Leadership and a Leap of Faith

Recently I shared a visual on my LinkedIn profile that suggested if any one of us were to realize our ambitions, if we were to achieve all that we could be, we would have to make the jump from one certainty or reality to something less tangible but more rewarding.

The visual calls upon the reader to take a leap of faith.

When I posted the visual I got a question back from one of my connections along the lines of:  "But what do we do when we need the safety net between the two ledges? Prepared to jump, but conditioned to be a sheep and stay in the safe zone... :)"  Not necessarily an atypical response and certainly a relatively common reaction or perspective that I have encountered in my executive coaching practice.  Many of us dream of a better job, career, life but are in fact afraid to take that next BIG step into the unknown.  In fact, there are many of us out there who have made a choice - consciously or unconsciously - to stay in positions, companies, and careers that are demoralizing, uninspiring and downright painful.  We have defaulted to the evil we know rather than taken the risk for a less well understood future benefit.  

My very brief response at the time to the question was that if we constantly find ourselves in need of the safety net, or the tether, or the anchor - whatever that might be - we are unlikely to achieve any of our dreams or ambitions in life.  Another way of putting this more poetically is:

You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

Christopher Columbus

Many of us marvel at the success of renowned entrepreneurs and business owners.  We envy their success and the lifestyle that has come with that success.  However, if you dig deeper into their stories it is clear that most of these individuals were not overnight successes nor did their current success come without challenge or even outright failure.  In fact, many of them failed spectacularly or often before achieving success.  What ultimately allowed them to succeed where others may not have even made the attempt?  You'll get various answers to that question but in part I believe it relates to a strong determination to succeed, a willingness to fail and not be deterred by failure, and perhaps a stronger confidence in self than many of us may have.  Ultimately, they took that leap of faith because they wanted to get the brass ring, understood they might stumble along the way, but were confident enough in their vision and abilities to eventually succeed.

All nice high-level stuff but let me bring this back to a local sense of reality from my point of view.  For the past two years I've been privileged enough to be a TEC Canada Chair.  That experience has opened me up to the possibilities ahead for any of us if we have strength of vision, a belief in self and a determination to succeed.  The stories of my TEC members have been inspiring for the challenges overcome, the success achieved to date, and the audacity of goals being pursued.  How audacious?  How about $50 million net worth by the age of 50 - with no capital of your own to start your venture (and on track)?  How about starting a company from scratch, getting executives to buy in with an equity stake in nothing and no salary and turning that into a nationally recognized venture in 3 years?  How about being a driving force in a regionally based company and turning that into a multimillion dollar stake as part of a buy-out by a national firm?  Success does come by a leap of faith.  Not without risk of course, nor without trials, tribulations and a few sleepless nights, but it does come.

Need something more personal?  How about making a shift out of a 25-year career to take on the challenge of building an executive coaching and consulting practice?  In the course of my three-year reinvention (to date) I've had more than one of my contacts express appreciation and amazement at my "successful" transformation.  I can't say that I yet share their same perspective on what success looks like but the comments have come all the same.  When pressed for the "secret of my success" I come back to the leap of faith concept once again.  I certainly had opportunities to return to my past career on a few occasions and I could easily have retreated to my place of comfort and safety.  I may have hesitated a time or two - and still have sleepless nights - but I know that I'll achieve more by having stayed the course and invested in my leap of faith fully.

I certainly appreciate the comfort and need for a "safety net".  But rather than hold on to your current reality and past success as your anchor and stabilizing point let me offer you some other linchpins in realizing your greater success that can still reassure you while you take flight:

1. Work on your vision, solidify your vision and keep focused on your vision - a leap of faith for me doesn't entail going in blind.  Belaboring the metaphor, you have to see the other side of the gorge in order to know where you are jumping to and have invested enough in yourself to have a reasonable degree of confidence to know you have the strength and skills to make the gap.  There is no 100% guarantee of success but there is closer to 0% chance if you make the leap without any focus or preparation.
2. Execute your plan with strength and conviction - even the best plans fail through poor execution.  Vision is the starting point but solidify that vision with clear goals and priorities, measure your progress, hold yourself accountable to those goals and metrics, adjust tactics as required to achieve the vision, and get help as you need it.  Those who are constantly planning or changing focus have no hope of making the leap.  
3. Don't give up (easily) - as noted before, many successful entrepreneurs and leaders did not enjoy or experience overnight success.  There will be setbacks, challenges and moments of (intense??) anxiety.  Be dogged in your determination to succeed.  Plan your work and work your plan.  Review tactics and investments to be sure.  If it were easy somebody would have already done it.  Where there is risk there is also reward.

Leadership is never about certainty or guarantees.  Leadership is all about taking that leap of faith - for yourself and on behalf of others.  Your current reality and success can hold you back or become a foundation for even greater success.  Which reality you embrace is truly going to be a matter of your own courage, confidence and conviction in yourself.  Leadership - is it in you?
______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
TEC Canada Chair/Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
hadubiak@wmc.ca

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

Fear and Panic don't equate to Leadership

Earlier this month Alberta underwent one of its infamous generational changes in government.  A new NDP government was formed after 44 years of Progressive Conservative government who had in turn ousted a Social Credit dynasty that had been in place for decades before.  In fact, Alberta has only had 5 governing parties hold power since coming into being since 1905.  When Alberta holds to a party it holds on to them for a long time.  Similarly, when a party is ousted from power it goes into political oblivion.  To this date - with the jury currently out on the Progressive Conservatives - no party has ever returned to power, and two have been wiped away completely never to return.

Leading up to this transition in power and since, the level of hyperbole from some commentators,  business people, federal politicians and Joe Q Public in respect of the transition from a "conservative" government to a "socialist" government has been extraordinary.  Dire predictions have been made of wholesale cancellation of oil and building projects, flight of capital, and departure of major segments of our population.  The province has now even been referred to as Albertastan in some quarters.

The predictions and prognostications were so over-the-top as to cause others to worry about creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Concern developed that continued negative commentary would start to make too many believe that now was the time to pull up stakes or freeze further commitments with the result that the provincial economy - already dealing with a precipitous drop in oil prices - would in fact slip into recession or worse.  A group of five prominent Alberta businessmen (sometimes derogatorily referred to as the "Monopoly Men") in particular warned of the consequences to Alberta's competitive advantage if the "socialists" were voted to power.

In my time as a manager/leader starting some twenty-five years ago, I've had the opportunity to work with and observe many leaders, managers and staff.  They have all helped me grow and develop my own leadership philosophy and style.  Sometimes I've learned great tools and techniques from them as they have navigated normal and not so normal situations.  But there have been just as many opportunities - and maybe more - where the lesson learned has been "I'll never do that!"

One of the areas of greatest learning has been in the experience of seeing how managers and leaders react to "adverse" events.  Those events have covered a spectrum of circumstances - poor (to deadly) service to clients, the out-of-the-blue call from a prominent political leader looking for action, a staff crisis, a building or equipment malfunction impacting service delivery, or media showing up without warning at your doorstep.  The set of circumstances is largely irrelevant other than in trying to convey that something bad has happened that needs to be addressed.  More importantly for me, is the range of leadership reactions these situations have engendered - which has been nothing short of extraordinary, educational and (in a perverse sort of way) highly entertaining.

For the intent of this blog and to highlight my point, I am going to focus on what I consider to be the negative side of these reactions.  In many cases, I write from direct experience or have otherwise observed the leadership response as it has unfolded.  Namely, a leadership reaction that actually becomes part of or creates the crisis it purports to want to avoid or manage.  Rather than providing stability, strength and vision through a challenging time, some leaders react with fear, panic and threats.  All too often the reaction is far more a testament to their true skill level or fear of lost alliances and entitlements enjoyed in "better" times. 

All too often, and for too many in leadership positions, there is a tendency to lose one's head during a real or perceived crisis.  I emphasize perceived because I believe that in many situations leaders may overplay a set of circumstances and never step back for long enough to evaluate whether in fact there is a real crisis in need of management.  Up-front evaluation is an important first step.  Otherwise you are going to be expending a lot of unnecessary time and energy that probably could be put to better use. 

Beyond this initial evaluation, it appears that for some leaders running around, crying out that the proverbial sky is falling is somehow an effective way of ensuring that immediate, decisive and effective action is taken.  That's where I believe some leaders miss the point about what effective leadership is and should be about.  Too many react to a negative scenario by confusing immediate action or any action with effective action.  They seem to believe that only by providing an immediate response in a situation will they be perceived as being in control, responsible and competent.  The reality is often far different.  More often the sense they convey to staff and others around them is that they are in panic mode.  Rather than being a leader that manages the situation their reaction more often generates fear, stress and anxiety to everyone unfortunate to be caught up in the vortex of activity.

Aside from the mental distress that the leader is subjecting themselves and their team to, a "decisive" yet hasty reaction is just as likely (or more likely) to lead to the wrong decision as to the right one.  In most situations we rarely have 100% perfect information.  In crisis situations this is even more the case.  Therefore, crisis demands disciplined leadership, an ability to remain calm, and the strength to keep yourself and your team focused in order to solve the problem at hand.  In my experience, panic and performance excellence rarely go together.  A panicked reaction can often lead to more problems to solve.

A leader in crisis (versus a leader who manages through crisis) also creates a number of other negative impacts that may not be understood at the time or even later. First, in your haste to make a decision, you many not even be solving the right problem but merely papering over symptoms.  Second, by making a hasty decision you may inadvertently compromise your ability to achieve other more important objectives.  Third, rather than creating an effective and productive team you are more likely creating fear, reduced productivity, risk aversion and indecisiveness amongst your staff.  Ultimately, you are also doing damage to the perception of your leadership capacity - you are not creating an image of a confident and competent leader amongst your team, peers, superiors, or other stakeholders that can be looked to for strength in times of challenge.

So Keep Calm and Carry On!  I'm convinced that we don't see or experience as many crisis situations as we think we do.  Take the appropriate time to assess the situation.  And even when you do experience a true crisis, taking a deep breath before taking action is still a good tactic and a sign of confident, disciplined leader.  Your reaction will calm others, help them focus on doing the right things, and ensure understanding of all impacts of your actions.  I'm convinced that by taking a more measured and less panicked approach that you will make better decisions and the confidence in your leadership will be enhanced.

Leadership excellence means more poise and less panic. 







______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
TEC Canada Chair/Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
hadubiak@wmc.ca

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

Restructuring - Do it Right or Not at All

In the past several months, as the price of oil has plummeted and caused private sector firms and governments to recalibrate their plans, seemingly inviolable just months before, we see many organizations - private and public sector both - assess the need to reform themselves or already actively engaged in restructuring efforts.  Some of this is transpiring "organically" as organizations downsize while in other circumstances the weak are consumed by the strong(er).  All efforts are being undertaken in order to survive the current slump or perhaps even thrive and exceed market expectations despite the downturn.  The question, however, stands as to whether the restructuring efforts are well thought out or at all consistent with a long-term plan.  Is the restructuring playing to inherent organizational strengths or are actions merely short-term and short-sighted calculations?

My admonition to leaders is to undertake restructuring efforts with significant thought and caution.  As we have seen in too many organizations and sectors, restructuring is often initiated without adequate forethought as to whether it fundamentally serves the long-term goals of the entity.  How do I arrive at that conclusion?  Simple.  I just look at how many organizations are back at restructuring, sometimes doing a complete 180, as little as a year down the road from the last effort.  In doing so, not only have we expended significant time, energy and dollars in the effort (for naught), we may have also lost some of our key personnel in the transition, damaged a corporate culture that has been our competitive edge, but also damaged our own leadership credibility on this or other initiatives.  The costs to badly done restructuring are far more significant than if we had never made the attempt.

My first request to leaders in this regard is to make restructuring your last strategy, not your first.  Governments and politicians generally fall in the category of picking this option first off the table.  It gives the great illusion of action and serious intent without addressing some more fundamental, but less "timely" and time-consuming options.  For best effect organization structure should adhere to the axiom of "form follows function."  What do you require of your organization and what are the entirety of steps or initiatives you have to have in place or tweak to be successful?  Organizational restructuring is inherently disruptive and can cause you people to focus on looking back and around in terms of who they report to, whether their job is secure, and whether the pain is worth the benefit rather than focusing on the quality of customer service and the financial bottom line.

Second, if you are adamant that organizational restructuring is the only thing that is going to get you
the results you require, make sure that you understand who your top performers are and ensure their future in your organization.  There are clearly casualties in any restructuring.  Some intentional and some unintentional.  Without due diligence and effort, some of your best people may decide that this next restructuring presents them with the best opportunity to explore their horizons - at another company.  The irony of change is that your best people have the most options.  If you don't pay homage to that fact you may find yourself with a brand new organizational vehicle that no one is qualified to drive.

Hand-in-hand with having the right people place to drive your new organization structure don't throw the baby out with the bath water.  By that I mean, while you have many intended reasons for making a change in organization structure, don't be blind to other unintended consequences this change may bring.  An organizational restructuring effort is no different than any other major project or change initiative.  Be clear about goals up front, understand constituents and stakeholder interests and power, maintain or enhance clarity of accountability for results and make sure that other systems (e.g., performance metrics, reward and recognition systems) are aligned and collectively support the change you are trying to make with your restructuring effort.

Finally, as you contemplate and implement a restructuring effort, be clear about your current weaknesses and your current strengths.  Together these start to define what your organization is truly capable of achieving and in what time frame.  Build on your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses as you are best able. Also appreciate that you may not - and likely will not - go from Point A to Point B in one fell swoop.  It make take an incremental and transparent approach to change.  More broadly speaking understand your organization's current culture and how that may both assist and hinder your efforts at implementing the structural changes you are contemplating.  To put a finer point on this by way of analogy - don't expect your staff to turn into world class athletes overnight if for the past 20 years you've never even asked them to walk around the block.

As the leader of your organization, it's up to you not just set the grand vision for the future.  You must also effectively manage the transition from the old to the new.  Change is inevitable to be sure but it must be managed and shaped in a direction that is truly aligned with the long-term bottom line of the firm.  It's tempting to think that restructuring is the answer in that it shows decisive action during challenging times.  However, if not well planned and executed it can negatively impact performance and competitive advantage.  And ultimately, it will reflect back on your own leadership credibility - the coin of the realm for the next big initiative you feel compelled to undertake.
______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
TEC Canada Chair/Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
hadubiak@wmc.ca

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.