If you are an individual contributor or a mid-level leader in a global business, you may have noticed 
that your leaders - the people you’re report to - are angry. They are frustrated, upset, short-tempered, and unsure of how to lead effectively in a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, and is lacking of people taking on self-responsibility.
There are an infinite number of theories about what’s going on and why your leaders are becoming this way. All too often they are hearing and experiencing their direct reports dip into the bucket of excuses about why mistakes are being made and why business objectives aren’t being met. The general excuses fall into the following archetypes:
- “We have too much work and not enough resources”
- “We are unsure of what our priorities are”
- “I’m not getting enough direction”
- “It’s not my job and I’m not being paid to do that”
- “Nobody gave me the training to know how to do that”
It’s easy to try to diagnose and solve any, or all of the excuses, by throwing resources at the problems or trying to “lead better” by motivating and inspiring people. But the real problem is that none of these responses are actually aligned to the core issues and are going unrecognized. Leaders are angry because in today’s digital world of advanced communications, data, and data analytics, we’ve forgotten about common sense. Common sense in terms of the basic Business Acumen and Business Leadership skills that are needed to function.
If you are bewildered, lost, and trying to figure out how to advance in your career here are three things that you need to learn as soon as possible:
How to prepare
Aggressive preparation is the process of anticipating and planning for multiple scenarios and knowing what you are going to do if any of them present themselves. For example, if you are an Operations Manager and you know you are responsible for logistics and there is a weekly planning meeting every Monday morning to review priorities, then make sure you have prepared and can answer the most difficult questions someone could ask. Simply showing up for a meeting after a long weekend is unacceptable and is a core driver of leadership anxiety and discourse.
How to have basic communications
What does communications in 2017 and beyond really mean? It means having the capability to deliver important information to others in a professional manner. Basic communication errors and unintelligible text messages are not acceptable. It’s imperative to take the personal responsibility to learn how to communicate in general and more importantly, how to communicate with the different styles around you including the people that you report to. The anger that you are experiencing is the push back on poor communications.
How to follow-up effectively
Following-up effectively is a dying art. Memorializing meetings with notes and follow-up actions, setting reminders for re-connecting, sending thank you notes, and taking personal responsibility for doing what you promised are all fundamental skills you need to develop, master, and then use every day. We have so many tools such as CRMs, intranets, sales enablement, and others that there can’t be any excuses for not effectively following up.
In summary, things are going to get worse before they get better unless you revisit your core business acumen and common-sense perspectives. Invest the time to prepare, communicate, and follow-up effectively.
