Deal with toxic leaders
The other group that really challenges Sullivan is the one filled with people who are great producers but stick out like a sore thumb when it comes to culture.
For example, RPM had a business unit that grew from $20 million to $200 million between a 15- and 20-year period almost by sheer force of the leader.
“But one of the critical aspects of leadership is, particularly as your business unit gets bigger, is leaders have to delegate, especially in our culture, and this guy couldn’t delegate,” Sullivan says.
At $20 million, the leader didn’t have to delegate, but at $200 million he couldn’t handle everything, but he still went against the company’s culture and wouldn’t share responsibility.
“His inability to trust that other people could d
o certain things right, let alone as well or better then he could, ultimately became his demise.” Sullivan says.
Sullivan faced the challenge by trying to convince the leader that he needed to trust his employees more because if he didn’t, it would hurt him in the end.
“You sit down and have very candid conversations about what you expect versus what is happening,” he says.
“You can do it through compensation in terms of changing some of their objectives — sometimes the subjective things or some identified things that relate more to culture than performance.”
You have to try and work with these toxic leaders because they made it to a position of power, so they must have some good in them.
“People like that aren’t bad leaders early on,” he says. “The real toxic leaders that can hurt your organization badly, they can only hurt your organization badly because they’ve reached a level in the organization where they have enough responsibility and authority that they can actually cause problems.
“So how did they get there? Well, they always weren’t bad leaders. Maybe they were exceptional in some areas. Maybe they had a functional excellence that was widely respected and exceptionally good. Maybe it goes down to simple issues like being able to delegate.”
In Sullivan’s example, he had to fire the leader who had been with the company for many years because he couldn’t get the leader to change.
However, you don’t want to lump a leader who disagrees with you in with the toxic leaders. That’s a pitfall some leaders fall into, and you should actually do the opposite with leaders who challenge you.
“You need to have the willingness to argue about different strategies and tactics and direction, and you need to have a thick enough skin to take shots right in the nose and try to be thoughtful about what that means as opposed to react,” he says.
“If you end up with a revolving door and you fire everyone that disagrees with you, you are going to end up with a bunch of yes-men. Then you’ve got a whole different problem.”
Whether you are dealing with those who get the culture but are coming up short in results or those that are rocking the boat but hitting their numbers, you have to remember to at least try and salvage the relationship.
“You need to work with folks, and you need to understand how different people are motivated,” he says. “Some people are motivated by financial rewards. Some people are motivated by recognition. Some people are truly motivated by their team, and you need to understand what drives people’s motivation.
“But you really need buy-in. You need people to buy in to the big picture and then be strong enough in their personalities to argue tactics and strategies and give you different ideas.”
How to reach: RPM International Inc., (330) 273-5090 or www.rpminc.com
