Improvisation is a proven technique for helping both novice and seasoned actors hone their talent on the stage or on the screen. However, recent research has shown that improv also plays a powerful role in corporate leadership, helping individuals and organizations not just adapt, but thrive in any environment, positive or negative.
What is an improvisational leader?
Improvisation is making or doing something unplanned and using whatever can be found. Improvisation means being spontaneous without scripted or previous preparation.
In a blog for CEO Magazine, Bob Kulhan, president and CEO of Business Improv, highlights these four qualities of improvisational leaders: They postpone judgment, communicate and connect, follow the follower and are mindful of being present and in the moment.
In their recent article, “‘YES, AND…’: Fearless Leadership During Times of Global Uncertainty,” authors Michael Eppehimer and Kristi Pintar summarize the attributes of improvisational leaders as being able to “create a feeling of calm and a feeling of strength,” and “unleash true organizational capability.”
Together, these descriptions provide an important assessment of why improvisational leadership is a crucial strategy for organizations as they continue to adapt to change, sometimes predictable and usually not. In fact, though rarely recognized as improvisational leadership, its characteristics have actually been a touchstone for both individual and corporate success during the uncertainties of the past year and a half.
A three-pronged approach to fostering improvisational leadership
Working with major corporations for over 25 years and conducting intensive research, we at WOMEN Unlimited, Inc. have discovered that sustained leadership success is a multi-faceted process involving high-potential women, their managers and a supportive organizational culture.
By espousing improvisational leadership as a key strategy for moving forward, all three can ensure that they will respond proactively to the inevitable surprises that lie ahead. They will be ready for opportunities, challenges and everything in between.
High-potential women. Developing effective women leaders at all organizational levels requires that the women themselves understand and communicate their value. More than ever, that value includes the ability to be improvisational. Women need to effectively turn on a dime as both the rate of change and the intensity of change accelerate. They must galvanize their teams by seeking out their ideas and willingly delegating to them.
Having had to pivot amidst unprecedented circumstances during the pandemic, many women have already become talented improvisational leaders. In order to contribute to ongoing corporate success, women at all levels need to up their game as improvisational leaders, whatever their workplace looks like.
Managers. During the pandemic, many managers gained a deeper understanding of, and empathy for, the people they lead. They often, and sometimes unknowingly, became improvisational leaders by following the lead of their employees rather than telling them what needed to be done. Managers who adopt this improv technique, “follow the follower,” are able to productively and creatively build on the thoughts and ideas of others. The result? The job is completed, often better than expected. Managers should allow their reports this independence, whether it is a continuation of what they’ve done before or pursuit of a new strategy.
Providing their female talent with options of how they work and where they work gives managers the opportunity to help the individuals on their teams appreciate their value as flexible, effective leaders. Additionally, it will point the way to making those talents visible to key players in the organization.
Organizational culture. Organizational culture changed dramatically during the pandemic, and not by choice. But now there IS a choice: to leverage the resulting benefits. Women and their managers became improvisational. They found new ways to manage chaos and seek out opportunities for individual and corporate growth. This cannot and should not change.
Just as during the pandemic, the companies who give their people the bandwidth to be creative, flexible and improvisational will be the ones that thrive. For example, as the labor market continues to tighten, attracting and retaining talented leaders will require more than compensation. It will call for allowing greater levels of independence and flexibility and for better focusing on the needs and goals of individual employees.
We all must remember that the months ahead are not about “getting back to work.” Work never stopped during the pandemic. In fact, many talented employees never worked harder or smarter. Leveraging how they have succeeded is one of the most promising opportunities of the so-called “new normal,” and improvisational leadership is at its heart.
