It's Time to Lead

Did you prepare for this moment, or are you just hoping?

I was facilitating a leadership workshop recently and afterwards, one of the participants came up to me and said, “I’ve been handling leadership in my business a lot like I handle my golf game. I stand over the ball, set up for my swing, and wonder where it’s gonna go.” He went on to say that his bet was that the really good golfers didn’t just wonder where their ball was headed and that really good leaders probably didn’t wonder where their business was headed either. He was right; he was also in a pretty big group. Many of the leaders that I work with live their businesses rather than leading them.

The day holds lots of possibilities for success, even if the ultimate goal is still out on the horizon.

As I was getting on the shuttle bus to head to the rental car lot from the airport I have to admit that I didn't pay much attention to the driver. I greeted him and asked how he was but I was more focused on my own thoughts about the client I was preparing to meet and how to best help them. His response changed that for me. He said, "I'm doing great and I have never seen this day before." That started a conversation that led me to learn a little bit more about this man. At the age of 68 he had a tremendous optimism about what the day might bring, the people he would meet and the opportunities that were in front of him. Candidly, that was something that I didn't expect to encounter on a shuttle bus to the rental car lot.

Your team has potential! Are you fully accountable to helping them achieve it?

I love college football. While watching some of the games this past weekend I was struck by one of the comments from a coach following his team’s poor showing during the game. He said “I’m disappointed in myself and how we came out to play. When you play like that, you’re just not mentally where you need to be, and that’s my fault.” Think about the level of accountability in a statement like that. How many leaders do you know take accountability for the mindset of their teams? In my experience, many managers go with the “I’ve told them how they need to act and if they don’t want to act that way they can leave”.

Unless you can achieve the vision all by yourself, it can't be only yours.

I was working with a client a while back, and as I facilitated a discussion with a group of middle managers, I asked several questions like: Do you know where the company wants to be in a few years? Can you tell me what success looks like for this business in the future? Can you describe the vision of the company? It was evident from the discussion with these managers that they had no idea what this company wanted to be when it grew up, and therefore, didn’t know how they could help get it there.

Recently, I was catching a flight to do some culture change work with a client in Philadelphia when it seemed like everything that could go wrong, did. When I arrived at the airport the flight had been canceled and the only remaining flight for the evening was already full. I was then booked on a flight that connected in Dulles but that flight was delayed and I was clearly going to miss my connection. The fun continued with a series of bookings and re-bookings that ended with me catching a flight to Baltimore, instead of Philadelphia, and driving another two hours to my destination, arriving there at 3 AM. Anyone who’s ever been through this kind of travel experience knows the frustration that can mount as you talk to person after person who you hope can help you and yet feel like you are making no progress, or that things are even getting worse. And yet, in this situation, by the time it ended, I was laughing and kidding with one of the gate agents and perfectly happy to make my drive in the wee morning hours. The reason I wasn’t frustrated or upset reminded me of a choice that every one of has but that we often fail to use. See, as I was running from gate to gate, being further delayed and less optimistic about…

A close friend of mine was recently killed in a tragic accident. All of us experience sudden tragedies in our lives and somehow when the shock is added to the grief, it’s even harder to deal with. This article though is not about death or grief. Candidly, those things are not within any sort of expertise I possess. This article is about leadership. As we were gathered at the funeral home, mourning the loss of my friend Robert, I heard someone who reported to him at work say that it would be difficult to replace him, because he wasn’t just a boss, he was a leader. That thought stuck with me through the several days that followed and it occurred to me that while many people are challenged to describe exactly how they want leaders to behave, and those opinions are often quite different, most people know when they have been in the company of someone who has made a difference for them. They know when their lives are somehow better because of their interaction with that individual. That’s the essence of leadership. Leaders often stand out because they accomplish tasks, achieve goals, and drive growth. When you hear anyone describe a leader though, they don’t necessarily mention those things. Those things are simply…

 A lot of the work that I do with businesses and organizations is around culture change. Most businesses have the potential to be more successful if their environment is one that causes the people in the organization to fully commit to it’s mission. The right culture, along with the coaching and connection that happen in the organization, is the key to creating that kind of commitment. Many businesses though, attack culture change the same way they would a manufacturing change or installing a new technology. They use a linear, process-oriented approach that is applied across all of the affected employees. Culture change is different. It’s not based on a simple change in action like using a new machine or new software. Culture change is harder because it’s essentially a change in how people in the organization, think. There is a process for culture change (which I will cover in a future post) but before any change can be made we have to leap a few big hurdles, and that makes it hard. We have to admit that we built the wrong culture. Unless we are new to a business and inheriting a culture that has been built by someone else, we have to face that fact that as leaders, we created, or at least allowed, the wrong…

Leadership, for many, means power - power over the actions of others, power over the direction of the business, power over conversations and decisions, power over results. As people climb the corporate ladder and gain power, they begin to use it more and more to influence the results that they want. And then one day, if they are lucky, or if someone cares enough to help them learn it, they learn about the paradox between leadership and power. Exerting power does indeed influence results, but the impact is negative. Those who want to become successful leaders for the long term find that they essentially have to make a choice between leadership and power, between control and results.  A recent study by Leigh Plunkett Tost from University of Washington, Francesca Gino from Harvard and Richard P. Larrick of Duke takes a much closer look at the negative impact of power on achieving results and leading teams. Their research uncovered many negative impacts of power including the two related points below taken directly from their research: power leads individuals to dominate social interactions and to engage in greater amounts of talking, which inhibits input from others. leader power decreases perceptions of leader openness and diminishes…

Actions speak louder than words, even words chisled in stone

Virtually every company I have worked with has a set of values listed somewhere. So much has been written and read about corporate values that it’s unusual these days for an organization not to create that list at some point during it’s origin or as it grows. The philosophy is sound, building a set of principles that are designed to guide the company in all it does and to help people in the organization with a framework for making decisions. “If it doesn’t align with our values, don’t do it” is a strong message that helps people define the culture and the personality of the company. The challenge lies in the gap between constructing the list of values, and building a company that lives them. Here’s a real-world example of what I consider a pretty solid list of values that would benefit any company who lived them on a daily basis: Respect We treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves. We do not tolerate abusive or disrespectful treatment. Ruthlessness, callousness and arrogance don't belong here. Integrity We work with customers and prospects openly, honestly, and sincerely. When we say we will do something, we will do it; when we say we cannot or will not do something, then we won't do it. Communication…

Our first step is to admit that we have a leadership problem.

Sometimes, the beginning of the solution is awareness. We’ve all heard the adage that the first step to solving a problem is admitting we have one. Well if there’s any truth to that, we are a long way from finding a solution to the leadership problem. I read a study conducted by Development Dimensions International that found that 87% of managers rated themselves as “good or excellent” when assessing their overall leadership skills. Contrast that with a study done by Adecco Staffing that reported that only 20% of employees surveyed believe their boss to be a great coach. Or a report by Spherion staffing that discovered that 61% of people believe that they have better management qualities than their boss. Clearly, there’s a disconnect between how good we think we are, and how good those who work for us think we are. So our first step is to admit we have a leadership problem. Our businesses are full of mediocre, or worse, managers. There are some great leaders out there to be sure, but in reality, our chances of encountering one when we take a new job or get a new boss are slim. There’s an additional challenge for businesses that don’t currently have what they would consider great leaders in their midst. Leaders tend to travel in…