Posts in Leadership

Kickstarter Project: Overcoming Organizational Myopia

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Overcoming Organizational Myopia, stovepipes, sandboxes, short sightedness

At 2:30 pm, Central Time, on June 27, 2015, KS Project, Overcoming Organizational Myopia lifted off.  Overcoming Organizational Myopia will be a new nonfiction book about successfully breaking through stovepiped organizations to obtain organizational effectiveness.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1551087231/overcoming-organizational-mypoia

The Short Story: I discovered that it really does not matter what company or organization I work with, they all have stovepipes.  What I learned is that they are a product of human nature.  The problem is that everyone wants to “break down the silos” as the typical management response. Unfortunately, this NEVER works! All you do is cause confusion and drive unproductivity as the people in your business seek to rebuild the stovepipes that make them feel secure.  This book is about breaking through the stovepipes to become an effective and efficient organization.  It respects the stovepipes and teaches you how to navigate through them using a consistent and systematic application of full-spectrum strategic and organizational methods.  The book is designed to provide you with situational examples so you can self-diagnose your organization.  Across nine areas, the book helps you identify problem areas and, like a business doctor, treat the root causes with solid business solutions.

Bad Leadership is Becoming an Epidemic

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It might be me, but the more I look around, the more I am finding bad leadership. Specifically leadership apathy and leaders that lack accountability. “It’s good enough” leaders and leaders who are “just getting by.”

“Why are we seeing this,” I ask myself?

Bad leaders hire and promote bad people. Bad Leadership isn’t just destroying corporate America, but they are doing it at a record pace and doing it way into the future.

These leadership charlatans are building armies of apathy to follow in their footsteps. If you are someone that gets things done, you are kept in a position to get things done because bad leaders don’t want you–you threaten them.

No wonder more than 70% of employees are disengaged at work. Who wouldn’t be with such a sorry leadership outlook.

Often, we talk about the qualities and actions of good leadership, but I think it is important that we learn to spot bad leadership. Here are the top ten results of bad leadership:

1. The realm under the leader has little if no strategy or plan to inspire and drive people. Literally there is no vision, the purpose of the business is primarily focused on making money, becoming bigger, and taking care of itself. Any goals are developed to ensure each subordinate leader can justify their position in the strategic plan and do little to overcome barriers to a future vision. Any vision and goals are such low targets that they in most cases have already been attained.

2.  Program accountability is slowly eroding and nothing is done about it (i.e., deadlines are missed, people not qualified are in positions, reports are misleading, etc.). Expectation barely exists in the organization because targets, rules, and requirements are ignored. Organizations like audit, risk, and compliance are seen as the enemy and kept away from the organization. When there is a finding from one of these organizations, the leaders spends all resources to make it go away and cover it up, but does little to nothing to solve the root causes that created the issue in the first place.

3.  There is a complete lack of organizational performance and process management and accountability. No one knows deeper than monthly what they are doing from a measurement perspective and there is a complete lack of process focus. Everyone simply does their own thing and what little process documentation is lodged tightly in the heads of the employees and passed down like tribal knowledge. Knowledge systems are busting at the seems with senseless information without any organization. Variance across processes run rampant and unchecked.

4.  There is a significant lack of communication both internally and externally. What communication that is occuring lacks any direction or strategic intent. The leadership doesn’t even know who their stakeholders are to communicate to. The term customer is used, but they are a faceless entity that nothing is really known about. Specifications for work are all internally created and bear no resemblance to competition or what customers actually want. In some cases, the customer is seen and portrayed as the enemy.

5.  The organizational structure looks like a Christmas tree and is broken into functional and operational departments that are so siloed that the company looks like an island chain. There is little communication and less cooperation across departments. Each silo is only focused on what they do for themselves, they see everyone else as a competitor for money and manpower, and they simply throw work over the wall versus work in an end-to-end process.

6.  Education and training opportunities might exist, but there is no plan or strategy to develop employees and leaders. The activity, if it happens at all, is chaotic and clearly broken. Employees mainly spend resources to gain skill through training so they can leave the company.

7.  Operational effectiveness, based in things like defect counting, process timing, first pass yield, on time delivery, customer satisfaction, etc. is barely looked at (if at all) and nothing of substance is done about it.

8.  Leaders across the organization focus on tactical operations, ignore problems, lack methodical problem solving, micromanage work, and have little vision at work.

9.  Good, hard working employees are consistently overlooked for promotion opportunities and are kept “getting the work done.”  The great employees have either turned apathetic in the workplace, are looking for other opportunities, or have already left.

10.  Almost all the leadership and management below a bad leader looks the same. The problems above spread to every corner what that leader controls. Bad leaders conspire with other bad leaders to corrupt the entire organization because this eliminates the need for accountability. Soon, the disease has spread to the highest level executives and even possibly the president or CEO. The leadership ranks become bloated with high-paid executives who do little and hold no one accountable to organizational values.

These companies are like the undead. The disease has corrupted the body so badly that it doesn’t even realize it’s dead. It just keeps operating and destroying everything in its path. This mindless company lumber on making money in spite of itself and it decays and starts to collapse. Yet, the bad leadership are so unaware of the situation that they can’t even fathom there is a problem.

Bad leadership is running rampant in corporate America and the undead companies are lumbering across the landscape. Is there nothing that can be done?

When You Need A Swiss Army Knife in Business

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Lately I have met several organizations that are at a crossroads in their own evolution. Many companies realize the importance of things like strategy, change management, process improvement, strategic communication, and employee engagement. However, these organizations are making tactical decisions on the direction of these areas versus truly looking at this from a strategic perspectives.

Instead of hiring several different individuals or creating separate teams all focused on doing the same thing, companies today should should focus on bringing all their Operational Excellence activities under one team working directly for the CEO or President of the company.  This group should be led by a senior leader that sits at the same table as the companies other leaders.

This Swiss Army Knife professional–SVP/VP, Operational Excellence–should manage things like:
– Strategy development, execution, and change
– Performance optimization through process, product, and functional continuous improvement
– Strategic communication inside and outside the organization
– Strategic human capital management to include education, training, and development and employee satisfaction, commitment, and engagement
– Information and innovation engagement

This team does not need to be big…depending on an organization’s size, it could be as small as three or four people.  However, it should leverage other support areas throughout the organization, like Human Resources, Finance, IT, etc. These organizations would not report to the position, but work with the position.

Today, some organizations have some or all of these activities occuring, but they are scattered across the organization and have very little singular direction. By bringing the functions together into a small effective team, an organization is equipped to deal with the challenges of today and the future.

Of course, the leaders of these types of organizations have to have a solid understanding of all these functions at strategic, operatiomal, and tactical levels and not focused on creating some massive sandbox of people with various skills. They need to be highly skilled with a focus on lean and mean.

Are TV Shows Destroying Our Ability to Trust?

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television-0829f2bf70If anyone knows me, you probably know that I don’t watch television.  I find that TV is a time waster.  However, I do tend to watch movies on Cable and Netflix and recently, in a need to decompress, my wife and I have been watching a few different TV shows.  Last night my wife made a very interesting revelation.  She said, “After watching these shows, I think I’m growing to not trust anyone anymore.”

After some thought and a review of what we’ve been watching, she’s right.  The four shows that we’ve absorbed are The Agents of Shield, Arrow, Continuum (she’s watched this, I haven’t), and Merlin.  In all of these television shows, there are lying and conniving characters right in your midst.  No one tells the truth and everyone is living out separate lives on the screen.

Now, I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I did, and many people do.  Think about this influence.  Are all TV shows the same–they live out a drama of a series of lies and deceits where the characters are all hiding something sinister from the rest of the characters?  Think about this influence in our youth…

This is what we’re taught.  Life is full of half truths and no one…not even yourself can be trusted.  Then they enter the work world, where everyone is lying…everyone is living a secret life.  Think about our ability as employees to trust when we grew up in this environment.  The constant digital bombardment of “this is the way it is” from television shows.  In work today, the need and importance for trust is paramount.  Authors and consultants make millions off the concept, yet all the while, our environment is destroying your ability to trust.

Are we fighting a war that we have already lost?  I trust that you’ll think about this.

What’s Your Response Rate — Survey Apathy

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Survey-Small1

I am a bit of a survey expert…I used to manage the Air Force’s Quality of Life (QoL) Survey for Ramstein Air Base and then USAFE.  As a consultant with Booz Allen, I worked closely with employee and customer survey results.  Now that I am with USAA, I also work closely with our Q12 (UCount) from Gallup. member surveys, and internal customer surveys.

In regards to low survey response rates, I will tell you that the reason you have a low response rate is because leaders do not share the results of the survey, or take actions to improve anything (react) to the survey.  When people take surveys (especially a lot of them) and the people administering the survey do not visibly and openly share the results and respond to the issues, the people surveyed feel the survey was a waste of their time.

Imagine if someone came up to you and asked, “How are you today?”  You responded to them and they simply walked away.  The next day, they walk up to you and ask, “How are you feeling today?”  What response would you give…

The thoughts going through your head right now is survey apathy…why should you waste your time answering your questions when no one is doing anything with the information.

You might not be aware that the person that asked that question went back and changed things based on your responses and wanted to see if there was an impact the next day.  But, if you are not aware that any actions were taken as a result of the survey (even if you noticed the changes made), then you become jaded to answering not only that survey question, but any survey question.

Just a little survey-related tip that might help in your future survey activities.

Do you have an open door policy or an open door?

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A lot of good leaders out there will tell you that they have an open door policy. They will share with you, when talking about communication in their organization, how they have instituted an open door policy to facilitate communication in their organization. “My door is always open,” they will say.

But is it really?

How many employees ‘walk through your open door’ to talk to you on a regular basis?

If your answer is a low number or none–aside from the senior leaders in your organization–then maybe you should ask yourself if you really have an open door?

Now an open door policy really is a misnomer, because the reason leaders have offices and others have cubicles is so that they can have closed door meetings. These are either discussions where they want to discuss things in private or they want to have a meeting without being bothered. This way, leaders can have a series of meetings without finding a conference room all the time. Makes sense.

But then their door really isn’t ‘open’ all the time, now is it? But an open door policy really doesn’t mean that your door is actually always open when you come by or that you are free to walk in at any time. An open door policy is really about how approachable you have made yourself.

Your open door policy is really about a level of trust and honesty you portray in your organization and a level of openness to talk freely to employees. It’s not about actually having an open door.

Some things to consider to promote more of an open door culture in your office is to get up from your desk on a regular basis and walk around talking to people that you normally would not.

Take the door to them so to speak.

Get to know people by name. Know if they are married and have kids, are they going to school or do they have hobbies, if they like sports or volunteering, ect. Basically, find out a little more about them that demonstrates that they are more like you than you or they realized.

Sure, probably, as the leader, you make more money, park closer to the front door, and probably live in a different part of town, but in many ways you are very much alike. I think that people forget this.

Everyone from the lowest level employee to the highest paid CEO are the exact same–a human. They’ve just had different experiences in life that have led them to where they are today and the CEO now has access to way more information than the other employee. If you treat everyone like a fellow human being and not an employee, you will promote an open door policy.

I work for a guy that loves coffee. He’s very good at management by walking around. He can often be seen, especially in the morning and late afternoon, around the office talking to people. But he made his actual door more approachable one simple way…

In the front office, he put in an instant coffee maker and keeps it full of different coffees, teas, creamers, and sweeteners. When his door is open, his desk faces straight at the coffee maker. The coffee is open and free to anyone in the office and people often come by to get some. If he’s not busy, the door is open, and he’s in the office, it is not uncommon that he say hi or even get up and come get a cup of coffee for himself. He even has a time blocked on Thursday, that he tries to keep open for people to come get a cup of coffee and sit down in his office and simply talk.

Think about the simplicity of an open door. It’s not about the policy, but how you promote open and honest communication and make yourself approachable.

Leaders set the environment for a culture of continuous improvement

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Everyone always wants to blame the failure to set a culture, or a bad culture, on leadership.  Leaders are responsible for setting the culture, but it takes more than leadership.  That being said, learn how leader set the environment that allows for a continuous improvement culture.

http://ngs.edu/2014/05/16/building-a-culture-of-continuous-improvement-culture-begins-with-leadership/

Blogging Weekly with National Graduate School

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john knottsHappy Cinco de Mayo!

I am now a weekly guest blogger with National Graduate School.  Please check out my blog there.

Follow us as we explore how to build a culture of continuous improvement.

Building a culture of continuous improvement isn’t easy and can take a considerable amount of time.  However, it’s very possible and results can be felt within weeks of embarking on the journey.  Over John’s 25 plus years of experience, he’s developed a model rooted in strategy and designed to build this culture in any organization.  Join John and National Graduate School as we weekly explore this model and ways to drive this type of culture.  We look forward to your thoughts and inputs along this journey, so join us and watch for our future blogs about once a week with the tag line “CIC.”

http://ngs.edu/2014/05/01/building-culture-continuous-improvement/

Powerful influencer — Jim Clifton

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Readers,

I want to share this morning one of the most powerful influencers I have come across in a long time.

His name is Jim Clifton and he is the CEO of Gallup.

On LinkedIn, he has a regular blog that highlights the problems that not only he sees, but that his companies measures.

His messages are extremely powerful. Please take the time to follow him and read some of his stuff.

Do you have a personal coach?

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Have you ever heard of top executives having executive coaches? Heard of people doing life coaching? What were your thoughts around people that have personal coaches…do you wish you had one?

Aren’t you worth it?

Why don’t you have a coach…I’m not talking about a mentor, I’m talking about a full-blown coach that you pay to provide you direction and advice, that helps you build personal and professional plans, and who holds you to standards and tells you like it is?

I can imagine that you think it’s too expensive to have your own coach…well, aren’t you worth it? We pay hundreds of dollars for gym memberships and sometimes personal trainers that a large percentage of people don’t use. We buy business books by the droves that generally sit on shelves and collect dust.

Why not consider hiring someone who is going to develop you so that you can do better at work, which could result in more pay and responsibility?

Are you already so good that you don’t need someone to coach you? Why are very effective executives turning to coaches? Aren’t they already very effective?

Why would you want a personal coach and what would you expect from them?

If you want to be more successful at work and at home…period…then hire a personal coach.

This is a paid consulting position…you are literally paying them to help you get better at everything you do. They aren’t going to do it for you, but they are going to point out your blind spots and guide you in fixing them.

Recently, I was sitting next to a senior executive that I’ve been working with during a meeting. He had a part where he got up and spoke. When he sat back down, he leaned over and asked, ” How did I do?” I looked him dead in the face and said, “We need to work on your ‘ums’.” His response back was, “Did I cover everything?”

The coach in me was screaming that it really didn’t matter…his message was lost because of his delivery approach. I told him, “Yes.”

A coach is not only someone who will tell you what you need to work on, but will show you why you need to work on it, will help you develop a plan to overcome your blind spot, and will hold you to your plan. Just when you think you are there, your coach shows you to the next step.

Recently, my boss was promoted in the position he’s been in–an in place promotion. Within a couple of weeks, we sat down over lunch and I asked him, “What’s next?” Clearly they didn’t promote him to continue to do what he’s been doing…now is the time to take things to the next level. The next morning we laid out a plan for the rest of the year and every other week we discuss his progress on that plan.

This is what you should expect from a coach.

In reality, coaches, are not as expensive as you might think. Sure you can hire extremely expensive coaches, but in reality, a personal coach should cost about as much an hour as a really good fitness coach. However, you’ll be paying every few days for that fitness coach because you’re going to need to work out at least three days a week and sometimes even more. A personal coach really only needs to meet with you occasionally, I mean you don’t want this person hanging around you all day…that would get creepy and probably a bit annoying. So, you really only need to meet with this person for a couple hours every other week at most.

What would you–what should you expect from a coach:

If you are paying someone to help you grow, then you should expect them to be honest and forthright. If you cannot accept constructive criticism, don’t bother hiring a coach. If your coach isn’t making you feel a little uncomfortable, then they probably are not helping you.

They should be able to align themselves to your needs…not your wants. If you hired me as a coach, and told me you wanted to become a better public speaker, I’d simply tell you to go to Toastmasters and you don’t need to hire me. What I would tell you, for the cost of nothing, is that you need to stop hiring people and telling them what you want. You need to tell me where you are going and ask how can I help you get there–better yet, you know you want to go somewhere, but you need help figuring out where you need to go. A good coach helps you understand what you really need and then helps you get there. Wants are immaterial.

Your coach should point out the barriers that you need to overcome to get where you need and then help you build you a plan to overcome those barriers. Those barriers might be you, your family, your boss, your coworkers, your job…it doesn’t matter. The coach should help you plan to overcome the barrier. When I say “help you plan,” I mean “help.” If your coach builds you a plan, throw the coach out of your office. If the coach isn’t showing you how to identify your obstacles and showing you how to plan to overcome them, then they just want to be your crutch not your coach.

Once you have a plan, your coach should be holding you to task. If they don’t know how to implement plans…you have the wrong coach. Having a plan is great, but not knowing how to implement the plan is like not having the plan at all. As a matter of fact, you’ll be even more frustrated because you have a plan. This is not to say that because you have a plan, suddenly everything starts falling into place. Plans take hard work to implement and the results of strategy are never really visible.

I have been working with an organization as a strategic business advisor–essentially a business coach to an entire organization–for a little over two years. Soon after I started, I laid out a long-term vision for that organization, which I’ve been slowly revealing to them. A good coach should know where you are going even if you don’t. About six to eight months ago, the person this team reports to, commented that all the things in the organization that were occurring were happenstance. I quickly corrected him…I laid out every strategic action the organization and it’s leadership had done in the last year and a half that led them to being in the right position strategically to seize the opportunity when it appeared.

The best coaches help you strategically position yourself to seize opportunities and then they can rewind the film over the actions that got you there. This is because you seldom see the fruits of strategy…strategy activities are normally too high level. You need someone who can tic and tie the actions to the results, which can almost seem random.

So, do you have a personal coach? If not, aren’t you worth it? Perhaps today you should take your first strategic step for the rest of your life…