Can You See What I See?

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Wesley was happy. “I stayed up most of the night last night, couldn’t sleep. I finally figured out a new process for the way we inspect parts coming off the line. It should speed things up and detect almost all the product defects.”

“Congratulations,” I smiled. “How is the team responding to the new process?”

“Oh, they don’t know about it yet,” Wesley replied. “I have a meeting with them in about ten minutes. I am sure they are going to be enthusiastic about the changes.”

“Quite certain, are you?” I continued to smile.

“I can tell by your question that you think I am overoptimistic about the team’s reaction.”

I chuckled. “Yes. You have a new story to tell the team that is different from the old story the team has been living with. You can see things about this new process that your team may struggle with. And, their old story will support their struggle. Do not underestimate the power of the story people tell themselves. Your new story has to pull the team all the way through the struggle so they begin to see what you see.”

Who Is Driving This Bus?

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“I’m frustrated,” Pauline pouted.

“How so?” I asked.

“I can’t seem to get my team to see things the way I see them,” she nodded.

“Tell me more,” I smiled.

“The team’s priorities seem a bit misguided,” she replied. “I can’t figure out what drives them. They are casual about showing up for work, they knock off early for lunch, they live for the afternoon break and race out at 5p even if we are in the middle of a run.”

“It sounds like what drives you and what drives the team are different,” I said. “So, tell me, what drives you?”

“I’m not really sure,” Pauline wondered out loud. “Definitely different, but I’m not sure I can tell you what drives me.”

“If you cannot figure out what drives you, how can you expect to figure out what drives another person?”

A Different Person Responds

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“So, perhaps I shouldn’t have any habits at all,” Priscilla thought out loud.

“You cannot help it,” I smiled. “Habits form whenever you repeat any behavior. Repeated behaviors fire in the brain and the more those behaviors fire, the more they wire together.”

“So, my habits determine who I am?” Priscilla puzzled.

“If you want to predict what a person will do, examine their habits. It is who they are. The biggest problem with changing a habit, is that it changes who you are. Most people are not willing to take that bet, so they stay the same. They refuse the call to adventure, because that would require a different person to respond to the call.”

Some Habits

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“But, I thought you said habits were good,” Priscilla said.

“Some habits are good, some habits are bad,” I replied. “You have to be the judge of whether that habit serves you or does not serve you. Habits are simply a mental shortcut to a behavior. And, sometimes that mental shortcut skips over the discretionary question of whether the habit serves you or not.”

“So?” Priscilla asked.

“So, you have think about your habits. You have to think about your aim, your purpose and think about whether that habit supports your aim. Some habits do not. And, those habits may be the most difficult to displace.”

More Control or Less

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“It is very difficult to cede my power as a CEO,” Suzanne shook her head from side to side. “It’s my company, my accountability.”

“You are still accountable. All crumbs lead to the CEO,” I said. “And, what changes when you see your company, not as a hierarchy of power, but, a hierarchy of competence?”

“First of all, I cannot promote people into positions because of their seniority, their loyalty or their current position of power,” she was thinking out loud, knowing I was listening.

“Promote people to a position of what?” I asked.

“A position of authority,” Suzanne replied.

“Authority to do what?” I pressed.

“Authority to make decisions,” she relented.

“Now, we are getting somewhere,” I smiled. “You begin to see your organization through the lens of competence. You cannot promote someone to a position of authority, to make decisions, unless they are competent to make those decisions. If they are competent to make those decisions, are you, as the CEO in more control or less control?”

Guiding Value in Hierarchy

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“But, if I delegate things out to other people, meaning, if I delegate decision making to other people, doesn’t that erode my power, as the CEO?” Suzanne wanted to know.

“If power is that important to you?” I replied.

“Isn’t that why I started this company, built it up from scratch? I am the one who made all the decisions. I am the one who had all the accountability,” she protested.

“And, you still have all the accountability. In the beginning, it was appropriate for you to make all the decisions, there was nobody else around. And, as the number of customers grew from a handful, to a dozen, to a hundred, they demanded your organization grow to accommodate their needs. As your organization grew, through necessity, you had to delegate, first tasks, then decisions. To the point where you now feel a loss of control.”

“And, a loss of power,” Suzanne quickly added.

“And, there is the rub. You see your organization as a hierarchy of power. Don’t kid yourself, the world is biologically ordered into a hierarchy of value. You see the value in your hierarchy as one of power. A power hierarchy begins to weaken the purpose of the organization’s original intent. This is a very serious shift, to understand your organization, not as a power hierarchy, but a hierarchy of competence. And, when you see it that way, what changes?”

The Illusion of Control

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I walked by Suzanne’s office. “Why the long face?” I said.

“Ya know,” she replied, “I thought being CEO would get easier as time went by.”

“And?” I asked.

“But, it’s not. At first, it was great. I was the grand Poo-Bah. Everyone deferred to me. I could snap my fingers and a dozen people jumped. If something went wrong, I could always find someone to blame it on. Dominion over everything. Power over…”

“Go on,” I prompted.

“That was when we were small. The power had an addictive quality. Then we got bigger, things became more structured. Power gave me control, but now I think I am losing both power and control.” Suzanne got quiet.

“Nothing like a little power and the illusion of control,” I smiled.

“Easy for you to say,” she sneered. “I just don’t have the bandwidth to clamp down harder, to get things back in control.”

“Suzanne, what happens to the speed of decision making if all decisions have to go through the CEO?”

She thought, then nodded. “Slows down.”

“Or stops,” I added. “And what happens to the speed of problem solving if all problems have to be solved by the CEO?”

Suzanne picked up the pattern. “Slows down or stops.”

“And what happens to control when decision making slows down? Better or worse?”

She just nodded, pursing her lips.

“It’s counterintuitive,” I said. “The more you clamp down, the less control you have. We misunderstand this concept called delegation. We think delegation is to get some menial tasks off our plate. What we need to delegate are not tasks. What we need to delegate is decision making and problem solving. Only then will we be in greater control.”

Reality Check

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“We started this discussion because I signed off on a project that my team leader believes cannot be done,” Ryker explained. “We identified that, as a manager, I had some self doubt, that perhaps the ringleader might be right.”

I nodded.

“We determined that I had to deal with my own self doubt before I face the team leader,” Ryker continued. “We determined that only after I dealt with my own demons, could I make headway with the team.”

I nodded again. “And, to make headway with the team, what do you have to pay attention to?”

“I think I have to pay attention to the demons each team member has, including the demons the team leader has,” Ryker replied. “I think we have to have a reality check.”

I smiled. “We talked about awareness, we talked about preparation. You have added reality checking.
Reality checking is valuable, especially in the midst of doubt. But, people don’t like to reality check under pressure. So, when do you want to do this reality checking? Before the project gets started?  In the middle of the project when you are already behind schedule?  Or at the end of the project when you have missed the deadline?”

“I think we have to slay the dragon of self doubt first, before the project gets started,” Ryker said. “I know it will take some time, but if we tackle the project with the mindset of self doubt, we will struggle with the obstacles inside the project.”

“Sometimes we have to go slow, so later we can go fast.”

Which Dog Do You Feed?

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“I have a dog that thinks, as a manager, that I am an imposter. And, I have a dog that believes I am NOT an imposter. I know which dog to feed. What do I feed the dog?” Ryker wanted to know.

“Attention,” I replied. “It’s not the food, it is the act of feeding. You get what you pay attention to.”

“Okay,” Ryker said. “But, I am still stumped.”

“Make a list. What does a manager do?” I asked. “A manager who is not an imposter?”

“You said awareness, that’s one,” Ryker had a start. “We have talked about preparedness. I have to prepare.”

“Prepare for what?”

“I have to prepare for anything, because I don’t know what obstacles there are,” Ryker concluded.

“And, how do you find the obstacles that are there?”

“I find them. I look for them. I aggressively go out in search of them, instead of waiting for them to appear.”

“And, why do you do that?” I smiled.

“Because I am not an imposter,” Ryker smiled back.

Beating the Status Quo

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“Are you saying that my internal thinking, my doubts as a leader, seeing myself as an imposter, IF I can deal with all of that, the problems in the project will be easier?” Ryker was curious.

“No, the problems in the project will still be difficult,” I replied. “But, if you have doubts in yourself, the problems in the project may be impossible. Slay the imposter first.”

“Slaying the imposter sounds easy and impossible at the same time. Do I just ignore the imposter, pretend it doesn’t exist?” Ryker asked.

“The first step is awareness,” I nodded. “And you are aware. Your stomach relays the message loud and clear. Your stomach wants to win. It tells you to just go with the flow. You have been drifting along in life allowing your stomach to make the tough decisions, mostly to stick with the status quo, do not tackle anything difficult. It wants to lull you back into familiar patterns where there is no conflict.”

“But, the conflict is still there,” Ryker reminded me.

“Yes,” I continued to nod. “Which will win. It’s like two dogs in a fight. Which will win?”

Ryker knew this story. “The dog that wins is the dog I feed.”