Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog @ LeadershipNow

Leading Views: Winning Hearts and Minds

2009-11-04T00:30:11Z

Smart people with great credentials often self-destruct because they fail to connect with the people they are trying to influence. Both teachers and leaders must win the hearts and minds of those they lead. Without an emotional connection, both students and employees are just getting through the day. Leaders must learn to focus on the human side if they are to be effective. In Fierce Leadership author Susan Scott shares the difference between good teachers and bad teachers:

What makes for a bad teacher? Things like rigid control, broadcasting from the front of the room, and yes/no, right/wrong feedback. What makes for a good teacher? Things like creating a “holding space” for lively interaction, flexibility in how students become engaged in a topic, a regard for student perspective, the ability to personalize the material for each student, responding to questions and answers with sensitivity, and providing high-quality feedback “where there is a back-and-forth exchange to get a deeper understanding.”

Sounds like the behavior of a good leader.

Nestlé's Paul Bulcke on Staying the Course

2009-11-02T17:53:26Z

Paul Bulcke became chief executive of Nestlé SA in April 2008. An inauspicious time to take over the world's largest food company. Deborah Ball reports on an interview with Bulcke. In the short (2:35 min) video embeded below, he reflects on being authentic, developing a culture of competitive intensity and making people feel they have ownership.

He says, “If your strategy is right, stick to the strategy. Maintain your inspiration which is long term, but do act short term.” Here is a brief excerpt from the article:

WSJ: What is the worst piece of management advice you've received on how to deal with a downturn?

Mr. Bulcke: The worst thing would be to start to react to short-term pressures and jeopardizing your long-term view. That's selling your soul because it loosens up your long-term inspiration and the discipline of your organization. That is a very dangerous place to be.

WSJ: How do you motivate people?

Mr. Bulcke: You talk about things. In spite of thinking that this is a huge company, we have many ways of connecting, and even more now than ever before. My team transmits this and the multiplying effect is tremendous. I go to almost all of the training courses that we hold at a center near here—I've been 20-25 times—where I talk about things. When you're consistently talking about these same things, you feel the traction and feel the company move quite rapidly in that direction.

Bulcke adds, “We are a long-term company. We are not going to do what I sometimes call "Hoopla" management, and do something damaging. We will be responsible.”

Of Related Interest:
Business Leaders Have Much to Learn From Orchestras, says Nestle CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe

First Look: Leadership Books for November 2009

2009-11-02T06:57:20Z

Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in November.

Derailed: Lessons Learned from Leaders Who Failed by Tim Irwin
Design of Business: How Design Thinking Creates Competitive Advantage by Roger L. Martin
Everything Counts: 52 Remarkable Ways to Inspire Excellence and Drive Results by Gary Ryan Blair
Grow from Within: Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation by Robert Wolcott and Michael J. Lippitz
You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind that Really Determine How We Make Decisions by Scott de Marchi and James T. Hamilton

For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273

LeadershipNow 140: October 2009 Compilation

2009-11-01T07:25:51Z

Here are a selection of tweets from October 2009:

Effective crisis leadership is really imagining a future that brings you beyond the status quo ~Ron Dufresne, St Joseph’s Univ
We're Governed by Callous Children http://bit.ly/3GerXd
RT @hulmevision: “People in distress will sometimes prefer a problem that is familiar to a solution that is not” | Neil Postman
RT @MargieMcKinney: "The secret of being boring is to say everything." ~Voltaire
In order to lead and influence others, we have to be available and intentional in our relationships. ~Becky Robinson @LeaderTalk
http://bit.ly/M7vli Discussing definitions of leadership not any good unless it affects the way you do your job.
RT @hulmevision: Rehabilitating Stalin http://bit.ly/pHZ0r
On the pain involved in most change: There is no fruit that is not bitter before it is ripe. ~Publilius Syrus (85-43 BC)
For a short-term fix, fear based leadership wins out every time.
RT @HarvardBiz: Don't Let Your Strength Become Your Weakness http://bit.ly/3uC7pE
Taboo or not taboo? Some new office guidelines http://ow.ly/ub1w
Generational differences have to do with life stages, not date of birth http://ow.ly/ub0k
Spouse Test: Before you submit a proposal ask your spouse to read it. If they can’t make sense of it, rewrite it. http://ow.ly/uaOR
My Nobel Prize for Leadership would recognize individuals who have unquestionable moral authority, says Alan Webber http://bit.ly/EtkkZ
RT @stevefarber: The Best Advice Ive Ever Gotten #1 - http://ow.ly/15UvJF // Good read. "Assume he was right and go from there."
Overconfidence: When leaders stop listening to the advice of others.
RT @hulmevision: Lights make light not noise—unless they are defective. // What kind of an example are you?
Sometimes the greatest act of courage and show of character is the willingness to change.
What kind of person do you need to become for you to be the leader you need to be?
As a leader, sometimes you need to change; sometimes you need to be changed.
How to compete in an upside down world: Leading managers do not wait for crises to concentrate their minds http://bit.ly/OJrrI
The upside of anger http://bit.ly/CL3cB
Strengths become weaknesses: We need tough, strong, confident leaders. But how can we prevent them from spiral. http://bit.ly/3wZmL7
“Every age has its own outlook,” wrote CS Lewis. Tradition must have a voice but not a veto.

See more on Twitter.

Newswire: Our Leadership Today

2009-10-31T01:45:33Z

I would like to direct you to some good weekend reading. Financial Times columnist Stefan Stern, writes about the paradox of managing change. Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, writes about how leaders are not offering a new path, they are only offering old paths and its effect on society. And finally, in the U.S. News & World Report, David Gergen reflects on our leaders and suggests that if we can retain the spirit of the early republic, giants may walk among us again.

Failing to Cope With Change?
by Stefan Stern, Financial Times

Stefan Stern shares a comment from a chief executive of an engineering business that had led a vigorous turnaround of a failing company. He said that once a company has been stabilized it can be much harder to make progress, to go “from good to great”, in Jim Collins’s popular phrase. “People no longer see the need to change,” he argued. And the longevity of some employees can become a problem. They have seen it all before. They know how things should be done. They have nothing left to learn and no reason, they believe, to start doing things differently.

Another executive commented: There was also a difficult balance for leaders to strike, he said, between “being yourself”, revealing all the different aspects of your personality, good and bad – important in winning trust – while remaining convincingly in charge. You have to be honest about the things you do not (and cannot) know, while trying to create as much “predictability” as you can. “You try to explain that things are changing. But people still crave stability,” he said.
We're Governed by Callous Children
by Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal

We are governed at all levels by America's luckiest children, sons and daughters of the abundance, and they call themselves optimists but they're not optimists—they're unimaginative. They don't have faith, they've just never been foreclosed on. They are stupid and they are callous, and they don't mind it when people become disheartened. They don't even notice.
The National Deficit—of Leadership
by David Gergen, U.S. News & World Report

That the leadership deficit now seems so chronic suggests that the problem goes deeper than the quality of the individuals who come to power. There is something in the culture that makes leadership even tougher and more perilous than it should be. Why, asked Thomas Jefferson, did the American Revolution create a budding democracy while the French Revolution—coming at virtually the same time and with similar values—ended in tyranny? The answer, he thought, could be traced as much to the quality of the followers as to that of the leaders: American citizens were more accustomed than the French to responsible self-government.

Our leaders today are discovering, with a vengeance, how much followers matter.

* * *

What is the Real Work of Leading?

2009-10-29T04:59:30Z

I would hope by now you have had a chance to read through Fast Company co-founder Alan Webber’s Rules of Thumb. He has compiled 52 practical and wise fundamentals of life well lived and work well done.

For a taste, consider Rule #41: If you want to be a real leader, first get real about leadership. Getting real about leadership involves four things: how leaders are, what leaders do, how leaders act, and what leaders leave behind them.

How Leaders Are. Leaders are both confident and modest, they’re authentic and they are good listeners. He quotes Ron Heifetz, “Too many leaders die with their mouths open.” He adds, “Leaders who need to talk all the time create companies where people simply stop listening.”

What Leaders Do. Leaders are coaches. They attract and grow talent. They lead by example. Maintaining high standards themselves, they challenge people to do their best work. “After a real leader has moved on, the people who worked for him or her always say, ‘I learned more and did more than I ever thought I could.’”

How Leaders Act. Real leaders guide. They don’t dictate. “Real leaders create an agenda, offer criteria, and describe a strategy to take the company ahead.” And they learn from their mistakes.

What Leaders Leave Behind. Leaders leave behind “a passion for the business, a love of the company, and the commitment to leave it healthier and stronger than he or she found it.” They leave a team of great leaders. They articulate sound values and instill them into the culture of the business. And perhaps most importantly, they make more leaders. “The real leader is the one who makes more leaders at all levels of the organization. Leaders practice leadership to cultivate more leaders.”

Leading Views: Assume the Guests Point of View

2009-10-27T17:43:43Z

Imagineer John Hench shares in his book Designing Disney, Walt Disney's approach to people:

"To design most effectively for our guests, we learned that we had to observe them up close, waiting in lines with them, going on rides with them, eating with them. Walt insisted on this by saying, ‘You guys get down there at least twice a month. For God’s sake, don’t eat off the lot. Stay there…lunch with the guests…talk to them.’ This was new to us; as filmmakers, we were used to sitting in our sweatboxes at the studio, passing judgment on our work without knowing how the public might actually respond to it. Going out into the park taught us how guests were being treated and how they responded to sensory information, what worked and what didn’t, what their needs were and how we could meet them in entertaining ways. We paid attention to guests’ patterns of movement and the ways in which they expressed their emotions. We got an idea of what was going on in their minds. Disney Imagineers prefer such an experiential process of gathering information from our guests to focus groups or surveys. When designers see guests in their natural states of behavior, they gain a better understanding of the space and time guests need in a story environment.

Walt had the idea that guests could feel perfection.”

As Frank Gehry writes in the forward, "when you’ve got a love for people, you want them to have experiences that make them think differently when they leave."

That's management by wandering around.

Save the World and Still Be Home For Dinner

2009-10-22T19:24:21Z

Save the World and Still Be Home For Dinner by Will Marré shows how can we can both live life on our terms and do something that matters for others, how we can both find financial security and live life as a personal adventure, how we can both make radical changes in life and keep the relationships and things we most value. "After all," Marre says, "Isn't that what we all want? To save the world and still be home for dinner?"

In a thought provoking interview, Will Marré speaks to Vision about about leadership, organizations, changes in the corporate world, personal contentment, and quality relationships.

“The critical issue of leadership today is moral intent. If we get people who are very effective at being leaders, who don’t have worthwhile moral intent, we get what we got.”

“Self interest is not a sufficient motive to create valued innovation. In other words, big innovation.”

Many large organizations, “become protected around their financial well-being and they start to look at everything in terms of financial risk and so it thwarts true innovation.”

“It all comes down to the quality of intimacy in our relationships. In other words, there’s no success that compensates for a lack of that high quality intimate relationship with at least one other if not several other human beings. We don’t get that without making an effort. We don’t get that by being stupid about relationships.”

“If you imagine the very best thing you can do … and what might be really good is being the best mother you can be this afternoon or the best father you can be tonight. Sometimes the best way to change the world is to change a diaper. In other words, there are moments of truth everyday – many times – and if we step in do the best thing we can imagine doing in those moments of truth, then we will set up a chain of life that is self-reinforcing, self-motivating, self-fulfilling.”

The short 15 minute interview is time well spent.

Don't Bring It To Work

2009-10-21T06:09:29Z

When people walk through your door in the morning, they don’t leave their problems behind. And that creates problems at work. Problems at home create, at the very least, distractions in the workplace. Many safety issues have been linked to preoccupied employees. The failure to deal with issues that are brought to work can result in high turnover, poor productivity, low morale and poor communication.

What you bring to work is not only your problems but the behavioral patterns that, in many cases, caused them. In Don’t Bring it to Work, Sylvia Lafair says that much of what you bring to work are patterns of behavior that are driven by the roles we learned in our families as children. And when the going gets tough, the tough frequently revert to old family patterns.

Lafair describes the 13 most common destructive patterns in the workplace — including the super-achiever, the rebel, the procrastinator, the clown, the persecutor, the victim, the rescuer, the drama queen or king, the martyr, the pleaser, the avoider, the denier, the splitter — and explains how they got that way, and how to tell (a Pattern Aware Quiz is included) if any of this baggage from your own background is weighing down your career.

The action step is not to break your patterns but to transform them; to become a “better, more developed, more fulfilled version of the person you already are.” For instance:

From Super-Achiever to Creative Collaborator
From Rebel to Community Builder
From Procrastinator to Realizer
From Clown to Humorist
From Persecutor to Visionary
From Victim to Explorer
From Rescuer to Mentor
From Drama Queen or King to Storyteller
From Martyr to Integrator
From Pleaser to Truth Teller
From Avoider to Initiator
From Denier to Trust Builder
From Splitter to Peacemaker

So the Rebel might sound like, “Can you believe he was so demeaning to her at the meeting? I’m going to tell her to get back at him by complaining to HR.” But the Community Builder would say, “In my old pattern, I would have loved to stir things up; however, it’s a waste of time, so I’ll talk to him privately about my concerns.”

“We like to think we are rational leaders,” writes Lafair. “Yet the fact is that we don’t always tailor our actions to the actual demands of a situation. Instead, we fall back on old ways of responding that are emotionally laden and sometimes horrendously counterproductive.” If you’re looking to deal with your old defensive behavior patterns and capitalize on your inner strengths, Don’t Bring it to Work would be a good place to start.

An abbreviated version of the Pattern Aware Quiz can be found online.

Leading Views: Leadership Isn't a Reward

2009-10-13T17:04:36Z

Tom Peters reminds us that leadership shouldn’t be a reward or a title bestowed as a way of saying thanks. Unfortunately it isn’t confined to business and government. We see it in organizations of all types and most regrettably in schools where it reinforces the wrong concept of what it means to be a leader. Peters told an audience:

"Only in the stupid world of business and government, do we promote the best accountant to the head of the accounting department, the best salesman to the head of the sales department, the best trainer to the head of the training department. You don’t do that in sports, right?!

"The definition of most of our coaches at the professional level is that they were second rate or marginal players who were brilliant students of the game and people. That is, they were good at leading. What are leaders good at doing? Leading."

Can You Motivate Everyone?

2009-10-13T05:37:26Z

At the basis of motivation is the why of human behavior. The fact that there are so many methods used to encourage people to put forth their best effort, speaks to the complexity of the issue. But can everyone be motivated? The simple answer is no. You can’t successfully motivate everyone. And some might say you can’t motivate anyone. Motivation is an internal process. Much is dependent on an individual’s concept of themselves and their interpretation of the environment or situation they find themselves in.

In Motivate Like a CEO, author Suzanne Bates reminds us that “you can inspire people to discover their own motivation. If you communicate effectively and connect people with purpose, they will feel the spark that motivates them.”

Additionally, she writes, “By consistently communicating purpose with passion, you attract the right people with the right talent, skills, and motivation. The right people come into your orbit; those who aren’t right will move on.”

At the same time, Bates does offer a caution. Throwing your hands up and acting on the assumption that you cannot motivate everyone can actually damage motivation further. This assumption was “true in boom times, when organizations were bloated and some people you hired were marginal. Those days are over. Now that companies have downsized and are arguably leaner and meaner with the best talent, this is a damaging assumption. It is a leader’s responsibility to motivate employees. It’s time to stop blaming employees, and start looking to leaders to ignite the spark.”

5 Leadership Lessons: Fierce Leadership

2009-10-09T08:16:17Z

Fierce Leadership by Susan Scott is a remarkable leadership book for its candor and practicality. She gets to the heart of many relationship issues that prevent us from really connecting with others and limit our performance.

Though the title may seem provocative, the term fierce refers to the type of leadership that engages and connects with people at a deep level. The fierce leaders’ most valuable currency is relationships and emotional capital. Scott writes, “Everywhere, people are hungry to connect, to be seen and known as the unique individuals they are, and this has an immediate and powerful impact on how we design business strategies and market our products and services and ultimately on whether our businesses succeed or fail. Yet much business communication is still stuck in the information age. Too often we treat our conversations and our relationships as we do our e-mails—one way, directive, quick, clipped, efficient.”

Scott suggests another approach to some widely accepted "best practices" moving for instance, from 360 Anonymous Feedback — to 365 Face-to-Face Feedback. The goal here is to have “open, honest, face-to-face conversations, 365 days a year, with the people central to your success and happiness…. When we stay current with one another, our formal performance reviews will contain few, if any, surprises.”

She also suggests a change in emphasis from Hiring for Smarts — to Hiring for Smarts and Emotional Intelligence, from Holding People Accountable — to Modeling Accountability and Holding People Able, from Employee Engagement Programs — to Real Engagement, from Client Centricity — to Client Connectivity, and from Legislated Optimism — to Radical Transparency. The exercises at the end of each chapter are designed to help you implement these ideas in your own leadership role and have been well thought out.

Some leadership lessons:

A careful conversation is a failed conversation because it merely postpones the conversation that wants and needs to take place.

What argument am I waging? Are you waging? What are we trying to be right about? The question is not whether our beliefs are right or wrong. We can tell the stories, point to the evidence, build an impressive case. You’re right! Who could possibly argue with the facts? The question is, how are your beliefs working for you?

John Doerr said, “The moment of truth is when you ask, ‘Are these the people I want to be in trouble with for the next five, ten, fifteen years of my life?’ Because as you build a business, one thing’s for sure: You’ll get in trouble.”

In meetings, people stubbornly cling to their ideas (sometimes at length!) in an attempt to impress others with the brilliance of their thinking. Their goal is to influence. It does not occur to them that an equally valid goal would be to be influenced, to have their own learning provoked. Nothing new emerges, because individuals are focused on being right rather than on making the best possible decisions for the organization.

The culture is not some nebulous and mysterious force out there somewhere. You are the culture. I am the culture. And each of us shapes that culture each time we walk into a room, pick up the phone, send an e-mail. Fierce leaders know that they influence the culture one conversation at a time, responding honestly or guardedly when asked what they think.

First Look: Leadership Books for October 2009

2009-10-01T14:59:12Z

Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in October.

Lead Your Boss: The Subtle Art of Managing Up by John Baldoni
The Upside of Turbulence: Seizing Opportunity in an Uncertain World by Donald Sull
Your Next Move: The Leader's Guide to Successfully Navigating Major Career Transitions by Michael Watkins
Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
The Unforced Error: Why Some Managers Get Promoted While Others Get Eliminated by Jeffrey A. Krames

For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273

LeadershipNow 140: September 2009 Compilation

2009-09-30T19:08:56Z

Here are a selection of tweets from September 2009:

We tend to learn an enormous amount in the short term, quite a bit in the medium term and absolutely nothing in the long term.
RT @profkjmoore: An interview I did with Henry Mintzberg just came out on the Globe website: http://tinyurl.com/nnht5e // Insightful book
FT: Success can be a bad teacher. It's intoxicating; erodes self-awareness and fosters self-indulgence. http://ow.ly/rETr
RT @wallybock: My latest post at Momentor: "God is in the details" http://ow.ly/rBY8 Good advice
@hulmevision: @Bob_Wheeler Bob sent me this funny, charming, award- winning video http://bit.ly/GTw32 Good message about validation
Your leadership team has lost its mind when people at the table actually believe the org would be in worse shape if they were not there @perrynoble
RT @hulmevision: There are really only two ways of living: Give and Get. Get might work temporarily, Give works eternally.
It's difficult to get a man to understand something if his salary depends on his not understanding it. ~Sinclair Lewis
Your most valuable currency is relationship, emotional capital, the ability to connect with others. ~Susan Scott in Fierce Leadership
RT @scottmckain: http://tinyurl.com/m4sadz One of BEST posts EVER how to establish your own character & style from TELLER of Penn & Teller
RT @sreardon: If you can watch this 7min motivational video and it doesn't get you choked up - check yer pulse http://twitzap.com/u/L44
We influence others. Who we are often depends on who we are with and who they are depends on who we are.
RT @AthletesArtist: "Anger is the feeling that makes your mouth work faster than your mind." Evan Esar
GRT Interview! RT @hulmevision: “successful forgiveness, . . . a real commitment to change is shown in word and deed.” http://bit.ly/3wte7N
Managing with the Brain in Mind http://ow.ly/pja4
RT JD's Corner http://cli.gs/yUrsJ The Character that Should Define Us
Let's not confuse what it means to be famous or great. Great is for others. Famous is for you. Erwin McManus
RT @MichaelHyatt: What’s holding you back from success? Could it be that all you lack is courage. Re-post: http://is.gd/Ark5
RT @paul_farrier "Looking back, my life seems like one long obstacle race, with me as the chief obstacle." Jack Paar
Find a repeatable formula RT @HarvardBiz: How Marvel Went from Bankruptcy to $4-B Buyout http://bit.ly/13Arpc
How to Escape Perfectionism http://ow.ly/nKuz

See more on Twitter.

Leading Views: PhD in Leadership, Short Course

2009-09-22T13:52:16Z

Dee Hock is the founder and former CEO of the VISA and author of One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization. In Fast Company magazine he reduced leadership to its most basic relational (common sense) element. How often we forget this simple concept or are so unaware that we can’t get a fix on our own behavior.

"PhD in Leadership, Short Course: Make a careful list of all things done to you that you abhorred. Don't do them to others, ever. Make another list of things done for you that you loved. Do them for others, always."