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Washington Post: Stupidity is the Name of the Game

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

It really is time for all of us to come together and say “it will stop with me” . In this Op-Ed E.J. Dionne Jr. points in the right direction stating that “stupid politics, irrational ideas on fiscal policy and an antiquated political structure undermine our power”. Then there are tons of comments that show how stuck we are. There is so much blame and polarization it is no wonder we can’t come together. Think about where you dig in your heels to prove your position in life is the right one without really listening to other perspectives. Think about the patterns you need to transform, and then get to work!  

 

In American Politics, Stupidity is the Name of the Game

By: E.J. Dionne, Jr.

Can a nation remain a superpower if its internal politics are incorrigibly stupid?

Start with taxes. In every other serious democracy, conservative political parties feel at least some obligation to match their tax policies with their spending plans. David Cameron, the new Conservative prime minister in Britain, is a leading example.

He recently offered a rather brutal budget that includes severe cutbacks. I have doubts about some of them, but at least Cameron cared enough about reducing his country’s deficit that alongside the cuts he also proposed an increase in the value-added tax, from 17.5 percent to 20 percent. Imagine: a fiscal conservative who really is a fiscal conservative.

That could never happen here because the fairy tale of supply-side economics insists that taxes are always too high, especially on the rich.

This is why Democrats will be fools if they don’t try to turn the Republicans’ refusal to raise taxes on families earning more than $250,000 a year into an election issue. If Democrats go into a headlong retreat on this, they will have no standing to govern.

The simple truth is that the wealthy in the United States — the people who have made almost all the income gains in recent years — are undertaxed compared with everyone else.

Consider two reports from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. One, issued last month, highlighted findings from the Congressional Budget Office showing that “the gaps in after-tax income between the richest 1 percent of Americans and the middle and poorest fifths of the country more than tripled between 1979 and 2007.”

The other, from February, used Internal Revenue Service data to show that the effective federal income tax rate for the 400 taxpayers with the very highest incomes declined by nearly half in just over a decade, even as their pre-tax incomes have grown five times larger.

The study found that the top 400 households “paid 16.6 percent of their income in federal individual income taxes in 2007, down from 30 percent in 1995.” We are talking here about truly rich people. Using 2007 dollars, it took an adjusted gross income of at least $35 million to make the top 400 in 1992, and $139 million in 2007.

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The notion that when we are fighting two wars, we’re not supposed to consider raising taxes on such Americans is one sign of a country that’s no longer serious. Why do so few foreign policy hawks acknowledge that if they lack the gumption to ask taxpayers to finance the projection of American military power, we won’t be able to project it in the long run?

And if we are unwilling to have a full-scale debate over whether nation-building abroad is getting in the way of nation-building at home, we will accomplish neither.

Our discussion of the economic stimulus is another symptom of political irrationality. It’s entirely true that the $787 billion recovery package passed last year was not big enough to keep unemployment from rising above 9 percent.

But this is not actually an argument against the stimulus. On the contrary, studies showing that the stimulus created or saved as many as 3 million jobs are very hard to refute. It’s much easier to pretend that all this money was wasted, although the evidence is overwhelming that we should have stimulated more.

Then there’s the structure of our government. Does any other democracy have a powerful legislative branch as undemocratic as the U.S. Senate?

When our republic was created, the population ratio between the largest and smallest state was 13 to 1. Now, it’s 68 to 1. Because of the abuse of the filibuster, 41 senators representing less than 11 percent of the nation’s population can, in principle, block action supported by 59 senators representing more than 89 percent of our population. And you wonder why it’s so hard to get anything done in Washington?

I’m a chronic optimist about America. But we are letting stupid politics, irrational ideas on fiscal policy and an antiquated political structure undermine our power.

We need a new conservatism in our country that is worthy of the name. We need liberals willing to speak out on the threat our daft politics poses to our influence in the world. We need moderates who do more than stick their fingers in the wind to calculate the halfway point between two political poles.

And, yes, we need to reform a Senate that has become an embarrassment to our democratic claims.

ejdionne@washpost.com

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Business Week: Your Leadership Portfolio

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Here is a thorough article for those who have technical skills and are transitioning into leadership settings. I was specifically struck by the part that talks about those in CIO positions being proactive change leaders. What was said rings true: “Proactive change leaders take actions to influence specific individuals, giving them parts to play in the change effort. They engage with people throughout the change process, addressing emotional reactions and maintaining commitment.”

My value add is that it is critical for these proactive change leaders to understand the behavior patterns that lie underneath the emotional reactions. This does not mean leaders need to become depth coaches or see themselves as therapists (that is an old model of thinking). What they need to do is ask open ended questions and find out how their direct reports have responded to change in the past. That is the clue to helping move things forward in a positive way.

In “Don’t Bring It to Work” the 13 most common behavior patterns in the workplace are discussed. There is even a quiz you can take at www.sylvialafair.com to observe your patterns and have your employees take the quiz. It is a great eye opener for the emotional areas of change that will show up whether we want them to or not.

Article: Your Leadership Portfolio: The View from C-Level

Former senior IT leaders who rise to head of the function are often surprised by the competencies that they are expected to have at the C-level. As we discussed in the second installment in this series (“Your Leadership Portfolio: The Critical Move from Senior IT Leader to the C-Level,” May 28, 2010), the key competencies for senior IT leaders are Team Leadership, Collaboration & Influencing and People & Organization Development. These are largely people skills, requiring the ability to influence and lead high-performing teams. As the Leadership Competencies Development Journey graphic (below) indicates, the progression to IT Function Head CIO requires the individual to place a much greater emphasis on the development of broad business skills, underpinned by people skills.

Not surprisingly, many very capable IT leaders struggle to master this critical inflection point, which demands more active engagement outside the IT organization. They can prepare for this challenging transition by actively seeking opportunities to get hands-on business experience, while taking care not to derail their IT careers. Ideally, such experience would mean responsibility for a P&L, but it could mean taking responsibility for a business project and its budget, or participating as an equal partner–not just as an IT representative–on a committee focused on some key aspect of the business. They can also look for ways to collaborate more closely with business-unit heads, or other top business leaders, on market challenges. Then, when they step into the C-suite, they will be prepared for the vastly changed perspective it brings.

The Function Head CIO: Leveraging Where and How the Company Makes Money

What does a Function Head CIO really do? Instead of focusing primarily on the IT organization, as the Senior IT Leader does, the Function Head CIO must look out across the entire enterprise, work with C-level peers, and become an active and credible provider to the business. This change of perspective brings three critical competencies, and their associated behaviors, to the fore:

* Market Knowledge: This is about understanding where the company makes money. At the reactive performance level (shown on the y-axis of the Journey graphic), one may have only a general understanding of the company’s marketplace. But IT Function Head CIOs at the active level demonstrate a detailed understanding of the market, the competitors, the suppliers, and, where appropriate, the regulatory environment. At the proactive level, they identify market sub-segments and understand the profit potential of each.

Proactive performers look beyond the current environment and identify emerging trends and segments, understand how competitor actions affect competitive dynamics, and the implications for their company’s technology landscape. They use their detailed market knowledge to create innovative ways to engage and serve customers, partner with suppliers and blunt competitive threats. At the very highest level, which is rarely attained but is worth noting, the result can be new products or services that reshape the market.

* Commercial Orientation: This is about how the company makes money. At the reactive level, the individual understands the importance of commercial success, works toward financial goals, and understands how various functions contribute to profitability but may lack a thorough understanding of how to link activities to financial metrics. Active performers identify areas of the function that can contribute to profitability, and they act quickly on commercial opportunities. The proactive leader generates profit-making initiatives beyond their immediate area, drives commercial behavior throughout the organization, and finds new ways to maximize profitability from each step of the value chain. At the highest level of performance–again, rarely attained–the leader is able to create long-term advantage by reshaping the business model of the industry.

* Change Leadership: As the graphic indicates, competency in change leadership is also important at this stage and becomes even more critical for the Business Strategist CIO. Performers at the reactive level of Change Leadership tolerate change, while active change leaders are adept at advocating change and communicating a clear and compelling new direction. In pushing for change, they set clear targets that focus people and activities on achieving the change agenda and develop metrics that both monitor and motivate change.

Proactive change leaders take actions to influence specific individuals, giving them parts to play in the change effort. They engage with people throughout the change process, addressing emotional reactions and maintaining commitment. And they build coalitions of such people and create champions who then mobilize others. The even more proactive are also as at home with process as with people. They introduce high-impact actions such as redesigning organization structures, processes and systems to drive and reinforce the desired changes. In rare cases, that ability coupled with their relentless drive for renewal creates and embeds a culture of change that continually adapts to new and evolving markets.

The Transformational CIO: Bringing the Customer into Focus

Having proactively demonstrated Market Knowledge and Commercial Orientation, the Function Head CIO will be poised to take on the role of Transformational CIO with its additional demanding competency of External Customer Focus.

* Customer Focus: Many IT people are accustomed to thinking of customers inside the four walls of the company. But for the Transformational CIO, the focus widens to include the external customer. At the reactive level, Customer Focus is essentially order-taking, a stance the Transformational CIO will have moved far beyond. At the active level, Customer Focus is about actively digging into and understanding the customer’s needs, seeing services from the customer’s perspective, and identifying the unique key measures of success with a given customer. These behaviors are used internally by the outstanding IT Function Head CIO, but will be extended outward for the outstanding Transformational CIO.

At the proactive level, the benchmark behaviors include delivering improved customer offerings with win/win impact, developing best practices for working with the customer, and championing those best practices internally. The highly proactive Transformational CIO initiates and manages multiple contacts with the customer’s organization, creating impact far beyond individual transactions and in some cases becoming a trusted advisor to the customer and contributing to strategic discussions in the customer organization. In rare instances, the most accomplished Transformational CIO is able to partner with the customer to develop new supplier relationship models that can change industry dynamics and force competitors to follow or fall behind.

In the next installment in this series, we take an even deeper dive into this critical stage of the journey, the last stop before its culmination in the role of Business Strategist CIO.

Steve Kelner is a partner in the Boston office of Egon Zehnder International. He is a leader of the firm’s Leadership Strategy Services practice, specializing in management appraisals and team effectiveness. He can be reached at steve.kelner@ezi.net.

Chris Patrick is a partner in the Dallas office of Egon Zehnder International. He leads the Global CIO Practice. A former practicing CIO, he helps firms across all industries identify, assess and recruit top technology talent. He can be reached at chris.patrick@ezi.net.

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Posted in Advice, Business, Communication, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Ethics, Executive Teams, Human Resources, Integrity, Leaders | No Comments »

Surviving Stress at Work

Monday, July 19th, 2010

It really doesn’t matter where you live, or where you work, stress can be a killer. If not handled, stress can creep in and become physical and emotional symptoms and can even ruin relationships. Here is an article from Australia that could be about the company around the corner from wherever you are. See where you fit in the continuum of stress and burnout.

 

Most of us have had to deal with stress in the workplace at some point. But how do you manage it and what are the warning signs that you need help?

Your mobile phone won’t stop ringing, your inbox is overflowing and deadlines are piling up. You’re working longer hours and there seems no end to the increasing demands on you. Fed up and feeling undervalued and unappreciated, you struggle to remember why you liked your job in the first place. Sound familiar?

Spend a reasonable amount of time in the lunchroom of many workplaces and chances are you will hear staff talking about feeling ’stressed out’.

One reason for this is that many workers feel they have very little control over their work lives. Workplace stress, like other forms of stress, occurs when people feel they are not able to meet the demands placed on them. A report into workplace stress (published by private health insurer Medibank Private) found people are more likely to experience high levels of stress at work when they are placed under pressure, in terms of workload and responsibility, but feel they are unable to meet their deadlines or control their output.

Another reason we’re feeling stressed is that figures suggest many Australians are working hard, or at least long hours. Almost one quarter of full-time employees work 50 hours or more every week, and the average working week for Australian men is almost 46 hours per week, compared to 43 hours in most other industrialised nations. (It’s harder to get a clear picture of the women’s working hours as many work casual or part-time, but OECD figures show more Australian women work part-time than their counterparts in other industrialised nations.)

Stress-related illness costs the Australian economy $14.81 billion a year in absenteeism and presenteeism, where people come to work but have low levels of productivity. The direct cost to employers is $10.11 billion and, on average, more than three days are lost to stress per worker per year.

And when stress at work becomes overwhelming it can cause a workplace psychological injury. While these injuries represent less than 10 per cent of the total workers compensation claims in Australia, figures suggest these numbers are increasing.

Burning out

Workplace stress can also have a dramatic effect on your job satisfaction, morale, physical and mental health, self-care, and relationships – both in and out of the workplace. And in some instances it can lead to ‘burnout’.

“True burnout is pretty bad and is an extreme state of exhaustion,” says organisational psychologist Rachel Clements, director of Psychological Services at the Centre for Corporate Health.

Burnout is not a clinical diagnosis, and as such, it does not come with a list of specific symptoms or treatments. But it’s a term commonly used by health professionals and the wider community and it comes under the umbrella of psychological injury.

“The formal definition of burnout is that the person must have three components: they are emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted,” Clements says.

“We see people with burnout, but we can’t classify them as that.”

When assessed, these people are likely to receive a diagnosis of ‘adjustment disorder’ or ‘major depressive disorder’.

When people put in claims for psychological injury, Clements’ role is to conduct employee assessments for WorkCover NSW and other insurers. She says the people she sees with burnout show signs of depression, lethargy and exhaustion.

But workplace stress manifest itself in a range or ways including nervousness, tension, strain, anxiety, depression and a decreased ability to cope with stressful situations.

What makes work stressful?

Long working hours, insufficient breaks, lack of resources and unrealistic deadlines all contribute to workplace stress. As can relationships with co-workers and managers, especially if these relationships involve conflict, harassment or bullying.

But each of us responds to these stressors differently. So a work environment that just makes one person feel a little uptight, might push another person to breaking point.

There are, however, certain factors that can put you at greater risk of experiencing workplace stress, burnout or psychological injury.

A pre-existing mental health condition can make work really difficult for some people, says David Crosbie, CEO of the Mental Health Council of Australia. Another factor is that some people are less resilient and struggle to cope with stress.

“If people are already struggling to cope and then work becomes even more difficult, that can lead to an increase in their symptoms and a deterioration in their mental health and wellbeing,” Crosbie says.

“Often it is not necessarily caused by work. (Work) is an exacerbating factor.”

Although, Crosbie adds, people without a pre-existing mental illness can still experience extreme workplace stress and burnout.

Meanwhile, Clements believes personality can also play a role in a person’s predisposition to workplace stress. People who are more susceptible to workplace stress are often perfectionists, who tend to be very conscientious, hard-working and are prepared to take on excessive workloads.

“Also, people who are high in what we call emotionality: people who have a tendency to become more emotional, more sensitive (when things get busy or go wrong),” says Clements.

But even the most resilient of us can be affected by workplace stress, which is why environmental factors – such as a lack of team or managerial support, polices or procedures that generate low morale, a lack of value attached to the work and poor communication – can also affect workers, especially if these stressors are ongoing.

“We know that team support, manager support and job morale are the biggest buffers [to preventing burnout],” says Clements.

Workplace stress warning signs

Unfortunately, people do miss the early warning signs that they are stressed.

“We are called in (to assess people) when they are eight or nine on the stress scale of 10, when everyone is noticing it,” adds Clements.

But there are some warning signs that tell you heading towards the upper end of the stress scale, these can include:

  • Struggling to cope at work and not speaking up or seeking help to improve your situation.
  • Not setting boundaries between your work and home life – taking work home with you, checking your emails outside work hours, or just thinking about work in non-work time.
  • Having low morale – this includes not feeling supported, not being able to find meaning in your work and feeling undervalued.
  • Engaging in negative, irrational and catastrophising thinking patterns such as: “I have to be responsible for everything.” “Everything will collapse without me.” “I have to perform to 100 per cent.”
  • A real or perceived lack of control over your job and how you do it.
  • Feeling undervalued by your managers and colleagues.
  • Feeling disconnected from your colleagues and other people in your life. This is sometimes a problem for people who do shift work, or work in jobs that require extensive travel away from family or friends or periods of isolation.
  • Taking days off work when you are not sick or going to work but not being productive (presenteeism).

Other red flags include: poor performance at work, avoiding family or friends and adopting maladaptive coping strategies (such as drinking too much or using drugs).

Stress can also manifest as new physical ailments or a worsening of existing conditions.

“Mental illness exacerbates all physical illnesses and increases the degree to which those diseases impact on people’s capacity to function,” Crosbie says.

Getting help

In some cases, people ignore the warning signs of burnout – or simply don’t notice them – until they reach breaking point and need to take time out to recover.

Although the recovery time varies for individuals, the average time off work for a psychological injury through WorkCover NSW in 2008-09 was 13.5 weeks. In Queensland it was 28 weeks, and 27 weeks in Western Australia (the longest of any injury claim in that state).

But Crosbie urges people not to withdraw from the workforce for too long. He says it can be counterproductive for people with pre-existing mental health issues as it can further disconnect them from life.

Meaningful work can provide meaning in life and ‘hold them through the difficult times’, says Crosbie.

And even when you do identify that you are stressed, you still need to address some of the issues that are causing your stress and ask for help.

In many cases, the best place to start is with your boss or manager, especially if your stress stems from being unclear about your role or responsibilities. Your manager should be able to provide you with a job plan or description and give you feedback on how they expect you to do your job. They are also the people to approach if you feel you need extra resources – such as equipment or training – to be able to do your job effectively.

Unfortunately, in some cases, the manager contributes to the problem through their poor communication, leadership style, lack of support or even bullying. In these instances it can help to approach your company’s human resources (HR) team or a trusted work colleague.

Many workplaces also offer Employee Assistance Programs (EAP), which are run by external providers. If problems are identified, intervention strategies may include mediation between an employer, employee and a HR representative, assertive skills training and/or counselling programs for the individual.

 

 

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Posted in Business, Communication, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Integrity, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Strategies, Stress, leadership development, motivation | 1 Comment »

Leadership From the Heart Not the Street

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

There is a great interview by Adi Ignatuis with Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks that is well worth reading.

Here are some thoughts after reading the article. Schultz and Starbucks have been fascinating to follow over the years. The original concept of community hangout, “Let’s meet at Starbucks” was a standard for so many folks; it moved to “OMG, another Starbucks, when is enough enough“?

I began to think Schultz was a reincarnation of King Midas. Remember that king? He wished to be the richest ruler in all the lands and he was kindly granted that wonderful wish. Told that whatever he touched would turn to gold, he was a happy camper. Silverware turned to gold, drinking goblets turned to gold, coffee mugs turned to gold.

The story is a “BEWARE” story. When Midas’s daughter ran to give him a hug, you guessed it, she also turned to gold. And the moral of the story is to question when is enough enough?

For a period of time it sure looked like Shultz was on a Midas mission to rule the world through lattes and the like. Then the bubble burst, and I remember thinking it serves him right. There are more important subjects to tackle, like global warming and oil spills.

Back to the interview; there is one part where I thought, hey maybe it would be worth it to meet Howard Schultz and have a dopper espresso macchiato with him. He was asked for an example of a decision he had made that Wall Street didn’t like.

His answer: health care. He just couldn’t cut the benefits, no matter how perfect it was to do so during a down economy. A shareholder complained and he stood his ground, telling the man to sell his stock, he would not budge on this issue.

This brought to mind the Schultz I first read about years ago, the man I decided to check out and follow as a leader of substance. That Howard was determined to always have full health care for his employees after growing up watching his father struggle. His dad had an accident and was laid off from his job and the family lost their health care benefits.

At a young age Schultz internalized the pain of this family crisis and vowed to be more caring if he ever made it in business. During the recent downturn for Starbucks he could have stayed in the Midas mentality. Instead he stayed true to himself.

In the interview he goes on to say that it is important for him to look in the mirror and feel he has done something that has meaning and relevancy, something people can respect. He stayed with his heart and took on “the street“.

Question: what do you see when you look in the mirror?

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Posted in Character, Health, Integrity, Leaders, Leadership, Money | No Comments »

Teaching Leadership

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

There has been a fascinating discussion going on for several weeks on the Leadership Think Tank Group on LinkedIn. The question is “If you could teach one thing to a young leader what would it be?”

There have been over 250 responses and the vast array of answers creates a composite of the myriad aspects of  leadership development. It does seem that the largest number of answers believe that leadership is an art and craft that can be learned.

One particular answer by Tom Tavares caught my attention. He talks about helping leaders with the vital skill of problem solving under pressure. He states “Based on 500 in-depth profiles of leaders in a wide variety of industries, 80% or more fall back on their own problem-solving skills when under pressure. Leaders start their careers as specialists and are strong problem-solvers. When pressure builds, fixing things themselves provides a sense of control.”

This is so true and is something we all need to consider when the going is tough. In “Don’t Bring It to Work” I talk about the fact that when stress hits the hot button we all tend to revert to patterns of behavior learned in our original organization, the family and that is what we bring into the workplace.

Think about how you coped under pressure when you were eight or ten or fourteen. Now, look at how you problem solve in your adult life at work? What are the common threads? this will help you find the way out to new and more effective behavior.

In the third session of our Total Leadership Connections program problem solving is a key theme. Participants have the opportunity to do a “Pep Talk” concerning a problem-solving issue of their choosing. They can decide to address a work issue or one closer to home. Pep Talk stands for “Pattern Encounter Process” and there is the opportunity to look at the long-term behavior patterns, the coping mechanisms that absolutely pop-up unconsciously when there is stress and anxiety.

What is amazing is how hard it is to see it on ourselves when we are in those stress-filled moments. We learned how to survive when we were kids. How do I know? Just look in the mirror; we’re still here. Trouble is what worked for us as youngsters is not always the best solution as an adult.

Think about it; did you take the fight or flight route? Many a young leader both takes the offensive and is a persecutor and finger pointer in getting through tough times. Others take the avoider route and figures everything will handle itself if I just wait long enough. Others become the victim, some the rescuers. There are the deniers who look a problem square in the face and say “No big deal”.

We can see so many of the patterned responses playing out in the tragedy of the BP oil fiasco. But wait, before you cast the first stone, look inside and think about your own leadership manner of working through tough times at work.

Back to Tom Tavares advice; he suggests leaders take the route of collaboration saying “one mind and many hands is less intelligent than many minds in solving problems from the outset.”  I agree that this can help stop the old patterned responses from taking over. Being able to use your leadership team in a cooperative manner and making sure there is openness to question decisions can lead to better and best decisions in the long run.

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Posted in Business, Coaching, Collaboration, Communication, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Decision Making, Diversity, Ethics, Executive Teams, Family Business, Family Conflict, Human Resources, Integrity, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Strategies, Neuroscience, PatternAware, Patterns, Power, Reflections, Relationships, Stress, Total Leaders, Transformation, Workplace Relationships, Young Leaders, leadership development, motivation | No Comments »

Become an Office Environmentalist

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

I was doing some research about the environment. My mind went to Henry David Thoreau and how he was a “gadfly” to keep people connected to nature. He was a searcher for the truth and knew that our inner nature is connected with outer nature.

His life, his writing, was about seeking the deeper meaning, of everything. We have become such a “sound bite” nation any idea that takes more than five words to express is ignored.

Maybe we do need to stop, during these summer months and be quiet in nature’s bounty. Sit with the tress and flowers, sit with the sand and water, sit with the stars at night, and just sit. It was in this quiet that Thoreau wrote “Walden“.

What does this have to do with work you are wondering; nothing and everything?

We are living in such a polluted world and it is not just the physical chemicals, the oil, and the trash that is bearing down on us. We are also burdened with workplace conflict that seems to get worse and worse all the time.

With my coaching clients I am hearing more and more disaffection that co-workers have with each other. With all the team building programs, all the pizza parties, all the community days set aside, there is still an edge of tension in most work environments.

This emotional pollution is causing untold stress and it tumbles from home to work to little league. What can be done?

The idea of being an office environmentalist came to me as I was researching information about Thoreau. He died at the young age of 44 and left a legacy for others, including Gandhi and Martin Luther King to look at what I am calling emotional pollution and take a stand.

We are spending way too much time yelling at company officers who have done poor jobs, not just BP, check out the poor quality cement work of Halliburton in the Gulf as another example.

It’s not about how bad “they” are. What about our personal responsibilities for maintaining our beautiful planet, for being kind and civil to each other at work, in our communities?

This Thoreau quote stayed with me, I offer it to you “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”

Take some quiet time this summer and think about how you can help get to the root.

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Posted in Accountability, Boss, Business, Character, Coaching, Collaboration, Communication, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Consulting, Decision Making, Executive Teams, Honor, Integrity, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Strategies, Media, Nature, PatternAware, Patterns, Reflections, Relationships, The Country Place, Transformation, Workplace Relationships, leadership development, motivation | No Comments »

Leadership Strategies and Mirror Neurons

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Here is the scene: at an off-site I was facilitating last week someone on the team was angry with a colleague. How did we all know Ted was angry?

He smiled. He answered questions in a smooth, quiet voice. He looked engaged……almost.

Yet, whenever his colleague, Dan spoke, Ted would shift from side to side. He would stop smiling and look as if he was sucking on a lemon. His would squint, as if tracking an impending storm in the far away clouds.

Soon everyone in the room had taken on a similar look; twelve people sucking on invisible lemons and waiting for the storm to start.

I waited until the first break and took Ted aside. What was happening? He was “surprised”, actually, surprised and relieved that I had noticed. “Well” he hesitated for a long, long moment. “Well, Sylvia Dan is a liar.” He waited to see how that statement went down.

I responded with a “request sentence” I teach participants in our Total Leadership Connections program. “Tell me more” I stated and then shut up.

The essence of the issue between Ted and Dan could derail the entire group if it is left blowing in the wind. It can cause havoc because they are two strong and competent leaders who would intentionally or unintentionally cause the rest of the group to choose sides.

Have you ever been on a team where members are smiling, talking properly and yet the dissention is there; and everyone knows it? I bring this up because it is a vital part of team dynamics and all team building programs should require a section about workplace conflict resolution. Unless conflict is faced and resolved it become like a systemic disease that impacts everyone.

I’d like to have you send me your “war stories” and how they were (or were not) handled elegantly. The first three will receive a copy of my book “Don’t Bring It to Work” and will be the basis of a series of blogs I am doing to help diminish conflict in the workplace.

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Posted in Accountability, Advice, Boss-Employee Relationship, Business, Collaboration, Communication, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Decision Making, Ethics, Executive Teams, Integrity, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Strategies, Meetings, PatternAware, Patterns, Reflections, Relationships, Total Leaders, Transformation, Workplace Relationships | No Comments »

Leadership and Listening

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Since we know the only constant in life is change, I wonder why we do not have many courses on this vital subject throughout our school years. It should be part of curriculum beginning in elementary school. It is so basic to physiology, psychology, life in general.

I have joined a group on LinkedIn that explores change and the following is the beginning of a dialogue started by a colleague in Australia. I’d love to hear more comments. The question is key, “what do we listen for to get the essence of how another thinks, hears, and feels the impact of change?”

Here’s to a happy and productive day of “whatever comes along!”

Dialogue Question by Vincent Wall, Owner, Springboard Management Group: What is most effective in developing change analysts listening skills? Beyond paraphrasing, clarifying, reconfirming, checking client context, identifying the unspoken, speak to the listening?

Comment by Sylvia Lafair:  Check your GUT! There are always emotion laden words that will slide by if you let them. This is where the real action is. We are all connected and mirror neurons (how words/actions of other) impact us. In “Don’t Bring It to Work” there is a part called “Sound Bites” to help get in step with how to respond to power words that otherwise would go under the radar.

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Posted in Coaching, Collaboration, Communication, Conflict Resolution, Decision Making, Executive Teams, Integrity, Leaders, Patterns, Workplace Relationships | No Comments »

Leadership Kaleidoscope

Friday, June 18th, 2010

We just finished one of the most rewarding retreats of…. forever!

Big statement; now I will explain. For the past year we have been working with school district administrators in suburban Pennsylvania.

That includes 21 men and women who care about education and care about children.

June 2009 was their first off-site, a two day program to help them coalesce into a seamless team. Seated in the circle of chairs in the beautiful great room at The Country Place Retreat and Conference Center were kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school principles, head of special education, curriculum, counseling, finance, transportation, grounds, maintenance, assistant superintendent, and superintendent.

Let me paint the picture from last year. Anyone can sit in a circle. Anyone can say what they think is expected of them. Not just anyone can begin the journey to the truth, to the heart of the matter. With this group it took time and it took the superintendent to start the ball rolling.

When a leader is willing to be self aware and share the essence of that awareness with a team, magic happens.

That is what happened on the last morning of last year. The group had not yet become a team. The elephants and gorillas were standing sentry. It was going to have a disappointing end, sort of like a stale and soggy afternoon at the beach.

Then the superintendent asked if she could speak. There was an uncomfortable quiet. She talked about her pattern as a super achiever and how she hated to ask for help. She then looked around the room and asked for help.

One year later: an air of “Can Do” permeated the circle. Same type of chairs, same circle, yet, what a difference; this was a group that had coalesced into a team of aligned colleagues who supported each other and had become a kaleidoscope. Each was a different shape, different color, each had a different perspective about issues, yet they all had a common goal of helping the youngsters grow and learn.

Kaleidoscopes make gorgeous images no matter which way you turn them, point of light that blend together in new and unique ways from moment to moment.

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What’s in a “C”?

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

We have an incredible team of administrators from the Derry Township School District at an off site at The Country Place. They are all achievers of excellence, so when I suggested that this past year we have been working together was “the year of the C” a look of disappointment went around the room like a cloud hiding the sun.

I explained, it had been a year of the “See” and the “C“.

They have all been willing to look at how a high level administrative team can harness workplace conflict, master workplace relationships, tackle leadership dilemmas, be pioneers and visionaries in the field of education, build trustworthy relationships, and have enjoyable friendships all at the same time.

They all “see with new eyes” and embrace life long learning. The task now is to take the skills they have learned to the faculty, board, parents, and youngsters they are helping prepare for the rest of their lives.

Here is what is in a “C“:

Challenge: response to the call that “there is a better way”

Connect: learning that we are all in it together and no one wins unless we all do

Curiosity: Shaking things up to see what “new” looks like, sounds like, and feels like

Culture: exploring how a culture blossoms when risks are taken

Commit: understanding the power of an entire system willing to forge a new path

Communicate: working with the forces of choosing the right words to tell the truth

Cause: weaving education, including administrators, teachers, parents, children, community, and board into a well constructed tapestry

My barometer of hope is high. This team of pioneers is making a difference. As they explore their own self awareness and the power of pattern transformation they are taking leadership development and workplace relationships to a rarified realm of innovation and creative intent.

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Posted in Accountability, Advice, Character, Collaboration, Communication, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Educators, Integrity, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership in Schools, Patterns, Power, Reflections, Relationships, The Country Place, Total Leaders, Transformation, Trust, Workplace Relationships | No Comments »

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