A Top CEO’s Opinion on Shifting Perspective
The importance of changing perspective from problem to inconvenience
The importance of changing perspective from problem to inconvenience
Whether you work for an organization or are starting your own, you are bound to wind up with a handful of problems each and every day. But according to Smartsheet CEO Mark Mader, there’s a difference between problems and inconveniences.
Mark Mader is the president and CEO of Smartsheet, the cloud-based software company that helps teams from across the globe collaborate and automate processes. He was previously named by Ernst & Young as Entrepreneur of the Year in Technology for the Pacific Northwest.
Before the pandemic, Mader was like many of us, used to getting problems every day that needed his attention. But when the pandemic hit, he began reflecting back on a saying his old art teacher, Robert Fulghum, author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, used to say:
“Life is lumpy. And a lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat, and a lump in the breast are not the same lump. One should learn the difference.”
Problems and Inconveniences
When the pandemic forced businesses to shut down or run remote, Mader realized that Smartsheet was entering an unprecedented time and that the company would have to pivot in order to make it through the ever changing landscape.
Shifting perspective of problems to inconveniences became his norm.
“Business, like life, is an inherently messy — lumpy — undertaking. It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that everything your business faces, or every tough job to be done, is a problem. As a leader who cares deeply about the success of your business, it becomes especially easy to confuse a problem with an inconvenience.”
-Mark Mader
Problems
Problems require immediate attention, time, and resources. During the era of COVID, these are show-stoppers that prevent the company from reaching its goals for the year.
System Failures or Lack of Remote Infrastructure: The majority of businesses had to move from brick and mortar to fully remote overnight. This means if there is a power outage or a server drops, it could throw off the day’s work. It also means that those who did not create the digital infrastructure ahead of time were forced to on the fly.
Staff Catching COVID in Office: The prioritization of staff’s health should be a business’ top priority. There are currently no federal laws protecting businesses from lawsuits from staff who catch the disease in office. This becomes a big liability on offices still bringing staff in.
Employee Turnover/Loss of High-Performing Talent: If a company is not quick to act in times of crisis, they may see a loss in high-performing employees. 60% of workers left a job due to a bad or ineffective boss. Additionally, 51% of United States employees surveyed said they were not engaged with the work they were performing due to stress. Managing and balancing workload of staff is key. You do not want to exacerbate the problem.
Lack of Clear & Consistent Communication: Clear communication was an extremely integral part of organization’s prior to COVID-19 with 80% of workers in 2019 stating stress increased due to a lack of clear communication. With everyone working remote more and more, clear, concise, and consistent communication is critical.
Social issues: A lot has happened since people began working remote, not the least being Black Lives Matters protests, the Election, and the Capital riots of January 6th. Ignoring these issues or not communicating the organization’s stance can hinder cohesion within the organization and can shift staff’s views of leadership.
Inconveniences
Whereas problems are show-stoppers, inconveniences are situations that can be weathered with time and addressed at a later date.
Work from Home: Many organizations prior to COVID, including Smartsheet, did not believe in remote work for extended periods of time. While there are limitations to remote work, the majority of it is an inconvenience, not a problem.
Change in Procedures/Workflows: An organization cannot plan for every event that can occur to the business. Some organizations have to pivot on a dime with remote work. This is a part of business. Things will arise that need to be handled as best as possible.
Travel Restrictions: Virtual conferences are the new in-person networking events. This can be hard when performed over online services such as Zoom as there is not the human touch involved, and it is harder to introduce yourself to others.
Office Culture: Happy hours and team building exercises now need to be done from a remote setting versus in person. But even with this, it still provides teams the ability to see each other and catch up outside of the remote office setting. Services like Doordash and Postmates can be a business’ best friend in times like this to reward staff with paid lunches or scheduled virtual happy hours.
Management’s Visibility: Some managers are used to walking into their staff’s office or cubicle to communicate in order to ensure jobs are being fulfilled. This cannot be done as easily in a remote setting without stalking an employee’s online activity. Trusting your staff is a key to success. You hired them to perform a job. They either will or will not. Trust until proven otherwise.
“But don’t confuse very real problems with inconveniences… While remaining sensitive to the real challenges faced by millions of people, just because things are harder now does not make each a problem. It all comes down to perspective.”
-Mark Mader
Determining the Difference
Determining whether something is a problem or an inconvenience is not something one person can decide. Like all great leaders know, one cannot make decisions in a vacuum and instead must find opinions and consensus amongst leadership.
Here are three ways to determine whether you have a problem or an inconvenience.
Determine the Costs in Time, Money, and Resources
You and your team are only as good as the tools they have. Check in with your staff to ensure they have what they need in order to succeed and reach the organization’s goals. If not, determine whether you can take the expense to help them to better achieve organizational goals.
Find Your Feedback Loop
Determining something to be a problem versus an inconvenience is something that requires feedback from those within the organization. Engaging staff to supply feedback through anonymous surveys, 1-on-1s, and virtual town halls that are open for discussion will help to provide feedback.
Protect and Empower Your Staff
The employees of most organizations right now have enough stress with the pandemic that they do not needed additional stress on top of it. Find ways through team bonding, virtual team happy hours, and weekly check-ins to ensure staff is staying safe and avoiding burnout.
“Successfully addressing such issues is important… Gaining that perspective and recognizing the differences makes all the difference as you guide your business now, and through future challenges.”
-Mark Mader
Problems are guaranteed in any business setting, but they shouldn’t always be categorized as problems. By reframing the problem, one can better define whether or not the obstacle is a true problem which will require time, money, and attention or an inconvenience which the organization will just have to weather or innovate around. Knowing the difference may very well save your company during the pandemic.
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