The other night Bryan and I were talking about a challenge an associate of ours has – that of bringing a group of executives together to explore leadership, their leadership styles, the results they produce and the fact they continue to perform at a high level yet their associates (read, the people that work for them) do not rate them highly.
We were asked by our associate/friend for some ideas of how to work with this group.
The conversation eventually lead us to what some people call – the theory of business. One might call this a world view, a philosophy or a belief system. It’s my contention that most people have a world view but not all people are aware of it. Business executives have a world view – a theory of business – they operate by whether they are aware of it or not.
Does it serve a person to put up a mirror and expose one’s world view (theory of business)?
Most companies are designed following an age old pattern of hierarchy, command and control and as such have inherent belief systems and behaviors embedded in them. Most executives got where they are by ‘playing the game’ as appropriate to the culture of the organization they work in.
Is it beneficial to give executives (or workers) additional options to what they already know? Additional options to what has served them so well to get them to where they are now? And what if this group of executives is not the top of the organization and cannot influence change in the entire organization (meaning that even if this group of executives has some insight and decides to change, what if the rest of the organization doesn’t?)?
I have always maintained that no matter what position one has in an organization it is incumbent upon them to ‘transform their sphere of influence’. That’s probably easier said then done but what other options are there? Play the game? Be a silent participant? Fit in? Separate one’s worklife from personal life? Maintain the status quo?
Some business cultures may not be supportive of knowing their theory of business. But isn’t that part of the theory of business in use at that organization? So what’s your theory of business?
Dr. Deming used to say that executives/managers do not know what their job is. What’s your job?
One fun exercise to get people thinking about, identifying and recognizing our own world views, or personal theories of business, might be through the use of latter day archetypes: The Weatherman, the Poker Player, the Explorer, the Mad Scientist, the Barbarian, the Saint..
For example, some companies now recognize that outsourcing is a fate accompli; it may save money, or it may not. But because the investment community sees outsourcing as a prudent business move, no company can operate without at least a plan for exploiting this option. The Weatherman recognizes this as climatologically unchangeable, puts on a raincoat, and moves on. The Saint may see a reason to push back, to make sure that the local community is served by justifying the move first.
The modern day archetypes we identify with might help us understand our biases, where we could improve our balance and foster new opportunities.