Want to Lead? #4 of 7. It's Time to Ask and Answer a Difficult Question

June 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

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Note: the Seven Key Questions for Ambitious, Aspiring Leaders, are presented in the book, 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 and discussion.

The first three questions in this series challenged you to think through issues that are both philosophical and powerfully practical:

  • Why do you want to lead?
  • Do you understand the true role of a leader?
  • Do you understand that the skills that made you successful as an individual contributor are not the skills that will carry you forward?

The next question in the series builds on #3 by asking you to consider whether you are truly willing to let go of some of that expertise as part of your transformation as a leader.

#4:  Are you prepared to give up domain expertise as your foundation for results?

Consider the cases of the brilliant surgeon that takes on the role as Chief of Staff, or, the skilled tradesperson that becomes a superintendent.  Add in the successful teacher that becomes a school principal and the successful law enforcement officer that is promoted to ride a desk.  While  prior experience and  long-developed skills will prove valuable in the new pursuits, a very different set of skills are required for success.

The new skills focus more on supporting and serving others through teaching, mentoring and guiding.  Instead of being the expert, the newly minted leader is now in charge of helping others develop expertise. For many moving from the role of individual contributor or knowledge worker to the role of leader, this loss of sense of self and the need to reinvent prove traumatic.

For good or bad, we tend to identify not only with our jobs but with the work and skills that others acknowledge us for in our daily lives.  Thoroughly investigating and forming answers for questions 1-3 is a critical first step.  Once you’ve progressed through those important questions, it’s time to stare in the mirror and ask and answer  question #4. If you conclude that you cannot let go…that your skills are who you are, then say no.  If you are OK with the notion of reinventing yourself, then keep moving forward.

The only mistake is to not ask and answer these questions honestly.

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Want to Lead? Answer These Questions! #2 of 7

June 24, 2010 By 1 Comment

compassNote: the Seven Key Questions for Ambitious, Aspiring Leaders, are presented in the book, 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 and discussion.

The prior question challenged you to ask and answer, “Why do you want to lead?”  This question focused on motivation, while our question today goes to understanding of the role of a leader. Clear answers for both are essential for making an informed decision on whether a role as a leader is proper for you.

The Second Question: “What do you think the true role of a leader is?“

This is a good open-ended question that can ferret out whether the ambitious professional has proper context for the role and purpose of a leader or whether he is preoccupied with advancement and perceives this as the best and fastest way.

I encourage people to talk to experienced leaders that seem to enjoy their work.  Let them know that you are interested in pursuing a leadership role. Ask them the following questions:

  • How would you describe your role as a leader?
  • How has your view on this role changed over your career?
  • Last and not least, what are your leadership priorities?

I have a sneaking suspicion that you will very quickly hear words and phrases like: developing others; coaching, providing feedback, clearing a path by knocking down obstacles and helping set goals.

Take good notes and think long and hard about whether the priority tasks described by experienced leaders fit well with your interest in leading. If yes, you’re on your way to building a solid foundation for your leadership career.

Oh, and for my two-cents worth on the role of a leader, check out my post at Management Excellence, “Leader, What’s Your Charter?”

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Leader, What Are You Doing to Improve Your Value Creation?

December 26, 2008 By 1 Comment

How much value are you creating as a leader?

How much more value can you create?

How are you supporting the ability of your customers (employees) to create value? Where should you improve to strengthen your value creation?

What are your core processes as a leader?

How much waste do you generate through your leadership activities?

Borrowing from the principles espoused in “Lean” these are just a few of the key questions that every leader should ask himself/herself as part of their own personal development initiatives. Unfortunately, in my experience, few if any of these questions are asked or answered either by individuals or their direct leaders.  This has to change.

In a world that is begging for radical reinvention of business and leadership practices, the organizations and individuals that are diligent in pursuit of the answers to these and related questions will make it through the storm.

Leadership should be one of the principal value creation components of the management system, yet  poor leadership practices often result in increased complexity, added waste and blocked attempts to streamline processes and make improvements that would otherwise benefit the organization and its customers.

One of the key reasons that leaders and leadership practices often fail to create value (or to create more value) is the lack of a common operational and actionable definition for the role of a leader.  Another cause is the lack of top management commitment to ensuring that leaders are accountable for ever-increasing contributions to the firm’s value creation mission.  I’ll focus on the former in today’s post.

During the course of my career, I’ve developed and leveraged something that I describe as The Leader’s Charter, to help develop other leaders as well as to remind me of my True North as a leader. It reads as follows:

The Leader’s Charter:
Your primary role as a leader is to create an environment that:

•facilitates high individual and team performance against company and industry standards…

•supports innovation in processes, programs and approaches…

•encourages collaboration where necessary for objective achievement…

•promotes the development of your associates in roles that leverage their talents and interests and challenge them to new and greater accomplishments.

As I sit here and think about the Charter’s application and relevance for helping leaders in context of the questions at the top of the post and in light of the world situation, I suspect that it is time for another update.  The next update must add specificity to the people development issues covered in the current version, while incorporating all of the primary “value creation” processes that a leader controls and impacts.

I don’t intend on wordsmithing the 2009 version of The Leader’s Charter here in this post, but I will take a stab at identifying a broader universe of areas that leaders must be held accountable for in their roles.  I would love your inputs, additions and constructive suggestions via comments or by e-mail.

The Value Creation Processes/Activities of a Leader

  • Developing others through coaching, feedback and by encouraging and supporting the pursuit of developmental (stretch) activities.
  • Creating a working environment that draws out the collective knowledge and skills of team members in pursuit of solving customer problems.
  • Ensuring that the standards for accountability, values, general behavior and communication are understood and adhered to by all participants.
  • Clarifying and communicating a Vision that anchors organizational goals and aspirations and gives context to team and individual activities.
  • Creating forums to gain ideas and insights into customer issues as part of strategy formulation.  Involving everyone in capturing and translating the Voice of the Customer into strategies and actions.
  • Ensuring that individuals and teams have the resources they need to carry out their tasks.
  • Ensuring that teams and individuals gain access to skills development and educational opportunities.
  • Eliminating fear from the workplace (Deming) and replacing it with a focus on customers and improvements.
  • Determining what measures contribute to improving understanding and continuous improvement and implementing the systems to monitor and act on these measures.
  • Look at the workplace as a system and support the continuous improvement of the entire system. (genesis: Deming.)

It would be easy to keep adding to this list with a series of increasingly granular tasks.  My focus is on making this granular enough to be actionable and high-level enough to not be prescriptive.

Let me know your thoughts on other ways/areas that leaders must focus on to create value in their roles and for their organizations.

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