Leadership Excellence

Isolation : A carcinoma on the management team

Went to church today and heard a sermon about isolation: physical isolation: how we decide not to interface with people becasue we don't have time, or accomodations, or dislike the other person: and how we remove ourselves from others.

This got me to reflecting about some of the isolationistic ( is there such a word?) executives I've coached over the years.  There is information isolationists... those who don't share the firm's economic data with employees.  Employees who are nervous and jittery and whose performance is impacted because of what they see and hear on TV, or blogs, or twitter .. Yet executives maintain that production workers aren't capable of understanding economic indicators and data.  Such a fallacy.

Second is the executive who hides in their office... composes emails and memos.  Comes ealry : stays late: and fears, yes fears, the concept of management by walking around: Fears that he/she will get emotionally involved with an employee:  Fears employees will ask a question to which he doesn't know the answer.  Fears they will find out who he is as a person.

These isolation examples permeate the organization:  Communication breakdowns, customer service issues, errors going unreported: you get the picture.

Leveraging your most important asset

The talking heads on CNBC and Bloomberg News postulate about what type of economic recovery is in the future. Will it be a V or W or???  In the interim, we find our clients continuing to operate with lean inventories, reducing work hours,laying off employees, and maximizing every sales skill they have.

Some firms are using the medieval times approach..... building larger walls, wider moats, and hiding from the bankers who seem to be omnipresent.  Lots of emphasis on hope and prayer ( I don't underestimate the power of either).

Looking out over the employee landscape of those who have survived the economic downturn, I am always impressed by the thoughtful decisions most firms make.  Those on the payroll are generally individuals with talents which support the current sales base.  Yes, some are retained because of their teamwork attitude and loyalty to the firm.

It's also true, that firms who are flexible and innovative: who get to the marketplace 1st will survive and indeed prosper.  I propose that this is the time to mine the skills and knowledge of that most underutilized human asset- emotional intelligence to foster innovation and best practices.  Too often we pay lip service to team work. 

The development of internal software, new products, new sales ideas, lean manufacturing, advertising, the list of ideas that employees have is endless... it is our responsibility to ask and form task forces with the challenge to succeed.  " Green Shoots" are everywhere if we help employees to look and harvest.

Engaging the work force in creative ways to meet the company"s vision pays dual dividends - rebuilding the financial coffers and re-energizing the work force whose psyche has taken a pounding this last year.

Leadership Legacy

MPTV carried an extended video documentary regarding the run for the U S House of Representatives by John Smith, 29 of Missouri.  When the votes were counted he lost to a legacy candidate -- the son of a former office holder.

In Chicago, Mayor Daley ( son the late Mayor Daley) won another term with 72% of the vote -- with a spate of corruption scandals stalking him.

A question -- why do voters opt for the known quantity -- in both these cases a legacy?  Are the winners bona fide leaders?  I'm not taking a position whether they are or aren't. It seems we lean towared the known reather than unknown... the devil we know is better than the one we don't./ What does that say about our ability to  make objective judments based on the facts -- or are we willing to be submissve  rather than take risks?

Hmmmm- Any comments/

Good is not Good Enough

Every so often the contents of a book resonates: indeed opens ones eyes to a divergent point of view.  Manfred Kets de Vries in his " The Leader on the Couch" takes a clinical approach to changing people and organizations.  He slices, dices, moves the pieces of the human psychological puzzle around in delineating how leaders come to be.

In addition, de Vries closes "  with a call for authentizotic ( how's that for a new word) organizations where leaders walk the talk, people feel alive and all are called to give their very best.

Ah yes, my current mantra -- " Good is not good enough"...

Leadership & Martin Luther King Jr

One of the characteristics to be considered in evaluating potential leaders is " risk". Specifically- is the individual willing and able to " take risks"?  Or are they risk adverse --they avoid taking chances. Obvioulsy there are many different types of risk: capital investment, marketing strategy, hiring decisions, etc etc.

These risks all pale into comparison with the risk Martin Luther King Jr. knew he was taking. He knew from the taunting reception received in places like Skokie Il that not only was his message controversial --- he also knew his life was at risk.  But he kept on walking the walk.

So when clients express their concern about risks --one of the outcome related questions -- what is the worst case scenario..... Martin Luther King gave us a new definition of risk.  May he rest in peace.

Ideas and Cold Showers

Thoughts and ideas sometimes converge and almost attack one -- there are so many -- and then there is the desert.

Randy Loch  of MAXX Inc. in Darien, WI relayed how he motivated his sales staff by changing the conversation of sales vs production. His advice -- sell it and manufacturing will find a way to get the hardgoods produced.  And production met the challenge everytime

Similarly, while browsing through blogs this evening, I encountered the ideas of several gurus who espoused " Thinking Big".  So often we base plans, decisions, judgments on what we know, or what is safe

 

We work out the gym to expand our physical capacities. How about mental gymnastics an hour a day to expand our imaginations and creativity? Contemplating how to enhance our horizons should be worth at least an hour of personal challenge.

Love What You Do.

Mario Andretti in the book " The Most Important Thing I Know", compiled by Lorne A Adrain writes : " Love What you do. Believe in your instincts. And you'd better be able to pick yourself up and brush yourself off every day. While life is not always fair, it is managegable. It is a matter of attitude and confidence".

For leaders, this is really resonates both for us and those we are seeking to influence.  Our attitude, our confidence, our ability to pick ourselves up and brush ourselves off ( wow - what a mental portrait)... this is the essence of leading by example... of influencing others by the way we perform on a day to day basis. 

One can see why Mario was a champion.

Leadership and Intuition

The late Johnny Cash sang  about knowing when to hold'em and when to fold'em. 

Successful, intuitive leaders know that almost ephemeral sense of what to say to whom: when to say it, and when not to act.  One of my favorite leaders is Joe Paterno of Penn State University. Joe is 80 years old. How many generations of college students has he interacted with in his 40 years of coaching? How many generation xer's, y'ers etc etc? And the gurus continue to thrash about talking about the keys to relating to those younger, and different than Joe.

He keeps on trucking. A brillant guy who feigns homespun intellect. A leader who knows when to look a young man in the eye: a time to walk away from potential conflict: a time to converse with the rich and famous: the poor and needy.

What makes Joe tick? Some call it Emotional Intelligence: Others Servant Leadership. I wonder what the kid from Brooklyn who is a genius in his own time calls the phenomena?

Misconfrontation

The purposeful avoidance of confrontation and conflict by those in leadership positions appears to have reached epidemic proportins. From avoiding discussions about an employee's time card entries, avoiding discussions related to insubordination, avoiding discussions related to required overtime, avoiding discussions related to inferior performance,,,,, you get the idea.   Then when the stuff hits the fan --its misconfrontation ... blow ups: personal attacks, morale defeating victimization etc.

My point is --- those who refuse to engage in problem based discussions which can be characterized as confrontations--- should not be designated as leaders.  They may fill leadership positons... but their inability to face interpersonal issues in the work place weakens the foundation on which leading is based ... the foundation of honesty combined with trust.   

Corporate Leaders can do their organizations a necessary service by challenging those who engage in  misconfrontation.

Leadership - You play the way you practice

Ok I admit this is an alpha male example>  I can still hear the coach during the red zone goal line stand drill exclaiming " You play the way you practice".

Daniel Coleman in "Primal Leadership: observes that athelets spend little time playing --lots of time practicing. Business leaders have the opposite scenario- lots of playing time on the job --little practice time. Much is made of the concept that certain aspects of leadership can be taught. However, "learning" doesn't take place in the classroom, sittting behind a desk, listening to an expert on the subject.

Most agree that practice, role playing, and related activities produce results.  What is missing in most leadership development programs?   The ingrediant to be added -mentoring. Mentoring with a stated purpose: Mentoring with a game plan: Mentoring with measurable results. Mentoirng which is flexible to meet the capabilities of both the mentor and mentee.