I am guilty of stacking my dishes in the sink and leaving them there for hours. I fact-checked this with my boyfriend. He says it's less like hours and more like days, but that's not the point. The point is sometimes I don't finish the job until the stack has gotten high enough that it's peaking over the lip of the sink and my inner clean freak loses it. This charming habit developed when I was in college, and I had tons of excuses. "I'm running to class!" "What's one more dirty dish in the sink?" Or my favorite, "I think I can save time and water if I do them all together later."
Ja sam kriva za gomilanje posuđa u sudoperi, ostavljajući ih tamo satima. Proverila sam ovaj podatak sa mojim momkom. On kaže da će pre biti dani, nego sati, ali nije u tome poenta. Poenta je da ja nekad ne dovršim posao, dok gomila ne postane tako velika da viri iz sudopere a moj unutrašnji čistunac ne poludi. Ova simpatična navika se razvila dok sam bila na fakultetu, uz gomilu izgovora. "Žurim na čas!" "Šta je još jedan prljavi sud u sudoperi?" Ili moj omiljeni: "Mislim da mogu da uštedim i vreme i vodu ako ih sve zajedno operem, kasnije."
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
But it's not like I needed those excuses, because nobody was calling me on it. I wish they had. I look back now and realize that every time I didn't put a dish in the dishwasher and finish what I started, it became more second nature to me, and I grew less likely to question why I was doing it. Today, I'm a 30-something, certified dirty-dish leaver, and breaking this habit is hard.
Ali nisu mi bili potrebni ti izgovori, zato što me niko nije prozivao zbog toga. Volela bih da jeste. Gledam sada i shvatam, da svaki put kad nisam stavila sud u mašinu i završila šta sam počela, to je polako postajalo deo moje prirode, i sve sam se manje pitala zašto to radim. Danas, sa 30 plus nešto godina, ja sam overeni ostavljač prljavog posuđa, a prekidanje ove navike je teško.
So when I'm not at home avoiding the sink, I work with large, complex organizations on leadership transformation in times of change. My job is to work with the most senior leaders to examine how they lead today and establish habits better suited for the future. But what interests me more than senior leaders these days is what's going on with the junior ones. We call them "middle managers," but it's a term I wish we could change because what they are is our pipeline of future talent for the C-suite, and they are starting to leave their dishes in the sink. While organizations are hiring people like me to redevelop their senior leaders for the future, outdated leadership habits are forming right before our eyes among the middle managers who will one day take their place. We need middle managers and senior leaders to work together, because this is a big problem. Organizations are evolving rapidly, and they're counting on their future leaders to lead with more speed, flexibility, trust and cooperation than they do today.
Dakle, kada ne izbegavam pranje suđa kod kuće, ja radim sa velikim, kompleksnim organizacijama, na transformaciji liderstva u vreme promena. Moj posao je rad sa najvišim menadžmentom da bih ustanovila kako danas vode i stvorila navike koje će bolje odgovarati u budućnosti. Ali ono što mene više od toga interesuje ovih dana, je, šta se dešava sa mlađim menadžmentom. Mi ih zovemo "srednji menadžment", ali to je termin koji bih rado menjala zato što je upravo tu naš rasadnik budućih talenata za visoke pozicije, a oni počinju da gomilaju svoje prljavo posuđe u sudoperi. Dok organizacije angažuju ljude kao što sam ja da reprogramiram njihove više lidere za budućnost, stare liderske navike se formiraju pred našim očima među srednjim menadžmentom koji će, jednog dana, zauzeti njihovo mesto. Potrebno nam je da srednji menadžment i lideri rade zajedno, zato što je to veliki problem. Organizacije se razvijaju jako brzo računajući da će njihovi budući lideri voditi brže, sa više fleksibilnosti, poverenja i saradnje nego oni danas.
I believe there is a window of time in the formative middle-manager years when we can lay the groundwork for that kind of leadership, but we're missing it. Why? Because our future leaders are learning from senior role models who just aren't ready to role model yet, much less change the systems that made them so successful. We need middle managers and senior leaders to work together to define a new way of leading and develop each other to rise to the occasion.
Ja verujem da postoji momenat u vremenu, u procesu stvaranja srednjeg menadžmenta kada možemo napraviti temelj za tu vrstu liderstva, ali mi ga propuštamo. Zašto? Zato što naši budući lideri uče od starijih uzora koji jednostavno nisu spremni da budu uzor, a još manje da menjaju sistem koji im je obezbedio uspeh. Potrebno je da srednji menadžment i lideri rade zajedno na novom načinu liderstva, koji će razvijati jedni druge kako bi dostigli taj nivo.
One of my favorite senior clients -- we'll call her Jane -- is a poster child for what's old-fashioned in leadership today. She rose to her C-level position based on exceptional individual performance. Come hell or high water, Jane got the job done, and today, she leads like it. She is tough to please, she doesn't have a lot of time for things that's aren't mission-critical, and she really doesn't trust anyone's judgment more than her own.
Jedan od mojih omiljenih klijenata - zvaćemo je Džejn - je živi primer staromodnog liderstva danas. Ona se uzdigla na rukovodeću poziciju na osnovu svojih izuzetnih ličnih sposobnosti. Kroz vatru i vodu, Džejn će završiti posao, i danas, ona vodi upravo tako. Veoma joj je teško ugoditi, nema baš puno vremena za stvari koje nisu baš ključne i u suštini ne veruje ničijoj proceni više nego svojoj.
Needless to say, Jane's in behavior boot camp. Those deeply ingrained habits are deeply inconsistent with where her organization is heading. The command-and-control behavior that she was once rewarded for just isn't going to work in a faster-moving, flatter, more digitally interconnected organization. What got her here won't get her there.
Ne treba reći; Džejn je na programu odvikavanja. Ove duboko usađenje navike su u potpunoj suprotnosti od onoga čemu teži njena organizacija. Njeno ponašanje "naredi i kontorliši" zbog koga je nekad bila nagrađena jednostavno više ne funkcioniše, uz brze promene, odsustvo hijerarhije i veću digitalnu povezanost organizacije. Ono što ju je dovelo tu, neće je tu i zadržati.
But I want to talk about John, a supertalented, up-and-coming manager who works for Jane, because her habits are rubbing off on him. Recently, he and I were strategizing about a decision we needed to put in front of the CEO, Jane's boss, and the rest of Jane's peers. He said to me, "Liz, you're not going to like this, but the way decisions get made around here is with a bunch of meetings before the meeting." I counted. That was going to mean eight one-on-ones, exec by exec, to make sure each one of them was individually on board enough that things would go smoothly in the actual meeting. He promised, "It's not how we'll do things in the future, but it's how we have to do them today."
Ali ja želim da pričam o Džonu, supertalentovanom menadžeru u usponu, koji radi za Džejn zato što se njene navike prenose na njega. Nedavno, nas dvoje smo pravili strategiju oko postavljanja neke odluke pred izvršnog direktora, Džejninog šefa. i ostatak Džejninih kolega. On mi je rekao, "Liz, neće ti se ovo svideti, ali način na koji se ovde donose odluke je kroz gomilu sastanaka pre samog sastanka." Ja sam brojala. To bi značilo osam sastanaka jedan na jedan, izvršilac po izvršilac kako bi se osiguralo da je svako, ponaosob, dovoljno obavešten kako bi stvari glatko prošle na pravom sastanku. Obećao je: "Nećemo tako raditi u budućnosti, ali sada moramo da radimo tako."
John wasn't wrong on either count. Meetings before the meeting are a necessary evil in his company today, and I didn't like it at all. Sure, it was going to be inefficient and annoying, but what bothered me most was his confidence that it's not how they'll do things in the future. How could he be sure? Who was going to change it and when, if it wasn't him and now? What would the trigger be? And when it happened, would he even know how to have effective meetings without pre-meetings? He was confidently implying that when he's the boss, he'll change the rules and do things differently, but all I could see were dishes stacking in the sink and a guy with a lot of good excuses. Worse, a guy who might be out of a job one day because he learned too late how to lead in the organizations of tomorrow.
Džon nije pogrešio ni u čemu. Sastanci pre sastanka su nužno zlo u njegovoj kompaniji, i meni se to ni malo nije dopalo. Naravno, biće neefikasano i iritirajuće, ali ono što mi je najviše smetalo, bila je njegova samouverenost da se tako neće raditi u budućnosti. Kako on može biti siguran? Ko će to promeniti i kada, ako ne on i ako ne sada? Šta bi bio okidač? I kada se to desi, da li bi on znao kako da vodi efektivne sastanke bez pred-sastanaka? On je sa sigurnošću ukazivao da će, kad on bude šef, on promeniti pravila i raditi drugačije, a jedino što sam ja mogla da vidim je suđe nagomilano u sudoperi i tipa sa puno dobrih izgovora. Još gore, tipa koji bi mogao da ostane bez posla jednog dana zato što je kasno naučio kako da vodi organizaciju sutrašnjice.
These stories really get to me when it's the fast-track, high-potential managers like John because they're probably the most capable of making waves and redefining how leaders lead from the inside. But what we find is that they're often doing the best job at not rocking the boat and challenging the system because they're trying to impress and make life easier on the senior leaders who will promote them. As someone who also likes to get promoted, I can hardly blame him. It's a catch-22. But they're also so self-assured that they'll be able to change their behavior once they've earned the authority to do things differently, and that is a trap. Because if I've learned anything from working with Jane, it's that when that day comes, John will wonder how he could possibly do anything differently in his high-stakes, high-pressure executive job without risking his own success and the organization's, and he'll wish it didn't feel so safe and so easy to keep doing things the way they've always been done.
Ove priče me zaista pogađaju kada imamo pravog igrača sa velikim potencijalom, kao Džon, zato što su oni verovatno najsposobniji da naprave promene i promene način liderstva iznutra. Ali ono što smo otkrili je da oni najčešće ne žele da talasaju i izazivaju sistem zato što se trude da zadive i učine život lakšim višim liderima koji će ih unaprediti. Kao neko ko takođe voli da bude unapređen, ne mogu baš da ga krivim. U tome je kvaka 22. Ali u isto vreme, oni su tako samouvereni da će biti u stanju da promene svoje ponašanje jednom kada dobiju ovlašćenje da stvari rade drugačije, i tu je zamka. Jer, ako sam nešto naučila radeći sa Džejn, to je da, kada osvane taj dan, Džon će se pitati kako bi on uopšte mogao raditi drugačije na svojoj visokorizičnoj izvršnoj poziciji, punoj pritisaka, bez rizikovanja svog ličnog uspeha i uspeha organizacije, i poželeće da nije tako sigurno i tako lako nastaviti raditi na način na koji se uvek radilo.
So the leadership development expert in me asks: How can we better intervene in the formative years of our soon-to-be senior leaders? How can we use the fact that John and his peers want to take charge of their professional destinies and get them ready to lead the organizations of the future, rather than let them succumb to the catch-22 that will perfectly prepare them to lead the organizations of the past? We'll have to start by coming to terms with a very real paradox, which is this: the best form of learning happens on the job -- not in a classroom, not via e-modules. And the two things we rely on to shape on-the-job learning are role models and work environments. And as we just talked about, our role models are in behavior boot camp right now, and our work environments are undergoing unprecedented disruption. We are systematically changing just about everything about how organizations work, but by and large, still measuring and rewarding behavior based on old metrics, because changing those systems takes time. So, if we can't fully count on role models or the system right now, it's on John to not miss this critical development window. Yes, he'll need Jane's help to do it, but the responsibility is his because the risks are actually his. Either he inherits an organization that is failing because of stubbornly old-fashioned leadership, or he himself fails to build the capabilities to lead one that transformed while he was playing it safe.
Dakle, ekspert za razvoj liderstva u meni se pita: Kako možemo bolje da utičemo u tim godinama razvoja na naše buduće više lidere? Kako možemo iskoristiti činjenicu da Džon i njegove kolege žele da menjaju svoju profesionalnu sudbinu i spremiti ih da vode organizacije budućnosti, a ne pustiti ih da se sapletu o kvaku 22 koja će ih bez greške prirpemiti da vode organizaciju prošlosti? Moraćemo da krenemo od jednog stvarnog paradoksa, a to je ovo: najbolji način učenja dešava se na poslu, ne u učionici, ne putem e-modula. A dve stvari na koje se oslanjamo za stvaranje forme učenja na poslu su uzori i radno okruženje. I kao što smo upravo rekli, naši uzori su sad na prevaspitavanju, a naša radna okruženja prolaze kroz neviđene promene. Mi sistemski menjamo skoro sve u vezi sa funkcionisanjem organizacije, ali uglavnom, još uvek mereći i nagrađujući ponašanje po starom principu, zato što menjanje tih sistema zahteva vreme. Dakle, ako ne možemo baš da računamo na uzore ili sistem u ovom trenutku, na Džonu je da ne propusti ovaj ključni prostor za razvoj. Da, biće mu potrebna Džejnina pomoć, ali odgovornost je na njemu, zato što je rizik u suštini njegov. Ili će naslediti organizaciju koja propada zbog tvrdoglavog i staromodnog liderstva, ili on lično neće uspeti da izgradi sposobnosti da vodi onu koja se transformisala dok je on igrao na sigurno.
So now the question is, where does John start? If I were John, I'd ask to start flying the plane. For my 13th birthday, my grandpa, a former Navy pilot, gave me the gift of being able to fly a very small plane. Once we were safely airborne, the pilot turned over the controls, folded his hands, and he let me fly. It was totally terrifying. It was exhilarating, but it was also on-the-job learning with a safety net. And because it was real, I really learned how to do it myself. Likewise, in the workplace, every meeting to be led, every decision to be made can be a practice flight for someone who could really use the learning experience and the chance to figure out how to do it their own way. So instead of caving, John needs to knock on Jane's door, propose a creative strategy for having the meeting without the eight pre-meetings, show her he's thought through the trade-offs and ask for her support to do it differently.
I sad je pitanje, odakle Džon da počne? Da sam ja na njegovom mestu, zamolila bih da počnem da vozim avion. Za moj 13. rođendan, moj deda, bivši pilot mornarice, dao mi je poklon, da mogu da vozim veoma mali avion. Kada smo bili na sigurnom u vazduhu, pilot je okrenuo kontrolni uređaj, prekrstio ruke i pustio me da upravljam. Bilo je potpuno zastrašujuće. Bilo je stimulativno, i u isto vreme je bilo učenje na poslu, uz sigurnosnu mrežu. I upravo zato što je bilo stvarno, ja sam naučila kako to da radim. Isto tako, na radnom mestu, svaki sastanak koji se vodi, svaka odluka koja se donosi može biti vežba letenja za nekog ko bi stvarno mogao da iskoristi ovo iskustvo i šansu da shvati kako da to radi na svoj način. Tako da, umesto da tavori, Džon bi trebalo da zakuca na Džejnina vrata, predloži kreativnu strategiju da se održi sastanak bez osam pred-sastanaka, da joj pokaže svoje mišljenje kroz kompromise i zamoli za njenu podršku da to uradi drugačije.
This isn't going to be easy for Jane. Not only does she need to trust John, she needs to accept that with a little bit of room to try his hand at leading, John will inevitably start leading in some ways that are far more John than Jane. And this won't be an indictment of her. Rather, it will be individualism. It will be progress. And it might even be a chance for Jane to learn a thing or two to take her own leadership game to the next level.
Ovo neće biti lako za Džejn. Ne samo da treba da veruje Džonu, nego treba da prihvati da će, kada dobije samo malo prostora Džon neminovno početi da vodi na način koji će biti mnogo više Džonov nego Džejnin. I to neće biti njena optužnica. Već više individualizam. To će biti napredak. A možda će to biti i šansa za Džejn da nauči par stvari i da svoje liderske sposobnosti podigne na viši nivo.
I work with another senior client who summed up this dilemma beautifully when we were talking about why he and his peers haven't empowered the folks below them with more decision rights. He said, "We haven't done it because we just don't trust that they're going to make the right decisions. But then again, how could they? We've just never given them decisions to practice with." So I'm not advocating that Jane hands over the controls and folds her hands indefinitely, but what I am saying is that if she doesn't engineer learning and practice right into John's day today, he'll never be able to do what she does, much less do it any differently than she does it.
Radim sa još jednim klijentom, koji je predivno sažeo ovu dilemu kada smo pričali o tome zašto on i kolege nisu podstakli svoje podređene da imaju veću moć odlučivanja. On je rekao: "Nismo to uradili zato što ne verujemo da će oni doneti prave odluke. Ali opet, kako bi i mogli? Mi im samo nikad nismo dali da vežbaju sa odlukama." Dakle, ja ne propagiram da Džejn preda svoju komandu i skrsti ruke zauvek, već ono što govorim je da ukoliko ona ne ugradi učenje i praksu u Džona danas, on nikada neće moći da radi ono što i ona, a još manje da će raditi drugačije od toga kako je ona radila.
Finally, since we're going to be pushing both of them outside their comfort zones, we need some outside coaches to make sure this isn't a case of the blind leading the blind. But what if instead of using coaches to coach each one of them to individually be more effective, we started coaching the interactions between them? If I could wave my magic wand, I would have coaches sitting in the occasional team meeting of Jane and her direct reports, debriefing solely on how well they cooperated that day. I would put a coach in the periodic feedback session between Jane and John, and just like a couples' therapist coaches on communication, they would offer advice and observations on how that conversation can go better in the future. Was Jane simply reinforcing what Jane would have done? Or was Jane really helping John think through what to do for the organization? That is seriously hard mentorship to provide, and even the best leaders need help doing it, which is why we need more coaches coaching more leaders, more in real time versus any one leader behind closed doors.
Na kraju, pošto ćemo ih oboje izbaciti iz njihove zone komfora, potrebni su eksterni treneri da se pobrinu da ne bude slučaj gde slepac vodi slepca. Ali šta ako umesto eksternih trenera koji će ih pojedinočno učiti kako da budu efikasniji, počnemo da ih učimo kako da međusobno komuniciraju? Kada bih mogla mahnuti čarobnim štapićem, imala bih trenere koji sede na sastancima timova Džejn i njenih direktnih izveštača, pojedinačno izveštavajući kako su tog dana sarađivali. Postavila bih trenera na periodični sastanak između Džejn i Džona, i baš kao što terapeut za parove uči komuniciranju, on bi ponudio savet i zapažanja kako razogovor može biti bolji ubuduće. Da li je Džejn samo podsticala ono što bi Džejn uradila? Ili je Džejn stvarno pomagala Džonu da razmisli šta da uradi za organizaciju? Taj oblik mentorstva je izuzetno teško obezbediti, gde čak i najboljim liderima treba pomoć da to urade, zbog čega nam je potrebno više trenera koji će podučavati što više lidera, više u stvarnim situacijama, umesto bilo kog lidera iza zatvorenih vrata.
Around 20 years ago, Warren Buffet gave a school lecture in which he said, "The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they're too heavy to be broken." I couldn't agree more, and I see it happening with our future leaders in training. Can we and they be doing more to build their leadership capabilities while they're still open, eager and not too far gone down a path of bad habits we totally saw coming?
Pre nekih 20 godina, Voren Bafet je održao predavanje u školi u kome je rekao: "Okovi navika su suviše laki da bi ih osetili, sve dok ne postanu suviše teški da bi se prekinuli." Potpuno se slažem,, a vidim da se to dešava sa našim budućim liderima. Možemo li mi i oni uraditi više da izgradimo njihove liderske sposobnosti dok su još otvoreni, željni i još uvek nisu zagazili u vode loših navika, što smo videli da slede?
I wish my college roommates and I called each other out back then for the dishes. It would have been so much easier to nip that habit in the bud than it is to change it today. But I still believe in a future for myself full of gleaming sinks and busy dishwashers, and so we're working on it, every day, together, moment to moment, one dirty dish at a time.
Volela bih da smo moji cimeri i ja prozvali jedni druge onda, zbog sudova. Bilo bi mnogo lakše saseći tu naviku u korenu, nego promeniti je danas. Ali ja i dalje verujem u svoju budućnost punu sjajnih sudopera i zaposlenih mašina za suđe, i zato radimo na tome, svakog dana, zajedno, trenutak po trenutak jedan po jedan prljavi sud.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)