In the agricultural world, we’re starting a new year. Thus it is time to discuss annual goals and objectives. There is always a fair amount of handwringing about the exercise, so I thought I would provide my views on the subject, as they have evolved over my career.
First, I believe in goals. As a mentor of mine likes to remind me, “Unmet expectations are the greatest source of frustration.” He’s right. The challenge, of course, is that we often fail to convey those expectations clearly or we make assumptions about what someone wants and are frustrated when we disappoint them.
As a leader, our first challenge is whether we’ve actually conveyed our expectations – not the safe, surface-level expectations but our true expectations, what we deep down want the person to do, maybe the kind of want that we’re a bit embarrassed to admit we want them to do (stay out of the gutter people). I have struggled with this. I want to be liked and telling people who work for you what you want them to do feels very authoritarian and can make them not like you, at least in the short term. Thus, I tend to soft-sell my expectations and hope that they understand my way-too-subtle hints at higher expectations and run with them. Hope is not a great method and I can find myself frustrated. I’ve been a victim of this as well. It took me a long time to learn that when one of my bosses would say, “Have you thought about….?” He was really telling me to do something.
The second issue is achieving a meeting of the minds – a set of expectations clearly understood by both people. I constantly have to remind myself that what matters is not what I say but what the other person hears and understands. Whenever I’ve taken the time to ask a person to tell me in their own words what I asked them to do, I’ve been surprised by the significant difference between what I thought I said and what they heard.
How do you go about achieving a meeting of the minds on expectations? I call it bottom-up, top-down.
Traditionally, expectations, goals, and objectives are very top-down. This makes a lot of sense in that the big boss sets the company’s direction and everyone else’s job is to ensure their actions are consistent with the leader’s intent. It ensures unity of effort and consistency. This was the way I was raised both in the military and early in my legal career.
There are several challenges with this. First, being told exactly what to do is not nearly as much fun as being part of it. Second, there is no ownership. How much do you truly commit to a plan forced upon you without your agreement or consent? People support what they help to create after all. Third, it kills innovation and initiative. It fosters a wait to be told what to do mentality. Don’t move until told to move. Don’t jump until told. That easily transfers into don’t solve a problem until you’re told to or don’t help a customer in need unless you have permission. In the end, top-down is good for the unity of effort but poor for morale, initiative, creativity, and buy-in. This is particularly true in businesses like ours where we are so spread out geographically. Execution must be decentralized.
My first non-military, non-attorney job was a wake-up call. I was struggling with a boss whom I felt was micromanaging me, constantly telling me what to do or, more specifically, constantly telling me what I couldn’t do. When I’d raise ideas or ask for additional money, the resounding answer was “no.” I grew frustrated. So I went to a senior leader in the company – a peer to my manager – and asked for some help. I explained my frustration. His response changed. “Have you ever considered your manager has no idea where you want to go and why? You need to give them a plan, something they can say yes to. Tell them where you want to go and why and then provide a list of potential resources needed to get there. If they buy into the first part, they are a lot more likely to buy into the second.”
“You mean I don’t just stand around and be told what to do?” I said with a knowing look. He looked at me blankly and asked, “Where did you say you went to school again?”
I went to work, putting together a detailed plan for where I’d like to take my part of the business. I then booked an hour with my manager and came prepared with a series of slides and handouts. I don’t remember much about the discussion, but it was a great discussion. More importantly, it fundamentally changed my relationship with my manager. I was no longer working for him. We were a team. I was working for myself, in coordination with him. We were aligned on where he was going and on how I was going to help him do it, but it was my plan. I owned it. And I was dang sure going to be successful. The micromanagement stopped. He let me run. And when I asked for some capital several months later that was needed to support one of the objectives, he agreed. It was the first time I’d ever had a capital request approved.
Since then, I have made it my mission to develop my own plan for whatever part of whatever business I was in charge of. It has served me well as the higher I’ve gone, the less guidance I’ve received.
The lesson was reinforced the other day but from the other side. I jumped on a Teams call with someone from the business, a meeting this person had scheduled on her own initiative. After a few minutes of chit, chat, she got right down to it, presenting her plan for how she was going to run her part of the business. She had clearly thought deeply about it, set both long-term and short-term goals, and divided the goals up into sub-objectives. It lead to a great discussion and a few minor modifications, but in the end, we were aligned. I remember leaving the meeting upbeat and fired up. Not only was “the battle” over, so was the war. This person was going to succeed. It was her plan. She created it. And I had confidence she would do everything within her power to succeed. My job was now to help her succeed.
We’ve talked before about “flipping the triangle” that if we’re going to be the most customer-centric, the best place to work agribusiness in the country, we need to flip the traditional corporate hierarchy. Leaderrship’s role is to support their teams in their team’s delivery of value to the customer. I need to play my part and Servant Leadership is a huge part of it. But another part is people within the business claiming their part, taking the initiative to develop a plan, write it down and present it to their manager to get their alignment and buy-in. And then the manager needs to be very clear about whether they support the plan and whether it aligns with their expectations. If it does, there is magic for both people and the business.
I’ve always said, that when things are going well, I work for my team. My job is to support their plans by providing the people and the capital and helping get obstacles out of their way when they get stuck.
That can’t be flipped if I’m the one giving the orders. It begins when subordinates take charge, build their plans and ensure alignment with the managers. It scared the hell out of me the first time I did it. I’m sure this person was nervous as heck a few weeks ago. But the plans and the meetings changed everything.
So instead of waiting around for your boss to provide you with your goals and objectives for the year, using his or her “poor planning” as an excuse to not do anything, take ownership of your job and your future, and develop a plan yourself. It will make you happy and – if your boss is worth anything – make them happy as well.
Onward!
Jeff
