Archive for July, 2011
The Leadership Theory Lack July 29 2011 4 responses
Today’s post is a guest post by David Burkus, the force behind the LeaderLab blog where he focuses on how to put leadership theory into practice. If you like what David shares in this post, you’ll love his new book, The Portable Guide to Leading Organizations.
Airport bookstores are crowded with books on leadership, and each one seems to promote a “leadership lack.” They’ll each begin with phrases like “The most pressing issue in organizations is that leaders lack integrity…or empathy…or strategy…or even humor. These books continue by laying out the author’s simple framework for developing the perfect leader. On and on the dialogue goes to the point where readers become be confused because the 21 Unassailable Edicts of Leadership are different than the Seven Routines of Really Efficient Leaders. It would be a poor move to add to this confusion. With this in mind, we will admit that we do not believe our “leadership lack” to be the most pressing issue in organizations, just the easiest to fix.
Leaders lack an understanding of leadership theory.
These airport leadership books provide decent advice that is easily digestible. And because it is easily digestible, leaders continue to gorge themselves on it until there is very little room left for real, solid theory. Most see theory as complex and hard to digest. When leaders think about leadership or organizational theory, they think back to the 400+ page textbook they had to buy in business school. “Seems like quite an undertaking,” leaders think. So they cheerfully hand their money to the cashier and board the plane with the latest, pocket-sized “leadership” book.
Leaders lack an understanding of leadership theory because it isn’t presented in pocket-sized form.
Are You an Apple or a Google? July 27 2011 3 responses
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post titled “Are You an IBM or a Dell?” Today’s post continues with the tech ID theme and is inspired by an article in the New York Times by Randall Stross. In it, he makes the point that the big decisions at Apple are made by one person, Steve Jobs relying on his gut and sense of design. In contrast, the big decisions at Google are made by groups of people relying on data. As Stross frames it, it’s the auteur vs. the committee.
I thought it was a great article because it makes the point that there is rarely only one right answer about how to get things done. In my own case, I’m more naturally inclined to the Google model where decisions are made by lots of people providing input based on fact based arguments. On the other hand, I’m writing this post on my iPad, totally love my iPhone and am the last person in my family who is not working on a Mac. I can see both sides of the argument.
So, which side do you come down on? Auteur or committee? What are your thoughts on when it’s best to go with the edict of the genius and when it’s best to go with the wisdom of the crowd?
One More Question July 25 2011 no responses
Sometimes the simplest things make the biggest difference. I see this all the time in coaching leaders. In fact, it's usually the simplest things that make the biggest difference. Here's an example from my executive coaching files.
One of my clients was a senior executive I'll call Sam. He was brilliant in his technical domain, not so much in the people domain. I actually worked with Sam on a couple of occasions. The first time our focus was helping him establish better connections and engagement with his team. Based on the feedback we got over a number of months, he improved a lot on that front.
The second time I worked with Sam was after he had been promoted to senior vice president. The issue now was how to work more collaboratively and effectively with his executive level peers. Sam and I knew each other pretty well at this point so I thought we'd nail things pretty easily and quickly. Boy, was I wrong. Sam wasn't that enthused about engaging with his peers.
After about six weeks of getting nowhere, I showed up at his office for an appointment and was getting nothing from him in the conversation. Lots of one and two word responses to my questions, lots of dead air, no questions back to me. After about 15 minutes, I started putting my things away and suggested we try again in a couple of weeks. Sam's response was a true to form, "OK." As I walked toward the door, I asked him if I could share an observation. Sam said, "Yes." I replied that, "My observation is that you're the most difficult person to have a conversation with that I've ever met." Sam looked stunned and puzzled and asked why. My response was that in most conversations I had been in in my life, one person would say something and the other person would reply with some information or perhaps ask a question of the first person. I told him that he didn't do much of either one of those and that made it difficult to have a conversation with him.
We were scheduled for a phone call a couple of weeks later and I wasn't expecting much from that either. Boy, was I wrong again.
3 Communication Lessons from Carmegeddon July 18 2011 one response
Even if you don’t live in Los Angeles you’ve probably heard of Carmegeddon. This past weekend, a 10 mile stretch of interstate 405 was closed for a bridge demolition. As Reuters reports, there was a full-on, flood the zone PR campaign mounted by local municipal leaders to encourage residents of the LA area to stay home and not get anywhere close to the 405 during the closure. The fear was epic traffic jams as the 500,000 cars that drive that stretch of the 405 on a weekend day looked for alternate routes.
I’ve been in SoCal this weekend as I came out a few days early for a group coaching session for a client on Tuesday. With a front row seat to the potential traffic apocalypse, I’m happy to report it was a non-event. Everyone apparently got the word, stayed close to home and enjoyed various 405 promos and events at local merchants and restaurants. Locals have been talking about how pleasant the weekend has been without traffic. Comedian Bill Maher might have summed it up best when he tweeted, “How’s everyone coping with this terrifying apocalyptic nightmare of having to … oh my God … stay home with your family?!!!”
The weekend was a success in no small measure because of the job that L.A. municipal leaders did in influencing public behavior. They did a masterful job of communicating their message in a way that got people to do what they wanted them to do. Here are three communication lessons from Carmegeddon that are worth thinking about the next time you have to get an important message across:
Harry Potter as Servant Leader July 15 2011 14 responses
This past Monday night, my wife Diane and I had a once a lifetime experience. We got to attend the red carpet premiere of the last Harry Potter movie at Lincoln Center in New York. Diane has to be in the top 1% of Harry Potter fans in the world and she won the trip through a local radio station. It was a blast and a surreal experience to be in the same room with the cast and people behind the biggest movie franchise of all time. If you want the inside scoop on red carpet night, Diane wrote it all up on her blog and included some really great pictures of the cast speaking before the movie started.
No doubt, many of you will be seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this weekend and in the days to come. Enjoy it. It’s a wonderful film and a fitting end to the series. If you have any mental and emotional bandwidth left over as you’re watching Harry save the world, you might also put your leadership lens on for some examples of servant leadership in action.
Servant leadership is based on the principle that the leader is the servant of the people that he or she leads. Servant leaders have a desire to serve first and lead second. The concept was first articulated by an AT&T executive named Robert Greenleaf in the mid 20th century and he eventually wrote a book on the subject
The president of the Greenleaf Center, Larry Spears, has identified 10 characteristics of servant leaders. Having been immersed in all things Potter in my house for the last 10 years, it seems to me that Harry embodies all or most of them. Here they are:
The July Leadership Development Round Table Challenge July 13 2011 2 responses
You may recall from last month’s inaugural event, this is where we put forth a vexing real world leadership challenge and a number of regular contributors (including yours truly) plus one guest share their best advice on how to handle it… in 200 words or less. You vote with your comments and with your actual vote, and after one week of fierce but professional debate, a winner is announced.
This month’s case study author and host is Art Petty of Management Excellence. Thanks Art! Here’s the case:
The Situation:
Pat Paulsen, the Director of Product Management for Apex Inc., sat for a few moments and stared out the window after the project team left her office. She was disappointed that her employee, Joe, was once again, the topic of discussion and complaint.
Apparently, Joe had yet again stomped on some toes and bruised some egos on the project team. He had shared his disdain for what he viewed as a slow and overly bureaucratic process to gain approval for the feature specifications for the next version of Apex’s flagship product. When the project team resisted his efforts to ram through the specifications, Joe had used his considerable pull with the overseas head of engineering to bypass the team completely. His response to the protests from team members was, “I’ll get this done with or without you.”
Joe:
Joe was a widely acknowledged brilliant product manager who had worked hard since the business unit’s inception 7 years ago to translate customer needs into product ideas and programs that solved problems and kept competitors off-balance and chasing Apex.
Additionally, customers and industry partners respected Joe’s industry knowledge and his zeal for supplying them with products that helped them run their businesses more effectively. They even overlooked his propensity to tell them how to run parts of their business, because he was most often right. “One partner summed it up best, “Joe has a horrible bedside manner, but he knows his stuff.”
Pat and Joe
Pat, as Joe’s manager, had been on the receiving end of a number of these types of complaints over the years. The conversations typically started with, “I know Joe is brilliant, but… .” The group that just left her office didn’t include any references to “brilliant” this time.
Pat genuinely believed that she had gone beyond the call of duty trying to remedy the problem and support Joe’s development. In addition to documenting, discussing and offering ample feedback and guidance over the past few years, Pat had invested in Joe attending several workshops on improving interpersonal skills. And just last year, Pat, with her superior’s blessing, had invested in sending Joe off to the prestigious Institute for Leadership Excellence, for some focused and very expensive coaching.
Perhaps the most perplexing part of the situation was that Joe seemed to genuinely take the feedback and coaching to heart. He worked hard on modifying his behavior after receiving feedback, but eventually he would become frustrated when project team members or groups ignored his guidance or moved too slowly on an issue that he viewed as critical.
The Environment:
The values at Apex were clearly posted in every conference room and they clearly implored people to “Break Down Walls,” “Challenge the Status Quo” and “Serve Customers First.” Taken literally, Joe’s behavior matched those values perfectly. He did do great things for the firm, and he was a thorn in everyone’s side in the process.
The success of the business unit over the past few years (much of which was due to Joe’s products), had led to a significant shift in the internal culture, from one fueled by entrepreneurial zeal to one that was building processes and relying more on teams. It was clearly a different environment and one where Joe’s approach was increasingly in conflict with the emerging culture.
What Next?
Pat shuddered to think what life would be like without Joe’s knowledge and expertise helping the company specify and launch great products. She pushed the momentary vision of him wearing a competitor’s badge at the upcoming industry trade show out of her mind.
Pat had no doubt about Joe’s brilliance, but it was clear that his approach engaging with others had more than worn thin. She sighed and pondered what to do next.
Help Pat. What should Pat do given the history and circumstances described in the case?
What I Learned About Leadership from the Dalai Lama July 11 2011 14 responses
This month, the Dalai Lama is in Washington, D.C. for a couple of weeks to lead a series of Buddhist teachings called a Kalachakra. This past Saturday morning, he came out to the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol to talk about world peace with about 20,000 people. I was one of them.
You can read a nice account and see some pictures of the talk in a blog by Matteo Pistono for The Washington Post. Here are a few leadership impressions that landed with me from being there.
You Get the Culture You Pay For July 7 2011 2 responses
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been ignoring articles in the Financial Times about a cell phone hacking scandal in England. This morning, the New York Times picked up the story in a big way and I started paying attention.
Here’s the very quick recap. It’s been determined that, for a number of years, reporters and contractors for the News of the World tabloid have been hacking the cell phone voice mail accounts of celebrities and athletes. The practice didn’t stop there however. They also hacked the phones of a 13-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered, the families of victims of the July 2005 London bombings and the loved ones of British soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The News of the World is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp which also owns the Fox Networks, The New York Post and many other media properties around the world. As is usually the case in stories like this, Murdoch and his senior managers say that they’re shocked and appalled by these breeches of ethics (and violations of the law) and that they’re not representative of how the company works.
Here’s the thing. You get the culture you pay for. Your people will do whatever you encourage and reward them to do. If, as has been the case at News of the World, people are rewarded to get the most sensational, profitable stories no matter what, then that’s what you’ll get. If you send the message that there are no boundaries in getting the story, then the boundaries that most people would honor will be violated.
Needless to say, that cultural dynamic is not just limited to media companies. Whether they intend to or not, leaders establish the culture in any organization by what they reward, encourage, talk about, pay attention to and ignore.
What have you done this week to establish the culture you want in your organization? What kind of culture are you paying for?
3 Signs That Your Slide Deck Stinks July 5 2011 22 responses
Earlier this year, I was with an executive who was proudly showing me the Power Point presentation he had prepared for an upcoming strategic offsite.
We got through three slides and he turned to me and asked me what I thought so far. I asked if he really wanted to know and he said yes. My response was that I had seen the same exact presentation at a company conference in an entirely different industry just the day before. He looked crestfallen, but, to his credit, he asked for details. As kindly as I could, I made a little “Blah, blah, blah” motion with my right hand and said that his first three slides were classic signs that the rest of the presentation was going to stink.
They’re classic because they’re so overused that when the audience sees them appear it immediately shuts down with a “Seen it before,” barely suppressed yawn. Does your presentation deck have them?
Here’s the checklist:
Scott Eblin is an executive coach, speaker and author of 
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