The 3 Leadership Traps from "Hope Is Not A Method"

Borrowed

"Embracing speed, quality, or cost cutting as a strategy is tantamount to saying that you are going to run faster and faster, better and better, leaner and leaner—forever. And that is impossible. You cannot run faster and faster forever. You can fine-tune your engine, you can surge, you can stretch capacity—there are many ways of improving performance, but they all have limits. At some point, neither speed nor quality is a sustainable competitive advantage. Cost cutting as an end in itself is worst of all because it merely forces the old engine to labor harder and harder. To be effective, change must be substantive—it must add value and contribute to the long-run health of the organization. When unaccompanied by real change, cost cutting is all pain and little gain."

From "Hope Is Not a Method: What Business Leaders Can Learn from America's Army" by Gordon R. Sullivan [Book]

Learned

I'm deep into several new initiatives at Barrel, everything from evolving our company culture to working with the team to level up our client engagements and services. A recurring lesson in this process is the importance of tight communication and alignment. Without a shared understanding of the WHY behind our initiatives, I know I won't get the best out of the team and therefore, it's unlikely we'll make a real impact.

Amid these efforts, there's a tension I often feel in the day-to-day, checking in with the team or discussing current projects. It's as if we're marching in one direction while everything and everyone is trying to pull us the other way. Thisisn’t about time management, but maintaining focus.

I started reading "Hope Is Not a Method: What Business Leaders Can Learn from America's Army" by Gordon R. Sullivan over the weekend, which touches on this very tension. Sullivan introduces the concept of the 3 Leadership Traps, framed around the "Paradox of Action," which says that working harder to do what you do better won’t get you anywhere without a strategic plan.

"The 'Paradox of Action' is the fact that working harder and harder to do what you do better and better will not lead to success. Action, however intense, is pointless unless it is focused coherently on the future. Action without strategic direction merely drives an organization deeper into a hole. When a leader fails to understand this, the organization is doomed to an endless succession of seemingly random changes—surfing from management fad to management fad, trying to catch the wave of success. But without strategic underpinnings, fad surfing is a dead end, not the road to success. Caught in the paradox of action, doing the wrong things better and better, an organization will fail."

The danger of the 3 Leadership Traps is not only that they steer you away from creating a new future but they can be difficult to see when you've already fallen in. Leaders may feel they're making good progress because they're improving processes and putting in genuine effort. However, it’s akin to fine-tuning your road bike while everyone else is entering the race on a motorcycle. It doesn't matter how fast your bike will go, you're never going to win the race.

Whether now or in past roles, I’ve felt the pull of these traps—sometimes getting caught, other times realizing the danger and steering clear. Nonetheless, knowing they exist is the first step to avoiding them.

Leadership Trap #1: Doing Things Too Well

The first leadership trap comes when you least expect it—business is booming and the team is firing on all cylinders. But success can be a breeding ground for complacency, leading us to believe there's no need to change or innovate. The saying goes—if it’s not broken, don't fix it. We may even be afraid that any change could crush our success.

But in reality, the world around us is constantly evolving. If we don’t proactively seek out and embrace change, we risk getting left behind. In past client relationships, we've been in situations where everything seemed perfect until suddenly, they weren't. It often turned out that while we were maintaining the status quo and striving to keep the client happy, we overlooked the changes in our client's needs, market, and business.

Insights from these experiences have shaped how we operate today— prioritizing feedback, curiosity, and proactive thinking.

Leadership Trap #2: Being In the Wrong Business

This trap catches leaders who can see changes are happening around them but fail to understand the implications and act. It's easy to fall into this trap because even when we embrace change, we know how difficult it can be to enact so there'salways the temptation to wait and see it play out. But then it may be too late.

We’ve been through many seasons of change at Barrel and today is no different. Our clients are adapting to a rapidly evolving market and continually looking for new ways to reach their customers.

We have a choice—double down on what got us this far, or seize the opportunity to bring added value to our clients. We'retaking the latter, but the former leads me to the last trap.

Leadership Trap #3: Making Yesterday Perfect

For any "fixers" out there, watch out! Making Yesterday Perfect is about becoming hyper-focused on improving past processes. It's a trap because leaders may feel like they're doing God's work—removing roadblocks, increasing efficiency, etc. Their team feels heard and everyone is happy. The only problem is, the demand for said service is no longer there...

Looking back at our work on websites last year, we put a good effort into optimizing what we sell and our existing processes to keep up with budget constraints and changing client expectations. While these improvements were valuable, we hit a point where I had to consider how much further we needed to go, recognizing where the market—and our clients—are heading.

As recently as last week, I could feel the pull to work alongside the team to keep improving the process. It's those steeped in the work that sees every issue with a given process firsthand and in their day-to-day, they feel like top priority. As a leader, it's important to maintain focus and avoid jumping in and losing sight of the bigger picture.

Thought

Doing Things Too Well: What would happen if I challenged every 'successful' aspect of my current operation?

Being In the Wrong Business: If I were to start my business today, would I make the same choices, or are there new opportunities I am currently overlooking?

Making Yesterday Perfect: Are my efforts to improve getting me closer to my desired outcomes or merely optimizing outdated practices?