Art’s Weekly Leadership Message-Engage With Purpose
Note from Art: Starting with this post, 
the Weekly Leadership Message is a new Monday feature here at Management Excellence. Use them in good health and great leadership!
The only way I let myself watch football is from the action-side of an elliptical. I love the game, but don’t love the time investment or potential for calorie consumption.
Yesterday, while working out and watching the Saints chew up the Chicago Bears, one of the announcers commented on the work of ethic of Saints team leader, star quarterback and seemingly great guy, Drew Brees. His words were something to the effect, of, I watched Drew in practice this week, and no matter what he was doing, it seemed like he did it with purpose. He brings the same intensity to practice that he does to game situations.
Blog enough, and you’ll hear a post in just about everything. He had me at, “purpose” on this one.
No Timeouts in The Life of a Leader:
You don’t get time off from your role as a leader. There are no timeouts, no after hours hang-up-your-hat and become one of the gang situations. I’ve attended too many company after-hours events where the boss made an ass of himself or herself to know that NO ONE really wants to see the boss take a timeout.
The most effective leaders I’ve worked for, with and now coach, understand that every encounter, from the greeting in the parking lot to the hallway conversation to lunch to participation in meetings, represents an opportunity to do something positive for someone or some group.
Prepare Your Mind to Lead Effectively-Before You Walk in the Door:
One of my favorite examples is the senior manager who spends a few extra moments “prepping” for the day in her car in the parking lot before walking into the office. She’s not putting on makeup or fixing her hair. She’s preparing her mind to engage, to lead, and to remember that her focus is on others and helping them solve problems in pursuit of their priorities. This professional engages with purpose every single minute of her day.
7 Ways You Can Engage with Purpose Everyday:
- Your polite but focused questions help teach.
- Your thoughtful (never rushed or harassed) responses show respect.
- Your willingness to listen shows that you care.
- Your encouragement at a moment of failure accelerates learning and helps grow confidence.
- Your fair and constant reinforcement of accountability sets performance expectations.
- Your willingness to delegate decisions shows trust.
- Your interest in helping others advance and grow builds fierce loyalty and great teams.
- Your management of yourself models the values and behaviors of an effective leader.
The Weekly Leadership Message:
Manage yourself by focusing on others first. Make every encounter count as you engage with purpose.
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About Art Petty:
Art Petty is a Leadership & Career Coach helping motivated professionals of all levels achieve their potential. In addition to working with highly motivated professionals, Art frequently works with project teams in pursuit of high performance. Art’s second book, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development, will be published in late September of 2011.
Contact Art via e-mail to discuss a coaching, workshop or speaking engagement.
Dispatches from Mayo: Are You Pushing Your Colleagues to Grow?
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.
At Least 3 Reasons We’re Still Raving About Lousy Leaders
Filed under: Leadership, Management Innovation, Performance, Surviving Lousy Leaders, Values
Note from Art: As I approach my 500th post here at Management Excellence in the next few weeks (that’s in the neighborhood of half-a-million words on management and leadership) my writing mood is shifting to one of, “let’s get this leadership thing right people.” The blueprint for effective leadership is not carefully guarded like the secret formula to Coca Cola. It’s on display for all of us to see and to apply. Why then are there so many exceptions? Read on for my wildly speculative and hopefully provocative thoughts.
Spend any amount of time reading or engaging with the many remarkable individuals that write, speak, teach and coach leaders, and you’re to be excused if you quickly conclude that we’re all in violent agreement with each other.
The principles behind what a reasonable person would agree represents effective leadership are practically universal truths that support an unarguable argument.
I’ll wager a month’s worth of coffee that if you asked everyone that you know to generate a list on what makes an effective leader, the output would be nearly identical. While preferences in styles might vary, (and there would certainly be differences across cultures,) core attributes and behaviors generally remain constant. The only differences will likely be due to memory lapses such as, “Oh, I forgot that one, but you’re right,” versus true differences of opinion.
So if this construct of an effective leader is so readily apparent, why is there a nearly endless supply of disgruntled workers capable of describing lousy leader horror stories to anyone that will listen? Importantly, why doesn’t this intuitive and common understanding of what an effective leader acts like manifest itself with more frequency in our workplaces?
3 Reasons Why We’re Still Raving About Lousy Leaders:
1. As humans and workers, perhaps we’re happy being miserable. While I would be saddened to adopt this viewpoint, it’s easy to see that “the boss” gives us something to work for and rail against and his/her actions and utterances serve as a source of bonding with peers.
Is it possible that we could work for someone with the presence of Washington or the authenticity of Lincoln or Gandhi and be unhappy? You bet! OK, that’s a bit sad, but there’s at least a kernel of truth in there somewhere.
Possible conclusion: we need to accept our own propensity to enjoy our misery. While it’s not as bad as being chased down by a sabre tooth tiger or consumed by the last remaining group of cannibals on the planet, the boss being a jerk gives us something to occupy our minds and mouths.
2. Humans are inherently preoccupied with their own survival and leading effectively requires one to sublimate that core drive. Hmmmm. Some good psychobabble here, but it’s worth thinking about. Good campfire fodder when the talk on “are we alone in the universe” runs out.
Possible conclusion: We’re screwed and all of this noble talk is wasting time that could be better spent lamenting our plight and beefing about the boss.
3. Perhaps the predominant management system in use in most of society is horribly flawed in terms of values, motivations, expectations and enabling structures. OK, I’m warming to this more than the “evil” or “predominantly miserable” theories expressed earlier.
Maybe, just maybe, we’ve not licked this management thing yet. Deming did us a great service in crying B.S. on the Deadly Diseases that he viewed in most organizations. And while his 1980’s view to the purity of the models adopted by Japanese companies may be a bit naïve, listen to the Great Doctor describe these 5 and tell me if they’re fixed in your organization yet. At least a cup of coffee that the real answer is no.
Possible conclusion: Fix the flipping management system. It’s time to move beyond the practices of the industrial revolution and build success, effective leadership and enabling systems into our approach. Oh yeah, and that values part is the foundation to build upon!
The Bottom-Line for Now:
I’ll opt for the fact that it’s time to move management forward and build the new systems around the emerging realities. If innovation, creativity, speed, ability to execute and adaptability are all table-stakes attributes of the new winning organization, then it’s time to move management forward and create systems that breed leaders at all levels and for all types of situations. Note to top leaders: ignore the need to breed and build people that will help you navigate this strange, fast and foreign new world at your own peril. It starts with you at the top creating the right foundation. And hint: the foundation is built upon meaningful, actionable values.
Your thoughts?
“And He Kicks Children in the Face,” and Other Insane Approaches to Competing
As business leaders, we make decisions every day about how our firms and our people compete.
Most of us choose to focus on creating value and solving problems. A few resort to “win at all” costs type behaviors. This latter group poses some vexing problems for those of us that prefer the high-road style of competing for business, but the problems are not insurmountable.
The current competition for political office offers an interesting learning opportunity for all of us. And just when you think that the negative attack ads cannot become any more blatant or vicious, this season’s crop of politicians have managed to outdo themselves.
Political Buffoonery is the New Competitive Strategy:
Political ads this season have in my observation managed to hit a new high in audacity and ridiculousness, correlating to a new low on my informal Fair Competition Meter.
Perhaps it’s the state that I live in: Illinois, where serving as Governor typically translates into indictment on several counts and some quality time in jail, but the attack ads are over the top this year. And darned funny in some cases.
I love (He says sarcastically) the ones that put some real heart into their production value. They typically start out with soft music, a soft voice and a pleasant scene, right before resolving into something that positions the hapless opponent as someone sent from the lowest tier of Dante’s Inferno on a mission to lure us back into the pit. I would love to be a fly on the wall in the production meetings for these ridiculous commercials. Sadly, they probably do sway some voters.
My favorite dumb political ad comes from our friends up north in Winnipeg. This video starts out with the expected claims about the incompetent incumbent mayor and resolves with what can only be described as an emmy-winning scene produced by complete morons. I’m sorry, but I laughed out loud at the ending of this commercial, because I cannot believe that someone actually thought to package this scene and use the words, “And he kicks children in the face,” in an ad. (Note: it’s not clear whether this ad is genuine or a spoof, but enjoy the chuckle, and frankly, it’s not far off of what we’re seeing and hearing ever day.)
Six Ideas on Forming the Right Competitive Culture:
1. Choose to compete with class and professionalism. We all choose our style of competing in business. We have the opportunity to attack and assassinate the character of our competitors, or, we can go about winning business with class and professionalism. Opting for the latter doesn’t mean that you don’t compete with ferocity, it just means that you do so in a manner that allows you to comfortably look in the mirror at yourself.
2. Use negative competition as rocket fuel for your team. Competition is inherent in business (and life). Recognize it as fuel that catalyzes action and drives improvement. Use it to motivate, energize and foster innovation.
3. Don’t flirt with character disaster. The philosophy of “Win at All Costs” is an invitation to flirt with and engage in unethical behavior. Resist the flirtation. The cost of your character should be higher than winning the next deal.
4. Negative attacks showcase hollow strategies. Attacking competitors in front of your customer shows how weak and unarmed you truly are. The negative attack is the last resort of the desperate and incompetent. If you have no way to truly create value for your customer, your last and best attempt is to discredit your opponent. This is not a sustainable strategy.
5. Recognize that some people buy the negative sell and you cannot control it. Don’t reduce yourself to your competitor’s level and start launching missiles in return. Focus on solving problems, creating value and resist being baited into a war of mutual destruction. You might lose once in awhile to your muck-raking competitor. That’s OK. The negative buyer is typically the worst kind of customer.
6. Don’t be baited into playing the game. It is good to understand your competitor’s style and tactics. However, resist the urge to build your messaging as a point-counter-point response. Instead, ensure that your process of engaging the client and building value for your offerings makes the negative attacks look like the childish, desperate attempts that they truly are.
The Bottom-Line for Now
Negative political ads are as old as this republic (and older), and likely won’t disappear anytime soon. That’s too bad. The same goes for negative tactics in business. As a leader, you set the tone for how your firm and your team members compete. I vote to focus on creating meaningful differentiation from my competitors and to putting all of our energy into solving customer problems. While the noise from the muck-raking competitors is annoying, it’s rarely fatal to anyone other than those raking the muck in the first place.
Summer Shorts for June 18 from Management Excellence
Filed under: "To Do" List, Career, Professional Growth, Strategy, Values
Resources, great reads and sound bites for your summer weekends
Blink and the week is gone. I’m still not clear how Friday happened so quickly again, but here we are, and here I am with a few suggestions for your weekend professional development time.
Values: These Posts go Great Together (If I do say so myself.)
I truly enjoyed reading Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s “Ten Essentials for Getting Value from Values.” If Ms. Kanter’s article is the main course, try my own recent, “Leading to the Values” as the appetizer. There’s never been a better time to work on making values and value-based leadership relevant in our organizations.
Leadership Fatigue and A Summer of Ideas:
OK, there’s a catch on these articles. The latest edition of the Management Excellence Newsletter was published earlier this week, and the only way to get , “Coping with Leadership Fatigue” and “A Summer of Ideas,” is to subscribe (sign-up form at Management Excellence or Building Better Leaders, far right column). I’ll be happy to monitor any new subscriptions and forward a copy. The newsletter is purely opt-in and all e-mail addresses are protected with my life! Expect a new issue of subscriber only content every 20 days.
My Can’t Wait to Read List:
My stack of great content that I cannot wait to read is growing, and it’s time to get on with it. The current list includes:
Inner Excellence-Achieve Extraordinary Business Success Through Mental Toughness, by Jim Murphy.
Strategic Speed-Mobilize People, Accelerate Execution by Jocelyn Davis, Henry Frechette and Edwin Boswell.
And
12 Steps to Power Presence: How to Exert Your Authority to Lead, by John Baldoni
What’s on your “Can’t wait to read list?”
Speaking of Reading, My Favorite Book Reviewer is Wally Bock
With the disclosure that I consider Wally a friend and valued colleague (a wonderful connection developed through social media), this polished and smart professional is the best book reviewer out there. He spends a disproportionate amount of my book budget with his compelling reviews. Check out the reviews and stay for the great blog.
This Week’s Daily Leadership Tips at Building Better Leaders:
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Enjoy your weekends. Back Monday with a fresh cup of Leadership Caffeine!
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