Rebecca Morley - Accidental to Intentional Leaders | Varn

Rebecca Morley at VarnFest 23

“Leaping the gap - from accidental to intentional leadership”

Rebecca Morley's Talk at VarnFest 23

 

Rebecca Morley has had a showstopping career working in the FMCG sector, with senior management roles at Danone and Reckitt Benckiser. Rebecca now applies her knowledge, experience and expertise as a leadership coach and trainer for CEOs and focuses specifically in supporting leaders working the fast-growth and scale-up space.

Rebecca’s expertise is in supporting leaders to make intentional, as opposed to reactive, leadership decisions and she shared some of her experiences at VarnFest, exploring with the audience how senior leaders can become more intentional leaders…

 

 

 

 

Leaping the gap – from accidental to intentional leadership

 

In her talk at VarnFest, Rebecca explained how to make the leap from ‘Accidental Leadership’ to ‘Intentional Leadership’, which is not always easy or natural. She explained that leading a growing business in scale-up, means the team might be always trying to catch up, striving desperately to organise themselves and it can feel out of control…

 

“Leading comes in many guises, shades and personalities and so how do you become a leader with real intention that successfully manages a team, rather than one that’s always reactive and micromanaging in the business?”

 

Bee and trail

Accidents waiting to happen

As a seasoned executive coach, Rebecca Morley works largely with business disruptors, and innovators who notice ways to do things differently and for the better in their industry. A typical example of such a disruptor can be seen in one of her clients, Swyft Home, which transformed the sofa business by pledging to deliver sofas in 24-48 hours from the online order, as opposed to the industry norm of about eight weeks. Rebecca explained she had found many similarities in these “disruptor” businesses. Their founders had exploited a gap in the market and were brilliant but at the same time, as they were mainly focused on innovation, and they became what she termed as accidental leaders.

 

This can go with the territory of doing something unique because if you are someone who takes on an industry so brazenly, you often assume that you might be the only person who understands that and can do what needs to be done. Thus, leading and empowering a team around your personal vision can become problematic. For one, you can inadvertently demonstrate a demotivating role model for your team, who believe they can never live up to the extremes of your workload or do their job to your expectations and standards.

 

Such accidental leaders find themselves having to organise and lead teams, which was never their primary focus or aspiration. Considering that, the team to a large degree, becomes and defines your business. Rebecca explained that this means it becomes vitally important that those leaders can make their team work effectively. 

 

“For me, the shift from accidental leader to intentional leader is in first understanding what accidental leadership looks like. Accidental leaders share characteristics…for one they are still ‘doing’ when they should be ‘leading’.”

 

Bee and trail

 

 

First-time CEOs commonly ask themselves questions, such as: ‘What am I actually doing?’, ‘How do I lead?’, ‘What are my leadership skills?’, ‘What sort of leader do I want to be?’ and importantly ‘Am I leading the business in the way that I should?’

 

Rebecca shared with the VarnFest audience that this searching attitude and uncertainty can mean that many first-time leaders suffer from an inconsistent approach, which can be damaging to the running of the business.

 

First-time leaders often believe they must fix every problem personally. They highlight an issue and deal with it themselves because they trust themselves the most, perhaps more than their team members. Similarly, there are lots of issues in the business that distract the CEO from effectively leading and tie them up in tasks that are more ‘firefighting’, rather than steering the company and those in it. Lastly, it’s hard to decide to change course with behaviour when that behaviour led you to the place you are, but for the long-term journey change may be key to progression.

 

 

 

 

 

Positive feedback loop

Rebecca revealed a common issue for those in leadership who are looking to think and spend time on the bigger picture and get out of the day-to-day work…

 

“often you do not receive that positive feedback loop that you are really good at your job – because everything is much more intangible and longer-term. This means it’s much more difficult to get those kicks that you get in the ‘doing’ – the ‘doing’ that got you to where you are.”

 

Bee and trail

 

 

Whilst there are occasional scenarios where accidental leadership can work, Rebecca notes one of the big problems with it is when leaders hide from their team. When they get to a difficult juncture or problem they go into a ‘hiding mode’, remaining invisible when decisions and direction are most needed for momentum and to deal with the concerns and fears of staff. With remote working, which is commonplace today in business, it is easier to hide as a manager and remain unobtainable. Rebecca explained that this can demotivate, create confusion and chaos and with the uncertainty, it can breed high levels of stress for team members.

 

“In accidental leadership, it can appear like the focus is on you as the leader, how you are doing and how you are feeling and not how your team is doing and feeling. Without the relevant support, your team can feel a lack of psychological safety.”

 

Rebecca elaborated that leaders may in turn, mistake an apparent lack of creativity, cohesion and accountability in the team as the team’s fault, when the reality is there is a lack of a consistent leadership style and a lack of adequate support from the top, to enable their team to do what they can do best. 

 

With intention comes purpose

 

Understanding accidental leadership is a start to self-awareness and adjusting the behaviour, so next Rebecca explained, we must look at the qualities of intentional leadership. 

 

“I help people become more intentional leaders, which means leading on purpose.”

 

Bee and trail

 

Rebecca shared the fact that intentional leadership is about looking at the horizon and the bigger picture and not spending your time in the detail and in the weeds, dealing with the day-to-day operations. Importantly it’s about having a clear and consistent leadership style. This means it’s about spending time building self-awareness and understanding your values, what gives you joy and energy, what you are good at, and building a leadership style around that.

 

Rebecca shared with the audience that leading intentionally is all about looking at the prize and beyond the daily work. At the same time, it’s about focusing on the team, rather than yourself. Rebecca explained that as a leader, you are sending messages to the team constantly. Vitally, those messages will define how team members perceive their roles and responsibilities and the scope of what they can achieve.

 

“You need to set the team up for success. If you can do that, you build teams that are engaged and clear on the vision. Ensure they are clear on what you want to achieve and do the work to set them up for success.”

 

 

 

Rebecca explored with the audience the value of team’s being energised, which is the biggest benefit of intentional leadership. This is because when you create this positivity it leads to trust, accountability and all the things that make a team work brilliantly. A team will then nurture a feeling of safety which allows them to really be creative about building solutions in the same way that you have been, in the business. If you can build that excitement and that focus as a leader that will propel your business forward.

 

“Engaged teams are clear and connected. Build teams that are enabled. You should think about what they need to do a great job. When you are in a strong leadership mindset you are thinking about what they need from you and what resources they need, to be able to do a brilliant job, and the result will be that they are energised.”

 

 

Bee and trail

 

 

Finally on a practical note, Rebecca recommends time blocking to plan the big picture and give you a sense of balance in the tasks you set yourself.  Rebecca explained that she is a big believer in positive psychology and time blocking is a way to manage your energy. She emphasised that for life-work balance, you simply can’t pour from an empty cup and the more you stretch yourself, the less likely you are to make the right decisions. Less energy means less creativity.

“Understand what the business needs from you and what your brilliance is. That is a good motivator and foundation from which to make those important decisions.”

 

 

5 Takeaways from VarnFest Talks

 

1. Be the director, not the doer

Consciously lead, don’t get lost in detail.

 

2. Give your team the tools and means

What do your team need to be great at their jobs?

 

3. Be consistent in leadership style

When the team understands you there is less confusion.

 

4. Always be visible as a leader

Don’t hide from view when it gets difficult. 

 

5. Time block to be effective

Plan your time well and you won’t be overwhelmed.

VarnFest Event 2023. The woodland business festival leadership event at Varn's outdoor woodland office featuring Tom Vaughton, Dan Collins and Rebecca Morely

Do you want to find out more about VarnFest events?

If you are looking to be inspired and connect with other business leaders at our woodland business festival in 2024, or have a thought provoking idea for a talk at our next VarnFest event, get in touch with us.

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