But what makes their role unique?  An XO is the commanding officer’s extra ears and eyes.  The XO proactively works in the organization’s “white space” gathering data from the other officers and troops.  Then the XO provides important intelligence to the commander about stress-producing situations, poor morale, or impending problems that the commander needs to address.  For example, if an officer is abusing his troops but no one feels safe enough to report it, the XO can sniff it out and inform the commander, who then takes appropriate action with the detrimental officer.

What relevance does the XO function have in business?  Just like on a military base or ship, the top leader cannot be everywhere or see everything.  They also need an XO they can rely on.  In business, the XO role is informal and is often a VP who has the trust and respect of the CEO and his peers.

I recently observed a situation where a CEO was at risk of losing his CFO, although she did not know it.  She was unaware that the CFO was being courted by their largest competitor.  To make matters worse, the CEO had not been giving her CFO much attention lately, which made the finance executive feel unappreciated and more open than normal to the competition’s enticements.  When the XO (in this case, the VP of operations) detected that the CFO was a flight risk, he sounded the alarm bell and strategized options with the CEO.  The CEO then stepped in to rebuild her relationship with the CFO and offered him a counter proposal that kept him with the company.  A significantly negative resignation was averted–thanks to the XO’s acute attention.

If you do not have a trusted and savvy XO working in your organization’s white space, consider identifying one and putting them in motion.  Identify the senior manager who has the experience, skill and finesse to serve in this capacity and formalize the arrangement with the XO and the CEO.

Tell us about one of your ‘XO’ stories!

So, how do they develop a 360-degree perspective? They do it by combining rich life experiences (from which deep learning occurred) with a sparse data set that quickly leads to an accurate conclusion. They actually “feel” their surroundings and can “see” people’s frame of mind. They trust their perspective and use it to shape their behavior, responses and strategy.

For example, they can walk into an important meeting they are about to lead and before starting immediately read each person’s state of mind. They see that two of their most influential team members are in a negative mood. On the fly, they add a few humorous comments in their opening to get the team members laughing and to lighten their mood. A highly task-oriented person may miss this opportunity and, as a result, fail to achieve their goal for the meeting.

Ask yourself if you focus on getting from point A to B by primarily managing the tasks on your “to do” list. If you do, recognize that competing and succeeding at work depends on the ability to monitor and adapt to environmental signals. This skill is not just important for current and aspiring executives—it is also important to mid- and frontline managers, sales people, customer service reps, HR, IT and marketing professionals, as well as consultants. As a result of this skill, they tend to be very savvy people who capitalize on many more opportunities than those who lack this skill.

Perfection-seeking manifests itself in the form of decision avoidance, micro-managing direct reports, and focusing on the negative.  In addition, these leaders operate down in the weeds and want to oversee every detail of daily operations.  They rely on bureaucratic rules to control the environment and employees.

Ultimately, the desire for perfection is a major distraction.  It saps employees’ energy and causes inertia. Because perfectionist leaders disempower employees, engagement takes a nose dive and productivity is minimized.

There is nothing perfect about being a leader so by definition seeking perfection is a worthless endeavor.  Instead, the behaviors that matter most in a great leader are those that cause momentum for the organization. These behaviors include sponsoring a vision and positive change, coaching employees to grow into larger roles, and influencing your peers to achieve great things. Ideally, a leader inspires people to forge new territory and to work hard to achieve audacious goals.

So, take a look at your leadership focus and see if you spend more time dotting the “i’s” and crossing the “t’s” than you do pursuing the really important aspects of running an organization.  In essence, great leaders don’t focus on perfection; they focus on the risk taking required to create momentum.

In commenting on modern society, 20th century author, G.K. Chesterton, wrote, “It isn’t that they can’t see the solution.  It is that they can’t see the problem.”  This paradox also inhibits organizational innovation and problem-solving.

However, visual business solutions enable leaders and employees to overcome this paradox by providing a quicker and greater understanding of complex business functions, processes and problems, better grasp of cross-organizational connections and dependencies, increased individual accountability and team collaboration.  The tools also provide stronger prioritization, more concise and relevant communication (which is now readily remembered), faster and more effective planning and execution efforts, more reliable decisions, and reduced waste.

Bottom line, visual business solutions convert complexity and ambiguity into clarity and action.

There are three key techniques to enable someone to hear and act on your feedback:

1) Create a safe atmosphere. Set a professional tone and explain that you have a positive intention for providing the employee with your feedback. Let them know you respect them and are invested in their success.  Also, be sure the timing for giving your feedback is good.

2) Be direct and don’t pull your punches. Just like when a limp handshake makes a weak impression, your feedback needs to be delivered with a direct and firm tone so it leaves a strong impression.

3) Be specific and actionable. Effective feedback must include examples so the receiver can relate to a specific previous incident and its negative consequences.  However, it also means focusing on behaviors.  The best way I know to give behavioral feedback is in the form of “more of” and “less of.”  For example, the statement, “I need you to treat customers better,” is too vague.  An employee will much more quickly adjust if you tell them, “I need you to spend less time working on special projects and more time talking with customers about the issues that need to be resolved together.”

Following these three tips will go a long way to driving up employee performance and engagement.  Employees want their manager’s support and most will respond very favorable to well delivered constructive feedback.

Yet, when you watch most managers, it seems that engaging their employees is the last thing on their mind.  Instead, many managers put most of their time and energy into the tactical aspects of managing, i.e., budgeting, writing status updates, filling out forms, doing emails, meeting with vendors, attending management meetings, approving invoices, monitoring metrics and writing performance appraisals.  While those are all important activities, it is clear that they consume too much of manager’s time compared to the amount of time left for engaging employees.

Think about the amount of time you spend directly interacting wtih your employees ensuring that their level of engagement is high.  If it is less than 60% of your time, then you’re missing a golden opportunity.  And, no, holding project status meetings with your employees does not count unless they are dedicated to inspiring your employees to be innovative high performers with a strong commitment to their job, their team and their company.

So, get clear on the genuine level of engagement of each of your employees. Then, rebalance your priorities and time commitment so your employees receive more of your passion for leading them to be highly engaged and successful contributors.  It’s a manager’s #1 job andit will give your company a competitive advantage.

Leading from the front is especially important in the face of significant change where the status quo is deadly to an organization’s ability to survive and grow.  Here’s what it looks like to lead from the front:

• Design and evangelize an exciting vision
• Build an execution plan and energize team members to accomplish it with you
• Don’t wait for others to take action–take it yourself and delegate
• Cut through obstacles in order to create momentum
• Horse trade with others to grow your base of support
• Challenge status quo thinking and sacred cows
• Work in the organization’s “white space” to advocate and gain support from other influential people
• Recognize and reward the team’s results

It takes courage to lead from the front and I think it is the rare leader who is able to consistently do it.  Look around and see who is especially good at leading from the front and learn to emulate their approach.