Call for a New Executive Competence

I talked with my good friend, Drea Zigarmi, today (founding partner of The Ken Blanchard Company, co-author of Achieve Leadership Genius, The Leader Within, and The One Minute Manager) about what I see and believe is most needed by organization managers and senior executives and yet is persistently lacking relative to their core skills. Right here, before I even tell you what the competence is, I’ve made a bold, maybe brazen assertion…that managers and executives lack something crucial to the success of their organizations and don’t even know it. Though bold, I tread lightly. Consultants, even former executives should take care not to throw stones. Yet, my boldness is not uninformed. It is rooted in what I witness every day working with executive clients one-on-one and in larger training interventions. It is also rooted in valid, reliable research into organizational life and the individual, interpersonal, and group dynamics within them.

Why are Executives So Allergic to Psychology?

This competence–psychological competence–is arguably the very last thing a great many executives I come upon expect to have to develop. This competence comes from one of three areas of knowledge, and again, here I go being bold, wisdom least likely to be tapped in search for solutions to the chronic problems organizations face: Theology, philosophy, and psychology.

So allergic to psychology are many executives that predictable jokes half-consciously tumble out of their minds and mouths. “This won’t be a Kumbaya session will it? Should we hug or shake hands? Okay, now let’s all group hug.” I wish I had a pound or dollar for every time I heard those nervous refrains. Psychology belongs in a dimly lit room with two opposing chairs, with a safe zone between, therapist and client sitting opposite one another. Any mention of psychology makes executives think of that therapy “session” Frasier or Tony Soprano-style. It’s inevitable, since our concept of what happens in our organization’s buildings, and for that matter our minds, should be only ever focused on achieving goals and results. But, believing what should be despite what is makes us miss important dimensions of what is actually fueling and informing what we see going on. Once again, boldly I go: many of the chronic problems managers and executives–you–face at work would be fantastically improved, very possibly eliminated if only they–you–were to look where you have never (okay, very rarely) looked…to psychology.

A Call for Psychological Competence

I’m calling for executives to reconceptualize their role to include attending to the psychological needs of their employees. Wouldn’t it be useful to know why people go to work? (Be careful not to project your own reasons onto your employees.) Yes, it is true paid employees go with the expectation that we will receive financial compensation in exchange for our work. But, usually we are much lazier in our explanation. We say they work for money, or “because they have two kids to put through college.” Plenty of reputable, valid, and reliable scientific evidence from laboratories and field research challenge those habitual assertions. It turns out people work for a great any more reasons than money. That means that several reasons for working have more meaning for us than money has. What does meaning have to do with productivity, goals, success?

Did you know that there is strong evidence that monetary rewards actually undermine intrinsic motivation? That means money as a primary “motivator” actually  works against you. It turns out, in many cases common to everyday organizational life, using money to motivate is bad business. Surprised? How about motivation, more generally? Is it possible for a woman to motivate herself? Should her quarterly goals be inherently motivating? Regardless of whether they should be, are they? Usually we say yes. Usually we hope to high heaven she can motivate herself because we don’t have any real idea of how to do it beyond telling her how important her goals are for the team, project, company, and maybe her career. But, have you ever thought that that kind of motivation might not be good for her productivity and satisfaction in the long run? How does her motivation type link into her decision to stay or go to work for a competitor two years from now?

Psychology can give us important answers to these questions. Many HR exectuves know this, but even HR is hampered by the underlying psychology phobia in American (and global) business. And, many HR executives perpetuate our stale notions of business is business; it’s not personal. Nonsense. It is often deeply personal. I have noticed in my international engagemnets that the situation is similar. International executives like to talk about how different their cultures are from the US business culture, and there are important differences. But, there are remarkable similarities in their allergy to using psychology as a new basis for their everyday interactions, or even the structure of their systems. (They could start by reading the literature on annual review/appraisal and reward systems.) In this sense, business leaders around the globe are in one boat.

Would You Like Fresh Insights on Chronic Problems?

I’ll leave this subject for now. It may be a lot to take in. You may not even think that I’ve made a point worth making. If that’s true, please consider these final questions before finalizing your conclusion:

• Why do we try so hard to limit the amount and kinds of emotion expressed at work? It seems to me we have gone too far. We don’t actually want low-emotion workplaces; we want no emotion workplaces. Why do we need that so much? Maybe because we are too psychologically incompetent (I have intentionally gone beyond emotional intelligence with this idea.)
• How does verbal praise affect the receiver’s motivation? What about criticism? What specifically does it change in their thinking? It would be helpful to know this before you praise or criticize. If you believe in management by walking around, is it possible that you are perceived as controlling, or distrustful, and not interested and supportive?
• If we are so desperate to invent new products and services, and creative thinking is at the heart of the innovation process, why are our organizations decorated with the most bland kind of corporate art you could find in a doctor’s office? What possibilities are you missing here?
• If our company’s values are so central to everything we do, why don’t we see the words and symbols of their meaning on the walls of our offices, in the corridors, and in other places we sit, talk, and think together? See question above.
• If collaboration is so central to our success, if idea velocity (necessary and appropriate speed and direction) is so crucial to hitting our targets, why are our conference rooms so utterly boring? Why are our office spaces set up with row after banal row of rectilinear cubicles if it is interaction we desperately need?
• Do your personal values have anything to do with the decisions you make? How can your personal values affect your motivation? Do you think they have anything to do with the ethical climate at the company? Are there early and subtle signs that would hint that someone is in dubious ethical territory?
• If performance reviews are known to be experienced both by the reviewer and the reviewed as akin to swallowing granola cereal with nasty case of strep throat, why do we still use them in their current form? Why haven’t we conceived a new approach, more psychologically-modern approach?

Psychological competence would help us answer these questions and, more to the point, craft answers that would reduce or eradicate many of our chronic organizational problems. I’m not saying it would be easy. But, think about it. Pleae, push back on the ideas here and share your thoughts. In the overall scheme of life, work is vitally important. How we feel about it, how we perform it, how we make meaning from it are all important to the other facets of our lives - like our family life, our romances, our spirituality. When it comes to how we work, I think being more psychologically competent will help business leaders, me, you, us, do a better job of it. [Copyright David C. Facer, Jr. All Rights Reserved.]

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