Career Progression/Transition – Get on the Right Bus!

Right Bus?

If the “Bus” is your current professional position, are you on the “Right Bus”?

First Who, Then What—get the right people on the bus—is a concept developed in the book Good to Great by Jim Collins. Those who build great organizations make sure they have the right people on the bus and the right people in the key seats before they figure out where to drive the bus. They always think first about who and then about what. When facing chaos and uncertainty, you cannot possibly predict what’s coming around the corner. Your best “strategy” is to have a busload of people who can adapt to and perform brilliantly no matter what comes next. Great vision without great people is irrelevant.

As a skilled professional you are the right person for a lot of busses. Many leaders want you to be part of their team. Why? Because you have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to help the bus expeditiously get where it is going.

Think of your professional career as a series of bus rides, whether you stay with one organization for 40 years or change every 3-4 years. What would be the impact on your life if each career step (bus ride) aligned with your purpose?

Ever been in a position you have mastered and are no longer challenged by? In this position are you on the right bus or the wrong bus?

How about a position where you meet all the skill and background criteria, you’re challenged and making a difference every day? The commute and frequent travel have you missing important events with your middle and high school age children. In this position are you on the right bus or the wrong bus?

Love the work, the people, and the flexibility of the position. Work from home as needed. Don’t travel much and am able to impact the direction of the organization. You can see a path to continue your professional growth and potentially change to other areas of the company. In this position are you on the right bus or the wrong bus?

Love the work, love the people, not aligned with the leadership. Are you on the right bus, the wrong bus or is it time to change buses?

Great mission, super people, not happy with the earning potential, great learning opportunity to meet future goals. In this position are you on the right bus or the wrong bus?

Take Control of Your Career Progression – Inspect a Lot of Busses

Every client I work with who is looking to progress their career has the same question. How do I find organizations that align with my personal purpose? First, define your purpose then inspect a lot of busses.

What does a bus inspection look like?

It is strategic networking. Personally, interacting with individuals to explore your interest in different organizations. This is not asking for a job interview or applying for one. This starts as simply expanding your network and building an understanding of organizations you are curious about.

The goal is to get a look inside the bus. How many seats are available? Who is in them? Can people change seats? Who is driving? Where is the bus going? Can you provide input on its direction? Big or small bus? Can I work with this group? Do they want to work with me? New or old technology on the bus? Big gas tank or small? How are the riders on the bus measured?

Action

Convert the above into questions about specific organizations and start scheduling informational meetings. This methodology will assist you to deliberately determine your next career step to fulfill your professional purpose.

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Deliberately Build Your Culture

The best team I was ever on had a culture of trust, teamwork, and shared responsibility. No one cared who got the credit as long as we accomplished the mission. We rowed hard together,
argued on the best way to move forward, and looked out for each other.

The worst team I was ever on had a culture of mistrust but on the surface professed support for each other. Teamwork was a façade to gain more information to advance personal agendas.
Getting credit for accomplishments and face time with the boss were the highest priority for the individuals.

Quite the contrast isn’t it? I would venture to guess the above descriptions might toggle some personal memories for you. Do you think the above cultures are what the leaders of each team
wanted? Regardless of whether they wanted them or not, the leaders’ action allowed/fostered/encouraged/supported the culture they got.

What is the culture you set for your organization? What are your deliberate actions? Some of us can tell you exactly what we do. Others, not so much.

Here are some thoughts on deliberately setting a culture.

In my view culture is made up of two components; values and behavior. There are a number of scholarly articles in this area. Here is my practical take after working with numerous individuals
and organizations on values.

When I say values, what does that mean to you? For me, values are the personal and organizational beliefs that provide standards and guide actions. Values are our motivations.
They are why we get up in the morning, pursue specific goals, and do what we do. We are in constant pursuit to fulfill our values. When fulfilled we are happy and content. When not
fulfilled we are uncomfortable and conflicted.

List some values that are important to you. Here are a few typical examples; truth, respect, altruism, and power. Now define those values:

1. __________    ____________________________________________
2. __________   ____________________________________________
3. __________   ____________________________________________

When you look at your definitions, do they describe a behavior that will fulfill that value? The definitions of values usually do. Because this is how that value gets fulfilled. When we
experience behavior not in line with our definition it creates stress within us. The stress comes from being misaligned with the actions around us.

The essential question is:” What makes up the culture of an organization?” It is the collective behaviors of the individuals in that organization. What is rewarded, what is accepted, what is
tolerated, and what is not tolerated? Behaviors are an organization!s values in action.

Let’s go back to the beginning of this post. What is the culture you set for your organization? Look at the behaviors that are accepted and rewarded and you have your answer.

How do you deliberately set a culture? By accepting and rewarding behaviors.

Here is my approach when I assist leaders who want to deliberately establish the culture of
their team.

  1. Identify the values of the organization
  2. Define the behaviors that fulfill those values.
  3. Put the values into action by continuously setting, rewarding, and reinforcing the
    desired behaviors.

Example: Your top two organizational values are respect and accountability.

The values are defined by the following behaviors:

  • Respect: treating everyone with equal deference regardless of position
  • Accountability: taking full responsibility for your actions and actions that come to your
    awareness

The values in action:
Respect:

  • Remove perks based on hierarchal positions in the company such as reserved parking
    spots or separate dining spaces in the cafeteria based on position
  • Provide all employees the opportunity to provide feedback to the CEO at quarterly
    meetings

Accountability:

  • Recognize individuals for identifying errors made by their organization rather than
    hiding them
  • Reward individuals for raising concerns about problems outside of their area of
    responsibility
  • Share information on organizational errors or the shortcoming to enhance organizationally
    development

What would this look like for your organization? This simple process is difficult to put into practice. What would be the impact on your organization if:

  • The values of your organization were defined by the expected behaviors
  • Those behaviors were constantly reinforced and rewarded.

My experience has shown you would be closer to having the culture desired because you purposely developed it. When all team member!s values are aligned with the organization, engagement, retention, and production all improve.

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What Decision Making Culture Have You Created?

Pat has been surprised by a few results with his team recently. They have always successfully made the quota he set in the past, missing by more than 10% is unusual. He doesn’t understand what is going on? Meeting with them daily he reiterates goals and receives an update. He also lets them know he is available if needed. Yet they are still off the mark.

Is Pat reaping the harvest of the culture he developed around decision-making for his team?

My experience with similar scenarios has revealed a team with a decision-making culture centered around the leader. What am I talking about? Leaders make decisions for workers to execute. Not true in today’s complex work environment. Leaders who create a culture that takes time to seek input, collaborate and is open to feedback, produces superior results. Leaders do not have all the information required to make excellent decisions every time. The information needed is held by individuals doing the work.

Here is an example of two statements made by a leader that demonstrates the point.

Kick-off meeting for a challenging week (1):

“This is going to be a big week for us. We are to deliver the most ________ we ever have. I am confident of the plan and know we’ll be able to make it happen. Let me know if you need me for anything.”

In this statement, which is typical, the leader may have unintentionally erected barriers to making effective decisions in executing the plan. How? The leader makes her feelings about the plan known: it is good and expects to make the quota. These two statements reveal the leader’s bias, which may silence individuals who see potential problems. There is not an invite or planned opportunity to provide input as the plan progresses.

Kick-off meeting for a challenging week (2):

“This is going to be a big week us. We have a plan to deliver the most __________ we ever have. How confident do you feel about the plan? We will meet daily at 4 PM to assess our progress and decide on the path forward.”

What is the main difference between the two statements? The second statement solicits input on the team’s ability to execute. It does not reveal the leader’s feelings towards the plan and provides a time to pause the execution of the project and provide input.

We have all made statements similar to #1 with good intentions. We even believe when we say “Let me know if you need anything” team members will call. We are not intentionally squelching initiative or dissent. Which very often is the result.

Yet there are times we put roadblocks into gaining important insights by the culture we create. Want to remove roadblocks and have a positive decision making culture regarding your operations? Consider these steps:

  • Create an environment that removes the stress of disagreeing with the leader
  • Seek input from the people closest to the work
  • Be willing to change your initial decision
  • Make time to discuss and assess your decisions with the team

For those familiar with Agile Project Management, you will see all these elements are part of the agile process. Teams work in short intervals called sprints. At the conclusion of a sprint an interim product is delivered and assessed, everyone provides input, and decisions are made on how to move forward in the next sprint.

Does leading by providing direction and expecting compliance produce the best results for you?

How can you create a culture that supports quality decisions to get the most out of your organization?

Looking for more coaching and training on decision making? Find it here.

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Do You Know How Your Biases Affect Your Decisions?

What was the most biased decision made by a leader that had a negative impact on you?

How did you feel?  Angry, disappointed, rejected, ignored, invisible, unimportant? Add your own words.

Let’s go back in time and analyze the decision. Do you think the decision was consciously made to belittle, denigrate, or offend you? Or, do you think the decision was made out of ignorance, unconscious beliefs, or lack of understanding its impact? My experience has often been the latter. That is unconscious or implicit bias.

Unconscious bias refers to attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. Workplace examples may be:

  • Hiring or promoting based on “fit” rather than objective performance criteria.
  • Leadership decisions based on marital or family status. She can’t travel because of young children. They are single therefore can work the holiday hours.
  • Ignoring a presenter and asking question of a “known expert” in the room.

We have all seen these and similar events happen. Go back to the personal event you chose at the beginning. What would have made the leader realize their impact? Some typical answers I get are:

  • She needed to listen to what we were telling her.
  • He needed to ask more questions about the impact on us.
  • The leader needs to build an understanding and perspective of those affected by the decision.

What would be the impact if leaders considered their decisions may be affected by unconscious bias? My opinion: it would make an immeasurable positive impact.

Let’s take a short detour and talk about bias in general. Here are two question I believe need to be answered: Are all unconscious biases negative? How are they formed?

Are all biases negative? No, many biases keep us moving briskly through our day. Biases exist as a shortcut for us to make decisions. We cannot handle all the information coming at us on daily basis. To cope, our brains develop shortcuts, biases to help make decisions. We have unconscious biases on food we like, routes we travel, and all kinds of other preferences. Biases become a problem, when they result in decisions that are prejudicial and negatively impact individuals.

Where do biases come from? Biases develop in us based on our mental makeup and exposure. For instance, how were you raised? Did you live in a city, suburb, or a rural setting? What type of school did you attend; public, private, religious, or home. How about your family setting; adopted, married parents, single parent, siblings, close to extended family? All those factors developed biases within you.

Self-awareness is the number one factor that determines your leadership effectiveness. How aware are you of your biases? Can you definitely state you are aware of a specific bias and the actions you take to hold it in check?

An example may be: When interviewing for a position I have to be careful when the candidate is a veteran. Being a veteran, I always make a connection and give a lot of credit for their service. I need to ensure they are fully qualified for the position. This is an unconscious bias I have made myself aware of and proactively address.

Another may be that a leader does not give the deference and credit to a new or younger subordinate. The leader defers to and asks questions of a senior team members even when the expert is the junior member.

What biases do you have that are creating a negative impact? Take a moment and revisit a recent decision and assess it for bias. What does your assessment tell you?

Two considerations: 1) develop your self-awareness and 2) consider the perspective of those affected by your decisions.

Improving your self-awareness around biases will take time. It will require reflection, introspection, and personal research. One place to uncover your implicit biases is at the Implicit Project. This is a series of self-assessments to help you reveal your biases. I have found the results to be very interesting.

Next, take the time to ask, listen, and explore the perspectives of others. Understand the impact of your decisions.

When we make a decision as leaders we expect to make an impact with positive consequence. Considering our self-awareness and the perspective of others may ensure we make the impact and consequence we intend to.

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Decision Emotions

“That was the most emotional decision I ever had to make.”

“I was so caught up in the emotion of the moment I had trouble thinking clearly.”

“I was so angry when she said that to me I just reacted.”

“Whenever I have to make an important decision, I make sure I am in a positive state of mind.”

 

Emotions play an important role in our decisions. We all made decisions in the “heat of the moment” that would have been different had the emotions not been running so high. A lack of emotion can be just as troublesome, because you are not engaged. Pick a situation in the recent past where emotions drove a decision. Hold that event in your head as you continue to read.

 

If you are a leader, your life revolves around decisions that swirl with emotion. Everyone is trying to get you to make the decision that will support their position. Those decisions are tied to a lot of emotion, for you or those your decision affects.

 

Consider these two principles as top priorities regarding emotions impacting decisions:

  • Know yourself
  • Seek to understand

 

In a sentence, be self- aware, other-aware, and situationally aware. If you are aware that emotions are having an influence on your behavior you are on the right path. It will allow you to make them part of the solution.

 

Principle 1: Know Yourself

What triggers emotions in you? How much does your mood change based on events, both positive and negative? Is there a behavior or occurrence of an event that totally hijacks your consciousness?

 

We all experienced an individual who flies off the handle with the delivery of bad news. How about the giddy coworker who cannot refocus after a positive event? Ever had the pleasure of working with the colleague who cannot decide because they are so overwhelmed? Emotions are driving decisions.

 

Identify the type of events that affect you, set you off or cause you to isolate yourself. That is the trigger. You know what it is because it gives you that jolt of adrenalin, changes your heart rate, and narrows your thinking. You are in a thinking tunnel.

 

Next, assess your reaction and how you perform once triggered. There is a spectrum of being triggered. Think about being triggered on the angry scale. That can go from being mildly annoyed to being table flipping mad. Sadness, joy, or being stressed all have a spectrum.

 

Principle 2: Seek to Understand.

Seek to understand what? Consider the adrenalin jolt, take a moment before acting and seek to:

 

-Understand the cause of the jolt.

What is driving your emotions?

-Understand the reality of the situation.

Was there a valid cause for the jolt?

How is it affecting you?

-Understand the emotions of others.

What are others feeling and why?

-Understand how to positively use emotions in the situation.

How can you use emotions, yours and others, to positively impact the situation?

 

Test

Use the personal event you recollected at the start of this exercise to evaluate the two principles.

How would your actions have changed if you had known your triggers? Knowing your triggers allows you to plan for those type events.

How would your actions have changed if you sought to understand?

Pausing for a moment when triggered and asking a few simple questions can defuse a tense situation and allow for reasonable effective decisions. It pushes your mind into a problem-solving mode rather than the emotional react mode.

Consider using the two principles to examine several decisions you made while emotionally triggered. Determine if they would have created a different decision or a decision making process.

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How Do You Make Decisions?

Who made that decision? That is the most ridiculous approach to solving that problem I have ever seen!”

“I don’t agree however, I understand where she is coming from.”

“Not the way I would have done it.”

“I would have made the same decision.”

Do any of the above quotes sound familiar. To me they do and they all center around decision making, one of the top functions of every leader. If it is a top function, should it have some degree of process to it?

What is your decision-making process? Can you write three factors you consider on every decision. I think it’s worth spending some time thinking about what should be considered.

Whatever your process, I believe the following three considerations should be deliberately assessed in every decision.

  1. Emotion
  2. Bias
  3. Logic

These three elements rise to the top because they are part of every decision consciously or subconsciously. Let’s talk about how.

Emotion: everyone reacts with a degree of emotion when decisions impact their values. Those decisions that align with one’s values, make them happy, those not aligned bring out negative emotions.

Bias: we all have them based on our personal experiences and they influence our thinking. Being alert and sensitive to others and our own biases can serve leaders well.

Logic: is the reasoning process used to assess information, data, and other factors to make a decision. Being cognizant of our own as well as others processes will also serve leaders well.

Examples:

Let’s look at a couple of examples and see how the three elements, emotion, bias, and logic impact a decision. First recall a decision you have recently made or been part of. Keep the decision in your head as we assess two examples.

The Family Holiday Decision

Where and how to celebrate the holidays this year? With COVID-19 impacting every facet of life what decision did you make on holiday plans. If traditions in your circle include large family gatherings, there may have been discussions on how to proceed this year. It is likely the participants had a wide range of input and some with emotions. The emotional input came from those passionate about what they believe is the right thing to do.  Maintaining tradition, don’t risk spreading the virus, other options, etc.

Some have bias for doing all they can to be together and taking maximum precautions. Others are risk adverse. No way are they traveling even if everyone is following the CDC guidance.

Logically each member has come to their conclusion based on their process of data collection, assessment, and reasoned thought. Do you know what the process was?

Going Back to Work in the Office

Similar to the Holiday decision. The emotions will come from alignment or misalignment with one’s values. Some folks have a bias for operating together. Others prefer remote work. Yet others have bias for trusting or mistrusting the government guidance on protocols to return to an in-person workplace. The amount of research and data sources all provide the logic that informed and produced an individual’s decision.

Your Example

In the example you recalled at the beginning of this exercise, how did emotion, bias, and logic play into your decision?

 So What?

The elements of emotion, bias, and logic impact how leaders make decisions and the reaction to their decisions.Effective leaders make a positive impact.

 As a leader, if you ignore to consider the three elements within you and those you impact, you may limit your positive impact.

 Reflection

Using the example at the beginning of this exercise, in your mind place yourself in a room with those affected by your decision. What if you leaned back and considered the following?

  • How are my emotions, biases, and logic affecting my decision?
  • How are the emotions, biases, and logic of each person in this room affecting their decision?

Might this change your approach to the decision you are about to make? For me, it may or may not change my decision. It does add to my analysis, broadens my perspective and most importantly, it adds to how I present my decision. This creates clarity for me and those I lead.

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Creating a Vision by Reflecting on the Future

What does that title really mean? It sounds counter-intuitive doesn’t it? Let’s just do it.

The First Reflection: It’s your 95th birthday and you are surrounded by those most important to you. Can you see them? As part of this celebration, there will be six or seven people who talk about you. It starts with the youngest generation of your family, a great-grandchild. The next generation (grandchildren), and then your children. Your best friend has time, a coworker who spent years with you, a sibling, and finally your significant other.

  • What material have you given them to talk about you?
  • What impact have you made on their lives?
  • What was it like to be part of your inner circle?

If you took this seriously and did the exercise you created quite a vision. This is a significant destination. How are you feeling after this event? What is your legacy?

That is what reflecting on a future event looks like. Let’s continue and build the path to your 95th birthday by looking at two more events.

The Second Reflection: It is your retirement from the workforce. It is a celebration of your transition, your last day.  You are leaving a company, a nonprofit, maybe selling or closing the doors of your business. At this gathering, a number of folks will talk about what it was like to be closely associated with you. Three categories of individuals will talk, those you worked for or were mentors to you, your peers, and those that you led. What will they say?

  • What material have you given them to talk about you?
  • What impact have you made on their lives?
  • What was it like to be part of your inner circle?

The Final Reflection: This is your next transition. What will this next transition be; a promotion, career change, a move to a new city, getting married, having a child? You choose the event that makes the most sense. Thinking about this by itself can be enlightening, maybe you are not quite sure what the next event is. In this transition, three groups of people are going to come and talk to you. One will be someone you look up to, maybe a mentor. The second will be a peer, and the third is someone who looks up to you and your mentor. What do you want them to say to you?

  • What material have you given them to talk about you?
  • What impact have you made on their lives?
  • What was it like to be part of your inner circle?

You have just set a long-term vision with three definitive milestones. At each milestone, you are evaluating yourself from multiple perspectives, including your own. This sounds a bit like what Scrooge experienced in A Christmas Carol. You are creating a preview of future events to build the path to get you there.

Want to learn more about what vision is, check out a short video sharing more details.

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Self-Awareness: Are You Claiming Success on the Wrong Metrics?

Conversation between colleagues:

“I think I need to change my job title to fire chief. I feel like I spend the entire day dealing with fires. One after the other, in meetings and in between, everyone comes to me with their issues to resolve. I thought after I got to this stage things would change. Granted I am good at it, enjoy a fast-paced operation, and I get a lot of satisfaction by solving issues, but I am feeling like I am not focused on the right areas.”

Could this be you? To me this is a leader who was promoted for their ability to produce results.  It could also be a founder stuck in startup mode, that has not grown into their new leadership role.

If the above resembles you, what would be the impact if you were able get off the “key person” treadmill? Many leaders talk about reducing stress, increasing productivity and being focused outwardly. But, how do they do it?  Here are some thoughts.

To get started, answer two simple questions:

  1. What elements of your leadership position give you the most satisfaction?
  2. How do you define a productive day?

These are not surface level questions. Isolate when and where you feel the most accomplished during your day? Does your answer have any elements of: being called on to solve immediate problems, operating at a fast pace, or being able to pack a lot into each day?

Let’s explore what this tells you by using some metrics on the above questions. Use a scale of 1-10 to rate the elements of your position where you feel the most satisfied.

Make your own list but, here are some examples to help you get started:

  • Being fully engaged in the daily pace
  • Mentoring my subordinates
  • Growth of my subordinates
  • Solving problems
  • Being at the center of operations
  • Leaving work each day knowing I accomplished a lot
  • Building a strategic vision
  • Being a subject matter expert
  • Creating partnerships

Now define a productive day: When I am driving home, I feel it is a productive day when…

What does the data tell you? You probably have a tendency to lean towards the fast pace tactically involved leader or the leader with the long-term view trying to stay out of the daily fray.

Face it, some of us have an addiction to the frenetic daily pace and being the one who “makes it all happen”.  It is exciting, satisfying, and exhausting all at once. Others gain no satisfaction from a feverish pace and solving problems on the spot. How should you be measuring your success as a leader of your organization? The essential question is: “What does your organization need?”

Here is what I have found in working with leaders from all types of organizations. Founders of startups, new business owners, and leaders in disruptive business operations require a highly involved decision maker capable of operating at a fast pace.  More mature organizations tend to need a strategically focused leader, attentive to developing individuals and looking up and out rather than down and in.

The problem arises when a leader is promoted or the business has transitioned. The satisfaction and productivity that made them so successful in their ascent is now a liability. It is a revelation for leaders and boost for the organization when they realize they have been using the wrong metrics for success and make a change.

A secondary issue, is some members of the organization do not want the leader to change. They want the involvement and answers from the leader and constantly try to pull them back to their previous practices.

Based on your current roles and responsibilities and the maturity of the organization, what type of leadership is needed from you? How should the metrics for measuring your success have changed? How should you measure your success today?

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Organizational Fitness: The Review

Organizational Fitness consists of four parts.

  1. Planning – The foundation of your fitness – it sets your direction
  2. Communication – The cardiovascular fitness of your organization – provides organizational stamina
  3. Execution – The in-game performance test of your fitness. Agility, strength, flexibility, and endurance are put to the test
  4. Review – The evaluation and learning from your performance

 

Review Introduction

“Let’s go to the video tape.” The review is the evaluation of how well you played (planned, communicated, and executed) the game. Embrace this step for you, the organization, and those you lead to systematically improve. Otherwise you are destined to getting better only through luck. What are you evaluating? Everything, from end to end. Let’s take a look at it.

 

Rules of the evaluation

  • Process is king – develop a review process and stick to it
  • Everything is up for review
  • Honesty and full disclosure are expected
  • Tension is good, conflict is not
  • All stakeholders’ views are represented

 

The review provides the opportunity for individuals/groups with unique perspectives to provide an analysis of their performance, your performance, and the team’s performance in relation to the plan. Self-evaluation is a powerful learning tool. For large projects it is impossible to have every player participate. However, a process that allows every player’s views to be represented is imperative.

 

The Review Process

Determine a process that works for your team. Let’s work through an example. Pick an operation or event that you recently experienced to use as a thought experiment. Did you ever review that event? If so, did you have a process? If not here is a process to consider.

 

Start with evaluating the plan. Restate the original plan and evaluate some key considerations such as:

  • What did we say we were going to do?
  • What were our unknowns and assumptions?
  • How well trained were we?
  • What risks did we accept from the start?

 

Then evaluate only the plan. What was good about the plan and the planning process. Were the correct people involved, did we have too much detail, too little, assess budget, was the timeline realistic, etc.….?

 

Capture the lessons learned.

 

Step two, evaluate how well the plan was communicated. What worked, how and why it worked, and how to make it better. Evaluate the communication plan for the project. In retrospect was it effective? Key considerations, regular meetings, project updates, status, communication tools, etc…

 

Capture the lessons learned.

 

Step Three. Evaluate the execution. Sequentially is typical, looking at all phases of the project. For some projects a functional approach may make more sense, such as evaluating budget, logistics, operation, marketing, and deliverables. Adopt what works for your organization. The key; evaluate execution against the plan and identify deviations. Why? Because the deviations are trying to teach you something. Every plan will have deviations. Your goal is to understand the cause of the deviation and how it was handled. Typical causes are a planning oversight, an organizational blind spot, or a gap in capability. Each cause will present different ramifications and learning opportunities. Understand why you deviated from the plan and the lesson.

 

Evaluate communication at every phase of the execution. Capture the lessons learned.

 

Summary of the Process

To be a learning organization, you need to incorporate the lessons learned into corporate knowledge. Results from each review provide invaluable information. It shows you and everyone else where your organization is performing well, who is performing well, and identifies gaps.

 

This is similar to an athletic team reviewing a video of their last contest. They evaluate their performance by analyzing the details of each phase of the game. The result is a training plan to improve for the next contest. An analogous approach for your organization can unlock continuous growth. Secondary effects to expect are increased trust, collaboration, and respect among team members.

 

Considerations for Your (The Leader’s) Involvement in the Review

Ever experience this? At the end of the project the leader brings the team together for an assessment. Which is conducted verbally from the boss’s perspective. Congratulations are given to certain members, some shortcomings identified, and a plan to address them. The only learning is what is most important to the boss.

 

How to be a learning organization? As the leader, lean back, observe, and be curious. How will leaning back make you more effective? You will gather the perspectives of players you may not see very often. You will sharpen the picture of your team and answer important questions such as:

  • How deep is my organization?
  • How effective are we at planning?
  • How good are we at communicating?
  • How do I capitalize on our strengths?
  • What do I need to do to make us stronger?

 

This final element of organizational fitness, Review, provides important metrics on the fitness of your organization. More importantly it provides the data to learn and improve your fitness. Make your organization stronger by focusing on each element of organizational fitness:  planning, communicating, executing, and reviewing.

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Leadership Reflection: What kind of “Crisis Leader” are you and why?

“Adversity does not build character it reveals it” James Lane Allen.

“Her calm leadership under incredible pressure it what made us successful today!” You have heard a statement similar to this before and maybe said it yourself. Reflect on a leader who you are familiar with: a boss, a coach, a political leader, a coworker, who successfully deals with crisis after crisis. How do they maintain their poise and steady leadership while embroiled in a situation rife with challenges, imperfect information, and severe consequences caused by their decisions?

My premise: They are not just great crisis leaders, they are great leaders because they live by and continually practice the values required to lead under duress.

Crisis leaders are decisive, selfless, focused on the mission, the good of the organization, and its people. They communicate clearly, are trusted, and have the courage to speak and stand by their convictions. They do this all the time, not only in response to a crisis. Living and practicing those values with every interaction regardless of its magnitude builds the “crisis leader” muscles.

Core values are the foundation of our being, drive our behavior, and are what is personally most important to us. In times of crisis our personal façade is torn away and our core values are bare for everyone to see. If you feel you are unable to lead in a crisis – maybe it is time to examine how you handle your daily small predicaments. Will the values “muscles” you are exercising serve you in the next major crisis you encounter?

You cannot show up on game day and expect to win without preparation!

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