Tip of the Spear Ventures

A Family Office that behaves like Venture Capital | Private Equity | Business Consulting

sam palazzolo

The Leadership Challenge: Complacency – 4 Tips!

By

The Point: We’ve all been there before… Things are going well and perhaps the last thing we should entertain is a moment of change. After all, what could we possibly gain (and only risk loss) by changing? However the go/no go decision regarding change is rarely within a leader’s control, and as such change becomes a necessary contingency planning skill. So how can you, as a leader, offset the comfortable confines of complacency effectively? In this post we’ll take a look at complacency from a change perspective and provide four (4) tips to offset its lethargic state… Enjoy!

The Leadership Challenge: Complacency – 4 Tips!

The J Curve of Change Management

It’s been nearly a dozen years (Yikes!) since I sat with Dr. Jerry Jellison of the University of Southern California (USC) about dealing effectively as a leader with change. His book, “Managing the Dynamics of Change” provided the backdrop for our conversation during a leadership development program I was participating in. The “J” Curve of Change represents five (5) stages of change that can be mapped out from a performance/productivity stance over a series of time (See image). The J Curve of Change Management consists of a series of troughs and peaks, but oddly enough begins with a relatively morose and non-descript path of performance. While this “complacency” phase can best be described as one where action is taking place, there is relatively no performance/productivity change (for better or for worse).

So Why Exactly Change?

With tears in her eyes a participant in a cross-functional (multi-departmental) change team cried out “Why are you making us do this?” It wasn’t me, her leadership team, or my consulting firm (at the time) that was making this organization change possible to create the water works show. What was causing the change-moment (as I liked to call it) occur was the evolving market conditions.

If you can identify the source of the change moment (i.e., the real answer to “Why are you making us do this?”) you have the opportunity to not only overcome the many change obstacles that are presented to you, but also shorten the associated change timeline (and therefore create positive productivity/performance). So what are the possible causes of change? Here is an abbreviated list of what I see most commonly causing change in business today for leaders:

  • Technology
  • Education (Personnel/Consumer)
  • Personnel Skills
  • Competition
  • Product/Service Pricing
  • Product/Service Offering(s)
  • The Customer (Darn them!)
  • Regulations/Laws
  • Leadership ADD/Leadership ADHD
  • Finance/Accounting
  • Leadership Ego/Pride
  • The News/Press

4 Tips to Overcome The Leadership Challenge Complacency

While the list of potential causes of change has been abbreviated above, you hopefully get the impression that there can be an overwhelming variety/scope/scale of change inducing moments. So should you as a leader attempt to get ahead of the change curve and always be refining (or attempting to move in a positive change direction?) I’ve compiled the following 4 tips to overcome the leadership challenge of complacency to help you, as a leader, be successful in your complacency change initiatives:

Tip #1 – Manage by Measuring

It’s important to know not only where you are going (in alignment with corporate mission/vision/values of course), but perhaps even more important to know where you are at (and don’t forget where you came from, but that’s a post for another time!) Capturing consistent metrics will allow you to identify this current state, and establish a game plan for how you will get to where you want to go.

Tip #2 – Contingency Plan

If you are in a complacent state, some would argue that this in and of itself is a problem (after all, you are not getting better or worse). Therefore it’s important to identify current/future problems that could/should/might occur as well as their appropriate solutions.

Tip #3 – Recruit Support (Before You Need It!)

Let’s face it… Change is difficult for a variety of reasons. In the thick of change initiatives it’s important to have support from key stakeholders in the organization (Those that are organization chart superior, equal, and subordinate in location). These support personnel could also alert you to change before your metrics identify them.

Tip #4 – Focus

Keeping your “eyes on the prize” is a great analogy for overcoming complacency in the workplace. Where you want to head will allow you to insure that you keep pointed in that direction, as well as provide you with insight into how to get there.

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve taken a look at complacency from a change perspective and provide four (4) tips to offset its lethargic state. If the overriding goal of change management is to provide a “better” alternative in regards to where you started from, overcoming complacency is a crucial first step.

 

Sam Palazzolo

The Leadership Challenge: Hands-On Leadership – 4 Tips!

By

The Point: You have a choice as a leader… To micro or macro manage (i.e., lead) your stakeholders. But here’s the leadership challenge: In order to achieve “Super Boss” status, what’s the proper way then? In this post we’ll take a look at how being a hands-on leader is by far and away the best approach to leading along with four tips for success… Enjoy!

The Leadership Challenge: Hands-On Leadership – 4 Tips!

Hello… I’m a Disengaged Leader!

It happened again (as it had happened like a broken record every time there was a grumbling from a stakeholder)… In managing his department, Tim was provided the latitude to counsel/coach his team under the guise of “Do what you think is best” direction from his superior. However, whenever Tim did in the moment what he thought was his “best” he inevitably received the call from his disengaged leader. This call typically consisted of this disengaged leader asking the question “What did you do?” and worse yet “What did you say?”

While these questions aren’t necessarily in and of themselves bad, they would put Tim in a defensive posture. Having to explain what was done and said left him backtracking on his position. His leader without receiving all the facts typically would overthrow Tim’s authority, and in so doing cajole the stakeholders into recognizing that while the organization’s org chart had him in a leadership role, instead relegated him to an inferior status.

Being a Hands-On Leader

If Tim’s story sounds familiar to you, it should bother you. While leadership is a role best served by allowing team members to perform at their best levels, it’s more than frustrating to have episodes of the disengaged leader undercutting authority, decreasing motivation, and prompting internal thoughts/conversations regarding whether or not you as a leader are truly in the right organization.

The role of a leader is to lead from a distance, but stay in tune with activities so as to insure organizational direction is achieved. Situations often dictate that when boundaries are crossed, or direction is not as intended, that leaders engage in realignment efforts. Nothing shows greater consistency than a leader engaging in what might be seen as the mundane/not worthy day-to-day activities with a “sleeves rolled up” support system. So what should you do to be considered as a hands-on leader?

4 Tips of a Hands-On Leader

The following four (4) tips should be subscribed to in order to increase your effectiveness as a hands-on leader:

Tip #1: Set High Expectations

Become bullish on what your team can accomplish. If you’ve never pushed your team and the leaders within to achieve extraordinary high performance, the shame/blame lies squarely on your shoulders. The thought “perfect is good enough” isn’t just a mindset, it should become your mantra!

Tip #2: Be a Master

You employee smart, ambitious, and adaptable team members, right? If so, trust them to execute. If not, look to recruit/hire those that are no less than four times (4x) as smart as you are. Keep in mind that failure is inevitable, and course correction from failures should be the way you do business!

Tip #3: Encourage Step-Change Growth

Learning and growth are paramount to your people. As such, design atypical growth and development plans that allow your team to springboard forward along a steep learning curve which becomes increasingly steep as successful projects are undertaken/accomplished.

Tip #4: Stay Connected

As a leader you can count on talented people departing from you/your organization. Rip a page from the successful consultant organization model by staying connected with your former associates. Think of it as a talent “Alumni Network” that you can tap into at any given moment and you’ll be afforded the gift of future benefits.

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve taken a look at the hands-on leader as well as four tips to execute for success. Avoid becoming the disengaged leader that bares little respect as you grow yourself, your team, and your organization!

 

Sam Palazzolo

 

The Leadership Challenge: Office Backstabbing – 5 Leadership Lies to Avoid

By

The Point: In the art of a knife fight, two individuals each equipped with a knife circle each other thrusting their weapons at one another. It’s a rudimentary form of face-to-face-combat. And given your odds as a leader, nine times out of ten you’d bet on yourself to be victorious (we’ll give one out of ten to your combatant!) But what if (1) you don’t have a knife, (2) you’re not expecting a fight, and (3) you aren’t facing your competitor… Now the odds have swung completely around and not only are you favored, but defeat is all around you. Sound like your typical office backstabbing incident? In this post, we’ll take a look at how you as a leader can not only fight this unfair fight, but come out victorious in the end in knowing/using to your advantage the five lies of office backstabbing… Enjoy!

The Leadership Challenge: Office Backstabbing

Knife Fighting Fantasy

Here’s an interesting leadership challenge to ponder: To say that all is fair in love and war is one thing, but is all fair in the office while at war (Business is war, right?) If business is in fact war, there are two rules you need to keep in mind right from the start when it comes to office backstabbing:

  1. Whatever you do, you must live to fight another day, inevitably to fight against the next backstabbing episode.
  2. If you are successful to live to fight another day, you’ll want to insure that you don’t compromise your ethics/end up on the wrong side of the battle in the eyes of Human Resources (HR) or the law.

Remember, being a leader is tough work. You “give blood” every day at work, and it’s your career on the line and personal lifestyle that could be sacrificed if unsuccessful. Don’t let anyone tell you that don’t have the right to defend yourself, fight back, or take action. Here then are the 5 lies to watch out for:

Lie #5: You’ll Have Plenty of Time To See Them Coming

In all the executive coaching conversations that I’ve had with clients over the years where the topic of backstabbing was brought up (I’ve worked with 500+ leaders to date), only one of them ever said that he saw it coming. This leader was no less aware of his surroundings, the stakeholders actions that he worked with, nor out of touch with the business at hand. Yet, time after time I heard how they felt completely blindsided by the attack.

Backstabbing Avoidance Tip: Watch your back at all times, and get stakeholders (think of them as the trusted “inner circle”) to watch your back as well!

Lie #4: There’s Going to be a Backstabbing at High Noon

The majority of the executive coaching conversations I heard excuse after excuse regarding backstabbing avoidance being taught in leadership development programs. The problem is that in leadership development programs the scenarios presented were never real. Instead, the backstabbing scenes were like something out of an old Western movie instead of the stealth business streets pounded daily by these leaders.

Backstabbing Avoidance Tip: Your backstabber isn’t watching old Westerns nor are they participating in leadership development scenarios. They are moving like a terrorist and as such act with a high level of randomness.

Lie #3: But How Can I Avoid the Fight?

Most leaders believe that they can get out of any situation that they are put into… Good situations… Bad situations… Either way, the leader believes that they will come out the other end victorious. This is plain stupid and wrong! This lie can usually be heard by leaders when they start the rebuttal with “But…” In all the cases I’ve heard, of the millions of possible options the leader could have taken they always seem to focus on staying and fighting. Remember Dale Carnegie’s advice on winning an argument: The only way to win an argument is to never get into an argument in the first place.

Backstabbing Avoidance Tip: Think back to Rule I above… You need to live to fight another day. Staying and fighting will accomplish little. Running away is your leadership ego perception at work… Think of it instead of taking the high road!

Lie #2: They’re Going to Backstab You in a Certain Way

Think of the typical leadership development office backstabbing case that you’ve explored (You have explored the topic in your leadership development program, right?) What did it consist of? Typically, let’s think of the scenario of a disgruntled worker. Perhaps they’ve been passed over for a promotion, or better yet they don’t want in on the latest program of the month (Change isn’t their thing, you know?) Now you probably know how to handle this type of case with tact and polish… This backstabbing is pretty easy!

However, what if the associate is going stealth? They’re publishing information online about you, the company, and what a joke the whole scenario is. You didn’t cover that one in leadership development did you?

Backstabbing Avoidance Tip: Just as you’d brainstorm solutions to a problem, attempt to brainstorm problems and what your solutions will be. Think of it as a contingency planning exercise.

Lie #1: They’re Going to Listen to Your Logic and Admit They Were Wrong

The leadership fantasy that you’re going to overcome a backstabbing by hearing your assailant out, confirming that you correctly heard what they said, and then attempting to educate them from your perspective will get you nowhere. Avoiding a backstabbing shouldn’t rely purely on opportunity and chance.

Unless your backstabber is a simpleton, the odds of you successfully absorbing the backstabbing, confirming why you’re being stabbed, and then pulling yourself together to have a legitimate debate is very, very slim. The reality is that you cannot safely control the situation. While there may be actions you can take to momentarily delay the backstabbing, unfortunately I typically hear of horror stories where there was simply too much bludgeoning absorbed by the leader to adequately mount a counter offensive.

Backstabbing Avoidance Tip: Throw logic out the window, and think fight or flight… with heavy emphasis on the flight!

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve taken a look at two rules to keep in mind when experiencing office politics. We’ve also reviewed five lies that leaders typically have in mind when countering backstabbing. Remember the two rules and you should be able to live to lead another day!

 

Sam Palazzolo

PS – You may also enjoy some of the other recent posts I wrote: