Leading
Toward the Impossible:
What
People Believe Makes a Difference
By STEVE COATS |
|
|
|
|
|
Have
you ever heard other people complain about the size of the goals
they have to achieve at work? There have been times in my past when
I was certainly one of them. I figured if I was lucky enough to
get someone to take pity on poor little me, my objective might be
reduced, whether it was really too big or not. That might make it
easier to exceed, which could result in a bigger bonus, or at least
make it easier and less stressful to reach. Over the years, I have
known or worked with many, who were able to turn this crafty complaining
ritual into an art!
Today,
the number of people lamenting about their goals seems to be on
the upswing, but for a very different reason. Their moaning is not
just a sly attempt to get off easier. It is because their goals
are really tough. In fact, in their minds, the results expected
of them are on the verge of impossible. How can anyone be expected
to grow net income at 20% or more year after year, especially when
customers are cutting back? How can a distribution process be streamlined
when there is no IT support? How can top-notch players be attracted
or kept, when they are treated and paid like basic commodities?
Do any of these examples sound familiar to you?
More
than ever, people are being asked to produce at a level that has
never been done before, at least by them. As a leader, what do you
do when attempting to lead a group toward something that seems unachievable?
And does it make a difference if they are trying to accomplish something
that has never been attempted or successfully done before by anyone,
vs. trying to accomplish something that has, but not by them. Here
is my point.
Think
about the early test pilots attempting to break the sound barrier,
not knowing if it was physically possible. The closer they got to
Mach One, the more their aircraft shook, until it felt like it would
literally break apart. One could only imagine what went through
their minds as their jets wanted to self-destruct far short of the
target. Would you have been standing in line to take a chance when
sacrificing your life was a very real consequence?
Then
one day the barrier was broken and another invalid belief was laid
to rest. Now the issue for a pilot attempting this for the first
time shifted from can it be done, to can it be done by me.
In your mind is there any difference between the two? As
a leader, do you need to address these two situations differently?
Logic
tells us that people won't devote much energy to something they
consider to be impossible. It probably doesn't matter whether people
feel the goal itself is impossible or that they themselves are just
unable to achieve it. If there is no hope for success (and no real
benefit for the effort), why pursue it. If you do not believe in
the "The Force," chances are good you are not going to
spend much time in Jedi training.
Yet
history often defies that logic, showing us that people do attack
and conquer the impossible all the time. What is the difference
between those that take on the impossible and those that don't?
And what are the leadership implications?
Pursuing
the Impossible
People
who are willing to go after something that has never been done before
will often find the energy to act based on a couple of different
reasons. The first is, they are stubbornly unwilling to accept the
fact that the task is impossible, for whatever reasons. The other
is they have no choice but to act.
Think
about those who refuse to believe that a given task or goal is impossible.
They display a great deal of passion about disproving the worldview
and demonstrating it can be done (whether it might be reaching the
summit of Mt. Everest or getting people to use an ATM for the first
time). They are truly committed to their challenge. Sometimes their
relentless work may be for personal accomplishment-other times to
improve the world. Whatever the reason, they find a way to stay
with it.
To
our knowledge, these people are not born with a couple of extra
genes in persistence. Nor are they obsessive "whacko's"
with no sense of reality- although they might appear that way at
times! There is, however, something very important about them, that
does tend to fuel their dogged drive to persevere. These determined
explorers tend to find some deep gratification or meaning in every
small step they take, whether that step succeeds or fails.
Frankly,
they do not need to be totally successful in the eyes of others.
As long as they are continuing to significantly increase their own
or the world's knowledge about their passion, they will often stay
with it. Think of the researcher whose life is guided by a clear
mission of finding a cure for pancreatic cancer. That is not just
what she does, it defines who she is. In her mind, every single
success she achieves or brick wall she hits has purpose. Each of
those efforts is a step closer to a highly desired goal, which provides
great meaning in her life.
That
complete devotion to discovery will sometimes lead to astounding
successes and a dramatic change in beliefs. There are inventions
or breakthroughs too numerous to count that have resulted from people
who have been willing to commit themselves to conquering the impossible.
As one example, consider Orville and Wilbur Wright. One hundred
years ago, they erased the belief that it is impossible to fly,
and that led to conquering the impossibility of breaking the sound
barrier, which ultimately led to Neal Armstrong's first steps on
the moon (which some conspiracy theorists still believe has never
truly been done). We should all be thankful that these kind of committed
people exist.
Alexander
Graham Bell is another example. Can you imagine trying to convince
people that a person standing in New York could easily be heard
by someone in another town or state? I would bet that Mr. Bell constantly
heard criticism that sounded something like the following: "Excuse
me, Sir, but people are incapable of shouting that loud. That is
a physical impossibility for a human being." So Mr. Bell, like
all great inventors, just found a way to get around that impossibility.
Think about that, the next time you are talking to someone across
the country on your cell phone!
Tackling
a goal that is currently considered impossible, is not an easy course
to take. Everyday these people must accept the risk of looking like
a failure. They must demonstrate courage and experiment frequently.
They must look at their work from every angle possible. They must
take natural laws of science or human behavior and apply them in
different ways. They must learn from experience and be resilient.
All of this is hard work. That is the reason a lot of passion and
devotion is required. Without those, the energy to persevere quickly
runs dry.
Should
we then be surprised that people in the workplace might be a bit
hesitant to go after goals that seem impossible? After all, the
risks can be huge, the work is very difficult, and often, the goals
do not have enough meaning to bring forth the level of commitment
necessary for success. Do you believe commitment can waver if the
goal is producing yet another year of almost unimaginable financial
results, so that Wall Street's endless, insatiable appetite might
once again be temporarily satisfied?
Lack
of Choices
The
other reason people become emotionally committed to pursuing the
impossible involves a different set of circumstances. It is because
they have no choice. Failing to act will lead to devastating consequences.
You might be familiar with one case in point. In 1989, on a seemingly
doomed United Airlines flight, the crew found itself in the following
predicament. They had lost their hydraulics, and if they did not
figure out another way to control the airplane, they were going
to crash. As you might recall, the plane's hydraulic systems had
been damaged, and without them, it was impossible to fly, and more
importantly, land the plane. It had never been done - until that
day over Sioux City, Iowa - when a small group of very committed
people somehow figured out how to get the plane back on the ground,
saving a large number of the passengers.
You
are also, no doubt, familiar with the unbelievable story of Apollo
13. One impossible situation after another was somehow met with
triumph. There are examples like this everyday, during combat in
war, in the aftermath of natural disasters, even in the competitive
battlefields of corporate survival. In these cases, failing to take
some kind of action is simply not an option.
Whether
it is because of an individual's personal wiring, or a no choice
situation, it does not require a lot of leadership to inspire people
to take on seemingly impossible dilemmas when they are very deeply
connected to the challenge. The leadership challenge comes when
that emotional connection does not exist, and you must figure out
a way to get people to find it.
Questioning
One's Own Ability to Succeed
Up
until this time, we have focused on examples of first time breakthroughs.
But what about those situations when you need people to step up
to a challenge that has previously been accomplished, although not
by you or them. That is, the task for them still appears to be impossible.
In that case, does it really matter that Everest is being conquered
every year, or that every month, some sales team somewhere in your
industry is somehow able to produce numbers that seem unreachable?
Perhaps
you have found that not everyone approaches these seemingly impossible
situations with unrelenting zeal and devotion. If a prevailing belief
of a team is, "it doesn't matter if others have accomplished
this, we can't do it," they will stop giving their all to a
goal relatively quickly. The rationale is, "The only outcome
is failure, so why kill ourselves trying," or something similar.
They will go through the motions and might even appear engaged,
but their passion and commitment will lie elsewhere. No doubt you
have experienced this situation firsthand.
Yet
leaders find themselves in circumstances like these all the time.
They have to accomplish tough goals against some extraordinary odds,
with people who are pretty well convinced that they can never reach
the target. So what can a leader do to get people to wholeheartedly
get after something which they tend to believe is an impossible
undertaking? The simple answer (which is really not so simple) is
to help them find ways to believe that they, too, can be successful.
And that is one of the key tasks of a leader. If you are unable
to reshape the limiting beliefs that today hold your people back,
your efforts to achieve the really challenging goals will most likely
prove only frustrating and fruitless.
Reshaping
Beliefs
So,
how do you go about trying to influence what people believe about
either their own ability, or the value of pursuing a seemingly insurmountable
challenge?
First,
you have to be clear on what they believe right now. If your team
is not producing at the level you hope, is it because they do not
believe in (or buy into) the goal, or that they do not believe they
can achieve it, (regardless of whether other teams can or cannot).
It is crucial that you know what beliefs you are trying to reshape.
If
people do not believe in the goal itself, it probably doesn't matter
what they believe about their own abilities. Continuing to tell
them that you know they can do it, and providing them all kinds
of tools and resources, is still not likely to improve results.
What if your team believes that the only way to close enough business
to achieve the quarterly goal is to go on the road and live in different
hotel rooms every night for the next three months? You can upgrade
the rooms, provide slick laptops, and keep reminding your people
what great salespeople they are. But if they are at the end of their
ropes from traveling and don't really care if they make the numbers
or not, those enticements are not going to do much good. Somehow,
you are going to have to get them to believe that the sacrifice
is worth it, or find another way to generate the business.
On
the other hand, imagine you have a team who deeply believes in the
value of the goal and desperately wants to achieve it. But they
just do not believe they can ever do it. Continuing to re-emphasize
the importance of the goal could motivate them to think and act
in different ways. But it might also create some unintended harm.
It might make them feel more and more worthless or inadequate, because
what they now cannot do has even bigger consequences. Think about
which is worse - you feel unable to put out a fire and save your
house, or you feel unable to put out a fire and save your family?
Let
me repeat: you must be clear on the beliefs your people hold and
which ones might be holding them back.
A
second thing you must do in influencing beliefs is to keep reality
in the picture. Sometimes a constraining belief is very valid. Speaking
from experience, you could pour money into me for around the clock
voice lessons and the very best coaching - and I will still never
sing the lead in a professional Broadway musical. I know for a fact
that many others will - and I am just as convinced that I will never
be one of them. You might say my belief is limiting my opportunities.
I would say it is not an issue of beliefs, but talent.
Part
of the art of leadership is getting better at determining what someone
truly can or cannot do. This is a real challenge, because it is
so easy to underestimate another person's true capabilities. But
limiting beliefs are not the only things that can hold people back.
Identifying when beliefs are the cause, and when they are not, requires
a great deal of effort and attention.
A
third and very important thing you must remember and act on, when
attempting to reshape what a person believes is this-beliefs are
forged, and therefore altered through experiences. You cannot merely
command people to change what they believe and expect them to do
it - even if you keep harping at them to do so. They must have some
kind of encounter that allows them to question their current beliefs
and opens the door for them to begin to accept new ways of dealing
with the world.
Be
mindful that people can and do change their beliefs. When computers
first made their way into the workplace, many people resisted them
out of fear. "It's too complicated - I'll never be able to
do it." Funny thing, you will hear these exact same words uttered
today, by teenagers frustrated with first learning to drive a car
with a manual transmission. Yet somehow in both cases, they have
been able to hear the voices in their heads change from "I
can't do this" to "I think I might be getting the hang
of it." These different words are an indicator that the person's
beliefs just might be shifting.
Once
you have a better picture of the beliefs you are attempting to reshape
and the reality of the task at hand, you can then determine the
kind of experiences you need to create to instill or reinforce the
beliefs that you want others to hold. You must figure out what you
can do to enable others to see things differently, through a new,
more believing pair of eyes.
If
your people are questioning their collective ability to succeed
at something brand new or to achieve a breakthrough, you must
give them opportunities to learn to do it. You have to actually
sit them in front of the keyboard or in the driver's seat! You have
to give them freedom to try things, reinforce what they are doing
right, immediately point out what they are continuing to do wrong,
encourage them to keep trying, reward them for progress and so forth.
It is through these experiences with you that they will be able
to move ahead and, most importantly, see it themselves.
If
they don't believe in the value of the goal (be it the
need to implement a new accounting system, or to work collaboratively
with people who never give back), you must help them find meaningful
intrinsic and extrinsic rewards in staying the course. You must
continue to reinforce the value of their effort and get them to
see more clearly, everyday, why the daunting task is so important
to pursue. You have to help them see how their progress and setbacks
are making a meaningful difference for themselves or others they
care about.
Some
Final Lessons
As
a leader, you always need to be working at inspiring your people
to reach greater heights, equipping them to be successful, and providing
constant recognition and reinforcement in all aspects of their work,
whether their goals seem achievable or appear beyond hope. When
the challenges are extraordinary and the stakes are high, you must
be even better at this work.
You
must recognize that what a person believes directly shapes his or
her perceptions of reality, and that directly impacts the actions
he or she will take and the results that can be produced. When those
beliefs hold people back, you must figure out a way for them to
question and willingly let go of those constraints. If the beliefs
are enabling, you must help your people continue to see positive
and desired outcomes from them.
People
discard old, accept new, and strengthen current beliefs through
experiences. According to published reports, there were people at
NASA who were completely convinced that a falling piece of foam
could in no way cause the catastrophe of the shuttle Columbia. Today,
they know that it did. Not too long ago, employees at companies
like Enron and WorldCom believed in the integrity of their executive
officers. Today, people everywhere have lost a lot of faith in corporate
officers and big business in general.
However,
it is vital to remember that to affect a belief, the experience
must have some punch. We all know people who never miss purchasing
their weekly lottery tickets. Yet, one would think after hundreds,
maybe even thousands of consecutive losing experiences, they might
give it up. But the dollar or two loss every week has little real
impact. Therefore, they still believe that one day, their ships
just might come in!
Finally,
you cannot make assumptions about peoples' beliefs. You may think
that a task is quite doable and assume that your people believe
the same. They may not. When the results are not there, you could
easily draw the conclusion it is because of a lack of focus, or
that they just don't care. You might be totally wrong. If they view
the challenge as unachievable, they may feel frightened, overwhelmed,
or even hopeless. Those are much different factors than a lack of
focus or not caring. And, they must be dealt with differently.
Getting
people inspired about tackling the impossible is a true test of
leadership. Unfortunately, it is not an easy one. So please remember
the following three points.
Your
people will be able to deliver better results for you, the more
you can help them:
1)
believe in the goal, by discovering meaning in the challenge
itself
2)
believe in themselves, by helping them see how their efforts are
making a valuable difference, and
3)
believe in your leadership, by being there to support, recognize
and encourage them when they most need you.
Simply
telling people that, "impossible or not, it's your job to accomplish
the goal and that's just the way it is," is not likely to achieve
the results you are looking for. It may be the truth, but it is
not very helpful. And if your role as a leader is not to help your
team conquer enormous, even impossible challenges, then just why
are you in your position anyway?
Copyright © 2005 International Leadership Associates. |