Over the
past couple of years we have been attempting to identify the most
significant barriers that people face-that hold them back from being
able to produce more or better results. Throughout the investigation
we have encouraged them to think about their responses and not just
provide the default reason of "not enough time."
How
would you answer that question? What are the one or two barriers
that hinder you the most in your ability to achieve or exceed your
goals? Go ahead and answer this in your mind. Then in a moment you
can compare your answer with the responses of others.
Conclusions
Before
providing some conclusions, I would like to pass on a rather unexpected
occurrence, observed along the way. Many people respond to the question
of their greatest barrier by describing the most challenging goal
facing them. There are some likely reasons for this. One might be
that they simply misinterpreted the question. Another might be that
they are so goal directed, they do not think much in terms of barriers.
I do wonder, however, if there are some that actually see no difference
between the two (goal vs. barrier). "My biggest barrier in
producing more is the fact that my goal is simply too big to begin
with." Perhaps in those cases, the biggest barrier might truly
be the inability to have much say in any part of the goal setting
process.
In
spite of that, there are still a couple of interesting conclusions
about the greatest barriers that people most frequently cite. First,
the barriers have almost always originated from within their organizations
vs. from the outside. Seldom, if ever, do we hear that the biggest
barrier has anything to do with a competitor's actions, a breakthrough
technology, or the local economic picture. All of these must be
dealt with, but they are not seen as the biggest obstacles. Instead,
we most often hear answers like,
- Communication across the company
is terrible.
- We are still stuck in silos, and
there are too many competing agendas.
- There is an endless stream of urgent
requests from headquarters.
- The people whose help I need are
paid to be doing something different.
- There does not seem to be anyone
around to help me.
- My boss is my biggest obstacle.
- We have the knowledge and the capabilities
to do the work, but I can't seem to get enough support or cooperation
to get things implemented.
Two
other internal barriers that also come up are not having or being
able to attract the right people, and not having the right kind
of technological or systems capabilities. No doubt these items are
vital issues for most organizations. But surprisingly, they were
not as frequently cited as the answers to the barrier question,
when compared to the others listed above.
The
other, and most important conclusion from our exploration is this:
the biggest contributing factor to most of the barriers cited is
generally not out-dated technology, the wrong people or not enough
budget, but rather, it is the lack of good relationships. Too
often there is a huge rift in the level of cooperation, collaboration
and support from others that is needed in order for people to fulfill
their ambitious goals.
A
Near Death Example
I
was recently listening to a chief scientist at one of the country's
national laboratories talking about his work and the expectations
of his organization. Much of what his organization does relates
directly to our national security, and is extremely important work.
His background is in physics, in which he holds several degrees.
He is a very brilliant individual.
Early
in the conversation, he began talking about what he called his near
death experience. Given his background, I was very anxious to hear
his story. A mishap from time travel was obviously a little too
much to expect, but in the realm of quantum physics, a number of
quite unusual near death experiences might occur.
I
cannot explain the exact details of what his team was working on,
but he related the fact that they were not making the kind of progress
they needed to. So one day they got together, along with an outside
consultant to figure things out. At one of the breaks, he was advised
by one of his people that the consultant was not telling him what
he needed to know. After reconvening the team, the scientist acknowledged
the heads-up he had just received and then said to the group, "so
tell me what I need to know."
The
first fifteen or so responses were relatively safe, softball responses.
Then the next person responded with a statement that got his attention.
The individual told him that "management was the problem." The following
person was even more bold and said to the scientist, "management
is not the problem, you are the problem." Needless to say, that
really opened the door for some interesting dialogue.
Courageously,
his people went on to explain to him that the work they were doing
was his vision, his desires, his agenda
not theirs. And at that moment, the scientist realized he had failed
at one of the most important parts of his job as a leader. The relationships
he needed to have with his team were deeply broken. He had not done
the work necessary to build the necessary relationships for them
to feel needed, included and valuable. That simple, yet profound
eye-opening moment, that crystal clear lesson in leadership, was,
in his eyes, a near death experience.
Now
if you are wondering, the group did achieve highly successful results.
In the scientist's own words his people did things differently than
he would have done them, or directed them to do, and they were substantially
more successful because of it. Keep in mind, what his team works
on is extremely important to all of us.
Reflect
for a moment about the powerful message this man provided about
the importance of building relationships. He and his team were gifted
scientists and the challenges they faced required immense brainpower
and scientific applications to solve. They had the knowledge in
the group, and by the sounds of things at least enough budget to
be successful. But even with all of that, the group had floundered.
They were unable to come together to collectively figure out and
create much needed solutions, because as their manager, this scientist
was not engaging their brains and hearts in a way that was necessary
to accomplish extraordinary results. In their minds, he was
the obstacle. Fortunately, he was able to learn to let go of
his very comfortable and preferred style of figuring out all the
answers alone, and worked on building better relationships with
his people. They responded by delivering some excellent results.
The
Case for Better Relationships
Building
effective relationships is crucial to leading more effectively.
Leaders are people who somehow figure out how to get very difficult
issues resolved, whether it is making the country more secure, turning
around a company, or getting buy-in for and implementation of a
profit producing idea within a department. Developing these kinds
of solutions cannot be accomplished by a single individual working
alone, no matter how Herculean the effort. They always require people
working together toward a shared outcome. Adding to the difficulty,
success almost always requires support and commitment from people
outside one's own area of direct influence.
Perhaps
the most important case for better relationships is this: The goals
that people face today cannot be accomplished by merely doing more
of what they have always been doing. Success is not assured from
working a couple of extra hours a day or simply throwing more bodies,
qualified or not, at a problem. The fact of the matter is that the
ambitious results demanded of people today can only be achieved
by doing things differently. Success requires change. And a couple
of things we know about change are these. It is always personal
and is often very upsetting, especially when people feel it is forced
upon them. Consequently, individuals may ultimately experience feelings
ranging from a minor inconvenience to the deep loss of something
important. Many times, that something which has been lost is trusted,
reliable relationships that have worked. Solid relationships provide
a great advantage to people as they struggle to work through the
impact that change has on them.
We
see people every day attempting to improve their organization's
effectiveness and profitability by proposing different ways of doing
things. It may be a simple process improvement or the pilot of a
new product or service. In both cases, it is still change. For successful
implementation to occur, everyone who is affected by the change
must understand its value and work toward achieving it.
Unfortunately,
this unified alignment does not occur frequently enough. Change
which is logical and obvious to some, feels irrational and threatening
to others. When there are no underlying relationships between the
different sides, trust is absent, and it becomes virtually impossible
to have the kinds of meaningful conversations needed to achieve
better understanding and ultimate alignment. People dig in their
heels to protect their status quo.
Think
about your own experiences. Have you ever seen a good idea to improve
the business hit a brick wall and go nowhere? My guess is failure
had less to do with technology or funding than it did with personal
opposition. Whether it was from finance, IT, senior managers in
your own function, senior managers in other departments, or people
who would ultimately be most impacted by the change, there were
too many parties either threatened by the change, or just not willing
to devote the effort required to fully understand it and help make
it succeed.
Dealing
with this kind of opposition usually requires good relationships,
because strangely enough, a well-formed business case by itself
does not always influence and mobilize people the way you think
it should.
Frequently
we have heard people cite technology as a barrier holding them back
from producing more. Diving deeper, we've uncovered that technology,
per se, is not the issue. The problem is that these people cannot
get any IT specialists to advise them, or they cannot get anyone
to listen closely enough to their issue, so it can at least compete
as one of the IT projects that will get funded. Those are issues
of relationship, not technology.
From
my experience, IT departments have almost always been seen as technically
competent by others in the organization. But their ability to effectively
work with people, especially those outside their own groups, is
often another story. Everyone knows the IT people must work hard
to constantly improve their technical knowledge and skills, because
technology is one thing that does seem to change in the blink of
an eye. Today, they must work just as hard at building better relationships,
or their great technical capabilities will never be fully recognized,
utilized or valued. When that happens, everyone usually loses. (By
the way, the same can be said about any group or function offering
specialized expertise and support.)
Going
Forward
The
good news is this. Because technology is such a strategic lever
in most companies, we have seen an enormous effort, often led by
IT departments, to build stronger partnerships with their "internal
clients," so they can serve them and the overall business better.
They are now proactively responding to the relationship challenge,
while still keeping their eyes centered on constantly growing their
technical expertise.
Would
your business be better if everyone, you included, were making this
kind of relationship effort? Is it possible that others might be
more open to your ideas of change, if they knew you better and trusted
you more? Might they even be more willing to support your proposals
if they believed you were looking out for their best interests and
those of the entire company? These are just a couple of the elements
that make up good relationships.
In
closing, reflect for a moment about your own circumstances, and
the barriers preventing you from producing more. How many of your
hurdles are strictly budget or time related? How many would be greatly
reduced, even eliminated, if you were more closely connected with
people inside and outside of your own department? Are there not
a couple of key relationships that you know you need to strengthen
in order to make that happen?
Building strong, productive relationships
is tough and often uncomfortable work. Whether you believe those relationships
are, in fact, necessary and are willing to devote a committed effort
to them is clearly up to you. Just keep in mind that more often than
not, it is the lack of well-developed relationships, far more so than
the lack of technology, money and even time that thwart people in
their quest to achieve extraordinary results.
Copyright © 2005 International Leadership Associates. |