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Leading Effective Change
In his best-selling book Leading Change, John Kotter points to lack of urgency as one of the most significant factors in failed change efforts. While a senior leadership team may be on board and in agreement with moving down a new path, quite often this very team under invests in creating sufficient energy and buy-in on the part of the rest of the organization. This complacency, if unaddressed, can serve as a huge barrier to successful change leadership even when messages are clear and communicated well.
Case Study: One of our clients, shortly after announcing a change in how patients were being admitted for care, learned that employees didn't perceive any real problem in how patients were currently being treated. Our client decided to paint a more visible picture of the consequences of inaction, and provided a compelling prediction of low patient satisfaction and problems with customer retention. By doing so, the leaders of the organization made the reason for change come alive.
A second source of complacency derives from a lack of sufficient performance feedback from sources outside of the organization. When we seek feedback only from those inside the organization, we can sometimes rationalize or explain away the need for doing it another way. Leaders can enhance the clarity of their sight by reaching out to customers, vendors and other key stakeholders, and by insisting on unfiltered feedback from as many sources as possible.
Case Study: One of our clients, in an effort to become less insular, decided to solicit customer feedback as a critical input to annual performance appraisals. Establishing this new channel of communication has since reduced the tendency for leaders of this organization to miss important signals, and succeeded in teaching the organization how valuable client input can be in adapting to the marketplace.
We know from our work with organizations that as they grow, change, and adapt, they often benefit from the advice of trusted advisors and executive coaches. Our work across industries and product lines provides us with numerous opportunities to cross pollinate as we enable our clients to successfully lead change initiatives. |
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Managing Unsolvable Problems
Each month, we review a book selected to both engage and challenge leaders as they seek to make a difference in their organizations.
Our pick this month is Polarity Management™: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems by Barry Johnson. We all have confronted problems in our lives that appear unsolvable even if we had all of the resources in the world. The key insight offered in Barry Johnson's book is that many of the challenges we face are not problems to solve at all
. Rather, they are polarities to manage. When we try to apply our expert problem-solving skills to a polarity, we often come up short and frustrated.
The objective of Polarity Management™, according to Johnson, is to "get the best of both opposites while avoiding the limits of each". The Polarity Management™ approach involves "seeing a more complete picture of the situation and respecting the wisdom of those who are resisting our solutions".
Through the use of Polarity Maps, Johnson walks us through multiple common polarities, including Individual and Team, Individual Responsibility and Organizational Responsibility, etc. The telltale signs that we are dealing with a polarity to manage, and not a problem to solve, are when we have a problem that is ongoing and when the two "poles" are interdependent such as in the examples mentioned above.
For example, if we focus too much on Team, we could end up with too much conformity as individual initiative and creativity are deemphasized or devalued. On the other hand, if we focus too much on Individual, we could end up with no common direction, a lack of synergy and isolation. To properly manage this polarity between Individual and Team requires that we capture the benefits of both of these poles, while avoiding the downsides of both.
Read the book and you will come away with a novel perspective on many of the challenges we deal with on a daily basis in our organizations. To purchase this book, simply click on its picture above.
Next month, we will review: The Three Signs of a Miserable Job by Patrick Lencioni.
For our current reading list, please click here. |
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Increasing Your Leadership Fitness™
Applications are now being accepted for the Ann Arbor, Detroit, Grand Rapids and Phoenix cohorts of The Institute for Leadership Fitness™. The Institute is a 12-month leadership development experience for leaders seeking the clarity, confidence, effectiveness and vitality necessary for achieving their highest levels of professional effectiveness and leadership fitness™.
Participants attend four full-day facilitated learning sessions, one every 90 days. In addition, participants are assigned an executive coach with whom they will work throughout the year to create and execute a customized development plan incorporating each of the four dynamic qualities of leadership fitness™: clarity, confidence, effectiveness and vitality. Participants also receive a personalized 360° Leadership Assessment.
At the end of the year-long program, participants can expect to be more effective at:
- Setting a clear direction and influencing others to follow their lead
- Retaining star talent and building a pipeline of future leaders
- Taking more risks by taming self doubt
- Balancing periods of high productivity and stress with periods of rest and recovery
- Choosing foods, exercises and other healthy habits to maintain peak performance
- Transforming leadership style to best support the present and future needs of their organization
Ideal Institute for Leadership Fitness™ participants are:
- High Potentials: individuals identified as emerging leaders
- Senior Leaders: general managers, directors, vice presidents and other senior executives
- Leadership Teams: intact teams that prefer a more customized program on their site
For more information, please go to www.theleadershipfit.com/institute/. |
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One More Thing
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at least knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place
shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt |
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Forward to a Colleague
If you enjoyed reading this issue of The Leadership Fit® Newsletter, we invite you to forward it on to a friend or colleague and encourage them to sign up for our monthly newsletter.
Should you wish to reprint any part of this newsletter, please go ahead. We ask, though, that you include the following attribution: "© 2008 All Rights Reserved by David Chinsky & Associates, a management development and executive coaching company. Visit them at www.theleadershipfit.com." |
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Eight Secrets of Success
A few months ago, I was introduced to a remarkable website called TED (www.ted.com
). TED is a repository for some of the more thought-provoking presentations given around the world. Every year, over 1,000 people gather in Monterey, CA for a conference around great ideas. The presentations delivered at this meeting are now available for anyone to view, download or share. To get you started on your own path of exploration, I invite you to view the following video that presents the eight secrets of success in approximately three minutes. Enjoy!
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/richard_st_john_s_8_secrets_of_success.html |
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