The Ship is Sinking: Leaders and the Tough Decisions

I was involved in a company discussion about the issues around why the organization was not able to make the changes necessary to stay in business and improve processes to meet customer expectations while decreasing costs in a tight economic time. Our  leader challenged us to identify the root causes that had to do with job changes and cutbacks , shifting some boxes on the organizational chart and to doing things in a completely new way than many were used to – nothing that would be easy to do.  Now I know that our small group was not the first to identify the problem or the root causes but we were the first to take action to make the necessary changes following the decision of our fearless leader who was willing to make  decisions that were unpopular with some for the good of the organization!

Again and again, the impossible problem is solved when we see that the problem is only a tough decision waiting to be made. Robert Schuller

Isn’t that what leaders are supposed to do…make the tough decisions? Why is it then that we see so often today that leaders are more interested in being “popular” than being present and focused on what is needed and right? We see it in business – and in the political arena. We watch as it appears that no one leader is willing to step up and make the tough decisions as the oil pours out of the well into the ocean and wreaks havoc on the economies and environments of the local communities. We watch as local or state or federal government leaders avoid taking stands and making critical changes to balance budgets so as not to lose popularity ratings or the support of special interest groups. And we watch corporate leaders avoid making tough choices and decisions that may impact a few stakeholders but in the long run would enable the business to survive on their own. And we watch religious leaders try and keep true to theology, liturgy and beliefs while trying to build churches and memberships and congregations through non traditional methods not popular with current legacy congregations.

There is a joke about how a leader responded to making decisions by using a Yes/No spinner or Eight Ball but “…now just flips a penny …Penny her executive assistant…” . Other leaders have been known to pull together a team and take a vote and follow their recommendation so as to have someone else to blame if something goes wrong.

 On the other hand we know that emotional intelligence – the ability to show empathy to others, to collaborate and for developing others are key competencies in high performing leaders. So how do they balance the tough with the kind?Giorgio Armani has said, “You have to have doubts. I have collaborators I work with. I listen and then I decide. That’s how it works.” There is a point where enough has been heard and someone has to make the ultimate decision – often as unpopular as it might be.

 How can leaders be seen as both tough and effective as well as supportive and participative? Are you or leaders you know able to say  ”no” when it is necessary just as easily as saying “yes”?  How can a leader appear open and transparent and participative while handing down an edict that will be highly unpopular and that may come with adversity for the decision maker? I have worked for leaders who could hand down a tough, unpopular decision that was ultimately the right decision and all the while were pleasant, calm and comfortable with the decision. I have known leaders who recognized from the facts that a  staff member needed to be terminated for the good of the organization and fellow staff and acted on the decision providing appropriate communication and empathy to all involved. And I have seen a leader in similar circumstances draw the process out for months unable to make take the tough action. In the first case the work environment and energy of the staff was quickly repaired as folks looked to move on. The leader acknowledged what had to be done and took action and then moved on. In the second scenario while the leader thought they were showing great concern and empathy, instead appeared to be procrastinating and indecisive and the workplace was in a state of confusion and frustration.  No leader wants to make decisions to cut back employees in the company but good leaders understand it is for the greater good and continuing viability of the company to do so. And they do it with emotional intelligence.

 My job is to listen to ideas, maybe cook up a few of my own, and make decisions based on what’s good for the shareholders and for the company. Philip Knight, Nike Founder

The conundrum for me as a leader is to be OK with making the tough decisions while showing empathy, compassion and respect for those working for and with me through the process. This is I know where my emotional intelligence competencies come into play as I work to be transparent, to have good emotional self control and self awareness. Is there another way to manage the hard decision making? What thinks you on th subject?

 As always let’s keep the conversation going…

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Auto-Drive vs Chauffeur vs pit crew leadership

A tale is told of a man in Paris during the upheaval in 1948, who saw a friend marching after a crowd toward the barricades. Warning him that these could not be held against the troops, that he had better keep way, he received this reply, ” I must follow them. I am their leader.”

A Lawrence Lowell, 1856-1943, President of Harvard University

 

Empowerment. According to the dictionary is means to “give someone power or authority” or “to give somebody a greater sense of confidence or self esteem”. In the workplace or leadership research and books (countless of them) the term has been used  in the assumption that each person/employee should take personal responsibility for his or her own well-being and to do what  one thinks is best for the organization – calling it self-empowerment

 This is tricky for leaders as our focus is on quality, productivity, and cost effectiveness. So why would a leader want to hand power over to employees? Maybe because today the idea of empowerment has become tied closely with efficiency in an organization as an answer for how to do more with less. Peter Block made note of the shift in a reprint of his book, The Empowered Manager, that “…the promise of empowerment is that it will dramatically increase the sense of responsibility and ownership at every level of the organization, especially at the bottom, where products and services are delivered to customers…”.  Nancy Lublin, in an article in Fast Company , talks about the obsessive focus in organizations on leadership and the minimal focus on the workers or “followers” who turn the visions into reality. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/144/do-something-lets-hear-it-forthe-little-guys.html

So what’s the difference between empowering your people and hands-off or macro-managing them? And is there a fine between empowering your people and what can perceived as negligence as a leader? Author/consultant, Bruce Tulgan, challenges that the hands-off approach is just a recipe for setting them up for failure and that poeple need to have expectations spelled out for them and receive guidance, directions and support to be successful (Rainmaker Thinking Inc)

So how do we know as leaders what is the right level of leadership at the right time for the right situation? For me it is in knowing and practicing the various leadership styles to be able to match the needs of my employees with my approach and the level of guidance or direction. And believe me it feels like I am feeling my way and learning the appropriate style every day in every work situation. I even am practicing this in dealing with my father as we struggle our way through unknown situations with his cancer and treatments. Somedays I am talking to a rational, proactive adult who I respect and look up to and other days to what seems to be a spoiled 6 year old who does not want to listen. Challenging.  There is so much more to learn and practice about situational leadership in my life.

“The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and the self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”—Theodore Roosevelt

So let’s hear… what say you on the subject?

As always, Let’s Keep the Conversation Going….

Best regards,

Sandi

Let’s talk about change and transitions!

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. Leo Tolstoy

 Let’s talk about transitions! I always felt and sometimes bragged that I relished change – the excitement of something new. So recently my personal change meter has been tested with a new marriage after a quite a few years of being independent and single, selling my home that I have owned and raised a family in for 20+ years, a new grand baby and now a shifting role in my relationship with my parents from daughter to part- time caretaker due to my dad’s diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.  And then there are the friends and staff dealing with challenges of their own that test my empathy and flexibility competencies in managing my work operations. And of course there is the every changing business and trying economic environment that also test my ability to flex and adapt.

So who’s bragging now?

“Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up.”— James Belasco and Ralph Stayer.
Flight of the Buffalo (1994)

 The respected leaders in our lives understand that the role they play in initiating necessary change or in managing change that is thrust upon them and their followers is to show empathy for the fear, paint the picture of new horizon and inspire others to want to be in that new picture. Do all of this while managing their own fears and apprehensions about the new way of being. I think about the uncontrollable changes in the world like the earthquake in Haiti. How will the leadership there balance their fear and frustrations with the need for them to inspire and paint a new vision of hope?

“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” Machiavelli.
The Prince (1532)

 So here’s the quagmire… as a leader do you show your weaknesses to be transparent or do you try and pretend like you don’t know something about yourself what everyone else around you does?

 I know I am being tested and will need to draw on my strengths in competencies that I know I have to overcome some of those gaps in the competencies I am missing. Doing self assessment regularly and including the assessments and feedback of those around me gives me an ongoing picture of how others perceive me and how I impact them. An accurate self assessment is critical to understanding your competency and skill strengths and weaknesses and star leaders do this continuously. This assessment stuff is hard for me…finding out and admitting I may not be strong in all areas of leadership but something I will keep working at.  

 “There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse; as I have found in traveling in a stagecoach, that it often a comfort to shift one’s position and be bruised in a new place.” — Washington Irving. Tales of a Traveler (1824)

What do you think?

As always let’s keep the conversation going!

Is It Just an Illusion? Ask A Coach.

Let’s talk about power and control – especially control. Historically a leadership role – a supervisor, manager, director, or an executive, meant that you controlled the situation, the people, the decision-making. With title came power. Working for one of these managers was easy –you just followed directions with no thought involved.  But I think history and experience has also shown that this perceived “power” was fleeting at best and misuse often resulted in revolts, riots, etc.

A favorite book of mine, “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry provides insight into the perception of power:

Little Prince:  I’d like to see a sunset… Do me a favor your majesty… Command the sun to set.”

The King: “If I commanded a general to fly from one flower to the next like a butterfly, or to write a tragedy, or to turn into a seagull, and if the general did not carry out my command, which of us would be in the wrong, the general or me?”

“You would be,” said the Little Prince quite firmly.

The King: “Exactly. One must command from each what each can perform,” the king went on. “Authority is based first of all upon reason. If you command your subjects to jump in the ocean, there will be a revolution. I am entitled to command obedience because my orders are reasonable.”

As we have learned about what makes leaders effective, what differentiates the poor from the average and the average from the star leaders we know that it is something in them – their confidence in themselves and in others, their self-awareness, empathy and ability to inspire others to great achievements that engages their followers.  But believing in those around us, developing them to their highest potential, encouraging them to empower themselves is risky and so time consuming when you have all the answers and know what needs to be done. Right?

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. Abraham Lincoln

I was once in an experiential leadership program – one of those weeks in the woods and on water programs. I watched an executive from my company sit paralyzed on the top of a small platform on the top of a 20 foot pole on the side of a hill unable to stand up or make the “leap” to the trapeze that was just out of reach. Each person had climbed up and made the scary leap with a little encouragement but this leader sat for over an hour, afraid to jump but more afraid to admit his fear and repeating to himself  “I’m the leader, I’m the executive. I have to do this.” He so feared appearing “weak” that he could not see that this was about choice and he was frozen liturally and figuratively on top of that pole oblivious to the coaching that his team mates and the consultants were giving him.

 A key responsibility of a leader is knowing their own strengths and limitation and those of the others around us and then using that knowledge from self awareness for the better of the whole and the motivation of the individual.  But admit our weak areas? Be transparent and make ourselves vulnerable? And how do we do that? First this requires us to so some honest self assessment. Secondly it requires us to ask for honest feedback from others and be open to what we are hearing.

 That is the hardest thing of all. It is much harder to judge yourself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself, it’s because you’re truly a wise man. The Little Prince

 Once we can model this behavior, as leaders we can focus on the development of the employees and maybe peers and even the bosses around us by encouraging self assessment and by providing them with specific, actionable, caring feedback – being their coach.

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” The Little Prince

Here is the quagmire… we are leaders and we feel we should know everything. Not knowing makes us feel less than powerful. We worry what our followers will think or if they will respect us. But doesn’t being transparent, honest in our self assessment and showing our vulnerabilities make us stronger in the eyes of those watching us and garner more of their confidence in us? Does it make us appear weak? At a Press Conference mid-way through his second term, President Bush answered a question about any mistakes he may have made as President with “…nope none that I can think of…”  thinking I suppose that this answer would garner the confidence of the people. I think instead the opinion was that he was in denial or not confident enough to admit that he may have made a mistake or two.  

I would argue that a leader with good self awareness and emotional self control who solicits and uses feedback from others, who uses a coach that gives him/her real feedback will know exactly where and when they shine and where they need to count on the strengths of others. Coaching is one of the most valuable tools we have as leaders whether being coached ourselves or coaching others to their highest potential. Training and development are key ingredients to learning but individual  coaching may be the key ingredient to personal growth. Coaching someone requires commitment, patience, honesty and even love. A good coach will help make his coachess or team members see what they can be rather than what they are or think they are.  As leaders do we have time for this? Or do we have time not to do this?

“You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. “It is the time you have spent with your rose that makes your rose so important.” The Little Prince

From my interpretation of literature to business to what successful coaches have to say:

Coaches have to watch for what they don’t want to see and listen to what they don’t want to hear.
-John Madden
What makes a good coach? Complete dedication.
-George Halas
Leadership, like coaching,is fighting for the hearts and souls of men and getting them to believe in you.
-Eddie Robinson

I couldn’t agree more. Just my thoughts. What say you? And as always let’s keep the conversation going!

 

 

 

 

Through the Looking Glass

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. Charles Darwin

Reviewing the research into the field of organizational change there appears to be a preoccupation with trying to understand the culture and context of an organization relative to the external and internal forces that drive it to change. This research dates back to the not too distant past where change was happening rather quickly and organizations had the perspective that while they needed to adapt, they had significant time to do so. Today – organizations and most importantly the leaders at the helms are experiencing unprecedented levels of turbulence in their environments which has forced them to continually transform themselves to grow, just sustain or potentially collapse. We have seen the near collapse of large banks and investment firms and of the US auto manufacturers. It has been argued that as the world changed around them the “Big 3” continued to operate under the rules from the past.

A verse from Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass” comes to mind…

‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’

‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.

‘I don’t much care where – ‘ said Alice.

‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.
‘ – so long as I get somewhere,’ Alice added as an explanation.

‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, ‘if you only walk long enough.’

It is an understatement today to say that the future of an organization can no longer be based on the past way of doing things or for leaders – on using the same leadership approaches, skills or competencies that may have worked in the past. Leaders who simply trust their past experiences and base decisions and actions on what they are comfortable or familiar with, may unavoidably fail their organizations and their people. As Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central says:  “I’m not a fan of facts. You see, the facts can change but my opinion will never change, no matter what the facts or situations are.”

So as our organizations are forced to evolve and adapt, we as leaders must acquire new skills and competencies to ensure competitiveness and survival in a changing environment. But don’t we as leaders often think that it is the “others” who need the training. We think our peers, our employees even our bosses are the ones who need development and continual learning. Looking at ourselves and seeing ourselves as others see us with all our strengths and gaps – this is risky, takes courage, time and commitment. Asking for feedback with genuine desire to identify ways to improve is one of the competencies of self awareness that great leaders exhibit. How do we get feedback? Are we willing to do a 360 feedback process to understand the perspectives of others of our leadership ability? I find myself feeling both anxious and excited about reading the feedback from the circle of those around me.  But it is definitely enlightening.

What is the risk of not asking for feedback? Of not changing and growing as the organization and the environment requires of us? Some may argue that things always come full circle and if I just wait long enough my style of managing others will come back into play. I would point out that in this global environment with multi cultural work forces and customers, with technology driving the way we communicate and changing almost daily, that the old way may never circle back around. In a story in Sports Illustrated they commented on the process in the NFL  to build a team for the future based on using stats for players from their past performance and used a recent draft as an example. In the NFC North region there were 30 players taken by four teams including the Detroit Lions, Vikings, Bears and Packers. Three years later, of the 30 who were picked based on past performance, only three remained on the active rosters of the team that picked them. I, as a leader, want to be ready to lead and manage in a most self aware, self confident, way to guide the organization moving forward not looking back. Ongoing leadership development for ourselves and for the leaders in our organizations I believe is critical to meeting the future head-on. A focus on emotional and social intelligence to manage the key relationships and on leading through change and transformation are critical leadership competencies no matter what type of organization you are leading.

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” Tao Te Ching

So let’s hear… what say you on the subject?

As always, Let’s Keep the Conversation Going….

Best regards,

Sandi