REMINDER OF THE OBVIOUS

I think I may have a big blind spot.  I don't realize how awful most work
places can be and are.  I worked in a decent environment led by very decent CEO's.  Not perfect at all, but decent. 

Reading the review of HAND TO MOUTH—Living in Bootstrap America reminded me of how so many workplaces kill the spirit and intelligence of its employees.

I offer a smorgasbord of quotes to be used as a smack on the side of all of 
our heads:

—it wasn't the meager pay, the  mind-numbing assembly lines or the plastic dust in the air. Instead, most employees complained "that they didn't feel needed, necessary or wanted."

–It would be nice to imagine a class of stunned M.B.A. candidates preparing to employ people like the author. They would learn how denying dignity corrodes attitudes toward work and authority.

—As a result of being treated without dignity was, says the author, "I just give up caring about work. I lose the energy, the bounce, the willingness.  I'll perform as directed, but no more than that.  I've rarely  who showed me that he valued me more than my uniform—we were that interchangeable—so I don' go out of my way for my bosses either.

—There are poor working class people everywhere, guys. You can just have a conversation with one, like a real human being: Give it a try. You'll like it."

Like I said, "This is a reminder or the obvious" but comes from the direct voice of a self-proclaimed working poor employee.  I hope it is obvious. I hope you work against this numbing out and loss of potential by equal caring for everyone in your company. Seems basic.  

PEACE ON EARTH HAS TO BE POSSIBLE!

IF it HAS to be possible what would you do differently?
Immediately?
I don't have an answer yet, but will by next week.
Do you have any?

PEACE ON EARTH HAS TO BE POSSIBLE.

Read my very personal message at wwwtruthburps.blogspot.com for my
thoughts about Peace on Earth.  Back to the business desk next week.

PEOPLE ARE CURIOUS ABOUT THE CEO ROLE

It's been a social week.  I've been with lots of different people in lots of different situations--holiday shopping and gatherings.  In conversation about what kind of work I do with top executives, I got many different reactions.
Many continue to irritate and surprise me with their perception of how innately evil business leaders are.

Anyway, I would turn the tables before too many words were said and ask,
"What are you curious about when you think about CEO's  and their role?"

Here is some of what I got:

—Are all CEO's alike?  Can you make generalizations about the people in the role?

—Is the CEO role abused often?  What are the small abuses not just the large ones we hear about?

—What does a CEO have to watch out for?  What are booby traps?

—What are assumptions of CEO's in general that just aren't true, like people are lazy and need to be pushed to perform?

—Is money the primary reason someone wants to be CEO?

—What on earth does a CEO do that is special enough to justify the money they make?

—Why is it so rare for a company to have every employee be an owner, at least with shares of stock?

—Do you have to be arrogant or have a big ego to be a CEO

—Do CEO's have to give up their idealism to do their job?

There you have it.  Food for thought.  Underlying themes of the conversations
showed that the word "corporate" is a nasty one.  Another is that business is boring and only boring people like it. Or greedy jerks. Do we care about perceptions outside of "business"?  Is PR needed?  Does one big bad story of corruption spoil the whole basket of apples?  I don't know. I just got curious about other peoples' curiosity about CEO's. I got curious instead of angry. The operative word is "curious".  The blind spot to watch for is when your own curiosity dulls.  

TRADE-OFFS SHOULD BE EXCRUCIATING DECISIONS

Sometimes trade-off discussions can seem so gentle a kind of garage sale barter. I'll trade you a training program for some more marketing money.
I'll trade you 3 staff positions for an outside expert consultant.  You get used to it. It's just pragmatic priority setting.  

Not what I'm talking about.  I'm talking about the top strategic choices you, as a top leader, are in charge of making. You make tough decisions all the time.
You fire people, you cut budgets and thus people. Most times you are making the least bad decision.  (You know, the one that sucks less.)  

What I am talking about is choosing the possibility of the future for your company.  This is and should be courageous and scary and risky.  That's why your strategic choices need to be worth it.  Clear with sharp edges.  Every action needs to be a "yes" or a "no".  The things you say "no" to should be very difficult  or your "yes" isn't strong enough.  

AND the excruciating choice needs to be a giant YES.  "NO" decisions will not
grow your business or motivate your associates or enthuse your customers.
Don't be blind to your own juggling and compromising and teaching yourself to think small.  Make the big strategic choice, a "YES" choice, for your company and let the consequences begin.  Make the work worth it.

PARDON ME, YOUR EGO IS SHOWING.

First of all, ego is not bad. Ego helps you want to achieve, to be big in the world, and to be seen and heard. It protects you.  In fact it is all about you.
Unless you are familiar with your ego and know when it is being under utilized
or over utilized, your impact can be unintended.  A skill of a top leader is to 
have the self awareness to understand where she or he is on the continuum of ego. Healthy ego live in the middle, neither too small nor too big for the situation.

Symptoms of too small?
--you resent success of others
--you always (emphasis on "always") put others first
--you give up too soon on influencing others
--you think your voice is not heard
--you don't get noticed for good work

Symptoms of too big?
--you are known for taking credit for others' work
--you take up too much talk time at meetings
--you feel like the world is right when you are on stage performing
--you know that things would not go well without you
--you love external events and roles more than you do the business

Make your list of what healthy ego symptoms look like and send them to me.
I'll publish them anonymously next week.

Don't be blind to your particular ego-print!

WHO HAS THE MOST POWER????

If you are a striving person, you like competition, you like:
to win, you enjoy power you don't mind extreme accountability, you like status
you are driven by recognition for your work.
Then it is quite natural that you want the top job.

If, however, you want to cause large change, you want time to think to reach good decisions, you enjoy collaboration, you want positive impact, you want to be pro-active not reactive, you want to do the right thing for the business----then maybe you don't really want the top job.  

The CEO role or any other of ultimate accountability is incredibly constrained, unbelievably powerless, burdened by the weight of the enterprise and 
the chief decision maker of decisions that "suck less".  

Hard to believe?  Ask a CEO how able she or he is to make something happen,
to make the right thing happen, to think about what is the right thing to happen.  I remember one CEO I worked with who laughed and said, "I feel like I'm on a slow moving elephant heading toward a cliff guiding it with a feather switch".  

There can be much more power and flexibility and satisfaction in a number two role. You can speak more freely, act more creatively, rock the boat more
effectively and collaborate easily.  A number two person or team  has the right balance of freedom and power to truly function.

I'm saying, "THE CEO ROLE ISN'T ALL IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE".  Don't be blinded by the status, the perks, the office, the salary if you like quite a bit of intrinsic satisfaction.  I'm just saying---- think twice before you reject a number two position and don't be surprised if becoming CEO, you think to yourself, "What just happened to me?"

BREATHING SPACE FOR INNOVATION

There are many schools of thought about how to develop more innovation in an organization.  Do you bring it in?  Do you let it out?  Does it reside in the culture or in the person?  If you know how to hire creative people, would that solve the problem?  Do you need a special atmosphere?  Do you have to hire crazy risk takers and then never ever say 'boo' if they make big bad mistakes?

I don't know.
But here is some of what I do know about innovation in companies from my own experience:

l. To create something new, people have to really really really have to have an idea or a goal that they are crazy about--intrigued with, nuts for, won't be told "no" for. That's the driving force, so assigned projects that need creativity may not get it. Let the passionate ones volunteer.

2. To create something new, people have to know how or be able to learn how to think flexibly--to turn things up side down, to come at a task or product from a new perspective. Look for the people who drive you nuts.  They say, "how about?, Why couldn't we?, Why not try this? What if?"  Those people.

3.  Drilling down to a solution or a creation doesn't work for creating something new. The opposite is true. Thinking broadly is needed--exploring in new areas, 
scanning other industries, following an interest or a curiosity to wherever it leads.  It's a way of fluffing up the brain from rigid habits and patterns. Let your people stray. No more industry conferences. Try something very different.

4.  There does need to be a pressing demand at some point in the creative process---for a new product, a different solution, a drop dead end point.
This forces new thought from all of the above.  Here is where you distill all the work in preparation.  So create a mandate worth working toward and hold the importance and the deadline.  Pressure and tension are good for creativity.

5.  Innovation is tough work. It doesn't have to be coddled or treated like it is oh so special and fragile. It takes diligence and experimentation without becoming defeated--- over and over again. Provide some support occasionally.


6. A high risk, high failure environment is not necessary.  A high mess,
high million of small experiments, high learning as you go, high living in the real world attitude is necessary. High high high risk is for start-ups who have no other choice. An elaborate, complicated company is just not as able to be agile and risk crazy. Intrpreneuship, yes. Entrpreneurship inside a company, no.

7.  Play works miracles. A playful approach to work keeps people and projects malleable  and doen't make the work so "important" that people are paralyzed by performance anxiety. Pilots are good fodder for innovation. Play with the idea before you work with the idea. Stay "light" until you hit execution mode.

8.  Innovation needs some protection from punishment (derision, extra tight budget constraints, jealousy) but mostly it need to be allowed to happen.

Innovation needs breathing space.

YOUR ROLE AS PROTECTOR

This topic has been on my mind all week.
I think it's because I have had some bad health care experiences lately.
AND there was not a single person who wasn't trying to do the best work that he or she could. There was not a single person who wasn't pleasant and
client focused. All were competent if not expert professionals.

How does that end up being a bad experience?
How do you support and protect hard working people who want to do a good job?

l.  Kill absurd letter of the law rigid rules that become laughable as they create the opposite of what your business wants to be about.

2. Do not create so many ways to check on people's competence that it makes them incompetent.

3. Don't fragment works processes so that the left hand can't know what the right hand is doing.

4. Don't try to create accountability through check lists that insult and weigh down the service or product being offered.

5. Don't create so much flexibility that chaos results. 

6. Don't specialize tasks so that no one has the pleasure of a whole job being well done.

7. Don't watch the clock more than the result.  

8. Don't believe that only what gets measured, gets done.  Lots of good things get done that are not pulled by measures and rewards.  Make room for these.

9. Constantly create context so that everyone (as in everyone) gets the
understanding of what, why and how things are happening.

10. Don't overload your company with too many goals and too many initiatives.
This weakens leverage and focus.

I see good people wanting to do good work in systems that have gone kind of insane.  Make a sane work culture for your people.

I REPEAT MYSELF AND SO SHOULD YOU!

Repeating yourself is an important feature of the top executive role.  Getting a message, concept or a primary goal deeply embedded in your company takes you saying it again and again and again.  Way more than you want to and way more than you think you need to.  So here I am again reminding you of how hard it is to learn and grow when you are at the top of the organization.  This entry was written a few years ago when I, too, was slow to learn as a top executive.  The very role comes with a learning disability.  I quote me.

"Just get promoted to the top?  You may be the dumbest person in the organization or the least able to learn.  The white noise that surrounds you is the roaring lack of real feedback, the ability to know your impact and learn from it.  

Fundamentally, it is YOUR TASK TO ASK for feedback and opinions. And you need to learn to do it in such a way that is makes ti easy for people to talk to you honestly.  Even then, you should magnify the negative by 5 and minimize the positive by 3.  This is the equation to balance unequal power.
More math. If someone has the nerve (and it takes some) to come to you with an important negative about you or the organization --then they have probably  thought about it for at least  three months, talked about it with at least 3 people for corroboration who have talked to 3 people who have talked to three people.  The pain of the issue has to outweigh the risk of your displeasure.  This ratio is true even if you are the most approachable, open, tolerant CEO.  Your position simply weighs too much.
Positive feedback has its own problems and ratio.  I have seen CEO's wither without some appreciation and recognition and I've seen them blossom and flourish with it.  It's hard to compliment you and give you positive feedback,  It's awkward.  The kiss-up prohibition can be huge.  And there is a danger element of putting a halo on the person who gives it.  Seduction by flattery is used by ambitious people.  Mostly you can smell it.  So, the ratio is too minimize positive feedback by 3.  First it is easier to give and less important than the negative information you need to hear and understand.
The blind spot here is that you begin to think that it's as easy for others to talk candidly with you as it is for you to talk candidly with them.  NO.  It isn't.  You need to know what works for you to hear your company accurately  and what creates positive momentum for  people.  It's your job to make real conversation about your business easy and productive.  That's top on your job description as CEO.

5.  You just may be the dumbest person in the whole organization or the least able to learn.  the white noise that surrounds you is the roaring lack of real feedback of ability to know your impact and learn from it.  It is YOUR TASK TO ASK and to do it in such a way that it makes it easy for people to talk to you honestly.  And even then you must magnify the negative by a multiple of five and reduce the positive by a multiple of three.  Depending whether you ask.  If someone has the nerve to come with you on an important negative about you or the organization--then they have thought about it for at least three months, talked about it without least five others for corroboration and reached the point of the scare factor of talking with you weighs less than the day to day pain of the issue.  And this is true if you are the most approachable, open, tolerant CEO/  You position simply weighs too much.  and the positive is the same.  You may be quite wonderful.  In fact , it you are it's harder to say something positive to you. Awkward making.  If you are not, then the push to want to like the person in charge or the goodies that come from flattery are irresistible.  Still only a multiple of three because it is much easier than the negative.   It is your job to make real conversation about the business with you easy and productive..

DEVELOP YOUR LEADERS WITH A MODEL FOR THE FUTURE

My experience, my reading and leaders' opinions in The Leadership Intensive Workshop I ran with colleagues, show me there is a new model of leadership emerging.The old one casts a large shadow but it is a fading shadow. 

The new leadership model has these elements among others:

--High degree of collaboration in order to see the whole picture so that one system or function isn't messing things up for another AND to create new ideas through thinking and creating together.

--More intuitive/instinctual decision making. Data can never make the decision
  for you. Or if research and data alone can make the decision, then it is not
  a decision that will take you far. It already was an easy decision. The future is
  not knowable and demands a leap of some kind that is not a sure thing.

--Multi-tasking will continue to be demanded. And yes, research shows that 
  single focus is best. A better definition of what I am talking about is the 
  ability to switch focus quickly and effectively, not doing everything at once.

--Frequent and numerous transitions will be the norm and need to be done
  without disruption.  Teams will come and go. Projects will live and die.
  Meetings and travel into different geographic and company cultures will
  increase. Recalibrating constantly will be a skill for leaders.  

--The ability to be clear about the demands facing the company and why they 
   matter will be paramount in order to allow people to be free to meet 
   those demands in many,many possible ways. The "how" will have to quit
   being dictated.               

--Trusting professional relationships will be necessary to allow nimble 
  timely action.  I don't mean happy, fun, kind relationships, but rather
  deep trust that can be leaned into so that bold action can occur.

--The ability to simplify complexity so that coherent action can be taken
  across a large company will be needed.  It has to be developed, not
  "sold"  so that the understanding is in the DNA of the company, not driven
  from the surface.


The blind spot here is that you may have battling leadership models at play in your company.  This causes symptoms like action grid-lock, profound disagreement on the "how" versus the "what", and loss of high potential talent who can't live with outdated leadership anymore.  

Don't be blind to the need to be explicit about your companies leadership
model so that you are not literally working at cross purposes. One way to do this is to collect a bunch of models and have your top group cherry pick what they believe is effective and needed.  And then add some too.  Don't rely on outdated tools to define leadership now. Build a new one that takes you into
the future.

What would you put on the list for a new leadership model?
I'll share it here.  Let's make explicit what is just beginning to emerge.
And, thank goodness.

MAYBE WE DO NEED MORE OUTRAGE

Frankly, I was cleaning-up my email when I saw a title that made
me see red. It was in Smart-Brief on Leaderhsip. I skipped over it assuming it
was normal leadership fare when the literal words hit me AND I got mad and then amazed that such a tired old leadership model just won't go away.
I think I have been fooled by the freedom and pace of innovative companies into thinking something new was going on. Mostly just chaos masked by short term success, rather than progressive steady engagement of adults wanting to get the same thing done and everyone benefitting.  

Anyway, here is the title that got me going and my response on Facebook that got other people going.

"Use Soft Power to Keep Your Employees on Track!"
 OK--It still makes me nuts to read it.
 Here's what I said:

 1. YOUR power doesn't make associates do anything. It's their power that
  gets things done.  
  2.  KEEP your employees on track??? What? Are they  2 years old?  Plus it  
  doesn't work for two year-olds either.
  3.  YOUR employees?? NO NO NO NO NO. They are not yours. They belong   
  to themselves.
  4. ON TRACK?  Pretty narrow point of view.  Head down. Follow the path--to
  mediocrity. Please don't think. It's so messy."

And I add:
Quit thinking carrot and stick. Both are juvenile and demeaning.
Work WITH people. Make it possible with agreed on goals, agreed on 
tasks that make sense, compensation that grows evenly if differently and
adult to adult relationships where everyone learns and develops.
This is not utopia folks. It's just actually kind of mundane management for a healthy organization.

Blind spot?  You are sitting on a volcano of potential.  Use it or the fire goes out or the whole thing erupts!!

I AM THINKING OF ALL THE THINGS YOU DON'T SAY

As a top leader, you learn to tone it down.
You moderate enthusiasm, anger, commitment, all kinds of strong statements.
With reason.
You are one of the most watched, maneuvered, puzzled over, people in your company. Your words weigh too much. You have to be guarded.

You know the complications of the organizational reality.
You know there is very little black and white.
You want people to trust and respect your word.
You know the "truth" of a situation can change quickly.

The danger for you is becoming muffled and losing the power of your voice.
The tendency is to begin using lots of words to say very little.
The pit fall can be not knowing what you are truly thinking and feeling, much less saying. You don't hear your own truth.

Some things I hear in my work that are not said.

--If you don't make big changes, I will have to ask you to leave even though you are a top executive and colleague.  We have reached that point.  Are you clear about those changes?  Can you, will you make them?

--I am downright discouraged about what we can get done if we don't stop passing the buck for bad results and here is who I see doing it. Stop it.

--I can't be the only optimist for this group. And, by the way, it can't be fake optimism. Like the fight or leave the fight.

--I need your help.

--I don't see the answer. Yet. 

--Do we have the courage to do the right thing for our business and customers rather than being led by Wall Street?

--I'm sorry.

--Let's reconsider.

--I've changed my mind.

--Collaboration seems so slow, it makes me nuts.

--I have to have fun and hope or this job isn't worth it.

--I'm bored.

--I don't enjoy my team.

One way to hear what you may not be saying is to have a colleague or coach with whom you can be honest, be blunt, be irreverent, be angry, be idealistic, be cynical and laugh your head off. So you can hear what you want to say and then choose to say it loud and clear.

THE POWER OF "I'M SORRY"

When you feel the burden of guiding a large company you can get hooked on 
being right. You begin to think you should be right, you should know what you are doing all the time and that people want you to be better than you are.
So, you begin to act like you just might be right and better than you are. Or you get scared about the false self you are projecting and retreat.

I know you are aware that you screw-up. I've heard you laugh about it,
agonize about it, and shrug it off.  Mostly, I've seen you work hard to make right whatever you have made wrong.

But sometimes, you miss a step.  You don't publicly acknowledge your mistake and apologize.  Easier to fix it than to apologize.

---I'm sorry I left your name of the recognition list.
Your work was great. I'm sending a new list but wanted you to know I felt bad about it.

---I'm sorry I called you out about "xyz" plan in the meeting.
I wish I would have waited to do it alone with you.
Not what I like to do.

---I'm sorry that the Board Meeting wasn't up to snuff
You as Chairman should have a productive meeting.
Let's plan it more specifically for next time

---I'm sorry your time got cut short for the presentation  I know you spent months on it.  I appreciate the effort.  

If you can think of an apology that makes you cringe, it is probably the one you need to make. Saying a true "I'm sorry" is not easy.  That's why it's so powerful 

I HATED UPLUGGING AND I CHEATED

OK, OK, OK.
I admit defeat.
I did not unplug.
I just was more disciplined about when and how often  I plugged back in.

But I had the goal in the back of my mind all week.
(Maybe should have been in the front of my mind)

What I learned:

--There is an uncomfortable free fall in disconnecting from work.
  And it's very easy to replace with different work rather than settling into
  free space

--I, too, am used to moving something forward, making progress, seeing 
  results.  Not doing that takes an adjustment period. My best, flowing,
  refreshing days came at the end of the week. 

--I like working. I think many of us don't admit that enough. We hide it from
  spouses and kids like work is a shameful addiction. Addiction? Maybe?
  But there are worse.  Let yourself know you enjoy it.

--I unplug best in public spaces like a hotel lobby or a library or a coffee shop.
  I like public privacy for thinking and creating and refreshing. 

--This was a very "mini" break that I took. But still I feel like I am "returning: to
  work with new energy.

Blind spot?  Dont' wait for major vacations that include family or activities.
Find a place to disappear to for a couple of hours at least every two weeks.
Time alone in small segments is a huge leverage of time for refreshing a stale brain or spirit.

1---2---3 UNPLUG

Due to a change in schedule, I have a clear calendar for this week coming up.
I've already declared a vacation for myself--at home.

Now let's see if I can unplug.
In my CEO coaching I see how hard it is to unplug for most top executives.
And I also see how it would help judgment, decisions, perspective and  holding to priorities if only they could unplug if only for a couple of hours a week.

Unplug means:
Stop working on your "should" list
Catch your breath and hear yourself think.
Doing something unplanned for the fun of it
Running away, playing hooky, disappearing
Playing, creating, think hobby.
Managing your guilt or your fear of disconnecting.
Letting yourself lie fallow so new thoughts can grow
Re-gathering yourself.
Being confident enough that you will not lose control or your "place"

Let's see if I can unplug
There are so many barriers to doing it without leaving home or the office.
I'll think of it as a mini-sabbatical.
Here I go
1--2--3  Unplug.

YES, IT IS PART OF YOUR JOB TO INSPIRE

I've seen CEO's who try to get out the the job demand to inspire the organization. They say it's phony or too focused on themselves instead of the business or not needed, just fluff.  And I've seen charismatic leaders fail to inspire because it does ring false, it isn't sincere and they are performing.

Some thoughts on inspiration:

--You can't inspire if you are not inspired yourself

--What is the particular possibility that you want to move forward as your 
  legacy? Something that will make a profound difference for the future of
  the company.

--If you don't know what this possibility is, then get busy and find out. Get a 
   good thought partner to help you get the fire in your belly going. You can 
   not be inspirational til you do this work.

--You may be burned out, scared of not having an idea other than doing the
  same ol' same ol' better.  Not good enough for inspiration. Not good enough       
  for  leading rather than managing from the CEO seat. Do what you have to 
  do. Get rested. Get different people around you. Search out new ideas.  
  Gestate til your own point of view emerges and excites you.

--Talk and talk and talk to grow your idea until it feels like the idea is pulling 
  you. You think about it, talk about it, buy books about it,and get glimpses of
  what you can make happen. Become obsessed with something worth being
  obsessed about.

--You are now ready to inspire and to have your idea pull people so that 
   you don't have to push them

--You are ready to give yourself the gift of inspired work that excites and scares  
   you and keeps you interested every single day
  

TENDER AND TOUGH

I have been thinking about how CEO's need to have the right combination of tender and tough. Most tend in one direction or the other. 

There is no tougher job than the CEO role IF you care about your business AND the people in it--equally.  I know there are top leaders who are pure jerks, wanting only the power and the money and the status. Luckily, I haven't worked with them directly. I write from my experience, not from theory.  I may have been extraordinarily lucky--or naive, but I worked with leaders who wanted the business to thrive and the people to thrive as well. Not that they didn't enjoy their own success. 

I've watched and helped CEO's grow into their role and how they seasoned into
well rounded leaders.  If they started out tender, they blundered in one way.
If they started out tough, they blundered in a different way. All CEO's blunder and some learn!! Learning to add toughness to tenderness is as difficult as adding some tenderness to toughness.  

Learning to fire a colleague you enjoy
Facing a hostile board
Hurting many people to save most people
Knowing quite a few people criticize you daily and enjoy your mistakes
Making a big bad decision that is humiliating and takes recovery measures

These things make you tough.
You have to armor yourself.

AND you have to be able to take the armor off to:
Talk straight without harming 
Address a large group of people from your heart, not just your head
Reflect on your own feelings to guide and change your behavior
Know when you are defeated and need support of all kinds
Open yourself to listening to your people and your company 
Trust your intuition

Balancing tender and tough, not letting one dominate, being able to use both faculties is what makes a great beyond good CEO.  It's a choice to do the difficult. 

MY ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT YOU--THE READER

As a the top leader, it's good to make your assumptions overt.
If you don't --well, you know--people will work to guess them
And they will guess wrong.
If you are blind about your own assumptions, get a sounding board 
fast. You to be able need to see what is writ large in your company.

Here are my assumptions about you the reader:

--You are at Senior level or C-Suite level or  you want to be.

--You understand that your power and role make it hard to

get an accurate read of the pulse of your company

--You think you have a better understanding than you do

--You think because you value opinions and are open that people

   tell you their truth

   

--You have worked on your own development but have not created

   your own approach to alleviate the power differential you carry

--You are a good leader and business person or you wouldn't care   

   enough to read these comments

--You like power and have enough self-awareness to have achieved 

   a top role

--Most people maximize the positive and minimize the negative when

  they talk to you

--By the time you are made aware of an issue it is bigger than

  you would like or bigger than you are told

--The longer you are in the top role, the more skewed your perception 
  may be due to familiarity, habit and people's over adapting to you

--The power dynamics I am talking about get exaggerated during

   tough times

--Blind spots come with the top role regardless of your awareness

--You need to be reminded that you have them 

--You'll know when on hits home for you. Some won't.

--The top job is lonely, is isolating, is ridiculously difficult and
  you often act like it isn't and forget it is

--You are the emperor and you don't have on any clothes and the 

   silence is complete

I DARE YOU TO BE TRAINED-----

I dare you to be trained like an entry level person is in your company is.
I think you would be appalled and you would certainly get the best of what your company does not the haphazard stuff normally thrown at people.

Good solid training for people who touch your customers could be your best secret weapon. I don't know how training got to be so low on the totem pole.
And don't give me budget reasons.  Get the nerve to do what's good for the business at the very pedestrian level. Then you'll earn the money in sales to do some of the rest that you want to do.

I have five adult children who all worked many jobs as teens and college students.  Not one of them was trained to do their job and certainly given no context about how their work fit into a larger picture.  They were scared at first that they couldn't do the jobs from cutting donuts to repairing tires to cutting vegetables for an industrial kitchen to launching a ferry.  Then they asked questions, figured out their own way, kept wanting to do a good job, lost respect for their supervisors until they realized their supervisors  didn't know what they were doing either. Everyone was faking their way through the day.  And then they took their gumption, their desire to do good work, their talent and left these workplaces.

Recently i read an article on the decline of training due to fear that trained people would leave anyway  and the cost of continuous training was too much.  Whoa. How about creating a workplace that people don't want to leave??  And one of the tools for retention is people's inherent pleasure in mastering work. Being good at something, doing it well, is a motivator itself.  I remember pick by light warehouse workers with bandaged fingers who knew their productivity numbers and relished digging in to beat their results from the day before. I was looking at retention and job satisfaction. They liked the aesthetic of picking--the speed and finger skill they used.  I had a good supermarket bagger the other day and I complimented her. She said she loved to bag things just right. It was a challenge and doing it well pleased her. Without the compliment. I asked if she was trained to do it.  And she said, "Oh yes, by the best, my boss" Lucky lady.  On the job examples of good work trumps all other approaches to training.   

Think of well-trained entry level people as a primary retention tool. It taps intrinsic satisfaction that can't be bought. And it sets the thermostat for excellence as they stay and grow with your company.

STRIVE FOR DULL

One of the best companies I worked for was described as "ploddingly dull" by Wall Street analysts and yet  they loved the company.  This well managed company set realistic goals and met them year after year after year.  Company leaders told analysts what they were going t do and then did it.  This company kept analysts on their side by keeping them informed--in-depth.  New efforts and innovations were shared. The company was trusted and its success pleased analysts.  

At the moment in time I worked in this company the culture that created
"ploddingly dull" was:

Competent at all levels--people just got the job done
Details got done right--boring wasn't boring
Leaders did not exhort people, they involved them
Leaders set direction and got out of the way--course correcting gently
Change was constant but graceful, not disruptive
Innovation took place in prudent experiments
Talent development was systemic and part of the job. Nothing grandiose.
Business opportunities were scanned for using intuition with analysis

Left foot, right foot, staying the course.
How about a winning ploddingly dull strategy?
Do not yawn.

ARE YOU OUT OF CONTROL WITH OVER-CONTROL?

It isn't that easy to get the point set right on the continuum of control.
In his book (Passion for Excellence) that just does not lose relevance,
Tom Peters talks about the combination of loose/tight that high achieving have.
The winning combination is to be tight on "what" and loose on "how".

I see too many companies doing the reverse.
Their strategy has no sharp edge.
The focus is not clear at all levels of the organization.
There is both a conceptual and operational lack of alignment.
But there are checklists galore.
Behaviors are spelled out down to the last twitch of an eyebrow.
There is constant measurement of too many things.

I used to see a lot of "tell n sell" in companies.
I thought it wasted the potential of engagement--meaning with the work not with being happy on an assessment.
Now I am seeing "command and control" again.

My assumption is the top leaders are scared.
They can't get their own hands around "what" needs to happen--other than Wall Street numbers.
So they focus on the "how"
That is not the executive leaders job.
Let your people figure out how.  Or get new people.
You can not checklist you company to extraordinary results.
You smother ingenuity, commitment and satisfaction in the work.

Re-read Tom Peters.

TIMIDITY CAN BE A GOOD HEATLHY REACTION TO A NEW TOP ROLE

I'm thinking about the entry of new top leaders into a company.
Their job is  to generate confidence and immediately start making important 
decisions. Bold, self-assured, without being arrogant, jumping in, turning the ship around, creating new direction, starting a new chapter, blah blah blah they take action. The "first 90 days" mantra" hangs over their heads.

Any new top leader worth their salt should be a little bit scared, a little excited and a little overwhelmed.  This is one time to know you are a little bit timid and with reason. Don't negate the wisdom of a little timidity.  If not, you will make big bold decisions too soon based on too little first hand smell and touch or you will wait too long to make a decision that matters most for forward movement to occur. You will probably find someone you like that knows how to please you and will give this person's opinion too much credence. You may get paralyzed by too many disparate points of view.

You will have timid people around you as well, wondering what your impact will be on their scope and power.  They will pretend frankness or couch their opinions like a well seasoned diplomat. These are ways they manage timidity.

Egg shells prevail and no one wants to step on them. No one. That's the blind spot. Everyone is timid and pretending not to be.  AND the other blind spot is that this timidity is normal, to be expected and healthy.  It is not healthy to act until you finally feel grounded in your own data, have developed your own point of view and have integrated it for yourself. So that it sits securely with you. It is the opposite of being hurriedly pushed to action.  It is the feeling of being very ready to act. The decisions sit in your gut and are comfortable. People around you are ready too. Timidity has turned to trust. You know this moment.  Don't act until you are there.

WHERE DO YOU STAND AS YOU LEAD?

When you think of yourself leading where do you literally picture yourself?
STOP READING and get an image in your mind. Then see if yours is one of the "positions" listed below. 


--In front of your "followers" facing them, inspiring them, exhorting them?

--In front of your "followers" facing forward as in leading a charge?

--In the middle of your "people" coordinating and sending them in all directions?

--Behind your "workers" prodding and pushing like a rock up a hill?

--Behind your "employees? like a shepherd,guiding, keeping the herd together?

--Above your "work force" watching from a distance guiding by reports?

--Walking with your "people" showing unity as you progress?

--Being dragged behind your crew as they charge ahead out of control?


Each position is not an uncommon one in today's leadership models.
Each takes different skills and fits a different context.
It is helpful for you to know your mental model for leading.

Let me know if you have others to add.
And what works and what doesn't. 
I'm curious. 

SOLITUDE AS ANTIDOTE AND ORACLE

Here's the blind spot.  You, as a top leader or THE top leader become so used
to the over stimulation that you live in, the big fat crisis, the everyday talent crisis, the never ever getting it done crisis, the one wave after another crisis not knowing which one might swamp you, the unceasing demand of improvement crisis, the never ever taking a breath crisis-- that you don't know how adrenaline based your life has become. Your vacation is active fun, awash in cocktails, sprinkled with email and phone texts.  

There is a kind of pride in being able to live this way. The guys I worked with would never ever admit to jet lag even when they slobbered in meetings they went to right off the plane.  I too was proud of keeping my mental office open 24 hours a day.  Then I had surgery and had to take a two week break.
My kids were at college, my husband at work and I got my first taste of well-being. I got enough sleep, I was rested, My judgment was more solid, I could see longer term and what needed to be done. I read in my field without fear of being caught at work (the ultimate type A company craziness) and I saw new possibilities and ideas.  I benefited from solitude and rest.

I know how naive it is assume that you can carve out solitude easily.
Calendars almost always run amok.  But I do know one idea my clients have used that works.  Find an Inn or hotel nearby.  Every six weeks, book a room for one night, from six pm to noon the next day. Come with work to do. Sit in solitude and do email and any other guilt work you need to do. Make sure the venue has a restaurant you like. Eat a late dinner.  Work more if you need to in order to feed your productivity beast.  Watch TV. Sleep. AND in the morning (this is the hard part) just sit and think and let your ideas come and go. Make a spill over list if you have to--a brain dump. But for the morning, no calls, no writing, no reading, just being and thinking and slowing down.  Be alone until you can feel you are aligned with yourself and that you can see a better horizon and point the ship there.

TAILOR MAKE YOUR MEETINGS TO FIT THEIR PURPOSE

I'm thinking that we have all become blind to new ways to meet and connect with various people and groups and even with ourselves. We need new types of connections to do our work well.

It's like a crazy template for meetings got embedded in our DNA and we can't change them. 

A few thoughts:

--Design your calendar.  Don't just schedule events and meetings.  If you are the CEO or top executive your calendar should feel like a tailor made suit--perfectly made to fit just you.  This is one area where I stand for the rest of 
the company adjusting to you and your needs.

--Think of meetings as connections that move things forward. What needs to move forward?  Who needs to be in the room to do that?  

--Have purpose driven meetings with different configurations for different purposes.

--What about a few uncomfortable meetings.  Who needs to meet with you at the same time to ensure understanding and collaboration especially people who don't like each other or are super competitive with one another.  Meet with just them together--with a purpose they both share.

--Standing only meetings that are short and sweet for reports on results that are weekly.  Do follow up only with problem results.

--Think about which meetings should not automatically be chunked up into meeting say 6 times every two weeks for two hours.  How about doing the same work in two straight uninterrupted days?

--Most meetings feel like something that is happening to the participants (even the person who called the meeting) rather than with one another. There is a deadly dullness that creeps in. The regular weekly or bi-weekly meetings are almost a resting place for stressed-out exhausted executives--a little 
island of respite from the fray.  Tell your reports to keep open a regular time to meet.  Then decide whether you want to use it to move something forward.  If not, give them the real respite time.

--Choose a day periodically to have "office hours".  Sign up anyone in the organization that has a gripe or idea or wants to talk to you.  Keep each discussion  to fifteen minutes. Your admin will ring them in and out.  

You get the point.  Loosen up your ideas about meetings.  Design your connections to tailor fit your needs and the needs of the business.  Kill most regularly scheduled meeting for one period and see what happens. Who cares that you did?  What didn't get done?  Or better yet, what did get done?

Play with this idea. It works whether connections are virtual or face-to-face
Would love to hear any new ideas on how you connect to run your business.
The bolder the better!

THESE TRUTHS ARE NOT SELF EVIDENT

Thoughts on the 4th of July in the United States:

Thoughts about freedom and acceptance of differences and of cultural blind spots--which of course leads to thoughts of merger and acquisition.

Here are some quirky truths I wrote 10 years ago about a cross-cultural acquisition. Most still hold true. 

 + All those people who think said something awful,obtuse and insensitive
   are thinking that YOU said something awful, obtuse and insensitive. 

 + Geographic distance breeds paranoia and huge cartoon like distortions.
    Everybody becomes a walking stereotype.

 + We are all new to virtual hallways. We don't know how to find them.  We   
    need the informal hallways where people gossip, try out ideas and blow off 
    steam. Chance bumping into one another helps a company grow. Provides 
    informal resolution of conflict and allows ideas to develop. How do we do 
    that virtually

 + Working across culturally different companies makes people feel 
    incompetent and lonely more than we want to admit. Alliances are made to    
    help people feel secure rather than do hard work. 

 + Habits win.  We all fall for familiarity

 + Differences are both enriching and exhausting

 + Jet lag has more impact then we admit. Bad decisions, foggy meetings, 
       volatile reactions when bodies are present and brains are sound asleep.

 + Having more than one office means you have no home base and if you            
    do you shouldn't.  Homelessness is neutral space to lead from. 

 +We're all homesick for our own culture, our own habits, our own comfort in 
   our familiar ways.  Some people know it and show it.  Some hide it by 
   becoming over assimilated.

+ Compassion and good will are a discipline not a feeling.
   It is this discipline that makes acquisitions work and pay off.

PLAY WORKS

We talk about the value of play at work.
Mostly we don't believe it.
Actually I do. Not theoretically but because I've seen it work.

My most vivid example is of a project group in total gridlock with a presentation looming. They had gotten grim and dull and defeated.  It was hard to watch.
I intervened and set up a kind of game.  I asked them to make a headpiece that showed the atmosphere of the group. (They soooo knew they were going down) They moaned and groaned and I stuck to my guns.  Told them the misery would be over in 15 minutes and if they couldn't switch gears and take a challenge they sure as hell couldn't make their deadline with a decent product.

Well, so pissed at me, they began.  Their anger and frustration took shape with construction paper and glue.  A timid start got wild fast. There were no "selfies" but we could have taken an outrageous photo.  I timed the activity and they had to stop at 15 minutes. 

Back to work.  Ideas flowed. Structure emerged. Cooperation was easy.
The presentation was great. They saved their sorry asses.

All through a little play that:
-Relaxed the fixation of one way to get something down
-Reduced the performance anxiety by being ridiculous
-Literally created good humor
-Made everyone equally willing to be foolish and therefore able to loosen up
-Took their minds off the work totally so that fresh eyes could emerge  

Play works.

LET YOUR PEOPLE GROW!!

I wrote the need to allow people to change in my personal blog/column this week, www.truthburp.blogspot.com  The phrase "truth burp" actually  came from my work as an EC member in a global company. Sometimes organizational indigestion needed a good truth burp!!

We always put the onus for change on the person we are developing (or 
coercing).  We give feedback, we write development plans, we pay money for a coach AND then we have a hard time seeing any real progress.  So we tolerate.

There are two sides to the coin for personal and professional growth.
One is the individual's effort.  The other side is allowing and supporting the change.  

Try changing when the label you carry is wide spread.
Not Strategic. Poor Execution.  Lacks Vision. Too Hard on People
Too Soft on People.  Need Leadership Voice.  Failed Project.

Professional change in business is public.
It can be embarrassing.
People will make fun of the efforts and criticize it--saying it's only ambition is at play
Or it will be seen as political placating --a  spitting in the wind exercise.

But the hardest task  for you as a top leader is to:
Let the label go.
See the person with new eyes.
Notice small steps of progress
Give enough time for new behavior to emerge
Not wait too long to demand the change
Be sincere, not cynical
Create an atmosphere where change can happen.

You have to change as well.