Two Key Skills for Innovative Leaders:
Self-Differentiated Leadership and Crucial Conversations
As educators, innovators, and leaders, we often face situations where we need to initiate, implement, or sustain change within our organizations and communities. These situations can be challenging, because they involve high stakes, differing and oftentimes polarized opinions, and strong emotions. How can we navigate these situations effectively and achieve our innovation goals?
In the text that follows, I will discuss two concepts that I’ve recently learned about that can help us become more effective change agents: Self-Differentiated Leadership and Crucial Conversations. I will explain what these concepts mean, why they are important for innovation, and how I plan to apply them as I work to implement my own innovation plan within my organization.
What is Self-Differentiated Leadership?
According to the book A Failure of Nerve by the late Edwin H. Friedman, self-differentiated leadership is the ability to balance rationality and emotionality, and independence and interdependence, in one’s relationships with others (Friedman et al., 2017). A self-differentiated leader is someone who can maintain a clear sense of self, hold onto personal convictions, respond calmly and effectively to crises and conflicts, stay connected with those who disagree, and foster a culture of innovation and creativity in oneself and others. Friedman argues that a well-differentiated leader has clarity about his or her own values and goals, and therefore is someone who is less likely to become lost in the anxious emotional processes swirling about.
Why is Self-Differentiation Important for Innovation?
Self-differentiation is important for innovation because it enables leaders of change to:
- Initiate and sustain change by being clear about their vision, values, goals, and expectations, and communicating them effectively to others. By clearly defining my Why, How, and What, I will be able to align my actions and decisions with my principles and values, and demonstrate integrity and consistency.
- Foster a culture of collaboration and teamwork by creating a safe and supportive environment where diverse perspectives, ideas, opinions, and emotions are welcomed and respected. Tying this into my innovation plan’s implementation strategies, I believe that by having set up an Influencer strategy and a 4 Disciplines of Execution plan, I will be able to avoid getting distracted by the whirlwind, quick-fix thinking, emotional triangles, and the chronic anxiety that often plagues groups where change is occurring. This will lead to better outcomes and relationships.
- Manage resistance and conflict by staying calm, respectful, curious, empathetic, and solution oriented. This is where mastering the art of crucial conversations comes into play. By learning how to communicate if/when a crucial conversation arises, I can actively listen, overcome resistance, and/or find a win-win solution.
What are Crucial Conversations?
According to the book of the same name, Crucial Conversations are discussions that have high stakes, strong emotions, and differing opinions (Patterson et al., 2012). They can occur in any situation where people care deeply about something and have different views on how to achieve it. Crucial conversations can have a huge impact on our lives, since they can affect our personal and professional success, our health and happiness, and our relationships and reputation.
Crucial conversations are common in situations where change is involved, such as implementing an innovation plan. They can have a significant impact on the outcomes of the change process, depending on how they are handled. Therefore, we need a strategy to notice and deal with them effectively, rather than completely avoiding them or handling them poorly.
Applying Crucial Conversations to My Innovation Plan
- Start with Heart: Be clear about what I hope to accomplish and focus on the common goal:
- I want to adopt a language arts curriculum that engages and empowers students to learn English through quality instruction and authentic and meaningful projects.
- The common goal is to improve the educational outcomes and experiences of our students.
- Learn to Look: I need to be aware of the signs that indicate that safety is at risk, such as silence, defensiveness, or withdrawal. Then, begin to take steps toward ensuring safe communication occurs.
- Make it Safe: Establish mutual respect and mutual purpose and restore safety when it is threatened. I can use the acronym C.R.I.B., which was provided in the Crucial Conversations book, as a memory aid when creating a safe environment for dialogue:
- Commit to seek mutual purpose: Show that I care about the interests and goals of others as well as my own.
- Recognize the purpose behind the strategy: Try to understand the reasons and motivations behind the actions and opinions of influencers and stakeholders.
- Invent a mutual purpose: Find a higher or longer-term objective that everyone can agree on and ensure it is made public.
- Brainstorm new strategies: Generate new ideas and options that can satisfy both my and others’ purposes.
- Master My Stories: Separate facts from interpretations and emotions and choose a positive story that helps me act constructively and in a way that is consistent with my goals and values. Be aware of how my thoughts and feelings influence my behavior and communication.
- S.T.A.T.E. My Path: Share my facts, feelings, and wants respectfully and confidently, using contrasting statements and tentative language using the following steps:
- Share my facts: Start with the most objective and least controversial information that supports my point of view. Use information from my literature review, organizational KPIs, and data from the Texas Education Agency to support my view point.
- Tell my story: Explain how I interpreted the facts and what conclusions I drew from them.
- Ask for others’ paths: Invite others to share their facts and stories and show genuine curiosity and openness to their perspectives.
- Talk tentatively: Use softening words and phrases that indicate that I are open to feedback and correction, such as “I think”, “I wonder”, “It seems”, etc.
- Encourage testing: Encourage others to challenge my views and provide evidence or reasoning for their opinions.
- Explore Others’ Paths: I must show respect and interest in what others have to say by listening actively and empathically, asking open-ended questions, and acknowledging the feelings and perspectives of influencers and stakeholders.
- Move to Action: Decide how to act on the dialogue, assign responsibilities and deadlines during WIG meetings, and follow up on the results. Also, ensure that the dialogue leads to concrete actions and outcomes that are aligned with our common purpose.
Conclusion
Becoming a self-differentiated leader and positively capitalizing on crucial conversations are essential for implementing my innovation plan within my organization. By being a self-differentiated leader and by following the steps of preparing, starting, conducting, and ending crucial conversations, I hope to enhance mutual understanding and trust, resolve problems and issues, build commitment and buy-in, and strengthen relationships and collaboration. By doing so, I can lead change effectively and achieve my innovation plan’s goals.