Leaders: Out of the Bunkers in ’09
It’s easy for leaders to look good when things go well. That’s often when teams can lead themselves. But when times are tough–like now–leaders can really strut their stuff. Some are, but more aren’t.
In the past two months I’ve been in five companies and addressed two sessions that in the aggregate represent about 40 companies. More people than ever are distracted, disconnected, confused and…under-led.
A couple of weeks ago, the head of a business unit told me, “I’m getting different signals from different people literally every day. A lot of it just doesn’t make sense. When I call around to sort out what’s real and what’s not, no one really knows. It used to be I had a few people I could check in with to get grounded. No more. Those days are gone.”
When people are disconnected, they lose line of sight, meaning it’s difficult to connect what they do every day to a greater purpose. When we can’t connect to a greater purpose, our sense of value and commitment erodes. Performance drops. Multiply that across a company and you’ve got plenty of dysfunctional people doing dysfunctional work.
Weird Times
A business leader asked me last week: “I’m not confident that I know what to do. This is a weird time. I just feel like going in my office and closing the door. What do I do? What do I say?”
Weird times don’t require anything that’s fundamentally different from not-so-weird times, so don’t look for new medicines on the shelf to fix this problem. Whether you’re ahead by 10, or behind by 10, leaders need to do the same things. However, when you’re behind by 10 (as in weird times), you need to do the basics MORE and you need to do them BETTER. This means that you make sure your people understand the following five things:
Business context: the big picture; the customer, competitor, regulator, shareholder requirements that are influencing the business.
Vision and strategy: what the end-game looks like (the picture on the cover of the 1,000-piece puzzle box) and the plan to get there.
Stake: what’s in it for all of us and for us as individuals when we win. The old WIIFM (what’s in it for me).
Role: what each of us must do to win–what we need to do from our corner of the world.
Support: the resources we need to play our individual and team roles.
The above messages must be driven into the organization day after day, and in various ways. You can’t expect people to get it just because you sent out an email. In fact, they probably didn’t.
In the next few months, I’ll share some ways leaders are making sure they’re connecting to their people and taking them to record breaking levels of performance.
Communication Departments at a Crossroad
Please contrast the following emails I received from people in two different corporate communication departments last week.
1. “I just conducted some follow-up focus groups (where we’re increasing engagement to improve performance). All of the numbers are up — some significantly. Also, we’ve seen a 25% improvement in yield loss, safety is at a record low tfor the plant and goal sharing has paid out 2 quarter in a row – the first time ever. A long road to go here, but we’re making progress.”
2. “Wanted to personally let you know that many of the communication positions at (our company) were recently eliminated, including my…role.”
The person who sent the first email is in a company that has adopted performance-based communication practices, which focus on outcomes — realizing operational and financial gains that are greater than the cost of creating them. People who create acceptable returns, especially in today’s economic environment are, to put it mildly, valued. This company is expanding its communication department!
The person who sent the second email could be in any company that’s still holding on with dear life to the old way–focusing on output–distributing news and information. These companies tend to be enamored with the latest gee-wiz tools and toys while Rome burns. People all around them are underperforming because of communication breakdowns–confusing mixed messages, wrong information, or information that doesn’t get to people fast enough to make a customer-focused decision when it’s needed.
The good news is that more companies than before are conducting serious assessments of their communication management and communication departments. Two things are emerging from these assessments.
1. Leaders are losing patience with communication functions that don’t add measurable value. They want help:
- Managing change (managing communication to change; not managing communication about change–a huge difference).
- Measurably improving performance–quality, service, cost, speed, safety, productivity, new product development cycle time, etc., etc.
- Connecting people to the brand and business strategy
- Integrating company functions, departments and businesses
2. Extremely useful data is being generated, enabling the function to understand the true value-to-cost, so they can redeploy resources better, which then helps the enterprise perform better.
In Gratitude—Thanks for the Thanks
As many who’ve worked with me or know me understand, I like to teach, especially younger people. So, let me share a couple of notes I received lately. They made me feel especially good during this holiday season.
“I wanted to reach out to thank you for investing in me and helping shape my thinking and personal philosophies around communications and its true value. The time I spent with you at (company name) was undoubtedly more valuable than my masters degree that took me two years and $60,000 to obtain. Thanks for being a wonderful mentor and friend.”
And a funny one from a fast-rising senior leader.
“This will be an odd compliment. You are like a dull toothache. You never really created acute pain, but I always felt the pressure of meeting your expectations. The funny part is that we paid you, but I was working to meet your expectations as well. I know you have a long list of success stories and that’s why I want to make this work. This has been successful in many companies and I did not want to be on the side of failure with a proven method.”
Happy holidays and here’s to an even better 2009!
Jim Shaffer