Leadership | INSYNC Management Solutions

Long-term Planning

Planning is the process of developing courses of action to move from your current state to a desired future state and involves change, and everyone knows, people don’t like change. We hear it all the time and it’s true, people don’t like change! But have you ever stopped to wonder why people don’t like change? In his book Your Brain at Work, Dr. David Rock takes this notion further and proposes that it’s uncertainty that actually makes us uncomfortable. If we can reduce the uncertainty associated with the change, we can significantly reduce its negative impact and increase engagement and uptake. The way we try to reduce uncertainty and gain control of the future is through planning.

We all like to be in control, but our inability to predict what’s going to happen in the future limits our feeling of control, and the further we look into the future the greater the uncertainty and lesser the control. Hence, our natural inclination is to try to predict the future and develop plans that allow us to prepare for whatever it’s going to throw at us.

We do this through planning and forecasting, but how many times have you been involved in planning and forecasting activities where the degree of uncertainty was so great that you knew in your heart that your plans were little more than an optimistic guess? This is especially true when the plans or forecasts being developed are very long term such as three, five, and ten year plans.

So why do we placed so much importance, emphasis, and time on long-term plans and forecasts when we know that it’s unlikely they’ll hit their targets? Well, the answer may be embedded in our brains and the way we think.

Every time we reduce uncertainty we receive a hit of dopamine. Dopamine is the chemical used by our brains to derive pleasure and just like ticking off a checklist is rewarding and pleasurable. So is fooling ourselves in the belief that our planning and forecasting will somehow create certainty in the future.

There is no real ability to plan long-term or truly forecast based on any single view of the future. But business continues to try and reduce uncertainty and give confidence to senior executives, boards, and shareholders by investing significant time and money in this type of planning.

The perception that planning and forecasting have been performed effectively provides a degree of comfort and is in a way a placebo that lasts a whole financial year or for the period covered by the plan. So, if planning and forecasting are little more than adding 5 or 10% to last year’s results and are not truly representative of the future, why should we bother trying to plan at all?

Well, it’s not all bad news. Whilst the future is uncertain and your plans and forecasts are based on your perception of what the future holds, there are ways that you can plan for an uncertain future and reduce the anxiety associated with uncertainty and your lack of control.

Planning and forecasting should be done for the shortest period possible. Longer-term planning must be broad and allocate low confidence levels and large margins for error and must factor uncertainty into the planning process.

These plans need numerous decision points that take a “what if” and “if then” approach. The best way to do this is to take a multi-varied view of the future. The further into the future that you try to plan, the greater the uncertainty and variability.

Understanding this means that you cannot simply plan for one future, but rather you need to plan for the various possible futures likely to eventuate.

For this reason, scenario planning offers the best approach and uses uncertainty to influence thinking and the planning process. Scenario planning unlike traditional business planning requires the planners to consider different views of the future and develop appropriate courses of action for each view.

As we move along the timeline and the future becomes clearer, we can adjust our courses of action as required or even change to a planned alternate course of action without feeling like a rudderless ship that is out of control and at the mercy of the sea.

For more information on how to develop effective plans, check out our post titled Planning Process.

The 6 Components of Leadership

Universally, there seems to be a number of key components that are common to most leaders. Six of these components appear to be the essence of leadership. Each of these components are required before an individual can be deemed to be exercising a clear leadership function. The six essential components are:

1. Influence

Leadership is about someone influencing, motivating, or inspiring others. Most theorists believe that influence in the leadership relationship is multi-directional and is not restrained by position. It is widely believed that these influence behaviours must be non-coercive although the reality is that this is more likely a perception rather than a reality.

2. Followers

Other people aside from the leader are a necessary component of leadership. Some theorists also stress that followers have responsibilities and obligations to leaders. The belief is that responsible followers must exercise choice and be allowed to do so. A responsible follower will choose dissent when faced with leadership influence that the follower believes is unlawful or unethical.

3. Goal

Leadership is greatly enhanced when there is a mutual or shared goal, mission or vision. If there is no mutual goal, mission, or vision then it is unlikely that a group will form or stay together. Nevertheless, the goal or mission may not be grand or visionary but may be as simple as to survive in the current environment, to co-exist as a group or to win a game of football. The goal here is to develop a mutual goal that brings the team together and provides focus and purpose.

4. Purposeful Action

Leadership involves doing something or taking action towards the successful achievement of the group’s goal. Although achievement is seen by some as the hallmark of leadership, other theorists believe it is the striving for achievement that is characteristic of leadership.

5. Consent

Effective leadership requires the consent of those being led; the followers. Consent suggests that there is a direct relationship between the leader and the followers, and as a consequence, there are responsibilities on both within an effective leadership relationship. In some circumstances, the leader is expected to ‘pressure’ followers to achieve the goal. In other contexts, followers will resist force and coercion.

6. Ethics

Related to follower willingness or conviction is the concept that leadership has a moral or ethical component. Followers see the difference between striving for a goal that they believe to be ethically sound and one that is ethically or morally wrong. This distinction is made to differentiate between those leaders that are influential and visionary but morally or ethically corrupt and those that are equally influential and visionary but morally and ethically sound.

Leader Responsibilities

It is necessary for leaders to have more than just an academic appreciation of ethics. Leaders require an understanding of how ethics influences their decision-making and actions. Leaders have specific responsibilities that relate to the individuals and the teams they lead. There are three fundamental ethical responsibilities that leaders are required to discharge. These are:

- - Serve as role models worthy of emulation.
  - Promote ethical development for followers.
  - Develop and sustain an ethical climate within the group that they lead.

Principles of War

Karl Von Clausewitz (1780-1831) was a Prussian who fought in the Russian Army in the early 19^th century and rose to the rank of General. He started his military training at the age of 12 as a member of the officers’ corps of the Prussian Army and witness some of the most decisive European battles of the times. He was a renowned German military leader and strategist and documented his theories and observations from the battlefields into what is now referred to as the 9 Principles of War.

These 9 principles, or variations thereof, have become standard doctrine for most military forces and are taught to military leaders at all levels. They have endured significant changes in the way war is waged and are as relevant today as on the battlefield at the advent of firearms and artillery.

It’s not too difficult to draw a comparison between Clausewitz and the modern business theorist, Peter Drucker who established many of the guiding principles of modern business management and leadership. Whilst comparing business to battle is a long bow to draw, there are some very similar challenges faced by leaders in the board room as on the battlefield.

Here are the 9 Principles of War as composed by Clausewitz and modified to provide some context for business. See if you can draw a comparison between your workplace and leadership challenges and how they may be used to help you lead your troops to success.

Objective. In battle, the objective is the feature that must be seized, captured, or destroyed. It is the purpose of the mission and the reason for the battle. It is vital that the commander has a clear understanding of the objective and communicates it effectively to every officer and soldier in his command in order to take the objective. The development of clear objectives is equally important in business as is the need to communicate them to all staff in a clear and concise manner. In the business context, the objective is often written as a mission or purpose statement. It’s important that the objective is achievable and than everyone in the organisation is clear about their part to play in capturing the objective.

Offensive. The offensive is the strategy executed to achieve the objective. It should be the most decisive way to seize, capture or destroy the objective. There are often many simultaneous battles waged within the ‘theatre of war’, so it is critical that all troops understand their freedoms and constraints and the limits of exploitation to prevent blue-on-blue clashes or interference with other missions. In business, you must also develop an effective strategy and execute that strategy decisively without overreaching.

Mass. Mass refers to the employment of your full combat power on to the objective rather than just the concentration of forces at a set time and place. This is referred to as synchronisation and is a more holistic approach to the use of force than to converge troops onto the objective. This reduces the exposure of your troops to enemy fire and allows you to achieve more decisive results. In business be careful not to concentrate all your effort on one sector of the market. Where you do focus your efforts, use the breath of your entire organisational capability to secure the victory rather than concentrating the effort of one branch.

Economy of Force. In contrast to the use of mass, economy of force is the offset needed to conserve combat capability. These two principles must be employed in balance to prevent the premature reduction or loss of combat power. Ensure you know how much of your business resources you can afford to dedicate to taking your objective and what your limit of exploitation is. In other words, know when to hold back, stop or even redeploy your efforts.

Manoeuvre. Manoeuvre is the shaping of the battlefield by the deployment and redeployment of troops and military equipment in relation to the enemy, for the purpose of gaining advantage over the objective. Manoeuvre is used to exploit enemy weaknesses, preserve own troops’ freedom of action, and direct firepower for best effect. Being flexible and able to pivot is critical to business in the modern world. Ensure your business is prepared to embrace change and that manoeuvre is core to your long-term business strategy.

Unity of Command. The decisive action necessary for the achievement of the objective requires all troops to fight under the direction of a single commander. This is not to say that there is only one leader responsible for directing forces, but rather there is one commander who is the ultimate decision-maker and executor of the mission. All other leaders and followers must support the commander’s intent if the objective is to be taken. This can be very challenging in the current business climate. The adoption of Servant Leadership as the dominant approach to leading and juggling decentralised command or “employee empowerment”, doesn’t remove the responsibility of the leader to issue clear directions or subordinate leaders and employees from following them.

Security. The best defence is a good offence, but never forget to maintain security as it enhances your freedom of action. You must identify your vulnerabilities and mitigate enemy attacks before they can disrupt your operations. Security is developed from the market intelligence you gather, and the surveillance of your competition. It allows you to anticipate their actions and manoeuvre to counter their disruption of the market or impact on your business.

Surprise. You should always attack your enemy at a time and place of your choosing when he is least prepared or able to defend or counter-attack. Surprise and the swift application of mass can upset the enemy’s momentum and shift the balance of power in your favour. Innovation and speed to market are two effective ways to use the principle of surprise in a business context.

Simplicity. Your battle plans must be clear, concise, and complete, leaving no doubt in the minds of your troops as to what needs to be done to take the objective. The development of simple plans is not easy and requires the removal of uncertainty and complexity through wargaming and other similar techniques. In the same way, your business plan must be clear and easily understood by everyone in your organisation. Developing simple plans helps to overcome the inertia that prevents the effective execution of so many business plans.

True Resilience

A lot has been written about the need for leaders to be resilient, and for good reason. Leadership is hard and the business world and life, in general, can be brutal and unforgiving, but what does it really mean to be resilient? Websters’ dictionary defines resilience as:

the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress; and
an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.

Both of these definitions are predicated on reacting to some force, misfortune, or change that has impacted the object, in this case the leader, and the object’s ability to recover and adapt to the force or change.

Despite not having a thick hide or razor-sharp claws and teeth, humans have adapted to natural forces and changes for thousands of years and survived to become the dominant species on the planet.

This has been due, in part, to our large brains, our endurance, and our reliance on our social networks, our tribes. It was also because we were able to evolve and adapt to the harsh climate and environment. Since the origins of mankind, our evolution has aligned perfectly with Darwin’s theory of evolution which states that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual’s ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.

It’s our ability to endure physical and emotional stress and to incrementally adapt to it, that has allowed us to evolve and succeed as a species. In essence, our evolution and survival has really been a case of “what didn’t kill us, truly did make us stronger”. 

Resilience is a critical ability needed by all leaders in order to deal with the myriad of forces that impact them on a daily basis.

So why is it some leaders seem to be more resilient than others? What’s their secret?

Well, it might just be that the need to be resilient has been over-stated, as it is far better to build your capacity and strength to deal with these forces and changes at the time and not be impacted in a way that takes you down resulting in needing to get back up. Leaders need to be mentally, physically, and spiritually tough. They need to be able to take a punch and keep punching back. Applying the current guidance, resilience would be the equivalent of being a boxer who gets knocked down and gets back up and continues this cycle until he can’t get back up anymore.

It’s far better to spend time learning how to anticipate the punches, and training to develop your physical strength and mental toughness so you don’t get knocked down at all.

How we respond to modern forces and changes and the stresses they thrust upon us, impact how our bodies cope with the release of stress hormones. The primary hormonal mediators of the stress response, glucocorticoids and catecholamines, have both protective and damaging effects on the body. In the short term, glucocorticoids promote the conversion of protein and lipids to usable carbohydrates. Glucocorticoids also act on the brain to increase appetite for food and to increase locomotor activity and food seeking behaviour (Leibowitz and Hoebel 1997). This can adversely affect regulating behaviours that control energy input and expenditure.

Glucocorticoids can be an essential source of energy if you need to run a kilometre to evade a predator but will likely have negative health effects if the stress is caused by a business deadline that has you stuck behind your keyboard eating junk food and drinking soft drink or coffee, for hours on end.

Being inactive whilst having chronically elevated levels of glucocorticoids can interfere with the action of insulin and reduce glucose uptake causing insulin levels to increase. The combination of elevated levels of insulin and glucocorticoids cause an increase in body fat deposits and can cause the formation of atherosclerotic plaques in the coronary arteries (Brindley and Rolland 1989).

So how do we train ourselves to be better able to deal with stress and be more resilient?

Sports science has embraced and used incremental physical stress (exertion) as a means of adapting the body to ever increasing loads or effort. This exertion has a neurological impact on the body through the nervous system but does not result in the sort of anxiety disorders, depressive illness, hostile and aggressive states, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cardiovascular disease (CVD) and other systemic disorders related to mental stress. This is an important distinction as stress is stress, regardless of whether it is physical or mental.

So why doesn’t physical stress cause illness? Well it can and it does; however, the brain will generally not allow the body to accept more physical stress than it’s comfortable dealing with, as a safeguard to prevent injury.

Elite military units and Special Forces know this, and invest heavily in the development of their troop’s mental toughness. They know that the mind will give in well before the body. The Navy Seals have called this the 40% Rule. This is where most ‘normal’ people will give up when physical activity seems too hard, even though they have only used 40% of their energy reserves.  It is possible to train your mind to override your natural instinct to quit and keep ‘pushing through the pain’ if you have the determination and grit to do so. This can be very dangerous and it’s critical that you honestly know your limits otherwise, you can suffer from Rhabdo-my-olysis, the breakdown of skeletal muscle commonly known as muscle-meltdown. Muscle breakdown causes the release of myoglobin into the bloodstream. Myoglobin is the protein that stores oxygen in your muscles. If you have too much myoglobin in your blood, it can cause renal failure, kidney damage, and death. This is just one example of how overstressing the body can result in very dire consequences.

But humans often and very deliberately subject themselves to high levels of physical stress we call exercise and the result, very more often than not, is an increase in physical strength, speed, endurance, or whatever physical attribute is enhanced by the specific activity undertaken. The body adapts to the activity. This is known as the SAID principle (Specific Adaption to Imposed Demands). In other words, the body adapts to whatever stress it is subjected to. The more the body is exposed to the activity, the less it is negatively impacted.

It is of course possible to overtrain and become injured. The incremental improvements to the body occur over long periods and require not only the stimulus of exercise but also the recovery provided by adequate rest and nutrition.

The mental stress endured by people working long hours under poor conditions with no ability to take a break from the stress is what causes negative health effects. Unlike exercise where you undertake a high degree of physical stress for a relatively short period, followed by rest and nutrition, people often work under very high stress loads for long periods of time and this is not good.

There are only really three things that can be done to change this. You can quit your job and find something to do that doesn’t cause you a high level of mental stress, but this is not particularly desirable or even possible for most people especially if you have invested a lot of time and effort in advancing your chosen career. The second way is to create a work environment where there is an understanding of the negative effects of stress on workers. In this scenario, the leaders in the organisation must understand the impact they have on the employee’s levels of stress and take real and positive steps to monitor and manage stress levels. The third way is to develop the mental toughness needed to be able to cope with elevated levels of stress so that over time these stress levels become normalised in the same way as incremental increases in exercise effort develops muscle.

In my experience, the best way to deal with stress in the workplace is a combination of good leadership and the development of mental toughness.

Being mentally tough and resilient is critically important so you can weather incremental forces and changes, and adapt to them over time. The way to develop your mental toughness is through exposure to periods of adversity over long spans of time. It’s also worth noting that practicing techniques for reducing stress such as meditation and mindfulness provide rest and recovery for the mind. Keeping fit through regular exercise and eating a healthy diet where you limit or abstain from coffee, soft-drink and alcohol, and definitely from smoking, will contribute to your overall health, well-being, and resilience.

I hope this has given you a different perspective on what it means to be resilient and a couple of ideas for how you can increase your personal resilience. But remember, as leaders it’s our responsibility to ensure that those we lead are kept safe from unnecessary stress and are given the opportunity to develop the mental toughness they need to cope when the conditions that cause stress are unavoidable.

Accountability

Whenever staff hear executives and leaders use the “A word”, that’s ‘accountability, they collectively become defensive and feel targeted for blame. Their shoulders drop, they look down and feel the burden of responsibility for all past, present or future business failures.

In business, the term accountability has taken on a very negative connotation because of the way it’s being used. The Oxford Dictionary defines being accountable as being:

“responsible for your decisions or actions and expected to explain them when you are asked”

The words used in this definition are very important and deliberately do not mention results or outcomes. That’s not to say that we should never be held responsible for the result of our actions and there are many examples where we should. Acting inappropriately, unethically, negligently or illegally are examples where individuals or groups must be held to account, not only for their actions but also their outcomes.

However, in business we need our people to feel comfortable and empowered to extend themselves, try new approaches, be innovative, and take appropriate risks. No one is going to do this if their leaders hold them accountable for the outcome when things go wrong. There are many factors that affect results and outcomes that are completely outside the control of the individual; thus, leaders should only hold their staff accountable for those things that are in their control. To coin a military phrase, this is because “the enemy has a say in your plan”. If outcomes were guaranteed and forgone conclusions, every business would be equally successful. What we want from our staff is that they perform their duties in a manner that maximizes the likelihood of success and reduces the risk of failure.

Leaders need to be very clear with their staff about exactly what they mean when they tell them that they are accountable. Doing this correctly sets clear expectations and builds trust.

“People perform at their best when they feel at their best”

Daniel Goleman

Being accountable means doing what’s right to the best of your ability. It means treating others with respect, being of good character, being loyal to your organization, your leadership and your colleagues, and living according to your values and those of the organization. It means making well informed decisions and preforming actions based on those decisions. These are the non-negotiable accountable items. If you do these well, the chance of the outcome being positive is greatly improved, but if not successful, it is clear that you did everything you could and that’s all you could be expected to do.

The message leaders should tell their staff is that being accountable is about being of good character, being loyal, and doing what’s right. It’s about making informed decisions and acting accordingly and it’s about living your values. These are the things you are accountable for.

Codifying Leadership – Part II

Following on from our previous article in our Codifying Leadership series, we now take a look at the humanistic side of leadership through what Daniel Goleman called Emotional Intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence is unquestionably the most significant differentiator for leaders and is arguably more important than both IQ and technical skills.

Goleman identified five key ‘skills’ that constitute Emotional Intelligence which we broadly explained below.

Self Awareness
Self-awareness is the ability to know how you feel and how your emotions and actions affect others. As a leader, self-awareness means having a clear understanding of your strengths and weaknesses.

Self Regulation
Leaders who regulate themselves effectively rarely verbally attack others, make rushed or emotional decisions, stereotype people, or compromise their values. Self-regulation is all about staying in control.

Motivation
Self-motivated leaders work consistently toward their goals and have extremely high standards for the quality of their work. External motives such as money and status are not what drives them and tend to be seen as added benefits of their work.

Empathy
Having empathy is critical to leading successful teams and organisations. Leaders who possess a high degree of empathy are able to put themselves in someone else’s situation and understand how they feel. They use their empathy to help develop their followers by challenging them when they act unfairly, giving them constructive feedback when they need it, and listen to them with the intent of understanding rather than responding.

Social Skills
Leaders who possess good social skills tend to be great communicators and are just as open to hearing bad news as good news. They’re adept at getting their team to support them and they create excitement about a new mission or project. They are also very capable at managing conflict and set the standard through the example of their own behaviour.

Codifying Leadership

It’s far too easy, and commonplace, to confuse leadership with management or general business activities. These activities are important and often need oversight or direct involvement from the more senior members of the organization and include things such as managing budgets, buying inventory, selling products, and dealing with disgruntled customers. These are all activities that leaders commonly take charge of, but they’re not what leaders should focus most of their attention to, or time on.

The image in this post is part of a slide deck from our training session titled “what exceptional leaders do”. A key characteristic all great leaders share is their ability to focus on what’s important and drive those results. Leaders are constantly busy dealing with the daily “squeaky wheels” and delivering against revenue targets, that they struggle to find the time to plan for the future of the business.

When it comes to the fundamentals of leadership, the things that leaders are actually responsible for doing, it seems many leaders suffer from inertia and procrastination. They use the excuse that other more urgent priorities demand their attention and they ring-fence their core leadership responsibilities with annual business planning and budget setting.

It’s hard for many leaders to let go of the day to day and focus on the future? There are two general reasons for this behaviour. The first is that a significant number of leaders achieve their position by excelling at other roles within their organization or their specific field of expertise and they are promoted away from their experience. For these leaders its not only easy to be drawn into operational matters, but it’s also familiar and comfortable. The second reason is a lack of understanding that the vision, mission, strategy and plans are never fixed and need to be constantly evaluated and adjusted.

Leaders need to trust their managers to take care of operations and remain focused on the future.

The 7 Ps

You may have heard the old saying, proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance or some similar variant of the “7 Ps”. Well, here’s my take on how to make sure you are prepared to handle anything using 7 “P” words.

Planning

“Failing to plan is planning to fail”. All planning falls into two basic categories, simple and complex. But, regardless of how simple or complex the plan needs to be, all good plans consist of the same core components. These components, in their simplest form, are the “who, what, where, when, how, and how much”, needed to satisfy all requirements and achieve the outcome, commonly referred to as the objective. If you want to dive deeper into the planning process, check out our posts on Immediate Action Plans and the Planning Process.

Perspective

During the development of the plan, it’s crucial to understand why the objective is important and who it’s important to? Often the plan will form part of a larger strategy. In the military, we give consideration to what’s known as the “Commanders Intent 1Up and 2Up”. This allows you to develop your plan with the wider organisational context in mind rather than in a vacuum as is so often the case.

When drafting the plan, you must possess the requisite foresight to ensure the plan starts with the end in mind and the objective is central and remains the primary focus. There is an old saying, “the surgery was a great success, but the patient died”. Not understanding the wider context that connects the plan to the bigger picture may mean the objective of the plan is achieved, but the execution and delivery don’t align with the organisation’s values or ethical standards, or it may negatively impact broader organisational objectives. Understanding the Commander’s Intent means you can remain flexible and manoeuvre and change the plan to meet strategic objectives.

Performance

Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”. What’s meant by this is that the process of researching, developing, testing, and executing the plan is where the value lays. The plan itself is like a map and is something to follow and keeps you on track for the objective, but the dogmatic execution of the plan itself is not the objective of the plan. The desired outcome is the objective. The measure of the success of the plan is never how Ridgely you were able to stick to the plan, but rather how successfully you were able to achieve the desired outcome. If the planning process was done properly, the two should align, but to quote the famous philosopher Iron Mike Tyson “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. The execution of the plan, sustainment of momentum, and focus on the objective are the key aspects that need to be monitored and controlled.

Persuasion

Plans are written for people. Good plans contain all the information needed to achieve the objective and are written in a way that is easy to understand. These plans are simple in their format, logical in their structure, and consistent in their content. The aim of any plan is to enable those executing it to have no doubt about the activities needed to achieve the desired outcome. But this is only half of what makes a good plan!

All plans need to be approved by someone in your organisation who understands the outcome needed but has probably not been involved in the planning process. Your plan needs to clearly demonstrate and communicate its strengths to this person ultimately responsible for signing it off.

Patience

Most plans are too ambitious and those responsible for drafting them almost always underestimate how long they will take to write and how long they will take to execute. Executing the wrong plan, or a poorly developed plan will result in the corresponding outcome. Not all plans need the same depth of planning, nor will you always have the luxury of all the time you need to fully research and develop every aspect of the plan. Having a planning process for the development of simple and complex plans is the best way to mitigate the risk of being caught in the ‘planning fog of war’.

A robust planning process will allow you to focus your effort on developing the content of the plan rather than on how to draft it. Having a planning process is effectively having a plan for how to develop a plan and will save you an enormous amount of time when you are given the responsibility to develop a plan at short notice. Having the knowledge that planning and the execution of the plan will take a lot longer than thought, it’s important that you don’t rush into solution mode. You need to spend the time needed to understand the situation, develop courses of action, analyse courses of action, and make a decision on the best way forward before drafting the plan.

Persistence

The best plans are those that are simple to understand and easy to execute. But even a bad plan can be made to work if the objective is clear and is led by a leader who has the drive and determination to see it through to the end. No plan, no matter how well researched and drafted, will be effective without a dedicated and effective leader in charge. A key planning consideration is flexibility, and a good leader will be able to modify the plan on the fly whilst maintaining focus on the objective.

Poise

The execution of a plan needs to be such that everyone involved has confidence in the plan and the leader’s ability to make it work. The leader needs to be intimately familiar with the plan and must be able to anticipate issues and constantly adjust the plan to achieve the outcome. An often-made statement is to “make a plan and stick to it”. Whilst this is somewhat apt, a better statement is “make the right plan and stick to it”. The role of the leader is to execute the right plan and in doing so it’s the leader’s responsibility to confidently inform all those involved of any changes needed to keep the plan on track. The leader must use critical thinking and logic to drive his decisions and must not allow emotion to cloud his judgment. The leader must believe in the plan and demonstrate an unwavering resolve to achieve the desired outcome. This belief in the plan will be contagious and coupled with the leader’s energy will create a sense of team spirit and momentum.

Group Think

Have you ever experienced a situation where you have been part of a well-intentioned group of people who have made an irrational or sub-optimal decision because you felt the need to conform to what you thought the group wanted or because not conforming seemed wrong or impossible? You may have succumbed to what’s known as Group Think.

Group Think can cause individuals to go against their personal beliefs and form a consensus with the group. This can be caused by a compelling narrative or a specific agenda as is often seen in both left-wing socialist organisations such as universities and many businesses today, to alt-right-wing supremacist groups.

Group Think is not new and can be traced back to the earliest times in human evolution, but it wasn’t until 1971 when Irving Janis published an article on the subject in a prominent psychological journal, that the phenomenon was properly characterised and given the term “Group Think”. Janis’s research found that decisions made by groups, particularly under stressful conditions, tended to be based on a desire for harmony rather than on critical thinking.

Individuals often reframe from expressing their true thoughts and tend to be more ‘agreeable’ and less likely to express doubts or exercise their better judgment. The desire for harmony, fear of criticism, and avoidance of conflict lead to conformance with the popular narrative and can result in decisions being made that seem reasonable but are ethically and morally questionable.

Group Think plays out across the full spectrum of society from dogmatic political and religious ideology, school bullies, fanatical sports fans, and organisations that implement policies to conform with current business and social trends.

Group Think also extends to those who accept group decisions by not objecting to them. This can be as subtle as walking past someone being bullied and doing nothing, or agreeing with a poor decision in order to be seen as loyal to a friend, spouse, boss, or organisation. To paraphrase Jack Welch, today’s lack of candor is the dirty little secret of business.

When Group Think is prevalent, the group tends to act in solidarity and can ostracise those who are not part of the group or who think differently. At an organisational level, Group Think can lead to poor decision making and is synonymous with operating in an “Echo Chamber”. The impacts of decisions made as a result of Group Think can be significant and range from common business decisions like ‘positive discrimination’ or ‘minority balancing’ to social policy or even riots and war.

It’s up to leaders to develop, support, and even demand open, honest, and frank discourse as a means to prevent Group Think from tainting their decision-making process. The next time you are in a meeting really think about the topic being discussed and have the courage and conviction to state your views without fear and with the knowledge that others are probably thinking the same thing but aren’t prepared to speak up. If you don’t feel you can do this, you should reconsider if you are part of an organisation that values you, your experience, and your input.

Discipline will set you free

Motivation is fantastic. Motivation is the thing that gets you out of bed in the morning. It gets you to the front door and inspires you to open the door to look outside. But then you discover it’s raining and your motivation wavers. You think, I’m not giving up, but I’m not going out! I’ll just start tomorrow. The next day your alarm goes off, you get out of bed, get dressed, and go to the front door. You open the door and it’s raining again, and you think to yourself wow, two days in a row, I need a better plan. You go back inside and convince yourself that tomorrow will be the day. Then the next day you get up and go to the door and this time it’s freezing cold, so, you think I don’t have the right gear to go outside and do this. I’d love to do it and I really want to, but it’s just so cold.

This is the problem with relying solely on motivation. Motivation will get you out of bed and to the door but it falters easily, leaving you standing looking into the cold, wet abyss. What motivation won’t do is force you to take your first step outside and every other step after that. It won’t make you commit to taking real action and achieving real results. That takes commitment and it takes discipline.

Motivation is great at inspiring you and getting you to the door, but it’s like eating sugar for energy. Its effect dissipates quickly and leaves you feeling empty and needing more. Discipline, on the other hand, gives you the sustained energy and power to continue through the pain, doubt, and difficulty. Despite the hardship, discipline is the driving force, when your motivation fades. Discipline will see you through the pain and allow you to ‘just do it’, to quote the Nike ad.

Discipline is the driving force that underpins the success of whatever you want to achieve, and the good news is discipline is something you can develop. Discipline comes from being able to create a vision of where you want to go, a plan for how you want to get there, and having the will to execute the plan. Most people fail because they don’t have a plan or the will to execute it and try to use motivation to inspire action. This is unsustainable and will lead to failure unless it transmutes into discipline. Motivation is just your vision! Everything else is self-discipline.

Discipline has an amazing, almost illogical way of setting you free. Developing discipline normally results in establishing systems, processes, and routines. Your discipline drives you to stick to your routine and refine your systems and processes until they become habitual. Forming good habits will help you to focus and get stuff done. Being disciplined and forming good habits doesn’t mean being dogmatic or refusing to evolve or change your habits over time. On the contrary, being disciplined means always searching for ways to be more effective and efficient to make sure the discipline you apply is appropriate to achieve the outcome you desire. Process is important but purpose is king.

Developing discipline requires mental toughness. It means being serious about what you want, really serious. It also means being committed. You must be serious and committed if you really want to achieve your desired goals. Your desire to succeed must outweigh all your other desires such as pleasure and comfort, like going back to bed on a cold, wet morning. According to Tony Robbins, there are only two motivating factors in life. Pleasure and pain. The pleasure derived from achieving your goals must outweigh the pain endured in attaining them, otherwise, you will quit and won’t succeed.

There are also different types of discipline. The best discipline is self-discipline. Self-discipline is the discipline you place upon yourself that makes you do the things you need to do with no external pressure. It’s your drive, your ambition, your focus, and your commitment to succeed.

Then there’s group discipline. Group discipline is a form of discipline where someone, normally a leader, commander, or manager, enforces discipline through the threat of some sort of reprisal. It also manifests in the form of individuals not wanting to let down the leader or the group they are a part of. Group discipline results from individuals demonstrating their self-discipline in a group setting to achieve a common outcome, goal, or mission. Group discipline is used to great effect by organisations like the military and sporting teams where the mission must come first and failure is not an option.

Then there’s a third type of discipline which is generally negative and is dealt out to people as a form of punishment. This can take the form of correcting poor form, preventing someone from doing something they shouldn’t, or being punished for doing something unlawful or foolish.

Performance management can be considered a type of discipline especially when there are consequences for underperformance. This discipline takes the form of correcting a problem to bring the person back in line with expectations. Discipline also extends to the legal system in the form of laws that if broken will result in punishment. The mere threat of punishment for breaking laws is enough to ensure most people maintain the expected level of discipline or acceptable standard.

As a leader, it’s important to understand all three types of discipline so you can develop self-discipline in yourself and your staff, apply group discipline to your team and enforce rules and the law when necessary.

So, while motivation may get you out of bed in the morning, it’s discipline that will help you drive results and achieve your goals. Discipline will save you time, reduce uncertainty and risk, and improve your overall performance. Discipline will help you focus and take control, allowing you to achieve your goals every time, unlike motivation which will fade in and out and only return limited success.

Ultimately, discipline will set you free.

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