You’re the Leader. Now What? | Book Review

Our expertise and our power to decide
get in the way of optimal outcomes. (p. 8)

Is a how-to reference – pick it up to find a tactic or process you can use as you face the specific challenges of the moment (p. 10). Dr. Richard Winters of the Mayo Clinic offers challenging medicine for leaders over invested in expertise, particularly our own. This review highlights several effective leadership tactics from Part I of the book and compares the ROW Forward Framework with John Boyd’s OODA Loop (Part II). 

Tactics

In Academy Leadership Effective Decision-Making Workshops our decision-making spectrum spans decide, consult individually, consult group, facilitate & delegate. Winters repeatedly shares a Quaker Oats (failed) acquisition case study highlighting that we tend to overplay our expertise (p. 20). It was a billion-dollar failure where each decision Quaker Oats made … failed to incorporate the perspectives of key customers, distributors, and promoters (p. 25). A good reminder why our leadership philosophy must request feedback, especially when we’re blinded by our own power and passion.

We tend to trust time-based decision making more than slowing down allowing collaboration. False urgency likely fuels this. The authors found that process is six times more important than analysis in improving decision-making effectiveness (p. 26). Wow! Consider that when relying on subject matter experts, since we’ve all worked with individuals who are deeply analytical – armed with spreadsheets and diagrams and facts – but just don’t seem to get the big picture (p. 28).

According to the Cynefin Framework, each decision falls into one of five domains (p. 35):

• Clear
• Complicated
• Complex
• Chaotic
• Confused

Winters explains that Complicated Decisions have several challenges including experts become trapped by entrained thinking and paralysis by analysis. In our Setting Leadership Priorities workshops, many attendees admit often working in “Crisis Mode” Management, where we Do First! Manage Second! Communicate Third! and if we have time, Plan and Set Goals.  Winters offers several actions you can take to lead effectively during a crisis of chaos (pp. 50-52):

• Act with Urgency
• Leverage Your Leadership Team
• Delegate Decisions
• Admit Vulnerability
• Liberate Time for Deliberate Focus
• Be Transparent and Communicate
• Bring the Backchannel Forward
• Amplify Mission and Values
• Celebrate People and Accomplishments
• Recognize the Human Impact

Living our leadership philosophy and delegation seems a good start. 

When facing a complex challenge, our most effective leaders
learn to switch off their expertise. (p. 53)

What gets in the way or what do we need to shut off? In Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps, Jennifer Garvey Berger described five reflexive shortcuts that leaders commonly take as they think about complex issues (p. 63): 

• Simple stories
• Rightness
• Agreement
• Control
• Ego

Looking at Control and Ego, it makes one think of a dominant green and red instinctive Energize2Lead (E2L) Profile, where we tend to take charge when under stress.

The concept of a “Clickable Phrase” is introduced on pages 143-145 and it’s terrific. When offered, usually in a passive tone, a phrase such as “It will never work,” we can counter with “Just exactly what won’t work?” Then we may repeatedly “click” leading to an effective discussion and coaching session.

Frameworks

The ROW Forward Framework (pp. 164-165) reminds one of the OODA Loop (Observe-Orient-Decide-Act). Both are iterative or recurring constructs. Winter’s Framework:

• Construct Shared Reality and direction
• Generate multiple Options
• Identify the Way Forward and create action
• Repeat the ROW Forward 

We often get in our own way. Winters has an interesting term: The cognitive headlock -- used by leaders in all industries. It’s a decision by the leader to simply push through resistance, employing their expertise and power against their colleagues (p. 163). Think of false urgency, or Quadrant III (urgent not important) actions from our Setting Leadership Priorities workshops.

Creating a share vision (p. 166) reminds us of Crucial Conversations. Recall we can’t start a Crucial Conversation without Mutual Purpose and we cannot maintain one without Mutual Respect. Winters recommends as a rule of thumb, reserve 70 percent of the available time to create shared reality, 20 percent to identify multiple options for how to move forward, and 10 percent to plan the way forward (p. 171). We likely need to allocate most of our energy toward alignment as well. Historically, creating shared reality with colleagues who disagree among themselves, or with an organization’s chief, has been a difficult proposition for even the most well-meaning leader (p. 201).

On pages 223-224 Winters shares an excellent list of typical leader worries: I would lose my independence and I would be dependent on others really jump out and may be your favorites also. Limiting assumptions also get in our way, my favorite is If I don’t micromanage, things go wrong (p. 225). This assumption must be the all-time favorite brought up in Setting Leadership Priorities Workshops.

Interestingly the researcher Paul Nutt noted that the likelihood of a successful decision increases when a leader involves others in the process (p. 244). Recall in our Effective Decision-Making Workshop case studies, only one third (The Coast Guard Captain) of the individually made decisions were effective.

Summary

A final golden nugget is the concept of the Eccentric Genie or Vanishing Options Test (pp. 248-250) whereby one challenges a wish or goal with “You cannot do that. But what else can you do?” Repeated challenges eventually prompt creativity and innovation.

Shared vision is the first step in the decision-making process
that moves a group toward action. (p. 233)

Note: Dr. Winters generously provided a copy of his book for review