Leadership Caffeine: Motivate with Context
Filed under: Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Performance, Strategy, Surviving Lousy Leaders
Overheard:
Why are we doing this project?
I don’t know who is making these priority calls. They don’t make any sense.
We’re so far removed from the customer, no one notices what we do.
During my review, I was encouraged to innovate more. I don’t know what that means.
Context and the “Walk In the Door” Test:
In workshop settings, I frequently poll participants on what I call, “The Walk In the Door Test.” It goes something like this: “When you walk in the door in the morning, can you connect your priorities to the strategic priorities of your firm (or business unit)?”
I’m never surprised, but always disappointed that only about half of the participants admit they CAN connect their priorities to the important issues of their firm. The rest are honest (and frustrated) enough to admit in public, that they struggle with understanding the context for their work.
A few weeks ago, a corporate trainer indicated to me: “I’m not certain what the managers want their people to get out of the program, but I’m going to train them anyways.” Too bad for the participants.
Beware Context Deficit Disorder:
The employees quoted above, the disconnected and under-informed trainer and my honest survey respondents all share one thing in common…they all suffer from Context Deficit Disorder (CDD).
Too many mediocre managers and lousy leaders send their teams into battle on a daily basis armed with nothing more than a “go get ‘em,” and a metaphorical slap on the back. There’s no connection between the work and the key objectives of the firm or the pursuit of creating value for customers.
Think of the many mediocre (or worse) customer experiences you encounter in a typical week. There’s the inattentive server, the cashier who never makes eye contact, the grumpy phone support personnel or, my favorite, the guard dog receptionist you came up against at the doctor’s office. They all lack proper context for their work. (We’ll leave the doctor who rushes through your examination seemingly on a mission to set a new land-speed record for spending as little time as possible with patients, for another topic on another day!
These individuals lack context for the importance of their work and the impact they have on people who vote with their dollars and feet. I’ll dump the blame squarely on the shoulders of the managers who allow their people to engage with others without providing clarity for their mission and building in accountability for carrying it out in good form.
Forget the Posters and Cheerleading and Instead, Provide Clear Context:
We waste fortunes inside our organizations on misguided programs and oddball incentives, seeking ways to motivate and inspire people to work hard, innovate, create, care and to live up to their potential, when the real solution is literally on the tip of our tongues.
People do their best work when they understand how their work fits into the bigger picture. This is the critical context that fuels revolutions, promotes perseverance and encourages creativity. People working for a cause are exponentially more powerful than people working for a paycheck. Management by paycheck is little more than motivating people at the end of a gun barrel. Alternatively, management by context creates a sense of purpose that is essential for tapping into people’s extra stores of energy and their best creativity.
Of course, context comes in many sizes and shapes. I don’t necessarily expect the front-line cashier to be familiar with the nuances of the firm’s strategies, however, I do expect this individual to have an absolutely clear understanding of how customers help the business go and grow. Alternatively, the project manager leading a major new development initiative must understand how the project fits into the firm’s future plans to open new markets, capture more customers and beat competitors.
While the level and detail of context may vary by position and mission, it must be present for everyone all of the time.
5 Ideas for Curing Context Deficit Disorder
1. Establish connectivity. Never ask someone to do something with out linking the request to a clear business rationale.
2. Create forums to improve understanding. Provide opportunities for the people doing the work to ask questions about the value of the work.
3. Create forums to improve understanding, part 2. Don’t keep the strategic issues locked in a drawer. Share liberally on the big picture issues in your market and with your customers and involve people in translating high-level goals into meaningful and connected front-line activities. Help your people improve their “Walk in the Door Test” results!
4. Make metrics meaningful. If you are going to the trouble of developing scorecards and other systems of measurement, make certain you both share and explain the metrics to the people being measured.
5. Provide opportunities for the people doing the work to share ideas for improvement. And then let them implement these ideas.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
This topic reminds me of the old story about the workers moving a pile of rocks. When asked what he is doing, the first worker indicates, “I’m moving this pile of rocks from here to there.” The second one is asked the same question and responds, “I’m helping to build a cathedral.” I certainly know which one I want on my team. Do your employees and team members see the future cathedrals in their work at your organization?
Management Excellence Book Series: Six Disciplines Execution Revolution with Gary Harpst
I started this book series to share the insights and approaches of some truly sharp people on solving vexing business problems. This particular interview with Gary Harpst, author of, Six Disciplines Execution Revolution and the earlier Six Disciplines for Excellence, taps into Gary’s hard won, practical experience and his great ideas on helping small and mid-sized businesses deal with strategy execution.
On a personal note, the discussion, while remaining true to the strategy execution topic, ranged fairly far beyond the borders of the book. Talking with Gary during this interview was like engaging with the wise, thoughtful and helpful business advisor that we all wish we had. Gary offers experienced based, actionable ideas on improving business performance through great execution, that we can all put to use immediately.
Gary’s premise for his “Business Excellence Model” is described in the book as:
- “Excellence is the enduring pursuit of balanced strategy and execution.”
- “Planning and executing, while at the same time dealing with the inevitable surprises, is the biggest challenge in business.
- “Overcoming this challenge is what we mean by “solving the problem that makes all others easier.”
- “Failing to solve the problem destines your organization to a reactive, fire-fighting future.
During the podcast, we talk about the different stages/phases found in the “Business Excellence Model,” and reference the four-box matrix pictured here:
Enjoy the podcast and this unique opportunity to learn from someone that has lived what he is talking about from the business-owner’s side of the table, and now helps clients realize success by guiding them on effective strategy execution. I’m thrilled to feature Gary Harpst and his important thoughts on strategy execution here in the Management Excellence Book Series!
Gary Harpst Six Disciplines Execution Revolution podcast [ 27:57 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download–
Note from Art: I purchased the book, Six Disciplines Execution Revolution on my own and have no commercial motive for sharing this podcast and linking to Gary’s website. The Management Excellence Book Series podcasts are intended to share thoughts from leading figures in business and management writing.
The Importance of Strategy Fueled Leadership
Filed under: "To Do" List, Leadership, Performance, Project Management, Strategy
I’ve written on the topic of Strategy Fueled Leadership several times, and fresh off of a great podcast interview with Gary Harpst, author of Six Disciplines Execution Revolution (stay tuned for my posting) and my recent interview with Jocelyn Davis for Strategic Speed, I am on my soapbox again.
It is critical to link leadership with strategy and vice-versa and the failure to do this is one of the root causes of strategy and execution failure in organizations.
Soft Soap:
Much of the writing and talking about leadership appropriately emphasizes the softer side of things. Creating a great working environment, building credibility, leading with fairness, providing motivation and even inspiration…all of these are important. There’s a good chunk of my half-million blog words tied to those issues.
Nonetheless, the tremendous energy required to develop as a leader and to develop leaders around you is an exercise in human relations if it is not intrinsically connected to the underlying purpose of the enterprise…solving vexing problems for others and making or generating money.
I’ll invoke Drucker’s view as to the purpose of an organization: “The purpose of an organization is to acquire and keep customers.” Choose his version or your own favorite form of “maximize value for…” definition and the issue is still the same.
Leadership uncoupled from strategy might as well be counseling.
Unfortunately, We Kind of Suck at Strategy:
- Year in and year out, one of the top concerns of global CEOs is the struggle that their firms face in executing strategy. McKinsey’s year-end surveys are a great source, and the recent Harvard Business Review research focused on this topic underscores this issue.
- I regularly poll on my “walk in the door” test in workshops and consulting sessions. The question is simple: “How many of you can connect your own priorities to the strategic priorities of your firm?” You can be certain that less than half (sometimes way less) can pass this simple test.
- In Strategic Speed, the authors identify some insane number of strategies that are abandoned due to the inability to execute. Their findings, “It’s the people, stupid.”
- In Six Disciplines Execution Revolution, Gary does a great job of making the case that most small to mid-sized firms spend most of their useful time somewhere out of balance between strategy and execution, often getting lost in operations or fire-fighting mode while neglecting both the “what next?” and the issues surrounding “how do we execute, learn and improve?”
Strategy is Everyone’s Business:
It’s critical for everyone in an organization to be attuned to their firm’s strategies and priorities, and to be part of the execution and feedback/learning processes. It’s doubly important for those managers making key calls every day on how people spend their time, to be attuned to strategy.
When suggesting this “everyone is involved” concept before, I’ve received pushback that it’s too cumbersome…and not everyone gets a vote. These points miss the point. There are undoubtedly key calls that need to be made by the people operating at high levels. However, the work of implementing happens below those making the big calls, and all of the rich organizational learning opportunities including customer feedback, competitor response and “Ah Ha” moments take place somewhere well below the C-Suite.
Leading with Strategy Creates Context:
People do their best work when they have context for the importance and relevance of the work. Strategy provides that context in the workplace.
What might be just an IT improvement project to one team charged with the responsibility for carrying it out, may well to another group be a critical enabler of strategy, that once implemented will dramatically improve the ability to engage, support and even sell more to existing customers.
It’s much like the old story of the two stone-cutters that were asked what they were working on. One responded, “I’m cutting these stones into blocks.” The other answered, “I’m building a cathedral.” Context plus inspiration!
The Bottom-line for Now:
Gary articulated the importance of getting all layers of leadership involved in understanding strategy and translating that into execution. Jocelyn and her co-authors build a compelling case that the execution problems that bedevil so many organizations, are in fact people and communication problems. I agree.
It’s time to put the strategy into leadership and start counseling and coaching with context.
Art to Help Kick-Off Project Leadership Forum at Harrisburg University
Filed under: Leadership, Performance, Professional Growth, Project Management
As a long-time, self-described zealot for the importance of project managers developing as leaders, imagine how excited I was to learn about a conference devoted to just this topic! I’ve written at length in this blog (Learning to Lead in the Project Focused World and others) and even offered up my e-book, Leadership and the Project Manager, in support of this concept.
I’m even more excited to be a part of the conference as a guest keynote as the Project Leadership Forum kicks-off on Thursday in Harrisburg, PA.
From the release: The 2010 forum focuses on how to increase projects’ ROI by using leadership practices to influence results and reduce failure rates.
I suppose in true zealot fashion, if I were writing the release, I might trumpet something to the effect that great project managers….that have developed and practice as effective leaders are THE X factor in project success!
I might go on to talk about the remarkable opportunities that firms have to create value, improve performance, improve the effectiveness of strategy execution, grow talent, foster learning and innovation and cure several other common managerial and organizational ailments if they develop effective project leadership cultures.
And finally, I would likely challenge executives to wake-up and recognize and support the opportunities to improve in this area, and I would cheer on project managers to seize the day and grow their careers and increase their value to their firms by developing as leaders.
Of course, to hear all of that and much more, you would have to join us in Harrisburg, PA at the University on Thursday, May 11. The line-up of guests, case studies and break-out sessions is certain to inspire and motivate anyone that is interested in strengthening project performance!
Congratulations to the great professionals at Harrisburg University for recognizing the value in this important topic and to Jennifer Reiner, the Director of Strategic Program Management and the team for devoting their energy to producing this exciting event!
Want Growth? You Might Try Slowing Down to Speed Up
Filed under: Decision-Making, Leadership, Performance, Project Management, Strategy
Jocelyn R. Davis and Tom Atkinson offer some compelling thoughts on strategy in their article, “Need Speed? Slow Down,” in the May, 2010 Harvard Business Review. They describe the concept of strategic speed as one of reducing the time it takes to create value. While “reducing time” might sound like speeding up, their research results suggest the opposite.
In their research of 343 companies, the two found that, “the companies that embraced initiatives and chose to go, go, go to try and gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating profits than those that paused at key moments to make sure they were on the right track. What’s more, the firms that “slowed down to speed up” improved their top and bottom lines, averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating profits over a three year period.”
Anecdotally, just a few days ago, I chatted with a valued colleague dealing with the problems of growth at his market-leading firm, and he described a culture that was laser focused on very few initiatives and committed to moving slowly and deliberately to ensure quality. This firm intuitively gets the notion of strategic speed.
The Simplicity and Practicality of Strategic Speed for Your Business:
I love the concept as the authors express it. The notion of reducing the time that it takes to create value screams of jettisoning the undisciplined pursuit of more (Collins, How the Mighty Fall) and rails against exhortations from executives to do more, faster. It implies deliberately deciding what you will not do and carefully constructing your teams and processes to execute, learn, innovate and execute some more.
Many firms struggle with the “We’ve never met a project we didn’t like,” syndrome, saying yes to every opportunity that swims by, hoping that one or a few will hit it big. Others navigate the world shifting their business strategy to rationalize the next investment, acquisition or strategic partnership that once in place will change the game for the better. Employees look on and wonder and then go about their work with little context for what truly will create value and how to make decisions that will help the firm move faster towards value creation.
Moving at the pace of strategic speed as I envision it, allows an organization to arm its people with context, including a crystal clear understanding of customers and their vexing challenges. The right pace allows everyone to focus on creating great customer experiences and on improving systems, services and offerings that continue to meaningfully serve and differentiate.
The Bottom Line for Now:
There are no silver bullets in business, but there are some approaches that work better than others. If you’re looking for more from your business, you may want to consider slowing down, looking around and then choosing your next steps carefully. And plan on stopping a lot along the way.
Enjoy the slow ride to value creation!
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