Peeling The Onion...

Did this title really bring you here?  I’m guessing it wasn’t because you thought I would teach you how to correctly peel an onion with out crying.  (Although I know how to do that as well.)  

You’ve no doubt heard the expression “peeling the onion” back farther to reveal a deeper underlying root cause, instead of just the surface symptoms. Or, perhaps we venture out in life being very good at “peeling the onion,” by asking why, and why, and then why again, until we have gone as deep as we can go in getting answers.  

My Grandson Mason mastered this technique.  Mason, don’t run down the stairs, I would yell.   Why not Run Grandpa?  Because you’ll fall and get hurt.  Why fall Grandpa?  Because your legs are too short for the stair height.  Why legs so short Grandpa?  Because you’re only 3 years old Mason.  Why 3 Grandpa?  Whew...by this time he was down the stairs safely, but I was worn out.  He won.

As adults, and as Leaders we need reminders that many situations warrant digging deeper than others typically do. In today’s high speed technology driven world of diverse people and generations, we often feel pressured to “finish” one task and quickly move on to another.

Why is Tom failing Debbie asked me?  He seemed perfect when we hired him.  He has a good undergraduate degree, and an MBA from the best business school in the Midwest.  Tom’s 10 years experience in very specifically related tasks seemed to qualify him well.  His references all checked out.  The onion skin had now been broken and peeled back, revealing a very shiny aubergine layer.

How has Tom done in his first year, I asked?  Well, you know, it is the honeymoon time being new on the job, and the markets have been really tough.  And then we lost a big client.   But I thought Tom was doing pretty well, until...Now the second layer of the onion was about to be pulled away.  A subtle symptom of a failing employee fell to the floor. 

Well, until one of our key employees began to complain.  Now I really trust Barb.  She’s a legacy employee.  She’s loyal, and smart, and has no reason to make things up, so I listened Debbie said.  Barb told me Tom had not been truthful on performance reviews.  Everyone was getting a similar above average rating.  Another layer of the onion fell away.

When Debbie subsequently asked Tom about the performance reviews, Tom was a bit uncomfortable, and seemed to have a pretty good answer to every question.  It didn’t add up to Barbs concern.  Another layer came away.

Debbie carefully peeled away yet another layer of not so subtle symptoms, and reviewed all the performance appraisals herself.  Barb was correct.  These are all vanilla.  Tom was lying to me, Debbie thought to herself.

When Tom came in Barbs office, he could see the reviews stacked on Debbie’s desk.  He knew the topic of the hour.  Debbie began her questions.  but this time she was prepared.  She had peeled enough layers of the onion away to be near the truth.  After the normal course of who, what, where, when, and how questions, Tom was as worn out as Grandpa was from Mason.

Debbie told me how pleased she was to have continued to probe, peeling the onion to discover the truth about Tom’s failing performance.  Now, she wanted advice about what to do next with Tom.  She was prepared to fire him.

I asked her to peel the onion even further.  After peeling away the final layers, and taking a closer look, and Debbie summarized she discovered Tom had supervised people before, but not such a diverse work force as this.  At his previous employer, the culture was quite easy going and laid back, while here, we are driven and accountable to metrics and goals.  And, when finally arriving at a place of personal trust with Tom, he confided, that he had an aversion to conflict.  

Debbie had now found the core of the onion.  If Tom could receive some help understanding the rules of engagement within this culture of accountability, and learn to use the available tools to manage conflict, he just might be come a better manager.  

So it really wasn’t about Tom failing to document performance.  It was about her own failure to assess and recognize the culture differences and conflict aversion issues Tom has had all along in his career.  She had focused on the last of the “C”’s (Craft), and missed the Core and Character “C”’s in the hiring process.  [see “Hiring Up” http://bit.ly/gdPQvG from March 22, 2010]

The Rare Leader™ today must accept the Ambiguity of the workplace.  Knowing when and how to peel back the onion at the same time as juggling lots of balls while maintaining focus, will help to view micro and macro details fitting into the big picture.  

And sometimes, when we peel back the onion, we need to realize we find ourselves at the core.

1. Who is at the core of the onion in your conflict?
2. What can you do to make certain you have peeled away every layer of the onion?
3. Where can you discover the onion in an issue facing you?
4. When will you begin to peeling the onion to discover core issues?
5. How can you learn the skill of peeling the onion?

If you want to learn more about the Rare Leader™ in you, 

or if you are interested in retaining Steve as your Executive Coach, 

Contact Steve Riege via: twitter, or his website.

I have people skills, I am good at dealing with people...

The Rare Leader™ is always interacting with people.  The Rare Leader™ is able to utilize intuition to sense what people are feeling and thinking.  The Rare Leader™ has the ability to interact positively, actively listening, understanding, and responding to different behavioral styles.  The Rare Leader naturally proves he or she can focus on others rather than self.

"Well, look, I already told you. I deal with the #*@#$% customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills! I am good at dealing with people! Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?!"... Tom Smykowski responding to Bob Slydel - Office Space

Tom was a leader of the Software Engineering Team at Initech, a company plagued by excessive management.  When pressed, Tom really felt his number one skill was “dealing with people”, because had “people skills”.  

Now, I don’t know about you, but when I think of people skills, unfortunately I think too many times about managers like Tom, who really do think their people skills are second to none.  Even though Tom is a fictional leader, from a fictional company, from a movie, it is in fact, rare to find real leaders from real companies with great people skills.  The reason Tom felt his people skills were so strong, is that he was so focused on himself, rather than the Team members he was leading.

Great relationships with people do start and end with the skills and behaviors you show in establishing powerful, long lasting, relationships of trust, collaboration, and shared success.  

Do you have great intuition?  Can you connect the dots of what you observe about the people you lead?  To properly observe, you need a keen ability going beyond what you might easily see, hear, or touch.  Intuition takes you inside the character of the people you lead, to sense and understand what they are thinking and feeling.  What does the connection tell you?  Connecting the dots and applying your intuition about people is similar to the skills you find as a visionary, using data and trends to see into the future.  Your intuition should enable you to see the future possibilities between yourself and other people.  

What is your ability to interact with others?  Are your active listening skills refined?  Does it come naturally to listen intently and be able to repeat what you heard...word for word?  

After listening, can you understand what the other person is really saying?  What is their hidden meaning?  What action are they seeking from you?  Do they desire you to offer a response full of ideas, suggestions and directives, or are they merely seeking a listener with empathy?  

What is your response?  Does your response come from truly caring about what they have to say?  Or, is your response quick, to the point, enabling you to move to your next agenda item of your day?

Perhaps the hidden challenge for the Rare Leader™ with relationships is adapting all of these skills to the “human factor”.  After all, like snowflakes, no two human beings are alike.  This gives you great opportunity to develop your intuition, interaction, listening skills, understanding, and response, to varying styles and diversity of people.  This adaption to diversity draws from the Core of your Character.  This adaption to diversity of behavior styles in your Team, is the test of the integrity of your Character.

In the end, your relationships with others have no grounding if you continue to focus on yourself first.  This was really Tom’s issue when self analyzing his number one skill at Initech.  I see this same issue when observing, assessing, and coaching leaders who fail at building positive relationships as a proven characteristic of becoming a Rare Leader™.  The core of these failings continue to look back at a narcissistic self involved, “me first” Leader.  

Who do you focus on?  What is your style?

1. Do you have great intuition?
2. What is your ability to interact with others?
3. Are your active listening skills refined?
4. Can you understand what the other person is really saying?
5. Does your response come from truly caring about what others have to say?
6. Can you prove you do focus on others rather than yourself?

If you want to learn more about the Rare Leader™ in you, 

or if you are interested in retaining Steve as your Executive Coach, 

Contact Steve Riege via: twitter, or his website.

Taking One For The Team

Have you ever heard this acclamation?  

Someone feels so self involved that they need to declare that their action is necessarily not their first choice, but is for the benefit of others.  Why not add “praise me” to the end of the statement?  After all, isn’t that what you’re asking?  

You’ve let people know you’re taking action for their benefit but not yours, and it is outside of your character to do so.  Is this also declaring that what you’re doing is the “right thing”, but not “your thing”?  

Why can’t your actions simply be the “right thing”.  Does it matter who it is benefitting?  And, if you need to declare this as an unusual act, do you really need to ask for praise?  Are you that type of leader that craves feedback at this level?  If the answer is yes, you may want to sign out of this blog.  The challenges for you to become a Rare Leader™ will become too great over the next 9 months of study in our series together.  

Or, does this make you feel uncomfortable that you may have declared “taking one for the Team” in the past, and you now realize that it may not have been a moment of your greatest declaration of leadership?  Then I would invite you to continue to work with us.  

I find many “would be leaders” I have worked with to seriously stumble at this stage of discovering their gaps of developing as a Rare Leader™.  We can continue to develop your Visionary skills.  We can learn together to find a comfort level with being Decisive.  We can study the elements of better Delegation and encourage you to share your high Drive for Achievement.  

However, if you really have no core of Character that speaks to Integrity, then we have a point of disconnect.  

You are not alone.  We have all been challenged at some point in our lives to do the right thing, because we know its the right thing.  But life is full of decisions, and you must make one.  Will it be the right decision?

I was faced with such a challenge several years ago.  I was climbing the ladder of personal success in my career.  I had risen above comments from doubters about how a “school teachers kid with a music degree” could make it in a tough competitive business organization.  But I did succeed.  

Looking back I am confident I possessed many of the behaviors of the Rare Leader™ at this young age.  At my professional crossroads a question of Integrity was put before me.  

I worked for an organization that used the quote from their founder to guide everything they did.  He stated “customers will forgive you for errors of judgment, but they won’t forgive you for errors of motive, and we must have honesty in our business dealings and integrity in everything we do.”  

I was asked to take career ending action against several members of my Team.  It was clear this demand from my Leader had questionable motives and clearly was not a shining moment of honesty.  As the deadline for my response came due, my answer was clear as I submitted my resignation.  I could have made a bold statement that I took one for the team as I carried my personal things out the door, but I didn’t.  I learned that day that doing the right thing is simply the right thing to do.

Lets agree today, to stop taking one for the Team.   Next time...do the right thing, because it is the right thing.  You will be taking a bold step on your way to becoming a Rare Leader™.

1. Can you name a time you felt you “took one for the Team”?

If yes, was it really just the “right thing to do”?

2. Will you continue to follow me, and study the next 9 behaviors of the Rare Leader™?

3. Send me your stories of Integrity of Character.  If you want to remain anonymous from the blog readers, send it to me at steve@ovationleadership.com

If you want to learn more about the Rare Leader™ in you, 

or if you are interested in retaining Steve as your Executive Coach, 

Contact Steve Riege via: twitter, or his website.

Hiring up

They always said the key to being a successful manager, is being smart enough to hire people smarter than I am. 

You have probably thought this through when hiring new people to work on your Team.  After all, the gaps that appear as we get older are pretty obvious.  How do we keep up with technology?   How do we absorb all of the changing data?  How do we begin to understand every product detail?  

Yes, we become so much smarter when we are willing to leave our ego at the door and bring new people to our Team who are smarter thane we are. But what does “smarter” really mean?  How is “smarter” defined?  

Is it all about the craft of the job?  Is it about engineering, finance, economics, design, marketing, chemistry, and technology?  What about Character?  Does it also make sense to hire people with more Integrity of their Character than we might believe we possess?  

If the theory about surrounding ourselves with smarter people makes us as leaders collectively smarter, than could it be true; that if we surround ourselves with a Team who thinks and acts out of a core belief of morals, values and ethics, that we might grow as a Leader with Integrity of Character?

I have been very fortunate to have worked with enormously successful Teams.  I credit my earlier successes to my Teams.  When challenged, I prided myself at saying...”I’m not sure of the answer...I’m just a school teachers kid”.  I loved the cynical answer I would offer when the brightest and the best of the senior leaders would challenge me, knowing I had much more humble beginnings than they had.  

But, I would always have the answer.  The answer was typically better than correct, and I built a reputation of someone you could count on.  But it was no secret that my Team was the key to my success.  We’ll talk more later on assembling that great team.  

How did I continuously assemble such great teams?  What was my secret sauce?

Here’s the recipe to my secret sauce.  I

 hire by the “rule of three C’s”.  

Core, Character, Craft.

When I set out to hire a new Team member, I focus on a discovery of what the candidate feels is the vitality of their core.  The core is that essence of why they believe they are given this wonderful opportunity to live the life they have been given.  This is where values, ethics, and morals are formed and realized.  That is...the Core of the candidate.  

Character is how the candidate can prove they “walk the talk”.  If they found values, morals, and ethics within their Core, then what choices do they make every moment, to live out this Core of who they are?  This is...the Integrity of their Character.

Craft is the easy part.  This is the intellectual side of the career journey.  Craft is the essence of learning, and experience  achieved through school, training, work experience, and applying aptitude.  The missing portions of their Craft can probably be acquired through additional training and other experiences.  But I have no ability to change Core and Character.  They either have it, or they don’t.  And If candidates do not have Integrity of their Character, I do not want them on my Team.

This secret sauce brings me great team members.  If the theory about surrounding myself with people better than me is true, then I have also surrounded myself with people who have a higher level of Integrity in their Character than I might have.  As a group, we’re contagious with each other, and we hold each other accountable to a new level of success. 

As a Rare Leader™, Integrity of Character is where we begin!

If you want to learn more about the Rare Leader™ in you, 

or if you are interested in retaining Steve as your Executive Coach, 

Contact Steve Riege via: twitter, or his website.

The Road Less Traveled

...Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, 

I took the one less traveled by, 

And that has made all the difference...Robert Frost (1874–1963)

 Why is it that the most prosperous road is the less traveled?

Why is it that we so often choose the easy road?

Why is it we miss opportunities to make a difference?

Why is it?

I encountered some people recently who must have thought about these questions.  They were faced with decisions.  Decisions that were both simple and difficult.  Decisions that were both minor and major in their impact upon others.  Decisions they had faced before.

Kristen works as a manager of a retail store.  Kristen really wants to be liked by her employees.  It seems Kristen has “respected” and “liked” confused, thinking they are the same.  As Leaders, we know that many times our tough decisions mean our Team members may not like us, but if we make good decisions, and if we are consistent in our actions, then perhaps we have moved towards becoming respected.  

Wanting to be liked is a dangerous temptation that leads to the road most often traveled.  

In this instance, Kristen overheard some of her employees talking of an after work party.  It sounded like it would be fun.  Kristen hoped she would be invited.  As she listened in closer, she heard the dark side of their plans.  The party was to be held in the large storage room of the store.  Guests would be escorted in the back door, and no one would know.  And as hosts, the storage contents would certainly serve the guests well.  After all, who wouldn’t want an open bar with unlimited snacks.  

Kristen knew she wouldn’t be invited.  But now she was faced with a dilemma.  Does she ruin the party plans by telling the owner?  This would certainly lead to discipline and termination of some of her Team.  And that would only add to Kristen’s heavy work load.  Or, another idea might be to approach her Team.  Why not tell them she overheard their plans?  Why not tell them this was not to be allowed?  Of course, if Kristen took this action, her Team would never like her.  They would see her as an outsider.  

Why should she even get involved?  If they got caught, Kristen would be far away, at home with her family and away from the trouble.  

Kristen was faced with a question.  One road would prevent the party.  It would prevent trouble.  It would lessen her chance of being “liked”.  The other road was a simple denial of any knowledge of the party.  Kristen would have nothing to lose, and her chances of being “liked” by her Team would be intact.

Which is the road less taken?  Which road will make all the difference?

Tim was a client of mine for many years.  Tim, like Kristen enjoyed being “liked” by his employees, but he also commanded respect.  Tim had earned his promotions through the company to his current role as a business unit leader.  Tim knew how to mix both business and social relationships and situations.  He made his appearances at company parties, bought a round or two, and quietly exited, leaving his employees to their good times away from the boss.  At work, Tim was fair and consistent when assigning work and made certain everyone received their praise when their results were achieved.  Everyone liked Tim.  He had good Charisma.  

Tim’s boss approached him on Monday morning.    Julia said...“Tim, I need you to help me on a new acquisition.  This will be an enormous undertaking, but the rewards will be tremendous.  If it succeeds, I have been told I will be named as President of the company as George retires.  When I am President, you will become my COO”.  

This all seemed too good to be true.  Tim was finally being recognized for his years of loyalty.  His dedication and hard work paid off.  Julia added, “Tim, this will not come without cost.  As part of the acquisition, we will be offering your business unit as part of the deal.  A trade so to speak.  In the long run, we can not allow your current business unit to succeed under the new owner.  We will be launching a competitor of our own after the acquisition is realized.  I need you to make some plans prior to your transition out of this group.  I have some ideas, but please see me tomorrow with your ideas of some “poison pills” we can place in this group which will destroy its ability to compete with us in two years.”  

I asked what would happen to the rest of my Team.  These were good people who had worked hard to make me successful.  “Don’t worry Tim.  When we make the deal, they’ll be happy, because they will have a job guarantee with the new owner”.  But I asked, isn’t that guarantee worthless since we will have set up their new company to fail?  “Tim, you are focused on the wrong road.  Our new road is filled with wonderful opportunities for both of us.  We’ll make great financial bonus awards from the success of the acquisition, and then you and I will be running the entire company.  Remember, this was our dream when we both joined as trainees so many years ago.”  

Two roads.  Both filled with opportunities.  One road will be less traveled.  One Road will make the difference.

The Rare Leader™ lives through a combination of morality, values and ethics to create a strength of Character consistent of being true to values, and doing the right thing because it is the right thing.  This inner strength enables Teams and organizations to trust their leader, whose Character embodies this knowledge, comfort, and trust of their own personal Core.  We call this Integrity of Character.

1. If you are Kristen...Which is the road less traveled?
2. If you are Tim...Which is the road less taken?
3. Why do these roads make the difference?

If you want to learn more about the Rare Leader™ in you, 

or if you are interested in retaining Steve as your Executive Coach, 

Contact Steve Riege via: twitter, or his website.

Integrity of Character

Character of The Rare Leader™ represents the sum of his or her  very core. Values, experience, knowledge and wisdom complete the dimension of “who I am”.  The combination of morality, values and ethics create a strength your Character consistent of being true to values, and doing the right thing because it is the right thing.  This inner strength enables Teams and organizations to trust their leader, whose Character embodies this knowledge, comfort, and trust of their own personal Core.  

In the Rare Leader™, we call this Integrity of Character.

Integrity of Character embodies the Golden Rule, because it represents every gift of morality, value, and ethics we would hope to receive from others.  Kurt Senske in his book Executive Values stresses a roadmap exists for incorporating faith and values into organizational and business life.  Kurt professes “vision acts” where companies and leaders indicate and show a reality behind their words of acclamation of doing what is morally and ethically right.  When we as leaders make claim to Integrity, we better be ready and willing to walk the talk.

Jim Collins talks about the Integrity of Character in his bestseller Good To Great.  “In a good to great transformation, people are not your most important asset.  The right people are.” Good to Great companies place a greater weight on character attributes than on specific education, practical skills, knowledge, or experience.  

We found in the teachings of Marcus Buckingham that these skill based traits are teachable.  Character traits are ingrained.  Integrity of Character is the true measure of how you bring the core of your life to the surface for you, and those who choose to follow you.

This month our study of Integrity of Character will be exciting.  I  know it will make some people uncomfortable.  But maybe that’s how we discover and claim new opportunities for ourselves.  Integrity of Character is truly one of the remarkable behaviors of the Rare Leader™.  Join in on the blog.  E-mail us, and make certain your following us on Twitter.

If you want to learn more about the Rare Leader™ in you, 

or if you are interested in retaining Steve as your Executive Coach, 

Contact Steve Riege via: twitter, or his website.

Moving from Charisma towards Integrity

You have spent a career climbing the leadership ladder.  Through your experiences and careful research, you have discovered a consistent pattern of behaviors predicting the potential of great success in a Leader. I call these twelve behaviors and characteristics the style of a Rare Leader™.

Since January, we have “dug deep” into the behaviors of Vision and Charisma.  Let’s probe a bit deeper into the next behavior.  Character, or Integrity as some of you have been calling it, will be our next topic beginning in March.  

Thanks for your many comments about Charisma and Vision.  I look forward to your comments, e-mails, tweets, and phone calls about Integrity in the Rare Leader™.  

You can also join in at www.twitter.com/sriege for regular posts on this topic.  Recent tweets are on the left.

If you are new, perhaps you might enjoy starting at the beginning.  Click the archives and look for Vision under January, and “read up”  Please post your comments.  I invite you to actively participate.  I'd also appreciate your inviting friends to follow our discussions and contribute as they wish.

Welcome, I hope you enjoy your journey discovering the 12 behaviors and characteristics of the Rare Leader™ 

If you want to learn more about the Rare Leader™ in you, 

or if you are interested in retaining Steve as your Executive Coach, 

Contact Steve Riege via: twitter, or his website.

Charisma builds Trust

“Beauty is but skin deep.”

When poet John Davies of Hereford wrote this now famous saying in 1616, he was actually referring to a murder involving Sir Thomas Overbury.  

We have taken this almost 400 year old phrase and excluded the remaining lines of the poem which include "Beauty is but skin deep, ugly lies the bone, Beauty dies and fades away, but ugly holds its own." 

Charisma too, can be skin deep.  In earlier postings we discussed the danger of your Charisma not being authentic.  One simple way to prove your Charisma is authentic, and not only skin deep, is to use it wisely.  As a Rare Leader™ you have a powerful tool to draw attention to yourself, and to make others want to like, respect, and emulate you.  

Patrick Lencioni writes in his book the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, the  importance of overcoming the absence of trust.  The fear of being vulnerable with your Team prevents the building of Trust within your Team.  When you use authentic Charisma in a positive way, you draw people close to you.  Using your heartfelt Charisma lets people see inside of you.  Making your Charisma personal, opens the door to vulnerability which is the secret key to building trust.

When your Charisma is positive, uplifting, true, from the heart, and personal, it reflects your Character.  In March we will explore the powerful behavior of Character in the Rare Leader™.  You will begin to see how the behaviors of the Rare Leader™ work together.  In our first three studied behaviors we find Character delivered through Charisma, helps others see your Vision.  Effective leadership requires the interaction of many qualities and behaviors simultaneously, and interdependent upon each other.  This is why we find many well intentioned people discover they can not lead.  However, the Rare Leader™ learns to live by, and use all 12 behaviors together.

When you think about how to use your Charisma, you can also be guided by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (not John Joyce) who first wrote,  “Laugh and the world laughs with you; Weep and you weep alone”.

Tell us...What can you do today to be Charismatic with others,  and to draw them into your trust?

If you want to learn more about the Rare Leader™ in you, 

or if you are interested in retaining Steve as your Executive Coach, 

Contact Steve Riege via: twitter, or his website.