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Don’t lose sleep over challenges you can change

BY: MICHAEL STERN August 22, 2007


“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” grumbled a stressed-out, sleep-deprived Henry IV. But today’s captains of industry don't have it much better.

There's much anxiety in the executive suite. Even though the economy is doing well, many of Canada’s bosses are worrying and losing sleep over their challenges, their futures and the future of their colleagues.

And one reason so many of them are turning to coaches these days is that they don't have anyone with whom to share their concerns. Even in rough water, a captain must always be confident.

So what are Canada’s bosses worrying about? Meeting unrealistic objectives from head office, pulling together teams that aren’t aligned, overcoming communication barriers created by (what else?) today’s new communications channels.

“I just want to keep my head down and lead our company” pleads one chief executive. But the challenges of today’s business environment means that all C-level leaders have to put on their hard hats and work their way through their most nagging challenges.

* Head Office: It’s funny how, after the explosion of management education, MBAs and books such as Good to Great, many business people still see “head office” as their biggest problem.

Changing visions from on-high, ever-tougher targets, new workplace regulations and Canada’s significance in the big corporate picture, are just a few of the problems today’s executives are working through. It’s tough to create buy-in for new corporate policies and targets when you don't agree with them yourself, but that's the task facing many business leaders today. They're doing their best – though it’s clearly getting to them.

The biggest problem is probably over-regulation: prescribing exactly how employees should be behaving, treating customers, or solving problems. In my experience, the best cure for overly detailed regulation is to give subordinates more freedom, not less. Given a chance to behave responsibly, most employees will happily do the right thing – and even more so when they are not being told exactly how to do every little thing.

Many companies these days are tied up with process when I believe they should be focusing on outcomes. But that’s little comfort for executives trying to balance head office demands against the needs of their people.


* Communications breakdowns: Traditional business communications have been turned on their ear by today’s electronics revolution, especially e-mail. The rush to share ideas and instructions through email and text messages means many business conversations that used to require time and careful consideration now take place at the speed of light – often while people aren’t paying full attention (a phenomenon known as multitasking).

As you know, email is a low-bandwidth medium. It has no tone of voice, no smiles or frowns. So it’s easy to misread a sender’s intentions, or detect a negative comment the sender might not have intended.

Some business people even use e-mail as a deliberate substitute for talking with people about difficult subjects. But such evasive maneuvers just mean that questions or disagreements that might have been settled quickly face-to-face can now fester unresolved.

This problem demands firm leadership. Management has to set appropriate rules for office communication that eliminates evasion. Any communication that requires thoughtful discourse is probably best dealt with by phone or in-person anyway.

Executives should make it clear that comprehension is everyone’s responsibility. If someone doesn't understand what their colleague is trying to say, or they sense negative comments they consider inappropriate, it should be their duty to contact the person and clarify what was meant.

* Internal mistrust: Whenever organizations go through rapid change or speed up their business processes – which is almost everyone these days – maintaining morale is harder than ever. Thus, many CEOs are now dealing with departments and divisions that don't understand each other and aren’t aligned with respect to the overall corporate mission.

As the boss, you have to make sure that people who work with each other are communicating on a regular basis. They must understand what their colleagues are going through. Sometimes this happens naturally, but more often you have to lubricate the process. Trust and understanding don't just happen.

With all the other challenges they face every day, most CEOs would probably rather not have to deal with ongoing issues of over-regulation, communication and trust. But it’s only by facing up to these problems that you can begin to solve them – and perhaps even sleep better at night.