Does Consensus Leadership have a place in business today?

Recent travels brought me to two large international operations in the same market sector to observe leadership approaches.

Manager A has what he likes to call an “easy” relationship with his contemporaries. His goal is to be equal rather than lead by example.  He manages democratically; using feedback from all sides before reaching a decision or taking action.  He wants everyone to feel listened to, valued and happy.

Observations: There is consistent chaos among the non-engaged. There is a lack of respect. No one is challenged. Worst of all, there is a lack of knowledge about the product and services offered.  End result: this company had no culture and is chaotic due to a lack of leadership. An unhappy work environment has been created.

Manager B was clear about roles in every department. Instructions and responsibilities for those roles were clearly defined from the top down.  Everyone was prepared and confident. There was listening. There was no rushing. Communication was timely and appropriate. Meetings were held in which team members talked about an experienced event or a scenario in order to prepare them for the best day. Leadership engaged team members to participate; learn from insights; focus on structure, scheduling and communication approaches.

Observations: This positive, structured environment created a completely different market for their product by providing better service. It was obvious that everyone valued the company, their jobs and took ownership in the company. By being clear with their demands and expectations, this company’s leadership was clearly looking toward growth and the future – and their employees were, too.

TAKEAWAYS:

Manager A was the perfect example of Consensus Leadership. Consensus leaders always try to give people equal consideration by seeking their input. They welcome all ideas and suggestions so the team can come to an agreement and keep the majority happy. Leaders rarely divulge their opinion and often times, sacrifice their own preferences or desired direction for the majority. This approach often leads to low morale and lack of progress. Trying to create an equal playing field leaves no room for critical thinking. Consensus leadership does not work.

One of the most interesting pieces of recent workplace literature is the “Netflix Culture” outlined on their website. You can read it in its entirety here. It opens with the following statement:

Like all great companies, we strive to hire the best and we value integrity, excellence, respect, inclusivity, and collaboration. What is special about Netflix, though, is how much we:

1. encourage independent decision-making by employees
2. share information openly, broadly, and deliberately
3. are extraordinarily candid with each other
4. keep only our highly effective people
5. avoid rules

I find this public acknowledgement of mindset refreshing to see. Not only can consumers read about the high standards to which employees are held at Netflix, employees and management have great clarity from the beginning about expectations, their roles and integrity.  

A healthy, thriving organization requires a vision that comes from leadership. Employees must be guided so they have clarity and start taking ownership immediately.  As a leader, meet with every team member and get to know everyone at every step of the process -- personally. This will allow you to keep your focus – especially when communicating with different generations at different levels within the organization. As a leader, you should constantly re-evaluate your team.

Team building is about alignment of vision with expectations and communicating roles to team members so that they are clearly understood.  The right resources augment performance. Outstanding performance results in precision, productivity and longevity.

Creativity: At the Heart of Every Innovation

Creativity—being able to create—is really at the heart of being human. It’s being able to see something as it is, in its current situation, and manipulating that experience into new possibilities. Creativity is often linked to poetry or painting, acting or dancing – these are some of its physical interpretations. Yet, creativity takes many forms and can be applied to any experience.

Being able to create is a vital skill in business. Creativity is being able to think on your own to find your work around to a solution. Creativity is the skill of assembling all the facts, assimilating them and ruminating on a better option.

Creativity is what allows you to pass through failure after failure to arrive at success – to arrive at something entirely new based on all of the sensory data you’ve amassed. “We propose a framework that divides the cognitive landscape into three basic strategies: bending, breaking and blending. These we suggest, are the primary means by which all ideas evolve.”

                                                         --Anthony Brandt and David Eagleman,
                                                            “Under the Hood of Creativity,”
                                                            Time Magazine’s Science and Creativity Special Edition

Think of Frank Gehry’s take on architecture.
Think of Picasso's take on the human form.
Think of the scientists and engineers who brought the first men into space.
Think of the inventor of the Go-Pro.

At the heart of every innovation is creativity.

I encourage everyone in business to engage with creativity. It is linked to imagination and innovation and it’s available to you at any age. In US public schools, STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) has been replaced with STEAM, to include theArts. It is great to see educators and innovators realizing the importance of creative thinking.

Staying the Course with your Strategic Plan

You’ve grown your mission and mapped a plan. Yet, implementing your strategic plan is the hardest part.

I’m often reminded of the mile runner at a track meet. No matter how hard the runner has trained and conditioned, once their toe is on the starting line, there’s no way to tell how the race will actually go, is there? Even though a seasoned runner has all the tools to perform at their best, there are so many variables and “unpredictables” mid-run.

My point is that you can have a plan, but it’s really important to work some flexibility in to the plan. Switch it up when it doesn’t go your way. Find room to make a new move or correction. Just as there is no one way to win a race, there must be some ‘stretch’ in the best set plans for correction. Every athlete trains for consistency but all of that conditioning equips him or her with a constant list of checks and balances in order to auto-correct during the race for the best possible outcome. For the athlete, each correction is a gain.

These keywords are your 'checks and balances'

every step of the way when implementing a plan:

Focus

Are you growing yourself and growing your department?

Adjustment

Create a calendar to follow up on schedules;

be realistic with scheduling.

Collaboration

Constantly develop relationships and
stay consistent with your contacts.

Endurance

What do you do differently when you hit a ‘NO’?

What is the end?

The Mousetrap

Are you allowing a click of the mouse to distract you from true creativity? Are you basing research on quick facts gleaned from the internet? Stop! You’ve just put the accuracy of your analytics at risk. Quick, rushed data leads you into a mousetrap, at the click of a mouse.

While it may appear to be the quicker route at first, there is abundant information online to support almost every possible or potential hypothesis. This can greatly affect the accuracy of your analytics, even rendering them false. We have all felt overcome with illness and typed our symptoms in to the search bar at one point or another. Ever notice that your probable illnesses span from the flu to a potential brain tumor? How realistic and reliable is this information without consulting a trustworthy source like your doctor? Do not rely on the internet and the click of your mouse for accuracy.

If you are pressed for time, don’t fall into the mousetrap. In the words of Ford CEO Jim Hackett, “Corporations tend to reward action over thinking…But the truth is…you’ll find the companies that didn’t do the deep thinking and acted quickly have to redo things.” (Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2018) The only research that matters is your own thorough research which you can stand behind 100%. If you believe in what you are doing, go the extra mile and research an idea/ a product/ theory thoroughly. If you don’t research it properly, you will hit flaws at some point along the line and…you and only you are entirely responsible for those flaws.

At Forte Designs, we encourage ownership. We guide our clients to develop their ideas and persevere by combining the tools of curiosity, critical-thinking, and creativity with intuition, wisdom and experience.

Stay Hungry

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” – Steve Jobs

I believe we all come to a point in our lives when we ask ourselves if we truly believe in the work we are doing. At first, it’s a thrill to settle into work, the routine, the challenges of setting and meeting targets and the relief of a regular paycheck. Over time, things change. You change. And, for some of us, passion fades and a stale routine takes hold.

Make sure you aren’t settling. 

Stay hungry.

Make sure you are giving yourself room to stretch and grow -- and, you don’t have to do this at work. Make sure you are growing in some aspect of your life. Keep stretching and trying new things. For many of us, the first thing we tend to let go of is creativity. Yet, creativity is the source of so much stretch -- not stress. It is a source of deeper meaning in our lives. 

A recent article in the New York Times cited creativity, (especially tapping long-lost creativity in midlife) as a key to opening new doors of possibility.  “Some experts chalk up the goings-on to the do-it-yourself maker movement […] as an outlet to combat anxiety and depression. Still more people want to bolster a flagging career or reinvent themselves.”
The article continues to say: "Fear of failure is big if you’re an expert in your field,' Mr. Burnett said. "They question, 'Why am I going to do something new that I’m terrible at?’ There is the psyche that says, ‘Don’t do that.’” What people want, Mr. Burnett said, is permission.

                                Give yourself permission. Permission is passion.

The Building Blocks of a Successful Project and a Successful Team

Most people can agree on what a project should look like when completed, yet there seems to be a big gap when it comes to understanding how to get there.  The ABC  Building Block model will help to develop a successful project, program, department or presentation. When I shared the title of this model to my highly educated, tech savvy colleagues, I watched a smirk unfold on their faces. Some started to shut down. Trust me. This approach is going to help you to be successful. It’s a simple plan of execution to achieve a complex mission.

“How can this help me,” you ask, “with my complicated numbers, measurements I need to compile to complete this project?”

Sometimes, it’s the simple secondary tools that are needed to chart through the complexity of algorithms, graphs, and excel sheets. 

Get out your note pad, pens or pencils, and let’s start with the first block.

Block A: The mission and purpose of this project

What is the purpose? What are the goals that must be met to complete the project?

• Developing the mission is the most important block because it is the foundation. The right foundation is the difference between building your plan on solid rock or sand.
• Step away from electronic scheduling and calendars for a moment and be realistic about the amount of ‘real time’ it will take to get the project done. 
• This block is the most challenging, as it needs great leadership. Leadership must be willing to help everyone get through the “tough times” of the project, keep the team focused, and reward the team as the project hits milestones of completion. 
• This block is the most challenging, as it needs great leadership. Leadership must be willing to help everyone get through the “tough times” of the project, keep the team focused, and reward the team as the project hits milestones of completion. 
• A formal collaborative working team must meet on a regular basis to review and discuss progress and/or challenges to develop next steps forward. 
• Prioritize a realistic plan–that includes deadlines, man-hours and budget. Build a map for what needs to get done with targeted goals for completion. 
• Always, while communicating with the client on the progress of the project, make sure to secure their approval for the direction forward.
• Does the completion meet the original mission? 
• What did you learn that you could improve upon when developing your “Block B” map?

Block B: The map of your plan 

Block B is often over-looked. The successful implementation of the project requires synced calendars, assignment sheets, deadline dates and most importantly a strategic communications plan.  How will you communicate progress, internally and externally, to your client?

• This block is the most challenging, as it needs great leadership. Leadership must be willing to help everyone get through the “tough times” of the project, keep the team focused, and reward the team as the project hits milestones of completion. 
• A formal collaborative working team must meet on a regular basis to review and discuss progress and/or challenges to develop next steps forward. 
• Prioritize a realistic plan–that includes deadlines, man-hours and budget. Build a map for what needs to get done with targeted goals for completion. 
• Always, while communicating with the client on the progress of the project, make sure to secure their approval for the direction forward.

Block C: The completion of the project

Project completed! Congratulations! But don’t pack up and walk on to the next thing. Take some time to review. 

• Does the completion meet the original mission? 
• What did you learn that you could improve upon when developing your “Block B” map?

Simply Said: ABC Blocks will build a successful project if you take the time to plan it from the start and lead the team through completion by having a commitment from all to uphold the accountability markers as agreed upon from Block A—the development of the mission.

By developing a Building Block Model for your project, you:

• 1. Develop a more collaborative team with open and honest communications in place. 
• 2. Develop a trusted working relationship with your client by maintaining an open and on-going communications plan. 
• 3. Eliminate a chaotic atmosphere and form a more productive team environment of trusted communication.