Losing the fear factor with Frances Valintine
I discuss Bold Leadership with one of NZ’s most innovative leaders
Frances Valintine CNZM is a globally recognised leader in technology education, the founder of The Mind Lab and Tech Futures Lab and a Director of Callaghan Innovation. She is one of New Zealand’s leading voices on digital technologies and disruptive business models. I spoke to Frances about her innovative leadership style, ahead of this year’s Bold Steps conference.
What’s your style of Bold Leadership?
The leadership style I have today is very collaborative, which is a change from how I have approached it in the past. In both my organisations, we work in an agile environment and I have 100 staff distributed across the country, half of them are under 30 years old.
I’ve had to think completely differently about the type of leadership I deploy because I’m not in the same physical location as many of my staff and due to the requirements of specific projects, team composition changes all the time.
I try to think about the skill sets that individuals bring and how to bring out the best in them, regardless of their age, education or experience. I look for how to build on natural capabilities to enable people to jump forward and progress their own careers.
Has it been difficult for you to develop a collaborative leadership style?
The key first of all is to recognise that everyone’s point of view is valid and not to slip back into a traditional hierarchical approach, which assumes that those who have earned their stripes have the most to offer. Once you create an environment where every person can come forward to share, then you have to truly listen to them. For me, I had to step back and listen with intent in a new way. It’s not easy, it’s something I’ve had to really work at. I’m five years in and am starting to get my head around it now, but in the first few years it could feel pretty uncomfortable.
Truly embracing diversity means being careful not to fall back on judgement calls that come from familiarity, seniority and hierarchy. When you’re with peers of a similar age, there’s a real risk of drinking the Kool Aid and going ‘we all know what we’re talking about because we all agree’. Actually, disagreement is something that leaders should really embrace. It’s not a sign of war, it’s an opportunity to go ‘ok, you don’t agree. Tell me more about that and let me think about how to look at things differently’. So, there is a real responsibility that comes with opening up the communication channels to everyone, but a huge reward that comes with it too. You can’t just dip your toe in, because you’re making a structural change to the way you lead.
What’s it like to lead a distributed team?
When you have a distributed team, you focus on outputs and not how many hours people worked this week or when they completed them. There is a huge trust that goes with that, and the trust goes both ways. You have to trust your team to do the work and they must trust you to provide the opportunity for them to succeed. I find that the flexibility leads to real productivity gains.
To do any of this, you must be highly (online) platform-based. There is no way to have a distributed team, or to have a highly collaborative culture using a traditional, paper-based system. Digital channels, like Slack, Trello, Google Docs, and Zoom are what makes it possible to collaborate and to create the transparency of information that is so critical in a distributed workforce This means you must have good capability around the use of digital tools and some leaders are confronted by this. For me, it took some thinking through and adjustment to be totally transparent and paperless. But I wouldn’t go back to analogue systems for anything.
Are there any limiting beliefs or behaviours that you’ve noticed, that hold women back from leadership?
Most women, suffer from some level of imposter syndrome. This can limit us from taking on something when we don’t yet have 100% of the capabilities required. Plus we tend to underestimate our capabilities to begin with!
There’s great value in being able to put yourself forward.
Saying ‘I might not be quite ready to do this, but I am going to give it a darn good shot’ is incredibly liberating but also very scary.
That’s not something that women are intrinsically comfortable with, but if you look at women who are highly successful, they have often gotten better at doing this over time. They say ‘yes’ to things without needing to feel 100% comfortable.
I try to instill this attitude in females that I work with and to make sure they are never held back by their doubts. Often, if a woman you lead is struggling to take on a new challenge, it’s just a matter of talking them through it, until they reach ‘maybe I could give it a go’. Then they’re off.
For you, what are the key beliefs or behaviours that have led you to where you are?
I think life is a constant journey of discovery. And you never really know everything you’re capable of. A good example for me is that I’m an introvert by nature, and yet I speak on a stage somewhere almost every week. If you’d told me five years ago I’d be doing that, I’d have laughed and said ‘no way’.
Going through the journey of discovery and learning new things has helped me to reduce the fear factor. These days, I tend to think ‘what’s the worst that can happen’ and if no one’s going to get hurt, I say it’s worth the risk. Over time, my profile towards taking risks has changed dramatically. When I was younger, I was much more concerned about the perception others would have of me, being wrong or looking like a fool. Taking risks is a virtuous cycle because when they pay off and people say ‘wow, thank you, that was great’ and you’re encouraged to do more.
If you could write a billboard for kiwi women aspiring to leadership, what would it say?
Life is a nano-second long
We get a finite amount of days on this planet. We have to stop talking about the future like something in the distance and realise that the technological advances we once imagined are already here. New business models are challenging the status quo and if we wait until we are truly comfortable with change we will be left behind.
Investing in ourselves and committing to learning through all stages of our careers is paramount, but I see far less women in professional courses or even in casual events such as ‘business meet ups’ or lecture series. As an example Tech Futures Lab just launched an online learning platform called the Digital Suitcase, which is to help professionals develop conversational knowledge of advances such as artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies, the blockchain. And it’s 80% men who have signed up. I’m not sure if it is a confidence issue, a time issue or it is just females don’t allow themselves the same amount of time to invest in learning due to other priorities.
I really want to encourage females towards the significant career advantages they can experience if they embrace and develop their understanding of new technologies. That goes whether you’re on a board, in a leadership team, an employer or employee. If you have an understanding of advances in the digital world, you’ve got the power to see where things are headed. It also provides a significant boost to career progression, as all employers are looking for people to lead digital initiatives or integrations.
You’re hosting a youth panel at the Bold Steps Conference this year. What’s it about?
I’m focussing on young people, particularly Gen Z. My panel of five young people will help the audience to understand the entirely different viewpoints held by the generation who is just started entering the workforce. They hold very different views and priorities about roles, careers and what’s next. In the gig economy, for example, young people are much more prepared to work on a project by project basis and less likely to commit to a long term career in one organisation. The young people on the panel will be sharing how they think about the future of work, skills and empowerment, education and lifestyle, and leadership. The idea is to give a really clear picture of the types of changes leaders should prepare for.
To join Frances Valintine, alongside Governor General the Rt Hon. Dame Patsy Reddy and 16 of New Zealand’s most senior business leaders, in conversation about Bold Leadership, check out the Bold Steps Conference 2018.
