Driving outcomes: smart leaders bring everyone on the journey

There is a link between an organisation’s performance and its leaders’ ­ability to foster buy-in to its strategy.

Research shows there is a direct link between an organisation’s performance and its leaders’ ­ability to foster organisation-wide belief and commitment to its ­vision and strategy.

A global Economist Intelligence Unit study, in conjunction with BTS, of more than 200 senior business leaders found the ­highest-performing companies are successful in achieving buy-in across all levels, while low performers fail to do so — a gap that becomes especially wide from middle management down. For example, 67 per cent of market-leading companies reported high levels of commitment to strategy at the frontline management level, compared with only 33 per cent for average performers and 22 per cent for low performers.

It is not enough to have a winning idea — whether it is a strategy, new product or new way of doing business. The real differentiator is whether that idea can be brought to life — or whether managers, staff and other key stakeholders are willing to get on board and support the idea.

Leaders and senior teams that fail to spend time fostering that kind of meaningful buy-in ­jeopardise their ability to generate positive performance.

This also helps to explain a commonly cited statistic from leading change management expert and Harvard professor John Kotter — that 70 per cent of change initiatives fail. Contributors to failure include big initiatives hatched at the boardroom table and launched without the buy-in of key people across the organisation. This leads to apathy, or worse, outright resistance that can make it hard or impossible for any initiative to gain traction.

In 2005, Qantas learned this the hard way when its then leadership team announced it was ­introducing a new parts management system, Jetsmart.

Things did not go smoothly for the senior leaders, who were heavily criticised for failing to engage with engineers, operational staff and unions. The airline’s then chief ­financial officer, Peter Gregg, said at the time: “We wouldn’t ask the engineers what their views on our software systems were. We’ll put in place what we think is appropriate for us.”

As a result, Jetsmart — nicknamed Dumbjet by Qantas engineers — became mired in endless disputes and problems, which all took place in public.

Three years and $40 million later, Qantas announced it would retire Jetsmart and start over.

The Jetsmart case and the Economist Intelligence Unit report remind leaders of their role in bringing others on the journey — something they must balance with wanting to drive outcomes.

For some leaders, the need to go slow to go fast may be counterintuitive, as buy-in can take time and patience. Leaders who get this right demonstrate a genuine respect for the impact of their ideas on key stakeholders, listening to feedback with an open mind.

Organisations need to be careful not to treat the need for buy-in as an afterthought.

Any leadership team working on its next big strategy or idea should also be asking: whose buy-in do we need for this to succeed? Why? And how do we get them involved? Asking questions early creates an opportunity to invite key stakeholders to the table sooner rather than later.

The pay-off is clear. By focusing on the need to create buy-in to key ideas and initiatives across all levels of an organisation, leaders can give their organisation a clear performance edge.

Simon Dowling is the author of Work with Me: How to Get People to Buy into Your Ideas.