Page 254 - An Indispensible Resource for Being a Credible Activist

Challenges (http://www.leadingchallenges.com) teaches CEOs regularly that they are in
the business of influencing behavior. We know that most employees will eventually do
whatever they see someone with more organizational authority than they have doing—
whether it’s related to dress code, drug use, sexual jokes, jokes about disabilities, jokes
about race, attending meetings late, yelling at staff, or producing shoddy work and cutting
corners.
Some of these things are not particularly problematic; some workplace cultures do
start all their meetings a bit later than they’re scheduled for. That’s okay, because it doesn’t
violate any laws. Some corporate cultures allow casual dress, and that’s also okay for the
same reason.
Part of addressing willingness includes addressing resistance that may and often does
exist. Again this goes back to the Monopoly box joke. Are leaders (and frequently corporate
lawyers) willing to acknowledge that a corporate governance that is legally compliant
requires certain behaviors, decision-making processes, conflict resolution skills and proce-
dures, awareness, and technical knowledge of them? Are they willing to further acknowl-
edge that they may not always have the technical knowledge required for a situation and
that their choices are to either learn that technical knowledge or trust someone else in their
organization who does have that technical knowledge? And, further, are they able to trust
someone else to have the correct technical knowledge? If yes, why and why that person? If
not, why not, and why not that person?
This means being willing to invest in high-quality training programs and to hire quali-
fied people for all positions handling any compliance issues from supervisors to lawyers to
HR staff to leadership. This means being willing to terminate the best salesperson if he
repeatedly sexually harasses others. This means being willing to tell the VP down the hall
with whom the leader may have become very friendly that she must change her behavior,
because she is significantly harming the corporate culture and placing the company in dan-
ger of legal noncompliance. This means being willing to consult with widely available cred-
ible free technical assistance sources and invest in training for themselves and their staff on
a regular basis, because the goal is compliance.

ONGOING LEADERSHIP AND EMPLOYEE
DEVELOPMENT

Leaders must be connected to the outside world of leadership in some way, whether through
an alumni association, an annual meeting of leaders, a professional company, monthly sub-
scriptions to leadership publications, regular training and development, or regular executive
coaching. You yourself must continue to develop because you will demand this from your
staff, and you will need to know what they’re talking about and why it is relevant for your
business. You cannot afford to not sharpen the sword.
The ground rules shown in the HR Tool entitled “Sample Basic Management Training,”
at the end of the chapter, on page 244, can be customized and done internally for any man-
agers or leaders who need to develop basic management, leadership, communication, dele-
gation, and managerial self-awareness skills.

CHAPTER 15 • F ostering F eedback, Training, and Improved P er formance 237