Leadership

Leadership is about moving from Point A to Point B. If the organization, person, or entity does not have to move from Point A to Point B there is no need for a leader. The leader, after all, is the one initiating the movement toward Point B. The leader is worth following for multiple reasons, but the primary being that the leader is moving towards something worth moving toward – in the case above, the aforementioned Point B —and others follow because of this. But what is Point B and why is it worth moving toward? These two questions comprise the building blocks for today’s topic of vision.

Before commenting further on these two essential components of vision, let’s clarify what vision is not. Vision is not a stretch goal. A stretch goal should be measurable and have a definite end, whereas a vision might never be reached fully. Similarly, a vision is not a set of beliefs. Beliefs are vitally important and assist in deciphering who should be on the team and how the team behaves. But, beliefs are beliefs and not the vision itself. A vision, on the other hand, is something worth pursuing with all your gusto because it is grand and unique to you and/or your organizaiton. It is the culmination of a worldview, or the way things ought to be in your life, organization, or world. Unlike goals, which are necessarily tactical, visions are emotional and inspirational. Goals engage your brain, whereas vision engages your heart.

To quote Simon Sinek, vision always “starts with why.” “Why” has two necessary elements: Point A and Point B. First, the leader needs to spell out why you cannot stay at Point A. Inside an organization, Point A might be “status quo” and doing things the way things have always been done. The key here is to spell out exactly why persisting this way will not work. The leader needs to take time doing so because unless people see the need to leave Point A they will stay there because human nature naturally resists change. Then, the leader needs to start simultaneously painting the picture of what Point B is and why Point B matters.

As an example of how to do this I will share how our organization summed up our vision for surviving the health and economic challenges brought on by COVID-19. Put concisely, we repeatedly told our organization that we wanted to keep as many people healthy and employed as possible. We started by explaining why this mattered: Our first core value is Family, so we drew a line in the sand and told the organization that no matter what ensued economically, our first tactic would be to keep as many people employed as possible. My sisters and I took reductions in pay first because leaders should go first. Then our Executive Team followed, and so did other volunteers in the organization. We also told our team that we would not do layoffs, or “right sizing.” While we understood how some organizations used the reality of the recession to do this — some were also forced to do this in order to survive — we decided this was not for us unless things got so bad we were forced to. Thankfully, our only bad month was April so this never came to fruition and we were able to quickly reverse course on many of the other sacrifices.

We also over-communicated what we were doing from a safety standpoint in the building. Shutting down was not an option for us because much of what our customers did was deemed “essential.” So we provided PPE to everyone, wore face masks before it was mandated, did temperature checks starting in March, and so on. While these “whats” are important, we always communicated “why” we were doing them, which again, pointed back to treating each other well and being one big family. Admittedly, this view of culture is not for everyone. And, I am also not saying that it is the best way to run a business. I am only saying that it is how we run ours and thus, is integral to our vision for surviving COVID-19 and our grander vision of where we are headed in the future.

Make no mistake that outlining the “why” and “what” did not automatically make things easy for us. As we can all probably agree, 2020 has been many things, but easy is not one of them. Still, these two components provided the building blocks for a vision.

I will close by sharing that I often imagined what it would be like to get through the worst of the pandemic and recession without any forced layoffs. This was our ideal future. Thankfully, it has been realized to date.

I encourage leaders to dream big in their organizations and set out to achieve a better tomorrow. Not only will it energize your team, but it will also bring a renewed sense of purpose to you and them. This is what makes work both meaningful and noble. And, it is the kind of thing that makes leaders worth following.

Over the next four posts I want to turn our attention to the essentials of leadership, starting today with accountability. Here is today’s assertion:

You cannot create a culture of accountability while being unaccountable yourself.

I write these words the morning I am going to lead a meeting to discuss what went wrong with a production plan. I am going to start that meeting off telling the group that the predicament we are in is ultimately my fault. I am ultimately accountable for Sales and Operations at Hoffer Plastics, so this is on me.

Without going into all the details of a private matter, I can share that while this is a fixable problem, it will be a costly one. I can also say that it is a situation where I was not directly involved in the process of deciding what action to take. Meaning, I did not make the call directly (emphasis on the word directly). I was involved in other ventures when this decision was made. After all, I cannot be involved in every venture and neither can you — so do not misread this post as suggesting to never delegate—I share this, however, to explain that even when the leader is not directly involved in the decision making process, they are still accountable for the action taken.

Before going further, let me pause to acknowledge the leader’s temptation in a situation like the one described above. The leader’s temptation is to give lip service to “Extreme Ownership,” and practice “Extreme Blame-Shifting.” For example, I could blame those directly involved in this situation for making an incorrect decision. After all, I was not directly involved. But, this is problematic on multiple levels: it puts me “above” the situation which indirectly hurts my credibility and trustworthiness. It also teaches the team that blaming others is acceptable and this only tempts them to blame others below them when things go wrong — and things always will go wrong at some point. All of this is unproductive and portrays poor leadership.

The other choice is to follow what I will refer to here as the thorny path of the leader. It is thorny and many leaders avoid it because it will hurt. But, someone has to take out a machete and forge a path forward, so should it not be the leader? I am of course referring to the path of “Extreme Ownership,” which is nothing less than extreme accountability. In the above situation, this path acknowledges the mistakes I made in leading the group. For example, I should have challenged the decision making process more than I did since one of our Sales people had voiced a concern about this change in plan. I should have also asked the team for a contingency plan, which would have safeguarded us from being in the predicament we are in today. These considerations, and I could list more, are more apparent to one not directly involved (but still directly accountable!). Putting these “should haves” aside, the accountability still stops with me. This means that I have to set the new course by hacking away at the thorns my failed leadership created. There is no other choice for the leader to make.

If you find yourself arguing with this level of accountability, I would invite you to reconsider your views of what the word means. Could it be that this kind of accountability is modeled so poorly by most leaders these days that we have had to add the word “extreme” in front of “ownership/accountability” to let many off the hook?

I hope this is not so with us. Accountability is accountability. Period. The buck stops with the one others follow. For leaders cannot create a culture of accountability without accountability starting first with them. There is no other way, as painful as it might be.

What I am about to say should be read with the knowledge that I believe every person reading this should consult with their doctor in regard to their own risk profile. We all have different health situations. With that being said…

COVID-19 should give leaders an edge.

It is the ultimate “us” vs. “them.”

Risk is always present. Driving to work, flying to Europe, investing in the new product line; all of this involves risk.

COVID-19 is also risky.

Some are paralyzed by this.

Others are thriving because they have an edge.

By edge, I mean a dogged determination and focus on doing the work they have committed to, and taking new ground. A perseverance that, come what may, they are continuing on.

For me it has involved not accepting excuses (either for myself or the team) and being present when being present has involved elevated risk. Maybe this led me to getting COVID-19 myself.

But, the cause was worth the risk for me.

Determine what the edge means for you. And by all means, start climbing the mountain in front of you – whatever that mountain is.

Many are stranded back at base camp waiting for the “all clear.”

I will let you in on a secret, an “all clear” is not coming. The weather app is calling for more stormy weather in the weeks and months ahead. No vaccine, politician, or policy is going to fix this mess. Besides, why wait for them anyway?

Leaders are held to a greater standard because they are responsible in times like these. There are perks that come with leadership, but now is the time when leaders pay the price of leadership. That means they mask up, put on all-weather boots, and trek out into the storm.

The worse the weather is, all the better, because it is GAME ON!

Before closing might I say, it is time for leaders to quit whining about Trump, Biden, and all the other things in their life they cannot control. People follow leaders because they do not spend time whining about uncontrollable variables in life.

Again, it bears repeating:

Whiners whine about all the things making their life hard.

Leaders busy themselves with getting up early, doing the work, and taking ground.

This isn’t to say it is easy to lead because it certainly is not.

It is just to say that leaders take ownership of their life rather than allowing outside forces to define them or their organizations.

Embrace the challenges in front of you. Get ticked off by them! Grind a little harder because of them!

This is the edge!

Let it fuel your leadership.

(Note: Feel inspired to lead? The next four Mondays I am going to be posting about some of the basics of leadership: accountability, vision, courage through conflict, and vulnerability. The upcoming posts will dive a little deeper into these topics and encourage you to become someone worth following.)

Not all gossip is created equal. Talking about someone’s personal life is unproductive, unhealthy, and divisive. It is a problem and should not be tolerated. But, this kind of gossip is not what I am going to talk about in today’s post. Today, I want to talk about when interpersonal conflict leads person A to process the issue, not with person B, but with someone else inside the organization (hypothetically person C). This may feel necessary to person A in order to get their thoughts straight, but, in reality, it is nothing other than socially acceptable gossip.

Socially acceptable gossip often originates from a manager’s inability or unwillingness to have a conversation with their direct report over an issue they have with them. Therefore, they talk about the issue with other managers or other people on the team, as they work up the courage to have the conversation. We can call this “processing,” but in reality it is still gossip, albeit the socially acceptable kind. This especially hurts a leader’s reputation when they engage in this kind of behavior because no one wants to follow someone talking about others behind their back.

I know the above to be true because in the past, I have struggled with this myself and, I am a lousy leader when I have. In fact, it has never been my intention to do it. I have always beaten myself up over it because I can easily keep things confidential when asked, and I don’t struggle with talking about other people’s personal lives (the other kind of gossip). But, I tend to process issues verbally, so I have found myself doing exactly what I have outlined above (talking to someone other than “B” about something going on). Doing this with someone outside of the organization, like an accountability partner or executive coach, can be helpful. This is especially true when they are willing to push back constructively. But, once again, that is not what I am talking about here. Here, I am talking about doing this with someone else inside the organization and that is wrong.

Why have I struggled with this?

I have come to discover that the answer (and it is not pretty) is that I do not love person B enough.

Let that sink in. You can change the word “love” if a different word suits your comfort level, but the problem here is one that goes to the heart. Put succinctly, do I love the person enough to have a direct conversation with them about whatever is going on rather than having the conversation indirectly with someone else? This is the question for today.

I have discovered that having the conversation quickly is important. Time tends to make the conversation more difficult in my mind, and time grows my hesitancy to do something that will inevitably be a little uncomfortable. The truth is that these conversations can be hard, and that doing the hard thing is the kind of things that make good leaders – and good managers – worth following.

In closing, how many people criticize leaders for having too many of these kinds of conversations? When, for example, have you heard someone complain, “I am leaving that company because the leader was always direct and transparent with me. I just can’t take it.” In reality, people often leave organizations because the leader did not have the guts to tell them what was wrong. While there are many other reasons why people leave organizations, this is one that is avoidable and it is one that leaders should avoid at all costs.

The point today is simple to understand, simple to do, and yet makes all the difference in our trustworthiness as a leader. Let’s love people enough to have any conversation directly with them and in turn, let’s root out all kinds of gossip in our organizations.

Like every other leader I know, my plan for 2020 was blown up when COVID-19 took precedence. Everything changed, including how I was to spend my time the rest of the year. Gone were major trade shows, in-person meetings, and speaking engagements. In was much more time at home and the office.

A few months into the pandemic I started to question my worthiness to the organization. While I was plenty engaged leading operational meetings, providing occasional insights to the sales team, and communicating frequently to the organization; I did not feel like I was leaving much of a mark in those areas.

This bothered me, so I sought guidance from my Executive Coach. On one hand, he reminded me how much of an adrenaline junkie I had become in years past chasing different sales opportunities and building one-on-one relationships. Perhaps what I was feeling was symptomatic to the loss of this, which admittedly was more “exciting” than the activities I was doing in 2020. On the other hand, however, he challenged me to think about the things I could do that no one else could or would do. Without giving me a concrete answer, he challenged me to think and pray about these things. He then challenged me to act on whatever I discovered.

What I discovered was that pandemic or not, the organization was asking me to start working “on” the business and not “in” the business —at least not all the time. This meant that while part of me was still mourning the loss of the “old” reality, I had to adjust my role to focus on what needed attention inside the organization. This meant handling all the things people complain about but either felt like they could do nothing about, or were simply unwilling to. I had to embrace doing the difficult.

I began to make mental notes of all the things I had been hearing our team talk, or even complain, about. I then began having direct conversations with people about things I was observing. While these conversations were almost always centered on soliciting the other leader’s help to address those problems, they were still sticky because they frequently dealt with problems underneath them. I soon discovered that a good judgement of when to have these conversations was what I was thinking about driving home at night. I reasoned that if I was thinking about certain topics while I was driving home, so was everyone else on our team. Was I going to wait for them to act, or was I going to lead? This question often gave me the courage to act.

My Executive Coach later helped me clarify that I should be involved when things were broken, new, or part of our brand. Obviously, all the above falls mainly into the “broken” category. That said, I think the order is intentional. Doing the difficult starts with me. I hope all the other leaders on our executive team feel the same way because it will take all of us doing the difficult to earn the excellence we seek.

I close by reminding that doing the difficult does not change culture overnight. In fact, I do not think the difficult things I have done the last few months are even visible, yet, to most of the organization. But the seeds being sewn now will one day blossom. Change is always slow and then sudden. So, I encourage you to do the difficult. For people love to follow those willing to do what they would rather not do themselves.

There is no pause button in life. Yet, 2020 has felt like there is. We have passed the point where I need to list all the examples of conferences, events, and trips being cancelled or moved. The pauses have made sense in most cases.

But as the summer months wore on, and as COVID-19 demonstrated it was not going away, the message I gave our team was that we had to hit the “un-pause” button. Life must go on differently — with social distancing, masks, and every other possible protective health measure we can take —but life must go on.

I met on consecutive days with our Plant Managers and Sales team in late July. We social distanced and wore masks because we were inside. But we met in person. The sales team even did dinner outside the night before our meeting. Before dinner, one of the sales team members secretly hugged me in the parking lot because she is such a rebel! Admitting all this may tempt you to judge, or even criticize, so rest assured I am not saying that you should do what I am doing. Nor am I making the argument that my actions are right. I am simply making the argument that the time has come to un-pause life.

The job of the leader in any season is to meet people where they are at, connect with them, and care for them. Unpausing is necessary because the health of people, and even businesses, is more than physical. Social distancing is wise, but social isolating is placing burdens on people they were not meant to carry. As relational beings, we need connection to thrive and that is why unpausing is no longer optional.

What this looks like for you, your business, and your home, is probably different than what it looks like for me. Maybe you are less comfortable hugging someone on your team than I am. That is absolutely okay. I am just asking every reader to stop buying into the morality argument being made by many that certain actions are either moral or immoral. While there is probably a list of behaviors all people can agree to in terms of the Pandemic, there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. What works for our business might not work for yours. Same with our home. Can’t we appreciate the differences and leave it that without labeling or evaluating each other?

Leaders, I urge you to extend grace. This is gritty, novel, and what we know today might be wrong tomorrow. Therefore, our views need to be flexible.

And finally, we need to accept this new reality. Like it or not, it is here to stay. How long? I have no clue. So, it is best to hit the un-pause button, start living, and start leading your business towards the new frontier.

(Author’s note – I wrote this post in early February and delayed posting it due to COVID-19 and more time-relevant posts)

Should Tom Brady leave the New England Patriots?

While in some ways sports differs from business organizations, here are three reasons to embrace necessary endings.

Necessary endings allow for upward mobility in an organization. New leaders emerge when new opportunity is present. While one of the tenets at Bald in Business is leading without a title (because leadership is always influence, to quote John Maxwell), new positions allow people to use their influence in more formal ways. And whether we like it or not, formality is needed for the wholeness of the leader to emerge. Without the title, General Ulysses S. Grant was possibly just another soldier (this oversimplifies the route Grant took in becoming Lieutenant General, but the point remains that opportunity gave birth to the Grant we know from history).

Necessary endings also allow for a change of perspective in leadership. No two leaders see the world the same way. Not only is this healthy, it gives renewed life to the organization. Our Executive Vice President, for example, has recently taken over leading our sales team and sees opportunity in markets and geographical locations that I did not. This opened our team up to possible growth that they were missing under my leadership. No single leader can see all the possibilities, thus an ending is often necessary for an organization to reach its fullest potential.

Finally, necessary endings bring renewed energy to the organization. While organizations fight to maintain status quo with every ounce of their being, the irony is that change brings the kind of renewed energy that propels its forward. This can even push stagnant team members to greater performance because they are renewed as well. Change can also bring a lot of other stuff with it —stress, more work, and all the things that make people unconsciously resist it —but these are the the building blocks of a growing organization. Energy is needed to embrace the building blocks and grow.

Speaking of my personal necessary ending, I am already beginning to contemplate my next one. While I hope this is over ten years out at this point, it is still wise to think of its necessity, and be working at the process of growing the next successor.

Before ending this post, I have to come back to the question posed at the outset about Tom Brady: Should he leave his team? Of course, he should! I’d advise him to retire. But if he wants to keep playing, he should leave and open the door to the next generation. Had he done that a few years ago, maybe Jimmy Garoppolo would have been quarterback of the New England Patriots last year, while Tom Brady would have been quarterback of his hometown San Francisco 49ers? Such are the speculations of an avid sports fan that believes in necessary endings…

(Final Author’s Note: I did NOT see Tom Brady signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but I should have. Why? Many NFL Quarterbacks swear that Bucs’ Head Coach Bruce Arians is someone worth following…)

No one could have adequately planned for COVID-19. Not only did it come unannounced, it has changed things at such a rapid pace that what you thought you knew yesterday is outdated by the time you drink your morning’s coffee the next day. This is a crisis, which means you cannot plan for it.

But you can be prepared.

You can always prepare for the eventual disruption, recession, or crisis. You can ensure that your cash flow is positive, that your business serves diverse markets, and that your team has a plan of action for when crisis comes.

And some form of crisis always comes.

Perhaps, you can see this difference more easily in other walks of life. For example, I can be mentally and physically prepared for a golf tournament. But I cannot plan what kind of shot I am going to hit on the 13th hole. Even with the tee shot, I can plan to hit my 3-wood and come to find the weather changed. With new conditions, such as a change in the wind, do I follow my pre-round plan? Considering that I am always prepared to hit a cut shot down the left side of the fairway with my driver, the answer is that I am prepared to hit either.

Golf analogy aside, it is the leader’s job to think through situations and be prepared for anything.

You can plan for little.

You can be prepared for lots.

See the difference?

Whatever we want to call this season we are in (COVID-19, Recession, or something else), the reality is that it is different from the one that roughly ended on March 13, 2020. The previous season can almost be characterized with one word: GROWTH. Words like innovation, technology, robotics, and sustainability, all became commonplace. In return, leaders needed to “embrace change for change’s sake,” be “nimble,” and always (ALWAYS!) be “hustling.” Even on the “side.”

Things change.

The season we are in now seems to be one of SURVIVAL. While Hoffer Plastics future is absolutely secure today, we will have to adapt and survive like everyone else to excel in the “new normal,” whatever that is. To be sure, all the things mentioned above (especially sustainability) will come back quickly, but right now is all about SURVIVING until they do.

With that in mind, here are 3 qualities that your team must embrace in a crisis:

Your team needs to show up. Before you say, “duh,” and move on, think about it. Who is showing up and who isn’t? Who can be counted on, and who cannot? Every leader I am talking to right now can decipher between those they that are sheltering in fear, and those they can count on. For example, our Director of Manufacturing has been in our facility every single day since this began. Feel free to have an opinion on whether injection molding is “essential,” the point here is that we have had to maintain normal production for customer demand and our Director of Manufacturing has not missed a beat. You need people like him on your team during a crisis.

Your team needs to stay calm. It would do our team no good if our Director of Manufacturing was showing up and freaking everyone out. So, in the same breath as above, every leader I know is gravitating to those on their team that are remaining calm. They help steady the organization in uncertain times.

Your team needs to be resolute. While you would not hire anyone that you know is not, a crisis reveals one’s resoluteness. Who can work through just about any difficulty, even personal difficulties, and do good work? Who attacks problems regardless of the time of day, or regardless of the size of the problem? Who is always dependable no matter what else is going on? All this becomes evident in times like these.

These qualities are admittedly basic to understand. But your team must do them to survive in a crisis.

I write these words from my home office. It is Tax Day, or was supposed to be Tax Day. The view I have is to our backyard and the ground is covered with a thin blanket of snow. A week ago, the temperature approached 80 degrees in Chicago. Now winter has reminded us that it always has the last laugh.

Mother Nature often reminds us how uncertain life is. Well, so has COVID-19.

Can

One

View

It

Dutifully?

The leader has to. To be someone worth following you have to keep going no matter the cost. Every single person reading this post knows this, and so do I.

But will we?

There is a small nook on our front porch that is partially hidden from view thanks to the overhanging roof. Expecting birds defy any attempts we make to keep them from building nests there. This spring, however, we did not even try to dissuade them. Shouldn’t they have a spot to shelter in place as well? As I write these words a future mother bird awaits dutifully on her nest in our nook. I would imagine she did not welcome last night’s snow. But the sun has come out which assures the snow’s inevitable demise. She will outlast the cold weather, but will she persist through the perils of spring thunderstorms, and the unknown predators lurking in the surrounding field? Her toughest days may be ahead. If she could talk, would she view this dutifully?

Similarly, this crisis is fraught with uncertainty that will extend into the warmer months and possibly beyond.

Do we, leaders, view it dutifully?

Late yesterday morning I made my way out to our plant. This opportunity has taken sole possession of my “number one task” in my daily planner. But it is not a task. It is opportunity to see the eyes and feel the hearts of our team. It is a reminder of the covenant that we have together. This is what sustains me during times of difficulty. And it is the lifeblood to my leadership. Their strength spurs me beyond what words can adequately capture here.

Every leader needs strength from those around them. Doing this alone will not work.

Each day when I get back to my office, I ask myself the question, can one view it – COVID – dutifully?

Because of them, absolutely!

Like the bird, we must!

Harder times may or may not be on the horizon. I suspect they are. But, people like us will persevere through the snow into the sun because that is our duty.

We will persist.

We will survive.

We will because that is our duty.