Transformational Leadership Strategies

Leading Change When You Don’t Know How- Part 2

Leaders, you are at the epicenter of change.  In this second installment of my series about leading change, you’ll learn to address the often-overlooked aspect of change: emotions. 

• Step 1: Get Clear (click here to read that blog)
• Step 2: Get Excited (this blog)
• Step 3: Get Busy (my next blog)

LEADING CHANGE STEP 2: Get Excited   

There are two forces at work in all of us: the logical, rational thinking part and the emotional part.  Our brains are wired to reflect those parts.  To get your team members on board and achieve success with any change, you have to address both parts.  Step 1 helped the logical, rational thinking mind to get clear about the change.

Step 2 is all about motivating the emotional side.  Ignore it at your own peril.  Remember my client, Fred, who was tasked with changing a key business process from three hours to just one hour? Successful execution of this change required many job responsibilities to change, new technology to be deployed (in a previously-low-tech environment), many long-held assumptions to be discarded, and an entrenched culture to shift.  The emotional forces at play ran the gamut from fear to anxiety, perhaps with a little worry mixed in. 

It is imperative that Fred (and you) project positive emotions like hope, optimism, and joy, and pride.  Positive emotions tend to develop and expand our range of thinking and behaving, enhancing problem-solving and boosting our creativity.  And excitement!

So, how do you get people excited?  Here are four methods to get your team motivated, excited, and on the road to success:

1. Give them a head start.  The emotional part of the brain is easily overwhelmed and discouraged.  Find a way to show your people that they have already started down the path toward change.  (Fred said, “You already use a computer, so you’re about 50 percent of the way toward using an iPad with ease.”)

2. Engage their emotions.  Knowledge and objective, logical data won’t provide enough fuel to launch your team members’ motivation to change.  So, put your analytics in a folder (for now) and embrace what John Kotter calls “See – Feel – Change.”   Provide evidence for the change that will make people feel like there is something in it for them if they embrace and support the change.   Here are two ideas:

• Be your own customer.  Participate in your process as a customer, or watch your customer use your product/service.  (Fred did this.  It opened his eyes in a way no bar chart ever could.)
• Create a common cause.   Help create an identity of “we are the kind of people who do … (the change).”  People are more likely to be committed to something they identify with.  Then, they own the change.

3. Celebrate small successes.  Small goals combine to create small victories that result in a positive, upward spiral.  These small victories generate hope that change is possible.  If the goal feels too big and/or too far in the future, the emotional brain resists and inertia results.  When I was working on my dissertation (and by that I mean staring at my computer screen for hours on end without touching a single key), my best friend Jan said, “Just commit to writing for 20 minutes. Then stop. You can delete it all if you want, but just write for 20 minutes.”  That sounded doable.  So I did it.  I “20-minute-ed” my way through the dissertation.  After I got going, I usually stuck with it far longer than 20 minutes, but I needed a small victory to move me in a positive direction.

4. Fail to learn.  It’s not what it sounds like!  Failure is a necessary part of any change.  Remember Thomas Edison, who, after trying a thousand different elements for the light bulb that failed, famously said, “I have discovered a thousand things that don't work."  Adopt the mindset that failure is the by-product of practicing new processes, testing out new designs, and, basically, learning anything new.  Then you become the coach of your team, not the scorekeeper of every mistake along the way. 

Before this week is over, use at least one of these strategies to get your team excited!  Then, try another strategy.  You and your team will get caught in the positive, upward spiral of behaviors that support your change.  Next, stay tuned for the Leading Change Step 3 – Get Busy.

Leadership is for the Birds

Is leadership about style or is it about strategy?  The answer to this question may be found in a very unlikely place.

Let me start by saying that my favorite time and place is dawn, sitting by the lake. The tranquility and peacefulness is only occasionally interrupted by the sound of motor boats racing by to get to the next fishing location. I see a lot of birds in these early hours, especially blue heron and Canada geese. One morning, as I was sitting drinking my coffee, I saw in the distance three blue herons flying low, almost touching the water. Within just a few minutes, I looked overhead and saw a flock of Canada geese flying in their typical v-formation. And then I saw something that I very rarely see: off in the distance, I saw a bald eagle soaring high above the lake with its wings fully spread! Later that day as I reflected on that early morning experience, I engaged my left brain to do a little analysis. Being in the leadership development business, my thoughts turned immediately to the question:  “What can we learn about leadership from each of these birds?”  As I continued pondering this question, I concluded that each of these birds represent a very different approach — or strategy — to leadership. No one approach is necessarily better than the other, but they are clearly very different.

Canada Geese: Nurturing

We have all likely seen Canada geese in flight as they noisily migrate in their trademark v-formation. There are a number of leadership lessons we can take from these birds. For example, the lead bird’s primary job is to help reduce air drag so the flock can fly for greater distances while saving energy. So, when the lead goose gets tired, it is relieved by another goose and eventually several geese get a turn at the lead position.

One key lesson from this is that everyone has the ability to lead. It’s not a question of position in the pecking order. The lead goose knows to step down when it's in the best interest of the team. Canada geese also know they can accomplish more through teamwork, collaboration and cooperation. Canada geese are known for their penchant to take care of each other and stand by each other in difficult times (when one gets hurt or wounded). Leadership is all about helping others, not just yourself.         

So, what did I learn that day from the Canada geese? Simply watching these birds reinforced in my mind the importance of building and nurturing relationships as a leader. Leadership is not always the lead position. Good leaders, like good geese, share leadership.

Blue Heron: Steadiness

That morning, I saw a pretty stark contrast between the noisy, loud squawking Canada geese and the quieter, reserved, introverted and low-key demeanor of the blue heron. The blue heron seemed more thoughtful, persistent and deliberate in their behavior. While the Canada geese seem to thrive in large groups, the blue herons seem to thrive in small groups. From a leadership standpoint, during a crisis I would turn to the blue heron, with its calm, unflappable behavior. Persistent, steady and determined -- this is the approach the blue heron takes whether it be hunting or taking care of its young. While it may appear that the blue heron is slow, they are able to strike with lightning speed to grab a fish or snap up a gopher. And so it is with leaders. They may appear to be slow, meticulous, careful and cautious, but when the need arises, they can respond quickly and effectively.

So, what did I learn from the blue heron? Sometimes the leadership that is needed is steadiness and quiet resolve. Leaders who utilize the blue heron approach to leadership lead with quiet confidence and efficiency of words. The effective leader, like the blue heron, doesn’t need to draw a lot of attention to him or herself.

Bald Eagle: Vision

I must admit, seeing a bald eagle soaring high above the lake was a pretty awesome sight! For me, as for a lot of people, the bald eagle represents strength and ferocity. If one were to compare the bald eagle and the blue heron to the tortoise and the hare, it is pretty obvious which bird matches to which character.

One of the most salient traits of the bald eagle is their eyesight. They can see great distances; one might say they have great vision. Just like the bald eagle, all leaders must have vision that guides and leads their teams or organizations toward their goals. One new thing I learned about the bald eagle is that when a storm approaches, they spread their wings and use the storm to lift themselves to greater heights. So, just like the bald eagle, great leaders use storms (i.e., challenges) to help them achieve more as opposed to running from them.

So, next time you are presented with a problem or a decision to make, think like a bird: 

1. Bald eagle: Before taking action, survey the landscape from a higher level. Determine what the big picture is. Create a vision of the most desirable outcome.
2. Blue heron: Very meticulously, thoughtfully and deliberately examine your options and decide on the best decision or solution.
3. Canada geese: Gather together your fellow “geese,” form a team, squawk for a while and then collaborate to implement the decision or solution.

Finally, let’s return to the question I opened with:  Is leadership about style or strategy?  I would contend that it is clearly about strategy, which means you provide what is needed at the time it is needed. If you agree with this premise, then you may ask yourself:  How do I know which leadership strategy to use? For the answer, you may want to look up. You might find your answer there.

How Inspirational Leaders Achieve Connectedness

The competitive advantages of being an inspirational leader are numerous, but inspirational leaders are rare. Think about it. As you review your career, how many people have you worked with and how many of those people would you classify as inspirational leaders who really connected with you? If you are like most people, it is a very short list indeed.

One of the ways I like to kick off a leadership training program is to have everyone think about how many inspirational leaders they know. While their lists are usually short, the leaders on those lists are extremely memorable because they impacted the individual and organization in so many positive ways and created success everywhere they turned.

Now think about this: what if you could learn how to truly inspire your team so that when those individuals are asked who they view as inspirational leaders, your name pops into their head? 

Well, if you are a graduate of a Farr leadership training program or a regular reader of our blog, Transformational Leadership Strategies, you have heard a lot about the brain and leadership. You know about the brain’s limbic system hijack that can limit individual performance and sabotage team effectiveness. You have learned ways to help yourself and others back out of a limbic system hijack. You have even learned ways to reduce the potential that a hijack will occur in the first place. While these are critical skills of a great leader, it’s not enough to become an inspirational leader.

To become an inspirational leader, you must also learn how to activate the other side of the limbic system hijack coin in your followers – what you might call a limbic system boost. In the past, inspirational leaders connected with their followers by “intuitively” creating a limbic system boost. Today, neuropsychology has opened the door to understand how to “intentionally” create this boost.

Our brain’s limbic system is responsible not only for generating negative emotions, like fear and anger; it is also intimately involved in producing positive emotions associated with pleasure, such as excitement and joy. The limbic system can move us into action through either of two mechanisms: move us to negative behaviors through negative emotion or move us to positive behaviors through positive emotion. Inspirational leaders have skills for not only limiting the expression of the former, but also for magnifying the expression of the latter in their teams.

In the past, it was only through natural ability, years of experience, trial and error efforts and some old fashioned luck that a leader could unlock the secret to learn how to inspire others – explaining why inspirational leaders are so rare. But today, by understanding what neuropsychology can teach us about motivation, you can get not only a head start, but a recipe for how to inspire others by giving them a limbic system boost.

The secret lies in knowing how to leverage the motivational networks wired into each and every human brain. At Farr, we call them the Six Motivational Brain Networks™. Now, I admit that’s a pretty clunky name that doesn’t roll off the tongue very well, but it is very descriptive of what they are and what they do. They are the six networks of interconnected brain systems that motivate us into action either through positive or negative emotions. I’ve written briefly about these networks before (Marathons and Motivation), but it would be useful to explore some of the nuances of how to actually leverage each of these networks in a way that helps create inspiration in others.

Let’s start by taking just one of those networks, Connectedness, and describe how you can leverage that network to inspire those entrusted to your leadership. It is through the expression of this network that humans crave being connected with and accepted by others. Connectedness ensures that they receive social rewards and remain connected to the group, verses receiving social punishments and being ostracized from the group.

Leveraging Connectedness simply means that you invest in your relationships with others in a way that builds rapport and a sense of affinity. So, on the surface it would seem to be an easy thing to build Connectedness with others. Yet, this is often the Achilles’ heel of many leaders. In fact, many leaders sometimes appear to be intentionally attempting to achieve the exact opposite of Connectedness through what might be called the Appalling As: coming across as Abrasive, Arrogant, Aggressive and/or Aloof.

Now you might be thinking, “Well, all I have to do is avoid the Appalling As and I’m good to go”. But building Connectedness requires much more than just the absence of the Appalling As. Connecting with others requires energy and purposeful effort toward establishing a common ground with others. More specifically, it requires attention to three important things as you work with another person who is excited about solving a complex problem or enthusiastic about making a critical decision:

1. Be Genuine

First and foremost, you must have a genuine interest in the other person’s point of view. You do that by exploring their perspective as deep as you can by using the same skills needed to tame a limbic system hijack – those of active listening and open-ended questions. When used in an emotionally positive situation, these skills serve to magnify the positive emotional momentum by activating the release of a neuro-hormone called oxytocin. This neuro-hormone serves to further increase social bonding – or Connectedness.  It is important to emphasize here that just listening to the other person talk and waiting for them to finish so you can give your perspective is not going to go very far toward connecting with them. In fact, faked or shallow interest in another person’s ideas is quickly and easily detected by the neural networks running this system and leave the other person feeling manipulated. The interest has to be genuine.

2.     Label Emotions

Next, be sure to identify the positive emotion the other person is experiencing. When you begin to explore the other person’s perceptions and ideas, don’t focus on just the data they are presenting, also identify the type of positive emotions they are expressing. Is it pride, pleasure, joy, optimism, satisfaction, hopefulness, excitement?  Identify the emotion and label it for yourself. This may take a little practice since most of us have not spent much time making such distinctions. But we all have the neuro-machinery to be quite good at it with a little practice.

3.     Express Empathy

Finally, once you label the emotion the other person is feeling, take a moment to put yourself in that state of mind and see if you can literally feel what they feel. Again, this may take a little practice since it’s probably not something you have intentionally done on a regular basis, which is another reason inspirational leaders are so rare! However, this important step serves to help activate the same limbic system region in your own brain, as in the other person. When this happens, it sets the stage for neural resonance to occur, which is a literal matching or synchrony of brain wave patterns between two people. You probably know and recognize this as what is commonly called empathy. Neural resonance, or empathy, when applied within an emotionally positive problem solving situation results in ideas being generated that would never have been created by a single person and people feel genuinely connected to each other as they move through the process.

So, begin looking for opportunities today to interact with team members who have ideas they are excited about, but may not be fully developed. Engage them in a conversation using the above three steps and they will walk away not only with new creative ideas, but feeling inspired and connected at the same time. Engaging them in this manner creates Connectedness, producing a win for them, the team, the organization and your leadership. Do it enough times and guess who they will think of when asked the question, ‘Who do you think of as an inspirational leader?”  Now, how’s that for a competitive advantage?

For my next several blogs, I’ll discuss each of the remaining Motivational Brain Networks™ in detail. I’ll also describe how you can use each one to magnify positive emotions in your followers, create a huge competitive advantage and earn the title of Inspirational Leader.

Why Newly Promoted Star Performers Sometimes Fail

What do you do when your star performer doesn’t meet your expectations in a new role?

Recently, a client I worked with experienced first-hand the difficulty that comes from promoting hard working employees. As a CEO, Sally needed the most proactive and actively engaged employees to help run the company so she promoted her star performer, Eric. However, as her new right-hand man, his performance began to falter. She quickly became frustrated and aggravated that no matter how many times she told him what to do, he just didn’t seem to follow through with the level of success she expected. In fact, the more she told him what to do, the worse he did.

What she didn’t realize was she had a role in creating his resistance. The reason that all people crave autonomy is because it’s a motivator; the brain is wired toward it. When we have it, we become more engaged; when we don’t have it, we don’t.

Giving individuals the freedom to perform their work as they see fit is how the cutting edge organizations lead. At 3M Co., for example, employees have 15% of their time dedicated to exploring what it is they want to explore. That 15% has been the game changer at 3M Co., producing all of their most innovative products. Many organizations offer “Results Only Work Environments” where employees aren’t slaves to the clock, but are given the leeway to do their work as they see fit. The amount of hours worked is disregarded, but what is regarded is the amount of work accomplished. Do it from home, do it at 3 a.m., do it when the mood strikes. Organizations that have adopted such practices are leading the new economy with employees that take complete ownership for their work.

Sally, in telling Eric exactly what to do, reduced the amount of autonomy that he felt. This actually triggered a response in the brain that made the previously high levels of engagement impossible. She had a role in creating his disengagement.

Create Autonomy and Engage Employees

There is a reliable method for creating an environment of engagement when autonomy is concerned: ask thoughtful questions and then listen. The simple act of listening actually changes the brain of the individual being listened to, shutting down its reactive tendency. When there is a problem to be solved, asking questions that elicit a thoughtful response and then listening to that response, actually increases the autonomy experienced in the other individual. Increased autonomy translates to increased engagement and increased productivity.

When Sally realized that in telling Eric what to do she was decreasing his autonomy, which in turn decreased his engagement, she changed her approach and began listening. Questions like, “What do you think we should do here?” not only elicited a thoughtful response, they put him in command of the decision. The results were immediate!  Eric felt he had the room to make decisions, and he made them well and once again became the star performer of the organization.

Daily Practice

Start small by asking thoughtful questions and then listening. Ask employees for their ideas, for their solution to a problem or even how you can be a better manager. Make it a daily practice and you’ll create a culture of greater engagement, productivity and profit.

Embrace Uncertainty and Get More Done Without Going Crazy

We all want to feel that we have a handle on our jobs and careers and know that we are in control, but sometimes feeling calm, cool and collected can actually disrupt productivity.

Feeling in control usually means avoiding risk, and that is not always a good idea when we are trying to lead others to achieve their best. Sometimes in order to break through to our people and get them to reach a new level of knowledge and productivity, we need to take a new approach and try something different.

However, knowing when to push ahead with a new idea versus when to stick with the familiar can be tricky. Most leaders worry about whether they are taking the right approach and that they might not be able to get the results they need with the people and resources they have, no matter what approach they take.

Knowing how and when to take the right risks is something that Alpine skiers know a lot about, and by learning the attitudes they use to succeed, we can all become better leaders.

FOLLOWING THE FALL LINE VS. TRANSVERSING THE MOUNTAIN

In Alpine skiing, the Fall Line refers to the direct line down a mountain. That is, the direction a ball would roll if it were free to move on the slope by gravity. This is the fastest, riskiest, route down the mountain. A safer, slower, way down the mountain is to traverse back and forth across the mountain.

In business and leadership, it helps to identify the Fall Line clearly in our own minds and decide when to follow it and when to transverse the mountain instead.

The fad in popular leadership literature often encourages us to think we should choose one approach or the other and stick with it. It also appears to focus on more effective, efficient ways to lead. This can cause some people to automatically look for the fastest route to a result. In leadership, you will be required to take direct and efficient action at times, but there will also be times where you will need to take indirect action to deliberate, develop or involve others.

The trick to making the right decision is to consciously replace worry inducing questions such as, “Is this working?” or “What approach should I take?” with  four simple guidelines.

FOUR ATTITUDE SECRETS TO HELP YOU CHART THE RIGHT COURSE

1. DOUBLE CHECK THAT YOU ARE REALLY RESPONDING TO WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE MOMENT

A skier who is thinking about his last run versus the current run he is on right now will fall and crash. Leadership is the same. Confronting all leadership challenges in a set way will seldom work. The balance that a leader must find between “traversing” and “skiing the Fall Line” is a fluid or dynamic balance.

2. STOP WORKING TO KEEP THINGS THE WAY THEY ARE 

Every mountain is different, and trying to decide what kind of skier you are, without taking into account the details of the mountain can lead to disaster. How many times have you heard someone say, “That’s not my style?”   Leadership style is a term that many executives use as a ‘cop-out’ for avoiding the tough job of leading. Effective leadership is a willingness to accept the risk of failing by adapting a leadership style to an approach that will accomplish the task at hand.

3. GET EXCITED -- FEELING SECURE IS NOT THE ANTIDOTE TO FEAR, COURAGE AND PASSION ARE THE ANTIDOTES TO FEAR

Effective leadership means being willing, if necessary, to experience the feeling of fear or anxiety and adopt an approach that will solve the problem. It also means taking the time to consciously focus on the desired positive outcome and encouraging yourself and others to get excited about the possibilities. Fear or anxiety can be crippling to an organization. The way most leaders avoid or turn down the volume on anxiety is to fall back on behaviors or styles that have worked for them in the past in which they are secure.

4. KEEP YOUR FOCUS ON THE ACTION

Once a world class skier starts down a difficult run, they rarely stop and mull things over, because that can be dangerous. The same is true in business. Leadership is about getting the job done. When leaders focus on a leadership strategy that will increase productivity, and couple it with the energy and excitement of meeting challenges, they merge passion and action. When leaders try to form the perfect strategy before they are willing to take any action at all, they are often in danger of not getting anything done.

Putting these four concepts into consistent practice can be challenging, but it is possible with a little practice. You can begin to practice by choosing one leadership decision a week and asking yourself, “On a scale of 1-10, how fully am I embracing each of these four core attitudes of the successful Alpine skier?”

When you find that you can consciously and consistently be successful in maintaining these four attitudes, you will begin to exemplify them on an unconscious level as well.

And when this happens, you will find that you are worrying less and increasing productivity; and the people you lead will be doing so as well.

Leading Change When You Don’t Know How

You have the most challenging role in your company: leading change. You’re squeezed like a balloon about to pop. Mandates are handed to you from above. Push-back and questions are received from below. Pop!

Your challenge at the front line is to take big, ambiguous change and make it happen. One of the leaders I work with -- we’ll call him Fred -- has been asked to do extreme streamlining: changing a key business process that currently takes three hours to just one hour.

While there are many details involved in leading any organizational change, they can be grouped into three steps:

• Step 1: Get Clear
• Step 2: Get Excited
• Step 3: Get Busy

Let’s take these one at a time.

LEADING CHANGE STEP 1: Get Clear   

The first step to translate ambiguity into action is to get clear about the change.  If you’re not clear, you could spend precious time and resources going in the wrong direction. Translation: potential disaster.

Sometimes the required organizational change is truly ambiguous: “Improve customer service.”  Sometimes it is just so huge that it’s mind-boggling: “Shorten a three hour process to one hour.”  Either way, you are left scratching your head and muttering under your breath. Ensure that you are clear about the change, i.e., the specific outcome required.

At the front line, you are often miles away from the impetus for the change. However, the mandate falls squarely on your shoulders. So, getting clear is vital. Get clear about the expected outcomes, goals, boundaries, resources needed, support of stakeholders, involvement of senior management and many more issues.

How to get clear?  Begin by asking the following Five Essential Questions. Ask your manager or whoever assigned the task, and keep asking until you get clear.

1. How will success be defined?  You need to know the specific goal and the outcomes that are expected. In Fred’s case, the goal of a one-hour process is clear. However, are there related goals or expected outcomes?
2. Why is it important to our business?  This essential question will help you with Step 2: Get Excited. Stay tuned for that in my next blog. Fred needs to know why cutting two hours off this process is business critical.
3. What are our measures of success?  There are three main kinds of results you can measure; find out which ones are vital to measure the success of your change effort: Numbers you count (Fred will measure process time), behaviors you see (Fred might also measure the activities in his process), and feedback you hear (Customer satisfaction scores will also be important to Fred).
4. When do we measure progress?   You want to measure early, measure often, and measure over time. And, you need input from all stakeholders.
5. How will the change impact other parts of the business?  There are always unanticipated consequences. It pays to anticipate them. In Fred’s case, his shortened process will probably impact his team mate’s work responsibilities, as well as technology, processes and work responsibilities in other areas.

While you cannot completely eradicate ambiguity, asking these Five Essential Questions will help you lead change. And they will lead you to other important information. So by the end of this week, make sure you get these questions answered by your manager.  Stay tuned for the Leading Change Step 2 – Get Excited!

How to Avoid Battles in the Office and Position Yourself for Success

“I have got to win this one!” Sandy thought. “It’s either him or me! I need to get psyched for battle!”

Was Sandy preparing to spar in the boxing ring, or mentally preparing for a role as an ancient Roman gladiator?  Logical no, but these are the thoughts Sandy had as colleagues gathered to begin a new project with another team and their leader, Bob.  Sandy often thought of Bob as her career nemesis. Perhaps not a real villain, but in Sandy’s eyes, a threat just the same.  And as she was preparing for this project, carefully considering what will be needed, she was consumed by: 

• A gut wrenching feeling, “Am I doomed?”
• Anger and dread, “Why do I get stuck with these unfair assignments?”
• A fear of losing everything, “Are the stakes stacked against me?”

What is happening to Sandy?  Simply put, she is experiencing opposition anxiety.  It may not be a professional, neuropsychological term, but it is real and powerful.  These feelings will lead Sandy off course quickly, get her blood pressure out of whack and her thoughts to swirl, often in the wrong direction. 

What is behind all of this negative emotion?  Sandy’s limbic system, the primitive part of her  brain that scans the  environment for pending threats is firing on all cylinders.  In the Roman coliseum, this was beneficial.  Gladiators, guided by this primitive instinct could quickly survey the competition, get their adrenaline pumped up and charge into battle. 

But does Sandy, or do you, work in the Roman Colosseum?  Although the answer is certainly no, it can sometimes feel that way. However, if this ever happens to you, try this simple exercise to get opposition anxiety under control.  Start by building opposition awareness.  Next time you are facing an assignment with a challenging coworker, ask yourself these three questions in this order: 

1. What is the emotion I’m feeling?  Just notice it and label it as best as you can.
2. What am I making up and what assumptions or prejudices do I have that are influencing my perspective and creating this emotion?
3. How can I view my colleague as a collaborator rather than a foe?  Could we share some of the same objectives?

It’s been proven that starting with identification of the emotion you are feeling will help your anxiety begin to subside by quieting your limbic system. 

Next, by paying close attention to your thoughts about your perceived opposition, you will engage your cognitive brain – that part of the brain designed for problem solving and complex decision making.

Finally, with a perspective of how to view your colleague as a collaborator in the forefront of your mind, you will be less subject to the emotional rush of ‘doing battle’ or distracted by fear or dread.  The result is a more productive approach to working with this colleague. 

Once you have practiced this approach a few times, you will be ready to conquer the next step in opposition awareness:  converting opposition into innovation.  But that’s another topic for another day.

Delivering Feedback - When it Gets Ugly

Learn how to appropriately give feedback and avoid discussions that can lead to ugly scenarios.

Recently, I was coaching Mike, a senior leader of a technology firm.  He has a team that is engaged and motivated to meet goals for the company. However, he hit a roadblock with one direct report, Henry. Henry exceeded his sales targets, kept projects under budget, on schedule and always volunteered for more responsibility. This type of employee sounds great, right? WRONG. Henry got results, but usually at the cost of his team and peers. He was abrasive, talked over people in meetings, rarely delegated tasks to the team and never kept people updated on projects and their progress. He was like a bull in a china shop, chipping away at the fabric of this team. His behaviors were creating poor morale with his peers, and people refused to work with him. Mike attempted to give feedback, but Henry only could sustain marginal improvements for brief periods. Henry was unaware of the underlying issues and the consequences they caused.

If you have someone like this on your team keep reading!!

Feedback is a delicate process. Similar to creating a piece of art, it requires careful preparation. You need a canvas and tools (brushes, paints, pastels, etc.), but more importantly you need a focus, just as feedback takes preparation and focus. Below are steps to help you deliver feedback. Over the next two weeks, have conversations with your “unaware” employees on the steps below. Prepare what you will say in your feedback and focus on the outcome you need. 

1. Know what motivates your employees (why they work).  Ask them, “What gets you excited to come to work each day (excluding the salary and benefits package)?” or “When you go home at night, how do you want to feel about yourself, and how do you want your people to feel about you and your leadership?”
2. Use active listening to clarify and understand their message. “So, if I heard you right, you enjoy…”
3. Use open-ended questions with your employee to help them develop action steps to address their negative behaviors. Ask: “What can I do to support you when you’re feeling frustrated with a project?”
4. Periodically, check in with them to see how things are progressing with their action steps and continue to offer support.

Delivering feedback is incredibly hard and nobody wants to be the bearer of bad news. Use what you learn from these conversations to keep your “unaware” employee motivated and engaged.  Remember to be patient with yourself and the “unaware” employee.  Change takes time and continued work will help achieve this and your team will become more productive.

Don't Put the Blame on Mame: Leaders Caught in the Blame Game

Blaming others causes huge long-term loss. Find out how you can avoid the blame game.

“Put the Blame on Mame” is a song from the 1946 movie Gilda and it outrageously credits the amorous activities of a woman named "Mame" as the true cause of the great Chicago fire of 1871, the great blizzard of 1888 in New York and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

One example of the blame game in business is the 2009 explosion and sinking of BP’s Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling platform that killed 11 and injured 17 others.  In addition to the loss of life, it resulted in perhaps the largest man-made ecological disaster in the U.S.  In Senate testimony, Transocean CEO Steven Newman said the responsibility for the explosion was BP’s.  Conversely, BP America Chairman Lamar McKay pointed the finger at Transocean’s “blowout preventer.”  In commenting on the testimony, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) said, "I hear one message: ‘Don't blame me’.” ¹

“Put the Blame on Mame, Boys, Put the Blame on Mame.”

The organizational problem with the blame game is that when everyone is pointing the finger of blame at others, no one is focused on fixing the problem. How many times have you had to listen to the same type of “tune” in your organization?  Something goes wrong and everyone involved tries to find out, “Who done it?” No one is going to take responsibility because they think they will be in trouble, so what they do is spend organizational time and effort to protect themselves. 

When people in your organization spend time putting the blame on Mame, they miss the opportunity to work jointly and focus on a method for solving the problem. Accountability may best be viewed as an ethical concept and is often used synonymously with words like responsible, answerable, liability, etc., all revolving around the notion of organizational accountability. Ethical accountability requires reasoning and a willingness to hold feelings in abeyance. Accountable individuals are motivated not by automatic reactions to protect themselves; rather, they are motivated by the overriding passion to do the right thing. Conscious leaders™ implement accountability by taking continual responsibility for their sphere of leadership.

This week, use these four steps to find solutions and take organizational accountability:

1. Problem observation:  Identify specifically what happened to cause the problem, not who caused the problem.  
2. Inquiry:  Be curious. Ask how the accident happened. What were the specific events that caused the problem and what are the current events that continue the problem? 
3. Solution:  List the specific steps needed to solve the problem.
4. Implementation of a plan:  Assign appropriate resources to fix the problem.

Perhaps former President Harry Truman never heard the song “Put the Blame on Mame” because he took the responsibility for his job seriously.  This may be best demonstrated by the sign that rested on his desk, “The Buck Stops Here!”

1.  Excerpted from NPR:  May 11, 2010.  NPR's Jeff Brady, Debbie Elliott and Scott Neuman contributed to this report which contains material from The Associated Press.

Succession Development: How to Improve Your Bench Strength

March Madness is upon us!  So, let me start with a full and honest disclosure, “I, Roger Cole, love UNC Tar Heels basketball!”   For fans of other teams, you will have to bear with me on this (especially if you are a Duke fan).  I have been a Tar Heels fan for as long as I can remember. And, as a fan, I have learned a few things from them that actually can apply to success in business.

Let’s talk about how you can model the success of your organization after the success of North Carolina basketball.

There is a strong parallel between the importance of bench strength to a successful college basketball team and the importance of succession development to a successful organization.  Your organization cannot be successful over the long haul if it doesn’t develop the “next generation” of leaders/players.  You have your starters now, but it would be very short-sighted if you were not developing players for next year and beyond. 

Clearly, the Tar Heels’ success is not only about developing long term talent. Their success has to do in part with the leadership the coaches have provided, and there is no mistaking that they’ve always had exceptionally talented starters.  However, as with any sport, there are times during a game when Coach Roy Williams has to go to his bench players. 

When he does go to the bench, those guys better be ready to play! 

Coming into the 2011 – 2012 season, the Tar Heels had, without question, one of the deepest and most talented teams in all of college basketball.  At any given point in a game, Coach Williams has more talent sitting next to him on the bench than most coaches have in their starting line-ups (okay, so I’m slightly biased).  Even after injuries, Carolina is still one of the best teams in the country.  

So, what does a deep bench bring to a team like Carolina, or to any team, for that matter?  A good bench gives the team depth. If a team does not have strong bench players, more often than not, that team will not be able to go the distance. Your organization, likewise, needs a “deep bench” of successors.  That’s why succession development is so vital.

In my last blog, I talked about the initial steps to get your succession development process off to a good start.  I suggested that you plan a series of meetings devoted to discussing:

• Where vacancies in key positions will be in your organization three, five, even 10 years out
• What the impact will be if you don’t have successors to step in
• What leadership competencies will be essential for your organization’s success 

So, picking up from there, what are the next steps? 

Take some tips from North Carolina Coach Williams to move your succession development system forward.  At your next meeting, discuss and evaluate the following:

1)   Clarify Your Ongoing Leadership Needs:

What and where are your team’s (i.e., organization’s) overall strengths and weaknesses, both today and tomorrow – especially in the key positions? 

Spend some time identifying your key positions and the specific skills and abilities required in each position. This is an essential step to a successful succession development system. 

2)   Define Where Leadership Bench Strength Is Most Urgently Needed

Review your “roster” to determine who is “graduating” (i.e., retiring) or going to the NBA (i.e., leaving and going where the big money is!).  In the next three years, can you anticipate key talent moving on and leaving you with vacancies in key positions?  This will determine the key positions that require your attention now.

3)   Assess The Current Level Of Preparedness On Your Current Bench

Who, specifically, is ready now to fill in for your “current starters”? And how fully prepared are they to step into a starting role?

Ask yourself not only if you feel that these people are ready, but if they feel ready as well. What do these potential leaders need in order to be and feel their best when it comes time for them to step up and take on a whole new level of responsibility?

As you ask yourself these questions, be sure you don’t answer in generalities, but delve deep and get very specific. Determine what particular skills and abilities are needed for each “starting player” on your team.  Then, for each member of your bench, define which specific areas require further development.

4)   Create a Specific and Measureable Plan Of Action For Developing Each Bench Player

What time frame is most realistic for each player and position? What are the priority skills that need to be developed? And, most importantly, how can you measure progress so you know for sure that your people will be ready when the time comes? Be sure to include in your development plan a clear assessment of where your people can learn through activities within your organization, such as taking on certain types of assignments or getting mentoring from current leaders, and where you may need to provide outside expertise in order to help your people develop more quickly.

Answer these questions and you will move your succession development process to the next level.  So, stay tuned to my next blog, where I will talk in more depth about how to develop your bench.  And in the meantime, good luck to your favorite team in the NCAA tournament.  As for me, I have Carolina going all the way!