Mary E. Marshall's Blog, page 27

Leadership: Facts and Reality

Leaders frequently become frustrated because those who are meant to follow; employees, constituents, members, followers, etc., often don’t see things the same as they do. Consequently, divisions and divisiveness occur which almost always results in lack of progress.

While creating alignment behind a single vision has always been a challenge I believe these days it is getting progressively worse. Particularly because there is so much being thrown at us nowadays. There is so much media and the content of much of it is dubious at best. People have an overload of communications fighting for their attention. I think one of the real negatives is “reality TV”, which is anything but real, and seems to have warped our sense of what is real and what isn’t. The only reality about it is that people are being filmed in real time. But that’s not to say they don’t have a script, direction, and desired outcome. It is often simply very raw versions of bad sitcoms created for the purpose of “entertainment.” We are also addicted, at varying degrees of dysfunction, to our social media channels. As we have recently been made aware, not all is as it seems on these platforms and “fake news,” “opinion-based news” and “real news” are so mixed up in people’s online feeds that everyone’s version of events and facts is a little warped.

So let’s talk about why this matters for leadership. As a leader, your strategy, goals, and success depend upon understanding situations correctly. To understand a situation correctly, you need to know the facts. And contrary to much of what we are hearing these days, facts rarely have two versions. There is only the “fact.” Webster’s definition is “a thing that is indisputably the case.” And much like events that I discussed in my post, “Events Are Neutral,” facts in and of themselves are neutral. We interpret what they mean and/or how they came to be, but when something “is,” it’s pretty hard to dispute it.

As leaders, if we don’t know the facts or refuse to accept the facts, we tend to make bad decisions or act on bad information and that takes us further away from our goals. Facts act as a foundation to our plans and if they are incorrect, we are usually on shaky ground and end up going nowhere, or in a bad direction. Leadership requires you to know your facts and if you don’t, surround yourself with people you trust who can get you those facts. Your credibility and ultimate success depend upon it. Companies, nations, and organizations have all gone down in infamy from believing the wrong “facts.” Enron, Wells Fargo, Jim Jones, WMD, Volkswagon, etc., just to name a few.  You don’t want your name or your companies name on that list so ask a few more questions to dig for the facts and insist that your people can back up their claims and recommendations before moving forward.

photo credit: homethods Virtual Reality – Credit to https://homethods.com/ via photopin (license)

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Humility and Leadership

“Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.”~ Thomas Merton

Good leaders are humble. I know in this current environment it’s hard to see and appreciate the truly humble leader but I think you will find they actually outnumber those who are not. Humility is not a weakness, it is a strength. To be able to look at oneself and assess what is and is not successful or working, is self-awareness. Self-awareness is one of the most important scores on the emotional intelligence inventory. It’s the key to really being able to access any of the other important characteristics of a good leader.

Good leaders always look back and do a debrief on a project, initiative, strategy or goal– what went well, what did not go well, and what will we do differently next time. Great leaders also do one of themselves. How did they do in the situation? What went well, what did not, and what will they change about themselves? No one is perfect or even great 90% of the time. The reality is things go badly sometimes. The best leaders show up in those bad times, not only when it’s going well. A humble leader lets others take credit when everyone is winning and takes responsibility when things go wrong – and importantly, always provide lessons and mentoring along the way.

A few keys to humble leadership:

Lead the way but let others go ahead of you
Always tell the truth
Give credit where credit is due
Mentor
Assume you aren’t the smartest one in the room
Let others shine
Confront the “ugly” with caring, compassion, and calm, but don’t ignore it
Surround yourself with those who are smarter than you
Celebrate the victories, not yourself
Realize every person’s contribution is valid and valuable
Listen to criticism for what you can learn, respect the giver
Remember that luck does play a role

Humble leaders are often not named, they work behind the scenes, promote others and the organization’s goals, preferring to stay out of the limelight. They make the tough decisions because they are the right decisions, not because it is easy or popular. They care more about the whole than themselves. Jim Collins talks about this in “Good To Great” – that humility is a trait of great leaders. If we’re only concerned about ourselves, our win, our performance, we can’t achieve greatness because leadership is not an individual sport, without followers, the leader is unnecessary.

No one’s greatness needs to be shouted from the rooftops, emblazoned on buildings or constantly emphasized to followers as if they might leave or forget. Great leadership is quiet, actions speak louder than words and legacy speaks louder than all. Those who have been inspired, mentored and helped will be the ones to carry it forward.

photo credit: Ken Whytock Quotation: Humility means being open to the idea that you’re not right. via photopin (license)

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Giving Feedback That People Hear

Last month I read a great article about giving feedback that I thought was very timely as I know many of you are getting ready for performance reviews. First, it reminds me of a saying that has been attributed to both Buddha and Socrates, “Is it True? Is it Necessary? Is it Kind?” and second, it points to the fact that giving feedback is more about us than the recipient.

Let’s start with the second bit of advice first. It’s always all about us, that’s human nature. We are wired to think about ourselves first, middle, and last. It’s survival, but we often take it for granted or carry it too far. When we think about giving feedback, positive or negative, it’s often unconsciously about us. We wonder about how hard it will be and what will people think of me? etc. The article linked at the beginning of this post is full of statistics about biases and beliefs around feedback and the effect it has on performance. It’s important to recognize these “facts” before you even think about giving someone feedback. Your job is to be responsible for what gets heard.

Now let’s look at the first of the three simple rules of giving feedback. “Is it true?” Employees want and crave feedback, truthful feedback that is. They are more likely to make a behavioral change to something they perceive as true vs. some made up “improve this” because you felt you needed to at least tell them something. Don’t make stuff up or reach for an improvement comment just so you can have one. It doesn’t do anyone any good. Even if you think you’re being helpful, you’re not. If you question whether it’s true in the slightest bit, it probably isn’t. So focus on the facts, the truth, and leave the rest alone.

The second rule is, “Is it necessary?” We are not the messengers of the world sent down to tell everyone every little thing they are doing wrong. We are not gods. We are managers of people who might be able to do better at something. If an employee’s performance is being impacted by a behavioral trait that could use a change or improvement, tell them. If it’s just an annoying habit that you don’t care for but doesn’t impact the workplace, let it go. Not your job. And never give more than three pieces of direction for improvement – beyond that, a person’s brain just shuts down and they feel worthless. Give them specific things to change and examples of how it doesn’t serve and how it could with the change. No one is broken with that approach.

Lastly, “Is it kind?” We often forget this when giving feedback in our haste to get it over with. We can be abrupt, direct and insensitive. The problem is if you take that approach, it won’t be heard. Put yourself in the shoes of the recipient – how would they hear it best? What is kind to them? How would you like to hear it? Here’s where a little empathy goes a long way. Don’t make excuses for the behavior or apologize, but be kind in your delivery. It will have a much better chance of being heard.

Remember that this advice is not just for review time, it’s about giving feedback which you should be doing regularly. Once a year or even once a quarter is not enough, mentor your people on a regular basis and this becomes much easier.

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Kindness, Character & Community Matter

David Brooks wrote an interesting piece this week about Communities of Character and what some schools are doing to teach this.

What struck me most about the article and the school described, was the focus on kindness and caring as opposed to our traditional focus on achievement. Kurt Hahn, the founder of Outward Bound, once wrote, “It is the foremost task of education to insure the survival of these qualities: an enterprising curiosity, an undefeatable spirit, tenacity in pursuit, readiness for sensible denial, and above all, compassion.”

The amazing result of this focus is an extremely high graduation rate and 100% of students going on to college. Brooks’ point was that character does not develop all by itself, it takes a community to provide the checks and balances, the safety net to make sure the person sets and keeps the right boundaries.

If we look at each business as a community, the joint character created is called culture, however, the “community,” or business, could certainly help all those who belong build character. If we simply replace the word “education” in Kurt Hahn’s quote with “business,” my guess is successful results would be the outcome, and consequently, happier employees.

Let’s look at these qualities and consider what they mean for business:

Enterprising Curiosity: Businesses celebrate this, inventions are thought up, new processes are created and all things move forward when we question in service of the greater good. Curiosity is not a bad thing, lack of curiosity leads to moribund business and “old ways of doing things” that usually no longer serve the original purpose.

Undefeatable Spirit: As every entrepreneur knows, you will have many failures before success shows up. Belief in the greater good, that goal, that willingness to fail, to move forward is a wonderful quality in all employees. It’s that spirit that keeps everyone going, in spite of unfavorable odds and setbacks.

Tenacity in Pursuit: Dogged pursuit of that which we know will eventually work out. Getting back up after a failure, but more importantly being supported by that community of co-workers who have your back. “We’re in this together spirit” has created many a new successful business idea.

Readiness for Sensible Denial:  I’m not quite sure what Hahn meant by this one, but to me it means that it’s okay to disagree, to discuss, defend and suspend ideas. It’s okay to have discussions as long as we include everyone and are open to different points of view. It’s keeping the full 360-degree view vs the 90-degree angle.

Compassion: Last, but certainly not least! Businesses would be well served to incorporate this into their cultures. More compassion to and from employees leads to a more productive and harmonious workplace, more compassion to customers also leads to loyalty.

Think about your business as a community and what you can do to strengthen the character of those who are a part of it. I believe the result will be stronger businesses, happier employees and better communities for all of us.

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Being Grateful is Important for You and Your Business

As you look to close out 2016 and ring in 2017, revising old plans, making new ones, celebrating successes and learning from failures, don’t forget to look, at least for a moment at today.

As business leaders, you are always looking out ahead, mitigating risks, taking on new challenges and sometimes you can forget what is right in front of you. Your family, your employees, your vendors and your customers, all have contributed to making you who you are, what your businesses are, and the impact you have had. When was the last time you said thank you?

Most often, the first one you think of is your customers and send a card or gift of thanks. Next on the list is your vendors, which you sometimes acknowledge with a card, a gift or a call. Third is your employees and you likely have a holiday party of some sort, a bonus, a gift or all of the above. Lastly, you might think to thank your family.

I might suggest that the order is completely backward. The most important people in your life are your family, after all, what are you really doing this for anyway? And who has sacrificed the most while you built your business? They have. Next on the priority list are your employees. They helped you build, deliver, sell, execute and stay in business every single day. And most will give their all every day to make sure you succeed in your goals. What are you doing to help them succeed in theirs?

There is no better time than the present to say thanks. A meaningful thank you from the heart for all those who have helped you along the way. The holidays are about giving back and saying thank you.

So thank you to all of you who have helped my business this year. I appreciate all the help and support I’ve received over the year and hope to pay it forward many times each day. Join me and the holidays will not be an event but a way of life, every day of the year.

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Culture + Values + Alignment = A Company to Love

“There comes a time when you ought to start doing what you want. Take a job that you love. You will jump out of bed in the morning. I think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you don’t like because you think it will look good on your resume. Isn’t that a little like saving up sex for your old age?” ~Warren Buffet

Having a great workplace culture is not just a happy ideal and a kumbaya moment for your employees. It’s about productivity, employee retention and the ability to have a place that both you AND your employees want to come every day. Remember you started your business because you were tired of working for someone else and presumably wanted to do something that you loved. Of course, you probably didn’t think through the whole entrepreneurship bucket of emotions, but on the whole, it seemed better than the alternative!

So why don’t we pay more attention to culture? Because it’s “soft” and we’re hard-charging, focused-on-the-goal, bulls-on-the-run. But it turns out that culture has more to do with success than everything else combined – a good product or service will stagnate in a culture that is not aligned on mission and values.

When I present “Creating Intentional Culture & Values” to companies, I can always tell how long or short the values conversation will be. I see how the room is set-up, how the employees are grouped, how open or closed they are and how much attention is being paid to the conversation. Good or aligned cultures come to agreement on the values quickly with little equivocation over definitions. Unaligned or unintentional cultures don’t agree and the values conversation is almost never concluded. Without this basic agreement, productivity will never happen. Employees will be unhappy, arguments will ensue, people will choose sides and employee retention goes out the window.

As the leader, it’s up to you to set the vision, the strategy, and the culture to achieve it. Your job is to grow your company and your people. Without a productive or “intentional” culture, this is almost impossible. An aligned, intentional culture achieves amazing results. For your New Year’s resolution, take some time to revisit or refine your values, decide how they can be lived in the workplace, and most importantly, figure out how to hire to them. You can have a company you love, but more importantly, you can create one that others love working for.

“If you are lucky enough to be someone’s employer, then you have a moral obligation to make sure people do look forward to coming to work in the morning.”  ~ John Mackey, Whole Foods Market

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Is a Happy Workforce Possible?

 

A recent New York Times Op-Ed piece “Why You Hate Work” pointed out that just 30% of the American workforce is satisfied. That’s a pretty dismal number and does not bode well for productivity, which in turn, affects the bottom line. Only 13% of the worldwide workforce is satisfied which is truly frightening considering that work/production is what makes the world go round.

The researchers found that there are 4 things workers are looking for in the workplace:

Engagement
Renewal
Value
Focus

Engagement is defined as more than just engaged in one’s job, it’s engagement in the organization, the cause, the mission or the greater good that the product or service is attempting to achieve. This is especially important for the millennial generation, they want to believe in something, and to make a difference. They found that the way people “feel” about their work directly correlates to how well they perform which translates to productivity. This is not a new concept, but certainly worth revisiting and asking ourselves as employers, how engaged are our employees?

Renewal:  This is the ability to take a break, to recharge and refresh. The study found that those employees who are able to take a break every 90 minutes report a 30% higher level of focus than those who don’t. They report a 50% greater capacity to think creatively and report a higher level of well-being. The more they work over 40 hours, the worse they feel. The 40-hour work week was put in place for a reason – humans are not robots.

Value: Feeling valued by one’s supervisor or leader has a significant impact on the way employees perform. It contributes to their sense of well-being and safety. If a person feels valued, they will be much less likely to be stolen away by a competitor, even when big dollars are dangled in front of them.

Focus:  Interestingly, only 20% of those surveyed said they were able to focus on one task at a time at work, meaning, they were expected to focus on several.  However, those who could focus on just one were 50% more engaged! Only 50% said they could effectively prioritize their tasks, but when they could, they could focus on one thing at a time.

Clearly, we have a lot of work to do to help employees in the workplace! However, if we focus on these four areas, the dividends to the employees will be huge and the productivity (and profits) will follow.

Large companies will have a more difficult time with this because they will try to make it a process – likely making employees feel less valued and more used. Small employers, on the other hand, can likely implement these with more authenticity and speed. Small companies are more agile, less bureaucratic and better able to listen and respond to the need. It doesn’t take much and you could make your company an “employer of choice” in time for the new year!

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Events Are Neutral

We assign meaning to most things that happen in life. The meaning is dependent upon a combination of many things including our beliefs, our experiences, and our values. Once we’ve assigned this meaning, we then “feel” a certain way as a result of our interpretation (meaning) of the event. A great example of this is our recent election. Those who voted for the Democratic candidate think the outcome will cause immense harm to our country and is horrible. Those who voted for the Republican candidate think it’s great and will “Make American Great Again.” And each side has very strong feelings about their point-of-view and interpretation of this event. The event did not assign the meaning, we did. It was neutral, we are not. It doesn’t mean that events don’t have consequences because they most certainly do, they just don’t always “mean” what we think they mean.

The reason I bring this up is that the election elicited some very powerful, very emotional reactions from both sides. Neither is right nor wrong. More events will happen because of the election, but again, they are neutral, we give them meaning. The more we assign meaning to the event, the more we “feel” one way or the other and are committed to making others “feel” that way too, because how could they not?

This happens in the workplace all the time. The boss comes in late without saying good morning to anyone. The assumption (meaning) is that she’s in a bad mood. This might be true, but there could easily be 10 other explanations for why she didn’t say good morning – distracted because of a previous call, thinking about the first meeting of the day, an earlier interaction with one of her children or spouse, completely spaced out when she came – the list goes on. We all pick one and declare it to be the truth and then behave and feel in a way that fits with our meaning. If you’re her assistant, you might assume it’s because of something you did and feel bad for the rest of the day. When in fact, it had nothing to do with you. As humans, we can’t help but assign meaning. The problem is 9 times out of 10 we never consider that we are essentially guessing and might be wrong.

So rather than feel bad (or good) because of an interpretation or meaning that we have assigned to an event, just for a moment, assume the event was neutral. It happened but it has no meaning. Instead of imposing an interpretation on it, try listing options of things it could mean, including your first assumption. Upon examination, you might find that your meaning might be wrong and therefore your feelings that resulted are misplaced. The consequences of events are facts – when they’ve happened. Prior to them happening, it’s conjecture.

Think about how less stressed the workplace would be if we treated events as neutral and were slow to assign meaning. We might be much happier.

photo credit: A Health Blog Exercise Plays Vital Role Maintaining Brain Health via photopin (license)

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Who’s Got Your Back?

I had the amazing privilege to see the Seahawks play the Patriots in Gillette Stadium recently and I was pleasantly surprised. I was surprised that football fans are great. They are perfectly fine with a differing point-of-view, passionate about theirs, and happy to have the discussion! If only more in life were like sports fans. Nobody is wrong about their favorite, we just may have to spend a little more time convincing them that our choice is better.

More importantly, I thought about a recent Seahawks/Cardinals game that gave us a very different lesson in leadership. It was a very frustrating “tied” game – two mistakes and two completely different reactions. Coach Carroll of the Seahawks continued to support his player after the game, not offering excuses, but rather saying “we have faith in him and focus on all he did right.” The Cardinals’ coach did exactly the opposite – belittling his player. Which player do you think is more likely to succeed the next time? Which player is more likely to be inspired by his leader? I think the answer to that one is fairly obvious.

As a leader, pointing out the obvious mistakes that someone has made is counterproductive. They know what they have done. Unless for some unknown reason, they are clueless and really truly don’t know, don’t rehash it. Talk about what to do in the future, what to do differently and be there to support their learning and improvement.

This goes back to values, what do you believe? What values have defined your culture? If it’s collaboration, empowerment or trust, you behave like Coach Carroll. You believe in “team,” that mistakes are okay as long as improvement is close behind, and you have your team’s back – always. If you believe in motivation through humiliation, perfection, and bullying, you coach like Arizona. And although sometimes the effect of this type of leadership can be short term improvement, it almost always results in long-term failure. No one will stay with a team like that for long, they will go to where they can learn to be better, allowed to make mistakes in service of learning and can win as a “team.”

What is your leadership style? Do you have your team’s back? Does your executive team have their team’s backs? Winning cultures do. Let’s all look to sports for some good examples of leadership – from the fans as well as the coaches.

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Time to Lead

As we all watch our nation pick a new leader, it strikes me that this election has, unfortunately, had very little to do with leadership. I got to thinking that this can happen in our companies too, focus is lost, goals are diverted and conversations get out of hand. “Winning” becomes the prize and “leadership” is a casualty of the war.

When is the last time you shared the overall vision with your entire company? When is the last time you pulled up the business plan by the roots to see if it was still healthy? When was the last time you asked what inspired your team, your employees, your customers?

Leadership is about asking questions and being okay with not knowing all the answers. In fact, looking to others’ answers before your own to see what you might be missing, and to really hear what is being said in response. Leadership is not about making someone “wrong,” it’s about helping everyone do what’s right.

Your employees are looking to you to be a leader, not just “the boss.” They want to work for a company that treats them well, pays fairly, has a mission or vision they can get behind, and where they feel like part of the team. We all like to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. Are you providing that opportunity for your people?

What opportunities do your employees have to learn and grow? Who will mentor them and how can they ask for help? Who cares about them? They won’t care about you and your company if you don’t care about them.

Leadership is not one size fits all. It comes in all shapes and sizes, in small moments and in big ones. It’s not an event, it’s a way of being and EVERYONE has an opportunity to do a good job of leading themselves and others – they just need a little help sometimes to be shown how – or more accurately, to be inspired to do so.

It’s not about having everyone agree with you, in fact, leadership is frequently about getting people to go along with something they originally disagreed with. It’s about showing them “why” it’s important, what’s in it for them and the art of compromise. Listening to others’ points-of-view will often uncover the hidden path or way forward that was previously not visible.

It’s about compromise, respect and knowing when you are in the wrong. Humility is a good thing for a leader to practice.

We are all so very tired of the attacks, opinions being misrepresented as facts and “my way or the highway approach” of this election season. We can use our frustration and fatigue to show us what hasn’t worked and use that as a way of reflecting on our own leadership. Let’s hold ourselves to a higher standard and not repeat the mistakes we are seeing on such a big scale during this election year.

photo credit: anka.albrecht Wecker via photopin (license)

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