4: Harness the Power of Leading WITHOUT a Title

Have you ever wondered why some people manage to lead effectively in chaotic situations, while others crumble under pressure? In our latest episode, we address this very question by analyzing the varied responses to a global software outage that caused disruptions worldwide. From supermarkets that either panicked and closed or adapted smoothly, to a petrol station that continued operating amid confusion, we reveal the essence of adaptive leadership in a VUCA world—one that thrives on actions, not just titles.

Leadership isn't confined to those with official titles; it can emerge from anyone at any moment. Through captivating stories, we highlight parents, teachers, and even strangers stepping up as leaders during critical times. Discover how the dream of building libraries in Nepal and the heartfelt reception of a school teacher by their students teach us about the power of connection, shared purpose, and the impact of self-leadership. These narratives demonstrate that real leadership is about taking initiative and fostering genuine connections to drive positive change, wherever you are.

This episode is a call to embrace magnetic authenticity, purpose, and values, creating a global ripple effect of positivity.

Don't forget to rate and review our podcast, and with me on LinkedIn for more inspiring content!

REFERENCES
https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html#Milgrams-Experiment-1963
https://www.vuca-world.org/roles-of-nanus-and-bennis/

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I am a Confidence and Success Coach for leaders, Organisational Development Consultant and independent Leadership Circle Profile® Certified Practitioner. Information shared about this tool is courtesy of Leadership Circle®, all rights reserved. www.leadershipcircle.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Leading Without a Title
• 16:15 Leaders Who Make an Impact
• 21:09 3 Ways to Lead WITHOUT a Title

Transcript

Jolynne Rydz: 0:36

Hello everyone How welcome into this episode on . A few weeks ago there was a global outage due to a software system going down. I don't know the technical details, but it affected so many organizations across the globe. Planes were grounded, shopping checkouts were shut, shut down and all sorts of I'm sure IT teams around the world were going into overdrive to try and fix this situation, which was interesting because it made me realize how much we rely on technology as a society and how much we don't always know the full supply chain, really, of what goes into the products and the things and the services that we use and how all of this is interconnected.

Jolynne Rydz: 1:31

And there were three interesting reactions that I saw, or responses that I saw, to this outage, and I'd love to recount them because it all aligns with the need for leading without a title. So the first reaction happened when it was Friday, just before dinner, my family and I were going out to the supermarket and we were approaching the front door and there were a couple of staff members wandering around looking a bit lost and one staff member who was clearly in charge but panicking, look of panic on their face, saying arms outstretched, saying stop, stop, stop, we're closed, we're closed, don't come in, we're closed. Sorry, we're closed. And that response as a customer left me wondering. Oh, I wonder what's going on. Oh, they don't seem like they've got. I wonder what's going on. Oh, they don't seem like they've got a handle on what's going on. Surely there's some other alternatives that they could do instead of just closing the whole store because there were still people inside the store paying. It was a very confusing scenario. So we left that store and the biggest question on my mind was okay, dinner time's fast approaching and I've got two young kids who are about to get very hangry. What are we going to do now? So we went to the other supermarket in the opposing color on the color wheel, and this store was so, so different. We walked in there and it looked like any other day. There were shoppers doing their own thing, staff members doing their own thing, people saying hi, welcome into the store, how can I help you? And the only thing that gave it away that they were also being affected by this outage was that there was a barrier cordoning off three of the self-check checkout kiosks, so you couldn't use those, but you could use any others, and everything else was business as normal, so great, got my dinner items, went home, we had a beautiful dinner.

Jolynne Rydz: 3:30

The next day we were driving along to get petrol and there was a petrol station. We pulled up in there and I noticed that the sign that has all the prices, the LED sign of all the petrol, unleaded diesel, all of that, that was blank. So my first thought was maybe they're not open. I'm not sure, maybe the sign is just not working, but the petrol's working. Let's go in and check it out. So he went into the store, comes back out and looks a little bewildered and I say, oh, are they? Is the petrol not working because of the outage? And he said no. And when I asked they seemed really confused and I went oh, okay, apparently they got robbed. I'm like, oh, did it just happen? No, no, it happened way earlier in the day. I'm like, oh, okay, that's strange because there's no sign of that. There's no signs anywhere, nothing's been barricaded off. It just looks like business as usual, but the sign's blank. Okay, that's an interesting scenario.

Jolynne Rydz: 4:32

So I just thought it was really interesting because there were three different scenarios in very short time span that showed how people were reacting to the situations they found themselves in, so unexpected situations, and on this podcast I'm going to talk a lot about the VUCA world. So VUCA stands for volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, and this concept was invented by Warren Bennis and Bert Nanus from the Army War College in the US in 1987. So it's been around for a long time, but it's a nice way to explain often those scenarios where there's so much going on and it's not something that you can necessarily solve with your usual standards and procedures, your ways of operating, the way these staff have been trained to do their jobs and the way we've been taught to lead in the world. So in this kind of VUCA situation, we can't rely on a leader with a title necessarily to be responding in the moment to what's needed in the business and with clients and with staff, because the way that each of those staff members reacted in that situation is going to impact them, it's going to impact the staff and the team around them and it's also going to impact the customers as well the staff and the team around them and it's also going to impact the customers as well. So I believe it's absolutely critical that we can have leaders that don't have titles, because a title is not everything, despite what we've been taught as a society. So have a think. Leadership is often seen as a title.

Jolynne Rydz: 6:17

So I am someone who does enjoy going on a cruise ship as a holiday and one of the things that always fascinates me is the status of the captain. So if you met this person in everyday scenario perhaps you met them in a crowded market they will just look like any other person. But when they put on this uniform, that white starched shirt with the blue I don't know what they're actually called, but those blue things they have on their shoulders with the yellow lines that denote that they're the captain, or in the naval one it's got that circular hoop thing. It shows that they're the captain and everyone wants their photo with the captain. They want to sit with the captain, they want to have dinner with the captain, they have parties as a reward to be around the captain. And it's so funny because it's purely because of his status and I'm not diminishing his skill in any way of captaining the ship. I'm sure it takes a lot of skill and it takes a whole team to do that, but it's interesting. This one person, because of their status, gains so much attraction to want to be around them. And as a society as well, we identify people by their status and their title.

Jolynne Rydz: 7:29

How often have you heard the saying oh, you know, what do you do for work as you're just small, chatting and getting to know people? And I really personally don't like this question, even though it's something I ask myself like I'm sure everyone can identify with asking it and being asked this question, but it it almost diminishes people's worth. So if they're not in a paid job, then they're. They're not doing what they should be in society. And I found this really challenging when I was a parent and I had taken a break from paid work. I'm like I'm still working. I'm working so much harder than I had been in a paid job.

Jolynne Rydz: 8:08

In this unpaid job where you're on 24-7, 24-7, you're on demand, on call, to basically help a human survive. So it's incredibly rewarding job, but it's also not rewarded in our societal norms in terms of what we think is a worthy occupation and contribution to society. So I find it really fascinating and it's built into the fabric of our schools as well. You know, you go to school, you've got to learn, you've got to do well in school, you've got to go to uni, get a job, and when you get that job, you try and rise up the ranks because that means success and happiness. But yet there's so many people that I see rise up the ranks and get to a point where they're questioning oh, is this it? Is this all that it was meant to be? I thought there would be so much more than this.

Jolynne Rydz: 9:06

We've kind of got it a little bit backwards, and it shows up in so many places in the workplace in terms of people's need to feel good enough and worthy. For example, when there are retrenchments going on in an organization that often stirs up a lot of emotion, people feel threatened, they feel like their security is being taken away. Some people feel like, well, if I lose this job, can I get another one? Who am I without this job? What if I can't get another job in the same kind of organization, same kind of title, same pay level? What does that mean?

Jolynne Rydz: 9:45

And I often see it with clients that don't like the job that they're doing, but there's this reluctance to leave something that they know to then take a step towards something that is going to truly light them up and that they will do better at, because it's something that they love and is aligned with their skills. So we find people, yeah, trapped, not enjoying this, because to take a step back, it seemed really odd. Have a think about it. Do you ever hear someone having a celebration or sending a message of congrats when someone takes a step down, or maybe even sideways or diagonally? Generally not. Generally, we celebrate things like promotions, climbing up the ladder, and the problem with this is that there's systems in place and biases human biases in place that make it easier for people that are more extroverted, outspoken, assertive, have a more masculine energy, to get to the top, because this is what we value.

Jolynne Rydz: 10:44

There was a study done by Stanley Milgram, a psychologist from Yale, in the 1960s, and this one always sticks in my mind because it's incredibly telling. So this study basically highlights the internal bias that we have as human beings towards listening and respecting people in positions of authority, and that's why I say leadership is a privilege, because you have a lot more power because of that title than a person without that title and uniform, like the captain. So in this experiment, the participants were told to administer an electric shock to a student that was giving an incorrect answer. Each time they gave an incorrect answer. So there was a false study that this electric shock would help them to provide better answers, help them to learn, and each time a shock was given, the intensity was increased. So the student was actually an actor. They weren't really being shocked, but the participant that was pressing the button to give the shock was the one that was actually being studied in reality, and so the study would continue and the student would get increasingly distressed and beg to be let out or become non-responsive and try not to participate as the intensity increased. And what was crazy was that 64% of the participants actually took the experiment all the way to the maximum level because the person in authority, the scientist, was telling them to continue the experiment. To continue to continue, no matter how that student was reacting, and remember that student was an actor. You, no matter how that student was reacting, and remember that student was an actor.

Jolynne Rydz: 12:33

So this is incredibly, I think, enlightening and important to realize how much this leadership title means and also how much we're missing out on the gold and the wisdom and the experiences of people that don't have that title. So if you hold a title, I think it's important to be incredibly careful and mindful of your impact as a leader, and if you don't hold that title, I think it's incredibly important for you to be aware of all the value that you have. That may be harder to get out in the world because you don't have that title yet. So I wanted to share that because it's a study that's always stuck in my mind about this importance of authority and how much we overvalue it sometimes and override our own judgments in the process.

Jolynne Rydz: 13:25

When we over rely on someone in a position of authority, we limit the resources we have available to deal with challenging situations. One, because there's less people in the top, so there's less brains thinking of ideas and less physical energy and resources to put things into action. Two, it puts a lot of pressure on people in a position of formal leadership to be the ones solving all the problems, and that's often a challenge that I see in the leaders that I coach that they feel like they have to fix everything when really a better role to play often is to bring out the wisdom of the group. And then this expectation that they're perfect and they're experts can sometimes lead to resentment and judgment from people that aren't in the leadership role, maybe because they applied for it and got overlooked and they don't know why. Maybe they feel like they could do a better job and they don't understand the full complexity of being in that position. But that judgment and that resentment is incredibly draining and disempowering and not necessarily good for the system as a whole, and it disempowers others because then individual talents are underutilized.

Jolynne Rydz: 14:44

What I'd like to propose instead is that we really do value leaders without titles. So if you're listening to this podcast and you have a title fantastic, use that, because it is a position of privilege and there's so much that you can do and not do. That impacts those around you and having that self-awareness around that is so, so, incredibly powerful to level up your impact. And if you don't have a formal title, I want to challenge you to think of yourself as someone who can have an impact that does already have an impact anywhere at any time. Maybe you make leading easier for others because of the way you approach things. Maybe you're coming up with ideas and visions and solutions and not necessarily leaving that just to the one person who's leading the team. When you lead without a title, you're being part of the solution, ensuring that there's wisdom and value coming from all areas of our society, and I think that's so important as things get increasingly complex and there's challenges that we need to solve as a society. That is not going to happen if we just leave it to a small few with a proper title. I'm sure there's incredible ideas that are out there that are not going anywhere because of a lot of reasons, but one of the reasons, I believe, is because the person with the idea doesn't believe that they can lead or do anything with that.

Jolynne Rydz: 16:16

I'd love for you to reflect on the people in your life who've made a real difference. Who are they? Where did they show up? When did they show up? I'd be interested to know how many of them were in a formal leadership role. Were they CEOs, executives, managers? Or were they maybe your parents? Maybe they were a teacher who believed in you more than you did yourself? Maybe they were a stranger who asked you in a moment of crisis are you okay?

Jolynne Rydz: 16:57

My definition of leadership is anyone who sees an opportunity to make a difference and acts on it, because if you can do that, if you can encourage other people to do that, that is so incredibly important and valued, and it can be big or small. I chatted with someone today who, I believe, has incredible leadership potential and has this big dream of bringing more libraries into Nepal, because there's school libraries that have just one book sitting on the shelf and there's a whole wealth of information and knowledge that these children and communities are missing out on because they don't have something that is prolific in where I'm living in Australia like a library. So that's a big one, but a little one could be just the little comment you say to a passing person who's having a bad day, like you know. I see you, you've got this. Is there anything I can do to help? Simon Sinek once said a boss has a title, a leader has people. So part of being an incredible leader, even without a title, is about having that connection with people, sharing something together like an event and having a purpose that aligns all of you and that can happen in the workplace, it can happen on the sporting field, it can happen at social events. It's that magic that comes together when you know you just want to be around this group of people and you're all working towards the same thing and you can all bring your little pockets of golden goodness in knowledge and experience together to make it happen.

Jolynne Rydz: 18:44

One morning I was a couple of months ago, walking through the schoolyard after dropping off my son at school, and I saw something that just made me smile. So when, a couple of minutes before the school bell goes, music comes on to let the kids know that it's time to get ready, go line up at class. So they all line up in their classroom ready to enter as the bell goes. So, as I was walking along, I see these kids lining up, they're waiting as normal in front of their classroom and then the bell goes and their teacher opens the door and this scream erupts, this cheer, literally. There were 16 kids cheering and clapping, so excited to have their teacher back because they'd been away for a period of time. And to me that's a sign of incredible leadership that you're missed when you're gone, but you're also very capable of still producing work when your leader's not there. And it was so incredible to see that, the impact and the connection that this teacher had formed with their class, and they're obviously sharing something together and they obviously have a joint purpose of learning together and helping each other grow.

Jolynne Rydz: 20:03

So how do you lead before you have a title? And this applies even if you do have a title. So what you'll find with this podcast is I talk about leadership, but I'm often talking about self-leadership, because that's if you can master self-leadership and I think it's an ongoing journey. I don't think you ever get there, but if you can continuously nurture that, that's where your impact grows and grows, and grows, and I see it with my clients all the time. So the first thing you can do to lead without a title is just to lead before you even have a title. So take the lead, see the opportunities, go make it happen, go have an impact, because when you have an idea and you put it into action, it's going to increase your credibility and it's going to increase the value that you're adding and it's going to help people see what you're doing, because sometimes people can have brilliant ideas and it can take other people a while to realize what that actually looks like in reality.

Jolynne Rydz: 21:10

Recently I was watching the show on Netflix America's Sweethearts about the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, and I like to watch these shows. One because I'm a fan of dancing, but two, I find the behavioral science and the leadership in it fascinating the behavioral science and the leadership in it fascinating. One thing that they did there was this girl called Victoria and she was in her fourth year and they're allowed to be in the Dallas cheerleaders for five years, so she was wanting to be in a leadership role in her fifth year and her question to the leadership team was was there really any chance that she would get this position? And their response to her was that she hadn't really shown that potential already, so she hadn't been stepping in and helping others and really helping them to connect and bond over that common purpose, and because they hadn't seen that they were alluding to it being unlikely that she would get a leadership role in the coming year.

Jolynne Rydz: 22:11

So leading before you have the title is such an incredible way to show your value and show what your ideas look like in reality, because sometimes you are the best person to bring that to life in its first iteration, and you can yeah, you can use people around you to help with that, but sometimes people don't understand what you're trying to bring into this world until you just make it happen. The second thing you can do to lead without a title is to reflect on why you do something. What's the purpose of what you're doing? Why you do something, what's the purpose of what you're doing and who could you share this with, because when you connect something to purpose, that's when you can inspire other people to get on board as an example, often when people go, what's magnetic authenticity about, and how did you come up with that?

Jolynne Rydz: 23:16

I like to tell them that the reason for me bringing this into being is because I personally would love to eliminate workplace related mental wellbeing issues, and I believe a big part of that is enabling people to be their whole self at work if they choose to, so having an environment where it's safe enough to do that, but also, on the other hand, empowering individuals to know their strengths, know their self-worth and be able to define that and not rely on external ways of defining that or people to define their worth, because the two of those things together is so incredibly powerful, and when I explain that, often it gets a much better reaction than when I just say, oh, it's about uncovering people's hidden talents. So when you explain the purpose and the reason behind what you're doing, it's such an incredible way, as a leader, to bring people along that journey with you and create that common connection and drive towards doing something exciting together. The third thing you can do to lead without a title is to find out what matters most to the people around you and determine how can you empower that. Can you think of something now, something where you can see there's a really important topic to someone that you care about and you don't want to fix it for them, but how can you empower and support them in that?

Jolynne Rydz: 24:36

I have this wonderful client who has been struggling with inspiration for some time in their leadership role and they're incredibly creative as in they can very artistic, can do these wonderful paintings and artworks and is also really incredible at teaching other people to do that as well. So I invited them to use that format in a presentation that they were doing, so to actually paint it and portray it in an artistic way and then talk to it, rather than doing a slideshow to talk to what they've been asked to present on, and I asked them how it went and they did it, which was amazing. And it was so exciting because they got a really great response. People were really inspired by what they'd done and the effort they'd put into it, and they got invited to actually come and then teach other people how to paint in their workplace, and what I love about that is it's about not fixing it for this person, but it's about inviting them, showing what you see and going. How can I support you in that? So for me, in that scenario, it was literally just giving them the idea and then letting them decide if they wanted to run with that or not.

Jolynne Rydz: 25:57

So there are so many ways you could apply this, and I would love to know head over to LinkedIn and DM me if you are testing any of this out and have any questions on how to apply it, because I would really love for this podcast to be interactive, because that's where we all learn and grow together, and I've got some exciting ideas on how we can make it more interactive.

Jolynne Rydz: 26:16

So they are in the works and they are coming. So stay tuned and I'll let you know when I've got that ready to be released. So for now, remember you were born for a reason. It's time to thrive. Make sure you rate and leave a review on this podcast wherever you're listening, because that is the best way that we can get this out to more people, because I truly believe that if we can all tap into our own Magnetic Authenticity, our purpose, our values and how we are best made to show up in this world, that's going to create a ripple effect of goodness across the globe. So I would love this podcast to get out there, help me to share it, because it's free and it's going to be free forever, and I've got some ideas down the track of a special competition that I want to run for anyone that has submitted a review. So go out there, leave a review and check in with me on LinkedIn if you want to connect further.