Exploring The Fundamentals

We were sitting in his office, a comfortable place with wood floors, large old fashion double hung windows, and just the right blend of art work and plants to make it a creative and yet relaxing environment. We were visiting about ways to improve the corporation as a whole when he looked up from his performance plan and said: “Can you help me with something? I am not very good at solving this problem.”

“Sure. What’s up?,” I responded.

“All the money is going into the new stuff, which is exciting and fun, but the reality is that the old stuff, which is the foundation of our business, is being forgotten. People are getting sloppy around the edges, and the polish and the  reputation, which this company was built on, is being forgotten in the rush to do new and more exciting things. I’m worried that no one cares about the basics - no one is caring for the foundation.”

I have noticed this too as we rush through the early years of the 21st century. Many people are becoming to addicted to speed, to anything new, and to anything that is being sold to us through the latest national best seller book, or podcast. The foundational routine work of life, and of running a successful company are often pushed by the wayside. In short, the fundamentals are getting lost and forgotten in the rush to be innovative and cutting edge. 

In reality, it takes innovation and discipline around the fundamentals to survive in the current market economy. The question then for leaders is the following: What are three fundamentals to doing strategic change well, and creating operational excellence well on a daily basis?

First, remove people who take power or infect power with non-authentic values, or who are misaligned with the company’s core values. Recognizing the centrality of relationships to building and maintaining a healthy company culture, and recognizing the importance of trust at the team level, any individual, who chooses to corrupt the core of a team, department, or company, and any leader, who tolerates this choice, needs to work someplace else. If coaching and a performance plan are not helping correct this situation, then engage an HR process for removal. 

Second, let that which is dying be dead. There are certain things that are foundational to the on-going success of the company. However, this does not mean that all current systems, programs, and ways of doing business should be maintained no matter what is happening in the external environment. If a way of doing business is no longer viable, then we need to have the strategic and operational clarity and courage to stop doing it. This may be hard, but it also can be liberating. 

Third, choose to get closer to the customer. The late Peter Drucker often asked the question, “Who is the customer?”. He also asked a secondarily important question, “What does the customer value?”. This later question can only be answered thoughtfully and respectively when we choose to meet with the customers and to listen to their wants, needs, dreams, and aspirations. When we understand these things with depth and understanding, we can then engage in effectively promoting innovation while maintaining the fundamentals of success. 

In retrospect, the fundamentals to life and work, are not always flashy and new. Instead, they require consistent discipline and attention. Still, when done well and often, they can make a profound difference in the quality of innovation and operational excellence that needs to take place each and every day. The challenge is to be committed to this work and to make sure the core of the company is always strong and healthy. 

© Geery Howe 2025

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change

Be The Vision

We were sitting in her office after an inservice on leadership and change. She shared with me that during the last year, she had worked extensively on the organization’s structure, and had to completely rebuild her team due to dramatic changes in their competitive environment. As a result, she had stopped the organization from loosing money, and had gotten the numbers back into the black. During the last six months, she, her team, and the Board had also created a new mission statement, and had much more clearly defined the organization’s core values statements. 

Now, her days were filled with more problems related to people and systems. And as a result, she was deeply frustrated. “I just don’t want to be consumed with endless minutiae and countless people complaining,” she shared with me. “Everything is at the individual and systems change levels, and because we are ‘profitable,’ people no longer want to move forward. What is going on with me? Is this normal?”

I paused to reflect on what she said and all that she had shared with me. Then, I replied,“You are busy, burned out, and bored. Mostly just busy and burned out.”

She went quiet for a long moment, and then said, “Yes. There is no more passion in me.”

From my experience and observations, this is a common experience. Leaders work so hard to make change happen, and then when they are on the other side on the heavy lifting, they routinely experience burnout and their days are filled with endless piles of stuff. Part of this happens due to positional and peer isolation, namely a lack of community who understands the pressures of being in a senior position and a circle of people who can be supportive. As a result of not having allies and confidants, they feel alone. Furthermore, this feeling is compounded by decision fatigue in the midst of ambiguity and the lack of core information to make thorough and thoughtful decisions. Thus, the feeling of being alone and being deeply frustration generates the loss of passion and purpose, or the trinity of busy, burned out and bored. 

So where and how do we begin to change this common experience?

The answer lies in the reclaiming, and, at times, rediscovering of our purpose, passion, presence, and perspective. First, we need to define what is most important in our life and let this core purpose drive our decision-making processes. This particularly needs to be defined for our work life and our home life. Second, we need to define what gets us excited and focused at a core level, i.e. what are we passionate about at our being and doing levels. Third, we need to accept the grace to not let our ego drive our life journey. Instead, we need to connect with a sense of presence in our life, and to be a presence in the lives of others. Finally, we need to maintain perspective, which is the ability to hold this purpose-driven center, and to grow during our entire life journey. 

As we explored purpose, passion, presence and perspective, I encouraged her to be the vision in her life journey, and to embrace her commitment to purpose, passion, presence, and perspective. I also encouraged her to create a personal development plan, which included improving her ability to lead, and her ability to live into the fullness of her life. Being busy, burned out, and bored does happen. The choices we make as a result, and the clarity of intention that we create because of this can and will generate a whole new way of living and working. It all begins when we create the time and place to share, listen, and reflect. 

© Geery Howe 2025

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change

Four Basic Questions

Introduction

One of the joys of being mostly retired is that I get to reread certain articles that were influential in my career, and reflect deeply again on what was shared. Every time I do this, I rediscover some previously known concept and understand it better, or I discover something new and wonder why I missed it the first time. 

The article that I recently reread was called  “Leading the Team You Inherit” by Michael Watkins in the June 2016 issue of the Harvard Business Review. This is an article I have referenced and recommended ever since it was published. In the article, Watkins explains that not everyone gets to build their team from the ground up. More often than not, they inherit a team of people, and are given the task of making them better as it relates to teamwork and overall performance. The challenge is to figure out what are the problems, and then how to remedy these problems.

When Building Alignment

What intrigued me this time around was the following statement: “Sometimes a team’s stated direction needs to be changed. In other cases, it’s more or less right, but people are just not pulling together.” I have seen this happen, where the direction needed to be changed, and where people are just not working well together, i.e. they are not in alignment. 

Watkins then writes: “To get everyone aligned, the team must agree on answers to four basic questions:

- What will we accomplish? You spell this out in your mission, goals, and key metrics. 

- Why should we do it? Here is where your vision statement and incentives come into play.

- How will we do it? This includes defining the team’s strategy in relation to the organization’s, as well as sorting out the plans and activities needed for execution.

- Who will do what? People’s roles and responsibilities must support all of the above.”

What interested me this time around was the simplicity of these four basic questions. They are straight forward and easily usable in a variety of contexts. And because they are so simple and accessible, I think many leaders skip them, and seek out more complex questions related to strategy or project management. Others skip them, and want to do some interpersonal and/or emotional analysis of the team. While all of these options are good areas to explore, sometimes the simple questions, like the above four, can reveal so many insights about what is happening within a team and why it is happening. For me, these four basic questions are gateways into peoples’ thinking about day to day operations and the overall company’s strategic direction or intent. 

When Answering The Why? Question

From my experience and observations, the second question, Why should we do it?, is very important. Often, the answer to the Why? question is weak at best, or completely devoid of basic understanding of critical information. I do not fault the person answering the question. Instead, I frame this up as a classic example of under-communication. 

This is a common problem in the world of leadership. Nine times out of ten, I have to point out to leaders that just because you said something does not mean that anyone was listening, or that they understood what it was you were saying. Furthermore, they also may not understand why you were saying it in the first place. 

Most leaders believe that once they have stated something, namely the answer to the Why? question, that the listener will not only agree with them, and understand them, they will instantly translate this level of clarity into commitment and greater collaboration. But the truth of the matter is that speaking rarely generates clarity and commitment. Most of the time, it just results in “What?”, “Huh?,” or “I have a question.” However, most leaders miss this response, because they are on to question #3, How will we do it?. They just want to focus on how to accomplish what needs to get done. 

If we truly what to find the answer to question #2 and to communicate it clearly, then we need to understand that the answer to the question is based on being clear about three different things. First, one needs to understand the current context or business environment, which ever word you prefer, that the company is operating within. Second, you need to understand the strategy or strategic intent of the company, again choose which word you prefer. And finally you need to understand the company’s definition of operational excellence. For me, the third element is based on the company’s commitment to, and process of continuous improvement given the changing, external business environment, especially the changing needs and expectations of the customer.  It is the holistic clarity of these three things that will result in a greater depth of clarity, and ultimately commitment when it comes to the Why? question. 

The Importance of Two Way Communication

Once this strategic mindset and perspective is in place, we must also create time and space for sharing and dialogue, namely two way communication, rather than the typical form of leadership communication, which is I speak and you listen. The later usual results in a leader having the unrealistic expectation that their answer will generate clarity, if not enlightenment. In reality, the “I speak and you listen” form of communication leaves people confused, frustrated, and many times, angry. 

For true sharing and dialogue to generate understanding, people in leadership positions need to listen to the outer dialogue while simultaneously being able to listen to their own inner dialogue. This is a difficult choice. For we as leader must listen to understand, not just listen to hear the outer dialogue. And we also must be very mindful of how we are translating what we hear on the inside. For example, we must ask ourselves the following two questions: “What is the story I am telling myself when I listen?”, and “What am I feeling in the midst of this sharing?”.  As we seek the answers to these two questions, we will be better able to respond, rather than react to the sharing that is taking place. 

When Experiencing Turbulence 

When we recognize the importance of the aforementioned four basic questions, and then zoom out to sense and understand how the proverbial big picture is changing, we realize that we are moving through an on-going cycle of market turbulence which is also creating an on-going cycle of organizational turbulence. During times of this nature, where it feels like the risk profile is in rapid fluctuation, we have to step back and truly grasp what is happening. 

The standard analysis is that things are just chaotic, but I do not think this fully captures what is actually happening. Given we are experiencing rapid short term changes with long term implications, plus a high degree of uncertainty about what will happen next, and a complete lack of control, or an ability to influence these changes, people usually respond by feeling overwhelmed. Furthermore, this level of turbulence and disruption is causing core systems within their organizations to become dysfunctional, or to function very poorly. 

Now, let’s pause and remember that there are four pillars to a successful organization, namely people, structure, systems, and culture. When three of the four pillars are impacted and/or disrupted by turbulence, i.e. people, structure, and systems, then the organization, and the people within it, are going to struggle. But, when we step back and look at the problem, we discover that the greater impact of this level of turbulence results in the fear of disconnection, which, given current events, has now resulted in the feeling of disconnection. 

What most people do not grasp is that the success of a company is not merely the reflection of great effort and great systems. The ground level truth is that successful companies have a healthy, internal relationship economy. People work well together, because they have built relationships based on trust, respect, and integrity. Furthermore, they have invested the time and energy to create and maintain a healthy operational network so they can manage their current internal responsibilities, a healthy personal network to boost their personal development, and a healthy strategic network so they can achieve greater perspective and insights about what is happening. Yet, when all three networks are damaged by turbulence, and an individual feels disconnected from these networks, the feeling of being alone generates a profound level of fear, frustration, and self-doubt, none of which help the organization to move forward. 

When these kinds of problems happen, we need transformational leadership. Years ago, Warren Benis and Burt Nanus identified four key principles of transformational leadership, namely “attention through vision, meaning through communication, trust through positioning, and the deployment of self.” For during times of turbulence, leaders need to manage meaning, attention, trust, and self. And the organization needs stability in the midst of a turbulent market environment. Therefore, transformational leaders focus on two things, namely communicating what is not changing, i.e. mission and core values, while at the exact same time focusing on resilience. They do this by activating and maintaining healthy relational networks in order to increase understanding and commitment. They also do this by building and maintaining their different networks in order to counter the feeling of being alone and disconnected. At the same time, in order to generate more resilience, they focus the company and their teams on learning from current mistakes and problems in order to gain insight and perspective for future action. Finally, they role model extremely good self -care in order to maintain personal perspective and hope that this too shall pass. 

A Time For Compassion

Teams are struggling right now. People are struggling right now. Finding the answers to the four basic questions is a good way to move forward. Sharing these answers and exploring what they mean with others can generate stability in the midst of turbulent times. 

At the exact same time, the best leaders stay faithful and devoted to their own inner journey and evolution. They recognize that they need to become become better people, not just better leaders. And this always leads them to focus on compassion and integrity. As Brene’ Brown reminds us in her book, Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience (Random House, 2021): “Compassion is fueled by understanding and accepting that we’re all made of strength and struggle - no one is immune to pain or suffering. Compassion is not a practice of ‘better than’ or ‘I can fix you’ - it’s a practice based in the beauty and pain of shared humanity.” As we grasp the magnitude of this insight, she further notes, “Compassion … recognizes the suffering of another as a reflection of our own pain: ‘I understand this; I suffer in the same way.’ It is empathetic, a mutual connection with the pain and sorrow of life. Compassion is shared suffering.” 

Right now, as we seek to create better alignment in our teams and in ourselves, we need more compassion in the midst of our “shared suffering.” The path forward will continue to be challenging, but when we thoughtfully answer the four basic questions, focus deeply on creating clarity around the Why? question, and build time and space for sharing and dialogue, we will create resilience in the midst of turbulence. And this will make a huge difference during the coming days, weeks, and months ahead. 

For Further Study:

- Drucker, Peter, Frances Hesselbein, and Joan Snyder Kuhl. Peter Drucker’s Five Most Important Questions: Enduring Wisdom for Today’s Leaders, Wiley, 2015.

- Lafley, A.G. and Roger L. Marten. Playing To Win: How Strategy Really Works, Harvard Business Review Press, 2013.

- Olson, Aaron K., and B. Keith Simerson. Leading With Strategic Thinking: Four Ways Effective Leaders Gain Insight, Drive Change, and Get Results. Wiley, 2015.

- “Leading the Team You Inherit” by Michael Watkins, Harvard Business Review, June 2016. 

© Geery Howe 2025

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change

We Are The Dinosaurs

It was a long dinner meeting with just the CEO and myself. The conversation had covered a lot of current, operational and strategic issues. There had been a good depth of sharing and listening. 

Once the dessert have been served, he said to me: “If I was a much younger man, most of this would not be a problem. When I was younger, I dove in head first and just got into it. I always thought of the senior leaders as being slow to make decisions and slow to engage with the issues and problems. Yet, now that I’m older, I take less risks. In reality, I don’t want to coast until my retirement, but, on the other hand, I don’t want to fumble my way through the chaos. I know I need to take more risks again. I know we need to take more risks again. The challenge for me is to merge the spirit of my youth with the wisdom of my experience. That’s not an easy thing. I’m afraid on so many levels about the risks I need to take. And what I am most afraid of is becoming a dinosaur. I’m afraid we are the dinosaurs that in my younger days I used to complain about. Does any of this make sense?”

I nodded in affirmation. 

“Then, where do I begin?”

I paused for a bit, and then replied, “Taking risks can be transformational, and it can be dangerous. In the beginning, we need to be the living example of what we want our team to become.”

What followed was an in-depth discussion about risk taking. First, we need to raise our own standard of performance, and never lower our standards to meet others’ expectations. Second, we need to learn why people are doing the things they are doing, and remember that everyone is doing something for their own reasons, not our reasons. Third, we need to help other people be successful. And fourth, we need to keep our promises to ourself and to our family. When the spirit of youth merges with the wisdom of experience, the potential for a transformation is always possible. 

I was thinking about this after speaking about leadership and change when a participant came up to me and said, “only through faith can we cope with change and chaos.” I smiled, and agreed with her. This surprised her, and delighted her at the exact same moment

From my experience and observations, we must take risks and have faith. Years ago, I lost a job because I refused to paint the “rosy picture of perfection” about the subject of leadership and change. I explained that change often comes with suffering and pain. Transformation is not focused on maintaining status quo. 

However, when the act of leading change is done thoughtfully and carefully, and when the spirit of youth merges with the wisdom of experience, then what seems a hindrance will become a way, what seems an obstacle will become a door, and what seems a misfit of ideas will become a cornerstone. For to have faith means to have patience with “the labor pains of change,” and to recognize that the unexpected challenges are not disturbing interruptions, but the actual process and steps by which a transformation can take place.

Now, during the transformation process, the key question we need to ask ourselves is “What is the promise hidden in this event?” For to have faith means to face the pain of change, but to not let it define the future. This means we need to believe in tomorrow, and to not loose hope. Finally, to have faith also means to welcome the creation of a new level of internal clarity and subsequently a new level of action

The late Stephen Covey in his book, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness (Free Press, 2004), reminds us that during this process we must “stay grounded, “know [our] priorities, and [to] speak truthfully [and] listen respectively.” Sounds like good and wise counsel to me when we are entering in and moving through a transformation. 

During certain stages of life, we can feel like we are a dinosaur, born for a different time and place. Other times, we can be a transformational phoenix, rising from the ashes of a dysfunctional form of living and working. The key in the beginning, middle, and the end is to be the living example of what we want others to become. For when our faith and our clarity are united, then the transformation takes place first on the inside, and then generates healthy action on the outside. And it all begins when we sit down with a trusted friend, mentor, or ally and share our inner journey and our inner process. 

© Geery Howe 2025

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change

An Uncomfortable Convergence

Right now, we are experiencing an uncomfortable convergence of two different things at the same time. First, we are in love with the familiar, i.e. a past definition of status quo with a touch of nostalgia for the “good old days,” even if things were not working so well, and not so good. Second, we feel as if we are living in a nihilistic world and a nihilistic time period, i.e. more and more people, especially young people, believe that life has become meaningless, and change is hopeless. As a result, life and work has largely become an endless series of chaotic experiences with no inherent purpose or progress to be seen, heard, or experienced. Thus, people yearn for the past, or any resemblance of a familiar status quo, i.e. think pre-COVID times, and their desire for the familiar now out weighs the effort or thought to make things better. 

I think this uncomfortable convergence is challenging, because if we are to truly deal with the current levels of dysfunctionality and nihilism, then we will have to change ourselves as part of the process in order to transform what we are currently experiencing. And I don’t think a lot of of people are waking up on a Monday morning, and hoping that their entire life will change. Some are waking up on a Monday morning, and wanting to change one or two things about their life. But most people are actually waking up and hoping everyone else will change. Then, they can stay living within the familiar and continue having a sense of control about all they are experiencing. 

However, this is not the way change actually happens. This is not the way to deal with an uncomfortable convergence. This is not the way to adapt and evolve. 

Years ago, Steven Covey in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Free Press, 1989), wrote about the circle of concern and the circle of influence. The circle of concern included everything that concerned you, even if you had little or no control over it. The circle of influence encompassed all the things you could directly influence or impact, even if you did not have complete control. Covey advocated for the reader to shift their focus from their circle of concern to their circle of influence in order to take steps that would make a positive difference in their life and in the lives of others. 

I think right now many people are focused on their circle of power and control more than their circle of influence. Others are building a circle of isolation in order to feel safe in the midst of such chaotic and meaningless times. They believe that distance from everything is a necessity in order to feel safe. However, the more they distance themselves and isolate themselves, the more they fear the world around them. The outcome of this choice is to be both afraid and lonely. 

Nevertheless, in the midst of this uncomfortable convergence, I believe there are two pathways we need to pursue in order to move forward. First, we need to rediscover hope. As Brene’ Brown reminds us in her book, Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience (Random House, 2021): “We need hope like we need air. To live without hope is to risk suffocating on hopelessness and despair, risk being crushed by the belief that there is no way out of what is holding us back, no way to get to what we desperately need.” I believe the pathway to rediscovering hope begins by creating time and space for face to face sharing of our own past and current stories of resilience. We need to remember that we have been through tough times before this convergence, and that we can make it through these current challenging times, too. We also need to listen to the stories of others who have overcome their challenges in order to remember that we are not alone in facing our difficulties. It is in the combination of sharing our individual and collective stories that will generate perspective, insights, and ultimately hope to move forward. 

Second, we must ask ourselves this important question: Am I the person I aspire to be?  This is a question that requires significant time and space for in-depth reflection and contemplation. And once we have done this work, we must commit to a path of becoming the person we aspire to be in spite of the uncomfortable convergence before us. We also need to recognize that this self-definition will evolve over time as we move through different ages and stages of our life. Still, we must always seek to be our best self no matter what is happening around and within us. Then, by clarifying and purifying our intentions and motivations, we will unite our inner and outer experiences. And this will build a solid foundation for creating and living into a new beginning. 

These are difficult and challenging times. Problems of various forms and sizes are surfacing daily, weekly, and monthly. And as a result, some days we may feel hopelessness and despair. Still, with strong connections with ourself and others, plus a strong internal clarity about who we are and what we believe, we can, and we will move forward, step by step to a new and better future. It begins by doing the inner work and building the outer network to sustain us along the path through today and into tomorrow. 

For Further Study:

- Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience  by Brene’ Brown (Random House, 2021).

- “How Will You Measure Your Life?” by Clayton M. Christensen, Harvard Business Review, July-August 2010.

- Surviving Storms: Finding Strength To Meet Adversity by Mark Nepo (St. Martin’s Essentials, 2022).

- Take It All Apart: How to Live, Lead, and Work with Intention by Lindsay Leahy (River Grove Books, 2024).

© Geery Howe 2025

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change