0.5 Conclusion
When you build trust and spark together, amazing things happen.
You attract and retain the most talented employees. You innovate constantly. You surprise and delight your customers. You out-perform your peers. When trust and spark work together, it doesn’t ensure calm quiet. Because people feel free, they feel free to engage in asking questions and airing conflicting opinions. The culture shifts to one in which people focus on the performance of the entire organization. When you’re operating at light speed, everyone “runs it like they own it.”
To build trust and spark, you need to make ten quantum leaps in how you think, act, and orient yourself as a leader. Each of the following sections focuses on one of these quantum leaps. Here’s a preview:
Quantum Leap #1: Align the Core Values
The first quantum leap for leaders to make is to recognize the importance of aligning everyone around a single set of core values — the organization’s core values — defined as the behaviors and activities essential to the organization’s success. This is a significant departure from the traditional ways of thinking about core values. It is the leader’s job to discover these core values and make them apparent to all. By doing so, you begin to instill deep feelings of trust, ownership and mutual accountability. When leaders engage in a deep exploration of the organization’s core values, the consequences can be dramatic. Underlying conflicts are forced to the surface. Tough discussions take place. The entire character of the company is changed as it shifts from being personality-driven to values-driven.
Quantum Leap #2: Sharpen the Focus
It is not enough to communicate your purpose and core values. People want to know the specific vision: What is the company actually going to do in the future to improve how it delivers value? People want to know how to measure your success in getting there. Defining a focused direction is not easy. It requires difficult, sometimes painful choices. But a sharp strategic focus will build trust and generate spark. and research has shown that the more focused the vision is, the more people will dedicate themselves to achieving it.
Quantum Leap #3: Lead Through Others
To maximize your impact, you have to lead through others. For the leader, this means it is critical to recruit and hire the right players, delegate responsibility to them, and provide them with the tools and systems to succeed. It also means getting rid of players who fail to adapt successfully. In a light speed world, each player on the court needs to elevate the others. Understanding the habits of highly effective teams is critical. As a leader, you have to watch the dynamics carefully, bench the players who are not advancing, and give those who are ready to play a chance at a starting role.
Quantum Leap #4: Manage Decisions Well
Decisions are the day-to-day inputs and outputs of an organization. To operate at light speed, leaders must build systems that result in good decisions being made throughout the organization. They need to teach people how to manage decisions within the confines of the core values and vision. They need to reframe how difficult decisions are communicated and made. Delegations must be clear. Otherwise, the sludge of bureaucracy creeps in and paralyzes the organization. Most importantly, people must shift their orientation from making decisions to managing them.
Quantum Leap #5: Accelerate the Pace of Decisions
In a time of accelerating change, leaders need to enable people to adapt quickly by introducing “learning loops” throughout the organization. Successful learning loops have three qualities: they are based on clear metrics and targets; they are monitored on a regular basis by groups empowered to make change; and the communication is immediate. Effective leaders not only arm people with the skills and tools to continuously learn, adapt and navigate change effectively. They also weed out hidden “ignorance loops” that impede the organization from learning.
Quantum Leap #6: Stimulate the Creative Flow
Many organizations are ruled by hidden forces of fear — fear of failure, fear of personal embarrassment, fear of loss of status. Leaders must continually counter this tendency by rewarding people for taking chances and being different. They need to tap into and release people’s creative flow. They need to weed out “group think.” When people feel supported to take creative risks, they’ll discover and tap hidden wells of talent and energy. They’ll apply creative thinking to problem solving and achieve significant breakthroughs in remarkably short periods of time. When you enable people to stretch beyond their safety zones, you can inspire them to feel differently and to think differently. This builds high levels of trust and spark — and leads to high levels of innovation.
Quantum Leap #7: Spread Systems Thinking
To succeed in a light speed world, leaders need to spread the power of systems thinking throughout the organization. It’s not sufficient if just a few people understand systems thinking. Everyone needs to know how to view problems from a systems perspective. People need to become data-driven in their thinking. They need to visualize the organization from multiple frames of reference. People need to continually challenge the status quo and adjust business processes based on customers’ expectations, not internal assumptions or traditions. By spreading the power of systems thinking, leaders can instill deeper levels of trust, innovation and performance throughout the organization.
Quantum Leap #8: Communicate in 12-D
In a light speed world, people need to communicate at increasing speeds (and at increasing distances) in order to build trust. Internally, this means a focus from the top on building systems of communication. It also means focusing on external communication. In a light speed world, people on the outside scrutinize and analyze every action that the company takes. There is constant pressure from the media. new websites, blogs, and watchdog groups crop up every day, fueling more feedback and “e-chatter.” Since there is no “under the radar” anymore, leaders need to invent new ways to communicate and shape the rules of the game.
Quantum Leap #9: Start With Yourself
Leaders need to develop certain personal qualities in order to succeed. They need to be honorable, have a passion for what they do, display a well-rounded sense of humor, and stay humble and curious to learn. In addition, they need to become master communicators and adept at dealing with four paradoxes of leadership. All of these qualities can be learned. When blended together, these are the personal qualities that distinguish great leaders.
Quantum Leap #10: Help People Assume Responsibility
Leaders must master this last quantum shift in order to help themselves — and other people — assume responsibility for change. Change invariably means making a personal choice. Given that fact, leaders must rethink how they communicate: Rather than direct people, they must learn to ask powerful questions. “What is the change you need to make?” “How will you know you’ve achieved it?” “How will you approach it?” “What are the ways you’ll measure your success?” By asking powerful questions, leaders can harness the power of self-reflection and help people assume full responsibility to implement these practices and make the jump to light speed.
In Conclusion…
To lead at light speed you need to make ten quantum leaps in how you think, act, and orient yourself as a leader. These quantum leaps are vitally important. They will raise the leadership capacity of everyone around you – including yourself. They will create systems of communication and thinking that are not intuitively obvious. Paradoxically, it means slowing down while you implement these practices. But once you do, you will be maximizing your impact as a leader. The organization will start moving faster and with more productive energy than ever before. If you take the time to apply them, you will find yourself harnessing the full power of leading at light speed.