Chapter 6: Put Your Message Out With Every Breath You Take-Until it Becomes the Vision, Climate, Spirit of the Company and Exists Independent of You
Situation: You have e-mailed them your Source Document. You told them three times about your vision, teachable points of view, key priorities, but the "just don get it." We'll show you how to get all this over the line so that it exists independent of you.
I met Julia on a long, hot, humid afternoon in Toronto that seemed to make even the tall concrete steel and glass buildings of the city droop with the weight of the humidity and absence of even the faintest breeze. Julia arrived in the restaurant with her coiffed red hair turned up sharply at the edge and an impeccable business suit without the slightest hint of a wrinkle. I had been coaching Julia, a former hard driving, Wall Street executive and now director of an international non-profit with a great cause for eight months now.
Julia sat down at the table and I asked her how it was going. "Michel, we spent our first few months together working on the Source Document. I was totally inspired by the vision, the goals, and our teachable points of views. I spoke passionately about these in all our town hall meetings. Everyone seemed to buy into it, but Michel, I have to tell you," she said, leaning back and shaking her head, "I am at my wits end. Something is really wrong. I am having a hard time creating a shift in the wind that will drive out the old culture and bring in the new."
"The team seems to have embraced the vision and goals; however, they have not embraced some of the teachable points of view in the Source Document. Rather than being inspired, they act like they are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. Rather than taking the lead, they wait for me to drive action and accountability. Rather than making sharp yes or no decisions and exhibiting some edge, they are wishy-washy. On top of that, I think they resent me. I've heard they call me the 'dragon lady'. Please give me your advice."
"Julia," I said, "I am going to tell you something that you probably won't like to hear. You have totally underestimated the reality of what it takes to 'source' an organization. It is going to take tremendous courage and commitment on your part as a leader to get what you are sourcing "over the line" to people at all levels of your organization so they not only own the goals, but also transform their thinking and attitudes."
Julia looked a bit crushed so I stepped back a bit, "Okay, you have done the first two steps: you created the Source Document and communicated it through the town hall meetings, and let me acknowledge you for that. At the same time, you assumed that communicating it once would be enough to get people to march to the beat of your drum. It appears to me that you forgot to beat the drum everyday, and just started driving for results."
"The kind of leadership that gets what you are sourcing over the line or into the hearts and minds of the people is as much a matter of who you are being at any given time as much is it is a matter of what you are doing. Perhaps you, yourself are not behaving consistently with some of the leadership principles or teachable points of view in the Source Document in the way you interact with people. Perhaps you are focusing too much on results. You want an inspired organization… but are you being inspired? You want people to be accountable…but are you empowering others to take the lead or are you taking the ball away from them? Are you enabling them to make decisions by stepping away from the 'smartest person in the room' syndrome and acting as a thinking partner?"
"Julia, in a strongly sourced organization, people are inspired, empowered, and they drive themselves. Have you ever noticed that the best work is often done by volunteers?" Julia looked at me and said, "Got the message. Tell me more about what I need to do to source my organization. I am really committed to creating this shift in the wind."
Teachable Point of View: Keep speaking your vision until it speaks back to you from the organization.
We have worked with many extraordinary leaders to create a Source Document, to get their message through so it becomes the vision, climate, spirit of the company and to begin to execute on the key priorities, change initiatives, and projects. The typical scenario is that after the first year, the leader accomplishes the first third of what they really need to do to get everything that's in their Source Document over the line, and it really seems like a lot is beginning to fall into place.
At this point, we usually say to the leader, "Wow! You've made really remarkable progress on the first leg of your leadership journey." We also point out, "If you were to leave the company today and someone were to take your place, a lot of the things that you have been attempting to put into place might disappear." The point is there is a lot more to do in the next two thirds of the journey to make sure you get everything that is in your Source Document over the line so that it exists independent of you. To do so, it will not only take a willingness to set goals consistent in areas where you have overlooked them and be creative in addressing what's missing, but also tenacious follow through.
This goes right to the heart of what it means to be an extraordinary leader. Not only does an extraordinary leader have a vision that calls forth a powerful new future, an extraordinary leader lays the foundation of a great institution, grounded in empowering values that continually expands people's horizons of possibility, while creating unparallel value for customers, employees, shareholders, and society. Such leaders contribution does not rise or fall with the stock market, but continues for many generations to come. Let's take an example of a leader who created a strongly sourced organization that existed independent of him.
Many people would say they have never heard of Charles Coffin. The man, who many great leaders took over from, was the founding entrepreneur of a company that held the patents to the electric light, the phonograph, the motion picture and so on. Coffin understood his role was not to be the next Edison, but rather be an inventor of a different sort. His creation was the General Electric Company (GE). 1
Coffin (era 1892-1912) established a tradition in his time of mastering developing general managers with the view of steadily increasing profits per unit of executive and, in so doing, created a machine that generated a succession of giants. While Coffin was followed by many great leaders, the likes of Cordiner and Jones, GE eventually became know as the "House that Jack Built." In reality, Jack Welch was a product of GE, not the source of it. Yet at the same time, he "recreated" Coffin's vision by adopting the founder's teachable point of view, frequently referring to GE as a "People Factory." Welch not only showed up a the Crotonville Leadership Center many times, but also got personally involved in improving on GE's people development processes. At the same time, when Welch left the company a "great executive," he didn't have to worry that people would forget to do these things.
The new CEO, Jeff Immelt, who in 2002 took the helm exactly one hundred years after Coffin, continued in the same tradition of getting GE's "sourcing" over the line. "We run the company so people feel the CEO might enter their world anytime. I spend roughly forty percent of my time on people issues; so do our other top leaders. I teach at Crotonville three to four times a month. I will review in detail 5000 to 6000 resumes in a process we call 'Session C.' I am not locked in a room with executives. I reach down hard into the organization all the time. I will spend time in the field with sales reps identified as high potential. When I meet people I am impressed with, I call human resources right away and say, for example, 'I want these three people to get a double dip of stock options.'" 2
Imagine for a moment that you are taking over from a very strong leader-the Thomas Edison of your company, for example, or even a lesser notable. You have your own idea of what you want to "source" in the company, your vision and teachable point of view and transformational agenda-whether it's a "People Factory," "New Growth Engines," or "Quality."
So now flushed with the success of the territory you have already taken on in the first third of the journey, it is perhaps time to consider the second two-thirds. What's missing that, if provided, will make a difference in getting your sourcing over the line? What is it going to take from you as a leader and others to create a company culture that exists independent of you, like Coffin did, so that one day people may say, (even though not everyone remembers his name (yours)), "He built the stage on which they all played."
Template for Action
1. Make sure that your own behavior as the leader is consistent with what you have put out as the teachable points of view in the Source Document. You must know what is in the Source Document intimately and must be prepared to act in accordance-day after day, moment after moment.
2. Powerfully communicate the Source Document. You must engage people with the power of well-delivered and deeply felt words. With the power of speech you have the ability to move individuals, alter futures, create new possibilities, and galvanize your organization. This is the core of leadership-the ability to see and articulate the future you are committed to creating. It has nothing to do with charisma (although charisma helps), but has everything to do with clarity and commitment.
3. Do not underestimate the amount of communicating you need to do. In creating a "shift in the wind," every individual is crucial to the fulfillment of what you are sourcing. Speak the message over and over again. Once is never enough. If you communicate your message once or twice, and then stop, people will register it as "corporate policy," and then forget it. If you say it with every breath you breathe, they will start to shift and embody it, and you will begin to hear it in the corridors, coming back at you. Then you will know you have succeeded.
4. Get everyone to communicate the Source Document. Every individual on the team must be absolutely and totally clear that it is a prime responsibility to communicate and act consistent with the message of the Source Document. The leader and every individual on the team must be responsible to communicate the message with every breath they take-to everyone, everywhere.
5. Give people at every level the opportunity to hear about their organization from the "source"-the men and women in the highest leadership positions. Establish vehicles of communication: town hall meetings, newsletters, updates, meetings, and so forth. You must give people the big picture, the reasons why you are doing what you are doing, and how important it is to you and to them.
6. Use every opportunity to refer back to the message of the Source Document. Place every goal, problem, accomplishment in the context of the organization's destinal resolve. Imbue every event-good or bad-with its own meaning of how it impacts and relates to the overall intention of the Source Document.
7. Together with your team establish goals, priorities, and initiatives consistent with the Source Document. Make sure the projects that are designed and communicated invite participation and contribution of people at all levels. Be a proponent that every single person in the organization can make a key contribution to what you are trying to achieve. Give them the power and autonomy to make it happen with customers and suppliers.
8. Bring people back to your message of what it is all about. People will become trapped by the problems of the moment and forget why they are doing a certain project; or they will become jaded with the unworkability of the organization. This is normal and to be expected. Your job as the leader is to bring people back to what it is that you are trying to create together. Take every chance to create a line of sight between what people are acting on-including resolving breakdowns-and the opportunity to take steps toward the fulfillment of the Source Document.