Leadership
All the Right Answers
In our earliest educational experiences, we learn the value of knowing all the answers. The delight of being the first to raise your hand and give the correct response is a simple thrill that reinforces the quest to study hard, fill in the blanks, and make good grades. I recall being reminded of the dangers ahead if you screwed up and scarred your permanent record. Where is that record anyway? Who keeps it and will it really be pulled out and held up as evidence of my value? Or the lack thereof? Somehow, I doubt it.
In grades K-12 followed by college or trade school, each includes its own forms of testing. Students cram their brains chock full of facts and theories, some valuable and others not so much. As you grow in your career and earn promotions based on your knowledge, skills, and ability to generate results, there comes a time when it is no longer possible to know all the answers. The best leaders do not even try to know them all.
Somewhere in the gap between knowing how to do everything to leading a broader team lies the biggest stumbling ground for new leaders. Even the most successful managers can struggle to let go of the intricate details and learn to keep an eye on the bigger picture upon moving up the leadership ladder, a delicate and endless balancing act where results are always important but need to be achieved through the work of others.
The failure doesn’t fall on these leaders of tomorrow, it lands squarely on the leaders of today. We have a responsibility for the long-term success of these rising leaders. The talent development path requires hard and soft skills – including the humanities. The industry is so focused on keeping up with the tech wars that the anthropological subjects get pushed to the side.
In 1989, Sydney Yoshida posed the “Iceberg of Ignorance” to easily identify the depth of understanding the front line problems in an organization. Sydney was a consultant who worked for a Japanese car manufacturer and discovered a lack of knowledge within the classic hierarchy. It shows the clear disconnect between front-line staff and upper management. The Iceberg of Ignorance breaks down like this:
- Front line staff see 100% of the problems
- Team leads see 74% of the problems
- Team managers see 9% of the problems
- Executives see 4% of the problems
I should note that these findings are related to the specific Japanese car manufacturer Sydney studied and are not necessarily identical to other companies, but my experience tells me that his results are within a fair margin of many other industries. For our purposes today, I want to lean away from the specific hierarchical percentages and into the opportunity found in his report.
I anticipate that the knee jerk reaction of a novice regional level manager might be to feel embarrassment about not having all the answers and to revert back to what they know, that is to get into the details to such an extent that the workers on the ground might feel judged, unheard, and usurped. The knock-on effect might then be for staff members to learn the lesson that speaking up only brings more intrusion, more burden, and no real assistance. Silencing your front-line teams is a real shame. It is a missed opportunity to use your best resources to solve genuine hurdles that impede performance, to properly support a novice leader, and worst of all, it leads to a dangerous erosion of your company’s culture.
If 100% (or any number that approaches it) of your front-line team members know the challenges they face in producing their work, therein lies your best resource to offer solutions. Honest, open-hearted conversations can lead to genuine responses that include “This is the problem. I think this is the solution.” The answer might be mechanical, or procedural, or some other fairly straightforward fix. You will never know if you don’t ask the right questions and train up your next-generation leaders in how to listen, move the boulders upstream, and execute real solutions through working with and supporting others.
What powerful iceberg-type lessons have you learned in your career? Please share them with the Multifamily Collective community!
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Steve Wunch | Collective Conversations
Steve Wunch — with more than 20 years as a dedicated Multifamily professional facilitator in the arenas of Leadership; Sales and Customer Service and Technical Training, Performance Consulting and Talent Development. Steve is a National Speaker available for Keynote presentations, and other motivational speaking engagements, as well as speaker, actor, voice over artist available for freelance projects.
This episode is brought to you by MultifamilyCollective – Teasing Out Human Potential in the Multifamily Space. RADCO Residential – Building Better Living.
At RADCO Residential, “Building Better Living” isn’t just a tagline; it’s our core passion. We take great pride in each and every community we manage, and we treat our residents like family. From the moment you visit one of our apartment communities until long after you move on to your next home, you’ll feel the difference that sets RADCO apart.
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Over the River
It’s that time of year when holiday tunes ring forth from every store, elevator, playlist, and television show. “Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go.” It’s a great lyric filled with nostalgia and recalls images of a loving nuclear family gathering for food and celebration.
People labor long hours to recreate those childhood memories – shopping, cooking, wrapping, and traveling to spend time with extended family. Multiple celebratory events such as school, office, and social holiday gatherings load the December calendar, packed to the gills with things to do – ugly sweaters to create, gifts to give, cookies to bake, trees to trim, and lights to hang.
Work does not stop, and the labor related to employment also fills the calendar. For some people, the workload increases to cover the absence of teammates who are away on well-deserved PTO, and for those in the supply chain and delivery business, there is no time to pause for more than a breath. It’s the most wonderful time of the year, right?
Heraclitus was a Greek philosopher born in 544 BC, and therefore never had to worry about the frenetic demands we place on modern-day holidays. He is quoted as saying, “No man steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.”Heraclitus’ quote is deep and powerful, and it has always resonated with me like an acknowledgment of the constancy of change. In this season, and with the added constraints of the last two years, the quote seems even more apropos.
As the restrictions of the pandemic appear to be waning, and we are coming out of what feels like a national chrysalis, we look toward the gathering with extended family with a sense of longing for what was. But for some reason, the family of puzzle pieces never quite fits together the way they once did. To apply Heraclitus’ great quote in my own words – there is no return to seasons past. I am different from who I was. My extended family members have changed, as has the family unit. And the world we inhabit is different. We are all constantly evolving.
Change is the only constant. I encourage you to embrace the honesty of change and look to whatever form of celebration you choose with an eye towards what is without the expectation of recreating what was. It is good to remember the past while we enjoy the present. Tomorrow will bring change yet again.
Not the same river. Not the same man.
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