Even when presented with all of the data and research that has made a prerequisite for elevating “culture” to a strategic imperative, executives often have a funny way of trying to wiggle out of the resulting case for change.  Resistance will continue to show its familiar face as managers:  (a) argue that the research is flawed and that they need more proof; (b) contend that their company is different, and the usual rules don’t apply; (c) acknowledge that this may be something the company should think about – and then delegate the matter to the HR department; (d) get screamin’ mad about last quarter results and hire another marketing guy.

Hey, you know how it is … If you don’t admit it’s important, you don’t have to deal with it; and you certainly don’t have to make it a priority.  After all, if you were serious about change, you’d have to make serious changes in yourself…is it really all that important?

The catch in all this?  It starts with you, the leader.  When all is said and done, this may well be where personal belief systems really need to change!  If you (the leader) are convinced that culture is a strategic lever for success, you’ve cleared one of the biggest hurdles between you and getting the results you want.  You must be the first, most competent and consistent in displaying the desired behavior.  You must model how it’s done.  All eyes are on you to see if it is real.

Get Clear, Get Grounded, Get Going

So, figure it out.  What results do your people most need from you?  Then:

• Take a meaningful hard look:  Determine what your culture really looks like right now.  Profile it; sharpen your understanding of its dynamics and implications.  This is no time for “amateur night at the lodge.”  Engage the experience and perspective of professionals.
• Focus on what matters most:  Identify those factors that directly support the results you want.  Consider their implications in the context of your industry and the marketplace.  Again, this is where the right expertise can really pay for itself.
• Prepare for the change:  Clarify your expectations, check your commitment, enroll key teammates, and identify critical support resources for the long haul.
• Make it happen:  And hold on tight!  As hard as it may be for leaders to deal with, especially as strong individuals who have succeeded for so long by avoiding this “soft culture stuff,” the fact remains that this not something that can be delegated to the HR department.

Culture is the work of today’s leader.

Certainly a common dilemma for managers today, where the more common organization structure is matrixed and where most business priorities are typically in competition with each other for resources (time, people or money).

Today, engaging employees with multiple priorities is indeed difficult because it requires triggering motivation that is beyond just “reward” and certainly not accomplished through threat either.  What I’ve learned, especially these past few years,  is that employees are looking for opportunity in the work they do.  If you are noticing that your assignments are taking a back seat to other business priorities, chances are the other priorities are laced with more opportunity than yours.

Lazy thinking managers today believe, “If I pay this guy more money, he will do more work for me; or if I articulate clearly enough my displeasure, he or she will not dare put my work on the back shelf.”

Exceptional leaders recognize motivating an employee to commit their time, energy and focus requires that leader to articulate to the employee the TOTAL opportunity of the work needing the attention.  The TOTAL opportunity includes the learning and development possible, the career growth potential, the difference it will make in the customer experience, the difference it will make in the company’s performance, the direct contribution it makes to the company mission, and oh yes, the potential financial reward.  WIIFM is the old acronym but this goes farther.  WIIFM suggests employees are selfish. Truth is most of us want to do the right thing and we yearn to grab hold of new opportunities as they present themselves.

The reality is that employees make trade-offs every day.  Smart managers recognize the trade off is about the opportunity, not who an employee’s favorite boss is.  Don’t rely on organizational structure to direct your employee’s efforts. It doesn’t.  Take the time to communicate the TOTAL opportunity of the work you need accomplished.  If done right, your employees will direct their energy accordingly.

Strategic leadership is defined as an ability to generate and apply business insights on a continual basis to achieve competitive advantage.  Today’s environment demands employees and managers alike be more successful with fewer resources.  And by resources, I mean time, talent, and capital.  How you deploy resources makes you a strategic leader whether you know it or not.

Resource allocation is at the core of strategy.  All discussions of strategy always boil down to HOW to allocate and deploy resources to maximize business potential.  Leaders must change their resource attitude from one of limitation to one of leverage.  More specifically, leaders must learn to concentrate on multiplying the value of resources that already exist; deploying resources with a clear purpose in mind.  Strategic leaders recognize hot spots:  low resource input making high impact, and conversely, cold spots:  high resource input resulting in low impact.  Once clear on the difference, leaders learn to horse trade, continuously re-deploying resources to hot spots.

Truly effective strategists think and act like an enterprise.  They dedicate time “out-of-the-box.”  They are naturally curious, tend to take more risks, are very disciplined in how they use their time to allow for creative thinking, and when the opportunity arises, take initiative.  Are you creating space for cultural curiosity?  Are you creating the condition for inquiry?  Are you setting up regular meetings and interactions to engage people?  Are you asking challenging questions that interrupt business as usual responses?

Finally, strategic leaders recognize organizational politics as a fact of life in business.  People at all levels have vested interests.  Strategic leaders know it’s their job to know them.  They focus and plan through disproportionate influencers, specifically:

• Angels:  Those who naturally align and/or who have the most to gain from the change you are proposing.
• Devils:  Those in resistance, who have least to gain, or will lose from the change you are proposing.
• Consigliere:  That one highly respected and trusted senior leader who knows the landmines and is willing to guide you to your intended outcome.

Strategic leaders invest time in building relationships with people who will get behind their ideas one way or another.

I teach grown ups how to learn how to learn again!

So proud of myself until a wise guy in the front row exclaimed, “and you get paid for this???” Funny right? But the youngster was spot on because in his little worldview, everyone is always learning. Children are natural sponges, soaking up everything that life offers. But adults unfortunately do not. Over the course of our lives we are taught, “this is the right answer, that is the wrong approach.” Routines and habits become entrenched and our ability to learn something new becomes more difficult.

And yet, we are all working and living in an environment of unprecedented change. Change, by its very nature, demands we learn something new. And yet we resist, push back, and rationalize keeping things as they have always been. In my work these days I challenge my clients (no matter the situation, training, planning meeting, one-on-one coaching, etc.) to be open to learning something new… to have their mind changed by someone or something.

If you want to establish a routine, try committing to having your mind changed on a daily basis. You will be amazed by the amount of new insight you gain and how you become naturally open to change.

And, yes young man, I get paid for this.

One of the most common challenges facing leaders today is deciding what is a priority and what is not.  I recently developed a program that addresses this very issue.  I call it, “Extreme Prioritization.”  Why “Extreme?”

Today’s business environment (for most leaders) is incredibly complicated and volatile.  The current economic downturn (and all the associated pressures that come with it) has overwhelmed the workloads of most managers.  When asked why it’s so hard to prioritize all that work, I hear, “Too many bosses,” “Can’t afford to not get it all done,” “Too many changes,” “People can’t say no,” “Afraid to fail” … and the list goes on and on.  So I decided to address both the skill and methodologies for prioritization, but more importantly, the psychological and attitudinal requirements to successfully make trade-offs and ultimately smart decisions.

To successfully discern critical projects, initiatives, etc., leaders must first have a crystal clear understanding of the strategic priorities and goals of the business.  If not present (for whatever reason) prioritization will simply be the product of taking care of “my own agenda.”  Ask yourself (and your people) how clear am I (are they) about the strategic direction and mission critical objectives of the company.  Find out what you don’t know, then actively and explicitly pass it on to your employees.  Make sure the language of the mission is present in as many of your business tools as possible, especially in all of your performance management documentation.

If the direction is clear, then the next issue to address is the attitudinal barriers to prioritization.  In my mind there are three that most typically and predictably get in the way:

• Cognitive Bias
• Resource Limitation Beliefs
• The Myth of Multi-Tasking

Cognitive Bias is simply the mind’s way of directing what you believe to be important…for example, anchoring bias, where your mind unconsciously places disproportionate weight against initial information, like original budgets, current structure, current people, first idea impression, etc.  There is also self-interest bias, where you unintentionally place more weight against those initiatives that serve only you or your function; and finally, group think, where new insights, better assumptions, etc., are overrun by the mob mentality and consensus of a group at work.

Resource Limitations Belief is THE most common bias in business today.  I have not yet met a single manager who, at the beginning of the budget cycle, said that they had plenty of resources.  Resource allocation is at the heart of every strategy and learning how to deploy resources against the most critical tasks IS the primary job of every manager.  Managers must focus (and assess) the value of their resources and deploy thoughtfully.  If you have a prevailing belief that you do not have enough, you are already setting yourself up to lose.  Leaders must learn how to leverage what they have, specifically identifying where low input resource turns into a high-impact result.  Leaders must learn the fine skills of horse trading, effectively deploying the right resource at the right time for the right reason.

Multi-tasking is the most unproductive and inefficient skill leaders deploy today that undermines their ability to focus and prioritize.  Much has been studied about the neurological and physical consequences of multi-tasking, but simply put, it is how your brain organizes information and not how it processes information.  So much is on our plates today, and for most of us, multi-tasking is the only solution to getting it all done.  But I am here to tell you it’s a myth.  Just ask people when, in their day, they feel most productive.  Most will tell you 6:00 a.m. or after 7:00 p.m.  Why?  Because that’s when they can focus, not multi-task.

Cleaning up your mind is a critical first step in learning how to prioritize.  In my next blog I will introduce some specific methodologies for determining what is truly important.

Consider these three questions first and you will not be disappointed with the response:

1. Will your policies or rules encourage personal responsibility or will it create victims?
2. Will your policies or rules enable more freedom or independence, or will it force more dependence?
3. Will your policies or rules inspire investment and growth, or will it trigger fear, risk aversion, and stagnation?

The true measure of a leader is not found in their power, span of control or authority; or even in their charismatic and moving speeches.  True leaders are measured by the quality, power, and effectiveness of their followers.  Imagine considering these questions or “filters” before making decisions that impact those that follow you.  The quality, power, and effectiveness of your people will inevitably be determined by your guidance and your decisions.

Encourage and expect personal responsibility from your people (and your children).  Make decisions that create an environment that inspires individual freedom and independence, and most importantly, invest in your people’s (or nation’s) or children’s growth.  Place a bet on their potential greatness and watch them take off!

The most fundamentally flawed statement that lives in our daily conversations at home and at work. Think about what this statement actually implies. It actually requires you to find something you don’t currently believe in!

In a business context, this adage is as dangerous as developing a strategy based on hope. In a time when employees are looking for certainty in a volatile business climate, asking them to believe in something they don’t currently see is simply unrealistic … because it is simply not how the brain works.

Think about the skeptics and cynics at work. If I ask them to believe that there won’t be any more reductions in force, even though in the past two years they’ve survived two … chances are their brains are going to be searching for evidence to be right about their skepticism first! Human beings love to be right. If I don’t believe something, my brain is going to scan what’s around me to reinforce MY belief.

Therein lies the major challenge for leaders today. How do you change a habit, a norm, an experience, a climate, a culture and enable your workforce to see the evidence? Hard to do unless you have a disciplined approach in your communications AND the subsequent supportive messaging. I have found that it’s not the quantity of communications that works, it’s how you ensure alignment of the interpretation.

People will always ask (consciously or unconsciously) what does THIS mean?? If you are not there to facilitate the interpretation, their skeptical brain will.

The most compelling quote from the bible, “Thomas, blessed are those that don’t see and yet believe.” Suggesting, of course, that FAITH is required. Unfortunately, business leaders must create a deep trusting relationship with their people in order to create this level of faith.

In the meantime…focus on conveying evidence…constantly; and over time, that evidence will out-crowd your skeptics.

Well, I am getting very close to understanding that, in fact, it really does come down to one thing; and here it is:

“Personal Belief in…”

Great leaders who I’ve witnessed personally, or those who I’ve interviewed or researched, all share this one common attribute.

• When they are confronted by a challenge and they bring forward a solution, they have an unshakable personal belief it will work.
• When they are engaging their people in their vision or strategy, they convey with 100% congruence their personal belief in its merit.
• When questioned relentlessly by the press or analysts about their company’s current or future performance, they communicate in clear and compelling terms their confidence in their strategy, or products, or people … and people back off only because … their personal belief was palatable.

Some authors have referred to this as “principle-centered” and to some degree this “one thing” relates.  But this one thing I am referring to is more than that … it is a situational choice leaders have to make (and, in fact, do make, whether they are aware of it or not).

How many times have you walked out of a meeting reflecting on what a leader just conveyed, and said to yourself, “This will never fly!” I’ve attended hundreds of sales conferences, leadership summits, etc. and I spend a lot of time in the hallway listening in on what people REALLY think; and most times, it is not laced with confidence in the leader who just spoke.  Why not?  The One Thing was not evident.

I now coach leaders situationally.  I continuously challenge their personal belief systems.  How?

• Ask them why they believe this imperative is important.  In the first 20 seconds of their response, you will know if their personal belief is congruent with the task at hand.  Pay attention to tonality, physiology, and mostly, pay attention to your own reaction.

I call it a “gut check” and you can’t fake it.  People today are so tuned in and attentive because the business environment is so fragile.  They are looking for certainty in times of unprecedented change.  They are looking for confidence where so little exists.  People are more likely to go the extra mile, ask the tougher questions, risk a little more, and generally take their game to the next level IF they believe their leader has a personal belief in them.

Effective leaders take people to the line and facilitate accordingly.  It is clearly the art, not the science, of leadership and cannot be defined by policy, structure, RACI charts, corporate value statements, or meeting ground rules.  It takes being conscious as a leader, moment-to-moment, situation-by-situation, and it takes confidence to push the dialogue one step further.  Fact is, people are more resourceful, creative, engaged, and productive when they are immersed in a tense debate.

The trick?  Shared outcome.  Before engaging at a personal, or even functional level, the outcome must be understood and shared mutually by those involved.  Too often leaders assume this is known and often, it is not.

Be explicit on outcome, then take a walk to the line.