Dispatches from Mayo: Are You Pushing Your Colleagues to Grow?

May 26, 2011 By 2 Comments

Note from Art: My next few posts will be brief insights gained as a result of my observations and experiences at The Mayo Clinic.

From Dr. William Mayo in his description of the three conditions essential to the future success of the Mayo Clinic:

“#3 Continuing interest by every member of the staff in the professional progress of every other member.”

I love that Dr. Mayo recognized the critical nature of learning and development as a part of the core values of this remarkable medical institution.  There’s no denying the importance of this action-oriented value for learning from and developing others, and there’s no deferring it to another department. It’s right there for everyone to see, ponder, think about, act upon and support.

In thinking back on the cultures I’ve been part of or those that I’ve had the occasion to support as a consultant, I truly haven’t observed more than a handful that had their own form of focus on the development of everyone, as articulated so succinctly by Dr. Mayo.  Interestingly, the organizations that did seem to get this, even if they didn’t describe it in quite the same way, were (and are) leaders in their markets.  Somehow, when people seek to learn from each other as well as take collective ownership for promoting organization-wide learning and professional development, good things happen.

While all organizations have their faults and warts and I suspect an institution that has 40,000+ people show up for work everyday has more than a handful, Mayo continues to be the brand of choice when we truly need help.  Walk the halls and talk to and share stories with people supporting their family members here, and the message is the same over and over again: We’re here because it’s the best. We’re here for answers. We’re here again because of how they helped us the last time. It’s consistent and never-ending.

While there’s no claim of causation or even correlation between the value described above and the performance and reputation of Mayo, I see and hear the values at work in every encounter.  (More on this in an upcoming post.)

Too often, we push the development of others off to a department or worse yet, to a third party training organization that has no basis in understanding the culture and no authority to support the teachings through coaching and on-going learning.  This is lousy management.  Similarly, instead of encouraging learning and knowledge sharing, much of our built-up knowledge remains cloistered in silos. Again, poor management.

If you have the privilege of leading others, consider what Dr. Mayo’s 3rd condition for sustaining success means to you, your team and your organization.

It’s time to take the important people development responsibility back from whatever department purports to own it, and work to knock down knowledge barriers and other fences that keep people from sharing and learning from each other.  You might just be building the foundation for your own high-performance culture.

Filed Under: Leadership, Professional Growth, Values Tagged With: , , , ,

#FollowFriday The Blog Version: Two Pros Worth Following

April 8, 2011 By 2 Comments

Every Friday on Twitter there’s an informal and fun custom to identify those individuals whom you appreciate, and then encourage others to follow their tweets and blogs.

This #FollowFriday  or #FF  is both fun and heart-warming.  It’s great to showcase the skills of others and it’s a nice way to find others to follow.  It is of course, humbling and gratifying when people you hold in high regard encourage others to follow you as well.

(Sidenote: Imagine what the workplace might be like if every Friday, people walked around offering their thanks and encouragement for your efforts. Hmmmm.)

My only challenge with the #FF process is the inability in 140 characters to share why some people are so remarkable and worth paying attention to on a regular basis. Consider this my long form of the #FF convention.

Mom Was Right! (Mom is always right):

I most enjoy connecting with individuals who motivate, inspire, encourage, challenge and generally push us to think and act in ways that make us better as professionals and as human beings. Mom’s old advice of picking the right crowd to hang around with, was spot on.

I thought it might be nice to share a few thoughts beyond 140 characters from time-to-time about some remarkable individuals worth following. I look forward to continuing this process and helping us all live Mom’s advice!

Erin Schreyer

I met Erin Schreyer for the first time on the phone just this week, although I’ve long been a regular reader of her blog and an admirer of her efforts to promote character-based leadership.

Talking with Erin was a lot like receiving a massive infusion of energy, enthusiasm and “can do” positive encouragement.

From her commitment to serving her clients to her passion for and success in spearheading the evolution of the LinkedIn Group (Authentic Leadership Cincinnati) into an active, formal non-profit organization and community, she is truly remarkable.  Her skills and gifts as a professional are enhanced all the more by her genuineness and humility.

Erin’s great and thoughtful blog posts offer encouragement and guidance, and her work to spread the practice of character-based, authentic leadership, truly helps make the world a better place.

You’ll find Erin on Twitter at: @ErinSchreyer

Mary Jo Asmus

Regular readers of my blog know my regard for Mary Jo Asmus. She’s a remarkable coach and writer who shares insights and guidance that make us better people and stronger professionals.

Mary Jo and I have collaborated on a number of blog posts, and from time-to-time, we’re able to get planets and schedules to align and catch-up on the phone.  I’ve yet to come away from a conversation with Mary Jo where I didn’t benefit from her wisdom, and find myself practically exhausted from smiling and laughing from the beginning to the end of our conversation.

From her “Thoughtful Thursday” posts offering inspirational quotes and compelling questions to her always strong content on dealing with the challenges of leading and of developing ourselves, spending time on Mary Jo’s blog is a great habit to adopt!

After you get to know her through her writing, you’ll quickly understand why she’s such a successful person and in-demand coach!

You’ll find Mary Jo on Twitter at: @mjasmus

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Surround yourself with great people, read great and challenging content, and work hard to improve your own habits and practices, and you’ll find yourself in a good place.  Both Erin and Mary Jo are great places to start!

Filed Under: Leadership, Leading Change, Professional Growth Tagged With: , , ,

Nine Key Professional Capabilities Required By Our Times

January 19, 2011 By 9 Comments

There’s no doubt we live in interesting times…a true Dickensian Best of Times, Worst of Times environment, filled with remarkable opportunities and equally remarkable personal, competitive, societal and global challenges.

Over the past few years and few thousand contacts with professionals on the topic(s) of developing as a professional and developing as a leader, a number of key “capabilities needed for success in these times” have emerged as recurring themes in discussions and group settings. Importantly, these themes or as I describe them, Capabilities, Attributes & Behaviors (CABs) are essential for success at both the individual and organizational levels.

Nine Key Professional Capabilities Required By Our Times:

1. Cultivate Your Authenticity-while arguably never out of fashion, like small collars and narrow lapels, authenticity is back in a big way, and it’s increasingly important for leaders that hope to win the trust of the teams and generations.

This has been a hard decade or so for cultivating trust in leaders, and with the odor of the Great Recession still wafting through our society, fear is all too present in the workplace. It’s more critical than ever to be able to build trust on teams, trust across cultures…and trust as a leader, and the best starting point is to be yourself, let people see your strengths and weaknesses and work hard to get to connect with and get to know those you work with and for.

2. Learn to Adjust Your Altitude-whether you are a solopreneur, an individual contributor or a corporate executive, you need to develop comfort in navigating and connecting the lofty issues of market-forces to the RGM (real green money) issues of serving customers, innovating and differentiating.

I encourage leaders and professionals of all levels to develop the discipline to regularly scan the market environment and to change the nature of the conversations on their teams, by drawing upon this powerful and simple question set:

What does this mean for us? Our competitors? Our customers?

3. Develop Strategies for Coping with Extreme Ambiguity-the scale and scope of global challenges and opportunities coupled with the pace of change all combine to create a remarkable level of ambiguity in our professional endeavors.

Unfortunately, ambiguity combines with fear to paralyze teams and individuals and exacerbate problems. A counter-measure is to first recognize that EVERYONE you know is struggling with the same unknowns. Your competitors don’t know for sure where things are going and your customers need help navigating through all of the noise.

Try flipping the fear of the unknowns around and instead of preoccupying on the risks, focus your energies and your team’s sights on the opportunities that ambiguity affords to create and innovate. Change the nature of the daily conversations and encourage constant use of the key questions outlined above.

Of course, once you’ve discussed questions, it’s time to promote action. That’s where the next attribute proves critical.

4. Improve Your Adaptability-building on the ambiguity theme above, and acknowledging that we tend not to like change (understatement for emphasis), it’s critical for leaders of all levels to foster a culture that encourages experimentation and learning. Easy words, however, recognize that creating an adaptable environment takes time, focus and constant reinforcement.

Shoot one messenger or go off on one failed experimenter and people will revert to their prior fear-driven, hunker-down approach.  As an individual contributor, learn to appreciate the benefits and learning experiences of change. Better yet, learn to be the one promoting change.

5. Leaders: Commit to Creating High Performance Teams-a great place to start is by overhauling your project management practices (or lack thereof), building sponsors with teeth and putting everything you and your leadership counterparts can into helping teams succeed. Again, easy words that only work when backed by consistent, aggressive actions. Given the number of projects and strategies that fail for people and execution issues, we all have a long way to go on this one.

6. Cultivate Cultural Intelligence (CI)-there’s a good probability that your business will become increasingly intertwined with global suppliers, customers, partners, competitors and team members. Developing CI is an organizational initiative, and one that must be pursued in the planning or early phases of your global outreach. If you are increasingly involved in leading teams with contributors from around the globe, you are absolutely on the spot for advancing your Cultural Intelligence. Your results depend upon it.

7. Develop Leadership Adaptability…yours and others. This is my catch-category to remind you that strengthening your skills as a follower is as important as strengthening your skills as a leader. As functional and national boundaries dissolve or at least shrink, your ability to move seamlessly from leader of one initiative to committed follower for another is critical to your success. And your efforts here set an outstanding example for those around you.

8. Don’t Be Afraid to Grow Your Power and Influence. Face it, others choose us to be successful, and there’s everything right with growing your professional network, seeking out important projects and opportunities and appropriately publicizing your successes.  It’s a mistake to think that you’re above the fray of politics and power.

9. Develop an Innovation Mentality-gone are the days when innovation was just for engineers. It’s an innovation-driven world, and the most compelling innovations are occurring in how we work, communicate, market and make money.

If you’re leading others, one of your Key Performance Indicators is how innovative your team is. Their innovation is a reflection of your leadership. If you’re working as an individual contributor, every team and every project needs great ideas. Learn to take risks and learn to sell hard and then prove your ideas.  Build a reputation as an innovative thinker and doer, and the world is yours!

The Bottom-Line for Now:

I’ve just offered a long list of really difficult things to do, without much specific direction.  Awareness is the first step. Audit yourself against the nine CABs above and then take action to strengthen the already strong and improve the weak.  Seek external feedback from those you trust to provide you the unvarnished truth about yourself.  And remember, while others often choose us for success, you own your career and your development.

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Career, Leadership, Leading Change, Management Innovation, Marketing Yourself, Professional Growth, Project Management Tagged With: , , , ,

Leadership Caffeine: How to Cope With Organizational Alchemists

January 3, 2011 By 4 Comments

The modern-day practice of alchemy is only metaphorically about the search for a method to turn lead into gold.

Instead of the medieval pursuit by alchemists of a magical chemical conversion process to change one element into another, modern practitioners are focused on the magical and easy transformation of people and organizations from one level of performance to another.

Modern day, organizational alchemists are looking for great results but aren’t interested in participating in the hard work required to produce these results.

Organizational Alchemists at Work in the Modern World:

While the vocation of Alchemist is long dead, you see current practitioners at work every day.  These include:

  • Executives who talk endlessly about the need for change, yet, never put any effort into the hard work of enabling change.
  • Executives who turn their quarterly prognostications into actual numbers, offering up this weak proof that their Alchemist’s Ways work. Jim Goodnight, CEO of privately-held (by him) software firm, SAS Institute, offered  in an interview aired on 60-Minutes a number of years ago: There’s only one way that I know of to accurately hit the quarterly numbers, and that is to cook the books. Dr. Deming shared a similar perspective.

Others:

  • Leaders who use leadership training programs as easy substitutes for the hard work of developing others on their teams.
  • Firms and executives who delegate the identification of value-creating and differentiating strategies to consultants, and ignore the hard-won experience and knowledge of their own employees.
  • Management teams that talk about being market-driven and customer-focused, without actually translating those nice words into anything meaningful in terms of processes and performance standards.
  • Leaders who expect employees to be creative on command.
  • Managers and leaders who refuse to say “No,” and consistently flood their employees with a dizzying and disorienting array of projects. Everything is a priority, but nothing gets done.

First, Recognize that Alchemy Doesn’t Work:

Have you heard this before? “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth working hard for.” This goes for creating hit products, improving sales performance, developing people, improving customer service, creating high performance teams and every other single activity worth doing and worth improving in your organization. There are no shortcuts.

11 Questions to Help Keep the Alchemists In Check (or at least make them squirm):

1. How do you envision this helping us?

2. Why is this a good strategic direction?

3. What do you mean by customer-focused? And the logical follow-on: What we will look like when we’re customer focused?

4. Similar theme as the customer questions: What do you mean by market-driven?

5. If we’re going to invest our hard earned money in this training program, what are we going to do differently after the program to apply the lessons learned?

6. How are you and the other executives going to help us knock down some of the impediments to progress that we all see and know but don’t talk about?

7. What does that feedback mean? Specifically, what behavior do you want me to change?

8. How many customers did we talk to in the making of this strategy?

9. Why do you trust outside advisors more than the people that work here?

10. Which project do you want us to drop to take on your new top priority?

11. What’s your part in our team’s success?

The Bottom-line for Now:

Here’s to a year of less crap, fewer alchemists and a heck of a lot more focus and progress on the hard work of sustaining, developing and improving.

If you’re in a leadership role, ask and answer the above questions yourself before opening your mouth and exposing your Alchemist’s Ways to your team members.

If you work for an Alchemist, recognize that the above questions won’t magically transform this person. Use the questions carefully. Teach the questions to your team members and politely, firmly and consistently seek answers.

Yours in hard work,

Art

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Art develops and delivers powerful and pragmatic workshops and programs on leadership, professional development and building high performance teams. Contact Art to discuss your needs for a program or keynote.

Filed Under: Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Performance, Professional Growth, Surviving Lousy Leaders Tagged With: , , ,

Senior Leaders, It’s Time to Share Your Lessons Learned

October 19, 2010 By 5 Comments

teachHave You Shared Your Expertise Today?

I’ve had the great privilege this past year to work with a Fortune 50 company that is methodically conquering the retail world.  Specifically, I’m working with a group of high-potential mid-level professionals all focused on increasing their contributions and growing their careers.

During our recent time together, the program sponsors arranged for a good number of the senior executives of the corporation to sit down and share insights on how to develop as senior contributors; how to develop executive presence and in general, how to seize the opportunities being presented by the firm’s great growth.  Over the course of 3 development days, we invested approximately 5 hours engaging with executives. The impact was priceless.

It is a testament to this firm and its mostly homegrown store-to-corporate leadership team that the executive-led dialogue was filled with practical, powerful lessons and examples, and the discussions were free of the ego and corporate-speak that we’ve all heard from those with lofty titles.

Without any scripting, the executives shared how they navigated the unknowns of growing up from store personnel to their current levels as senior leaders in one of the world’s exciting firms. They nailed the key messages and lessons that we were discussing in the workshop portion of the program. The executives were authentic, they cared, they provided encouragement for self-development and importantly, they provided priceless examples of lessons-learned and mistakes made during their journeys.

While our program content focused on those exact same issues, there’s something dramatically different about hearing the words and anecdotes come from the leaders versus seeing the words on a PowerPoint slide. In fact, there’s no comparison to the value and weight that the words of these executives presented. Their input brought the rest of the program to life and created a richer experience for all of us.  The buzz from the executive involvement carried the program. And while I served as the program leader…I was very much the student during those sessions.

Senior Leaders: You’re Part of Your Firm’s Professional Development Solution…Get Involved!

Let’s face it, nature abhors a vacuum, and there’s no such thing as an empty executive calendar. It might take extraordinary effort to carve out that hour once a month to sit down and share and exchange ideas on professional development with your aspiring colleagues, but, aside from working with customers, is there anything more valuable that you can be doing? I sincerely doubt it.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Create opportunities to share, teach and exchange ideas on the key issues of developing as a senior contributor.

Need a starter topic list? What about: leading others, making better decisions, dealing with ambiguity, developing power and influence, leading to the values, building stronger teams and overcoming organizational hurdles? If you need some more ideas, let me know. I’ve got an endless list where your experience can help others recognize and avoid pitfalls and improve performance.

The best development support in your organization should not come from the training department or from external programs. It absolutely should start with you and your senior executive colleagues.

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Career, Leadership, Leading Change, Performance, Professional Growth Tagged With: , ,
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