What classical guitar taught me about real breakthroughs

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I have been coaching organizations and leadership teams in generating breakthrough results through total team alignment, ownership and engagement for over 30 years. Most of you know me in that context.

In my personal life I am also an avid classical guitarist. And classical guitar has taught me far more than music. It has enforced my understanding of how breakthroughs actually work. Not in theory. In practice.

The same principles that determine whether I master a demanding piece determine whether an organization or an individual achieves real transformation.

In my work with leadership teams looking for breakthrough performance, I see similar patterns play out every day.

Here are three lessons I have learned the hard way.

Lesson 1: Everything is created twice

Every new creation, innovative idea and future breakthrough reality exists first in someone’s mind. In their intention, thinking and declaration.

When I take on learning a new classical guitar piece, it often feels daunting. The technique, the tempo, the precision required can feel far beyond where I am today. In that moment, the gap between my vision and current reality feels daunting.

The same thing happens in organizations when a bold strategy or breakthrough ambition is declared. People see the distance, the complexity, the challenges. They feel overwhelmed.

What guitar has taught me is that the vision is not the problem. The gap is not the problem. The only real question is whether you are willing to stay present long enough for the unfamiliar to become natural.

What once felt impossible slowly becomes familiar. What felt complex becomes fluid. What felt intimidating becomes part of who you are.

Breakthroughs are not achieved by shrinking the vision. They are achieved by living and growing into it.

Lesson 2: Taking small future-based actions, every day builds accelerated momentum

Mastery does not come from occasional heroic efforts. It comes from daily practice.

When I practice guitar, I do not chase perfection. I chase progress. Small gains. Clean transitions. One phrase at a time. Some days feel strong. Some days feel frustrating. What matters is that I show up and move forward, even slightly, no matter how I feel.

Organizations fail at transformation when they expect dramatic leaps instead of disciplined forward movement. Bold visions are not realized in one stroke. They are realized through consistent, often ‘baby steps’ future-based actions taken every day. The ‘every day’ part is where much of the power and magic exist.

When teams take small, intentional steps toward their vision daily, something powerful happens. They begin closing the gap. The vision feels closer. Confidence builds. Momentum forms.

The future does not arrive all at once. You walk toward it one step at a time.

Lesson 3: Staying the course no matter what reassures success

Some practice sessions are hard. Your fingers feel clumsy. Progress feels slow. You question whether you are improving at all or whether you will succeed in your quest.

Then something unexpected happens.

A passage that was impossible yesterday suddenly flows. A technical barrier dissolves. A leap forward appears that you did not plan or predict.

Those moments only happen because you stayed the course.

The same is true in transformation. Things often get worse before they get better. Performance indicators dip. Processes feel messy. Doubt creeps in. This is the moment where most people retreat. And this is exactly where breakthroughs are born.

If you have the courage and perseverance to stay the course, no matter what, unexpected gains emerge. Capability expands. Confidence strengthens. Results accelerate beyond what you originally imagined or expected.

Breakthroughs do not reward impatience. They reward sustained conviction.

Whether you are mastering a piece of music or leading a bold organizational shift, the principles are the same.

See the future clearly. Move toward it daily. Stay the course when it gets uncomfortable.

That is how transformation works

How great are you willing to be?

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It is an interesting question. Most people say they want to be great, yet very few are truly willing to step into the space where greatness lives. It is not a matter of talent. It is a matter of who you want to be and how you want to show up. Greatness is not an outcome. It is a way of being.

I once worked with a senior manager who was given responsibility for the technical delivery of a major strategic customer in the security space. This was the biggest project of his career. He had every qualification, deep technical expertise, and years of experience. He was empowered to make decisions that influenced key account managers who were not thrilled to see a delivery manager take center stage. All he needed to do was lead.

But he did not trust himself. He showed up apologetic and cautious. Instead of setting direction, he waited for permission. Instead of owning the room, he minimized himself. The customer began to lose confidence. Timelines slipped. Complaints surfaced. In the end, he was replaced by someone with fewer qualifications but far stronger self-belief. It was not competence that cost him the role. It was the way he showed up.

Contrast that with another manager I coached in a different technology company. Her boss suddenly resigned, leaving a critical department without leadership. No one expected her to step up. She was not on anyone’s radar for promotion. But she trusted herself. She walked into meetings with clarity and conviction. She made decisions, created structure, and stabilized the team. Her presence caught the attention of the division head. When the company went looking for a new senior leader, they hired her to replace her boss. She did not ask for permission to lead. She simply led.

This is the contrast. People who do not see themselves as powerful wait for approval. People who trust themselves act, then adjust, then, if needed, ask for forgiveness. One shrinks. One expands. One survives. One grows.

Greatness begins the moment you choose which category you fall into.

I have spent my life igniting, energizing, and empowering people. When people remember their strength and potential at work, it transforms every area of their life. It affects marriage, parenting, health, creativity, and personal fulfillment. Yet I notice something surprising. People say they want to be their best, but when the moment comes to step forward, they hesitate. They pull back from the very experiences that would reveal their true power.

The logic is simple.

If you see yourself as powerful, you can no longer hide. You must create, innovate, take risks, and live outside your comfort zone. That can be frightening.

If you see yourself as unempowered, life gives you excuses and exits. You can stay small and safe.

But the cost of holding back your greatness is enormous. Self-expression fades. Confidence erodes. A quiet frustration grows. You feel that you are missing something, that you are living below your potential.

When you confront this truth honestly, something shifts. You realize that courageous living is a choice. You can choose to show up fully. You can choose to trust yourself. You can choose to be great.

So, ask yourself:

How powerful am I willing to be?

Because greatness is not reserved for a select few, it is reserved for the ones who say yes.

 

Most leaders don’t know how to communicate a message – and it shows

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It still amazes me how many senior leaders, intelligent, experienced, highly educated professionals, simply don’t know how to communicate a message clearly and effectively. There are so many examples. You can see this so clearly when watching leaders deliver presentations.

They spend hours building PowerPoint decks, obsessing over font size and color schemes, but when they stand up to speak, they lose the plot. Their slides are packed, their timing is rushed, and their audience walks away confused, disengaged, or worse, unmoved. Indifferent.

PowerPoint has been the universal business language for decades. But the real problem isn’t the tool. It’s that too many leaders use it as a crutch instead of a medium for impact.

The epidemic of over-talking and under-communicating

I’ve watched countless executives try to cram ninety minutes of content into a thirty-minute meeting. They talk faster, flip slides faster, and seem to believe that if they can “get through it,” they’ve done their job.

They don’t pause to read the room. They don’t notice when people escape to their phones or check out completely. They miss the cues, glazed eyes, crossed arms, restless body language, all signaling one thing: “You lost me.”

Instead of adjusting, they double down. More words. More slides. More noise.

And when time runs out, they rush the ending or skip it altogether. Everyone leaves without clarity or conviction. That’s not communication. That’s self-indulgence.

The real problem: everything feels important

Most leaders fall into the same trap. They’re hypnotized by their own content. They think everything they want to say is equally important.

They confuse information with impact. They confuse talking with influencing.

They forget that communication is not about everything you know. It’s about what will make the biggest difference to your audience in this moment.

If you can’t tell the difference between what’s essential and what’s merely interesting, you will drown your message, and your credibility, in words.

The organizational consequences

Poor communication isn’t just a personal weakness; it’s an organizational liability.

When leaders don’t communicate clearly, the entire company suffers.

  • Alignment breaks down.Teams leave meetings with different interpretations of what was said, and act on conflicting assumptions.
  • Decisions slow down.Too much talk, too little clarity. Time is wasted rehashing topics that should have been settled the first time.
  • Execution falters.People can’t execute what they don’t understand. When messages are vague, accountability erodes.
  • Culture deteriorates.Employees lose faith in leadership, energy drops, and cynicism and resignation rise, because people feel trapped in endless talk with not enough real progress.
  • Results decline.Projects miss deadlines, customers feel the inconsistency, and performance suffers.

The damage compounds over time. The organization becomes a place where communication is tolerated, not mastered, where everyone talks but few are truly heard and make a difference.

By contrast, when leaders communicate with precision and power, the effect is immediate and contagious:

  • Clarity replaces confusion.People know what matters and act accordingly.
  • Momentum builds.Meetings shorten, execution accelerates, and results improve.
  • Culture strengthens.Resignation lifts, people feel connected to purpose and leadership again. And there is an organization consciousness and intent to make the greatest difference when communicating.
  • Trust deepens.When communication is honest and effective, credibility rises, and so does performance.

Communication mastery doesn’t just make you a better speaker. It makes you a more powerful leader who makes a greater difference. And it makes your organization more coherent, confident, and unstoppable.

Communication is about altitude

Every message has an altitude. At 50,000 feet, you’re talking about purpose, vision, and direction. At 10,000 feet, you’re discussing strategy. On the ground, it’s execution and details.

Great communicators know how to adjust their altitude based on time and audience. If you have five minutes, you speak at 50,000 feet. If you have thirty or more, you descend.

But too many leaders try to cover everything, all altitudes, all details, all points, regardless of time. They treat a 15-minute update like a half-day workshop.

This results in information overload, zero retention, and wasted time.

Five ways to communicate like a leader

  1. Start with impact, not information.
    Start from the end. Before you build a single slide, ask yourself: What difference do I want to make with this presentation?What do I want people to think, feel, or do differently as a result? Build your presentation from there. Everything else is noise.
  2. Cut the “interesting.”
    Most leaders overload their message with nice-to-know content. Ruthlessly remove anything that doesn’t serve your core purpose. Your audience doesn’t need to see how smart you are or how much you know. They need to see what matters.
  3. Practice highlighting the essence, no matter your time.
    Practice delivering your message in 30 minutes, 15 minutes, and 5 minutes. Learn to distinguish between essence and preference. When you master that, you’ll always hit the mark, no matter how much time you’re given.
  4. Rehearse for clarity, not performance.
    Stand in front of a mirror or a colleague with a stopwatch. Speak slowly, pause, and breathe. If you can’t deliver your message calmly and clearly in real time, your audience will feel your rush and disconnect.
  5. Read the room.
    During your presentation your audience is giving you feedback every second, with their eyes, posture, and silence. Pay attention. If you’ve lost them, stop. Re-engage. Ask questions. Great presenters don’t deliver speeches. They create conversations.

From content to connection

PowerPoint is a tool. Leadership communication is an art and learnable skill. The goal isn’t to transfer information. It’s to enroll others in purpose, commitment, and action.

The best communicators don’t need more slides. They need more awareness, more empathy, and more discipline to focus on what truly matters.

Your message doesn’t have to be long to be powerful. It has to be clear, human, and relevant. Because in the end, communication either accelerates performance, or undermines it.

Every presentation, meeting, and conversation is an opportunity to raise the standard, to speak with clarity, create alignment, and move people to act. So, communicate with intention, own your message, and make every word count.

 

“Agreeing to disagree” is leadership failure

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How many times have you sat in a senior team meeting where the conversation went nowhere? The debate gets heated, people defend their positions, personal preferences surface, and when it’s time to reach a conclusion, everyone is exhausted and no closer to an aligned decision. Someone says, “I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.” And the room nods. Meeting over. On the surface, it sounds civil and respectful. In reality, it’s one of the most damaging phrases in leadership.

“Agreeing to disagree” is never an acceptable conclusion. It’s always a collapse. It signals that the team has chosen comfort over courage, ego over ownership, and personal preference over collective responsibility. And the cost is considerable.

The Hidden Damage of “Agreeing to Disagree”

When leadership teams fail to achieve alignment, they send powerful and corrosive messages throughout the organization:

  • To the company: Direction is optional. If the top team can’t commit, why should anyone else be expected to?
  • To the culture: Politics win. Silos stay safe. Hard truths are avoided.
  • To execution: Momentum stalls. Teams hedge their bets. Strategies die in PowerPoint.

The result is organizational drift. Initiatives limp forward half-heartedly. Decisions get revisited and changed or reversed. And when results fall short, leaders have a built-in excuse: “I never believed in that plan anyway.”

This is not leadership. It’s abdication.

Alignment Is Not Total Agreement

Powerful leadership teams understand a critical distinction: alignment is not about total unanimous agreement. It’s about committing to a shared course of action, even when not everyone gets their way.

Alignment means setting aside ego, preferences, and turf agendas in service of something greater — the company’s future.

This is hard work. It requires courageous conversations, deep listening, and a willingness to be influenced. It demands leaders to elevate their thinking from “my view” to “our responsibility.” But the payoff is profound.

When teams align — truly align — they create a force multiplier. They send a clear, unified signal to the organization. People stop watching and waiting and start delivering and building. Execution accelerates.

Two Teams, Two Futures

Take two real leadership teams grappling with equally complex challenges. The contrast couldn’t be clearer.

Members of the leadership team at a national technology company had strong personalities and deeply held opinions. After months of debate over a bold strategic move to introduce a new product mix to the market, they reached a stalemate. Leaders in sales, marketing, operations, and services clung to their own perspectives and agendas about what was the right approach and what would or wouldn’t work, unwilling to compromise. “We’ll have to agree to disagree,” the CEO finally said, trying to ease tensions and avoid imposing his way. And they did. The decision remained vague. Execution became confused. Six months later, the initiative stalled, the market window closed, and finger-pointing replaced accountability and success.

In contrast, the leadership team of a large, unionised manufacturing plant faced an even greater challenge of how to engage and motivate the entire workforce, including the unions, in a strategic initiative to boost production and quality during a time of union-management unrest. The leaders started with sharp disagreements — but they refused to stop at a polite stalemate. They stayed in the conversation. They listened deeply. They challenged each other with respect and intensity. It was uncomfortable and exhausting. But ultimately, they aligned behind one bold direction. Not everyone loved it, but everyone owned it.

The results spoke for themselves: faster decisions, improved execution, and a level of cross-functional collaboration the company had never seen. In fact, in this breakthrough process, some management and union colleagues shifted their personal relationship from adversarial to respectful and even to friendship. That decision became the turning point in their growth.

The difference wasn’t intelligence or talent. It was courage.

The Broader Consequences

“Agreeing to disagree” doesn’t just sabotage decisions — it shapes culture. It teaches people that avoidance is acceptable. It normalizes half-hearted commitment. And it builds a leadership brand rooted in indecision and disconnection.

Worse, it undermines trust. Teams stop believing that leaders mean what they say. They start interpreting every strategic decision as optional. And once that belief takes hold, accountability evaporates.

Contrast that with a culture where alignment is non-negotiable. Leaders model the discipline of staying in the conversation until they can stand behind a shared choice. People see what ownership looks like. They learn that disagreement is welcome — but detachment is not. And when decisions are made, they rally behind them with clarity and commitment.

The Real Work of Leadership

Leadership is not about winning arguments or protecting preferences. It’s about creating the conditions for aligned action.

That means leaning into the discomfort of disagreement and staying there until alignment is reached. It means replacing “agreeing to disagree” with “committed to move forward together.”

In the end, organizations don’t fail because they make a decision that’s 80% right. They fail because their leaders can’t align behind anything at all. A united team behind an imperfect decision will always outperform a divided team chasing a perfect one.

So, the next time your team reaches for the easy exit of “agreeing to disagree,” stop. Recognize it for what it is — a cop-out. Then choose to do the real work of leadership: the hard, courageous, transformative work of aligning on the future and owning it together.

 

Trust is not a nice-to-have. It’s your edge.

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Trust is not just a feel-good word. It is the backbone of every high-performing organization. Without it, even the best strategies fall flat. With it, teams move mountains.

Too many leaders talk about trust as if it’s a soft, secondary value. It isn’t. Trust is oxygen. Without it, your culture stagnates, your performance lags, and your results fall short.

Here’s a real-world story to make the point.

A national technology-based service company acquired another firm with adjacent services to expand their offerings. On paper, it made perfect sense. The acquiring company was a leading brand in the commercial sector, while the acquired company had a strong reputation in government affairs. Their services complemented each other. The market was pushing for integrated solutions. The merger appeared to be a strategic slam dunk.

But there was a problem.

Before the acquisition, the two companies were fierce competitors. Their sales teams had gone head-to-head for years, often bad-mouthing each other to customers. Leaders had publicly challenged each other’s credibility. The cultures were built on mutual distrust. And after the acquisition, no one did the work to repair that. Instead, leadership focused on integration plans, product roadmaps, and operational efficiency. They ignored the trust deficit. And it cost them.

Employees from both sides resisted collaboration. Teams second-guessed each other’s intentions. Key customers noticed the tension and started pulling back. Internal morale dropped. Innovation slowed to a crawl. And within 18 months, the combined market share declined.

The business case for trust was now inescapable.

To their credit, the executive team finally took things seriously and decided to tackle the issue head-on. Not through shallow team-building activities, but through raw, honest conversations.

Leaders from both legacy organizations came together. They acknowledged the elephant in the room: “We don’t trust each other.” Then they did the work. They shared what had fuelled the mistrust, taking responsibility for their part, and committing to creating a new shared future based on transparency, accountability, and mutual respect. They rebuilt trust through actions, not just words—weekly alignment calls, clear ownership, no back-channeling, and celebrating cross-functional wins.

Within six months, collaboration felt genuine, employee engagement increased, product teams co-developed offerings that customers loved, sales rose, and the turnaround was evident.

This demonstrates the power of trust.

When trust is missing, people play defense. They protect turf. They interpret actions with suspicion. Communication becomes filtered, strategic, and self-serving. Ideas are withheld. Innovation dies. Even good people start acting small.

But when trust is present, everything changes. People assume positive intent. They tell the truth faster. They give and receive feedback without drama. They take risks. They act as one team.

Trust transforms culture. And culture drives performance.

If you’re a leader, don’t assume you have trust just because no one’s yelling. Silence can be a symptom of fear, not alignment. Look closer. Are your teams bringing tough issues to the table? Are people pushing back, offering dissent, or just nodding along? Is feedback flowing in all directions?

You can’t fake trust. And you can’t mandate it. But you can build it. Here are a few places to start:

  1. Acknowledge the past. If there has been tension, conflict, or competition, name it. Nothing breaks trust faster than pretending everything is fine when it isn’t.
  2. Model transparency. Say what you think. Share what you know. Be open about your intentions.
  3. Close the gap between words and actions. If you say something matters, back it up with consistent behavior.
  4. Invite feedback. And don’t just tolerate it—thank people for it. Make it safe for others to challenge you.
  5. Celebrate shared wins. Trust grows when people feel part of something bigger than their silo.

Trust isn’t just about being nice. It’s about being real. Real with your words. Real with your actions. Real with your people.

The story of this failed merger is not unique. Mergers often fail because leaders underestimate the cost of mistrust. They focus on integration without unification. They prioritize strategy over relationship.

Don’t make that mistake!

And remember: Trust isn’t just for mergers. It matters just as much for existing teams, cross-functional projects, and any situation where people have to work together to produce results.

If you want stronger results, start with trust. Not because it’s sentimental. Because it’s smart. It makes your organization faster, your people braver, and your business better.

Trust is not a “nice to have.” It’s your edge.

Six barriers you must overcome to achieve your transformation goals

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It takes extraordinary courage, determination, and faith to pursue a bold change initiative, stay the course and see it through.

No one in their right mind would dare to climb Mount Everest without preparation. Similarly, you shouldn’t embark on a bold transformation journey without adequate preparation either.

In a bold transformation process, there are always unpredictable events, circumstances, and challenges that cannot be anticipated or prepared for in advance. These unanticipated events often lead to the most significant changes and breakthroughs.

At the same time, however, some challenges always arise in one way or another. If you do not anticipate, expect, and prepare for them, they could easily become barriers that impede your ability to stay on course in transforming your organization to the next level. Here are six barriers that often disrupt and derail change initiatives:

Barrier 1: Not tolerating a temporary dip in performance and/or results:

When creating a new future, leaders enroll their leaders and managers to think beyond existing paradigms, solve problems differently and pursue opportunities in new ways. People are often genuinely excited to think from the future rather than continuing to approach work from the same past-based mindset and approaches.

For most leaders, “Think outside the box”, “Challenge the status quo”, and “Put yourself at the bottom of a new scale” are hollow slogans that they pay lip service to. But to leaders who are committed to change these are marching orders. However, as people pursue and practice these new marching orders things often get worse before they get better.

Unfortunately, most leaders can’t tolerate even the slightest temporary dip in performance. They get overly nervous at the first sign of a dip, and many leaders react negatively, setting the team back and sending a message that they don’t have the courage and faith to stay the course.

If you can’t tolerate this dynamic, you will keep returning to the status quo instead of pushing forward to overcome this barrier. The good news is that when leaders stay the course and reach the other side of this barrier, things always get better again. In fact, they often get even better than they were before.

Barrier 2: Not making the focus on generating the new future a high enough priority:

At the outset of change initiatives, pretty much all leaders declare to their leaders and managers that creating a new future for the company that takes the game to the next level is “mission critical.” Unfortunately, in most cases, it doesn’t take long before most leaders get spooked by the uncertainty of the transition from the old to the new and start paying lip service to their own declaration.

They set unrealistic expectations that challenge people’s ability to balance existing and new priorities, avoid making tough decisions about realigning cross-functional support for the new, and under-resource future work. These mixed messages make it clear to people that the new future is merely a “nice to have.”

The remedy is simple: Don’t get distracted by the temporary confusion, uncertainty, doubts and rollercoaster of emotions that people experience in the change journey. Stay the course; stay true to your declaration and commitment, do what you said, and keep creating ways to promote and enable the new work. The quicker the new work sets roots and becomes the new norm, the higher the chances for transformational success.

Barrier 3: Buying into people’s complaints that they are too busy:

When moving from vision to execution in a large-scale transformation, the first few months are always the toughest. People are expected to juggle both their existing day job and spend time driving the new initiatives and tasks that will propel the organization toward its new future.

You can hire additional people to support the new initiatives if you have the means. However, many companies simply cannot afford to do that. So, the same people have to do both, and for a period of time, people will feel stretched and overwhelmed. It’s inevitable.

The first phase of execution will test your leadership resolve. On one hand, you can’t ignore people’s hardships and complaints. In fact, you need to think outside the box, be innovative and look for ways to do things differently. You also need to motivate and incentivize people in this transition. This will send the right message to your team.

At the same time, though, you also can’t buy into people’s complaints. You can’t compromise on the key principles and expectations of the change. People will see that you don’t have the resolve and courage. The consequence will be detrimental to your success.

Barrier 4: Expecting results and progress rather than relentlessly driving them:

The operative word here is “expecting”. During change initiatives, I often hear leaders say things like “We should be further along,” “the initiatives are not achieving big enough results,” and “we don’t see a change in behavior yet.”

If you mapped out the trend of a change initiative, more often than not it would look like a horizontal hockey stick. That is the nature of the beast. At first, you invest a lot of effort and energy without seeing a lot of return and at some point, things begin to take off.

Expecting progress, change, and results is the wrong approach. You have to drive it! Just like you wouldn’t dig out a flower seed every week after you planted it to see if it’s making progress, you can’t second-guess yourself, your direction or your team.

In fact, if you want to succeed in your change initiative, you have to manage your expectations and have the mindset that your job is not to “see if it works” but rather to “ensure and prove that it works”. 

Barrier 5: Getting discouraged after the first wave of enthusiasm and excitement wears off:

A change initiative is like a marriage. After a while, the honeymoon will be over, and you will have to keep regenerating and refueling people’s energy, enthusiasm, and commitment to the cause. You have to keep enrolling your people in why the change is important, what the new future will look like and what possibilities and improvements it holds for the company and for them.

You also have to understand that at different phases of the initiative, people will be energized and engaged by different things.

In Phase One, the excitement comes from people envisioning, imagining, hoping, and believing in the new future state, which will benefit the company and them.

Phase Two is the toughest and most critical phase of a change initiative. In fact, this is the phase in which most companies fail. This is the stage when people work the hardest without easily seeing the progress and return of their efforts. In this phase, it is critical for leaders to keep focusing on, promoting, highlighting and recognizing any/all progress, wins and improvements, even small ones. That helps people to continue to be optimistic and hopeful about the change.

Phase Three is when the change has taken hold and noticeable improvements and wins are abundant. Motivating people in this phase is easier as they can easily see the changes and improvements and feel accomplished by being a part of the journey.

Understanding how a change initiative will unfold equips you to overcome this barrier.

Barrier 6: Blaming others and circumstances for what isn’t working, rather than taking ownership and responsibility:

Leaders who don’t stay the course tend to justify their failure with external circumstantial excuses and blame. I often hear them explain their failure with excuses such as: “There was too much going on“, “It wasn’t the right time“, “The market was too challenging” and “People were not on board“.

In contrast, leaders who stay the course seem not to care about blame or fault. They only care about how to make sure the promise of the new future will stay alive and be realized.

When things go well, they become nervous and shake people up in order to avoid complacency or arrogance. When things don’t go well, they rally and engage their teams in root cause analysis to figure out what they can change, correct and do better or differently.

You wouldn’t show up on the day of a marathon race without having prepared and trained, expecting to run. It is exactly the same with any significant change initiative!

The more you educate and prepare yourself, the more you can anticipate, expect and be ready for overcoming the inevitable barriers. If you don’t prepare, these obstacles will catch you by surprise and overwhelm you.

As the boxer Mike Tyson put it:

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth!”

Is the grass really greener on the other side?

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I could tell you the tale of a handful of senior executives from a variety of well-known companies and industries who invested more than fifteen years of their life and career in their organization. They rose through the ranks by taking on greater responsibilities every year or two, building strong teams around them, demonstrating great cross-functional teaming and collaboration, and delivering results beyond expectations.

All these successful executives on my list demonstrated great leadership in their company’s turning points. In many cases, they delivered great improvements in their company’s trajectory, adjusting the strategic direction every few years to follow the evolving market and consumption trends.

Many of these individuals are world-class leaders, recognized in their field and market as top experts. Needless to say, they made personal sacrifices to make their mark and achieve their growth and success.

However, when the opportunity came around for them to secure promotion to the top job of their pyramid—which was what most of them were working toward their entire career—they lost out to an external candidate who, in most cases had the same or even less experience and/or knowledge than them.

The reason they were all given was some version of:

“You have been in the company for a long time. You have done a great job to bring the company to where it is today. HOWEVER, we need to take the company to a new direction and improve performance, and we don’t think you will be able to bring new thinking and strategies given your long history and familiarity with the company…”

Is it just me, or do you also feel that there is some unjust BS here?

How come you were capable of driving paradigm shifts and breakthroughs over the last fifteen years or more, but now that you are at the top, you won’t be able to…?

How come when the company needed you to stay, you were qualified to take the game to the next level, but when the company doesn’t feel they need you, you are no longer qualified…?

How come your long-time loyalty and familiarity with the company were assets when you were climbing the corporate ladder, but when you get to the top, your long-time loyalty and familiarity with the company are a liability…?

Unfortunately, I have seen this twisted reality play out too many times. I call it the myth of the grass is greener on the other side.

This dynamic is often fueled by internal politics. For example, a new CEO takes the helm with a mandate to take the company to a new level. To quickly show tangible change, the new CEO starts to replace some of the executives who are associated with the ‘old regime’ of the company.

There is probably a certain amount of bringing new blood that most of the time is warranted. However, in too many cases new leaders tend to ‘throw the baby with the bathwater’.

The new leader comes in and his views are completely skewed by an untrue bias which is: “outside talent is better than existing talent“. So it’s game over for many long-timers, and the rest is history…

I know it sounds over-simplistic, that’s because it really is simple and straightforward!

In many companies, the unwritten truth about promotion is that “If you want to get a big promotion or a significant raise you have to come from the outside”. It is quite common for managers to leave the company only to return after a year or even less at a higher level, title and salary.

As ridiculous as it may sound, I have seen this happen many times, and I hear the same corporate rhetoric in many companies.

I understand the logic that says that if someone has been part of a system for long enough; doing things in a particular way, they start seeing things in a particular way too, and this could limit their ability to think differently about the same areas and topics.

However, I have also seen so much evidence that contradicts that logic; smart, talented and skilled leaders who after being in the same company for many years were able to bring new ideas and innovations to existing challenges and opportunities, by reinventing themselves and their thinking, and providing a new level of leadership to their organization.

It would seem to me that if you have a leader who has invested himself or herself in the success of your company for many years, they know the place inside out.  They have proven their value and ability to achieve great things, as well as reinvent themselves and take their game to a new level and they are extremely passionate, committed and excited about the next level of impact and success… that it would be a no brainer to give them a chance.

After all, isn’t it a much sweeter victory when your top people have grown and developed from within?

 

Are you developing your team and for the right reasons?

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As COVID progresses, leaders need to continue to develop their teams. In fact, in some cases, team development may be more important than ever.

It seems that the leaders who developed their teams before COVID continue to do so with extra passion, while those who didn’t invest in development before or did it sporadically and/or poorly, continue in the same way.

Which category are you in? Are you developing your team?

If so, are you doing it healthfully and for the right reasons?

One of my long-time clients is the CEO of a growing global service company. I have known him for more than twenty years, I love and respect him, and I have worked with him probably four or five times over these years, depending on how you count…

The way it typically works, since our initial work together, is that he calls me up about every five or six years out of the blue. I am always excited to hear from him. We get on a call where he catches me up by sharing the tremendous commercial success and growth of his firm since we last saw each other. He is always very vocal and appreciative about my contribution to him and his teams over the years, and then he says something like, “But, I am having similar issues with my team as I had in the past…”.  He goes on to share how his leaders feel he is too commanding and controlling, not empowering enough, that trust is not high, people do not own his aggressive strategy… yadda, yadda, yadda… He typically ends by saying, “I know you told me to continue to develop my team, but with all the new acquisitions we have made and growth I dropped the ball…”

He then asks me to help him again to restore trust, alignment, ownership in his team and develop and build his team to become an effective team again, promising, that this time, he will stay the course. But, so far, this same pattern just keeps repeating itself.

I have a few great clients who are the same. They relate to team development as merely a means to an end; a solution to a problem. They apply the principle “If it isn’t broken, don’t touch it”.

When they feel their teams are doing well – and by that, I mean achieving their business goals – they don’t spend a minute thinking about their team’s development. But when they feel trust, alignment, communication, morale are deteriorating in their team, they panic and react by bringing in help.

There is nothing inherently faulty about this approach. Unfortunately, many of these leaders pretend like they are genuinely committed to ongoing team development. They say all the right things, but when push comes to shove, they fold and abandon the development cause without hesitation.

Building a team is often a messy and uncomfortable endeavour. You have to deal with people’s feelings and frustrations. As their leader, your people often have criticism about you and the way you do things.

When you develop your team, you need to be willing to look at yourself in the mirror then own and address any leadership and management deficiencies you see. That is not easy, even for the strongest of heart. So for the faint of heart, it is often the trigger that causes them to quit the development program.

Contrast this with many other leaders I know, and you probably know some too, who view developing their team as a high priority; a value; part of their on-going, never-ending role.

These leaders understand that development is a journey, not an event; a marathon, not a sprint. They stay the course of team development and coaching and don’t let circumstances, challenges or mood swings interfere.

They never ask: “Does my team need development?” They only ask: “What is the next level of development my team needs next?”. They invest as much of their time, focus and passion when their team is doing well and meeting all commitments, as they do when the team is not, and they expect their leaders to do the same with their own teams. This mindset creates a culture of ongoing improvement and excellence, which to be frank is entirely missing in most companies.

In fact, the teams who view team development as a natural and integral part of their routine are the teams most open and susceptible to breakthroughs.

They are also the most nurturing and enjoyable teams to belong to.

 

What is your mid-term mark for leveraging COVID?

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If you had to give yourself and your organization a mid-term mark (four months in) for how powerful you have been in leveraging the COVID era, what would it be?

Based on my observations, from supporting several companies and teams in the last few months, you could be in one of three spaces:

  1. Hoping to survive COVID,
  2. Trying to stay productive,
  3. Excelling and taking your business and culture to a new level.

I am sure most if not all companies went through some degree of survival mode in the beginning when the business and economic reality of COVID hit. At first, some leaders were in denial, brushing off the severity of the pandemic. Other leaders expressed hope that it would simply go away, even when there was mounting evidence that the epidemic was spreading globally and here to stay.

I would like to believe that most leaders were able to collect themselves, think rationally and strategically and move on to a more productive space.

Unfortunately, I saw some leaders who didn’t and remained in panic and reactive mode.  They continued to make panicky decisions such as: freezing all budgets across the board without distinction; stopping all corporate programs – “run the business” and “improve the business” without exception; and laying off as many employees as possible to mitigate short term risk, without any enlightened regard for longer-term consequences.

Some companies seem to still be in that space today after four months. What a waste of energy and time!

Other leaders pride themselves on the fact that they quickly and efficiently shifted their entire workforce to a virtual work mode from home. In many cases, this shift was an admirable logistic undertaking given the size and geographical spread of their workforce.

Some companies are used to working virtually; they have the platform and technology to do so. However, for some companies working from home is an entirely foreign concept. In one case, employees literally unplugged their desktop computers (not laptops) and took them home via Uber.

The physical move to home was no small task for many. And then, establishing a virtual routine of productive business performance and customer service is also an admirable accomplishment.

Unfortunately, many leaders stopped there, settling for uninterrupted productivity.  As long as they could continue to provide the same services (or close) that they were offering pre-COVID virtually and uninterruptedly, they were content.

In one case, the CEO of a large regional division (which was faring well in virtual mode) told his executives to put on-hold all improvement and transformational programs for the time being, because as he put it, “They are ‘excessive’ during these challenging days.”

I believe this CEO’s mindset is quite common these days, and most companies feel that staying productive is a high enough mark.

The companies that inspire me most are those who quickly passed the first two spaces and then pushed themselves to the next level.

One CEO told his leaders to “discard COVID as an excuse.” His words were blunt, but he succeeded in setting the bold expectation of continuing to take the business, that was already on a path of transformation, to the next level – full speed ahead, without reservations.

Another CEO of medium size lighting company with the same mindset launched the most significant improvement programs his company has ever had focussing on many critical areas, including Sales, Production, R&D, and Marketing. By doing so, he increased productivity, effectiveness, results, and impact beyond the best months pre-COVID. His company will never be the same.

In fact, the two CEOs and other leaders who took bold initiatives believe that COVID is not a time to be cautious, think conservatively, hold back resources, or play safe. On the contrary, the COVID era is the perfect opportunity to rethink things, challenge the status quo, figure out approaches to truly work smarter, scale, and significantly improve processes and ways of doing business. Actions not merely to survive or overcome a tough epidemic but to generate lasting breakthroughs in their business.

Much has been written about the influence of COVID on businesses, and much more will be written over time. But when all is said and done, what are you really going to learn and take forward from the COVID era?

 

Are you energizing and inspiring your people?

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Some time ago, in a meeting I was facilitating, people were going around introducing themselves. One of the long-time veterans of that organization stood up and introduced himself in the following way: “My name is Bill. I don’t remember how long I’ve been here, but I have 64 months to go!”

You would think that Bill represents a small minority of cynical people. However, my experience says otherwise. Unfortunately, I find cynical and resigned people at all levels of all organizations.

When I ask senior executives, “How are your people doing?” I often get a stock answer of, “My people are excited and in great shape.” However, when I interact with the organization, I often find people to be uninspired and uninspiring.

The bar for what passes as ‘inspired and energized‘ in corporations today seems to be quite low.

Oddly enough, many leaders still do NOT seem to view the creation of inspiration as a critical aspect of their roles or the success of their business. Some believe it’s a ‘nice to have,’ but many still think it is not up to them to inspire. A few even view inspiration as irrelevant altogether. Many leaders often believe that the only or main thing that truly motivates people is pay, objectives, compensation, and bonuses.

Quite frankly, I believe that money as the most significant source of motivation is a big myth!

Please don’t misunderstand me; I am not disparaging pay, compensation, or bonuses. They are indeed an essential part of any motivational strategy. However, I have seen situations where people could double and triple their bonus if they collaborated and worked together, but they still stayed siloed and didn’t work together. On the other hand, I have seen situations where people had no financial incentive to collaborate, but they still did the right and best thing for their own success and satisfaction, as well as for their company success by collaborating with genuine commitment and passion.

My point is that being energized and inspired is something that comes from within, not from external circumstances. Yes, external stimuli can help, but ultimately they are not the primary source of how people feel and act. When people feel included, valued, cared for, and that they can make a difference, they can’t help themselves but get energized and inspired. And, because any organization is always a reflection of its leaders; inspiration and energy has to start and come from the top.

So, how can you, as a busy leader energize your staff on a day-by-day basis and make sure people are not cynical? Here are a few simple tips to start you off:

  1. Show up and listen. I have often heard the complaint in organizations that leaders and managers simply don’t listen. If you want to energize your people spend some dedicated time each day, week or month walking the floors, showing concern, interacting with team members, asking people how they are doing and what you could do for them. And then follow up with whatever comes out of those interactions and conversations.
  2. Follow up and follow through. So much of the cynicism that people have comes from a lack of follow up and follow through. Teams make decisions, and then there is no follow-up or follow-through. Leaders and managers promise things, and then they don’t do what they said, they don’t acknowledge this and/or change their promises. When it comes to acknowledging what was promised, following through, and doing what you said, there is no difference between big strategic promises and small tactical ones. If you don’t follow up and follow through even on the small things, people will become skeptical and cynical around you.
  3. Praise, recognize, and thank people. I have written so much about this. It doesn’t cost a penny to say, “Thank you!” every day, and it goes a long, long way to engage and motivate people. One of the biggest complaints in organizations today is the lack of recognition. Well, if you want to energize your people and avoid cynicism, go out of your way – every day – to praise, recognize, and thank them. In fact, always recognize people in public and criticize them in private. This way, they’ll feel respected and trusted.
  4. Encourage new ideas. There is always more than one way to get anything done. In addition, different people have different ways, ideas, and styles about how to effectively make things happen. As long as the objectives and key ethical values are clear and adhered to, it’s actually healthy to allow employees some room to innovate. And, it goes a long way to increase ownership and defeat cynicism.
  5. Encourage, promote, and reward high ownership and accountability. People who are making a difference from time-to-time make mistakes. The only way to avoid this is to play so small that your mistakes are irrelevant. When employees play big, the impact of their mistakes tends to be big too. However, responsible people go out of their way to learn from their mistakes and correct them. By showing them that you respect ownership and accountability, they’ll play even harder, bigger, and with more commitment.

 

Success through Rigor, Clarity, and Responsibility

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Often when managers and employees feel frustrated about other’s lack of accountability, and they describe the reality as: “They promised to do X and didn’t deliver!” there is more to the story than that.

I have seen many times, in situations of conflict or dispute, person A insisting that person B promised to do or deliver something and simply did not do so, while person B denies ever having made the promise in the first place.

Both parties feel frustrated and resentful. Each one believes their version of the story represents the facts and truth. However, in many cases, when both parties step back, look a bit deeper, and try to view the situation more objectively, they realize that it was not bad intent caused their heartache, but rather the lack of rigor and clarity in their initial interaction.

If you want to avoid the common issues that happen when requesting or promising, there are a few things to pay attention to:

  1. Make sure what you are requesting or promising is clear, understood, and agreed to in the same way by both sides. Often, instead of explicitly spelling it out, people assume the other person knows what they are requesting or promising. It probably won’t be an exaggeration to say that, more often than not, people simply do not understand and/or are not aligned about what is being promised or requested. Needless to say, this causes mismatched expectations, that always lead to upset.
  2. Make sure the time frame of the promise or request is clear. For example, if you are asking for additional resources or budget for a strategic project, be specific about the time frame (the ‘by when’). Don’t leave it vague, or hope they’ll understand your urgency or act on it rapidly. And, if the person you are requesting this from promises to make it happen, “As soon as possible,” don’t settle for the lack of clarity… And don’t fall into the trap of assuming you will get what you need in the time you need it. Furthermore, don’t feel disappointed if your expectations were not met.
  3. Make sure the level of sincerity and commitments toward the promise is explicit. When you make a request and someone responses with “I’ll do my best” or “I don’t see any reason why not,” don’t make the mistake of taking that as an affirmation of commitment. A promise is clear, explicit, and unconditional. This doesn’t mean that a promise is a guarantee and, therefore, will always be fulfilled. However, when someone says: “I promise,” “You can count on me,” or “You have my word,” that represents a much stronger, sincerer, and more committed intention to do what they said. People often avoid this level of clarity because it is uncomfortable, and they fear it could lead to the realization that they may not get what they want.
  4. Check-in, follow up, and support the promise while it is being delivered. When someone promises you something, and they are in the process of working on it, your job is not over. You need to stay engaged and involved throughout the duration of the delivery cycle as a committed and vested partner in order to keep the promise alive. This interaction will look different depending on the nature of the promise and person you are dealing with. Sometimes it may mean checking in on a frequent basis. At other times, it may mean looking the person in the eye at the onset to get a sense of confidence that they really mean it, understood it, and will follow through. The main reason for avoiding this conversation is because it is disruptive and uncomfortable. People fear it could lead to the realization that they may not get what they want.
  5. Manage undelivered promises with integrity. No matter how sincere the promise, it is never a guarantee. Things happen, and people who promise sometimes fail to deliver or change their mind. If you understand and accept that simple fact, you will be in a much better mental place to deal with undelivered promises. For the most part, people know ahead of the deadline that they are not going to deliver what they promised. But unfortunately, while people seem to have no problem not doing what they said, they do have a problem being straight up and upfront about it.

The lack of courage to acknowledge and take responsibility for promises that won’t be delivered often goes both ways – to the one promising and the one being ‘promised to.’ Have you ever been in a situation in which someone promised you something, you had a feeling they may not come through, and still you avoided confronting them about it?

Regardless of your position and seniority – if you are not going to deliver on your promise, letting others find out at the last minute and be surprised is not acceptable. It undermines trust, credibility, confidence, and success.

If you can’t deliver what you promised, communicate in a timely and responsible manner. Then the two of you – together – can figure out alternative solutions and routes to rectify the situation or take a different course.

People want to fulfill their commitments and succeed, but they also can handle the truth, even if it is bad news. By interacting with rigor, clarity, courage, and responsibility, you are promoting respect, emphasizing other’s strengths, and enabling success.

 

Are you driving outcomes or activities?

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So often, when teams define their strategy, they tend to target activities instead of outcomes.

For example, they promise:

  • ‘Installing a new order shipping tracking system’ instead of ‘80% of our orders are shipped on time’;
  • ‘Create a process that gives visibility to post-sales issues’ versus ‘all post-sales issues are resolved within 24 hours’; and
  • ‘All sales employees have gone through our sales training program’ instead of ‘we have raised the average productivity of the sales team from 2 million per person to 3 million.’

While activities are essential for executing and delivering the results, they should not be the starting point of any strategy.

The job of leaders is to make strategic choices about where they want to take their organization. When it comes to strategic outcomes, there are no right or wrong answers. In fact, no matter how much analysis you do, you never really know if your bet will succeed. We have all seen sure bets fall short, and unexpected bets succeed beyond expectations. In order for a team to create a powerful strategy, the leaders must be 100% aligned on their strategic choices/commitments.

While outcomes are derived from choices, activities should be derived from the outcomes. Outcomes change when leaders feel there is a strategic reason to change them (for example, market change, merger & acquisition, etc.). However, activities should be periodically inspected and adjusted any time they are no longer useful or effective. Needless to say, the focus and direction of activities could change much more frequently than outcomes.

When a team locks into clear outcomes, that higher purpose helps the managers and employees determine their action plans and activities. But when leaders lock into activities, this often creates busyness in the organization.

I can’t tell you how many times I see people being so consumed with busywork that they have lost track of the higher purpose that led to the busyness in the first place.

In addition, the focus on the activities (means) versus outcomes (end) hinders the ability of the team to assess the effectiveness of their activities and make the necessary changes if they are not effective. Most organizations are good at adding activities, but they rarely stop them.

Lastly, the activity-based approach undermines accountability. Real accountability is always for clear outcomes. Accountability for clear results fosters a mindset of overcoming obstacles. The activity-based approach tolerates shortfalls and promotes a circumstantial mindset of blame and excuses.

People often justify the activity-based approach with statements like: “We can’t control/guarantee the results. We can only control/guarantee our activities…”

But that is like searching for your lost car keys under the lamp post versus where you actually lost them.

Yes, you may be able to control your activities. But the activities you can control may not get you to your desired outcomes.

When it comes to strategy, there seem to be two schools of thought:

“Promise your desired outcomes and then put the activities in place to fulfill them.”

“Promise the activities that you assume will get you to your desired outcomes and hope they will be enough.”

Leaders who believe in the first seem to have a more powerful paradigm and approach towards outcomes.

They seem to believe that they do have control over achieving their outcomes. They seem to believe that:

  1. If achieving their outcomes requires enrolling others who are not part of their team to the task, they have the ability to do so.
  2. If achieving their outcomes requires coming up with new ways of doing things, they have the ability to figure that out.
  3. If achieving their outcomes requires investment in resources and budgets, they have the ability to make the business case for that.
  4. And, if achieving their outcomes requires some “magic” and “luck” if they stay optimistic, positive, and determined in their attitude, conversations, interactions, and energy, they have a higher chance to succeed.

The last paragraph may seem not tangible or real to you… However, ask any Olympic athlete or championship sports team about the importance of positive, high-energy mindset to winning and the amount of focus and time they spend on this topic, and you will be surprised by how tangible and real this dimension is for winning.

In today’s world, where opportunities are abundant, resources are scarce, competition is fierce, and everyone is looking for ways to scale and do more with less; you can’t afford to waste time and cycles on busyness and activities that may not deliver the results you want. You have to be much more deliberate and powerful than that.

The job of a leader is not to track and report on activities. It is to cause outcomes.

So, if you are not going to promise to cause specific outcomes, don’t promise anything at all!