Helping bosses influence people for performance quickly.
 

When you say "Change!" do they?    My clients never fail to have changes they'd love to see in others - an employee who will try a new way, a boss who will get out of the way, a supplier who will deliver on time, a manager who will treat his/her people more fairly, or not be such a pushover.

My question is always the same.   "What have you tried so far?"

They frequently answer, "I've tried telling him, explaining why his [attitude, habit, stubbornness, you name it...] is hurting morale, upsetting people and making it hard for the team to get the job done!" 

"How often have you tried this?," I ask.

"Oh, I can barely count how many times.  At least five times over the last year."

I wait a moment.  "And is it working?"

They pause.  Usually it's a long pause.  "No-o-o.  No, it's not working."  It's a heavy moment.

Then I lighten things up with a joke.  "Do you know what the definition of insanity is?"

"No.  What is it?"  They smile.

"It's where you keep doing the same thing, hoping to get a different result!" 

The most powerful thing you can do to influence change in another person, is to change yourself.  Traditional leaders try to get change from others without changing themselves.  They see themselves as already doing it the right or new way, and why can't the other guy see it too?  Mystified by the apparent thick skulls of others, they keep trying to pound the logic of the new way into the heads of others.

Are you clear about what behaviours you want to change in key people around you?  What do you want them to Stop doing?  What do you want them to Start  doing?...and Keep doing, even in the face of obstacles?  True leadership is like a traffic light.  You want a behaviour change in others....and you get it!  This is what distinguishes leaders of people from leaders of tasks.  Leaders of people know how to get the most out of people.

The question is....HOW do you get them to do it?   Does telling them work? ("I'm smarter than you, so please do it.")  Does being really nice work? (I'm a nice guy, so please do it")  Does ignoring it work? ("Sooner or later they'll come around.")  Offering carrots & sticks works, if you don't mind being addicted to paying higher and higher incentives, or threatening nastier and nastier consequences to keep them doing what you want...

These are the traditional approaches to leading people.  They are like the golfer who wants to pick up the golf ball and slam-dunk it into the hole by hand!  They don't have the wisdom nor the patience to stand back, read the green, decide their line, align their stance, "feel" how hard to hit the ball and then get physically and mentally centered to execute.  They don't trust that the ball will land in or near the hole.  They want to manually steer it in!

You need to set specific leadership goals if you want real change.  After all, you set goals in strategy.  You set financial goals.  Why not set leadership goals too? 

You need a plan if you want people to willingly change as if change is their own idea.  Not a long or complicated plan.  But one that has some thought and effort put into it.  What's Important Now? is the question that every leader needs to ask in every leadership moment.  What choice should I, the leader, make now in order to positively influence this person towards my leadership goals?

warmly,

John Kuypers
p.s. I've created a one page Leadership Review template that uses 9 simple steps to help leaders identify leadership goals, their current success rate and the cost of failing. Click here.

What Would You Do?

Your hard-working subordinate is showing signs of slowing down.  You notice that her reports are slower to arrive and sloppier in workmanship.  Her attitude is less enthusiastic and she is leaving work earlier than usual.  Nothing you would call 'failing to do the job', but a drop from her usual A+ performance... What is your leadership goal?  Stop?  Start?  Keep?

click for John's response...
 

He is quoted by The Associated Press on July 11 as saying, "I'm not setting sales targets.  All that might be convenient for the business but it's totally irrelevant to the customer."  He added that Honda will refuse to aimlessly seek numbers in selling cars and will stick to pleasing the customer one by one, accepting the results as they come.

This is classic present moment leadership, reflecting this value:  "We will do what's important now every day, which is to please the customer, and trust that the results we get will be the best results we could have achieved (without artificially distorting the year)."

Traditional leadership is future-focused.  Budgets are set, and then present moment reality is distorted in an effort to make the budgets look real.  Customers get "loaded" with unwanted inventory.  Accruals get padded to avoid unwanted over-achievements.  Sales people and middle managers play lengthy, counter-productive games to set low targets, so they will more easily reach maximum bonus payouts.  Costs and quality are cut, to make the numbers.

Congratulations to Honda and CEO Mr. Takeo Fukui.  This is headline news.  Unfortunately, too few leaders appreciate the enormity of your courageous move.

John Kuypers

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