Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category

« Older Entries

Leadership Connections

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

It’s always fun to find interesting people via the web. I just returned from San Francisco to check my morning emails and this delightful message was waiting for me. TED talks are a way for all of us to learn from each other. The founder of TED, Richard Saul Wurman graciously endorsed my book “Don’t Bring It to Work” and it is amazing to see how his idea for a think tank of creative people has spread word wide.

Thank you Alan for sending this to me and now I am pleased to send it to my readers. Enjoy.  

I recently discovered your blog, and I have become a frequent reader. My name is Alan with Bestcollegesonline.com and we recently published an article “12 Essential TED Talks for Writers” that dovetails well with your audience. Perhaps you would be interested in sharing with them? Here’s the link to the article if you would like to take a quick look for yourself: (http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2010/08/17/12-essential-ted-talks-for-writers/).

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Leaders, Leadership | No Comments »

Components of Leadership

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

"leadership"Dissecting the various components of leadership keeps many an academic and blogger busy for years and years. It is such a fascinating subject. Do we really know what the right blend is for extraordinary leadership? We keep writing, reading and analyzing. The following article gives a great perspective to discuss. Think about those you have worked with who you see as exemplary leaders. What are the attributes that make you believe in them? For me, it is the willingness to be a truth seeker and a truth teller. It is one who is willing to look and re-look and be accountable when situations backfire. The rest of leadership, charisma, intellectual brilliance, great wit, are all window dressing. Give me someone who is willing to “own” his or her part of a situation, that is someone I will trust and be willing to follow.

On Leadership: BP, Dell, Wall Street –where have the corporate heros gone??

Amy M. Wilkinson is a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Center for Business and Government and a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

Somehow America has forgotten that our vibrant economy, the mass majority of our jobs, and the products we use every day are a result of strong business leadership.

When was the last time you went to the grocery store to find fresh fruit, sliced turkey, toilet paper or deodorant? The CEOs of Safeway, Giant, Whole Foods and many other retailers enable our lives.

Yes, there are leaders who have violated our trust and profoundly mismanaged their organizations. Yet, the vast majority of CEOs create jobs for more than 80 percent of America’s workers. In recent years, Google has created 22,000 jobs and put information at our fingertips. Apple has revolutionized music players and cellphones and irrevocably changed the way we interact with technology. Intel has built a computer chip that is 1,000 times as powerful, 100,000 times smaller and 1 million times cheaper than that of MIT’s mainframe in 1965.

We don’t think to thank the CEO of Waste Management when trash disappears from our curbs, but 20 million households across North America rely on the company.

So where are corporate heroes? They are working quietly among us.

John Baldoni is a leadership consultant, coach and regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review online.

In December 1995, Fortune conducted an interview with two titans of American business who defined those heady times: high growth, high return and high rewards; Jack Welch of General Electric and Roberto Goizueta of Coca-Cola.

Both became CEOs in 1981 when their companies were underperforming. Welch transformed GE into a sleek juggernaut that dominated market segments from jet engines and locomotives to finance. Goizueta shook up the culture to focus more on the customer and in the process increased Coke’s market capitalization more than 30-fold.

Neither had it easy. In their Fortune interview, Welch said he was always “scared” that GE would not be nimble enough. Goizueta confided he slept like a baby: “I wake up every two hours and cry.”

This gets to the heart of leadership. Leadership, like character, is what you do when the choices are hard. When things are booming, it can be fun to grow the business, introducing new products and services, hiring new employees and reaping strong profit. Tough times mean facilities closings, layoffs and bearish earnings.

Savvy leaders prepare for tough times always. They delegate leadership to the front lines. This not only makes for greater engagement because people feel more in control of their jobs, it is great preparation for tough times like ours. So when I am asked where all the leaders have gone, I say nowhere. What has changed is the depiction of them as heroes.

Erika James is the Bank of America associate research professor of business administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School.

The outrageous acts of indiscretion and impropriety that we witnessed throughout much of this decade are inexcusable. But just as it is inappropriate to say that those CEOs were merely heroes who fell from grace, it is equally inappropriate to suggest that the men and women who are admirably leading corporations are heroes. They are not. Rather, they are humans who have a big job, and who, in order to do that job well, need and deserve the support of their leadership team, their board, their family, and a host of other stakeholders. They do not need to be put on a pedestal.

Todd Henshaw, a professor at Columbia University, is academic director of Wharton Executive Education.

I’m sitting on Omaha Beach conducting a “recon” of the sites my colleague and I will use as a classroom for the next few days with a group from Wharton MBA for Executives.

As I walked around, I thought to myself how impossible this mission must have seemed before the assault, and how many times the campaign must have been in doubt when the outcome was in question. I marveled at how wide the beach is at low tide. I walked the cliff’s edge at Pointe du Hoc and thought about the men scaling the 100 feet under machine gun fire. I saw the remains of the artificial port envisioned and built at Arromanches, an innovation that enabled the entire invasion.

“Corporate heroes?” It’s difficult for me to put those two words together. In Normandy, I saw the names of heroes inscribed in stone on monuments, but in most cases these men who changed the world are nameless, anonymous benefactors who gave Europe another shot at freedom. These are heroes.

How did these men prepare themselves for the almost impossible mission? How did they overcome the fear of death? How did their leaders help them understand what was being asked and required of them? How did they have the confidence to overcome the wide beaches, high cliffs, enemy fire, the inevitable doubt that emerges when men are thrown into chaos?

I have no idea why we would ever use the term “hero” to refer to a corporate executive.

Sir Andrew Likierman is dean of London Business School. He is also non-executive chairman of the National Audit Office and a non-executive director of Barclays Bank.

When asked about the quality he wanted most in his generals, Napoleon replied, “Luck.” On this score Tony Hayward would not have got a job with Napoleon. Of course it could be argued that he failed to rise to the PR challenge, but the roots of the blowout problem were sown long ago when safety standards were set. Michael Dell, on the other hand, has been much more the master of his own destiny. And if you name a company after yourself, you’re creating quite some expectations about your own personal performance and behavior.

The common thread that binds Hayward and Dell together is that both their companies have long been the subject of admiration and emulation. That makes their fall from grace even more galling to the rest of us. If we can’t even trust the people we are emulating, what does that say about our own judgment?

But the mistake is ours, aided and abetted by the press. Individuals are put on pedestals, giving rise to unreasonable expectations, only to be cast down when things go wrong. We need to be careful about what we expect, and learn from the mistakes of leaders as well as from their heroics.

So where have all the heroes gone? The same way as the heroes before them. Those who have the spotlight of publicity and fame come and go. We should look and learn, while reminding ourselves that uncritical admiration is probably best avoided after the age of 5.

Warren Bennis is professor of business at the University of Southern California.

Just about every decade I write a heated screed mimicking the ’60s flower song wondering where all the “leaders have gone.”

My latest attempt was in 2002 when Enron and Ken Lay were making headlines. I started with a long-forgotten Kipling poem:

But I’d shut my eyes in the sentry-box.

So I didn’t see nothin’ wrong.

The gist of my ‘02 piece can be stated simply, and its thesis is, if not identical, then remarkably similar to the BP disaster. Ken Lay’s failing was not simply his myopia or cupidity or incompetence. It was his inability to create a company culture open to reality, one that discourages workers from delivering bad news — just like Tony Hayward, who didn’t want to hear the concerns of the oil drillers marooned on that catastrophic rig, Deepwater Horizon.

How can an organization be honest with the public if it is not honest with itself? I asked. I do not believe that the CEOs of today are any worse or better than they were, let’s say, a hundred years ago. It’s just that the stakes are higher and more of us are affected by the dominance of a free-market economy.

The question remains: Will our corporate heroes or villains of the future learn from the sentries who didn’t see nothin’ wrong?

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Business, Communication, Executive Teams, Leadership | 1 Comment »

7 Leadership Traits

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

"Leadership Traits"This is an excellent article that really does discuss what goes on when leaders lead. There is too much travel and it is not super much fun anymore, unless you have the private company jet, and that is really no longer viable in this green world. Then the food, seductive and loaded with carbs and sugar, yikes! Then we get to where the rubber meets the road, in relationships.

Leadership development programs need to spend more time getting future C-Suiters ready to handle the office politics that comes with the territory. I have spent my career researching and studying the importance of how to sniff out the behavior patterns that limit successful teams and companies and you can take the pattern aware quiz at www.sylvialafair.com to get ahead of the “gotcha game” and have your career soar. Enjoy this well written article.

BNET: 7 Leadership Traits that the Gurus Don’t Tell You

By: Jo Owen

Most leadership gurus tell you half the truth, at best, about what it takes to be a leader.

They will tell you about the need for vision, handling people, dealing with crises and all the other good stuff that makes up the corporate speaking circuit. Here are seven vital qualities you are less likely to hear them talk about:

  1. Sleeping on planes and dealing with jet lag. In any large organisation, a leader will spend a large amount of time on planes: I did 250,000 miles a year. The routine was simple: one glass of champagne and one melatonin pill forty minutes before take off, and I would be able to sleep all the way. Business class is not for fancy meals and watching movies: it is for work or sleep.
  2. Working in vehicles. If you can not work in taxis and cars, you will waste more time than you can afford. Staring out of the window mindlessly is not good.
  3. Dieting. Leaders are surrounded by biscuits, cookies and other corporate death food; and then there are the inevitable lunches, dinners and hotel breakfasts. Either learn to love the fruit, or start jogging. Or die early as an obese alcoholic. But to this day, some firms demand that you put your liver on the line: if you do not drink and entertain, you fail. Pick your diet to fit your firm.
  4. Ruthless time management: queues were invented to let leaders catch up with emails and phone calls; ditch or delegate everything you can; fix appointments around your diary, not around other people’s.
  5. Work the politics. Find the right assignments, right support and right mentors. Set expectations well. Negotiate budgets hard. Wake up to the reality of corporate life.
  6. Be  ambitious, for your organisation and yourself. Stretch yourself and your team to achieve more than ever; keep on learning and growing. Don’t accept excuses, don’t be a victim: take responsibility.
  7. Learn to speak well. To small groups, to individuals and to large groups. As one tribal elder told me: “Words are like gods: words create whole new world’s in someone’s head. So use words well.” For many people, having a tooth extracted is less daunting than speaking in public. But it is a skill anyone can develop, with practice, over the years. And leaders must have this skill.

These seven qualities add up to a person who is pretty driven: they are often not comfortable people to be with. Not surprisingly, many people prefer to keep their humanity and their life than make the sacrifices to get to the top.
 
When I first started out, my boss told me: “one of the benefits of this job is that you will never suffer the rush hour. You will arrive before it and leave after it.” And if you keep that lifestyle going for ten to twenty years, you can reach the top. It was not a good choice, but at least it was a clear choice.
 
Choose well.

 

My Comment:

All so true! Eating my way around the world was a fun yet pound addictive adventure. Air travel, well it was also fun before 9-11, now more of a burden even in the front of a plane. The most critical trait on the list for success is #5; learning to really work the politics. I believe this separates the long term winners from the short term high flyers. Politics at work is really understanding how relationship systems operate and how to help everyone, direct reports, colleagues, the boss or the board, find a way to dialogue past the invisible barriers we all have to telling deeper truths and establishing safe, trusting relationships. This is vital leadership work that rests in the realms of psychology, sociology and neuro-science. Then #7 comes into play and using language for the betterment of the whole makes one a beloved and respected leader.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Communication, Leadership | No Comments »

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.

ad_icon

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

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Business, Conflict, Integrity, Leadership | No Comments »

Fast Company and Randy Komisar

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

Randy Komisar

The following interview with Randy Komisar underlines the requirement for leaders to have interpersonal skills that stand head and shoulders above the rest. This is where the leap from average to amazing occurs. Just one humorous note: as I read the article there is a sentence I first read as “people are not fun”. “Huh” was my thought as I reread and what it really said was “People are not fungible”. Now that is not the most common everyday word, so no wonder I skipped over it too quickly. However, this is a vastly important thought. People are not fungible; they are not interchangeable. Of course you can always get a replacement. Yet, that is not the point. We are all unique and if our skills and talents are helped to grow we all can work together to create success, as Randy states, “success is created by a group of people and not by a single individual”. Good thoughts to ponder.

What Breed Is Your CEO? Randy Komisar on Leadership and Management

BY Kermit Pattison

In the life of a company, every dog has its day. So says Randy Komisar, a veteran Silicon Valley venture capitalist and entrepreneur who has spent the last 25 years launching technology startups. Komisar is a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers where he specializes in working with technology entrepreneurs. “I’m not attracted to them because of the bottom line,” he says. “I’m attracted to them to them because of the top line–they change they can make.” His own pedigree: co-founder of Claris Corporation, CEO of LucasArts Entertainment, CEO of Crystal Dynamics, founding director of TiVo, senior counsel at Apple Computer, author of two books, and “virtual CEO” to an array of fledgling companies. In this Q&A, he warns of the classic mistakes of manager-wannabe-leaders, the perils of too many bullets and not enough Zen, and why CEOs are like dogs.

Kermit Pattison: What are the classic pitfalls you see entrepreneurs making over and over again?

Randy Komisar: Mistaking the difference between leadership and management. A lot of people believe the two are the same and believe that, because they have been effective or excellent managers, that they’re capable of leading. While the two ideally come together, the qualities and attributes of a leader and a manager are not exactly the same.

In your mind, what’s the difference between management and leadership?

Management is more operationally focused. It’s more of a supervisory role of setting priorities, allocating resources, and directing the execution. Leadership is more forward thinking, more about enabling the organization, empowering individuals, developing the right people, thinking strategically about opportunities, and driving alignment. Mind you, the line is not black and white. But it’s a classic mistake that because someone is a good manager that they’ll necessarily be a good leader.

In early stage projects, the CEO oftentimes is effectively a project manager. I’ve seen some of those people over-think leadership–literally start to compound the challenges by thinking too big and not immediate enough.

They start to think, “Oh, I’ve got to be a leader, I’ve got to start reading books and learning theory?”

Exactly–I need a vision statement, I need to define my culture in five bullet points. When I started running companies 20-something years ago, I learned that the first thing to do was to define my culture, which meant sitting down and writing up a cute little vision statement. What I realized, after being involved with enough companies, is that these vision statements all look alike, the words are gobbledygook and they’re not very meaningful.

Now what I usually say is, “We’re going to come up with a culture statement a year after we formed.” Put it on the calendar. Why after a year? Because then we can actually see what out culture is–what we don’t like about it and what we do like about it.

How much of leadership is natural versus a discipline that can be learned?

The first thing to realize is how many different styles of leadership can be successful. There isn’t one style of leadership that is innately more successful than others. There are certain skills sets, which are learnable, that are very important. You need to be able to communicate. If you can’t communicate well, you won’t be able to inspire, motivate and attract the resources necessary for success.

Prioritization is a really important skill. You’ve got to know what’s more important than the other thing. It’s amazing how many really smart people can’t prioritize. Only a minority of people can effectively prioritize and focus.

And you need to have effective interpersonal skills. That doesn’t mean you need to be social and it doesn’t mean you need to be outgoing. But it means that when you sit down in your office with somebody who’s relying on you for leadership, you’ve got to be able to emphatically communicate with them around their challenges, figure out how to help them be more successful and resolve their conflicts so they can do their job better than they thought they could.

You say companies need different breeds of leaders at different stages. How are CEOs like dogs?

I call the first CEO the retriever–the leader who has to go out and assemble the resources. They have to go out and find the people, the money and the partners. That person is really great sales person–they have sell the vision every day. They’re asking people to believe in something that doesn’t exist and take a substantial leap of faith.

The next is the bloodhound CEO. You got to find out where that value proposition is going to find paydirt so you can actually build a business around it. You’ve got something now, but how do you optimize it? You’ve got to sleuth that out.

The husky is the next one. Now you’ve got a product, a value proposition, and you’ve figured out your business model. Now you’ve got to pull this sled as it gets heavier with people, products and customers up a hill, which is essentially the hill of building a big successful business.

The one dog you never really want pulling your company is the St. Bernard.

The rescue dog.

Right. Because at that point you know you’ve got big trouble.

Even a great leader, if the wrong breed at the wrong time, can be a mismatch?

Absolutely. There are different talents in the creation of businesses and running of businesses that need to be taken into consideration. A mistake often made in the venture investment business is rushing to bring in a big CEO into what is still a small venture. The mismatch of skills is severe. The big CEO needs resources, needs a strong sense of direction and momentum, and is not very effective day-to-day with a bunch of people putting bits and bytes together. The other mismatch that’s harder to foresee is the small company with momentum. You say, great, let’s bring in the guy who can grow it to $100 million and take it public. The problem is that you may face yet another significant right or left hand turn in your business which that CEO may be completely unqualified to do.

I liken it to a story a friend of mine told me many years ago about driving through the Sahara. For three nights the road through the sand was dead straight to the south. On the third night, there was a right hand turn. At the base of that turn, it’s full of crashed trucks. I think about that CEO the same way. If you’re not an agile, venture CEO you are very likely to end up crashing at that turn.

What episode earlier in your career were formative experiences on leadership?

At Go Corporation I worked for Bill Campbell, who has absolutely been formative to me. Bill showed me, first and foremost, that business was worth doing. At that point, I was a lawyer and I certainly had no inclination to go into business. To me, business was about buying low and selling high–a fun game, but not an interesting life. Bill taught me the high art and that what was interesting are the people you work with, the people you sell to, the constituents and stakeholders you bring together, the art of being able to manage them all together to succeed, and to create potential beyond the obvious. I just found that mesmerizing–that’s why I do what I do today.

If you look at the ranks of CEOs today, who strikes strike you as being particularly thoughtful about leadership?

When I read interviews with CEOs lately around leadership, I’ve got to tell you, the stuff that gets published seems awfully conventional. I’m not seeing any brilliant insights about leadership lately from the leaders who get a following out there.

I’ve given up on the guru model and think more in the Zen model: things will change and that’s okay. What we need is a set of constant provocations. What I like to read are those things that really challenge my assumptions, authors who are willing to think differently, no matter whether I agree with them or not, because they at least broaden my own thinking. What I don’t like reading is the pablum–the 10 habits of great leaders or whatever. Those are constraining and not very effective for the average person.

Speaking of bad advice, what’s the worst advice about leadership you ever heard?

One of the most important lessons I learned is that people are not fungible. I’ve had bosses who said, “We’re not going to pay well, incent, or develop our people because there’s always somebody to take their place.” The problem with that logic is, while it might be statistically true, it fundamentally indicates a culture that is not going to invest in anybody. Nobody is going to become very effective.

The other piece of leadership that somebody tried to teach me, which I dismissed, is manage by the numbers–if you manage by the numbers everything else takes care of itself. Just get people to execute, measure, hold people accountable, and that’s enough. That’s not enough. Yes, it is important to instill accountability in organization, it’s important to have good metrics, to discipline the process, reward people, and withdraw those rewards when they’re not being effective. But that won’t get you greatness.

So what does get you greatness?

When I am most successful, it’s because the people around me have made me successful. It comes down to the fact that success is created by a group of people and not by any single individual. How do you get people to come together around a goal and objective and be great? It’s establishing a sense of common purpose. Greatness doesn’t come from a tactical sense of execution. Greatness comes having a vision that goes beyond yourself and even beyond the organization.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Strategies, PatternAware, Patterns, Power, leadership development | 1 Comment »

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.

 

 

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

Leadership: Diving for Pearls

Friday, July 16th, 2010
 
 
 

Avil Beckford

Avil Beckford is a woman who does not like to skim the surface. Her life and her mission are to go beyond the obvious, beyond the superficial, go into the hidden world and bring back the pearls.

Guess what the name of her successful blog is: The Invisible Mentor. It is well worth reading, there is a wealth to learn. The concept is great. In my interview with Avil, she stated “Some of my best mentors have been books I have read.” And she wants to give all of us access to these mentors that can live deeply inside our psyches even though they come in the form of words on paper or on a computer.

She is clear. “My work is not fluff. I want to reach people who are interested in learning, people who want to deepen.” I would say she wants people, well, people like us!

She has also written a book, “Tales of People Who Get It” (2007)

The book helps to shine a light on the inner workings of individuals who learned to deal with the challenges of growing and becoming, of learning how to master conflict, and how to develop and build teams.

Avil thought of this idea and was amazed that in her research she read about Napoleon Hill, that invisible mentor who has helped thousands learn what he felt was the secret of success. Hill had his “invisible counselors” and would have “imaginary council meetings” where he would get advice from those he called together. Not a bad idea.

Think about who you respect and would love to discuss your work issues with. What if you sat quietly and called them into your own private council and asked the questions that are haunting you. Then just sit and listen. Keep a pen and paper close. You may be surprised at what you learn. And then you can thank Avil for keeping that wonderful method alive.

Go to her site, sign up, you will be delighted. And buy her book, you will have a treasure trove of new “invisible mentors” to help you in your career journey. Happy travels!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Advice, Books, Character, Communication, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Leaders, Leadership, motivation | No Comments »

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?

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

Working With The Enemy

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

 

Workplace Conflict

So long as we see co-workers as the enemy, and conflict in a negative light we will almost never make real change happen. The following article is good one with interesting ideas. The thought of bringing guns to work with all the stress does seem crazy to me. If we revert to childish patterns, then suggesting we bring guns to work is akin to giving your five year old the keys to the car and telling them to have a good day!

If you think your workplace is toxic, get a load of this. Legislators in an American town called Nottingham have voted to allow employees to bring their guns to work. Despite an online poll showing that 73 per cent of people support the move, the decision was reversed last week due to public outrage. So, here are some tips on dealing with workplace conflict…without the weapons.

 

The most comprehensive study I could find on the topic was released in 2008 by CPP Inc, the publishers of the Myers-Briggs profiling tools. In their global research, which didn’t include Australia, they found that employees in the UK spent 1.8 hours a week dealing with workplace conflict. In the US it was 2.8 hours a week. I’m not sure where Australia sits on the time-wasting continuum, but even if it’s just an hour a week, that’s intense.  Globally, 85 per cent of employees say it’s been a problem for them.

 

Workplace conflict is often unavoidable. Whether it’s colleague to colleague (I’ve had female employees threaten to stab each other), or between a boss and a staff member (I was once the recipient of death threats from an aggrieved worker), clashes are inevitable when you get different personalities working together for eight hours a day. The question becomes:  what should you do when it happens?

 

Vivian Scott is a professional mediator and the author of Conflict Resolution at Work for Dummies.  I asked her for five suggestions on what people can do when they’re confronted by conflict at work.

 

“The first thing is to just keep in mind that the other person is not against you,” she says. “They’re just for themselves. If something feels personal, it’s probably not. It’s just the other person trying to achieve something personally.”

 

To add to her first tip, conflict isn’t always bad. Healthy competition can be excellent for productivity and idea generation. But when it transforms into verbal warfare and open hostility, absenteeism spikes up and the conflict frequently doesn’t end until someone resigns. 

 

“Secondly, try to figure out what it is they value. It might be respect, security, or economy, that kind of thing. If you spend some time trying to discover that information, then it’s easier for you to come up with a solution that could work for both of you.”

 

She’s on to something with respect. There was a big survey conducted by AchieveGlobal in 2009 where employees across all generations were asked for the most valued attribute at work. Respect came out on top.

 

“Thirdly, deal directly with the other person,” adds Scott. “Often it’s tempting to talk to third parties and that doesn’t solve anything. Building armies, amassing allies, and separating yourself from the other person rarely solves the issue. As much as possible, if you have a problem with someone, go to them.”

 

That might be tough in Australia. Several years ago, extensive research by Human Synergistics of 35,000 managers here and in New Zealand found that the most common style of management in this country was ‘avoidance’.

 

“Control what you can control and that means you,” is Scott’s fourth tip. “Control your own emotions and how you’re going to handle the situation. Adhere to a professional code of conduct despite what the other person is doing.”

 

I polled 2,400 employees to discover what they hated the most at work, and the results came as a total shock.  The aspect of work that employees detest with the greatest ferocity? Their colleagues. Interestingly, what they also love the most are… their colleagues. So, if their workmates are brilliant, they’re in heaven. But if their workmates suck, they’re in hell.

 

“And lastly, find the learning experience,” she says. “Find the thing that’s going to move you ahead in terms of your professional conduct. Was there something you said or did that made this situation go longer or worse than it should have?”

 

Vivian Scott’s five suggestions aren’t exhaustive. But at the very least, they won’t have trigger-friendly employees reaching for the holster.

——————————————————————————–

Written by James Adonis, author of ‘Corporate Punishment: Smashing the management cliches for leaders in a new world’. 

 

Sylvia Lafair’s Comment:

Good article, yet too simple. What I know is that when stress hits the hot button we all revert to behavior patterns we learned in our original organization, the family. That is where we learned about fairness, favoritism, arguing, authenticity, and whining. So, if your co-worker is acting like a baby…you’re right!

In “Don’t Bring It to Work” there are the 13 most common patterns we bring to work and tips on how to change them to their positive opposite.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Boss, Communication, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Executive Teams, Family Conflict, Human Resources, Leaders, Leadership, Patterns | No Comments »

Searching for Healthier and More Effective Ways to Lead

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Ways of Leading

We are all searching for healthier and more effective ways to lead our lives. Mike Robbins gives a good summary of how to be a transparent and authentic leader. Please note my comment at the end of the article.

 
 
The Value of Vulnerable Leadership by Mike Robbins

Some of us have specific leadership roles in life — we manage other people in our job, we’re the head of a company, team, committee, or organization, we’re involved in school or community activities where our job is to lead others, we write, speak, or coach other people about taking their lives to the next level, and much more.

And, even if we don’t hold a specific position of leadership in what we do, just about all of us have the opportunity to be leaders in various ways. In our families, with our friends, in our community, and in our work — we have the ability to influence others in a positive way and many of us have a deep desire to impact those around us.

What if instead of obsessing about being smart, qualified, strong, powerful, innovative, creative, and other conventional leadership qualities, we allowed ourselves to be vulnerable as a way of freeing us up from the intense pressure we often feel as leaders and as a way to influence people in an authentic way?

While it may seem counter-intuitive and can sometimes be a little scary, being a vulnerable leader is what I think is needed (and often missing) in our businesses, schools, churches, communities, governments, and our world today.

Here are some key principles of vulnerable leadership:

  1. Admit and own your mistakes We all make mistakes, especially as leaders. The more willing we are to admit and own our mistakes (not make excuses, point fingers, or avoid responsibility) the more others will trust us and want to follow our lead. Taking responsibility, apologizing, and making amends for the mistakes we make are not always easy things to do, but they’re essential for us to have true credibility with the people around us. 
    Fear and insecurity are inseparable from being human and being a leader. We all get scared, but too often deny or avoid it, so as not to look weak. However, admitting our fear and sharing it with others does a few important things. First of all, it can free us up from the fear itself. Second of all, it allows others to realize we’re human. Third, it gives the people around us permission to feel and express their own fear, which is essential for individuals and groups if they’re going to come together and move through adversity. Sharing our fears with others is not something we do to make excuses or to dump our “stuff” onto other people, it’s a bold act of vulnerable leadership and something that can have a profound impact on those around us. 

 
It’s important for us to have a sense of humor and not get too full of ourselves, which is something many of us do, particularly as a leader. As I jokingly say to my wife Michelle sometimes, “Do you have any idea how important I think I am?” We must laugh at ourselves, notice when we get too serious, and have enough self awareness to keep things in a healthy perspective. 

 
We’re always going through a process of growth, discovery, and challenge in life — especially as leaders. This process doesn’t have to be difficult or painful, although sometimes it can be. The more transparent we are about our own process and the more willing we are to let the people around us know what we’re dealing with, learning, and challenged by, the more we let them know who we truly are, give them insight into how we operate, and create an environment around us that is open, authentic, and conducive for individual and collective growth. 

 
As leaders most of us like to help others, but often we have a difficult time asking for and receiving help. Requesting help can be perceived, especially by us, as an admission of weakness or an acknowledgment that we’re not capable of doing something. However, all of us need help and support — and in some cases, we need a lot of it. Being the kind of leader who is comfortable enough with yourself and the people around you to admit when you don’t know something, can’t do something, or simply need help in making something happen, is not a sign of weakness; it’s both a sign of strength and an opportunity to empower others in an authentic way. 

Mike Robbins is a sought-after motivational keynote speaker, coach, and the bestselling author of Focus on the Good Stuff (Wiley) and Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken (Wiley). More info – www.Mike-Robbins.com

  • Share your fear and insecurity
  • Don’t take yourself too seriously
  • Share your own process, journey, and challenges
  • Ask for and receive help from others

    •  

    Comment by Sylvia Lafair:

    Good check list for all of us; and agreed, we all have an opportunity to lead, regardless of professional status. However, unless we learn to bring to light hidden parts of ourselves, it is impossible to know what really scares us, why we often dance around admitting mistakes and being vulnerable, or why it is so hard to ask for help.

     
    In “Don’t Bring It to Work” there are 13 behavior patterns that we learned from our original organization, the family that we bring into our work, community organizations, friendships, and love relationships. It is when we put some elbow grease in to Observe, Understand and Transform these patterns (denier, victim, martyr, avoider, etc.) that we find the way OUT of old, ingrained patterns. Then what Mike suggests really can make a difference.

    Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
    Posted in Communication, Leadership, Patterns, Relationships, leadership development | No Comments »

    « Older Entries