Integrity
The battle for our personal character is won or lost based on our integrity. This means that there can be no hypocrisy between what we say we believe is important and what we actually are doing on a daily basis. It is more than simply walking your talk becasue your talk is based on truth and core values that add value to others.
It is the keeping of promises and commitments to ourselves and then to others. When you have it people can trust you because they know you are genuine, real and authentic.
Integrity is demonstrated in personal relationships with other people in two critical ways. One is that we maintain confidentiality when dealing with others in matters where discretion is important. Instead of using other people’s failures to get what we want we help them to get what they need. In essence we never use their acknowledged weakness to hold it over them to get them to act in a certain way and we would never betray their trust by talking to other people.
We also make sure that we never fall into the trap of saying negative things about other people publicly that we have not first talked with them about privately. When people hear you saying bad things about people who are not in the room, they know one day they will not be in the room either. Being critical of other people in public never helps them and it creates a culture of positioning people in conflict with each other.
If something is not important enough to say to another person privately then it is certainly not important enough to criticize them openly in front of other people.
Weaknesses
All of us have them but the real question from a personal and professional leadership standpoint is what should we do about them? In the old days of positional leadership everyone was encouraged to work on improvement in every area so they could be the best overall leader possible.
Of course if our weaknesses are in the character area we must do whatever it takes to eliminate the wrong attitudes and negative behavior. Beyond that spending a major amount of time trying to gain some small advantage in any area where you have no skills or passion is basically a waste of time.
Regardless of the time invested and the seminars attended if you are not creatively wired then you probably never will be. If you are not gifted at project management then just working at it harder and longer will not produce significant results.
For the maximum amount of return and to make the largest impact you must prioritize working in the areas of your strengths. This is where you are naturally strong and your passion fuels what you do every day and not your job description.
There are many different types and styles of effective leaders. What you must determine is what do I uniquely bring to the table for the leadership assignment I have been given that sets me apart for this specific role.
You may be a nine or ten in only one particular aspect of leadership but if you know what that is and you primarily stay in your strength zone then your ultimate impact will be incredible. Most people are not willing to pay the price to be a ten at anything they had rather spend their time working on their weaknesses.
Situational Leadership
The one word that best describes the leadership model of the last century is positional. Most of the major decisions were made at the top and the role of the team was to merely execute the plan.
When you move to the new models of leadership today the one word that best describes these styles is participative. This simply means the team is involved in helping form the priorities and strategies in addition to execution.
When hiring a leader for the old model you found the best person that fit the job description. Then the team would adjust to the style of the new leader.
Today situation leadership is the key model in these highly participative team dynamics. It is now the responsibility of the leader to shift his or her style to the needs of each team member and the chemistry of the team as a whole.
The needs of the team members and the team as a whole will shift based on their competency and commitment levels. These levels will always change depending upon the task or project at hand and that is the whole point of validating the need for situational leadership.
If a person has very low competency based on lack of experience then a more hands on directive approach is needed. On the other hand if there is high commitment and high competency then the leader should shift to delegation.
The poor communication that is produced by misalignment between leaders and followers is the major factor in decreased productivity within our organizations.
Leaving Legacy
Filed under: Core Values, Family Ministry, Life Balance, Marriage, Personal Development
The real question is not will you leave a legacy but what kind will it be? An even more important question is what do you want it to be?
It is amazing how proficient we have become in establishing clear and attainable goals in the business sector. We can break down our plans into daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, and beyond to ensure that we accomplish what we have determined is important.
I am convinced the reason we do not give the same amount of passion and excellence to our private lives is that we have never taken the time to define what is really important. This lack of prioritization leads to a hope it all works out mentality that would not last for one week in the hit your numbers or else corporate sector.
Most people I have talked with over the years will tell you that in the end the personal part of their life that includes family and friends is really more important to them than the public part. If so, then why this huge disconnect?
It all goes back to understanding Covey’s time matrix in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Almost everything in our public lives fits into the urgent category. They demand that we respond even though many of the things we do every day are not really important at all.
The people we care about the most fit into an important category that is not urgent. Ball games, piano recitals and dates with your spouse will not scream in your face but they are the things that make up your legacy.
Don’t wait for the heart attack or cancer, have the courage to take a major time out and define in very specific terms what really matters so that in the end you will leave this world a better place than you found it.
Peter Principle
Every leadership expert that I have read in the last five years understands that the most important asset for any organization is the people who are on your team. If you have not transitioned from the industrial age to the information age in how you are leading your people you will not be able to compete in the new global economy.
Good to Great makes the point about getting the right people on your bus and making sure you get the wrong ones off. There is also a priority on verifying that everyone is in the right seat on the bus.
This is where the Peter Principle can create blind spots within your organization. Just because someone has been a very effective employee in the past does not mean they can continue to be effective in the future.
The natural tendency is when someone does a good job they eventually assume even greater responsibility. They were the best customer service representative you had when your company started and there were less than one hundred accounts.
When the company reaches three hundred accounts then other customer service representatives are brought on board and now your best practices representative just became a manager of other people. After all they deserve the job because they have tenure, expertise and loyalty to organization.
There is only one major problem; they are not gifted or passionate about managing a customer service department that one day will grow to over one hundred employees. These once great team members who are no longer effective have been promoted beyond their capabilities and that is why they are failing.
Never assume that because someone is great in one discipline they can naturally transition to leading others in the same area. If you do not watch this one very carefully you run the risk of a dysfunctional customer service department and tragically loosing a once great employee in the process.
Courage
Filed under: Core Values, Leadership Callling, Personal Development
One of the most important character qualities of effective leaders is courage. It is the ability to act in the midst of adversity and seemingly difficult circumstances.
Courage flows out of our core values as individuals because they give us clarity when we are in the midst of conflict and confusing situations. When you believe you are doing the right thing for the right reason then you can make good decisions.
It takes courage to pay the price to change the culture of any organization because you know there will be resistance. However, when you know it is the best interest of the people involved you can act with conviction because you know they will be benefited when the transition is complete.
It takes courage to admit you were wrong and did not make the right decision. When you keep it real people will not lose respect for you their trust level will increase in you as leader.
It takes courage to terminate an underperforming employee that is liked by everyone and who does not want to go. You must believe that it will benefit your team and that it is ultimately for their good to get them to a place where they can be successful.
It takes courage to walk away from all the good things that you could be doing to concentrate only on the best things. Leaders with courage can say no with emphasis although all the rest of the world is saying yes.
Can’t We All Get Along
Leaders have always been evaluated based on the two extremes of the tasks that must be done compared to the relationship skills involved in motivating the people who will actually do the work. The theory was some leaders are born project managers and others are great in customer service.
In the old industrial age model of the last century based these either high task or high touch leaders were placed in jobs that maximized their strengths and overlooked their weaknesses. So if someone could always hit their numbers but had higher rate of turnover they were viewed as someone who was not too good with people but they could always get the job done.
Today in the more highly participative style of leadership that is required to be successful in the 21st century it is an absolute necessity that all leaders prioritize their people skills so they can positively interact with wide range of constituencies.
Marshall Goldsmith is one of the top Executive Coaches in the market. His latest book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There is a great read for all leaders who want to reach their maximum potential. He identifies twenty habits that can completely destroy your influence as a leader.
The amazing thing that he confirms for all of us is that the most critical problems related to executive leadership have very little to do with core industry specific competency or even the expected qualities of productive leadership.
The overwhelming majority of smart, disciplined, experienced and passionate leaders are failing in the one major area of basic people skills. They do not relate well to their superiors, peers, subordinates and sometimes even customers.
They do not listen, make negative comments about people when they are not in the room, and always tend to punish the messenger when bad news is delivered just to list a few. Almost always these potential fatal flaws are obvious to everyone but the leader who does not even see them as an issue.
An absolute priority for any effective leader today is to establish a culture within their organization where the truth can be told and they will get the relational feedback they need or these extremely negative blind spots will never be revealed and the organization or team will fail.
Getting Things Done
There is nothing worse than being involved in either personal or professional planning meetings and really think you have come up with some great ideas that really need to be done only to realize later nothing lasting changed.
The critical missing link between the planning and development process to actual execution is taking the time and energy to discipline yourself to set realistic but attainable goals. This process does take time but quite frankly if something is not important enough to invest in developing specific action steps that will help you accomplish your goals then it probably was not worth thinking about in the first place.
When I evaluate personally and professionally where the breakdown occurs it usually centers around these principles involved in effective goal setting.
These are the five critical things I have learned over the years:
1. Write It Down—if it is not important enough to write down in your personal planner, computer task manager or enter into your cell phone to do list then it will almost always never get done.
2. Check Your Resources—do you realistically have the time, energy, knowledge, skills and commitment to make this happen? It may be the right thing to do but this is the wrong time to do it.
3. Make It Clear—you must be very specific about what you want to accomplish and how you are going to do it. It cannot be I just want to lose weight; it needs to be twenty pounds over next six months by exercising an hour day five days a week from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.
4. Develop Your Plan—strategy is the realistic intersection of resources and commitment. There is a big difference in walking one hour five days a week and training for a marathon. The strategy must fit the goal so you will not come up short or burn out on the other extreme.
5. Evaluate Your Progress—this is where the rubber hits the road and you must start by building in short term wins to maintain momentum. When you fail or make some mistake know that it is a necessary cost to pay to reach anything in life that is worthwhile.
When we get to the end of our lives it really will not matter how many things we talked about doing but how many things we actually did.
When To Light The Fuse For Change
Filed under: Leadership Callling, Leading Change, Personal Development, Servant Leader
Most leaders understand there are powerful forces in place to maintain the status quo both on a personal level and with an organizational culture as well. Therefore choosing the timing of when to start a change process that you want to be successful is critical.
If you don’t have any of the following priorities in place then do not light the fuse because it will blow up in your face:
1. Problem to be solved—at the very basic level of motivation for any change is the reality that something is clearly wrong and you know it needs to be fixed. I am overweight and if I do not start an exercise program and change my diet I am going to be in serious trouble.
2. Opportunity to be taken—sometimes doors seem to open that we were not expecting and the benefits gained far outweigh the risks involved. A good friend offers to pay my membership in the health club for a year if I will commit to go.
3. Crisis to be avoided—in this situation you recognize the perfect storm is brewing and if you don’t act immediately the consequences of my inaction could be catastrophic. I have now had a heart attack and my doctor says without major change I will have another one and it will probably be fatal.
4. Need to be met—this moves the motivation point high up on the scale because there are hurting people involved and the change process will directly benefit them. If I am not willing to act based on what I need surely because of the people I love the most I will do whatever is necessary to be there for them.
5. Calling to be followed—as a Christian I am called to represent Christ to the world in all that I do with my life. If I do not take care of the body He has given me to be used in His service then I can lose my testimony and damage my effectiveness in helping other people.
These priorities also apply in our professional lives as we seek to lead the change process in the context of a company culture that tends to react after it is too late rather than respond to what should be obvious. Leaders must be willing to cast a clear vision that the benefits of leaving the current reality behind far outweigh any pain involved in moving to a new and better place for all involved.
Hiring Right People
I just finished writing a recommendation for someone on Linkedin that reminded me of what is absolutely critical when considering someone for your team. When I hire someone I am always looking for three major things that are very important to me. If anyone of these is missing then I know no matter how qualified they may be in the other two areas it is still a no deal for me:
1. Character—According to all the research Jim Collins has done this qualification has moved to the top of the list. When someone has the right kind of character you will not have to worry about having to over manage them they are self motivated and will only settle for excellence in everything they do. Talk is cheap in this area and I want someone who has demonstrated over time they have the foundation that can withstand the problems that will surely come in the future.
2. Competency—There is no doubt that everyone you add to your team needs to be qualified to fill the positions you have available. The more technical and specialized the skill set the more demanding you must be in this area. However, in Collin’s research and my own personal experience, if I find the right person I will hire them first and figure out what they are going to do later.
3. Chemistry—The clear issue here is how well this person will fit into the team dynamic that is already in place. I always in the interview process find a way to get a person into a casual environment so I can observe them and see who they really are unscripted. I want people with a heavy dose of personal humility and equal amount of personal determination that do not care who gets the credit but will make sure it all gets done.
The people who are going to do great things in this new global environment are going to be the ones with the best people on their team. There is no greater responsibility for the leader than making sure you get the right people on the bus and the wrong ones off as quickly as possible.