Advertising wizard David Ogilvy’s 10 qualities of creative leaders:
I felt overwhelmed by the chaos of it all when I walked into Cook County Hospital. People were all over the place: sitting, walking, running, standing, laying on the floor, and just hanging around. They were crying waving, talking, yelling, gesturing, screaming. How could anyone manage pandemonium like this?
I was there to interview Ruth Rothstein, Chief, Cook County Bureau of Health Services, Chicago, Illinois. Ms. Rothstein’s first professional position was as an organizer for the United Packinghouse union, and she began her hospital work in 1940 as a laboratory technician at Jackson Park hospital in Chicago. Today she leads approximately 12,000 employees with a budget of $650 million.
I planned on 8 hours for the interview about leadership. It took less than two hours to ask my questions and to get them answered. A tall and energetic woman, Ruth Rothstein looks twenty years younger than her seventy-five years, knows who she is, knows what she thinks, and doesn’t mince words. I chuckled frequently as I listened to her.
Her wisdom and experience speak for themselves and require no additional comments from me.
On vision:
The vision was to re accredit the hospital, and we did that. The vision and mission is to build an ambulatory care system, and we are in the process of doing that. The vision and mission is to build a new hospital, and we are in the process of moving toward that. The mission and the vision were to have one medical school rather than have everybody cherry-pick you to death, and we have done that. The mission and vision are very important, and if you are not an integral part of your environment then you may not survive.
On organizing community:
It is a skill you learn by dealing with people and their families and by understanding what their goals are and what they need out of life. It is really pretty simple. It is jobs. It is a decent wage. So they can support their family. So they can make a contribution back to where they live. Community is important because all organizing should be at the grassroots level.
On her credibility with the residents in poverty-stricken West Chicago:
I have worked on the West Side for over 30 years. I think the people on the West Side trust me because I never over-promised and under-performed. I think that is an element. The other element is that I don’t talk down to people. I respect people no matter who they are unless they have proven otherwise.
On facing reality:
I cut through a lot of bologna. I can hear and cut through a lot and sometimes it is aggravating to people because you cut them off in a sense. I don’t need to hear all that you know. I mean, I know that already. Cutting through a lot of garbage is a skill you don’t learn from books. You learn it from living.
I am very honest. I cut through a lot of garbage. I am honest about myself. I never forget where I came from. I never forget how I got here. I don’t delude myself. I know what my strengths are. I know what my weaknesses are. I am willing to look at it. I am willing to deal with it, and I am willing to face up to it. I am willing to tell it to anybody.
On courage:
Courage comes from how you were brought up. How you developed in your work life. I am not afraid of myself. It doesn’t mean I want to be alone. It doesn’t mean I don’t get lonely, and it doesn’t mean that I don’t get sad, and it doesn’t mean that I don’t get depressed, but I am not afraid of myself.
On energy:
I think you get it from doing things. I get the energy from constantly wanting to make a difference. I have to tell you, I do not understand young people in terms of their health and their energy. I certainly didn’t take care of myself. I smoked until about seven years ago. I don’t exercise. I can’t tell you what my cholesterol is, because I don’t really care. Everyone is always tired. What the hell are they tired from? But they are always tired. I am not sure I understand that. Yes, I get tired, clearly I get tired. But not the way they do.
On passion:
I believe in me. I believe in the people I work with. I believe in the communities that I am serving, and I work together with them to make it better. How could I be anything less than passionate about it?
On people:
I think most people are honest and honorable. I think most people want to do the right thing. I think most people want to take care of themselves and their families. I think even the most distressed of people want to do that. They don’t always have the opportunity to do so. Life has not always been good to them. I don’t want to blame the victim.
On telling the truth:
I put a lot of emphasis on being truthful. That, if I say it, I mean that is what I am going to do. If I am not going to do it, I am going to tell you I am not going to do it. And nothing you could do is going to make me change my mind. Not that I am going to be right about it.
On trust:
I think trust is important. I think most people trust me because I tell the truth. Even if it hurts me. Even if it hurts me, I will tell the truth. I think you build trust by being an authentic leader.
On change:
I make changes here as I did at Mount Sinai and Cook County hospitals because I utilize all the resources that I have around me and that is human resources. I try to pick people who are smart. I try to pick people who care the way I care. I try to pick people who have the same courage and the same passion that I have to accomplish stuff. Then we set about to do it. Set about to figure it out and to get about to doing it. I think that is where that is. I don’t suffer fools easily, I will tell you that. I don’t care who they are. They can be elected officials for all I care.
Everyone doesn’t love me clearly. Well clearly, I don’t love everyone either. That is a two-way street. You know I don’t have to love them either. I need to be honest. I need to give the facts. I need to be open. I need to do a good job. But I don’t have to love you. Conversely, you don’t have to love me. But you have to trust me. That to me is very important. Trust is very important. On both sides.
On resistance to change:
I don’t walk around saying, “I have resistance.” Of course you have resistance. Of course people have trouble changing. What the hell are you there for? What are you going to do about it? You bring all your skills to the table and you try to work your way around it. You try to figure out “how do I work my way around it?” One of the things that became important here was to figure out how do you make the institution inclusive. I think it is important to be inclusive. I think it was important for me to bring together leaders who are both formal and informal leaders. And pose the questions and say “now you tell me what the answers are as you perceive them.”
We worked on three important issues over a period of a year and one-half. They came to the solution. They came to the answer. It took a long time. A year and a half. Sure I could have done the same thing in 20 minutes. But so what. Then I couldn’t get them to change. They changed themselves.
You could shoot them. And then you won’t have anybody to work for you. So that is not helpful. You could take the next 20 years and have them look at their navels and try to figure it out.
Or you can help them. You can help them. You can help them to organize, to go through the process, to work with it.
On herself as a leader:
I am tough. I am very tough. Maybe some people will tell you I am abrasive. I don’t think I am, but that is okay. Everybody perceives themselves the way they want to perceive themselves. But everybody will tell you that you always know where you stand with me. I am forthright. I am up-front. I will tell you the truth. If it hurts, it hurts and if it hurts me, it hurts me. I have no secrets. I never have secrets. No hidden agendas. I am what you see. I mean this is for real. I admit my mistakes. I can apologize. But I cut through a lot of bologna. I think people appreciate that.
Learning about leadership:
In everything that I have worked at: the trade union movement, healthcare organizations, the Jewish community, whenever you work with people you try to draw from them the best that you can get out of them. You want to draw the best knowledge. You want to draw the best advice. You want to be able to listen. You want to be able to give as well as take information. But then as a leader, you and you alone, have the ultimate responsibility for making the decision. You can’t run away from that. You can’t blame it on anybody ever. And people do that. They do that a lot. It makes me crazy. Like, “Oh, but I told you that.” “When did you tell me that?” “Oh yes, you just weren’t listening. I mean I told you that.” Well, that is just bullshit. Of course they didn’t tell me. That is just a game. It is a game.
On memos:
I don’t write a whole lot of memos. Not a whole lot. I write memos to congratulate people or thank them. I don’t write big memos. I think talking to people by phone or face-to-face is a human contact. A memo is a piece of paper. That is not a human contact. That is kind of an arrogant contact, in some ways, and cowardly in some cases.
On technology:
I am technologically illiterate. I don’t want to be bothered. I am not going to be around long enough to worry about it. It will, however, change the way people function. I think it will change the way they interact with each other. It’s like a science fiction thing for me.
On spirituality:
I don’t have a great deal of religion myself. If spirituality is a sense of the mythical, if it is a sense of equality, and if it is the sense of decency, than I am spiritual. My personal code is to do the very best that I can do for the greatest number of people that I can do it with and for.
On coping:
I suppose when I cry, I cry alone.
Ruth Rothstein used the word Menschlichkeit when we talked about leaders. She said Menschlichkeit “is almost an indescribable word. It’s a New York word. It means you are a wonderful whole human being. Menschlichkeit is a marvelous word.”
As she said, Ruth Rothstein cuts through a lot of bologna.
Excerpt from: Learning to Live: Essays on Life and Leadership
As the business unit I led at the Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis, MN (and especially our Customer Service Center) began transformational change, people asked often about “vision”. They wanted a detailed description of what things would be like when the organization “got there.” We wanted to become faster moving, more creative, value driven, and engage employees. We wanted to enhance customer satisfaction and improve financials. I could paint a word picture of those ideas for them, but I could not be specific about details that would emerge far into the future.
I talked with them about the first settlers crossing eastern Colorado by covered wagon and seeing the outline of the Rocky Mountains in front of them. What can people know of the pioneers as they pursued their vision? They were searching for a better life, they were courageous, they believed in themselves, and they had confidence in their ability to overcome unknown obstacles. They understood that life had risk and uncertainty. Their dream was powerful, and they would not quit.
They were cooperative. Had these settlers been competitive with one another, they would not have survived. The pioneers were afraid a good part of the time and felt overwhelmed and inadequate frequently. They knew there were no guarantees of success. They made mistakes, and they suffered. Less hardy souls ridiculed them. Sometimes their leaders were selfish, cowardly, and incompetent.
The pioneers found their way as they proceeded. They planned as best they could; they took bold action; they reflected on what happened; and they adapted as they went. Some of the wagon trains succumbed to the elements and people perished. These first pioneers knew they might not have a better life for themselves; they were paving the way for future generations. Like all ventures into the unknown, the settler’s journey began with a few. Soon, more people followed. Those who went first inspired those who came later.
As our vision at the Star Tribune crystallized, not all, but enough, maybe most of our business unit employees embraced the goals of value driven leadership, self-managed work teams, skill based pay, one-stop shopping for customers, and partnership with the unions because they helped create them and did the work necessary to bring about deep change. We worked hard to create conditions where employees felt valued, involved, and informed. The vision was for all of us and future employees, for people in other organizations and industries as well as for the Star Tribune newspaper. The desire to create a better workplace for ourselves and others inspired the strongest believers and called on each person to be their best. We everyday people would help to make the world a better place. For those most engaged, our experiences together were a powerful, visceral journey.
Within 15 months of those first days when we had little but a vague sense of possibility, our work became a nationally recognized success story. Business guru Tom Peters wrote about our work, people from a variety of industries visited to observe our self-managed work teams, and we were invited to speak about self-managed teams, partnership with organized labor, and culture change at conferences around the country.
A vision is a powerful picture of the future we want to create. Few organizations create visions that involve and inspire people, bring forth courage, and evolve the status quo. Sustainable organizations create visions over and over again because the enterprise is a dynamic living system that evolves constantly. Absent continual renewal, the organization will decline and die.
In simple terms chaos is order without predictability. That is, there are systems, physical and social, that are well understood and yet are fundamentally unpredictable. Thus, chaos is not anarchy or randomness. Chaos is order, but it is order that is invisible. T.J. Cartwright
Anxiety engulfs many in leadership positions today. To others they display a calm and confident persona. Inside they feel lost, scared, confused, and out of control in response to dangers seen and unseen; known and denied. They often attempt to reduce their distress via quick-fixes: mindless reorganizations, repetitive change programs, and superficial remedies to systemic issues.
They work futilely to avoid discomfort, gain control, and find security not understanding that what is asked of leadership today goes counter to the mental models of the Industrial Era ingrained within them, generally without their awareness. They try to lead from old beliefs in a new world.
Heroic leaders come and go each with their own painless program that promises to make everyone feel in control once again. Most of their programs end before being fully implemented when the next savior takes over with her own plan to restore stability. Most of the time, effort, and money are wasted. Little changes except the organizations become more insidiously paternalistic. No one talks about this repetitive and addictive pattern of behavior.
Dr. Rachel Remen wrote, “In avoiding all pain and seeking comfort at all costs we may be left without mercy and compassion. In rejecting change and risk, we often cheat ourselves of the quest. In denying suffering, we may never know our strength and our greatness.” Deep change, which is required, is difficult: scary, painful, and uncertain. Such transformation also renews people and organizations and improves the chances for the sustainability of the enterprise.
D.H. Lawrence wrote, “The great virtue in life is real courage that knows how to face facts and live beyond them.” Much angst comes from people’s refusal to see the world as it is and themselves as they are. We live in the midst of multiple global transformations with outcomes unknown and in the background the deep dangers of global climate change grow daily. People in leadership roles cannot elude the chaos of life that is the context of leadership today and as far into the future as anyone can foresee. Many in the industrial world were conditioned for order, control, and predictability and this blinds many from the truth: chaos is healthy, creative, potential filled, and life renewing.
Leadership in the chaos of a dynamic world requires capacities vastly different than the capabilities needed in a world thought of as a great machine–as different as the skills of a mechanic and an artist.
Many frustrated leaders with mechanistic worldviews try to lead living organizations as they fix machines with control, conformity, and predictability being the goals. The leadership toolkit of the mechanic is mostly wrong for today’s leadership context. The artist’s palette of choices and eye for process, pattern, and relationships feed imagination and are needed on the organizational canvas more than the mechanic’s wrench.
Instead of dampening the energy surrounding them, wise leaders understand its dynamics, embrace its power, bring forth its potential, and develop the artistic capabilities needed to lead within the deeper and unpredictable order.
Astute leaders do not attempt to run and hide from themselves or frantically conceal symptoms of systemic problems with cosmetic solutions. They face their fears with courage and honesty and transform the dangers they sense to opportunities. They confront squarely the genuine problems old-school enterprises face in perpetual chaos: incongruent thought processes, problems of vision and values, the management of change, issues of mediocrity and organizational capacity, questions of sustainability, the truth of leadership capability, and matters of responsibility and accountability.
True leaders embrace the risk, honesty, and loneliness of a leader’s journey within: a creative odyssey of challenge, excitement, stimulation, and development of new ways to think about leadership.
They are the leaders we need for the 21st century.
Many people in organizations are in emotional pain. The suffering is sharp and searing–deep in the souls of so many. The source of much of this unnecessary anguish is, I believe, a worldview that alienates people from others, themselves, and the natural world.
To continue this unnatural, inauthentic, and destructive behavior, men and women must lie to themselves. People then become sincerely deluded; they believe their lies. Their pain becomes normal, and they become the walking dead characterized by anger, cynicism, indifference, and disengagement. Soon men and women fear their inner voices because the voices tell them the truth about what they are doing to themselves and others.
People are able to deceive themselves and numb their pain through denial. In The Birth and Death of Meaning a Perspective in Psychiatry and Anthropology Ernest Becker wrote, “If everybody lives roughly the same lies about the same things, there is no one to call them liars. They jointly establish their own sanity and call themselves normal.”
Anne Wilson Schaef and Diane Fassel wrote in The Addictive Organization, “An addiction is any process over which we are powerless. It takes control of us, causing us to do and think things that are inconsistent with our personal values and leading us to become progressively more compulsive and obsessive. A sure sign of an addiction is the sudden need to deceive ourselves and others to lie, deny, and cover up.”
We think of addiction to substances like heroin, alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, or cigarettes. We can also have process addictions. Process addictions are addictions to a series of events or relationships that together form a process. Examples of process addictions are money, power, status, competition, quick-fix change programs, and climbing the corporate ladder.
Addictive behavior in organizations prevents mindfulness, blocks authenticity, and separates people from their values and beliefs. Addictive behavior obstructs the formation of relationships with others, represses emotions and intuition, and blinds people from processes and patterns that embarrass and/or threaten behavior.
Addictive organizations do not allow feelings. People lose touch with their pain, fear, anger, anxiety, and depression. This separation from themselves leads to separation from others. If people felt their emotions, they would want to tell the truth, and there’s no room for truth, about many things, in addictive organizations. People who are honest about what they feel are, in many organizations, a threat to denial and are expelled from the system–literally or figuratively.
Addictive organizations hold out new promises for the future to distract people from the present. In recent years, grand visions for the future driven by quick-fix program after quick-fix program provide the temporary relief, and the distraction from self, that some want. Little really changes, except the level of pain in the organization. At the same time, these organizations absorb into their destructive essence anything that promises to be healthier.
The addictive system moves from crisis to crisis. Most people are kept too busy and too confused to challenge the system. Those who do challenge the behavior of an addictive organization are neutralized and marginalized. Change agents who challenge the status quo are often demonized and scapegoated. Often this neutralization takes the form of fabricated personality conflicts that allow the truth put forth by the change agent to be discounted.
Values and ethics are the ultimate victims of an addictive organization.
Transformation is a recovery process as much as it is a journey. Recovery requires a commitment to seeing the world and ourselves as we are and an intense desire to become who we can be.
An email from Meg made me realize that in previous posts I had under-emphasized the responsibility each of us has to choose to be our best selves at work and in every setting of our lives.
Meg wrote:
When I was 16 years old, working for Gedney pickles and standing at a bin where we stuffed pickle spears into jars manually for 8 hours a day, I learned that only I had the power to make the job rewarding for myself. I created a daily competition to pack more jars than I had packed the prior day. I became the fastest pickle packer in the plant. It made the time go by more quickly and it was fun to compete, even if just against myself. I’ve carried that through all my jobs and shared it with my kids. So no matter how nasty the job is, we have to find ways to feel rewarded and often that entails reinventing the job, which I’ve pretty much done with all my jobs.
And I’ve also learned not to fear things that I don’t understand. When I came to IT Telecom and they laid off the whole team except me, I had to recreate 30 years of telecom architecture. I just peeled off one layer at a time, disconnected unused services, saved the company thousands of dollars each month, and felt terrific for accomplishing it.
Toxic employees would see opportunities for savings and keep it to themselves figuring “if my boss doesn’t see it, why should I?” Work ethics are not easy to teach, but managers needs to realize it is crucial to success and they should spend more time helping employees find the fun in the job and the passion to help the company thrive.
I’ve been very lucky because, at times, my employers have tried to “box” my jobs, but being the conformist that I can appear to be, they thought I was doing well. In reality, I was reinventing the jobs, letting them think the changes were their ideas. I could never have been productive if I wasn’t allowed to be creative, inquisitive, and progressive.
Similarly, reader Margaret wrote: “There have been jobs that I had that I didn’t like. When I’ve been in that position, I tried to think of at least one thing, often more than one thing, that I could change in the situation to make the job more to my liking.”
We are responsible for the lives we create or do not create.
The Washington Post reported that a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive for the University of Phoenix found that 55 percent of American workers would like to change careers. Nearly 80 percent of working adults in their 20s and almost two-thirds of those in their 30s would like to do so, too.
Similar, Gallup reported that 52% of American workers lack involvement, enthusiasm, and commitment to their work. Eighteen percent are actively disengaged (less loyal, less productive, more stressed, miss more days): those folks sabotage company strategy and pressure co-workers to dumb down. In other words, 70% of us go to work disengaged or actively disengaged. Only 30% of us feel invested in our jobs. The Gallup data has been consistent since 2000.
Some observations:
We do a poor job of choosing our careers. If we select our profession based on money, prestige, or what our parents did, then the odds are great that we will choose badly and end up stuck and miserable.
How might we choose our work? We put in the time and effort to know ourselves: our natural talents, our core values, and our sense of purpose for our lives (why we exist). Then we figure out what activities best express our most authentic selves and we seek out careers that will allow us to spend the most time doing work that makes us feel alive. If our careers then pay well and have prestige, so much the better.
Organizations structure jobs badly. Most enterprises were structured on a mechanistic model of organization, which emphasizes conformity, efficiency, and uniformity. They then force employees to fit into rigid boxes, categories, and job descriptions. Most jobs are too small for people. I had a great boss who had me write my own job descriptions. When I would give it back to him, he would say, “Add more responsibilities.” We went back and forth several times, and I always ended up with work that fulfilled me. Organizations need to structure jobs less mechanically and more organically to allow the huge untapped human potential that lies dormant in most organizations to come forth.
Ignorant managers: Most executives grew up with the machine model ingrained in them from a lifetime in schools, churches, and workplaces. Many don’t understand why we do things the way we do in our bureaucracies. Many don’t know that the machine model isn’t the only metaphor we can compare our work world to: The greater our metaphorical diversity, the more creative we can be. I think of organizations as living systems that encompass mechanistic processes. Machines are mechanical; people are alive. Wise people think of each differently.
Bad Bosses: The Gallup data showed that people don’t quit the company they work for; their quit their bosses. I’ve had a great boss and I thrived. I’ve had a bad boss and I stagnated. Get away from a bad boss as fast as you possibly can. They only drag you down.
The sooner we begin to search for our right livelihood, the more likely we will make a successful transition.
I am responsible for the life I create or do not create for myself.
Todd Hoffner was a good football coach. Only a month earlier, Minnesota State University, Mankato had awarded him a new 4-year contract with a raise of more than 15%.
But on August 17, 2012, his life changed:
Hoffner had turned a malfunctioning cell phone in to the University for repair. On the phone were two short videos of his three young children as they laughed, danced, frolicked, and played in the nude after baths. In post Jerry Sandusky hysteria, university employees turned the phone over to the police.
Hoffner was placed on investigative leave. Did the University act precipitously or were they prudent to be cautious?
Then bad judgment: a few days later Hoffner was arrested on two felony counts of suspicion of producing and possessing child pornography. Has insanity become normalized, I wondered.
County human-services officials quickly determined that no sexual abuse or maltreatment of Hoffner’s children had occurred. Nothing suspicious was found on his laptop, in his home, or in extensive searches at his earlier places of employment. The County attorney refused to drop the charges.
Last November, Blue Earth County District Judge Krista Jass dismissed the charges against Hoffner for lack of probable cause. She rebuked County prosecutors and her strongly worded order made it clear that the videos were innocent hijinks, not porn. Thank God for a brave and lucid judge.
Will the community hold the county attorney accountable for the actions that did great harm to a decent family? Remember citizens of Mankato, if you don’t stand up for the victims of power abused, who will stand up for you when you are the victim?
Did the University reinstatement Hoffner as expected?
No, administrators gave Hoffner a 20 day suspension apparently for using his university cell phone for personal use. The length of suspension appears excessive to this veteran of 18 years of labor relations experience.
Administrators then removed Hoffner from his position as coach and reassigned him to a non-job administrative position and stuck him away in a closet. Then they fired him without explanation.
What motivated the actions of University managers?
Did political enemies in the bureaucracy take advantage of the opportunity to get rid of Hoffner ─the successful coach who had just signed a 4-year contract with a big raise?
Or, did the culture of the institution drive decision-making? Protecting the institution from whatever people or situations are perceived to be threats to the image of the institution often becomes paramount in crisis and doing what is right regardless of politics and institutional embarrassment get lost entirely. Did Hoffner have to go because he brought embarrassment to the University?
It is never right to punish the victim of injustice for the embarrassment that injustice may cause a big institution.
Or, did the University investigation that came about because of false accusations and an unjust arrest lead to the discovery of new information that on its own justified an immediate termination?
We don’t know the answers to these and many other questions because University officials acted in secret behind closed doors and have shared only cold and terse written announcements. No human face speaks for the University, only a lifeless and uncaring bureaucracy.
Hoffner will challenge his firing in arbitration later this summer. If the University comes up with a reason for his discharge aside from the false allegations of peddling porn, it better be a good one. Remember, this is the coach who had just signed a new 4-year contract with a big raise. Any known issues with Hoffner from before that contract was signed are moot after the new contract effectively endorsed Hoffner fully. Will any new issues be legitimate and rise to the level needed to justify his abrupt termination or will they be concocted efforts to justify earlier bad judgments, political assassination, or the dark side of corporate culture?
The community should watch with discerning eyes.
(See ESPN interview with Todd Hoffner)
Does you wake up enthused to go to work?
For most people, the answer is “no.”
Gallup reports that 52% of workers in America aren’t involved in, enthusiastic about, or committed to their work. Eighteen percent are actively disengaged (less loyal, less productive, more stressed, miss more days): they are the folks who sabotage company strategy and pressure co-workers to dumb down.
I know that engaged employees achieve tremendous business results and that absent engaged employees an organization cannot endure for the long-term. Sadly, most leaders don’t yet realize the power of engagement.
How are organizations doing when it comes to sustainability and engagement? I define a sustainable organization as one that endures indefinitely in a continually changing environment or marketplace. Some companies endure for hundreds of years so we know the potential exists for all. Some examples are DuPont, Hudson Bay Company, and W.R. Grace.
Sadly, however, the average life expectancy of a Fortune 500 company pales at 40-50 years. The 40-50 year life expectancy of a Fortune 500 company is the worst actual-to-potential life expectancy ratio of any species on the planet. This statistic cuts across nations and is even worse for smaller start-up companies — 40% survive less than 10 years.
The massive disengagement that Gallup has reported for years is symptomatic of low life expectancy for the organization. We experience low life expectancy as stress, pettiness, power struggles for control, cynicism, resignation, and the walking dead of our organizations. If this sounds like your company, then your company is dying.
Companies often state, “People are our greatest asset.” I don’t think so. Not in most organizations. And the devaluation of people shows in the lack of sustainable organizations.
While employees bear some responsibility for this disengagement, for the most part it is a leadership issue.
I’ve seen the walking dead come back to life when they’re invited to participate, to be involved, and when required to be responsible — when treated with basic human respect. They showed me the impact leaders have on people and showed me the vast untapped human potential available to all of us.
The truth is, no one in a management team is performing their job if their employees are not engaged — and this includes supervisors, managers, and executives. As leaders, we need to own this issue of employee disengagement, and grab the potential of engaged people.
In The Elements of Great Managing, Rod Wagner and James Harder reported Gallup data that shows, among other things, that engaged employees miss less work, quit less often, steal less from their employers, have fewer accidents (all of these by dramatic percentages), and more engaged organizations outperformed the earnings-per-share of their non-engaged competitors by 18%. Long-term profits come when we lead people well.
The leadership challenge of the 21st century is to achieve outstanding and sustainable business results by creating conditions for employee engagement that brings forth the vast untapped human potential in organizations — the competitive advantage of our time.
A recent conversation with a senior vice president of a company prompted these thoughts.
Note to consultants and folks in organizations who fancy themselves change agents:
People resist change for all kinds of reasons. But did you ever think it was you employees were resisting?
When you denigrate everything people did before you arrived, you demean them.
When you brag and try to impress people with all your past successes, people smell b.s.
When you manipulate people’s emotions to get them to buy into what you are selling, people resent you.
When you criticize other consultants and vendors the employees use, they want to defend them and resist you.
When you try to bully people to get them to do your bidding, people will sabotage you.
When you “Monday Morning quarterback” everything that goes wrong instead of asking, “What happened and what can we learn from it,” people will quit telling you about problems.
When you then blame the employees for resisting change, you are mindless of your impact on others.
I’m not innocent. I did most of those things at one time or another as a leader and as a consultant.
How about some simple rules for consultants and change agents:
If you do these things, you won’t have to motivate people to change, they will motivate themselves and you will be a good leader of change.
Tom's Thoughts 