Warren Buffett, the legendary investor, once remarked that when brilliant managers try their luck in dismal industries, “it’s usually the reputation of the industry that remains intact.” Evidence to support that mordant view keeps piling up. All the same, plenty of executives work in troubled sectors. Those brave souls deserve more than the Buffett warning.
So I’ve been on the lookout for management guideposts that can survive a long run of hard luck. Last week, the hunt paid off. At a leadership conference in Lambourn, England, run byWavelength Companies Ltd., I came across an approach that’s both surprising and wise.
The insights came from Sir Martin Narey, best known for a 23-year management career in Britain’s prison system. You won’t find business gurus extolling prisons as management models of anything. Yet anyone who can figure out how to make a prison system “not awful” has done something remarkable. Before stepping down in 2005, Narey won widespread respect, including one of Britain’s leading management awards, for his “decency agenda,” which helped redefine the role of a modern-day penal system. Today he is a visiting professor or scholar at three British universities.
How can you prevail in an impossible job? Narey’s approach doesn’t call for headline-making heroism. Instead, his deceptively low-key methods are designed to help leaders gain the time, credibility and loyalty needed to press ahead with change that mightn’t pay off for years. And if leaders are stumped about what to do next, Narey shows how to look for help without seeming weak. Here are his nine rules, along with additional context.
1. Say thank you. Properly. When leaders dash from meeting to meeting, Narey says, calendars can get so crowded that employees become a blur of forgettable faces. Don’t let that happen, especially in a troubled organization where excellence is rare and probably not encouraged by the culture at hand. Instead, clear out time every Friday afternoon to jot a few handwritten notes, saluting good deeds, Narey says. “People will keep those notes for years,” he adds. “We all do.” In his view, well-timed praise builds loyalty and spurs front-line pioneers to keep going.
2. Realize that you are always on stage. People notice everything about leaders: not just the applause lines in their speeches, but also their back-room grimaces, jokes and taunts. The implications: leaders need to watch their conduct even when they don’t think anyone is watching them. That’s especially true when things go wrong, Narey says. At such moments, great leaders take responsibility and shield others from attack, while egotists dodge blame and end up with a cynical workforce.
3. Be relentless about implementation. Take a close look at how big advances happen. Quite often there’s no single action that made it all possible. Instead, a mosaic of small, unglamorous improvements adds up to something powerful. Staying focused on those step-by-step initiatives is crucial. “Never underestimate what incremental improvement can accomplish,” Narey says.
4. Know how your staff operates. Some work cultures thrive on clear directives from above. Others prefer to bat around new ideas until a consensus emerges. Narey learned the difference the hard way when he brought his earlier command-and-control methods into his post-prisons career, when he was running a child-care enterprise with a more collegial culture. As he ruefully recalls, nobody jumped right away to do his bidding; instead they treated his edicts as “an interesting proposition worthy of discussion.”
5. You don’t have to win every battle. Most managers know it’s important to be a good listener. Not as many have the courage to go the next step – and to readjust their thinking if they learn something important and unexpected from a business partner or subordinate. Allowing room for other people’s approaches helps build trust. Humility also can extricate you from misguided crusades before it’s too late. “Always allow for the possibility that you might be wrong,” Narey remarks.
6. Make fresh approaches safe. As Britain’s prison chief, Narey crusaded for treating inmates with more dignity. When guards were grouped together, they scoffed at such approaches, preferring to impress one another with their toughness. In one-on-one conversations, guards were much more open-minded, going so far as to bring clean towels to needy inmates. The big lesson, in Narey’s mind, is that peer pressure and old habits can stymie an organization. To avoid such impasses, it’s necessary to sidestep toxic group dynamics and free up progressive team members who want to do better work than the current environment allows.
7. It all starts with vision. Experts endlessly debate whether big-picture vision or hands-on strategy is more important. Narey acknowledges that true success requires both. But in turbulent settings, he says, progress must start with a decisive vision that can get people pointed in the right direction. “Otherwise you’re just moving the furniture,” he declares.
8. Command is lonely; accept that. Each big promotion constricts your on-the-job friendships. At the very top, your power to chart the organization’s future – and your obligation to do so without sinking into cronyism – means that you often will feel socially isolated, even if you are always surrounded by other people. “I struggled with that for the first 18 months” of running Britain’s prisons, Narey says. “Eventually I stumbled through.” Family and non-work friends provide salvation, but leaders often find little time for anything except work.
9. It’s all right to have doubts. When crises strike, sometimes you won’t see all the right responses right away, Narey says. Don’t panic or bluster. Instead, convene your team and listen to others’ ideas. Good proposals will emerge. Then you can help knit everything together into a workable plan. Narey took that approach in dealing with a prison breakout early in his executive career, even though in the first few minutes after the escape was discovered, “I feared I didn’t have the faintest idea of what to do.” The next day – to Narey’s amazement and relief – he won top-level praise for “weighing every option with cool analysis before coming to the right decision.”
Leadership is hard. It’s even harder when it involves a near-impossible job that has defeated several predecessors. That’s why we look for inspiration in stories about military commanders, mountain climbers, Olympic athletes and others who have achieved great triumphs in the face of fierce challenges. Those accounts are great morale boosters. They also can be overwhelming, with their implicit messages that successful leadership is all about being the brilliant figure of epic poems and town-square statues.
As Martin Narey’s nine lessons suggest, leaders who don’t try to do it all themselves may end up being the ones who accomplish the most.
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