Stop Managing for the Weekend

Managing for the weekend needs to be put out to pasture. Strong, involved leadership is needed today, more than it has been for a very long time. The pandemic has hurt businesses, dampened spirits, and dramatically changed lives. Disruption brings change. And change requires leadership—not managing for the weekend.

Leaders need to provide (1) enhanced clarity and (2) rocket fuel.

Clarity

Clarity is the awareness of what’s important (and what’s not). It’s about which direction to go and how to focus your efforts. It’s about knowing what’s no longer relevant, and what is becoming more and more relevant.

According to neuroscience research, the brain craves certainty. Even a little bit of uncertainty inhibits our ability to think clearly by creating error, gap, and/or tension in the brain. Due to this response, people crave clarity.

Yet, the human brain can really only hold three priorities at any given time. Any more than that and we cognitively freeze—not taking action on any priorities.

Enter leadership... As a leader, we are willing to bet that at least one of the priorities in your employees’ minds is “Survival—Just gotta make it through!” Given the pandemic, this is understandable, and we should assume this leaves only two slots available for other priorities.

When facing uncertainty, the brain needs a place to land and find hope. There are three P’s that help the brain settle and center. The first P is a Plan. As a leader, it’s important to map out what your team can expect and what you’re going to do (and not do). This leads you from an unknown (uncertainty) to a known (certainty). Now, we all know that plans change, but having a plan lets people settle into a more secure state of mind.

No plan or in a state of flux? Advance to the second P: Person.

If you have history with your team and they feel they can trust you, then you’ll end up being a person they can believe will get them through. This is helpful if others have been able to count on you, but we tend to overestimate how much trust people place in us as leaders. Trust takes time to develop and cannot be fast-tracked.

If you have not had time to develop strong trust with your team, you will need to rely on something even deeper—more fundamental: Principles (our 3rd P).

A strong set of principles are your fallback and should work as your cornerstone. For example, if you want to communicate authentically, consider people’s contributions, share information/knowledge with complete transparency, and treat people fairly, then you have a set of principles you can share with others based upon what you value. This will facilitate positive trust-building, which can help with planning.

My good friend and co-author for this post, David Morelli, has a great example of Principles in action. David was coaching a CTO through a significant organizational change. The organization was beginning to acquire other firms, yet the technology team was apprehensive about the M&A process. Like most, their personal experiences with acquisitions weren’t exactly positive. The CTO was a new leader and new to acquisitions, so he couldn’t lean on the Plan or Person elements. David and the CTO discussed the principles they’d use for deciding who to acquire and who not to acquire. The CTO realized that he just needed to communicate that they were going to make sure the technology was solid, the culture of the company was compatible, and that it was going to truly add value to the company mission. Not earth-shattering, but extremely powerful. Team dialogue and morale experienced an uptick, which lead to trust-building, and more dialogue. Soon thereafter, the CTO reported back to David that the team was experiencing more positivity than apprehension and was excited about the challenges they were facing with acquisitions.

As a leader, learn to integrate the 3Ps to provide enhanced clarity for your team.

Fuel

A leader’s job is to also provide fuel (i.e., motivation). In short, fuel can be generated by believing in something—something you value as highly worthwhile and impactful, like a cause or mission. This fuel can be further enhanced when you, as the leader, interact with intended beneficiaries (i.e., your team members).

For example, research by Adam Grant found that individuals that interacted with a beneficiary of fundraising efforts experienced significant improvement in both persistence (142% more phone time) and performance (171% more money raised) compared to those that did not interact with beneficiaries.

When people find meaning in what they are doing and feel meaningfully connected to those around them, voila: rocket fuel.

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So, get involved. A critical aspect of a leader’s role is to better understand what each of their respective team members value as well as how each one feels valued. This can only happen when you are involved. When you are involved, you’re understanding what allows you to make personal connections and help your team members see how they can fulfill their own values through their work.

Imagine values like horses. They are already running in a certain direction—driving behavior and important outcomes. If you can help them see how their values can be honored or fulfilled through a meaningful work project, they’ll feel a lot more freedom and power as they work on that project. Result: Added horsepower.

A large part of a leader’s job is about clarity and fuel—you can provide both the more involved you are with your team.

Start involving. Bring clarity. Provide rocket fuel.

Author note: This piece was written jointly by Craig Wallace and David Morelli. You can learn more about David and his work here.