Make Something Happen
Some standard practices, policies, and procedures are critical to productivity and quality assurance. However, many are simply matters of tradition, which is what Pat Oldenburg observed when he joined McAfee, the maker of computer security software for busi- ness and home. Pat decided that some changes were needed; and rather than wait for someone else to initiate them, he took it upon
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himself to do something about the way his team measured their effectiveness. He got everyone together and proposed a new idea that would free up valuable time and deliver information that everyone wanted:
I started the meeting by reflecting on my experience at my old company, and how we moved from a model of reporting on numbers of activities to a model of reporting on other value- added things like prospects served and revenue assisted. I told the team that the current method was not scalable at the company, and a change had to be made. I said that scalability and resources are the big issue, but that one thing was to implement one-to-many sales calls. These calls would move from a reactive activity to a proactive one, as our team would host two to three calls per quarter with forty to fifty prospects attending each call.
Pat could sense that the team was hesitant to take on this ini- tiative—hosting informational calls with clients—because no one had been thinking there was any reason to do things differently. Sensing their hesitation, he proposed that they could host one call the first quarter and continue taking the sales calls as normal. The team agreed, and they hosted their first roundtable reference call several weeks later, with more than ninety separate prospects in attendance. The call was subsequently featured in the chief market- ing officer’s internal newsletter, saying that the team had successfully fused marketing and sales activities in a productive way. With the positive press and the rave reviews from various sales reps, the team immediately began planning the next quarter’s calls, drafting new guidelines that emphasized using roundtable reference calls over one-to-one sales calls unless absolutely necessary. Pat says that as “we
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G E continue to develop the roundtable program, we are surveying par-
ticipants and employees about ways to continue to change the format and content of the calls, and will continue to challenge the status quo to deliver the largest benefit to our customers that we can.”
As Pat experienced, new jobs and new assignments are ideal opportunities for asking probing questions and challenging the way things are done. They are the times when you’re expected to ask, “Why do we do this?” But don’t just ask this when you’re new to the job. Make it a routine part of your leadership. Treat today as if it were your first day. Ask yourself, “If I were just starting this job, what would I do differently?” Then do those things immediately. This is how you’ll continuously uncover needed improvements.
And don’t stop at what you can find on your own. Ask your colleagues and direct reports about what really bugs them about the organization. Ask what gets in the way of doing the best job possible. Promise to look into everything they bring up and get back to them with answers in ten days. Wander around the plant, the store, the branch, the halls, or the office. Look for things that don’t seem right. Ask questions. Probe.
Leaders like Joe, Arvind, and Pat are fundamentally restless. They don’t like the status quo. They want to make something happen. They want to change the business-as-usual environment. Research clearly shows that managers who rate high in proactivity are assessed by their immediate managers as more effective leaders.2 MBA stu- dents who rate high on proactivity also are considered by their peers to be better leaders; in addition, they are more engaged in extracur- ricular and civic activities targeted toward bringing about positive change.3 Similar results about the connection between proactivity and performance have been found among entrepreneurs, administra- tive staff, and even college students searching for jobs. Proactivity consistently produces better results than reactivity or inactivity.4 In
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our research, we’ve found that proactive managers score higher than average on the leadership practice of Challenge the Process; this inclination is independent of both gender and national culture.5 Everyone performs better when he or she takes charge of change.
Leaders at all levels work outside their job descriptions and see opportunities where others don’t. They don’t wait for permission or instructions before jumping in. You make something happen when you notice what isn’t working, create a solution for the problem, gain buy-in from constituents, and implement the desired outcome.
Consider these two examples from Starbucks. One store manager purchased her own blender to create a drink she invented because the company (at that time) didn’t want to invest in blenders. She took the initiative, created the product in her own store, and tested it with her customers. As more and more people requested the product, the company ultimately ended up being convinced to invest in the drink. Since then, the Frappuccino has brought hun- dreds of millions of dollars to Starbucks. Another store manager had a passion for music and began playing a variety of different types of music he liked at his store. Customers kept asking to buy the music, but it wasn’t for sale. So this manager approached Starbucks execu- tives and asked, “Why not compile our own CD or tape? Customers would snap it up.” Now CDs are sold in almost every one of the coffee shop locations.6 These store managers were not corporate executives, but they took the initiative to make something different happen. And that’s what leaders do. They take the initiative.
When thinking back on his early career experiences as a financial analyst, Varun Mundra realized that “when I did question the status quo, when I did come up with innovative ideas, when I followed through with the changes I suggested, got feedback, understood my mistakes, learned from them, and was open to improvements, I won the respect of the people around me.” As they say in basketball, none
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G E of the shots you don’t take ever go in the basket. You’ve got to make
something happen in order to score some points. That’s the key insight Varun had when he took the initiative. “It did not matter as much whether the changes were as effective as hoped for,” he told us, “but the fact that someone was ready to stand up and challenge what everyone else used as the norm was generally enough to get something started.” As Varun’s experience attests, you need to give everyone on your team the chance to search for better ways of doing things and to step forward and take initiative.