Rogue Leadership

by Paul Rosenberg

  Good leaders direct the collective energy of their workforce or group, guiding and reshaping it according to feedback—always focusing on reaching their objectives. Even the best leaders in the world need assistance from their teams—they never achieve success by themselves.

  As a leader, you have the seldom-used ability to accelerate reshaping and reforming your culture or your path. Sometimes the landscape needs to be boldly shaken up in ways that that will create new experiences and therefore new neural pathways.

  This means taking some action involving physical movement that helps rewire neurons and open new pathways for learning. This applies to teams as well as to individuals. The act itself creates change.

  Example 1. Shake Things Up

  My client was complaining that her team wasn’t focused during their weekly review of the business and action planning. She was frustrated that she had to do everything for them. And they were not adding value. I proposed “Let them run the meeting in rotation.”

  She said, “They won’t be able to handle it.”

  When she announced that Fred was going to run the meeting, the response was shock, dismay, and backpedaling. It was an ugly meeting for Fred but you can be sure people were focused and scrambling to show up well. After four meetings, everything ran like clockwork, and her team loved it. The energy had shifted and the meeting became robust.

  Example 2. Give Space and Trust: The Case of the Willing Hillbilly

  When I first saw John, a manufacturing supervisor, talk with his crew on a large defense construction program, I was surprised. During his talk, most of his crew looked away, did other distracting things, or turned their backs on him.

  A wily character, John prided himself on playing a dumb hillbilly from West Virginia. He was anything but—just a joker at heart.

  I asked him how his crew meetings went, and he confided that they weren’t going well. He also said he’d like to make them better. The crew briefing agenda contained only some weekly announcements, some morale boosters, and a section on safety compliance.

  I suggested to John that he talk with a few influencers on the team to find out what they would like to see. After all, they functioned as his internal clients. Many of them wanted to know about their performance but were afraid the numbers would be used as a weapon against them, as they had in the past.

  John and I had agreed to meet in a week to go over preparations for the agenda and practice showing the team their performance numbers. The next day, John called me and said, “I’m having my meeting today in an hour. Please come.”

  I sensed impending doom. John had written the agenda and the performance numbers on a piece of cardboard and used a flip chart to draw details by hand. I thought, this crew talk spells disaster.

  It didn’t. Although John’s presentation wasn’t perfect, I could see his team was curious about this new approach. Not all, but more than before. For the first time, he talked about their shared performance and recognized their good work that week. He asked them to solve gaps together, instead of castigating them. Something had changed.

  No one said so, but I knew that his talk inspired and triggered his team to change direction. So much so, in fact, that the president of the shipyard came by and asked to see what John was doing and how he did it. Word spread quickly, followed by a visit from the VP for his area.

  Soon, every one of his colleagues asked if they could attend his meetings. Over time, he refined these gatherings into powerful meetings. He invited more dialogue, the crew consistently knew their performance numbers, and eventually his team took over leading the meeting. His success depended on taking that first step: holding that meeting—which even I was skeptical of. He had effectively jumped into the pool and worried about his swimming strokes later.

  I learned a lesson that day: Let your employees set the pace, as risky as that might seem at first. Give them space, and then help them fill it well. On reflection, I’m glad I decided not to challenge him about whether he was ready to “jump.” Clearly, the time had arrived for him to do something different.

  16.

  The Mind-Body Connection

  A Unique Way to Drive Change

  The mind shapes the body, and the body shapes the mind.

  —Amy Cuddy, author

  My mom worked as a Feldenkrais practitioner, and according to the basic philosophy of this mind-body healing approach,we can relearn and create new neural pathways through specially designed body movements. Remarkable transformations can take place, such as being able to see or walk again. It works both ways: new behaviors lay down new nerve pathways, and new neural pathways enable us to change behavior and do something different.

  I saw this during my time in the neuro-trauma unit where people made some remarkable physical and mental transformations after severe injuries. Numerous stories exist about talking to people in a coma, and how those talks stimulated the patient’s neural activity, eventually helping them recover.

  My own experience confirms that. After a freak accident, Barry had fallen into a severe coma and, as a quadriplegic, would likely never walk again. As his aides, my colleague John and I decided to keep talking to him every time we saw him, bathed him, or moved him. We focused on normal conversation, which included jokes and news of the day.

  One day, as we carried him to the bathing area, I had my hands on his buttocks. John leaned over and said, “Barry, I wouldn’t let Paul touch me there.” Barry broke into a smile. The three of us laughed, and from that moment, his consciousness began to return. Barry wasn’t a lost patient. If we had labeled him as such, he might not have come out of the coma. The energy John and I spent on Barry did finally create a different body state and neural response.

  Nothing ever remains static. It may appear so, but it isn’t. We always have an opportunity to execute differently.

  The same kind of rerouting can happen with groups. Because of conditioning and socialization, most teams respond to old patterns the same way over and over again. To change that, we must focus on incoming stimuli and pay close attention to how we respond.

  One of the most powerful ways to create new behavior is through experiential learning, which connects the mind and the body. Classic books such as The Inner Game of Tennis (Random House, 1997) show clearly that we can accelerate learning not by absorbing more content, but by teaching new skills through the experience of it. How can leaders use the mind-body connection to help retrain teams to respond and behave in more effective and meaningful ways? How can we break up old patterns and replace them?

  The following story illustrates how.

  My client leader asked us all to do a high-altitude obstacle course. Those of us afraid of heights were to go last so we could watch and learn. I was the last one through and had one more station to go when I flipped on the wire and found myself dangling upside down ten stories in the air. It was the scariest moment in my life. I feel nauseated just writing about it here.

  I found a way through. It wasn’t perfect execution at all, but that didn’t matter. What mattered is that by taking this new action, we began to develop trust and respect for one another as well as confidence to face the challenges ahead. We had a new focus and energy.

  17.

  Rewiring Complacency for Growth

  Taking Away the Pacifier

  Because of the power of neuroplasticity, you can, in fact, reframe your world and rewire your brain so that you are more objective. You have the power to see things as they are so that you can respond thoughtfully, deliberately, and effectively to everything you experience.

  —Elizabeth Thornton, author

  Good managers take time to ensure that everyone on their team feels content—but not complacent. Complacency stifles growth in performance. People will not give additional time, energy, and creativity if there is no incentive to do so.

  As we have explored previously, a sen
se of pressure accelerates change and growth. We all know the often-used motivational poster of a seed pushing through the soil as it grows. Soil alone won’t work. You also need some fertilizer, sunshine, air, and water.

  One of the maintenance managers at a large chemical plant had scheduled regular morning meetings with his work group, but all they did was discuss the previous night’s updates and review risks. It was a complacent passive meeting with low participation.

  The manager wanted his employees to focus on specific meaningful actions, not just use the meetings for status updates. He began to ask his team to focus on the numbers that documented their success or failure and take action. This tangible spotlight made them initially uncomfortable.

  By introducing a new set of Key Performance indicators (KPIs) and asking the team to understand and review them in the meeting, the executive helped them think about success in a more tangible way and brought clarity to the actions they took to sustain it.

  The leader demanded not just the performance numbers, but the context behind the data results from his senior staff.

  Intuitive leadership operates on the principle that keeping your team uncomfortable stimulates energy and innovation. By contrast, complacency and routine drive inefficiency.

  If the world changes rapidly and your team does not keep pace, you end up falling behind. Forcing your managers and leaders to get out of their comfort zone can create growth, insight, and innovation.

  Here are eleven ideas to keep your team on a path of growth:

  1. Challenge Them

  Mix it up and give them assignments that stretch them. Push them to work with others they haven’t worked with before. Give them the space to innovate.

  2. Encourage No-Fault Creativity

  If I know I have permission to try some things that may not work out, I will be more likely to take action based on my best knowledge and analysis. Having a framework for cultivating new ideas can make a big difference. Incubate them in small batches, and then roll them out after doing beta tests. Chapter 18 on stealth change management covers much the same principle. Start small—you don’t need everyone, just a critical mass. Create a space for your workforce to push back or to design new methods.

  3. Demonstrate Conscience and Affinity Leadership

  Humans have evolved to lay blame as well as to understand what happened. Risk-averse organizations tend to stifle action—especially innovative action—for fear of failure and blame. Naturally, this creates problems for the organization. Every team needs to have a voice willing to speak up against the status quo and point out potential risks and bad decisions. Rogue leaders should identify and encourage these voices; letting them know that space is safe.

  4. Be Willing to Hear Other Voices

  We all have heard about Abraham Lincoln staffing his cabinet with his enemies. Why? To ensure that the best thinking would emerge, and that every action would be thoroughly examined without prejudice.

  Avoid filling your team with like-minded people—it is much better to have a diverse team. We naturally tend to surround ourselves with “like frequencies,” but we also need to make sure that other voices get heard.

  5. Short-Circuiting the Status Quo: Change Your Tune

  As we have seen previously, by sending a different impulse, or message, down your team’s neural pathways, you can begin to reconfigure brain connections as you see fit. Otherwise, without change, the responses would be the same. You and your organization would march along as you always have, likely missing opportunities to drive the organization.

  Ray had just started as the new station manager of a major airline business unit, the result of a merger. As such, the staff perceived him as an outsider. The workforce assumed he had no affinity or empathy for the challenges they faced. Even though he promised visibility and accessibility, months later those words seemed hollow.

  Their perception did not fully fit the facts, but it reflected something he needed to pay attention to. In other words, what he regarded as effective did not land in the way he wished or intended.

  As a leader, Ray had two options: continue to be frustrated that his message wasn’t coming across or change how he delivered it. He looked for other ways to show up, including hanging out on the shop floor, participating in meetings, being more accessible, and showing that he cared. It helped him create a successful environment and an aligned team.

  Changing the narrative takes time and effort, but it is an effective tool. Too often, though, leaders throw up their hands and do nothing but complain.

  6. Channel Your Tantrum: Do Things Boldly and Differently

  This technique needs to be used sparingly and purposefully. Using a controlled tantrum can get attention and, more important, can disrupt and open up the team to move in a different direction.

  This occurred as I began a new project working with a managing director. A few months into it, progress remained slow. We couldn’t figure out why his senior team still strongly resisted my presence and working with me on the project plan. Leaders put off meetings and commitments, and, as a result, missed important milestones.

  How could we reflect this back to the team without it sounding like a lecture? Yet we needed to grab their attention and encourage commitment and a sense of ownership.

  With a twinkle in his eyes, the managing director laid out a plan. He set up a meeting with his team and opened with the following question: “Why aren’t we making progress as a team on this project?”

  “Paul needs to do more.”

  “Ask Paul.”

  “I’m surprised he is moving so slow. It’s his project.”

  Once everyone was done, and the bait taken, the managing director slammed his fist on the table, something he would normally never do. This shocked his team. Having their complete attention, he let them know this was their factory and their responsibility, and they had to own it. He then asked me to leave the room. I don’t know what he said, but it worked as a major turning point—from then on, the team’s effectiveness improved (as did our relationship).

  7. Play Musical Chairs

  A senior executive I worked with observed that one of his distracted team members always sat in the same place during meetings and spent most of the time on his computer answering emails or playing on social media. One morning, the executive showed up early and sat in the chair where his distracted team member usually sat, forcing the guy to find a chair up front where he couldn’t hide. This created sufficient dissonance to break the pattern, all due to changing one small thing.

  8. Stretch: Assign Tasks to People Beyond Their Normal Responsibility

  Every now and then, using normal channels and those responsible for managing them may not be the best approach—especially if “normal” gets you stuck.

  In a large petrochemical plant, the senior team faced a multi-million-dollar expansion, as well as a shutdown of the plant. This had to be meticulously planned. Lost days would cost millions.

  The manager wisely decided to assign much of the planning and scheduling of the event to the number-two guy, who normally just managed the master schedule. By linking the master scheduler to the contractors, that interface was more responsive and robust. With the right people partnering, he helped create an executable plan and schedule and integrated the team’s efforts for reaching the final objective: a safe and efficient turnaround.

  9. Always Surprise

  Doug Leard, the leader in my first consulting and coaching firm, drove home this point. His team was spread all over the globe, engaged in different projects, and Doug wanted to bring everyone together in a more productive way. Because we all worked in different locations, he knew he needed to build bonds of trust, as well as a commitment to excellence.

  At a quarterly retreat in San Francisco, we spent many hours preparing for an eight-hour meeting about our consulting projects and then turned in our summari
es. One by one, we would be covering thirteen current projects.

  Doug welcomed us all: “Sometimes you have to follow, and sometimes you have to lead. You have all done a great job preparing for today’s meeting, and your summaries will be available at the end of the day for everyone to take with them. Let’s play ball!”

  With that, he opened up a bag and tossed out San Francisco Giants baseball caps for all of us, and off we went to the baseball game that afternoon.

  We had a great time and also caught up on each other’s work. Doug knew he was building something more powerful that would keep us motivated and committed day to day. As a result, we all felt part of a team larger than ourselves.

  10. Hold People Accountability: Purposeful Disruption

  In a large-scale naval construction company, the engineering group occupied a position near the top of the employee totem pole. Though the group included some of the best and the brightest, their work had almost no visibility because of the long lead times. Often, it could take three to five years between creating the designs and actually implementing them as part of a naval vessel.

  Greg’s senior engineering team started out on a new design and fell behind schedule almost immediately. Slippage in the early days didn’t seem like much to be concerned about, but it could become a wave of pending work many times greater by the time they reached the construction completion date.

  Monday morning progress meetings were challenging, even painful. Each manager went through his committed milestones for the next two weeks. Sometimes they lasted two hours but were filled with nothing more than back-and-forth comments such as “that date is good,” “hold that date,” “need to move it two weeks.” In other words, the meetings amounted to nothing more than a status update.

  When I asked Greg if he could tell me the purpose of the meeting, he said he wanted everyone from his “brain trust” to meet in the same room to manage their progress. I then asked him what management decisions they had collectively made. “Very little,” he admitted.