Seven Sins of Leadership- #2 Pride

June 15th, 2013

Pride captures the #2 position on the seven sins of leadership list because it is so ubiquitous and leads to myriad dysfunctional behaviors.

It starts out innocently enough. You work hard for a number of years, climbing your way up the organization ladder in one or several companies until, vuala, you arrive. You land in that job that you have coveted for so long. Friends and family congratulate you. Your former co-workers look at you differently, or should I say deferentially. Everything is bigger, your office, your pay, your responsibilities, your gravitas. Even your dog seems to like you better. At first you graciously accept this new found status. Then something insidious happens. You realize that you are special.

The epiphany about your specialness begins to inform your leadership worldview and mien. You rose above the others because of a long list of attributes, far too many to list, and you become proud of your accomplishment. At precisely this point, the seeds of your unraveling are sown.

When pride enters into the equation, so does a long list of dysfunctional behaviors, including a sense of entitlement, imperiousness, greed and the beginnings of the other six sins. Not a good look for any leader. The best defense against pride is a hard dose of reality.

You see, that aforementioned list of attributes that caused your promotion most likely included good timing, being in the right place at the right time and luck. Sure performance, capability and other skills also played an important, if not the most critical role, but on their own, they are usually not enough. Enter the exogenous, circumstantial attributes. Lady luck has rewarded many a grateful gambler, but deny her existence and watch the worm turn.

Staying aware of the important role of these exogenous attributes will keep you firmly grounded in the reality that you are both capable and lucky, and your career ascent was dependent upon both. Knowing this will enable you to be a fully developed leader, appreciative of your opportunity and with your pride firmly in check.

 

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Seven Sins of Leadership- #1 Anger

May 29th, 2013

Anger holds the unenviable position as the #1 leadership sin in my Seven Sins of Leadership series. It has earned this position because of the prevalence of the so-called “hard charger” that all too regularly allows themselves to become killer B’s, i.e. boorish, bellicose and belligerent. You see them in the C-suite, on Wall Street, on the playing fields, and in the hallowed halls of Congress (remember “you lie” Congressman Joe Wilson). I can think of another B word that describes them- babies. Or more appropriately, enfant terrible.

The only other humans that allow themselves such unfettered expression of emotion are babies. They scream their little lungs out when events unfold in undesirable ways. They turn myriad shades of red and act out in every imaginable way. They have to use such emotional displays because they are, quite literally, out of words. In the same way, the bully leader surrenders themselves to their anger as a substitute for intelligent words and thoughtful discourse because, like a screaming baby, it feels good. But unlike a screaming baby, they have a choice.

Anger is a choice. When the bully leader erupts in anger, drops indiscriminate f-bombs, spews spittle and look as though they want to eviscerate someone, they often tell themselves the lie that they are simply emotional hostages, victims of their genealogy or other such gibberish. Ever notice how these involuntary reflexes do not seem to rear their head in the angry leader when their boss is around? Hmm.

Because anger is a choice, the best way to avoid it is to simply choose not to be angry. Yeah, it is that simple. If you are reading this and telling yourself that this is a bit of simplistic drivel, not worthy of the electrons upon which it resides, then I’m willing to bet that you are That Guy or That Woman described above. If you find yourself unable to choose a different path, there is still hope. Find the trigger and do everything in your power to keep your finger off of it.

Most anger can be traced to a triggering event. If you find yourself in a serial pattern of losing it, I assure you there is a trigger or set of triggers which create the tipping point from reasonable person to screaming lunatic. You owe it to yourself to identify the triggers, know when they arise, and do everything in your power to blunt their influence. Make today the day you choose to leave your angry and childish ways behind.

No leader is perfect, but it is perfectly reasonable to expect a reasonable leader.

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Seven Sins of Leadership

May 19th, 2013

Okay, so you are probably burned-out on the “seven deadly sins” theme, but I can’t help that they exist as leadership derailers. They include:

  1. Anger
  2. Pride
  3. Paranoia
  4. Overused Ambition
  5. Unpredictability
  6. Myopia
  7. Passivity

Interestingly, the first five of these sins involve the presence of negative behaviors, while the last two involve the absence of positive behaviors. I have listed them in this order because the first five tend to bite leaders quickly, while the last two bleed them slowly.

The good news is that they all have a common root cause, stemming from insecurity and an internal belief, deep down, that they do not really belong as a leader. This insecurity simply plays out differently in leaders based on the hard-wiring of their personalities. The fix would appear to be relative simple. Address the root cause and change the behavior. If only.

The problem is that we all tend to revert to type when we are under stress, and stress has never been higher than it is in the productivity/profitability obsessed hyper-competitive global marketplace. But still there is hope.

Stay tuned as I unpack each of these leadership sins and offer advice on how to blunt their influence, based on my experience in the c-suite and years of research as an executive coach. First up- anger.

 

 

 

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Strategic Myopia

February 7th, 2013

Dig into the development plan of many senior leaders and you are likely to see one need area rise above the rest- strategy. The common lament is that the executive “is not a strategic thinker” or “does not grasp strategy” or ” does not have a clear strategic vision.” I assert that this is less an issue of capability and more one of focal length. Said another way, they are simply not looking far enough into the distance.

To prove this point, I submit to you the Government of the United States. There is clearly no larger or more strategically important entity in the world. With a near $16 trillion economy and a larger defense spend than the next 14 largest defense spending countries combined, you would hope that there is a long term strategic vision and plan for our place in the world. But alas, it is not so. Why? Simple. Because of myopia.

In the case of the United States, this myopia is caused by our election cycle. Every two years we face mid-term elections in the U.S. House of Representatives, putting the control of that chamber of Congress up for grabs. Add to that a perpetual Presidential campaign calendar that has newly elected presidents worrying about reelection the moment after swearing-in and the stage is set for a strategic horizon of about one year or so. Strategies are not established over one year horizons, hence the impotence of our lawmakers to implement strategic change on a consistent basis.

In the same way, executives minimize their strategic impact when they take the short view. With the challenges of a global marketplace, increased competition and a slow growth economy, it is all too easy for executives to keep their head down and attend to the knitting of day-to-day exigencies. Coupled with poorly designed incentive schemes that disproportionately reward near-term performance, it is little wonder that strategy suffers. But there is hope.

An executive can build their strategic capability by using the same discipline that drives execution, i.e. process focus. By implementing a process that forces a consistent longer term view of the business, macro/micro-economic factors, markets and competitors and trends, an executive can consistently build their strategic muscle. Like most fitness regimens, this muscle gets stronger with consistent, disciplined exercise.

So if you are one of those executives with a perceived shortfall with strategy, I encourage you to lift up your head, focus on the more distant horizon and implement a process that requires you to consistently evaluate the lay of that land.

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Strategic Change

January 7th, 2013

The most difficult challenges facing most firms involve strategy and change. In my experience as a senior executive and coach, these two areas, along with innovation, are among the most frequently cited developmental gaps for leaders. CEOs often decry the lack of strategic thinking and the ability to manage change as the biggest restrainers of success in their organizations. A closer examination provides a ready explanation.

Strategy and change are inextricably interwoven. To be adept in either requires expertise in both. But most leaders do not appreciate this nuance and therein lies the heart of the matter. There can be no effective strategy without change, and change without strategic underpinning is nothing but a costly distraction. Allow me to digress so as to elaborate.

Numerous tomes have been dedicated to strategy, and many high-end consulting firms have made strategy their stock-in-trade. The lack of confidence that BODs and CEOs feel about the strategic capability of their leaders has put many an S-class Mercedes in the driveway of high-end consultants. After all, the thinking goes, my people do not all possess an MBA from an elite B-school and we don’t employ a cadre of newly minted associates dumpster diving in the trash bins of competitors, so we cannot be very good at strategy. Ah, but if we pay a couple of hundred grand to a high end consulting shop, all of our strategic questions will be answered. Not only is this thinking often off the mark, it is also potentially dangerous.

I think back to the Fortune 500 organization in a declining product category that turned to the elite strategy consultants to help re-vector their revenue swoon. The expert answer was to consolidate, by half, the distribution network to create scale and efficiency in the survivors. The internal P & L managers were terrified by this recommendation, but executive leadership pushed ahead nonetheless. The resulting 50% decline in revenue put S-class Mercedes in the driveways of their consultants AND competitors. Ouch.

So at the risk of over-simplification, allow me to provide this definition of strategy- To apply your offering in a way that out positions your competitors to exploit market opportunities. It is certainly not complicated. Plus it reinforces the importance of your own people who understand your offering, competitors and markets better than anyone else. But there is a challenge, which brings me back to the linkage of strategy and change.

To exploit market opportunities requires that your firm and its leaders be agile, deft and change-able. Markets do not stand still. They constantly evolve to adapt to a changing world. You need look no further than the current shift from PCs to mobile devices to see this phenomenon at work. But if your leaders and organization are slow to change, then no amount of strategic planning and meeting will make a difference. I believe that this is the factor which causes so many leaders in firms to see strategic planning as a waste of time. In these circumstances, it is.

Likewise, change without strategic direction, is even more destructive. Such change is costly and takes significant energy out of the organization. Even more insidiously, it provides the illusion of moving forward, when it is simply change for change’s sake.

The moral of the story is clear. Strategy without change, or change without strategy, are at best a waste of time and at worst a catastrophic mistake. Except maybe for your competitors with a hankering for an S-class.

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