From Expert to Leader: The 3 Rules

Around 12 million people recently watched the NRL and AFL finals on television.
For those not completely fluent in Australian sporting obsession, NRL and AFL are different codes of football. Then there is America’s NFL, which recently came to Melbourne and played on the same hallowed turf as the AFL at the MCG.

Same field.

Completely different game.

In fact, changing from one code to another required an extraordinary feat of modern technology: changing the turf itself.

And it occurred to me that this is exactly the problem facing many leaders I work with.

They are still standing on the same field they have known throughout their careers.

Same company.
Same profession.
Same industry.

But suddenly they are playing a completely different game.

They have become leaders.

And nobody told them the objective and rules have changed.

Oops.

It is very hard to win when you are wrestling the ball across the line only to discover that the new game requires you to kick it through the posts.

Yet this is precisely what I see leaders doing.

They have spent their careers being rewarded for knowing more, solving problems, having answers, mastering detail and proving their technical expertise.

Then they reach senior leadership and continue doing exactly the same thing.

But the goalposts have moved.

Your job is no longer necessarily to be the smartest person in the room.

Your job is increasingly to manage the psychological state of the room.

That is a very different sport.

The Romans knew this

You know I love Ancient Rome. I became so fascinated by it that I wrote Gravitas around many of its principles.

Why?

Because I genuinely believe there is very little new on this planet when it comes to human behaviour.

AI may have made extraordinary leaps.

Humans? Not so much.

The Romans understood hierarchy very clearly. Roman society included slaves, plebeians, equestrians, senators and, at the pinnacle, the emperor.

And I see an interesting parallel with leadership today.

Many senior executives are still operating like Equestrians.

Historically, the equestrian class was associated with wealth, property, commerce, administration and military service. They had status. They had authority. They rode a horse.

What they did not automatically possess was the capacity to move a crowd.

That required another set of skills.

And that is exactly where many modern leaders become stuck.

They have the title.

They have the expertise.

They may even, metaphorically speaking, have the horse.

But moving from Equestrian to Senator — and ultimately Emperor — requires an entirely different capability.

You have to learn how to influence human beings.

The new rules

Interestingly, much of the work I have developed over decades fits beautifully within the ancient framework of the five canons of rhetoric.

Surprise, surprise.

Nothing new on the planet.

What does surprise me is how little attention business has traditionally given these skills.

We have poured enormous amounts of time into governance, finance, strategy, resilience and technical capability.

All important.

But then we put someone in front of 300 employees during a crisis and hope for the best.

So, if leadership is a different game with the objective to manage the psychological state of the organisation, here are three of its rules.

1. Frameworks

Senior leaders do not have time to reinvent the wheel every time they open their mouths.

Yet that is exactly what many do.

A difficult conversation appears.

Start from scratch.

A presentation appears.

Start from scratch.

Someone asks an uncomfortable question.

Panic — then start from scratch.

Over years of work, I have collected and developed practical frameworks for presentations, difficult emotional conversations, answering questions, giving feedback, apologising, breaking bad news, introducing yourself, handling pressure and much more.

Frameworks reduce cognitive load.

They save time.

They reduce stress.

And, most importantly, they stop you rambling when your brain is under pressure.

Once the structure is already there, you are free to think about the people in front of you.

Which, strangely enough, is the point.

2. Memory

Here is another misconception.

Leadership communication does not mean memorising speeches word for word.

Quite the opposite.

Memory is about creating structures that allow you to speak freely.

Use frameworks.

Work in threes — omne trium perfectum: everything that comes in threes is complete.

Use acronyms.

Use alphabetical structures.

And learn to place information physically into the space around you so that the body itself helps organise the message.

Names, precise figures and titles may occasionally need notes.

But far less needs to be read than most leaders imagine.

The aim is not to prove that you have memorised something.

The aim is to connect with people.

A lectern may hold your notes beautifully.

Unfortunately, it does not build a relationship with the audience.

3. Delivery

Then there is the body.

And this is where things become fascinating.

Your body and gestures affect your voice.

Yet most of us have no idea what our body is doing.

We stand on one leg.

Clench our fists.

Jam the jaw.

Collapse through the chest.

Hold the breath.

Then wonder why the voice sounds weak, rushed or strained.

This is not some terrible personal failing.

It is simply part of the game.

Leadership communication is a constant process of awareness, adjustment and practice.

The body changes.

The breath changes.

The voice changes.

And the effect you have on other people changes with them.

So, which game are you playing?

Ask yourself:

Are you inventing what to say every time you open your mouth?

Do you ramble when you are under pressure?

Do you reach automatically for a computer, script or written document?

Have you forgotten entirely that you possess a body, two arms and a voice?

And, perhaps most importantly, are you still trying to prove how clever you are when the job now requires you to make everyone else in the room think, feel and perform better?

That is the leadership shift.

You move from Equestrian to Senator through skill.

Then you practise.

And practise.

Until, eventually, you reach the Emperor's standard:

You don't practise until you get it right. You practise until you can't get it wrong.

Footballers understand this instinctively.

Change the code and you need different rules, different tactics and sometimes even different turf.

Leadership is no different.

You may still be standing on the same field.

But the game has changed.

Perhaps it is time to change your turf.

Love,
Dr Louise Mahler