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.