Management Perspectives

James Stockdale, an American Navy fighter pilot who faced years in jail as a prisoner of war, reflected on his experience years later and famously introduced a paradoxical formula for resilience in times of upheaval.

He said he survived because he had both bottomless faith that he would survive, and yet was brutally honest about the facts (build positive expectations, but keep them on a leash). This combination—of faith and facts, of hope and reality—stuck because, while it is seemingly contradictory to have both things at once, it is wise and necessary to build capacity for both, as leaders and as people.

In fact, if there is anything that truly defines effective leadership today, it is versatility. Leaders need to deal with not only hope and reality, but also the short term and long, openness to bottom-up ideas but also moments of decisive command, feel comfortable dealing with tasks but also relationships, and on the list goes.

While Shakespeare pointed out that the world is a stage and we are all merely players, I have found that our leaders are particularly important players, who must cope well with that stage life. The great sociologist Erving Goffman took this metaphor further when he pointed out that this life stage has two essential realities.

The Frontstage is where we display—and are on display—the self that we want the public to see. Leaders in particular must face the camera, literally and metaphorically, all the time and be accountable to many stakeholders—in the speeches they give, the feedback they offer, the visions they set, and the hope they give, and so on.

The Backstage, however, is our messy reality. It is the self—or organisations—that we really have, when we are alone, or alone with our fellow members. It is the private, hidden, facts and ‘the way life really works around here’. Leaders need to be capable on both frontstage and backstage. It is not either/or, it is always both.

But the development of leadership education, in my view, has done a much better job in the past few decades preparing leaders for the front stage than backstage work. We have a lot of mirrors in that space but too few windows. Just think of all the hours spent on 360 [degree] feedback surveys that focus on personal or interpersonal traits [like] public speaking skills, negotiation skills, feedback skills, and media relations. What I have found to be in short supply are time and knowledge on difficult backstage work. Taking care of the ‘plumbing and electrics’ in the background is not as glamorous as the spotlight upfront, but it is incredibly important to do competently.

By the backstage, I do not mean processes such as financial controlling, IT, personnel, supply chains, and so on, although all are important. What I refer to are the key processes which help craft, support, and deliver business strategy; and the need to be fundamentally ‘owned’ by organisational leaders.

‘Scanning and sense making’ is about reality checking your strategy and making sure you are not blindsided. This is about finding and tracking the storms before they become hurricanes or cyclones. Ideally, one would forecast trouble coming well in advance, but this is never perfect. Nonetheless, the best leadership meteorology can develop a well-functioning radar aimed beyond the horizon and the humility to live with a degree of uncertainty as you explore solutions with your team.

‘Building and locking in commitment’ to a strategy requires more than an amazing public speaking capacity. First and foremost, generating consensus, or at least a good-faith acceptance, hinges on the level of openness involved in the process. Will you pull in ideas and feedback from the whole organisation, or concentrate on pushing key stakeholders into alignment with your intentions? There is no one right answer; every strategic context demands an individual approach. The key is for leaders to recognise that ‘pulling’ and ‘pushing’ are very different stances that require a distinct series of steps. I focus particularly on ideas surrounding ‘fair process’.

‘Handling contradictions’ consists of trade offs to help leaders cope with contrasting mandates, e.g., the need for hierarchy versus the comparative agility of decentralised decision-making, the wisdom of thinking long term vs. the imperative to deliver quarterly shareholder returns. To honour these seemingly irreconcilable opposites, leaders must master the art of ambidexterity. This may include building harmony among the senior management team and manipulating the plumbing of organisational design so that each side of a conflict has a dedicated unit.

‘Shaping culture’ occurs through indirect means. Rather than issuing edicts about what the organisation’s values and norms are to be, leaders should first immerse themselves in the culture as it stands—the reality. Allow for the possibility of a large disparity between what top leaders say the company stands for and what actually goes on. Cultural change requires shaping the context, which shapes behaviour, and ultimately shapes ideas and performance. It requires the ultimate in ‘invisible’ work, not being everywhere, but being felt everywhere.

‘Developing talent and capabilities’ encompasses spotting superstars in the making and giving them opportunities to shine. But it also means reshaping the context to allow talent to thrive. The key for leaders is to provide a connection between strategy, capability development, and talent development. While leaders have HR professionals, they must (co) own the three key pillars in the HR arena: talent detection, talent development, and performance management.

Essential to this approach and Backstage Leadership are at least two things. One is that this work is centred on the life and success of business strategy. It is not purely a ‘leadership book’ nor a ‘strategy book’, but blends these two fields together because that is the way they are experienced by practising leaders.

The backstage involves many possible activities for leaders, but the ones I focus on are in the service of a business strategy and the survival and effectiveness of that human organisation.

Secondly, I want leaders to appreciate that, as they become more senior, their impact will be more through indirect means, through their shaping of context. Leaders need to become patient and comfortable with this fact. They cannot interact 100 per cent of the time with 100 per cent of the people, but if they build effective backstage processes, which shape the context of that organisation, they can have lasting influence and impact. Invisibly, silently, and hopefully, effectively.

Of course, Backstage Leadership was written (mostly) before the COVID-19 pandemic, but I believe many of the issues covered are even more relevant now. The crisis has elevated the importance of sensemaking, for example, because people are badly struggling with ambiguity and uncertainty. Managing contradictions has also become even more difficult and urgent. In particular, the perennial tension between exploration and exploitation is now acute.

Let me highlight a political leader who seems to have a good handle so far on working across frontstage and back. New Zealand’s widely praised Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has managed some complicated scenarios, from the current COVID-19 outbreak (where at the time of writing this, New Zealand is still fairing much better than most of the world) and the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings. Her blend of empathy and bracing clarity (both moral and factual) reflects not only authentic humanity but also confident command of both the frontstage and backstage work of leadership. Former Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi competently crossed frontstage and backstage as well, as she shepherded the company through a restructuring initiative that she dubbed ‘Performance with Purpose’. And Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella orchestrated a mighty turnaround since his appointment in 2014, calibrating his message of change for maximum investor and stakeholder impact, but then backing up his words by building much-needed capacities behind the scenes.

While there is nothing wrong with giving leaders some mirrors and the occasional makeover, we also need to give them some telescopes and magnifying lenses.