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The Point e-newsletter
July 2008
Leadership ItchBy RON CROSSLAND
Any of these conditions can stimulate some serious thinking among senior management, HR professionals, and even board members about remedies. While most remedies are narrowly focused and operationally based, since about 1990 a more general resolution has become part of the solution set. It’s called leadership development. While leadership training and development has been around for a long time, it didn’t become a standard feature for all companies until about that time. And since the economic downturn of 2000 to 2002, leadership development has become seen as a key strategy for preventing or reducing the effects of all the ailments described above. I have been working in leadership development since the mid-1980s. I have seen a wide variety of changes occur over the past two decades in my capacity as a founding member and/or officer of International Leadership Development, Bluepoint Leadership Development, and Tom Peters Company. Both as an educator and a senior manager of leadership development consulting teams I’m often asked what mistakes companies make when building a leadership development strategy. I often say the number one problem is scratching the leadership itch. Have you ever had an itch that just bugged the heck out of you? A rash, hive, bug bite, or some other irritation that controlled not only your attention, but your emotional mood over a day or two or longer? This same kind of phenomenon happens to the leadership development. Something in the environment causes an itch and all you want to do is scratch it until it goes away. And like scratching, you get a temporary moment of relief, but then the itch returns, which only prompts you to figure you have to scratch harder and longer, or that you have to use more itch cream, or that you have to pump your system full of some remedy that affects all your skin, not just the area that itches. So what many companies do is build their leadership development programs all around a single itch and scratch until it goes away. And then another itch erupts and leadership development changes to focus on it. Two cases I have dealt with come to mind. One was a company who was getting creamed in the media concerning its lack of moral judgment or company values. Far too much press was arguing the company in question was a soulless machine that concentrated only on market domination without regard to the means. The answer was to develop a set of organizational values and for a few years a great deal of the leadership development focus for this organization concerned values based leadership. In a second case the company in question was already in an enviable market position. It had no serious competitors, yet it wasn’t growing as well as it wanted. It’s emphasis for leadership development? Strategy. By far the itch this company scratched was strategy while all other leadership issues were either slightly addressed or ignored. I argue this itch response is not only a poor method for developing leaders it seriously undermines leadership development. Over time participants in these developmental programs realize that many aspects of leadership are being ignored and that their development is a guise for harder scratching. To abruptly switch metaphors, it’s like training to run a marathon by only practicing short sprints. Or more significantly, it’s like training for a marathon, when you should be training for the decathlon. My advice? If you have an itch, scratch it. But treat it as an itch, a distraction. Don’t let an itch prevent you from maintaining an overall healthy development regimen. Ron Crossland is Chairman of Bluepoint Leadership Development, and the Co- author of The Leader’s Voice, and The Leadership Experience. He can be reached by email. Leading you: Where is your attention?SUSANNE BIRO
It is often said that our most precious commodity is time. I disagree. Because the experience of time is relative, I do not find it an adequate measurement tool. Rather, I propose that our most precious commodity is our attention. We only have so much attention to give at any given moment, and so our question becomes, to whom and to what should I devote it? Unfortunately, for most people, the ability to control their own attention is severely underdeveloped. As a result, their mind frequently races off, following various thoughts as they arise. This phenomena can often be noticed when one is reading - perhaps you have had the experience of coming to the end of a page only to realize that you have no idea of what you just read because you were not paying attention (and so, frustratingly, you must re-read the entire page). What a strange experience! You were reading, but your attention was decidedly absent. Where did it go? If you were not controlling your own attention, do you know who or what was? This is something worth contemplating. The undisciplined mind is a noisy and busy mind. Sometimes we can see evidence of this mind in outward behavior such as quick speech, the inability to sit still, or the constant need to rush from one thing to another. The most common incarnation of this type in organizations today is the person who has to respond to every ping from their Blackberry (not unlike Pavlov's dogs). However, just as often, the only evidence of an undisciplined mind is the feeling that another person is not really listening to us. Perhaps you have noticed this in others - they appear to be paying attention, but you don't get the sense that they really are. Or, perhaps you have noticed how your own mind wanders when in conversation with others. Left untrained, our minds will often repeat the same collection of thoughts over and over again, sometimes for years. When we have not practiced mental discipline to tame what has been referred to as our "wild horse mind," we find ourselves in a state of constant distraction, unable to be fully present to any situation - regardless of where we find ourselves. For example, we may be on vacation, but if our attention is back at work, then time away from the office has not been sufficient to provide that much needed holiday. Without applying mental discipline to direct our own attention, our mind is consumed with thoughts, making it difficult, if not impossible, to notice what is actually happening - in a conversation, in a meeting, or during a presentation or important negotiation. The cost of this lack of attention can never be fully known; however, I believe it is greater than we can possibly imagine. Try This: For one week, pay attention to the thoughts you think most often. Notice all the things you say to yourself about what is happening and what it means to you. Simply bring awareness to where you currently invest your most precious commodity - your attention. At the end of the week, answer the following questions: - What are the thoughts I think most often? - Which thoughts are useful to myself and others? - Which ones are not? - How can I more effectively focus my attention next week? Recommended Reading: - Turning Your Mind Into An Ally - Sakyong Mipham - The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business - Davenport & Beck - Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement With Everyday Life - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - Toxic Success: How to Stop Striving and Start Thriving - Dr. Paul Pearsall Susanne Biro is the Director of Leadership Coaching at Bluepoint and the co-author of Unleashed!: Expecting Greatness and other secrets to coaching for exceptional performance. She can be reached by email. The Language of AccountabilityBy GREGG THOMPSON
The next time you are listening to a leader speak, listen carefully to the speaker's use of the word "I." The manner in which a leader uses this one little word reveals much about his or her inclination towards accountability. Most leaders learn early in their careers to speak in terms of "we." What should we do? How will we work together? What did we accomplish? They recognize that much of their role is to give voice to the organization's plans and performance and that, in that context, the use of "we" is most appropriate. But when it comes to their personal accountability, it's all about the "I" word. As you listen, you will quickly become adept at spotting leaders who have a strong sense of personal accountability and those that do not. Consider the four sample statements in the non-accountable list below. When leaders use these or similar statements, they are signaling a lack of accountability. Conversely, the corresponding statements in the accountable list signal a strong sense of personal accountability. Not Accountable
Accountable
The difference between these phrases may appear subtle, but if you listen closely, they speak volumes about the degree to which a leader takes responsibility for his or her thoughts, opinions, and actions. How often do you hear a leader saying things like...
These comments denote a lack of personal accountability and erode leadership effectiveness. I believe that we are always listening to those around us, almost unconsciously, and grading them on the accountability scale. We naturally attribute the qualities of leadership to those individuals who assume personal accountability and discount the leadership of those who do not. Think about the language you use. Does your language suggest that you hold yourself accountable for your own performance, or do you deflect responsibility elsewhere? It may seem like a small matter of language choice, but its impact on how you are perceived as a leader is enormous. Gregg Thompson is President of Bluepoint Leadership Development and author of Unleashed: Expecting Greatness and Other Secrets of Coaching for Exceptional Performance. He can be reached by email. |
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Economic performance is down or worse it is flat with no promise of ever rising. Labor relation tensions mount. Competitors bring new products online at a faster clip than your company. Turnover increases. Wall Street snubs you. The C-suite team becomes querulous and factions appear. Employee surveys are at all time lows.
Do you have the ability to focus your mind on what you want, when you want?
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