As an advisor, I’ve often reflected on the different returns leaders get for the same investment in our services. Some engage us on interesting problems and create a sense of team and joint mission. They benefit from our best thinking, innovative advice, and hard work. Yet others oversimplify the issues at hand or underestimate what it takes to create results and treat us as transactional vendors. While our work in those situations is high quality, these leaders not only pay the cost of a missed opportunity, they also run the risk of not addressing the issues they’re seeking to resolve.
Take Sandra, the COO of a large industrials company, who sought advice on how to drive productivity by shifting some entrenched and unhelpful cultural norms. She was among the most demanding leaders I’ve worked with, arguing, debating, and pushing for more at each turn. Yet she also brought fresh thinking, not shying away from the complexity of the problem we were solving. Although we were the external experts, she was the one who introduced some of the most important insights and ideas, and she convened company-wide forums for us to gain consensus for our recommendations and ensure effective implementation. The result was not only the achievement of near-term productivity goals, but also a renewed sense of purpose and commitment by the senior leadership group to drive further gains through a more agile culture.
Now take Philippe, the general manager of a division of a major pharmaceuticals company. A doctor by training, he treated business problems as he did illnesses: He would undertake a diagnosis, decide on the appropriate remedy, then seek help to execute it. Innovation had slowed in his business, due, he believed, to a lack of candor in the organization. His solution was to conduct workshops to improve skills at providing feedback. There hadn’t been recent investment in this area, and the workshops made sense. But, on its own, it was a simplistic solution to a more complex set of issues. People knew what to do but lacked the confidence to do it.
Philippe was unwilling to discuss what that might mean about his own leadership and maintained confidence in his own assessment. He feared that facing the underlying issue would lead to a more complex and time-consuming intervention. Although the workshops were effective at what they set out to do, they didn’t actually address the problem. As a frustrated team member put it, “We’re hitting the target but missing the point.”
The skill of using help has three main components. Once you’re faced with an issue and considering soliciting the help of an advisor, here’s what you need to have to get the most out of your engagement.
