Being Shepherd 5: CEO's who know all, know nothing!

Being Shepherd

Leadership Lifestyle for New Age CEO's.

Chapter 5

https://www.linkedin.com/in/manavdhanda / www.beingshepherd.com

Tell them ‘what’ to do, not ‘how’ to do.

One of the greatest flaws of those who lead from the front is that they often tend to be in love with their own voice. They feel compelled to showcase that they know how each situation should be dealt with. But such a showcase is often perceived more as self-adulation and less as problem solving or vision charting.

A leader’s job is not to tell his team how good he is. His job is to continually assess how good each of his team member is and how will they manage a situation if given ‘complete free will’ to do it their way within the available resources. It is wise to get a fair sense of their execution strategy before they actually execute.

The biggest flaw that ‘from the front leaders’ make is that they tell their team what and how to do and leave them be to only realize weeks or months later that it’s not being done ‘exactly’ as were briefed. The results, which is an amalgamation of the leaders brief and the doers understanding + personal style, can be disastrous.

So how each task, each situation and each strategy should be managed at an execution level?

Over here, to put things in perspective, it’s the best to learn from the Shepherd.

Most importantly, a shepherd never puts his sheep on a leash. It’s a tiring job to tug along an animal. Ever seen a dog walker on leash? The one holding an enthusiastic dog is often more exhausted than the one on leash itself. And that is one-on-one. Ever seen a dog walker hold onto a dozen leashes together? Never fancy that! Strikingly contrary is the Shepherd, who despite managing a dozen or so in the flock, often manages to make time to rest through the day as the sheep go about their business. Who would you rather be?

As a CXO you too need to manage a fair share of individuals in the team. The moment you tell your team exactly how to execute, you put a leash around their neck. A classic trap that one must never fall into.

Never tell only ask.

Whenever stuck or seeking fresh answers, it is often assumed that the team must go to the boss to ask how to do the job. But as a boss you will be wise to lead from behind and reverse the approach. The intensity of approach varies basis the tenure on the job. If it’s a new team that you are heading or have roped in a new member, you need to do a lot more asking than you might if you’ve been with the same team long enough.

And the asking must be done one-on-one.

It is critical to be aware of the fact that strategies can be good or bad, you can never be sure till it’s fully executed. More so, the team can etch strategies out internally or with the help of a consultant or an industry expert. It is the execution of the strategy that is mostly done by your team. Further success or failure finally depends on execution. An average strategy well done is better than a great strategy poorly done. Thus, all the asking / questioning must strictly be limited to execution detailing.

Once the strategy note has been etched out or the objective at hand has been defined with the team / department at large, the leader must sit one-on-one with the person in-charge of execution to understand his approach.

The attempt while questioning is to gauge the following:

• Genuine depth of knowledge that the manager has of the given subject / strategy. A lot of quizzing here might help. Both at a broad industry / competitive level and on the depth of the chosen strategy
• How will the execution be broken down into phases?
• What resources will be deployed in each phase?
• What review mechanisms will be put in place and the periodicity of the managers’ review with his team?
• What will be the measurement tools of each phase’s success or failure?
• To whom in the team will subs tasks be further delegated to?
• What will be the specific measurement tools and delivery expectation  of each sub task / vertical?
• In case of deviations at each review/ phase, at what points / triggers will be escalated to you?
• What does the manager need / expect from you to help facilitate the execution process?
•  Finally, you must set a timeline to the project with each of its phases broken down to week, month and quarter on quarter achievable and agree on periodic review schedule based on targets or periodicity.

[Detailing on the line of questioning and review process in subsequent chapters]

The leader must be aware that he must never be compelled to give answers to any gaps that are evident in the above meeting. If required, give the manager time to acquire knowledge / answers to the questions and set up a follow up meeting. Only then, if gaps are still evident, must you guide them on how you might approach the same.

The above process will help you better understand your team well before they jump into the thick of things and critically, you will know who needs greater support than the others. The support that they need might be linked to attitude and/or aptitude. Both need extremely different management styles and will be discussed in detail in subsequent chapters.

Additionally, after the first few reviews, since periodic targets & escalation triggers were clearly agreed on, you would also be able to filter the smooth talkers from the efficient doers, the innovators from those who stagnate and the natural born leaders from the followers.

With passing time, as you understand each person’s execution style, you will know what specific points need your involvement along with the degree of control and periodicity of review with each manager. This will allow you to be the Shepherd who can make time for other key priorities. Point to note here is that time is ill optimised when each person under your command is given the same periodicity of review. Be aware that at varying stages, some might need it a bit more than the others.

With is knowledge it’s time for you to get back to work, stop telling and start asking.

Lead from behind as the Shepherd does to his sheep; align only those who go astray.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/manavdhanda / www.beingshepherd.com

Being Shepherd 4 : Rush to succeed will make you fall

Being Shepherd

Rush to succeed will make you fall

www.beingshepherd.com

Chapter 4

We all are aware that there’s a difference in being a functional head and a CXO but not all CXO’s execute their responsibilities appropriately. A functional head, say a sales head, is best compared with a horse jockey, who is happy to have his team wear blinkers so as to remain laser focused and gallop towards the defined target. A 10% miss in the target by one can be bridged by making another gallop harder and cover the deficit. But as a CXO, your role is more like a shepherd. The underperformance of one function cannot be compensated by the over delivery of other. Each one must proceed and deliver in tandem with the joint objectives. You need to constantly maintain your flock close to each other, interacting, sharing and reassessing each other’s progress.

Thus it’s possible that your strength might be sales, but it might be the area that needs least of your focus. That’s a tough situation to be in: ‘To not do what you are the best at’ and perhaps ‘the best in the entire organization’.

But why is it important to let go and focus on your team? Imagine two scenarios:

1.

You have just taken charge of your Company. You are eager to show results. You know that if you personally take charge of sales, the numbers might immediately spike up by 5%. You will get early victory, the company will grow, you will be appreciated, feel good about yourself, the sales head will respect you and that will give the necessary window to focus on other verticals.  What’s the harm with that? Well, everything.

Because it’s all about you. It’s about your need to get early victory and to feel good early in your job. Your desire to be appreciated, hero worshipped and many more such aspects which is all about you. 

And the vision is very short term.

The moment you, the king of sales, the CXO, takes charge of sales, the Sales Head does as instructed. You show quick growth results. But how long will you keep leading the sales function from the front? And what will happen once you step back to focus on other functions. The sales head, who takes charge after you step back, might try and ape your style but imitation takes a while to master OR might do it her way which will need realignment and time for the team to adjust. Any unsettlement will cause a slight fall in the numbers. Consequently, once you’ve stepped back and numbers show a decline, your observation and that of the entire organization will be that when the CXO was in charge the numbers grew, but soon as the CXO stepped back the numbers dipped. Spoken or unspoken, the blame will be on the Sales Head, manpower review will peruse leading to fear, lack of ownership and perhaps resignations. But most importantly, what was an early growth curve will now be in a free fall.

What one will not realize is that the CXO set the sales head up for failure. Without assessing the leadership style, strengths & weaknesses of the current sales head, the CXO set the rules, defined a new pattern, knowing very well that his charge from the front is only temporary.

Figure 2a here explains the three stages of focus for the one who ‘Leads from the Front’ and how it directly impacts his team and growth curve of the organization / function.

2.

Why lead anything from the front that you very well know is only a short term measure. Rather invest that short term to aptly gauge the team and plug the gaps before jumping into the race for numbers as explained in Fig 2b.

Once you work on defining goals, evaluate self & the team (See blog Chapter 3) and collaborate to plug both technical & soft skill gaps in people  before jumping into a target chase, a marginal early fall, if any, can well be plugged very easily.

Because then if a fall happens the review will not be of the people, the review will be of the objective and the processes / resources or the very strategy itself. It is well possible that in an early stage itself you might not be happy with an existing function head. You might choose to retain them or drop them, which is always an option that some managers prefer (but remains debatable). If you don’t take an extreme measure and not share your concerns openly, it would be a gross disservice to the organization. If you express concerns clearly, yet help them to plug their shortcomings early on, they will get motivated for what you entrust them with and more importantly you will know where to allocate your time & focus.

Irrespective of the state of the people and the organization in the early stage of your role, it is advised to allocate Review Time as follows :

• 20%  : To areas of your strength. Because what you know best, you can best assess and advice in least time. Most managers make a critical mistake of investing maximum time on areas of their strength. Mostly it’s of past experiences and boastful claims what they can do if were in charge. Well, time to stop living in the past and you are not in charge. It’s time to lead from behind. 

• 60% : Areas that are vital but of low interest to you. You are not in a CXO role to do what you know best or enjoy most. You are hired to have a comprehensive vision and get the job done. To prioritize the important and the urgent. The fear with areas of low interest is that you might get too aloof of it and in the guise of delegation might actually abdicate it. The only way to generate interest is by doing more of it.

• 20% : Areas that are not your strong hold. This is because consistent investment must go in educating yourself. Education can come by asking the right questions (explained in subsequent chapters), reading, training or meeting the right people. And then use your best judgment by collaborating with that of the functional head. Sometimes, when you are not sure of the way forward, it is best to humbly disclose that and let the team take charge. There is also an option to get a consultant in for vital projects to maintain an objective view in areas that yet might not be your strength. Some might argue that it is vital for a CXO to invest maximum time in his weak zones. But then what is weak cannot be mastered over a short duration. Thus lay trust in those who are that functions masters. You are not supposed to have all the answers but you certainly should know the right questions. Educate yourself, mastery will follow.

So take your time in a new role, for the right reasons. You are here for the long haul, to make your team perform. Lead them from behind. 

Being Shepherd 3 : Promoted/New Job : Common mistakes can cost your job

Being Shepherd

Leadership lifestyle for the new-age CEO

www.beingshepherd.com

Chapter 3

It is not uncommon to hear of a senior-level manager lose his job after assuming a new role at a more senior level. What might have seemed like a growth prospect boomerangs back owing to factors like greater responsibility, larger teams and movement to a bigger organization, geographically dispersed companies. Such executives are casually tagged as ‘not being ready for a larger role’ or simply ‘incompetent’.

But how can a person suddenly shift from highly competent to highly incompetent just because he’s got a greater responsibility. It is impossible for competence to shrink so starkly. What lacks is the ‘need for a shift in attitude to manage self and the team’. People fail because they continue to lead from the front by relying on the same fundamentals and principles deployed in previous roles.

                    

In other words, they tend to bank on their strengths. And this is the first fundamental that you need to change basis the Being Shepherd Leadership Lifestyle guideline. A fact that your strengths got you thus far is no assurance of it taking you any further. This is the very reason why large corporations often choose to hire a new CEO from outside the company rather than elevating one from within. They intrinsically lack faith in the existing executives in level-two leadership to raise themselves for the new role.

Raising oneself for a new role calls for a shift in 3 key parameters (1) Leadership Style (2) Technical Skills (3) Vision Charting. These need to be aligned to the organizations key objectives and your key result areas. I would like to point out that often we stress too much on the expectations of our job and we tend to forget our personal goals and priorities. It is important to not lose ‘yourself’ for a job.

I recommend using the following tools to assess yourself and grow simultaneously in your job and personal space.

STEP 1 : GOAL SETTING

       a.      Job Goal: Draw out a list of the specific attainable targets basis the objectives that your organization             has set for itself. This must include a combination of some specific measureable elements and desired             goodwill standards.  Eg : Growth in top line by 20%, drop in the high attrition rate by 15%, a tag of a             happier and fun place to work (unmeasurable : note that happier and fun are two varied expectations).

       b.     Personal Goal: Draw out a list of objectives that you want to achieve in your personal space or that            along with your friends and family. Eg. Kids must feel the need to turn to me with their concerns, more          social life, a new hobby, more personal time with the spouse.

Let the list be as long as possible. Keep in mind to not write generic but specific Goals that you need to score to succeed. Eg : Better working conditions vs drop in attrition rate along with fun working environment.

STEP 2 : SKILL MAPPING

a.        Job Skill: Make a list of the specific skills that are required (by you or your core team members) to achieve the objectives laid out in Job Goal (1.a) and your KRA’s. Eg :

·         For growth in numbers : sales & negotiation skills

·         For reduction in attrition : understanding of HR tools used to measure team satisfaction

·         For a fun place tag : counseling and psychologists’ skills who help articulate the definition of fun as expected by your team. Because what might be fun to you might not always be aligned to where the largest base of your team’s expectations lie.

·         As a part of your CXO KRA’s - approving marketing strategies : data/analytics skills, innovative/out of the box thinking skills

b.       Personal Skills: From Personal Goals (1.b) : detail the specific instances that your family might have expressed to you on what they feel is lacking from your end. Further add to the list on this that you might really want to do for family or self.

STEP 3

By now, YOU are getting to be quite a project. There’s lots of raw data and the question is, how to use it to the best?

Most people who believe in leading from the front, think that they know the answers to their problems and they continue to do as they know best. It’s time to try something different. Start with leading yourself from behind.

Plot all the above data from Skill Mapping on the chart below (Fig. 1). Separately for professional and personal matters.

Most people who believe in leading from the front tend to focus on the left quadrants. They believe in doing things they are good at and by default do more of what they love doing. At all times thus, they continue doing what they did in their previous roles and fail to promote themselves.

If you were promoted from the job of a sales head to a CXO and you still focus on your strengths, the new sales head, who has taken over your role, will naturally feel stifled. It displays lack of trust. Almost 80% of all resignations are triggered by lack of trust or low empowerment. Since you had complete charge in your previous role, it is your responsibility to let the new person in the job try her best her way. In fact since you are so good at it, by applying adequate Being Shepherd Leadership Lifestyle tools (to be explained in later chapters), you will be able to lead her from behind far more effectively. More so, if you are micro-managing or championing the job of your team member, because you love doing it or because you are the best at it in the organization, in true terms you are failing to promote yourself and are doing a greater disservice to yourself.

Additionally, it is important to be aware of the fact that what you love doing might not always be what you are good at. You might have heard of marketing campaigns gone wrong because a new CEO, formerly a sales head, presided over the marketing heads role. The CEO positively must have loved the creative debate of a communication campaign, but alas! Often love is blind.  Hence, if you have done a fair analysis of self, some of the points in Fig. 1 quadrant A might also reflect in Fig. 1 quadrant C

Having done a detailed and fair analysis of plotting yourself on the 4 quadrants, it is now time to lead yourself from behind and focus on what will make you a great leader.

Hereon, in the next few chapters we will focus on how to use the raw data you have culled about yourself and apply the Being Shepherd leadership lifestyle on self before applying it on your team, your peers, and other influencers and decision makers.

It’s time for you to lead from behind as a Shepherd does to his sheep; align only those who go astray.

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www.beingshepherd.com / http://manavdhanda.blogspot.in

Being Shepherd 2 : Leading from front can make you history

Being Shepherd

Leadership lifestyle for the new-age CEO

www.beingshepherd.com

Chapter 2

While the Bible too refers to Jesus Christ as the ‘Good Shepherd’, for a good reason that can very well be aligned to modern day management needs, I will steer clear from any religious or cultural references. Before we dive into Being Shepherd, the one who leads from behind, I would like to seed a thought with you.

Most leaders believe in ‘leading from the front’, but what is the origin of this concept?

History reflects that the earliest of leaders in a structured environment were the Kings and Generals of an Army. The Kings were the equivalent of today’s Promoters or Investors. They appointed the Generals who got the job done on the battle field. Thus, legend has shared many a stories of a King rewarding a brave fearless solider by promoting him at the helm of an army.

The position of the General was irrefutable as long as he had the Kings favour. They lead an army of soldier’s, who never challenged or questioned the Generals decision or intent. To do so could cost them their life. Thus, fear was a great motivator and execution strategies were effortlessly implemented. Creativity was the privilege of the top few. Most existed for their brawn and not their brains.

The Generals with their soldiers in tow faced the enemy head on. Remember movies like Braveheart and Gladiator. These heroes were cherished for their bravery. And then there were times when the Kings chose to play the role of the General as well. They themselves took the initiative of taking the enemy head-on. Think Aurenzeb, Napoleon and Genghis Khan. They all led from the front.

While kings and generals also had to strategize, they had to continue honing and displaying the basic yet primary skill of braving the enemy face-on, much like a foot soldier.

That they could strategize was an additional advantage. But brawn's were an essential need. If you only had the brains, you could be a chief advisor, a minister but never the general. A king lacking the brawns or skill to lead on a battle ground was often ridiculed. Sometimes they had to step off the horse and fight the enemy along-side the soldier. They had to lead from the front.

However, in today’s era where the world is readying itself for a new MOOC (Massive Online Open Courses) driven educational concept, doom awaits the CEO who chooses to sit on the chair of an executive and starts to make sales pitches or takes upon himself to be involved in the process of writing marketing briefs or makes it his responsibility of personally educating and nurturing the executives several levels below.

This is not to say that a CEO should not be concerned about the quality of a sales pitch or an effective marketing brief or the development and nurturing of his team. This is to say that the CEO cannot manage such responsibilities the same way as he did as a manager.

There is a need to hold back the strong urge to jump into the battle field and emulate the Generals of the past. Many such Generals have been etched in history and you will too if you fail to adapt to the needs of the future. And I say future, not today, only because in this era, future becomes today, faster than ever before.

You may also note that when the self-proclaimed ‘Greatest Nation of the World’, better known as United States of America wages war on multiple nations simultaneously, the General sits in his office and controls his armies from behind. Not the front.

And that is exactly what CEO’s of large Multi Nationals also do. Lead and manage the various companies across the globe from behind albeit knowingly or unknowingly. Sometimes they don’t even visit some critical and well performing markets for years on end.

What is it that these leaders do that most others cannot?

They lead like a shepherd from behind.

Sounds simple, well not really. Most fail to lead from behind!

Leading from behind is not the same as being hands off. It’s an extremely hands on approach, that needs far more efforts on the leaders part than leading from the front. This needs to be analyzed and understood clearly which we will in subsequent chapters.

But first, we need to understand why is it that often we hear of mid-level managers, who are rewarded with greater responsibility and larger teams, lose their jobs owing to sheer incompetence or consistent performance failure soon after assuming the new role.

Think, what is the reason that hinders many successful mid-level managers and small to mid-size organization CEOs’ from succeeding in greater roles, bigger organizations or geographically dispersed companies? Growth often spells their doom and are casually tagged as ‘not being ready for a larger role’ or simply ‘incompetent’.

But how can a person suddenly shift from highly competent to highly incompetent just because he got a greater responsibility. It is impossible for competence to shrink so starkly. What lacks is the ‘need for a shift in attitude of self and towards the team that needs to me managed’. They fail because they keep leading while banking on the same fundamentals and principles that they used in previous phases of their career. They lead from the front, like a General from the past that are best read about in history books.

Today such leaders fail to create history. They become history.

This series will help you transcend the journey from a small scale entrepreneur, mid-level manager or a CEO of a mid-sized company to reaching the top of that leadership role that perhaps was eluding you until now or is waiting to be embraced by you.

This series will not provide you with any scientific tools to bring about a great new dimension in yourself that you did not possess till date. Such claims are baseless and bogus. This series will help You understand ‘You better’ & ‘Be better’.

It will help you access yourself from within and provide indicators to be more insightful and objective on your own style of leadership. It will share with you the kind of shepherd like ‘leadership lifestyle’ that you need to possess. Very importantly, it will hold your hand through a very critical change management process to facilitate a smooth transition from a front leader to the one who leads from behind in order to help you create a highly effective self-motivated team that offers itself with complete free will to elevate the organizations objectives.

Note that the one line that forms the genesis of this ‘leadership lifestyle’ will be repeated multiple times over.

Lead from behind as a shepherd does to his sheep; align only those who go astray.

You will see that each time you too will start to find newer interpretations of this line. Your interpretation often might go beyond the written word yet closer to your own specific needs and challenges at hand. Do please go onto my website www.beingshepherd.com and share your interpretations and positive experiences on my blog http://manavdhanda.blogspot.in .

So now that the context is set and we understand that leading from behind is a concept from an era when Generals rode on horsebacks and lead from the front to defeat the enemy; in order to achieve victory in today’s era there needs to be a shift in leadership style by leading from the behind.

But what exactly are the specifics that one needs to inculcate and how does one differentiate between the one who leads from the front or behind?

To know about that, stay tuned for the next issue. Until then, keep leading J

www.beingshepherd.com /   http://manavdhanda.blogspot.in

Being Shepherd 1 : Why leading from the front is a big mistake

Being Shepherd

Leadership lifestyle for the new-age CEO
www.beingshepherd.com / http://manavdhanda.blogspot.in

Chapter 1

                      

Are you ambitious about your career?

No matter if you are an entrepreneur, a mid-level manager or a CEO, you realize that your success is tied to that of your organization.

As a leader, you also are aware that you are only as good as your team. Thus, as the person in-charge, you believe in leading your team from the front.

Because you have been taught that if you lead from the front, others will follow. Well, I have bad news for you. You are making a big mistake.

Greater success will ensue when you ‘stop leading from the front’.

Puzzled? Then how else do you lead?

To answer that, we need to understand exactly ‘who are being led’ by you.

The attitude of the people in your team is not what it used to be five to seven years back. Employee attitudinal shift is now a constant & rapid change process that needs to be observed very closely. The people in your team today are getting increasingly independent, highly vocal, recognition hungry and they believe that they are highly creative, which they are. Yet, the greatest drawback of today’s generation is impatience.

Their attitude is influenced by the realities around them. Never before in history of mankind have we heard of so many twenty and thirty year olds raking in the millions. Never ever, until recently has the six degrees of separation rule been challenged, perhaps now it’s down to two or three degrees and some enthusiastic ones constantly put it to best use while seeking new job opportunities. Today so many kids in their college have the opportunity to attempt an entrepreneurial stint and actually succeed to garner support from their peers and parents.

The smallest of achievement is ‘liked’ by dozens on social media and then they wonder why the bosses are so miserly in praise. The pace of information and knowledge transfer is unmatched to ever before which whets the aspiration of every second person on the bloc to dream ‘Yes I Can’. Or to topical-ize it, when we read the news of yet another ‘no one’ making it big, each one of us thinks ‘ab ki baar, its my turn yaar’.

And then you my friend, have been given this monumental task to manage a large herd of this unique creation of mankind and have them listen, understand, agree and execute as per your directives. Yet you continue to lead the same old fashion… from the front. Alas!

You need to change the way you lead. Still ask why?

Because people are your most vital asset. It is not about how you use them to achieve the organizations objectives but about how they offer themselves with complete free will to elevate the organizations objectives.

It is about providing the human resources with the most conducive environment to perform up-to their fullest potential. While they do so, it’s critical that the manager is in a position to evaluate not just the key performance benchmarks but also gauge the individuals capabilities as a worker, chart the potential to grow both vertically & horizontally, in addition mapping the individuals desire to align to the chosen plan. Also to observe the dynamic and reactive peer-to-peer relation, separate the leaders from the followers, the consistent performers and consistent under achievers amongst others.

Hereon, in each issue, I would share with you insights of a management approach essential for a technology soaked environment, that has been derived from that of a Shepherd; one of the first known ‘employees specializations’ in mankind.

This leadership style can be encapsulated in a single line :

Lead from behind as the shepherd does to his sheep; align only those who go astray.

1880 painting by Anthonij (Anton) Rudolf Mauve
(Renowned for his work on flocks of sheep)

A simple sentence that seems to say very little. However, within this line lies a world of wisdom that New Age leaders can learn from to not only create winning organizations but also create self-equity that will have a far greater pay off to their careers than simply achieving annual targets.

In the subsequent few additions I will make an attempt to break this sentence down to minuscule bits across various cuts and highlight insights that will help you imbibe a new form of ‘leadership lifestyle’.

The specific positive payoff’s can be briefly outlined as:

•       Build a self-motivated high performing team
•       Understand peer to peer dynamics and the performance triggers or blockages therein
•       Gauge each individuals strengths and weaknesses in relation to the constantly changing          environment
•       Seed culture of constant innovation and thought leadership
•       Create time for the leader to get free from operations and invest the same for future mapping
•       Achieve a work life balance

Indeed, after all being a shepherd is not an easy job and there is a lot to learn from one.

But for that, until next edition.

Keep leading :-)

www.beingshepherd.com / http://manavdhanda.blogspot.in