Leadership Solutions from Read Solutions Group

Pattern recognition

2011-11-17T05:39:00.003+08:00

Annie McKee, of Wharton, speaking at the Philadelphia ICF Conference last week said that there is only one cognitive ability that differentiates average from outstanding leaders - that of pattern recognition.

Do you agree that pattern recognition - a fundamental skill in strategic thinking and change through systems thinking - is a key underlying differentiator?

The Power to Get Things Done - Your Reputation

2011-06-23T21:58:00.001+08:00

Do you have the power to get things done? Do you know how to leverage your knowledge, position and personality to lead and influence others?

What I hear from my HR contacts most frequently is that they are looking for coaching clients to have a bigger impact on the organization. From my clients, I hear that they want more success for themselves, but they don't want to change who they are. These clients are always smart, competent, dedicated people, so the coaching question is not what to change, but rather about how to leverage their strengths in new ways.

This articles focuses on reputation and impact it has on the ability to lead in organizations. It includes research about the power of reputation from two recent books - The Elements of Power by Terry R. Bacon and Power by Jeffery Pfeffer.

If you are frustrated in your career and want to learn how to have greater influence and power, or if you are seeing people in your organization limiting their impact through their behaviors, give me a call or drop me a line to talk about some quick changes that will have a lasting impact.

The Power of Reputation

Power within organizations can arise from formal authority and position, but true leadership power is defined relative to others. It is observable in people's willingness to follow, and more critically, their willingness to take risks for the leader.

Reputation is defined by Bacon as "an estimation of the overall quality of a person by others in the community to which the person belongs." Research shows that reputation has a significant impact on perceived power and being viewed as a role model.

Accomplishments matter, so does Reputation.

Reputation is one area where perception affects reality. If, prior to a presentation, sales meeting or interview, you are described as a rising star; what impact will that have on the expectations of the people you are to meet? In comparison, consider the impact if you are described in only "so-so" terms. Expectations set by a reputation will influence the nature of the interactions. In fact, Bacon's research indicates that people with strong reputations are more successful at building alliances, gaining consensus, negotiating, persuading through logical reasoning, building rapport, and using formal authority without causing distrust.

Reputations take time to develop; however they can be damaged quickly when norms of behavior are violated. To build or enhance a reputation, consider these steps.

Become aware of what your reputation is. Ask trusted advisers what you are known for; listen to how you are introduced; consider what people might say about you when you aren't listening.
Make early good impressions. The reality is that it is difficult to make a good impression each and every time. The key is to use your networking to engage in a lot of interactions and seek to present yourself in the best light each time.
Develop a "brand you" - knowing and leveraging your strengths, understanding the distinctive role that you bring to a team or organization, and build and protect that brand.
Deliver consistent high performance and demonstrate core values in your behavior.
Join organizations and institutions whose reputation will enhance yours.
Know the opinion leaders at all levels and enable them to sing your praises.
Seek opportunities to speak, write and appear in media; avoiding blatant self-promotion.
Develop strong self awareness and self-management; recognizing that leaders live in a glass bubble.

Take some time this week thinking about the reputation of the people you work with; what is the reputation based on? What impact does it how on their power and influence with different constituencies?

Identify a couple of colleagues whose reputation is not as good as it should be and think about what you might advise them to do differently?

Finally, outline the steps that you could take today to build your reputation and to leverage the power and influence associated with it.

Political Landmines

2011-05-25T20:31:00.001+08:00

The past few postings (see past posts at Leadership.ReadSolutionsGroup.com ) focused on development of influence skills through understanding your network and thinking consciously about how to develop and utilize it. Operating without a network or oblivious to the nuances of other’s networks represents a walk through a field – not a pretty meadow – a minefield of opportunities for the unaware to be damaged by political landmines.
Consider these common landmines:

Sabotaged – Unfortunately many business environments contain overly political types who will do whatever it takes to look good; frequently at the expense of others. They sabotage projects, proposals and your good name out in the open or behind the scenes. Tools of choice include gossip, fixing blame, interruptions, condescension, cutting off resources, set-ups for failure, and raising doubts about capabilities.

Imprisoned – Too tough, too soft, too analytical, too pushy, not strategic, not a team-player. These labels and others can hold you in a prison of perception. The stories that underpin the label may be old, they may hold some truth, or they could be fabrications of the saboteur. Regardless once conceived and placed in action, these labels take on a life of their own. Repeated behind closed doors, documented in performance reviews and career discussions, and reinforced by whatever evidence meets the need.

Shunned – While managers might say that healthy conflict is great for the team, sometimes those that step forward, challenge conventional wisdom and “take one for the team” may find themselves relegated to lesser duties and cut off from the inside track. Honesty, raising issues and questioning assumptions are important to maintaining integrity. The landmine comes when passion and voice move ahead of the thoughtful analysis of consequences and options.

Lost – What was important yesterday is not today. The boss who was managing your career moves on. The posters and programs espouse the values of the organization, but the people getting ahead don’t seem to. The pace of change in the market place, in Wall Street opinions, in corporate leadership creates a landscape where agendas reverse, morph and compete on an almost daily basis. Rules change and the person not constantly attuned to the clues can quickly get lost and left behind.

Do you need to become a political operative to successfully navigate this minefield? To be recognized, rewarded, influential? No, but becoming savvy, developing and using your network, learning to spot the clues, and knowing how to take pre-emptive action, can allow good leaders to rise and flourish with their integrity intact.

If you are worried that these landmines lie in your path or are exploding around you, or that the leaders in your organization or on your team are stepping on these landmines day after day, let’s talk about how coaching can help identify, avoid and disarm these hazards.

Sherry is also available to lead workshops for management teams, emerging leader programs, and other organizations on Power, Politics and Influence.

Registration Opens Habit Change Coach I

2011-04-08T19:57:00.002+08:00

Habit Change Coach™

Training Program

Habit Change Coach I

Coming Again in September 2011

Habit Change Company is pleased to offer a course in Professional Coaching, utilizing a values-based approach to coaching. This approach helps people and organizations achieve their maximum potential. The Professional Coaching Course, “Habit Change Coach I” is an open-enrollment, skill development program that utilizes experientially-based teaching and learning models consistent with programs for adult learners.

This class will be held at Neumann University. To learn more, visit http://www.neumann.edu/academics/contedu/coaching.asp

Instructors: Christine Coward, MSW, PCC and Sherry Read, MS, MBA, CPC, CEC

What is Coaching? Coaching is a profession of partnering with clients in thought-provoking and creative processes that inspire them to maximize their personal and professional potential—according to the International Coach Federation. Among the many benefits of being a certified coach are flexibility and access; coaching can be in-person or phone-based, working with people all over the world, with opportunities for travel. Coaching, as a rewarding career, can provide opportunities to assist others in their personal and professional lives, and can positively impact individuals, groups, and organizations.

After successful completion of Habit Change Coach I you will be able to:

Define and distinguish Coaching as a profession, from other helping professions
Create the coach-client alliance
Use mindfulness to effectively raise awareness across 8 life practices
Explore personal thoughts, beliefs, and values and how they affect coaching
Act according to guiding ethical principles, including individual, community and global responsibility
Apply a spiritually-based approach to serve others
Use effective listening skills to deepen client awareness
Facilitate learning for results, help clients break through change barriers
Use supportive methods of holding clients accountable for making change
Access and use intuition to maximize client experience
Implement key skills used in coaching and use positive psychology techniques in coaching.

Career Opportunities: Professional coaches have found successful careers with corporate employees, career-changers, hospital patients, and many other individuals and groups from varied disciplines, on a contracted basis. This program may be of particular interest to those looking for a part-time or full-time career as a professional life coach. The most successful coaches offer a blend of academic depth, professional experiences, and appropriate credentials, including academic degrees and demonstrated key competencies like self-awareness, compassion, responsiveness, and flexibility to client’s needs. Effective coaches are also self-directed, life long learners who continually seek knowledge to grow both personally and professionally.

Habit Change Coach I is focused on the student’s personal development as s/he learns how to coach. Components of the class will include mindfulness & eight integrated habit areas, personal life planning, personal values, defining coaching, personal ethics, overcoming psychological barriers, self- management, and branding you as a coach. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to confidently coach clients and begin a part-time or full-time career in coaching.

What past students have said: “You created the most conducive atmosphere for learning that I have ever encountered. Thank you for bringing out the best in me!” Amy Friedman

“This has been the best training investment I have made. We were supported from start to finish. I highly recommend this and all their training to everyone.” E. Everett Horsley

“I expected to gain professional skills which I did. I also grew personally which was a wonderful gift.” Tamara Gohean

“Taking the coaching class helped me to enter a new professional venue. The class combines theory, experiential learning, personal meditation and group process. It is a high caliber class which helped me reclaim my talents and celebrate them.” Ann David Strohminger

For more information on Habit Change Company please visit www.thehabitco.com and download our prospectus.

Any questions about Habit Change Coach Training program please contact VP of Coaching Services, Chris Coward ccoward@thehabitco.com or call 215.472.1572

Power Up Your Network

2011-03-07T23:58:00.001+08:00

When asked where I see my niche as an executive coach, I talk about my passion for the helping people become more influential - the world of Power, Influence and Politics. Whether you are a Six Sigma/Lean Champion trying to implement new processes, a COO driving the business strategy, a regional Managing Director balancing the needs of the region around corporate directives, or an HR director seeking a "seat at the table", becoming and staying influential is key to being able to do good work and get the results you want.

In this newsletter series on Power, Influence and Politics, we are exploring the following topics. How do people become, and stay, influential? Where does power come from, and how can power be increased? Is there a way to be politically astute without being "political"? The last newsletter kicked off the series with the "5 A's of Relationships", that is, understanding your network. In this issue, we'll look at ways to use your network that will enhance power and influence.

As you read this articles, give consideration to how these skills areas could enhance the work of your team, your managers or even your own work. If you see a gap let's talk about how workshops, group coaching or executive coaching can bring about rapid skill development.

Power Up Your Network

In her book, "It's All Politics", Kathleen Reardon Kelley asks the question, "...who will vouch for you if they don't understand you because you seem to foreign, too much of an unknown, too much of a risk?" Powering up your network is about building capability to influence organizations and other people to move in the direction of your good ideas - whether that in hiring you for a job, supporting your strategic initiatives, or giving you the resources and flexibility to pilot a new project. Discussions about networking normally focus on expanding the network, but here we're talking about the key levers in enhancing your existing relationships - your 5 A's of Relationships - Advocates, Advisors, Allies, Acquaintances, and Adversaries.The first step in exploring the 5 A's of Relationships is to build a chart identifying the advocates, advisors, allies, acquaintances and adversaries in each segment of your life – work, community and personal. Fill in the chart with names of people key to your current objective (promotion, job change, implementing a new idea, etc.)

FIT
Every sales person knows that we are more likely to trust and respect those who resemble us. The area of FIT is about finding the places of connection, of commonality, of resemblance. To influence fit, do these quick assessments.

What kind of culture your contact live/work in? Is it focused on rational decision-making? Focused on the team and working together? Driven by high standards of excellence and urgency? Or one catalzyed by innovation and creativity?
What key experiences shape the thinking of your contact?
Do you have any similar intellectual pursuits or common outside interests?

Being uniquely different is an asset, yet in powering up your network, it's critical to build a connection to the people in your network by establishing how you FIT together. Choose your topics, present your ideas, and demonstrate respect for them with a focus on the FIT - the points of resemblance.

FACE
While the concept of "face" is commonly thought of in an Asian context, sociologists note that it is an aspect of every social interaction. Face is the social value we claim for ourselves or grant to other during a contact.

As you approach a conversation, email, or meeting, consider the following:

Am I giving and asking for respect and trust in how I put myself forward, in areas of dress, demeanor, handshakes, etc?
Are you finding ways to avoid direct threats to others - graciously saying no, focusing on areas of agreement and cautiously approaching disagreements, and using indirect communication when appropriate?

FAVOR
Whether it's a piece of information, tickets to a football game, helping someone with a task, or giving a reference, gifts or favors feed the power in a network. Research shows that the practice of gift exchange is a factor in building binding relationships with another. It can also be used to gain a form of superiority over other individuals through their indebtedness. Finally, social scientists have demonstrated that requesting favors can strengthen relationships as well, as long as the person being asked is able and willing to do so, and consequently feel benevolent.

The question here is a simple one:

What do I know, have, or can point someone towards that would be of value to them that would strengthen our relationship?
Who is both willing and able to support me in small ways that would increase our connection?

FULCRUM
You are the fulcrum around which your network pivots, and a strategic choice becomes where you place the fulcrum - around building a large number of loose ties or a fewer strong ties based on more frequent interactions.

The optimum networking strategy according to Jeffrey Pfeffer in "Power" is to "know a lot of different people from different circles, have multiple organizational affiliations in a variety of different industries and sector that are geographically dispersed, but not necessarily to know the people well or to develop close ties." It's particularly useful to focus these energies around high-status people. The challenge is to build these relationships is a genuine way - one based on the sharing of common ground (fit), respect and trust (face), and reciprocity and benevolence (favors).

What kind of organization could you start that would have a compelling mission that would draw from your diverse and dispersed network, and perhaps draw in high-status individuals?
What meetings, seminars, events, or outings should you attend to expand and deepen your network?
What steps can you routinely take before, during and after you meet new people to add them to your usable network?

ACTION PLANNING

BREADTH - Take at look at the 5 A's chart you created. Begin to assess whether you have a widely dispersed network as suggested above, or one very narrowly defined. Where can you connect from the past, the current or future to increase the breadth of your network?
DEPTH - With each interaction, how can I deepen my connection with this person through fit, face or favor? How do I do this in a way that provides positive social value to me and the other person? Please remember to find the balance here!
Based on this assessment, what are the key actions you could take over the next week? The next month? The next 90 days?

The next newsletter will continue the focus on using your network to increase your power and influence. In the meantime, please feel free to send me your comments and questions.

Read Solutions Group focuses on the leadership skills that deliver business results in changing organizations. Sherry is highly skilled at transforming leaders who are successful and stuck, into ones who are confident, capable and moving forward.

Call Sherry today to learn how she can assist you with your personal leadership and career challenges, or how she can support your organization with customized workshops, coach-the-coach training, team facilitation, and executive coaching.

Featured in Delaware Today - Women Today Supplement

2011-02-24T05:16:00.002+08:00

An excerpt from the issue ....

Be a Better worker
The glass ceiling. Dress for success. Gender
equality. Over the past 50 years, women
have learned a lot of buzzwords surrounding
women in the workplace. But even with all the
books, articles and workshops, many women
still find it challenging to navigate the workplace
with ease. A change in approach can
work wonders.

Realize that your work won’t speak foritself. You need to speak for it. “Talk about what you’re doing,” says Sherry Read of ReadSolutions Group (readsolutionsgroup.com).“Make sure people see your success.”
Be more assertive but politically astute.When you ask for what you want, find out how it will benefit the other person, Read says. If you receive the account, promotion or new assistant, how will that help the companyor your boss? “Men seem to understand that there are tradeoffs,” Read says. “There’s a price to be paid.” Learn to negotiate. Toomany times a woman will take a job without negotiating salary, benefits or vacation, notes Judy Czyzewski, ex-officio of Wilmington Women in Business, a support and networking organization. A man, however, often plays hardball.
Don’t bring your personal life to work. Never whine about a family situation. Ask for what you need, such as time to care for a sick child, but tell your boss how you will compensate the company for the time you’re away from work, such as working from home or putting in the extra hours when the child is well, Read says.
Find a way to respect colleagues you don’t like. If you can respect them, you can work together, Read says.
Learn and network. “You can really garner support. ‘We can do this together,’” Czyzewski says. For information on WWB, visit wwb.org.

Synergists

2011-01-12T21:23:00.000+08:00

Synergy, according to Wikipedia, occurs when different entities cooperate advantageously for a final outcome; simply that the whole becomes greater than the sum of the individual parts. So what does a synergistic leader look like?

In their book, Leadership Agility, Joiner and Josephs, define synergists as those who “experience leadership as participation in a palpable life purpose that benefits others while serving as a vehicle for personal transformation.” There were many parts to that statement that we’ll explore through the story of Barb, a fictional character.

If you are curious about you can extend your leadership skills or the skills within your team or your organization, give me a call (+1 (302) 545-2892, drop me an email, or learn more at www.ReadSolutionsGroup.com

Greater than the Sum of the Parts

Barb was hired by Larry, a senior Plant Manager, to lead the Human Resources function at his plant. Larry had become excited about the possibilities for radically changing how his plant operated after reading The Lean Manager. He was hoping that Barb would bring a fresh new perspective his management team.

Barb had an interesting track record. She’s begun her career as a pulp and paper engineer, working in various parts of paper-making process, putting in a stint in the training functions, and earning her Six Sigma green belt. Desiring a break from the paper industry, Barb learned about a foundation seeking to improve health in Mali through the implementation of simple behavioral changes. During her year in Africa, Barb realized how own mindsets, beliefs and patterns of behavior got in the way of influencing behavioral change in others. She was fortunate to work with some masterful influencers, and learned how to become acutely aware of what others were thinking and feeling. These skills helped her work through conflicts and bring forward new solutions that supported the needs of the local communities and improved health conditions.

While proud of her work, Barb believed that she could have a broader impact on the world, by bringing her influence skills back into the corporate world. Returning to the US, Barb entered into a graduate program in Leadership and Organizational Change. Due to family constraints, Barb looked for a position in the local community and was thrilled when she talked with Larry about the opportunity at his plant. It was at the level of changing the world, but would give her real-world experience in bringing about change in a very traditional environment.

Barb was barely in the door before the union officials were filing grievances about work cells, the logistics manager was complaining about the manufacturing manager’s incompetence at understanding material flow, and the maintenance supervisors were threatening to quit over disruptions to their change-over processes. Friday afternoon of her first week came around and Barb was thinking about quitting. Arriving home that night, she found in her mail a letter from her colleagues in Mali. They talked about how much progress had been made, the ongoing conflicts and challenges, the children that were now living and studying as a result of the improvements, and how confident they were that she would be able to bring about changes in whatever place she chose. Barb was humbled. How could she walk away from this plant? She knew that if Larry wasn’t able to bring about the desired changes, it was only time before more people would be out of work and there would be one more empty factory on the landscape. A weekend of reading, meditation, and reflection gave Barb the strength to start again the following week. She didn’t know how she would do it, but she was determined to use her knowledge of influence in making this operation a star in the company, in community and maybe, if she was lucky, engage the plant in how they could make the world a better place.

Barb spent the next two years working hand-in-hand with Larry. They listened, listened, and listened to all of the stakeholders, from the union rep, to the mayor of the town, to the corporate R&D folks. They heard and acknowledged the pain and frustration of the slow decline in the business, and they searched for and shined spotlights on every bit of agreement or progress. Over time, they consistently seemed to bring together apparently irreconcilable viewpoints into creative solutions. They kept a focus not just on the question of what contributions could this plant make to the company, but how could this plant make contributions to improving the world we live in. By keeping a vision beyond the walls of the plan, they found that teams began to spring up focused on green initiatives, on community outreach, and even supporting Barb’s former colleagues in Mali with materials and ideas. The best part was that the team cut across functions, levels and union/management ranks increasing collaboration not just on the teams but in the workplace. Looking back, Barb would say that neither she nor Larry knew where their path might lead when they started out, but that somehow they were okay with the “not knowing”.

Characteristics of Synergists:

Synergists have well-developed competencies of the leader levels before them. What sets them apart are:

A sense of life purpose that is displayed through the initiatives they undertake
A highly collaborative style focused on amplifying the positives and turning adversaries into friends and allies
A focus on the question of what contributions this company or organization can make to the world, to its people, through its work
A powerful presence that allows a vision which serves multiple, conflicting stakeholders views and interests
A comfort and ease in working on ill-structured problems; of long periods of “not knowing”
An ability to resolve apparently irreconcilable conflicts and complex interdependent issues

Coaching the Synergist

Take time to experience life to the fullest. Become intensely aware of your own feelings, emotions and compassion.
Continually develop and deepen your sense of purpose and explore how you can align others’ energy with your direction
Practice holding in your mind, without judgment, conflicting perspectives, views and interests
Increase your agility in choosing and using the appropriate style – expertise, authority, personal and political power, facilitation, integration, visionary, participative, directive, etc.

Realizing Shared Purpose

2011-01-12T21:20:00.003+08:00

In the posting Creating Catalysts, we left Susan, a Lean practitioner, learning to operate at the Catalyst level. A Catalyst leader focuses on establishing a vision and mobilizing a breakout effort. The Co-Creator level draws upon her own evolving sense of life purpose to developing a shared purpose with others, whether in a team or organization. In order to create this sense of shared purpose, the Co-Creator develops a keen level of self-awareness, leads with a balanced power style and understands and integrates multiple perspectives.

Let's follow Ken's approach to bringing about transformational change within the division of a company he is responsible for. During a recent trip through Africa, Ken noticed a shift in his thinking and world perspective. Since his return, he's been spending more time reflecting on what he has, who he is, and what he might be able to contribute to the world. He's not ready to or interested in setting up a venture that might bring about fundamental change in the world, but he has begun to wonder what he might be able to do to enhance the lives of others around him. While remaining as committed as ever to delivering the short-term business results of his division, Ken focuses his attention on how his division can create products and services are created and delivered to the customers with social and environmental sustainability. He's starting to believe that if he can link the concerns and self-interest of people in his organization with a larger identity and purpose, they can create fundamental change.

Ken knows that in the past, he's been seen to be a collaborative leader, getting input from others in order to gain buy-in and get to a better decision. But to bring about a fundamental shift, he's going to need his team to own more than the decision, they need to have shared responsibility for the outcome and be willing to take initiative individually and collectively to make it happen. That's going to happen only through developing a leadership team that is excited by, and shares a commitment to the mission and values of the organization.

The change starts with Ken. He's learned that everything he does and thinks becomes visible to the organization, and worse, that his flaws are often exaggerated. He's enlisted trusted advisors, including his wife, a long-term friend and his coach, in reflecting back to him the behaviors that are inconsistent with his stated intentions. He's learning in that safe environment to acknowledge his mistakes, experiment with new behaviors, and to take on new approaches. He is working up towards a consistent modeling of the behaviors he wants to see in the organization and a willingness to acknowledge his mistakes.

Ken's sales director, Sarah, arrives in his office one morning, frustrated by all of this "purpose nonsense". The leadership retreats, the talk about mission and vision, the coaching about working collaboratively with the rest of the team, is, in her words, "Distracting the division from getting out there and making sales. If the leadership team spent a tenth of this time talking with customers, we're achieve record sales within a month." As Sarah worked herself up, she nearly started yelling at Ken that he wasn't walking the walk, wasn't following through on his commitments to her and others, and wasn't seeing the situation realistically.

Ken found Sarah's criticisms hard to hear and considered jumping in to defend himself. However, he sat back, let Sarah finish, took in her criticisms, and then asked if she would be open to discussing her perspective. Later he commented to his wife that it is was difficult to continue to listen when Sarah hit on issues that he's working on, but he chose to listen to her perspective and not add his own negative reactions to the mix. In the end, he admitted to working on some of the issues Sarah mentioned, cleared up some misunderstanding, and asked for her to be open to trying out his way. Ken's aware of a shift in his behavior from one of reacting and then adjusting, to being able to use the negative feedback as an opportunity to look more deeply at his own inner conflicts.

Ken is intrigued that to create the shared purpose with his team, he needs to move beyond being able to see the work through the framework of the other stakeholders. He needs to begin to imagine life as someone else experiences it. And then, he recognizes that there is mutual casuality - actions affect what others think and do. It's only in continual meaningful dialogue, adjusting for unintended consequences and establishing shared responsibility that organization can co-create the outcomes.

Let's leave the story of Ken and contrast the Catalyst and the Co-creator.

Vision: The Catalyst articulate a vision and empower and facilitate others to achieve the vision. The Co-creator collaborates in the development of a shared vision that links to each individual's purpose.

Power: The Catalyst balances advocacy and inquiry in order to arrive at better decisions. The Co-creator leads when necessary balancing assertiveness with sense of what others need; and develops a team that feels responsibility to share leadership for both their part and for the collective whole when appropriate.

Self Awareness: The Catalyst notices unintended behaviors in the moment (e.g., interrupting, stopping to examine assumptions) and adjusts. The Co-creator is able to examine with his own difficult feelings in confrontational settings, becoming aware of his own inner conflicts and actively experiment with new perspectives and behaviors.

Collaboration: The Catalyst seeks meaningful participation in decision making; knowing that differing perspectives will lead to greater buy-in and better directions. The Co-creator establishes an environment of authentic and open dialogue, working through differences to create a shared vision and purpose. This creates a sense of shared responsibility in co-creating the outcome.

Many leaders operating at the co-creator level have stepped out of larger organizations in order to more fully life within their sense of purpose; but many are found within organizations, even as individual contributors. Consider the researcher who actively mentors people across levels and functions, who sees others as people in professional roles, coaching them to look at work as an opportunity for self development and service to others. Consider the plant manager who takes a confrontational union shop to a high-performing work team. As you consider your values, dreams and purpose, consider as well what you do best. If leadership is a service to others, how can you make that a reality from where you work today?

5 A's of Relationships

2010-10-12T03:41:00.002+08:00

Becoming influential, increasing your power base, operating with political astuteness, all begin with understanding your support network. Whether you are starting your career, positioning yourself for the next promotion, job hunting, or trying to bring about change in your organization, knowing your sources of power and leverage are critical. In this first article, we will focus on the area of understanding your network.

In my seminars and coaching, I suggest that people look at their 5 A's of Relationships - Advocates, Advisors, Allies, Acquaintances, and Adversaries.

Advocates willingly and ably speak on your behalf. They may go so far as to plead for, argue for, or defend you. They provide access to resources, information and sources of power.
Advisors provide insight and perspective. They may not be in a position to share their own power, but are willing to give you formal and/or informal feedback that will support you in developing yours.
Allies provide mutual support through means of information, access to resources, and covering each other's backs.
Acquaintances engage in professional, personal or social interactions, but do not actively engage in any form of support.
Adversaries offer opposition directly or indirectly, or through focusing on their agenda, may serve as a significant barrier in your progress.

The first step in exploring the 5 A's of Relationships is to build a chart identifying the advocates, advisors, allies, acquaintances and adversaries in each segment of your life – work, community and personal. Fill in the chart with names of people key to your current objective (promotion, job change, implementing a new idea, etc.)

With the chart drafted (hopefully, you will continue to fill in more names over time), consider how your answer to each question below supports (or weakens) the probability of you reaching your objective.

Where is there a preponderance of names?
Where are there gaps or few names?
How are your advocates supporting you today? What information or resources do they need to be stronger advocates? What resources do they have access to that you are not taking availing yourself of?
Are your advisors in position to advocate for you? What do they need from you to become advocates? What insights or types of advice should be seeking from your advisor?
What resources do you have that your allies might want or need (information, job access, social support, friendship, assistance)? Are any of your allies in a position to become advocates?
What resources do you have that your acquaintances might want or need (information, job access, social support, friendship, assistance)? Are any of your acquaintances in a position to become allies, advisors, or advocates?
What resources or behavior shifts can you make that might shift your adversaries to a more neutral or alliance position? (Many people are surprised by the inclusion of adversaries but research shows two things. Ignoring, undermining, or denigrating adversaries often backfires and serves undermine our agenda. Secondly, attitudes follow behavior – by being respectful if not friendly to adversaries, attitudes will frequently shift to become consistent with the behavior.)

Based on this assessment, what are the key actions you could take over the next week? The next month? The next 90 days? That would align with your current objectives?

Assessing your relationships is one of the first steps in building power and influence. Smart people are often blinded by the belief that they can do things on their own, or at least as well as or better than others. They are also reluctant to reach out for support, overlooking the fact that done right, asking for advice, resources and assistance, done right can serve to increase power.

5 C's of Change

2010-09-28T02:38:00.002+08:00

People resist change.

How many times have you heard that said? Or said it yourself?

Let’s look at the truth of this statement in the lives of people around you. While some people grow up, live and die in the same home. Many, if not most, change homes, change towns, change jobs, change their marital status, have kids, adopt new technologies, evolve their clothing and hairstyles, bring new foods and eating habits into their lives, take on new sports, try out new hobbies, etc. We do change. Sometimes the change is forced upon us, but in these cases, most of the change is chosen.

The issue in the workplace is not the people resist change, it’s that they resist being changed. So what’s a leader to do?

1. Clarity – Be clear on the desired outcome and communicate it over, and over, and over again. Allow discussions on what is right about today, as well as what is wrong, even as you focus attention on the future.

2. Control – Delegate it to the affected groups with boundary conditions, suggested paths, and support. Command and control doesn’t work; only a sincere option of allowing people to be involved and able to affect the outcome.

3. Conflict – Become adept at surfacing the disagreements and accepting them as feedback that will support getting to the best possible outcome.

4. Canvass – Look for people and groups that are experimenting with the change. Allow them to participate in prototypes and trials. Engage them in talking with other parts of the organization. Assist them in evolving their design rapidly and building momentum.

5. Consistency –Too often our words as leaders are betrayed by our actions. Strive to be a model of the desired change, and when you err, admit your blunders.

Pundits argue about whether the pace of change will slow down as the economy improves or whether the pace will continue to accelerate into the future. Whatever your perspective on the pace and magnitude of change, what leaders know is that it is their job to identify, support, lead and sometimes push change.

By keeping an eye on the 5 C’s of Change, this job will be less of a struggle, and more engaging for the leaders and the employees.

Organizational competencies for innovation

2010-05-17T23:49:00.003+08:00

Tune into the 6-week series of blog postings on the Imagining the Future of Leadership at HBR.

In the posting Leading from Behind, I was intrigued with this paragraph ...

Second, leaders must build the organizational capabilities necessary for engaging in the innovation process. The three essential organizational capabilities are: creative abrasion (the ability to generate ideas through intellectual discourse and debate); creative agility (the ability to test and refine ideas through quick pursuit); and creative resolution (the ability to make decisions in an integrative manner).

I often talk, write, coach and teach about conflict competence - the ability to engage in conflict in a way to generate creative solutions, and minimizes the emotional components of conflict. That said, I love the further refinement offered by Linda Hill; by breaking this down in the space of abrasion, agility and resolution - she offers further insights around the process associated with conflict competence.

This blog has moved

2010-04-23T03:14:00.001+08:00

This blog is now located at http://leadership.readsolutionsgroup.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://leadership.readsolutionsgroup.com/feeds/posts/default.

Listen to Respond or Listen to Understand?

2010-04-23T02:02:00.002+08:00

Whether coaching leaders or talking with groups about leadership and conflict, I often ask the question, “How frequently are you listening in order to respond?” In group settings, it’s amazing to see how many people nod, and somewhat abashed, acknowledge that listening to respond is what they normally do. So I ask you, in the last interaction you had with a boss, co-worker, partner or child, were you listening to respond or listening to understand?

In this newsletter, we’ll contrast listening to respond with listening to understand and outline some steps you can take to increase your influence and change relationships.
________________________________________
Listening is something we do when we are not talking.
Conversation is like tennis; it’s important to keep the ball moving and to win the point.
“You’re not listening.”
Looking up from the computer, “Yes, I am.”

Consider meetings you've attending and interactions you’ve had today; how much do the statements above describe you?

Now turn the question around, how much do those statements describe the other person(s) in the interaction? If the answer is a lot; how did that make you feel?

Many of us spend a lot of time hearing (possibly), but little time listening. During the course of a conversation, we are reacting, thinking about the next thing we are going to say, pondering whatever is going in our lives, looking for an opportunity to volley back the ball of the conversation or for an opportunity to score a point. The problem is that while we might keep the conversation afloat, the other person doesn’t necessarily feel heard, or worse, we’re set on scoring with an answer that was incomplete, off the mark or even destructive.

Now listening to understand can be hard work, so why bother? Think about a time when you were really heard, what do you think about the person who took that time? Do you respect them? Were they influential? Did you seek to avoid (or repair) conflict with them? True listeners may build deeper relationships, or they may just build better solutions; either way, they usually command greater respect and influence.

Listening to Understand
1. Choose to master your own emotions so that you can listen.
2. Know that the other person is interesting and set yourself a goal of learning what makes them so.
3. Remove your filters – notice what you are already believe about this person and let it go.
4. Ask thoughtful questions that
* Show that you are paying attention
* Move the conversation forward
* Challenge the other person to talk about what they are thinking and feeling.
5. Restate what you are hearing – the words, the feelings and the beliefs – and seek confirmation that you are hearing correctly.
6. Think before you speak (and not while you are listening).

You might argue that there’s too much to do to spend extra time listening. The challenge to you might be, how could you do this with the same amount of time (or even less) and have better relationships and relationships?

Please comment on this article, share your experiences, and give your suggestions around listening to understand.

When Leaders Resist

2010-02-12T06:34:00.007+08:00

In December I attended a workshop on Creating a Lean Culture. The focus of the discussion was on what Toyota has done to establish a culture of continuous improvement in its operations. While Toyota has developed a unique culture (despite the recent recalls), it is difficult to translate the Toyota Way into other organizational contexts. This is particularly true for the companies that are implementing Lean or Six Sigma concepts in existing, reasonably successful companies or operating units. Yet the question among the workshop attendees was often not “What should we be doing?” but rather, “What do you do when a leader resists?”

It often appears and it’s certainly conventional wisdom that whether the change in lean, six sigma, a new IT system, or a benefits change, some leaders and managers will resist the change. When it’s the successful, seasoned mid-level leaders, it can be extraordinarily difficult to bring them around. This article speaks to a few strategies that can prove useful in breaking down the resistance and inviting these leaders to join the change. While the example is a lean implementation, I encourage you to rewrite this story with the change that is underway in your organization.

Meet Larry. Larry is a plant manager. He’s been at this facility for 15 years, the last 7 as plant manager. He’s successfully managed or led the plant through capital projects, labor negotiations, environmental incidents, seasons of sold-out production and full line shutdowns. The plant safety scores are continuously improving and he regularly meets his cost reduction targets. Larry is well-respected at his plant, within in his community, by his peers and by the business head. Having outlived most of the corporate programs, he’s expecting to do it again with this change.

Larry’s a smart guy. He’s joined the tours to “best practice” facilities. He’s read the articles. He’s listened to the successes, challenges and failures of his colleagues who’ve moved forward with the changes. He doesn’t argue that it won’t work. He doesn’t block the consultants from running their workshops. He even gives one of his people, perhaps not one of his stars, the role of project lead, and dutifully reports at the quarterly reviews the work that is going on at the plant. Yet everyone knows that that little is actually happening.

Larry may be someone you know, or you may need to influence people like Larry. I invite you to read the rest of this article to identify some strategies for working with Larry. If none of its working for you, or you’ve lost patience, give me a call and we can talk about how I can I support you in developing new strategies, or I can work directly with Larry in moving through the change.

As mentioned before, Larry is smart guy and he’s seen and heard all of the evidence. Nonetheless, as organizations frequently made up of engineers and accountants, we fall back on trying to move him with either 1) evidence or 2) management “persuasion”. Consider how ineffective solid evidence is in changing many behaviors, such as, flossing, exercise, smoking, speeding, etc. While evidence of the value of a change is critically important, the most compelling evidence to a person if what they experience. Larry’s evidence is that he’s been successful, is successful, and believes that he knows how to continue to be successful. Furthermore, Larry knows that his past success has involved avoiding these “passing fads”.

Before considering useful strategies, we want to begin with recasting the resistance. In 1999, Dent and Goldberg in “Challenging A Resistance to Change” argue that accepting the conventional wisdom that people naturally resist change leads to counter-productive behaviors. Instead of looking at ways to overcome resistance (read more in my last newsletter) , we’ll explore ways to influence behavior.

It’s too big, too much or unclear. Look to the success stories to identify for the “vital behaviors” – the smallest set of behaviors that will have the greatest impact. These are not thoughts, values, or qualities, but the very few “must do’s” that done consistently and persistently will lead to change. For more on Vital Behaviors see Influencer by Patterson, Grenny, et al.
People resist loss, not change. In the SCARF model suggested by David Rock (Your Brain at Work), apparent resistant may come from feared changes in Status, Control, Autonomy, Relatedness, or Fairness. Explore and acknowledge what people may lose. Once the fears are identified, opportunities arise to address the fear, alter the change to minimize the impact, or allow the person to set aside the fear and proceed.
Unclear alignment with personal goals. Support people in uncovering their goals and how the change fits in with them. Perhaps Larry is motivated by seeing teams get energized – show how your change will make that happen. Maybe Larry wants to keep things quiet until retirement, so taking a risk and working hard isn’t motivating; can he see this as leaving a legacy? Spend time on the values, goal and purpose looking for the places of alignment.
“You’re not listening.” Ford and Ford in Harvard Business Review April 2009 remind us to look at resistance as feedback. Focus on the purpose of the change and invite discussion, engagement, involvement and even refusal as you refine the change effort.
Plan for a marathon, not a sprint. New behaviors are often not easy and take time to become comfortable. People will experience challenges from others and from existing systems, and so need ongoing support. Unexpected roadblocks will arise. Build support teams, provide regular communications, celebrate what’s working, and add fun into the change.

It often seems like most people are not wired for change; yet the reality is that we are marvelously equipped to accept, adapt to and adopt change. It is a reality of all elements of our lives – in our homes, in our family life, in our education, in our careers, in our economics, in our jobs. We may not always respond rationally to a change, but then doesn’t that in itself, give us clues on what strategies may begin to influence behavior.

For help working with leaders who are (apparently) resisting change, send me an email at Sherry@ReadSolutionsGroup.com or leave a comment on the posting.

Four Rooms of Change

2010-02-10T22:29:00.003+08:00

I had the opportunity to listen to Kenny Moore, the Monk from "The CEO and the Monk" speak. He introduced the "Four Rooms of Change Theory" developed by Claes Janssen. While similar to other change models, this one offers some imagery that may be useful in conversations with managers. As with all models, it has some limitations.

The premise is that all systems - individuals, teams, communities, organizations - live in a within a space of four rooms; often referred to as a 4 room apartment. The rooms within this apartment are Contentment, Denial, Confusion and Renewal. According to Moore, people move from one room to the next when 1) they are ready, 2) life invites them, and 3) reality kicks them.

When we look at this model in the context of organizational change, its very simplicity enables its use with management teams. It is easy to relate each room to life experiences, as Janssen and his collaborators have done.

What makes the model interesting for these discussions is the premise that people move of their own accord. As leaders, we can not push, pull, threaten or entice people from one room to the next. We can, however, work to "keep the doors open".

As we look more deeply at this model, we begin to notice the following questions:
1. How do people behave in each room?
2. What are the most effective leadership tools aligned with the behaviors each room?
3. If every room is a necessary part of the change, what is the value of each room?
4. Is there a way to "decorate" or light each room that makes it a safe place?
5. How do we keep the doors open? Are there different strategies for different rooms?
6. What organizational systems and structures keep doors open? Which ones shut doors?
7. Is it true that the best thing that leaders can do is keep the doors open, and not push, pull, threaten or entice?

If you've used this model, I invite your comments and thoughts. I'll use future blog posts to delve into my questions.

People resist loss, not change

2010-01-16T03:12:00.003+08:00

So much is written about why employees resist change. Yet it takes little time to find research supporting the concept that resistance is an interpretation of the situation from the eyes of the change agent. In fact, most people recognize that change is inevitable - a reality of life.

What people might resist is loss - loss of status, loss of certainty, loss of control, etc. Or perhaps they are mistrustful - whether of the message or the messenger.

What will the change agent see when they expect resistance to change? What will they miss when they focus their efforts on overcoming resistance to change?

Creating Catalysts

2009-11-24T23:59:00.002+08:00

Would you like to see your leaders creating breakthrough shifts in how the work is done? Would you like to see them consistently and naturally drawing together teams from all parts of the business to develop new and creative solutions? Would you like to see your leaders developing new ways for people to work together? Would you like to see your leaders routinely evaluating their own assumptions and working to understand the work through differing perspectives?
Leaders who operate in these modes are Catalysts … catalysts for change. Whether driving LEAN manufacturing through an organization, moving into new markets, or integrating acquisitions, Catalysts have grown beyond the Achievers in their ability to bring people together to move a vision into reality.

In the preceding postings, we have been exploring a competency model for leadership outlined by Joiner and Josephs in their recent book “Leadership Agility”. This newsletter will look at the implementation of Lean manufacturing system to point out the differences in how Achievers and Catalysts might approach the same work. We’ll end by identifying development opportunities that can be used to support competency development to the Catalyst level.

Consider the premise that there is always a way “to create more value with less work.” That is the basis of the process management philosophy exemplified by the Toyota Production System and now described simply as Lean (reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_manufacturing). Let’s see if we can contrast how Lloyd, an Achiever, and Susan, a Catalyst might proceed in leading a Lean implementation.

Lloyd is energized by the opportunity to lead the Lean transformation team for his organization. He believes strongly its philosophies and practices. He’s got a proven track record of being able to diagnose and resolve problems with innovative solutions. He knows that the key to his success will be in persuading others that Lean is a key to the future of his organization.

Susan is fascinated by the successes some companies have achieved with Lean. She’s also been exploring what sets apart the best from those that aren’t succeeding. She knows that the tools and structures are important, but has recognized that the key to success is in establishing a clear vision and then getting people from all levels of the organization involved. Susan has seen that if she can create a new way of working together, people will feel excited, empowered and energized. But she also knows that there will be a lot of different opinions on the value of lean and how to implement it. She is looking forward to getting the conflicts out on the table so that the best solutions arise.

Three months into the project Lloyd is noticing that the Purchasing group is routinely not following through on their team commitment. He knows that his conversation with the Purchasing Director will be pivotal. Before the meeting, Lloyd meets with his coach to prepare for this conversation. Lloyd’s coach helps him get clear on the outcomes he is seeking and the relationship he wants to have with the Purchasing Director. In the meeting, he is able to gain a better perspective on the challenges in Purchasing, while reminding the Purchasing Director of the management attention this project is getting. He leaves with agreement to Purchasing will live up to their commitments.

While initially engaged in the work, Susan is noticing that the production planning group is resisting some of the initiatives. In reflecting on an earlier conversation with the Production Planning Manager, she realizes that neither of them really opened up about their differing priorities and there was no real commitment; in fact, the conversation created more distrust. Susan knows that she needs to lead the Lean implementation – it’s not negotiable – but that she needs to be looking for collaboration in the solution. Susan has learned that in the upcoming conversation that she’ll need to be explicit with her key priorities and assumptions throughout the conversation, and that she’ll need to be asking the questions to learn about the priorities and assumptions in Production Planning. With awareness of her own intent and behavior throughout the conversation, Susan was able to find opportunities for joint problem solving.

Lloyd is pleased to get some feedback from his management and HR that he’s really grown into his role as a manager. His team meetings are well attended and include a comfortable balance of information sharing and problem-solving. He’s finding that he can back away from troubleshooting specific problems and spend most of his time motivating his team members, providing support, breaking down barriers, and keeping everyone moving together.

Susan believes that the best solutions come from exploring a variety of perspectives, but is concerned that her participative approach will be seen as too “soft”. With the encouragement of her coach, she has begun to experiment with her team meetings in order to find a balanced power style. She works at encouraging discussion that examines issues from different perspectives. Her team is learning that sometimes she is looking to strengthen her idea, sometimes she is looking for new ideas, sometimes she negotiate a compromise within the team to keep things moving forward, and sometimes she lets her team have their way. She is realizing that valuing input is not the same as giving up her authority to decide the direction. She also finding ways to delegate leadership to people within her team and seeing this is accelerating their development.

Reflect on the stories of Lloyd and Susan. Who would you rather have working for you? Who would you rather have as a boss? Which organization will achieve the greatest transformation?

The Catalyst level is a natural extension of the Achiever. The Achiever can be counted on to deliver results with a focus on solving the current problems and involving others through persuasion. The Catalyst is at a stage in his career when he sees the personal and organizational value in stepping out of the old ways of doing business, in building a participative team, and in finding creative ways to develop his direct reports.

To develop an Achiever to the Catalyst level, coaching will focus on the following areas:

Deepening awareness of beliefs, values, and assumptions about yourself and others
Discovering the interest in and value for helping others succeed
Finding out what’s important to other people and connecting with it to make a difference for them
Shifting from motivating and directing others to coaching and training
Involving others in collaborative problem solving
Increasing self-awareness in the moment, and learning how to adjust feelings and behaviors throughout interpersonal interactions
Seeking and incorporating feedback into personal development

For more information on how Sherry L. Read, Principal and Executive Coach, Read Solutions Group works with developing and senior leaders to raise their competencies, contact Sherry at Sherry@ReadSolutionsGroup.com.

The Achievers

2009-11-04T05:28:00.001+08:00

The last posting described the Expert Leader in the following way:

The Expert Leader is a strong, tactical problem-solver; someone you love to have
on your team. You can depend on them to get the job done day after day. Yet the
Expert Leader is often so focused on being seen as right that they forget to
look at the bigger picture, or to bring other people along with them.

The Achiever combines leadership with technical capabilities in order to play on a bigger field. Let’s follow Mary from the last newsletter, on her career path to Regional Sales Manager. A few months into the job, Mary feels as though she has never worked harder in her life. There seem to be challenges with every client, personnel issues that are not being addressed, and errors being with the customer accounts. She says that she has no problem with delegation, yet it seems as though nothing is ever quite good enough for her. She wants to have real team meetings, but can barely find the time to get the work done. While Mary has been promoted, at this stage, her leadership skills remain at the Expert level.

Believing in Mary’s potential, her boss hires an executive coach. In reflecting on her desires for her leadership style, Mary tells her coach that she wants to create an environment where her team is both challenged and motivated, and where she can work on broader issues. With the support of her coach, Mary begins to schedule biweekly team meetings with the agenda focused on the key projects she has identified that will support sales throughout the region. She is seeing opportunities to use her team’s initiatives to change the sales process for the division. Mary is disciplining herself to listen more, use more questions than answers, and to choose the times when she makes the decision. Mary is making the shift to Achiever Level Leadership.

At the Achiever Level, leaders spend an increasing time delivering organizational outcomes versus solving discrete problems. They see their priority as delivering on the mandates of senior leadership and other stakeholders. The Achiever motivates his team by focusing on the larger objectives, inviting discussion, creative and healthy debate. He shifts his emphasis from managing tasks to managing people. This latter shift requires the Achiever to become more skillful and comfortable engaging in crucial conversations.

Coaching at the Achiever Level

Build self-awareness and intent: Challenge the developing achiever to explore their experiences and strengths. Ask for reflections on personal growth – “How are you changing? How are you still the same as in earlier periods of your life?” Ask the Achiever to investigate how their actions reflect their values and beliefs. Inquire into the discrepancies between stated values and observable behaviors. Support the Achiever in building a coherent set of values and beliefs that will support their development as leaders.

Develop a breadth of perspective: The Achiever develops the ability to look at problems through an adjustable lens - zooming in and out on problems – looking forward and back, over short and long intervals. Invite the Achiever to envision a range of possibilities, to be open to “a right answer” rather than “the right answer”. Encourage the Achiever to analyze situations for patterns and to use this learning to find new ways to solve old problems. Notice that the Achiever, while aware of bias and error, will still depend heavily on their own sources of data and experience, and can become quickly closed to other perspectives.

Use your team: The Achiever focuses more energy around motivating others, rather than giving orders. Question the Achiever on how she is using team meetings. – are they being used to gain buy-in and test their own ideas, or is the Achiever using the meetings to cast a wide net for new ideas? Is the team truly supportive of the leader’s direction or are there concerns and opportunities being left unsaid?

Tackle the crucial conversations: Coach the Achiever to explore the areas where they are holding back. The authors of Crucial Conversations tell us that these are conversations where the stakes are high, emotions may be high and there is an expectation of opposing opinions. Learning and practicing skills, employing them with all stakeholders, and growing with each experience is key to developing through this level.

Achievers are the key to leadership at many organizations today. They are strong at outlining their vision for an organization, at rallying the troops and executing on outcomes. They explore the landscape for changes in strategy, let go of the day-to-day, and are motivated by the success of the organization. Focusing on the behaviors above will enhance the success of the Achiever.

The Expert Leader

2009-10-15T01:52:00.002+08:00

Mary is a sales manager responsible for leading a team to develop and maintain at key accounts. She has garnered the respect of her team and her leadership through her keen ability to resolve issues with the customers. When there’s a problem, she analyzes the situation, thinks through options, defends her position and takes pride in working through to a successful conclusion.

Mary is typical of leadership at the Expert Level. She is a strong problem-solver who had developed an ability to think independently, to analyze the situation and to take a stand when she knows she’s right. With a focus on the steps to be taken and the desired outcomes, she leads her team through implementations of the solutions. She works hard to develop, support and defend her team, making sure that she is always pushing them for further growth. She thrives on being seen as the expert who understands the business and the customers.

Expert Leaders build strong relationships within their organization and with their management, yet tend to put little energy into building relationships with other units. The Expert Leader’s focus on analysis and tactics frequently leads them to focusing more on the “rightness” of their position, rather than buy-in, from their own group or from other key stakeholders. They frequently overlook the impact of stakeholder’s views on the ultimate effectiveness of a solution. Driving to solve problems, the Expert Leader deals with each issue as a discrete problem, often losing the opportunity to step back and find a broader, innovative solution.

The Expert Leader is unlikely to seek feedback from her team or peers. This plays out in different ways, depending on the natural style of the individual. With an assertive style, she will frequently overlook or dismiss options that suggest she’s less than fully correct. With an accommodating style, he’ll frequently overload himself with work, correcting other’s work to his standards, and limiting his availability to give feedback and coaching. A key development challenge for the Expert Leader is finding a style that opens them up to giving and receiving feedback.

Within her organizational unit, an Expert Leader is likely to function more as a supervisor than a manager. Problem-solving and direction-setting discussions are typically held one-on-one, with group meetings relegated to information sharing. In fact, the direct reports of an Expert Leader are likely to function as a group, at best, and rarely as the team that might arise if the Expert Leader were more open to other opinions and options.

Developing the Expert Leader

Define the leadership ideal. The Expert Leader is working towards an ideal of being smart, efficient, capable, and looked to as the Expert. Challenge the Expert Leader to observe the style of leaders they admire, and to notice how they look to and motivate others to make more strategic changes.
Learn to seek feedback. The Expert Leader finds it faster and more efficient to advocate for their position. Seeking feedback requires the Expert Leader to find a balance between efficiency and effectiveness. Feedback can start with understanding the impact of their style through a 360 assessment. In addition, the Expert Leader can be challenged to notice when input from a broader group resulted in a better outcome. The Expert Leader is often unaware of how their biases, beliefs and standards may blind them to alternatives; place the Expert Leader into situations where their existing frameworks cannot be taken for granted.
Build team leadership skills. The Expert Leader can be coached to use meetings to generate and listen to ideas, to leverage the skills of the team members and to build group understanding and buy-in to a direction. The Expert Leader may need to retain ultimate decision-making authority; yet schooled in curiosity and inquiry, the Expert Leader can learn how to develop a team.

In the next posting, we’ll contrast the Expert Leader with the Achiever in how they view leadership, how they manage pivotal conversations, and their agility in leading teams.

A Model for Leadership Agility

2009-10-05T07:35:00.001+08:00

At the International Coach Federation Conference in November 2008, I was introduced to a new leadership competency model. A model focused on enabling leadership in a rapidly changing world. I invite the reader of my blog to join with me on a journey through the book. By summarizing the work of the authors in these writings, I process the information for myself, and hopefully encourage you to look more deeply into this insightful book, and into your own development as a leader.

A competency is defined as a measurable characteristic of a person related to success at work. It can be a skill, an attribute, or an attitude. Competency models can span the range from what it takes to be a successful professional – Action-orientation, Interpersonal Communication, Integrity – to senior-level positions – Managing Vision, Strategic Thinking, Dealing with Paradox. Yet if, as columnist Eric Dezenhall of BusinessWeek suggests, crises are the rule, not the exception, for Obama, as the leader of the United States, what then faces the business leader in this world of globalization, economic crises, requirements for rapid change, uncertainty and new competition - a paradoxical place of diversity and connectedness. While traditional competency models remain valid and informative, the question is do they go far enough to address the agility needed to keep pace, or lead, in this complex world.

Joiner and Josephs posit a competency model for leaders exploring levels of agility in four key areas – context-setting, stakeholder, creativity, and self-leadership in their book Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change.

Context-setting agility involves scanning the situation, evaluating the changes taking place and considering the best initiatives in light of your purpose.
Stakeholder agility requires the ability to understand the perspectives and realities of those people and organizations that have a stake in, or will be impacted by your initiatives, and to consider how best to engage them.
Creative agility involves learning from past experiences as well as seeking new and different ways of solving complex problems.
Self-leadership agility requires discipline and skill in self-awareness of thoughts, feeling and behaviors, and the motivation to continue to develop and grow.

Joiner and Josephs define five levels in each in of these areas which when combined are named Expert, Achiever, Catalyst, Co-Creator and Synergist. At each of these levels, they define the typical set of behaviors that would be seen in how leadership is viewed, pivotal conversations, agility in leading teams, and organizational change leadership. Let’s look briefly at how these five levels might vary by looking a leader new into his or her role.

Expert: When the expert steps into a new role with energy, drive and leadership, they jump right in. Meetings are held everyone, reports and data are combed through, conclusions are drawn, new directions are set and communicated and the Expert leads the organization in solving the key problems.

Achiever: The achiever arrives with a clear understanding of her mandate. She spends a lot of time getting to know her team, being visible, and creating a consistent message of the direction of the organization. She brings her team together to outline the strategy, and works with them to evaluate whether the right structure and people are in place to reach the goals.

Catalyst: The catalyst looks beyond the mandate to how to achieve the objectives and create a sustainable high performance organization. He’s met with thought leaders throughout the organization and encouraged his team to do so as well. He’s engaged three levels and more in an interactive strategic planning process. When he finds resistance in the organization, he seeks creative solutions that support execution of the developing plans.

Co-Creator: The co-creator knows that she will need to achieve the desired business outcomes and develop a high performance organization, but she additionally sets her sights on how to be an industry leader in corporate responsibility. She outlines her short-, near-, and long-term vision for the organization; she engages people inside and outside the firm in questions of how to strengthen relationships, and she models and coaches her team on collaboration and broad accountability. The co-creator drives the ongoing message of how profitability and social responsibility go hand-in-hand.

Synergist: The synergist builds on all of his competencies in building collaborative teams, delivering results and driving organizational change. He creates a leadership team that can collective drive the vision with the organization, freeing the synergist to focus on building unique, varied, and ground-shifting partnerships, collaborations. The synergist asks the questions about how to deliver the results in the right way, with the right people and bring about positive change in the world at large.

Each level builds on the skills, experiences and competencies of the prior levels. Each requires more of the leader in terms of context-setting, stakeholder engagement, creativity and self-leadership. The question to ask is which level would you like to have as your leader, and at which level are you demonstrating leadership?

In subsequent postings, we’ll explore each of these five levels in more detail and look at how to develop the competencies in how leadership is viewed, pivotal conversations, agility in leading teams, and organizational change that move leaders up the levels.

Too Nice Organizations?

2009-09-12T05:03:00.002+08:00

"There's very little conflict in our company."

"This is a really nice place to work; everyone gets along."

"Whenever there are differences of opinion, they are easily resolve."

Sounds like a great place to work, doesn't it? Or does it? Can an organization be too nice?

This issue explores the question of whether creativity and innovation are founded on differences - differences of perspective, differences of opinion, and dare we say it, a bit of conflict.

The Role of Conflict in Creativity

What is creativity? MacKinnon in his book In Search of Human Effectiveness: Identifying and Developing Creativity defines five criteria:

novelty and originality
an adaptation to reality
capable of being produced, sustained, evaluated, elaborated, developed, and communicated to others
true and beautiful or "aesthetically pleasing"
creating "new conditions of human existence, transcending and transforming the generally accepted experience of man by introducing new principles that defy tradition and change radically man's view of the world."

Are all five criterion essential? The truly innovative organizations strive to meet all five. The rest, in order to survive and thrive within an environment of rapid, unceasing change, need to novel, original products, services and processes that both the requirements of reality, continuous development and understandability.

Rothenberg in Creativity and Madness, proposes that true creative inspiration results from unconscious anxieties within the creator. By grappling with the effort to understand the genuine meaning of an inspiration or idea, the creator resolves the conflict by gaining insight, and, perhaps, generating a product. Creativity, then, is a process that begins when one recognizes a problem, not immediately apparent, to be solved.

Conflict occurs when two or more "people have incompatible interest, goals, principles or feelings" (Capobianco, Davis, and Kraus) and further, when these points of view appear to create limitations upon one another. The differences may be express covertly or overtly, resulting in a competition,
or conflict.

In fact, Ulrich and Smallwood content that "Leadership inevitably involves conflict". Leaders are the ones called upon to take risks, decide on the close calls, and influence change. By their very nature, strong leaders recognize that some portion of their audience is unlikely to agree with them, while some are open to being convinced.

Yet many potentially strong leaders and organizations are embarrassed by conflict, and refuse to deal with it openly. Sy Landau notes that this attitude forces conflict underground, where at best it limits creativity and at works, it festers and spreads.

Innovative leaders and organization recognize that it is only in opening up to all points of view, that truly creative solutions can be found. What can you do to improve the conflict-competence of your leadership, team and organization?

Define the need for creativity within your organizational and strategic construct
Address and resolve systemic and structural issues that are not aligned with your strategy
Create a language and skill set that enables constructive conflict
Ensure a climate of trust, safety and respect for other perspectives and experiences
Teach people how to separate personal conflict from task conflict

So what's your thinking? Can an organization be too nice? Are the differences of perspective, differences of opinion, and dare we say it, conflict being swept buried? What new ideas, products, services and processes might be generated if the differences were brought to light by conflict-competent team?

If you'd like to learn more about how to build conflict-competent leaders and teams, please contact me.

Experience Meetings a New Way

2009-09-05T04:21:00.004+08:00

This posting is based on and adapted from the section "Seeing from Within an Organization" in the book Presence by Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski and Flowers.

Edgar Schein, a founder of the field of organizational psychology, said "If you want to understand an organization's culture, go to a meeting."

To experience meetings in a new way, consider how you can apply Schein's insights in a systematic way. Rather than participating normally, pay attention to what is going on ... and to your own reactions.

Who speaks? Who doesn't?
What issues are addressed? Which are avoided?
What's the pink elephant in the room that no one will mention?
Who is listened to? Who isn't?
What kinds of words figure promptly in the language of the powerful? the ignored?
What can you learn from the body language?

For the aficionado of meetings and office politics, there's nothing new to those questions. Where the new learning often comes is through reflecting on your own thoughts and feelings.

During the meeting, take quick note of your reactions. Later look at the event in detail, consider what you heard, what you say, and what you felt.

When do you feel safe? feel threatened?
When are you confused? When are you clear on what is being said?
Where were you fully present and engaged? Where were you distracted?
Were you feeling conflict? feeling in agreement?
What assumptions of your own are you noticing?

Then stretch your experience even further and imagine how different people were experiencing the same events. What do you learn about yourself by imagining the experience of others?

In spending the time to process your experience over a series of meetings alone and with your coach, you will deepen your understanding of the organization's culture - its norms, beliefs and fundamental assumptions. You can start to see yourself as a part of that culture, noticing where you contribute to the patterns of behavior. And perhaps you'll finally ask yourself the question,

What am I doing - in my actions, thoughts and feelings - to maintain these patterns as they are?

... and then,

Is this what I want to be doing?

Is Hard Work Enough?

2009-09-04T21:51:00.001+08:00

You've met them - the colleagues and friends who are dedicated to their job. They spend 12 hours a day, nights and weekends meeting with customers, solving problems, researching alternatives, writing reports, making presentations, delivering results; yet others get the opportunities and promotions. They are as smart (or possibly smarter) than their bosses. They can see the problems and solutions. They know what should be done. And look at the work they continue to deliver. Maybe if they just work a bit harder?

In their book, Execution, Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan talk about the "doer" - "the person who is a little less conceptual but is absolutely determined to succeed will usually find the right people and get them together to achieve objectives". The doer doesn't hang his or her hat on the right answer, the right solution, the correct and detailed report. The doers are the ones "who energize people, are decisive on tough issues, get things done through others, and follow through as second nature."

Energizing Others

Energy starts with a vision and direction; yet the leaders who create, rather than drain energy from their colleagues and teams, are the ones who turn that picture of success into short-term accomplishments, increased capabilities and increased confidence. Think of the coaches who stand on the sidelines yelling at their teams, where the players operate from fear of failure. Now think of the coaches who keep the focus on the next play, point on the good moves, identify what should be done differently next time, and push the players to prepare well physically and mentally for each game. It's not just the rhetoric, it's not the vision of a winning game, it's the focus on each step toward the winning game.

Being Decisive

Being decisive and being right are too often confused in the minds of those colleagues working all hours. Being right can lead to over-analysis. It can lead to an answer that is optimal but too radical. It can lead to rigidity when flexibility is required.

By contrast, "decisiveness is the ability to make difficult decisions swiftly and well, and act on them", according to Bossidy and Charan. It is the combination of the ability to confront a tough situation, make a sound decision,and lead others forward, that can separate the good thinker from the doer.

Achieving Through and With Others

Yet as pointed out above, the good decision, well-articulated, is insufficient for true success. It is only through developing and using influence skills that the doer accomplishes the necessary outcomes. The successful doer builds a social network that enables her to stay on top of shifting organizational priorities and maintain valuable relationships. He knows how much support to ask for, and when. She knows where she can count on support and where she has something of value that will help to gain support. He knows that communication up, down and sideways on the objectives, key steps, milestones, challenges, and achievements is key for keeping an initiative on track and people supportive of the outcomes. She has learned that organizations are made of interdependent people, and only by developing in herself, and in others, new and better ways to work together will success be achieved.

When you see your colleagues with their head down, working all hours, striving for the best, and wondering why they seem to be passed over time and time again, ask them to consider the following:

What portion of your time is spent getting to the right answer compared to making sure you understand whether you are working on the current priorities? Compare that picture with others. What might be the benefits of shifting your time allocation?
What portion of your time is spent on task vs relationship? How does that compare to the people being promoted?
What is your energy like on a daily basis? Are you creating or draining the energy of the people around you?
Are you making decisions on issues at the right level for your job, neither too detailed, nor too high-level?
What systems do you have in place to keep informed about shifting organizational (and personal) priorities?
Do you adjust your approach to meet the needs of the people around you?
How can you learn more about the needs and wants of the people who work above, along side, and for you? What can you do with that information that supports both their success and your own?
How do you handle conflict in ways that advance your cause?
What ways do you have of getting clear and effective feedback and of continually developing yourself?

Strong skills, talents, and hard work are prerequisites to success, yet they are insufficient in most organizations. Working up, down and sideways; knowing your own and other's motivators; enhancing energy; being decisive at the right level; and knowing how to influence others, frequently outweigh working hard to find the correct answer. Most often, a range of solutions will work - the win then goes to the one who can bring about the results, while building capability and energy for the next challenge in the people around them.

If you'd like to learn more about how to develop behaviors in your organization that deliver results while building capability and energy, please contact me.

Challenges in Adapting

2009-08-27T19:48:00.001+08:00

Recent posts have been exploring the seven behaviors most commonly seen in derailing a career. [Links connect to original publication in Read Solutions Group newsletter.]

Believing that skill and results are the sole keys to success
Being arrogant and not open to feedback, introspection and personal growth
Consistently acknowledging yourself for the successes and blaming others for the failures
Failing to staff and develop a strong team
Lack of composure
Unwilling to adapt to change and compromise
Inability to develop a strong professional network, internal and external to the organization.

From the final two career stallers – willingness to change and expecting results to be the key to success – with change present in my life, we’ll focus on the outcomes of resisting change and compromise, what might ensue during a change and how you can support yourself and others in change and compromise.

Let’s start with some definitions appropriate for this career staller, offered by www.dictionary.com:

To adapt is to adjust oneself to different conditions, environment, etc.

Change, the noun, means the supplanting of one thing by another.
To compromise is to settle difference by mutual concessions; an agreement reached by adjustment of conflicting or opposing claims, principles, etc., by reciprocal modification of demands. An alternative definition for compromise used, as a noun, is an endangering, especially of reputation; exposure to danger, suspicion, etc.
Willingness is freedom from reluctance; readiness of the mind to do or forbear.

This staller appears in the person who seems to resist new programs, philosophies or even people. They may be seen as disagreeing inappropriately, vocally, or perhaps subversively with senior management. Conversely, Buckingham and Clifton in their book, Now, Discover Your Strengths define the person with a strength in adaptability as one who lives in the moment, seeing the future not as a fixed destination but one that is discovered a choice at a time. The adaptable person responds willingly to current demands, even if pulled from original plans.

With credit markets and currencies gyrating wildly, with companies turning overnight from sound financial institutions to those warranting a government bailout, an ever-increasing pace of change is a certainty. If so, then does adaptability become even more important – perhaps a key competency to develop? Adaptable behaviors will involve a readiness to explore change, openness to new ideas and the opinions of others, and skill at challenging ideas and people in constructive ways.

At the base is what Runde and Flanagan in Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader: How You and Your Organization Can Manage Conflict Effectively define as the passive-constructive behavior of “adapting”. They define adapting behavior as “staying flexible and trying to make the best out of situation”. This can range from taking a positive attitude, to making adjustments that will minimize unnecessary problems in the future. At the most skillful level, active-constructive conflict behaviors include “perspective taking” and “creating solutions”; that is, the ability to clearly understand the other person’s point of view and then to work with them to arrive at a resolution.

At the heart of change is conflict – conflict in perceptions of the “right way”, conflict in understanding, conflict in expected outcomes, conflicts in beliefs and knowledge, conflicts with prior experience. Increasing skills in conflict management becomes key in improving adaptability. When we are clearer on whether a change is worth it, and learn how to make the change, then we can move forward. Skillful conflict management enables an individual to dig into the why, to be clear on the impact, to explore what is known and what is not, and then to create a solution that skirts endangerment and allows for broader success.

Runde and Flanagan offer the following suggestions for these constructive conflict behaviors:

Listen to understand rather than debate
Practice active listening to ensure that you are clearly hearing the message
Never stop at one potential solution
Explore the viability of multiple options to gain greater understanding of the constraints
Gain agreement on the path forward and possible future decision points

Not only is change inevitable, the pace of change continues to accelerate. So, where does that leave the serenity prayer that suggests that you should “ask for the serenity to accept the things you cannot change, the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference?” Perhaps the wisdom lies in knowing that the only thing in our lives over which we have control is ourselves. When we couple with that the wisdom that changing ourselves can be extraordinarily difficult, perhaps we’ll also find the courage and skill to willingly adapt to change.

Maintain Your Composure

2009-08-20T20:07:00.002+08:00

Few articles start without an internet search, and this one was no different.I found that among the definitions of composure a band named Composure and a number of drugs, including one for pets. Merriam-Webster Online defines composure as a "calmness or repose especially of mind, bearing, or appearance: self-possession." I couldn't resist following the link to self-possession and finding this further definition, "control of one's emotions or reactions especially when under stress: presence of mind." And on to presence of mind to find "self-control so maintained in an emergency or in an embarrassing situation that one can say or do the right thing.

As I followed this trail, the challenges with our language became clear. Dictionary.com defines composure as "serene, self-controlled state of mind; calmness; tranquility", yet I suspect few of the leaders giving people development feedback are asking them to become tranquil. Rather, pulling together the Merriam Webster trail, composure as we use it in the workplace is about controlling one's reactions, especially under stress, in order to say or do the right thing. It's not about being perpetually calm. It's not even about controlling your emotion: passion is fine, anger is not. It's about what you CHOOSE to do, say, or display and therefore about gaining control.

How do you gain control? Become aware of your hot buttons. When do you become especially upset? Are you bothered by people who are unreliable? What about people who are untrustworthy? Does close monitoring of work, perhaps micro-managing make you crazy? Perfectionisms? Too much detail? Sarcasm? Insults? Roadblocks? Yelling? Once you have identified your hot button(s), reflect on what in these situations causes you the biggest concern. Consider what steps you can take to minimize or avoid situations where your hot buttons are triggered. Evaluate how you would prefer to respond in future situations. Develop a set of strategies for cooling down, for riding it out, or for changing the dynamic. Consider ways in which you might be able to have a positive impact on the situation or person, before, during or after the event. Enlist a partner in providing feedback, intervening, or making suggestions.

Change requires a number of steps: identifying your goals, defining actions, experimenting, getting feedback, staying the course and celebrating the win. If lack of composure is something that might be holding back someone in your organization, consider using feedback, assessments, coaches, observation, and experimentation to assist them in their development.

Remember, when you hear a message about composure, it is is not about stress reduction, achieving tranquility or creating a calm environment. It is about saying, doing and modeling the right things under stress.

Always keep your composure.
You can't score from the penalty box; and to win, you have to score.
Bobby Hull, Canadian Hockey Player