Leadership communication skills
It will surprise no one that communicating powerfully is one of the behaviors linked to a leader’s ability to inspire. If we think “inspirational leader,” most of us would immediately think “terrific communicator.” While there is clearly an extremely high level of correlation between communication and inspiration, the two are not synonymous, nevertheless it rates highly in the leadership characteristics list. For example, we found leaders who were seen as highly effective communicators, but who were not perceived as being highly inspirational. Something sets the highly inspirational leaders apart from those who are not, and it isn’t simply that they are good communicators. After analyzing our data, we think it can be summarized in the following elements. http://ift.tt/2bZ3uziA DOZEN KEYS TO INSPIRING LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION SKILLSSeek Opportunities to CommunicateInspiring leaders think about communication in a different way. They never see it as a chore. On the contrary, they welcome opportunities to communicate. They don’t turn down chances to talk at a leadership development programs or at a meeting of the company’s internal auditors. There are no bad opportunities to communicate if a group of company employees is assembled and if the event can possibly fit into their schedule.Communication is not just a process by which leaders do their job; they see it as their job. It is a different mindset from the one held by the leader who dribbles out information reluctantly, on a “need-to-know” basis. We earlier wrote about Andy Pearson, the chairman of Yum, who made such a remarkable turnabout in his own leadership characteristics. David Dorsey wrote about that transformation in his communication practices: Pearson’s new leadership communication style is more than a way of relating to people. It involves the nuts and bolts of what he does from day to day, the processes that define the company’s operations. Where before, Pearson would have dealt with only a small team of direct reports, he now seeks contact with people at all levels. It’s his responsibility to motivate people across the company. He now believes that it’s less important to issue orders than it is to seek answers and ideas from below. His job is to listen to the people who work for him and to serve them. “My old mantra was to influence the direction and behavior of a relatively small circle of direct reports,” Pearson said. Now he and Novak move their values and ideas across the organization through programs such as CHAMPS, which rewards employees for recognizing the best practices of fellow workers, and through regular visits to the restaurants, during which they study those practices and reward people for good work. The transformation just described is huge. The recipients of Pearson’s leadership communication skills changed from a small circle of direct reports to people at all levels of a behemoth organization. It also changed from infrequent contact with that inner circle to a relentless pattern of visiting restaurants all over the world to connect constantly with employees. Expand the Volume and FrequencyAndy Pearson illustrates this second element of the inspiring communicator. As noted earlier, widening the circle of people with whom you communicate and multiplying the frequency of meeting with front-line employees represents a complete reversal of thinking about how senior leaders communicate within a giant organization. We still encounter a few people with leadership qualities who hold to the old notion that communication should be on a need-to-know basis. The information that this person shares with subordinates and peers is driven solely by what these potential recipients require in order to perform their jobs.In our consulting work, we meet these people. They are alive and well in many organizations. While their numbers appear to be in sharp decline, they see information as having value only if a person has an immediate need to use it. These “need-to-know” and “keep it close to your vest” communicators fear that information will leak to the wrong people or clutter the thinking of the person who doesn’t really need it. This position is becoming increasingly hard to maintain in a world where so many have access to the Internet, which makes such vast amounts of information instantly available to everyone. Company chat boards have come to mean that few things are either sacred or secret. This democratization of information is in sharp contrast to the tight hold on communication practiced by the oldschool manager who sought to hoard it. There is not one shred of doubt about which of these philosophies will prevail in the long run. Information is simply going to be available in ever-increasing amounts and with everquickening speed. Those who seek to hoard information are fighting a losing battle and are completely out of synch with the world about them. But this perspective has a seductive logic to it. Why take the time to communicate information that someone doesn’t absolutely need? Isn’t that wasteful of both parties’ time? Doesn’t it encumber others with data that really aren’t all that useful to them? Aren’t there risks in having information circulating among employees that could find its way to competitors. The counter to all of these concerns and arguments is that communication is not primarily a logical issue. There is an extremely important psychological element to it that completely swamps the logical dimension. Providing people with information that is meaningful to them is far more than a simple cognitive interaction in which some fact or opinion is passed from you to me. The communication process involves the exchange of some information, ideas, or perceptions. The process of making that exchange creates a relationship between the parties. This interaction and relationship are often far more important than the piece of information that was passed between the two people. The level of people’s commitment and engagement is affected by how they are treated, and one of the key elements of that treatment is driven by the information they receive. People may not need to know, but they desire to know. Knowing gives them a feeling of membership or inclusion in the organization. They feel trusted. Rather than “sitting at the children’s table,” they feel like adult members of the family. If an organization wants to create unity and cohesion in its culture, then it must share information more widely. Furthermore, the person withholding information may seriously misjudge when some information will be extremely important for a subordinate to understand. It isn’t always possible to foresee the emergencies or events that could arise that would require this subordinate to use this information. Can people be too well informed? Max DePree, the former CEO of Herman Miller, was an astute student of good leadership skills and researched relentlessly on how to be a good leader?. DePree talked of the need for “lavish communication.” In contrast to the mentality that would communicate only on a need-to-know basis, DePree routinely communicated to the entire workforce about a number of important topics, including the following:
Go for the Big IssuesIndividuals with leadership traits don’t shy away from important issues. In fact, the evidence is that such leaders prefer to move upstream to the bigger or thornier issues. If rumors of a reorganization are flying around, the leader is inclined to step right into it, asking what people are hearing, inquiring about the concerns they have, and then telling the listeners everything that is appropriate to be passed on.Some topics are trivial and others are titanic. The more important the topic, the more attention and concern will be paid to it by those in attendance. Our experience has been that when leaders successfully convey that all topics are fair game for discussion, that leader’s influence goes up. In a group meeting, someone asks, “Why did Al Hartman leave the company?” Answer: “In this case, for some legal reasons, I’m sorry I can’t tell you everything I know. But I can say that he was frustrated with me and didn’t agree with some decisions I made that affected him. I’m sorry to see him leave. Things will get back to normal in a couple of weeks, but in no way was he pushed out.” That answer is much better than, “We can’t talk about it.” (Candor builds trust and is inspirational to the listeners.) Keep It PositiveAn extensive body of literature demonstrates the importance of communication being positive and uplifting, rather than being negative. Two researchers who were experimenting leadership development goals observed 60 leadership teams who were performing leadership goals like their annual strategic planning, problem-solving, and budgeting activities. These researchers were investigating why some teams performed better than others. Their startling discovery was that the one factor that was twice as powerful as anything else in predicting the teams’ success was the ratio of positive comments (approval, suggestions, praise, appreciation, compliments, and overall support) to negative comments (pointing out faults, disparagement, criticism, or disapproval). The ratio of positive to negative comments in the highest-performing teams was 5 to 1, in medium-performing teams it was just below 2 to 1, and in the lowperforming teams it was roughly 1 positive for every 3 negative.2 Studies done in both industry and marriage counseling reinforce the value of positive communication outnumbering any kind of negative messages by roughly 5 to 1.3 Organizations that achieve this ratio are far more apt to perform at an extremely high level.There are times and places when more critical messages must be delivered, but that clearly works best if there has been a preponderance of positive messages preceding the negative ones. Ask More Questions; Give Fewer OrdersSimilarly, it has been shown that there is an optimum ratio of declarative or instructional messages to a leader’s asking questions. In high-performing organizations, the ratio of questions to instructions is slightly higher than 1 to 1, whereas in low-performing organizations, the ratio is more on the order of 20 instructions to every question asked.Share the SpotlightThe leaders in high-performing organizations had roughly the same number of comments that were about others as that were about themselves. That equality in focus was in sharp contrast to low-performing organizations, in which leaders made 33 times more comments about themselves than they did about others in the organization. The behavior that conveys, “It’s all about me” reduces the level of motivation and commitment of others.Step into the Listeners’ ShoesThe inspiring leader thinks about the listeners. There are many ways to approach presenting any issue or topic. If there’s a new product being developed, the leader could talk about how it was conceived and the breathtaking advantages of this new technology compared to the old ways. But the inspiring leader adds one more ingredient: WIIFM—“What’s in it for me?” The leader recognizes that many listeners will be thinking, “Will this new product be manufactured somewhere else? Will it cause the company to shrink or to grow?” So whether it is a new product, a rumored merger, a reorganization, the installation of a new enterprise software program, or a sudden decline in the stock price, the inspiring leader always connects the event to the listener and does everything possible to convey as honest and as upbeat a message as possible.Stu Reed, the executive vice president of integrated supply chain management for Motorola, was the 2007 recipient of Communications World’s EXCEL Award. Reed noted that public relations professionals often work hard to create two paragraphs of eloquent prose, but when he looked at the essence of what they meant to say, it boiled down to a simple message, such as “Hang in there; times are tough.” Reed’s philosophy is to communicate with simple messages. He believes that people “pick up passion more than eloquence.” Reed consistently frames his messages in the form of stories that others can repeat. Finally, Reed ends every message by attempting to connect the problem or issue with the individual. So the ending of every conversation or presentation comes down to “What does it mean to you?” Make It Two-WayInspiring communication is not just one-way, but more often a two-way transaction. Our emphasis is often on the sending or producing side of the equation. The need for the communicator to be the receiver or collector of messages can be easily overlooked.Think again about the chairman of Yum, Andy Pearson, visiting a Taco Bell restaurant and talking with the front-line employees. He asks them questions about the best practices they’ve been observing on the part of their fellow workers. He listens and takes notes. This is two-way communication at its best. For centuries, we have attempted communication “downward.” This, however, cannot work, no matter how hard and how intelligently we try. It cannot work, first, because it focuses on what we want to say. It assumes, in other words, that the utterer communicates. There can be no communication if it is conceived as going from “I” to “thou.” Communication works only from one member of “us” to “another.” —Peter Drucker. Use Multiple Communication Techniques and OpportunitiesGreat communicators are seldom “one-celled.” They use a broad spectrum of techniques and find a wide variety of occasions to communicate. Here’s a quick review of some:
One very useful tactic for improving the communication in meetings is for leaders to ask probing questions that convey the expectation that all individuals have the opportunity (and, to some degree, the responsibility if they have a different opinion from those already expressed) to weigh in on every question before they state their personal view.
We have colleagues who teach presentation skills to leaders. Often a leader’s career is frozen because of a lack of polish in making presentations, or because the leader is terribly awkward in public settings. These colleagues report that following a relatively short period of training on presentation skills and some coaching on ways to improve her “presence,” promotions often follow. While this evidence is clearly anecdotal, it provides some confirmation that poor presentation skills, because they are so public, often hold people back in their career. The content of presentations needs to be well thought through. What’s said must be interesting, relevant, and organized in a way that the listeners can comprehend. We recommend a book by Barbara Minto, The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking, and Problem Solving, that is available directly from the author. For decades she trained McKinsey & Co. consultants to write and create compelling proposals, reports, and presentations. Her format for creating presentations and organizing reports is practical. The best communicators, according to our research, are adept at tailoring the message to their listeners. That doesn’t mean that the story completely changes based on who the audience is. It simply means that the speaker is aware of the interests and concerns of those in the audience, and that the presentation is crafted to respond to those needs and interests. The speaker begins the preparation of the presentation by pondering: “What does this mean to my audience?” “Why should people be concerned?” “What will be seen as negative or positive in my message?” “What questions will immediately be raised?” Tell Relevant StoriesOne remarkable communication technique is to tell stories. (Stories is a word with multiple meanings. We obviously mean true stories.) Maybe this is a holdover from our childhood experience, but stories are both riveting and memorable. There is something about the narrative form and the specificity that draws people into the event. Stories become even better if there is some emotion injected into the story. When there is emotion, the story becomes a giant magnet that draws people’s attention and leads them to ignore many distractions. For every major point the speaker is trying to make, there should be a good story that illustrates that point. This has the double effect of creating greater clarity about the message and making it stick in the listener’s memory.Inspiring presenters in public forums have learned a simple lesson: reading text is just plain boring. Telling stories transforms the presentation and breathes life into it. Humor and personal anecdotes spice it up. A presentation style that has enthusiasm and wraps major ideas in some emotion makes the presentation “zing.” For additional information on how leaders can communicate in a way that inspires and motivates others. Keep the Pace BriskToday’s audiences are accustomed to fast-paced presentations. If you watch a movie that is a few decades old, you are struck by its slow pace. Scenes change every two to three minutes, whereas in modern cinema, changes occur every few seconds.Communicate Passion and EnthusiasmThe most effective performers, as a rule, are those who throw themselves into the performance. The performer who is placid, calm, and sedate seldom captures the audience as much as the person who performs with intensity and passion. The same principles apply to the leader as communicator. The listeners hear the words, but they respond equally as much to the passion and emotion.At a large conference attended by delegates from all over the world, an executive was speaking. One person at a back table turned to his neighbor and remarked, “I can’t understand one word he’s saying, he’s got such a strong accent. But it doesn’t matter. You can tell how excited he is about where we’re headed. It’s obvious he believes it. That’s all I need to hear.” Shakespeare wrote Henry V nearly 200 years after the Battle of Agincourt (1415). Many feel that it is the finest dramatic interpretation of what visionary leadership meant in the Middle Ages. It was a deeply emotional message that served to lift the soldiers’ spirits to the highest level to prepare them for a battle in which they were seriously outnumbered. Henry had ordered his army to advance and to start a battle that, given the state of his army, he would have preferred to avoid. The English had very little food, had marched 260 miles in 21/2 weeks, were suffering from sickness (such as dysentery), and faced much larger numbers of well-equipped French men-at-arms. However, Henry needed to get to the safety of Calais, and he knew that if he waited, the French would get more reinforcements. While estimates regarding the size of each army vary widely, the most common conclusion is that the French outnumbered the English 3 to 1. The French suffered a catastrophic defeat, not only in terms of the sheer numbers killed, but also because of the number of highranking nobles they lost. One fairly widely used estimate puts the English casualties at 450, which is not an insignificant number to lose out of an army of 6,000, but far less than the 10,000 the French lost. It was one of the greatest victories of England over France in all their combined history. Prior to the battle, the morale in the English line must have been extremely low. King Henry, rising to the occasion, spoke words of encouragement that rallied the English troops and carried them to a victory. via Blogger http://ift.tt/2bZ2CL5 August 29, 2016 at 10:01AM
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Visionary leadership
Inspiring leaders excel at creating vision and providing clear direction to the people about them. In the spirit of this attribute, we will paint the total picture of this leadership development goals behavior at the very beginning, then treat each of the parts in greater detail. http://ift.tt/2chYLMqThe Process of Creating Visionary Leadership
Here’s how candidates with good leadership skills goes about creating greater clarity of vision and direction:
WHY DOES VISIONARY LEADERSHIP CREATE MORE INSPIRED AND MOTIVATED COLLEAGUES?At the most fundamental level, providing clear vision and direction is a tangible expression of the leadership characteristics who is treating other people in the organization with dignity and respect.If a group of adults decided to go on a hike together, chances are that the person who was nominally in charge would ask the people in the group to look at a map and would indicate the planned destination and the route by which the group would collectively get there. Imagine how frustrating it would be if the group were asked to simply follow the leadership communication. In essence, the leader would be saying, “I know where we’re going; I’ll lead you there. You don’t need to know anything more than that.” Worse yet, after stopping for lunch, imagine the frustration that the group would feel if the leader meandered off in different directions, apparently looking for the most appealing path, but consulted with no one in that process. Such a scenario would trigger images of the worst scenes from a Dilbert cartoon. The consequences of this behavior would be the disdain and apathy that are not so subtly displayed by the characters in that comic strip. We’ll refer to the situation just described as Scenario A. Now imagine Scenario B. This individual with leadership qualities asks the group to convene and describes a potential destination. But now the leader asks if everyone thinks that this is a good destination and, only after getting agreement on its being a good target, asks for any thoughts about the best way of getting there. One person in the group has made this hike before and offers some useful suggestions about one area to avoid because the trail is muddy at this time of year. Another person notices a lake and offers to bring a fishing pole to provide fresh fish for the group lunch. Before the group leaves, everyone is clear about the destination. A time to stop for lunch has been agreed on by the group, and then they embark on the hike. As they begin to hike, one part of the group challenges the rest of the group to a race, which results in some people reaching the goal much sooner than the others. But rather than complaining about having to wait for the others or about their strained muscles, the group is energized, happy, and ready for another adventure. It is completely obvious which scenario would create a higher level of motivation for the hikers. The first group would experience considerable mumbling and grousing, while the second group would travel in relative harmony. STEPS BY VISIONARY LEADERSHIP IN CREATING CLEAR VISION AND DIRECTIONOrchestrate a Process by Which a Plan Is DefinedThe first thing to emphasize is that the leadership goals does not go off and come back with a vision that he created all alone. Visions that inspire need not be solo endeavors. Yes, the entrepreneur of a startup organization may have strong ideas about what she would like to accomplish, but for most organizations, this ideally is a collaborative process.Note also that this is not always done first by the most senior executive in the organization. While most people would agree that this is the ideal place to begin, the reality is that visions are created for divisions, departments, and functions in the organization. Their influence usually radiates in all directions and encourages others to do the same. Make Sure the Vision Captures the Important Guiding PrinciplesThis includes the values that drive the organization. The vision should add a vivid picture of what the organization aspires to be. The important qualities are that it is
A second example is the unveiling of a model by the architects who are aspiring to win the bid for a major new building. At the appropriate moment, the model of the building is uncovered. With painstaking detail, the building has been created in miniature and placed in its context, often surrounded by miniature trees and cars. Suddenly the concept of the building takes on life. In each case, there could have been an oral description of the car or the building. Or, going to the next step, there could have been dimensional drawings showing front views, side views, and topdown perspectives. The creation of models comes at considerable expense for the auto manufacturer. And while the model of the building is less costly, the creation of the miniature building is not a trivial undertaking. But in each case the model takes something that could be abstract and makes it clear, compelling, and concrete. People develop some visceral reaction as they are either drawn to or repelled by what they see. In describing the vision for a corporation or some portion of it, there is an obvious challenge. Corporations are by definition a creation of someone’s imagination. They are a concept, a legal entity, and very hard for the average person to define accurately. That’s all the more reason for the vision to be made as concrete, clear, compelling, and visceral as possible. If the vision can be visually depicted, all the better. Stories and examples help bring abstract concepts alive. Consider a vision statement that reads: “Ajax aspires to be the preeminent manufacturer of O-rings in the world, to provide superior customer service, and to be a preferred place of employment for its employees.” While each word may have been carefully pondered by the executive group, the fact of the matter is that the name “Ajax” and the product “O-rings” could be replaced by hundreds of others and no one would notice. Link the Vision to Each Team and IndividualWith a clear vision statement in place, leaders can now discuss with each associate in the organization how her work connects with that vision. If that linkage is not readily apparent, this is a strong signal that either what the person is doing needs to be substantially redefined or that the individual with leadership traits needs to clarify how the individual’s work is tied to the overall goals. You’d hope that this connection would be extremely obvious. If it isn’t, then quick action should be taken.Clarify What Path Not to TakeIt has been noted that one of the most valuable outcomes of achieving greater strategic clarity is that it tells people what not to do as much as it tells them what to do. In many organizations, there is a belief that the more things we do, the better. While this is never stated overtly, the underlying mentality is:We will take on any and all customers that we can. We’ll embark on any new project that someone is enthused about. We’ll develop any new project or service in which a customer shows interest. Clarity of vision helps all members of the group to be vigilant about not attempting to serve everyone who wants to be a customer, or to embark on any project about which someone becomes enthused, or to create a new product because one prospect or client expresses interest in it. These are hard decisions to make, especially for newly created organizations that are scratching out their existence. But given their limited resources, it is especially crucial for those companies to stay focused. Ideally, as part of the vision, stating what is not included, what won’t be undertaken, and what will be postponed until a future date is a valuable addition. Align Systems with the VisionVisions of the preferred future can easily be created, but they are then injected into an existing organization with its current systems, policies, procedures, and behavioral norms. It is very unreasonable to believe that the new vision will survive in an environment that was not created to sustain it.Our own organization is a good case in point. The decision was made to move from being primarily a consulting organization to an organization that was more focused on defined products and solutions. While there was agreement among all the executives that this was the correct “goforward” strategy, the implications of this simple decision were enormous. This decision required new systems and procedures for product development and product management, new compensation systems, new customer support staff, new organizational functions and structure—indeed, the list seemed endless. But to have announced a new vision and not to have made those changes would have caused many people inside the organization to initially be puzzled and ultimately become disillusioned, because of the contradiction between what we were actually doing and what we said we wanted to do. Consistently and Continually Communicate the Vision and DirectionIndeed, one of the interesting issues in creating a vision involves the need for its constant repetition by the leaders. Why? Don’t people have memories that retain such ideas? They seem to remember thousands of other things that were said that have much less importance. Why do colleagues seem to forget the vision and strategy? The answer may be that they don’t forget. They don’t have amnesia. We suspect that the answer lies somewhere else.The metaphor that comes to mind involves something that happens in many marriages or domestic partnerships. They begin with expressions of love between partners. Then, as daily events occur, things happen that erode the strength of that relationship, or at least raise questions about it. One party says or does things that seem contrary to that original expression of love as the other party sees it. Martin Seligman, in his book Authentic Happiness, points out that the most happily united couples spend a few minutes at the beginning of each day getting caught up, talking about their expectations for the day, reassuring each other of their love, giving a kiss good-bye, and parting in a pleasant manner. The same thing happens each evening. It is clear that the most happily joined partners provide each other with a continuous stream of reassurance of their commitment and fidelity to the partnership. We believe there’s an important principle embedded here. Why is it that leaders must constantly reaffirm the goals and direction? Because in the whirlwind of daily activities, things are said and done that appear at worst to contradict or at best to be disconnected from the avowed strategy. One of the authors worked for a multinational pharmaceutical company. The firm brought all division and country managers together twice a year to discuss overall corporate strategy and direction. At the conclusion of these meetings, everyone seemed completely clear about and at peace with the strategy and his role in making it happen. Then, after a month or so, the author would visit many of these other locations, and he observed a very consistent phenomenon. Invariably there would be questions of: “Where is this organization headed?” “Our division can’t formulate our strategy until we get clear about where the corporation is going.” Again, we don’t believe that these leaders, who were so competent and senior, suddenly experienced amnesia or minor memory lapses. Something else was going on, and we can only surmise that in the ongoing stream of communication that came from headquarters, those in the remote locations heard messages that contradicted or eroded what they had earlier been told. Whatever the cause, the need for leaders to repeat the direction and vision for the organization frequently is extremely important. It simply cannot be done too frequently. Devise Tactics with a Greater Assurance That They Will Mesh with the Vision and Strategy Without a clear vision, there is a high likelihood that tactics won’t be perfectly aligned. With a clear vision and a strategy that is frequently reiterated, there is a much higher likelihood that the operational tactics selected by everyone in the organization will be in harmony with the vision. Leaders need to pay special attention to the priorities that are established in the organization; this should be inbred within the leadership development programs. Often, after a vision has been established in the organization, competing priorities start to become established that create confusion about the strategy. Team members struggle to know when they should do anything they can to please a customer and when they should tell a customer that the customer’s request is outside the mission of the organization. Implement the Bold Changes Required to Make the Vision RealMany visions are never realized because, while leaders want to achieve a vision, they lack the ability or commitment to make difficult changes. Any new vision will require change, and change rarely occurs automatically because there is a new vision or by declaration. Change requires discipline to continue to make decisions and take actions that are consistent with a desired outcome.Remember That External Focus Is CriticalLeaders who are attempting to implement a new vision need to stay connected with and informed about what is happening outside the organization. Implementing a new vision can cause leaders to become internally focused. All their energy and attention is focused internally, within the organization. This is a very dangerous position because the world is changing, competition is adapting, and customers are fickle. Leaders need to spend a significant portion of their time focusing outside the organization to make themselves aware of new trends.Plan for Any Potential SetbacksFinally, we would strongly urge that leaders anticipate problems. Some become so enamored with their new vision that they assume it will automatically be implemented. This never happens. There are always roadblocks and problems. Leaders need to take the time up front to anticipate these problems. That way, potential solutions are much more likely to be found, and successful implementations for their visions can be created.EXAMPLES OF THE POWER OF VISIONRethinking the Fundamental Product or Service That You ProvideA CEO of a large telecommunication company addresses 50 executives and indicates that while the old legacy company used to sell communication services, the new company has become part of the fabric of society. The live evidence of this in his home is that his children use their cell phones as alarm clocks. Indeed, the evolution of the cell phone’s role in people’s lives is hard to fully comprehend. It has become a primary means of communication, as young people text-message each other when they are less than 100 feet apart. The phone has become the primary camera to capture and send visual images. It is an entertainment device in downtime periods. It is the most often used calculator. It replaces the laptop computer for the business traveler with its ability to retrieve e-mail, spreadsheets, and lengthy documents.Vision Creates Unifying TargetsA CEO of an energy company that five years before was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy now has a vision of making his company one of the best companies to work for in the world.Not being satisfied with merely above-average employee satisfaction, the CEO describes his vision for moving the company into the top quartile. Vision Helps to Implement an Important Strategic InitiativeA human resources executive has a vision of developing leaders that are world class in terms of their skills and competencies. This organization had done little to develop leaders in the past. It has definite financial constraints on what it can spend for this activity. The executive ticks the leadership characteristics list and buys books and distributes them to critical stakeholders in the organization. She has “lunch and learn” discussions to share her vision and build support. She arranges special meetings with a few executives who show some interest and talks them into having a pilot program. She attends every pilot and follows up with each participant. Within a year, 200 leaders have been through a meaningful developmental experience. The organization is making progress in helping people to acquire critical skills that will enable them to take on bigger roles in the company.These are just a few examples of leaders with a clear vision who inspire their organizations to new levels of performance and improvement. To Sum it up:
via Blogger http://ift.tt/2chXV29 August 27, 2016 at 07:36PM
Benchmarking leadership development goals
One of the popular techniques that people with good leadership skills used in the early years of the Total Quality Management movement was to send their employees to visit other organizations that had a reputation for doing something extremely well. Xerox sent a team of people who were working on a process to speed distribution of its products to Domino’s Pizza, an early pioneer in speedy delivery of its product. Benchmarking was a powerful way to get employees to see for themselves a better way to approach a task, without the leader’s being the one to go collect the information and bring it back to the group. http://ift.tt/2bIjEywAs organizations mature, an attitude of “we know best” or “this is how we’ve always done it” often creeps in. This “we know it all” attitude is the antithesis of the “learning organization” that is actively looking for new and better ways. Leaders often initiate discussions about performance with individuals when there is an obvious problem. This could include things not being done on time. Or it could be that tasks are being accomplished in a less than professional manner. Often the leader may raise these performance deficiencies with the entire team in a staff meeting. This doesn't need a how to be a good leader primer! But is that the only time to have performance discussions? What if the leader initiated a performance discussion with the team when things were going quite well? What if the leader asked for the team members’ ideas about how things could be even better? This is a leadership goals act of the highest order. Think of how you might initiate such a conversation with your group. Leadership development goals: Identify Peak Performers in the OrganizationOne powerful technique that people with leadership characteristics use is to ferret out the individuals already within the organization who are unusually fast or good at what they do. For some reason, these people are often ignored, and their improved processes and techniques help them to perform well personally, but are never adopted by others. When high performers are not recognized or rewarded for their exceptional performance, their performance will usually gradually decline.Worse yet is when leadership communication single out their favorites and ignore every other individual or team. When trying to improve the performance of any group of individuals or any team, a good question to ask is, “Which individuals (or what teams) are doing this extremely well? Let’s identify these people or teams and seek their permission to observe them, interview them, and have them become the trainers for new people coming in.” Utilize Team Dynamics and Support to Achieve Stretch GoalsMany individuals with leadership traits have discovered that having the team set its goals collectively can be a powerful technique. Invariably, one or more of the team members would like to reach higher. They toss out potential goals that the manager would be wary of proposing, but having such a goal come from one of the team members makes it infinitely more appealing. Many managers have found themselves in the position of attempting to scale back the team’s ambitions. That’s usually a much more favorable position than trying to radically lift the sights of individuals or the team. We encourage leadership development programs to experiment with this technique. Prior to a team meeting in which you toss the challenge of establishing a goal or target for the completion of a project to the team, write down what you would have proposed had you done this unilaterally. Then compare that to what the team decides on.Why does this succeed so frequently? We know that people support decisions that they helped to make. When the team has an active part in the decision process, everyone on the team is more committed to making it succeed. The acceptance of a decision is a huge part of its success, and having the team make the decision collectively adds one more important dimension. Now the team members are holding one another accountable for doing what is required to meet the target that they collectively set. Improve Processes and Remove BureaucracyAnother technique that people with leadership qualities use to raise the bar is to challenge individuals or teams to streamline the processes that they use. Seldom do you find complex systems in organizations that can’t be improved if people will take the time to map out the current process in some detail, then look for places to eliminate unnecessary steps or generally streamline the entire process.The airline industry has saved millions of dollars by moving from paper tickets to e-tickets. Direct deposit payroll checks have been a real boon to both corporations and their employees. In order to really improve processes, people need to ask more lofty questions. Getting a 10 percent increase in productivity on a process can typically be done by people just working a little bit harder. Asking for a 50 percent improvement forces the team to consider entirely new approaches. Bureaucracy is often so embedded that it is considered off limits to change or improvement. Great leaders look everywhere for opportunities. Celebration and RewardRegardless of how committed your team is, if a lofty goal is achieved, celebration and rewards for the individuals and the team need to be carefully considered. Teams have to celebrate victories even at important milestones along the way to the ultimate goal. Of course, most organizations are not finished when a major objective is reached. In fact, most of the time, that objective is quickly followed by yet another. So when it is time for the team members to give all that they can for the next hard-to-achieve goal, they need to look back and feel that they were appropriately recognized and rewarded for their extra effort and performance. Otherwise, why would they do it again? Stretch goals deserve stretch rewards and ought to be celebrated in a way that is appropriate for your organization.Most people are willing to put forth a reasonable amount of effort, but at some point they hold back and look for ways to conserve energy. We probably learn this from our physical limitations. After you have been holding your breath for a period of time, the instinct and desire to breathe are very strong. Even though most people could hold their breath longer, the instinct wins out. For most of us, when we are asked the question, “Did you give all that you had to give?” the honest answer is no. There is a great deal of conserved energy in every organization. Setting stretch goals can release some of that conserved energy, bringing increased productivity and success to the organization. The great side effect of getting people to stretch is that when people accomplish challenging objectives, they are happier about their jobs and more pleased with themselves. Some people may assume that all team members will be overjoyed at being given a very challenging objective. However, those with experience know they will not be. There will often be some complaints, groans, and criticism for the leadership characteristics list. But if you follow the principles outlined in this post, this could eventually be one of the best memories people have and something that fills them with pride and confidence for years to come. via Blogger http://ift.tt/2bPFzkX August 25, 2016 at 04:35PM
Setting leadership goals
When people describe an extraordinary experience at work, most of the time this experience involves an objective that was extremely challenging and complex. Often the leadership goals were so challenging that they were not certain that it could be accomplished. People often relate a fascinating story that describes how they applied their good leadership skills, knowledge, and experience together with hard work. Add to that some luck, and the leadership goal was accomplished. If you ask people about their work satisfaction during this difficult but extraordinary experience, they invariably describe this as a time when they were extremely satisfied. They go on to describe it as a time when they were extremely productive. If you ask them how they felt about themselves during the experience, the answer is that they felt confident, self-assured, positive, and enthusiastic. If you ask them about their work-life balance during this period, many say that it was out of balance from the perspective of personal time, but that this didn’t seem to matter that much because when they were not working, they felt so good about what they were accomplishing professionally that it made what personal time they had better as well. http://ift.tt/2bhSRsbOver the last few years, this paradox has become very clear to us: while many people tend to resist taking on difficult, challenging assignments, they are most happy and fulfilled when they accomplish a stretch goal. The bottom line seems to be that if you want to make people feel extremely fulfilled, give them challenging work in which they can be successful. When you think about the backbreaking pace that many people endure at work and ask these people what they would prefer to be doing, they talk about the beach, relaxation, or “chilling out.” But rest and relaxation, while fulfilling for a short time, eventually lead people to boredom. The vacation we remember the most is seldom the one in which we sat and did nothing. Leaders who can get their team members to take on challenging and difficult assignments that can be accomplished end up with team members who are the most highly satisfied, productive, and fulfilled. How to be a good leader?? The formula here is that leaders who can get people to take on challenging assignments at which they can be successful will have team members who are highly satisfied and more productive. This, in turn, helps the leader to be viewed as more inspirational. This is a self-perpetuating cycle of leadership qualities. LOFTY LEADERSHIP GOALSInspirational leaders believe that the organization is capable of producing at a higher level than it is at the current time. Jack Welch often observed about human performance that “there’s no end to the juice in that lemon.” The truth of the matter is that when there is a crisis or when some event triggers it, groups nearly always become capable of performing at a much higher level.Peter Drucker wrote: “The single greatest challenge facing managers in the developed countries of the world is to raise the productivity of knowledge and service workers. This challenge, which will dominate the management agenda for the next several decades, will ultimately determine the competitive performance of companies.” Look at the scoring pattern in most athletic contests. The number of points scored in the final minutes of a football game is enormously higher than during any other period. People rise to the occasion when they are highly motivated. Along with a belief that the group can produce more, the leader must also be discontented with the status quo. For whatever reasons, the leader must feel a strong need for things to change. It could be because of a new competitor. It could be because the leader believes that more difficult times are coming in the economy. Or it could be that the leader recognizes that because it can be done, it should be done. Period. CONCLUSIONS FROM RESEARCHOur research revealed some specific actions that leaders engaged in to set lofty leadership goals.At the Core of Setting Lofty Leadership Goals Are the Leader’s Courage and Willingness to Take On Risk When leaders consider setting a lofty, difficult stretch leadership goals, many of them will have an unpleasant feeling deep in the pit of their stomach. Thoughts will come to their mind, including:
One study estimated that on average, employees waste 1.44 hours each day on nonproductive activities.1 Beyond that, employees who just go through the motions in doing their job never produce the kind of superior results that they are capable of producing. In a study of more than 100,000 employees who were asked if their work environment encouraged people to “go the extra mile,” only 29 percent of the employees strongly agreed, and 26 percent responded to that question with a neutral or negative reply. (This is instructive, because the question simply asked if the work environment encouraged that type of behavior. It didn’t ask if people actually went the extra mile.) That analysis indicates that at least a quarter of employees go through the motions each day but are not highly committed to putting forth their best efforts. Second, small increases in productivity can have profound effects. We mentioned in an earlier chapter that Peter Drucker observed that if an average company increased productivity by only 10 percent, it would double its profits. (The average firm produces approximately 5 percent after-tax profits. The S&P 500 earn slightly more than that, and other firms generally earn less. People costs are usually the largest line item for firms, but there are obviously huge differences.) If the firm’s productivity gains were 5 percent, then it would have half again as much profit. While discussing Drucker’s observation in many different companies, we have found a consistent reaction. The first reaction that people have is often skepticism. It simply sounds too good to be true. But, after they consider their people costs, their profit margin, and the fact that most of the time an increase in employee productivity would not add any additional cost, they come to the same conclusion. You can almost hear them say in unison, “It would all go to the bottom line.” While many lofty leadership goals seem like a great deal of effort, a little bit of effort from a lot of people often gets those leadership goals accomplished. Have the Confidence to Get Team Members to Embrace a New RealityPeople determine their own limitations and expectations. People with leadership traits who are working with a team with the aim of having the team members embrace a stretch goal need to approach that process with a great deal of energy and commitment. Any hesitation or doubt on the part of the leader can quickly open the door to a mutiny. After discussing stretch goals with a number of leaders, it has become clear to us that while their public persona displayed incredible confidence, the goal was often determined by an educated guess.Pete was in charge of an effort to downsize a large manufacturing organization. While the company was still profitable, margins were slipping, raw materials costs were increasing, and competition was making it impossible for the company to raise prices. A small group of senior managers met to discuss the downsizing goal. The accountants indicated that 12 percent of the cost needed to be taken out in order to retain the desired level of productivity. Pete asked for one week to study this issue and return with a decision. In a week Pete returned to the meeting. He said that after looking at a great deal of data and having numerous discussions, he had determined that the goal for the downsizing was 25 percent. You could hear people gasp. In unison people said, “That’s impossible you’ll destroy the business.” Pete took on all the questions. He remained calm but totally committed to 25 percent. Over the next three months, Pete met with group after group who said that 25 percent was impossible, but he simply sent them back and asked them to sharpen their pencils. No group escaped the reduction. By four months, every group in the company had figured out a way to accomplish its goal. The downsizing went smoothly, and Pete was a real hero. In an interview a year after the event, Pete was asked how he determined the number. “It was my best guess,” he replied. “I knew that we had it in many places, and I knew that whatever the number was, no group would give me more than that number. So, after thinking about it for several days, I just decided that we could do 25 percent. I figured that if that was too much, someone would convince me that I was wrong, and that never happened.” Involvement Is the Key to Raising the BarOne of the most important leadership characteristics is that somehow the leader must raise the bar. There are many ways to do that. One approach is illustrated by the sales manager who calls a salesperson into the office and simply announces that the quota for that territory is being increased by 20 percent. The sales manager may then give some rationale for that, such as increasing prices, expansion of clients, or changes in the economy all in an attempt to make the salesperson accept and feel good about the new quota. But this approach is fundamentally unilateral. Is that a good approach?The American Productivity Council reports that only 2.5 percent of companies surveyed believed that management-initiated changes were the most important source of improved performance. On the other hand, 62 percent identified employees as the most important source of those ideas. To have the employees become the source of the ideas, the leader would have to behave in an extremely different manner. Here’s an example. The sales manager could meet with the salesperson regarding the need to arrive at a new quota for the coming year. This discussion might begin with a review together of the available data and with the sales manager seeking the salesperson’s ideas. (All this assumes that raising the target for the salesperson doesn’t have a negative financial impact on him. If it does have a negative impact, there will nearly always be greater resistance.) Is this always a better approach? We suspect it depends on many factors. The high school swimming coach who has her young swimmers swim 20 laps in an Olympic-sized pool on the first day of practice is setting the bar at a higher level than most high school students would have chosen for themselves. In some circumstances, the leader may be required to raise the bar in a somewhat unilateral way. That continues through much of high school and college. Teachers and professors believe students to be capable of doing things that most of the students would find hard to believe. The Fremont Swim Club in northern California produced a long series of winning swim teams, including many swimmers who went on to participate in the Olympics. The coaches had a wonderful knack of pushing young swimmers until they reached their maximum performance, and then knowing how to back off a bit or jumping into the pool themselves to break the tension. As time passes, however, that same approach may not be the ideal one for the more experienced worker. At that stage, it seems far more appropriate to make important decisions in partnership between two adults, and not as a parent to a child. In most leadership development programs situations involving mature adults who bring experience to their work, a joint problem-solving discussion works far better than a unilateral command. One of the important contributions a leader makes is to expand the thinking of the subordinate about what can be accomplished and how it might be done. An important leadership communication principle is that the leader should be extremely clear about the outcome that is expected, but should leave a great deal of wiggle room for the employee in terms of how the task is completed. Often the employee doesn’t have as much experience as the leader. The employee hasn’t seen anyone attempt this task, or anything remotely like it. Here’s where the leader, after exhausting all the employee’s ideas, can suggest other approaches to consider. Leadership Goals Need to Be RealisticMost people are aware that when they set stretch goals, their performance improves. In many organizations this has become a way of life, but some leaders take the principle to an extreme by setting impossible goals. At least, the goal seems impossible to the people who need to embrace and execute it. When this occurs, it has the opposite effect from inspiring people. Instead, it demotivates people. They start to attribute ulterior motives to the leader who sets impossible goals. They view the leader as a greedy taskmaster whose only motive is more profit. There is a fine art to setting stretch goals that others will embrace. Ultimately, the issues are that people need to believe in their ability to achieve the goal and that there always needs to be some worthy purpose for the goal.The employees are also going to expect the leader to lead by creating the conditions that will allow the new targets to be met. If the leader is unwilling to do that, the employee group will soon question the seriousness of this new target. One barrier in many organizations is the stifling bureaucracy that often gets in the way of getting things done. Peter Drucker observed, “Most of what we call management consists of things that make it increasingly difficult for the workers to get their jobs done.” The manager must be willing to banish bureaucracy and remove the barriers to high productivity. An extreme expression of that perspective came from a Russian plant manager, Vladimir Karaidze, of the Ivanovo Machine Building Works near Moscow. His plant had been plagued with excessive bureaucratic requirements for forms and paperwork. He wrote to a colleague in Moscow, “I can’t stand this proliferation of paperwork. It is useless to fight the forms. You’ve got to kill the people producing them.” Most people with experience in organizations can share and feel his frustration, but hope he was joking about the solution. A Key to Accomplishing Lofty Leadership Goals Is to Follow Through and Then Follow Through Some More Some leaders set a lofty goal for their team and ask for the team’s dedicated effort and commitment. In a few months, these same leaders go to the team with a new goal and again ask for the team members’ dedication and commitment. Such leaders simply fail to stay the course. Everyone knows how this story continues: changing priorities month after month, along with new commitments. It becomes the flavor of the month. What employees learn to do is to sandbag each of these commitments, look very busy, and conserve as much energy as possible. The consensus among the employees is that if you wait long enough, the leader will forget about previous commitments in the rush to the next goal. One person explained his approach in the following way. When my boss has an assignment, I go to his office and take careful notes. I ask lots of questions and document exactly what is wanted and how it should be done. I always tell the boss that I will get right on this new assignment. Then I go to my office, file the notes, and do nothing. Most of the time my boss just forgets about what he asked me to do, but sometimes I get a call and a request for a progress report. I tell him that I need a couple of days to pull everything together and I will give him a progress report. I then pull out my notes and work very hard to make some progress. When I do a progress report, I always give him some critical decisions that he needs to make to keep the project moving forward. It’s not that I am lazy. I am working 60 to 70 hours a week and barely holding my head above water. This is the only way that I can survive. One of the most frequent complaints from employees is that priorities are constantly changing. Everyone needs a clear line of sight about which work is critical and which is a lower priority. For many leaders who cover most of the leadership characteristics list, the key to keeping their team focused on the most important priorities is that they must be willing to push back on new priorities that come from senior leaders. We are not suggesting that leaders be insubordinate, but they need to understand how a new priority fits with last month’s priorities. via Blogger http://ift.tt/2bhT7Hz August 19, 2016 at 01:25PM
Pointers on developing good leadership skills
As we consider the necessary attributes of a leader who is capable of inspiring, there are a trio of fundamental characteristics that are vital in order to make inspiration come to life. These attributes are the cornerstone of what it takes to inspire and motivate others. http://ift.tt/2b5bsat
Because they are broad, they do not simply represent something that you go and do. And that is another reason that these three are set apart from the rest. They represent a pattern of actions that form other people’s impression of who you are. Additionally, as we analyzed the written comments contained in the 360-degree assessments on tens of thousands of leaders and began to group them into categories, a pattern began to emerge that pointed to these three attributes being the broad attributes that separate those who inspire and those who do not. We’ve discovered that if you ask people what behavior on the part of a leader inspires them, it is not an easy question to answer. Yet if you press someone to answer this question, the answers will often fall into one of these three categories. So what are they? Are they roles? Are they functions? Are they patterns of behavior? Are they the glue that holds other behaviors together? Or are they the medium in which other behaviors grow? Whatever they are, we do know this for certain: they are highly correlated with inspiration, and we could not ignore them. We’ll call them attributes, and in this chapter we’ll explore what they mean in practical terms, examine why they may be so highly correlated with inspiration, and provide some practical suggestions for how people can get better at them. Sometimes a metaphor or model helps us to both understand and remember such a concept. As we noted earlier in the blog, there are many factors that contribute to a leader’s excelling, yet it seems clear that inspiration is what gives good leadership characteristics list its energy. That energy is stored and channeled, and it fuels inspiration. In this spirit, we submit the metaphor of a battery pack that is designed to power any device that requires an energy source possibly a camera or a flashlight. This battery pack holds several individual batteries. It aligns the batteries’ polarity, connects them, and enables them to deliver their power to the device. The three attributes listed earlier in this chapter are akin to the battery pack container, into which are inserted several batteries. The battery pack, in our metaphor, represents the leader’s willingness to be a role model and example for others, to push for constant change and improvement, and finally to continually take the initiative to make good things happen. The use of emotions becomes the “on–off” switch on the battery pack. The attributes we have described are the container for specific good leadership skills and behaviors leaders can use. The leader now inserts one or more of six batteries (behaviors) into the overall battery pack. The more power the battery pack can produce, the more the leader is able to inspire and motivate. The batteries are: 1. Setting stretch goals 2. Creating vision and direction 3. Communicating powerfully 4. Developing people 5. Being collaborative and a good team player 6. Fostering innovation Which batteries get used at any one time doesn’t make much difference, although our research indicates that having more battery power creates greater energy for inspiration. There are many useful combinations in which several batteries combine their energy to make good things happen. While the six behaviors just noted are in descending order of statistical significance in their linkage to “inspiring and motivating to high performance,” the statistical variances of their impact are not huge. The choice of which to use depends on which appears to be most needed and the leader’s level of comfort in using it. What’s more, the amount to which these batteries can be used seems to have no limit (in fact, more use often supports more use), so they provide an energy source for good leadership skills that is renewable. First, on to the battery pack the container for this renewable source of good leadership skills energy. ROLE MODELHow do people learn how to behave? How does a child learn the acceptable ways to eat a meal? To interact on the playground? To get dressed in the morning? Or how does a newly hired intern learn how to behave in a corporate meeting? Or how does a new manager learn about the culture of the organization she is joining?The most powerful and useful explanation has been labeled “social learning theory” or “behavior modeling.” The point is simply that we learn the most by watching what others do and then imitating that behavior. While that may happen with greatest frequency in our growing-up years, it continues through life. What Our Research ShowedThe most effective leaders were excellent role models. Simply put, they exemplified what the organization stood for and how it wanted people to behave. Indeed, some have theorized that the people chosen for leadership roles are those who have good leadership skills and who best epitomize the characteristics that are most valued by the organization. They are sensitive to the fact that how they behave will be watched by others, and that this, in turn, will directly shape the behavior of their subordinates. These individuals were willing to discipline their own behavior so that they became excellent examples of what the organization stands for, believes in, and rewards.Much has been said about why people leave organizations. The cliché has emerged that people don’t quit the company, they quit their boss. Our research confirms that the boss has an enormous impact on how people behave and whether they stay or leave the organization. In addition, the example the boss sets has a tremendous impact on the level of enthusiasm and motivation of the entire work group. Ponder for a moment how far-reaching the leader’s example becomes. By simple deeds and words, enormously important messages are conveyed. For example, the boss’s
To demonstrate the impact of being a positive role model, we examined ratings from 34,098 employees. The employees rated the effectiveness of their immediate manager at being a role model. We then analyzed the level of employee commitment for each of those employees. Figure 5-1 shows the results. As the study demonstrates, employees who felt that their manager needed significant improvement in being a role model responded only 41 percent positively on the commitment index, while those who felt that their leader was a positive role model and had a significant strength in that area responded 88 percent positively to the commitment index. There is a substantial negative impact when leaders fail to walk their talk and a positive impact for those who act as role models. Do as I Say, Not as I DoConsider the negative impact of a “do as I say, not as I do” kind of leader. What kind of effect does this leader have on the team that he is responsible for? In most cases, people eventually grow tired of the double standards these leaders live by and cease to be willing to give all they can for such leaders. Our research on this topic indicated that there is a stark difference between the results achieved by leaders who are great role models for the company and exemplify the behaviors that are of greatest value to the organization and those achieved by leaders who are not. When we study employee engagement, it is clear that those leaders who received high rankings in the areas of “Can always be counted on to follow through on commitments” and “Works hard to ‘walk the talk’ and avoids saying one thing and doing another” were able to drive significantly higher levels of engagement and commitment from those who they led.These data sets illustrate just how powerful the impact of a great role model is on two important indexes. In terms of both employee retention and creating an environment that drives maximum productivity, role modeling is one of the essentials for leaders to inspire and motivate. There are several reasons why that is. Role Models Cause Organizational Behaviors to ProliferateHave you ever worked with certain people and thought to yourself, “I’d like to be like them”? Perhaps you felt this way not about every aspect of these people’s lives, but about traits that you admired or saw as beneficial or desirable. Most of us have had this experience, whether the people involved were our managers, other leaders, peers, or even those outside of work. When someone is an effective role model, it inspires people to behave in a way consistent with the way that person leads or behaves and has a powerful implication; role models of traits or behaviors cause those leadership traits to proliferate within organizations.In our earlier research for The Extraordinary Leader, which identified the 16 competencies that differentiated the best and the worst leaders, one of the competencies that emerged as a critical strength from which all others flowed was character. While a thorough discussion of character is outside the scope of this book, displaying strong character is closely aligned with being a compelling role model who propels people to greater levels of achievement. Leaders inspire others by doing what they say they will do, demonstrating conviction in a course of action, and exemplifying the behaviors that they want emulated with a “do as I do” approach. Another reason this becomes so vital is that people who are led by a good role model are willing to put forth incredible amounts of effort. One of the reasons for this extra effort or intensified commitment is often that people do not want to let the leader down. When leaders are able to instill this feeling in the people whom they are responsible for, there are typically much higher levels of productivity and commitment. In his first job, one of the authors worked for a small not-for-profit organization. The executive director of the organization had created a terrific culture that was rigorously focused on performance. The people in the organization would routinely work evenings and weekends, not only out of commitment to the organization’s cause, but because they so respected the leader that they would do anything in their power not to let him down. The executive director was a classic role model of the type of leader the young staff members wanted to emulate, and as a result, he was able to drive high levels of performance. One of the statements we ask people to rate in our 360-degree feedback instruments is, “My work environment is a place where people want to go the extra mile,” and the results are constant in each of the hundreds of data sets we review each year. The highest levels of commitment go hand in hand with leaders who perform at the highest levels of being an effective role model and setting a good example. This is an indisputable driver of employee engagement and organizational performance. Developing good leadership skills1. Lead through example. The first step in becoming an outstanding role model is deciding that you will see that your personal behavior conforms to everything you want other people to do. As we mentioned earlier, some leaders believe it is possible to have a double standard that says, “Do what I say, but pay no attention to what I do.” But that seldom works. People invariably pay most attention to what the leader does, and their behavior moves in that direction.The essence of being a sound role model is simple. The leader basically communicates, “Do anything you see me doing.” This standard puts pressure on the leader. Every day in every way, the leader is serving as an example for others to follow. This represents a major commitment. But the reality is that others in the organization will follow the leader’s example, regardless of the decision that the leader makes. Inspiration and motivation come when the leader’s behavior is in complete alignment with what the organization espouses. 2. Maximize exposure. If a leader is a good role model, and if the leader’s behavior is consistent with the organization’s values, there is great benefit to increasing the exposure of the people in the organization to the leader. What are some of the ways to increase that exposure? “All hands” meetings. These meetings provide the opportunity for everyone to interact with the leader. Such meetings have the potential to inspire and motivate large numbers of employees as they hear important messages firsthand from the leader. MBWA. Management by walking around was a popular idea in the 1990s that isn’t talked about much in today’s world. But the idea of the leader’s getting out of the office and connecting with people at their workplace is still a powerful, useful idea. Many important messages are conveyed by the simple act of the leader’s taking the time to drop by and show interest in others. Visits to remote locations. In today’s organizations, the workforce is seldom under one roof, or even on the same campus. Increasingly there are satellite offices, small research teams scattered around the globe, and highly dispersed manufacturing or service groups. People who work there often feel isolated from the parent organization. Visits from senior leaders have a strongly motivational impact, depending on the leader’s nature and behavior. Recounting stories. How is a strong culture created and disseminated inside an organization? Alan Wilkins, while conducting research at Stanford University, determined that it was stories told by the leaders that created and shaped culture. One of the hallmarks of HP’s culture was informality that they believed helped to increase leadership communication between levels of the organization. An oft repeated story has David Packard meeting a new employee who addresses him as “Mr. Packard.” Seemingly without hesitation, Packard said to the employee, “My father is often referred to as Mr. Packard, but I’d prefer that you call me ‘Dave.’” That story, with some variations, was used to drive home the point about the importance of informality at HP. 3. Selectively model behaviors that need to be emphasized in the organization. Many leaders lament the lack of accountability that exists in their organization. People fail to own up to the mistakes that they make and to readily acknowledge their personal role in some of the things that go wrong inside a department. 4. Seek feedback regarding inconsistencies between a leader’s behavior and the espoused values of the organization. The highest expression of a leader’s taking the position of role model seriously is the leader’s eagerness to ensure that there are no disconnects between the important signals the leader wants to send and how people are interpreting the leader’s daily behavior. One great value from leaders obtaining 360-degree feedback from peers, direct reports, and their boss is that they become aware of those places where the disconnect comes as a surprise to them. A bank executive with whom we work is a prime example of an executive who doesn’t just accept feedback, but willingly seeks it out because he sees the huge payoffs it produces. He went so far as to have his wife complete the 360-degree process for him, because she attended many company functions with him and he thought her perspective would be valuable. While many executives seek to shrink the number and variety of people providing feedback to them, he went in exactly the opposite direction. CHANGE CHAMPIONIt has been well chronicled that one of the main contrasts between good leadership skills and management is the leader’s role in implementing change. If a leader is going to truly inspire others, then the ability to motivate a change of some kind is a key ingredient. Not much inspiration or motivation is needed to maintain the status quo or simply plod along. All progress demands change, yet we know that if people are uncertain about the impact of a change on them personally, there is a high likelihood that some of them will resist the change. And it goes without saying that if people perceive the change as having a detrimental effect on them, they will most certainly resist it. So the leader who is responsible for new directions and strategy, growth, adapting to competition, or any other shift must be able to propel and sustain change effectively.Of course, change always has its resistance and skeptics, and there are often more than leaders think. The prevailing attitudes toward many changes in organizations today, be they explicit or implied, is captured in the popular 1990s Saturday Night Live sketch “Lothar of the Hill People,” where comedian Mike Myers comments on a change proposed by a fellow tribesman, “It is a good idea, but it is a new idea, and since it is new we fear it, and since we fear it we must reject it.” These common attitudes about change require leadership development programs to develop strength in leading change if she is to be successful in moving any operation forward. There are many models for change, and next to good leadership skills, there are few topics that have been more written about in the last decade. Regardless of the model for change du jour, there are several competencies that a leader must display if she is to inspire and motivate others to produce a positive, intentional change. It is worth noting that not every change effort will necessarily require a leader to be a champion of change. A change in strategic direction or a central process improvement is a far different effort from a change that affects a simple administrative policy. Some changes simply need to be clarified and enforced. For our purposes of exploring how the best leaders drive change, we are specifically considering issues that are of significance. When we examined and analyzed those leaders who were profoundly strong in the area of creating and driving change, we saw a unique ability to energize others whom they worked with and to rally support for a cause that was uncommon in their peer group. Those leaders’ ability to create compelling cases for change and to communicate to others how a change would positively affect them were some of the obvious differentiators of success. In our research, we were able to isolate the factors that were at the intersection for those leaders who were exceptionally inspiring and able to produce change. In doing this, we were able to easily see how affecting change had such a significant impact on the ability of a leader to inspire. 1. Persuasion is at the heart of the matter. One of the key behaviors needed for a leader to be an effective champion of change is the ability to persuade. This is not based on pushing, cajoling, or even begging (though some less effective leaders rely on these tactics to persuade). Rather, it is based on the leader’s ability to relate to others and understand what fears or doubts people have regarding a specific change. Leaders must be able to understand those fears and articulate an intended change in such a way that the majority of the people affected will be convinced of the need for change. There is a commonly held belief that in order to do this well, a leader must create a sense of urgency. While this may in fact be true in some cases, leaders have to be careful with this. One of the authors worked with a senior executive who had read a book on change management and decided that for every change implemented in the company, the first step was that urgency had to be created. In every change effort, the first part of the implementation was to create urgency about the change. The first three or four times it worked. After that, the urgency was viewed as theatrics, and by the time the company was working to create urgency around even the simplest of changes, it became trite and ineffective. Most of the time leaders persuade by providing clarity on the topics of (1) why this change, (2) why now, and (3) why in this manner. This, coupled with your conviction and the other key behaviors leaders use to drive change, will be plenty persuasive. 2. It’s the results of the change that matter. Of the hundreds of organizations we work with each year, we never see any of them invest in a change effort, whether it is a new strategy, a process improvement, or the launch of an initiative, because it is fun or because they just feel that they should. There is most frequently a clear line of sight between the change that is being undertaken and a clear desired end result that the organization will achieve by making this shift. Having an outcomes orientation helps a change champion maintain a balanced focus on the results being achieved and on how the organization is making the change. As much as we try to avoid overreferencing sports on the topics of motivation and inspiration, there is an apropos saying among coaches, “Nothing brings a team together like winning.” Driving for and achieving results together is motivating and inspiring for all who are active participants, and this is particularly true when undertaking a major challenge, which many change efforts are. Inspirational leaders provide energy and passion about the achievement of goals and milestones, which instills pride and commitment in people. This builds on itself over time and becomes part of a culture of achievement that the leader can create, with an eye on the results of any change effort. 3. Recognize those who made it happen and they will do it again. As we discuss the results achieved through a change effort, it is worth noting that we are not simply talking about the final outcomes achieved. In some cases, that may take years. Leaders who are powerful champions of change are able to recognize the key milestones along the path of any change effort and take a moment to pause and recognize those who made the change happen. This is vital because a tremendous part of making a change effort work through other people and inspiring them to sustain performance is making sure that they know—and that the entire organization knows—the value of their contribution. This recognition, be it verbal, written, monetary, or some other type of acknowledgment, not only begins to cement the importance of new approaches and success, but reinforces the actions or outcomes that an organization seeks. And, of course, that is the first step in replicating success and driving a change effort to fruition. INITIATORIf good leadership skills has a hallmark, it is in the role of the initiator. Right or wrong, well executed or not, with or without an effectively managed team, nothing says leader like being the initiator. The energy and driving force behind any movement requires a catalyst, and in the role of initiator, a leader has the responsibility to “get the ball rolling.” This important element of good leadership skills is at the core of what it means to be an extraordinary leader. The best leaders are those who become the cause (even subtly) of a direction or event. They do not wait for others to choose a path, or allow inaction to make a choice for them. Invariably, one of the responsibilities of a leader is to look beyond the horizon to see issues and opportunities emerging and anticipate the appropriate actions. Taking the initiative and doing something is what unlocks the power of that strategic perspective. These are the leaders who get out in front and make things happen. In our research on extraordinary leaders, when we examined the typical characteristics of leaders who were in the bottom 10 percent or who possessed what we termed a “fatal flaw,” the main issues surrounding them were related to the theme of not taking enough initiative.As we have described earlier about the ways in which inspired colleagues behave, one of those characteristics was that they take the initiative because they do not think of themselves as hired hands, but rather as owners of the business. That behavior, of course, does not just happen—it is modeled and inspired by a leader who is mindful about being the initiator and creating an environment in which taking the initiative is part of the culture and rewarded. The leader as initiator assumes responsibility and is intentional about the decisions that are made and the directions that are chosen. It Takes More Energy to StartSir Isaac Newton studied the movement of objects and formulated his conclusions into laws. The first one was: an object that is at rest will not move until a net force acts upon it.We’re all familiar with the principle and reality of inertia. We’ve learned that if we have a cup that is full to the brim with any liquid, we’re likely to spill it when we start moving. The water wants to stay where it was. We’re also prone to spill it when we stop moving or if we change the direction in which we’re moving. The liquid wants to keep moving in the same direction and at the same pace that it had been moving. We’ve also learned that it takes a lot more energy to get something that has been standing still to start to move. While Newton discovered the formula to describe that, we’ve all had practical experience that teaches us that reality. In many high-efficiency hybrid vehicles, there is a display that shows the miles per gallon based on the current speed of the vehicle. A quick observation of this display reveals that in going from a dead stop to 35 miles per hour, the miles per gallon gauge settles in at around 25 miles per gallon. Once the vehicle is traveling at 35 miles per hour, however, the miles per gallon gauge quickly adjusts to 50 miles per gallon. It becomes obvious that the amount of energy required to get an object moving is greater than the amount of energy required to keep that object moving. This same principle seems to apply to humans taking the initiative. It takes a lot of energy to get things started. Everyone knows that it is much easier to coast than to start. In order for people to take the initiative, they need to have enough energy in terms of both time and motivation to take on something new, and they need to be willing to expend that energy. Leaders who take the initiative believe that they are responsible for getting things started. When individuals take the initiative, they may be punished for stepping outside of standard practices. Organizations often reward following rather than taking a different path. Many people who take the initiative and fail learn the lesson that it is often better to sit back, go with the flow, and let other people volunteer. Why Taking the Initiative Is So InspiringAfter looking at data showing the correlation between employee commitment and good leadership skills and behaviors, it has become very clear that what creates satisfaction for people at work is accomplishing challenging assignments and doing significant work. People want to make a difference. They want to accomplish something significant.A key capability in taking on challenging assignments is taking the initiative. Examining data about the events that are the most frustrating to employees, we see a group of comments that have a common theme. Sample comments focus on work being stalled, waiting for decisions to be made, bureaucratic processes that add no value, and starting projects that get canceled. Delays, cancellations, and needless bureaucracy will make any work environment unmotivating. The one good leadership skills that can be the key to solving these kinds of organizational problems is taking the initiative. Leaders who work in organizations that have these kinds of problems sometimes feel that the best thing they can do to help people is to teach them how to cope because the organization cannot be changed. They point to initiatives in the past that have failed. One leader described it this way, “This company is like a one million pound marshmallow. If you dropped an atom bomb in it, the bomb would be swallowed up and absorbed. Perhaps the marshmallow would shake a little, but nothing would fundamentally change.” Leaders who take the initiative are willing to try. They continue to make efforts to improve. They feel that they are accountable for making something happen, and this is inspiring to other people. Of the three attributes in this chapter, taking the initiative is sometimes one of the hardest things to do. Typically there are a variety of things that get in the way or block people from taking the initiative. Let’s look at why. Feeling Overwhelmed Gets in the Way of InitiativeIf you feel totally and completely overwhelmed, then you are not very likely to volunteer for a new assignment or find some additional piece of work that has not been done. That feeling of barely keeping your head above water or juggling 20 balls makes you worry that taking on one additional item will cause you to drown or to drop all the balls. In today’s organizations, almost everyone feels overwhelmed. Almost everyone has more to do than can be done. This is one of the side effects of flattening and downsizing organizations. While everyone is busy, there are still a few leaders who continue to take the initiative. What, then, is the difference between those who continue to take the initiative and those who feel overwhelmed?First, feeling overwhelmed is partly an emotion (the extent to which you feel oppressed) and partly reality (the number of things you need to accomplish). Those who feel oppressed believe that the solution to being overwhelmed is to reduce the number of responsibilities or items on the to-do list. Often the problem is more about the feelings that people experience than about the size of the list. The lists will never go away, but when people feel that they are victims with no control, this will negatively affect their behavior. In a study of new mothers, researchers found that the frustration of constant child care often resulted in their stopping their planning and organization. Whenever they made a plan, the immediate needs of a new baby would often force them to cancel or reschedule that plan. After repeated experiences, many new mothers simply gave up and quit planning. If a person can change her attitude from being oppressed to being empowered, then initiative can begin. Second, having clear priorities is critical. On every person’s list there are a few critical priorities and a large number of other issues. Leaders need to feed the critical priorities and starve or delegate the others. Third, no one is perfect, so accomplish what you can and move on. Many people believe that they will be judged by what they don’t accomplish rather than by what they do accomplish. If you are focused on the high-priority issues and accomplish them well, that is what people will remember. Fourth, always look for a better way. Innovation can solve many problems and improve productivity, but it also takes some initiative to be more innovative. Fifth, the problem can be a lack of confidence. Without confidence, people tend to do only what is expected and needed. They resist taking on any additional work or volunteering for assignments. They have a tendency to sit back and let other people offer suggestions and take on difficult assignments. Leaders who lack confidence have a strong fear of failure. There are many ways in which a leader can take the initiative, but those who lack confidence get into the habit of sitting back and letting others take the lead. How to Take More InitiativeThree factors that become preeminent when we look at the profiles of leaders who are great initiators are decisiveness, accountability, and understanding risk apart from other must haves (although less important) in how to be a good leader.DecisivenessThis is not simply a go-for-it mentality—boiling decisiveness down to that glib statement doesn’t do the initiator justice. Having a bias toward taking quick action is unquestionably a characteristic of initiators, since the success of many efforts depends on their being accomplished in a short time frame. However, decisiveness in the context of inspiring others goes much deeper. Leaders who are decisive about the directions they are initiating have clearly applied thoughtful strategy to the path they are advocating.As we said, this is not just about picking a direction and going; there must be careful thought applied to the decision based on the leader’s desired outcome and knowledge of the situation. In our research, we gathered various leaders from several industries and gave them a case study concerning a major initiative. They were asked to predict the outcomes of the initiative, including any negative consequences. It was instructive to see how accurate they were in forecasting these events. The group in the case study that was responsible for the initiative had not taken the time, nor did it have the discipline, to anticipate the consequences. Chances are, had the people involved taken the time and fostered that discipline, they might have foreseen many of the problems that arose, and the outcomes of the initiative would have been far better. Planning, organization, and strategic thought combined with an orientation toward action are essential to the leader who needs to be decisive. There is a very strong correlation between acting quickly and being seen as taking the initiative. Think about a leader who takes a great deal of time to make a simple decision and whose slow pace frustrates everyone. Even though a decision required some initiative, the leader’s slow pace gave everyone the impression that they were resisting the decision. When leaders can move quickly, others see that as taking more initiative. Many decisions are not simple and require study, analysis, and discussion. When a leader continually communicates the progress of the decision and is seen by others as moving forward quickly, then people will judge this as taking the initiative. The leader who studies, analyzes, and discusses but never communicates his progress is often viewed as stalling or delaying. Decisiveness happens not only in the moment that the decision is made, but in the many moments leading up to a decision in which a leader is gathering data and determining what actions are most appropriate. Doing this well facilitates good decisions as well as faster decisions with a clear sense of resolute action. The philosopher Goethe made a statement about decisiveness that is worth repeating: But when I said that nothing had been done I erred in one important matter. We had definitely committed ourselves and were halfway out of our ruts. We had put down our passage money—booked a sailing to Bombay. This may sound too simple, but is great in consequence. Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, the providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. AccountabilityBeing brave enough to be accountable for your actions is a rare quality. A large organization suffered a significant loss. The company CEO made a public statement and apologized for the loss. The divisional senior manager sent out an e-mail acknowledging the loss and that it was in his organization, and apologizing for having a negative impact on the performance of the company. The manager of the function where the loss occurred made no public statement or apology. In discussions with her peers, the manager blamed the economy, poor collaboration within the organization, and an inept supervisor but never publicly acknowledged her accountability for her actions or the problems. The reactions of other people to the functional manager were extremely negative. She was trying so hard to avoid accountability and protect her image that it had just the opposite effect.The opposite of accountability is finger-pointing. When people try to avoid being accountable, they typically look for someone or something else to blame for their mistakes. When this becomes prevalent in an organization, the culture becomes very dysfunctional, with everyone pointing fingers at everyone else when problems arise. When leaders set the example of being accountable, it encourages others to be more accountable. RiskFor nearly anything to be accomplished, some level of risk must be accepted. Certainly, there is always a probability that events will not turn out exactly as we expect them to. Sometimes the risk is great and at other times it is insignificant, and part of understanding risk is being able to anticipate the consequences of choices. The term calculated risk effectively captures the essence of understanding the potential for gains or consequences and making decisions based on commensurate levels of risk.Some leaders are more risk-averse than others for a variety of reasons, and without placing a value judgment on taking risks great or small, the best leaders in the world always have to manage some level of risk in their business. Occasionally decisions like the proverbial “bet the company on a new product” or “all or nothing” scenarios present themselves, and this is the stuff that hero or failure stories are made of. Yet most of the time, leaders are in a constant state of evaluating the risks of investments, reorganizations, strategies, and the like in order to make effective decisions for the organization. That said, what do you think inspires people to action and gets them excited about giving their all to a cause—taking some risk or playing it safe? We would submit that, based on our studies of employee engagement and the people’s desire to achieve stretch goals, the answer, while not foolish levels of risk, is absolutely not playing it safe. For this reason, understanding and taking calculated and appropriate risks in order to achieve the results desired is a critical part of inspiring others. A quotation attributed to Abraham Lincoln states, “Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.” This quotation captures many of the fears that leaders have about taking the initiative and the inherent risk involved. Many people believe that doing nothing does not hurt you that much, but taking risks and failing can permanently damage your career. Taking the initiative usually involves some risk. Those who take the initiative stand out. It is true that some organizations have little tolerance for failure. Many people who are afraid of failure get into a mode of avoiding all potential risk rather than carefully choosing those risk opportunities where the rewards are high and the potential for failure is low. Those who are effective at taking risks often set up clear expectations with others before they take on difficult assignments. For example, they spend the time to let everyone know the potential risks, they help managers know the probability of success, and they look for ways to mitigate negative side effects. When everyone has the appropriate expectations, then failure does not look that bad and success looks incredible. via Blogger http://ift.tt/2b3BAiu August 19, 2016 at 10:41AM
How to be a good leader?
As data on these differentiating behaviors were accumulated over the last several years, we asked the question, “Which of the 16 is the best differentiator?” Out of more than 100,000 assessments on almost 8,000 leaders, a clear first among equals emerged. The item identified as the highest-ranking differentiating behavior is inspires and motivates to high performance. Specifically, this analysis showed that when comparing the top 10 percent of leaders to the bottom 10 percent, this one behavior most powerfully separated these two groups. We also compared the top 10 percent against the first through the fiftieth percentiles and found the same result. http://ift.tt/2b23NwwIn our continued analysis of various data sets from different organizations, countries, and cultures, we found that whenever that competency was used, it was invariably the best differentiator. We performed another analysis with this set of assessment data. In listing each of the 16 differentiating behaviors, we asked raters to choose which differentiating behavior, if done with a high level of skill, would have the greatest impact on the leader’s ability to be successful in his current job. Again, the competency that was chosen most frequently was inspires and motivates to high performance. The leaders who were being assessed chose that as the one competency with the most impact. As we coached leaders around the world, we took note of how many selected inspires and motivates to high performance as the strength they most wanted to build. This item again was their most frequent choice. After we discovered these results, we asked a more difficult question regarding the bottom-line impact of this item: “Are there measurable outcomes that inspirational leaders create?” The employee commitment index asks each person who directly reports to the leader to respond to five questions about her personal work experience. These questions assess the following:
HOW TO BE A GOOD LEADER?Our previous research for The Extraordinary Leader found that leaders who had exceptional leadership qualities (e.g., above the eightieth or ninetieth percentile) were able to achieve substantially better outcomes. Extraordinary leaders had lower turnover, higher customer satisfaction, higher profitability, and higher commitment and engagement on the part of their employees. In this we showed similar results for leaders who were very effective at inspiring and motivating others. All this analysis led to the question, “How do leaders move from being good at inspiring others to being extraordinary?”When we looked at exceptional leaders, we discovered several things that we had expected, and a few things that surprised us. We were not surprised that they were not perfect, nor were we surprised that the qualities that made them extraordinary were different for different people. When we asked groups to think about a leader whom they would consider extraordinary, we then asked, “What did that leader do exceptionally well?” “What were that leader’s strengths?” In response, we heard a variety of different answers:
Some lacked people skills and preferred to “hole up” in their office. Others were novices regarding the technology of the business and resisted “rolling in the dirt” when it came to anything technical. This exercise demonstrates exactly what we found in our research. What characterized extraordinary leaders was not the absence of weaknesses. Rather, it was the presence of a few profound strengths. All leaders seemed to have some weaknesses, but the real differentiation of a great leader from a poor leader was that extraordinary leaders had profound strengths and used a variety of mechanisms to compensate for any weaknesses. In some cases, that meant hiring someone with complementary skills. In other cases, it meant restructuring the job so that others performed the activities that the executive struggled with. Many people assume that the path to extraordinary performance is to eliminate all weaknesses. Their unspoken assumptions are, “Whatever strengths I have will take care of themselves,” and “Getting better means discovering what I’m bad at and fixing that.” Therefore, they focus their development efforts on the things they don’t do well. The problem with this approach is that typically people are not very interested in or passionate about their most significant weaknesses, and therefore they don’t improve much. We have found that a key to improvement for every person is to have passion. Working on a behavior that you are interested in creates a much higher probability that real change will occur. The analysis that propelled us to this conclusion was one that specifically looked at the impact of strengths. Strength in a competency was defined as performing at the ninetieth percentile. The results confirmed that it wasn’t the absence of flaws but the presence of strengths that made exceptional leaders. We recently conducted a new analysis, using another substantial database, and found extremely similar results. Figure 4-1 comes from the second study and shows the results from 7,195 leaders. In this study, leaders were assessed on the 16 differentiating competencies. Note in the figure that leaders with no strengths have an average effectiveness rating of the thirty-fifth percentile. But when leaders do one thing very well, their effectiveness rating jumps to the sixty-third percentile. Strength in just 3 out of the 16 lifts people to the eightieth percentile. HOW DO LEADERS DEVELOP PROFOUND STRENGTHS?Once we understood the impact of profound strengths, we wanted to understand how leaders go about developing a profound strength. Most people assume that the same process that helps a person move from poor to good performance would work for going from ordinary to extraordinary performance. In our previous post, on how leaders can become extraordinary, we describe our conclusion that the process of building a strength requires a radically different approach from that used to fix a weakness.The following case study illustrates the problem with this approach: When Ralph first joined the company as a new graduate in mechanical engineering, he did not know much about how to build a rocket engine. When asked if his undergraduate schooling had prepared him for this kind of work, he said, “Well, it provided some theoretical insights, but I think that playing with fireworks in the backyard was more helpful.” To learn the fundamentals, Ralph was assigned to work with an engineer who had been building rockets for 20 years. He was an excellent mentor. Ralph also attended technical conferences and started reading journals and technical papers related to this new field. He worked hard to learn all that he could, and after five years his mentor told him that Ralph knew more than he did about building rockets. Ralph was promoted to manage a new project, but as he began his new assignment, he felt that his technical knowledge was good but not great. He enjoyed the technical aspects of his job and wanted to use his technical and analytical skills as a platform for his career. The difficult question was, “How do I move from good to great?” His mentor could not really help him, and all of his peers were generally at the same technical level. He had read all the literature that was available and felt that he was up-todate, but no one thought of him as having a profound strength in his technical expertise. Classes, reading, mentoring, and varied assignments had helped Ralph learn the basics and go from being a newbie to possessing a reasonable level of competence. Yet for Ralph to develop a profound strength in his technical expertise, it was going to require him to do something different from what he had done before. His approach had to change. THE INTERACTION OF STRENGTHSMost people assume that individuals can be great in one thing without being exceptionally competent in other areas. In a recent workshop a participant asked the question, “Can a leader be at the ninety-ninth percentile on drive for results and the first percentile on interpersonal skills?” The reply from one of the authors was no.To have an exceptional ability to deliver results, leaders would need to have trust and cooperation from their direct reports. A useful way to visualize this is to think of competencies as having bungee cords connecting them. There is only so much stretch in the bungee cord. When the difference between competencies become extreme, one competency pulls back on the other competency. A careful examination of the data, however, reveals a fascinating pattern. For leaders with one strength at the ninetieth percentile, on average their second-highest-scoring competency was at the eighty-fourth percentile, and their third-highest-scoring competency was at the seventy-ninth percentile. The bottom line is, leaders who scored high on one competency were, in general, remarkably good at a few other competencies. Simply stated, there is an amazing interaction effect among various competencies. The following analysis demonstrates these interaction effects. Three competencies were analyzed to understand the power of the interactions between them. We examined those leaders who were at the seventy-fifth percentile or higher on each of the three competencies and found the percentage of leaders who were at the ninetieth percentile in overall leadership development programs effectiveness who possessed only one of the characteristics. Keep in mind that a competency at the seventy-fifth percentile would not be considered a profound strength but rather a competency where a person is moderately good. The three competences are shown in Chart 4-1. This analysis demonstrates that being moderately good at one competency does not guarantee that you will be perceived as extraordinary in an overall way. In fact, the probabilities are so low that you could describe it as almost impossible. We then looked at leaders who possessed more than one of these three competencies at the seventy-fifth percentile. When leaders possessed combinations of strengths, they were elevated to the highest ranks of leadership traits in their organizations. Note the interaction effect when a person is competent at all three skills (see Chart 4-2). The results are quite dramatic. As you consider the case involving Ralph and his dilemma on how to improve his technical ability, it might stand to reason that when one improves other skills, one’s technical skills might be more fully utilized. For example, Ralph might understand the technical issues but lacked leadership communication. After looking at these data and testing these conclusions for more than five years, it has become clear to us that the way leaders develop strengths is by utilizing other skills. It is the combination of skills that creates profound strength. Great dishes prepared by the best chefs are not the result of a single ingredient; they are the result of a recipe with multiple ingredients. Leadership characteristics list comes about by mixing the right leadership characteristics together and finding the right chemistry to create powerful combinations. MOVING FROM ORDINARY TO EXTRAORDINARYHow does a leader move from being ordinary to being extraordinary at inspiring others? In earlier post we described the impact of inspiration on a number of critical outcomes. The better leaders were at inspiring others, the better they did on each of the outcomes. In today’s organizations, with fierce competition and ever increasing demands, there is a significant need for leaders who can inspire.Because good does not equal great when it comes to inspiration, how does a leader make this transition to becoming an extraordinary inspirer of others? Almost everyone knows someone who tries too hard to inspire and motivate others to high performance by simply turning up the volume. There are at least two different approaches. Positive ApproachThis would include the following:
Jan went on to say, “As I try to explain the problem further, I can tell that, first, he doesn’t understand anything that I am talking about, and, second, he just doesn’t care.” Jan was convinced that her manager merely wanted the problem to go away. Her final comment was, “What drives me nuts is that he thinks that stupid speech motivates me it does just the opposite.” Negative Approach
When asked if the “grinding” motivated him to improve, Jim commented, “It doesn’t matter how well we do or what we accomplish; she’ll always find something to grind on me about.” NONLINEAR APPROACHHow, then, can a person become extremely good at a specific skill? To understand this, we looked at evaluations from 183,463 colleagues regarding 14,466 leaders. We found groups of competencies that, when paired with “inspiring and motivating others,” created powerful combinations. We called these competency companions.The combination of the two skills—the desired one and a companion one—increases effectiveness and is often easier to carry out. For example, consider how an ice skater might use a combination of skills to increase effectiveness. A great ice skater can jump into the air and land gracefully on the ice. Coordination is certainly a critical skill for the skater. But performing a jump that rises only two inches off the ice is not going to be very thrilling. Add a companion skill, such as strength, and it is another story. A triple axel is very thrilling and requires great strength, but it’s thrilling only if the skater doesn’t fall while landing the jump. The combination of coordination and strength is what makes the skater effective. In our research, we looked at people who were highly effective in a specific behavior. Detailed analysis showed that people who were most effective in performing Behavior A also rated highly in several companion behaviors (Behaviors B, C, D, E, and F). Similarly, people who rated poorly in performing Behavior A also rated poorly in the same companion behaviors. It became clear that improving performance in companion behaviors might facilitate improvement in the specific behavior. For additional information and resources on nonlinear companions, on the importance of strengths, and on the heightened success that comes from developing strengths versus weaknesses. via Blogger http://ift.tt/2biD0c9 August 18, 2016 at 11:02PM
Leadership characteristics
We noted earlier that the ultimate test of leadership characteristics list should be how the leader’s colleagues behave. That is, after all, what leadership is all about, and if you want to know how leaders ought to lead, you need to pay attention to those who are led. However, nearly everything written on the subject of leadership traits talks exclusively about what the leader should be or know or do differently. http://ift.tt/2aDta3gThe focus is nearly always squarely on the leader, not the subordinates. We think this leaves out an important part of the equation. Leadership development programs has a purpose and an expected outcome. The question to be asked is: “What has changed in the behavior of those being led?” One important dimension of becoming a better leader is to be clear about the outcomes you seek from those you lead. Several streams of research are relevant to this question. It is hard to select from the many possibilities and desirable outcomes that could be included, but we have attempted to select those that have been shown to truly make a significant difference. Leadership characteristics: PRODUCTIVITYOne outcome that we seek from a leader’s inspiration and motivation is that subordinates work more efficiently, that they produce more, and that what they produce has higher quality. To accomplish this, they work with greater speed and efficiency. As a result, there is less waste. In short, they are simply more productive.Research conducted by Hunter, Schmidt, and Judiesch documented the huge differences in productivity among people occupying the same kind of position. Figure 3-1 summarizes that research. Those who work in large organizations know that the two people in a medium-complexity job who are at the extreme ends of the bell-shaped curve are making widely different contributions to the organization’s success. The one at the top is, in fact, making 12 times the contribution of the one at the bottom, but that person’s monetary compensation is often the same as or only slightly different from that of the person at the bottom. Leaving aside the differences between the top 1 percent and the bottom 1 percent, the gulf between the top person at the ninety-ninth percentile and the person who is squarely in the middle is also quite dramatic. For medium-complexity jobs, that top person is more than doubling the contribution of the person in the middle. Our point is that these differences are not to be sneezed at. Big opportunities exist. Leaders should do their best to improve the productivity of everyone because there is obviously such a long distance for many to go before they reach the highest possible level. What is the role of the leader in encouraging those in the upper quartile to be so highly productive? Clearly some of a worker’s effectiveness lies solely within himself. Maybe some of that is prewired and there from birth. Some of it is instilled by parents. We suggest that it is also strongly influenced by the person’s leader and the environment that that leader creates. Earlier we presented data showing the correlation between employee engagement and the quality of the leader. Leaders do something that elicits more focused, more consistent, and more creative outcomes. Anyone who has ridden on a Swiss train can’t help marveling at the efficiency, the cleanliness, the on-time arrivals and departures, and the overall high level of productivity you experience on the trip. Is this the result of one specific leadership communication behavior? Obviously not. It begins with the leader caring about maintaining the Swiss tradition of punctuality and efficiency. It involves people putting forth great effort to correct anything that would disrupt the schedule, or to get back on schedule if there is a delay. The leader works to constantly improve the systems and processes. It is a host of things that every leader does that maintains this centuries-old tradition of excellence. Productivity improvement is a convenient way of assessing whether or not a leader has been effective in influencing subordinates in a positive way. We wish to emphasize the importance of this outcome, as there is no question but that the leader plays an extremely crucial role in elevating the level of productivity in any organization. This is in part because the leader controls the processes that are being employed, which, in turn, have an enormous impact on the efficiency of every organization. Frankly, we hesitated to list productivity first, primarily because one segment of our readers might already believe that this is the only important outcome of inspiration. This group would equate an inspired subordinate with one who produces more and ignore virtually everything else. We acknowledge the importance of productivity improvement, but we strongly argue that there are a number of other extremely important outcomes of inspiration. These other outcomes often contribute to higher levels of productivity, but they are extremely valuable in and of themselves. Leadership characteristics: CONFIDENCEOrganizations succeed when their people act with leadership qualities like assurance and boldness. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, frequently wrote and spoke of this need to drive self-confidence down into the organization. What creates such confidence?Stanford University professor of psychology Albert Bandura, whose research is cited more frequently than that of any other living psychologist, has been a longtime researcher on self-efficacy and confidence. He suggests that this comes when people feel that there is a high likelihood of success when they attempt something new. Bandura wrote: People who have a strong belief in their capabilities think, feel and behave differently from those who have doubts about their capabilities. People who doubt their capabilities shy away from difficult tasks. They have low aspirations and weak commitments to the goals they choose to pursue. Failure wrecks their motivation. They give up quickly in the face of difficulties and are slow to recover their confidence following failure or setbacks. Simply put, unless people possess high feelings of confidence or self-efficacy, there simply is no performance. It is too risky, as they see it. Investing your energy is not worth it unless you have a strong belief that you will succeed. Because of this, one of the healthiest attributes for people to have is an abiding belief that if they attempt something, they will succeed. This encourages people in every area of the organization to push forward and upward. It is an outcome of inspiration. A confident salesperson is willing to approach a challenging new account. A confident engineer agrees to find a better way to design a product. A confident accountant agrees to produce financial statements shortly after the month ends. Confident manufacturing employees agree to produce to an extremely high standard of quality that will satisfy the most demanding client. In every area of the firm, it is confidence that encourages people to try things that are new and challenging. The key question is: “What gives people that confidence?” Bandura contends that this comes from having had success in similar activities in the past. It also comes when failed attempts have not been punished by the leader. Bandura’s research on self-efficacy confirms that there are practical ways to enhance self-confidence. He suggests that the most powerful approaches are these: 1. Vicarious learning (behavior modeling) 2. Mental rehearsal 3. Experiencing increasingly challenging tasks 4. Feedback from respected others Leaders make these four things happen in the following ways: 1. The leader can arrange for appropriate training that includes excellent examples of the proper way to do things. Such learning experiences are referred to as behavior modeling or vicarious earning. This is the best way to teach anything that has a skill component. What exactly is this? Teaching someone to play golf by reading a book is extremely difficult. Nothing compares to having someone stand nearby and explain the various clubs, then demonstrate how to hold the club, where to plant your feet, and how to take the right swing. Then the instructor asks you to do it and provides useful feedback on what you’re doing, along with suggestions for how to do it better. Many jobs benefit from that same approach to learning, whether it is a salesperson being trained to relate to a prospect or a customer service rep talking on the phone with a client who has experienced some problem with your product. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then watching someone assemble a carburetor or remove an appendix is worth ten thousand words. Most people learn best by watching good examples and understanding why the example was selected. It also helps if the elements that are combined to make such a good example are identified so that the learner is clear about the important steps that are being demonstrated. Simply put, the most powerful way to give people a feeling of confidence and self-efficacy about their ability to perform some task is to teach them to do it very well and to let them know that their success was the result of their effort, persistence, and skill, not some uncontrollable external factors. 2. Leaders teach the value of mentally reviewing or rehearsing important events as a way to develop confidence. For years, sport psychologists have worked with professional athletes on the power of visualization as part of their preparation. The same practice can be applied effectively by many leaders. Confident people aren’t embarrassed to rehearse important conversations with customers. They welcome the chance to practice the presentation they’ll make to another department about the reasons for changing a work process. 3. Leaders build confidence by ensuring that people are given challenging assignments. When they delegate tasks, it isn’t just through the filter of “Who can get the job done on time and on budget?” but with an eye to the question, “Who will benefit the most from this project?” or “Who really needs this to further his career development?” 4. Leaders should be a main source of feedback. Without exception, studies show that people at every level, from senior vice presidents to the mailroom clerk, want a good deal more feedback than they typically get. That difference between what they want and what they get is not small, it is huge. And yes, most people especially appreciate positive feedback, but most also want to learn how they can perform at a higher level and will welcome developmental feedback, so long as the message is delivered in a respectful, constructive manner. Feedback is especially helpful when it conveys, “You’ve almost got that right” or “You are 90 percent of the way there . . . just hang in there.” The bottom line is, the overall level of confidence that everyone has is part of the culture of an organization. Leaders are the driving force in creating that culture and the attendant positive emotions within people. Self-efficacy has been shown to predict work-related performance more powerfully than more traditional performance-enhancement initiatives such as goal setting or measures of job satisfaction. Leadership characteristics: OPTIMISM AND HOPE
Leaders shape the way people feel about the future in the broadest and most profound way. We readily acknowledge that this quality begins at a very deep level for most people. It starts with the most basic questions every human must face. Does life have any real purpose and meaning? Is there some reason for my being here? Hope is enhanced when there is a belief that life is purposeful and that people exist for some higher reason. For some people, that nets out to a simple, “I want to make a difference.” Others see the opportunity to leave a lasting legacy.
In addition to having a broader view of the future, however, some people see the right side and the bright side of life in every dimension. A lot depends on what you are looking for. There is an old saying, “Seeing is believing.” But there is an even more accurate saying that suggests, “Believing is seeing.” We see what we’re looking for and what we want to believe. Two people observing the exact same event can “see” very different things. Working in an organization in which people see the bright side is a night-and-day difference from being involved with those who can see only the dark side. Leaders strongly influence the degree to which people have optimism and hope regarding the future of the organization and their role in it. This is an extremely important dimension. An abundance of research clearly confirms that those who have higher levels of optimism are significantly happier and healthier, enjoy greater success in their occupations, have more lasting and happy relationships, and make greater contributions to their communities. If you define optimism and hope as being in a “good mood,” Martin Seligman4 reports that “adults and children who are put into a good mood select higher goals, perform better, and persist longer on a variety of laboratory tests, such as solving anagrams.” He also muses about the relationship of overall happiness and productivity. Does high productivity cause happiness, or is it the other way around? He concludes, “Research suggests . . . that more happiness actually causes more productivity and higher income.” Optimism can be learned and magnified through the practice of several behaviors. These include focusing on the positive dimensions of life and expressing gratitude to others for their contributions to your life. For more, see Seligman’s excellent treatise Learned Optimism. Seligman studied life insurance salespeople at Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. and discovered that although agents were normally selected on the basis of their scores on a long-established industry test, if a test that measured optimism was used, those agents who scored in the top half on this test of optimism actually outsold those who scored in the pessimistic half by 37 percent. Agents who were in the top 10 percent on optimism outsold those in the bottom 10 percent on the same scale by 88 percent. The company then agreed to have a group of applicants take both the industry test and the optimism instrument. It then hired a “special force” made up of agents who had failed the industry test, but scored in the top half on the optimism instrument. The agents in this group sold as much as the optimistic agents who passed the industry test. They outsold the pessimistic agents who had passed the industry instrument by 21 percent in their first year, and then outsold their pessimistic counterparts by 57 percent in their second year. Seligman then found that among those who passed the industry test, optimists outsold pessimists by 8 percent in their first year and by 31 percent in their second year. Needless to say, the company opted to include a measure of optimism in its selection battery of tests. Leadership characteristics: INITIATIVE
The inspired and motivated employee does not wait to be told to do everything, but instead looks around, sees what needs to be done, and begins to do it. Initiative entails stepping in to rescue something that is about to fall into a crack between two departments. Initiative describes the mentality of an “owner” rather than a typical “hired hand.”
Leaders create a culture in which people sense that this type of initiative will be rewarded, not punished. Doors have been opened. There is an emphasis on what people can do, not just on what they can’t do. Peter Drucker once remarked that “much of what we call ‘management’ consists of a variety of things that make it difficult for the typical employee to do his job.” Employee handbooks go to great lengths to spell out the many things that can’t be done, but they seldom include any description of those things that can be done. Worse yet, an employee who ventures out and tries something without getting explicit permission is often rebuked rather than being rewarded. Initiative is difficult to teach. But what leaders can do is create a climate of freedom that allows people to experiment and also reward those who take the initiative. Leaders signal in many subtle ways whether initiative is welcomed or viewed with suspicion. One of the coauthors of this book, Jack Zenger, tells of this experience: An executive from a large San Francisco bank came by my hotel, picked me up, and took me to his office for a meeting we’d be holding in his building. We parked in the underground lot beneath the building. My friend mentioned, “You’ll get a kick out of our garage attendant.” So, I was on the alert to see what set this attendant apart from the norm. While most attendants greet customers with a nod or a grunt, this person was absolutely effusive. He greeted us by name and acted as if we were old high school classmates whom he hadn’t seen in 20 years. He asked about our plans for the day so that he’d know where best to park the car. He escorted us to the elevator bank, pressed the button to get an elevator car for us, and sent us on our way. He had taken a job that some would see as being on the menial end of the spectrum and made it into a “calling.” He injected himself into his work and brightened everyone’s day in the process. What distinguishes such people? They have the mentality to seek to do the most they can with their job, unlike the many who seek to do the least that is required. Leaders create the climate in which that behavior flourishes. Leadership characteristics: RESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOR
Another outcome that we should seek in those we lead is for people to act with a high level of responsibility. People with higher levels of motivation enjoy being held accountable for outcomes and don’t place blame on others for any shortcomings in their own performance. Responsible people monitor and obtain information about their own and their group’s performance. Responsible people identify strongly with the group to which they belong and always put organizational goals before any personal objectives. Responsible people do things for which there is no immediate personal reward, but which clearly benefit the welfare of the organization.
A culture of responsibility and accountability is created when leaders convey a strong message that the people at large and teams are what counts, and that leaders are there to do blocking and tackling for the employees. In the recent spate of scandals involving senior executives, several of them have claimed, “I didn’t know what was going on. I just signed the financial statements, and I was relying on my CFO.” Wisely, it appears that most juries don’t buy that foolishness. Jack was an executive in a pharmaceutical firm that manufactured steroid chemicals in a plant in Mexico. The firm decided to transfer all its manufacturing to a newly constructed plant in the Bahamas. Pilot plant operations had been tested there and had worked. The Mexico facility was closed, and the new plant scaled up its production. However, for reasons that were unclear at the time, the new plant was unable to produce an acceptable product in sufficient volume to meet the firm’s commitments to its customers. The CEO of the firm met with the assembled management team and said, “We could blame a lot of people for what has happened. But we all made this decision together. In hindsight, we should have been smart enough to know that scaling up production was risky. I want to take responsibility for this mistake. Now let’s do all we can to fix it and meet our customers’ needs as best we can. But let’s have no fingerpointing at the people in our chemical production division.” When leaders own up to their mistakes, the pattern is established for others to do the same thing. Leadership characteristics: ENTHUSIASM
Some people merely go through the motions. Others inject energy and passion into what they do. Some people appear to deliberately constrain their enthusiasm. We’ve realized for a long time that enthusiasm and passion are the qualities that define the great performers in show business and athletics. It has been less clear that this also holds true in more traditional organizations.
It also describes those workers who lift a position to a new level. The Gallup organization has published a good deal about the issue of employee engagement. According to its rather extensive research, its best determination is that 29 percent of employees are truly engaged in what they do. They enjoy their work and their colleagues and could be described as generally enthusiastic about their daily occupation. There is a much larger group, amounting to 55 percent of all workers, who are not “engaged.” They are blasé about what they do. They lack enthusiasm, and it shows up in how they perform their work. These are the garage attendants who only nod or grunt when they see you. They are the retail clerks who only go through the motions, who don’t suggest any “add-on” purchases, and who don’t smile and look you in the eye as you check out and they hand you your receipt. Finally, Gallup notes that 16 percent of all employees are actively disengaged. These are people who in subtle ways work at cross-purposes to their organization. They engage in internal sabotage that is estimated to cost the U.S. economy $350 billion annually. Our research reinforces this conclusion. As part of a 360-degree feedback instrument, we ask direct reports of all leaders to indicate their level of employee engagement and commitment. The analysis of our data from these questions reveals the general level of enthusiasm felt by a leader’s subordinates. In the aggregate, we find that 14 percent of those surveyed have high levels of satisfaction and commitment. We define that as those who respond at the highest level on these questions. Below that, we have 40 percent who express moderate levels of enthusiasm for their organization and their work. That obviously leaves a large group of 46 percent who feel a lower level of enthusiasm for their work and for their organization. Imagine what an organization would be like if 80 percent of its employees expressed a high level of enthusiasm regarding their work and the organization. We invite you to reflect for a moment on what would be different in your organization if that were true. Be as specific as you can about the impact of that on things that you already worry about—things such as retention, the ability to attract good people, the level of productivity, innovation and creativity, and levels of customer service. The most promising approach to changing an emotion is to change behavior. When people learn to act in new ways, this clearly alters their inner feelings. People who learn to act with greater enthusiasm become more enthusiastic. Should you have any doubts about that concept, we invite you to try a quick experiment, providing it won’t be too embarrassing. If you’re sitting, slump forward, look at your feet for several seconds, put a gloomy expression on your face, and keep your knees together and your elbows close to your sides. Then try to sense how you “feel” inside. What’s your mood when you do that? Then, try the reverse. Sit up straight and tall as if you were a Marine sergeant. Smile. Look forward or up. Rehearse an important point that you might be making to some colleagues and gesture boldly. Now see what you identify as your strongest emotion. We predict that it will be moving toward the “enthusiasm” end of the scale rather than the “gloomy” end you were on before. Leadership characteristics: RESILIENCY
The ability to bounce back from an encounter with a barrier or hurdle is extremely important. This emotional “hardiness” means that barriers are seen as largely external, temporary, and surmountable. It begins with a willingness to accept reality and to work to improvise and adapt to your circumstances in order to achieve a goal.
Carol Dweck’s research on mindsets confirms that people’s reaction to challenging situations stems from a fundamental mindset, or point of view about life, that they have. She labels these mindsets as “proving” or “improving,” and she argues that mindsets can be modified over time. Indeed, authority figures such as teachers and parents have a strong influence on children. It is clear that bosses in the organizations in which adults work take on this same power. Dweck observes that parents often heap praise on a child, believing that this will enhance the child’s selfesteem and feelings of worth. Messages like, “You’re so smart” and “You are really intelligent” are made with very good intentions. But then the child’s teacher gives her a particularly challenging math problem. She is stumped. Thoughts begin to flash through her mind: “Am I really stupid?” “Did Mom lie to me?” “Did I used to be smart and have I lost it?” It would have been far better had the parent praised the child’s hard work, tenacity, and ability to overcome obstacles that she encountered. Better that the parent say, “I really admire how persistent you’ve been in working on that report. You’ve put in lots of time and not let anything distract you.” “I was glad to see that you found a way to get that additional information you needed to compete the report. That’s a good example of how being resourceful pays off.” Now when the child encounters an extremely challenging school assignment, she instantly says to herself, “I just need to work harder,” or “I need to find a new approach to this problem.” The fact of the matter is that we all encounter challenges and difficulties. As the research on “derailed” executives has revealed, those executives whose careers were derailed by some event had about the same number of such events as those executives who were not derailed. The difference was all in how these people responded to difficult events. Those who were derailed brooded about their problems, didn’t talk to others, and made little attempt to rectify the consequences of what had happened. Those who weren’t derailed did precisely the opposite. They flew into action, talked to people who would be affected by their mistake, did their best to rectify the problem, and then proceeded to forget about it and move on. It is clear that the leaders who had greater resilience also had much greater composure in stressful situations. They did not blame others, snap at subordinates, or berate others for some action. Instead, they were poised and gracefully admitted any mistake that they had made. The positive emotions that we’ve been discussing have the capacity to essentially erase the consequences of negative events in our lives and create the capacity to be resilient in the face of adversity. via Blogger http://ift.tt/2b0vNQn August 07, 2016 at 04:09PM
Leadership characteristics list
When we first met—at a wedding anniversary celebration for mutual friends I was impressed and intrigued by D’Army Bailey. He radiated vigor and charisma. A few weeks later we got together for coffee and I learned much more about him. A Memphis-based lawyer and former judge, Bailey started out as an activist in the civil rights movement. He’s had a remarkable career litigating and adjudicating landmark cases, writing two books, and ultimately founding the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. http://ift.tt/2apRVQDBut as we chatted and sipped on a second round of lattes, I couldn’t help but marvel at his appearance. Fit, toned, and impeccably dressed, he looked impossibly young. I was perplexed. “How is it that you, a man who marched with Martin Luther King, looks not a day over forty-nine?” I asked him. “I’ve had three plastic surgeries,” he confessed nonchalantly. “I’ve had a forehead lift, a facelift, and had the bags removed from under my eyes.” My mouth fell open and I spilled some coffee. Seeing my astonishment, he burst out laughing. “Why shouldn’t I look my best?” he exclaimed, not in the least defensive. “I’m not ready to throw in the towel. I don’t want to retire.” He then went on to explain that he’d long understood the connection between looking good and looking capable. “Facelifts and good dental work convey a more youthful appearance, but they also signal confidence and credibility. To my clients I’m more trustworthy. To a jury I’m more believable. Now, don’t get me wrong, my appearance isn’t what wins me a case, but when I look in control I feel in control—and that’s how others perceive me.” Keisha Smith, managing director and co-head of talent management at Morgan Stanley when I interviewed her, now at News Corporation, told me that it was quite by accident that she came by her signature look. After a dye job went wrong, she had a barber shave off her hair—and liked the result. In the years since, as she has moved up the corporate ladder into roles of ever greater visibility and responsibility, she has perfected her stand-out look. Tall, with wide-set eyes and a dazzling smile, she’s an executive you’d notice anyway; but as a bald Afro-Caribbean woman who holds a senior position at a Fortune 500 firm, she’s a leader you’ll never forget. It’s not the shaved head so much as the statement it makes: that she’s utterly at ease in her skin. Smith is conscious that her appearance can “widen the gap” between herself and those she meets for the first time. In her words, “I’m aware that my aesthetic is unusual, and can be intimidating, which is why I take pains to close that gap by seeking out personal connections and establishing common ground with my colleagues.” However, she explains, it’s a style she enjoys, one that she intends to keep even if it does mean feeling self-conscious at every meeting with new clients. “I do what I need to do to make it work in my work environment, because having a style that I’m comfortable in breeds the inner confidence which helps me be successful.” She adds, “I really wouldn’t have it any other way.” D’Army Bailey and Keisha Smith underscore the complexities of the appearance challenge today. A seventy-year-old male jurist can talk openly about how plastic surgery has enhanced his ability to stay in the game, and a forty-year-old female executive can choose to be bald and have it contribute to her gravitas. But do these voices signal new freedoms or new constraints? We’ve learned to value authenticity—and this is good—but at the same time standards have risen and we’re judged on many more fronts—wrinkles and waistlines as well as a well-cut skirt or suit. As we wrestle with the thorny—and annoying—issue of looks, three things are uppermost in our minds: What marks us for success? What exactly are bosses and colleagues looking for these days? And how much does this superficial stuff matter anyhow? At first glance, CTI data seems to show that appearance isn’t that important. Sixty-seven percent of the senior executives we surveyed told us that gravitas was the core characteristic of executive presence; 28 percent said that communication skills comprised the core; and a mere 5 percent said appearance was at the heart of the matter. However, from our qualitative data we found that appearance was typically the filter through which gravitas and communication skills were evaluated. That explains why high-performing junior employees oftentimes get knocked out of contention for key roles and promotions: they simply don’t look the part. In other words, get this appearance thing wrong and you’re struck off the list. No one even bothers to assess your communication skills or your thought leadership communication capabilities if your appearance telegraphs you’re clueless. Over the long haul, the way you look may not be nearly as important as what you say or how you act, but it’s incredibly important in the short run. Cracking the appearance code opens doors and puts you in play. So what are senior leaders looking for? What are their top picks? Leadership characteristics list: Being polished and groomed
I find this top pick extremely comforting because it confers on individuals a great deal of agency and control. More than a third of the senior executives in our survey (men and women) considered “polish and grooming” vital to men’s and women’s EP, whereas less than a fifth said that physical attractiveness matters. It turns out that the intrinsic stuff (body type, height) is not what matters most; rather, it’s what you do with what you’ve got. As one leader put it in an interview, “You’ve got to look as though you tried, that you pulled yourself together.” When I present this data most professionals are relieved to learn that cracking the appearance code is something that can be learned and you’re not stuck with what you were born with.
Research conducted by Nancy Etcoff at Harvard Medical School bears this out. She showed 268 subjects images of women’s faces, either flashing the images for 250 milliseconds or allowing subjects ample time to study the images. As can be seen in the figure below, the images featured three women, each of them made up in four different ways. The only difference between the four versions of each woman’s face was the amount of cosmetics applied—the range was from no makeup to dramatic makeup. Subjects were asked to assess each woman’s face in terms of how attractive, competent, trustworthy, and likable they judged the woman to be. What did Etcoff and her team find out? Not surprisingly, judgments about a woman’s attractiveness were heavily conditioned by how much makeup she was wearing—the more, the better—and number 4 was the top choice. Much more startling, judgments about her competence, likability, and trustworthiness were also deeply affected by cosmetic choices. As though competence is really a function of how much lipstick you wear! Again, the rule of thumb seemed to be the more makeup the better. With one exception, the top choice for trustworthiness was number 3, not 4. This implies that although dramatic makeup gets high marks it’s hard to fully trust a woman who looks glamorous. One startling thing about this study is how quickly these judgments were made (250 milliseconds). And these flash judgments tended to stick. Even after viewers were given the chance of unlimited inspection and reviewed their decision, they continued to accord highest marks (in terms of competence, likability, and trustworthiness, as well as attractiveness) to the most adorned faces. Trying hard really does help. A judicious use of cosmetics, neatly manicured nails, well-fitting jeans (Silicon Valley), a perfectly cut jacket (Wall Street), and carefully coiffed hair all make a difference. When you make an effort to look polished, you signal to others that you see them as worth your time and investment, and you’re even prepared to tolerate mild discomfort (think of those closely fitting shirt collars that rub against your neck or those stylish four-inch heels that cramp your toes). Who wouldn’t respond to such efforts! It’s a statement of respect, after all—respect for colleagues and clients, respect for yourself. No one better understands this than my friend and coauthor Cornel West, the beloved scholar, philosopher, and activist who’s much admired for his courage in speaking truth to power. To hear West deliver one of his passionate, powerful speeches is to experience something that rocks you to your core. And appearance is an integral part of it.54 Sure, there’s his body language. He assumes a forward-pitched crouch, which frees up his arms to wave and gesticulate. There’s his delivery, a song that crescendos into a battery of inconvenient truths before resuming its lulling cadence. And then there’s West’s “uniform,” the black three-piece suit, black tie, immaculate white shirt (French cuffs flaring, cuff links glinting), black scarf, and silver-toned watch fob. I have never seen him attired in anything else. He wears this uniform whether he’s sitting next to Newt Gingrich on a television stage, serving breakfast to the urban poor, or sitting in my backyard on a sultry August afternoon. While it doesn’t always get him a taxi at night in New York City, West’s look does command the attention of heads of state and business titans as well the loyalty and affection of millions of regular folk.
But there’s more to his clothing than distinctiveness. West perceives his attire as his suit of armor, the thing that enables him to face the “bullets and arrows” endemic to his work. “It makes me feel good, to put on my uniform,” he says, “because you’ve got to be ever ready for engagement and combat.” If he’s rather particular about the details of his uniform—the break of his cuff, the crease in his pants—it’s because he cannot permit a breach in his self-confidence. “If I walk around without my crease, it’s like walking around with my shoes not shined,” he says. “I don’t feel right.”
West wears this uniform because it telegraphs, to himself and others, the seriousness of his mission and the respect he bears for those who launched him on his journey. His suits are akin to Martin Luther King’s “cemetery clothes,” which, West explains, MLK wore to remind himself that he was going to live and die for something bigger than he was. “I may be smiling, laughing, fighting, writing, and speaking—with hope, and kindness, and humor,” says West, who these days is a professor of religious philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary in New York, “but I’m ‘coffin-ready’ because the tradition that produced me sets the highest standards that I could possibly aspire to.” Now, I’m not urging you to wear a three-piece suit or any other uniform. Nor do I wish to imply that polish can only be achieved by wearing black or nailing that crease in your pants. I am suggesting, however, that you take pains to signal, in your appearance, a seriousness of purpose by attending to the details. Casual clothes may be the right choice for your organizational culture, but in their fit and brand and style, they should telegraph that you take your work and those whom you engage in it very seriously. Poor grooming—dandruff on your collar, scuffed shoes, broken nails, runs in your tights, soup on your tie—compromises the ability of other people to see you as someone who’s going places because it says that either you don’t notice sloppiness or you don’t care enough to attend to it. In interview after interview, senior leaders told me that failure to come through on the grooming front signals either poor judgment or lack of discipline. Neither is good. “If you were making a pitch for a new piece of business, you wouldn’t go into that client meeting with hand-scribbled notes,” says Mark Stephanz, vice chairman of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “No: You’d go to no end of trouble to be sure that you had a PowerPoint (or printed deck) at the ready which was polished, powerful, and error-free. And the same rules must apply to your presentation of self.” Good grooming is not just about making a polished first impression: It’s about signaling to your competitors, and yourself, that you’re in total control. Former judge D’Army Bailey told me he had his aha! moment about grooming back in high school, when he saw Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman star in The Hustler. What impressed him was how Minnesota Fats, the pool shark played by Gleason, maintained his cool throughout a night of fearsome competition by going into the men’s room during breaks to wash his face, comb his hair, and straighten his tie. “He wants his opponent to think he’s fresh, and unfazed by the intensity of the challenge,” Bailey observes. “I learned from this that in every encounter with an opponent, it’s a psychological game you’re playing, and no matter how tense you are, you should try not to show it. Don’t let them see you sweat; don’t allow yourself to look worn or unkempt.” So Bailey gets regular facials and manicures, in addition to frequent haircuts. “If I am meeting with someone consequential and look down and see I’m two weeks out from a manicure, I’m going to start worrying about what is showing on my nails, and that’s going to distract me,” he says. “Tidy nails, a fresh haircut, and a fresh shirt always give me a confidence boost.”
Achieving polish comes down to this golden rule: Minimize distractions from your skill sets and performance. Have professionals tend to your nails and hair regularly. Invest in well-cut attire that complements your body type. Accessorize, but don’t billboard your bling. And unless you’re in an industry that prizes physical beauty, don’t flaunt your body. For men as well as women, sexuality scrambles the mind. Don’t wear shirts that emphasize your build or blouses that emphasize your bust; avoid tight or skimpy trousers or skirts. Clothing that advertises your body steals attention from, say, your laser-sharp analytic skills or your visionary design expertise or your compelling oratory. All of which underscores one basic principle: Your appearance should focus your audience on your professional competencies, not distract from them.
Minimizing sexual distraction is especially important if you’re female. A senior Wall Street executive who’s mentored a number of high-flying women told me that oftentimes he’s needed to spell out how and why dressing in a sexually suggestive way undermines a woman’s EP. In his words: “When a female executive walks into a room with three buttons open, a black lacy bra showing under her blouse, and a skirt hiked high, these things are going to distract the men sitting around a conference table . . . and they will take you much less seriously, however big a producer you are.” As he explained it to me, “It’s not that I want my protégées to look less feminine, just less provocative.” He then went on to speculate, “It’s as though at a deep level, some women believe that the power they ultimately wield is their sexuality. But overt sexuality has no place in the executive suite.” Women, it seems, walk a fine line between turning heads and dropping jaws. So another rule of thumb: You should look “appropriate for your environment, and authentic to you,” as Kerrie Peraino, head of international HR for American Express, puts it. A tongue stud may be authentic to you, she explains, but it’s probably not appropriate to your environment unless you work in a tattoo parlor. Similarly, Dolce & Gabbana suits may be appropriate to your environment, but if glamorous designer wear doesn’t speak to who you are, don’t don the label. “Wearing clothes that feel inauthentic detracts from your internal confidence,” says Peraino. “A look that isn’t you—that has everyone scratching their heads—can actually sap your executive presence.” That’s why the same dress on two different women can telegraph two completely different messages: It’s not the clothing per se but who you are that determines whether it’s appropriate. Peraino tells of a very senior leader at American Express, a woman who wowed everybody with her above-the-knee red dress when she took the podium at a recent women’s leadership traits event. “It totally worked,” says Peraino, “because she’d earned it. She was entitled to the red dress. She was hot not because she was trying to be sexy, but because she really is powerful.” Peraino thought for a moment and then added with a smile, “And that red dress had a conservative neckline. A little leg is one thing; cleavage is something else!” Leadership characteristics list: Physically attractive, fit, slim
There’s a plethora of research proving the point that intrinsically attractive people get a speed pass over life’s bumpier transitions: They get hired more often, earn more, and even fare better in court than unattractive people.55 But thankfully your executive presence doesn’t depend on looking like a movie star. As I stressed earlier, grooming and polish count way more than conventional good looks (classic features, a well-proportioned body, abundant hair). But even with regard to physical attractiveness, what you do with your God-given gifts counts more than your intrinsic beauty in establishing your credibility as an up-and-comer.
The most important thing you can do, our qualitative data shows, is to signal fitness and wellness. It’s not how much you weigh, but how resilient you seem that enhances or detracts from your executive presence because leadership development programs are demanding. We tend not to entrust our toughest jobs to people who look like they might keel over from a heart attack. “Being physically fit gives people the confidence that you will take care of what you are asked to do, because you are taking care of yourself,” notes GE executive Deb Elam. This helps explain why Chris Christie, New Jersey’s popular and portly governor, took the drastic step of undergoing lap band surgery in early 2013. Irrespective of his political ambition, he told reporters, he had to address his weight; it was a health issue, not an image issue. And yet health is the image issue when we’re talking about the nation’s highest office. Estimated at over three hundred pounds, Christie recognized that his weight might distract voters from his more important attributes and accomplishments.56 To make a successful presidential run, he cannot be obese. Obama, who is two inches taller than Christie, weighs 180 pounds.57 He’s far more typical of chief executives these days.58 Telegraphing fitness is all the more important if you’re heavyset and female, because women, our research affirms, suffer more from fat stereotypes than men. Both men and women with larger waistlines and higher body-mass-index readings tend to be perceived as less effective in terms of both performance and interpersonal relationships,59 and “lacking in confidence, self-discipline, and emotional stability.” 60 But weight is held against women more than it’s held against men: 21 percent of the senior executives we surveyed believe that being overweight detracts from a woman’s executive presence, while only 17 percent believe it detracts from a man’s EP. “There’s definitely more latitude for overweight men,” says one manager I interviewed who’s struggled with her own weight. “Generously proportioned women are just seen as unprofessional. It’s a third-rail kind of thing, so it doesn’t ever get mentioned in performance evaluations. But do people with excess weight advance at the same rate as those without? I suspect the answer is no. There is bias.” In our focus groups, both male and female executives echoed this observation. “Women who are overweight are seen as out of control and lazy,” one banker told us. Unless you’re obese, the takeaway here is not to embark on a body makeover campaign. Rather, it’s to pay more attention to how well (as in healthy) you look, and how well you look after yourself. Whether you’re a size 16 or a 6, get enough exercise to ensure your muscles are toned and your lung power will see you up stairs without wheezing. Put extra effort into your grooming and polish; make sure your clothing fits your actual size, not the size you’re hoping to be. Looking well put together demonstrates respect for yourself and your organization. In the end, that’s what impresses. Leadership characteristics list: Simple, Stylish clothes that position you for your next job
The platinum pixie, the gauntlet of silver bangles, the Prada dress or Balenciaga leather leggings—this is Joanna Coles, editor in chief of Cosmopolitan. She has an amazing signature look and personal brand, one that’s totally working for her in her highly visible role at the helm of the world’s most notorious magazine. She’s gotten roles playing herself on The Job and mentoring fashion designers on Running in Heels and Project Runway All Stars; she’s gotten in front of the camera on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to share her insights on how to interview for a job, and been snapped simply for chatting up Miley Cyrus (and outdressing her) at the Rachel Zoe runway show.
But this wasn’t always Coles. It’s been a longish journey, figuring out her look. As a young journalist, and the author of an interview column, her role demanded she be all but invisible. “It really wasn’t about me, but rather about the person I was interviewing,” she explains. “I would wear black or navy pants and a black or navy jacket; I would try and look as reassuring as possible and ease into the background.” When she left her reporter job for an editing role, Coles experimented with her hair, dyeing it red and wearing it long—a trademark look, to be sure, but not one that telegraphed the seriousness of purpose she felt or the ambition that drove her. Only when she became editor of Marie Claire and had to make many public appearances did Coles effectively leverage her fashion smarts to magnify her executive presence. “In my twenties and thirties I worried that if I looked as if I spent time on my appearance I would appear vain and unserious,” she says. “But fashion has changed, there are more options for women, and I now realize had I spent more time on it, it might have given me more authority.” We’re all on this journey. We’re either searching for our signature look, refining it, or reinventing it, because visibility is hard to maintain in our ever more competitive world economy. To be sure, the older you get and the higher you go, the more latitude you’ll have—Steve Jobs, as we all remember him, wore nothing but black turtlenecks and blue jeans. But those whom we recognize today for their signature look have nonetheless spent years working on it and earning it. The journey begins by dressing for the job you want, not the job you have. Kalinda, the real-estate analyst, remembers her “uniform” when she was working as a financial analyst for a cable sports channel. She had adopted the casual attire typical of staffers who weren’t in front of the cameras: jeans, T-shirts, and sweaters. On the advice of a mentor, she traded in her aggressively casual attire for tailored slacks and blazers. “I looked great, and I felt more confident,” she admits. Her superiors agreed. A few months after her makeover, Kalinda was put in charge of a major launch and given oversight of a new hire. “I’d been asking for this sort of thing, and my performance had always been strong,” she says. “But only when I started dressing for the part I wanted, instead of the part I had, did others perceive me as ready for that step up.” Complement a sophisticated look with a signature style piece or accent. For men this might be a pair of colorful socks, a playful tie, vintage cuff links, distinctive shoes, or a bold watch. Women have arguably more options. Margaret Thatcher so famously wielded her Launer handbag that handbagging became the term used for Thatcher-style strong-arming of political opponents. Madeleine Albright adorns every suit with a quirky brooch. Cornel West leavens his ministerial look with a carefully maintained Afro. The more rigorous the dress code, or the more wholeheartedly you embrace it, the more it behooves you to personalize it in some standout way. The most successful signature looks convey that you know what’s expected of you and willingly embrace it—yet have the self-possession to channel your individuality through it.
Remember that your signature look encompasses not just you but also the physical space you occupy. Your office, like your body, is a vehicle for your brand. Just look at top executives’ offices and you’ll see how they affirm their image and trumpet their brand in their choice of furnishings and objects. For example, black-and-white fashion photographs cover every square inch of wall (and windowsill) in Vogue editor Anna Wintour’s office, but the understated color scheme (white, glints of gold and silver, a glass desktop) ensures that the overall effect is, like Wintour herself, sleek, sophisticated, and stunning. In contrast, Nike CEO Mark Parker conducts business in a space that’s so crammed with bad-boy posters, toys, prototypes, pop art, and kitschy memorabilia it’s a wonder he can work in it. I certainly couldn’t. But that’s not the point: Parker portrays himself as an extension of the Nike brand, rather than a contradiction. In very real ways, CEOs are the public face of their companies, and they are well-advised to align their brands with that of the business they represent.
Leadership characteristics list: Being Tall
Michael Dukakis, the Democratic nominee for president in 1988, will go down in history for two things: the infamous tank photo, in which the would-be commander in chief looks like he’s been vanquished by a headset, and his height, which was something less than the five feet, eight inches he claimed on his driver’s license.
George H. W. Bush, who was six feet one, beat him handily, despite his own image issues (“Our Wimp Can Beat Your Shrimp,” declared one Republican bumper sticker), because shortness in a male leader was and is so easily conflated with major shortcomings. “Shortness creates a presumption of weakness,” writes Ben Shapiro, author of Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House, noting that Dukakis was seen as seriously weak on defense and weak on crime. If women’s leadership qualities potential is unreasonably correlated to weight, men’s is unfairly correlated to height. Sixteen percent of our respondents said height contributed to men’s EP; only 6 percent said it contributed to women’s. This bias most visibly plays out in presidential contests: Since Dukakis ran for the office, every man to sit behind the Oval Office desk has been taller than six feet. Over the history of presidential contests, taller candidates have beat out shorter ones 17 to 8. What to do if you’re among the height-challenged? In this regard women have one killer app to help them compensate: high heels. And they use them. Lori Massad, head of human capital at AllianceBernstein, says she’s been taken aside and chided for her four-inch-heel designer footwear, which one of her male colleagues had suggested was inappropriate. “It’s a good thing I don’t dress for you,” she countered, explaining to me that the shoes made her feel “powerful and tall” and she wasn’t about to give them up. For men, as the Dukakis campaign discovered, there’s not much to be done that doesn’t risk exacerbating the image problem. (At one point, his handlers had Dukakis stand on a mound of earth behind a podium, but that only made the height disparity with Bush more apparent when he stepped off the mound.) The best way to make height a nonissue is to take a page out of New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s playbook. Bloomberg’s amour Diana Taylor, the former New York State superintendent of banks, is not only a good four inches taller but also inclined to appear by his side in showstopper heels. He “doesn’t care” about their height difference, as he enjoys her looking good, Taylor told the Huffington Post. A man secure enough to be photographed at the shoulder height of his girlfriend is a man no one will see as weak. Leadership characteristics list: Being youthful and vigorous
Looking youthful, our survey respondents confirm, boosts the EP of both men and women because, like slimness and fitness, it implies you’ve got the vitality to lead the charge and not succumb to setback. While anecdotal evidence suggests the band of “age acceptability” for women is narrower than for men, the statistics on surgical interventions are impressive for both men and women. Like women, men are shelling out on a staggering scale. Hair treatments are a case in point, with men spending $1.8 billion a year on hair implants and other treatments to prevent baldness. A full head of hair for a man signals youth and vigor. (Consider that Ronald Reagan’s ample head of hair helped voters disregard the fact that, at sixty-nine, he was the oldest president to take office.) Both men and women are also turning to plastic surgery as a solution to ageism. Facelifts are up—126,000 in 2012, a 6 percent increase from 2011—and Botox procedures continue to be the rage (6.1 million treatments in 2012, up 8 percent from 2011). In fact, so many men are opting for Botox injections that there’s a slang term for it: Brotox. But the real stunner in terms of youth-enhancing interventions for women is the “upper arm lift,” a procedure that’s up 4,400 percent since 2000.
As one who launched a new organization and a new career in my fifties, I can affirm that nothing signals vitality in a middle-aged woman more than toned arms with a discreet ripple of muscle. My upper arms are pretty amazing—even if I do say so myself (not quite up to Michelle Obama’s standard, but close). I’m a swimmer and relentless about my daily laps: It soothes my soul as well as tones my body. So these days my professional wardrobe centers on slim-cut dresses—high-necked but bare-armed (Michael Kors has a great selection). As the no-sleeve look isn’t always appropriate, I often team these dresses up with a well-cut jacket or a graceful scarf. But it’s the rare business event that doesn’t allow me to slip off my jacket, unsheathe those biceps, and prove I’m up to the task before me. If you cannot impress everyone with your obvious vitality, then at least make sure you minimize signs of age and downplay any infirmity. Consider how Franklin Delano Roosevelt managed his disability: Despite being neither young nor vital, he persuaded the world he was both, winning an unprecedented fourth term. Voters knew he’d been stricken with polio, and some Republicans tried to capitalize on it by suggesting that, as “a cripple,” he was unfit for higher office. Yet FDR, who established what became the March of Dimes during his presidency, “did not conceal his physical limitation except to prevent his opponents from making political capital out of it,” enlisting the press to make sure photographs showed him standing unassisted. As a result, he was perceived as a leader who’d overcome disability to prevail defeating formidable challenges. The good news is that you don’t need to ace all elements of appearance. If wearing high heels causes such toe-pinching agony that you can’t deliver a dynamite presentation, then by all means wear flats and shift attention to your perfectly cut skirt or dress. The crucial point to keep in mind is that appearance is the medium for your message and, as such, it should neither distract nor detract from what you stand for and what you want to say. Blunders
Avoiding appearance blunders (which oftentimes involves circumventing prejudice) is big—almost as important as nailing those five top appearance picks.
Provocative dressing tops the list of appearance blunders for women (see Figure 8). Senior men find an overtly sexual female colleague tantalizing and terrifying at the same time. And they have reason to be scared. Sex seems to addle the mind of accomplished, ambitious male leaders—they abandon reason and do stupid things (Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer come to mind). Let’s face it, nothing is more potentially career-ending for senior men than an illicit affair with a subordinate. Research conducted by CTI in 2010 reveals that illicit affairs—the actuality of one or the appearance of one—are toxic, as severe penalties accrue to both parties suspected of a dalliance. Fully 64 percent of senior male executives are hesitant to have one-on-one contact with high-performing junior women—out of fear, we infer, of fomenting perceptions that could lead to career derailment or even litigation. Hence the vehement reaction to blouses that feature cleavage, skirts that reveal a stretch of upper thigh, and knit dresses that cling to curvy bodies.
Looking unkempt in ways that aren’t cool is the blunder that tops the list for men and comes in second for women. Fully 76 percent of senior executives say that being disheveled detracts from the EP of a man (rumpled jackets, ill-fitting collars, baggy or unbelted pants, scuffed shoes). In interviews they talked about how a disheveled appearance signals laziness and distracts attention. As one leader said, “Ketchup on a shirt or gravy on a tie catches the eye and makes it impossible to pay attention to more substantive qualities.” So take pains to avoid looking sloppy and schlumpy—shine your shoes, retire blouses with underarm stains, repair fallen hems, take up too-long slacks, and iron your clothes. This will telegraph to those around you that you won’t tolerate messiness in yourself or your work.
One distressing outcome: our survey respondents generated a list of appearance blunders for women that’s literally twice as long as the list they generated for men. It would appear that women are judged, and found wanting, on many more visual attributes than men. Take makeup. A professional woman can commit an appearance blunder by wearing either too little or too much. For a man—unless he is a TV anchor—makeup is a nonissue. In addition to the length of the list, women tend to be judged more harshly than men. On the weight front, for example, a woman can be struck off the list if she’s overweight, while a man has to be obese before he’s passed over. Later on in this blog we shall explore in detail how and why women are scrutinized so closely and held to higher standards. At this point, suffice it to say that some of this critical attention smacks of gender bias. As Linda Huber of Moody’s points out, “There are many more unspoken, unwritten rules for women than men. And while we’ve made progress, it’s likely to stay that way.” Leadership characteristics list: You're in control
Long before her historic meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1979, Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first and only female prime minister, demonstrated she was not a woman who would back down. Unwavering in her principles and unfazed by popular discontent, she’d emerged from Edward Heath’s cabinet as a new kind of conservative, one who would champion individual empowerment over government intervention even as unemployment rose to record levels. So when the Soviets, hoping to denigrate her, dubbed her the Iron Lady, Thatcher immediately embraced the image publicly, as it paid tribute to both her steely resolve and her regal bearing. “I stand before you tonight in my Red Star chiffon evening gown, my face softly made up, and my fair hair gently waved, the Iron Lady of the Western World,” she declared in a January 1976 speech to Conservatives in her home constituency of Finchley. Clearly, she relished being seen as a leader of the free world who was both female and feminine and instilled fear and respect among strongmen opposed to everything she stood for.
And well she should have. Because Maggie Thatcher’s image was one she carefully, consciously constructed. She worked on her look as assiduously as she worked on her voice. Long before anyone spoke of “image makeovers,” Thatcher submitted to the ministrations of Gordon Reece, the television producer and marketing executive who’d brilliantly positioned her as an unthreatening homemaker during the “Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher” days of austerity in the Heath cabinet, and then, just as brilliantly, sent her off to luxury clothier Aquascutum when she won the 1979 election. “Gordon was absolutely terrific,” Thatcher revealed to her biographer. “He understood that it wasn’t enough to have the right policies; one had to look good in putting them over.” And she did. For Thatcher’s visit to the Soviet Union, Marianne Abrahams, head of the venerable Aquascutum design team, outfitted her in tailored two-piece suits and seven “statement” coats—“a system that suited her on a daily basis so that she could be beautifully dressed and groomed and get on with running the country.” The look that Thatcher adopted—the halo of hair, the large pearl jewelry, the bold and broad-shouldered suits, and the formidable handbag—proved so effective that other female leaders of the era were quick to follow (Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham was a dead ringer). U.S. diplomat Madeleine Albright picked up on (and made her signature) the large brooch on the lapel. Everywhere, big hair and shoulder pads recast women at work as more substantive players. Thatcher’s black Launer handbags, which she tended to use as briefcases, influenced the size, color, and fashion of women’s work accessories, not to mention how they used them to amplify their clout. “She knew the importance of image from the very beginning,” says Brenda Maddox, author of Maggie: The First Lady. “She had to put time into the way she dressed, but she got it right. She mastered power dressing before the phrase was even invented.” This background on Thatcher underscores one final point: Image isn’t inborn. Leaders create it, often with help. They diligently work to refine and maintain it. They take pains to avoid blunders that might destroy it. And to be considered a leader, so must you. Leadership characteristics list: Tactics
It’s something of a final frontier, this business of appearance—not because others haven’t probed it, but because so very few have offered guidelines that might apply across the spectrum of workplace environments. There is, of course, no one “right” look. You must determine, by paying close attention to office culture cues and studying the leaders around you, what signals EP in your environment.
That said, from our deep tranche of qualitative research we can offer insights from individual managers across occupations and industries. At the minimum their stories and tips should prompt you to become conscious and therefore much more intentional about your appearance—a critical move toward acing it. Leadership characteristics list: Showcase your strengths
The stunning actress Olivia Wilde describes how, early in her career, she headed out for an audition wearing a huge cashmere turtleneck sweater over pants. Her boss stopped her at the door. “Olivia, what are you doing?” she cried. “You can’t wear that! You have to wear something tight and sexy!” Wilde was taken aback: As a serious actress, confident in her craft, she wanted to focus her audience on her performance, not her physique. Her boss listened patiently, nodding in understanding, and then cut her off. “While I can appreciate you’re not eager to sell yourself on pure sex appeal,” she explained to Wilde, “it’s ridiculous for someone with your curves to go into an audition hiding them. It signals a lack of awareness, even an immaturity on your part: This is a business that makes money by showcasing such assets.” Wilde got it. She also won the audition.
Leadership characteristics list: Seek professional help
Go to a department store makeup counter and consult with the cosmetician. Hire a personal shopper. Consider hiring an image consultant. Paying for advice up front can save you a lot of money—and spare you some costly blunders.
IT’S NOT HOW GOOD YOU LOOK, IT’S HOW APPROPRIATE YOU LOOK FOR YOUR AUDIENCE A drug representative for Bristol-Myers Squibb described having to send home a member of her team who showed up for a presentation at a Princeton, New Jersey, hospital wearing a sundress and open-toed shoes. “We’re meeting with people who are making life-and-death decisions in there,” the rep told this young woman. “You can’t hope to persuade them that you grasp the gravity of their mission if you look like you’re headed to a picnic.” Reflecting on this incident and others like it, this rep told me, “Too often, I find, people just aren’t thinking beyond themselves.” Leadership characteristics list: If it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't
American Express’s Kerrie Peraino advises women to listen to “that little voice of anxiety” when it comes to vetting wardrobe choices for work. “If I’m tugging at the back of my blouse all day to keep the neckline from showing too much cleavage, then clearly I’m not comfortable in that blouse—and won’t derive a lot of confidence from wearing it,” she explains. She adds, “Your work attire is your armor. It should make you feel invincible, not add to your insecurities.”
Leadership characteristics list: Beware of casual/ cool cultures
Last June, I was invited to keynote a session titled “Beyond Mad Men” at the Cannes Lions Festival—the annual extravaganza of the global advertising community. Michael Roth, the CEO of Interpublic Group, wanted me to help him make the case that Don Draper didn’t cut the mustard these days—that the industry needed more women at the top (only 3 percent of creative directors at the top fifty companies are female). I came through for Roth—making a compelling case for why gender smarts mattered for the bottom line. But brilliant presentation aside, I must admit I was humbled by the visuals around me. This gathering of Mad Men (and a handful of Mad Women) showed the disadvantage women were at on the image front in a sector that is all about image. It’s not that the “creatives” at this festival were drop-dead gorgeous—they were mature professionals in their forties and fifties and had their fair share of wrinkles and paunches. Rather, what was considered cool and chic was decidedly weighted in favor of men. The signature look of the rock stars of this advertising extravaganza comprised two-day-old stubble, bespoke shorts, and designer flip-flops. How does a woman—no matter how creative—bring this off?
This gender gap was painfully apparent at the awards ceremony. The men, blithely balding but sprouting impressive amounts of gray facial hair, looked suitably creative while still coming off as credible executives. The women, however, just looked wrong. Some played the formal card but ended up looking uncomfortable and straitjacketed in skirts and pantyhose; others played the expensive-casual game. It mostly backfired. Very few forty-five-year-women look like creative rock stars (or senior executives) in shorts and flip-flops—no matter how much they cost. They look as though they’re heading to the beach. And as for facial hair . . . Leadership characteristics list: Stay in costume to stay in character
A colleague of mine describes how her boss leaves a suit jacket hanging on the back of his door in the event he’s suddenly obliged to impress a client or superior. That’s a flawed strategy, and here’s why. First, you can’t always know who among the people you encounter is worth impressing, nor can you always anticipate when and where you’ll run into them. Second, gravitas isn’t something you hang on the back of the door and wear at will. As we’ve discussed, a polished, well-put-together look is what communicates you’re a person who is both respectful of colleagues and clients and is yourself worthy of respect. Throwing on a jacket isn’t likely to fool anyone. To do and be your best, you must strive to look your best, and that look depends on forethought and attention to detail. It’s not an act so much as a mindset. Wear it when you walk in the office door and don’t take it off until you’re back home.
Don't Let you bling steal your thunder
Clanging, banging jewelry is not the best if you’re giving a presentation, Linda Huber told me in an interview. “Anything that calls attention to itself rather than the message you’re giving is not the best.”
Leadership characteristics list: When in doubt lean on your sponsor
Trevor Phillips, former chair of Great Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, describes how he received an invitation from the deputy prime minister to Chevening, the stately country retreat shared by the deputy prime minister and the foreign secretary (akin to getting invited to Camp David by an American president). His fiancée, a graduate of Cambridge, asked him what he thought she should wear. Phillips shrugged off her concern. “Don’t be stupid,” she persisted. “Find out what I am supposed to wear.” So Phillips put a call into the deputy prime minister’s secretary, who assured him there was no dress code—guidance he duly passed along to his wife-to-be. “You’re an idiot,” she told him. “ ‘No dress code’ means, if you don’t know the code, you shouldn’t be there.” Phillips, a London native of Afro-Caribbean descent, turned to his sponsor for guidance. “If, like me, you’re an outsider to these circles, it’s essential you consult someone who not only can help you crack the code, but whose vested interest in you will prompt them to do so,” he says.
Leadership characteristics list: Ask for specific feedback
Giving pointers to someone else about his or her appearance is daunting and difficult, which is why you see so many blunders on parade by people who should know better. So make it easier: Ask your superiors for feedback on your attire, hairstyle, and grooming. Provide assurance that you will receive their observations and suggestions not as fault-finding but as constructive guidance, and dig deep to ensure you understand how to correct your gaffes. Live up to your promise by listening rather than reacting defensively. While it will be painful to hear what you’re doing wrong, consider how much more painful it is to learn about your blunders later, from someone else, when it’s too late to reverse first impressions.
Leadership characteristics list: Buy yourself greater latitude
Executive presence is all about inspiring trust and confidence in others. Once you’ve done that and are successfully “over the bar,” you can start to play with the dress code; ultimately you get to set the dress code. Steve Jobs, let it be said, didn’t start out with fifty black turtlenecks: That signature look (thinking different, dressing different) evolved in lockstep with his extraordinary success. In the battle between conformity and authenticity, you will eventually prevail—not, perhaps, as a brand-new hire but down the road when you have some seniority. Get over the bar. Establish your bona fides. Win everyone’s faith and confidence. Then make your own rules.
via Blogger http://ift.tt/2apRvtk August 02, 2016 at 10:37PM |