Bill Treasurer's Blog, page 14

How to Resolve Team Conflicts When You’re Working from Home

There’s no escaping the reality of conflict at work. Whether you’re a new leader having to confront poor performance issues, or a seasoned leader having to protect your organization’s interests as you negotiate with an over-dominant customer, in order to be successful, you’re going to have to be skilled at engaging in conflict.

Running away is not an option!

Fundamentally, there are two kinds of conflict: productive or destructive.

The reason many people shy away from conflict is because they’ve witnessed or experienced the painful effects of destructive conflict. Poorly managed conflict is costly, so getting conflict right, and keeping it productive, is supremely important. Productive conflict yields transparency, where people don’t swallow or hide their true opinions and perspectives. Productive conflict creates shared accountability where people don’t fear confronting teammates who aren’t carrying their weight or are not upholding the organization’s values. Productive conflict is good business. It just takes courage on your part!

Conflict is going to pop up now and then in your organization. $359 billion in paid hours, the equivalent of 385 million working days, are lost each year to workplace conflict! Knowing how to spot destructive conflict and how to diffuse it before it spirals out of control and takes down a whole meeting or team work day is an important skill. And since we’re all working from home, the ways we communicate have shifted accordingly, and this brings added challenges to the task of conflict resolution.

 

Techniques to diffuse conflicts in a remote work setting

There are a number of go-to techniques when it comes to conflict resolution, and when it comes to remote work we have to lean on the ones that rely on verbal or written communication, as those are usually the only tools we have on hand from our own home offices. Communication and mutual understanding are your goals with the majority of these tactics; many conflicts calm down or disappear altogether when both parties are able to get on the same page, and talking through our individual perspectives is the best way to get the other person there. Here are those techniques with an example of each:

Shoe Stepping: Use this approach to put yourself in the shoes of the person with whom you’re engaged with a conflict, which may help you value their perspective more. Say, “I’m struggling to understand your perspective and I’d like to; can you tell me more about…”
Going Upstream: This approach will help you understand how the person came to draw the conclusion you might be opposed to. When you know how they formed their opinion or idea, you might become more tolerant of their position. Say, “Help me understand what led you to that conclusion…”
Play it forward: This technique can be used when you want a person to consider the negative results that can result from their perspective. Getting them to draw their own conclusion is far less threatening than if you bluntly state your opinions about their idea or perspective. “I can see how [restate their idea]. How might that impact [insert your concern]?”
Go With It: What can you do when you just want the person to entertain your idea, even though they are locked into theirs? Say, “I get it, and your probably right [restate their idea]. Just for a moment, though, play with me here. What if I could somehow [resolve their concern], what would be the value of [insert your idea]?”
Two Truths: Sometimes the person you’re engaged in a conflict with is only recognizing their side of the issue. Start by acknowledging the truth of what they said, and then add the truth you hold which is different. Very often two counter-balancing ideas can both be true at the same time. Say, “It’s true that…It’s also true that…”
Boomerang: One of the best ways to avoid a conflict becoming destructive is to have other people come to your side before the conflict gets out of hand. Say, “So that I’m clear, you’re saying [restate their position]. Got it. I wonder if someone else here has a different viewpoint they can share.”
What Else: Sometimes the person who you’re engaged in a conflict with has a half-baked perspective that, with a little help, could be better. Say, “My understanding of your idea is [restate your understanding of their idea]. So what else do we need to include with this idea? What might be missing?”

Not every technique described above will work in every situation, of course. Next time find yourself amid a conflict, feel out which of the following techniques is most appropriate and give it a shot! And of course, if you see or hear two others in a conflict, you can still use these techniques to try and defuse the situation between them.

 

Grab the bull by the horns

If you’d like to learn more about how to discuss the importance of conflict, understand the various sources of conflict, discover practical ways to make conflict productive in the workplace, and practice improving your own personal ways of dealing with conflict and dilemmas, you can purchase the workbook Unlocking Horns: Courageous Conflict at Work, available now at Amazon. This is a must-have training tool for leaders, managers, small business owners and executives.

Remote Working Tips for Better Meetings

With more people than ever working remotely, it feels like we have been in a lot more meetings than normal in 2020. The desire to sync up with your team more often when we are all working from our separate homes makes sense, but few things elicit a collective groan as much as telling people they have to attend yet another work meeting.

Everyone knows how uninspiring and unproductive work meetings often are.

Why?

There could be many reasons.

Maybe there’s no agenda.

Topics wander all over the place.

No summary notes are taken.

The wrong people are invited, and those who are often talk over each other instead of to each other.

Things not covered are pushed to the next meeting—and sometimes that next meeting is often just a rehash of the last one.

The good news: meetings can be powerful. Done right, your meetings will add more productivity and value to your organization, and people will actually want to attend meetings because its where strategies are crafted, direction is set, and decisions are made.

How do you make a meeting great? Start it with a P-O-W.

That is, start your meetings by making sure everyone on the call understands the Purpose, the Outcomes, and the Why for that meeting. These “POW” influences the people you invite and sets a baseline for their participation. Here is an example:

PURPOSE: The meeting was called to finalize budget recommendation.
OUTCOME: To have the final department budget ready to submit for corporate budget review.
WHY: “We were over budget last year and unfortunately that’s why we didn’t get approval for additional headcount. Let’s make sure that we plan well and ask for what we need.”

But what about teleconferencing? How do you start the meeting with a POW even when it is taking place across many locations at once? There are several techniques and tactics to try that will help your meetings go smoothly so you can focus on the POW impact.

 

Remote working tips

Send all materials and reference documents in advance; no wonder we are not getting as much done in our regular meetings when we spend the first few minutes sending items and waiting for the things others sent to appear in our inboxes!
Begin with the agenda and meeting ground rules. Get the “P” in POW on the table right from the onset!
Take roll call and identify yourself when you speak; things shared in a meeting are important not just because of what is being said but also who is saying it. Making sure everyone on the call knows who is who, and who is speaking at a given time, will cut off much potential confusion or misunderstanding that can get in the way down the road.
Use the mute button when listening, or simply stay on mute when you are not speaking. Avoid heavy breathing or background noises that are distracting to others on the call.
Pause after making a point to give others the room to comment.
Learn the key features of your teleconference provider, such as security, subconferencing capabilities (allowing the meeting to break out into subgroups), and so forth.
Avoid using gestures when you speak. You might not realize you’re using your hands to emphasize your words, but either you’re on the phone where no one can see them or you’re in a videoconference where a good portion of the attendees didn’t see it on their screen (or maybe the gesture was outside of your camera frame), so don’t rely on nonverbal cues to make your points.
If you are dialing in via your cell phone, there are a few unique things to watch out for or do to make the call productive:

Disable call-waiting by dialing *70 before placing the call.
Speak directly into the handset as opposed to on speakerphone if possible.
Do not place the call on hold if your phone system plays hold music! If you are not sure if this applies to your phone, test it out beforehand.

If you want to improve your meetings no matter where you are, make them POW-erful.

Learn many more tips like these and gain access to helpful exercises that will level up your meetings in the POW-erful Meetings workbook by Becky Jarrell, available now at Amazon.

Courage and Consequences: An Interview with Congressional Candidate Moe Davis

From Bill: the following article is an interview I had with Colonel Moe Davis (ret.) who is currently running as a Congressional candidate for North Carolina’s District 11. Here, he discusses the courage and humility it requires to step into a public leadership role during a divisive time in our country, how personal values can transcend pre-defined expectations and roles, and ways to live daily in integrity.

What would motivate any human being to want to go into politics during a time of such national vitriol?  You’ve already served your country greatly, both as decorated Air Force Colonel and federal terrorism prosecutor.  Why put yourself through this?

I’ve spent the bulk of my adult life serving the country in one capacity or another.  I was in the Air Force for 25 years and retired as a Colonel.  I worked for the 111th Congress as a Senior Specialist in National Security and I was head of the Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Division at the Congressional Research Service.  I was a judge at the U.S. Department of Labor from 2015 until I retired in September 2019.  I love this country and I believe in it.  I’ve invested too many years of my life protecting, defending and strengthening our democracy to sit back and relax and do nothing as it spirals down the drain.  There’ll be time for retirement later, but first we’ve got to shore up the cracks in the foundation this country has stood on for 244 years or we risk it all crumbling down into the dustbin of history.  America’s had a good run and I want to fight for that run to continue for many years to come.

I’m 62 years old.  Over the course of my lifetime, I’ve often heard people say, “This is the most important elections ever.”  Well, this time it really is.  Americans have to decide whether they’re going to stand up and fight for democracy or they’re going to bow down and surrender to fascism, because that’s the path we’re on.  I believe most Americans believe in democracy and a government that works for the common good and they’re worn out from three and a half years of constant chaos under the most immoral, incompetent and corrupt administration in American history.  Most Americans want a return to normalcy and stability.  They want us to try and be that shining city on a hill Ronald Reagan described.  We’ve done a lot of damage the past few years and I don’t know that I’ll live long enough to see it all repaired.  But we’ve got to start the repair process and I want to stand in the Capitol on January 3rd and take an oath to serve once again and do my part to help make us a more perfect union.  I figured if not me, who?  So, I raised my hand and said “send me.”

 

One of the things that attracted me to your campaign was that you’ve been honored for putting country above party.  Likewise, you choose the “right” thing when it would be easier to follow status quo.  Tell our readers a little about how you’ve stood up to both Democrat and Republican administrations, and how you mustered the courage to do so.

As the Chief Prosecutor for the terrorism trials at Guantanamo Bay, my policy was that we would not use any evidence derived from torture.  For almost two years, the career military officers above me supported that policy and my team worked to develop cases independent of tortured evidence.  As the career military officers above me began to retire, they were replaced by political appointees.  The head of the military commissions, for instance, went from being a two-star general to a woman who never served a day in uniform, but she had worked for Dick Cheney.  I was told, “President Bush says we don’t torture, so who are you to say that we do.  Now take all the evidence you’re not using, dust it off, and get into court and get these guys convicted.”

In early October 2007, I was called over to the Pentagon and given a written order signed by Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England.  It said I was to report to a one-star – the one who said what we had done to some of the detainees wasn’t torture – and then to the General Counsel for the Department of Defense, the one who drafted the memo Donald Rumsfeld signed that’s often referred to as the “Torture Memo.”  I knew at that point that I could no longer guarantee that we would have full, fair and open trials.  I returned to my office and wrote an email to Deputy Secretary England saying I could no longer in good conscience serve as Chief Prosecutor and asking for immediate reassignment to another job.  A short time later, I got a second order.  This one ordered me not to speak to anyone from the news media about why I’d quit.

I became a very vocal critic of Guantanamo and torture.  I wrote op-eds that ran in major newspapers.  I appeared on network and cable news programs.  I spoke at colleges and at special events.  I even ended up on CNN opposite Alan Dershowitz where he took the pro-torture position and I represented the anti-torture perspective.

I eventually retired from the military and went to work for Congress.  President Obama signed an order to close Guantanamo in January 2009 and he suspended the military commissions.  By the fall of 2009, he began to backpedal and Attorney General Holder started talking about trying some of the detainees in federal courts and others in military commissions at Guantanamo.  On Veterans Day 2009, I wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that was critical of the Obama administration’s proposal to try the good cases in federal court and the bad cases in military commissions.  I argued that Obama could legitimately choose either route, but employing a double-standard of justice was contrary to our values.  That same day, I had a letter to the editor in the Washington Post criticizing former Attorney General Mike Mukasey for a piece he wrote that essentially said that if detainees were brought to the U.S. from Guantanamo to stand trial the world as we know it would come to an end.  Within a few days I was notified that I was fired from my job working for Congress.  I could have kept my job if I would have publicly stated that I made a mistake writing the opinion pieces and if I promised not to do it again.  I said I spent 25 years in the military defending the First Amendment and if I said it didn’t apply to me I would be making a false official statement.  They gave me an empty copier paper box to pack my things and a senior official escorted me to the door and took my badge and key.

Anthony Romero, the head of the ACLU, called and asked what they could do to help.  What they did is spend the next six and a half years in federal court fighting the Obama Justice Department over my First Amendment rights.  We eventually settled the case.  I got a nice check, they restored my lost vacation time, and they changed my personnel record to reflect that I left voluntarily rather than being fired.  Along the way, the Obama Justice Department did all it could to try and smear me in an effort to pressure me to drop the lawsuit.  They accused me of stealing government property for taking copies of emails and memos that I wrote.  In addition to the ACLU representing me on the civil side, I had to hire (and pay out of my own pocket) a criminal defense attorney to fight potential criminal charges.  It was a relief when Judge Reggie Walton (it was Judge Walton who not along ago said Attorney General Barr’s statements about the Mueller Report were distorted and misleading) told the Justice Department to take a hike and the potential criminal case went away.

So, I have a very public record of having fought against administrations of both parties when it was the right thing to do.  I think that’s what many in Western North Carolina are looking for in a member of Congress; a representative who’s not beholden to a party, but will stand up for what’s right even when doing so carries consequences.

And I’m grateful to a number of organizations who recognized the principled stands that I took on torture and free speech.  When you take the leap you have to be prepared to fall alone.  It means a lot when others recognize that what you did mattered and say thank you.  I’m grateful to the Hugh Hefner Foundation, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, and the Lawyers Association of Kansas City, among others, for publicly noting my ethics and integrity.

America seems to be pulling itself apart politically, and the fraying is promoted by the fringes on both parties. Yet you’re running as a centrist. You’re a progressive Democrat who is also decorated military veteran, an avid gun owner and fierce 2nd Amendment supporter, you’ve got deep experience in law enforcement and support both the Blue Line and the lives of Black people. What can America do to find the center it needs right now?

America needs to turn to people who want to bring us together rather than pit us against each other.  The fact is that we are all in this together and we could do so much more if we rowed together rather than apart.  When I was growing up, when families sat around the dinner table and listened to the evening news, we all got pretty much the same facts regardless of whether you watched CBS, NBC or ABC.  When Walter Cronkite said “and that’s the way it is,” that was the way it was.  You could argue over what the policy position should be based on the facts, but we all pretty much agreed on the facts.  Today, you can find what purports to be a news outlet that will reinforce your preconceived perspective.  That’s true on the right and the left.  But on the right, there are people who’ve gotten rich, famous and powerful perpetuating lies that too many people accept as truths.

I believe there are some issues where we can find common ground and work together to solve them.  A prime example is broadband.  The vast majority of Americans and the vast majority of North Carolinians have access to broadband internet service.  Western North Carolina, on the other hand, has counties where half the population lacks broadband access.  That hurts us economically because it limits our ability to attract industry.  It hurts us in making online education available to our kids while we’re in the midst of a pandemic.  It means many of our folks can’t take advantage of telemedicine, which has grown exponentially since Covid-19 hit.  I’m a disabled Veteran and I use the VA for my healthcare.  A recent VA newsletter said telemedicine appointments at the VA are up 1,000% since March 1st, but if you’re one of the 65,000 Veterans in this District and you live in one of the hollows where broadband isn’t available, you can’t utilize that benefit.  Broadband is an issue that impacts Democrats, Republicans and Unaffiliated voters alike and it ought to be an area where we can work together to fix it.  I see it as a potential area of cooperation to solve a significant problem that could serve as base for cooperation in other areas to solve other problems here in Western North Carolina.

photo: Stephan Pruitt Photography

 

Your opponent, Madison Cawthorn, is a 25-year old political neophyte. While you’re a centrist who has consistently chosen the country over party, a lot of voters these days are party-line loyalists. What would you say to a voter who might be on the fence between you and the inexperienced Cawthorn?

If you needed an electrician, a plumber, an auto mechanic, a surgeon or a pilot, you wouldn’t say, “I want the guy with the least experience … he can probably figure it out as he goes.”  I worked as an advisor for Congress.  I’ve testified in Congressional hearings.  I’ve written legislation that has been enacted into law.  No offense to fast food restaurant workers, but I doubt many of them believe working the drive-thru and manning the deep-fryer is all the experience that’s necessary to make decisions at the national level on foreign affairs, military strategic planning and fiscal policy.  That’s pretty much all of the education, training and experience my opponent brings to the table.  The fact is that he’d be the youngest, most inexperience, most uneducated, and the least qualified member of Congress.  I appreciate the superficial appeal that might have to some, but we’re living in challenging times and I believe most people understanding that knowledge and experience matter, particular at this point in time in our history.

I’ve also got a proven record of standing up to both parties in situations where it’s the right thing to do.  My opponent has made it clear that he’ll go to Washington and do what Trump and Meadows tell him to do.  I think the majority of Western North Carolinians want someone representing them in Congress, not the President or either party.  It’s a simple fact that we have fallen behind here in this District and we are not going to catch up sending someone to Washington who’s infatuated with those in power who’ve enriched themselves at the expense of ordinary citizens.

Finally, no one seriously thinks that the Democrats are going to lose control of the House in November.  A member serving in the majority is better situated to get things done for the District than someone in the minority who lacks the clout to do much.  So, when you put all of that together, I believe it paints a pretty clear picture of which side of the fence is the right side to land on.  My pledge is to represent the entire District, not just those who like me and support me.  We can do better – all of us – and I’m committed to give it my all to move us forward.

About Moe Davis

Moe Davis is a retired Air Force Colonel, former Chief Prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay, Director of the Air Force Judiciary, law professor, judge, speaker, writer and national security expert for Congress who has appeared on news shows from NBC to CNN, CBS, Fox, MSNBC, NPR and more.

Add to that the honors he has received, including the prestigious Legion of Merit, six Meritorious Service Medals, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and Headquarters Air Force Judge Advocate of the Year award, among others.

Born and raised in Shelby, N.C., Davis graduated from Appalachian State and N.C. Central School of Law. He hopes to serve as Congressman in the 11th District and give Western North Carolina a true voice in Washington.

Coaching Tips

Hey GLC readers! I hope you and your families are doing well!

We’re already into August of this crazy year,  and much of the world has opened back up amid the ongoing COVID pandemic, trying to return to “normal.”

In some parts of this country, true leaders are emerging as businesses, schools and sports attempt to make the best of what being safe will allow. I do know that, as I pursue my Ph.D. in leadership, I am growing weary of the virtual classroom, and long for the day when I can return to Philadelphia, walk the UPenn campus and sit in a real classroom again!

I’m also wondering if some of you are feeling a bit overwhelmed like some of my fellow classmates, in that going virtual and working from home has made their job harder.

Many feel that being a leader in a virtual world has now become more of a 24/7/365 requirement than before, and that personnel management has become extremely difficult because more of their subordinates are working from home and not in an office setting. Questions such as how to give timely and authentic feedback, how to lead/coach in a virtual world, and how to produce results and establish accountability have arisen.

As I listen to my classmates, I am reminded (and grateful) for my time in the military. Virtual leadership was the norm throughout my career, especially when I was deployed and/or assigned overseas. The commander and their supporting headquarters elements were often located in the United States (or another remote part of a foreign country), so use of the virtual world to get the word out was extensive, primarily accomplished with a combination of email, text, phone, video teleconferencing capability (VTC), etc. Especially on the battlefield, where the dynamics were ever-changing, commanders have relied heavily on intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) virtual platforms to closely monitor and subsequently conduct time-sensitive combat operations against emergent enemy threats.

 

Coach’s tips of the month:

If you’d like to become a better virtual leader, try out some of these:

Communicate often and as required.

Use any/all virtual platforms available to you to get the word out, both inside and outside of your organization. Like ISR, battlefield operations are currently being conducted and coordinated via a simple text, so there really is no excuse to not be able to communicate with your people and organization.

Set up a schedule.

You’re busy, your people are busy…set up a consistent schedule and follow it.

Be brief, be brilliant and be gone.

Virtual platforms break down and/or suffer frequent interruptions, so try not to have long, drawn out meetings. Your credibility as a leader will suffer, and subordinates will tune you out, if you are constantly cutting in/out of a virtual meeting or conference.

Hold people accountable.

Just because your subordinates are working from home, does not mean the quantity and quality of their expected work should diminish. Hold your people accountable to the very same standards as if they were in the office.

Manage your time.

You are the boss, so it is extremely important for you to professionally manage and prioritize all your personal demands to be (and remain) an effective “virtual” leader.

 

BOTTOM LINE: Leadership is hard (especially in a virtual world). Accept it, attack it, and make it work!

That’s it for this month! Have a safe rest of the summer, and I will talk with you all again in October!

Leaders Use Lead-Ups to Prepare Their Teams for the Future

As a leader, you have two primary jobs: 1) leave the company better off than you found it, and 2) leave people better off than you found them. The former is achieved through the latter. Thus, you have to keep sight of each person’s potential. Because in helping them to actualize their capabilities, you help the company succeed. 

Frequently, you’ll have a richer understanding of people’s potential than they have. The temptation is to push them to the edge of that potential too quickly, giving them challenges that eclipse their preparation. Modulating comfort is a better approach because it allows you to incrementally provide workers with difficult challenges that groom their skills in a measured way. As a former high diver, I’ve benefited from the practice and implementation of “lead-ups.” 

What are lead-ups?

Lead-ups are the building blocks of complex assignments, and using them dramatically enhances people’s level of preparedness. If you bypass all of the little skills that lead to the complex tasks you want your workers to achieve, you lower their chances of success. No high diver in his right mind would jump off a hundred foot high dive platform without first doing hundreds of jumps at lower levels. Indeed, the path to becoming a high diver starts by doing endless jumps off the pool deck’s side, about two feet off the water. 

To illustrate how lead-ups work, let’s say you are managing a team responsible for generating data reports for the company’s senior executives. Your boss has started to complain that the reports appear like little more than data dumps, requiring her to interpret too much data. Going forward, she tells you, she wants your team to interpret the data and make recommendations for actions that the senior executives should take. In essence, she is asking that your team members stop thinking of themselves as data analysts and start seeing themselves as business consultants.

In this case, the temptation is to expect your team members to shift instantaneously from analyst to consultant just because you said so. However, the reality is that making the transition requires gaining a deeper understanding of the business and its goals. It requires developing strategic thinking skills and the ability to shift between line item details and big-picture implications. More challenging, it requires changing each worker’s self-concept from a provider of data to a provider of advice. 

If you bypass all of the little skills that lead to the complex tasks you want your workers to achieve, you lower their chances of success.

For an advice-giver, the risk is higher because if a worker’s advice is faulty after the senior executives have agreed to follow it, the business’s impact is much more consequential than when the worker just provided raw data. Because all of these reasons conspire to make such a transition extremely uncomfortable for employees, the situation is right for using a lead-up approach. Modulating comfort in an incremental way makes all the changes associated with the transition more absorbable.

How can I use a lead-up?

How might lead-ups be used to modulate comfort in this case? You could start by informing the team about the reasons behind the shift in their roles, tying it to the company’s goals, and to how the new skills will benefit them as professionals. Then you could ask them what excites them about the job shift and what concerns they have. Maybe you could then offer training on strategic thinking, or on major trends impacting the business. Next, you could take an old data report and brainstorm recommendations they would have made if they were business consultants and not data analysts. Then you could have them run a sample report and present recommendations to you for your feedback. Finally, you could have them do what the whole process was leading up to, creating the report and recommendations that your boss is expecting. 

Using lead-ups to modulate comfort helps workers do uncomfortable things that in the absence of an incremental approach, they might not have done. With each lead-up, the employee is exercising more courage and experiencing exponential professional growth. As a leader, giving back to your employees and the organization is a lead-up all your own.

7 Ways To Improve Your Professionalism

Updated July 2020

At Giant Leap Consulting, we understand the need for professionalism. In fact, we offer an entire professionalism workshop which highlights the following 7 characteristics. These focal points are designed to help you and your company improve professionalism across the board.

7 Keys Ways to Develop Your Professionalism
#1 Character

It all starts with who we are, and how we conduct ourselves. Character is the defining attribute of professionalism.

A key aspect of professional character for anyone—leader, employee, or even client—is integrity. Like bridges, people with high integrity are those who aren’t missing elements of good character. They are honest and ethical in all their dealings, not just at times when it is convenient or when they are being watched. When you have integrity, there’s a high degree of congruence between the values you espouse and your actual behavior.

Remember: the best test of your integrity is how you behave when nobody is watching.

#2 Caring

Are you invested in your work? Go-getters, the best (and often most professional) employees, take an interest in strategy and direction. They seek out tough job assignments. They take responsibility for their own careers. They strive to learn new skills and capabilities to deliver higher levels of value. They want success for their teammates and themselves. In short, go-getters care—they give a rip!

#3 Clothing

Be conscious of your professional image. The way in which you physically show up (clothes, hair, tidiness, etc.) will certainly make an impression on the people you meet and those with which you work. A professional appearance is also a way to express consideration for others and a desire to keep them from feeling uncomfortable.

#4 Customer Service

A key mark of a professional is how they treat their customers. Exceeding the expectations of customers should be a part of every company’s mission statement. Great customer service is based on building relationships. Some tips for relationship building include:

Make friends with clients. There’s an old saying, “Get a customer, make some money. Make a friend, make a fortune.”
When entertaining, know what you can and can’t do from an ethics standpoint.
Learn and acknowledge birthdays. Send people birthday cards.
Send handwritten thank-you notes. Mailed, not emailed.

#5 Communication

What you say and how you say it will go a long way to communicate whether or not you are a true professional.

Before meeting with a client for the first time, set yourself up for good and friendly communication. Do upfront research on that person—Google them, use LinkedIn, get to know as much as possible about them. Make a good first impression by looking people directly in the eye, shaking their hand (firmly), and saying their name enough to memorize it. Don’t jump into the business conversation. Find out what they like to do, their passions or interests, and start with that.

#6 Composure

Composure means handling stress maturely. It involves being level-headed when dealing with pressure. When in conflict, remember that there are always three sides: my side, the other person’s side, and someplace in the middle that has pieces of each side. Usually, the middle is the truth.

The ability to courageously maintain composure amidst conflict is a key marker of professionalism.

#7 Commitment

Professionalism requires commitment. It requires maintaining professionalism when it’s temping or easier not to. With clients, show your commitment by following up soon after meetings to recap the outcomes and commit to your action items. It shows you’re conscientious and engaged.

As an employee or leader, YOU must commit to stepping it up!

Commit yourself to the 7 Cs and you will see a difference in how you are perceived and, more importantly, how you feel about your own professionalism.

All Hail Supreme General Hubris

Hubris is a commanding general, the guy in charge. The more hubristic a leader is, the more wanton, unrestrained, and degenerate he will be. You see General Hubris doing his work when a leader exchanges self-restraint and humility for arrogance and self-interest. If good leadership starts with leading oneself, hubris is the best evidence that a leader is misleading himself.

The Latin word for “I” is ego. Hubris results from over-indulging and feeding the ego, eroding a leader’s character at a foundational level, to the point of eventual implosion. As hubris builds, character and humility slowly decay, sometimes over years or decades. Each small selfish decision, each act of ego-indulgence, corrodes a leader’s moral foundation until it gets so compromised, so weekend, so jaded that it buckles. A central warning across the ages, from the Bible to Shakespeare to the present day, is that the fall of one’s character, and all the peripheral damage that character erosion causes, is preceded by the over-inflation of pride. 

It’s easy to fathom how a leader might become convinced of his own superiority, given that in many organizations we still refer to our leaders as our “superiors.”

Leadership is massively seductive. Leaders get special treatment, often to the point that they believe that they are, in fact, more than special—they are superior. It’s easy to fathom how a leader might become convinced of his own superiority, given that in many organizations we still refer to our leaders as our “superiors.” A highly organizational rank, though, should not equate with human superiority, and self-leadership requires the leader to be conscious, self-aware, and awake to the ways he is, in fact, not superior. He is merely assigned more power and responsibility to get results on our behalf.

Be Confident Without Slipping Into Overconfidence 

When it comes to leadership, one important consideration is the kind of leader people willingly follow. Authentic leader confidence is important to followers. We want our leaders to have a backbone, genuine convictions, and a strong sense of self. We want to be led by leaders who are comfortable with who they are and not squirrely in their skin. We want leaders who can make tough decisions without waffling. Yes, we want our leaders to be confident. But we don’t want them to be overconfident. There are fewer turn-offs as damaging to group loyalty as a leader’s arrogance. When confidence slips over into conceit (hubris), the focus of leadership shifts from service to self-interest. Most followers will withhold loyalty from the leader they think is strictly out for his own best interests.

Ego-driven leaders lack the humility to listen to the sound advice and opinions of others and won’t admit when they are wrong.

Much of the focus of my book, A Leadership Kick in the Ass, is on the negative consequences of leadership vanity. The title of the book is not about the butt-kicking that leaders should give others but about the self-inflicted kicks leaders should receive as a result of their own self-absorption. The book explores the critical and counterbalancing relationship between confidence and humility, and how followers want the presence and harmony of both. As the book notes, the best leaders are centered, grounded, and non-toxic. They lead not so their power can grow, but so everyone else’s can. Through giving the best of themselves, they draw out the best in everyone else.

The key is to remain authentically teachable and humble in your role as a leader. Because history is indeed a cautionary tale. Hubristic leadership is dangerous. Ego-driven leaders lack the humility to listen to the sound advice and opinions of others and won’t admit when they are wrong. Hubris causes overconfidence in the face of danger. Egotistical leaders will stack the odds in their favor regardless of the logic presented. They become untethered to reality and at some point, if we are lucky, they lose the faith of even those who at one point blindly followed their audacious lead.

Allow Nature to Show You the Upside

Many of you know me to be an upbeat person.

The truth is, there have been many days during the last few months where I got completely bummed out.

Between the pandemic, massive unemployment, and recent protests across the country, I’ve had more than a few days where I just wanted to pull my covers back over my head and stay in bed.

Get unplugged

Yet, despite having plenty of blue days, I still managed to get up, have my coffee, and keep going. When things started spinning out of control in the world around me, I decided to unplug, get outside, and breathe some fresh air.

It’s one thing to be admiring a river from the riverbanks, it’s an entirely different experience to be paddling on the river…

Then something beautiful happened: I started spending time with my kids.

Specifically, I started whitewater kayaking with my teenage sons, Alex, and Ian. One of the primary reasons I moved to Asheville some 15 years ago was to be closer to the great whitewater rivers of the Southeast. I had become an avid paddler during the 12 years I lived in Atlanta, and the sport brought pure joy to my soul. But after moving to Asheville and having my third child (Ian), I basically stopped paddling. My kayaks gathered dust in my backyard shed.

Beautiful things can grow out of ugly places

The spate of recent bad news pushed me to grab some sanity—outside.

I dusted off the boats, strapped them on the roof of my Subaru, and headed to a local whitewater park with my boys. (Yes, Asheville has a park for paddlers, called “The Ledges.”) It’s one thing to be admiring a river from the riverbanks, it’s an entirely different experience to be paddling on the river, with cold water splashing you in the face as you dodge boulders and pour-overs!

Nature is healing and fills the soul with joy.

The river demands your full attention! No thinking about COVID, no obsessing about the news cycle, no negativity. It forces you to be fully present in the here and now.

Nature is healing

It didn’t take long for my boys to love being on the river too. Nature is healing and fills the soul with joy. During times of high-anxiety, the best course of action might be to just walk outside, free yourself from the clutches of negative news, all the reasons to be afraid, and escape. All that down stuff will still be there tomorrow.

So today, for your own sanity and well-being, break free and find the upside.

https://www.giantleapconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Bill-Kayaking.mp4

Lead Strong—Stay Humble!

Hey GLC readers! I hope you and your family are doing well!

To say that I worked for some arrogant leaders during my 31+ years in the military and the special operations community would be an understatement. The truth is that I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the number of super hubristic Type A bosses I encountered during my career, many of whom were often more concerned with their own self-importance as they ascended the ranks than the mission. 

When the boss thinks they are “too cool for school,” and doesn’t feel compelled to communicate their vision, the organization is destined to fail.

It was unbelievably painful to work for this type of leader, and despite my best efforts to keep them humble and grounded, their extreme arrogance blinded them to the fact of how bad and ineffective they really were.

Sound familiar?

The beauty is that I did get to work for a select few great bosses who made a lasting impact on me. These leaders were smart, articulate, appreciative of your efforts, and ultimately could make the decision that was best for the command. 

Here are the other traits that made them so effective.

Coach’s tip(s) of the month:

If you want to be a confident (not cocky) leader, try these:

Lead by example.

When you set the example for others to emulate by leading from the front and with integrity, your organization and co-workers will flourish. Who wants to work for a boss who is unethical and only concerned about themselves—absolutely no one!

Provide clear, concise guidance.

When the boss thinks they are “too cool for school,” and doesn’t feel compelled to communicate their vision, the organization is destined to fail. In the Navy, we were taught that a leader’s vision should clearly tell the command what is expected of them on a day to day basis and why. The “vision” should be realistic and achievable. Confusing (or no) guidance, especially from a cocky leader, results in disorganization, frustration, lost productivity, and ultimately failure.

Say “Thank You”…and mean it.

Anyone who is in a position of leadership no doubt achieved their status on the backs of countless co-workers over the years. Take the time to sincerely thank those who helped you along the way, and never forget your roots and where you came from as you ascend the ladder of success.

Never think you know it all.

You don’t. Strive to continue to learn and grow as a leader. Keep asking questions.

Lead strong—stay humble.

I like to use this phrase when I sign my books. Makes total sense. Do not overthink was it means to be in charge.  

That’s it for this month! Have a safe summer, and I will talk with you all again in August! 

Three Buckets Of Courage

Updated June 2020

Courage involves behavior. Like all behaviors, courage can be developed, encouraged, and reinforced. While a lot of writers have focused on the realms in which courage is applied, e.g. moral courage, military courage, and political courage, I think it is more useful to understand the common ways that people behave when being courageous, regardless of which realm they’re operating in.

While the realms themselves may have sharp differences, the ways people behave when being courageous within those realms are surprisingly similar. In my work as a courage-building consultant, I have discovered that there are three ways of behaving when your courage is activated. When you become familiar with the three distinct types of courageous behavior, you gain a deeper understanding of how to tap into, and strengthen, your own courage and the courage of those around you.

I call these three different forms of courage the Three Buckets of Courage.

Try Courage

When managers talk about wanting workers to “step up to the plate,” it is Try Courage that they are referring to. Try Courage is the courage of initiative and action. You often see Try Courage when people make first attempts – for example, whenever you see someone attempt new, skill-stretching, or pioneering tasks. Someone who volunteers to lead a tough or risky project is demonstrating Try Courage.

The main benefit of using the Three Buckets of Courage as a framework for understanding and categorizing courageous behavior is that it helps make courage, as a concept, more graspable.

Trust Courage

Trust Courage is the courage that it takes to relinquish control and rely on others. When managers talk of wanting employees to embrace company changes more willingly or to follow directives more enthusiastically, it is more TRUST Courage that they want employees to have. When Trust Courage is present, people give each other the benefit of the doubt, instead of questioning the motives and intentions of those around them. TRUST Courage isn’t about taking charge (as with Try Courage), but about following the charge of others.

Tell Courage

Tell Courage is the courage of voice and involves speaking with candor and conviction, especially when the opinions expressed run counter to the group’s. To preserve their safety, workers often agree too much and speak out too little. When Tell Courage is activated, it causes workers to assert themselves more willingly and confidently. You see Tell Courage at work when employees tactfully but truthfully provide tough feedback, even to you, their manager. You also see it when workers raise their hands and ask for help, or when they tell you about mistakes they’ve made before you ask.

The main benefit of using the Three Buckets of Courage as a framework for understanding and categorizing courageous behavior is that it helps make courage, as a concept, more graspable.

Parsing courage into three behavioral buckets allows us to discriminate the different ways we have been courageous in the past and are capable of being in the future.

Think, for example, of the scariest or most uncomfortable moments in your career thus far: Weren’t you trying something new, trusting someone else’s lead, and/or telling the truth about a conviction you were upholding?
Now think about the single biggest career goal you have in front of you right now: To achieve your goal, won’t it involve exercising more TRY, TRUST, or TELL Courage (or some combination of all three)?

Courage is a large and vague concept. Using the Try, Trust, Tell framework helps bring it down to size.