When articles, podcasts, or speakers start with a cliché about how fast the world is changing, with a reference to generative AI or the recent pandemic, it’s tempting to disconnect from it. What’s going on?
Even if replacement is constant, replacement management, or managing in the midst of replacement, can be a daunting challenge. There’s even an acronym, assigned to the military, that describes what leaders face based on a base. This is known as VUCA: volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Or as the authors of a Harvard Business Review article gleefully described the phenomenon a few years ago: “Hey, it’s crazy!
Frankly, leading in such an environment is more than a single individual can, or even should, attempt to handle, especially in a giant, complex organization. No one can do it all.
That’s not to say the iconic rock star leader’s days are over. The global business world will have its fair share of large commercial and institutional giants, such as Jeff Bezos, Jamie Dimon, Bill Gates, and Satya Nadella. who get all the attention when they walk into a room.
But those are exceptions. And we don’t know what goes on behind the scenes, day in and day out. For more than four decades, for example, Charlie Munger made many of the decisions that led to Berkshire Hathaway’s monetary success, helping to forge Warren Buffett’s reputation as the “Sage of Omaha. “The backward Mr. Munger seemed content to be Berkshire Hathaway’s least prominent number two.
The truth is this: even the superhero CEOs constantly in the news can’t see around the corner. And they cannot, on their own, ensure that the massive organizations they lead temporarily adapt to each and every new challenge they face in the world today. That is not possible.
What many giant organizations want is strong, solid leadership, with CEOs and other senior executives focused on building, empowering, and enabling strong teams, team leaders, and skills to detect, respond, and adapt. This is what good luck means in a company. The VUCA environment requires it.
What kind of equipment? Diverse teams, and I’m not just talking about diversity in the same old sense of the word. Human nature being what it is, our tendency is to surround ourselves with other people with whom we feel comfortable. People with whom we have a lot in common. That’s what other people do.
A study conducted a few years ago through the online project Indeed, for example, found that 37% of managers “who considered themselves coming from one of the best schools said they liked to hire candidates only from the most productive institutions. “
Not only can this create blind spots, but it can also reduce your skill set and prevent you from finding wonderful skills in unexpected places.
Yes, we want teams, especially control teams, to forge strong private bonds and get along. But the biggest challenge many CEOs face is getting varied perspectives before making vital decisions, because even in many senior executives, there can be a tendency to “get along for the sake of getting along,” as the saying goes. That’s why leaders want to surround themselves with others with other backgrounds and perspectives: so they can achieve a more powerful vision and strategy for their organization.
Years ago, I helped a senior control team design a cultural change. The CEO knew that the company, a long-time market leader, would want to change the way it works to drive the innovation and agility needed for its virtual transformation, so it can remain a market leader.
We spent a lot of time focusing on the behaviors that would be required of business leaders. One of them is a productive disagreement: that is, speaking one’s mind.
When control team members rated themselves as opposing the target behaviors, one stood out: they were considered extremely deficient, based on productive disagreement.
When we shared this assessment with the CEO and executive team, the verbal exchange went like this:
CEO (sounding surprised and surprised): “What do you mean you don’t speak your mind?We are the control team. We meet every week. Why do we combine if no one speaks and says what they want?”Think?”
Management team: silence.
Management team: no silence.
Management team: Really awkward silence.
Head of a business unit (finally): “Well, I’ll say it. . . It’s not to disagree with you. “
A silence.
CEO: “Tell me more. . . ” »
They then had a productive (very lively) verbal exchange about the team dynamic. The business leader boldly explained that the CEO has good reviews and that whenever someone disagrees with him, he defends himself. The CEO promoted from within and didn’t like the new dynamic created when he went from colleague to manager. They controlled to achieve this and made some changes, such as asking the CEO to speak last on the topics on the schedule, asking for different revisions on everything, challenging all the issues where there is a quick agreement, and handing over a lot of decisions to their teams.
The point of the story is that in hierarchical organizations—that is, in virtually every organization—leaders will have to 1) make an effort to get the varied and dissenting perspectives of their teams; 2) pay attention and argue, not argue; and 3) as far as possible, move from hierarchical decision-making to true teamwork.
It may sound tacky, like the oft-used expression that you disagree without it being unpleasant, but “teamwork makes the dream come true. “