I was recently asked this question about high turnover among executives:
"While moving up the organization, I've noticed a high turnover in the senior ranks. It seems like a lot of talented people who were once successful fail to make the grade. How can I increase the likelihood that I will not end up like these casualties?"
This is a significant challenge for executives today. How can you avoid being another turnover casualty? Nat Stoddard and Claire Wyckoff recently wrote about this in their new book The Right Leader: Selecting Executives that Fit. I asked them to give us their take on this question.
Nat and Claire: Your reader's observation is absolutely correct. Over 64 percent of new CEOs (whose data is most readily available) fail to make it through their fourth year in the job, while 40 percent are gone in 18 months. Turnover rates for all senior executives have increased significantly during the past decade — in excess of 50 percent. In fact, they're up over three times the rate that they were throughout most of the 1990s.
The problem is not that executives can't do their jobs. The problem often lies in the fact that they may not fit the situation well enough to deliver the changes expected of them. By "fit" we mean how well an executives' character (especially their values and beliefs) aligns with the culture of the company where the necessary and expected changes must be delivered. If the character of the leader is not closely aligned with that of the organization, then, as Peter Drucker originally pointed out, followership will not occur — people won't trust a leader who doesn't share their values, and, without trust, they will not follow him or her. It is this lack of proper "fit" that causes so many senior executives to fail.
When you're considering a promotion or a move, the key is to ensure not only that your skills and abilities match up with the needs of the organization, but that you fit well with the organization's culture. There are three things to consider: the culture of the organization at large, that of the team of which you will be a member, and that of the team you'll be expected to lead.
The following are a few suggestions for reducing the risks of becoming a casualty of cultural conflict:
1. Know thyself. We encourage candidates to take a number of psychological and behavioral assessments. It is vital to understand yourself as fully as possible — especially your business-related beliefs and decision-making processes. It's also helpful to identify those aspects of different cultures that you relate to and those you don't. Write them down and refer to them as you gather data about the opportunities under consideration.
2. Inquire about the cultures at hand. Do the people you are interviewing treat culture as "that soft 'people' stuff?" That in itself tells you a great deal about the relative importance of culture in this organization, and its members' understanding of the challenges facing newly appointed leaders like yourself.
3. Use your network to verify what you have observed about the company's cultures. Former employees, suppliers, or consultants can shed light on what you will actually encounter. You can also ask to obtain permission to talk to a few potential peers, direct reports, your boss's boss, and members of the board. Think through the questions you want to ask about "how things get done around here" to get a sense of how much agreement there is about the makeup of the organization's culture.
Remember, while a new situation may seem like the perfect match, failing to fit adequately with the company cultures you encounter will increase your chances of becoming a turnover statistic. What's more, the higher up you go in any organization, the more important fit becomes — and the more difficult it is to recover from a situation that "just didn't work out."
Thank you, Nat and Claire! Readers, I'd love your comments on culture, fit, and turnover.
Ok. It’s ugly out there. We thought of five traits we believe will bring you luck or at least, help you survive the recession.
1.Choice: Choose who you want to be to reach your goals. This is a great time to reflect and choose who you want to be or need to be to achieve the results you want. Discern between what you can and cannot change. You can’t change the bad weather; you can change your reaction to it.
2.Courage: We all need this to face the present and what could be happening in the future. But, don’t assume the future will be bad by what’s going on today. Stay strong in your convictions and commitments. Be honest with yourself. Be willing to confront your judgments and yourself. Know what you can and cannot change. You can’t change the stock market. Focus on what you can change. Above all, be gentle and compassionate with yourself.
3.Perspective: Listen to others and hear what they have to say. Try to silence your inner dialogue and really listen to them. They may be offeringyou joy, friendship or a different approach that could be the very answer to your problems.
4.Passion: What gets you fired up even when it’s zero degrees outside or sales are down? What’s that driving force that keeps you going in bad times? You want to know this and show it to your team. It’s the driver that will move you and your team forward.
5.Risk: Whether we like it or not, risk is all around us. We can’t avoid it. The key is to learn from it. Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin, says you won’t always win but leaders dust themselves off, learn, get smarter and try something new.
These five traits are explored in depth in Success Television’s newest corporate training video on leadership, called, The Wisdom of Caring Leaders. Instead of giving you more details on the lives of five well known leaders, out interviewer and former CNN anchor, Donald Van de Mark, digs deeply into their philosophies and applies what he has learned from them to live a more productive and satisfying life both at work and at home.
The video (click here to see a preview) shows how we can tap into our own leadership skills through choice, courage, perspective, passion and risk. We all can possess these skills or ways of being to succeed in any facet of our lives.
In the book called, Synchronicity, The Inner Path of Leaders, by Joel Jaworski, the son of Leon Jaworksi, the special Watergate prosecutor, says it is not about what we “do” to become great leaders but who we “are” or who we want to become. Stephen Covey, the author of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, who is interviewed in our video, explores this concept further saying, “Leaders are not born or made, they are self-made” through their choices.
As a leader, you are choosing to be responsible for your actions and reactions. You choose to be a gentle leader. You choose to empower others without taking the credit. You choose to be open, look for the possibilities and be aware to the many gifts that unfold in front of you. Jaworski writes, “In the beautiful flow of these moments, it seems as if we are being helped by hidden hands.” Has this ever happened to you?
In sports, they call it being "in the zone". Athletes and artists say it’s an experience when you forget time, hear no noise, and move effortlessly and successfully towards your goal. Though emotionally detached, these peak experiences are infused with a quiet joy. The great 20th Century psychologist, Abraham Maslow wrote that you cannot induce or control these "peak experiences" but you can prepare yourself for more of them. Great leaders teach us that diligent preparation by an individual or team opens up the potential for more "flow", more "peak experiences" and more success. If you are truly committed to an idea or project, those who share your passion and courage will join you, work with you, improve your product or service and open a channel for achievement.
Peter Senge, who was the director of the Center for Organizational Learning at MIT and the author of ,The Fifth Discipline, writes in the forward of Synchronicity, “My capacity as a leader comes from my choice to allow life to unfold through me.” This is a key concept because it is not about controlling life, which is so often what we want to do when we’re afraid, under pressure or lost. Attempting to control life is not only futile it is exhausting.
Senge and Jaworski say, the real gift of leadership is about creating new realities. You do that by choosing your way of being. What way of being is that? It’s the way of being you need to be to have what you want. The question is, “Who are you being such that x,y,z can occur?” Who would you have to be to create a great company, live a happy life or write beautiful music? Picture that person. What traits would s/he possess? That’s the start of your answer. From that, new relationships and interactions occur. You become the catalyst for this to happen.
Then, realize that the world is full of infinite relationships and thus possibilities. Are you open to seeing them, listening and creating? Who have you met or what opportunity has unfolded that furthers your or and their passion?
How can you apply this to your team and business? In our video, "The Wisdom of Caring Leaders," we distill five character traits that will help you and your team succeed: choice, compassion, inclusion of different perspectives, passion and risk. Now, as the economic world retrenches this concept of leadership is needed to survive and thrive
Sometimes the greatest risk is the risk not taken. Just ask a successful person or entrepreneur.
"Take the risk out of success…and you’ll live an unfulfilling life!
“The safety net we want doesn’t exist—it’s an illusion. Coming to see
that enabled me to go for it.” Mary Jane Ryan, retired executive
editor of Conari Press
Risk is an inherent part of everyday life. Staying in what we think is a safe spot may make it
seem as if risk has been eliminated, but it hasn’t been. Successful
people have learned to view risk as a necessary and important part of
their careers and work.
Successful people
enjoy the satisfaction of never having to say, “If only I had….” All
have risked; sometimes they’ve won, sometimes they’ve failed, sometimes
they’re regretted a decision. But they have discovered a couple of
essential principles along the way: that we risk by default every day,
and that it is often a greater risk to do nothing at all.
Through
the risks they’ve taken, successful people have become stronger and
more prepared to get the results they really wanted. Significantly,
they realized that every risk has both an upside and a downside.
Focusing on the downside leads straight to fear, while concentrating on
the upside creates a mindset that tolerates risk and the tough
decisions that accompany it.
What makes people risk takers? For one thing, they have an entrepreneurial attitude
. They know that risk is part of responsibility, part of the volatile
business environment, and big part of opportunity. By seeking a
positive light, they avoid a “let’s jump off the cliff and see where
we’ll land” attitude. They take the “leap of faith”
with a sense of direction, armed with a network of supporters and
resources and fortified with skills from their past experiences.
Risk
takers combine information and intuition in a way that helps them
succeed in all kinds of situations—especially during transition periods
in their lives and careers.
When successful people think about taking risks, any risk, they ask themselves questions such as:
What would happen if I didn’t take this risk?
What is the alternative?
Is this the right time to take this risk?
To what extent is my decision based on my own gut feeling and to what extent on others’ opinions?
Will I still like my decision in five years?
How have others handled situations like this?
Such questions place risk in a decision-making
context rather than letting it remain stuck in whatever doubts or
anxieties accompany it. Answering them, formally or informally, lets us
begin to see a risk more clearly. We then can decide what information
we need to make the best decision we can at a given point in time.
Successful
people know that there are no “sure things,” but they are willing to
take a calculated risk: to go through the soul searching and fact
finding, to make decisions based on available knowledge, and to
consider the long-term consequences of those decisions. Although this
kind of calculated risk taking can be frustrating—because there are
usually no clear, clean, obvious answers—they know that the alternative
is much worse. They don’t leave risk to chance. At the same time, they
realize that it’s impossible to know everything in advance about a
decision and how it will turn out.
It’s not just our personal life that benefits from silence. So does our corporate one.
I recently had a chance to work with one of our Operating officers. He asked my help in designing a group meeting with his managers to get their input regarding departmental goals. We worked assiduously in crafting a session largely focused on what the employees had to say, and intentionally kept executive remarks to a minimum . During the half-day program, participants broke into small groups to write down their thoughts about organizational needs, operational gaps and suggestions for productively moving the business forward. The employees spent some time writing and a lot of time speaking. The officer largely listened.
There were a few interesting insights. We came to learn that when executives speak, employees rarely listen or if they do listen they don’t believe. But co-workers have great credibility and when they talk, they have a significant impact on their peers. Mostly because they’re not seen as paid political envoys, but fellow workers laboring in the daily muck and mire. Even though the executive could have waxed eloquently about customer satisfaction and safety, having employees talk about their experiences on the job proved far more compelling.
After unedited conversations about business challenges and operational needs, one engineer remarked: “This is the first time I understand how our department actually fits into the company’s Growth Strategy.” Thank God the folks from Corporate Planning weren’t in the room; they would have reeled in horror.
In the midst of executive silence, we also got a chance to hear about our newly minted performance appraisal program and forced ranking system. Seems we achieved exceptional results in disheartening our employees and marginalizing the workforce. As one brave director said: “I don’t mind raising the performance bar, but I personally resent being badgered and threatened by the system.” How surprising: our slavish adherence to “Best Practices” had once again ruptured employee relations and compromised intrinsic motivation.
When employees evaluated the half-day program, their one clear and consistent comment was: “How refreshing to be in a meeting with an officer who actually listens. It makes me hopeful about our future.”
Additionally, for the last few years my CEO has been hosting informal dinner meetings with a handful of managers once a month. He wants to hear what’s working well in the company and what’s not. His main contribution to the conversation is silence, coupled with an intense interest in learning about what’s really going on at the workplace. Oddly enough, our top-ranking officer has come to learn that he finds out more about the hopes and concerns of our workers when he doesn’t speak. Initially, he had me joining him to make sure he didn’t talk too much. Over time, he’s become a pro at it. My main responsibility now is to pick up the dinner tab and fret over my diminishing value to the company.
Practice Makes Perfect
While silence comes more easily to monks than to Alpha-males, it is a skill that can be learned and honed. Here are 4 practical steps to get you started:
1. The next time you’re out driving, turn off the radio. Likewise, resist the temptation to use your cell phone. Besides being illegal, it’s dangerous to your life: interior as well as exterior. Drive around in the glow of silence and pay attention to what your eyes notice and your soul surfaces. There’s inspiration and beauty abounding.
P.S. If you’re thinking about writing me, give in to the temptation. I love getting mail ... and being influenced by what you have to say. Please contact me at www.kennythemonk.com .
The most common behavior problem I have found in the executives I have
worked with is an obsession with winning - and this isn't just CEO's.
It's common in most highly successful people, including me. When the issue is important, naturally we all want to win. But if it's trivial, we still want to win. Even if it's not worth our time, or it's to our disadvantage, we often try to win anyway.
Here is an example of what I’m talking about. You want to go to dinner at
restaurant X. Your spouse wants to go to dinner to restaurant Y. You
have a heated debate. You go to restaurant Y. The food's bad, the
service is awful. Now you've got two options. Option A - critique the
food, point out to your spouse how wrong he or she was and how this
debacle could have been avoided if he or she had listened to you.
Option B - be quiet, eat the food, and try to have a nice evening.
What do 75% of my executive clients say they would do in this situation?
Critique the food. What do they agree they should do? Shut up. If they
do a cost-benefit analysis, they realize that their marriage is more
important than winning the argument. So I tell my clients, "Before you get into any conflict, take a deep breath and ask yourself, 'Is it worth it? What do I have to gain by winning? What do I have to lose?' "
A related problem is what I call adding too much value. Imagine you're
the CEO. I come to you with an idea that you think is very good, but
rather than just say, "Great idea!", your tendency - because you have
to win - is to say, "Good idea, but do it this way." Well, you may have
improved the quality of my idea by 5%, but you've reduced my commitment
to executing it by 30% because you took away my ownership.
The higher up you get on the corporate ladder
, the more you need to make other people winners, and not make it about
winning yourself. One of my clients said once he got into the habit of
taking a breath before he talked, he realized about half of what he was
going to say wasn't worth saying. Even though he thought he was right,
he realized he had more to gain by not winning.
My parting advice: Don't always insist on winning.
Sometimes, you have more to gain by not winning. Before you get into any conflict,
ask yourself what you have to gain by winning, or what you stand to
lose.
