Category Archives: Leadership

Leaders in Sandboxes

As a young consulting pyschologist I worked for a consulting firm that specialized in executive assessments. In other words we tested, poked, and prodded candidates for high level positions to see if they were a good fit for the prospective employer. For some years, I didn’t truly “get” the idea of “Emotional Stability,” which was one of the personality qualities we looked for. Now I do, but I see it as part of a larger cluster of qualities that center around the character of the person.

In this article, Richard Davis touches upon that issues and correctly connects it with the character of our society.

How do your leaders play?

http://linkd.in/simwF

Failure Management, Sick Care, and Ray Lewis

Recently, I have been interviewing physicians about their practices, their professions, and their so-called lives. With all the changes in healthcare, many docs are finding it hard to navigate the emerging business models while caring for their patients and prospering financially. There is a lot to it. But when I ask, “What are the three most important problems they would like to solve?”, this is what comes up:

Dealing with Poor Performance and Difficult Behavior in the Workplace

It just isn’t covered in medical school.

Well, if you are a doctor, you can relax a bit. You have a lot of good company. Although performance management is covered in business management programs, most managers are poorly prepared for these same challenges. So I thought I would share the single most common mistake people make in managing performance in healthcare and other business settings. No kidding, this is THE SINGLE MOST COMMON MISTAKE as of 11:01 a.m. on October 3, 2011. It’s all proven 100%.

Failing to focus on performance

Sunday, aka football day in the fall, has just passed. All week, 32 teams with 1,760 players, 590 coaches, and numerous ancillary staff thought, trained, and practiced in order to perform at their peak on Sunday afternoon. All week, performance was their single focus; it is all they talked about. Regardless of the outcomes of yesterday’s games, (the Ravens won, but the Eagles didn’t!) there is no denying that these people consistently perform at high levels.

Wherever we see excellence, performance is the focus of the people in the organization. Managers and staff think about it, they plan it, they talk about it, and they rehearse it. When things go well, they notice it and talk about why it went that way. When things don’t go well, they notice it and talk about why they didn’t go that way. And it’s not just “managers” who are talking about it. It is everyone, because it is everyone’s goal. They work together on it all week. When someone screws up, colleagues on peak performing teams talk directly with the person about it without hesitation or worrying that it is “not my place.”

In recent years my doctor has begun talking about healthcare in a new way. He has been talking about “health care” versus “sick care.” Our nation is burdened by sicknesses created by the failure to create health. For years medicine has focused on curing sickness versus creating and sustaining health. So what do we have? We have a country plagued with diseases created by destructive life habits. Somehow we have expected health without doing the work to create and sustain it. Managers make the same mistake in their organizations. They expect performance without doing the work to nurture, create, and sustain it. If I only had a nickel for every time a manager said to me, “You’d think they would know how to do this!”

Did Ray Lewis become a 16-year-star automatically? No, he studies, trains, and coaches other players all week on how to perform with excellence. He works hard at creating high performance rather than expecting that it will happen on its own.

So what does it take to create high performance in your workplace?

Define what high performance looks like for every role, for every task, and for the business as whole. (Leaders have the responsibility to do this but are wise to do it collaboratively with staff.)
Spend time and effort figuring out what it actually takes to perform in your environment.
Measure performance and talk about how you are hitting, exceeding, and falling short of the mark on a regular basis.
Talk about performance and how to get there continuously, like you would talk about the weather, your weekend, and where to eat for lunch. This is relatively easy to do when you have defined what is needed, set clear standards for success, and talked about what it takes to get there. But it is hard to do if you just expect it without defining it or communicating about it.
Refine, adjust, and learn along the way.

Even if you are not the “person in charge,” you can do these things to create high performance in your workplace. Ray Lewis started with himself, then started talking with his peers and coaches about what he was doing to excel. My doctor is talking with his patients about caring for their health rather than managing sickness. What is keeping you from doing the same?

Do Frank Conversations Hurt Your Career?

When I was a young man my Director introduced me the COO of our company (Let’s call him Jerry). My Director was Jerry’s “escort” on a goodwill tour of our office. (It seems that he didn’t always agree with our perspective on things). Jerry was regarded by many to be a crotchety old engineer, and I later learned that he had a reputation as a “my way or the highway” kind of guy. But that didn’t matter much to me when Jerry asked me about a controversial position our department had taken. I stood there in amidst the cubicles and “argued” with the COO. I don’t think anyone but the two of us thought this was a good thing to do.

In short order, two colleagues appeared in my line of sight discreetly gesturing for me to terminate my conversation with him. I distinctly remember one dragging his finger across his throat and mouthing “that’s Jerry, the COO.” A few others peeped their heads over their cube walls then promptly hid, fearing they might suffer from collateral damage. One brave person tried to distract me by approaching me with bogus issue that required immediate attention. But I wasn’t having any of it. Instead, I took my cues from my own values, and from Jerry’s signals. We disagreed, and we expressed our positions frankly. But I saw no sign that he took any offense. On my part, I was enjoying the debate and was learning quite a bit. So I engaged him, and the conversation ran its course. Afterwards, my peers were not shy about telling me how foolish I had been. I wasn’t sure if I had been – I just didn’t know.

Two years later I learned exactly what Jerry thought of me, and it was all good. I had returned to my career in leadership development, and Jerry had an appointment with a colleague to discuss one of our training programs. I saw Jerry in the reception area and approached him to (re) introduce myself. Before I could finish my sentence, he blurted, “I remember you! You’re Mike Boyes; I like you.” With that encouragement in hand, I inquired about our previous encounter and he explained why he liked me. “You took a clear position and gave a sound rationale for it. I didn’t agree with you, but it was a good discussion. We need more people like you.” Jerry and I later became friends; he attended my wedding, and we had a few more disagreements along the way. But few people in the company saw Jerry the way I did. They feared disagreement with him, anticipated his wrath, and avoided crossing him. I dare say those people missed the opportunity to learn from a smart – and nice guy.

Perhaps he mellowed by the time I got to know him. Perhaps we just shared the same perspective … that people can disagree and even argue without harming each other, that conversation is most interesting when views conflict. Whatever the reason, I am glad that I read Jerry right on that day.

In a recent HBR article, researchers Batia M. Wiesenfled and colleagues conclude that far too often managers abuse their position of power, using it to advance their own agendas and trod on people. Too many managers view “respect and power to be mutually exclusive avenues to influence.” (This is the reality my nervous colleagues knew well). Meanwhile, managers who demonstrate leadership based on trust and respect can be regarded as too weak to handle top positions. These two styles have a trickle-down effect in the organization and affect the company bottom line. Research tells us that corporate results trend upwards in organizations with a respectful, trusting, and empowering management style. In contrast, corporate results trickle down when managers tend to “power-up.” Jerry could have powered up on me and hurt me in so many ways, but he didn’t. I could have acted like shrinking violet, but I didn’t. As result, I gained access to the COO of a Fortune 500 company and partnered with him on several projects.

It seems to me that entering frank conversations with peers, employees, and superiors can hurt your career. That’s too bad because honest frank conversations are more than important for success; they are required. The gate to success is marked “Courage to Deal with Reality Required; No Ostriches Allowed.”

So muster the courage to be honest with yourself and others – then speak frankly and tactfully.

Deference and Handling the Truth with Leaders

This is an interesting commentary on communication with and among leaders.

Dangers of Deference:Ron Ashkenas, HBR:http://t.co/uPyMepW

My thoughts…

For many years I worked in the private sector where this dynamic was very evident. The degree of deference present seemed to be very much tied to the discipline of the department. For example, engineers, accounting, and finance professionals seem to expect and demonstrate more deference than those in marketing, customer service and parts of HR. Perhaps part of the dynamic is tied to basic personality and values. Perhaps people with a “realistic” orientation tend to show more deference to authority than “influencing” and “investigative” types.

In recent years, I have done more work with the federal government. My observation is that private sector levels of deference hardly even register compared with the levels shown in the federal government. Once I saw the inside of the beast I understood the origin of the stereotypical caricature of government worker. It is darn hard for a person to remain engaged in an environment in which one’s input can have so little impact, and where mid-level managers are emotionally and psychologically distant. In some of the environments I have seen, actual engagement seems to be either downright heroic or naïve.

It is also possible that my view of the government is biased. After all, I was there as a consultant to help them improve the organizational climate, but that it also why I was brought in to private sector employers.

Handle the Truth

… teams as well as couples have a list of undiscussables, issues they avoid broaching at all costs in order to preserve a modicum of peace, to preserve the relationship. In reality, the relationship steadily deteriorates for lack of the very conversation they so carefully avoid. It’s difficult to raise the level if the slide has lasted over a period of years, and that is what keeps many of us stuck. —–Susan Scott, in Fierce Conversations

As long as I can remember, I have always been struck by the lack of honesty in conversations. It seems futile to me. Why talk, why relate if you won’t be honest with each other? People walk around constructing fictional stories about what is happening. Instead of putting ourselves out there, we place our mannequin selves in the world to talk with others’ less than life-size dolls. A young man tells his soon to be ex-girlfriend, “It’s not you, it’s me.”A boss tells the employee, “You didn’t get the promotion because the other candidate was just more qualified.” And a woman tells the waiter “Everything is fine.” It’s fiction; it’s deceit, and it’s destructive to people and relationships. It prohibits us from living the honest, connected lives we all yearn for. It blocks growth in organizations.

On occasion, the audience buys your fictional story. More often than not, deep down he/she knows that it’s a tale, and another insipid story is constructed. The story says “I can’t trust what people say, people don’t believe in me enough to be honest with me, there is something wrong with me, I can’t get a fair shake.” And in return they give you more fiction. Reality is lost. Mistrust is gained.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Well, you can’t always be honest with people. It’s often better to shade the truth or leave things undisclosed.” To that, I say two things:

You have obviously been told a lot of stories – and told a few yourself.
How’s that working for you?

Six years after hiring a narcissistic, insecure manager who wreaked havoc on the company, a vice president asked an exiting employee for advice: “What do I do with this manager? She berates me and is despised all over the company. I was hoping her peers would deal with her.”After six years, one-hundred percent turnover, and immeasurable damage to the organization, the VP was still unwilling to have an honest conversation with herself, with the manager, and with numerous people throughout the organization.One year later the manager was fired. Why? What took so long?The longer the tale, the harder it is to look up to face reality.

Handle the Truth

Who can forget how the infuriated Colonel Jessep pompously screams “YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH” at Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee in the movie, A Few Good Men. I believe this line resonates with so many of us not only because it is Kaffee’s triumphant moment, but also because at some level we believe it. People simply can’t handle the truth.

You must handle the truth – that is the truth. It would seem obvious but it seems not be.Top-selling books, Good to Great, Fierce Conversations, and Integrity all feature facing the truth as a central component of personal and business success.Why does it need to be said?Because it is a habit that is so uncommon in our world, that’s why.

A few weeks ago I attended a training program. During the first evening of training, one facilitator dominated the dialogue. He talked over his counterpart and crowded out any room for participant engagement.My initial reaction was to withdraw and, honestly, to dislike the man.Despite myself, I resolved to speak truth. The next morning before class I caught-up with the facilitator and gave him some straight feedback. Guess what he did.He handled the truth; no he embraced it and thanked me for caring about him!There in that conversation, a relationship was reborn.I left it liking him and him liking me. The rest of the workshop went very well.I, and about twenty other people, re-engaged in the workshop because we handled the truth.That conversation cost me nothing, salvaged the $18,000 expense for the course, and is producing a tremendous return on the investment.

Now, as I sit here recounting this story, I feel incredibly gratified because that is what I do for a living. I help people have honest truthful conversations with themselves, with their teams, and with their stakeholders and customers.As a result, they can make effective decisions and move forward together honestly and productively.

That is pretty cool.

What Makes 9.53 in 10 Humans Tick: Passion

It’s good to know that everyone is different. But it is much more important and useful for managers to master the motivational principles that apply to 9.53 in 10 people (at my last count). In a previous post I discussed how personal choice, or control, is an elemental motivational force. Here, I discuss the role of passion as a motivator in the workplace.

Passion

You’ve heard the platitudes: Do what you love and the money will follow, and It isn’t work when you love what you are doing. It is apparent that we all give “discretionary effort” to intrinsically rewarding work. We saw this clearly in our Creativity Soirée. Ken’s wife, Jennifer, mined her memory for poems and literature she and Ken shared over the years. Then she wrote a charming poem about their life together drawing from those writings. Her passion for literature enveloped the whole of it to create yet more… literature.

I’ve encountered people who are passionate about all sorts of things. I once met a fifty-some year-old man who won the lottery and continued to work on an assembly line. I’ve encountered janitors who took great pleasure in keeping bathrooms spic and span, and I know a 72-year-old chiropractor who routinely works 12 hours days, by choice. Why do they do it? That’s easy – they really, truly, sincerely enjoy their work.

The Roots of Passion

We can say with absolute certainty that passion is rooted in a multitude of “indiscernible” sources. We can say with equal certainty that a few easily understood forces drive personal passions. Natural talent feeds a continuous cycle of success and rewards and increasing skill. This cycle alone is a strong driver of the motivational engine. People can literally get “high” on the feelings that come from experiencing this cycle. When personal values link with talents and rewards, it is like giving a high octane fuel to the motivational compound. Consequently, it is important for managers to understand the core motivational values of their team members. MVS and VRS

Motivational Value Systems (MVS)

I often turn to Relationship Awareness Theory to help me discern others’ motivational drivers. Elias Porter, PhD., developed Relationship Awareness Theory to explain what motivates people. He found that people tend to run on one of several “Motivational Values Systems” (MVS), and that blocked expression of those values is frequently the source of interpersonal conflicts. Fortunately, it is not too difficult to predict a person’s values by observing their interpersonal style. You may easily relate with the four core styles because the people around you demonstrate them every day.

Sometimes it can be difficult to “peg” a person with a Flexible-Cohering MVS since they are so adaptable, doing whatever is needed at the time. “Blends” also can be difficult to identify because they show elements of two different core value systems. I know a man who, when he behaved very assertively, was asked “what happened to the kind, nurturing person I met a few weeks ago?” But his behavior was entirely consistent with his MVS, which is the Assertive-Nurturing blend. It was his passion to serve people that led him to stand-up for their needs in a direct and candid manner.

If you closely observe your team members, you can get a pretty good handle on their MVS, and hence their passions. If you are not that self-assured about your observational powers, you could also employ the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) which identifies a person’s MVS, as well as how they tend to
respond during conflict situations.

Three Strategies for Tapping Passion

Job Selection

A while back, I had the privilege of providing some career coaching during a performance review. My team member (let’s call him “Joe”) was the ideal employee in every way, except that his great efforts resulted only in satisfactory performance. Joe was organized, diligent, always had a plan, and always completed his work on time. He showed all the marks of a person with an assertive-directive MVS. The problem was that the research work was better suited for people with an Analytic – Autonomizing bent – for people who were more concerned with thinking deeply and getting the right answer than with marshaling resources to meet a goal. As a result, Joe felt out of place and somewhat unsatisfied. We agreed that he was better suited for project management, and in a few months Joe had a new job that he loved in the company. Everyone was happy that his hard work resulted in excellent results in his new role.

Realigning Job Roles and Activities

While changing jobs to find a better fit is one way to tap a person’s passion, it is not the only way. Managers can also shuffle roles and activities around on the team to improve alignment with each team member’s passions. Marcus Buckingham champions the use of a Strong-Week plan, which entails shifting as much of your job as you can towards activities that you enjoy and that you are good at. While no job is toil-free, this is nonetheless an excellent strategy for managers and employees who want more, better, and satisfying results.

Leader Communication

Leaders shape others’ perspectives, especially their perspective on the meaning of the work. With a little forethought, a leader can communicate assignments, provide direction and recognize people in ways that appeal to their values. Altruistic people want to know that they are helping others; directive people want to know that they are instrumental in getting things done; autotomizing people want to be self-reliant and to do what is fair and logical; flexible-cohering people want to know that they are being flexible in service to the team. So, for example, words of praise might be worded differently to each different style.

Assignments and direction and decision making can be similarly framed to help employees connect with the work at a very meaningful level.

Relationship Awareness Theory gives managers easy-to-use categories for understanding the motivational values of their team members and provides clear direction on how to adjust their style of leadership for each person on the team. But MVS is just one way of getting at passions; there are many others. The three strategies described above may or may not be effective ways of tapping a person’s passions in the work place. If you want to find more strategies, just spend some time reflecting on:

The things that you voluntarily spend extra effort on time and again.
The activities that energize you and are hard to pull away from.
Put you on your soapbox.

Then develop strategies for doing them more and being recognized for them
in the workplace. It’s a small jump from making strategies for engaging your
own passions to making strategies to engage others’.