How to be a Blue Ocean Leader?
- Martin Hurych
- 2. 7.
- Minut čtení: 4
Sometimes I can't help but wonder. Businesses with growth ambitions spend big money year after year on training their managers. They invest in courses, coaching, workshops and motivational speeches. The result? Often none. People go from meeting to meeting without really knowing why, and performance? It stagnates. Sometimes it even falls. In this article, you'll learn why Blue Ocean Leadership may be the solution.
The problem isn't that people don't want to be better. But the traditional approach to leadership development isn't working in many companies. In fact, it seeks to change personality - to instill values, attitudes, empathy, humility, assertiveness. That's nice, but it's like trying to reprogram an operating system without access to the source code. You can invest all you want, but if it doesn't impact the day-to-day operations of the company, it means nothing.
This is exactly what Blue Ocean Leadership is up against. It is based on the work of the authors who gave the world the blue ocean strategy. Companies that follow it are not trying to beat the competition, but are creating entirely new markets where there is no competition yet. And the approach to leadership is the same: they don't try to force people into new identities, but change the way they work every day.
Further in the article:
Differences between the traditional approach and Blue Ocean Leadership
Conventional approaches focus on developing personality traits such as empathy, self-reflection or emotional intelligence. These programmes are often generic and disconnected from the realities of the market and the specific needs of customers. In addition, they focus mostly on top management, while middle and first line - those who are in daily contact with clients - remain neglected.
Check out the table to see what leadership is betting on according to the Blue Ocean strategy. It's a big difference, don't you think?
When clients ask me what to do about dysfunctional leadership teams, I tell them: don't start with PowerPoint. Go to the field. Watch what your leaders are doing. Not what they say - but what they actually. She does. How much time do they spend supporting people? How do they respond to problems? Do they listen at all? Are they able to break free from routine micromanagement? Or do they wallow in it and suffocate subordinates?
It is this action optic that is at the heart of Blue Ocean Leadership. Forget the ideals and go for concrete activities that have a real impact on motivating people. We want leaders to learn to replace activities that eat time and return no value with those that move the team forward. Individual feedback rather than endless status meetings.
Anyone can be a leader. Not just the CEO.
Another thing Blue Ocean Leadership is changing is who "qualifies" to be a leader. Traditionally, leadership development has been about the board, the board, the directors. Except that in companies where it actually works, the shift leader or account manager is also a leader.
The Blue Ocean approach says: let's look at each level of the company and create a custom profile of an effective leader for that level. What should a particular person in their role do differently to enhance their team's performance? Finally, what can he or she stop doing because it's not bringing value? This is not a theory, but a practice that can be applied very quickly.
Four steps to implementing Blue Ocean Leadership
Acknowledge what is not working in your company. This is the first step. Go out among the people, talk to them. Don't ask what they think about company values. Ask what's bugging them, what's keeping them from being better. What do they need from their bosses? What do they need from their bosses? This information is the building block. Based on them, you can create a leader profile that matches reality - not textbooks.
Then comes the change phase. Choose one team, one department. Start with small steps, clearly communicate what is changing and why. Evaluate the impact, don't be afraid to adjust course. And when it works, scale.
Map the current reality of leadership: find out what activities leaders are doing that support or hinder team performance.
Create alternative leadership profiles: Suggest new approaches based on concrete activities.
Select target leadership profiles: choose the most effective approaches and develop a plan for their implementation.
Institutionalize new practices: Ensure that the new approaches become part of the company culture and daily practice.
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Leadership is not a feature on a business card. It's a daily service to the people you work with. Whether you're the CEO or the foreman on the shop floor. If you really want to change the results of your company, stop changing people. Change what they do every day.
You want to talk about it? Email me. We'll find specific steps that will work for you and take your business even further.
