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Leadership

Full Transparency

Many organizations do well when they are small, tight-nit groups. When this is the case, the owner typically has a small group of people that are trusted and will go above and beyond their duties that they are monetarily compensated for. In return for the additional work, time, and overall effort that is put in by the employees, the employer rewards them with anything from cash bonuses to fancy titles. But the most important reward that the owner can give their employees is full disclosure.

This may seem trite, but the power of full transparency within organizations can often times keep one together where others would fall apart at the seams. Let’s assume that Company A and Company B come across the same melt-down and drastic measures need to be taken. The companies have both made a huge mistake and over-ordered product, leaving them cash-poor. Although the situation is not good by a long shot, it’s not doomed either. The company needs to save money and elongate the time it can stay open in order to fix the situation.

  • Company A: Only informs employees of what they need to know and nothing more.
  • Company B: Open and honest with it’s people about its intentions, crisis, financials, and mile-stones.

The Owner of Company A emails his team and says that there need to be some changes made and he’s cutting wages. He cites a lack of productivity and attempts to inspire his team through a temporary setback to see who responds the best to earn their keep. He alludes to the fact that they should be lucky to have jobs in a down economy and that someone might be fired if they do not respond as he wants. The workers have no choice but to accept and continue working, polishing up their resumes in the evening hours.

The Owner of Company B immediately brings her team together with a face to face ‘town hall’ style meeting to explain the situation. She tells her team that there has been some major setbacks and that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but that they’ll not be able to reach it unless they come together. She explains that if they continue to pay everyone their current salaries the company would close in 2 months, but if everyone took an 8% pay cut that was temporary, the company could last 2 additional months and give them time to pull out of the hole. The workers are not thrilled about the pay-cut, however they are grateful to have jobs and not be let go.

full transparencyAs we can imagine, Company B responds much better than Company A. They band together to get themselves out of the hole, staying additional hours to finish projects and setting their goal to keep the company open, working each day like their backs are against the wall. Morale is at an all-time high and this crisis has given the team a newly found sense of purpose.

While on the other hand, Company A is demoralized and does not understand the situation they have been thrust into. Company morale sinks and people begin to polish up their resumes, assuming the worst is coming for them without hope. Tempers flare as rumors of closing set in and the organization is closed within 45 days of the decree for pay-cuts.

We can hold the values of Company A Owner, or we can follow the path of Company B Owner in our daily work lives. We do not have to be in the position of power to operate with full transparency, but when we are we set the precedent for the rest of the company to follow suit. People will find out the truth whether we tell them or not, so we might as well save the headache for everyone and put all the cards on the table so that we can make the best decisions for all parties.

Please everyone

Many early leaders of this country had strong religious views and convictions that drove them in their daily lives. Men like George Washington were described as deeply pious. And they had to be. They were creating a new country from scratch and they needed to stand firm in their views to gain support for the cause. Had they been wavering in their opinions, they would not have been able to build this country we are fortunate enough to live in.

please everyone

I witnessed this for the first time in politics yesterday at the Charleston Leadership Prayer Breakfast. This was a gathering of community leaders organized to pray for the city of Charleston and the Mayor of Charleston, Joseph P. Riley was there in full support. He spoke at the breakfast and although I’m sure he rubbed some elbows while he was there, his presence showed that he has taken his stance and showed the world what his views are. Although this is the bible belt, I am sure that there were people who told Mayor Riley he should not go “in case he offended someone.”

I was overwhelmingly proud to be a citizen of Charleston when I was able to wrap my mind around this idea. The mayor of the city I live in has enough conviction to show up to Christian Prayer Breakfast with pastors, religious leaders, and a keynote speaker that is openly Christian man named Phil Cooke (excellent speaker as well). Mayor Joe Riley is a man of conviction and is not afraid to take a stand for what he believes in. He was not afraid that he might have alienated some people who didn’t share his viewpoint, he was unapologetic about being present.

How many leaders do you know that are willing to stand up for their beliefs? How many of them have beliefs strong enough to stand up for? How many of them waver in the face of adversity and change their opinion to please everyone? If we cannot answer those questions in an instant, we’re following the wrong people.
More importantly, what about our own convictions. What are we willing to stand up for? What cause are we willing to put our names on the line for? Can we say that we’re willing to be scrutinized for? What are we willing to defend? Are we attempting to please everyone? If we cannot answer these questions we need to work on ourselves before guiding others.

Wavering leaders do not know where to go and don’t take their tribe anywhere. A leader with strength and strong stances knows their direction and will not falter when the going gets tough, just as our forefathers did.

Actions Speak Louder than Words – How culture can make or break a company

One of the hardest things to ‘get’ today in business is a great culture. Culture is something that can be incredibly powerful & pull a business through rough times even when good processes or even people aren’t in the right positions. When a great culture is present, we can feel it in the walls and we can smell it in the air. People stay additional hours to help on projects that they’re not tied into, they just want to help. People volunteer for projects that require sacrifice of them, instead of being asked by management to do something. And most of all, there is a momentum that cannot be described and all that anyone can do is just hang on like a roller coaster and ride the wave of positive action that is happening.

On the flip side of that coin, culture can be detrimental to the growth or even sustainability of an organization. When the culture shifts, everyone can feel it but nobody can pin point what is going on… we just know something is different. People are asked to stay long hours to do projects they aren’t interested in, lame attempts to “get things back to the way there were” are thrown out, and forced interaction makes for a lot of awkward situations around the water cooler. Leadership is what defines culture and it starts at the top.

If we, as leaders, don’t know what we want with our organizations, we can’t expect others to know either. If we don’t set forth and constantly beat that drum of OUR culture for OUR tribe (because that’s what we will grow if we’re entrepreneurs whether we like it or not) than we’re going to have a bunch of lost souls out there who are trying to find their own way. When people don’t have direction and a common goal, people become wanderers, and not all of those wanderers are passers-by. Some are leaders themselves, they just don’t have that ‘title’ yet. So when they see that there is no direction, and it’s chaos, they begin to take a machete and chop through the jungle to create culture, to create a clear path, to find direction. Actions Speak Louder than WordsIf we, as the leaders, are not prepared for that sort of initiative from someone else, we’re going to have a mutiny on our hands and it’s going to be us vs. them. Not where we want to be as a business owner who is attempting to grow a company.

Culture is about what we do as much, if not more, than what we say. We can have lofty goals, well thought out emails, and inspiring talks but at the end of the day our people are going to watch our actions while our words will go in one ear and out the other. Maya Angelou said, “… people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” The is more than applicable when it comes to culture and building our company tribe. 

We need to set the pace and show the people in our organization what we expect of them. If we want a work hard, play hard environment, exemplify that. If we want a culture that rewards problem solvers and thinkers, than choose to praise them instead of the guy who sucks up to the boss. And if we want a nice, happy environment to work in than we need to show our people that we care. Give thank-you notes, tell people they’re appreciated just because, and choose to focus on the positive achievements instead of the things that people don’t get right.

Actions speak louder than words. What message are we conveying?

Play to Win

When faced with choices, there are the safe ones and there are the best ones and they are rarely the same thing. In sports we have a popular saying: “You play to win. You don’t play NOT to lose.”

When we play “not to lose” we are making timid choices. We coach scared, we play scared, we don’t take risks with our business, we simply protect what’s ours. This usually happens when a team is up and ‘defending’ a lead. In business this happens when we have developed a successful product or service and we shift our mindset in order to NOT lose customers. We get comfortable and we do what we have to (which is usually the bare minimum) to keep the lead or customers we have instead of going out on a limb for more.

We operate with the mindset that there is more apparent risk in ambition than there is in maintaining our current situation. The sad part is that when we start playing “not to lose” we change the mindset that got us that upper hand to begin with. Don’t play NOT to lose this week, play to win.

Influence, don’t manipulate

I have purposely avoided reading “How to win friends & influence people” even though it has been recommended to me for years by a number of different people. The book itself seems to be a good literary work and I will, at some point, read it and more than likely take a great deal of knowledge from it. However, I have never wanted to see myself as someone who seeks out to influence others. And in my time I have met more than a few “influencers” that have their own ideas, agendas, and purposes for the people around them. Coincidentally those ideas, agendas, and purposes all benefit the “influencer” and that is what I consider manipulation.
Influence is something that many people strive to achieve. We wish to be able to have followers, we wish that people would quote us, we wish that if we said a restaurant was great people would flock to it, and we wish most of all for others to come to us for advice. We have the opportunity to influence others when we are confident in who we are and that we can help steer friends and family when they need it. We can give helpful, positive advice and we know that what we have to say is not always something that needs to be broadcast for the masses to hear. Those who have influence, don’t always need a microphone and those with a microphone don’t always have influence.
On the flip side of the coin, when we seek people out to tell them what they should be doing different or how we would have done it, than we are attempting to manipulate others. Manipulation is an ugly thing and it’s not always recognized in the act. The biggest attributes that I’ve seen in manipulators are forcing their own agenda and that they hand out their “advice” even when it’s not asked for. If we find ourselves pushing our beliefs onto others that we seek out, we’re probably attempting to manipulate them. Manipulators have an ability to affect others, but more than likely it is for their own good and can be detrimental to those that they are manipulating.
We need to keep ourselves in check: Influence, don’t manipulate.

Key to Success

The only way to be successful is to help others reach their goals. The key to success isn’t necessarily having a master’s degree or networking with the right people, the secret is helping those around us accomplish what they have set out to do. If we’re selfish and it’s all about us, people can see right through that agenda and nobody wants to help a self-centered person… they have it all figured out anyway. And this is applicable to anyone whether we’re just starting as an intern, a middle manager, an entrepreneur, or the CEO of a Fortune 500 enterprise. Leadership in an organization should never just be from the top down, it needs to permeate throughout the company.

If every day and every move is about us, we cannot help those around us. When we cannot help those around us,we’re working for ourselves, and no single person has ever moved mountains on their own. Abraham Lincoln had a cabinet full of ambitious men, Rosa Parks & Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had entire communities behind them, and Jobs had Wozniak. None of them were alone.

In our professional careers there will be times when we have opportunities to go out of our way to help others. Pounce on them. Do not let them go by, those good deeds will come full circle and be repaid when we need them most. This can be helping to meet a deadline, it can be offering an outside opinion, it can be a listening ear when it’s needed, and so many other things. If we’re giving of our time and our energies, we will be repaid and we will build a reputation as someone that everyone wants to work with.

Everyone has their own personal goals and aspirations, I’m not saying to forgo them. But if those are always in the front seat and we determine that nobody is worth deviating, we will soon be standing by ourselves. And even is we do accomplish those life goals and we make it to the top, we’ll have nobody to share it with. The key to success is building others up, not building ourselves up.

Who can we help to accomplish their goals today?

Learn to follow

Sometimes the most important thing a leader can do is follow. I write a lot about leadership and what it means to be a great leader, but some of the most pivotal moments that define us require that we take a back seat to someone else and learn to follow. There are often times when we simply do not have the best ideas or we are not in the position to lead the team like it needs to be led. These situations can vary and they do not come up every day, but they are crucial when they do.

Imagine for a moment that there is a team meeting and budgets talks or new project development or a brainstorming session is going on and the leader is in the room. Someone that is not in a leadership position speaks up with a fantastic idea that can save the company money and speed up productivity, but they are the only one with enough expertise to carry the idea out. The leader(s) will be in a special spot to crush the idea or to let it blossom by making a move of encouragement. If the leader doesn’t fall in line and show support for that lower level team member, nobody else will believe it him either. In a sports setting, it also happens when new coaches come to established teams. The team captain (official or not) has the choice to step in line with the new coach and defer to them OR the captain can rebel and influence the entire team to do the same.

Our leadership is not always about dictating and ordering (although that is needed from time to time), instead it is about how we carry ourselves and how we treat others. In the same business setting above, imagine if that lower level team member gets shut down or embarrassed by the leader(s) who tell them it’s a stupid idea simply because they don’t understand it. That team member AND all others will never have the courage to bring up outlandish ideas again in that setting, which will inevitably stifle growth. On the flip side of that coin, that lower level person can start a wave of people speaking up for improvements in their respective areas and create a quick moving culture of autonomous thinkers always looking for ways to improve their respective positions. Leadership is about knowing when to lead and when to follow. We need to be open enough to see those opportunities and humble enough to take them.

“Learn to give and take dictation” – The Red Hot Chili Peppers in the song 21st Century

 

I heard this song lyric by Anthony Keidis in 2006 and it struck such a cord with me that it’s become one of favorite songs on the double CD. What’s interesting is that most of the time, his lyrics barely make sense and he seems to be simply throwing things together that rhyme, while this is very thought out and calculated.

Twenty-twenty

The easiest thing we can do is scrutinize someone’s work: hindsight is always twenty-twenty.

After someone has shipped their product/masterpiece/idea we too often come behind them and tell them what they did wrong. Yes it is difficult to have foresight and see what issues may arise and what imperfections are visible, however it is even harder to ship. Too often we find ourselves making these criticisms of others’ work prior to analyzing how difficult it is for them to finish.

Finishing is difficult for most and impossible for others, do not be quick to break someone down. All too often that urge to break someone down stems from our jealousy. If we are going to give feedback on a project or idea that has shipped, be sure to give it out of truth and with encouragement. Honest feedback on how to improve someone’s idea goes a long way, if it is asked for and if it is not projected down. Nobody wants to hear, “That’s a great painting, but it would have been better with a blue background.” In business terms that sounds like: “You did a great job with your team, but next time you should use a power point presentation.”

I loathe most analysts because they make a living out of scrutinizing other people’s work with little or no experience. Explaining why a coach made a wrong call on Monday is easy, but to be in the coaches position on Sunday with 1:13 left and make a decision is infinitely harder. It is  baffling to me that people can sit on the sidelines and simply critique what others do without actually being in the industry (broadcasting is not sports, fyi) and be paid to talk about the successes and failures of others. Although that is a sports analogy – on the sidelines – it is applicable to all areas, i.e. fashion, faith, art, music, family, and more.

When we ship, we know how hard it is to do so and we should not take shots simply because we can. If we see others shipping and we see an area for improvement, we should bring it up without being harsh or degrading their finished product. And if we have not shipped yet we have something to say about someone who has, we should eat our words and use them as inspiration to finish our own project. Anyone who ships is more likely to take the advice of others who have shipped over those who have not. And that puts those who have shipped in a position of influence, do not abuse that position, instead use it to help those looking to follow your footsteps.