Burt the Rescuer

According to Kelle Olwyler and Harvard-trained management expert, the late Dr. Jerry Fletcher, co-authors of Paradoxical Thinking, there is no one formula for high performance that works for everyone. However, high performance capabilities can be unlocked in almost anyone, through a management revolution called Paradoxical Thinking.

At the heart of this revolution is the discovery that each person has a core paradox to their personality which, when properly managed, can help them achieve the impossible, balancing seemingly contradictory demands at once, such as friendly downsizing. No highly successful person is all Pollyanna, or all Machiavelli; it takes a little of both to maximize the resources of your company and yourself, especially in what may seem like a no-win situation. An excellent metaphor is to look at the peak performance of a sprinter; unlikely as it may seem, sprinters who relax run faster. In fact, it is simultaneously feeling both aggressive and relaxed that is essential to their peak performance. Look at Bill Gates, a visionary and a pragmatist; or Mario Cuomo, who is both passionate and intellectual, action-oriented and reflective.

THE STORY OF BURT THE RESCUER

Burt is a middle manager whose specialty is in turnaround.  People called him a “miracle worker;” He cuts costs while gaining the loyalty of his employees. Burt’s personality is inherently adept at turning around bad situations, he loves people and loves to solve cost problems.

Burt’s best results come from keeping two forces in play that many would think of as opposites: “turn around specialist (or mess fixer) and “people person.” Burt could turn around a no-win situation without leaving a lot of blood on the floor. He didn’t come in with an “answer,” rather he talked to the people in the situation, listened to their suggestions, put together a model of the situation, figured out what one or two key changes would cause the situation to correct itself, and took the appropriate steps. As a result, the people in the situation felt they had solved the problem themselves; they saw their ideas work, and consequently “owned” the results. At completion, Burt could leave knowing that the situation was in good hands, that the people in that unit would carry on. His model building approach was very efficient in turning around situations.

Burt is a people-motivater. He can put his people’s ideas together and fill in the gaps. And when people are off-track, he can get them back on target and show them what is needed next. Because of this, he achieves great results and enthusiastic support.  He helps people grow  into their new roles and rarely has to fire anyone. It is his paradoxical affinity for both people and problem solving that makes him so strong in tough situations.

So what’s the problem? Just as every strength has an opposite weakness, each positive paradox has a negative paradox that can sabotage one’s success.

BURT’S PROBLEM

The problem with Burt was, once he had turned a situation around, he was bored with it. In his best experiences, he was able to  turn around a situation and leave. In Burt’s worst experiences, he would stay on as manager of the unit he’d “saved” and end up fighting with his bosses, and sabotaging the productivity of the unit. Over time, this happened enough to give him a spotted record. He was not only a problem-solving people person, he could become a fire-starting rescuer as well. His worst results were the product of the negative side of his best paradoxical qualites.

The “fireman-pyromaniac” syndrome is well known to arson specialists, and there is a less drastic form of this in the business world-milder, but still destructive. Burt was only motivated by situations that were in a mess. If he didn’t have one to fix, he’d create one. If he couldn’t create one, he’d claim that things were in a mess even when they were fine. This gave him a false sense of job security.

Indeed, a closer look showed that Burt would begin to insist on changes that weren’t necessary. His arguments with his bosses were around his claims that some further radical surgery was needed, when the situation was actually fine. When stopped, he would disrupt what was running fine so it would eventually go bad, just to “prove” his argument. The bosses let him go.

Burt’s strength of working with people had a negative side as well. .The negative expression of “people motivating” is “people saving.” No business can afford to be in the “people saving” business, or provide therapy to inadequate workers.  After a while, he would become too humane, too connected to the people in the situation. He wasn’t willing to change people or to change assignments, even when the situation required it. He would lose objectivity, sometimes covering for people who were inadequate by doing thier work for them. Everyone could be “saved” regardless of what it cost the company. Again, he would fight with his bosses, demanding the right to hire and fire as he pleased, defending his choice of people to the end.

HOW PARADOXICAL THINKING RESCUED BURT THE RESCUER

After more than fifteen years of studying thousands of detailed examples of people performing at their best, Fletcher and Olwyler have found that individuals are always paradoxical when performing optimally and that each person has a particular combination of contradictory qualites that work together to produce that person’s best work.

However, High Performance is a result of knowing and using only the positive expressions of one’s core paradoxical characteristics. The problem with Bert was that he couldn’t see the negative side of his own positive qualities when taken to extremes. Without understanding the paradoxical qualities he possessed, and the “Tragic Flaws” that went with them, Burt  didn’t know how to maximize his specialty, thereby creating yet another “no win” situation.

Through working with high performance consultants Fletcher and Olwyler, Burt learned alot about himself. He learned to define his own core paradox and use it to his advantage. Through a five step process developed by Fletcher and Olwyler, Burt

- identified his own core paradox

- redefined his problem so that it could be approached paradoxically

- learned to monitor how well he was utilizing his personal paradox

- learned how to implement positive steps to overcome roadblocks

- learned how to eliminate cycles of ineffectiveness

Once this was pointed out to him, everything fell into place.

Burt realized that he needed to develop not only a “humane cost-cutting model” but a “cost-effective growth model” as well.  He quickly learned to see this as a new challenge, requiring his leadership. He needed to apply his humane nature towards gently moving out people that were no longer necessary, to make room for the people needed to enact the growth model.

In the end he learned to rescue his own career. He learned to find a deeper motivation than the thrill of heroism to keep him going. Instead of eternally going from one disaster situation to the next, he chose to stay on as manager of his new unit, solving small problems day by day.