The Leadership Crescendo

Blind Spot #5 – Just The Facts Please…

Many leaders are seen as unapproachable and inauthentic by their teams. In fact, these leaders may not really be as cold and distant as they seem. In coaching or getting to know them personally, one finds that they have the same anxieties, fears, hopes, and other emotions that their teams carry. However, they have been taught to hide these emotions from their teams based on a mistaken assumption that to show or to share these feelings they will be seen as weak and ineffective. In fact, time after time we have witnessed their teams coming to their support and embracing them once they let others in. In today’s complex and dizzying environment, it is nearly impossible for one leader to be able to effectively lead all of the critical initiatives in his or her area of responsibility. This means that the leader has to have the ability to ask for help, admit ignorance, be able to share risk, and provide encouragement and feedback as appropriate. Otherwise, team members will quickly assess the risk associated with being pro-active and may take a more passive role that inevitably lowers the quantity and quality of the collective intelligence of the entire team. This often leads to less than optimal and sometimes disastrous consequences. For example, the recent manufacturing safety issues across the J&J manufacturing operations were anticipated by some of the key employees. However, leaders in the organization created a culture that made it too risky for employees to speak up in a timely manner.

Blind Spot # 3 – Over Reliance On What Has Worked In The Past

Leaving behind what has worked in the past is a very difficult shift for most leaders to make. It is akin to saying goodbye to old friends and relationships that one has outgrown. It is not only cognitively difficult, because those “pathways” added value in the past, but also emotionally draining as one comes to rely on them, and feel a sense of loyalty closeness and familiarity towards them that is difficult to replace. Competencies required for the next-level leaders are new, unfamiliar and uncomfortable.  Practicing these competencies will initially make the leader feel less in control and less competent. However, the “learning mindset” calls for leaders to stretch themselves into new opportunities and exercise new skills that require patience and diligent practice before they become second nature. In her seminal book “Mindset- The New Psychology of Success,” Carol Dweck depicts the differences between the “fixed” and the “learning” mindsets. She describes how stretching into learning may mean that short term performance may temporarily deteriorate—like Tiger Woods changing his swing slightly. However, if one is patient and goes through the learning journey, performance is disproportionately improved. Next-level skills usually include higher levels of emotional and social intelligence and influencing skills. In addition, next-level leaders have to be increasingly more comfortable with ambiguity and relying on others to make decisions and lead. At higher levels in the organization, leaders are often asked to manage businesses that they are less familiar with and the abilities to trust, teach, and delegate are vital to success.  This implies that the leader allocates more of his or her focus to coaching and developing others.

Blind Spot # 2 – Unwillingness To Change Decisions With New Information

For many leaders it is difficult to change their public stance with new information. It turns out that these leaders also often carry with them an outdated philosophy that says, “To change a publicly stated point of view is to display weakness and indecision.”  This philosophy has unfortunately become a desirable trait of leadership in our culture. One only needs to reflect on how quickly leaders are labeled as “flip floppers” and indecisive if they change their stance regarding their publicly stated views. A powerful example of this concept is illustrated in this quote from Kodak’s corporate literature regarding digital photography, “The keys to Eastman’s success in making photography a popular leisure-time activity for the masses were his development of roll film and the inexpensive box camera. Although film and cameras are far more sophisticated and versatile today, the fundamental principles behind his inventions have not changed.” The rigidity of Kodak management in the face of the Japanese onslaught of digital photography is now a widely recognized example of leadership failure.

On the other hand, great leaders demonstrate flexibility in the face of new information and always put the interest of the larger organization ahead of their ego and public image. Leaders with a “learning mindset” not only change their points of view with new information, but they build a culture around them that encourages others to do the same. They understand that the cost of rigidity is too high for their organizations and for them. Lou Gerstner in his book, “Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance”  tells of how he spent a great deal of time listening to IBM customers and employees on issues ranging from future growth of core products, the shift to the PC, compensations schemes, corporate culture etc. and formulated a number of strategies and tactics based on his active listening and reflection.

Special Posting: Steve Jobs

Yesterday Steve Jobs one of the most influential  and courageous business leaders in history died at the peak of his productivity and creativity.  His innovations and spirit touches a huge segment of humanity every single day.  To honor him I post one of my favorite quotes from his 2005 commencement ceremony speech at Stanford University with huge relevance to all of us engaged in a life journey of growth and self actualization.  He will be immensely missed in a world where there are so few leaders occupying the “high road”

“Our time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Blind Spot # 1 – Bias for Action

Reflexive Leaders have been wired to react with automatic reflexes, responses and decisions when faced with seemingly familiar information or stimuli. These leaders are usually “in judgment” very quickly. They often operate from a pre-conceived and self-limiting, fixed mindset that quickly categorizes incoming information and associates it with the closest experience in their careers or lives. Their decisions are often based on an erroneous foundation which results in dysfunctional leadership behaviors and enormous risks and costs to the organization. For example, it is now a well-documented fact that one of the cultural traits of the leaders at Enron was the tendency to be “the smartest person in the room.”  These leaders relied on their power of intellect to formulate self-serving logic based on past experiences. The devastating consequences are self-explanatory.

Reflective leaders, on the other hand, exhibit a lifelong thirst for learning or a “learning mindset.” These leaders have developed the practice of balancing “telling” with “asking” and using the collective intelligence of their internal and external support teams. They regularly take the time to reflect on questions such as, what experience did I have? What were my thoughts and feelings while it was happening? How did I react and behave? What do I think about the way I felt and acted? What did I learn? And, how do I incorporate the learning into my future leadership style… Consequently, these leaders “use judgment” in making important decisions. Examples of reflective leaders in the world of politics include Nelson Mandela whose principles of leadership included “nothing is black and white” and “Lead from the back—Let others think they are leading from the front.”  In the world of business, Richard Branson, the CEO of the Virgin Group, comes to mind as a vivid example of a reflective leader, who said “Look for leaders who listen both to employees and customers.”  Branson regularly steps out of routine and habitual settings in order to reflect, explore and learn. For example, one of his closest relationships is with Bishop Tutu of South Africa, and he often retreats to his island to create space for thoughtful interactions and reflection. He has a renaissance mind and personality that encourages him to constantly experiment with a broad range of fields such as business, music/entertainment, aviation/hot air ballooning, world affairs and charity. These experiences broaden his world view, allow him to detach and elevate from his habitual paradigms to achieve insights that can be applied to his organization.

The Five Coachable Blind Spots of Leaders