Lessons in Leadership – Sally and Carolyn

Sally is a solid, results-oriented employee who has a high level of knowledge, good skills, extensive experience, and a positive, can-do attitude. She has worked for several organizations in administrative support positions during her 20-plus year career. Carolyn is the office manager and manages a team of six people in the largest branch office of a big state government agency. Her team is highly productive and delivers outstanding results on a daily basis. Sally joined Carolyn’s team about six months ago and has proven to be a reliable, hard-working, and low-maintenance employee.

Although the agency requires only an annual, formal performance appraisal, Carolyn makes it a point to have quarterly informal performance discussions with each of her staff. She finds this more frequent approach helps head off problems before them become major issues. With a team of six employees, Carolyn has one of these quarterly discussions about every week or two. She will be meeting with Sally in a couple of days. As she thinks about Sally’s performance, she notices that when a major new project is on the horizon Sally becomes quite tentative about her ability to handle the new assignment. Sally may even resist having the task delegated to her or put off starting on the new assignment. In situational leadership terms, Sally is generally “Able and Willing” to perform well and does so except when she is given responsibility for taking on a new project assignment. In the previous three months Carolyn has given Sally two projects to work on; both of which require Sally to plan and implement tasks she has not done before. Both times Sally was reluctant to get started on the project and put off doing so, claiming she had not had time because of her workload.

As Carolyn thinks about how to approach Sally about this issue, she comes to the realization that there is something about these assignments that is outside of Sally’s comfort zone. Otherwise, why would a solid performer be so reluctant to take on these assignments? Carolyn understands that Sally either lacks the Ability to perform well in these situations, or she is lacks the Willingness to take on the projects and run with the ball. As the leader, Carolyn has to decide how to raise the issue with Sally. The initial options Carolyn comes up with include:

• Find another employee who knows how to do the new project assignment and have them act as a resource or mentor for Sally, or
• Carve out a piece of the new project that is related to Sally’s present workload so she can have a small “win” to rebuild her confidence, or
• Reinforce her confidence in Sally’s abilities and find opportunities to support and assist her to get over any hurdles she might encounter along the way.

Using the situational leadership approach means matching her leadership style to Sally’s readiness level and understanding that it is Carolyn – the leader – who must adapt to the current behavior of Sally – the follower – not the other way around.

In this case, Carolyn decided to simply discuss the two project assignments with Sally and describe her observations about Sally’s behavior. Carolyn’s approach was non-confrontational and consisted of basically saying, “Here is what I see; let’s talk about what occurred and see if we can figure out what is going on.” During that discussion Carolyn learned that Sally saw the two projects as overwhelming and too big – she had never planned and implemented a big project on her own and felt insecure in her ability to do so. Sally was confident in her ability to get things done when somebody else (usually Carolyn) was responsible for figuring out what needed to be done and how to do it; then handed off the tasks to Sally. After discussing the situation, Carolyn and Sally decided that Sally needed some training on project planning and a bit of hand-holding on the first of the two projects to get things rolling.

It turned out that Carolyn’s decision worked out well. Within a couple of weeks Carolyn was able to step back and watch Sally perform. After that, Sally was able to take on new project assignments much more easily. Another “win-win” for Leading as well as managing.

How Are You Sleeping?

Recently I found myself waking up at 4:00 a.m. a couple of days in a row, and not really knowing why. The second time that happened I remembered this is often a clue that I have things floating around in my subconscious that are not captured in my system. And, since those things are not captured in a system I trust they will tend to mentally tap my shoulder at the least opportune times. Certainly, 4:00 in the morning is not when I want to be reminded of something!

My next action was clear; grab a pad of paper, my pen, and do a dump of everything that is on my mind, unfinished, incomplete, I’d like to have happen, needs to get started, etc.

Lo and behold, I discovered about 30 different items lurking in my head! Everything from calling an old friend I haven’t talked to in awhile, to picking up shirts at the laundry, to setting a strategy meeting to discuss our plans for next year and beyond. The list pretty much covered the waterfront from little errands to big-picture strategic kinds of items and everything in between.

You may not be waking up at 4:00 in the morning, but see if you catch yourself tracking off somewhere during that staff meeting or while someone else is talking to you. Is it because the staff meeting is dull-boring? Or is it because you have three (or 30) things floating around in your head that are not captured in your system?

When is the last time you invested a half-hour in dumping things out of your head?

What Makes A Great Company?

What do you think makes for a great company? A great organization? Is it the vision of the CEO or founder? The team you work with directly and the special relationship you all have? The customers or clients you serve? The product or service you create or deliver? What is it that makes someplace a great place to work?

Lessons in Leadership – The Staff Development Champ

Jane has built a highly successful treasury management client services operation for a large multi-state bank. One of her core values is staff development. Once one of her new hires has developed their basic skills they have opportunities to serve on task forces, take on new project assignments, help develop new products and services, suggest and make improvements, and otherwise get to really grow professionally. Not all want to advance, of course, but those with interest and potential have plenty of opportunities to take on new and more challenging tasks.

Not only are employees encouraged to grow and advance, but Jane and her staff supervisors remind employees to “think résumé” so when an employee picks up a new skill, participates on a project team, or receives an accolade, it gets added to their résumé. If a higher level position becomes available in the organization and the employee expresses an interest, Jane or one of her supervisors will review the posting, the employee’s résumé with them, and even help the employee practice in a mock-interview setting. The results are several, such as: 

• Lower-level employees throughout the bank see Jane’s department as a place where they will be supported and encouraged to advance.
• Jane’s department has turnover that is significantly lower than other departments.
• When an employee does leave, they are usually doing so for a promotion that takes advantage of their skill-set.
• Jane has former employees working in virtually every area in the company; as a result, she knows just who to call an inter-unit issue arises.

There a several winners in all of this; the bank because they have intensely loyal employees who aren’t interested in leaving the organization just to get a promotion, the employee because they see they have a future within the organization, the bank’s customers because they deal daily with well-motivated and positive individuals who see the organization as really caring about them, and the department’s management because they don’t have a revolving door when it comes to filling and retaining employees. Everybody wins!

A Little Traveling Music

I’ve spent much of this week in Memphis, along with my colleague and editor, Jan Andersen. The first half of our assignment was to work with a group of six nonprofit organizations, all of them at different places and phases in their development. During the second half we worked with the board and regional directors of one of the organizations. We assisted other facilitators as the various groups worked on Strategic Planning issues, then provided some training on fund development and grant writing basics. There wasn’t time to see much of Memphis (and no opportunity to enjoy some great BBQ!) there was plenty of opportunity to see a total of about 40 volunteer leaders roll up their sleeves and rededicate themselves to creating a sustainable future for their organizations.

The nonprofit world has been hard-hit by this global recession. The twin whammys of a lot more demand for their services at the same time the funding available has shrunk considerably. It’s a good reminder for all of us that are working and still in business – as tight as it is, don’t forget that we are better off than a lot of our neighbors next door and our cousins across the country. Don’t forget to get that checkbook out at least quarterly and support a nonprofit in your community.

After all, we’re all in this together. And it will take all of us to work our way out of it. Do the Right Thing.

Lessons in Leadership – The 3rd Shift Paint Line

Some years ago I conducted a 360-degree assessment for the management team at a manufacturer in the “steel-bending” business. They made high-quality file cabinets, shelving, and supermarket checkout stands using rolled steel. We gathered data for about 40 managers and executives, including the supervisor of the 3^rd-shift paint line, a guy we’ll call Jack. When I reviewed his feedback I saw that he was viewed as very directive and decidedly not participative in his approach to his employees. At the time I believed that a highly-participative style was the best and only effective way to manage people. Jack had quite a background; his first career was as an MP in the Marines while his second career was as a sheriff’s deputy on both road patrol and county jail posts.

I expressed my concern about Jack’s style to the CEO who retained us for the assessment, and he suggested that I take a look at Jack’s team firsthand. So, I went into the plant at 11 p.m., 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. over the course of a week, and hung out with the team. I learned a lot. First of all, I learned that the 3^rd shift paint line was the “dumping ground” for the rest of the plant; if a factory worker was unsuccessful in getting along with people in other units or shifts, he was often assigned to Jack’s crew as a last step before being fired. Second, I discovered that of the dozen people on this team, about two-thirds of them had criminal records and had been behavior problems in other areas of the plant. Third, I had one of Jack’s employees tell me, “hey, we can get out of hand sometimes and Jack has to take us out behind the building and smack us around a bit, but we get the job done.”

Frankly, I was confused. I expected Jack’s employees to be sullen, resentful, and unproductive. They weren’t. I had expected them to dislike Jack as a supervisor. They didn’t. More research revealed that Jack’s turnover record was substantially better than the rest of the 3^rd shift, and better than most of the 1^st and 2^nd shift units. His productivity and quality numbers were better than 2^nd shift’s and nearly as good as 1^st shift.

As I considered all of this, I discovered I had learned a Lesson in Leadership.

• Leaders use different styles. The style that I would use and the style that you would use in the same situation may be different.
• The style that works well in one situation may not work in every situation.
• If the turnover on the team is not excessive, and the productivity and quality results are up to standard, then the style being used may be appropriate.

Jack turned out to be a pretty good supervisor. He might not be my cup of tea if I worked for him, but the team he led did a good job, had jelled pretty well as a team, and generally thought Jack was a pretty good guy.

Think about your own team or business. How are you doing on those measures? Staff turnover, productivity, quality of output. Is the style you are using getting you the results you need?

Sustainability Part III

Change does not happen easily and painlessly because the status quo is strongly attractive to both individuals and organizations. We are driven to think and act by how we view the world around us. We look for information, interpret events, see opportunities, and make choices based upon our mental model or perception of reality. Information that does not fit into our mental model is often ignored, discounted, or viewed as just plain wrong, if we are willing to even recognize that it exists. We are stuck to the super-glue of our own mental model and are often unaware that we are stuck.

Our mental model prevents us from recognizing that our present way of operating is not likely to get us the results we want. We often redouble our efforts along the same path without grasping that the path has changed. We either do not see that the world around us is now different or we rail against the changes that surround us and pronounce them as wrong. For example, those who warned us about climate change were roundly dismissed and derided for sounding the alarm until the success of An Inconvenient Truth brought the issue to the attention of a wide audience. Our mental model simply could not accept the notion that the need for a reduction in the use of fossil fuels required concerted action now.

Our mental model also prevents us from seeing ourselves as engaged in a process that will result in a new behavior or new approach. We are often so invested in our current perception and behavior patterns that we are unable to see that we can change. We see the changing world around us as threatening and hostile; a bad place to be resisted at all costs. In essence we see ourselves as the victim of change rather than the agent of change in our own life.

Because the changing situation is either ignored or viewed as a bad thing, our mental model keeps us from developing change strategies that help produce and reinforce the new behavior or method of operating. We fail to see how to change and are often unable to create a plan for how to successfully adapt ourselves and our behavior. As a result we will often abandon our efforts to change at the first hurdle or roadblock.  Sustaining the new behavior in the face of setbacks and resistance from others and from within ourselves becomes so difficult or impossible that we give up.

Organizations also have mental models. The rapidly changing and fluid environment in which business, government, and nonprofits operate call for flexible, adaptive, forward-focused organizations. Perhaps no better example of excessively rigid corporate mental models exists than the Big Three U.S. auto manufacturers. Their resistance to improving vehicle quality in the 1980’s created huge opportunities for Japanese and German automakers. Once again, the Big Three’s mental models caused them to resist calls for higher fuel economy and alternative fuel vehicles even as petroleum prices skyrocketed in recent years.

So, why do so many change initiatives fail so miserably?

• We do not understand the nature of change (see Sustainability I).
• We fail to grasp the fact that change is a process
• We neglect to identify our own (and our organization’s) mental model
• We do not determine the stage of change we are currently in
• We give up too easily on the new approach – our desire for a “quick-fix” makes us impatient 

The relative success of a change initiative depends upon the individual’s or the organization’s readiness for change and willingness to be flexible.

Relationships

Your success as a leader will be built on a foundation of two things: (1) your ability to get things done or accomplish tasks, and (2) your ability to forge and sustain positive relationships with other people. True leadership means focusing on both tasks and relationships. No matter how driven, focused, and hardworking you may be, you won’t be effective in life unless you can develop solid, healthy relationships. In today’s organization your ability to build successful relationships with employees, peers, your boss, and customers is a key skill – one that can help move you and your unit ahead or significantly hold you back.

Creating the kinds of working relationships that will help to take you, your team, and your organization to new levels of success and accomplishment takes hard work and constant effort. When your working relationships are effective, you are able to truly lead your team to get the job done. When your relationships are poor, you simply won’t be able to get the results you and your organization need. And, in all likelihood, you will have a team that is not actively engaged in doing a good job. Your people will not be happy and productive; they may well “vote with their feet” by leaving. Research clearly shows that employees do not leave jobs, they leave managers.

What do you expect of your key relationships – employees, co-workers, boss, spouse, family – in your life? Do you expect those relationships to be relatively positive most of the time? Do you expect your employees to perform well consistently? Do they actually perform well most of the time? Do you expect your boss to keep you in the loop, communicate well and thoughtfully, give you opportunities to grow, and help you in your career?

On the other hand, do you expect your employees to be lazy, unengaged in their work, and generally perform poorly? Do they act that way? Do you expect your boss to be a jerk? And does he/she behave like one?

I submit that in both cases you are getting the result you expect. It is the expectation itself – a belief you hold that has not yet come true – that at least partially causes that expectation to become reality. People tend to live up (or down) to our expectations of them.

Think about the expectations you have for the people around you. Are your expectations results-oriented with a positive focus? If so, your odds improve that the successful outcome you want will become true.

Sustainability – Part II

A week since the last post, and time to take a look at the change process in the context of recent events. Unemployment is up again, although the rate of increase is moderating. Several states, Michigan among them, are struggling to pass a balanced budget (required by law in many places) in the face of increasing needs and decreasing revenue. The easy or obvious choices have been made already, in Michigan’s case years ago. Now, elected officials know they have to pass a budget that, frankly, is going to anger a lot of people, and those people vote. Even less fun than usual for elected officials.

The first phase of the change process is, really, the belief that no change is best. Often referred to as “Pre-contemplation of change,” this group has gotten a lot smaller in the past year or so. Most of us now believe that we are going to be doing a lot of things differently in the near-term future. Many of us now believe we really must do a lot of things differently. Nearly all of us have some things that we do not want to change. Of course, we don’t agree about what we do not want to change, which makes the ongoing debate interesting.

The second phase of change is often called “Contemplating Change.” In this phase we now have decided that change is nesessary; not just desireable  We haven’t been able to decide exactly what to do and/or how to do it, but most of us agree that the U. S. healthcare system needs reform (for example). We will eventually decide the what and how issues in a compromise yet to be determined.

The third phase of the process is sometimes referred to as “Preparing to Change,” and occurs once we have figured out what we are going to do. We may not yet understand the how of the change, but we are actively looking for ways to make the change. It is generally accepted that the financial systems and national economies through the world are interrelated and intertwined and have become dangerously under-regulated over the past several decades. We seem to be exploring some alternatives and have begun talking seriously about how to best effect a restructing of the financail system. And some new regulations have already been developed and are or soon will be in effect.

The “Active Change” part of the process is all about implementation, fine-tuning, training, practice, and course correction. By the time we get to his stage in the change process we have changed a good deal. We may have some false starts and back-sliding along the way. We adjust what we are doing the “new way” as we learn more about operating in a new manner. This part of the process is often a case of two steps forward and one step backwards, especially when the old way of doing things wasn’t overwhelmingly painful. The downsizing and restructuring of General Motors is actively underway now, although not yet complete. The attempt to sell the Saturn brand to Roger Penske did not turn out as originally planned, so the brand will be shut down. I’m sure the leaders at GM did not want to shutter all those Saturn dealerships, but they “course corrected” as best they could.

The final stage in the change process is often referred to as “Consolidation & Maintenance” and occurs once we have embraced the new way of doing things. There may be an occasional slip backward, but at this point we are cleaning up the loose end, making final tweaks and adjustments, and getting the new approach fully installed in “the way we do things around here.” Too often we neglect to fully integrate the new way of getting things done; it requires continued effort until the new pattern is fully ingrained in our indivdual or organizational behavior.

Next time: Mental Models & Change

Sustainability – Part I

The economic crisis. Gridlock in federal and state government. Climate change. The housing buble bursting and waves of foreclosures. Budget cuts, layoffs, the collapse of GM and Chrysler. Not a lot of good news out there over the past year. And yet, we see enough positives to begin to see some light at the end of the tunnel (or, at least, we think the light at the end of the tunnel may have been turned back on.)

We are in a time of significant transition in this country and around the world, and great change always carries with it a tremendous amount of stress, disruption, anger, and fear. A lot of the anger and fear gets stoked by the pundits, screamers, and inciters on the Internet and cable media. Conservates want to turn the clock back to the past, even if it did not work very well. Liberals want change to happen right now! even if many people are not ready to accept the change. And many of us are simply fed up with the way things are right now; some of us are even taking to the streets to express the stress, anger, and fear we are feeling.

“Thanks a lot for pointing all this out!” you say? Well, I’m not saying anything that isn’t obvious to most of us. Over the next several posts I’ll be exploring what all of this means to me and will try to make sense of it for myself. Whether that will help anyone else, or not, remains to be seen.

Over the past decade we have learned a lot about the process of change and the ways in which change affects people.  Understanding how the change process operates helps us understand our own reactions to changing circumstances and events, especially when we had little say in the actions or events that caused the change. And, simply stated, the bigger and more global the change, the less influence we have on the outcome. That builds frustration and fear, especially when the effect upon us is negative.

Next time: the 5 Step Process of Change