So you promoted your star performer to a leadership role. Good for you.

But something odd is happening: Even though he was a genuinely nice person last year, with the majority of his persuasive power coming from his desire to be collaborative and his personal charisma, he is now engaging in an aggressive, command and control behaviour that you haven�t seen before. What happened?

We are inclined to think that maybe this person just hasn�t got what it takes to succeed at management level. That�s a shame. It�s also not necessarily true. There are certain things that we know about aggressive behaviours and how they perpetuate themselves and, if you get on top of it early enough (preferably before it begins), your new leader will be just fine.

Aggressive behaviour and the never-ending cycle

There are a number of theories around this, and in the true spirit of nature vs nurture, it appears that �aggressive personalities� are really only tripped by environment. Unfortunately, according to behavioural neurobiologist Professor Robert Sapolsky, one of those environmental factors might be exposure to a position of higher status. According to Sapolsky and a few other researchers, testosterone might boost aggression and status seeking behaviour in some situations, but it is equally likely that high status positions and aggressive behaviours might increase testosterone.

So it seems that if we put people in a position of higher status, this might boost their testosterone levels, which might lead to aggressive, command and control behaviours. And the more of this behaviour that the individual exhibits, the more there testosterone levels will rise, and the more likely they are to perpetuate the behaviour. There is evidence to suggest that people who are in a position to use their high status on a regular basis have higher levels of testosterone than those who aren�t in such a position.

Preventing the cycle

Here are two things that are paramount in making sure that your new leaders get off on the right foot and stay there:

1) Early Mentoring is Critical

Stop command and control behaviour ASAP. If you don�t want the cycle to gain it�s own momentum, this mentoring at the beginning of their new career is paramount. Quite often, it�s not the first few months when they are finding their feet that are most important. It�s between three and six months when the new manager begins to get more comfortable.

2) Set Expectations

One of the key factors that contribute to poor leadership is a lack of clear expectations. Let your new manager know what their new role entails, what the expected behaviours are and what you will judge them on. Don�t let them sink or swim � give them a flotation device and gradually take it away from them later.

The better you look after your leaders in the first six months, the more success they will have. It seems simple, but I am constantly amazed at the lack of support that new leaders get � until it�s too late.

Achievement = Performance

One of the biggest drivers of performance is a feeling of achievement. However, if you are like most people, you have a never-ending task list that never gets achieved. Be realistic with your daily and weekly tasks. Calculate how much time they require and then check to see if you actually have that time in between meetings, interruptions and pre-planned events.

The best thing you can do is to have two checkpoints.

Checkpoint one: Monday morning

• What is scheduled for this week?
• What is critical on which days?
• How long (roughly) will these tasks take?
• Do I have the time, in between other commitments, to get these tasks done?
• If not, what do I need to prioritise or delegate?

Checkpoint Two: First thing each morning

• What is absolutely critical for today?
• How long (roughly) will these tasks take?
• Do I have the time, in between other commitments, to get these tasks done?
• If yes, are there other, non-critical things that I can work on as well?
• If not, what do I need to prioritise or delegate?

These checkpoints will help you stay realistic and focussed on what�s most important. They will also help you to delegate more effectively.

A truly inspirinig story of someone who would never give up. And the team that supported him.

The girl who did what most of us can’t….

The sign at the coffee shop counter reads: IF YOU ARE TALKING ON YOUR MOBILE PHONE, WE CAN�T SERVE YOU. PLEASE RESPECT OUR STAFF AND PATRONS.

The businessman in front of me looked busy. He was talking on his phone and looked quite intimidating and demanding. By contrast, the petite brunette behind the coffee counter looked like she was barely out of school. I was interested to see what would happen. As the businessman approached the counter, reaching out with his right hand full of change, he moved the phone ever so slightly from his mouth to whisper the words �latte, no sugar�. The girl whispered back �sorry� and held up the sign for him to read. Then loudly �who�s next?� The businessman was clearly angry, but the whole ordeal unfolded too quickly for him to object. Plus, I suspect that he didn�t want to come across as an ass to whoever was on the other end of the phone.

This fascinates me. Not the protocol, but the fact that, in two seconds flat, a young girl working behind a counter managed to do what many adults fail to do in meeting rooms around the world: call someone out on poor behaviour.

Does your team put up with these behaviours?

It amazes me that, during meetings, so many team members tolerate behaviours that they disagree with. Here are but a few:

• Taking phone calls
• Having laptops open
• Reading/sending emails (usually under the table)
• Having side conversations while others are talking
• Personal jokes between only a couple of members

Many of these things drive people insane.

Don�t get me wrong, I don�t think this should be a wholesale rule for all teams. I always ask teams about their rules for meetings and workshops and if it�s ok to take calls. I have worked with a few teams that say �hey, that�s ok � it�s how our business needs to run.� But many times I ask the question and it turns out that people hate it and have put up with it for far too long. And most times the offender doesn�t even recognise their faux pas.

So what can you do?

The answer�s simple.

Talk about it. Make some rules of engagement and then assign someone to uphold those rules. You can pick different people to run the meeting protocol, but make sure they are strong personalities in the first instances or else you won�t get the necessary momentum. Each time the rules are broken it makes them easier to break next time. I even know some managers who make their teams leave their phones in a basket just inside the door.

And if you are worried about destroying your team�s relationships by addressing the issue, remember these key points

• One of the things that makes people feel as though they belong to a team is the establishment and upholding of rules specifically for them. It forms boundaries for the team and creates a sense of belonging
• Research by the Corporate Leadership Council cites that one of the drivers of engagement is being held accountable by managers. This helps people to perform at their best
• Performance science tells us that being treated unfairly or rudely causes our problem solving ability to decrease dramatically

So go ahead. Make some rules. Hold people accountable. Your team members might start to concentrate more on what is being said, rather than what is annoying them.

Running any sort of planning workshop is hard enough. Unfortunately many managers make it even harder when they focus on trying to gain consensus for every detail. Collaboration is necessary if you want to build ownership and commitment, but over-collaboration can be paralysing.

At best, consensus helps to involve everyone and promote fairness. At worst spending too much time finding consensus can produce:

• Procrastination and time wasting
• Mediocre solutions
• Politics and positioning
• Compromised goals, objectives and plans

Is consensus always necessary? No. What is necessary is finding the right solutions for your team and the path they are going to take to achieve their goals.

So think twice before you feel the need to take the opinions of the minority into account. Here are some things you need to do in order to make consensus work:

1. Explain the reality

People can�t always get their own way. Explain that you will be focussed on finding the best solutions. Sometimes this means that two or three people who disagree are going to have to learn to get on with it.

2. Middle ground should always produce higher ground

A follow on from point one is that middle ground should always be higher ground. If you are trying to incorporate two different points of view into one solution, then the end result needs to be better than the sum of parts. If middle ground represents a lesser solution than either one by themselves then scrap it. Go with the best one.

3. Are people acting for the good of the team or for their own territory?

Unfortunately, some people will push for consensus in order to improve their own position or that of their own territory (especially if you are working with a group of leaders). Why are people pushing for consensus.

4. Foster the �disagree and commit� mentality

One caveat in all of this is that you people need to know the process. If it doesn�t fall their way, the expectation should be that they will still support the initiative 100%. Talk about this expectation and foster the ability for people to deliver on it. Our natural reaction is to fight something that doesn�t go our way. You need to change this.

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