What Is The Connection Between Excellence, Culture And Strategy? - Part #4

Picking up where I left off last Monday about connecting culture, strategy, operational excellence and customer intimacy, leaders next must provide psychological safety with candid feedback. When psychological safety is present, people feel free to “speak truthfully about problems without fear of reprisal”, as Gary P. Pisano wrote in his article, “The Hard Truth About Innovative Cultures” in the January-February 2019 issue of the Harvard Business Review. 

From my perspective, in integrated organizations, psychological safety is a two-way street. If it is safe for me to criticize your ideas, then it must also be safe for you to criticize mine. However, as Pisano points out, many leaders often confuse “politeness and niceness with respect”. They forget that “accepting frank criticism is one of the hallmarks of respect.” At the same time, the best leaders know and role model clarity that “there is a difference between being candid and just plain nasty.”

Second, leaders, who want culture, strategy, operational excellence and customer intimacy to be integrated within their organization, encourage collaboration but know it comes with individual accountability. As Pisano notes, well-functioning and integrated organizations “need information, input, and significant integration of effort from a diverse array of contributors.” Employees seek help from others and they have a sense of collective responsibility. 

However, these same leaders do not confuse collaboration and consensus. As he explains, “… consensus is poison for rapid decision making and navigating complex problems associated with transformational innovation.” In short, a culture where there is collaboration and accountability is one “where individuals are expected to make decisions and own the consequences.”

Third, the outcome of this level of integration is often a flat organization, i.e. on the organization chart. What the best senior executives know is that flat organizations need very strong leadership. In these kinds of companies, people are expected to take action, make decision, and voice their opinions. 

Yet people must understand that within flat organizations, decision-making is often decentralized. Therefore, people need access to relevant information to make these decisions. They also must understand strategic priorities and direction. 

My challenge to you this week is to reflect on all of the above blog entries on this subject, take your answers from last week, and then to discuss it all with your team. It is time we sit down collectively and explore big ideas. We need to find common ground and common perspective if we are going to be successful during the next 12 - 18 months.

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

How Successful Managers Help People Achieve Their Goals

In the beginning, let us remember the following:

- business is personal.

- people commit to people first, not just plans, goals or objectives.

- on-line communication and collaboration works better once there has been extensive face-to-face communications.

- small leadership actions send big signals, especially when they relate to core principles and values.

One problem I see routinely now is that too many people are forgetting the above fundamentals when it comes to helping people achieve their goals. We must remember that successful managers recognize that real achievements require real effort. They also understand where this effort comes from. 

First, we all know we can not change people. Instead, we can only change the environment around people, and then they change themselves. The key from my vantage point is that the best and most successful managers help people achieve their goals by creating psychological safety. Then real effort follows.

Psychological safety begins when managers ensure “that no one is penalized if they ask for help or admit a mistake,” notes Amy C. Edmondson in her article called “The Competitive Imperative of Learning,”July-August 2008, Harvard Business Review. As she continues, “Psychological safety is crucial, especially in organizations where knowledge constantly changes, where workers need to collaborate, and where those workers must make wise decisions without management intervention.... It is built on the premise that no one can perform perfectly in every situation when knowledge and best practice are moving targets.”

She further explains that “Psychological safety is not about being nice - or about lowering performance standards. Quite the opposite: It’s about recognizing that high performance requires the openness, flexibility, and interdependence that can only develop in a psychologically safe environment, especially when the situation is changing or complex.... Psychological safety makes it possible to give tough feedback and have difficult conversations - which demand trust and respect - without the need to tiptoe around the truth.”

Yet many managers wonder how to actually create this level of safety. As Edmondson explains successful managers do two specific things. First, they “explicitly acknowledge the lack of answers to the tough problems groups face.” Second, they “ask questions - real questions, not leading or rhetorical ones.”

Remember: be more aware of the importance of psychological safety and create work environments where safety and trust are the foundation for all we do.

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

How Successful Managers Help People Achieve Their Goals - part #2

One unique way successful managers help people achieve their goals is to help them reconcile cognitive dissonance, i.e. the disconnect between what they believe and what they experience or see in reality. Right now, many people in the work place are experiencing cognitive dissonance. This is especially true, notes Marshall Goldsmith in his book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful, Hyperion, 2007, because the more we are committed to believing that something is true, the less likely we are to believe that the opposite is true, even in the face of clear evidence that shows we are wrong. As he explains, “people will do something - including changing their behaviors - only if it can be demonstrated that doing so is in their own best interests as defined by their own values.”

One way successful managers do the above is to help people close the gap between understanding and doing. From my vantage point, I have seen this happen when managers do not tell you what to do or think, but instead help you to learn how to think through your own challenges and problems. As has been noted many times in this blog, people and organizations have very specific needs when they are outside their comfort zone, especially when working on stretch goals. We, as leaders and managers, can help them by making sure the following things are in place, i.e the support of a team, a clear strategic perspective, and a psychological safety zone for strategic dialogue. When this is consistently generated over time, then people do a better job of achieving their goals.

For those of you who are seeking a big picture perspective on how to manage through chaos, you may find the following article helpful: “Secrets of the Flux Leader: How brilliantly managed chaos sparks success inside Nike, Cisco, Foursquare, Intuit and more” by Robert Safian in the November 2012 issue of Fast Company Magazine. Here is the link: http://www.fastcompany.com/3001734/secrets-generation-flux It is an article that will make you think given it explores some of the core ideas of Margaret Wheatly, a person whose work we have explored in the From Vision to Action Leadership Trainings and in numerous From Vision to Action Executive Roundtables. This article may not be one that leads you to taking specific leadership actions at the end of reading it, but opening your mind to new perspectives is always worth the time and energy. In particular, I did enjoy the section of the article called “The End of Coddling” which focuses on the leadership of Angela Blanchard, CEO of Neighborhood Centers, a large non-profit based in Huston that delivers $ 280 million of services each year to 340,000 needy people along the Gulf Coast. I just loved her explanation of “FIO jobs”, i.e “Figure it out. That is the job.” Overall, a good article which will make you reflect and think. Happy reading!

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