– Stephen Covey said “A leader is someone who sees “more potential in others than they see in themselves.” I want you to pause for a moment and make that real. As you look at the people around you, one of the things that’s on your mind is this, “Who is each person, truly, at their best? “What are they most capable of at their most “motivated, creative, contributing, thriving selves? “What are their strengths, and how can they “use them even more effectively?” Give it a try, look at people and see, not only what is, but what could be. Look at people with a strong motive to find their potential.
That’s how the people who are most invested in our success see us. It’s a great lens through which to look. It’s an executive leadership lens. Executive leaders need to unleash the full potential of the people around them, for their current performance, and their future growth.You want to be the strongest advocate for your people’s best selves, because if you don’t believe in them, it’s harder for them to believe in themselves and try to give their best effort.They need to hear it from you, say, “I believe in you, “I know that you’re capable of great things on this project, “I’m counting on you to take charge “of this effort and move it forward.”Everyone has discretionary effort.
They can choose to perform at a level that’s good enough, or they can choose to give their very best for the task at hand and for their future development. You need to look around and realize that everyone, every day, has that choice. Are you doing what you can to help them make the choice to excel? If they don’t always do it, that’s normal, that’s human nature, it’s also a leadership opportunity. Encouraging excellence is one of the things we want and need from our leaders to help us make the choice even when, especially when, we might shrink from it.
Here’s an example, a finance executive at a global media organization told me how he was sitting in for his manager, a senior vice president, at a forecasting meeting. A very large, unexpected expenditure came up, the kind of thing that’s controversial and frought with implications about how to handle it. Because it was so significant, he phoned his manager who was taking the day off with her family. He said, “I want to let you know about an important issue.” Before he could explain, she said, “Adam, I trust you, “that’s why you’re there and I’m here.
“Use your best judgment and I’ll back you 100%. “I look forward to hearing about it tomorrow,“when I see you in the office.” Adam told me, “That’s when it really hit me, “she didn’t just talk about trusting, empowering, “and encouraging excellence from everyone, “she meant it, she lived it. “Over time, I had lots of people ask me when “I was leaving my position because everyone “wanted to work for her.” Notice, this is more than just empowerment. She not only gave him room to make the decision, she committed to support his decision and to follow up with him afterward, to debrief his thought process and coach him how to handle more of those pressure-cooker situations.
That’s encouraging individual excellence. Because she made it a habit, there was a long line of high-talent people who wanted to work for her. Encourage individual excellence, and you earn loyalty and commitment. Here’s how to do it. One, ask people, “What are the conditions under which “you perform your absolute best?” “How can you create those conditions even more often?” And “What really drives you? “How can you tap into that more often?” Help them discover this about themselves, and take charge of their situations even more, and support those conditions and drives when you can.
Two, identify the person’s strengths, let them know you see them, and help them put those strengths into action even more and continue to grow them. That’s what Adam’s boss did, she saw more in him than he saw in himself. She backed it up, and backed him up. Three, give lots of positive reinforcement for their attempts to excel, to reach for more, and move out of the comfort zone. Whether they succeed or fall short, follow up with them to lock in their learning,and turn insights into habits.
Ask, “What are your key takeaways from that meeting? “How will you apply those learnings“over the next two weeks?” Be specific. Four, encourage them to set their own ambitious goals for both their performance and their development. Encourage them to take their own accountability plans, with feedback partners, and perhaps check-ins with you too. So, it all starts with you seeing the potential others might miss in themselves. Then keep going. Help them see it, act on it, and achieve it. Show confidence in them before they go for it.
Be proud of them afterward. Help them gain insight from each attempt. Then build the personal habits to keep doing it. Make encouraging their personal excellence a priority in your personal excellence as an executive leader.
Create collaboration opportunities
– On January 15th, 2009 US Airways flight 1549 took off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport. As it started to climb suddenly both engines were disabled. Pilot Chesley Sullenburger turned the plane told the passengers, “Brace for impact,” and executed a flawless emergency landing in the Hudson River. Sullenburger checked the passenger cabin twice to ensure everyone was evacuated before being the last to leave the aircraft. Despite the crash landing and freezing temperatures incredibly all 155 passengers and crew survived.
Sullenburger was widely and rightly praised but his interpretation was different from how he was portrayed in the media, as a solo heroic figure. He said those 208 seconds, from takeoff to crash, were the defining moment of his 42 year career. It tested everything he learned and he never saw it coming. The key to success, collaboration. When people focused on him, he emphasized how he and his copilot were together.
We were a team. In interviews he consistently praised the cabin crew whose collaboration, he emphasized, as essential to everyone surviving the crash. When he got an invitation from U.S. President elect Obama to meet for dinner he insisted that the whole crew be invited too, and they were. For leaders like Sullenburger, collaboration isn’t a technique, it’s a truth. It’s a deeply held belief about what’s crucial for leadership success. The best executive leaders obsess about how to get people to work together effectively at all levels of the organization.
I’ve been in countless organizational talent reviews, succession plans, and promotions discussions. Thinking and contributing beyond one’s role is what senior leaders are looking forin future senior leaders. How can you create more collaboration? Here’s what to do. One, reach out to people beyond your direct tasks ask about their priorities, offer to help, and then follow through. You’ll stand out in a positive way and set an example showing others how to do it, by doing it. Two, take initiative to reach out to your key peers routinely and ask for feedback and suggestions about how you collaborate.
Say, “It’s important to me that we work well together.” “What’s going well, and what else do you need from me?” Three, offer to work on cross-functional initiatives. Four, communicate the importance of collaboration consistently and highlight great examples of people doing it. Five, structure collaborative objectives and incentives and reward it. For example, as part of performance evaluations, promotions, project opportunities, compensation, and recognition.One CEO I coached administers employee engagement surveys each year, to everyone in the firm, asking for thorough anonymous input on what’s going well and what isn’t.
He publishes the results for everyone to see. Then he puts a cross-functional collaborative team together and empowers them to choose the most important improvement priorities. After that, cross-functional teams are formed to work collaboratively on those priorities. Then report the results to the whole organization and it’s measured in the next survey. Notice the multi-layered, structured, constant commitment to collaboration. Six, also look for ad-hoc opportunities to encourage people to work together across boundaries in the organization.
Here’s an example, a CEO I coached had recently taken charge of a services firm. In a media interview he was asked an unusual question. What popular song best characterizes your firm?Now, despite being entirely out of touch on current popular music. He didn’t deflect the question but saw it as a collaboration opportunity. He started a contest in his firm with a reward for the team that came up with the best song and reasons for choosing it. Entries were visible to the whole organization. More evidence of collaboration.
Then he put together a panel of judges, a collaborative group representing different parts of the organization. Then he over delivered on the award for multiple teams and recognized them at an annual event where their songs were played and they spoke about their entries. Now remember all of this arose from a random question he could have easily avoided answering but he saw the opportunity to send multiple messages in an upbeat, energizing way. That we all win by working together. It was true for him, it was true for Captain Sullenburger, and as an executive leader it’s true for you too.
You win, your teams win, and your organization wins, when you collaborate well and help others do it too.
Develop others and build a talent pipeline
– Every business is the people business. Larry Bossidy, former CEO of Honeywell and Allied Signals said, “Nothing we do is more “important than hiring and developing people. “At the end of the day you bet on people, not strategies.” CEOs and thought leaders know this, and it’s backed by research. A recent global leadership forecast compiling the assessments of leading research groups and universities from around the world determined that two of the top five critical success skills are, one, identifying and developing talent, and two, coaching and developing others. Studies also consistently find that the most talented people tend to gravitate to where they can grow the most.
They have the power to choose because organizations are fighting to get them. The best people go where they can grow. The war for talent is real, and over time the organizations who get the best people will develop and implement the best strategies and win in the marketplace.To sustain success over time executive leaders need to take a disciplined strategic approach to attracting, developing, and retaining talented people. Here’s what you should do. First, develop your people. Over the past 30 years Gallup surveys of more than 100,000 employees in 2,500 diverse businesses have revealed that one’s immediate manager has far more impact than anything else on their performance and engagement level.
Give them feedback on areas of strength and improvement and encourage them to take charge of inviting regular feedback from their other stakeholders. Help them set priorities to grow their skills and abilities in ways that are motivating to them, align with their career goals, and are good for the organization. Shape their roles or add assignments that challenge them to expand their perspective, business acumen, and skills. Give them something that requires more innovation, or is larger in implementation scale or budget, or covers wider geographic locations, or has more deadline pressure, or more people, or more complexity, and so forth.
Help them find education and training opportunities aligned with their growth goals.Encourage and support them to build developmental relationships. Give them exposure to senior leaders in action and as advice givers. This is a very strong motivator for high-talent individuals. A leading technology firm I know gives their high-potential people two full weeks of shadowing senior leaders in everything they do. A priceless experience that provides uniquelyvaluable learning and increases loyalty to the firm. Second, apply this across the whole organization.
Research shows the most successful organizations over time implement a systematic approachto first, assess the performance and potential of their managers and leaders, second, identify areas of growth and development, and third, provide opportunities and support growth and development in those areas. To attract and keep the best people it’s crucial this flows to every management level. Cascade this throughout the entire firm, and evaluate and reward managers for how well they develop their people.
As Stanford’s Bob Sutton points out based on his extensive research, “Good bosses create“employee satisfaction that leads to retention, “performance, productivity, and profitability.“How you treat your direct reports creates “a ripple effect that travels down and across “your company’s hierarchy, ultimately shaping “its culture and performance.” Always keep leading by example to influence others to follow your lead. I remember talking with the CEO of one of the largest most successful biomedical companies in the world who spoke about how once he moved across the country to live out of a hotel near where a highly talented scientist worked in order to make it easier for the scientist to meet with him.
The CEO wanted to signal strongly that high talent was a priority for the firm. It worked. The scientist joined, and it sent the message that all managers in the firm should be passionateabout attracting great people and developing them. It’s a virtuous cycle if you do it, but a vicious cycle if you don’t. Build a reputation as someone who helps people grow greatly and great people will gravitate to you. Don’t let them get away, motivate them to stay.
Communicate to motivate
– A recent study in Harvard Business Review concluded to thrive as a C-level executive an individual needs to be a great communicator, a collaborator, and a strategic thinker. We covered collaborating and strategic thinking. When it comes to executive leadership communication, here’s a principle I want you to prioritize. Communicate to motivate. One of the things new CEOs report being most surprised about in their role is how everything they say counts. People around them are prone to take offhand comments as directions. This happens as you rise through the ranks.
The more responsibility you have, the more consequences come from everything you say.When you speak as an executive, take a cue from a famous part of the Hippocratic oath that physicians take. First, do no harm. Be thoughtful and intentional about what you say. Don’t let words fly out of your mouth that will do damage to your team, your organization, or your reputation. Don’t communicate to demotivate. A few years ago, I ran a session for an aerospace leader who wanted his team to generate innovate ideas for reaching their challenging goals.
After the team worked energetically all day, he came in to hear their proposals. Before they even finished the first one, he said, ah, that’ll never work. In two seconds, he decimated their morale. There was a study of the Fortune 500 CEOs that determined a sizable majority were introverts instead of extroverts. This surprised many people, because being a CEO calls for so much communication, in so many situations, in front of so many audiences, you’d think most would be extroverts, but no. A key factor, extroverts often speak before they’ve fully formulated their thoughts and are more prone to saying something that turns out to be wrong or inappropriate.
They can be seen as high risk communicators for high level positions. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t speak with passion. For introvert executives, that can sometimes be a challenge.You can be energizing. Just know what you’re saying and why you’re saying it. Ensure your words and motives have integrity. Speak thoughtfully and with positive purpose. Mayor Billy Kenoi of Hawaii Island put it well in a wonderful commencement speech. He said, my father used to tell me don’t just think before you talk, think and feel before you talk.
That way, everything you say comes from your heart. Whether people agree or disagree with what you say, at least you’re being honest. So, it’s both, think and feel, head and heart. You don’t have to say everything on your mind. Chose what will best serve the people you want to lead. Choose what best helps their performance, growth, and morale. This leads to another key point. Add inspiration to information. As an executive leader, you’re not just dispensing data,passing instructions along, and doling out information.
Given your role, you’re constantly seen as the spokesperson for why questions. Why should we care? Why should we try harder? Why should we believe we can succeed? Think of the best answers to the why questions that are most likely to be on the people’s minds for your meeting, conversation, or presentation. That’s the path to feeling, engagement, motivation. That’s why I say, don’t just inform but also communicate to motivate. Speak to their motives.
That’s where their passion is, their concerns, their fears, their hopes. That’s where people get aligned and engaged and do great things, from strong motives. Gilbert Amelio, president and CEO of National Semiconductor Corporation put it this way. The leader must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to others. If a leader can’t get a message across clearly and motivate others to act on it, then having a message doesn’t even matter. Make your message matter.
Communicate to replicate
If people can’t remember and repeat what you say, it’s as if you never said it, so keep it simple.As an executive, many people with different experiences, perspectives, and goals will hear what you say directly or indirectly. You need your communication to travel accurately when retold from person to person, across boundaries and levels in the organization. Legendary General Electric CEO Jack Welch, knowing how important this is from decades of experience said, “Managers create complexity; “leaders create simplicity.” A key limiting factor for rising leaders, is speaking too much in the language of their functional specialty.
Engineering, finance, technical language, even business jargon. Insecure managers try to sound smart. Welch went on to say, “They muddle things “with pointless complexity and detail. “They inspire no one.” But simple isn’t easy. The famous French mathematician Blaise Pascal once wrote to a friend, “I’m sorry for the long letter “I didn’t have time to write a short one.” Simple isn’t just being concise. It’s saying what matters most, memorably, briefly.
That’s crucial if you want your communication to scale. One, for people with different perspectives to understand it similarly. And two, for people who hear you directly, to rememberand repeat it accurately to others who don’t. There’s a boundary imposed by how our brains work. Large numbers of people can’t accurately remember and repeat large amounts of information. “Excess fails; simple scales.” Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was asked why everyone at Starbucks smiled.
And he said, “We only hire people that smile.” It’s almost impossible to forget that answer. So here’s a guideline, what’s the number one thing you want them to remember and repeat? The one thing you need them to recall even if they forget everything else? Make it impossible for them not to get it. Akio Morita, co-chairman of Sony in the late 1970’s, challenged engineers to create a portable tape player so he could listen to his beloved opera music when he travelled.
He use a small block of wood to show them the target size. Simple, specific, concrete, memorable, repeatable. It led to the groundbreaking, enormously popular, and influential Sony Walkman. Similarly, Steve Jobs challenged his engineers to create a smartphone without a keyboard. And he kept repeating like a mantra, “Buttons are tyranny!” They couldn’t forget nor keep from repeating that vivid, memorable, energizing way to make his point that a touch-based user interface allowed incredible flexibility for programmers, versus programmers being tied down to physical buttons.
Here’s another point, check on key takeaways. At the end of discussions and meetings, ask people what they thought were the main points. Let them say it in their words. That’s how you know what they actually heard and remember. They can’t repeat what they didn’t hear accurately, or what they don’t remember. Discuss and redirect if you need to do so. Relatedly, a helpful practice I’ve seen executives use when wrapping up lengthy meetings such as off-site planning meetings is to leave time at the very end to pose this question, “When you get back“to your team, what are you going to say “are the key takeaways from this offsite?” Then they discuss until everyone is aligned and can repeat the same message across levels in the organization.
That technique draws on the broader theme. Executive leaders need to consider how theirmessage will be passed along by people with diverse perspectives over stretches of time to other people who weren’t there. You need to communicate to replicate. Simple isn’t easy but it is essential. Remember, “Excess fails, simple scales.”
Drive for Results
Establish priorities and focus
– When Steve Jobs returned as CEO of Apple and paved the way for its era of revolutionary success, he’d conduct annual retreats with key leaders and on the last day he would ask, “What are the 10 things we should be doing next?” After lengthy, vigorous debate, he would capturethe group’s list of 10 things on a whiteboard. Then, he would cross off the bottom seven and say, “We can only do three.” Jobs is not alone in this thinking. It’s why Jim Collins, one of the most influential leadership thinkers of his era said, “If you have more than three priorities, “then you don’t have any.” Executive leaders must establish priorities and focus effort.
Here’s how to do it. First, be a persistent prioritizer. There are a thousand and more ways every day that you and your people, despite great intentions, can waste time and lose ground. We’re constantly tempted to turn our attention away from where it matters most by things that seem urgent but aren’t, and that give us a temporary surge of satisfaction for at least doing something. But, activity alone isn’t progress and moving forward on what matters less is time and effort lost. Real progress is priority-based progress.
Separate the seemingly urgent from the truly important by prioritizing. Clarify what matters most in this meeting, project, or discussion. Then, act accordingly. Second, be a top three leader. The top three priorities should be clear and explicit at every level in the organization.Get aligned with your manager about what your top three priorities are. And, for each of your direct reports, insist they set top three priorities for their team, for each team member, and for themselves.
Ask your people what their top three priorities are and how they’re doing on them. Ask what their team’s top three priorities are and how the team is doing on each of them. If your people are unclear, coach them toward understanding the difference between urgent and important,between short-term distractions and strategic priorities. Now, is three a magic number? No, it’s better than that. It’s a practical number that drives focus. If you have a top three, you can be more decisive, energizing, set clearer direction, empower more effectively, and so can your people.
For example, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, looking back at a critical phase of his company’s success said, “I attribute most of our growth over the past few years “to the fact that we invested time, money and resources “in three key areas; “customer service, company culture “and employee training and development.” Some people might object that there are more than three things to do, and that’s true. But the question remains, which are your most important? Which are your top three? In the real world, you can’t do everything, but you can focus on the most important things.
All this implies something that’s difficult for many of us, but a crucial executive duty. Learn to say “no.” Near the end of his life, Steve Jobs said, “Deciding what not to do is as “important to deciding what to do.” That’s true for companies, and it’s true for products. He continued, “It’s only by saying no that you can “concentrate on the things that are really important.” Just like Jobs, executive leaders need a mindset shift from doing things right to doing the right things.Be clear, be strong.
Focus your people on what to do and what not to do. Be a persistent prioritizer, and a top three leader. Consistently ask yourself and challenge others, “What are your top three priorities, in order?”
Ensure invigorating accountability
– After you establish priorities and set appropriate goals to advance priorities at every level in the organization, the next step is follow through. Accountability, to often accountability is usedas a crude control technique. A blunt instrument that implies, “You better do this or else.”Wrong, accountability is about progress on your shared purpose. It should be invigorating, satisfying, and a source of pride. Here’s how to ensure accountability that gets the results you really want. First, focus on achieving results, not controlling people. I was asked to work with an organization whose CFO had his assistant walk around the building in the morning and take attendance on his direct reports, senior executives.
One day the CFO sent them an email, “I’m not a clock watcher but several people aren’t here.”They weren’t in their offices because they were all in a conference room, already working together on important issues. The assistant hadn’t checked the conference room. That fast the CFO sunk his credibility and lost trust with his entire team. Follow through discussions and check ins shouldn’t be about keeping people in line but rather the great results people are reaching for. Remind them how enthused you are about the great results they’re going for and why they’re so meaningful and ask them how it’s going.
Set milestones on projects for check in meetings and have regular one-on-one meetings with your direct reports. Biweekly is typical for senior leaders and turn those meetings into partnering dialogues instead of command and control evaluations. How’s it going? What road blocks are you running into? How can I help? Let’s discuss how to deal with the challenges that you face. If results fall short, you’ll handle those discussions with fairness, dignity, and respect.But don’t gear the entire accountability system toward worse case scenarios.
Second, use three types of team meetings. As an executive, in addition to your regular one-on-ones with your direct reports to discuss their progress on performance and development goalsyou should use three types of performance accountability meetings with your team. Tactical meetings, typically weekly or biweekly to deal with current operational issues. Strategic meetings, typically every four to six weeks to address matters that concern progress on strategic priorities. Long-term planning meetings, typically every four to six months often held away from the office to separate people mentally and physically from being distracted by day-to-day matters.
These meetings are to provide a fuller assessment of industry trends, relevant developments in the competitive landscape, technology changes, government policies, and so forth. At the end of each meeting, all three types of meetings, ensure you devote time to clarify action items.Who does what, and by when. Set the expectation that in the next meeting people will report on their action item progress. This way disciplined accountability is seamlessly ongoing, for everyone at every level. Tactical, strategic, and long-term planning.
Third, always connect accountability to shared purpose. Accountability needs to be invigorating,energizing, motivating. How do you do that? The way you always do it as an executive leader.By connecting it to purpose and vision. Those always reliable sources of energy. The more you connect peoples efforts to shared purpose and compelling vision the more energy they have.You can do this in your planned meetings and also in ad hoc situations. For example, when Scott Cook CEO of financial and tax preparation firm, Intuit gave out his firms first bonus checkshe added some inspiration to the appreciation for work well done.
He said, “I told everybody look at those checks, “they came from Intuit but the money comes from the customer “and we only win if we delight customers so much “they’re willing to part with their money “and tell 10 friends.” I love that last touch, “and tell 10 friends.” He reframed the management occasion of giving a well deserved reward as a leadership opportunity to connect with their purpose of empowering other businesses. And that leads right into an ad hoc opportunity for still more healthy accountability.
Influence without authority
– Getting great results can kill your career. Really? It’s not only true, it’s more common than you might think. Driving for results often gets people noticed and promoted, up to a point. Then, how they drive for results suddenly becomes a make or break factor, and by then, it’s already too late. What worked for you before, can work against you after. Peter Drucker, a towering figure in the history of management studies and executive effectiveness said this, the executive who keeps on doing what he’s done successfully before is almost bound to fail. At talent reviews in organizations I often hear executives eliminate promotion candidates, saying, he gets things done, but he’s damaged relationships, or people often give in to her, but they don’t follow her.
And as one person told me in a confidential feedback interview about an executive I was asked to coach, who routinely pulled rank on others, I don’t care if he fails. If someone treats you badly, you don’t want to help them succeed. To get things done like the best executives do,don’t rely on the power and status of your position or mere rules and regulations. Even if you have authority, influence without authority. Here’s how to do it. One, use a forward thinking influence plan that helps you get the best results without damaging relationships.
Here’s a four-step approach I use when coaching leaders. Clarify your desired outcomes. What specifically do you want? Approval of a project or support, input, advice, resources? Whatever it is, be specific. Identify the influencers. These are the decision makers for what you want and the key people they listen to. Learn what influences the influencers. What are their goals and plans?What are their concerns and fears? What are their driving motives? What do they value? Choose the best methods to influence the influencers.
Tailor your approach with each stakeholder based on what you learn about his or her specific priorities, preferences, and the way they tend to deal with people. Help them see how your proposed steps align with their motives and values and help them move toward priorities they want and away from problems they don’t. See my course on influencing others here on Lynda.com for a much more detailed, step-by-step explanation about how to influence people without resorting to rules, regulations, or rank.
Finally, in everything you do with everyone, keep this principle in mind, influence by investing in relationships. Get things done in ways that improve your relationships and reputation, not at the expense of your relationships and reputation. In every influence attempt, strive to make the relationship better because of how you conducted yourself and were thoughtful of the other’s point of view. It’ often challenging, especially with people who behave negatively, but remember this, damaged relationships damage careers. Abraham Lincoln was asked why he continued to speak kindly about his enemies, instead of destroying them.
He said, do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends? When you influence others, don’t make mistakes now that can haunt you later. Use a forward thinking influence plan. The more responsibility you have, the more dependent you are on the self-motivated efforts of others. As an executive, the job is too big to succeed through your own personal effort, no matter how strong your willpower. So, don’t influence with authority. Influence by investing in people.
Cultivate creative thinking and innovation
– Jack O’Neill, founder of the innovative surf equipment company that bears his name, was injured and lost an eye while testing one of the first leashes that connects surfers to their surfboards. Setting a remarkable leadership standard for commitment to innovation, he incorporated his signature eye patch into the company logo which became world famous as the company grew. In your own way you need to be demonstrably committed like O’Neill. To do it well, here are some steps to use drawing on decades of research about what creates the most fertile ground for creative work in organizations.
The first comes from Nobel Prize winning physicist, Arthur Schawlow. When asked what distinguished the most creative scientists he said they are impelled by curiosity. This definitely applies for leaders. Now you don’t need to generate the ideas, but you do need to set the example of being impelled by curiosity. You have to have it and show it. A global executive search firm study found that curiosity was one of the strongest traits associated with leadership success and successful executives were measured as having more than twice as much as other managers.
Discuss creativity best practices and examples of innovation inside and outside your organization, and encourage others to do it too. Here’s an example I love, maybe you can use it too. Doug Dietz worked for General Electric and developed large medical imaging devices. His MRI machines save lives, but he learned that although it worked well for adults, 80% of childrenhad to be sedated to be scanned because they were scared of how ugly and sterile those huge machines looked and how loud and awful they sounded. If you can’t change technology in the near-term, what can you do? Dietz got creative.
For kids, he reframed the whole experience. He made a pirate ship adventure, painting the machine and the entire room like an amusement park ride, wow! The operators prepped the kids, there’s lots of noise on the ship and you have to be very still so the pirates won’t find you.Need for sedation dropped from 80% to 10%. Kids started asking their parents when they could go back. For individuals, find ways to add creative elements to their roles. Hiring managers, for example, can pose questions in job interviews to gather new ideas and fresh perspectives from people who don’t yet work in the organization.
Reward success and failure. It’s the nature of creativity and innovation that you can’t guarantee which attempts will work. But you can predict that punishing failure will stifle future attempts.Mistakes can be a fertile ground for innovation. Years ago, a Walmart manager accidently ordered far too many large chocolate marshmallow snacks called Moon Pies. He turned the mistake into a fun local event: A moon pie eating contest. The contest became a big annual celebration aired widely on television.
Make room for some rebellion. Hewlett Packard founder, David Packard, speaks fondly of an engineer who defied his direction to stop working on a project and instead took vacation timeto demonstrate a prototype. It became a huge success and Packard publicly gave him a humorous but meaningful medal for “extraordinary contempt and defiance “beyond the normal call of engineering duty.” For teams, ensure teams are trained on healthy creative processes such as brainstorming and having people building on each other’s ideas instead of just defending their own.
Lead large-scale change and shape culture
– Studies show that only ten percent of people who had heart bypass surgery make the advised changes to their lifestyles and eating habits. This is after life and death surgery. Change is hard.Leading change is very hard. And executive leaders need to drive the most significant changes of all. Such as changes to the strategy or shaping the culture. Here’s how to do it. One. Explain why change is necessary. Why do we have to change now. Woodrow Wilson said, “If you want to “make enemies, try to change something”. Change steers straight into your people’s natural fear and resistance.
So your case for the consequences for not changing, and for the opportunities for changing,must be overwhelmingly strong. In the hearts and minds of your people, change must be a must, or it won’t happen. Two. Communicate a motivating change vision. What will be different and better because we changed? Amir Rubin, president and CEO of world renowned Stanford Hospital and Clinics, detailed for me in my research how they don’t rest on their reputation, but have great ambitions for improvement.
Shaping the culture starts with their mission. Heal humanity through science and compassion one patient at a time. The vision he sees is exceptional care every day for every patient. Rubin explains that, when you really commit to the goal of every patient every day, everything matters. Each person, each job, every part of the facility, from the operating rooms to the parking lots. Everything and everybody. He points out, “Every action we take “to get from Monday to Tuesday, then Tuesday “to Wednesday, and so on, define the culture”.
Three. Formulate the change plan. How will we get from here to there? Identify key stakeholders and gain their support. Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh in his change plan to solidify what became their unique world famous culture, enrolled the entire organization as stakeholders, twice. You’ll see why in a moment. Identify roadblocks and prioritize action steps.To avoid the common roadblock of resistance from people not involved in creating the change,Hsieh, with whom I also spoke with as part of my research, invited input from everyone in the company, which led to an initial list of 37 potential company core values.
Which he sent out to everyone again for comment and then it was narrowed down to ten. As another action step, he compiled their inputs and contributions in their own words, withoutcorporate editing, into a 450 page book anyone can read. Empower a core team of committedchange agents to take charge of the implementation. In Hsieh’s case, establishing the valueswas only part of the change process. Now they needed to implement those values in distinctive ways. In one of many examples, Zappos offers thousands of dollars for new hires to leave the company during their initial training.
Cash, with no questions asked. It shows whether they’ve hired the right people that fit their culture. And it’s working. Fewer than one percent take the money. This leads to the fourth step.Implement and learn. Track progress and adjust as needed. Evidence of progress at Zappos, in one year 25,000 people applied for jobs and they hired only 250. Statistically, it’s harder to get a job at Zappos, than it is to get admitted to Harvard. Here’s another example.
Develop Yourself
Increase self-awareness
– My friend Joy Chen, former deputy mayor of Los Angeles, got unexpected insight from a mentor near the end of her MBA program. She had been preparing for a career in real estate investment, but her mentor said, she was a B plus at that skill, surrounded by others who were As. Deep down, she knew it was true. She did fine, though she worked very hard at subjects that came much more easily to others in the program. But, she hadn’t confronted that career implication so bluntly. Was all that time, money, and effort for nothing? Was her entire career a waste? He said, “No, it’s good news for you to hear this now.
“Real estate is a B plus strength for you. “You need to use your A strengths and I know your best one. “You can connect genuinely with anyone. “A CEO, a homeless person, people from different “countries and political parties, anyone. “Joy, you’re connector. “You really want to learn about people “and you do it better than anyone I know”. It was a revelation for her. Joy really did love learning about people and connecting with them, and seeing the new value that results for everyone when she does. And she did it all the time.
She just didn’t realize how important it was for her. What happened for Joy was a defining moment. And we all have them. It’s one of several important ways that the best executives increase self awareness to increase their potential as leaders and unleash the potential in others. Defining moments are times in your life in which you gain special insight into your authentic identity as a leader. Or, you might call it your purpose, your core values, or your mission. It’s when you get a glimpse into the true you. Down to the core.
What can’t be negotiated away, or made untrue, or undone, because it’s so central to who you are. Defining moments come in different forms. It might be words from a friend or a struggle you endured. Failure that you recovered from. A triumphant achievement. A turning point when suddenly you see things differently. Like it was for joy. As an adult, you’ve had definingmoments already and you’ll have more. I encourage you to reflect on your top three defining moments to this point in your life. When did they happen? Who was involved? What did you learn about yourself? And most importantly, what does it mean for the future you most want to have as a person and a leader? Defining moments often give you insight into your key leadership strengths.
And that’s the second self awareness factor to focus on. What are your top skills, abilities, or characteristics? Reflect on them, and also get insights from different people who see you in action. We often miss some strengths because they feel natural and normal. Like Joy, who shifted careers and formed a highly successful international business. Distinguish your A strengths from your B plus strengths and grow your As. You should also clarify your weaknesses. I define a weakness as something that, even if you invest a lot of time and energy to improve, you won’t improve much.
Everyone has them. Study the greatest leaders throughout history in all walks of life and you’ll find tremendous strengths and glaring weaknesses. But, they know their weaknesses and they build relationships with people that have those qualities as strengths. They’d partner with them, have them as trusted advisers, and delegate to them. Invest in your strengths. And relationship build your weaknesses. You should also reflect on the types of situations that trigger you to reflexively respond with fight, flight, or freeze.
Build resilience and resourcefulness
– My friend, Gary Palmer, is known as the father of the prepaid card, credit cards with preset amounts loaded on them to make specific types of purchases. For example, a $30 gift card for Starbucks. Gary had the original idea long before these cards became wide-spread, but he was young and inexperienced. So he asked a retired executive to be CEO and help him raise money for the venture. After hearing Gary’s proposal, he said, you have a bad business structure, you have no experience, I certainly don’t want to work anymore and I wouldn’t give you a dime of my money.
What now? Executive leaders need to be resilient and resourceful, and Gary’s reaction illustrates the first of several methods to build those qualities. He met resistance with creative persistence.After being told no in every way imaginable, he immediately replied, I understand, but could I ask you to meet with me for a few short minutes and share some advice? Fast forward a few months, this individual, now Gary’s CEO, was with him in Silicon Valley raising money and the rest is history.
Creative persistence doesn’t always work, and that leads to the second point. Bounce back from setbacks. Winston Churchill said, “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” And even more bluntly, if you’re going through Hell, keep going. Psychology research shows that people who interpret setbacks as permanent, pervasive, and personal tend to have much more difficulty than those who do the opposite, seeing failure as temporary, specific and external.
Let’s illustrate this with how Gary Palmer might have applied each step. It’s not permanent, it’s temporary. The retired executive’s no is just one person’s response today. I can ask other potential CEO’s and investors going forward. It’s not pervasive, it’s specific. The persuasive case I made today didn’t work, but I can use this instance to make the case even stronger next time.It’s not personal, it’s external. His no isn’t a judgment of me as a flawed person, the proposal just didn’t fit his preferences at this point.
If I keep going I will find a match. Someone will either find this opportunity attractive or I can even come up with another business idea. When you run into resistance and setbacks, go through those three steps and look for ways to make sense of it as temporary not permanent,specific not pervasive, and external not personal. You’ll bounce back faster and inspire more confidence in others. You’ll also want to integrate your wellness. The pressures and demands of executive leadership can be draining and consuming.
So find ways to fortify the four key elements of your well-being. Mental wellness. I coached a CEO who was named a finalist for Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. As he stepped into his role, his predecessor said, here’s my number one piece of advice, set aside two hours twice a week just to think and read. He said it might be the best advice he ever received because there is always too much to do unless he proactively protected that time to think and refresh his mind, it would never happen. Another CEO of a Fortune 500 firm I know frames it like this: Every week he blocks four hours to think 10 years ahead.
Keep learning
– According to research by Korn Ferry, a leading global executive search and consulting firm,with hundreds of thousands of executives accessed, and thousands of CEOs placed the number one predictor of executive success, number one is learning agility. Which they summarize as,the ability to know what to do when you can’t know what to do. Successful executives need to learn at an extra level of challenge and velocity. I call it the executive learning cycle. It’s one, the drive to challenge one’s self in the face of uncertainty, ambiguity, and anxiety.
Two, to learn quickly from those experiences, and then three, promptly apply the learning to new challenges. Here’s how to do it. One, learn from experience, challenging experiences. Take on initiatives that stretch you. Test your limits, broaden your knowledge, and expand your perspective. Look for opportunities outside your current work role too, such as advisory boards or community service projects. It’s why senior executives routinely serve on boards of directors of other firms.
Two, learn from anyone. Innovators really get this, and you should too. The artist Jack Nichols said, “Every person I work with knows something better than me. “My job is to listen long enough to find it and use it.” When you cross paths with people don’t leave without learning something, maybe even about yourself. I coached a company general council, we’ll call Ben,who had a defining moment earlier in his career when he worked at a law firm. He was trying to make partner, and to show his work ethic he was always last to leave the office.
One night a janitor said, “Can I talk to you?” Ben said, “Sure.” The janitor said, “You’ve got to change your priorities. “You’re here late every night.” He pointed to a picture on his desk of Ben’s son and asked, “How often do you see your kid?” Ben shook his head said, “Not enough,” and changed jobs. It was priceless advice that rescued him as a parent, a spouse and a leader.Three, learn at multiple levels. John F. Kennedy said, “Leadership and learning “are indispensable to each other.” A good way to ensure you’re learning what you need for the next level of responsibility is to keep learning beyond your current role.
You can learn about your business unit or function, your organization, your customers or clients, your industry, the competitive landscape, trends and technology, the economy, social changes, international affairs, government policies, and leadership skills best practices and other leader’s successes. Finally, do yourself a favor and learn from other leader’s failures too.As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Learn from other people’s mistakes, “you can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” Four, set learning priorities and implement learning plans.
Try this question, for you to succeed as a leader, what’s the most important thing for you to learn next? The most important thing. Establish a focused number one learning priority, and create a plan. You can do it on a six month or 12 month cycle, whichever is best for you. Here’s an example, years ago I spoke with Kevin Sharer while he was still CEO of Amgen, the giant pharmaceutical firm. He said, “I’ve got to listen better. “I’ve got to give people more space.” He had a plan, in fact he started it on the day it was announced he would become CEO.
Keep connecting
– Back when Jeff Bezos started Amazon.com as an online bookstore, people were notcomfortable buying on the internet. Today’s security measures weren’t in place, and people weren’t used to giving away their credit card numbers without going to a physical store or seeing someone in person they could confront if there was an issue. It was new. It was scary.Under those conditions, and not only that, but without any press or any advertising, here’s a question. Out of the 50 states in the USA, how many would you guess Amazon.com sold books in during its first 30 days in business? A few, a dozen? That’s the most people typically guesswhen I ask this question in seminars.
The answer, all 50 states and 45 countries. How? Well Bezos simply informed 300 people he knew about the business and asked them to spread the word. Because of the strength of those relationships he cultivated long before he needed them, it only took 300 people doing a simple favor for someone they trusted to trigger a massive multiplier effect. Now 300 is not a large number. It’s the size of a typical MBA class. If you’re a working adult, chances are you’veconnected with many thousands of people in your life already.
The key is that Bezos worked to build robust relationships proactively. He got into the habit of building a strong, diverse network earlier in his career and kept it up. He didn’t know that years later he’d be starting Amazon.com. Nobody even knew that there would be such a thing as the internet. But he did know this, in the face of a future that’s guaranteed to be uncertain, one thing that is certain is that better relationships will make that future better. The best executive leaders keep connecting and building relationships with people.
People senior to them, junior to them, and with peers. Follow their lead. In your network over time fill all three levels with strong relationships of diverse people. People with different backgrounds, perspectives, ways of thinking, and people from different countries and cultures.For each level ask yourself, how many strong, trusting relationships do I have at this level? Do I also have a broad, diverse mix of other connections and acquaintances, people likely to respond positively if I reach out to them? Use your answers to set priorities for yourself to continue building strong relationships.
Here’s some other steps to take at each level. People senior to you. Connect with people who are older or more experienced than you and gain their insights and wisdom. I strongly recommend you build a personal board of advisors of four or more mentors who will advise,coach, encourage, and stand up for you. Actively recruit them with confidence, keeping in mind that at that stage of life and career the best leaders are looking to give back to people like you.If you don’t sense chemistry, move on, keep at it, and you’ll find the right ones.
Each of the relationships is unique, so build and grow each accordingly. You don’t actually convene them as a group, but you do want to meet with each of them regularly. You want to share what’s happening for you in work and life, and ask for their thoughts. Try to see each of them at least every three months. People junior to you. My friend Gina Rudan, Hall of Fame award winner for the National Association of Women’s Business Owners has a catchy label for younger people. She calls them fat brains because studies show they have more fat content in their brains than people at later ages.
Conclusion
Next steps
– The famous orchestra conductor Benjamin Zander said when he was 45 years old, after conducting for 20 years he suddenly had a realization. The conductor of an orchestra is the one person who doesn’t make a sound. He depends for his power on the ability to make other people powerful. Zander says it was totally life-changing. He realized his job, his mission as a leader, was to awaken possibility in other people. People in his orchestra came up to him and asked, “Ben, you’re different. What happened to you?” What happened was a defining moment for him and an invitation for all executive leaders, because they’re in the same position.
They don’t make the music. They serve the people who do. The heart of executive leadership isin two words, serving others. If you’ve come this far in the program, I know that a commitment to serve is important to you. When I work with senior leaders we zero in on where their commitment to serve comes from. And their real life experience just like Zander did. It’s unique for everyone. And it’s eye-opening and energizing. And I want to encourage you to do it too.Here’s an example: One of my favorite role models I spoke to in my research is Mike Critelli, the former CEO of Postal Service giant Pitney Bowes who led them through an era of extraordinary success.
Critelli’s compass was always pointing toward “Serve Others,” even in passing conversations. At a sales conference he chatted with an employee and learned he and his wife were adopting a child. A few weeks later they received a personal letter from Critelli congratulating them on their new child along with a check for the amount of the new adoption benefit the company just started offering, thanks to that brief conversation. Due to a countless accumulation of actions like these, after he retired employees produced a video in which they expressed heartfelt appreciation for his positive influence over the years.
They published it online for everyone to see. One person after another speaks movingly about specific ways Critelli served them. Actions that multiplied over time into a reputation that attracted great people to the organization and motivated them to stay. Remember, they did this on their own initiative after he no longer had power over them. What a statement, what a legacy. It’s priceless and it’s forever. The little things matter big, they add up. When your leadership compass is pointed toward “Serve Others,” what’s the very best way I can serve my people today, this week, this month, this year? Good actions accumulate and great outcomes follow.
An unwavering resolve to serve that powers your focus on the executive leadership skills we covered in this course will help you hold steady in the near term, and stay on course for your whole career. Despite whatever changes and challenges lie ahead for you. Because changes and challenges will come, as they always do, I want you to check your progress and stay on track.Take out your calendar and put a reminder on the date three months from today to come back again and watch the course. See where you’ve made progress.
And also, as you go through the application steps in each video, notice how the tools apply to new developments in your circumstances. Take a fresh look at what areas you want to focus on,and how you can best serve the people around you. Stay with it, as Benjamin Zander put it afterhis turning point, it’s a possibility to live into. That’s what we need leaders like you to help the rest of us do. To live into possibility.
