Focus on the problem
So what do you do when faced with an impossible situation? You could start by not feeling sorry for yourself and stop looking at it as an impossible situation.
“There’s never a situation where you can have no impact,” Modany says. “You have to believe that. What are your choices?”
You can either find an area where you can effect some level of change or sit around and wait for whatever is going to happen to happen. The second option is not likely to get you too far.
“As a leader, you can’t allow that to occur,” Modany says. “You can’t say, ‘Well, guys, I guess there’s nothing we can do.’ Is that a leader? If it is, I don’t want to follow that guy.
“Leaders plan. Leaders are organized. Leaders understand what is important and they lay out a plan. That doesn’t mean a plan doesn’t change because it does. We all deal with changes in our expectations. But you can’t get from Point A to Point B if you don’t have a plan.”
Modany began by identifying the most appropriate resources to deal with the most urgent priority facing ITT: student financing.
“We have a group of people that deal with student financing and financial-aid-related matters,” Modany says. “So there was a natural selection of a couple individuals to take on that responsibility.”
Find your experts who are closest to the problem you’re dealing with and get them engaged in coming up with a solution. Get them away from worrying about any issues that can be put on hold.
“When you run into an issue, you’re able to say, ‘OK, here’s an issue. Here’s how we’re going to address it. These couple of people are going to be on it,’” Modany says. “We’ll look at the goals and objectives and make a modification to the extent that it’s appropriate for those people and their individual plan. Everyone else, you need to stay focused on your goals, your objectives and your priorities.”
Every job has a different set of competencies and you need to analyze an individual’s skill set to get that job done.
“You need to go through the competency checklist and say, ‘This person in this position has to be able to do A, B, C, D, E, F and G.’ When you’re evaluating or interviewing them, you make sure they can do those things,” he says.
The all-hands-on-deck mentality is rarely effective for dealing with problems, even urgent ones.
“When you go up and tell the pilot to come out and work on the wing, what do you think is going to happen to the plane?” Modany says. “You can’t keep it up in the air if you pull everybody off their duty. I need the pilots to stay. I need one of the (flight attendants) to stay and take care of the passengers. At the same time, I need to take a few people and have them go out and work on the wing while we keep the plane flying. Otherwise, it just can’t be done.”
When you’re talking to people working to solve your problem, keep the conversations focused on whatever aspect of the problem that person is dealing with.
“All we’re talking about is the things they are supposed to do and deliver on and looking to see where we’re at against our plan for each of these critical objectives and goals,” Modany says. “That keeps everybody focused.”
