How to Tackle Leadership Scarcity Head-On

This is a written Transcription for the Leadership Hustle episode about How to Tackle Leadership Scarcity Head-On, from Season 1 Episode 11.

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Andrea Frederickson: On this episode of The Leadership Hustle, we'll talk about the scarcity of leadership. Hello and welcome to the Leadership Hustle. For executives whose companies are growing fast and need leaders who are ready. Welcome to the next episode of The Leadership Hustle. I'm Andrea Fredrickson, your host, and I'm here with Michelle. How are you doing, Michelle? Good. How are you doing? It's good. And today we are going to look into the subject of a scarcity of leadership. Literally today, right before we're recording this episode, I had a phone call from a HR leader who was looking for a high-level leadership development program. And this is not uncommon, but the difference between this and some other conversations was she was looking for something for her senior executives, something more on the leadership side than the management side, which is actually something we're starting to hear more and more of because their people are telling us we're lacking leadership. So it was it was just an interesting conversation that I thought, oh, how interesting that this is the topic today and this is what she's bringing up. Yeah.

Michelle Hill: Well, and it feels like they do find managing, but it's when it gets to the whole leading piece of it is where and as people elevate, they need to spend more time leading versus managing and letting their people who they've hired to manage to manage. And there's that that struggle. There's where people really need to stretch themselves. So I'm curious, Andrew, or actually maybe for our audience, because I know we've talked about this in the past difference between a manager and a leader. Remind our audience if they hadn't listened to an earlier podcast, just a brief summary of that manager piece, but really that leader leader responsibility.

Andrea Frederickson: Okay. So from a from a simplistic view, when we talk about management, we're talking about the responsibilities where people are managing resources, time, money, equipment, schedules and other other kinds of resources. When we look at the leader kinds of behaviors, what we're looking for is the coaching, the creating an environment that is motivating or even inspiring, creating a culture where people want to stay. looking at how to create an environment that's resilient, , making tough decisions and unpopular decisions. So those are the kinds of things that that leaders do versus managers. And so what what we're hearing then is that people tend to be gravitating toward the managing resource kinds of things that are, oh, I can check that off. I can I can see an absolute result from that activity. And they may have had have been doing that in a previous role, correct?

Michelle Hill: Well, and when you think about it, what's the consequences? So as you elevate, maybe grow or come in as that that executive leadership team. Right. That that high level leadership team, when they are diving into the checking the boxes and the weeds, I'm going to say, right, what impact does that have on their team? That is the ones really responsible for doing that work.

Andrea Frederickson: Right. So two things. One, they're not being paid to do that. They're being paid to do higher level skill, higher level decision, higher level thinking, strategic kinds of things. And they're doing work that is not theirs. So if they're doing job, a job that's not theirs, that manager of responsibility, their manager responsibilities or the team itself, who could manage, it's completely deflating because they know they were hired to do this and not being allowed. Yes. And so.

Michelle Hill: Motivating.

Andrea Frederickson: Now they feel, you know, just like, well, why did you hire me? Or you're not challenging me or you're not, you know, you might even be micromanaging me..

Michelle Hill: Yeah, there's a fine line of that micromanaging where people feel like if someone on that executive team asks a question about the because they go so far in the details that that person is fearful, they're not going to know the details. And a lot of times you've got that middle person. They're not in the details as deep either, but they they almost have to micromanage their people. So when they get asked the question from this executive about all these details, they can actually answer it. Right. And it's this negative ripple effect is what I often hear.

Andrea Frederickson: So a client of ours used the analogy that, you know, if you hire an R.N. or a nurse practitioner to do a specific job, they don't do LPN kinds of things, right? They hire Lpns to do LPN things. And they don't hire Lpn's to do CNA things, they hire CNA things, people to do CNA things. And so let's be sure that we are putting our effort and our skills and our knowledge and our resources where they're designed to be as opposed to, oh, sliding to a position that someone else's gift. Is that.

Michelle Hill: Right?

Andrea Frederickson: And responsibility and their responsibility is to do that. Yes.

Michelle Hill: And we're also not we're putting them at a disadvantage because now they're not given the the possible or not possibilities, but the the time and the focus to actually do that. So now they're doing almost a lower level. And so it's like shoving everyone down. Well, then we're not developing our people at a higher rate.

Andrea Frederickson: Well and well, I'll get some argument in these days where I say, well, we're really short staffed. Yes, right. So we're really short on people. That doesn't mean we don't challenge people because have we asked if people can take on their responsibilities? Have we said, what do we need to stop doing? Because maybe we don't need to be doing this anymore. Maybe there's some reason not to do something. What are we going to stop doing? What are we going to pause doing versus what needs to be done? And we simply, as leaders, assume someone needs something unless we instead of asking like, what do we need to do or working through it? Leader Responsibility is let's go find out. Let's go see what they need. Let's go see if I absolutely need to step in and support or is this the story I'm telling.

Michelle Hill: Myself and I just need to let it go and really focus on the results, not the details. It's like, where are we at in traction? Where are we moving forward? Are we are we on track and really having those conversations versus wanting to know all the details on how we're getting there?

Andrea Frederickson: So we have so many, many, many people who are spending time and responsibility, doing responsibilities that aren't theirs, but also spending more time managing than leading. So let's talk about, when we are working with those leaders, what skills or what behaviors, what activities, what kinds of things should leaders be spending more time doing than maybe what we're seeing today? Just give us a couple.

Michelle Hill: Well, one, if you go back to the quadrants quadrant two: a person who's leading, should be spending time identifying, you know, one, we have our vision. Are we moving towards that or where's that happening? Right. But spending time actually thinking, reflecting planning, which also in the one book that we're reading, you know, gets into blue work versus red work. Right? And oftentimes the red work is the task check off items where they don't they don't give themselves permission to actually say, no, I need to think about this. I need to I need to actually challenge my thoughts and and get maybe have a conversation with a peer to say, are we are we still on track? What's what's the conditions going on around us that we have in our control so we can be more proactive versus reactive?

Andrea Frederickson: So just side note, quadrant two, we're talking about the Eisenhower model. We're talking about quadrant two is not urgent but important. So proactive kinds of things that people need to be doing preventative, keeping people in the loop, planning, organizing, scheduling. Those are things that are leader type behaviors. And then the book that Michelle was referencing is Leadership is Language by David Marquette going further. So the the proactive kinds of things is, you know, knowing when to do activity, red work and to also do pauses and make sure that we're doing thinking problem solving and things like that. Another thing that I you know, that we recognize leaders have to be creating these environments where people want to work and not everybody is going to want to work in every company because every company has a different culture. Yes. But what we are truly are trying to do is are working toward not even trying to do but working toward is building a culture. By the way, culture is kind of code of how we get things done around here. Doesn't mean but doesn't mean it doesn't need to be improved. Okay. So so I love the idea of aligning culture, but leaders need to make sure that they're challenging the way things are done. Because if we don't challenge the way things are done, we don't improve. So leaders are always looking for what's the next thing? What makes us better don't change for change's sake. But are we changing for the betterment of the delivery of what we're doing for our customer? The efficiency for the betterment of employees? By the way, we're not going to make all employees happy. We are not going to have 100% of the population be agreeing with everything. But we're looking toward making everything better and people wanting to work with us.

Michelle Hill: That improvement, it's that growth. It's the future possibilities. In that sense. And also it is that time where they're thinking, where they're also going out and asking questions from people within the organization of what's going well, what are the things from what they're seeing, we could be improving on, you know, where they're gathering information to help make better decisions as well. Right. But they have to take time to do that

Andrea Frederickson: and not Just getting the information from those direct reports. We call them skip meetings. We talk about, you know, town hall discussions. We're looking at gathering Intel to find out what's really going on with that within your organization. So, Michelle, you were telling me a story just a little bit ago about people, leaders who are afraid to make some tough decisions. Yes. Tell tell us a little bit about the story and then we can we can elevate this.

Michelle Hill: Okay. Just to simplify it, as a as a business unit, we've decided to invest. I'm just going to say in a software and we're obviously outsourcing a lot of that initial setup and so forth. And we're, let's just say a couple of years in still not running fully, not performing and also not paying attention, noticing when I say not paying attention, but not noticing that what we had decided a year and a half or two years ago isn't getting us what we thought it was going to. And so they're they're just keeping going. They're just like, we got to keep going. We got to keep going. But it's not necessarily solving the problem or getting the results they originally thought it was going to. And there's that that bias, especially if it was our idea, right, that we got to we got to finish this, we got to make this work versus we need to cut our losses and that's a really tough decision. And you have to have people around you because sometimes, especially if it was your idea or your initiative, you're going to be holding that tighter of this will work. But evaluating is what was our goal or purpose and are we still going to be able to accomplish that? And how do we navigate, you know, how do we navigate through quality conversations to really identify or tune into what's really happening as a result? And do we need to cut it? cut our loss.

Andrea Frederickson: There's two things there that bring up. One is leaders have to be willing to make tough decisions, unpopular decisions, decisions that that have to be made, that even though we may have spent hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars in some cases with the best information at that time, we thought that was the best decision. And come to find out it's not. Yes. And so, you know, we've tried a whole bunch of things. And at what point do you decide we're going to cut our losses and we're going to do something different? That's a tough decision. I mean, truly, truly tough decision. Yes. As a leader, that's that's your responsibility. Yes. The second thing, though, that I think is is super important is is recognizing that when you when you do these things, that these these decisions are how do I want to say the decision that we make is going to be one where you may be the only one that is thinking this is the way we have to do this, right? That you're the only one, that you're the one that's going to be unpopular. And do you have the guts? Is your ego going to handle this concept that, well, they made that decision without me or they made that decision against my like, sometimes leaders have to do that.

Andrea Frederickson: And if we're not if we're not recognizing that it's our ego that's trying to protect ourselves, like be safe, that these decisions that we have to make will be unpopular. But recognizing where your ego is in this in the same environment. So we want to create this environment that's great. We want to create a company that's resilient, that can bounce back not just individuals, but entire groups of people that we can make tough decisions, right? That we can make unpopular decisions and even have the tough conversations about those situations, whether it's about a scenario or even a one on one kind of conversation. But one of the things that I really hear people saying or a couple of things that I really hear people saying is I need people who have better judgment. I hear about people saying I need to have people who make better decisions. I need people who are going to. Think strategically. So again, I'm working with a group of folks, and we were looking at a division that is about support. And the the the the department that I was working with, they were going through and they're doing their thing.

Andrea Frederickson: They're, you know, there's h.r. There is accounting, there is it and a couple others. And so their support functions for the organization. Okay. And what we had to do with the senior leader is, is have that person think what if my my departments were individual businesses being outsourced to how would we be different as opposed to everybody has a job and we're just doing our job now. We have to provide value. We have to think strategically. We have to provide this in a way that is more efficient and not costing the company more, the company, the service. And so it didn't dawn on that leader that their whole business could be outsourced to somebody else. And once once he decided that that was something that, oh, my gosh, like literally this whole area could be doesn't even exist inside our company. In fact, some companies outsource all of them. Yeah, that strategic thinking and helping his managers do the same thing was a scenario that like how you know, so we have to teach people how to do that. So some of the things, you know, like what are some of the things that you know and coach people on to help them build their leadership thinking their leadership behaviors?

Michelle Hill: Well, I think part of the conversation is it's how good of a job are they doing at giving themselves permission to think and challenging, also challenging themselves or having a conversation with someone who thinks differently than them and have that person challenge them on what their thoughts are? Sure. Because it's again, especially if you've started the business grown up in the business or been a been there for quite some time. There's almost like this little gerbil wheel we get on and we just like, go, go, go, go, go, right? And whatever we need to accomplish over our area or the division, the department, whatever the structure is. And it's like, no, we've got to as that leadership, as that leader, we're the ones steering the ship. We have to be looking further out, identifying what's happening around us in the market, the world. Right. And where are we going? Why are we going there? And really kind of challenge, is this going to be needed and are there other things that we should be doing? But we've got to be thinking about it and having some of that dialogue, whether it's with an outside person who doesn't know a lot about their business but can ask questions to challenge them or it's their peers, whatever that may be. But it's it's slowing down, getting off that gerbil wheel and actually spending time again in quadrant two, because that's how you think strategically, strategically strategic thinking doesn't just happen while you're running, right? It's like we have to. And then for, you know, when you think about people that are more fast paced, that's even harder. We have to slow down. We have to really kind of think about is this what's this going to look like? What could this look like? Why would we want to do this? But it's and it's, I guess working with someone, too, that's going to help you help ask you those questions. That's going to get you to start thinking, right.

Andrea Frederickson: So because strategy happens from a business perspective, but also departmentally and all that. So there's different parts of strategic thinking, planning, looking at future, right? That's not just strategy, that is planning. What do we look like and how do we look and what are we going to do, what are we not going to do? But also what are we going to do to prepare for the ups and downs and the changes in economy or business cycle or the competitors that come in and things like that.

Michelle Hill: Or technology.

Andrea Frederickson: Technology. I mean, that's.

Michelle Hill: Probably one of the depending on what what you do for a living, technology can impact you in so many different ways in regards to how do you go to market, what you go to market with even.

Andrea Frederickson: Right. I was just listening to a friend of mine who was speaking recently and he was talking about we need more leaders who are people, experts who are business experts and who are culture experts. And so it's not about knowing it today and thinking, Oh, I've read the book or I've had the conversation, so I know everything. But as the world becomes continues to be complex and changing and evolving and the variables are adjusting. As leaders, we have to continually be learning, bringing it back, having the discussions and recognizing that we need to slow down to speed up. If you want to bring in somebody to bring your entire group together to develop that culture, to force and promote those kinds of behaviors, then do that. If you can do that by your simple conversations, the things that you assign them to do, the experiences that you have them do great. But remember, we truly do believe that leadership is a scarce commodity right now, that people are gravitating to the things that they can say, Oh, I can check that off the list, or I can say I did something today versus what kinds of things make today successful, which is how do I help become help people become resilient? How do I help people make some tough decisions? How do I give people experiences where they might fail a little or a lot and still learn from that so that they are there for some of the bigger, more difficult experiences that they'll be faced with? Yes. So let's so as we tie this up, you know, leading is such a a complex process and it's easy to revert back to the things that maybe we were successful with or the things that we can check off. But if we can find ways to help put people out of their comfort zone to force ourselves out of of of the stability and their predictability of what's going on, the more we're going to learn from that and we're going to be able to draw on that into the future. Thanks for hanging out with us today on this episode of The Leadership Hustle. Don't forget to subscribe.