INTRODUCTION Deciphering the Code: Why I Wrote This Book

      In 2007, a large, well-known organization had a problem. Their service wasn't keeping pace with their customers' expectations. The organization's leadership had to act.

      And did they ever. As part of their 87-page strategic transformation plan, they wrote:

      Customers form expectations on critical attributes such as waiting time in line based on their experience with other similar services, and compare (our) performance to best-in-class providers.¹

      In other words, customers were complaining that they had to wait too long in line. The organization's leadership knew, however, that defining the problem was not enough. They had to do something about it. In a declaration of intent, they confidently pronounced that they were

      committed to changing with its customers, designing new products to meet new needs, and creating new solutions that customers value.²

      It all sounded good.

      These published promises mirrored the organization's published “core set of enduring goals that guide all of (our) strategic initiatives and continuous improvement efforts.”³

They were using all the right words. So what did they actually end up doing?

      One of the biggest customer complaints was long wait times to talk with a customer service representative at their 37,000 retail locations.

      To address the issue, these bold leaders executed their most innovative idea:

      No, really.

      That's what the United States Postal Service did.

      Shockingly, the clock removal did not make customers happier about their wait times. There were 87 pages of strategic planning, and removing the clocks was the best solution leadership could come up with.

      Maybe the United States Postal Service thought people would forget they carried their own timepieces and wouldn't notice how long they were still waiting in line. Maybe they thought that without clocks on the walls, people would act as though they were in a casino and put all their money on Forever stamps. We really don't know what the leadership at the U.S. Postal Service was thinking.

      The clock removals set off a customer backlash.⁴ Leadership tried to contain the outrage, saying this was part of a national effort to have all post office lobbies look the same. Yet no matter what the spin, removing clocks to address long wait times is absurd.

      It's easy to blame the Postal Service blunder on poor strategy or bad execution. But who creates the strategy? Leaders. Who maps out the execution? Leaders.

      If you work in an organization, this clock-removing story may not seem all that surprising. Leaders do strange things all the time that leave employees scratching their heads in disbelief and muttering, “What were they thinking?” Although we don't know for sure, there's one thing we do know: the state of leadership is poor.

MIRED IN MEDIOCRITY

Ketchum, Inc. is a nearly 100-year-old global public relations firm. Every year, Ketchum interviews more than 25,000 people from 22 industries on five continents to ask them what they think about their leaders. They've found the following from their research:

      Ketchum's findings are not the exception, but the rule. Other research corroborates the shoddy state that leadership is in. Only 37% of the population believes CEOs are credible,⁶ and less than half (48%) of employees report their top management does a good job of providing effective leadership.

      It gets worse. Bad leadership has a ripple effect—particularly on those being led. Worldwide 87% of employees are not engaged,⁷ 54% of employees claim they don't regularly get respect from their leaders,⁸ and less than half of full-time workers place a great deal of trust in their employers.⁹

      The future of leadership also looks bleak. More than half (55%) of organizations are struggling with a talent shortage.¹⁰ Only 18% of HR professionals rate their leadership bench strength as strong or very strong,¹¹ and 71% said their leaders are not ready to lead their organizations into the future.¹²

      No leader sets out to be mediocre. No one shows up to work and thinks, “Today I want to make someone else's life miserable.” No one says, “Today, I'm going to be a crummy communicator. None of my direct reports will trust me, and they'll assume that my overall leadership will get even worse in the future.” For the most part, people genuinely want to do a good job.

      Unfortunately,