Bill Treasurer's Blog, page 26

Be a Warrior of Seriously Sparkly Service

Guest Post by Chip R. Bell

“I’m a soldier of service,” he said proudly when I thanked him for helping me locate an item in the Home Depot near me.  I smiled and asked him what that meant.  “It means I am here in service of my customers,” he replied. “My job is to quickly get them whatever they need.”  I again thanked him and walked to the cash register recalling my soldiering days.

I was not a soldier; I was a warrior. I served in combat as the commander of an Army reconnaissance ranger unit.  Think of Army rangers as sort of the Army version of the Navy Seals.  In fact, I did a few joint operations with the Seals.  Ordinary soldiers do their assigned duty.  They carry out orders and, in a manner of speaking, “quickly get whatever is requested.”  Warriors, while respecting the chain of command, go beyond routine duty to do whatever it takes to give their absolute best.  They are mission-focused, not job-focused.   They focus on their purpose, not just their chore.

As soldiers came to end of tour of duty overseas they used the word “short” a lot.  When someone asked, “How you doing?” the answer “I’m short” meant you were getting close to DEROS (date eligible for return from overseas…a.k.a., go home!).  Warriors never spoke of being short.  While they felt the pain of lost colleagues and the loneliness of being away from loved ones, their focus was on the next challenge and the thrill of the next victory.  Warriors were not bloodthirsty licensed killers; they were there for love of country, the allegiance to the unit, and the sheer zeal of achievement.

We have plenty of soldiers of service today–people who proudly do what the customer requests.  We need warriors of service.  Warriors of service bring joy and delight, not just help and assistance.  Warriors deliver unexpected surprise, not just plain old good service.  They think outside the expectation; they boldly explore the untrodden terrain of service enchantment.

Warriors of service camouflage any unavoidable unpleasantries in the customer’s path so only the best of service shines bright.  Wait is carefully managed when it cannot be shortened; hassle is decorated with personality when necessary rules dictate some modicum of bureaucracy.  Customers do not remember service providers that simply meet their needs—even with speed, accuracy and warmth.  Our memory bank today only records the best and brightest experiences.  And, if those memories are of the unique and special, we play them back for others over the backyard cyber fence!

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Chip R. Bell is a renowned keynote speaker and the author of several best-selling books.  His newest book is Kaleidoscope:  Delivering Innovative Service That Sparkles.  He can be reached at chipbell.com.

Reality Bites for New Leaders

In the same way people without children can’t really know what it’s like to have kids until they do, you can’t really know what it’s like to be a leader until you actually lead. Even in organizations that invest in leadership development struggle with helping new leaders fully comprehend what it means to lead. Leadership programs often emphasize the operational mechanics of leading—planning, organizing, budgeting, or content that leans more toward management, such as delegating, time management, and giving feedback. What most leadership programs neglect to cover, but that new leaders quickly discover, is that leadership is massively freakin’ hard. What is left out is how political, shifting, and unpredictable leadership is. Also absent is how much the emotional aspects of leading overshadow and often interfere with the mechanical ones. Consequently, the excitement of finally moving into a leadership role, sometimes after years of toiling among the rank and file, quickly gives way to intense feelings of pressure, anxiety, and inadequacy. After moving into their first leadership role, new leaders are often dumbstruck by how ill prepared they are for leading others. Here are just a few of the raw realities that quickly confront new leaders:

Adults are big babies. You lead people, and people are fi ckle, quirky, and often petty. On occasion, even experienced employees will act childish, like grown-up toddlers wearing bigger clothes and sporting larger and more fragile egos. Sure, they can be smart, passionate, and upstanding too. The problem is the unpredictability. On any given day in any given work situation, it is hard to predict which people are going to act like adults and which are going to act like whiney, sniveling, irritable babies.

Demands are relentless and unforgiving. You’re only deemed successful as a leader if you get results. The drive to produce results is incessant. No matter how well you do this quarter, or with this project, or with this customer, you’ll be expected to do more and better next time. Your reputation is always on the line. The pressure is multiplied by the fact that people are counting on you to not let them down. Your organization holds you to the same expectation.

Making people uncomfortable is your job. Leadership has everything to do with creating, managing, and effecting change, which, by definition, is uncomfortable. People are comfort-preferring creatures. That said, human beings (and organizations) don’t grow in a zone of comfort. We grow, progress, and evolve in a zone of discomfort. The harsh reality is that your job as a leader is to make people uncomfortable. Doing otherwise breeds complacency. Thus, you have to constantly be stretching people toward higher goals and standards. But guess what? People generally don’t appreciate you making them uncomfortable.

The cavalry isn’t coming. Self-reliance is a hallmark of strong leadership. You’ll sometimes feel under siege from the volume and intensity of the challenges you’re facing. Regardless, you’ll be expected to bring them to resolution— without the aid of a handbook. Leadership can be a lonely endeavor. With no cavalry to rescue you, you’re forced to grope your way through, often making things up as you go along.

The startling discovery that leading others is way harder than first imagined is often the moment that a leader actually starts to become a leader. But the discovery, which involves facing one’s leadership inadequacies, is often painful. In my new book, A Leadership Kick in the Ass, I call these humbling events an “ass kick.”

Here are some tips new leaders can use to transition from rookie to leader:

Get over yourself. At this stage in your leadership career, you don’t have enough of a track record to be bragging. Stop trying to prove to everyone how smart, competent, or in command you are. Fixating on the rung above you— and the bigger salary you assume it comes with— just shows others that you’re self-centered. Try this instead: focus on helping your direct reports succeed. Leaders succeed when they make others successful.

Shut your piehole. Monitor your talking to listening ratio. Then listen a lot more than you talk. If you pay attention to how the most experienced leaders carry themselves, you’ll see that biting one’s tongue is a hallmark of seasoned judgment.

Don’t bellyache. It’s common for new leaders to be excessively hard on themselves, which makes them too negative. Practice gratitude. At the start of each day, list at least three things for which you are grateful. Tell people that you’re grateful for their contributions. The more thankful you are, the more positive you’ll be for others.

Don’t be sloppy. Nothing says “I’m a crappy leader” as much as being a disorganized mess. Stop building skyscrapers with stacks of paper on your desk. Show some self-respect and clean up your workspace. Take an interest in dressing better, eating better, and taking better care of yourself. Be better.

Stun your tech. Put down your stupid smartphone and actually talk to people. ’Nuff said. Just because you’re in a leadership role doesn’t mean you’re a leader. Becoming a good and effective leader takes hard work. Part of that work involves deciding who you want to be as a leader, and the contribution you hope to make through your leadership influence. The other part involves navigating through leadership’s harsh realities. The good news is, as hard as leadership is, it can also be fantastically rewarding. Your influence can help make a positive and lasting impact on people’s careers and lives. All it takes is making the most out of your leadership kick in the ass!

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Bill Treasurer is the Chief Encouragement Officer at Giant Leap Consulting. He is the author of the bestselling books Courage Goes To Work and Courageous Leadership. His newest book, A Leadership Kick in the Ass, focuses on the crucial importance of leadership humility and is now available on Amazon. » Learn More.

Leaders as Loyal Rebels

If we’ve learned anything during the last couple of years, it’s that people are frustrated with “establishment” leaders. We worry that such leaders aren’t capable of acting independent of their party or organization, even when acting independently would be doing the right thing.

The challenge is that leadership is a function of experience. Wisdom doesn’t come overnight, and it takes a certain longevity. The question becomes, how can a leader who has been with an organization for a long time become respected by the establishment, but still be independent from it?  

The trick is for a leader to be a Loyal Rebel. Let me explain.

The best boss I ever had was a man named Hines Brannan. Hines was a managing partner at Accenture, a $30 billion dollar management and technology consulting company where I worked.

What made Hines such a great boss was that he was loyal to the company, but also his own man. For example, when Hines became the managing director of Accenture’s Charlotte office, he succeeded the person who would go on to become CEO. That partner had instituted a Saturday morning partners’ meeting, because partners travel all the time and it was the only time he could get them all in the office at the same time. But people hated the Saturday partner meeting. It meant that not only were they on the road all week, but then a solid half-of-a-weekend-day was spent dedicating even more time to the company.

When Hines showed up to his first Saturday morning meeting, in his first official act as the managing partner he informed everyone that there would be no more Saturday morning meetings, and he wanted everyone to enjoy the extra time with their families. Now, how do you think the partners responded? They literally stood up and clapped.

Hines was and is an independent person. He wasn’t going to adopt the policies of his predecessor wholesale. I guess that makes him rebellious. But Hines was also respected by the establishment. The truth is, by stopping an insane practice Hines was actually being loyal to the company. He knew that cancelling the meeting was in the best interest of the well-being of the partners, and that they’d be more effective and happier because of it.

If you want to be a kickass leader, you’ve got to be a Loyal Rebel—loyal to the organization, and able to act with independence when doing so is in everyone’s best interest.

To learn more about what it takes to be a Loyal Rebel, purchase my new book, A Leadership Kick in the Ass, at http://amzn.to/2iQbsMP.

Leading at the Point of Goodness

If you want to be a good leader, you have to start by being a good person.

Leadership is an inside job. It’s your integrity and character that will make the biggest difference on the impact you have as a leader.

Most of us think we’re good, but we also are more forgiving of ourselves when our goodness is compromised. And there are countless pressures that tempt us away from behaving out of our better selves.

It’s hard to take the high road when you’re faced with a never-seems-to-deliver employee, or a throw-you-under-the-bus peer, or a make-you-kick-your-dog boss. Faced with those pressures, we often move from good to bad behavior. We become what I call a Conditional Leader, thinking: “I’ll be good just as soon as all these frustrations go away!”

Leading at the point of goodness means living out of your leadership integrity, unconditionally.

In the end, being a good leader means being a person of integrity. Let me say that again, because I know you know it’s true. Being a good leader means being a person of integrity.

Start by identifying the values that you hold so dear, that you would uphold unconditionally, regardless of what pressures you may be under. Ask yourself, “What do I stand for? What do I stand against? What values are so important to me that I promise to always uphold them, unconditionally?”

The truth is, the world needs more good leaders right now. And the best way to lead and have a positive impact on those whom you are leading, is to bring your goodness into the world. So be good. And lead.

To learn more about leading at the point of goodness, go to http://CourageBuilding.com/Kickass.

Leaders as Velvet Hammers

It always makes me cringe when a leader prides himself on being “brutally honest.” As in, “Hey, I just tell it like it is; if that hurts people’s feelings, too bad so sad. I’m just brutally honest.”

Think about it. Do you really need to bring violence to your language?

All brutality does is cause resentment and anger among the people you’re being brutal with.

That said, as a leader you do sometimes have to deliver tough messages. What’s a leader to do!?

People want leaders who are confident but also humble. From a communications standpoint, what you want is for your messages to get through to people without causing them to shut down or become defensive. You have to be honest and diplomatic. You have to be what I call a Velvet Hammer.

As a leader, you need to mix assertiveness with diplomacy. You have to be able to get people to do things without pissing them off. You have to be forceful enough to inspire action, yet smooth enough to not cause resentments. It’s a balance between what you say and how you say it.

So don’t pride yourself on being “brutally” honest. Instead, gauge your message based on who you’re speaking with. Some people are thick-skinned and need more hammer, some are thin-skinned and need more velvet. And you’ve got be versatile with both approaches.

The important thing to remember is you won’t bring about behavioral change in others unless you deliver tough messages while preserving people’s dignity in the process.

Browbeaters need not apply.

To learn more about how to be a Velvet Hammer, download a free copy of my new book, A Leadership Kick in the Ass, at http://CourageBuiding.com/Kickass.

Don’t Let Fear Rule Your Workplace

Despite the overwhelming evidence about fear’s debilitating impacts on performance, many leaders still resort to stoking people’s fears to get work done.

Given how damaging fear is in the workplace, it is useful to know whether the organization you work for might be in need of more courage. In my courage-building facilitator guide, Courageous Leadership, I offer these five telltale signs that you can use to assess whether your organization is working under fear’s grip:

CYA Rules the Day: Workers spend an inordinate amount of time covering their tails and generating “proof” that they are doing their jobs. CYA (cover your a**) often shows up in how many people are cc’d on email exchanges, when even mundane emails include a long list of cc’d recipients.


The Emperors are Naked: Leaders are insulated from employee feedback and dangerously blind to themselves. Often the higher you go up the organizational food chain, the less performance feedback is given. Feedback almost always flows downward, keeping leaders blithely and dangerously oblivious. 


Bean-Counters Rule: Financial acumen is valued more than creativity or innovation, causing decisions to be driven solely by “the numbers” versus what is in the long-term best interests of the organization. In fear-based organizations, the educational backgrounds of senior executives often disproportionately favor accounting or finance, often causing the organization to be hyper-analytical, rationalistic, and risk-averse.


People Are Hung for Making Smart Mistakes: Mistakes are punished swiftly and harshly, creating a “play it safe at all costs” environment. Workers end up hiding mistakes or, worse, blaming others for their own mistakes. When mistakes are made, the first question isn’t “How did this happen?” but “Who caused this to happen?”


Everything is Perpetually Urgent: The work environment in fear-based organizations is fraught with urgency and anxiety. In such places, regardless of their roles, everyone seems to have the same job: firefighter! With no relative sense of prioritization, the organization loses focus and performance suffers.

 

Fortunately, fear, for all its badness, does have one redeeming quality. Fear is an invitation to courage. As such, fear, or more precisely the courage that fear often prompts, can help you encounter your better self. I once attended a talk given by former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. During the talk, Giuliani reflected on the lessons that his father had taught him about courage and how those lessons helped him in the weeks after 9/11. Giuliani described the interwoven relationship that fear and courage have well when he said, “If you don’t have a fear, you’d better go get one. Dealing with fear is how you find your courage.”

How is your fear inviting you to have courage today?

The Golden Rules of Professionalism

Everyone knows about the “Golden Rule,” right? The ancient law of reciprocity that reminds us how we should engage with others in society. Well, I would like to propose a set of golden rules for the business world.

These rules can help guide a positive daily engagement with everyone from leaders, to managers, to front line employees, to customers—helping all of us to be our most professional self.

Make other people feel important. Treat everyone like they matter, regardless of their rank.


What you intuition is telling you about a person, good or bad, is probably right. So follow it. Keep in mind, other people are probably using their intuition to size you up too!


Let people know when they’re doing a good job. Give the proper respect when the proper respect is due. Give more credit than you take. Say these two words sincerely and a lot: Thank you!


When in conflict, remember that there are always three sides; my side, the other person’s side and somewhere in the middle that has pieces of each side. Usually the middle is the truth. Embrace the middle place.


Listen to people in a way that shows them that you genuinely care about what they’re saying. Remember, the same letters in the word listen can be jiggled around to spell silent.


Be unconditionally good. Don’t use excuses like being stressed or overloaded to provide cover for less-than-good behavior. When the going gets tough, always move to the high road.

Who wants to work in an environment where you can’t resolve issues in a civil way, feel like you aren’t appreciated or you hard work goes unrecognized? Not me!

As insightful speaker Ty Howard put it, “Life is short… Work where you’re continuously accepted, respected, appreciated, encouraged, inspired, empowered, and valued.”

If you’re ready to increase your professionalism, start putting these rules into practice daily. You will see a change not only in yourself, but in how others react to and engage with you.

Get a free workbook with tips on stepping up your professionalism by sending an email to info@giantleapconsulting.com.

Carry Yourself Like a Leader

As the saying goes in business, you want to “look and act the part.” It’s hard to be a leader if you’re frumpy. Personal style matters.  If you want to make a great impression on your bosses, your clients, and the people you’re leading, you have to pay attention to “how you’re showing up.”  Here’s how:

BE ORGANIZED:

For some people, this will mean clean up your mess!  If you’re desk is piled with stacks of paper from three years ago, you’re sending the wrong impression.  Namely that you’re a mess.  People will be much more likely to have confidence in the direction you’re providing them if you’re organized.

BE GOAL ORIENTED:

Your boss probably is, and you should be too.  Having goals is a way of being organized, because goals help prioritize “what’s important”.  Show other people that you’re goal oriented, by placing your type-written goals conspicuously in your cubical.

WALK WITH CONFIDENCE:

When you attend a meeting, such as with your boss or with clients, walk into the room confidently, shake people’s hands confidently (and firmly), and speak confidently.  Whatever you do, DON’T pretend to be invisible.

USE ASSERTIVE LANGUAGE:

Avoid tentative language like “maybe we should…” or “This is probably a stupid idea, but…”  Instead, use words like “Our next move ought to be…”or “My opinion is that…”

BE UBIQUITOUS:

Remember, it’s not who you know, it’s who knows you.  One way to tell if you’re having an impact at work is when your boss seeks your input before making decisions.  Be ubiquitous by getting involved with as much as you can handle while still being effective.  The more senior people who are seeking your counsel, the broader your influence is becoming.

DRESS SHARPLY:

Sorry, jeans and flip flops won’t cut it.  If you want to be a leader, you’ve got to dress like a leader.  That means paying attention to what you wear.  You don’t have to come to work dressed in a business suit, but you do have to make sure that you’re clothes are cleaned and ironed.

Businessman and philanthropist Ray Kroc once said, “The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.”

Apply these tips into your everyday, by setting these standards for yourself. You will transform into a successful contributor and leader in your business.

Teaming is Hard Work!

Great teams take time to develop. For seven years I traveled around the world as a member of the U.S. High Diving Team, diving from heights that scaled to over 100 feet into small pools that were only 10 feet deep. If we didn’t team well together, people could die. So building a strong team was extra important.

What I learned both as a member of a team and by working with hundreds of work teams, is that teams need a challenge, rewards and incentives, and ongoing team building. Bruce Tuckman, who developed the Forming/Storming/Norming/Performing model of team development, had it right.

Forming: This stage is characterized by initial excitement and fear of the unknown. Leaders and team members are getting to know one another, and are forming the foundation for working together.

Storming: A normal, predictable, even necessary, stage in team development. The project is now underway, but is usually in the early stages. The goal of this stage is not to squelch healthy conflict, but to minimize the “real” loss of productivity which may result and to keep to a minimum the length of time in which the team may feel as if it is floundering.

Norming: The stage in the team’s development in which most team members have negotiated both interpersonal and team strategies for working together. Momentum toward progress and results is building. There is a sense of “we are in this together” and “this is the way we do things on our team.” During this stage, leaders should help the team celebrate its history, and remind the team of the challenges that they’ve overcome together.

Performing: This stage is signaled by the awareness and acknowledgment of individuality. Trust is high among team members, because they’re so familiar with each other’s working styles and preferences. Their behaviors are not scrutinized for disloyalty, but are trusted to be contributing to the good of the team. This is also the period when individuals learn from the actions and behaviors of their colleagues and feel able to consciously develop themselves. The concern to make judgements in terms of right and wrong that characterizes the first three stages is replaced by a desire to learn from the approaches and experiences of individual and collective behavior.

As Hellen Keller said, “Alone we can do little; together we can do so much.” As a team member, it’s good to know which stage you’re in so that you don’t freak out if the team isn’t getting along. And if you’re the leader of a team, it’s important to mindfully guide members through these stages of team maturation. It’s no easy task, but imperative to the health and success of any team. Yes, teaming takes hard work. But it’s wonderfully rewarding. Once you build a great team, you can take some real giant leaps together!

Functional and Dysfunctional Leadership

If you’re aim is to be an effective leader, you need to be crystal clear about the differences between functional and dysfunctional leadership. It all comes down to getting the right blend of confidence and humility. We consider leaders functional when they carry the right blend of confidence and humility. Conversely, we view leaders who are excessively one or the other as dysfunctional.

The leaders we most want to follow know who they are and what they stand for, yet are also gracious and not stuck up. The best leaders are centered, grounded, and nontoxic. They lead not so their power can grow, but so ours can.

Arrogant or Weak Leadership

When confidence becomes untethered from humility, arrogance follows. Arrogant leadership is selfish leadership, and arrogant leaders fixate on getting their way. Without the moderating effect of humility, confidence slips into conceit and self-centeredness. The self-centered leader loses sight of the very purpose of leadership: to improve the conditions of those being led.  Unless he gets his way, he will be irritable, combative, and controlling.

If confidence minus humility equals arrogance, then humility minus confidence equals weakness. Whereas arrogant leaders are selfish and insist on getting their way, weak leaders are ineffective, ceding the way to more dominant or persuasive people. Weak leaders lack backbone, influence, and ultimately relevance.

In the worst instances, weak leaders are useless. They don’t get things done. They don’t effect change. They don’t wield influence. Few things are as pitiful as an impotent and irrelevant leader. Nobody wants to be led by a wuss.

The Solution: Confident Humility

For our leadership to be assertive, decisive, and firm, we need to have confidence. For our leadership to be authentic, giving, and supportive, we need to have humility.  Confidence and humility are complementary and counterbalancing forces that fortify the potency of leadership.

When our actions are directed by confidence and humility, we are truly operating out of our best self.

The leadership ideal, then, is to become a leader who is both highly confident and genuinely humble.

You’ve gotten to this place when you respect those you lead equally as much as you respect yourself. What does a confidently humble leader look like? First, she is comfortable in her own skin. That comfort stems from the self-respect that seasoning and experience provide. She knows that she has earned her place. She has capitalized on the lessons she learned from all of the challenging experiences she’s had along the way.  Her self-worth doesn’t come from what others think about her; it comes from living in alignment with a value system that she honors and upholds. Principles matter to her, providing a source of strength and guiding her decisions and choices.

The confidently humble leader states her views assertively and constructively, not to trump others, but to add her perspective. When situations require, she can be forceful and direct, but never in a way that is demeaning toward others. To her, people are not objects. The people she is leading make her job meaningful and worthwhile, and their growth and development are how she assesses her effectiveness.

Being a fully functional leader means to match confidence with humility.

Excerpted from “A Leadership Kick in the Ass.” Learn more about my new book coming Winter 2017 by clicking here.