Archive for May, 2011
Memorial Day Weekend Reprise May 27 2011 3 responses
As we move into the unofficial beginning of Summer in the United States with the start of Memorial Day weekend, I want to give a reprise to a post I ran at the beginning of last year, What I Learned on an Aircraft Carrier. As is often noted, only two percent of the U.S. population serves in the military that provides protection for us around the globe. As part of the 98 percent who rely on the two percent, I’m very grateful that I had the opportunity last year to see firsthand how good these professionals are at their jobs.
So, in the midst of the swimming pools opening, the cookouts and the fun this weekend, let’s take a little time to stop and say, “Thank you for your service,” to the active duty and retired men and women of the U.S. armed forces. As we’ve seen again and again, they do amazing work for us in very challenging conditions.
Five Steps to Stay on TRACK With Your Delegation May 25 2011 one response
Yesterday marked the beginning of another Next Level Leadership™ group coaching program with a cohort of high potential leaders at one of our client companies. One of the big events in the first day of the program is to review the results of 360 degree surveys we run for the participants prior to session one. The 360 presents the assessments of colleagues on a range of leadership behaviors that people taking on more responsibility need to master.
Like most groups of high potential leaders I’ve coached over the past five years, the group that started yesterday has a lot of opportunity to make a bigger impact by delegating more effectively to the people on their teams. The kinds of delegation behaviors that regularly show up in the Next Level 360 survey as opportunities for leaders include:
- Regularly takes time to step back and define or redefine what needs to be done.
- Spend less time using his/her functional skills and more time encouraging team members to use theirs.
- Makes clear to his/her team the best ways to involve him/her in the process of achieving the desired result.
- Gets involved in determining solutions only when there is a clear and significant value in him/her doing so.
- Sets up and uses systems to monitor results and the progress towards them.
With the increasing volume of work that everyone expects to get done, more and more of my clients are asking for help on improving their delegation skills. Based on the best practices of leaders who are really excellent at delegation, I’ve come up with a five step approach called TRACK™.
Here’s how it works:
Lead As If You’re Still Going To Be Here May 23 2011 3 responses
As I write this, it is Sunday afternoon and I'm happy to report that, contrary to a firm prediction from the founder of Family Radio, we're all still here. The world didn't end. I have to say that I wasn't really that worried because I've had direct experience with people who were convinced the end of the world was imminent.
Older readers may remember the guy who used to wear a rainbow colored Afro wig and a John 3:16 t shirt and had a knack for getting himself on TV at sporting events in the late 1970’s and 1980s. His name was Rock’n’ Rollen Stewart. My best friend, Ty, and I met him when we were in college and went to Atlanta one weekend to see the PGA Championship. Stewart was standing beside us in the crowd in full regalia and we started talking with him. He wanted to head up to the US Open tennis tournament later in the weekend and was trying to convince us to wear a couple of his extra wigs and represent him in Atlanta as he drove to Flushing Meadows, NY. We politely declined the request but asked him what motivated him to do what he did. He told us that he thought the world was going to end on a particular date in the near future (I don't remember the date but it was going to be on a Friday.) and he wanted to get his message out before then. One of us asked him what he'd do if the world didn't end that day. He told us that he'd take the weekend off and come back the following Monday.
What’s Love Got to Do with It? (i.e. Love, Leadership and Profits) May 20 2011 2 responses
Today I'm at the annual alumni conference for the Georgetown Leadership Coaching Program. The first session I attended was on Love and the Bottom Line led by two fabulous coaches, Sandy Mobley of The Learning Advantage and Lori Zukin of Booz Allen Hamilton.
We began the hour by talking in small conversations about remembering a time when we felt very loved and appreciated at work and a time when we didn't. It was easy for me to come up with an example of the first because every time I come back to a group of Georgetown coaching grads I feel so loved and appreciated as a faculty member that it's practically overwhelming. I had to go pretty far back for an unloved example and landed on the year when I was a first year associate at a now defunct firm on Wall Street. Even though one of the firm's 10 stated values was have fun, we had absolutely none because we were treated like functions of production who, if you weren't still in the office at 10:00 pm, you were a slacker. When I finally got home in the evening to my new wife, I ate too much, drank too many beers and gained 20 pounds that year.
My conversation partner had a similar experience (without the excessive beer drinking) in her last year of a corporate job that went from great to awful. What really struck me about talking with her though was her story of the team she led before she was promoted and got a new boss who was function of production rather than love oriented. My partner told me that when she was first bringing her team together she was very intentional about leading with love and appreciation for her team. The results were so dramatic that she was promoted into the job where she had to report to the boss that took the opposite approach.
As the session with Sandy and Lori went on, we talked about the small actions that can make a big difference in creating an environment in the workplace where people feel loved and appreciated. They're things like really being fully present and attentive in conversations, creating a welcoming space for the people you work with and what Sandy calls GAP, asking people what they're grateful for, what they've accomplished and what they're proud of.
There is an increasing amount of research that demonstrates from a neuroscience perspective the strong correlation between love, appreciation and productivity. (See Barbara Fredrickson's book, Positivity
What will you do today to show the love? What difference do you want it to make?
Four Dogs, One Hero May 18 2011 6 responses
This has been quite a week for high profile people in leadership positions behaving like dogs.
First, we have the head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss Kahn, charged with sexually assaulting a housekeeper in his $3,000 a night hotel room. And, with that, what I would suspect is the only recorded episode of someone staying at both the Sofitel and Riker’s Island within a 48 hour period. As Maureen Dowd writes in her New York Times column, the housekeeper was a young West African woman trying to make her way in the United States. Since Strauss Kahn was arrested at JFK less than four hours after the alleged assault, I can only assume that the management of the hotel immediately backed up and acted on the housekeeper’s report. Kudos to them for supporting their employee.
Next, we have the case of the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, acknowledging that he fathered a child with a household staffer over ten years ago. I first learned of that story when I was with a client who had a flat screen in her office tuned to CNN. As I said to her, you could have knocked me over with a feather that Schwarzenegger was involved in such a situation. Not.
Then, we have the shocking announcement that Donald Trump made at NBC’s annual meeting previewing its Fall TV schedule. Apparently, Trump believes that he can best serve Americans by coming back as the host of Celebrity Apprentice rather than running for President. Of course, as he pointed out, he would have won if he had decided to run. It’s always good to have options.
Finally, we have a dog who is a hero and is actually a dog. You’ve likely heard by now of Cairo, the highly trained German Shepherd scout dog who went in with the Navy SEALS who got bin Laden. Earlier this week, I read an article in Fast Company about dogs like Cairo and the amazing high tech bullet proof vests they wear. The vests enable the dogs to be harnessed in with their handlers so they can both repel down lines from helicopters into dangerous places like bin Laden’s compound. Once they were on the ground at bin Laden’s place, the SEAL handler sent Cairo ahead to scout the situation. As we know, that worked pretty well since the vest Cairo wears is equipped with a high def, see in the dark camera and has audio speakers that enable the handler to whisper commands to Cairo about what to do next. (Too bad some of the leaders mentioned above weren’t equipped with a similar bark and act on command vest.)
Apart from the obvious, what’s the difference between hero dog Cairo (along with the Navy SEALS who went with him) and the figurative dogs mentioned earlier? Unlike his human counterparts (who give dogs a bad name), Cairo knows what the rules are and understands that he has to play by them. I’m also guessing that if he has any ego at all, Cairo has it under control. Finally, on those rare occasions when he might do something stupid, I suspect that Cairo is immediately corrected and set back on the right path. Can you imagine how things might have turned out for Cairo if he was surrounded by enablers and sycophants who reinforced his bad behavior on a regular basis? Good thing he’s a Navy SEAL dog and not running the IMF or the State of California. He might do a great job, though, hosting Celebrity Apprentice.
The Fine Art of GSD: How to Get Stuff Done in a Large Organization May 16 2011 2 responses
One of the highest compliments that can be paid in our house is that someone “GSDs.” While we have a somewhat colorful definition of what GSD means, the polite way to explain it is that it stands for Gets Stuff Done.
When you think about it, getting stuff done is a big part of life. One of the reasons that a lot of leaders and would be leaders are frustrated with their organizations is that it’s hard to get stuff done. Go up against the immovable object too many times and you eventually quit trying. It’s what Martin Seligman, the founding father of the positive psychology movement, calls learned helplessness.
I see this a lot in my coaching work. Even very senior leaders end up talking about “they” – as in “They will never let us do that.” I recently worked with the senior leadership team and some high potential leaders of a client company to identify ways they could streamline their operations to scale their growing business. Prior to the meeting, three areas of opportunities were identified. We brainstormed potential solutions for each opportunity and sorted those out using the criteria of degree of difficulty and likelihood of making a difference. There were a number of ideas that were deemed very likely to make a difference but relatively difficult to do. Almost all of those ideas required influencing or convincing “them” (in this case, staff at the corporate headquarters) to do something different. Just a few months later, I’m happy to see my client leaders using their influencing skills to encourage their corporate counterparts to make changes. They’re getting stuff done.
Someone else who has figured out how to get stuff done is a manager at Pfizer named Jordan Cohen. As recently reported in the Financial Times, Cohen successfully convinced the senior leaders at his company to adopt an initiative he dreamed up called PfizerWorks. Like a lot of people at his level, Cohen noticed that he was spending a good part of his time on low-value-added work like compiling spreadsheets or tweaking PowerPoint decks. His big idea was to build a network of low-cost suppliers to do that work instead so the managers and leaders at Pfizer could spend more time doing the things that only they could do. In the first year of his program, 60,000 hours of employee time were freed up for higher value work.
How did he do it? The FT article provides some answers. Here’s my quick hit list for Getting Stuff Done based on what Cohen did and my own experience in working with clients who know how to do it:
Look Me in the Eyes May 13 2011 3 responses
Earlier this week I gave a speech to a couple of hundred managers about how to stay on track with delegation. As part of the talk, I introduced a step by step approach to effective and worry free delegation and then had the audience split up into groups of three to practice a real life delegation conversation. They did three quick rounds so each person had the opportunity to delegate, receive the delegated task and observe the conversation to offer feedback to the delegator.
When they had finished all three rounds, I roamed the audience with the wireless microphone to hear what they had learned about how to improve their delegation skills. The first guy to speak up had a powerful lesson. He said, “I learned I need to look the other person in the eyes when I delegate. I need to make strong eye contact.”
I loved his response and asked him to say a few words about why eye contact is so important when delegating. He said he had gotten feedback from his peers that he was looking down at the floor when he delegated and that led to three problems that he wanted to avoid:
1. Lack of confidence: By not looking the other person in the eyes, the delegator was sending the message that he wasn’t fully confident in delegating the task.
2. Lack of connection: When you’re asking someone to do something important, you want them to feel a connection to you that conveys how important the task is to you. If you’re in the room with them, you’ve got to look them in the eyes to make that connection.
3. Lack of trust: If you’re looking at the floor when you’re asking someone to do something for you, it can send the message that you don’t really trust them to follow through.
Remember Robert DeNiro’s character in Meet the Parents? He was the retired CIA officer who kept saying to Ben Stiller’s Greg Fokker, “I’m watching you Fokker. Circle of trust, Greg. Circle of trust,” as he’d point at his own eyes and then to Greg’s. Funny stuff, but a great point.
You establish confidence, connection and trust by looking people in the eyes. In an age when everybody’s got their nose buried in a mobile video display, a lot of leaders are missing that opportunity.
What’s your next opportunity to build that circle of trust by looking at someone in the eyes when you talk them or make a request?
Three Ways to Deal with a Smart Aleck (and other rude people in your organization) May 11 2011 2 responses
Wow, I had no idea what kind of nerve I was striking when I wrote a post last week on taming your inner smart aleck. Lots of leader readers left fantastic mea culpa comments that shared stories of the moments of truth that helped cure them of entertaining themselves with caustic comments. In spite of all of that great self-improvement work going on, there’s still a lot of smart aleck and generally rude behavior that people have to put up with at work.
That matters if for no other reason than people are more productive when they’re happy and rude behavior tends to make people unhappy.
Rude behavior is a productivity killer. What can you do to minimize it in your organization?
Here are three ways to lower the rudeness quotient and one thing to definitely avoid because doing it will only make things worse:
James Levine’s Servant Leadership: “I Want to Always Be There for the Players” May 9 2011 3 responses
It’s often said that effective leadership is a lot like conducting an orchestra. Last week, I heard an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air with an actual leader who conducts an actual orchestra. The conductor is James Levine and he’s led the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for forty years. In his conversation with Terry Gross, I was moved by his perspective on leadership and felt compelled to share some of what I heard with you.
While he didn’t use the term, Levine is a servant leader. He is there to serve the people he leads.
Levine was a musical prodigy and started conducting the Met when he was 27 years old. He formed his approach to conducting at an early age and decided as young man that he didn’t want to be a showy conductor who, as he said, practically mimes his interpretation of the music. When he’s conducting a performance, he said:
"I want to be always there for the players, so when they check for something they want to remember — or for something that they need, or for something that is a technical help in the concert — they can see it. But I want to do that in a way in which the audience is not getting a visual show instead of an aural one."
As part of the interview, Gross played a passage from a live performance of a particular aria and asked Levine how he got the orchestra to interpret and perform an especially moving chord. In answering her, he said he was going to disappoint her because he didn’t do anything. He said the orchestra did it themselves by responding to the expression of the vocal soloist. “I didn’t play a single sound,” he told her and went on to explain that, “One of the most important things conductors don’t do is get in the way of the artistry of the musicians who are playing.”
By anyone’s measure, James Levine is an incredibly accomplished musician and conductor and, yet, as a leader he sees one of his most important functions as being a servant of his players and then getting out of the way.
Perhaps you are already applying Levine’s approach to your own leadership role. If you are, I would appreciate it if you’d share a few comments about how you learned to do this. If you think you could do more in this regard, you’re likely not alone. If that’s the case, what do you think your next best opportunity is to serve the people you lead?
Let Me Entertain Me: Three Ways To Tame Your Inner Smart Aleck May 4 2011 14 responses
As the reporting on the operation against Osama bin Laden unfolds, a good bit has been made of the poker face aspect of President Obama artfully delivering one liners at the White House Correspondents Dinner the night before the raid. You can watch Obama’s routine here. (Be sure to look for his crack about how Donald Trump’s firing decisions on the Celebrity Apprentice are the kinds of issues that would keep him up at night. Ouch.)
When I went to bed on Sunday night, my plan for the Monday morning blog post was to peg off of the Correspondents Dinner to make some points about the perils and pitfalls of being a smart aleck at work. Needless to say, it turned out there were more important things to write about on Monday. Still, I hate to let a good topic go to waste, so let’s talk about it a little bit.
The Correspondents Dinner is one of the few regular events where being an overt smart aleck is literally and figuratively applauded. It’s sort of like a roast and the zingers fly. The best ones singe but don’t burn. (Although you could argue that Trump may have needed some first aid following the dinner.) The smart aleck sarcasm is appreciated when everyone comes together for that purpose and expects it. It’s not so appreciated when it’s a part of the regular routine at work.
That’s especially true for leaders at any level. As a recovering smart aleck leader myself (perhaps like other addictions, you can never fully claim recovery), I’ve been the perpetrator, the victim and the innocent bystander of a wisecrack that hit too close to the nerve or not knowing when to stop with the sarcasm. Because leaders are always on stage, they set the tone and mood for everyone around them. A little humor from the leader can be a good thing to lighten the mood. But when it goes too far or turns nasty, it can suck the air right out of the room.
Why do some leaders indulge themselves in being a smart aleck and what can they do to prevent it? Based on my own experience as a perpetrator of humor with too much of an edge, I’ve noticed that I engage it in when I’m stressed or frustrated with a situation that I think is stupid or beyond my control. Making smart aleck remarks is a stress reliever (only in that exact moment, it can quickly become a stress inducer) and it gives me a small, false sense of control. It’s a base way of entertaining myself. Hence, the title of this post, “Let Me Entertain Me.” If you’re entertained by my sarcasm, that’s fine, but it’s not really about you. It’s about me. Not pretty, but true.
I suspect I’m not the only one with this development opportunity so what can a leader do to moderate the smart aleck remarks that are out of their mouths before they even knew they were in their brains? Here are three things that have worked for me:
Scott Eblin is an executive coach, speaker and author of 
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