Plan Your Work And Work Your Plan
Many young leaders and managers are taught to plan their work, and then work their plan. This is a classic approach to leadership and management, and an important lesson to learn. However, the best leaders I have met in my career understand something about this concept that few young leaders and managers grasp. This understanding comes from participating in multiple planning sessions and multiple cycles of executing those plans.
First, planning is a process more than just an outcome. As the late Richard Farson, American psychologist, author and educator, notes: “Planning may not be effective at assessing the future, but it can be a good way to assess the present…. The process, not the product, is what is important. At its best, planning becomes a form of anticipatory, strategic thinking - the basis for organizational flexibility and readiness. That may be the most it can offer, but that’s a lot.”
Over the course of my 36+ years of being involved in strategic planning, I have facilitated many strategic planning processes. And many of these processes have generated amazing plans which have been executed with stunning results. But in the beginning, it is the planning process that matters more than the document.
The critical element to creating a successful process has two elements. First, as Oren Harari in his book, The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell (McGraw-Hill, 2002), explains: "Organization doesn't really accomplish anything. Plans don't accomplish anything either. Theories of management don't much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved.” The first element is to make sure the right people are involved in the planning. It is a “who” question before a “what will be done” answer.
The second element to successful planning is to remember the advice of Charles Fishman: “You can’t draft people into change. They have to enroll.” With this in mind, we need to create a process where people have a voice in the creation of the plan and an understanding of how to execute it successfully. As James Belasco and Ralph Stayer explained so many years ago: “The primary purpose of strategic planning is not to strategically plan for the future, although that's an important purpose of the exercise. It is primarily to develop the strategic management mind-set in each and every individual in the organization. The purpose of the process is not only to produce a plan. It is to produce a plan that will be owned and understood by the people who have to execute it.” When the right people are involved and the plan is owned and understood, then working the plan has the potential to be successful.
Still, there is one more insight about planning your work and then working you plan that many young leaders and managers need to know. As Taylor Swift said, “Just because you made a good plan does not mean that’s what’s gonna happen.” Admiral William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy Retired) used a common military phrase for the same idea when he wrote: “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.” Planning is an exercise in focusing on where you want to go as an organization and a team, while simultaneously understanding that the direction may be clear, but the path may be filled with foreseen and unforeseen obstacles.
Therefore, a leader must make three specific choices. First, referencing back to the work of Admiral William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy Retired) in his book, The Wisdom Of The Bullfrog: Leadership Made Simple (But Not Easy) (Grand Central, 2023), a leader needs to “always consider the worst-case scenario and plan accordingly.” Second, they need to “test the plan to ensure everyone in the organization knows how to react when things go poorly.” Third, they need to “be prepared. Murphy was an optimist.” While this will not solve all the foreseen and unforeseen problems that will occur as one executes a plan, it will help tremendously in the problem-solving and response people make a long the way.
The phrase, “plan your work and work your plan,” is a great leadership quote However, we must help young leaders and managers understand the scope of what is being shared and the inherent choices that need to be made as one decides to follow this advice. In the end, planning and execution comes down to making smart choices before, during, and after planning. With adequate support and coaching, young leaders and managers can learn this and be successful.
Focus On Teamwork
Once the plan is created, every leader and manager knows that it is time to execute it in a timely fashion. Then, they turn to their team and say “Go make it happen.” The challenge is that everyone on the team is in the metaphorical boat and wanting to row hard together. The difficulty is that the boat is still tied to the dock. Most young leaders and managers have empowered the team to work on the plan, but not released control in order for the team execute it properly. This happens in part because most young leaders and managers do not understand the subtle dynamics of teamwork.
First, when focusing on teams and teamwork, we need to understand our choices around the use of teams. Jon Kratzenbach and the RCL Team in their book, Real Change Leaders: How You Can Create Growth And High Performance At Your Company (Times Business, 1995), note that “teams are best when the potential for collective performance is high. Single leader working groups are best when time and efficiency are critical. Champions and mavericks are best when you want individual attention to a specific problem.”
What I have discovered over the years is that most young leaders use the word team, but in reality want those gathered to act like a single leader work, where they, as the leader, are the hub to all decision-making. This can create a high degree of inefficiency and can actually disempower the individuals in the group to work collaboratively given the problems and obstacles before them.
Patrick Lencioni adds a unique perspective to the challenge of team work in his book, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize And Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues (Jossey-Bass, 2016). As he writes, “I think the problem is that we’ve failed to define what being a team player requires.” He continues by pointing out that “… real teamwork requires tangible, specific behaviors: vulnerability-based trust, healthy conflict, active commitment, peer-to-peer accountability, and a focus on results.”
While I think many young leaders and managers like the idea of teamwork, I don’t think they recognize that it is more than an idea. In particular, they don’t focus on the behavioral components of successful teamwork and instead focus on the results that the team can achieve. While I agree with the late Stephen Covey who wrote that we must “begin with the end in mind,” I think we must help young leaders and managers realize that if we want successful results or outcomes from a team, then we must create an environment where the right behaviors can happen. And this can only take place when we define what are the right team based behaviors and reinforce these behaviors when we see them taking place within a team based setting.
As I have said in seminars and consultations for many decades, “What you feed, grows.” Now is the time to help young leaders and managers to metaphorically feed the people on the team who are displaying the right behaviors. Subsequently, we also need to role model these same team based behaviors so all involved know that successful teamwork is the result of behaving in a certain way over time.
To be continued on Tuesday.
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