How to Win Commitment as a Lateral Leader E-Book

Gunther Fuerstberger

• Herausgeber: Haufe Lexware
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Serie: Haufe Fachbuch
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 285

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Lateral leadership is the basis of a new leadership movement and at the same time highly complex. In this book you will learn how to strengthen the commitment of all stakeholders involved, how to convince them of your project's purpose, strengthen their trust in you as a leader - with or without position power. Learn how to address both the strategic issues involved as well as how to apply effective communication skills. Find out how your lateral leadership can become easier, more successful, and more fun - based on your own clarity as a leader.   Content: - New leadership understanding and changed perspectives - Four strategy questions and the Commitment Game Board - Commitment communication  

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

1 Foreword

2 Introduction

2.1 Why we need a new understanding of leadership

2.2 A new perspective on organisations

2.3 The importance of lateral leadership

2.3.1 Lateral leadership versus traditional leadership

2.3.2 Responsibilities of lateral leaders

2.4 How to define commitment

3 The Strategist and the Commitment Game Board

3.1 The Commitment Game Board and its axes

3.1.1 A companion through all phases of your lateral venture

3.1.2 A tool specifically for lateral leaders

3.1.3 How to use the Commitment Game Board

3.1.4 The four strategic questions

3.2 Strategic question 1: What is the venture about and who is important?

3.2.1 The spiral of expectations and the DJ of the organisation

3.2.2 The Aims Grid

3.2.3 The Players Check

3.2.4 Practical example: Focus on the benefits

3.3 Strategic question 2: Are the players willing to get on board?

3.3.1 Winning commitment through resonance

3.3.2 The trust scan

3.3.3 The sense scan

3.3.4 How inner traffic lights influence commitment

3.3.5 Practical example: Meet the player where he stands

3.4 Strategic question 3: How much authority do the players have?

3.4.1 The patriarch and the fluid power

3.4.2 Position power versus authority at eye level

3.4.3 The six sources of authority

3.4.4 Practical example: Use the players’ sources of authority

3.5 Strategic question 4: What strategic options do I have?

3.5.1 Success-critical commitment strategies

3.5.2 The tailoring of influence strategies

3.5.3 Practical example: Ask internal bridges for their help

3.6 The chapter at a glance / overview

4 The Communicator and the 3 steps of commitment

4.1 Commitment communication

4.1.1 Yin communication techniques

4.1.2 Yang communication techniques

4.1.3 Yin-Yang tactics

4.2 Step 1: Building and strengthening trust

4.3 Step 2: Clarifying purpose and interests

4.3.1 Highlight what for

4.3.2 Questioning what for and why

4.3.3 Convincing through storytelling

4.4 Step 3: Optimal benefits and minimal escalation

4.5 Step 4: Recognizing and resolving resistances

4.6 Practical example: Save time and energy through preparation

4.7 The chapter at a glance / overview

5 Bibliography

6 The Authors

[1]

Bibliographical Information of the German National Library

The German National Library lists this publication in the German National Bibliography. Detailed bibliographical data can be accessed on the internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.

ePub:

ISBN: 978-3-648-12148-1

Order no.: 01609-0100

Gunther Fuerstberger, Tanja Ineichen

How to Win Commitment as a Lateral Leader

1st edition 2018

© 2018, Haufe-Lexware GmbH & Co. KG, Freiburg, Federal Republic of Germany

www.haufe.de

[email protected]

Project and product management: Jürgen Fischer

Editor German edition: Christiane Engel-Haas

Illustrations: Berit Wenkebach, Munich

Translation: Christian Brandstötter, MMSc

Proofreading: Sheila Purdy

Cover design: RED GmbH

All Information/Data to the best of our knowledge but without engagement for completeness and correctness.

All rights, including but not limited to printing of excerpts, photomechanical reproduction (including microcopy) and analysis using databases, are reserved.

1 Foreword

We were sitting in a coffee shop in Vienna when the topic of the book occurred to us for the first time. It was Christmas 2006 and Tanja Ineichen had been talking about her experiences as a project manager for personnel development at the headquarters of an organisation that had 80,000 employees, at that time. She was responsible for large-scale projects that spanned the whole organisation, and she had recognized that lateral leadership means much more than just managing projects. It also involves influencing people and, at the same time, pushing ideas forward. However, there were no tools or support from anyone who practices lateral leadership on a daily basis and knows what works in practice. She spoke about her failed attempts to find approaches which really help make the business of lateral leadership more effective, more successful, more joyful and also easier. She couldn‘t believe that she was the only one who needed such help. This is what inspired a year-long series of inspirational dialogues around this topic.

Gunther Fuerstberger is the owner and managing director of MDI Management Development Institute and Metaforum and, as such, is responsible for around 40 employees and 140 freelance trainers plus cooperation partners spread across the globe, so he also faces the challenges of lateral leadership. Despite the differences in context, we reached an important, shared realization at some point between the coffee and the apple-strudel, that getting commitment is a daily challenge but the key to success for anyone who has to lead laterally.

We quickly agreed to develop a meaningful and pragmatic training concept. We reviewed existing models and either adapted them or developed new ones. The concept has been tested and refined over the years in the professional environment. In the meantime, we and other MDI coaches have run more than 150 seminars on the topic of lateral leadership and have facilitated longer-term learning processes which has allowed us to develop the training aspects. This book offers a structured summary of the essential tools for lateral leaders. Sources for this book are more than 1,000 participants in seminars, our own practical experience, the results of our empirical surveys and searches of related literature.

Dealing with complexity

We see ourselves as practitioners who write for practitioners. We draw on system theory, game theory, solution orientation, NLP, conversation therapy, transactional analysis, strategic management and research on conflict management to provide you with tools that will enable you to master the everyday challenges that lateral leaders face. This book is a toolkit that helps leaders to correctly analyse situations in lateral ventures and to take appropriate steps to win effective commitment.

However, this doesn't always go according to the planned cycle of "analyse the situation – define the objective – select the appropriate tools – make the intervention – check whether the target has been reached". We are dealing with complex systems. Each person is a very complex and dynamic system in his own right. Feelings, values, thoughts, goals, priorities, etc. influence whether this person is willing to commit himself to what you are asking him to do. Each organisation is made up of many such individual systems and components within a constantly changing environment with countless variables such as new laws, a changing economic situation and new technology etc.

While we have integrated components of system theory at some points, we have generally chosen simplicity. Steve de Shazer said, at an event in Vienna, "If there is a direct route from A to B, I always try to take it. If that does not work, then I take the second-most direct."

We agree with Fredmund Malik that management (and, therefore, lateral leadership) is an art and a craft. Lateral leaders should be masters of their craft, intuitive, creative and determined. Like craftsmen and artists, lateral leaders have to take inspiration from the environment, create something new and then take the initiative to implement it. As the environment of economic organisations continues to change, we need new solutions to new problems. To develop these skills, we have included questions and worksheets for self-reflection. The book can stand alone or be used in conjunction with our training and learning processes.

Target group and benefit

This book is intended for all those leaders who want to run successful projects and other ventures without having to use position power e.g. senior managers, experts, product managers, internal service providers, project managers, matrix managers, consultants, as well as line managers who want to lead without reverting to position power.

Does this sound like you? This book will help you to:

■save time and energy.

■complete a project successfully that would have otherwise failed due to resistance.

■work with the right people at the right time, on the right topic.

■avoid unnecessary conflict.

■effectively resolve unavoidable conflict.

■encourage a climate of cooperation.

■achieve your professional goals.

Gunther Fuerstberger and Tanja Ineichen

Note:In this book, female and male readers are addressed equally, though we mainly use the masculine pronoun.

2Introduction

2.1Why we need a new understanding of leadership

In general, CEOs have lots of position power within their organisation. But that power has its boundaries – especially externally. For example, it‘s not unusual for approved construction projects to be cancelled as a result of the activities of well-organized neighbourhood groups and citizens' initiatives. It makes sense to win external commitment early in the process.

!   Example

Wolfgang Eder, the CEO of Voestalpine AG, said about their expansion plans in Texas: "We spent months going from door to door of locals, authorities and future neighbours. As a result, not a single objection was raised during the water permit process."(Industriemagazin, February 2014). The traditional approach would have been to hire an expensive lawyer and prepare a legal case so that any possible objections would have had no chance.

When we held our first seminar on lateral leadership in 2009, we were surprised by the participant list. We had expected product managers, administrative staff or project managers, but more than half of them were line managers that, collectively, had hundreds of employees reporting to them. When we asked why they had chosen this seminar, they said, "We have already taken many leadership courses for line managers. But we want to improve our ability to manage employees and colleagues without taking advantage of our position power."

!   Important

Many managers have recognised that it is more sustainable to win over others in order to move their ventures forward, instead of pushing them with power.

Of course, there are still managers who primarily focus on their position power and work on expanding that power as much as they can – but they are getting fewer. Position power involves reward and punishment. If you do what the boss demands, you get a higher salary and improved career prospects. If you refuse, your contract will, ultimately, be terminated. The principle behind this style of hierarchical leadership is the patriarchal system in which the boss demands obedience in return for giving his subordinates a job and a salary. Position power is based on the understanding that higher defeats lower.

Democratisation and power

Almost all countries with a high gross-domestic product have enjoyed democracy for at least 70 years. This means freedom of speech: politicians and superiors can be criticized openly. The wider education and knowledge are spread within a society, the less position power is accepted without opposition. In the long term, the level of education, democratisation and economic success go hand in hand. However, which is the chicken and which is the egg is still being discussed (Lipset 1959, Acemoglu et al. 2008). There are, of course, exceptions – not all autocrats are bad. However, in general, the Democracy Index has increased in recent centuries.

!   Important

As the average level of education increases, the willingness to be led by power figures decreases. This also changes what subordinates expect from managers in companies.

Demographic shift

The changes in what future generations (digital natives) are demanding also underlines the need for an understanding of lateral leadership. Generation Y (those born between 1981-1999) is characterized, among other things, by the fact that they reject hierarchy and call for cooperation. Generation Z (born after 2000) has grown up in a technically connected world. Expertise is drawn from and shared with the network. Here recognition is much more important than hierarchy. Given the technological advances, the explosion of knowledge and the wider availability of information, the decision-making function of hierarchical leadership becomes less and less required in organisations. Delegating decisions down the line of hierarchy and waiting for weeks to receive an answer will lead to impatient clients who are likely to take their business to a competitor. In the age of digitalization, clients expect significantly shorter response times.

Detailed knowledge is dispersed across the organisation

Problems are becoming more and more complex. In many cases, individual knowledge is not enough to find a solution. Direct, interdepartmental cooperation is indispensable. In the pharmaceutical industry, multidisciplinary teams have long been established. Experts from departments such as Regulatory Affairs, Commercial Operations, Key Account Management, Marketing, Medical Affairs, Clinical Studies, Quality Management and Controlling work together on the success of a drug without one functional department taking overall charge. The matrix organisation is a widely used structural solution for the challenges presented by a complex environment. Such complexity is further increased when an organisation‘s experts are spread across the globe. In multinational companies, there are centres of excellence in different geographic regions, e.g. teams that can assume a global coordination role without, necessarily, being based in the headquarters. In many companies, virtual collaboration is already more widely spread than traditional face-to-face meetings. In order for lateral leaders to meet these increased demands, they need a broader understanding of management, new ways of thinking and the skills to use them.

2.2A new perspective on organisations

The pyramid, as a symbol of traditional organisational structures, is becoming obsolete in today‘s networked society. Organisations are becoming flatter, networked and dynamic. So, we need to replace the traditional representation of a hierarchical organisation with a new one.

Figure 1:Traditional, hierarchical organisations have a pyramid-type structure

Pyramid-shaped organisations are based on those closer to the bottom, carrying out the orders sent down from those closer to the top. In legal terms, this is known as the right of instruction: the employer pays the employee and so has the right to issue work instructions. In the pyramid, winning commitment is of lesser importance.

For organisations in which lateral leadership plays a major role, we have a new representation: theconeviewed from above (Kruse 2013). It has a circular base. Why is it circular? According to the legend, King Arthur introduced his famous Round Table to create a sense of equality. Also, when the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, round tables played an important role when the communist regimes in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and the GDR negotiated a peaceful transition with oppositional forces.

Figure 2:Organisations with a focus on lateral leadership

Let us now take a look at the cone from above and include contour lines in the representation (Figure 2). The contour lines still hint at the hierarchical structure, but the two-dimensional perspective allows the hierarchy to recede into the background. The focus is a common idea. This is represented by the CEO and a core group that serves as a point of orientation and identification for the entire organisation. Such an idea is usually formulated in the corporate mission statement and includes the mission, vision and company values. This is nothing new. In order to harmonize individual business units and to ensure the implementation of the strategy, management-by-objectives continues to make sense.

In today‘s business environment, there is a greaterneed for improvisation. Both strategic and operational issues require autonomous coordination of experts and stakeholders. The need for direct supervisors recedes. Experts from different company units reach out to one another in order to find quick solutions to issues, such as a client's problem. It is irrelevant whether the participants are positioned on a circle closer or further away from the centre. The only thing that matters is who has the relevant expertise and who is going to run the problem-solving process.

Over the past few decades,project managementhas become established as a temporary form of organisation. These take various forms e.g. line, matrix, legally independent company. However, structured project management is too complex and too slow for many of today‘s projects. Organisations are increasingly challenged to act as a superorganism – like a shoal of fish: if it is attacked, it must react immediately and has no time to negotiate a contract. If the shoal finds an unexpected food source, the same holds true. The internet is a kind of world brain. It facilitates the use of collective intelligence and at the same time reinforces the need to tap into the know-how of specific groups, e.g. crowdsourcing.

In most cases, only individual units of the organisation are required to deal with current challenges. These areas can, however, be located in different places within the company and, therefore, also at different heights on the cone. In such cases, task forces are created, composed of members from all areas of the organisation. Some members are only briefly involved, others for longer. After the task has been completed, the workgroup is dissolved. New working groups are formed in other places. People can be involved in several taskforces at the same time. In most of these temporary working groups, there is no formal leadership role. The first person to encounter a problem is the one who takes the initiative. The expert who is responsible for solving the problem usually takes the lead shortly after and it is possible for a third person to take the role as the work progresses. Job titles are not important. Those in more senior positions may also become integrated into the task force. The most important thing is, for those involved, to contribute the appropriate skills and abilities needed to produce a solution and move the organisation forward. Anyone who is in a leadership role, even if only temporarily, is dependent on winning the commitment of his players.

!   Important

In addition to hierarchy (Greek for "sacred order"), in-company and cross-company networks are becoming increasingly necessary in order to cope with complexity. This goes hand in hand with the need for leadership to be distributed far more widely.

2.3The importance of lateral leadership

Lateral leadership has become an operational necessity in projects, committees or interdepartmental cooperation.

Dr Ernst Balla, Management Development, Voestalpine AG

We asked 108 HR managers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland to assess how important lateral leadership will be in organisations in the next 5-10 years:

■89 percent think that the importance of lateral leadership will increase.

■10 percent believe the importance will remain unchanged.

■Only one person is of the opinion that the importance will decrease. These responses support a trend that started in large companies in 2005 and continues to gain momentum. In recent years, the availability of related training courses has mushroomed.

We also asked these HR managers what the tasks / functions of lateral leaders are. The answers are shown in Figure 3 in ascending order.

Figure 3:Typical functions of lateral leaders

There is a broad range of functions, with the role of expert most frequently mentioned. This fits with the model of the knowledge society and economy. More than half of line managers have additional lateral leadership tasks.

Half of the surveyed organisations work with matrix structures that are not very popular and are frequently thought of as obsolete because of their complexity when dealing with conflict. The reality is, however, that they have firmly established themselves in the corporate landscape.

Lateral leadershipexists throughout and between organisations. It is not always clear to the people concerned that they are engaged in a lateral leadership function. It commonly starts in committees when one member tries to win the support of others for his plans. Lateral leadership is also found at the interface to suppliers, clients, process chains, between departments and, above all, in the gaps in the organisational chart.

!   Important

Lateral leadership is always present if leadership is not based on position power and when leaders try to win commitment for their lateral venture.

The responses of HR managers support this. When asked about the most important skill of a lateral leader, 56 percent of them said it was "gaining commitment".

Figure 4:The most important skills of lateral leaders

All of this is why the focus of this book is the ability of lateral leadership towin commitmentas the method of choice when all parties are at the same hierarchical level. It is also necessary for cooperation with stakeholders both inside and outside the organisation.

To understand how lateral leaders can win commitment, we need to accurately and clearly identify the specifics of lateral leadership. For this, we use a well-known project management rule: if you want to define what your target is, then first define what is not the target. First, we compare lateral leadership with hierarchical leadership. Between them, there are enough differences to clearly define what constitutes lateral leadership.

2.3.1Lateral leadership versus traditional leadership

Traditional leadership is about working with people to achieve departmental objectives. Lateral ventures are about achieving goals with people outside the traditional structure. In this section, we take a closer look at the special features of lateral leadership:

1.Leadership only works at eye level.

2.Nothing is fixed: The vacuum of leadership guidelines.

3.Aims are achieved for and with internal and / or external clients.

4.The impact radius of lateral leadership spans across departments.

Leadership only works at eye level.

Regardless of how democratic supervisors make their leadership style, ultimately, they have the upper hand. This gives them a position of power. How motivated their staff are to carry out their supervisor‘s instructions is an entirely different matter. The fact is that the supervisor sets the direction and the marching speed. The employee just has to go along with it.

In a lateral leadership relationship, the situation is completely different. If a person is authorised to lead a lateral venture, it does not mean that he is authorised to drive and lead people. Project team members are not bound to carry out the instructions of the lateral leader and they don‘t need to be afraid of being punished by them. Their activity is beyond hierarchies, beyond their departmental affiliation and, therefore, beyond the records of their performance against which they are measured and evaluated. Participation in lateral ventures is voluntary and rarely included in target agreements and performance reviews. They get involved if and when they are ready to. They contribute their experience, skills, energy, reputation (which they may lose) and possibly a financial investment – both as a function owner and as a person. They expect to be treated accordingly – at eye level and respected as someone that is not onlyexpectedto contribute but is alsoallowedto contribute.

Nothing is fixed: The vacuum of leadership guidelines

In a traditional organisation chart, there are boxes containing the names of the leaders. These are the kings and queens of their box empires. They are responsible for, administer and lead their respective boxes and, if need be, fend off attacks. These boxes and their managers are important – they are the pillars of the business and are visible as such in the organisation chart.

Lateral ventures move in the voids of an organisation chart and change continuously. Goals are adjusted, responsibilities vary according to the progress of the venture. Their size, impact and their relevance also changes over time. In short, lateral ventures are invisible in organisations (unless they choose make themselves visible), dynamic and difficult to pin down. To lead them is a bit like carrying water in your hands.

This has an effect on how lateral leadership works. For lateral leaders, as the Austrian singer Reinhard Fendrich puts it in one of his songs, nothing is fixed ("Nix ist fix."). Lateral leaders move beyond the hierarchy and so beyond the guidelines that provide orientation. There are no target agreement meetings with lateral leaders. There is no performance evaluation and no staff appraisals. They would be happy to be able to define what their actual mission is and where it ends.

Aims are achieved for and with internal and/or external clients.

Lateral ventures are completely client oriented. Their aims are only meaningful and purposeful if they ultimately serve the client – the internal client and/or the external client. Lateral ventures have to provide a service, and like every service, they are subject to the rules of the market economy. The expected service determines the price and (internal and external) competitors will not be far behind. It is possible that others within the organisation work on similar topics or offer an internal service very similar to the lateral leader‘s venture. It is possible that external competitors offer a far better price. The lateral leader may even be in competition with others in his own department. In any case, the venture must be so attractive to the client that money, time and energy investment makes it worthwhile to contribute and to be committed to it.

The impact radius of lateral leadership spans across departments.

Each department is a cog in the organisation‘s machine. Line managers have to achieve targets together with their employees. These departmental targets must be met in the interest of the stability of the entire organisation.

Lateral leaders also have to meet targets. These, however, are interdepartmental and so have a larger impact radius. Lateral ventures focus on targets that cannot be achieved by individual departments alone. They are either too large, require interdisciplinary knowledge and skills and / or require the approval of larger organisational units than their own immediate sphere of activity.

2.3.2Responsibilities of lateral leaders

Imagine leadership was a game in which you had to throw each other a ball and make sure it does not fall to the ground. The line manager and his staff throw each other balls. In the best case, both sides pay attention to being well coordinated. They are neither too far apart, nor too close together. They focus their attention on each other and concentrate on catching the balls. They are in unison –always focused and trying not to let themselves get distracted.

Lateral leaders, on the other hand, have to be able to throw their balls to everyone in the organisation (close to them, far away, in their field of vision or even behind them). Some of those involved are ready to catch a ball. Others are distracted, lost in thought or just pretending to be. Others make it clear (e.g. with crossed arms) that they do not want to or cannot be involved in the ball game at this time. Lateral leaders cannot focus on only one person, but must expand their view towards the periphery. It is the task of lateral leaders to always keep balls in motion. This is by no means a one-sided affair. As we know it from traditional leadership roles, there is an agreement to both throw and catch the balls. However, in lateral ventures this is not always the case. Lateral leaders can throw the ball in the right direction with the right amount of force, but if the person across from them is not ready to catch it – because their attention is elsewhere, or they are simply unwilling to catch it – then the lateral leader is powerless. The game is lost.

Lateral ventures depend on people who stand in key positions, focus their attention on the lateral leader and are ready to catch the ball when it is time to do so, and pass it on if necessary. They must be willing to work together and be led by the lateral leader. They need to know what the goal of the game is. In our example, it is to keep throwing balls for as long as possible without them falling to the floor. The rules of the game need to be agreed so that co-operation will be effective. For example, this may mean that players who have been passed a ball five times can sit down and take a three-minute break – but until then, they must be in the field and ready to catch. Why is the lateral leader allowed to control this game? In our example, it‘s because the game master appointed him. It is only when there is understanding and consensus that the participants are prepared to let themselves be led by the lateral leader and to cooperate to meet a common target. Only then will commitment be possible. Lateral leaders must also play the game with their focus on the target, they must be willing to lead, exert influence, and work together with stakeholders. So, we define the three core tasks of effective lateral leadership as follows:

!   Important

The three core tasks of effective lateral leadership are:

■1. to focus on the venture‘s aim,

■2. to lead and to exert influence,

■3. to cooperate.

If one of these core tasks is not fulfilled, sooner or later, it will have a negative effect on the commitment of the parties involved. Experience shows that this requires the ability to meet them where they are standing in terms of understanding what the venture is all about and in terms of their expectations and needs. The aim is the connecting element – also to potential clients. The aim creates the framework in which lateral leaders operate, but which is permeable. Changes in the market or decisions within the organisation can have a major impact on lateral ventures. Figure 5 illustrates the three core tasks: the lateral leader is shown in green, the potential client in purple, the lateral staff in blue.

Figure 5:Responsibilities of the lateral leader

These three core tasks are rarely specified or put down on paper. In practice, however, there is an unspoken expectation that these three tasks need to be fulfilled by lateral leaders. This becomes very clear when things get difficult. When major mistakes occur or there is conflict, blame is usually laid at the door of the lateral leader and no consideration is given towhythe lateral leader has "failed". Lateral ventures depend on shared responsibility of all the players – in good times and bad. However, if the lateral leader does not fulfil his responsibilities, it is up to him to accept the blame. So, what does a lateral leader need in order to perform his tasks effectively? It is the clarity and the awareness that a lateral venture depends on a common understanding that an "I" becomes a "we" and that responsibility becomes joint responsibility. In short, he needs commitment.

2.4How to define commitment

There are very few international companies that cannot be heard calling for more commitment from their employees. But what does it actually mean? In the context of day-to-day business, commitment means "identifying with something, standing up for it and sticking to it, even when faced with challenges".

Lateral leaders are dependent on people's willingness to participate. They have to get others on board. They say, "Come on, get on board, join us on this venture." How does a lateral leader win commitment? Colleagues are ready to engage in a lateral venture if they have confidence in the lateral leader or are convinced that the venture makes sense (it is purposeful and meaningful to them) – ideally, both. So, we have the following formula for commitment:

!   Important

This formula is an addition, not a multiplication.Just think of someone who is convinced that your venture makes sense. Even if he does not trust you (yet) as a lateral leader, he may still join your team and be committed just because he can see a clear benefit for him. On the other hand, it may also be the case that someone will join your team even though he may not feel convinced of the venture but he is committed just because he trusts you. Both values in the formula can be both positive and negative. We use a scale of -5 to +5, so the sum can be positive or negative.

!   Example

In the next step, to increase the level of commitment, the lateral leader has three levers he can use:

■Self-Leadership.

■Strategy.

■Communication.

Figure 6:The three levers for lateral leaders

Self-leadership is the foundation. Augustine famously said "What you want to ignite in others, must first burn inside you." He could have written this for lateral leaders. Those who want to lead others should know themselves well, should know what is important to them and should be able to cope with internal conflicts.

We are going to omit the self-leadership lever here, as there is a separate book on this topic (Fuerstberger 2014). Instead we are going to focus on the levers of strategy and communication. Over the years of working with companies and hundreds of seminar participants, we have come to recognise that lateral leaders basically need two types of skills:

■Analytical / strategic skills.

■Communication skills.

To operate and implement lateral ventures successfully in large organisations requires the ability to correctly assess the current situation. A thorough situational analysis is the basis for decisions about the right course of action, tactics and the choice of strategy. However, the best strategy in the world is worth nothing unless you can win over an individual or group through direct communication to support your venture.

!   Important

Thestrategisthas an overall, general perspective (a helicopter view) that means he can assess the current overall situation, identify the goal, then choose the best strategy and tactics. Thecommunicatoris very close to the people involved and tries to achieve a good result through personal contact.

3The Strategist and the Commitment Game Board

If the professors of the world's best business schools had to agree on a single piece of advice to the leaders of the future it would probably be along the lines of: "Practice one-step back leadership: Take a deliberate step backwards before you take the first step forward. Analyse the overall situation before you take action."1We would give lateral leaders the same advice.