A Working Definition of Leadership

I define leadership as the act of influencing others toward organizational objectives.

Leadership requires influence.  If you’re managing a project, giving out assignments to team members and coordinating what items can be checked off the list, I’m not sure you’re really leading.  In the true leadership context, the definition of influence is to affect or to sway.  Team members may not be influenced by your direction as much as they are by the fact that they like the work or that there are consequences if they don’t do the work.  So, avoid automatically crediting management experience as leadership experience.

Secondly, leadership is the process of influencing others toward an organizational goal.  Leadership to achieve organizational objectives is necessary because the leader can’t do all the work him/herself.  Believe me, if it were possible, the leader would have done the work him/herself if they could have.  It’s easier than leading others to get the work done. 

Whether it’s the soccer team, a church committee or a manager and his/her employees, the purpose for our influence is to achieve an organizational objective.  Despite our different interests and motivations, the leader’s job is to get his/her followers to accomplish organizational objectives.  Unlike the weight loss class teacher who wants each person to achieve their own goal, true leadership requires pulling different people with different skill sets, diferent experience, different opinions and different motives together to accomplish organizational objectives.

Keep these distinctions in mind as you select and develop leaders in your organization.

Next up:  Successful vs. Effective leadership

The Real Challenge Comes After The Layoffs

You never considered that you’d be in the position to have to lay off employees.  With rare exception, your employees have been loyal and hardworking.  Some of them have been with you so long, you can’t recall when they weren’t there.  And now…now you have no choice.  You have to lay off some of them.  And, you know, that the words “lay off” are not really the right words, because you know that…they won’t be back.

You blame yourself for letting things get to this point.  “I should have fixed our problems when they first appeared,” you say.  That, coupled with this economic perfect storm, and there are no alternatives other than closing up altogether.  If the company is going to survive at all, you have to do this.  You’ve put names on a list and you’ve looked at that list a hundred times trying to find another way.  Now it’s time.  You’ve decided to have an all-employee meeting first to announce the layoffs and then meet with the affected employees.  You don’t know if that’s the right order for these steps, but it makes sense to you.

After the all-employee announcement, you meet with the affected employees one at a time.  You could have assigned this dreadful task to your supervisors, but you knew that wasn’t the right thing to do.  As you meet with each employee you are struck by the differences in their reactions.  Some are numb and in shock.  Some are angry.  One comes close to attacking you.  Some fight back tears.  Others cry.  One sobs.  And, shockingly, two of them apologize to you because they feel bad that you have to do this. 

It’s done.  Now what?  You haven’t given much thought to what to do after the layoffs because your entire focus has been on that dreadful day.  Now what?

After the layoffs the mood has changed significantly, but you find it difficult to describe.  You realize that some employees avoid eye contact with you hoping you won’t call them into your office next.  Others are still in shock.  A few more are angry.  All of them have unanswered questions.  “Wait a minute, that’s it!,” you exclaim.  They have unanswered questions and now you know what to do.  So you make a plan.  It’s called BLACX3 (pronounced Black X 3)

• First you realize that you need to help your remaining employees see the (B) big picture.  You talk about why the layoffs were necessary from a business and financial point of view.  You also help the remaining employees grieve losing their co-workers and friends.  You help them see the big picture.
• Second, by observing your employees you suddenly realize that they are…(L) lost.  They have lost their way because their predictable, stable world has been wrecked by a tornado.  Some of them also feel guilty for keeping their jobs.  The key is to focus them on what to do now.  They know all the things that need to be done, but they are lost and they don’t know what to do now.  Give them direction and guidance and help them find their way back.
• Next, help employees (A) adapt.  Help employees deal with all the changes.  Not only the changes made by laying off employees, but all the changes caused by the layoffs that are now rippling through the organization.  Procedures and processes are being changed because some of the people in the procedures and processes are gone.  Change is everywhere and it feels like a different rollercoaster ride every day.  Help them adapt by working side by side with them to make the changes that are necessary.
• Finally, CX3.  Communicate, Communicate and Communicate.  Employees will go through a predictable series of steps as they restore themselves to full productivity.  The key is to listen to the questions that are nagging at them.  Help them ask those questions and work to answer those questions one at a time.  When they finally accept your answer to that question, they’ll move on to other questions.  Be patient and stick with them, one step at a time. 

What you are dealing with is the predictable human psychology process of adapting to change.  If you, one day, in your frustration, snap at the 12th question on the same topic and yell, “Shut up and go back to work,” restoring the productivity of that employee will be almost impossible.  Your employee may become frozen and stuck in the change process.

The hope is that all employees will move through the change process and be restored to full productivity.  Honestly, it’s likely that not all of them will make it.  As time consuming and “touchy-feely” as this process sounds, it’s your best route to restoring the company’s financial performance. 

As incomprehensible as it may seem to think about layoffs and cut backs, don’t forget to give thought and preparation to the real challenges that lie ahead after the layoffs.  The future of your company depends on it.

Now Is The Time!

Economic uncertainty can present many challenges for the business leader.  These challenges include falling sales, increasing costs, lower productivity and a hesitation to proceed with plans for growth and expansion.  On the other hand, economic uncertainty may also be a great time to evaluate your operations and make the most of the opportunity to improve organizational performance.  Why is now the time?  There are thee reasons.

First, tough economic times often expose weaknesses that are present in an organization, but that are not as noticeable in good times.  There may even be issues that are undetected when times are good which are more clearly seen now.  For instance, if you have four product lines and the company is making good money in a period of solid growth, the company may not give much attention to the fact that one of those product lines is losing money.  Overall things are fine.  But, when times get more challenging, we often look more closely at the details.

The ebb of the tide may expose issues in your organization that need to be addressed.  Some of these challenges might include low productivity, poor service, inefficiencies, low morale, ineffective leadership or a cost structure that is too high.  When things are going great, these issues are easy to pretend away.  Now is a great time to address these issues and improve your organization’s performance.

Second, in more challenging economic times, high quality talent may be more readily available.  I’m not suggesting just hiring high quality people that other companies simply can’t afford anymore.  More than that, I’m suggesting that, if your company is in better shape than a competitor’s organization, you might be able to recruit away a star player for your team.  It happens in professional sports all the time.

Tough economic times are not always just a time to hunker down and wait out the storm.  There may be opportunities to build on to your company’s offerings, capacity and expertise.  Consider this possibility and you may advance your position in the marketplace.

Finally, challenging economic times are a great time to plan for market opportunities that lie ahead.  Take some time now to define market niches in your industry that might give you a good chance of dominating those niches.  Do you want 1% of a huge market where you are at risk of being squashed?  Or, do you want 70% of a niche in the overall market?  For example, do you want 1% of the PC market or 70% of the rugged built PC market?  Do you want 1% of the leisure travel business or 38% of private label tours sold through travel agents?

Spend some time analyzing key market opportunities and identify where your company could succeed while your competitors can’t succeed.  Here’s an example.  Can you provide smaller volumes of a highly customized version of a product or service while a competitor is only set up to do larger volumes of products or services that have no customization?  If you pursue that market niche opportunity, you could dominate that market while your competitor would have a hard time competing with you.  Think about where there might be those kinds of opportunities in your market.

If we were able to choose, we’d choose economic expansion over economic uncertainty.  However, economic uncertainty provides opportunities if we’re willing to investigate them and pursue them.  Be the company in your marketplace that takes advantage of those opportunities.