Archive for February, 2009

Ellen Weber, at Brain Leaders and Learners, has a wonderful post that explains why it takes what it takes to make personal change. In coaching, it is important to break down the action into small steps, practice over and over, until the brain has time to rewire and make the changes we want to be permanent. This post explains why practice makes perfect.

My last week was not my favorite. Who would have guessed that the inability to receive email would be so frustrating? I’m one to derail the lack of good conversation that has been hijacked by laptops and cell phones, U-Tube and Facebook.

I was rerouting email through an exchange server when the phone calls started coming in, indicating that people were getting messages that my email adress was non-existent. Clients and others were getting bounce back messages and couldn’t get email to me (to some extent, it was great to hear actual voices over the phone).

A whole week of inability to send or receive email. Day after day, I talked to call centers at the former web host and then the new web host. Neither could figure out the problem, and both pointed the finger at the other.

My frustration mounted. As a small business owner, it’s not a good thing to suddenly cease getting email, much less to not receive it over a full week.

For whatever weird reason, I figured out the problem seven days into the issue. I called the call center of the new web host to ask them to correct it, and had the good fortune to get Fernando on the phone.

This man had no reason to be nice to me. He may well be in a low-paying job and taking a lot of grief from customers he doesn’t know who have no problem venting their anger to someone they will never talk to again on the phone. In fact, I had spoken to someone earlier who worked in the same call center who was less than pleasant to me.

But Fernando listened, exhibited great patience with my lack of knowledge, and guided me through the final setup. There was a (seemingly small) change that I wanted to make to Outlook, and he followed up later with an email that explained how to make the change (in his own words, very clear and easy to follow).

I was stunned. But delighted. And then I thought – why should I be so grateful for someone who is kind, thoughtful, listens well and is people-friendly? Because it is so unusual!

The qualities Fernando exhibited were the ones we all want of our leaders. Pretty simple stuff.

There is too much to do in too little time. And, for better or worse, workplaces are full of people who are confused and scared. As the recession continues, insanity may be reaching new heights in your organization. Your team is looking to you, as their leader, for calm reassurance and a hopeful, but realistic, assessment of what is going on.

People get more peculiar than usual when fear spreads. Like a virus, emotions such as fear can be caught by an entire organization, and this virus will have negative effects on your bottom line. So one of the most important things you can do right now is to stay sane and spread sanity.

Take care of yourself first. You know how the airline steward says to put on your oxygen mask before helping others with theirs? Take that advice. If ever there was a time to make good on those New Year promises to get healthier, it’s now. Exercise, healthy foods, sleep, and a good dose of a reflective practice (meditation, prayer, journaling — whatever works for you) are necessities.

Find a confidante, if you don’t already have one. This person can hold you accountable to the new, healthier you. This must be someone who can provide you with truly honest, helpful feedback. Listen and consider their point of view and advice, and then take action on it.

Next, take care of your organization. You can’t do anything about the macro economy. But you can help others to think differently about it or put it into perspective. Maybe the economy is having a negative effect on your organization. Don’t sugarcoat the message (your employees can smell sugar miles away).

Maintain a positive approach while being as truthful as possible. If the news is good for your business or organization, better yet.

Whatever the message, get it out via e-mail, your Web site, newsletters, meetings, one-on-one conversations and informal networks. And don’t stop. Your message has to be stated repeatedly for those who didn’t understand it the first (or second or third) time or just weren’t in the right spot physically or mentally to hear it.

If there is a dearth of truthful communication from you and other leaders in your workplace, the communication vacuum will be filled by rumor, gossip, innuendo and downright lies. This is the time to make sure this doesn’t happen.
Finally, keep doing all the things you’ve been doing. Listen, ask people how they’re doing, stay positive, keep your team involved in finding solutions, and thank them for their hard work during these tough times. When you come out on the other end of the insanity, you and your organization will be rewarded with great employees who rode out the tough times, as well as a saner workplace.

I’m a sucker for people who follow directions and say things like “I think I could use this book”. Therefore, I have a copy of this book to give Craig, one of the people who left a comment on the blog review of the book. Craig, stay tuned, I’ll get it to you!

NOTE: I have an extra copy of this book to give away. Simply respond to this post with your comments on why this book might be of interest to you and I’ll (admittedly arbitrarily) choose someone to receive a free copy.

Peter S. Cohan has written a book about Jim McNerney, the CEO of Boeing, with a focus on McNerney’s results using a collaborative style of leadership.

McNerney was a protege of Jack Welch’s – in fact, he wanted the top job at GE when Welch left. He went on to run 3M and then to a failing Boeing as CEO in 2005.

Why You MAY FIND This Book Interesting:

McNerney’s style is very different from Welch’s and both got results. Welch was famous as a hard-driver, top-down, shoot from the hip leader. He got results. McNerney is a kinder, gentler sort of leader – who believes in consensus and collaboration. He gets results. Both styles are compellingly interesting – and if you’ve followed Welch, it might be fun to see the other side of leadership by reading this book. There is (was) a time and a place for both leadership styles. I believe that McNerney is showing the way for the future of leadership, and proving that it works.

Certainly, new C-level employees will benefit from the insight in this book. I especially like the way the chapters are laid out in a way that they can be used as a “best leadership practices”, for example:

Chapter 3: Link Pay to Profit and Process, Not Stock Price

Chapter 4: Build Strategy on Customer Focus

Chapter 7: Tackle Challengin Situations Quickly and Effectively

Why YOU MAY NOT FIND This Book Interesting:

This book was written by an author who used third-person information to tell McNerney’s story. It would have been so much more compelling if he could have included McNerney’s side of the stories too.

I enjoy hearing stories that include the foibles of of good leaders – they seem to make them more human and reachable. This book read like a 202 page advertisement for McNerney. I found myself hungering to know what mistakes he made and lessons he learned.

I also don’t know if this author has ever worked in a large corporation (he is a management consultant and venture capitalist). There aren’t many new things to learn for those who have been leaders within that environment, at any organizational level.

The Bottom Line: Don’t shy away from the book. There is plenty of useful information here, if you are interested in leadership and how a CEO can show results while focusing on the people in the organization.

Dan McCarthy has hosted another fantastic leadership development carnival at Great Leadership: The February Leadership Development Carnival

Thanks, Dan, for including the Intentional Leadership post, Leading with Purpose as one of your featured posts!