The Business Needs Should Drive Leadership Development Needs

The question then becomes, If leadership is so critical to an organization’s success (and research is bearing this out through a number of studies) then the question becomes why are not more organizations taking the bull by the horn?   Bottom line, it is the legacy experience most organizations have had with leadership development “programs.”   They have far from lived up to their promise.

The reason for the failure of the “Leadership Development Program Model” is because such programs are not linked to the business.  After all exceptional leaders always have better results than nominal leaders because they are leading the business!  Given that why do we separate development from moving forward business objectives?   We have done this for years and then when you need to cut costs – we cut development.  Why because there is no clear connection between leadership development programs and important outcomes of a business.

So how do we fix this?   In short we fix it by starting by looking at the state of the business and examine the gaps between where we are are and where we want to be.  Then we look at leadership as one of the parameters for closing that gap.  The top team must then look at who it has to be individually and collectively in order to close the gap and then we must fuse the desired business outcomes with the leadership development process we engage.  If that is done we don’t have a “program” but rather an initiative to support greater business success.

The reason why executive coaching has been so successful and has seen such a strong return on investment is that most executive coaches worth their weight engage the leader at the level of desired results and design their executive coaching around improving those results.  Along the way guess what?  Developmental gaps show up through the coaching experience that must be addressed in order to achieve the desired outcomes.  The outcome -  you get better business results as well as a leader who has greater impact.  It has a multiplying effect.  Yet, as much as executive coaching is a useful process – it works at the individual level – rarely at the collective level.   We need to take this understanding to a strategic level for an organization and build approaches that focus on the business results first while also supporting transforming leadership.

Therefore, if someone comes to your organization promoting “programs” be leery!  Ask them how is this going to improve my outcomes?  If they can’t show you how that will occur do not consider hiring them!

Bringing Balance to Leadership

In an earlier entry “The Rising Power of the Feminine in Executive Leadership” – I highlighted solid research showing that companies with women in top leadership positions have stronger relationships with customers and shareholders and a more diverse and profitable business ¹.

A recent article in Forbes shows that most US Corporations are still not realizing the power that women bring.  The article highlights some sobering statistics as follows:

• Research done between 2004-2010 indicates that over 33% of women are leaving the workforce each year for various reasons.  For example in 2009 74% left for child care reasons, 16% left because their careers were stalled and a whopping 89% left because no executive in the organization was sponsoring their journey to success ².
• While 89% planned to resume their careers after a hiatus – only 40% of the women looking to reenter the work force after only 2 years found full time employment ³.
• Women who return to full-time work face a lower job title, a decrease in management and overall responsibilities and a striking financial penalty. Women who off-ramped for two years faced a 14% salary gap. The penalty tripled to 46% for those that left for three or more years ⁴.

This is just another symptom of organizations cutting their nose of despite their face.  Then there is the other side of the coin where an organization takes a talented woman leader and instead of leveraging her strengths and interests – they try to force her into a leadership position that does not fit because they want to show the world they are supporting the promotion of women.  While this shows some thoughtfulness – it is also misguided.

Those organizations who continue down this path just might find that this decision comes back to haunt them.  Why do I say this? Because another statistic shows that the majority of small businesses rising today are lead by women.  If your organization takes no action to change its trajectory – you might just find a fierce yet compassionate competitor lead by a woman eating your lunch.

Whether everyone sees it or not we are facing a major transformation in the way business is conducted worldwide.  If we do not take advantage of the lessons this difficult time has taught us – we will miss a huge opportunity.  To fully leverage this opportunity we need leadership and true leadership integrates a results focus along with a collaborative orientation (among other things).  We do not have enough male leaders who embody both sides of this equation and thus this is why there is a deep need for strong women leaders who for the most part have the capacity to embody both.   Men reading this might react negatively yet this is not about male bashing.  It is about finding balance and having leaders who can model the full power of leadership for everyone.  The question is will enough large organizations recognize the importance of such balance?  If not, there will be a revolution and for those who do not join – you will miss huge opportunities now and the pain of not joining will be greater down the road for you and your organization.

Leaders Are 100% Responsible

Taking everything on your shoulders and taking on all the stress around the success or failure of the business is not the point.   The point owning the vision and holding the expectancy it will unfold.  If a leader has developed a compelling vision and has done a great job of instilling this vision into their people – while mistakes will happen – in the end the vision will become reality.  Yet, if the leader begins to complain about how the market place is behaving, the problems with the economy, or begins to blame low performers for all the woos in the business – they are missing the point of being a leader as well as the power of vision.

If the market is not responding – a true leader does not blame the market.  They collect the best minds and ask what do we have to do to engage the market more effectively so people get who we are and want to do business with us?   If the economy is tanking and business is off – the true leader takes responsibility by examining with his top people the model they are using to develop business and will shift their approach to succeed or do better than they have in the tough economy.  If there is an issue with low performance – a true leader coaches the boss of that direct report to get to the bottom of it or they themselves explore what the issue is.   If there is not a fit – they let the person go.  If it is a coaching issue they work towards a new commitment with that employee to engage at a higher level and make sure that there will be rewards if they do and consequences if they do not.

The fundamental key here is making sure your people are enrolled in the vision and know their part in fulfilling it.  If the vision has come alive – the true leader knows with certainty it is only a matter of time before things line up.  They embrace the responsibility for creating an environment that is brutally honest about what the challenges are while also inspiring others to reach further to fulfill the mission and key priorities.  They also expect their best people to take 100% responsibility for the vision as well.

Another way of looking at this is that our own habits are pieces of technology we have built to stream line our day.   Again, habits are those things we act upon and no longer question.   Examples of habits at work might be the ritual you go through when you set up your desk in the office each day, it might be your review of particular reports that help you assess the state of the business or how you deal with interruptions in your day.  There are also cultural habits like how we welcome new employees or how move forward after a project is completed, or the way we handle bad news. Certainly personal and cultural habits are important because they help us get more done without having to think of every step.  Yet, the question becomes – what happens when our habits no longer work or have the same level of impact due to some shift in the market, changes in client habits, the emergence of new business models, etc.   If we can not step back and ask ourselves deeper questions – it is akin to not being able to tell time by looking at a analog clock.  All habits and technologies we deploy serve a purpose – the question is how do we know when those habits and technologies no longer serve their purpose or questioning how they might be getting in the way of our greater success?  You might want to take some time to examine this yourself by asking the following questions:

• Are there any results in your business or personal life you are not happy with and if so what kinds of results do you want to generate?
• When is the last time you challenged your approach to achieving those results as well as what you think you must do to achieve those outcomes?
• Is any of these approaches outdated and if so – what other approaches might support greater success?

What are you using as your guidance system for determining if you are on track?

Again, from time to time we must challenge our habits and beliefs.  For example, every new position you move into requires a new set of beliefs to support success in that position.  Yet, most times people simply think all they need to do is rely on the same habits and beliefs that got them there.  While some of those may be transportable – others you bring with you can actually hinder your success.

Who Is Managing Your Career?

• Have you discovered your underlying purpose for work or why you show up every day to work?
• Given that purpose – have you connected passionately to what the highest expression of that purpose would be?
• Do you feel a sense of independence from your organization, boss or senior executives as far as directing your career?
• Are you free from the idea that “I must pay my dues before I am in the position to set my course?”

If you answered a resounding yes to each of those questions – congratulations.  You are most likely in full charge of your destiny.  If you answered no to one or more of these you may be cheating yourself and your organization from your best efforts.  When I ask my clients to face these questions and I confront them on any of the questions they answer no to – I usually get a miffed look at first.  They may say “but I am reliant on my organization to direct me – they know the best place and my job is to follow their lead.”   When I ask why that is – the answers get more interesting.  Typical answers are:

• Well if I was too forceful with where I felt I fit and would be most satisfied – my job might be in jeopardy
• I really never thought about what I wanted and really don’t have an answer to what I want.
• Well I know what I really want but am afraid if I go for it I will not be able to support my family and lifestyle.

Yet, in my experience when people understand their purpose, passionately hold a vision for the impact they would like to have, and set a course to unfold that – not only are they happier – they perform at a much higher level.  Also, it is rare that if I am talking to a technical person that they want to become Picasso.   While there are some cases when a person realizes they must make a major change – in most cases they are in their sweet spot yet have an underlying desire to shift their focus a bit and usually in a way that adds value to the organization they are with. And yes – it can be a challenge to influence the powers to be to support a person in changing direction.  Yet, again, in most every case where a person has stuck to their guns – both the individual and organization benefit.

The bottom line is – life is too short to allow others to dictate your life and that includes your career!  After all we spend over 2000 hours each year working which equates to almost a quarter of our total time!  I believe doing what you love and loving what you do is a birthright and we are at a time in history when we truly have the power of choice.   So ask yourself – on a scale from 1 to 10 how fulfilled am I really every day at work?  If you are below an 8 – I would take a serious look at the questions above and if you do not like your answers I suggest you spend the time to take your career back!

Your Choice

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For example, one of my clients reacted to the recession by asking each of its senior executives to make 5 new contacts a week with the goal of closing at least 1 new major account for the quarter.  To put this in context – up to the recession – this company had little concern for how to win business.  In fact, the organization had been doing quite well for over 10 years to the point it was having a hard time keeping up with demand.  So most of the executives they were telling to engage in more business development had not had to do so for much of their careers.  Yet, now they are being asked, from on high, to go out and market, sell and network.  They were not asked to discuss the existing state of the business, their ideas for growing the business were not requested, and there was no discussion around what support they needed to succeed in their business development efforts.   You might not be surprised that their efforts generated marginal results at best.

At its core, there is nothing wrong with encouraging more activity and yes we need to make more contacts so that we can develop more relationships so that they turn into more sales.  I get that.  However, just pushing for more activity misses the point of effectively engaging the market place or, for that matter, to succeed at any endeavor.  While action is important – the question you must ask yourself is how do we ensure that such activity actually generates results?

The formula for achieving leveraged or inspired action is as follows:

Generating Leveraged Action

In short, there needs to be some reflection and interaction around what we want to build, create, shift as well as doing gaining an aligned view of the current reality.   It is interesting that senior executives deal with challenges much like any human being.  They tend to focus on WHAT THEY DON’T WANT versus WHAT THEY DO WANT.  For example, as the recession hit many of my clients were focusing on how to survive the recession versus how to support their customers through the recession.  They lost mission focus and went to survival focus.  Now in some cases an organization must do this because they face real challenges.  Yet, the majority of my clients were living in fear this would happen – not considering their current state along with the long term view.

The first step of the model above requires the senior team to ask “How do we want to face this challenge and how can we use it to our advantage to strengthen our organization’s position and most support our client base?”   This leads to a more proactive vision, mission and set of goals. This is also a time to be brutally honest about the current reality being faced and to uncover any limiting beliefs or emotions that are driving the action forward.  As I mentioned above, in my view, any fear that is experienced is usually not warranted.  That being said, you don’t know that unless you can honestly assess the current reality.

The second step of the model has to do with engaging your direct reports around the vision as well as the challenge.  The goal here is to both enrich the thought process around how do we accomplish the vision and it also helps to instill ownership of the vision and the challenges by those you engage.  This is much different than pushing the edict down to “be active” in some way.

The third step has to do with energizing people. It is akin to filling up the gas tank in your car for a long trip.  Without the fuel you are not going to get far.  To get the most from those who are out there in the market place – you must be able to help them tap into whats in it for them.  When that is present people will engage in activity – even if it is a bit uncomfortable – because they understand the value for the organization AND THEM.   Here is where another mistake is made.  Sometimes senior leadership feels – “they are in this position for a reason – they should not have to be motivated to achieve our goals.”  This completely misses the point!  The question is do you want a 4 cylinder car or one running on 8 or more cylinders.  The more you energize people and engage their passion – the more they will accomplish.

The fourth and fifth steps can be taken together.  At this stage we are ready to act in a powerful way.  If the first few steps were done well – you won’t need to lay out elaborate activity goals.  You can but it is unnecessary – people who are engaged and energized will act consistent with the vision.  Plus you have the fifth step to ensure the activity is working to meet the vision and goals.  Taking time to take stock of progress and work through the process again will ensure more ownership, engagement, energy and effective actions.

Finally, another concern I get about this model is – “I can see your point but do we have the time to do this?“  I will ask a question back to you on that one.  You have two choices.  Door number one – accept a more narrow band of successful actions.  Door number two – you can take more time upfront time in order to ensure you will multiply your results many times over.  Which door do you choose?  Either choice is fine but one leads to what you really care about most – the other does not.

Let Yourself Feel It!

I encourage you to take this exercise seriously and create the space to do it.  Find a place to engage this where you feel the most expanded.  It could be a favorite room in your home, your favorite coffee shop or outdoor bistro, a place outdoors that you relish, etc.  The key is to be some place that allows you to be free from interruptions and that inspires you.  I find that putting pen to paper is more powerful than typing your responses out on a computer – it just makes the experience more visceral.   You can also do this in a few reflective sessions.  The key is to do what ever works that allows you to reveal what you care about most.  In any event, do what ever you must that will allow this to work for you.  Here are the questions to consider:

• If I had no limitations or barriers and money were no object, what do I most want to create through my work and expression as a leader?

Again, do not answer this as a mental exercise… make it an exercise of the heart.

• Now once you have generated your list – for each item ask – What do each of these things give me or what is most important about these things?

What you are looking for in your answers are not material goods or something external to yourself.  You are evaluating the emotional experience you are seeking!  Are you seeking recognition, accomplishment, freedom, security, etc.?  Why do I say this? Because in the end you evaluate your experience based on how you feel – period.  For example, we don’t want money for the sake of having pieces of paper in our wallets or an amount in the bank.  Certainly that is nice but it is what that GIVES US that we really want.  So do yourself a favor and let yourself feel what you want.

• Now once you have boiled down the experience you most want to have  – go back and rank order those experiences by following this process:
  • First, create a list of those emotional states you are looking to experience on a daily basis and ask yourself – how much does this resonate for me on a scale from 0 – 100%.
  • Second, once you rate the items – the rank ordering should become obvious.

In my view, anything at 90% or above is something you are passionate about.  Anything between 60 and 80% might be yet you need to ask yourself – “What would have to happen for this to be at 90% or above?”  For example, you may find that you really want it but don’t believe it is possible.  The question is if there were no obstacles or money was not an issue or you could have life/work be any way you wanted it to be – would these rank higher?  Finally, if something does not make 60% – it is likely not something you are very passionate about and I suggest you drop it so you can focus on what really juices you!

Once you have done this exercise you will have a list of your passions.  Now to activate this in your life and at work you need to develop your vision for how you would like to see this unfold and then keep your attention on this each and every day.  If you are passionate about it – that will be easy.  The key is not to turn away from it – life is too short!  From this list you can develop your mission statement and commit to live from it each day!  If you want to grow your business, be more successful in your current position and make a bigger impact – the only way to do it is through your passion.  Therefore I invite you to release it!

Passion Brings Huge ROI!

Again, many resonate with this idea of passion but then ask but is there a return on investment from engaging it – is it not better for me to focus on my business model?   Well first there is a huge return on investment that comes from fully engaging your passion because the more you are connected to it the more bandwidth you have to succeed.   The more you are connected to it – the bigger your ideas, the better you will apply your business model, the more opportunities you attract and the more courage you will have to break through barriers that will stop most people.

Now the caveat is – at first – really connecting to your passion can be scary because the more traditional approach in business is to mute our passion.  When my clients first unveil their passion – they can become concerned it is too out there or unrealistic.  Yet, in every case – yes EVERY CASE – when my clients or anyone I know decides to live from this place – they experience far more success, freedom and fulfillment as well as far less stress and struggle.

My guess is if you have read this far – that this all resonates.  You may be secretively living from this place or feel a sense of power when you think about working and living from this place.  I also think this is not new news.  Many speakers and coaches talk about engaging your passion but how do you discover what it is?  In my next entry I will give you the fundamental questions and practices you need to do to fully engage your passion on a daily basis.  Come back in two days and the exercise will be posted.

Enjoy:

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