Performance

The power of inaction

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I’m going to make a case for doing nothing. It is one of the most underrated tools available to leaders and yet one of the most underused.

In fact, I’d go as far as to say that in our organisations we are obsessed with doing stuff, in most cases regardless of data, evidence or meaningful evaluation. We prefer to be active regardless of whether there is genuine value to the activity, extending this to finding means of justifying our activity with reports, and spurious data points.

There’s a value to doing less that we underestimate. Sometimes things will settle and sort themselves without our interventions. In fact they’ll often thrive quicker if left alone than when targeted with multiple initiatives.

Doing nothing is a choice, it’s an activity in itself, but one that in our current management lexicon has been tainted as somehow being weak and ineffective. When in fact sometime it takes greater bravery and confidence to do nothing, than it does to burst into action.

Less is more. Slow can be the quickest route. And choosing to do nothing can be the most effective action you will ever take.

 

You’re not here to make friends

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The role of leader is not to seek to be popular, it is to serve in the best interest of stakeholders.  At different stages of your career, those stakeholders will change and evolve, but broadly that means your employees, customers, employers and society. It goes without saying that at times the interests of these different groups will present a tension. But frankly, that’s your job.

When I say this, the immediate reaction is to infer that I believe that the job of leaders is to be unpopular, that in some way I’m suggesting a nasty, brutal model of leadership. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Simply in order to lead well, you need to be prepared for people to not like you or your decisions. If you’re not, you will always shy away from a percentage of choices that could be helpful.

Backing yourself to make unpopular decisions and to lead through them to the other side is the very essence of leadership. In the most simple form, that’s why soldiers climbed out of the trenches, it is why explorers travelled the world, it is why star players are dropped before finals. The ability to make clear, decisive and difficult decisions.

The success of a leader isn’t how many people like them, it is how well they’re respected. I was reminiscing the other evening about a leader that I’d sadly had to remove from an organisation in the past. He was deeply liked and hugely popular, but from an impartial perspective massively ineffective. When he left the organisation there was a lot of emotion. A couple of years later team members voluntarily told me how angry they had been and how wrong they thought the decision was, but how much better things were now that he had gone.

Being a leader means sometimes we have to be unpopular, it means speaking out when it is inconvenient and acting when inaction would be easier. We must never conflate personal popularity with effectiveness or respect, we must be prepared to cause upset, not for the sake of it, but for the greater good.

We’re not here to make friends, we’re here to do the right thing.

Why most management change fails

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Let’s face it, change doesn’t fail or succeed, it just is. When we try to do something and it doesn’t work, that doesn’t mean that change hasn’t happened, it just means the outcomes that we want haven’t been achieved. We need to understand the difference.

If I decide I want to get fit I might buy a pair of running shoes and commit to go jogging every morning before work.  After three weeks when I’m demotivated, tired and laying in bed longer than ever before, a change has occurred, just not the one that I intended. In my head I’d imagined this svelte, athletic new me who absolutely loved this new habit. In reality I developed a belief I couldn’t run, confirmed I didn’t like early mornings and chafed in places I didn’t know existed. If someone was in the future to suggest a run, I’d make my excuses and leave.

What does this mean in an organisational context?

Most of our employees and colleagues have experienced this sensation at work, however, the motivation for the original decision hasn’t been theirs. They’ve been subjected to multiple suggestions over the years that they need to go for the equivalent of a run.  And similar to the runner they start to form beliefs, “it won’t work”, “I don’t like it” or even “what’s the point?”.

Sometimes the most important “changes” that we make are choices to do nothing, rather than to do something. If we litter our organisations with initiatives, if we try to do too much that adds little value we start to create the sort of psychological fatigue that leads to beliefs that ultimately are counter productive to the changes that actually need to achieve. Through our actions we can cause the reaction that we then dub, “resistance to change”.

Nobody is resistant to change, we all make changes every single day. We shop with Amazon, send messages on our phones, we use satellite navigation systems and find love by swiping left or right. We are constantly changing and evolving. Organisations become resistant to change because of the experiences that have happened in the past, because of the belief systems that have developed and because of our inability to keep things simple and clear.

 

How not to screw up your holiday

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As the schools start to break up, we are in to peak holiday season with workers and their families looking to take some well deserved time off. And for all our talk about flexible working, four day weeks and remote working, there’s are a number of things that we can all do to support our colleagues when they (or we) are on holiday.

If you’re starting to think about the warmth, the smell of suncream and the thought of a cool drink by a pool, try to spend a little bit of time also thinking about your co-workers who are staying behind.

  1. Do a proper handover –  the good old fashioned handover is a thing of beauty when done well, because it allows you and your colleagues to relax and enjoy their break. But I can tell you now that you won’t be able to remember everything you need to convey in the last five minutes before you leave the building. Start a week or two before to list down the things that are ongoing, worrying you or lily to occur and then plan good time in with the people that you need to tell.
  2. Work until the end – of course you’re excited about your holiday, that’s entirely normal. But it starts when you finish work and finishes when you start work. Your co-workers aren’t in the same fortunate position as you (although they may be soon enough!) so remember to pull your weight right through until the last. Last minute online holiday shopping can be done after work, but don’t worry you’re still allowed to show your pics off when you get back – just not for the next two weeks!
  3. Remember you’re on holiday – some of us like to interfere and been involved in pretty much everything, even when we are on holiday. But here is the deal, you’re either in or you’re out and doing the workplace version of the Can-Can is not ok. Decisions will be made without you, conversations will take place, you’re surrounded by capable colleagues, so let them do their jobs.

But of course, if we all want to have a happy and harmonious holiday period then it isn’t just the person going on leave that needs to watch out. Those of us left in the workplace need to play by some basic rules too (remembering this will come back on us at some point too).

  1. Don’t forget to hold the baby – which I’m using as an idiom, unless you happen to work in a nursery or kindergarten, in which case in the literal sense as well. We are all busy with our own work and responsibilities, but in order for everyone to have a decent break and not regret it when they get back, we all need to pick up the slack. So if your colleague asks you to look after something when they’re away, don’t forget to do so.
  2. Don’t rely on your memory – a lot can happen in two weeks and if your colleague is off for that length of time, you’re probably not going to remember everything that has happened that would be useful for them to know. I”m not talking about the water cooler gossip, but the stuff that makes work easier. So make some notes as you go along and, just like the handover, make sure that there is time set aside to bring them properly up to speed.
  3. “I know you’re on holiday but…” – I’ve written before about the toxicity of this statement, but I want to focus on the more general point here. If someone is on holiday, they’re on holiday. If you can’t operate the business without them for a couple of weeks, then there is something pretty wrong with your organisation. Unless it is an absolute crisis, leave them be to get a break and come back as a rested, happier and more productive colleague.

 

Have a great holiday when you get there. Whilst I won’t be on holiday, I’ll be back on the blog in September.