Leaders need to surround themselves with people from different backgrounds and with different ... [+]
When articles, podcasts or speakers begin with some cliché about the speed at which the world is changing, perhaps with a reference to generative AI or the recent pandemic, it’s tempting to tune out. What else is new?
While change is constant, managing change—or managing amidst change—can be a huge challenge. There’s even an acronym, attributed to the military, describing what leaders face on a daily basis. It’s called VUCA: volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Or as the authors of a Harvard Business Review article lightheartedly described the phenomenon a few years back, “Hey, it’s crazy out there!”
Frankly, leading in such an environment is probably more than any single individual can, or should even attempt, to handle—especially at a large and complex organization. Nobody can do it all.
This isn’t to say that the days of the iconic rock-star leader are gone. The business world will always have its fair share of larger-than-life industry and institutional giants, such as Jeff Bezos, Jamie Dimon, Bill Gates, and Satya Nadella, who draw all the attention when they enter a room.
But they’re the exceptions. And we don’t always know what goes on behind the scenes day-in and day-out. For more than four decades, for example, Charlie Munger made many of the decisions that produced Berkshire Hathaway’s financial success, helping to create Warren Buffett’s reputation as the “Sage of Omaha.” The late Mr. Munger seemed satisfied with being Berkshire Hathaway’s less-celebrated number two.
The reality is: Even the superhero CEOs who are constantly in the news can’t see around every corner. And they can’t single-handedly make the huge organizations they lead adapt quickly to every whack-a-mole new challenge that confronts them in today’s world. It’s not possible.
What many large organizations need instead is stolid, steady leadership—with CEOs and other senior executives focused on assembling, empowering, and enabling rock-solid teams, team leaders and talent to sense, respond and adapt. That’s what achieving success in a VUCA environment requires.
What kind of teams? Diverse teams, and I’m not just talking about diversity in the usual sense. Human nature being what it is, our bias is to surround ourselves with people around whom we feel comfortable. People with whom we have a lot in common. That’s what people do.
A study a few years ago by the online job site Indeed, for example, found that 37% of managers “who self-identified coming from a top school said they like to hire candidates from top institutions only.”
That not only can create blind spots, but it reduces the talent pool and may prevent you from discovering some great talent from unexpected places.
Yes, we want teams—especially executive teams—to form strong personal connections and certainly to get along. But the bigger challenge many CEOs face is to get diverse viewpoints on the table before making big decisions—because even in many C-suites there can be a tendency to “go along to get along,” as the saying goes. That’s why leaders need to surround themselves with people from different backgrounds and with different perspectives: so they can arrive at a more-robust vision and strategy for their organization.
Years ago, I was helping a senior leadership team work on a culture change. The CEO knew that the company—a longstanding market leader—would have to change how it works to drive the innovation and agility needed to digitally transform itself, so it could remain a market leader.
We spent a lot of time focusing on behaviors that would be required of company leaders. One was productive disagreement: i.e., speaking your mind.
When members of the executive team assessed themselves against the various target behaviors, one stood out: They rated themselves extraordinarily poor—on productive disagreement.
When we shared this assessment with the CEO and the executive team, the conversation went something like this:
CEO (sounding shocked and surprised): “What do you mean you don't speak your mind? We’re the executive team. We meet every week. Why are we meeting if nobody is speaking up and saying what they really think?”
Executive team: silence.
Executive team: more silence.
Executive team: really uncomfortable silence.
Head of a business unit (finally): “Well, I’ll say it… It’s not safe to disagree with you.”
Dead silence.
CEO: “Tell me more …”
They proceeded to have a productive (heavily facilitated) conversation about the dynamic of the team. The business leader bravely explained how the CEO had strong opinions, and that every time someone disagreed with him, he would argue back. The CEO was promoted from within and didn’t appreciate the new dynamic created when he went from being a peer to being in charge. They worked it out and made some changes, such as having the CEO speak last on agenda items, asking for dissenting views on everything, challenging all matters on which there was quick agreement, and pushing many decisions down to their teams to work out.
The point of the story is that in hierarchical organizations—which means virtually every organization—leaders need to 1) make an effort to get the diverse and dissenting views of their teams; 2) listen and discuss, not argue; and 3) whenever possible, transition from hierarchical decision-making to true team work.
It may sound corny—like the often-used phrase about disagreeing without being disagreeable—but “team work does make the dream work.”
