4 minutes
As a leader, you’re responsible for everything that happens on your team, even the things you don’t directly control. An employee makes a five-figure mistake? That’s on you. Your mortgage team misses a key revenue milestone? That’s on you too.
Ultimately, it all comes back to you. That’s part of what leadership means.
As every seasoned leader will tell you, there’s no conceivable way to head off all problems before they have an impact. You can’t monitor your employees’ every move. Unexpected negative events happen.
But in my experience, your success as a leader depends heavily on which of the following two approaches you take most often: Do you (a) proactively seek out problems and, when found, address them swiftly and decisively? Or do you (b) avoid thinking too much about the negative stuff and hope the people directly responsible will figure it out?
As you rise in the ranks, and especially if you take on the role of CEO, the latter head-in-the-sand mode of leadership may have increasing appeal. The more hierarchical power you have, the easier it is to pass the buck to someone below you. She’s an executive, after all, and should be able to handle this, right? At the same time, the more power you have, the less likely employees are to tell you candidly about developing problems, and it’s easy to ignore issues you don’t even know about.
So how do you fight the temptation to play the ostrich? I like the lesson shared by Howie Cohen, a partner at McChrystal Group. Cohen relays a short but memorable vignette that has guided his career and that he heard from Peter Schoomaker, former U.S. Army Chief of Staff:
A leader is walking through the jungle. While walking along the path, he comes across a large rock. The rock is moving. He smells a foul odor coming from underneath the rock, and knows something is wrong. The leader has two choices. He can either choose to walk past the rock and ignore it, or he can turn the rock over. If he chooses to turn the rock over, he confronts what is underneath it and exposes it to the sun. By turning the rock over, the leader deals with the problem and moves on. He picks up his pace and continues on the path.
Schoomaker finished by stating that anyone not willing to “turn the rocks over” didn’t need to be a leader in his unit.
In my own career as CEO, I’ve discovered how difficult it can be to turn those rocks over. Who wants to look at those squirming worms and decaying sludge beneath, especially when it’s on you to clean up? It’s so easy to keep moving and hope the problem will sort itself out. Take it from me: It never does.
Here are three ways to cultivate the “turn the rocks over” approach of leadership.
1. Ask yourself what problems in your organization you might be ignoring right now.
At some point today, take 20 minutes to honestly think about the current state of your organization or the team you lead. What areas represent rocks in need of turning over?
Have you sensed for a while that one of your executives is underperforming? Do you know in your heart of hearts that the team just isn’t going to meet its lending benchmark? Is there a negative story in the press you’re just waiting to let blow over? Write down what comes to you and commit to dealing with the issue boldly and moving on.
2. Make the previous exercise a habit.
Build time into your schedule every week or two to reflect on rocks that need turning over, each time committing to take bold action. Be brutally honest with yourself.
Imagine if Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn had done this back in 2014, when he first got the memo about emissions irregularities in the company’s cars. It still would have been a bad situation, but not nearly so bad as the fallout became later, once the extent of the deception was uncovered.
3. Gather insight from employees about issues they see.
You should rely on your own intuition to spot rocks that need turning, but don’t forget to also tap the employee base—all levels of it—for insight. Provide a way for employees to surface issues both by name and anonymously. Consistently ask people what problems they see from their vantage point. How do they generally feel about their work and their objectives?
One particularly useful type of insight to gather is prediction. Ask people how they see the next few months playing out. Will they be able to deliver on all their commitments, or do they face obstacles? This future focus tends to help people narrow in on developing problems.
It’s not always easy to stay in touch with the reality of your organization. But when you make “turn the rocks over” your mantra, you begin to build a muscle that will help you lead effectively—and your entire organization run more smoothly.
Joel Trammell is founder and CEO of Khorus, Austin, Texas, which provides an enterprise leadership platform that gives CEOs a central place for driving execution, managing talent, and building culture.
