Like a slow driver holding up many cars behind it in the fast lane, a “road boulder” may be clogging up the workflow and stopping progress for many other people at your company, or on your team.

It happens in many organizations.

“Road boulder” is a term I coined a few years ago in frustration about the people who drive more slowly than the flow of traffic in the fast lane on the freeway.

Often, there’s a mile or more of clear space – and pure potential – in front of them, but they stop the flow, even so.

The term also cropped up for me because I see road boulders of various kinds in companies’ workflows.

Road boulders not only frustrate the people behind them, but they can also create a very dangerous situation.

On the road, emergency response teams get caught in the no-exit-path logjam they create. In companies, people can be so distracted by problems caused inside the company that they miss significant signs of emerging problems outside the company.

The problem of road boulders can be corrected. And it can be prevented.

If you’re the road boulder at your company, you may be blocking others’ otherwise efficient, effective workflows by actions such as these:

- Providing too little direction, training and feedback to help employees stay on track
- Trying to control things you don’t need to control
- Not controlling things you should be managing closely, especially in high risk areas
- Poorly monitoring how well you’re meeting customers’ needs
- Poorly communicating with suppliers about what you need from them, and how well they’re meeting your needs

How can you find out – and correct the problem – if you or your department is a road boulder at your company?

Check in regularly with the people whose needs you’re supposed to be meeting. These are your customers.

They may be paying customers outside the company, or they could be customers inside the company who need your work in order to do their own.

Check, also, with your manager, if you’re an employee.

Check with your employees, if you’re a manager.

These are all potential customers of your work. You can accelerate their workflows through the work you do, or you can inhibit it. And you may not know what effect you’re having until you ask.

Ask the people who are dependent on the quality of work you provide them:

1. How well are we meeting their needs now?
2. Where could we improve?
3. What are we doing well?

Open the dialogue now, and continue it a few times a year.

You’ll find that the flow will grow as you radically reduce the chances that you and your department are company road boulders.

And in the process of gathering the feedback to make the overall system work better, you’re likely to collect a few accolades for your current work, too.

If you found this post valuable, please share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

A lot of companies talk about the need to change.

And the leaders of such efforts mean well.

But, let’s face it, change is hard. Very, very hard.

All the good intentions in the world don’t make change work, just because you want it to.

Think back to the last big change or improvement effort at your company.

Did it work?

If so, why do you think it succeeded?

Or if, as is more likely to be the case, that big change effort failed – or didn’t work as well its leaders hoped it would – these are probably a few of the reasons why:

1. Real customer feedback wasn’t getting inside your company.

Or if it was, that feedback wasn’t provided in a compelling way that made a strong case for customer-focused change.

To make a strong case for change, bring the sometimes-visceral power of customer feedback into the company. If people don’t feel customers’ pain about the problems they’re experiencing, or feel their excitement about what will be new and different, change can slip away.

2. There was no clear and compelling vision of where you were going.

To guide change successfully, create a compelling picture of the future, or a compelling story about the circumstance you’re creating.

3. Somebody lost the vision on the way to success.

It’s one thing to start out with a strong vision. It’s another thing to hang onto it, all the way through the sometimes long journey of change.

4. The vision wasn’t supported by a real plan.

Another big problem people have with the change process is that they’re highly motivated to get somewhere different. But they don’t do a good job of planning how they’ll get there, who will do what, or how they’ll communicate with each other as they move ahead.

5. There was little or ineffective follow-up.

You can make task assignments, but you have to make sure that people are completing those assignments.

Great follow-up is sometimes not much fun to do if things are not getting done in a timely fashion. But great follow-up is one of the most essential roles in management of any type.

It’s often not done, or if it is, it’s poorly done.

6. The anti-change effort was more powerful and better organized than the change effort.

Where there’s change, you can bet there’s also resistance to that change. The resistance is sometimes far more powerful than you ever dreamed it would be. People often have a strong vested interest in keeping things the way they know and like them.

7. The leaders didn’t really believe in a successful final outcome for the project – and employees knew it.

Sometimes the reason change doesn’t work is that the people leading it don’t really believe it can be done.

They hope it can, but they’re not sure it can.

And uncertainty can overwhelm hope.

When leaders don’t really believe in the vision and goal they’ve set for the company or team, employees know it.

There’s no way they’re going to throw themselves wholeheartedly into a difficult change process if leaders aren’t willing to do so, too.

If you found this post valuable, please share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

When customers aren’t happy, companies often wish they’d keep their frustration to themselves.

“What’s a little bit of customer frustration?” they almost seem to say.

And these companies may hope customers will leave their business right where it is, continuing to buy or even increasing their volume of business, despite that “one little glitch.”

To take this scenario even further, perhaps these companies feel it won’t really hurt if customers aren’t heard “just this once,” especially if their products and services are sold at the most competitive price, right?

Just remember this: each and every customer interaction can affect future business. And that is especially true when customers are already unhappy with what they’ve bought from you.

Customers are watching out for far more than just the price they pay.

They also want a hassle-free experience, from the moment they think about buying the product all through the time that they use it.

And if you don’t provide that hassle-free experience, well, they may buy from you once, but they’re very likely to take their business to one of your competitors when they need to buy again.

It’s in your company’s best interests to know what customers actual experiences are with your products and services.

Here are two big reasons valuable information may be getting away about problems your customers wish you would fix:

1. Your customer support staff is paid to get people off the phone quickly.

The good part of this situation is that customers don’t want to be on a customer support call anymore than you do.

They want to get the problem solved quickly, fairly and easily.

Truth be told, they may feel somewhat foolish they bought from you in the first place, given the problems they’re having.

So what’s the bad part of the situation when your customer support staff is moving customers off the line rapidly?

Customers feel they deserve to be fully heard, not “processed,”  and this is even more the case when they’re already frustrated.

2. The customer support team doesn’t capture customer feedback that can improve the product or service.

When you have a customer who is feeling the full frustration of the problem they’ve called you about, they often have very detailed information they could share about what happened.

This could provide valuable information to people in other parts of the company who could troubleshoot problems and prevent them from happening again.

All parts of the company – new product development, design, production, marketing, sales – can make good use of the information, if you have it.

After customers get their problem solved, that detailed feedback is far harder to get, if those details are even still available.

If you found this post valuable, please share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Just because nothing’s clearly wrong with the way your company works does not mean everything’s going right.

The need for change can creep up on you.

And all too often, a crisis is the first way people realize something has gone too far.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

The need for improvements In your products and services, or the way you get work done in your company can be apparent much faster if you pay attention to subtle signs.

Like the subtle indications of changes in the weather, subtle signals can be leading indicators that something is slipping, sliding, declining…and the loss of customers can’t be far away.

“Why change it if it isn’t broken?” is a common line of thought.

Well, the reason to change something that doesn’t appear to be broken is that it may be heading that way.

If you have a lot riding on one part of your business, or one group of customers you serve very well, protect that valuable asset.

The gulf oil disaster is a dramatic example of the need to pay attention to the basic controls of the business, as well as subtle signs that something might have been going wrong.

It’s very possible the oil spill could have been prevented if the right indicators had been well-monitored, the warnings heeded and acted upon by people who had the responsibility and authority to solve problems when they were far smaller.

The tough thing is that if you’re watching the subtle signs, when you see indications that problems may be taking shape, no one really wants to be the person to say, “I think a bad situation might be happening.”

People don’t really want to be doomsdayers and naysayers (well, most don’t).

However, instead of moving away from troubling trends, build the instinct to move closer in. Look more deeply into what might be happening.

Changes in customer satisfaction, for example, are just one indicator of changes that may be underway.

As you consider this indicator of changes, consider that many companies view complaining customers as a problem they wish would go away.

But complaining customers can be a rich source of information, if you gather and use the information they provide in a substantial way.

Consider this: customers who complain still care enough to try to help you become better. And changes in the types of complaints they make, the frequency of them, and other aspects may be an early indicator of problems that are cropping up that you might not have noticed any other way.

Learn to monitor and use both obvious and subtle signs of change in customer satisfaction, among other possible indicators of problems that may be taking shape.

It can make a big difference in your being able to catch and then prevent significant problems for your business and everyone affected by it.

If you found this post valuable, please share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Daily, leadership tests and challenges are played out, for better or worse.

And the outcome of these leadership tests can affect hundreds, thousands, or frequently, millions of people.

Today, for example, leadership challenges are being played out in the following arenas: the oil spill, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, world and national economies…and there’s plenty more to choose from.

Your own company may have leadership challenges in play, as many do while trying to navigate ongoing economic challenges safely.

Knowing how many people’s lives are affected by leadership decisions and actions, whatever they may be, I sometimes reach for famous quotes for ideas, clarity, and to help me take a long-term perspective.

A few leadership thoughts for today:

Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.
Bill Bradley

The more I have studied Lincoln, the more I have followed his thought processes, the more I am convinced that he understood leadership better than any other American president.
David Herbert Donald

Actions, not words, are the ultimate results of leadership.
Bill Owens

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision to reality.
Warren G. Bennis

Leadership is diving for the loose ball, getting the crowd involved, getting other players involved. It’s being able to take it as well as dish it out. That’s the only way you’re going to get respect from the players.
Larry Bird

Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you’re ready to play as tough as you’re able to, you’d better go out there and do it. Players will see right through a phony. And they can tell when you’re not giving it all you’ve got.
Larry Bird

Example is leadership.
Albert Schweitzer

You may think you’re ready for change – until you get up to the starting line and the action is about to start.

And when you do – much like standing at the starting line of an important race – that’s no time to find out you’re unprepared, or that you really don’t want to make the change, at all.

Change isn’t easy, no matter what type of change you’re making (or being asked to make), and no matter who else is involved.

But change usually works out far better if you’re ready for it – and all the twists and turns it can bring.

And it works best, too, if you seek it, rather than if change finds you.

Still better is the change you yearn for.

And best of all is if you’re driven enough to accomplish the change that you can move over, around, or through any barriers that crop up and stand in the way of where you are now, and the success you’re trying to create in the change process.

Change, of course, comes in many forms.

We all know from experience, and from the economic changes of the last few years which have not left many people untouched, in some way, that not all change is change we welcome.

Here are just a few of the types of major change that you may face at some time, and ways that you can adapt to them:

1. Change can be thrust upon us by life circumstances.

A lot of the process of change in these life-thrust-upon-us change circumstances requires acceptance, resilience, adaptability. Sometimes figuring out ways to “make do” for a while is required, too.

These are not experiences that dreams are made of. They are, however, sometimes the stuff that heroic stories are made of.

And like it or not, these experiences can be some of the ones that toughen us up most and make us strong, ready for even greater challenges of other types, later in life.

2. Great change may happen serendipitously.

For example, let’s say you have an interesting opportunity, and decide to take it. An interesting experience occurs, as a result.

You notice that you liked the experience, and decide to repeat the experience or experiment.

An interesting path starts to unfold.

Through these types of gradual change experiences, career interests or passions are sometimes discovered, new skills are developed, opportunities emerge, and rewarding relationships often emerge, too.

3. Change that you yearn for is the change that dreams are often made of.

If these changes are really big ones, they often take hard work and careful planning, and coordination with other people.

These changes are often driven by a very powerful and compelling vision you hold of the outcome you seek.

Whatever the change you face, to the degree you can be, it’s best if you’re ready for the race and challenge of change.

But that’s not possible in every case.

And no matter what happens, or why change occurs, you can’t anticipate and plan for all twists and turns, opportunities, challenges, and differences ahead that will emerge, no matter what type of change has come by.

Change doesn’t have to buckle you to your knees, nor does it have to overwhelm you, even if it is the type you didn’t seek.

Change is a fact of life. Being change-ready and change-responsive – if it’s not yet one of your strengths – is a change you’d best make, and keep.

If you found this post valuable, please share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

We’ve all heard stories of people who worked very hard to achieve a dream, but the dream slipped away just before they reached it, or soon after they had.

Perhaps it was to become a gold medalist at the Olympics, to be admitted to their dream college, to become a movie star, to start a new company or invent a successful new product, or perhaps to find a cure for a deadly disease.

Sometimes when people have worked very hard for a goal, success feels threatening.

For some of these people, success seems hard to hold onto, and suddenly slips out of their grasp.

In other cases, people almost seem to punish themselves for having reached their goal, as if they never felt they deserved it, at all.

In The Big Leap, Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level, author Gay Hendricks describes the problem of handling great success well. He provides ideas and tools for maintaining balance, and becoming comfortable with increasing levels of success as you experience it.

Here are just a few of the exercises Hendricks recommends to handle the path to success, and the pinnacle as well:

Discovering Your Story

Answer the following questions to get a strong sense of yourself in the process of change, and as you work to reach greater levels of success:

1. Where do I feel out of integrity with myself, or out of alignment with what is most important to me?

2. What’s keeping me from feeling complete and whole?

3. What important feelings am I not letting myself be aware of?

4. Where in my life am I not telling the full truth?

5. Where in my life have I not kept my promises?

6. In my relationship with _______, what do I need to say or do to feel complete and whole?

Finding Your Zone of Genius

Most people do their best and most satisfying work when they’re using skills that are the most energizing and engaging for them.

Hendricks recommends finding your Zone of Genius. Then look for ways to use those skills as much as possible.

Here are a few of the questions Hendricks recommends you ask yourself to discover your Zone of Genius:

1. What’s my genius?

- What do I love to do?
- What work doesn’t feel like work to me?
- What work produces the highest satisfaction and positive impact for the amount of time I spend on it?

I’m feel I’m at my best when I ___________________.

When I’m at my best, this is the exact thing I’m doing: ________________________.

When I’m doing that, here’s the thing I love most about it: _________________________.

2. How can I bring out my genius in ways that serve others, and myself, at the same time?

Limiting Upper Limit Behaviors

Reaching success and enjoying it requires that you become comfortable having, and feeling, greater levels of happiness than you may have experienced in the past.

People often consciously or unconsciously try to reduce levels of happiness to familiar levels, even if they’ve worked very hard to achieve greater happiness.

Hendricks describes happiness reducing behaviors as “upper limit behaviors.”

These include behaviors such as criticizing and blaming others, worrying, getting sick or hurt, hiding important feelings and truths, and breaking agreements.

Here are some of the ways to reduce your upper limit behaviors, if you ever use them:

- Make sure you have time for yourself, away from others.

- Be honest about your important truths, such as being clear about what’s going on for you emotionally.

- After you express emotions to others, or they do to you, don’t try to tell yourself or others that the feelings are not valid or important.

- After reaching great heights of success or sharing positive experiences, make sure you leave some time to come back down to the ground calmly and positively.

- Form a “no upper limits” bond with a few friends. Provide feedback to each other if you notice upper limit behaviors. Remind each other to stay positive and centered.

Success, when you achieve it, may not be easy to handle as you dreamed it would be. You can increase your comfort with success, however, and your confidence that you will be able to handle it well.

It’s an important skill to have so that you can enjoy, and sustain the success you worked so hard for, all along.

If you found this post valuable, please share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Success is a wonderful thing.

And it’s 100% guaranteed to bring you happiness, each and every time, right?

Not quite.

Success can bring problems – and problem behaviors – you never anticipated when you were driving so diligently to try to achieve it.

Getting exactly what you thought you wanted can be unsettling.

And it can have an unbalancing effect on people you care about, as well. They’re often swept up, to some degree, in the side effects that may result from your success.

For example, think of someone who earns an Olympic gold medal, or achieves sudden fame or good fortune of any type:

- New opportunities arise.

- Some pressures you felt before are eased. Perhaps, for example, any money concerns you felt before are suddenly erased. And business development may now be far easier.

- And new pressures may suddenly show up. Your time may be far less your own as “opportunities” become “demands.”

And fans, for better or worse, may suddenly surge your way, taking away any semblance of privacy.

- Important relationships may change in some way.

- Behaviors – yours and those of people around you – may change, as well.

Because you may not expect these changes, you may not realize what they are, what’s causing them, or know what to do about them.

These barriers to enjoying great success are described by Gay Hendricks in his book, The Big Leap, Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level.

Hendricks characterizes the Upper Limit Problem. It’s when people are unable to handle great success when it occurs because it feels different and uncomfortable when compared to what they’ve known in the past.

As a result, some people try to find ways to reduce their success, consciously or unconsciously, bringing it back down to a level they’re comfortable handling.

Here are a few of the feelings some people have when they experience great success:

1. Feeling flawed

In the face of great success some people have increased feelings of being imperfect. As a result, they may feel they don’t deserve the success they’re experiencing.

2. Fear of abandonment

People may fear that, with success, important relationships will change in ways they don’t like, and can’t direct or affect in positive ways, so their new-found success feels threatening.

3. Seeing success as a burden

The belief here is that life will become a greater burden with success than it is now. That’s because old, but well-known challenges are exchanged for unknown and potentially bigger problems brought on by fame, fortune, new responsibilities and expectations.

4. Fear of the consequences of “outshining” someone important to you

The essence of this fear is that the newly successful person may be disliked or no longer loved by people who feel they’re being “outshined.”

As Hendricks notes in his book, the way that many people deal with the fear of great success is to reduce it in some way, attempting to rebalance power, happiness, and other aspects of their personal and social environment.

These are just some of the ways people try to reduce their level of happiness so that it’s more familiar and easier to bear:

- Worry
- Criticize and blame others
- Get sick or hurt
- Hide significant feelings and truths
- Break agreements

Now imagine that your entire company, team or family suddenly achieves great success or happiness they’d long sought.

If many people are experiencing unease with their new-found good fortune, all at the same time, and trying to adjust it to levels they’re comfortable with, that may lead to a lot of problem behaviors the group must deal with.

Just knowing that people who are experiencing success may try to bring things down to a more comfortable level doesn’t solve the problem.

But it may make it easier to anticipate and manage, just knowing that the possibility exists.

In the next post, I’ll provide some of Hendricks’ recommendations for increasing your comfort with growing success.

If you found this post valuable, please share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.