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Leadership Insight: Recover Your Leadership Mojo

Guest post by: Tim Schneider

Article Overview: I’ve been there. You’ve been there and there is a high probability that all people in a leadership position have been there sometime during their career. Some people will call it malaise, cruise control, mailing it in or going through the motions. For our purpose, we will call it Mojo Deficiency Syndrome. Whatever label it gets, it is the blocks of time where you just don’t have the passion and desire to move forward and you are content with managing the status quo. Unfortunately, leadership is really not about keeping things the same. It is much more about making it better.

Leadership Insight: Recover Your Leadership Mojo

I’ve been there. You’ve been there and there is a high probability that all people in a leadership position have been there sometime during their career.

Some people will call it malaise, cruise control, mailing it in or going through the motions. For our purpose, we will call it Mojo Deficiency Syndrome. Whatever label it gets, it is the blocks of time where you just don’t have the passion and desire to move forward and you are content with managing the status quo. Unfortunately, leadership is really not about keeping things the same. It is much more about making it better.

Many leaders go through Mojo Deficiency Syndrome (MDS) after a period when they have done a great deal of reorganizing and reengineering. They accomplished a great deal and that work took an emotional and physical toll on them. It is almost a naturalized let down after seeing all of their changes working well and harvesting the fruits of their labor. It becomes run-it-after-you-fix-it. Unfortunately, the run-it part does not require the energy or enthusiasm that was deployed during the fix-it part.

Other leaders develop MDS when they have experienced an extended time when everything they attempted was met with objections and issues. Constantly overcoming obstacles and fighting through naysayers also has an emotional and physical price. Some leaders find it easier to take the path of least resistance rather than continue to do the right thing. Many organizations go out of their way to throw make road blocks for leaders rather than partnering with them to move forward.

The symptoms of MDS are pretty easy to read and see. One of the most glaring is a leader’s failure to confront and coach performance deficiencies. A leader with MDS will adopt an 80% standard for team members rather than pushing for continued higher performance and greater expectations from key team members. This symptom uses language like “I get most of what I need from Bob” or “Bob has been here so long, this is all I am going to get from him.” This resignation that current performance will dictate future performance is dangerous and will set a very unattractive precedent for all team member performance.

Another telling symptom of MDS is the unwillingness to embrace additional changes, tuning and projects. The leader knows what has to be done and has great ideas for making things better but does not desire the time and tussle needed to get those things going. It would require another meeting, people would push back and argue, additional effort would be needed and the leader is just not willing to take that on right now.

The final biggest symptom of MDS relates to long term planning and the lack there of. The leader with MDS will not engage in most types of strategic planning beyond required budgets. That is because strategic planning engages some elements of change and moving forward and that challenges the comfort of the status quo management.

A final warning note about MDS and comfort is that it can and does morph into complacency very quickly. Once a leader falls into a near complacent mode with just managing the day-to-day functions, it becomes very difficult to pull back out and lead forward again.

Now some steps to get out of the Mojo Deficiency Syndrome and recover your leadership mojo:

1. Get Out of There

Take some time off and use up some of the 43 weeks of accrued vacation that you have accumulated during your high performance leadership years. Now here is the rub with this step; leave your cell phone, Blackberry, laptop or other office umbilical chord at home. Completely disconnect and recharge. No answering email. No returning calls and most importantly, no checking in to see how things are going.

As some of you read the above paragraph, your first reaction was an “I can’t” type of thought. Well, unless your finger is on the nuclear button, you are guarding the President of the United States or a transplant surgeon, your “I can’t” is really an “I won’t”. As a little side note, what message of trust are you sending your team when you check in constantly and keep your hands on the operation when you are away?

2. Plan

Make a list of the things that need or should be done. Prioritize that list based on what will have the highest level of organizational impact in the long run. Now split the items on that list over a one to two year time and assign a due date month to each. This will be your plan of attack. Too often leaders think about all that needs to happen without the dimension of time or without using a longer term perspective. It does not all have to be accomplished in August.

3. Delegate, Delegate, Delegate

Make partners out of your key team members by putting them in charge of the projects and things that need to be changed. Stop thinking that you need to do it by yourself and let others participate and assist in leading the charge. And while your at it, delegate the items on your plan to different people and stop the overreliance on your “go to” people.

4. Expand Relationship Circles

Rather than relying too heavily on relationships within your organization, develop friendships and professional relationships on the outside. These relationships often serve to recharge energies and develop greater empathy related to issues faced in other companies. These people can become your sounding board and critical supporters when you again face obstacles and challenges.

5. Find Challenge and Reward in Outside Activities

Especially when a leader drives an organization through massive changes, their focus becomes almost singularly on that organization. Workaholics are developed in this setting. This narrow world view furthers MDS because the leader has no significant outside pursuits or interests.

Take your leadership skills and competencies to another group. Volunteer. Give your time to other worthy efforts. There is a huge crossover effect that occurs when you reenergize through involvement with an outside group, that will come back to your energy level at your job.

6. Remember Your Fiduciary Responsibility

Fiduciary is a fancy (and Latin originated) word that means faith and trust. When you stepped into a leadership role, it was not to manage the status quo (more Latin). Your responsibility as a leader is to improve the organization and make in constantly better than when you inherited it. Not when you feel like it but all the time.

A final little note about leadership mojo and Mojo Deficiency Syndrome is about narcissism. When I brought up this subject with a couple of people and in group settings, they inquired if I was talking about them. Yes, yes I was.

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Article Tags: leadership, management, mojo



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