Want a Great Primer in Leadership? Work for a Bastard and Take Notes

August 18, 2009 By 6 Comments

(And then do the opposite!)

Note from Art: I’m hoping (a bad strategy) that the popularization of the “B” word by director Quentin Tarantino and his forthcoming movie “Inglorious Basterds” (with an e?) has desensitized most of us to that harsh term and label.  Apologies if I’ve offended anyone and/or drawn the wrath of your IT spam filter.

Another Note from Art: since several of my former bosses read my posts, please rest assured that none of you are the subjects of or the inspiration for this post! Really!

OK, I am serious about the topic. While I wouldn’t counsel you to seek out and work for a b@st@rd as part of your formal mentoring experience, given the ratio of these characters to good leaders in the workplace, chances are you’ll trip across one or more in your career. When you do, take in the experience as a powerful education in how not to lead.

The Public Executioner!

I still recall the moment earlier in my career when a leader who clearly reveled in leading public executions, used his power and a great command of words to humiliate an individual who had drawn his ire by asking a question about one of his policies. This was at a sales meeting, and the verbal execution continued for two days, sometimes spontaneously generating to fill dead air.

While the boss seemed to gain strength over time, the subject of his attention, a young and in my opinion, a sharp and inquisitive rep, melted into a puddle of human goo. I can’t tell you how many lessons we all drew from that experience. I literally recall vowing to never do that to another human being when it was my day to be in charge.

Most of Us Have Had Close Encounters with Lousy Leaders

I’ve long since concluded that I’m not alone in gaining some great insights on what not to do from lousy leaders. When interviewing for Practical Lessons in Leadership, we were surprised at the number of examples of miserable leaders that served as a kind of opposite inspiration for people.

The result for us in the book was a section devoted to “The Really Bad Habits of Ineffective Leaders,” where we attempted to name and describe the personas of some of these characters.

Perhaps you’ve met them:

  • The All Talk, No Action Leader-loves the sound of his/her voice, babble, babble
  • The Never-Make-A-Decision Leader-holds everyone hostage out of fear of being wrong.
  • The Game-Playing, Fork-Tongued Boss-always screwing with you and will lie to save his hide
  • The Public Humiliator-there’s more than one of these characters…they eviscerate the working environment as well as people.
  • The I’m Your Best Buddy Manager-until he’s not. It’s just a matter of time.
  • The Micro-Manager-not quite evil, but very destructive and debilitating

And my favorite,

  • The Assassin. This one is the most dangerous. He/she plots the corporate kills with cold-hearted thoroughness, pulling the trigger and then slipping back into the office culture without being noticed. They are master politicians and manage to often stay above suspicion while plying their trade. Others know and sense it, but often the higher-ups don’t see this side of the person.  Beware.

The Bottom-Line:

OK, aside from the cathartic benefits of railing at some bad leaders and bad leader archetypes, there is a point here. You can turn a truly bad and hopefully temporary experience into a positive learning situation.

At some point you won’t work for or next to this person, so pay close attention to the impact that his/her odious behaviors have on individuals, groups, overall morale and of course performance, and then silently vow never to do it that way.

When it’s your day at the head of the line, remember that vow.

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Career, Leadership, Performance, Professional Growth, Surviving Lousy Leaders Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Effective Leadership: How Do You Know When You Are Getting It Right?

July 10, 2009 By 5 Comments

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

  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 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.

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Leadership, Performance Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Why Do Evil Leaders Flourish Inside Some Organizations?

June 3, 2009 By 22 Comments

It’s always been a mystery to me why so many arguably evil managers and leaders not only last but seem to thrive inside certain organizations. 

You know the type.  Hey, maybe you are one.  If so, chime in.  I’ve never actually heard from an evil leader that was willing to talk openly about why he is the way he is. 

Evil leaders tend to fit one or more of these profiles:

  • The dictator
  • The assassin
  • The two-faced politician (is that redundant?)
  • The warlord
  • The megalomaniac
  • The evil genius
  • The double agent

While this might sound like the cast of a great new movie, I know a few people that would agree that it looks a lot like a quorum at their senior management meeting.

Is it our nature to gravitate towards evil leadership in our pursuit of power and wealth? 

I sure hope not, because I’m missing that gene.

I’ve worked in and with organizations that seem to cultivate and reward more than their fair share of villains, thugs and hoodlums masquerading as leaders.  My observations as to why some environments seem to produce a bumper crop of these dysfunctional characters include:

  • No visible sign of values in action—the sign might be on the wall outlining the values, but other than that, nothing.  No teeth and no meaning behind those words.
  • Some leaders just like to be surrounded by enforcers.  One leader I encountered as a consulted tolerated a truly heinous individual because in his words, “I like to have a pitbull in the office looking out for my interests.”
  • Some senior leaders enjoy the conflict.  It is entertaining and it fits their Darwinian view of the world.
  • Some leaders are sensory deprived—they are so preoccupied with their own issues they are truly blind to the carnage going on around them.  While they hear isolated reports, they are not perceptive enough to see the patterns.

The Cures:

  • If you have the chance, fire an evil leader or even a future evil leader.  I actually enjoy this.  Ooops, is that a sign that I might be moving to the dark side?
  • Regardless of where you fit in the food chain, establish, promote and reward those that show character and reinforce proper values.  Fire the others.  Yep, still enjoyable.
  • If you are in charge or starting up, establish clear, meaningful values from day one and build your culture and team around those values.  Abstinence from evil leaders is still the best bet.
  • Help the evil leader unmask himself or herself.  This is not for the faint of heart or light of bank account, since you are in essence playing their game but often without the power. 
  • Find a new job and company, but remember to do a great job culture sensing before you sign up.  You would hate to move from one evil den to another. 

–

If you have a good evil leader story, the readers would love to hear it.  Unlike most stories, we like these to end poorly for these people.  It just makes us feel like the good people have a chance. 

 

 

Filed Under: Leadership, Surviving Lousy Leaders, Values Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What Leadership List Are You On?

May 5, 2009 By 5 Comments

At the beginning of my leadership workshops, one of the ice-breaking activities is to have the participants think about and jot down the characteristics and behaviors of great and lousy leaders that they’ve experienced in their careers.  

It’s always fun to watch the small groups attack this task with relish.  Some groups immediately move towards the “lousy” leaders column and literally burn through the ink in their markers.  Others gravitate towards the “great” leaders column and often lose track of the assignment as they start describing to their group members why so and so was such a great leader.  

One element of this exercise that is very predictable is the listing of the items that make it into each column.  In class after class and by now with several hundred data points, the words and behaviors are consistently the same.

The Lousy Leaders:

  • Don’t pay attention
  • Actions don’t match words
  • Self-serving agenda-all about them
  • No coaching or feedback/focuses on weaknesses
  • No developmental support
  • Disrespectful
  • Micromanages
  • CYA style of leading
  • Not approachable
  • Won’t make a decision
The Great Leaders:
  • Supported my professional development
  • Treated me with respect at ll times
  • Honest
  • Gave me feedback/coaching
  • Makes decisions in a timely manner
  • Pushed me out of my comfort zone
  • Didn’t throw me under the bus when I made a mistake
  • Acted as a mentor and teacher
  • Easy to approach 
  • Gave me room to grow and learn
Interestingly, the formula for great leadership is not locked away in a vault like the formula for Coca Cola.  It’s on display for everyone to see and use.  What list are you on?
Filed Under: Career, Leadership, Surviving Lousy Leaders Tagged With: , , , , ,

Your Customer Service Tells Me All I Need to Know About Your Management Quality

February 3, 2009 By 3 Comments

Of my many quirks, one that I actually enjoy is my unceasing study of customer service.  I love to observe customer service interactions and I’ve made it a habit to try and figure out why the good ones are good and the bad ones so miserable.

I’ve noticed a distinct upturn in attempts to improve customer service from organizations that have conditioned us not to expect it.  A thin silver lining in a struggling economy.

My unscientific but well considered conclusion is that you can learn all you need to know about a manager and a management team by how his/her associates serve customers.

Good customer service flows from people that genuinely enjoy their jobs and respect their organizations and the people that they work for every day. The respect and the concern for customers is palpable in these environments.

I credit the leadership for hiring and training properly, for establishing and reinforcing values and for understanding that every point of contact with a customer leaves an impression.

Lousy customer service is reflective of pent up anger, unhappy workers and a distinct lack of regard for the organization and the people in charge. The management is to blame for these conditions, and in my opinion, should be summarily fired and horsewhipped, perhaps not in that order.  In lieu of corporal punishment, perhaps some time in jail would help them reflect upon the misery that they’ve inflicted on countless well-intentioned but unwitting victims.

OK, enough with my unpopular suggestions for curing bad customer service.  Here are some good and not so good examples. You be the judge.

Case 1: The Hardware Store

A few months ago I had a fairly long list of items to procure for a home improvement project.  I shop at the local Ace versus the Big Box because people actually answer questions and don’t run in the opposite direction when they see you approaching with the dazed and lost look in your eyes.  The Ace is a bit pricier, but it is worth it.

It happened to be an off time and business was slow.  The helpful clerk took one look at my long list, grabbed a cart and said, “Let’s go shopping.”  He took me from item to item, offering helpful and even money-saving suggestions and filling my cart. I followed dutifully, a bit confused.  Bet that never happens at the Big Box.

Case 2:  The Hardware Store Again

Another quirk…I like holiday lighting.  I happen to invest a hefty amount in this hobby every year to satisfy my inner Clark Griswold, and this same Ace had always carried the industrial-grade, multi-color lights with just the right color spectrum.  No pink and yellow, just amber, red and green.  As I scouted the aisle looking in the usual places, the lights were nowhere to be found.  I approached the new young manager and received a curt, eyes averted, “we don’t carry those anymore,” answer.  He added insult to injury by turning around and heading the other way.  I had been dismissed!

There are many number of ways to deliver less than ideal news,but this wasn’t one of them. A better approach is to show concern, attempt to see where I could procure the 30 sets of these insanely pricey lights or at least be apologetic and empathetic.  The curt response with eyes averted and the quick turn and run tactic at the Ace where clerks had personally shopped for me was disagreeable at best.

After stewing for a few minutes, I re-approached this manager and proceeded to provide a polite, quiet and fairly lengthy round of constructive feedback.  Yep, he received a nice, no-fee lecture on customer service.  I’ve seen him since, and he always comes up and says hello and offers his help.  I hope that he is doing that for everyone.

Case 3: The Power of Making Eye Contact and SMILING:

Another pet peeve in customer service is any customer service representative that fails to look you in the eyes and smile. Start observing this yourself.  The next time you approach the cashier at the grocery store or elsewhere, judge his or her performance like you are Simon on American Idol.

A good smile is priceless and changes the nature of the transaction.  The lack of contact and consideration tells me that the clerk and the management don’t give a crap.

Case 4: A Coffee Shop that Gets It

I’ve written about the incredible customer service at Conscious Cup before in my post, The Best Marketing Ever.. .  Just yesterday, I stopped off to pick up a pound of the Fair Trade Mexican Roast to give as a gift to a guest lecturer in the class that I’m teaching at DePaul.  I indicated that this was a gift and wondered whether they had a nice bag to dress it up. The clerk thought about it and dashed into the back to emerge a few moments later with a nice gift box.  She assembled it, arranged things for a nice presentation and handed it to me with a smile.  I offered to pay for the box, and she declined.  I left a nice tip.

Case 5:  The Cup-holder from Hell.

OK, this one totally doesn’t fit with the customer service examples, but bear with me.  I have an unnatural affection for my automobile (yeah, another quirk), and still smile every time I drive it.  However, as the customer, I’m allowed to judge it for flaws, and it has one flaw so big that it can only be the work of a madman bent on inconveniencing customers around the world.

Imagine if you will, a precision engineered machine that rewards you with performance the harder you drive it.  Now imagine the initial planning session for this great piece of machinery.  I believe that the aforementioned madman placed at the center of the design, the world’s biggest piece of you know what cup-holder. And said something like, “We will drive them crazy and make certain that they never ever drink anything while they are driving our automobile.”

This evil genius knew full well that his cars would find their way to the Chicago-area where the winters, the plows and the salt combine to create potholes that swallow large animals and mid-sized cars.  I can only imagine him laughing maniacally as my large coffee does yet another triple-gainer dive into the air and all over precision engineering and really nice leather. “That will teach you to drink coffee in our cars,” I hear him saying as that evil laugh echoes through the forests of Bavaria.

OK, Enough for Now:

Manager, get your act together.  Hire people that care.  Teach people the power of a smile.  Make certain that your values reflect serving your customers and hold yourself and your team accountable for supporting those values.  Otherwise, I’ll write about you.

Filed Under: Leadership, Leading Change, Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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