The Association Renewal Blog

Leadership Renewal

There is yet another good leadership article in HBR this month. This one, by David Nadler, talks about the CEO’s “second act.” CEOs in the corporate world are often brought in to fix a problem or save a sinking ship (Act I). Successful ones do just that, but after a while,

…the experiences, skills, and temperament that yielded triumph in Act I turn out to be unequal to Act II’s difficulties. In fact, the approaches that worked so brilliantly in Act I may be the very opposite of what is needed to bring Act II to a happy resolution.

This is true of both leadership and strategy. When Jeff and I talk about strategy, we consistently warn clients NOT to wait until the strategy is an utter failure before trying to change it. If you want to keep the organization on its most productive growth curve, you need to think about changing strategy when you are succeeding, not when you are failing (when it will take so much energy to turn things around).

Of course, organizations are resistant to this. It took a lot of hard work to achieve success, so it feels wrong, somehow, to change it. But that is just what this article is talking about. Refusing to change, frankly, assumes the world is not changing. If you assume the world is changing, then it becomes obvious that your particular style or your particular set of strengths (or your particular strategy) will work for a period of time, and then become less effective. Your choice then is to change yourself, change the structure of the organization (so others can pick up the leadership slack), or move on.

Humility and Diversity

This month’s HBR has a section of brief pieces written by business leaders on topics like humility, energy, and intuition. Nokia’s CEO has this to say about humility:

In a management team, humility is a product of diversity—managers must humbly accept that their own perspectives need to be broadened by others.

Could you say the same thing about your senior management team? Better yet, could you say this about your board?

Beyond Efficient

Bill Taylor has a great article in the Volunteer Leadership issue of Association’s Now. I commented on it on the Always Done it That Way blog, but I wanted to raise some points here as well.

Toward the beginning of the article, Taylor asserts that “being different makes all the difference.”

Today, the most effective leaders don’t just strive to build efficient organizations. They champion high stakes agendas. They create a strategic edge around an edgy critique of their field. They understand that the only sustainable form of market leadership is thought leadership.

This makes great sense to me, and Jeff and I have been making precisely this point to our clients. Although I do wonder: would most association executives agree with this statement? Efficient organizations deliver value to the members, they might argue. Critiquing the field will alienate our base. Our members don’t want “thought leadership.”

And I guess I agree, to some extent, with these points (although obviously it would depend on the specific context). But remember that Taylor is talking about the “most effective” leaders. There is a different between competent leadership (efficient) and excellent leadership (edge). You should achieve the efficient stage, but as Taylor says, that is not what you should strive for.

More on Choice

Building on my last post (before the holidays) about choice, there is further support in this month’s Associations Now. Edward Hallowell writes an article focusing on individuals, not organizations, and how to manage over-busy schedules, but his point is relevant to organizations too:

Learn how you spend your [time] and determine which time is allocated toward what matters most to you and which is not. You must choose. A person not doing what matters most to him or her is the most common cause of an excessively busy life.

This is great advice, but what it doesn’t point out is that most people don’t actually know what matters most to them and what does not. It is actually hard work to get clarity on what matters most, because in this crazy life we are presented with way too many things that “matter.” The same is true organizationally.

Hallowell, by the way, will be presenting at the Great Ideas Conference in Florida later this month (as will Jeff and I).