It’s hard to work in the area of developing leaders without addressing the issue of management versus leadership. Much debate has been had about what each of these words means in the business world and which one is more important. Recently, I’ve even heard a lot of discussion about the issue of individuals leading too much and not managing enough. One example of that is a recent article from Harvard Business Review that states: “"Big picture only" leaders often make decisions without considering the constraints that affect the cost and time required to implement them, and even when evidence begins mounting that it is impossible or unwise to implement their grand ideas, they often choose to push forward anyway.” Leadership has become, for some, an idea that you sit atop the organization and gaze upon it from a lofty perch where you make disconnected decisions and advance your own ideas. That’s not leadership or management, that’s simply abuse of power. The very notion that the focus of leadership is on the actions of the leader is flawed. Leadership is about others. It’s about being the catalyst for great things to be accomplished by those who otherwise might accomplish less. The definition of leadership I use…
Often, when organizations are trying to make change happen, it comes down to a couple of levers that they need to pull to start the motion. It might be organizational structure, or process, or communication. Almost always, it’s a combination of things that need to be addressed in order to cause change to happen. But every single time, part of the equation is human behavior. When I ask the leaders in the companies I work with how they intend to change human behavior, the first thing they say usually revolves around compensation. [/caption] I’m certain that there has been a time when I’ve asked that question and gotten an answer that wasn’t related to compensation, but candidly, it’s pretty rare. At least part of the answer is usually about adding the new behavior to the list of performance items that affect their bonus, or worse, threatening to take money off the table if they don’t perform the new trick. It seems to be part of our business DNA that we use money to motivate people to do anything, anytime, in any way. It’s ironic then, that anytime I work with a leader who has accomplished anything of significance and I ask them what motivated them to make it happen, they never say “I did it for the money.” Maybe it really…
I’ve worked with a lot of folks lately who have had a change in careers or are looking for a new one and one thing keeps becoming clearer to me as I have conversations with these folks. It’s not about the ground gained, it’s about the potential created. So many people who were focused on gaining yards and moving forward with their career find themselves back at the beginning, and now the game has new rules. Most of us have observed others who worked every day with their sights set on the next promotion, the next opportunity to impress someone, or the next power shift they need to align with. Managing up becomes the skill they master. It’s easy to understand; in fact, in many companies, it’s probably been one of the most lucrative skill sets you could possess. Many a fortune has been made by reading the company politics and positioning yourself to be the next heir to the corner office. There’s also no question that building effective relationships with the powers that be is necessary in any organization, and it’s not inherently a bad thing. The challenge enters when it becomes how some individuals spend the bulk of their time at work. We’ve all known people who made a living by telling the boss what they wanted…
I recently wrote an article about how leaders focus on things a little differently than others and that it’s not that they engage in different activities, as much as it is how they engage. Leaders tend to think differently about their daily activities and focus on a different outcome, so they get exactly that. One example that I used was that some of the best leaders I’ve worked with enter a meeting thinking about what they need to learn from their team and how to help them find solutions, while others may enter a meeting thinking about what they need to tell their team about how to execute better. Both leaders had a meeting, but only one actually moved the business forward and increased the capability of the team. One of the key points I was trying to get across is that leaders are typically thinking about how to best help others improve as they go through their daily activities, while many managers are focused more on what they need to get from others during those same activities. There’s plenty of time for leaders to focus on what they themselves need, but that should be done when they aren’t around others in the business. That’s precious time to learn and to understand different perspectives that others have. The more…
One of the most common questions I get when I am working with leaders who are trying to make a shift in how they lead themselves and others, goes something like this: "How am I supposed to do all of this other leadership and people stuff when it takes all of my time just to get my daily activities accomplished?" It’s a valid question as long as your perspective is that leadership means doing more. The question goes away when you think about leadership as not what you do, but how you do it. What that common question sometimes illustrates, is a completely different perspective on what great leadership looks like. I often like to put the answer in a little different context. Does Lance Armstrong stop pedaling the bike in order to focus on winning the race? We all know the answer to that question. Clearly he’s not focused on the mechanics of riding a bike when he’s trying to win a race with his team. He’s thinking about the next stage, the next climb, the next adjustment and then operating the bike with those thoughts in mind. One of my favorite Lance Armstrong quotes is "Winning is about heart, not just legs. It's got to be in the right place." Becoming a better leader doesn’t always mean that we change the things we do.…
On last week’s post about bringing leaders onboard in your business more effectively, I received a question about how to hire the right leaders in the first place. I have a few clients that I am working with to solve that issue as well, so it leads us to this week's post on how to hire great leaders who fit your business. First, as a business, you have to define your culture. Many organizations hire leaders that represent the culture they want to have, not the culture they currently have. That’s a great decision, as long as you are willing to give the new leader the freedom to actually help make those changes. That can become a bit of a conflict if you are the business leader because, consciously or not, you created the culture that already exists in your company. A battle ensues that pits the new person against the current culture; culture always wins. If you really are going to bring in a change agent, you have to be crystal clear about the latitude they will have and make it clear to the rest of the organization that the new person is there to help the company change and grow. Then you have to actually let them. Assuming that you have already built the culture you want in your business and you are hiring leaders…
I was working with a company recently that was looking for a way to improve the success of the leaders they bring into the organization. They had hired several senior executives only to watch them struggle and ultimately leave or be forced out within the first 18 months. What’s interesting is that the amount of resources that are typically spent on supporting a new leader in his or her new organization are a fraction of those spent to find and hire them. It’s as if the company lets out a collective exhale as the position is finally filled, and now everyone can get back to work. As a business, you just made a significant investment. It’s critical that the company now does what’s needed to make the investment pay off. It’s estimated that it costs between 10 and 25 times an executive’s salary to replace them. And those figures don’t take into account the damage that can be done to an organization in terms of culture, morale, or lost traction for a function while the boss’s job is vacant. Most organizations do at least something to prepare the new leader. They provide org charts and financial documents, suggestions on key relationships that need to be built and stakeholders that need to be engaged. They usually have some…
I met a business leader recently who was telling me about the challenges he was having with getting people in his organization to step up and take responsibility. He felt like he was ready to turn more of his operation over to others in the company so he could stop working 70 or 80 hours a week. He went on to say that the problem was, no one in his company shared his passion and commitment to the success of the business and he didn’t yet trust them to run it the way he would. One of the most difficult transitions I’ve watched leaders make is the transition from operation to oversight. In many cases the leader has not built the foundation necessary to make the transition even though they believe they are ready. In other cases they have created such a narrow view of what success looks like that no one other than them can accomplish it. In essence, they have come to define success as “doing it my way”. The Foundation Let’s take a look at the foundation needed to make this kind of transition. This particular business owner felt like no one would care as much about his business as he did. He’s absolutely correct. They have to feel, at least to some degree, that it’s their business before they will have the same level…
I’ve had the good fortune throughout my career to work with some incredible leaders. But for every great leader I’ve been around there were dozens of individuals who could have been great leaders and never were. [caption id="attachment_761" align="alignright" width="200" caption="The business plan hinges on the performance of the leader"] I’ve known many people who have had the skills, the knowledge and the experience to lead people effectively and help others accomplish more but they never put a personal plan in place to get there. Most businesses have a plan. Big or small, established or start up, there is usually a plan of some sort that says here’s how we will get to where we want to go. What many people fail to put in place is the personal plan that will drive that business direction. This is especially true with small businesses that rely almost solely on the effectiveness of their leader to drive growth. But it is also true of major corporations who can, and have, begun to slide backwards in many cases due to the failure of those at the top to lead the business well. Think of all of the components that are committed to paper with regards to a business, how to market, develop business, measure success, manage…
I had an opportunity to speak to business owners from across the country recently at their annual convention. Prior to my keynote address they gave out several awards to members of their group. There was one individual who, it seemed, hardly had time to sit down before she was called back to the stage to receive another award. Her name was Jenifer, and she not only received an award for how well her business performed financially, despite the challenging market conditions, she also received an award for mentoring and helping others along the way, as well as the top award for all around best performance. The interesting thing was, even after only meeting Jen on the bus ride from the airport and watching her interact with others at dinner the night before, I wasn’t a bit surprised at how many awards she received. Her leadership skills were clearly evident. Everything about Jen, the way she carried herself, her energy level, her interaction with others, her desire to help, even if it was just holding the door for someone dragging a suitcase, demonstrated that she was a leader. At the dinner table she listened intently to the conversation, made everyone around her feel important and participated, but didn’t dominate. …