Our elegant system of governing human behavior was put in place 234 years ago. It no longer serves the complexities and consequences of the crowded, modern, globally interconnected life of the 21^st century. The answer is not in changing the constitution but rather political and business leaders stepping up with awareness to see and deliver their social and economic responsibility. We need to understand what real leadership looks like, and refuse to promote or elect leaders that have not demonstrated an understanding of both democracy and capitalism. One-sided arguments as well as power plays, both political and personal, may enliven the news, but eventually harm those that follow. The constitution is not a panacea.  It is merely a vehicle through which the clarity of the consciousness and knowledge of those we follow flows—toward the inevitable outcome of theirs and our leadership.

 “I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.  This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.”

—Thomas Jefferson to William C. Jarvis, 1820 

 (from Eyler Coates research)

Sixty two years old and scratching his head in thoughtful frustration, the founder was at the end of his rope.  He had tried for years to transition the company to leaders that could pick up the ball and run with it. It hadn’t happened yet and he now doubted whether it ever would. The financial transition incentives were well thought out, but that had been clear for years.    He got anxious every time he thought about being saddled with the daily grind of continued operational responsibility.

Having started the company forty years ago just out of school, it had been a great ride.  Only in the past few years had he lost some of the fire. Unlike previous attempts to transition, he was truly ready to move on now. But he didn’t know how to pass on the company spirit or “soul” – that fire in his belly, to the next generation.   His senior officers were in their 50s and most were already thinking about retirement.  He knew he had to do something quickly if he was going to leave a legacy, so the company could go beyond him and continue to provide pensions to loyal employees and service to the long-term clients who had helped him get here.

Legacy is first of all People Leadership

Passing the reins of a company is not a mechanistic process, as many financial and management advisors might have you think. Although necessary for success, these aspects will not sustain the passion and caring of the founder.  Something more is needed. There needs to be a re-alignment of human interest, desire and outcome behind new leadership. There needs to be a proper re-establishment of authority in the absence of the founder, but that authority must be earned and embedded into an effective working network of trusting relationships.  While based upon the foundation of the past, this change of leadership must be oriented around the development of a better future—one that the next generation is involved in creating.

An initial meeting is held

Being technically and scientifically trained, at first they didn’t trust the “touchy-feely” leadership consultant the founder had brought in to help with the transition.  There was obvious resistance to the idea of working with a younger “next generation” beneath the execs; yet the Sr. team sat in stony silence—not wanting to openly go against the founder’s wishes.   At some point one of the leadership team members broke the silent disagreement and said: “What about us? Some of us have been waiting to lead this company for years and you are now taking that opportunity away from us!”  As the room went silent again, the founder looked at his team and gently asked them:  “How many of you are going to rely on your pensions to see you through retirement?” Every hand in the room went up.  Being bright, they immediately saw his point. They had to build a new system that would sustain them into their 70, 80s and 90s.  They knew what they had to do… they not only had to support the development of the younger managers, but this time had to step aside smartly and  actively engage in coaching instead of providing energy, focus and exection they had done for years.

From this meeting forward with varying degrees of success, they began building the next generation’s confidence and their ability to recover from failure; helping them to find the needed drive to deeply care and to believe in themselves and to never give up.  Even though their path was clear, the transition for this executive team was not going to be easy—their self-esteem had been tied to their personal performance for so long.   They had to operate outside-of the identity they had built with fine performance for many years. In other words, they had to provide Real Leadership.  Stepping aside properly and systematically became their new mission. They had to change their roles, and to do so they had to change their leadership behavior, which meant they had to change their mind.

Self Awareness, the Foundation of Changing Minds and Behavior

The real value of self-awareness based leadership development, when properly done, goes beyond mere feedback about one’s behavior, strengths, weaknesses and personality. In fact, much of what is touted as “self- awareness training” really isn’t.  It may provided useful  intellectual and conceptual insight into the workings of one’s own personality, ego or “identity”  but that  isn’t the primary goal of the development of Self Awareness.  

Self awareness is about becoming aware of and seeing from the authentic self. The authentic self is a place in conscioiusness, not a concept or tangible achievement.  To get out of the box of past belief, behavior and habit—one must first “understand the box.”  And it is this process of first discovering and then exiting the box of past belief and experience that one releases authentic self awareness or more esoterically “frees consciousness.”  It is a place, according to Harvard behavioral scientist Daniel Goleman’s research and theory of emotional intelligence that can be intentionally developed; it is where what I call the  ”Real Leader” resides. It is an identifiable place to “experience and see from” that recognizes ego, and habitual behavior, but can operate beyond its dictates in a peaceful manner. It is a meta-program one places in their own mind…an “observer-operator” of sorts that looks through the front window and what is required of the road ahead, and not into the rearview mirror of past experience, belief and habit.  Education (not training) is usually required to first experience this authentic self awareness, followed by specific practices to effectively strengthen its effective use.  Contrary to this today 360s, personality tests,feedback sessions and coaching techniques are mostly geared to teaching people about their memory based  habitual system of mindsets, beliefs and behaviors we call “personality.” This would be more accurately described as “personality awareness” and  not self awareness. The outcome of this innocent but mistaken approach is that its doesnt place-in a mechanism to sustain transformation and people revert-back to old behavior and we end up hearing  such statements as:  “People don’t change so why try! Or; “you can’t teach old dogs new tricks!” (Even though we now know through the research on brain plasticity that the brain can  change throughout life. Schwartz (2002) “The Mind and Brain.”)

The process by which one builds real self awareness is behavioral science technology. Using this technology, leaders can get a handle on their behavior and the subsequent outcomes in their life and leadership. It helps smooth the transition from one role to the next.  This is profoundly important, because Leadership Legacy™ situations are, along with merger & acquisitions, brand changes, and entrepreneurial company start-ups, the most profoundly challenging leadership assignments.  Without authentic self awareness, such assignments are unnecessarily more difficult and significantly more likely to fail.

Getting the job done

They began to build a foundational leadership model to change their behavior and their leadership. To do so each of the Sr. executives began attending a self-awareness-based leadership development program. They opted to attend the same program to make sure they built a common language. Following this, their consultant followed up with coaching precisely targeted at their challenge of learning how to coach. Coaching is a higher level  skill and some of them found it difficult to learn, but over time they each succeeded in their own way.

Executive management, led by the Founder, selected fourteen of their top “up and comers.” This was initially met with some resistance, because the company culture was that they never “play favorites”; however, the leadership stayed the course, led smartly, and offended only a few key people in the long run.  The talented young managers were selected from both operations and staff. The Founder stayed heavily involved in the selection and development. In fact, everyone knew this was “his” mission, supported by his Sr. Execs and others. Their consultant warned him that any “delegation” of this assignment would result in eventual failure.  Everyone knew that they were building their future through these young people, and it became a central unifying challenge for the executive team.   The young managers knew they were going to be on the hot-seat for a year, but accepted the challenge. The founder and executives knew the same was true for them too.

Training assignments involved the Sr. Executives in private one-on-one discussions with the next generation, as well as in teaching group sessions on topic of importance to the business. Everything was geared to the Sr. Execs and the Founder sharing their personal “feelings,” their commitment, and their knowledge. In addition to involving the younger managers in the development of the future direction of the company, they let the next generation in on the “inside scoop” or the “secret sauce” of what made them and the company successful.  Key events in the history of the company were passed on personally.   Relationships between the younger managers were systematically strengthened for greater trust, which the officers knew was essential to superior communication and would pay dividends for years to come, as better coordination, execution and the results that would sustain their goals (and their pensions).

Over time, with participation and coaching, the next leadership system strengthened and formed. From that group, natural talents and strengths emerged. Where there were gaps, executive management could now see clearly and backfill. Most of all they had a cadre of Real Leadership that could provide the adaptive energy to the future demands of the business. 

And the founder? He is now enjoying writing a long overdue book, spending time with his grandchildren and has started a new part-time business venture, along with significant community volunteerism.

John

(c)2012 John R. Grinnell. All rights reserved.

www.grinnellleadership.com

“She handed her husband the phone as he filled out the job application.   I don’t usually eves drop, but as I listened I heard him say:  “Mom, please pray for us …we really need this job.” 

It’s hard to hear with all the jabbering, spinning and character assassinating going on with people who call themselves leaders over-concerned with feeding their larger than life identities on Fox News, CNN or MSNBC and all the others. Tea party, Democrat and Republican alike remain anesthetized and blinded by the thrill of lesser issues and  the election.   I believe the greatest risk in these difficult economic times is known by most, but is going  unadressed by our business and political leaders—yet once acknowledged all will agree that there must be quick and decisive action to get people back to work—and not for the reason you and they might think.

Americans of all races and religions are at the edge of a costly abyss of governmental long-term subsidy and maybe worse—and thereby vulnerable to the  radical ideologies we fight in the middle east and at home.   Clearly the couple above had a strong work ethic and wanted to work, but if they don’t get a job soon, we could lose them and their ancestors to the expensive bottomless pit of poverty and government assistance or worse.  It is this segment of people— of good character, honest and hard working that desperately need our help.  Our balance sheets might be flush with cash, but the short-term comfort of financial risk aversion, political re-election and favor are merely a distraction.

Real leaders in business and government must step up and take some risk around this issue. If not, we will likely pass on a legacy of trillions of dollars of debt (which everyone talks about); but also pass on a new wave of hopeless people who have lost their drive to succeed.   They will be lost and not be able to find the American Dream our forefathers cast for us 235 years ago.  Without a united intervention of real leadership from our political and business leaders I believe we are headed for an unintended consequence no one wants.

As I have said many times before—there are many good managers and politicians, but few Real Leaders.  Financial risk is easy to see as it sits right before us and we can justify caution and inaction in hiring because of it.  Just as taxation is the easy and oftentimes mindless response to raise “revenue” by those who do not understand the value-creation “supply side” of our economy-often having never run a small business or seen wealth increase as a result of ingenuity, personal sacrifice, risk taking and effort. (note: more jobs are created by small business in the U.S. than larger companies who get all the press with national advertising dollars).   

The longer-term risk to our society is much broader and more abstract and therefore difficult for most people to acknowledge yet alone take action upon.  It is for this reason that most political and business leaders revert back to power plays and protecting their political turf with special interest instead of leading and taking difficult action with new and in many ways untested beliefs, behaviors and policy.  It takes a higher level of moral reasoning and abstract thinking—tying short term decisions and actions to longer term consequences. It’s much easier to avoid the deeper and longer term discussion and thereby not have  to take unpopular action—but that is exactly when Real Leaders step in.  

Our forefathers and mothers did it, they created a system of beliefs, values and policy that were untested at the time.  They were Real Leaders who embraced the uncertainty and  risk to do the right thing when needed.  Will  Americans require our political and business leaders step up with Real Leadership now? 

John

We have all heard of “enlightened self-interest.” Self-interest is never enlightened between members of a unified system who are achieving a common purpose. “Enlightened Other Interest” (term I coined 20 years ago) is much more accurate and  powerful—with team members focused on what their colleague or countepart needs, as well as their own performance. A team or organization cannot reach its full potential without this concept turned into a belief and then becoming a practiced reality driven by Real Leadership. Whether it is the super bowl, or selling a salad bowl at a local restaurant, the concept applies.

You may feel like you have won the political battle, or feel good about your superior performance, but you have already sown the seeds of your own failure if you are unaware of the shared outcome—and this blind spot will bite you in the long run.  Humans operating within a unified system (organization, Team, Joint Venture, etc.) with shared purpose cannot win when others lose.  You may think you can win and they can lose, but it just isn’t that way.  With our attitude and behavior we are either “helping or hurting” others with whom we live and work—and ultimately we gain or pay a toll together.  It is true that what goes around comes around. The problem is that it takes a rather high level of moral reasoning and abstract thinking to connect short term action with longer term consequence and thereby understand the true meaning of the Golden Rule (GR).

“Do unto others as they would do unto you” is not what most people think.  The GR isn’t a political concept and doesn’t mean “I should be good to others so they are good to me,” like spiritual back scratching.  Although interpreted that way by the younger soul, it just isn’t what was meant. It is a statement that explains how things actually work—in other words, “a law of human nature.”    What you do (or don’t do) affects others for good or bad and it’s only a matter of time until you reap your reward or spanking as a result of your actions.  The Golden Rule could be re-written as: “When you help or hurt others, you are helping or hurting yourself in the long run.”

Examples can be found on large construction projects where hundreds to millions  of dollars can be lost. Ask any experienced construction executive why they lost money and almost always it can be traced back to a flaw in the flow of information between the various partners on the project. Usually the cause is a blind spot created by a lack of trust and a heightened focus on “my role, my company and my risk.”  Not unlike Wall-street that forgot society in their suboptimal “greedy” gold rush, construction partners often forget their project partners with a default to self interest which, in the long run, even if they make money hurts them and their reputation going forward. It is hard to quantify the cause of this loss—but it is obvious for those who can see it happen over and over again. It requires strong leadership to stem the tide of self-interest when financial risk is on the table. The NGA-NCE project (See previous blog posting) was, via Real Leadership—able to do this by demonstrating “Enlightened Other Interest” in the most difficult of situations.

Hospitals are similar.  Humanly intensive, hospitals require very precise communication linked with clear policy and procedures to reduce the potential for harm to its patients. Over the years we have seen highly caring staff working in political environments that foster “us and them” boundaries driving suspicion and distrust between specific individuals and various functions.  Many medical errors are the result of these bad relationships that again—block the flow of accurate and timely information and the patient is harmed.  In the long run everyone suffers as the hospital’s brand erodes and the community, out of fear—go to the “safer” hospital in the city. This can eventually put financial pressure on the hospital and they then have to reduce the number of positions.  Obviously an unintended consequence, but none the less a consequence all suffer because people were unable to act with “enlightened other interest” and go beyond their petty ego battles, political beliefs and trust boundaries with Real Leadership.

To Start with…

1.     The most Sr. leader must commit to a vision of “Enlightened Other Interest” (EOI).  This may require them to admit past failure and possible blind-spots.  With a commitment to really change their behavior and the discipline to stay the course over time the outcome can be achieved.

2.     Remember that mind-change to “Enlightened Other Interest” is not always comfortable. The leadership team must be able to demonstrate this behavior by thinking globally and acting locally with their executive team partners’ best interest in mind.  An example of this is giving immediate and useful feedback when a “good person with an old habit” is failing to comply with the new belief and vision of “EOI.” 

3.     Remember that “Enlightened Other Interest” is vertical (chain of leadership) as well as the more understood horizontal teamwork found on teams.

4.     Examine your leadership practices.  Most managers lead the way they were led which is likely sub-optimal in some ways.    Build a common language and model of human leadership among your managers and front line supervisors so you can identify and talk about more subtle aspects of team and individual behavior.

5.     Pass out copies of this article and hold an open, frank discussion with your leadership team and people who report to you about the current state of your organization and where it needs to be.  Forgive past behavior. It’s a new day going forward, but you expect new behavior starting now.  Although there aren’t many of them, a facilitator with experience helping build Sr. executive level teams may be very helpful to you.  They should have no political agenda, have “eyes that see” and be straightforward types and assist you in getting the behavior changes moving toward the goal line.

6.     First and foremost, hire your leadership for Integrity.  Enlightened Other Interest is difficult for many as it requires greater virtue and self-awareness as defensive ego competition is our human automatic default.   Essential vulnerability and the trust required by enlightened other interest is an opportunity for people to step up and demonstrate greater responsibility for their own behavior.  Give it to them, but until they demonstrate EOI behavior in emotionally challenging situations over time, as the saying goes: “Trust God, but tie your camel.”

John

©2012 John R. Grinnell.  All rights reserved

www.grinnellleadership.com

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120316005427/en/ClarkBalfour-Beatty-Receives-Multiple-High-Honors-General

I dont know if I’m breaking the blog gospel, but I thought I’d share this with you.  The Grinnell Team is happy to have partnered with so many great companies with so many #collaborative leaders.  Clique on the link to read about winning the top award in the US for 2011.

John

Summer camp was a great experience  until the day I was thrown by a horse at full gallop.  I was eleven or maybe twelve and a bit of a risk taker—have been that way my whole life.   I remember liking to see how fast the various horses could go across the pasture, and one day while doing so my horse stepped sideways and I kept going straight. To say the least I took a nasty fall and it scared the hell out of me (fortunately I wasn’t hurt badly).  As a result I became afraid to get near a horse let alone ride one.

Susie was a kind and perceptive teenager who was the riding counselor that summer.  Even though she didn’t see me fall,  I’m fairly sure she saw the fear in my eyes when she suggested I might try getting back up on the horse.  I remember her telling me that whatever I decided to do was OK, but that even if I  didnt want to ride she did need some help walking the horses when the campers came in from their trail rides.  I quickly said no! Susie continued on…

In her gentle way she suggested that I might walk Babe, a small pony that was about as aggressive as a golden retriever.  Everyone knew the horse—the one the little kids rode.  I said OK and Susie walked with me a couple of times around the corral as I held Babe’s reins at a distance.  Over a few days and Suzie’s gentle coaching I got to where I could actually walk with my hand next to Babe’s mouth holding the bridle.  My fear was dissipating. As time went on I began cooling down all the horses as they came in from trail rides.

A couple of weeks later Susie suggested I might actually try riding Babe.  She said she would walk around holding the bridle as I rode for the first time.  After two or three rounds I took the reins by myself and told her I could ride Babe now.  By the end of  the summer I was riding all the horses again (although not galloping much). By the time I was 15 I had become one of  the riding counselors at the camp!

What can we learn from this story when it comes to leadership? I know what I learned…that there are wounded high performers that just need a little time and coaching to get back on the horse and ride.  Sometimes our talented “cynics” and under-achievers have a similar professional fall in their history. Do you know someone who could use your help like Susie helped me? 

John Grinnell

Next week I’ll get back to the guidlines for ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION #4, but just had to tell this story—who knows why?

©2012 John R. Grinnell.  All rights reserved.  www.grinnellleadership.com

Change is tactical. Organizational transformation by #Realleaders is radically different and comes from a personal and deep place within the leader. It has nothing to do with changing others—yet it is the most effective way to do so. It has more to do with leading self. It is a most difficult human undertaking and comes with a price tag few can pay—to be one of the first to consciously dive headlong into an unknown future with feelings of vulnerability. Scary and exhilarating—Real Leaders stretch with their newly chosen and untested beliefs and behavior while embracing that specific uncertainty of doing what hasn’t been done before—hopefully creating a better future for self, their organization and society.

Real Leaders know that for true organizational transformation to take place you have to, in large part—“build the bridge as you walk on it” (Robert Quinn). However, we have found over the years it is also important to rapidly build behavioral alignment based in organizational and personal integrity. This alignment must be adaptive yet stabilizing as leaders throughout the organization follow-through with demonstrated Real Leadership. We call this aligned and self-initiated leadership behavior “being on purpose.” Purpose is the “guiding light” that leaders capable of transformation follow to meet the demands of a fast approaching future. Aligning Real Leaders at all levels throughout the organization with the “target” of purpose speeds transformation.

Things to keep in mind:

1. The people who you are asking to be Real Leaders must be able to see the logical connection between the beliefs, behaviors, structures and processes you are asking them to change and the approaching future.

2. Translate vision into a meaningful mission or “purpose.” From the vision, mission and purpose identify gaps and turn those gaps in to objectives for change. Objectives are what success looks like in the future as you change systems, processes and culture. Assign each of the few leveraging objectives to an executive capable of Real Leadership.

3. Don’t achieve the objectives too quickly. They are the anvil against which you can forge Real Leaders down in the organziation. Staff them thoughtfully and arrange the process to challenge and grow Real Leadership.

4. A few years ago my firm developed a process we call “Competitive Path Mapping (tm)” Its a one page flow diagram connecting the vision and mission to yearly goals and tactical objectives. This is used to show the connection between work being done on the organization to address the future. It is a way to ensure people know they are “building a cathedral” and not just “breaking rocks” when you ask the to change the way they do things.

5. Use your map for the documentation of current agreed upon targets. It should be a living document as you learn and change it changes so everyone knows how to be “on-purpose.”

6. Hold regular accountability report-outs on objectives. This is not a report-card or a grading system, but rather a way for Real Leaders to tell the truth about progress and problems and ask for help early.

7. Use the term “on purpose” and “off purpose” to embed the concept and practice of staying in alignment for faster breakthrough and transformation.

Reactions?

John

(c)2012 John R. Grinnell. All rights reserved.

A “Burning Platform” is what some call it; I simply call it a good reason to change. Even when the ship is sinking its hard to convince people that they need to change. More difficult is a “good to great” change, or change to prevent a future problem from occuring. This is the most challenging—when there isn’t an immediate problem to solve and things still look financially sound and in order. Success and the avoidance of a bad experience in such circumstances is helped greatly by providing a “compelling and logical reason for change.” Rather than an abstract vision, this situation requires a practical and reality-based picture of the future that positively affects the experience of the people you are asking to change. It needs to be personally meaningful and in their terms as well as point out the pitfalls of not changing soon enough. A critical element often missed by executives (and politicians) is not demonstrating a full understanding of the risks associated with the positive changes. If you don’t do this they will think you are shallow or dishonest—either of which will erode trust, reduce followership and slow progress.

If a manager or leader is pretending Real Leadership (see previous blog”#1 Real Leadership”) the information herein will not help as organizational transformation is merely conceptual devoid of emotion and not based in a personal leadership committment. Without Real Leadership any attempt to lead with “proper technique” or “head without heart” is akin to rearranging the the deck chairs on the Titanic—doing what has always been done and thereby re-creating the past expecting a different outcome. Without Real Leadership its only a matter of time until unnecessary and sometimes catastrophic failure begins to occur.

What do you think?

John

(c)2012 John R. Grinnell All rights reserved.

“Felt myself say it—rusty beliefs move—our future changed.”

-John Grinnell

Common management wisdom knows that most order-of-magnitude improvements, the kind that lead organizations from “good to great”, require the development of a smarter way of working. That is, you have to skin the cat in a new, better and “differentiating” way from your competition. Millions of dollars are spent annually by corporations hiring outside consulting and marketing firms to help analytically find the competitive “angle” by looking for competitor weaknesses and targeting corporate strength into those areas. The best consulting firms do a great job of facilitating this kind of process. However, often more significant is what Robert Quinn calls “Deep Change” or what I call “Real Leadership.” Real leadership is not management or politics (although we need these done well too). Real leadership is the adaptive force within an organization and the secret sauce for change.

She had done it years ago at a previous organization, but it had taken the CEO five years to get there this time. She had made her personal commitment to real leadership when she took the job. But now a majority of her executive team finally understood what real leadership is. They had always thought of themselves as leaders and had gone to the best schools yet only now understood that real leadership requires a fundamental shift in one’s own perspective and behavior. It is a change of mind and behavior in a new direction that leads to a transformation— first by oneself and then by the organization that follows. They had broken the spell of past approaches and the safety net of habitual personal and cultural expectations. For years they had mouthed the usual terms of “accountability,” “transparency” and “collaboration.” They could see that they understood these terms conceptually but hadn’t taken the personal political risk of actually doing something truly different in the face of uncertain support. Even though they had improved in the past five years, you could now see a quantum shift –you felt something different. The level of truth within the team had increased. Analytics were now mixed with emotion and the energy had somehow increased. There was a marked drop in irrational politics or worry about being wrong or defending one’s ego and past approaches—there was dialogue. Excitement replaced apathy when new challenges were in play with real commitment to action and follow-through. The organization had and would continue to change.

Real leadership requires a commitment to do something without feeling the security of already accepted behavior. It is stepping outside of the usual boundaries in alignment with purpose. It is taking the step to be aware, personally responsible and to do what’s right by oneself, the organization and the society served. Making this commitment is always personal, even when surrounded by other others. That is why so few can do it—and why those that do don’t worry about the competition much. Instead they practice self-awareness and make a personal commitment to align their creativity and behavior with the agreed upon outcomes all are seeking.

It is one of the most difficult things to do…to get an organization’s leaders to first understand what real leadership is, and then execute in sometimes small but significantly “different” ways. Leadership as taught at our best schools is usually thought of as something “done to others.” Or feedack in 360s. But real leadership is an earned perspective that appears as a subtle but significant shift inside of oneself. It requires an individual to look forward and make real personal change to address an imagined future—something they havent done before. It requires leaders to have enough awareness that they are not their mind but rather “have a mind.” Real leadership doesn’t allow for you to look into the rearview mirror of past behavior and approaches pretending to be a real leader. Real leadership requires self-awareness, great courage and a commitment to do what is required get the job done without compromise.

Change for the sake of change is ridiculous, and to put people through the challenge and discomfort of misguided (or not guided) change is wasteful and foolish. However, this is often the outcome when senior management teams don’t take the time to figure out how they must first lead themselves to lead others.

Reactions?

John

www.grinnellleadership.com

(c)2012 John R. Grinnell. All rights reserved.

“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.”
                                     ~Niccolo Machiavelli 

Nothing had happened since their final planning sessions, except a few unsatisfying “town-hall meetings,” trying to get people to buy-in to their firms new direction.  Their brilliant thinking, which had been turned into beautiful graphs and charts by the consultants, proved more difficult to turn into useful changes in behavior.  Just a few months before, the executive team was confident that the months of consultant intervention and the long hours of customer and executive interviewing had paid off.  They knew the logic behind the numbers was sound, and that the new strategies contained the seeds of competitive advantage.  Now the plan sat nicely packaged on the shelf, and nothing had really changed! What had gone wrong?  The strategic planning firm they used had done a great job, but here they were; left with great ideas that none of them knew how to lead into the organization. None of them had ever changed human behavior in large scale. Rather, like most leaders of long-established organizations, they had been handed a legacy—hired to continue the success of the founders. Most were technically or administratively oriented: great at budgets, monthly reports, setting goals, and delivering on the skills with which their high quality management training had equipped them. In the past they hadn’t taken interest in, or time for, learning much about human behavior. That “touchy feely” stuff was outside their area of interest, except when they felt compelled to go to mandatory HR  training events in order to get their tickets punched on the way up the corporate ladder. 

They knew intellectually that human behavior is patterned and predictable and would not have thought it was rocket science to say that changing an organization is about changing yesterday’s “good habits” for the new “good habits” that fit today’s changed conditions. However, what they didn’t know was that changing human behavior is not a mechanistic process, as most “change management” gurus would have you believe.  Rather, it is a process requiring skills that are largely neglected in the development of most of today’s managers, skills needed for aligning the motivations of employees with the new goals and direction of the organization.  To do this well requires subtle perception, a requirement which becomes more obvious once you understand the logic of people.   The more perceptive of human behavior a leader becomes, the easier achieving such alignment becomes.  Without a combination of a strengthened capacity for such perception, solid knowledge of human nature, and good values, managers are likely to become frustrated with the lack of successful change and wind up resorting to something that looks more like a mugging than realignment, forcing people to “conform.”  While this might all be done with the best of intentions, without a proper understanding of what it takes to get people to want to change, failure is the most likely outcome. There are seldom good outcomes when leaders focus on the more familiar and tangible change of systems and processes instead of changing minds (Farr, 1994)…the basis of all habit, thinking, action and results. 

As I have pointed out numerous times before in my previous blog postings, and contrary to popular opinion, human beings are quite logical, operating by a certain type of thinking which we call “psycho-logic.”  The fundamental rule of this particular logics is, given a similar set of circumstances or situation, (like doing one’s job, or kissing a spouse); people will think, act and respond in the same ways over and over and over again.  Once “learned” through repetition (and it doesn’t take long) human beings habituate and then automate—coming to hold a “belief” that drives their behavior. It is changing these automated beliefs that changes the subsequent behavior and culture, and therein lays the key to the challenge leaders face in changing organizations.

I will begin posting these next week:

Things to keep in mind when transforming an organization!

John

www.grinnellleadership.com

(c)2012 John R. Grinnell. All rights reserved.