First, I want to thank everyone for their responses to my question about the most common mistakes leaders make.  I cannot say that I got enough responses to make the conclusions statistically significant, however, there were some consistent messages and some interesting points to think about.  There were several themes, so I am going to take them one at a time and do one post on each.

Here is one subject that I found particularly interesting.  There were numerous responses all along the same line.  Leaders tend to take employees opinions for granted.  They do not seem to pay enough attention to how employees interpret and react to their decisions and actions.  Leaders do not seem to realize that employees are watching them all the time and forming opinions about them based on their decisions, actions and attitudes.  And, those opinions have a direct effect on their motivation and performance.

Wow!  How true.  Think about that.  Everything you do, as a leader, is being watched and analyzed far more than you would imagine.  The interpretations people make of what they see has a direct impact on what they think of you and, more importantly, on their motivation.  To make matters worse, many employees will be drawing those conclusions without having complete knowledge of all the issues you are dealing with and the complexities of them.  Their conclusions are likely to be founded on some inaccurate assumptions.  It puts a lot of pressure on you to be aware at all times of how your actions are being perceived and interpreted…and managing that.

The areas identified as those in which employees tend to be most critical are ethics and accountability…and these are fundamental to trust.  If they do not see you taking responsibility for the performance of the organization, they will not trust you.  If they see anything that causes them to question your ethics, they will not trust you.  If they interpret your actions as being motivated by a personal agenda or self-interest, they will not trust you.  Without their trust you will not gain their commitment to you as the leader and to the goals and objectives of the business.  You will not get the best that they have to offer in terms of their performance – not just in the conduct of their daily tasks, but in terms of their creativity, innovation, and initiative.  What a loss!

My conclusion is that this group of comments focuses on trust, and that among the most common mistakes leaders make are: (1) failing to recognize the importance of trust, the fragility of it, and the tenuous nature of it, and (2) failing to take the appropriate steps to build it and maintain it. 

Lots to learn from that.  Put yourself in the shoes of your employees and recall how your commitment, motivation and performance wane when you lose trust.

As an aside…I have spoken to a former professor of mine who spent many years teaching Ethics.  I am going to try to interview him for a more complete perspective on the whole subject.  Another post…

I have been getting a lot of questions from seminar participants about what I think are the most common mistakes that leaders make.  I certainly have an opinion on this, but I would like to be able to give a response which captures the thoughts and ideas of many leaders.

Please take a moment to send me your thoughts.  I will compile the data and do a post on it.

Thanks.

In recent weeks I have been asked the question several times, “How do you take your corporate strategic plan and make it actionable for everyone in the organization?”

Great question.  One that all leaders need to think about.  This is a challenge that many leaders do not even recognize is facing them.  Unfortunately, it is also one at which we fail on a regular basis.  Without motivating and mobilizing everyone in the organization in the same direction, you are unlikely to achieve the results you desire.

First, I have to clarify one thing.  The failure to move plans to action is rarely one which applies across the entire organization.  The plan tends to take hold in one form or another in many places.  The problem is that it is rarely a consistently applied and orchestrated effort.  Our direct reports tend to understand the plans we are making and the direction we are taking because in most cases they have been involved in the discussions which have led to the decisions in question.  However, other employees may not.  This is where leaders often fail.  They fail to recognize that they must drive the effort to understand the direction and take action at all levels in the organization.

…most employees do not understand what strategic plans mean in terms of day-to-day actions for them.

The disconnects emerge and get worse the further the employees are removed from that decision-making level.  Unfortunately, the people who will be most critical in accomplishing the tasks you have defined are often those that are furthest from that decision-making level…the shop floor, if you will.  The cascade of information to all levels is generally not managed and monitored well.  The message received at shop floor level is often muddled at best. 

The problem is that leaders often feel that publishing the vision and a few strategies on the corporate website, announcing them in town hall meetings, or hanging posters of them in the lobby is enough.  It isn’t.  You, as the leader, have to understand that many people just will not get it as you intend.  They are not as familiar with the issues facing the organization as you are.  They do not deal with those issues every day so they do not see how those issues evolve, develop and change.  They do not discuss them with experts and colleagues inside and outside the organization to study, dissect and analyze them as you do. 

What they hear from you is the summation of a lot of thinking and analysis.  They hear the end result of all that analysis; they hear a conclusion and do not see all the steps that went into getting to that conclusion; they have not been involved in all the discussions and cannot make the jump from issue to answer.  They do not understand what those strategic plans mean in terms of day-to-day actions for them. 

In motivating a workforce one of the basic elements is clarity.  People are motivated simply by being clear on what is expected of them.  In this case what they want to know is “What does this mean for me?  What is required of me?  What can I do to help?”  They do not have any idea how to take that vision, strategy or plan and put it into practice every day.

I make it a point to conduct regular town hall meetings at every site in my organization.  At those meetings I remind everyone of the direction in which we are going as an organization, and I explain to them what it means.  I tell them what actions we will take to get there.  Most importantly, I tell them what it means that THEY must do every day to contribute to achieving that goal.  I make it a point to put it in terms that are relevant to the tasks they perform every day.  As I walk around the organization I make it a point to talk with the employees at all levels and ask them how are they applying our strategies in their everyday work.  Those discussions always lead to clarifying questions and a better idea of how they can do their jobs in a way that better supports our strategic direction.

As an example, if we are pushing hard on distinguishing ourselves on customer service, I will tell them that this means that they must look at every type of situation in which they come in contact with the customer, get a clear understanding of what the customer needs from them in that situation, and make it a point to meet that need.  In our business it can be something as simple as having a human being answer the call rather than a machine…ensuring that the reports we send arrive on a timely basis…being polite and helpful on the call.

Finally, to ensure that the plans are completely put into action, the direction must be reinforced regularly.  The daily demands in the workplace make it difficult for any of us to keep those priorities clear and actionable.  The cascade of direction and information from the top has to be accompanied by periodic assessment and feedback on how we are doing with it…Where is it working?…Where is it not working?…How do we keep it on track? 

It requires leadership making it important.

This post builds on the subject of the last post in which I wrote about leaders not taking the time to accurately diagnose an organization’s problems before jumping into decision mode.

Do you know the arcade game in which you take a mallet and hit the head of a mole sticking up out of the table surface?  Each time you hit one mole another pops up elsewhere on the table.  That game is called “Whack-a-Mole”.

In the interest of being decisive and acting quickly, leaders often fail to take the time to think through their decisions from a systems perspective; as a result, when they fix one problem, another pops up.

Failure to think about organizations from a systems perspective results in ”whack-a-mole” decision-making.  This is what happens when leaders attempt to solve problems without carefully thinking through the impact of their decisions on all aspects of the organization.  They fix one problem and cause another in the process.

Businesses are complex systems.  When you make changes to one part of that system you must be aware of the impact that those changes may have on other parts of that system.  This is a fundamental concept in process improvement technologies such as Six Sigma or Kaizen.  As process problems are analyzed, a process improvement expert creates flow charts or maps of the process.  Inputs from related processes and outputs to others are identified.  As changes to the target process are explored, the impact on related processes are examined to ensure that any planned change does not adversely affect another part of the system.

Organizations are comprised of groups of people (departments) performing tasks which contribute to creating a product or delivering a service.  Each group has a set of processes that it follows to perform those tasks.  Many of those processes require input from other groups in the business.  For example, consider a drug manufacturing facility.  Very simplistically, the bulk manufacturing group is instructed to produce a product.  These instructions are derived from market analyses which identify that the demand will be there to sell the product.  The timing of this request is made with enough lead time to enable the Quality Control group to perform certain testing of the product, and to allow the packaging and shipping to be completed.  Production requires that the appropriate components have been purchased and are available to make the compound, and it requires that the facility has been cleaned from any previous batches so that there is no cross-batch contamination.  In this simplified example you can see that the process to manufacture a batch of drugs requires input from marketing, production planning, purchasing and facility maintenance, and has an output which effects quality control, packaging, shipping and sales.

Now envision a situation in which Quality Control identifies a problem in the technique they have been using to calculate the stability of the product, and they change their process to a more accurate but more time consuming process.  If they do not consider the impact this decision will have on the other parts of the organization and manage that change carefully, it is likely that the company will miss timelines to ship product and stores will run out of stock.  This will damage the company’s reputation with the customers.

Unfortunately, leaders often feel under enormous pressure to act quickly in leading their businesses.  The pace of business is fast.  There are massive amounts of data to sift through and understand.  Technologies and market dynamics are changing rapidly and adding to the pressure and the complexity of making decisions.

Leaders must be conscious of the need to take the time and involve the right people in evaluating situations, drawing the correct conclusions, and making the right decisions.  They need to look at problems from a systems perspective and think through their decisions ensuring that the impact on all related processes is understood before acting.

As a turnaround specialist I am frequently asked, “What do you find is the common cause of failure in organizations?”  Unfortunately, that is not an easy answer.  Every case is different.  As lawyers are often criticized for saying, “It depends.”

I once had a group ask me to send them a case study of one of my turnarounds so that they could get a good feel for what I do and evaluate my candidacy for their CEO position.  I did.  A few weeks later they came back to me and said that they were not going to fill the position, but were going to handle it themselves.  Apparently, they chose to use that case as a guide for improving their business and save themselves some money.  I am guessing that they were inexperienced enough that they did not realize that each situation is different and requires careful diagnosis – data gathering and analysis – in order to chart the correct path to success.  It is now two years later; the business is still in the red; and, they are desperately looking for new sources of financing.

My observation is that the most common area in which leaders fail is in accurately diagnosing organizational issues.

Having said all that, there is one common area from which organization failure emanates…Leadership.   At times, people get a bit frustrated with that answer because they do not understand what Leadership is.  Leadership is a somewhat nebulous term…it has many aspects…it is not black and white.  Being a leader requires having many skills; it requires recognizing what skill is required for any given situation; it requires moving rapidly from one skill to another as the situation demands.

Further, I can say this.  My observation is that the most common leadership failure is in accurately diagnosing the organizational issues.  People feel the need to act quickly and often do not take the time to accurately determine the problem.  They fail to collect the right information, if they collect any information at all.  They fail to ensure that the data they are collecting is accurate and complete.  As a result, they solve the wrong problem.

As an example, I once observed an organization that was growing nicely but was not making any profits.  Year by year they grew in sales, but they never put any profits on the bottom line.  They assumed that the problem was that they were not managing their costs correctly, so they started cutting back staff.  Unfortunately, this put a heavy workload on the remaining staff and quality issues soon followed.  With the quality problems came customer dissatisfaction, declining sales and further losses at the bottom line.  The actual problem was that they did not understand their cost of doing business, and as a result were under-pricing their services.  They did not take the time to correctly diagnose the problem.  As a result, they solved the wrong problem, and actually created a bigger one by doing so.

Data is fundamental.  Analysis is critical.  As a leader, you need to take the time to accurately diagnose the causes of the symptoms you are seeing in your organization.  As one well-known CEO once said, “You can’t skimp your way to success.”

I am always surprised to find how few people realize that they are in leadership positions.  Most think that there is only one or just a few leaders in their organization, and that these are the people in the executive suite.  Not the case!

This is actually one of the reasons I conduct my leadership seminars.  Many people are in leadership positions and do not realize it, so they are unaware of the leadership actions they can and should be taking.  Another reason is because many people are put into leadership positions and are not given any training on how to be a leader.  Leadership training seems to be given only to those people who have reached the executive level.  Unfortunately, by that time they have been in leadership positions for years without any training, and they have likely learned their leadership skills by watching other people who have had no training.  They have developed bad habits and those bad habits have become routine components of their leadership behavior.  This pattern ends up perpetuating ineffectiveness among our leaders, and, unfortunately, that ineffectiveness ends up permeating the operations of the organization.

Any position in which you have people looking to you for direction or supervision is a leadership position.  What does this mean?  Does this mean that a person in a first line supervisory position is a leader?  Yes!  Does it mean that a person who is the president of a club is a leader?  Yes!  Does it mean that a person who is the captain of a team is a leader?  Yes!  There are many levels of leadership.  Now think about that question again … Are you a leader?

…the people reporting to you are looking for the same leadership from you that you are seeking from the CEO.

Let’s take the situation of a lower level supervisory or management position.  Now you realize that you are a leader – What do you do?  If you are not at the top of the ladder in your organization then you have the advantage, and the responsibility, to support the leadership efforts of your senior people.  That makes it both simple and difficult.  It makes it simple because, in a good situation, a general direction has been set and the steps to get there have been defined.  You, as the leader for your team within the larger organization, need to establish the direction for your department that is in line with the general direction of the business.  You need to to develop the plans and actions your department will take to support that direction.  You need to communicate that to your employees and make sure that they understand it and their role in it.  You need to establish an environment in your department that motivates your employees to achieve those goals.  You have to measure your progress toward those goals and take whatever corrective actions are necessary to ensure that you meet those goals.  The list goes on.

These are the SAME actions required of the senior executives, simply applied at a different level.    Remember this…the people reporting to you are looking for the same leadership from you that you are seeking from the CEO.  This does not refer to the magnitude of the decisions to be made, but rather an understanding of them.

In the case that you DO NOT endorse the general direction of the larger organization, then you have a different issue to deal with.  That is a discussion for another post.

” You must BE the change you wish to see in the world.”  Mahatma Gandhi

This is one of my favorites…though sometimes I struggle to live up to it!

As a leader though, it really does speak to the fact that we MUST “walk our own talk” if we expect others to support the changes we are trying to make in an organization.  That means that we must believe in ALL aspects of the change that we are trying to effect.  Seems obvious and simple enough.  However, at times I think leaders may be to quick to compromise away some of their core beliefs in order to get to an agreement.  They seem to do so almost unknowingly…perhaps not recognizing the danger that lies in front of them by doing so.  That danger is that at some point they will violate those norms because they do not TRULY believe in them.  When they violate them, they lose all credibility for the change they are trying to make.

In conclusion, when it comes to using participative processes (and I DO believe that participative processes lead to the best result) to design a culture, manage a change process, or move an organization forward, it is essential that your minimum requirements (as the leader) are met.

By BEing the change you wish to see in the world, you embody the essence of it…and you become a living example of the desired future you are trying to achieve.

A lot of us need to make changes in our businesses to improve performance and reach our goals.  The problem that frequently occurs is that those changes don’t stick…they don’t become a permanent new way of operating…nothing changes.  Why is that?

There are many reasons why leaders have trouble making change stick, such as:

• they lack confidence; they have their own fears of the unknown.
• they take small steps for fear of upsetting someone; ultimately they lose momentum and people lose interest and resort to their old habits and processes.
• they fail to go all the way; they do not think through all the related pieces and address them.
• they fail to manage the newness for others; they do not design and teach people new processes and behaviors in the scheme of the change.
• they do not clear all the obstacles to enable the change to stick.
• they fail to follow-through with activities and processes that reinforce the change.

Before we go too far on this subject, let me say that change management is a complex process which requires effectively managing many moving parts over a long period of time.  What I am writing here is a quick sketch of some issues I have seen which typically derail change processes.  There is a lot more to it.

…the less time you spend in actually MAKING the changes, the higher your likelihood of success…

When you decide it is necessary to make a change you must recognize that change brings with it uncertainty, fear and resistance.  Uncertainty because change, by definition, means doing something new.  Fear because doing something new means moving out of one’s comfort zone.  Resistance, because people tend to want to stay in their comfort zone.  Your change process must address these issues.

Let’s take each one of those pieces I described above.

They (leaders) lack confidence; they have their own fears of the unknown. It is totally normal to be cautious about those things that COULD go wrong in a change process.  As the leader, though, you must convey the confidence that the change is needed, is right, and will succeed.  However, confidence like that is not something that everyone naturally possesses.  If you do not have it, you need to get it.  Without YOUR confidence, you will NOT succeed.  How do you get it?  One way you can bolster your confidence is by making complete and well thought out plans, by involving key people in making those plans to ensure they are complete, well thought out, and have the buy-in of your key team members, and by continuing to monitor and update those plans through every stage of the change process.

They take small steps, lose momentum, and lose the interest and commitment of the team. Often leaders will take small steps in making changes because they lack confidence or clarity in what they are trying to accomplish…address that as above and you go a long way to a more successful change.  However, there is more to it.  They may want to take small steps because they want to see how the change is effecting people before moving to the next step.  That is fine and appropriate.  However, do not let this process of evalution slow your progress and your momentum.  You can gauge the acceptance of the steps you plan to take up front by doing a thorough job of planning and involving the right people.  By doing so, you will be able to eliminate some of the smaller steps and move more quickly.  Understand, the less time you spend in actually MAKING the changes, the higher your likelihood of success because you will be moving people to the desired state more quickly and establishing clarity around how they need to operate within this new framework…they will be spending LESS time in a place of uncertainty and fear, and will be less likely to rely on old support structures and old patterns of behavior.

They fail to go all the way; they do not think through all the related pieces and address them. As I mentioned above, change management is complex.  You must think through ALL the related pieces and ensure that the change is appropriately designed to address those pieces.  For example, take what some may not even think of as a change process – you hire an additional sales manager for one of your product lines, a new position.  Seems simple enough.  However, it IS a change…to the structure…to people’s job responsibilities…to processes.  Here are some of the related pieces that need to be thought through.  Who is currently doing that job?  What needs to change in his/her responsibilities and job description?  How do you manage that change with them?  Who reports to the person that previously managed that function?  How do you inform them?  How might their job responsibiltities change?  What other departments do they interface with?  How might their work processes change?  Do any customers need to know?  The list of questions goes on.

They fail to manage the newness for others; they do not design and teach people new processes and behaviors in the scheme of the change. People do not change old habits and patterns of behavior quickly or easily.  Leaders often fail to recognize that change requires establishing and learning new processes and behaviors to replace the old.  Without them, people will resort to the old ones.  The more complete and well thought out your new process designs and behaviors are, the better the change will take hold.  This requires planning, design, communication and education.  It also requires monitoring to ensure that the new design is operating as expected and that any flaws in the design are modified immediately.

They do not clear all the obstacles to enable the change to to stick. Unfortunately, there are also vestiges of the old process, structure and behaviors that must be removed in order to maintain clarity about the new design being implemented.  Sometimes that may mean structure changes as we discussed above.  Sometimes that may mean utilizing a new piece of equipment, process changes to support it, and training to use it.  At times it may mean removing individuals.  Those are difficult decisions and the leadership must have the strength of conviction to make those decisions.  Many times leaders feel that this will be too upsetting to the remaining employees.  However, if the change is needed you MUST make those tough decisions.  If you allow the old structures or individuals to stay in place you WILL find that people will move more slowly to embrace the new.  In fact, though not at all intentionally, they will subvert the new process simply because it is easier to continue to work in the old familiar processes and behavior patterns.  Also, for the record, I must say that it has been my observation that employees are a lot more resilient than you think.  They understand the need for change and that sometimes that means that tough decisions have to be made in the interest of the organization as a whole.

They fail to follow-through with activities and processes that reinforce the change. All related activities have to change to reflect the new design.  For example, job titles and organization charts may need to change, communications and marketing materials may need to reflect the changes, customers may need to be informed.  In addition, progress reports toward reaching the desired state, along with a reminder of what that new desired state is, must be communicated regularly by the leader to reinforce the change.

People resist change even if it is clear that it is for the better.  Change, by definition, brings something new to the table; something unknown.  Research has shown that there is a reluctance to change because people fear the unknown .  As a leader responsible for making change happen you must take full account of all these aspects to drive a successful change process and make it stick.

Every time a person leaves your organization it presents you with an opportunity to improve your business.  As a leader you must seize these opportunities.  They are the most often presented cost-free opportunities you will have to improve your business.

How often do we just automatically open a requisition to replace a person who has left the organization?  Nine times out of ten is my experience.

I am frequently confronted by people asking for approval to replace a person who has left the organization.  My first question is, “Do we need to replace this person or can we do without them?”  I am stunned by the answers I often get.  ”Yes, they are really busy in that department.”  “People are really burning out.”  “If we don’t replace them other people will leave.”

Sorry, I don’t buy it.   These comments are subjective at best.  Has no one ever observed the practice that people make it look like they are busy so they don’t get assigned more work?  When a person leaves the organization how often do we think in terms of the opportunity to redefine responsibilities, create development assignments for people, or restructure and permanently reduce staff.

As a leader you must seize these opportunities.  They are the most often presented cost-free opportunities you will have to improve your business.

First, you must have metrics in place to be sure that you are effectively managing the level of resources required to handle the volumes…simple.  Those metrics will tell you if there is truly a need to replace an opening.

Second, automatically replacing an opening misses the opportunity to do something new and creative that will benefit the organization and the employees in it.

• Does the vacancy present an opportunity to do without the position and improve the profitability of the business?
• Does the vacancy present an opportunity to reassign work, give more responsibility to people, and give pay raises to those who remain?
• Does the vacancy present an opportunity to provide development assignments to others in the organization?

How do you make this happen?  Make sure that all replacements and new hires require your approval.  Require that all requisitions are accompanied by metrics which justify the hire.  Make sure that the metrics make sense and are calculated correctly (subject of another post to come).  Make sure that all other options have been explored before you approve the hire.

This one brings with it a heavy message of responsibility…

“You never touch someone so lightly that you do not leave a trace.”    Unknown.

As leaders we have the opportunity to touch many people…to effect the lives of many.  It is a responsibility that must be taken seriously.  How we manage our own behavior…our own actions…often effect people in ways that we cannot even begin to imagine.  It is important that we not be careless in making those choices.