Beware of the Gravitational Forces in Leadership Roles

How to push back against the forces that pull you away from your leadership priorities

I just passed three years as the CEO of Deloitte Consulting and have learned a lot (understatement) as the captain of our rapidly growing team of 80k+ people and as an advisor to many CEOs and leaders across government and private industry. As many other leaders have noted, we collectively have worn the privilege and the responsibility of leading during the most significant economic, public health, social and cultural challenges of our lifetimes.

I talk often about always bringing the mentality of a “leader in training” to the role of an executive. And among my biggest learnings over the past three years is how often gravitational forces work against the strategic intent of a leader. Gravitational forces? Yes, that’s what I call the invisible, omnipresent forces that pull you away from the optimal allocation of time and focus. And unless you recognize those forces are at work and intentionally fight against them, the results over a two- to three-year time period can be profoundly negative.?

Over the past three years, I’ve found that there are two gravitational forces that tried to pull me away from how I want to lead – the first is about who I spent my time with, and the second is what I spent my time on.

The Gravitational Force of Seniority

As you “advance” to more “senior” positions in your career, there is an inherent, unspoken expectation that you spend most of your time with other senior leaders. CEOs meet with other CEOs, you attend board meetings and executive leadership team meetings, you talk with other high-level executives at client and partner companies, etc. And time with the broader population – with your customers and your employees – is both relatively infrequent and highly planned or staged. For me, this gravitational force is a recipe for unhappiness and detachment. Genuine, frequent connection with people at “all levels” of our organization has always been the most important part of understanding what our organization needs to continuously improve.

Getting feedback from as many of your team members as possible and an understanding of the nuances within your organization is fundamental to being an effective leader. CEOs who limit their meetings with only other high-level people may get sanitized versions of the truth and miss the best source to improve their organization -- their teammates’ insights and ideas. This is why for the past three years I’ve pushed back against that force. ?

The ramifications of this force can be damaging to an organization. We have seen this happen frequently over the past 12-24 months as leaders make plans about the future of work. Organizations in which leaders took the time to have two-way dialogue and listen to a wide variety of team members were able to come up with solutions that many people could support. On the flip side, CEOs who possibly leaned too far into the gravitational force of seniority, made decisions based on the experiences and opinions of a small group of senior executives. In many cases, confirmation bias crept into dialogue and the gravity of seniority pulled people to answers that resembled the past of work more than imagined the future. Those decisions, on the whole, were not as well received – and many have been adjusted or walked back.

How to monitor whether that gravitational force is pulling you toward seniority? For me, my team analytically reviews all of my meetings and time spent each quarter – have I met with new hires across geographies, industries and our offering teams? Have I spent time with clients and project teams in different areas and industries? Have I engaged with our recruiting and campus hire teams? By tracking who I am spending time with and running the analysis, I can see if my time is leaning towards one group or another, and I can be proactive in adjusting with whom I spend my time.

Because my team knows that spending time with a variety of our clients and people is one of my priorities, they are a critical part of helping me push against that force of seniority. They know that to me, a meeting with a group of new consultants, is equal to or greater than any other meeting request. I’ve found that being upfront and clear about this expectation has not only helped me fight against this gravitational force but also has helped set an example for others to do so as well.

The Gravitational Force of the Present

Many times, the strongest gravitational force is to focus energy toward the immediate at the expense of the bigger, wider, longer-term picture – “the tyranny of the present” as an old cliché suggests. Present challenges cause you to react instead of act, to focus on the short-term instead of the long-term, to move quickly instead of strategically. They are not inherently bad. In certain moments (and we’ve had many lately), urgency and reaction are essential. As a leader, one of the biggest challenges is balancing responding to the present with provoking and planning for the future. ?

The present is among the strongest gravitational forces, since what’s near-term is often what’s most easily measured. And it’s a lot easier to point to the scoreboard to show that you’re winning than to focus on thornier, longer-lead issues that don’t have a score (at least not yet.)

I’ve seen this force take over recently when it comes to talent and people. With many people re-evaluating their employment options, many CEOs (including me) are (and should be) laser-focused on retention. Focusing on the present might mean that an executive team obsesses over turnover numbers on a weekly basis to show that the company is moving in the right direction. But that data may not reveal if your solution will work long-term. Real-time turnover data is not a reliable indicator that the company is making strategic progress in building a better culture that employees want to stay at long-term, but rather can often be a one-time manifestation of short-term interventions like retention bonuses. In other words, the scoreboard is driving leaders to try to win what amounts to the first inning of a nine-inning game – perhaps at the expense of the final score…

How to Fight Against Gravitational Forces

Once you understand what forces you’re struggling to balance and what that force is stemming from, you implement ways to push against it, such as:

• Reflect as you are in the moment. In moments of crises or uncertainty, these gravitational forces can get stronger. There are more time constraints and a greater focus on control, so it seems natural to be only focused on the present. Think about whether you’re giving into any gravitational forces – and if that force is helpful or pulling you away from your goals. Protect your time on future-focused projects or teams. One simple way to assess? Evaluate every leadership team agenda or “town hall” conversation to see how close to 50/50 the allocation of time is to shorter-term/operational topics versus longer-term/strategic ones. If the latter is drowned out by the former, make the adjustment.
• Look at the timeline. One way I fight the bias towards the urgent and present is that I try and keep the timeline in mind. If a project has a multi-year timeline, a monthly cadence of reporting probably doesn’t make sense, so I can push back against that – which helps me focus less on the near-term and more of the actual progress.
• Set clear goals with your team to help create time and space. Executives often have the gift of small teams in support – chiefs of staff, assistants, etc. Your teams have a big impact on how you spend your time, and they can help you stay on track to pushing against a gravitational force. But you need to set clear goals and parameters about how you spend your time.
• Push back on generalizations. One of the shorthand ways I can tell that someone is falling prey to the gravitational force of seniority is that they speak in generalizations or share a lot of secondhand information – because they haven’t been talking to people outside of their circle. A common tell is the use of expressions like “everyone believes XYZ” – “all of our people are looking for more of XYZ” etc. When you hear other people – or yourself – doing this, it’s a sign that you need to refocus the amount of time you are spending with people outside your senior leadership circle. ?
• Use tech to your benefit. When it comes to fighting against forces that stem from time constraints, I’ve seen how the power of digital communications tools give me more insight into how my 80K+ teammates are feeling. Getting feedback from more people doesn’t have to mean more or long meetings. Feedback can happen asynchronously, digitally and without you – you just have to spend time reviewing the feedback and processing what you are hearing and maybe most importantly, be responsive to the feedback.

My challenge to you is to identify what gravitational forces are pulling you away from your priorities and to take steps to make more time for those priorities. Whether it is being more future focused or getting less sanitized information from your teams, there are ways to build those priorities into how and with whom you spend your time.?