Leadership

Problem Leaders Are Still Common

As I work with senior executives around the country, it’s apparent that problem leaders abound. These are leaders who, although bright and experienced, cause problems within the workplace and make progress that much harder.

I’m regularly brought in to coach these problem leaders and I’ve found that the issues often fall into several categories, namely 1) lack of strategic thinking, 2) inability to influence and gain buy-in for their ideas, and 3) feeling the need to micromanage their team.

1) Lack of Strategic Thinking

A lack of strategic thinking often exists because for years prior to someone becoming a leader, they mastered the art of thinking tactically rather than strategically. In addition, they tend to see things in their “silo” – which results in a narrow focus rather than a broader, higher-level perspective. All of which leads to another common issue. The issue of addressing symptoms rather than the underlying problems.

Each of these issues causes friction in the workplace, slows progress, and frustrates everyone. Plus, to compound things, they have blind spots. They can’t see what they’re missing.

Helping them learn to think strategically and more broadly makes them (and their team) more effective.

2) Inability to Influence

The inability to influence others and to get buy-in for ideas is one of the most common sources of frustration and friction with leaders.

Because of their years of experience, they often have good ideas – ideas for driving results, solving problems, and/or moving in a new direction. The problem is that unless they get buy-in for those ideas, the best they can hope for is compliance from their team. And as we know, the results from a committed team are very different than from those of a team that is simply compliant.

The longer this dynamic continues, the more frustrated the leader becomes. And the more frustrated they become, the more agitated and confrontational they become.

Showing them how to have greater influence and how to be more persuasive has a positive and immediate impact.

3) Feeling the Need to Micromanage

Leaders who feel the need to micromanage cause widespread disengagement within their team, which of course, leads to low productivity and high turnover.

Leaders who micromanage don’t understand how to lead professionals. They don’t engage or listen to their teams. They don’t create a trusting environment. They treat adults like children. And they even treat people like “things”.

The key to effectively leading professionals is to treat professionals like professionals.

At the heart of this approach is the reality that most professionals want to do a good job. They want to produce professional results. Consequently, a leader doesn’t need to constantly monitor the work and progress of a professional. Instead, they need to ensure that the person is clear about what needs to be done, what the outcome needs to be, and when the task needs to be completed.

Once all of this is established, the leader needs to leave them alone to complete their work. They can (and should) wait for and expect the results to be delivered with quality and on time.

Helping leaders learn to let go while still holding people accountable is key to making them more effective.

If you’d like further insights on how to deal with problem leaders and make them more effective, feel free to download my whitepaper on
Strategies for Dealing with a “Problem Leader”: https://www.elicitingexcellence.com/problem-leader-strategies

Strategies for Being Highly Productive

An effective executive needs to be highly productive. Being highly productive not only allows us to accomplish more, but it also lowers feelings of stress and anxiety.

Many executives attempt greater productivity through prioritized lists and calendar management, but I don’t know anyone who’s actually been able to achieve high productivity on a consistent basis using these strategies. It’s not that the strategies don’t work. They do. But without another critical component in place, they’re only of limited usefulness.

Don’t you find it interesting how much more productive we are in the days leading up to a vacation? We plow through the important phone calls that have to be made, respond to all the important emails, and clear our desk of all the paperwork that needs attention. By the time we leave on vacation, everything important has been attended to. Why is that?

The reason we’re able to achieve so much relates to energy management.

The energy I’m referring to has four components to it, and the management of those energy reserves is essential for being highly productive. Our energy reserves are like a four-legged stool. We’re all familiar with the analogy of a three-legged stool. Without all three legs being of equal length, the stool is useless. But with a four-legged stool, even if one of the legs is shorter, it can still be used by exerting a bit of effort and balance. It’s not especially comfortable and requires ongoing expenditure of energy to maintain, but it is functional. The same goes for our four energy reserves. We can function even if one or more of our reserves is depleted, but it’s inefficient, draining, and it negatively impacts our productivity.

These four energy reserves are Physical Energy, Mental Energy, Emotional Energy, and Inspirational Energy. Let me briefly discuss each energy reserve and then offer some strategies to help keep them full.

Physical energy affects our ability to push forward. It helps our drive and our self-discipline. If you’ve ever had a “mid-afternoon crash”, then you’ve experienced the impact a low physical energy can have on productivity.

Mental energy affects our ability to think clearly, to concentrate and focus, to solve problems, and to be creative. Clearly, low mental energy hampers productivity.

Emotional energy impacts our ability to deal with stress, to communicate well, to think clearly, and to interact with others effectively. For example, it’s not uncommon to become short with people when we’re feeling stressed or tense, both of which are caused by low emotional energy.

Inspirational energy is the fuel that moves us to action. It is our passion, purpose, and inspiration that spark self-discipline, extra effort, and new direction. In the absence of inspiration, we end up just going through the motions. Low inspirational energy saps the productive juices out of us.

In order to stay highly productive, it’s essential to develop habits that replenish our energy reserves. There are five strategies that help accomplish this. Some are counter-intuitive and often overlooked, but don’t be fooled by their simplicity. For years they’ve allowed me to accomplish about 50% more than most people do.

High Productivity Strategy #1: Take Breaks
This is the most counter-intuitive of the strategies. After all, how can you become more productive by not working? Here’s why it works…

Most of us have the capacity to stay focused, concentrate well and work hard for about 1.5-2 hours at a time. After that, our focus, accuracy and creativity tend to drop. Ever notice that first thing in the morning you’re able to work quickly, efficiently, and accurately, but as the day wears on, your pace and enthusiasm wane? By taking a 20-30 minute break every 1.5-2 hours or so, you recharge yourself and return to work with the same enthusiasm you had at the beginning of the day.

Take a 20-30 minute break every 1.5-2 hrs.
(The secret to maximizing the impact of those breaks is what you do during them. This is where the second and third strategies for high productivity come into play.)

High Productivity Strategy #2: Eat Strategically
Most people think about what to eat in terms of weight or general health, but nutrition also serves another important purpose.

What and when we eat controls our blood sugar levels. When our blood sugar drops too low, our productivity, focus, and creativity suffer. Remember that mid-afternoon “crash”? It’s due to a drop in blood sugar (often as a consequence of a carb-laden lunch). Eating strategically means eating protein, fat, and some carbohydrate during your breaks. This mix controls the pace at which nutrition is absorbed, which stabilizes your blood sugar level and provides essential nutrients to your brain and your muscles.

Eat strategically throughout the day.

High Productivity Strategy #3: Get Up and Move
During those breaks discussed in Strategy #1, it’s important to get up from your desk and move. Walk around the office, go outside and get some fresh air, run errands, or do chores. Movement helps oxygenate your muscles, your organs, and your brain. It can also help reduce tension and stress, and helps you get refocused.

Do whatever you want during your breaks, but do something.

High Productivity Strategy #4: Release Stress
Being under constant, prolonged and/or high stress undermines our ability to think clearly. We’ve all seen what happens to someone who’s suddenly put under stress. They have a hard time formulating a thought or even completing a sentence.

Therefore, to be highly productive, it is essential to relieve feelings of stress and anxiety. Some people release stress by listening to music. Some enjoy meditating. Others release stress by going to the gym. And still others find that being out in nature helps them decompress.

No matter what you do to relieve stress, it’s just important that you do it.

High Productivity Strategy #5: Get Restful Sleep
Getting a sufficient number of hours of restful sleep allows your body to repair itself and your mind to process ideas and problems. Insufficient or restless sleep will cause a lack of mental sharpness, anxiety, and poor emotional control.

In order to get a restful night’s sleep, avoid caffeine late in the day and avoid eating a heavy, fat-laden, carbohydrate-laden meal late in the evening. Caffeine will keep you from falling asleep quickly and eating a late, heavy meal will cause your body to work hard digesting while you sleep instead of attending to the other tasks necessary for recharging and revitalization.

Eat strategically to ensure a restful night’s sleep.

In summary, managing your energy reserves combined with prioritization of tasks will make you a productivity superstar. Get in the habit of taking breaks every couple of hours, eating strategically throughout the day, getting up and moving, releasing stress, and adopting a lifestyle that allows you to get restful sleep.

Moving From Compliant to Committed

As you well know, a team or an organization that is simply compliant produces mediocre results. On the other hand, if people are engaged and committed, the results are very different.

When someone is compliant, they simply obey – doing what’s asked of them but no more. Typically they’re doing just enough to keep their job. In contrast, someone who’s committed will spend time and effort outside of normal business hours thinking about work, solving problems, finding better ways to get the job done, seeking out new insights, and taking action.

What causes someone to be committed? There are a number of drivers of commitment. The first is that they need to have some degree of self-motivation. If a person isn’t self-motivated about the work they’re doing, they should find a job that has the kind of work they can be enthused about.

The second driver of commitment involves the person they report to – their leader/boss. A motivated, committed person will soon become unhappy if their boss is someone they don’t trust and respect.
Trust and respect must be earned over time. Trust is earned by acting with integrity and by acting in integrity. Acting with integrity means doing what you say you will do and acting in integrity means being the kind of person you claim to be.

Trust grows when a leader follows through on their commitments, and mistrust grows when they don’t follow through. Trust grows as a leader consistently acts in alignment with the values they say matter to them, and mistrust grows when someone claims to embrace certain values but acts in a manner at odds with them.

When it comes to respect, a leader demonstrates they respect someone when they listen to their ideas and interact with them in a respectful manner. When a leader doesn’t value people and doesn’t treat them with respect, their team loses respect for them.

The third driver of commitment involves the culture of the organization. A company that lives by the core values that matter to it drives engagement and commitment. On the other hand, an organization that claims certain core values but acts in ways which clearly demonstrate that those values don’t matter, soon causes widespread disillusionment and disengagement. It’s just like a leader professing the importance of certain values but acting in a manner at odds with those values. When a company tolerates bad behavior, it demonstrates a lack of integrity, which leads to a loss of trust and respect within the organization.

The fourth and final driver of commitment involves the nature of initiatives undertaken by the company, the department, or the team. An initiative without a reason, lacking any purpose other than to make the person who set the goal look good, leaves people flat. If an initiative is to drive commitment, there needs to be a “why”. People become engaged and committed when they believe in what they’re doing and feel they are making a difference.

If you want a committed workforce, start by ensuring that skilled people are being hired who are self-motivated and aligned with the organization’s culture. Ensure that leaders at all levels improve their interpersonal skills. Take a good hard look at whether the organization is living up to the core values it claims to embrace. And be clear about why initiatives are being undertaken.

If you’d like help driving engagement and commitment, let’s find a time to talk.
Helping leaders drive stronger results is my passion.

Company Culture: By Design or Default?

A company’s culture has a significant impact on attracting and retaining good employees, boosting engagement, and achieving a strong bottom line.

Over the years, I’ve had some interesting conversations with clients regarding their company’s culture. I remember one client (someone I was helping to groom as the owner’s successor). He told me how much they value their culture. Not only that, but they felt very strongly about “hiring to their culture”. In other words, they made certain that every new hire understood how important the company’s culture was.

As an executive coach focused on effective leadership, these statements were music to my ears! I naturally asked him, “So, what IS your company’s culture?” AND HE HAD NO ANSWER! It turns out, when they speak to new hires about culture, they simply tell them that their culture was important but offered no guidance as to what that was or what it meant. So, I gave him an assignment to better define their culture and reduce it to a handful of statements.

In our next coaching session, we discussed the list of values and behaviors the company strove to live by. We spent that session refining and clarifying the list so he could better express what mattered to the company to new hires and so he could better hold employees accountable to those values and behaviors.

I had a very different conversation with another client (the president of a company). This client had very clearly defined their culture and made sure that new hires were aware of it. But there was a problem. In fact, it was a major problem.

You see, most people think that a company’s culture is defined by the values and behaviors a company aspires to. That sounds great and makes sense. Except it’s not true…

A company’s culture is defined by the values and behaviors the company tolerates.

And who does that tolerating? The leaders do. The values and behaviors that the leaders tolerate become the company’s culture. But it doesn’t end there. It gets worse. When a leader professes to value a behavior but acts in a manner at odds with it, it demonstrates a lack of integrity. And when a leader is seen to lack integrity, people stop trusting and lose respect for that leader. And when people lose trust and respect for a leader, engagement drops and productivity suffers.

And that’s exactly what was happening at his company. Even worse, my client was as guilty as anyone in the company, acting at odds with the stated culture. Nevertheless, he couldn’t understand why they had so much trouble making progress and holding people accountable. Consequently, we began strategizing about how to change his behavior and the behavior of other leaders within the company.

So, here’s the bottom line…. A company’s culture needs to be defined. A culture that exists by default is always inferior and leads to lower engagement. And although a defined culture is superior to a culture by default, it only works when the leaders live by those values and behaviors. Plus, those leaders must not tolerate non-aligned behavior by others.
A positive, well-defined culture that people live by will attract better employees, and will result in stronger engagement and improved profitability.

How to Make Smarter Decisions

As a leader, you’re regularly making decisions that affect your organization. Good decisions drive profits and engagement. Poor decisions, on the other hand, cause disengagement and erode profits. Granted, we all make mistakes. But our goal is to minimize missteps and make the best decisions possible.

And while intelligence, education, and experience are important factors in making smart decisions, there is another factor that plays a significant role in the quality of those decisions.

That factor relates to stress.

First, let me explain why and how stress affects our decision-making, and then explore what to do about it.

The brain is made up of three parts – the reptilian brain, the amygdala, and the neocortex. (Yes…. I know I’m oversimplifying things.) The reptilian brain controls our autonomic functions – things like breathing, heartbeat, and digestion. The amygdala is the emotional center of the brain. It’s where emotions are processed and where the “fight-or-flight” response resides. And the neocortex is where logical thinking and creativity take place.

When we’re under stress, the amygdala starts to take over. And if the stress increases, our fight-or-flight response kicks in. This hard-wired response developed when we lived in an age when we were often faced with real life-or-death situations. It was important to make an instant decision. Fight to save yourself or flee to save yourself. We didn’t have the luxury of thinking things through. Hesitation could prove fatal.

Therefore, to cause us to make an instant decision during high stress, the body cuts out the neocortex. It essentially keeps us from thinking.

We’ve all seen examples of this dynamic in action. We’ve seen someone who – under pressure or stress – can barely form a sentence, let alone make a smart decision.

That’s why being under stress hampers our decision-making abilities.

As for what to do about this, the obvious answer is clear. Avoid or reduce stress. But as you know, that’s often easier said than done. Things like eating better, getting restful sleep and exercising will all help alleviate stress. But we’re still going to experience stress. There always seem to be stress-causing issues in our life.

There is, however, an interesting strategy for minimizing the number of stressful situations you need to deal with as a leader.

Over my years as an executive coach, as I’ve helped my clients become more effective leaders, I’ve asked them to draw out the following diagram:

After they’ve created this matrix, I’ll ask, “Ideally, in which quadrant do you want to spend most of your time?”

The majority of my clients tell me that ideally, they should be spending their day on important and urgent matters.

And then I’ll ask them, “What do you call matters that are important and urgent?”

The answer, of course, is that we call urgent, important matters “fires”. I’ll point out to my clients that they just said that in their ideal world, they’d like to spend the majority of their time putting out fires! (Which of course, produces lots of stress.)

If you’re spending your days putting out fires and you’re under constant stress, you can’t think clearly and you’re unable to make the best decisions you’re capable of making.

How do you get off this “hamster wheel” of putting out fires?

Obviously, you need to first put out the fires. After all, they’re important and urgent. The key is what happens next. Once an urgent matter is addressed, it is essential to carve out some time to step back and reflect on the answer to the question, “How can I prevent this from happening again?”

In other words, the key to clear thinking and smart decision-making is to address the important before it becomes urgent. Only by giving thought to this can you – as a leader – get off the hamster wheel of putting out fires.

In order to facilitate clarity of thought, I recommend getting out of your work environment. Get away from the computer and get away from the office. Take a pad of paper and go somewhere. For example, go to a coffee shop or a park or even your backyard. You’ll be surprised at the clarity of thought you’ll get. (It’s something I do every day.)

And as you begin to address important matters before they become urgent, your days will begin to quiet down. And as your days begin to quiet down, your discretionary time increases.

And as your discretionary time increases, you’ll have more time to think about other important decisions, develop better strategies, and clarify your vision for your team and your organization.