As a Leader How Do You ‘Clear the Path’?

Recently we were working with a utilities company to help their managers shift focus from managing the number, to coaching and supporting the individual, in order to improve performance.  

A key finding of our diagnostic review was that managers said they didn’t have the time to coach the skills, because they were too busy doing other things. With some trepidation they created a meeting amnesty, where they looked at their diaries and said, “If this meeting has limited relevance to me, is going to take up my time or add very little value, then I either don’t attend or we cancel”. They also stopped booking meetings for one hour and instead arranging 15 minute ‘stand-ups’. We knew it would make a difference, but even we were surprised by the results.

This simple strategy created a whole day of extra time per week for every manager, equalling 20% more time for coaching their people!  

What impact would that have in your operation? 

This is a great example of clearing the path. If your people are to be engaged and empowered to operate effectively in a behaviour led environment, it must be easy for them to do so. As a leader, you need to clear the path for your people by removing the physical and mental barriers that prevent human-ness. 

By targeting and measuring the wrong things (e.g. 41 KPI’s that don’t aim to create a human experience at the front line) you are not going to get truly human service interactions. 

If employees are shackled by processes, silly rules or broken systems, you can’t expect high engagement or consistently happy customers. Most companies will have a Continuous Improvement (CI) process, but how many really make a difference to what the customer experiences? Frontline employees are the ones that talk to customers; they know the issues and, in most cases, have the answers to improving service. The CI process needs to clear the barriers that prevent people doing the right thing for customers. Leaders need to clear the path and act as collaboration drivers who demonstrate a dedication to helping others collaborate towards a shared success.  

Another powerful example of clearing the path is when the Chief Executive of Atos, Thierry Breton, announced in 2011 that the company was working towards a ‘zero email’ culture. Having done some internal research with 300 employees, the company estimated that they sent or received an incredible 85,000 messages in a week. 73% of colleagues estimated that they spent at least a quarter of their working time managing it, whilst 82% felt they had trouble keeping on top of it, this time was wasted and added no value to their day. If we accept the concept that millennials need a sense of purpose in their working lives, then this is an issue and one that Atos decided they must tackle. They needed to clear the path. Five years on and, although they have not yet reached their goal, this award-winning initiative has had a significant impact on the working day. Current reports state that it has so far saved 25% of work time previously spent on email and reduced disruptions and email overload by 60% — down from an average of 100 internal emails per employee per week to 40. Furthermore, a certification process has resulted in 220 business processes being redesigned to become “email free”.   

Atos is an example on a grand scale, and you may be wondering what you can achieve in your role. The smallest things can be impacting on your people’s performance. The things that seem like molehills to you can become a mountain for someone on your team, eating away at them and affecting their engagement; my mouse doesn’t work; it’s a small thing to you, but it impacts me every day. If you choose to look there will be a mountain of molehills that you can remove. 

The reality is that we all have the power to control or influence change in our working or personal lives. In his international bestseller ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, Stephen Covey made a distinction between proactive people and reactive people, using the ‘Circle of Concern and Influence’ model to illustrate this. Proactive and reactive people often have the same concerns, but those who are proactive focus on what they can do and what they can influence. Reactive people focus their mental, emotional and physical energy on things beyond their control. They maintain an attitude of victimisation and blame. However, we all have a choice around how we think and behave. Make sure you are taking responsibility for clearing barriers and being accountable, but also expect the same of your people. 

Seven things you can do right now  

Clearing the path can have an immediate and significant impact on the climate of your organisation and below we have shared seven things you can do right now to start that shift:  

1) Ask what the barriers are. Bring your teams together and ask them how things are going. Ask them what barriers are getting in their way. Allow them to brainstorm all the possible barriers, put them on post it notes and collect them up, grouping them together where there is over lap and themes.  

2) Use the Accountability Ladder, the Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence to discuss each barrier. 

3) Categorise each barrier into the following: 

• As a team we can overcome this barrier by………(and discuss the solution) 
• As a manager I will support you to overcome this barrier by…..(and discuss the solution) 
• We will pass this barrier on to the leadership team 
• We will SUMO this barrier (Shut up and move on because there is nothing that can be done. It’s outside all our circles and influence. Interestingly SUMO literally means ‘I choose’ in Latin!) 

4) Positive peer pressure. We think of peer pressure as something negative, by and large. Kids don’t decide to light a stick of tobacco on their own; they see other kids do it first. However, peer pressure can be a powerful force for good as well. It’s the reason Disney parks are so famously spotless; you see your peers picking up stray trash, so you do it as well. 

5) Review your KPI’s through the lens of first your people and then your customer; ask yourself ‘are we really measuring the right things if we want to make it human?’ 

6) Create a continuous improvement advocacy role in your team and make this an agenda item at every leadership team meeting. 

7) Ask for regular feedback from your teams on how clear their path is to making things better. A cleared path makes it easier for your people to engage and deliver and that can only be a good thing!     

If you want to talk further about these sevens things you can do right now to clear the path, email [email protected].