Monthly Archives: July 2016

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

What Leadership Looks Like

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A seminar I attended on leadership, years ago, started with a simple task.  Each participant was tasked with selecting the greatest leader they knew and then writing down all the reasons they were a great leader.

Then the class as a whole reviewed all the identifying traits each person had recorded about their leader.  The purpose of the exercise was not to share thoughts on great leaders by name (historic or otherwise).

Rather the intent was to demonstrate how  leadership traits are a short and distinctive list.  Of the ten things I had noted, all were on others lists as well.

What does it take to be a leader?

Leaders are not distinguished by singular skills or capabilities.  The list of people that can run a mile in four minutes or less is very small.  This is a fabulous skill limited to a few individuals.  It is a great capability and admirable but it’s not a leadership trait.

Perhaps surprisingly, leadership traits are really things anyone can do.  They require conscious effort and motivation, but unlike intrinsic skills you are born with (e.g., musical ability) you can train yourself in the art of leadership.

So what does leaership look like?

Here is the short list of key behaviors uncovered in that seminar based on observation of sucessful leaders from real life .

  • Self awareness – understanding yourself and others demonstrating true empathy
  • Knowing where you are going – if you don’t know this how can you plan to get there and how will you know when you do.
  • Communicating full on both sending and recieving.  Others know what you mean and you know what they mean – “clarity”
  •  Both the need forand practice of values is obvious because they are lived by example.  Others embrace them naturally.
  • Seeking anwers never thinking the goal has been accomplished or there is no more opportunity
  • Unwavering belief, not over-confidence or confidence just for its own sake but showing belief in self.
Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Setting the bar

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A favorite quote of mine comes from motivational speaker Les Brown.  It is ” No one rises to low expectations”.  I interpret this to mean strong performance requires motivation and the setting of clear and challenging expectations can be motivational.

Be careful though, set too high and the result could be  despair or frustration so a careful balance is needed.  If you are seeking to help yourself or others excel the right level of expectation is critical.

Yours or Someone elses

Self expectation is the most powerful motivator.  This can come wholly from within or be influenced by others, for example a leader or manager.

What ever the source, ultimately only you can set your personal expectation bar.  External factors, for example  competitive drivers, can assist you in setting your expectation bar high enough that you need to stretch to it.

Whatever the source of expectations you have a personal accountability to ensure they are something you can rise to, that is making sure they are challenging.

The harder it is, the better you feel

Although it might not seem intuitive, achieving a challenging objective increases your happiness proportional to the difficulty.  The harder it is the more satisfying the accomplishment.

Not only do you owe it to those around you to strive for high achievement you owe it to yourself, and you will feel better for it.

For leaders, understanding this principle can be very helpful as you create environments where everyone can excel, continuously.   The expectation bar should only be reached in time for setting of the next level.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

The balance of Power

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On July 6th I explored the differences between positional(granted) and personal (earned power). This inluded a brief synopsis of the positive and negative aspects of each.

Today we will consider the best balance between these two types of power.  As a rule both are needed to achieve your goals; however, carefully exercising the most appropriate power lends the best effect.

Wrong power exercised badly

In the news recently was the successful challenge by aboriginal groups to the Canadian federal governments conditional approval to the Enbridge NorthWestern pipeline application.

In essence the Federal court ruled that because the federal government did not conduct meaningful consultation with the impacted groups (as reqiured by the environment act), the approval was invalid.

The reason the consultation was deemed inadequate – the government representatives had no positional or granted power and in essence were just note takers at the consultation.  They only had one type of power to wield (personal power) and the court ruled that was not enough.

So what is the right balance?

Granted power provides authority and empowers decision making .  Earned power relies on collaberation, all stakeholders input is leveraged.  There is no right mix of each of these power types, as their optimal usage is very dependent on situational context.

For example, consulting  for the government on environmental issues requires some authority in order to ensure meaningful and balanced consultation (or so the Federal court ruled).

What is the best way to determine which power to use and when and to what magnitude?  This requires a highly developed self awarness.  That is the key to balancing which power you use.

Consider the key stakeholders needs, your needs and organizational imperitives.  Past experience as to what has worked before is a valued input.

Most importantly though, be flexible.  As feedback is received and results begin to take form carefully monitor this and be ready to quickly change the balance from positional to personal power or vice-versa. to leverage positive developments and head off negative.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

How you get there

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Some organizations rely on the Superman principle to get things done.  The superman or woman use their powers of strength, agility and invunerbility to leap tall buildings, smash obstacles and whatever else is required to attain the goal.

Typically this approach is not sustainable.  It also creates a number of dangerous side effects.  Dangerous in the sense they increase the risk of low efficiency, high cost and most significantly, poor morale.

Pursuing the Goal or Achieving the Goal

The superman approach supports goal achievement but the the pursuit of these goals, how you attain them, can be very ugly.  Think of a field littered with bloodied dead bodies.  Holding the flag at the front is the superman declaring, “I won”.

Unfortunately, most of the team does not care at that point.

Key Pitfalls of the brute force approach

  • single point of knowledge; superman leaves and the organization is in trouble
  • high turnover; it is human nature to leave supermans shadow and people do in droves.
  • ability to repeat; the methods employed by the superman are usually unique and intended to only work once.
  • sustaining, even maintaining the change; superman moves on and the changes they wrought wither on the vine.

Most importantly, feeling good about the achievement.  This is very sinle threaded between the sponsor and the superman.  The others typically feel nothing but relief.

Take time, involve everone, use clearly defined processes and repeat them, pause and celebrate success. Don’t seek individual heroes, create an environment where everyone is a hero.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Taking the breaks as they come

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Since a wild fire threatened the community of Fort MacMurray in early May I have personally experienced a large number of things breaking.

It started with my work laptop.  A known video chip bug appeared and the machine became inoperable.  The good news, Apple considers this a defect they will fix even if the machine is off warranty ( as mine is)

The bad news, this happened four weeks ago and I am still waiting.  The board takes 5 to 10 busines days from when it is ordered.  My first replacement board was dead on arrival.  I am waiting for board #2.

And the fun continues

My BMW automobile (which I have since traded in) broke down and required 7 days to repiar.  Regular readers will be familiar with the customer service challenges I experienced with that incident.

Next, the face of my iphone was shattered.  Phone hitting hard cement driveway from five feet up was the culprit here (but still it was broken).

Hard on the tail of the phone my brand new multi media receiver startedto have intermittent outages – no sound, no obvious reason.  (This was a replacement for the previous amplifier and reciever which burned out after 20 years – call this two breakages)

The sage continues

One of my many harddrives bit the dust this weekend (thunderstorm or hacker, not sure which)

Our new HD TV started to have pixalation.  This I think is due to the cable for which I have made an adjustment.  Touch wood it solves the problem.

My brand new car was delivered with defective speaker covers and the battery in our alarm system needs replacement.

Enough Already

I do understand that things break over time, however in the last two months I think I have had more than my fairshare.  The good news is I checked the sump pump the other day and it still works.  Oh joy.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

The cut man

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In any  hierarchy, whether corporate, charitable, government or even family, you have a boss (manager, supervior, board of directors).  I shared with some colleagues today  a simple analogy I have to illustrate the basic behaviors of a good boss.

Of course the supervisor/ subordinate relationship is highly complex.  My model is just a simple illustration of the baseline behaviors I find most effective whether I am in the boss or subordinate role.

The Cut Man

In boxing the fighter enters the ring and engages with the opponent. During breaks in the battle he retreats to his corner and the cut man cleans him up (as needed) and provides encouragement and support.

In an organization your boss ( leader/supervisor) should provide the same support and encouragement as the cut man (including cleaning up the mess) as you engage in the activities within and outside your organization, to achieve your objectives.

That is you go out and do the things required to achieve your objectives and your boss is the cut man that helps make sure you win (achieve your goals)

Stay out of the Ring

One of the most common mistakes I see bosses make is entering the ring.  This is unfortunate.  The message is, you can’t do it so I will do it for you, or something similar.  This can leave you with the question, “why am I here?”.

Encouragement, support and cleaning up the mess ( if there is one) these are the right things for the boss to focus on.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Exploring power

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This is not totally a new topic for me, I have posted some thoughts on use of power in past blogs.   It is a powerful subject  (pun intended) and deserves a lot of air time.

The power I am refering to is the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events.

Personal or Earned Power

Exercise of this type of power requires skill, practice and confidence.    This can range from manipulation to influence results and achieve your own ends, or at the other end of the spectrum, using trust , logic, empathy , self awareness and a host of other emotional intelligence skills.

The later techniques are generally more sustainable while the former are often easier to use and depending on your value system you might be more comfortable with the approach ( con men live by it).

Positional or Granted Power

The easiest way to illustrate this type of power is to consider the army.  Your role and title, (e.g., sargent, captain, private, general , etc) dictate your level of authority and your ability to direct or influnce the behavior of others.

There can be serious consequences for ignoring authority within this type of rigidly defined structure.  A court marshall for disobeying instructions of someone in a superior position to you is an extreme example of these consequences.

What type of power do you yield?

As a general rule everyone practices both positional (Luke I am your father) and earned (please, please, for me). power.  The interesting part is the mix.

You cannot control how much granted power you have, it is given to you by others but you are in control of your earned power.

Which is better?

This is the teaser for tommorows post.  Having set the stage around the two types of power I will explore the very critical question of how to balance their use to best effect.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Complaining

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At dinner today, my wife asked me to stop complaining about my experiences with my new vehicle purchase.  Apparently it is not good for digestion – that is the act of complaining, not the new car discussion.

Given I have had three new cars in the last three years my wife thinks I am spoiled and the new car discussion is not a popular topic but today it definitely was about my whining.

To complain or not to complain

Complaining is simply the expression of dissatisfaction or annoyance about a state of affairs or an event.  Why bother?

I believe the best use of complaining is when it forms part of the rationale for a change.

For example, consider a situation requiring a warranty repair.  It happens and sometimes cannot be avoided.  Asking the customer to wait 2 weeks for the repair sends a bad message about your image and brand.

Complaining about the length of time to correct the issue, complaint when directed at a vehicle manufacturer, is primarily to elicit better service.  That is please do it faster.

I should note a warranty repair indicates a fault by the manufacturer and all involved should bend over backwards to rectify it.

My wife’s feedback is about complaining without a purpose.  Whining about a thing just for the sake of whining.  That is, why does she care about my woes.  I get the point, the complaints are usually not positive, so unpleasant to listen to.

Use Complaining Wisely

There can be a value to complaining when it is used as a lever to obtain some action.  Complaining to bend the ear of others, mainly to make yourself feel good is probably not a best practice.

On the other hand the use of complaints to warn and inform others can be of value.

Innocent Fallout

Another peeve of my wife’s is the potential impact on the innocent.    In some cases the service provider could provide worse rather than better service.  In general, sugar works better than spanking.

Her fear is the car dealership will mark her as the wife of a notorious complainer and maybe spit in her coffee.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

The state of emergency is lifted

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On mid-night July 1st the Province of Alberta lifted the state of emergency that was declared in early May.  The state of emergency declaration arose from the impacts of the Fort MacMurray area wildfires.

What does this mean?

The declaration enables the Provincial government to exercise extensive powers to do stuff,  which is  normally carefully restricted by various laws. Simply put, the emergency power legislation allows the government to circumvent existing legal safeguards,  for expediency reasons.

Things like conscripting citizens to fight a disaster, ordering the evacuation of people, livestock and personal property, fixing prices for food, clothing, fuel, equipment, medical supplies and other essential supplies.

These are only examples of the powers granted to the Municipal Affairs minister during the emergency.  Others include allowing the government to acquire any property to prevent or combat the disaster, demolish or remove trees or crops, and control access to or from any area of Alberta.  (And there are a lot more).

Under Alberta emergency powers legislation the emergency declaration expires every 28 days unless renewed through legislation (i.e., an act of provincial parliament).

Kudos to our elected officials

These far reaching powers could be abused and those granted this increased authority need to exercise good judgement and constraint. We are very fortunate (citizens of Alberta) that our elected officials behaved admirably.  Well done.

My own state of Emergency Ends

Our daughter, son in law and grand daughter returned home to Fort Mac Murray permanently on July 1st as well.  They were staying with us during the crisis ( our son in law for only part of the time)

I now declare our own state of emergency lifted.