Professor James MacGregor Burns, presidential biographer and leadership expert, walked the usual path towards his office in the political science building. On this day, however, he turned towards the psychology building, where he didn’t teach. What secrets did psychology hold to understanding how transformational leadership happens.
Mark was a member of a leadership team, who loved a good debate. He won because he had air tight logic. He also won because he laid the frame for the debate, making himself a sure winner, unless the opposing party understood how to do the re-frame move. Most didn’t. In the end, Mark won most arguments, proving himself the smarter leader, and one who rarely didn’t know what to do. He also rarely made leadership mistakes. But THAT was his biggest mistake.
Many years ago, I consulted to the leadership team of an organization that was making a BIG shift in their business strategy. Company leaders decided to bring an end to their role as the market leader in a particular technology sector. Instead, they were going to start over with a new technology offer in a vastly different market. Why? They saw the future. But there’s something odd about this story. It finishes with an ending that takes the author by surprise.
You have a vision that involves leading culture change. You selected a change sponsor and have identified clear goals for you team. If you think your role ends there, get ready to watch things fizzle. You can delegate some roles and actions, but you absolutely must maintain visibility as the Chief Culture Change Officer and sustain four ongoing commitments to action.
In 1999 Kent Thiry became CEO of DaVita, a provider of kidney dialysis treatments. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy. It had revenues of $1.4 billion, losses of $56 million, and a share price of about $2. By June 7, 2013, after the culture change, share prices grew to $125.50. This magnificent turnaround resulted from changing the culture, and to succeed at that Thury applied 3 principles for leading culture change.
People are more inclined to implement ideas they helped develop than ideas developed for them. The reasons are simple and straightforward. The drive for Identity, knowing and being valued for who I am, is an important force in the western world. (Some cultures are driven more by group identity.) We like to see the our identity played out concretely, by way of what we produce and our affect on the world around us. Ipso facto – when leading culture change get the people’s fingerprints on the clay that molds the change.
Leading culture change is critical to the success of today’s business executives, and story telling for culture change is a must-have skill. Read more about the role of story telling in leading change.
High potential talent comes in all colors, sizes, ages, and in both genders. Some companies intentionally search diverse areas of the talent pool, but few, if any, explore the place where some of the greatest talent swims, because they don’t know where it is. Discover this secret place, here.
Once upon a time, there was a mid-size company run by men. It was called The Company. The entire executive team and all board directors at The Company was comprised of men. That seemed just fine, until… One day, for reasons still unknown, but about which I speculate later, the CEO invited a woman onto the board.
If you’ve given someone who works for you verbal feedback two or three times, and still nothing changes, you might try action feedback instead.
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