Dear Madeleine,

I have risen through the ranks of my organization very quickly. Last year I took on a lot of new responsibilities with almost no direction, did a good job, and got a raise and a promotion. My boss, the president of the company, has told me several times that he sees me as partner material.

One of my superpowers is figuring things out—but I fear I have reached my limit in one area.

I keep asking my boss for more clarity on what is expected of me to be able to reach partner. And he keeps saying I need to become “more comfortable with ambiguity.” It is maddening. If I knew what I was supposed to be doing, I would be doing it. But he won’t tell me.

Any ideas for me on how to break through this impasse?

Flying Blind

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Flying Blind,

You have just described the exact conundrum of making the leap from operational leadership to strategic leadership. When you reach the top ranks of any organization, the biggest shift is that there is no longer anyone to tell you what to do. What your boss is trying to express is that at the level you are playing, it is up to you to use your best judgment and make it up.

What most people don’t realize (until they are doing it) is that executive leadership is a wildly creative—and risky—business. When people are young, a little naïve, and lacking in experience, it can be incredibly exciting. When people have suffered the pain of making expensive mistakes, it can be terrifying.

Here is an article published recently: “The Ultimate Test: What I learned about leadership from Covid-19” that lays out exactly what I mean.

Managing ambiguity literally means figuring out how to get things done when things are not clear, nothing is certain, and there is no road map. It means looking at the whole picture and envisioning the path from where things are now to where you and the other senior leaders say you want to be.

Almost nothing you have been good at or thought you knew up till now is going to help you much, but it can be a good foundation. You will be required to let go of your addiction to checking tasks off your list and get comfortable with moving from incomplete task to incomplete task. For people who define themselves by their ability to get things done, this is a mind-bending transition. Get used to spending your time sharing your vision for the direction your people need to go and experimenting with approaches. Be prepared to adapt as new information comes in, and to pivot if necessary.

The metaphor that has been helpful to many is instead of checkers, you are now playing chess. Instead of moving all your pieces across the board quickly in a day or a week, you will now be lucky to make one or two moves in that time. Each move will require a lot of thought and consideration, frequent checking with others on the team, and possibly accepting a temporary fix until new information is revealed. It is dealing with constant change—and the job is never done.

One thing you can’t do on your own is decide on strategic imperatives. If your boss cannot articulate those, you can push for the leadership team to make decisions on what they are. Once you have those, and a sense of a budget, you will have to make up the rest.

Hopefully, you have organizational values to guide your decisions. If you don’t, you will have to decide on your own leadership values. That means you must know what is most important. That is a whole can of worms in itself and you can find more on that here. If your organization has not spent the time to articulate its values, you can advocate for putting some attention on that. Get some arguments for doing that here.

To be a partner means to be a co-owner with the other partners. Your boss is waiting for you to be brave. So be brave.

Make a plan for what you think needs to be done for you and your people to achieve, or even exceed, the strategic goals that have been set. Do you have the right people in the right seats? (Do they have the skills to do the job the way it needs to be done?) If not, how will you address that issue? Do you have all the resources you need? What hasn’t been thought about yet? What obstacles need to be cleared?

Let me be clear here: this is not a plan for how you will make partner. It is a plan for how you will lead your people to accomplish what needs to be done for the organization. It isn’t about you, it is about the success of your team and the organization.

Lay out the path for how you will do everything. Make a list of the unknowns and the obstacles you can see today. You will be worried that you’ve made mistakes, that you’ve missed something, and that it won’t be perfect—which will almost certainly be the case. That’s OK. No one and nothing is perfect right out of the gate.

Take your plan to your boss as your best guess of what you think you should be doing in the next 12 to 18 months and see what he says. Talk it through, get feedback, and share it with other leaders in the organization. If you think you are right about something that others disagree with, have the courage of your convictions and make your case. Or, if you think someone else’s point of view makes sense, let yourself be influenced. Then tweak the plan, share it with your team, and go.

You have passed the point of studying for the quiz and getting 100% and a gold star. You are now in unknown territory where you have to make your own map, and the test is about making decisions in the absence of enough information. Not only are there no gold stars on offer now, you will be surrounded by people who think they could do it better if they were in your shoes.

You say you have reached your limit for figuring things out? I say you are just getting started. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. You are signing up for a bumpy but exciting ride!

Love, Madeleine

About Madeleine

Madeleine Homan Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response soon. Please be advised that although she will do her best, Madeleine cannot respond to each letter personally. Letters will be edited for clarity and length.

Dear Madeleine,

I work in a company that has recently gone to a matrix environment. It is kind of a disaster because no one seems to know what that means. Trying to get anyone to make a decision so I can move forward with projects on a deadline is making work incredibly stressful. I pride myself on getting things done on time, and I am going to be late on several key deliverables through no fault of my own.

I have at least two bosses now and am not sure which person to go to for what. One of them is not at all interested in letting go of her previous unilateral authority and is resisting my efforts to get the buy-in I need from her before I move ahead with things.

I am really struggling. Any ideas would be helpful.

Matrix Madness

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Dear Matrix Madness,

Yours isn’t the first (and won’t be the last) company to adopt a shift to a matrix organizing structure without properly preparing everyone. (For details on matrix organizations, click here.) It is a source of universal suffering—and until things get worked out, you will have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Essentially, your company (like many others) is trying to get everyone in the organization to be more included, which will eventually help all of you manage the complexity of your business. Moving to a matrix is supposed to break down silos and solve the problem of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. And it can—it just causes a fair amount of chaos first.

I have a few ideas, all of which come from working with clients who have been through a similar change.

1. First, try to relax. Everyone is upside down, not just you. Identify the projects you are responsible for that are critical and time sensitive. Ask yourself: Will a customer be upset if the project is late? Will other projects be held up if things are delayed on my end? Once you have identified those, communicate with anyone who may be affected by your delays. Anything you can do to avoid disappointing people and to manage expectations on your deadlines will help relieve your anxiety.
2. Try to escalate the extent of the confusion to the company leadership. Your organization has adopted a massive change effort without taking the steps to educate and bring people along, which is why one boss is not onboard and is causing static for you. Maybe there is a way for you to ask for more training or more direction on what it means to work in a matrix.
3. A matrix will force you to act more like a leader. Communicate in writing all decisions and all intel you have to anyone who needs to be involved in a decision. Provide deadlines for feedback along with your own recommendations. Make clear when you will be moving forward, so that everyone knows their input is needed by a certain time.
4. Half your problem is that the change has been implemented as you are mid-project with many things, so that makes it harder. In the future, at the beginning of new projects, use a RACI chart so you know who to involve at what step. A RACI is a time honored way for setting up a project that clarifies who needs to be involved and how. I know a lot of people learn this in business school—it seems to be immediately forgotten, but is incredibly useful.

A RACI chart identifies the following:

R — Responsible – who is responsible for doing the work on a daily basis and making sure each item that needs to get done has an owner and is tracked.

A — Accountable – who is ultimately accountable for getting a goal or task completed, has the power to approve or veto actions or final product.

C — Consulted – who needs to have input into how the task gets done, whose opinion must be sought through two-way conversation. This step is often overlooked, which can cause a lot of problems.

I — Informed – who has an interest in the work because it will affect them in some way and needs to be kept up to date and notified of results. This can usually be a one-way communication.

Just because you are midstream with some of your projects doesn’t mean you can’t at least try to figure out the RACI now.

Dealing with your recalcitrant boss is a whole separate issue. You might want to have a one on one with her to explain why you feel the need to loop more people into decision making. Certain kinds of managers who experience having certain kinds of information and making decisions as a form of power can really struggle in a shift to a matrix. You might share this article with her and maybe even the RACI chart idea. You may end up having to go around her—which will certainly decrease her power and relevance—but you can’t really control her behavior.

You are obviously a dedicated and responsible contributor. Learning to navigate this disruption without letting yourself get upset will serve you well. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. You are going to be fine.

Love, Madeleine

About Madeleine

Madeleine Homan Blanchard is a master certified coach, author, speaker, and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. Madeleine’s Advice for the Well Intentioned Manager is a regular Saturday feature for a very select group: well intentioned managers. Leadership is hard—and the more you care, the harder it gets. Join us here each week for insight, resources, and conversation.

Got a question for Madeleine? Email Madeleine and look for your response soon. Please be advised that although she will do her best, Madeleine cannot respond to each letter personally. Letters will be edited for clarity and length.

Our collective future is unfolding right before us. It demands a new kind of leader.

Consider life in this new era. An event happens on the other side of the world and its ripples nearly capsize our boats thousands of miles away. The pandemic is the latest example that we are more interconnected than we knew. A virus originated in China, a South African variant traveled around the world with disarming speed, and we resorted to social distancing, another round of vaccinations (or not), office closures, etc.

Now we are experiencing dramatic shifts in global markets and new technologies. A supply chain disruption roils countess markets. A new technology overthrows the process and forces us to react. These changes leave a path of creative destruction marked by the birth of start-ups and the fall of former Goliaths.

It is nearly impossible to predict what is going to happen next and how it will impact our lives. “Business as usual” already sounds like a quaint relic from the pre-pandemic past. We are now in the phase of accepting that many things will never go back to the way they were.

So what will the leader of tomorrow look like? Here are seven skills the VUCA leader must master.

Seven Skills of a VUCA Leader

1. Lead with a compass. The business world was once made up of workplace silos—functional or local, perhaps. Leaders knew their boundaries and were relatively comfortable with them.

The future organization will be flat and incredibly nimble. The VUCA leader has a bird’s-eye perspective of the business and is able to survey the landscape, identify all the moving parts, and understand how they are connected.

This 360^o vision requires a leader with a clear sense of purpose and a deep understanding of an organization’s vision, mission, and goals. The VUCA leader makes sense of all this and helps their team see the bigger picture and how their work matters. And they have exemplary communication skills that allow them to communicate what they are observing with their people.

2. Innovate with a purpose. The VUCA leader doesn’t do a task out of habit. Micro-innovating is the norm. Using micro-innovations turbocharges creativity, unleashes the power of teams, and enriches the customer experience.

3. Be an agile shapeshifter. The VUCA leader pivots instantly. They are a tinkerer, not an order taker. They are constantly learning through both successes and flops as they keep up with the changing business landscape. Once they have surveyed a situation, they determine the best path forward.

Being an agile shapeshifter is tricky. It requires seeking multiple perspectives while also making sure not to become stalled by analysis paralysis.

4. Embrace imperfection. Knowing when a minimum viable product is sufficient and ready for feedback requires vulnerability and being okay with “just enough.” Consider the power of iterative improvements. Amazon, Meta, and Etsy are just three examples of companies that have dramatically evolved since their founding. Embracing innovation also means being willing to accept redirection, failure, and setbacks.

The VUCA leader knows that perfection is the enemy of progress. Chasing after an unrealistic ideal can result in missed opportunities.

5. Prioritize ruthlessly. The VUCA leader continually reviews their priorities and jettisons those that no longer make a meaningful contribution to their strategic goals. This requires knowing when to allocate resources. The VUCA leader understands the trade-offs involved in assigning people to projects that offer little return versus those that have great promise.

6. Be constantly curious. The aggregate amount of knowledge is growing so fast that the VUCA leader recognizes the improbability of being an authority on a subject. They partner with their people to seek smart solutions and don’t blame team members for their shortcomings. Instead of blaming conversations, they have learning conversations.

7. Never be satisfied. The VUCA leader doesn’t rest on their laurels. They understand a business world that is spinning ever faster doesn’t allow one to celebrate a success for long.

The new reality seems daunting. But the VUCA leader will meet it with poise and grace. I’m preparing myself for the coming future. What are you doing to get ready?

Drawing a page from his newly released third edition of Leading at a Higher Level, bestselling business author Ken Blanchard asks senior leaders, “Have you set up your organization to be high performing?”

Blanchard identifies seven focus areas to make sure that a company is positioned to be the employer of choice, provider of choice, investment of choice, and corporate citizen of choice.

1. Information and Open Communication—people have easy access to the information they need to do their job effectively. Plans and decisions are communicated so that they are clearly understood.
   
2. Compelling Vision: Purpose and Values—leadership is aligned around a shared vision and values. People have passion around a shared purpose and values.
   
3. Ongoing Learning—people are actively supported in the development of new skills and competencies. The organization continually incorporates new learning into standard ways of doing business.
   
4. Relentless Focus on Customer Results—everyone maintains the highest standards of quality and service. All work processes are designed to make it easier for customers.
   
5. Energizing Systems and Structures—systems and structures, are integrated and aligned. Formal and informal practices make it easy for people to get their jobs done.
   
6. Shared Power and High Involvement—people have an opportunity to influence decisions that affect them. Teams are used as a vehicle for accomplishing work and influencing decisions.
   
7. Leadership—leaders think that leading is about serving, not being served. Leaders remove barriers to help people focus on their work and their customers.

Blanchard also offers a quick 14-question quiz and a link to a 60-page Leading at a Higher Level eBook summarizing the key points.

You can access both here at Blanchard’s recent blog post.

What she was encouraging me to do was to take a helicopter ride. Speaking metaphorically, I was spending all of my time driving furiously up and down the highways and byways of our business trying to get stuff done, but it caused me to spend a lot of time in traffic jams and the progress was slow. What I needed to do was periodically rise above the daily chaos and take a helicopter ride to gain a different perspective of our work.

Taking time to work on the business…taking a helicopter ride…has several key benefits that will accelerate your productivity and passion for your job.

1. It provides perspective — A few years ago I was painting several rooms in our house and I noticed a trend. The quality of workmanship of the trim at the top of the walls was less than stellar, but I hadn’t noticed it before because I rarely look up. That tends to happen when you live life at eye level. Spending all of your time working in the business can lead to tunnel vision and you run the risk of losing sight of the end goal. We can easily get distracted with fire fighting and stop paying attention to higher level priorities and metrics that drive the success of our organization. An occasional helicopter ride snaps you out of the day-to-day routine and forces you to view your business at a macro-level.
2. It relieves stress — Each of us has a different level for stress tolerance but we all have one thing in common—we will eventually crash and burn when our tank reaches empty. The daily grind of work can be stressful and it takes its toll. Studies have shown that workplace stress is far and away the number one stressor we face in life. It’s imperative for your health to find productive ways to relieve stress and taking the metaphorical helicopter ride is an excellent way to accomplish that goal. Regardless of how you do it – devoting an hour a week to strategic planning, one day a month, or having a periodic retreat with your leadership team – the important thing is you do it. Helicopter rides allow you to clear your mind of pressing priorities and helps you re-calibrate your approach to work.
3. It sparks creativity and problem solving — Many of my best ideas come to me when I’m away from the office. Whether I’m in the shower or cycling in the back country, the ideas flow when I’m relaxed and letting my mind wander. Helicopter rides afford you the opportunity to think in a different way, unencumbered by the routines and demands of the office. Constantly working in the business keeps your mind focused on the immediate and urgent problems, whereas working on the business allows you to creatively brainstorm new approaches to your challenges.
4. It nourishes your soul — Leaders set the tempo for their teams. If you want a team that is engaged, energized, and committed to their work, then you need to model that behavior. That means you’re constantly pouring yourself out for others. If you aren’t replenishing your own energy you won’t have any left to give others. Sometimes helicopter rides mean getting away from work entirely by taking a vacation. Work can wear us down to the point where we develop an attitude of cynicism or a defeatist mentality. If you notice yourself going down that road then it’s a clear warning sign your soul needs some nourishment.

As leaders we are often motivated to always be on the go…get things done…make stuff happen. There’s a time and place for all that activity, but there is also a time and place for rising above the day-to-day and taking a helicopter ride to look at your business, and your leadership practices, in a new and fresh way.

Feel free to leave a comment about your own strategies for taking helicopter rides.

Randy Conley is the Vice President of Client Services and Trust Practice Leader at The Ken Blanchard Companies. His LeaderChat posts appear the fourth or last Thursday of every month. For more insights on trust and leadership, visit Randy at his Leading with Trust blog or follow him on Twitter @RandyConley.

There are three phases in selling ideas or initiating a new approach. There is the pre-sell. Then there is the sell. And then there is the after-sell. The actual sell may be the least important element.

Persuading people to adopt something new is tricky. It requires them to move away from their current thinking and embrace something different. Sometimes the real challenge isn’t getting them to like the new way—it’s getting them to let go of the old one.

If you are looking to launch an initiative and are hoping to get buy-in and agreement, it’s important to take a realistic approach. None of this is apt to happen if this is an agenda item that only gets ten minutes at a one-hour meeting. It’s even less likely if the meeting is virtual—it’s hard to read people when you can’t see them. Double this if people routinely multi-task. And triple it if there are political implications to the issue.

Focus on the Pre-Sell and the After-Sell

To increase the chance of a successful sell, it’s important that there be time and opportunity for some pre-sell activity. Most success stories don’t come from magic answers and silver bullets. It’s rare that you’ll be able to merely announce “Do this and your problems will be over. This will fix everything.”

Give people significant time to get up to speed on the upcoming proposal before any meeting is held.  A useful concept to keep in mind is what the Japanese call nemoashi. It means “building consensus and respecting the individual.”  Maximizing the likelihood of success requires some pre-sell effort to let people know what the issue is. This includes advocating a solution and making your case ahead of time.

During any sell meeting, manage the agenda to avoid snap decisions with little opportunity for meaningful discussion.

Most important, leave ample time for after-sell discussions. After the sell, attendees may be thinking about potential drawbacks of the new process or decision or the unforeseen disadvantages that the new order of things could cause. They may begin to regret what they agreed to. Of course, we know this as buyer’s remorse.

To avoid this, restate objectives and clarify goals to assuage fears and support the new decision. Give attendees an opportunity to state their concerns. Be responsive to their resistance. Be grateful that they are willing to surface their candid objections. And then deal with resolving those objections.

Take Time So Decisions Stick                             

If you really want to advocate progress, you have to do whatever it takes. “Let’s just wait until the Friday meeting and decide when we’re all together,” sounds good, but how realistic is it, really? Even if you do get it on the agenda, even if there is a discussion, there is a good chance that the final outcome isn’t going to work. Attendees may agree with it. There may be a show of hands or a successful vote. But will it really happen?

Increase your chance of success by taking the time to get people up to speed. Allow them the opportunity to surface concerns and resolve issues.  It’s the thoughtful approach that leads to better results.

About the author

Dr. Dick Ruhe is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, and senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies.

That’s the question I was looking to answer when I asked 700 webinar participants what they experienced most often in their organizations.

I showed them a 2×2 grid with Plan along one axis and Execution along the other. I asked the participants to identify where they saw initiatives ending up in their organizations. More than 375 people responded. Here’s where they located most initiatives in their experience:

Bad Plan – Good Execution (13%) 
Good Plan – Good Execution (4%) 
Bad Plan – Bad Execution (8%) 
Good Plan – Bad Execution (74%)

The problem, as this group saw it, was execution.

Are these numbers unusual?  No. In Navigating Change: How CEOs, Top Teams, and Boards Steer Transformation, authors Donald Hambrick, David Nadler, and Michael Tushman reported similar research numbers with 70 percent of their respondents also falling into the category of Good Plan – Bad Execution.

What does it mean?

Planning and strategic thinking get things started, but it’s in executing that we find the greatest opportunities for improvement. When you look at organizations, you frequently see the vestiges of prior intentions—evidence of previous flavors of the month. But execution is what it’s all about.  Unexecuted plans are a waste of time … they accomplish  squat.

Execution is people. It’s fixing little things in the plan, and sometimes big things. People are the implementers who can see those things.

But how do you get people on board with embracing a plan and working with it, or refining it as necessary, to bring it through to a successful conclusion?   People—particularly powerful people—may be sensitive to others suggesting changes.  Conversely, people might be reluctant to rock the boat when dealing with a plan put forward or supported  by a senior executive. But that is exactly what is necessary if you want to successfully beat the odds identified in the grid above.

3 ways to improve execution

Here are three ways you can improve the odds of successful implementation with your next initiative:

1. Include street-wise operators in the planning group. We need real-world thinking when we plan. Lack of reality = little to no execution.
2. Hold people accountable for making the plan work. Measure against standards that are appropriate for the initiative.
3. Establish crystal-clear norms around communication. During execution there is no such thing as “better left unsaid.” People who feel threatened by a change may hold back on giving critical feedback or recommending fixes. Make sure people speak up, and make sure you listen hard when they do. Peter Drucker said that, “The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.”

Think about an initiative currently underway in your organization.  How would you evaluate it in these three areas?  If you can see that conditions are not where they need to be to provide a decent chance for success, encourage people to share this message with others.

On your own teams, recognize someone who identifies a fly in the ointment. Help identify ways to improve implementation of an existing plan. Remove an obstacle to execution.

From a personal perspective, apologize when someone identifies something that should have been included in the original idea. Involve them in helping to fix it. Thank them when they do. Plan how you’ll incorporate what you learn in the next initiative.

Encourage still other people to share the same message. Wash, rinse, repeat. You’ll be glad you did—and the improved execution will show it.

About the author

Dr. Dick Ruhe is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, and senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies.

PS: You can experience the entire original webinar by using the following link: http://webex.com/web-seminars/enroll_recording/662336164?sid=KBC081109rec.

For goals where momentum has stalled, the two authors recommend reconnecting with the vision and purpose behind that goal and also looking at the resources and structures that have been put in place to support goal achievement.

As they explain, “In a quickly changing business environment, it’s easy to lose sight of exactly what we are doing and why it matters. Focusing on a clear vision and purpose is the first step to staying on track.”

Then take a look at the resources that have been allocated to achieve those goals.  As they explain, “We often see situations where great strategic direction is set but little is done to work out the structures and processes that need to be in place to put the plan into operation. This type of leadership resembles a classic case of “all hat, no cattle”–a big declaration about what you’re going to do and what needs to happen, but little attention to implementation, identifying resources, and making sure that people are deployed properly to create the results you’re looking for.

As you look at resources, it’s important to keep an open mind and consider where you might be allocating resources that are not getting you the results you need.  When it comes to sorting through initiatives, the Blanchards recommend taking a rose gardener’s approach.

“An everyday example of this is probably visible in your neighborhood. Next time you’re walking or driving down your street, look at roses growing in people’s yards. You’ll find that the gardeners with the most beautiful roses are the ones who most aggressively prune their bushes.

“When you prune a rose bush, you are providing the plant with a way to concentrate its resources to create the best-looking roses on the strongest branches. If a rose bush is not pruned, the result is a diluted response and less than spectacular flowers.

“It’s tough to prune, but you have to do it–and you have to do it frequently and consistently. That’s where a clear vision comes back into play. Being confident about where you are going gives you the willpower to cut back on things that aren’t helping you reach your goals. Eliminating what’s not necessary will free up additional resources and time so that goals become attainable and new opportunities can emerge.”

Don’t continue down a path that isn’t taking you where you want to go. Midyear is a great place for a midpoint correction. Evaluate where you are. Reconnect with your purpose and vision. Identify distractions and energy drainers. Break from what you are doing–before the situation demands it.

To read more about the Blanchards’ thinking on making a mid-course correction, check out their column in Fast Company, Half of 2013 is Gone, So Where are You Headed? 4 Steps to Get You in the Right Direction

As Scott and Ken Blanchard identify in a new post for Fast Company online, “When you run an idea up the chain of command, you almost never get the permission or the resources to innovate well.

“It’s very hard for people who are invested in the current business to truly embrace disruptive new ideas.

“People at the top of the organizational pyramid are usually running the business using lagging indicators. In general, their focus is on defending present revenue streams. More often than not they are nervous about anything that might cannibalize, compete with, or distract from the company’s core business.”

It’s understandable, say the Blanchards.  In many ways, this is exactly what top executives should be concerned about. But that’s also why true innovation usually happens in the corners of the business and works its way up.

How to proceed with your next new idea

Instead of trying to sell an idea to top leadership before it’s ready, the two Blanchards suggest starting off with just enough permission to experiment.  This gives the idea a chance to develop and gain momentum. It also gives the innovation a chance to generate tangible results that can be used later in making the business case to senior leaders.

They also recommend identifying the different levels of readiness and capacity to understand change that might be present among members of an executive team.

Highlighting the work of Robert Marshak, the senior scholar in residence at American University, they share Marshak’s descriptions of four different mindsets, represented by different metaphors, which affect how people view innovation.

1. Fix and maintain
2. Build and develop
3. Transitional
4. Transformative

What is your relationship to innovation?

Finally, the Blanchards remind readers that an “organization is only as innovative as the people who work within it—which brings up a good question.  What is your organization’s mindset when it comes to innovation? 

To read the complete post, see The Number One Killer of Corporate Innovation.

PS: Scott and Ken Blanchard will be featured speakers—along with best-selling author Jackie Freiberg and innovation expert Jim Carroll, at this year’s 2012 Blanchard Summit.  This year’s theme is Fast Forward: Lead, Innovate and Cultivate.  Use this link to learn more about this event (and request an invitation).

1. Either-Or thinking

Executives are asked to make decisions—and they get more difficult the higher up you are.  People or profits?  Centralized or decentralized?  Frontline decision-making or command and control?  Leaders will often have to choose from among opposing viewpoints and the people supporting those viewpoints will be expecting and asking you to endorse either Plan A or Plan B.

Always consider a Plan C first.  While opposing camps argue for why their plan will work while the other point of view won’t, see if you can find a solution that incorporates the best of both proposals while minimizing the downsides.

For example, should we empower our frontline people to make decisions? Yes.  Is there the possibility that they will make mistakes if we do?  Yes.  Does that mean we have to choose between all decisions being made at the frontline, or all decisions being made at headquarters?  No.  There is a better decision that allows frontline decision-making and maintains accuracy and consistency.  Find it.

2. Confusing decision-making with taking action

As a leader, it is easy to think that your job is primarily to make decisions.  Decision-making is only the first step.  The purpose of leadership is to take action and move.  If five frogs are sitting on a log and one decides to jump, how many frogs are still sitting on the log?  The answer is five until the decision to jump is actually acted upon.  Don’t confuse decision-making for taking action.  Take action!

3. Making announcements with little follow-through

If good decision-making is hard—taking action is even more difficult.  The biggest trap for leaders is focusing too much time on getting things started and too little time on following through to achieve results.  Legendary former chairman of Herman Miller, Max De Pree once likened leadership to being a third-grade teacher when he said that it oftens means repeating things over, and over, and over again until people get it right, right, right.  As a leader you need to keep the vision alive—even after the newness wears off.  You also have to provide people with the tools and resources they need to get the job done.  Remember that there is a strategic and a tactical side to leadership.  To be effective, you have to be good at both.

Resources to help you get started

There are a lot of great resources available to help leaders get started or stay focused on making decisions and taking action.  Here are three that focus specifically on each of the points above.

• To help combat either-or thinking, check out Polarity Management by Barry Johnson.  It details a step-by-step process for finding the best solution when faced with seemingly opposite choices.
• Who Killed Change?  A great book which identifies the “usual suspects” that kill good ideas in companies and keeps decisions from turning into action.
• Helping People Win at Work  Identifies a clear, 3-step process for setting goals, providing resources, and following up effectively.

Make 2012 your best year ever.  Exercise your decision-making power.  Strive for the best solutions, take action, and follow-up.  You’ll be surprised at what you can achieve when you do!

One of the biggest reasons why open leadership is feared and avoided is a concern that open leadership may lead to a lack of control. But in her book, Li explains that openness and control are not an either/or proposition. In fact, it requires a leader be both open and in command.

To help leaders get started with this, Li recommends evaluating where you stand on two important dimensions; Optimism versus Pessimism; and Individuality versus Collaboration. By assessing yourself in these two areas you can begin to understand your starting point on the journey to being a more open leader.

Optimism vs. Pessimism

The first dimension is optimism versus pessimism.  On this scale, Li asks leaders to evaluate their basic assumptions about people. In Li’s model, pessimistic leaders tend to see people as needing to be controlled because people can be harmful, negative, and untrustworthy with information. Optimists, on the other hand, believe that if given the opportunity, people will be positive and constructive, will do the right thing, and can be trusted with confidential information.

Key question: Where do you stand on this first important dimension?

Individually Focused vs. Collaboratively Focused

The second dimension is whether a leader is more individually or collaboratively focused. Individually focused leaders will believe in involving fewer, more knowledgeable people, and in relying on personal initiative—both in themselves and others. These leaders prefer to limit decision-making authority to people who have the knowledge and responsibility for that function in the organization. Collaborative leaders will believe more in the collective wisdom of the group, will tend to depend on others when times are tough, and will personally point to collaboration with others as a key reason for their own success.

Key question: Where would you put yourself on this continuum?

Changing your mindset

An open leadership strategy requires you and your organization’s leadership to be more open and collaborative. But transforming existing mindsets requires time, patience, and repeated small successes to build confidence. To help you get started, Li recommends four strategies: 

• Develop guidelines around the sharing of information. When you share information or push down decision-making, what are your expectations about what will be done with this power? What responsibilities do you want employees to take on? 
• Partner with others who are optimistic and collaborative. Seek out other leaders in your organization whom you regard as an optimistic and open leader. Sit down with this person understand his or her perspective and outlook on the world. What does this person do to ensure being in control while opening up? How does this person make openness work in your organization? 
• Examine your beliefs. As Li explains, “Your mindset is developed through crucial personal experiences, so talk with people who know you well on a personal level. Every person harbors some optimism, so turn to the people whom you trust to help you find that starting point where you will feel comfortable engaging with people.” 
• Start small and build.  Personal change is difficult and old habits die hard. You can’t simply announce, “From today forward I will be collaborative; I will be optimistic.”  It takes time to shift the mindset, and it happens only with repeated successes.

For leaders looking to be more open, Li recommends taking it one step at a time.  In doing so, you can build confidence in sharing information and collaborative decision-making with an ever widening circle of people.  To learn more about Charlene Li and her thoughts on open leadership, check out her book here, or visit www.charleneli.com.  You’ll find a host of great resources that can help you in your journey.

A new white paper from The Ken Blanchard Companies identifies key strategies for leading successfully in the new business reality. Here are four of my favorites to get you started on positioning your company for success in 2011.

• Change the organizational mindset. In many companies people have been focused on the short term for over two years. The emphasis has been on cutting costs, holding down expenses, and weathering the storm.  One thing that leaders can do now is share a vision for the road ahead, indicate that growth is a goal again, and let people know that they can try new things that have some risk involved.
• Give people behavioral examples. What does “try new things that have some risk involved” really mean? The best organizations define the values, attitudes, and practices they desire in clear behavioral terms. Make sure people are clear on what the desired behavior looks like and what they should be doing now. The more specific and granular the examples are, the better.
• Stay open to change. Constant adaptation is a key for thriving in the new business reality. As a leader, it’s important to be a role model when it comes to embracing new ways of thinking that can breathe new life into old practices and generate innovative new ideas.
• Involve everyone. Smart leaders look for good ideas everywhere. This means checking in with people who are informal leaders in the organization as well as the people who are in formal positions. By listening to everyone—including people with divergent points of view, you increase the odds that the organization will be more responsive, adaptive, and successful in the face of change.

Make 2011 your best year ever. To learn more ways to increase your organization’s ability to succeed in the coming year, be sure to check out the complete white paper, Thriving in the New Business Reality.

In his book, Leading at a Higher Level, Blanchard recommends that leaders have specific goals in each of the following four areas:

1. A focus on three bottom lines instead of just one. In addition to financial success, leaders at great organizations measure the satisfaction and engagement levels of their employees and their customers also. Leaders at these companies know that in order to succeed they must create a motivating environment for employees, which results in better customer service, which leads to higher profits.

2. A focus on customers. To keep your customers today, you can’t be content just to satisfy them. Instead, you have to create raving fans–customers who are so excited about the way you treat them that they want to tell others. Companies that create this emotional connection with their customers enjoy the accelerated growth generated when customers brag about them to other prospective clients.

3. A focus on employees. You can’t treat your people poorly and expect them to treat your customers well. Treating your people right includes setting clear, meaningful goals, providing day-to-day coaching, and finally, setting up performance reviews so that there are no surprises.

4. A willingness to turn the organizational chart upside down. The most effective leaders recognize that leadership is not about them and that they are only as good as the people they lead. In successful organizations, once a vision has been set, leaders move themselves to the bottom of the hierarchy, supporting and removing roadblocks for the people closest to the customer.

If leaders take care of the people who take care of their customers, profits and financial strength will follow. Make 2011 your best year ever by implementing a strategic plan where people and profits both grow and thrive.

Even under the best of circumstances, creating a business plan and getting others to actually buy into it is a difficult task.  Don’t make things three times as hard by trying to do everything yourself.  That’s the advice from Jesse Stoner in a recent article on Creating a Vision Statement that Works.

Stoner explains that too many executives try to do everything on their own.  They don’t leave room for other people.  As a result, people don’t feel like they own the vision and so they are less likely to follow it.

For executives looking to create a strong picture of the future for their company that will guide planning and decision-making in the coming year, Stoner recommends paying special attention to what she calls the three “hows.”

3 “Hows” of Creating A Successful Vision

1. How it’s created.  Resist the temptation to huddle together with a small group of executives at an off-site retreat to create a vision for the organization.  While part of leadership entails setting a strategic direction for the company, the key is to make space for all of the people who are going to be responsible for implementing the vision.  If you want them to buy into the vision, give them a chance to be a part of the process.
2. How it’s communicated.  Avoid the urge to laminate your latest vision statement, frame it on the wall, and distribute copies among the rank-and-file.  Instead, ask managers to share the new vision in small group settings, discuss what it means, answer questions, and gather feedback.
3. How it’s lived.  This is something that a leader can do personally.  Actions speak louder than words and employees will be watching a senior leader’s behavior to see if the vision is really a new direction or just words on a paper.  Make sure that your behavior is consistent with the stated direction of the company.  Nothing does a better job of bringing a vision to life.

Don’t lead in a vacuum—involve others in the process for better buy-in and greater results.

To learn more about what Stoner has to say on creating a clear direction for 2011, be sure to check out Creating a Vision Statement that Works in this month’s Ignite newsletter.  Also, learn more about a free webinar Stoner is conducting this Wednesday on Creating Engagement and Alignment through a Shared Vision. Over 700 people are registered already!

• Change the organizational mindset. In many companies people have been hunkered down and focused on the short term for almost two years. The emphasis has been on cutting costs, holding down expenses, and weathering the storm.  Now that the worst is over, how do you let people know that it’s okay to lift your head, look around a little bit, and cautiously make new plans for the future?  One thing that leaders can do is share a vision for the road ahead, indicate that growth is a goal again, and let people know that they can try new things that have some risk involved. You want people to start thinking about stepping out again, but they have to feel safe in order to make that leap.
• Give people behavioral examples. What does “try new things that have some risk involved” really mean? The best organizations define the values, attitudes, and practices they desire in clear behavioral terms. People have gotten pretty clear about what they shouldn’t be doing over the past 18 months; make sure they are just as clear about what they should be doing now. The more specific and granular the examples are the better.
• Stay open to change. Constant adaptation is a key for thriving in the new business reality. Pay attention to customers’ expectations and competitors’ innovations. Especially after an extended time of downsizing it’s important for organizations to embrace new ways of thinking to breathe new life into old practices and generate innovative new ideas.
• Involve everyone. Smart leaders look for good ideas everywhere. This means checking in with people who are informal leaders in the organization as well as the people who are in formal positions. By listening to everyone—including people with divergent points of view, you increase the odds that the organization will be more responsive, adaptive, and successful in the face of change.

 By sharing power and expanding influence, leaders can create an organization with a strong overall capacity to change and succeed. The new business reality demands that organizations find new ways to address old problems. To learn more ways to increase your organization’s ability to succeed, be sure to check out the complete white paper, Thriving in the New Business Reality from the Blanchard website.

Immediately after the webinar, Dr. Blanchard will be answering questions here at LeaderChat for about 30 minutes.  To participate in the online discussion, follow these simple instructions.

Instructions for Participating in the Online Chat

1. Click on the COMMENTS link above 
2. Type in your question for Dr. Blanchard
3. Push SUBMIT COMMENT 

It’s as easy as that!  Dr. Blanchard will answer as many questions as possible in the order they are received.  Be sure to press F5 to refresh your screen occasionally to see the latest responses.

We hope you can join us later today for this special complimentary event courtesy of Cisco WebEx and The Ken Blanchard Companies.  Click here for more information on participating.

To help with the process, Blanchard recommends that leaders help their people make this shift by providing leadership in three key areas: defining reality, setting a clear direction, and managing people’s energy. 

Defining Reality—acknowledge the present situation and fill people in on where the company is. People are probably unsure of exactly where the company stands financially.  Without accurate information, people usually imagine the worst.  Share what you know as completely as possible. People understand the challenges of today’s economy, and it is reassuring to know that their leader is on top of it too. 

Setting a Clear Direction—the second step is to share the company’s plans and key objectives for the coming year. Charting a course, or setting up a plan, is vitally important because leadership is about going somewhere. In order to get people out of the inertia of their worry, leaders need to point to the direction that the organization is going. The good news is that there is tremendous opportunity in recovery from a recession. But in order for that to happen, there needs to be a plan in place and that plan needs to be communicated clearly. 

Managing People’s Energy—the final step to getting people back on track is to pay special attention to how people are feeling. It’s important to acknowledge where people are at individually and at the same time give them hope and get them excited about the direction the organization is going. 

Find out how people are feeling by encouraging managers and supervisors to schedule one-on-one conversations with their direct reports.  Discuss organizational objectives and individual roles.  Ask about employee concerns and challenges, both at work and in general. During these conversations managers can identify individual needs and look at ways to provide direction and support. In addition to showing that you care, authentic conversations leave people feeling good about you as a manager, as well as good about where the company is going.

You can read the full article here.

PS: Interested in learning more about the role that leaders can play in creating an energized and focused organization?  Join Ken Blanchard for a complimentary webinar on January 19.  Details here.

Based on their best-selling book The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do, Blanchard and Miller (who is VP of training and development for quick-serve restaurant chain Chick-fil-A) will share five keys for being more effective in this dual role. 

• See the Future: Start by setting a clear vision for your organization. Leadership is about taking people from one place to another.  
• Engage and Develop People: Once the vision is set, you have to turn the organizational chart upside down.  Great leaders move themselves to the bottom of the hierarchy, acting as a cheerleader, supporter, and encourager to the people who report to them. 
• Reinvent Continuously: Does your organizational structure serve the business, or are the people serving the structure? Great leaders understand that their organizational structure should be fluid and flexible to meet changing needs.  
• Value Results and Relationships: Great leaders value both results and relationships. Both are critical for long-term survival. For too long, many leaders have felt that they needed to choose.  
• Embody the Values: All genuine leadership is built on trust. The leader, above all, has to be a walking example of the vision and values of the organization.

As you think about the great leaders you’ve known, which of these characteristics most define them in your mind?  As you think about developing leaders, which of these characteristics is probably the most difficult to learn or change?

In this latest post, Pfeffer dispels the myth that organizations can buy increased organizational performance by luring top performers away from other companies.  While this may make sense in theory the reality is that it seldom works.  To prove the point, Pfeffer points to research done at Harvard by Boris Groysberg to determine whether a company could gain some competitive advantage by hiring outside talent.  

The findings?  

When a company hires a star away from another firm: 

• The star’s performance falls
• There is a decline in the performance of the group the star joins
• The market value of the company hiring the star falls
• The star doesn’t stay with the new employer for very long   

According to Pfeffer, individual productivity and success depends in part on where people work. A whole host of factors outside of individual talent contribute to an individual’s performance—including access to resources, collaboration with team members, capabilities of manager, etc. 

Pfeffer’s conclusion?  “There are no short cuts to efforts to build systems that develop the full potential of existing employees and cultures which provide the collaboration, mentoring, and learning opportunities that help everyone do better.” 

Click here to read the complete post.

Dick will be stopping by immediately after he finishes his WebEx sponsored webinar on We’re Still Here … Now What? In this special event, Dick will be sharing six strategies to help leaders re-focus and re-energize their organizations by adopting a growth—instead of survival—mindset.  Over 400 people will be participating in the webinar and most will be gathering here to ask follow-up questions.

If you have a question that you would like to ask Dr. Ruhe, just click on the COMMENTS hyperlink above. (Once you’ve typed in your comment hit SUBMIT COMMENT.)  Dick will answer as many questions as possible during the 30-minute online Q&A.

If you can’t stay for the entire 30-minute chat, but would like to see all of the questions and responses, you can always stop by later or click on the RSS FEED button on the right-hand column and you’ll receive updates automatically.

“People have spent the last twelve months thinking about, “what if?”  What if they lop off my part of our organization? Or what if they cut out my product line? Or worse case, what if the entire organization goes under?”

Leaders have to deal with that by making the shift from survival to growth.  Now instead of stopping the red ink by reducing expenses, organizations have to shift to getting back in the black by setting new directions.  

That’s the focus of an August 11 webinar where Dr. Ruhe is the featured speaker.  It’s complimentary and it’s just been posted on The Ken Blanchard Companies web site.  To learn more, check out We’re Still Here… Now What?

How do we protect ourselves from such failures? It’s a complex issue that is influenced by a person’s spiritual, mental, and emotional makeup, but we can ask ourselves a few simple questions that will help us to evaluate the impact of our decisions. Is it legal? Will this decision break any civil laws or company policies? Is it balanced and fair? Will this decision or action promote win-win relationships for those involved and is it fair to everyone in both the short-term and long-term? How will it make me feel about myself? If this decision or action was published on the home page of CNN, would I be proud? What would those closest to me think about it? Of course these simple questions won’t completely resolve all the moral and ethical dilemmas we face, but it certainly can put us on the right track.

In Zigarmi’s experience of working with clients on organizational change initiatives over the past 20 years, a couple of common mistakes keep popping up when organizations go about launching large scale change in their organizations.   

What causes change to fail in most organizations?  Here are three that Zigarmi recommends keeping an eye on: 

1. People leading the change think that announcing the change is the same as implementing it.  So much energy in organizations is spent preparing to communicate the change and the reasons behind it, but not nearly the same energy is spent planning for the successful execution and rollout of the change after the announcement.
2. People’s concerns with change are not surfaced or addressed. If leaders do not take the time to specifically address individuals’ needs and fears near the beginning of the change process, they will find themselves fighting an uphill battle later on in the process.
3. Those being asked to change are not involved in planning the change.  Leaders need to gain the buy-in and cooperation of the people who are being asked to change. Without that, resistance smolders. This is because people feel that change is being done to them rather than with them. 

Interested in learning more about Zigarmi’s thoughts on leading people through change in your organization?  Be sure to check out interviews with Pat in the May 2008 and May 2009 issues of Ignite or Pat’s webinar recordings on implementing change. 

To learn more about Who Killed Change? including access to the first chapter, follow this link, Who Killed Change?

Has a change initiative ever “died” in your organization?  Who would you point to as the likely suspects?  Take our poll below, and also leave a comment and let us know about the biggest killers of change you’ve experienced.

Their response?  Focus on your people first. 

52% said addressing employee motivation needs should be the first order of business, followed by customer needs (14%), and then financials (12%). 

How does this stack up with your priorities during these trying economic times? It’s important to have a strong strategic focus on financials when money is tight, but make sure that you are also paying attention to employee needs.  After all, you need their best ideas and their best work now, more than ever.

Great organizations know that focusing on people—both customers and employees—is just as important as measuring the success of the bottom line.

Are you taking care of the people who take care of your customers?