What the worst they can do?

1/9/2023

I re-watched The Company Men, a movie with Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, and Kevin Costner. My main takeaway was that two of the characters, those played by Ben and Tommy, lost themselves in the rat race only to find themselves again in the skilled trades. The movie brings a lot of memories of the collapse of many things during the Great Recession of 2008/2009. For our family that was a challenging financial time but it was also a time that brought us closer together.

Ben plays a young ambitious salesman, Bobby Walker, who confuses his achievements at work with his identity. The deconstruction of his facade is played out well as he comes to understand that his family is the most important thing in his life and what they need is him, not all of the material things he was once able to provide. He goes from bragging about his golf score as a cocky executive to making endless calls begging for job opportunities with a suite full of his fellow unemployed.

“I've called everybody I know and a lot of people I don't, and begged, fucking begged for a job, a lead, anything! “You want honesty? I'm a thirty-seven-year-old unemployed fuck-up who can't even support his family!”

Bobby unwillingly takes a job helping his brother in law, played by Kevin Costner, remodel an old home. As his ego is stripped away he comes to enjoy working with his hands as he becomes more engaged as a husband and father.

Tommy plays Gene McCleary, a co-founder of the company most of the characters worked for. He has been biting his tongue for years as the company he once loved has evolved into a soulless corporation. At one point while they are laying people off for another round of downsizing to increase shareholder confidence in the company, Gene has this exchange with human resources:

HR Director:
I'm confident all these dismissals will stand up under legal scrutiny.
Gene McClary:
What about ethical scrutiny.
HR Director:
We're not breaking any laws, Gene.
Gene McClary:
I guess I always assumed were trying for a higher standard than that, Paul.

As Gene and Bobby are taking a walk through the run down remains of where the company started as a ship building manufacturer, Gene says to Bobby,

"You start with some crazy idea, take insane risks, make barely enough to feed your family, not a chance you're gonna succeed. Then all of a sudden you've got all these things and you're terrified of losing them.”

Shortly after Gene decides to invest his savings into starting up his own company. He hires Bobby as his director of sales. Bobby hires many of the people who were in the unemployment office with him trying to find work. The movie closes with a sense of hope, Bobby tells his team, "We work as hard in here every day as we did when we were trying to get a job, we'll be alright. What's the worst thing they can do, fire us?"

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Clarifying your identify as a leader will help to build a thriving team culture

2/4/2019

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Identity, honesty and adaptability are key to growing as a professional as well as an organization.

Business and leadership growth lessons from Shakespeare

Tattooed Shakespeare by Mathew McFarren

Having a clear sense of identity is important for leaders and organizations. In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare speaking through Polonius provides this fatherly advice,

“This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”

A clear identity enables leaders and teams to be honest with each other as they seek to compete in business. Honesty among individuals as well as within teams facilitates real time adaptability to changes in the market that are critical to sustained success.

Let’s break down the quote from Polonius to peel through the layers that will enhance our growth mindset:

Developing your identity as a leader.

Having a clear sense of identity is important for leaders and organizations. In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare speaking through Polonius provides this fatherly advice, “This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” A clear identity enables leaders and teams to be honest with each other as they seek to compete in business. Honesty among individuals as well as within teams facilitates real time adaptability to changes in the market that are critical to sustained success.

Let’s break down the quote from Polonius to peel through the layers that will enhance our growth mindset:

Understanding the importance of prioritization as a leader.

1. “This above all else…”
You must prioritize. There’s isn’t enough time, money or resources to do everything. There are limits and they can demotivate you or force you to take the smartest risks you can imagine. To activate your growth mindset you cannot lose touch with reality, you must learn the ever evolving terrain, rules, resources and limitations. Again, reality is not the enemy, it is essential to growth.

Where are we now (brutal honesty)
Where are we headed (what is our potential)
What must we do to reach our goals (or at least fight valiantly to compete)

Author of Organizational Physics, Lex Sisney, has composed Three Covenants of operating agreements to help teams maximize input and buy in. Covenant 3 states, “The goal is frank and honest discussion of the facts before a decision is made, followed by total commitment to implementing the solution after the decision is made.” Those in a position of leadership do well to understand that they need as broad a net of inputs as possible from within as well as without their team.

When a leader listens they open themselves to valuable input.

Failure to listen to those who are in the field distributing your products or services, those front line employees, is cutting your organization off from valuable perspectives. Leaders also must understand that conflict does not have to be negative. Creating an open forum where ideas flow without filters requires the allowance of dissension. The team can create healthy boundaries for discussion to remain civil while making clear the timeline for disagreement and the expectation of buy in once the decision is made. As Sisney put it, “Put another way, it’s OK to question a decision up front but it’s not OK to fight it or ignore it during implementation.”

A leader who is confident in their strengths is able to create opportunities for employees to exercise theirs.

2. “To thine own self…”
Organizations that struggle with their identify will struggle to clarify their value proposition in the market place. Organizational culture and identity sound like such lofty concepts but they are merely reflections of the teams day to day actions and the identity of the leadership. Your company culture is what you do. Your organizational identity often mirrors that of your leadership. We make culture and identity abstract when we try to create them rather than recognize what they are and then optimize them.

Three questions for increasing employee engagement towards achieving team goals:

Do you understand who you are as an individual?
- Regardless of your rung on the corporate ladder, knowing who you are is valuable to your personal and professional growth as well as to your ability to help your team.
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Do you understand who you are as a team?
- Whether you are a niche group that handles one aspect of a much larger entity or a broad based group that covers a large list of responsibilities, can you articulate your culture?
- Would individual team members reach consensus on their collective roles, responsibilities and values?
Do you understand who you are as an organization?
- Regardless of the size of your company, do you know your place in the market and have you clarified your value proposition?
- Does your team know your company story and are they inspired to share that good news through their work and public interactions?

Leadership starts with holding yourself accountable.

In The Real Life MBA, Jack and Suzy Welch write, “The only reason to talk about behaviors at work is that leaders need be very public, very clear, and very consistent about what kind of behaviors are needed in order to achieve the company’s mission.” Leaders must lead by example, it should be the working definition of leadership but often it falls short of action.

When those in a position of leadership understand themselves they free up capacity to find and build other leaders who will round out the team needs so that the mission can move forward. When leaders don’t understand themselves they often lead by fear and hold the team back from reaching its potential.

Clarity comes from truth.
Collaboration comes from a willingness to receive input.
By combining clarity with collaboration,
leaders, teams and organizations
will unlock the capacity to compete.

Strong leaders understand the importance of adaptation.

3. “Be true…”
There is an emphasis on authenticity which is important for individuals as well as organizations. Yet, if you are failing or heading towards decline, it takes a strong person to admit they need assistance. In the rapidly evolving market everyone must be acutely aware that what worked last month may not net the same result this month. The need to adapt and adjust to the market is constant. Failure to recognize this reality is a recipe for certain failure.

Our values should be set in stone, in so far as they reflect our ethics and core culture, but our approach to the needs of our clients must be fluid. Lex Sisney shares more on how we remain true to ourselves and yet flexible, “If you want to scale your business successfully — without sacrificing innovation, core values, or execution speed as things get more complex — you’ll need to design on principles, not policies.”

Good leadership recognizes the survival of the fittest, which isn’t so much that the strongest and richest survive but those who most adaptable to their surroundings. Recent history has shown how industry giants have been toppled by rigidity and replaced by entities that were willing to change their approach with the fluctuations of the market.

Authentic leaders clarify values and build collaborative cultures.

Rigid flexibility

Being yourself and building an authentic company are not unreachable philosophical dreams. A leader who is listening will reap the benefits of real time feedback so that their team can adjust course expediently. Jack and Suzy Welch address innovation in this way, “It can and should be a continual, ongoing, normal thing. It can be and should be a mindset that has every employee at every level of the organization thinking as they walk in the door every morning, “I’m going to find a better way to do my job today.”

Leaders who understand themselves can create teams and cultures that thrive. Competing in the market requires a strong identity with adaptability. My father in law wisely calls this rigid flexibility. Stay true to your core and nimble enough to adjust to the tides. Have a vision, work tirelessly to execute on your mission but don’t get so transfixed that you are unable to adapt.