Omar L. Harris's Blog, page 7

3 Steps to Improving Personal Effectiveness

I am quite passionate about the power of teams to transform business outcomes. Still, teams are only as good as the individuals that comprise them and high-performance teams are usually made up of highly effective people who have learned to combine their unique talents to achieve maximum productivity and generate positive results. So in this article, I will focus on the three attributes each person should consider if we want to increase our effectiveness and impact within our respective teams and organizations. Before we get into the specific attributes, however, take a mental selfie of yourself in this moment. Because this is the instant that you recognize the need to focus on your own transformation and take accountability for making it happen day by day. The desire for change has to come from within. Now let's review the three key methods to increasing personal effectiveness. They are 1) Mindset, 2) Habits, and 3) Tracking or MHT. Mindset: Do you consider yourself to be a proactive or reactive person? Don't know the answer? Well, think about how much time you spend worrying about things out of your control versus acting on the things within your control. If you spend more time on the former than the latter then you are probably more reactive and this is where your mindset journey starts. If you've ever read Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you will recall the first habit - being proactive. Being proactive is all about focusing all your energy and attention on areas of your life where taking action can drive positive benefits. It is possessing the attitude of can, will, and do - taking action and eliminating excuses. If traffic is horrible in your city, wake up early enough that the traffic will not impact your ability to be effective. If the weather is bad one day, dress accordingly and keep it moving. If there is a negative person in your orbit, focus on your responsibilities versus focusing on their negative influence. This is the essence of a proactive and action-oriented mindset. Habits: It is not an overstatement to express that we are what we do. Because inherent in our daily habits are our future outcomes. Which is why it is essential to exercise high-performance habits as frequently as possible. But what are the right habits to prioritize? Well what are your goals - short, medium, and long-term? And how do these goals differ from resolutions? A resolution is a sort of self-promise to change. A goal is a defined objective that is specific, measurable, achieveable, realistic, and time bound or SMART. When you break down a goal into its components you begin to understand the link between your habits and your ability to achieve the goal in the time frame you have set for yourself. Here is a resolution: I want to lose twenty pounds this year. Here is a goal: I will lose twenty pounds in three months by only consuming 2,000 calories daily, exercising three days a week, and abstaining from drinking alcohol for the next two months. In order to achieve a goal you must clearly define the habits necessary to do so. Resolutions are usually left more open-ended and lack the teeth of true commitments. When you combine a proactive mindset with the daily habits that result in goal achievement your productivity will skyrocket. But only if you include the final component. Tracking: What do you call a goal that goes untracked? A dream. What do you call a dream that is connected with a proactive mindset, clear goals linked to the right habits, and regular tracking and follow-up on those habits? A future achievement. A commitment is only as good as the daily accountability to do what is required to deliver against objectives. And if this accountability is not visualized, then it is very easy to lose track of progress and fall back into the realm of hope. The good news is that today there are so many tools that can be adapted to track your progress, it just requires a little effort from your side to put this into practice. Let's bring this to life with our earlier example. If we want to lose twenty pounds in three months by only consuming 2,000 calories daily, exercising three days a week, and abstaining from drinking alcohol for the next two months; what are the variables to track? Well we need a way of calculating our calory intake with each meal; we need to track how often we exercise and the calories burned; and we need to accompany the number of days we've gone without consuming alcohol. The hardest of these is the calorie intake and burning tracking so we need to pursue tools that allow us to reliably do this. Once the system is set up, we simply execute the plan until we achieve the desired result - calibrating along the journey. Personal effectiveness is that simple and that complex. The self-discipline to maintain the proactive mindset, focus on the right habits, and hold yourself accountable daily is what separates truly successful people from the rest of the pack. Luck doesn't enter into the equation. Follow The Rock on Instagram. The world's highest paid actor wakes up every day at 4:30 am to hit the gym, no matter where he is in the world; he prioritizes the right habits; and he holds himself accountable to the standard of being the hardest worker in the room! When you combine your natural talent with the MHT approach watch out! The benefits of this approach in your life will become readily apparent. You will gain more energy, enthusiasm, positivity, proactivity, intensity, and resilience to take on greater and greater challenges and reap the rewards of doing so. Now the only question is what's holding you back from adopting MHT starting now? Omar L. Harris is Associate Vice-President and Country Manager for Allergan PLC in Brazil. He is the author of Leader Board: The DNA of High-Performance Teams available for purchase in ebook or print on Amazon.com. Please follow him on instagram, twitter, and/or LinkedIn for more information and engagement.

Getting Over the Hump with Jim Rembach

http://bit.ly/2Mpadp1 In this interview with Jim Rembach on the Fast Leader show, learn innovative techniques to create high-performance teams in modern organizations!

Leadership Lessons from Joker

Please note: this article contains spoilers. Batman's rogue's gallery is known throughout the comic book world to be one of the most formidible, and the crown jewel of this cast of nefarious ne´er do wells is of course the Clown Prince of Crime aka The Joker. DC Comics is reinventing their extended universe strategy to include standalone films such as this one that are not necessarily connected to the rest of their movies. Whether that plan will lead to Marvel-level success is still up in the air. What is not debatable, however is that Todd Phillip's Joker is making a ton of noise and money at the global box office. The synopsis of the film goes:  In Gotham City, mentally-troubled comedian Arthur Fleck is disregarded and mistreated by society. He then embarks on a downward spiral of revolution and bloody crime. This path brings him face-to-face with his alter-ego: "The Joker". This disturbing descent into madness (or extreme clarity) is carried on the back of impressive direction and a tour de force performance by Joaquim Phoenix even if the story is flawed. As a character study of people on the margins of society, Joker has a lot to say about the dangers of alienation and untreated mental illness. In terms of leadership, however, this movie is very much about the importance of connection and environment in helping people self-actualize. As Howard Zinn once said: To ward off alienation and gloom, it is only necessary to remember the unremembered heroes of the past, and to look around us for the unnoticed heroes of the present. With this thought in mind, allow me to present five leadership lessons gleaned from this dark character study. 1.    Bullies create worse bullies: At the film's inception Arthur Fleck is working as a clown for hire and one of his jobs is as sign twirler for a store going out of business. A group of kids steal his sign and then brutally beat him down. He in turn takes this beating out on a group of young Wall Street execs harassing him on a train by executing them. Leadership Lesson: As a leader you are in charge of the culture that pervades within your organization. If you allow a culture of harassment to persist, this will create what's known as a "toxic environment" where bad actors are rewarded despite their bad behaviors. No one thrives in this type of environment and bad actors must be swiftly removed. Your people will judge you by how fast or slow you respond to these types of serious organizational issues. 2.    Self-deception is the worst kind: Arthur's mother, Penny, who is later revealed to be mentally delusional, maintains for the running length of the film that she and Thomas Wayne (yes - Bruce's father) were lovers and that Arthur is actually Wayne's illegitimate son. When Arthur finally finds out the opposite truth about his life, he finally gives himself over to the darkness rising within. Leadership Lesson: False optimism and extreme fatalism are the enemies of action in business. Confronting brutal facts and root cause, however, is the lifeblood of progress. Create an environment where people report the facts and really seek to solve underlying issues instead of seeing the world through either rose or midnight tinted lenses. 3.    Courage cures: Arthur has a dream of becoming a stand-up comedian like his idol late -night talkshow host Murray Franklin and even finds the inner fortitude to attend an ill-fated open mic. He does this despite not having anyone rooting for him or believing in him other than his deluded mother. Had he been seen as courageous for trying something new and not ridiculed for being different, the film might not have taken its last dark turn. Leadership Lesson: Your people will only try new things to the extent that they are encouraged and rewarded for doing so. The attempt matters far more than the outcome and you as the leader must consistently push for these attempts to break from the status quo. This is the heart of innovation. 4.    Anarchy is avoidable: Gotham city descends into chaos because the wealthy and powerful have turned blind eyes to the needs of their population. It is in this context that the Joker (and later Batman) are born. Because those who are neediest are judged as clowns, by the end of the movie the joke ends up being on those in power. Leadership Lesson: Power based leaders are often energy absorbers who create a sense of desperation and depression in their subordinates. Over time, this negativity can fester until productivity becomes impossible and then the leadership must be wholesale removed in attempts to refresh the culture (see Uber circa 2015). Servant leaders however, are much more in tune with and adept at addressing the needs of the people in their organization. No one is coddled but problems are resolved more efficiently which creates a sense of continuous improvement and progress within the company. Bosses create anarchy - leaders create achievement. 5.    Kindness matters: Arthur is desperate for human kindness and connection. So desperate in fact that he invents a relationship with a neighbor that never actually happens. In his closing monologue on Murray's talk show he insists it is this lack of kindness in the people of Gotham that led him to the heinous murders he has committed throughout the film. and his lack of regret for these actions. Leadership Lesson: Companies have the ability to be ideal versions of society where the best of humanity is on display. Because the point of modern commerce is creating opportunities and enabling productivity - employee engagement begins to become that much more important as the engine of progress. When people on teams work to understand and accept and even leverage each others differences versus judging differences as detrimental, high performance is truly enabled. Your role as leader is to be the ultimate example of the behaviors you expect in each employee with kindness being required and rewarded. This is how you begin to create a differentiated workplace capable of spectacular results. Overall, Joker was disappointing in that I disagreed with the back story for one of Batman's key antagonists. In my conception, Joker was not broken by society so much as someone who sees through the societal constructs and aims to liberate people from false rule even if it leads to pure anarchy. That being said, Joaquim Phoenix's performance alone is worth 5 stars given the material he had to work with (4 out of 5 stars). What other leadership lessons did you glean from the film? Let us know in the comments below. And please give the article a thumbs up and share with your network if you enjoyed and got anything out of it. Omar L. Harris is Associate Vice-President and Country Manager for Allergan PLC in Brazil. He is the author of Leader Board: The DNA of High-Performance Teams available for purchase in ebook or print on Amazon.com. Please follow him on instagram, twitter, and/or LinkedIn for more information and engagement.

PQ is the new EQ

Emotional intelligence, also known as EQ became a business buzzword recently but the actual concept of emotional intelligence was coined back in the 90's. It is defined as "a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and action”. It's easy to understand why this aspect has gained traction in the business community due to the fact that increasingly we have to work as part of a group to get things done. If you have low EQ that only increases the difficulty in achieving objectives, expecially if you are in a leadership position. But there's a big problem with EQ as a solution for the issues plaguing modern organizations. EQ has limited utility beyond personal development because the degree of one's emotional intelligence does not create a culture of people with emotional intelligence. It does not influence the environment. It does not inspire change within the organization. It doesn't move the needle of employee engagement. That's unfortunate for those over invested in EQ as a management tool. For everyone else, however, I'd like to introduce a different concept - Positivity Quotient or PQ. PQ is derived from The Positive Impact Test introduced in How Full is Your Bucket by Donald O. Clifton and Tom Rath which focused on the power a few consistent positive actions can have on organizational productivity, engagement, and retention of key talents. PQ in a nutshell can be defined as a form of social intelligence that involves the conscious application of positivity to those around you in order to enhance one's own ability to influence productive outcomes as well as increase others' adherence to achieve their goals. At this point you may be asking yourself how can positive actions enhance your degree of influence on outcomes and goal adherence. You are likely asking yourself this because of years of poor leadership examples have indicated that only top down power-based management can motivate people to give their best. If we were having this discussion in 1999 and working for Apple under Steve Jobs you might even be right. However, it's 2019 and there are people working alongside you and for you who actively disengage at the thought of working for a micromanaging, bullying boss who is more interested in personal glory than team achievement. There are three proven benefits of implementing PQ as a leader: Strengthens your relationships with your colleagues: When you exude positivity you show up differently. People like when you are around. They open up to you. Trust blooms because people understand your only agenda is their success. Increases workplace productivity: PQ emphasizes focus on strengths based management principles which are nothing more or less than finding out what people are best at and putting them in a position to succeed. When people succeed at work doing something they are good at and enjoy they are naturally more productive. Leads to better decision-making: When people are fully engaged in the outcome they are willing to passionately debate until decision alignment is achieved. Having multiple points of view from passionate knowledgeable people is one of the best ways to ensure quality decision making. Believing that success is inevitable is one of the greatest benefits of PQ because this practice is about winning from right decisions made or learning from wrong one's. Fear of wrong decision making is replaced by positive action and continuous momentum. Implementing PQ is of course, not easy. And it doesn't mean you go around simply patting people on the back in a false manner. It is a sincere effort to leverage positivity to deepen your engagement with the people who have to execute the mission and consciously supporting them with your belief, encouragement, coaching, and direction as needed. Like a boat with a strong sail and solid crew, the desired destination is all but assured. How have you leveraged PQ to improve outcomes in your teams? What are other benefits you can identify in this approach. Let us know in the comments below. And if you enjoyed this article, please like and share with your network! Omar L. Harris is Associate Vice-President and Country Manager for Allergan PLC in Brazil. He is the author of Leader Board: The DNA of High-Performance Teams available for purchase in ebook or print on Amazon.com. Please follow him on instagram, twitter, and/or LinkedIn for more information and engagement.

Interviewed By My 22-Year-Old Self!

I've been participating in quite a few podcasts lately related to career development and how to carve a successful path and I've thus been reflecting on my own journey and wondering what Omar from twenty years ago would think of my life today. Would he be proud of my accomplishments? Would anything I've done or not done surprise him? In what ways have I disappointed him? Well, this post will explore exactly what he thinks of me today. However, to put this conversation in context, I need to tell you more about twenty-two-year-old me. At twenty-two, I was still pursuing my MBA at Florida A&M University in the School of Business and Industry. I had recently completed my first real-world work internship at Pfizer Inc as a pharmaceutical sales representative in Detroit, MI for eight months. I was in a serious relationship with my high school sweetheart and working at Zales - The Diamond Store in the Tallahassee Mall. I had yet to travel outside of the US. Oh, and as you can see, I still had my hair! With that in mind, here are ten questions my younger self would like to know about my life today and my answers: Q. (Omar 22): What is your career like? Are you happy with where you are? A. (Omar 42): It's great to chat with you Omar 22. If I recall correctly, at this exact moment you have just been chosen to go on an international marketing internship with Pfizer in Sao Paulo, Brazil that starts at the top of the year. Trust me, this experience is going to be life-changing! And because you had the courage to embark on this adventure at such a young age, I will benefit continuously from a career perspective. You might be surprised to know that I've already lived in Brazil three times. And I've also lived in Turkey and Indonesia for extensive periods as well traveling the world as part of the pharma career you chose. Today, I am a country manager in Brazil with a company called Allergan and am absolutely loving life! I've grown so much through spending over ten years abroad and it's all thanks to you! Q. (Omar 22): What's the coolest thing you've gotten to do over the past twenty years? A. (Omar 42): Well, I'm happy to report that we live a pretty cool life! I've traveled to over forty countries all over the world - from Chile to Japan! I've been on safari in Kenya and had the pleasure to meet some world leaders like Colin Powell and celebrities like Denzel Washington. But the coolest thing has to be leading teams for over thirteen years and seeing the impact I've had on their development and success. Q. (Omar 22): Are you still close with the same people I am close with? A. (Omar 42): In terms of family, we are all still as united and close as ever and I'm happy to report that today I have a genius 12 year old nephew and two super cute great nieces! I am also still friends with everyone you are with the qualifier that the nature of our relationships has changed over time. Due to my global moves, I'm not in as constant contact with them as you are. However, there is a new technology called social media that allows me to use the web to keep tabs on everyone I care about and maintain some form of contact. But I can and should do better at not only maintaining important friendships but deepening them as well. Q. (Omar 22): What's been your top accomplishment so far? A. (Omar 42): Everything I've put my mind to career-wise has happened. From becoming a marketing director before the age of 30 to becoming a senior marketing director before 35 to becoming a country manager before 40 - I've accomplished a significant career progression which I am proud of. I'm also very proud of the outside of the box risks I've taken to live overseas and adapt to new cultures in Brazil, Turkey, and Indonesia. I'm proud of the fact that I started my own publishing company and that I got into the tech space with a start-up for a few years. Another cool accomplishment would have to be becoming a published author of a best selling award winning novel, But my top accomplishment is the growth I've seen from the people with whom I've led, coached, and mentored around the world. I feel that I've helped people achieve success and develop themselves and that is the greatest accomplishment of all. Q. (Omar 22): What's been your biggest failure? A. (Omar 42): Nothing you read in the above response has come without it's own share of failure and learnings. My first few years in pharma were not the greatest and one bad manager almost single-handedly derailed my career. Just before becoming a marketing director and before getting promoted to senior marketing director I got married and divorced which was an extremely painful (and costly) lesson. My tech start-up flamed out despite having an amazing product, I lost most of my money I'd invested, and my first year living in Turkey was pretty humbling. My publishing company is not exactly profitable despite publishing 8 books in 9 years and my novel took twelve years to get into the world through a series of setbacks. But my biggest failure came when I was promoted to General Manager of Indonesia where I was asked to execute a series of layoffs in my second week on the job and I didn't have the proper context and didn't push back on the timing or the method of execution which led to continuous struggles for the business for a while thereafter. From that failure, I learned that if I truly want to be a people-oriented leader, I needed to become a truly fantastic business leader so I could anticipate the consequences of financial decisions and do the right thing for the people and the business. Q. (Omar 22): How happy are you with your lifestyle? A. (Omar 42): So a few years back I had the opportunity to attend my twenty-year high school reunion back in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Almost everyone there was married with children and they were marveling at how much I've gotten to travel and see the world as much as I was marveling over their home lives and the growth they'd achieved by being parents and spouses. Happy is definitely a relative concept. I am quite content with the space I occupy today. I'm very comfortable and have access to all the things that please me. However, I want my life to mean something for others and when I see that impact happen that's when I'm happiest because I know that the way I live my life is providing a better lifestyle for others. Q. (Omar 22): What advice would you give me about the road ahead? A. (Omar 42): Having the benefit of hindsight, I will just tell you to put less pressure on yourself to be perfect. This self-pressure will lead to years of acid reflux and anxiety that I'm managing with daily even though I've become much more mindful about making the most of each day versus being worried about a future that hasn't happened yet. Remember that you have the power to manifest the future you desire through the habits your prioritize daily. Q. (Omar 22): If you could change any coming decision for me, what would it be? A. (Omar 42): It would be easy for me to say none, because each decision good or bad has brought you to where I am today. But I would say the one thing I wish I could change about my younger self (you) was the lack of balance and understanding of the importance of working on all aspects of my wellbeing from an early age - physical, mental, spiritual, financial. The longer you put off this work, the longer it takes to receive the significant benefits of a more holistic and healthy approach to living. Q. (Omar 22): What's the most important book you've read in the past twenty-years and why? A. (Omar 42): Wow, this is a tough one. I'm constantly reading to expand my horizons and challenge what I think I know. With that being said, I'd say the most impactful book I've read that I still reference today would have to be The Servant by James C. Hunter. This book describes a leader who is having a breakdown and goes to a Benedictine Monastery for answers. There he meets a monk who used to be a Wall-Street trader who reframes everything he knows about being a leader, father, and husband. He teaches the man about servant leadership which is a concept I have looked to embody ever since finishing the book. Servant leadership is easy to conceptually grasp but much harder to execute in reality and it comes down to your level of commtment to the principle of leading with love and not abusing your power. Q. (Omar 22): What's the most important thing in your life right now? A. (Omar 42): I would have to say that the most important thing for me today is my life's mission. I am tired and disappointed with the state of leadership and management today because it is forcing good and talented people to check-out and disengage with their lives. I am fully committed to serving leaders around the world and helping them see that there is a better way forward and that we all need to evolve our practices. This is my ikigai or intersection between what I love to do, what I am good at, what I can be paid for, and what the world needs. I am only here because of your amazing journey and the lessons you have taught me and I am forever grateful for the many experiences I have lived through over the past twenty years and very much looking forward to the next twenty!! Well dear readers, I hope that self-interview was as enlightening for you as it was for me. Sometimes, it's important to take self-inventory of the journey and learnings along the way. I highly recommend it so why don't you take one of the questions above and give your answers to the you of twenty years ago in the comments. Let's spread this introspection around and see what we've collectively learned and how we can each serve and support one another! Omar L. Harris is Associate Vice-President and Country Manager for Allergan PLC in Brazil. He is the author of Leader Board: The DNA of High-Performance Teams available for purchase in ebook or print on Amazon.com. Please follow him on instagram, twitter, and/or LinkedIn for more information and engagement.

Leading while Green with Pierre Quinn

http://pierrecquinn.com/episode098/

My career story with Jenn Fenwick!

http://bit.ly/2khQVqJ

Check out this AMAZING dialogue with Jay Izso!

http://bit.ly/2MzAHFY

Check out my InsideOutside podcast Interview!

http://bit.ly/2TLH8X8

Maturity is the Insulation of High-Performance Team DNA

Note: This is the finale of a 4 part series on the building blocks of high-performance team DNA: work-ethic, heart, optimism, and maturity “We don't get harmony when everybody sings the same note. Only notes that are different can harmonize. The same is true with people.”
― Steve Goodier The workplace is made up of adults, many of whom raise children, take care of their bills, families, and are generally quite responsible. All this responsibility does not preclude destructive conflict in the workplace. It actually creates it. The stress of the journey towards achievement (and varying approaches to shared accountability) can exact a high price on those chasing it. When I speak of maturity in the title, I'm not speaking of age or experence per se. I'm speaking of an intrinsic attribute that transforms individuals from enemy combatants into willing teammates. In this sense, mature individuals are those who always assume positive intent. They trust willingly. They communicate diplomatically and effectively. To them the goal is always more important than credit. Mature teams are highly united. They don't let the inconveniences and day to day problems deter them from their mission or break them apart. They value their interpersonal relationships, understand how to combine their strengths, and avoid misunderstandings. Still, hiring for this type of maturity can be deceptively difficult. This is because maturity is often assumed but rarely a given! Maturity relates to decisiveness, diplomacy, self-awareness, and attitude. People who lack maturity typically avoid conflict and therefore difficult decision making whereas mature people are well-equipped to manage difficult interpersonal dynamics. They make their opinions known but can still align to the overall direction if they don't agree. They are comfortable in their own skin, know their strengths, and how to combine them for the good of the team. Teams high in this aspect naturally hold each other accountable for delivering results. As a leader of such a team, your function becomes keeping score, recommending course corrections as necessary, and continuously raising the performance bar. What should you be listening for as a candidate details how they manage disappointment and conflict? In my opinion, maturity is a combination of orientation (someone who values team rewards more than individual accomplishments), self-development (someone as aware of their blindspots as of their strengths and has put in the time to minimize them), and a high performance mindset (someone who is obsessed with delivering the absolute best result). So therefore I have designed a questionnaire that specifically allows me to investigate these attributes. I ask each candidate four specific questions related to work-ethic and score each answer from 1-5. I'm looking for a total score of 15 or above in this category as an indicator of above-average work-ethic. Here are some of my favorite maturity questions (for the rest you can download the template in my new book Leader Board: The DNA of High Performance Teams): Tell me about the most difficult decision you had to make recently. Tell me about a recent time a colleague disappointed you yet you still had to work together to complete a task. How do you calm yourself down when you feel anxious or upset? Describe to me your big weakness and biggest strength. Mature people value the journey as much as the goal and because of this they don't get dragged into needless interpersonal conflicts. These people truly elevate the standards of a team. How would you rate the importance of sourcing for maturity attributes in your new hires? Let us know in the comments below. If you enjoyed this article please like and share with your networks. I hope you enjoyed this series of articles. If you would like your FREE copy of the W.H.O.M. assessment, sign up to my email list here. Omar L. Harris is Associate Vice-President and Country Manager for Allergan PLC in Brazil. He is the author of Leader Board: The DNA of High-Performance Teams available for purchase in ebook or print on Amazon.com. Please follow him on instagram, twitter, and/or LinkedIn for more information and engagement.