The Even-Keeled Leader

The Benefits of Being an Even-Keeled Leader. In our fast-paced world, many leaders face constant change and challenge with competing demands and a variety of internal and external pressures. Alongside competing demands, they often find themselves in environments that are more reactive than proactive.  

In this context, many leaders are searching for a way to maintain a sense of inner calm and to lead on an even keel for the benefit of themselves and their teams.

What are the Benefits of Being an Even-Keeled Leader?

While there many styles of leadership—and it’s important to act authentically in line with our personal style—being an even-keeled leader has a lot to offer. It can help you to:

• Consistently model the behaviour you’d like to see in others
• Make more considered decisions
• Provide reassurance and confidence to your team and colleagues
• Stay on track with your goals and strategic direction
• Reduce conflict in the workplace
• Feel more calm, composed and in control

Five Tactics for the Even-Keeled Leader

1. Stay connected to your own internal compass. In a fast-paced, rapidly changing world, it’s more important than ever to stay connected to your own internal compass. Be clear on your own values as a leader, your personal vision and mission, your goals, and where you want to take your team. What five words describe you at your best? The VIA Strengths Survey is a free tool that can help you increase your awareness of your values-based strengths.
2. Commit to self-care. You may have heard the phrase ‘put your own oxygen mask on first’. This means that to look after your team, you first need to look after yourself as a leader. It’s sound advice! Recent studies indicate that being the positive and supportive leaders that many of us aspire to be, can also be emotionally draining, so it’s critical that we prioritise our own wellbeing to re-energise and help maintain a sense of balance. There are four different oxygen masks that leaders can use to protect themselves: 1) improving physical wellbeing; 2) improving emotional/spiritual/social wellbeing; 3) fulfilling managerial roles (including setting boundaries and priorities with the team); and 4) seeking support from colleagues, and/or organisational support (e.g. professional development opportunities). Give yourself permission to block out time for self-reflection, to recharge, and to support your physical, social and emotional wellbeing. An effective self-care package is essential for any leader.
3. Practice being proactive, not reactive. The even-keeled leader focuses on acting rather than reacting. Reactions can be emotionally charged. When we react to events around us at work, we might end up saying something we wish we hadn’t or making a snap decision we later regret. When we’re acting in a more conscious and planned way, we’re taking the time to pause. We’re giving ourselves the space to choose our response. Even in an emergency situation where a decision needs to be made quickly, there can be power in pausing. A flying doctor in the UK powerfully shared in a BBC radio interview how he works to control his acute stress reaction and his level of adrenaline. He intentionally talks slower, to slow down & control his stress response. If there’s a lot going on, and he feels like he can’t take in the whole picture, he’ll take a 10 second time out. He says this might feel like this is wasting time, but his experience is the opposite – going down the wrong track, or making the wrong decision, is far worse.
4. Deepen your self-awareness. According to Forbes, self-awareness allows leaders to ‘tap into their emotions, regulate them effectively and further develop their emotional intelligence’. At YES Psychology, we encourage leaders and teams to be aware of the signs and symptoms of pressure, and to be aware of tactics and strategies that can help regain a sense of balance, calm and composure. Self-awareness allows us to pay attention to a range of important cues that can help us make decisions as leaders, decide what path to take, or where you should go next in a conversation. For more resources, see our blog on Self Reflection, or go to our Tactical Composure website where you’ll find a range of sample exercises.
5. Create the conditions for smooth sailing ahead. Look at ways you can clear the path ahead for your team. In their new book, The Friction Project, Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao (both professors in organisational behaviour) look at how smart leaders make the right things easier and the wrong things harder for teams. If you can do this for your team, it will have flow-on effects and benefits for you too, allowing you to focus on the things that really matter. To learn more, listen to the Management Today podcast ‘How to become a friction fixer’.

What next?

A few years ago I heard a phrase at a leadership forum in London that really stuck with me: ‘Emotions, like colds, are catching’. The speaker (Professor Michael West) was referring to the significant impact our emotions can have on our team. At a leadership level, your mood, your emotions, the way you respond to situations, and show up to work each day, can have huge ripple effects on your team.

Take a moment today to answer these questions for yourself:

• How easily do events or others impact your emotions? Are you even aware of it happening?
• Would you like to feel more calm, composed and in control as a leader?
• Do you regularly feel buffeted by events around you?
• Would others describe you as an even-keeled leader? If not, could you become a little more even-keeled?

Want to find out more?

If you’d like to learn more about our approach to leadership training and executive coaching, including even-keeled leadership, contact us at service@yespsychology.com.au or visit our website.

Dr Lisa Mayocchi has over 20 years’ experience in the UK and Australia, helping to improve leadership, culture, resilience, wellbeing and engagement in sectors including health, education, justice, and financial regulation. With a Doctorate in Organisational Psychology, Lisa has co-authored papers on “stress and coping, career transitions, transferable skills, and the experience of high-performance athletes”.