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How to Manage the Gap Between Vision and Current Reality

Peak performance cultures maintain a felt sense of creative tension. Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline, says creative tension is the “gap between vision and current reality. It is a source of energy. If there were no gap, there would be no need for any action to move towards the vision.”

Creative tension can create better ideas and outcomes. This tension causes focus and a deep-seated desire to resolve the tension thus catalyzing heightened activity and maximum production. You can feel the sense of excitement and even anxiousness.

Too little creative tension causes the organization to feel flat, compliant, and lethargic. Too much creative tension can take a sense of anxiousness to a point of anxiety.

Peak performance leaders pay close attention to the amount of creative tension being experienced by their people and they know how to increase or decrease this tension as appropriate.

There are three essential building blocks of creative tension. To establish and maintain creative tension there must be agreement on the following:

1. Current reality.

Your people must have a collective understanding of the way things are today. They need to be brutally honest and recognize the absolute truth about their current situation. Shared understanding of “what is” generates a sense of authenticity and credibility.

2. Desired future.

Your people must have a shared vision that moves and inspires them. The vision must be articulated in such a way that people are motivated to do whatever it takes to realize it. The vision is less about employees or the company.

A powerful vision is about the world and the opportunity to help cause this great world you desire. You will need to decide what needs to change about the current reality to achieve this vision.

3. What’s at stake.

In addition, and critical to the establishment of healthy creative tension, people must be convinced that something important to them is at stake if they don’t resolve this gap. Your people must have a shared and felt sense of consequence should they not rally and achieve this vision as well as a clear understanding of the benefits of moving ahead.

Creative tension exists when the people of your company sense a gap between their current reality and their articulated vision.The gap created calls forth action.The benefits of establishing and maintaining appropriate amounts of creative tension are:

Laser-like focus.
Have you ever woken up at night plagued by thoughts of unfinished tasks at work or around the house? Perhaps you’ve had a nagging feeling after an argument with a significant other or a colleague about things you should have said and you keep replaying the discussion in your head.

Your response to these loose ends is known as the Zeigarnik effect, named after Bluma Zeigarnik, a Russian psychologist and a member of the Berlin School of experimental psychology. Zeigarnik discovered that people remain unusually focused on aspects of their life that are incomplete. And they hold this heightened focus until the act is complete. This focus can help increase productivity and push you toward that desired future.

Increased ingenuity and innovation.

The desire to eliminate the gap and resolve the creative tension drives the people into a ‘whatever it takes’ mentality thus rendering them more open to new ideas and non-linear thinking.

My consulting firm manages creative tension through complete transparency. Everyone in the company knows what and why things are happening. We acknowledge shortcomings and celebrate successes. Our leadership team has weekly meetings with senior team members, informal feedback delivery during one-on-one meetings, and monthly discussions with the larger employee population so our staff has a full sense of how we are doing and what is required and expected to get us to our collective desired future.

Every employee, no matter their seniority, understands how their contributions and actions directly impact our ability to achieve our mission. This two-way dialogue and transparency helps our team stay focused and motivated.

Walk through the halls of your company and take the temperature of the creative tension. Is it too much? Too little? Just right?

Engage with people to see the degree of agreement they share in describing the current and desired future and what’s at stake if they don’t succeed. Through conversation, do what you need to in order to establish and maintain optimal creative tension.

This article originally appeared on Inc.com.

How Great Leaders Make Tough Decisions

As business leaders we routinely find ourselves in the middle of arguments. At least we hope so. Because the more passion we generate about our company and its mission, the more our people will engage in arguments about strategy, structure, budgets, and action plans.

Peak performance leaders know arguments and debates are inevitable. They also know how to best resolve the arguments and get the team aligned and moving forward together. This skill is an essential part of leading anything.

So how do they get past the roadblocks in a way that everyone remains committed?

Right versus right dilemmas — the hard choice.

Peak performance leaders recognize the hardest decisions are not a matter of one choice being right and the others wrong. They know the arguments that stymie groups happen when “rights” collide to create an ethical dilemma.

As an example, think about a company after an acquisition. It needs to merge two back-office operations, but the managers of each back office are at odds – which one gets to absorb the other? Each manager is “right” to argue for the good of their department.

This is an ethical dilemma called “good for the unit versus good for the whole.” Dr. Rushworth Kidder, author and founder of the Institute for Global Ethics, wrote about these dilemmas in his books Moral Courage and How Good People Make Tough Choices.

Ethical dilemmas are defined by Kidder as “right versus right” and “at the heart of our toughest choices.”  It’s “right” to protect your employees as a department head, and “right,” on the other hand, to protect the interest of the company. According to Kidder, there are four dilemmas:

Good for the unit versus good for the whole.
Good for the short term versus good for the long term.
Truth versus loyalty.
Justice versus mercy.

These dilemmas have been part of the human experience since the dawn of creation. They are prevalent today and guaranteed to drive people crazy in the future. As business leaders we’re sure to face them, so what can we do?

1. Solve ethical dilemmas by adopting “and.”

Peak performers recognize collisions of “rights” and move the group away from making each other wrong and towards resolving the dilemma. To do this, invite the group to design a solution that embodies the magic of “and.” The narrative then becomes:

Good for the unit AND good for the whole.
Good for the long term AND good for the short term.
Truth AND loyalty.
Justice AND mercy.

When leaders can get the group to use this powerful orientation, they will most likely resolve the dilemma.

2. Think about outcomes.

If you find yourself in a situation when this approach doesn’t work, you can resolve a right versus right dilemma by finding the highest “right.” Kidder wrote that there are three ways to make the best choice when faced with these types of dilemmas:

Ends-based: Select the option that generates the most good for the most people.
Rule-based: Choose as if you’re creating a universal standard. Follow the standard that you want others to follow.
Care-based: Choose as if you were the one most affected by your decision.

Once you’ve identified an ethical right versus right ​dilemma, lay out your options according to these three principles. One approach will immediately present itself as the “most right.”

3. Keep the group committed to the decision.

No matter what decision-making approach makes the most sense for a given situation, it’s important to keep the group committed to the decision. To do this, adopt a working definition of consensus as the group tries to resolve these dilemmas. Instead of using the traditional definition of consensus where everybody is expected to agree with everything, switch it up to use the following definition:

Was the process to make the decision deemed rational and fair to all involved?
Was each person involved in the discussion treated well and listened to?
Assuming the group is satisfied with No. 1 and No. 2, can they live with and commit to the outcome? (Notice it does not say agree with the outcome.)

Listen carefully when people unknowingly argue about right versus right. Often it’s not apparent to the people involved. Point it out and they will begin to think about these situations differently. And make sure they are using the working definition of consensus when forging their agreements.

Using these skills, you will become intensely important to the vitality of the company — you keep the group moving forward in spite of their inevitable encounter with ethical dilemmas.

Header image: Right vs. Right PRIME. The PRIMES© are documented in the book, The PRIMES: How Any Group Can Solve Any Problem, (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., copyright © 2012) authored by Chris McGoff, founder of The Clearing.

Why Creating a Successful Company Requires You to Go Beyond the Entrepreneurial Mindset

“And it is my pleasure to introduce Chris McGoff. Chris is …”

As a professional speaker, I hear myself introduced all the time. My host usually reads an introduction that I wrote, so I was surprised by my negative reaction when I was recently introduced as a serial entrepreneur. It wasn’t the first time that phrase was attached to me, but it was the first time it felt wrong.

The dictionary lists speculator, tycoon, magnate, mogul, hustler, and wheeler and dealer as synonyms for entrepreneur. And to be sure, in every one of my ventures, the initial phase required me to take on ways of being that these words capture aptly.

If you’ve ever tried to start a business, you’ve experienced what I call the “figuring it out” phase. It’s exhilarating and full of fast processing of new ideas, innovations, and rapid prototyping. New ideas are your friend, and the capacity to take big risks is table stakes.

Some of my serial entrepreneur friends and a few of my former partners are addicted to the exhilaration, chaos, and risk of the “figuring it out” phase. They never want it to end.

These are folks I invite to parties because they’re so much fun, but I’ve learned to shy away from partnering with them in business. I’ve learned that to grow successful businesses, I need to partner with people who are willing and capable of balancing their level of risk tolerance and their search for new ideas, with their willingness to adopt discipline, standards, and processes with the evolving needs of the business.

I want partners who are willing to become who the business needs them to become. I want to partner with ‘business builders.’

So if you or your business partners have been unable to move beyond the entrepreneurial mindset, try adopting these mindsets, which will help you and your business move to the next level:

1. Launching.

This phase is all about building sales and capacity, and you should get through it as quickly as possible. It’ll require you and other leaders to evolve your mindsets.

You must be prepared to mute your thirst for risk and fixation on the next big idea and take on an appreciation for structure, repeatability, standards, processes, and discipline. And until you as the leader evolve, the business will not be able to evolve.

Once you have something figured out, the business is ready to evolve into its next phase. Repeatability becomes the watchword in this phase.

2. Scaling.

Once you’ve developed a way to systematically increase sales and delivery capacity, the business is ready to move to the scaling phase. This mindset is all about standardization — using what works and hiring more people to support business demand.

Serial entrepreneurs are often challenged in this phase and will be tempted to improve upon what’s working, but this will send the business back into design and testing and away from scaling.

The business now needs ‘business builders’ to place a high value on reliability, integrity, and discipline. Consistency becomes the watchword.

3. Innovating.

Your business is thriving — congratulations! Now it’s time to move into the innovation mindset.

The business has two very distinct needs. The business should remain vigilant and consistent in its systematic scaling of sales and delivery capacity of its current offerings, while simultaneously figuring out new offerings the market wants.

This is often where I see most people struggle. How can you innovate yet develop new offerings that align with your current ones and help support your overall vision for the company?

The ‘business builders’ must value repeatability and consistency and at other times take some big risks and try out some game-changing ideas. Balance becomes the watchword.

The takeaway.

My advice is to party with serial entrepreneurs and risk junkies all night long — but partner with people who are capable of and willing to adopt the discipline necessary for a successful ‘business builder.’

Time to go re-write that introduction.

This article first appeared on Inc.com.

Where to Spend Your Time If You Want to Increase Your Power and Influence at Work

Leaders and employees who are ready to move up in the ranks see opportunities to get involved and make significant contributions all around them. To be successful, it’s critical to focus on the right activities with the right people in order to maximize your influence and knowledge.

There are four primary groups you likely interact within the workplace, and I like to visualize these groups in terms of a compass. You are in the center; to the north are your superiors or perhaps board members; to the south are your direct reports; to the west are your peers; and finally to the east are your customers.

Where do you currently focus most of your efforts?

My guess would be that you spend 95% of your time focusing on the north, south, or west.

Maximize time with your boss or board.

You should devote a considerable portion of your time working on the strategic direction of your organization. This includes allocating resources to meet all the current and future business and market needs.

Maximize time with your staff.

You should engage with your staff and employees. Focus on inspiring and enrolling them in the organization’s vision and strategy. You should ensure that the needs of the organization and your customers are being met, accounts are developing, and new markets are being penetrated.

Maximize time with your peers.

You should collaborate with your peers to optimize enterprise performance, develop and implement cross-organization systems and solutions, and leverage all assets to bring the desired innovations to the market.

Maximize influence.

Most of us are so busy managing others or routine tasks that, sadly, our customers often take a back seat.

To be successful and to maximize your influence in the north, south, and west, you must focus on the east — your customers and your market. The more you know more about your customers and the market, the more prepared you will be to recognize emerging needs, opportunities, and threats. If you aren’t already spending consistent, dedicated time with your customers, stop what you are doing right now and schedule some face-to-face time with your customers. Learn what matters to them. Ask them what is working, what is keeping them up at night…or better yet, figure out what should be keeping them up at night.

Approach the east with intense curiosity and pack probing questions like:

Why do you buy from us?
How do you use our products and services in generating value for your customers?
What would happen to your business if we suddenly stopped providing you with our products and services?
Would you have even the slightest hesitation in recommending us to one of your most trusted friends? If so, what is the source of that hesitation?
If you could change one thing about our products and services, or anything at all about our company, what would it be?
Do you trust us to do what we say?
Can you share a recent example where we let you down, even a little?
Can you share a recent example where we exceeded your expectations?
Where is your organization going strategically, and what is making it hard to get there?
What do you wish we offered you beyond our current products and services?
What question do you wish I asked you?
What to do with this information.

Armed with the answers to these questions, return to your organization powered up with knowledge and influence. In the north, ensure the vision and strategy of your organization is aligned with the vision and strategy of your customers. In the south, provide your staff with clear feedback from the marketplace and drive adjustments that enhance the delivery of your products and services. In the west, work creatively with your peers to innovate, develop, and deliver new and valuable products and services. This is invaluable information because it is the voice of your customer, and the customer should be at the heart of anything and everything your organization does.

Take a look at where you spent your time during the past week. Where are you planning on spending your time over the next few weeks? Ask yourself if you are spending enough quality time in the east learning deeply about the unmet needs of your customers. Are you the authoritative voice of the customer for all those around you? If not, it’s time to run as fast as you can towards the east and power up your knowledge.

This article first appeared on Inc.com.

Accountability Starts With The Hiring Process

How often do you hear organizations talk about the importance of accountability or personal responsibility? It’s listed in their core values, encouraged between employees, and promoted with customers. Since accountability is a critically important driver of success, more organizations should consider accountability at the earliest stage of engaging potential hires.

Think about it — most org charts are riddled with nouns to describe their employees. The little boxes are filled with labels like Vice President of Sales, Marketing Director, Chief of Operations, Human Resource Manager, and Chief Information Officer. It’s a diagram of nouns. These titles describe who people are, but do little to tell us what people actually do and do nothing to make clear people’s accountabilities.

Drill down to discover where the action and the accountability can be found. It’s in the verbs. Verbs matter because they are powerful, and some verbs are more powerful than others. For example, the title VP of Sales might be followed by the job description, “Lead company sales efforts.” “Lead” is a nice sounding verb, but it offers no real accountability. What if the description of the job for VP of Sales was, “Close sufficient deals to make it possible for the VP of Operations to meet or exceed monthly billing targets for staff.” The verb “close” is much more powerful than the verb “lead.” How the VP of Sales closes these deals is up to him or her, but the verb makes them accountable.

Increase Accountability by Rethinking Your Verbs

Next time you are writing a job description, consider your verbs. Using powerful verbs in a job description can attract the type of employee who is willing to be accountable. High power verbs = high accountability and weak verbs = weak accountability.

What kinds of verbs are embedded in your organization’s job descriptions or in your own resume? Use the following guide to do a “verb audit” and see if your organization can use more powerful verbs to attract accountable employees.

Job seekers — you should use this tip too. Take a few minutes to do a “verb audit.” Using the list provided, how might you improve the verbs in your resume, your online profiles, and your professional bio? Being associated with powerful verbs makes you more significant and accountable, which can establish the case for more compensation. Power up the verbs and power up your wallet.

The Verb Ladder

Weak – Moderate – High

Participate – Negotiate – Own
Collaborate – Lead – Cause
Market – Sell – Make
Explore – Partner – Supply
Try – Ensure – Produce
Advise – Mentor – Close
Suggest – Consider – Establish
Assess – Teach – Maintain
Analyze – Help – Determine
Monitor – Assist – Decide

Whether you are a hiring manager or a job seeker, don’t be surprised if you find weak verbs lurking around. That’s because we instinctively know, the weaker the verbs the harder it is to judge. High power verbs create the possibility for judgment and failure. We live our lives desperately trying to avoid shame. Hunt for weak verbs and replace them with powerful verbs to power up your employees and your organization.

This article first appeared on Inc.com.

Focus on the Fewest, Most Important Requests Using This Time-Management Tip

“Tell me the single most important piece of advice you have ever been given.”

As a life-long learner, this is one of my favorite questions to ask some of my most influential and interesting clients. I once posed this question to Rob Wiltbank, CEO of Galois Inc., which uses applied mathematics to solve difficult technical problems like cyber deception and driverless cars.

Without hesitation he smiled and replied, “One of the greatest things I have learned is to stay clear of turds.” I was a little taken aback at the unexpected response but intrigued to learn more. He went on to explain how early in his career a colleague warned him, “Everybody is trying to put turds in your pocket all the time – you just don’t realize it. The key to leadership, life, and sanity is to keep all the turds out of your pocket except the few you are willing to keep.” Rob calls this the turd principle.

The Turd Principle

The turd principle is quite simple. Co-workers, peers, even your family members are constantly asking for your help or your input. Oftentimes, these people don’t actually need you, yet they still seek your help. Let me demonstrate. One of your employees bursts into your office telling you about their great idea, and they want your direction on how to make it happen. Do you see what just happened?

This employee just put a turd in your pocket. Now you have a dilemma – do you keep the turd in your pocket, or do you hand it right back to them? If you know the employee is perfectly capable of handling this on their own, or there is still a lot of thinking that needs to be done before you assist, immediately give the turd back by saying, “That’s an interesting idea with lots of potential. How do you plan on making it happen?” The turd is back in their pocket.

Turds fly at us in our personal life, especially if you have kids. How often have your kids marched into the kitchen and announced, “I can’t find my shoes.” The kid just put a turd in your pocket. Some people keep the turd and jump to assist. But the “turd returners” say, “Oh yeah – how are you going to find them?” Turd back in their pocket. Your spouse says, “We don’t talk anymore.” That is definitely a turd in your pocket. “I agree honey. I’m all in. What do you have in mind?” Turd is right back in their pocket. And notice that they used a passive statement to put that turd in your pocket. A lot of turds get passed through statements as opposed to requests.

How to Manage These Requests

So the turd is what people put in your pocket to evoke an action on your part. Family, friends, co-workers, and strangers are loading your pockets with turds through email, phone calls, and face-to-face interactions. Some of us love to be needed, so the more turds that bulge our pockets, the more wonderfully miserable we feel about our businesses and the world’s dependence on us. But peak performance leaders see the turds and volley most back immediately. And the master “turd returners” volley the turds back in a manner where the turd sender thanks them gratefully.

This is the art of the turd game. “Hey thanks, Chris. That was a great conversation, and I am thrilled to have this turd in my pocket instead of yours.” “Any time, friend.” Remember, others can’t see the turds. Bottom line: See the turds coming at you. Volley back all except for the few you want to run with.

Take Away

So here is today’s leadership hack. Step one: SEE the turds coming your way. Actively CHOOSE a few turds to hold and act on. Return the rest. Do everything about these fewest, most important turds versus doing a few things about all the turds confronting you. In the end, you win and so does everyone else.

This article first appeared on Inc.com.

Even Tylenol Can’t Cure Uber’s Headaches

The best and worst part of leading a company is the inevitable confrontation of one’s self. The job is like looking into a mirror in a fluorescent-lit bathroom. You can’t escape the details staring back at you, no matter how much you would like to run or hide. Issues of temper, fear, control, indiscretions, greed, aggression, and insecurity simply cannot be denied and your company will ruthlessly make you aware of any inadequacies they observe. In some instances, companies will do more than just reveal a leader’s faults, they mandate their leaders deal with their shortcomings immediately … or leave. This is where Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber, finds himself.

Uber, for many of us, was our first experience in the ride sharing phenomenon. We fell in love with the idea of just a tap of the screen, and suddenly, Uber was ready to take us to our destinations. The company enjoyed meteoric growth. It was another American startup changing the world.

Now – eight years to the month since Uber’s launch and following several other breaking stories – Uber’s president of 6 months, Jeff Jones, has quit citing differences over “beliefs and approach to leadership.” Kalanick – welcome to the mirror.

At the heart of the issue is the organizational culture that emanates from Kalanick and the damage it has done to the company. He proudly touts that Uber embraces its intensely aggressive and competitive organizational culture. And in response to sexual harassment accusations by employees, he has also stated that he aimed to create a “just for all” culture. Both are great ideas, but what happens when these values conflict and collide? Uber’s leadership is tested when the hyper-competitive producers create injustice for others. As The New York Times chronicled last month, employees reported that Uber’s human resources personnel often made excuses for top performers accused of harassment. So which value – performance or justice – trumps the other.

From a reputation management standpoint, Kalanick might take a lesson from James Burke, whose leadership at Johnson & Johnson in 1982 during the Tylenol poisoning scare has become became the gold standard for corporate response to breach of trust. Burke acted quickly from a single dominant principle: safety. Today the company’s reputation is stronger than ever and shareholders have enjoyed huge returns.

Thirty-five years ago Burke was at the helm of Johnson & Johnson facing the nightmare realization that their flagship product, Tylenol, was killing people. Within a few days of September 29, 1982, seven people had died by taking cyanide-laced capsules of Extra-Strength Tylenol. Extra-Strength Tylenol accounted for 17 percent of Johnson & Johnson’s revenue. Johnson & Johnson’s pristine reputation was at risk. Burke acted quickly from a single dominant principle: safety.

In an unprecedented move, he immediately recalled 31 million bottles of product, transformed the product packaging, and offered free replacement at a cost of $100 million dollars. His speed, resolve, and handling of the press was breathtaking. James Burke’s action became the gold standard for corporate response to breach of trust. Today the company’s reputation is stronger than ever and shareholders have enjoyed huge returns. What dominant principle will drive Kalanick as he acts to right Uber?

Following Burke’s example is an essential start to restoring Uber’s reputation, but it will not be sufficient. Burke was reacting to something done to his company. Uber’s leadership is dealing with multiple self-inflicted wounds. From a reputation stand point – they and Uber’s culture – are the problem.

To restore the reputation of the company, Kalanick and Uber’s top leadership will need to confront themselves at a personal level that begins with taking a long look in that mirror. All of us who have breached the trust of another know how painful and difficult this process can be and how wonderful personal transformation can be in the end if successful. But few people actually pull it off. It’s hard to change our nature. It will be critical for Uber’s Board of Directors to monitor this situation carefully. They may need to draw some lessons from Fox News Corp, which determined the only way to stem the erosion of their reputation was to replace their CEO and Chairman.

I hope it does not come to this. I hope that Kalanick realizes that the guiding principles that got them this far might not take them further. I hope he uses this moment in time to become the leader that Uber needs and creates new possibilities for his employees and for himself. And I hope that Kalanick joins the ranks of Burke and other great American corporate leaders.

If you or your organization are struggling with leadership or culture-based challenges, The Clearing provides organizational culture change consulting and leadership development programs to help organizations achieve peak performance. Contact The Clearing to discuss your needs.