What Is The Connection Between Excellence, Culture And Strategy? - Part #4

Picking up where I left off last Monday about connecting culture, strategy, operational excellence and customer intimacy, leaders next must provide psychological safety with candid feedback. When psychological safety is present, people feel free to “speak truthfully about problems without fear of reprisal”, as Gary P. Pisano wrote in his article, “The Hard Truth About Innovative Cultures” in the January-February 2019 issue of the Harvard Business Review. 

From my perspective, in integrated organizations, psychological safety is a two-way street. If it is safe for me to criticize your ideas, then it must also be safe for you to criticize mine. However, as Pisano points out, many leaders often confuse “politeness and niceness with respect”. They forget that “accepting frank criticism is one of the hallmarks of respect.” At the same time, the best leaders know and role model clarity that “there is a difference between being candid and just plain nasty.”

Second, leaders, who want culture, strategy, operational excellence and customer intimacy to be integrated within their organization, encourage collaboration but know it comes with individual accountability. As Pisano notes, well-functioning and integrated organizations “need information, input, and significant integration of effort from a diverse array of contributors.” Employees seek help from others and they have a sense of collective responsibility. 

However, these same leaders do not confuse collaboration and consensus. As he explains, “… consensus is poison for rapid decision making and navigating complex problems associated with transformational innovation.” In short, a culture where there is collaboration and accountability is one “where individuals are expected to make decisions and own the consequences.”

Third, the outcome of this level of integration is often a flat organization, i.e. on the organization chart. What the best senior executives know is that flat organizations need very strong leadership. In these kinds of companies, people are expected to take action, make decision, and voice their opinions. 

Yet people must understand that within flat organizations, decision-making is often decentralized. Therefore, people need access to relevant information to make these decisions. They also must understand strategic priorities and direction. 

My challenge to you this week is to reflect on all of the above blog entries on this subject, take your answers from last week, and then to discuss it all with your team. It is time we sit down collectively and explore big ideas. We need to find common ground and common perspective if we are going to be successful during the next 12 - 18 months.

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

Teamwork is Not Collaboration

In the trough of chaos, too many people think teamwork and collaboration are the same thing. The problem is that most leaders focus on team work. They rally a group of people together and charge the hill, i.e. try to solve a specific problem. With enough focus and group effort, they will solve just about any problem. The difficulty is that in the trough of of chaos solving a singular problem does not always take into consideration that solving a problem within one part of the company may cause problems to rise up in other areas of the company.

When I teach people about how to move through the trough of chaos, I remind them that team work is an intra-group activity and the collaboration is an inter-group activity. The best leaders focus on both. 

Clearly, everyone wants a team to be a high functioning team with good levels of trust, dialogue, focus and the ability to hold each other accountable for collective results. This takes time and effort to build. It also takes routine maintenance to sustain.

Yet for a company to be successful as it moves through interesting times and a trough of chaos, we also need exceptional collaboration. This work also takes time, and lots and lots of communication. Typically, leaders rush to the team work side of the equation rather than investing time to build bridges between teams. This is more time intensive work, but if done correctly, it can be a valuable competitive advantage. 

Over the course of my career, I have witnessed some amazing levels of collaboration between teams. I have seen leaders build these bridges and develop inter-team relationships. The secret that I have been able to discern in this process is the development of two things, namely a common language and a shared sense of mission. While this sounds so simplistic and basic, it is rarely done well. The best leaders and companies that I have worked with invest years in building that common language. They understand that effective communication is the first step to collaboration. They also understand that having everyone understand the mission of the company keeps us all focused in the right direction.

This week, keep building common language and spend lots and lots of time unpacking and discussing the meaning of the company’s mission statement. Then good team work and good collaboration will start to take place.

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

How do leaders help people keep moving along the collaboration continuum? - part #2

Another key to moving people along the collaboration continuum is for people to have confidence in themselves, their team and ultimately their company.

According to an interview with Rosabeth Moss Kanter called “How Leaders Gain (and Lose) Confidence” in the winter 2005 issue of Leader to Leader magazine, there are three corner stones to confidence, namely accountability, collaboration, and initiative. 

Kanter defines accountability as follows: “I mean taking personal responsibility: seeing where one's responsibility lies, facing it squarely, facing facts honestly, being able to admit mistakes quickly and do something about them.” 

She defines collaboration in this manner: “Confidence builds when you feel you can count on the people around you and when they feel they count on you. It is as simple as that.” 

And finally she explains Initiative as follows: “Unless there is permission and encouragement for people to take initiative and feel that their actions can make a difference there is no confidence in the system, in each other, in leaders.” 

As she continues, “So in sum, people need to be supported on a foundation of accountability, which means, full and open disclosure of honest information. They need to be supported on a foundation of collaboration, which means people around them whose skills they respect and who they know will operate in the best interest of the whole team, not just for their own selfish purposes. And people need to be supported by initiative, which means the encouragement, the permission, the resources, and the tools they need to take steps that make a difference. When these cornerstones are in place people have full confidence.”

For us here today, we need to remember that with every change comes an ending. As the late William Bridges pointed out, “Every new beginning starts with an ending.” As a result, during the endings and the new beginnings, people need and often lack control, understanding, support, and a clear sense of priorities.

My challenge to you this week is to continually build healthy teams, make sure we all understand the bigger picture, and make sure there is psychological safety to share. Collaboration is essential to success 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

How do leaders help people keep moving along the collaboration continuum? - part #1

We were sitting around the table trying to figure out how to get a new data management system to work. One person shared that initially it was going to be more work for those using it, but the net result of the new system would result in better decision-making and better allocation of resources. As I listened to the group work through the challenges of implementation, those gathered kept using the words “team work” and “collaboration”. 

When asked what I thought of their plan, I reminded them that I believe teamwork is an intra-group activity and that collaboration is an inter-group activity. As I explained, “I think there are stages to collaboration that are just like team building and your plan is not working through the different stages.”

During the summer 2015, everyone started using the word “collaboration”. In the fall of 2015, I started watching, listening and visiting with leaders about it. In the winter 2016, I tried to capture the pattern of collaboration as I saw it. And finally at the Spring 2016 From Vision to Action Executive Roundtable, I shared my thoughts about how to increase effective collaboration.

Upon further reflection, I am noticing three words are surfacing around the discussion of team work and collaboration. Here are the three words and their dictionary definitions:

- Cooperation: the actions of someone who is being helpful by doing what is wanted or asked for.

- Teamwork: the work done by people who work together as a team to do some thing, and the work done by several associates with each doing a part but all subordinating personal prominence to the efficiency of the whole.

- Collaboration: to work with another person or group in order to achieve or do something.

People use these three words interchangeably in conversation even though they each have different meanings.

What intrigues me this morning is what these words have in common and yet are different. The key is that each produces a different level of outcomes. For example, cooperation is interpersonal in nature, i.e. one to one at the personal level and thus creates interpersonal synergy, e.g. 1+1 has the potential to be greater than 2. On the other hand, teamwork is intra-team, i.e. my part + all of our parts has the potential to be greater than the team. This is collective synergy and yields collective results. Finally, collaboration is inter-teams, i.e. your group + my group and results in holistic synergy. Here we experience the moment when we become part of a single system, and a single culture. In essence, when we collaborate we become part of a single entity, the company as a whole. What follows collaboration is a specific purpose that is greater than the individual, the team, and the multiple parts/groups of the company

In simple terms, the collaboration continuum is as follows:

1. Isolation - there is no need to communicate with others and we only share with others as needed.

2. Consultation - we seek perspective from others. Then, we take the parts that we like, and the parts that cause the least amount of disruption to the organization or ourself. In the end, we do what we want to do.

3. Coordination - we work together to get something done. It begins with an “I plan; you plan” mentality and moves into coordinated action.

4. Collaboration - this starts with joint analysis which includes the agreement about what is the problem, and then moves into planning and execution. The stages are the following:

- a. there is a compelling reason to collaborate

- b. there are agreed to guidelines to the process

- c. trial and adaptation

- d. reliance on each other

- e. integration

5. Co-creation - the highest level of collaboration where the sharing of resources is based on a high degree of personal, strategic and organizational trust and clarity.

The first key to moving people along the collaboration continuum begins with trust. I keep watching teams who do collaboration well and they appear to just trust each other. I know this seems simplistic but over time it is very noticeable.

But, let’s go deeper into the definition of trust. Charles Feltman in his book, The Thin Book of Trust describes trust and distrust as follows:

- Trust: “choosing to risk making something you value vulnerable to another person’s actions.”

- Distrust: “what is important to me is not safe with this person in this situation (or any situation).”

The clarity around building trust starts first with knowing what is important and what people value. I have observed this on highly collaborative teams. They understand what is important to the organization and what is important to those who are involved.

This week, I challenge you to develop a one minute speech about why change is necessary, and a one minute speech about what the change is. These two actions will generate clarity and is a trust building action all it’s own.

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

Creating Bench Strength for The Future

Right now, we live in a world which is complicated and complex. There are multiple variables to monitor and few point a clear pathway to the future. Furthermore, we as leaders are surrounded by strategic choices that potentially have dramatic short term and long term implications. 

The upshot of this kind of environment is that we need a high degree of collaboration and teamwork to be successful. However, some things are not working out like they used to. People and teams just don’t seem to be functioning very well. Struggle in the world of leadership and organizational change is the new normal.

Why?

First, “Today’s teams are different from the teams of the past”, notes Martine Haas and Mark Mortensen in their article “The Secrets of Great Teamwork”, Harvard Business Review, June 2016. As they explain, “They’re far more diverse, dispersed, digital, and dynamic (with frequent changes in membership).” They call these kinds of teams, “4-D teams”.

Second, we have been so busy pushing performance on a day to day basis that we have created a generation of operational focused leaders. These individuals can make sure the trains run on time, but they can not successfully understand where the future is going and how to get there. They zoom in to focus on details when they should zoom out to see the bigger picture.

Third, many managers and leader do not understand the difference between change and transformation. The former is about doing things better while the later is about doing things differently. Each require a person in a leadership position to engage with people in a different manner.

Whether we are leading 4-D teams or seeking to lead organizational transformation, having the right people in the right positions is becoming more critical to our success. Furthermore, having them trained and ready to go before problems arise is clearly an advantage. In short, every successful organization right now knows it needs to have great bench strength in order to be successful over the next three to five years.

One solution to these current difficulties is to sign up your key leaders for the 2017 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 lead people to generate short and long term success.

For more information on this in-depth training and how to register for the 2017 From Vision to Action Leadership Training, please click on the following link: http://www.chartyourpath.com/VTA-Leadership-Training.html 

Today’s problems are not going away. Future technical and adaptive problems will keep coming. However, having a strong bench of qualified and well-educated leaders will position the company for short and long term success. Sign up today and be prepared. The future is just around the corner.

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

How Do Leaders Increase Effective Collaboration? Part #2

Collaboration happens when there is the right kind of work environment in place.  The question leaders often ask me in executive coaching sessions is the following: “What is the right kind of environment to be in place to support more effective collaboration?”

A classic Lencioni answer would be when managers really know their people, these same people employed know who their work impacts and how, and finally those employed know how to assess their own progress or success. But a more in-depth answer is needed to fully understand the question. 

For the above to take place, performance management needs to assist managers and employees in becoming better. This system should provide  clarity about what is expected along with goals, roles, responsibilities and core values. An effective manager should take the above information and provide routine feedback about whether or not the employee is adequately meeting those expectations.

But let’s zoom out and look at the bigger picture related to collaboration and partnerships. Ron Adner in his book, The Wide Lens: A New Strategy For Innovation (Portfolio/Penguin, 2012) notes that “Success in a connected world requires that you manage your dependence.” And for these strategies to succeed, it is no longer enough to manage your innovation. Now you must manage your innovation ecosystem which means collaborating or partnering with more people outside the organization than just inside the company people.

The risks of this level of collaboration are many. The first, the above author points out, is Execution Risk, i.e. the challenges you face in bringing about your innovation to the required specifications within the required time. The second is Co-innovation Risk, i.e. the extent to which the successful commercialization of your innovation depends on the successful commercialization of other innovations. The third is Adoption Chain Risk, i.e. the extent to which partners will need to adopt your innovation before end consumers have a chance to assess the full value proposition. The reason I bring this all up is to remind us that not all partnerships are internal and there is a high potential for Co-innovation Risks and Adoption Chain Risks that could take place during the next six to nine months. Therefore, be very mindful of where, and when you are seeking collaboration because there are operational and strategic risks in play around the whole affair.

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

How Do Leaders Increase Effective Collaboration? Part #1

This spring companies from coast to coast are continuing to centralize and standardize many different systems and processes.  As a result, lots and lots of people are having to collaborate to solve problems. Some are even calling these new people “their partners.”

First, what is collaboration? According to the dictionary, it means “to work with another person to achieve or do something.” But from experience, I think of collaboration first as a mindset, i.e. a way of thinking. If it is a mindset, then we need to know WHY we need to collaborate. What are the risks of collaboration vs. not collaborating? 

Next, if it is a mindset, then we need to know WHAT to do.This would assume that there is an end goal and that there is some way to measure progress toward this end goal. 

Furthermore, if it is a mindset, then we also need to know HOW to do it. This, to a degree, assumes we are competent is doing the behaviors related to collaboration. Yet underneath all of this collaboration is a recognition that being collaborative means you have to give up control. In specific, you may not be able to control all the details, other people, and even the outcome in certain situations.

Second, collaboration is a set of behaviors, i.e. a way of working with others. Here are the behaviors that make up collaboration: 

- teamwork behaviors as in people who work well together. The key element is to build personal and strategic trust.

- communication behaviors as in people who can communicate clearly and create clarity. The key element is to have have clarity first before communicating.

- problem solving behaviors as in people who can diagnosis the problem and then solve it. The key element is to know the difference between technical, adaptive and crisis based problems.

- decision-making behaviors as in people who can think through impact and precedent. The key element is to not suffer from either strategic or contextual blindness.

- goal setting behaviors as in people who can create SMART goals. The key element here is to understand alignment with the strategic nexus.

- working with data or metrics to monitor progress as in people who can measure their progress. The key element is to understand the difference between operational excellence and organizational success.

In short, collaboration is a complex set of behaviors. And the best leaders focus people on making sure OUR results do not get trumped by MY results. For in the world of collaboration, WE is more important than I.

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

Dealing With Continuous Change - part #2

In a world of constant change and now continual transformation, many leadership teams are stuck in analysis paralysis. Often quoting to me the phrase, “we must inspect what we expect,” one major problem is that they inspect too much, and hold unrealistic or unclear expectations. For these leaders, short term wins are not planned but called short term wins only after something has happened. The win is an after thought because people in multiple positions in the organization can not measure their progress. It is just work, work, and more work this spring. 

At the exact same time, many leaders and leadership teams are not building horizontal collaboration across their organization. People do not recognize that collaboration is the sum of a multitude of behaviors from working together on a one to one basis to managing teamwork during project implementation. One key to success from my vantage people is that collaboration takes place best after strategic level dialogue.

To help your team not get stuck, I first encourage you to clarify your collective and individual areas of focus. Line of sight is critical. 

Second, make sure all bi-directional communication is timely and accurate. This means working less from a place of command and control, and more from a place of clarity, commitment and connection.

Third, recognize that project management must result in system integration and systematic execution. As Ron Adner wrote in his book,  The Wide Lens: A New Strategy For Innovation, Portfolio/Penguin, 2012, “The real question is not if it can be done, but when. Not just when will we be able to complete the project, but when will we be able to align the necessary ecosystem for the complete value proposition to become a reality. The question of if speaks to success in the abstract. The question of when speaks to return, to attractiveness, to viability in the concrete.”

This week engage in more strategic level dialogues and focus more on why and when rather than if and maybe.

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

The Big Question

Many times during executive coaching sessions this winter, senior leaders have confided in me that they are deeply frustrated by how dysfunctional their team has become.

“What’s the problem with people these days?”, they ask me. “Why can’t they just get along and get things done?”

There are no easy answers to such important questions. It takes time and perspective to understand what is going on and why it has resulted in the problems that many senior teams are experiencing right now.

Still, one insight I have gleaned from years of this level of work is that most leaders talk team but in actuality just want a single leader work group where they as the leader define all the goals, the agenda, and the definition of success. They want to be in control and in charge. While there is a time and a business context for such a choice, most leaders use team based language but choose single leader work group behaviors thus generating confusion and trust issues amongst the “team” participants.

Because this issue is surfacing in multiple industries across the country, I have decided to spend time exploring and discussing it at the Spring 2015 From Vision to Action Executive Roundtable. It is part of the following larger agenda:

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

8:30 am - Registration

9:00 am - 10:15 am - How do leaders deal with continuous strategic and operational changes at the same time?

10:15 am - 10:30 am - Break

10:30 am - 12:00 pm - How do leaders create a mission driven, core-value led culture?

12:00 pm - 1:30 pm - Lunch and Networking 

1:30 pm - 2:45 pm - How do leaders distinguish between when to build teams and when to build single-leader work groups?

2:45 pm - 3:00 pm - Break

3:00 pm - 4:30 pm - How do leaders hold people accountable?

4:30 pm - Adjourn

Thursday, April 9, 2015

9:00 am - 10:15 am - How does one lead with executive presence?

10:15 am - 10:30 am - Break 

10:30 am - 12:00 pm - Integration and Application

12:00 pm - Adjourn

Location: Sheraton West Des Moines Hotel at 1800 50th Street, West Des Moines, Iowa

If you and your team are interested in discovering creative and effective answers to the question of teams vs. single leader work groups, I encourage you to register today. Here is the link to the registration form:

http://www.chartyourpath.com/pdf/2015-From-Vision-To-Action-Exec-Roundtable-Regist.pdf

I look forward to your participation as we discover new and better ways to collaborate.

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

Focusing on Collaboration Rather than Heroics

The senior management team and I were sitting around a table discussing a variety of new strategies for coping with the impact of the Affordable Care Act, when I commented that I did not think the organization was well positioned for long term success. In particular, it had to stop focusing on only trying to fix all of the immediate problems and instead began defining and then solving the more pressing adaptive problems. The COO’s head popped up from his folder full of charts and graphs, and said, “Our major problem is that our leaders are mostly focused on counting things. They have a ‘just tell me what to do and then I will do it’ mentality.  We need to change this first before we can move forward.”

So many organizations today are suffering from the hubris born of success, to refer to a phrase from Jim Collin’s writing.  As Arie de Geus, the former head of Shell Oil Company’s strategic planning group, wrote: “The signals of threat are always abundant and recognized by many. Yet somehow they fail to penetrate the corporate immune system response to reject the unfamiliar.” 

Jim Collins in his book, How The Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Never Give In, HarperCollins, 2009, wrote, “Great enterprises can become insulated by success; accumulated momentum can carry an enterprise forward, for a while, even if leaders make poor decisions or lose discipline. Stage 1 [of organizational decline] kicks in when people become arrogant, regarding success virtually as an entitlement, and they loose sight of the true underlying factors that created success in the first place.” He points out that when an organization neglects it’s primary flywheel, i.e. when the “what” replaces the “why”, then the rhetoric of success replaces understanding why. This results in a decline of the learning orientation within the organization. As Collins explains, “leaders lose the inquisitiveness and learning orientation that mark those truly great individuals who, no matter how successful they become, maintain a learning curve as steep as when they first began their careers.”

Therefore, we as leaders must have the capacity to work with complexity and uncertainty. It will all come down to improving the decision-making process throughout the organization. Noel M. Tichy and Warren Bennis in their excellent article called “Making Judgment Calls: The Ultimate Act of Leadership” in the October 2007 issue of the Harvard Business Review, note that there are three stages to effective decision making. In Stage #1, the Preparation Phase, effective leaders  sense what is happening in the internal and external environment and identify the problems. Next, they frame up the issue that will demand a judgment call, and then align their team members so that everyone understands why the call is important. From my vantage point, this is the stage in which most leaders are doing a very poor job. Rarely do they frame up the issue and then mobilize and align people well before the call.

In Stage #2, the Call Phase, the moment of decision has arrived. While many think of this as a single moment of rational analysis based on knowable and quantifiable variables, in reality it is a “dynamic process influenced by multiple variables which are often outside of a leader’s direct circle of control or influence.” However, “the best leaders make decisions that influence now but also set up a framework for others to make successful decisions.” I wish more people grasped the depth of the authors’ insights and realized that setting up a framework for making a decision is as important, if not more important than making the actual decision.

In Stage #3, the Execution Phase, once a decision has been made, a leader needs to mobilize resources, people, information, and technology to support the decision. Furthermore, they need to make it happen while learning and adjusting along the way.

I believe there is a critical Stage #4, the Evaluation Phase. Here we routinely evaluating our strategic choices and decisions as a large group and during 1/1 coaching sessions. This strengthens the level of understanding and improves the overall framework for strategic and operational decision-making. 

For us here today, I end this morning’s thoughts with a wonderful question written by Jon R. Katzenbach, Ilona Steffen and Caroline Kronley in their great article called “Cultural Change That Sticks” in the July-August 2012 issue of the  Harvard Business Review: “If we had the kind of culture we aspire to, in pursuit of the strategy we have chosen, what kinds of new behaviors would be common? And what ingrained behaviors would be gone?” It is time we answer this question so we will have greater collaboration and less heroics.

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

Finding & Creating Personal Clarity - part #2

So here is my question for you today: What makes you happy? Whole? Healthy? Not satisfied. Not less busy. But truly happy, if not filled with joy.

There is an assumption by many that we have to find happiness. I, on the other hand, believe that we already have it. After years and years of visiting with many different people, I have come to the conclusion that most, if not all of us, have personal clarity, which is the foundation for happiness, about many different issues. This clarity is greater than being busy. The key is to focus on and not to loose touch with this level of inner clarity.

Sure, there will be challenges. There will be difficulties. There will be complexity. There also can be great moments of depth, great moments of selflessness, even great moments of joy, love and health.

Currently, too many of us are living a fragmented life at a furious pace. Though we do not want to admit it, many of us each day are rapidly moving from meeting to meeting, cognitively moving from problem to problem, continually coping with greater degrees of ambiguity and unlimited variables, and constantly giving habitual answers with little thought or consideration.

The first step in this journey to personal clarity is to live an active and healthy lifestyle, and to have a healthy contemplative life. As the Buddha pointed out, “All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” Now is the time to sit back and reflect. Now is the time to rethink how we are living and working.

At the Fall 2012 From Vision to Action Executive Roundtable, I reviewed the following key ideas to living a healthy active life that I have learned from others in leadership positions and my own journey:

- know your personal core values, and only work for organizations that align with your personal values.

- your sacrifices should reflect your priorities; therefore know your priorities.

- allocate your resources, i.e. personal time, money, energy and talent, to the things and people that in your life connect you to a greater sense of purpose and meaning.

- proactively seek out mentors who can help you maintain perspective.

With the above in mind, it is time for each of us to choose a life of collaboration over control. All of us are just one person, and every moment we can choose to do something or not choose to do something from a place of control or collaboration. If we begin from the premise that our thoughts and our actions mean something, and that we can impact others around us in a significant way, then we can change the world around us. The first step is to choose to do something from a place of collaboration and kindness instead of control. When we do this, we cast our vote about what is most important by our actions and our thoughts. A vote for collaboration generates possibilities rather than contradictions.

Yet, some will not feel like they can do this. Their work place does not feel safe or trusting. Here are two lessons I have learned about this challenge. First, don’t take things personally. As Ron Heifitz explained in the article “The Leader of the Future” by William C. Taylor, Fast Company magazine - June 1999: “Remember: It's not you they're after. It may look like a personal attack, it may sound like a personal attack -- but it's the issues that you represent that they're after. Distinguishing role from self helps you maintain a diagnostic mind-set during trying times.”

Next, as he continues in the same article, “There's a second point: Because we get so swept up in our professional roles, it's hard to distinguish role from self on our own. That's why we need partners who can help us stay analytical. And we need two different kinds of partners. We need allies inside the organization -- people who share our agenda. And we need confidants inside or outside the organization -- people who can keep us from getting lost in our role.” To find and create personal clarity, we must build relationships with people who can become our allies and confidants . Remember: Allies are people inside the organization who share our agenda and confidants are people who keep us from getting stuck in our role.

This week, remember to build a healthy inner and outer life. The best place to start is to answer this simple question: What is the one thing you are not doing now that if you did on a regular basis would change your life for the better? Once you figure this out, you will be on the right pathway to discovering or rediscovering personal clarity.

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

Alignment Is Everything

After many years of being an executive coach to top leaders and managers around the country, I always stress to people who are new to middle management two key concepts, namely role modeling and collaboration. Both of these elements will impact the future of their entire career. Done well and they will succeed beyond their dreams. Done poorly and they will feel trapped in a position headed to no where but a downward spiral.

When assisting an individual to become a great manager, I always start out with the following quote by Kevin Cashman: “Leaders get what they exhibit and tolerate.” Too many times, I witness leaders who are not aware of how they are role modeling before a group. The mixed signals they send, particularly in what they say and what they actually do, cause significant problems through out the entire organization.  

Furthermore, too many poor managers also tolerate completely in appropriate behaviors and then wonder why their performance as an organization is not improving. As an employee in Missouri once shared with me, “fish stink from the head on down.” If we are clear at the head of an organization about role modeling, then many other problems go by the way side.

However, role modeling is not easy because we have to interact with others to get things done successfully. Here is where collaboration enters into the picture. If we as leaders and managers personally role model and collaborate well, we also have to make sure that others in our organization role model and collaborate well. The first step in this process is to make sure that everyone is clear about the strategic direction of the company and the operational expectations to make us all successful. This will involve helping people understand the priorities and goals of the company.  

At the same time, we need to practice holding people accountable to these priorities and goals. The difficulty for many managers and leaders is that they would rather be popular as a leader than to hold people accountable.  I like how Patrick Lencioni explained this in his delightful book called  The Five Temptations of a CEO: A Leadership Fable, Jossey-Bass, 1998. As he writes, “work for the long term respect of your direct reports, not their affection. Don't view them as a support group, but as key employees who must deliver on their commitments if the company is to produce predictable results. And remember, your people aren't going to like you anyway if they ultimately fail.” While this may not be easy, it is clearly very important.

Finally, we must understand that in order to improve as a leader and as a manager, we need to create highly functional teams. The depth of collaboration that can take place within a highly functioning team is remarkable. Again, referencing the work of Patrick Lencioni in his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Jossey-Bass, 2002, he writes: “If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.” The key is to build a foundation of trust amongst all members of the team in order that they are will to take the risks to improve performance.

Our challenge this winter is to personally role model strategic and operational clarity, to practice collaboration in all we do, and to continually seek to build highly successful teams. When we do this, we will not only dominate the industry but transform it too.

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

Big Ideas For 2013

“Knowledge workers are now untethered, able to perform tasks anywhere at any time. What do the best of them want from your organization?” asks Tammy Johns and Lynda Gratton in their very good article called “The Third Wave of Virtual Work” in the January-February 2012 issue of the Harvard Business Review. 

As the authors point out, there have been three major waves of change over the past thirty years about how knowledge based work has gotten done. “First, home computers and e-mail spawned an army of freelancers, offering both workers and employers new flexibility. Next, mobile technology and global teamwork made it possible for full-time employees to work anywhere and anytime without forsaking career progress and development within their companies. Now new ways of providing community and shared space are ameliorating a side effect of virtualization - worker isolation - and driving increased collaboration.”  

As they further explain, “A major focus of the third wave’s new technology is to give workers the feeling of being in a shared environment. But virtual platforms can only go so far.... organizations and workers are also investing in a return to colocation of colleagues in the real world. “ Sometimes, these new co-working locations are called an “urban hub” or “work hub,” a well-appointed space for mobile workers. Think of it as “a frequent-fliers lounge without the airport” that features couches to worktables to boardrooms. Some of these work hubs are organized around particular communities of practice like web and game developers, writers, social entrepreneurs or inventors.  It provides them an opportunity to “rub elbows” in a community setting with creative and supportive people.

To capitalize on this third wave of change, the authors suggest that employers should rethink their compact with workers on five fundamental dimensions:

- “the value of the relationship with a larger enterprise”

- “the settings in which work is done”

- “the organization of workflows and how individual contributors add value”

- “the technologies used to support higher achievement”

- “ the degree to which employment arrangements are tailored to individuals”

As we move from wave one, virtual freelancers, to wave two, virtual corporate  colleagues, and on to the third wave, virtual coworkers, remember that these same workers feel they lack a sense of community and the richness of collaboration. With weaker social interaction and fun, these untethered workers are seeking neighborhoods and communities where they can recapture the best of what they had before globalization, “when citizens of communities felt their mutual dependence in every working moment, and connections were deep.” For those of you thinking about the future and starting strategic planning this year, I highly recommend reading this article. It is definitely worth the time and effort. Here is the link: http://hbr.org/2013/01/the-third-wave-of-virtual-work/ar/1. 

For those of you are wondering whether or not you have the capacity to execute on the big ideas you will be exploring in 2013, then I suggest you read the following article called “Strategic Leadership: The Essential Skills” by Paul J.H. Schoemaker, Steve Krupp, and Samantha Howland in the same January-February 2012 issue of the Harvard Business Review mentioned above. As they explain, “The storied British banker and financier Nathan Rothchild noted that great fortunes are made when cannonballs fall in the harbor, not when violins play in the ballroom. Rothchild understood that the more unpredictable the environment, the greater the opportunity - if you have the leadership skills to capitalize on it.” Through their research at the Wharton School and at their consulting firm involving more than 20,000 executives to date, the authors have identified six skills that “when mastered and used in concert, allow leaders to think strategically and navigate the unknown effectively.” These skills are the following: the ability to anticipate, challenge, interpret, decide, align and learn. “An adaptive strategic leader - someone who is both resolute and flexible, persistent in the face of setbacks but also able to react strategically to environmental shifts - has learned to apply all six at once.”

This article describes the six skills in details and includes a delightful self-assessment that will enable you to identify the ones you need to improve. This is a good article and will help those of you who are planning for the future to make sure you have people involved who can apply all six skills at once. Here is the link to this article: http://hbr.org/2013/01/strategic-leadership-the-esssential-skills/ar/1

 If you do not have people with this degree of capacity, then I encourage you to enroll your key up and coming people in the 2013 From Vision to Action Leadership Training which will help them improve their skills in all six areas. Here is a link for more information about this unique learning opportunity: http://www.chartyourpath.com/VTA-Leadership-Training.html

Planning for the future is important. Now is the time to think about big ideas and to make sure you have the capacity to execute them when the time is right. Be prepared; the future is just around the corner.

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

The Decline of Positional Leadership

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been exploring the theme of how to navigate through periods of prolonged uncertainty. Today, I want to examine a growing trend, namely the declining power of positional leadership and the rise of collaborative leadership in order to solve adaptive problems.

Over the last six months, I have gotten a lot of questions during 1/1 executive coaching sessions by people who have the title but not the power or ability to make change happen. They are deeply frustrated that the positional power that comes with their title does not generate the outcomes they are wanting to take place. 

On the other hand, I meet positional leaders in other companies who are making things happen. Here, buy-in is taking place. Ownership is on the rise, and strategy is not being trumped by tactics. When it is the same job title and yet two different companies, then I wonder what is the difference. 

My conclusion so far is that in many circumstances one person choose positional leadership, which can only make so much happen within a company while the more successful executives choose collaborative leadership. And with collaborative leadership, they access the power of the whole, i.e. the whole strategic nexus and the whole team.

Former From Vision to Action Leadership Training participants often talk with me about the importance of shared language and shared understanding. They tell me that having this is the unifying element to the work of making change happen successfully. Some call it their competitive advantage. The other thing they share with me is the importance of building shared commitment. To get this shared commitment, they have realized that positional leadership’s major tool is the power they have in their position. Collaborative leaders, on the other hand, activate the power of stakeholder enrollment.

Dan Cohen in his book, The Heart of Change Field Guide: Tools and Tactics for Leading Change in Your Organization (Harvard Business School Press, 2005), describes the stakeholder enrollment process as the movement from unaware to aware to understand to collaborate to commitment to advocate. From my observations over the last six months, I have seen a great many collaborative leaders consciously move people from unaware to commit. They do this by focusing on culture and results. Positional leaders, on the other hand, only focus on results, not recognizing the impact that day to day culture has on results. While this may seem pretty simplistic of an explanation, I believe it is a key to figuring out why positional leaders are in decline and collaborative leaders are on the rise.

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