Hopeless - The 5 Hope Killers

The topic of Hope continues to dance around in my brain. I see its application everywhere I look. As I have been paying attention to life and taking notes I have come across what I call “The 5 Hope Killers”. Take a peek:



Insecure Killer Leadership
Now I’m not talking about the work killer in the sense of “Killer wave dude! When we’re done let’s go to Sharkeez and get some killer fish taco’s!” I am using it in the context of people who kill other peoples’ hope. Seriously…it’s not a cool thing. Killer Leaders have no vision or anything that would go with it like milestones, strategy, etc. They don’t try to connect with their people because they see no need for it. When it comes to timely, informative communication and encouragement Killer Leaders feel it’s a waste of time. These people don’t think it’s their job to equip people – that’s HR’s role. Finally, making the tough decisions needed to grow provides them too much discomfort and they’d rather live with the dysfunction. John Maxwell was right when he said, “Everything rises and falls with leadership.” If you work for one of these priceless gems, hope is a vapor floating around in the atmosphere. Good luck ever finding it. Sorry.

Intense Burnout and Fatigue 

When there is little or no hope you get tired…tired of the grind, tired of the people, tired of the bad jokes, tired of the bad numbers, tired of being short-staffed, and tired of the long hours. One of the best things you can do is eat right and stay fit. Your physical fitness plays a major role in your outlook and energy level. Feeling fit will allow you to defend against the onslaught of hopelessness.

 

Invisible Improvement

Have you ever felt like you lose more than you win? If you could just catch a break things could turnaround. It is in those times that little victories become monumental. When hope is getting crushed there are things that can plug the leak and begin to turn things in the right direction. The problem is that most leaders fail to celebrate those small wins and they remain invisible to the team and those little nuggets of hope are lost forever.

 

Individual Results Overshadow Team Success

I asked someone a question the other day, “If you could have anything come out of adding a new person to your work group what would you pick?” Without hesitation she said,

 

“That the person would care more about the team’s results than their own and that they would view the group’s collective work as their own.” Wow! What a powerful statement! You see she could have talked about less of a workload, or some financial benefit, but instead she sees success defined in a selfless team who cares about each other first and foremost. When people care more about themselves a loud sucking sound can be heard miles away removing hope from the work environment and replacing it with anger, frustration, resentment, and politics. Pat Lencioni cited this idea in The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team when he put it as the last part of his dysfunctional pyramid.

 

Isolation

When I am part of a team that’s losing hope, one of the worst things that can happen is to begin to feel like both you and your team are the only ones who can’t get it together (cue Barry White – cuz he can get it together for sure!). Other business units, teams, churches, and companies are finding success but as hard as you work nothing changes. This feeling of isolation slowly extracts hope from the environment and replaces it with a debilitating attitude that can result in losing your people completely. “Poor Me” and “Poor Us” dominates the conversations at team meetings and performance reviews. The longer these feelings of isolated failure and decline go on the more hope seeps out of the team.

 

Take a moment and see where you and your team stand. Don’t worry though, my next entry will be the positive side of the equation addressing how to build hope. You’ll need this in order to right the ship and start heading in the right direction.

Hope - We All Need Some

In today’s world there is elephant-sized pressure on cutting costs and being competitive.  Whether or not you believe that the economy is truly recovering or just wandering through the economist-believed “W-Curve”, it’s there.  Many are choosing to reorganize.  I have seen good re-org’s and bad ones.  The good ones have clear vision and direction, strong leadership, timely and concise communication, and well thought-out milestones.  The less successful ones lack all of the above.  The secret ingredient that the less successful re-orgs and any other major organizational changes miss is HOPE.  It may not be a strategy but it sure is the fuel needed to accomplish it.  Unfortunately, change can rob people of HOPE, especially if the leader failed to get adequate buy in.  Without HOPE people turn into depressed, angry, frustrated workers.  No one wants this, yet most people head down that road in the absence of HOPE.

When I think of HOPE I picture my wife’s former hair stylist whose name was HOPE.  Would you go to a hairstylist named HOPE?  My wickedly sarcastic brain couldn’t because I'd end up saying something, and I’d be afraid what my dome would look like when finished.  It’s like starting a parachute company named MAYBE.  Or how about seeing an ER doctor named Optimism?  “Don’t worry Mrs. Smith, Dr. Optimism will be in to see you in a few minutes.”  No way.

So what is HOPE?  It is the wish for something better than the current reality that generates energy to get through today.  Without HOPE you are left with the immediate and in many cases that is like suffering through an eternity of Monday’s – nothing to look forward to and no indication positive change is on its way.  Have fun grinding through each day because the land of burnout is on its way.



How do you embrace and establish HOPE?  The first step is accepting that not everyone has the ability to give HOPE.  Line workers can try hard and focus on their own attitude and generate a little bit of HOPE, which equates to addition – one by one.  Ultimately it begins with the leader.  I’ve seen leaders pull HOPE out of thin air and inflate people to the point of bursting.  When leaders cast vision, connect with people and communicate timely they build HOPE and re-establish trust.  The leader has the ability to generate HOPE, which equates to multiplication – many are affected at one time. Have you ever seen a clip from a movie where the leader rallies the troops?  Braveheart, Gladiator, 300, Hoosiers, the list goes on and on.  What are those leaders doing?  They’re building massive quantities of HOPE.



No one chooses to feel HOPEless.  If you are a leader reading this BLOG, I challenge you to find ways to establish and drive HOPE.  Every team needs it, but only you can give it.  I HOPE this helps!

Endings: I HATE Them

In the 1970’s William Bridges wrote a monumental book entitled Transitions, which focused on its three phases – ending, neutral zone, and beginning.  As I read the book, I found myself uncovering many of my own tendencies and struggles with transitions.  Since that time I have wrote and taught on the subject in order to help others deal with their own transitions.  What I find is that I still battle with certain aspects, but knowing my tendencies helps me to navigate the process in a more purposeful way.

Transitions begin with endings.  I hate endings.  I really mean it – I HATE them.  I’m a nostalgic sucker at heart, which is aided by a weird knack at remembering details about events which normal people would gloss over.  I think that’s one of the reasons I like Disney World in a sick way.  As a child we used to go during off peak times, which also meant missing school. I still feel bad about that…yeah, not really.  I remember much of those trips, and guess what?  I hated leaving.  Each year we finish at my business is bitter sweet because I don’t want it to end…most of the time.  Our extended families live in Michigan and each time they head back after a visit with us the house seems oddly quiet and guess what?  I’m not a fan.

Now let’s be clear.  Change and transition are two different things.  I love change – the excitement, the possibilities, the potential, the newness.  Changes are driven to reach a goal.  Transitions, however, start with letting go of what no longer fits or is adequate to your life stage.  When my first girlfriend dumped me she was saying that we no longer fit together.  Guess what?  I hated that too.



Focusing on the past prohibits you from moving forward.  You have to let go of something internal because it is the inner ending which initiates the transition.  The hardest part for me is embracing the ending to move forward.  I don’t like moving on, but also don’t want to be a depressing curmudgeon who continuously spouts, “Well it was better before because…” I fully recognize that in order to truly transition I must be willing to accept the ending and MOVE FORWARD.



Recognize your tendencies and manage them in order to propel yourself forward.  What are you still hanging on to?