Archive for the ‘Personal Presence’ Category
John Elway for Manager of the Year? March 21 2012 7 responses
While fans of Tim Tebow will likely vehemently disagree, I’d have to put John Elway, executive vice president of football operations for the Denver Broncos, in the running for manager of the year. And not just NFL manager of the year; anybody’s manager of the year. Let me be the first to acknowledge that I enjoyed Tebowmania and Tebow Time as much as anyone. As I wrote here during football season, I thought Tebow and his coach Jon Fox did a masterful job of figuring out how to use his skillset to maximum advantage. For most of their run together, Elway came across as the wet blanket at the party. He was polite but sparing in his praise for Tebow because he couldn’t see a long-term plan for winning with the guy. Elway may have been right or wrong on that call. We won’t know how it plays out for the Broncos on that front because Elway went out and got himself Peyton Manning this week.
In moving Tebow aside for Manning, Elway did what a lot of managers have to do or at least should do. In his assessment, he had a good guy working for him that he didn’t think was going to work out over the long run. Especially with the pressure from Tebow fans in Denver and across the country, it would have been easy for Elway to keep Tim, let it ride and see what happened. After all, things could get better. (How many times have you heard that in performance management discussions?) Instead, Elway decided to make the move and go out and get the best quarterback available for his team.
Here are three lessons from Elway that I think managers should keep in mind for the next time they face a talent management dilemma:
How to Coach Leaders to Really Change March 19 2012 one response
There was a great article in the New York Times on Sunday called “Helping Managers Find, and Fix, Their Flaws.” It details the seminal work of Harvard’s Bob Kegan and Lisa Lahey and how they’ve leveraged their research to help leaders make lasting changes that make them more effective. My guess is a lot of leadership coaches soaked up that article because Kegan and Lahey’s books are go-to resources for just about anyone who’s a serious player in the coaching industry.
One of their big ideas is that leaders often have competing commitments. For instance, I might be committed to leading at a more strategic, big-picture level. At the same time, I might have a commitment to making sure that everything that comes out of my shop is absolutely perfect (i.e. done exactly the way that I would do it myself).
How can leaders overcome those competing commitments and move on to whatever their next level is? I’ll share two ideas that my colleagues and I teach in the “Flow of Coaching” segment of the Georgetown Leadership Coaching Certificate Program. Both of these are consistent with the approach that Kegan and Lahey use with their clients.
The first idea is what we call a Self Observation Exercise. The second is what we call a Behavioral Practice. The first often sets up the second.
Does Life Imitate Art at Goldman Sachs? Or Something Else? March 15 2012 5 responses
When Greg Smith quit his job running a London based line of business for Goldman Sachs — and told the world why in an op-ed in the New York Times – he acted out the fantasy of everyone who’s ever wanted to tell their employer what they really think of them as they walk out the door.
Smith’s article reminded me of two great lines from “Jerry Maguire.” The first, of course, is the one immortalized by Cuba Gooding Jr.’s Ron Tidwell: “Show me the money!” As Smith writes, the only way that customers came up in regular sales meetings at Goldman was “purely about how we can make the most possible money off of them,” and that managing directors of the firm routinely referred to customers as “muppets.”
The second line from Jerry MaGuire that came to mind isn’t quoted as often, but it’s actually my favorite. It’s the title of the mission statement that Tom Cruise’s Jerry wrote at the beginning of the movie and slipped into the hotel mailboxes of all the sports agents with whom he was attending the company’s offsite. It was called, “The Things We Think And Do Not Say.” It was a plea for more humanity in the way his firm did business. The only difference at Goldman this week was that Smith actually said it and did so in the most publicly possible way.
What Kind of Weather Are You Making? March 13 2012 no responses
For the past couple of years, I’ve had a lot of great conversations with my clients about the idea that leaders control the weather. You can test this idea for yourself right now. Have you ever worked in a place where the first question everyone asked when they arrived in the morning was, “What kind of mood is he (or she) in today?” Most of us have, and if you have, you understand right away how leaders control the weather. If the leader is sunny and bright, everyone else is likely to be sunny and bright. If the leader is stormy and cloudy, get your umbrella out.
If you’re the leader, what you say and how you say it matters. A lot. In this Coachable Moment video from “The Next Level” self-assessment, I offer three simple, practical and immediately applicable ideas on how you can get a handle on the impact of your comments on the organization and make your own appropriate choices.
Don’t forget to read the first four posts in this series, which originally ran in SmartBlog on Leadership. (For more business leadership news from SmartBrief, sign up for SmartBrief on Leadership.)
- Why your New Year’s leadership resolution is already failing
- Want to grow as a leader? Let go of being the “go-to person”
- Why you need to slow down to succeed
- How to keep your team on track with the goal
Want more information? Take the free leadership self-assessment, which takes about five minutes and gives you a picture of how you stack up on three key components of leadership presence: personal, team and organizational.
Ken Blanchard and Chick-fil-A’s Mark Miller, on What It Takes to Grow as a Leader March 8 2012 3 responses
Ken Blanchard is the co-founder and chief spiritual officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies, an international management training and consulting firm. One of the most influential leadership gurus in the world, he is the author or co-author of dozens of books, including the international bestseller “The One Minute Manager.” Mark Miller is vice president of training and development for Chick-fil-A. I recently interviewed them about their new book, “Great Leaders Grow: Becoming a Leader for Life.”
In your book, you state that great leaders grow by Gaining Knowledge, Reaching Out to Others, Opening their World and Walking toward Wisdom. In your experience, which of these steps comes naturally for most leaders and which are typically more challenging?
It all depends on the leader. For some leaders, it’s natural to Gain Knowledge, because they love to read and study. Extroverted leaders find that Reaching Out to Others is an easy thing to do. For adventuresome leaders, Opening their World is built into their DNA. Those with a reflective bent find that Walking toward Wisdom comes easily. The point is that all of these practices are vital — not just one or two of them. A great leader stretches outside his or her comfort zone to develop in areas that don’t come naturally.
What’s your best advice for a leader who’s having a hard time getting started with one of the more challenging aspects of the GROW model?
We all have a tendency to limit ourselves by our own assumed constraints. To break through these self-limiting beliefs, try a few of the suggestions in the book that you find challenging. For example, if you believe that you’re a lousy teacher, find an opportunity to give some instruction, either formally in a class or by informally sharing your knowledge with others. This is part of Reaching Out to Others. Perhaps you recognize that you’re strong on giving advice but not so great at taking it. If that’s the case, find someone you admire and respect and ask that person to give you feedback about your leadership. This is part of Walking toward Wisdom. The important thing is to take action — not just to think about it.
Who are some public leaders that you admire who you think demonstrate the GROW approach in action? What do you think the rest of us can learn from them?
What GE Aviation Knows About Inspiring Workers March 6 2012 3 responses
Last week, I wrote a post that asked if your organization is ready for the era of connect and collaborate. Today, I want to go a little deeper on the connection part. In particular, I want to talk about how leaders can accomplish big things by connecting their people with the higher purpose of their work.
You’ve probably heard the story about the traveler in the Middle Ages walking down a road who stops at a quarry to ask the workers what they’re doing. The first person he asks replies that his work is sheer, meaningless drudgery. “All I do, all day long, he says, is pound these rocks into bricks.” The traveler walks a little further and asks another worker doing the same thing the same question. “I am doing the greatest thing a man can do, the second worker replies, I’m building a cathedral to glorify God.”
Pride in your work isn’t limited to building cathedrals. You may have seen the advertisements that have been running lately that show GE Aviation workers talking about their craft. They talk about how much pride they have in their skills, each other and what their product does for the world. As one woman says in the video, the work she does helps make the world a smaller place. At the end of the spot, the GE team travels from their plant in North Carolina to Boeing Field in Seattle to see their engine help lift a new 787 Dreamliner into the air.
Those are real people who are doing real things that benefit other real people. One or more leaders has taken the time to establish that context for them. I’ve been talking a lot about this spot in workshops and speeches I’ve given this year. The question I’ve been asking leaders is what opportunities do you have to connect your people with the higher purpose of their work?
Does Your Team Really Know What You Want? February 28 2012 no responses
Stephen Covey shared a lot of smart ideas when he wrote “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” I must have read that book at least five times when it first came out. One of the habits that has really stuck with me is, “Begin with the end in mind.” Turns out that’s not just great advice for personal effectiveness; it’s also a great idea for team effectiveness.
In working with hundreds of senior executives over the years, I’ve concluded that the most effective are those who are very clear with their teams about the outcomes that need to be achieved. When any new initiative begins, they stop and have a conversation with their team about what a successful outcome looks like and then reverse engineer back from that picture to help the team visualize what it’s going to take to stay on track with the goal.
In this video coaching segment from “The Next Level,” I offer three simple, practical and road-tested ideas for how you can keep your team on track by being clear about desired outcomes.
Don’t forget to read the first three posts in this series.
- How to Get Your Leadership Resolutions Back on Track
- Is Being the “Go-To” Person Holding You Back?
- 3 Tips for Pacing Your Work for Lasting Success
Want more information? Take the free leadership self-assessment, which takes about five minutes and gives you a picture of how you stack up on three key components of leadership presence: personal, team and organizational.
This post is adapted from one originally published on SmartBlog on Leadership. For more business leadership news from SmartBrief, sign up for SmartBrief on Leadership.
What Leaders Can Learn From Ryan Seacrest February 27 2012 7 responses
The most interesting part of the Oscar telecast last night happened before the awards show started. E! Network red carpet host and king of all media Ryan Seacrest was in his usual position, asking the stars if they were excited and who they were wearing, when Sacha Baron Cohen arrived in a limo. You may remember Cohen best as Borat (or, in one of my favorites roles, as the French foil to Will Farrell’s NASCAR driver in “Talladega Nights”).
Anyway, Cohen was decked out in the garb of a dictator who was so reminiscent of Gaddafi that it was kind of creepy. He was there in character to promote his new movie, “The Dictator,” and his bit involved holding an urn that supposedly held the ashes of his buddy Kim Jong-Il because Kim wanted to be on the red carpet one last time.
Seacrest played along and in the process of the interview, Cohen dumped whatever was in the urn right down the front of the host’s black tux. As he was hauled away by security guards, he yelled, “Now when people ask who you are wearing, you can say Kim Jong-Il!”
So, I’m not here to debate whether that was funny or appropriate. I’m here to talk about what Seacrest did next. He looked befuddled for 10 or 15 seconds then calmly turned to the camera and acknowledged that he he looked like a mess. Another reporter handed him a towel and a handler passed him a lint roller. He made a light-hearted little joke about both and cut to commercial. When they came back, he was more or less cleaned up and onto his next interview with Antonio Banderas about the challenges of playing Puss ‘n Boots as a headliner vs. a character in “Shrek.”
You can argue about how much value Seacrest is adding to society, but you have to hand one thing to him: The guy keeps his composure no matter what happens. He’s almost literally always on stage. So are leaders.
How to Coach a Future CEO February 21 2012 no responses
If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you know I’m a fan of Ford CEO Alan Mulally. He started in the top job at Ford about five years ago and, he has led the company to quarter after quarter of profitable growth. He’s accomplished that through any number of ways. Probably one of the biggest is by changing the culture of the company’s leadership team.
Of course, you change a culture by inspiring people to think, feel and act differently. It’s a process of winning hearts and minds. As the New York Times reported this past weekend, Mulally just turned 66 and is expected to retire in the next couple of years. The front runner to succeed him is an executive named Mark Fields who runs Ford’s business in the Americas.
In reading the story on Ford and Fields, I was struck by the evidence that Fields has changed his style as a leader over the past five years. Of course, that’s concurrent with Mulally’s time at the company. Prior to Mulally’s arrival, Fields was a high flier (literally and figuratively) who had gotten himself in trouble when it was revealed that he was using Ford’s corporate jets to fly back and forth to his Florida home at the same time that he was cutting thousands of jobs at the company and shutting down manufacturing plants.
As Fields himself said, “There was a ‘dead pool’ about me. People were saying, ‘When is Fields going to get shown the door?’ ” Five years later, however, he’s a poster dude for what great coaching and role modeling can do to turn an executive’s career and life around.
3 Tips for Pacing Your Work for Lasting Success February 14 2012 2 responses
There was a vastly underrated road trip movie last year starring Zach Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr. called “Due Date.” Downey plays an uptight businessman and Galifianakis plays a goofy but lovable stoner. They take a cross-country trip together. Hilarity ensues.
Whenever Downey’s character would explode in rage, Galifianakis’ character would say, “Hey, you better check yourself before you wreck yourself.” It’s one of my favorite catchphrases ever. Not sure why I love it so much. Part of it was Galifianakis’ delivery, I guess. Part of it is the rhyme. The biggest reason it sticks with me is because I think it’s a great mantra for most leaders today.
Here’s my evidence for that. For the last seven years, I’ve run 360-degree surveys and self-assessments based on the leadership model in “The Next Level” with thousands of executives and managers. The lowest-rated item across that group for the past seven years has been: “Pace(s) myself/himself/herself by building in regular breaks from work.”
In the 360 surveys, the colleagues usually rate the leaders low on that behavior, and the leaders’ self-assessments are even lower than those of their colleagues. By the way, the scores have gotten lower every year.
What’s going on? Here’s what I see.
Scott Eblin is an executive coach, speaker and author of 
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