David Dye's Blog, page 113
November 9, 2017
One Awful (but Common) Leadership Practice and What To Do Instead
November 8, 2017
Want a Tighter-Knit Team? Look to the Family For Inspiration
November 7, 2017
Why To Explain Why, Again.
November 3, 2017
5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of October 30, 2017
November 2, 2017
7 Ways to Lead Well During Times of Uncertainty and Change
August 20, 2017
5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of August 21, 2017
The past two weeks I’ve been sharing hints about some exciting news that I can’t wait to share with you. Well, this week we put together a video to tell you more about it. Check out the video here.
Things didn’t go exactly as planned…but stay tuned, a big announcement and opportunities are coming your way soon!
Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five leadership articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.
The Brutal Truth About Why Being a Leader is So Hard by Nicolas Cole at Inc.
Being a great leader is so much harder than it looks.
What’s difficult about leadership is that nobody ever sits you down and “teaches” you what being a real leader is all about. There’s no class in early education that defines leadership. Peers in group projects tend to label leaders as “overachievers” (and not in a good way). In college, leadership is reduced to who is going to talk the most during a presentation. And even on sports teams, the leaders are usually the best players–and wear a letter on their jerseys as a trophy of their accomplishments.
But that’s not what being a leader is all about. Especially when it comes to building a business…
My Comment: As I read this article I said, “Yes, yes yes!” followed by “No, no no!”
Why the different reactions? First, Cole is on target with his assessment that “nobody sits you down and ‘teaches’ you what being a real leader is all about” – at least, he’s right statistically. 50% or more of American managers are put in their roles with little or no training. More than 90% say they need more if they’re going to be effective. He’s also right in that early education doesn’t include this type of instruction.
Where I shout “no no no” is the notion that no one sits you down to teach you these things. Cole’s recognition that this training is rare is exactly why we do what we do. Karin and I built our careers on helping our leaders learn how to do it well.
Today, our entire business is doing exactly this: helping you get the specific tools you need to be an effective leader – one that blends the bottom line with the human spirit.
***This is a great time to let you know about an awesome new program we have that gives you the same tools, tactics, and support our corporate clients get when they bring us to work with their management team. If you’ve been wishing you could get us to your organization, this is the program for you! Email me and I’ll tell you more about it.***
Cole continues with some excellent observations about what it takes to be a successful leader and why, at the individual level, these things can be so difficult. It’s well worth your time to read and reflect on this article.
5 Great Companies That Get Corporate Culture Right by William Arruda
There have been lots of stories in the news about toxic corporate cultures. Amazon’s was described by the New York Times as “bruising” and they called Uber’s culture aggressive and unrestrained.
The negative coverage gets a lot of attention, but there are countless articles discussing the power of fostering a positive corporate culture. Look no further than this very site to read a few. Surprisingly, these articles often emphasize frameworks but leave out the most important factor: people.
If you forget about your people, you can forget about your culture; perks and money have their limits in inspiring true commitment.
My Comment: Articles like this one can be dangerous. When you spotlight organizations that are doing things well, there’s always a danger that the reader will take the wrong message. You’ve certainly seen this when someone says “well that tech company has free soda, so let’s get free soda and watch productivity soar…” Bzzzz. Wrong.
It doesn’t work that way. Rather, when you read this list, look for the principles, not the specific actions. What is it they’re doing? Why does that activity work? What would that same principle look like in your team or company? How can you provide a similar experience (not necessarily the specific behavior) in your organization?
Everyone Has More Weaknesses Than Strengths by Dan Rockwell at LeadershipFreak.com
Everyone has more weaknesses than strengths. Ignoring this truth makes leaders blind, confused, dangerous, and ineffective.
Arrogance whispers, “Your weaknesses aren’t vulnerabilities.”
My Comment: One of the most important Winning Well conversations we have with teams and leaders is to “Own the U.G.L.Y.” – to take an honest look at your vulnerabilities. This takes humility, which is more difficult than it needs be because, as Rockwell says, everyone has more weaknesses than strengths. If you waste time trying to make individual employee strong in every area you will frustrate your people and disappoint yourself. Instead, focusing on building a strong team that, in Rockwell’s words, asks “How will we support each other?”
How the Best Companies in the World Run All-Hands Meetings by Ray Gillenwater at Entrepreneur
Taking time to get the entire company into a live session is an expensive and risky proposition. It says quite a bit about leadership’s attitude. Namely, we value people in this organization enough to invest in:
Keeping everyone informed of major company updates.
Ensuring everyone is emotionally connected to the company’s goals.
Listening to the team’s (preferably unfiltered) feedback and questions.
Take Facebook for example. With 17,000 employees and an average salary of let’s say $125K, a one-hour all-hands meeting may have an actual cost of over $2M.
My Comment: Another great article about “how the best do it.” Even if your company only has 10 or 20 people in it, when you gave a meeting with everyone, these are excellent principles to keep in mind. I particularly like #1: “The CEO really cares.”
I’ve seen so many all-hands meetings run by CEOs or department leaders who were doing what they thought they should do, rather than really caring that their people knew what was happening, what was important, and had their questions answered. You can’t fake this – and if you don’t care, it’s time to reevaluate your role. Leadership is a relationship and people just won’t do their best for someone they believe couldn’t care less about them.
An Interviewing Mistake That Will Cost You the Job by Karin Hurt & David Dye at Careers in Government
My cell phone buzzed loudly. Mike was exasperated. “Karin, I thought I NAILED the interview. The owner seemed pleased with all my answers, and I had great stories for all his behavior-based interview questions. But I just got an email from him saying he loved my qualification but, he was worried about my passion for training!!! You KNOW how passionate I am about training– it’s my life! I was energetic throughout the whole process. What did I do wrong? I had an inkling but delved deeper. Sure enough, Mike had made one of the most common and well-intentioned mistakes that often deep-six a solid interview.
My Comment: This week’s most popular article by a large margin was our career guidance at www.CareersInGovernment.com In a competitive job market, whether you’re changing careers or interviewing for a promotion or capacity-building transfer, avoid this mistake and go in ready for that next interview.
We’re booking corporate leadership development and association events for 2017 fall and 2018 spring. Email or call to bring Winning Well to your leaders. Invite David to help your leaders transform their results without losing their soul (or mind).
August 13, 2017
5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of August 14, 2017
We’re halfway through August – and one week closer to a major announcement that we are so excited to share with you. Here’s another small taste… More soon.
In the meantime, know that we’ve been thrilled to see the results companies are achieving as they implement Winning Well. We’ve also been listening to your requests for program enhancements, new ways to make Winning Well available, and can’t wait to share these with you. If we can help your company or you have an idea you’d like to share, hit reply or click here and let me know.
Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five leadership articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.
Agility is Today’s Most Critical Leadership Competency by Julie Winkle Giulioni
A friend who coaches a girls soccer team recently shared, that after a tough loss, one of her 13-year-old players said, “Well, you know coach, you either win or you learn.” Yeah! We really are coming to appreciate the value of failure and experiments that don’t go exactly as expected.
But it’s not just mistakes that have value; there’s tremendous instructive power in successes as well. In fact, what distinguishes today’s most effective leaders is that they learn from everything and everyone they encounter. They demonstrate learning agility.
My Comment: This is an important read for every leader. Your ability to learn (and your organization’s ability to learn) are critical to your success. The good news, as Giulioni points out, is that you can learn how to learn.
One of my favorite learning opportunities is to consistently ask: “What went well that we weren’t expecting?” This will help you find what she calls the “tremendous instructive power in successes.” Another tool we often share with leaders is Own the U.G.L.Y. The “Y” stands for: Where are we missing the Yes? There are often untapped successes hiding in plain sight, when you take a moment to look for them, and learn from them.
Who is Leading Who? By Steve Keating
One of the main responsibilities of a leader is to fire their people! Not actually fire them but fire them up.
Fire them up as in motivate them, challenge them, coach them, help them grow and help them succeed, again and again. If you’re in a leadership position and you’re not doing those things on a daily basis then you are simply not leading.
If you’re in a leadership position and you’re not actually leading then you’re hurting the people you’re supposed to be helping. You’re also not helping the organization that has placed you into that leadership position and provided you with the opportunity to lead.
My Comment: Keating covers a lot of ground in this article – your role, what to do if your leaders are unhealthy, and the need to take personal responsibility for your leadership. I want to address the idea that your job is to fire up your people. Yes, challenging, coaching, helping them grow, and succeed – these all come with your role.
However, don’t make the mistake I made early in my leadership career: that you have to “fire up” your people like a charismatic football coach before a big game. This may not fit your personality, it may not fit the nature of your work, and it may not be effective with your people. Moreover, you cannot motivate anyone else. Your job is to cultivate the environment that allows them to release their strengths, talents, and motivations toward the work. That’s when you challenge, coach, help them grow, and encourage. Remember: don’t motivate, cultivate.
3 Mental Barriers to Learning by Marlene Chism
Whether you are an executive, a tradesman or a highly accomplished professional, the biggest barrier to learning is not your lack of time or resources. Your biggest barrier to learning is your own ego. We live in a sea of opportunity for learning through other people, yet we fail to see the opportunity due to three mental barriers:
The belief that you already know
The assumption that you are the smartest
The need to be right…
My Comment: What a great follow-up to Giulioni’s learning agility article that started our Top 5 leadership articles this week! Chism gets right to the point and ouch, is she ever right! Where Giulioni shared ways to improve your learning, Chism addresses the biggest barriers. This is a great article with specific ways to move past the ego-driven beliefs, assumptions, and needs that keep us from learning more. It takes healthy humility to learn, to Channel Challengers, and, as Chism says, to lighten your load and increase your speed.
Why People Leave Their Manager and What You Can Do About It by John Eades
At the end of the meeting, my soon to be ex-colleague sat across the table from me and said something I will never forget “I didn’t know what my job was, why I was doing it and how I was doing.” It was those words that summarized almost exactly why the cliche “People leave managers, not companies” is true. Reality had set in, she was leaving me, not the business.
As hard as that was to deal with, the only way I knew how to handle it was to never let it happen again and start doing things differently from a leadership perspective. Fast forward 5 years and its become my purpose to not only improve my own leadership skills, but help others as well.
My Comment: What a succinct and memorable lesson for all of us. Eades builds on this experience with three things that every employee needs from their manager. These aren’t hard concepts, but they do require you to be intentional and ensure that you’re consistently Putting People Before Projects, Minding the M.I.T. (Most Important Thing), and Ditching the Diaper Drama so people know what is actually happening (both good and bad). What an excellent reminder of the need to, as we say in Winning Well, focus on both Results and Relationships in everything you do.
Is Your Team Built to Last? by Jon Wortmann
Let’s imagine that you are in a unique position. Your team has the talent it needs. Your organization has a strategy that continues to work with a plan that will adapt to your competitor’s actions. You have enough cash to handle the changes in your markets. Your team is ready to work hard and the energy in your offices has never been better. There’s only one question left to answer: is your team built to last?
The problem with our global economy, political uncertainty, and reactive media is that too many of us are living at our edges. We work hard. Our kids’ schedules make us look like our schedules are calm. We play a lot. We travel constantly. We are on our phones frenetically. This means that our brains are always paying attention to something—until they can’t.
My Comment: I really appreciate Wortmann’s message here: if you want your team to last, you’ve got to build in the systems and schedules that allow people to do their best work over time. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. This means understanding how the brain works and giving it the ability to gear down at times. Along with Wortmann’s suggestions for team resiliency, I would add: clearly defining the M.I.T. (most important thing) and modeling brain-healthy performance will help your team sustain its performance for the long run.
We’re booking corporate leadership development and association events for 2017 fall and 2018 spring. Email or call to bring Winning Well to your leaders. Invite David to help your leaders transform their results without losing their soul (or mind).
August 7, 2017
5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of August 8, 2017
What the heck is that?
No, there’s nothing wrong with your screen. We’ve got some exciting news coming up in the next few weeks – so exciting that I just couldn’t wait to share a tiny bit of it with you. What is it? Stay tuned to find out!
In the meantime, know that we’ve been thrilled to see the results companies are achieving as they implement Winning Well. We’ve also been listening to your requests for program enhancements, new ways to make Winning Well available, and can’t wait to share these with you. If we can help your company or you have an idea you’d like to share, hit reply or click here and let me know.
Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five leadership articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.
Workplace Culture and the KISS Principle by Gerald Wagner
Being from the Midwest, I’m used to people talking in plain and simple terms. And now that I practice in the field of organizational cultures, all the papers, blogs, books, workshop, conferences, videos, software, and other spin offs can make me dizzy. So, I wanted to give a few thoughts on how to simplify the culture maze with plain talk.
My personal drive for simplicity comes from my days as a computer software entrepreneur. My teams and I built software using the KISS principle: Keep It Simple Stupid. Here are a couple of third grade equations that keep key terms simple…
My Comment: While I’m a big fan of making things as simple and easy-to-implement as possible, some attempts at simplicity can actually reduce your ability to act. In this article Wagner provides some of both. For instance, he suggests that the seeds of a ‘best places to work’ culture are found in an environment that nourishes the employee as a whole person. That is totally true, but you have to take care to define ‘whole person’ to include a focus on results. I’ve seen several “whole person” cultures that didn’t focus on the whole person at all, but rather, used the term as a placeholder for the relational and spiritual aspects of life. These are important, but isolated from results and productivity they won’t create a Winning Well culture.
There are some great suggestions that call you back to common sense. I recommend you tread carefully, however, when reading “Stop chasing mythical ‘best practices’. They don’t exist.” Perhaps this one needs more context – there are certainly well-researched, evidence-based practices regarding employee engagement: connect what to why, help your people to grow, encourage them, and ensure they have some control or influence over their work. These are fundamental. As are some fo the “soft stuff” that Wagner calls attention to: compassion, kindness, listening, dignity, and love. I wonder if what he calls “mythical best practices” are company-specific tactics. If so, I totally agree. For example, I worked with a supervisor who used to cook his team an annual Italian feast. He was an amazing cook with passionate Italian heritage and his team loved it. This same “best practice” would not work for another leader who didn’t bring the same passion, heritage, and skill. The principles always hold true, but how you implement them varies by context.
How Filter Bubbles Distort Reality: Everything You Need to Know by Farnam Street
Read the headline, tap, scroll, tap, tap, scroll.
It is a typical day and you are browsing your usual news site. The New Yorker, BuzzFeed, The New York Times, BBC, The Globe and Mail, take your pick. As you skim through articles, you share the best ones with like-minded friends and followers. Perhaps you add a comment.
Few of us sit down and decide to inform ourselves on a particular topic. For the most part, we pick up our smartphones or open a new tab, scroll through a favored site and click on whatever looks interesting. Or we look at Facebook or Twitter feeds to see what people are sharing. Chances are high that we are not doing this intending to become educated on a certain topic. No, we are probably waiting in line, reading on the bus or at the gym, procrastinating, or grappling with insomnia, looking for some form of entertainment.
We all do this skimming and sharing and clicking, and it seems so innocent. But many of us are uninformed about or uninterested in the forces affecting what we see online and how content affects us in return — and that ignorance has consequences.
My Comment: While not directly related to leadership and management, this is an important article with important ramifications for how you lead. We all live in an online ‘filter bubble’ that is created by the algorithms behind the scenes. This results in an echo chamber where you forget there are different opinions and perspectives, and you lose touch with the elements of truth in their positions.
As a leader, you need to be aware that every organization has its own filter bubble. There are ways of thinking, seeing the world, and communicating that are unique to your company. These can be good as you’re building culture (eg: this is how people like us act). But there is a danger when you get trapped in the echo chamber of your organization’s bubble. You can lose perspective; fail to stay abreast of a changing environment; or be blinded to your own vulnerabilities.
An early leadership mentor of mine had a great saying: “Never believe your own press release.”
Just like it takes work with your news feed to ensure a diversity of voices and prevent an echo chamber, you’ve got to do the same work with your leadership. Trust the trenches: listen to the people on the front line and what they have to say about your customer, service, or product and how to improve things. Connect with leaders outside your industry. Attend industry conferences and learn from what other people are seeing and doing.
It turns out that having an open mind takes some work.
Effective Leadership for Work-from-Home Employees and Virtual Teams by Mary Kelly, PhD, US Navy Ret.
It is a rising trend across a variety of industries. Companies are using remote employees — some exclusively — for a wide variety of operations. Everything from data input, SEO, strategic planning, IT, business development, law, medical practices, systems analysis, research, technical instruction, marketing, and advertising is evolving at an exponential rate with respect to remote personnel production.
Architects, engineers, systems engineers, content developers, teachers, professors, marketing managers, lawyers, heavy equipment fleet-managers and operators — even doctors — are beginning to understand the future of working remotely. Companies and corporations are adopting the bottom-line financial benefits of having supervisors, managers, and directors working remotely as well.
It is fair to predict that some entire industries will be dominated by remote employee production.
My Comment: I believe in the power of remote work. (After all, Karin and I wrote Winning Well while living 1700 miles apart.)
Remote workers need all the same fundamentals that on-site workers do – only more so. Connection, clarity, sense of growth, and essential for engaged employees, wherever they may be. When employees work remotely, you’ve got to be more intentional (and often creative) about how you provide these things. Don’t let out-of-sight-out-of-mind thinking erode your team.
I love one of the examples Kelly shares:
“She will never be promoted because she works from home” I heard this statement about an employee named Sally this week. I asked, “Why not? If she is doing the work, why do you care where she is working?”
The supervisor said, “If I have to be here, then she has to suffer here, too.” This is antiquated thinking. Worse, it means that supervisor KNOWS the workplace is toxic! No wonder Sally is more productive at home!
Let Them See What You Believe by Scott Mabry
Our actions may be confusing or appear contradictory if we leave it to people to guess our intentions. When we help others understand the beliefs behind our motives and actions we give them the benefit of context and build trust. To make this possible there are important steps we can take.
Be intentional about your beliefs.
As leaders, it’s important that we make the time and effort to learn what we believe. This is different from what we think we believe. It requires close examination of our actions, reactions, and emotions followed by careful reflection.
My Comment: This is a great article. Short and to-the-point, Mabry calls you to share your beliefs, live them out, invite others to share theirs, and get feedback about how your behaviors align with your stated beliefs. That is incredibly strong leadership transparency and credibility. As I said in my first book: “If you want your team’s hearts to be connected to their work, they’ve got to see yours.”
Do You Have a Recipe for Employee Engagement? By Art Barber at SmartBrief
At the Servant Leadership Institute, we help leaders around the country change their leadership beliefs from the control model to the service model. All leaders have a common desire: to engage their employees at the highest level possible. Most realize that how they are leading today needs to change.
We have all been in meetings where those in attendance have lost interest in what the leader is saying. It took me some time to understand when people were looking down at their papers, playing with their pens and doing everything to avoid eye contact, it was my own behaviors that drove their response.
My Comment: Barbers asks fundamental questions that every leader would do well to examine once a quarter: Do you inspire your employees? Do you invest time in your employees? Do you trust your employees? Do you model what’s important?
Straightforward, but oh-so-powerful. I am reminded of CEOs I’ve worked with who, when asked these questions, said “no, and I’m not going to.” My sad reply, “Well then you’ll never have the employee engagement, retention, or productivity that you want.”
None of us are perfect, but we can recalibrate and continue to grow in our ability to inspire, invest, trust, and model. Be the leader you want your boss to be.
We’re booking corporate leadership development and association events for 2017 fall and 2018 spring. Email or call to bring Winning Well to your leaders. Invite David to help your leaders transform their results without losing their soul (or mind).
To see David in action, check out this demo video.
July 30, 2017
5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of July 31, 2017
Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five leadership articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.
You Don’t Need Your CEO’s Approval to Build a Better Work Culture by George Anders at Forbes.com
What does it take to improve an organization’s work culture? “You don’t need to wait for your boss or the CEO to do something,” says consultant Vanessa Shaw, who will be hosting San Francisco’s Culture Week and Culture Summit in August.
Instead, Shaw argues, frontline managers and individual employees can (and should) take the lead. Something as simple as an individual manager’s willingness to stage once-a-week team breakfasts can set a positive example that spreads throughout the organization — and leads to a heightened degree of collaboration.
My Comment: No matter how caustic or broken your culture might be, no one can force you to treat people poorly. If you wait for other people to change first, you’ll be waiting forever. In Winning Well we give you the tools to create what we call a “cultural oasis” – in the desert of negativity and disrespect, you can be a refreshing source of dignity, respect, and a healthy focus on results. Stop waiting, start leading.
A Study of more than 50,000 Employees In Over 1,000 Companies Says These Are the 10 Things Workers Need the Most to Succeed by Marcel Schwantes at Inc.com
Late last year, Officevibe, the leader in employee engagement software, released an unprecedented, real-time report on the “State of Employee Engagement,” based on hundreds of thousands of answers from their customer survey software.
Unlike so many dated reports, what employees are telling their companies about what truly matters to them using Officevibe software is in the here and now. It updates in real time, adding new data as answers stream in, like, right now.
More than 50,000 employees from over 1,000 organizations representing 150 countries have registered their views since 2013, representing close to 1.2 million data points.
Officevibe captured data on 10 essential metrics for companies need to keep in mind when trying to improve employee engagement. They are…
My Comment: This is an interesting list. Interesting in part because the data set is large and yes, many of the ten items on the list are spot on. If you’re not providing feedback, recognition, and opportunities for growth, you won’t have an engaged workforce. However, there are also some items on the list that you want to be careful about interpreting.
The one that jumps out at me the most is “happiness.” Be careful here. Your job is not to make your employees happy. That’s a fool’s errand: whether or not your employee experiences happiness is not up to you. In fact, some of the most rewarding things we do don’t make us feel happy in the moment, but often do as we reflect back. Your job is to cultivate an environment that allows people’s strengths, talents, and energy to be directed in productive ways. The article says 23% of employees leave work feeling drained, exhausted, and sluggish. That’s interesting – those feelings may or may not align with feeling happy. It depends on what you accomplished, right?
How to Unleash Innovation Hidden in Your Enterprise by Skot Carruth
Toyota is a heavyweight. Not only is it the world’s largest automaker, but it’s also a master at innovation on the factory floor to continuously improve its operational efficiency.
Consider the concept of “Genchi Genbutsu,” a cornerstone of the Toyota Production System. Japanese for “actual place, actual thing” (and sometimes translated as “go and see for yourself”), Genchi Genbutsu bucks the traditional top-down operational hierarchy. It calls for leaders to descend from their ivory towers to the production floor, where they can truly understand issues, dig into root causes and discuss solutions.
This isn’t the tired “manage by walking around” approach. Genchi Genbutsu requires real engagement. Its goal isn’t to help leaders get their 10,000 daily steps; it’s to help them discover insights where insights live.
My Comment: When you “trust the trenches” and listen to the people closest to your customer and product, you get a sorely needed dose of creativity, efficiency, customer feedback, and problem-solving that you’re unlikely to see from one, two, or more org-chart levels away. I love this line from the article: “Innovation happens when those executive-level ideas collide with equally valuable ones from everyday workers.”
Kicking These Three Habits Made Me a Better CEO by Ajay Yadav at Fast Company
Pretty much nobody sets out to be an entrepreneur because they’re excited about becoming someone else’s manager. Usually, you start your own company because you’re passionate about an idea you have–and maybe also partly because you’re tired of having a boss yourself.
But as my company grew, I soon found myself the head of a company with dozens of people reporting to me. And eventually, I realized that some of the habits I’d adopted for managing other people in the early days had just stopped working. Once I’d kicked them, though, things started running a lot more smoothly. These are three that I’m really glad I gave up.
My Comment: I love this list. Three great concepts and a meaningful insight (namely, that most people don’t start out with the idea of leading and managing, but discover the necessity and then learn how to do it). My one question would be: what text book was Yadav reading? The ‘textbook idea of leadership’ he cites, being distant, keeping folks at arm’s length, doesn’t usually get the best results in long-term scenarios. A combined focus on results and relationships is the foundation for transformational success.
How this Hiring Manager Maintains a Millennial Team With a 93% Retention Rate by Kimberly Fries
A new hire costs a company 1.25 to 1.4 times of the base salary range. To give you a better perspective, a person with an annual salary of $50,000 will cost your business between $62,500 and $70,000, accounting for the recruiting expenses, employment taxes, benefits, the physical space and equipment required for this particular hire on top of the base salary.
Millennials, the generation now dominating the U.S. workforce, have already become a prized and somewhat “complicated” generation for traditional employers. Entrepreneurial, task-driven, demanding constant feedback, preferring digital tools for communication and seeking meaningful work, this generation is hard to retain with the standard work perks.
My Comment: “Standard work perks” don’t retain anyone, much less millennial talent who are driven by purpose and experience. This is a good look at some real-world fundamentals that cultivate an environment where people want to stay. I particularly appreciate the value of #2. Building a customer-centric culture that people can feel positive about helps you attract and retain the people you want in your organization. They’ll naturally be drawn to the work of creating those “wow” experiences.
We’re booking corporate leadership development and association events for 2017 fall and 2018 spring. Email or call to bring Winning Well to your leaders. Invite David to help your leaders transform their results without losing their soul (or mind).
To see David in action, check out this demo video.
July 23, 2017
5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of July 24, 2017
This week Karin and I were excited to see our feature interview make the front cover of the American Management Association’s Quarterly. Take a look – it gives you a good view into the ‘why’ behind our work.
Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five leadership articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.
Got Leadership Grit and Grace? By Jane Perdue at Lead Change Group
I’m a business person who has hit the trifecta of stereotypes: I’m a woman who is blonde and overweight. Despite being a vice president who managed a department of 150 people in a $2 billion annual revenue organization, a male boss felt free to describe me to the CEO as a “soft and round Aunt Polly” and a female colleague as a “colorful little butterfly.” Physical descriptors were absent in his summary of my male colleagues.
Biases, both implicit and explicit, and stereotypes make it challenging for business women to be seen as both good leaders and good women. Those same biases and stereotypes work against businessmen who dare to be compassionate, nurturing, and sensitive to the needs of others. Economic warrior bosses more interested in profits than in principles and relationships look the other way when these men are described as wimps and the women as bossy.
Is that the kind of workplace culture we want for our children and grandchildren?
My Comment: Wow – what a great article from Perdue. There are so many “hit you between the eyes” moments in this one. Let’s start with the question she asks, “Is that the kind of workplace culture we want for our children and our grandchildren?”
When I speak to managers, leaders, and business owners, I always ask them (and I’m asking you!) to join us in creating the workplace we want our children and grandchildren to inherit. Every interaction with your employees, every meeting, and every strategic business decision you make help to create this future. What future are you creating?
Specifically, with regard to solving problems of equity and gender-balance, Perdue offers nine rich suggestions to help you create the future I know I want for my sons and daughters.
And a quick PS: I’m an advocate on these issues. I believe we’re better when everyone is at the table…AND yet, I still wrestle with some of these assumptions, generalizations, and stereotypes. It takes intentional work and transparency to do this work. Thanks for this list Jane Perdue!
The Simplest Way to Become a Great Decision-Maker by Dan Rockwell
Make decisions based on future value not sunk-cost.
The lake house: Last month we rented a small house on Seneca Lake. We had so much fun we decided to do it again this month. We found a beautiful home on a private lake. The drive was short. The price was right. It would be fun. It wasn’t.
I like to get away with my High School sweetheart. She drove. I played love songs on my iphone. Eric Clapton’s “You Look Wonderful Tonight” was followed by Joe Cocker croaking “You are so Beautiful.”
Things turned dark when we arrived…
My Comment: With an all-too-familiar story of a getaway gone wrong, Rockwell shares the one thing you can do to instantly improve your decision-making: make decisions based on future value – not the sunk costs of the work or investment you’ve already made. Straightforward, simple – and sometimes hard to remember and do. It’s human nature to focus on what we’ve already done, as opposed to where we might go and what will actually get us there.
Three Behaviors That Will Convince Your Boss You’re a Rock Star by Karin Hurt
Yesterday “Doug,” a participant in one of our Winning Well workshops, asked, “Karin, if I were to walk into your office right now with the goal of convincing you I’m a rock star, what behaviors would get your attention?”
I’m always intrigued by what comes out of the other end of my microphone during spontaneous Q & A— the raw advice bubbling straight from my heart without the benefit of the backspace key.
So, here’s my answer to Doug, and for you if you’re looking to make a bigger impact…
My Comment: I love this article. It reminded me of a time when I had been promoted and was determined to show up and knock the socks off of my executive leadership team and the Board of Directors. Of course, I fell on my face. Why? Because I had been focused on trying to show off and look good as opposed to actual results that were relevant to their needs.
We encourage every aspiring leader to “Rock Your Role” – it’s vital to your credibility and success. Hurt offers three important characteristics that we look for in employees who want more responsibility. Pay attention to #3 – it is often overlooked, but it’s a key to ensuring that organizations promote healthy leaders.
Great Leaders Focus on One Important Thing by Joel Garfinkle at Smart Brief
From small shops to giant corporations, we know that great leaders everywhere are on top of any number of important facts and figures, deadlines and other business information. They have the knowledge, the expertise and the drive to succeed — often in very different ways. The best leaders, however, all share a common trait: they prioritize relationships.
Results come from great teams, and great teams start with a strong coalition. If you know relationships could be your key to getting ahead, but you’re struggling to get it right, read below to learn how coalition building can help you succeed in any workplace…
My Comment: In Winning Well we continually invite leaders to focus on both results and relationships. Put people before projects. Prioritize peers. Trust the trenches. With our continual rush to results, it’s curious how common it is that leaders lose focus on the very people and relationships that achieve those results in the first place. Garfinkle gives you several ways to invest in healthy professional relationships with your team and the other people you need to succeed.
Never forget: leadership is a relationship.
Management vs Leadership: Is there a difference? By David Hand
There is an enormous amount of writing and commentary about management and leadership, which are often used interchangeably. The focus is usually on the practical aspects of management – including the authority bestowed on managers because of their position in an organization’s hierarchy – and the motivational aspects of leadership.
Both management and leadership can be harnessed to drive business success. Both are demanding attributes and can be defined in their broadest terms. Leadership is deciding what must happen and what direction to take. Management is getting it done and ensuring the organization is moving in the required direction.
My Comment: Early in my own management career, I encountered slogans extolling leadership over management. Some even quoted Peter Drucker: “Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things.” These well-meaning, but wrong-headed folks denigrated management and elevated leadership.
If you’ve been in a management, leadership, or supervisory role of any kind, you’ve probably realized the truth: you succeed best when you lead and manage well. Your leadership credibility comes from your skill as a manager. Your management effectiveness soars when you inspire and lead your team to a better tomorrow. Hand gives you some specific ways you can focus on the areas that challenge you.
We’re booking companies and association events for 2017 fall and 2018 spring. Drop me a note or call to bring Winning Well to your leaders. Invite David to help your leaders transform their results without losing their soul (or mind) in the process. Available for keynotes, deep-dive breakout sessions, and corporate training.
We’re booking corporate leadership development and association events for 2017 fall and 2018 spring. Email or call to bring Winning Well to your leaders. Invite David to help your leaders transform their results without losing their soul (or mind).
To see David in action, check out this demo video.
