A sprinkling of comments about recent newsletters:

THE TRUTH ABOUT CHANGE

Company after company has a change program waiting in the wings, or at least so it seems. The moment you mention this to corporate executives however, it doesn't take long for their eyes to start rolling -- almost as if they're hoping for an exorcism. Why? Given the evident need for change, to realise that the 'cheese' will keep moving and we have to anticipate and even relish that, why is there such tremendous cynicism? And why do most change efforts have about as much impact, as my British partners put it, as a rain dance on the weather? (I hasten to add they are referring to rain dances in the UK...!)

First, travel with me to a hushed auditorium. Something big is in the air. People shuffle in, it's all been kept totally confidential, this is the great unveiling. How would you feel? Nervous? Uncertain? What do you and I typically do at such moments? We build a shield, we fortify ourselves with a casual nonchalance.

Now the afternoon unfolds. Irrespective of the terminology du jour, there is usually a common theme. Namely, YOU must change personally, and YOU are responsible for changing what we the leaders created and rammed down your throat all these years. Of course this last is never said, it's just thought by all the audience. Somehow, just as parents forget what it was like to be a child, senior leaders forget what it was like to be 'one of the troops'. Most such change communications invoke a dazzling future and seek to berate the sheer inadequacy of our current ways. These current mores are shown to be medieval, blinkered, reactionary. They may well be. In fact they are very likely to be. What is not mentioned however is that we are exhorting transformation to the very people who have chafed under this nonsense for so long, and rarely do we show the slightest remorse or self-recrimination for having waited this long to realise the big smelly elephant in the room (usually we only notice now because external results have left us no choice BUT to change!).

Not surprisingly, our audience realises quickly that this incompetence on the part of the leaders, the regressive culture that was institutionalised for so long, will lead to jettisoning people ('rightsizing'), mostly NOT at senior leadership levels. Hence they hunker down, decide to play the game, but hang on to whatever turf they can, and become sullen accomplices of a still extant (albeit in camouflage) status quo (now donning visionary garb) that they hope might yet keep them around. Deep down, they very much doubt any fundamental change will take place, they realise some people will go, and they themselves shift into survival mode.

So, first off, if you want to REALLY start a change effort, begin by confessing the mistakes of senior management. Won't people lose confidence? They've already probably done so to some extent. They read the business press too, and they probably know what the stock is worth. Fessing up, rescues the situation, by showing that there are breathing, learning human beings at the helm. Explain what has been learned, and how the senior leaders will change personally to bring about a transformation.

Then, and only then, ask others to join you in the change, in the transformation, and having asked for their commitment, you can then move on to the visionary future. Tell the truth, tell them what they think you'd never have the guts to say or accept, model the courage you're asking for from them in return.

And this brings us now to the second problem. Most change presentations spend 85% of their energy showing futrure trends, flashing motivational quotations, and then exhorting people, over and over, as to the inevitability of the future they are convinced is heading towards us. For some reason, people have drawn the quite bizarre conclusion that it's the future picture people are afraid of, or need to be convinced by.

If you show someone a glowing future of greater profits, market leadership, more job satisfaction, more success, who WOULDN'T be excited? People are not uncertain we can paint glittering futures. They want to understand HOW we're going to get there, and what changes this will tangibly and immediately require. Moreover, they want support, recognition and encouragement through these painful transitions, and want a truly collaborative effort. Just as crisis creates community, they want a 'crisis feeling' (in a healthy way), so that everyone pulls together, forgets their turf and private vanity, and puts everything into making this happen. After a while, glowing word portraits leave people cold and alienated. Nobody is frightened by the future as much as they are by the reality of the present that PREPARING for the future will require. THAT'S where our coaching and leadership energy has to go!

All change efforts, personal or corporate, founder essentially due to this one dynamic. Situational leadership theorists have long identified that we begin any undertaking with robust motivation (the joy of beginnings!) and usually incomplete competence (the challenge of beginning something). Yet we tend to have great expectations. This is as true of our first vist to the gym, our first French lesson, our first date, our first day in our new job role, the first day of a different kind of vacation to a new place, etc.

Invariably we discover that whatever it is we've embarked upon will be harder than we realise. We actually often get WORSE before we get BETTER (after all before we DIDN'T speak French, now we just speak BAD French!). Moreover, as the fantasy achievements don't immediately materialise, our motivation slumps. The muscles don't sprout overnight, we aren't waxing lyrical in the new language, into the fourth date we need to find something to talk about, the new job seems to be a minefield, the foreign clime has us all jittery and on edge (not to mention the jet lag). And here is where virtually all change efforts fail. As the motivation spirals downward, we stop doing the work needed. Inertia IS the most powerful force in the world, and without the outpouring of dedicated energy, it reasserts itself.

Just as we need direction and instruction when we start something new, we need supportive coaching and constructive challenge to keep us going past this motivational downturn UNTIL our ability goes up, results start to come in, we FEEL the progress. As this happens our motivation rallies as our competence grows. Instead of a vicious circle we now have a virtuous cycle.

Hence again, the madness of putting all our energy into launches and stating and restating the vision. That really IS the easy part. It's coaching people, getting them to align around a common purpose, and energising them and creatively catalysing them through the tough days of gaining momentum, through the low motivation/low competence dark hole -- that's where leadership really proves itself.

I worked with a major Fortune 500 client years back, who called us in anguish, after spending $3.5 million on a global change launch. The consultants had produced lavish slides and elegant binders. The roadshow had abundant pyrotechnics, and snooty self-satisfaction oozed from corporate leaders who were 'certified' to deliver this opera. Nothing much changed after that. All the money and energy went into exciting people. But as they sought the metamorphosis, they found, as we all do, that we have feet of clay, that we are anal, and political, and anxious, and instant healing isn't often available.

They had another $200k, and wondered if we could 'fix' it. I told them we couldn't but they could, and if they were willing to face themselves as leaders and as part of the very system holding them back, if they would exhort themselves FIRST, then we could help. We DID help them help themselves. A lot of coaching took place, a lot of leadership engagement and candor, and fast prototyping, and a number of leaders were replaced for good reasons. Talent was located and encouraged, people got straight talk rather than homilies. We didn't make a big deal out of it, we just got on with helping them shoot for 3-4 critical improvements needed.

Real visions, the kind that drive action, are CLEAR, COMPELLING and TANGIBLE to those who we are asking to deliver them! I did ask them that next time if they had a surplus $3.5 million available, call us first!

The problem here was again my old hobbyhorse of the 'technical' versus 'adaptive'. Change is an adaptive business. This implies it requires each of us to actually ADAPT. When we treat it as a technical act of redrawing the org. chart, changing reporting relationships, adding some IT capability, reducing head count, we handle only the relatively simple part. These things can all be crucially needed, but only as part of an adaptive and truly evolutionary effort.

And during such times, we need both management and leadership. Management is about realising great performance today, leadership is about inventing tomorrow. Both are done WITH people and BY people. Leadership and management synergise most powerfully when they fulfill this definition: 'Having the drive to create the future while having the courage to face and transform the present.'

I choose the word 'drive' because there are a lot of arguments about whether leaders need charisma and ego or not. The answer, as you may have guessed, is both 'yes' and 'no'. If charisma is defined as the ability to get and keep people's attention, absolutely. If we mean theatrics and the ability to mesmerise due to personal magnetism, not necessarily. Please note, we can get and keep attention, through all manner of means. We can do it pounding the pulpit with Martin Luther King, or quietly giving an oration at Gettysburg with Lincoln. We can do it by rattling our cage until the world resonates like Nelson Mandela, or we can puff our purpose across the world like Winston Churchill.

Do leaders need a healthy ego? Yes. 'Ego' means identity, not vanity. The ego great leaders have is an absolute unwillingness to sit by and let things deteriorate. It is a mania to contribute. A leader needs to be UTILISED, they want to MATTER, they care about OUTCOMES bigger than themseles. The ego-maniacal charismatic, who 'can' lead but alas really 'doesn't' in the largest sense of that word is quite different. They need to be ADORED, they want to be ADMIRED, they care primarily about their REPUTATION.

For change to work, we need leaders who can get our attention and keep it. We need leaders who get high on serving, and whose identity is linked to contribution, to growing the business while growing their people and ensuring their customers succeed. It's a triple win they're after, and that's something EVERYONE can get behind when it's real.

So, if you need to change, evolve, transform (and who doesn't?), then start with yourself. Then enroll other leaders. Then agree the future you want to shoot for and co-create. Then look at what you'll have to change as a team. Take all this to your next-level and tell them the truth. Ask them for their energy. Raise the intensity, create a healthy internal crisis. But EXPECT the energy slump, and show your leadership by stepping into that breach. Coach, engage, challenge, stimulate. Be accountable personally, then ask for the same from the others. That's the essence of living visions. That's the truth about change.

HAVE A FULLY ENGAGED MONTH AHEAD EVERYONE!

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