S12E04: The critical conversations standing between you and strategic focus

Davina Stanley
Welcome back. It's Davina Stanley and Richard Medcalf here today with The Impact Multiplier CEO Podcast and we're so looking forward to talking to you in this next part of Richard's timeframe work, which comes from his new book Making Time for Strategy. Last time, we looked at the tactical challenge the tee in time, and that was the first of four areas that we're going to be looking at, and helping you will become more strategic leaders. So today, we're looking at I, which is for influence. Richard, tell us a bit more about that.

Richard Medcalf
Yeah, influence. So I think we mentioned in a previous conversation that we can't just start with tactics, right. Often, we have done that previously, many leaders we've done, we've implemented all our product tips and yet, we're not creating the the freedom that we need to operate more strategically and so influence is a key part of this and I'll tell you why. Imagine that you want to lose some weight, perhaps you want to do exercise, or perhaps you want to go on a diet. The people or the reason that you're most likely to fail, I would, I would argue is peers of the people around you. So what I mean by that is that so you want to go on a diet and eat a bit more healthfully? Well, unless your family on board, they're going to be the ones going hang on that make us feel guilty about eating dessert, just because you want to lose a few pounds. They're gonna say, you know, come on, have a glass of wine, it's Friday nights, etc, right? They're gonna be the ones who are going to be encouraging us to kind of keep the status quo, because...

Davina Stanley
Absolutely.

Richard Medcalf
They benefit. The guy I've noticed some experience, right when we're hopeful, but I've tried a few pounds now and again, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't and often is because of this have I actually got my family on board. The other one is you want to do some exercise? Well, again, there's a negative impact potentially, on your family, if you decide you're gonna go for exercise just at the time when the kids need you to help with their homework, or you're gonna go running just when normally, you should be helping prepare lunch or whatever, right? So if you decide to do that, and you haven't got everybody bought in, and agree, yeah, this is convenient, this is going to work for me as well as for you, then you're going to get pushback and let's face it, most of us can't really deal with in fact, we shouldn't deal with, you know, consistently negative relationships around us, right, we want to figure out how things are going to work for the people around us and so it's the same in the workplace and that's my point. If we decide that we need to shift how we operate different differently, then it's going to impact our superiors, our peers and our reports in different ways. If we decide we don't want to do certain tasks anymore, we shouldn't be doing them. Well, who's going to do them? It might well be our team? Have you got a team on board? And if the team do them? Well, we'll repeat the same quality as if we do them possibly not to start with? So have we told our manager that they might have to expect a different level of quality for a while as we as we invest in our team and build them up? Or is it always that capstone to our peers? You know, do we need to explain that it's not going to be quite as fast and actually, they don't, they can't just ping you personally on on messaging. To get their thing done in an accelerated fashion, they're going to have to go through the regular channels, right? These are all conversations which are going to need to happen and so before we can possibly implement our plan, we do need to get our stakeholders on board and that's the influence challenge.

Davina Stanley
Absolutely, and keep them on board to get them on board and keep them on board. I noticed more and more on people's email signature and I noticed my assistant Sheena, who's part time does it now as well and says, you know, my regular hours are between X and Y and I'll come back to you as quickly as I can, you know, just some little polite piece of people have a sense of expectations, or, you know, I've seen a few people say they practice Cal Newports deep work strategies and so, you know, I'm not ignoring you if I don't reply immediately but I will come back quickly, you know, those kinds of reminders, I think, can be quite helpful. But how do you engage them in the first place? What are some suggestions you've got for that?

Richard Medcalf
Yeah. So I think, for that, so first of all, we need to kind of transform our crash plan into a stakeholder plan. So what I'd say is you want to take your plan, figure out who the key stakeholders are, and kind of figure out what the conversations are to have because depending on what exactly you want to work on, you might have different stakeholders for different parts of your crash plan, you know, there's a meeting, you want to cancel that somebody else that's the there's a task, you want to delegate that somebody else and so forth but you might also find that there's several things you want to deal with in one conversation with one person, perhaps your manager, or a key pair or your team. So you need to kind of figure out what are these conversations and then attend to go execute those compensations in the following order, up side, and then down. So up first manager, woods, get your boss on board? Then what were your peers, the sideways conversations, and then down, right, and then with your team? Now, the balance of power clearly is a little bit different in each of these conversations with your with your manager, you're going to your board, you're going to need to sell it a little bit more, you probably can't just impose your will. So you're going to have to explain what's the context? What are you trying to achieve with this? Why are you having this conversation, you're then going to have to explain specifically what you'd like to change and what the benefits are going to be for you, but also for them. As well as perhaps being realistic about what the negative impacts might be for them, right. So this is what I'm asking you that you might have to swallow. In the short term, perhaps as we kind of re configure things, and then have that conversation. When it comes to, for example, our reports, perhaps has to steal it a bit less, we can tell a little bit more. But again, you've got to get buy in, you've got to get people on side. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't suggest that you just go in your boss your team around and tell them exactly this is what they're going to have to do, you're also going to have to explain it and get them to buy it and so the balance of power does shift but this is about influence and so you're trying to explain to people why why this conversation is happening, what the outcome is going to be what the benefit is going to be to the organization, and hopefully to them personally, as well as be really clear about this is what I'm asking you and sometimes there might be a bit of pushback, there might be a bit of negotiation but we want to get to meet, what you want to get to is an agreement. So at the end of that conversation, you look at each other in the eyes, you kind of shake on it, right? You say yeah, I'll do it this way and this is what you'll get, this is what you won't get. This is what I'll do to help compensate that. So for example, let's say that your boss, you said to your boss, look, you know, I really need to have focus time on a Monday morning between nine and 11 is the time in my week that I could possibly do it and then that time, I need to really drive my strategic project forward but I'm also aware in that time, it's the time when you tend to come back from your weekend and start messaging me and expect me to reply and it's really creating chaos for me and my friends and my focus. So would it be okay, Mr. Boss, that we that if you just accept that I won't be looking at those messages until about noon on Monday and a boss might say oh...

Davina Stanley
I'll ask the question. Would it be okay if rather than just saying this is what I'm going to do to in that setting?

Richard Medcalf
Yeah, and it might be that they they're not quite comfortable with that they might say you know, whole morning or Monday often is urgent things that are coming in. Yeah, no, I'm not sure I really want that idea. So which patient you're going to need to get renegotiate, you might say well, how about have I commit to checking my phone at 11? And 12 Okay, well, that makes it a bit easier and what about also if if you really need to contact me urgently like it really can't wait? That you literally just ring me on the phone and I'll pick it up? But I won't be...

Davina Stanley
Yes, yes and you can set your phone to ring have different sorts of filters can certain people.

Richard Medcalf
Exactly what you're doing here is you're creating an agreement that incorporates you know some of their needs into it, but also gets you forward or moves you forward and so I think this is really the kind of key part of the employment conversation is it's explaining to the people what, what you want, what you need, why it's going to benefit the organization and them, and also be sufficiently flexible to adapt it so that it is something that they can swallow. I think once you've done that you've got the agreement and then actually, it's so much easier, because you're not having to push back against people all the time, because you've had the conversation once you figured out the way forward and now it's it becomes so much easier.

Davina Stanley
Doesn't it, doesn't it and I'm really intrigued by your order. They're up, side down, which of course, he's beautifully memorable. Why not up downside?

Richard Medcalf
Well, again, it will depend on the particular areas, but I think, I think it's your ability to decide and an implement it yourself, it's almost you know it just down to you. If you want to get up 10 minutes earlier, and read a book for 10 minutes, you know, you can always do that without anybody else even ever knowing right? When it becomes an organizational challenge where you've got to involve other people, then you have to, then it's going to be easier if it's just something you can deal with with your team. So if it's just an internal team thing, you can just do it with them, it's going to be the easiest, because you have that extra authority, you can kind of make some of those calls but I think because the conversations because the balance of power is weaker as you can go up the organizational chart in general, than it is worth figuring out what is actually going to be possible. First of all with your manager or superiors, but then also with your peers, because your peers, you might need to negotiate as well a little bit about what you know, what do you need from us? What do we need from you? How can we make that work? And so it's just that they there tends to be the most room for negotiation, perhaps in those conversations and then the question once you've done that is that you can go to your team and say, Okay, this is what we've been, this is what we're kind of allowed to do by the organization. This is what we've, what we've managed to renegotiate how do we actually implement that together? So yes, I think that's kind of why I would say it that way but it might be that you want to go to your team, first of all, and kind of strategize and plan before going to have those conversations, that's completely fine as well. You want your team to be on board. So I don't want to come over some kind of hierarchical, domineering leader saying you just figure it out with the bosses, and then you impose it on your team, there has to be an iteration and you do want to ask your team as well, what do they need to be successful. But I think in terms of where the hardest conversation is going to be probably going to be with a broader organization.

Davina Stanley
But I could see just a very different sort of preliminary conversation with the team to say, look, I'm working on freeing myself up to make sure I can be more strategic and you might have noticed that I'm always busy and however you want to frame it. I'd like to just check in with you before I go and really firm up my plans. Are there any particular areas or ways in which or things you suggest, you know, we change, you could ask them to ideas, couldn't you and make them part of it very early on.

Richard Medcalf
And that's, that's gonna be obviously it's gonna be a lot more effective. So you're right, if whatever you're doing is gonna put a big demand on them, right? So you're literally going to be assigning a whole chunk of work to them. Clearly you need to have that conversation right I'm not saying you wouldn't involve them with the star clearly you want to explore that with them before going to your your boss or your your peers, but there's also many other...

Davina Stanley
They might be excited. You know, think, oh, good, there's going to be some real challenge coming down the pipeline? I'm ready for it.

Richard Medcalf
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but probably, yeah, and so I think this is I think these are, these are such important conversations and I think sometimes we like to shy away from them, because there's gonna be a tension there, right? It's a negotiation, it's you're going to with an unmask, you're going to actually say, I need something from you, I need you to accept something from me. It's pushing back. It's, it's so it's often easier to come with a give them with an ask and some of these conversations, there is a bit of an ask involved and so we do need to kind of get a bit competence, we to get confident and clear within us as to why we're doing this and remember, it's not just for our own personal gain. Normally, it's for the organizational benefit, right? We're doing it because we want to become more effective, more impactful, and serve the organization contribute at a higher level. So it's important to kind of come back to that.

Davina Stanley
Yes, and that's about the why isn't it? No, why am I doing this? Where's the value? Where's the value for you, as an individual that I'm speaking to? But where's the value for the organization as well, both of those things, isn't it? Absolutely. So, once we've done that, are we done with the influence challenges? Is that all we need to do with that?

Richard Medcalf
Well, no, not exactly because what we've talked about there is having those conversations as part of implementing your crash plan, right, as part of making those big shifts but the influence challenge also shows up in an ongoing basis. It shows us shows up every time, a team comes to us asking us to help solve a problem that perhaps they should be solving by themselves. It comes to us each time, we're invited to a meeting, which isn't really going to be a productive use of our time, we're invited to contribute to a project or board, which doesn't align with our top priorities and so we have to keep working on our influence and for example, perhaps one key area is around our team, like many managers, many managers will know this feeling that they're working on their own projects that their key strategies, and then they'll suddenly get a text from their team and the team said, Hey, Boss, can we talk with you about such research? And then that text becomes a bit of a thread people message backwards and forwards and then Okay, hang on, we need to talk about this. So we get a call and that call becomes a 45 minute call and then after that, it becomes set of emails and suddenly, the whole day is gone and you've basically been helping your team solver an issue which perhaps they could have sold themselves but what I find is that as people and you're basically playing Sherlock Holmes on you absolutely exactly what I'm doing and they don't just say, Yeah, first of all, I don't even know what they're talking to me about when they first start. It's not it's unclear. It's unclear what they need from me. I don't know what the facts are. So I spend, I spend, I spend that 45 minutes phone call, basically extracting all the facts and all the details, so I can help make a decision and so this is a great example of influence, because you've trained your team to work in a certain way. You've trained your team to actually come to you with uninformed requests that require you to do a lot of work to actually understand and what are they even asking me? What are they done themselves? What are they recommending? You know, why do they need me involved in this, and then the birth has been to go through it now because it's probably a whole nother episode on that but as you go through your technique, to do actually start to train your team, to bring issues to you in a way which requires you to invest in much less time. So they become the problem solvers instead of you having to become Phillip Holmes on each occasion and that's another example of the influence challenge because it's changing the habits and expectations of people around you.

Davina Stanley
Yes, no, I love that I really enjoy reading that section in the book about just a simple way of training people so that they actually do set you up for success and really optimize your, your time when they're wanting your help. I thought that was terrific and put the responsibilities in what feels to me like the right place...

Richard Medcalf
But in the book, I guess, or in the book about I call it daddy, that is the thing that he speaks English because my kids are bilingual when they were small. They will speak to me in French, the mother mother tongue, and I had two choices either I would just accept that I could I can speak French so I could just listen in French and speak back in English, but I really They wanted them to be completely bilingual and so whenever they would start to speak to me in French, I would make a big fuss about it. Oh, you know that he speaks English. What are you saying there in French? Are you saying Bon jour? Are you sure? Would that be hello in English but it? Can you say hello, you try saying hello and I just think big fuss about it. So then they'd say hello instead of onshore, or whatever they've been saying to me and I said, well done. That's really great and that I would answer them and so the point was, I just made it so freakin difficult for them to speak to me in French. I'll speak to that in English, this is going to be easier.

Davina Stanley
Yes.

Richard Medcalf
And so this, the reason I talked about this is, if that's what we need to do with the people around us in many ways, if we just make it easy for them to dump things on our plate, break into our day, interrupters, Will, whenever whatever we're doing, give us their problems to solve come to us with unformed requests, we're not sure what to do with, you know, break the system for their own expediency. If we basically allow them to do that, we're just training them in a certain way, that that's the behavior we're happy with and so as soon as we start to put some boundaries in place, actually, I'm not going to reply to my email outside of these times. So if you send me an email, in a panic, well, it might have to wait and so suddenly, people will start to adapt based on how you're showing up, and the barriers and boundaries you're putting in place and that's again, a key part of the influence challenge. Yes, behavior is so key, isn't it? If you can talk until you're blue in the face, it's really about changing behaviors and, you know, like, with your children, you do that to them a few times in conversation, and they just automatically learn, we speak to daddy in English. Okay. We speak to daddy in English. So, again, once it's once it once you've created that it then becomes easy but did that, you know, literally, they're bilingual children, and they didn't know they have by single parents, but not necessarily by getting good children, often because one of the parents didn't create that boundary at the start.

Davina Stanley
Yes, or No, I can understand that. I've seen that too. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great, a really great example and so that's influence. I think you've given us a lot of really useful ideas there and in the last episode, we talked about time, so that's TI. Next time. It's mindset, isn't it?

Richard Medcalf
Yeah, absolutely. mindset. So key because it's about what keeps us stuck. Our own thinking keeps us stuck in low value activity and so unless we address that, we're never going to do things that we feel are impossible, because we're just trapped in our own in our own thoughts.

Davina Stanley
Absolutely. It's how we influence ourselves, if you will. I think this is I know there's there's a lot of really terrific things coming for that episode. So we look forward to bringing it to you. If you'd like to see the show notes from this episode, hop over to xquadrant.com/podcast and we look forward to talking to you more next time about mindset.