WHO HAS THE MOST POWER????

If you are a striving person, you like competition, you like:
to win, you enjoy power you don't mind extreme accountability, you like status
you are driven by recognition for your work.
Then it is quite natural that you want the top job.

If, however, you want to cause large change, you want time to think to reach good decisions, you enjoy collaboration, you want positive impact, you want to be pro-active not reactive, you want to do the right thing for the business----then maybe you don't really want the top job.  

The CEO role or any other of ultimate accountability is incredibly constrained, unbelievably powerless, burdened by the weight of the enterprise and 
the chief decision maker of decisions that "suck less".  

Hard to believe?  Ask a CEO how able she or he is to make something happen,
to make the right thing happen, to think about what is the right thing to happen.  I remember one CEO I worked with who laughed and said, "I feel like I'm on a slow moving elephant heading toward a cliff guiding it with a feather switch".  

There can be much more power and flexibility and satisfaction in a number two role. You can speak more freely, act more creatively, rock the boat more
effectively and collaborate easily.  A number two person or team  has the right balance of freedom and power to truly function.

I'm saying, "THE CEO ROLE ISN'T ALL IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE".  Don't be blinded by the status, the perks, the office, the salary if you like quite a bit of intrinsic satisfaction.  I'm just saying---- think twice before you reject a number two position and don't be surprised if becoming CEO, you think to yourself, "What just happened to me?"

BREATHING SPACE FOR INNOVATION

There are many schools of thought about how to develop more innovation in an organization.  Do you bring it in?  Do you let it out?  Does it reside in the culture or in the person?  If you know how to hire creative people, would that solve the problem?  Do you need a special atmosphere?  Do you have to hire crazy risk takers and then never ever say 'boo' if they make big bad mistakes?

I don't know.
But here is some of what I do know about innovation in companies from my own experience:

l. To create something new, people have to really really really have to have an idea or a goal that they are crazy about--intrigued with, nuts for, won't be told "no" for. That's the driving force, so assigned projects that need creativity may not get it. Let the passionate ones volunteer.

2. To create something new, people have to know how or be able to learn how to think flexibly--to turn things up side down, to come at a task or product from a new perspective. Look for the people who drive you nuts.  They say, "how about?, Why couldn't we?, Why not try this? What if?"  Those people.

3.  Drilling down to a solution or a creation doesn't work for creating something new. The opposite is true. Thinking broadly is needed--exploring in new areas, 
scanning other industries, following an interest or a curiosity to wherever it leads.  It's a way of fluffing up the brain from rigid habits and patterns. Let your people stray. No more industry conferences. Try something very different.

4.  There does need to be a pressing demand at some point in the creative process---for a new product, a different solution, a drop dead end point.
This forces new thought from all of the above.  Here is where you distill all the work in preparation.  So create a mandate worth working toward and hold the importance and the deadline.  Pressure and tension are good for creativity.

5.  Innovation is tough work. It doesn't have to be coddled or treated like it is oh so special and fragile. It takes diligence and experimentation without becoming defeated--- over and over again. Provide some support occasionally.


6. A high risk, high failure environment is not necessary.  A high mess,
high million of small experiments, high learning as you go, high living in the real world attitude is necessary. High high high risk is for start-ups who have no other choice. An elaborate, complicated company is just not as able to be agile and risk crazy. Intrpreneuship, yes. Entrpreneurship inside a company, no.

7.  Play works miracles. A playful approach to work keeps people and projects malleable  and doen't make the work so "important" that people are paralyzed by performance anxiety. Pilots are good fodder for innovation. Play with the idea before you work with the idea. Stay "light" until you hit execution mode.

8.  Innovation needs some protection from punishment (derision, extra tight budget constraints, jealousy) but mostly it need to be allowed to happen.

Innovation needs breathing space.

YOUR ROLE AS PROTECTOR

This topic has been on my mind all week.
I think it's because I have had some bad health care experiences lately.
AND there was not a single person who wasn't trying to do the best work that he or she could. There was not a single person who wasn't pleasant and
client focused. All were competent if not expert professionals.

How does that end up being a bad experience?
How do you support and protect hard working people who want to do a good job?

l.  Kill absurd letter of the law rigid rules that become laughable as they create the opposite of what your business wants to be about.

2. Do not create so many ways to check on people's competence that it makes them incompetent.

3. Don't fragment works processes so that the left hand can't know what the right hand is doing.

4. Don't try to create accountability through check lists that insult and weigh down the service or product being offered.

5. Don't create so much flexibility that chaos results. 

6. Don't specialize tasks so that no one has the pleasure of a whole job being well done.

7. Don't watch the clock more than the result.  

8. Don't believe that only what gets measured, gets done.  Lots of good things get done that are not pulled by measures and rewards.  Make room for these.

9. Constantly create context so that everyone (as in everyone) gets the
understanding of what, why and how things are happening.

10. Don't overload your company with too many goals and too many initiatives.
This weakens leverage and focus.

I see good people wanting to do good work in systems that have gone kind of insane.  Make a sane work culture for your people.

I REPEAT MYSELF AND SO SHOULD YOU!

Repeating yourself is an important feature of the top executive role.  Getting a message, concept or a primary goal deeply embedded in your company takes you saying it again and again and again.  Way more than you want to and way more than you think you need to.  So here I am again reminding you of how hard it is to learn and grow when you are at the top of the organization.  This entry was written a few years ago when I, too, was slow to learn as a top executive.  The very role comes with a learning disability.  I quote me.

"Just get promoted to the top?  You may be the dumbest person in the organization or the least able to learn.  The white noise that surrounds you is the roaring lack of real feedback, the ability to know your impact and learn from it.  

Fundamentally, it is YOUR TASK TO ASK for feedback and opinions. And you need to learn to do it in such a way that is makes ti easy for people to talk to you honestly.  Even then, you should magnify the negative by 5 and minimize the positive by 3.  This is the equation to balance unequal power.
More math. If someone has the nerve (and it takes some) to come to you with an important negative about you or the organization --then they have probably  thought about it for at least  three months, talked about it with at least 3 people for corroboration who have talked to 3 people who have talked to three people.  The pain of the issue has to outweigh the risk of your displeasure.  This ratio is true even if you are the most approachable, open, tolerant CEO.  Your position simply weighs too much.
Positive feedback has its own problems and ratio.  I have seen CEO's wither without some appreciation and recognition and I've seen them blossom and flourish with it.  It's hard to compliment you and give you positive feedback,  It's awkward.  The kiss-up prohibition can be huge.  And there is a danger element of putting a halo on the person who gives it.  Seduction by flattery is used by ambitious people.  Mostly you can smell it.  So, the ratio is too minimize positive feedback by 3.  First it is easier to give and less important than the negative information you need to hear and understand.
The blind spot here is that you begin to think that it's as easy for others to talk candidly with you as it is for you to talk candidly with them.  NO.  It isn't.  You need to know what works for you to hear your company accurately  and what creates positive momentum for  people.  It's your job to make real conversation about your business easy and productive.  That's top on your job description as CEO.

5.  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 of ability to know your impact and learn from it.  It is YOUR TASK TO ASK and to do it in such a way that it makes it easy for people to talk to you honestly.  And even then you must magnify the negative by a multiple of five and reduce the positive by a multiple of three.  Depending whether you ask.  If someone has the nerve to come with you on an important negative about you or the organization--then they have thought about it for at least three months, talked about it without least five others for corroboration and reached the point of the scare factor of talking with you weighs less than the day to day pain of the issue.  And this is true if you are the most approachable, open, tolerant CEO/  You position simply weighs too much.  and the positive is the same.  You may be quite wonderful.  In fact , it you are it's harder to say something positive to you. Awkward making.  If you are not, then the push to want to like the person in charge or the goodies that come from flattery are irresistible.  Still only a multiple of three because it is much easier than the negative.   It is your job to make real conversation about the business with you easy and productive..

DEVELOP YOUR LEADERS WITH A MODEL FOR THE FUTURE

My experience, my reading and leaders' opinions in The Leadership Intensive Workshop I ran with colleagues, show me there is a new model of leadership emerging.The old one casts a large shadow but it is a fading shadow. 

The new leadership model has these elements among others:

--High degree of collaboration in order to see the whole picture so that one system or function isn't messing things up for another AND to create new ideas through thinking and creating together.

--More intuitive/instinctual decision making. Data can never make the decision
  for you. Or if research and data alone can make the decision, then it is not
  a decision that will take you far. It already was an easy decision. The future is
  not knowable and demands a leap of some kind that is not a sure thing.

--Multi-tasking will continue to be demanded. And yes, research shows that 
  single focus is best. A better definition of what I am talking about is the 
  ability to switch focus quickly and effectively, not doing everything at once.

--Frequent and numerous transitions will be the norm and need to be done
  without disruption.  Teams will come and go. Projects will live and die.
  Meetings and travel into different geographic and company cultures will
  increase. Recalibrating constantly will be a skill for leaders.  

--The ability to be clear about the demands facing the company and why they 
   matter will be paramount in order to allow people to be free to meet 
   those demands in many,many possible ways. The "how" will have to quit
   being dictated.               

--Trusting professional relationships will be necessary to allow nimble 
  timely action.  I don't mean happy, fun, kind relationships, but rather
  deep trust that can be leaned into so that bold action can occur.

--The ability to simplify complexity so that coherent action can be taken
  across a large company will be needed.  It has to be developed, not
  "sold"  so that the understanding is in the DNA of the company, not driven
  from the surface.


The blind spot here is that you may have battling leadership models at play in your company.  This causes symptoms like action grid-lock, profound disagreement on the "how" versus the "what", and loss of high potential talent who can't live with outdated leadership anymore.  

Don't be blind to the need to be explicit about your companies leadership
model so that you are not literally working at cross purposes. One way to do this is to collect a bunch of models and have your top group cherry pick what they believe is effective and needed.  And then add some too.  Don't rely on outdated tools to define leadership now. Build a new one that takes you into
the future.

What would you put on the list for a new leadership model?
I'll share it here.  Let's make explicit what is just beginning to emerge.
And, thank goodness.

MAYBE WE DO NEED MORE OUTRAGE

Frankly, I was cleaning-up my email when I saw a title that made
me see red. It was in Smart-Brief on Leaderhsip. I skipped over it assuming it
was normal leadership fare when the literal words hit me AND I got mad and then amazed that such a tired old leadership model just won't go away.
I think I have been fooled by the freedom and pace of innovative companies into thinking something new was going on. Mostly just chaos masked by short term success, rather than progressive steady engagement of adults wanting to get the same thing done and everyone benefitting.  

Anyway, here is the title that got me going and my response on Facebook that got other people going.

"Use Soft Power to Keep Your Employees on Track!"
 OK--It still makes me nuts to read it.
 Here's what I said:

 1. YOUR power doesn't make associates do anything. It's their power that
  gets things done.  
  2.  KEEP your employees on track??? What? Are they  2 years old?  Plus it  
  doesn't work for two year-olds either.
  3.  YOUR employees?? NO NO NO NO NO. They are not yours. They belong   
  to themselves.
  4. ON TRACK?  Pretty narrow point of view.  Head down. Follow the path--to
  mediocrity. Please don't think. It's so messy."

And I add:
Quit thinking carrot and stick. Both are juvenile and demeaning.
Work WITH people. Make it possible with agreed on goals, agreed on 
tasks that make sense, compensation that grows evenly if differently and
adult to adult relationships where everyone learns and develops.
This is not utopia folks. It's just actually kind of mundane management for a healthy organization.

Blind spot?  You are sitting on a volcano of potential.  Use it or the fire goes out or the whole thing erupts!!

I AM THINKING OF ALL THE THINGS YOU DON'T SAY

As a top leader, you learn to tone it down.
You moderate enthusiasm, anger, commitment, all kinds of strong statements.
With reason.
You are one of the most watched, maneuvered, puzzled over, people in your company. Your words weigh too much. You have to be guarded.

You know the complications of the organizational reality.
You know there is very little black and white.
You want people to trust and respect your word.
You know the "truth" of a situation can change quickly.

The danger for you is becoming muffled and losing the power of your voice.
The tendency is to begin using lots of words to say very little.
The pit fall can be not knowing what you are truly thinking and feeling, much less saying. You don't hear your own truth.

Some things I hear in my work that are not said.

--If you don't make big changes, I will have to ask you to leave even though you are a top executive and colleague.  We have reached that point.  Are you clear about those changes?  Can you, will you make them?

--I am downright discouraged about what we can get done if we don't stop passing the buck for bad results and here is who I see doing it. Stop it.

--I can't be the only optimist for this group. And, by the way, it can't be fake optimism. Like the fight or leave the fight.

--I need your help.

--I don't see the answer. Yet. 

--Do we have the courage to do the right thing for our business and customers rather than being led by Wall Street?

--I'm sorry.

--Let's reconsider.

--I've changed my mind.

--Collaboration seems so slow, it makes me nuts.

--I have to have fun and hope or this job isn't worth it.

--I'm bored.

--I don't enjoy my team.

One way to hear what you may not be saying is to have a colleague or coach with whom you can be honest, be blunt, be irreverent, be angry, be idealistic, be cynical and laugh your head off. So you can hear what you want to say and then choose to say it loud and clear.