Read Online Unleashing The Power Of Rubber Bands by Nancy Ortberg - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Nancy Ortberg
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consistently did mediocre work andmissed deadlines. I was a new young leader, and although I didn’t realize it at the time, my need to have everyone like me still drove everything that I did. And even more than needing everyone to like me was probably an unspoken desire for everyone to think I was the best leader they had ever worked for.
As leaders, we constantly need to determine whether something is a problem to be solved or a tension to be managed.
(And even as I pounded that last sentence onto the page, I am aware of managing the tension of “did they work for me or with me?”)
Anyway, I managed the tension of this guy’s poor work for a long time—too long. But I had never done this before, and because he was quite a bit older than I was and had been with the organization years longer than I had, I didn’t know what else to do. I talked with him, coached him on improvements, gave him deadlines, and checked in with him regularly. Occasionally I even covered for him while I was trying to get his work up to speed.
Then one day my boss sat down with me and talked to me about this employee’s performance issues. I began with a long explanation of how I was managing this tension, to which he replied, “There is no tension. There is a problem here, and I have been waiting for you to solve it.”
We talked at length about how long this had been going on with no signs of change, and how, mostly because of fear, I had put this issue into the managing or “developmental” category, when in reality it was neither of those things. It was an employee who was consistently underper-forming in the basic areas of his job.
He was the first person I ever had to fire. Perhaps that is why the lesson is so memorable to me, even today.
Leaders know that tensions have to be managed all the time. Opposing forces can be found everywhere—in organizations, in churches, in people—and although both sides might have much to offer, either one can be destructive if one takes over without the other. Good leaders understand the need for equilibrium. Not balance, but equilibrium that is ever shifting.
Solving problems is much easier and more static. But managing tensions requires that you hold things open when what you would much prefer is closure; it is living in the foggy gray areas when what you want is clear black and white. And it is knowing what is needed when (because many times, closure and clarity are exactly what are needed!).
My son is a surfer. I, on the other hand, surf. There is a big difference, he tells me. I can get up on a long board if the waves are between one and three feet and the water temperature is hovering around eighty degrees. That last requirement is personal but nonnegotiable for me.
Johnny is a surfer. Given a wide berth of conditions, that boy can get up on his short board whether the waves are barreling or closing out, soupy or flat, gnarly or sweet. He can ride, cut back, top turn, and snap. He is beautiful to watch, fluid in his sport. He is passionate and persistent, two necessary traits in every surfer.
Surfing is this amazing intersection of controlled, known conditions and unpredictable, fickle forces. Days before Johnny chooses a time to go to one of his favorite surf spots, he is online assessing the weather conditions, checking out what is deteriorating and what is forming. He knows what the predicted wind patterns and directions will be and where the storms are. He watches storms that are generating destruction thousands of miles away because he knows they will also create glorious and per fectly shaped waves at our coast. He is aware of all the known factors: the direction the beach faces and the slope of the ocean floor at that location. He puts together what he knows with what is coming, and then he leaves roomto factor in what he will find when he steps out of his car.
Managing tensions is living in the foggy gray areas when what you want is clear black and white.
I have stood by him
As leaders, we constantly need to determine whether something is a problem to be solved or a tension to be managed.
(And even as I pounded that last sentence onto the page, I am aware of managing the tension of “did they work for me or with me?”)
Anyway, I managed the tension of this guy’s poor work for a long time—too long. But I had never done this before, and because he was quite a bit older than I was and had been with the organization years longer than I had, I didn’t know what else to do. I talked with him, coached him on improvements, gave him deadlines, and checked in with him regularly. Occasionally I even covered for him while I was trying to get his work up to speed.
Then one day my boss sat down with me and talked to me about this employee’s performance issues. I began with a long explanation of how I was managing this tension, to which he replied, “There is no tension. There is a problem here, and I have been waiting for you to solve it.”
We talked at length about how long this had been going on with no signs of change, and how, mostly because of fear, I had put this issue into the managing or “developmental” category, when in reality it was neither of those things. It was an employee who was consistently underper-forming in the basic areas of his job.
He was the first person I ever had to fire. Perhaps that is why the lesson is so memorable to me, even today.
Leaders know that tensions have to be managed all the time. Opposing forces can be found everywhere—in organizations, in churches, in people—and although both sides might have much to offer, either one can be destructive if one takes over without the other. Good leaders understand the need for equilibrium. Not balance, but equilibrium that is ever shifting.
Solving problems is much easier and more static. But managing tensions requires that you hold things open when what you would much prefer is closure; it is living in the foggy gray areas when what you want is clear black and white. And it is knowing what is needed when (because many times, closure and clarity are exactly what are needed!).
My son is a surfer. I, on the other hand, surf. There is a big difference, he tells me. I can get up on a long board if the waves are between one and three feet and the water temperature is hovering around eighty degrees. That last requirement is personal but nonnegotiable for me.
Johnny is a surfer. Given a wide berth of conditions, that boy can get up on his short board whether the waves are barreling or closing out, soupy or flat, gnarly or sweet. He can ride, cut back, top turn, and snap. He is beautiful to watch, fluid in his sport. He is passionate and persistent, two necessary traits in every surfer.
Surfing is this amazing intersection of controlled, known conditions and unpredictable, fickle forces. Days before Johnny chooses a time to go to one of his favorite surf spots, he is online assessing the weather conditions, checking out what is deteriorating and what is forming. He knows what the predicted wind patterns and directions will be and where the storms are. He watches storms that are generating destruction thousands of miles away because he knows they will also create glorious and per fectly shaped waves at our coast. He is aware of all the known factors: the direction the beach faces and the slope of the ocean floor at that location. He puts together what he knows with what is coming, and then he leaves roomto factor in what he will find when he steps out of his car.
Managing tensions is living in the foggy gray areas when what you want is clear black and white.
I have stood by him
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