretch targets, how to give feedback effectively, and so on. All the stuff middle management should eat for breakfast.

Perhaps middle management still has a role to play, maybe in another guise? This is a space to watch very closely.

WHAT TO DO WHEN THE MUSIC STOPS PLAYING

Most of the people I speak to aspire to stable employment. It allows them to plan for the future, keep a roof above their head, educate their families, and so on. So what happens if the rug is pulled from under you, and you find yourself without employment in a difficult job market?

In this article I am joined by Sharon Collins, founder of My Career Lab, who offers some useful tips about what to do if the music suddenly stops playing.

“BE THE WRITER OF YOUR OWN STORY”

We couldn’t speak about aspiration without closing with a dose of optimism. With the recent fifth anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was taken back to that time and can remember hearing the soaring lyric of Adam Granduciel: “be the writer of your own story” in The War on Drugs song Strangest Thing. Ironically, a song about being stuck between “the beauty and the pain”.

So many of the leadership concepts we talk about focus on controlling what you can control, and developing effective habits that allow us to show up well and create an environment to allow others to develop and thrive. We certainly learnt the former from the pandemic, and I think we are at a time now where the latter is really relevant.

When we write our own story, we are creating a set of behaviours and activities that allow us to measure success on our terms, not someone else’s. Think about the subconscious benefits this could provide you and those around you.

Perhaps Generation Z really is on to something?

PODCAST CORNER

For those who regularly present to groups, a podcast featuring Michael McQueen from the Performance Intelligence series with Andrew May is highly recommended. I had not heard of McQueen prior to this, but his resume is impressive – author of 10 books, recently ranked #12 among the world’s top futurists, and a presenter to over 500,000 people since 2004.

It’s a really engaging listen, perhaps not surprisingly as McQueen’s job is to keep an audience switched on! A couple of key takeaways for me were, when presenting, be a more “magnified” version of yourself. I interpret this as saying don’t fundamentally change who you are, but be conscious of energy levels. Lift them by about 10%. Also, don’t make yourself the hero. The audience matters more, so involve them. How will they find what you are talking about useful? And a final point, stance – stand there with confidence and certainty. This comes from preparing well, and knowing your content. I was amazed to hear how much preparation McQueen does.

McQueen provides a bunch of other tips about using quotes to tell your story, transitioning between ideas, even down to some basic (but important) etiquette around greeting and thanking people. If you have an important presentation coming up, this is a great podcast to get you inspired and informed.

ABOUT LEWIS

Lewis Williams is the Founder of Cadence Leadership Advisory, which provides coaching, strategic and team leadership facilitation and services to individuals and organisations. He has over 25 years leadership experience through senior roles at National Australia Bank and HSBC. Lewis regularly contributes as Adjunct Faculty to AGSM@UNSW on a variety of reskilling, leadership and development programs. He is also a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).

Cadence Leadership Advisory is a leadership development business specialising in coaching people, team leadership and development, strategy review and organisational culture.