This month, I had a chance to attend the Water Summit in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The purpose of the conference is to draw out the leaders from government, industry and academia to build a foundation of dialogue around an issue that is hard to find actionable agreement on: the availability of abundant, clean water for the world.
While everyone ascents to it as a concept, it’s very hard to mobilize it to action at scale.
I’ve been privileged to attend several of these events and last year led a panel on entrepreneurship. The moderators put in the work to draw out the stories of the panelists, which created a vibrant event for this year’s sold out crowd of 280 participants.
Each of the panelists shared how they had been drawn to supporting and championing the cause of Water, and specifically the role they played in setting and contributing to the agenda. Holding the thru line of the discussions together was noted author of The Big Thirst and journalist Charles Fishman.
Listening to each thought leader’s journey, my mind was drawn not only to the uniqueness of their paths, but also the powerful underlying pattern that every Growth Leader shares. Anywhere high-stakes discussions are taking place, there is a similar underlying pattern that is present.
To get into the room, leaders (by definition) have excelled in a single capacity. It turns out that when grouped together, these break into four unique capacities (more on that in a minute). Once I share this pattern with you, you’ll see this every time a complex, growth-oriented discussion is taking place. By building on this pattern, you can unlock very large improvements in both your own and your team’s performance.
As they say, once you have this lens, you can’t unsee it.
How it Plays Out
In every endeavor we find ourselves engaged in, there is a need for these powerful conversations, because narrative drives progress. Leaders that have successfully created focus and momentum use a set of skills, vocabulary and empathy to enable a group to find form and take action on an area. Through the course of hundreds of business development interactions I’ve carved these into four key capacities – each with underlying competencies.
We’ll look at both the positive aspects of a given style and its shadow cousin. When people overapply a given skill set, a pattern of over dependence can be established. When this occurs, I find that these leaders inevitably hit a progress wall. Like a baseball pitcher that comes of age on one pitch, they need to find the ability to deliver something new and unexpected as they rise in the big leagues.
The Big Four and Their Shadows
Architect
The Architect capacity leads by creating massive clarity in the midst of confusion. You can recognize them by their ability to take complexity and make it high contrast and simple. One leader in the sports industry talked about how they were able to turn around the overuse of water by focusing on the fundamentals of growing “great roots” in sports stadiums, and “the rest will follow.” This is the kind of clarity-inducing statement that architects are routinely able to introduce to their firms that lead to much better decisions by the entire team.
Overapplied, the Architect capacity looks like a constant drive for more and stronger frameworks that the person creating them expects to be adopted primarily because of their utility. This can result in discarding nuance before the importance of an element is completely known. When met with adversity or a setback, the person who overuses this usually goes offline and refines the framework, rather than looking toward the other three capacities. In doing so, however, they miss bringing out insight that will not be exposed through architecture work alone.
Champion
The Champion capacity is able to effortlessly build coalitions and extract sponsorship from unexpected places. There were several examples of panelists who had gotten diverse coalitions to form on a local or regional basis. These coalitions were then able to build into effective resource allocation engines to develop actions that had real effects for all the participants and also raised the quality of life for the full region. The key that makes them champions is they are both skilled and fearless about approaching those in charge who have control of people, process and resources that can aid in unlocking new and compelling contributions.
The Champion capacity overexpressed will see every challenge as a need for more influence and resource from sponsors. When they experience a setback, they will go after the solution through vertical recruitment and collaboration (managing up), when in fact they might be over complicating the situation or be missing the peer relationships to achieve what they need.
Catalyst
The Catalyst capacity is driven to create progress with diverse resource thru lateral engagement. This person thrives in mobilizing peers to action based on their charisma, skill and ability to create winsome opportunities. One panelist related how she was able to find a spare 35,000 gallons of water that was not being harvested (and in fact was being disposed of) in Los Angeles. Her response was this: build an unlikely lateral coalition of local government, universities and first responders to capture this important resource. This is a very typical mode for the Catalysts among us: we come in common with them and then are suddenly deputized into their posse.
The Catalyst, over expressed, sees action as the solution ( e.g., that’s done – oh, what’s the question again?). Because of their lens, they tend to double down on hard work when presented with an obstacle. Many times that is great, but when overdone, we get to the classic juggernaut where they did not need to drill through the brickwall that was facing them. They also can miss the opportunities where a few words of sponsorship from the right person might open doors for them.
Anchor
Anchoredness is that attribute that provides the “street cred” to influence firms, groups and regions. Anchoredness is usually built through tenured action in a vertical aspect that is important to the group – perhaps technical, relational skill or on-the-ground know how.
Each participant had their Anchor story of what drew them to water in the first place and how they built a platform of connection and influence in that world. How their paths, either linear or in some cases marvelously random, had brought them to their current roles and provided a grounded place of influence. This anchoredness is key to being able to exert authentic influence on the system. Each of the featured panelists had made a difference, and when you listened carefully, you found out how they had anchored their work so that they could convert insight to action.
And yes, even Anchoredness can be over applied. These leaders tend to be seen as solidly grounded transformational leaders who can bring insight and wisdom from their subject matter expertise, rootedness and gravitas. Over done, this capacity can miss out on simplicity, access and acceleration provided from the other capacities, by working too hard individually on their own foundational skills and interactions.
Turbo Charging
Using this framework as a diagnostic tool for teams and individuals leads to real progress. I’ve worked up tools that help individuals and groups see the mix of the four capacities that they currently use, and what actions and emphasis points they can use to become even stronger team members.
By helping individuals have self awareness of their dominant capacity, I’ve been able to help leaders align with the real needs of their firm, and to minimize the shadow. Using these four capacities leads to a rich discussion for personal development.
There are natural cross groupings that can be amazing teammates as well, for example an architect linked up to a catalyst is a very strong pairing for progress on emerging value propositions, where functional silos need to be brought together either within the firm, or in the case of water a geography. Of course the pairing will need the strong sponsorship that a champion can provide.
By assuring that the team has a balance of these four capacities present, it leads to much better decision making and effective interaction. I’ve written before about “Big Misses,” where firms have had products and services that went way off track. You can link each of these to an over dependence on one of the four styles.
We all want to see our work, insight and ideas established in our firms, communities and countries. If you are reading this, chances are you are interested in raising your game of leadership.
If you’d like to work in this area, either as an individual or a team, we should talk. I have diagnostic tools and coaching that can give you a specific assessment of where you are and how we can unlock more performance and impact for your work.
It all starts with a conversation. Feel free to call (847) 651-1014 or use this link to set up a 20-minute, (no-strings-attached) consult.
