Effectively balancing the “What”…

…versus the “How” as a Leader

One of the most challenging balancing acts a leader faces is determining how much they communicate what they want the desired results and outcomes to be, balanced against how much they tell those who execute the business how to achieve the desired results and outcomes. I would imagine your first response might be something along the lines of, “Whatever it takes to achieve the goals” or possibly, “ If you want it done right, you need to tell them exactly how to do it”. However, if you view the role of leader against the long-term view of business success, the answer is not so simple.

One would think communicating what to do would be the easier of the two tasks. I maintain they are both equally challenging for completely different reasons. A leader who effectively communicates what needs to be done is not merely reciting a checklist of tasks needing to be completed. It starts with translating the Vision of the business into a meaningful and tangible language for those who execute the business goals. Because the leader cannot possibly communicate every minute detail of the strategy, they must outline enough of the “What” and “Why” for the strategy to succeed. In other words, leaders must communicate their intent to the organization and it is where one of the biggest challenges occurs.

A question every leader must clearly communicate is “What does Success look like?” When the business is successful, what are people in the business doing? What are customers of the business saying about you? What are your vendors doing to support you? The more detailed the answers, the clearer the leader’s intent. Notice there is no mention of how all this occurs, only that when success does occur, this is the picture we see.

Which brings us to the communicating how to achieve the desired results. The process begins with an accurate assessment of the Attitudes, Skills and Knowledge of the team. We know that Attitude, or the Want to succeed is 75% of the overall success equation. If those who execute the business do not believe they can carry out the strategy the leader communicates to them, it is a foregone conclusion it will fail. If they believe in the strategy, success is three quarters complete! The team must also possess the requisite Skills, or how to do the functions to succeed and the Knowledge, knowing when and where to leverage the requisite skills for overall success.

Understanding the necessary Attitudes, Skills and Knowledge in the context of the leader’s intent, presents its own challenge because leaders may have differing perspectives than those who execute the business. As Anais Nin once said, “We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are”. One only has to look at the behavioral differences between a Baby Boomer leading a team of Generation X and/or Generation Y associates. The context of the leader’s intent may be translated differently (not necessarily correctly or incorrectly, just differently) leading to less than desired results.

It all starts with effectively communicating a strategy and strategic intent to those who execute the business. If a total stranger walks up to you and asks you to describe what your success looks like, how clear is the picture you paint for them?

Lead Well!

“Peace is not the absence of conflict...

...But the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict.”

On the eve of the anniversary of our nation’s independence, Dorothy Thompson’s words seemed an appropriate introduction to this month’s leadership topic – Managing Conflict. Much like our founding fathers managed conflict to achieve independence, so too must today’s leaders be prepared to manage conflict in their organizations to achieve their desired results. Conflict is defined as an interaction between interdependent parties who perceive incompatible goals or interference from others in achieving their goals. The key aspects for leaders to key in on are the level of interdependence between the parties involved and the foundation of each other’s perceptions. Establishing this level of interdependence helps leaders address the conflict in the context of the relationships involved. Addressing the perceptions by all parties enables leaders to understand the issues in the context of the facts of the conflict.

At the root of these two challenges is effective communication. Communication contributes to both the cause and the cure of conflict. Conflict typically shows itself in the absence of effective communication, creating misperceptions and information vacuums. Effective communication is a key catalyst to cure a conflict with the ability to bring parties together to understand the importance of the interdependent relationships, fill information voids and reset perceptions to their proper levels. A Leader’s ability to step into any conflict situation and effectively communicate to all parties can be the difference between success and failure, but not all Leaders are the same and not all Leaders manage conflict the same way.
Ralph H. Kilmann and Kenneth W. Thomas identified 5 specific Conflict Management styles based on their research in the early ‘70’s. The five styles are based on how aggressively one pursues their own goals against how aggressively they cooperate with the other parties in the conflict. The five styles are typically represented on a 2x2 grid with Assertiveness & Cooperativeness as the axis identifiers. The five styles are:

• Avoidance – Low Assertiveness, Low Cooperativeness
• Accommodation – Low Assertiveness, High Cooperativeness
• Compromise – Medium Assertiveness, Medium Cooperativeness
• Competition – High Assertiveness, Low Cooperativeness
• Collaboration – High Assertiveness, High Cooperativeness

As you can imagine, each style carries with it a unique set of skills, both communication and others, which may or may not be the Leader’s strength. I have worked with Leaders with all five natural styles to either complement their style with mine and/or to help them adjust their style to better achieve their desired results.

At no point have we discussed eliminating conflict. Lyle E. Schaller once said, “The easiest, the most tempting, and the least creative response to conflict within an organization is to pretend it does not exist”. As leaders, we must all recognize conflict will always exist and learn to effectively manage it through effective communication and awareness of our natural management style. How are you achieving peace in your organization?

Lead Well!

Leadership Lessons…

…From Running Triathlons.

Several weeks ago I ran a Sprint Triathlon in our hometown, something I’ve done for the last four years. However, what made this year special is I ran it with my youngest son who was running the race for the first time. Since it was his first race and our plan was to run it together, our motto for the race became “Start Steady, Finish Strong”. Undoubtedly, most of you reading this have heard of the famous Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii. The Sprint Triathlon is the shortest of the four official distances but still involves the same three events – swimming, biking and running in that order. So as I reflected on the race, it occurred to me the parallels between training and running triathlons with the leadership coaching I do as part of my practice.

When I first began competing in triathlons, I viewed them as separate events in which to train. I was a competitive swimmer and runner in both high school and college so it was natural for me to train in each event as I had before. This is no different when we find ourselves approaching new professional and personal challenges by relying on the skills and knowledge we developed from our past. Even when we set goals for ourselves to improve in an individual endeavor, it is still the past that governs our execution unless we consciously make a change. And as I realized my training regimen wasn’t enough, I needed to make a change - in my attitude regarding the race itself!

I had to change my mental approach to the race to ultimately achieve my goal. I actually made two changes. First, I changed my mental approach to the race from three individual events back-to-back-to-back to one race with five aligned competitive pieces. I say five because the transitions between events are really mini-events in and by themselves as the clock continues to tick during the swim-bike and bike-run transitions. Secondly, I realized I could not do this solely based on my own experience. I reached out to accomplished tri-athletes and read blogs from others who were also trying to optimize their triathlon experience. These two changes helped me align my actions to accomplish my overall goal.

So what does this have to do with leadership? How much are we relying on the experiences of the past to deal with today’s challenges? Are we going about change alone or are we reaching out to others to help us develop new leadership attitudes? Is our business a series of disparate, misaligned goals preventing us from achieving our ultimate objective? These are questions all leaders should regularly ask themselves.

I recently read a quote from Fred Lebow, founder of the New York City Marathon, a race I’ve run twice who said, “In running, it doesn’t matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack or last. You can say ‘I have finished’. There is a lot of satisfaction in that”. As my son and I completed the triathlon, I had no idea where in the pack we finished but I do know we Started Steady and we definitely Finished Strong! Are your goals aligned for a strong finish?

Lead Well!

Rick Lochner