Change the Conversation and You Change Behaviors and Outcomes

What do executive do, really?

What is the nature of executive work? When all is said and done what do executives get paid for? Well, as you know already there is a huge literature dedicated to answering that questions--yet for many, while the prevailing perspectives are interesting they don't alter actions or outcomes.

Just as there is a huge literature on personal fitness and weight loss while we are probably the least fit and most overweight in our history, so it is with perspectives about being an effective executive--lots of insights, and little correlation to altered behavior and outcomes.

I have a particular bias in thinking about this question given my own work for the last 25 years has been working with executives with two specific intentions in mind: the first, to help executives be clear about what they really, really, really want beyond predictions from the past; and second, to help them realize what they want so that they get results consistent with their intentions and not, what they so often have to contend with--resignation from thwarted ambitions.

I every case, going from what is predictable or able to be extrapolated from the past, and what executives really, really, really want calls for a transformation. A transformation in:

• Their operating context: about what is possible and impossible, reasonable and unreasonable, feasible and infeasible; about how strategy gets formulated and goals get established; about how agreements are made and disagreements are handled; how failures are dealt with and successes...
• Their ways of being: how values are established and lived; how trust is established and maintained; how moods and emotions are expressed; how competition and rivalries are handled; how disappointment, upsets and complaints are dealt with...
• Their operating practices: for dealing with accountabilities, roles, responsibilities and authorities; for dealing with the unexpected; for sustaining the engine of growth and profitability; for inventing and discovering new business models and opportunities...

What executives are doing as they are speaking and listening all day, whether in person, in emails, and the myriad other ways they communicate is, they are--generating and managing a network of conversations. Conversations that:

• Create new possibilities--possibilities that will, in all likelihood, threaten some as they excite others--especially if they are conversations that are designed to create a new future, not just extend and expand the ways of the past
• Conversations that cause action and desired outcomes--specific demands, requests and promises rather than equivocal conversations that include things like, try, do my best, with a bit of luck, if all goes well...
• Conversation that surface and deal with difficult issues--the elephant in the room, the sacred cows, the uncomfortable topics...
• Conversations that...

Executives who are really effective use language with the same precision that a surgeon uses when using his surgical instruments. They understand the design purpose of their conversations--and they observe the correlation between what they intended to produce and what actually got produced--and they know how to correct in the instances when they miss the mark.

A useful question to keep in mind is, what's the design purpose of the conversation I am generating or managing? And the follow on question, is that purpose being forwarded or not?

What Do You Say Is The Reason That Consistently You Are a Far Exceeds Performer?

It is hard to imagine someone coming to work intending to get a does not meet expectations rating. For too many though there comes a point when they realize, "I'm never going to make it...around here...with my boss...in this job...with these goals and objectives..." and resignation begins to set in. When that happens everything they need to do becomes an effort and a struggle – enthusiasm wanes to non-existence. Boredom and a loss or interest and enthusiasm kick in. Complaints and friction rise, and with it a general level of stress and tension. The joy quickly gets sucked out of work.

So it is especially heartwarming to come across people who love what they do and are great at it. Given my own interest in exceptional performance and nurturing places to work I am drawn to interview (some would say cross examine) these people.

Here is a snippet from a recent interviewees response – this was from an exceptional performer, and I've been on the receiving end of his work:

1. You've got to be interested – if you are not interested in being great and doing a great job, it's just not going to happen is it
2. You have got to be curious – how does it work, how can I make it better, how can I improve, how can I... about everything, you have got to be curious about how you can do a really great job. Isn't that what we all want – to be a hero to someone, to be really great at something...
3. Got to be willing to explore – who's got a better answer, who knows more than I do, who can help me, where can I find solutions, mentors, expert sources... Where can I find new opportunities...you've always got to be looking and exploring
4. You've got to be willing to make mistakes, and know its safe to try new things and fail. It's hard to go for far exceeds performance if stretching and failing gets you into trouble. And if you are not learning from your mistakes, that's dumb
5. You got to be a continuous learner because things are changing so fast that if you are not continuously learning you'll soon be toast
6. And you have got to take charge of your own performance by seeking out feedback from colleagues, bosses... anyone who sees your work and results. And it's up to me to make sure I get acknowledgement and appreciation when I deserve it – and I mostly deserve it.

So I recommend you make it a practice to spend time with the exceptional performers – the members of the far exceeds club. Get their secret sauce. Encourage them to share what they have discovered about exceptional performance with the people they work with. And make the process of being acknowledged and appreciated easier for them by laying it on.

How Do You Instill A Higher Purpose In A Modern Corporation, And Should You?

Is the dichotomy real? You know the one:

• The design purpose of the modern corporation is to maximize the returns they produce for shareholders however they can, period – the common good, not our concern; the environment, not if it adds to our costs; sustainability, look Wall Street's focus is this quarter, this year maybe, and that's about how sustainable we need to be to attract and/or maintain investors
• Corporations need to pursue a social mission, a higher purpose, as their primary focus, with the best return they can for shareholders a close second if they are to build a vibrant and viable business and survive over the long haul? And, they need to be socially responsible, take care of their environment – you know, the triple bottom line.

With corporations like Apple, Google, Facebook and many many others, the question is almost a non sequitur because they each have a very clearly articulated higher purpose that is part of what draws the almost fervent following these companies enjoy. Those who are exposed to these companies services either love them or hate them – code in my book for, they support the higher purpose or they don't.

I am clear that the corporations with the strongest cultures, and the most dedicated followers and employees, are also the corporations with a clear mission and a clearly articulated higher purpose – a purpose that is beyond meeting the numbers and making good returns on investments – essential as growing the business and providing a good return to investors is for the long term ability to keep operating from and for a higher purpose.
In companies operating from a higher purpose, economic returns are measures of the company's health as it pursues its purpose, not the end game. Howard Schultz of Starbucks spells this out clearly in his new book, Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Loosing Its Soul. He also outlined his perspectives in an interview he conducted with McKinsey Quarterly. In it he describes how just going for same store sales and profits nearly killed Starbucks.

We know from our personal experience, from anecdotes and from scholarly research that people work for more that a pay check – people need to find meaning, a higher purpose, in what they do for a living – they need intrinsic rewards even more than extrinsic rewards – if they are to love their work, be healthy, innovative, creative and productive. Sadly, far too many people look outside their corporations to family and personal life goals for meaning and a sense of purpose. What they do for a paycheck just has to be endured – it doesn't have to be that way.

But the big question is how do we find meaning and higher purpose in our work? Especially if we are working for an organization that is contributing to:

• The production of junk food that contributes to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and any number of other unhealthy side effects
• Polluting the environment by putting noxious, carcinogenic chemicals into our air and water
• Causing economic hardship by predatory lending practices that we have seen in the mortgage and finance industry – practices that most agree were the major contributors to our economic crisis of the last few years
• Externalizing a large part of their real cost of doing business on the local community, the environment and larger society – which a vast number of companies do.

In my advice to corporate leaders I am agnostic about what their higher purpose should be, just clear they should have one, and have one that each of their employees own and can wholeheartedly support. I am also clear that it is important to be open, honest and transparent with employees about what the real purpose of the organization is – it's the what you actually do vs. what you say you value.

Some years ago a consultant friend had a major tobacco company as a client. They were clear what their higher purpose was, and most of their employees were enrolled in it, to the point they had, "thank you for smoking" signs on their desks and would stop smokers in the street with a warm, "thank you for smoking" acknowledgement. Much as some of us do with our military personnel when we say, "thank you for your service".

Now, some years later, much of society has decided whether the purpose of having everyone be smokers is one we want to support, given the extent of the costs which we now know we have been, and are bearing – economists call this frequently used practice of corporations putting large parts of their costs on to the larger society, externalities.

It is not my role to be judgmental about one higher purpose over another. What I do advocate, as I've said, that we need to be open and up front about what the higher purpose is, so employees, customers, investors – all stakeholders make fully informed choices about participating with that organization and buying their products and services.

Ask yourself, what is the higher purpose of the company you work for?

• If it weren't for the paycheck would you want to be part of what they are doing?
• What would be missing from society if the company you worked for disappeared, and would it matter?
• In what way does your company make a difference in society – it would matter if your company disappeared – and does everyone who works at you company know that and does it shape their actions and decisions?
• Did you know the higher purpose of your company when you joined it, and was that a major part of decided to join?
• What costs does your company pass on to the local community and larger society in pursuing the higher purpose? And, is there a conversation within the company to eliminate or mitigate these costs?

Organizations are an essential part of human society. We could not accomplish much that we take for granted without them. And, they also have the potential to be harmful to the common good as they benefit the few.

How organizations function, especially in our socially connected world of blogs and tweets is up to each of us - not just the C-Suite executives, and shareholders. What we have seen in the larger world of social activism will eventually be what members of organizations will confront if they forget the interests of all in the service of the interests of the few.