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Striving towards a vision and bringing about successful change is one of the hallmarks of leadership. However, vision equals change and change is often accompanied by conflict and tensions within and between teams. The leaders ability to effectively resolve this conflict and get people to move forward, acting to bring the vision into today is the result of great leadership. Unless we learn to productively deal with conflict, our change efforts will result in failure. One of the best tools to help with resolving conflict is the art of balancing advocacy and inquiry. What do we mean by advocacy and inquiry?

• Advocacy: is about how ideas are presented and explained. It’s primarily, one-way communication. When communication is one-way it becomes difficult for the the listener to understand the reasoning which supports the ideas being presented. This makes it unlikely, that people will commit themselves to any meaningful course of action. Before people will commit to a course of action they need to understand the reasoning behind the ideas. Advocacy is about making your point, taking a stand in an attempt to influence others, supporting your viewpoint with a relational argument, whilst remaining open to alternative views.
• Inquiry: is about how questions are raised and answered. Inquiry allows people to inquire into one another’s reasoning and understand the conclusion they have reached. Inquiry help us to understand what others are thinking and the reasoning behind their viewpoints.

Advocacy alone is insufficient. Likewise, inquiry alone is insufficient. Without a balance, people do not commit to action, they remain neutral. Learning to balance advocacy and inquiry increases likelihood that others will commit to take action. To gain a better understanding of the differences between advocacy and inquiry the following matrix, illustrated below, which I have adapted from “The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook” provides a great overview of the various ways of dealing with conflict.

 

The above matrix shows that their are dysfunctional forms of advocacy (politicking and dictating) and inquiry (withdrawing and interrogating) which we need to be careful to avoid.

 

How to balance advocacy and inquiry

It’s important to understand when to use advocacy and when to use inquiry. Mark Gerzon in his book “Leading Through Conflict” provides the following guidelines to help leaders in combining these two very different styles:

“The general rule is this: inquiry precedes advocacy. If you (1) are uncertain about having reliable, complete information; (2) have not yet engaged all the relevant stakeholders; and (3) doubt that you have sufficient votes, power or other support to put your plan into action, then it is time for inquiry not advocacy. However, if you (1) have access to all the necessary information, (2) have obtained input from all the necessary people, and (3) have mapped a clear road to implementing a viable plan, then go ahead. Advocate your ’solution’ to the issue or conflict, and begin to rally everyone behind you.”

Balancing advocacy and inquiry enables constructive two-way communication and learning. “I state my views, I inquire into your views, and I invite you to state your views and I inquire into your views.”

When balancing advocacy and inquiry we expose our reasoning and encourage others to challenge and probe our argument. Having a viewpoint is important as much as being open to learning about the viewpoints of others. Some useful tips for improving advocacy and inquiry from “The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook” includes:

• State your views providing the assumptions and data you used that led to your view.  - “Here’s what I think and how I got there”
• Always seek to make your reasoning explicit. - “I came to this conclusion because….”
• Keep your viewpoint in context, what’s your purpose, who will be affected, how and why.
• Provide concrete examples. - “To get a clearer picture as to what I am talking about imagine you’re…”
• Encourage others to explore your thinking, assumptions and data without becoming defensive. - “What do you think about what I have just said?… What can you add?”
• Ask other to explain their thought process without interrogating or making people defensive. - “How did you arrive at this view?”
• Ask questions that help to gain insight into why people have the views that they do. - “Can you help me understand your thinking here?”
• Explain how your questions help to clarify you concerns and assumptions.
• Test what others are saying by asking or examples.
• When advocating, keep listening, remaining open to different viewpoints.

Leaders often make the mistake of relying too much on advocacy to get their message across. Time pressures also make it more likely that leaders default to as means of getting commitment to their vision and to drive action. Usually leaders want to be the first to provide answers and they push their views too strongly, not leaving enough room for discussion and debate. How about you? This month why not try to balance advocacy and inquiry in your conversions, you’ll be amazed at the results.

 

Technorati Tags: Conflict, Communication, Advocacy, Inquiry, Meetings, Collaboration, Relating, Politics, Leadership, Management, Business

Dr. Randy Pausch a professor at the Carnegie Mellon University in the USA gave an inspiring presentation and his “Last Lecture”. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer of the pancreas and in August 2006 was told that he had 6 months to live. He then began working on his “Last lecture” which has subsequently inspired many people around the world and been translated into seven languages. This lecture is worth watching.

 

The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

 

 

 

More information regarding Randy Pausch can be found by visiting www.TheLastLecture.com

 

Technorati Tags: Last Lecture, Presentation, Communication, Inspiration, Dream, Vision, Purpose, Randy Pausch, Leadership, Personal Leadership, Management, Passion

There is a great article “Peter Drucker On Leadership” discussing the leadership principles of Peter Drucker, some of his ideas from the article that stood out to me are as follows:

• What Needs to Be Done: “Successful leaders don’t start out asking, ‘What do I want to do?’ They ask, ‘What needs to be done?’ Then they ask, ‘Of those things that would make a difference, which are right for me?’ They don’t tackle things they aren’t good at…..”
• Check Your Performance: “Effective leaders check their performance. They write down, ‘What do I hope to achieve if I take on this assignment?’ They put away their goals for six months and then come back and check their performance against goals. This way, they find out what they do well and what they do poorly. They also find out whether they picked the truly important things to do. I’ve seen a great many people who are exceedingly good at execution, but exceedingly poor at picking the important things….”
• Mission Driven: “Leaders communicate in the sense that people around them know what they are trying to do. They are purpose driven–yes, mission driven. They know how to establish a mission. And another thing, they know how to say no. The pressure on leaders to do 984 different things is unbearable, so the effective ones learn how to say no and stick with it…”
• Creative Abandonment: “A critical question for leaders is, ‘When do you stop pouring resources into things that have achieved their purpose?’ The most dangerous traps for a leader are those near-successes where everybody says that if you just give it another big push it will go over the top. One tries it once. One tries it twice. One tries it a third time. But, by then it should be obvious this will be very hard to do. So, I always advise my friend Rick Warren, ‘Don’t tell me what you’re doing, Rick. Tell me what you stopped doing.’”
• How Organizations Fall Down: “Make sure the people with whom you work understand your priorities. Where organizations fall down is when they have to guess at what the boss is working at, and they invariably guess wrong. So the CEO needs to say, ‘This is what I am focusing on.’ Then the CEO needs to ask of his associates, ‘What are you focusing on?’ Ask your associates, ‘You put this on top of your priority list–why?’ The reason may be the right one, but it may also be that this associate of yours is a salesman who persuades you that his priorities are correct when they are not. So, make sure that you understand your associates’ priorities and make sure that after you have that conversation, you sit down and drop them a two-page note–’This is what I think we discussed. This is what I think we decided. This is what I think you committed yourself to within what time frame.’Finally, ask them, ‘What do you expect from me as you seek to achieve your goals?’”

As always Peter Drucker provides some great insights into leadership effectiveness.

 

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Management, Effectiveness, Performance, Business, Peter Drucker, Communication, Vision

Fortune has a great feature on Steve Jobs, titled "Steve Jobs speaks out" that looks at some of Steve’s perspectives on business, leadership and technology. In the article Steve reveals some interesting insights into Apple and his leadership principles.

 

 

On Apple’s focus

 

"Apple is a $30 billion company, yet we’ve got less than 30 major products. I don’t know if that’s ever been done before. Certainly the great consumer electronics companies of the past had thousands of products. We tend to focus much more. People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.

"I’m actually as proud of many of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done. The clearest example was when we were pressured for years to do a PDA, and I realized one day that 90% of the people who use a PDA only take information out of it on the road. They don’t put information into it. Pretty soon cellphones are going to do that, so the PDA market’s going to get reduced to a fraction of its current size, and it won’t really be sustainable. So we decided not to get into it. If we had gotten into it, we wouldn’t have had the resources to do the iPod. We probably wouldn’t have seen it coming."

Focus is critical for effective leadership, with so many options choosing the right one can be extremely difficult. Small changes can have big results, if you focus on the key issues and execute relentlessly on those key issues. To focus on the most important issues means you have to say not to a whole range of alternative opportunities.

 

On finding talent

 

"When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, Are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself. They’ll want to do what’s best for Apple, not what’s best for them, what’s best for Steve, or anybody else.

"Recruiting is hard. It’s just finding the needles in the haystack. We do it ourselves and we spend a lot of time at it. I’ve participated in the hiring of maybe 5,000-plus people in my life. So I take it very seriously. You can’t know enough in a one-hour interview. So, in the end, it’s ultimately based on your gut. How do I feel about this person? What are they like when they’re challenged? Why are they here? I ask everybody that: ‘Why are you here?’ The answers themselves are not what you’re looking for. It’s the meta-data."

Passion rules! Passion is about our emotional energy and a love for what we do. Without passion it becomes difficult to fight back in the face of obstacles and difficulties. People with passion find a way to get things done and to make things happen, in spite of the obstacles and challenges that get in the way.

 

On his marathon Monday meetings

 

"When you hire really good people you have to give them a piece of the business and let them run with it. That doesn’t mean I don’t get to kibitz a lot. But the reason you’re hiring them is because you’re going to give them the reins. I want [them] making as good or better decisions than I would. So the way to do that is to have them know everything, not just in their part of the business, but in every part of the business.

"So what we do every Monday is we review the whole business. We look at what we sold the week before. We look at every single product under development, products we’re having trouble with, products where the demand is larger than we can make. All the stuff in development, we review. And we do it every single week. I put out an agenda — 80% is the same as it was the last week, and we just walk down it every single week.

"We don’t have a lot of process at Apple, but that’s one of the few things we do just to all stay on the same page."

Social architecture, meetings and their structure (drama, purpose and conflict) keep people engaged in the organisations vision. Regular meetings ensure effective communication and that the organisation is making steady progress towards the vision.

 

Technorati Tags: Communication, Passion, Meetings, Talent, Focus, Priority, Apple, Steve Jobs, Example, Strategy, Management, Business, Leadership

Patrick Lencioni author of the numerous books including "Death by Meeting" wrote an interesting article "Avoid ‘Death by Meeting’" which provides some great insights on creating an effective meetings. Patrick describes the two primary reasons meeting are ineffective as..

1. Meetings lack drama. Which means they are boring.
2. Most meetings lack context and purpose.

 

Drama and Conflict

Great meetings need what Patrick calls drama he says that "The key to making meetings more engaging - and less boring - lies in identifying and nurturing the natural level of conflict that should exist." Conflict keeps us engaged and interested, encouraging us to participate and contribute to the discussion. A leader’s role is to ask questions that matter so as to encourage engagement around the key issues.

 

Context and Purpose

In addition to drama meetings need context and purpose, "Unfortunately, no amount of drama will matter if leaders don’t create the right context for their meetings and make it clear to team members why the meeting is taking place, and what is expected of them. To create context, leaders must differentiate between different types of meetings. Too often, however, they throw every possible conversation into one long staff meeting. This creates confusion and frustration among team members who struggle to shift back and forth between tactical and strategic conversations, with little or no resolution of issues."

Effective leaders take a four pronged approach to effectively address context and purpose, they create and sustain the following four meetings.

1. The Daily Check-in: is a schedule-oriented, administrative meeting that should last no more than five or 10 minutes. The purpose is simply to keep team members aligned and to provide a daily forum for activity updates and scheduling.
2. The Weekly Tactical: is what most people have come to know as staff meetings. These should be approximately an hour in length, give or take 20 minutes, and should focus on the discussion and resolution of issues which effect near term objectives. Ironically, these work best if there is no pre-set agenda. Instead, the team should quickly review one another’s priorities and the team’s overall scorecard, and then decide on what to discuss during the remainder of the meeting.
3. The Monthly Strategic: is the most interesting kind of meeting for leaders, and the most important indicator of a company’s strategic aptitude. It is the appropriate place for big topics, those that will have a long-term impact on the business.
4. The Quarterly Off-Site Review: is an opportunity for team members to step away from the business, literally and figuratively, to reassess a variety of issues: the interpersonal performance of the team, the company’s strategy, the performance of top-tier and bottom-tier employees, morale, competitive threats and industry trends. These can last anywhere from the better part of a day to two full days each quarter.

 

Creating the right meeting eco-system or "social architecture" is critical to effective leadership. Ensuring that we have the appropriate levels of conflict and that each meeting has the right focus, the right conflict and purpose, is essential for great performance. How are your meetings? Do they have the right amount of conflict and drama? Do you have an eco-system where you have daily check-ins, tactical and strategic meetings?

 

Technorati Tags: Meetings, Social Architecture, Management, Business, Leadership, Purpose, Context, Conflict, Drama, Communication

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’."

 

 

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?

 

Technorati Tags: Vision, Purpose, Mission, Management, Leadership, Book, Why, How, Question, Communication

Photo by gsherman

 

To be effective a leaders vision must take root deep within the organisation, inspiring the hearts and minds of the people. Without effective communication visions never take root. A great vision, requires great communication, communication that  inspires and paints a vivid picture of the future. A recent Leading Effectively article discusses how leaders can effectively communicate their vision. The article defines a vision as follows:

"A vision describes some achievement or future state that the organization will accomplish or realize. A vision has to be shared in order to do what it is meant to do: inspire, clarify and focus the work."

The article provides the following list of useful communication tactics that leaders can use to improve their effectiveness when communicating their vision:

• Stories. When you tell a good story, you give life to a vision. The telling of stories creates trust, captures hearts and minds, and serves as a reminder of the vision. Plus, people find it easier to repeat a story than talk about a vision statement.
• The elevator speech. Every leader needs to be able to communicate the vision in a clear, brief way. What compelling vision can you describe in the amount of time you have during a typical elevator ride? Be prepared to reinforce the vision in line at the cafeteria, when you visit the customer service department, and even walking through the parking lot at the end of the day.
• Multiple media. The more channels of communication you use, the better your chance of creating an organization that "gets" the vision. Use the newest communication technologies, but don’t forget the tangibles: coffee mugs, t-shirts, luggage tags and whatever else you can think of that will keep the message in circulation.
• Talk to me. Individualize the vision by engaging others in one-on-one conversations. Personal connections give leaders opportunities to transmit information, receive feedback, build support and create energy around the vision.
• Draw a crowd. Identify key players, communicators, stakeholders and supporters throughout the organization who will motivate others to reflect on and be engaged with the vision.
• Go outside. Communicate to external customers, partners and vendors with advertising and public relations campaigns, catalogs, announcements and other statements.
• Make memories. Create metaphors, figures of speech and slogans — and find creative ways to use them. Write a theme song or a memorable motto.
• Guide the expedition. Use visual aids and updates to keep everyone aware of the progress you are making toward your vision. Create a vision GPS, but don’t just give out maps. Travel alongside, stay out in front, offer directions and point out guideposts.
• Back it up. If you’re talking it up, be sure to back it up with actions and behaviors. If people see one thing and hear another, your credibility is shot and your vision is dead.

 

A leader can never spend enough time communicating their vision. Are you using as many tactics as you can to communicate your vision? Is it taking root deep within your organisation?

 

Technorati Tags: Communication, Vision, Leadership, Management, Business, Communicate, Stories, Purpose

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.

 

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Management, Clarity, Vision, Communication, BHAG, CCAG, Strategy

Carol Hymowitz wrote an interesting article "Sometimes, Moving Up Makes It Harder to See What Goes On Below" discussing the need to leaders to kee in touch with what’s happening on the ground in their organisations and teams…

"Executives know success in business depends on identifying and fixing problems before they become crises. It is the most basic rule in management: No matter how smart your strategies seem on paper, if you don’t know how they’re being executed and whether there are urgent problems, you won’t be successful. …The higher executives climb, the less likely they are to know what is and isn’t working at their companies. Many are surrounded by yes people who filter information; others dismiss or ignore bearers of bad news…..Ken Siegel, an organizational psychologist and president of the Impact Group in Los Angeles, believes that most CEOs avoid learning what their employees are thinking and doing. He advises those who want to get to the truth to assemble a senior team of people with diverse points of view. ‘Instead of surrounding them with executives who think just like they do, they need people down the hall who are their opposites, have very different strengths and push them to see reality differently,’ he says….. Executives at big companies who have many layers of management between themselves and front-line employees face the biggest challenge finding out how their strategies are actually working. Those who want accurate information must commit to spending time in the field — often and on their own — where they are away from handlers and can coax employees to be forthcoming about problems."

How effective is your feedback loop? Are you getting the good and especially the bad news from the ground? Good quality information and feedback is essential for the effective execution of your vision and strategy. Poor information equals poor decision making and failed strategy….!

 

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Management, Business, Communication, Conversation, Feedback, Strategy, Execution

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.

 

Technorati Tags: Vision, Clarity, Communication, Trust, Strategy, Management, Leadership, Business, Purpose, Meaning

Carmine Gallo, author of "10 Simple Secrets Of The World’s Greatest Business Communicators", wrote an interesting article, "The Seven Secrets of Inspiring Leaders" discussing the importance of leadership and the need to inspire an motivate others. A recent Maritz Research poll found that:

"American business professionals are uninspired. Only 10% of employees look forward to going to work and most point to a lack of leadership as the reason why…"

Whilst researching communications secret for his new book, Fire Them Up, Carmine found were seven techniques that you can use to motivate and inspire others:

1. Demonstrate enthusiasm — constantly. "Inspiring leaders have an abundance of passion for what they do. You cannot inspire unless you’re inspired yourself. Period…."
2. Articulate a compelling course of action. "Inspiring leaders craft and deliver a specific, consistent, and memorable vision. A goal such as "we intend to double our sales by this time next year," is not inspiring. Neither is a long, convoluted mission statement destined to be tucked away and forgotten in a desk somewhere. A vision is a short (usually 10 words or less), vivid description of what the world will look like if your product or service succeeds."
3. Sell the benefit. "Always remember, it’s not about you, it’s about them. In my first class at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, I was taught to answer the question, "Why should my readers care?" That’s the same thing you need to ask yourself constantly throughout a presentation, meeting, pitch, or any situation where persuasion takes place. Your listeners are asking themselves, what’s in this for me? Answer it. Don’t make them guess."
4. Tell more stories. "Inspiring leaders tell memorable stories. …. Stories connect with people on an emotional level. Tell more of them."
5. Invite participation. "Inspiring leaders bring employees, customers, and colleagues into the process of building the company or service. This is especially important when trying to motivate young people. The command and control way of managing is over. Instead, today’s managers solicit input, listen for feedback, and actively incorporate what they hear. Employees want more than a paycheck. They want to know that their work is adding up to something meaningful."
6. Reinforce an optimistic outlook. "Inspiring leaders speak of a better future….. Extraordinary leaders throughout history have been more optimistic than the average person. Winston Churchill exuded hope and confidence in the darkest days of World War II. Colin Powell said that optimism was the secret behind Ronald Reagan’s charisma. Powell also said that optimism is a force multiplier, meaning it has a ripple effect throughout an organization. Speak in positive, optimistic language. Be a beacon of hope."
7. Encourage potential. "Inspiring leaders praise people and invest in them emotionally. Richard Branson has said that when you praise people they flourish; criticize them and they shrivel up. Praise is the easiest way to connect with people. …… Encourage people and they’ll walk through walls for you."

This is a great list describing what it takes to motivate others. Examine your leadership over the last week, how does it stack up against this list?

 

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Motivation, Inspiration, Vision, Passion, Research, Management, Business, Optimism, Attitude

Research by ROI Communication on change and communication found that change programmes fail if employees don’t grasp the rationale for the change. Roger D’Aprix, vice president of ROI Communications found that:

“the only way you can rationalize the change is by reference to the marketplace and the forces that are driving the organization…”

It’s important when communicating the rationale for change employees need to know:

1. Who is our competition?
2. What is the competition doing?
3. What choices does the customer have in dealing with us as an organization?
4. What are the customer’s needs and demands?
5. What about our shareholders and the financial community — what are their needs and expectations?
6. What technological forces are affecting our organization, our products and our services?

These questions create a powerful context that make the change meaningful. This helps employees understand that the organisation is not changing for the sake of change and that the change is not about driving a managers personal agenda.

In addition to a clear rationale for change, leadership is of utmost importance. During times of change leaders need to be more visible, more transparent, open and to keep the focus on the vision. D’Aprix puts it this way.

“Leadership at a time like this has to be extremely visible and doing lots of face-to-face communication… the good, solid leaderships do this fairly naturally. The bad ones keep it all secret and quiet, and they pretend that everything is fine. That’s a recipe for disaster.”

Communicating and leading change is a difficult task, however if you spend the time to answer the why the how takes care of itself. If the why is compelling, the how is emerges from the passion, participation and wisdom of those engaged in the journey.

 

Technorati Tags: Change, Communication, Vision, Business, Leadership, Research, Management

The February 2007 issue of the Leading Effectively e-Newsletter, from CCL, discusses leadership and communication. I believe the communication is a leaders most powerful tool, a good example of the power of communication is Martin Luther King Jr. who put an extraordinary amount of time and energy into communication with significant results. An article in the newsletter makes the following observations on the importance of communication to leaders:

Effective leaders master the art and craft of language. They speak clearly and present logical and compelling arguments. They make wise use of communication tools and practices. But skilled leaders also know that communication goes beyond words. “Your actions and attitude send powerful messages,” says CCL’s Gene Klann…… “The way a leader communicates reveals much about his or her character,” Klann says. “Communication can disclose the leader’s authenticity, sincerity, genuineness and virtually every other aspect of a leader’s character. When a leader is all talk and no substance, people see right through the official message.”  What does a leader’s communication style say about his or her character? Effective, respected leaders:

• Often give encouragement and reassurance.
• Handle resistant audiences well.
• Understand the symbolic value of personal visibility.
• Ensure that nonverbal and verbal messages are aligned.
• Listen to individuals from all levels of the organization.
• Encourage direct and open discussion.
• Initiate difficult, but needed, conversations.
• Are clear about expectations.
• Disseminate information quickly and clearly.
• Ask good questions.
• Solicit information and opinions from others.
• Involve others before developing a plan of action.

 

How much attention are you giving your communication?

 

Technorati Tags: Communication, Leadership, Listening, Character

Heath and Dan Heath, authors of “Made to Stick“, ask a very interesting question in their article in Fast Company,  ”Give ‘em Something to Talk About” discusses a very interesting question…

“Your product may be good, but will it spark a conversation?”

Conversation creates and emotional connection with your product and increases a persons connection with the product…

“Conversation isn’t everything….  But all businesses today crave the credibility, not to mention the free advertising, that comes from word of mouth. As such marketing matures into its own discipline, more companies are thinking about how to kick-start it. So why is it rare to find a business that is good at sparking these customer conversations? ….Call it the 105% Rule. From a word-of-mouth perspective, it’s virtually impossible to discuss an experience that is 5% better than the norm on all dimensions. People don’t talk like mystery shoppers, reporting diligently on each relevant feature. People talk about the exceptions, the unexpected, the highlights….. Conversations can’t be “snapped on” after the fact. You have to plan for them. So what’s your plan? How can you give your customers something to talk about? Fostering the conversation you want customers to have about your products should be an explicit part of product development.”

 

The Leadership Insight

Conversation is an important part of our social, emotional and intellectual make up. What get’s talked about generally gets attention and gets done. As leaders in your organisation and community what are you doing to spark a conversation? Meaningful conversations are the catalyst for change. They help us to grind a new pair of glasses with which to see the world. When we see the world differently we begin to act differently….!

What action are you taking to catalyze meaningful conversations and spark change?

Technorati Tags: Conversation, Brand, Leadership, Communication, Change, Vision

When leading people communication is critically important. Fail to communicate effectively and you fail to lead.  I found this great article by Russell Kern on “B-to-B Insights: A Perfect ‘10’“ describing a communication model from Target Marketing that would be useful to all leaders. Although the model is meant for direct marketing, the model is a useful tool to help us think through the key ingredients necessary for communicating powerful messages. When crafting your message use the pyramid model, illustrated below to guide your thinking….

 

Challenge #1 : Getting Their Attention

People are overwhelmed with messages all day, each one competing for their attention, time and energy. So the first challenge for any message is overcome this noise, to do this your message has to grab the peoples attention. This is what the first row at the bottom of the pyramid is for, it’s to help you grab the reader’s attention and this requires your message to be:

• Arresting: How eye-catching is your message? What have you done to make it impressive, noticeable or striking? A message that is arresting is not necessarily one that shouts from the rooftops. Interest can be piqued by speaking softly. Curiosity can be aroused by not using any words at all. Or, alternatively, by not using any pictures.
• Compelling: How forceful is your message? Have you connected with your readers’ hopes, dreams and/or fears? How have you persuaded your readers that they really need to find out more?
• Clear: Is it instantly obvious what you’re offering? Why a reader should care? Why a reader should take action? Are the benefits of doing so readily apparent? Is it easy to see how to respond? Are brand messaging, graphics, standards or package concept getting in the way of any of the above?
• Credible: Are you delivering a message that is honest, realistic, sincere and believable? To what degree have you convinced readers to reduce their skepticism and actually read/listen to you? How about the brand behind the message? Is it well known and well respected? If so, how effectively are you leveraging the brand to maximize your credibility?  

Challenge # 2: Getting Them Involved

 Remember head and heart in your communication….

We know from the study of psychology that humans typically act on their emotions while using logic to justify their behavior. This is a fundamental concept of brand advertising. For example, consumers buy Mercedes Benz automobiles for the prestige they confer, while pointing to the vehicles’ superior engineering and safety to justify the purchase. We also know that humans always want to move from pain to pleasure. With all this in mind, let’s examine the second row of our pyramid, which focuses on tying into your target’s emotions and logic.

• Emotional: Does your message move your readers to laugh, smile, cry, agree, yell? What have you done to arouse the spirit of your readers? Is your message exciting, poignant or even disturbing to such a degree that you’ll get an immediate “rise” and, hopefully, response?
• Insightful: Have you demonstrated your understanding of your target audience’s problems, needs, desires, hopes, dreams or aspirations? Have you made your audience aware of a new solution or product usage? Having read or heard your message, will they say to themselves, “I’ve never thought of it like that before.” Delivering new insights is hard. It requires field research and knowledge about what your targets are using now and how your product or solution will help them do something better, easier, faster, quicker and/or cheaper.
• Informative: How educational is your message? In exchange for your readers’ consideration are you revealing new, important or little-known information and using it to build your case for action on their part? If they don’t respond this time around, is your message still helpful to them in some way?

Challenge #3: Telling Them ”What’s in it for Them?”

All consumers and business people have one thing in common—they are self-focused and evaluate all advertising messages (brand or direct) from the point of view of self-interest. The challenge, and opportunity, for direct marketers is to use data, past behaviors and market insights to create messages that scream, “THIS IS JUST FOR YOU. HERE’S WHY.” It starts with personalization, but ideally extends way beyond by delivering offers based on past purchases or messages based on insights into job role, responsibility and company size. Before you launch your next campaign, consider row three of the fundamentals pyramid.

• Relevant: What have you done to make both the message and offer germane to your reader? (And not just germane, but important.) How applicable is your offer to the problems your readers are facing?
• Valuable: Do you have an offer that’s important, priceless or, failing that, just downright useful? How well have you persuaded your readers that your offer is worthy of their time and indispensable to the improvement of their daily lives?

Challenge #4: Telling Them What To Do

At the end of the day, everything you do is about driving immediate action. Overcoming complacency, sparking desire in the mind of the reader and prompting response is the ultimate goal for any direct message. Even in this era of integrated direct, this must never be forgotten, which is why the element of motivation sits atop our pyramid.

• Motivating: How moving is your message? How immediate? Have you employed proven response words and motivational phrases (e.g., “discover,” “learn,” “gain,” “reveal,” “take away,” “go now,” “find out,” “visit,” “call today,” “don’t wait,” “avoid missing out”) to drive response behavior? Does your message have urgency built into it?

I thought this to be an excellent model and tool in helping to shape our communication as leaders.

 

Technorati: Communication, Framework, Model, Marketing, Message, Leadership, Business, Management, Motivation, Relating

 

An article from Fast Company, Every Leader Tells a Story discusses the importance of the leader’s story in bringing about change. 

“Leadership is about change, it’s about taking people from where they are now to where they need to be. The best way to get people to venture into unknown terrain is to make it desirable by taking them there in their imaginations.” - Noel M. Tichy

Stories are a powerful way of taking people on a journey in their imagination. Stories are sticky as Peter Orton, who enrolled at Stanford to write a PhD thesis on the effects of story structure on audiences, says “Stories enhance attention, create anticipation, increase retention. They provide a familiar set of ‘hooks’ that allow us to process the information that we hang on them.“

 

Leaders practice telling stories that have, what Noel Tichy calls “a teachable point of view” which he describes as “a set of ideas about success in the marketplace and a set of values based on personal and organizational success.”

 

One of the best ways in which leaders communicate their “teachable point of view” is through a story, effective leaders tell the following three stories:

• The Who I Am story: which draws on personal experience: “The most effective leaders are in touch with their personal stories.”
• The Who We Are story: a narrative that provides continuity amid rapid change.
• The Where We Are Going story: “Pretend that you’re on the cover of Fortune - I mean Fast Company - five years out. How did you get there? What will you be doing?”

 

Leaders in their everyday conversation should be telling their leadership stories. Stories about who we are and where we going on an regular basis. What stories are you using to lead? Are you using them to create insights into who you are and where you’re going?

 

Technorati Tags: Story, Communication, Management, Teaching, Leadership

I posted previously about the importance of leading through conversation.  Leadership conversations are those difficult conversations we have about exploring who we are, what we value, what we stand for and where we are going. They’re about breaking new ground and exploring together the future that we want to create. Often the staring point for these type of conversations is a clear understanding of our current reality.  In my experience seeing current reality as it is as opposed to how we wish is were is, without becoming defensive and rationalizing away what we find, is a very difficult conversation. I believe that effective leadership conversations occur when we learn. When leading conversations, it’s important that as leaders we encourage a specific type of conversation, a conversation that Mark Gerzon refers to as dialogue.

 

Mark Gerzon author of “Leading Through Conflict: How Successful Leaders Transform Differences into Opportunities” wrote a great article on HBS Working Knowledge titled Moving Beyond Debate: Start a Dialogue which captures the difference between debate and dialogue and provides a good foundation for building great leadership conversations. As Mark points out, people prefer dialogue over powerpoint!

As I worked in more than a hundred organizations or communities over the past decade, I kept track of which form of discourse my clients most often wanted. They did not want more speeches and presentations. They did not want more debates between two know-­it-­alls, each of whom was sure they were right and the other person was wrong. They did not want yet another “exchange of views” that skirted difficult issues and papered over problems. What they yearned for was deep, honest, inclusive, and respectful dialogue.

 

Key insight….. effective dialogue is built on trust!

 

Trust is the foundation of great dialogue. It’s trust that allows people, who each have different world views, beliefs and frames of reference to engage in productive dialogue. Julio Olalla says that  ”Trust is the precondition for coordinated action“. Trust makes conversation possible and where there is trust defensiveness is reduced and learning can begin. As highlighted in the article:

“….polarized debate (which is rampant in both corporate and civic life) does not raise the level of trust; conversely, genuine dialogue (which is rare) often does.”

Trust increases a teams creativity. This allows people to explore new territory and bridge different worldviews:

Our goal now is to build the trust necessary to create alliances between adversaries (bridging) so that they can catalyze new approaches to, and potentially breakthroughs in, the conflict (innovation).

Trust is built by engaging in dialogue which is described in the article by the following table:

 

Debate	Dialogue
Assuming that there is a right answer, and that you have it	Assuming that many people have pieces of the answer
Combative: participants attempt to prove the other side wrong	Collaborative: participants work together toward common understanding
About winning	About exploring common ground
Listening to find flaws and make counter-arguments	Listening to understand, find meaning and agreement
Defending our own assumptions as truth	Revealing our assumptions for reevaluation
Seeing two sides of an issue	Seeing all sides of an issue
Defending one’s own views against those of others	Admitting that others’ thinking can improve one’s own.
Searching for flaws and weaknesses in others’ positions	Searching for strengths and value in others’ positions
By creating a winner and a loser, discouraging further discussion	Keeping the topic even after the discussion formally ends
Seeking a conclusion or vote that ratifies your position	Discovering new options, not seeking closure

 

  In discussing the above table Mark makes the following observations:

Notice how debate is a powerful strategy for advocating a fixed position, while dialogue is far better for inquiry, building relationships, and creating innovations……While debate is useful for making decisions and taking votes, dialogue is the key to renewal. The power of debate is that two polarized voices are free to speak. But the power of dialogue is that these voices can actually be heard.

One of the benefits of engage in dialogue is that leaders are able to gain higher levels of commitment those involved in dialogue. As Steven Covey observed “No involvement, no commitment“.

An organization or community can develop the clearest, most inspiring plans. But if those involved do not feel heard and engaged, and if their concerns are not taken into account through genuine dialogue, those plans will not be well executed.

 Dialogue is what effective conversation is all about. The interesting part is that there seems to be so little dialogue happen in business today. We’re so busy rushing to get things done that we fail to slow down and make time for meaningful dialogue. The consequences are an increasing lack of meaning and purpose in organisations (see previous posts here and here). We may have gained efficiency, but at what cost? It seems to me that too many businesses have lost their soul in the process!

 

“I never saw an instance of one or two disputants convincing the other by argument.” —Thomas Jefferson

 

Technorati Tags: Conversation, Communication, Management, Collaboration, Leadership, Business, Business, Learning

Leaders shape the world through the conversations they initiate and engage in. The amazing thing is how often we forget the power of conversation in shaping how we see the world. Organisations consist of conversations, conversations with teams, employees and customers. Conversation affects how we think, which in turn affects how we act.

“…its through language that we create the world, because it is nothing until we describe it. And when we describe it, we create distinctions that govern our actions. To put it another way, we do not describe the world we see, but we see the world we describe. - Joseph Jaworski, Synchronicity: the Inner Path of Leadership

Organisations consist of human beings, not only structures, processes, systems and resources. As such, they require open, honest and effective communication to become successful. This means that communication is an important leadership practice. Unless people are aware of what’s going on around them they’re unable to engage in driving the organisations’ strategy. Given the powerful role that conversations play in guiding and directing an organisation, it’s amazing how often conversation is overlooked as a leadership tool. Successful leaders recognize the importance of shaping an organisation’s conversation.

“A leader’s job is to engineer epiphanies one conversation at a time.” - Susan Scott

The purpose of strategic conversation is to focus and inspire a team and an organisation. When leaders talk about the right issues, in the right way - extraordinary things begin to happen. But if you get the conversation wrong, people become passive, unmotivated, negative and cynical.

“What gets talked about in a company and how it gets talked about determines what will happen. Or won’t happen. Conversations provide clarity or confusion. Invite cross-boundary collaboration and cooperation or add concertina wire to the walls between well-defended fiefdoms. Inspire us to tackle our toughest challenges or stop us dead in our tracks wondering why we bothered to get out of bed this morning.” - Susan Scott

Conversation is the begining of change…. It’s through conversation that our thinking begins to change, and changed thinking results in changed behaviour. Conversation, when carefully crafted and managed is a powerful means of influencing the heart and minds of others……. as in the end only people can change.

• Groups don’t change……
• Teams don’t change……
• Organisations don’t change………

 

Organisations change, when people change…. and … people change one conversation at a time…..

It’s the role of leadership to focus an organisation’s conversation…

How conscious have your been in shaping your “system of conversation”?

 

Technorati Tags: Conversation, Communication, Management, Collaboration, Leadership, Business, Business, Learning

The blog Beyond Blinking Lights and Acronyms has a great post describing the ten rules of effective language from the book “Words That Work“. The book discusses the power of words to shape our thinking and the following ten rules which will help to get your message across more effectively, the authors ten rules are:

1. Simplicity: Use Small Words - Don’t make people stop thinking about your message to figure out what that word meant. Simplicity counts.
2. Brevity: Use Short Sentences - Sentences, or better yet - phrases, that are short and to the point are much more memorable than rambling, never-ending ones.
3. Credibility is as Important as Philosophy: Your listeners have to be able to believe your message. Don’t say “New and Improved” if it really isn’t.
4. Consistency Matters: Repetition leads to credibility plus even though you’ve said it many times before it still may be new to someone in your audience. Stay on message.
5. Novelty: Offer Something New - Draw attention to your message and make it memorable by expressing it in a new way.
6. Sound and Texture Matter: “A string of words that have the same first letter, the same sound or the same syllabic cadence is more memorable than a random collection of sounds.”
7. Speak Aspirationally: “Messages need to say what people want to hear.” You have to speak to their hopes, dreams and fears.
8. Visualize: Use language that wi