We've Moved!

Thanks for following me and our journey with the Rare Leader™.

We have moved and migrated all the great posts and wonderful comments to our new site at www.ovationleadership.com

Please click on, and join in, bookmark, follow, and enjoy!

Steve Riege

When Changing Senior Leadership Becomes Personal

The Challenge:

Evaluating, or considering changes with Senior Leadership can be a considerable challenge.  Many times this executive has become more than a coworker. When leading together in times of both war and peace, a bond develops with deep emotional ties.  Sometimes, this leader had been hand-picked, mentored, and championed throughout the organization by you.

While these attributes of assessment, and change seem to be universal when reviewing any member of your Team, considering the future success of a senior executive reporting to you may bear extensive personal risks as well.   The “perception ladder”  holds more stakeholders when the reach of the senior executive extends beyond their own closely held team. 

As an example, typically the performance of an individual team member (with lesser company strategic impact) is perceived by perhaps only a few associates in addition to themselves and their immediate manager. However, when a leader’s career grows, and they extend their reach and impact upon the greater organization including its customers, vendors, employees and even its brand, there are far more contributors to the joint perception of the success (or lack thereof) of a leader.

As a result, the perceived performance or potential for success of the senior leader brings a shared responsibility to you, from amongst your peers. These peers, at the highest senior executive level of the company may tend to evaluate your personal performance on the merits of those you have hired, mentored, and led to make you more successful.

Perceptions may seem unfair or without merit because of the lack of knowledge of day-to-day challenges, barriers, and successes.  These perceptions of individual performance within the culture of an organization are real, and become more pronounced as the stakes become higher with executive level decision making.   Surrounding yourself with people who can make you more successful can be a double-edged sword when the perceived performance of those around you is not as successful as you would hope. Their perceived lack of integrity in their own performance now reflects on your ability to succeed in the eyes of others.

When evaluating, or considering changes with a senior leader, this “perception ladder” overlaid upon the personal bond that has developed between yourself and the senior leader over time, does indeed create a considerable challenge.

Moving Forward:

Succession planning teaches us more than preparing for the eventual retirement of a key employee. An effective succession planning program ensures leadership continuity and the ability to build talent from within an organization. A key aspect of this ability is a focus upon competencies.

Competency in its pure form seeks to define underlying characteristics of an employee. Items such as skills, description of role, knowledge required, etc. is expected to lead to superior performance. Competency models can therefore help to clarify differences between prescribed levels of performance.

Competencies can also be developed in a visionary form, helping to pinpoint what is required of key employees to be successful into the future. The discovered gap between current and future competencies clearly spell developmental needs for the individual, and on an aggregate basis, the entire organization.

More recently, use of competencies have also been extended to link and align the organization and its culture, to performance of each position. 

I see a competency framework within three specific groups.

• Universal (required of everyone within the organization.   Emphasis upon brand, culture, and values of the organization are stressed here)
• Leadership (measured from all employees in a supervisory, management, or leadership  responsibility of people or programs)
• Individual (knowledge, skill, ability, and experience relative to the specific position)

Channeling the perceptions of others into a formatted series of competency checks can be effective at controlling runaway perceptions based upon factors other than indicators of true success.   When evaluating a senior leader, look outside of your relationship with this coworker, friend, and key employee. Ask yourself, “how is this senior leaders ability to succeed based upon universal, leadership, and individual competencies viewed by those around them?”  

A self evaluation by the senior leader and a separate independent assessment by you will complete the circle of knowledge;

1. Do you have established competencies for this position?

• Universal?
• Leadership?
• Individual?

2. Are these competencies reflecting a future Vision for the Organization and this Position, as well as the current expectations?  Are there future gaps to indicate new development or assessment opportunities?

3. How is this Leader perceived by others within all three competency groups by;

• Self
• Team
• Executive Team
• Other Leaders
• You

4. How are these perceptions impacting on;

• Ability to grow and succeed?
• Engagement of the Team?
• Success of Team throughout the Organization?
• The Organization meeting it’s goals?
• You...

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.

When Delegating Goes Bad

The Challenge:

Evaluating, or considering changes with Senior Leadership can be a considerable challenge.  Many times this executive has become more than a coworker. When leading together in times of both war and peace, a bond develops with deep emotional ties.  Sometimes, this leader had been hand-picked, mentored, and championed throughout the organization by you.

While these attributes of assessment, and change seem to be universal when reviewing any member of your Team, considering the future success of a senior executive reporting to you may bear extensive personal risks as well.   The “perception ladder”  holds more stakeholders when the reach of the senior executive extends beyond their own closely held team. 

As an example, typically the performance of an individual team member (with lesser company strategic impact) is perceived by perhaps only a few associates in addition to themselves and their immediate manager. However, when a leader’s career grows, and they extend their reach and impact upon the greater organization including its customers, vendors, employees and even its brand, there are far more contributors to the joint perception of the success (or lack thereof) of a leader.

As a result, the perceived performance or potential for success of the senior leader brings a shared responsibility to you, from amongst your peers. These peers, at the highest senior executive level of the company may tend to evaluate your personal performance on the merits of those you have hired, mentored, and led to make you more successful.

Perceptions may seem unfair or without merit because of the lack of knowledge of day-to-day challenges, barriers, and successes.  These perceptions of individual performance within the culture of an organization are real, and become more pronounced as the stakes become higher with executive level decision making.   Surrounding yourself with people who can make you more successful can be a double-edged sword when the perceived performance of those around you is not as successful as you would hope. Their perceived lack of integrity in their own performance now reflects on your ability to succeed in the eyes of others.

When evaluating, or considering changes with a senior leader, this “perception ladder”  overlaid upon the personal bond that has developed between yourself and the senior leader over time, does indeed create a considerable challenge.

Moving Forward:

Succession planning teaches us more than preparing for the eventual retirement of a key employee. An effective succession planning program ensures leadership continuity and the ability to build talent from within an organization. A key aspect of this ability is a focus upon competencies.

Competency in its pure form seeks to define underlying characteristics of an employee. Items such as skills, description of role, knowledge required, etc. is expected to lead to superior performance.  Competency models can therefore help to clarify differences between prescribed levels of performance.

Competencies can also be developed in a visionary form, helping to pinpoint what is required of key employees to be successful into the future. The discovered gap between current and future competencies clearly spell developmental needs for the individual, and on an aggregate basis, the entire organization.

More recently, use of competencies have also been extended used to link and align the organization and its culture to performance of each position. 

I see a competency framework within three specific groups.

• Universal (required of everyone within the organization.   Emphasis upon brand, culture, and values of the organization are stressed here)
• Leadership (measured from all employees in a supervisory, management, or leadership  responsibility of people or programs)
• Individual (focused on knowledge, skill, ability, and experience relative to the specific position)

Channeling the perceptions of others into a formatted series of competency checks can be effective at controlling runaway perceptions based upon factors other than indicators of true success.   When evaluating a senior leader, look outside of your relationship with this coworker, friend, and key employee. Ask yourself, 

“How is this senior leaders ability to succeed based upon universal, leadership, and individual competencies as viewed by those around them?”  

A self evaluation by the senior leader and a separate independent assessment by you will complete the circle of knowledge.

Delegating at a senior level brings new and more dangerous implications.  When its good, wow, life is good and you succeed.  But, when it’s bad, yes, it’s really bad.  And when delegating goes bad at a senior level, it is more difficult to unravel and repair, and it impacts you personally.

• Who is a senior level leader you delegate to?
• What competencies exist where you assess delegating?
• Where is delegation with a senior leader in trouble?
• When do you apply competencies to assess delegation success?
• How will you approach a senior leader who is failing?

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.

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.

It’s Now Or Never

If you are old enough, you know who made this phrase famous.  I can hear Elvis singing “Tomorrow will be too late...it's now or never...”.  Elvis was so good at what he did, he only needed a first name to be memorialized forever.

As a Leader, we will also be remembered, for our Decisions, both good and poor.  But have you ever been with a Leader who just can not make a decision?  I wrote earlier of Life Is Full Of Choices...make one.  We learned “Rare Leaders™ must be Decisive”.  In my message Freedom Lies In Being Bold, I suggested “failure in Decision making is sometimes a Bold tool”. 

As Leaders, the opportunity to make Decisions is present at every moment.  We occasionally make Decisions quickly, or sometimes we have days to prepare.  Some Decisions are obvious, and some leave us with anxiety similar to buyers remorse.  We have made Decisions showering us with praise, and we have unfortunately made Decisions darkening us with blame.  We find the loneliness of Decision making is not for the meek.

In his short story “Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner”, Alan Sillitoe describes a young boy who uses running as a method of both an emotional and a physical escape from the bleak prospects and few interests of his personal life.  It was Sillitoe’s intention from the start to make Colin Smith deliberately lose the race. If he had won the race, he wouldn’t have been half the man he was. He had to lose.  He had to fail, in order to win.

Carrying the burden of making Decisions is heavy, especially when you carry the lives, and futures of so many people with you.  In this way, great Leaders carry a tremendous responsibility to others in their Decisions.  How do you find a healthy emotional and physical escape from the responsibility of your deliberate Decisions?  Because, looking back on your actions, you must have no regrets.  

You are a leader.  To be a Rare Leader™, you must make  deliberate Decisions, without regret, every day, every minute, with every breath you take.  That’s what Rare Leaders™ do.

1. Who makes Decisions without Regret?
2. What is your healthy escape from making Decisions?
3. Where do you see Decisions not being made?
4. When will you make deliberate Decisions?
5. How will your Decisions impact others?

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.

Freedom Lies In Being Bold

Be Bold he said.  

She said to be Decisive.  

Feel Passionate and Free they told me. 

Robert Frost claims “Freedom lies in being bold”. 

Theodore Roosevelt wrote, “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat.”

"No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess", penned Isaac Newton.

"Be bold when others are scared.” claimed Thomas J. Powell

When making decisions, Life can be a very lonely.  

The taste of this freedom Frost speaks of; from being stuck in neutral, drives the Rare Leader™ to move forward, to be bold, and win glorious triumphs, even if checkered by failure.  After all, stuck in neutral brings no chance of success, only fear of repeated failure.  And, in the competitive marketplace of our new economy, repeated failure does not bode well.

I was 12 at the time.  My friends and I were selected by our parents to study the Catechism of the Lutheran Church.  Not many children are able to choose their own faith and which church or religion to follow.  At this young formative age, our parents make that choice for us. 

I remember sitting in Mike’s dad’s car.  Nolan had picked us up from Jr. High School to deliver us to church for class.  With Mike in the front, we sat in the back seat. 

In 1966, Nolan’s Mercury Park Lane cruiser had a rear window that rolled down.  Not the rear door window, but the rear window overlooking the trunk.  I’ll always remember that car, because of the long ride that first day of Catechism class.  We were all so very quiet, unusual for these four 7th graders.  

We were not certain why we were going, and what we would be expected to learn, but we knew the choice to attend had been made for us.  

I’ll also remember that ride in the Mercury cruiser, because Nolan smoked cigarettes.  He smoked as if his life depended on it.  And since our ability to live on depended on our not smoking, that rear window was our life saver.  

Pastor Hoven welcomed us that day.  For two years we made the trip to class.  And we learned about the ten commandments, the creed, the sacraments, prayers and confession.  We committed everything to memory, so we could pass the public examination and wear those white robes on confirmation day.  

I can still recite most of what I learned, and it became the foundation of my faith today.  However, perhaps the most valuable lesson was not found in the small handbook we carried for two years.  

At some point in our studies, something - somewhere must have happened.  Im guessing there was a major event in world news, politics, community, our church, or with a family member of our class.  The details of this triggering event has since escaped me.  But the impromptu lesson Pastor Hoven delivered that day as he put down the teachers manual, and strayed from the syllabus, changed my life forever.  

He taught “Freedom to Fail”. 

It was short, and for some reason it stuck.  Life, he began, is filled with choices you must make.  Not all of your choices can, or will be the best. 

I challenge you he said, to be bold, and speak loudly in your choice, and move forward, out of neutral.  If you fail, God will pick you up, and help you try again to make a better decision.  “That’s it?” I mumbled to myself.  I thought there must be more.

Pastor Hoven challenged us to live our lives on both sides of this story.  Be bold he said, make the best decision you can, and if you fail, someone who cares for you will be there to pick you up, dust you off, and encourage you to try again.  In that same way, look to your friends, your family or even a stranger who tries to be bold in their decision, but fails.  Be there to pick them up, dust them off, and help and encourage them to try again.  

With this lesson of a “Freedom to Fail”, the fear of repeated failure blows away, like foul cigarette smoke through that rear window of your life, and the fresh air of a new chance to try again with a better chance for success fills you with a Freedom you will taste forever.

I made this “Freedom to Fail” a granite building block in my personal foundation for Leading others.  I have used this lesson with my children, with friends, with colleagues, with clients, and with those rising stars on my Teams, who helped to make me successful.  

Remember, as a Rare Leader™, you must move toward a  solution, and be willing to take a risk.  Be Bold.  There’s a great freedom out there. 

1. Who is there to pick you up if you fail?
2. What decisions have brought you failure?
3. Where can you find fresh air to try again after failure?
4. When did you pick up others who failed with their decision?
5. How will you help others who fail in their decisions?

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.