BMA eBook - Manual / Resource - Page 264
What to Ask the Person in the Mirror
partments and creating integrated account
coverage teams. They also recommended
that the company push more of its engineers
to interact with customers and focus on this
skill in recruiting. The CEO regretted that he
had not asked the question—and conducted
this assignment—12 months earlier.
Even the most successful business is susceptible to new challenges posed by a changing
world. Effective executives regularly look at
their businesses with a clean sheet of paper—
seeking advice and other perspectives from
people who are less emotionally invested in
the business—in order to determine whether
key aspects of the way they run their organizations are still appropriate.
Leading Under Pressure
Pressure is a part of business. Changes in business conditions create urgent problems. New
entrants in the market demand a competitive
response. Valued employees quit, often at the
most inopportune times. Leaders and their
teams, no matter how smart they are, make
mistakes.
The interesting thing about stressful events
is that they affect each person differently—
what causes you anxiety may not bother someone else, and vice versa. For some, extreme
anxiety may be triggered by the prospect of a
promotion; for others, by making a serious
mistake; still others, by losing a piece of business to a competitor. Regardless of the source
of stress, every leader experiences it, so a good
question to ask yourself is: How do I behave
under pressure, and what signals am I sending
my employees?
As a leader, you’re watched closely. During a
crisis, your people watch you with a microscope, noting every move you make. In such
times, your subordinates learn a great deal
about you and what you really believe, as opposed to what you say. Do you accept responsibility for mistakes, or do you look for someone
to blame? Do you support your employees, or
do you turn on them? Are you cool and calm,
or do you lose your temper? Do you stand up
for what you believe, or do you take the expedient route and advocate what you think your
seniors want to hear? You need to be selfaware enough to recognize the situations that
create severe anxiety for you and manage your
behavior to avoid sending unproductive messages to your people.
harvard business review • january 2007
I’ve met a number of leaders who behave in
a very composed and thoughtful manner the
great majority of the time. Unfortunately,
when they’re under severe stress, they react in
ways that set a very negative tone. They inadvertently train their employees to mimic that
behavior and behave in a similar fashion. If
your instinct is to shield yourself from blame,
to take credit rather than sharing it with your
subordinates, or to avoid admitting when you
have made a mistake, you will give your employees license to do the same.
The CEO of a large asset-management firm
was frustrated that he was unable to build a
culture of accountability and teamwork in his
growing business. At his request, I spoke to a
number of his team members. I asked in particular about the actions of the CEO when investments they recommended declined in
value. They recounted his frequent temper
tantrums and accusatory diatribes, which led
to an overwhelming atmosphere of blame
and finger-pointing. The investment decisions
had, in fact, been made jointly through a carefully constructed process involving portfolio
managers, industry analysts, and the CEO. As
a result of these episodes, employees learned
that when investments went wrong it would
be good to try to find someone else to blame.
Hearing these stories, the CEO realized his actions under pressure were far more persuasive
to employees than his speeches about teamwork and culture. He understood that he
would have to learn to moderate his behavior
under stress and, subsequently, took steps to
avoid reacting so angrily to negative investment results. He also became more aware
that subordinates typically felt quite regretful and demoralized when their investments declined and were more likely to need
a pat on the back and coaching than a kick in
the pants.
It’s extremely difficult to expect employees
to alert you to looming problems when they
fear your reaction—and even more so when
they think it’s better to distance themselves
from potential problems. This can create an atmosphere where surprises are, in fact, more
likely as the company’s natural early-warning
system has been inadvertently disarmed. If you
have created this kind of culture, it is quite unlikely that you will learn about problems from
subordinates spontaneously—unless they want
to commit career suicide.
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