Cleaned My Desk Today

That is a good Friday feeling.  Wow, it was a tough week. 

I put on my coat, and after placing the wooden hangar on the silver hook mounted on the back of my door, I glanced  into the office, and it felt, oh, so good.  My wife was working late on this Friday, and it gave me a rare opportunity to get things in order.  

Typically, if I stay late on weekdays, the other offices and cubies are filled with colleagues.  Some are busy crunching those final touches on their reports, presentations, or research.  Other work spaces are occupied with the golden children, making certain they are seen working late by the correct people who can continue to support their career climb based on others thinking they put in so many long hard hours.  The rest of the office is cluttered with socializers with no where else to go.  Either way, it makes serious evening work difficult.  

There’s always that 6:30 knock accompanied by “hey, got a minute?”...Actually no, I don’t, but I guess because you already interrupted me, I can give you the other 45 seconds too.  Or there’s noise, commotion, or just other stuff making it difficult to focus on my stuff.  However, on Friday night, when no one wants to be around it was my time.  The other “weekday lions” had better things to do tonight.  It was the beginning of a great weekend.  I was the winner, marked by their absence. 

So on this Friday evening, as I glanced back after putting on my coat, I marveled at such a proud site.  My desk was clean, carrying a remarkable reflection from the 28th floor window overlooking the bright lights of an active city.  Casual onlookers might exclaim, “wow, look, he has a desk with a wooden top”!  Or, “better check the dumpster, he must have filled it.”  

But this time they were all wrong.  No dumpster diving, no desk designing.  Soon, they would all know where the stacks, files, and post it notes went.  This time rather than re-stack, file, or organize the yellows and blues, I actually found a better home for everything that had cluttered my desk while I was busy spending my week being important. This time I Delegated. 

Ah yes, the fine art of delegation.  It’s one of the time honored traditions and trappings that come with success.  You work hard, you get promoted, people work for you, and now you can delegate.  Delegate...I grew up thinking that meant giving people who work for you all the stuff you don't want to do, can’t do, or don’t have time to do.  Sometimes I learned delegating must have been a form of punishment towards people Boss’s didn’t like, or minions that had done something wrong, and now had to pay the price.

Somewhere, I learned delegating meant something more.  When I began to realize the value of hiring great people on my Team, [see “Hiring Up” http://bit.ly/gdPQvG from March 22, 2010] this delegating thing began to take a new shape and a new, more profound meaning.  What if...you actually invited people on your team to become engaged in each-others work?  What if you took this idea a step further and actually invited others to become engaged in your work? And just think, what if you made this work meaningful, made certain your team understood the assignment, motivated them, gave them feedback along the way, and shared in the rewards of a job well done?  I know this sounds crazy, but what if you didn’t micromanage their work?

Well, you’re probably already a step ahead of me in understanding where this thought took me. When I assess why I have been successful, in addition to hiring people smarter than me, I became passionate about engaging them in my work, my success, and my rewards.

Thinking back to that clean wooden desk, it was more than simply finding a better home for all the clutter. I very carefully considered who could help me champion each of these important tasks. Because if I was going to delegate these tasks and projects, they must’ve been important. Being an important task or project was only the beginning. Knowing it was meaningful, I need to make certain my team member had 100% clarity of the project. Realizing each of my employees was different than the other I had to consider what might motivate this employee to be as excited about this project as I was. I decided to make certain I could step up to the plate and help them along the way, (without micromanaging) because in the end I too wanted to make certain there was success to share.  

A Team member empowered through great delegation, will go a long way to ensure success...for them, the organization, and also for me.

1. Who has an uncluttered desk and empowered employees?
2. What can you do to delegate better?
3. Where do you learn how to delegate?
4. When is the best time to begin to delegate?
5. How can you empower employees when delegating?

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.

Life Is Full Of Choices…Make One.

Collaboration...Teamwork...Delegation...Job Sharing...Cooperation...Empower...Partnership...Compromise...and the list goes on.  What do these words have in common?  Potentially they mean - “nothing gets decided”.  

These terms of the day, are all the rage.  However, inclusion of your Team and your Associates is more of an art than a science.  Because, all of this talk of sharing in the decision seems to also slow down the process of actually making a decision.

I was asked to help a new leader assimilate into her role.  It sounded simple enough as she had been an important part of the success of this office.  

Cynthia was the ideal choice to be promoted to Lead the regional office.  She had been with this industry leader for 15 years.  Her resume carried all the necessary signs of success.  Double major in marketing and business, an MBA, and high grades from her Team in her 360 reviews.  The Succession Planning program had highlighted the competency gaps between her current strengths and this new position.  An accelerated development program closed the gap quite nicely over the past 15 months.  Everyone loved Cynthia.  

During the assimilation we found mostly support for her and few surprises to work through in her Coaching agenda.  Although, I did feel some level of caution in my mind with one particular topic.  It seemed that everyone loved Cynthia too much.  Think about it.  Hasn't every leader you have followed had some flaw?  Hasn't every leader done something to promote some level of distaste or second guessing?  

I spent some time with the group trying to bring out this concern.  After some difficult pushing, pulling, and dragging, it finally came to me.  The culture of this office had slowly eroded to a picture perfect example of passive aggressiveness.  Everyone was afraid or unwilling to make a decision on their own, and the success of group meetings was built on a foundation of alliances, and coffee talk, making certain no one would be offended by the resulting group decisions.  Yes, everyone loved Cynthia.  She was  gifted at being passive, able to stay out of the fray of decision making.

I decided to let the group move in their chosen direction.  But, we agreed I would visit again for a followup in a month or two.  In advance of my planned re-visit, I was called by the home office to listen to their anxiety driven story.  It seems Cynthia's office was in trouble.  Production was down, customer service inquiries were diving downward, two key producers had quit, and their exit interviews told the story of an office frozen with no direction, no leadership, no answers to key questions, and day to day issues with no purposeful resolve.

As the group came into our room, the look was indeed different.  It was amazing how quickly the aggressive side to their culture had taken control.  This was one group of unhappy people.  But  everyone still seemed to love Cynthia.

Through our group discussions, and some affinity group coaching exercises, I was able to help the group reach some important conclusions.  Cynthia was not Leading;

• Don’t get me wrong, she was a Visionary, but what good is her Vision when the walls are crumbling around you after only 60 days on the job?
• She had Charisma.  Everyone still loved Cynthia.  Amidst the turmoil, Cynthia was still the fun one to be with.
• Cynthia was still Driven To Succeed.   She was the first one in the office, the last one to leave at the end of the day, and made it quite clear she logged more miles and met with more customers than anyone else in the office.  As the walls were tumbling down, Cynthia needed to make certain her own numbers were still up.  
• Cynthia was protecting the Relationships she had created over her 15 years with the company.  Relationships are important to a Leader...but at what cost?

Yes, Cynthia still had many good competencies and behaviors of a Leader.  But something was indeed lacking?

Cynthia had established a very rigid schedule of group and team meetings.  She had opened each meeting with a quick discussion of the words which would be key to their success.

• Collaboration...
• Teamwork...
• Delegation...
• Job Sharing...
• Cooperation...
• Empower...
• Partnership...
• Compromise.  

Yes, it’s those words again.  But one key phrase was missing.  She was ignoring the focus of “Decision Making”.  

Nothing was getting done.  It may have been a small symptom of a larger problem, it may have been a customer complaint, or it may have been a blowup between key employees.  But on this day, we came to realize Cynthia was not making a decision as their leader on most topics that came her way.

Yes, yes, yes...these are great words.  These are wonderful sets of Teamwork ideology.  But lets face it.  Someone must make a decision.  In the end, (or perhaps in the beginning, or even midstream) The Leader must be decisive.  The Rare Leader™ must be able to assess, analyze, and move toward a  solution using instincts, and be willing to take a risk where the absence of facts makes the better decision.  Life is full of choices…make one.

1. Who is responsible to make the decision?
2. What decisions never seem to be made?
3. Where can you go if you need to resolve a question?
4. When will you start making Decisions?
5. How will you change your behavior of avoiding decision making?

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.

Vision...Putting it to work

Looking back on these past four weeks and our discussions of Vision.  What have we learned?  Here’s a sample of what we found...

1. Vision is your clear, inspired picture, creating a passionate, committed journey to discover what can happen.
2. Isolate what you see. What trends  and data support you?
3. Allow your vision to inspire you, and you can in turn empower the people you are fortunate to lead.
4. Lead others to see what you see through goals and action plans.
5. Share your Vision in a way that everyone wants to follow you to success.
6. Act on your Vision...set your sights on making it happen, include your Team,  keep it vibrant, and celebrate!

These are valuable lessons on Vision, but they do you, or your Team nothing if you tuck them away and move on.  It’s time to put this Vision to work.  

“Frank”, was faced with this same opportunity...Frank had a grand Vision.  

Running a family business, he suddenly found himself quite alone.  His father (the second generation owner) had recently retired, and then passed away unexpectedly.  His siblings had shown little interest to be actively involved in running the company.   While his own children were too young to work full time, he sensed at least two of them may have a future in succeeding him as fourth generation owners.  

Looking over the business, it didn’t take long to see through the current profitability and recognize signs of trouble over the longer term.  Too much revenue with too few customers, and most products had little longstanding value in the market.  The employee base was loyal, but largely inadequate to think of change and growth.  His facility was modern, conveniently located, but not organized well from a work flow perspective.

His close advisors, family members, and quite frankly his own conscience said this is the perfect time to sell and move on.  Grandfathers business had run its’ course.  But Frank saw it differently.  He saw two very bright children, pursuing degrees which would help them run a business.  The two children had worked summers and holidays, and in addition to making a few bucks, got a taste of how it worked at Dads company.  His largest customer had hinted about him following their lead and making some changes in current products and perhaps responding to some of their designs for new products.  Networking with other business owners and CEO’s, Frank discovered the difference some companies had experienced by delegating key leadership roles to new employees with fresh ideas, and energy.

After spending a few days alone, on sort of a self imposed sabbatical, Frank realized he saw things differently than his friends, family and advisors.  Frank isolated some trends, and built some good dependable data around market opportunities, leadership employees he might look for, and longer term implications of a planned change.  Frank did indeed see a very clear picture of an opportunity to grow this company in a new direction.  He knew it would take a new commitment in energy, resources, and his own passion.  

As a first step, Frank went to his Board of Advisors.  To help support the numbers and projections, they also saw Frank was passionate, and committed to make this happen.  They were on board.  

Step two on in the plan was to energize a Leadership Team.  While there was not much to pick from internally, Frank empowered the few he selected, and inspired them to see what he saw.   The initial task of this Team was to conduct an outside search for a new COO.  This COO would lead them with fresh ideas of new methods, new product, new markets, and to encourage everyone to enthusiastically follow Franks Vision.  

Frank found he still had the spirit of his Grandfather who built the company, and he realized it when he saw it in his own children as well.  Perhaps that was the tipping point.

Now, it’s too early to see if Frank will realize his Vision.  But, a vast number of changes have been made, and yes there have been growing pains, but the positive reinforcement has easily outnumbered the difficult moments.  Their customer list has grown.  They expect to launch new products soon.  Lean and other manufacturing methods have been implemented to seize opportunities for efficiencies.  Clearly, Frank is on the way to reaching the Vision he saw so many months ago.  But it meant he had to allow himself to be a Visionary, to gain a clear picture, become committed to it, share it with others, inspire his Team, but most importantly, he needed to put his Vision to work.

You have a Vision.  It may not be on such a “grand scale” as Frank, but now is the time to act on your Vision...Put it to work!

Next week we begin our study of Charisma.  Number 2, in our detailed look into the 12 behaviors of the Rare Leader.  Don’t let that make you believe we’re finished with Vision.  We’ll keep talking and challenging you to use your Vision.

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.

Share Your Vision

I noticed a peculiar common thread running through many leaders and companies.  There seems to be a shroud of secrecy among the leadership team, a secrecy between each other as individuals, and most alarming, a secrecy from the rest of the employees and even customers.  (Building Trust between people and within Teams is another item in recipe for success, and we’ll talk about that later.)  

Is it true, that there is a right of passage giving an executive of a company the authority to withhold information from others?  So many times, when I have been in the Executive Office, or the Board Room, if I waited long enough, some one said...”remember, none of this leaves this room”.  Wow, thats pretty powerful.  What was discussed that is so important, that no one else should ever know about it?  (Until of course, we can surprise the affected parties and they’ll have no possibility of recourse.)  

I think that was also a good and effective strategy for some famous war leaders such as Admiral Spruance, a genius in military strategy and tactics particularly in the Battle of Midway, or General Eisenhower where his strategy for Normandy was brilliant. Or how about Admiral Yamamoto, of the  Japanese Imperial Navy?  Yes, his Pearl Harbor strategy proved to be very effective.  Their shroud of secrecy was so effective, the surprise in their attacks rendered their foes helpless in the end.

But, to make their plans effective, they also had to share them.  Obviously there was no intentional sharing with their competitors.  However, they had to trust their Team.  How could they possibly organize a large scale assault without carefully planning goals and action plans from a Vision?  What if General Eisenhower took his Vision of controlling Western Europe to begin the downfall of Germany and kept it a secret with only a few trusted officers.  How would they have planned?  How would they have prepared?  How would they have tested their theories?  But in reality, he did share his Vision.  He did share quite widely to assist in the preparations.  Forces were specially trained. Special vehicles were designed for the amphibious attack.  Practice missions were conducted.  Some planning failed, but tactical plans prepared them for these breaches of confidential details of their plans.  In the end, this shared Vision and leading people through a series of goal oriented projects with accountabilities and shared circumstances, led to the ultimate success.

Now, I am not asking you to prepare your company for battle in the same way as Eisenhower, Spruance, or Yamamoto.  But, if we take one lesson from them, what can we learn?  How effective can you be, operating within a cloud of secrecy and lack of trust?  I am well aware, there are some discussions of very confidential topics that take place for all the right reasons.  But in this context, we’re talking about sharing and trusting in your Vision.

Vision means nothing, if you can not share it with others in such a way, that you make everyone want to follow you to success.  Perhaps it’s your charisma.  Maybe it is how you plan.  Some tell me it is about being decisive and being driven to release their strong commitment and persistence to achieve.  These qualities of a Rare Leader will be imperative.  But first, you must share this Vision you have come to be so passionate about.  The Vision you believe in, the Vision that others did not see, was just another foggy day until you were able to open their eyes.  Your Team, your employees, and your customers depend on you for your  inspired Vision.  In short...If you see something that’s possible, it is not a Vision unless you share it with others and empower them to join you on the journey.

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.

Vision

Vision.  

A behavior and characteristic of a Rare Leader™

With all the focus and talk of the new year and a new decade, I thought it appropriate to begin this study looking into the characteristics and behaviors of leaders who possess Vision.

“Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time. Action with Vision is making a positive difference.”...Joel A. Barker

As a Rare Leader™, you should have a clear picture of where you are going, not only as a goal, but you should also have a a commitment to get there.  The Rare Leader™, while believing objectives are possible and constantly revised, is designing plans of action energized by a strong purpose to become effective.

Vision should be clearly visible to you, and perhaps, it may be to others. However, your Vision is not personal...when it’s personal it becomes a purpose. Your Vision is something that is likely to occur, whether you actively work on it or not. Your Vision is not something you aspire to achieve...that aspiration is a goal.

To isolate your Vision, extrapolate what you observe around you that is important. Why did this happen? Where is this trend going? What data supports this?  When you embrace a trend, ask what will happen if this continues. Be patient. You can not force or acquire something you don’t see.

We all know and agree that successful people and successful leaders surround themselves with people who offer them a challenge. Why not find someone with thought provoking ideas that reflect what they see in the world?  People who see trends that become their Vision are people that you should spend time with.

Be careful when you manufacture your mission in life, it can be a trap to shut out the light of vision. This limited view of the world will certainly inhibit your Vision.  Be open to the possibilities before you.  Vision will happen, and your resulting goals can become projects that will accelerate your Vision.  

Stressing out will not bring vision to life.  Vision should become so clear that it does not take great effort to guide your actions and orient your projects.  If you push yourself to find a vision, you might forget it is actually a healthy by-product of living fully, and opening yourself to possibilities.  (We’ll talk more about your balanced life and living fully in the future.)

Take the first step to become a Rare Leader™ and allow your Vision to inspire you, and you can in turn empower the people you are fortunate to lead.