I want to share three wonderful quotes I came across while writing a book about senior leadership team excellence. They share a common message at the core, let’s see if you can notice it.
”The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say “I.” And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say “I.” They don’t think “I.” They think “we”; they think “team.” They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but “we” gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.” Peter Drucker, from Managing the Non-Profit Organization: Practices and Principles.
“Work can be one of the most joyful, most fulfilling aspects of life. Whether it will be or not depends on the actions we collectively take.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, from Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning.
“The winning strategy combines analytically sound, ambitious, but logical goals with methods that help people experience new, often very ambitious goals, as exciting, meaningful, and uplifting – creating a deeply felt determination to move, make it happen, and win, now.” John Kotter, from A Sense of Urgency.
Do you see the common theme? The BEST work experiences come from how we feel about work and our connection to the powerful and altruistic nature of work. So as a leader, are you creating this type of environment?
Every week I meet managers and leaders who don’t get this point AT ALL. They talk about expectations and accountability and results and change and that is all very good and important. What I rarely hear, is leaders talking about how they excite, create meaning, or help people think “we.” I can’t remember ever hearing a leader talk about their interest in creating a joyful and fulfilling workplace. Ironically, focusing on how people feel about their work is a highly efficient way to improve ownership and results.
Many organizations use “Results Orientation” as a core competency. Let’s start describing it fully – not just focusing on the importance of accountability and measurements, but also how culture, passion, and challenge impact results.
 I have been doing several employee engagement survey projects recently and continue to notice how important it is to employees that their bosses be real – informal, open, friendly. The bosses that get mentioned in a positive light are the ones who take the time to get to know folks, even if only for a moment while passing in the hallways. The bosses that get mentioned in a negative light are nearly never bashed for not knowing the function. They are bashed because they are negative, aloof, and unfriendly.
I continue to be surprised by this because these are issues that should not exist and cost nothing to fix. Well, I suppose that if you have to retrain all your managers to be nice, there might be a small cost. But, come on, this is fare more than common sense, this is human nature.
1. Why does any professional, espectially any leader, think it is OK to be impersonal or unfriendly?
2. Why does any leadership team tolerate leaders and managers who are not likeable?
A leader is, by definition, someone who has signed up to lead the way. This does not mean leading the way in percentage of time spent in meetings or leading in creating plans and charts. This means leading people so that they might do their best work on behalf of the enterprise.
This should be simple. A no-brainer. Something that consultants like me NEVER get paid to resolve.
I was on a panel discussion at SOBCON2010 and ran into Steve Farber, who was speaking there. He talked about leadership and the importance of LOVE. When I talk to leaders and managers, I also mention the word LOVE. We recently got on the phone to chat about this on my podcast and you can listen to that here.
What is leadership love? It’s what we are sharing when we show employees, peers, managers, and others about what matters to us – what we are passionate about, why we love our business, and what about our work we are committed to.
As we mention on the podcast, all leaders can and should show love. Extrovert, introvert, verbose, or reserved. People commit to people, not enterprises. Employees feel connection to leaders, not missions.
I’d like to start a discussion about how senior leadership teams measure their success. Most stick to the usual top business measures like profitability, quality, and marketshare and these are critical. But they are not sufficient because the impact leaders have – and leadership teams have, in particular – is immense. Are you building an organization that is agile? Likely to remain union free? The senior team makes a big difference.
Here’s what I would recommend including in a good definition of success for leadership teams: Continue reading » »
 The higher up the food chain you and your peers are, the more expensive your meetings. AND the higher your hurdle rate should be for the value that the time you send in meetings produces. Regular ground rules are not enough to help you ensure that this precious time is spent wisely. To that end, I created a suped-up set of meeting ground rules just for you! Let me know what you think.
X-Factor Meeting Ground Rules
Participation is not an option, nor is it an invitation to grandstand or over-participate. Everyone is expected to participate in team discussions in ways that moves conversation forward. Each person is also expected to help bring out the best thinking in others. If participation is not strong and focused, it is a team failure.
Continue reading » »
|
|
