Not one of your executives seems to be able to make a decision. How much of that situation are you willing to own, Mr. CEO? asks Stephen G. Payne, founder of Leadership Strategies.
It’s taken generations, but we’ve finally evolved from managerial troglodytes. Instead of managing the shipment of coffee or creation of piping, most executives now deal straight with the source. They see themselves as managers of people.
It’s a simple idea really. Whatever the job, it is individuals who get it done. The better their work environment, the greater they blossom, the more production and quality are achieved. In recent decades, we have labored to improve workplaces by protecting employees from physical harm as well as various mental stresses, such as gender harassment. We are beginning, as consultants say, to take employees out of the liability column, and place them in the asset side of the ledger.
Now, if managers want to keep their people blossoming, rather than merely preventing their withering, Payne suggests we move to the next managerial field of endeavor and look within.
* The Workers’ Mirror. People want to please their boss. It’s only natural. He signs their paychecks and he can set their careers on the fast track. Our CEO who was disgusted at the lack of corporate decision making, after some questioning admitted to Payne that he withheld information and kept his staff terrified. Without thinking, he would cut people off or make snide remarks when their opinions differed.
Slowly, he accepted his responsibility and how it was reflected in his employees’ actions. Rising gratefully, he pumped Payne’s hand, thanked him for the realization and promised to check himself in the future. He would share information, and stop the denigrating remarks. “No you won’t,” replied Payne. “Not if you are counting on raw will power alone.”
Our CEO was going to have to employ his best management tool - his mind - and search out the core reasons for these personal behaviors. “To lead others to success, you must first lead yourself with excellence,” Payne cites as his first rule of leadership. It is managing by self-sculpting, and it is not easy.
* More About You. The manager who has given his staff excellent work environments and clear directions must now take the next step: he must forge himself into a model worth following. Do I withhold information as part of a scrabbling for power or gaining control? Maybe it’s neglect, because I have not looked to see value in anyone but me. Are my snide remarks a matter of personal insecurity, or perhaps a way of boasting my wit at others’ expense?
This discovery is the journey of leadership - a path marked by self doubt. And it is unending. The good manager is ever tapping, tapping at his mental and emotional structure, looking for flaws that need repair. Along the way, he will define new strengths which can be embraced and enhanced. It all sounds so contemplative and even self-educational. But it takes place in a war zone. “The workplace simply abounds in triggers,” says Payne. “You’ve got a combination of money, power, arguments, and a whole group of individuals with differing goals which necessarily come into conflict.” Business survival seems to call forth a battle cry to assertiveness, rather than a doubt-ridden wrestling with inner demons. Yet it is exactly against this destructive self-first assertiveness that Payne preaches.
As a manager, good mood or bad, you will be modeled. Count on it. When you get depressed, all your employees will slip into what Payne terms “The Valley of Despair.” Their morale and production will mirror their boss’s attitude. Yet as a practiced leader, one can provide a model for wading through the new challenge - no matter how lousy the downturn is. The workers will ignore the horror of a fire, if their leader quietly enters, shakes his head, and with a wry smile begins putting out the flames.
* The Valley of Despair. Without a doubt, some really bad things are headed your way. They happen to all humankind and you’re not immune. In his book, “First Rule of Leadership,” Payne details two such career disasters. Then in a single sentence he notes the remarkable, totally unexpected rebounds within a few months.
In each case the individuals followed very typical patterns. They were shocked, felt themselves emotionally and mentally sinking, as if the ground had just given way. They were confused, having no idea as how to remedy or even endure the situation. Imagine the effect on employees, witnessing their boss trudging into the office in this kind of state. Yet Payne points out that we hold a solution within ourselves, no matter how drastic the blow.
This is not to say the disaster is not real. Dismissals, hiring freezes, product failures, buyouts are all life changing. They threaten new demands. But like a bad sprain, the faster you ice the event with some soul searching realizations, the sooner healing can begin. First, consider the term, valley of despair. This disaster is not a descent into a permanent abyss. There is another side. Your life has had valleys before; you have recovered. Recall them for a moment. Slowly, after your hands stop shaking, remember what relationships, tools, and actions pulled you up and out the other side of the valley. You might even briefly evaluate yourself today and note if you survived and thrived that valley well.
Payne is not calling for executives to “just turn their frowns upside down,” think positively, and put on a happy face. Such bunk repairs no situation, and employees, rather than rallying their own spirits, will merely see you as out of touch. Nor is he suggesting a mind-only work strategy. Just as our CEO had to dig deeper for a solution, so must anyone seeking to navigate their valley of despair. It requires an honest spiritual searching. Somewhere within lies the core strength to battle the anger, fear, and self-doubt triggered by this situation. Once found, this core strength will guide you to roll up your sleeves, take the proper course, and put the passing obstacles in perspective. From Ghengis Khan to Ulysses S. Grant, history notes that victorious generals always threw their reserve troops into that part of the line which was forging ahead, not the part crumbling.
* Finding Equilibrium. Valleys of despair come seldom and most of our days are spent navigating the incessant ripples of the daily business world. While less traumatic, their grinding effects can bring equal despair, making the workplace a battleground, rather than a place to shine. The subjective influences are immense. Demands from the boss, expectations from peers, thwarting of personal goals. All of these outside manipulations can rob even the highest ranking executive of any sense of self-destiny. Everyone else seems the master of your fate.
Meanwhile, amid it all, we are struggling to become leaders. By defining a leader as someone who creates a compelling picture for success and, with a special ability, lifts others toward that goal, we define the essence of good management. It is what every business needs. It becomes your personal task to wade through the manipulatory milieu and take charge of yourself. Employing your own inner spiritual strength, find your basic desires, and determine your essence. What do you really, most genuinely want in your life? What are the moral and ethical platforms from which you operate to get that goal? With this objective self determined, one can begin to balance his daily actions against the subjective onslaughts of daily work.
If one is able to forge this balanced platform, checking his movements against the mirror of his fellows, one may be blessed with what Payne terms a few moments of knowing. “These are those time when you feel that as a manager and leader, ‘Yes, it’s all working.’” he says. “You just know, not from subjective success, but from inner spirit, that you are striding the right leadership path.” Certainly, this is one of the greatest rewards business, or any endeavor can offer. B4
Stephen G. Payne calls himself an ex-CEO on a mission. He wants every executive to achieve the very best results from the leadership journey. And he is working at it, one client at a time. Payne grew up in a family of gunmakers and engineers in Birmingham, England. (Payne’s great-grandfather actually sailed form Britain hoping to make guns for America’s Civil War.) Taking himself out of the family trade, he entered Aston University, earning first a bachelor’s in 1969, followed by a PH.D. in chemical engineering.
Payne began consulting work for London-based PA Consulting. After providing managerial guidance to firms in the civilized city of Paris, Payne was ordered across the pond. He landed in Huntington, West Virginia to help guide that region’s CSS Railroad. Undaunted by the culture sock, Payne rose to be CEO of PA Consulting. In l994 after descending into his own Valley of Despair, Payne emerged with an epiphany and founded Leadership Strategies. To date, his company has helped the managing heads of many Fortune 100 corporations as well as small professional firms toward that best possible executive leadership experience.
