A sense of perspective and responsibility

With all that has been going on the last 12 to 18 months, the leadership challenge for 2009 is, “How can we get a real sense of perspective back into our lives and who is going to take responsibility for making it happen?”

In terms of perspective we need a clear understanding of what our own real situation is now and in the short to medium term future.

Last Monday I was having a bad day. My broadband connection had collapsed at home and after a totally wasted morning I grumpily climbed into my car and drove to the office to catch up on some urgent emails before setting off around the world on business. The very first email that I opened came from a friend in Kenya. Gideon explained in heart rending terms about the current food crisis in Kenya and the fact that his family were surviving by eating leaves and roots.

Suddenly my Broadband crisis seemed to be much less of a problem and I realised just how easy it is to lose a sense of true perspective.

The media will of course continue to promote doom with misleading headlines such as “The UK Economy has ground to a halt!”

I laughed when I heard this because at the time I was driving on a busy motorway having just left a large supermarket where the queues for the checkouts had been as irritating as usual. Had the economy actually ground to a halt, the motorway would have been empty, as would the shelves of the supermarket.

Somehow we have to rise above this hyperbole and keep things in perspective.

Equally importantly we are going to have to make sure that each and every person in our businesses understands their personal responsibility for solving the problems that exist and takes the actions to demonstrate that they accept and enjoy that responsibility.

When people fail to take responsibility it is deeply frustrating and annoying.

For example imagine that you are driving on a motorway in the outside lane. The traffic is such that you’re a making slow if steady progress past the two other lanes and of course leaving appropriate gaps for safe driving. Suddenly you notice another car, it is switching lanes, undertaking, and cutting in, causing other cars to brake; that otherwise unnecessary braking is slowing the general pace and will eventually result in a queue.

You feel tense, angry and frustrated that one person only cares about themselves and is not taking appropriate responsibility and what is more there are no police around to hold them accountable!

As I sat in the departure lounge at Heathrow last Tuesday, the TV’s were all showing the Obama inauguration. A member of the Heathrow team came and sat next to me to watch, as he put it, “History in the making”. In fact everyone seemed to be stopping to watch.

It seemed as if people hoped that this one man could change things that have taken decades to develop.

As I travelled via Beijing and Tokyo and eventually arrived in the USA, I was reading his book, The Audacity of Hope, in an attempt to better understand the man behind the cameras.

It is impressive. He appears to be a man of strong values, someone who is willing to listen to alternate views, see the other person’s perspective and even be influenced to change his own opinions. All great leadership traits. He is also acutely aware that things will only change with the consent and participation of the vast majority of the population!

My greatest fear for the man is that people have created such a sense of expectation, it will be impossible to be successful. I was reminded of a conversation with a CEO just before she took the stage at the annual leadership conference.

“I notice that you are making a series of promises about change and investment.” “Yes” she replied “Twelve in total”

“How many did you make last year and how many were actually delivered” I asked.

“I promised eleven and we did quite well in delivering eight of them” she smiled.

“HMM and which do you think will be remembered, the eight that were delivered or the three that were not? Perhaps this year you should promise six and deliver nine”

“But that would suggest that we lack ambition” she offered

“Well I guess it depends if you want to be remembered for being ambitious or successful!”

I have come to believe that Barak Obama is a man of vision, integrity and hope. Equally I believe that he demonstrates excellent leadership qualities, I just hope that people know that they also have to step up to their responsibilities and help him to achieve change.

Now let us put that in the current context in which our companies are facing great challenges and many are in a life and death struggle. Can you really afford to have people in your business who are not taking the responsibility that the business and their colleagues require them to in order to maximise the chances of survival.

Working one or more levels below:

A few years ago I was working with the Managing Director of a client. It struck me that she spent a lot of her time doing work that should be being done by someone else. Not just another member of the board, but actually someone two or possibly three levels away from her in the company.

At first I thought that it was because she had worked her way up through the industry and enjoyed the operational work so much that she could not resist to get involved in things that she really should allow others to do.

With further study I realised that the problem was being caused elsewhere. The company had a regional management and then local branch structure. The Regional Managers (who were a huge expense to the business) had poorly defined responsibilities and were people who had performed well as Branch Managers and been promoted to this role with little or no assessment of their potential.

Lacking a clear understanding of their expected contribution to the business and associated responsibilities, they filled their time going into branches and “fixing the problems”. Thus disempowered the branch managers became “super team leaders” and so on through the rest of the structure.

As there was no coordinating leadership and management at the regional level, the executive team were forced to step in and take that role, whilst also struggling to take the overall strategic lead.

As I held the mirror of reality up to the MD and her team, she took characteristically prompt and courageous action. The Regional management layer was removed saving the business several hundred thousands pounds per annum.
The good branch managers stepped up to the challenge and did not need regional “administrators” as the regional management team were labelled behind their backs. The ineffective branch managers who had been “protected” by the Regional Managers were exposed and replaced, and most importantly overall performance improved.

Are people in your business aware of their responsibilities and delivering against them? If not are you the missing policeman that everyone else wants to be seen to be dealing with them?

..and finally.

I do love travel. I will also happily admit that I really miss my family whilst I am doing it, but I think it is in my blood, if only because I love to see the similarities between people around the world. We do however still have our own unique issues to deal with.

In China, I found a continuing sense of optimism despite the fact that certain sectors have been very badly hit by the slow down in foreign trade. There is however a challenge that may be familiar to anyone who works in or with privatised ex-public sector businesses. It takes a long time to remove that culture of dependence and the expectation that it is someone else’s responsibility to take decisions.

In Japan, the issue is subtly different. I love Japan because it is such a friendly and polite culture. The only problem is that this means that they avoid conflict in business and struggle to challenge their elders who are so respected that “they should not be questioned.” So different to some tribal cultures in which leaders are the most humble people in the whole community.

..oh and one last thing.

As well as reading The Audacity of Hope - B. Obama, The Confessions of an Economic Hitman – John Perkins, is well worth a read. It tells the story of how America created the mess that the new President has to lead them out of.