The headline was ,Visible leadership even more important in a pandemic I though this was a reference to employees being forced to work from home and contact being limited to zoom meetings. It turns out that visible leadership is more than just being seen and heard, more than walking the shop floor, running a series of road shows or even writing a regular blog.
Good leadership is about transparency which is a culture of openness, trust and accountability. It involves explaining consulting, involving and engaging with employees which in turn may lead to , focus groups, staff surveys , work place representatives and employee champions and informal opportunities to interact with senior managers like the chance to hot desk next to the Director.
Imagine that on the first day of your new job you are expecting to meet your boss but instead receive their apology having been called away for an urgent meeting. You expect the meeting to be rearranged for later in the week but learn that they are attending a conference. You try and fix adage for the following week only to find they are on annual leave. A whole month goes by and you still haven’t met and have had only the briefest of conversations on the phone.
Without this get together, not only would you feel frustrated and unappreciated you would lack clarity about your role , what is expected of you, what you should be doing and how you should go about it. This is why visible leadership is important. It’s where the leader/ manager goes beyond the job description to make clear the culture of the organisation, how we do things here.
This is how we go about making decisions, this is how we view the people who work for us, this is the type of management style we encourage. In the type of organisation that operates visible leadership, managers people management skills are valued as highly as their financial management skills or their track record of hitting performance targets. The organisation seeks to be a fair and
safe environment free from harassment, discrimination, bullying.
Decision making is characterised by consulting all interested parties, being willing to justify decisions and explain the thinking behind them. Visible leadership therefore involves engaging with employees and viewing communication as a two way process. Visible leadership is therefore what many organisations would think of as good leadership and when the going gets tough an organisation needs good leadership.
