We have a long-term program that clients send their High Potential Leaders through–the whole purpose of the program is to help the leaders develop C Suite thinking and Executive Presence. The acid test of the program is not how well the leaders like it but rather it is how the employees score their leaders on their own internal corporate employee satisfaction surveys. We find leadership teams on average go up anywhere from 30-60 basis points on their test. That is a 30-60% gain.
One of the greatest joys of the program is to watch these leaders develop a more holistic mind frame around problems and challenges so halfway through the program they are thinking right in synch with how the C Suite thinks. We just had one group come through where one individual got a great idea on how they could handle product launches on two tracks in order to increase their accuracy in delivery and create cleaner communication.
Now as you will see from the situation below, just because a person is higher up in the organization, does not always mean they have the best ideas or that they even have the attitude that you want all in the organization to have. In those instances you need to know how to appropriately challenge so it is received and accepted well. I believe you should be able to challenge at all times as long as you don’t make it a personal attack and you are doing it from the point of adding value.
On your team, ask your team what you do that makes it easy to challenge you and what makes it tough to challenge you. Try to minimize what makes it tough and train them on how to appropriately challenge you so they begin to build their C Suite thinking.
*************Always the same*************************
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Outcome Thinking® Solution
How to appropriately challenge a senior leader
by Anne Warfield
SITUATION: We have an extremely tough leader, Susan, who seems to be short on memory. She wants her hands on every little thing and gets upset if you don’t get her approval. I am not in her department but have to work with her department on a major project for the company.
Susan gave Bob on her team the lead on the project with me. I sat down and met with Bob about what changes he wanted me to implement. I then created the changes and brought it back for his approval. He said it looked good. It then went to Susan who went ballistic.
She said it wasn’t at all what they need and she wanted to know who authorized the changes. She said Bob told her we had just talked on the surface about changes and that he never authorized any changes.
So now it looks like I made these changes on my own, when I never did that. I am getting tired of tip-toeing around her and want to know how to confront things head on.
OTHER PERSON’S PERSPECTIVE:
She may be a person who gives authority but not authorization. By that I mean she will put people on projects but they are really just figure heads and they need her authorization for anything. She wants her team to do a good job. She could fear giving up control. She could pride herself on adding value by finding what is missing-thus she is always looking for what is wrong versus what is right. She may be uncomfortable giving up control.
THINKING IT THROUGH WITH OUTCOME THINKING®:
If this is an ongoing battle with her, and it seems from what you have said that it is, then start with the assumption that even though she wants to delegate she really has a hard time giving up control. This means you must ALWAYS assume she needs final approval. So going forward, even if she gives “Bob” authority to work on the project assume he is a figure-head and that you will run all final details through her as a “courtesy” before implementing them. Then you take care of his needs and her needs.
HOW TO BEST HANDLE/PHRASE USING OUTCOME THINKING®:
“Susan, I understood that Bob had final authority on the changes we are making but I see from your response that you really want to have the final okay on things. So in the future I will make sure we run them by you before we do anything.
So let’s step back and look at this as I believe Bob did do a thoughtful job with me of looking at the changes and the impact but perhaps there are pieces we missed that it would be valuable to get your input on them as well.”
If she states that Bob said he didn’t give authorization for the changes that I would address directly by saying something like, “I am guessing something is getting lost in translation here as Bob and I did talk and again, I thought he gave thoughtful feedback. Let me step out and grab Bob and we can quickly find out what is off track so we are all on the same page.”
By you stepping out and bringing Bob in to the picture you demonstrate that you are on the side of truth and have nothing to hide.
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Quoteable Quotes
“Relying on yourself is a lost art” – Frank Shorter
When The Right Thing Is Said At The Wrong Time
I love the saying “the outcome of a rain dance is completely dependent on the timing”. Meaning that you will get rain if you time your rain dance with when it is supposed to rain
Read More… as Anne shares the 3 factors that will have people accepting the message you are saying.
“This program has opened the doors to how important successful communication is and the benefits of presenting with confidence.
In my past presentations I was nervous, shaky overwhelmed and my face would be flushed. Now that I’ve attended Managing Your Message I am opening my communication with a story that I can easily tell that calms my nerves. I also have a Roadmap to calm my nerves that also adds flow to my presentation ”
Molly McPherson, Account Executive, The Davenport Group
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