During the past several months, as the reality of the pandemic has sunk in, business organizations have accelerated their evolution of remote leadership within matrixed structures. Before the
Hearing this challenge from many of our clients, we started to conduct research into what are the best practices leaders should utilize when leading through these disrupted times. Our research always focuses on three different sources, academic research and publications, focus groups and interviews, and our own observations and experiences working with large global companies.
In our research, we have discovered several interesting insights that are being integrated into our latest digital leadership simulations. In the meantime, it is my pleasure to share some of the most interesting findings as part of this blog.
There are three big buckets of capabilities
Too often, leadership training programs are overly complex and not very usable. I think understanding how to lead in the matrix can be simple and straightforward. It starts with 3 big “buckets” of capabilities. These buckets include:
Know the Business – Have the business acumen skills to understand the business so you are able to effectively navigate within the matrix and focus on the strategies and metrics that matter.
Know Yourself – Have the leadership skills to understand your own personality profile and all your strengths and limitations. By having this emotional intelligence, you can effectively navigate the matrix by adapting your style to the different people (and their needs).
Know Others – Have the leadership skills to understand others, their styles, their strengths, their limitations and adapt your style to theirs while focusing on the important elements of the business such as executing the strategy.
As part of the research, we identified 15 best practices for leading in the matrix. These best practices are evenly divided into the three primary buckets. Although the research is proprietary and being used to develop our content and simulations, I wanted to share two interesting best practices for each bucket.
Leading in the Matrix Best Practices
Know the Business
Key Takeaways: Leaders in the matrix must have very strong capabilities in understanding the business and having the people you work with understand the business. If the people you work with are myopic and siloed, it makes working with them and accomplishing your goals very difficult. The more time you spend studying the business and explaining it to other, the more effective you will be.
Know Yourself
Key Takeaways: Leaders in the matrix must have very strong capabilities in understanding yourself, how you come across, and how you are seen by others. The “Brand of YOU” in a virtual environment is much more dependent on your social media profile and how you create the perception of you. Is your LinkedIn profile up to date? Do you have endorsements from people in your organization? Do you give recommendations and endorsements? Every little thing matters and goes into the perception of who you are.
Know Others
Key Takeaways: Leaders in the matrix must have very strong capabilities in motivating, encouraging, and influencing. Every day in the matrix is a complex jigsaw puzzle of situations and people, but if you are able to motivate and influence within the context of the overall business strategy, goals, and objectives, you will be successful.