Finding Time to Focus or, Speed Kills
Filed under: Career, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Leading Change, Making Decisions, Management Education, Organizational Transformation, Performance, Social Commentary
More observations on business and culture from an unofficial leadership anthropologist.
The lot of professionals inside many organizations can easily be characterized by a series of endless status meetings, hurried hallway conversations and messages quickly dispatched on a pda while walking, ignoring the meeting in process or consuming a protein bar on the run.
Space aliens observing from afar might get the sense of a hive type atmosphere with a seemingly endless amount of activity, but almost no perceived vector. Clearly people fawn over those with power, but the output of all of this fawning and excessive movement might not be visible to these distant observers. Nonetheless, work gets done, customers are served and growth often created. I do however, worry and wonder about the human costs and the cost to the organization in lost-ideas, missed opportunities and a much more superficial existence.
If you work in one of these fast-paced cultures, the issue of finding time to focus on people and strategic priorities is a true struggle. The problem is compounded if you get caught up in the common notion that success equates to being perceived by the right people as busy.
Beware the Micro-Transaction Trap:
I’ve noticed a tendency for some in hive type cultures to get caught up in achieving a maximum number of touches per day. The goal becomes one of earning attendance to meetings where you need to “be seen,” and minimizing the amount of time that you spend on any one topic. Deep thinking is not promoted, because you are too busy engaging in micro-transactions. These are quick sound-bite type engagements where surface topics are covered and conversations on deep issues forestalled for another time.
Another Way:
I contrast the micro-transaction or hive style culture with my own experiences working and partnering with a number of different U.S., Asian and European organizations, where thinking time is valued, and discussions are typically allowed to run a useful course…one not dictated by the next entry in an Outlook calendar.
While I cannot say conclusively whether these more deliberate organizations are more successful than their hive-like counterparts, they are all market leaders and they do well retaining and developing employees.
What I can say from personal observation and interaction is that this more deliberate style certainly seems more humane, more enjoyable and to me, one heck of a lot more productive on the right issues. Strategic issues are tackled, learning takes place and coaching and nurturing of talent is a focal point.
5 Reasons Why Lack of Focus Extracts a Toll Personally and Organizationally
1. Speed drains and kills. Constant movement and micro-transactions draw upon instinct and adrenaline. Survival is the goal, movement is required and it becomes habitual. There’s no deep processing going on in this constant sense and respond environment. Frankly, I want some deep thinkers on my team.
2. Excessive focus on pace squeezes out good leadership practices. A key to successful leadership is finding time to focus on others. While sometimes the army is engaged, and sense and respond are required for a period of time, eventually, there must be an opportunity rest, reflect, learn, plan and reset. An always on, micro-transaction culture is a formula that promotes leadership ineffectiveness and rapid troop burnout.
3. All activity, no vector equals poor or suboptimal results. A lot of activity and no vector is a huge waste of physical and mental energy. Strategy sets the vector, and unless this strategy is clear to all, the motion is for show, not for go or dough. Lack of focus extracts huge opportunity costs from an organization.
4. The criteria for getting ahead are off-key. If it’s required to be constantly visible to the people in power to succeed, frankly, the leadership is fatally flawed.
5. Unbridled speed accelerates mistakes. Speed is a powerful motivator and a false god. Speed creates waste and allows mistakes to run further faster. The effective use of speed is a different story. (I have a great podcast interview coming up with Jocelyn Davis, one of the co-authors of Strategic Speed, where this notion of effective speed is shared in detail.)
The Bottom-Line for Now:
Speed kills, and so does inaction compounded by over-analysis. There must be a happy medium or at least a workable balance of speed and activity with the slow, thoughtful dialogue that leads to new ideas, performance improvements and effective coaching. If you live and work in a hive type atmosphere, you’ve got a tough task, but one worth fighting for on a daily basis. Learn to slow down and focus at least once a day.
The Kids are Alright-Leadership Lessons from the Youngest Workers
Filed under: Leadership, Leadership Skills, Leading Change, Leading the Generations, Management Education, Professional Growth, Social Commentary, Talent Management
Chances are, we’ve all read about and heard from mid-career managers complaining about the younger generation entering the workforce.
The “don’t want to pay their dues,” and “you can’t pry them away from their PDAs,” and “poor work ethic” laments are in my opinion, lame copouts by managers stuck in their own inflexible ways. There’s good and bad in every generation, it’s just that this one feels different, because it is.
It’s Time to Look Beyond the Hovering Parents and Participation Trophies:
The “glass is half empty” crowd is quick to point out that today’s youngest workers are a product of the “Helicopter Parent” generation, with us hovering over their every move since birth, fighting their battles and cheering them on, win or lose. Others will offer that this is the “Participation Generation,” where endless hordes of children engaged in sporting activities earned trophies just for showing up. First place or fifth place, it didn’t matter, everyone went home with hardware.
You cannot dismiss a generation based on the behaviors and in some cases, slightly aberrant conditioning of the parents. I opt for the “glass is more than half full” view on this technologically savvy generation growing up in a world that is being transformed based on the march of technology. And I’ll throw my support behind a generation that has participated on teams of some sort for as long as they could walk. This is of course, a world increasingly composed of teams and projects, executed by using technology across borders to innovate, execute and compete. Hmmm. Nice training ground.
There are of course those that say that this generation doesn’t know how to lead. Well, although the following story is tinged with parental pride, there are more than a few leadership lessons that we can all learn from in this example. I know that I have.
Reinforcement that the Kids Might Be Alright:
My oldest son came home from his final day of his summer job rather excited at the feedback that he had received on his performance. The statement from the Executive Director of, “You can work here anytime,” was the one that felt good to him. That’s nice for a parent to hear too, but my leadership ears perked up when he started describing some of the more specific feedback.
As a quick caveat, this Eagle Scout and college senior son worked for an organization that sponsors summer camps for children with various developmental and learning challenges. He was assigned a primary child to work with and he multi-tasked in multiple roles as a leader, facilitator, and someone that was able to do whatever needed to get done. While there was a great deal of play involved, it was play with a purpose as he led and participated in activities with his primary child and other groups. Ensuring a positive and safe environment, promoting learning and sportsmanship and leading by example were all key components of the role.
The feedback that warmed my leadership heart included the terms and phrases: adaptability, creativity, ability to multi-task, great use of time and importantly, the ability to form a bond and help lead the child (and broader groups of children). I’ll stop here with specifics in the off chance that my son actually reads this post and questions my commitment to father-son confidentiality. Instead, let’s focus on the relevance of the feedback that he received to leading and succeeding in the emerging world.
4 Core Attributes of Our Future Leaders:
1. Adaptability: While we often struggle with change, this is a generation that has grown up while everything changed (9/11 to ubiquitous internet) to rapid acceleration in the forces driving globalization. Older workers struggle with change and easily see the risks and the negatives. The view from this youthful group is more of expecting change and searching for opportunities and the way forward.
2. Creativity: Given the state of near constant ambiguity that most businesses now wade through, the recognition of the need to be creative…to innovate and to pursue it without regard for convention is a huge plus. Most of us with time under our belts hesitate to delve too far into the unknown, and our hesitation costs us considerably in this fast moving world. A good dose of unencumbered creativity is just what many of our institutions and organizations require to move beyond the muck of this current era.
3. Multi-tasking: this 80’s era phrase should probably be replaced by something like parallelization or a word that describes the ability to engage with many on a variety of topics in real time and keep things moving forward. Watch your son or daughter hold court with a group of friends via the keyboard of their telephone, and you’ll understand that this generation gets how to bridge time and distance with a lot of people on a lot of topics simultaneously. The payoff in the workplace is the ability to process on and juggle many complex activities at light speed. Youth was a training ground for a new reality in terms of speed and work demands.
4. Ability to Bond: interestingly, while this might fly in the face of the more transactional communication described above, it’s my observation that this generation has the ability to identify with and relate to individuals across cultures and ethnicities at a level that earlier generations just can’t comprehend. The ability to accept and leverage diversity in the workforce is of course required, but for so many older workers, it’s been a learned behavior and not something innate. This generation is different in that regard.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
At the risk of being redundant, there’s good and bad in every group and in every generation. I’m not excusing the younger workers that display the behaviors that reinforce the negative stereotypes, but I’m not indicting a generation based on these bad apples. If you’re struggling to gain the benefit of the more youthful workers, I’ll submit that you’re likely a large part of the problem. As a more experienced (read: older) worker and leader, take off your generational blinders and look for the individuals motivated to help take your organization forward. Expect great things, work hard to foster the right working environment, and apply the same tenets of effective leadership that we all know are timeless, and you will be doing your part to secure the future.
Happy Independence Day!
I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival.
It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.
It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore.
— John Adams, letter to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776 (referring to the day before, when the resolution for independence was passed)
Hyper-Reality, Slimy Weasels and the Biting Words of a General
Filed under: Crisis Leadership, Current Affairs, Leadership, Making Decisions, Professional Growth, Social Commentary, Talent Management
Note from Art: this is not a political blog and there is no intent to communicate political leanings in this post. We are witnessing an unfortunate and fascinating leadership situation that involves poor judgment, bruised egos and potentially huge implications in the theater of conflict. Both lives and the difference between success and failure may be impacted by the outcome.
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I rarely follow a post with a related post, but the current stir created by General McChrystal, the senior military leader in Afghanistan, with his poor word choices and poor judgment in communicating with a reporter, begs a follow-on to Monday’s Leadership Caffeine post, The Word Selection of Journeyman Leaders.
General McChrystal clearly was not familiar with the Hyper-Reality approach to communicating preached and practiced by Ray Dalio, president of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund.
In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, entitled, “Money Talks: A Hedge Fund King Philosophizes on Truth and Weasels,” we learn a bit about the 295 principles that make up Mr. Dalio’s philosophy of “hyper-realism.” Specifically, we learn about Principal No. 11, which addresses the fact that, “Employees are not allowed to talk critically about someone unless the person is present.” It goes on to say:
“Principal No. 11: “Never say anything about a person that you wouldn’t say to him directly. If you do, you are a slimy weasel.”
As reported in the journal, if the employee breaks the rule three times, they can be fired.
Generaly McChrystal, for your transgression, you are a slimy weasel. Two more times and you are out. Now, please get back to doing what you have shown over a career that you can do so well and help us resolve this mess.
Mr. Obama, this is neither your McClellan or your MacArthur moment. (Although the historical repetition of the “Mc/Mac” is uncanny.) This is your opportunity to deal with a subordinate that slipped. Say what you have to say face-to-face and show us that you as the leader can take a shot to the ego and then let your General get back to work.
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Follow-Up from Art. Obviously, Mr. Obama did not agree. Again, a fascinating case in leadership.
Leadership Caffeine-Effective Leaders Learn to Pivot
Filed under: Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Leadership Skills, Leading the Generations, Management Education, Professional Growth, Social Commentary
Like the brother-in-law that you dodge at family gatherings to avoid his pitch on the latest “can’t fail, get rich quick” business scheme, some people are involved in a constant game of that childhood classic, Chutes and Ladders. Catch one ladder and you skip over the rest of us as we wind our way along on journeys of unknown destination and duration.
Occasionally, these short-cut seekers find their way into positions of business and leadership responsibility, and the results range from a preoccupation with the near-term to overt decisions to cut corners in an attempt to move faster. It’s a short-drive from cutting corners to committing egregious offenses against companies, stakeholders and society. This holds from Enron to B.P.
Leading is Not a Short-Term Game:
- There are no ladders that allow you to skip over the hard work of finding and developing talent.
- You can’t command people to create or to innovate…you have to foster the environment for these activities to flourish.
- You cannot lead effectively employing “do as I say, not as I do” tactics and you cannot avoid the tough people issues inherent in the role.
- Leading properly requires patience and the methodical application of timeless principles of respect, support, guidance, feedback and encouragement. There are no shortcuts for this hard work.
The leader has the one role that is required to look at the person today and see the leader or senior contributor they are capable of becoming tomorrow.
Leaders Must Learn to Pivot Between Today and the Future:
The pressures to operate in the short-term are fierce. It’s my observation that the challenges of leaders and leading have grown more complex over the two decades that I’ve had the privilege to serve.
The people issues haven’t changed, but the environmental factors driven by technology, time-compression and the shrinking globe all require leaders to operate much like a basketball player that has stopped his dribble. This individual can still move, but the motion is restricted to a pivot, with one foot planted and the other moving around the pivot.
Depending upon circumstances, the leader has a pivot foot planted either in the here-and-now or in the future.
When survival is threatened, it’s hard to think about the long-term, and emphasis is mostly in the present. The effective leader however, retains one foot in the future and recognizes that if and when survival is achieved, new talent and new leaders will be critical to sustaining.
During times of prosperity, the effective leader prepares for change and for the next crisis, and while the emphasis is on leveraging the positive circumstances, one foot is planted in the future looking for the leaders and the talent that will lead change or ensure survival when the time comes. And yes, that time always comes.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
The short-term pressures in our society are intense. From the drive for quarterly profits on Wall Street to the bombardment of messages promising that a pill will fix everything or that untold wealth is just a phone call and credit card order away (buy now and I’ll throw in the steak knives), we are increasingly a society of short-cut seekers.
We’ve got a solid decade of corporate scandals to show for this short-term pre-occupation, and the final chapter still hasn’t been written on the temporary blindness that brought the global economy to the brink of destruction.
The temptation to seek a shortcut in business is fierce. However, the effective leader understands the need to pivot between today’s pressures and tomorrow’s needs and opportunities. And while the pivot foot might change from time-to-time based on the leader’s judgment, the hard work of building for tomorrow is never far out of mind.
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