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Whenever there is leaderwork being performed in an organisation it means that some crucial aspect of the essential work that a person does is not being formally acknowledged by those constituting the formal structure within the organisation.
The Nature of Power
This failure can be deliberate and therefore political and related to the power structure within the organisation. This is often most evident in the identification by HR of the emerging leadership talent. For example, in many organisations there is a hierarchy between leadership and management work and related capability uplift programs.
Leadership is considered to be more strategic and important whereas management, especially operations management, is the poorer cousin.This demarkation is often apparent in the way talent is identified and developed in organisations. Along with the concomitant allocation of resources to run development programs. And the recognition of a particular employee's value.
Let me explain with an example. Suppose there are 2 senior HR practitioners in a Management Team, one is the Leadership content expert and the other the Management content expert.
Would it be your expectation that these 2 colleagues would need to collaborate co-operatively to ensure that their respective learning and development programs interfaced seamlessly with one another so that that leaders understood the operational challenges and managers the strategic? What if the Leadership practitioner had no interest in any such collaboration. What does that tell you about priorities?
Without such co-operation you could conclude that there is a power inbalance within HR itself in how different types of work are valued and supported. By prioritising Leadership development there will be less focus on how the actual work is mananged and how it can be managed better.
This constitutes a significant opportunity cost to the organisation and reinforces the bias towards leadership rather than management development. In this scenario you will find leaderwork being performed by those people who want to improve their own work.
Capability Shortfall
Alternatively it could be that the organisation's formal managers do not have the EQ, or technical skills, or both, to recognise when it is that a person reporting to them is undertaking leaderwork, i.e. essential work that adds to the body of practical knowledge within the organisation.
The person's work, although sitting outside the formal job description, may well fit within a job definition. That is if there is any inclination to undertake this more challenging task. To define a job means that the processes feeding into, through and out are understood.
This requires a more sophisticated articulation of what constitutes work.
Find the leaderwork and you have your jump start.
Managing Change
A third reason for an individual undertaking leaderwork can be due to a failure of the organisation's leaders to effectively manage change. And specifically their incapacity to face into the actual impact of the change to the essential work to be done. What if, instead of having meetings to go through snazzy consultant packs senior leaders created a safe environment for their people to articulate the implications to their workload.
What do I mean by this? As new processes and services are introduced into the day to day operations in an organisation there is often a delay in management appreciating the operational implications for their people.
The reality being faced by people working in Hospital Emergency Departments in Victoria in January 2022 due to Covid 19 is a cogent example. Not only do doctors and nurses have to wear full PEP for their whole shift they are often understaffed due to a covid positive colleague and have to perform extra duties and often extra shifts. Our medical hospital staff are saying openly that they are exhausted. Yet they are expected to keep working and to do the essentail extra work, leaderwork day after day.
Leaderwork
This is leaderwork. No where in their current job description will it say that medical and nursing staff have to work understaffed, overdressed (heat, unable to drink, go to the toilet) and manage the number of intubated patients working alongside nursing staff who are not necessarily critical care trained.
So what?
A price is paid by both the individual and their employer. And in this example our whole society.
How?
A person who needs to innovate and perform work arounds to get their job done is often not receiving the organisational support they need, want or deserve to do this work. A failure by the organisation's formal management structure to recognise this effort and even to deliberately ignore such employee's effort will have a detrimental impact on that person's wellbeing at work.
And of course there are other professional and organisational development implications as well. We will explore these in future posts.
The Equine (EQ) Link
Equine Experiential Education programs can significantly assist people to draw on their unique strengths and attributes and tap into their job crafting and leaderwork capabilities. Equine assisted Team building exercises can enhance this work.
Dr Deborah Hann 18 January 2022
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