EMPOWERING UNDERACHIEVERS FOR EFFECT

Every leader has at least one person in their team who isn’t performing. You really want them to do better, but do you sometimes sabotage their progress that by managing them like underachievers? Well perhaps there is another way?

A leader always wants their people to perform at their optimum level. It’s good for every one involved in the team and drives organisational performance. Regardless of the leader’s personal intentions - whether they want to look good as a leader or they want to drive their business forward, all a leader wants is for their people to do their best at work.

As team members start to under perform, start to let the leader down, the leader’s initial impulse is to take back some control. Decrease team members responsibilities, control some of the project, or even micro manage them with a long screw driver just a little in order to make the leader feel more comfortable. This is human nature.  After all a successful outcome is being threatened, so the leader naturally re-assumes control. Good leadership some would say and in certain circumstances that is the right thing to do for the task although it may damage the individual team member.

But stop a moment lets reflect on how this impacts upon the under performer doing the work?

You lead top performers very differently from those under performers and perhaps that may contribute to their lack of success.  Two completely different approaches which achieve different results appear logical on the surface; however, it seems ludicrous when you think you are applying methods that inhibit under performers from learning and developing. Let’s break down the logic:

You do something new - and someone performs really well you give them control and let them get on with it with the belief and freedom that delivers success.

However you have someone that isn't performing well doing the same new thing - and you really want them to do well - so you do something totally different, you take back control pressurising them and hindering their opportunity for learning and development

In other words, we manage high performers like high performers. And we manage underachievers like underachievers - even though we want everyone to become a high performer for the sake of the team and the outcome.

And a big component of this is the leader feeling in control. When we take control away from people, their ability to think critically, to problem solve and to control emotions and behaviours is compromised. As leaders, we tend to give our high performers a lot of control and our underachievers a little. We are imposing our way upon someone who may have a better but different way. Someone who may just need to learn how to do it and the best way of learning is experimentally. Hence our imposition of control might end up driving a self-fulfilling cycle.

In a recent study a group of people were given a problem solving test and their scores were recorded. Each of the participants was then asked to describe a person in their lives that they thought was controlling. For 15 minutes, they were asked to describe the person, their actions and specific situations. After this interview, they were given another (equivalent) problem-solving test and each and every one of them performed about 30% worse.

Interesting that just the thought of someone controlling us decreases our ability to problem-solve by 30%!

But it turns out actual control by the incumbent isn't completely necessary. In many research experiments using computer tasks, just the feeling of control can reignite someone's performance. As with most things, perception is more important than reality. We call this ownership and its all about feeling ownership of an outcome. Effective communication by a leader should leave a team member in no doubt about the expected outcome to be delivered and the boundaries beyond which they have to seek permission to pass in pursuit of that outcome. This creates the impression of control although a good leader will monitor unobtrusively until they have total confidence in that team member.

So as leaders how do we develop our under performers through empowerment through the feeling of more control.

1)    Be more organized in your delegation

To delegate well and give people control, you have to be more organized than when you simply do it yourself. You must clearly communicate expectations (the outcome) and boundaries. Give yourself and your direct reports realistic lead times, which allow them to get their work done, get some feedback and then redo it if necessary. When your direct report gets it wrong too close to the deadline, you have very little choice but to take it back and do it yourself but remember, if you can always, exploit a learning opportunity!

2) Delegate pieces of projects, rather than the whole thing

Remember people do things better if they like doing it.  So you're bound to find things that people are more proficient at. The most effective leader develops their team members using challenge and support - too much of either is a poor recipe for learning. If you do not have total confidence  in someone give them pieces of the project that you are happy for them to control, rather than setting them up to fail by being over ambitious asking them to do too much. Time spent building trust and understanding is never wasted.

3) Create the perception of control

Ownership is important as people always need to feel like they control something. There are always things that we have no control over - such as deadlines. But there are also things that we can make sure people do have control over - that contribute to the way in which the outcome is achieved. Delivery of a small contributing piece of an outcome such as the provision of refreshments or even the colour of the binding for the final report without interference can afford a perception of ownership. These small things can actually make a big difference in the way team members perform whilst enhancing trust and cohesion.

People do their best work when they feel they are trusted; when they have a sense of control. Not when they are operating on fear or over worried about making little mistakes that make them appear stupid. They need to understand what they own and the expectations and boundaries and then be left to get on with it.

These simple things might just help your underachievers become high achievers and valued team members in the future. The value of experiential learning should never be missed!

BUSINESS LEADERS - WHAT STATE IS YOUR CRYSTAL BALL IN?

TURBULENT TIMES

I always say that you have two options at the bottom of a well drown or start climbing. Well many businesses currently sit at the bottom of that well. The events that have transpired over the last four years since the onset of the current recessionary cycle, evidence the turbulent times all organisations face. While uncertainty is troubling, it is also the time of greatest opportunity when business is most turbulent.

Humans are happiest in static times and yet if one looks at when the greatest organisations started, it was during times of upheaval and turbulence. Greats like Ford, Rockefeller, Carnegie and J.P. Morgan emerged out of the shift from an agrarian to an industrial society. Companies like Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer and Microsoft emerged from the shift to an electronic society. This leap to greatness is made possible by the state of turbulence where the traditional paradigms and norms that govern business are shattered. Companies and whole markets are driven to seek out new solutions to their problems as they strive for competitive advantage brought about by the forces of change.

We are well beyond the realms of management and informed creative thinking and decision-making can greatly enhance leaders’ ability to lead. Positivity is key and rather than mourn the loss of business or bemoan internal changes brought about by recessionary pressures or from intensified market competition, leaders need to exploit the new opportunities that present themselves in the prevailing market conditions. One thing is certain: organizations are not going back to the business models that governed them prior to 2007. They are seeking new ways to enhance productivity and profitability, and therein lies the opportunity for any leader who wishes to seek it out. However, each should acknowledge that in times of turbulence, the ability to anticipate problems, situations and opportunities dramatically increases their chances of success. The Sampson Hall Gordian model allows leaders to make informed decisions about their future and the Sampson Hall strategy model enables them to plan in a world of uncertainty. Both are key to an organisations survival in these modern economic times.

If leaders wish to take advantage of the turbulence in their markets they must apply informed creative thinking skills based on reality and yet forward looking to the future. They must step ‘outside the box’ and think imaginatively and yet not naively. Positivity is key and yet credibility is essential. Rigor needs to be applied from a futuristic perspective. The Sampson Hall tools stimulate a shift in thinking that allows leaders to design and develop new solutions to address their workplace and organisational problems. Not only do the tools help with the current position but they enable organisations to understand where they are and how much further they have to go. They identify potential by pinpointing available but oftentimes hidden opportunities. These tools will help the creative thinking process in an organisation, they will allow leaders to take informed decisions whilst understanding and mapping the possible consequences of their decision s and the future problems that they may come across along their path to success. However these tools will only suit organisations that have genuine ambition and the desire to remain competitive amongst their peers. Organisations that have used them do not look back.

VISION and DIRECTION - LEADERSHIP ORIENTEERING

How can leaders at any level, especially at executive or board level, expect to get the best from their people and business or organisation without communicating clearly their vision and direction to their staff? It is not unknown for Sampson Hall to be commissioned to deliver a leadership development programme for a group of middle and senior leaders to find the very people we are helping are being inadvertently ‘hamstrung’ by a lack of vision and clear direction from their executive. This is particularly frustrating for us as we see individuals developing their leadership capabilities and becoming more able to fulfil their potential yet inadvertently prevented from doing so by the very people who have invested in providing the training.

How does vision work and why is it so important? If a leader has not got a clear picture of exactly what it is they are trying to achieve then how can they expect to know when it has been achieved? If a leader has a clear picture of their desired end state but the people they are depending upon to produce that end state do not know what it looks like then how will they know what it is they are trying to deliver? Would you set off to your work place in a morning without knowing where your work place is and what it looks like? A leader without vision is like an orienteer without a map; they are likely to run round in circles getting nowhere fast whilst their competitors get to where they want to be before them.

Not only must a workforce know and understand what is they are trying and expected to achieve but also how to do so. This is why clear, concise and well articulated direction is important. Woolly direction leads to uncertainty and ineffective action which leads to dysfunction and, ultimately, in failure to achieve the desired outcomes. Undoubtedly, when you set off to your workplace in the morning you know by which route you are going and how you are going to get there. A leader without direction is like an orienteer without a compass; they can only follow their competitors around the course and finish the race in last place.

Having a clear vision is only the start. If a vision is to be realised then it must be effectively communicated in a way which has meaning and can be understood by those who need to know what it is. Good direction need not necessarily be detailed but it must be clear and understood by those requiring direction. Also, there is little point in a leader giving direction which is not resourced; a plan must be deliverable and seen to be so otherwise it is no more than a work of fiction which will fail to yield the desired results. Good leadership is like good orienteering. Make sure you have the right map for the ground you are on, acquire and use the necessary equipment correctly to orienteer your way most efficiently and effectively through the course, quicker than your competitors to win the race.

THE KEY PASSIVE COGNITIVE LEADERSHIP SKILLS

Modern leadership in a time when the quick eat the slow has to be different from that which flourished in the industrial era. Sadly very few organisations and academic places of learning recognise the requirement for a softer set of leadership skills. Cognitive leadership is all about understanding the environment in which you lead and then applying the appropriate leadership style, tool or skill to the occasion.  This is beyond the broad definition of situational leading.

The modern leader needs to listen and watch passively to understand their situation and the needs of those they lead. Listening is an underestimated leadership competence that is recognised in some schools of thinking but watching or observing and noticing is rarely considered as a characteristic of leadership. Noticing skills are fundamental to cognitive leadership.

Lessons are learned harder and therefore learned better in failure and a vital component of the cognitive leader is the ability to forgive a mistake as long as it is learned from and not repeated. Humans are fallible and we all make mistakes it is how they are recovered from that makes the difference.

Using your experts many leaders believe they have to be expert at everything to have the right to lead. Experts are with you for a reason, use their expertise allow them to control when the situation is appropriate empower them to make them more effective. With the speed of information flow and the speed of business advisors are often better placed to react rather than just advise allow them the freedom to react appropriately to seize the opportunity before someone else does.

The bottom line in cognitive leadership is the ability to trust and be trusted. You will only be fully trusted by your team if you become a cognitive leader. A cognitive leader is someone who understands what needs to be done when, someone who has the courage and judgement to lead their teams through the toughest of ordeals and environments; someone who uses the cohesive power of the team and all its attributes. To become a cognitive leader you need to have complete faith in yourself and complete faith in those around you. Please do not confuse faith with arrogance.

LEADERSHIP BARRIERS, FAILURES, SHAME AND SUCCESS

As individuals we often stop our quests at barriers and use them as easy get outs so that we can justify our weakness to ourselves and others and yet it is often our fear of failure or lack of a vision of success that prevents us from achieving our quests. I love the quote “Obstacles are things a person sees when they take their eyes off their goals” Anon.

Some of us deliberately create or imagine barriers for fear of possibly failing and yet failure should be viewed more positively as it is often the closest bedfellow to success. Like love and hate they are extremes and yet they can be in very close proximity. "Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure". - Napoleon Hill. It’s having the guts to try and to continue trying, to believe beyond anything in eventual success. "A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles." – Christopher Reeve. But a hero is an ordinary person who has become extraordinary through sheer will and determination. Failure brings with it shame, a stigma many of us are unprepared to go through.  The shame barrier is self imposed and even though breaking through it may lead to great eventual success it is all too often the end of our endeavours.  Yet we admire others who have overcome shame, we admire others who are prepared to admit weakness and failure and yet we are often unprepared to tolerate it in ourselves. Shame hurts, shame humiliates, shame is a weakness that we would rather not be part of.   And yet shame is the mother of great invention the soul of great conquests and the source of great courage.

Humans are naturally lazy they get away with as little as possible. It is after all a natural phenomenon. Preserving resources and energy for survival purposes and yet “Laziness is the greatest assassin of talent” Pele. We need to think beyond instinct, think about goals and desired outcomes to motivate ourselves through our laziness to success. People who shy away from challenge and possible failure will never stand out; theirs is the greyness of obscurity. To quote two US Presidents “If you run you stand the chance of losing, if you don’t you have already lost” Barrack Obama and “Only one who dares to fail greatly can achieve greatness” Robert F Kennedy. Both men have lead the Western World!

Thomas Edison once said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success before they gave up.” And this is the challenge that today’s leaders who are destined to break barriers must overcome. Success is hard won. It comes to those who stick to their goals longer than others. Those who do not give up but press through their personal barriers and motivate their teams to press through their personal and group barriers stand a better chance than those who don’t; for success comes to those who learn from and respect their failures and shame rather than just attributing the blame.

The key challenge for modern leaders in whatever position or role they occupy is ensuring their response to their barriers, failures, challenges and shame they meet in their leadership positions matches the environment and reinforces their desire for success. They must overcome self doubt, they must create an ethos of success but they must also understand and respect the benefits and lessons that failure delivers. After all when Galileo called self-doubt "the father of all invention" he understood the inevitable challenges on the leadership journey to success.

EXECUTIVE BOARD BUILDING – COURAGE and RESILIENCE

When all is said and done, an executive board or management board are, in essence, a team. For any team leader, the easiest team to build and lead is the one in which all team members naturally get on well with one another. Shared likes, dislikes, views and interests ease the process of establishing rapport and building relationships with reduced likelihood or disagreement and argument. However, effective teams not only need individual members to support one another they also need to be able to challenge one another robustly in order to support one another more effectively.

Unlike lower order teams, where the primary collective output may be more a matter of (say) physical support and or co-operation and or co-ordination, a primary function of executive and senior level management boards is collective decision making. At this level, the phenomena of ‘Group Think’ should be at the forefront of any leader’s mind who is constructing a team at this level, or indeed, at any level where collective decision making is a primary function of the team. The strength of group thinking around problem solving and decision making is that many individual perspectives and strengths can be brought to bear on the issues requiring resolution. A problem examined and scrutinised from multiple points of view drawn from a range of subject matter specialists should enable or facilitate a more substantial and robust solution.

Broadly, Group Think as a decision making and judgement phenomena is where consensus has primacy and prevails over individual thoughts and judgements. In essence, this is when the power of the association with belonging to the group weighs greater in the individuals conscious and subconscious than personal perspectives, thoughts and knowledge. The effect is individual team members normalise their views to that of the collective. Great for harmony and all concerned, especially a strong leader; no arguments and total buy in to what the leader proposes. However; what if the leader’s knowledge and judgement is lacking? How robust is a solution likely to be and what is the likely quality of decision making to be when wrought in such circumstances?

The leader forming an executive or senior management board made up of strong willed, confident and articulate individuals with knowledge, skills and views not shared by him or herself requires significant leadership qualities, not least of all courage and resilience. To drive a business or organisation in the right direction with extremely high personal and collective stakes is difficult and stressful; to expect and want robust challenge in order to do so more effectively is even more difficult and stressful. Given the business environment of today – which is likely to fair better? Those ‘the birds of a feather’ who will undoubtedly get along famously as they crash together, or the bloodied and battered ‘band of brothers’ who invariably emerge stronger and better equipped to deal with life’s most difficult challenges?

TODAY'S BUSINESS LEADERS NEED STRATEGY

Leaders influence, inspire and motivate organisations and teams to a place or situation that may have previously appeared impossible to those team members involved. Leaders are futuristic in their perspective and that is why they stand out from managers. Whilst management was invented to control and optimise production lines and other process oriented ways of working during the industrial revolution, leadership has been around for a good deal longer. Management is about process and metrics, using targets and means of measurement as its tools. Leadership is much more intrinsic in its properties; more about vision and emotion it is much more the art of inspiration rather than the science of measurement. Leadership needs flexibility to match the human instincts it inspires, it needs vision to create and make real the desired end state, it needs trust to create the cohesion and judgement to mange and mitigate the risks and prioritise the available resources.

Strategy is about all this, it consists of four key tenets Vision, Risk Mitigation, Talent Management and the prioritisation of resources. The tenets are interdependent and require an overall strategy to hold them together and keep them synchronised. Strategy is not about two years it’s about 5- 10 years. Strategy is about inspiration and vision in a changing environment, it affords an opportunity to select a course and change a course, dependent upon the situational requirement to map out a route that matches the circumstances and yet still delivers the required end state. Strategy is synonymous with great leadership and it informs and inspires those managers and those teams that work for great leaders. Leaders need to understand and use strategy.