IT'S YOUR TASK TO ASK

You just may be the dumbest person in the whole organization or the least able to learn.

The white noise that surrounds you is the roaring lack of real feedback that allows you to know your impact and adjust it.

It is your task to ask for this information and to do it in such  a way that it makes it easy for  people to talk to you honestly.  And even then  know that it is skewed information.

If someone has the nerve to come to you with  important negative feedback, then probably they have thought about it for at least three months, talked about it with at least five others for corroboration and reached the  point of talking directly with you.  The irritation or pain finally outweighed the intimidation factor.  And this is true if you are the most approachable,open and tolerant CEO.  Your position simply weights too much.  

Positive information is equally awkward for  people to give.  I mean, you are in charge of the goodies and flattery does work.  It's hard not to be seduced.  And if the positive recognition is sincere, it's harder to give for fear of being seen as kissing up.  

So my two cents is listen to the negative with a multiple of five and to the positive with a negative multiple of three.  Magnify the negative and reduce the  positive to begin to get a realistic picture.  Three for the positve because it is easier to give than the negative.  Takes less courage.

It is your job to make real conversation about the business and your impact easy and  productive.

Ask specific targeted questions about your impact.  Don't wait for the volunteer.

It really is your task to ask. 

HERE IS AN ODD BLIND SPOT TO THINK ABOUT

Most organizations have task forces and major projects and one-time summits and ad hoc committees working on a regular basis.  They contribute to move many goals forward.  I'm raising the caution to look at how many are at work in your company and how close are you to what they are doing.  Are they superfluous or have they taken over running the company. Neither is OK.  What do you as top leader want and expect from them?


Here is food for thought.
Are projects doing the most interesting work in the company?
If they are, are you giving enough time to guiding and supporting them?
Is the work of your major functions diminished by the "extraordinary" working groups?
Where does the major energy and oomph of your company reside?
Do functions get the boring day to day work and cross-functional groups get the crucial business building work?
If so, do you need to look at your structure?  How could a different structure support the work that is now "extra-ordinary" to fold it into the mainstream?
Are the same favored high potentials put into this project work?
Do you need that talent fully engaged in the day to day?
Are Initiatives killing your core business?
Is your core business  so stuck that you are tilting at windmills hoping for a lucky hit with special initiatives?


New projects and initiatives can be invigorating if the content is right and the resources managed well.  They can also create organizational fatigue and become a drag on the business.

So food for thought on a possible odd blind spot.

CLEAN OUT YOUR INTERNAL GUNK!

DO AN ASSESSMENT OF YOUR INTERNAL GUNK!

As a CEO or top executive leader, you have to absorb too much. 

Too much information
Bad surprises in results
Big fat mistakes that cost huge chunks of money
Conflict between functions on your team
Idiotic turf wars or personality clashes 
Constant prepping for a Board Meeting or Analyst call
Top talent that disappoints or demands
Community expectations
Realization that a major initiative just isn't going to get the job done
A direct report that drives you nuts

AND being at the top you manage your emotions and your impulsive responses and your bluntly honest thoughts  and keep moving.

And mostly that's good.  You carry too much power to habitually unload on the company and your team(s).

BUT that necessary reserve can build up internal gunk that can get pretty darned distracting and noisy.  It creates a drag on your leadership energy.

You know its gunk when you:
-Talk about the same issue and person for more than six months with your professional confidante
-Blow your stack at a meeting and direct it publicly at one person
-Begin to gossip about one of your direct reports about another person on the team
-Feel insulted or outraged at most interactions with the same person
-You talk to your best friend or spouse about this issue or person during purely social engagements
-You have given up on a person and they don't know it and it's been more than 3 months
-Are jealous or resentful of someone's success
-When it feel so good to have a drink and talk about it with whoever is drinking with you
-You turn this person or issue or decision over and over in your mind when you are alone in the car

My point is that gunk is inevitable.  You need to do a mental assessment of the topics  in your internal gunk.  Usually there is one that dominates.  Then address it.
-Get clear about it first.  What are you thinking and feeling about it.  -
-Then create the conversation in your head or, better yet, on paper. 
- Sit on it for a week.  Share it with one person.  Decide if clarifying it for yourself is enough
- Then decide.  Does the idea of addressing it directly make you feel more energetic, more ready to engage, more powerful, more authentic or scared, unsure and ambivalent.  Don't act unless you know the difference. 
-Then let it go.  Clear it out.  

I am not talking about everyday irritations.  This type of gunk clearing is not to be done frequently.  But not to realize that you carry it  and not  to decide about how or whether to  handle your particular "gunk" is a real drain on your much needed clear leadership power.

BURST OF COMPASSION FOR THE CEO

Really.  I mean it.
I don't want the tone of what I write to be overly provocative or smart alecky.
Really.
I just want to help good leaders be good.
I mean good people who are also good at what they do.
And power can be so darned distorting.
And hard to keep these days too.

So here's a blind spot that gets ignored.
CEO's and top leaders are over criticized and under appreciated.

And of course, they can take the heat of the kitchen.
But when they are the highest paid person in most cases and with the most power over the lives of people in the company, it's hard not to resent them or think their life is waaaaaaay better.

Well it is and it isn't.

Top power is also:
Isolating
Running after results day after day after day after day
Demanding of engagement without respite
Leading without always knowing where to go
Always making someone unhappy
Being discussed and disliked by many
Making nice when you want to be grumpy
Hurting people and killing ideas
Being misinterpreted 
Thinking about how long you'll last or should last
Wondering about you can trust
Always holding your hand to the flame

So, thanks for wanting the job
For showing up.
For being willing to hold so much
For leading

STOP TREATING THE BASICS LIKE NEW CONCEPTS--JUST GET IT DONE AND KEEP IT DONE.  


Why do we keep circling back to the basics of running a company as if they were something new and exciting.  To keep reading articles and books about fairness and participation and recognition and feedback and development is making me nuts.  Does business have to live in perpetual Groundhog Day.
Can't anything stay done. 

Listen to some of what I just scanned in recent business writing:

Women are 50 % of the world and need to be 50% of our talent. (Fascinating)
We need business friendly family policy.  (Yep, yep, yep)
We need equal pay for equal work. (How long has this been going on?)
We need respectful/inclusive workplaces. (Do tell)
We need civility AND we need to spell out behaviourally what that is? (Maybe for Cro-Magnon leaders!)
We need to align people and get their buy-in.  (No kidding).
People need recognition and to know how their work fits into the whole. (Yawn)
Balance the chaos of innovation with the stability of the core business. (Okey dokey)
People perform better with feedback and challenge. (You don't say.)

I'm getting bored as a write.

Not that these things aren't important.
Rather that they are SO important that they ought to have been nailed long ago. 
What is it that keeps the basics of leading an organization treated as though it were new and novel?
How come learning doesn't stick?  
How come there has to be a new flavor of the day to remind you of the basics?   
Developmental talent review!!!  Shocking!  Let's try it!  Civil behaviour!!  Let's roll it out and teach civility.  Great idea!  Yawn and growl both.

There is some kind of learning disability here.  ADHD at the organizational level.
Top leaders-- you have to  demand that the basics are absolutely solid.  Then you can build on a foundation that is ready for stretch, for new markets, for disruption, for building continuous growth and organizational health.
Please nail these basics. They need to be routine and embedded in your company.  Then you can  do your particular brand of leadership and give your particular leadership gift.

TWO GREAT QUESTIONS TO  DISCOVER A BLIND SPOT


I write on the supposition that the more power you carry the harder it is to know your impact on people and your organization.  So as a top executive it is harder to continue to develop. The most fertile time to gain self-awareness as a leader is at the second or third tier of leadership.  At this point you and everyone else knows you are still learning and that it's still cool to learn. 
Executive coaching and in-house mentoring are welcome.  CEO not so much.
Not that you are not a learner and wanting to improve but you are crazy busy, nobody mentors you, people think you already actually know stuff and you begin to think you do too.  

Regardless of level, if you hold people's daily life and strife in your hands, it's hard to get a true picture of yourself.

These two questions help and can be asked simply and directly.  A formal review is a great time to use them but so is the informal conversation that kind of falls in your lap.

1.  What is an impact that I have that I may not know about?  That helps or doesn't?

2.  What do you do that is good work and effort that you think I don't see or
fully appreciate?

Simple.  Ask.  Listen.  Open up the answers that you are given.  Do it often.
With many people.

Both let you know what you are not seeing.

HOW DID WE GET BACK TO FEAR?

HOW DID WE GET BACK TO FEAR??

I am hearing more stories about fear in organizations than I have for a long time.
We worked hard in the 80's at getting fear out of the way so that companies could flourish.

Quality circles.
Team building.
Straight talk.
Conflict resoluton.
Open door policies
360 degree feedback
Inclusive culture
Solid  people policies


These were not  soft skills.  They were approaches to eliminating fear of whimsical power and cronyism.  They were about an atmosphere of assumed fairness.  SO THAT PEOPLE COULD THINK ABOUT THE CUSTOMERS AND THE BUSINESS NOT THEMSELVES.  

Fear has seeped back into the workplace:

Will I be "down sized?"
Can I give my opinion or will I be punished?
Do I have to watch who I support or talk to?
Do I have to pick sides to be safe?
Am I doing a good enough job?  Does it matter if I am?
Does top leadership know how to take us into the future?
Do I have to be just a little bit dishonest to survive?
Do I have to protect myself and my resume all the time?
Do I have to agree with what I think is wrong?
Am I stupid to give 100% to this company?  Am i being a fool?
Do I have to commit to actions I think are wrong for the business?

Where did this fear come from?
Does economic down turn necessarily create a harsh punishing reality?
Are leaders scared or uncaring?

I want to go on the record as naive.
When the external world is a little or a lot scarey I think:

People won't be scared if they understand the business challenges in specific detail. 
People won't be scared if they make the decisions that will effect them --even laying off or eliminating positions.
People won't be scared if top leaders share in the pain of adjustment to a new reality.
People won't be scared if everyone sacrifices for the common good and no one is sacrificed.
People won't be scared if there is a steady hand on the tiller that knows how to navigate through the challenges.
People won't be scared if they are pulled together to get through a tough time
rather than splintered and isolated by rumors and special relationships.
People won't be scared if they are not threatened.

Tell me.  Where did this new wave of scare come from?