Learn to See the Invisible

Use your eyes and ears to become a more effective leader

What is the problem?

What if I were to tell you there are all sorts of things happening in your organization, in your division, in your department and even on your team that you do not currently see???Would you believe that is possible???And some of what you don’t see is very important.??Most leaders I’ve met over the years might not say, but they would think, “That is impossible!??I’m pretty sure I don’t see it all but do have a handle on what is important.”

Unfortunately, it’s an actual reality. For a variety of reasons leaders don’t see important behaviors that inhibit the team, the department, the organization’s ability to excel. There is a lot of baggage that gets in the way of being able to see the actual reality.?

What are some of the common things that cause leaders to be somewhat out of touch:

• A big one is people don’t want to make their boss look bad to a higher-level authority.?
• In the Western World, especially in the U.S., people feel solving problems is their responsibility to ‘figure it out.’??So, when associates are asked, “How is it going?” They respond, “It’s Ok.”
• People also learn to not point out problems or share their thoughts on improvement when after making several attempts to do this, nothing happened with their idea.
• Leadership is narrowly focused on the current state and there are no clear future state targets.

The list could go on, but I’m sure you get the idea. It begs the question, “What is the nature of the work environment on my team? Do I as a leader treat my people with the respect they deserve???

Who gets cited for people quitting organizations?

Steve Jobs once said, “Management is about persuading people to do things they don’t necessarily want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things, they never thought they could.”???70% of the work we do, people see it as part of the job; and they are willing to do it.??But 30% is optional….and that is where the treasure lays.??

Believing you are better than you are (as an individual, a team or an organization) blinds us to seeing the actual reality and inhibits our ability to tap into that treasure. When leaders operate from that perspective, they unconsciously see things that reinforce their beliefs and they fail to see things, even though they might be standing right in front of their nose, that conflict with those beliefs. It takes some effort to set your assumptions and beliefs aside and learn to see what is actually happening, to learn to see current practices that inhibit improvement.?

Gallup, Wyatt and other firms who measure ‘employee engagement’ have shown in their research?the number one reason people cite for not being engaged at work???It’s not because the CEO isn’t supporting improvement activities.??The number one reason people say, “I am not engaged” is?due to the behaviors of their direct boss!??People leave managers, not companies.

So we have met the enemy of effective team performance and unfortunately it’s us!

Leaders in the middle of an organization have a tremendous amount of leverage. Consider this simple fact, first- and second-line leaders directly touch 80% of the people in their organization.??They have a tremendous amount of influence and more power than they might realize.??

Interestingly we are not likely to find this hidden treasure by merely focusing on our weaknesses and making them better.??Working on your weaknesses is largely incremental improvement; weaknesses are things you already know you should be doing better.??But if you want to become excellent as a leader, it requires something more. If you want the work done by your team and by your peers to be more meaningful, then experiment with the?Reflective Leadership Model?and take action. Learn to see the invisible that likely exists in your environment.

The Reflective Model for Leadership Change

In the new book, I’m close to finished writing, we discuss four foundational levers for changing the way you lead and improving in a more effective way:

Step 1: Reflection - Get a handle on the ‘actual reality’ of how you currently lead. In this initial step, leaders embark on a journey of self-discovery and self-awareness. They engage in introspection and seek feedback to gain a clear understanding of their existing leadership style, strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. The reflective process helps leaders identify their starting point and sets the foundation for meaningful change.

Step 2: Unifying Purpose – In this step create a meaningful purpose to guide behavior change. The purpose serves as a guiding light to inspire and motivate both the leader and the team. It should resonate with the values and aspirations of the person(s) making the change. Use it to target a desirable future state.

Step 3: Build Relationships - Elevating People and Mindset. In this step, leaders focus on building strong relationships with their team members, peers, and stakeholders. They cultivate an environment of trust, respect, and open communication. By actively listening, providing support, and recognizing individual strengths, leaders empower and elevate those around them. Simultaneously, leaders foster a growth mindset within themselves and their teams, promoting continuous learning, adaptability, and a shared commitment to personal and collective development.

Step 4: Visual Leadership - Measuring Progress and Accountability The final step involves implementing a visual framework to measure progress and hold oneself and the team accountable. Leaders establish clear performance metrics and goals that directly link to the purpose. They use visual tools, such as dashboards or scorecards, to make progress transparent and easily trackable. Regular communication and discussion around these visual representations reinforce the purpose, celebrate successes, and identify areas for improvement, driving the desired change forward.

Most organizational leaders do not possess the discipline, tenacity and will power to make this mindset shift in order to truly transform and become a champion.??It does not matter if we are looking at team leaders, department leaders or senior executives.??Most people think they already do a pretty good job of leading and communicating and that if they simply improve a little bit that should be sufficient to move the organization to where it needs to go.

Richard Sheridan, CEO of Menlo Innovations said, “You know when you are not leading properly. Do you act on those moments of reflection? I think most people do not.”??

The Four Steps of the Reflective Leadership Model for Change form the foundation of a model for change. It’s a roadmap for leaders to evolve, transform, and become more effective. By integrating these foundational elements, leaders can create a framework for effective and meaningful change within themselves and their organizations.

Why do I believe this to be true?

Leaders in organizations that are highly effective with their improvement practices lead in a way that is quite different from most organizations.??They begin to change the way they look at their world.??And that is always a pretty cool experience!??

I know I changed the way I led and the way I consulted over the years as my eyes began to see things they previously missed.??My involvement with AME Excellence Award activities has permitted me to see quite a few organizations that are highly effective at improving and I’ve also spent quite a bit of time talking/observing leaders that are highly effective at developing people and guiding improvement across their organization.??Every single one of those leaders went through a learning experience to open their eyes and change the way they led.??They reflected, refined their purpose and truly did focus on uplifting people.??While some of them did not start out that way, in the end, they all used publicly posted visual performance metrics to help guide/reinforce/recognize change.

Making Better Choices

A primary goal for a leader relative to ‘improvement’ should be to create an environment where people make more effective choices, more quickly.??This sounds obvious and perhaps simple.??We need to learn to see how some of our behaviors as a leader may inhibit both your personal and your team’s success. But to make the transition to operate that way on a day-in, day-out basis is a challenge.??You can’t do this while sitting in your office or at your desk and?assume you know what is happening. It requires a more activist approach where leaders go to where people are doing their work, find the facts and build consensus to make better decisions and achieve goals.??It requires deep reflection and learning to see the subtleties of how your organization, department, team operate.??Don’t make dangerous assumptions about things you only know from a distance.

Making better choices and practicing more effective behaviors?does require changing your mindset and it will take time to become highly effective.??Sports champions put in 1,000s of hours of practice. When we see them perform it looks like they are a natural athlete, and this must come easily to them.??But that is not the actual reality.?Professional athletes practice their skills over and over again.??Their sport is what they do.??They get better and make it look easy because they worked hard at getting better.??

If you are a leader shouldn’t you be doing the same thing with your leadership skills???In many ways getting better and better at leading is your most important job!??Learning to see what might be invisible to your eyes today can help you focus on where to improve.

Making better choices requires overcoming fear, both by leaders and by associates working within the organization.??Leaders need to overcome multiple possible fears:

• Admit you don’t know – intellectual humility by the leader creates a space for learning
• A willingness to reach out and trust the people you work with to do the right thing - this is actually very frightening to many people (it was to me)
• Even when you know the answer have the patience to allow your subordinates to gain experience – let them learn firsthand through their experimentation to gain deeper learning

Making better choices requires a degree of trust and vulnerability where people are comfortable interacting with one another and respectfully asking challenging questions.??And it also requires people to improve their critical thinking skills, to let go of biases that inhibit their abilities to see reality as it really exists and to see the positive power that comes from nurturing and growing capabilities.??

Leadership starts with self.??How capable are we and how forgiving are we of our self-leadership???Do we have the humility to learn how to become better? If you cannot effectively practice self-leadership where you consistently behave in a manner that is appropriate for the situation at hand, then it is quite difficult and perhaps impossible to lead others in a highly effective way.

Your direct boss or your CEO may not be a role model of excellence, but more importantly, what type of leader do?you choose?to be? If you wish to be on a Championship team then what are the actions, routines and leadership behaviors you, your teammates and your support team need to practice to make it happen?

I can personally relate to the difficulty of doing this well. I’ve been talking about ‘change’ and performance improvement for more than 30 years. I like to see change happen! But I have a change problem. The things I like to change are areas where it’s easy for me to make a shift or perhaps to deal with an immediate problem. But what if the change is hard to do, something that requires discipline over a prolonged period of time? If I don’t see an immediate need or if I don’t want to work that hard to make a change, I’m as stubborn as they come. I doubt that anyone reading this material is more stubborn than me, if you don’t believe me just ask my wife.??She will attest to my pig headedness.

But what if some of those things I don’t particularly want to change are important to do???Then I have a problem that will make it difficult for me to find that hidden treasure and difficult for my team to operate at a champion level of performance. Perhaps readers of this book suffer from a similar problem. Relative to leadership capabilities, it is?unlikelythat you are a completely dysfunctional leader.??It is much more likely that you are an average leader doing an Ok job.?Average is where most people operate, it is an acceptable, but not outstanding level of performance.??

If that is the case, then to achieve a ‘champion level of performance as a leader’ we need to develop practice and feedback routines to help us get better.??Each of the four foundations are intended to help people see things their eyes currently miss and develop the discipline to practice getting better on a daily basis and to find ways to use positive reinforcement and feedback to pursue higher levels of performance, to improve the way we lead and the way our team and our organization performs.

If you practice the above four foundations with a degree of humility you will learn more about yourself and develop a mindset to improve your capabilities and effectiveness as a leader.??You will see things tomorrow, that you do not see today. And you will touch others who will also learn and grow.

One key trait common to every highly effective organization we visited was the leaders’ ability to change their perspective and look at their world through new eyes.??A willingness to say, “I don’t know the answer.”??

Purpose of the new book

The primary purpose of why I’m writing a new book is to help leaders at all levels to become more effective as a human being and to train your eyes to see things tomorrow that lay there invisible to your eyes today. It’s also intended to increase your ability to inspire team members and peers to:?

• Grow people’s capabilities to do things they never thought they could and to experience more joy in the work they do?
• Tap into that 30% treasure where people become passionate and inspired by their work finding more meaning and fulfillment

The intent is to?provide a few practical actions anyone can practice to discover the treasure?and to help leaders at multiple levels of an organization address three important challenges:

1. The immense under-utilization of talent inside most companies. People could do so much more and live more fulfilling lives if their organization (be it services, manufacturing, governmental entity or non-profit) were run in a more holistic and effective fashion. Inadequate and mediocre leadership is actually destroying people’s lives, people’s communities and the society where we live.
2. The developed nations for many years had an overabundance of resources (people, materials, land, etc.) available for their use, with industrial growth taking place in more countries around the globe, this abundance is no longer available and if not destroying we are certainly harming the planet. It is critical that leaders find more effective ways to operate, to accomplish their mission more effectively and to use a limited number of available resources more effectively.?
3. Highly effective improvement practices require a deeper understanding of cross-functional process performance. You cannot optimize each individual silo inside an organization.??An environment of collaboration and a degree of harmony needs to take place across the organization to optimize the whole. This is true in politics and in business. There is insufficient focus in today’s world on the greater good.??Too much gets done from a very narrow perspective that might be good for that slice, but it is often detrimental to the whole. And in the political realm it’s one party fighting against the other party rather than working together to improve the situation for the whole. We need to change the way we think and behave relative to working with others for highly effective leadership practices.??

Organizational leaders, at any level can help the people around them to grow. They can take action to help their teammates, peers and even their leaders to see the invisible.??Business and governmental leadership can become a more powerful and a more positive force for good if we are not afraid to change the way we currently operate. This book is intended for anyone in a leadership position to grow your capabilities as a leader; you far outnumber the number of CEOs in this world.

Each of the four foundational chapters of the Reflective Leadership Model will list 8 to 10 ways a person might practice that particular element. I encourage you to take this journey.??It’s important to your team, your organization, to the world at large and to the families of people who work with you.??

I certainly believe it can happen, I’ve seen it, I’ve done it and so have others. You have an opportunity to become a better person and to directly help the people around you to do the same. I hope you will accept the challenge.

If you wish to know when the book gets released to the public, please send me your email?[email protected] and I’ll start a notification list.??I’m retired, so will not be contacting you to sell you anything. ;o)

[1] ?https://www.gallup.com/workplace/232955/no-employee-benefit-no-one-talking.aspx

[2] ?https://hbr.org/2011/05/the-frontline-advantage