At What Cost

All of us will agree that Result orientation and Reliability are two critical attributes of a valuable executive in any organization. These are of as important as his/her domain knowledge. Most successful and sought after executives are very high in these two attributes.  Let us call these twin attributes R&R (not Rest and Recreation of the army variety.) Although we value those who are high on R&R there are cases when these essential attributes can turn out to be the poison within that contribute to organizational decay. Let us try to understand this a little more in detail. 

Result orientation describes how a person goes about executing his work, his logic of prioritization and his problem solving.  Result oriented people will focus on the outcome expected. They do not get bogged down by the constraints and difficulties. They also do not allow themselves to be caught up with procedural cobwebs. If there is a roadblock, they will find a work around. If there is a limitation they will find an alternative. If they are confronted with a procedural Gordian knot, they will find a sword to slice it away.

Reliability is highly correlated to result orientation. But it also has some different flavor. This also portrays how he relates to the members of the team and/or other stakeholders.  It is about how a person can be depended to do what is expected of him or what he has committed. When we ask a reliable person do something, you can be sure that he will give an honest feedback on if it can be done by him, and by when. Once he commits you don’t need to follow-up. If he is faced by a problem that he can’t solve, he will let you know in time. He will also give you an assessment of the impact of what is being executed among various stakeholders.

Some exhibit R&R in all/ most of their dealings. Some of them exhibit these qualities more to their subordinates. We can term this as downward orientation. They are those who look after their team. Such people can be sure to be bosses who are admired and adored. As they rise up to in their career they turn out to be leaders who can take their team along. But some time they fail to keep their bosses in good humor their growth may get stunted; especially if their bosses are insecure by nature.

Some exhibit it more to their colleagues. This can be termed as horizontal orientation. They are excellent peers you can have. They are normally very popular in the office and office parties.

Some others are resourceful and reliable for their bosses. They have upward orientation. They are bosses favorites. They are much clued onto what their bosses want. Especially they are alive to factors that irritate their bosses and they will find ways to solve them and they are alive to their bosses weaknesses. They become almost indispensable for their bosses.

But this last variety while they are excellent in what they do may end up being poison to their organizations; especially if they don’t have respect their colleagues and are not sensitive to their preferences and concerns. They may run roughshod with their colleagues and subordinates to give what their bosses want. When boss give a guideline of his preference, normally they expect the implementing person to assess and field reality and optimize the implementation plan. But purely upward oriented R&R completely disregard constraints/ concerns and aspirations of the team. They are almost  like bulldogs. Very often others will not complain to avoid being termed a whiner.  

We need to be very careful with such people. Because, silently they vitiate the environment they belong. Because they are very useful they become our favourites, we praise them too much because they deliver. If we are not alive to such insensitive behavior we may end up over promoting them. But this will breed resentment all around. This is specially the case with some people who work in the staff function like personnel, administration and finance. With very little responsibility in client facing activities where client satisfaction may get measured and significant control they have of day to day conveniences, upward orientation gives them enormous influence with the big bosses. They grow very fast. But this is cancerous growth. If it is not contained, it can spell doom for their organization in the long run. Unfortunately such behavior will have very negative impact on the bosses

I have met a few such people in my long career. One used to be an HR executive. She made sure that she implemented her boss’s wishes ruthlessly. She gave regular feedback to her boss on what is happening around. But she was an absolute failure as far as her role as an HR executive. Her colleagues could not stand her and her subordinates hated her. But she was the gunslinger for her bosses and hence their darling.

The worst is when they reach very senior position. That often becomes the beginning of the end for the organization they head. If they have risen up primarily by pleasing their bosses, they will have difficulty in making the team/ organization to deliver. But by then many of the good people would have left. With what is left, it could be practically difficult to deliver. That is why when we evaluate and reward performance of people it has to be against the total organizational cost (not the cost of salary and perks alone ) and not just on what they may deliver. Bull dogs can be good in hunting trips, but they can not be the one running the farm.

In the past a leader was a boss. Today's leaders must be partners with their people... they no longer can lead solely based on positional power.  Ken Blanchard

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