Tag: Leadership

By Scott

Leadership Rounding – A great example of how leading leaders is different

Going from a Director to a Vice President is a big jump – because all of the sudden how you lead becomes different.  It is often hard to explain this to people, but at some point they feel it through critcism for Never being around, and in their frustration they say something like I was just there last week or maybe even You never invite me!

I have blogged often about followership – which is knowing the priorities/challenges of your own leader and being purposeful about meeting those as you communicate and work towards meeting your own needs/priorities.  Here is a video from Quint Studer (The Studer Group) that talks about leadership rounding in healthcare.  Most of you are not in healthcare, but it is a great example of a message that needs to be heard by the executive and the leaders that report to them.  It does an amazing job of laying out the fears/frustrations of an executive and how some simple moves by front line leaders can help maximize the impact of a visit from a senior leader and help your own people connect with them in a way that will have lasting impact on your own team.

Check it out – and schedule a viewing with some leaders.  It is a great investment of 28 minutes.  Talent management is about having great conversations – this will start a great conversation.

By Scott

Tracking My Happiness – Final Report

Several posts ago I gave an initial update on my commitment to join a happiness survey that was discussed in a recent Harvard Business Review article.  Here it the link to that post.

I have completed it after 50 entries and 17 days.  Here is what the data says:

  • Top activities for happiness:  restaurants, exercising, being with customers, vacation, parties.
  • Bottom activities for happiness: balancing checkbook, meetings, taking care of children, working alone, watching television.
  • I am 2x as happy on Saturdays vs Sunday.
  • Thursday is my top day of the week – 25% higher than Friday. (today is Thursday – so I am happy about that)
  • I am 4x happier doing activities I don’t have to do but want to do vs doing things I don’t want to do but have to do.
  • There is a direct correlation for me between high focus and high happiness.
  • There is a direct correlation for me between happiness and productivity.

Many things make me smile when I review these results – mainly because they tell a story.  For example, as a parent much of my attention (and this is MY choice) in the last 3 weeks hast focused on homework, transportation, and getting children to bed and up in the morning.  My takeaway – I need to work on my attitude – and create some fun moments for us (good timing – spring break is next week).  I can only imagine what their happiness report would say about me. 🙂  I am okay with not liking the checkbook, meetings, and working alone.  I also think I need a bigger television. 🙂

I mentioned in my first post that this would be a great activity for any company to do with high potentials or leaders.  For smaller companies it is nice because it is free (it works with straight email, but requires an iPhone for easy data collection when walking around).  I still think it is best done by groups of 3 people, and then having a general report out to the whole group.

Talent management is based on self awareness that feeds into a great conversation.  This activity has the potential to provide for both.

I will post next week on how our talent management processes (one on ones, performance conversations, etc.) actually create some of these reflective/conversation moments if done well.

If you tried this, what was your experience?  What questions would you ask me after seeing some of my results?  Here is your chance to coach me.

By Scott

Time – What does your graph look like?

When I saw the graph above(from a Seth Godin blog – here is the link) I immediately thought about my business.  How do I spend my time?  Which pieces should I spend more time on?

Several years ago I created a leadership development program to help prepare leaders to launch sales offices in other states.  As part of the program, each leader was to receive a 360 evaluation nine months after the launch.  I did this mainly because I had a feeling that bad habits were going to develop during launch because there was so much to do and resources were scarce.  When the first 360 came back – what was the message?  Time.  Spending too much on little things and not enough focused on big things (growing sales, etc.).  Even great leaders get sucked into the little things.

Are you always out of time?  Try this – spend 2-3 days tracking your time, then spend 15 minutes reviewing your results by answering three questions:

  1. What are the priorities for our business / my team?
  2. How much time am I spending on those priorities?
  3. What one change could I make to become more focused on those priorities?

Our time is something WE all control.

What are some things you have done in the past to take control of your time?

By Scott

Friday Fun – The cumulative effect of Happy moments . . .

In his interview about happiness in HBR, Daniel Gilbert makes the following statement:  “…the frequency of your positive experiences is a much better predictor of your happiness than is the intensity of your positive experiences.”  It is not the big initiatives, but the cumulative effect of the little things we do at work and at home to generate smiles that makes the biggest difference.  While we are thankful for some research – Did we really need some PhD to tell us that?

So what can we do with this?

Every culture treats humor differently.  For example, I am not sure a That Was Easy button or a zany sound effects box would work in a bank.  What about comments about what people are wearing, or smiles received or handing a sucker to a customer with a smile?  Anything where we purposely create one of those moments that Gilbert talks about will make a difference.

Maybe a good Friday goal would be to generate 6 smiles in other people.

Here is my first try:  A great video about how making people smile caused a shift in their behavior.  It made me smile, and is just good clean fun.  Take a look.

 

By Scott

Companies are Like People, Our Culture Defines the Relationship – Tips for doing it well

Companies are like people.  There is actually a study of how organizations act and change, which is where the terms organizational development and industrial/organizational psychology come from.

As individuals we build relationships/trust by working/living along side people and showing them consistent behavior so they know what to expect – what we value.  So how does that apply to organizations?

Culture is built through a relentless demonstration of what organizations value. While perfection is the goal, it is not realistic.  At some point we will have to say we are sorry.  This lens can be used to examine when organizations first meet new people – during onboarding.

Here is a miss / don’t miss list based on years of experiencing it and building it as a leader:

Don’t Miss

  • Clean desk / supplies
  • Someone to greet you and say “we were expecting you”
  • Frequent communication with your leader for 3 months
  • Teammates taking you to lunch or inviting you into the circle/social events
  • Paycheck / benefits
  • All the tools that connect us to others – email, phone, computer, mailbox, list of who to call
  • Plan to direct learning for first three months

Miss Sometimes

  • Nameplate on desk
  • Meeting boss’ boss (because of business) day 1 or week 1
  • Formal orientation in week one (not enough people)
  • 100% achievement of everything on the onboarding plan
  • Email Day 1 welcoming new teammate
  • Quick check-in at the end of every day to see how things are going

I am not a hypocracy chaser, and it is important that a line be drawn in the sand saying that “If we do not do these things how can we expect anyone to buy into our values as an organization?”  As Collins said in Good To Great:

The point is not what core values you have, but that you have core values at all, that you know what they are, that you build them explicitly into the organization, and that you preserve them over time. (p. 195)

Living it is more powerful than speaking it, and speaking it is the first step in living it.  It why I put Build Trust at the base of the trUPerformance model.  Working relentlessly at living what we say makes it easier for people to forgive us when we (as organizations) slip up.

After all, organizations are like people.

What is on your Don’t Miss list?

By Scott

Introversion (TED video) and trUYou

At the most recent TED conference in California there was a great presentation about introversion by Susan Cain, who recently published a book on the topic.  It has been watched 1 million+ times already and is a good message.  The title is The Power of Introverts.

I preach talent management as being a conversation, and I like this video because understanding our tendency to think more vs talk is important.  Having a conversation means two people showing up and talking/listening in equal parts.  Susan also makes the distinction that introverts can do public speaking (after all, she is presenting), but it is an activity that taps her energy stores, not fills them.  Her power is in thinking problems through by listening to others share their expertise, researching, and drawing on her own experience.  A great gift for a team, but often hard to tap into.

Here is my add-on to the video:

  • For Introverts – Speak up.  The world, your company, the planning for your neighborhood party will go on without you because you are surrounded by people that have a more natural style to talk and influence.  It is not easy, but with the world moving faster, you are at risk of being marginalized more now than 10 years ago because your leaders/peers have more noise in their lives.  Whispers do not cut it anymore – and a tweet, text, or email is too often just a whisper.
  • For leaders of introverts – How hard have you tried to listen?  To set them(introverts) up to be successful?  At any point in team discussions do you stop the free for all and just go around the room and give everyone 45 seconds of input?  Do you meet one on one with everyone regularly so listening is a habit?  Does your challenge (speak up) come with encouragement and purposeful moves to help them step out?

This is not the only thing a person needs to know about themselves, but it is a good start because how we communicate (or not) is one big measure the world will use to measure us.  Here is a link to a tool I use called my trUYou model. It is a guide for what we need to know about us.  Introversion/extroversion is one piece to us, but it is pretty important.

Want to know how introverted or extroverted you are?  Try this free Jung Typology Test (basically the same as the Myers-Briggs).

By Scott

Tracking Our Happiness – My experience + an exercise for leaders

So I am at Day 4 of measuring my happiness as I participate in the Happiness Research project of Matthew Killingsworth (my last post referenced his article in the Jan/Feb 2012 Harvard Business Review – which I will call HBR from this point on).  One of my blog readers followed suit and shared that the 3x a day reminders were making him angry – which made me smile, so the study is working for me.  I am guessing we will balance each other out in the research. 🙂

Here is what I have noticed:

  • The goal is not about being happy all the time, that is impossible.
  • When I stop to think about it, it makes a difference on how I feel.
  • I get annoyed by the emails – then I remember I asked to be part of it, so I laugh at myself and do it.

This might be a fun experience with a group of managers.

First: Present the opportunity to a group of people and ask for 3 volunteers to participate and own reporting back (sorry, they must have iphones).

Second: It is about a 15 day study, so (as the organizer) email them every 3 days and ask them to send you a quick email (1-2 minutes) answering the question “What a-ha moments have you had in the last three days being part of this study and watching your happiness?”

Third: Set aside an hour with the whole group to process the topic.  As preparation, ask the group to read the article The Science Behind the Smile from HBR Jan/Feb 2012.  For the three volunteers – ask specific questions about what were some of the things that impacted them from the outside (what they were doing? other people? events?) and how what they were doing had an impact?  The agenda might look like this:

1.  Share what you learned (3 peopole) – 15 minutes

2. Brainstorm / Discussion:  What we do as individuals to achieve more happiness today?  Draw a line and ask what we learned that we could/should do more of to increase happiness?  What jumps out at me when I look at this list? (go around the room)? – 15 minutes

3.  Brainstorm / Discussion:  What do we do as leaders do to increase the happiness in our workplace today?  What are some things we could do?  What jumps out at me when I look at this list (go around the room) – 15 minutes

4.  Wrap-up:  What is one thing I am going to do differently for myself or my team? Be specific, and partner people up as partners for success – 15 minutes

FYI – Remember talent management is about conversations, not training.  Leaders getting together to share observations/experiences, make little changes on how they manage themselves/others, and partnering to support each other is like training – but better, and less expensive. 🙂

 

By Scott

3 Questions to Answer BEFORE Hire=Yes

A Forbes article was highlighted in LinkedIn Today email (by the way, if you don’t subscribe you should) – and it offered up a three question interview.(link to full article)  The three questions are:

  1. Can you do the job?
  2. Will you love the job?
  3. Can we tolerate working with you?

Of course, practically speaking this is impossible and a bad idea to try and get to a three question interview – but it makes for good internet clicking.  However, it does bring me back to some advice a seasoned HR leader once shared that there are three questions that need to be asked before hiring anyone:

  1. Are they willing?
  2. Are they able?
  3. Are they manageable?

It makes for a great conversation and a great decision.  On the flip side of these questions, candidates need to ask themselves a similar subset.  I preach talent management is about great conversations, so here are these questions adapted for the candidate:

  1. Am I willing (Can I get excited about this role/this team/this organization?)
  2. Am I able (Will I be doing what I do best most of the time?)
  3. Am I manageable by this leader/organization? (Will they be able to get the best out of me and am I willing to help them be successful?)

*fyi – answers to all of these questions require self awarness.  My trUYou™ model helps with this.

We talk about transparency in talent management, one way to create that is to work off the same set of final questions.  That, in itself, could be the basis of a great conversation.

By Scott

What does my leader do . . .

A leader I respect recently shared a frustration – “My people don’t think I do anything.”  In the ensuing conversation we explored the silent things they do to help their team stay focused, and different ways to help them see the investment being made in their success.  Leadership behind closed doors too often leads to communication gaps that are filled with opinions.

I am in the middle of a family project to document some letters my Grandpa received during his service in Europe during WWI as a leader of an artillery battery.  The follow letter (unedited by me) came addressed simply to the Commanding Officer, Battery A. 123rd Field Artillery.  It is dated December 16th, 1918 – Delton, Michigan.

Dear Sir,

Will you please inform about Private Henry C. Akers.  The report came in to Carthage, Ill that Henry and his brother was both killed and his brother is not, and I haven’t heard from Henry since the 28 of July 1918 and I am so worry over him.  Will you please be so kind and look it up as soon as possible and let me know.  I wrote the war department at Washington D.C. and they said no report of any kind of mishap had reach thems but theys refer me to write to you.

Will you please tell me if the Battery A 123 F.A. is going to come across to U.S.A soon or when?  Will thank you ever so much for your trouble.

Florence M – ,  Delton, Michigan

My guess is this an example of a  ‘Do things as assigned’ activity from the job description of a leader.  I don’t know my Grandpa’s response, but based on my time with him I am sure he dealt with it quickly and without a lot of fanfare.  This 94 year old letter is also a testament that leadership has not changed all that much.  There are some things you just have to get involved in as a leader that the rest of the world cannot see, or are just to busy to really notice. 

Leaders – A good parallel to an open door policy is a transparency policy.  A seasoned leader once shared with me a habit where they shared their personal list of problems they were trying to solve at their monthly staff meeting.  They also asked for input/help from their team.  Suprisingly (or not) over time they often received some very creative ideas and help

 Followers – Why not ask your leader to share the top five three things that are consuming their mind/time right now?