I will never forget the way you made me feel like I was everything.
I will never forget the way you made me feel like I was nothing.
-Antonio M. Arce
This is not about football, and not about a poem of shattered love.
It’s about how leaders can support and challenge their people, enabling them to be confident and to perform.
high challenge, high support leadership made visible.
I only know Juergen Klopp from TV and the occasional interview where he shares his views on leadership. If you look closer at this photo of Klopp and his player (John Ibe), you will see that it is full of emotions, and I will use this to demonstrate what leadership can be. It is an intimate conversation, probably at the side of the pitch. Maybe the player is about to be sent onto the field in the 85th minute, and his coach clearly gives him something. But what is it?
It is a moment of connection, motivation, trust and empowerment. I cannot imagine Klopp is saying “Don’t make any mistakes like you did last time”. The voice-over here is more likely “I trust you, go out there and give it your best!”.
When this player runs onto the pitch, he is willing to take responsibility. He will do cheeky dribblings and have a shot at the goal when there is an opportunity. He is not going to be concerned about making a mistake.
In this situation, I see a leader who enables one of his employees to be confident, to have courage and to perform at his best. It is a visualisation of High Challenge, High Support leadership.
Leadership is about multiplying people’s capacities, and enable them to be at their best.
business leaders can learn from Klopp.
Leadership at work and on a football pitch are of course not the same thing. Yet, there are several transferable leadership behaviours. One of them, is how leaders enable their people to multiply their capacities, through support and challenge.
Unfortunately, “enabling” leadership competencies are rated to be critically low by many employees. In our 2020 research we found that employee’s rate their leaders to be weak on 4 vital competencies:
Their ability to make the employee feel confident and strong.
The ability to give Constructive Feedback.
The ability to give Clear Directions.
The ability to Inspire.
For a second, just imagine how Juergen Klopp would be, if he would not have his Enabling competencies… he would send a player onto the pitch without direction, without feedback from the last match, telling him that he is no good and to not make mistakes. This kind of disempowerment is inconceivable when we we think about a great football coach, but yet this is how many employees experience their leaders at work.
when leaders disempower.
I don’t know any leader who goes to work with the mission to make people feel weak, but I know many employees who feel that this is exactly what their boss does. I call it Disempowerment. These employees feel that they are treated as “resources”, and they try to meet the expectations of their boss, but often do not understand what is actually required of them. They struggle with tight deadlines and high demands, are left alone, and even robbed of their motivation. Their bosses themselves are often high performers, but they do not have the ability to connect with the feelings of their people and enable them to perform.
To demonstrate my point I refer you to a recent Mckinsey research that shows that 61% of employees experience only a low level of support, and only 26% receive both supportive and challenging leadership.
This is particularly damaging in a transformation scenario, where employees need direction, security, support and inspiration from their leaders. The one-to-one feedback moments are “moments of truth”, where destructive, demotivating and unclear feedback creates tremendous damage. It leaves the employee in a state of confusion and frustration. Consequently, the transformation is not going to work out as planned, and business leaders need to rethink their approach.
I see you, I hear you, you are important to me!
This is where I would like to connect my story with the photo of Juergen Klopp and his player: In this brief moment-of-truth, the photo radiates a relationship that is based on seeing each other, hearing each other and that people are important to each other. It is a moment of empathy, trust, connection, hope, and the result is that the player will do his very best.
We need more of this kind of empathic high challenge, high support leadership.
Afterthought: Enabling leaders never stop supporting their people.
The player in the photo, John Ibe, is very talented but did not make the cut under Juergen Klopp. He was traded to Bournemouth and was shortly after instrumental in defeating Klopp’s team in a surprising victory. Klopp reacted by giving John Ibe a big hug on the pitch just after the final whistle.
Although John Ibe was no longer a Klopp employee, Klopp still took on the role of a connected and enabling leader for him. You can read more about it here.
Yours,
Henrik