Monthly Archives: September 2018

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Sharing

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Typically each of us is full of information.  Some are top secret, secret, confidential, restricted, official, unclassified, personal or public, to reference the more common classification levels.

Information classification is a tool to assist with determining what you can share and with whom.  Country secrecy laws and information privacy acts are in place to create consequences for inappropriate use of information.

Basically it is recognized that information is power (not my catch phrase) and the use of information (i.e., leveraging your power) should be regulated.

Need to know

What do others need to know and what will be the impact if they don’t know?  For me, rather than data classification, this is the guiding principle to determining when to disclose information.

Of course, legal ramifications and cultural considerations need to be taken into account, yet my personal experience is information held back causes more harm than it ever prevents.

As a general rule, it’s not possible to accurately gauge others need to know, and more importantly what will happen if they don’t know.  This leads me to be more likely to share openly as long as I am sure of conformance to ethical and legal constraints.

It’s a Power Play

Using my knowledge for personal gain (i.e., as a power tool) does not fit with my own personal philosophy.  My own experience has been positive in this regard.  Sharing what I know has been a far more effective influencing tool than hoarding and releasing the information strategically.

My advice, share openly, I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the positive results.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Disappointment

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Sometimes we feel thwarted because our hopes, desires or expectations are not achieved.  The outcomes fall short of where you wanted them to be. 

Disappointment is all about personal perspective.  The situations that disappoint are as much about you perceiving poor results as the poor results themselves.

Optimism

Expecting the best outcome can be optimistic and not always realistic, accepting the outcome as the best might not be realistic but it will avoid disappointment.

Reaching for prefered outcomes, believing they are possible is a form of optimism; however don’t let your optimism become a driver of disappointment. 

Moving On

Disappointment can lead to disengaement and reduce your motivation to make things better.  Disappointment is real but should not be allowed to interfer with moving on.

Acknowledging disappointment even sharing it with others can be theraputic but it should focus on acceptance or planning how to resolve things to meet your expectations.

Of course lowering your expectations to match the outcomes is one way of resolving disappointment, that is not what I am suggesting.

Letting your disappointment fester like a wound is much worse, so acceptance is more about getting to a place you can live with the outcomes. 

Manage your Expectations

The core action for avoiding disappointment is to manage your expectations.  That is not to say you shouldn’t set the bar high, rather recognize how realistic your desires are and temper your expectations accordingly.

This does not mean you will never be disappointed, but instead your reaction will be positive, healthy and lead to something better.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Derailed

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Even the best-laid plans can result in the train leaving the track.  Avoiding the train wreck in the first place is one objective of planning but the unexpected and undesired can and will occur (a little variation on Murphy’s law)

The way you respond to a derailment will have a significant influence on the impact.  Panic, act defensive, ignore or any similar behaviours are not likely to resolve the crash and may in fact exacerbate matters. 

Take Time to Understand

The first step is to understand what has happened.  This could be done quickly within the moment or it may take a little longer depending on the magnitude of the event, however,  time is of the essence

Although it is important to react quickly it should not be precipitously, an inappropriate reaction is as bad as a slow one (perhaps worse).  Recognizing a crash has occurred or is eminent is key to being able to respond appropriately.

Relax

Emotions such as anger, frustration and fear will contribute little assistance as you work to determine the best course of action.  In fact,  these emotions are probably more likely to lead to escalation. 

Of course this advise is more easily given than practiced.  While a quick response is usually needed to start the process of clean up and getting the train back on the track I find a thoughtful pause is almost imperative. 

That is, before reacting, which will typically include some emotional motivations, think through how bad the damage appears or potential to become, in some cases the need for an immediate response is not a urgent as you might initially think. 

Remember, derailments happen, the fact they occur is not as nearly important as how you react to them. 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Back Seat Driver

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Sometimes as a leader it is best to take the back seat.  This sounds a little odd given we perceive leaders to be out front.  In a sports event or a competition that is valid.  For example, the winning runner was in the lead.

Actively enabling a group to excel at what they do, not the personal achievement is the type of leader I refer to.  In the sports analogy this could be the coach’s role, they are not in front of the competition but their leadership is key to the win.

Why the back seat?

Personal motivation and initiative typically will result in more positive outcomes than mandated action.  It is intuitive that our drive to succeed will be higher if we fully buy-in to an action, rather than supporting someone else’s perspective.

The indirect leader working in the background influences our motivation building on our initiative. The concept is to encourage high performance based on a personal desire for achievement, not the leader’s desire for recognition.

It’s Not Easy

While leading from behind can produce great outcomes from a leaders personal perspective it is not as directly rewarding or highly recognized as doing it yourself. 

Consider the athlete that wins the gold medal because of the leadership of the coach.  The athlete is the star, but the coach laid the foundation of success – largely from the background.

A key attribute of top leaders is the personal satisfaction level they achieve even when not directly in the spotlight.   The recognition they crave comes from the success of others.  

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Getting Help

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Relying on the assistance of others should neither be a fallback position nor something that is to be avoided.  I am reminded of a Warren Zevon classic rock song with the classic chorus:

Send lawyers guns and money, the shit has hit the fan

Warren Zevon

As implied by the desperate tone of the line, and supported by the rest of the lyrics, this plea for help arrives when the problem has escalated to out of control proportions.  

Waiting too long can make the assistance untenable. 

Not a sign of Weakness

Collaborating with others, enabling everyone to play a role and encouraging it, helps the chances of achieving success. 

I am great because I did it myself, this is of course heroic but typically not sustainable and very susceptible to failure.  We all have our kryptonite, that is something that can defeat us.  

Actually, accepting help gratefully, encouraging it, creating an environment where we all want to help each other as a standard methodology can be far more productive (and sustainable) than the hero approach.

Appreciation is key

Help accepted reluctantly is recognized by others and is a sure way to discourage this behavior.  Giving and getting assistance does have a component of personal gratification and acknowledging and complementing the helper supports this.  

It is basic human nature, supported by human nurture for most people to want to help others.  Environmental factors can impact others natural instinct to be helpful but absent those, it is a natural practice for most. 

We should not deny it or feel threatened.  Giving and accepting help, is a best practice for everyone. 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Changing Direction

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Power steering makes it easier to change direction.   This catchy phrase is a little tongue in cheek, there is a point buried in here though, that is changing direction might not be a bad thing. 

As momentum builds changing course becomes more difficult, sometimes the wrong thing gets completed because it was being driven fast (I am sticking a lot of driving analogies in this post)

Canadian Gun Registry

The defunct Canadian gun registry is an example of a project that surged forward on momentum, stayed it’s course even though there were many signs a change was warranted. 

From a personal perspective gun control should be a high priority for our society, the gun registry was a poorly planned and executed idea to improve gun control and sadly rather than change direction to make it better and usable it was pushed forward in a form that ultimately imploded.  

Flexibility

The key to being able to change direction, even without the need for power steering, is the ability to adapt on the fly (in the moment as it were) but not without a conscious and clear understanding of motivation and impacts. 

Being flexible enough to recognize momentum as a powerful tool for driving activities to completion but it should not be allowed to cause a blind run for the finish line.  You could crash (auto theme again.)

Be aware of your environment, sensitive to ongoing changes and ready to adopt your approach to best fit what are often changing needs. 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

You are not alone

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Leaders are most effective when they leverage others to the maximum extent possible.  As a leader, typically you take accountability for results, this is separate from taking responsibility. 

Leaders can rely on authority/granted power to get others to take on responsibility, (while they retain accountability).   However, it is important to note the use of earned power does not require the use of authority and the outcomes are often of a higher quality.  

Delegation

Delegation is the process of both motivating and empowering others to take on the responsibility to carry out specific activities.  While there is some discretion associated with the delegation the accountability remains with the delegator.

Typically delegation is based on a social or organizational hierarchy, however, skilled leaders can facilitate actions by others through the practice of influence. 

Influence

When you affect change in the actions, behaviors or options of others it is most likely through the exertion of influence.  You are able to motivate others to produce a result because they want to, not because they have to. 

Activities that arise through an act of influence will probably be of a higher quality.  This is because responsibility for the effort is not mandated but rather based on personal motivation.  

Intuitively, things other people want to do are more likely to succeed than things they have little choice about. 

Don’t Go it alone

As a leader, you are more likely to succeed both your and other expectations, that is meet your accountabilities and more, through effectively motivating and supporting those around you.  

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

The profit motive

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The world economy is based on the production, distribution and consumption of goods or services.  While the activity is circular, does it have a beginning?

Does demand (consumption) drive production or does production create demand?  The answer is most likely both, there is a balance where demand can influence production and production can influence demand. 

Incenting Production

While opportunity, desire and demand will influence producers the most powerful driver is the profit motive.  This is not exclusive and there is a robust non-profit sector for some products and services; however profit does underly the majority of economic activity.

This is a basic principle of capitalism.  Simplistically in a communist systems production of goods and services is for the common good, not personal enrichment.  

My own observation is self interest is a stronger driver than philanthropic interests.  Care of others is typically second to care of self (not as an absolute with exceptions but most common.)

It is this principle that makes an economy founded on profit motive stronger than one founded on altruism.  As I have noted in previous posts, it’s all about me is not an uncommon perspective.

Motivational Awareness

When engaged in economic activity, whether you are a producer or consumer of a good or service understanding the underlying drivers to your behavior can help you achieve the best results.  

A few of the questions you can consider:

  • Are you acting in your best interest, that of others or a combination?
  • Is the presence of demand (or absence) the driver of your action?
  • Is it your intent to create demand in order to satisfy your profit motive?