Category: Thought Leaders

Most organizations exist to accomplish something important. Most people who work in organizations want their organization to succeed (even if it’s for purely selfish purposes).

Two debilitating ailments commonly compromise organizational progress: Complacency and Inertia.

Complacency is the product of being satisfied with the current state. Organizations that fall “ill” in this regard lose (or never had) a focus on continuous improvement. We — the leaders — can do something about that.

Inertia frequently results when fear of change sets in. When doing nothing seems safer than doing something, we move into a organizational death spiral. We — the leaders — can do something about that.

While there are a lot of moving parts to the something(s) that we — the leaders — can do, the first and foremost is to communicate with absolute clarity the noble and worthy outcomes we seek as a team.

*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.

Volumes have been written about what does and doesn’t make a good leader. To be sure, there are many moving parts to being an effective leader. And, constantly changing contexts do nothing but make the challenges more ominous.

Nothing inhibits our ability to lead effectively more than when we begin to let “getting stuff done” become more important than learning. 

When we stop growing — stop LEARNING — we have begun writing our own leadership obituaries.

Yeppers; it’s a choice we make. Daily.

*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.

As leaders, we can create the conditions of our own demise.

Here are some of the pitfalls to avoid if we intend to truly make a difference:

• Become Disconnected – Losing focus on the most important things the we are trying to achieve.
• Stay in the Spotlight – Letting “it” become about us, rather than about what we are trying to achieve.
• Remain Mushy – Allowing meetings and work processes to become bogged down in the meaningless and minutae.
• Talk Too Much, Listen Too Little – Being enamored with our own voices (and thoughts).
• Fail to Notice – Disregarding and devaluing those doing the necessary work, up and down the food chain.

It’s a doom loop that guarantees failure and stagnation if we choose to engage in those practices.

Reminded of a mantra from my former life as an athletic coach: “We’d better be in the business of getting better everyday; our competitors most certainly are.”

*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.

Individual excellence is tough. 

It requires skill + intense work + highly focused effort + ongoing learning + commitment to continuous improvement + getting up one more time than we get knocked down. 

Organizational excellence is even tougher. 

It requires skill + intense work + highly focused effort + ongoing learning + commitment to continuous improvement + getting up one more time than we get knocked down + constant CULTURE crafting.

Constant CULTURE crafting is a fundamental responsibility of leaders. Perhaps the toughest part of our very tough work.

What fabulous outcomes occur when we manage to get it right!

*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning. 

It is immensely comforting to work for/with people (especially leaders) who operate On Principle.

They speak, move, act, react, make decisions that are grounded solidly on principles of rightness, fairness, trust, and honesty. Minute-by-minute, day in and day out.

Such folks (especially leaders) give the rest of us room to work, to speak, to move, to act, to react, and to make decisions with a high level of confidence (and safety).

Knowing they will consistently stand solidly on noble Principles gives us the safety to do the same.

*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning. 

Who?

Who do I know that needs to hear from me today?

Who needs my ear and mind today?

Who will enter my sphere of influence today, and why, and am I prepared to engage?

Who do I need to meet today?

Who do I need to seek out for advice and counsel today?

WHO needs me today? WHO do I need today?

More importantly, will I be “present” enough to notice?

*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.

One of the first exemplary leaders (aka JB) I worked for taught me the immense value of slowness.

JB exuded an aura of stoicism, unflappability, studiousness. I now better understand WHAT he was doing, and WHY. JB understood, and was teaching me, that those of us who lead others are wise to move slowly as often as possible (true emergencies where lives are in danger being the exception).

Here are some of the instructive ways JB moved slowly:

• He was slow to “fix,” or try to solve the problems of, others.
• He was slow to start talking, preferring to question and deeply listen first.
• He was slow to accept the assertions/allegation/reports of the first (or only) “reporter.”
• He was slow to jump to conclusions and make impactful decisions without researching thoroughly and seeking insight from wise others.
• We was slow to adopt novelty in whole cloth fashion, preferring to treat “new ways of doing it” as pilot projects that could be tweaked as they were being explored and adapted.
• He was slow in physically moving about, recognizing that when the leader appears “on fire” it has a disruptive and unsettling effect on others in the organization.

Thankful to this day for both the direct and indirect guidance I received from JB. Thankful, too, that I had him to learn from early in my career/life.

I’d bet good money that JB is today one of the slowest movers in heaven.

*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.

I am a pseudo-musician. Occasionally I use an amplifier during a musical performance. While I am not classically trained, nor is my voice superbly polished, the amplifier makes me sound better than I really am.

Over the years I’ve often heard leaders posit the strategy of pairing criticism (usually of employee performance) with doses of gratitude/praise. I think of it as “graticism.”

The best, and usually the smartest, team members I’ve worked with recognize this psycho-manipulation for what it is: an attempt to “soften” criticism with praise. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, as the old mantra goes.

I am neither a fan, nor practitioner.

Two considerations that spring from my hard experiences on this front:

1. Uninvited criticism is rarely, if ever, received well (I believe the research in psychology supports my position in this regard). Rather, surfacing poor performance issues through conversation and inquiry has always provided for me better results in conducting these difficult conversations. Trust is the starting point of solution crafting in this area. Making folks feel they’re being psycho-manipulated is not a very good trust building technique.

2. Saying THANKS and offering praise for good effort (and work) in stand-alone formatting is a marvelous and high yield strategy. The cost is low; the dividends are high. In fact, it’s often the antecedent to that trust building thing… (and it makes both giver and receiver feel a little better).

(And, yes, I know I’m not in the main stream of thought on this subject. I’m fine with that….)

*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.