Archive for June, 2010
The Answer to Any Question June 11 2010 6 responses
I'm in Florida on a business trip this morning and was watching the crew from Morning Joe broadcast live from Pensacola Beach as I was getting dressed and packing up in my hotel room. It's beyond sad watching the people there stay brave in the face of what they know is coming – millions of gallons of oil that's going to foul their beaches, destroy their environment and kill businesses that provide jobs and feed families.
With each new guest, essentially the same question was asked, "How did this happen?" I have a terrible feeling that we're going to be asking that question about the Gulf oil spill and a lot of other disasters for years and years to come. For every time we ask it, there will be all sorts of technical answers but at the simplest level, I think there is one answer to the question.
BP’s Tony Hayward: Worst Leader of the Year June 9 2010 2 responses
I’ll acknowledge that it’s just too easy to nominate BP CEO Tony Hayward as the worst leader of the year. Granted, he’s got some stiff competition, but he deserves every inch of the big target on his back. Like a lot of people, I’ve got a crick in my neck from shaking my head after all of the stupid things he’s said and feckless things he’s done.
If you Google the phrase “Tony Hayward quotes”, the first result you’ll get back will be a link to a helpful compilation of them at a website called NowPublic.com. They’re all sourced. Here are some of my favorites:
Video Book Club: Brag June 8 2010 no responses
If you’ve ever said something along the lines of “If I do good work, it will speak for itself,” then you need to watch this week’s Video Book Club segment to learn why that can be a dangerous way to go. Inspired by Peggy Klaus’ book, Brag!: The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn without Blowing It
Take a look.
What Would Wooden Say? June 7 2010 4 responses
It's easy to conclude that they just don't make them like John Wooden anymore. Like my grandfather, who passed away at age 93 a couple of years ago, Wooden was literally a man from another century. As so many tributes over the weekend recalled, he was the winningest coach in college basketball history leading UCLA to 10 national championships in the 1960's and 1970's. He was so much more than that though.
As evidenced by the many former players including Bill Walton and Kareem Abdul-Jabar who flew in from around the country and around the world to stand watch at his deathbed, Wooden shaped lives. He did it through his coaching, his teaching, his actions and his words. One article I read about him said that he never accepted a salary at UCLA that was higher than $32,500 because it wouldn't be modest. As my mother asked me in a phone call last night, how often do we even hear the word modest anymore?
For the past year or so, I've been using the following Wooden quote to close my presentations because I love the way he described the effect of continuous improvement:
When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur… Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That's the only way it happens and when it happens it lasts.
Wooden, for me, has been a Yoda like figure. Small stature, but huge in wisdom. I've been thinking the past couple of days about what he would say about the quality of leadership in the public arena these days. What would his take be on oil spills in the Gulf, safety violations that led to the deaths of coal miners, short term interest decisions that led to the near collapse of the global economy? We'll never know what Wooden would have said about the failure of leadership in these and other arenas, but by reading through some of his quotes, I think we can make an educated guess:
Leadership Moments of Truth as Presented by Baseball June 4 2010 one response
Who would have thought that the feel good story of the week would be one of the biggest blown calls in the history of baseball? By now, you’ve probably heard the story of how Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga had a perfect game plucked from his grasp when first base umpire Jim Joyce called the runner safe when he was clearly out in what should have been the last play of the game. Galarraga himself was covering first and stepped on the bag with the ball in his glove a good step and a half before the runner got there.
Galarraga and the rest of the Tigers were getting ready to celebrate when he looked over to see Joyce signaling safe. That’s when a series of moments of truth began that have led to such a captivating story. In a time when oil company executives spend their time in front of Congress blaming each other for an environmental disaster and there are countless other examples of nominal leaders not taking accountability for their actions, we get a really simple and clear example of how we’d like our leaders to act and how we hope we’d respond in similar circumstances.
Here are three simple lessons from the blown call and its aftermath:
Who In The Hell Are “They”? June 2 2010 one response
I don’t mean to be rude with the title question of this post, but I’ve learned over the last four or five years of coaching that it’s a great question to ask yourself. Here’s why.
How many times have you been in a conversation with a group of colleagues that goes something like this?
Wow, they totally don’t get it. They are so far removed from reality that they really just don’t know what’s going on. They should be doing something to change the situation but they don’t even know where to start. You know, what else? For the most part, they’re all like that.
Admit it. You’ve been in those conversations. Here’s how it usually plays out. A bunch of corporate directors are sitting around talking about the corporate vice presidents and how they don’t get it. Or a bunch of GS-15’s are hanging out talking about the SES leaders in their agency and how they don’t get it. I know those conversations go on because when I speak to leaders at any level, I usually ask them if they’ve been in conversations like that. As soon as I ask the question, there are a lot of embarrassed, sheepish expressions spreading throughout the room. Almost everybody’s done it. I used to do it myself on a semi-regular basis when I was a corporate executive.
There is always something “they’re” doing that you can complain about or criticize.
But, before you go any further, stop and ask yourself, “Who in the hell are they?” They may be closer than you think.
Video Book Club: The Corporate Culture Survival Guide June 1 2010 one response
If you’ve ever been a part of two organizations coming together as one, you know how challenging that can be. More mergers fail than succeed and a big reason why is a mismatch between the cultures. If you’re a leader responsible for shaping a culture that works (and what leader isn’t?), then you need to take a look at this week’s Video Book Club feature.
It’s The Corporate Culture Survival Guide
Scott Eblin is an executive coach, speaker and author of 
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