Overcoming Safe Success Cultures
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Ambition makes it nearly impossible to enjoy the success of others. You can shine, just don’t outshine me.
In addition, insecure bosses feel threatened when someone outshines them.
Furthermore, it’s hard to help others outshine you when you’re in the middle of an organization. A “shiner” might be promoted over you.
Safe success:
Organizations are filled with people who avoid threatening the boss. They practice safe success; success that doesn’t outshine the boss. Everyone knows you can shine just don’t shine too brightly.
Beyond honoring high performers:
Make it safe to help others shine. It’s easy to see performance and harder to remember those who helped it happen.
You get what you praise. The more you praise those who help others shine the more shiners you’ll get.
Avoid fixating on high performers and neglecting performance-helpers.
Help performance-helpers by honoring, acknowledging, and praising their efforts. Create cultures that lift those who enable the success of others.
- When someone’s subordinate shines, immediately go to their manager and lather them with praise. Say, “Mary, its incredible how you bring out the best in Bob.” Ask, “What are you doing to bring out Alice’s best?”
- Praise those who enable performance in private. Don’t dim the spotlight shining on high performers.
- Remember support staff. See and name their competencies, efforts, and achievements. Avoid saying stupid things like, “We couldn’t do this without you.”
- When it comes to leaders and managers, it’s not about what you do. It’s about what you help others do.
Challenge:
Walk around today praising those who help others perform. Don’t shift the spotlight from high performers, add a new one.
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How can you lift those who lift others?
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If we are in an alliteration mode Dan, safe success shortchanges service, self & supervisors.
Make the ‘norm’ be where success is celebrated, privately if the individual prefers that level of recognition and publicly for the group…or for outstanding effort.
Have always thought that ‘support staff’ does a disservice to those who keep everything, and I do mean everything, running. Watch some of the top CEOs go without for a week… Support staff are one of the essential legs for healthy organizations. What to know the temperature of a culture, have lunch with ‘support’ staff.
Am up for your challenge Dan, will find at least one new one today!
Hi Doc,
Glad to see you starting the conversation today. That west coast time zone usually causes you to be in late. I guess everyone else slept in…
Great alliteration. Although, I hate it when your writing outshines mine, which is far to often! 😉
I look forward to your insightful comments this week.
Best,
Dan
Good stuff, Dan. I think these are tricky waters to navigate. I still think of my good friend who helped one young man after another shine, only to see them get the promotions she never got. Finally, after years of this and after encouragement from many outside the organization, she began to make her case to the president of the company who had always sworn up and down that he didn’t know what they’d do without her.
It took a long, long time, but she, who probably knew that business better than anyone there, finally was made a vice-president.
That was years ago. It was the job of women to make the men shine. Sometimes I think we haven’t come as far as we would like to think.
I love your emphasis on specific acknowledgment, particularly of support staff, who go unheralded so often.
Cheers,
Jeanny
Hi Jeanny,
Great and tragic story. One reason organizations don’t see leaders/managers developed is they don’t promote those who develop others.
By the way, have you ever heard the bull crap line, “You’re too valuable to be promoted?” Ridiculous!
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Thanks for consistently adding value to the conversation.
Best,
Dan
Dear Dan,
The last sentence that “it’s not about what you do; it’s about what you help others do” is truly real. Recently I helped someone who used to treat me differently. Whenever I over shined, others did not accept willingly. Instead, they had different strategy to find out ways to undervalue. I start believing that when you help someone in better position without competence, you get less interference. But when you try to over shine or show your competence, it will surely create more interference for you. This is learned ideas that I was not aware of.
I think we can lift others who lift others by acknowledging, appreciating and respecting them publicly. We should create such a feeling in them that they believe in helping more people. Creating successful culture is about creating trust, transparency though courageous and accountable leaders and people across hierarchy.
Dear Ajay,
Thank you for sharing your story and insights. I’ve experienced the situation where my success motivated a boss to make life harder for me. Their insecurity and paranoia drove them. Anyone in that situation usually learns to play the game and perform at a lower level.
I like the public nature of showing respect. It’s important to let both performers shine and those who enable performers. I prefer not to mix it though. In other words let each shine in their own right at different times. I don’t like to shine on one at the expense of another.
You have my best regards,
Dan
Dan, good truths here. I am a firm believe that the better my staff is and the higher they go, the better of a manager I have been for them.
Have a great day!
Tina, great seeing you again. Your staff is fortunate to have you.
Best,
Dan
Excellent post Dan and I will not even try to come close to the “Wordsmith” of the LF Community, my challenging friend the Doc! 🙂
Your post brings to mind one of my favorite leadership role models, John Wooden, revered Coach. I don’t remember exactly so may be paraphrasing: “Imagine how much we could accomplish if no one worried about who gets the credit.”
The support people, the unsung heroes behind the stage, the sometimes invisible characters in the organizational architecture, we owe them much and shining a light on them is an imperative for all leaders. Recognizing the front lines has always been both a directive and a challenge for me. Uplifting individuals can cause tension in the team if not done correctly and you are so right about not using the “blanket” statement “thanks for everything you do” when we should be focusing in on the real and personal actual contribution.
I am a big proponet of MBWA leadership style and not infrequently will “hang out” with a particular group and observe the infinite little details which go unforeseen but essential to “make it work.” Often just being there and offering encouragement and importanly understanding what they do is so appreciated. I believe that leaders who find a way to let support staff know we care and occasionly “chipping in” endorses and validates their work.
As you know I have an open door policy and boundaries become blurred as we foster horizontal management and “turfs” are strongly discouraged. Having an EAC( employee advisopry council) has been huge in fostering ownership. I recently read that “accountability” is a team sport (I believe Joe Tye?) and all stakeholders count.
As far as your shining light metaphor, how about a strobe light that catches everyone at some point and makes the workforce all shine at different moments. After all are we not all at the same party, dancing to the same music, hopefully frequently changing partners learning or teaching the steps. 🙂 Work that is fun and owned is a labor of love and that is what life is all about. 🙂 Cheers and Doc we need a disc jockey are you available? 🙂
Dan, I think Alfonso has really struck a home run with the John Wooden quote “…if no one worried who go the credit”.
i really see this as about acknowledgement of your people. Did Wozniak enable Jobs or Jobs Wozniak? What matters is they helped each other, and neither would have succeeded otherwise. In Gina’s example below there is some truth – but is this about acknowledgement or about a “sea change” within a person, where they go “OK” now i am ready for some more limelight. for me both ‘types’ are valuable, and each requires a difference sense of acknowledgement and gratitude.
I thank you for reminding us of the need to support everyone as best we can. Behind this lies the question – if they are not ‘great’ – or we don’t intend to make them ‘great’, then why do we have them (or ourselves), on the payroll?
Richard.
Hi Richard. John Wooden is one of my all time favorites. I have hanging in my office a poster titled “Wooden in Leadership” and it has the 12 Lessons on Leadership. Nifty daily reminder of how to climb the Pyramid of Success: Industriousness,Friendship, Loyalty, Cooperation, Enthusiasm, Self-Control, Alertness, Initiative, Intentness, Team Spirit, Skill, Condition, Confidence, Poise, and Competitive Greatness.
And at the bottom of the Pyramid the 12 lessons in Leadership: Good values attract good people, Love is the most powerful four letter word; Call yourself a teacher; Emotion is your enemy; It takes 10 hands to make a basket; Little things make big things happen; Make each day your masterpiece; The carrot is mightier than a stick; Make greatness attainable by all; Seek significant change; Don’t look at the scoreboard; and Adversity is your asset.
I apologize to those who did not want to see it all but as you can tell I am pretty fanatical when it comes to John Wooden.
No apology needed Al, even as a Kiwi I know of the John Wodden legacy, no wi just may need to follow it through a little more, Many thanks. Richard
Very good reminder of what’s important.
Hi Dan!
Thanks for this thought-provoking piece.
This is something I have struggled to balance for most of my career, being a natural at “lifting others” up. I have been passed over, undervalued, overlooked and even had ideas stolen from me by my own boss at more than one company by people who were insecure and “stuck” in a “safe success” environment.
I honestly feel pity for them that they felt they had to resort to that type of behavior due to the attitudes of management. My response was to be more entrepreneurial and get out on my own. I am sure there are many entrepreneurs out there who were pushed to forge a different path due to this type of culture. I imagine, like me, they are thankful they did not allow themselves to get too comfortable at a middle management level making a mediocre living and never stretching themselves to make it better for themselves and others in their own unique way. We would have no Southwest Airlines, Google, Take Your Dog to Work Day, etc… if it weren’t for companies giving us a reason to leave and create something better.
So, while I can easily lament the challenge and disappointment that comes with this type of culture, I happily stand up as someone who has looked into the eye of the dragon, stayed long enough to make some changes and graciously walked off into the sunset for new beginnings. I hope some of those who are “stuck” in this type of culture will have the courage to make a change, the world is waiting for their genius, even if their current company doesn’t see it.
To Your Success!
Gina
Being somewhat leery of “ambition” – at least the ugly side that resembles competition before collaboration – I greatly appreciated this.
I like that you take a strong stance you take in the vacuousness of comments like, “We couldn’t do this without you.” But I disagree. It’s entirely within reason to offer that as a sincere and heartfelt concise expression of appreciation. What might be “stupid” would be to say that without earnestness and/or context.
The message here would seem to be to say something meaningful to the listener. Something that will convey to them that they have been duly recognized. In that case, I would fall back on my mother’s advice: If it feels like the right thing to say, you should probably say it.
I sometimes describe my purpose in the organization as being “to help you to help.” If that directs your actions consistently, others in your organization will feel it. Not praise, per se, but an underlying culture of appreciation results.