Embrace your inner punk: How to revolutionise leadership and empower teams

The concept of a ‘punk in a suit’ is more than just a catchy phrase; it's a call to action for leaders to embrace individuality, originality and social justice within the corporate world. Drawing inspiration from the rebellious spirit of punk, author and founder Blaire Palmer urges us to tap into our inner rebels, challenging the status quo and fostering a culture of authenticity and belonging. But how do we translate this ethos into actionable steps that drive meaningful change in our organisations?

In the latest video in The People Space’s Forward Thinkers series Palmer recommends four actions:

Reflect on your legacy

Palmer challenges us to look ahead to the day we hand in our laptops for the last time. She asks "If you come face to face with yourself in that moment, how do you want to feel?" This reflection isn't just a philosophical exercise; it's a motivator to be braver and more outspoken in our professional lives. Many of us, including Palmer herself, recognise that we could have been bolder in our actions and words. By envisioning the legacy we want to leave we can start making changes today that align with that future vision.

Address tensions head-on

Organisational issues often manifest as surface-level problems but Palmer encourages us to dig deeper. Instead of simply managing symptoms like reluctance to return to the office or challenges in recruitment, we need to understand the underlying tensions. This involves engaging others in the process and asking "What do you think is going on?" By addressing the root causes we can create more sustainable and effective solutions.

Empower decision-making

One of the key shifts Palmer advocates is pushing decision-making away from the top and empowering team members to make their own decisions. This involves resisting the urge to provide solutions, even when asked directly. As Palmer explains: "You say yes, I could tell you what I would do, but I'm not going to. You're the one that has to live with the decision." By refusing to make decisions for others leaders can foster a culture of accountability and growth, encouraging team members to develop their problem-solving skills and confidence.

Embrace the discomfort

This approach isn't without its challenges. Both leaders and team members may feel uncomfortable with the shift in responsibility. However, Palmer emphasises the importance of sitting with this discomfort. When team members express uncertainty leaders must resist the urge to step in and instead support them in finding their own solutions. This process of pushing decisions down the hierarchy and sitting with the resulting discomfort is crucial for developing a more autonomous and capable workforce.

Palmer's insights remind us that being a ‘punk in a suit’ isn't about adopting a specific look or attitude but about embodying the values of individuality, originality and courage. By reflecting on our desired legacy, addressing organisational tensions and empowering decision-making, we can create a more dynamic and authentic workplace. As Palmer puts it: "We've never been able to ask people to do that before because we've been too busy just keeping on top of the day to day." 

Now, with the rise of AI and automation we have the opportunity to redefine what it means to be human in the workplace and to focus on the tasks that truly require our unique abilities.

For a deeper dive into Palmer’s insights and more practical actions listen to the podcast episode From Cog in Machine to Human at Work: Why Victorian Beliefs are Holding Us Back with Blaire Palmer

About Blaire Palmer

Blaire Palmer is a former BBC journalist turned organisational culture and leadership specialist. She has worked with numerous organisations over the past 24 years, helping them drive real change and create environments where people can do their best work. Blaire is the author of Punks in Suits and speaks internationally on rethinking leadership for the modern era.

Transcript

What are punks in suits?

So, punks in suits is a quote from the film Kick Ass 2. There's no room for punks in suits, just real heroes who can really kick ass. Of course, what we don't need is a bunch of heroes really kicking ass. We need some punks in suits. But by which I mean,  we are a generation  that would have been alive at the time of punk or just about. We wouldn't probably have been punks ourselves, a little bit young, but we might have been influenced by that.

But even so, we would have been rebels in our our teens. You know, we would have been Goths or  we'd have been into New Wave or something and we need to tap back into that. It doesn't mean that we need to turn up at work with a Mohican but we can be a punk on the inside, right? Underneath our metaphorical suit. And that is really about being original, being ourselves, being a little counterculture, questioning things, social justice being important to us, all these things were important to punks. And the thing  that's interesting about punk, it's about individuality but it's also about belonging. So individuality is recognised and therefore you are welcome to belong. Really, that's more of the citizenship idea, I think. So that's a punk in a suit.

Why good leaders are human-centric

Well, people are secondary machines, you know. There are certain things that human beings will never be able to do properly or as well as machines can do because we're emotional. Because we are kind of unpredictable. Because it's really difficult for human beings to do repetitive tasks to  exactly the same way every single time. That's what machines are for. And it has been necessary up until now to have human beings doing a lot of those tasks because we didn't have the machines with the capability. As soon as we did have machines with capability to do those things, we got machines to do them. The problem with that is that we then assume, well, the more we can get machines to do what humans are doing, because humans are second rate at a lot of these activities, the less we'll need humans.

And then of course, right now we've got the explosion of AI where this is really so much of what we thought only humans could do. It turns out that we have a machine that can do it and that can do it in a far superior way, in a way that our brains just can't really get their heads around. But what it means is that we have never really had an opportunity to think about what is it that human beings could do if they weren't doing things that they are second rate at. So if you think about your typical working day it is packed full. And even if you work in a service or knowledge type of job your typical day is packed full of things that it turns out a machine or AI can do better. So you take all of that out of our day. Now, what can humans do with that? 

Finally, human beings would be able to wrangle with ethical questions. They'd be able to connect deeply with themselves, with each other, their colleagues, with their clients, with the world around them. They'd be able to think, to have time to think, and to imagine and to create. And they'd have the opportunity to take all of the richness of that insight that the AI has developed and kind of do something with it. And we've never been able to ask people to do that before because we've been too busy just keeping on top of the day to day.

3 tips on how leaders can be brave 

And in terms of things to do,  the first thing is I ask the readers or listeners to the audio book to cast their minds ahead to the day they hand in their laptop for the last time. And to ask themselves, if you come face to face with yourself in that moment, how do you want to feel? And I think that's important because I think if most of us, if we carry on in that trajectory that we're on at the moment, myself included, we'll think we could have been braver. It's one of the reasons that I wrote the book, I was thinking, I think some things but I don't say them. The person I come face to face with when I retire is going to wish that I had said these things. 

So firstly, what will you wish you had been and what will you wish you had said and what will you wish you had stood for. It's a philosophical exercise but it should result in some actions. 

Second thing to do is to go towards tensions in your organisation. So rather than working around problems, actually see if you can get to the heart of them. Not one of the presenting issues like people don't want to come into the office, we have to force them to. Presenting issues like, we're finding it really hard to recruit, we need to throw more money at people to get them to come here or to stay. You know, not presenting issues. Let's try to get to the root of the tension. And if we don't understand what's going on there, let's engage other people in saying, what do you think's going on? So that's the second thing. 

And I think the third thing is this: pushing the decision making away. Anytime you feel like the decision is yours, or even coming up with the ideas to solve a problem is yours, resist. Even when someone is saying, can you just tell me what to do? You don't. You say, yes, I mean, I could tell you what I would do, but I'm not going to. You're the one that has to live with a decision. And so you refuse every single day to make decisions or to try to generate the solutions yourself based on information passed up to you. Instead, you are going to never issue another order again. You are never going to make a decision again. You're going to push those decisions down and push the information down so that people can make the decisions themselves. And you're going to sit with the discomfort and you're going to sit with their discomfort when they say, I don't know how to make this decision, can't you just tell me? No, because if I tell you, you'll never know how to make this decision. So you might as well learn.