Leadership Isn’t Rocket Science—It’s Harder

Complexity & Its Discontents

The human brain is made up of some 86,000,000,000 neurons connected to each other via 100,000,000,000,000 synapses, making it quite possibly the most complex structure in the universe.

The complexity of just one brain is staggering, but imagine brining a few hundred of them together—like in a company—and the complexity multiplies exponentially. And then place that company in a volatile and uncertain world and … well you get the idea.

Building a rocket is complicated but you can still break that problem down into digestible chunks. Organizations on the other hand need to be understood holistically.

Even very small changes in a complex system will have large, unexpected, and unpredictable consequences (e.g. the butterfly effect).

Anything you change in your organization will have impacts and effects you never saw coming or even imagined were possible. Solving one problem exacerbates another and solving that one creates even more problems elsewhere. And on and on.

No wonder leadership feels like you’re constantly putting out fires. But remember that leading even a small business is quite possibly the most challenging job in the universe.

Hopefully this relaxes you and scares you a little too. But what’s a leader to do?  

The Leadership Team

Most leadership advice focuses on individual skills, capabilities, and mindset. While these are important, they are insufficient to the task of leading even relatively small organizations. 

Leading in a complex world requires a variety of perspectives, skills, and abilities, and even the most capable leader needs a group of helpers around them. But a group of individuals who don’t work well together can be worse than being alone. 

What’s needed is a real leadership team. 

A group becomes a team when trust and efficiency are built through collaboration. 

This process follows the familiar stages of Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. For leadership teams, the Chief of Staff (CoS) plays a critical role in making this happen.

The CoS is specifically tasked with helping a leadership team function effectively as a team. The job is equal parts coach, project manager, executive, advisor, and facilitator. 

The Chief of Staff

I recently worked with a client as an Interim Chief of Staff. The company was in a moment of deep change and under enormous stress. I was brought in by a new CEO who needed to quickly build a leadership team — many of whom were also new. 

I partnered with the CEO to bring the leadership team together operationally and culturally. We created high-yield meetings and put systems in place to improve decision making and situational awareness.

The CEO also asked me to coach individual leaders on how they led their teams, and to restructure the product organization so it would be ready for the new Chief Product Officer, who could hit the ground running when she was hired

Our work resulted in a company that was 50% faster at launching new initiatives, and a leadership team 1.5x quicker at making high-quality business decisions. 

The CEO had this to say at the end of our six-month engagement: “Bob’s expertise in developing highly effective teams really shone through, and our leadership team gelled so much faster than it could have without him.”

Bob Can Help

If your leadership team isn’t firing on all cylinders, you could be losing more than just time. I’m here to help your team thrive in a complex world. 

Click here to book a 1:1 with me.

— Bob Gower
— Managing Director, Organizational Effectiveness @changeforce