In a recent conversation with a leader, he revealed his frustrations that despite his and his team's best efforts, the organisation simply didn’t seem to be able to change its performance trajectory. After investing significant time and resources in driving a business transformation, he was distraught by the lack of change that he saw in his business.

He had done all the right things, including:

• Worked with a top, well-respected management consultancy, researched the market, assessed the data, the opportunities and competition, modelled various approaches, and had worked up what they felt was a winning growth strategy. He felt that he had got his leadership team bought into the strategy through this process, too.
• They had set out their exciting strategy to the business, both at the broadcast level and also via a series of town hall events to answer any questions at a management and colleague level.
• Their presentations were smartly and succinctly laid out, clearly aligning capabilities, brand, strategy, opportunities and how they might address any potential barriers, clarifying where and why they could win. They also set out their expectations and focus for the business, what behaviours they wanted to see, what good looked like and their genuine commitment to reward and recognise the right behaviours.
• They had bought some new, expensive AI tech solution, which they believed could catapult the business forward.
• They had even invested in a training programme for the leaders and managers, establishing the right high-performance mindsets and behaviours to support the new strategy. Working really hard with the CPO and her team to get everyone on board and clear.

Exciting times.

After the big performance push, the leadership team wanted to give the business a bit of space.

But...

To their utter dismay, they saw little in the way of engagement except from the regular enthusiasts, little in new behaviours, new approaches or in the execution of their strategic ambitions.

He was pulling his hair out, as he could see a way back to growth. He would now have to go back to his investors with a narrative about why the organisation wouldn’t be able to achieve its growth targets. Again. He expressed the pressure he was under to deliver results. He was struggling to sleep. He felt he couldn’t be present with his kids. He had hoped to join the family on holiday this summer, but that now looked unlikely. In truth, he looked tired. Exhausted.

Even worse, the infighting and finger-pointing had already started, which was the opposite of the culture and behaviours he wanted.

His frustration was driven in part because he could see a clear way forward… if only the business could see it too, if only they could adapt and evolve. He felt profoundly let down by his business transformation team, his leaders and managers at their seeming inability to drive the change the business so desperately needed. Wasn’t it in their interest, too?

He had met so many exciting, talented future leaders in the business who wanted the change, who wanted to be part of the change. He felt this was the moment.

He was usually a patient and kind man, but I could sense that his patience with his team was running out. He felt like it was time to make some team changes and potentially have another push in the autumn to give him and the business a fighting chance. If that last push didn’t work, it would be time to go to plan B: A head count reduction and further efficiencies in the Autumn.

He finished by expressing his sense that things felt like they were out of his control, too much disruption and distraction, and the beginning of a sense of resignation. After all, he had tried everything the top consultancies had told him would work.

Sadly, these types of conversations are becoming increasingly normal. Leading through decline with little to be upbeat about can take its toll. They all point to the fact that yester-year’s organisational performance playbooks are no longer working. Something has changed. But what?

Leaders tell me they see the same issues in their businesses:

• A lack of performance focus
• Slow to adapt, move and evolve.
• Their people seem overwhelmed by the constant distractions and noise, to the point of organisational inertia
• A lack of pace, quality and impact of decision-making, with even less follow-up
• Lots of activity and meetings generating very few outcomes and little headway
• Investment in training, development and tech leading to little improvement in behaviours, impact or productivity
• Their best people are not focusing on the critical things for growth
• Management capabilities have weakened
• There is too much internal looking, not enough external customer focus

So leaders lean in and try and fix things themselves, or take the work and decisions off their team's plate, in an effort to get things moving. But I worry that this will lead to yet more burnout. Management used to cascade down a business, which offered scale, now managers and leaders push decision-making up the business in an attempt to socialise the risk, or because they are no longer able to make decisions, but this bottlenecks efforts and slows things down even further.

Many leaders have not fully caught themselves up on the fact that things have changed underneath their feet, and they are either applying a playbook that was fit for purpose in a more benign market with internal looking approaches that were focused around feelings, purpose and meaning; or, they have gone with a back-to-basics old-skool business transformation approach that might have worked pre-2008, but those efforts won't get the traction, change or results they need either.

So, what's the answer? Because…

• Efficiency and cost-cutting alone cannot guarantee growth
• More people cannot guarantee growth
• All orgs have now moved to digital
• Offshoring or tech efficiencies have been applied
• Improving logistics/supply chain or moving to real-time has been done, or is proving too risky
• M&A is no longer the answer, and integration was typically terrible
• Cheap money is no longer available
• Agile and OKR models have been applied
• Establishing inclusive cultures has not delivered the promised performance uplifts either

Leaders need a new performance playbook for a new epoch.

The differentiator won't be the insight. Insights are easy. It's all about the doing. It will be the ability to successfully execute the business transformation within the business and market realities and context.

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