Celebrate Achieving Personal Goals

Being a leader is hard work. Some days you have to deal with issues that no one else wants to deal with because they are complex or complicated. Other days everything about the future seems like a series of frustrating choices. And finally, there are days where you have to keep pushing forward through the endless meetings and paperwork, hoping that something good will come from all of the details. In short, being a leader can involve long days, short nights and lots of worrying, time, and energy.

Every week, I visit in person and over the phone with people in leadership positions. They share with me about their challenges and at times about their successes. During these conversations, we often talk about the importance of planned short term wins. Dan S. Cohen in his book, The Heart of Change Field Guide: Tools and Tactics for Leading Change in Your Organization (Harvard Business School Press, 2005) notes that an effective short-term win has the following characteristics. First, they are measurable, visible, and timely. They also are relevant to all stakeholders, relevant to the objectives in the strategic plan, and relevant to the external strategic landscape. Finally, they are relevant to the people who need to deal with organizational change resistors. In essence, short term wins builds confidence and momentum to keep moving through the long days and short nights.

But, upon reflection, I have noticed something else about great leaders that I have not seen in the literature. While they are planning and working to successfully achieve a series of short term wins, they also are working on their own personal goals outside of work. The achievement of these personal goals become milestones which help them have the energy and commitment to push through the work challenges before them. When these leaders share with me about achieving a personal goal, they are reenergized and eager again to deal with the complicated and the complex problems before them at work. 

Over the years, I have listened to people share about running their first 5K race, a half marathon, or even a full marathon. I have listened to people talk about remodeling a kitchen, landscaping their back yard, or building a deck. I have listened to them share about exercising every day or participating in a choir. What I have figured out over time is that it is not about the size of the goal as much as how meaningful it is to the person who is achieving it. It is the pride, joy and sense of accomplishment that comes from the achievement of that goal that makes the differences and gives the individual the capacity to handle what ever surfaces at work.

This week, plan short term wins at work and work hard to achieve them. But, also this week, set some personal goals which make your life more meaningful and special. It is the combination of the two that separates the good leaders from the great ones.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

The Problem with Problems

During interesting times and when working through a trough of chaos, leaders spend a vast amount of time and energy dealing with problems. Big problems and little problems, tactical problems and strategic problems, technical problems and adaptive problems, complex problems and complicated problems.  Every day more problems show up. They just keep coming and coming.

While many leaders focus on solving problems and fixing problems, great leaders in the trough of chaos do something else which changes the whole situation. They figure out how to sell the problem.

The problem with problems is that leaders can end up being the hub of all solutions. Everyone has a problem. And everyone brings the problem to the leader. The leader solves the problem. The people learn that this works. Bring a problem to the leader and the leader will solve it. 

So, what does everyone do? They bring all the problems to the leader and wait for him or her to solve them.  What at first glance is a solution now becomes a problem. No one solves their own problems. They just bring them to the leader and wait.

Here is where selling the problem is the solution. Rather than the leader becoming the hub for all problem solving, the leader needs to be a bridge builder, connecting competent groups of people who can figure out how to solve the problems themselves.

Selling the problems means that one knows how to place the problem within the larger context of what is happening within the company and within the environment that surrounds the company. It means that a person in a leadership position understands and can explain the strategic direction of the company as well as the core values of the company. Connecting the strategic direction of the company to the problem provides a reason why we need to address the issues that are causing the problem. Explaining how the core values come into play provides a set of guidelines about how to solve the problem. It is the combination, strategy and core values, that will make a difference.

Everyone is busy when they are in the trough of chaos. Most are just trying to cope with all of the work that needs to get done. When an exceptional leader sells the problems rather than simply fixing it themselves, they build capacity, clarity and confidence in the organization which is very helpful as people move through the trough of chaos and on to a new level of personal and organizational performance.

This week, sit down and define three of your top problems. Then, figure out how they influence or are connected to the current strategic plan. Next, write out how you would sell these problems so that people will come together to fix them rather than simply hand them off to you. In the short run, this will take more time than solving it yourself. But in the long run, you will be making a profound difference for yourself and the company.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Living and Working in Turbulent Times

“The challenge for leaders in every field,” notes William Taylor in Practically Radical: Not-so-crazy ways to transform your company, shake up your industry, and challenge yourself, William Morrow, 2011, “is to emerge from turbulent times with closer connections to their customers, with more energy and creativity from their people, and with greater distance between them and their rivals.” 

Clearly when one steps back from the daily grind and looks at the bigger picture, we are clearly in “turbulent times”, and we have important choices to make as a result.

As Taylor continues, “We are living in the age of disruption. You can’t do big things if you are content with doing things a little better than everyone else.”

Our challenge then as executives, managers and supervisors is to create organizations that can cope with disruption and still stay focused on the right things.

As Ilya Prigogene, Belgian physical chemist and Nobel Laureate noted from his work on dissipative structures, complex systems and irreversibility, “stability is not balance but change,” 

So what is the problem?

Management guru Jim Collins puts it this way: “The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change. The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.” 

If you are seeking to avoid mediocrity and chronic inconsistency in your organization, then now is the time to sign up your key people to participate in the 2014 From Vision to Action Leadership Training. We need more leaders at all levels who have the capacity to think strategically and who can execute effectively given the challenges before us.

For more information about this unique learning experience, please click on the following link: http://www.chartyourpath.com/VTA-Leadership-Training.html

Turbulence and disruption are not going away. Having an improved capacity to deal with it is the right choice to make at this time period.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Building Capacity For The Future

Nearly every strategic plan I have reviewed or helped write in the last 12 months has had a section on building capacity for the future. For some, this is based on the realization that key leaders have been, and will continue to retire. For others who are wanting to grow and expand their business, they have realized that they do not have the bench strength in place to support their strategic initiatives. Finally, some companies have realized that they can not continue to offer excellent service because they are loosing key people due to poor leadership. What ever the starting place, nearly every one wants more and better leaders. The difficulty is that few are willing to holistically understand the implications of such a commitment to the future.

First, wanting more and better leaders means that we have to understand that every organization has two operating systems running at the same time. The first is focused on operational excellence and the continual improvement of what already exists. The second operating system is about the on-going development, communication and implementation of strategy. It is the combination of both systems that makes a company viable over time.

However, the greatest challenge in the world of leadership training is that some people want leaders who will make the first operating system run better while others want leaders who can make the second one operate better.  A rare few want leaders who can work to improve both systems. The difficulty when building capacity for the future is that each form of leadership, operational and strategic, requires a very different skill set.  

For example, in the world of operational excellence, an individual who leads needs to be able to focus on short tern results, manage day to day details related to implementation, conserve company resources while being able to prioritize, plus maintain a certain level of consistency when it comes to systems and process discipline. In the later, strategic development and implementation, an individual who leads needs to position the organization for the future. Here, the leader needs to take the long view and maintain a big picture perspective. They need to seek ways to grow the business and expand the organization’s capabilities. They also must know how to question status quo and encourage new ways of thinking and working. In short, an operational leader needs to create an environment where people want to contribute while a strategic leader must paint a picture of the future and how to get there in a vivid and precise manner.

Second, if we are truly committed to building capacity for the future, then we must invest our time, energy and attention to doing this work. However, countless leaders report to me that they are overwhelmed by all they are doing. Time for things like mentoring, coaching and dialogue are taking a back seat to more pressing problems. They may desire doing more capacity building but often find they are simply too busy solving more pressing operational issues related to service delivery. Still, the problem is present and does not go away.

Nevertheless, there is a solution, namely the 2014 From Vision to Action Leadership Training. Through a challenging, interactive curriculum which blends lectures, selected readings, small and large group discussions, and how to skill-building exercises, participants in this four part leadership training gain critical knowledge and skills which improve their ability to be better operational and strategic leaders. Now is the time to sign people up for this unique and in-depth learning experience.  For more information on how to register for the 2014 From Vision to Action Leadership Training, please click on the following link: http://www.chartyourpath.com/VTA-Leadership-Training.html 

At this time period, building capacity for the future is mission critical to success. Having more and better leaders is vital. The 2014 From Vision to Action Leadership Training is an important first step to developing a whole new way of doing business. I look forward to you and your team participating in this special training opportunity in 2014.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257