The Importance of Role Modeling

Recently, I have chosen to share with leaders the following quote by Kevin Cashman: “Leaders get what they exhibit and what they tolerate.” While many leaders right now focus on the word “tolerate”, I have had to remind them of the word “exhibit.” During complex times with many unknown unknowns, we, as leaders, often underestimate the power and importance of role modeling.

The old phrase “actions speak louder than words” is a powerful concept in the world of leadership. It is based on a deep understanding that not everything can be said in words. Sometimes, the most important and powerful act of leadership is to show up, be respectful and give others your undivided attention. 

Furthermore, each day we have the choice to role model the core values and/or operating principals of our company and our own lives. In every interaction, we can demonstrate this by how we treat others, namely with respect, compassion and understanding. We also have the opportunity to support, encourage and inspire people to be their best selves at work and at home. These small but significant choices on our part can and do make a difference.

Upon reflection, I realize that there have been many people in my life journey such as family, friends, teachers and mentors who have left a deep and profound impact in my life. They have been and are valuable role models. They have helped me to become a better person, not just helped me to do better work.

This week, I encourage you to give thanks for those who have been role models in your life and I encourage you to aspire to being a better role model for those who are part of your life now. At this time of profound change, we need people who seek to be their best selves at home, at work and within their community.

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

Observations From A Home Office In The Midst Of A Pandemic

Given how rapidly current events have been unfolding, it is hard to step back and look at the bigger picture. Right now, many of us have been sucked into a state of hyper-vigilance and reactive paranoia. Every bit of new information indicates another possible worst case scenario. And leaders at all levels are desperately focused on reducing these uncontrollable risks to a manageable level of chaos.  

Nevertheless, there will come a time period in the future when all of this will be a story told to children and grandchildren. As in the past, some generations talk about where they were when JFK was assassinated or when Nixon resigned. Other generations talk about where they were on 9/11. For those living at this time period, COVID-19 will be a similar defining event and experience. 

Still, for those of us who are in the midst of it on a day to day basis, there are significant short and long term impacts. As one who is visiting regularly with a large and diverse collection of people in leadership positions, I would like to share five observations about what is happening. 

First, with every one moving out of the corporate office and working from home, we have now entered into a world where all sorts of new problems are starting to surface. I recognize that not all homes and not all families are set up for a home office. One of the big problems happening right now is that our homes are our homes, our home office and now our local school, given that schools, colleges and universities have all closed for an indefinite time period. 

Traditionally, these three things are not all happening in the same space. Now we are employees, teachers, and parents all in the same physical place. The impact of this is a pressure cooker for all involved. Add to this mix, someone being in a leadership position, who has to coordinate and communicate with others in multiple home offices, and everyone’s stress levels is rising to unprecedented heights. In short, there is the potential for multiple nuclear melt downs each day.

At the same time, there are no boundaries between work, family life and school’s expectations about learning, especially given current technology and limited physical space in many homes. While this is not new on one level, now that everyone is crammed into the same space for an indefinite time period, and, if they are actually practicing social distancing, then there are limited resources to help cope with the pressures. 

For me, I struggle with the term social distancing because in reality what is needed is physical distancing not social distancing. While many are practicing social distancing, what has happened is that they have inadvertently limited their social support and they have not been able to utilize their normal stress management systems, e.g. the gym, seeing friends, church, etc.. The result is short tempered people crammed into spaces not designed for what is expected to happen within them. 

Therefore, quoting an old Gibran saying, there needs to be “space in our togetherness”. For starts, we need to maintain boundaries between when we are working at home and when we are a family at home. We need to practice not talking about work during family time so we can relax together and just be a family. We also need to go outside for a walk, when possible, so we can unwind from the pressure cooker of being in the same space at the same time. This may require us to be creative, but it is doable if we plan accordingly.

Second, when we all worked in an office on a day to day basis, some days things went well and other days we struggled. Still, most people could make progress and could connect with their boss and co-workers to solve problems. When we shifted to everyone working from home, many are struggling with how exactly to do teamwork.

Most offices utilize an analog form of teamwork. With daily face to face communications, leaders role modeled key behaviors before, during and after teamwork. These leadership behaviors were a mix of social and technical skills. These analog teams generated success through mutual trust, shared values, and a clearly defined sense of mission or purpose. To make this happen, leaders and the team had to show a lot of self-discipline and a high degree of self and group awareness.

However, with everyone working from home, we now enter into a different model of teamwork, i.e. a 4-D team. A 4-D team is defined as a group of people who are primarily connected through a digital platform and are dispersed, diverse and dynamic, namely they routinely go through frequent membership changes. As a result, 4-D teams are more global, virtual and project-driven. They often struggle because they have limited face time and are dependent on digital communication, which prevents the ability to understand nonverbal and contextual clues that often provide insight into what is going on. Furthermore, the lack of in-person meetings also removes the ability for understanding individual and collective moods of the group.

With everyone working from home in order to reduce exposure or transmission of COVID-19, team members are tending to be more consultation or coordination focused rather than typical office based, teamwork focused. As leaders, we have to understand that 4-D teams generate success through transparent performance measures, i.e. everyone being able to see the dash board results. Finally, successful 4-D teams need to know what is expected of them, how performance is measured, and why it all matters.

From my vantage place, I completely understand why everyone has moved home, but I think the challenge is that we are not assisting people in leadership positions to switch from analog based leadership choices to 4-D leadership choices. For those of you who want to be better 4-D leaders at this time period, I encourage you to read the following article: Haas, Martine and Mark Mortensen. “The Secrets of Great Teamwork.” Harvard Business Review, June 2016. The long term impact of a more virtually connected workforce is going to require people to switch how they engage in teamwork. We can make this shift but it is going to challenge all involved.

Third, we need to talk about strategic planning and strategic plans. During a normal winter into spring time period, I routinely teach multiple groups about strategic planning. One of the things I point out is that every strategic plan has a strategic decay rate, i.e. all the information that influenced people who created the plan will, over time, become obsolete. Ultimately, a strategic plan will no longer be functional because the environment within which the plan is being executed has so fundamentally shifted from what people thought was going to take place due to unforeseen variables.

Having been involved in numerous strategic planning meetings in 2018 and 2019, and having read multiple SWOT documents and PESTAL analysis documents as part of these planning processes, I can assure all of you that no one had a pandemic or COVID-19 level event on their radar screen. For large and small companies, this a black swan event, namely something that is so far outside the norm of possibilities that they are completely overwhelmed strategically and operationally.

So, here we are at the end of the first quarter of 2020, and all of this year’s strategic plans are highly dysfunctional. The organization’s strategic intent, e.g. to grow into multiple markets with multiple products and services, may still be the desire, but how we are going to execute this will have to change during the next 12-18 months given the huge amount of day to day technical problems and rampant and unforeseeable adaptive challenges that keep surfacing.

Therefore, I believe two things will take place this summer. First, there will be a lot of strategic re-planning which will include some major SWOT analysis work. Some companies may choose to create 6-9 month strategic bridge plans instead of normal 3-5 year plans so that they can see how things settle out economically. 

Simultaneously, there are going to be some intense After Action Reports created to make sure the lessons learned from the first and second quarter of 2020 are not lost and not repeated during future challenges of this magnitude. If past is prologue, many senior leaders will be extremely focused and diligent in this level of work. In short, everyone is going to be way more prepared moving forward.

Fourth, we need to understand the importance of proactive re-recruitment and retention in the midst of this pandemic. If you entered this time period on a dysfunctional team, more likely it has become more dysfunctional. If you entered this time period on a highly functional team, it just got better because of the focus and the urgency of getting things done together.

Our challenge as leaders is to recognize that many key people are putting in a lot extra effort and attention to make sure things run smoothly. We need to notice these actions, praise them, and assure them that all they are doing is not going unnoticed. Good people respond well to this kind of support and ultimately they will want to stay with the company.

But if an A player is working on a poor team and the team has gotten worse, then they will start looking for a new job. The frustrating thing is that a solid A player who is not re-recruited and encouraged to stay will be long gone before certain leaders even knew there was a problem. Therefore, I am encouraging all leaders to reach out to their people on a one to one basis. Now is the time to talk to them, to listen to them, and to reassure them that they are an important member of the team. During the next 6-9 months, we can not afford to loose key people who are making a major difference, operationally and strategically.

Finally, we need to understand that before COVID19 showed up many companies and their employees were working very hard to meet their goals and the needs of their customers. Folks reported to me at the beginning of this new year that they were busy, focused and feeling the pressure to serve their customers better and better.

When COVID-19 showed up, people were already feeling pushed. Now they just feel overwhelmed. What was once a future focused level of busyness has now shifted into a period of instability, reactivity, and general frustration and confusion. Everyone is on edge about what will happen next. In short, people are doing more work and wondering if any of it is actually making a difference.

While this is normal in a crisis of this magnitude, one thing is lost, namely deep work. Cal Newport in his book, Deep Work: Rules For Focused Success In A Distracted World (Grand Central Publishing, 2016) defines deep work as “professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit.” With so much incoming information and reactive problem solving, more and more leaders are not able to practice deep work.

When leaders choose to make the time for deep work, it gives them and their organization the ability to quickly master complex situations, make better decisions, and solve problem more effectively. Therefore, I am encouraging more leaders to turn off the news, step away from constant inputs like e-mail and various digital meetings, and instead spend a set period of time on a regular basis concentrating on what needs to happen in the short term and the long term for their business to be successful. During these periods of reflection, they need to look for the patterns within all of the information and notice how key people and teams are doing, especially in the areas of teamwork, communication and problem solving. In simple terms, leaders need uninterrupted time to sift through all the data and find the useful information. 

As we know, crisis leadership has two distinct phases. The first is the emergency phase when your task as a leader is to stabilize the situation and buy time. The second is the adaptive phase, when you tackle the underlying causes of the crisis and build the capacity to thrive in a new reality. For those of you who want to understand these two phases better and to be well prepared for the second phase, I encourage you to read the following article during your next deep work session: Heifetz, Ronald, Alexander Glasgow, and Marty Linsky. “Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis”, Harvard Business Review, July-August 2009. In sum, deep work gives us the capacity to distinguish between what is essential in the short term and what it vital to long term success.

We are living through a time period this spring where more and more people feel a deep level of discouragement, loneliness, and frustration. All around us the world has become a messy place filled with confusion and contradictions. And we struggle to find a sense of hope and shared humanity. Trust, love and compassion seem in short supply.

Still as I sit here this morning, I know one thing. We must be the change we wish to see in the world, referencing the old Gandhi quote. I need to role model thoughtfulness, compassion and a loving heart. I need to not let fear, vulnerability, and hopelessness define my world view. I need to reach out to my family, friends, co-workers and the rest of humanity on a regular basis and let them know that I treasure their presence in my life, and that they are important to me in the midst of these challenging times. Finally, I must be kind to myself, and remember that each new day I have a choice of how I am going to act and how I will treat others. And in the end, that is all that matters.  

So, stay healthy, stay safe, keep in touch, and I look forward to seeing you on the other side of this most unique time period.

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

The Importance of Being A Role Model and Mentor

Over the course of our lives, we as leaders will have numerous opportunities to be role models and mentors to many different people. We also will have the opportunity to engage with role models and mentors who will impact our life at work and at home. 

For me, there have been many teachers, friends and mentors who have impacted my life in a positive way. I consider these individuals to be valuable and important role models in my life journey. When I think of these people, I think of the many ways they have supported, encouraged and inspired me. And I am deeply grateful for all they have done to help me become the person I am today.

As we all enter this new year, each of us must realize that we can be that role model or mentor for someone else. Each day, we have the potential and the capacity to make a difference in the lives of others. Each day, we can role model as a parent, family member, coworker, or friend. We can be the one person who helps another person see a new perspective, come to a new understanding, or realize they have the potential and talent to rise to the challenges before them 

Over the course of this winter, I am going to share lessons and insights I have learned from the people who have mentored me in my life journey. Each individual was key to a new way of thinking and living. Each gave me something that I have carried forward to this day.

But this morning, I ask you to pause and realize that you could be that one person in someone else’s life. You could be the catalyst and source of support which completely transforms another person’s life. And remember, it is not always what you do but how you do it that is the foundation for this transformation. Sometimes it is just your presence, your showing up, listening and being attentive to another, that is the most powerful gift of all.

As Kevin Cashman wrote many years ago, “leaders get what they exhibit and what they tolerate.” My challenge to you is to be the role model you wish to see in the world. And my other challenge to you in this new year is to thank all those who have role modeled and mentored you to date. It is time we as leaders realize that a single person can make a profound and positive difference in the life of so many other people.

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

The Importance of Experience

Recently, a friend shared that he had learned that you can not teach people experience. The minute I heard this line it was a “blinding flash of the obvious,” quoting an old Tom Peters’ phrase. 

So many times when coaching executives, I have have listened to someone complain  that a particular person just does not “get it.” When I step back from the actual problem we are discussing and think about the person in question, I realize that they can not “get it” because they have never experienced “it” before. As Margaret Wheatley wrote so many years ago, when confronted with an unknown, we default to a known. Our challenges as leaders is to realize that the defaults that most people have are completely based on their experiences, positive and negative. Furthermore, most people are doing the best they can given the experiences they’ve had.

So, what can we as leaders do?

Recognizing the truth that we can not teach experience, we, as leaders, can tell stories and lessons learned from our own experiences. By offering perspective, we open up the possibility for all involved to gain some new perspectives or some fresh insights into the challenges before them.

Next, we can create a safe and supportive learning environment around an individual as they go through a first time experience. By surrounding them with the right tools, support and information, they can step forward with confidence, knowing that we will be there on the other side to unpack the experience and help them find meaning and greater understanding from the experience.

Finally, we can be the kind of leaders who role model smart thinking and smart choices as we go through our own first time experiences. While we can not teach experience, we can be the kind of person who embraces them and learns from them every step of the way.

As you move through the rest of this year and into 2019, I encourage you to share your stories and lessons learned, to create safe and supportive learning and working environments, and to role model the value of continued learning from new experiences.

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

What are the keys to being a successful team leader? - part #2

Successful leaders seek out feedback on a routine basis and listen carefully to it. Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen in their book, Thanks For The Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well (Penguin Books, 2014), ask the question, “Is it possible that feedback is like a gift and like a colonoscopy?” They note that we often think about feedback within the framework of “Who is giving me feedback?”, “Why are they giving me feedback?”, “Where is it coming from?”, and finally “Where is it going?”. As they explain, in order to understand feedback, we must know where it coming from, i.e. their data and/or interpretations, and where it is going to, i.e. their advice, consequences, or expectations.

Marshall Goldsmith in his book, Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts - Becoming the Person You Want to Be, (Crown Business, 2015) reminds us that “anybody can change, but they have to want to change. Feedback tells us what to change, not how to do it. But when you know what to change, you’re ready to start changing yourself…”

Successful leaders understand the above and keep asking for feedback on a regular basis. They want it because they will learn from it and they do it because they want to role model this action so others will engage in this practice as well.

In short, great team leaders and great teams believe that doing something with a group of people you trust and respect makes a  profound difference. They also understand that doing something that you look forward to doing each day also makes a big difference.

This week be a leader who role models the importance of receiving feedback and changing yourself because of it. 

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

How do leaders maintain successful teams? - part #2

One of the things I have learned from meeting with leaders of successful teams is that they role model and empower healthy behaviors. Jeffery D. Ford and Laurie W. Ford in their very good article called “Decoding Resistance to Change” (Harvard Business Review, April 2009) write that “People expect history to repeat itself - and they resist going through it all over again.” Leaders who overcome resistance focus on understanding why people are showing resistance or lack of clarity. They do not suppress dialogue but instead encourage it. They also assume they and the team will spend time in the trough of chaos and plan accordingly. They get that it is normal for things to get messy. Therefore, they role model healthy personal choices and behaviors when it does.

Second, these same leader continually try to improve their capacity to coach others. They understand, as Patrick Lencioni points out in his book,  The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business (Jossey-Bass, 2012), that behavioral problems almost always precede quantitative results. They also recognize that behavioral problems “occur long before any decrease in measurable results is apparent.”

What we as leaders need to remember is that once a person “experiences good coaching, one becomes a better coach.” Peter Cappelli and Anna Travis say this is very important in their article called “HR Goes Agile” in the March-April 2018 issue of the Harvard Business Review.

Richard Hackman in his book, Leading Teams: Setting The Stage For Great Performances (Harvard Business School Press, 2002) explains that coaches focus on the following three areas: the amount of effort members of the team apply to the work, the appropriateness of the performance strategies to carry out the work, and the knowledge and skill they apply to the work. Therefore, coaching can be motivational, consultative, or educational.

But as I reflect on his writing I am reminded of what Marshall Goldsmith wrote in his book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful (Hyperion, 2007). Goldsmith challenges us to “stop trying to coach people who shouldn’t be coached.” As he notes, “stop trying to change people who don’t think they have a problem” and “stop trying to change people who are pursuing the wrong strategy for the organization.” He continues by pointing out that we should “stop trying to change people who should not be in their job” and “stop trying to help people who think everyone else is the problem.” I think we must embrace his perspective and harken back to Jim Collin’s early work where he said “who before what”. From my experience, the best coaches know who should be coached and who will not change no matter how much we try and coach them. Instead, we need to coach these individuals out of the organization rather than try to coach them into the organization.

Along this same line of thought, the big thing about hiring people to join a team is to remember Patrick Lencioni’s book, The Ideal Team Player (Jossey-Bass, 2016), about the three virtues of a team player. Lencioni says that the best team players are humble, hungry and people smart. While I agree with Lencioni and have seen this in my own experiences as a consultant and executive coach, I think there is a missing element.

Last May, I read a quote by Pastor A.R. Bernard that stopped me in my tracks: “Without character, talent will only take you so far.” Upon much reflection, I realized that we, as leaders, need to talk more about character and focus more on character rather than just talent development. We need to discuss the importance of integrity, compassion, and courage during our coaching and our team meetings. We need to talk about what is commitment, faithfulness, and truthfulness. As Abraham Lincoln wrote, “Reputation is the shadow. Character is the tree.” 

This week, reflect on the following questions: Who are the people of “character” that I have known in my life? What separates them from others? How do they engage with people in group settings that is unique? How do they role model? It is time that we follow in their foot steps.

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

What is the importance of caring within successful organizations? - part #1

Since the events of September 2008, we have been living in very difficult and for many “traumatic” times. These last 10 years have been filled with uncertainty, chaos, and anxiety.

Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant in their very good book, Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy, say that “… post-traumatic growth could take five different forms: finding personal strength, gaining appreciation, forming deeper relationships, discovering more meaning in life, and seeing new possibilities.”

As leaders of an organization, I believe we can not always deliver all of the above but I do believe we can do one very important thing. We can create a culture of welcome and belonging in every organization. After visiting so many different organizations over the last two years, I have come to the conclusion that the successful ones are in part successful because they have done this. In these organizations, we feel we belong. We feel like our voice matters. We feel like our efforts matter. We feel supported. And finally we feel like we are part of a community, a tribe, a team, or a family, which ever term best captures this feeling for you.

At the Fall 2017 From Vision to Action Executive Roundtable during a discussion on resilience, one of the participants shared that from their observations people who feel like they belong or do belong to a church don’t burn out as much, are able to be more resilient, and don’t feel stuck in life.

While I don’t think there is one singular thing a leader can do to create a culture of welcome and belonging, I think there are three things a leader can do. First, they need to role model respect in all they do. Second, they need to never tolerate disrespectful actions by others. Third, they need to speak publicly about how respect and integrity are part of the company’s culture and the company’s core mission. These three small actions add up to a big impact when embraced by all people in leadership positions within a company.

This week, evaluate how well you are doing the above three things. If needed, make some changes so you are doing them extremely well on a day to day basis. More adversity is coming but the importance of caring is always fundamental to success.

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 themselves and others to learn better? - Part #2

As leaders, according to Cal Newport in his book, Deep Work: Rules For Focused Success In A Distracted World (Grand Central Publishing, 2016), we suffer from two major problems. They are as follows:

The Principle of Least Resistance: In a business setting, without clear feedback on the impact of various behaviors to the bottom line, we will tend toward behaviors that are easiest in the moment.

Busyness as Proxy for Productivity: In the absence of clear indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable in their jobs, many knowledge workers turn back toward an industrial indicator of productivity: doing lots of stuff in a visible manner.

From my experience, I think Newport is spot on. We as leader do tend toward the path of easiest behaviors and seeing busy as the definition of success. Therefore, our challenge as leaders is to role model something different.

First, to overcome the path of least resistance and busyness as proxy for productivity, we need to get a coach, inside or outside the organization, and/or a mentor. These individuals, who we respect, will provide us with feedback and perspective. They will help us to role model learning rather than just talk about learning.

When I reflect on the best mentors I’ve encountered in my life, they all focused on a couple of small but important things. For example, be more conscious of how you choose to spend your energy and time. Choice is an action, and we always have control over how we choose. Greg McKeown in his excellent book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Crown Business, 2014) builds on this concept and asks us to think deeply about our choices.

I think about this because of a recent experience. I was participating in a graduation dinner for an extended leadership training that I had just completed. The young fellow sitting next to me asked a great question: “I really like this job and I want to stay here for the rest of my career. I have 20+ more years until I retire. How do I not burn out from all of the work?”

The older woman executive on his other side replied, “Keep learning, and recognize that the job will change over time. And that you will change over time in the job too.”

When he was done pondering this insight, I responded. “Be curious in a positive way. Seek to understand more than to be understood. Say to people ‘Tell me more.’ This is a powerful act as a leader. And finally, keep reading.”

He finished his beer and said “I can do this. I thought it would be big stuff but I have realized now that these little things are big things.”

I smiled and nodded. Constant learning is all about doing the little things that have a big impact.

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

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

When working through an extended trough of chaos, many leaders are focused on getting lots of things done. They want order and predictability to be once again the norm. They are very conscious that cash flow can make or break an organization so they are constantly focused on the financial health of the organization. As they race from meeting to meeting, the goal often is to get all of the things that are creating the feeling of chaos back under control. The difficulty is that many leaders forget a simple truth in their rush to get this done, namely that actions speak louder than words.

Every day people listen to what leaders say. They try hard to discern what is the message being sent. They interpret everything as either positive or negative. And for the most part, they define things as negative during the trough of chaos. If the leader is feeling overwhelmed in the tough of chaos, the follower is feeling lost and has no idea what or why this is all happening.

Here is where the best leaders step up to the challenges before. They understand that not everyone is going to hear directly from them. Therefore, they focus on making sure their message to the organization is clear, concise and can be easily cascaded down into the organization. They focus on core themes and recognize that it may take time for people to understand all that is being communicated.

They also are extremely thoughtful in their actions. In particular, they always conduct themselves with the utmost integrity. This means treating everyone, from the maintenance and the house cleaning staff to an SVP or a member of the board with dignity and respect. Being courteous and kind is not a show but a reflection of character and clarity. They recognize that role modeling integrity is vital to helping everyone move forward together.

This week, define the core themes you are going to talk about during the next 90 days as you move through your extended trough of chaos. And then role model clarity, respect and integrity with every fiber of your being. Do not slip up because actions always speak louder than words. 

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

Thinking Ahead

“If you are thinking one year ahead, sow seeds.

If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree.

If you are thinking 100 years ahead, educate people.”

- old Chinese proverb

One major challenge happens right after Labor Day for many leaders, namely there is no time left on the calendar for anything.  From now until Thanksgiving, it is a sprint.  Then we pause and consume vast quantities of food, get sleepy, go shopping, watch a football game, and visit with family. Then we wake up the next day and sprint once more until Christmas.

Yet, there are times when we need to step back from the world of rushing to the next meeting or appointment and ask ourself some important questions: 

Am I sowing seeds?

Am I planting trees?

Am I educating people?

I understand that the calendar can be full at times.  There are weeks when every hour is back to back meetings. However, we have important choices to make. We can role model a different way of doing management and leadership. One way is to give ourselves permission to learn, to reflect and to regain perspective.

With this in mind, there is still time to sign-up for the Fall 2013 From Vision to Action Executive Roundtable on September 19 - 20 at the Coralville Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, Coralville, Iowa. Here is a link to more details about this event: 

http://www.chartyourpath.com/VTA-RT-Details.html

If you are thinking ahead, make sure you sow more seeds, plant more trees and make more time for in-depth learning. I hope you can join us in a couple of weeks.

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

Role Modeling Is Powerful

On January 8, 2009, I read the following in the on-line Gallup Management Journal, http://gmj.gallup.com/home.aspx:

“According to Tom Rath and Barry Conchie, coauthors of Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow, it's easy for leaders to misunderstand what followers need. The confusion is exacerbated because what leaders get paid to do often is not what their followers need them to do.

To run an organization effectively, leaders must be able to strategize, set visions and priorities, build relationships, influence others, and make things happen. But if you ask followers what they need from leaders, the clear answer is trust, compassion, stability, and hope. These four basic needs are the result of Rath, Conchie, and a Gallup research team asking more than 10,000 followers what the most influential leaders contribute to their lives.”

To this day, I continue to reflect on the power of trust, compassion, stability and hope. I recognize that leaders and managers need to make things happen. I also realize that when the aforementioned four elements are present in the work place and in the relationships of those who work there, then making things happen is completely transformed.

One important step for young leaders to take is to embrace these four key points and to proactively role model them. Being trust-worthy is the first step to building trust. Being compassionate in an authentic manner builds trust at a deeper level. Third, show that the mission, vision and core values do not change and thus bring stability in an unstable world. And finally, offer hope in the midst of change is powerful. When we not only role model these concepts but also encourage others to do likewise, then we are developing a most unique and powerful flywheel, one that will propel the organization into the future.

FYI: The second edition of the Planning For Change booklet has arrived at the office from the printers and they look great. If you want to order a copy, here is a link to the order form: http://www.chartyourpath.com/pdf/Book-Order-Form-2012.pdf

Happy spring reading!

Geery Howe, M.A.Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer inLeadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational ChangeMorning Star Associates319 - 643 - 2257

Aligning Culture and Strategy - Part #2

In the From Vision to Action booklet called Developing A New Organizational Culture (http://www.chartyourpath.com/Organization-Culture.html), I explained that there are four main characteristics to a successful organizational culture. They are as follows:

- All are involved in building something, namely taking a vision or BHAG, i.e.Big Hairy Audacious Goal, and making it become real rather than abstract.

- All have a core philosophy about how things are done and what is most important.

- All have an internal drive for progress and are constantly seeking new ways to improve.

- All have and monitor systems to preserve the core philosophy and stimulate progress within the organization.

With this in mind, there are three key ways this fall to better align culture and strategy. First, while this may sound simplistic, it is critical to teach people what is the difference between strategy and tactics. Then, instruct them on what is culture. If they can not understand these concepts, then they will not grasp the concept of alignment between strategy and culture.

Second, help all involved recognize that alignment is based on clarity about the following three questions: Why? How? What? As Simon Sinek reminds us, “People do not buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” When answering these three simple but powerful questions, we need to reread John Kotter’s book, The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations, Harvard Business School Press, 2002. As he writes, “The single most important message in this book is very simple. People change what they do less because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking than because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings. The flow of see-feel-change is more powerful than that of analysis-think-change.”

Third, we as leaders need to proactively role model and make decisions with alignment in mind. Joel Kurtzman in his book, Common Purpose: How Great Leaders Get Organizations to Achieve The Extraordinary, Jossey-Bass 2010, reminds us that people watch their leaders in a microscopic detail. Furthermore, individuals working within a firm tend to copy their leaders’ style. The hard part for us to accept is that others copy our worst characteristics along with our best traits. Therefore, we as leaders must be disciplined to make certain that we exhibit only the types of behavior that we want others in the company to share.

This week, discuss with your team what is unique about your organization’s culture and it’s strategy, and continue exploring the subject of alignment. As Tony Hsieh in his book, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose. Business Plus, 2010, writes “For individuals, character is destiny. For organizations, culture is destiny.”

Geery Howe, M.A.Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer inLeadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational ChangeMorning Star Associates319 - 643 - 2257

The Four Leadership Mistakes We Keep Making - part #2

Picking up where we left off last Monday, let’s explore the last two leadership mistakes that leaders keep making.

First, leaders forget that getting rid of obstacles to change does not equal empowering others to act. It may help but it is not the same thing. When we get rid of obstacles that block action, we may have to deal with disempowering bosses who with hold or do not provide key information. We also may have to deal with structural barriers such as too many layers of management where people second guess and criticize actions being taken. We may even have to re-examine our performance measurement and reward systems. When we take these actions, we send a signal to others in the company that change is going to happen.

But one result of removing all of the barriers to change can be people feeing like deer-in-the-headlights, overwhelmed and fearful. From past Executive Roundtables, and previous leadership trainings and readings, we know that what we believe, experience and observe all influence our actions. When barriers are removed, some people will experience an undercurrent of fear even if the changes are good and important to be made. For these people, the devil you know is better than the one you do not know.

On the other hand, when we empower others, there has to be psychological safety which is the combination of emotional support and assistance in problem solving. This will involve on-going coaching and on-going communication and dialogue. Through this level of sharing and analyzing, goals are clarified and important learning takes place.

From my experience, empowered people have confidence in their ability and their knowledge, and in their team and their company. They believe they can make the right decisions and they believe they are role modeling what is most important. Furthermore, empowered people can make choices about how to achieve predetermined outcomes and goals. They believe they are engaged in meaningful work. In short, empowerment is the process of increasing the capacity of individuals or groups to have the confidence and clarity to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes, i.e. meaningful work.

Stephen Covey in his book, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness (Free Press, 2004) reports that empowerment is held back by the following factors:

- 97% - Managers afraid to let go

- 93% - misaligned systems

- 92% - Manager lacks skills

- 80% - Employees lack skill

Given the above, our choice as leaders, who want to empower more people and to teach them new behaviors, is to take the following steps.

First, we need to get better at role-modeling. We must be trustworthy, and routinely build greater levels of personal, strategic and organizational trust, plus improve our own character and competence.

Next, we need to get better at creating a shared understanding of vision, strategy, mission and core values. This will only happen if we are willing to schedule the time for a greater level of strategic dialogue.

Then, we need to get better at aligning people, systems and expectations. The better we clarify our expectations the better people will perform.

Finally, leaders often forget that building a team is not the same as maintaining a team. In the beginning, the goal of most teams is about defining a common problem and solving it. As Ruth Wageman, Debra A. Nunes, James A. Burruss and J. Richard Hackman in their book, Senior Leadership Teams: What It Takes To Make Them Great, Harvard Business School Press, 2008, write that we need the right people and a compelling direction that is clear, challenging and consequential if we are seeking better levels of team work. They also point out that we need a solid structure, i.e. define exactly what the team is to do strategically, a supportive context, i.e. access to the resources they need, and some team coaching which will help them to evolve, learn, and grow over time.

But building a team is not maintaining a team. The later requires us to “build heritage relationships,” i.e. build relationships before you need them and then focus on staying connected to them once they are on the team, role modeling collaborative behavior before, during, and afterwards, making sure team leaders are both task and relationship oriented, plus helping team leaders to understand the challenges of role clarity and task ambiguity. For more detail, I suggest you read the following article, “Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams” by Lynda Gratton and Tamara J. Erickson, Harvard Business Review, November 2007.

This week, practice empowering more people, doing a better job of role modeling new behaviors, and maintaining your teams. It will make a world of difference.

Geery Howe, M.A.Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer inLeadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational ChangeMorning Star Associates319 - 643 - 2257