Archive for the ‘Ethics’ Category

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MSNBC: BP CEO, Tony Hayward

Friday, July 30th, 2010
Villian Pattern

Hayward

When the going gets tough the tough do not go yachting! This article recapping (interesting use of the word!) what Tony Hayward said in the Wall Street Journal article shows a perfect example of a victim pattern of behavior. While the situation is dreadful, Hayward was unable to give us any faith that he was truly at the helm. Leadership development programs really need to put in modules that prepare a future CEO for looking at internal resources for creative and powerful leading through dark times.

BP CEO: I became a villain…

Tony Hayward, who resigned as chief executive of BP in the wake of the Gulf oil spill, has said that he was turned into “a villain for doing the right thing.”

In his first interview since deciding to step down, Hayward told the Wall Street Journal that he did everything possibleafter the Deepwater Horizon exploded, by taking responsibility for the spill and spending billions on the clean-up operation and efforts to stop the leak.

The newspaper said he was unrepentant about BP’s response to the spill and that he resented criticism from the Obama administration, although he also admitted that he “understood their frustration.”

“I became a villain for doing the right thing,” Hayward said in the interview. “But I understand that people find it easier to vilify an individual more than a company.

“I didn’t want to leave BP, because I love the company,” he added. “Because I love the company, I must leave BP.

“In America, the road back will be long but I believe achievable when the whole truth of the accident finally emerges and the Gulf Coast is restored. BP can rebuild faster in America without Tony Hayward as its CEO,” he continued.

Hayward, 53, also told the paper that some comments he had made — which earned him a reputation for being gaffe-prone — were “wrong,” particularly his infamous “I’d like my life back.”

However, some critics remained unimpressed.

“Mr. Hayward should be less concerned about his vindication, and more concerned about what BP will do to end the victimization of families and businesses in the Gulf,” Rep. Edward Markey told the Journal. “It will take years of continued commitment to the restoration of the Gulf before BP has the legitimacy to engage in historical revisionism.”

Richard Charter, senior policy adviser for maritime programs at conservation group Defenders of Wildlife, added: “No one in his right mind would characterize BP’s effort as successful.”

 

My Response to Article:

The true test of a leader comes when everything down and dirty hits the fan. In this respect Tony Hayward gets a failing grade. In the Wall Street Journal interview he sadly sounds like a victim, claiming he was turned into “a villain for doing the right thing“.

He misses the point totally. It was his “wimpy” manner of response that disappointed all of us watching oil fill up our beautiful ocean. The pattern of “victim” runs deep and victim responses are always laden with hand wringing and poor-me statements. In “Don’t Bring It to Work” the victim who grows and shows stamina transforms into the explorer; one who goes beyond the obvious to find innovative solutions, or at least sets the stage for these solutions to show up.

It is too soon to know all the details about how this messy accident was really handled. In the meantime we have seen yet again a well paid CEO crumble when the going is tough ; when the requirement is for personal strength and superb accountability.

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Posted in Business, Conflict, Ethics | No Comments »

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 »

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 »

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 »

Are You an Open Book?

Monday, June 14th, 2010

There is a fascinating debate in most companies about transparency. How open should you be? It sounds so good, doesn’t it? And yet…..

How much openness is enough? Open to what, to whom? When do you close the valve of self disclosure? What are the ramifications of bringing up the curtain on your inner life?

The discussion, part of a Total Leadership Connections session, went late into the night. Here is how it started:

We had finished the powerful second session of the four part program, the time when everyone has the opportunity to answer the pivotal question “What formed you? What are the patterns that were handed from generation to generation that you have carried into your life, both at home and a work?

No one is required to reveal anything. It is an individual decision what to say or not say. Yet this is one of the few times that a program is set for business people to look at the patterns they learned in their original organization, the family and how those patterns were transferred to their present work organization. The level of “aha’s” is astounding.

Okay, so the formal presentations were over and it was time to unwind and chat. One thing, as they say, led to another, and one of the participants turned to a colleague and said “Remember when I mentioned that my brother has been an outcast in our family? Until you talked about your sister who was the black sheep and how you decided to find her and bring her back into the fold I never thought about doing anything to help. I have been embarrassed and really never talk about her. It’s private and painful.”

They continued until a plan was formed to call the same private detective and begin a search. The intention was set; the plan would wait till the morning. Neither man had ever realized that the pain of a discounted family member had landed right in their work settings. They talked about how each had become a denier; when there were deep conflicts at work, the principle way it was handled was to get rid of the “problem” and make sure that everyone stayed happy and job focused. No one ever talked about the emotional undertow of someone who was fired or downsized. It was business as usual, as if the person who left had never existed; just like in their families.

The next day they sat together and called the detective. A search would begin for the missing brother.

Life, as we know, is always more intriguing that fiction. At a lunch break when folks were checking computers and phones, the lost brother surfaced. No need for detectives. It was as if the intention to reconnect was enough. These kinds of synchronises happen when we are ready and willing for change to happen. They make differences for us in all aspects of our lives, at home and at work.

The key to leadership is not about being open or closed, as much as it is about the where, when and how. I suggest that it is all in the timing.

Leaders need a safe place to explore what pushes their buttons and what to do about it. They need to connect the dots of how home and work lives connect. They need to factor in the emotional with the rational.

The best advice I can give is to find a safe program to get under the obvious of leadership and peel the layers away. You never know who or what you can find and have a happy ending.

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Posted in Advice, Avoider, Boss, Boss-Employee Relationship, Character, Communication, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Employers, Ethics, Family Conflict, Fear, History, Integrity, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Strategies, Meetings, PatternAware, Patterns, Reflections, Relationships, Total Leaders, Transformation, Trust, Workplace Relationships, leadership development, motivation | No Comments »

Fed’s Bernanke: Money ‘By Itself’ Doesn’t Buy Happiness

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

I found this very good article on Ecreditdaily.com on Bernanke’s commencement address at the University of South Carolina.  Please read and note my comments; I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Fed Chairman Ben BernankeIt was not your typical speech by the Federal Reserve chairman; then again, this was a commencement address at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, about a two-hour drive from Dillon, where Ben Bernanke spent much of his childhood.

The Fed chief’s address focused on happiness, and reaffirmed some age-old parental advice: money isn’t everything.

Bernanke didn’t entirely abandon economics, however, as he referenced studies measuring contentment and income.

“Although today most Americans surveyed will tell you they are happy with their lives, the fraction of those who say that they are happy is not any higher than it was 40 years ago, when average incomes in the United States were considerably lower and few could even imagine developments like mobile phones or the Internet,” Bernanke said, referring to a study years ago by economist Richard Easterlin.

The economist, Bernanke told graduates, found that once you “get above a basic sustenance level–on average, people in rich countries don’t report being all that much happier than people in lower-income countries.”

For example, he said, Americans have reported similar levels of happiness as do Costa Ricans, who have about one-quarter the per capita income.

Other studies have contradicted that notion and contend that richer countries heighten happiness through higher levels of technology, infrastructure and healthcare.

So Bernanke took a stand somewhere in the middle ground.

“So I am going to continue under the assumption that, although wealth and income do contribute to happiness and life satisfaction, other factors must also be very important,” he said. “Or, as your parents always said, money doesn’t buy happiness. Well, an economist might reply, at least not by itself.”

He also said that happiness is often measured by the degree of human interaction, more so than the amount of material wealth. And that both psychologists and economists agree.

“Happy people tend to spend time with friends and family and put emphasis on social and community relationships,” Bernanke said. “We are social creatures. Research has demonstrated that happiness and life satisfaction are perhaps more closely related to participating meaningfully in a network of friends, family, and community than any other factor.”

My response:

Bernanke gave an important speech. As an economist, not a psychologist (which is my field) or a motivational guru, he stated what we know and tend to ignore. Money by itself truly has questionable value. It does seem high time that those in the financial realm begin to speak out. King Midas found out too late the limited benefits of having it all. Remember the children’s story? He was granted the wish to be the richest man in the world and everything he touched turned to gold, including his daughter who just wanted a hug.

Time we stop showing celebrities with hundreds of shoes and start to talk values with those getting ready to enter the work force before they become addicted to the false premise that more is better. At some point more, even oxygen, becomes toxic.

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Posted in Accountability, Avoider, Character, Collaboration, Communication, Community Relationships, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Decision Making, Economy, Ethics, Family Conflict, Integrity, Leaders, Leadership, Money, Stress, Workplace Relationships | 1 Comment »

HBR: Does Leadership Change in a Web 2.0 World

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

 

The “Wizard of Oz” keeps playing out in my mind as we constantly swirl into new, uncharted territory. If you haven’t seen “Wicked” it is an updated version with the back story of how the wicked witch got such a bad rap and why. How does this connect with leadership and technology? Mainly because we still need to address the human universals of what it means to relate to each other. So far, that really has not changed.

In this excellent article about Web 2.0 and leadership I was struck with the many comments that mostly pointed in the same direction; leaders need to be emotionally skilled. What we need are the action components of how to get there. “Don’t Bring It to Work” offers one part of the puzzle by helping leaders factor in behavior patterns from the past so they don’t muck up reactions in present time. We need to remember, technology is not the master unless we give our power away to it.

I’d love to hear how you have incorporated emotional awareness with technological skill. It is critical to learn from each other as we forge ahead into an amorphous future.

Does Leadership Change in a Web 2.0 World?

by: James A. Champy

I recently heard a retired general, a veteran of the Vietnam conflict, quoted as saying the only way he knew what was really happening was to be with his troops in the jungle. He was famously absent from staff meetings, wanting to be in the middle of the action.

I also recall attending a leadership course on the Gettysburg battlefield. During the battle that made those killing fields famous, there were no means of communications other than shouting over the din of mayhem. From hill to hill, station to station, no one knew what was happening.

Today, a general might take out her cell phone or more secure, sophisticated device to call the front lines — and if no one answers, she could tune into CNN to get the latest on what’s happening. A GPS system might also trace the progress of troops. But a smart general knows that there is no substitute for directly seeing and sensing what’s really happening on the front — even with the advent of the most sophisticated information technology and communications. And a brief physical presence always inspires the troops.

Like many executives, I use advanced technologies to manage and do my job. But I keep asking whether I’m a Luddite because my leadership style has not changed over the years, even though I’m “wired”. Without question, technology today enables leaders to communicate more broadly and quickly and to hear from many points of contact at one time. I can also effectively teleconference with people I know — but, as we have learned, remote communications don’t work well with people you don’t know. I have no doubt that I am a better leader because I am more current and knowledgeable thanks to technology. But I worry more that the world of web 2.0 — and what comes after — will distract, not add, from the skill of leaders, make them more, rather than less, remote.

Last week, I had lunch with the young CEO of an emerging company. He had come to seek my advice. He spent the first five minutes of our meeting reading messages on his PDA. Fortunately, there was someone else at the table with whom to talk. That made the meeting less awkward. Technology, in the hands of unskilled leaders, can create distance, and even a false sense of security. A person may believe that they are “connected”, but that connection may be superficial.

Of course, a very skilled communicator can reach and inspire thousands of people through electronic medium. The great televangelists come to mind. Now their messages can be propelled by Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

But leadership is not proselytizing. Real leadership requires relationships and personal engagement. Nothing I see in technology has yet to replace these qualities. I believe that technology will enable new business models, but not “new leadership”.

Jim Champy is a consultant and author. His newest book, Reengineering Healthcare, A Manifesto for Radically Rethinking Healthcare Delivery, will be released in June.

 

My Response:

“We aren’t in Kansas anymore” is so true in this complex tech world. Yet, it was still the basic universals of relationships that took Dorothy to transformed places in their lives. It was and is about courage, creativity, and heart felt collaboration.

Leadership requires a clearer, faster picture of behavior patternswe need to understand and manage. It is the perfect time to focus on becoming pattern aware, as anthropologist Gregory Bateson said, to look for the patterns that connect.

Willis Harman was instrumental in helping me put together, “Total Leadership Connections“, a program that has as a priority self awareness based on what we bring to our present work organization based on patterns we learned and still rely on from our original organization, the family. We then become emotionally skilled and can get better, more effect answers using logic and intuition as a connected force.

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Posted in Avoider, Business, Collaboration, Communication, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Ethics, Executive Teams, Integrity, Leaders, Leadership, Patterns, Workplace Relationships, leadership development | 2 Comments »

The Leader of the Future Won’t Even Be There

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

Every so often this internet world provides us with the best information and even better, a new friend. That is the case with Wayne Turmel, a true Renaissance man with a great sense of humor.

I am delighted to have him as a guest blogger and know you will enjoy his perspective about elegant leadership. ~ Sylvia

 

 

We hear a lot of talk about how leadership in the workplace is necessary now more than ever. I don’t know if I believe that- Peter Drucker pointedly noted that the challenges to get the pyramids built weren’t any easier  than the average project manager has to go through- but what I do believe is that leadership is different now than it’s ever been.

Face it, at least the guy at the pyramids was AT the pyramids. Most of us aren’t anywhere near where the work is being done.

This is not hyperbole. If you’re at a level higher than first-level supervisor, you probably have at least one direct report who doesn’t work where you do.  Heck, they might not even work for you, although you have the responsibility for getting the work done.  Welcome to the world of the “virtual team” and the “matrix” organization.

Now, does this mean that leadership has changed? Not really. Think about what most people would agree are 5 qualities of a leader (there are more but not too many people would say these aren’t important):

  1. Leaders are proactive: Leaders see what needs to be done, and get on with the job. But what if you can’t “see” at all? What if the people you work with are in a different office or even the other side of the globe?
  2. Leaders make connections: Leaders do not simply sit on the mountaintop and issue orders that people can’t wait to follow. They have deep, human connections with their people. That’s easy to do if you can see people every day and talk to them regularly. Not so much if they’re in Bucharest and you’ve maybe never even met them.
  3. Leaders listen: If you’re reading this, then you’re already aware that listening involves so much more than simply having ears that work. You have to read body language and listen for the subtle verbal and vocal clues that there may be more to the message than what people are actually saying.  But what if someone’s on the other side of the world and you communicate over the phone or email?
  4. Leaders let people do their jobs but step in when they have to: For so many of us, when we can’t see what’s going on we tend to want to exert more control and become micromanagers. Others take a “they’ll call if they need help” approach and wind up with some unpleasant surprises.
  5. Leaders communicate effectively: Communication is not just the big “state of the union” type speech but the aggregation of all the little things they say and hear. When you communicate through cyberspace the message doesn’t always come through the way you want.

Okay, so in this crazy modern world, has the role of a leader changed? Nope. All this still stands. The challenges are different and the tools at are disposal are largely unfamiliar. So what does this mean for those of us aspiring to be leaders in this new world?

  • Learn and use the tools at your disposal-modern communication tools can be much more powerful than we give them credit for. Most users of webmeetings, for example use less than 25% of their features and potential
  • Be more proactive than ever- Don’t wait for someone to come to you with a problem, but don’t hover either. Check in regularly and really listen and probe to understand what’s happening
  • Lead through influence, rather than authority- Face it, for more and more of us the people we lead and the projects we manage aren’t done by people who you directly manage. We need to get their buy-in and cooperation without having the ability to fire them directly so influence is more important than coercion or threats.
  • Model the communication behaviors you expect others to exhibit If electronic communication tools are the lifeline for your team, then learn to use them. If you don’t, why should they? 

The modern workplace is confusing, bewildering and a little frustrating, but is it really any worse than standing in the hot dusty Egyptian sun?

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Posted in Collaboration, Communication, Ethics, Executive Teams, Integrity, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Strategies, Workplace Relationships, leadership development | 4 Comments »

Leadership Conflict Turns Destructive

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

 

I found this very good blog about the Toyota fiasco.  Please read and note my comments; I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Article by Steve Tobak, The Corner Office

Survival of the fittest requires conflict; that’s as true in the boardroom as it is in the wild. In that sense, conflict isn’t just a good thing, it’s a key ingredient in all great organizations. It’s the manner in which businesses test new ideas and up-coming leadership talent.

 

But there comes a point when otherwise healthy conflict turns toxic, even destructive. I’ve seen it happen too many times, and when it does, it can plunge a successful company into a tailspin from which it might never recover. Case in point: the leadership crisis festering inside Toyota.

 Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal chronicled the long-standing feud between the founding Toyoda family and Toyota’s non-family leadership faction. For generations, the pendulum of Toyota’s corporate leadership has swung from one to the other. And that’s worked pretty well … until now.

Now, the warring factions have taken their long-standing feud to previously unseen heights of public, personal attacks on each other. The family faction is led by Akio Toyoda, current CEO and 53-year old grandson of the company founder. From the WSJ:

     Mr. Toyoda and his allies have been saying openly that when he took the top job last year after a 15-year hiatus for the Toyoda clan, he inherited a company weakened by non-family predecessors who sacrificed quality for faster growth and fatter margins.

The problems arose when “some people just got too big-headed and focused too excessively on profit,” Mr. Toyoda said at a Beijing news conference in March. Mr. Toyoda’s opponents – former company presidents Katsuaki Watanabe and Hiroshi Okuda – have an entirely different view (also from the WSJ):

     They say Toyota’s current troubles are less a quality crisis and more a management and public-relations crisis of Mr. Toyoda’s making, reflecting their longstanding warnings that he wasn’t ready to run a global corporation.

      “Is Akio ducking criticism of being a beneficiary of nepotism by accusing us and trying to justify his ascendancy to the top job?” one of Mr. Watanabe’s top aides said. Hiroshi Okuda … has told at least two associates since the recalls of cars involved in sudden acceleration incidents earlier this year: “Akio needs to go.”

      Asked [in 2000] about future prospects for Mr. Toyoda, then a 43-year-old general manager, Mr. Okuda said: “Nepotism just doesn’t belong in our future.” He elaborated: “Akio-class talents are rolling around all over Toyota, like so many potatoes.”

In my opinion, both parties are actually at fault for the company’s current crisis. As I said a couple of months ago in At the Heart of What’s Ailing Toyota:

Like so many big companies before, in its relentless drive to become the world’s largest auto maker, Toyota’s management took its eye off the ball. In other words, growth became its priority, while the unique aspects of its culture and operational competencies responsible for its success to this point, became secondary.

After many years of stellar leadership, last year Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the company’s founder, became CEO. And while Toyota’s issues have gestated for some time before Toyoda took the reins, his spectacular mishandling of the crisis demonstrates that he wasn’t ready for the job.

Nevertheless, instead of working together to resolve critical issues facing the company, Toyota’s leadership has devolved to juvenile finger-pointing. And, if this once-great company’s leadership doesn’t get its act together, well, as I said before, “not only will its recovery be long and painful, but it may not recover at all. It happens.”

My response below:

The Toyota mess is so familiar to anyone who has spent time working with family businesses. I grew up in one and remember the tension between my father and his two brothers and then the tugging, pulling, and positioning when outsiders joined the ranks.I became a family therapist and then morphed into an executive coach with a passion for working with family firms.

I know that finger pointing is common in all companies and is compounded when the family name is being tarnished. Here is what I do know: when stress hits the hot button there is a natural tendency to revert to patterns of behavior learned in the original organization, the family, that were there for survival and security.

There is a need to create safety by blaming and judging others as a protection mechanism. I only hope that the Toyoda clan can gain some understanding of the how and the why they did not intervene to keep the brand and their name in a positive light.

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Posted in Accountability, Business, Character, Coaching, Collaboration, Communication, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Decision Making, Economy, Ethics, Executive Teams, Family Business, Family Conflict, Integrity, Leaders, Leadership, Management, Media, Money, Patterns, Stress, Trust, Workplace Relationships, leadership development | No Comments »

Leadership and Education

Monday, April 19th, 2010

portrait_colorColorado Senator Michael F. Bennett deserves to be classified as an elegant leader. The definition of an elegant leader is one who can cut through the b.s. and see the essence of a situation and then find ways to make things happen.

Senator Bennett is the former Superintendent of the Denver public schools and is taking a stand in Washington for what is sorely needed, leadership in the schools. He wants to establish a national leadership institute and training centers in a bill that addresses high need schools.

His bill considers how the present system for recruiting, training, supporting, and retaining teachers and principals was designed for the last century and won’t work in present time. He is so right.

I did some research about how our present public education system began. It was brought across the ocean from a Prussian model that focused on what it would take to be a good citizen and do what was expected from you. It is based on a military model of respecting command and control and following orders.

This is obviously not what is needed in this time of internet, speed, and continuous questioning of rules. Questioning rules is one thing; disregarding responsible behavior is another thing. Somehow we have lost the capacity to teach youngsters about the “Three R’s”: respect, responsibility, and relationship. 

Schools are often armed camps. All schools, urban and suburban have locked doors and either television monitors or armed guards.

The need for educators to get the best leadership development is critical. They hold the next generations in their hands. The future we create is being created today by the care and direction we give our youth.

The essence of leadership development for educators is no different than executive leadership programs offered to Fortune 100 corporations. All leadership programs need one major adjustment, some include this and others don’t. It is a section on self awareness. Without being clear about our motives for why we do what we do there is too much room for error. The leaders of business and schools are the role models for the youth of our country and how they behave and make decisions is critical for where we end up.

Senator Bennett is leading an initiative of major importance and needs every alert citizen to support his efforts.  We need more elegant leaders like Bennett in government so send him your acknowledgment and let him know you are behind him. Go to: http://bennet.senate.gov/contact

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Posted in Character, Collaboration, Communication, Education, Educators, Ethics, Integrity, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership in Schools, leadership development | No Comments »

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