Barnacles

Barnacles

Barnacles are crustaceans that love to cling to boat hulls. The U.S. Navy estimates that unchecked barnacle growth on ships can increase “drag” by as much as 60 percent.

I think of barnacles as things that hold us back from realizing our full potential. You’re trying to push forward, but these barnacles create a “drag” on your life, slowing you down from achieving your goals.

Situational Barnacles:

Perhaps you need to quit a product offering that has failed to achieve escape velocity and is merely limping along? Perhaps you need to end a relationship that has become toxic? Perhaps you need to remove a loyal team member who is holding you back? 

Sometimes the people and products who were a good fit when you were a small, early-stage company may not be the right fit when your company grows and scales. 

These tough decisions come with a heavy emotional component. They require wisdom, maturity, and the courage to act. 

We’ve all heard the simplistic slogan that winners never quit. But a wise leader acts more like a professional poker player. They know when to fold a particular hand, and when to double down and bet big. “Failing well” means “failing fast”. In essence, a wise leader quickly removes the barnacles and invests their resources into something (or someone) more promising.

Personal Barnacles:

Most of us have blind spots. Getting 360-degree survey feedback from colleagues can help to identify our personal barnacles. 

Some of my clients use dedicated “red chair meetings” for this purpose. People take turns sitting in the middle of the room to receive raw, unfiltered feedback from colleagues on topics like:

  1. What behaviors does the person exhibit that make the boat go faster? 
  2. What behaviors does the person exhibit that slows the boat down? (barnacles)

One of my client leaders Fred (not his real name) received some tough-to-swallow feedback during a red chair event recently. Colleagues described him as being “aloof and distant” and “missing in action” when it came to building team morale with his direct reports. 

Fred’s inability to engage with his team and build productive working relationships were personal barnacles that created a drag on his leadership effectiveness.    

I empathized with Fred by sharing a story about the critical feedback I received when I was a young manager (captured in this article: The best feedback usually tastes terrible). My driving behavior was burning people out, and I was not much fun to be around. Without being consciously aware, I was running things like a boot camp. I did a poor job of demonstrating that I cared about the personal well-being of the team. 

I hated hearing this feedback at the time, but after sleeping on it, I realized the corrective feedback was a gift. I needed to hear this information and remove these barnacles if I wanted to be a better manager.

Fred’s barnacles were related to his high level of introversion. He is a quiet thoughtful leader, who works best when he is alone and undisturbed. However, leading a team often requires us to grow certain behavioral muscles and be able to flex into areas that do not come to us naturally. 

In Fred’s case, he wanted to build more comradery with this team so they would willingly follow him into battle. To cultivate these behaviors, we created a checklist of daily, weekly, and monthly morale-building activities and a communications cadence to enhance his leadership presence.

He records these activities on a dashboard that we discuss and debrief at our 1-1 coaching sessions. What went well? What could be improved? What lessons have you learned?

The aim is for these activities to become habits, and evolve into default behaviors over time. 

As with any new skill acquisition, it is a journey. We all start off clumsy, but with repetition and feedback, we gradually slough off those barnacles and become more competent. 

What about you?

I hope you have people in your life who can help you identify the situations, people, and behaviors that hold you back, and support you to slough off these barnacles to make your boat go faster.      

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Until next time…
Stephen