But I can’t fail – I’m the boss!

Well, actually you can.   Most of us who have been in leadership or management positions have failed at some point in our professional lives.  Here’s the good news.  If handled properly, failure isn’t all bad.  None of us likes to fail but it happens despite our best efforts and intentions.  We’re human and we make mistakes which lead to failure moments. What happens then? The real measure of success isn’t what you do when you’re on top.   Patton once said that “success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.”   From our failures we can gain knowledge and experience.  We can then use both to address the issue more appropriately, increasing the likelihood that we’ll succeed.  Learning from failure is a good thing.  Repeating the failure moments with the hope of a different outcome is, according to some, the definition of insanity.

Failure to resolve the personnel issues that continue to plague your organization is aggravating and frustrating.  Recognizing the reasons for that failure and, more importantly, the limitations on your ability to resolve the issues is an important first step.  Consulting with a professional problem solver may be the  first step on the road to long lasting resolution and eventually success.  As we’ve discussed before, the professional problem solver has no other agenda than helping you and your organization find the real causes for the problems and reaching a resolution that actually addresses the issues.

When failure looms its ugly head, and it will, accept the option and possible reality and call for reinforcements in the form of a professional problem solver.  Then, when Aunt Nellie demands to know what you’re doing to resolve the problem ( and increase her monthly dividend payment) you’ll have a response which just might take the wind out of her sails.  Even in the midst of failure, seeing Aunt Nellie speechless has to be a very satisfactory moment.

Things Don’t Seem Quite So Bad

When preparing this week’s blog, I was distracted by the news of the pending hurricane, Sandy, and its growth into a super storm.  I’ve experienced killer hurricanes and blizzards and know the havoc and devastation such a storm can cause.  My distraction was compounded by the fact that I have family and friends who were about to affected by this storm.  Fortunately, everyone is safe.  But in watching the news coverage of the devastation left behind, it struck me that while our problems in our professional lives can seem so important and perhaps insurmountable, we know where we’re going to sleep tonight, we know we can purchase food and gas, and our lives have not been turned upside down.  Our business problems don’t seem quite so bad when compared to what is happening to millions of people living across the mid-Atlantic and eastern seaboard.

So I ask you all who happen to come across this blog or who read it regularly, please take a moment to pray for those who have lost everything – family, friends, homes,  possessions, and for more than 100 of our fellow citizens, their lives.  Please  consider making a donation to any of those charities helping our fellow citizens try to find a sense of normalcy in the midst of unspeakable devastation and loss.   It’s times like these when we truly show how good, caring and compassionate we are.  Our fellow citizens need us.

Which Role Do You Play?

How many of us remember the childhood story of the little red hen?  In a nutshell, it tells of a little red hen living with other farm animals.  She finds a grain of corn and decides to plant it.  When she asks for help from the others, no one wants to be bothered.  On her own she plants the corn, tends it, harvests it, and takes it to the miller for grinding.  From the flour that results she makes a loaf of bread.  When the bread is ready to eat, she finally gets offers to help her.  The others are more than willing to help eat the fruits of her labors but none was willing to labor with her.

Think about the problems within your organization.  Which role do you play?  Are you someone who works hard to solve the problem or are you one of those standing on the sidelines, waiting?  The only time you want to participate is when the problem has been solved and the fruits of others’ labor are now available.

In my assessment, that’s not the work ethic upon which this country was founded.  Of course there were issues in the past and there are issues today which need to be resolved.  But one of those issues to be resolved should never be the question of having one or two people do all the work to solve the problems, only to have the rest of the organization jump in and reap all the rewards.  Solutions which are developed in that scenario might be excellent ones but the residual bad feelings will almost always undermine their effectiveness.  Hard work does pay off but folks need to be willing to break a sweat.  Success will follow.

What do you mean the problem’s not solved?

          You’ve just returned from a lengthy lunch with Aunt Nellie, who just had to tell you that she didn’t like the fact that her dividend check was smaller last month than the month before and why aren’t you promoting her favorite nephew.  After all it’s only a matter of time before he’s ready to take over the company.  Fortunately, you were blessed with that subtle filter which prevented you from telling her to go ahead and let him take over (it’s been a real bad month and the stockholder meeting coming up is not the sunshine moment you’ve been looking forward to.)  Not five minutes after sitting down and swallowing a handful of antacids with an aspirin chaser, your administrative assistant comes in with the news that the personnel issue in the Widget unit has just reared its ugly head  – AGAIN.  Once more the subtle filter kicks in immediately.  You successfully resist the urge to show your assistant just how fluent you are in swear and cuss.  But you can’t help wondering why the problem has returned.

           One thing to understand when trying to resolve problems is that there may be obstacles which prevent you from accurately identifying the root cause of the problem.  Without that vital information, you tend to implement solutions that are only temporary in nature.   If you truly want to resolve a problem permanently, consider utilizing the services and skills of a problem solving consultant.  That consultant can work to find the root causes of the problems you’re experiencing.  Once the real issues have been correctly identified, the consultant will work with you to develop and implement realistic and practical solutions so the problem won’t keep rearing its ugly head.  Using the skills of the problem solving consultant will go a long way to reducing your stress level, as well as the stress within the entire organization.  Think about it.

Why do I have to keep fixing this same old mess?

If you’re the leader or manager of an organization, you get the nomination to solve the problems because, as a dear friend has said told me, “you’re the head Fred what’s in charge” – and don’t forget Aunt Nellie and her monthly dividend payment.

If you find yourself having to revisit old problems you thought were solved, you need to remember a couple of things.  First, you were promoted or hired for the position because of your abilities and your dedication to insuring the success of the organization, no matter how large or small.  Taking on these responsibilities has to mean something more than getting a key to the executive bathroom.  You’re supposed to have the intelligence and abilities to address whatever problems develop.  Part of your skill set needs to be the ability to recognize when something is outside your ability to handle.  Second, when you find yourself addressing the same old problem time and time again, that’s when you need to acknowledge that intervention by a professional problem solving consultant is needed.  When the same problem continues to rear its ugly head, it may be that you’ve not yet discovered the root cause of the problem.  If that’s the case, no solution you implement will be permanently effective.  But a permanent fix can be developed when you hire a professional problem solving consultant.

Remember our last conversation?  The professional problem solving consultant comes in with only one agenda and that’s to discover the root cause of the problems and develop an effective, permanent solution.  So when problems don’t ever seem to get resolved, consider hiring a problem solving consultant.   It will certainly make your life as the leader/manager a whole lot easier and you can devote more time to listening to Aunt Nellie’s ideas on how to run the business.

Problem Solving and Communication

Common sense tells us that problem resolution is heavily dependent upon communication.  The communication structure used to address and resolve the problem is important.  Here are a few points you may want to consider.

Leaders will often use a centralized communication structure in order to establish group norms.  This is particularly true for newly formed groups.  Researchers have described centralized communication as either a chain or a “Y” with the leader exerting strict control over which group members get what information.  In contrast, a decentralized communication structure has been described as a circle which gives every individual in the group access to all other group members.

Both centralized and decentralized communication structures are well suited to resolving a specific type of problem.  Centralized communication structures allow the group to spend less time initially on preliminary organization processes and decisions are usually reached quickly.  On the other hand, groups utilizing a decentralized communication structure will often take more time to get organized. Once a group using a decentralized structure gets organized, it can usually work as efficiently as a group in a centralized structure.

Research has shown that there are important differences between centralized and decentralized communication structures.  Within centralized structures, the individual occupying the center position tends to become the leader regardless of whether or not that person has the necessary qualifications.  That individual is in the position of receiving all the communications and has all the information needed to make decisions.  Leadership in decentralized structures, on the contrary, usually is bestowed upon the member with the best qualifications.  Information is shared with the group members so that all the information needed to make the decision is known.

Centralized structured groups have been found to be less flexible than decentralized structured groups and are best suited to solving simple problems, especially when time is of the essence and the quality of the decision is not of prime importance.  Groups utilizing a decentralized communication structure tend to rely upon the expertise of all its members so the quality of their decisions tends to be higher.

Researchers have also found a difference in the group morale between groups using a centralized communication structure and those utilizing a decentralized structure.  Research has shown that a member’s morale is directly related to how valuable that member feels.  The farther from the center point in a centralized structure a member is, the lower the member’s morale.  In contrast, the members of a group using a decentralized structure tend to have the same morale.  The morale in the latter group is dependent more on the nature of the assigned task and its importance, rather than the individual’s position within the group.

Depending upon the urgency of the problem and the need for quality decisions, leaders will need to weigh the pros and cons of both communication structures.  Both have advantages and disadvantages.  Weigh them both and select the style best suited to the particular problem being addressed.