12.2013Essentials of leadership

development, managerial effectiveness,

and organizational productivity

Vol.30 No. 12

The Standard of Global Leadership Development

Presented By

$9.99 a month

2709 LEGO Leadership

LessonsBy Ken PerlmanBuilding blocks to help you lead.

Lead the WayBy Patricia Wheeler  Keep growing and changing.

Enhancing AuthenticityBy T. Patrick DonnellyYou can do it via work-place design.

People See, People DoBy John C. MaxwellWhat do your peoplesee in you?

3430

LEGO LEaDErshiP LEssOnsKen Perlman

For 30 years, Leadership Excellence has provided real solutions to the challenges leaders face every day. HR.com and Leadership Excellence joined forces in May 2013 to continue providing world-class leadership development resources and tools – now to a combined audience of over 350,000 individuals and organizations throughout the world.

What are the Leadership Excellence Products & Services?We provide the latest and greatest leadership solutions from the world’s top leaders, consultants, and trainers – plus development guides, plans, and additional tools designed to turn those solutions into an action plan that works for you.

HR.com/Leadership Excellence also services organizations by creating custom monthly editions for organizational use. Our leadership resources are designed to supplement and complement your current leadership development program – or stand alone as an extremely cost-effective plan.

All of our leadership resources can be customized for organizational use by design, content, packaging, and delivery based on your development needs.

Phone: 1.877.472.6648 Email: leadershipexcellence@hr.com

Leadership Excellence Essentials - Monthly Interactive Learning JournalWatch as this monthly interactive learning experience captures key metrics, actionable items and keeps you focused on developing yourself and corporation as top leaders.

Leadership Excellence Certificate Program (5 hours) A Certificate in Leadership Excellence with the Institute for Human Resources (IHR) makes you credible, marketable, and shows your dedication to your profession.

Leadership Excellence Expert Certification Program (40 hours) Work towards the ultimate credential for education. Showcase your expertise with Expert Certification in the Leadership Domain and learn how to bring the right leadership programs into your organization and make them impactful. The program offers credit courses on topics related to the quality of leadership within an individual or organization, the difference between leader development and leadership development, and the latest leadership solutions and strategies.

Leadership Excellence Top 500 AwardsApril 9 – 11, 2014, Vail Cascade Resort & Spa, Vail, ColoradoThe esteemed Leadership Excellence awards to be presented at the Leadership Excellence Forum in Vail will recognize companies that excel in offering top Leadership Development programs globally.

Leadership Excellence Community Join 150,000+ HR.com members with a similar interest and focus on Leadership and specific Leadership Development topics. Share content and download white papers, blogs, and articles, network, and “follow” peers and have them “follow” you in a social network platform to communicate regularly and stay on top of the latest updates. The well established Leadership Excellence Community is an invaluable resource for any HR professional, leadership coach or executive.

Leadership Excellence ForumApril 9 – 11, 2014, Vail Cascade Resort & Spa, Vail, ColoradoThe Leadership Excellence Forum will bring together top Leadership experts and Chief Leadership Officers from around the world. Also included will be recognition of the Top 500 Leaders earning this year’s Leadership Excellence Awards. Keynote Speakers including Dr. Marshall Goldsmith - Best selling author and world authority in helping successful leaders.

Use these resources today! Contact us now to inquire about organizational customization, individual or organizational pricing!“Leadership exceLLence is an exceptionaL

way to Learn and then appLy the best and Latest ideas in the fieLd of Leadership.”

—warren bennis, author and usc professor of management

Kerry PattersonVitalSmartsCo-Founder

08.2013Essentials of leadership

development, managerial effectiveness,

and organizational productivity

Vol.30 No. 8

The Standard of Global Leadership Development

Presented By

$9.99 a month

06

Crucial AccountabilityBy Kerry PattersonConfront slackers

Preparing LeadersBy Elaine VarelasDevelop the next generation now

Purpose of PowerBy Gary Hamel It gets things done

Developing LeadersBy Jack Zenger, KurtSandholtz, Joe FolkmanApply five insights

2422

Upcoming Virtual Events & HR.com WebcastsVirtual Events

Vertical Name Virtual Event Schedule

Benefits: Cost Containment, Audits and Legal Risks Feb 24-25/14 May 7-8/14 Aug 7-8/14

Developing Organizational Leadership Capabilities Jan 28-29/14 April 1-2/14 April 1-2/14

Contract Workforce and Talent Exchanges Jan 30-31/14 April 22-23/14 Aug 5-6/14

Integrated Talent Management Dec 12-13/13 Mar 20-21/14 Jun 18-19/14

Employee Wellness Mar 17-18/14 June 12-13/14 Sept 3-4/14

Online Staffing and Sourcing Feb 19-20/14 May 27-28/14 Aug 25-26/14

Quality of Hire Jan 13-14/14 April 29-30/14 July 23-24/14

Performance Management Feb 3-4/14 May 5-6/14 Aug 13-14/14

Recruitment Process Outsourcing Feb 5-6/14 May 14-15/14 July 16-17/14

Workforce Management: Time and Attendance Dec 5-6/13 Mar 5-6/14 June 16-17/14

Webcasts

Webcast Date Time

Social Media Recruitment Metrics: Analysis in Action Dec 10 2013 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM Register

Gamification: What HR Needs to Know Dec 12 2013 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Register

Best Practices in Developing Top Sales Talent Dec 16 2013 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Register

What Keeps HR Up at Night? Dec 17 2013 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Register

Leadership Development Through Blended Learning Curriculums Dec 18 2013 12:30 PM - 01:30 PM Register

Making Emotional Intelligence a Part of Leadership Development Jan 28 2014 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Register

The Evolution of HR: A 21st Century Partner of Transformation Jan 28 2014 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Register

Cultivate Leaders Effective at 21st Century Decision-Making. Jan 28 2014 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM Register

Inside Facebook’s Strategy to Grow, Innovate and Engage Employees Jan 28 2014 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM Register

Click here to view all HR.com Virtual Conferences

Click here to view all HR.com Webcasts

1 leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

Features

LEGO Leadership LessonsAs a very lucky father of two girls, I feel that many of the lessons learned in fatherhood apply to change leadership. PG.09

3

12.2013Essentials of leadership

development, managerial effectiveness,

and organizational productivity

Vol.30 No. 12

The Standard of Global Leadership Development

Presented By

5 Levi , Jedi , Yoda and Yogi Ken shelton

6 Strategic Thinking Julia sloan

7 Radical Ideas Vijay Govindarajan and Jatin Desai

9 LEGO Leadership Lessons Ken Perlman

10 Help Future Leaders Succeed Cori hill

11 Poor Interaction Skills richard Wellins

13 Are You Likeable? Jack Zenger

14 Full Circle Leadership Bill adams

16 7 Essential Behaviors alan Fine

17 Retain Top Talent Louis Carter

19 Flexible, Agile, Innovative Bob anderson

20 First Among Equals irving Buchen

24 Telling Lies at Work Carol Goman 25 Performance Appraisals Ben Dattner

26 7 Rules for Mentoring Success Judy Corner

27 Enhancing Authenticity T. Patrick Donnelly

28 Teach People to Stand Out Marshall Goldsmith

30 Lead the Way Patricia Wheeler

31 Necessity of Strangers alan Gregerman

33 Leading from the Edge annmarie neal

34 People See, People Do John C. Maxwell

36 Collaboration Eric Lowitt

37 New Cultures David a. rude

38 Lost Art of Simplicity Pat Lencioni

4

$9.99 a month

2709 LEGO Leadership

LessonsBy Ken PerlmanBuilding blocks to help you lead.

Lead the WayBy Patricia Wheeler  Keep growing and changing.

Enhancing AuthenticityBy T. Patrick DonnellyYou can do it via work-place design.

People See, People DoBy John C. MaxwellWhat do your peoplesee in you?

3430

Recently, as I was shutting down our moun-tain cabin for the winter, I noticed—as if for the first time—that the road to the cabin forks at Success and Happiness Trails. It never occurred to me that by taking Success trail, I was foregoing Happiness.

I’m reminded of one of those “duh” statements, attributed to that great American philosopher, former NY Yankee manager Yogi Berra: “Some-times you can see a lot just by looking.” Of course, Yogi also said, “When you come to a fork in the road . . . take it.” Yes, the Alflac duck would again wince at that one.

Yogi’s non sequitur suggests that it doesn’t really matter which road you take: you can either quest or sequester—it really doesn’t matter either way. Personally, I favor the poetry of Robert Frost: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

I don’t mean to suggest that happiness and success are mutually exclusive, depending on our definitions, but neither are they mutually inclusive, meaning that one path necessarily encompasses the other. Indeed, unless we pursue the path that is right for us, taking if necessary the road less traveled, we likely won’t experience either success or happiness—no matter how much we invest in the pursuit. Then, in our neck of the wood, the road we take—rather than make all the difference—makes no difference at all.

I believe that happiness is the aim and design of life, and can be experienced—even under harsh conditions—if we pursue the path of virtue that leads to it.

Alas, many people are confused which road to take in their quest for success and happiness—they are lost without a compass, without a True North. When I wrote articles and books for Stephen R. Covey, I recall our compass metaphor and live demo: ask people seated in a conference room to close their eyes and point North. Then, ask them to open their eyes and see where everybody is pointing (all over the map).

Without a True North compass, or even a North Star, to guide us, we tend to travel in circles, in false starts and dead endings. We waste our time, energy, and money pursuing paths that lead nowhere—at least not to anywhere we really want to go.

So, rather than listen to Yogi, we would be better off listening to the Jedi sage, Yoda: “A Jedi’s strength flows from the Force. But beware of

the dark side. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will.”Case in Point: Levi

Recently, Levi Strauss & Co. unveiled its inno-vative design process to sustainability. Dockers® Wellthread marks a new generation of smart design that benefits consumers, apparel workers, and the environment, says Michael Kobori, Levi’s VP of social and environmental sustainability. The Levi process combines sustainable design and environmental practices with an emphasis on supporting the well-being of workers. It is the first time any company has brought these key elements together.

More than 20 years ago, Levi Strauss developed a code of conduct, called its Terms of Engagement, for its suppliers. These terms implemented stan-dards for labor, safety and the environment that became the industry standard. “How you make a product is just as important as the product itself,” notes Kobori. “Our company has been guided by the same principles for 160 years. We believe that we can use our iconic brands to drive positive sustainable change and profitable results. Disposable, fast fashion is the antithesis of sustainability. Great, sustainable style starts with durable materials. Our team engineered lasting value into the design process of a pilot collection of khakis by reinforcing points of stress, making buttonholes stronger and pockets more durable. Moreover, they worked with our suppliers to reduce water and energy consumption—and considered responsible use and re-use with the end of the garment’s life in mind.”

Now, what’s my end in mind, my coda? As surely as Frost signals the end of the carefree season, Covey, Kobori, Yogi, Yoda, Jedi, and Levi all point to the end of the careless leaders and the need to have a caring business reason (purpose) and process to sustain innovative and iconic brands.

So, may we choose well our path, taking if necessary the road less traveled, remembering that Happiness is the object and design of our exis-tence—if we pursue the path that leads to it. LE

Fork in the Road: Success or Happiness?By Ken Shelton

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.20135

Leadership Excellence Essentials (ISSN 8756-2308)is published monthly by HR.com,124 Wellington Street EastAurora, Ontario Canada L4G 1J1.

Editorial Purpose:Our mission is to promote personal and organizational leadership based on constructive values, sound ethics, and timeless principles.

Internet Address: www.hr.com

Submissions & Correspondence:All correspondence, articles, letters, and requests to reprint articles should be sent to:Editorial Department,124 Wellington Street East, Aurora, Ontario, Canada L4G 1J1Phone: 1-877-472-6648Email: Leadershipexcellence@hr.com

Customer Service/Circulation:For information on products andservices call 1-877-472-6648 oremail: Leadershipexcellence@hr.com

Leadership Excellence Publishing:Debbie McGrath, CEO, HR.com, PublisherKen Shelton, Editor-in-ChiefDavid Whitmarsh, VP SalesBrandon Wellsbury, Corporate SalesAdnan Saleem, Design and LayoutChris Watts, Circulation Manager

Copyright © 2013 HR.comNo part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted without written permission from the publisher. Quotations must be credited.

Vol.30 No. 12$9.99 a month

Levi , Jedi , Yoda and Yogi

Ken SheltonEditor since 1984

editor’s note

By Julia Sloan

Gain the leader’s advantage.

Strategic Thinking Interactive

6leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

How many times have you been told: You need to be a better stra-tegic thinker? And what did you do? Chances are you did very little. And what are you doing to develop the strategic thinking capability of your emerging leaders?

Strategy is a key area of responsibility for leaders, and strategic thinking is an essential capability for creating an innovative sustain-able strategy. The term strategic thinking has become trendy in recent years; yet, we know little about how people learn to think strategically. If we don’t know what the term means or how we learn it, how then, can we develop this key leadership capability?

In every field, we need leaders who are agile, innovative and expan-sive thinkers – who have the capability to think at a level and in ways that are in synch with our changing and complex world. But are our future leaders prepared to think strategically?

The phrase strategic thinking is over-used, mis-used and under-defined. My research addresses the learning aspect of strategic thinking — the underlying cognitive cluster that supports strategic thinking, and implications of how we might better teach and develop those who are responsible for strategy. Strategic thinking is an approach to strategy based on critical theory that requires a specific set of ad-vanced and complex cognitive functions that are distinct from those required of strategic planning. The intent of strategic thinking is not to solve problems, but to suspend problem solving and poke holes in these problems to ensure we have a strategic issue — the right issue and the real issue. Strategic thinking requires us to engage in a rigor-ous process of divergent thought and deep-dive challenge of both the problem and the underlying premise of a strategy, as a means to creating an innovative and sustainable strategy.

Strategic thinking is both an iterative and a generative process (it’s messy). It is also a social process, not a solo act; and it is nonlinear, emotional and intuitive in nature. Strategic thinking often reveals that there is no correct or right answer and there are often multiple solu-tions—all of which may be tenuous. Leaders need to be proficient at both strategic thinking and strategic planning—as the two approaches are complementary.Why Learn Strategic Thinking?

We can’t help but notice that the landscape of global business and government is changing dramatically, requiring agility and expansion of our cognitive capabilities. Strategic thinking is a rigorous process for changing the mindset of leaders and enriching the strategic think-ing pipeline of organizations — it begs to become part of a leadersstrategy repertoire. Leaders who are responsible for strategy in today’s environment need to understand the distinctly different cognitive clusters that underlie strategic thinking and strategic planning.

Cognitive cluster required for strategic planning: This cluster includes linear, rational, logical, analytical, convergent, reductionist, elimination, and concrete thinking skills. This is the cognitive cluster that is primarily taught and reinforced in formal education and in conventional strategy courses. Strategic planning utilizes a cognitive cluster that leverages efficiency of thought.

Cognitive cluster required for strategic thinking: By contrast, the cognitive cluster that supports strategic thinking includes: critical reflective processes (comprised of critical inquiry, critical dialogue, critical reflection and critical thinking), divergent, conceptual think-ing, polarity thinking, panoramic and metaphoric thinking. Though this cognitive cluster may seem unfamiliar to many leaders — it is only because these types of thinking are generally not taught in formal education.

Strategic thinking requires an inefficient cognitive cluster that focuses on divergent thought and depth of thought—for which there are no shortcuts. Although most leaders claim they want to learn strate-gic thinking, they don’t differentiate the cognitive clusters underlying strategic thinking and strategic planning. Furthermore, leaders also tend to lack the agility of thought required to oscillate between the two cognitive clusters.

Our rapidly changing world requires a new approach to learning to think strategically. The current approach is based on the Industrial Revolution methods and mindsets and anchored in the school of Tech-nical Rationality: linear, rational, logical, convergent and reductionist thinking. Such thinking presents only one side of the strategy coin and does not fully address the needs of leaders tasked with making innovative and sustainable strategy. We have reached the pinnacle in teaching rational, linear problem solving skills that are best-suited for complicated issues, at the expense of developing complex thinking capabilities required for complex strategy problems.

We continue to teach the value of efficiency-of-thought over depth-of thought. Most leaders have been taught (and hence are trapped) in the strategy sequence of spot-a-problem-solve-a-problem vicious cycle — with scant time for thinking about the scope or depth of a complex strategic problem. Little recognition or reward is given for

pausing to diverge and challenge the problem and its premise. Strategic thinking breaks this pattern by engaging leaders in divergent thinking and deeper critical reflective thinking.

Leaders can benefit from a structured process that supports a change of mindset and embeds strategic thinking within their organizations. And leaders need to challenge themselves to think about what they can do differently to upgrade their own strategic thinking capabilities to create a sustainable and innovative strategy.Apply Five Tips

To strengthen your strategic thinking, apply these five tips:1. Choose to focus and engage in either strategic thinking or

strategic planning — as they draw from distinctly different cognitive clusters, with some kinds of thinking actually canceling one another.

2. Mix it up! Mix up the faces, the places and the spaces! Because our brains are highly context dependent, creating an element of surprise is highly conducive to strategic thinking. Seek unfamiliar perspectives, perplexing and paradoxical questions.

3. Push ‘pause’ to suspend the habitual mindset of problem solving during strategic thinking. Focus on problem examination through divergent thinking, challenging questions and the critical reflective processes.

4. Poke holes in your current strategy and in your thinking. Invite and model challenging questions to make the underlying assumptions explicit and to expose current operating premises.

5. Prioritize time (weekly, monthly, quarterly) for strategic think-ing and pay particular attention to creating activities that strengthen the specific cognitive cluster required of strategic thinking. LE

Julia Sloan, President of Sloan Intl., specializes in strategic thinking, teaches strategic thinking at Columbia University and is author of Learning to Think Strategically. call 212-362-9455 orEmail Julia@sloaninternationalconsulting.com or Jas127@columbia.edu

By Vijay Govindarajan and Jatin Desai  

Discover them using power skills.

Innovation starts with new and novel ideas. Over the last 20 years, we’ve worked with many world-class brands to help find their next big thing. We find that they usually have plenty of good ideas. Finding ideas is never the problem — initially. The challenge is finding radical ideas consistently year after year.

One primary concern expressed by global executives is their in-ability to compete long term without a solid innovation engine that can grow their top line. You need a process to source radical ideas that can catapult your business to new heights, open up new markets, or bring in unfamiliar profit streams.

In today’s ever-connected world, finding radical ideas seems to be getting tougher. So, we identified five power skills to help you find uncontested space.

1. Develop creative discontent. The best entrepreneurs are never satisfied with the status quo. When times are good, revenue is good, customers are happy, and everyone seems to be making their quarterly performance metrics, intrapreneurs are not satisfied. They need creative discontent. This is not about anger, unhappiness, or other emotional states—it is discomfort with your current state of mind. When an intrapreneurial leader is discontent, he asks big questions and chal-lenges himself and others to find big ideas.

To create creative discontent, ask questions that shake people up. Bold questions force others to get out of their comfort zones and stretch for solutions they would never search for. If you’re in the energy sector, you may ask, what are some risky investments that stand a high chance of failure but, if successful, enable larger technological leaps that promise earthshaking impact? Or, how can we economically make lighting and air conditioning 80% more efficient? Answers to these questions are not easy to find inside most corporate walls. It will force

your key talent to go where they have not yet been.2. Use convergence thinking. What two or more areas are merging?

The business game is changing due to convergence — when boundaries across industries, businesses, markets, geographies, or customer expe-riences become blurred, resulting in new business opportunities for serving customer needs and improving customer value. Cosmeceuticals, for example, is the new industry emerging from the convergence of the personal care/cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. This industry is fueled by advances in chemistry and biotechnology that allow the use of pharmacological and cosmetic therapies in areas where, earlier, surgical intervention was needed.

Three major factors drive convergence: technology, competition, and the customer. Each factor directly influences convergence, and the three may indirectly influence each other. Convergence is driven by new forms of competition—within and across industries—and the collapsing boundaries between industries. Convergence is not simply about combining ideas and technology—it is a primary leadership competency that enables organizations to design the right future.

3. Find pivots. Everything, everyone, and every system evolves over time. Change creates opportunities for innovation; if the amount of change is disproportionate in size, there is opportunity for movement in a completely new direction — a pivot. Examples include: broadcast TV to viral videos, email systems to social media, public libraries to Wikipedia, medical doctors to nurse practitioners. Apple created the online entertainment business retail pivot. Amazon created the online retail pivot to outcompete brick-and-mortar book retailers. Today, YouTube and Netflix are actively pivoting the entertainment production industry by creating new original online video channels.

Companies who can see early disruptors can easily identify potential pivots and associated radical ideas. Pivots don’t occur overnight; they can be seen. You can teach people how to find pivots. You might set up an innovation college to teach your leaders, managers, and top talent how to find pivots (and the other four skills). These structured training and work-study programs certify a certain level of proficiency—then work on finding radical ideas and developing business proposals for top executives to review. The faster you identify the pivots, the faster you can make strategic choices between various radical ideas for your

Radical Ideas

Interactive

Strategic Thinking

Download - “Five Attributes of Successful Strategic Thinkers” for organizations

Download - “Five Attributes of Successful Strategic Thinkers” for individuals

Listen to - “Learning to Think Strategically”

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.20137

next big innovations.4. Overturn orthodoxies. To find radical ideas, most organizations

promote learning new tools, techniques, and methods. The more important barrier to innovation is the inability to forget things that prevent innovations from arising. Identifying and overturning old conventions or boundaries enables breakthrough applications; in so doing, they may push companies with deeply held conventions out of the marketplace.

Some of the world’s biggest brands were created by challenging industry orthodoxies. Starbucks believed that consumers would pay more than $2 for a cup of coffee. Challenging orthodoxies can provide clarity on paradigms worth changing to improve your busi-ness model, products, services, processes, customer experience, or brand. Challenging them does not require you to overturn the laws of nature, Rather, it allows you to redefine the perceived constraints and boundaries regarding the industry business model, consumers/customers, and the delivery and service model, and to assess how value is delivered to customers and how a product or service is designed, manufactured, and supported.

5. Think frugally. Frugal innovations require frugal thinking — an ability to engineer cost‐conscious solutions to address large unmet needs of internal and external customers. The primary driver of frugal thinking is scarcity of time and resources. Frugal thinking forces individuals to be highly creative just to accomplish routine jobs. It is not about being cheap. With the daily pressures of limited time, resources, and money, it is crucial to help everyone find more creative ways to innovate.

Start-ups become successful because they are frugal in their origins. They remain resourceful and flexible during growth. Even if the company is large, successful innovators have a natural ability to think on their feet, tap into just the right internal and external resources, and convince others to follow their ideas. Many firms have self-imposed boundaries on what a product should be, how it should be sold, or

how it should be packaged and delivered. Identify such assumptions and challenge them constantly.

Teach these five power skills to your leaders and top talent to keep your innovation pipeline full. By practicing these skills, your team will improve critical and creative thinking skills, leading to many game--changing opportunities. LE

View blog post by Vijay Govin-darajan and Jatin Desai

Book

See Jatin’s list of 8 Innovation Culture Books worth reading

Visit list of Jatin’s Free Articles, Videos, Podcasts and Resources

Vijay Govindarajan is the Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of International Business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He is coauthor of Reverse Innovation (HBR Press, April 2012).

Jatin Desai is co-founder and chief executive officer of The Desai Group and the author of Innovation Engine: Driving Execution for Breakthrough Results.Email JDesai@Desai.com

Radical Ideas

8leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

By Ken Perlman

Building blocks to help you lead transformational change.

LEGO Leadership Lessons Interactive

As a very lucky father of two girls, I feel that many of the lessons learned in fatherhood apply to change leadership. Here I share the parallels between building a complex LEGO set with my daughters and coaching my clients through transformational change.

As my daughters and I tackled a three-day LEGO project, I real-ized that what make these projects so fun and satisfying are the same things that help my clients love leading change in their organizations.Now, we all know love and change don’t get used in the same sentence very often, but some of the same principles that made for a wonder-ful, LEGO-filled weekend with my girls are also at work with my clients, both large and small. So here are the five lessons in leadership courtesy of LEGO:

Lesson 1: Start with what success looks like. LEGO provides a complete and exciting picture of the final product right there on the box. It always looks awesome. There is little mention of the number of bags, number of pieces, or number of steps. That information serves only to deflate your excitement. You fall in love with the end result before you even buy. After buying the set, you feel that the finished project is just a few steps away because you already know what success looks like – and it looks awesome. Many times, executives outline the daunting and time-consuming strategies required to get from today to tomorrow—deflating excitement—rather than building momen-tum around the picture of the finished product. Most leaders fail to paint or show a clear (awesome) picture of what success looks like. The picture makes people fall in love with the idea; that makes them eager to spend their time putting all the pieces together.

Lesson 2: Consider interchangeable parts. It’s rare, but occasionally, there are missing LEGO blocks. Instead of stop-mode, these challenges put my daughters into innovation-mode – they pull out their bucket of spare parts to find what we need and we keep building away. How many times have our colleagues said, “That won’t work because…” or “We’ve already tried that”? Although these excuses may save us some time not repeating old mistakes, it’s unusual that we go back to see what pieces (lessons, learning, accomplishments) can be reapplied. Often people, tools, resources, and lessons are there for the picking, it’s just rare that we go back to those buckets to get them.

Lesson 3: Instructions are only so helpful. The instructions are great, usually. But there are cases where you simply cannot tell which

round peg goes into which square hole. Whereas I turn the instructions round-and-round, flipping ahead to get another view, my daughters simply put things together as best they can. They say, “Let’s try it and see if it works.” This fearless experimentation is a critical element to accelerating innovation. What’s the worst thing that could happen? With LEGOS, the consequences are nil. In many business or orga-nizations there are real risks. But, more often than not, the main risk is not the unforeseen consequences, but in the risk of being seen as wrong. By eliminating that fear, we increase our ability to iterate in fast cycles. It is key for leadership to encourage and reward those who experiment, learn, and build.

Lesson 4: It’s more fun when more people are working together. Working on a LEGO project on your own is great. But sharing the experience with my daughters (or them sharing it with me) is much more fun. My clients find it easier to get 100 people to volunteer one hour each than to get any one person to find 100 free hours. (I know that getting 100 volunteers to do anything may seem daunting, or even impossible, but take a look at the embedded video to see my col-league John Kotter explain both how this can be done and the impact it can have on an organization.) The different people, perspectives, and experiences make for open collaboration. Each volunteer brings differ-ent strengths, allowing the innovation to go faster, further, and freer.

Lesson 5: The quality of the final product relies upon the input of imagination. When I was growing up there were few custom LEGO parts, perhaps a wheel or a windshield. Today, there are a huge number of set-specific parts (e.g., tools, flip-up cockpits, weapon launchers, etc.). Yet my daughters still make modifications or, in their words, “improvements.” One daughter built a LEGO motorcycle which was destroyed when she sent it down hardwood stairs. Instead of being bummed out, she saw an opportunity. “Now I can make it better,” she said. “It was too heavy to go as fast as I want it to.” She stripped it down, leaned it out, and launched it again. At the end of the day, it all comes down to the builder’s imagination.

As a leader, you set the tone for how your employees experience large-scale change. You could be the one that enables fearless (but informed) innovation and experimentation—or you can be holding up the instruction book saying, “That’s not how we do it.” The choice is yours. By the way, friends at LEGO, Star Wars X-Wing: Best. LEGO. Ever. LE

Ken Perlman is an engagement leader at Kotter International, a firm that helps leaders accelerate strategy implementation and deliver transformational change. Follow Kotter International on Twitter @KotterIntl, on Facebook, or on LinkedIn. This originally appeared on Forbes’s Change Leadership blog.Sign up for the Kotter International Newsletter.

Read Ron’s blog article “How to Retain the Heroes within Your Workforce”

“Jedi Leadership: The Value of Lessons Learned vs. Lessons Taught”

Video

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.20139

10leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

By Cori Hill

Prepare high-potential candidates for top roles.

Help Future Leaders Succeed Interactive

Today, companies need effective leaders to navigate opportunities and pitfalls. Yet 50 to 70% of organizations experience a shortage of qualified leaders (Human Capital Advisor study). Often companies look outside to hire leaders with a proven track record. This can work; however, competition for top talent can be fierce and leaders who excel in one arena won’t necessarily succeed in another.

The key to creating tomorrow’s leaders lies in developing today’s high-potential talent. In the Korn/Ferry and Bersin by Deloitte study, Building High-Potential Leaders, leaders from many industries were surveyed to identify optimal strategies for identifying, engaging and retaining top leadership talent. It was found that organizations that nurture promising managers into higher impact roles reap many benefits. For example, they often have a deep bench of talent (talent that can be tapped for executive positions) who are also steeped in the values and know the business. Over the long-term, high-potential leaders have the biggest impact—they can drive growth and profits, spearhead entry into new markets, and challenge those they lead to give their best performance.

And yet up to 40 percent of internal promotions and lateral job moves made by high-potential candidates end in failure (Corporate Leadership Council). The stakes are high. When leaders don’t do well, the organization doesn’t do well. The failure can happen for many reasons—from not being a good match for the candidate’s skills, to a failure on the part of the leader to properly transition, to a lack of onboarding support for those in new roles.

Confident, capable and current leaders who know your business still need to be identified, cultivated and developed to reach their full potential. What’s often missing is a road map that aligns the develop-ment of high-potential leaders with the direction of the business.

Korn/Ferry’s TalentSync™ High-Potential Integrated Road MapOften, organizations focus on one piece of talent management, such as training, without understanding how that piece links to its overall direction. TalentSync identifies four steps that companies can take today to ensure the success of tomorrow’s leaders.

1. Identify potential. Current performance is just one aspect of

identifying high-potential leaders. A person who excels in the current job may lack the ability or motivation to succeed in a senior posi-tion. To identify high-potential leaders, use a process that includes a nomination to narrow the pool, manager input and boss evaluation, review of performance data and assessments of interest, experience, psychological and cognitive foundations and possible derailers.

For example, we worked with the HON Company, a designer and manufacturer of office furniture, to develop a process for leadership assessment and talent review that evaluated and differentiated more than 550 salaried employees. The process identifies each member’s leadership potential and combines it with performance evaluation information. Line managers use this information to start rigorous discussions about the performance and potential of their people.

Managers use the process to help them make talent decisions and develop staff more strategically, and it has since been adopted by parts of HON’s parent company HNI Corporation. “This new process takes the guesswork out of evaluating potential by establish-ing an objective foundation that serves as a concrete starting point for free-flowing dialogue and conversation,” said Barney Olson, di-rector, talent management systems, Hearth & Home Technologies. 2. Drive development. Once high potentials are identified, provide them with challenging assignments to provide learning opportunities that raise their competence in the organizational context, keep them engaged, and provide a long-term focus, visibility with top execu-tives, relationships and networking, versatility, formal and informal feedback and the chance to work on challenging, relevant problems that impact the bottom line. Use a structured approach that includes holding high-potential development design and planning sessions and meetings to discuss goals and desired outcomes that tie in with larger goals. Use assessments to provide feedback on development, and to maintain accountability through reviews of progress.

3. Accelerate readiness. Companies looking to fill critical roles must plan ahead to ensure that internal candidates are ready to step in when needed. But most organizations lack a well-defined process for preparing high-potential leaders for a specific role. We help clients to identify pivotal roles and develop a success profile of key requirements for each role, so that high-potential leaders are matched to the role. Targeted assessment, mentoring and a custom development plan to close readiness gaps ensure the leader is ready to step into the next assignment when the time comes.

4. Energize transition. Skills and approaches that helped high-potential leaders succeed in a previous position may be a liability in a new role. It’s well known that transitions can be dangerous in a career sense, and these leaders may fail without coaching and support. You can help high potentials ramp up, mitigate pitfalls and address key performance areas early in their new role by implementing a consistent, actionable onboarding program. While much of the focus in executive onboarding is on the period of time just after selection, even after the first 90 days, targeted coaching can help the leader maintain account-ability for self-development in their new position.

Video

White Paper

Read the “Korn/Ferry and Bersin by Deloitte study, “Building High-Potential Leaders”

Download the Korn/Ferry TalentSync “Road Map for High-Potential Leaders”

Companies that follow the TalentSync road map to develop high-potential leadership through identifying potential, driving develop-ment, accelerating readiness, and energizing transition will be better prepared to achieve their strategic business goals. Each element of the TalentSync road map is important, and organizations that integrate them into a larger system will reap the greatest benefit. LE

Cori Hill, global offering lead, high-potential and enterprise leadership devel-opment, Korn/Ferry InternationalEmail cori.hill@kornferry.com

Yes, work relationships impact business outcomes, and most frontline leaders lack the interaction skills and behaviors required to be effective leaders, according to our analysis of assessment data from thousands of leaders worldwide—and senior leaders are even worse! Clearly, leaders—and their co-workers and direct reports—would benefit from holding more effective conversations.

At assessment centers, leaders go through simulations to assess their ability to exhibit behaviors that reflect a leadership position. The results gathered from assessment center data represent a more accurate, predictive picture of what is required to perform effectively as a leader. Hence, this DDI report, Driving Workplace Performance through High-Quality Conversations: What leaders must do every day to be effective, measures how leaders worldwide are really behaving and clearly identifies areas for improvement. Common Interaction Mistakes Leaders Make

The ability to facilitate effective conversations is critical at every level of leadership. As part of a core set of interaction skills, this behavior must be mastered in order to build relationships and get work done. Sadly, senior leaders have not mastered these skills and are no better off, even though they have been at it longer; in fact, 90 percent of executives act before checking their understanding of an issue and are ineffective at inviting ideas from others. And, only 11 percent of frontline leaders preserve their colleagues’ self-esteem and display empathy and interpersonal diplomacy.

Why do so many interactions go bad? What are the missteps and derailers that trip up effective conversations? We find that leaders lack the fundamental frameworks, skills and tools to have effective conversations. While they can identify what constitutes a good and bad conversation, leaders struggle to incorporate these behaviors when required.

Common leader missteps—the 7 Interaction Sins—are: jumping straight to fixing the problem; one size fits all approach; avoiding the tough issues; inconsistent application across different contexts; influencing through the facts only; spotting opportunity for change but not engaging others; and neglecting to coach in the moment.

Also, leaders may lack the self-awareness of personal characteristics that can derail their intentions. Our research identifies 11 personal-ity derailers that impact leadership performance. The derailers most likely to deter a leaders’ performance include: impulsivity, volatility, eccentricity and attention- seeking. While derailers tend to play a larger role in senior-leader failure, it can wreak havoc at any level.Nine Common Leader Interaction Styles

Based on the results of thousands of leader observations in common leader scenarios, the study identified nine leadership interaction styles

that leaders display. For each, strengths and weaknesses are identified, along with tips for effectively interacting within that style. The study identifies how a leader can proactively manage and leverage strengths and potential risks associated with the nine interaction styles: 1) Problem Solver—feels the need to solve problems on behalf of other parties; 2) Interrogator—focuses on facts and less on feelings; 3) Relationship Builder—focuses on relationships more than discussion outcomes; 4) The Straight Talker—likes to talk directly and is less interested in personal needs; 5) Skeptic—questions intentions of others and relies on what is proven to work; 6) Motivator—emphasizes opportunity but conversations can lack clarity; 7) Detached—remains emotionally uninvolved and appears distracted; 8) Agreer—relies on others to take the lead and may lack self confidence; and 9) Know it All—focuses on self and links conversation back to their own experiences. 

Solutions: What Leaders Can Do Now?Our research pinpoints four things that enhance interaction quality:

1) provide leaders with the frameworks and skills to effectively manage interactions; 2) start with wise hiring and promotions decisions as many of the skills and personality factors are difficult, if not impossible to change; 3) teach leaders how to manage their personality patterns and derailers; and 4) recognize that how often leaders will be successful comes down to the quality and frequency of practice—practice really does make perfect. LE

By Richard Wellins

These cripple leaders’ effectiveness. Poor Interaction Skills

Interactive

Video

Richard Wellins, Ph.D., is SVP of Development Dimensions International (DDI), a global HR consulting firm. Contact: Dianne.stetzer@ddiworld.com, 412-257-3623. Visit www.ddiworld.com.

Report

Download the DDI report “Driving Workplace Performance through High-Quality Conversations”

Download DDI’s “Tenden-cies That Undermine Effective Interactions”

Leadership Interaction Styles—Which One Are You?

Help Future Leaders Succeed

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.201311

FOR

UM

20

14

Global LeadershipMark your Calendars for this must attend Leadership Forum!

April 9th - 11th, 2014Vail Cascades ResortVail, ColoradoNimhans Convention CentreBangalore, IndiaTwo live locations!

For the last 30 years, Leadership Excellence (now part of HR.com) has identified and recognized the top 500 leadership organizations and their strategies in our yearly ranking issue. Now we are enabling you and your team to learn, share and network with these top leaders.

This groundbreaking Leadership event will include:

CONNECTING HR EXPERTS GLOBALLY

You won’t want to miss this event!

Interactive pre-session assessments, exercises and team building exercises that will allow you to create a strategy based on the event sessions that are mapped to your organization’s culture and values.

Personal Development APP provided to all participants to promote continual leadership development with the use of exercises, tips and follow up.

Post event learning material to ensure the application of your leadership plan.

You can attend live or at a host site.

For more information email sales@hr.com

www.hr.com/global_leadership_excellence

Attend Live Become a Host Site• Intimate Networking Experiences• Leadership 500 Awards Ceremony

• Session streaming to your office or host site• Custom program guide for your virtual team of participants, including your own personalized content.

Are You Likeable?Or, are you about to be fired?

Recently, we conducted research with a large consumer food company that had decided to eliminate 150 leadership positions. A layoff is a hard reality for all involved. But in the hopes something positive could come from this scenario, we examined the 360-degree feedback data on this company’s leaders to see if our data would provide useful clues about which leaders the company retained, and which got the axe. We were interested in whether the individuals removed had been given strong warning signs of deficient performance that could lead to their termination. But beyond these signs, were there any other clues that could have warned these leaders that they were vulnerable?

We found that two years before the downsizing, only 13% of the people who were let go were given a negative performance review. One year prior, only 23% were given that message. In all, 77% of those asked to leave had no clue from performance reviews that their roles were at risk.

So what causes people to be chosen for dismissals seemingly without warning? In hindsight, did they miss any warning signals? We think the answer is yes. Here are six signs the unfortunate executives missed:

1. The leader lost the person who had been his or her sponsor. And when this happened, they took no steps to create new relationships with senior people who could be their internal champions.

2. They were not viewed as strategic thinkers. These executives’ scores were down to the 10th percentile, the fatal flaw range. Clearly organizations expect a leader to acquire the skill of strategic vision early in their career. Yet this skill is difficult to define (and is much in the eye of the beholder). You could say that strategy describes how the firm distinguishes itself from all others, and how it uniquely creates value. You could also note that strategy gravitates to the big picture as opposed to the tactical—thinking in longer timer horizons than near term. However, these skills and conceptual abilities are not as easy to observe as other leadership competencies, and organizations have not developed effective ways to enable leaders to learn those skills.

3. The leader was perceived as not scrupulously honest or ethical. Whenever this problem existed, people were let go. There were differ-ent issues that ranged from poor judgment on use of company funds, fictitious invoices and lack of compliance with company policies to inappropriate comments and strained relationships.

4. Failure to consistently deliver results. Again, 360 feedback pre-dicted these problems: Those who were terminated were rated at the 37th percentile on delivering results. These people were seen as missing deadlines, over-committing, or setting the bar too low for others. Some appeared to be running out of energy and losing effectiveness over time. Others had a reputation for not working hard—retiring early (on the job).

5. Poor interpersonal skills or cultural fit. Many people had been promoted based on technical skills, but weren’t able to improve interpersonally. The 360 results for relationship building and people skills for those who were let go were also at the 37th percentile. Many were viewed as weak leaders who were unable to influence and ac-commodate change. Some were simply difficult to deal with, hostile, volatile, angry, combative and unable to manage their impulsive behaviors. (Many of these leaders were also described as brilliant from

a technical point of view.)6. Resistance to organizational and personal change. There is

a strong correlation between a leader’s willingness to ask for and respond to feedback and their effectiveness. Many leaders who were let go were described as resistant to change, inflexible, and resistant to feedback. Their willingness to ask for and to respond to feedback had declined over time. The best leaders continued to look for feedback and to find ways to improve. The worst assumed they were promoted because of their technical brilliance and all they needed to do was to continue what they’d done in the past.Today, every executive should be watching these warning signals. Evalu-ate yourself against each of these signals to ensure you won’t be fired.

7 Ways to Be More LikableWe suggest you take a proactive approach to becoming a more

likable leader. This has little to do with how tall and charming you are, or how often you give raises. In fact, most behaviors displayed by likable leaders have to do with the way they interact with people daily. Our likability index is a set of likable behaviors that go beyond smiling and having a pleasant personality. To be a more likable leader, take seven key actions:

1. Increase positive emotional connections with others. Emotions are contagious. If a leader is angry or frustrated, that emotion spreads to others. If a leader is positive and optimistic, those emotions also spread. Be aware of your emotional state—and spread the positive emotions.

2. Display rock-solid integrity. Do others trust you to keep your commitments and promises? Are others confident that you will be fair and do the right thing? We like those we trust; we dislike those we distrust.

3. Cooperate with others. Some leaders believe they are in compe-tition with their colleagues; likable leaders unite employees to work together in a common purpose.

4. Be a coach, mentor and teacher. Think about someone who has helped you develop or learn a new skill. How do you feel about that person? Most people have positive memories of coaches and mentors.

5. Be an inspiration. Most people think of the boss as the one telling them what to do—driving for results, demanding excellence, striving to achieve stretch targets. But the best bosses aren’t perpetu-ally pushing. While they do push at times, they are most effective at

By Jack Zenger

Interactive

Video

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.201313

Leaders are experiencing expanding global competition, acceler-ating change, mind-numbing complexity, and increasing instability. And most leaders see a growing gap between the rate of complexity increase and their capacity to lead. 

This leaves us asking: How will we rise to the occasion?  Can we look past what worked in the past, see through assumptions, and find new ways to meet challenges? How can we best develop leaders who can overcome challenges and capitalize on opportunities? In my 30 years of work as a leadership consultant, I’ve learned a simple truth: Effective leaders outperform ineffective leaders every time.

I evoke this learning in board rooms, C suites and every other leadership setting—and I never receive any argument or push back. My follow-up question is this: if this is true why do we invest so few resources on developing leaders? Developing leaders is the CEO agenda, a key business imperative. The CEO or top leader is primarily responsible for ensuring that leadership is developed and capitalized on. Leadership is their job.

Leadership is a sustainable competitive advantage.  Preserving this competitive advantage means that leaders must develop at a rate that keeps pace with accelerating global change. Development challenges our most cherished beliefs and assumptions. We must cultivate a new mindset from which responsive strategies will flow—higher-order operating systems that require us to master the inner-world (con-sciousness) and the outer-world (competence). Business performance is directly tied to effective leadership, and the most effective leaders are conscious, authentic leaders. One of our colleagues recently told a CEO that she had to be the most self-aware person in the organization and then he took it a step further the Top Leader needs to be the most self-aware of anyone in his or her organization and all other leaders must follow their example.

Authentic leaders create cultures of commitment. Most people enthusiastically support only what they’ve had an active hand in creating. Disengagement is a huge financial cost, as it deadens spirit, passion, innovation, purpose, and commitment. It squanders capa-

bility and capacity. Ineffective leaders speak of the culture as if it is out there somewhere—separate from them. In reality, culture reflects how we lead. Great leaders create great cultures of engagement for all stakeholders. A healthy, vibrant high engagement culture is a powerful force for gaining and sustaining desired results.

Leadership is an inside-outside game. Leaders have to look in to see out. How we think about things impacts what we do. In today’s frenetic world, we’re often so busy doing things that we don’t notice our thinking—our Inner Operating System, which then takes on a life of its own and it is often hidden from our view. We are caught in our own habitual patterns, without noticing, at high cost since the inner life impacts personal effectiveness, creativity, innovation, and performance.

The best top leadership teams are all about results and relation-ships. The best of them leverage tremendous business capability, tap into deep wells of personal and collective knowledge, actively seek strategic interdependencies and relationships, and at their core func-tion together in a circle of key leadership processes. Top teams must ask the question how effective are we individually and collectively as leaders? How do we know and what are we going to do about it? Effective Leadership and Performance

Great leadership is a competitive advantage, and high performance is achieved and sustained through effective leadership practices applied with discipline over time.

High performance requires both organization design and key leadership processes and disciplines.

Design: The performance of any system is primarily determined by its design. An optimal design fosters fit for purpose.  Fit-for-purpose design answers three questions: 1) Vision/Value. What is the unique value that the organization brings to its customers in order to gain greater competitive advantage?  What do we do?  For whom?  Why?  In support of creating unique value, what principles guide the quality of our work and how we work together? 2) Strategy/Approach. In what distinctive manner do we choose to fulfill the unique needs of our customers—and key stakeholders? What is the distinctive strategy or central capability that we emphasize to support the vision and achieve competitive advantage? 3) Structure/Base.  What is the designed alignment of structure and strategy, technology and people, practices and processes, leadership and culture, and measurement and control within the enterprise?  How are these elements designed and aligned to create conditions that support achieving the vision?

Processes. Four key leadership processes translate organizational

pulling, pitching in with the team as needed. They also paint a picture of how things will be better. Inspirational and likable go hand in hand.

6. Be visionary and future focused. If you ever go on a long road trip with small children you will regularly hear the following words, “Are we there yet?” When you don’t know where you are or where you are going, it makes the trip seem interminably longer and substan-tially less fun. When employees don’t clearly understand where they are headed and how they will get there, it makes them frustrated and dissatisfied. They feel like a passenger with no control and few other options except to complain.

7. Ask for feedback and make an effort to change. Most leaders rate themselves as highly likable (more likable than they actually are). The assessment that matters most, however, is the perception of others. We find a strong correlation between a leader’s likeability and the extent to which they ask for and take action on feedback from others. Such feedback helps leaders to understand their impact on others.

To be more likable, identify two of these actions that would most help you, make a plan for improvement, stick to your goals, and ask others for feedback on your progress. LE

Jack Zenger is CEO of Zenger-Folkman, a strengths-based leadership development firm.

“Everything Counts: The 6 Ways to Inspire and Motivate Top Performance”

“Likability Assessment”

Are You Likeable?

By W. A. (Bill) Adams  

Effective leaders outperform ineffective ones.

Full Circle Leadership

Interactive

“Likability Assessment”Assessment

“Likability Assessment”

14leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

identity into execution and high-performance to fulfill the promise of leadership.

1. Strategy to Execution. Strategy without execution is a plan on the shelf. Activity without a clear tie to a well-grounded strategy is wasted activity. We address the keys to strategy execution: Identity:  A strong, aligned leadership team; grounded in a common purpose, vision and values; developed by working together on enterprise issues with unwavering commitment to on-going personal leadership and team development. Strategy: A clear mid-to-long-term directional strategy and a short-term operating plan, with accountability for goals and actions in pursuit of clear strategic objectives. Align-ment: Shared strategic line-of-sight and rapport across the top three levels of management, engaging others whose voice, perspective and diverse view of what’s real is critical. Accountability:  Performance accountability systems that clarify what is expected of people and align consequences for efforts with actual performance. Until leaders work together to refine their Key Processes and execute on them with daily discipline, they won’t achieve high performance and sustainable results. Organizational identity must be translated into strategy and strategic direction must be translated to objectives, goals, actions and accountabilities.  And, this must be done in a way that cultivates a culture of engagement since high-performance execution requires passionate commitment. Process without results is worthless. Results without process are unsustainable.

2. Business rhythm.  A Business Rhythm of metrics, reviews and course corrections keep the business on track. Every activity has a rhythm to it.  A heartbeat, a daily set of rituals, a seasonal harvest cycle, an annual calendar, a story, a song all have an identifiable cadence. Leaders must establish and maintain a cadence for the business (continually running flat out in all directions, all the time, is not the optimal business rhythm).  Effective leaders find ways to step back, reflect, and then reengage with a more lean and disciplined process. Business Rhythm management cycle is the set of leadership processes designed to: track progress against strategy and planning; review status on operational results through clear key metrics; update the strategy regularly, and ensure action is being driven by insight based on relevant, current information, and is focused on achieving the vision. Senior leaders need to build discipline and depth into their leadership process and management cycle, to achieve accountability, predictability, ongoing learning, renewal and sustainability.

3. Operational performance. Every organization needs effective operations. For some, it is the claim to marketplace fame.  For others, it is merely the price of admission. The best organizations develop simple processes that are internally efficient, locally responsive, and globally adaptable. Complexity is removed from the customer expe-rience to enable them to engage you in ways that are both elegant and satisfying. Establishing and optimizing operational performance is an ongoing journey. Operations need to be focused on the most important work, using the most effective, proven techniques to get the work done. This means: aligning initiatives and operations with

strategy; continuously improving day-to-day operations; pursuing performance breakthroughs in critical areas using proven approaches; using advanced change techniques in support of major initiatives; establishing a recognizable pattern of executive sponsorship for all initiatives; and building future capability and capacity.

4. Strategic communication. Everything happens in or because of a conversation. Whether it takes place between a clerk and a customer, among supervisors, in a town hall meetings, or in boardrooms, every exchange is a potential moment of truth—a point of failure or a critical link in the chain to success. Strategic Communication is more than telling others what you want them to hear. It is ensuring that the impact of your message is consistent with your intentions and that understanding takes place.  What you say, the way you say it, where, when and under what circumstances it is said shape the performance culture. When leaders maximize their contribution to the conversations taking place daily in the company, they can engage and align people around a common cause, reduce uncertainty, keep people focused, equip people for moments of truth that create an on-the-table culture, stay connected to reality, prevent excuses before they happen, learn from experience, treat mistakes as intellectual capital, and leverage the power of leadership decisions to shape beliefs and behaviors.

We work with leaders to ensure conversations are authentic, and purposeful to increase their leadership influence, accelerate progress toward strategic objectives, and manage change with greater focus and resolve, less stress and resistance. LE

Full Circle Leadership

Video

White Paper

“Leadership: Uncommon Sense”

Book“The Change Handbook”

W.A. (Bill Adams) is President of the Full Circle Group and a Partner in the Leadership Circle. Email william.adams@fcg-global.com.

“ineffective Leaders speak of the culture as if it is out there somewhere -separate from them. in reality, culture reflects how we lead. Great leaders create great cultures of engagement for all stakeholders.

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.201315

By Alan Fine

for better coaching conversations.7 Essential Behaviors Interactive

Good coaching drives results. When coaching is not done well, you don’t just get the same results—in fact, you risk getting worse results. To become great coaches, leaders need to practice seven essential behaviors:

1. Believe in performers’ greatness. Effective coaches believe that their coachees have untapped greatness within them; their intention is to free up that greatness. What we believe about the people we coach is a key driver of their performance. What a coach pays attention to creates their beliefs; and what a coach believes, drives and filters what they pay attention to. These create self-reinforcing loops. If coaches believe their coachee has talent, they are more likely to bring it out; if we don’t believe that our coachee has untapped greatness why would we waste both their and our time trying to coach them?

2. Act as a mirror. To know whether we have an accurate perception of our own thinking and behavior, we need a mirror. Great coaches serve as a mirror for the coachee by providing objectivity to help them more accurately observe their own thinking and behavior. They use words and phrases such as, “My perception is…,” or “How it shows up to me is…”. The coachee can then know whether what they think they are doing is what they are actually doing.

3. Create a context of possibility. One person’s noise is another’s inspirational music. People act based upon how the world shows up to them—based on their beliefs about the world. Great coaches come from a mindset of possibility which helps coachees see the world differently. Coachees can begin to think of options beyond the limitations their beliefs and assumptions have created. The coach brings a set of beliefs and assump-tions that allows for dialogue in which the coachee sees more possibilities.

4. Get clear about responsibilities. Great coaches are clear that their role is not to be the expert giving answers to the coachee. They recognize that providing solutions (giving advice), however well intended, can disable the coachee over time, creating reliance on the coach’s expertise and a tendency for the coachee to avoid taking ownership and finding solutions. Great coaches see their role as helping the coachee find solutions in a way that they will be able to do it for themselves in the future. Their role is not to fish for the coachee but to teach them how to fish. The coachee gets to experience ownership of both the problem and the solution—and gets the acknowledgement for the success, with the coach becoming almost invisible. Great coaches do not take responsibility for solving the coachee’s issues; rather, they take responsibility for freeing up the coachee to take

responsibility for solving those issues.5. Create a safe environment. A safe environment accelerates a

person’s learning and performance. The fastest learning takes place in childhood when we are open to all experiences. What slows down this extraordinary ability is the internal conversations that go on in our minds, the ones that say, “Don’t screw up,” or “Everyone’s watching,” or “Don’t trust him.” We tend to develop these internal dialogues in response to the threats that life throws at us. Once we develop those internal conversations, learning slows down. We can create a safe en-vironment as the coach by being non-judgmental about the coachee. Coaches have opinions about what will generate the desired outcomes, but they listen to and observe what the coachee thinks, says, or does without passing judgment about whether it is good or bad, right or wrong. Great coaches create a safe environment where the coachee can “look in the mirror” without fear of judgment.

6. Help bring focus. Four factors impact human performance—knowledge, faith, fire, and focus. While each is important, focus is key because it drives everything we do. It separates our good days from our bad days at any level of performance. When we are focused, we do things well whether it’s solving a problem, having a tough conversation, or playing golf. Our minds are quiet and undistracted. Great coaches help their coachees discover what’s important to focus on and how to sustain that focus over time. What you pay attention to influences your beliefs, and what you believe influences what you pay attention to. The coach brings a set of beliefs and assumptions that enables a dialogue in which the coachee sees more possibilities.

7. Become comfortable with uncertainty. Effective coaching gets past symptoms and addresses root causes—helping the coachee become aware of and test the assumptions that drive their view of the world and their behavior. This often results in coaching discussions that go in directions that neither the coach nor coachee anticipated. Coachees become more aware of the preferences and biases driving their actions. Great coaches are comfortable with the uncertainty that goes with not knowing where the path of a coaching conversation might lead and what the discussion might reveal.

These seven behaviors are common with all great coaches. I invite you to identify ones that you can start implementing to have better conversations, to create more of an impact, and to improve your abilities as a leader and coach. LE

Alan Fine is CEO of InsideOut Development, a leader in developing manager-as-coach skills using the GROW® Model and author of You Already Know How to Be Great. Visit InsideOutDev.com

Video

“Four Popular Coaching Myths Debunked”

Survey

Coaching Mindset

16leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

By Louis Carter

How to do so in tough times.

Retain Top Talent Interactive

Retaining top talent is a continual challenge, in good times and bad. When facing talent problems, many think first of technological solutions. However, even the most robust technology can’t replace the value of personal relationships.

I confer with the senior talent executives daily. During the past five years of recession and sluggish recovery, talent leaders often talk about retaining top talent. Ironically, the more a company invests in its future leaders, the more attractive those high potentials become to rivals.Fighting the Good Fight at QBE

QBE Insurance Group, an Australian-based large, public insurance provider, has about 16,500 employees in 48 countries, including 6,500 workers in North America. In addition to facing the recent economic turmoil, QBE and the global insurance industry have been challenged by a series of natural disasters. 2012 was a challenging year for QBE North America. The worst drought in 50 years drew comparisons to the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s. Agriculture is a major profit center for QBE, the third largest crop insurer in the U.S. Then in 2012, came Hurricane Sandy, the second costliest hurricane in U.S. history, delivering a $117 million blow to QBE.

To return to its growth days, QBE is enacting major transforma-tion by identifying and leveraging global efficiencies, instituting best practices and controlling costs. In better economic times, QBE might have been due for a tune-up. During the 1990s and 2000s, the QBE Group went on a 20-year shopping spree, acquiring more than 100 insurance businesses and portfolios and expanding gross written premium from $1 billion in 1994 to more than $18 billion in 2012.The aggressive acquisition strategy moved QBE onto the list of top

20 largest insurance companies.The time is right for QBE to take a fresh look at its diverse holdings.

After years of rapid growth, the company is focusing on core businesses, consolidating global shared services and reducing redundancies. QBE announced last year that it intended to achieve at least $250 million of annual cost savings by the end of 2015.

A big part of the transformation will happen at QBE North America, the largest division, responsible for 36% of gross written premium in 2012. The North American division represented 45% of the company’s 2012 income, but that translated into just 26% of company profits. Like its parent company, QBE North America is seeking to transform from a group of loosely connected subsidiaries to a unified company.

Open questions about the future and what the organization will look like are a real part of the picture for QBE’s talent, and Tim Sheahan—head of Talent Management, Succession and Learning at QBE North America—knows it. What are Tim and his colleagues at QBE doing to try to retain QBE’s top talent? They are focused on three things: coaching, targeted compensation and strategic redeploy-ment. Each step is rooted in what Tim sees as the essential of effective management—personal relationships.

1. Coaching: Personal Connection. Tim is good at cultivating personal relationships with QBE’s senior leaders (he holds a PhD in counseling psychology). Tim meets one-on-one with about 40 leaders across North America. Tim’s coaching begins with assessments and individual development plans, but Tim goes beyond the metrics and the paperwork—he leans heavily on personal connections. He meets with each leader quarterly, and encourages leaders to come to him for

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.201317

meetings as needed. In these conversations, Tim talks about more than QBE, profit margin and gross written premium. He asks questions. What are your goals? What do you hope to achieve in your career? How can we work together to help you achieve those goals at QBE? Within the context of a fluid work environment, Tim works with the individuals to identify what they can do to meet their goals, and he then works with them to embrace those elements. Tim says that he is no Pollyanna cheerleader; rather he conveys the message: Difficult times present unique opportunities to nimble leaders.

2.Targeted Compensation. Compensation will always play a major role in the retention of top talent. Annual bonuses are a big part of the compensation structure at QBE. During a time of cost-cutting, bonuses can be a casualty. How do you retain top talent under such circumstances? Tim is not a big fan of retention bonuses—at least not as they are typically deployed. Tying a bonus to a promise to stay until a date circled on the calendar can have the effect of setting the date when a team member leaves. Tim knows that money is not the primary motivator for many people. Equally important to many team members is to be valued in one’s position and enabled to actualize potential. If people don’t feel valued, small boost in compensation is unlikely to make up for this. Regarding compensation, QBE’s hardest job is identifying how to draw upon limited resources to use targeted compensation to keep the most valuable talent. Tim and his colleagues view bonuses as a tool to communicate respect and value, especially when the budget is tight. When employees know that the company is in transition and large bonuses are not possible, a smaller bonus can still communicate a powerful message, when it is accepted as a genuine expression of value. To achieve that desired impact, however, the bonus needs to be accompanied by a conversation with a manager in which the employee’s value is communicated. Personal relationships pave the way for targeted compensation to be accepted as a genuine gesture.

3.Strategic Redeployment. Even when a company’s transformation spells the end of a position or entire business unit, retaining top talent is still possible. In fact, redirecting promising leaders to new positions that match their skills and career goals can be reenergizing and even renew an employee’s commitment to the company. Again, personal relationships are critical. In these one-on-one meetings with senior QBE leaders, Tim asks about personal interests and career aspirations. This helps him recognize opportunities for redeployment which may

result in retaining a talented leader. Such personal knowledge also helps in succession planning. Through personal coaching, Tim learns how his senior leaders are doing, who is most at risk of leaving, and who the potential successors are.One Limitation

There is one limitation to managing top talent through personal coaching. Tim stays connected with 40 senior leaders across the country, and struggles to keep those appointments regularly. That’s a lot of personal relationships. It is impossible for Tim to develop the same degree of connection with the mid-level performers who com-prise QBE’s next generation of leaders. Hence, QBE North America is building relationships the next level down, and these relationships will be managed by others on Tim’s team. Tim hopes his coaching style will serve as a model, inspiring his leaders to cultivate similar connections with the team members they oversee. LE

Louis Carter is founder of Best Practice Institute, one of the world’s top as-sociations for leadership and HR development. He has written 11 books on best practices in leadership development. Email lou@bestpracticeinstitute.org or visit www.bpiworld.com

Retain Top Talent

“The Change Champion’s Field Guide”Guide

“The Top Five Dos and Don’ts of Talent Development”

“10 Things Every Sales Manager Should Know about Sales Performance”

18leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

Flexible, Agile, Innovative, AuthenticHow can we best develop such creative leaders?

By Bob Anderson

Interactive

Most leaders want to acquire or amplify flexibility, agility, and innovation. Authenticity is an acquired taste. In a recent IBM CEO study, two themes emerged: 1) managing complexity, and 2) develop-ing the creative capacity to innovate.

Escalating complexity is the result of shifting marketplace dynamics in a global environment of increasing uncertainty, ambiguity, volatility, and disruption. The IBM CEO study stated, “Most CEO’s seriously doubt their ability to cope with rapidly escalating complexity.” The ability to thrive in a volatile world depends on the second theme. CEOs are asking, “How do we develop the creative capacity in our leadership?”

These emerging trends place a premium on flexibility, agility, and innovation. Leaders and organizations need be flexible and agile in responding to changing markets. Complexity requires leaders who can redesign the organization so that it is fit for its purpose in the global landscape, and develop the operational agility to implement change and execute on strategy. The CEO study called this “creative leadership.”

Our Leadership Circle assessments are designed to enhance the leader’s Operating System for such Creative Leadership. Leading in-novatively, with agility and flexibility, amidd complexity, requires mental-emotional complexity that is a match for the complexity of the challenges.

Innovation. To help leaders become more innovative, we are using the Leadership Circle Profile (LCP) 360 assessment. The LCP dimen-sions comprise the core elements of innovation. For example, The LCP contains a dimension called Achieving. This dimension is the heart of the creative process. Achieving starts with a purposeful focus on a vision that is distilled into strategy and results, which drive execution and decisions. The Achieving dimension is all about innovating and creating the future. An organization characterized by high Achieving is naturally innovative. Many other dimensions of the LCP boost in-novative capacity. For example, Teamwork and Cooperation are required to turn ideas into fruition. Courageous conversations are required for innovation to cut through the lethargy of change. If there is a break-down in these dimensions, innovation is undermined.

The 18 Creative Leadership dimensions in the LCP assessment report comprise a set of competencies that support innovation.

Flexibility and agility. Leaders must develop flexible, agile systems that adapt quickly to rapidly developing trends and conditions. Agility is primarily a function of design. Are the processes that translate your strategy into execution designed for rapid change? If not, you’ll lack flexibility and agility. The LCP includes a System Awareness dimension that helps leaders develop the awareness and capability to reinvent the systems that determine performance. The Creative Leadership dimen-sions of LCP report combine to form the foundation for flexibility and agility. For example, the dimensions that contribute to innovation also contribute to leadership and agility. If leaders can innovate, and the system is designed for that purpose, the organization will be agile.

Authenticity. As we work with clients over time, they often say that they can now tell the truth to each other. They’ve learned how to set aside their caution and deal directly with the controversial issues to create a more innovative, flexible and agile culture. They bring their full collective wisdom to bear on difficult issues. They report big improvements in their leadership effectiveness and performance. Having difficult conversations is vital to establishing a high perform-ing leadership culture.Reactivity Interrupts Flexibility, Agility, and Innovation

The LCP also measures a set of 11 Reactive dimensions, each of which, if too strong, will interrupt the creative, innovative process, leaving the organization less flexible and less agile. For example, when a leader or a culture is defined by Complying, rapid innovation is impossible. Complying results in too much caution and truth telling goes out the window. This leads too much bureaucratic thinking, conservative strategy, and stuck action to allow for innovation. The same can be said for Controlling leaders and cultures. The more over-controlling the culture, the less open, authentic, flexible, agile, and innovative the organization becomes.

When leaders struggle with authenticity, flexibility, agility, and in-novation, often they are trying to lead the way through complexity from a Reactive mindset. The Reactive mind doesn’t have the authen-ticity flexibility, agility, and creativity required. Vision and strategic thinking don’t emerge until leaders function with a Creative mind; and Systems Thinking does not emerge until leaders mature beyond the Creative mind.

The solution to the dilemma of escalating complexity—and need to be flexible, agile, and innovative—is not achieved merely by adding a few new/different competencies to an organizational/leadership assessment and focusing on skill development. The answer lies in expanding the leader’s complexity of mind—creating a shift of mind from Reactive to Creative. This requires more than simply adding a dimension called Agility or Innovation to a competency assessment. The Leadership Circle is an integrated approach to leadership—one that encompasses the best of what we know about competency de-velopment with the best of what we know about the development of the leader’s complexity of mind. It integrates into one approach how Creative Competencies can be developed, Reactive styles reduced, and the complexity of the leader’s mind expanded to be more flexible, agile, innovative, and creative—capable of effectively leading amid

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.201319

changing business realities.About the Leadership Circle Profile

The LCP 360-degree leadership assessments provides pervasive insight into the Creative Leadership capability that is developed (or not) and what holds a leader back from being more effective. The LCP enables leaders to gain greater access to deeper places within themselves. Leadership springs from a deep place within us.

Leadership effectiveness is not merely a matter of skill. Leadership is more than competency. Accessing dimensions deeper than compe-tency, and then facilitating the inner work that leads to breakthroughs in awareness, makes all the difference. Why? Current thinking about leadership development is very behavioral.  Most approaches ask, “How can we measure certain key leadership skills and then help the leader create an action plan focused on improvement goals?” This approach is useful, but insufficient. The typical approach to LD reduces development to a matter of capability or skill—as if only the outer game matters. But leadership is also an inner game—heart and soul, courage and fear, doubt and inspiration. This inner game directs leaders’ outer game.

Since agile, innovative, flexible, and authentic leadership springs from inner resources, competencies don’t completely define the quality

of leadership. Yet most 360s approach LD with competencies. The LCP, because it measures both Reactive and Creative dimensions, and the Inner Game and the Outer Game, opens up a transformative reflection. Most 360’s include vision, strategy, teamwork, integrity, and authenticity. These qualities, when developed, result in great leadership. But, helping a manager see how they are doing on these dimensions is just the beginning in terms of accelerating development. The hard part is to create and awareness about “How am I inauthentic? “How am I remaining indecisive?” “Why do I cautiously hold back, unwilling risk of disapproval?” “Why do I reflexively over-control, shutting down innovative conversation. Once a leader gets insight into the inner beliefs and assumptions that are running this ineffec-tive behavior, they can make the shift to more Creative Leadership.

By assessing relationship between leadership behavior (effective and ineffective) and the internal beliefs and assumptions that run those behaviors, the LCP enables personal breakthroughs. It provides leaders with insights into their internal Operating System. When the OS changes, leaders can quickly become more agile, innovative, flex-ible, and authentic. LE

Bob Anderson is CEO of The Leadership Circle, state-of-the-art of leader-ship development, and creator of The Leadership Circle Profile. Visit www.theleadershipcircle.com.

“Flexibility, Agility, Innovation”

White Paper“The Spirit of Leadership”

Flexible, Agile, Innovative, Authentic

The central unit of the Roman Legion was the decem or 10 men who were trained to be self-managing and even self-leading. Each squad could function independent of any higher authority. Added flexibility was provided by not fixing at the outset the head of each unit. Instead a rotational system was used. The challenge faced determined who would lead—who was best suited to meet that challenge. To facilitate the process and to forestall wrangling, the operating principle was primus inter pares—first among equals.

That worked because it insured optimum leadership self-selection on the one hand and the collective support of the group on the other. By being equal to each other, the support granted was not only equally and freely given but also never diminished their future turn at the helm.

Although the application of the operations of the decem to modern

team management (especially the principle of reciprocity) may be obvious, less obvious is the application to current leaders—namely that some leaders emerge as first and thus lead other leaders. But surely the claim that all current leaders are equal would be immediately contested. How can we eliminate company difference—age, size, complexity, and variety—as well as the range of executive experience, and still argue for egalitarian equity? Then, too, how do we ignore the competition between CEOs as to who is the best, frustrate the annual compilers of the top leaders of the year and finally deprive headhunters of the opportunity of luring away top performers to greener pastures?

But perhaps we are allowing competition to obscure admiration. Clearly there are companies and leaders that have taken the lead—not always because of their size, complexity, and variety. Indeed, in the process, such excellence created an even playing field. Neither were the other leaders diminished in any way nor denied their turn later on. In fact, they often welcomed the breakthrough as an example for their firms.

The ancient principle still works today: leaders lead leaders not only by being first but also by having that position acknowledged by a jury of their peers. The ultimate affirmation is their collective interpretation, adoption and adaptation of what is first.

But there may be another bonus. The emergence and performance

By Irving Buchen 

It’s about leaders leading leaders.

First Among Equals

Interactive

Video

20leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

of the first may also have a predictive or anticipatory value which we has not recognized let alone tapped. Specifically what are the signs of a number of leaders or companies stepping out ahead of the pack? They dramatize a more persuadable pattern of difficult change— and display for all the arrows of transition in their backs. Then, too, by being so differentiated from each other, they make a stronger case for transferability—of benefiting those not only out front but also their equals still in charge of and seeking similar change.

Leaders who help their companies break new ground tap the present as their visionary platform of the future, and set a standard for other leaders to contemplate as equals. In turn, they affirm their roles as equals and experts by acknowledging what is genuinely first.Five States of Emerging Leaders

Are there stages of emerging leaders of leaders? Is being first identifi-able and definable? I see at least five stages:

1. Visionary targets. The goals can’t be small potatoes, or slyly or safely incremental. Comfort zones have to be disturbed. The goals must require stretch, even strain. The final results may be as unknown and unpredictable as are the final roles of the leader and company. These are visionary targets—they combine the big and specific—macro and micro—God and the details. An example which meets these conditions and also engages other leaders and companies is that of globality and ecology—specifically the world economy and environmental sustain-ability. And to honor the commitment to such visionary targets they must be fused—solved together as if they were one.

2. Assurances. Such an ambitious and noble fusion requires dis-claimers of misperceptions. There will be no abandonment of the pursuit of profitability. Nor will companies be less aggressive and competitive in the pursuit of new markets and bigger margins. No one is proposing that we become a do-good, charitable or bleeding heart foundation This is strictly a Profits Plus operation—money first, plus add ons—vigorous and innovative participation in sustaining and advancing global commerce and environment.

3. Company prep. But the CEO asks his executive team: Given those new targets, are we prepared to succeed? What do we have to do differently? And are we in shape to do so? Do we have the horses in house? Answers please by next week?” One busy week later, they reassemble. Having done their research, quizzed experts and called in consultants, they displayed these trends and to-do list: Work-Related Cross Cultural Communications; Development of Process and Project Measurable Management Models; Teaming as the Central Re-Structuring and Re-Organizing Principle, Especially Remote and Virtual; Globalizing Data Bases; Developing Intel: Information and Trend Collection and Analysis Systems; Total International Diver-sity, Including Hires from Non-American Universities to Internally Miniaturize the Globe.

The CEO compliments the group for collecting these excellent starting points under short notice, but then asks, “I would like to have a profile of what the CEO would be like of an organization after we implement all those changes. After all, major shifts are involved between where we are now and where we want to be. Next week, okay?”

4. Projected executive role and image. Not all will change or be new. Habits of momentum insure continuity. Indeed, past modes need to be remembered and kept alive to provide reassuring resemblance in a time-machine world in which different time zones and business models are versions of each other. Still, leadership will change—some aspects will require adjustment, others major shifts. Three role changes will surface:

Supreme Integrator. The fusion of globality and ecology will set the

standard for reviewing and extending to all other areas the same holistic and synthetic approach. Particular attention will be paid to interfacing especially that of AI and the singularity between mind and machine.

Total Advocate. Of business solutions to world problems; for capital investment and legitimate ROI; for serving as a self monitoring and regulating body; for respecting and protecting intellectual property, international copyright and patents; and for counter-attacking cyber piracy and disruption.

360 Anticipator. Long-term planning requites forecasting, constantly looking ahead for what can support or put you out of business; for what sustains and what is disruptive ; for making 90-degree turns to accommodate sudden innovative solutions and technologies; for creating forecasting alliance groups like airlines; and for becoming institutional members of the World Future Society and the Copen-hagen Institute for Future Studies.

5. Next steps. The CEO agrees and then gives the group its final marching orders: “Three steps. First, Intel.: we need to know more from the inside about what goes on and what is traded off at those G8 and G20 meetings. Second, we need profiles and resumes of the US negotiating team and of their support staff of experts. Third, we need to align the first two parts and then factor in what we can uniquely bring to the table. Evaluate the initial agendas and goals with what we finally agree to; and then estimate to what extent we could have done more—how and why. I’m not interested going in this unprecedented direction unless we can make a difference—a big difference—a uniquely business difference.” LE

First Among Equals

Irving H. Buchen is faculty with Capella University, St Clements University Group. Email ibuchen@msn.com. CEO of The Leadership Circle, state-of-the-art of leader

Book“The Hybrid Leader”

“Why Leaders Fail” – July 2011

“Paradigm-shift Leadership” – July 2007

“Leaders who help their companies break new ground tap the present as their visionary platform of the future, and set a standard for other leaders to contemplate as equals.

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.201321

How Can HR.com Help YOU?The Institute for Human Resources (IHR) provides certification and accreditation to industry professionals along particular HR verticals or domains. In doing this, we are able to build talent pools of highly skilled and trained professionals with critical niche skills and networks that can share best practices across these key HR verticals. The certification and accreditation process is developed through an independent board of advisors who are industry experts within each domain and have access to the latest technology, best practices and thought leaders in their space. The Institute for Human Resources provides two learning programs: Certificate Program and Expert Certification.

IHR Certificate Program IHR Expert Certification

Learning hours/ Credits Per Vertical5 Webcasts/Credits(live or archived)

40 Webcasts/Credits (live or archived)

Number of Verticals 19 Verticals of Study 23 Verticals of Study

Exam Questions(from the webcasts you attended)

25 Questions100 Questions

Time to Complete Exam 1 hour 2.5 hours

Pass Rate 60% 60%

Cost of Exam $99 $499

Testimonials

“I have been conducting webinars for more than two years. I have had experience with at least a dozen organizations and I must say that HR.com is one of the most professional and knowledgeable with which I have worked. I highly recommend HR.com as an online learning provider.” Wally Hauck, PhD, CSP, Organizational Consultant at Optimum Leadership

“Great job! I enjoy the free webinars as I work for a small firm and we do not have a budget for professional development. These types of webinars help keep me connected and refreshed on pressing topics in the industry.” Carla Lawrence, Business Transformation Group

Why Become IHR Certified?

Certification is the best move for your career

• Expand your knowledge and stay on top of the latest trends

• Showcase your expertise

• Be seen as an industry expert

• Improve your earnings and be promoted

• Elevate your status as an HR expert

• Open job prospects

Enhance your understanding and accreditation in leadership, with the Institute for Human Resources.

IHR – Developing Organizational Leadership Capabilities

Begin your certification program today!

CONNECTING HR EXPERTS GLOBALLY Phone: 1.877.472.6648 | Email: certification@hr.com | www.hr.com/ihr

CONNECTING HR EXPERTS GLOBALLY

Brandon WellsburyHR.com, Membership ServicesToll Free: 1-877-472-6648 ext. 116PH: 905-727-1340 ext. 116 bwellsbury@hr.com

The Institute for Human ResourcesDriving Change, Driving Success.

The Institute for Human Resources specializes in helping HR Professionals prepare for PHR and SPHR examinations from the HRCI. HR Professionals can also get completely recertified with the Institute for Human Resources.

PHR/SPHR Exam Preparation HRCI Recertification Services

The IHR utilizes the Human Resources Certification Preparation (HRCP) program to help HR Professionals prepare and pass their PHR or SPHR exam. This program, like no other, offers a 100% money back guarantee that you will pass your exam!

The IHR has a library of nearly 4000 HRCI approved webcast credits, including over 600 eLearning Credits. HRCI Recertification has never been so easy.

Features of the Institute for Human Resources PHR/SPHR Prep Course include:

•36hoursofliveonlineblendedlearningclasseswithan HR instructor and HRM

•6studymanuals,eachcoveringthebodyofknowledge as prescribed by the HRCI

•100sofflashcardstotestyourknowledge,andsolidify your understanding of the curriculum

•Over800onlinepracticeexamquestions

Features of the Institute for Human Resources Recertification service:

•Unlimitedfreewebcasts

•$45pere-learningcreditorunlimitedfor$200peryear

•Totalre-certificationcostwithHR.com$200

•HR.comtracksALLofyourrecertificationcreditsfor you,makingrecertificationano-brainer!

•Over4,000webcastsand600+eLearningcreditsto choosefrom-allHRCIapproved

•HR.comwebcastsalsocounttowardsWorldatWork, and IHR Certification programs

Click here for more information Click here for more information

Telling Lies at WorkHere are the 10 most common ones.

By Carol Goman

Interactive

In the workplace we encounter a variety of lies daily as people fib, flatter, fabricate, prevaricate, equivocate, embellish, take liberties with, bend, or stretch the truth. They boast, conceal, falsify, omit, spread gossip, misinform, or cover-up embarrassing (perhaps even unethical) acts. They lie in order to avoid accepting responsibility, to build status and power, to protect others from hearing a negative truth, to preserve a sense of autonomy, to keep their jobs, to get out of unwanted work, to get on the good side of the boss, to be perceived as team players when their main interest is self-interest. Or they lie because they’re under pressure to perform and because (as one co-worker observed about his teammates) “they lack the guts to tell the boss that what is being asked isn’t doable.”

Some people are better than others at lying. If you are creative, you are one of them. Not because creativity makes you more likely to be dishonest but because you’re probably good at convincing yourself of your own lies. If you have a charismatic or dominant personality (as many C-Suite executives do), you probably also have a special capacity to deceive—which doesn’t mean you lie more than others, it just suggests that when you do, you’re more skilled at it. If you’re an extravert you lie at a higher rate than introverts. If you are intel-ligent, you can think strategically and plan ahead like a good chess player—and you can better handle the “cognitive load” imposed by lying. If you are manipulative or overly concerned about the impres-sion you are making on others you tell more lies. If you are adept at reading body language, you are also adept at sensing when other people are getting suspicious. And if you have a good memory, you are less likely to be tripped up by your falsehoods.

Workplace lies run the gamut, from small ones to whoppers, from benign (even helpful) to destructive. Here are the 10 major categories of lies with examples of each:

1. Social lies are the lubricant of workplace relationships. We couldn’t survive in business or in society without them. With social or “white” lies, there is an implicit deal struck between the liar and the lie-ee: You won’t tell me the unvarnished truth, and I won’t scrutinize everything you say. If I ask you how things are going, I don’t want to hear the story of your life. Just say “fine,” and I’ll do the same.

2. Lies of exaggeration are the embellishments used when people try to appear more capable than they really are. My husband’s an actor. If they need men on horseback for a scene, he’ll swear he’s an expert

rider. He’s not. 3. Lies of omission are meant to mislead by leaving out critical

information and letting the recipient draw the wrong conclusion. The job candidate said he felt “stifled” in his previous job, so he left. He neglected to mention that he’d been fired.

4. Protective lies are often seen as an altruistic alternative to hurting someone’s feelings. I complimented her on the presentation because I didn’t want her to be discouraged.

5. Defensive lies are an attempt to protect oneself or to avoid punishment. It’s not my fault. No one told me that I was supposed to send out the agenda.

6. Blatant falsehoods are readily exposed by other sources or even-tual outcomes. Because of that, the liar is viewed as unaware and out of touch. Recently a senior leader was fired and it was announced as a “retirement.” That was a blatant and stupid lie, as we heard the truth from the person who was let go.

7. Destructive lies poison workplace relationships by destroying trust. We were told it was a matter of cutting costs, and that if we just gave up a little – the company would get back on track. So we did. Only to find out that the top executives had given themselves salary increases and bonuses.

8. Malicious gossip is meant to undermine, harm, or destroy another person’s career. When my colleague didn’t get the assignment, he spread the rumor that I was chosen because I took credit for other people’s ideas.

9. Small lies are readily forgiven or overlooked. My manager gave out an earlier due date (for the completion of a project) than was neces-sary. She knew some people would procrastinate and she wanted to make sure the work was done on schedule.

10. Big lies are almost never forgotten nor forgiven. My boss assured me that my position was secure – then he accidentally copied me on an email about interviewing my replacement. LE

Video

“6 Surprising Truths about Trust”

“How to Deal With Liars at Work”

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is a keynote speaker and author of The Silent Language of Leaders and The Truth About Lies in the Workplace. Visit www.CKG.com, call 510-526-1727, of email: CGoman@CKG.com.

24leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

Performance AppraisalsStart making the context count.

By Ben Dattner

Interactive

Every organization evaluates the performance of its employees in

some way, whether that process is formal or informal, or on a regular cycle or an ad-hoc basis. At a small start-up, feedback is likely to be informal and spontaneous, while larger organizations are likely to have structured systems, including competency models, specific evaluation criteria, and a technology platform that enables quantitative and qualitative input to be collected, aggregated, and stored.

Despite their differences, one attribute that almost all perfor-mance appraisal systems have in common is the focus on the person, not on the situation. Psychologists have long debated whether the characteristics of the person are more important in explaining behavior, or whether behavior can be better explained by the situation. Usually, the answer is it depends—the variance in what people do and how well they do it can be partially explained by the talent, and effort of the people involved, while the remaining variance can be accounted for by the situation.

You can achieve greater accuracy in evaluating employee perfor-mance by considering both the person and the situation. Sadly, this is rarely done. Consider a call center where the performance is assessed based on the volume of sales or dollar amount of charitable donations. It may be the case that two employees sitting in adjacent work spaces are assigned different geographic regions, or different populations of potential customers or donors. An attorney may be working on a single highly complicated case while his office mate is working on multiple routine matters. Or perhaps one employee is selling a hot new product, while her colleague is selling a less compelling item at a similar price point. It would be neither accurate nor fair to evaluate these pairs of colleagues on the same criteria using the same scale and the same reference points.

When you take into account both employee performance and situational factors you can better explain the variance of past results and to take the steps necessary to improve future results. Essentially, the goal is to reduce both noise and bias in the evaluation system—to remove both “random” error and “systematic” error from the calcula-tions of how well employees are doing. Good managers already do this in an informal, implicit way with their teams. But it’s difficult to do it across departments.

This approach relies heavily on trust. Employees might be concerned that excellent performance will be discounted if the situation is viewed

as easy. Organizations might be concerned that unacceptable perfor-mance might be rationalized away if the employee uses hard situational factors as an excuse. A trusting relationship between organizations and employees is a necessary element of success in general, and for performance appraisal in particular to be effective.

Despite these challenges, taking context into account when evaluat-ing employees has three major advantages: First, it’s more accurate. If the evaluation system takes into account that one employee had an easy product to sell and another did not, the system can begin to differentiate how much the results were due to the individual employ-ees, and how much the results were due to the products they were selling. Second, it allows the company to identify underlying factors that affect employee performance. For instance, in a performance appraisal system that only evaluates employees—not situations—you take longer to realize that the problem is the IT infrastructure, not the effort or ability of the people using the technology. Third, employees will perceive their performance appraisals as fairer and less biased. Perceptions of fairness are a key driver of employee motivation, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and cohesion, and retention.

To embed situational considerations into performance appraisal systems, you can add a column to each employee appraisal that asks: “What situational factors made it easier or harder for this employee to achieve his or her goals?” or “What systems, processes, structures, circumstances or events facilitated or constrained this employee’s per-formance?” The employee can comment, the manager can comment, and if it’s a 360, other feedback providers can comment on personal performance and the factors that helped or hindered job performance. Ideally, this approach to performance appraisal can become a situ-ational and contextual factor that helps employees, managers, and organizations learn and perform better over time. LE

.

Video

Ben Dattner is an organizational psychologist, founder of Dattner Consulting, and author of The Blame Game: How the Hidden Rules of Credit and Blame Determine our Success or Failure. This article was originally published by Harvard Business Review online on June 3, 2013.

Book“The Blame Game”

Take the Credit and Blame Self-Assessment

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.201325

7 Rules for Mentoring SuccessFollow these rules for effective mentoring.

By Judy Corner

Interactive

At one recent webinar, 40% of attendees reported they don’t know how successful their mentoring program was because they didn’t measure the results. This statistic is alarming when you recognize the time, effort, and money that goes into creating and supporting a mentoring program. If you don’t measure the results of your program, you can’t measure program success; and if you can’t measure program success, you’ll likely lose the support of management and leadership, and possibly lose your budget as well.

How can you prevent this from happening? Here are our seven rules of success.

1. Provide structure and guidance. I’m often asked: “What steps do I take in this mentoring initiative?” and “What exactly is it I’m supposed to do?” Mentors, mentees, and program administrators need to understand their roles and be given the guidance to achieve that understanding.

2. Agree on the organizational objectives of the program. Have you noticed that everyone around you seems to be incredibly busy? We all have so much on our plates that if mentoring program partici-pants don’t understand the goal of the mentoring program, or how it’s good for the organization or themselves, chances are they aren’t going to devote time and effort to it. Mentoring is a business strat-egy. Focusing on mentoring is focusing on business. Communicate the business objectives tied into your mentoring program to help participants see it that way.

3. Identify success measurements. What will success look like? How will it be measured? Do your mentoring participants know the answers? If not, you’ll see the same pattern that I often see: the program is kicked off with a big bang, interest wanes, and confusion rises. If you don’t identify success measurements, your participants won’t know what to record—and, once again, won’t understand the business objective of the mentoring program. Ultimately, you can’t prove the success of your program—or, can’t identify why your men-toring program was not a success.

4. Gain interest and support from management. When I say management, I’m talking about all levels. Of course, you want senior levels to buy-in and support the initiative, but you also need the support of your mentors’ and mentees’ managers.

5. Clarify roles and provide training. When you ask people to take on a new role, you provide a description of the role, detailing

responsibilities and required skills, and providing training to ensure they can do their roles. When you ask people to become mentors and mentees, you must provide them the same things! And, you need to train the managers involved so that they’re clear on their role in the mentoring partnership, and know how to support it, rather than hinder it.

6. Have a program administrator for guidance. Often when mentors or mentees have a problem they can’t resolve on their own, and have no central authority to turn to, their interest in the partnership drops to the point that it becomes unproductive. You need to have a program administrator to whom participants can turn.

7. Use technology to manage the program and ensure sustain-ability. Depending on the breadth and depth of your mentoring program, you need to use something other than a spreadsheet to manage it. Without a technology solution to manage the program, tracking and reporting on all the objectives and measurements you set up becomes an administration nightmare.

All of these steps can and should be taken pre-implementation. To report on your program’s success, you’ll need to build that capability into your program from day one—whether you use technology or not. LE

Judy Corner is an expert in mentoring at Insala, a leading global provider of mentoring and other talent development solutions through innovative web-based SaaS (Software as a Service) technology. Visit www.insala.com or email info@insala.com.

Video

“How to Prevent 7 Common Problems in Mentoring Programs”

Webinar

“How to Make Your Men toring Program a Success”

26leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

Enhancing AuthenticityYou can do it via workplace design.

By T. Patrick Donnelly

Interactive

Authenticity and engagement are increasingly recognized as key elements to realizing internal and external success. Authenticity—often referring to the degree to which a person brings his or her true self (personality, spirit, and character) to life—in business means operating in accordance with corporate values.

Alas, as Shakespeare wrote, “They should be good men, their affairs as righteous; But all hoods make not monks” (Queen Katherine in Henry VIII).

When leaders are committed to authentic and meaningful relation-ships, they create a foundation that fosters deeper connections with their people and their customers.

One way for leaders to develop authentic and engaged relation-ships is to understand the role of workspace design. The traditional at-the-desk workforce is rapidly being replaced by a mobile and tech-nologically connected network of people. Embracing new and agile ways of working, including restructuring the physical workplace, may be a key to surviving change. When this new perspective becomes an integral part of the mission and vision, it becomes a conduit for meaningful relationships. As companies incorporate workplace design into their strategy, they foster the trust, creativity and innovation that drive substantial improvement and measurable results.

The essence of a company comes from a combination of purposeful design and social anthropology, conveyed in various ways. Design-ing space with an understanding of the corporate essence makes it possible for the space to tell a story. This connects employees to the company’s vision by communicating core values in powerful and unexpected ways. For example, in Camelot, King Arthur exhibited a specific attitude toward governance that presented itself with the way his knights were seated around a table. The round table symbolized what Camelot meant to King Arthur as a leader. Also, the shape of the table (physical environment) indicated how he related to his knights (his employees). Since there is no head at a round table, it implies unity, solidarity and equality among the knights, which impacted results, relationships and behavior.

Today, many corporations present a similar open egalitarian work environment (the flat organization), where the walls are low or non-existent, providing easy access to managers and executives. In contrast, a hierarchical organization has an environment where the predominant design consists of enclosed offices. The message fosters and promotes privacy, emphasizing status and the use of more formal communica-tion channels. Understanding which work environment best fits the organization’s essence and then designing the environment consistent with that spirit increases authenticity.Enhancing Authenticity and Engagement

One way to enhance authenticity and engagement is to examine the physical workspace and verify the effectiveness of employee work processes. Increasing and improving collaboration is often cited as a key component to success. But, what type of collaboration is desired to drive engagement? Is there planned space for employees outfitted with the tools necessary to effectively work together? If collaboration is more likely to take place based on serendipitous employee conver-sations, can employees use existing space in an unscheduled way to promote this type of engagement? If the space is present but is not

optimized to drive business improvement, then what?For example, one real estate organization moved into a new open

workspace and quickly discovered its employees were less effective. That’s because during the design development stage, employees were not involved in the process, helping them understand what success looked like and the potential benefits of the new design. After diag-nosing the way the organization worked most effectively, two-way communication was initiated between management and employees on how to best use the new open workspace. By using the power of the group to determine new behaviors, the organization used both talent and space effectively.

Another way of expressing the company’s essence is through its brand messages—how they want the external world to perceive their company. Authenticity is enhanced when the company examines its brand messages critically to determine if they convey the same meaning to both internal employees and external stakeholders. For instance, a health insurance company may also perceive itself as a wellness company and promote this idea to their customers. Yet, how authentic is this company if the cafeteria serves only greasy comfort food, and there are no onsite amenities and offerings to assist employees in improving health and wellbeing? However, if the company provides for a healthier work/life balance by offering fresh food and produce in the cafeteria, accessible running paths and onsite showers, it is authentically demonstrating to both employees and customer that it is a wellness-oriented company.Putting It All Together

Workplace transformation starts at the top. For example, one high functioning workforce was located in a segmented office space with enclosed offices and high-panel workstations. The leaders wanted to create cultural and performance improvement but faced skepticism, uncertainty, and resistance. Yet employees and leaders worked together to create a workplace strategy and design. This active engagement and participation in creating a shared vision turned skeptics into promoters of cultural transformation.

A key requirement was to create unique spaces to support new ways of working: in teams, alone doing heads-down work or working virtu-ally with others in different locations. Other requirements included lowering workstation partitions to see and feel the energy of the team, promote collaboration and improve access to natural sunlight, as well as eliminating offices to improve access to leadership. Employees were actively involved in a strategy to clearly and accurately communicate, both conceptually and tactically, what it meant and did not mean to change. This resulted in the definition of intended behaviors and enabled user groups to understand the science behind the design.

The final design resulted in: an open-office floor plan and cafe that encouraged awareness of others and supported interactions between team members to facilitate collaboration; shared space equipped with state-of-the-art technology to tap into the power of collaboration; better access to mentors by removing office walls and doors; individual workstations configured for concentrated, heads-down work; and many different spaces to provide employees choices about what works best for them, driving both satisfaction and engagement.

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.201327

Judith was an apparel executive who was lured away from a good job to run a flagging division at a rival company. Her mandate was to restore her group to profitability in five years, and to stand out among the company’s three other divisions who were direct competitors with minor niche differences.

I caught up with Judith three years into her tenure, and learned her division had introduced a hit product line that was the talk of the industry, delivering monster profits ahead of schedule and outpacing her rivals. I asked her how she did it.

“I couldn’t compete for the same designers, the same materials and the same customers. Other divisions were already established, and the people running them were huge personalities. So I ventured into the blue water—uncontested space where no one else was competing. I hired creative people from places like Australia and Eastern Europe. I identified a couple of underserved customer bases and went after them. And I placed big bets that, to my amazement, paid off big. But the key was that I didn’t have a choice except to find the blue water. Anything less and I’d sink before I could swim.”

Judith’s contrarian strategy bolstered her identity and changed the context of her achievements. She was contributing to the best growth — unexpected. Her strategy makes sense, but it took courage and insight to resist direct competition with her peers.

Most of us want to be judged by how well we play on the same

field with the same rules as everyone else. The smarter move is to sup-press that blunt burst of ego and seek an untapped niche. Would you rather be the No. 4 player in a big pond where the growth potential is restricted by competitors, or No. 1 in a smaller pond where the growth potential is limitless?

Early in my career, I made such a choice. If I’m known for any original idea, it’s my customized 360-degree feedback. When I started in the 1980s, 360 feedback already had traction. But I wondered: since companies had different cultures and expectations of their people, why should their 360 programs be uniform? What if you tailored feedback questions to their specific needs? No one was asking that question or presenting the alternative. So I did. I found my blue water. I didn’t create a new market—I offered an improved product to the existing market, a safe niche that for years was mostly mine.

Successful people don’t deny this impulse to differentiate—they embrace it. Like my contribution to 360 feedback, it can be small in scope and ambition. It merely has to be yours alone.

Creating a design, through collaboration produced a more ef-ficient and effective work environment. Applied-research efforts also informed the design. They communicated proven outcomes for both space and people, which in turn built trust and confidence in the solution. This step helped gain the commitment of employees to make the dramatic shift from a closed-office, high-cubicle, traditional workplace to a radically more open, multiple-activity, technologically enabled and socially interactive environment. Engaging the employees who would be affected by a change and enabling them to co-create the change to their work environment enabled their ideas and concerns about the change to be heard. When their ideas were tested and integrated into the design, and the story built and communicated to champion the change, real transformation occurred. From day one, employees worked better with each other, improving their work output and work experience over time.Navigating the Path Forward

Business improvement is impacted by the way change is com-municated. Many employees are uncomfortable with change. They fear the unknown and what it will be like to move from the current state into the future. Making the unknown known and helping em-ployees see the reasons for change in a positive way paves the way for a smoother journey to the ideal future state. When leaders explain the reasons for and benefits of the change, along with the consequences of not changing, they can have a powerful impact on behavior, en-abling employees to get onboard, navigating the path forward. The way a workspace is designed can be a catalyst for communicating effectively with employees. It can reinforce the company’s vision—or

it can express limitations and barriers to progress. When a workspace design is focused on the essence of the organization, it promotes success. Environments that encourage authenticity and engagement leverage the passion and strength of employees, helping companies attract and retain the right people to navigate change and propel them forward with a stronger, more cohesive workforce. LE

T. Patrick Donnelly, AIA, LEED AP, MCR.h, is an owner and client leader at BHDP Architecture, designing environments that affect the behaviors needed to achieve strategic results. Visit BHDP.com or call (513) 271-1634.

“Authenticity,” May 2013

Enhancing Authenticity

By Marshall Goldsmith

They may need emergency mojo analysis.

Teach People to Stand Out

Interactive

“Why Leaders Lose Their Way,” August 2008

“Leveraging the Power of Imagination”

Video

28leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

In a scene in the Harrison Ford movie “Clear and Present Danger,” the president of the United States convenes a group of advisers to deal with a crisis: one of the president’s friends and major fundrais-ers has been assassinated by Colombian drug dealers for whom he was laundering money. His chief advisers recommend that he put as much distance as possible between himself and his murdered friend.

CIA analyst Jack Ryan, played by Ford, suggests the opposite: “If they ask were you friends,” he tells the president, “say, ‘No, we were good friends.’ If they ask were you close, say, ‘We were lifelong friends.’ Don’t give them any room to go. End of story. There’s no sense defusing a bomb after it has already gone off.”

We can’t all be transformative geniuses who see the world in a paradigm-shifting light. We can’t all be inventors of the PC in a mainframe world. But we can all find a way to differenti-ate ourselves and achieve a small slice of singularity in our world.

Do You Need A Mojo Analysis? One of the first people to use my Mojo Scorecard system was a mar-

keting executive named Teri. The scorecard details a person’s activities and then rates them based on several factors related to satisfaction, both personal (happiness, rewards, meaning) and professional (motiva-tion, knowledge, ability). Teri had jumped from job to job in her 20s and early 30s, but she finally felt at home in a health food company. Within five years, after she developed a hit product that delivered half the company’s profits, she was named president of its most important division. She was earning a seven-figure salary—but she was miserable.

That’s when I met Teri and invited her to give the scorecard a trial run for a typical day. I wanted to pinpoint why she was unhappy in a job that offered her everything she could ask for—authority, great pay and the satisfaction of seeing her ideas ship out the door and succeed in the market. Had the job that had changed, or was it Teri?

Her professional spirit was high. Teri was a very capable and moti-vated executive; she brought a lot to any task, and it showed in how she rated herself on motivation, knowledge, ability, confidence and authenticity. Her personal spirit, however, was spotty, confirming that she neither found happiness nor meaning in what she did.

Her scores were very low for the daily staff meeting with her depart-ment heads. When I asked Teri about this, she said she felt powerless when her staff brought up problems that needed fixing, not because she couldn’t handle them, but because she had no confidence that her staff would resolve them to her satisfaction.

I had seen this problem many times before when capable people are promoted to leadership positions. Suddenly they don’t have enough time to handle every problem. They have to rely on others, and hope these people do their jobs well. They lose control at the precise moment when they acquire power. “Your job has changed,” I told her. “You’re the boss now. You can’t fix everything yourself, and it’s killing your mojo.”

Teri was unhappy, feeling trapped in a big job that she couldn’t tailor to provide happiness and meaning. Since she couldn’t change the job, she decided to change who she was—from a corporate leader who had to rely on others to a solo practitioner who only had to rely on herself. That meant quitting her job and starting her own opera-tion in the same field. On day one, she had one employee—herself. But she was happy.

The scorecard helped Teri identify the source of her unhappiness. It wasn’t that she couldn’t satisfy the job’s requirements, but that the job couldn’t satisfy hers.

In another company, Jim had almost an identical problem, but chose the opposite response, with an equally positive outcome. Jim changed himself. He realized that being a great leader, which he wanted to be, meant learning how to delegate effectively and empowering others. He admitted that much of the problem was him, not his team members. He recruited his team to help him become a great delegator, and he succeeded.

Teri and Jim chose different approaches to solving the same problem. Both approaches worked. Teri changed the situation, and Jim changed himself.

No one can tell you which approach is better for you. My advice is simple: consider your long-term spirit. Can you find more happi-ness and meaning by changing the situation or by changing yourself? What are your real alternatives? Conduct a spirit analysis, make your decision, accept the trade-offs and get on with life. LE

Teach People to Stand Out

Marshall Goldsmith is the pre-eminent executive coach and one of the top thought leaders on Leadership, author of the bestsellers MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. Email marshall@marshallgoldsmitih.com.

“Questions That Make a Difference Every Day”

Survey

Participate in Marshall’s Daily Questions Survey

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.201329

Lead the WayKeep growing and changing.

By Patricia Wheeler

Interactive

The CEO was nervous. His technology company was positioned for growth, but risked losing margin to aggressive competitors. He needed to spend more time on strategic initiatives, targeting potential acquisition targets, and developing successors. But his senior team, technically talented individuals, tended to rely on him to chart the tactical direction and manage many details. Upon reflection, he knew he needed them to step up their game, individually as well as a team.

The CEO asked me to help him develop his team. “Often they wait for me to bring the ideas to the table. They’re closest to the markets where we need to expand,” he said with frustration. “I need ideas and strategies from them. How do I get them to operate more strategically?”

“You go first,” I said. We interviewed the CEO’s most important stakeholders, including his board of directors. He was described by most as a hard-driving guy who too often became mired in details and who, when anxious, intimidated and cross-examined his direct reports in team meetings. While he wanted them to generate ideas and take risks, his behavior did not encourage these actions.

He decided that he needed to focus on looking ahead and trusting his team to lead at a higher level. He asked, “How do I make sure that if I change, that this will lead to a change in them?”

I told him that it was crucial for him to be transparent about his intentions. He needed to begin a conversation with them about the change and his expectations of them, and of himself. In the next meeting, he told his team of his development targets, which included trusting them more to manage operations and listening more to their ideas. He told them that doing this would give him more strategic time and bandwidth.

The CEO’s announcement set a new tone for senior team meet-ings. Long-time employees spoke up more. With his encouragement, peers reached out more to one another to discuss trends and ideas in the marketplace. Each team member became aware of the need to develop their strategic capabilities and develop bench strength in their business units.

The CEO was pleased with the progress. He asked, “How do we keep this up?”

“You go first.” He assembled his team for their mid-year review. Near the end of

the meeting, he reminded them of his intention to lead at a more strategic level and give them more autonomy to lead. He asked them for their suggestions going forward. After a brief awkward silence, team members began speaking up. They spoke of his successes thus far and the difference it had made for their team. They spoke of how his change had boosted their energy and drive to win. He reminded them that he wasn’t perfect and that he had slipped a few times and reverted to his old style; they jokingly acknowledged this and agreed to signal when this occurred in the future.

Months down the road, the team was never better. Collectively they were generating more ideas about navigating their complex business challenges and taking the calculated risks that would move them into new markets. They’re engaged, they’re more strategic, they’re winning, and they want this to be sustainable.

To what degree do you need to develop the leaders under you? If this is important to you, lead the way—go first.

Keep GrowingNew York Times reporter Janet Rae-Dupree asked: Why do some

people reach their creative potential in business while other equally talented peers don’t?

Whether you are a senior leader tasked with developing others or an ambitious up-and-comer, have you asked yourself this question? We’ve all seen the near-misses: people who had talent to spare but never quite made it, and those like the tortoise in Aesop’s fable, who enjoyed eventual success that seemed out of reach to most observers.

Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck argues that the answer lies in how people think about talent: Those who believe they were born with all the smarts and gifts they’re ever going to have approach life with a fixed mind-set. Those who believe that their abilities can expand over time, live with a growth mind-set.

As an executive coach, I encounter many people who have a stellar track record, off-the-chart IQ, great technical expertise and a track history of success who reach a career plateau. The pampered and pedi-greed are often the ones who stumble, due to their fixed mindset. They are tapped as stars, often from early childhood. Cheered on by doting, praise-lavishing parents, they develop the sense that their talents are God-given qualities that they can count on for future success. All too often, they feel entitled to succeed and become risk-avoidant, fearing the embarrassment of failure. They deal with obstacles by giving up, feigning disinterest or blaming others. Or, having enjoyed many early wins, they keep on doing what made them successful, despite the fact that the world changes around them (not a great recipe for ongoing success).

In contrast, I work with other individuals who, despite a rather pedestrian early track record, lack of Ivy League pedigree, surpass those chosen ones by developing a growth mindset. I’m reminded of Mark, a VP I coached. An unassuming, salt-of-the-earth guy, he was a bright, results-oriented executive who turned off his peers with his brusque style and impatience. His manager was pessimistic that he could or would change. And Mark indeed had no patience with fluff. He needed a clear business case for making any behavior change. Once he understood that listening more and increasing his patience would lead to even better buy-in from others, which improved his department’s work product, he embraced the change enthusiastically. Mark implemented his development plan diligently with great results, to the astonishment of his manager.

Mark was never a natural star or charismatic presence, he’s a regular guy who approaches challenges with curiosity and sees roadblocks as signs that he needs to change strategy, increase effort, stretch himself and try new behaviors (signs of high emotional intelligence). In our early meetings, he took a learner’s approach to his 360-degree feedback. Although surprised, he didn’t deflect or blame his stakeholders. A very private man, he was faced his fear of disclosing more about himself to others, as long as he was clear that doing so would enhance his leadership. He embraced the possible.

How can you adopt an attitude that enables you to grow and change? First, listen to yourself. What are the internal music and lyrics that

you hear inside your head? Are you telling yourself to give up? That your challenges are the fault of other, less wonderful, less enlightened

30leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

people? Or do you tell yourself that you can figure out what abilities you need to grow or stretch toward to succeed? These belief systems are the underpinning of the success….and failure…of many.

Second, create a regular time and space to reflect on who you are—your beliefs, your vision, your inner dialogue. This will be unfamiliar and uncomfortable for those who value speed and are used to a track record of stardom. My advice: do it anyway.

Third, find a partner to serve as spotter and dialogue partner as you grow. This could be a trusted colleague or an experienced execu-tive coach. They’ll help you leverage your strengths and stay out of the way of your blind spots.

In my recent conversation with Mark, I listened as he described how he now observes patterns in meetings. “Now that I know myself better,” he said, “I see how other people use different behaviors to manage stress. I’m less impatient with them because I know what they’re trying to do, and I don’t let it get to me.” In fact, Mark is using his new knowledge in developing and mentoring others. His department is delivering results, and company leaders are asking him and his team to participate in highly visible and strategic projects.

What started out as a simple self-improvement project by an or-dinary guy has turned into a big win for his company—largely because of his willingness to adopt and use a mindset of growth. LE

Patricia Wheeler is Managing Partner of The Levin Group, a global leader-ship advisory firm. Email patricia@thelevingroup.com.

Lead the Way

Survey

Do you have a Growth Mindset? Find out with this survey

How to change from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset

Inspiring quotes reflecting the Growth Mindset

If asked to tell why leading organizations succeed, you might say it has much to do with having: visionary and effective leadership, a clear and compelling purpose and strategy, the right offerings tied to a powerful and unique value proposition, the right people and skills, real teamwork and collaboration, the right knowledge and insight, a keen focus on the needs of customers, and a bit of luck.

You might also add award-winning quality, along with the right systems and processes and cutting-edge technology. You might even include logistics—the quiet glue that makes everything flow together. But you likely wouldn’t include strangers.

Why should you include people you have never met before and are not likely to go out of your way to meet? After all it’s hard enough to get important things done by ourselves or with the help of people we know, understand, and trust, without having to worry about involving people we don’t know.

Strangers should figure into your thinking about success. In a diverse world filled with strangers, new insights, and limitless possibilities, your ability to connect with, learn from, and work effectively with people who are very different than you is key to your success. Strangers often play vital roles in four areas:

1. Innovation. To grow and prosper, enterprises must continually deliver even greater value to their customers by developing better products, services, and solutions; creating more remarkable and customer experiences; and improving the quality and efficiency of the ways they produce and distribute their offerings. Otherwise, they risk becoming less relevant. And while almost every organization talks about the importance of innovation, most are stuck with an odd and limiting notion of how innovation happens—a notion that severely limits their ability to be brilliant when it matters most. It’s a notion built around the belief that the best way to come up with the best new

ideas is to put our smartest people in a room together to brainstorm. Consider this: 99 percent of all new ideas are based on an idea or

practice that someone or something else has already had. This is a call to get out of our offices or meeting rooms and wander around and engage strangers and fresh ideas. This simple step enabled Igor Sikorsky to create breakthroughs in vertical flight, George de Mestral to invent Velcro, Vidal Sassoon to reimagine the world of hair design, Nissan to design cars that will not collide, and most other folks who have changed the direction of their industries. And I suggest that the Apple iTunes store owes some part of it’s inspiration to the Great Library in Alexandria, Egypt, which was in it’s day the world’s largest repository of content—holding 400,000 documents long before print.

All of us have been taught to believe that it is whom we know that matters. But that is simply too narrow a worldview. It’s whom we could know that matters more.

2. Engagement. Most organizations acknowledge that people are their most important assets, yet struggle to unlock their talents and brilliance from the start. Why? Most aren’t good at being open to the ideas of strangers—even when we hire strangers who are like us. And our failure to engage new employees begins the moment they arrive with orientation—an experience in which we try as quickly as possible to bring them into the fold and teach them the way that we do things so they can get with the program and make a real contribution. But what if our way isn’t the best way? Wouldn’t we be way better off to gain their expertise and insights as soon as they arrive before we suck the energy, enthusiasm, and creativity out of them? After all, they have the freshest ideas.

The average job tenure for employees in the U.S. is four years, and only one year for workers under 30. Could it be that most people decide to leave so quickly because we fail to capture their interests, imagination, real talents, and hearts on day one? That in our rush to do more of the same, we treat them as replaceable cogs in the wheel? And since we fail to view them as uniquely valuable, we also fail to help them see the powerful connection between their dreams and our ongoing success. If only we could accomplish this at the beginning, we could inspire them to learn more, take greater initiative, and become more invested in making us better, possibly even for the long haul. But we need to appreciate that most people are strangers looking for someplace to make a difference.

By Alan Gregerman

The key to insight, innovation, success.

Necessity of Strangers

Interactive

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.201331

3. Collaboration. The future belongs to organizations that col-laborate internally and externally. To collaborate, we have to be open to learning from, and leveraging the talents of, strangers—people outside and inside our enterprises. In large organizations most people are strangers—collections of names on cubes and faces at all hands meetings—people we often see as a set of stereotypes tied to their roles, job titles, departments, or training. And most of us can’t get past these perceptions to do remarkable things together. We put up walls that protect our interests and guard our knowledge at the expense of the greater good. The challenge is even clearer when these strangers work in other organizations that we may choose to partner or merge with.But what if we could connect as people first, seeking to find common ground before trying to tackle a pressing business problem or a new opportunity? If we could, we would quickly understand that our similarities are a powerful bond that connects us as humans while our differences enable us to break new ground and be more brilliant together. Leading global companies and their alliances openly share their knowledge and challenges with each other—unlike the 75 percent of acquisitions that fail.

4. Growth. To grow any business, we need to connect with and provide greater value to strangers—strangers who have lots of choices and more complete information about those choices. In today’s internet-driven economy, all of us to have to figure out how to connect with, understand, and serve customers who are really strangers and who still expect to be treated with remarkable care even when we may never see them face-to-face. Things like making them smarter and more capable, enabling them to get the greatest benefit from our products and services, being much more responsive and flexible in meeting their needs, asking them for their suggestions on ways to make our offerings more meaningful, and even making them smile. That’s why old and new companies like REI, Staples, RepairClinic.com, Popularise, and CD Baby stand out—each realizes that if we fail to make a meaningful connection, customers will leave us in a heartbeat. The Leader’s Role

In a world filled with strangers, new ideas, new markets, and new possibilities, here are the six essential roles of leaders:

1. Inspire us to be more remarkable in meeting the needs of cus-tomers.

2. Help us to appreciate our knowledge and talents and the most important gaps that keep us from reaching our potential.

3. Encourage us to look beyond our walls and expertise to connect with, understand, and leverage the insight of strangers from all walks of life.

4. Teach us the importance of welcoming new employees and new partnerships as a way to expand our possibilities.

5. Empower us to collaborate more passionately by building cul-tures of curiosity and conversation in which we seek to consistently find new connections and new ideas and perspectives that stretch our thinking and action.

6. Demonstrate their belief in the necessity of strangers as a key to success.

Each day most of us pass by 100 people and places that could change our lives and the fortunes of our organizations, but we don’t notice, connect, and learn from them simply because we have better things to do. Maybe it’s time to change the way we look at the world around us. LE

Necessity of Strangers

Alan Gregerman is author of The Necessity of Strangers. Visit www.alangre-german.com.Email innovate@venture-works.com.

“The Necessity of Strangers”

“Fostering Creativity and Innovation”

Book

“The Necessity of Strangers”

32leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

Leading from the EdgeDoes your model support sustainability?

By Annmarie Neal

Interactive

Business continues to be marked by turbulence, complexity, ambiguity, and speed. Never before has the world been so networked and transparent. The rules of the global game are different as new competitors from developing economies emerge and challenge tradi-tional business models. And the rules are changing for leaders as well.

Over the years, serving as a management consultant in charge of executive development, I have assessed and developed thousands of leaders, most of whom were preparing for or already serving in global assignments. I’ve learned that certain traits distinguish those who hold global positions from those who are truly global leaders. The differences have little to do with age, gender, where they were raised or schooled, and the kind of on-the-job training they received or the number of countries stamped in their passports. Such factors contribute to the ability to do global work and to learn and grow, but they do not make a global leader. I find is that differentiating qualities are more psychographic than demographic in nature.

An unusually astute sense of self translates into an ability to un-derstand the world and the people around you on many levels and in many contexts. A purpose to change the world, coupled with a powerful strength of conviction, keeps leaders pushing forward in the face of obstacles or pressures by others to do something else, while not forgetting their responsibility to satisfy the needs of the board, shareholders, customers, or employees. Recall how N.R. Narayana Murthy, a co-founder of Infosys Ltd., the Indian-based business con-sulting, technology, engineering, and outsourcing services company, resisted political corruption in his country to change the way business is done in India.

Many exceptional leaders possess a rare capacity to rapidly absorb, synthesize, and organize information that helps them understand the world around them, even when that world is radically different from what they have experienced before. They can then use this new world-view to determine how best to lead themselves and their enterprises, enabling them to respond more quickly and effectively to market changes and opportunities. The ability to make connections and inter-connections across industries, technologies, markets, and geographies is a key skill for global leaders—essential to developing strategies and collaborative relationships that sustain a company over time.

Another vital trait is in knowing when what worked in the past is destined for failure going forward. When they find a good model, say Dell’s Build it to Order, many leaders have a hard time letting go. For global leaders, this dilemma is amplified, given the need to operate multiple business models simultaneously worldwide. Truly global leaders need the intellectual acuity to know what to keep, what to destroy, and what to recreate across their organizations to remain relevant to markets and constituents. 

And, they need the emotional intelligence and the mettle to take action, especially when what must be destroyed is exactly what made them successful in the past. Consider how LEGO dramatically undertook an aggressive diversification plan (changed its business model) expanding its business beyond the traditional interconnecting building blocks to include a new line of clothing, theme parks and video games to improve revenue and capture greater market value.

While more of an operations focus and engineering mentality may

have been successful in the past, today’s leader needs to be more of an inventor and an experimenter, willing to try out a new idea (a hypothesis) and recognize that failure (disproving the hypothesis) can be just as valuable, if not more so, than when the hypothesis turns out to be correct. Experimentation is a critical component of the reinvention process—whether you are reinventing a product, a solution, your business model or organizational structure, and even an industry platform or standard.

Failure is a necessary ingredient to success. Leaders need to learn how to fail: How to understand it, learn from it, and importantly, how to recover from it. Learning how to fail is essential if you want to know how to be successful. As Winston Churchill said, “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthu-siasm.” Failure is not the opposite of success but rather an integral part of the invention, reinvention, and innovation process.  Within each failure are lessons that develop experienced judgment to apply to subsequent reinvention or innovative projects.

Today leaders need to see their corporations as if they are part of living systems, in which the success of the individual is dependent upon the success of the larger whole. In the business world, they understand that the success of the corporation is dependent upon the success of the broader ecosystems. For Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat, im-provement of his company’s core product, Linux software, depends on cooperation among software developers around the world far beyond

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.201333

those on Red Hat’s payroll. This approach is in sharp contrast to the more common economics of scarcity in which something of value is protected by copyrights and is only available to those willing to pay for it. In Whitehurst’s world, value is actually created by maximizing access, which increases the size of the brain trust working on a given problem. This approach, long lauded by the free software movement, can yield unprecedented results.

Today’s leaders also need to not only learn to appreciate messiness on the outer edge of their organizations. This requires co-existing in two worlds—one that is more reminiscent of the past, where a certain level of control and oversight is important to drive today’s performance expectations, and another where the leader sets the vision and then gives permission to those working on the edge to self-organize and find solutions—often to problems that have not even been considered or created. By understanding and balancing the needs of both worlds, leaders can stay profitable today, which can help financially support innovation for the future. To do so, leaders need to be comfortable with the messiness inherent in a knowledge (versus industrial) economy. 

Leadership at a global level has the capacity to change the world, for good or for bad. Leaders need to be much more aware of the impact their operations have (environmental and social responsibility) and adjust processes and policies to promote sustainability. Growth going forward must depend upon business models that support sustainability: of communities, of workforces, of the environment.

For many businesspeople, a word like empathy seems too soft. But empathy can yield very tangible business results on many fronts, from employee engagement to product design to identifying new market opportunities.

Authenticity is even more critical in a world of social networking, where anything you do or say can be captured and shared in minutes, if not seconds. For Frits van Paasschen, CEO of Starwood Properties transparency is a fact of life. In his manifesto on leadership, written in early 2012 for the employees of his worldwide hotel and resort network, Frits says, “It’s not enough to have a strong brand or a great product. People expect to know about the company behind the brand and the people behind the product. Thanks to Facebook, Wikileaks, and LinkedIn—there are few degrees of separation anymore. All the world’s a digital stage. LE

Annmarie Neal, Psy.D., former chief talent officer at Cisco Systems and First Data Corporation, is founder of the Center of Leadership Innovation—spe-cializing in innovation and transformation annmarie@centerforleadershi-pinnovation.com. Follow on @nealannmarie.

Leading from the Edge

“Desperately Seeking In novation”

“Leading from the Edge”

Book

“Leading from the Edge”

Two men, down on their luck, sit on a park bench in shabby clothes watching businesspeople in crisp suits rushing to their offices. The first man says, “The reason I’m here is because I refused to listen to anybody.”

“That so?” replies the second fella. “I’m here because I listened to everybody.”

Both practices are recipes for disaster. Successful people don’t take the advice of everyone, nor do they try to do everything on their own. Instead, they find successful models who exemplify the values, skills and qualities they desire to possess.

If you’re a leader, I hope you have already found models to follow, but that’s not what I want to discuss. I ask you this simple question: Are you worthy of followers?

One key leadership principle I’ve discovered is this: People do what people see. When your team looks at you, when they watch what you do day in and day out, what do they see? If they were to emulate you, how would you rate them?

I base my leadership primarily on my values and a pragmatic ap-proach. I do what I know works. But I’m also aware that others are watching me and following my lead.

What I do, they will do. How I work, they will work. What I value,

they will value. So I ask myself: What kinds of traits do I want to model? Here are three:

1. A passion for personal growth. I know too many people who suffer from Destination Disease. They’ve identified a certain career posi-tion or financial goal they want to reach, and then they work very hard to achieve that goal. But once they get there, they stop working hard and growing. This mindset creates two problems for leaders. First, it causes them to stall. You’ll stop improving the moment you lose the tension between where you are and where you have the potential to be. Second, it sets a bad example for their followers. Think about it: How many people in your current circle didn’t see your former self, the one who fought hard to achieve? If you’re resting on your laurels, they’ll assume you are doing what you’ve always done and follow suit. If you feel yourself slowing down, it’s time for a self-assessment. If you’re done working, retire and get out of the way of your business. But if you stay, you must keep striving. If you slacken, your people

By John C. Maxwell

What do your people see in you?

People See, People Do

Interactive

Video

34leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

will do the same—Destination Disease is highly contagious. To keep it from taking hold, set new, higher goals for yourself and make sure your people see you pursuing them. It’s a surefire way to keep your organization humming.

2. A heart for people. If you’ve ever seen me in person, you know I don’t blitz through a crowd. Instead, I stroll across a room, shaking hands, saying hello, offering smiles. It’s my way of showing that I care. I’m a busy guy, but these moments are worth the pause. People want to know that the leaders they follow can be trusted. They want to know that the leader cares about them as people, not just as tools to help realize a vision. Taking this extra time also forces me to stop and listen. How can you add value to people if you don’t know them and understand what they want? So slow down. Talk. Listen. Connect. This practice will not only help you grow as a leader, it will also establish a caring culture across all levels of your organization.

3. An ability to coach others to reach their potential. “The only difference between a rich person and a poor person,” says Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki, “is how they use their time.” Boy—is that statement ever true of successful people! This is one principle I really try to model for my team. You won’t catch me idling. You will see me trying to wring the most out of every day. Here’s a good place to segue into another way I like to cultivate leaders: by mentoring them. You can model all sorts of valuable traits, but sometimes people need hands-on help, too. One of the best things I did for a member of my leadership team years ago was to meet with her every few months to talk about her priorities. She was a good leader and got a lot done, but she sometimes lost sight of the big picture. Our regular meetings helped her to stay on track.

If you can learn to coach people, you’ll help them, your organiza-tion and yourself. By coaching, I don’t just mean giving people the skills to do a job. That’s training, which does have value. But coach-ing—that long-term, guiding relationship—is even more impactful. According to the International Personnel Management Association, training increases productivity by 22 percent, while a combination of training and coaching increases it by 88 to 400 percent!

This is a message I practice as much as I preach. Early in my career I offered experienced leaders $100 for 30 minutes of their time, just

so I could ask questions of them. That would work out to around $1,000 in today’s dollars. I really couldn’t afford it back then, but it was the best way to learn. Even today, I look for guidance from other leaders I admire.

“You will never maximize your potential in any area without coach-ing,” my friend Andy Stanley writes in Next Generation Leader. “You may be good. You may even be better than everyone else. But without outside input you will never be as good as you could be. Self-evaluation is helpful, but evaluation from someone else is essential.”

So mentor your people. Show them how you seek guidance on your own endless quest for self-improvement. And remember these words by Andrew Carnegie: “As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.” Are you doing what you want your team to do? LE

John C. Maxwell is a leadership expert, speaker, and best-selling author of books on leadership, founder of EQUIP, a NPO that has trained more than 5 million leaders in 126 countries. Visit www.johnmaxwell.com or email info@johnmaxwell.com.

“The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth”Book

“The Not So Secret Path to Greatness”

People See, People Do

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.201335

By Eric Lowitt

Take nine tips for success. Collaboration Interactive

For my book The Collaboration Economy, I interviewed 21 CEOs who embody the way forward for 21st-century leadership. Representing small, mid-size and large companies, they all share key characteristics—one being that they believe that companies are no longer capable of solely determining their destiny. Instead, they said companies must work to influence the outcome through long-range planning, partner-ships and acting in concert with their stakeholders (often ignored in favor of shareholders).

I’ve identified these nine essential leadership skills and traits:1. Act with humility. Each CEO I interviewed displayed humil-

ity, preferring to shine the spotlight on their companies, employees, partners and practices rather than themselves. This is a great leadership trait in a collaboration economy.

2. View leadership as a privilege, not a right. John Replogle, CEO of consumer goods company Seventh Generation, says this perspec-tive leads him to emphasize actions and investments that further his company’s mission. “I approach my role as CEO as one of privilege, responsibility and stewardship,” he says.

3. Nurture an unwavering commitment to true purpose. Con-necting with employees around a shared purpose, not just a mission statement focused on financial goals, is key to success. Unilever CEO Paul Polman says his company must “play our part in improving lives, enabling a more sustainable way of living by consumers and [provid-ing] shareholder growth. That is our purpose.” Based on that purpose, Polman took the bold step of ceasing to report quarterly profits. “We don’t run the business on 90-day horizons, so why report on that basis?”

4. Serve as activist-in-chief for your constituents. Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of H&M, buys nearly $1.5 billion of ready-made garment products from Bangladesh each year. Recognizing its reli-ance on Bangladesh labor, H&M is leading a movement to ensure the workers there are treated with respect and paid fair wages. Persson travelled to Bangladesh to meet with key influencers to make the case for increasing worker wages.

5. Take a long (longer-than-tenure) view. An excellent example of this is President Kennedy’s proposal to land a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s. Had he lived, his second term would have been over in 1968, so he might not have been president to celebrate the achievement. But he recognized that this goal was more important to America and its future than any personal glory for him.

6. Believe in and rely on partnerships. Replogle of Seventh Gen-eration says that his company relies heavily on its network and uses a chart to measure and track the effectiveness of its partnerships. “Seventh Generation is a living, breathing network. We are about partnering, collaborating, and amplifying our assets. Our company does not have boundaries – there are no start or end points within our company. Everything we do is through a network.”

7. Act with integrity, guided by an ethical compass. It’s not difficult to find examples of companies brought down by their own greed, hubris and CEO-led malfeasance. In the collaboration economy, the most successful companies and CEOs will act in a transparent manner. Transparency attracts partners, strengthening a company’s network with players from all sectors – private, public and civil.

8. Have an iron stomach … and patience. In a mature industry,

major changes rarely happen overnight, so when Grieg Shipping Group subsidiary Grieg Green decided to change how they dispose of un-wanted vessels, they knew they were in it for the long haul. “Recognize and accept that you have a long-term battle in front of you,” advises CEO Petter Heier. “The people who don’t want change to occur are waiting for you to run out of energy. So it’s in your best interest to demonstrate your beliefs to non-believers, internally and externally.” For Heier, that means travelling to Asia from Norway every six weeks to meet his partners and demonstrate his commitment to change.

9. Feed constructive discontent. Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent says his greatest legacy at Coca-Cola will be to help the company and its employees remain constructively discontent. “I’m often asked what worries me, what keeps me up at night,” he says. “And I’ll tell you: arrogance. Because any time anyone begins to think they’ve got it all figured out, that’s when they get wiped out. By a competitor. A new environment. Or some other meteor, right out of the blue.”

Our world has become too intertwined, interconnected and inter-dependent for a leader to guide his or her company to success based on a steel will and a “best-way-forward-is-straight-ahead” mentality. It is time to accept that yesterday’s management cannon no longer works in today’s collaboration economy. LE

Eric Lowitt is founder of Nexus Global Advisors, a leading strategy, collabora-tion, and sustainability advisory firm, a strategy and sustainability advisor to CEOs, and author of The Collaboration Economy and The Future of Value. Visit www.EricLowitt.com.

Book

“The Future of Value”

“Incrementalism Must Die. Now.”

“The Collaboration Economy”

36leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

By David A. Rude

Developing leaders to succeed.

New Cultures Interactive

New leaders face huge challenges in figuring out culture-related complexities. How often do we hear incoming leaders pronounce sweeping cultural changes, only to hear the undercurrent of resistance? Can leaders expect employees to trust their intentions when they are not attuned to the culture? Culture is not changed simply by virtue of a new leader’s position or doctrine.

Attempts to change culture often encounter stiff resistance. Leaders arriving to the scene can be welcomed “just as they are” or denied being socialized into the culture. In this sense, culture involves sanc-tioning by employees. New leaders have inherent blind spots when entering a new environment, which may result in their disregarding inadvertently sacrosanct cultural norms, values, and assumptions. These perilous conditions reflect the cultural tension that new leaders encounter. To navigate cultural complexities requires great leadership skill. Multiple cultures may exist within the portfolio governed by the leader. Compared to understanding the strategy, structure, and power sources, culture can be a much harder code to crack.

Many definitions of culture exist, with little consensus, since there are many perspectives around whether, for example, an organization can have one single, unifying culture. I offer this definition: Culture is represented by basic assumptions that are shared by groups within an organization, richly described through the espousal of values and symbols that assign substantive meaning to tangible artifacts (stories, rituals, norms). Culture depends on leadership and the express sanc-tioning by employees.

How can culture be studied by leaders and development profes-sionals? To gain insights into the culture, a good starting point for new leaders is to interview leaders, managers, and employees at all

levels and across horizontal business units. For example, based on interviews and observations, two themes are relevant to most new leader acculturation situations.

Theme 1: temporal, punctuation and communication categories. Cultural indoctrination takes time. A leader’s arrival to a new organi-zation can be a jolt – or disruption – for both leaders and employees. And communication must be timely and effective to alleviate stress and promote congruence between leaders and followers.

Theme 2: morale, perception and leadership categories. Affect, not just cognition, is important when effecting cultural change. New leaders would be wise to tap into the emotional undercurrent to discern the real state of cultural dynamics at play. Steps to Take, Actions to Consider

To assist new leaders through the cultural maze, try these four ways:Acculturate new leaders. In this manner, acculturation is not just a

training course (although, it is contended that any orientation course should include substantive content on the culture). As part of an indoctrination program, orient new leaders (and all new employees, for that matter) on traditions, norms, values and how the work gets done. Consider robust acculturation opportunities for new leaders, so that they understand the conventions and ideologies that preceded their arrival.

Define culture: there may be more than one. As a complement to the acculturation approach discussed above, leaders should understand that multiple cultures within the same organization – and even within the same business unit – may exist. Some cultural microcosms may, for instance, tolerate ambiguity, while others may reflect a close-knit unification of ideals. The leader’s challenge is know the difference

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.201337

and to productively harness that energy.Encourage leaders to demonstrate their capability and build trust

before embarking on widespread cultural change efforts. Trust and credibility should come first. Employees need to know who the leader is, what values they espouse, and what expertise they have (or lack).

Partner with new executives to help understand their personal vision, mission-related agendas. As important, help those execu-tives imagine what a dream organization looks like. What culture is needed to support that ideal? How does that align with the current modus operandi?

Practice cultural engagement to help shape and inform the leader’s vision. Leaders need development to illuminate their thinking on the art of the possible. Leaders should focus on how to first perceive and then engage culture.

Mind the gap and take it slow. There appears to be an inverse re-lationship in (a) the speed of change for power, strategy, and structure and (b) the speed of change for culture. New leaders should balance their robust change agenda with the equally legitimate imperative to first understand the organization’s culture.

Recognize emotional cues. The role of affect should be promoted, not suppressed. Leaders can model affective behaviour; for example, by sharing their own emotions with employees. Develop in leaders the requisite skills to publicly empathize and otherwise feel emotions that employees may be covertly harbouring.

Create a psychological safety net. Adapted from prior research, it is also suggested that creating a psychological safety net for leaders trying to manage cultural change can yield seven benefits: 1) a compelling positive vision: work with the leader in answering questions such as: What is the business case for employees for the change? Why would they be better off as a result of the change? Is it the culture that needs changing, or a different specific problem? What problem are you trying to solve? Why do these problems appear to exist? According to whom? 2) Formal training: what new skills are required to make

the change successful? 3) Involvement of the learners (employees): How can employees learn the cultural change in a way that works for them? 4) Practice, coaching and feedback: How can leaders provide an environment in which mistakes or failures are acceptable? 5) Positive role models: How can leaders demonstrate and model desired cultural behaviours? In what ways can leaders show their humility? What does success look like? 6) Networks: to whom can learners converse without fear of reprisal? What types of peer-to-peer learning are leaders making available? 7) Reinforcements: how can leaders codify the cultural change so that it achieves a higher order of acceptance?

Culture is an undeniable force to reckoned with. As such, is an invaluable implement in the leader’s tool kit. As Doug Williamson wrote in Leadership Excellence, “Culture can be a quagmire for those leaders who don’t see that culture arises from the way people choose to act and interact with each other.” Diagnosing culture correctly is a key element for leader success. By taking a crawl-walk-run approach and avoiding the temptation to ready-fire-aim, leaders will be better equipped to address and leverage the culture to maximize business outcomes. LE

New Cultures

Dave Rude, EdD is the CLO for Organizational Sciences and Culture, former CLO for a large Federal government agency. Email daverude@orgscience.com.

“Culture and Performance” April 2012

“Your Culture” March 2011

Making a case for the power of simplicity is no easy task. And yet, more than ever, I’m convinced that simplicity is the scarcest commodity among leaders, and likely the most important. Here are some quotes that attest to this. Leonardo da Vinci said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, “In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplic-ity.” Albert Einstein said, “Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in language comprehensible to everyone.”

And yet, in my consulting work, I find that managing leaders tend to add unnecessary complexity to situations, problems, descriptions and solutions. As a result, plans do not come to fruition, employees get confused, customers become disappointed and leaders are left discouraged.

Why do leaders do this? Why would they complicate their worlds and create problems for themselves and their organizations?

First, I believe that they don’t know that they’re doing it. Executives generally don’t like to make their own lives more difficult. But since that is exactly what they’re doing, there must be a powerful underlying cause. I’m guessing it has to do with pride, and usually the intellectual kind. Think about it this way. When someone acquires a great deal of knowledge through education, either formally at a university or by reading voraciously about a given subject, it is natural that they’ll want to employ that knowledge. In fact, they’ll probably want to use it even if it’s not required, or for that matter, helpful. Otherwise, they’ll have to admit that all the time, effort and money they put into learning may have been something of a waste.

An example from outside the world of business might be helpful here. Consider a dietician who studies nutrition and exercise physi-ology for a number of years in school. People hire her to help them lose weight and get fit. Few people in her situation will be satisfied simply telling her clients to eat smaller portions, exercise every day, and avoid one or two particularly harmful foods. While that would be a more understandable, reliable and actionable solution than a complex combination of vitamins, supplements, pilates classes and underwater yoga, the latter seems to be a more common prescription if the magazine covers I see at the grocery store are any indication.

This same thing happens among executives who overcomplicate their work in the areas of management, strategy or marketing. For instance, many CEOs who are faced with a difficult executive on their team will spend great amounts of time, energy and money procuring an

By Pat Lencioni

My shot at making the business case.

Lost Art of Simplicity

Interactive

38leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

executive coach or doing an exhaustive 360 degree feedback program when what they might need to do is just sit down and kindly tell the guy that he’s been acting a little bit like a jackass lately and needs to stop. I’m guessing that a successful gas station manager or restaurant owner would do that, but then again, they’re probably not encumbered by excessive knowledge or an overly sophisticated education.

When it comes to managing priorities and projects, many execu-tive teams use the most complicated and detailed systems, and yet they often remain confused about what is going on around them. I’m always amazed how receptive CEOs and their teams are when we introduce them to our simple one-sheet scorecard, the one that uses the green, yellow and red approach to assessing progress. There is nothing sophisticated or complex about it, and I suppose that’s the point and the reason why it is so welcomed.

It should come as no surprise that many successful entrepreneurs dropped out of college or came from modest educational backgrounds, and for that matter, that relatively few of them have PhDs. A person with a humble background has an easier time being humble, and embracing an idea or approach that isn’t impressive, but simply works.

And shouldn’t the real measure of an idea, system or approach to a problem be whether it actually works or not? For executives who are enamored with sophistication, that isn’t enough. Often, they seem disappointed by simple but effective solutions to seemingly complex problems. I think one reason for that disappointment is that simple solutions usually require discipline and hard work over time, while the sophisticated ones seem like shiny silver bullets, capable of making a problem go away in one innovative shot. And it can be disconcert-ing, after years of studying and reading and learning, to come to the realization that success comes down to common sense and discipline.

Many of us are so attracted to innovation and sophistication. After all, that is where most of our media and academic community focus their attention. Simple, workable solutions to problems don’t provoke magazine cover stories, journal articles in business schools, or features on the news. But they do make for successful companies, informed employees and loyal customers. That will have to be enough for now. LE

Lost Art of Simplicity

“Team Effectiveness Exercise”

“How Steve Jobs’ Love of Simplicity Fueled a Design Revolution”

Survey

Discipline of Simplicity

Pat Lencioni is CEO of The Table Group, bestselling author, speaker, and consultant. Visit. www.tablegroup.com.

leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.201339

40leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

Top Jobs

Job Title: Leadership Development ConsultantType: Full Time, Part TimeCategory: Marketing, Advertising and Business Dev.Location: San Francisco, CA (US)

Job Title: Leadership and Organizational Development Sr. SpecialistType: Full TimeCategory: Marketing, Advertising and Business Dev.Location: Temple, TX (76501) (US)

Job Title: Learning & Development Team LeaderType: Full TimeCategory: Human Resources / RecruitingLocation: New York, NY (US)

HR.com

1leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 12.2013

ONE JOB POSTING DOES IT ALL!

With over 230,000 members, HR.com is the largest community of highly engaged HR professionals. Combine this with the reach and performance of TheJobNetwork™, HR.com is the most effective way to hire!

• Reach qualified talent on HR.com and across thousands of job sites at the same time• Save time and attract more qualified candidates with Real-Time Job Matching™

Get instant access to the resume database and LinkedIn® profile matches at no extra charge

POST YOUR HR JOB TODAY

Click here for more: www.hr.com/en/hr_careers

VIEW POST

VIEW POST

VIEW POST