There is No Leadership Without The ‘…Or Else’

I’ve seen it at multiple companies. I’ve seen it in one on ones and in team meetings. I’ve seen it with new managers and seasoned executives who should know better. They identify a desired change in behavior they want to see and challenge the team to improve. Often they even give the reasoning behind the desired behavior improvement. Then a week or two later no improvement is made so they gather the individual or team again and have the same conversation, with the same result. No improvement whatsoever.

Why? Because there was no ‘…or else’.

Without an ‘…or else’ there is no motivation to actually improve. Changing one’s behavior is difficult. You have to overcome the inertia of indifference. You have to overcome the tide of habit, and it’s often not an easy prospect.

I recently observed this situation play out yet again. Over the period of a few months a change in behavior was requested many times. Management tried and tried and tried. They explained the reasoning behind the request, and even framed it in terms of how it would benefit employees. No change. They tried again. No change. They used stronger language. No change. So what was the result? They basically gave up. They altered the process to compensate for the lack of improvement.

This reminds me of a scene in the book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl. One of the children who secures a Golden Ticket and thus earns the right to tour Willy Wonka’s factory is very similar to the employees in my example above. Veruca Salt wants everything she sees and her parents always acquiesce rather than hear her scream. In other words, they’d rather give in than have conflict. Sound familiar? It should. Often readers find it comical and even ridiculous how Veruca’s parents give in to her every demand, but we as leaders often do the exact same thing. We’d rather avoid conflict and inconvenience dozens of other employees rather than hold our team to an ‘…or else’.

So What?

Why does it matter? Is it really such a bad thing? In a word, yes. There are at least 3 problems I see with this type of behavior from leaders (here is the ‘…or else’ for leaders).

1. It requires other departments to change their behavior to compensate which results in decreased morale, productivity, and results.
2. It stunts employees’ growth. If there are no consequences for blowing off a request for improvement, the path of least resistance becomes complacency which leads to mediocre work.
3. A leader becomes completely ineffective. Much like school children, the team then walks all over leadership and chaos reigns.

Think about what this would be like on a NFL or NBA team. If the coach said to run laps or to cover the open man and the player ignored them, do you think the coach would say “you know, you’re right I’ll just change my play calling so you don’t have to worry about it”. Not a chance. That player would be yanked from the game so fast he wouldn’t know what hit him. So why do we allow these things to happen in business? We need to stop shying away from conflict.

It also is a disservice to our employees to behave in this way. It is not fair to them and their growth. It’s not fair to fail to define a consequence and then let them go or “give them a generous severance package” as Netflix’s CEO Reed Hastings famously said, if we don’t first communicate and stick with the ‘…or else’.

Accordingly, there are 3 things every employee and company need to be successful and to continue to see the growth they hope to achieve: The What, The Why, and yes, The ‘…Or Else’.

The What

Before we get to the ‘…or else’, I want to briefly discuss the other 2 essential elements of any good personal or team improvement strategy. First and foremost, we must be very clear on the what. What is the change you want to see? What does success look like and what does failure look like? It is important to communicate both clearly so the employee or team has no doubt in their mind what the gap in behavior is.

For example: “Bob, thanks so much for all your work on the team. Overall you’re doing great work. There have been less than 3 bugs reported from code you’ve written in the last 6 weeks. That’s a great achievement. I need your help with something though. In the last 3 weeks I’ve noticed that pull requests sent to you have taken nearly 1 week to be completed. As you know, we expect all pull requests to be reviewed within 24 hours. 1 week is simply not acceptable. I’m glad you’re thorough on your own code but I need you to be just as motivated and detail oriented in completing pull requests…”

There I’ve given Bob a specific example of why I think he’s doing a great job so he will know I value him on the team and recognize his strengths, but at the same time I specifically identified the problem, and specifically laid out what the expectation is.

The Why

It is not enough to outline the what. It is very important that employees understand the why as well. This will help them recognize how their effort can help both themselves and the team.

For example: “…Bob, in addition to generally improving efficiency and preventing merge conflicts, completing code requests in 24 hours will help ensure that projects are moving forward as quickly as possible. One of your strengths is that you’re detail oriented. Your help with pull requests will be a big strength to the team because you always catch things that others might miss…”

Notice I’ve kept things positive but given clear reasons why his help with this policy is important.

The Or Else By When

As we’ve already talked about, we can’t stop there. The ‘…or else’ is crucial and must be clear. It should also be reasonable and if multiple steps are needed to help the employee get where we need them to go that should be taken into account. A plan for follow up should also be made. It should be clear what the consequence will be if the desired result is not reached by the deadline.

An example of this might be: “Bob, my job is to make sure we deliver quality software on time and on budget. I want to follow up on this in 1 week’s time and if all pull requests sent to you haven’t been reviewed in at least 48 hours, we’re going to have to ______________”.

What the exact consequence is will vary with the severity & nature of the infraction as well as the role, industry, company, etc. That being said, as Reed Hastings put it:

“We’re a team. Not a family. We’re like a pro sports team, not a kids recreational team. Netflix leaders hire, develop and cut smartly so we have stars in every position…Sustained B-level performance…generates a generous severance package, with respect.”

I think it also important to clarify that not every infraction should ‘generate a severance package’. It is vital to invest in employees if you want them to invest in the company. But it is CRUCIAL to set the expectation what will happen if the desired outcome is not met and to STICK TO IT. Employees and teams must know that improvement is needed and that there will be consequences if that improvement is not met.

That is the only way to attract the best talent, keep morale high, ensure the entire team is doing the best work, and achieving results for your organization. If you’re not willing to enforce the ‘…or else’ then don’t even ask for the what.