Mar

16

Focus your communication on the why and less on the how….

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Kevin’s Eikenberry has a great post that caught my eye titled "What to Communicate" discussing the importance of communication to leaders. I really believe that we do not spend enough time figuring out the why before we move on to figure out the how. Kevin reminds us of this principle by providing the following rule of thumb:

Communicate why before how, and don’t switch too soon….. In most organizations and teams the ‘why’ is missing. When the why is strong enough, the how will be figured out. Besides, if you are trying to empower your organization, as a leader you probably need to spend less time on how anyway…. Focus more of your communication and conversation on why and less on how.

A similar view is expressed by Annette Clancy from the blog Interactions in the post "The Management/Leadership Conversation", who makes the following observation:

"In order to follow I need to know ‘why’ and once we’ve worked out the ‘why’ I want to know what the implications are. Lots of people can manage, but leaders do things in their own inimitable way. Too many ‘leaders’ are really managers who are preoccupied with the ‘how’ and the ‘what’."

 

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The importance of spending time to understand the why before the how is discussed in detail in Peter Block’s book “The Answer to How is Yes”, some of the reasons Peter gives in his book, to support focusing on the why are:

 

  • "We often avoid the question of whether something is worth doing by going straight to the question ‘How do we do it?’"
  • "Too often when a discussion is dominated by by questions of How? we risk overvaluing what is practical and doable and postpone the questions of larger purpose…"
  • "…engage in conversations about why we do what we do….. create the space for longer discussions about purpose, about what is worth doing. It would refocus our attention on deciding what is the right question, rather than what is the right answer."

 

  • Are you acting on what matters?
  • Are you acting on what’s worth doing?
  • Are you giving priority to what matters?
  • how will the world be different tomorrow as a result of what we do today?

 

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Dec

15

Moving from BHAG to CCAG….

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I am a firm believer that clarity is a necessary ingredient for great leadership. I was first convinced of the importance of clarity to leaders by Marcus Buckingham in his article "The Clear Leader". Recently Tom Peters in his post "From BHAG to CCAG" discusses the importance of clarity….

"The book Built to Last made popular the concept of the "BHAG"—the "Big Hairy Audacious Goal."… You know what the problem is with BHAGs? They’re big and hairy…. I’m all for lofty goals and stretching, but I continually see a problem, in practice, with Built to Last’s BHAG. Instead of being excited and motivated by the BHAG, team members are often confused and disillusioned. BHAGs are often half-baked and poorly communicated.

What I often hear about BHAGs from employees in client companies are things like, "We can’t keep up with the workload now. What will happen if we achieve this growth?" or, "I’m not sure what this means to me. What am I supposed to do to help us reach this goal?" or, "I’m not really sure what the goal is. It sounds visionary, but I don’t get it."

I looked back at the article where Jim Collins and Jerry Porras first mentioned the BHAG ["Building Your Company’s Vision," Harvard Business Review, September-October 1996]. They defined that the BHAG must be ‘clear and compelling.’ Too bad these all-important words have been lost in translation.

I suggest we replace the idea of the Big Hairy Audacious Goal with the CCAG—the Clear and Compelling Audacious Goal.

The CCAG is just as lofty and just as much of a stretch as the BHAG. But it is more likely to be achieved, because more people will understand it and be motivated by it.

How clear and compelling are your organization’s goals to your team members? Are these goals ‘big and hairy’ or ‘clear and compelling’?"

I support Tom’s call to move from BHAGs to CCAGs… Clarity is of crucial importance considering the high volumes of information, media and marketing we’re bombarded with every day.

 

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Dec

15

Clarity the key to employee engagement

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Management-Issues published an article, "Clarity the key to employee engagement" reporting on research by HR consultancy Watson Wyatt that found that…

"… a poll of 14,000 employees across Europe has suggested that those companies that provide their employees with a clear ‘line of sight’ when it comes to vision and direction tend to have a much more committed, engaged and productive workforce….. Organisations with superior financial performance measured by total shareholder return, market premium and employee productivity will, more often than not, have a more engaged workforce…. The most important driver for ensuring employee engagement was strategic direction, with other key drivers of engagement being employer communication, the attention given to customer focus within the organisation and performance management….. "Business leaders who articulate the business strategy give employees a clear ‘line of sight’ to how they can best contribute to the performance of their company," said Andrew Cocks, a senior consultant at Watson Wyatt."

This research provide further confirmation of the importance of clarity to successful leadership.  How clear and compelling are your goals to your team?

 

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Nov

26

Marcus Buckingham outlines the core concepts of superior leadership

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clarity

Photo by by _Neverletmego_

 

An article "The Clear Leader" from Fast Company discusses research conducted by Marcus Buckingham, author of First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths, on the heart of leadership. Based upon his research Marcus Buckingham, maps out the core concepts that mark superior leadership as follows:

  • Leaders are Compelled by the Future - "There’s something unique and different that makes a leader, and it’s not about creativity or courage or integrity. As important as they are, you can have those attributes and still fail to be a great leader. A leader’s job is to rally people toward a better future. Leaders can’t help but change the present, because the present isn’t good enough. They succeed only when they find a way to make people excited by and confident in what comes next……..  With leaders, the future calls to them in a voice they can’t drown out. The future is more real than the present; it compels them to act."
  • Turn Anxiety into Confidence - "For a leader, the challenge is that in every society ever studied, people fear the future. The future is unstable, unknown, and therefore potentially dangerous. So in order to succeed, leaders must engage our fear of the unknown and turn it into spiritedness. By far the most effective way to turn fear into confidence is to be clear — to define the future in such vivid terms that we can see where we are headed. Clarity is the antidote to anxiety, and therefore clarity is the preoccupation of the effective leader. If you do nothing else as a leader, be clear."
  • Be Clear about Whom You Serve - "Leaders can be wrong. They can’t be confusing. If we are going to follow you into the future, we need to know precisely whom we are trying to please. It’s a scary thing to please all of the people all of the time. So to calm our fear, we need you to narrow our focus. Tell us who will be judging our success. When you do this with clarity, you give us confidence — confidence in our judgment, in our decisions, and ultimately in our ability to know where to look to determine if we have fulfilled our mission."
  • Be Clear About Why You’re Going to Win - "….As a leader, your job is to make people more confident about the future you’re dragging them into. To that end, you need to tell them why they’re going to win. There are many competitors out there. Why will we beat them? There are many obstacles in our path. Why will we overcome them? The more clearly you can answer these questions, the more confident we will be, and therefore the more resilient, the more persistent, and the more creative…. Even if it doesn’t incorporate all the reality of the world, find the edge — one edge — and talk about it all the time…."
  • Keep Your Core Score - "…clarity is lost if you end up looking at 15 different metrics. It’s a terrible leadership failure to tell your employees that all of these measurements are important. When followers are presented with numerous scores, they get confused. The job of a leader is to say, ‘Of all the things we measure, this is the most important.’"
  • If You Want to be Clear, Act - "Of course, a leader must take action — action leads to impact. But actions also possess a separate, equally powerful quality. Actions are unambiguous. If you, the leader, can highlight a few carefully selected actions, then your followers will no longer have to infer the future from theoretical pronouncements about "core values" or your "mission statement." We will simply look to see what actions you take and found our faith and confidence on these. But be aware that we respond best to two types of action: symbolic action and systemic action… Symbolic action is just that — a representation of what the future can look like. Symbolic action grabs our attention; it gives us something new and vivid on which to focus."

 

I have previously posted on the importance of clarity for successful leadership (here, here, here and here). Have you acted yet? Are you clear on why you’re doing what you’re doing? Is your team clear?

 

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Oct

29

Companies Need Less Communication…. Not More!

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I couldn’t agree more with David Woods who makes the point that Companies Need Less Communications… Not More!….

Companies don’t need more communication. They need more clarity.

  • Clarity of the vision of the company.

  • Clarity of where the company is going (long term and short term).

  • Clarity of HOW the company will get there.

  • Clarity of individual roles and how those roles create value toward the vision.

  • Clarity of how roles must intertwine in order to achieve extraordinary results.

  • Clarity of how the company will hold itself and each individual accountable.

When people ask leader to communicate they usually are looking for more clarity! Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) are not eliminated simply by communicating…. clarity of a leader’s values, purpose and vision is required to build the necessary levels of trust.

 

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Jul

15

Are you traveling without a map?

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Photo by Julalo

 

Jeffrey Phillips of Innovate on Purpose wrote an interesting post traveling without a map, in the post he talks about innovation and the importance of knowing where you’re going two topics that are central to leadership…

“… it is sort of like traveling without a map. If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there. Management teams have not been specific enough about their expectations for differentiation, growth and change in their organizations. Look at the most “innovative” firms. They have either charismatic leadership (Apple) or exceptionally clear guidelines for growth and differentiation (3M, P&G). The words and directions from these management teams filter down and create an understanding within the product teams and business units that focus the team on the right topics and help to drive out good ideas. Without good communications, clear goals and alignment to strategy, an innovation team or process will struggle - not because they don’t understand the process, but because the range of options and considerations is simply too large. Innovation teams and initiatives need clearly defined scope and outrageous expectations to help them focus on the right ideas to bring to market as new products and services…… The challenge most of these teams face isn’t structural or process per se, but the fact they deal in a significant amount of uncertainty due to poor goal setting and communication from their senior management teams as to what is important and how to prioritize the opportunities and challenges they face…”

If you don’t know where you’re going any map will take you there! It’s astounding how many teams and organisations lack clarity as to where they’re headed.

  • Is your team or organisation traveling without a map?
  • Is your map clear?
  • Is it specific?
  • Is it communicated on a regular basis?
  • Do you use your map to guide your decision making?

 

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Mar

7

Effective leadership requires clarity

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Clarity is important for effective leadership. Marcus Buckingham in a Fast Company article talks about the importance of clarity when leading, making the following observations.

  • Leaders are Compelled by the Future - A leader’s job is to rally people toward a better future….. They succeed only when they find a way to make people excited by and confident in what comes next….. With leaders, the future calls to them in a voice they can’t drown out. The future is more real than the present; it compels them to act.
  • Turn Anxiety into Confidence - For a leader, the challenge is that in every society ever studied, people fear the future. The future is unstable, unknown, and therefore potentially dangerous…. the most effective way to turn fear into confidence is to be clear — to define the future in such vivid terms that we can see where we are headed….. If you do nothing else as a leader, be clear.
  • Be Clear about Whom You Serve - Leaders can be wrong. They can’t be confusing. If we are going to follow you into the future, we need to know precisely whom we are trying to please.
  • Be Clear About Why You’re Going to Win - As a leader, your job is to make people more confident about the future you’re dragging them into. To that end, you need to tell them why they’re going to win. There are many competitors out there. Why will we beat them? There are many obstacles in our path. Why will we overcome them? The more clearly you can answer these questions, the more confident we will be, and therefore the more resilient, the more persistent, and the more creative… find the edge — one edge — and talk about it all the time. The more you talk about it, the more it becomes true.
  • Keep Your Core Score - …the one score that would track their progress toward a better future…. From a leadership standpoint, a score is actionable and unambiguous…. clarity is lost if you end up looking at 15 different metrics…. The job of a leader is to say, “Of all the things we measure, this is the most important.”
  • If You Want to be Clear, Act - Of course, a leader must take action — action leads to impact. But actions also possess a separate, equally powerful quality. Actions are unambiguous. If you, the leader, can highlight a few carefully selected actions, then your followers will no longer have to infer the future from theoretical pronouncements about “core values” or your “mission statement.” We will simply look to see what actions you take and found our faith and confidence on these. But be aware that we respond best to two types of action: symbolic action and systemic action. Symbolic action is just that — a representation of what the future can look like. Symbolic action grabs our attention; it gives us something new and vivid on which to focus…… For a leader, it’s important to disrupt routines. Systemic action changes behaviour. It makes people realize that the world is going to be different because they’re doing different things.

A similar concept is discussed by Chip and Dan Heath in their book “Made to Stick” which they call “Concreteness”. The idea is that ideas and concepts which are concrete and tangible have a greater chance of success. They make the point that:

“Abstraction makes it harder to understand an idea and to remember it. It also makes it harder to co-ordinate our activities with others, who may interpret the abstraction in different ways.”

What makes something concrete you may ask?

“If you can examine something with your senses, it’s concrete….. Most of the time, concreteness boils down to specific people doing specific things.”

In my experience too much of strategy remains abstract and conceptual. This leads to unchanged or conflicted behaviour, resulting in a gap between the vision and daily action. Effective change, effective leadership and effective strategy requires clarity and concreteness. Leaders need to be clear about who they serve, why they’re going to win, how progress will be measured and why they’re behaving differently. They need to live as concrete example of the future they’re seeking to create….!

Leaders need to be clear…… clear about their vision, clear about their intent, clear communication and clear in their actions. How clear are the leadership messages you’re sending? How concrete?

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Feb

27

The ten C’s of employee engagement

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I’ve posted before on the importance of engagement (here, here and here). I recently stumbled across an interesting article “The ten C’s of employee engagement” from The Ivey Business Journal which provides a number of insightful pointers as to what’s required to improve employee engagement. The authors describe an engaged employee as a person who:

“….is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about, his or her work…… Engaged employees care about the future of the company and are willing to invest the discretionary effort exceeding dutys call to see that the organization succeeds.”

The shocking part of the employee engagement challenge is that research indicates that only between 17% and 29% (depending on the research) of employees are actively engaged in their job at any one time. This would mean that if you were a soccer or football team only 2-3 players on the team would be 100% committed to the team’s success. It seems to me that the odds of winning a game with only 2-3 players 100% committed to a teams success are pretty slim!

So, “How can leaders engage employees’ heads, hearts, and hands?“, by starting to apply the following 10 C’s of employee engagement:

  1. Connect: Leaders must show that they value employees. Employee engagement is a direct reflection of how employees feel about their relationship with the boss.
  2. Career: Leaders should provide challenging and meaningful work with opportunities for career advancement. Most people want to do new things in their job. For example, do organizations provide job rotation for their top talent? Are people assigned stretch goals?
  3. Clarity: Leaders must communicate a clear vision. Success in life and organizations is, to a great extent, determined by how clear individuals are about their goals and what they really want to achieve. In sum, employees need to understand what the organization’s goals are, why they are important, and how the goals can best be attained.
  4. Convey: Leaders clarify their expectations about employees and provide feedback on their functioning in the organization.
  5. Congratulate: Exceptional leaders give recognition, and they do so a lot; they coach and convey.
  6. Contribute: People want to know that their input matters and that they are contributing to the organization’s success in a meaningful way. In sum, good leaders help people see and feel how they are contributing to the organization’s success and future.
  7. Control: Employees value control over the flow and pace of their jobs and leaders can create opportunities for employees to exercise this control. A feeling of “being in on things,” and of being given opportunities to participate in decision making often reduces stress; it also creates trust and a culture where people want to take ownership of problems and their solutions.
  8. Collaborate: Studies show that, when employees work in teams and have the trust and cooperation of their team members, they outperform individuals and teams which lack good relationships. Great leaders are team builders; they create an environment that fosters trust and collaboration.
  9. Credibility: Leaders should strive to maintain a company’s reputation and demonstrate high ethical standards.
  10. Confidence: Good leaders help create confidence in a company by being exemplars of high ethical and performance standards.

Looking at the above list it seems that many of the characteristics are about practicing effective leadership. To me employee engagement is not really about the employees, it’s really about effective leadership.

How engaged are the employees in your organisation? Are you leading effectively?

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Dec

10

The Importance of a Clear Leadership Philosophy

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Consistent leadership action and behaviour requires a clear leadership philosophy. Why? Well, because your leadership philosophy determines how you react to people and how you react to situations. Your leadership philosophy affects your behaviour and ultimately your leadership effectiveness. So what exactly is a leadership philosophy? Encarta defines philosophy as the:

  1. examination of basic concepts: the branch of knowledge or academic study devoted to the systematic examination of basic concepts such as truth, existence, reality, causality, and freedom
  2. school of thought: a particular system of thought or doctrine
  3. guiding or underlying principles: a set of basic principles or concepts underlying a particular sphere of knowledge
  4. set of beliefs or aims: a precept, or set of precepts, beliefs, principles, or aims, underlying somebody’s practice or conduct

Our leadership philosophy is a set of beliefs and principles, that strongly influence how we interpret reality and guide how we understand the way the world works. It’s our philosophy, our understanding and interpretation of leadership, that affects how we react to people, events and situations around us. How we think, determines how we behave! Steven Covey described this as the power of the space between stimulus and response:

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” - Stephen Covey

How we choose to respond, in the space we’re given, between stimulus and response, is greatly affected by our understanding of leadership, that is, it’s affected by our leadership philosophy.

The Key Components of a Leadership Philosophy

Research by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, described in their book “Built to Last” has shown that enduringly successful organisations have a clear leadership philosophy, the authors call this an organisation’s core ideology that they describe as:

“core values and sense of purpose beyond just making money - that guides and inspires people throughout the organisation and remains relatively fixed for long periods of time”

At it’s core, a leadership philosophy consists of a key set of beliefs, describing:

  • What you believe about people…
  • What you believe about life….
  • What you believe makes groups and organisations effective…

These three belief systems are expressed in our values, an ultimately how we behaviour, resulting in our unique leadership style. It’s these beliefs that guide how we choose to respond to people and situations. To be effective as leaders, it’s useful to create a personal leadership philosophy that is clear and helps to guide our actions. I suggest that all leaders take the time necessary to write down their personal leadership philosophy, which should contain the following components:

  • A Significant Purpose: What are you about? What business are you in? What’s your purpose? Are you passionate about your purpose? Is it clear?
  • A Compelling Vision: Where are you going? What will it look like when you get there? Why should others support it?
  • Inspiring Values: What are my core values? What guides your actions? What guides your decision making?
  • Guiding Principles: What are my guiding principles?

Once you have written them down share and teach them to others around you. A clearly communicated leadership philosophy helps build trust amongst constituents.

Leaders are Guided by their Leadership Philosophy

Two leaders who lead using completely opposite leadership philosophies to lead their teams is effectively discussed by Harvard Business School, Professor Scott Snook, who asks, “as a leader Is it better to be loved or feared“? He underscores his point with the following leadership examples:

Bobby Knight

Bobby Knight, also known as “The General,” is the head coach at Texas Tech University. He’s a fiery, in-your-face taskmaster who leads through discipline and intimidation, which some critics say goes too far. Knight was fired from a long career at Indiana University for grabbing a student, and prior to that he was filmed clutching one of his own players by the neck. And then there was the infamous incident during a game when Knight tossed a folding chair across the court to protest a referee’s call.

Mike Krzyzewski

Mike Krzyzewski, also known as Coach K, leads the men’s basketball program at Duke University. Instead of fear, Krzyzewski relies heavily on positive reinforcement, open and warm communication, and caring support. For Coach K, “It’s about the heart, it’s about family, it’s about seeing the good in people and bringing the most out of them,” says Snook.

The Results?

Different styles, yes, but the results are similar: After long careers, both have similar win-loss records for their teams and are acknowledged as top coaches in the collegiate ranks. So what do Knight and Krzyzewski tell us about leadership?

What you believe about human nature, says Snook, influences your leadership style. “If you believe people are fundamentally good-good meaning that they’re trying to do their best, they’re self-motivated, they want to perform-then your fundamental leadership style will be one way. It will be empowering them, getting obstacles out of the way, and setting high goals while maintaining standards.

“If you believe people are fundamentally bad-if you believe people are constantly looking to get over and get by and won’t do anything unless they’re watched-then you’ll tend to lead with a very transactional management style that’s built primarily around rewards and punishments. Tight supervision, a controlling type of leadership style characterized by a great deal of social distance between leaders and led.”

The Key Lessons?

  • Effective leaders understand their own assumptions about human nature.
  • How you lead (leadership style) is influenced by who you are (self-awareness) and the demands of the situation (situational awareness).
  • Expanding your self-awareness, situational awareness, and ability to adapt your leadership style increases your overall range of effectiveness as a leader.

The primary lesson for me, is that leaders need to gain clarity about, their leadership philosophy, style and behaviour. How clear are you about your leadership philosophy? Are your actions guided by your leadership philosophy? How big is the gap between what you say and what you do?

“One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

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Mar

7

Leadership as Clarity

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Clarity is key. Clarity is the key component, because you need to have clarity in your communication to the people you lead, and to the people you serve, you need to have clarity of mission, purpose and passion so people want to follow you, and you need clarity of purpose to wade through all the information that will come your way to find the truth, or at least the most relevant information.

Via: Whitespace

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