Rogue Leadership

by Paul Rosenberg

I have picked out my top four failures. Grab some popcorn and enjoy my pain (my therapist says this will be good for me).

  1. My Inner Idiot

  I was new on the job in a fish-food plant that made pellets for salmon farms in Southern Chile. I saw the plant manager put a fish pellet in his mouth, bite it into two pieces to look inside. I didn’t know what he was looking for, but he exuded confidence and knowledge (not to mention fish-meal breath!). In an attempt to get accepted by the new client, I followed suit. In front of the crew I was coaching, I reached into a barrel, pulled out a pellet, and bit down. The entire crew burst into laughter.

  “Gringo, what are barrels for?”

  I hadn’t paid attention to the safety initiation, but then I remembered: “Um, rejected material?”

  “That would be a yes, compadre.”

  “Why was it rejected?” I asked nervously.

  “Staph infection.”

  Then I burst out laughing, mortified and humbled, but enjoying the absurdity of the moment.

  My response to my unhappy meal, as well as the crew’s reaction, has served me well over the years. Here are the insights I learned:

  Laughing at your mistakes makes you human, and creates trust. If you handle the incident with grace, it adds to the folklore of shared experience at work. We not only remember great leaders and their performance, but also their goofball moments: “Remember when Ed accidentally showed his vacation photo in his Batman speedo swim trunks?” It’s always good to be part of the company legends—in a fun way.

  Being dumb also allows you to listen better, without your inner über-leader trying to prove how much you know by getting ready with your response. Communicating is not tennis. Unless your name is Serena.

  Asking “stupid” questions actually opens the way for creative thinking and can highlight issues everyone else might have dismissed—for example, asking, “Why are we doing this? Do we need to be on this path?”

  Being “dumb” and not knowing it all comes across as nonthreatening, and I have used it to build relationships. It helps us avoid triggering defense mechanisms in others.

  According to some of my best mentors, “How you show up is how you show up.” You can decide what that means for you. If you don’t know how to fall on your sword when appropriate, leading may be difficult. Recognizing your errors and having accountability keeps you authentic. A colleague of mine once made a significant accounting error, but because she didn’t try to hide it, it served her well in the eyes of the company. Doing this well can be an art form.

  In case you were wondering, I never did get an infection.

  2. Eating My Own Left Foot

  One of my most endearing jobs involved working for an assistant to the mayor of a small city in California. I wrote speeches, served as his aide de camp, met with the public, and handled protocol at events. An exciting and interesting job—except for the weekly council meetings.

  The mayor, one of the first Asian Americans in US politics, stood firm as a powerful voice against discrimination. Together, we made a great team, and we would often sit at his koi pond, feed the fish, and map out strategy.

  For the Cinco de Mayo parade, I would usually ride with the mayor, but because of the vice mayor’s Latino heritage, he was given that honor. The mayor bowed out and asked for a full report when it was over.

  When the parade stopped in front of the grandstand, on impulse, the vice mayor and I decided to have a little fun and run around the car and change seats, much to the delight of the celebrating crowd.

  After the parade, I went into the mayor’s office and he asked how it went. With pride and excitement, I blurted out, “It was great, so funny! We decided to switch places, like a Chinese fire drill!”

  The mayor remained silent for at least thirty seconds. “What about what you did makes it Chinese?”

  He let me sit there for a few moments. I didn’t have an answer. I realized I had offended him and an entire group of people. Language is important. He knew I meant no harm, but he also knew I would learn a great lesson that day about how to communicate. He raised my awareness with grace and wisdom, and for that I have been grateful ever since.

  3. Crash and Burn: Cutting Losses

  I sensed from the beginning that it would be a tough assignment. I had been brought in by a corporate leader, Bob, to help improve a maintenance turnaround schedule on a ship that needed to be back sailing as soon as possible. When I met his team leader, Alex, the head of operations, he said all the right things, but I could detect the insincerity in his voice. Although he had signed the contract, I was convinced that Alex did so only to please his boss.

  At least I have the support of the top guy, I told myself. At the end of the first week, Bob invited me to dinner and told me he was leaving the company. Right away, my gut told me to withdraw, but I had just moved to a new country with my wife, gone independent, and invested a lot in this project.

  I anticipated the conversation I would have on Monday with Alex. True to form, he told me Sunday night to be in his office first thing the next morning.

  Alex sat me down and said he didn’t want me there, that I would not succeed with the project, and now that Bob was gone, he was in charge. He asked for minimum interference with him and his team.

  Instead of trusting my instincts, I stuck it out. Predictably, after six months, the project collapsed, in spite of some good work. I had tried ignoring his complaints for a few months, pushing harder, but it became impossible to continue. It took me a long time to realize that I couldn’t be successful, because I wasn’t given the space and support to do so.

  4. The Five-Year Itch

  My team’s multi-year coaching engagement with a major client was coming to an end. While I made it clear that we eventually would have to leave the site, we had been a good partner for many years, and had done great work. The client acknowledged that his decision to move in another direction was not a reflection on me or the team I managed; he just wanted to take the project in-house. Fair enough.

  We began the transition to develop that in-house capability—which would eventually eliminate the need for our consulting coaching services. Word came down from my bosses that they wanted one last proposal to do some other work there. My gut told me no, that we had been through enough, that things were going well with the exit, and that we were delivering what the client wanted.

  I felt immense pressure to respond to their request anyway. What could it hurt? Instead of listening to my gut, I made the proposal, and all hell broke loose from the client team. They were offended that I was trying to sell them more business. It created an avoidable crisis. I paid the price for not being able to stand up to my bosses and say, “This proposal isn’t going to happen.” I was the one on the ground, and because of that, I took the shrapnel.

  8.

  A Corporate Myth

  Learning from Mistakes

  To embark on the journey towards your goals and dreams requires bravery. To remain on that path requires courage. The bridge that merges the two is commitment.

  —Steve Maraboli, author

  As far as I’m aware, the US Army first used the process of “after-action reviews” with a focus on lessons learned—a great way to internalize improvements and expand abilities. Many companies get input from stakeholders, fill pages of flip charts, and produce wonderful documentation of how they will do better next time. Until they focus on implementing the feedback and lessons learned, all that internal corporate soul-searching turns out to be a complete waste of time.

  Two main factors contribute to this lack of follow-through: navel-gazing and an absence of true learning.

  NAVEL-GAZING

  Many of my clients have spent millions on self-examination, but when asked what they gained, they give no answer because they don’t know how to measure the return on investment. They spend too much time look
ing backward and get paralyzed by their past.

  I have attended countless meetings where people spent hours dissecting why something failed. Failure mode analysis works well when applied properly to construct a new or improved process, but not as an ongoing, no-end-in-sight exercise, or a “let’s check the box and go back to normal,” as the next case illustrates.

  Brenda knew she had to do something as VP of a defense contractor. When I met her, her team’s performance had been plummeting.

  Their lackluster results partly reflected misalignment between Brenda and her senior staff. By the time her clear messages about performance expectations seeped through the layers of management, the message had been changed and diluted.

  Two issues contributed to this. First, because of her senior team’s inability to stop analyzing why they failed, they had unintentionally sabotaged her message: “What can we do to get back on track and succeed?” They had created “failure mode paralysis,” which kept them from moving forward and acting. Second, middle management encouraged the frontline to adopt a victim attitude— “this is a tough business”—which demotivated the team.

  As I discussed the current state of affairs with Brenda, her keen instincts told her she needed to make some bold moves. She decided on a three-pronged attack: clear accountability, frontline engagement and visibility, and a change in performance culture. Recognizing the connection between leading and encouraging the right organizational behaviors, we agreed on the following three steps to implement her inner philosophy.

  Step 1. Call Out Her Senior Team Publicly

  At a weekly review of metrics, everyone began to talk in great detail about why they failed again. For example, people had changed due dates without any action plans on how to recover and get back on track. They just whined and resigned themselves to the status quo.

  Channeling her toughest “inner leader,” Brenda pounded the table and said, “Enough! I don’t care how we got here. What are we going to do to get there?” [pointing to the target]. “I don’t want to hear another ‘why’ again. I want a plan for moving forward. Period.”

  This strong emotional response shocked them and stopped them in their tracks. She made it clear that mediocrity would not be acceptable anymore.

  Step 2. Go Down to the Shop Floor

  Every month, Brenda selected a trade and job and joined that team, crawling and moving around the site while watching the crew execute the work order. This not only increased her knowledge of the work, but also engaged the whole workforce. As a result, they would do anything for her. Instead of “management by walking around,” Brenda opted for “management by crawling around and doing.”

  Step 3. Allow Crews to Take Charge

  Brenda would pop in unannounced on weekly crew meetings and employee-led meetings we called boardwalks, and participated fully as a team member. This established an easy, regular interface for her and her managers with the front line.

  The result? The team developed a strong alignment for achievement. Performance accelerated, moving the organization to a new level of success. Brenda had successfully transformed their culture, and their major client rewarded them with more work.

  People often use failure as an excuse for paralysis and nonaccountability. By taking these three steps, Brenda had shifted that mindset.

  ABSENCE OF TRUE LEARNING

  If an organization isn’t set up to ensure that employees practice and embody any new learning that comes from failure analysis, it often falls by the wayside, impeding success.

  Psychometric testing is a common example. It reveals certain characteristics of individuals, usually coded in some form. For instance, during the week after completing a psychometric session, you might go around telling people, “I am a Green with a little bit of Yellow” or “I’m a Follower.” But typically, the information and possible benefits fade away because leadership hasn’t made those insights a priority. The same holds true for lesson learned sessions and after-action reviews.

  We have seen the power of intuition, reflection, and solitude. We have also discovered that behaviors can be changed. Now it is time to look at some of the tools we have to leverage both.

  Recap

  Part 2: Creating New Behaviors

  Seek to understand other people and go to where they are.

  Move beyond emotions, however intense or thick they might be.

  Show up differently. Trust depends on presence and action, not on words.

  Be humble and cultivate the ability to recognize your own errors.

  Follow up on any commitments that emerge from exercises on risk and failure.

  Make surprise visits to the team to evaluate and reinforce the commitments that come out of after-action reviews.

  Spend as much time on implementing the suggested changes from after-action reviews as you do on the reviews themselves.

  Have champions and assign them the responsibility for executing agreed-upon milestones. Hold people accountable.

  Invite the senior team to address failures as much as achievements.

  Be willing to “fall on your sword” in public.

  Reach out beyond your senior team for one-on-one conversations.

  Stay open to conversations going in other directions than you expected.

  Discourage navel-gazing. What you do about failure is far more important than wallowing in it.

  Make sure you have the right tools in place to consistently evaluate mistakes in real time, as opposed to the once-a-year “how did we get here?” deep dive.

  PART 3

  OPTIMIZING the TOOLS OF THE TRADE

  You can have all the tools in the world, but if you don’t genuinely believe in yourself, it’s useless.

  —Ken Jeong, comedian

  9.

  Accessorizing Wisely

  Optimize Your Top Tools

  The challenge of any business owner is not only to keep the saw sharp, but also to know if you even have a need for such a tool.

  —Michael E. Gerber, author

  Leaders have always had access to a myriad of tools to help accelerate growth and performance. Training, process models, and technology are all available in the outer business world.

  For many leaders, throwing money at these “fixes” has been a way of satisfying board members and shareholders by showing the world that they are “doing something”—even if investing in them is more important than actually evaluating their benefits and cost-effectiveness.

  Rogue leaders understand the importance of doing inner reflective work before investing in any additional help such as tools and processes, something that is a fairly rare occurrence. The importance of setting time aside for reflection to answer these questions and make sure the tools make sense, as discussed in the beginning of the book, cannot be overstated.

  Questions to ask yourself: Why should I add this tool to our work environment? What is the measurable benefit? Am I doing this to please my bosses or shareholders? What impact will it have on my organization? How will it be integrated into our workforce? How do they feel about it?

  The next four chapters examine the prevalent tools that leaders typically rely on to gain a competitive edge: models, process, technology, and training.

  10.

  Training and Development

  Making the Soft Dollar the Hard Dollar

  Lifelong learning is a must, and it is up to governments and employees to invest in training and for employees to commit to constantly update their skill set.

  —Alain Dehaze, CEO, Adecco Group

  For many years, company leaders have looked at training and development as necessary evils, as if to say, “Let me buy a shiny new toy I can show off to my team and shareholders.” Education is touted as one of the best investments a company can make. But if that’s the case, why isn’t it providing the returns we e
xpect?

  “Soft dollar” approaches, such as incentives and training tend to generate “soft returns,” precisely because that’s how we see and categorize them. The hard investments on equipment, new staff, software, all get scrutinized for the impact they make on the bottom line.

  Leaders often fail to analyze the impact of soft dollar investments they make. Does the staff use the training? Has the production rate increased as desired? Did the millions spent on corporate culture advance the company in any way?

  An example: My granddaughter was recently placed in dance class. Her mom could have checked the box and felt good about putting her in an after-school activity. The real gain though was her growth in social skills, confidence, and creative self. If we just look at the purchase of classes as the outcome, we may miss the true impact, good or bad.

  We generally don’t look at soft skill investments candidly; instead, we find ways to justify decisions by checking the box or miss the powerful impact we don’t see.

  Without the proper follow-up and feedback on training and development, most learning goes out the window after a few weeks. The road to stagnant skill development is littered with certificates, workshop binders, and pretty colored diagrams.

  When we ask “What ROI did we get for our training?” the response often is “We trained all our people!” not “Here’s what they learned and the impact it has had.”

  We may feel comfortable that we have spent money on our people, but usually that’s the end of the story. Embedding new learning requires interactive, sustained follow-up, as well as putting the new knowledge into practice. People are partners. Not assets.

  One of my clients, a major oil producer, developed a program to help young professionals step into their new supervisory roles. Given their company culture of command and control, as well as a focus on titles and certificates, classroom work alone was not going to be sufficient. The only way to embed robust leadership development was to combine classwork and workshops with coaching and actual practice in the field every day. That constant feedback loop to their supervisors and the support of their bosses allowed true, sustained development to take place.