Week 14: Being the change you want to see might have an unexpected meaning

Ok so before I tell this story, I’m going to admit to you that I’m not exactly proud of how I handled the situation.

I’m also not 100% disappointed in myself either.

It’s complicated.

Anyway, so in a previous job, I sat down with my direct supervisor and his supervisor, an executive we’ll call Ryan, to present my idea for a technical health program. The general concept was a set of activities that included

• upskilling or reskilling our current employees to better align with the customer needs
• training more folks to be able to develop technical solutions for proposals to win more work
• fostering innovation ideas to create differentiating capabilities in our mission space.

Honestly, it was a really good plan that I’d developed with some other technical experts in our organization.

After I finished the presentation, Ryan started to share reasons why the plan wasn’t needed or wouldn’t work. Ultimately, he was one of the decision makers, but I was really irritated for two reasons. First, he had not earned his spot on the executive leadership team and was not qualified for the position. Second, he had no expertise in our mission space and therefore did not understand what was needed. He had a reputation for just needing to exert himself as an authority in every situation regardless of whether he had expertise in that area or not. That’s really annoying.

So, I guess I didn’t do a good job of hiding my disdain as I responded to his questions or comments because he asked to talk to me privately after the meeting. I agreed and it went something like this.

Ryan: “I didn’t appreciate the way you talked to me in the meeting and would like you to show me more respect in the future.”

Me: “I would be happy to do so if you contribute ideas that make any sense.”

Yeah…I know…I’m not proud of that.

You may be shocked to hear that Ryan did NOT decide to move forward with the technical health program. 🤪 However, in my defense, it was clear that he was never going to and, as a result, the company has experienced high levels of attrition and lost several of their incumbent contracts.

I was right in that the program would have worked to help them bring about the results they were looking for. However, with a bigger picture view of the situation, I was wrong.

I was not wrong in my passion for the program or in having disdain for an environment that would even allow someone unqualified to have the authority to make such important decisions. I was wrong in staying in that position long enough for it to have gotten to that point.

I pretty much knew it then but it was confirmed in my reading of chapters 7-9 in American Icon this week.

This post could be about so many different things as the story unfolds of Alan Mulally’s successful turnaround of Ford. In fact, I meant it to be. I have written versions of this post that

• showcased Mulally’s strategy and delved into a brainstorming exercise of asking ourselves what would have to be true to successfully execute the strategy
• talked about how he rooted out and corrected the dysfunction among the executive leadership team
• explained his restructuring of Ford and pointed out how he balanced retaining as many executives as possible while not compromising on what was needed to successfully execute his plan
• continued to provide examples of Mulally’s commitment to demonstrating and requiring honesty and transparency and dealing with business realities

There are honestly so many amazing angles from which we can talk about things but instead I’ve decided to focus on only one aspect of Mulally’s approach - his team and commitment to working together - and what we have to learn from it.

Mulally’s Team

Before we talk about this important lesson, I need to give you an overview of the team that Mulally built to help him carry out his plan. His broad definition of team included:

• an executive team which consisted of the heads of three regional divisions, the head of Ford Credit and the heads of each of the functional teams
• each employee of Ford
• external team members such as suppliers, dealers, rental car companies, etc.

Mulally recognized the delicate situation they were in but knew he couldn’t make progress without a stable team. For his executive team, he had retention plans put in place and squashed rumors of lay offs. For external partners, he set out to repair the relationships they had with the company.

Mulally's Expectations of his Team

For his executive team, Mulally set forth clear expectations. He continued to beat the drum for the need to be honest and transparent and to deal with the business realities. He was consistent in this expectation and held people accountable.

He was also consistent in his mantra of Working Together.

For example, Joe Laymon - the same HR Chief who had recruited Mulally - had been a champion of Mulally’s as he joined Ford. However, as Mulally got to know him, he “was beginning to see him more as part of the problem than the solution…[he] started as many fires as he put out.”

Work together effectively as one team was one of just four points in the ultimate plan that Mulally followed to turn Ford around. He understood how crucial that was for the success of the plan.

And this is where I got hit in the gut.

Sometimes I’m a team player, sometimes I’m not…

I’ve heard leaders say before that it is ok to disagree but once the decision is made, the whole team needs to accept the decision and move out on it. And I agree.

But what if you don’t agree with the decision? What if the person making the decision isn’t someone qualified to do so? What if you are SURE that they are making the wrong decision?

I have certainly been in that situation. I described one such instance at the start of this post and I don’t think anyone would describe my actions as accepting of the decision 😋. But as I’ve admitted, I was wrong.

Here’s what I’ve learned.

The head of the organization or decision maker gets to pick her team. It is her job to develop and maintain trust among that team so that productive conflict can occur and the best decisions can be made. But it is her decision to make. In order for that decision to have a chance at success, she must also look for signs of dissention or folks who are unable to be a team player, and eliminate it.

As a leader and member of the team, your job is to be courageous in sharing an alternate perspective or presenting an untraditional solution to a problem. However, if a decision is made that you don’t agree with and you find yourself unable to accept it, it is also your job to remove yourself from the team.

Leadership is complex.

And here’s where I’ve gone wrong.

I have good intentions and want to bring positive change to the organization. For me, that has always meant that I should continue to fight against the decision and advocate for what I think is right. It’s honestly hard for me to let that go, even in this moment. What I failed to see is the positive change that could come from my removing myself from the team so that they might cohesively work to bring the decision to life.

As a leader, you have to be aware of whether you can play with your team. If you find that you cannot get on board with what the head of your organization has set out to achieve or with the team he’s chosen to get it done, you have the responsibility to leave.

We set out on this journey to learn how to lead change, and it hadn’t occurred to me until today that we are also learning how to be part of a change movement. I’m looking forward to other unexpected lessons and perspectives. Thanks for reading.