One Skill That Can Make a Good Leader Great.
The impact poise can make to you as a leader.
Imagine you’re heading into battle. You and your fellow men (and women) are pumped and ready for action. All of those hard months of preparation have been leading to this precise moment. The time has come.
Now, who do you want to lead the troops?
Consider for a moment what some of the essential qualities would include.
You probably thought briefly about traits such as excellent communication, being charismatic, being bold. Someone who’s confident, who you can trust, and maybe even someone with a positive outlook. But we often miss one crucial skill, perhaps one of the most important, yet overlooked skills that can separate a sub-standard ‘leader’, from a great leader of people.
That skill is poise.
What is Poise?
Poise is having the balance, self-confidence and the ability to reason under pressure, positive or negative, and act in line with your beliefs.
It’s about remaining in control amid outside events and circumstances. It’s not about acting, pretending to be something you’re not, it’s about being you and only you.
Leading Through a Crisis
Anyone can be a ‘leader’ when things are going well, but great leaders are in the position they are, because of how they deal at the time of a crisis.
They don’t panic, and they don’t make snap judgements when emotions have taken over.
They have the self-confidence and self-awareness to step back, assess the situation for exactly what it is and not the narrative that surrounds it. They’re at ease, whatever the situation. They make the difficult, and logical, decisions appear easy. They take them in their stride.
A Mass Walkout at Work
For the day job, I work in Recruitment, more specifically, Education Recruitment.
It’s a job that’s driven by sales and it’s not uncommon to earn as much, if not more, in commission than you do from your basic salary. The problem is that Schools are seasonal and only open at certain times of the year. Because of this, commission earnings can fluctuate hugely. In certain months, they’re high, while at others they’re non-existent.
Naturally, this means there are periods where there’s a lot of moving and shaking in the office.
If people are going to leave the company, it’s generally around the same time each year, coinciding with the low commission from the summer holidays where Schools were out for summer.
I mention this because no more than a couple of years ago, this exact situation happened to us. In our branch, there are about forty employees, so it’s not a massive workforce, but on this particular payday we had seven people leave as soon as their bank balance was topped up that month.
It’s not a bad company to work for, but these seven people decided they wanted to try their hand at something new. It happens, it’s fine, we got over it, and we’re stronger for it.
I mention this, though because of the reaction of my colleagues. The responses gave much insight into the different qualities in the group. Being keen on leadership, it was the leaders that caught my eye. Not by job title but by human qualities.
Some people were distraught. It was like the end of the world to them. Others saw a possibility for a possible pay rise and were on the phone to senior managers discussing promotion packages minutes after the news broke. I wasn’t interested in those. We all have our motivations for work, and that’s up to each individual.
The people I was interested in were the ones who kept their emotions in check. They recognized the situation, accepted it for what it was and set about the plan to move forward with as little friction as possible. These were the leaders. These are the people I want, leading me into battle.
“Most people think of poise as calm, self-assured dignity; but I call it “just being you”. — John Wooden
How Do We Develop Poise?
The concept of poise is simple. As John Wooden put it in the quote above, the only requisite is to be you. But being you isn’t easy.
Being you means having confidence in your belief system. It doesn’t mean being stubborn; it means working effectively as a team to provide the right solution, even if it’s not your own. It means separating yourself from emotion and seeing the situation for what it is.
To have poise, you’ll be clear on the work needed, even when the odds are against you. When everyone says you’ll fail, you’ll stay strong and when they say it’ll be easy, you’ll avoid complacency.
There’s a lot that comes with poise, and the reason it doesn’t get the recognition it deserves is that it’s a process. It takes times and is the culmination of several key attributes; teamwork, self-confidence, self-belief, open-mindedness, loyalty, perseverance, reliability and skill. Once you have these, poise will become a part of who you are.
Once you develop poise, and only then will you become a great leader.
Final Thoughts
Anyone can be a ‘leader’; it doesn’t mean they’re an effective one, though.
Great leaders can divert praise onto the team when things are going well; when situations are less than ideal, though, they accept responsibility. They take accountability because they have poise.
They have enough self-confidence to find a solution, and they take the challenge on for what it is and not what the narrative suggests.
If you’re serious about being a leader, make it your mission to develop poise.
Create a system where you can thrive and think clearly under pressure. If you can do this, you’ll reap the rewards both personally and collectively with your team.
Thanks for reading,
— Dave
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