Intentionality / Deciding How You Turn Up

In this episode of "MrJoe in Audio," I dive into the concept of intentionality and the various ways you can choose to show up in professional settings, whether it's a board meeting, a team catch-up, or a town hall. I discuss the power of choice in leadership roles and the misconception that leaders need to maintain a consistent approach in all interactions.

I introduce the psychological theory of internal family systems, adapted for business, which I liken to having an internal board of directors. This framework allows leaders to engage differently based on the needs of the situation—whether being directive, inquisitive, or supportive. This flexibility can enhance team dynamics and overall business success.

I share practical examples of how varying your leadership style can positively impact your team's performance and the organization's direction. By understanding and utilizing your "internal board of directors," you can choose the most effective persona for each scenario, leading to more strategic and thoughtful leadership.

I encourage leaders to explore and embrace their full range of capabilities to optimize their interactions and leadership effectiveness. If you're curious about discovering your internal board of directors and how this concept can change the way you lead, join me in this conversation to learn more.

Talk on the Internal Board of Directors

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Transcript

0:04

You can decide how you turn up to a particular situation. Your board meeting, the regular catch-ups with your senior leadership team, the town hall, you have a choice about how you turn up. So, what do I mean by that? Well, you can turn up in a number of different ways. Any situations you can turn up as the kind of charismatic leader you can be there. A rating. Setting forward the strategy being the smartest person in the room, being that charismatic leader, if you want to. You can turn up being that curious leader who follows and asks questions, who wants to get to the root of what's happening. And once they get an understanding about what's going on by asking questions and following their instinct through a line, they can understand really what's going on in a particular organization. You can turn up and just simply listen. You can observe what's going on and make small inputs and small tweaks and nudge people in particular directions, if you want to. Or you can turn up and be very domineering saying, this is what we're going to do, and this is how we're going to do it. Ultimately the choice is yours as to how you turn up. And there's often a misconceptions that you have to be consistently the same. In all the situations that you're in and that's simply not true. So I follow a theory in psychology called internal family systems. And I've modified that to work in the world of business. In essence, modifying it to being; you've got an internal board of directors. I have a full video in here, which is linked. About this, but the basic concept being is you have a board of directors. On your side, they're in your head and they, they operate in very different ways. You have the chairperson who turns up and it's very directive about what's going on. You have the internal CEO who can be very forthright on exactly what needs to be. You can have the non-executive director who can sort of sit back and ask questions. You've got the ability to turn up because you've got this full suite of directors in inside of you. And you can decide how you want to be in a particular situation. And that can be really liberating for you because once you see what's going on in a particular situation, you can decide which director you bring to the fore to get the most out of the team that you're working with at this point. And that allows you to, again, if you want to, sit back and observe, you simply can! It may be a little disconcerting for your team at first, I have a CEO I've been working with recently. Who's started to feel different internal directors in different meetings, and it can be a little disconcerting for the team when. He turns up and asks some very basic, simple questions and sits back. But ultimately it can lead to greater success. Because that team then are being slowly, subtly nudged by the CEO in certain situations, or in certain other situations, they're being told exactly what they need to do. You can decide how you turn up. Which part of you, you bring to meeting which strategy you're going to use. It doesn't have to be the same approach for all areas. You have a toolbox that you want to use. To turn up in different ways, too. Different situations. And the work that I do with the CEOs that I work with is looking at well, what is your internal board of directors like who are the people that sit on this board of directors? Some of them are great. Some of them are awful, but you can decide who you bring to the table and who's controlling you in a particular situation. So, if you are curious about your internal board of directors and want to learn more about who they might be, let's have a conversation. Because you've got a whole suite of ways you can turn up and be in a particular situation. Many of which you're probably just hiding. So drop me line. That's have a conversation cause I would love to talk to you more about your internal board of directors and who they may be.