Management Guru, Peter Drucker said it best.

Because it’s purpose is to create a customer, the business has two – and only- two functions, marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results, all the rest are costs.  – Peter Drucker

Is Innovation Attainable?

If innovation is a primary function of a business, what happens to your ability to innovate when new initiatives get torpedoed with…

• That will never work. · It can’t be done.
• That’s not how we do things. · If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

If innovation is vital, how do we drive out the naysayers? Or, if we got rid of all our naysayers, who would be left to do the work?

It may help if we understand that negative attitudes are inherent to the human condition. For parents to effectively discipline their children, repeated use the word “NO” is essential. The result is that often a child’s first words are not “Mommy” or “Daddy”, but “NO”. Then there’s those nursery rhymes. Jack and Jill went to fetch some water and what happened to poor Jack? Little Miss Muffit introduced children to arachnophobia and Humpty Dumpty went to pieces. With all that negative exposure in those formative wonder years, it’s a wonder that anyone could develop a desire for risk taking required for innovation. If our childhood conditioning wasn’t enough, we have our daily news broadcasts and newspapers as obstacles to developing positive outlooks.

Is it possible to drive innovation in the face of negativity?

How do managers overcome negative attitudes inherent in any organization? Why are some organizations so much more innovative than others? Is there hope for the laggards?

“The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.”  – William James, the father of American Psychology

Attitude Development

Attitudes can be changed, but it must be a conscious attempt. Unless you make that attempt, because of that negative influence during the early stages of your life, your basic thought processes tend to be in terms of the negative – of what you can’t do as opposed to what you CAN do.

“Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.”  – Henry Ford

When your naysayers utter those dreaded words: That will never work, are they right? What happens to innovation?

• Are your managers committed and skilled in driving positive change?
• Do they fight fire with fire? Or, are they skilled at developing and communicating win-win scenarios?
• Do your managers ever reward failures? (Or, are you thinking “That will never work”)

With the current pessimism, media overkill and uncertainty about economic conditions, we are seeing more so-called leaders become reluctant to set revenue and/or profit or related performance goals with their subordinates. In the interest of fairness to their sales force, asking for 20 to 30% increase for 2009 may be unrealistic. So rather than determining what might be achieved with focused, committed execution, we’re seeing people crawl into their shells by failing to ask for any commitment. The alternative is to sit back and hope for minimal erosion of the status quo. I referred to so-called leaders because in the absence of goals, leadership, by definition, doesn’t exist.

I previously promoted the concept that attainability is a prerequisite for effective goal setting. (see Ready For Takeoff). So I concede that setting unattainable goals can to more harm than good. But should uncertainty be justification to putting any or all achievement measures on hold?

When people are aggressive, its time to be fearful. When people are fearful, its time to be aggressive.

Are you guilty of using uncertainty as an excuse to duck your responsibility as a leader? In an attempt to avoid being unfair to your people, might you be doing an injustice to both them and your organization?

Goal Reluctance

To all of you goal reluctant, yet aspiring leaders, I suggest…

• Stop procrastinating and commit to something.
• Consider setting goals with shorter term target dates to reduce your level of uncertainty. Then revise your longer term projections as more facts are known.
• Use a collaborative approach to determining realistically high measures for the achievements that are attainable.
• Ask yourself: In your attempt to spare your people from ongoing accountability, who is really being served?
• Remember…

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.  …but it will be a long and frustrating journey.

In these times, our margin for error has shrunk to where long and frustrating journeys are more unaffordable than ever.

We’ve all been pondering our country’s financial meltdown and wondering: How could this happen? Here’s my take. I’m not a financial guy. My analysis comes through the lens of understanding how human dynamics affects how things do and/or don’t get accomplished. At the risk of dating myself (again), I’m reminiscing about a parody from my childhood, Alan Sherman’s Camp Granada and his description of summer camp conflict.

All the counselors hate the waiters.

And the lake has alligators”.

– Parody Performer Allan Sherman from Camp Granada (link to lyrics)

I don’t know if this makes me a counselor or a waiter. I admit to being one of those people who’s able to get things done despite the rules, not because of them. When I have encountered people of the opposite persuasion, I admit to occasionally losing my patience and naturally finding ways to circumvent these highly compliant, regulation loving types. I’d prefer not to work with those who I consider bottle necking naysayers. I suspect that the feelings are mutual.

And so it was with those highly educated financiers who developed a creative new product they called Credit Default Swaps. These financial instruments were designed to indemnify the shaky, shell game sub-prime mortgage products that investment bankers also created. As I understand it (more from this CBS 60 Minutes clip), Credit Default Swaps were represented to be “like” insurance policies while designed to avoid the scrutiny of the highly regulated insurance industry. Unlike insurance policies, there are no reserves created to pay the claims. Now those claims are due and taxpayers are footing the bill for this Enron Déjà Vu.

Lessons for Rule Benders and Breakers: New Tolerance for Style Diversity

We say this about both customers and the opposite gender: Can’t live with ’em and can’t live without ’em. Now that we’ve again see what can happen when the rule breakers prevail without restraint, perhaps we should add those highly compliant rule mongers to the “can’t live without ’em” category.

Rule Lovers vs. Rule Breakers

Wherever your sympathies might side in the ongoing case of Rule Lovers vs. Rule Breakers, try to think of it in the same light as customers vs. suppliers or men vs. women. Despite some inherent conflict, we need to improve our tolerance and understanding of each other and find ways to work together. What better example do we need than a global financial meltdown?

Pogo Cartoonist Walt Kelly coined the phrase: We have met the enemy and he is us. If we can accept that we are all our own worst enemy, the next step is to figure out how to become more of an ally?

At the risk of really dating myself, I’m revisiting the 50s folk song written by Pete Seeger and popularized by Peter, Paul and Mary and Trini Lopez. (YouTube performance link, if you must hear the music.)

Before I will hammer home some insight, let’s revisit the first verse of If I Had A Hammer.

Now that’s a lot of inspired hammering!

So Why Are We Talking About Hammers?

Let’s take the phrase “If I Had A Hammer” and strip away the hypothetical “if” and consider that, figuratively speaking, you do have a hammer. Your hammer is your most highly developed soft skill(s). It is the thing or things that you’re the best at and enjoy doing the most. And because you are so good, using your hammer brings you the most enjoyment and fulfillment. It may also be hindering your effectiveness.

The Trap

We all have our hammers. They are what make us both unique and effective. The danger is in overusing your hammers. Because…

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.  – Abraham Maslow

While your hammer is not your only tool, by definition, it is your favorite. If you enjoy hammering so much, where might you be hammering when you should be chiseling or puttying? All of your problems are not like nails. By relying solely on your strengths, you can occasionally miss the nail and hammer your own thumb. Ouch!

The Solution to Over-Hammering

Our tendency to hammer inappropriately is not a conscious choice, but a subconscious one. So the solution requires enhancing your awareness of what your hammer really looks like. Ask yourself: What skills do I use most frequently and effectively? And then determine where you have been hammering when there are better tools for the job. Your heightened awareness can also help you to recognize when someone with different toolbox is more equipped to solve the problem.

In our coaching and development engagements, we use assessment tools to discover which skills have become hammers. Its an opportunity to meet the enemy and become better acquainted. Once that occurs, you expand your opportunities for improved results. And, you can avoid hammering your thumb and missing the nail.

• Variations of that ever popular lie: “The check’s in the mail” is being used with greater regularity. With that, there is an accompanying trickle down effect as one unfulfilled payment promise leads to another at the victim vendor and another at the next.
• More pressure is being placed on sales people to misrepresent the facts (the legal definition of fraud) to get the business.
• Corners are being cut and some are over promising and under delivering with both our external and internal customers.

It seems that more people are willing to compromise their integrity for the sake of the quick fix while using tough times as an excuse. Is it valid? Or are they digging themselves an even deeper hole? In this environment we will all be regularly tempted or urged to compromise our integrity. As you are tested, remember…

“In the midst of cutbacks and compromises, a leader must assure that integrity is exempt.”~Tom Lemanski (soon to be famous)

Damage Control

The solution is so simple, yet too often lost on otherwise intelligent people. For those who have already fallen into the trap, here is my simple four step plan…

1. If you can’t “do what you say”, STOP saying it!
2. Buck up and tell the truth.
3. Admit that you were wrong and make a promise that you can keep.
4. Then keep that promise like your reputation depends on it.

Your Tough Time Opportunity

As things get tougher and as fewer people and fewer companies keep their promises, you have an opportunity to gain the rewards offered by taking the high road. As the high road increasingly becomes the road less traveled, consider the rewards available for taking this route.

Our integrity is NOT measured by what we do when life is good. Its about how we behave when no one is looking and when keeping your promises becomes more challenging.

A reputation takes a lifetime to build and can be destroyed in an instant.

The next time you’re tempted by short term gains to act contrary to your words, ask yourself…

• Is that short term gain really worth the risk? Is it ever?
• Am I really digging myself a deeper hole?
• Might I take this opportunity to differentiate and distinguish myself by taking the high road?

It has been said that business leaders evolve into one of three categories:

▪ Inspired ▪ Complacent ▪ Desperate

In 2001, author Jim Collins provided the inspired with a business bible for pursuing greatness, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t. Those attempting to implement the Good to Great (G2G) concepts have experienced mixed results. Too often, these well intentioned initiatives fall to flavor of the month status and fade away. This is particularly true with do-it-yourself efforts.

As I find organizations who have struggled with implementing the Good to Great principals, a frequent stumbling block is the book’s concept of first who, then what. Or, first get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figure out where to drive it.

First Who, Then What defined:

Before crafting your vision for greatness and determining your strategic direction, you should first recruit a great management team.

Why do Good to Great wannabes struggle with this principal?

This advise seems counter intuitive in our era of specialization. Why not match the people to the tasks at hand?

The prospect of getting the wrong people off the bus is potentially painful and frequently procrastinated. When you’re dealing with previously loyal people, it can be inconceivable for some to courageously say “I don’t know where we’re going, but you’re not coming with.” But that’s what these rare, level five leaders are able to do.

Regardless of your struggle with this Good To Great principal, there are nuggets worth exploring before throwing your inspired dreams for greatness out with the bathwater. The eleven Good to Great companies challenged and modified the old adage that “People are our most important asset” to “The RIGHT people are our most important asset.” If we can accept this, two questions remain?

Why are the right people more important than the vision?

If people are boarding the bus based on its destination, changing that direction becomes more difficult. Conversely, if those on board are there because of their belief in those already there, inevitable change is easier achieved. “Great vision without great people is irrelevant.”

In absence of knowing our destination and tactics , how do we identify the right people?

There are fundamental leadership attributes that are universal and can be identified and discovered in your hiring process and verified through assessments. Cultural match is another criteria. So while your vision may not be in place, you must define and prioritize your core values to properly define the right people for the seats on your bus.

Is “First Who, Then What” Non-negotiable?

Perhaps the first who, then what philosophy is not for everyone pursuing greatness. Just because Jim Collins discovered this with eleven great publicly traded companies, doesn’t make it the prescribed path for your scenarios. Sometimes your passengers are predetermined. Then, the key is to discover and develop their capacities for greatness and get them in the right seats. The right seat, for some, may be at the back of the bus. That decision, effectively communicated, can serve to get them off voluntarily. In our process for benchmarking executive jobs for optimal fit, we work to first understand the key accountabilities then define the attributes needed to achieve. We then assess qualified internal and external candidates to the benchmark. If you have yet to craft your vision and supporting goals, assessing fit is more challenging as specific, predefined goals and strategies that would typically define a position’s accountabilities are unknown. That said, we can still identify people with high performance potential. Considering the assessment tools and processes that we have, knowledge of the goals and accountabilities of a position in advance will support a more informed hiring decision.

Reconciling Your Good To Great, Chicken and Egg Debate

So this generates some new questions. Is it desirable to fore go understanding accountabilities and goals for a position and simply pursue talent? If you are not a publicly traded company (as the G2G ones are) is it more or less difficult to clean house?

Which ever comes first in your pursuit of greatness: vision or people, there are two G2G concepts that you must embrace:

• “Great vision without great people is irrelevant.”
• “The RIGHT people are our most important asset.”

My advise for Good To Great wannabes is not to allow this chicken and egg debate to prevent you from building an uncompromising mindset and discipline for getting the right people on your bus and the wrong people off.

For those who are both inspired and open to new approaches for filling the seats on your bus more effectively, we have a site appropriately named ExecutiveTalentAssessments.com that explains how. You may also benefit from my thoughts on The Pursuit of Level Five Leadership. Level Five Leaders, as Jim Collins defines them, are a unique breed. How you identify and develop them?   >> Read more >>

• Learn About Our Services for Aspiring Good To Great Organizations

• Read our other Good To Great Articles
• The Successor to Good To Great: Conscious Capitalism

Each year, the typical American company invests 36% of their sales in their human capital. According to the book, Play to Your Strengths, “human capital is the biggest investment about which management knows the least.”

 Puzzle Piece #1

Job Descriptions Done Properly

In the interest of learning more about this investment, let’s explore an often neglected, misused and underutilized tool, the job description.

 Job Description Defined

A job description is detailed analysis and definition of a job; all the duties, responsibilities, and conditions required in the performance of a particular job.

OK, But Why Bother?

If your job descriptions are merely a list of activities, qualifications and generic responsibilities, I’m guessing that your performance reviews are a frustrating exercise for both the managers and their subordinates. Perhaps a waste of time and resources?

Every job should have a purpose: an expectation for achievements that result from that list of job description tasks. How effective are we at communicating these expectations? All too often, the goals and desired achievements are undefined. We communicate the what and how of a position with minimal communication of the why. If you want star performances, wouldn’t it make sense to define, in measurable terms, what star performance should look like? How often do we skip this step and in effect, hire and hope.

Quick Quiz

Do your Job/Position Descriptions…

• exist at all?
• exist for reasons other than to satisfy compliance requirements or to justify terminations?
• play a functional role in recruiting and developing potential high achievers?
• provide the basis for meaningful, ongoing performance reviews?
• describe the role that the job plays in the pursuit of the organization’s strategic plan?
• provide criteria that enable the person doing the job to instinctively answer the question: “What should I do first?”
• list the key measurable achievements for which the person is accountable?

How many items could you check? The fewer you’ve done, the more likely you’re squandering that investment that, for most, is 36% of your sales! Using the form below, you can send me your results.

In the absence of meaningful job descriptions with mutually understood accountabilities, you are more likely to have a lot of well intentioned, busy people who struggle to make decisions and don’t get much accomplished. You’re playing a game we might call stump the chump. And winners are tough to find.

Puzzle Piece #2

Identifying Potential Peak Performers

Improving your Job Descriptions and performance review process are a good place to start improving your return on human capital.

Another piece of The Performance Puzzle is to assure that you have the right people in the right jobs. For that, I recommend exploring a process called Job Benchmarking. By combining computer science with behavioral science, you gain unprecedented insight for promotion and hiring decisions. It reduces your risk of a bad hire and predicts areas for improvement where even successful candidates will struggle.

Having used Job Benchmarking, I would never make a key hiring or promotion decision without it.