Bill Treasurer's Blog, page 36

What Every Leader Should Be Doing

When we talk about courageous leadership in our workshops, we talk about the comfort zone. We all have a comfort zone and that is the place where we fill confident and capable. That is also the zone where we are not pushed to learn new ideas or challenge ourselves with different responsibilities. Learning does not happen in a zone of comfort. Learning occurs in discomfort. Ginny Rometty, CEO of IBM, sums it up perfectly, “Growth and comfort don’t coexist.”

It is important not to make yourself so uncomfortable that you freeze, but a certain amount of discomfort means that you are stepping into your courage zone. If you want to push yourself to new heights personally or professionally, you have to step into the courage zone. The kicker is that the courage zone looks different for each of us. It could be that the idea of public speaking makes your tremble. That tremble means you are in your courage zone. Perhaps the possibility of taking on a new job that require skills that eclispe your current skill set makes your heart race. That speeding heart means you are in your courage zone. Or maybe the idea of being truthful with your boss and letting them in on a personal matter that is effecting you at work makes your palms sweat. Those sweaty palms mean you are in your courage zone.

Workplace courage looks different to each of us because what causes us fear is different. I hope you have already identified some ways that you can challenge yourself to step into your courage zone more often, but that’s not the point about leadership I wan to make today. Today, I want you to consider that your greatest responsibility as a leader is to encourage those you lead out of their comfort zones and into their courage zones.

If you want your organization to succeed and your people to florish, they have got to be in a courageous culture. A place where new ideas are encouraged, people are given the time to speak up and share their point of view, and trust filled relationships are developed. Good leaders want to develop the skills of the people around them. That means you have got to encourage them to move into their courage zone more often.

How do you get them into their courage zone? First, you have to find out what they want to accomplish and what causes them fear. Make these conversations part of the annual review process and incorporate this into how you hold them accountable. You also have to model courage to them. Tell them about the times that you moved through discomfort, even though something was risky or caused your heart to beat fast. Model and encourage courageous behavior. As a leader, you might end up impressed where your people lead you.

The post What Every Leader Should Be Doing appeared first on Giant Leap Consulting.

The Danger of Ignoring Ideas

I’ve been to MIT and helped to lead a strategic planning process for a gifted group of researchers. I know that session went well, but I don’t think I wowed them with my ideas like this young man from Sierra Leone wowed me and the MIT community. Kelvin Doe is a 15-year-old, self-taught scientists. This video of his residence at MIT as part of the Visiting Practitioner’s Program has been making the rounds online. If you haven’t watched it yet, take a few minutes.

Kelvin is persistent. His determination to find materials, often items discarded as trash by others, and transform them into tools that can bring his community together is remarkable. Kelvin is the type of young man that will find a way to express his point of view, even when faced with obstacles. His natural curiostiy and persistence has benefited from professionals who are looking for ways to engage young people in community problem solving that cultivates their talent and generates solutions from within their communities. I’m excited to see how Kelvin’s next project goes. He wants to build a windmill to increase the electricity supply for his community.

Kelvin’s story is interesting, and it makes me wonder about the voices and ideas that we never hear. At Giant Leap, I get to work on a lot of different things. One of my favorites is stakeholder interviews. I get to interview people one-on-one and learn about what inspires them, frustrates them, what they hope for their organization, their concerns for the future, and their ideas. I often find that people will tell me things within 10 minutes of starting our conversation that they do not tell to colleagues they have been working with for years. Sometimes it is because they are reserved, but most often it is because they have never been asked.

I understand that people have to take personal responsibility for stepping up and speaking out. I also understand that some leaders do a much better job of creating an environment that supports those displays of courage. Kelvin has found a global community that is nurturing his intellectual development. Have you created an environment at the local level that encourages those around you to speak up and try new things? Great ideas are not born exclusively in the C-Level offices. Great ideas may already exist in the mind of a mail clerk, veteran administrative assistant, or rookie sales team member. Those great ideas may be out there, but do you have a way to hear them? Kelvin has the Innovate Salone to support his creative problem solving. How are you seeking out the diversity of voices and ideas within your own organization or community?

Thanks to Thnkr TV for brining us Kelvin’s story. Check their YouTube channel page for many more interesting stories. To learn more about the Innovate Salone, visit Crowdrise.com.

The post The Danger of Ignoring Ideas appeared first on Giant Leap Consulting.

The Truth about The Compromise Trap

Elizabeth Doty is a consultant, coach, and facilitator specializing in how people participate in large organizations while staying true to themselves and being a positive force – however they define those. Her latest book, The Compromise Trap: How to Thrive at Work Without Selling Your Soul, explores the true cost of the daily, small compromises we make so easily. Elizabeth graciously allowed Giant Leap to ask a few questions we thought would help keep our readers current on the latest thinking in leadership and organizational development.

Giant Leap: Your book, The Compromise Trap, deals with the small compromises that we make in the near-term that cause damage to one’s soul in the long-term. How can people manage the practical decisions of day-to-day, yet still honor the longings of their lives?

Elizabeth Doty:  Well, that definitely is a common tension. In this economy, it’s easy to think a personal mission is a luxury for after we have “arrived.”

Unfortunately, this creates two problems. First, as leaders, we are already making a difference in the world, for better or worse – in the lives of our employees, our customers, our investors, the public and the environment. We might as well think now about what we want that impact to be, right? Second, if we wait to integrate our higher values into our day-to-day actions, we risk falling into the “compromise trap.” Making small incremental compromises over time can erode our sense of integrity, confidence and self-respect, and become a sort of “devil’s bargain by degrees.”

Many leaders I interviewed had learned that higher aspirations are not a luxury, but a source of personal power. They increase your vitality, creativity, and confidence. Every act of courage increases your courage. “I’ve always looked for jobs with a sense of purpose…,” said one senior leader. “It’s not a Don Quixote thing;  it’s how I’ve made my living for twenty years.”

GL: What role does courage play in keeping people from falling into the compromise trap you describe?

ED:  As I’m sure you teach people, courage is a very important value, because without it, we cannot stand up for any other value.   As I see it, three kinds of courage are critical to staying out of the compromise trap:  

First, we need the courage of the warrior.  If you are asked to turn a blind eye to serious harm, to take a shortcut on a safety procedure,  or mishandle someone’s mortgage, you need to know you have the courage and the skills to refuse. Every professional needs to know how to deliver a positive no, and be prepared to walk away from any job at any time should the circumstances become severe enough.

Secondly, we need the courage of the adventurer, which you describe so well in Courage Goes to Work. This is the willingness to try something new, to step up and take risks.  With this type of courage, we are less likely to believe the only way to achieve our goals is through unhealthy compromise; we have greater confidence that we can create real value and be rewarded for it – and it works.

Finally, we need the courage to ask ourselves hard questions. As human beings, we are literally wired not to see disconfirming data. When confronted with a contradiction between our actions and our beliefs, the reasoning centers in our brain turn off and we unconsciously adjust our point of view to avoid being wrong. So it takes courage to ask ourselves whether we might have done something wrong and look honestly at the facts.

The big surprise for most people is that courage requires maintenance.  Through my interviews, I found courageous leaders tapped six different factors to increase their courage, including strong relationships, influence skills, and keeping a broad perspective on the world.  Maintaining their courage enabled these leaders to enter a “parallel universe.” Coincidentally, one manager I spoke with mentioned your book, Right Risk, in describing her experience! “When you acting with integrity, it just doesn’t feel like risk,” she told me. “It feels like the right thing to do.”

GL: Your latest work focuses on “upward spirals”. What are they, and how can we create them?

ED: I think you’ll agree that many systems are at tipping points–our organizations and our schools, our economy, our society, and the environment. We hover between upward spirals – success loops of positive, self-reinforcing change that enable real growth, creativity and value – and downward spirals, where destructive patterns destroy growth, innovation and value.

In situations like these, how do we reverse destructive cycles and mobilize positive momentum? Confronting a downward spiral’s momentum already requires tremendous courage. But what if your courage could be a spark that helps tip the system for the better?

This was the real lesson in The Compromise Trap. As it turns out, when we exercise courage in a certain way, our actions can have a tremendously positive effect – especially when we shift from “being right” to “helping the right thing happen.”

For example, I met an account executive who told me a story about being isolated and ridiculed by her boss. She was stuck in a downward spiral of self-doubt, poor performance and defensiveness, but she stayed because she needed the job. Then one day, she decided she had had enough. But rather than quit in a huff, she walked into her boss’ office and said, “Boss, you cannot treat me this way any longer. This is not okay—it is insulting to me, and it is disabling my ability to create the results I promised you. So, I recommend either I quit today or you start treating me like a member of the team.” She expected to be fired, but instead he acknowledged the problem, changed his behavior, and she went on to become one of his top salespeople!

This executive demonstrated what I call “generous courage,” which turns out to be a common ingredient stories about turnarounds and takeoffs – in relationships, businesses, and society. Once I began noticing that there were patterns, I began studying this sort of courage and outlining the “simple rules” that leaders can apply to mobilizing their teams around a mission, building cross-functional collaboration, or elevating ideas in the midst of complexity.

GL: What is your greatest hope for the work you do?

ED:  The very first time I talked with my clients about upward spirals, an HR Vice President sent me a personal note. “I hope this becomes the focus of the rest of your life’s work.”

Her comment helped me realize my own mission.  What if everyone knew the principles for building upward spirals?  The power of generous courage?

So, my greatest hope is that leaders will use an upward spiral strategy to confront whatever gets between them and their higher aspirations – whether they use that terminology or not.  That executives, team members, parents, neighbors and citizens will recognize the need to invest in the vital core that generates and sustains anything we care about — a business that succeeds, a community that thrives, or a world that works.

Courage Goes to Work, The Compromise Trap, and many books by our fellow authors at Berrett-Koehler give us the tools to take that kind of constructive action. What we need to do next is ask the question one of my colleagues asks her MBA students, “What upward spirals do you want your leadership to serve?” 

To learn more about Elizabeth and The Compromise Trap, visit compromisetrap.com.

The post The Truth about The Compromise Trap appeared first on Giant Leap Consulting.

Dealing with a Chronic Spiller

In our work, we talk about two different types of leadership dispositions: the Filler and the Spiller. A Filler Leader is the type of leader who encourages others, builds up their confidence, and works hard to role model what they want from those they lead. A Spiller Leader, on the other hand, is the type of leader that tears other people down, breaks down their confidence, and discourages others through their language and behavior.

None of us our perfect. Sometimes we are a Filler and sometimes we are a spiller. However, some people seem to revel in their Spiller status. These are the people who point out the negative not to be constructive and help people grow but rather to tear people down. Chronic Spillers are draining to deal with on a daily basis, so how do you cope with them?

Don’t Feed the Negative – While you might want to commiserate with your colleagues about how awful the Chronic Spiller is, it won’t make anything better in the long run. Gossiping like this could make the situation even worse. If for example the Chronic Spillers learns he is the office gossip, he may become an even bigger discourager in retaliation.

Be Clear about Why You are Going to Them – If you need to meet with or work with the Chronic Spiller, prepare yourself ahead of time. Go to your meeting with her with specific objectives, know the issues you need her feedback on, and tell her ahead of time. Should she start to steer the conversation off topic with discouraging statements about other people or other projects, interject that you really need to cover specific items and bring her focus back to the matter at hand.

Find the Best Way to Communicate with Them – It may be that your Chronic Spiller doesn’t spill ask much when they use email or the telephone to communicate. Observe their communication style in different settings and find the best way to communicate productively with them – then use that method as often as possible.

Beat Them to the Punch – If your Chronic Spiller frequently interrupts team meetings with their discouraging statements, give them the official job of Meeting Skeptic. Talk to them before the meeting and acknowledge that they are good at pointing out issues with ideas. Tell them you’ve added a special time slot on the agenda for bringing up issues and you want them to be the Official Skeptic who leads that agenda segment. Giving them a focus might turn their discouraging statements into more insightful troubleshooting feedback.

 

Remember, dealing with Chronic Spillers is a great time to build your Tell Courage. Consider if it’s appropriate to speak with your Chronic Spiller one-on-one about your concerns. It will be a challenging conversation, and you will need to use your best listening and communication skills. Nonetheless, it might make a difference and be worth the investment of time.

The post Dealing with a Chronic Spiller appeared first on Giant Leap Consulting.

A Courageous Life and Career: Pat Summitt

I talk about courage a lot, but that’s probably not a surprise to you. One thing I know for sure from hundreds of hours spent with people in conversations around courageous leadership is that people are often most engaged when you are telling them a story. We have three capacities of courageous leadership: Try, Trust, and Tell. To help people understand what I mean by each, I often share a story about a person. When I talk about Trust Courage, I often talk to people about Pat Summitt, the recently retired head coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers.

Last night, Pat Summitt received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2012 ESPY Awards Show (that’s the annual award show hosted by ESPN for the non-sports fans out there). I think they picked a pretty perfect recipient.

Summitt has been an exceptionally successful basketball coach. At the age of 22, she became the head coach of the Lady Volunteers and has been leading that team since. As their head coach, she has become the winningest coach in NCAA history with 1,098 victories. Her teams have won 16 SEC championships and 8 national championships. On the court, she was known for being very tough and holding her team, her coaching staff, and her self accountable. At the same time, she recognized that she didn’t know it all and had to keep pushing herself to get better as a coach and leader. Summitt once said, “If I’m not leading by example, then I’m not doing the right thing. And I always want to do the right thing.”

In addition to the on-court success she coached her players to, she encouraged their success off court. In her 38 years as a coach, every single one of her team members graduated from college. Seventy-four of her players have gone on to become coaches themselves. Summitt’s impact on these women has echoed throughout their lives. Knowing just these achievements, you can already see examples of how she was revolutionizing how the sport of women’s basketball was played and talked about at the college level. You can see how she encouraged those around her to be successful and accountable to their own potential. All of that is true, but that’s not the limit of her courage.

In August of 2011, Pat Summitt announced that she had early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Disclosing this news to the University, her coaching staff, and her current team she said, “I will be relying on my outstanding coaching staff like never before.” In this act of revelation, Summitt become an extraordinary example of Trust Courage. She made herself vulnerable to others by sharing something very personal. She relied on her coaching staff even more to help her maintain the high performance standards that were the hallmarks of her career. She sought support from those around her to continue with her passion and prepare for a new battle. Trust Courage is about letting go, so that you can open up to new possibilities. Pat Summitt coached the Lady Vols for a final season, won the SEC title, and then retired in 2012. Her entire life and career is a testament to courage.

The Arthur Ashe Courage Award is given to those whose contributions transcend sport. Pat Summitt is a very worthy recipient. Let me recommend that you take 10 minutes and watch the video ESPN showed last night that highlights her success, her struggles, and her passion for basketball and life.

The post A Courageous Life and Career: Pat Summitt appeared first on Giant Leap Consulting.