Champion Leadership Tip #38 - Champion Leaders Get the Facts Before Making Decisions
I know what you're thinking.
This is common sense.
But, like they say, "common sense isn't all that common."
Last week the news was overwhelmed by the story of U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack demanding the resignation of Shirley Sherrod, the head of the USDA Rural Development office in Georgia.
It seems now with all the facts released, the furor which caused the incident, came from an edited video of a presentation Sherrod made back in March.
Vilsack, it seems, made a decision without having all the facts from which to make it. And, violated Sherrod's basic constitutional rights of being innocent until proven guilty.
This is just one example of how people in leadership positions often jump the gun and make decisions without having all the facts. And, often times, even failing to consider the source of the information.
Back in the spring my wife sent me an e-mail from someone who just took over running a division where she works. This new leader unilaterally changed a policy based on his desire to save money across the entire division.
His decision was going to force public employees to pay for a licensing certification, for which their only use of it would be on the job, out of their own pocket and they would no longer be entitled to reimbursement.
The decision was sent via broadcast e-mail to every person who had responsibility for this area, and at no point leading up to the decision were department heads surveyed to discuss the decision's impact on overall operations.
After significant pushback by department heads and reasonable arguments being made, the decision was rescinded two weeks later.
David Brooks, NY Times Columnist speaking on NBC TV's "Meet the Press" on Sunday made a great comment about reporters and fact checking, "when I was a young reporter my boss in Chicago told us, 'if your mother tells you she loves you, you better get sources for confirmation.' "
Organizational leaders desirous of maintaining high morale and motivation of their employees, should invest time in doing the same.
Get the facts before jumping to conclusions and making decisions that can have adverse affects on your people and organization.
Common sense, I know, but a good reminder in the heat of battle.
A great resource for leaders looking to improve their leadership skills in making decisions and communicating more effectively is "The Leadership Series."
"The Leadership Series" offers 7 lessons in leadership with assessments and worksheets that equate to a mini-masters degree in leadership. It offers practical and specific strategies and tactics to get the most out of those you lead while creating a high-morale work environment.
You can learn more about it at www.YourLeadershipSeries.com" href="http://www.YourLeadershipSeries.com" target="_blank">www.YourLeadershipSeries.com
'tl next time, make it a great week!
p.s. - on Wednesday I will be featuring a guest blog post with a great article on how "not" to motivate your employees! Look for it!
How to Lead Like Apple's Steve Jobs and Create Significant Market Differentiation for Your Company
I don't normally offer other articles for you to read but yesterday I read this article on Apple and its CEO Steve Jobs.
The article at FastCompany.com provides outstanding insights into Apple's resurgence and Jobs' unique leadership approach that has made Apple the company to catch in the high-tech world.
Business leaders at all size companies, in all industries and even leaders of non-profit organizations can learn things in this article to lead their organizations in ways that can differentiate them from their competition in the marketplace.
You can enjoy the article, "Invincible Apple: 10 Lessons From the Coolest Company Anywhere" at this link.
Make it a great weekend!
3 Primary Reasons President Obama Had to Relieve General McChrystal
From the on-going BP Oil spill fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico to this week's Rolling Stone article on U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal current events never fail to give us fodder to teach leadership. Which, I guess, in my field is a good thing.
After reading the Rolling Stone article last night for myself I believe the General McChrystal situation gives us an opportunity to look at these 3 leadership issues:
- Leadership Traits
- Leadership Decision-Making
- Creating/Undermining Trust in the Workplace
I will address those in future blog posts but first want to address what I believe there are three key reasons why President Obama made the right decision.
From a leadership perspective (not political, in writing this I am making no political statement about whether I agree or disagree with the political direction of the country at the moment). I'm also pleased President Obama did it rapidly and decisively, which has been counter to his decision-making approach in the past.
The three reasons for the prompt dismissal of General McChrystal include:
- He aired the disagreements and personality conflicts he had with both his superiors and peers in public. Comments directly attributed to him about the President were relatively innocuous. But his comments, and those of his team members, about their other superiors (Vice President Biden) and his peers were inappropriate, undermined their authority and destroyed whatever trust may have been left between them.
- He allowed an outsider (and a media professional, to boot) to participate in what should have been closed, staff/team activities (at best! In my estimation the type of activities engaged in were completely inappropriate for a leader of his stature. You don't go partying to the point of intoxication with your subordinates, ever!).
- He showed total lack of respect for his position as leader and representative of the U.S. and the U.S. Military while in a foreign country and spoke, or allowed his team members to speak, in derogatory language about one of our few remaining allies in this initiative.
Although most of the quotes in the article were attributed to members of McChrystal's team, individuals at that level do not and will not speak publicly in that manner without the leader setting a tone previously.
It's my belief that although McChrystal wasn't quoted directly much of the derogatory comments about his superiors and peers came from others and most likely were not the first time those opinions had been expressed. Thus, McChrystal had to have known about those attitudes and opinions from those in his inner circle and may have even expressed them himself at times.
By doing so it created a culture where his team members felt it was appropriate to speak openly in that manner (and then the alcohol kicked in and inhibitions dropped causing a perfect storm for reporter Michael Hastings).
The situation is really a shame as the article pointed out other very positive leadership traits we can also attribute to McChrystal.
The one I was particularly impressed with was his direct response to soldiers in the field regarding the application of the counter-insurgency strategy and the guidelines he set forth that the soldiers felt were hurting their chances for success and putting them in harm's way.
McChrystal didn't hide behind a desk, he addressed their concerns directly and even met, and marched, with them in their world. At the end of the day the soldiers may not have agreed with his policies but at least they were allowed to address him directly and get their questions and concerns answered.
Only time will tell how this military action in the middle east will play itself out. Unfortunately for the U.
S., its allies and the innocent civilians of Afghanistan and Iraq it will not be resolved any time soon. Good luck and Godspeed to General David Petraeus.
For other resources in positive and powerful leadership traits you may want to read this article "The 5 Traits of CHAMP Leader."
And for specific lessons, techniques and strategies to become a more effective leader I recommend visiting this page which explains how "The Leadership Series" can make you a better leader.
'Til next time, make it a great day!
Today is the opening matches for the 2010 World Cup Football (Soccer to us Americans). And, the month long tournament gives us another opportunity to study the traits that create champions in athletics and to look at how we can translate that to our teams in business.
Although I've never been much of a fan until recent years, the 2006 World Cup Tournament did catch my attention. As a matter of fact I believe the Finals Match between Italy and France may have been the first complete soccer match I've ever watched on TV.
That event stands out for the very selfish play by France's star player Zinedane Zidane, who scored France's only goal in the game but subsequently showed a complete lack of self-leadership by head-butting an opponent during an altercation forcing his removal from the final minutes of the game, the overtime and penalty shot phase the determined the Champion.
The Champion Leadership lesson from that World Cup came down to that incident and showed a lack of emotional intelligence and self-leadership. In business emotions play a regular part of our individual and team success as I've seen many leaders show a complete disregard for managing their emotions, to the detriment of their business relationships.
But, today the World Cup starts fresh. All 32-teams will be applying my "3 Strategies of Champion Organizations" as they get started. The team that will come out on top will be the team that most effectively implements and executes those three stratgies most consistently.
The "3 Strategies" are:
- A Compelling Vision & Strategy
- Performance Management Accountability Systems
- Leadership & Teamwork Developed Throughout
To learn what to look for regarding the "3 Strategies of Champion Organizations" as we together watch the World Cup Football Championship unfold over the next few weeks, download the free White Paper here .
Champion Leadership Tip #30 - Great Leaders Understand the Difference Between Problems & Decisions
Way back in 1994, during my first season as president/general manager of the Hudson Valley Renegades one of my assistant general managers who was in charge of our merchandise store, came to me early in our season and said,
"Skip, we have a problem!"
"OK, what's the problem."
"We're out of ball cubes. We sold out of four cases already."
(Balll cubes are the clear plastic casings that hold souvenir and autographed baseballs. At the time we bought them in cases of 36 and in our previous home, Erie, Pennsylvania where we attracting about 1/5 of the number of fans on a nightly basis, we would go through two cases per season.)
I said, "well, that's not a problem, we just have to make a decision."
She said, "what do you mean."
I said, "a problem is when we don't know the cause of a situation. Once we know the cause we can evaluate what decision we need to make to move the situation towards a positive resolution."
In that situation we had 30 remaining home games, had just started our first season in a new stadium, plus ball cubes are a generic item that has no image printed on them, so we could order plenty and not worry if we have leftovers at the end our season, and so we did.
Anyway, I've found many times employees that lack confidence many times we quickly default to labelling situations as "problems" when, in fact, what they mean is that a "decision" needs to be made.
And, there is a huge difference between a "problem" and a "decision."
Here are three guidelines that must obtain in order for a problem to exists. leaders at all levels must know these and be able to immediately re-frame situations as quickly as possible from problems to decisions:1) There is a discrepancy between what was expected to happen and what actually happened.
2) The cause is unknown.
3) It matters and you you care about it.
If those three conditons are met, you have a "problem" and the first step it to embark on a path to find the cause of the unexpected occurrence.
If #1 & #3 obtain then that means you know "cause" and so all you need to do is move towards a decision-making model to decide from among the options you have to move forward.
Stop defining decisions as problems and you will be seen as a leader who is in control and you will also be a leader who is outstanding a coaching and mentoring others to step up and take responsibility in similar situations.
If you would like to learn even more leadership strategies like this, visit The Leadership Series in which I discuss with Jim Smith, The Executive Happiness Coach, seven of the most important leadership strategies to create a high morale and high performing work environment.
Best Regards,
Champion Leadership Tip #29 - Leaders Understand the Difference Between Musts & Wants
On Saturday I found myself in the middle of a shoulder-stand towards the end of my yoga class when the instructor said, "if at any time you feel the need to come out of your shoulder-stand, please feel free to go in to a more appropriate pose for you."
It got me thinking. Because in that moment I said to myself, "that's interesting. I don't feel a 'need' to come out of this pose but I sure do 'want' to."
I decided to h
ang in there for a few more breaths, knowing that the instructor would be taking us out of the shoulder-stand in less than a minute. "This too shall pass...breathe...breathe." Done, just a moment later we rolled out of it.
Leaders must be able to differentiate between their 'needs,' or in business I prefer to focus on "musts," and "wants," too. It, often times, can be the difference between success and failure.
Leaders have to make many important decisions, some times with little time to invest, but every key decision must come with a full evaluation of "musts" and "wants."
This is basic negotiation skills.
"Musts" = the non-negotiables, these are things that you are not willing to give up, or not get after making a decision.
"Wants" = the things you'd like to have, but are willing to live without. You are willing to negotiate those away in order to make sure you get your "musts."
A recent client was having challenges making a hiring decision. I took them through this exercise having them identify the "must" traits and their "want" traits. It gave them a greater sense of confidence that they could now evaluate their candidates against their own clear standards.
But, for now think of a decision you need to make and take out a sheet of paper. Draw a line down the center of the page, write "Musts" on top of the left column and "Wants" on the top of the right column.
Then, think about the end result you'd like this decision to bring you and the "musts" you need to achieve to make it successful, and the other things you'd like to have, or the "wants." You are on your way to making a great decision.
More on leadership decision making in next week's Champion Leadership Tip. Decision-making is one of the "3 D's of Leadership" to read more about those, read this article.
Champion Leadership Tip #28 - Build Trust to Improve Teamwork, Pt. 4
The fourth and final piece in this series to help build trust to improve teamwork is going to focus on creating a culture of accountability.
The reason why teamwork in athletics works is because athletics at every level offers a culture of accountability.
Every athlete is consistently evaluated on their production and performance against the specific performance expectated of them.
The reason why a culture of accountability builds trust is that all team members know that each is charged with specific performance expectations and will have to answer for their individual production.
This approach works to create equilibrium throughout an organization because without it performance is uncertain and thus the equilibrium goes out of balance as it is difficult to know whom to trust to follow through and get the job done.
At last Friday's "How To Create and Lead a Championship Team" workshop we talked a lot about accountability and how for a lot of default leaders (leaders who have to lead a team because of the job they have but are not experienced leaders and whom did not aspire to lead others, per se), holding others accountable is challenging.
To hold others accountable a leader must have high levels of self-esteems and self-confidence, and be a strong communicator.
A culture of accountability begins with a leader setting specific performance expectations for each individual team member and providing feedback, both positive and constructive.
That's it 'til next time...
P.S. - To review the first two parts of the "Building Trust to Improve Teamwork" series, check out these two links:
Part 1 - "Build Trust to Improve Teamwork"
Part 2 - "Build Trust to Improve Teamwork"
Part 3 - "Build Trust to Improve Teamwork"
Leadership Communication Pop-Quiz, Can You Pass This 1-Question Test?
Here is a pop-quiz for all you aspiring Champion Leaders reading this.
If you've been following my writing for the last year or so you know that one of the tenets of Champion Leadership Communication is "Specificity."
Well, just yesterday, a client who has fully embraced this idea for himself and his executive leadership team, and has done extensive work to integrate specific communication into his organization's culture, wrote an e-mail to me requesting a coaching session. This is what he wrote:
"I’m swamped tomorrow but will be in the office working on two projects Thursday and partial Friday. I can take a break and talk with you. To be specific… can you call me at 11:30am?"
I will give away a prize valued at $57 (see below), if you can answer this question:
"What is wrong with the request my client made above?"
We've had one correct answer already submitted, by Joan McNiff ! Congratulations, Joan! Thanks for playing.
I will give away another prize in a random drawing to all those who submit a correct answer.
To submit your answer e-mail me at Skip@WeismanSuccessResources.com . I will accumulate the answers and hold drawing for the prize winner.
Our winner will receive a copy of the "The Leadership Series" - a $77 value
(a 7-set MP3 audio program featuring myself the Jim Smith, The Executive Happiness Coach, discussing 7 critical skills for leaders to get the most out of their teams, comes with Leadership Skills Assessments and other worksheets to use in all 7 modules).
Champion Leadership Tip #24 - Do Not Treat Everyone Equally
One summer during my stint at baseball camp in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the
home of Little League Baseball, the coach of our team developed a complicated spreadsheet on a legal pad on which he calculated every kids playing time over our two weeks at the camp. He used that spreadsheet to ensure each player received equal playing time.
This made sense as all kids were at the camp to learn and play to improve their skills, plus all had paid similar fees to attend. Not only did he treat all players equally, but in this situation it was also fairly.
The approach was both equal and fair, but also sacrificed overall team performance. Our team did not do well in the camp tournament the second week of the session. Likewise, if business and organization leaders treat their team members both equal and fair, it too will likely negatively impact the performance of the organization.
This baseball camp example may be the only time in my life when equal and fair made sense. On most teams and in most organizations individuals contribute at different levels of value and to treat everyone equally would be unfair.
In business, organization leaders need to be careful if they believe that treating everyone on their team equally is also fair. I've found this approach usually creates an atmosphere counter to what the leader desires. The approach builds animosity and resentment, not motivation and employee engagement.
Equal and fair are not necessarily two sides of the same coin.
Those that have more experience, skill and talent who apply it to contribute at a high level should be rewarded and compensated accordingly. This includes salary, bonuses, time off, schedule flexibility, etc.
It is fair to compensate individuals based on their value and contribution to the organization. I doubt that many leaders would say everyone in their organization contributes at an equal level. Therefore, it would not be fair to treat them equally with regard to the time, attention provided to them and their compensation and benefits package.
The challenge in most organizations is that leaders do not have effective tools to adequately measure a team member's contribution. So, they fall back on trying to treat everyone equally, but this too fails achieve desired results.
This and many other strategies is what is included in my May 14th workshop, "How to Create and Lead a Championship Team." If you are considering attending this program, register today at the early registration discount -
'Til next time, make it a great week,
