Bucking the Culture

We had completed 40 miles of a bike trip yesterday when I came upon “yellow-shirt man”. Just as I was starting to get tired, I spied a bike up ahead going fairly slow. I yelled out to him that two people would be passing him on the left.  I yelled back a thank-you and sped up to pass him. Was it my imagination, or did he speed up when I began to pass him?  With my little burst of energy, I decided to keep pushing and leave a good amount of space between us.

 

There I was, pushing hard, and having difficulty lengthening the space between me and yellow shirt man. Why was he so close every time that I looked behind me? I pushed even harder and attempted to distance myself from him, once and for all.

 

However, it didn’t work. There he was, way too close for comfort. What was his deal? Why was he trying to annoy me?

 

And then it occurred to me. He wasn’t trying to annoy me. He was biking alone and couldn’t find his motivation to go faster and push out of his comfort zone. When we passed him, he felt our energy and wanted to try to stick with us. He wanted to push himself harder and see if he could compete. He had done a really good job at keeping up with us. I would have never guessed that he would have had the stamina to do that.

 

Now, what’s this have to do with anything? Well, I was thinking about how it has everything to do with you, as a leader, and how you lead your team.

 

Let’s say the majority of your team is riding along slowly like “yellow shirt man”. They don’t do exceptional work but they’re adequate employees. You hire in a new employee named Boris that is just exceptional. He’s driven, innovative and a real superstar. This just might motivate the rest of your team to rev up and try to compete with Boris. This could be exactly what they need to kick it into a new gear.

 

However, the problem is that you have established a culture on your team. Your group has learned that mediocrity is really all that is expected. They might not be able to articulate this, but subconsciously, they have an understanding of your expectations. Boris might heat things up for a while, but probably not for long. Chances are, the team will become antagonized by Boris’s zealous attitude because it threatens the status quo.

 

Boris is bucking the culture.

 

Eventually, Boris will leave, frustrated with the team’s behavior. You will be frustrated because you thought bringing in Boris would improve everyone’s performance.

 

Yes, challenge and competitiveness drives performance. It can light a fire under team members to perform. However, culture trumps everything.

 

The answer always goes back to you as a leader. Bringing in Boris won’t solve the problem. You need a whole team of Boris clones. And to acquire these clones, you need to have consistent expectations and hold people accountable when they don’t follow through.

 

You have to expect quality work from the whole team.

 

Then, the timing is right to bring Boris on board.

Facing the Facts

I have a lot of trees in my yard.  Most of the time, I enjoy the beautiful foliage and appreciate the way they shade my yard. However, in the fall, I wonder whose crazy idea it was to plant so many trees. The amount of falling leaves is overwhelming and the time I must allocate for raking is ridiculous.

 

Last year, I placed bags of leaves by the road to be picked up by the county. I had worked for hours stuffing leaves in bags and I still was far from done. Apparently, I had the wrong pick-up date and the leaves sat there more than a couple days. When they were finally picked up, I noticed that the grass had died underneath the bags of leaves.

 

Yesterday, I was walking the dog and we were on our way back to the house.  As I got closer, I took a good look at my yard. My eye went right to the spot where the grass was obviously discolored and dead. The same spot where I had placed the leaf bags 9 months ago.

 

This was the first time that I was really paying attention to the patch of grass. How could I have not really noticed it until now? How is that possible?

 

Isn’t it interesting the way our brain plays tricks on us? Why didn’t I notice how bad it looked before now? Every single day I come in my driveway and pass this patch of grass. However, today, is the very first day that I really processed how it was a problem.

 

Did I consciously avoid this issue that needed to be addressed?

 

I’m not alone in this type of avoidance. I bet if you rack your brain, you can think of instances where you have been neglecting some issues because they might cause you some distress, discomfort or require some hard work.

 

I would be a rich woman is I had a dollar for every time I work with a therapy or coaching client that is searching for an easy way to solve their problem. Usually, they have been neglecting, avoiding their issue(s) for quite a while and now they finally want to address the situation. However, they want a quick fix to the situation. Something that won’t cause them to much distress, or won’t be so difficult, or won’t take too much energy.

 

Yes, we are all looking for that quick fix for that problem that we have been trying to pretend doesn’t really exist.

 

Maybe you are a leader and you’ve been putting this dysfunctional habit of yours into action with your team.  You’ve been neglecting some things that need to be addressed. And for the first time, you have opened your eyes and realized that you have a big problem. You are wondering, when did this happen? How did this issue become so enormous?

 

Maybe it’s because you have been conveniently avoiding the whole issue. It’s very possible that it makes you uncomfortable and it will take some hard work to fix.

 

Open your eyes and see what’s right in front of you. Walk into the storm and face what you need to face, because the issue is not going to go away.

 

Stop pretending it doesn’t exist and take action NOW.