Lead by facts

By Jim Womack via lean.org   Source

Making Things Better Without Authority

“Without broad authority, you have to lead by facts … You have to lead by learning more. You have to lead with a positive spirit. You have to help people raise their consciousness. People want to do better, they don’t have a method. You’re bringing the method.”

Failing successfully

By Dan Rockwell via Leadership Freak Blog   Article

“If busy equals success, you’ve arrived. But, the busier you are the easier it is to forget what matters.

Hectic leaders are distracted leaders.

Leaders without focus succeed at what doesn’t matter.

Busy leaders get results but ruin relationships, for example. Achieving results without building relationships is the formula for short-term success and long-term disaster.

Failing successfully:

A person without priorities follows urgencies. A person with priorities pursues significance.”

Charisma? Think again.

Via sloanreview.mit.edu   Article

Why Good Leaders Don’t Need Charisma

“Do charismatic business leaders typically outperform their more ordinary counterparts over the long run? … The simple answer is no. In a study of 100-year-old European corporations, we found that leaders of the higher-performing companies were often not charismatic — and were, in fact, less likely to be charismatic than the leaders of the lower-performing companies. The problem with charismatic leaders is that exceptional powers of persuasion make it easy for them to overcome resistance and opposition to their chosen course of action. If your company is heading in the right direction, a charismatic leader will get you there faster. Unfortunately, if you’re heading in the wrong direction, charisma will also get you there faster. …

Fortunately, there is a surer way to lead successfully. In our study of the leadership and strategy of 100-year-old European corporations, we found a different style of leadership was far more common among companies that have achieved enduring success — something that we call “intelligent conservatism.” Occasionally, charismatic leaders pop up, but for the most part, this group has succeeded by listening to their people and relying on old-fashioned industry expertise.”

Pacino – Scent of a Woman

By Gwyn Teatrovia You’re Not the Boss of Me   Article

The Importance of Integrity in Leadership

“One of my favourite movies is “Scent of a Woman”.  In it, Al Pacino’s character makes a declaration that speaks to exactly how difficult it is to live a life with integrity…and exactly why it is so necessary.  I offer it here with no intent to infringe copyright but simply to reinforce the movie’s message and my own.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Breathe their own exhaust

By Todd Ordal via cobizmag.com   Article

“I prefer a confident president to a certain president.”
—Madeleine Albright

“When I first heard the Madeleine Albright quote, I thought about leaders I’d known or worked with over the years and which of these two buckets they fell into. Those who were confident but not always certain were more successful, more fun to be around and more respected by their teams. Those who were always certain (think Donald Rumsfeld) were constantly one step away from a catastrophic error. And if it came, they had little support from those around them. Know-it-alls who fall rarely get help up from anyone. …

A recent Harvard Business Review piece (‘Long CEO Tenure Can Hurt Performance,’ March 2013) points out that financial performance dictates that a CEO stay in office 4.8 years. That’s the point when the company’s financial performance peaks. The authors hypothesize that as CEOs get entrenched, they start to breathe their own exhaust (my words, not theirs), and they reduce the amount of outside input they receive. There are numerous behavioral reasons that correlate with reduced financial performance, but from my experience, they often become too ‘certain.’”

Etsy’s Model

By Kelsey Campbell Dollaghan via Co.Design   Article

How Etsy’s Model Could Solve The Tech Industry’s Diversity Problem

“A grant program targeting women increased Etsy’s female engineer count by 500% in a year. It’s a model that could work for increasing diversity across the board. …

Anyone can succeed in tech, regardless of their gender, race, or choice of footwear, as long as they’ve got the smarts. Right? In theory, the answer is yes. But take a look at the makeup of most major companies, and you’ll find a wealth of white, male employees.

As Etsy CTO Kellan Elliott-McCrea pointed out in a lecture recently posted on First Round Capital’s blog, the lack of diversity in the tech industry isn’t always for want of trying. Faced with problems created by an all-male engineering team, Elliott-McCrea set out to increase the number of female engineers at Etsy in 2010. After a year of miserable results (they actually lost 35% of their women engineers), he tried a new approach that has since transformed the gender makeup of Etsy’s team. Brett Berson explains: ….”

Watch

 

Magical thoughts

By Maray Jo Asmus via Aspire-CS   Article

Ten magical thoughts to let go of

“You can control others: …

Others are motivated by what motivates you: …

Leading your team would be easier if you had the right people on the bus: …

People who report to you feel absolutely comfortable being honest with you: …

Throwing money at good employees is enough: …

People aren’t watching you: …

There is nothing more for you to learn: …

“They know what to do” but aren’t doing it: …

“If only I had employees that were more like me”: …

There isn’t a connection between results and the “soft stuff”: …

Since our thoughts become action, it’s important to be aware of your wishful thoughts.”

Bring out the extraordinary in others

By Geoffrey James via Inc.com   Article

13 Habits of Extraordinary Bosses

“Extraordinary bosses use these habits to bring out the extraordinary in those around them. …

1. They collaborate rather than grandstand …

2. The build communities  rather than platoons …

3. They create new realities. …

4. They laugh at problems (and themselves). …

5. They help others visualize a better future. …

6. They avidly explore new ideas. …

7. They mentor and coach. …

8. They use stories to inspire. …

9. They integrate pieces into wholeness. …

10. They tell the truth, even when inconvenient. …

11. They act before they have ALL the answers. …

12. They create a climate of trust. …

13. They make peace between factions. ….”

Corporals and chefs

By David Sneed via coloradbiz.com   Article

Follow first—then lead

Image

“If you want to lead, you must first learn to follow. Ben Franklin said that. …

Companies that hire from within, selecting grunts who prove they can follow, are well-run and successful. A business degree is no more qualification to manage than a uniform makes a Marine, or a cookbook makes a chef. It isn’t the title – it’s what it took to get the title that matters.

Corporals and chefs are leaders because of the steps it takes to become one.

If you must read a book on leadership, find one that teaches you to follow and get that part down. Only then will you be fit for command.”

Ooooo!

By Dan Rockwell via Leadershipfreak Blog   Article

Finding Real Leadership Power

“15 Ways to be an arrogant leader:

1. Rush. “Important” people don’t have enough time.
2. Look serious. The more important you are the more serious you look.
3. Detach. “Arrogance comes from detachment.” Henry Mintzberg.
4. Take calls or text during meetings. Now we know you’re important. Ooooo!
5. Know. Act like you know when you don’t. Arrogance makes learning difficult.
6. Delegate dirty work.
7. Isolate. Be too good for the “little” people.
8. Insulate. Create protective environments.
9. Interrupt.
10. Blow up. Anger and arrogance are relatives.
11. Gossip.
12. Tell don’t ask.
13. Speak don’t listen.
14. Complain and blame rather than solve and support.
15. Surround yourself with groveling yes-men.

…

How to be a powerful humble leader: ….”

Leadership Legacy

By Ron Edmondson via RE RonEdmondson blog   Article

Creating a Leadership Legacy

“The best example of a person’s leadership is what happens when the leader isn’t leading.

What happens after the leader is gone?

What happens when the leader is absent?

What happens without the leader doing or saying anything?

How does the leader’s influence impact the organization years beyond the leader?

Your reputation and legacy as a leader lasts long after you’ve left the building.

Do they model some of your actions? Do they realize your value to the organization? Do they miss your presence? Does the organization continue to grow and remain healthy? Did you prepare them for your absence? Did you leave them in good hands?”

Acting like the boss

By Terry Starbucker via Terry Starbucker blog   Article

15 Big Differences Between Acting Like a Boss and BEING a Leader

“In fast paced, high stress business environments it can be all too easy sometimes for leaders to slip into what I call “Boss Man” mode. What I mean by that is that they stop being a leader, and start acting like a boss. A boss who supervises a staff. The staff reports to the boss, just like it says on the organizational chart. And they do exactly what the boss says, because, of course, “He’s the boss!“ …

• A boss likes to tell, while the leader prefers to teach …
• A boss gets lost in the details, while the leader keeps the big picture
• A boss rules by fear, while the leader inspires with trust
• A boss displays great hubris, while the leader shows quiet humility
• A boss likes to talk, while the leader prefers to listen …
• A boss outlines the “What”, while the leader also always explains the “Why” …
• A boss is a disabler, while the leader is an enabler
• A boss criticizes, while the leader coaches
• A boss manages to an end, while the leader serves for a purpose
• A boss demotivates with impassiveness, while a leader inspires with caring & empathy …“

Shareholders versus Stakeholders

By Bill Waddell via Evolving Excellence   Article

“The horrible shootings in Connecticut have set off another round of debates over the fundamental goals of a business – pitting financial gain against social responsibility.  The core principles of lean … are very much built around the idea that the two are not mutually exclusive:  The idea that the best way to make money for the stockholders is to take very good care of all of the stakeholders. …

The alternative is the traditional economic view – that labor (the employees) and capital (the stockholders) are engaged in a zero sum battle with each other – that one’s gain is the other’s loss; that relationships with both suppliers and customers should be adversarial – again a sort of zero sum approach that a nickel negotiated away from a supplier or a customer is a nickel gained for the stockholder …

The difference in views is very much a function of the time frame.  The holistic, lean approach is a proven winner, but is a long term winner.  Optimizing long term shareholder value often means sub-optimizing short term shareholder value.  In publicly traded companies the long term view just isn’t in the cards.  The costs of dumping an investment in  one company and putting the money into another are just too low and the whole thing is structured to enable the trillions of dollars in the markets to lurch from one company to another in a continual quest for the best short term returns.”

“change-in-the-wrong direction”

By Rosabeth Moss Kanter via HBR Blog Network   Article

Nine Symptoms of Corporate Decline

“… nine universal warning signs of change-in-the-wrong direction …

Communication decreases. … Decisions are made in secret. People mistrust official statements. Gossip substitutes for the full facts.

Criticism and blame increase. People are dressed down in public. They make excuses for themselves and point their fingers at someone else. …

Respect decreases. … Everyone expects the worst of everyone else — and says so.

Isolation increases. People retreat into their own corners or subgroups, suspicious of others and unwilling to engage with them. … Silos harden.

Focus turns inward. People become self-absorbed and lose sight of the wider context — customers, constituencies, markets, or the world. …

Rifts widen and inequities grow. … Power differentials and social distance between groups and levels make collaboration difficult. …

Aspirations diminish. People … are willing to settle for mediocrity. They want to minimize risk rather than to look for big improvements. …

Initiative decreases. … people go passive, following routines but not taking initiative even on small things …

… Here’s what leaders — official or emergent — do to shift a culture from the behaviors of decline to the habits of success: ….”

The Illusion of Effectiveness

By Ed Batista   Article

“In my work with MBA students at Stanford and with many of my coaching clients, an issue that comes up regularly is the importance of making the transition from doing–being a stellar individual performer–to leading–motivating others to perform at their best. The challenge is that throughout our education and in most, if not all, of our early professional roles, we’re rewarded for our effectiveness as doers, and when we achieve a more senior position we often assume that our effectiveness as leaders will rely upon the same skills and characteristics that have fueled our success up to that point.

But this can result in the illusion of effectiveness as a leader. We may believe that by working longer, harder, smarter–pick your superlative–than our team on a given set of tasks, we’ll inspire by example. We just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing, albeit at a higher level. And sometimes this has the desired effect–as Daniel Goleman writes in his classic HBR article, Leadership that Gets Results, this “pacesetting” leadership style “works well when all employees are self-motivated, highly competent, and need little direction or coordination.” That said, the pacesetting style imposes a high cost–Goleman also notes that it “destroys climate [and] many employees feel overwhelmed by the pacesetter’s demands.”

Even if we don’t feel obligated to outpace our team in a leadership role, we can still undermine our effectiveness simply by continuing to take responsibility for specific tasks–by doing–when we could have a much greater impact by raising our sights and expanding our scope–by leading.”

11 nuggets of wisdom from Apple CEO Tim Cook

By Jackie Huba via Chuch of the Customer Blog   Article

“Tim Cook has been in the Apple CEO job for 16 months and Businessweek sat down with him for a extensive interview. The article is quite long but worth the read. Here’s my Cliff Notes version of the wisdom he imparted:

• “In creating these great products we focus onenriching people’s lives—a higher cause for the product.”
• “You know, we want to really enrich people’s lives at the end of the day, not just make money. Making money might be a byproduct, but it’s not our North Star.“
• “That’s a part of our base principle, that we will only do a few things. And we’ll only do things where we can make a significant contribution. I don’t mean financially. I mean some significant contribution to the society at large.”
• “Creativity is not a process...It’s people who care enough to keep thinking about something until they find the simplest way to do it.”
• “Creativity and innovation are something you can’t flowchart out…A lot of companies have innovation departments, and this is always a sign that something is wrong when you have a VP of innovation or something. You know, put a for-sale sign on the door.”
• “Everybody in our company is responsible to be innovative, whether they’re doing operational work or product work or customer service work.”
• “The most important things in life, whether they’re personal or professional, are decided on intuition.”
• “I despise politics. There is no room for it in a company. …No bureaucracy. We want this fast-moving, agile company where there are no politics, no agendas.”
• “We want ideas coming from all of our 80,000 people, not five or three. A much smaller number of people have to decide and edit and move forward, but you want ideas coming from everywhere.You want people to explore.”
• “So I’ll walk around our stores. You can learn a tremendous amount in a store. I get a lot of e-mails and so forth, but it’s a different dimension when you’re in a store and talking to customers face to face.”
• “Not allowing yourself to become insular is very important—maybe the most important thing, I think, as a CEO.”"

“Management is the least efficient activity in your organization”

By Greg Satell in Innovation Excellence blog   Article

The Leaderless Organization

Abraham Lincoln.  Winston Churchill.  Nelson Mandela. We honor our leaders and always have.  In both public and business life they are treated with almost godlike reverence.

I guess that’s why we compensate our corporate chiefs hundreds of times more than we do the average worker and then give them tens of millions more in bonuses, even when they are fired for cause.  Mediocrity in leadership seems to pay as well as excellence.

All of this begs the question:  Do we really need leaders?  Is the small chance of getting an excellent one worth the high cost of the mediocre breed?  Top management thinkers have begun to ask that question and, surprisingly, there are some prime examples of high performing organizations who are able to succeed without any leaders at all.

What Happens Without Managers?

In the field of management, there’s no one more prominent than Gary Hamel, who The Wall Street Journal named “the world’s most influential business thinker” and who is the most reprinted author in the history of the Harvard Business Review.  He’s pioneered popular concepts such as core competency, strategic intent and reinvention.

So it rose eyebrows when he recently published an article entitled First, Let’s Fire All the Managers and declared that, “Management is the least efficient activity in your organization.”  He then went on to suggest that it gets even worse as organizations get larger, that there are actually diseconomies to scale when it comes to management.

As a counter example, he examines the company Morning Star, which is a $700 million enterprise that is in the capital intensive business of processing tomato products.  Nobody has a boss, anybody can spend company money and employees negotiate salaries and responsibilities with each other.

Perhaps most importantly, Morning Star isn’t a collective, but a privately owned, rapidly growing, highly profitable business.  Hamel says it succeeds because the ‘mission is the boss.’”

“that, of course, is the problem”

By Margaret Heffernan in Inc.  Article

Petraeus & the Value of Failure

“If you have never failed at anything, then you haven’t been trying hard enough, aren’t very imaginative, or have had such extraordinarily good luck that you have come to believe you are invincible. And that, of course, is the problem. ”Success confers its own blindness” ….”

What Great Leaders Have That Good Leaders Don’t

By Brent Gleeson via Inc.com   Article

“The difference between good and great leadership can be expressed in a single word: loyalty.

“My loyalty to Country and Team is beyond reproach.” –Navy SEAL Creed

When you think of strong leaders, you probably think of people who are decisive, bold, confident, and fearless. You’re not wrong. Good leaders have all of these qualities. But how many good leaders are also loyal? I don’t know, but I know that every greatleader is. …

A commitment to loyalty is becoming uncommon in business leaders. I think that’s a shame. … These are some of the lessons in loyalty that I learned as a SEAL and apply daily to my job as a business owner:

Never throw anyone under the bus. … If you need to talk to a team member about a misstep, do it behind closed doors.

Never leave anyone behind. Instill in your team the belief that every person on the team is as important as the next. Include everyone in the celebration of success. And don’t blame any one person for a failure. …

Try to be as candid as possible with your employees, and never lie to them. Loyalty is built on trust. If your people don’t believe you’re being forthcoming with them, they won’t trust you to have their backs. …

Give employees your unconditional support. … Pull aside someone who has had a bad day and give that person ten minutes of your time. Make it clear that he or she still fits into the future of your company.

I would never be disloyal to a SEAL brother. And I know my brothers will always have my back. It’s a feeling of trust and security that you get only in special places. I try to make my organization one of them. Leadership is a privilege we must earn every day.”

 

“Prepare to be hated”

By Miles Anthony Smith via Great Leadership blog   Article

“If we go into management to earn more, have more power/prestige, and work less, we are either naïve or ignorant. (And let’s admit right now that those are precisely the reasons most of us go into management.)

1. Prepare to be Hated

Wise leaders accept that some decisions will be unpopular. If you can’t handle others’ disapproval, then leadership probably isn’t for you. …

2. Conquer Your Fears

… We fear not being accepted, feelings of inadequacy, shame, rejection, discomfort, and the list goes on. …so what!” … So what if we don’t have it all together. So what if we didn’t go to the right school; so what if we didn’t have a good mentor. We all have something to offer, and we must choose to focus on what we do have to offer, not what we don’t. …

3. Betrayals are Par for the Course

One thing that fuels fears about the future is past betrayals, and betrayal is one of the ultimate tests of leadership. Are we willing to walk in forgiveness with those who betray or seem to have betrayed us? …  unforgiveness only hurts me, not the other person. …

4&5: Get Comfortable with Discomfort & Vulnerability

… criticism of our leadership decisions is much more out in the open for everyone to see. … If things don’t work out in leadership, that person usually doesn’t have the opportunity to move to another position within the company like a non-manager does.”

I Am Not a Leader (or So I Thought)

By by Tammy Helfrich from Michael Hyatt’s Intentional Leadership Blog   Article

““I don’t have a leader title.” “I don’t have anyone who reports to me.” “I don’t have experience leading people.” I used to say these things, as an excuse. I used to say I am not a leader. I used to believe I was not a leader. And do you know what happens when you believe that? You’re lying to yourself. …

I have discovered over the years that even though I never wanted a leader title, I was a leader to my peers. I worked hard, and I had good relationships. I always did above and beyond what my job required. I got to know my leaders. I kept a positive attitude. I led by example.

… John Maxwell talks about the circle of influence you have. Sometimes people within the middle of an organization have more power than those with leadership titles. … Maxwell says,

What matters is that we are willing to do what it takes, to make a positive impact wherever we find ourselves in life—to add value in any way we can to others.”

I believe we can all do this. We can be a leader, regardless of what our title says.”

No Excuses = Real Leadership

By Mike Myatt in N2Growth Blog   Article

“Leaders don’t offer, nor do they accept excuses. True leadership demands the character to demonstrate personal responsibility for one’s actions, and the courage to hold others accountable for theirs. Excuses attempt to conceal personal or professional insecurities, laziness, and/or lack of ability. They accomplish nothing but to distract, dilute, and deceive. It was Benjamin Franklin who said, “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”

The word “excuse” is most commonly defined as: a reason or explanation put forward to defend or justify a fault or offense. History’s greatest leaders have always fostered cultures of commitment, trust, and performance, where action is valued over rhetoric. Leaders who issue or accept excuses are complicit to muting performance and fueling mediocrity.

The problem we face as a society is we live in a time where he or she with the best excuses wins. Excuses have become the rule, and performance has become the exception – a sad commentary to be sure. However the solution is a rather simple one – I’ve always said, people will stop offering excuses the minute those in positions of leadership stop accepting them.”

Do Your Employees Make You a Better Manager?

By Michael Schrage in HBR Blog Network   Article

“Successful leaders and managers alike constantly stress the importance of developing their employees. But do they appropriately recognize the importance of how their employees might develop them? One of the world’s top coaches thinks not.

While chatting about “coachability” with Sir Clive Woodward — who had coached England’s world champion rugby team and served as Director of Elite Performance for the wildly overachieving British Olympic team — he casually observed that, in reality, the best athletes he had invariably improved his abilities as a coach.

“My top performers ended up pushing me harder than I pushed them,” Woodward said, adding that you can’t help but learn from watching top athletes perfecting their craft. This mutuality of professional development was a theme of his. …

That truly great players make everyone around them play better is one of sports’ better championship clichés. But arguments that great players actually educate their coaches are considerably rarer. They’re just as rare in the managerial literature. Woodward and I were on a panel for Tech Mahindra’s European customer event in the U.K. In the panel’s aftermath, I messaged a few friends and colleagues. I asked them to name employees — not colleagues or bosses! — who had dramatically improved them as leaders and/or managers. The most common response was that they’d never been asked before.”

Why Command-and-Control Leadership Is Here to Stay

By Herminia Ibarra in Harvard Business Review   Article

“We talk about the death of command and control leadership, and praise the rise of a new, more collaborative, breed of leader. But when push comes to shove, being in control sells. Collaborative is vegan; directive is meat and potatoes.

When I was a PhD student at Yale, I studied with one of the fathers of situational leadership, Victor Vroom. In the 1960′s Vic developed the then-famous Vroom-Yetton model of leadership, a decision tree in which a few simple parameters (does the leader have all the relevant information, are the followers knowledgeable or inexperienced?) allowed the leader to choose from a menu of styles ranging from A1 (the most autocratic decision-making) to G2 (group-based decision-making, the most participative) the one most suited for the situation.

… almost every leader we analyze is “situationally limited:” Her natural tendency tilts either towards the directive or towards the collaborative end of the spectrum or his past experience has rewarded one over the other. Inevitably we ask, is this way of leading sustainable as the company grows? Once the turnaround is over? As the environment grows harsher? … over the years I have noticed a subtlety. We easily infer that a competent autocrat can learn to become more collaborative. We have a harder time believing that a competent collaborator can become more directive.”

Being Quiet

 By Mary Jo Asmus in Leadership Solutions blog   Article

“… keeping quiet is the best response you can make to someone:

When someone else is talking: It goes without saying that many of us can get better at allowing another person to have their say. Don’t interrupt. Wait for a pause in the conversation before you speak.

When it’s important to hear other’s viewpoints: … When there is conflict, there is a better chance of resolution of differences when you don’t talk or judge and switch into deep listening mode. It’s hard, but it’s the right time to stay silent.

When someone is emotionally distraught: … Staying quiet is always acceptable in this case. In such times, people most often want to be heard and to have someone close by. It’s that simple.

When you don’t want to dominate a conversation: … when people are brainstorming, offering suggestions or being creative. Dominating the conversation with your ideas can shut off the flow of fresh ideas.

When you are thinking together: … a group is having a great conversation with everyone engaged and offering their thoughts, … silence often occurs … Silence, in this case, is the best thing that you can allow to happen for those great conversations to continue. It means people are thinking (exactly what you want them to do!).

The art of knowing when to be quiet (and then doing it) should be a part of every leader’s tool set.”