Corporate North Americas Shame

 

In the year 2000 all but 2 of the Fortune 500 companies were headed by men.  Fast forward to 2021 and that number is now 41. We are only 209 short of parity!

At this rate, growth of about 2 per year, the Fortune 500 should reach gender equality by the year 2125…just a mere 105 years from now.

Sorry but I don’t have time for this nonsense to continue.  It’s not as if men have some superior ability to manoeuver companies through difficult times.  Hell, they often fail during good times.

Steve Easterbrook of McDonald’s was fired because of personal, not professional incompetence.  He was caught showing off his Big Mac to too many women in the company.

Dennis Muilenburg of Boeing decided it was more important to sell airplanes than to be certain that they could fly.

The CEO of a company named ‘Better’ fired 900 employees in early December on a Zoom call. Mr. Garg is now taking time off as the company ‘…performs a leadership and cultural assessment…’  They might want to consider a new name as well!

A PWC study (released in 2018) of 2500 companies around the world showed that the average tenure of a CEO was about 5 years.  That suggests that even if the rate of the Fortune 500 was double that average, there should be 50 positions becoming available every year. 

Why women are not placed in at least half of these suggests three things.

1.     Companies are doing an insufficient and ineffective mentoring process to identify and groom women in their succession planning processes.

2.     Boards of Directors are not moving away fast enough from the ‘old boy’s network’ for filling top positions. These Boards need to be replaced themselves.

3.     Search firms are not fulfilling their responsibilities by seeking out and recommending qualified women for these roles.  To rephrase a statement by G. K. Chesterton ‘…it’s not that female leadership has been tried and found wanting; rather, it has been perceived as threatening and therefore left untried…’  Search firms must become leaders and not followers in these matters or risk becoming as irrelevant as the Boards they purport to serve.

Institutional investors must likewise demand more diversity, for women and other visible minorities.  Activist firms have long demanded changes at the senior level when it suits their purposes.  There is simply no longer any valid excuse for making experience at a urinal a prerequisite for the corner office. 

My fear is that without a serious and concerted effort to demand changes, even the so called gains of the past 20 years will begin to erode.  There is clearly a movement against women’s and minority rights in the US.  Whether it is related to abortion or voting rights, historical rights are being overturned.  This cannot bode well for the expectation of fair treatment in Corporate America as companies fall in line with the rhetoric against these under-represented groups.

All companies in the Fortune 500 should have an equal number of male and female candidates in their succession plan.  I would also urge smaller companies to make similar efforts as effective leadership is becoming an increasingly critical component of future success. 

Denying yourself the consideration of and access to over half the population is about as intelligent as trying to catch a falling knife.  It only results in self-inflicted wounds.

Have you got five minutes

 

 

Life is a series of interactions. 

Some are personal…some are planned…some are serendipitous

All of these interactions have served to build the reservoir of experience, knowledge and ultimately wisdom that has brought you to this point in your life and career. Clearly some of these interactions have been more special than others.

What if you would take but five minutes to reach out to those who had served you well?  To whom would you want to say ‘…thank you; you made an important contribution to my life…’

I don’t mean family members or others in your close circle.  I’m referring to that coach who prodded you to work harder to develop your skills; that co-worker who offered encouragement during a difficult time; a mentor who came alongside for a period of time; the leader who put trust in your abilities that you could not see in yourself.

We have an aversion to getting too transparent…too vulnerable.  It’s a common and natural self defence mechanism.  Combine that with the immortality that most of us take for granted, and it becomes all too easy to procrastinate.

Right now stop reading this blog and compile of list of the most important people who have built into your life.  Then communicate with each of them in manner that expresses the importance of their influence.

Following through on this suggestion will bless you and them more that you will ever know…and that’s the perfect reason for doing it!

Are You Honest with the Mirror?

 

It’s no secret that I believe that character trumps competency when it comes to leadership. From setting standards and expectations, to guiding and supporting and acknowledging others, it falls upon the leader to lead by example.

The first task of each day must therefore start with a personal challenge.  Are you being honest with the mirror?  Does the image that you reflect honestly reflect the person you really are?  Or is it a mirage, a picture of what you hope others see but which you know is not true?

No one sees a perfect image.  You see the warts that others cannot. 

But if all you do is camouflage the blemishes without committing to change them, the mirror will always expose you.  And it is only a matter of time before others see them too.

As the leader, you must be as fully devoted to the standards – legal, ethical and moral – as those whom you lead. The least bit of hypocrisy will undermine your efforts regardless of your best efforts of denial.

Conquer the challenge the mirror presents.  In time that mirror will smile back at you!

The top five reasons to deny women roles of leadership!

 For what seems like forever, women have been denied the opportunity to take on the most senior levels of leadership in our society.  People have postulated any number of reasons to deny them of this privilege. 

The following are the top five, not in any particular order of importance.  Once you fully understand the rationale, it’s hard not to agree that we are fortunate indeed to have kept them out of offices of responsibility and influence.

 

1.   Women lack experience.  While that is true, the reality is that it is not for lack of trying but for lack of opportunity.  Men have successfully blocked attempts for women to infiltrate the upper echelons of the hierarchy. Private clubs or golf courses have historically been the ideal networking venues for men.  Women, on the other hand, have been serving in soup kitchens, supporting women’s shelters and aiding charities.  The disparities could hardly be more startling and the preparation for leadership more succinct.

Women continue to be under-represented on Boards of Directors, with North American numbers being under 25%.  Even worse, the number of women in executive positions is under 20%

The deck is stacked against them, and other minorities.  At current rates, it will take 50 years before boards and executive ranks reach full diversity.

2.   Women are underqualified. The reality is that almost 40% of MBA graduates are women and almost 50% of new enrolments are women.  These numbers have continued to grow over the past 20 years.  Interestingly the gender split in law and medicine is 50/50 and we have seen no degradation in the quality of service provided in either occupation. 

It is not that women have been tried in positions of responsibility and influence and been found unfit.  Rather it is a case that their fitness represented a threat to men and so it remains untried.

3.   Women are too emotional.  To this I have one word…testosterone. Case closed. 

4.   Women lack strength.  Tried childbirth… 

Leadership has nothing to do with physical strength.  Leadership is about character and mental fitness and women score higher in both categories.  Like all minorities, they have to work twice as hard as a man to be recognized in the workplace while continuing to carry an unequal burden of responsibility in the home.

The reality is that most men would revolt if they were expected to assume the weight of responsibility that most women endure every day.

5.   Women are poor negotiators. When all else fails, create a lie and keep repeating it.  In time it will become your truth.

The reality is that in order to even be considered for executive positions, women have had to navigate the minefield of male egos.  That has taken much more subtle negotiation than any male could achieve.

You need to understand that for women it is not an ‘either / or’ proposition.  More often it is a ‘both / and’ compromise that accomplishes more without destroying the other party.

 

The definition of an idiot is one who continues to fail doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.  On that basis we must all count ourselves idiots as we have perpetuated the myth that only a man can lead effectively.

I, for one, am done.  I am prepared to support a woman to lead a company, a city or a nation. It has been a century or more that most countries liberated women with the right to vote.  It is well past time that we move out of the way and support their right to lead.

A message to the unvaccinated

 

For much of the past two years we have individually and collectively endured one of the worst pandemics in the history of mankind.  Hundreds of millions have been infected. Tens of millions have died.  Few have been untouched. This has been a shared tragedy.

For much of the past year vaccinations have become available to provide a significant level of protection to those fortunate enough to receive one of the several formulas that have been developed.  Over 6 billion doses have been administered around the world with remarkable efficacy and with fewer negative consequences than any vaccine against any disease in history. 

The vaccines provide protection for the recipient and by extension, for those with whom they come in contact.  The vaccines are free and save lives.

Yet a remarkable number among us have not been vaccinated, by personal choice.

For those with medical reasons for exemption from vaccination, I hope that you are able to remain safe by following health guidelines and associating with others who practice likewise.

I understand and appreciate that there are some who have chosen to exercise a personal religious decision against vaccinations.  To those of you in this category I commend you for honouring your god above the state.  But will you change your mind if you become infected and seek treatment at over-crowded hospitals or retain your beliefs in private and trust for your recovery?

There are those who have determined that this is a matter of personal choice and will therefore not be forced by the ‘state’ to be vaccinated.  It is true that in most jurisdictions you have a right to refuse remedies such as vaccinations.  And personal rights should not be lightly ignored.  But as a member of society you also have responsibilities and obligations to a ‘greater good’, that is, to work and behave in a manner which serves to benefit all of us.

We obey laws which are intended to establish normative behaviour that we can all expect from others.  We have customs which respect and perpetuate our personal histories and heritages. We engage others with ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and other societal graces that are neither rights nor obligations but which make society ‘work’.

It is to these practices that I appeal to your higher nature of good to set aside your rights.  Choose to contribute to the betterment of society by joining with it rather than standing apart, and at greater risk to yourself and those in your company.  Choose to do that which your rights do not require you to do but which your responsibility to society begs you to do. Choose to lead by example and not by becoming a statistic.

Many places are now firmly in a fourth wave of this infection.  Vaccination rates are very high in many areas, yet some remain well below the average. This only perpetuates the situation. 

If you yearn to be able to fully exercise your rights again…going to the restaurant or bar, taking in a movie, attending a concert or game…then the rest of us need YOU to join forces.  Consider it enlisting for the battle that has come to our shores and which requires all of us to be activists, not pacifists, in the battle none of us foresaw but in which all of us are needed.

Your participation is needed and urgent. 

Thanks from the rest of us.

Definitions for a Post Covid World

 

Anonymous:  What we call ‘sources’ who espouse rhetoric and theories based on information gleaned from old issues of ‘Popular Mechanics’ or ‘Field and Steam’ magazines.

Border: An internationally recognized designation between countries that allows you to keep out anyone who does not look, act, speak or worship like you.  Unfortunately it also keeps in all those who look, act, speak or worship like you.

Coward: What a bully calls someone who exercises better discretion than to deliberately put oneself at risk of personal harm for the sole purpose of assuaging one’s ego.

Discriminate: The act of prejudging a person or group of people before you know them because of an irrational fear that in knowing them you might actually like them.

Elitist: What we call someone who holds contrary opinions to ourselves and makes us uncomfortable because they can honestly and sincerely defend those opinions.

Facts: The evidence drawn from the close examination of specific events… or whatever comes to mind to defend your indefensible conclusion.

Gender: This is a word that no longer seems to hold any meaning…unless, of course, it is used by someone defending their right to not have a gender in which case the word is genderless.

Hope:  The often irrational basis upon which we choose to anticipate that the current state of affairs in our world will improve.

Insurrection: An act of civil disobedience conducted by a group who cannot spell the word… (many actually thought that it meant having relations with a relative)

Journalism: An element of the media that attempts to provide an unbiased, researched and truthful presentation of facts related to events of interest of their audience.  By definition this excludes companies such as Breitbart, Fox and Sinclair News.

Kowtow:  Originating from the Chinese act of showing excessive deference to an individual by deeply bowing and kissing the ground they walk on.  Characterized today by right wing individuals paying respect to autocrats seeking undemocratic allegiance.

Lobby: The art of influencing the outcome of a particular issue when the facts and logic do not support such an outcome.

Manipulate:  See ‘lobby’

Narcissist: An extremely self centered person who has an exaggerated sense of self- importance. Derived from the Greek word for old and delusional blond haired, orange faced citizens living on the island of Narci.

Open Carry:  A law whereby an individual may have on their person, in public, a firearm.  It also serves to answer the question ‘…is there intelligent life in the USA…’

Prison:  The solution that too many nations have in response to conscientious objectors, homelessness and societal inequities.

QAnon: The answer to several questions including:

1.    Is there too much lead in the US drinking water?

2.    Are too many people living off of the lint found in their belly button and the jam found between their toes?

3.    Is stupidity contagious or simply hereditary?

4.    What do you get when you combine alcohol, drugs and grade school education?

Reason:  Formerly the use of considered opinions to debate civil disagreement between opposing opinions.  Now generally prefaced by the words ‘absence of’ as parties harden their opinions and refuse rational dialogue.

Secure:  The sense one feels when sleeping inside a home with a gun under your pillow, an alarm system and surveillance cameras, inside a gated community, with armed personnel on guard.

Truth: As Lily Tomlin so eloquently stated it, seems to be ‘…nothing more than a collective hunch…’

Untruths: Lies…and what has become known as ‘alternate facts’.

Vaccination:  An injection that prompts the body to produce natural protection against certain viruses. Unfortunately there is no vaccine against stupidity, a fact attested to by the number of anti-vaxers amongst us.

Wisdom:  Historically defined as the combination of knowledge and experience.  Now found mostly in books hidden in libraries and covered with dust. Please refer to Wikipedia for the definition of library.

X:  The signature of most conspiracy theorists and the reason that they do not support mail in ballots…it’s just too easy to forge.

YouTube: The vehicle by which some post irrational and delusional conspiracy theories which provoke and incite millions to irrational and delusional conclusions.  It ultimately does so without consequence to the ‘poster’ but with grave consequence to the reader. See QAnon.

Zealot: One who is uncompromisingly enthusiastic in support of a specific cause.  Also an apt description of an NRA member.

The Case for Women in Leadership

 

Let’s face facts.  Men have been at the helm of both business and politics for eons.  Where has it really brought us as a worldwide society?

-        We are facing a global catastrophe associated with climate change.  Scientists have been telling us for decades that we need to change our habits. But special interest groups in business and spineless politicians have done virtually nothing to address the issues.

-        Governments around the world are increasingly becoming more authoritarian and restrictive of the rights of others, particularly women and immigrants, as they consolidate power.  The attack on democratic institutions such as the courts and the press is a clear sign of their intentions. Where once we associated this type of behaviour with dictatorships, we now see it creeping into democratic environments leading to predictable outcomes.

-        Institutions such as the United Nations were established 75 years ago to promote and advance the notion of peace around the world.  However the advance of state sponsored terrorism and radicalization has consistently undermined that dream.

-        Wealth has grown exponentially around the world.  But so too has the consolidation of that wealth.  Estimates are that in the US the top 1% of income earners own about 43% of the wealth and that number only widened during the pandemic. Only about 10% of the wealthiest are women.

There are copious other examples but you get my point.  A society that is led by men has not brought us to a sustainable position. Rather, men have, by and large, been the architects of a failing and self-serving community which has, with premeditation and malice aforethought, brought us to the edge of disaster.

IT’S TIME FOR A CHANGE! And the sooner the better…

Let me offer an example of effective female leadership, Angela Merkel of Germany.  Raised in Communist controlled East Germany, she first excelled in with a PHD in quantum chemistry. She entered politics in the 1990’s and rose to become the Chancellor of Germany in 2005.  Her accomplishments are highlighted by an outstanding economy; a focus on renewable energy and on the integration of over 1 million refugees. Her vision was always towards improving both her country and our world.  How refreshing is that!

What are the qualities that women bring that make them so utterly better suited than most men?  Here are just a few.

1.   On balance, the women are more intelligent.  That is not a slight on many very capable men, but the reality is that for a woman to rise to the highest levels of responsibility – in business or in politics – they must demonstrate a degree of intellectual superiority that cannot be denied or ignored.  There is no ‘old boys club’ that is greases the skids for less competent individuals.

2.   Women are natural team builders and have much less ‘pride of ownership’.  That’s because their egos are more satisfied by accomplishment than by acknowledgement.  Consequently they make more informed decisions with ultimately better results.

3.   Women are naturally more empathetic.  Part of their genetic code includes nurturing.  This contributes to their team building success, above.

4.   Women are better negotiators.  They have had to be because of the road blocks that men have traditionally imposed.  In this world that is increasingly diverse and complex, this skill is of critical importance.

Mothers do not quickly send sons and daughters to war.  They know that negotiation brings better results.  But do not make the mistake that women are soft.  You have no doubt heard of the wrath of a mother bear!

5.   Women have a persistence that few men can match.  One only has to remember that it was just in the 20^th century that some women received the right to vote and hold office.  (In many cultures they are still disenfranchised.) They knocked until the door broke down despite the time it took to knock sense into the male ego.

Again, this has only scratched the surface of the qualities and competencies that women bring to leadership.  To paraphrase a quote from G. K. Chesterton ‘…it is not that women in leadership has not been tried and found wanting; rather it has been found unsettling for men and thus left untried…’

It is well past time for women to assume the roles for which they are naturally well suited and which a world in distress so desperately needs.  We can only hope and pray that the changes come before we are beyond the abyss.

The Ultimate Skill

 

Business schools teach students the ‘best practices’ across several disciplines.  The expectation is that upon graduation, individuals will have developed broadly based skills that will help them to excel in their future roles.

Thus we have graduates who have earned impressive capabilities in things like strategic planning; financial analysis; developing diversity in human resources; operational excellence; product development and marketing; public relations and so much more. To be sure, these are impressive and important skill sets and can serve both the individual and their employer well.

However, too often these skills never achieve their full impact because there is one key element lacking.  Consider it like trying to bake a cake without that one ingredient that makes all the other ingredients connect.

That skill is leadership!

Great strategic plans fail when they are not well implemented by staff.

A financial analysis is meaningless unless people are committed to maintaining or improving those results.

A diverse and well trained and paid group is like a bunch of musicians. Unless the orchestra is led by a skilled maestro they just make a lot of noise.

Too often those in positions of responsibility - Managers, Presidents and CEO’s -  spend much of their time in the planning and monitoring of results.  They may have the best products, the best ideas, the financial where-with-all, but all is for nought if the execution fails due to inadequate leadership.

Leadership is the art and science of someone with authentic responsibility, authority and accountability gaining the support of their team to accomplish a clear and concise goal or objective.  It is that simple to define but much more difficult to achieve.

Are you spending the time and resources, and setting the right example, to develop leaders in your company?  Leadership is much less about competencies and much more about character.  Unless or until you have come to that knowledge your best efforts at instilling skill sets will always fail to achieve the levels of success that you hope for.

Learn first to lead! Everything thereafter will flow with much greater ease and success.

Do you need a lesson?

 

I’ve been in many boardrooms or executive meetings in the past.  I always find it interesting to see the dynamics at play.  People jockey for positions nearer the CEO, or sometimes nearer the corner, depending upon their level of comfort.  Some will remove suit jackets while others adjust their ties. And then there is the posture of the CEO.  If he is tall – and statistics show that it is almost always a ‘he’ and he is almost always over 6’ tall - he simply stands to look down at those around the table.  If he is shorter, he will plant his feet wider than this shoulders and invariably cross his arms.

We are seeing body language in its’ purest form; the deliberate intent to intimidate and control without saying a word.  It has been this way for decades and is a remnant of the old ‘commander in chief’ style of management.

But changes are afoot.  Not only are genders changing but so too are skin colours and ethnicities.  Obviously the changes are too slow and late in happening, but they are coming and this means that many of the white males at the table need to go back to school for an executive lesson in the new ways of unspoken communication.

Women clearly lead in a different manner. But equally true are the cultural differences brought by the new faces at the table that represent cultures newer to the west. These groups do not come with the same agendas that often dominated in the past.  And many times these people have had to fight through the prejudices of these agendas and thus have a different perspective that needs to be heard.

To lead in today’s boardroom you must understand and appreciate and accept that yesterday’s language simply doesn’t work.  Those who persist in this antiquated style are generally hiding personal incompetence’s and/or fears and do more harm than good in advancing a company’s objectives.

Sometimes it is simply a matter of ignorance.  In those cases, education is remedy.  More often it is a matter of arrogance, and there is little that education can do in those situations.

Regardless, it is the responsibility of the leader to change; not the style or expectations of those new to the table.  Take a hard look in the mirror and decide what you need to do to remain effective and relevant. Help is there for the willing.  The door is there for the reluctant.

The Moral Imperative

Effective leadership in the 21^st century will be defined by character, not competence.  The overriding characteristic will be morality.  Those who lead with a moral, ethical and legal imperative must dominate. 

You may feel that this is something of an apple pie comment.  But you only need to look at virtually every segment of our society to conclude that character is the principle element missing from leadership.  Whether it is business or politics; sports or religion; we are let down weekly by one leader or another.

The issue of morality…that is, the lack of morality…can be seen in almost all of the main issues that we are facing.  Take these for instance:

1.    Diversity and inclusiveness are moral issues.  We don’t need laws to know that all people need to be treated with respect and dignity.  These truths resonate in our collective spirit.  We KNOW when we have mistreated another because they were different from ourselves. 

2.    Sexual abuse is a moral issue.  No one should fear harm or reprisal because they turned down the sexual advances of another.  Nor should anyone fear harm or reprisal for reporting such behaviour.

3.    Climate change is a moral issue.  Companies should not require laws in order to stop polluting the environment.  Individuals should expect to be offered products and services that are carbon neutral, not because they need more choices but because they need to have options which contribute to a better society.

4.    Child labour and forced labour are moral issues.  Corporate conscience should dictate that hiding behind the lack of social policies in foreign countries is not the responsible way in which to provide goods for more economically advanced societies.

5.    Wealth disparity is a moral issue.  In a 2018 report, 26 individuals had more wealth than the bottom half of the world’s population, roughly 3.6 billion people. In the US, 10% of the population controls over 75% of the wealth and the disparities are only increasing. CEO compensation versus the average worker has grown exponentially.  Thirty years ago a typical CEO made 58 times more than the average worker.  Today that ratio is over 220 times more.

6.    Health care and education are moral issues.  An under privileged individual cannot ‘pull themselves up by their bootstraps’.  They need a hand up not a hand out.

The list goes on but you get the message.  Leadership in this century will require a moral imperative. The issues that I have mentioned are not ones that will fix themselves.  In fact, over that past decades they have only become worse and more pervasive.  Left unaddressed, the disparities will have tragic consequences.

Your first response may be that the issues outlined are societal not corporate.  Therefore what have they to do with you?

But look again, because all of these issues require a corporate response.  That response must be internal to be certain.  But true leaders will recognize the need to speak out more broadly and publicly to demonstrate how they have addressed the points while encouraging others to respond likewise.

It must be both an individual and a collective effort. It’s a lot to ask, even more to expect. But unless and until we embrace this moral imperative we have no chance. 

If you are a leader, please lead! If you are not a leader, do you best to see that these are the types of individuals who are elected and/or appointed to positions of responsibility and authority.

There comes a time

Leadership, the art of bringing others together for the achievement of a common goal, is not a popularity contest. As much as most of us want to be well regarded, there will always come a time in which a decision that we make goes against the grain. We will be questioned about the reasonableness of that decision because on its face it does not strike others as making sense. 

You knew that this decision would face opposition before you announced it.  But you also knew that you alone understood the grounds for coming to that conclusion.  As long as you met the moral, legal and ethical benchmarks, you were simply exercising the responsibilities that your function required of you.

Here’s the thing.  People object for several reasons but the primary two are:

·       They don’t like the consequences of the decision on their lives, or

·       It’s just a bad decision.  It is wrong on its’ merits.

During this pandemic, we have seen repeated objections to the decisions being made by governments around the world.  And the objections have invariably fallen into one of these two categories. The pandemic has been worsened in most areas of the world because leaders could not properly advance the merits of their correct decisions; and because so many of the decisions were just bad.

What can we learn from this and apply to our own businesses.  I submit the following:

1.    It is not enough to be right; one must also be seen to be right if there is to be broad acceptance of your decisions.  This boils down to communications.  For example, in countries like New Zealand and Australia, very strict regulations were imposed on the populace.  A vigorous information campaign complemented the restrictions offering the people the hope of a quicker return to ‘normality’ and reduced infections and death. The ‘buy in’ was widely accepted and the results are that the two countries are now in a mutual travel bubble and the expectations of ‘normality’ have been functionally achieved even before wide spread vaccinations are in place.

The lesson for business leaders is simply that the better you communicate the more likely you are to succeed.  The communication strategy must accompany, not follow, a decision that others will find tough to accept. If your messaging does not acknowledge…I mean really give a damn…about the consequences, then you are doomed…as you should be.

2.    The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry! T’is true since plans were made. Despite our best intentions we mess up.  During Covid there have been widespread errors, especially in the Americas and Europe.  Leaders have been too slow and/or unwilling to face the realities of the disease because they are conducting popularity contests, not governing.  Witness the tragedies that are Brazil, the USA and parts of Europe.  The tragedies are twofold.  Failure to follow science and failure to acknowledge mistakes.

 

In your business you have made decisions you regret.  Welcome to reality.  But mistakes won’t fix themselves and left unattended, they only worsen.

Not surprisingly, your best action is the same as above, that is, communicate.  You start with a sincere and personal mea culpa. Forgiveness is a common human response.  This stems from people’s desire for effective leadership.  Unless you are a serial loser, they are looking to you for the answers because history shows that you generally deliver.  When you fail their inclination is to support you in the hope and expectation that you will get it right the next time.

 

It is seldom the case that someone will step forward to challenge your leadership.  The vast majority simply don’t want the responsibility. So regroup, rethink, and then communicate your agenda. 

 

Just don’t go to the well too often!

Two you can do without.

 

 

Historically we have sought out those individuals who have the drive and willingness to take risks.  These high achievers will, we hope, take us to new and higher levels of success. While this may be true some of the time, in my experience there is a greater risk when we mistakenly hire people who fall into one of these two categories.

The first group I call the ‘Icarus Idiots’.  These people are characterized by their willingness to take more and more risks in an effort to achieve that which has never been achieved.  Their reward is the fame and glory of potentially attaining the unattainable.

There are two major problems with this personality. 

1.    They require an inordinate amount of support from others.  Thus they drain limited resources in vain pursuits.

2.    If they do manage to achieve their goal, they seldom share the success with others as they are driven by the need for personal recognition, not team success.  Chemistry is not in their vocabulary and in the long term this attitude will tear apart an otherwise productive group.

Group number two I will call the ‘Lazarus Lunatics’.  People in this group do not recognize risks per se.  Icarus at least knows there may be failure but is willing to chance it.  Lazarus cannot even see the risk.  They tend to move in one direction only and will ignore the advice and input of others.  In their minds it’s ‘…my way or the highway…’

Again there are two major issues.

1.    Lazarus does not care about the costs of failure.  Whereas Icarus knows that the consequences of failure fall primary on him, Lazarus ignores the potential of a broader impact. This attitude is as self- serving as Icarus but comes with more collateral damage.

2.     Icarus learned his lesson the hard way and died, unable to repeat his mistakes.  Lazarus somehow arises from the dead to ‘live’ another day.  He learns nothing and cares not about the aftermath of failure.  Thus he is likely to continue his recklessness until formally checked.

As I mentioned in the opening, we all look for those unique personalities that we hope will deliver the results we are looking to achieve.  However when those individuals cannot operate successfully in a team environment, you will have introduced an element of risk that is seldom rewarded in a manner commensurate with your expectations.

Chemistry and character almost always outweigh competence.  Icarus and Lazarus are remembered in history, but not for what they achieved.

Keep that in mind as you look for the leaders in your scope of responsibility.

'...teach your children well...'

 

Throughout much of our working history one of the key aspects of leadership has been the successful transfer of knowledge.  There were ‘tried and true’ methods to perform specific functions. The best companies were able to refine these methods and ensure that each new generation learned and then further fine-tuned these processes.

We commonly promoted those individuals who best grasped and implemented our ‘ways’.  At the top of the hill was the fount of all knowledge and we deferred to HIS decisions and directions.

But as sure as winter turns to spring, these norms are being turned on their heads.  It started 20-25 years ago as computers became more fundamental to our daily routines.  And as the complexity of business intensified, the process only accelerated.

Leaders were no longer the repository of all knowledge.  In fact, those who held firm to that misconception were now more of a hindrance than a help.  Because they did not have an appreciation of the power that technology offered, they were not able to harness its’ benefits.  Whether as a result of fear or ignorance or both, they failed in their duties.

We used to say that ‘…that train has left the station…”  But trains don’t travel at the light speed of today’s changes.

Let me offer a singular example.  It is representative of what effective leadership looks like in the 21^st century.

When the Covid pandemic started about a year ago, a key to confronting the disease was identifying its spread.  One of the largest political jurisdictions in North America turned to a major consulting firm for answers.  While the CEO of that firm negotiated the terms of the agreement, he was in no position to lead the implementation of a solution.  Instead, it fell to a brilliant twenty something and his team to use technology to analyze the situation and then develop and deliver a solution. 

Dealing in uncharted waters, within weeks a testing program was created and rolled out across a broad geographic territory.  Following expected initial hiccups, the testing soon delivered, and continues to deliver, tens of thousands of results each day. This information allows the medical community to respond to the changing dynamics of this plague and offers some hope to defeating it.

There was nothing in that CEO’s playbook or personal experience that would have allowed him to affect a plan.  He understood that the best…the only…option was to defer to some of the youngest members of his organization because it was there that the union of intelligence and technology resided.  Experience was not critical to the process because there was none to lean on.

You see, knowledge was now being passed up the chain of responsibility, not vice versa.

As a leader, have you empowered your organization with the vitality of technology?  And with the vitality of those who truly understand the impact it can have on your business? 

The best ones have. If you missed the boat…good luck…

Do you have the emPHAsis on the correct syllABle?

 Throughout my career the primary performance measurements have revolved around the sales and profitability of the products and/or services that were being offered.  Whenever we considered an acquisition of a competitor, we focused on the level of additional positive impact that purchase would make to these two components.

Investors typically focus on the ROI and growth potential of targeted companies.  The financial analysis drives the price that the investor is willing to pay or the value of the share price.

Virtually everyone in a role that earns a bonus it tasked with achieving certain financially based objectives.  Stock options for executives are likewise driven by the achievement of these goals.

The reason for the reliance on these types of performance metrics is because they are: a) easy to establish and measure and b) something that is objective, and not subjective.  It becomes a binary discussion.  Either you met/exceeded the goal or you did not. Hence the saying ‘…take care of the nickels and dimes and the dollars take care of themselves…’

I want to propose an alternative PRIMARY focus. Let’s change the emPHAsis to a different syllABle.

First allow me to rephrase our old saying to ‘…take care of the ladies and gents and the results take care of themselves…’

For too long we have neglected to have a ‘people first’ mentality.  The assumption has been that if we have a viable product and a great strategic plan, the rest is simply implementation.  And with a work force to choose from that is in the tens of millions, how difficult is it really to find the needed resources?

But the best companies have recognized that the primary emphasis must be the people it employs.  They have adopted the motto ‘…doing the right thing by the people is doing the right thing for the company…’

These companies have invested as much in culture as they have in research and development.  They value the recruiting, training and retention of the best people on an equal footing with product marketing. They understand that growth flows from within the creativity of the workforce at least as much as the foresight of the CEO.

A quick analysis of the Fortune 500 shows that 60% of the top 50 companies in 2000 no longer occupy that spot.  In fact, several of them no longer exist.  The products and services that they offered are still being successfully sold by others.  Is it possible that the people in the ‘survivors’ are the principal reason for their success?

As we gradually return to ‘normal’ in a post pandemic world, does your culture need a vaccine as well?  Should you look the change the emPHAsis to ensure that your focus is on your people more than the numbers? It may take a leap of faith on your part…

Let me assure you that it can’t hurt and that the change may be far more productive than you assume!