DON'T DENY THE NEGATIVE--MANAGE AND MINIMIZE IT

Top leaders need optimism to meet challenges with hope and to encourage 'can do' energy in their organizations. Many leaders come by optimism naturally. Many others learn to fake it which others smell fast and becomes seen as false. I want to raise the blind spot of ignoring negative feelings
for fear they will spread. Not realizing them can cause all kinds of surprise and disaster.
I read the following about how to know and identify what you are feeling and how to 
acknowledge it (so you don't get stuck in denial) but also how to move on quickly so you don't grow the negative.

I did not write the following and when and if I find out where it came from, I will let you know.
(It was in my notebook)

In our current feel-good self-improvement culture, we’re encouraged to only acknowledge positive emotions and feelings. Shove down the negative stuff and pretend it doesn’t exist. All that is fine until you have a negative emotion that won’t be silenced, and I’m betting all of you have been there before.

It’s stupid to pretend everything is fine and that you don’t experience negative, even humiliating, emotions. What is smart is to use neuroscience to figure out what to do with them so they don’t sabotage your best efforts to move forward.

How to make it work for you

—Nip negative thoughts and emotions in the bud when they first appear and are at their weakest.

—Label each emotion for what it truly is, not just what sounds good to you.

—Call out the emotion by name: shame, envy, anger, jealousy, lust, etc

—Describe the emotion in a word or two; be succinct and to the point.Do not enter a dialogue about the emotion; anything more than one or two words will only give it legs with which to run wild.

—Resist attempts to justify the emotion. Notice it and move on

It's a tricky balance to face reality head-on and to model and maintain the optimism needed for you organization to move forward with confidence.  Start by knowing what you are feeling because the organization will reflect it back to you. The company is your mirror of its emotional tone which, ironically, is set by you. So choose what you want to perpetuate.

CAN YOU LOVE A COMPANY?

I'll define 'love' so that you don't think I'm nuts. Love is a "deep feeling of affection". 
In strictly business terms it might be called goodwill. I care about the brand's non tangible assets--ie. its history, its stated and acted upon values, and its products that I like and trust automatically.

I have two in mind today and others to come. 
(Hannaford Bros is my BCFF. I grew up professionally there. Lucky me.)

One is LL Bean. I loved it when I lived in the Midwest and got its catalogues and requested Christmas gifts from it. When we moved to Maine with five school age kids who were to start school three days after arriving. I  called the school and asked, "What do kids love in your school for the first day of school this year. We just moved here." I did as told and  went directly to Beans to get Bean Boots. Five pair!! Later my adult kids came for holidays and did midnight excursions to LL Bean. I remember their chamois shirts and ragg sweaters. Even later, when I was a Hannaford executive I was lucky to have know Leon Gorman from various dinners where we sat together. And now I am so proud to have worked with the present CEO, Steve Smith. Both Steve and LL Bean are lucky. It is about as good a fit as you get. Steve is honest, frank, innovative, trusting in employee talent, progressive and a long time outdoor guy. Beans has had some unusual problems with a new system that has frustrated customers with unexpected behavior from 
a company that could be almost taken for granted for stellar customer service. This is where goodwill comes in. I so trust LL Bean, that I know they are (and I mean 'they") killing themselves to get this new system, corrected and up and going. I am on their side. This is what you call customer loyalty. I'll be patient. It's a way to repay an honest company of good quality goods and exceptional customer service for years of being good to me.

While I'm declaring my love for certain companies, let me include Delhaize Belgium. This company is celebrating 150 years of continuous business. I respect its history, its passion for all things food, its constant learning as the market changes and its values stated at the beginning of the company. Like most other companies, it has had challenges and hard decisions to make. What I know and respect is that any choices that color that history or its values are extremely painful for its leadership. And that is a good thing. It means the values are alive and active.
Once again, I was lucky to work with its present CEO--Denis Knoops. He is innovative, progressive, smart about the business and cares about the integrity of the company.  Here are some of the written 'commandments' written by the founding fathers of the company:

—Do your work well
—Persevere in everything you undertake
—You will inspire confidence if you trust yourself
—Never make a commitment you cannot honor
—See to the welfare of those who work with you. You have the care of their souls
—Do not tolerate any relaxation from anyone (This one is apt for crazy retailers everywhere--action rules) 

There are more guidelines  and I am touched as I read them. They instill honor with every word and assume that  integrity and hard work are what makes a business thrive.

As I said, I have a deep feeling of affection for these two companies that goes beyond pride and respect.

Love.

COMMON GROUND

Getting your entire organization to run as one is where extraordary power sleeps.
Call it alignment or synchronization or  organizational effectiveness or plain ol' coordination.
There are many analogies used. I like thinking of the CEO as a great orchestra conductor
interpreting a laid out plan (the score) and creating something great out of what could be very disparate sounds. I know of a CEO who took his team to hear and study and discuss a famous orchestra.

BUT--that does engender dependence on one leader with each section knowing in detail only the part they play. Alignment is working with surface parts and how to streamline and smooth out the bumps. It is really coordinated action--often mistaken for collaboration. Deep collaboration is very important but involves people being together to do it. Often with time and distance and other work, the product of collaboration dissipates. A modern leader has to go deeper to steep the company in common direction and identity.

l. Do you rely only on company goals to guide organizational action?

2.Is project management a primary tool for keeping action on track?

3.Do 'projects' rule the major momentum of your company? How do you tie it in to the everyday work of the organization?

4. Do you tell people what and how, model it, co-create it, teach it?

5. Do you personally spot test your company for understanding organizational direction and why it matters?  And how their individual work can and does contribute.

6. Do you evaluate your direct reports on the deep understanding of the business of their direct reports and functions?

I am talking aout the need for everyone in your company to have the DNA of the direction of your company in their bones. It is not about organizing the surface of the work--the action guided by strategy and goals and the leaders. It is about dipping so deep into the organization and into the work that after inculcating people, they could be self managed most of the time.

This kind of deep dip will be needed for 20/20 as the workplace continues to become less and less geographically and physically connected. People who work at home need the DNA. People who work on different continents and countries need the invisible connective tissue. And people who connect only through technology will need it too. 

The analogy of healthy parenting is similar. Instill the disciplines of daily living. Instill the rich
personal connections of family connections. Build common understanding of who this particular family is--history, pride, common events. Articulate and model the values that make this unique family work.

Sounds good. But. But. But.  It  depends on how hard you want to work and when.
You either put in time consuming hard work at the beginning of a culture shift or new organizational effort or you put it in later, monitoring and correcting and speechifying all the time.
You either engage in creating deep motivation or you spend a fortune on engagement efforts 
and cosmetic and constant make-overs. 

I have seen DNA be developed by a CEO who over the first year of his tenure took the time
to co-create with his top 150 people using innovative methods that were risky at the time.
It wasn't just the time, it was the methodology that dug deep. Guided imagery, creative expressions of new thoughts, detailed and deep conversations within and across functions leading to the what and how of the future, all absorbed and reflected back by the CEO. It took a year.
These 'town meetings' were made up of 350 people. Twelve were held. They continued as they cascaded down and across the organization. No outside facilitation. Leaders were trained to do the support work. This charged the battery of the company for about five years with occasional re-charging which, to follow the family analogy, were like family reunions. It takes extraordinary effort and time but reaps power thrust, deep motivation and
clarity of company direction that can become self-driven and still be on point with strategy. So tempting not to do it, or do it poorly without, you the CEO being committed. It will be essential for you to do in the twenties.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Easy to say, hard to do when so many things tie for first place.

This choice actually was easy.  Hard to implement but easy to choose.

Will be gone without computer to visit my former mother-in-law with my daughter and hers.

Four generations that need to connect.

Talk next week.