Stalling transformation, its a leadership thing.

A rapidly growing number of organisations are reporting their digital transformations as either about to stall or stalling. In fact, according to a November 2018 survey by IDG, more than 50 percent of companies polled have abandoned their transformation projects. Forrester echos this, claiming that half of all digital transformation projects have stalled.

Those are some worrying stats at a time when all industries are undergoing disruptions and fighting for long-term relevance. I believe we’ve long passed the ‘transform or die’ stage; it’s no longer even a choice however too many organisations, and exec teams, still don’t feel that sense of urgency. Give it a few more years and those organisations will become the taxi companies of the transport industry.

Various analysts attribute these stalls - or deadlocks - to a range of factors: budgets, competing priorities, organisational and technology silos, security concerns and that fantastic catch-all of culture all get mention in these various whitepapers.

In my experience the issue is dead simple in the majority of cases; it hinges on leadership. Organisations simply have the wrong type of leadership to drive transformation. The old adage of ‘what got you here won’t get you there’ has never been truer.

So how do you know if you have the wrong type of leadership? There are a number of qualities to look for to assess if you have the right type of leadership in your organisation:

• Self-awareness - the right leaders know their both their strengths and weaknesses, and are prepared to be open and real about them. The industrial age thinking that management have all the ideas and answers has really had its day. If you have to constantly convince senior leaders that it was ‘their idea’ to get anything done then that should be a red flag.
• Greenwashing and unjustified optimism - another casualty of the industrial age management wisdom is the drive for positivity, especially the kind that happens just before an organisation folds. I’m a huge believer in positive thinking and pushing forward but the reality is you can’t effectively manage by fairytale. If you’re always greenwashing or editing memos to paint a positive story then that should be a clear warning flag. It’s something I fondly call ostrich management - head in the sand…going nowhere.
• Decision making and autonomy - modern leaders empower and energise their teams to achieve results. Devolution of decision making is something to watch for - if every decision feels like it’s yet another memo heading up to the exec team then that is usually a bad signal.
• Problem solving and exploration - complexity is increasing all around us on a daily basis - divergent thinking and exploring possibilities are essential qualities of leadership. Leaders should facilitate the solving of problems - not aim to be chief problem solvers themselves, which usually turns into micromanagement.
• Measuring value and contribution - again, the industrial age ‘time served’ model simply is no longer fit for purpose. Measuring someone’s contribution is about results - here and now - not how long they have been around. The ‘job for life’ days are over and we need to shelve the thinking that came with it. Jack Welch of GE fame advocated regularly culling the bottom 10-15% of performers which seems a bit brutal but equally modern, agile organisations simply have no room to be piling up the deadwood. If your leadership structure is heavy with people whose value and contribution is unclear to most people around them then perhaps its time to review it.
• Collaboration and influence - modern leadership is inclusive and collaborative, bringing all parties along on the journey as much as possible. Influence has replaced authority as one of the most powerful tools in your leadership toolkit. An operating model where conversations only happen in pockets and decisions are made at the ‘apex’ kill collaboration and innovation and are something to watch out for and avoid.
• Resilience and navigating ambiguity - leadership teams that are constantly asking for more information before making a decision have a bumpy ride ahead - the world is increasingly ambiguous and being able to navigate that ambiguity (and it’s results) is an essential trait of fit for purpose leadership. A balance of data and ‘gut based’ decision making is required and if your organisation gets paralyzed by wanting more data it will simply be left behind by others who are willing to operate in a more ‘just in time’ manner.

The best leadership teams I have worked with have focused just as much on how they lead as they have on who/what they lead. Leaders should be holding each other accountable to exhibit the right values and behaviours, especially at an executive level. If you’re not having a conversation to check in on how you’re leading on a regular basis then I’d suggest that should be top of the agenda for your next exec team session. Be willing to be hard on yourselves as leaders and actually act on what you find - too many teams spend too much timing explaining away things rather than actually acting on them to fix whatever issues exist.

I totally understand there are plenty of people who have built careers on doing what they have always done, and that change is confronting - we are however moving beyond industrial age management into digital leadership which is a different ball game and change is the new normal. Steady state - or stalling - simply isn’t good enough anymore. We need to usher in a new generation of digital business leadership - we owe it to our organisations, our customers and most importantly our people.