Be Different or be dead

June 10, 2019

When your leadership results go unnoticed what’s the right move?

When your leadership results go unnoticed what’s the right move?

When you always find yourself in a no-win situation where you do whatever the organization expects of you and yet you come up empty in terms of recognition and reward for your efforts.

There are times when you can’t win for losing.

I received an email recently from Bill, who experienced this dilemma. Here is his story…

“For years I was in charge of a (declining legacy) unit within my large organization. I was a good day-to-day manager but wanted to lead change and turn things around - to be a leader, not just a manager; to be transformative, not transactional.

I had a lot of ideas for turning around demand, collaborating with other units, and expanding our product line, and did as much as I could within the unit. But serious change required new resources and/or support at higher levels.

So I spent long hours thinking and brainstorming with my team, crunching numbers, practicing presentations, and building relationships across the organization to make evidence-based cases for change that aligned with our organization’s strategic goals.

When your ideas are ignored

But most were turned down, and I never did reverse the decline. And I now realize that I probably never had a chance. It suited the organization to keep our legacy unit the way it was, producing declining but still considerable value without needing to make any new investment or disrupting other more high-performing units.

But no one told me this. Instead, I was openly encouraged to keep pitching new ideas, even when I expressed concerns that I didn’t seem to be getting anywhere.

Feedback was always affirmative, just ‘not right now’ and ‘try again.’ So I kept going further on the same path, feeling change was always just around the corner. But I was throwing good money after bad.

After six years I finally got out with a lateral move elsewhere in our organization. Looking back I now see the real problems.

My direct manager for the entire time was overburdened and a poor communicator and coach. He actually tried to treat everyone as fairly as possible, but that meant saying the same thing to every unit leader, not disrupting the existing structure, and following a single resourcing model regardless of context.

Second, previous leadership at the top was more dysfunctional than I knew. The strategic plan was followed inconsistently and was useless guidance for someone at my level.

When you realize you’ve wasted precious time

But I wasted a lot of years and effort there, setting back my entire career. I wish I had been able to see things a lot earlier.

How can someone recognize they are in a no-win leadership situation? Especially when they receive mixed or misleading signals from the organization and their superiors?

Throughout my time I became increasingly obsessed with the distinction between managing and leading that is found in so much of the leadership literature. I always thought that “if I am a real leader, I will turn this around.”

I probably ended up downplaying my actual management skills - I ran a good, productive shop with high morale despite our gloomy long-term prospects. In retrospect, I would have invested even more in fixing day-to-day stuff rather than trying to come up with shiny new things.”

Sound familiar? Although the signs are in front of us, we keep believing that our efforts sooner or later will be recognized and that we will be rewarded for them.

Well guess what? Some people will suck the life out of you and give you nothing in return. They don’t care about you and want only to use you to further their own personal gains.

Be alert to the information in front of you

That said, how do you spot the tipping point: the point where you actually have enough information in front of you to make a call?

Bill actually had all the information he needed:
— his new ideas were consistently turned down;
— he spent a number of years trying to play a transformational role, but was unsuccessful;
— his leadership skills were not valued;
— he wasn’t recognized for his uniqueness; he was viewed as a common tribe member;
— the organization was dysfunctional in terms of executing their strategic plan;
— his superiors gave mixed signals on what was valued and expected by the organization.

The information to make an informed decision was there, but Bill didn’t act. He hoped that if he stuck to his game plan of innovation and providing leadership his worth would eventually be rewarded.

If you are disappointed once, shame on them but if you keep coming back for more, and are repeatedly turned down, shame on you.

So my advice: look at and listen to the evidence in your face and ACT! Things don’t get better by hoping that things will change.

Choose change and avoid being stuck

Improvements in your career and your life only happen when you decide to take a new course and find out if you chose well. If you don’t choose change,  you’ll be stuck as Bill was.

Your choice may not pan out but at least you will have more experience and information to make another choice, and another until you reach the right fit for you.

Never expect and trust others to do the right thing for you. They might, but you have no certainty that they will. If you want the right outcome, YOU you have to take responsibility and do it yourself

Cheers,
Roy
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• Posted 6.10.19 at 04:28 am by Roy Osing
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