Continue to Grow as a Leader

Continue to Grow as a Leader

Lesson 12

Right now, I’m extending my arm four to six years into the future and plucking something out to give you.  It's the Yellow Pages from the future.  For some people, it’s the stock exchange index or Dunn and Bradstreet directory.  For many, it’s the company organization chart.  Is your name listed?  In what capacity?  Are you surprised at what you see?  If you have a sense of urgency about growth and effectiveness as a leader, you and your organization should be in a prominent position.  If you don’t, chances are good that there won’t be a trace of you left.  Your attitude, shaped by your sense of urgency, will be largely responsible for producing the results you’re looking for.

Do you have room to grow?  Look at it this way: what are your team members saying about you to their spouses and children at home?  You're not a topic of conversation.  You're the topic of conversation.  When someone comes to work for you, he or she is essentially laying his or her life on your desk and saying, “I trust you and this organization to do right by me and my family.”  That is a heavy responsibility.  If that person wastes a year or two of his or her life, that time will never be recovered.  People’s lives should be enhanced and opportunities should abound for them and their families because they had the good sense to come to work for you.  Working successfully with you can mean a college education for the kids or simply an overall quality of life they might not otherwise enjoy.  Your effectiveness as a leader affects people’s lives. 

A strong desire to do the right thing, beginning with ourselves and permeating every personal and professional relationship we have, marks our commitment to excellence.  A healthy discontent for the way things are is like a little burr under the saddle making it slightly uncomfortable to sit back and coast.  When Walt Disney told his people not to rest on their laurels, it was because he was a leader who understood the consequences of complacency.  Constantly looking for new directions and ways to improve what we’re doing doesn’t need to spoil the pride and sense of accomplishment that comes from a job well done.  But, we must continue to grow in new directions.

Walt Disney illustrated the need to constantly scan the horizon for growth opportunities when he resisted his advisers’ urging to produce a sequel to the enormously successful Three Little Pigs.  They pressured him and he reluctantly agreed.  After the sequel turned out to be a box office bust, Disney called his advisers together and announced a new law that is heard around the Disney organization to this very day.  "You can’t top pigs with pigs.”

Invest some time and energy in developing the following three important leadership characteristics:

• Develop a sense of urgency.
• Develop a healthy discontent with the way things are.
• Develop an appreciation for the awesome responsibilities of leadership.

“An organization will never rise above the quality of its leadership.”  NEVER.

The Leader as an Effective Motivator

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Lesson 11

Motivation is the by-product of desire.  Desire and motivation can’t be separated.  They are always at the same level.  Motivation, true motivation, can't be cranked up any higher than the level of desire.  To best understand how desire increases, and motivation along with it, you must know the three levels of motivation.

Level One: COMPLIANCE

The lowest level is compliance.  Compliance is doing something because you were told to, without much motivation or personal desire.  Character is not built at the compliance level. 

·      "Because I said so," is about all of the management ability needed to get somebody to Level One.  Simply order the person around as if s/he can’t think or reason for himself or herself and has no special ability or investment in getting the job done other than to avoid being fired. 

Level Two: GOAL IDENTIFICATION

The next higher level is identification with the goal.  Identification gives the individual a feeling of investment in the goal and produces increased desire and motivation. 

·      To help people reach Level Two, you must clearly and simply communicate the benefits of achieving the goal.  Discuss with them why the job needs to be done and how it is in the best interest for all to do it well.  When there is something to gain, people invest more.  Many a company turnaround has started at this level.

Level Three: COMMITMENT

The highest level of motivation is commitment.  There is no greater motivation than when someone feels the goal is truly their own.

·      To reach Level Three, a person needs to understand why she is uniquely suited for the task.  Show that person how his or her strengths (not yours) can be used to help achieve their part of the goal.  Not only will that person feel there is a personal benefit for a job well done, she or he will also bring a part of himself or herself to the job.

Nobody in your organization will be able to sustain a level of motivation higher than you have as the leader.  These three activities will help you motivate to the next highest level:

·      List each of your team members on the level of motivation you feel they're on.

·      Find out from each team member what his or her personal goals are keeping in mind that if they'll work on personal goals they are more apt to work on company goals.

·      Coach each person, using the individual strengths you now know that each has, to achieve the desired personal or company goal.

“We’re tied by straw and think it’s chain.”

Building a High Performance Team Part 2 of 2

Lesson 10

While still out on the beach, I laid out a plan.  After listing the people in order by respect, I drew two columns.  The first column was labeled, Weaknesses.  This column can get very long, very quickly because we notice weaknesses first and then have a tendency to concentrate on them.  You might ask, "Why write down all those terribly negative things?"  This list will become a map through the minefield.

The other column was labeled, Strengths.  I stared at the blank column and it stared back at me.  It was as though I had writers block.  Perhaps I hated to admit this person had any.  But, she was the most respected person in the office.  She had to have strengths.  I forced myself to concentrate on her strengths, which included mathematical ability, loyalty to the company, a good sense of humor, an appreciation for the finer things in life, and so on. 

Things I wouldn’t have necessarily associated with strengths on the job began to add up.  I began to realize the things that added strength to a person as a whole were strengths he or she could apply to his or her job.  My focus began to shift from the huge pile of weaknesses to the huge stack of strengths just beside it within each person.  The old dog was learning a new trick.

Once I realized how many strengths this woman had, strengths that weren’t being recognized or put to use in our organization, I was bursting at the seams with enthusiasm the next time I had the chance to talk to her strengths.  The strengths column was as long as the weaknesses column.  She immediately noticed I was enthusiastic about her potential.  I reflected back to her the things she felt were important and valuable.  What she thought and felt became my priority instead of ramming my priorities down her throat. 

We can transplant hearts and other vital organs from one person to another, but we can’t transplant strengths.  Nevertheless, managers and parents try every day and there has never been a successful operation.  Our job, therefore, is to be a catalyst between their strengths and the way we'd like to see the job done.  You’ll keep adding to both lists over time. 

A word of caution: The responsible leader does not leave these lists lying around the office.  This is an exercise for you and you alone.  Keep your lists at home.  Each evening take only a few minutes to pick a couple of your team members from your chart to connect with individually the next day in a coaching session.  Select one or two of the strengths from their individual lists that you can show them how to use more of in some part of their jobs.  Here are some ways to get started:

• Make a list of the most respected person's weaknesses and a second list of the same person's strengths.
• Keep in mind that the second list will be more difficult because of the long-term propensity to focus on weaknesses.
• Lay out a coaching strategy for each person, based on your awareness of their weaknesses, but emphasizing communication with their strengths.

“Be aware of their weaknesses, but talk to their strengths.”

Building a High Performance Team - Part 1 of 2

         Lesson 9

When my boss announced that the search for my replacement was on, I did what any sane and logical manager would have done.  I went to the beach.  My salespeople needed some breathing space, as much as I needed to be alone with my thoughts, the waves, the sand, and a legal pad of paper.  That's where I realized that there was a barrier or fence in my organization.  My people were on one side of the fence and I was on the other.  And the fence looked different, depending on which side you were on.  With this revelation came my first major team-building technique.

There was only one uniting factor in all of the people on the other side of the fence.  They all hated me.  It wasn’t a healthy bond, but it was strong.  I needed to end our segregation.  I could have invoked the power of my position and ordered my people to join me on my side of the fence.  But, I knew that yelling at people doesn't produce real cooperation.  Another option available to me was to crawl over to their side of the fence and try to recreate the wonderful camaraderie we had when I first came on board as the new sales person and they took me under their collective wing.  But, that wouldn’t be leadership either.

Then I realized that I was not going to reunite with all of my people at one time.  At best, I was only going to earn their trust on an individual-by-individual basis.  My first thought was to go after the highest producer in the office.  But, something told me that could foster professional jealousy among the other team members.  The situation could become even more divisive.  I needed to get someone over on my side of the fence that the others would listen to.

It dawned on me that the most influential member of the team was the person whom the others respected the most--not necessarily the superstar--but the person most respected by his or her peers.  Using this new criteria, I rated my team members starting with the most respected, the next most respected and so on.  I was incorporating the values of my people into my thinking.  The ratings I used were their ratings, not mine. 

So, I went to work on the number one most respected person on my list.  Before long, that person was actually saying some decent things about me.  Why?  Because that person was beginning to truly feel as if I was open and receptive to the team’s way of thinking.  Soon, number two on my list headed for my side of the fence, then numbers three, four, and so on.  Once I won about a third of the people over, the most respected third, others started heading my way from the far side of the fence.  Your people vote every day to decide which side of the fence to be on.

Here's how to get started on the Fence Technique: 

• Determine who is the most respected among my team members.
• Identify which qualities make this person so trusted.
• Rank your team members in order of peer respect, but keep the list for your eyes only.

“Determination makes failure impossible.”

Take Steps to Grow as a Leader

	Lesson 8

You shouldn’t wait to start learning how successful leaders think and act until your boss tells you he or she is looking for your replacement.  If I had known then what I know now, my boss would have never come in and set my pants on fire.  I would have paid $10,000 for a single copy of this book back then.  Maybe even twice that.

The way others successfully handle pressure can be an education and ensure that you’ll never have to experience similar situations.  When we observe someone who never seems to be on the hot seat, it might well be that, while we were scrambling around with our nose to the grindstone, that person’s head was up where he or she could look around and learn a thing or two from other people’s experiences.  A head that’s up and looking around means:

• Attending seminars, live or on-line
• Reading books, magazines, and newspapers
• Taking to lunch people from whom you can learn
• Monitoring your own people for things you can learn
• Gobbling up audio/video multimedia training programs
• Regularly analyze what’s working and what isn’t

      

It’s not enough to merely study.  True learning is the application of knowledge.  Things get exciting for everybody when successful techniques are put into practice.  Keeping all of your great new knowledge in your head won’t do a thing to increase productivity.  I speak three to five times every week, all over North America plus a few other countries, and I've never been in front of an audience that didn’t have at least a few educated failures.  Some of them possess enormous amounts of information about the latest leadership methods, yet they’re stagnated or failing.  When I ask them how many of the new techniques and strategies they have incorporated into their organization’s daily routines, they hesitate to answer.  The truth hurts.  The fact is that most of us leave a gap between how we do our jobs and the way we know how to do our jobs.

How did you score yourself on the ten earlier leadership characteristics?  Using a scale 1-10 with 10 being highest, go back and score yourself again the way your people would probably rate you as a leader.  See yourself through their eyes.  If you’re gutsy, you might want one or more of your people who have read that chapter to do the rating.  The score your people give you is the real one.  You're only as effective as your people’s perception of you.  The rating the staff gives their leader is always the most accurate measure of effectiveness. 

Here are three tough questions to ask yourself.  Journal your answers:

• If I were to ask my team members to graph out the improvement they've seen from me as a leader of people in the past year, what would the graph look like?
• What do I need to start planning in order to grow as a leader in the next twelve months?
• Where has my leadership solved a problem and what did I learn from it?

"Take a mentor to lunch before somebody else eats yours!"

Cultivate Characteristics of an Effective Organization

	Lesson 7

Creativity: These days, many businesspeople hear the word creativity and automatically think of finances in the same way that stretching used to be something you only did during exercise.  The creativity I'm referring to is originality of thought and execution, which are becoming increasingly necessary in today’s business arena.  Creativity is the steam that powers the locomotive of progress.

When the heat’s on, the same old way of handling situations just won’t cut it any more.  The same old routines are probably what gets you into trouble.  Down pressures are changing in nature and intensity.  Up pressures are coming from the rapidly changing dynamics of a workforce with a new identity.  Lack of originality in thinking and behavior is a sign that you're vise is slowly closing in.

Energy: Any effective organization has an energy you can sense as soon as you enter the office.  Even if only one person is in the office at the time, you will still be able to feel it.  The thought might even pop into your head that this could be a fun place to work.  Andrew Carnegie, the great industrialist, said, "I've found there is little success where there is little laughter."

When you walk into the other kind of office, the one with low or no energy, you feel that too.  It’s like walking into a big refrigeration unit.  The chill makes you shiver.  Even if only one person is sitting there, you still feel the chill.  Some offices might as well have a sign on the wall that says: Fun is forbidden.  Anyone caught enjoying what they’re doing will be punished.

Where there is no fun, there is no energy.  How long does it take to detect energy or lack of it in an office?  Within five seconds, you can tell how much fun it is to work there.  Your customers can tell the same thing within five seconds of being greeted by one of your team members. 

Change: Change is what happens when you mix creativity and energy.  An effective organization is a changing organization.  I don’t say that the other way around because it is possible for management to change the look, the staff, the location, and a thousand other things about an organization in an attempt to artificially produce effectiveness.

Change that does not emerge from a healthy combination of creativity and energy will look, feel, and taste synthetic.  Creativity combined with energy produces change from within.  Changes imposed from outside feel like impositions.  Changes from within are self-regulated and guided by realism.  Here are three methods of building energy, creativity, and change:   

• Analyze the steps used to solve a very difficult problem that you or a team member experienced in recent months.
• Learn what "vibes" the average customer picks up when they initially meet any of your team members?
• Identify a change you can initiate right now to make your organization more effective.

Leadership When the Heat's On: 24 lessons in high-performance management

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 Lesson Six

Practice Humanagement

Humanagement is simply the ability to use the job to develop the person while having fun in the process.  My entire emphasis changed as I stopped managing my people like a bunch of livestock and began leading them as people.  It occurred to me I could help each individual unlock the talent he or she had inside, as well as to:

• Set more meaningful goals (personal and professional)
• Better understand and plan their time
• Use more of their creativity
• Better handle their stress
• Feel safe pushing their envelope

If I had an office full of happy, growing people, I thought, there’s no telling what we could accomplish.  Sure enough, when they began taking a new and enriched mind home at night, instead of a sore, tired, and aggravated one, our entire universe expanded beyond anything we would have previously thought possible.

Don’t forget the “...while having fun in the process” part.  I don’t mean you open the office with a joke every morning.  My experience has proven time and again that people who grow and develop to the point they can handle problems they would not have been big enough to handle in the past are happier people.  They are happier because they are more fulfilled and actualized.  When an office full of people becomes more fulfilled and actualized, morale goes up.  With higher morale comes higher productivity.  I’ve never seen it fail.

           

Staff turnover also drops.  With low staff turnover comes more bonding and team spirit.  High turnover results in suspicion and a lack of personal investment in the job.  It’s difficult to feel a part of an organization if the probability of losing your job is high.  There are the managers who swear their organization has a terrific atmosphere, but people leave because the money is not competitive.  There are also bureaucracies where people stay forever, even though they are miserable.  A good logo for them would be: Repeating Yesterday, Inc; Home of the Living Dead.

Nobody is having fun in either case.  People leave the first organization because they’re not happy, not because there's more money elsewhere.  The value of having fun on the job ranks above money.  The ability to enjoy the work and the working environment is a stronger hold on people than higher wages in an unpleasant job and environment.  Ask yourself the following three questions to help get positioned and mentally prepared to practice Humanagement: 

• What can I do to set a better example for my team of the five bulleted points above?
• If my team members were asked to rate how much fun they have working for me what would my grade be?
• What's the gist of the conversations that are being carried on about me at night in the homes of the people that work for me?

“Help a team member grow, and you will receive respect in return.”