Do You Have a Virus in your Leadership Brain?
Can we agree that all good leaders want to optimize employee engagement? Yet, sometimes there are barriers preventing just that.
Recently the WIFI on my laptop stopped working. It would fade in and out for no apparent reasons. I tried various fixes on my own with no results. It was so frustrating because it stopped me from being productive and from responding to customers. It was a barrier to my productivity and I needed to work around it. My customers saw poor performance from me, but the real root cause was the virus in my lap top.
I found a Best Buy near me (I was traveling on business) and they were very helpful. They did a quick hardware scan and found no issues. The problem was in the software. The tech surmised it was a virus stopping the WIFI from optimum performance and the best course of action was a complete restoration. Sometimes leaders need to consider a restoration of their leadership assumptions to achieve the desired level of employee engagement. Just as the computer damaged my productivity and caused me to spend time to find a way to work around the problem, a flawed leadership thought acts like a virus slowing down employees’ ability to perform.
Then biggest virus that is still alive and well is a form of blame. Many leaders first look at who is at fault when a problem occurs. Once employees know they may be blamed for problems they stop putting in extra effort, stop taking risks, and stop communicating their mistakes. Leaders who have this virus and ask “who did this” spread this virus throughout the entire organization. Any question a leader asks will send a message. Do your questions send the message of blame or the message of engagement and trust?
We need systems thinking and Profound Knowledge (W. Edwards Deming) instead. We need leaders to ask, how can we work as a team to improve the process and/or the system. If the leader asks the right questions he/she can build employee engagement. When we adopt systems thinking we stop looking at individuals for answers to problems. Instead we start looking at the system for solutions.
Here are some thoughts that indicate the presence of a debilitating virus and a recommended replacement.
- Improving individual performance will improve organizational performance. Replace this with this healthy thought instead: Improving the system (including processes) will improve organizational performance.
- Managers can fairly, accurately and consistently evaluate employees separate from the contributions of the system and others on their team. Replace this with this healthy thought instead: It is impossible for a supervisor to predictably and consistently remove stereotyping, favoritism, bias, or other errors from the performance appraisal process. Performance is optimized when the individual or team evaluates a process at the end of the process cycle.
Consider a restoration of their leadership assumptions to eliminate a virus in your brain. Look for solutions as a team in your system and not in the individual.
YouTube Video:
Wally Hauck, PhD, CSP works with leaders who want to optimize the people potential. His company, Optimum Leadership, helps leaders reduce the greatest waste in America namely the failure to fully optimize the ability of people.
Wally’s vision is to eliminate the traditional performance review process from the planet. He has a cure and a replacement for this "deadly disease" called it the Complete Performance Improvement Process or CPIP. CPIP improves the quality and frequency of feedback to create high performance.
Optimum Leadership, provides ideas, tools, and processes, that help leaders to think, behave, and improve. Wally works with C-level executives and HR professional to achieve extraordinary results.
Wally holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from Warren National University, a Master of Business Administration in finance from Iona College, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. Wally is a Certified Speaking Professional or CSP.|Wally Hauck, PhD, CSP works with leaders who want to optimize the people potential. His company, Optimum Leadership, helps leaders reduce the greatest waste in America namely the failure to fully optimize the ability of people.
Wally’s vision is to eliminate the traditional performance review process from the planet. He has a cure and a replacement for this "deadly disease" called it the Complete Performance Improvement Process or CPIP. CPIP improves the quality and frequency of feedback to create high performance.
Optimum Leadership, provides ideas, tools, and processes, that help leaders to think, behave, and improve. Wally works with C-level executives and HR professional to achieve extraordinary results.
Wally holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from Warren National University, a Master of Business Administration in finance from Iona College, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. Wally is a Certified Speaking Professional or CSP.|Wally Hauck, PhD, CSP works with leaders who want to optimize the people potential. His company, Optimum Leadership, helps leaders reduce the greatest waste in America namely the failure to fully optimize the ability of people.
Wally’s vision is to eliminate the traditional performance review process from the planet. He has a cure and a replacement for this "deadly disease" called it the Complete Performance Improvement Process or CPIP. CPIP improves the quality and frequency of feedback to create high performance.
Optimum Leadership, provides ideas, tools, and processes, that help leaders to think, behave, and improve. Wally works with C-level executives and HR professional to achieve extraordinary results.
Wally holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from Warren National University, a Master of Business Administration in finance from Iona College, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. Wally is a Certified Speaking Professional or CSP.
Wally’s vision is to eliminate the traditional performance review process from the planet. He has a cure and a replacement for this "deadly disease" called it the Complete Performance Improvement Process or CPIP. CPIP improves the quality and frequency of feedback to create high performance.
Optimum Leadership, provides ideas, tools, and processes, that help leaders to think, behave, and improve. Wally works with C-level executives and HR professional to achieve extraordinary results.
Wally holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from Warren National University, a Master of Business Administration in finance from Iona College, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. Wally is a Certified Speaking Professional or CSP.|Wally Hauck, PhD, CSP works with leaders who want to optimize the people potential. His company, Optimum Leadership, helps leaders reduce the greatest waste in America namely the failure to fully optimize the ability of people.
Wally’s vision is to eliminate the traditional performance review process from the planet. He has a cure and a replacement for this "deadly disease" called it the Complete Performance Improvement Process or CPIP. CPIP improves the quality and frequency of feedback to create high performance.
Optimum Leadership, provides ideas, tools, and processes, that help leaders to think, behave, and improve. Wally works with C-level executives and HR professional to achieve extraordinary results.
Wally holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from Warren National University, a Master of Business Administration in finance from Iona College, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. Wally is a Certified Speaking Professional or CSP.|Wally Hauck, PhD, CSP works with leaders who want to optimize the people potential. His company, Optimum Leadership, helps leaders reduce the greatest waste in America namely the failure to fully optimize the ability of people.
Wally’s vision is to eliminate the traditional performance review process from the planet. He has a cure and a replacement for this "deadly disease" called it the Complete Performance Improvement Process or CPIP. CPIP improves the quality and frequency of feedback to create high performance.
Optimum Leadership, provides ideas, tools, and processes, that help leaders to think, behave, and improve. Wally works with C-level executives and HR professional to achieve extraordinary results.
Wally holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from Warren National University, a Master of Business Administration in finance from Iona College, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. Wally is a Certified Speaking Professional or CSP.
Latest posts by Wally Hauck, PhD, CSP (see all)
- Four Reasons Why Managers Are So Poor at Feedback - October 18, 2018
- An Optimum Leader Must Exercise the Empathy Muscle - October 1, 2018
- Great Leaders Use and Encourage Experimentation - September 20, 2018
More Articles by Author
