How to Get Your Organization and Team Back on Track with Lisa Gable

In This Episode You Will Learn About: 

• Turn things around when things are not going well

• Be a steward of your organization

• Be an ally for women in future leadership roles

• Amplify your voice to influence change

• 4 steps to process to organizational leadership

Show Notes:

Is your organization going through a change management process or is it stagnant? It can be tough to navigate change, especially when things are not going well. Women often feel that they can't lead because they don't feel confident in their abilities. It's hard to be a leader when you don't see yourself in that role. You may not have the same experiences as those who have traditionally filled leadership roles, and you might doubt your ability to make a difference. In this episode, you learn how to steer your organization back on track and how to confidently step up and lead with influence.

 “It’s not easy to point your compass in a new direction and change course. It requires bold decision-making, adherence to a process that many around you will resist, and an openness to collaborate with others. “- Lisa Gable
 

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 About The Guest:

Lisa Gable is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller. She is recognized worldwide as a turnaround mastermind. As an award-winning CEO of several organizations, and as a former US Ambassador, UN Delegate, and advisor to Fortune 500 companies, Lisa has orchestrated and executed the successful turnarounds of well-known private and public organizations in all industries and sectors. Lisa is also a member of the "Chief Organization", a private membership network focused on connecting and supporting women executive leaders. She lives in Washington, D.C. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisagable/

When Organizations are Led to the Path of Restructuring and Reorganizing

You've been brought into a lot of organizations where they've sought you out or you've also sought them out and said okay, there's an opportunity to turn things around within the organization. Are there any similarities that you see amongst the different organizations that you've noticed where they're going right now's the time to turn around what's going on?

Yeah, there, there are a number of different things that you'll see is being similar. One is sometimes organizations have just gotten off track from their original remit. And what I mean by that is that each organization has started for a purpose. But sometimes through mergers and acquisitions, also through changes of market, perhaps they pivoted in order to take advantage of something. But what it's done is it's led them down a track that's no longer why they were started. And it doesn't matter if it's business government or philanthropy. What you really have to do is go back and understand why was the organization started? What is it that they do? Is it still relevant today? And do we need to restructure to get back there. Another thing where I have seen a great deal of opportunity to improve is what I call hubris. And that's essentially when people have let their egos get in the way. And so people might make decisions that are based on something that benefits them personally, but not necessarily the organization. And so you have to set your ego aside, and you have to make sure that you understand that you are a temporary steward of any organization that you're part of. It's about the organization, the customers, the community that you serve, it's not about you. And finally, in some cases, it's time for organizations to go away, they may have had a purpose, they've done a great job, they've delivered on their promise. Sometimes we keep things alive too long. And so you have to sit back and go, is it time for this organization to be shut down to be merged to become something else? Or is what we're doing necessary in order to achieve our original objectives?

And so when you come in, and you see kind of the similarities among some of these organizations that you're working with, and you see these four key areas, what is typically the first thing you do within the first 90 days or even six months to get things turned around within an organization.

  I really do follow a four-step process. Ask: what is the future they want to see if they can wave their magic wand? What would the future look like? Get them grounded not in solving problem and tweaking around the edges, but what they ultimately want the world to look like and where they see their organization having rolled in that future world scenario is critically important. Because what we do next is that we break down the past, we basically do audits, and we look at, okay, so is what we're doing today going to help us achieve that objective? And going back and really looking at the actions of the organizations taking where money is being spent, how goals are being articulated and then analyzing whether or not those elements are still necessary. 

And so we go through ranking a rating process very early on, and we say, Okay, we've looked at everything, and we're going to rank and rate the need for this activity, the need for this expenditure based on where you want to go. And if it doesn't, if it's not going to get you there, then it's time to get rid of it. And so being able to build your path forward, for the next 18 months, for the next three years of your turnaround, you need to start getting rid of things. And so you're building a path from present to future. And you're using a series of decision trees and decision-making tools that I outlined in the book to get you there. And once you make that decision, you're going to move very, very quickly. 

But as I said, I tried to do all of that during the first six months, it usually will take about 18 months to really begin to see an organization move forward and start transitioning to where it needs to be. I've done it in a shorter period of time as I had to do with the Yoast engagement at the World's Fair, and then you do all of these steps on steroids.

Communicate with Facts, Not Emotions

Use processing data to make your points. Let's say that you are within an organization, you're within a business unit. And maybe you have a boss who is going a little bit off track or making decisions that might be based on things that benefit the boss, and not really the organization. And you see that the number one thing I was taught by my mentor Craig Barrett, who later became the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Intel Corporation is to speak with facts. And what I mean by that is be unemotional, gather your data, accumulate that data and present it from the construct of not I think, or we think, or any emotional ties to say, look, we know that the organization wants to get to this point, we've we've done some data gathering, and where we recognize is that we may be off course as measured by x. And so we're going to make recommendations for us to get back on course, to get back to that quantitative metric measurement of where we need to go. By doing these actions. If you can take the emotion out, if you can speak with facts to form your argument, then you have a higher likelihood of achieving your objective.

That is great advice. Because I know a lot of times we can get very caught up in the emotions of things. And everyone has, expresses their emotions differently towards different challenges or situations. But when you get what I'm hearing you say is when you get back to the facts, and be very specific and are able to quantify exactly what's happening and where you know what changes you can make. To get to that end goal, that's gonna credential exactly what you're recommending.

It is and you have to acknowledge the emotion but you do so in a way that when you present something to someone that you need them to make a change on, what you're doing is you articulate, I know that x is very important to you doing this other thing is very important to you. And I know it's important to you, because of the following reasons. However, in order for us to move forward, we're going to need to make a change. And here are all the fact-based reasons as to why if we do something in a different way, it will help you achieve the objective that we've just articulated. So you have to speak in the other person's language you have to speak in their vernacular. We've all watched this during the last couple of weeks. I have an article that's being pitched right now about Solinsky. And one of the things that you notice he does is he speaks with facts. He presents the information in the manner of the audience to whom you speaking, whether it's the British Parliament or the US Congress. He uses language that's familiar to them. And I think that is probably one reason he's been such an effective communicator.

Women Taking Their Seat at the Table

One thing that I was watching one of your videos prior to us jumping on and you had talked about, for women to have an influence, and for and a lot of our listeners are women. And this, this podcast is rated top five for women equality and equity. And part of having women have a seat at the table, one of the things you said is if you're going to be leaving an organization, or if you're in a high-level decision-making role to replace that if you're a woman to replace it with another woman, and I thought that really was a powerful statement. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Well, I was very fortunate in that I had a mentor her name was Barbara Barrett, wife of Craig Barrett, who I referenced before she actually introduced me to him. And Barbara is known because she was ambassador to Finland. She's been a corporate board members, she was Secretary of the Air Force, most recently. But Barbara, basically what she did is she when she would go off a board, she, you know, put me onto the boards that she left. And it was truly one of the greatest gifts that anyone's given me because she helped me think through what are the credentials I needed, I needed to be on corporate boards I needed to be on in case there was a business school board. So I needed an academic qualification. Perhaps it was a philanthropic qualification. And so when she would leave a board, she would actually recommend me to take her place. And I've tried to follow that process throughout my old life, which is finding other women, it doesn't matter what boards you're sitting on. If you know someone who can actually take your place, you don't have if look, if they're not qualified, you're not going to put them on the into the job. But if this individual is qualified, then you're going to make a recommendation that they actually replace you. And if you're lucky enough, they will. And she'll be able to keep that daisy chain going.

And so when it comes to sitting on a board, a lot of women are within a corporate environment. Sometimes what I find is we we get in the silo of like, okay, well, this is our job. And this is what we're always going to do. What are some ways that women can look beyond their immediate role and maybe being on a board is one of them to just continue to expand their influence their impact within the community, as well as support their career in going new various directions?

Well, there are a couple of things you can do. One is there. I mean, obviously, their national boards like Girl Scouts of the USA, Boys and Girls Clubs of America that I've served on, but they're also local variations of that. There's the local YMCA, the local Girl Scouts, local boy scouts, they are federated, which means that they have councils that cover geographic areas that are really quite significant, have multimillion dollar budgets, people don't realize that. And so it's a great way for you to get on a board with other business people. And it looks good for the company that allows you to you know, follow your passion of women and girls or kids. And that's one option. Another is you know, their US Chamber boards. There are national academy of sciences boards, and I've served on those also. So there are a lot of different ways. Sherm which is a human resource organization, is that you find ways and if you're lucky, your boss will help you find a board. But if not, you can do it on your own. The critical thing is you need to make sure that you recognize that you have a job to do, and someone's paying you to do your job. So your board work is additional. But it's a great way to expand your universe and also to understand a little bit more about your personal capabilities. And I'm just been so fortunate when I think through the network that I have today. It's because I served on so many government, business and philanthropic boards that I can literally walk into any situation and someone goes Do you know anyone who does x and the answer is yes, I do that makes you more valuable as an employee.

And I love how you spoke to the various ranges of boards that you can be on because for those of you listeners that are sitting or that are listening today is think about one thing you're passionate about, think about maybe organizations that you've been involved in, maybe it's been organizations you've raised money for, is there an opportunity to take it a step further and be on that board and make a greater impact. And you get to meet incredible people I sit on the advisory board for the Dallas professional women organization. And the women that I've been able to meet through this organization has been incredible. And it goes so much more beyond the immediate scope of where you live. These are women that you get to interact with on a national level. And like you said, exactly, somebody says, Hey, do you have somebody that can does an expert on this? Yeah, actually, I do. I mean, reach out to my network. And let me get you connected with somebody, you get to really be a powerful connector, and add value. And it gives you more opportunities.

Sometimes we get so heads down in our jobs. And then perhaps there's a point where that job is no longer giving you the satisfaction, you'd like to look outside your industry, you'd like to explore new opportunities, you've already got the network established to do that. And you're a little bit more aware as to what other people do for a living. And so I think from a personal level, it's incumbent upon us as women, and also the women that you manage. One of the things I tried to do, from a diversity perspective is ensure that my black employees had the opportunity to be at the table for the various finance boards that were in our state for business women who were CFOs, or controllers, or that they had an opportunity to be part of a task force that was created. So it's not only about you, you also do need to think about your employees and what you can do to support them. And helping get other people those credentials will only help you be more successful because people see you doing that. And they go, Oh, she's a leader, because she's actually helped other people move forward, not just pursue things on her own behalf.

Servant Leadership Within an Organization 

And it's really about that, that's truly what a leader is, was when you can sit down with your team and identify and and work alongside them, and seek to understand what are your goals, and whether it's either to stay in that organization and either promote up and helping them, exposing them to opportunities to get involved in special projects within the organization or have mentors within the organization. Or even if their goal is to go out of the organization still being an advocate of them. Because at the end of the day, that's what leadership is. That's what servant leadership is. And sometimes people want to another state, maybe they want to be in their existing role. But having an opportunity to be part of a board or special projects just reignites that passion. And I know some of the women that I've been working with, they're actually starting women and leadership within the organization, and to help really inspire and empower women with the tools to hold these leadership positions within the organization. And whether they're leading people or just being a leader within their own role.

You definitely have to and the other thing to remember is if people did not sign up for servitude for life, and I think, you know, in my father's generation, people stayed in the same company for 35 years. And you still see that I've you know, I've worked very closely with a lot of consumer products, goods companies. So you'll walk into a PepsiCo or General Mills, and you will meet people who've been there for 30 years, and they've had a wonderful career. But today, individuals, especially young people, they do change jobs. And you need to manage that process in a positive way of recognizing when it's time for them to go and pursue something else because they can't move forward in your organization. Maintain the relationships keep them alive, keep them positive be a good reference, you never know when that former employee is going to be working for a company that you want to partner with, or an organization that you want to partner with. And so I've watched a very interesting dynamic, where sometimes people think it's a negative, if their employees are ready to move forward, grasp on to it, help them in that process. And you may be placing someone that's loyal to you in an organization that will be very important to your achieving your objectives someday.

Some of my closest relationships are people that were on my team. But they decided that it wasn't necessarily they had they I was came from medical sales background, and maybe they were in medical esthetics. But they wanted to go into a different industry within medical and I helped them get to that point. And one of the things is a it's been some of my closest relationships that I had is for the individuals I've helped get there. But also they had been my biggest advocate when it comes to backfilling their position. And they've spoke into why they enjoyed working for the company and why they enjoyed being on my team, it was just a matter of them wanting to explore a different industry or a different role. But yes, when you if people aren't always going to stay there for the 3020, whatever, long years. But it's about that relationship, that's what's most important.

I'm going to be honest with you, I've been extremely disappointed throughout the pandemic, how poorly people have managed transitions, you have a lot of people just walking off of jobs. And you have individuals who have women who go on maternity leave, and then they don't come back. And they don't tell anybody they're not planning to legally you have to give them maternity leave. So it's not as if you let people know that you may be looking elsewhere, or you may be deciding to step back and impacts other people, other people absorb your work, the work does not disappear. If you disappear, the work goes to someone else. And when the work goes to someone else, it may go to another woman who also has two small children, and staying up to midnight now, because she's got your job to do. And her own job to do, it may go to a single woman who's taking care of an elderly parent who has other family obligations. 

And so I think, probably appropriate transition, leaving on a high note, my last chapter in my book is dedicated to this topic, because I feel so strongly about it, which is managing transitions, leave on a high note, leave with relationship intact. And that goes both ways, the boss needs to let you go, it needs to recognize that it is worthwhile to maintain a relationship with you because you're a good person. And you're going to continue to be successful in life, as we just discussed, that secondarily, when you make a decision to depart, do it with class, do it with giving people enough time, as you say, if you can help backfill the role that's going to make you extremely popular. But there are a lot of different ways of doing it. And I think we, too, are going to use a term, I think we need to snap out of it. And people need to understand that they're hurting their peers, they're not actually hurting the organization.

And for those of you listeners that are listening right now that are possibly looking to get a new job, I really want to speak into what Lisa is saying. And that is, a lot of times, job seekers will have conversations and we're going we're not hearing back from the manager. And they're not hearing back within a 12-hour period. And I said let's take a step back can have perspective for just a little bit because one of the hardest challenges when I was a manager and I had vacancies, which I had vacancies frequently, because a lot of people on my team were promoted, which was great, or you went through company expansions. 

Setting Yourself Up for Success

One of the biggest challenges was, you're working on leading your team and you have your daily responsibilities of forecasting and projecting and helping your team and placing orders. But then you're also covering that vacancy, while also hiring. And it is the most overwhelming time for a manager is when you have a vacancy on your team. And there's been times where I've had multiple vacancies on my team. And so just taking a step back and thinking about it from that perspective. And then the other thing is, if you are planning on going on maternity leave is how can you set your manager and your team up for success by getting everything in order to say okay, here are some of the projects I'm working on. Here's what needs to be done while I'm gone and really setting them up for success for when you are on leave so that the person taking over knowing that like you said, often they're doing their job plus your job. So how can you set them up for success as well?

It is. It's a two-way street. And I think that's the other thing I talk a lot about in my book flipping I talked about in my writing is it's time to put yourself in someone else's point of view, you need to see the world from other people's points of view. And we have become very introspective. Recently we are looking at what it is about us. And trust me, it the last couple of years have been difficult. And unfortunately, I think the next couple of years are going to be difficult to. So there's a point where you have to think about the fact that we're all in this together, we're all in this together, and everyone see that meme about the fact of the boats, and we're, you know, different boats and all the rest. Who knows what that mean is that the reality is that we're all in this together. It's tough. It's tough for everybody, you don't know what that other person's going through. 

And I think that's the other piece, I had an employee who was very upset that somebody didn't show up for a Zoom meeting. And they took that as being ghosted by them. Well, they didn't know that the person, you know, not only was COVID going on, but secondarily, they'd had a freeze, their pipes broke, their house was being flat. They had small children, they were dealing with a lot. I think, forgiveness, and being gracious and understanding, yeah, if somebody keeps not showing up, then that is a problem with that person, that if someone has, you've got to not automatically assume the negative, you've got to think about the fact that maybe something happened that's keeping that person from being able to do what I need them to do. That human element we need to reintroduce into our conversations. And we need to look at the world from other people's perspectives. Because until we do, we will be in an acrimonious situation. And we're seeing that play out in so many different aspects of our world.

Playing an Integral Role Within Turning Around an Organization

Each of us had the ability to impact change. And it's very true that we live in this amazing democracy. And that gives us the ability to say things, it gives us access to information, it gives us the ability to move and change. 

And so the reality is you have the power to make a difference. It doesn't matter where you are on the ladder, you have the power to make a difference. Then when you plan to make that difference, do your homework, research it, get the facts on your side, understand, look at the world through other people's perspectives. 

Before you make that move forward, make sure that you understand all the dynamics that are in play and understand the change that you are advocating for will impact other people. And so you have to acknowledge that sometimes we make very hard choices. And we have to because downsizing an organization does mean that someone loses their job, that being human in all of your interactions, no matter what those are. And acknowledging the impact your change is having on someone else would be the third thing that I think is most important.