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Doing It Right
Teaching Your Perspective As It Evolves: Leadership requires creating a compelling vision of the business idea, and clearly relating it to the underlying purpose that inspires passion in the organization. Yet, it’s a vision that should change as progress is made and conditions and circumstances evolve. It is constantly being shaped and shared through an ongoing conversation within the company. Your evolving vision is a teachable point of view that you need to continue to share as the vision evolves. For example, I consulted with a company that opened a major business center in Mexico. They had a reason to do it – a major customer required them to supply that customer’s Mexican stores. They recognized that they had an opportunity to seek other customers as well, for they had no strong, organized competition beyond small local craftspeople. They launched an international division based on these factors and other assumptions as well. One assumption was that the local managers and team leaders would work just like their counterparts in the States, if they were just told to do so. However, the local workers had their own perceptions about how work was done, how much responsibility they were or were not willing to assume, and what the phrase, a “sense of urgency” means in action. Within a year, six other international firms had moved into Mexico and were competing with my client. My client company continued to work its original plan, which was based on misperceptions about the local workforce and what it would take to manage folks from a different culture. The people in charge from the States put their heads down and tried harder to work the initial plan with only minor adjustments, regardless of the fact that it wasn’t working. They lost a significant amount of money and opportunity until the CEO provided the people on the ground in Mexico with an updated vision that aligned the business idea with the “new” realities, and helped the team evolve its strategies to match. That visions evolve is an important concept, particularly for the executive team that is expected to coordinate the complex efforts required to enact the business plan effectively. Tichy has written about the teachable point of view in a very clear and powerful book, The Leadership Engine, (1997). For our purposes, the teachable point of view simply reflects the key business assumptions that drive the enterprise, articulated in a way that allows them to be discussed and understood by people at all levels of the company. These assumptions are not always clearly articulated, even in the most sophisticated corporations. Those who do articulate their assumptions can make several mistakes that undercut their effectiveness:
“So what?” The skeptic may ask. “Don’t people just need to do their jobs as well as they can and leave the rest to management?” The short answer is no. To make the most of the team you have they have to be able to improvise and operate in sync with each other. What would you expect if the conductor only made sure that the first chairs of the orchestra knew the score? What head coach is satisfied if only the coaches know the game plan – but not the players? For outstanding performance everyone needs to be on the same page. Do you really want to settle for less? A business idea, link crafted into a teachable point of view, serves as the foundation for building high-performance teamwork. The teachable point of view serves as the frame of reference for people at every level in the organization. It frees people to act quickly, independently, and yet to keep their actions focused within the company’s strategic priorities. If everyone understands the business story, they can relate immediate decisions to the broader plan. It frees up managers to coordinate the flow of work and information across boundaries and functions. It allows people to move beyond a self-centered definition of success by providing them with a clear, important purpose for their work that is bigger than they are individually. This purpose is crucial for true collaboration to become the natural way things happen in your workplace. In order to create the kind of climate that supports a tight implementation of the business plan, leadership must involve people in maintaining the culture. There has to be an ethic of creating value that can overcome superficial self-interest. Over the years, I’ve seen office managers who had their own unique ways of getting things done. Their processes were developed to fit their personal preferences as much or more than the needs of the business. When conditions or priorities changed, the CEO was unable to get the office manager to change her system by simply telling her to so. She’d never argue. She’d listen carefully and nod. Then she’d go away and continue doing things her way. When the CEO discovered the resistance she simply explained to him why his ideas didn’t work for her (“within her system,” although she never acknowledged that aspect out loud – perhaps even she didn’t recognize it.) Ordering change seldom works as well as when you help people to understand the reasons why change is required and you involve them in crafting a workable change that fits their capabilities while simultaneously creating the new outcomes. Buy-in doesn’t happen spontaneously, but it can be cultivated, if the leaders within a company share a common perspective on the business that can be easily disseminated. They have to be well enough aligned that they can guide their people to act within the plan. The people who are expected to create the desired outcomes have to discuss and consider the business plan in enough detail to be familiar with it, so they can refer to it whenever they need to make a decision or consider options. The Wastefulness of Unprofessional and/or Parental Leadership Styles: How many of you know of companies in which people have unresolved petty spats? Do you know of companies in which key staffers carry personal dislikes to the point that they don’t share necessary information until absolutely necessary? Have you seen people fail to act if it would benefit someone else in the organization more than it benefited them? Incidents like these happen all the time. It is amazing how many companies achieve some level of success – almost in spite of themselves. Think of how much competitive advantage gets wasted in organizations where this lack of professionalism is tolerated. If such waste were happening with materials on the shop floor, or if that much product was damaged in the warehouse, heads would roll. Yet, because the waste occurs in terms of workforce capabilities or intellectual capital many companies don’t know how to address it. “I don’t deal with that touchy feely stuff,” they’ll say. The irony is that touchy feely stuff is a fundamental part of the leader’s job, particularly in a company where success depends upon people working well together. To do less, because you lack the confidence, or see those issues as frivolous, is to drop the leadership ball. If you do not take the lead in expecting the organization to work effectively, who will? Organizational waste often is tolerated when leaders slip into a parental posture as their ultimate source of authority. This posture may be literal in a family-owned business, or figurative, in the paternalistic leader who sees his/her employees as the company’s children. Regardless, they tolerate a certain level of misbehavior on the part of the “kids.” However, enthusiasm and clever problem solving cannot be delivered on demand, nor will it blossom without effort. It doesn’t happen because mom or dad gets mad. It must be inspired. It must be enabled. It’s hard work, not just an attitude. |
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