PREFACE:
As was mentioned in the previous article Values and Beliefs play a huge role in leadership. When most people talk about values and beliefs they talk in somewhat nebulous terms. For our discussions we refer to two sources of values and each of these has 3 dimensions. The sources are the world around us and the world within us. The three dimensions deal with life, materiality, and our ability to know and understand the intricacies of the world or at least our own perception of it.
When we consider the world around us, our values with respect to life are generally translated into actions that directly affect people. This is often interpreted as empathy or an ability to put yourself in the place of those you interact with. Can you relate to how they feel, think, and dream or are you skeptical and mistrusting of others? Your relationship to other people exists on a continuum from being extremely trusting and accepting of others (almost to a point of and perhaps all the way to the point of a susceptibility to being taken advantage of) to being completely skeptical of their motives and wanting to hold them all at arm’s length. At the same time some people see people very clearly while others just don’t seem to understand why people think and behave the way they do. And quite interestingly how clearly you see people is not necessarily related to whether you trust them or not. There are many people who find other humans to be quite a mystery but trust them and there are people who see others with crystal clarity yet are very skeptical and untrusting. Plus everything in between also exists.
Considering the material world we have a wide range of values as well. There are people who hold material possessions in high esteem and there are others who have little use for the material world. It is the discrepancy between how we regard things that seems to be the source of so many problems in our world. Because of the strong feeling that many people have for “things” a feeling of possession comes into play. Competition for ownership can lead to conflict between people and groups of people and settling that conflict creates one aspect of problem solving that keeps many reasonably intelligent people very, very busy. And then we have the ethical questions concerning ownership of life essentials such as food, water, clothing, shelter, safety, and health. As is the case with empathy or how we related to one another, people have varied beliefs with regards to the material world. There are those people who seem to have absolutely no use for material things and those who treasure possessions more than all else and there are thousands of variations between the two extremes.
We also have varying levels of clarity with which we see the problems that emanate from our disagreements associated with the possession of the materials of life. Some people will see the dimensions of such problems with crystal clarity while others are baffled by what the fuss is all about. Between that crystal clarity and complete confusion over what’s going on exists numerous levels of understanding regarding the problems we all face in this life. An important point to note at this time is a simple observation; the difference between regard for people and regard for things is not always so neat and tidy of a concept. Food, for example, has an impact in both dimensions. Food is a possession. I go to the grocery store and purchase food and it becomes “my food” which I place in my refrigerator and pantry. But that very concept of food creates a thought about life sustaining nutrition that all people need. I may have incredible empathy and great concern for the millions of starving, malnourished people in the world but may not be willing to give up any of “my food” to help solve the problem. At this point my empathy, as deep and abiding as it may be can be trumped by my personal concern for my own material possessions.
THE ARTICLE:
The first dimension of leadership I want to mention is values and beliefs. One of our clients runs a small manufacturing firm. Looking at his values structure and what he believes, we find a fundamental skepticism when he relates to people and he is attracted to material possessions. These values are further affected by a very innovative approach to how he gets things done. This all plays out in the way Bob (not his real name) interacts with his employees and conducts his business.
Bob has a tendency to buy toys and constantly question the motives of his employees. He’ll hire new people and then so mistrust them that they often won’t come back to work. We had to help Bob see who he really was and how that person was creating havoc in his company. He didn’t get that when he told employees that the company didn’t have enough money to buy new equipment and then he shows up with a new boat being hauled by a new Cadillac those same employees couldn’t separate what he did in his private life from what happened in the business.
It’s not that Bob is good or bad. It’s just what he values. It does impact what goes on in his company. With intensive leadership coaching Bob now realizes who he is and how his values and beliefs affect what he does. He’s realizes that his choices can enhance progress, limit growth, or send the company into a tailspin. Learning about yourself and your values, you can begin to make decisions that are in the best interest of your organization because they are in the best interest of the people you depend on to make things work.
When considering what we value, it is important to understand that we value both the external and the internal. Externally we value life with a primary focus on humanity. But our actions are also affected by how much we value the physical and non-physical worlds. How we carry out our daily functions will be affected by how much we value any one or more of these.
Our feelings about our experiences occur in two ways. One extends from totally negative to the totally positive and the other deals with how clearly it all appears to us. We can see things with crystal clarity so that they seem absolutely obvious or the very same conditions might be perceived as being very foggy and unclear. Of course with both continua most people will exist somewhere in between the extremes. Most people will not be 100% negative nor will they be 100% positive. Similarly, most people will not possess absolute, crystal clarity in their insight into people, things, or ideas nor will most people experience complete fog when presented with new people, things, or ideas. Bob sees things clearly and is very positive about them. Unfortunately, people are a mystery to Bob and as a result he just doesn’t trust them very much.
Next we’ll begin taking a look at how we look at ourselves.
SUMMATION:
Having had the opportunity to conduct over 700 Talent Insight Profiles of both management and labor personnel for more than 50 different companies, I have acquired some insight into what makes people tick. Too often management acquires a belief that what works for them ought to work for all their employees. That assumption is a false assumption way more frequently than it is a correct assumption and that erroneous thinking often leads to some very difficult outcomes for a business.
Understanding what the people you supervise truly value will give you real insight into why they do what they do. We can assume that those in our charge are lazy and lack a connection to the needs of the company but that will get you nowhere with respect to making the progress you’d really like to make in the company. Once we understand where they are coming from we can reframe out thought process so that we can truly make the progress we desire. Some might look at this process as manipulative but the truth is that until workers connect with the company on more than a cursory level, real progress will be difficult to make.
Our experience is that workers really want to know how they fit into the larger scheme of things. Lacking the connections, workers will do what managers have been doing, make assumptions. Those assumptions will most likely be off the mark but those assumptions will color their perceptions of the company and management and in the long run will affect productivity and profitability.
If we want to give ourselves the biggest advantage possible we will need to know where our people are coming from. That can only be ascertained through careful observation of what they do and why they do it; not just at work but outside of work as well. In a comprehensive study we conducted of route drivers for the vending industry we discovered that unlike their managers, route drivers we not strongly motivated by money. Money was important as it allowed them to pay their bills and engage in the outside activities they valued the most but they we far more driven by a desire for consistency, predictability, and a knowledge of what was and what was not expected of them in the workplace. Their interest was in putting a clearly defined amount of work for a clearly defined and fair amount of pay so that they could spend their off work hours with their families and friends engaged in other activities that they valued just as much as work.
In that same study we could see how managers were misreading these drivers. They often looked for a route driver that would behave in an entrepreneurial way. That is they would look at their route as if it was their own company and take on all of the “responsibility thinking” that a business owner would take on. This is not consistent with how the route drivers thought or believed. The route driver did not want that burden and in those companies that took that approach there was a constant turnover in route drivers. The business owner and manager took on those responsibilities because that was part of what motivated them to get up and go to work each day. They loved that challenge. That was their world, not the world of the route driver.
By acquiring a better understanding of what drives the employee an employer has a much better chance of being able to create an organizational culture that will match the needs of those employees yet still meet their needs as owners and managers. That’s the underlying goal of all leaders. Find out what will keep the followers moving towards the goals you have set while continuing to create the environment that keeps you sharp and on target as well. Knowing that it is often two or more different sets of conditions creates a conundrum for many leaders but the astute leader accepts the challenge as being just one more reason to be a leader.
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