Leadership Pub Talk

Fatal Distraction

2011-11-06T10:40:00.001+11:00

BLUF: today's post points you to a moving and powerful short article that teaches (at least) two important leadership lessons

Seek first to understand, and;
No-one is infallible

Last year, one of the best books I read was a collection of non-fiction short stories by Gene Weingarten, who also writes the "Below the Beltway" column for the Washington Post. The book is called "Fiddler in the Subway", and is fantastic - Weingarten is a superb writer. He's humorous, engaging, and chooses topics that start along a certain path and often end at a very different place to where you may have thought. Even though this post only deals with one story in the book, I thoroughly recommend reading the whole book, which you can purchase via Amazon.com here.

The most moving story in the book to me was "Fatal Distraction". You can read it at the Washington Post here (although this doesn't include Weingarten's introduction that's in the book which adds another element to his telling of the story). The article is probably the most harrowing journalistic reporting/story I have ever read. Read it with someone you love or on your own, as it's sure to shake your composure as you go through it. The book, and especially this story were a great reminder to me of one of the most important leadership lessons I have learnt - that no one is infallible.

The story is multidimensional and portrays so many emotions. In addition to reminding me of infallibility, it's also a great reminder to seek first to understand. It's easy to jump to a reaction like, "what a terrible parent!". It takes great insight, vulnerability, and empathy to first ask "what could have caused this to happen?". This is a hallmark of Weingarten's writing, not to mention of great leaders.

I'll leave it with you and let you reflect on the story - any more description that I add won't do it justice, however, I'd love to hear your reactions and any other lessons you take away from reading it.

Is a leader who tweets a twit?

2010-06-06T23:57:00.002+10:00

BLUF: Is there any reason for a leader to use Twitter to improve their effectiveness?

I need your help. I'm plugged into many social and other networking applications (LinkedIn, Facebook, blogs, etc), but I'm still yet to enter the tweet-sphere. I've looked at what Twitter does and how it works and I honestly can't see why I'd use it to be more effective as a leader.

The only reason I've been tempted to use it so far would be to try to get more followers than Justin Timberlake. I mean, you always need to be striving for some type of goal, right?

So, on this post I'm hoping to hear from you on whether you use it, why you use it, and whether it can or has improved your effectiveness as a leader. And please don't send me your response in the form of a tweet...

This time, the choice is real - revisiting focus

2010-06-01T07:03:00.017+10:00

BLUF: Knowing you have to work on just ONE priority until it's complete, what will it be? This time, I'm not asking a hypothetical question...

Every now and then I pick up one of my favorite management texts, Peter Drucker's The Effective Executive, and re-read a section - the book gets better every time I do this! This week I re-read the chapter "First Things First", and it prompted me to write a second post on focus (see Focus Grasshopper for the previous posting).

The primary message in this chapter is two fold:

Effective executives focus on one or (at most) two things at any one time and complete them before moving to the next major area of focus
Sloughing off yesterday - in order to focus the effective executive leaves behind unproductive initiatives no matter the investment in them to-date or remaining work to complete them

In the last post I asked the hypothetical question, "If you could only use one form of communication as a leader, what would it be...?". That, plus my reading of the Drucker chapter led me to ask the following question in this posting - "Knowing you have to work on just ONE priority until it's complete, what will it be?". Modifying the question slightly to reflect Drucker's wisdom you could say, "Knowing you have to work on just ONE priority until it's complete or unlikely to produce any tangible results, what will it be?".

So - what will it be for you? I can't really tell you what my ONE item of focus is at the moment, as it's related to competiveness in the industry I'm in. I expect the same will be true for many of you. Still, even if you can't say what the one item is, I'd really like to hear your thoughts on the concept of this type of laser focus.

(as a side-bar, I started this post off with "BLUF", which is short for "Bottom Line Up Front". I originally picked this term up from my favorite management podcast, Manager Tools. Hopefully "Bottom Line Up Front" speaks for itself, however, for more info take a look at BLUF (communication). I'm going to start off all my posts with this from now on. Keep me honest in case I forget!)

Your Desert Island Communication Mechanism - choose ONE!

2010-05-03T10:58:00.002+10:00

There's no doubt that communications is one of, if not the most important tools at a leader's disposal.

Today there are so many forms of communication - verbal (face-face or phone), email, instant messenger, snail mail, blogs, ... (although I'm yet to and maybe never will 'tweet' - sure to be a future posting topic here).

So now I'm going to ask you to choose just ONE. If you could only use one form of communication as a leader, what would it be, and more importantly, why??

I know this is extremely hypothetical, but I also hope to see it yield some interesting and insightful dialog.

I'll wait for a few people to respond before adding my own thoughts on this one.

Comment away!

If I win the lottery...

2010-01-18T03:14:00.012+11:00

When discussing succession planning, people often talk about who would step in for someone if they were "hit by a bus". I've always preferred to ask what would happen if someone won the lottery. A slightly brighter picture. ;)

A little while back, Phil suggested a post on "succession planning and development". Within the organization I lead we have a goal this year to formalize this process, so the timing is good to share some thoughts and get your input.

Keep it simple - especially in the beginning of the process. No need to create a detailed filtering criteria for who should/shouldn't be nominated for development. The more gates at this stage of the process the less likely it is that people will nominate anyone. Focus on executing a simple set of steps, not spending a bunch of time planning and filtering without ever talking to the people who need development
Make a quick list of people to develop. My company has a great method for doing this. Start by enumerating all the positions reporting to you and then for each one list people you can think of who are "ready now", "1-2 years", and "3-5 years" away from being able to take on those roles
Put more names in your list. Think about your network outside just the people who are currently in your direct reporting line. Look within the company, outside the company, at customers, and prior employees. Anyone you've worked with who was impressive.
Now that you have a list, let people know they're in the list! This is something that doesn't happen routinely, but I've found can yield great benefits, both immediate and longer term. Even if you think someone won't be interested in the role you'd be surprised how good they may feel to hear "you're listed in our succession plans as a person we think would be great at doing my role".
Now that people know they're in the list, start with just two actions for everyone in the list:
- delegate one significant responsibility to them
- set up a formal mentoring relationship for them
Measure the outcomes. Set up some simple metric which focuses on the outcomes, not the process. For example, "number of promotions from within the succession list each year"
Repeat often. Set regular milestones to review the list, the metric, and the actions for each person in the list

Now over to you - what have you seen work? What didn't go so well? Any references that you've found valuable?

Some references that you may find useful:

4 Tips for Efficient Succession Planning
Manager Tools Podcast - Staff Meeting Delegation and Succession Planning
Manager Tools Podcast - How to be an Effective Mentor

Focus Grasshopper!

2010-01-14T11:47:00.006+11:00

Back in http://leadershippubtalk.blogspot.com/2009/03/it-takes-village-to-raise-leader.html, anonymous said the following: "A leader is completely FOCUSED on achieving a clearly defined mission. The leader knows where they are going. A person who refuses to accept defeat in reaching their goal. A leader is a WINNER, even though they face defeat they refuse to accept a loss as failure, losses are setbacks on the way to ultimate mission accomplishment.

This post is devoted to focus. A few of my own thoughts:

For a leader focus is as much about repetition in communication as it is individual concentration and dedication. Repeating the same message in multiple ways is critical for a common direction across an organization
Good to Great provides an excellent framework for strategic focus - where the "hedgehog concept" is introduced. Namely, having a deep understanding of the intersection between three areas in the form of a simple, crystalline concept that defines what an organization is striving to achieve. The three areas are:
1. What you can be best in the world at (note that this is not necessarily the current core competancies)?
2. What you are passionate about?
3. What drives your economic engine (what's the denominator that profit is measured against? eg profit per customer visit - use cash flow instead of profit for the public sector)?
Focus without listening and feedback can be dangerous. What measures or feedback mechanisms can you put in place to make sure you're not focusing on bringing down your organization?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on how to achieve focus, good books you've read on the topic, or any instances where you've seen focus as an issue. Post away!

Please Sir - Can I Have Some More (Telecommuting)?

2009-12-27T13:26:00.005+11:00

Happy Holidays! I watched "Julie and Julia" this weekend, so I'm inspired to get back to relatively more frequent blogs. You can expect more of them to be a question soliciting your comments. This should help to get both more frequent posts and more of your thoughts rather than mine.

This year I completed my epic quest to finish "The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century". It didn't take me a long time because the book is dull. Quite the opposite - it's a large book AND filled with many thought provoking concepts (leading to frequent mind-wandering while reading).

Among many topics, the book referenced a trend for more virtual work. This leads me to the question of what is missing when people don't work in the same physical locations? How important is social interaction, and how closely replicated can it be via facebook, google wave, etc?

Would love to hear your thoughts, including whether you think telecommuting and virtual work are a good idea.

Over to you...

Are you a drummer or a singer in the band?

2009-11-09T12:20:00.002+11:00

Great leaders are drummers, not soloists.

Given the responses to my last analogy (to sports) I figured I'd try another one...

Listening to one of my favorite jazz tunes (Ole by John Coltrane) led me to ask - what role in a band most closely resembles that of a leader?

I propose that it's the drummer - what do you think?

Drummers enable success for the soloist, The best solos always have a great drummer behind them.

The drummer establishes the rhythm and cadence of the band.

The drummer carefully monitors the soloists and adds fire to the rhythm when needed and gives space when it makes sense to.

Have a listen to Ole and focus on the drums. There's a lot complexity there. Never resting, but never dominating the soloists.

One more thought - if any of the above is true why aren't more band leaders drummers?

Before it's no longer relevant - how to motivate people when you have little or no cash to motivate with?

2009-08-12T10:09:00.009+10:00

Firstly, thanks to Phil for his suggestion for this posting. It's a timely one for just about everyone I've talked to in recent days - except maybe not for Australians for much longer?

Let's start with your own suggestions. Before you read any more of this blog, please stop, hit the comments link at the bottom of the post (next to the time), and type your top 3 ideas for motivating people in non-monetary ways. When you do it, make sure to hit the "subscribe by email" link on the bottom of your comment box. That will make sure you get to see what everyone else suggests (including me).

With that, I'll be back in less than a week with my content on this thread. I promise. First I want to see your ideas. I promise to steal them shamelessly!

Casting Call - my favorite leadership podcast

2009-07-07T13:35:00.004+10:00

In this post I want to share a podcast with you that has been an enormous source of actionable advice and inspiration to me as a leader.

The podcast is Manager Tools, and can be found at http://www.manager-tools.com/.

I was first introduced to the podcast early in it's life (around 2005). At the time I had been in leadership roles for 10 years, had done an MBA, a number of leadership training courses, and had worked with some outstanding mentors. Despite this there has been much for me to learn from this weekly cast, which continues to deliver new and useful content.

Much of the inspiration for this blog came from the manager tools podcast, and I can say that they were a major contributor to my third critical element of leadership (communication).

Along the lines of communication, a great insight provided by Mike and Mark (who deliver the cast) is that moving from individual contributor roles to leadership positions is about moving from being task focused to people focused. That is, making sure your people are taken care of before your own tasks. It's great advice for task-focused engineers (like me). While it seems obvious, it really isn't (see my comment on the post on the best advice you've ever received and how much the meaning of a single sentence can change over time).

I hope you enjoy the podcast and would love to see some comments back on this post regarding your thoughts on this great resource. Also, let us know if there are other podcasts you listen to which you'd recommend.

This is NOT a metaphor - play team sports

2009-06-16T14:41:00.003+10:00

Stay with me on this one. At the end of this posting there's a controversial statement which I'd love to get your comments on.

In the first posting on this blog Scott made the comment that "leaders create and foster a team environment in which all team members feel that they are valuable and respected members of the team". It reminded me of something else he said to me once, that "great [sports] teams 'get around each other' when they need to come back from behind".

Going down this path made me think of something which I often come back to. Team sports are a WEALTH of leadership guidance. How to motivate. Coaching and feedback. The power of goal alignment. The impact of the weakest link. Making sure people are in roles (positions) they're best suited to and able to succeed. And the list goes on...

There's so much to learn from team sports that I'd suggest that anyone who wants to learn leadership study or (preferably) play team sports.

Additionally, I'd suggest that observing people playing team sports tells you how they'll perform in a workplace team. Will they naturally lead? Will they "get around" the team? Will they motivate? Will they make "all team members feel that they are valuable and respected"?
Bringing this together I'd suggest the following: ONLY hire people into leadership positions if they've played team sports, and ideally go play a team sport with them as part of the job interview.

That's the controversial statement. Comments???

Let's get this party started! A question - what is THE single most important thing anyone's said to you regarding leadership?

2009-05-09T00:00:00.008+10:00

It's hard to believe it's been 2.5 weeks since my last posting! Thanks to all for comments on many of the threads - I'm really learning from your input and I hope that this community is also starting to learn from each other. After all - that's the goal of the blog.

To emphasize this (and to ensure I don't go a full three weeks between posts) I'm going to start this one off with input from YOU! I'll add my input at the end so that you can all contribute and collaborate in keeping with where I hope this blog will go - a true community discussing leadership philosophy.

The question is: "What is THE single most important thing anyone's said to you regarding leadership (in one sentence)?".

Looking forward to all of your replies. See you at the end of this one!

If you're a slow reader (like me)...

2009-04-14T10:28:00.041+10:00

I read too slowly. I start a paragraph and then half way through I'm off thinking of something else. The better the book the more thoughts it triggers for me outside of the content of the book itself. Does that mean I only read bad books quickly???

Having said that, there's a few books that have radically changed me as a leader, and so I've shared them in this post. As always, this blog is valuable because of your contributions, so let me know which books (if any) have changed your leadership approach. I'll put them on my reading list.

All the books listed below include links to buy them from Amazon. Any purchases via these links will result in a credit for some percentage of the sale in my amazon.com account. My plan is to devote ALL of these credits back to this blog. This will pay for all sorts of blog-funding, from leadership books for regular contributors to bandwidth for the site if it ever goes independent.

So many leadership books are anecdotal, however, Good to Great is one that started with fact. Taking companies that radically outperformed their peers and then painstakingly researching them to find out why. Guidance that shines through here for me was humility of great leaders, followed by a relentless focus on people and getting the best talent on the bus.

7 Habits stands out for me because of the importance it places on figuring out why you want to bother to do anything. I read it back in 1998 when Sharon and I spent a month in Italy. I'd recommend the same for anyone else reading this. Not necessarily that you go to Italy (although I do recommend that), but that you read it when you have plenty of time to reflect away from your daily grind. That was key to me - thinking deeply about what's important and using those drivers as motivation over the 11 years since then (I still read and refine the personal mission statement I created back then on a periodic basis - this is the topic of a future post...).

Straight from the Gut is another one for focusing on talent. That's the secret to Jack's success and so many other successful leaders I've seen. Also just fun to read - a great account of his career and the thinking behind so much of what he did at GE.

Discover your Strengths stands out as a book that (again) is rooted in research and fact, and then introduces and justifies the concept that you should channel your strengths rather than trying to improve your areas of weakness. Know your weaknesses, but overcome them by collaborating with people who have strength in those areas.

In addition to the books above, there's a bunch that were great reads for me because they summarized, consolidated, or reinforced learnings. However, none of them were game changers as a result of new insights. Still, they may be for you depending on where you've been and what you've already read. These include:

The Effective Executive is one that would DEFINITELY be on my list if I'd read it 10 years ago. So much of what I've learnt/read/suffered through is in here. Expect a post devoted to this book alone in the future.

I've used the First 90 Days framework for my last few roles and recommend it to anyone taking on a new role/responsibilities.

And finally, here's a few that I've enjoyed reading, however, which I wouldn't consider to be true leadership books. Still, if you're short of books to put on your reading list...

I hope all of these are either game changers for you in the future or already have been. Please let me and the rest of the blog readers know what's made an impact on you - I need all the help I can get! Don't we all?

It Takes a Village to Raise a Leader

2009-03-24T12:55:00.003+11:00

EVERYTHING I know about management/leadership comes from others, and this blog is no different. Throughout the blog I'm going to ask for comments and expect that the value will come more from your contributions than anything I might put on here.

So, what is it that you think makes a good leader? To start it off, here's what I think are the key factors that make a great leader:

Relentless focus on hiring and developing world-class people
Humility
Constant communications and feedback

I'll write a separate posting on each of these, however, that's enough from me for now - the floor is yours...

Leadership Philosophy - Best Saved for Conversations Over Beers or Long Car Rides

2009-03-22T08:44:00.000+11:00

This is the first of what I hope are many blogs on the topic of leadership. I'm expecting it will be philosophy more than specific actions, although hopefully you can derive actions from what's in here (for actionable advice visit some of the links shown with this blog, especially Manager Tools).

The topic of this blog comes from a wise leader who once said "Save the philosophy for discussions over beers or long car rides, in the meantime we need to focus on specific actions". That's very much in line with my own thinking, however, it also doesn't deny the fact that I like conversations in the pub, as well as long car rides - so here goes...