It seems so long ago now when I started my career in project management in industrial refrigeration and like many other professionals, I stumbled into an industry I've never heard of. Turns out that between the farm and the domestic refrigerator is a coordinated series of actions and technologies aimed at maintaining the optimal temperature to preserve food for safe consumption. These actions and technologies constitute the ‘cold chain,’ the invisible network behind food systems in our world, and refrigeration is at the heart of it. Building cold storage infrastructure provided a sense of meaning for me as a young professional. And of course, with an engineering background efficiency was interwoven in my approach but it collided with a vital but for the most part inefficient aspect of the cold chain, people!
I couldn’t help but notice that often when projects went wrong it had a person behind it. The deficit between the required input and the resulting output, when working with people, was incredulous. Why couldn’t we achieve our goals? Why did we have recurring problems with teams? I desperately asked. Well, time to problem solve I concluded and launched into optimization mode, but the tools at my disposal left me ill equipped to figure out what happened between the input and the output- why, where how and when did we lose the desired result from people? It wasn’t clear to me how I could represent the phenomenon in a differential equation; solve the critical points and then determine the best way to optimize the system for the desired outcome.
It fostered frustration and I adopted a dictator’s approach in time, eventually trying to turn people into machines that could give me higher levels of replication and reliability - machines I understood, those I could optimize. It soon started to work, I achieved results, signing off projects within budget and on time while delivering quality installations for our clients. I grew in favour with my superiors as one should, but it came at a cost. My personality had changed as I accommodated more and more techniques to control and wrestle people into obedience. With some courage a work colleague attempted to point this out to me, but I shut down the conversation reminding her to focus on her own career and abandon any notion of rekindling kindness with staff. It’s the nature of my work, I re-assured myself, this is what it takes to succeed.
Fortunately, the little bit of self-awareness I had would not let my colleague's words fall amongst the thorns. I had to acknowledge that I was carrying a weight that was not there before. I couldn't continue on that trajectory. Eventually, my aggressive posture, coiled up, ready to dismiss any reason from staff that would interfere with the goals of the day led me to notice the armor I've amassed. As one walking with a sword, I carried ruthlessness, instruction and objectives as my primary means of interactions with staff. I walked around angry- even before the day got started. I had to change.
So I attended a Dale Carnegie course desiring to understand people better and improve my management skills. One thing that stuck with me from that course was to give sincere and genuine appreciation to people, not politeness! In any case, politeness was far from my modus operandi at the time. I tried it. Sincere and genuine appreciation. It was a Friday morning and we needed to work late to prepare for a project we were going to do overseas. The importance of getting the right parts packed and shipped is crucial for success when working away from home. But I knew the teams would not want to work late on a Friday and that their attitudes towards the work would change from lunch time and mistakes would creep in. I could have setout the objectives and reminded everyone that I won't tolerate mistakes, but even just thinking about it, I could feel the sword in my hand. So I gave my new training a chance and decided to give some sincere and genuine feedback to one of my most accomplished, but most difficult members of my team then. And truly as if witnessing a miracle, I saw him change before my eyes. A grown man became like an 8-year-old, he stood there receiving my appreciation with arms folded behind his back, head dropped in a shy notion while making circular motions with his feet, altering each foot, and rocking his body left to right. I never saw him like this before, the hard exterior dropped, and it was as if I really saw him for the first time. I could sense that I could ask him anything and he would do it. I then realised that this man knew he was good at his job, but he wanted someone to thank him for it and mean it. For a moment I gleed at the realization of a new method of control, but as if extinguishing a menacing fire, a stern warning arose from within arresting the notion – an awareness of the responsibility that accompanied this new but beautiful exploration.
People are not machines; they are as I am and to unlock people’s full participation is both the privilege and responsibility of leadership. But it takes tangible courage – not the stuff we like to talk about in our town hall meetings or put on our corporate walls - real, challenging, uncomfortable, but hopeful courage to try a new and bold thing that is at odds with our conventional training.
Therefore, it is important that I at least incorporate two things in my leadership development journey. The first is efficacy, and the second is efficiency. These two things can be captured in a phrase that I came across that reads “do the right things right”.
Essentially it means that you first need to identify what is the desired outcome (efficacy) for the situation before you concern yourself with how well to execute it (efficiency).
In my early career, I only cared about efficiency, doing things right. But whether I was doing the right thing was not a consideration. Today I understand that being intentional with people gives them permission to contribute from an authentic place and that significantly enhances the quality of the outcomes.
People remain the largest single variable that can produce a surplus or a deficit when it comes to desired outcomes. Therefore being able to facilitate their full participation is a key aspect of leadership.
So, as we lead, we ought to foster both efficacy and efficiency as irreplaceable additives to our leadership so that we possess the necessary flexibility to navigate changing landscapes.
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