Episode #371: Furloughs And Firings Trigger Fear and Loathing Toward Leaders

Leaders do dumb things and sometimes they have to do difficult things. The line between which is which can sometimes be a bit hard to plumb. I clearly remember the senior bosses coming back from a boozy weekend offsite, embraced with the idea that we, the great unwashed salespeople, would identify the top guns working for our rivals, so that the firm could recruit them. What could possibly be wrong with this idea, in an industry that rapidly hires in market upswings and ruthlessly cuts staff in the downturns? Shareholder value in the US is another serious thing. Quarterly earnings reports are weighty matters, which drives leader behaviours in directions you just have to shake your head at. Capitalism gone mad in many cases. Fortunately, for most of the world, this lunacy has been restrained to some degree.

Downturns turn out badly for employees. Lofty rhetoric is tossed aside and “thoughts and prayers” becomes the common lament, as they toss you out on your ear. The survivors are taking all of this in very granularly. They know, “but for the grace of God, there go I” – out the door. The lulls between the downturns and firings, saps the general despair toward the hypocrisy, as everyone gradually gets back to business. Deep down though, there is always that distrust of leaders. Now, here you are, a thrusting leader in the making or at the helm already, fervently devouring Harvard Business Review articles on how to engage your people.

We teach an excellent programme called Step Up To Leadership and one of the modules deals with the issue that you, the new leader, should not imagine that what drives you drives your team members. They have different aspirations and goals and you cannot overlay your world view on to them and expect everyone to be happy, happy. This gap between actual motivators and the boss dispensed version is rife throughout the hierarchy of the organisation.

In a global survey we conducted across 15 countries, we found there were some particular areas where team member expectations were mismatched with boss outputs. When we surveyed the top leadership, 86% sternly pronounced that respecting people’s opinions was important to inspiring people to do their best work. When we surveyed those being bossed around, we found a 28% gap in their observation of what the boss was actually doing. Think about your own case. In a busy world, especially now that we are locked away from each other at home or only half of the team are turning up on any given day, how good a job do you do seeking opinions? You may be a legend of handing out orders to solves issues, a firefighter without peer, but how good are your listening skills?

Big bosses in 85% of cases said giving sincere appreciation was motivating for the troops. The troops however identified a 36% performance gap in this arena. “Good job” is crap, as far as giving appreciation goes. “Well done” is another meaningless piece of drivel, often shovelled out by supervisors, imagining they are successfully recognising their people. By the way, is this you?

Here is a four step process, that should be the default for all bosses. Firstly, thank them, “Yamazaki san, I really appreciate your hard work”. Next, tell them exactly which part of their work was done well, “Your report was excellent, the analysis clear and succinctly explained, I could get the key points immediately”. Now, explain the value of what they are doing, “You saved me a lot of time and that means that I can work on the other high level things we need to get done around here. This will help us to move forward faster than our competitors”. Now, encourage them to keep it up, “Please keep making this type of contribution to the firm, it makes a big difference and we really appreciate you”.

The biggest gap in the self delusion department was over admitting when you are wrong. Among the bosses, 81% thought this was important to motivate the people. The people however said in 41% of cases that didn’t happen sufficiently. Age and stage, position power and technical expertise are all boss standbys to get other people to follow their orders. These are also big inhibitors to admit we err, get it wrong, screw it up and create havoc. Good in theory, this admitting you were wrong stuff, but a lot harder to do in practice. What is the gap down at your shop, looking at your specific propensity to admit being wrong? “What’s that? You have never been wrong in your life”, you say. Well bully for you and good luck with getting engagement from your team.

The Age of Distraction has been married with the Era of Cynicism. Being more self-aware as bosses is a requirement, no longer a “nice to have”. Let’s be honest with ourselves and see how well we are doing in giving effective praise and admitting when we are wrong. That is a start toward getting higher levels of commitment and motivation.

Today’s handy Japanese word is Onegai (お願い) which means please