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.

Look Before You Leap

“I’m Decisive.  I own this company and I am expected to make decisions.”  Is this you?  

Or does this sound familiar?  “You spend so much time trying to figure out what to do, that nothing gets done.  I didn’t hire you to sit around and do nothing”.

Jack was stunned as he listened to Julie and Robert.

Jack owns a very successful business.  Its been in the family for two generations before him, and his two children will carry it into the fourth generation.  Jack has already made that decision.   After all, Jack plans to retire someday, and as part of his exit strategy Julie and Robert will need to begin their preparations.  

Jack decided Julie should finish her degree in finance.  Her math skills are top notch, and she is at the top of her class in the business school.  Robert will need to apply himself more.  He will be taking over sales, because Robert is such a great people person, just like his grandfather.  Jacks dad Bill likes to stay involved, so Bill will be mentoring Robert in sales.  

Jack will require both Julie and Robert to spend some time at other business to learn more without the family ties and platform of favoritism.  Jack has already made those connections and arrangement with a few friends from his country club. 

Jack told his wife Susan that with these decisions, the retirement is in place, and his name on the door of this well known business will pass on to another generation.  “A perfect plan”, Jack said.

Susan agreed that the plan sounded wonderful.  Her vision of this business has always been for she and Jack to retire earlier than most of their friends, and begin to travel and enjoy a second home in a warmer climate.  In fact, Susan was in negotiations on the purchase of this second home in Arizona.

Jack engaged me to work with Julie and Robert.  He wanted my coaching expertise guiding them along as they finished college, worked a few years outside the company, and then began their careers in the family business.  

In my first meeting with Jack, he told me of the decisions he had made.  He was quite proud.  After all, he learned the importance of being Decisive after attending one of my seminars  focused on the twelve behaviors of the Rare Leader™.    Yes, Jack had learned pretty well.  He and Susan had their Vision as owners.  Jack had a natural Drive to Succeed, a Positive Outlook, and he was now displaying his Decisiveness.  He had also mastered several other behaviors of the Rare Leader™.  

However Jack missed the bell on the balance between Planning and Execution.  This is why I titled this program the Rare Leader™.  Great leaders may possess great skill levels in some or most of these behaviors, but it is very seldom (if ever) that someone can actually master a perfect score at all twelve behaviors of the Rare Leader™.  That is why I call it Rare.

I asked Jack about his planning process to have created this perfect plan.  Jack explained how easy this had been.  Considering his vision, the academic success of his children, and the ability to pass the business on to the next generation, there wasn’t much planning needed.  He saw the opportunity, and made the important decisions.

I asked Jack how Julie and Robert felt about the plan.  Jack told me how excited they both would be.  He knew they admired him, and shared the pride of the success and reputation of the family business.  I caught the words “would be” and paused, looking for words to place in my next delicate question.  So, Jack, as I understand you, Julie and Robert are not aware of your plan?  Have they not been involved in the planning?  “No, not yet” he answered, “but we’ll be telling them this morning when I introduce you to them”.

Jack was stunned as he listened to Julie and Robert.

Jack opened the meeting with his children very well.  “Have you each been thinking about your life after college”, he asked?(Remember the sage old advice, to not ask a question unless you know the answer?)  Jack had not anticipated Julie and Robert’s answer would be different than the answer he had already decided they would make.

Julie had come home this weekend to announce she was accepting an internship with a large financial research firm in New York.  Part of her excitement included the continued employment that typically is granted to successful interns.  Robert had thought very carefully about his education.  His aptitude scores helped him confirm his decision to follow his passion into Ministry.  He would be making his applications soon to seminary.

Jack was stunned...

Julie and Robert had grown up watching the anguish and fighting between uncles and aunts fighting over what their father Bill had built, only to see the older child Jack walk away with the reins to the family business.  Christmas was never the same any more.  Vacations were not spent with their cousins like the good old days.  They saw the tension and heartache of running a family business, and both Julie and Robert had decided long ago to never go into the family business and take a chance of hurting their own close relationship together.

Stunned...

What about working in the family business?  What about the fourth generation?  What about my Vision?  What about...

What about the planning portion of executing a decision?  

1. Does your Decisiveness take you away from good Planning?
2. Does your Planning include key partners affected by your Vision?
3. What could Jack have done differently?
4. What other behaviors of the Rare Leader™ should be exercised when discovering the fine balance between Planning and Execution?

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.

Stuck In The Moment

I left a lengthy session with a client deeply involved in their strategic planning process.  When I say deeply, I mean way over the top.  They asked me to help them finish the plan.  They felt they were too close to the task at hand to hold themselves accountable to the finish line.

This is a company that has experienced great growth.  Ownership felt they needed to put some type of plan together rather than run in the direction of hot sales as they have on the past.  

So here they are - planning, and planning, and planning.  Meanwhile, the world and all of those hot sales are passing them by.  Everyone is committed to planning, leaving no one to keep the business flowing.  Operations are slowing down, designs  contain more errors, and the road warriors are not on the road selling.  All the key players are focused on planning their future.  And, just as they dove in and pursued the hot sales during the infancy of their company, they are now driven and focused on the planning efforts.  However, they have become “stuck in the moment” of all the planning...and they “can’t get out of it”.

In Leadership, there is a time to realize the balance between planning and execution needs an adjustment.  Todd the CEO, realized this at the quarterly review when studying the running 12 month reports on sales, backlog, errors, and manufacturing.  

Then he called me...

As we worked through activities of the past few months, it was clear the collaboration process and Team involvement on the strategic plan had taken leadership control away from Todd.  We worked through the symptoms to the core issues.  Todd found his leadership had been absent while he was allowing all the planning activities to take over the momentum of his Team away from their focus on execution.  

Todd was faced with two challenges.  First, he needed to get his Team engaged in the tasks at hand.  Secondly, the Team needed to put some of their planning to work and begin to execute some of their action steps.  

As time has passed, Todd is leading again.  Sales are coming in.  Quality is on track.  Manufacturing is in process.  And, there are  some elements of the strategic plan completed.

The Rare Leader™ is able to blend all twelve of the key behaviors, and balance them with, and against each other.  

The Rare Leader™ is also able to 

discern the fragile balance between planning and execution.

1. Are you “Stuck in the Moment”?
2. When you are stuck, are you able to “get out of it”?
3. How do you prevent getting “stuck”
4. What tools and resources can you use to identify and maintain the proper balance between planning and execution?

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.

Are You Planning To Execute?

There is this fine balance in everything we do.  There are decisions to be made.  Each moment of our life requires execution to some degree on every breath, every movement,  every thought, and of course every action.  Some execution comes with an instantaneous decision.  And then there are some points of execution that were the results of long, laborious planning.  Yes, there is that fine balance in planning and executiuon.  

How much time, effort and resource do you put into making a decision and leaping into action?

When your execution results in leading others, your discernment of this fine line between planning and execution is now affecting others, compounding the stress of getting it right.

I recently presented a sales training seminar on the topic of “Why Sales People Fail”.  In this portion of the five part series, I focused upon the “failure of sales people to operate from an accountable, written plan”.  The necessity of a clear and focused direction is paramount.

Preparing a personal business plan requires six essential steps.

• Assess strengths and obstacles
• Articulate a strategy 
• Align resources
• Focus your effort
• Deploy resources
• Revisit, Revise, Remain

Step two, “articulating a strategy” is where the planning takes place.  Working on the triad of a foundation of "where you are",  a Vision of "where you want to be", and an action plan of "how to get there", prepares you to move from planning to execution.

When preparing your personal business plan, whether it is for selling, or what ever your vocation may be, these six steps will help you define the fine balance from planning to execution.  In the end, your Team will see you as visionary, decisive, with high achievement drive, and they will follow you.  It’s one of the reasons you are a Leader...perhaps a Rare Leader™.

When it comes to planning - remember - The Rare Leader™ has the keen ability to lay out clear plans and organize people and resources.  The Rare Leader™ will display a balance between planning and execution, meaning = how and why to plan, and how and why to take action.

Perhaps it is time for you to define that fine line.

1. Do you sometimes find yourself “frozen” in the planning mode and unable to take action?
2. Do you find that sometimes you took action too quickly and perhaps some careful planning would have been in order?
3. Do you have a process to plan?  (This process can enable you to move thoroughly, but quickly from planning to execution)
4. Are you balanced between planning and execution?

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.

Passion is...

Ready, set, go.  Everybody have their list in front of them?  who wants to go first?  Ok, go ahead...define passion.  Hmmm...That’s what I thought.  When you really have to put it down on paper, or describe it to a group, it’s not that easy is it?

That happened to me as I sat down to write about Passion.  When I think about defining Passion as I am driving, or getting ready to start my day, I can see it so clearly I can almost taste it.  Passion.  But when I sit down and attempt to put pen to paper, I get writers cramp or something else that gives me pause.

You are probably like me.  When you see someone who is Passionate about something, you can tell.  No one has to say “Wow, that Pastor Gable is so passionate about the word of God when he preaches”.  If you were to have dinner with Bud Selig as I did, you can tell the commisioner is very Passionate about baseball.  Even my five year old grandson Mason gets passionate about things in his young life that matter so dearly to him.  

So how do you define Passion?  The answer is that you don’t.  Thats the wonderful thing about it.  When you meet someone who has Passion, it doesn’t require definition.  It is so obvious, because it comes so easy and naturally to the person you have observed.

When a Leader Takes Ownership with Passion, it is no secret.  We can all see the obvious.

Think about the other side.  Some people approach their role as a leader with pain.  It hurts to watch them, let alone actually work for them.  They simply don’t care.  When it’s crunch time, they hope somebody else will step up and make it happen.  Goals are not met, no one is held accountable, sales suffer, good employees leave, and still, the leader without Passion takes no responsibility to assure success.

Taking Ownership of assuring success combines responsibility with passion.  Being passionate about your job as a leader almost eliminates the need to discuss responsibility.  That’s why Passion is so important when the Rare Leader Takes Ownership.

When John Gable preaches with Passion, it is because he has prepared, he believes he has been called, and he actually loves what he does.  Bud Selig has loved baseball all his life.  He invested his own money to buy a professional team.  He knows why baseball is Americas past time.  

They are passionate because this is “their Mozart”.  Thats what my dad called it.  He was a classically trained musician.  He was certain God created something very special and unique for every individual.  How else could Mozart compose his first composition, Andante in C, at age five?  Unfortunately, not everyone finds it.  But when they do find that Mozart in themselves, they Take Ownership with Passion.

What is the Mozart in you?  Is Leading organizations and people touch that Mozart in you?  If so, then Take Ownership of Leading, and do it with Passion.    

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.

Give Me The Ball

There’s 10 seconds left in the game.  We’re down by 2 points.  This is the championship.  This is what we have worked so hard all year long to accomplish.  It was our BHAG.  

And then, during the timeout, someone speaks up and says it.  He looks at everyone in the huddle, and says those four words.  “Give me the ball”.  It is at that moment you realize someone has taken over.  When it really matters, he announces he is taking ownership of the crucial score. He is telling us if he makes the three pointer we win.  If he misses the shot, if he is anything but perfect for 10 seconds, he is to blame.  And...he is ok with that responsibility.  

Make it we win, and perhaps he is a hero.  Miss it, and the season os over, and the spotlight of blame is on one person.

Would you interpret this scenario as an analogy to “Taking Ownership” at work?

You’ve been there.  It is a crucial moment.  The Board meeting begins in moments, and there is one more question we had not expected.  Or, just before you reach an agreement on the details of a large sale the buyer throws in one more twist.  You tell others...”give me the ball, I’ve got this one”.

I will agree with you that this is a time where someone takes ownership of finding the right answer, or meeting the terms to create that sale.  However, the Rare Leader™ will be found Taking Ownership differently.  

As a leader, Taking Ownership is not about you taking the final shot.  This is about you leading others.  The Rare Leader™ understands the importance of accepting responsibility as a Leader, not as the MVP. A Rare Leader™ of people, and of organizations reaches pinnacles of success by finding others who will step up to be the MVP.  

The Rare Leader™ will fill the organization with people who are passionate about taking responsibility for choices, feeling, thinking, and in everything they do.  The Rare Leader™ provides an example, so others on the Team will stop blaming others for their own decisions, and will teach them to be responsible for who they are.  The Rare Leader™ will initiate this type of change of culture in their organization because they believe in themselves.

Have you ever heard this prophesy? “The greatest sales people may not make the greatest leaders.”  Great sales people are really successful at selling, because they are passionate about selling.  They love being the MVP of the sale.  They love the hunt, the harvest, and they love devouring the fruit of success.  

If I am a Rare Leader™, my team hopes being the greatest performer at my "craft" was not the top qualifier for the job.  My team does not need the MVP as their Leader.  My Team needs a Rare Leader™ who is passionate about making them the MVP at what they do.  My Team needs a leader to Take Ownership of making the entire team and the entire organization successful.  

I need to Take Ownership of Leading others.

1. Have you ever wanted the ball as time was running out?
2. Have you ever been the MVP?
3. Have you hired an MVP?
4. Have you led a Team of MVP’s?
5. Are you a Rare Leader™ who is passionate about Taking Ownership in leading 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.

Taking Ownership

The Rare Leader™ willingly takes an initiative and acceptance of accountability, using intelligence and an enterprising attitude to figure out “how” to do it without being told.

F. John Reh writes in "Take Ownership of Your Job" http://bit.ly/bTecG5 , “Being passionate about your job is more than the old adage "do what you love". It's looking forward to going to work. It's time flying by when you're there. It's working past quitting time, not because you're swamped with work, but because you were so intent you didn't notice the time.

When you are passionate about what you do for a living you enjoy it more. You also do it better. You are more committed to the success of the operation if you believe in it passionately.”

Accepting responsibility for your own actions is simply not enough.  Taking Ownership combines responsibility with passion.  In fact, being passionate about your job as a leader almost eliminates the need to discuss responsibility.  Responsibility seems to invoke a forced action.  When you are passionate about leading, taking responsibility for your actions comes naturally.  It is...Taking Ownership in leading others.

Taking Ownership of your actions as a Leader matter! 

Do you naturally, and with passion:

• Accept responsibility as a leader?
• Accept that you are responsible for the choices you make?
• Accept that you are responsible for how you feel?
• Accept that you are responsible for what you think?
• Accept that you are responsible for what you do?
• Accept that you are responsible for the goals, direction and vision for your life?
• Accept that you cannot blame others for the decisions you have made?
• Accept that you are responsible for who you are?
• Accept that you are responsible to initiate change?

Leaders, more than anyone else, need to Take Ownership...with passion...Do you?  

This is what helps to make you a 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.

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.