Bring forth the potential of your organization

”Top management has to loosen up the structure. We want to do it, but we don’t always succeed. My superiors experience that they have surrendered a lot of power and decision-making, but I want even more. In the same way, I find it hard to surrender as much power as my part of the organization demands.”

LARS FOGH IVERSEN, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIES, NOVO NORDISK

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At a management conference during the Covid lockdown in the spring of 2021, a chief executive received a question concerning the experiences of his company during Covid and what his focus would be when the world re-opened. “I think we have shown that we can do more than we thought was possible. Let’s keep demanding a lot of ourselves”, he answered. “Cool”, we thought at Resonans. But it might be that some of his employees were sighing and thought: “Can we not take it a bit easy?”

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As we see it, the chief executive is seeing the potential in his company, and therefore we understand his remark as an appeal to his own organization and a signal to the surroundings that his company insists stubbornly on contributing as much as possible with whatever it is their mission to do.

This chief executive reminds other managers and employees of the potential that the organization is not able to see in the day-to-day work, which is characterized by operations. Naturally the main focus, is on the day-to-day problems and solutions, and perhaps managers and employees involved in the operations are not even aware that their ideas on how to improve are welcome.

FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE

Most chief executives are aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their organizations, and they know that it is important to support a culture in which positive results get appreciated. Therefore, they emphasize progress, impressive results, and potentials. At the same time, they are not always aware that the rest of the organization does not necessarily see these perspectives as clearly as the management because the management has a much better chance of pointing out obvious potentials and opportunities for improvement through its strategic approach. If mid-level managers are to see the perspective in keeping ambitions high, then the communication from the management to the rest of the organization must be very clear.

If your communication about your strengths is not clear, then the desire to raise the level of ambition or to change something can be interpreted as criticism against the organization or maybe even as a lack of respect for the employees’ efforts. That is why you should emphasize the strengths of your organization and talk to everyone about exemplary cases of progress and results.

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BE HONEST AND SEE WHAT IS THERE

Excessive optimism, as well as pessimism, can have a paralyzing effect on an organization, which might end up slacking because they are assured that “everything is fine” or because they lose all faith in the possibility of change due to the fact that nothing seems to work. It is a part of your job as a chief executive to help your organization adjust its balance between focusing on strengths and weaknesses. Be honest about what is not working and use it as a starting point for promoting change, but do not leave your organization without a feeling of hope and of the opportunity of taking initiative and acting independently.

It is important to avoid biases that make you see only one side of the coin. Thus, you should try to look objectively at both positive and negative things, and in your communication, you should offer examples of things that are progressing as well as things that should be changed instantly. Having said that, it is essential to remember that negativity bias in particular is a strong force that we often see among chief executives. Consequently, the act of reminding yourself to notice the positive developments can be an important act of disruption.