Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
Peace on Earth, Good Will To All
Leadership Caffeine-An Effective Leader’s Resolutions are Calendar Blind
Filed under: Career, Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Leadership Skills, Management Education, Performance, Professional Growth, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
I’m as guilty as the next person of finding the impending resetting of the calendar a cathartic cleansing, where the failures of the past year are suddenly washed away and replaced by the empty and unknown space filled with promise and time stretching out in front of us.
There is something remarkably powerful and alluring about the chance to start-over, right wrongs and vow to do things right the next time around.
Resolutions start out as good intentions early in a new year and often end up as regrets later. At some point during the year, we cross a threshold where we mentally give up on the resolutions for now and resolve to succeed next year.
Full disclosure, I live in Chicago, where the saying “wait until next year” (Cubs) is slightly more commonplace than, “vote early and vote often.” Waiting until next year is a part of the genetic make-up for anyone born north of Adams.
Real Time Resolutions are Fuel for Effective Leaders:
As a leader, you cannot afford to fall victim to the boom and bust cycle of annual resolutions. Rather, your challenge is a daily one, requiring you to manage your practices and habits in a program of perpetual self-improvement. Of course, identifying the right improvements requires you to have a real-time feedback system and the ability to keep your ego in check while as objectively as possible processing the daily evidence on your own performance.
While the simple act of even contemplating the need to improve requires a great degree of self-awareness and emotional intelligence on the part of the leader, remember, we are talking about effective leaders. Ineffective leaders are blind, deaf and dumb to these issues.
Effective leaders teach themselves to think and observe with the following questions in mind:
- How am I positively and negatively impacting the performance of my team members?
- What are people telling me (directly and indirectly) about my performance?
- Are people comfortable offering suggestions on how I can help?
- How do people respond to me? Do they shrink or grow in my presence?
- What is the quality of my various interactions? Are we tackling or skirting the tough issues?
- Do people treat me with deference or respect?
- Do my practices stimulate creativity or drive compliance?
- Are there new ideas and suggestions for improvements flowing from the team?
Armed with insights and feedback, the effective leaders strives to improve his/her performance daily, creating a kind of Leader’s Muscle Memory where good habits become ingrained and second nature and bad habits are constantly exercised away.
Rather than annual resolutions to improve, the time for reflection is during the drive or plane trip home, at night before going to sleep or in the morning armed with that fresh promise of a new day…not dissimilar from the promise of the new year.
Effective leaders operate with a constant sense of renewal, driven by an intense desire to succeed and to help others succeed. While not every effective leader thinks in the exact language and terms of the questions above, they do think in terms of the same issues: What’s working? What’s not? What can I do better?
The great news about being a leader is that you alone control the ability to do the right things and every day….and every encounter provides the opportunity to improve.
No more “wait until next year” for you. Your next year is right now and every minute thereafter. Resolve to use those minutes wisely and leave no regrets in your leadership wake.
An Irreverent but Pointed Look at Feedback & An Update on the Newsletter Promotion
Filed under: Career, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Social Satire, Talent Management, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
Thanks to everyone that joined the Management Excellence Newsletter list during the past view days!
We succeeded in growing the already substantial list by a whopping 25% and I’m honored that so many of you joined. Now of course the burden is on me to live up to my commitment of fresh, compelling and useful content in the spirit of the blog. I welcome the opportunity and challenge!
I will be recruiting one of my sons to help me with the name drawing for the free books (Practical Lessons in Leadership) and will reach out to the winners via e-mail over the next day or so for shipping information.
Thanks again for your enthusiastic response! For those that missed joining, but don’t want to miss out, the sign up is found in the right column on both the Management Excellence and Building Better Leaders sites.
–
Today’s post is at my Building Better Leaders site/blog and features a slightly irreverent look at the value and need for feedback. It is entirely possible that in the course of making a point on why feedback is such a critical skill to master, I compared it to Viagra, dissed the Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler and encouraged incompetent leaders to volunteer to stand next to a wall with a blindfold on and smoke a cigarette. And yes, there is a message and at least a few ideas for you once you get beyond my slightly off-center suggestions. Since the post is R-rated, if you are easily upset by references to performance enhancement and firing squads, you may want to skip the post.
If you are courageous, here’s the link to:“Feedback-Performance Enhancement for Leaders Without the Pill”
Increase Your Team’s Global Awareness or Risk Being Run Over
Filed under: Crisis Leadership, Life and Business, Management Education, Social Commentary, Strategy, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
Note from Art: this post is written from the perspective of U.S. industry and business. For my many overseas readers, I suspect that you face similar issues with slightly different context. Also, I’ve endeavored to not stray too far into the political arena on this topic, although in my opinion, the politicians and their policies are at the root of many of the current problems. Of course, we as citizens hold the key to solving that issue. However, that’s another post for another day.
Consider this post as one of robust encouragement versus a scolding.
Too many of our businesses, business leaders, citizens and politicians fail to understand, pay attention to or even appreciate the impact of the ever-changing global business environment. Or, if they do appreciate the impact, many are caught like the proverbial “deer in the headlights,” staring as the global competitors approach at an accelerating rate.
We’ve all known for a long time that the world is flattening and the advance of global trade in large part through the elimination of historical trade barriers has created a rising tide effect. We also know that for some countries, the tide has risen and continues to rise faster than for others. Consider the emergence of South Korea, India and China as economic powers over the past two decades as three prime examples.
In my own career experience, embracing the creeping globalism and leveraging the powerful forces behind it to compete and profit have been and continue to be much like breathing. However, step outside of the walls of your global giant or innovative tech start-up and spend some time in one of thousands of little industrial parks around the country, and you are liable to find very different circumstances.
Much of my work now occurs inside smaller firms that sprouted from entrepreneurial seeds and specialized know-how. These firms lived and thrived for a time and many have grown considerably during the past twenty years. A good number of these firms are specialized manufacturers or packagers and instead of expanding and adding to the job rolls in their communities, many are on the brink of extinction as a result of failing to adapt to and embrace a global world.
Disturbingly, instead of searching for solutions, adapting their strategies or even taking on the tough task of reinventing their businesses, many of these firms and individuals are standing in the road staring at impending collision and death. Often, their first response is to reach out to the politicians for “protection,” but the reality is that artificial barriers do more damage than good.
In part, I believe a root cause of this seeming inability to move and adapt stems from a still very-much-alive global ignorance on the part of U.S. business owners and operators, as well as everyday citizens. Whether it is ignorance or arrogance or, as I suspect, a bit of both, many of us lack context for anything outside of our own culture and language. Some of my clients are puzzled at how quickly their businesses have declined and didn’t see it coming. Much of this stems from a “head in the sand” view of the world.
Wake up people! It’s a big, competitive, inter-connected world filled with firms that want to eat you for lunch and spit out the bones.
While there are no easy or quick cures for coping with global competitors or having to serve customers that demand the lowest prices, you can certainly improve your chances of survival by challenging yourself and your team to become citizens and competitors of the world, not just American business-people and firms. You need to consider the future of your business armed with the context of a much bigger picture than the one from your office window in the suburbs of Chicago or Detroit.
A Few Starting Suggestions for Improving Your Global Awareness:
- Instead of glossing over the World News sections of the Wall Street Journal, study it closely. Subscribe to publications like The Economist and The Financial Times, where much of the perspective comes from outside the U.S.
- Watch carefully and monitor as the new global economic battleground is increasingly shaped by countries other than the U.S.
- Support the global education of your team and hire talent with a global experience.
- Identify partners to help extend your reach or improve your ability to source and compete on the global stage.
- Seek out the many resources available from the U.S. Government, local Business Development Centers and of course, qualified consultants.
- Constantly rethink your business strategy from a global perspective.
- If you don’t have a strategy, it’s time to get one.
- Pay attention to the manipulations and machinations of our elected officials on global trade issues. That special interest they are protecting today might sew the seeds of your industry’s doom tomorrow.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
There are no easy answers or simple solutions to playing and competing successfully in this fast changing and very, very tough global world. However, you might start by jumping out of the way of that oncoming global competitor. It’s time to raise your game by raising your team’s global IQ and then doing something with this knowledge.
Links to Entertain, Inform and Inspire-And Time for Shopping
If holiday shopping and end of year activities have you a bit beaten down, here are a few reads to inspire and energize and at least one shameless plug for my forthcoming e-newsletter.
For those of you wondering whether “Art has finally run out of ideas for new content,” I have at least three good excuses for sharing some other sites with you:
1. My post today is at my Building Better Leaders site. And yes, it is original content!
2. I love Susan’s post below and I am interested to read the new e-book from Seth Godin. Both of these are worth sharing.
3. And did I mention that half of my family has a birthday during the week surrounding Christmas. I’m heading out in a few to do my part to support the economy. And I’m keeping my shopping close to home this week to support our local merchants.
-Today at Building Better Leaders: “New-Leader? Six Suggestions for Closing the Context Gap.” Whether you are new to leading or simply new to your current team, it’s imperative that you work hard to quickly gain insight into your team’s culture and dynamics not to mention its role in executing your firm’s strategies. I offer Six Suggestions to help you with this important task.
-At Random Acts of Leadership: 5 Ways to Lead the Way to Holiday Miracles. If Susan Mazza doesn’t inspire you during this season, then you might be a good candidate for a Scrooge award.
-From Seth Godin and 70 other “Big Thinkers”, a free e-book entitled “What Matters Now.” I’ve just downloaded my copy, and I’m excited to mine the many ideas for some personal and professional gold.
-And for a fun time-out, check out the chart at Baldrige.com to determine if you or someone on your shopping list is a True Geek. It is disturbing to discover that I fit in several geek categories!
Oh, and I almost forgot…there’s still time to opt-in to the new Management Excellence/Building Better Leaders Newsletter and possibly win a book. The promotion ends at midnight on December 16th. See my post for the promotion rules. I’m looking forward to offering fresh, original content and featuring some great guest contributors as we move into the new year!
My Book
The desktop reference to leadership success whether you are starting out or starting over.
Art Petty
Welcome to Management Excellence where the focus is on building better leaders and creating high performance organizations.
Building Better Leaders
NEW: Art Petty's Building Better Leaders offers distance education PLUS personalized mentoring for motivated professionals. Executive-developed and delivered programs to fit your schedule and budget and boost your career.
- Considering the Move to Leadership - What to Expect & How to Prepare
- Succeeding as a First-Time Leader
Marketing Coaching
Art Petty helps small business and professional service owners implement lead generation systems.
Learn more about Art's Marketing Coaching.
Management Excellence Tools
Download the Management Excellence Guide to Trade Show Marketing in a Recession.
What's Your Strategy & Execution (STREX) Quotient? Download and use the survey to help you gauge your organization's Strategy & Execution effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.
New e-book! Leadership and the Project Manager - Developing the Skills that Fuel High Performance Download the pdf or go to the e-book pages on this site and contribute to the conversation
Blog Subscriptions
Connect With Me On
E-Newsletter Mailing List
Join my e-newsletter mailing list and receive the latest in best-practices content for leadership, sales & marketing and strategy.