Want to Lead? Answer These Questions! Number 1 of 7

June 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

compassNote: the Seven Key Questions for Ambitious, Aspiring Leaders are presented in Practical Lessons in Leadership by Art Petty and Rich Petro. I’ll explore each question here at Building Better Leaders through individual “Leadership Tip of the Day” posts, offering ideas for investigation.

–

One of the fundamental tasks of any leader is to identify and develop his/her leadership bench strength.

In the ideal situation, the leader is watching her associates for signs of effective informal leadership skills, and then providing developmental assignments to those individuals interested in moving into more formal leadership roles. In this case, the aspiring leader gains valuable context for the role and challenges of leading and the manager is able to provide feedback and coaching.

Another scenario occurs when individual contributors or early career professionals recognize the potential benefits of a leadership role (usually it’s about money or title), and declare to their manager that they are ready to lead a team. Ask any experienced leader if they have been on the receiving end of someone walking into their office and making this declaration, and the leader will likely smile.

In either situation, the leader in charge can benefit from some simple but powerful questions to guide the ensuing discussions and activities.

The First Question:

1. Why do you want to lead other people?

This straightforward question can be disarming to the erstwhile leader. Often, well-intentioned professionals have not thought through what it is about leading others that they find appealing.

If the motivation is simply money, title or overall advancement (all reasonable desires), this question provides the opportunity to draw these objectives out and begin discussing the many ways that advancement can occur.  Often, this question will clearly indicate that the individual does not have proper context for the true role of a leader, again opening the door for an important discussion.

The aspiring leader or coach/manager of the aspiring leader can use this simple question to encourage exploration and investigation into this heady topic.  Try talking about the motivation to lead with other leaders of varying experience levels.  A senior engineering manager offered to me that his motivation was very straight-forward: “I can contribute more to the firm by helping a group of engineers, than I can by working on my own.”  Another people-savvy manager had discovered that one of her strengths was building coalitions across organizational silos.  She found the ability to do this nearly-full time in support of helping people achieve their goals to be a rewarding experience and her primary motivation for leading.

Until the aspiring leader can plainly and genuinely articulate the answer to “Why?” they are unprepared to lead.

Filed Under: Leadership, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Hyper-Reality, Slimy Weasels and the Biting Words of a General

June 23, 2010 By 2 Comments

Say It in Person: Robust FeedbackNote from Art: this is not a political blog and there is no intent to communicate political leanings in this post.  We are witnessing an unfortunate and fascinating leadership situation that involves poor judgment, bruised egos and potentially huge implications in the theater of conflict.  Both lives and the difference between success and failure may be impacted by the outcome.

–

I rarely follow a post with a related post, but the current stir created by General McChrystal, the senior military leader in Afghanistan, with his poor word choices and poor judgment in communicating with a reporter, begs a follow-on to Monday’s Leadership Caffeine post, The Word Selection of Journeyman Leaders.

General McChrystal clearly was not familiar with the Hyper-Reality approach to communicating preached and practiced by Ray Dalio, president of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund.

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, entitled, “Money Talks: A Hedge Fund King Philosophizes on Truth and Weasels,” we learn a bit about the 295 principles that make up Mr. Dalio’s  philosophy of “hyper-realism.”  Specifically, we learn about Principal No. 11, which addresses the fact that, “Employees are not allowed to talk critically about someone unless the person is present.” It goes on to say:

“Principal No. 11: “Never say anything about a person that you wouldn’t say to him directly.  If you do, you are a slimy weasel.”

As reported in the journal, if the employee breaks the rule three times, they can be fired.

Generaly McChrystal, for your transgression, you are a slimy weasel.  Two more times and you are out.  Now, please get back to doing what you have shown over a career that you can do so well and help us resolve this mess.

Mr. Obama, this is neither your McClellan or your MacArthur moment.  (Although the historical repetition of the “Mc/Mac” is uncanny.)  This is your opportunity to deal with a subordinate that slipped.  Say what you have to say face-to-face and show us that you as the leader can take a shot to the ego and then let your General get back to work.

–

Follow-Up from Art.  Obviously, Mr. Obama did not agree.  Again, a fascinating case in leadership.

Filed Under: Crisis Leadership, Decision-Making, Leadership, Professional Growth Tagged With: , , , , ,

Innovation is for Everyone

June 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Fresh ideas sign in the skyInnovation isn’t just the domain of engineers, designers and other creative product types and functions inside organizations.  Everyone and every function has the opportunity to innovate in pursuit of serving internal or external customers, improving business processes and helping the firm achieve strategic objectives.

It’s too bad that many of us don’t recognize our innovation obligation and opportunity.

People focus on the all-new, all-new product and technology innovations that make our news headlines.  This discontinuous innovation while exciting and big and sometimes transformational, is actually quite rare.  Most innovation is continuous in nature…more incremental than of the all new variety.

My working definition of innovation is: “solving vexing problems in unique and reproducible ways.” While I have no doubt that there may be better and even shorter definitions, mine opens up the innovation frontier to the broad range of “problems” inside and outside of organizations.  My only catch is that the solution be both unique and reproducible.

Jump-starting your innovation thinking can be as simple as brainstorming with your colleagues on the headaches, time and cost wasters and bottlenecks that affect your customers and impede goal achievement.  Pick one, apply my definition and solve.

Rinse and repeat.  Happy innovating!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

7 Signs that Your Leadership Approach is Working

June 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Learn & LeadIt’s often difficult to gauge whether your leadership practices are helping improve your team’s situation.  I encourage leaders to look for these signs as evidence that things are heading in the proper direction:

The Seven Indicators of the Effective Work Environment

  1. Individuals and teams display a great deal of pride, collaboration and cooperation to meet and exceed objectives.
  2. Failure to meet or exceed objectives is met with healthy frustration that quickly is channeled into lessons-learned and “what we’ll do better” discussions.
  3. Regardless of individual roles, teams spontaneously assemble to meet specific challenges and then dissolve once the challenges have been met.
  4. The group becomes self-policing on quality, timeliness and conduct.
  5. The drive to innovate and create value comes from within the team not from management.
  6. The teams learn how to fight and to play together.
  7. Output tangibly supports strategic objectives and improves the ability of the organization to meet customer needs.

While there is a great deal of subjectivity in judging the Seven Indicators, I’m OK with a little, “you’ll know it when you see and feel it or when you don’t” type of measurement. The weatherman can give you all of the meteorological reasons behind the sunny day you see through the window, but until you step outside of your Chicago office in July and feel the humidity swallow you up like a wet blanket, you don’t truly know what it’s like out there.

The best leaders are critically aware of their role and power in shaping the environment on their teams and inside their organizations. They are also aware that almost no one will ever provide the boss honest, actionable feedback on performance. I encourage leaders to develop an extreme awareness of what is going on around them as the best indicator of their effectiveness. Pay attention, look, listen and then ask questions and take actions that help people solve problems.

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: , , , ,

Leadership Caffeine: The Word Selection of Journeyman Leaders

June 21, 2010 By 7 Comments

A Cup of Leadership CaffeineIf you’ve ever had the good fortune to watch a skilled carpenter or mechanic or any proficient trade-person, one of the first things that you will notice is the care that they take in selecting the right tool for the task at hand.

As someone who practices the trades around my homes (it’s a genetic predisposition), I’ve not yet earned the designation of skilled or proficient, but I certainly have learned the power of just the right tool.  There are many choices for most tasks, but only one tool that will allow you to complete the task without potentially causing additional damage.  A vice-grip is no substitute for the proper wrench and the wrong screwdriver will practically guarantee a slip and a strip.  Sadly, every time I’ve taken a shortcut and used the wrong tool for a job, I’ve created more damage in the process.

Words are the leader’s tools in trade, and the same lessons on care in selection and use apply.

For too many leaders, word selection is a hurried and blind groping in the toolbox for something that will do the job.  In the absence of careful selection, a quick barking of orders, an unfiltered criticism or an out of context pronouncement will all create collateral damage.

As a high-school student in Shop Class (do they still teach Shop?), we spent what seemed like an inordinate amount of time learning the use and care of all of the tools, before we were allowed to start on our own projects. While a bit laborious at the time, in hindsight, I realize that this approach taught us to think about the task at hand and to carefully think about and select just the right tool to ensure quality and simplicity.

Perhaps we need the equivalent of a Shop class for leaders.

8 Ideas to Help You Choose Your Leader’s Words Like a Skilled Craftsman:

1. Choose words that clarify. One of your core tasks is to provide context.  People do their best work when they understand its import and its connection to the bigger picture.

2. Choose words that convey respect? Even in the heat of battle, your words, your tone and your demeanor must communicate respect.  The art of delivering an order with respect is the hard-earned sign of a journeyman.

3. Choose and use your words efficiently? Many leaders mistakenly assume that their roles are licenses to talk.  After awhile, all we hear is the drone of blah, blah, blah.

4, Ensure that your words help you connect with others.  Learning the art of how to relate to others enables conveys respect and enables improved coaching and mentoring.

5. Use words that teach. Learning the fine art of coaching and mentoring is like learning how to use a set of advanced woodworking tools.  Once mastered, you are able to craft and form remarkable finished works from simple blocks.

6. Use words that encourage group learning and that help you learn. The right words phrased as questions challenge individuals to think through situations and encourage everyone to learn.

7. Use words that convey accountability and fairness.  You cannot craft an effective working environment with both of these important concepts being visible to all.

8. Use words that inspire and challenge.  While the task at hand might be about moving a pile of rocks, the goal may be to build a great cathedral.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Beginning today, start treating your words as the tools of your trade.  Think carefully about their selection and application, and choose words that build.  Anyone can hack through a day, but only the skilled leader understands his/her power to craft and create every time she opens her mouth.  Treat your words with respect and they will serve you well.

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Career, Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Performance, Professional Growth Tagged With: ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »