Leadership Caffeine-Give Your People Room to Run
Filed under: Career, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Management Education, Middle Management, Not-For-Profit Leadership, Surviving Lousy Leaders, Talent Management, Values, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
Overheard: “If I don’t stay on top of my people, nothing gets done.”
If lousy leadership were a crime, the owner of the quote above might just merit a short stretch of quality alone-time to reflect on the implications of his statement. There are so many things truly wrong with the style of leadership that the statement connotes, that I’m not certain where to start.
I regularly run into examples of leaders operating on the frontlines and even the top-lines that equate leading with policing and oversight. In sessions where I poll on the behaviors of great and lousy leaders, the horror stories of micro-managing bosses and inspector and critic style managers are so plentiful that it’s often difficult to rein in the discussions.
The perception that being boss involves constant policing has not yet been bred out of our culture.
There are certainly core issues that demand oversight. Issues of ethics, legal compliance, and discrimination all merit constant vigilance. And maintaining appropriate operational control is absolutely a leader’s responsibility. However, there’s a line that is crossed when the boss extends intense vigilance to the day-to-day and sometimes minute-to-minute work effort of team members. Move too close to this line or, cross it, and you guarantee a tense working atmosphere, a loss of initiative and a deficit of creativity. What should be a creative and productive experience becomes more like a prison experience.
Gaining compliance is not leading. Any two-bit despot can gain compliance by inducing fear through excessive oversight.
In conversations with individuals describing leaders that they admire, commonly referenced behaviors are they exact opposite of the overbearing and over-the-shoulder manager:
Doesn’t micromanage me
Let’s me do my job
Asks me how she can help
Sets clear expectations and then lets me go
Doesn’t jump all over me when I make a mistake…but rather, he asks me what I learned.
We need more leaders that generate those types of comments from their team members.
11 Reminders that Your Job as a Leader is About Building, Not Guarding:
1. Focus on the working environment! You own the responsibility to create and sustain a positive working environment. You cannot do that by micro-managing.
2. Create the right type of oversight by creating a culture of accountability for the values and norms in that environment.
3. You are a teacher. Teach and train. And then teach some more.
4. You are a coach. Observe and provide timely constructive AND positive feedback. Everyday.
5. Be approachable, but don’t spend all of your own time approaching. Give your team room to run.
6. Create context, not confusion. Clarify and communicate. Create context for key organization strategies and goals.
7. Expectations and accountability drive performance. Set clear and challenging expectations for individual and team performance. This is not micro-managing, it is good management.
8. Remember, you’re there to help, don’t hinder. Knock down obstacles and free your people to run.
9. Defend, don’t distract. Learn to shield team members from distractions. Keep your people free to run, part 2.
10. Stay out of the way. You are a distraction most of the time. See the prior item.
11. Assert only when you need to. Don’t assert often. If you have to assert often, review the prior 11 items.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
We’re all responsible for developing the next generation of leaders. Let’s get this right and help educate and train the micro-managing boss out of existence.
October Edition of Leadership Development Carnival at Leader Talk
Filed under: Career, Fresh Voices, Leadership, Leadership Carnivals, Leadership Skills, Leading Change, Life and Business, Management Education, Middle Management, Not-For-Profit Leadership, Performance, Professional Growth, Talent Management, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
Becky Robinson, the articulate and highly engaging author of one of my favorite blogs, Leader Talk, has posted the October edition of the always exciting and thought-provoking Leadership Development Carnival. She appropriately names this one the Endurance Edition, in part, because she received a record number of posts from the leading leadership bloggers on the planet and brought them together in one place for your reading convenience. Plan on a rousing workout as you digest some fantastic content. Oh, and she was kind enough to include one of my posts as well!
Take the time to visit the Carnival and enjoy the leadership rides. And while you’re there, check out Becky’s consistently great material. Her blog is well worth subscribing to for your regular dose of genuine inspiration and leadership guidance.
Thanks, Becky for a job well done!
Enjoy!
Leadership Caffeine for the Week: Too Much Time with the Wrong People
Filed under: Career, Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Leadership Skills, Leading Change, Making Decisions, Management Education, Middle Management, Not-For-Profit Leadership, Performance, Talent Management, Values, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
My biggest mistakes as a leader occurred as a result of spending way too much time attempting to change two people. I was young, new to the formal leadership scene and convinced that with my help and guidance, these two talented individuals would certainly shed their dysfunctional and toxic behaviors.
Wow, was I wrong!
After a lot of time, money, coaching, counseling and training, one lawsuit and one person storming out never to be seen again, along with untold amounts of collateral damage to the team and my own credibility as a leader, I had learned my lesson. People do not fundamentally change their nature.
I’ve been accused of sounding cynical and jaded as a result of my own early misfires, and perhaps I am. Nonetheless, I learned in a painful way why I needed to hire slowly and fire fast and have been well served incorporating this approach since learning those painful lessons.
In workshop settings, I present appropriately sanitized versions of those now two-decade old cases and it is fascinating to watch people make my same mistakes over and over again. Without getting into too much detail, both cases include talented individuals that wreak havoc on teams through their approaches. They are toxic, but they are both so freaking talented at their jobs, that it is easy for people and their manager to excuse their behaviors. “That’s just Bob,” or “That’s just Suzy.” In essence, the manager and those around them become their enablers and excusers.
After reviewing the case and debating “what to do” in small groups, I invariably get these responses:
-Create a new position
-Put him/her in a different role
-More coaching
Almost no one suggests firing the individuals until I play the annoying devil’s advocate on the above suggestions.
The unfortunate reality is that many managers are unprepared to deal with the “brilliant problem-child” character and they fall victim to the same fate as the erstwhile frog in the “Parable of the Scorpion and the Frog.”
Sidebar: In case you haven’t heard it: Scorpion needs a ride across a pond and asks the frog to carry him over on his back. Frog at first says, “No, you’ll sting me and we’ll both die and what purpose would that serve? Scorpion says, “No I won’t, I’ve changed.” Frog thinks about it for a while, says, “OK, jump on.” The frog starts swimming across the pond, gets halfway, the scorpion stings him and as he’s going down, he asks, “Why did you do that?” The Scorpion responds, “I can’t help it, it’s my nature.”
The Bottom Line for Now:
You cannot change people. They have to want to change and unfortunately, deep, lasting and significant change is rare indeed. Like the scorpion above, people don’t change their nature.
You are in danger of spending too much time with the wrong people. Cut it out. Focus on those that are striving to learn and grow.
Hire very, very slowly and fire fast. You’ll make fewer critical mistakes this way.
Effective Leadership: How Do You Know When You Are Getting It Right?
Filed under: Innovation, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Management Education, Middle Management, Not-For-Profit Leadership, Performance, Talent Management, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
If you’ve spent time in a leadership role, you know that it is remarkably difficult to get good quality feedback on how you are doing and for that matter, how everyone else is doing under your leadership.
If you haven’t wondered about this, you are either naïve or you are caught up in all of the nice things that people say in your presence. Newsflash: almost no one tells the boss he stinks, when he’s in the room.
Some of the worst leaders that I’ve had the displeasure to cross paths with, plied their evil practices with glee, protected by the cheering throngs around them. Behind their backs however, conversations sounded a lot like a planning session for a greeting party for Caesar during March. If I’m not mistaken, I heard the sound of knives being sharpened.
Alternatively, some of the best leaders and managers that I’ve encountered struggled a great deal with this issue. They heard the same cheers but were curious and concerned enough to wonder whether the cheering was for the title or the person and practices.
Some organizations attempt to remedy this by the use of assessments of various types, and these absolutely can be helpful. Nonetheless, I find assessments a lot like wondering what the temperature is outside on a sunny day by turning on the television. It’s a lot more real if you stick your head out the door and feel it for yourself.
I write and talk and mentor from the perspective that a primary task of a leader is to create the effective working environment. While the pace and energy of the environment may vary depending upon business or cultural circumstances, it is always up to the leader to infuse the environment with the values and practices that support accountability, results, innovation, fair-play and even creativity and innovation, to name a few.
Taking this a step further, I encourage leaders to look for signs in the environment that their leadership practices are working. While this approach lacks the rigor that some HR professionals like about formal assessments, an astute leader can learn to stick her head out the door and get a pretty good feel for the temperature of her leadership practices.
The Seven Indicators of the Effective Work Environment
- Individuals and teams display a great deal of pride, collaboration and cooperation to meet and exceed objectives.
- 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.
- Regardless of individual roles, teams spontaneously assemble to meet specific challenges and then dissolve once the challenges have been met.
- The group becomes self-policing on quality, timeliness and conduct.
- The drive to innovate and create value comes from within the team not from management.
- The teams learn how to fight and to play together.
- 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 you’ll know it when you see and feel it or when you don’t. 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 February and feel your nose hairs freeze on your first breath, you don’t truly know what it’s like out there. (OK, metaphors aren’t my strong suit!)
The Bottom-Line for Now:
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. Do this enough and that sunny day might just feel a whole lot warmer.
Dream and Act Big: Leadership Caffeine for the Week of April 5, 2009
Filed under: Career, Current Affairs, Innovation, Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Leading the Generations, Life and Business, Not-For-Profit Leadership, Talent Management, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
This week’s jolt of energy is taken from a great interview with Jim Collins in the April, 2009 issue of Inc. Magazine.
Collins connected with Inc. editor, Bo Burlingham to share views on the state of our world, building great businesses and entrepreneurship. The entrepreneurial focus is relevant for many that have either been pushed into this world through downsizing or are considering it as they grow weary of the uncertainties of corporate life.
The result is a feast of insightful, refreshing and invigorating quotes. Oh, and I’m taking my motivation from Collins with a cup of the always bold and invigorating Sumatra Mandehling Gayo Mountain from my favorite local roaster, Conscious Cup.
Just a few selected quotes and observations from Collins:
-On what the leading entrepreneurs of the past three decades have in common:
“They defined success on a very big scale.”
-Recalling a quote from Steve Jobs in the late 1980’s that captured the noble vision of entrepreneurship:
“We aren’t creating computers, we are creating bicycles for the minds.”
-On the choice that people face on working for others or working for themselves:
“I see entrepreneurship as more of a life concept. We all make choices about how we live our lives. You can take a paint-by-numbers approach, or you can start with a blank canvas. Starting with a blank canvas is the only way to get a masterpiece, but you could also blow up.”
-On the emerging environment:
“We’re heading into a world characterized by big events, big forces, massive storms. We’re going to be vulnerable little specks high on the mountain when the storm hits out of nowhere. And if we’re not prepared, we’re going to die up there.”
-On why he’s not pessimistic in spite of the emerging environment:
“It is only in times like this that you get a chance to show your strength.”
“In the end, I think we need to have absolute faith in our ability to deal with whatever is thrown at us. And we need to have a complete, realistic paranoia that a lot can be thrown at us.”
-On the source of his optimism:
“A lot of it has to do with the young generation.” Quoting a general at West Point, “This is the most inspired and inspiring generation to come through West Point since 1945.”
“I’m hopeful precisely because of this generation of kids. I really think we ought to give them the keys as soon as we can.”
–
Art’s comments:
First, bookmark the interview and read it from start to end. The selected quotes above barely do justice to the wisdom and inspiration that Collins has to offer in this article.
Second, consider how his guidance and observations can help you deal with your situation, whether you plan on being an entrepreneur or an intrapreneur.
Great things tend to flow from tough times and when people focus on defining success not necessarily in monetary terms but on a grand scale.
My own real world example in process: I’m working with a group to change the shape of volunteer management and volunteerism in our local community. Our emerging goal is nothing less than to transform Volunteer management practices in this country. Lofty yes, but doable? Absolutely.
The same lofty ambitions can drive for-profit organizations, but it requires thinking beyond success and focusing on significance.
And last and not least, I love his perspective on the younger generation. While the media focuses on what they describe as a: texting-obsessed, trophy-laden, what’s in it for me generation, I am with Collins in seeing the reality to be very different. (See my article: In Hopeful Praise of the Millennials.)
As you have occasion to work with, lead and support the development of this younger generation, perhaps it is time to think deeply about the challenges we have saddled them with and offer our support and hope instead of our criticism.
The Bottom-Line for the New Week:
OK, grab that second cup and go forth into the new week motivated to do something great. The longest journey starts of course with the first step, and the greatest monuments start with the first stone. Take that first step or lay down that cornerstone and dream big!
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