kerry patterson · managers admit that they’re hopelessly late on their project because their...

“Leadership exceLLence is an exceptionaL way to Learn and then appLy the best and Latest ideas in the fieLd of Leadership.”

—warren bennis, author and usc professor of management

Kerry PattersonVitalSmartsCo-Founder

08.2013Essentials of leadership

development, managerial effectiveness,

and organizational productivity

Vol.30 No. 8

The Standard of Global Leadership Development

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06Crucial AccountabilityBy Kerry PattersonConfront slackers

Preparing LeadersBy Elaine VarelasDevelop the next generation now

Purpose of PowerBy Gary Hamel It gets things done

Developing LeadersBy Jack Zenger, KurtSandholtz, Joe FolkmanApply five insights

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Features

Leadership MyopiaGradually over time, we have become overly obsessed about managing tasks. In our quest to produce results, we have lost sight of the importance of engaging people. P.17

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Vol.30 No. 8


Presented By

$9.99 a month

4 Do Leaders Stifle Talent? Ken Shelton5 Crucial Accountability Kerry Patterson Confront slackers 6 Purpose of Power Gary Hamel It gets things done7 What Leaders Won’t Do Patrick Lencioni Deal with nonperformers8 We Need More Heroes Deb Cheslow Show remarkable courage8 Disruptive Heroes Bill Jensen They’re the innovators9 5 Talent Myths Wendy Axelrod and Jeannie Coyle These kill development

10 What’s Your Mission? Marshall Goldsmith and Patricia Wheeler11 Active Accountability Eric Papp It counters abdication 11 Leader Competence Mike Hawkins It’s the differentiator12 Growing Talent Ann Herrmann Use the whole brain13 Coaching Culture Alan Fine Boost performance14 Corporate Gravity Ryan Fisher Overcome it to spur more innovation15 Organizational Gravity Tony Kubica and Sara LaForest Opt for performance

16 Soft-Side Leadership William D. Mayo Focus here to excel17 Leadership Myopia Michael Lee Stallard and Howard Behar Connect with people18 Confidence to Lead Change Phil Buckley Lead the four phases19 Culture of Innovation Soren Kaplan Create one in six ways20 Involving Others Terry Pearce Boost engagement and commitment20 Wired to Lead? Andrew Graham Look for these three sure signs

21 Leader Crisis Looms Gerald Purgay Identify and develop future leaders22 Preparing Leaders Elaine Varelas Develop the next generation now24 Developing Leaders Jack Zenger, Kurt Sandholtz, Joe Folkman Apply five insights

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06Crucial AccountabilityBy Kerry PattersonConfront slackers




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editors note

For 30 years, summer for me has meant conventions and conferences on every aspect of talent and leadership development. This year, I traveled to Dallas for ASTD and to Chicago for SHRM. It seems all keynote speakers addressed the question: Do leaders stifle or cultivate talent? Here’s a sampler: •Hillary Clinton/SHRM. She focused onlessons from her travels as Secretary of State:1) Good decisions are based on evidence, not ideology: If you don’t make evidence based decisions, you can so easily get off on the wrong track. When you present with hard numbers, statistics and other compelling evidence, the discussions tend to go in your favor. 2) Leadership is a team sport—when people share a mission, it’s easy to work together and produce great results, regardless of differences. 3) You can’t win if you don’t show up: By showing up, being present, being available and being face to face with those who rely on you for leadership, you can accomplish more than a barrage of emails or phone calls ever could. 4) Follow the trends, not the headlines: leaders need to recognize the long-term challenges and the wide-ranging implications of their actions. • Blake Mycoskie/SHRM. The founder ofTOMS shoes, talked about how he accidentallybecame an entrepreneur and a philanthropistwho figured out that weaving charitable giving into a business model is a recipe for success. He learned three lessons:1) customers can become your greatest marketers; 2) when your employees are proudof what they do, they will work harder because they really want to make their job count; and 3) giving is a great business model because it attracts great partners. • Daniel Pink/SHRM. He says that today we are all salespeople and hence we need to observe three principles: 1) Attunement—seeing it from someone else’s point of view; 2)Buoyancy—the ability to stay afloat and be resilient; and 3) Clarity —it isn’t about accessing information but about distilling and understanding it. Only one in nine people work in sales—their job is to try to convince someone else to make a purchase. But, the other eight are also in sales. They now spend a huge portion of their time persuading, influencing, and convincing others to make an exchange (non sales selling). Today, information asymmetry is giving way to information parity. We now live in a world not just of buyer beware—but also of

seller beware. •Ken Robinson/ASTD. Uncover your talent and passion and find your element for a shot at success and happiness. Astrong passion with moderate talent will get you much further than moderate passion and tremendous talent. This combination of passion and talent is what it means to be in your element. •John Seely Brown/ASTD. Entrepreneuriallearners can learn in any situation. Their disposition is one of questioning,

communicating, reflecting, and playing. These can’t be taught, only cultivated. Play allows you to use your imagination, evokes innovation, and fosters collaboration. Business models should be reframed to embrace play. Playing helps us make sense of things, with the provision to try and fail. The CLO’s role should be chief architect since our current structuredoesn’t let us be responsive to the world of constant change. We need to create organizations that Millennials want to be

part of—cultures that foster creativity and innovation. Where imaginations play, learning happens.Stifling Innovation Sadly, notes Rosabeth Moss Kanter, professor at Harvard Business School, innovation is invoked ritually and ceremoniallymore than it is embraced in practice. Many leaders say they want more innovation but they actively stifle it. They operate by a set of hidden rules designed to prevent innovations from surfacing or succeeding. Leaders can create a pro-innovation culture, she says, by encouraging new ideas, especially from below and from unexpected sources.Look ahead, not behind. Leave some slack for experimentation. Look for improvements, not critiques. Encourage collaboration toward common goals. Be flexible. Stress substance over form, action over calendar. Allow for unplanned opportunities. Open strategic discussions to new voices. Accept that stretch goals mean some things won’t work. Promote public recognition for innovation. Foster respect for people and their talents. And know that everyone must be open to learning. LE

Do Leaders Stifle Talent?Keynotes at ASTD/Dallas and SHRM/Chicago.

Ken Shelton

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 08.20134

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Ken SheltonEditor since 1984

Hillary Clinton

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Not holding others accountable, even in the face of possible disaster, is all too common. We study people’s willingness to speak up and hold others accountable for their bad behavior and find that the majority don’t speak up to individuals who violate a promise, break a commitment, behave badly, or fail to live up to expectations. For example, 95 percent say they have coworkers who behave badly, and 75 percent say these coworkers create severe problems for them, their customers or organization. Despite this damage to relationships and results, nobody holds them accountable. And in most cases, this bad behavior has persisted for more than five years!

Dealing with Disappointments It seems that with certain people and circumstances, we simply don’t bring up infractions—not with a boss, colleague, doctor, relative, or even a stranger who cuts in line. Why do we shy away from accountability discussions? Because we either don’t know what to say or our past experience tells us that speaking up is too risky and only leads to poor results, ruined relationships, or a damaged reputation. For example, 70 percent of projectmanagers admit that they’re hopelesslylate on their project because their deadlinewas unrealistic, and yet they failed to speak up. Nobody wanted to appear incompetent or uncommitted in front of a zealous leader. And if an impossible deadline isn’t bad enough, when cross-functional team members put the project at risk by failing to meet their commitments, there’s only a 20 percent chance anyone will honestly address the violation with them. When responding to others who disappoint us or treat us poorly, most of us feel trapped between two bad alternatives. We either perpetuate the problem by saying nothing or we speak up but our frustration and heightened emotions make it hard to say something without being abrasive or rude—which perpetuates or exacerbates the problem. And even if you’re skilled at speaking up, what happens when the conversation becomes more complicated? After respectfully pointing out a broken commitment, what do you do if the other person isn’t motivated to do the correct thing, doesn’t know what to do, sidesteps your concerns, or becomes defensive?

How do you hold others accountable then? We wondered what it would take to restore accountability. We found the answer not by studying the problem, but by studying the solution.

Learning from Positive Deviants Early in our consulting work, we met with a manufacturing organization that, according to the plant manager, had lost all accountability. “You’d have to kill a person to get fired here,” he said. “A really popular person,” the HR director added with a smirk. We asked the plant manager if any supervisors held others accountable. He thought of a few individuals who managed

to hold others accountable in ways that not only solved the problem but also improved relationships—and all without involving formal authority. Thus began our study of positive deviants— people who struggle in the same circumstances but find a way to produce remarkably better results. We found a few who succeeded in the face of danger, observed them in action, identified what they did differently, and then taught these unique actions to others.

While these successful few had many skills for holding others accountable, they routinely employed five skills when confronting violated expectations, broken commitments, and bad behavior:

• Confront the right problem. Often, bad behaviors occur just once, and single infractions are relatively easy to confront. However, when you unbundle larger accountability issues, you’ll speak often find a pattern of infractions or, over time, a damaged relationship and compromised trust. The biggest mistake people make is to confront the most painful or immediate issue and not the one that gets them the results they really need (the pattern or relationship). Before speaking up, stop and ask yourself, “What do I really want here? What problem do I want to resolve?”

• Rein-in emotions. We often tell ourselves a story about others’ real intent. These stories determine our emotional response. Master communicators manage their emotions by examining, questioning, and rewriting their story before they speak.

• Master the first 30 seconds. Most people do everything wrong in the first hazardous half-minute—like diving into content and attacking the other person. Instead, show you care about the person and his or her interests to disarm defensiveness and open up dialogue.• Reveal natural consequences. The best way to get someone’s attention is to change their perspective. In a safe and non-threatening manner, give them a


Kerry Patterson

Violated Expectations - Who Cares?Crucial Accountability

“Before speaking up, stop and ask yourself, “What do I really want here? What problem do I want to resolve?”

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Power has long been regarded as morally corrosive, and we often suspect the intentions of those who seek it. Indeed, the lust for dominion is so unseemly that few of us would openly admit to a craving for clout. It often seems that the mendacious and

egotistical have a talent for accumulating (and abusing) power—and at some point, most of us have been out-maneuvered by a more adept political infighter. But in Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don’t, Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, gives nice guys and gals the tools they need to even the odds. Recently I talked with Pfeffer about why he wrote a book on power at a time when most management gurus are talking about collaboration, community and open leadership. His argument is disarmingly simple: It takes power to get things done Without power, you’re Impotent—irrespective of your talents or the righteousness of your cause. Hereminded me of a disagreeable fact:Power is largely independent of intelligence (emotional or otherwise) and job performance.We all know individuals who are brilliant but who punch below their weight when it comes to office politics. Conversely, we all know dim bulbs who somehow find their way to the top. Cunning power players can even slough off failure. Think of those EVPs and board members who dithered while the banking system burned and yet held on to their positions, or even grabbed better ones in the wake of the collapse. IQ and value added are important — but they’re no substitute for power. For those eager to take charge, Pfeffer offers these five pointers:

1. Power is mostly taken, not given. Jeff quotes Peter Ueberroth as saying power is 80 percent taken, only 20 percent given. If you want power, you have to grab it. So when you see opportunities to extend your influence, seize them; and when you spot a power vacuum, fill it. 2. Work relentlessly to improve your personal network. Pfeffer recounts a conversation he had with Chip Conley, CEO of Joie de Vivre hotels. Conley noted that most people think of networking as a task, like taking out the trash, but no one tries to get better at it. You can, however, get better at networking, and people who are trying to gain more power need to do so. Pfeffer recommends thinking of networking as a skill like speaking French or playing the piano. 3. If you want power, work to stand out. Growing up, we’re often taught to be timid: Ask permission; Wait your turn; Stay in line; Don’t attract attention. But to get power, you have to take the risk that comes with raising your head above the parapet. “Risk,” says Pfeffer, “is just as important in human capital markets as it is in financial capital markets. No risk, no reward.” Early in your career, volunteer for a task that others shun, or jump into a newly created role. It’s easier to stand out when you have your own niche and easier to get ahead when you don’t have to expend energy fending off rivals for a coveted post. 4. The pursuit of power requires persistence. Often, Pfeffer argues, we look at powerful leaders and assume they got there without stumbling. But every great leader, from Abraham Lincoln to Steve Jobs, has encountered failure. The difference between those who become powerful leaders and those who do not, rests in how they react to reversals. If they accept failure as a verdict of fate, they sink into anonymity. But if they learn from the blow, if it strengthens their resolve and prompts them to search for lessons, they’ll rise higher. Pfeffer cites the example of Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, co founders of The Home Depot: “That story begins with two words: you’re fired.” In 1978, Marcus and Blank were fired from Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers in a dispute with the largest shareholder— despite the fact that they had led the business to record earnings. The setback proved to be the impetus they needed to chase their dream of building a new sort

Gary Hamel

Purpose of PowerWithout It, Nothing Gets Done


complete view of the consequences their behavior is creating.• Diagnose motivation and ability. Don’t assume that all problems are the result of a lack of motivation. While people may be unmotivated, often their failure to deliver on a promise is the result of an ability barrier—they don’t know how to do what is required. Inquire to find out if the other person is truly unable or unmotivated. Then find solutions that address the correct barrier. People who are skilled at holdingaccountability discussions waste much less time complaining, feeling sorry for themselves, avoiding problems, and getting angry. They no longer feel trapped between two failing options. They know that it’s in their best interest to speak up and they do—producing enormous gains to the bottom line. For instance, after we spent a year teaching best practices at the

manufacturing plant, people started dealing with infractions in a direct and professional way, and profitability increased by $40 million! The plant manager explained, “Our leaders now talk early and solve problems before they grow out of control—in a way that solves theproblem and strengthens the relationship.” Almost without exception, the topvalued employees are positive deviants who hold others accountable. LE

Crucial accountability

Written byKerry Patterson

Kerry Patterson is the author of four New York Times bestsellers including the newly released Crucial Accountability. He is also a cofounder of VitalSmarts. Visit www.vitalsmarts.com.

“Don’t assume that all problems are the result of a lack of motivation. While people may be unmotivated, often their failure to deliver on a promise is the result of an ability barrier—they don’t know how to do what is required.

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7leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 08.2013

I’m always amazed by what leaders will do for their organizations. So many will spend countless late nights in the office, endure long and grueling business trips, and sacrifice their financial resource to increase the likelihood, even slightly, that their enterprises will succeed. Sadly, these efforts often come at the expense of their health, families, and their sanity. But the one thing that amazes me even more is what leaders often won’t do—endure emotional discomfort at work. This may sound innocuous or obvious, but there is nothing trivial about it. In fact, this determination to avoid emotional discomfort is the single most costly and surprising phenomenon I’ve witnessed in my career. And seen in its proper context, it’s pretty ridiculous. Let me explain by using an analogy. Imagine that someone spilled a cup of coffee in the corporate lobby. The CEO wouldn’t be expected to clean it up, and understandably so, given the value of his or her time and skill set. Asking a janitor to do the job would make more sense. But when a political or interpersonal mess occurs, no one is more suited to clean it up quickly and efficiently, and mitigate collateral damage than the leader. Few would debate this. And yet, unlike the custodian, many leaders complain about having to do this part of their job, and in all too many cases they stand back and wait for the problem to go away, or for someone else to deal with it. Why does this happen? Part of it has to do with the natural fear of conflict and accountability. And some of it is related to a subtle, perhaps subconscious, sense of entitlement among leaders. Consider the most egregious example I’ve seen. After a few mergers and acquisitions, the CEO of a large company had two direct reports on his leadership team with the same title. Neither was sure which of them was responsible for what their title indicated, though one of those executives was feeling left out of the decision-making that he had been accustomed to before. For weeks he tried to schedule a meeting with the CEO—his boss—to clarify the situation, but he was turned away by the executive assistant again and again. Finally, he found himself

sitting next to the CEO on a flight, determined, if not a little wary, of finally learning the fate of his career. What happened is almost too strange to believe. The CEO put on headphones,

closed his eyes, and spent the trip in silence, all to avoid an uncomfortable conversation with one of his direct reports, who eventually left. This example is indicative of similar behaviors I’ve seen among reasonable men and women, most of whom work close to the top. Why do senior executives tend to avoid uncomfortable situations and conversations?

That’s where entitlement comes into play. Beyond not enjoying conflict, senior executives often feel that they’ve earned the right to avoid the unpleasant parts of their work. They’ve paid their dues and are happy to delegate or abdicate parts of their jobs that they don’t enjoy—like having difficult, messy, and emotional conversations. In fact, I’m convinced that if you were to explain to aspiring executives that their job requires them to constantly address messy, uncomfortable interpersonal situations, many would opt out of that career path. In the best organizations, leaders are expected to seek out discomfort at work. They find opportunities to enter the danger whenever they can, realizing that by doing so, they’ll accomplish three productive things. First, they’ll set an example for others to do the same. Second, they’ll improve their level of comfort with discomfort. And most importantly, they’ll reduce the shelf life and impact of problems. Someday, leaders will realize that embracing discomfort is one key indicator of successful organizations. They’ll be too embarrassed to let a messy situation fester, knowing that it would be a simple matter of negligence to do so. Until then, for those organizations that teach their leaders to embrace discomfort, it remains an opportunity for differentiation and advantage. LE

of super-scale DIY chain. 5. To retain power, it’s better to be aggressive and unapologetic than bashful and contrite—even when you’re wrong. In his MBA course, The Paths to Power, Pfeffer shows his students two videos. In each, the CEO of a beleaguered company is getting grilled on Capitol Hill. The first features Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs. When challenged over his bank’s role in the financial meltdown, Blankfein is pugnacious, unrepentant, and cedes no points. In the second video, BP’s Tony Hayward, CEO at the time of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, comes across as meek and penitent. Pfeffer notes that while Blankfein still has his job, Hayward was forced to resign less than six weeks after his congressional testimony. What about the real risk that power becomes an end in itself—that principles and prudence get jettisoned as excess baggage in the clamor to the top? Pfeffer concedes that the quest for power demands a certain degree of selfishness and so advises: Put together a personal board of directors comprised of capable and honorable mentors who will give you honest and objective counsel—people who care enough about you to hold you accountable, and conversely, you care enough about them to take their advice seriously. Pfeffer wants leaders who aspire not only to power but to goodness. The virtuous don’t always win, but Pfeffer believes a meritorious or noble cause can be a major force multiplier: “It’s heartening to know that the selfless may have an advantage in accumulating power.” Pfeffer concludes: most people aren’t willing to pay the price to achieve the power they think they want. “There’s a price for power,” Pfeffer says. “Most successful people devote a lot of time, energy, and effort to their careers—time when they’re not with their spouse, kids, or friends. Not everyone is willing to pay that price. People have to figure out how much work they’ll put into this.” Since organizations are not paragons of meritocracy, Pfeffer advises those who are itching to turn their company into a post bureaucratic nirvana: equip yourself with the armaments you need to beat the partisans of power politics at their own game. LE

Purpose of Power

Written byGary Hamel

Gary Hamel is Visiting Professor at London Business School, keynotespeaker, and best-selling author. Visit www.GaryHamel.com.

Patrick Lencioni

What Leaders Won’t DoFew Willingly Embrace Discomfort

Written byPat Lencioni

Pat Lencioni is CEO of The Table Group and bestselling author of The Advantage. Visit www.tablegroup.com.

8 leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 08.2013

Your ability to lead directly impacts your results. The recent string of leadership scandals has caused you to evaluate your effectiveness as a leader. However, don’t equate leader effectiveness with being a remarkable leader. It isn’t enough for someone in a leadership position to simply sit in the chair behind the desk and profess that they get things done, or to simply achieve things. A truly successful leader is one who accomplishes goals (competence), and also has good character.These 7 characteristics distinguish remarkable leaders: 1. They do the right things, even when no one is watching. They have integrity and character to complement their ability to get things done. It is easy to do the right thing when you are in the spotlight—when you have an audience. But it takes courage and strength of character to do the right thing when no one is looking—or when everyone around you is doing the wrong thing, or when popular opinion goes against what you know in your heart to be right. Even when you have the best intentions, being bad feels good now—but being good feels good later. Every moment is a battle between what you want now versus what you want most. 2. They take personal responsibility. They follow rules, report facts accurately, treat people fairly and don’t lie, cheat or steal to advance their agenda. They hold themselves accountable for their actions and for the actions of people under their authority. They don’t make excuses; they take the blame when things go wrong and make sure those who do the work get the credit when things go right. They attack root causes of problems, and never blame others for, complain about, or justify their results. They embrace the buck stops here idea, taking personal responsibility for the good, bad, and ugly. 3. They do whatever it takes, but minimize collateral damage. They achieve outcomes without leaving their followers exhausted, damaged, or demoralized. They achieve their goals within moral and ethical bounds. Many leaders fall prey to poor decision making, and compromise their character and integrity for what feels good in the moment. Again, discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most. The remarkable leader chooses wisely!

4. They develop followers. They build the skills and talents of others and make followers partners in the process and outcomes. They empower their followers to continually improve. They don’t worry about underlings surpassing them. They share their knowledge and experience generously and press their followers to achieve more, realizing that the more people achieve great success, the better off everyone is. 5. They never go it alone. They absorb the input and counsel of numerous advisors, both from like and opposing perspectives, then devise solutions based upon a holistic understanding of the problem. They know that it is arrogant to believe that they’ve considered every possible angle of an issue without seeking outside counsel. 6. They leave people and things better than they found them. They make a positive difference that benefits everyone. They’re regarded by future generations as heroes of industry, sport, and politics. Even when they inherit a climate that is less than ideal, they provide inspiration for rebuilding bigger and better than before. 7. They are courageous. They defy logic and conventional wisdom and blaze new trails. They don’t dwell on why something can’t be done, but only consider how it can be done. President John F. Kennedy did not concern himself with the circumstantial evidence that suggested putting a man on the moon was ridiculous. He made the decision, announced it to the world, and then set about making it a reality. He turned the Ready-Aim-Fire equation on its head: he Aimed (set the goal), Fired (announced his intention), and then got Ready along the way. How leaders wield influence and power determines whether they’re poor leaders, merely effective leaders, or re-markable leaders. All leaders must consider the ramifications of their decisions; and, if things go wrong, take personal responsibility and fix them. All leaders must decide how they want to be remembered. It’s time to inspire future generations by becoming a remarkable leader! Otherwise, they are in for hard times. LE

Written byDeb Cheslow

Deb Cheslow is CEO of Deb Cheslow Consulting and a leadership expert, speaker, and bestselling author of Remarkable Courage. Call 386-308-2155, visit www.debcheslow.com, or email [email protected].

Deb Cheslow

We Need More Heroes7 Traits of Remarkable Leaders

Who is your favourite disruptive hero? For consultant John Caswell, founder of Group Partners, it’s Steve Jobs. “Because he was not afraid to piss people off by sticking to his vision. All of my work is influenced by Apple’s products because of that vision. He did what I’m hoping to do—change the way people think and work.” For Jackie Huba, customer evangelist and author of Monster Loyalty, it’s Lady Gaga. “She pushes boundaries and is trying to change the world. I’ve now tried to take my work to a new level, inspired by what she’s doing.” Disruptive heroes either change the rules or teach us that the status quo needs to be pushed, challenged, or broken. They are adept at riding waves of change—where the old rules and norms are rewritten. They are the leaders we need today—leaders who build cultures that favor disruptive heroes: where everyone’s job is to figure out how to benefit from, or take advantage of, continuous disarray, disorder, and disruption. We need leaders who don’t see disruptions as threats to what’s been planned, but embrace disorder as new opportunity. That’s my biggest takeaway having spent two years with 100 disruptive heroes who are creating today’s biggest disruptions and showing the traits it takes to thrive in an era of disruptions.Disruptive Heroes as LeadersTo develop disruptive heroes, do these three things: 1. Hire and develop rule-breakers. “My teachers were concerned about my mental health,” said Aaron Dignan, co-founder of Undercurrent, a digital strategy firm. “When I was in first grade, they called my mother and said, ‘He’s disrupting the

Disruptive HeroesLeadership for a New Era

Bill Jensen

other kids. Could you ask him to come to school dressed like a normal kid.’ I was obsessed with Batman. So Mom made me a Batman costume, which I wore to school every day for sixth months. Instead of giving in to the authority figure, my mother said, ‘No, I won’t ask him to stop wearing the costume. He’s different, and he needs to do his own thing.’ ” Dignan ties what he does today—helping companies create disruptive changes—back to how his mom stuck up for him and modeled certain behaviors for him. The people who thrive on disruption can lead others through it by nurturing other disruptive heroes. They mentor and protect disruptors so they’re free to ride the next wave of change, unencumbered by the way things are supposed to be. Is your leadership pipeline filled with Aaron Dignans? Are you developing tomorrow’s rule-breakers? 2. Be insanely curious. “When I was 12, my dad asked what I wanted for my birthday,” recounts Elisabet de los Pinos who founded Aura Biosciences to create nanodrugs—viruses that can attack cancer cells. “I said a subscription to Nature and Science. I’ve been obsessed with cancer. I’m not here to improve life survival for one month. I’m here to cure it.” Her goal was born out of insane curiosity. We can learn from disruptive heroes how to ask better questions, dig deeper, and seek the unknowable, just for the adventure of it. Most cultures shun disruptive heroes since they ask questions that punch holes in the status quo. Whether it’s finding a cure for cancer or changing the way people work or play—hero leaders ask questions that no one else is asking. 3. Practice failure as an extreme sport. Jon Landau, James Cameron’s partner and producer of Titanic and Avatar, says: “I was brought up in an environment where it was okay to take chances, and to fail. Failure can be an option, but fear that limits you cannot be. My parents, my family, my sisters —everybody encouraged that. My siblings and I all went into creative fields —television, fashion, playwright, and dance.” Success and failure are inseparable. You can’t have the upside without the downside. Yet most leaders promote risk-aversion and mitigation. No wonder so many companies struggle with innovation and disruption! In disruptive times, we need more heroes who embrace failure as the only path to success. The most powerful character-building experience is failure— not success. Your employees and customers need you to be a disruptive hero. LE


Disruptive Heroes

Written byBill Jensen

Bill Jensen is author of Disrupt! Think Epic. Be Epic, based on interviews with 100 disruptive heroes. www.simplerwork.com.

Talent development is a perennial issue for CEOs, but this year, it’s more prominent than ever. According to PwC’s 2013 Global CEO Survey, the shortage of key skills ranks second (behind higher taxes) among the threats to growth in 2013. Also, in the Conference Board’s CEO Challenge 2013, human capital—how best to develop, engage, manage, and retain talent—leads the list of the top 10 global challenges in the coming year. Moreover, CEOs’ top strategy for addressing human capital is growing talent internally. Execs also say that only 5 percent of their employees have the combination of skills and capabilities required to deliver desired results in 2013, according to a recent study by global research firm CEB. Too bad, then, that talent development, a roughly $300 billion market worldwide, is on life support. Why? Because most companies design their development programs around five mortally misguided myths: 1. Development is for top talent (high potentials). This myth undermines potential and growth. Smart development is approached with an abundance mentality, a go-big-or-go-home attitude of inclusivity rather than exclusivity. It recognizes that everyone, not just the so-called A-players, can grow and develop and, more importantly, that the success of the business depends on it. Companies that go beyond hi-po programs to develop all their people fully, put managers in the lead and produce more and better results. 2. Performance and development don’t mix. Performance and development are powerfully synergistic. Still, many companies treat them separately or, more often, tag development on to performance management, almost as an afterthought. But managers tell us that the performance management process, with its formalities, has become cumbersome or counterproductive. The solution? Have managers tuck development into real work tied to the productivity and performance of the business. Enable managers to seize daily learning opportunities while getting things done. 3. Development belongs to HR, not managers. Today most companies

outsource training and development to HR, even when many workforces are heading for a performance cliff. For decades, we’ve known that all but the most rote skills are learned on the job. Similarly, 70-20-10, a widely recognized learning model, lays out how true learning occurs: 70 percent occurs from on-the-job experiences, 20 percent from others,

and 10 percent from courses. Having managers drive development daily is a winning proposition. HR can match formal programs with everyday development expectations and maximize the intensity and impact of the training. 4. Development requires major investments in training. Companies

spend billions in training programs and technology, yet by all accounts the ROI is unclear. Smart training, delivered through suitable channels, is a potent part of the development mix. Nevertheless, no training can embed development in the DNA of an organization like managers can. Given managers’ day-to-day contact with their employees, only they have the ability to consistently connect development to the priorities of the business. At the same time, they can play to people’s strengths, promote creative risk-taking, and provide new challenges —things training programs can support but not set in motion or sustain. 5. New knowledge is the same as learning. Learning isn’t real until you do something with the knowledge. You’ve got to apply it to work linked to business goals. Development is most meaningful when it occurs daily, in the job, with managers skillfully in the lead. In this way, the work becomes an invaluable development tool. None of the learning is squandered (as it is in training off the job), since the development directly supports the business. So, debunk these myths and demand that your talent development get real—with managers in the lead. LE

Wendy Axelrod and Jeannie Coyle

5 Development MythsThese Can Hurt Talent Growth

Wendy Axelrod and Jeannie Coyle are managing partners at Talent Savvy Manager LLC, a human capital consultancy specializing in manager-driven, performance-centered people development, and co-authors of Make Talent Your Business (Berrett-Koehler). Visit TalentSavvyManager.com.

Written byWendy AxelrodJeannie Coyle

http://www.talentsavvymanager.com


You can’t figure out where you’re going or how to get there until you articulate what that destination looks like. When you provide people with continuity, they’ll notice. When they see a pattern of repeat positive behavior, they begin to understand what you’re doing and they accept a new you. This is how reputations are rebuilt. I liken changing behavior to building a wall. You lay down one brick, then another, aiming for serial achievements to show people who you are and to get others to accept the change. Follow these four rules. Rule 1: stop waiting for more information or better circumstances before getting started. Information is incomplete; circumstances are rarely perfect. Rule 2: move quickly. In constructing a sequence of successes, you might as well do it quickly. The smaller the gap between serial achievements, the easier they are to notice. Also, there’s a fine line between patience and procrastination. Err on the side of urgency. Rule 3: say two no’s for every yes. You never want to turn down a chance to get involved in something good, but dead-ends tend to outnumber opportunities. For every good idea, there are dozens of bad ones. When someone asks for help, unless it’s inappropriate or thoughtless to say no, weigh every yes as if you were spending money. If it distracts you from your goal, don’t do it—no matter how tempting the upside seems. Saying yes to the wrong idea can ruin your reputation. Rule 4: it pays to advertise. I know a playwright who never reveals what new work she’s writing. “When you talk about it,” she says, “you’re not writing it. You’re just talking.” That sort of secretiveness may apply to creative work, but it doesn’t apply to rebuilding your reputation. People have preconceptions about you. They not only filter everything you do through those preconceptions, but they are constantly looking for evidence that confirms them. Thus, if they believe you’re always late, even when you’re only a few seconds late, they’ll file that away as another example of your tardiness. However, if you tell them you’re making a serious effort to be on time from now on, such advertising can change their perception. They’ll be on alert for evidence of your on-time behavior rather than confirmation that you’re always late. That little tweak in perception, created solely by telling people that you’re trying to change, can make all the difference. Peter Drucker always posed five questions, the first being “What is your mission?” You can’t figure out where you’re going or how to get there until you

articulate what the destination looks like. It’s amazing to me how many people never articulate their mission—to themselves or anyone else. I realize that many people now regard mission statements as relics of the 1980s—a faddish buzzword. What turned mission statements into a corporate joke was how quickly companies broadcast their mission but didn’t follow up with consistent action. You don’t write a mission statement. You live it and breathe it—and then keep on track.Keep on Track Many leaders start with a strong sense of vision and mission, but they lose track somewhere along the way. One such leader, Ana, was visibly concerned as we met to debrief her 360 assessment. A regional sales VP, Ana had turned around an under-performing team. She described one evaluation as “brutal.” As a young manager, she was seen by her team as arrogant and dismissive. Ana was relieved as she saw improvement in this assessment. She was seen as a powerful driver for results, someone who took her company’s mission to heart and worked diligently to make her numbers. Yet, when under pressure, her messages became more critical, disengaging some team members; customers complained that she didn’t listen to their needs, but drove her agenda no matter what. In context, the business was changing. Within each account, there were now multiple decision makers. Bud-gets were tight. There were new upstart competitors and Ana and her team felt they had to battle to retain old customers, in addition to expanding market share. There was no “one right answer” any more, no proven formula they could rely on for success. Under pressure, Ana pressed her team and customers harder. While her hard-charging approach worked well with team members who had similar styles, it rubbed

others the wrong way. Many direct reports were becoming less engaged; several left and blamed her style as a major issue for them. Ana was passionate and ambitious. She wanted great results for her team—not for personal power or gratification. But her behavior was perceived as egotistical when she used strengths excessively. When I asked her, “What message do you get from your results,” she replied: “Talk less, listen more, especially under pressure.” I affirmed: Exactly the right action. We knew that she had to catch the problem before it occurred. Once the brain goes into overload and starts dumping stress hormones into our body, it’s harder to self-correct. I suggested that three times a day, she do an internal pulse check. Ask yourself, on a scale of 1 to 10, how’s my arousal level? How tense am I feeling? How energized? How frustrated? Look at cues that point to strong arousal. (Many leaders practice this simple gut check, but driven leaders often are so outcome-focused that they rarely pause to check their pace and pressure level). Ana has become a more effective leader. She’s asking more questions and finding the most effective path forward for her business. She and her team have won new customers, largely because Ana listens much better to them. And Ana knows that her daily pauses keep her on track and moving forward in a balanced, focused manner. LE

by Marshall Goldsmith and Patricia Wheeler

And Are You on Track to Achieve It?What’s Your Mission

Marshall Goldsmith, America’s pre-eminent executive coach, is the million-selling author or editor of 31 books, including MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. Patri-cia Wheeler is an executive coach and managing partner of The Levin Group, a leadership advisory firm. Visit www.marshallgoldsmith.com.

Written byMarshall Goldsmith

Patrica Wheeler


The “it’s not my fault” mentality permeates our culture, as depicted in The Apprentice reality TV program where Donald Trump decides after boardroom drama who will be fired. Regardless of who messed up, the project manager rarely admits that he made a mistake. Instead, he abdicates, and points to someone else’s performance for fear of being fired himself. This teaches people that they can avert responsibility by blaming others, and whoever is better at pointing the finger of blame or shame is the winner. This hardly seems fair. And yet, today we hold people increasingly less accountable for their actions—and we’re paying a high price. When you create a culture of no accountability, you can’t rise above mediocrity. As Winston Churchill said, “Responsibility is the price of greatness.” Good employees often get reprimanded and punished for the irresponsible behavior or poor performance of others when companies don’t hold all their people accountable to the same standards. In fact, good employees often get more work and more responsibility, while bad employees are rewarded with more time to do a job and less responsibility. Managers won’t put a project on the plate of an underachieving employee because they know it won’t get done on time. If certain people can’t be fired because they are protected, the culture will breed sub-par performance. Unless people are deemed responsible and held accountable for their actions, poor performance will continue. “People think responsibility is hard to bear,” said Henry Kissinger. “It’s not. The absence of responsibility is harder to bear. You have a great feeling of impotence.” Often, tenure means lack of accountability, or loose accountability. People get upset when their comfort zone is threatened, and worry about being fired. But if we want our organizations to improve, we must start with our leaders. How can teachers hold their students accountable or managers hold their employees accountable if they won’t hold themselves to higher standards? Tenure can breed weak leaders, poor results, low standards, lack of accountability, and a culture where good gets punished and bad gets rewarded. When held accountable to high standards, we learn—and performance and results improve. We all benefit from being held accountable! None of us should settle for less than we are capable of being and doing. What do you value more—experience or results? Experience is a feature; results

are the benefits. Do you hold yourself accountable for results? Do you preach experience to your clients, or do you deliver results? Sports teams recognize results more than experience. That’s one reason why people are fans and watch the games, and why the competition and the talent gets better every year—because they are results focused. When experience is rewarded over results, performance suffers. Do you value experience more than results? Just because an employee has 20 years of experience doesn’t mean she’s a great employee—

maybe she just survived. My football coach, Dominick Ciao, said that if we won a game it was our victory, but if we lost a game it was on him. This taught me about responsibility. He took the blame when we lost, and gave us the credit and the victory when we won. “All business depends upon men fulfilling their responsibilities,” said Mahatma Gandhi.Teaching AccountabilityGen Y is called the entitlement generation because they’ve seldom been held accountable. Helicopter parents hovered over them, and rescued them when they got into trouble. The “they can do no wrong” attitude has crippled them. Here are four ways to teach people to be responsible and accountable. • Demonstrate accountability. As aleader, coach or mentor, you need to demonstrate accountability. Model the behavior that you want from others. • Put it inwriting. Put the expectationyou have for the person in writing and let them sign it (commitment goes up when they put their name to it). • Remind them periodically. Periodi-cally, people need reminders, whether it’s written, verbal, or posted. •Setupconsequencesandhold themaccountable. We lose accountability when we waver. People learn about accountability when they are held accountable for their actions and they face clear consequences for their performance. LE

Written byEric Papp

Eric Papp is a leadership speaker/author, business philosopher, author of Leader-ship by Choice and president of Results-Based Seminars, LLC. Visit www.EricPapp.com.

Eric Papp

Active AccountabilityAbdication Causes Poor Performance

“What do you value more -experience or results? Experience is a feature; results are the benefits.

Poor profitability, lack of sales, or operational inefficiency is ultimately rooted in a single cause—poor leadership. Shortcomings and capabilities, successes and failures all have leadership to either blame or credit. Leadership influences everything

an organization does, either through commission or omission. Even intangibles such as culture and values can be traced to what leaders do to set the example or allow to persist. Leaders are responsible for developing, approving, or allowing every activity including strategies, budgets, plans, systems, and processes. Leaders make decisions to take action or defer action, whether related to building, buying, partnering, engaging, or disengaging. Leaders are responsible for performance outcomes—good or bad. You might argue that frontline employees, stream-lined processes, embedded systems, innovative products, or marketing programs are the keys to competitive differentiation, but employees, pro-cesses, systems, and strategies are formulated, influenced, or decided upon by leaders. Hence, leadership competence primarily determines team performance. What are the core leadership competencies—and how well do we embody them? Having coached hundreds of executives and observed firsthand how competencies correlate to results, I’ve identified 38 competencies of great leadership that fit into five categories that spell the acronym SCOPE: • Self: Setting the example. At the core of great leadership is intrapersonal competence—knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enable leaders to lead themselves and set positive examples for others to follow. People who can’t develop and lead themselves can’t effectively lead

LeaderCompetenceAs a Coach, I See Five Levels

Mike Hawkins

others. Competencies such as passion, self-awareness, integrity, mental fitness, courage, and confidence form the foundation of great leadership and the ability to gain other people’s trust. • Communications: Inspiringperformance. Next is the leaders’ interpersonal competence and ability to commun-icate. Great leadership requires competencies such as articulating the why, developing compelling content, engag-ing audiences, and listening attentively. People can be competent in their knowledge, but if they can’t communicate it well and inspire others to follow, their knowledge is of little value. • Others: Developing people. Greatleaders attract and develop top talent. They hire well and develop their people continuously. They attract, select, coach, enable, encourage, manage, and impart ownership. They don’t simply hire people and set objectives. They don’t merely expect people to perform and then fire them when they don’t. Great leaders coach their people—helping people leverage their capabilities and overcome their shortcomings. • Partnerships: Leveraging teamwork.Having a team of top-performers is insufficient to reach peak performance. Great leaders assimilate people into teams that offset each other’s weaknesses and leverage each other’s capabilities. They have the competencies of alignment, building community, managing conflict, and collaboration. They work cross-functionally and with outside organizations to build teams of diverse people who work together toward common goals. • Execution: Delivering excellence.Leadership is a means—the end goal is to deliver results. Great leaders execute and sustain top-performance quarter after quarter, year after year. They have the competencies of focusing on value, enabling speed, fostering innovation, and making great decisions. They don’t rely on restructuring or other actions that merely cover-up inherent operational issues. They build an organic capability that produces great results consistently. Great leaders and athletic coaches share much in common. They manifest the five categories of competence. In particular, they focus on developing their talent instead of doing all the work themselves. They work through people to accomplish the work of the enterprise. They empower, coach, encourage, enable, manage, and lead their people. Enabling these five qualities through the five categories of leadership competence is the challenge for leader coaches. LE

Written byMike Hawkins

Mike Hawkins is an executive coach, consultant, speaker, and president of Alpine Link Corporation, and author of Activating Your Ambition. www.alpinelink.com, www.scopeofleadership.com.


A news scan tells a compelling story about the state of the leadership pipeline today: A lack of po-tential leaders is the top HR challenge. We need to rethink development programs to avoid the leadership time bomb (10,000 Baby Boomers will reach age 65 every day over the next two decades). Many organizations are unprepared for the brain drain and skills void that talented older workers will leave. Yes, alarm bells are sounding over the state of the leadership pipeline today, and talent management, training and HR professionals are scrambling to respond. But in the speed to identify, develop and prepare high potentials and emerging leaders, you can’t brush past three need-to-knows for developing a strong pipeline of future leaders. 1. Know what you mean: The hi-po designation can mean different things to different people. It has also picked up some negative connotations that can end up dividing the workforce. Everyone needs to be clear what the term means today. 2. Know which competencies matter most: Business realities have changed dramatically, yet many organizations haven’t adapted their leadership competencies. With complexity, unpredictability and rapid change the norm, skills like learning and thinking agility are becoming baseline necessities for any leader, especially employees who hope to move up to leadership in the future. Leaders need to shift their thinking based on the mental demands they deal with. If you have competencies in place or are reevaluating them, use the Whole Brain® Model to assess whether you have the key requirements covered. The breadth of thinking represented by the four quadrants is essential for the leader and the organization. 3. Know your learners: Different oc- cupations have different mental demands, and different levels of the leadership pipeline require a shifting mental focus. If you don’t know your learners—how they prefer to think, where their mental comfort zones lie, and what represents a stretch—then you can’t provide the personal development they need and meet the leadership needs of the organization. As a TLNT blog points out, “High-potentials and knowledge

workers want to contribute based on their strengths, be given autonomy over how they do their work, and be convinced rather than controlled.” You can’t meet these wants without understanding how your employees think and how thinking styles impact their behavior, learning styles, and communication needs.Developing Hi-Pos Companies are optimistic about growth, reports Right Management, but only 6 percent say, We have an ample leadership pipeline that will cover most of our needs. Such a talent gap—a lack of ready-

now leaders—will impede success. What can you do to grow your talent to step up to leadership? First, recognize that thinking, as Ned Herrmann said, has everything to do with management: “The human brain functions at its most innovative, productive best when all four quadrants (of thinking styles as depicted in the Whole Brain® Model)

engage situationally and iteratively in the process.” We best function situationally—when we have equal access to all four quadrants so that when the situation calls for a certain mental function, we can give our best response.This call for Whole Brain Thinking as a way to be more agile in leadership is ever more urgent and relevant. Consider: • Up-and-coming leaders need to getcomfortable with unpredictability and shift their thinking in a moment’s notice. •Astheymovethroughtheleadershippipeline, they’ll deal with different mental demands that require them to stretch outside mental comfort zones. •HR, talentmanagement,and trainingprofessionals will need to find more brain-friendly ways to engage learners, understanding what they need and how to best deliver it. Make Whole Brain Thinking part of your hi-po development. Companies with the best leaders are 13 times more likely to outperform the competition in financial performance, quality of products and services, employee engagement, and customer satisfaction (DDI research). LE

Anne Herrmann

Growing TalentHere Are Three Need-to-Knows

Leader Competence

Written byAnne Herrmann

Anne Herrmann is CEO of Herrmann International. Visit www.hbdi.com.

13

My fascination with performance improvement has put me face-to-face with people from many walks of life, all trying to find their best selves. Often, when people want to close the gap between current performance and desired performance they turn to a coach. Done well, coaching can change lives and deliver peak performance. More organizations are embracing coaching as a performance management solution. One study showed that training alone increased productivity by 22.4 percent, while training plus coaching increased productivity by 88 percent. However, organizations get stuck when creating a culture of coaching, and making coaching count where it matters most. What can be done about it? Clearly, coaching has a big impact on performance. Yet, many internal coaching programs falter, and thus organizations are not reaping the full benefits of more leaders, coaching more often, for more business impact. Why? Because leaders lack an easy process for coaching, can’t

easily identify coaching opportunities, and aren’t recognized, held accountable, and rewarded for coaching. Why aren’t more leaders coaching? The answer is simple—changing cultural behaviors is always a challenge.Take Three Quick Steps

In building a coaching culture there are three critical elements that cause coaching programs to stick: 1. Provide a simple coaching process for leaders. Coaching conversations can be difficult, especially when emotions are involved. Having a simple coaching process (conversation map) to follow

can simplify the world of a leader and accelerate the performance of individual contributors and the entire team. A coaching process must be simple enough to use often, and when under pressure. It should also enable people to use or organize their knowledge and skills. To gain leader buy-in and organizational adoption, any coaching process must be easy to use, highly transferable, and make a noticeable impact. 2. Spot the everyday opportunities. Coaching is an ongoing conversation that helps people get from where they are to where they want to go. These conversations boost the speed and accuracy of decisions (Decision Velocity™), which leads to actions that generate the desired results. Chances to improve Decision Velocity are everywhere. Some decisions are large enough to be recognized easily as coaching opportunities, like devising a 3-year strategy. But, others are small and subtle enough that we don’t see them as decision points, like how to frame a conversation with a co-worker or how to respond to an email. Each decision point

by Alan Fine

Coaching Culture


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“One study showed that training alone increased productivity by 22.4 percent, while training plus coaching increased productivity by 88 percent.

More Leaders Coaching More Often

http://www.studyatapu.com/solutions


Corporate GravityOvercome It to Spur Innovation

“By recognizing coaching moments, managers and leaders can consistently tap into the power of coaching and use their coaching skills.

represents a chance to have an informal coaching dialogue. By recognizing coaching moments, managers and leaders can consistently tap into the power of coaching and use their coaching skills. Every change in results starts with an individual or group decision. And every decision point is a chance to apply coaching to increase the decision velocity—to make the decision faster and more accurately. How can leaders spot coaching opportunities? Ask three questions: 1) Is there a gap between the present state and the desired state? 2) Is there a problem or issue that needs to be solved? and 3) Does the person (coachee) seem stuck or paralyzed by the gap, problem, or issue? Helping leaders uncover coaching

opportunities gets more leaders coaching more often—a key for building a coaching culture. 3. Make coaching visible. Since coach-ing can have a big impact on performance, you need to track, measure, reward, and reinforce coaching behaviors. Asking managers to answer four questions helps them focus on what’s important: How much are you coaching? What are you coaching on (is it what’s most important)? Is it having an impact? What are your insights and learning? Asking managers to report regularly on these questions facilitates bottom-up engagement and top-down reinforcement. Managers expect that they will be asked about their coaching activity, and their bosses, having access to that information, can support, troubleshoot, and respond. Coaching can help people do more right things, fewer wrong things, and just do things differently. So, to get more leaders, coaching more often, for more impact, create visibility into what’s happening so you can coach to their coaching behavior. Developing a coaching culture can be challenging, but the benefits are clear. LE

Written byAlan Fine

Alan Fine is author of the NYT bestseller, You ALREADY Know How to Be GREAT, co-creator of the GROW Model, and Founder of InsideOut Development. Visit www.InsideOutDev.com..

Coaching Culture

How many TV channels do you have? How many do you actually watch? The average American subscribes to 135 channels, yet watches only 16 of them. Monthly, the dreaded cable bill arrives, and consumers pay for channels that they never watch. Soon consumers will get fed up and demand a different model—they want their entertainment content whenever and wherever they are, and will pay for the programs that they actually watch. We saw this play out when broadcast networks were blindsided by cable television. As the network executives asked, “Who would pay for TV?” they dismissed the threat of cable television. The answer turned out to be, “Just about everyone.” Why can’t broadcast companies see these market shifts coming? Many point to the usual suspects, such as the dominance of the $30B programmer and distributor network; expensive, nascent or unavailable technologies; copyright infringement or other legal issues; or the economics of the bundling business model. But there is an even stronger force at play: corporate gravity.Positive Corporate GravityJust as large planets have a stronger gravitational pull than smaller ones, larger companies tend to have a stronger gravitational force that causes stagnation and stifles innovation. Corporate gravity stalls companies and keeps them from breaking away from established ways of doing business. It encourages leaders to do things the way they have always been done, and causes them to ignore, miss, or deprioritize big opportunities. In time, this may run a leader’s team, business unit, or company into the ground. All leaders will experience corporate gravity at one time or another. Just ask executives in the newspaper, music, radio, and now, cable industries. Successful companies are driven by leaders who convert the strong pull of corporate gravity, a potentially destructive force, into a source of opportunity. • Start with the customer: Successfulleaders are externally, not internally, focused. They understand that their customer sits at the center of all business decisions. The product or service is built around customer need, and the resulting business model follows in a way that best

supports the intended value proposition. Listen to your customers on social media. Read your product reviews. Get fanatical about finding new ways to bring the customer into the heart of your business. •Listentorabble-rousers:Manypeoplecan see big market shifts coming, and some strive to formulate strategies to address them. However, these people are often

viewed as troublemakers—gadflies, the ones who aren’t towing the company line. Thus, their concerns go unheard. Leaders, not knowing what to do with unorthodox ideas or sensitive to the political ramifications of new suggestions, often do their best to silence these voices. Listen to the people on the edges of the business because they can see what’s next.

• Be willing to fail. Experiment withnew models, strategies, packages, and products. Have an open mind about what’s possible and experiment with the knowledge that mistakes will be made. Learn from failures as fast as you can (Fail forward fast). After all, failure is one of the most important aspects of learning and moves you one step closer to finding the answer. •Bewareofmetrics.Thebusinessmetricsthat we measure daily, weekly, or monthly usually track current processes and capture the way we do things now. These metrics have a gravitational pull of their own, asserting pressure on the organization to stay the same. Many leaders spend ample time and effort capturing data, but they rarely analyze that data for new insights that might indicate subtle market shifts, disruptive technologies, or external dynamics that might elucidate new opportunities. Stay alert to what isn’t tracked by metrics to discover new ways to innovate. Breaking free from corporate gravity can seem impossible. So much of culture reinforces the norm. Breaking free takes courage, but it can pay off in ways that can accelerate innovation and create market leaders. LE

by Ryan Fisher

Written byRyan Fisher

Ryan Fisher is Principal of Pivot Leadership. Visit www.pivotleadership.com.

Organizational gravity draws both talent (employees) and customers to your business. And bodies attract with a force proportional to their mass. Likewise, companies attract talent and customers with a force proportional to their mass, consisting of a strong brand and culture, talented employees, and a growth strategy. Leaders are responsible to capitalize on strategy, brand, culture, and talent to build a gravitational organization. And leadership is about:•you—your confidence, skill, presentation, and self-awareness•vision—your ability to anticipate market need and spot opportunities and threats to create and course correct the vision/strategic direction of the company•alignment—your ability to find common ground and collective ambition•core values—having and living high standards and guiding principles•motivation and empowerment—your ability to inspire and empower others•challenge—to your own and others thinking and to the status quo•awareness through inquiry—of what is really happening and active attention to positively influencing it•action—the ability to make timely decisions and do something about it. Talented leaders, working with a talented team of employees, are a disruptive force. Leaders bring the strategic vision, and employees create ways to execute the strategy. To build and lead a gravitational organization, focus on eight elements: 1) Provide a clear and concise strategic vision and purpose with core values—attitudes, behaviors and beliefs—that drive collective efforts; 2) Align members of the executive team in developing the strategy and in leading it; 3) Require performance accountability; 4) Communicate strategy and priorities to managers and request that they communicate them to staff; 5) Provide strategy implementation guidance and support to ensure the authority and autonomy of your employees to carry out their work; 6) Put customer-centric growth and retention strategies in place using employee and customer feedback and ideas; 7) Create a brand strategy and brand messaging/tactics to showcase your distinct value (competitive advantage); and 8) have a succession plan in place for all critical positions. Providing strategic leadership and

direction—by communicating clear strategy and priorities; understanding, making, and keeping promises to your customers and employees; and empow-ering employees to contribute their best—will distinguish your business.Culture: Glue for Your Business Culture is often seen as the soft stuff, while leaders prefer to focus on the hard matters of business and measures such as revenue, gross profit, and market share. Yet, culture is the critical driver. If you’re not attending to the culture, you’ll struggle with talent recruitment, poor retention/high turn-over, disengaged and underperforming staff, silo behavior (territoriality) between individuals and departments; and customer complaints/customer loss. A strong culture creates the stickiness factor for employees and customers.A strong culture helps you attract and keep top talent, ensure delivery on your brand promise, and keep customers coming back and referring new business. But instilling and reinforcing a robust culture, requires active attention by the owner and leadership team. Brand serves the promise of what you do; culture enables you to deliver on that promise. If you don’t have a handle on your culture, you should hold off on a marketing and sales campaign . . . Otherwise, you’ll promise something you can’t deliver, at least not for long. At its core, culture is the way work is done around here. It reflects shared values, beliefs, and attitudes, as demon-strated in the day-to-day behavior of your employees. It can be: seen in how people work together; heard in what employees say; represented by how you build your teams, infrastructure, and processes to deliver on your pro-mise; and exemplified by how you lead, manage, develop, and implement strategy. The quality and strength of your culture will help you outrun your competition.Culture develops whether you nurture it or not. It evolves out of your group dynamics—standards, relationships, norms, behaviors. And, your culture will either help attract and retain customers and top talent, or it won’t.Culture is grounded in common practices around the mission, vision, and values. It drives how decisions are made and responsibility is assumed. It also determines your behavior in front of customers and within your group. It is reflected in the standards and consistency with which you deliver your pro-duct or service. Culture either fosters or hinders

your goals and outcomes. To build a strong, performance-based culture, take 8 steps: 1) Create a meaningful vision, mission, and value set to build shared attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that drive performance and outcomes—and ensure values are used in hiring, on-boarding, performance appraisal, operating policy and procedures, incentives and rewards, and promotion and succession candidate readiness. 2) Communicate these messages often and tell how the business is demonstrating the values, achieving the goals and priorities; 3) assess your culture by listening to customers and employees to understand whether it supports or impedes growth; 4) Ident-ify what you need your culture to be to deliver your brand promise; 5) identify key actions that will help you bridge the gap between where you are now and where you need or want to be to consistently deliver on your brand promise. 6) Communicate this regularly and transparently to help people feel you care and are acting on their feedback; 7) Show commitment by addressing findings from the survey—take action on 3 critical items; 8) Use developmental tools to strengthen key components that contribute to culture, such as frequent and relevant communication, supervisory training, relationship building, and conflict resolution. LE

by Tony Kubica and Sara LaForest

Organizational GravityIts Underpinnings Lie in Leadership and Culture


Tony Kubica and Sara LaForest are partners of Kubica LaForest Consulting, and authors of Organizational Gravity: A Guide to Strategically Growing Your Company’s Brand, Culture and Talent. Visit www.kubicalaforestconsulting.com.

Written byTony Kubica

Sara LaForest


Soft-Side LeadershipWhy Is It Always the Hardest Part?

After a nine-year military career as a ship’s Executive Officer and Battalion Commander for over 900 recruits and senior non-commissioned officers, I resigned my commission to join one of America’s most admired companies, Caterpillar Inc. It is a world-class manufacturer known for its powerful machines. An industrial giant is an unlikely incubator for a soft-side approach to leadership. It is known as a no-nonsense, well-managed, fiscally sound company. But the U.S. Navy and Caterpillar are where my leadership approach took shape. My philosophy was refined in the lab of human experience—born in the trenches, where real business challenges beset managers and leaders in an ambiguous, change-laden world. Certainly I’ve known successful managers who get results without being skilled in the soft side of business. In fact, some were down right hard-nosed. But they could have achieved more with less stress if they had only learned how to navigate the waters of the soft side. Generally the people side of enterprise is referred to as the soft side—considered not as important as the bottom line—when it should be elevated to the top of management priorities. We often speak of developing soft skills as if they are an afterthought and the last ones necessary for mastery. They’re considered a mere side dish to the meat of business—the mastery of hard-core competencies (business acumen, engineering, accounting, or finance). Many managers confess that the soft side challenges them. By deploying the right people-centric philosophy—rooted in courage, service, love, and authenticity—leaders can better unleash the power of people. The soft side is about people, and people are not things or assets. Assets are objects that businesses consume, depreciate, and write-off over time. Yet sadly, if you Google the phrase People are our most important asset, you find over 20 million entries, many of these from companies boasting that this credo reflects their commitment to people. It is a sorely misplaced philosophy. People are flesh and blood, emotional, human beings. And leaders need to lead accordingly. Employees want to be led, not managed. A soft-side philosophical approach to leadership liberates the potential of employees in contrast to suppressing innovation and initiative with an illusory approach of control. Soft Side is not about a bigger-than-life leader or super hero personality, but rather the quiet power that resides within all of us—the transformative power of

genuine leadership with an underpinning philosophy of heart, love, service, courage, and authenticity. My people-centric leadership style and philosophy are rooted in two principles, 1) People come first, and 2) People naturally desire to serve a greater purpose beyond making money. It presents a philosophical foundation upon which extraordinary results are achieved. Soft-Side leverages my teachings within Caterpillar’s Leaders Building Leaders program, expanding philosophy into practical applied lessons and diving into the emotional connection between leader and follower—how to achieve it, and how to stand firmly upon it to live and lead courageously. My leadership philosophy is centered on loving people and letting go. It explores how empowering others creates true leadership impact. While not eschewing management, metrics or process, Soft-Side presents leadership as an art form. Many companies groom competent managers, but few leaders. One reason is rooted simply in the distinction be-tween what managers and leaders do. As Peter Drucker said, “Management is about doing things right—leadership is about doing right things.” Both are required to succeed, but there’s a difference in the roles. Management is “the process of dealing with and controlling people or things.” A leader is “someone who people follow.” Leadership is about inspiring people to follow willingly. Management is about reigning things in. Leadership is about letting go—and that can be a vulnerable place. Business seeks to control risk and assure outcomes. It controls its products, markets, distribution, and manufacturing processes. Successful managers are those who demonstrate a consistent track record of controlling outcomes while mitigating risks. The higher ups are those who minimize the adverse impacts of the pesky risks associated with running a business. Surely you can’t run a business

without appropriate controls. Following a management approach is modeled and safe. Leadership is riskier. As a leader, you’re certain about your vision—what needs to happen—but less sure about the outcome. A leader relies upon others to perform in the face of stress, risk, or pressure. This creates a sense of fear and vulnerability for the leader. Who would want to lead when there is such ambiguity associated with the outcome? And yet, true leaders exist. They set the vision for their team and establish a sense of community. They rely more on faith that people will rise to great levels of achievement simply by being empowered to do the right thing in support of the desired state. Paradoxically, management control stifles true empowerment. People want to feel that their role supports a greater vision. They want to be a part of something noble and bigger than themselves. They don’t want to merely comply. They want to matter. For a real leader, people will put self beneath team and be less concerned about roles, more concerned about performance. And the vision is—everyone leads. Everyone is committed to the noble purpose inspired by the leader. This yields great results, but it is not safe. And so, businesses typically don’t create this culture. Management can be rigid—often seeking conformance and compliance with processes to achieve the desired end, whereas leadership is nimble—seeking empowerment and liberty to achieve the desired end. Why do businesses groom more managers than leaders? They are more concerned with controls, less with leadership. Businesses reap what they sow—management breeds managers. Sustainable success comes from leadership. LE

Written byWilliam D. Mayo

William D. Mayo is a former Caterpillar executive VP and author of Why Is the Soft Side the Hardest Part?, a practical yet entertaining guide for managers. Matt Zetzl, [email protected].

by William D. Mayo


Leadership Myopia

Gradually over time we have become overly obsessed about managing tasks. In our quest to produce results, we have lost sight of the importance of engaging people. As human beings we have emotions. We have hopes and dreams. We have a conscience. We want to be respected, to be recognized for ou r talents, to belong, to have autonomy or control over our work and our lives, to experience personal growth, and to do work that we believe is worthwhile and in a way that we feel is ethical. It’s how we are wired. When we work in an environment that recognizes these realities of our human nature, we thrive. We feel more energetic, more optimistic, and more fully alive. When we work in an environment that fails to recognize these realities, it affects our ability to become engaged and deliver sustainable results. It’s also damaging to our mental and physical health. All the Six-Sigma, Lean, benchmarking and metrics in the world won’t help us lead people if we fail to recognize these realities. Leadership is all about the human experience. Emotions have a disproportionate effect when it comes to inspiring people or burning them out. The Corporate Executive Board reports that emotional factors are four times more effective than rational factors such as compensation when it comes to motivating people to give their best efforts. Emotional factors include whether people feel connected to their supervisor, their colleagues, their organization’s vision, mission and values, and their day-to-day work. When managers develop connections with and among people they become real leaders who people want to follow. Little things matter when it comes to connection. As a manager, do you invest the time necessary to get to know the people you work with as human beings rather than always interacting with them as human doings? Do you get people to-gether to inform them about important matters? Do you ask for their opinions and ideas to improve business results and consider what they say? Do you get people together regularly for social time to connect? Some management gurus bad mouth meetings, but we know from our experience that meetings and face-to-face conversations are indispensable for connecting with people, aligning them with strategy, and inspiring them to give their best efforts. SAS Institute, the world’s largest privately-held software business, has been

recognized as number one on Fortune’s “Best Places to Work” list. Jim Goodnight, CEO and co-founder, created a culture where the work hours are reasonable, employees work on a beautiful wooded 300-acre campus in Cary, North Carolina and work in offices, not cubicles. SAS Institute extends an array of benefits to employees that is second to none. Goodnight regularly sits with different groups of employees in the company’s cafeteria and he hosts informal “Java with Jim” gatherings to answer any questions employees might have. Knowing that he could weather the Great Recession better than employees, in 2009 he promised there would be no layoffs. Goodnight told employees that there would be no raises either and asked them to help reduce costs. Employees responded by cutting costs in excess of six percent.

And Goodnight is not a natural connector. He’s an introvert with a Ph.D. in statistics. He would admit that he’s not a glad-handing, warm-and-fuzzy leader. But he prides himself on being rational, and he knows that SAS’s culture clearly provides a competitive advantage. With a 30-year track record of revenue growth, and employee turnover costs a fraction of SAS Institute’s competitors, he has the data to prove it. To be an effective leader requires a commitment to serve the mission and the people you are responsible for leading. Both are essential. Individuals who don’t demonstrate that they care about people will never be true leaders and, frankly, have no place in a position of leadership. They may be successful for a short time but eventually they will fail. Leadership failure happens when people stop giving their best efforts and stop communicating so that leaders don’t hear the facts they need to hear in order to make optimal decisions. Top leaders should measure managers on employee engagement (their ability to connect) and hold them accountable. When leaders fail to meet the standard,

help them with coaching, mentoring, education and development. If they prove to be unable to connect with the people they manage, they shouldn’t be in leadership roles. In addition to the right processes, leaders need to embrace the importance of conversation and patiently develop a consensus on issues that are important to employees. Conversation and consensus are the only way to develop the strategic alignment and employee engagement necessary to achieve sustainable superior performance. When issues are pushed through to get “buy-in” rather than communicated with an open mind to find the best solutions, those individuals whose ideas have not been considered start to feel like outsiders, and many become indifferent or work to sabotage the leaders’ efforts. For individuals and organizations to thrive again, we must be intentional about balancing the time we spend managing tasks and connecting with the people in our organizations. Too much time spent on one side or the other is unhealthy and leads to poor performance. When we invest time connecting with people they give their best efforts, focus on the right tasks, and help one another. They are also more willing to share their knowledge and opinions. In an environment of connection, decision-makers are better informed and the internal marketplace of ideas fuels innovative new products, processes and business opportunities. This is what we need now to boost our economy and ensure a bright future. LE

“For individuals and organizations to thrive again, we must be intentional about balancing the time we spend managing tasks and connecting with the people in our organizations

Michael Lee Stallard is president of E Pluribus Partners and primary author of Fired Up or Burned Out. He speaks on leadership, culture, engagement, and innovation. www.michaelleestallard.com. Howard Behar, former president of Starbucks North America and Starbucks Intl, is author of It’s Not About the Coffee.

Written byMichael Lee

Howard Behar

How Can You Overcome Itby Michael Lee Stallard and Howard Behar

Confidence is the most important characteristic leaders can draw upon when leading change. It improves focus, promotes good decision making, and motivates teams. Confidence also helps leaders lead big organizational changes while delivering quarterly operating goals. A steady hand is required to do both. Dan Rockwell notes: “Confidence is a product of knowing what to do next.” I’ve seen leaders lose confidence when confronted with questions they can’t answer based on their experience. They either act on the first information they receive or rely on their gut instincts—sending their teams charging down a path full of potential land mines. Leaders must lead change from the front. If behavior change is required, they must go first, and do so confidently. If not, people will be reluctant to change how they work. The vision they paint of the new organization has to be different, compelling and better than the current one, and shared from a position of knowledge and conviction. People need to believe that the future will be brighter and see themselves with a role in that future. With belief comes engagement in the change and participation in creating a new norm. Confidence is essential to winning employees’ minds and hearts. Leaders must credibly articulate why the change is good for the organization—and why it is good for employees. Leaders can build their confidence in leading change by creating a leadership playbook based on key questions they must answer during the project. Leading Four Phases of Change Change projects have four phases: 1. Figuring it out—getting a leader’s head around the change they must lead. Change projects require you to move people from how they now think and act to new ways of thinking and acting. Often, leaders commit to a big change before assessing the scope, magnitude, and resource implications of the change. They don’t understand where colleagues are and where they need to be. Comparing these two positions gives leaders a sense of what needs to change (mind-sets, behaviors, skills, processes, and systems), how big a change is required, and how difficult it will be to make. Assessing all aspects of your project will give you a sense of exactly what you need to do.

The project-related questions focus on scoping the change (“How do I identify what needs to change?”) and evaluating success factors (“What have we done before, and did it work?”). The people-related ones determine the groups that need to be aligned (“Who are the stakeholders who can influence success?”) and current views about the change (“What is the talk about the proposed change?”). Combined, these questions give you a realistic view of the size and complexity of the change, the positives and negatives you must manage, and people’s view of the change.

2. Planning for change—creating a plan that outlines what needs to happen, by when, and by whom. Leaders need to set expectations for deliverables and define how people will transition to the desired post-change state. This in-volves breaking down the change into sequenced activities, defining the resources required to implement them, selling the plan to their stakeholders and communicating it to their organization. Although leaders have teams to do this work, they have to answer the questions to ensure the plan is sufficient for the change to be successful. Project-related questions focus on plan structure and design (“What does a good plan look like?”), and governance process (“What governance is required to run the project?”). People-focused questions center around resourcing (“How do I know what resources I need?”) and positioning the change to individuals and teams (“How do I describe the better future the project will bring?”). 3. Managing change—Once the plan has been designed and approved by stakeholders, leaders need to take action quickly to implement it. Ideally, they’ll follow the plan as written, completing

each activity and achieving each milestone on schedule. When roadblocks appear, changing timelines and the sequence of events, they need to marshal their resources to address these challenges, while managing stakeholders to ensure they remain supportive of the project and its leadership. In this phase, project-related questions focus on completing the plan (“How do I show progress?”). Most of a leader’s time and attention is spent on people-related questions around motivating employees to make the change (“How do I minimize change fatigue?”). Leadership confidence helps people push through the discomfort of doing things differently. 4. Making change stick—embedding the change into operations. Many big change projects end immediately after the change is made. This approach assumes their operating business will take on the work of supporting and nurturing the change, still in its infancy. Leaders must ensure that plans are in place so that the change lasts. If this doesn’t happen, it’s likely that old ways of working will seep back into the business, some of the benefits of the change will be lost, and the project will not be deemed a complete success. Project-related questions focus on critical closing procedures such as assigning responsibility for ongoing support, and documenting lessons (“How do we hand over responsibilities to the business?”). People-related questions center on motivating people to stick with the new processes and behaviors (“How do I prevent the return of old ways of working?”), and rewarding the people that made the change possible. People-related questions are most challenging since they require adjust-ments to how people think and behave, take a disproportionate amount of time, and are difficult to measure. Leaders must adapt to stay competitive or risk losing relevance and becoming obsolete. They need to do so confidently, leading from the front as they build their better future. By creating a playbook based on the questions they must answer to be successful, leaders can build their confidence to manage big changes while also delivering results. LE


Confidence to Lead ChangeKnowing the Questions Leaders Must Face

by Phil Buckley

Written byPhil Buckley

Phil Buckley is a change management professional, speaker, and author of Change with Confidence. www.change-withconfidence.com.

Every organization is designed to get the results it gets. Poor performance comes from a poor design. Superior results emerge when strategies, business models, structure, pro-cesses, technologies, tools, and reward systems align in symphonic unison. Savvy leaders shape the culture to drive innovation. Knowing that culture —values, norms, unconscious messages, and subtle behaviors of leaders and employees—often limits performance, they design interplay between company strategies and the ways people actually relate to one another and to the organization. Here’s how to influence the soft stuff. 1. Be intentional with your innovation intent. Most visions and missions sound alike: Become the #1 provider of blah, blah, blah. Such generic, broad-based goals do little to spark ingenuity. Perhaps the worst thing you can do is give innovation marching orders without any guideposts. That’s when the focus gets lost and teams spin their wheels. The goal: Frame the way you want to change the world, and make it about the customer. For example, Intuit —developer of Quicken, Quick Books, and TurboTax—makes its mission clear: “To improve our customers’ financial lives so profoundly they can’t imagine going back to the old way.” 2. Create a structure for unstructured time. Innovation needs time to develop. People get so consumed with putting out fires and chasing short-term targets that they can’t think about the future. Giving up control when the pressure is greatest is the ultimate innovation paradox. That’s why iconic brands like 3M and Google give their employees 10 percent free time to experiment with new ideas. The software company Atlassian encourages employees to take FedEx Days—paid days off to work on any problem they want. But there’s a catch: like FedEx, they must deliver something of value 24 hours later. Intuit uses time as a reward because they believe it’s the biggest motivator of intrapreneurs. Intuit gives its best innovators three months of unstructured time that can be used in one big chunk or spread out over six months for part-time exploration of new opportunities. Using time wisely creates a major incentive to get more time to play with wisely. 3. Step in, then step back. Rather than try to over-engineer the innovation process,

give just enough structure and support to help people navigate uncertainty and tap into the creative process without stifling it. Many good tools for building employee skill sets are freely available, such as the Stanford Design School’s Boot Camp Bootleg. Intuit applied the design thinking underlying Stanford’s model to create its Catalyst Toolkit, a guide for cooking up innovation. People as diverse as software engineers to HR managers used the toolkit to innovate processes or create new

products, including SnapTax, which lets customers file their taxes in 15 minutes on their mobile phones. Promoting such toolkits help convince employees that leaders care about their development while they also promote best practices that can be adapted to the needs of the individual or team. 4. Measure what’s meaningful. Peter Drucker said, “What’s measured improves.” You get what you measure. For many companies, the challenge is turning ideas into something real that delivers an impact. So what metrics should you use? First, you have to figure out what to measure. In its early days, Facebook measured how often its users returned to its site. Everything they did focused on blowing out this single metric. Customer-oriented numbers are essential, but other indicators can drive internal innovation, too. After Proctor & Gamble realized the importance of outside partnerships in driving market breakthroughs, the company decided to measure (and increase) the percentage of new products that used breakthrough technologies from partners. Externally driven innovation jumped from 10 to 50 percent and resulted in new products. Other metrics that promote innovation

include: percent of revenue from products or services introduced within a certain time; a pipeline of new ideas that includes a set ratio of short-term products or services and longer-term game changers; percent of employees who have been trained and given tools for innovation; percent of time dedicated to discovering, prototyping, and testing revenue-generating new products, services, or business models (say, 10 to 20 percent). 5. Give “worthless” rewards. Recog-

nizing success is critical, but most companies stop there. An annual innovation award isn’t enough to catalyze a culture of innovation. Formal rewards are good for the short term, but they don’t keep people truly engaged. The most powerful and robust recognition often occurs informally. Several members of Colgate-Palmolive’s Global R&D group initiated a recognition economy by distributing symbolic wooden nickels to colleagues who had made noteworthy contributions to their projects. The fortunate recipients passed them on to others who had chipped in on projects that they had led. Such informal acknowledgments encourage a collective spirit and

promote the free flow of ideas. 6. Get symbolic. Symbols represent underlying values, and come in many forms—values statements, awards, success stories, posters in the hallways, catch phrases, acronyms, and, yes, wooden nickels. Those who curate the innovation symbols of their companies essentially curate their innovation cultures. Intuit installed the kitchen table where Scott Cook dreamed up the company with his wife in its innovation center—and employees sit around it for idea jams. Symbols can also be poi-gnant experiences that live on as stories and folklore—and shape the mindsets and behaviors of employees. Every culture is different. So when you’re cultivating innovation, you’re cultivating a unique system. Align your approach with the values and goals of the company—and make it easy and rewarding for the people whose roles and dynamics influence the innovation culture you’re trying to cultivate. LE


Culture of InnovationHere are Six Ways to Create One

by Soren Kaplan

Written bySoren Kaplan

Soren Kaplan is managing principal of InnovationPoint; he led the strategy group at HP and is adjunct professor in the Imagineering Academy at NHTV Breda University in The Netherlands, and is author of Leapfrogging. Visit www.leapfrogging.com.

One attribute of leaders is the willingness to ask for action in the face of potential criticism. Leaders need to spend the necessary contemplative time searching their experience and reviewing the context to gain conviction about the human value of their proposals. It is their responsibility to do the necessary research to become convinced that the evidence supports the decision. They must be willing to act on their own to make this vision come to life. But finally, once heart and mind are in concert, it is their responsibility to clearly call for action on the part of those they are charged to lead. It takes confidence to act on your conviction. It takes real courage to ask another person to do so. The action can be simple and easy to perform, but it must be definitive. Frequently, a leader does not consider what action other individuals can take, and might be satisfied to propose only organizational steps—a list of sweeping reforms that are far beyond the ability of any single person to effect. Individuals, however, easily become convinced that the issue is too large for their involvement; each believes that they will handle the action, so I don’t have to do anything. Yet commitment, by nature, is personal, and requires an act of faith. Asking only for the implementation of a broad-scale and far-reaching agenda redirects the leader’s remarks away from the individuals who now share the vision and toward an entity that has no power to commit. Leaders address such requests to the company, department, or state in the name of seeing the big picture—calling for a list of reforms, but unintentionally leaving others with the sense that the problem is just too big for them to act at all. A broad agenda may be appropriate, but if your message is complete and worthy, those who hear it and engage want to be part of your vision, part of this new and exciting world you call for. Asking for a simple, definitive action on their part will test the seal of your bargain, not an agreement to do as they are told, but an agreement to move down a path together.As others perform that simple act, they affirm their agreement in principle with your proposition, and affirm some confidence in your competence and trustworthiness. John Ure, an engineering director at Customer Solutions, SPI Lasers UK Ltd., had a simple request for his team: Obviously, I can’t do this alone. I ask two things of you. First, lay to rest any ghosts you may have

of what went before save to learn, and to motivate you towards a more delightful future. Please refrain from attaching blame for the past. Second, give positive feedback when you catch people doing things right. In fact, I ask you to come to me in 7 days with 20 things that you have seen from people in this team where you have caught them doing things right. This will set us on our course. Josie Gaillard, co-owner of Living Ethos has requests for U.S. residents regarding gaining oil independence that are simple and direct: I ask you to do one of these six things in the next month: Invest in a renewable energy mutual fund, buy power from a green energy provider instead of your local utility, trade your SUV for a convertible energy car, install at least one solar panel at home, write your congressperson about increasing federal emission standards, or tell 10 friends why the U.S. addiction to oil must end. It feels easy to do one of those six things, perhaps even two. Both John’s and Josie’s requests were clearly stated, doable, and relatively easy. Regardless of the gravity of the situation, offering personal action and asking others for their actions are essential and powerful parts of leadership communication. Will everyone that you talk to act? No. Many will squirm and procrastinate, but keeping the request to act current prompts people to decide, and to finally commit, one way or another. To avoid asking for action is to avoid bringing others to commitment, to avoid requiring that they choose, to avoid risking your credibility for something in which you believe. Some will act, and those who do will form the first wave of change. LE


Involving OthersAsking for Commitment

by Terry Pearce

Written byTerry Pearce

Terry Pearce is President of Leadership Communication, speaker and author of Leading Out Loud: A Guide for Engaging Others in Creating the Future (Wiley) and co-author with David Pottruck of Clicks and Mortar. Visit www.terrypearce.com.

Earlier this year, scientists discovered a so-called leadership gene, known as rs4950, an inherited piece of DNA that’s tied to people who know exactly how to take charge at an organization. This discovery reaffirmed what many have suspected for decades: some people are born to be the boss. Here are three sure signs that you are wired to lead: 1. You are a panic-free problem solver. Even in the face of juggling deadlines or dealing with an angry client, you stay level-headed while handling tough tasks. You’re able to balance the thinking (prefrontal cortex) part of your brain and your emotional brain (amygdale) so that when faced with anxiety-inducing situations, you stay calm. Instead of panicking, you’re able to focus on the problem ahead and get the job done. Too much anxiety around work issues will impede your success in professional situations. 2. You learn from your mistakes. Striving to be perfect at work is not only futile, it will hold you back from achieving real progress. People who are wired to be good leaders acknowledge what they did wrong and try new approaches to get results. A good leader realizes that mistakes are inevitable, and they tend to use job foibles as an excuse to learn. 3. You connect information and people. The ability to pull together different, seemingly unrelated data points, synthesize them and form a complete picture of the situation is a sign that you’re a great leader. Focusing on only certain facts or parts of the business yields an incomplete picture. Being a great connector also means that you’re excellent at creating good relationships and making professional connections that benefit you and your business. If you don’t recognize these qualities in yourself, you can develop them. Several techniques can improve the function of the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain that controls anxiety. As you decrease anxiety, you free up the thinking part of your brain to work more efficiently and effectively. Indeed, as you train yourself to have a calm outlook on life and reduce work-related anxieties, you reduce key neurological hurdles to becoming a great leader.Trying to change behavior to garner better business results is a daily challenge. One client, CEMEX, a global building materials company, undertook a behavior change initiative to stay competitive. From this

Wired to Lead?Here are Three Sure Signs

by Andrew Graham

and other such behavior change initiatives, I outline four key takeaways: align, define, measure and sustain. Ensure that your talent development and behavior change initiatives yield the results you expect.Making Lemonade Out of Lemons A change in executive leadership is always a fragile period, often cloaked in secrecy—especially when the company is grappling with other issues, like product quality or financial problems. That’s precisely the issue that the yoga apparel marketer, Lululemon Athletica, is dealing with, after its CEO resigned unexpectedly. Christina Day’s resignation comes in the wake of trouble for the company earlier this year, when Lululemon was forced to recall yoga pants after customers discovered that they were see-through. Immediately after resigning, the company’s stock price dropped. But after the bombshell news, the company changed the conversation, by casting a positive, at least a humorous light on a serious situation. After Day made her announcement, Lululemon posted a tongue-in-cheek fake CEO job listing. Here’s one tidbit from the job description: You report to no one,

you are the CEO (duh). You are passionate about doing chief executive officer type stuff like making decisions, having a vision and being the head boss person. They received hundreds of responses, and generated tons of media coverage. The company also penned a Facebook post saying, CEO wanted—any ideas. The post opened up the conversation to the brands fans, who have shared the post and posted hundreds of comments. The Facebook post showed that the company, even during turmoil, can poke fun at itself, and listen to its customers. Brands need to prove they’re listening to customers. Angry customer tweets or posts can do real damage. By getting creative, Lululemon dulled the negative publicity and can now focus on finding an excellent new CEO. Our core leadership philosophy centers on the crucial make-or-break role people play in driving growth, change, and performance excellence. LE

Written byAndrew Graham

Andrew Graham is CEO of The Forum Corp. ForumGroup.com

Wired to Led

“If you don’t recognize these qualities in yourself, you can develop them.

Executives continue to worry about the lack of future leaders in their ranks, according to our survey of more than 2,000 executives in 14 countries. For the third year in a row, a lack of high-potential leaders is the most pressing concern for executives (32 percent put it at the top of their list), followed by Shortage of talent at all levels (32 percent), Low engagement and lagging productivity (19 percent) and Loss of top talent to other organizations (17 percent). Future leadership is top of mind. To ensure development dollars are invested wisely, leaders should use assessments to identify skills gaps based on the competencies needed today and those that will drive future success. Tomorrow’s leaders are likely to be Human Age visionaries who continually develop new skills to prepare themselves to navigate complex situations and manage people. They’ll be curators of information and coaches for their teams—strategic yet tactical, conceptual yet action-oriented, anticipating and reacting, and always pushing the boundaries. Businesses once hired and trained individuals for their immediate roles. Organizations must now invest in leadership talent, train individuals for roles they’ll play in the future, and help them to see how they contribute to organizational success. Only 4 percent of U.S. employers report having an ample pipeline that will cover most of their leadership and management needs. Most (85 percent) U.S. executives expect to rely on a combination of internal talent development and outside recruitment (11 percent of U.S. organizations routinely look externally). Few organizations say they’re confident about internal talent development efforts. In fact, no more than 30 percent of leaders affirm the statement: We have an ample pipeline to fill critical roles and cover most of our talent needs. One reason for the pipeline shortfall may be that while many employers spend generously on developing future leaders, they lack a coherent or strategic process. T&D efforts tend to go off in different directions, or aren’t aligned with organizational objectives. Indeed, in many

situations, there seems to be a lack of cohesiveness in aligning talent strategy with business strategy. The key issue is whether organizations can develop the leadership needed to advance the business strategy. How can organizations ensure that they can build the capabilities of employees to take over leadership positions at all levels and that they have leaders who can translate strategy into action? How can they build a systematic process where they can identify and grow talent to support growth? Many organizations struggle with these questions.Determine Essential Skills Since recruiting externally is more costly than retraining current personnel, leaders need to look internally to see how they can make better use of their resources. The best method for pinpointing which people have the necessary skills is through

rigorous assessments. That is the only way to get a deeper, broader picture of an individual’s capability and to create a global capability map. It is also essential to tailor development plans to the individual. Rarely will one size fit all. Such plans should address both the skills needed immediately and those likely to be required in the future.Leaders can expect to discover a mismatch between individuals’

skills and those needed now. For example, the salesperson who achieved top results when simply selling products will require new capabilities to become a consultative problem-solver. Leaders must determine if each employee is a good fit; how key skills can be developed; or if the individual should be moved to a different role. Streamline your process for building the leadership pipeline. Identify priorities and risks. You might work only with senior leaders—or invest in high potentials to create organizational capacity and groom promising talent. Trans-late business challenges into leadership behaviors, providing leaders with coaching and succession planning based on strategy, culture, and values. LE


by Gerald Purgay

Leadership Crisis LoomsFirms Lack High-potential Leaders

Written byGerald Purgay

Gerald Purgay is a SVP with Right Management, the talent and career management experts within ManpowerGroup. Email [email protected].

http://www.forumgroup.com


HR professionals have made huge strides in changing the perception of their role—from filling open positions and being solely task-oriented—working on benefits, complaints, and vacation schedules—to helping to craft the goals and direction of the company. This shift has moved HR people to leadership roles. Yet with this responsibility comes risk. Effective leaders have always been risk-takers. HR professionals have the opportunity and obligation to undertake reach initiatives—endeavors that will most likely drastically alter the way business is done. By embarking on these lofty assignments, we can earn our place on the leadership team by providing value and focus. You may have your reach initiative in mind, but how do you introduce and follow through with it? How can you eliminate the roadblocks that stand in your way? How can you ensure that you’ll be taken seriously? It’s natural for leaders to be change-averse. People get nervous about disrupting the status quo. After all, why fix what isn’t broken? Why invest in an unproven theory? People like to throw darts at those who suggest change. Knowing that you will face skeptics and doubters, you need to prepare. Do some research and anticipate questions and objections. Before announcing your initiative, consider instituting a reach initiative incubator. Take an honest look at your idea, organization, and leadership. Here are things to consider: • Identify your opposition and sell your position. What will be the biggest obstacles? Anticipate the opposition. Provide data and statistics as to why your program is necessary. Give examples of success stories at other organizations. Document the benefits you foresee (especially financial), and possible downsides. With any change, there are bumps. What will those be? How will you mitigate them? How can you show the value despite these issues? • Understand how change works. Study the model of change to understand what you can expect from the process and when. Why are people reluctant? How long will it take to win people over? If you aren’t sure about the intricacies of transition, check out William Bridges. Visit: www.strategies-for-managing-change.com/william-bridges.html• Develop an education plan. Don’t just say “trust me.” Give leadership a reason to buy into your initiative. Show them how

you’ll make it work; create a timeline and short- and long-term goals. • Build support. Bring your idea to key people to garner support before presenting it to leadership. Your big allies will be in finance, accounting and operations. Assert that your reach project will improve the bottom line. Leadership

will be more likely to do a project that already has buy-in from a cross-section of people in the organization. • Share accountability. Once the project is launched, make a clear timetable of deadlines and tasks with names and departments assigned to each one. Also identify all points of failure (not just critical ones) and the repercussions of not meeting them. If assignments and time frames are clear, anyone on the team can call another to task if the deadlines aren’t met—not for blame, but prevention. • Over-communicate—When in doubt, over-communicate! Typically, if leaders feel overburdened with the amount of communication, it will feel like just the right amount for employees. There is risk involved with embarking on a reach assignment. However, as with any risk, there can be great reward. You can establish yourself as a leader and boost the bottom line by implement-ing a reach project. By preparing yourself, your leadership team and organization for your initiative, you can mitigate the risk and realize the benefits of your reach. So, swing for the stars!

Developing Next Generation Leaders Developing the next generation of leaders can’t happen overnight. HR

professionals need to look at implementing a long-term strategy to grow and develop the leaders of the future. Many HR pros and company leaders approach LD short-sightedly. They often zero in on their people. Who do we have? Who is missing? Where can we find people to fill in the gap? While people are a vital part of the process, they may be jumping the gun. Before they decide who they’ll need, leaders should first determine what they’ll need. When looking to develop leaders, ask: What will our organization look like in two, five or 10 years? How will the strategy evolve? Will the company be going public? Working on an acquisition? Developing a new business line? Once you have a vision, shift the focus to locating the people who will get you there. Match the leader’s experience to the stage of company growth. Perhaps current leaders should not continue at the helm going forward. This strategy of matching your leaders to the company’s needs isn’t just for the C-suite. HR professionals should keep the qualifications of their future leaders in mind as they fill manager positions. HR should develop leadership benchmarks or standards to guide hiring and development—in effect, announcing, These are the leadership qualities we value. Employees will know what is expected of them as leaders, and those target skills and behaviors should be recognized and rewarded. Once you determine what type of leaders you need to reach your goals, identify the high potentials. What development is needed to meet goals? How can the future stars flex their leadership muscles? Beyond developing these chosen few, have back-up players to pick up the slack if a leader leaves. Development can range from targeted training to stretch assignments to lateral transfers to an overseas position to gain an international perspective and experience. Development strategies should be focused and individualized. Talking with future stars helps to set expectations and encourage buy-in. They can weigh in on what they want for their careers and from the organization so that a shared vision is developed and a mutually-beneficial arrangement reached. When people know their this is it position, they can help create it. LE

Written byElaine Varelast

Elaine Varelas is Managing Partner of Keystone Partners, a career management firm, and serves on the board of directors for Career Partners Intl. Visit www.keystonepartners.com.

Preparing LeadersDevelop the Next Generation

by Elaine Varelas

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Leadership development (LD) seems to be stuck, as basic questions are still in dispute. For example: What is leadership? Is it genetically hardwired into some people but not others? Can it be developed? If so, what methods really work? Should our LD focus on a few designated high potentials? Scientific rigor is rare in the study of leadership. Our data-driven approach to leadership has led to five insights: 1. We need to set our sights higher. The aim of LD is to produce extraordinary leaders who produce extraordinary results for the company. And yet many organizations today focus on under-performers with the intent to bring them up to an adequate level. Or, they invest heavily in their high potential managers and provide few developmental resources for others. We have four concerns about focusing exclusively on a handful of high-potentials: 1) organizations are often wrong in selecting those who will succeed; 2) singling out high-potentials can create an elitism that causes serious rifts; 3) those not selected develop a belief that they are inferior—their commitment often wanes, along with their desire for self-development; and 4) those organizations that offer LD to a broader audience reap huge benefits. Organizations reap huge benefits by helping good managers become great. We see enormous performance differences between good leaders and extraordinary leaders. On every measure we examined—net profits, customer satisfaction, employee turnover, employee satisfaction with pay—extraordinary leaders produce results that double the performance of average leaders. So, rather than focus on the top end or the bottom end, our LD efforts should be directed to the large middle group. Helping good leaders to behave like top tier leaders can produce exponential results. 2. We need to stop emphasizing weak-ness. Future leaders learn at a young age that the way to develop is to fix their weaknesses. When leaders receive a 360-degree feedback report, they tend to ignore data on their strong points in favor of an in-depth analysis of their shortcomings. They believe that if they raise the low scores, they’ll be better leaders. Not so. The best leaders possess a few profound strengths and use them to great advantage—becoming world class in two or three areas. In contrast, mediocre leaders are distinguished by their lack of strengths. They’re okay in many leadership

competencies, but nothing makes them stand out. However, working on weaknesses is the right thing when the leader has a fatal flaw. If the shortcomings prevent a leader from seeing his or her strengths, they become a brick wall that stops progress. As we analyze the least effective leaders, we find these common fatal flaws: inability to learn from mistakes, interpersonal incompetence, closed to new ideas, blame others for problems, lack of initiative. These flaws are all sins of omission, resulting from inaction, risk aversion, and a status quo mentality. Playing it safe can be the riskiest thing a leader can do. Better to get out and make something happen than be perceived as a careful non-contributor. 3. We need to invest more in identifying and developing strengths. Since having great strength in a few competencies catapults a person into the top tier, leaders get greater ROI by choosing an area of moderately high skill and ratcheting it upward. When a leader develops three or four competencies to a top 10 percent level (a degree of competence displayed by the best leaders), this person will join that elite group. However, these strengths can’t be just any behaviors—they must be in areas that make a difference (traits or behaviors that others readily see, and that make a positive impact). We’ve identified 16 such differentiating competencies (leaders should work on them first). 4. Leadership needs a broad footprint. We created a metaphor for leadership—a tent, with a center pole and four corner poles. The space inside the tent symbolizes the effectiveness of a leader. The center pole represents the cluster of leadership traits having to do with character, honesty, and integrity (the core of effective leadership). The four corner poles include: 1) personal capabilities—technical competence, problem solving skills, innovation, and taking initiative; 2) focus on results—setting high goals that stretch the team, and accepting responsibility for the performance and results of the group; 3) effective interpersonal skills—being a powerful and prolific communicator, motivating and inspiring others, and collaborating with other people and groups; and 4) leading change—being a champion for constant change, being the link to the outside world, and looking over the horizon for what’s coming up. This metaphor suggests that one pole doesn’t make a great tent—it takes all five poles. Also, having strengths in more than one

corner is crucial. A person who gets results by antagonizing and alienating others along the way won’t be a great leader.5. Developing strengths often requires a non-linear approach. Ask anyone how to correct a weakness, and they’ll likely say: study, practice, get feedback, repeat. Ask the same person, how to build on a strength, and you’ll be met by a blank stare. We tend to look for and fix defects, not improve strengths. When people begin to excel in an area, a different development approach is required. No matter how good of a human being a leader is, without producing good results, this person isn’t a good leader. Producing results is the ultimate measure of being a good leader, and those results need to be long-term, unselfish and benefiting all stakeholders. We’re convinced that leaders can be made. Genetic make-up is not the main determinant of great leadership. Cer-tainly, some people are born with high energy, keen intellect and emotional hardiness. But these helpful traits fail to explain the late-blooming leader—or the promising youth who gets derailed and never recovers. We acknowledge that much LD happens casually and informally as people work. But intense bursts of development can have a powerful effect in creating a new mindset and new skills. LE

Developing LeadersOur LD Work Has Led Us to Five Insights

by Jack Zenger, Kurt Sandholtz, and Joe Folkman

Jack Zenger is CEO Zenger|Folkman and author of seven books on leadership. Kurt Sandholtz is a professor of OB at the BYU Marriott School of Management. And Joe Folkman is President of Zenger|Folkman and co-author of The Extraordinary Leader. [email protected].

Written byJack Zenger

Kurt SandholtzJoe Folkman


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