Ep 634 | Leading in the Margins: The Power of Formal and Informal Leadership

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. I think that most leaders only play, or tend to play, half the game. They're either overly structured overly structured in the way they're running meetings, holding people accountable, putting everything into a system, or they're overly casual, which is more around relying on charisma and quick conversations and just pure relationship building. The truth though, I think if you want to be a leader worth following, you need to balance both formal and informal leadership. Formal leadership is what shows up on your calendar. Informal leadership is what shows up, though, in the margins. And it's in those margins, I think, where culture is truly built and where trust is strengthened and where teams decide if they'll run through walls for you. So, today, I'm going to break down what formal and informal leadership looks like. Now, I'm doing this because I just mentioned in my newsletter that comes out each month that one business understanding or thing I was implementing in the past month was around informal leadership. So, if you're at this podcast today because you saw the newsletter, awesome, today's the day we're going to break down formal and informal leadership just as we mentioned. If you're not a subscriber though to the newsletter, I would love to have you on board. Check out the show notes. There'll be a link there for you to subscribe to the monthly newsletter where I talk about, no surprise, all sorts of things going on in wealth and business and fun and health, all the things that are super important to me. So, back on subject though, I wanna break down formal and informal leadership today, why both are necessary and how you can implement a balance. I think a balance that keeps your business sharp and it keeps your people inspired. Let's talk about though defining these leadership styles, okay? Formal leadership is structured, it's organized, it's repeatable. It's the business plan review, it's the formal coaching one-on-one, it's the scoreboard where everyone's metrics are up in the lights. These are all predictable systems. They keep the team moving in one direction. Without this sort of formal leadership, your business could drift, right? And people won't know what to expect. Accountability could really go out the window. Now, informal leadership is more spontaneous and unscripted, and it's deeply relationship-driven. It's the 5-minute conversation in the hallway when you're passing by someone on your team. It's the, "Hey, you, you, I was listening to your call earlier today. You crushed that call." It's mentioning that verbally or maybe via text. It's the quick coffee chat that turns into some breakthrough coaching moment. See, informal leadership is how you remind people that they're not just employees or agents or staff. They're humans who matter a lot to you. So, without informal leadership, your people will drift. One style provides clarity and discipline, and the other provides more connection and meaning. Now, to be clear, both of these styles matter. They both really matter. Think about it this way. If you lead only in a, in a formal sense, you're basically running an assembly line. You might get compliance, but you're not going to get commitment. There's a difference. Now, if you're only leading informally, you'll have people who like you probably, but the business results will probably stall. So, in my opinion, leadership isn't either/or, it's both/and. This is why I think the best leaders don't think of formal and informal as separate jobs. They weave them together. It's kind of like a yin and yang. They hold a structured one-on-one and then maybe 2 hours later, they drop by a desk or send a text that says, I, I value what you're doing here. I think formal leadership will prevent the chaos, but informal leadership prevents disconnection. So without both, your business either drifts or your people start to drift. Here's some practical examples in action. So when we think formal leadership, as I already mentioned, I think about the weekly one-on-one coaching session where you ask about progress towards goals. I think about a business planning meeting where you map out the next quarter. I think about scoreboarding and accountability check-ins. I think about group training events when either the whole team's together and we're training on something or we have some sort of mass action day or something developing skill. All of these are scheduled, all these are predictable, and all of them are repeatable. Now, when you think around informal leadership, I think about the quick 15-minute meeting where you ask questions like, I don't know, how did it go for you last week? Did we win? What's the goal for this week? What could get in the way? How can I help? I think about using the concept known as NET time, N-E-T, which for me stands for no extra time. And what is that? That's when you're grabbing someone in between meetings to coach on the fly, or you're sticking them in the car with you, or you're eating lunch with them because it takes no extra time to do these things. When I think informal leadership, I think about celebrating small wins and doing it immediately instead of waiting for maybe Friday's team call. And then lastly, I think about the I care call. I think it's the call, the phone call you make that takes a couple minutes where you say, hey, you know, I don't really need anything. I just wanted to check in. What's going on with you? I want you to know I appreciate the work you're putting in. You're a really big part of this company. Now, notice something here. None of those informal touches require a big investment of time. They require awareness and they require presence, but not a big investment of time. They require that you notice kind of moments in the margins. Now, I think there's some really great examples of leaders that did get it right, that really balanced formal and informal that we can go and study. The first one that comes to mind for me is Jack Welch, who was the leader of GE for many, many, many years. And Jack was ruthless with performance reviews. He created systems that kept GE disciplined and accountable. But Jack also walked the floor. He talked to employees in real time. He coached them on the spot. He paired this formal rigor with informal presence. I also think about Herb Kelleher, who was the founder of Southwest Airlines. He standardized processes to keep costs low, hence Southwest Airlines being the low-cost airline. That was very formal. That was formal leadership. But he also wrote thousands of handwritten notes to employees. Now, imagine running an airline and still making time to send a personal note. That informal leadership was one of the drivers for Southwest's amazing culture. Last person I was thinking of is a woman named Mary Barra, who was at General Motors. And she actually pulled the company out of bankruptcy with some very tough structural changes. But she also went on listening tours. She also sat face-to-face with employees at all levels. She didn't just issue memos from the top, she connected in the margins. Each of these leaders, I think, are great examples of individuals that paired structure with humanity. So, When we think around application, I have a challenge for you. What I would challenge you to do is think through some questions. First, which side, formal or informal, do you naturally lean toward? Are you more of a calendar-driven systems leader or are you more spontaneous? You're more of a relationship builder. Number 2, where is your team feeling some degree of imbalance today? Maybe it's too much formal, so they feel a little micromanaged. Maybe it's too informal, so they feel a little lost. And then question 3, and really the action item of them all, what's an adjustment you'll make this week based on what you answered in those previous 2 questions? What's one adjustment that you can make this week? If you're all systems, maybe schedule some iCare calls. If you're all margins, maybe get a scoreboard or at least get the one you have back in order. Remember, formal leadership keeps the business moving forward. Informal leadership keeps people inspired to keep moving with it. Leadership is not just about driving results. Yes, results are important, but it's not everything here. It's about creating an environment where results are possible because people feel both guided, of course, but they also feel valued. Your leadership shows up on the calendar, but the leadership that makes the difference, it's a lot of that leadership that I keep describing as leadership in the margins. So, this week, let's lead in both places. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So, let's get after it. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]