The Terminator or the Declare-o-rator?

On October 7, 2008, US Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke reminded attendees at a financial meeting that the economy had been showing signs of “deceleration” even before the more obvious disruptions with the financial and credit markets that soon followed.

While noting that housing has been a primary focus, he said the concern has spread far beyond that sector.  He went on to offer messages of little hope that concluded with “…the heightened financial turmoil that we have experienced of late may well lengthen the period of weak economic performance and further increase the risks to growth.” (HR Magazine’s 2009 HR Trend Book, page 5)

Thanks for the motivation Mr. Bernanke.  And by the way, what the heck was that comment intended to create???

It ceases to amaze me how many truly brilliant people suffer from this “size 10 in mouth” disease.  A more technical (and perhaps less judgmental) term I have for this is “describe and manage”.

Here’s a sample scenario: 

You’ve just hired a new technical manager, Bob, to oversee three brand new accounts you’ve landed.  Each Monday morning at your client update meeting, Bob outlines what’s currently going on with these three new accounts.  He says that Jeff and Sally, his production team, are doing great at moving things along and the projects are on schedule.

After three months, Bob begins to share more about how Jeff is coming in late and that Sally is taking on more of the work and that he is getting frustrated with current production processes.  Bob assures you that Sally is okay taking on more work and that he’ll create a few work-a-rounds on processes.  There will only be a 45-day delay in the projects and the clients seem okay with that.

At six months, its clear things are not headed in the right direction.  Jeff left the company, Sally’s overwhelmed and Bob’s spending the majority of his time training Jeff’s replacement.  100% of Bob’s comments during the Monday morning meetings now consist of describing how he’s managing all the breakdowns with staff and resources.  The three projects are now four months behind schedule. 

Soon you get a phone call from two of the three new accounts letting you know they’re taking their business elsewhere.

What’s the problem?  Both Bob and Ben Bernanke are making one of the biggest mistakes you can make in business and life – describing your circumstances; then managing around them.

There is one sure-fire result to this process = guaranteed failure.

The moment you begin doing this, you allow your circumstances to drive the project, relationship, conversation or result.  You have now said, “My circumstances are more powerful than I.”

So what’s the alternative?  It’s really quite simple, although don’t be surprised if it scares you a bit.  We’re not trained to operate this way. 

It’s called “declaring and fulfilling”.

Let’s use Bob, the manager’s example.  Imagine that instead of him coming to meetings telling you what his circumstances are then outlining how he’ll manage them, he said the following:

“Here’s where things are with the three new account projects.  Jeff’s been showing up late to work and I had a conversation with him last week.  Although I acknowledged him for the quality of his work, he does understand I will replace him if he doesn’t handle his time issue.  He worked out the issue and he’s recreated his commitment to his work.  Sally and I talked about her tendency to take on too much and she requested I look into hiring a part-time technician.  I’ve interviewed three people and I’m making a proposal to one of them today.  We are one week ahead of schedule on two projects, on time with the third, and we will be ready to complete all three projects on time.”

Notice the difference?

In this example, Bob is not willing to look, spend time with or manage any of the circumstances.  His only objective is declaring the projects will be complete when he said they’d be complete.  His actions are reliable and forward-focused and based only on his declaration.

Imagine if just 10% more of your staff, family, community or government took on “declaring and fulfilling” rather than “describing and managing” ?  What would be possible then?

Imagine if Ben Bernanke had instead said something like:  “We are facing some challenging times right now.  And what’s next is to create a credit oversight committee within the next three months, establish a short-term credit plan for small businesses that will allow them payment flexibility for six months and inject $XXX into the economy that will be repaid by a percentage of the loan repayments from small businesses.”

Regardless of how ridiculous the above example may be, you can be assured that Mr. Bernanke would have CREATED something.  Perhaps it would be hope.  Perhaps it would be a vision of a better future.

Instead, he crippled a potential future by describing current circumstances.  The worst part… he didn’t even make an attempt at outling how we’d “manage”.  In other words, he successfully terminated possibility.

Don’t be Ben Bernanke.

Leadership Practices:

1. Catch yourself telling stories of why things are the way they are.
2. Ask yourself, “How does my story contribute to my bottom line?”
3. Practice “declaring and fulfilling” incrementally – start small.  Consider things like “I’m going to bed every night this week by 10pm” then actually going to bed at 10pm each night.  Ratchet up the gradient each week.

Go Declare,

-Coach Preston