REFRAME
Sometimes despite all of the trying and practising leaders, it is tough to upgrade their leadership behaviour structurally. This usually points to the fact that they haven’t been able to act themselves into a new way of thinking. At the level of their values and beliefs, they can’t internalize the thinking underpinning a different leadership style. They rationally understand the opposite manner and probably also acknowledge the potential qualities it could bring, but deep down, it conflicts with their convictions. They try the style, but “it doesn’t feel right,” which generally means it doesn’t fit their worldview, and the cognitive dissonance makes them uncomfortable. When this happens, behavioural change can’t be triggered at the “more superficial” levels of “position and roles” and “routines and competencies.” Still, it must be enabled at a deeper level of values and beliefs. It means that someone is stuck in a particular paradigm and cannot “see” that an alternative way of thinking can also be “true.” They are held back by “blocking beliefs” that make it impossible to accept that a different logic can still be logical. Their values and principles have become ideological, blinding them to seeing that other views have merits. Therefore, learning new leadership styles will depend on examining their underlying values and beliefs and then challenging them to consider alternative logic. This is reframing – looking at the same issue, but by changing the interpretive frame, seeing something differently.
