Archive for April, 2010
5 Ways to Close the Line Leader–Staff Leader Gap April 12 2010 no responses
My post from last week on Why Staff Leaders and Line Leaders Have Disconnects generated a lot of thoughtful and provocative comments from readers both on the Next Level blog and on the Executive Coach column at Government Executive magazine’s web site.
In case you missed it, the gist of the original post was that there is often a big disconnect between line and staff leaders because the initiatives that staff leaders drive are often seen as doing little to deliver what is actually required to achieve results. As management guru Dave Ulrich says, deliverables are greater than do-ables. That point certainly seemed to resonate with many of you and your comments offer some great ideas on how to close the line leader – staff leader gap.
In this post, I’m building on some of your ideas and adding some of my own to come up with five ways to close the gap.
What Doesn’t Get Said, Doesn’t Get Heard April 9 2010 one response
My amazing wife Diane and I were talking last night about a post she wrote yesterday on her gluten-free, dairy free cooking blog. She’s really into British chef Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution show on ABC because Oliver has gone to my childhood hometown, Huntington, WV, to help the community learn to eat healthier. In her post, Diane was talking about an episode in which Jamie got a bunch of high school kids together to cook a fancy and healthy dinner for 80 of the movers and shakers in Huntington. Everything went great with the meal and the kids took a lot of pride in learning to cook and serving it to the big shots. The point of Diane’s post was the value of getting your kids in the kitchen to teach them an important life skill like cooking a healthy meal.
We were talking about the importance of taking the time to call out what you want the next generation to learn. That’s a key role for both parents and leaders. That’s one of the points I was trying to make in my post earlier this week about world-renowned chef Thomas Keller training the next generation of chefs in the kitchen of his Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry. Our conversation reminded me of a real life situation that happened to me years ago that taught me the value of calling out what needs to be said. I mentioned it to Diane and she said I had never told her the story. I couldn’t believe that because it’s one of my favorite stories. I told her the story and she loved it. So, I’ll share it with you too. Maybe you’ll love it.
Making the Top 150 April 8 2010 3 responses
It was kind of a kick to learn yesterday that the Next Level blog is on the list of the Top 150 Management and Leadership Blogs as determined by Jurgen Appelo at www.noop.nl. Jurgen is a blogger and executive with an e-commerce solutions company based in the Netherlands. Using objective web rankings and algorithms that I’ll probably never understand, Jurgen came up with his Top 150 list. There are some great blogs listed and you should definitely check it out.
Thanks to Jurgen for taking the time to create the list and thanks to all of you for helping the Next Level blog make the Top 150!
Why Staff Leaders and Line Leaders Have Disconnects April 7 2010 2 responses
In my work as an executive coach, I regularly work with the executive leaders of “staff” functions such as IT, finance, human resources, legal and the like. When I interview the colleagues of these clients to learn what others think about what makes them effective and what they could do to be even more effective, I often hear comments about the distinction between staff and line leaders. That distinction is almost always made by the “line” executives. These are the folks responsible for manufacturing, sales and delivery of the product or service to the customer. As most of them would tell you themselves, they’re the people who make the money.
Here’s the challenge I see for staff leaders. Rightly or wrongly, most line leaders feel like what they do is way more important than what the staff leaders do. As a result, they often don’t have a lot of patience with the different initiatives or requirements promoted by staff leaders. One result is a disconnect between the line and the staff. Lots of time and effort is spent on initiatives that don’t get a lot of traction because the line leaders don’t value them and spend as little time as possible on them. So the result of that for staff leaders is that their roles and internal brand become diminished and they don’t make the contributions they could or should.
One of my mentors, Dave Ulrich, summed up the solution to this dilemma in a simple mathematical statement years ago:
D > d
That means Deliverables are greater than do-ables. That’s an idea that line leaders overlook at their peril. The Deliverables are the big things that have to happen in order to meet the strategic objectives of the organization (e.g. on-time delivery, profitability, new product development, etc.). So, to use an HR example, developing and recruiting the talent to develop new products is a key deliverable. There are lots of things to do (or do-ables) that roll up to delivering top talent to the organization. The disconnect comes when staff leaders don’t position their do-ables in the strategic context of the deliverables. Without linking everything back to the big question, “What are we trying to accomplish and why does it matter?,” all of the initiatives and requirements that staff leaders promote just seem like a long list of “time-sucking things they want me to do now” to most line leaders.
In an upcoming post, I’ll share some of the ways that really effective staff leaders build productive and mutually appreciated relationships with line leaders. In the meantime, what’s your take on the staff leader/line leader disconnect? What are you seeing on that front? What are your theories about root causes? What are your tips for making things better?
Video Book Club: The Checklist Manifesto April 6 2010 no responses
You may not think that an entire book about checklists could possibly be interesting, but surgeon Atul Gawande pulls it off in The Checklist Manifesto
In my VBC review of the book, I share some of my big takeaways from The Checklist Manifesto
Cooking Up Your Leadership Legacy April 5 2010 one response
Food is a big deal in my house. My wife, Diane, is an accomplished cook and food blogger and, lucky for me, I get to eat her great meals. So, we were both interested in an article that ran in the Financial Times over the weekend about how one of the best chefs in the world, Thomas Keller, is training the next generation of great chefs at his acclaimed Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry. It takes at least six months to get a dinner reservation there. Some good friends of ours had dinner there last week and Diane is getting together with one of them today to hear all the details. Dining at The French Laundry is definitely on our bucket list.
The FT article focused on a couple of young chefs who are in the midst of three month stints in the kitchen of The French Laundry. Both of these guys are accomplished in their own rights and one of them comes from a family of French chefs that owns a Michelin three star restaurant of its own. They’re no slouches themselves and, yet, they take three months off to apprentice alongside Keller and the rest of his team.
The Wine Spectator ran a special issue on Keller last month and part of the package was a two page spread on the dozens of great chefs around the world who have trained with him. Along with creating great food, Keller is clearly passionate about building a legacy of talent that will carry on long after he’s hung up his apron. How is he teaching this next generation? Here are a few things I learned from the FT article on his apprenticeship program that could apply to just about any leader who wants to build a legacy for the future:
What Does It Take to Be a Global Executive? April 2 2010 one response
Earlier this week, I received a study on Developing the Global Executive from Jeff Del Rossa a new friend of mine at Development Dimensions International (DDI). The study was authored by some colleagues of Jeff’s at DDI along with two other good friends, Scott Saslow and Nancy Thomas of the Institute of Executive Development (IED).I looked through the study with interest last night as one of the focal points for the second edition of The Next Level
There are some results in the DDI/IED study that seem to line up with the conclusion I’m drawing from my interviews. The study authors surveyed a wide range of global executives and development professionals who support them. One of the questions in the survey was, “What unique skills make for an exceptional global executive?” Here are the five skills that the global executives themselves think are most important:
- Ability to influence or motivate people from different cultures
- Resourcefulness to get things done in an unfamiliar situation
- Cultural sensitivity
- Openness to feedback and change
- Intercultural communication skills
When you think about it, listening is more or less a foundational behavior for each of these top five skills. To really make the connection, I think it’s important to break listening down into some of its higher order components. For instance, the ability to influence or motivate people from different cultures requires questioning and observational skills to learn and understand what the motivators are in a particular culture. Good listeners are typically good questioners and observers. The same principal applies to resourcefulness. Good listeners are generally more resourceful because they’re not afraid to ask for advice and ideas.
Speaking of asking questions, what do you think? When you scan this list of the top five global executive skills, what other core behaviors do you think underlie them?
Truman Thursdays: The Final Installment April 1 2010 no responses
This week, I present the last of ten videos from my overnight visit earlier this year to the USS Harry S Truman. This final installment is an overview clip which includes some parting words from the Truman’s commander, Captain Joe Clarkson, a ship to ship refueling at sea, flight deck activity, a look at how the mess staff feeds 3,000 to 5,000 sailors a day and how the crew stays healthy and fit while under way.
It’s been a lot of fun bringing you these glimpses of leadership and life onboard the Truman over the past couple of months. As I said in the original post, What I Learned on an Aircraft Carrier, it was both inspirational and educational to see what several thousand young people can do when provided with opportunities to take on responsibility and the systems and leadership required to support them in their tasks. Thanks again to the crew of the Truman and to the US Navy to see it all first hand.
Scott Eblin is an executive coach, speaker and author of 
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