Peace On Earth, Good Will To All
Want to Make A Difference? Treat Leadership as a Calling
Filed under: Developing Others, Developing Yourself, Leadership & Career
The most effective leaders that I’ve observed, worked for, mentored and studied all have one thing in common. They have a deep regard for the impact of their role on others and they treat this responsibility like a precious gift, holding it in trust and preparing to pass it along to the next generation.
These leaders view their profession as a calling, not a job. They view themselves as teachers and mentors and coaches and they practice these disciplines relentlessly.
Alternatively, those individuals that I’ve observed struggling in their roles tend to focus on the transactional components of daily business while preoccupying on the trappings of leadership, including false perceptions of power and prestige.
These less effective and less satisfied leaders have yet to accept their role as something greater than a job with a title, a salary and maybe an office with a door. Often, these are the leaders that we don’t hear from in the form of feedback, or if we do, it is destructive and critical instead of constructive and developmental.
Are Servant Leaders Weak Leaders?
While some might bristle or take issue with the characterization of leadership as a calling, viewing this description as representing a style as soft or weak, I vehemently disagree.
Some of the best servant leaders that I know set expectations high and are consistently rewarded with performance that exceeds those expectations. They’ve nailed the leadership challenges all the way from talent selection and development to the effective use of feedback, coaching and mentoring.
Part and parcel of getting the elements of leading right includes dealing fairly with poor performers, reinforcing consistent application of core values and making timely, tough decisions every single day. No weak leaders here.
Depending upon your circumstances while you are reading this…current leader or aspiring leader, know that you have a choice to make every day that you walk in the door. You can model your behavior and performance after one that views the honor of leading as a calling, or you can ignore this deeper issue around leading to your own disadvantage.
Make the right choice. You’ve got lives to positively impact and organizations to grow.
Feedback-Performance Enhancement for Leaders Without the Pill
Filed under: Developing Key Skills, Developing Others, Developing Yourself
Note from Art: this post moved quickly from noble to possibly R-rated. For anyone offended by my move towards the slightly irreverent, quit reading now! As for the owners of Viagra, all copyrights and trademarks are clearly yours.
“No one ever told me that before.” I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve heard some variant of that grammatically challenged statement. It is generally uttered by someone that is a member of the “Never Receive Feedback” club right after receiving something that is eye-opening and genuinely appreciated. I’m no longer shocked to learn that yet another otherwise good individual is a charter member of this club. Shocked, no, but disappointed always.
By the way, the feedback topic runs through the leadership blogosphere faster than Usain Bolt at a track meet and with greater frequency than Bear’s QB Jay Cutler throwing an interception. (Sorry, Bears fans, I know it’s been a tough year.)
We all talk about it, but the reality is that YOU need to start talking to your people about their own performance. The effective execution of the Feedback cycle is perhaps the most powerful performance-enhancing tool available to a leader, regardless of his or her level. It’s too bad that this tool often goes unused…or in some cases, it is used improperly.
My advice: become great at the art of delivering effective constructive and positive feedback and you improve your own effectiveness, enhance your stature as a leader and improve your own career opportunities!
All that and no evil side effects. Dare I call it a Viagra-like tool for leaders?
The sad but true realities:
- Most leaders are not trained on how to deliver feedback. OK, in my surveys and programs, I find this to be true. However, it doesn’t mean that you cannot seek out one of the many great programs or books on the topic. Note & Plug: We spend a great deal of time helping you develop this skill in our Building Better Leaders programs.
- Many people avoid delivering constructive feedback out of fear of offending or out of fear of not being liked. Get over it. This isn’t a popular contest. Proving your credibility and earning respect are essential. Being liked is purely a luxury. And rather than hurt someone’s feelings, if handled properly, most individuals will be grateful that you took the time to help them identify how to improve
- Mangers complain that they are too busy to take the time to conduct feedback discussions. All managers that are too busy to do this, please report to the wall at sunrise and pick up your blindfold and cigarette.
- Many managers feel that they dispense feedback at appropriate levels. The feedback from their team members doesn’t support that perception. Strong, silent types need not apply. It’s time to turn listening and observing (very important) into specific, behavioral and business-focused input that someone can do something with immediately.
- Some leaders adopt a “if you don’t hear from me, you’re doing fine” approach. Sounds lazy to me. Please join the crowd gathering at the wall.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
If you manage, spend time this year improving your feedback skills.
If you want to manage or lead, get this right from the beginning. If no one is teaching you, teach yourself. Oh, and ask for feedback!
If you manage managers, what’s your plan to get everybody talking about the right stuff? It’s on you.
Feedback, the legal performance enhancing workplace drug. Use it. No bathtubs, flowers or candle-lit dinners required. Just immediate performance enhancement where and when you need it.
New Leader? Six Suggestions for Closing Your Context Gap
Filed under: Developing Key Skills, Developing Yourself, Leadership & Career
Note from Art: Don’t miss out on the combined Management Excellence/Building Better Leaders e-newsletter. Sign up and join our database before midnight, Wednesday, December 16, 2009 and you might just win a copy of my book (with Rich Petro), Practical Lessons in Leadership-A Guidebook for Aspiring and Experienced Leaders.
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New leaders…either those that are first-time leaders or those that find themselves responsible for leading a new team, deal with extremely high degrees of ambiguity at start-up. They lack context for the people, the team culture, the issues, group and individual dynamics and so many important variables in the environment, that they find themselves acting on instinct or avoiding acting because of this knowledge gap.
One of the critical challenges for the new leader is quickly closing this context gap to gain a solid footing for decision-making, agenda creation and ultimately to begin driving improvements and better alignment around the organization’s key objectives.
While experienced leaders understand that information is never perfect, they also understand the importance of asking the right questions, listening carefully and observing to quickly assess the culture, people-dynamics and key issues.
Six Suggestions for Closing the Context Gap:
- Meet one on one with everyone that works for you soon after gaining responsibility for a new team. Use the three critical questions: What’s working? What’s not? and What do you need from me to help you better execute your job?
- During the one-on-one sessions, resist the temptation to preach about your own agenda. The reality is that you want help and input in defining the new agenda.
- Share the findings from What’s Working/Not Working? with your team members in a group setting. Ask the group to to interpret the answers/lists and define actions and needed improvements.
- Get outside of your own group and meet with your counterparts in other functional areas. Ask the same three questions, with a twist on #3 to learn what your team can do better to support internal customers.
- Meet with customer facing colleagues or customers to gain insight into what his happening in the market with customer, partners and competitors. Communicate this information to your team.
- Encourage your manager to clarify key corporate strategies and goals and to define how your team is accountable to helping achieve those goals.
The Bottom-Line:
Spend quality time asking questions and listening inside and outside of your team. Share insights and involve your team in interpreting the insights and translating them into priorities and actions.
Your ability to learn to ask the right questions, listen carefully and to communicate your findings to your team members will help you close your start-up context gap. Follow this approach and your credibility as a new leader will grow quickly as your team appreciates your efforts to involve and educate them from the start.
How Not to Build a Better Leader!
Filed under: Developing Others, Developing Yourself, Leadership & Career
I had a great conversation the other day with a talented twenty-something who just exudes confidence, competence and excitement about her career and her interest in professional development. Her reviews are top flight, she has been managing a major client account to great results, and she is actively pursuing her M.B.A. degree. This is one motivated young professional!
It’s too bad that her biggest dilemma is, “My job is fine, but I’m starting to get bored. I want some bigger challenges and I want to lead, and they keep telling me that they are working on a program for that. They also tell me that they are worried that any new projects will distract me from my main job. But I have the time and energy to do more.”
First, let’s tackle the program issue. A program for what? A program to figure out how to give an aggressive, capable person more responsibility? A program to magically teach someone how to lead, when there are ample opportunities to begin learning in the workplace every day?
You don’t need a stinking program to sit down with your team members and talk about next steps and then work together to define some good developmental challenges. You as manager and leader must be interested in ensuring that people are challenged, learning and growing. There’s no HR program in the world that replaces your responsibility to spend time challenging and coaching your team members. You own this responsibility.
As a manager and developer of early career talent, here’s a newsflash. Leadership and talent development is free. Your only cost is time and maybe a bit of creativity.
I like to apply Ram Charan’s “Apprenticeship” approach, where you as the manager are responsible for providing your employee with a series of increasingly ambiguous challenges. Over time as the individual confronts the challenges, they are gaining valuable and relatively risk-free experience learning to cope with the realities of more responsibility. (Note: I guide participants through one of these programs in my course: Considering the Move to Leadership-What to Expect and How to Prepare.)
Often, the outcome of this program is that individuals begin to zero in on what they truly want to do next…manage others, manage projects or focus on developing their skills as an individual contributor. Without the apprenticeship program to uncover interests and identify strengths and weaknesses, everyone is left guessing.
As for my conversation partner, I encouraged her to take the initiative to outline her own rough career plan and next general steps (she wants to lead) and then sit down with her managers and share this plan and ask for their help. She of course is responsible for convincing them that she is capable of executing here current role without missing a beat, and I encouraged her to position herself as someone both interested in contributing more and solving more problems as well as someone that welcomes coaching.
She will learn a lot about her managers if they continue to push her off, and she will learn a lot about herself if they appropriately support her. Either way, it’s worth politely pushing the issue.
Learning to Project Confidence to Grow Your Career
Filed under: Developing Key Skills, Developing Yourself, Leadership & Career
Confidence is contagious. Arrogance will clear a room like rotting fish wrapped in newspaper and left to cure sans refrigeration. And lack of confidence is guaranteed to get you stepped on during most days.
The perception by managers and executives of where you fall on the continuum of not self assure at all on one end to arrogant on the other is important. You of course, want to fall right in the sweet spot of appropriately confident.
The people that dole out promotions and project assignments are looking for talent and looking for help from people that they can trust. Your portrayal of your self-confidence will impact this perception and impact your job and career progression.
Will You Pass the Blink Test?
As an early career professional, I recall being subjected to the blink test by our organization’s most powerful and feared executive. He wanted little to do with rookies and he was famous for occasionally singling one out to make his or her life a living hell. Perhaps it was his approach to seeing what people were made of, but it was odd and uncomfortable and as a result, we steered clear of him.
We had uncovered what we thought was a major software bug in our flagship product, and I had been working for several days to confirm the problem and particulars. This was a serious enough of an issue that because of its potential for problems in the installed base my manager encouraged me to bypass channels and share the findings with this feared executive. I screwed up the courage to approach his secretary and request an appointment. A few hours later, I had my chance and I explained the problem, answered questions and then faced his confidence test.
He basically indicated that he didn’t believe me and that my tests must have been conducted incorrectly. I politely but firmly reiterated that the tests were valid and the results clear. He then proceeded to step into my personal space and stare at me. I stared back, recognizing that a flinch or even a blink would show weakness. While time moved to a crawl during this contest of conviction, what seemed like five minutes to me was estimated at about 45 seconds from some interested observers.
I never blinked. He backed down and said, “OK, we’ll see if you are right. You can have my top resources to work with you on this problem.”
The moral to that story: I was armed with facts, confident in my approach and committed to getting this problem recognized and fixed. Any sign of weakness, including blinking, and I would have lost the moment. Any sign of arrogance and he would have been challenged to beat me down.
8 Suggestions for Developing and Projecting Confidence:
- First, for those that suffer from too much self-confidence…tending towards arrogance, you are in for a rough ride. Unless you back your superstar attitude with superstar performances, you are in for some corporate beat-downs. If you sense that few of the managers and executives perceive you as someone with a big “S” on your chest, it’s time to gain some feedback and get help.
- Results count, so let’s make a tacit assumption that you are doing everything in your power to pursue and deliver excellence in your results.
- Confidence is not synonymous with how much noise you make. As an executive, I particularly enjoyed finding the quietly confident professionals that didn’t feel compelled to showboat to gain attention.
- Your nonverbal behavior is critical. Estimates indicate that as much as 90% or more of your message is communicated by your non-verbal behaviors. A simple one is to make certain that you are employing good posture. (Mom was right, stand up and sit up straight!) Another is to ensure that when you talk to or listen to others, you are looking them in the eyes. Looking down or away is perceived as a sign of disinterest or lack of confidence.
- Learn and practice active listening skills. Acknowledge comments and input and ask clarifying questions. Show that you care about what the other person is saying.
- It’s OK to be nervous, just don’t show it. Learn to flip a switch when faced with executive encounters. Even though it may feel unnatural, after some practice and success, you will find that rather than fear the encounters, you welcome the chance to interact with executives.
- “I don’t know, but I will check and get back to you,” shows infinitely more self-confidence than either making something up or simply dropping you head in an admission of weakness.
- Plan your message for scheduled encounters and importantly, learn to communicate at the right level of detail.
The Take-Away
One of my favorite examples of this was from a client who avoided taking the elevators in her building for fear of running into executives. It seemed that every time she had an encounter she managed (in her opinion) to say something dumb. With a bit of coaching and practice and the self-confidence that comes from this practice, I can assure you that this individual is back to riding the elevators again.
Grow and appropriately showcase your self-confidence to grow your career.
Decisions, Decisions-How’s Your Decision Making Agility?
A Building Better Leaders Briefing:
Your decision-making style and pace directly impact your team’s performance. Wait for perfect clarity before putting your stamp on a key decision and you will have metaphorically held your team hostage. Jump too fast and make off-the-cuff calls and your errors and reversals will climb. (A reversal is that decision that countermands an earlier decision that turned out to be wrong.)
Early career professionals often struggle with “fear of the unknown.” They are new and lack a base of experience to draw upon and to help frame situations. As a result, they often hesitate to make a call, because they are not certain what’s on the other side of their decision.
Experienced professionals tend to have a better understanding of the issues surrounding a decision, but are often fearful of having their name attached to a decision that turns out to be wrong. Instead of putting themselves in what they perceive as harms way, they will hunker down and forestall making a call, much to the chagrin of team members.
And some professionals suffer from “Ready, Fire, Aim” syndrome, where they take pride in making instantaneous battle-field calls.
All of these styles breed inefficiency and dysfunction in the working environment.
Decisions are in large part about managing risk and there are a few simple questions that you can ask and answer to yourself that can help you improve your decision-making effectiveness.
Key Questions to Ask and Answer to Improve Your Decision Making Effectiveness:
- What is the implication of not making this decision? Will the lack of a decision hurt the business or strengthen a competitor? Am I holding a colleague hostage by not making this decision?
- How time sensitive is the issue?
- Recognizing that perfect information is rare, do I have a reasonable amount of information to make this decision?
- What is the benefit of making the decision? Does this help the business? Does this enable a colleague or team to proceed?
- What is the worst-case implication of this decision being wrong? Is this business threatening? Job threatening?
- How can I mitigate the worst-case scenario to resolve this decision-dilemma? Talk with my boss? Engage other colleagues or leaders?
In My Experience:
Over my career, I’ve typically found that not making a decision is more damaging than making one with incomplete information. Experienced decision-makers develop the ability to process the questions above at the right level of detail and at the right pace and determine whether the information is sufficient and the risks manageable.
While our experience can lead to “framing errors,” where we incorrectly assume that we understand the context of the decision, I’ve found that sanity checking my thinking with other trusted advisors….those willing to tell me that I’m nuts, helps as well.
There’s no easy cure for the dysfunctional culture that preaches innovation and risk-taking and then metaphorically shoots those that make decisions that don’t work out as planned, but, you can hedge your risk by involving others. Develop your answers to the questions above and share these answers with other stakeholders (boss, peers, executives) and get them invested in the issue. Don’t ask them for a decision…that’s your job, but, you can absolutely inform them of your approach and the risks and benefits and at least gain their acknowledgement if not agreement of your recommendation.
The Bottom-Line:
Work hard to hone your decision-making skills and be sensitive to any tendency to forestall based on fear or to rush based on gut, without having thought through the questions. It’s a balancing act that requires the development of your decision-making agility.
Promoted from Within-A True Career Conundrum
Building Better Leaders Career Tips:
One of the most difficult transitions for any professional is moving from team member to formal team manager or leader. If you are on the receiving end of this positive acknowledgement of your capabilities, be prepared to deal with some unexpected headaches as you navigate these deceivingly treacherous waters.
Consider:
- You are no longer “one of the gang.” You are the boss. Don’t expect to be invited to lunch quite as often (or at all) or to be part of the backslapping and behind the scenes joking that was part of your pre-promotion life. Everyone knows you’re the boss, and while you are still the same person…you now have some degree of control over the career fortunes of the people on your team. The sooner that you come to grips with this reality, the faster you can get on with establishing your leadership credibility.
- Speaking of credibility, don’t expect everyone on your team to embrace you as the leader. There likely were several other individuals interested in the role (and pay bump), and the smiles might be visible on the outside, but you just don’t know what people are really thinking. And while it’s not critical that everyone like you, your issue is one of earning respect. Right now for some, you are guilty until proven innocent.
- Your unique technical skills and knowledge that made you successful pre-promotion are not the same core skills that will allow you to succeed in your new role. Be prepared to let go of “guru” or “expert” status. The job is about finding and developing new experts on the team.
5 Suggestions and Some Encouragement:
1. If this is your first leadership role, find a mentor and get some guidance. Hopefully, your manager is there for you, but the reality is that first-time leaders are often left to sink or swim on their own. A majority sink. Don’t let that be you.
2. Resist the urge to try and remain “one of the gang” or to adopt its evil twin, “I’m in charge.” Both are lousy approaches that will get you into trouble quickly.
3. Meet with your team members individually and use the session to ask questions and listen. I like the three questions: What’s working? What’s not working? And What do you need me to do? These questions are short, sweet and if you stay quiet and listen, you will learn a great deal and take one step down the path towards credibility.
4. There are often easy victories to deliver, and while you don’t want to bank your reputation on them, they don’t hurt. If you learn of major problems…i.e. old equipment that slows people down, departmental policies that are pointless or overly complicated, you owe it to everyone to fix some things.
5. Learn the ultimate credibility building rule, “The do must match the tell,” and live it every day. People judge you by how well you back actions with words.
Your Takeaway:
Once you move through the early awkward phase without shooting yourself in both feet, the fact that you know your team members and they know you can be a distinct advantage for all parties. Focus on becoming a leader and accept that you need to cultivate a new group of peers across the organization. Emphasize what you can do to help others and the team, and your growing credibility will allow you to both guide and assert when necessary from the position of leader, not former peer.
As an Executive, Here’s How I’m Evaluating You Every Day
Someone once asked me when I evaluate people and my answer was a trite but true, “at every encounter.”
For those of you early in your careers, forewarned is forearmed, and for those of you suffering from the malady of mid-level malaise, here are a few thoughts to help you snap out of it.
First, recognize that good executive managers are evaluating your performance constantly. They are watching and listening and learning about you when you give project updates. They’re paying attention to how you conduct yourself during group settings and how you manage through problem situations.
The best managers are on the lookout for talent and for potential problems and you need to be aware of how you are being evaluated.
How and Where I’m Evaluating You on a Daily Basis:
- How do you think as a businessperson and problem-solver? While I’m unable to crawl into your mind, I form an opinion of how you view the world and how you work through solving problems and/or generating ideas based on repeated exposures. In particular, I’m looking for people that grasp the essence of issues and are able to process quickly and generate creative and workable solutions or alternatives.
- How well do you conduct yourself? Do you project confidence in your verbal and nonverbal communication habits? Are you articulate? Are you comfortable engaging executives? Do you have the confidence to disagree and express alternative perspectives?
- Do you consistently back your words with actions? Tell me that you are going to do something and then make it happen and tell me that is complete….and of course, tell me what you learned along the way. Live up to the credo of the “do matches the tell” and I’m liking you for new opportunities more every day.
- How do other people respond to you? Particularly as I’m looking for new leadership talent or for someone to advance to the next level, I like to observe how people engage with you. Do they go to battle for you on projects or programs that you are leading? Do they count on you for support and guidance.? Are you viewed as a mentor? This area tells me a lot about your ethics, values and your style.
- I’m looking at you and assessing your understanding of our business and how we create value for our customers and ultimately for our firm. Some people are hopelessly mired in the little picture and others the big. I want to see you move seamlessly between the two and to be able to function as a contributor and problem solver in both strata.
Your Takeaway:
Focus on developing the skills that top executives look for in emerging leaders and senior contributors. The three macro categories are: leadership skills (whether you are a formal leader or not); strategic thinking skills and your executive presence (communication skills).
Every encounter is an audition, but instead of acting your way through the audition, focus on strengthening and developing the skills that I’m looking for and applying them every day, whether I’m watching or not. And believe me, I’ll notice.
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