Recently in a coaching conversation I asked my client what her favorite part of the role was and where she felt she created the most value for the company. As she described the this part of her job around process improvement and data integrity, she shared her value in a way that really resonated with me…
“Sometimes I have to ruin someone’s day in order to make their month”
What a powerful statement. Leadership isn’t always about making people happy in the moment, it’s about making the right decisions for long term success. Let me ask you, are you willing to challenge the status quo in your business or have you settled too many times for “the way we’ve always done it.”
One thing we know for sure is when that phrase starts becoming the common solution in any organization, well that’s when things start going downhill very quickly.
Albert Einstein once said
“We can’t solve the problems of the future with the solutions that we’ve created in the past.”
Challenging our current systems and processes requires getting people out of their comfort zones. Here’s what we know. We don’t learn anything in our comfort zones. As human beings we are hard-wired to do the same things over and over and over again.
You’ve probably heard me ask the question:
“How many times have you gotten in your car after work, driven all the way home, pulled into your driveway and then realized you have no idea how you got there.”
We are creatures of habit and routine and it’s easy to allow those to settle into our norms like concrete until they become immovable without great effort. In our companies and our organizations that doesn’t really help us if we’re trying to grow or improve our processes
Effective leaders sometimes have to create some disruption and ruffle a few feathers in order to drive towards outcomes that we’re looking for. Think about some of the old and outdated systems that are holding you and your team back due to the inefficiencies or the inability to do what’s needed now in the modern workplace. Imagine if you still worked on that old computer floating around your house that has windows 95 loaded onto it with some old outdated processor that took 5 minutes just to boot up. You wouldn’t work on a computer that’s more than 10 years old would you? Why are you holding on to systems and processes that are decades older than that.
The real question is are you willing to endure short term pain to achieve long term gain.
My wife is a personal trainer and her goal when she’s pushing her clients beyond their limits isn’t to punish them or ruin their day, it’s to help them build new muscles and build strength so that they can perform basic tasks over the long term that they wouldn’t be able to if those muscles or too weak.
Effective leaders are constantly pushing people a bit beyond what their norm is to ensure they’re performing at their best when the critical moments arise.
What are the best strategies to deliver those tough messages in a way that might be heard by your teams?
- Be clear and direct becuase ambiguity or nebulous directives only make things worse
- Frame it as an opportunity or as I like to say share with them everyone’s favorite radio station WIIFM -What’s In It For Me- If you can somehow demonstrate the benefits and how this improves things or helps creates a competitive edge for the organization it’s easier to get buy in
- Support them through the transition. Look change is difficult for everybody even people that say they love change can struggle with adapting to a new way of doing things. When navigating the waters of change how you effectively manage your teams hold people accountable
- Celebrate the small wins along the way that’s a great way get your teams to buy-in to the changes necessary to succeed in your business.
Remember being a great leader isn’t always about being liked by everybody. Effective leaders make tough decisions and sometimes those decisions aren’t popular. High performing leaders focus on long term impact.
So the next time you ruin someone’s day ask yourself are you doing it to make their day their month and ultimately their career better because if you are you probably made the right decision.
Cheers to you and ruining someone’s day
One Quarter Turn at a Time
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