Why are peers so important?

Leadership peers can often have shared leadership responsibility. This is particularly true for more senior leadership teams. In fact, in the future, successful companies will increasingly depend on leaders’ ability to collaborate and practise shared leadership. There are several reasons for that, such as:

• The cultural trend is pointing in the direction of a more democratic, de-layered way of working. The McKenzie¹⁵ model, ‘the five trademarks of agile organisations’, demonstrates how organisations are moving from the model of ‘machines’ to living organisms.

The agile organisation is dawning as the new dominant organisational paradigm https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/the-five-trademarks-of-agile-organizations

• The speed of change means no one can have all the answers (including leaders). Increased collaboration is, therefore, a must.
• Increased collaboration and creative exchange make greater innovation a possibility.

Peers can be an invaluable community for airing your thoughts on challenges and frustrations, when you cannot share them with your boss or your direct team. So trust between peers is of massive importance. There are also a lot of opportunities for learning from each other, when the guard is down and trust is high. You need your peers, it is as simple as that.

We spend a lot of time at work, so why would you not make that an opportunity to engage rather than disengage with your peers?

You also do not know who is going to lead the team next or where that peer is going to end up next. They may even turn up as a client in the future, who knows! Think of your impact now and reap the benefits in both short and potential long term.

Be politically aware. Your peers can have a big impact on your career and your future. It is not uncommon that more senior leaders ask a leader’s peers to give input on your effectiveness as a leader, on the results you are driving. This kind of input is often invited when career discussions are happening in cross-calibration and succession planning sessions. In fact, at any time when you or your career is being discussed, peers can be asked about your impact.

What do peers need?

They. Need. You.

There it is. No one can succeed alone. Whether they are fully aware of it or express it, they need collaboration, they need your input – all the things listed above. They need you to support them and they need you to ask for help. They need an exchange with you – general and regular or targeted and time-critical. Your knowledge, your experience, your ideas, your thoughts and your suggestions is what they need. When this kind of teamwork happens between same level leaders, you all achieve more: 1+1 = at least 3. The level and depth of collaboration decide the multiplying effect on your results. Give more, achieve more.

In this story, Sophia does not tell her colleagues what she is doing. She should have involved her peers but, for various reasons, she did not. She did not fully trust the others, she thought she should be able to do it on her own and, as she thought the others were smarter, she felt she needed to have all the answers before involving them. She also did not involve them. In this case because she ran out of time – which could have been resolved if she had asked for help. Sophia’s peers got frustrated because it felt like a ‘tell’ not an ‘ask’ when she finally approached them. She has, in theory, already thought about everything. But she has not; she needed their input and, hence, the results are not great. This has an impact on her peers: they do not feel included and they are not likely to rush to help her next time. She has started to erode trust, not gain trust, in this instance.

1. Treat your peers like customers

If you are not doing it already, start thinking about your peers like customers. Imagine that they are someone to whom you can be of service, someone you can help, someone you truly respect and for whom you want to do good things. And notice what happens. Impact starts in your mind; the way you think about someone drives your impact. If you do not like them or if you see them as a competitor, it will drive certain behaviours in you, subconsciously or consciously. Positive impact starts with how you think of your peers and is cemented through how you treat them.

2. Be generous with credit, stingy with blame

The blame game is an excellent way to have negative impact, so it is definitely something to avoid. Take personal responsibility by focusing on solutions rather than blame, if something goes wrong. And recognise the good things your peers do: praise constructive behaviour, give credit where credit is due. Never claim credit that is not yours. Be confident enough to lift others up and let them shine.

3. Give peer-to-peer observations

Figure out what each person is best at, what their strengths are. Then recognise those strengths when you observe them and give feedback on them. Everyone has a unique set of strengths, which are different from yours. The more you are aware of them, the more you can make the most of them, and highlight how you can achieve more as an organisation where everyone contributes the best of themselves. This reduces the risk of unhealthy competition as people feel unique and the need for such competition diminishes.

Feedback should, of course, also include development points. If you see that a colleague is having a negative impact on a situation through what they are doing, be honest and tell them. If you hesitate, consider that it is kinder to let them know than allowing them to continue repeating a behaviour that is not working for them. This TOP feedback model can help.

• Share your observation. What did you see them say, do, etc?
• Share the impact their actions and behaviours are having on the team, the organisation and you. This model is designed to make you think from all perspectives about the impact on the team, the organisation and you. This allows people to realise their impact on all of these audiences and makes them think bigger.
• Suggest alternative (or similar – if positive feedback) ways for future situations.

4. Be politically aware

Develop your system thinking, to understand the ‘system’ you are in. An organisation is an internal system, with all its interrelated and interdependent parts: processes, people, procedures, etc. The more you understand that system, the company culture, the rules and the undertones, the dynamics – the more impact you can have.

Have your radar on. You need to know the intricacies of who knows who, who is connected with whom. Who is collaborating with you? Who is competing with you? This is particularly important in the peer landscape where collaboration and healthy competition are a necessity for continuous creative challenge and growth.

The Political Skills Inventory,¹⁶ based on research by Gerald R. Ferris and colleagues, identifies four distinct dimensions of political skills: social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking ability and apparent sincerity. Further research shows that people skilled in these four areas positively impact job performance, influence, leadership and career advancement.

In the model below, reflect on each of these metaphorical ‘political animals’. Where do you fit? You really want to be a wise owl who is very aware of where the clever foxes are.

Wise behaviour is bringing together awareness with integrity. Here are six habits we recommend to succeed through political awareness.

5. Seek out learning opportunities with your peers

You know some things, your peers know other things. When you put that knowledge and experience together, you multiply it. Lead the way for this by generously sharing what you know.

• Make the most of the diversity that resides in your peer group.
• Ask for help.
• Invite and engage people into discussion, healthy debate and exchange.
• Take an active interest in others by asking them for their input and creative ideas.
• Assume positive intent too, that others mean well when they are sharing or hesitating to share (they may not be used to it).

By doing so, you open up to the other person. You look for the positive, the possibilities, and the possible connections into what you are doing. If someone is competitive, for example, see the positive intent behind that rather than going into a competitive mode yourself. Use questions to get a discussion going, rather than shutting the door to collaboration.

Workplace differences can be a good thing, a very good thing even, and definitely should not be feared but addressed. Managing peer conflict is everyone’s responsibility. Peers and teams who have experienced conflict and resolved it grow stronger together. So do not fear conflict, welcome it for its innovative powers and use it carefully and respectfully.