Leadership

by Michele Milan

As the CEO of Rotman Executive Programs, Michele Milan is up-to-date on the latest theories and best practices for being an effective leader. She shares some of her insights on what it takes to be a great leader in the current business landscape. 

Strong Ethical Foundation 
Leadership is more difficult than ever. We are in a period when trust in leaders and our institutions has been eroded.  Society is demanding and deserves leaders who are moral and ethical.  Leaders with character.  Authentic leadership means speaking and doing from a centre of moral conviction.  It is personal integrity that cultivates credibility and trust. I also believe this is key to finding real meaning in one’s work, and enabling employees to do likewise - to find their work meaningful and really believe they are contributing to something worthwhile. This is important not only for individuals, and not only as a driver of productivity, but for society as a whole.  Businesses have a huge impact on the world around them. A strong ethical foundation in an organization means it will contribute to society in a way that sustains and enriches the lives of all. 

Ability to Communicate
It is still true that a good leader has the ability to envision her organization’s future, and to clearly communicate that vision. Clear and straightforward communication allows everyone to understand their individual roles, in making decisions in line with strategy and moving the organization forward. But good communication is two-way and goes beyond formal occasions. In our more collaborative work environments, with rapidly changing demographics, leaders really need to listen and they need to seek to understand what is really going on. I personally meet with everyone in the organization at least once a year and speak with as many clients as possible. Seeking understanding is critical, but can be difficult because the signal-to-noise ratio can be really high. We are all dealing with vast amounts of information. It can be overwhelming. Leaders now need to communicate constantly to translate complexity and to keep people aligned as the pace of change continues to accelerate. Tuning in to and maintaining awareness of informal networks and channels of communication is crucial for a leader since it is these systems that often determine what really goes on in an organization. 

Strategic Agility
Creating and maintaining a path for advancing an organization’s agenda in a rapidly changing environment requires strategic agility on the part of a leader, both to synthesize and assess vast amounts of information, and to readjust as necessary. This means responding to new circumstances, research and technology in real time. The pace of change is incredible. Leaders must constantly fine-tune their strategy to keep their organizations agile. Clear, two-way communication about changing circumstances and strategy allows employees to respond and realign their own initiatives and roles.

Self-awareness
Self-awareness, self-regulation and a habit of self-reflection are essential for a leader’s personal effectiveness; they also determine the tone a leader sets for her organization. A leader must be able to manage her own emotional reactions, and to understand the effect she has on others, both personally and in terms of the organization’s power structure. There are many techniques for developing greater self-awareness and the ability to self-regulate. My personal favourites are journaling and mindfulness meditation.

Good Practices and Habits
Effective leadership occurs not just in grand moments, but in daily hourly habits. In addition to a practice of reflection, habits of learning and self-care are critical.  Habitually seeking learning prepares a leader for rapid change. Leading also takes a tremendous amount of energy and stamina; a good leader must create habits that foster resilience, practices that recharge and replenish her resources in order to maintain health and well-being. Of course, this is true of everyone in the organization as well and supporting the health and wellness of employees makes the whole organization more resilient and productive.

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As the CEO of Rotman Executive Programs, Michele Milan is up-to-date on the latest theories and best practices for being an effective leader. She shares some of her insights on what it takes to be a great leader in the current business landscape. To learn more about Rotman's leadership programs visit: www.rotmanexecutive.com

Harnessing the Power of Awe To Engage and Inspire Your Team

When I’m in the wilderness, I love looking up into the sky and feeling awestruck by the magnitude of the universe. It blows my mind when I try to comprehend that that every star is a sun like ours. I feel both tiny in comparison and connected to infinite possibilities.

We’ve all experienced awe. We have those experiences that stop you in your tracks, catch your breath and open your heart and mind.

It turns out these experiences are important because they actually positively affect health and well-being. Studies found people who experience the emotion of awe felt they had more time, were less impatient and more willing to volunteer to help others.

As a manager, you can create experiences that inspire awe as a way to engage your team and bring them closer together. You can use it to sell your product or services more effectively. Or, you can use it to amaze your customers and turn them into raving fans. And why not? As a tool for influence awe is incredibly effective.

As a magician I make awe work for me. I often say I manipulate my audience’s feelings for their own benefit. The experience of awe opens people’s minds, and activates their creativity and problem solving skills. It has the potential to create a deep and meaningful impact.

The more awestruck you are, the better I’ve done my job. As a manager, you can use the same principles to manipulate your team for their own benefit. 

What Inspires The Feeling Of Awe?
While the feeling of awe is subjective, there are a few common traits:

1. The unknown - the pursuit of understanding the unknown inspires scientists, scholars, explorers and enthusiasts alike.
2. Nature - mountains, oceans, natural wonders, exotic animals.
3. Extreme size - what we see in the sky, or through a magnifying glass.
4. Technology - the possibilities of what it allows us to do and the rate it changes.
5. The future, and in some cases the past. We are amazed about what is to come and the history of the world.
6. Mastery - People who have really mastered their craft often are awe-inspiring. Watching a Cirque Du Soliel show is a prime example of this.
7. The unexpected - when your expectations are defied, you can get a moment of wonder.
8. Generosity - acts of kindness, unconditional love and generosity. 

5 Situations In Which Awe Can Help Influence Your Team To Their Benefit

1. When implementing large organizational changes 
Change can affect morale, commitment and productivity. When people become worried, they start becoming focused on their own needs. By facilitating experiences that use awe, you help your team to shift perspective from that of worry to seeing the positive opportunities that change brings. 

2. Resolving conflicts
Conflict is often a result of only seeing things from a single perspective. Awe is a pattern interrupt. By nature, awe expands someone’s thinking.  This is useful when people are stuck in old patterns and need to shift their perspective. 

3. Improving communication
I recently posted about The Empathy Toy - a tool that gets people to experience how easily miscommunications can occur, and elicits self learning and adjustment of communication. Participating in an experience like that creates moments of awe and wonder. 

4. Inspiring Innovation
Awe lurks in the heart of innovation. People who ponder how to fly, go faster or make something more efficient all harness the power of awe. When you want your team to think big, awe is a great way to get them there. 

5. Problem solving
Effective problem solving requires big picture thinking and the ability to see things from different perspectives. Awe helps to inspire new connections and ideas. 

Make Your Team Awesome!

 
Whether you are helping to break the everyday routine to spark some creativity, innovation and problem solving or you need to make changes and resolve conflict, awe is a powerful tool to influence your team members for their benefit.

A little awe can go a long way.

About the Author
Dan Trommater is a Speaker and Magician who transforms passive event attendees into engaged participants with unique keynotes and workshops. By using world-class magic, humour, stories and interactive exercises he delivers a powerful message about learning to see things from other people’s perspective. This provides business and life changing opportunities for those who adopt it.  Connect with Dan on Linkedin and visit him at www.dantrommater.com.

Golden Rule of Managing Up

“Over-communicate. It’s better to tell someone something they already know than to not tell them something they needed to hear.” — Alex Irvine

The biggest lesson I’ve learned as CEO is the art of over-communicating. I’m constantly repeating the vision of the company to our team. When I thought I couldn’t over-communicate anymore, I would reiterate the vision again.

I noticed a funny thing begin to happen. People started to understand whatand more importantly why we were doing things. The message was trickling throughout the entire company. People would repeat to each other what I was repeating to them. 

No amount of over-communication is too much when alignment is at stake.

As a leader, it’s my responsibility to articulate a focused strategy that is communicated clearly and consistently throughout the company. This aligns everyone, providing a shared direction for all teams, which allows us to move fast and focus on what matters the most. 

Over-communication only works as a two-way street.

As much as I am over-communicating to my team, I can not stress the importance of managing up by over-communicating. It’s a skill, like no other, that when mastered will make a dramatic difference in your company’s culture.

The majority of things that have broken down internally did so because of a lack of communication. As a manager, I’ve realized that it’s impossible to live in a world without surprises or bad news. But, constant over-communication will diminish surprises while helping to clear out roadblocks, cope with bad news and celebrate wins.

Everyone from the CEO of Netflix to an intern at a startup has to master the golden rule of managing up by over-communicating. I’ve included some tips on how you can apply this skill to your day-to-day:

1. Keep It SimpleOver-communicating doesn’t mean communicating everything; it means communicating the right things effectively. Having a simple framework is the quickest way to structure your points and give updates. It’ll allow your manager to prioritize what’s important for him/her and hone into areas of interest without having to figure it out. Remember, less is more.
2. Sync Early and OftenIf you are unclear of a direction or strategy, sync early and often. Ask lots of follow-up questions, challenge each other, and arrive at the best possible idea. Then apply a simple framework that allows everyone to over-communicate.
3. Surprises are OKIt’s impossible to live in a world without surprises or bad news. Whether, it’s good news or bad news, don’t wait until the last minute to deliver it. If you break the ‘no surprises’ rule and you have to deliver bad news, come prepared with other possible solutions.

No matter your role in your company, you can never over-communicate. You may think you sound like a broken record but that’ll be the farthest from the truth. Keep repeating yourself until you can barely stand to hear yourself anymore. Then, keep repeating yourself!

Michael K.

CEO of Skillshare

6 Ways Vision Will Inspire Your Employees And Culture

Even as kids, we developed radar on leadership. Consider the classic schoolyard game, Follow the Leader. Everyone has to do exactly what the leader does, or they’re out. Growing up, I remember watching that game dissolve time after time. The leader would start doing scary climbs or huge leaps, and the followers felt put at risk. The leader would make seemingly pointless changes in direction, the followers got frustrated. Finally someone would yell, What are you doing? You’re a terrible leader! And set off a culture mutiny.

Since we left the playground for the workplace, what’s changed? Not much. Though these days, vision’s become a buzzword — to the point where She’s a leader with a real vision can simply mean Nice marketing strategy. But still: effective leadership, particularly at the juncture between the old ways of working and the new, requires far more than a charismatic, alpha personality, and far more than a good PR team.

Here’s how to hone its critical ingredient, Vision, To Stay On Pace With The Future of Work:

1) Vision Is Mission Plus Tech Strategy
True vision involves a clear mission that informs every strategic action and decision. Bring that into a talent management context for a moment. If a CEO’s vision includes attracting the best and the brightest minds to the organization on a global scale, a visionary talent strategy will include a platform that’s social and mobile, agile and timely, shaped with this clear target group in mind. If it doesn’t, the strategy isn’t supporting the vision.



2) Vision Should Come From Within
Consider our iconic leaders. They appear to be so filled with their vision that they’re incandescent with it; lit from within. Steve Jobs is a great example: he lived and breathed his vision; such a part of Apple’s mission that “Think Different” could have had a black turtleneck as a flag. Such distilled strength gives a brand coherency and momentum. But to transmit your vision to others and inspire them, you first have to be filled with it yourself.

 3) Vision Is Creative
What makes a leader stand out is that their ability to conceive of an objective that may not even exist: stores serving nothing but fancy coffee, cars a working family can afford to buy, a system of storing data without physical form or shape, yet nearly infinite capacity and capabilities. Then, when it comes to problem solving, where one person sees a dead end, the leader sees a road ahead. Bolstered by an unshakeable faith in their own vision, leaders see obstacles as opportunities.

4) Vision Takes Tenacity
It takes tenacity to adhere to a vision and defend it against the prospect of failure. But leaders roll up their sleeves and the world throws in behind them. Consider the recent news that insurance giant Aetna and retail mammoth Walmart are both raising wages is bound to cause ripples in the pond, as businesses are forced to similarly act in order to keep pace and attract employees — that’s one of the byproducts of a firmer job market. But the cost of these decisions is immense: Walmart, for once, has 1.3 million U.S. workers. It’s not hard to imagine the resistance such a strategy could come up against within the organization, and how hard fought the battle to get it done.

5) Vision Takes Vision
No, it’s not a typo: vision requires a sense of the big picture and a laser-sharp view of the future. This kind of foresight takes practice, but it’s part of what keeps the train on the track. Leaders need to be able to look at past performances, whether successes or failures, and be able to use that to predict future outcomes. Further, a leader can envision more than one possible outcome, and still have it adhere to their stated objective.

6) Vision Requires Communication
None of this will go anywhere if a leader doesn’t also have the tools to convey that vision to the organization, and inspire them to get the job done. That may also be why marketing has taken such a hold on the term: marketing is about creating the most engaging expression of an idea. Implicit in our ability to convey our vision is that vital compact that leadership needs to have with employees: one of consideration, and inclusion, and respect. Together, we can do it, as the slogan goes. And that, drives employee engagement and helps talent attraction and retention across the board.

Photo Credit: Startup Stock Photos


Meghan M. Biro Contributor

What makes a winning team?

David Reeve CMgr MCMI

Most of us at some point in our lives watch a team sport. It might be only once every four years during the olympics or your might be an avid fan, whether it be football, athletics, hockey or motor sport. For me, it's Formula1 and with the start of the new season only 2 weeks away, it got me thinking as to what makes a winning team. The answer is of course complex and involves lots of different things, a key one of which is leadership. For me, however there are 3 key elements to building a winning team: 

Knowledge
Your team need to have the knowledge to do their job. This applies both as individuals and as a team. Each individual needs to know what their role is and to have the knowledge and skills to do that role. Take the example of mechanics in motor sport. Each mechanic has to be able to work at the top of their game whether that be re-building the engine or changing a wheel. They also need to know what everyone else does and rely on others to complete their tasks. This means trusting everyone in your team. 

Trust
In my view creating and mourishing mutual trust begins with honesty. If as leaders we display honesty in the way we deal with and talk to the people that we lead, then we set the tone within the area of the organisation that we have direct responsibility for. From experience, this then encourages your team members to be honest in return and builds mutual trust within the team.

Then the challenge, unless you are the CEO of course, is to influence upwards and set the tone and expectations of how you operate and therefore how you expect to be treated. Given time and work on relationship building, if you are honest with your managers, most people will accord you with the respect that you clearly should be accorded, which will ultimately create and nourish mutual trust. 

Communication
Communication underpins everything within a winning team. For your team to have the knowledge to do their job, they have to learn. Learning, whether it is formal or informal on-the-job training requires communication. Trust is built up over time and through experience that someone does what they say they will do. Communication is a fine art, and a post in itself, but is crucial in building a winning team. Great communication will help develop your team and build their knowledge. It will also help you build trust which in turn improves performance. Poor communication on the other hand will destroy everything that you have been working for and can turn a winning team into a losing one.

5 Signs Your Company is in the Dark Ages

One of our vendors recently asked us to fax a form to them … really, a fax? So I started thinking, what are the signs that a company has not kept up with times and is stuck in the dark ages?

If you are guilty of any of these fives things, it’s time to move forward. Immediately. It’s not just about productivity, it’s about keeping your pulse on how people do business and what is important to them. Keep your particular customer base in mind, but these five things are most likely holding you back.

1. You still use a fax machine.
   Our company does not own a fax machine and I have not sent a fax in over a decade. If you are not aware that fax machines have been replaced with emails, you are a dinosaur headed for extinction. Even when signatures are required, the businessperson of today expects things to be signed, scanned, and emailed. You shouldn’t expect clients, customers, or vendors to have fax machines.
2. You only communicate by phone.
   If you sell anything to millennials, don’t ask them to call your customer service phone number … that’s not how they communicate. Reconsider your ‘social media seems like a silly fad’ attitude and embrace the new ways your customers want to communicate with you and each other. Yes, it’s good to have the option to call. But if you’re not transitioning to live chat and social media correspondence, you’ll soon lose any customer base below the age of 40. (If I lost you at “live chat,” it’s time to hire a consultant.).
3. You still print everything.
   Seriously? This is my planet too, so learn how to archive electronic documents, sign PDFs online, and stop killing our trees. With a few very rare exceptions, you don’t need a hard copy. The risk here is not just to the planet, it’s to your ability to hire and retain quality employees. Now and for at least the last 10 years, college graduates are looking for companies with good environmental practices. You don’t need to bring 15 printed copies to the meeting, trust me.
4. You’re still using snail mail to do business.
   When a customer asked us to snail mail a paper copy of our invoice half-way around the globe, we refused for oh-so-many reasons, ultimately walking away from the small deal. Snail mail might be even more obsolete than a fax machine and does not gel with our approach to protecting the planet. Stand up for what just makes sense and stop mailing paper.
5. You still need “face time”.
   Gone are the days when working 15 hours a day was a solid measure of success. If you allow your employees to utilize flexible scheduling options, you will likely see more productivity than if you encourage the traditional “first one in, last to go home” paradigm. Remember that sometimes a task takes longer because someone refuses to consider easier options. The person staying late every day may need some help with new approaches to work smarter rather than applause for burning the midnight oil.

It happens to all of us, we find ourselves holding onto a tradition even though it’s not logical. We find comfort in doing things “the way we’ve always done them.” When it comes to your business, it’s important to fight this urge and push forward. The longer you hold on, the more behind you’re getting. 

I'm sure you, too, have a few things in mind when it comes to antiquated business practices. Please share them below!

Written by

Thomas Michael

The Problem With Managing Millennials...(Is Not What You Think)

If I sit around and look through my LinkedIn feed or Facebook, Twitter, Zite...whatever, I am bound to see something about the millennials and their "narcissism" or their "poor work ethic" or what have you. And, the point of this post isn't to say if these things are true or they are not. 

The point is that the problem with managing millennials isn't them...its you. (I'll pause while you fire off a hateful email to me...)

But here is the thing, no matter what person you are dealing with, no matter the generation, no matter the position...you, as the manager, are ultimately responsible for the performance of your team. 

So I have found in working with my clients that a lot of the challenge of dealing with millennials stems from a poor grasp of setting clear goals and expectations for your teams. Which means that even if millennials have short attention spans, need praise, or anything else that is being said, as the manager, you need to set your expectations and goals in a clear and understandable way. 

Here are a few tips to help:

1. Focus Your Goals On The Output: Too much of our time is spent on just doing tasks that don't move us towards our goals. Millennials are sometimes called lazy because they talk about "balance" between work and life. I think by focusing your goals on the outputs you are trying to achieve you accomplish a few key things...you give your team the flexibility to attempt to solve problems with creativity; you don't get bogged down on assigning tasks; and, if you are lucky, your team works hard to solve the challenge in an effective and efficient manner which will lead to more "balance" by allowing them to complete mission critical tasks and knowing what they need to accomplish to get out of the office. 

2. Open Clear Lines Of Communication: No matter what you do, where you are in your career, people love to have information. The void of communication will always be filled and if you aren't careful it will be filled by bad or false information. So as a manager, help everyone by setting clear expectations for your communications with staff...including updates, status reports, and feedback. Its going to help tremendously.

3. Listen: Another big one I hear about millennials is that they want to be heard. And, somewhere along the line we seem to have forgotten the fact that as managers and leaders, we are only as good as the information we have at hand. So it only makes sense that you take a little time to talk with your team and listen. Sure listening takes time and building relationships with your staff is tough, but the first time you save a huge hunk of time and money by paying attention to something your team tells you, the investment will have paid off...and the added benefit is that you might not really be so willing to lump a whole group of people in generational stereotypes. And, that's something I guarantee will make you a better leader. 

Posted by:Dave Wakeman

10 Words Terrible Leaders Always Use

What's the telltale sign of a good leader? They know how to communicate in the workplace. People follow what they say (and what they do), listen to their instruction, and respect their wisdom. They say the right things. But terrible leaders? They use words like those listed below that destroy confidence, grind projects to a halt, and discourage everyone. 

1. Maybe
Like a flare shot up into the darkness, the word maybe implies a shaky leadership style. When employees ask for time off, a bad leader says maybe. When the sales director asks for help with marketing a new widget, a bad leader says maybe. Confident leaders rarely use the word. 

2. Incidentally
Bad leaders tend to say incidentally with a smirk. It's dismissive--those who use the word don't mean it as an aside. It's more of a put-down. Incidentally, I started this company and I'm in charge. Incidentally, you are an idiot and I'm the smart one. 

3. Probably
Does the word probably belong in business? Not really. Good leaders know they have to find the hard data first--there is no probably. There is a specific percentage. When a leader says we will probably need better tech support for the product or we'll probably hit our sales numbers, it's a red flag. They don't really know the answer. 

4. Unfortunately
I've written before how this is a dismissive term in e-mails. Bad leaders also tend to use the word when they talk to you. Sorry Bob, but--unfortunately--the firm cannot pay the expenses on your business trip. It's a form of control and oppression. 

5. Corrective
A bad leader takes corrective action. I have to be corrective about that, they say. What does that even mean? It's a buzzword--the boss is correcting behavior. But being corrective is not a good leadership approach. Redirecting people and guiding them, encouraging a different approach, that's a sign of good leadership. By the time the boss needs to corrective about something, it's usually too late. 

6. Blame
The word blame weasels its way into the vocabulary of terrible leaders. They say things like, I don't mean to blame you for screwing up a project. Or, I need someone to accept the blame for our financial losses. Great leaders don't talk about blame in the workplace. They find what is not working and fix it. Or they accept responsibility. 

7. Usually
Acting decisively is important because it builds confidence. When a poor leader says usually it reveals a confidence issue--they don't have all of the information. They might say new a new app usually crashes or customers usually can't find parking at a retail store. Wait, did you really mean usually? It's best to find out all of the answers: how often, what is causing the problem, what are the exact variables. 

8. Regrettably
The word regrettably is a dismissive term that poor leaders use to, well, dismiss people. They say regrettably I have to cancel your project, or regrettably I cannot attend your business lunch. The word makes it seem like the leader has a higher priority and, regrettably, you don't rank high enough on the scale. 

9. Sometimes
The problem with the word sometimes is that it implies a lack of research and knowledge. If the founder of a company says people sometimes download a new app on Android phones, or new customers sometimes try to call an old 1-800 number, everyone starts wondering what's really going on. Poor leaders deal in vagaries and half-truths. Great leaders have the answer or know how to find it 

10. No
There are times when great leaders have to say no. It's just not possible to agree to every budget item or every idea. Yet, if you consistently say no to everything, you become known as a naysayer. Your negativity spreads across the company. Figure out how to say yes more. Or at least how to prioritize more effectively.

JOHN BRANDON | Columnist

The Most Overlooked Leadership Skill

 Even before I released the disc, I knew it was a long shot. And, unfortunately, it was a clumsy one too.

 

We were playing Ultimate Frisbee, a game similar to U.S. football, and we were tied 14-14 with a time cap. The next point would win the game.

I watched the disc fly over the heads of both teams. Everyone but me ran down the field. I cringed, helplessly, as the disc wobbled and listed left. Still, I had hope it could go our way.

Sam was on my team.

Sam broke free from the other runners and bolted to the end zone. But the disc was too far ahead of him. He would never make it.

At the very last moment, he leapt. Completely horizontal, Sam moved through the air, his arms outstretched. Time slowed as he closed in on the disc.

The field was silent as he slid across the end zone, shrouded in a cloud of dust. A second later he rose, Frisbee in hand. Our team erupted in cheer.

Sam’s catch won us the tournament.

It also taught me a great lesson: Never underestimate the value of a talented receiver.
I was reminded of Sam’s catch recently after broaching a sensitive topic with Alba*, a client. The conversation was about some concerns I had about an upcoming meeting she was leading as well as my own insecurity about how I could help.

Before I spoke with her, I was hesitant and worried. Was I overstepping my bounds? Was I exposing myself? Would she reject my thoughts? Would she reject me?

I entered the conversation awkwardly, apologizing, and offering too much context. Even once I broached the issue, I felt tentative, unclear. I cringed as I felt my words hang in the air.

Thankfully, though, Alba turned out to be a Sam-level receiver.

Alba listened without a trace of annoyance. She asked questions — not to defend herself or refute my thoughts — but to understand my perspective more clearly. She was gracious, skilled, and accepting.

Her ability to receive me, and my opinions, led to a deep and valuable conversation about her performance, my role, and the needs of her team. A few weeks later, she showed up powerfully and led a remarkable meeting.

Typically, we choose our leaders for their skill at conveying messages clearly and powerfully. But, in my experience, it’s their ability to receive messages that distinguishes the best leaders from the rest.

That’s because the better you are at receiving, the more likely people will talk to you. And that’s precisely what every one of us needs: to be surrounded by people who are willing to speak the unspoken.

So how do you become a great receiver?

1. Be courageous. We often attribute courage to the speaker, but what about the receiver? 
I may have been scared broaching topics with Alba, but I had the advantage of time and preparation. I could control what I said and how I said it. I was able to think about it beforehand, write down a few notes, and test my thoughts with someone else. 
The receiver has no such advantage. Like Sam, he has to receive my throw, however, whenever, and wherever it lands. He has to be willing to listen to something that might make him feel afraid or insecure or defensive. And if he is a great receiver, he will take in the information or message thoughtfully, even if the delivery is awkward or the message jarring. That takes tremendous courage.


2. Don’t judge. Receiving is as much about what you don’t do as it is about what you do. 

Resist the temptation — blatantly or subtly — to be critical of the speaker or what the speaker is saying. Don’t argue with her, poke fun at her, shame her, act aggressively, turn on her, become defensive, or act cold toward her.


3. Be open. In order to receive a pass in any sport — and at work and in life — you need to be free, open, and unguarded. 
Yet we often guard ourselves. Powerful feelings like fear, anger, sadness, and insecurity do their best to block our ability to receive a pass. If you want to be a talented receiver, your task is to feel your feelings without letting them block or control you or your response. Breathe. Acknowledge what you’re feeling to yourself — maybe even to the other person — without dwelling on it. 

Reiterate what you’re hearing, ask questions, be curious. Not curious in an “I-will-find-out-enough-information-so-I-can-prove-you-wrong” way. Curious to understand what the person is saying and to understand what’s underneath what they’re saying.

If you can be courageous, avoid judging, and stay open — even if the toss is awkward and the message unsettling — then, like Sam, like Alba, you’ll be able to catch pretty much anything.

And when you’re skilled at that, you’ll be a most valuable player of any team you’re on.

Peter Bregman

Peter Bregman helps CEOs and their leadership teams tackle their most important priorities together. His next Leadership Week is in October, 2014. His latest book is 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done.

The biggest communication problem

Why Big Teams Suck

In 1957, British naval historian and management satirist Northcote Parkinson painted a cynical picture of a typical committee: It starts with four or five members, quickly grows to nine or ten, and, once it balloons to 20 and beyond, meetings become an utter waste of time – and all the important work is done before and after meetings by four or five most influential members.

As Parkinson would have it, numerous studies now confirm that, when it comes to teams, many hands do not make light work. After devoting nearly 50 years to studying team performance, the late Harvard researcher J. Richard Hackman concluded that four to six members is the team best size for most tasks, that no work team should have more than 10 members, and that performance problems and interpersonal friction increase “exponentially as team size increases.”

These troubles arise because larger teams place often overwhelming “cognitive load” on individual members. Most of us are able to mesh your efforts with and maintain good personal relationships with, say, three or four teammates. But as a group expands further, each member devotes more time to coordination chores (and less time to actually doing the work), more hand-offs between the growing cast of members are required (creating opportunities for miscommunication and mistakes), and because each member must divide his or her attention among a longer list of colleagues, the team’s social glue weakens (and destructive conflict soars). Following my earlier LinkedIn piece, findings about group size are reminiscent of psychologist George Miller’s famous conclusion that seven was a “magical number” because people could only hold “seven, plus or minus two” numbers in short-term memory. Both Hackman and Miller found that, once people start trying to deal with double digits, the cognitive overload takes a toll.

These findings help explain why the average restaurant reservation in the United States is for a party of four. Think of the last time you were at a dinner with a group of 10 or 15 people. It is difficult, perhaps downright impossible, to have a coherent and emotionally satisfying conversation that engages each member of the party all at once. Typically, the group breaks into a series of smaller conversations or a few people do all the talking and the others say little or nothing.

Some organizations learn about the drawbacks of oversized groups the hard way. Retired Marine Captain and former U.S. Senator James H. Webb explained why the “fire team” – the basic combat fighting unit – shrunk from 12 to 4 during War II. Webb wrote in the Marine Corp Gazette that this “12 man mob” was “immensely difficult” for Marine squad leaders to control under the stress and confusion of battle. Coordination problems were rampant and close relationships – where soldiers fight for their buddies – were tougher to maintain in 12-man teams. The U.S, Navy Seals have learned that four is the optimal size for a combat team as well. And, the basic work unit at McKinsey, the consulting firm, is one “engagement manager” and three other members. As Intuit’s CEO Brad Smith puts it, when it comes to teams, “less is often best.” Just like on­line retailing giant Amazon, Intuit insists: “Our development teams can be no larger than the number of people who can be fed by two pizzas,” which helps them “stay nimble and make decisions quickly.”

This lesson applies to small organizations too. Pulse News, makers of a “news aggrega­tor” app, was started in mid-2010. Communication breakdowns and misunderstandings flared-up after it grew slightly, from three to eight people. Founders Akshay Kothari and Ankit Gupta told us that, after they divided those eight among three teams, people produced better software, did it faster, and argued less. When Pulse expanded to about 12 people (working in four teams, all in the same room), each team maintained a bulletin board that captured their current work to help everyone at Pulse follow what they were doing. Every afternoon at about 3:30, each team also gave a short talk to the company about what they working on and where they needed help. Pulse relied on small teams as it grew to 25 employees and 30 million users; it is now part of LinkedIn, which bought Pulse for 90 million dollars in April, 2013.

The lesson is that, if you are on a big team that keeps screwing up, where members don’t care much about each other, and are fighting like crazy, try some subtraction or division. A Harvard Business School study by Melissa Valentine and Amy Edmondson of a large hospital’s emergency department demonstrates how powerful such moves can be. The crowd of 30 or so doctors and nurses who staffed the department at any given time were divided into multiple six person “pods,” each led by a senior doctor or “attending physician.” After the change, information about patients flowed more quickly and accurately and personal relationships improved markedly. Smaller teams reduced confusion and discomfort about who to ask for help and updates.

One nurse said, before the pods, “You had to walk across the ED all timid” and get up bit of courage and say to the doctor “Uh, excuse me?” With the pods, “Now they are in the trenches with us.” It was also easier to discern which “podmates” were responsible for particular chores and deserved credit or blame when things went well or badly.
Another nurse added:

“Now there is much more of a sense of ownership of each other. I’ll say, “My pod isn’t running well. Where is my doctor?” And he’ll be accountable to me. And the doctors will say, “Where are my nurses, who do I have today?’” People rarely, if ever, claimed each other in this way before the pods were implemented even if they were working together on many shared cases. A resident would have used more detached language like, “Who is this patient’s nurse?” – ignoring that the nurse had any relationship to him – rather than, “Where are my nurses?”

The pods also created big efficiency gains. Valentine and Edmondson analyzed data on 160,000 patients served by the Department during the six months before the pods were created and the year after. After the pods, patient throughput time plummeted by about 40%, from about eight hours (8.34) to five hours (5.29) per patient –without increased staffing levels. This drop not only reflects more efficient use of staff; think of the patients’ experience: Five hours at the hospital sucks a lot less than eight.

The upshot? As my co-author Huggy Rao and I found in our research, scaling is a problem of both more and less. Many hands do not always make for light work, especially when it comes to team size. The first question I ask when a team reports they are locked in dysfunctional conflict, suffering from indifference, making bad decisions, or missing deadlines -- or all of the above -- is “how big is it?” If the answer is more than then five or six members, especially more than than ten, some savvy subtraction or division can create striking improvements. As Valentine and Edmondson's research shows: Leaders become more effective. Efficiency improves. Interpersonal friction wanes. And strangers become friends.

Robert Sutton is a Stanford Professor and co-author (with Huggy Rao) of Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More without Settling for Less. This piece is an edited excerpt from that book. 
Posted by:Bob Sutton

The three Cs of customer satisfaction: Consistency, consistency, consistency

It may not seem sexy, but consistency is the secret ingredient to making customers happy. However, it’s difficult to get right and requires top-leadership attention.

 “Sustaining an audience is hard,” Bruce Springsteen once said. “It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose, and of action over a long period of time.” He was talking about his route to music stardom, yet his words are just as applicable to the world of customer experience. Consistency may be one of the least inspirational topics for most managers. But it’s exceptionally powerful, especially at a time when retail channels are proliferating and consumer choice and empowerment are increasing.

Getting consistency right also requires the attention of top leadership. That’s because by using a variety of channels and triggering more and more interactions with companies as they seek to meet discrete needs, customers create clusters of interactions that make their individual interactions less important than their cumulative experience. This customer journey can span all elements of a company and include everything from buying a product to actually using it, having issues with a product that require resolution, or simply making the decision to use a service or product for the first time.

It’s not enough to make customers happy with each individual interaction. Our most recent customer-experience survey of some 27,000 American consumers across 14 different industries found that effective customer journeys are more important: measuring satisfaction on customer journeys is 30 percent more predictive of overall customer satisfaction than measuring happiness for each individual interaction. In addition, maximizing satisfaction with customer journeys has the potential not only to increase customer satisfaction by 20 percent but also to lift revenue by up to 15 percent while lowering the cost of serving customers by as much as 20 percent. Our research identified three keys to consistency:

1. Customer-journey consistency
It’s well understood that companies must continually work to provide customers with superior service, with each area of the business having clear policies, rules, and supporting mechanisms to ensure consistency during each interaction. However, few companies can deliver consistently across customer journeys, even in meeting basic needs.

Simple math illustrates why this is so important in a world of increasingly multichannel, multitouch customer journeys. Assume a customer interacts six times with a pay-TV company, starting when he or she undertakes online research into providers and ending when the first bill is received 30 days after service is installed. Assuming a 95 percent satisfaction rate for each individual interaction—whether measuring responsiveness, the accuracy of information, or other factors—even this level of performance means that up to one in four customers will have a poor experience during the on-boarding journey.

The fact is that consistency on the most common customer journeys is an important predictor of overall customer experience and loyalty. Banks, for example, saw an exceptionally strong correlation between consistency on key customer journeys and overall performance in customer experience. And when we sent an undercover-shopping team to visit 50 bank branches and contact 50 bank call centers, the analysis was confirmed: for lower-performing banks, the variability in experience was much higher among a typical bank’s branches than it was among different banks themselves. Large banks typically faced the greatest challenge.

2. Emotional consistency
One of the most illuminating results of our survey was that positive customer-experience emotions—encompassed in a feeling of trust—were the biggest drivers of satisfaction and loyalty in a majority of industries surveyed. We also found that consistency is particularly important to forge a relationship of trust with customers: for example, customers trusted banks that were in the top quartile of delivering consistent customer journeys 30 percent more than banks in the bottom quartile.

What is also striking is how valuable the consistency-driven emotional connection is for customer loyalty. For bank customers, “a brand I feel close to” and “a brand that I can trust” were the top drivers for bank differentiation on customer experience. In a world where research suggests that fewer than 30 percent of customers trust most major financial brands, ensuring consistency on customer journeys to build trust is important for long-term growth.

3. Communication consistency
A company’s brand is driven by more than the combination of promises made and promises kept. What’s also critical is ensuring customers recognize the delivery of those promises, which requires proactively shaping communications and key messages that consistently highlight delivery as well as themes. Southwest Airlines, for example, has built customer trust over a long period by consistently delivering on its promise as a no-frills, low-cost airline. Similarly, Progressive Insurance created an impression among customers that it offered lower rates than its competitors in the period from 1995 to 2005 and made sure to highlight when it delivered on that promise. Progressive also shaped how customers interpreted cost-reduction actions such as on-site resolution of auto claims by positioning and reinforcing these actions as part of a consistent brand promise that it was a responsive, technology-savvy company. In both cases, customer perceptions of the brands reinforced operational realities. Such brands generate a reservoir of goodwill and remain resilient on the basis of their consistency over time in fulfilling promises and their strong, ongoing marketing communications to reinforce those experiences.

Becoming a company that delivers customer-journey excellence requires many things to be done well. But we’ve found that there are three priorities. First, take a journey-based approach. For companies wanting to improve the customer experience as a means of increasing revenue and reducing costs, executing on customer journeys leads to the best outcomes. We found that a company’s performance on journeys is 35 percent more predictive of customer satisfaction and 32 percent more predictive of customer churn than performance on individual touchpoints. Since a customer journey often touches different parts of the organization, companies need to rewire themselves to create teams that are responsible for the end-to-end customer journey across functions. While we know there are an infinite number of journeys, there are generally three to five that matter most to the customer and the business—start your improvements there. To track progress, effectiveness, and predict opportunities, you may need to retool both metrics and analytics to report on journeys, not just touchpoint insights.

Second, fix areas where negative experiences are common. Because a single negative experience has four to five times greater relative impact than a positive one, companies should focus on reducing poor customer experiences, especially in those areas in which customers come into contact with the organization most often. For instance, training frontline service representatives to identify and address specific customer issues through role playing and script guidelines will go a long way toward engendering deeper customer trust.

Finally, do it now. Our research indicates that since 2009, customers are valuing an “average” experience less and have even less patience for variability in delivery. In addition, companies that experience inconsistency challenges often expend unnecessary resources without actually improving the customer journey. Making additional investments to improve the customer experience without tightening the consistency of experience is just throwing good money after bad.

About the authors

Alfonso Pulido is an associate principal in McKinsey’s San Francisco office, where Dorian Stone is a principal; John Strevel is an associate principal in the Toronto office.

Why Your CEO Just Doesn't Get It

Quality leadership or a lack thereof is easy to spot if you know what to look for. The problem is most people don’t know what to look for in a leader, and according to a recent study by Chief Executive magazine many CEOs don’t seem to know what to look for either.

I was absolutely stunned to read the results of a survey published in the January/February 2014 edition of Chief Executive in which respondents (sitting CEOs) ranked the top 10 skills needed for effective leadership.  Following are the results in descending order of importance:

1. Adaptability to change                                60%
2. Strategic thinking                                        55%
3. Integrity                                                       48%
4. Very good communicator                            40%
5. Being trustworthy and open                        38%
6. Vision                                                          35%
7. Develops and fosters diverse teams           33%
8. Delegation                                                   28%
9. A positive mind-set                                      26%
10. High self-awareness                                    26%

If you’ve ever wondered why some CEOs seem disconnected, it might be worth putting the leadership traits they value under closer scrutiny. How does it make you feel knowing that many sitting CEOs don’t place much value on integrity, on being trustworthy and open, or on team building? Not very inspiring is it? Even more revealing is that the value placed on integrity, trustworthiness and transparency by respondent CEOs went down when compared to the 2013 survey results.

Here’s the thing – predicting the success of a leader isn’t really difficult to do; I’ve been doing it for years. Just examine what they value and their resolve to remain committed to said values. I’ve often said there is no reason to be surprised by a leader’s behavior unless you’ve failed to observe their character – I stand by this statement.

While often misunderstood and/or overcomplicated, at its essence, leadership is little more than a study in human behavior. Great leadership understands how to align people around a higher purpose and shared values to deliver on a clearly articulated and well-understood vision. They value people more than process, change more than status quo, and simplicity over complexity. 

The reality is the talent leaders attract, the teams they build, the culture they create, the vision they cast, and the results they achieve will always be closely tied to what they value.  Put simply, leaders deserve the outcomes they create.

It would be unfair for me to comment on the survey results without putting forth what I believe is a better prescription for effective leadership. So following are my recommendations for points of emphasis if you’re serious about being a more effective leader:

1. Integrity/Character/
2. Values/Vision/Culture
3. Brand/Engagement
4. Leading change/disrupting mediocrity
5. Adaptive creative thinking and problem solving
6. Talent/team building
7. Listening
8. Focus on simplicity
9. Organizational/market/self awareness
10. Servant’s perspective

If my list more closely reflects your values than the results of the Chief Executive survey, I’d encourage you to take a deeper dive by picking up a copy of my latest book Hacking Leadership (Wiley) as you may find some ideas you’ll find useful in transforming personal, team and organizational effectiveness.  The good news is this – if you’ve ever felt like you don’t fit in it’s probably because you don’t, but that may not be a bad thing. Leaders attract what they value and reward, and if what your leadership values and rewards is more consistent with the Chief Executive survey results than my recommendations, trust me – you don’t want to fit in.

Mike Myatt,

6 Ways Successful Teams Are Built To Last

 

It takes great leadership to build great teams. Leaders  who are not  afraid to course correct, make the difficult decisions and establish standards of performance that are constantly  being met – and improving at all times.   Whether in the workplace, professional sports,  or your local community, team building requires a keen understanding of people, their strengths and what gets them excited to work with others. 
   
Team building requires the management of egos and their constant demands for attention and recognition – not always warranted.   Team building is both an art and a science and the leader who can consistently build high performance teams is worth their weight in gold.

History has shown us that it takes a special kind of leader with unique competencies and skills to successfully build great companies and teams.  In the sports world, the late John Wooden set the standard for great coaches, leading UCLA to 10 NCAA national basketball championships in a 12-year period — seven in a row.   His success was so iconic, Wooden created his own “Pyramid for Success” to help others excel through his proven wisdom. In the business world, we can look to Jack Welsh,  who was the Chairman and CEO of General Electric between 1981 and 2001. According to Wikipedia, the company’s value rose 4000% during his tenure.  In 2006 Welch’s net worth was estimated at $720 million and in 2009, he launched the Jack Welsh Management Institute  at Strayer University.

Building companies requires the know-how to build long-lasting teams.   This is why most managers never become leaders and why most leaders never reach the highest pinnacle of leadership success.   It requires the ability to master the “art of people” and knowing how to maneuver hundreds (if not thousands) of people at the right place and at the right time.  It means knowing how each person thinks and how to best utilize their competencies rightly at all times.  It’s playing a continuous chess match – knowing that every wrong move that is made can cost the company hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars (just ask BP and Enron).

As you evaluate the sustainability of the team(s) you lead and its real impact on the organization you serve, here are six ways successful teams are built to last:



1.       Be Aware of How You Work
As the leader of the team, you must be extremely aware of your leadership style and techniques.

Are they as effective as you think?  How well are they accepted by the team you are attempting to  lead?  Evaluate yourself and be critical about where you can improve, especially in areas that will benefit those whom you are a leading.

Though you may be in-charge, how you work may not be appreciated by those who work for you.   You may have  good intentions, but make sure you hold yourself accountable to course-correct and modify your approach if necessary to assure that you’re leading from a position of strength and respectability.


Be your own boss.  Be flexible.  Know who you are as a leader.

2.       Get to Know the Rest of the Team
Much like you need to hold yourself accountable for your actions to assure you maximize performance and results, you must make the time to get to know your team and encourage camaraderie.   In my “emotional intelligence blog,” I discuss the importance of caring, understanding the needs of your team and embracing differences and helping your colleagues experience their significance.  In this case, gathering intelligence means learning what defines the strengths and capabilities of your team –  the real assets that each member brings to the table, those they leave behind and those  yet to be developed.

All great leaders know exactly what buttons to push and when to push them.  They are experts at activating the talent that surrounds them.  They are equally as effective at matching unique areas of subject matter expertise and / or competencies to solve  problems and seek new solutions.

Fully knowing your team means that you have invested the time to understand how they are wired to think and what is required to motivate them to excel beyond what is expected from them.

Think of your team as puzzle pieces that can be placed together in a variety of ways.

3.       Clearly Define Roles & Responsibilities
When you successfully complete step 2, you can then more effectively and clearly define the roles and responsibilities of those on your team.  Now, don’t assume this is an easy step;  in fact, you’ll often find that people’s ideal roles  lie outside their job descriptions.

Each of your team member’s responsibilities must be interconnected and dependent upon one another.
  
This is not unlike team sports, where some players are known as “system players” – meaning that, although they may not be the most talented person on the team,  they know how to work best within the “system.”    This is why you must have a keen eye for talent that can evaluate people not  only on their ability to play a particular role – but even more so on whether they fit the workplace culture (the system) and  will be a team player.

For example, I once inherited an employee who wasn’t very good at his specific job.  Instead of firing him, I took the time to get to know him and utilized his natural talents as a strategic facilitator who could keep all of the moving parts within the department in proper alignment and in lock-step communication.

This person helped our team operate more efficiently and saved the company money by avoiding the bad decisions they previously made because of miscommunications.  He was eventually promoted into a special projects manager role.

A team should operate as a mosaic whose unique strengths and differences convert into a powerful united force.

4.       Be Proactive with Feedback
Feedback is the key to assuring any team is staying on track, but more importantly that it is improving each day.   Feedback should be proactive and constant.   Many leaders are prone to wait until a problem occurs before they give feedback.

Feedback is simply the art of great communication.  It should be something that is part of one’s natural dialogue.  Feedback can be both formal and informal.    In fact, if it becomes too structured and stiff, it becomes difficult for the feedback to be authentic and impactful.

Remember that every team is different, with its own unique nuances and dynamics.  Treat them as such.  No cookie-cutter approach is allowed.   Allow proactive feedback to serve as your team’s greatest enabler for continuous improvement.

Take the time to remind someone of how and what they can be doing better.  Learn from them. Don’t complicate the process of constructive feedback.  Feedback is two-way communication.

5.       Acknowledge and Reward
With proactive feedback comes acknowledgement and reward.  People love recognition, but are most appreciative of respect.   Take the time to give your teammates the proper accolades they have earned and deserve.   I have seen too many leaders take performance for granted because they don’t believe that one should be rewarded for “doing their job.”

At a time when people want to feel as if they are making a difference, be a thoughtful leader and reassure your team that you are paying attention to their efforts.   Being genuine in your recognition and respect goes a long way towards building loyalty and trust.  It organically ignites extra effort!

When people are acknowledged, their work brings them greater satisfaction and becomes more purposeful. 

6.       Always Celebrate Success
At a time when uncertainty is being dealt with each day, you must take the time to celebrate success.    This goes beyond acknowledgment – this is about taking a step-back and reflecting on what you have accomplished and what you have learned throughout the journey.

In today’s fast-paced, rapidly changing world of work, people are not taking enough time to understand why they were successful and how their success reverberated and positively impacted those around them.    I have seen leaders fall into the trap of self-aggrandizement – because of what their teams accomplished – rather than celebrating the success stories that in many cases required tremendous effort,  sacrifice and perseverance.

Celebration is a short-lived activity.  Don’t ignore it.  Take the time to live in the moment and remember what allowed you to cross the finish line.

Leaders are only as successful as their teams and the great ones know  that with the right team dynamics, decisions and diverse personalities, everyone wins in the end.

Glenn Llopis, Contributor