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We care deeply about communication and leadership here at The Latimer Group. We think about, discuss, and teach communication skills all day, every day. And during the 11 years of our existence, one truth has shown itself to be incontrovertibly true, time and time again: Building and leading teams is harder than ever before. It is one of the few simple truths of the 21^st century workplace.

There are seven realities that conspire to make this so. These trends have been building over the past two decades and together foster the environment we live in today. In this environment, the desire to hear is continually trumped by the desire to be heard:

1. Organizations, in every industry, are leaner and flatter than ever before. This has been driven by several factors, but primarily by economics. Some people refer to the overall phenomenon as the Wal-Mart Effect, in which organizations have developed an almost monomaniacal focus on lowering cost. Others describe the flattening as a triple convergence of technology, talent, and globalization, which has shifted organizational charts from top-down, layered leadership to side-to-side collaboration. However you refer to it, the net result, among many other things, is reduced headcount. One of the most common targets of reduced headcounts tends to be middle management; and thus, organizations are undeniably flatter today than they were 20 years ago.
2. There is more transparency in organizations, including government, than ever before. This has been driven in part by a fanatical public desire for information and truth. But the primary driver has been the Internet. More information is available, and getting it is much easier and quicker, too. Consequently, leadership is now often evaluated on the “trustworthy and transparent” scale. Our leaders are expected to be transparent, an expectation that did not exist nearly as strongly a generation ago.
3. We have more access to our leaders and to each other than ever before. There is a social expectation today that committed workers will be available, all the time. We all are expected to have our mobile devices with us, turned on, at all times of the day or night. Our leaders are not immune to this reality. When we contact our business leaders or elected officials, we expect an immediate response.
4. Social networks give everyone a voice. Everyone has opinions (which is not a new thing), but now everyone thinks their opinions really matter and that the world should hear them. New tools and social norms encourage people to voice anything on their minds. Some effects of social media have been positive; people are more connected worldwide, and the definition of “community” has been forever changed. But there have been negative effects as well. Opinions on politics, religion, or anything that is about right versus wrong are openly shared, often in direct and aggressive ways. Social media is ideal for sharing pictures of the kids or wishing someone well. Their effectiveness as tools for persuasion on important issues is less clear. What is clear, however, is that these outlets are here to stay.
5. The Internet is an inexhaustible source of information – and distraction. The ubiquity of the Web both empowers and demoralizes leaders attempting to build and lead teams. Cloud-based tools enable exciting opportunities for collaboration. At the same time, the constant need to keep up, learn new ways of working, and accommodate 24/7 time demands is overwhelming. And finally, there is an inherent distraction caused by the previously mentioned constant access to information and connection to others.
6. We have real generational diversity in today’s workforce. There are four currently active generations present in the workplace, especially in many large organizations:
   1. The Veterans (also referred to as the Silent Generation), born from @ 1925-45
   2. The Baby Boomers, born from @ 1946-64
   3. Generation X, born from @ 1965-82
   4. Generation Y (also often referred to as Millennials), born from @ 1982-2000

      These four generations have very different ways of thinking about the role of work in their lives, organizational loyalty, and the ways in which they interact with their colleagues. Significant clashes in style and work ethic are inevitable.

7. Complex reporting structures are now the norm. In nearly every team leadership workshop The Latimer Group conducts, we hear examples of complicated, matrix structures. More and more of us are expected to lead people and teams who do not report directly to us, who have different motivations and pay structures, and (due to the prevalence of outsourcing) may not even work in our organization. This makes team leadership infinitely more complicated.

None of these realities are, on their own, bad things. Flatter organizations, transparency, access, social media, generational diversity and matrix reporting structures are not negatives necessarily. In fact, each has its own positive contributions and can be managed effectively. But each reality presents significant communication challenges:

1. Flatter organizations offer more opportunities for leadership, and opportunities to advance to those positions more quickly (and, in some cases, prematurely). This reality fosters a highly competitive environment. Furthermore, leaders face the challenge of trying to align people who are in direct competition for coveted positions and rapid ascent (at times without the requisite professional maturity) through their organizations.
2. More transparency means that people are going to be less likely to blindly trust their organization’s leadership. Leadership that is not transparent and forthright will have a harder time leading. Yet at the same time building real transparency can also create new leadership problems. Transparency requires that you share lots of information, which arms people with the information they need to question you—something they won’t be afraid to do in the age of social media.
3. Extensive access demystifies leadership authority. The respect once given to leaders by virtue of their position is no longer the norm. Emperors with no clothes are quickly revealed, and credibility in this new reality must be continually earned. Also, time management is challenging when you are expected to be constantly accessible and to respond quickly. Constant access also can lead to team burnout, as we tire of hearing from each other all the time.
4. Social networks provide the megaphone for dissent. These new tools have emboldened people to speak up, at times aggressively, on issues of importance. People now feel entitled (some might say obligated) to speak. Dissent and differences of opinion are much more likely to be made public, and such displays make alignment difficult.
5. Attention spans are plummeting. This topic is hardly debated anymore. We all know it to be true. Significant demands on time, massive amounts of available content, electronic invasiveness, and many other factors contribute to this and it is much harder to align people if they are not focused on what you are saying or doing.
6. Generational clashes in the workplace are inevitable. As we all live longer (due to medical advancement) and work longer (due to simple economic realities), the four generations currently active are forced to spend more time working together than ever before, and the simple fact is that these four groups work and communicate differently from each other. While cultural diversity is a well understood and legitimate topic in the workplace, generational diversity is not understood nearly as well. People are often poorly equipped to manage it. It needs to be added to the list of diversity challenges in the workplace.
7. Matrix reporting structures make alignment considerably more difficult. If we work in the same organization, report to the same person, and are compensated under the same framework, we are much more likely to be motivated by the same things and in the same ways. If none of those factors are present, most of the typical methods of alignment become far less useful.

There is one common denominator to the communication challenges of the 21^st century workplace:  the increasing inability, or perhaps unwillingness, to listen. It is considerably more difficult to align a group of people who are competing with each other for advancement (and who may advance before they are ready to do so), who expect a great deal of transparency, who expect constant access to leadership, who believe their opinions on almost everything matter, who have short attention spans, who are highly diverse (culturally, racially, and generationally), and who may not actually operate within the same reporting structure. And if all of these things are true, and the prominent desire of individuals is to be heard rather than to hear, then alignment, team building and good team leadership can become nearly impossible.

The first step to solving a problem is admitting that we have one. Team building and team leadership are harder than ever. It is a simple fact, and the sooner we face this reality, the sooner we can begin building new tools for team leadership in the 21^st century.

We’ll be exploring these challenges throughout 2013 in The Beacon. In each issue we’ll examine a different aspect and present practical solutions for leaders to listen, communicate, and lead more effectively.

© The Latimer Group. All Rights Reserved.

In this issue of The Beacon, we begin a yearlong discussion of the undeniable challenges of team building in the 21^st century. And in this issue of In the Spotlight, we look at the easiest and best example of some of these team building challenges, which sits collectively in Washington, D.C.

The US Federal government is more divided, and divisive, than at any other time in modern American history. In fact, current data show the lowest approval ratings of Congress in 38 years, hovering between 10 and 14 percent, depending on the poll. Approval ratings of President Obama, while higher than those of Congress, have been less than zesty since the aura of his first days in office wore off back in 2009. A quick look at the data show high approval ratings early in his first term, with a rapid decline within in six months. Ever since fall 2009, the country has been split almost evenly on the fundamental question of whether the President is doing a good job leading the country.

Examples of division and a lack of alignment within our Federal government are too numerous to cite here. The President and the Congress can’t get together on anything. The US Senate just passed its first budget in four years, and seemingly all we hear on a daily basis is criticism of one side by the other. Even the Supreme Court, historically a body that has distanced itself from the front lines of the political fight, has not been immune. Various members of the Court, on both sides of the political aisle, have gotten into the public fray, with more and more public political commentary and positioning than we have ever seen before.

Left-leaning readers of this piece might blame the Republicans, the Tea Party, and the Religious Right, calling them obstructionist, out of touch, and obsessed with legalizing a social agenda.

Right-leaning readers of this piece might blame President Obama and a seeming obsession to redistribute wealth and create a government-run welfare state, taking us far from our free-market roots.

Perhaps both sides are at least a little bit correct. My point here is not to choose or promote a political agenda. My point here is to highlight the undeniable fact that the current political environment is a study in dysfunction, serving neither side well.

A good team can disagree, sometimes vehemently, and still be a good team. But when the vehement disagreement causes paralysis, we get the very definition of dysfunction. At some point, even people who profoundly disagree need to find a way to come together to make progress. Otherwise every issue becomes an exercise in inertia.

Strong debate and the clash of ideas is exactly what the framers of our Constitution had in mind when they devised our government. I’m certainly not suggesting that our elected officials should agree on everything and careen collectively towards the middle. Debate and difference of opinion are good, as long as they eventually lead to productive discussion and resolution. No current evidence of such maturity can be found in Washington.

© The Latimer Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”
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The 21st century has created a confluence of harsh business realities, all of which conspire to make team building and team leadership harder than it has ever been before. In this issue, we identify these challenges and discuss their implications. In the remaining 2013 issues of The Beacon, we will examine a different aspect and present practical solutions for leaders to lead more effectively. Read More

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