Archive for May, 2009

What Matters to You? May 28 2009

If you skew a little bit “old school,” you probably remember a series of TV ads for Dunkin’ Donuts that featured a shop manager who wearily woke up at 3:00 am every day with the mordant refrain, “Time to make the donuts.”  My wife recently saw a bumper sticker with the (edited here for public consumption) phrase, “Freakin’ Donuts.”  If you’re old enough to remember, then you’re in on the joke.  Sometimes life can feel like it’s just one more day of making the donuts.

I find this happens when you get overly focused on the tasks that stack up in front of you.  All those donuts can cause you to lose sight of the bigger purpose and picture.  Leaders (and I definitely include myself here), need to pull the lens back on a regular basis and ask themselves, “What really matters to me?”  Getting clear on your answers to that question can help you clarify your priorities and even come up with some innovative ways to address them.

So, how did I come up with this point and why am I bringing it up now?  Well, it so happens that I’m married to a really excellent coach named Diane who asked me last night to make a list of the things that matter to me.  Once we covered the basics (e.g. strong marriage, healthy kids, food and shelter), I moved on to other things that matter to me.  Since I’m a leadership coach, one of the obvious answers is leadership.  But, if you think about it, good leadership is a means to an end.  So, Diane kept asking, “What else matters to you?”  Here’s my list:

Diverse Conversations May 26 2009

Have you noticed how many books are out there on how to have conversations? There are books on powerful, difficult, crucial and fierce conversations. Who knew there were so many flavors?

Recently, my coaching colleague, Dr. Janice Shack Marquez of the Federal Reserve Board, shared on the Georgetown Leadership Coaching Program listserv a terrific summary that compares three of the well known books on conversations. I liked it so much that I asked Janice if she’d like to run it on the Next Level blog.  She said yes, so here it is.  Thanks Janice!

What Followers Want From Their Leaders May 22 2009

As an executive coach and someone who spends a lot of my time trying to figure out how leaders can be more effective, you can imagine how excited I was to learn that there is all kinds of new data out on employee satisfaction in the federal government. The Partnership for Public Service has released the results of its biannual Best Places to Work in the Federal Government report. Being the total leadership geek that I am, it’s been a lot of fun for me to get online and sort through the 74 employee survey questions that the study is based upon. What’s even more fun for me is the direct comparison between the public and private sectors on 13 benchmark questions from the Best Places to Work studies.

(I know what you’re thinking.  “Wow, he needs to find a hobby or something.”  You may be right, but hang with me as I’m getting to the really good stuff.)

In Praise of Grown-Ups May 20 2009

The level of public discourse and obvious self interest on the part of people in leadership positions can be pretty discouraging. Oftentimes, it seems like the first instinct of leaders under pressure is to call names, deny responsibility and look out only for their self interest. It literally seems childish.

On the other hand, we sometimes have the privilege of seeing leaders in action who demonstrate maturity through reasoned, principled responses and generally acting like grown-ups should act. Over the past week, I’ve noticed three public sector leaders who have done that. There are some basic principles these leaders demonstrated that I think all leaders should strive to emulate.

What Leaders Can Learn from Springsteen May 18 2009

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are coming to DC tonight.  Unfortunately, I don’t have tickets but I do have an iPod full of the Boss’s music and great memories of a Springsteen show I saw a few years ago.  What is it about Springsteen and the band that inspires such loyalty among their legions of followers?  Apart from drifting on rock and roll fantasies, what can leaders learn from the Boss and the heart stopping, house rocking, earth shaking, legendary E Street Band?

In a brief interview with the Washington Post's J. Freedom du Lac (how’s that for a very cool name?), E Street guitarist Nils Lofgren provides some insights on the Boss for leaders who want to rock the house.

Marshmallows May 15 2009

Thought I’d cap off a busy week by sharing with you three articles that I’m looking forward to digging into this weekend. The first two come from the current issue of The New Yorker.  One recaps the famous study on kids who are promised two marshmallows if they can keep themselves from eating the one that’s placed in front of them for a short period of time.  Researchers are revisiting that study to see what can be learned about teaching self-control. (For an example of how hard it is for a five year old not to gobble up a marshmallow, check out this clip – stay with it through the guy that’s talking in the first 30 seconds or so): 

I’m not sure if the editors of The New Yorker meant to send a message with their story selection, but later in the same issue is a fascinating article called the “The Death of Kings.”  It recounts how the overuse of leverage over the past twenty years led to the excessive consumption that has put the global economy where it is today.  (I don’t want just two marshmallows. I want 20 million marshmallows!). One of the more interesting aspects of the article is the recitation of different epiphanies  that  Wall Street financiers had that told them things were about to radically change.  One that struck me was someone noticing that the $350 million opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics came just a month before the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

The last article I plan to take a closer look at this weekend is the cover story in this month’s issue of The Atlantic.  It’s called “What Makes Us Happy?” and reviews 72 years of research at Harvard about what leads to and constitutes a long and happy life.  Bad news for the makers of Lipitor -  the study finds that cholesterol counts at age 50 don’t matter so much. What does matter is the quality of one’s relationships and the capacity to make “mature adaptations” (e.g.  altruism, humor, planning ahead, impulse control and finding healthy outlets for potentially damaging emotions like aggression and lust). 

Is it just me, or does everything seem to come back to the marshmallow study?

Newseum or Mausoleum? May 13 2009

Last Saturday, I took my mom, dad and son into D.C. to see the Newseum, the Freedom Forum’s monument to journalism and free speech.  It’s a beautiful new building situated on Pennsylvania Avenue with an amazing view of the U.S. Capitol.  It also feels like a mausoleum to something that’s almost dead.  Literally the first thing you see before you even enter the building is a long row of display cases on the sidewalk with the daily front pages of newspapers from all 50 states.  One of the next things you see is a wall inside the building with more of the day’s front pages of newspapers from all 50 states and a few foreign countries.  After that, you can walk through a large room with pull out display cases of newspapers from 400 years of history through the present.  Leaving that room, you come upon a tribute to the journalism of 9/11.  What draws your eye is a large wall of reproductions of newspaper front pages covering the attack on the World Trade Center.

Do you sense a theme here?  Newspapers are at the heart of the Newseum.  Sure, there are exhibits on television and radio journalism.  There’s a bit on internet based journalism, but those exhibits feel like they were grudgingly bolted on by the curators.  It’s clear that when the Newseum was designed and built over the last several years that it was primarily about newspapers.  I think what it has turned out to be is a reminder of what happens when leaders become so wedded to a delivery channel or a process that they ignore what’s changing in the world around them.

Two Captains Talking Over Dinner May 11 2009

Readers in the Washington, DC area are probably familiar with the annual White House Correspondents Dinner.  The latest edition took place over the weekend.  Often described as DC’s version of the senior prom, the dinner is an opportunity for journalists and politicians to dress up, make jokes at each other’s expense and to gawk at all of the celebrity guests that are invited by different media organizations. In addition to the biggest celebrity, the President, the guest list included Eva Longoria Parker, Sting, Natalie Portman, Steven Spielberg and Jon Bon Jovi. 

No doubt, there were some interesting conversations going on and, as you can see on this You Tube clip, the president delivered a pretty funny stand-up comedy routine. 

At the risk of coming across like a complete leadership geek, however, the conversation at the dinner that I would have most loved to be privy to is the one that might have happened when two of the celebrity guests got together to compare notes. Captain Richard Phillips, the freighter captain who was rescued from Somali pirates by Navy SEALS, and Captain “Sully” Sullenberger  of US Airways "Miracle  on the Hudson" fame were both at the dinner.  I have no idea if they spent any time together (I hope they did.), but that would have been one very interesting conversation to listen in on.  Wouldn’t you love to  hear them compare notes on how they led in a crisis and how they’ve handled the acclaim that has since come their way?

Here’s a short list of what I could see them talking about and what we can learn from these two leaders.

Ramirez and Specter – Bigger Than the Game May 8 2009

What do newly suspended slugger Manny Ramirez and newly less-senior U.S.  Senator Arlen Specter have in common?  Nothing you say?  Au contraire.  I’d suggest that until very recently, perhaps, they both considered themselves to be bigger than the game they played.

Success Rules of Underdogs May 6 2009

In his latest New Yorker article, “How David Beats Goliath,”  Malcolm Gladwell tells stories of how outmatched underdogs beat their much larger, more experienced competitors. He begins with the story of an inexperienced 12 year old girls basketball team that went all the way to the national championship game by running a relentless full court press every game.  He moves onto the story of David slaying Goliath and cites some fascinating research by Harvard political scientist Ivan Arreguin-Toft who studied every war fought in the last 200 years that pitted strong and weak opponents against each other.  On the whole, the underdogs won 28% of the time. When they recognized their weaknesses and adapted their strategies to compensate for them they won 64% of the time.

Pretty stunning, huh?  Gladwell’s article got me thinking about what leaders need to learn from underdogs.  Over the past seven months, as the Federal government has taken a much more active role in stimulating the economy, reviving the financial services sector and restructuring the auto industry, we’ve been regularly reminded of Richard Nixon’s observation in 1971 (and Milton Friedman’s before that) that, “We are all Keynesians now.”  As we move through the downturn and into recovery, perhaps leaders need to adopt the mindset of, “We are all underdogs now.”  With that in mind, here are three success rules of underdogs that can help leaders facing long odds.