10.10.09

Inspiration for Side by Side Leadership®

Posted in Leadership, Research at 11:59 am by Dennis Romig

In 1996 my associates and I were implementing teamwork systems around the world for Texas Instruments, Dell Computer, Amoco, Raytheon and other Fortune 500 clients.  All of the organizations obtained breakthrough business results including $100’s of millions worth of documented improvements.  Texas Instruments’ Portugal and Texas Instruments’ Singapore each won their country’s National Quality Award using breakthrough teamwork skills to implement best in class quality.

One of my company’s, Side by Side, Inc.*, clients was so successful that it won an international award for excellence and made their company a ton of money at the same time. I and my associates loved coaching and training with this client.  Their people came to work excited and bouncy with smiles on their faces.  The Vice President of the division was effective.  He led the formation and training of cross-functional teams, which had highly effective communication, cooperation, coordination, and creative improvements.  He included workers from all levels of the organization in goal setting and business strategy execution meetings.  This Vice President was so good that he was promoted and transferred to another division of the company.

The new division Vice President came in from outside of the organization.  The first thing he did was discontinue involvement of the employees in organizational goal setting and strategy meetings.  He did all of the talking in the meetings he held with his subordinates.  The new VP was impatient and critical if any of the managers or supervisors tried to contribute their own improvement ideas.

Gradually all of the workers began trudging into work with their heads down.  The business results plummeted.  The workers and supervisors saw the breakthrough culture crumbling before their eyes.  Some of the more tenacious supervisors came together as a group armed with factual data identifying a major business problem and wrote up a series of solutions. They sent the plan to the VP.  He ignored it and let it sit on his desk.  The division’s business results got so bad that it crippled the parent company.

As I observed the destruction of the division’s breakthrough teamwork culture and the corresponding loss of millions of dollars, I asked myself the following question, “How can one person so negatively impact a whole organization of bright, intelligent, and highly motivated workers?”

I knew that the answer to the question was not only useful in business organizations but would also be relevant for government, non-profit, and even faith-based religious organizations.

With the help of my associates at Side by Side, Inc. I gave myself a three-year, half time research assignment: find research on leaders who produce the best organizational and business results.  I reviewed almost 3,000 relevant studies to find 300 hard data studies.  Along the way I also found new research on the human brain that was extremely relevant.

One Monday, I gave myself the assignment to review again in one week summaries of the 300 hard data studies which documented business improvements of 5% – 40%.  On Friday afternoon of that week after scanning the results of the last study, I looked up the definition of leadership in the dictionary.  The dictionary said that to lead meant: “to direct; to command; to be first; and to influence.”

The next morning, Saturday, I woke up earlier than usual.  I went into my living room and I exclaimed to myself, “It’s wrong! The dictionary definition of leadership is wrong.”  I knew that the one-way influencing model of leadership with leaders “directing, commanding, or influencing“ did not produce outstanding business results.  The hard data research studies painted a picture of leaders who:

• listened as much as they talked;
• developed goals with their people;
• used participative decision-making and problem-solving; and
• asked for, as well as offered, help to subordinates during coaching and performance evaluation meetings with their employees.

Initially I called it Two-Way Leadership.  Later, my colleague, Paul Radde, offered the name Side by Side Leadership.

As I developed and implemented Side by Side Leadership training and coaching, I got a big surprise.  I discovered that my own leadership style needed to become more Side by Side.  Each work week I observed how I must fight the culturally driven model of one-way, top-down leadership.

Fortunately I wrote a book that helps me lead more productively.  It is called Side by Side Leadership : Achieving Outstanding Results Together.   Evidently Side by Side Leadership is helping others as well. It is a Wall Street Journal Bestseller and New York Times Bestseller.

To the extent I backed off and led more two-way, I and the people around me became more thoughtful, creative, and productive.

*Side by Side, Inc. was formerly named Performance Resources, Inc.

Copyright, Side by Side, Inc., 2009

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