Archive for the ‘Team Building’ Category
May 23, 2011
Control Cataracts is a disorder that occurs in a leader’s vision. It happens when someone becomes desperate to maintain control at the expense of the group or the organization. He or she becomes reluctant to share any measure of authority for fear of losing control. This results in a blindness to the value that could be added by those around them, as well as a short-sightedness as to what success really is.
Leadership is about influence – not control. I am not the only person to make this observation, but it is worth repeating. If leadership involves control, it is only over setting an organization’s course and priorities. Those companies increasing in value the most are those with leaders that have a clear vision, continually communicate that vision, and then get out of the way and let their people do what they are paid to do. Trust is one of the most valuable things you can give to both individuals and teams. It is important to keep in mind that often our people can do things just as well, or in some cases, better than we do.
Your role as a leader is to bring people to a higher level of effectiveness, whatever the goal might be. A team is only as effective as its weakest link. If you have the unfortunate disorder of Control Cataracts within your organization and fail to eradicate it, you make your organization weak because over time self-confidence wanes and self-esteem diminishes across the board.
Even the best leaders, however, sometimes fall into the trap of involving themselves in minute details where they would do better to leave well enough alone. When leaders succumb to Control Cataracts, they are very likely to fail. Even good leaders need reminding of that. Delegate responsibilities and let those responsible for the tasks be accountable for getting them done.
Micromanagers prevent employees from making – and taking responsibility for – their own decisions. But it’s precisely the process of making decisions, and living with the consequences of those decisions, that allows people to grow and improve. Effective leaders empower employees to do well by providing opportunities to excel; Less effective leaders disempower their employees by hoarding opportunities. And because a disempowered employee is an ineffective employee he or she will require a lot of time and energy. It’s that time and energy, multiplied across an organization of timid, intimidated employees that amounts to a serious and self-defeating drain on a leader’s time.
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Posted in Communication, Control Cataracts, Danger Series, Development, Education, Global, Global Leadership, Innovation, Leadership, Leveraging Leaders, Potential, Resources, Team Building, Value Creation | Tagged challenge, Change Management, communication, competitive advantage, Execution, global organizations, influence, Leadership, Potential, results, winning results | 1 Comment »
May 12, 2011
Leadership Laceration is a common disorder found when people complain about the leadership that has been placed over them. This is not only harmful to the leader, but it can be fatal for the group. The symptoms can be difficult to detect and are often mistaken for benign interactions. Those without a strong immune system can easily become victims, often unable to differentiate antagonism from healthy criticism. This condition is highly contagious and anyone found to have the symptoms should be quarantined right away…
All kidding aside, those individuals who choose to verbally lacerate leadership can be a serious threat to organizational alignment and morale. Because neither employees nor organizations are immune to employees with the propensity to lacerate leadership, you will need to be aware of the signs, symptoms and impact of leadership laceration.
It is your job, as an organizational leader, to create an environment where brilliant people of all backgrounds, personality types, and work styles thrive. Companies where smart people with diverse backgrounds and work-styles can succeed have significant advantages over those that don’t. However, sometimes really smart employees develop agendas other than doing what is in the best interest of the company. Rather than identifying weaknesses, so they can be overcome, these employees look for faults in leadership to build their case. The smarter the employee, the more destructive this type of behavior can be. Don’t underestimate the fact that it takes a really smart person to seriously lacerate leadership – otherwise, nobody listens.
It can be very difficult to amend the behavior of these smart, but destructive, employees. Once an individual takes a public stance, the social pressure to be consistent is enormous. If he tells his closest colleagues that the CEO is an incompetent, reversing that position will cost him a great amount of credibility the next time he slashes away at the leadership team. Most people are not willing to take the credibility hit.
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Posted in Communication, Cross-cultural, Danger Series, Global Leadership, Leadership, Leadership Laceration, Resources, Strategy, Team Building | Tagged challenge, Change Management, communication, complexity, Global Leadership, Global teams, Leadership, organizational insight, Potential, transformational management | Leave a Comment »
March 30, 2011
Last week we looked at some common myths surrounding change management that have the potential to derail the change effort. Organizational change often reminds me of the movie Jumanji that involves a supernatural boardgame that brings its jungle world to life and puts the actual players in jeopardy of being maimed, or perhaps worse yet, caught in the drama forever. Sound familiar? It’s a jungle out there, and if you want to avoid drama that could maim your change effort, not only do you need to dispel myths (last weeks post), but you also need to put solid game rules in place that will keep everyone on the same game board. Here are some suggestions to foster effective change:
1. Acknowledge The 300 Pound Gorilla In The Room
Don’t try and institute change covertly
- silence, denial and mislabeling always make the situation worse. Call the gorilla, well… a gorilla – let your people know that there are uncomfortable changes taking place. Demonstrate your commitment by asking your opinion leaders for their ideas as to how to go about the change… and actually implement the best contributions. If you want your people to embrace change, they must have a chance to voice concerns and offer input. Effective change management includes listening carefully to concerns and fears – perceived, imagined, or legitimate – that could become barriers. Open communication provides valuable insight, letting you lay the foundations for effective change.
2. Provide Clear, Concise Communications
Even the most dedicated employees want to know how change will affect them personally. It is critical to provide clear and accurate information to the furthest extent possible. Whether they say it or not, people will naturally question:
- How the change will affect them
- What they will need to do differently
- If they will need additional skills to be successful… if so, how will they learn them?
- How they will know if the change is good for them
- If the change will affect their position. Will they be moved or eliminated?
Communicate openly. People can more easily accept change if they know what to expect. Managing expectations is tricky, but it’s vital to success. Make the case for change - provide a clear and convincing rationale for the change and support it with sound evidence. Let those affected know about the proposed change in advance. Advise everyone of the honest implications for individuals, teams, functions, and organizations.
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Posted in Communication, Cross-cultural, Development, Global Leadership, Leadership, Planning, Resources, Strategic Planning, Team Building, The Challenge of Change, Value Creation | Tagged challenge, Change Management, communication, Execution, Global Leadership, Leadership, organizational insight, results, Strategic Planning, success, transformational management, winning results | 2 Comments »
March 22, 2011
It is inevitable – change creates drama in most organizations. However, you have a choice as to whether you deal with change effectively or let it spiral out of control - controlling you and creating unnecessary drama! Leaders need to be able to present a unified vision and convey support if they expect their people to embrace change. Indifference can lead to a rapid demise of the change effort. As a leader invoking change, make sure you provide:
- A vision for how the change will impact the individual, team, division and organization
- A firm commitment to change goals, while accepting input on the details
- Specific, achievable objectives along with plans for achieving them
- A roadmap for success with realistic timelines, budgets, and owners
- A communication framework to support change adoption
- Opportunities for people to give feedback during and after the change
Admittedly, organizational change is complex, but we often make it harder on ourselves than it has to be. Just as in the board game Clue, it is easy to engage in false assumptions that can lead our people down the path of suspicion and drama – away from the truth and the ultimate win. The result? A whole lot of ambiguous thinking regarding the application of structured, human-focused, change within the organization.
Here are just a few examples of how we can easily fall victim to false assumptions over our own realities:
People Resist Change: Actually, not always. People frequently seek out drastic changes in their lives and voluntarily embrace them. People do, however, resist being forced to change.
How change is presented and managed will impact its success or failure far more than the change itself. Most of us respond far better to change when we comprehend a valid reason for it – without solid justification, most people are likely to resist anyone who tries to force change upon them… and cause drama along the way.
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Posted in alignment, Change, Communication, Global Leadership, Leadership, Part 1, Potential, Save The Drama Series, Strategic Planning, Strategy, Team Building, Uncategorized, Value Creation | Tagged Change, Change Management, complexity, Execution, global alignment, Global Leadership, influence, Leadership, Potential, results, Strategic Planning, success, synergy, transformational management, Unity of Purpose, winning results | Leave a Comment »
March 5, 2011
You can bet that if you do not set and manage expectations, drama will invite itself in for an extended visit. When people do not know what is expected, they will create their own expectations – and they most likely will not align across the organization. Disagreements and controversy ensue, causing chaos and distraction from driving positive results. While setting and managing expectations may seem time consuming, the cost – in time, effort, and drama – of not doing so far exceeds that of being responsible and clearly letting people know what you expect of them.
Before you, as a leader, can hold people accountable for outcomes, you have to let them know what success looks like and what you expect to see as a result of their efforts. If everyone knows what is expected, the focus is on driving for results and monitoring against set standards. The benefit of setting and managing expectations is twofold:
- Clear, concise expectations drive actions and decisions.
- Explicit expectations are a primary driver of success.
If you fail to create an environment where expectations are well understood and respected by your people, you are highly unlikely to develop a high-performing organization… or deliver strong business results.
Expectations are like the rules in the board game Sorry! When everyone knows the “rules” or “expectations”, some may try and cheat (like my husband, who can’t stand to lose), but the other players will hold the cheater accountable. When no one knows the rules, it is impossible to be accountable, much less hold anyone else accountable to anything. Organizations are no different – if you want your players to know how to play to win and hold others accountable, you are responsible for setting and managing expectations.
When setting expectations, consider these four principles:
1. Clarity
Expectations should focus on outcomes, not activities. Leaders often make the mistake of attempting to direct the process that will be used, rather than focusing on the desired outcome. As a leader, you should be responsible for identifying the goal, while the employee (or the team) is then responsible for developing how to meet or exceed expectations.
2. Relevance
Relevance helps define the “why” of what is expected. If employees have complete understanding of the importance of what they are asked to deliver, they will be more committed to the result because they see how it fits into the big picture, as well as how their efforts impact the company.
3. Simplicity.
Simplicity creates a sense of grounding for both individuals and teams. If you identify what is expected in simple, straightforward terms, there is a clear understanding of exactly what is expected.
4. Consistency
After setting expectations, you must maintain a consistent approach to managing expectations that can be applied in most situations. This facilitates a sense of unity and equality, and will bolster morale across the organization.
Now, let’s consider three important components to managing expectations:
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Posted in alignment, Communication, Education, Global Leadership, Leadership, Managing Expectations, Multicultural Teams, Planning, Resources, Save The Drama Series, Strategic Planning, Strategy, Team Building, Value Creation | Tagged alignment, communication, complexity, global alignment, global business, Global Leadership, Global teams, influence, Leadership, organizational insight, Potential, Rapid Result Initiatives, results, Strategic Planning, success, synergy, Unity of Purpose, winning results | 1 Comment »
February 24, 2011
Gossip is as old as mankind, and if you have drama in the workplace – you more than likely have gossip. They can be found in nearly every workplace, these conspiratorial conversations that are more often than not unverified, unsubstantiated, and occasionally unseemly. It can be the type of chatter that can appear, at face value, as harmless speculation or good-natured teasing, but if left unchecked, has the potential to severely impact your ability to generate positive business results. Leaders need to recognize that gossip can have a profound effect on their bottom line, and that not having a strategy to handle it could be a recipe for disaster.
It may sound like a harmless, unavoidable by-product of corporate life, but left unchecked, gossip can wreak havoc on company morale and efficiency. A negative work environment is a less productive work environment. Gossip can create an uncomfortable atmosphere – not only for the person the gossip is about, but for everyone in the workplace.
Gossip can often become likened to the old childhood game of “Telephone”, where one person starts the spread of information, and by the time it reaches the last person, it has evolved and changed into something entirely different. Some gossip may have truth to it, while other information carried on the gossip relay may be false. Either way, gossip is a harmful means of communication and should be avoided.
Here are just a few destructive results of gossip in the workplace:
- Wasted time and lost productivity
- Severe erosion of trust and morale
- Hurt feelings and the possibility of reprisals
- Miscommunication leading to conflict, missed opportunities or misinformation
- Heightened fear or falsely raised expectations
- A “toxic” work environment
Now that you understand the serious impact that gossip can have, what can you do about it? First, you need to understand that you are not likely to completely eliminate it. However, you also need to understand that how an organization deals with habitual gossip can be mean the difference between growing and thriving… or disintegrating from within. Understanding the effect it has on achieving your organization’s goals and objectives, your goal should be to limit gossip to the greatest extent possible. Below are some tips for controlling gossip in the workplace:
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Posted in Communication, Education, Gossip, Leadership, Planning, Save The Drama Series, Strategy, Team Building, Value Creation | Tagged alignment, challenge, communication, Global teams, influence, Leadership, Organizational Politics, Potential, results, synergy, transformational management, Unity of Purpose, winning results | Leave a Comment »
February 17, 2011
We have all experienced workplace drama in one form or another. It can be unpleasant, irritating, and disruptive - often preventing organizations from effectively meeting their goals. As a leader, you are responsible for maintaining a productive, drama-free workplace. You rely on people to do their jobs in such a way that results are successfully achieved. Because you work with people to get things done, you are likely to experience drama in the workplace. It can sometimes feel like an experience similar to the television show “The Nanny” – the kids (your organization) are spoiled and/or unruly, and you are the Nanny – responsible for teaching the foundational skills that lead to organizational success. However, in the workplace (just as with dysfunctional families) the gossip, complaining, and backstabbing leads to full blown negativity that will result in increased turnover and absenteeism. How you manage drama within your organization may determine your ultimate outcomes.
It may feel personal at times, but as the “Nanny”, it is your job to get the children back in line, ensuring they learn and engage in appropriate behaviors that will create positive results for the organization. For the next few weeks, we will explore several ideas – hopefully providing you, the leader, with a toolbox to ensure that you are in a position to eliminate (or at least drastically reduce) drama in the workplace. If you successfully manage the drama, you are much more likely to see the positive results you desire.
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Posted in Communication, Development, Global Leadership, Leadership, Save The Drama For Your Momma Series, Save The Drama Series, Strategy, Team Building, Value Creation | Tagged challenge, communication, Execution, Global Leadership, Global teams, Leadership, organizational insight, Organizational Politics, results, success, transformational management, Unity of Purpose, winning results | 2 Comments »
December 3, 2010
Have you thought about the impact that you, as a leader, have in these toxic waters of economic downturn? Wise leaders are making the changes they need to make now so that they emerge better, stronger, and faster than ever – ready for the growth that will ultimately come. It is absolutely critical for those at the helm to be prepared to inspire and motivate those who remain onboard in order to emerge victorious. So what are some of the most important traits that a great Captain in this epic storm should embrace? Here are some reminders of what is important:
- Lead By Example: Your people watch everything you do and listen to every word you say – then wait to ensure both are in alignment. The best way to lead and motivate is to be a real example of the way you expect others to behave. Be completely honest and as transparent as possible. Level with people – tell them how you see the current environment, acknowledge the limits of your own understanding, and engage the discussion by asking them for their views. Why? 1) your honesty and humility will breed respect and 2) your openness demonstrates that you walk the talk and 3) it clearly illustrates how together you are more than the sum of the individual parts.
- Inspire Loyalty: The seas are rough, the water is toxic, and people fear being thrown overboard more than ever. It’s critical that they truly believe that you are on their side and supporting them. Create a vision that will make your teams see possibility and generate creative ideas. Inspire them to focus on the new priorities by doing so yourself – fearlessly. Engage decisions and projects that will produce incremental success so that people can visibly and viably see progress. Why? Because people need hope and they need to see progress – you can give them both and they will reward you with their loyalty. The more clear and vivid you can communicate a vision, the more your teams are bought into you and what may seem an impossible future - show them the finish line and they will put up the sails and catch the wind.
- Demonstrate A Real-Time Connection To Reality: Although today reality is a moving target, continuously monitoring the changing environment through ground-level intelligence can provide a realistic map to plot your way forward. Partnering to pool information across functions, or geographical boundaries, can provide useful insights and build camaraderie. As an added bonus, as you continue to gather information, the picture will change to reveal new opportunities or threats that can be proactively addressed. While the first order of a realistic assessment is to understand and accept the magnitude of the challenge, the fact is that there are few problems that can not be solved by engaged, active minds working together. Focus people on what is realistically possible, rather than what is not, and facilitate them searching for solutions that will move the organization forward. As a leader, it is your responsibility to drive positive performance by transforming fear into action.
- Manage With Intensity - Embrace Empowerment: Always remember to balance intensity with empowerment. Provide the training, resources and support your people need to do their jobs, but don’t micro-manage. It shows you don’t have faith in your people and demonstrates explicitly that you do not trust them. Tipping the scales back the other way, in difficult times your hands-on participation is essential. As you support people in doing their jobs, openly share and discuss information and ideas, and consistently act with the speed and intensity required in a volatile environment. You need to be intensely interactive - listening, explaining, answering questions, pushing conversations to higher levels – and then doing it all again. People will be inspired by your intensity and involvement – not to mention seeing firsthand how you put reality on deck and engage them in a plan to address it decisively, as a team.
Facing the reality of surviving the current storm, while preparing for the long term effects of the toxicity, requires a leader to constantly adjust – “X” no longer marks the spot. Those leaders who look ahead, anticipate what’s coming, and act decisively to adjust to an ever-changing reality will survive. Those leaders who lead by example, inspire loyalty, engage their teams, demonstrate a real-time connection to reality, and manage with intensity while embracing empowerment will not only survive the toxic waters – they will thrive in the new reality.
Please engage the discussion and let us know what traits you rely on to motivate and incite every person to think through and act on sustaining the organization. Please feel free to contact me at Sheri.Mackey@LuminosityGlobal.com or by visiting our website at www.LuminosityGlobal.com. Check back next week for the next post on Leadership Across Boundaries and Borders.
Posted in Communication, Global Leadership, Into The Deep Series, Leadership, Leadership Traits For Toxic Waters, Potential, Team Building | Tagged challenge, communication, complexity, global business, Global Leadership, global organizations, Global teams, Leadership, Potential, Unity of Purpose | 5 Comments »
September 8, 2010
A few weeks ago my husband and I led a missions team to Haiti. As I was observing (and serving) in the poorest country in the western hemisphere, I began to think about how there are some leadership lessons inherent in the environment in Haiti that most of us could stand to think about more often. You may think to yourself, “what can I learn from a country that has 90% unemployment and a 70% illiteracy rate?” These statistics are correct… and there are some important reminders (lessons) that impact how we interact with people as leaders and how far people are willing to go to serve you. Here are just a few of the things that come to mind:
- Understand, you can’t possibly understand…
Living and visiting third world countries on a regular basis throughout most of my life, I am more aware than most of cultural diversity and the impact it has within a single culture, much less a wider application. In Haiti, I was reminded that because I live within my own paradigms, I can never fully understand the plight of those outside of them. Despite seeing poverty in its most extreme, I have never been that poor….despite witnessing oppression at its worst, I have never really been oppressed…No matter how much, as global leaders we would like to think we understand, chances are we are just not equipped to comprehend the complexity and diversity that resides within our global organizations. The myriad of cultural challenges our diverse global communities present, only serves to remind us that while we can certainly learn and understand general orientations and respect and value others worldviews, we can not fully understand individual people by observing from a physical or psychological level. The diversity and complexity of those individuals is shaped not only by their culture, but by their life experiences and the dozens of values, thousands of attitudes and tens of thousands of beliefs that continually evolve throughout a lifetime. As global leaders, where we can be effective is through active listening, understanding that there is more than one “best way”, and having the capacity to facilitate the blending of the best of all cultural elements to make the whole more than the sum of the parts.
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Posted in Communication, Cross-cultural, Development, Education, Global, Leadership, Leadership Lessons From Haiti, Leadership Lessons: Haiti, Lessons From Abroad Series, Potential, Resources, Team Building, Value Creation | Tagged complexity, culture, diversity, Execution, Global Leadership, GlobalLeadership, Haiti, impossible future, leadership lessons, sacrifice, teamwork | 6 Comments »
August 13, 2010
The cry for effective leadership in global organizations is both urgent and widespread. Organizations are challenged to identify and leverage global leadership competence in order to succeed across boundaries and borders, while technical competence and organizational experience are no longer adequate selection criteria for key global positions.
Increasingly the most crucial leadership characteristics identified are relationship competence and openness to new perspectives. These are challenging to develop in leaders because they derive from interpersonal characteristics and require sustained behavioral change. Typically, organizations have selected or promoted leaders for global roles based on technical expertise and organizational commitment, which has, historically, resulted in unsatisfying results. The unintended negative consequences have often been well-publicized and costly – premature terminations, disappointing global performance, as well as reduced organizational morale, cohesion and performance.
Leading across boundaries and borders requires specific interpersonal attitudes and skills, in addition to technical expertise and organizational knowledge. It is absolutely critical that we provide leaders with the right tools and skillsets to succeed in an ever-changing, complex global environment. One key element of this preparation is making sure leaders understand and have the ability to create relationships of trust by developing keen insight and respect for differences, while also connecting across cultures in a meaningful way.
Last week I posted commentary on what I consider the “Psychological Acumen” necessary for global leadership. This week we will look at the third component: Social Acumen and its corresponding subsets:
Social Acumen: Intercultural communication skills; the ability to align, motivate and inspire people; networking and building trust relationships globally; the desire for continuous interpersonal growth.
- Team Building: Can the executive build alignment despite differences in function, geography and culture? Is there the ability to communicate a consistent vision and inspire team coordinated action across diverse environments? Can s/he keep the teams focused and motivated?
- Intercultural Orientation: Is there an ability to engage and connect with people from different backgrounds, functions, and cultures?
- Personal Impact: Is there the ability to build alliances and business partnerships? Can the executive bring together diverse viewpoints, drive consensus, and maintain credibility across cultures? Is there the capability to successfully infuse the local management team with the corporate (global) vision and culture to effectively institutionalize the local market?
- Diplomacy: Can the executive hear both what is said and what is not said? Can s/he ease into conversations with diverse participants? Is there a propensity to ask rather than answer? Is there skill in building networks with diverse cultural connection points?
Global companies today may deploy international processes and operations, yet they must understand that above all people drive those processes and operations. If people across boundaries and borders are not bought into the global leader on an interpersonal level, critical goals are not likely to be achieved – at least not with any level of effectiveness or efficiency. Companies must find innovative ways to generate competitive advantage, and again, this can only be achieved through people - thus the criticality of social acumen.
The continued expansion of the global enterprise across diverse cultures and geographies, as well as the necessary integration of diverse, and often geographically separated, teams into the perspectives, strengths and results of the global operation requires that leaders acquire the social acumen that is critical to global success. The competitive context in which we all live does not permit us to leave any talent underutilized – all global leaders must acquire and embed global leadership competence into everyday actions and behaviors. If we can partner with our leaders to develop intellectual, psychological, and social acumen, there is an immense opportunity to both positively impact peoples lives and drive strong, consistent global results!
What are you doing to develop social acumen as a critical business skill in your global organization?
Please feel free to contact me at Sheri.Mackey@LuminosityGlobal.com or by visiting our website at www.LuminosityGlobal.com. Check back next week for the next installation of Leadership Across Boundaries & Borders.
Posted in Communication, Cross-cultural, Development, Global, Global Leader Series, Leadership, Potential, Social Superhero?, Team Building, Value Creation | Tagged alignment, Effective Leaders, Global Leadership, inspiration, Intercultural Competence, Interpersonal Skills, Motivation, Social Acumen | Leave a Comment »
