ARE YOU AN ‘AVOCADO’ LEADER?

Who doesn’t love avocados?

Once while waiting with my Cofounder (my wife) at a cafe for our delicious ham cheese avocado sandwiches to come prepared at our table, we were sharing our views on how this healthy and nutritious fruit adds its Midas touch to any dish being prepared with it. That’s when she recollected an article about ‘Avocado’ leadership. How can leaders’ metaphor as avocados? The unusual name tickled the curious me to dig deeper into the concept. This is what I found:

Research conducted by Macquarie Business School along with a management consultancy. We Are Unity unpacked this new style of leading known as ‘Avocado’ leadership.

To explain further let me cast one of my client’s case here:

My client recently talked about the performance reviews of her team. He was confused as the repercussions of the gone by year hasn’t been great for each one of us. While some companies feared the annual performance reviews, my clients wanted to conduct the same halfway through the pandemic. He came up with a well-thought-out question:

“COVID, lockdown, and remote working have caused drastic effects on our lives. But while assessing my employees’ performance, should I take these external factors into account?”

My answer was “Certainly!”

External factors have a major role in taking performance assessment of the employees as it determines their ability to produce results against the company objective. At times, when an organization wants to reach heights, they expect their people to work for the objective collective. But if at a crisis that happens once in 100 years you find a drop in their performance, then what must your approach be? I say, if not now, then when can you as a leader show the empathetic side of you,

My client agreed to the same. He as a leader thinks that the traditional leadership theory was based on growth, revenue and other hard business metrics. They measure their employees based on goals, targets, and results that were put down before the pro-pandemic times. We both agreed that the future of leadership is to maintain a balance between being soft and hard.

Or become an ‘Avocado’ leader? Yes. Softer inside and tougher outside.

A fruitful lesson of leadership

Avocado Leadership is the term coined by Macquarie Business School together with management consultancy We Are Unity. They held a survey by interviewing executives from ASX200 firms. These senior and mid-level executives were asked questions regarding the changes that happened in their management during pandemic crises and the repercussion of COVID-19 constraints

As per the survey, over 63% of leaders found an enhancement in productivity, 57% said there was a rise in collaborations, 55% notices increased efficiency, 87% remarked that their company was highly-responsive and agile during the pandemic and 74% credited the use of latest technology for the performance boost.

The findings of this research state that the organizations are moving towards an enhanced focus on mental wellness, better and flexible working spaces that are directed in creating smart work models through the latest and disruptive technological interventions. With pandemic around, leaders are more stimulated in becoming better listeners, learners and shape-shifters. Without effective contribution and collaboration, it becomes impractical to create a productive workforce that is working remotely.

 So, what exactly is Avocado leadership?

Avocado leaders have a softer outer layer that contributes to offering empathy, coaching and mentoring. These leaders understand the people and their needs. They have developed the skill sets that make them empathetic listeners, generous, and inclusive.

Leaders must have a sturdy inner spirituality and emotional core. They must possess a healthy immune system to keep certain traditional norms at bay such as being fake, people-pleasing and inflexibility. This is where I metaphor leaders as avocado.

Avocado fruit has two parts once we remove the outer peel: the edible soft portion and the pit. The fleshy and mushy part is what we eat and it’s very easy to cut or scrape. Whereas the seed or the pit part is hard and difficult to cut because it’s solid and strong. The soft portion depicts the empathetic side of leaders while the pit shows the strong core of leaders. This is how the leaders of the future must be.

We need more Avocado leader

We need more leaders who support human-centric behaviors. These are three simple steps that you can take to bring about a leadership mindset shift:

1. Come of straight with your expectations

Leaders need to create organizational processes and benchmarks that are not just based on desired business outcomes but sustainable results. Your employee must be able to share their ideas and feel challenged to better themselves in all aspects. Reset your expectations about what leadership means to you.

2. Develop a balance between hard and soft

A balance needs to be maintained between being hard and soft. Hard denotes being result-oriented and commercially-focused and soft depicts the ability to up your EQ, emotional intelligence

Though it is good to be focused on business outcomes, have some investment planned for developing your soft-skills as well. Being empathetic with authenticity can boost your business to augment growth and innovation.

3. Be accountable

Do you know some boards hire psychologists to present feedback on their meetings? This is to know the level of transparency and accountability maintained. These two are the important attributes of an avocado leader that boosts performance. With accountability instilled leaders are sure to have a competitive advantage.

 Is it possible to sustain this leadership mindset shift?

It may be difficult but not impossible. You may ask, for someone who has been following the traditional leadership style, how can it be possible to change their mindset altogether. Well, the year has gone by and the global crisis is the very signal that the world demands a new era of workplace leaders.

To lead your people, you will have to change your ways. A deeper level of interaction with your employees is needed. You must know if your employees are comfortable to work from home? Where exactly are your employees living? Are they able to sustain a working condition at home for a longer period? Do they have internet facilities? At times as per conditions, you may also want to know whom do they live with and where do they work?

To lead, you must care for your employees. Not just it, you will be responsible to understand everything that surrounds their lives. It may look a bit complex as developing empathy of such a level certainly takes time. But the goal must be to take that first step no matter what.

 Check your ‘Avocadoness’ level

To know at what level does your Avocadoness stands, ask yourself these two questions:

• Am I going too hard on my employees to achieve our business objectives?
• Am I being empathetic to my people and their situation?
• Have the external pressures made me too soft on them that we are getting shifted from our business goals?

With these questions answered, you must be clear about the level of empathy in you as a leader. It doesn’t matter if you have to make a mindset shift or even enroll yourself all over again for leadership training because it’s certain that we need more empathetic leaders. Be it now or in future, Avocadoness will be imperative.