NOTE: The May blog posts will not be updated this month, but check back soon for new updates.
- Be the Bus Driver Leader not the Bulldozer Leader
Last quarter we were engaged to shadow an executive at one of the company’s quarterly ‘open floor’ meetings. This was his opportunity to hear what’s going on with various departmental employees, especially those that interface with their customers. His opening question was, “Tell me your number one aggravation with the company.” At this meeting, he was astonished to learn that the customer service staff unanimously stated that their leaders were too rigid in their management style. Several of this group affirmed, “We all want to achieve our department goals, but our managers roll over us like road machinery in the process. Why can’t they listen more and transport us to success like bus drivers instead?”
Situations like these can cause wide spread defensiveness, resignation; and, resentment. Left unresolved, key employees will depart seeking an environment where their expertise is appreciated and acknowledged for continued growth. Or, the current workforce will cease to be innovative in their work pursuits and perform only enough to keep their positions.
Some years ago, a similar situation occurred for the CEO of Think Finance, Ken Rees. He told this story, “As a startup CEO, without a lot of resources, you’re involved in the details of everything. As we grew, I was lucky to bring in a really talented executive team, but I was driving them crazy. Everything I did as the head of a small company was hurting my ability to be successful in a larger company. We brought in an executive coach to work with us. He helped me discover that I was being a bulldozer and needed to be more of a bus driver! Subsequently, we created the Bulldozer Award, a plastic toy bulldozer. Each quarter we give this to the people who are pushing things forward, without rolling over their staff.”How do you practice leadership so that you are not seen as a bulldozer? Use any of these practices:
• The bus driver leader can be on target without being too rigid in management style. The former autocratic style from the 1950’s will not serve the newest generation of workers. The latest ‘gen tech’ crowd is accustomed to information sharing and welcomes participation in projects. The leader that ignores or rolls over their input will provoke resentment from this group.
• Listen intently for conversations with confusion or constant disagreement between team members. Bus driver leaders listen for repeated phrases that may be an indication at underlying problems that the group is experiencing. They immediately address rumor or gossip with genuine conversation, stating the real facts around issues and what they do know.
• Bus driver leaders keep their commitments. These leaders care about the values and career development of their staff. They coordinate actions with them for current concerns and develop growth plans that will take them into the future. And, they know when to re-negotiate the original plan. Their staff sees them as fulfilling their commitments even when unexpected industry events occur.
• Be engaged with your people & foster cooperation. Leaders that are consistent and trusted are able to release company teams from conventional problem solving rules. Think about how you open meetings & set the mood for anticipating the realities of the team, in their time zone. If the opening is, ‘Is everybody here and let’s get this done?’, then how do you think the others feel about being appreciated for attending a 4am or 5am staff conference? If you open the meetings with verbal appreciation for being up at this hour (Buenos Aires, London, Beijing) you are demonstrating generosity in leadership. The notion of generosity will gain trust that you are sincere in your interest.
• Establish sessions for the staff to voice their opinions about new company policies or management decrees. Almost any blanket edict that excludes the input of the people who are most effected by that new policy will be perceived as negative, causing decreased morale. Workers will not feel as they have been heard about the concerns they have consequently, there can be no positive outcome for them. Companies that are just dominated by rules create a culture of compliance and snuffs out innovation.When you think you may be the ‘bulldozer’ leader, ask yourself:
• How can you influence your employee’s work behaviors without controlling them?
• How will you validate your staff’s values? Will you become known for the practice of ‘managing by walk about’, encouraging others to know their colleagues for more than their job functions?
• What vision are you asking others to commit to? How compelling can you be so that others feel the same passion you have?
• How will you handle dissatisfaction in your team? How can you look for opportunities to add value to their work lives?
• How will you emphasize the purpose of your group, and possibly those of other departments for the company’s collective goals? How can you uncover ways to strengthen the company’s larger vision to those involved in the effort?“Finding a good bus driver can be as important as finding a good musician.”
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Reba McEntire - Implementing & Managing Change
This past year we began working with a semiconductor company that is in the process of a merger with another hi-tech group to enhance their technology and provide their global customers with a feature rich product line. One of the company’s primary concerns in their merger plans was how to make their people ‘change-adept’ and retain their largest asset, their employees.
Corporate mergers on any scale are not always as smooth as the management would like. Often, merging companies suffer a severe employee exodus due to the miss-understanding of why the merger is taking place, staff relocation to another city and state, core values clash, veteran employees do not feel appreciated for past productivity, resentment for newly imported staff, or even the mix of cultural diversity. The ‘change-adept’ are not more proficient than their colleagues, but they demonstrate a different mind-set that they use in meeting change, personally and professionally. These types of folks usually can move through any transitional state not only surviving, but flourishing in shifting times.
What factors help implement & manage change? Each company’s situation is unique, but let’s look at these elements:
• Whether it’s an acquisition, merger, or division re-alignment, clearly state the reason for change such as, product line discontinuance, external forces such as market trends or industry specific demands, other technologies that can expand company growth or even the departure of a respected company leader, perhaps for retirement.
• Recognize that resistance to change comes from a fear of the unknown or an expectation of loss. Leaders address resistance to help individuals reduce it to a minimal manageable level. Your role is not to bulldoze their resistance so you can move ahead, but ask them to assume a part in creating the new company. What will be their commitment and course of action in the next months?
• Help the veteran employees know they are valued as some of the original pillars of the company, both in their professional knowledge and for the culture they have built up to now. It is also important that they understand what will not change. This acknowledgement provides the anchor for them as they face periods of uncertainty.
• For the integration of outside staff or newly relocated staff, state what the changes will be and any possible phases of change, including how these phases will happen and who will be responsible for their implementation.
• Leaders will need to understand the specific fears of all the employees. What are they concerned about? How strongly do they feel about it? Do they perceive the stated strategies as good or bad? Schedule ‘listening’ sessions for departments or teams that collaborate together to maintain their sense of synchronicity and keep creativity in the forefront.
• Remember that human ‘systems’ move toward change tentatively. Describe a positive perspective for the pending changes using the elements of everything that will give this system a new “life”, especially when it will benefit both economic and human concerns. Link the positives directly to any new strategic agenda. Define how the changes never thought possible can be more rapidly mobilized while simultaneously building enthusiasm, corporate confidence, and human energy.“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.“
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Gail Sheehy - When Volunteering becomes Sacrifice!
Why do people volunteer? Volunteering provides the opportunity to connect with others that you may never have planned to engage within your daily personal or professional circles. Volunteers are needed because most organizations, non-profit or not, lack the operating funds to pay for everything they envision doing. Volunteerism is tied to something you’re passionate about, perhaps lost a loved one to a disease and want to prevent others from suffering the same outcome. Volunteering through different programs enables a devotion to a cause that’s close to your heart and can facilitate others to share that passion. Other benefits to volunteerism can be:
• Building self-esteem and self-assuredness
• Develop new job skills
• Earn academic credit
• Feel needed and appreciated
• Perform an activity as a family unit
• Possibly improve health through physical laborWhen do volunteers exit a program or just quit volunteering altogether? The primary reason people stop volunteering is a lack of appreciation. Satisfaction with volunteerism has a direct correlation between making a difference without the feeling of sacrifice. When the level of participation becomes a ‘burden’ or seems to always ‘be left to me’ then volunteer participation becomes another task or burden than a passion.
When you’re feeling sacrifice instead of the excitement of volunteerism, ask yourself:
• Do you need endorsement from your company to participate in this effort? Do the volunteer’s activities get matched funding from your organization, does this matter to you?
• Where have you contributed to something significant, meetings, seminars, public fundraisings for the passion you have concerning this cause? Are your efforts realized in sustaining the cause such as, more volunteer recruitment, public visibility, or incoming funds?
• What matters to you in receiving adequate credit for your efforts, public recognition, awards, family acknowledgment, etc.? Does this credit impact the type of volunteer ventures you would accept in the future?
• What emotions do you feel about your volunteer efforts, proud of them, no matter what your immediate community may think?“Be of service. Whether you make yourself available to a friend or co-worker, or you make time every month to do volunteer work, there is nothing that harvests more of a feeling of empowerment than being of service to someone in need.”
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Gillian Anderson - Are Your Decisions Affected by Mood?
Do you ever catch yourself regretting a decision you’ve made, personally or professionally, wishing you had made it differently? Many times, our decisions are influenced by outside factors, incorrect incoming data, not enough time to collect all the facts, the car breaks down, the children come home with colds; or even, you are just in a bad mood. Can mood also affect your decision making? Yes. No matter where we are and no matter what we are doing, we humans are persistently in a mood. Moods live in the background, like white noise. Generally, we don’t choose or control our moods we just find ourselves in them. It’s notable that many people state that their moods possess them. If you can pause to examine what predominate mood you show up in, to work, to family events, to church, you usually find that you are absorbed in them.
How is this different from emotions? Emotions are explicit and reactive. Emotions are tied to specific events, such as, the dishwasher flooding, the car overheating, or the bank notice that the checking account is overdrawn again.
If you think you’re possessed by a specific mood, affecting your decision making, ask yourself:
• What mood do you experience most of life in, general optimism, rigidity, even-tempered?
• Can you point to a specific event that has propelled you into your current mood?
• Have you arrived to work after horrible traffic and now have no patience with anyone there?
• Does the current environment create a mood for you such as, your home is peaceful, the gym is enjoyable, the office is hectic, all inducing a specific mood?
• Am I feeling a ‘collectiveness’ of mood from a group, a set of photos, the seasons, even music playing?
• How do you recognize moods in others? Can you give yourself permission that others can be in a negative mood, but you don’t’ have to join them?
• Am I a passive victim of someone else’s mood, influenced by their language to me or others?“Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
Continue reading → - The Art of Reciprocity
In our current detached stage of relationships, isn’t it uplifting when we see reciprocity practiced on an individual basis, sometimes even a community level? In our neighborhood, we have a teen football player that takes the newspapers from the driveways on his street up to the front porch each Sunday. No one asked him to do it and he did not expect any compensation or reward for it. It just started one morning and has been in continuance now for a full year. As an act of thank you, all of us that receive this special service occasionally leave coupons in his mailbox for the Sports Authority, the Athletic House, or the Champion Outlet Store so that he can purchase sports gear at some discount, our return act of reciprocity. What is reciprocity?
Reciprocity is the act of creating, maintaining, or augmenting social relationships as well as satisfying the material needs of someone who may have necessities beyond their current means. It can be the exchange of objects without the use of money or any financial medium of trade. It can take the form of sharing, support, assistance, or bartering without future obligation from either side.
Spontaneous reciprocity is often referred to as ‘random acts of kindness’. This phrase “practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty” was coined by the peace activist Anne Herbert. She stated that she wrote it on a placemat at a restaurant, 1982, in Sausalito. However you view unprompted reciprocity, allow yourself to look for opportunities where you have a chance to lighten someone’s day, even by giving someone the 23 cents in change they need at the grocery checkout. You may even find that you feel connected again to the great harmonies in humanity. Let yourself practice the acts of kindness with those you love this season.
When you think you could practice a little more reciprocity, ask yourself:
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• What pleasure is fulfilled for you personally by ‘being in service’ to an individual, a company, or a community?
• How can you give yourself permission to be suddenly reciprocal even if doesn’t follow the norm of your previous family or communities’ loyalties?
• What do you believe the association is between reciprocity and family or friendships? If these relationships are ideally those in which everyone is connected by mutual generosity, can you spread your reciprocity throughout another community or with a stranger?
• What deed could you perform that would greatly benefit someone, even if they never knew it was your doing?
• What’s a category of work you’d enjoy doing so much you’d do it for free, as a volunteer, if it could make a real difference in the quality of life?
• How many ways can you demonstrate appreciation of others in your professional department or division with spontaneous deeds of reciprocity?