An Infuriating Insight
I was recently able to join one of my role models and senior advisors, Jim Kouzes, as a participant in his teleseminar about leading through tough times. It is a very relevant topic nowadays, and one I have been considering as the theme for my next book.
There was an opportunity to email questions in advance, so I availed myself. I sent Jim the hairiest, most difficult question that was on my mind that day. It is the kind of student I have always been. Jim knew immediately when the question was read who had sent it: Who else would ask so obnoxious a question? But who better to send my obnoxious question to, if I wanted a good answer to it? Here is the email I sent:
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I have heard a CEO describe how he was able to ask for and get more performance out of his 50-odd employees, and so his company grew and prospered despite the economic downturn. He said he was able to accomplish this change precisely because of the “bank account” of credibility and goodwill that he had established over many years. What can a leader do if they do not have such a preexisting bank account?
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Was that an obnoxious question or what? I sent the question in advance, but Jim did not hear it until we were live on the conference with hundreds of people listening. He is very good.
His answer infuriated me. I had hoped to learn of some magic bullet that would allow a leader with a low bank account to somehow capture the integrity dividend. But magic bullets are the stuff of fantasy, and not hard reality. No magic bullet was forthcoming.
After thinking, Jim said simply, “Don’t overspend.” Treat it like you would a real bank account, at a bank that is managed properly. Live within your means. If you pay your bills on time, your credit rating slowly increases. As that happens, you get more flexibility. But first you have to live within your means. Don’t overspend.
What? That is not an answer. I was mad. I was nettled. I was confused.
After a few more minutes, I was awed by the simple brilliance of Jim’s answer.
There are no magic bullets. Trust is earned over time, or it is not. The current economic times mean that leaders need to ask their people to make sacrifices. And the legal and tactical environments are such that a leader cannot fully disclose the reasons for actions – and so must sometimes fall back on the entreaty to “trust me.” “Trust me” only works when they already do.
The CEO I had spoken with navigated the hard times by drawing on his healthy bank account. If you don’t have one to draw on: start building it.
So that is the answer. Simple. Elegant. Infuriating. Difficult to practice. But spot on.
“Don’t overspend.”
Book Review
The first thing I do when I get a book is flip open to the inside flap of the dust cover and read the summary. I like to get a fifteen second feel for the book before I dive right in.
The first line on the dust jacket read: “Corporate and government scandals continue to deepen our mistrust of leaders.” Tony Simons, author of the The Integrity Dividend and an associate professor of management and organizational behavior at the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, hit the nail on the head with that line. While the book was probably influenced by the Enron and similar scandals, corporate greed in financial companies and weak governmental oversight (or straight up looking the other way) the last five or ten years has combined to create an economic maelstrom the likes of which haven’t been seen in decades. Add it all together and you get an environment where employees may be distrustful of their management. Are the leaders of my firm focusing on the quick buck to keep shareholders happy or are they interested in building a long term future? Richard Fuld, ex-CEO of Lehman Brothers, earned half a billion dollars in cash between 2000 and 2008. Lehman is now bankrupt, leaving many employees with empty retirement accounts.
The main point of this book, if I’m allowed to oversimplify, is that companies must build their integrity, protect it at every turn, and, in summary, “do what you say they will do” for their people. The integrity dividend refers to how keeping your word as a leader can positively impact the bottom line. Leaders who are trusted, often get the most performance out of their employees.
I worked at a very large defense contractor for the first three years of my nascent career. Every single year (2003-2006) I enjoyed a 4% raise and was told that “raises wouldn’t be good this year,” by my manager. I know I wasn’t a rock star (I wasn’t a bum either, I won my fair share of monetary performance-based awards), I didn’t put in 60-80 hours a week, I wasn’t on high profile projects, and I didn’t expect rock star raises. I was satisfied with my 4% raise but hearing “raises wouldn’t be good this year” bothered me.
When you couple that with my belief that my manager was wholly unqualified to either manage or lead (and put in charge because of nepotism), you can see how I was distrustful of management. I worked my 40 hours, took advantage of education reimbursement, and left at the first opportunity. I wasn’t alone. The company used 20% attrition rate for our age group (within 5 years of graduation) but based on memory, about 33% of people hired in the three years I was employed there had left.
The Integrity Dividend, in part, talks to that point. Since I, and many others, didn’t trust management (the CEO got like a 20% raise each year), I didn’t kill myself for them. For a company to say, in a time of war when defense spending is going through the roof, that raises won’t be good seems disingenuous. The next company I worked at, a consulting firm, was much different. While I didn’t report, in the management chain, to the people I worked for, I trusted them. They didn’t BS me and tell me some line out of a management book. I had a couple 50 hour and 60 hours weeks there, near delivery times, and I had no problem working them. I trusted that management would take care of me because they were transparent and followed their word.
That’s the integrity dividend Simons talks about. If you’re in a leadership or management position, check out this book. I’m sure you can respect the fact that trust, not money, is the most valuable currency available in an organization.
http://www.iconocast.com/00023/Z5/News6.htm
Integrity Goes to Washington
What if a new approach started to gain traction in the halls of Washington? Where people might actually say what was really on their mind. Where politicians debated their real reasons for votes. Where promises were reliably kept. Where opinions were recognized as opinions, and facts as facts.
We just might see some civility. We might see some trust across the aisle. We might see people getting things done. I know most of the people in Washington mean well. But a new set of tools might help.
My book, The Integrity Dividend (Jossey-Bass, 2008) presents evidence that people more readily follow leaders who live by their word. That being seen as living by your word makes a person more effective in a host of ways – followers are more engaged and more directed in their efforts, companies are more profitable, and adversaries are more cooperative. Measurable performance results. The Integrity Dividend is not about morality; it is about effectiveness. The book then goes on to address several ways in which the practice of integrity is challenging, and how it can be attained.
The Integrity Dividend is a business book, written for managers and executives. It is not a political book. But the message applies.
I believe a widespread practice of striving to build credibility through deliberately living by your word might just make a difference in Washington. Now is the time for it. The current financial crisis can be squarely laid at the feet of executives who failed to execute their stated charges responsibly, and opted instead to exploit loopholes in the financial systems. People sense this. And what passes for debate in the halls of congress seems very different from a thoughtful consideration of the actual drivers of politicians’ votes. Often the politicians do not even bother to show up to hear the words of the opposition – a testament to the emptiness, or perceived emptiness, of the argument. Integrity seems to be in short supply.
And it just might help.
I am not naïve enough to think that one book would solve the integrity problem in Washington. The incentives are tilted too heavily against it. Politicians need to raise tens of thousands of dollars every day to stand a chance of retaining their positions – and common folk don’t offer that kind of money. There is structural work that needs doing if we really want to see honest debate and decision making. But ideas do matter. And integrity is an idea that many might want to promote – if for no other reason than that it makes them look good to do so. It might catch on.
I would like to see the idea of integrity take root in Washington. Because Washington would work a whole lot better if it did. It would serve the people, the economy, the planet.
So I am wondering how to get copies of The Integrity Dividend into the hands of every senator, every congressman, every cabinet member, the president, maybe the supreme court. And to have it read by as many of them as possible. Get them talking and thinking about it. Because it just might make a difference. Even a small difference would be worth the trouble.
The question of the hour is how to make that happen.
–Should I create a nonprofit organization to which people can contribute? Or ally with an existing one?
–How should I raise money for it? It would not require too much.
–Who should write the cover letters? Individual constituents (“send a book to your congressman, and send a message…”)? Sponsoring companies? A media heavyweight? An elder statesman, or a team of them (e.g. Bush Senior and Carter?)
–How can I get the book read? How can I get past the clutter these incredibly busy people must face?
–Should I write an extended executive brief to accompany the book? Should I try to make the translation into the language of politics?
–Should I target the ethics enforcement committees in the house and senate?
I would welcome ideas about how to make this happen, pledges of financial or other forms of support, debate about whether or not it might make some difference, and other dialog. Top ideas will be rewarded with a signed copy of the book.
–Tony Simons
Overcoming Amnesia about the “Middle Manager’s Dilemma:” A Call for Stories and Ideas
“The Middle Manager’s Dilemma,” as described by Tony Simons’ book, The Integrity Dividend, occurs when mid-level managers are expected to fully support and implement policy directives with which they, and often their subordinates as well, disagree. Chapter Seven, “Easing the Middle Manager’s Dilemma,” goes as far toward providing solutions as was feasible at the time the book was written, but Simons is clear that he wishes that more help could be available. Perhaps responses to this blog entry may provide new insights.
In subsequent conversations about this dilemma, Dr. Simons confesses his puzzlement about the fact that in the interviews he did for the book, virtually all middle managers strongly agreed that this is a major problem in business, and were quick to provide very recent stories of their own. Top-level managers and executives, on the other hand, tended to minimize this “dilemma” as a problem, stressing instead the intransigence often shown by lower level managers when asked to execute difficult assignments.
This finding brings up an interesting question. Since most upper level managers were once lower level managers, how do we account for the fact that upper level managers have lost sight of “the middle manager’s dilemma” that they were presumably very aware of and concerned about at an earlier stage of their career? What could be done to help rectify this amnesia-like phenomenon that appears to be a blind spot, even among top level executives who are on the behavioral integrity bandwagon?
Any ideas and/or “war stories” out there? Please share any that you think would help; and use fictitious names as appropriate.
Oliver Markley, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Studies of the Future
University of Houston-Clear Lake
