Introduction
We were discussing the intersection of productivity, strategic planning, and leadership over a very nice dinner at a chef driven restaurant. I had just explained that when productivity is only defined by key performance indicators and does not include fulfilling the mission, then individual employees and those who they serve are reduced to function and outcomes more than people serving people. He put his fork down, paused, and said, “That makes sense. The difficulty for me is that I need to be a more strategic leader rather than just being a reactionary operational crisis manager. And you know what? I haven’t a clue about how to do that.” He took a sip of wine, paused again, and said, “So, Geery, how do I do this? Where do I begin?”
His thoughtful realization and the subsequent discussion reminded me of something Barbara Brown Taylor pointed out in her book, Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others (HarperCollins, 2019). As she explained, “John Philip Newell [internationally acclaimed spiritual teacher and author] offers a different way of thinking about how to navigate the distance between the center and the edge of faith. Sometimes you just have to pack your bag and go.” I like this metaphor, and shared it with this individual. What followed was an important discussion, because some days you have to just pack your bag and go. Some days you have to move from your center to the edge of your understanding, and keep learning.
What Do I Pack?
When packing to go to the edge of your understanding in order to shift from being a crisis manager to a more strategic leader, the first two things to pack are character and integrity. We don’t talk much about these words any more. They seem like they are from a different century, a simpler and less complex time period. Still, the wisdom and the words from the past, such as character and integrity, can be applicable and helpful to us in the present.
A while back I read the following quote by Pastor A.R. Bernard: “Without character, talent will only take you so far.” The word character is defined as “the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.” Upon reflection, I believe we need to talk more about character and character development. We also need to focus more on character rather than just talent development. For when we fully comprehend the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual, we begin to realize that compassion, courage, and commitment all have their beginning in the world of character and character development.
One of the best ways to do this is reflect on the following questions:
- Who are the people of “character” that I know in my life?
- What separates them from others?
- How do they engage with people in group settings that is unique?
- How do they role model?
Self-reflection is vital to character development.
The second item to pack is your integrity. Again, another word from the last century. The word integrity comes from the Latin word integer, which simply means “intact.” Martha Beck in her book, The Way of Integrity: Finding The Path To Your True Self (The Open Field/A Penguin Life Book, 2021), writes “To be in integrity is to be one thing, whole and undivided.” It reflects a “complete alignment of body, mind, heart, and soul.”
I believe one of the challenges of packing the bag to go is that we have lost the memory and the feeling of a complete alignment of body, mind, heart, and soul. This is in part because we have abandoned our own inner truth, and instead chosen to conform to external expectations. As Beck explains, “In this rush to conform, we often end up ignoring or overruling our genuine feelings - even intense ones, like longing or anguish to please our cultures. At that point, we’re divided against ourselves. We aren’t in integrity (one thing) but in duplicity (two things). Or we may try to fit in with a number of different groups, living in multiplicity (many things).”
When we seek alignment and oneness, referencing Beck’s insight, we need to reclaim our ability to choose, own, and stand up for our values and beliefs, the foundation of our inner truth, in spite of the external pressures we are experiencing. I like how Rabbi Jonathon Omer-Man explains this: “Integrity is the ability to listen to a place inside oneself that doesn’t change, even though the life that carries it may change.” And it is that place inside us, the sum of character and integrity, that we need as we move from the center to the edge where we will keep learning.
What Direction Should I Go?
Once our bag is packed for the journey from our center to the edge of our understanding, the big question is What direction should I go? The answer is simple and complicated all at the same time. For the direction we need to take to become a better strategic leader is to move toward the people who are doing the work. They are the ones who are doing the work on a day to day basis. They are the ones who are making the mission come alive. They are the ones who are generating the outcomes that we measure.
At the same time, we need to zoom out to see the big picture in order to gain perspective about how everything is working. From this vantage point, we will grasp something the late priest and poet, John O’Donohue pointed out. As he explained, “… those of us who work are often caught within a grid of predictability and repetition. It is the same every day. There is such an anonymous side to work. All that is demanded of us is the input of our energy. We move through the workplace, and as soon as we are gone in the evening, we are forgotten. We often feel that our contribution, while it is required and demanded, is merely functional and in reality hardly appreciated. Work should not be like that at all; it should be an arena of possibility and real expression.”
In order to create a work place that is “an arena of possibility and real expression,” a leader needs to be both strategic and operational. In particular, they need to be able to switch back and forth, seeing the macro and seeing the micro, the big picture and the day to day operations. The key is to see the same thing from two different angles, and to grasp that a well built strategy creates culture. Furthermore, a strategic leader understands that the culture is the strategy, because it is the place which can support strategic change or stymie it.
Jason Jennings in his book, Less is More: How Great Companies Use Productivity as a Competitive Tool in Business (Penguin Putnam, 2002), wrote, “In productive companies, the culture is the strategy…. Unlike other companies, productive companies know the difference between tactics and strategy… The difference is the foundation that allows them to stay focused and build remarkable companies. They have institutionalized their strategy.”
This powerful insight is built on an understanding that productive and successful companies consciously institutionalize their culture. In particular, these companies grasp that a culture is the sum of behavioral norms that are agreed upon by those who work there. Furthermore, the leaders of these companies know that on any given day 80% of the staff report to a front line supervisor while working side by side with a small group of co-workers. For these people, their front line supervisor and their co-workers, not the senior leadership, are their world. For them, these relationships are “the company culture.”
So, with this in mind, we need to step back and look at the bigger picture, understanding that the strategy creates the company culture, and that the culture needs to be institutionalized across the entire company. And at the exact same time period, we need to step forward to the front line of the company to observe first hand how the desired culture is actually taking place. We need to see and understand if the kind of culture we aspire to, in pursuit of the strategy we have chosen, is actually creating the right kind of behaviors we want and the right kinds of outcomes between the people serving the customer, and the people who are working together to serve the customer. Therefore, moving to the living edge of the company is a wise and important choice.
To be continued on Tuesday.
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