May 12, 2021 • 18 mins
We discuss inward versus outward organizational focus, the risks when an organization becomes too focused on events and circumstances happening within your own organization and lose focus on the outward-facing mission and the external threats facing every organization.
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Episode Transcript
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Dr. D. (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to the realm. I'm Dr. D, I bring
the strategy
Dr. K (00:12):
and I'm Dr. K, I bring the psychology. We are business
psychologists and your guides tothe executive realm where we
bring strategy and psychologytogether,
Dr. D. (00:20):
so you can bring your best to your C-suite, your teams
and your customers. Today we'retalking about inward versus
outward organizational focus therisks when an organization
becomes too focused inward onevents and circumstances
happening within your own wallsand lose focus on the outward
facing mission and externalthreats every organization
(00:41):
faces. So let's get to work. Iam not a big sports fan, but you
are, might be the biggest sportsfan. I know actually, a great
place to start is what happenswhen a team becomes preoccupied
with the dynamics within theteam and kind of loses focus of
their core mission.
Dr. K (00:58):
My first thought comes to the movie with Keanu Reeves,
which I cannot think of the nameright now. And they didn't get
along when they came together,they didn't get along at first.
So they weren't able to have ablock or they weren't able to
catch a pass, or they wererunning into each other. When
they finally created a sense ofa team when they work together
(01:20):
when they trusted each other.
That's when the game changed.
Yes, I understand it's a movie,but it is a pretty good general
concept to look at.
Dr. D. (01:29):
So, you took something very different away from "The
Matrix" than I did.
Dr. K (01:33):
Yeah, you know, you're just got to look at you know,
you got to look at it fromdifferent avenues, there are
different avenues. But when ateam, you know, when they start
focusing on, I don't like thisperson, or they're not working
as hard. That is where themindset goes, it is not looking
for the productivity that we'retrying to put out, it's not
(01:53):
looking at the product that'strying to be put out, it is all
about what is happening within.
And one of the biggest problemswith that is that we lose focus,
the competition level, this canbe business or sports tends to
decline. And then everythingthat you are there to do,
whether it's in a sports team,or a business kind of goes to
(02:14):
the wayside.
Dr. D. (02:17):
In sports, people often talk about rebuilding years for
a team when they're bringing ina lot of new people. And it's
used as an excuse as to why ateam might not perform as well.
But the reality is anorganization is bringing in new
people all the time every yearis rebuilding your every years
of building, you're in anorganization, you can't use that
as an excuse as to why yourcompany's not performing. You
(02:38):
have to be able to bring yourteam together, keep your team
aligned and stay focused onwhatever that mission is that
your organization is trying toachieve. And when I think about
it, there are really threelevels of focus there is the
organizational focus, is yourculture inwardly focused on team
dynamics and competitive thingshappening with from team to
(02:58):
team? Or is it outwardly focusedon the bigger picture, your
competitors, your those externalthreats that are coming from
your competitors, your mission,the community that you're trying
to serve? The next level down?
Is your team level of focus? Arethey focused on things happening
within their team? Are theyreally focused on the widget
that they're trying to producewithin their team that fits into
the larger organization? Or dothey understand how their team
(03:21):
affects the upstream anddownstream business processes
within their organization? Andeven more importantly, does the
team understand how they'redifferentiating from the
competition or how they aresupporting and serving that
community, the customers thatyou serve? At the most personal
level is the individual level offocus, doing a day to day job
(03:42):
connect what they're doing tothe broader value that the
organization brings? Can theysee see how they are serving
their customer? At the end ofthe day, whether that's internal
or even more importantly, thecustomer who is purchasing from
your company?
Dr. K (03:59):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the definite, there are three
levels, you know, that youbrought up, and then there's
little, you know, little, beingable to find ways as the leader
as well as an individual toframe it so that each individual
and team can better or see theirpart that they are playing,
combining the internal and theexternal. So the internal would
(04:21):
be like, Okay, I see my part.
And then the external is paid.
This is what we did for ourcustomers, or this is what we
did for the community or theorganization.
Dr. D. (04:31):
Absolutely. I've worked for some of the biggest
companies in the country. AndI've also worked for some really
tiny startups. The differencebetween the two is pretty
massive. When a company isstarting out and starting up,
there's usually a big competitorthat they're trying to disrupt
there is some big take down thatthe small company is going
after, there's an externallyfocused motivation to deliver to
(04:54):
their customers in a way thatthe big competitor can't do or
the existing competitors can'tSo that is an externally focused
organization, the challenges isas a company grows, and it has
to work through those growingpains, or as it evolves to be
the new biggest, the new big guyin the block, it's really easy
to lose that competitiveexternal focus. And you really
(05:17):
start focusing on protecting andrefining and doing things
internally. And what ends uphappening over time is an
organization tends to focusedinternally. And then there's
some disrupter who's reallyfocused externally on taking you
down and you can lose track ofthat there is kind of a business
cycle where you do tend tobecome inwardly focused over
(05:37):
time.
Dr. K (05:38):
You brought up that disrupter on the outside,
there's always someone that cando the research to find out what
Apple's next move is or whatGoogle's next move is.
Dr. D. (05:47):
I think where organizations really fail is
connecting those insights fromthose externally focused and
those customer facing arecompetitive thinking parts of
the organization to the broaderorganization, they don't
necessarily tie one to the otherso that the folks in accounting,
see what those other parts ofthe organization are thinking,
(06:09):
it really does become important,particularly as you get larger
to ensure the whole organizationunderstands where you fit in the
competitive landscape, what yourdifferentiators are as an
organization and the value thatyou're bringing to the market,
your competitors can't and who'sgunning for you because it
doesn't matter who you are inbusiness. There's somebody out
(06:30):
there trying to unseat you. Andthat gets to the idea of
competitive nature. I think it'sfair to say business people tend
to be competitive by nature, ifyour organization doesn't have
an externally focusedcompetitor, whether that's
somebody you're trying to takedown or protecting yourself
against those that are trying totake you down as an organization
(06:51):
becomes more inwardly focused,people tend to find that
competitor internally. So themarketing team might be
competitive with the sales team,there can be these internal
rivalries that develop andthat's not healthy for an
organization.
Dr. K (07:05):
Competition within a team when it is put out there. Hey,
what sales team can get to thismark first? That competition is
a good competition when I playedsports, and I would compete
against another setter andvolleyball, I had to prove that
I was the better setter. So whenthe competition is a known
(07:26):
competition, within a team orwithin an organization, I
believe that that can behealthy.
Dr. D. (07:32):
Your competition as a volleyball setter against
another volleyball setter onyour team. Yeah, that's healthy
competition, healthy competitioninternal to the team is good, so
long as it's competition that'sinternal, that's focused on
external. So using yourvolleyball example, you were
competing against your otherfriendly competition with your
(07:53):
other volleyball setter withinyour team. But that was only so
that you could face another teamhave the best person setting at
the time they were playing togive yourself a competitive
advantage. Now, if you and thatcompetitive rivalry on your
volleyball team lost track ofthat external focus, that
rivalry can become toxic withinyour team. And you would
(08:14):
probably lose the competitiveadvantage. healthy competition
within a business is good, solong as it can be tied to the
external focus, the competitionthat you're trying to achieve
externally. Great. Thank you. Aswe talked about that difficulty
of aligning a connection to anoutside purpose, there are ways
of doing that, whether that'susing competition, leveraging
(08:36):
your mission, but more broadly,using your mission as a means to
align the organization is veryimportant mission has come up
many times in our I think it'sone of the primary means of
success within an organization,you have to be able to relate to
your mission. Now, I was in themilitary, the military is a
great way of supporting andclarifying and defining their
(08:59):
mission. There are millions ofpeople in the United States
military, anybody inside themilitary or outside military can
talk about the mission of themilitary without being big. It's
three words, I'm protecting mycountry, that mission is
universally understood. italigns purpose. And if somebody
is within the organizationwithin the military and is not
(09:23):
doing what they need, whetherthey're a line cook, or they're
on the front lines of battle, ifthey're not doing their job,
they're not protecting theircountry. And that is a very
powerful, simple mission. That'seasily understood by everybody
inside the military and outsidethe military. We keep coming
(09:43):
back to mission but that's whygiving people the opportunity to
connect with the mission to beable to relate to the mission
that allows people to deliver apersonal connection to the
mission.
Dr. K (09:54):
Agreed. It's it's important to know what you are
you know, not to piggyback offthe military, but what you're
fighting for, and what you'retrying to do, if your mission or
your internal motivation isopposite of the mission, there's
going to be some issues, notonly is there just going to be
(10:16):
issues within the team, or theorganization that you're working
for that that can lead to someinternal struggle, that which
then can lead into hispossibility of leading into
disengagement, or lack of focus.
And then you see, you know, allof that comes into play with
productivity with your own, justbeing able to be content at
(10:37):
work, you know, it's trying tofind that intrinsic thought
process that can lead to thatexternal motivation to get
things done.
Dr. D. (10:47):
The mission...
connecting it to an externalfocus is really about making it
personal. When I'm thinkingabout the value that I bring to
the world, I'm spending eighthours, 10 hours a day at work,
thinking about complex businessissues that may or may not
relate, I may not be able toconnect it to my personal life,
(11:07):
but I can certainly connect itto a way is meaningful to me.
Because if I'm an accountant inan organization, and I'm helping
the the company operate better,make sure that invoices are sent
accurately, make sure that thepayables are received so we can
afford payroll, all of thosethings are really important, but
(11:29):
they're there so that I canconnect and make sure that my
organization continues todeliver products or services to
my customers to my community,because there's a person on the
other side of our organizationthat's receiving the benefit,
the value of those services. Andthe work that I do helps connect
to the person who is benefitingon the outside and taking it
(11:53):
back to the military. Thatexternal mission, protecting my
country, there's also a personalconnection. When somebody hears
that I was in the military, theysay thank you for your service,
because they recognize a personin the military is providing a
service to them beyond what theycan really articulate doesn't
(12:14):
matter what I did in themilitary, what's really
important is that I was there toserve them. And so the personal
side of a military commitment isthat I can have pride because
I'm serving my country, I'mdoing something for the
betterment of the community. Andso my connection to my my time
in the military was importantbecause I learned a lot
(12:38):
personally. And I was able tohelp people around me directly.
But I also had a connection to abroader history, a broader
community, a broader level ofservice beyond what I did in the
in the Navy. Yeah, you were you,you were able to make it at
least how I'm hearing it is thatyou were able to make it not
(12:58):
just like, oh, here I am givingout to the world. Again, you
made it something that wasimportant to you. What's really
important that protecting mycountry and serving my country.
That's not by accident, that'sby design, the military is
organized to give you that senseof pride. It's organized and
defined to give you that senseof purpose. that's by design. It
(13:19):
is not by accident that themilitary is organized to do
that. And it shouldn't be byaccident that your organization
finds its mission. And itshouldn't be by accident that
your organization can help yourteam members to find their
purpose. Excellent. So making itpersonal. We've talked a lot
about mission and how to connectit personally. But how do you
(13:41):
protect yourself against theexternal, the upstart that's
coming after you? I think sportsis a really good example of
rivalries. I don't want to talkout of school. So Dr. K, let's
talk about rivalries.
Dr. K (13:57):
Rivalries have such a so many I don't even know how to
say it, I guess dynamics to itbecause rivalries, you don't
like them. You're like, Oh, no,this is not going to happen. We
are going to in sports, we'regoing to kick their butt or
maybe a business, you're like,we're going to take them down.
Maybe you can use both in eachone. With rivalries, it's a kind
(14:20):
of almost like a equalcompetition. You know, when I
think about the teams that I've,when I played sports and the
teams, we knew certain teams,who were our biggest rivals were
the ones that we had to work thehardest against, you know, we
had the teams that were wayabove us and we had teams that
were way below us. And we alsohad those teams that we knew
(14:40):
Okay, these are the ones that wehave to be and that rivalry
becomes it becomes who you arealways keeping your eye on that
rivalry becomes Okay, we need tobe we need to try to stay a step
ahead. So you know, as you weretalking about the strategies,
you know, in sports like NFL,they will Watch, they watch
(15:00):
plays from the other team for aweek before they go, you know,
four months they do this on aconsistent basis. They're
looking at how this person movesand who you're going to be
covering and so that they couldlearn their moves better. And
that's what rivalry does. That'swhat competition does. It makes
you hyper focused. It may itcreates a sense of, I need to
(15:22):
know everything about them. Ineed to try to figure out if I
can know what their next moveis. We won't always be able to
know what their next move is.
But that's what rivalry bringsinto, into anything in our lives
into business into personalstuff. It creates a sense of
vigilance.
Dr. D. (15:41):
I like the phraseology used of vigilance, I think
that's really important. Therecan be unhealthy dynamics and
rivalries. And that's, of coursenot what I'm suggesting would be
healthy for an organization, thedynamics, the vigilance, whether
that's from a competitor, yourcustomer base, all of your team
members, your employees havethat level of vigilance on
(16:03):
what's happening between you andyour competition. And that has
to be pervasive within anorganization. It's healthy, and
it keeps people thinking aboutthe future. Absolutely.
Dr. K (16:13):
So Dr. D, How can leaders prepare?
Dr. D. (16:16):
It's important to look at yourself first. Make sure
your mission your customers andyour competitors are a regular
focus in your own day to dayinteractions. If they're not
make it part of them. Set yourmission into motion. Be clear
about the community you serveand how your organization
delivers on your mission. Defineyour organizational focus and
(16:37):
set the focus. ensure everyonein the organization knows which
companies you're going after andwhich are coming after you. Pick
your biggest competitiveopportunity and create a rivalry
create team alignment by havinga team mission define the
internal operational mission.
How does your team supportupstream and downstream
operations and theorganizational mission impact?
How does the team support thecustomer or community that your
(16:59):
organization serves? make itpersonal help team members see
how their work connects to theexternal mission as a person
doing a necessary job functionhelping a customer at the other
end of your organization.
Mission creates purpose, purposecreates engagement, engagement
betters your organization. SoDr. Kay, what's on tap for next
(17:23):
week?
Dr. K (17:23):
All right, next week, we will be talking about stress and
burnout, why it sneaks up onpeople and creates more havoc
than you realize. And of course,all of you joining us in this
journey to the realm of Thankyou so much.
Dr. D. (17:36):
I'm Dr. D.
Dr. K (17:38):
And I'm Dr. K and we are looking forward to your next
visit to the Executive Realm.
Hello, and welcome to the realm. I'm Dr. D, I bring
the strategy
Dr. K (00:12):
and I'm Dr. K, I bring the psychology. We are business
psychologists and your guides tothe executive realm where we
bring strategy and psychologytogether,
Dr. D. (00:20):
so you can bring your best to your C-suite, your teams
and your customers. Today we'retalking about inward versus
outward organizational focus therisks when an organization
becomes too focused inward onevents and circumstances
happening within your own wallsand lose focus on the outward
facing mission and externalthreats every organization
(00:41):
faces. So let's get to work. Iam not a big sports fan, but you
are, might be the biggest sportsfan. I know actually, a great
place to start is what happenswhen a team becomes preoccupied
with the dynamics within theteam and kind of loses focus of
their core mission.
Dr. K (00:58):
My first thought comes to the movie with Keanu Reeves,
which I cannot think of the nameright now. And they didn't get
along when they came together,they didn't get along at first.
So they weren't able to have ablock or they weren't able to
catch a pass, or they wererunning into each other. When
they finally created a sense ofa team when they work together
(01:20):
when they trusted each other.
That's when the game changed.
Yes, I understand it's a movie,but it is a pretty good general
concept to look at.
Dr. D. (01:29):
So, you took something very different away from "The
Matrix" than I did.
Dr. K (01:33):
Yeah, you know, you're just got to look at you know,
you got to look at it fromdifferent avenues, there are
different avenues. But when ateam, you know, when they start
focusing on, I don't like thisperson, or they're not working
as hard. That is where themindset goes, it is not looking
for the productivity that we'retrying to put out, it's not
(01:53):
looking at the product that'strying to be put out, it is all
about what is happening within.
And one of the biggest problemswith that is that we lose focus,
the competition level, this canbe business or sports tends to
decline. And then everythingthat you are there to do,
whether it's in a sports team,or a business kind of goes to
(02:14):
the wayside.
Dr. D. (02:17):
In sports, people often talk about rebuilding years for
a team when they're bringing ina lot of new people. And it's
used as an excuse as to why ateam might not perform as well.
But the reality is anorganization is bringing in new
people all the time every yearis rebuilding your every years
of building, you're in anorganization, you can't use that
as an excuse as to why yourcompany's not performing. You
(02:38):
have to be able to bring yourteam together, keep your team
aligned and stay focused onwhatever that mission is that
your organization is trying toachieve. And when I think about
it, there are really threelevels of focus there is the
organizational focus, is yourculture inwardly focused on team
dynamics and competitive thingshappening with from team to
(02:58):
team? Or is it outwardly focusedon the bigger picture, your
competitors, your those externalthreats that are coming from
your competitors, your mission,the community that you're trying
to serve? The next level down?
Is your team level of focus? Arethey focused on things happening
within their team? Are theyreally focused on the widget
that they're trying to producewithin their team that fits into
the larger organization? Or dothey understand how their team
(03:21):
affects the upstream anddownstream business processes
within their organization? Andeven more importantly, does the
team understand how they'redifferentiating from the
competition or how they aresupporting and serving that
community, the customers thatyou serve? At the most personal
level is the individual level offocus, doing a day to day job
(03:42):
connect what they're doing tothe broader value that the
organization brings? Can theysee see how they are serving
their customer? At the end ofthe day, whether that's internal
or even more importantly, thecustomer who is purchasing from
your company?
Dr. K (03:59):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the definite, there are three
levels, you know, that youbrought up, and then there's
little, you know, little, beingable to find ways as the leader
as well as an individual toframe it so that each individual
and team can better or see theirpart that they are playing,
combining the internal and theexternal. So the internal would
(04:21):
be like, Okay, I see my part.
And then the external is paid.
This is what we did for ourcustomers, or this is what we
did for the community or theorganization.
Dr. D. (04:31):
Absolutely. I've worked for some of the biggest
companies in the country. AndI've also worked for some really
tiny startups. The differencebetween the two is pretty
massive. When a company isstarting out and starting up,
there's usually a big competitorthat they're trying to disrupt
there is some big take down thatthe small company is going
after, there's an externallyfocused motivation to deliver to
(04:54):
their customers in a way thatthe big competitor can't do or
the existing competitors can'tSo that is an externally focused
organization, the challenges isas a company grows, and it has
to work through those growingpains, or as it evolves to be
the new biggest, the new big guyin the block, it's really easy
to lose that competitiveexternal focus. And you really
(05:17):
start focusing on protecting andrefining and doing things
internally. And what ends uphappening over time is an
organization tends to focusedinternally. And then there's
some disrupter who's reallyfocused externally on taking you
down and you can lose track ofthat there is kind of a business
cycle where you do tend tobecome inwardly focused over
(05:37):
time.
Dr. K (05:38):
You brought up that disrupter on the outside,
there's always someone that cando the research to find out what
Apple's next move is or whatGoogle's next move is.
Dr. D. (05:47):
I think where organizations really fail is
connecting those insights fromthose externally focused and
those customer facing arecompetitive thinking parts of
the organization to the broaderorganization, they don't
necessarily tie one to the otherso that the folks in accounting,
see what those other parts ofthe organization are thinking,
(06:09):
it really does become important,particularly as you get larger
to ensure the whole organizationunderstands where you fit in the
competitive landscape, what yourdifferentiators are as an
organization and the value thatyou're bringing to the market,
your competitors can't and who'sgunning for you because it
doesn't matter who you are inbusiness. There's somebody out
(06:30):
there trying to unseat you. Andthat gets to the idea of
competitive nature. I think it'sfair to say business people tend
to be competitive by nature, ifyour organization doesn't have
an externally focusedcompetitor, whether that's
somebody you're trying to takedown or protecting yourself
against those that are trying totake you down as an organization
(06:51):
becomes more inwardly focused,people tend to find that
competitor internally. So themarketing team might be
competitive with the sales team,there can be these internal
rivalries that develop andthat's not healthy for an
organization.
Dr. K (07:05):
Competition within a team when it is put out there. Hey,
what sales team can get to thismark first? That competition is
a good competition when I playedsports, and I would compete
against another setter andvolleyball, I had to prove that
I was the better setter. So whenthe competition is a known
(07:26):
competition, within a team orwithin an organization, I
believe that that can behealthy.
Dr. D. (07:32):
Your competition as a volleyball setter against
another volleyball setter onyour team. Yeah, that's healthy
competition, healthy competitioninternal to the team is good, so
long as it's competition that'sinternal, that's focused on
external. So using yourvolleyball example, you were
competing against your otherfriendly competition with your
(07:53):
other volleyball setter withinyour team. But that was only so
that you could face another teamhave the best person setting at
the time they were playing togive yourself a competitive
advantage. Now, if you and thatcompetitive rivalry on your
volleyball team lost track ofthat external focus, that
rivalry can become toxic withinyour team. And you would
(08:14):
probably lose the competitiveadvantage. healthy competition
within a business is good, solong as it can be tied to the
external focus, the competitionthat you're trying to achieve
externally. Great. Thank you. Aswe talked about that difficulty
of aligning a connection to anoutside purpose, there are ways
of doing that, whether that'susing competition, leveraging
(08:36):
your mission, but more broadly,using your mission as a means to
align the organization is veryimportant mission has come up
many times in our I think it'sone of the primary means of
success within an organization,you have to be able to relate to
your mission. Now, I was in themilitary, the military is a
great way of supporting andclarifying and defining their
(08:59):
mission. There are millions ofpeople in the United States
military, anybody inside themilitary or outside military can
talk about the mission of themilitary without being big. It's
three words, I'm protecting mycountry, that mission is
universally understood. italigns purpose. And if somebody
is within the organizationwithin the military and is not
(09:23):
doing what they need, whetherthey're a line cook, or they're
on the front lines of battle, ifthey're not doing their job,
they're not protecting theircountry. And that is a very
powerful, simple mission. That'seasily understood by everybody
inside the military and outsidethe military. We keep coming
(09:43):
back to mission but that's whygiving people the opportunity to
connect with the mission to beable to relate to the mission
that allows people to deliver apersonal connection to the
mission.
Dr. K (09:54):
Agreed. It's it's important to know what you are
you know, not to piggyback offthe military, but what you're
fighting for, and what you'retrying to do, if your mission or
your internal motivation isopposite of the mission, there's
going to be some issues, notonly is there just going to be
(10:16):
issues within the team, or theorganization that you're working
for that that can lead to someinternal struggle, that which
then can lead into hispossibility of leading into
disengagement, or lack of focus.
And then you see, you know, allof that comes into play with
productivity with your own, justbeing able to be content at
(10:37):
work, you know, it's trying tofind that intrinsic thought
process that can lead to thatexternal motivation to get
things done.
Dr. D. (10:47):
The mission...
connecting it to an externalfocus is really about making it
personal. When I'm thinkingabout the value that I bring to
the world, I'm spending eighthours, 10 hours a day at work,
thinking about complex businessissues that may or may not
relate, I may not be able toconnect it to my personal life,
(11:07):
but I can certainly connect itto a way is meaningful to me.
Because if I'm an accountant inan organization, and I'm helping
the the company operate better,make sure that invoices are sent
accurately, make sure that thepayables are received so we can
afford payroll, all of thosethings are really important, but
(11:29):
they're there so that I canconnect and make sure that my
organization continues todeliver products or services to
my customers to my community,because there's a person on the
other side of our organizationthat's receiving the benefit,
the value of those services. Andthe work that I do helps connect
to the person who is benefitingon the outside and taking it
(11:53):
back to the military. Thatexternal mission, protecting my
country, there's also a personalconnection. When somebody hears
that I was in the military, theysay thank you for your service,
because they recognize a personin the military is providing a
service to them beyond what theycan really articulate doesn't
(12:14):
matter what I did in themilitary, what's really
important is that I was there toserve them. And so the personal
side of a military commitment isthat I can have pride because
I'm serving my country, I'mdoing something for the
betterment of the community. Andso my connection to my my time
in the military was importantbecause I learned a lot
(12:38):
personally. And I was able tohelp people around me directly.
But I also had a connection to abroader history, a broader
community, a broader level ofservice beyond what I did in the
in the Navy. Yeah, you were you,you were able to make it at
least how I'm hearing it is thatyou were able to make it not
(12:58):
just like, oh, here I am givingout to the world. Again, you
made it something that wasimportant to you. What's really
important that protecting mycountry and serving my country.
That's not by accident, that'sby design, the military is
organized to give you that senseof pride. It's organized and
defined to give you that senseof purpose. that's by design. It
(13:19):
is not by accident that themilitary is organized to do
that. And it shouldn't be byaccident that your organization
finds its mission. And itshouldn't be by accident that
your organization can help yourteam members to find their
purpose. Excellent. So making itpersonal. We've talked a lot
about mission and how to connectit personally. But how do you
(13:41):
protect yourself against theexternal, the upstart that's
coming after you? I think sportsis a really good example of
rivalries. I don't want to talkout of school. So Dr. K, let's
talk about rivalries.
Dr. K (13:57):
Rivalries have such a so many I don't even know how to
say it, I guess dynamics to itbecause rivalries, you don't
like them. You're like, Oh, no,this is not going to happen. We
are going to in sports, we'regoing to kick their butt or
maybe a business, you're like,we're going to take them down.
Maybe you can use both in eachone. With rivalries, it's a kind
(14:20):
of almost like a equalcompetition. You know, when I
think about the teams that I've,when I played sports and the
teams, we knew certain teams,who were our biggest rivals were
the ones that we had to work thehardest against, you know, we
had the teams that were wayabove us and we had teams that
were way below us. And we alsohad those teams that we knew
(14:40):
Okay, these are the ones that wehave to be and that rivalry
becomes it becomes who you arealways keeping your eye on that
rivalry becomes Okay, we need tobe we need to try to stay a step
ahead. So you know, as you weretalking about the strategies,
you know, in sports like NFL,they will Watch, they watch
(15:00):
plays from the other team for aweek before they go, you know,
four months they do this on aconsistent basis. They're
looking at how this person movesand who you're going to be
covering and so that they couldlearn their moves better. And
that's what rivalry does. That'swhat competition does. It makes
you hyper focused. It may itcreates a sense of, I need to
(15:22):
know everything about them. Ineed to try to figure out if I
can know what their next moveis. We won't always be able to
know what their next move is.
But that's what rivalry bringsinto, into anything in our lives
into business into personalstuff. It creates a sense of
vigilance.
Dr. D. (15:41):
I like the phraseology used of vigilance, I think
that's really important. Therecan be unhealthy dynamics and
rivalries. And that's, of coursenot what I'm suggesting would be
healthy for an organization, thedynamics, the vigilance, whether
that's from a competitor, yourcustomer base, all of your team
members, your employees havethat level of vigilance on
(16:03):
what's happening between you andyour competition. And that has
to be pervasive within anorganization. It's healthy, and
it keeps people thinking aboutthe future. Absolutely.
Dr. K (16:13):
So Dr. D, How can leaders prepare?
Dr. D. (16:16):
It's important to look at yourself first. Make sure
your mission your customers andyour competitors are a regular
focus in your own day to dayinteractions. If they're not
make it part of them. Set yourmission into motion. Be clear
about the community you serveand how your organization
delivers on your mission. Defineyour organizational focus and
(16:37):
set the focus. ensure everyonein the organization knows which
companies you're going after andwhich are coming after you. Pick
your biggest competitiveopportunity and create a rivalry
create team alignment by havinga team mission define the
internal operational mission.
How does your team supportupstream and downstream
operations and theorganizational mission impact?
How does the team support thecustomer or community that your
(16:59):
organization serves? make itpersonal help team members see
how their work connects to theexternal mission as a person
doing a necessary job functionhelping a customer at the other
end of your organization.
Mission creates purpose, purposecreates engagement, engagement
betters your organization. SoDr. Kay, what's on tap for next
(17:23):
week?
Dr. K (17:23):
All right, next week, we will be talking about stress and
burnout, why it sneaks up onpeople and creates more havoc
than you realize. And of course,all of you joining us in this
journey to the realm of Thankyou so much.
Dr. D. (17:36):
I'm Dr. D.
Dr. K (17:38):
And I'm Dr. K and we are looking forward to your next
visit to the Executive Realm.
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