Leading the Unleadable

by Alan Willett

  Transforming the Maverick into a Positive Power

  In the opening of this chapter, Sarah, the division leader, had a problem with her new manager, Tom. Her perception was that Tom was being a negative force in her group, but it was not clear. The following are the actions Sarah took to grow Tom into the leader she needed him to be.

  Determining If Her Concerns Were Real

  Sarah’s experience with Tom was very similar to situations I have helped other managers with. In those instances, I worked with the managers to attempt to remedy situations where top talent was already complaining, with some even leaving when a newly hired manager turned out to be a disruptive force. I say “attempt” because when it is already that late, it is a difficult challenge. Often we have been successful, but never nearly as successful as when catching the problems early.

  In Sarah’s case, she acted before she had significant problems.

  First, she talked privately one on one with her top talent. She stated her observations about meetings and her concern about the energy level of the organization. She did not name Tom as the main source of her concern. She simply asked people whether they noticed anything and if so, what they thought the cause was.

  The answers confirmed her fears. Tom was being a maverick for change without any respect for the status quo. Tom had no patience for listening to other people’s ideas. He did not show any respect for learning what was good about the existing systems. It seemed all he could see were the problems with how things worked. He was often right but not in a helpful way, not in a way that would build the team. He was instead building resentment toward himself and the organization.

  Determining the Root Cause of the Situation

  Sarah did not need any other confirmation or evidence to act. She considered letting Tom keep going to see if he would figure it out by himself. She also considered encouraging each of the people with concerns to talk to Tom about their concerns.

  Neither of those options satisfied her. The investment her company made to acquire Tom was both time-consuming and expensive. It would be even more expensive to allow the situation to continue just to confirm if her fears were real, or to let Tom figure it out for himself.

  She scheduled a private meeting with Tom and prepared her concise, nonjudgmental concerns to discuss with Tom. She noted her observations. She also reported the key points she heard from people she talked to in the organization. She did so without identifying the people.

  This meeting led to a lengthy series of discussions between Sarah and Tom throughout the week. They ended up canceling many meetings because they knew they needed to remedy a few problems and they needed a plan to do so.

  Building Sarah and Tom’s Bridge to Success

  The first problem they had to remedy was the broken trust between Sarah and Tom. Tom’s initial reaction to Sarah’s comments was some denial and some anger. Sarah was deeply concerned about this. She wanted Tom to take the issues seriously and act upon them. She started to lose trust that Tom would do well in the organization. Sarah was focused on building a loyal customer base and creating a great workplace culture. She brought Tom in because of his experience in helping organizations keep pace with a growing customer base. However, this meeting caused her to wonder if he was bringing the strict disciplinary cultures of his previous organizations, which were not known for having great workplace cultures, to her organization.

  In their ensuing conversations on this topic, Sarah realized that she had not had a discussion about her expectations of excellence in leadership for her organization. She discovered that Tom believed that he had been hired as a “turn-around manager.” He assumed incorrectly that the organization was failing and that rapid changes needed to be put in place and enforced.

  This explained many things. They then discussed Sarah’s expectation for Tom, which was to help the company accelerate growth based on the current success. This delighted Tom and led to completely new discussions with great insights from Tom about the stresses that would come with rapid growth.

  Tom apologized for how he had been approaching the situation. To rebuild the bridges that Tom had broken, they designed a listening campaign.

  The Listening Campaign

  The final part of the bridge to Tom’s success was the listening campaign. Tom realized that he essentially needed to reboot his relationship with many people in the organization. Tom had not employed the listening campaign at the start of his new role in Sarah’s company that I detailed in the previous section in this chapter. Tom did this now.

  Tom did report that it initially was not easy for him. He realized that his previous roles were under very different circumstances that called for quick actions. He found that his listening campaign truly changed his perspective on the organization. More important, he found that it established deep trust with those whom he needed to work with to grow the organization.

  The most excellent news is they did.

  REFLECTION POINTS

  The theme of this chapter is growing the ability of leaders. Almost anyone who is in a leadership position has great ambition. There is desire to stretch and grow. Our job as a leader of leaders is to give them the opportunity to do so. It often means staying out of the way and sometimes providing just the right guidance.

  In many ways this is the definition of mentorship. This chapter’s reflection points focus on mentorship.

  1. Think of the most powerful mentor you have had in forging you to be the leader you are today. What was it that made that relationship special so you were able to learn so much?

  2. In the mentoring you have done, have you been as good as or better than the best mentors you have worked with? What are the key things you could do to improve your mentoring by an order of magnitude?

  3. In what ways could you grow your own skills by mentoring others?

  4. If you have managers reporting to you, which ones could use help?

  5. What is stopping you?

  Leader, Lead Thyself: Exceptional Self-Leadership

  Consider the stressed, tired, overwhelmed manager. Will she notice the early warning signs of trouble? Will he be able to handle the situations from the taxonomy of trouble in a way that transforms the troublesome to tremendous? How can you handle the maverick, cynic, or diva when you are consistently having a “difficult day” yourself?

  It is possible, but it is also unlikely.

  If you truly want to be an exceptional leader who can consistently provide great value, to have positive impact, and even to transform troublesome situations to tremendous, then the focus must start with your inner game of leadership.

  The following are some of the symptoms of someone who has not yet taken control of his or her own leadership.

  Rate yourself on each one of these.

  I have worked with many leaders who identified deeply with this list of symptoms. Many of them were actually very good leaders. Nevertheless, they often felt like they were constantly battling to accomplish what needed to be accomplished.

  If you are like these leaders, you rated most of these items as “often” or worse.

  The rest of this chapter describes a number of mindsets and methods to take full ownership of your leadership.

  Find Your Leadership Sweet Spot

  On a tennis racquet there is a miraculous zone known as the sweet spot. If, when swinging your racquet, you miss the sweet spot it will jar your arm, and you are much more likely to miss the spot you are aiming for. Further, missing the sweet spot repeatedly will tire you more quickly.

  When you hit that miraculous spot, your body follows through swiftly and smoothly, and the ball is much more likely to spring off your racquet with great speed toward the spot on the court you desire.

  The sweet spot on a tennis racquet is where multiple forces are designed to come together to create a harmonic response.

  The same is true for leadership. When you do work that misses your leadership sweet spot, it is jarring and more quickly drains your energ
y. When you do work from your sweet spot, it provides more energy to you than you put into it.

  This is also an intersection of three forces that you can control to come together to create a great harmonic response. Let’s look at these three elements.

  1. Passion. This is the type of work that energizes you. You like this style of work and like doing the work in this area. This is the work that puts a smile on your face. You know you are passionate about an area of work when you find that when you are engaged in it time can pass quickly without you noticing.

  2. Competence. Competence is simply having the skills needed to make the work successful. When you have passion and competence the work done will provide you with great pleasure and pride. You may not necessarily start with the skill level needed, but if you have the passion it is likely you will acquire it. Further, it is likely you will keep improving.

  3. Value. To do work that truly energizes you in the long run, the work that intersects with your passion and competence must also be work that provides value to others.

  Exceptional leaders are very conscious of what work fits in their sweet spots and what does not. They will work to create ways to grow their sweet spots. They will also try to attract the work they want to do to the center of their leadership “racquets.”

  When I have mentored leaders to take more control of their own leadership, this is often one of the first things we work on. I ask them to track a week of their activities and to note which activities feel like they are hitting the sweet spot and which activities are jarring. People find this a surprising exercise because they are always learning things about themselves and their work that they didn’t know.

  Many who have done this exercise learned that there are other factors that affect their sweet spots. Everyone agrees that the three listed are critical. Some people have found other things that are important to them as well, such as the physical work environment, the people they work with, or the financial stability of the organization.

  Some discovered that they have more than one sweet spot. They uncover different areas of work where passion, competence, and value intersect.

  Many learned that their sweet spots evolved over time. After a period their passions changed and, thus, unlike a tennis racquet, their sweet spot moved!

  Most important, they learned that they can make their sweet spots bigger! By taking ownership of their leadership, they guided more work to hit their sweet spots. As they grew better at this, they found ways to also grow their sweet spots through more passion, more competence, and more reciprocal value to those they served.

  How to Supercharge Your Energy

  Are people more likely to be drawn to a happy, positive leader projecting energy or to an obviously tired and stressed leader?

  The answer is quite obvious. Yet, most people act as victims of their own energy levels. So many leaders have told me “I would have gotten more sleep if . . .” or “Those meetings I attend drain me, if only . . .” or “The weeks are so stressful, I am completely drained by the end.” The list of excuses for a low energy level is a long and tiring one.

  Exceptional leaders are energetic. Certainly, exceptional leaders do get tired. It is not that they are all endowed with a natural gift of infinite energy. The difference is that they have endowed themselves with a very specific gift. This is the gift of finding the best ways of energizing themselves and avoiding the things that drain their personal energies.

  Consider what happens when we have lower energy, or even feel tired:

  • We work slower.

  • We get more easily distracted.

  • We are more easily stressed.

  • We make more mistakes.

  • All of which means we work slower on the next day cleaning up those mistakes.

  • All of which could lead to not sleeping well and sleeping less.

  • Which leads to lower energy, which leads to more stress, which leads to an endlessly exhausting loop.

  When people are feeling relaxed and energetic, they typically have a much more productive time. The following things generally result from working from a place of high energy:

  • Clear thinking.

  • Faster action.

  • Fewer mistakes.

  • Less rework caused by previous problems created when tired.

  • People enjoy being around you.

  • You sleep more soundly as there is less stress.

  All of which leads to higher energy, which leads to an endless energizing loop.

  Anyone who has been on an airplane knows that the flight attendants always encourage the passengers with the standard speech: “In the event of a decompression, an oxygen mask will automatically appear in front of you. If you are traveling with someone who requires assistance, secure your mask first, and then assist the other person.”

  I have been told by a friend who is a flight attendant that you must do this because once that mask descends there are less than eight seconds before you are unconscious. Putting your oxygen mask on first is a good idea and a good metaphor for a crisis situation.

  For daily living, it is more useful to think about your personal fuel management system. Consider your fuel tank, your reserve systems, and how to keep them near full fuel and what to do when you are running low.

  It is up to us as individuals to take control of our “fuel management system.” Be aware of the energy boosters. Be aware of the energy drains. Be aware of the size of your fuel tank. Take actions to improve. Each investment in improving this system will pay back many times over!

  There are four key ways to master ownership of your energy levels:

  1. Do things that energize you. This is not as obvious as it sounds. It takes effort to recognize the activities that give you more energy both inside and outside of work. The real trick is consciously taking the time to do those things. Too many people fall into habits of convenience (such as, “Oh let’s just watch another movie,” instead of taking a walk through the woods). Track the things that fall into your leadership sweet spot. Track the things that energize you and the things that drain your energy. Doing this for a short time will provide insights that may surprise you.

  2. Manage the energy drains in your life. Are there activities you do at work that seem exhausting? Are there people you sometimes interact with who just seem to drain your energy? Exceptional leaders are very aware of these and use various techniques to minimize the energy drains. Make a list of the drains and brainstorm ways you can counter their effects or reduce how frequently these occur. This may seem selfish but decreasing the energy drains and increasing your happiness and energy is a gift to everyone!

  3. Be prepared for energys dips. The first two items are proactive actions you can take. Even with those actions clearly managed, there are times of the week, even during each day, when it feels that your energy has just fled. Be prepared. Carry your favorite energy snacks. Hydrate. Take a brisk walk. Make some of your one-on-one meetings walking meetings. What are your best techniques?

  4. Give yourself the gift of empty spaces. Some good managers are proud of being too busy to get enough sleep, to go for walks, or simply to pause and stare at a distant horizon. The exceptional leaders cherish these moments and work to create these spaces for themselves, often on a daily basis.

  Some good managers believe it is a badge of honor to be tired and stressed, as it is an indicator of how hard they are working. Meanwhile, the exceptional leader is like organized lightning, with both a calming presence and an intensity that raises the whole energy of the situations they engage.

  I know which leader I strive to be.

  Which leader do the people around you think you are?

  Take Control of Every Week

  Hopefully, you see the wisdom of taking control of your leadership sweet spot and of supercharging your energy. To best be able to take control of those keys, you must take control of your time. The best way to do this is to have a regular planning process. I personally have
a process for planning a very long period of time, such as a decade, one for planning my year, one for my month, and also one for planning my week.

  If you can’t control the time in your week, the rest won’t matter. Your weekly personal planning process should focus on controlling (or at least greatly influencing) where the time in your week goes.

  This example process has ten steps.

  1. Relax into the week. Take time to consciously prepare your mindset for the week. It is useful for many people to have a key phrase or two to be a reminder of traits they are working on. For example, some leaders simply use this step to remind themselves how the week ahead is a choice of what things they choose to do and the attitude they bring to how they will do those things.

  2. Review and refresh upcoming family events. Many leaders who have excelled at work find that they need to put family events first on their planning processes or they make costly mistakes in squeezing out some of the really important things in their lives. Look ahead at least two months and determine if there are any major things you want or need to do for the benefit of the family. Look at the upcoming week and think about family. Refresh in your mind upcoming events. Add any new events if needed. Note any actions taken at the end of your planning session.

  3. Look at your main upcoming work goals and events. It is so easy to get pulled into the mundane of the day to day and lose track of where you really want to go. Look ahead. Think about your major goals. Think about major events. Note if there are any significant things you need to do this week.

  4. Review your calendar for the upcoming week. Review the events already on your calendar. The upcoming week has almost certainly had more requests come in for your time via meetings or requests for you to do specific things. It may have grown over the weekend. Note which of the items are in your sweet spot and fit goals, which ones really don’t, and which ones fall into a bit of a gray area. You don’t need to decide yet!