Leaders, Flies, and Manure
A leader without a problem to fix is like a fly searching for stink. If you aren’t fixing something, you’re buzzing around looking for something that’s broken.
Leaders love problems like flies love manure.
You love complaining about problems, but you feel lost if you aren’t solving them.
**The idea of the pyramid originated with, “The Anatomy of Peace.”
Six things that make problems appealing:
- Bad is stronger than good.
- We naturally look for things that are bad, broken, or not working.
- The seduction of fixing is nearly irresistible.
- Complaining, gossip, and pointing out problems feels powerful.
- Fixing makes leaders feel important. The stink smells good to a fixer.
- It’s easier to work on others than ourselves.
Manure is more appealing to leaders than candy.
Everyone chooses to see the good and be energized or smell the stink and be drained. Aggressively turn toward what’s working.
Explanations:
- Technical problems or broken processes can’t be ignored.
- Focusing on what’s working works best with people and relationships. You go further by helping people do more of what’s working.
- Focusing on what’s working often shrinks the size of problems.
- Some personal weaknesses or problems are harmful and must be addressed.
Please don’t use the above list as an excuse to spend the bulk of your energy focused on problems. Leaders who neglect what’s working de-energize their organization.
Better:
Focusing on what’s working isn’t accepting mediocrity.
Make the good even better. Fixers miss opportunities to maximize strengths.
Suggestions:
- Force yourself to walk around looking for people doing the right thing.
- When you see something that’s working, go crazy with excitement.
- Begin meetings by asking one of these questions:
- What’s working?
- Where are we winning?
- What do you love about our busyness/team/customers?
- Spend an entire day talking about what’s working.
How might leaders spend more time making the good even better?
What suggestions do you have for leaders who constantly circle the stink?
Excellent. And funny with the fly and the stink metaphor!!
Thanks Dr. Scott. I’m was a farm boy. 🙂
Perhaps too many top dogs are really junk yard dogs?
Employers need to be more discriminating in who they hire for all jobs including for the CEO job.
Thanks Bob. Great point. During the interview process try to discern if the person is a stink person or not. What do they most talk about?
Taiichi Ohno, father of the Toyota Production System, is credited with saying “No problem is a problem.” This implies that if you are satisfied with the status quo, you are no longer challenging the organization to improve. I think there’s a way to seek and address problems and a time and a way to recognize the accomplishments. It can be a tricky balancing act for the leader to keep the motivation high.
Thanks Susan. Focusing on what’s working doesn’t mean we ignore problems. My contention is most leaders spend way too much time on the dark side.
The other idea you bring up is the way we talk about “problems.” We might ask, “What went wrong?” OR, we could ask, “How could we do better next time?” I think the difference in approach makes all the difference.
I have always been a fixer, I love it when thing are broke. I fix it and do it right and then find how it broke. You are right I need spend time reinforcing what is being done right. Kind of like preventive maintenance.
Thanks Walt. Most leaders that I know are in the same category as you. Maybe we would feel good if we considered our focus on problems as a problem to fix. 🙂
I like to think of this approach as one that ignites and fuels energy.
I find the seduction of problems is not only fueled by power sensations, but by fear–fear that unless I search out those obstacles to maximum success and fix them, they will ambush the organization and sabotage my future ability to manage them.
Thanks Randy. You make excellent observations. I wonder what the balance between searching out problems and making the good better is?
I’m leaning toward the basic 80/20 rule. 80% on searching out the good and 20% searching out problems. Does that seem a bit pie in the sky?
Something occurred to me reading Walt’s comment, and self reference as a “fixer”-
Being able to fix things is an important skill, especially things like machines, equipment that can and do malfunction or break down.
We don’t tend to think of farmers as fixers. We think of them as cultivators.
I’m thinking that leadership might require less of our technical “fixing” capabilities and more of our cultivator capabilities. Organizations, like people, are organic-
Perhaps leaders, like farmers, in pursuing a clear, inspiring, achievable goal need simply to ensure the right conditions/culture, nourish with water, encouragement, support, as the case may be- so that life, under its care can fully grow and thrive as it was meant to.
Maybe it’s a midset shift- we fix things made by man, but we cultivate the full potential of God’s creations. We might think of leadership in this way, as stewards of organic potential
Does that resonate?
Thx for getting me thinking!
Have a great day!
Thanks Lori. Love where you took this. I also see a distinction between technical and human. I don’t feel they are at odds with each other. We can maximize the strengths of others and work on problems at the same time. I actually think that works best.
Your insights are really helpful, especially since I was brought up on a farm.
As I leader I feel that I can fix what a employee or what a team does wrong. A mentor told me “people are messy and Walt you cant fix them”. Even if I cant FIX a person. In the beginning as a supervisor I spent a lot of time trying to fix people. Then I found out that I cant fix/correct what is wrong with a person. I can fix what they do wrong. Sometimes we can change that behavior and other times we have to change (remove) the person.
Thanks Walt. You make another useful distinction between people and behaviors. There is no need to judge the whole person because they are lousy with details or need to learn people skills.
Guilty as charged. Note to self: “when you see something that’s working, go crazy with excitement”.
It’s a lonely place when everything is working well (which in truth it never is), perhaps I need to learn to peace out and at the same time go crazy with excitement.
Thank sDan, good reflection.
Thanks Richard. When things are going well, I bet you might spend more time developing your team. One thing I’m sure of, you wouldn’t be sitting with your feet up. 🙂
Also, I think I’d like to see you go crazy.
True Leaders build teams and together they identify and solve problems!
Thanks Best. Yes, build teams that identify and honor each other’s strengths. I suggest that teams that constantly focus on what’s not working are falling below their potential.
What’s working? How might we make it work even better?
Cheers
You just blew my mind on that. I am doing it all wrong, I spend my time keeping the team focused on what is wrong and how to fix or correct it. I tell them to keep doing the other parts as they have been but to put their energy into what is not working to correct that. I think I need to find a balance. Thank you sir!
Best wishes Walt and thanks for your comment.
My motto has always been that everything is a work in progress. You build on the good, tweak what’s not working to make it better and emphasize the positive as opposed to the negative to keep things moving forward. People don’t want to be part of a sinking ship – they want to know they’re part of a great thing – that will spark their enthusiasm, involvement and commitment.
Thanks Mary. It seems like “Build on the positive” is a useful expression that captures the intent of this post. While building on the positive, there are problems to fix but all along, we’re building on what’s working. Thanks again.
Wow, this article and the comments that followed are like nuggets of gold. Such wisdom. That’s why I read this every day.
All about the growth and transitions….
The term for this is positive deviance. Most of the leaders I work with focus the vast majority of their time on finding and accelerating the positives (what’s working well) in their markets, industries, and organizations. In my experience, it’s the managers who more often struggle with breaking out of the role of problem fixer/fire fighter – not the leaders. Thanks for posting the article.
You are amazing Dan, love every analogy that you so succinctly draw