How A Shift In Thinking Can Make Your Organization More Responsive (Part I)
Ditch stale approaches and breathe fresh life into your managers – and yourself.
Dear Friend, Subscriber and Circular Leader,
This week, The Circular CEO asks, "Does the traditional view of our organization serve us well when the world around it continues to shift in new and unexpected ways?"
In the traditional picture, the CEO sits atop the organizational pyramid. They assess risks and opportunities, set direction and priorities, and allocate resources.
The rest of the pyramid is mobilized by managers. They drive the CEO's message down through the organization and follow up to ensure consistency and compliance.
The result? Rigid, unthinking deference, which is super useful when you operate with a crystal clear mission in a static business environment. But if you need your organization to be more dynamic, creative and responsive then you'll need a different picture of your organization. The type of picture that circular leaders prefer.
To keep learning how circular leaders think, get a fresh Circular CEO article every Tuesday:
The traditional organization chart illustrates three fallacies that explain why it's difficult for linear leaders to get the most from their "human resources." (Ugh. Can we please replace this phrase with "people?")
We'll discuss these fallacies in three articles. For today, fallacy #1:
Business units, which are more or less the same, exist to carry out the CEO's wishes.
Traditional org charts seem to reflect this fallacy with their uniform shapes and lack of colour:
Circular leaders make two important shifts when they start rethinking their org chart. They know that every business unit is different, and every manager is a mini-CEO.
Business units are unique.
Every business unit (let's call them teams) is made up of people, each with a different background, skill set, experience, perspective and approach. As they work together they create a team dynamic—for good or ill—that is unique to them.
Further, every team's local environment is different from that of every other team. Each team operates in a world that has a different combination of customers, suppliers, stakeholders, economic conditions, and many other factors. It's a long list and ceaseless changes means their complex environment is constantly shifting and difficult to predict.
To reflect the uniqueness of each team, let's add some colour to the traditional org chart:
Managers are mini-CEOs.
Circular leaders know that every manager, every team leader, is a mini-CEO who wrestles with the same types of issues as the actual CEO. Sure, the scale is different but that's also the point. Managers see local risks and opportunities that the CEO can't see and shouldn’t see. It should be the manager’s responsibility to deal with the local stuff.
Circular leaders want their managers to take maximum advantage of the challenges they face (within appropriate guidelines, of course). Just like the actual CEO, managers should continuously assess their team's situation, adjust priorities, and allocate resources as they deem necessary to support the organization's mission.
Circular leaders see managers as colleagues working alongside them to optimize the variables within their control. To illustrate this, let's show the org chart as a collection of mini-CEOs.
Taken together, these changes correct fallacy #1 which was, “Business units, which are more or less the same, exist to carry out the CEO's wishes.”
Circular leaders prefer this phrase:
Business units are unique and distinct. They exist to maximize their contribution to the organization's success.
Can you see the difference in the revised org chart? Can you feel the shift between the two phrases?
Time to get practical. Leaders wishing to adopt this change in thinking will need to embrace three leadership fundamentals that will strengthen their work with their managers.
Three leadership fundamentals that help build more responsive organisations
When circular leaders build responsive organizations they acknowledge that each team is unique and their managers are "mini-CEOs" who are best-placed to make local decisions.
And then they place Trust, Autonomy and Learning at the heart of their working relationships.
1. Trust
Trust is the single most powerful element in any relationship. When it is authentically delivered by leaders and experienced by managers, it frees up the energy and time that would otherwise be used to protect against misgivings and suspicion. When trust is present in our leader/manager relationship, we communicate more freely, we collaborate more easily, and the organisation is more dynamic as a result.
2. Autonomy
Leaders demonstrate their trust by encouraging their managers to make their own decisions. This frees leaders from minutia and managers feel valued and empowered. It becomes easier to delegate decisions and work. The organisation becomes more efficient.
3. Learning
Mistakes, sometimes costly ones, are the inevitable consequence of autonomy. However, leaders who welcome mistakes as opportunities to learn and improve make the organisation stronger. Their approach reduces the apprehension, embarrassment and fear that often accompany mistakes and this, over time, improves communication and collaboration. By making a deliberate decision to continue to trust the manager, leaders deepen their working relationship.
Trust, autonomy and learning form an inseparable loop that is a necessary component of strong leader/manager relationships. They must be practiced faithfully and consistently. Without them, building a responsive organisation is impossible.
When you're ready to improve your organization's responsiveness, start by reimagining your org chart and then place trust, autonomy and learning at the center of your leadership practice.
And what about the manager’s relationship with their team members?
Tune in next week to find out!
Alex