“Our bosses should be here”
“You should tell this to our boss”
Over the years I have heard this again and again, typically when I’m delivering training. I teach my stuff, I’ve people exercises to practice new techniques and ways of working, I inspire them as a group to do something different. Time and again I’m told “Our bosses should hear this too.”
Sometimes I’d say “But your bosses want these changes, the fact that they have given you time to be here, and pay me to train you shows they want the change.” While I think I had a pretty good success rate in generating change I’m also sure all too often nothing changed when I left.
The catch is, they are right, but so am I.
Bosses have authority?
Each and every one of us has a mental model which says “we need our bosses authority to do this”, or “our boss can make this change.” And sometimes bosses do need to put their money where their mouth is, to spend on new tools, resources, and training, or to allow time for people to practice their new skills.
But, bosses are themselves prisoners of the same system, if anything more so.
For a start those leaders got where they are today because of their past success, that success was based on certain ways of working, certain beliefs about the way to get things done. At the same time they didn’t upset the wrong people, they didn’t make life difficult for those they worked for. Doing something different means can mean breaking with that, potentially upsetting people, possibly changing ones own behaviour.
Those leaders have to follow the same processes and practices as everyone else. If leaders break the rules why would anyone else ever follow them? They are expected to lead by example.
Those leaders have more to loose than workers: they may well hold senior positions with higher salaries. If they are seen to act irresponsibly they may loose their job.
They may be looking to become an even more senior leader – either in the same company or by going elsewhere. They won’t get those promotions if they are seen as trouble makers, don’t work well with others, ask too many questions or if they break too many rules.
Imprisoned by expectations
They are surrounded by expectations from their own bosses and those they must report too. In fact everyone has a boss: as a self-employed person have no boss on paper but I have to answer to clients. CxOs have to answer to CEOs who have to answer to a board. The chair of the board has to report to shareholders, all directors and many executives are legally responsible; plus they can get called in by politicians.
Politicians might seem more powerful but they have to answer to voters. (Not to mention allies and enemies.) Many of those voters are also shareholders – perhaps through pension funds.
Shareholders, pension funds, directors, executives, leaders, workers, everyone has to answer to someone.
Everyone is prisoner to the system. The more system – the more processes, procedures, tools, standards – you have the greater the change, the greater the difficulty in change and the greater the risk,
Doing something different entails risk, but at the same time there is risk in not changing.
Those people saying “You should tell this to our boss” are right, but at the same time the bosses are often looking to them to take the lead and make the change.
Kindling change
My mental model for leaders looking to create change is to “take both ends at once” – top-down and bottom-up. This is like starting a fire.
The leader who wants change needs to kindle the change. They need to get the fire started by encouraging people and providing resources to start the fire. But it is very very easy to extinguish the change with too much support. A fire without oxygen will not start, but too much oxygen will blow the fire out before it takes hold.
Your bosses might be far from perfect but remember: they are a prisoner to the system as much, or even more, than you are.