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.

My Boss Is Relentless

When I asked Tim what was on his mind, he really opened up.  

“I love my job.  I really do.  But there are some things that make it really unbearable.  I mean, I’m really good at what I do.  Well, that’s what my friends tell me.  The company is great, and I believe in our products.  From what I see, we are in a great position to grow, and I could have seen myself happy here for a long time...could have. You see, it’s her fault.  You’ve met her.  Yeah, my Boss.  Wait, I’m not saying she’s a bad person.  I’ve met her husband and kids, and they all seem really happy when they’re together.  Her brother works here too.  He’s also an owner, and he’s not like her.  You see, she’s quite bright.   No, actually she’s brilliant.  She’s patented several of our formulas and is respected industry wide.  But my issue is that she’s relentless.  She is all over me.  I just can’t seem to be doing enough to please her.  I don’t know how the others do it. I cant take it.  Yes, that’s why I’m leaving.  You need to help me”

I first met Tim at one of my networking events - “1,2,3@5”.  This is an open networking event I host 4 times each year, attended by a few hundred people.  It’s fabulous networking, and has been labeled as the “premiere networking event” in the business community.  But, it is not the place for confidential coaching.  So when Tim was introduced to me he said, “Steve, I have been wanting to meet you.  Based upon your success Coaching other executives, I know you are the right person to help me.”  I thanked Tim for the gracious compliment in front of the few gathered in our circle near the entrance, and suggested we meet soon to chat in private.  When we met a week later, Tim told me his story, and diagnosed what he felt was his issue.

When I am engaged with a career coaching client, so many times  the client will tell me they love their job, but they can’t work for their Boss.  It’s always the Boss’s fault.  Yeah, that’s right.  Typically this is the Boss who built up a nice $100m business, is admired by the community, and is followed by a growing number of successful “C” level leaders.  We have all met this Leader.  To be this successful, many times they embody most of the behaviors of the Rare Leader™.  

So why then, does Tim, and perhaps many of you have this identical issue?  First, let’s be honest and cut to the truth.  Many times people who self diagnose their issues are the worst doctors.  They locate all sorts of cuts and bruises and apply nice looking band-aids, and take ibuprofen, and all seems well...for a day or two.  These self diagnosers never find the core issues beneath these symptoms of pain and discomfort.  It is far too difficult to look inside yourself with any deep effective level of an unbiased assessment.

Tim, while thinking this was all about his Boss, had self diagnosed himself to be distant from the problem.  After all, this Millennial has what it takes.  A nice degree, a quality internship, a good family legacy in business, and after 18 months on the job, Tim is ready for the world.  He does not have the patience to be treated like a kid by his Boss.  Tim  sees himself ready to be anointed for greatness.

One of the behaviors that made Tim’s boss successful was her Achievement Drive.  As one of the 12 behaviors of the Rare Leader™, she knew she needed to achieve, and realized she needed to lead others to achieve.  She had Goal Clarity from her collaborative work with her Team.  Tim knew she was persistent.  But Tim only saw her persistence as pushing and prodding and “bugging him”, rather than her actually trying to motivate him to also be decisive and take action.  Tim was so self involved, that he did not see that Kate’s pushing and prodding made those around her successful too.  In reality, Tim was too selfish to see his Boss cared so much for him that she was making every effort to help him succeed.  

Now, after several Coaching sessions, Tim was hoping it was not too late to revive his chances with Kate.  Had Kate given up on Tim?

1. Can YOU save your career?
2. Are your job frustrations someone else’s fault...or your own?
3. Are you too self involved to see others are trying to help you? 
4. Do you self diagnosed your problems at work?
5. Does your Team understand why you push and prod them to achieve?

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.

Achievement Drive - Is there some Mozart within you?

Have you ever been in the presence of someone who has this unmatched passion and drive to succeed at what they set out to do?  Don’t you look at them and feel this huge “aha” moment, and wish it were you?  We typically apply this to a high achieving athlete, such as an NFL quarterback capping a long drive with a touchdown, the top ranked tennis player at the Open winning on a tiebreaker, or the basketball player, who during a time out huddle in overtime says to the coach...”give me the ball, I will score”....and they do, and he does.

From somewhere deep inside, these gifted athletes draw upon a strong quality enabling them to step up and deliver.  We tend to look at them as “at the moment performers”.  When they need to turn it on, they can.  But what we athletic mortals do not understand, is that they do not turn this high achievement drive on and off.    They will tell you they are ON, all the time.

My father, who was a gifted musician always spoke of that “Mozart within us”.  He believed that all of us have been given the gift from God to be just like Mozart at something.  You might know, that Mozart as a five year old wrote his first composition, Andante in C.  We might think of outstanding, once in a lifetime athletes as having found their Mozart.  Maybe it is so evident because they take their gift a bit more public as evidenced in their high achievement drive to succeed.

Have you found your own Mozart within you?

If you were a Mozart at athletics, we would know who you are.    However, maybe you have a Mozart gift giving you the ability to lead.  If you are a Rare Leader™ I suspect you have found a bit of that Mozart within you.  Why not “be like Mike”, and ask for the ball and Lead others.  Show everyone you have the same High Achievement Drive to succeed in leading an organization, and in leading other successful people.

As a Rare Leader™, you must show you have the ability and energy to release a strong commitment and persistence from within.  This is only possible when you have goal clarity supporting your need to achieve.  This is driven from an unrest - to push, prod, and motivate others, taking decisive action.

1. Do you believe there is a Mozart in all of us?
2. Are you a Leader who “wants the ball”?
3. Do you feel you have High Achievement Drive?
4. Can you release a strong commitment and persistence from within?
5. Is your need to achieve guided by goal clarity?
6. Are you driven to push, prod, and motivate others to take decisive action?

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

Contact Steve Riege via: twitter, or his website.

But, Do I Have To Like People To Be A Leader?

We have concluded one of the twelve behaviors of the Rare Leader™ is to be high in “relationships”.  The quick response from some people has been...”so what you’re telling me, is that if I don’t like to be around people I can’t lead?”  

I’ve heard feedback on assessments when I review candidates for an Executive Leadership opportunity for a client...

• If my MBTI shows me to be an “E” rather than an “I”, am I doomed to be in the trenches, rather than leading the troops?  
• My DiSC profile shows me to be a lower “I”, should I see this as an indication I can not influence the people I lead?
• My Culture Index profile indicates I am a lower “B”.    Because I like to think and focus on the tasks at hand rather than socialize shouldn’t be interpreted that I can not lead.

Now what? 

While there is a great amount of reality that Leaders interact with people, and establish that mutual trust between them, it is not intended the “relationship” behavior of the Rare Leader™ be an emphasis on social skills and desires.

However, the Rare Leader™ is always dealing with people, displaying the ability to listen, to understand, and to respond.  The Rare Leader™ uses intuition to sense what people are feeling and thinking.  The Rare Leader™ is able to recognize different behavioral styles proving he or she can focus on others rather than themselves.

Sometimes, “E’s”, or higher “I’s”, or higher “B’s” struggle leading others.  Perhaps their personal focus is on the social side of working with others rather than actually leading.  

This high “sociability” might even mask their inability to establish a trusting relationship, disabling any intuitive skill to sense what motivates their Team, or to understand and appropriately respond to differing styles of behavior.  After all, the key to utilizing these assessment profiles is understanding how you can affect others, and how to sense and interact with others.

So let’s make a deal here...

1. Don’t take the popular assessment tools at face value as an indicator of Leadership.  We need to understand what they really mean.
2. Social Skills are not the same as “relationship” behaviors and abilities.
3. Consider these important questions;

• Do you have the ability to listen to people?
• Can you understand what others are trying to communicate to you?
• Are you able to respond effectively to others?
• Are your intuitive skills heightened?
• Can you sense what people are thinking or feeling?
• Can you recognize differing behavioral styles in people you lead?
• Do you focus on the success of others as well as your self?

Check back with us soon, to discover and share more about your answers to these questions.

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.