How do people shift from being a manager or supervisor into becoming a leader? - part #2

As we make the three shifts I talked about last week in my blog, there are three critical skills we need to teach, learn and role model. According to the research of Paul J.H. Schoemaker, Steve Krupp and Samatha Howland in their article called “Strategic Leadership: The Essential Skills” from the January - February 2013 issue of the Harvard Business Review, the first skill is to anticipate. As they explain, strategic leaders are “constantly vigilant, honing their ability to anticipate by scanning the environment for signals of change.” They do this by building broad networks of diverse people in order to listen to different voices and to gain perspective. Then, “they do scenario based planning to imagine various futures and prepare for the unexpected.” In essence, they expect surprises, but reduce uncertainty.

The second skill is to challenge. “Strategic thinkers question the status quo.  They challenge their own and others’ assumptions and encourage divergent points of view. Only after careful reflection and examination of a problem through many lenses do they take decisive action. This requires patience, courage and an open mind.” Effective leaders “focus on the root cause of problem rather than the symptoms” and they “encourage debate by holding ‘safe zone’ meetings where open dialogue and conflict are expected and welcomed.”

The final skill according to Schoemaker, Krupp and Howland is to align. “Strategic leaders must be adept at finding common ground and achieving buy-in among stakeholders who have disparate views and agendas.” This requires proactive outreach to different groups, proactive communication, trust building and frequent engagement. They do this by communicating “early and often to combat the two most common complaints in organizations: “No one ever asked me” and “No one ever told me.” the challenge for leaders is too “reach out to resisters directly to understand their concerns and then address them.” And then to “recognize and otherwise reward colleagues who support team alignment.”

This week ask yourself the following questions: How well do I anticipate? How well do I challenge? How well do I align? Your answers will help you map out your choices during the coming weeks and months.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

How do people shift from being a manager or supervisor into becoming a leader? - part #1

I have come to the conclusion that right now there are a lot of cotton-candy leaders who are offering sweetness without substance. These individuals are choosing popularity instead of accountability and status instead of results. We need more leaders right now, but the shift from being a manager to becoming a leader is not quick or easy. To help me explain this concept, I am going to utilize the following article: Watkins, Michael D., “How Managers Become Leaders:The seven seismic shifts of perspective and responsibility”, Harvard Business Review, June 2012. I also will add in my own thoughts.

One important thing to becoming a leader is to shift from being a problem solver to an agenda setter. As Watkins writes, “Many managers are promoted to senior levels on the strength of their ability to fix problems. When they become enterprise leaders, however, they must focus less on solving problems and more on defining which problems the organization should be tackling.”

On one hand this seems simplistic, but it is not. We get a lot of kudos for being problem solvers. We get a lot done as problem solvers and everyone loves us and wants us to be a part of things. The problem with of this level of work is that people become dependent on us. All our time is consumed by other peoples’ problems. All roads lead to us, and we become the hub of execution.

The solution to this situation is greater than our ability to delegate, motivate people, and promote teamwork. Setting the agenda for a team, a department or a division requires us to figure out what are the goals for the team, the department or division. We also need to figure out what are the problems that need to be solved by the team, the department or division. Next, we must prioritize which goals and problems need to be addressed and communicate those priorities in a way that people can respond from clarity rather than fear. In short, we need to set the agenda, and then hold people accountable for getting them done.

Hermina Ibarra in her book, Act Like A Leader, Think Like A Leader (Harvard Business Review Press, 2015) notes that leader can be a hub or a bridge. For example, when a leader is a hub, they set goals for the team, assign roles to your people, assign tasks, and monitor progress toward goals When they do these things well, the leader creates a good climate inside the team, the department or the division.

When a leader focuses on being a bridge, they align team goals with organizational priorities, funnel critical information and resources into the team to ensure progress toward goals, and get the support of key allies outside the team. When this is done well, the leader enhances the external visibility and reputation of the team.

However, the best leaders I have met focus on bridge building within their agenda setting. Here, they build bridges to relational space, i.e. hubs that are focused on people working together with other people. Rather than getting caught in the fallacy of centrality where I, as a singular individual, needs to be at the center of everything, the best hubs are relationship centric spaces. 

Furthermore, before you set the agenda, you also have to build capacity, and create healthy team relationships. Then, the agenda will be executable. It’s not problem solving that is the secret as much as relationship building!

Still, some people want to skip building people centered bridges and hubs. Instead, they want to build a tunnel, i.e. a linear pathway, through the problems and obstacles before the organization. As John Paul Lederach writes, “The difficulty is how do you tunnel through an active volcano?” As he continues, tunnel vision looses “peripheral vision”, i.e “the capacity to situate oneself in a changing environment with a sense of direction and purpose and at the same time develop an ability to see and move with the unexpected.” He continues, “people with tunnel vision can only see forward.” From my experience, successful leaders can see forward, backward, and sideways.

Another challenge for people right now is project management. So many say we should “forget all this people stuff” and instead focus on project management. As they point out to me, a goal is a project and we just need to manage it better. However, Lederach’s research and experience points out that “It is important to recognize that the project mentality assumes two important but rarely accurate truisms: (1) Social change is linear; and (2) social change is best measured by visible and verifiable results.” 

As a consultant, executive coach and trainer for over thirty years, I like results. As leaders, we focus on outcomes, especially successes. However, we rarely study the processes leading up to an outcome. Furthermore, we reward people who solve problems, but do not reward those who prevent them. as noted by Emre Soyer and Robin H. Hogarth in their article, “Fooled By Experience”, which can be found in the May 2015 issue of the Harvard Business Review.

For me, I like connections even better, i.e. people to people, people to systems, systems to systems, people to environment/context, and people to history, i.e. remembered history, shared history, and lived through istory. With these connections, we as leaders can create clarity and capacity for multiple results over time.

Another shift that managers need to make to become a leader, according to Watkins, is to move from being a warrior to being a diplomat. In our old roles as warriors, we spent a great deal of time “marshaling the troops to defeat the competition.” We routinely put on the battle armor , picked up the horn, summoned the troops and led the charge. We took no prisoners, defeated the enemy, and celebrated victory.

However, as a leader, there is not enough time in the day to do all of that. Now, we have to deal with various stakeholders rather than the competition. We have to interact with them and address their concerns. In these situations, we need to use the tools of diplomacy, i.e. negotiation, persuasion, conflict resolution and alliance building, in order to shape the the external business environment to support our strategic objectives. Therefore, as a diplomat leader we need to understand how decisions are being made, develop strategy, recruit and retain key people, and play the long game as in 5-7 years rather than monthly, quarterly or even yearly goals.

Finally, to successfully shift from being a manager to being a leader, we need to move from being a bricklayer to an architect. Most people when becoming a supervisor or manager want to do two things: they want to get things done better and they don’t want to make any mistakes. The challenge is that they do not think about impact or precedence. Instead, they think action, change and survival. Therefore, they default to old ways of doing things. When we shift from being a supervisor or a manager to a leader as architect, we need to focus on how all of the above pieces fit together

This week, I encourage you to read the following article: Watkins, Michael D., “How Managers Become Leaders: The seven seismic shifts of perspective and responsibility”, Harvard Business Review, June 2012. Then, share it with others. I am sure you will have much to discuss together after you have read it.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Love Your Neighbor

It was Saturday around mid-morning when I looked out the front window and saw a little girl from up the street bent over and looking with intense focus in one of our flower beds. I watched for a moment and realized that she was repeatedly picking something up and putting it down. So, I wandered outside to see what was happening.

As I approached, I saw that she was holding a huge old toad that had just woken up from winter hibernation. It was a bit lethargic but nevertheless it was eager to be on it’s merry way.

“Hi there. What have you got?,” I asked.

“I found a big old frog”, she replied.

“Wow! I think it is a toad who just woke up from a winter nap.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Can I keep it?”

“No, but you can come and visit it when ever you like. I don’t think it is going to travel far. It likes being around the flowers and the bugs that are attracted to them.”

“OK.”

And with that she put down the toad, hoped on her bike and headed home.

A couple of days later, I was out weeding in the front yard. When a small voice behind me asked, “Have you seen Mr. Toad today?”

“No, but I suspect he is around here some place.”

We looked for a minute or two but we could not find the toad.

“What are you doing?”, she inquired.

“Pulling weeds. I want to grow flowers more than I do little trees and dandelions.”

“Did you know my Mom is a nurse?”

“Yes. She has an important job.”

“I know. Do you have any extra flowers I could give her? I want to thank her for what she does.”

At the moment, I was weeding a flower bed that had about three hundred plus daffodils in full bloom. I looked around and said, “Definitely. I have more than enough to share. Let me go and get some scissors from the house. You start thinking which colors you like.”

When I returned from the house, she pointed out all the different kinds she liked and I clipped two or three of each kind until we had a bouquet of flowers that required two little hands to hold.

At that moment, her Mom called from up the street and started walking down toward our house. This sweet little girl popped the big bouquet of flowers behind her back. 

Next, she looked at me and then she looked at her bike. Having gotten the message, I put down my scissors and picked up her little bike. Together we walked up the hill toward her Mom. 

Soon, Mom and daughter met with huge smiles and hugs. The little girl was beaming and the Mom was close to tears from the act of such love.

I handed the Mom the bike, thanked her for her work as a nurse, and headed back down the street. As I came to our front steps and picked up the scissors, I thought of the following quote from the book of Matthew, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

In a world that has been turned upside down and sideways all at the same time, it is time for each of us all to remember this simple but powerful phrase.

As sheltering in place slowly comes to an end, we must continue to be generous, kind and compassionate people. We need to be present to one another and support one another as best we can. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote, “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” And loving your neighbor is a powerful “little bit of good.” 

Remember: the only way through this is together. Friend to friend. Neighbor to neighbor.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

How do effective leaders execute a plan when the future is so wildly unpredictable? - part #2

When it comes to executing a plan when the futures is so wildly unpredictable, we have got to stop thinking of organizational change as a linear process. When it is done successfully over time, organizational change happens at multiple levels and in multiple social spaces, some of which are public and others that are  more private. 

We also need to remember that when we introduce organizational change, the desired changes within the plan are entering into a work environment that is defined by “historical choices” over time. Remember that past strategy created solutions and those solutions created history. That same history now influences the current strategy. Furthermore, the current execution of strategy is being constantly impacted by a permanently changing external environment. Therefore, we as leaders need to have the capacity to work at multiple levels at the same time and to move freely and competently through multiple and different social spaces.

Now a popular term related to executing a strategic plan successfully is “critical mass”. John Paul Lederach in his excellent book, The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace (Oxford University Press, 2005) writes: “Creating self-sustained processes of social change is not just about numbers in a sequential formula. The critical mass was in asking what initial, even small things made exponentially greater things possible. In nuclear physics, the focus was the quality of the catalyst, not the numbers that followed.”

Most leaders focus on the number of changes taking place. For them, this indicates to that change is comprehensive and will achieve “critical mass”. But effective leaders focus on the quality of the catalyst and on the space needed to support and sustain the desired change. As Lederach explains: “It seems to me that the key to changing this thing is getting a small set of the right people involved in at the right places. What’s missing is not critical mass. The missing ingredient is the critical yeast.”

When we recognize the power and importance of the “critical yeast”, we then need to build and support “relational spaces”.  This was the most mind blowing insight of the winter for me, i.e. the power of creating and supporting relational space. When I reflect on all the work I have done in my career, it is the development of “relational spaces” that has been the catalyst for success. While I could focus on the teaching of content, i.e. improving skill set, as most important, I have come to realize that it was the relational spaces created during the learning journey that was what made it transformational! By creating relational spaces and by maintaining relational health, people moved together through change in an empowered manner.

One problem we are experiencing right now is a lack of understanding “tangled networks”, using a Lederach term. Within a tangled networks, the starting place is not “what is the solution?” but instead “who do I know who knows the person (or the problem) with whom I have a problem who can help create a way out?” When the who question precedes the what question, solutions emerge from relational resources, connections, and obligations. 

For those of you who have studied leadership over the years, this is the same conclusion that Jim Collins came up within his book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap. . . and Others Don't (HarperBusiness, 2001). As he writes, “The key point … is not just the idea of getting the right people on the team. The key point is that "who" questions come before "what" decisions - before vision, before strategy, before organization structure, before tactics.  First who, then what - as a rigorous discipline, consistently applied.”

We must have a “relationship-centric approach” to organizational change. Returning to Lederach’s research, that means we need to understand “how we approach and understand relational  spaces” in a given organization. The goal is “to look at relationships through the lenses of social crossroads, connections, and interdependence.” In short we need to “understand the social geography” of our organization. As he writes, “I will argue that the moral imagination rises with the capacity to imagine ourselves in relationship, the willingness to embrace complexity without reliance on dualistic polarity, the belief in the creative act, and acceptance of the inherent risk required to break violence and to venture on unknown paths that build constructive change.”

This week become more aware that organizational change is not linear and that we need to build and maintain more relational space in order to be successful in the midst of these wildly unpredictable times.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Now Is The Time For More Coaching

For many leaders who are overwhelmed by the never ending COVID-19 situation, coaching has mostly defaulted to two main actions, namely telling people what they should have done and attempting to fix their problems. The result is a weakening of the supervisory relationship and the possibility of creating active disengagement by the employee. 

I understand why a leader would be choosing to act in this manner. He or she has reached their limit of how much chaos they can tolerate around them so their goal is to reduce disequilibrium and restore a degree of control, predictability and order in their circle of influence. However, the price of this choice is quite high because the person being coached can perceive these actions by their supervisor as signaling that they do not matter and that their job does not matter. As Patrick Lencioni points out in his book, The Truth About Employee Engagement: A Fable About Addressing the Three Root Causes of Job Misery, formerly The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers (and their employees) (Jossey-Bass 2007): “people want to managed as people, not as mere workers.”

When successful coaching takes place, a leader will focus on two categories, namely skills and knowledge based coaching or mindset based coaching which directly impacts their willingness and commitment levels as an employee to move forward through a challenging situation. Yet, upon significant reflection, I have observed that the best coaching happens when the person being coached feels the support of their supervisor and when the supervisor helps the person being coached put things back into perspective and subsequently understanding. Many times this act of support and realignment of perspective by the coach involves a tremendous amount of concentrated listening with the goal to create an in-depth understanding of how the person struggling comprehends what is happening around and within them.  

The other part of this successful coaching process involves listening and giving feedback rather than constructive criticism. However, we as leaders and coaches need to remember that right now people have a limited bandwidth for receiving feedback. Most employees are barely coping with the amount of on-going disruption and chaos in their work and home lives. They are are doing their best in a COVID-19 centric world and feeling exhausted by the constant lack of structure and normalcy in their day to day lives.

During this global pandemic, the best coaches I have visited with by phone understand one small but significant fact about coaching people. It all begins with the building and maintaining of trust. In the May-June 2020 issue of the Harvard Business Review, Frances Frei and Anne Morriss wrote an exceptional article called “Begin With Trust: The first step to becoming a genuinely empowering leader.” As Frei and Morriss explain, “In our experience, trust has three drivers: authenticity, logic, and empathy. People tend to trust you when they believe they are interacting with the real you (authenticity), when they have faith in your judgement and competence (logic), and when they feel that you care about them (empathy). When trust is lost, it can almost always be traced to a breakdown in one of these three drivers.” The article points out a variety of strategies if you are experiencing problems in any one of the three drivers of trust.

At the same time, Frei and Morriss also point out one more important thing about trust. As they write, “We’ve argued that the foundation of empowerment leadership is getting other people to trust you. That’s certainly true, but there’s one last thing you need to know. The path to empowerment leadership doesn’t begin when other people start to trust you. It begins when you start to trust yourself.” 

This is a major insight into great leadership and empowerment. And the best leaders recognize that the pathway to trusting one’s self is to have a variety of allies and confidants who can hear you, help you, and ask you thought-provoking questions so you are constantly creating a greater depth of internal clarity and understanding. When we as leaders want to unleash the creativity, talent and commitment to learning and subsequent action within our companies, then building trust at all levels of the organizations begins with creating a greater level of internal clarity and integrity.

I encourage all of you to read the above article during the coming days. I also encourage you to coach more, be more supportive and to be open to being coached more. With all that is before us right now, we need allies and we need confidants as we process our own thoughts, feelings and struggles during these most unique times.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Now Is The Time For More Discipline & Integrity

This morning I have been reflecting on the following quote by Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen in their wonderfully insightful book, Great By Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck - Why Some Thrive Despite Them All (HarperCollins, 2011):

“... it’s what you do before the storm comes that most determines how well you’ll do when the storm comes. Those who fail to plan and prepare for instability, disruption, and chaos in advance tend to suffer more when their environments shift from stability to turbulence.”

For many years, I have been a big proponent of being prepared for large and small shifts within the sales and service environment. I have advocated for scenario-based planning exercises to stretch ourselves to think through how we would respond to disruptive events or potential chaotic moments. However, this morning, I have been thinking about the following question: 

What do we do once we are in the storm and discover that it is bigger and more turbulent than we had anticipated?

The answer, I believe, is found in the behavior of key leaders as outlined in the book, Great By Choice. Collins and Hansen note that leaders, who they called 10Xers “because they built enterprises that beat their industry’s average by at least 10 times”, thrived in uncertainty, and even chaos, because they displayed three core behaviors, namely fanatic discipline, empirical creativity, and productive paranoia. Here is how they explain these three key behaviors:

“Fanatic discipline: 10Xers display extreme consistency of action - consistency with values, goals, performance standards, and methods. They are utterly relentless, monomaniacal, unbending in their focus on their quests.

Empirical Creativity: When faced with uncertainty, 10Xers do not look primarily to other people, conventional wisdom, authority figures, or peers for direction; they look primarily to empirical evidence. They rely upon direct observation, practical experimentation, and direct engagement with tangible evidence. They make bold, creative moves from a sound empirical base.

Productive Paranoia: 10Xers maintain hyper vigilance, staying highly attuned to threats and changes in their environment, even when - especially when - all’s going well. They assume conditions will turn against them, at perhaps the worst possible moment. They channel their fear and worry into action, preparing, developing contingency plans, building buffers, and maintaining large margins of safety.”

As they further explain, “Underlying the three core 10Xers behaviors is a motivating force: passion and ambition for a cause or company larger than themselves. They have egos, but their egos are channeled into their companies and their purposes, not personal aggrandizement.”

From my perspective, I would add to the above three core behaviors one more behavior, namely that these same leaders conducted themselves with the utmost integrity. First, they treat everyone with respect no matter what their position is within the company. Second, they listen to understand rather than just to be understood. Third, their public actions match their private actions. And finally, their word is their bond, referencing an old Quaker phrase. If they say they are going to do something, then all involved know it will happen. In a time period of so much turbulence and instability, we need leaders who conduct themselves with great integrity.

In the epilogue of the book, Great By Choice, Collins and Hansen note one more important point. As they write, “... greatness is not primarily a matter of circumstances; greatness is first and foremost a matter of conscious choice and discipline…. The greatest leaders we’ve studied throughout all our research cared as much about values as victory, as much about purpose as profit, as much about being useful as being successful. Their drive and standards are ultimately internal, rising from somewhere deep inside.” 

To me that depth of internal clarity and the subsequent choice to act with integrity differentiates the great leaders from the mediocre or good ones. These leaders of integrity find within themselves the resources of character to meet the challenges of this time period. They do not talk people into believing in the importance of discipline and integrity. Instead, they lead by example. And right now, we need great leaders who are willing to stand up, to make the right choices, and to be the kind of people who role model discipline and integrity as we all move through the challenges before us.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Now Is The Time To Create More Clarity

As everyone has gotten busier and busier trying to figure out what to do next in the middle of this on-going pandemic, there have been moments when leaders have fallen into the habit of just wanting to get things done, and not remembering that a big part of their work as a leader is to create clarity and to minimize confusion. 

Historically, the focus on creating organizational clarity has revolved around the work of Patrick Lencioni in his excellent book called, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive (Jossey-Bass, 2000). Lencioni encourages leaders to create clarity by explaining “why the organization exists” and “which behavioral values are fundamental.” He also wants leaders to define what the company "plans to achieve” and “who is responsible for what” within the plan. During complicated and complex times, these fundamentals are very important, but I don’t think they are enough given the unique times within which we are living.

This morning, I think we need to expand the concept of creating clarity to include the work of Brene’ Brown in her powerful book called Dare To Lead: Brave Work, Tough Conversations, Whole Hearts (Random House, 2018). As Brown explains, “The true underlying obstacle to brave leadership is how we respond to our fear.” As an executive coach working with leaders during the last 60 days, I have listened to people who have been worried, afraid and deeply concerned by all that is happening in their organizations, their families and society in general. Their concerns are valid and I am honored that they are willing to share them with me.

I also have listened to leaders who have transformed their fear into courage. As Brown writes, “Courage is contagious. To scale daring leadership and build courage in teams and organizations, we have to cultivate a culture in which brave work, tough conversations, and whole hearts are the expectation, and armor is not necessary or rewarded.” One powerful way to being courageous, notes Brown, is to regularly show that you care for and are staying connected to the people that you lead.

The second step to creating clarity and being courageous as a leader, notes Brown, is to “get clear on whose opinions of you matter.” Everyone right now has an opinion and many are quite vocal about what should or should not be happening, especially when it comes to the subject of dealing with COVID-19. As a result, leaders can feel bombarded and under attack. In order to remain clear and in order to create clarity, leaders must be very thoughtful about whose opinions and professional judgements matter. As leaders, we will not make everyone happy with our decisions but we still must make thoughtful decisions based on as much accurate and timely information that we can gather. And within that gathering process, the source of the information is as important as the content of the information.

Next, Brown encourages leaders to set boundaries. In particular, she writes “… setting boundaries is making clear what’s okay and what’s not okay, and why.” At times, I have observed leaders informing their team or their company about what is okay and not okay when it comes to key behavioral norms, but they have not stated why. I believe it is the why element that makes the setting of boundaries effective over time.

Finally, we must remember as leader this short phrase by Brene’ Brown: “Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.” Given all that we have experienced during the last 60 days, we need more kindness. Creating clarity is foundational to our being able to thrive on the other side of this global pandemic. 

So, starting today, remember to be kind, respectful and compassionate with each person you meet at work and at home. The only way through the next 90 days is to create more clarity and to act from a place of clarity. We are all in this together and clarity will help us move forward together.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

How do effective leaders execute a plan when the future is so wildly unpredictable? - part #1

When it comes to executing a plan in wildly unpredictable times, we need to remember that executing a plan comes with a commitment to risk and a commitment to relationships. As John Paul Lederach in his book, The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace (Oxford University Press, 2005) writes “Commitment to relationship always entails risk. Sitting in the messy ambiguity of complexity while refusing to frame it in dualistic terms requires risk…. Risk is mystery. It requires a journey. Risk means we take a step toward and into the unknown…. It is the journey of the great explorers for it choose, like the images in the maps of old, to live at the edge of known cartography. Risk means stepping into a place where you are not sure what will come or what will happen.”

Robert H. Miles in his article, “Accelerating Corporate Transformations (Don’t Lose Your Nerve!) Six mistakes that can derail your company’s attempts to change” (Harvard Business Review, January - February 2010) writes that there often is a loss of focus during the execution of a plan. Here are three common mistakes:

- PostLaunch Blues: It can be tough for a leader to switch from playing a visionary role to serving as “ballast and keel,” but that is just what is needed after a strong launch, because a real transformation is about execution. The top leader has to make sure managers at all levels receive and relay a consistent message about the need to drive the key transformation initiatives in the agreed-upon manner. One way to signal your shift into execution mode is to start weekly staff meetings with a review of progress on transformation initiatives, calling attention to people and plans that have drifted out of alignment and noting early lessons that need to be quickly shared.

- Midcourse Overconfidence: The next major slump typically comes after two quarterly check-points have passed…. The business model will need refining, and you will need to tweak initiatives based on lessons from early execution. Miles encourages leaders to hold quarterly checkpoint meetings and   immediately following each of them with mini-cascades, and interventions that take place throughout the company.

- Presumed Perpetual Motion: As the first performance year comes to a close, many executives will succumb to the presumption of perpetual motion. This is the idea that things will continue to progress as the company sticks with the year-one game plan. Miles recommends you do “launch redux” to boldly kick off the second year of execution.

There is a lot more in this very good article, but right now I am seeing the above problems in multiple organizations and at multiple levels.

Another recent insight for me about executing a plan during wildly unpredictable times is the recognition that successful organizational change takes place in small visible moments rather than as large sustained processes or actions. We get so busy as leaders that we do not really “see” organizational change. We do not see the series of small visible moments people are making. As Kotter reminds in his seminal research, missing “short term wins” does not create large sustained processes or action.

As leaders, we need to remember that the process of organizational change is more than just building teams or work place communities of like minded people. We need to think, plan and execute in such a manner so we deal with who needs to change and how to get them engaged in the process. Lederach notes that “… framing the process as one that must create like-minded communities produces a narrow view of change wherein little thought or work is given to the broader nature of who and what will need to change and how they will be engaged in such a process.” If the focus is on building and maintaining like-minded people and teams, we limit the scope of what we can achieve because we perpetuate a dualistic perspective of people, i.e. good vs. bad, us vs. them, or you are either with us or against us.

While I agree that building teams and community are important in organizational change, I also think about how to engage others who will need to change. Their resistance to change initially could offer important insights and perspective. In essence, we need to understand that their resistance is a form of feedback.

This week, when you see small visible moments of change, visit with those involved and ask them the following three questions: Who are we? Where are we going? How will we get there? By doing this, we create clarity and commitment rather than just a “get ‘er done mentality”.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257