The Self-Inflicted Wound Award

Happy Friday,

In golf, being great is as much about avoiding unforced errors as it is about hitting the ball well. It’s the same when you run a team or an organization. Avoiding self-sabotage contributes as much or more to overall success as clever ideas and great strategy. People don't talk about that much...

So what's the biggest self-inflicted wound in engineering? First, the runner-up. This year's runner-up is the industry’s ongoing willingness to bid to be the cheapest. The result: more costly public infrastructure, a noticeable decline in engineering quality, abandonment of The Engineer's Creed and its duty to prioritize the public good, and perpetuation of the industry-wide race to the financial bottom. But that’s the runner-up.

The biggest self-inflicted wound remains leadership. No, it's not the leader’s fault. It’s the flawed process that exists in just about every organization.

Leadership is by far the most influential job in your organization, determining team performance, employee engagement, reputation, competitiveness, risk minimization, and financial success. Yet somehow, the process allows a person with no leadership qualities or aptitude whatsoever to be given a leadership job, be well paid, and inexplicably tolerated year after year. No other position in the organization supports and protects underperformance like leadership...

The process is broken, obviously. Whoever came up with it had no understanding of what leadership is or why leaders exist at all. It certainly wasn't someone with skin in the game.

The problem organizations have now is that they're already years or decades into this mess.

To work your way out of it, adopt a formal Leadership Framework that crisply defines what leadership is, describes what good leadership looks like, and sets some bare minimum expectations that can be gradually raised over time. Two pages max. Then align all collateral material like recruitment boilerplate and job descriptions, referencing the Leadership Framework and using the same language, definitions, and expectations. See the GNFs between 7/28/23 and 10/22/23.

With macro-changes underway, and seemingly the singularity, it's important to bring your organization to full strength. Get this done ASAP. Your organization will be better prepared to take on the future and will start clawing back the performance and profit it's currently foregoing.

That’s it. Have a great weekend!

Dave

Feedback and blowback are always welcome: dave@goodnewsfriday.com

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