Blamestorming?

The act of an organization, or portion thereof, blaming other parts of the organization when there is a failure with a customer. Instead of finding or creation a solution for the customer they try to focus on why things happened.  Coming up with reason after reason for the failure but no resolution.

Business Case

“We spend all of our time trying to figure out who or what is to blame and none of it trying to fix the problem”, said the senior leader.  She was trying to figure out why the new “Focus on the Customer” strategy was not taking hold.  I had seen it too often – a great idea or strategy to improve business performance that actually decreases it.

Or organizations spend all their time looking for heads to roll –

“The board of directors was exhausted after a four hour blamestorming session which finally resulted in two names for the chopping block.” —Gab Halasz, Merriam Webster

Why does this happen?

It is as if organizations are built on the principles of self preservation….wait, they are.  Like any other organism, organizations actively work to survive.  Unfortunately in business, sometimes survival is the enemy of exceptional or superior performance.

The major thrust of Jim Collin’s exceptional book “Good to Great” was the chasm between the good and the great.  It is even evidenced recently.

The rash of companies that have failed in the past decade due to the “circling the wagon” mentality – Toyota, Goldman Sachs, BP and many more – or have lost market share because they can’t implement new strategies vital to their business’s success (think record labels dealing with the internet or US Steel Mills unable to deal with globalization). Clearly, there were efforts in all those companies to pull the organization towards a solution, but somehow it fell short.

It is almost understandable that a company would try to block or repel accusations of failure, but why would that happen internally? All the company’s departments are working towards the same goal, right?

Anyone that has worked in a company with more than one person knows that eventually people lose sight of the common goal. – Henry Ford

The storm clouds gather.

At some point in every employee’s career, they go from caring about the company to caring about themselves. Just like an individual organizations start out focused, driven and building solutions for their customer’s success.  But, companies too fall into the trap of caring more about their survival than the people or process that brought them success.

Chance of inclement weather and disaster

When companies reach the point that they do more “fixing the process” than solving customer problems, than blamestorming has taken over.  It is easy to see when this happens:

Once a company starts to go down the blamestorming path, these are the things that can happen:

• Increase in internal bureaucracy
• Lower employee morale
• Decrease in new ideas coming from employees, lower organizational creativity
• Lots of CYB (cover your butt) action like documenting every single interaction
• Increase in Customer attrition
• Overall lower organizational efficiency

When does the storm end?

Blamestorming is an organizational issue, but it can be addressed at many layers within the organization.

At the team level

1. Focus on the problem and solve it.

Sounds simple, right?  It is not as simple as it seems.  The idea is that the long term solution will come from solving the problem presented.  Once the problem is solved completely take the solution and analyze it.

• Why did the solution work?
• How can it be used again?
• Where can we leverage this solution?

1. Don’t focus on the process but the people

Process is important. It lends to organizational consistency, but once it is done for the sake of the process it is failing.  This is evidenced when leaders want employees to follow process over action or impact.  It is important that when solving a problem that individuals are taken into account.  Make sure that the people are taken care of while solving the problem.  All the people involved – customers, employees, vendors, etc. In the end people will make or break your process and the success of your company (just ask Jerry Reinsdorf how that went when Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, etc. left the Bulls)

At the macro (organizational) level

1. Mine for solutions

Organizations can foster a sense of pride and build creativity by promoting/highlighting solutions.  This is not collecting best practices.  Best practices have become “formulaic” and don’t allow for creativity.  It is showcasing solutions.  Promoting, as an organization, looking for and creating solutions.

1. Align to Strategy

This is going to sound a little bi-polar.  On one had organizations need to promote a solution focus.  That requires some freedom of thought and action where the primary objective is to solve organizational issues (customer problems, etc.) On the other hand there needs to be some focus on the focus.  That is there needs to be some direction or boundaries to the problems being solved.  Actions taken within the organization and to forward the organization should be taken towards a common end or strategy.  This will increase the overall organizational effectiveness. (quote and link here)

Why do something about it now?

A logical question might be, “Why should we worry about this now?”  Organizations that don’t will go the way to horse carriage makers, US Watch makers, etc.  These organizations did not see that they were not solving customer issues but holding on to a way to doing business or even product that wasn’t needed.

Does your organization focus on pointing the finger of blame rather than solving problems?  What does that cost you?  What has been done to interrupt that way of being?  I’d be curious to know!

Sometimes, reality bites.

Sometimes it’s just a nip at the ankle.

Other times, reality bites your hand.

And other times it jumps up and bites us in the back side.

One way that reality bites is when plans should go one way, but somehow take a detour and go another way in a totally wrong direction that leads to a dead-end. When this happens, we scratch our heads and wonder if somehow we woke up in the middle of “Opposite Day.”

Business Case

When organizations get into trouble with their businesses, the job of the leaders is to recognize what is happening and make the necessary changes to get things back on course. They need to be able to understand their current conditions and see what steps need to be taken by creating effective plans and strategies. Leaders should use all the resources at their disposal to execute their planning so that they have the best shot at correcting their course.

Using both internal talents and outside consultants, the leaders responsibility is to get the best plan at the most reasonable cost.

As a business consultant who works with organizations on developing plans for them, I am called upon to help create effective plans that implement positive changes. After working hard to develop a plan for a client, I recently “got bitten by reality.” The reality was that a client who clearly needed to change course “decided not to decide” on my new plan.

They loved the plan that I created and agreed that it would work, but they took a detour into no-man’s land. Even after an exhaustive search for potential vendors to create a plan to help them change course, the decision was made to…make no decision.

They were headed down the yellow brick road to a better place, but somehow got off track and took a detour.

Decision Making

The client loved the plan, but didn’t want to use it. What is that all about, I wondered?

To get my answers as to why the client “decided not to decide” to change, I did what all good consultants do; I did a Google search and asked my peers for the answer.  Here is what I found:

• Companies take, on average 15% longer to come to decisions about vendors, strategy and organizational changes (2009 Right Management Survey)
• 20% of companies, on average, decide that the best course of action is no action when deciding on strategy, vendors and organizational changes
• Internal decision-making processes add, on average, 10 to 20% more time tocomplete contracts, negotiations, etc.

Discovering this information made me even more curious.  Why would that be?  What could be the cause of this institutional analysis paralysis?  After some more conversation, research, and interviews I found some more fascinating facts:

• Only 1 in 5 employees trust their managers and leaders (Right Management study Trust in Managers in Short Supply)
• Stockholder challenges to organizational decisions is at an all time high
• Organizations are still using layoffs as a tool to meet profit goals

Fear Factor

It seems natural that companies are hesitant to make decisions because there is a lack of trust in (and for) the organization. In addition, the very people tasked to make decisions are too scared of making the wrong one.

What Can Be Done?

Here are 6 ways to help your organization become more effective in making decisions.

1.  86 the process

It is often said that nothing kills creativity like a good process.  Approval processes can be vital to success for large organizations.  They can help to manage cost and ensure accountability.  But, once a process is in place it tendsto take on a life of its own.

At times the process becomes so burdensome, that it is easier to just keep the status quo rather than bucking the system. It is important that questions like “Why are we doing this?” be asked on a regular basis.  There should be no process that isn’t scrutinized.

2. Encourage or Force Choice

This is tricky.  This requires managers and leaders to allow employees to make decisions or select new ways to doing things and rewarding them for doing so. This is not the norm for many organizations, departments, or teams.  Reward employees for making decisions.  Support them. Use the decision-making process as a learning opportunity. It will become a practiced skill that they will gain expertise the more they do it.

3. Take Actions To Increase Trust

Every effort should be made to increase trust on a regular basis.  Patrick Lencioni, the author of 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, has shown that the foundation of every successful team is trust.  But, it is often the first area where many teams fail.  There is not an emphasis on trust at organizations where it vanishes so quickly. In order to create high performance organizations building trust is paramount.

4.  Keep Changing

A great lesson can be learned from Ingar Skaug.  He was the CEO of Wilh. Wilhelmsen Lines, ASA a major ship building company.  Through tragedy he helped his company transform itself.  Although very successful ASA had become stagnant and resistant to change.  Skaug knew that this would be its downfall.  He encouraged decision-making that lead to change.

5. Align Culture to Strategy

Lack of decision and indecisiveness comes from being unclear on the path.  The decision of whether to go right or left can be paralyzing, if you do not know what the best path to take.  Leaders have to make sure that they are uncovering the dimensions of their culture and working towards aligning that to the organizational strategy.  Of course, it is necessary to have a strategy first.  It does not have to be a “we will change the world” strategy, but something that tells people where you intend to go.  This should inform every action and be the arbiter of decisions.

6. Have Fun

“Hardly a day goes by without reading an interview with a prominent executive or hearing a knowledgeable observer suggest that having fun at work is important for employee morale and productivity” ~ Robert C. Ford

People are relaxed when they are having fun.  They are confident and more willing to make decisions.  Not to say that it should be party, but fun.  Iron-clad, rule oriented organizations stay stagnant.

Taking these small actions at every level of the organization will increase the speed and ability to make decisions.  It is not a guarantee of perfect decisions.  That is notand should not be the goal.  People in organizations need to be good at deciding and acting.  The old child’s tale about the tortoise and the hare misses the point. The hare was fast but unfocused. If the hare had been intent on winning, the tortoise would have been left in the dust.

Don’t you wish your organization was the nimble hare? Do you want to help your leaders and teams be more decisive. Are you building a culture of trust, reward, and risk-tolerance that allows for healthy decision-making? What are some others ways that you can help keep your teams on the yellow-brick road to a better place?

As with most things in my adult life, my greatest learnings have come from my wife. A couple of days ago, she was approached by a neighbor asking for her help in landscaping their yard. Now, my wife is not a professional landscaper, but extremely talented in making things look great. Our yard is a combination of her ideas, brains, planning, and my labor.

My wife threw herself into the project. She was totally engaged. Taking pictures, measuring, drawing. She did this without the promise of anything in return, except gratitude.

“Why are you working so hard on this?” I asked.

“Because she is my friend and I want to leave something great behind,” was her simple reply.

On Life and Living Your Passion

Her passion made me wonder what it would be like if work occurred to us like the yard project to my wife. What is the legacy we are leaving? Do we as employees, managers, or leaders think about leaving something great behind us when we are done? How do you make that a reality?

Like I said in the beginning, I just watched my wife. She started with an idea in mind of what a great yard would look like. What would fit with the house and the style of the neighbor? She developed a great strategy.

Any great project starts with a great strategy, whether that is a for a company, department, or yard.

But how is that turned into reality? What are the steps to get people engaged? How does one achieve repeatable results?

Get a Reading

Understanding how enrolled they are already…

Then, she worked with our neighbor to figure out how engaged she was in her yard with questions like:

• What did they like?
• What did they want out of their yard?
• What would be their ideal for the space?

She started getting them involved in the plan. They had to put together plans, learn, and get into action. Measuring the level of engagement is the first critical step in realizing a strategy. Once it is known, then there has to be action taken to increase that level of engagement because people have to be engaged before they will work on implementing a strategy, no matter how brilliant.

Be a Leader Coach

Make the managers great…

Once she started to get them engaged, she trained the neighbors to be outstanding yard managers.  It was important that they learned how to be the very best at taking care of the yard as it was designed.  They had to not only be good with plants, but make sure that whatever they did was in line with the strategy.

The key factor in a “fully realized” strategy is great managers learning and taking tactical action that is aligned to the overall strategy.

Getting Results

Make the results repeatable….

The yard was transformed, and our neighbor was so very pleased.  The results were really magical.  They have the second nicest yard around (…next to ours of course) and are excited about it.  Now their yard is beautiful, always looks great and they are excited about working in it.

They have a consistently awesome-looking yard thanks to my wife leading through the process of:

• Engaged Neighbors
• Great Yard Managers
• Aligned to Yard Strategy
• A Superior Yard

The same is true at work:

• Engaged Employees
• Great Managers
• Aligned to Organizational  Strategy
• Superior Results Business Results

Wasn’t it someone wise who once said you reap what you sow?

So what are you doing to insure reliable, repeatable results with your managers or your team? Are you reaching into their passions and desires to help them produce more with less (friction, resistance, and foot-dragging)? Are you making plans clear for everyone involved so that they can be left alone to succeed on their own? Or do you micro-mis-manage them? I’d love to hear your story!

“

“Doing more with less.”

In the hallways and meeting rooms in organizations around the globe, people use phrases like these to imply that they are working toward hyper-performance.  Sure, there is a lot of hyperbole, but what really happens at work?  Is an increase in productivity really occurring?

The short answer is no.  Companies seem like they are getting more out of their current workforce.  But, if customers are buying less, fewer employees can do more of the work.  The recent rise in productivity is masking this dirty little secret.

A great deal of employee’s time is spent doing one of three tasks:

1. Preparing for meetings
2. Going to meetings
3. Getting coffee/snacks/etc.

Working for a Living?

Research says that many employees manufacture work to make themselves look better, look busy and look important. But what does this type of behavior do for the bottom line? How can that energy be turned toward something good?

The problem is a result of two issues:

1. Companies knock the creativity out of employees
2. Employees don’t act like owners

Kicking the creative habit

After consulting with a number of great organizations over the last many years, one constant has become clear to me:

The culture of organizations both drives success and drives people crazy.

New employees are generally hired because of their experience, enthusiasm, drive, and new ideas.  There is a great deal of fanfare when the new employees arrive until they start sharing ways to make the organization more effective. However, something different actually happens when most new employees arrive in their new spot. Each time they bring a new idea, they are essentially told to “sit down and shut up.” After too much of this type of treatment, they reach the point of frustration and “go native.”

Going native is:

To act and do as the members of the tribe, town, environment an individual finds themselves in as to blend in and be accepted.

Then, lo and behold, the very creativity and spark that was the reason that the employees were hired is snuffed out like the torch at tribal council on “Survivor.”

I just work here…

But, employees are not blameless.  As Sisyphus can attest, pushing a rock up a hill can be very difficult.  However, successful employees (and people) are folks that take responsibility and pride in their roles.  As a wise mentor once told me,

“I act like this little part of the company is mine.  I run it as if it were my own, making sure to be careful with money, look for opportunities to improve and fight the status quo.”

Too often, employees work hard to distance themselves from an organization. Many people feel like they are not going to be at a company long-term so why should they invest themselves.  It leads to a very “quick-fix” mentality.  Companies certainly don’t help themselves by using layoffs as a method to meet quarterly profit goals.  As the old saying goes, you can’t go into a marriage expecting divorce.  That is a recipe for disaster.

Employees must step up and take ownership of their role and tasks.

Solution Center

So now what do we do about it?

Care for creativity.

It almost goes without saying that creativity and enthusiasm are the lifeblood of any organization/team.  These are characteristics that should be nurtured.  Creativity comes in all disciplines.  It has been shown that innovation comes from an engaged and motivated workforce. Determine how engaged folks are now and give your managers the tools they need to increase it, all the time.

Figure out what you want to be.

Teams/organizations need a purpose that drives them to act.  Innovation comes from the need to fulfill that purpose. Make sure that the purpose is well-known and that actions are aligned to meeting it.  Focused effort naturally eliminates waste, increases clarity, and actually makes work more fun.  It is a powerful incentive to know where you are going, why you need to get there and what happens if you don’t.

Reward ownership.

Do whatever you can to notice, recognize and reward employees when they act like owners.  Owners don’t waste; they go the extra mile, take risks and are unwilling to smooth things over.  As a business owner, the drive is to be successful now and even more successful in the future.  Relationships are nurtured because they are important over the long haul.

Be an owner.

As an employee at any level, treat the organization you are in as if you are an owner.  It makes work much more satisfying if you are doing the extra work to benefit you.  It seems like semantics, but ownership allows for responsibility and gives latitude to be bold both in action and in protection of the organization.  Even if you think that the job is temporary, an ownership mentality will provide some clarity of decision and perspective.

But what about meetings?

Meetings are actually a powerful method to communicate and get work done.  However, they have been used and abused making them seem ridiculous.  If organizations actively protect creativity and encourage an ownership mentality they will naturally be more effective.  Time won’t be wasted on preparing for or attending meaningless meeting.  However, they will need a good cup of “joe”.

What are your experiences of acting like an owner?  Have you seen what happens when an organization promotes an ownership mentality?  Where might this be effective?

“No, no, no!” my daughter’s marching band leader screamed.  “We cannot get to the end of the field unless ALL of us are going in the same direction.  Each section has to be playing the same song.”

As my daughter and I walked to the car, she proclaimed,

“I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t just try to march to the same beat.  We would look so much better.”

True I thought… too true.

Predictable Failure

That night I thought about all the organizations I had the privilege of working with.  Many of them launched new strategies all the time trying to capitalize on trends or new technology.  But the reality is, well-thought-out, interesting, and rational strategies failat an alarming rate.  Even after John Kotter’s seminal book, Leading Change, organizational change fails at least 70% of the time.  The same goes for introducing a new strategy.

Why is this? What are we still doing wrong?

It couldn’t be that companies don’t know HOW to implement change.  How could that be?  There are 100’s if not 1000’s of books on the subject of change management, and just as many consultants.  So if it is not about knowing how, then it must be something else.

Could the Answer Be So Simple?

Could it be as easy as marching to the same beat?

Research tells us that successful organizations have great focus in at least two key areas: They develop their managers, and align their culture (teams, departments, operations) to their strategy.

Basically, organizational culture is the personality of the organization. The goal is to get everyone to march to the beat of the same drummer.  That can be accomplished through force, but is difficult, costly, and ultimately counter-productive.

The alternative is to uncover the current culture and provide managers thetools they need to drive incremental change.

It’s as Simple – and Difficult - as 1, 2, 3

1. It starts with listening to understand how engaged people are within the organization.  Before people can get behind any change, they need to be excited about what they are doing, and where they are going.
2. Then, uncover the current level of alignment between strategy and culture. Is the day-to-day environment of the organization consistent with the stated and ultimate goals of the organization?
3. Lastly, identify effective means to instigate or facilitate service alignment between critical departments.

For even greater effectiveness, an online Alignment System can give front line managers, leaders, and OD/HR regular support, guidance, and learning.  The system would help to get everyone on the same page, helping them start to march to the same beat.

The Result – Leading for Alignment

My daughter’s band finished the season winning all kinds of awards.  Why do you think they had such great success? It is because her director was focused on making sure each section of the band was “playing the same song” and “paying attention to [and supporting] the rest of the band.”

What unsuccessful experiences have you had in attempting change or a new strategy? Do you think a misalignment was behind this failure? What was the misalignment? What was the impact of this “failure?” What opportunities  do you see now to foster greater alignment in your organization or working group to create a greater chance of success? I’d love to hear you thoughts.

You can chalk that up to the growing sense of learned helplessness in the workplace.  What is learned helplessness?

Learned helplessness – A term developed by Martin Seligman, pioneering researcher in animal psychology, to describe what occurs when animals or human beings learn that their behavior has no effect on the environment.

From the perspective of an employee at almost any level in the organization, their ability to control their destiny has greatly diminished, if not vanished entirely.  Whether people have jobs or not, their passion for doing more and being more has been replaced with surviving.  Of course that is understandable.  This is the worst economy since the Great Depression.

Learned helplessness is a phenomenon affecting employees at every level in every organization.  It stems from the lack of impact employees believe they have on the day to day outcomes they are expected to achieve.   When people feel like they don’t have control there is a tendency to:

• Not try new things
• Do only what is required
• Never question the status quo

The problem is that work still has to get done, orders need to be fulfilled, and customers need to be taken care of.  What can be done to shake employees out of the doldrums they are in?

Surprisingly enough, it is simple and therefore difficult to implement.

1. Find out what the state of the state is

An organization can only improve when it knows the truth about itself.  It is important to look for an organizational assessment or survey that will give a sense of how engaged the organization is AND how aligned it is.

2. Give managers the tools to drive engagement and align the culture simultaneously

Front line leaders are the key to driving success in any organization.  It is IMPERATIVE to give them the tools in a practical, easy to use method.  This same tool should be used to drive alignment between the Macro Culture (vision, mission, etc) and the Micro Culture (work team).

3. Push accountability down to the lowest level

Don’t try to control everything.  Organizations that win hold every person accountable for outcomes that forward the business.  Then, within reason, allow them to reach them in the best way possible.  Let employees get work done and get out of the way.  Trying to over regulate or put too many processes in place can stifle creativity.  Where possible let employees make decisions about how to get their work done.  If they don’t deal with that by checking in regularly and helping them correct course.

Of course this is easier said than done.  But the cost of keeping things as they are is too high.

As I helped decorate my daughter’s room for a birthday celebration, reflecting on her age reminded me of how old I really am. It strangely occurred to me that I am the father of a 16-year old.  This got me thinking back to when I was sixteen. I wondered what had I thought my life would be like at age 40?  Were there things that I wanted to do, but didn’t?  Were there conversations that I should have had, but failed to initiate? Did I live a life of regret?

Well, I am very pleased to say that my life has turned out great to this point. I am very very thankful.  I would never have thought I’d be lucky enough to have the family, the friends or the career that I do. I have made plenty of poor decisions along the way, but I have made many great ones, too. On the whole, I have been decisive and things have worked out okay.

But in comparison to many I have worked with and led over the years, I have seen many people miss out on many things because of putting off decision-making.

I have lost count of the times I have heard or said – “Someday I will” or “One day such-and-such will happen.”

To Be or Not to Be

It made me think of an opportunity that I have just been presented.  I weighed the opportunity with my typical criteria:

• It is something that I have always wanted to do.
• It makes good financial sense.
• And it would be a great way for me to help others.

Despite passing through my normal decision filters, I did not say yes to this opportunity.  I wanted to wait to think about it.  I wanted to weigh my options more and would make my decision some day in the very near future.  As I contemplated this opportunity, I could hear my father in my mind asking me

“So when is this magical “some day”?

Analysis Paralysis - How to get Unstuck

The best time to make a decision or a tough conversation is now.  There is something to be said about careful planning.  But, too much planning can turn decision into regret.  The problem is the number of choices available and the methods to analyze them can paralyze instead of making choosing easier.

According to Barry Schwartz, the author of The Paradox of Choice , there is a tendency to over analyze due to too many choices.  “We have become a victim of spending too long making choices that will not make a big impact on our lives.” (When you have 19 minutes, check out this great explanation on video from Barry)

The growing trend is to think more and act less.  It is good to be thoughtful, but let’s be honest…

“We wouldn’t do half the things we do in life if we knew what we were getting into!” – Anonymous

Regret of past failure, fear of change, questions about outcomes all play into our hesitations.

My father did not have the benefit of our current knowledge of the brain and other breakthroughs.  But he had a few key tactics to get more out of life, move on and regret less.  I did not realize how smart he was because recent literature supports his simple but effective technique.

1. Act on what you feel based on what you know

Although he says it much more eloquently, Malcom Gladwell, in his book Blink supports this theory that my dad used.  Essentially, once mastery is gained in a particular area of knowledge/experience decisions can be made without analyzing extensively.  Experts can make snap decisions and are right a vast majority of the time.  Therefore, people should rely on this “gut” instinct.  It is not a guess, but a practiced and trained reaction.  I like to think of it much like a master of martial arts acts when being attacked.  When faced with a situation, there is only action.  Taking action alleviates the dreaded analysis paralysis

2. Decide, and then act as if you could not fail.

Interestingly, the most successful people make decisions quickly and change them slowly. They persist with the decisions they have made. However, failures are very slow to make any decision at all (most never make any), and they change the ones they have made very rapidly indeed.

3. Once a choice is made, let it be (unless it truly hurts others.)

Make choices or decisions as permanent as possible.  .   There is nothing worse than someone who constantly goes back and forth after each decision.  There will always be another opportunity to choose again.

4. Be active

According to many experts one key to staying mental fit, not being depressed and making the most out of every opportunity is simple – stay active.  In John Medina’s recent book, Brain Rules, one the twelve keys to a healthy brain is activity – physical exertion, social interactivity, learning, teaching, etc. As strange as this may sound, if you are active you are more likely to make better decisions, communicate clearly, handle conflict more effectively and have an overall better outlook on life.

5. Be grateful for what you have

As a former Catholic schoolboy, I remember distinctly having to give thanks for what we had in front of us.  Almost every religious book encourages it’s readers to be grateful for what they have.  There are many great tales of why being grateful is beneficial to being happy.

Watching my beautiful wife hang colorful birthday streamers, I thought time goes by quickly.  In order to get the most out of life it is important to act.  It is as true for leaders as it is for fathers/mothers.

“What’s on your mind?” She asked.

“I am just trying to make a good decision about this opportunity.”

“Tell me about it.” She said

As I related the details, it quickly became clear to me that I was hesitating for no good reason.  My wife finally told me in her own special way –

“Piss or get off the pot, but we have to finish these decorations.  You know the right thing to do.”

I did and I acted.  Do I have regrets?  Sure I do, but at least of have the regrets of trying and failing instead of the regret of never trying at all.

My wife and I got into this big argument because I didn’t tell her when something looked horrible on her.  She is a beautiful woman, but picked an outfit that didn’t really flatter her.  But, I wanted her to “feel good”.  Instead it turned out that she was embarrassed by how bad she looked.

As I was getting ready to sleep on the couch that night I wondered how often that happens in leadership.  Why try to make people feel good instead of telling the truth?

After speaking to fellow leaders, coaches and experts, I found that there was a real cost at work for telling white lies or “sugar coating”.  As leaders, not telling the truth about performance, ideas, etc. actually undermines progress.  Yet, it is something that is done every day.

These “little” lies keep pushing people down the wrong path one nudge at a time. Unfortunately, it is more like pushing them off the plank into shark infested waters.

It is as if leaders say:

“Hey, here is a tasting pastry treat for you as you travel down that road of yours. I hope you enjoy the little white frosting I put on top. It should help propel you to get to that destination!”

But the ugly truth is “the sugar coating of white lies” seems to keep employees (or spouses) happy and moving along!  The problem is that with all the “white lies” the sugar crash that is coming.  Instead of facing a difficult or crucial conversation many leaders just keep feeding them the white lies because it makes them smile for now.  It is also easier than telling the truth.

What can you do?

It seems hard, but leaders must say what is so.  If performance is good, people should be recognized.  If it is not, it needs to be addressed.

Here’s how to keep those fattening and addictive white lies at bay:

1)      Understand how to have “difficult conversations” using the Crucial Conversations methodology

1. Be specific about what happened.  Avoid watering down the facts.
2. Be honest and respectful.
3. Discuss what’s recent and relevant.
4. Watch for signals that the other person feels unsafe, and take appropriate action.
5. Employ active listening skills

2)      Make a practice of saying two good things before saying the one negative thing

People are hungry for praise and recognition, something they don’t get as much of as they should at work or at home.  It is important to make sure people understand you do appreciate what they do.  But please don’t patronize.  Telling someone something nice about themselves that is untrue is another white lie.

3)      Create a culture of truth

It is not easy but in order to get truthfulness there must be an environment that demands, respects and allows for trust and honesty.  There are many different ways to make this a reality, but it starts with the leader insisting and rewarding for it.

4)      Admit failures readily

“When you make a mistake, you have to acknowledge that is so.  If you don’t you are at serious risk of losing all credibility and there is only one way to get it back: Admit you were wrong.” – Dwight Eisenhower

5)      Teach how to come prepared with a handful of possible solutions with every WELL-DEFINE issue at hand

Problems don’t make teams, people and organizations great.  Solutions do.  Make sure that there is a solution or at least a thought of a solution for every problem that is brought up.  Remember the adage – Don’t tell me that it’s raining.  Tell me how to build the ark.

6)      Teach how to build others up honestly and not falsely

Leaders must ensure that there is little room for spreading rumor and innuendo.  It might seem like human nature to back-stab and undermine, but that is really only true in TV dramas.  Honesty on teams has shown to increase productivity, creativity and reduce absenteeism.

“When you work alongside people you don’t trust and therefore don’t like, you’ll find the team becomes dysfunctional and can result in staff turnover, because people are sick of covering for lies,”

7)      Hold people accountable

Don’t hesitate to remove someone that is not productive or honest.  Sometimes by losing one poor performer, a team can be twice as effective!

8)      When lies do happen, expose them gently and explain where that lie would falsely lead someone and re-engineer the trajectory with the truth.

People lie.  Unfortunately, leaders face this dilemma at some point.  It is critical that leaders        address them head-on.  Once a lie is uncovered, the person lying must do whatever it takes to correct it.  That could mean offering an apology, revealing the truth or anything else necessary.

So now what?

With as much tact as possible, I always tell my wife the truth now.  If something isn’t flattering, I will let her know because I love her.  That is the truth.  If you really care about your company, team and employees you will let them know when those “jeans”  just aren’t flattering.  It will save them a whole lot of embarrassment.  It will also prove that you care so much about them that you can tell them the truth, even when it is hard to hear.

That is the mark of a leader.

Are you sugar coating poor performance of an employee?  Do you tell people when they are risking failure or do you allow them to fail to not hurt their feelings?  Do you avoid honesty so people like you?  If so, you could be doing more harm than good.

What’s the matter here? Are we a bunch of Leadership Sissies?

Why can’t we face the truth sometimes and just tell people like it is? If someone has their wheel stuck in a performance ditch, what’s the big problem with telling people that they are not doing a good job? Why are we SO careful about protecting their feelings and not so careful about being honest? Why don’t we just help them get back on the road to performance success? Are we scared? Are we a bunch of sissies?

My Perspective

I was raised to be kind, polite and tactful.  Therefore, I choose my words wisely and work very hard to make sure that I am understood.  But does that preclude honesty?  Does that mean coddling people at work is acceptable?

No, no it does not.  Not only does coddling undermine the individual’s ability, it reduces the productivity of a team and perpetuates mediocrity.

Leadership is about telling the truth

The truth is not mean or callous.  It is simply the truth.  When told in a polite, respectful and tactful manner it can be life changing for a follower or team. When held back from followers out of fear, ignorance, or malpractice, you are being a Leadership Sissy. (Oh… and for the record… don’t be one of those…)

As a consultant, I have seen unworthy people get promotions, rewards and kudos.  It always makes me wonder – What does that teach people?  Does that really benefit them?  Again, I would have to say no.  Telling the truth sets people, teams and organizations free to succeed.  I owe this lesson to Tiffany.

Tiffany was a member of a team that I had the privilege of managing early in my career.  I inherited an established team.  My role was to help the team go from perpetual underperformer to award winning.  It did not take me long to see that, among many other process oriented issues, the team was dragged down by re-doing Tiffany’s work.  Tiffany was well-liked and was a genuinely nice person.  But, she did not do her job well.  Other team members had to cover for her mistakes and had to re-do work she spent too long completing.

Tiffany was one of those employees that perpetually underperformed.  But instead of being reprimanded, coached or terminated, she was moved to a new team.  She had been with the company for eight years.  I was her latest manager. Speaking to her previous managers I heard a common theme.

“Tiffany is a wonderful person, but not very effective.”

Hmmm, I thought.  Why on earth didn’t any of them try coaching her? Or why didn’t they get her training, etc?  The short answer was that they had actually tried everything. But when things got tough, instead of having difficult performance conversations with her to help her learn and grow, they just moved her off their team and on to someone else’s at the first opportunity.

I began to wonder if there was anything I could do.  Like any good manager, I searched for the answer on Google.  To my shock, I found that it takes an average of  four to twelve years to fire an underperforming employee.  According to experts, most of that was due to managers being nice instead of honest about performance.  I was determined not to be one of the statistics.

It was a shock to Tiffany’s  system when I started holding her to account for her objectives, standards and work completed.  Tiffany was not meeting any of her objectives or goals.  After 3 months of coaching conversations, write-ups and trips to HR, I fired Tiffany.  She left with a nice severance package and money for job re-training.

Time for a Turnaround

Almost immediately, the team’s performance improved.  Within the first year of my leading this team, they were nominated for an award from a previously dissatisfied vendor.  There was a lot of work that went into this turnaround.  But the catalyst was firing Tiffany.  It set the team free to solve other performance issues.  That team charted the course for the work I do today.

What makes that so hard?  Why shouldn’t we be more honest?

It’s not always easy to be honest. Not mean or uncaring, but simply saying what is so about performance.  In my experience I have seen that many leaders are not good at telling the truth about  job good or bad performance.

It is actually easy to set up structures to recognize people that do a good job.  It takes actively concentrating on making an example of those people that do a great job and providing them with the opportunities and rewards.

The alternative to that is mediocrity.

There is only one sure fire way to lose weight.  Eat better and exercise more.  It is the same thing with enhancing performance. Being honest about performance problems shines a light on how to improve them.

That means:

• When someone isn’t pulling their weight, tell them.
• When someone does an outstanding job, make an example of them.
• When someone isn’t right for the job, help them find a new one.
• When someone excels at their job, they should be recognized or promoted, or both
• When someone doesn’t do what they say they’re going to do, hold them accountable.
• When someone is accountable, that should be noted.
• When someone breaks a rule, consequences must be paid.
• When someone mistreats a fellow employee, they have to be dealt with accordingly (regardless of position within the organization.)
• When someone goes out of their way to help a fellow employee, they should be rewarded.

Although there has to be a process, it must be okay to move people out of the organization that aren’t working out.  Otherwise employees will see that it’s acceptable to just get by.  Great companies don’t just get by.

Based on my experience with Tiffany, I often tell clients that employees need to be clear about:

• What is expected of them
• What success looks like
• How performance will be rated
• What will happen if they don’t follow the rules
• That it’s okay to take risks
• That they will be rewarded for doing a great job

Then, managers must be trained on how to provide that clarity.  Managers also be a part of the system and held accountable for their behaviors and actions.

Whatever happened to Tiffany?

I received a letter from Tiffany six months after she left the company.  In it, she thanked me for what I did.  She was now a very successful sales person at a retail store making three times her salary while working for me.  With this news, I was truly happy for her.

Every time I see an under-performing person or group that I am afraid of hurting by being honest, I remember Tiffany.  She taught me that being honest benefits everyone.

Are you telling the truth about performance?  When all else fails, do you look to move people out of the organization that are under-performing? Or do you just pass them along down the dirt road of dysfunction where they’ll slip into the ditch again? If you have one, I’d love to hear your “Tiffany” story!

Part of the Pack

As we brought our first puppy into the house, I realized that there were a couple of key things that I had forgotten to get. I actually forgot food and a bed.  I had plenty of time for our new arrival, but I still hadn’t prepared enough. The new member of the family did not have everything it needed to be successful. I was in charge, yet unprepared for success.

Silly me…How could I expect the puppy to learn about how to be a part of the family without the basics?

As I raced around to the local pet stores, I began to think about how similar this was to new people starting at companies.  I worked with many organizations that acted like my family with our new puppy.  They were excited at the thought of a new member of the family, but unprepared when they finally arrived.  How often had I seen new employees without the basic tool like a desk, computer, phone, etc?

That night, as the puppy whined, I began to ponder how little my wife and I had done to ease it into its new role. The puppy didn’t know what it was getting into as we carried it into its new home.  Even worse, we had no plan to ensure that the puppy learned what it needed to do or know to be successful.

The Way It’s Done Now?

Silly as it sounds I remember thinking that night how many times had I seen new people at clients being left to:

• Fend for themselves
• Figure out the ropes
• Sink or swim in order to survive

Often times this approach leads to disaster:

• 22% of staff turnover occurs in the first forty-five days of employment.” – The Wynhurst Group
• “46% of rookies wash out in their first 18 months” found a study of 20,000 new hired employees.” – Leadership IQ
• “The cost of losing an employee in the first year is estimated to be at least three times their salary.” – The Wynhurst Group

It happens just like it did to the poor pup.  Isn’t it a leader’s duty to make sure their employees are taken care of?

Doesn’t a leader have an obligation to give a new employee every opportunity to succeed?

There has to be a better way

A new employee is not a puppy.  But, each new employee is like a new member of the family.  New employees are the lifeblood of new ideas, leadership, and vibrancy in any organization.  It is absolutely critical that new employees are made to feel:

• Like they belong
• glad they joined the company
• Ready to make an impact

This has also been proven to add to the bottom line. In his book Deciding Who Leads, author Joseph Daniel McCool cites the example of Bristol-Myers Squibb, which increased retention of new executives from 40% to 90% by revamping the hiring process, including instituting a formal process for new executive integration.

New employee success is built upon 10 key fundamentals:

1. There must be a plan from the moment they are hired through the first 180 to 365 days of their job.
2. A new employee has to feel like they made the right choice as soon as they accept an offer.  This can easily be accomplished with a simple welcome package.  Nothing fancy, just some items that help to prepare the new employee for their first day and are a little special.
3. The new employee’s workspace should be 100% ready for them when they start.  There is nothing more demoralizing to come to an unprepared desk.  That prep makes people feel special.
4. Set up the new employee with a mentor.  Each new employee should have a mentor.  Depending on the size of the company, it could be internal or external.  But the mentor relationship needs to somewhat structured.
5. In the beginning, introduce the new employee meet critical people every day. It will allow them to be more comfortable from the start.
6. Have a training plan ready for them when they start that will take them through the end of their first year.
7. Make sure the new employee meets with other new hires
8. Put them to work right away. No one wants to sit idly.
9. Conduct, at minimum, one assessment of the new hire’s progress and knowledge every quarter. Review that with them to ensure they are clear about what they did well and where there is room for improvement.
10. Celebrate them joining the company. People like to know they are appreciated.

Does it really make a difference?

The second dog my family got was a much more pleasant experience.  I made sure to map out his first 180 days with us.  It sounds a little like overkill, but it worked remarkably well.  The extra time I spent with him the first couple of months was worth it.  ”Cadoo” turned out to be exceptionally well behaved, friendly and very reliable.  After the initial investment in time, tools, training and attention, he became a productive member of the family (he earned his keep by chasing rabbits out of the garden).

I think about Cadoo when working with clients on how to make new employees more effective, knowledgeable, and productive. Just make sure to set them up for success and there is no limit the positive effect they can have on the organization.

How do new employees feel when they start? Are you making sure that new employees are set up for success? What are you doing to give new employees knowledge? How are you going to make them feel like part of the pack?