Flip Flop Leadership

John Kerry set the world back big time when he didn't respond aggressively to the Bush campaign's attacks on him as a "flip-flopper." Here we are, the greatest nation in the world, facing some of the most challenging issues ever experienced, and somehow the leader is supposed to always speak clearly on complex issues, get it 100% right on the first try, and never...ever change his mind after he's uttered his thoughts? I don't care what your politics are ... that expectation is utter lunacy.

Unfortunately, in my experience, the expectation appears to be alive and florishing ... not only in the political world, but also in the business world ... and as a result, it often acts as a cold wet blanket on creative/innovative, or courageous conversations that simply must take place in order for challenged companies to work themselves out of this economic perfect storm we're in.

Here's a real life anecdote of what I'm seeing and how I'm fighting to turn the tide and free talented business people to speak their minds:

I'm currently engaged with a client in the middle of challenging technical service business turn-around. Four things were apparent when I began the assessment phase of my engagement: (1) They were a team of talented folks that technically knew what they were doing, (2) They had a detailed plan of action that contained a good balance of sales driven and cost reduction initiatives, (3) Like many technically driven organizations, they were grossly undercommunicating ... assuming that merely delivering the technical goods was what was really important, (4) Immediate communication shock treatment was required to wake the team up and jump start the accountability work required for them to survive.

My first move was to establish scheduled weekly meetings with the senior team to bring them face-to-face with their economic realities, to challenge them to hold themselves accountable to do what their plan said they would do, and to "call out" a segment of the team that had much more insight, intensity, and stretch thinking to bring to the party.

I would describe the first four meetings as rip roaring ... where we bounced around in a quasi-purposefull way in an attempt to cover the items just mentioned. To get the blood flowing and the real truth above the table, I would take what I'd picked up in my assessment interviews and make fairly pointed recommendations of things I thought they ought to be doing as a team or as individuals to get the ship reaimed and recharged. Trust me - I accomplished my blood flow and truth objectives. My guess is that a few of the team members exorcised demons they'd been carrying for awhile relative to their working relationships with other team members ... that in my estimation freed them up to focus fresh thinking on the business issues. Yes!

At any rate, in the middle of a heated truth session, which I refer to as the orchestration of a "healthy business enema," one of the sharpest, albeit underutilized folks in the room, accused me of flip-flopping on one of the provocative statements I'd led off with.

My response to him was simple and to the point ... "You've been listening to too many political commentators who have a simple notion about this complex world. To think that in this room of bright people, I or any of you can be expected to utter perfection on the first try, then never be able to shift our thinking, despite more insightfull ideas that surface from the others ... is complete lunancy and anti-innovation. If I'm to be effective in supporting your turn-around, it's imperative that you and every other person in this room immediately expunges that expectation from your mind. Looking forward, I want to challenge each of you to be willing to put out your ideas with conviction, then to subsequently listen with intent to the thoughtful responses you're bound to get from this solid group of thinkers ... and be willing to change your mind without fear of recrimination."

We aren't out of the woods just yet, but since that interchange, I've gotten reports that that manager is taking much more risk to say what's on his mind. Interestingly enough, the CEO also reports that he is also taking more initiative to take calcualted risks in the field with prospective customers that are absolutely essential to grow sales.

Bottomline, I'm on a mission to distance my clients from this stinking thinking so they can unleash the collective knowledge that's tied up in and between the heads of their senior teams. I like the progress I'm making in breaking quality leaders out of their media-induced limitations and helping them to see that the only way out of our perfect storm is to unleash the hidden jewels of creative and courageous thought that are their for a team to pluck if they're willing to risk the rath of the small-minded flip-flop spotters.

I'd love to enlist you to join me in the quest to nurture more "Flip Flop Leaders" and to become one yourself. Are you with me?

Chris Anderson