Better Leaders: Build purpose and get out of the way

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Your brand is a lagging indicator of the quality of your culture, and your culture is driven by the level of engagement in the organization. Positive and constructive leadership is the biggest driver of the habitat and the mindsets of the people in the organization that make that engagement possible. The goal is to draw those discretionary qualities from people in the organization – initiative, creativity, passion – that can’t be bought. You can dictate obedience, you can hope for loyalty, and you can even buy expertise. But you can’t buy those discretionary qualities of initiative, creativity, and passion that must come from all levels to create next-generation innovative value.

Since no longer loyalty, obedience, and even expertise constitute competitive advantage, your managers and leaders need to be focused on creating those environments and leading with those attributes that build creative, connected and engaged people. Only then will we find real deviation from the mediocre middle that will yield innovation – the kind of product and service innovation that creates sustainable value. Agreed?

In which case, the behaviors and influence that managers and leaders play in the organization have the ability to make a huge difference in eliciting those qualities of engagement that exist in everyone. Many companies understand this intuitively and have active policies to bring out the best in their people.

Dell Computers conducts training to help their people use social media and help them understand they are all brand ambassadors. Dell doesn’t leave the social branding to just one small department in the organization, everyone is expected to participate. Disney has famously focused on employee satisfaction, not customer satisfaction, with the recognition that happy employees create great customer experiences.

We have to thank Bob Sutton of Stanford University, for awareness of this fun study his colleague Deborah Gruenfeld conducted. Gruenfeld conducted a research study in which they brought together students in groups of three. One student was chosen the “boss” or arbiter, and the other two were asked to construct solutions to various issues on campus – making the campus more green, or improving transportation, or cafeteria services. The task itself was a red herring. What the researchers were most interested in was the role of power newly bestowed to one of the students.

During the session in which the “boss” is asked to evaluate the quality of the proposals from each of the two other students, the researchers bring in a plate of five cookies. After they each take a cookie, there’s two left. Every culture is aware of the social taboo against taking the last cookie so the cookie that’s in play here is the fourth. Consistently, the appointed “boss” was much more likely to take the fourth cookie, and to exhibit “disinhibited eating.” That is, chewing with their mouth open and leaving more crumbs.

It’s an amusing story but goes to the core of what Gruenfeld calls the Power Poisoning Effect. That is, those in a place of power tend to:
• Give greater value to their own ideas and initiatives
• Give lesser value to the ideas and initiatives of subordinates
• Think that the rules don’t apply to them
• Have greater difficulty controlling their own impulses

Sutton describes how David Kelley, CEO and founder of IDEO, the premiere design and innovation firm leads differently. Kelley frequently assembles and leads group meetings. As Sutton tells it, when the conversations are going poorly, Kelley will spend a significant amount of time at the front of the room guiding discussion and reinforcing ideas from everyone. And when the discussions are going well, he will move to the back of the room, and if you aren’t paying attention he might slip out the door. Because he understands not only that the best ideas come from the people I nthe organization but that also his presence can possibly stifle conversation.

The message for leaders is that when there is a lack or either will or skill, you are needed to step in to guide, facilitate and aid contributors. And when there is a high level of both will and skill, sometimes the best thing you can do is get out of the way.

Hit a Wall? Your Mindset Matters

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“Borders? I have never seen one. But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people.”
– Thor Heyerdahl, innovator, adventurer, and border-smasher

I have a friend who installed the same invisible dog fence I did, but he admitted he didn’t bother with the training and simply installed the underground wire and shackled his dog with the electrical buzz collar which would shock the dog whenever he got near the line. His thinking was the dog would just learn the boundaries himself and viola! – a dog self-trained to stay in the yard. I asked him what happened, and he described that as his young boisterous dog started to run and play as usual he would get shocked and, since he didn’t associate the pain with any clear boundary, he eventually sat in the middle of the yard shaking in fear, paralyzed to move. From that point on all the dog wanted to do was stay in the house.

There are many dimensions to this story – not least the owner’s choice and behavior – but what I want to address is the dog’s perspective. The dog, not understanding why the random shocks, arrived at a state psychologists call “learned helplessness.” It’s the point at which they (we) are capable of believing that nothing we do matters, and regardless of our action, we’re going to be punished or bad things will befall us. A sense of control, and a sense that our behavior matters, is one of the most important predictors of happiness, and in turn workplace productivity, collaboration and creativity.

In a 2002 study from the Families and Work Institute, researchers concluded the following six criteria for creating an effective workplace:
• Providing job autonomy;
• Creating learning opportunities and challenges on the job—where employees can grow,
learn, and advance;
• Developing environments where supervisors support employees in being successful on
the job;
• Developing environments where coworkers support each other for job success;
• Involving employees in management decision-making; and
• Creating flexible workplaces

All of the above offer workers more, not less control and autonomy over their team, their task, their technique.

Carol Dweck, author of Mindset, in a series of studies, has found that people fall into two gross categories – those who believe their intelligence and aptitude is fixed, and those who believe their intelligence and capabilities are malleable and can change over time with effort. When people are in a learning, instead of a fixed mindset, they continually keep getting better because they try harder and constantly put themselves in positions where they might fail. And keep getting better because, or despite of, the challenges they self-impose.

In the invisible fence example, think of the ways in which you bump up against boundaries and how you react to them. Do you run back to the middle quaking, or spend time probing to understand that invisible boundary and then concoct ways to circumvent, or leap beyond it? Or maybe tunnel under? And if you are the boundary-creator, ask yourself why? It could be a legitimate boundary – we do it to our kids all the time for health, or safety, or learning, etc… But in my experience, when you give trust, you get trust, and sometimes exceptional performance.

Tim Sanders Intro – Cultures of Confidence

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I had the fun opportunity to introduce Tim Sanders to our SkillSoft Perspectives conference yesterday morning. Following is what I prepared. What I said in real time yesterday was probably close, but who knows. When presenting, keep your knees bent. And if you’re wondering…Tim killed. So wonderful and spot on message.

Good morning. In just a few moments we will be presenting a live interactive satellite and webcast presentation featuring Tim Sanders and produced right here from the main stage at Perspectives. If you have attended in past years you may recall we have beamed IN live presentations featuring Sir Ken Robinson, Don Tapscott and Tom Peters from distant production studios around the country. This year as a special treat we thought we would bring the event to you and broadcast live from the conference, from right here on the floor of the event.

Today’s live presentation will reach well over 600 organizations and companies around the globe and up to 40,000 individuals – including significant audiences in Europe and groups joining us in the evening in the middle east.

Tim Sanders will spend a few moments with us in advance of today’s event speaking on our specific opportunities and possibilities in the world of talent, human resources and leadership development and the power of lifelong learning. For his main broadcast presentation he will share ideas from his new book Today We Are Rich: Harnessing the Power of Total Confidence. Because by understanding the source of confidence we can preempt personal and organizational recessions and begin to build Cultures of Confidence. We have all seen the engagement data from Gallop, TowersWatts that reveals less than a third of the people in organizations describe themselves as fully engaged. A Culture of Confidence builds an ecosystem of full engagement because it allows people to reach beyond the expected diligence, expertise and compliance and tap into that discretionary effort of initiative, creativity and passion that gives rise to purpose.

Consider the pharmaceutical Genentech who has a stated purpose and a mantra of IN BUSINESS FOR LIFE. Genentech has consistently been voted in the top 10 places to work for, and if you talk to the people there they will tell you the secret sauce is their culture.

In 2003 after clinical trials and FDA approval Genentech introduced the genetically-engineered intravenous drug Xolair to the asthma medication market. Unlike standard asthma treatments that stop asthma attacks after they occur, Xolair was developed to block the histamines in our immune system that trigger attacks. It was preventative and effective short and long term because it would first curb the attacks, and then allow the patient to lead a life without fear of asthma attacks, instead of using drugs that would simply stop them once started.

Genentech released Xolair with confidence because on paper they knew they had the killer app and rolled out their marketing, sales readiness, inventory and distribution in anticipation of strong sales. But strangely after 6 months into the product roll-out sales were well below anyone’s anticipation. Then the financial analysts spotted an anomaly – a big sales spike coming out of Dallas Fort Worth. Out of 242 national sales reps, two women in the Dallas area created a new sales playbook and were selling twenty times the national average.

See Genentech had previously built market expertise in cancer medicines, not asthma drugs. And if you’ve visited an oncology or pulmonary unit as often as I have recently, you’ll know the oncology specialists routinely administer intravenous chemotherapy and other medicines. But Xolair’s market target was allergists, pediatricians, pediatric nurses. Infusions require a different set of protocols not normal in your standard child-doctor visit. Clinicians administering Xolair also must be trained in recognizing rare reactions or side effects. The sales reps could spend all day with powerpoint and graphs talking about the statistical benefit and effectiveness of Xolair and they still wouldn’t get past the client’s apprehension about simply administering it.

The crux of the problem was mindset and methods of the pediatric doctors and nurses. The challenge was to expand their skillset and change the office culture to align with their goal, and remember Genentech’s goal is IN BUSINESS FOR LIFE.

So these two reps in Dallas and their team created a new playbook in which they became consultants and mentors in administering Xolair. They educated the doctors to focus on the long term lifestyle benefits – like their patients could own pets now or pick up jogging again. They taught the clinic staff how to navigate the new insurance paperwork maze to get reimbursed for this new treatment. In short, they stopped applying force and started becoming change artists working in close partnership with their clients. This kind of emotional intelligence, initiative and creativity working in service of a shared purpose is much more readily possible within environments that encourage and reward risk. In Cultures of Confidence.

But in this story let’s not get overly distracted by the process, the mechanism by which these two innovative sales reps worked with their customers. They used onsite tutorials and in-person workshops to educate their customer but they could have used an iPhone app or some other app perfect for the puzzle. In our work to create and cascade real behavioral change we can get wrapped up in the machine, the killer app, when really the mechanism should be transparent and frictionless to the user. The story line is about their mantra: IN BUSINESS FOR LIFE.

Don Tapscott has a marvelous illustration of this when one day a few years ago he was in his house when down the hall he hears his son calling out, “Dad! Dad! Come here – you’ve got to check this out!” So Don walks down the hall to his son’s room and finds him at the computer looking at images of space and his son is saying, “Look Dad, that’s quasar, and that could be a black hole, and over here are stars being born, and this light we’re looking at is millions of years old! Isn’t that amazing!”

Don is pleased with his son’s interest in the cosmos, and says “That’s very cool son, where did you get these images?” And his son says, “Oh, they’re not pictures I’m streaming live from Hubble.” At this point Don’s jaw drops, and he says to his son, “What?! Do you understand you are harnessing the most powerful telescopic instrument on earth? And it’s not even on earth?” To which his son replies, “Yeah whatever Dad, but look that’s the Orion Nebula!”

Ultimately our purpose here together as colleagues at this conference is about connecting people with ideas. Ideas that can change both their beliefs and their behaviors, which then can cascade out and change whole ecosystems within an organization. Providing people with the confidence of ideas and knowledge allows us to reach through our fears, find our passion and display it through purpose. See our passion is what we love to do, but our purpose is why the world loves you. I said, our passion is what we love to do, but our purpose is why the world loves you.

Please help me in welcoming our host for today’s keynote presentation, the witty, fun, intelligent, and always telegenic, SkillSoft’s own Tracey Matisak!

Welcome Tracey. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to recognize for a moment Tracey and our friends at D2 productions. Like the wizard behind the curtain Dave Walzer is somewhere in the vicinity listening on headphones and watching on 16 monitors. At last count, over more than a decade we have produced almost 100 of these events throughout North America and we are deeply honored to share with you such talented professionals that make this all possible. Please join me in thanking them both and everyone here behind the scenes that make this magic possible.

Invite a Penguin to Your Next Meeting

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Years ago, Matt May was consulting to a Detroit car company. After interviewing people in the organization, he discovered theirs was a culture that stifled ideas in a command-and-control hierarchical fashion. The leaders of the company rejected his suggestion, didn’t believe him, and insisted they had an open environment where all ideas were welcome to the table.

So when Matt was asked to conduct a half-day workshop session he created an exercise in which each team, composed of diverse employees from all strata of the organization, had to work in teams to solve a puzzle. The exercise was about selecting the right balance of fuel, food, people, and resources for a successful trip to the moon. In the exercise there is a correct configuration of resources to solve the problem.

Before the exercise started, Matt did this: he took aside the most junior member on each team and gave them the answer. And told them they were free to do anything they chose to make their voice heard and be convincing to make their team successfully win the game except tell the team that Matt gave them the answer key.

Not one team got it right. At the conclusion of the session Matt asked the secret member of each team, who held the answer key, to stand up. The leaders attending the meeting were both appalled and enlightened to discover that contrary to their belief, voices from all levels of the organization really weren’t appreciated and listened to thoughtfully. After all, for each group the answer was sitting right at the table, yet no team delivered the correct solution.

We spoke to Juan, a senior IT leader at a large financial services organization, who had a similar experience, but his voice was heard. Recently, he was puzzled to be invited to a meeting with two of his colleagues from different departments who were trying to solve a business dilemma. As Juan sat through the opening comments of the meeting, he kept wondering silently what in the world was he doing here? Juan was leading the IT group, and clearly what these players needed was a business decision structure that had nothing to do with his team. But despite his puzzlement at why he was invited, Juan stayed and listened intently and shared his best ideas and suggestions during the course of the meeting. Within just a couple days Juan was included in some followup notes and found his colleagues had agreed and implemented the ideas discussed at the meeting.

But he discovered later in water cooler and cafeteria conversations, that it was his presence and divergent opinions and perspectives that bridged the understanding gap between his colleagues who had been too close to the project to see and execute the solution needed.

Maybe next time invite someone from left field to the table. Something interesting and successful might happen.

Do You Create Superheroes?

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What creates a high performer? Is it how many degrees they have, how many IQ points they have? Or is it how they create, use and power up their network? Dan Goleman says just one cognitive ability distinguishes top performers from average; pattern recognition. And an important part of big picture pattern thinking is the ability to create and energize a network of people who provide the pieces of that pattern.

Rob Cross, from the University of Virginia, has been studying how people interact, and the networks we create in the workplace. And he’s convinced that the strength, reach, and energy in the networks we create are powerful predictors of professional success, and happiness too.

Try this. Don’t ask yourself, “Who do I talk to at work?” Instead ask yourself these four questions:

  • Who do I go to to get things done?
  • Who do I go to for information?
  • Who do I trust at work?
  • Who do I interact with who always leaves me feeling better and stronger, and more energized?

In many organizations, up to a third of one’s professional skills and capabilities remain unknown to others in the organization. Enter the importance and power of the “broker.” The Broker is an important capabilities connector in the Real Org Chart. The Broker creates the connectivity in information, expertise, decision-making, political dynamics, project awareness and more. It also turns out your SVPs are most likely to be the centers of information, trust, effectiveness and energy.

But one of the greatest predictors of your effectiveness, your happiness, and your success is your capacity to be an energizer, instead of a vampire. According to Rob Cross, statistically your ability to create energy in the workplace and with your colleagues is more than 10 times as powerful as other predictors, including function, title, department, expertise, knowledge… Think about that for a second, and then ask yourself, “When people leave an interaction with me, do they leave feeling more or less energized?”

Enthusiasm is the contagious excitement of seeing the possible, and effectively sharing that vision with others. When we get enthusiastic about something it can be infectious. Just remember the difference between enthusiasm and action. There’s nothing more de-energizing than walking away fired-up from a meeting, work diligently on the shared vision, then only to return and find the prophet hasn’t done anything.

Craft an enthusiastic vision that captures the values of people in the group, and paint real possibilities. Next lead by example and make your contribution to the vision. That’s leadership enthusiasm in action.

The Innovation Midwife

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AMA Corporate Learning recently surveyed over 1100 senior managers and executives on the topic of leadership succession planning and discovered only 14% described their organization as properly prepared to confront key leadership loss, and over 80% said they were either “somewhat prepared” or “not at all prepared.” In the case of Steve Jobs, confidence appears reasonably high that Tim Cook is prepared to lead Apple through Jobs’ health break. Yet, 14% nationally reflects a pretty sad confidence level in our leadership pipeline.

I’m reminded of the development culture at U.S. Cellular which dictates the both/and equation when it comes to business results. In their culture a defining metric of goal success is both achieving the business objective AND developing people in the process. The goal is considered incomplete if you ink a deal but the people growth component isn’t there. There is a clear expectation that business drivers include the people development part. Because people aren’t assets, they’re well…people. As Jonas Ridderstrale likes to say, “If you are doing your job as a leader you shouldn’t be needed.” What he means is that if you stock the organization with both high-will ecosystems and high-skill individuals and collaborators, you won’t be needed. The point at which the leader makes their most valuable contribution is to be the midwife of innovation. The leader acting as innovation midwife cannot possibly provide the answer or prescribe the insight, since that approach lacks the originality of the democratic process, and isn’t born from the mind of the contributor. In this capacity, the innovation midwife plays inquisitor – asking the kinds of honest probing questions that yield the birth of ideas.

And there’s another role for the midwife – finding the home and support for the idea. At the same time the innovation midwife is coaxing powerful new ideas into the world, she has to also be finding those sponsors and champions within the organization who are willing to nurture, feed and shelter these ideas so they can become big enough to surprise the world. To quote Ridderstrale again, the TBUS (Time Between Unexpected Surprises) is shrinking every day.

Have a Casting Call, not an Interview

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When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It’s to enjoy each step along the way.

– Wayne Dyer

Fred Kleisner has an enviable job. As CEO of premier boutique hotelier, Morgans Hotel Group, Fred’s job is to run some of the coolest, hippest hotel properties in the world. From the Delano in South Beach to The Clift in San Fran to the Hudson in New York City, Morgans has become known as the kind of place celebrities, rock stars, and wannabes, wanna spend their time. Their signature experiences are the lobby and entrance spaces, as well as their clubs and night life environments. The place, the property, the ambiance are all of course incredibly important, but Fred understands that at the heart of Morgans is the people who make the place cool and fun.

When I went to interview Fred Kleisner at his Hudson property near Central Park, New York – and no, sadly I didn’t get to stay there… – I was greeted by a couple stylish, cool women in the lobby who chatted me up about where I came from, the city, the weather. It was not at all evident initially that they worked there. There’s no uniform, no name tags, no clear evidence that people work there, except for the fact that they are incredibly thoughtful and helpful. For example, Jessica greeted and escorted us to our filming location with Fred and remained constantly helpful throughout our visit.

During the interview I asked Fred what kinds of characteristics and personalities they look for when hiring. He said they aren’t interested in hiring tall, thin models, but are much more interested in someone’s whole personality and strengths. Morgans’ more recent interview sessions, which he calls a “casting call,” were hosted in a theatre. After the more standard Q&A, candidates were invited to get up on stage and share anything they wanted, with an emphasis on something that expressed who they were at heart. Fred said candidates sang, told stories, danced, recited poetry, talked about their travels, and more. This exercise told the candidates they were entering a safe, welcoming environment where they were expected to bring their unique identity to work, while also allowing the interviewers to glimpse the more personal and honest side of potential hires before they find out six months into the job.

If we want initiative, passion, and creativity, take a tip from Fred Kleisner and Morgans Hotels – don’t just have an interview, have a casting call.

The Path to Success through Optimism

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“The joyfulness of a man prolongeth his days.”

—Sirach 30:22

Optimism, like creativity, can be learned. By stretching and confusing muscle groups and adding variety to our workouts, we get stronger – not through the constant repetition of exercises already known to our muscles. That will only get us to plateau, not muscle growth. And similarly through intellectual experimentation and allowing ourselves to find the unexpected, we can hone our creativity as well.

Optimism works much the same way – it can be learned, but it takes effort and practice. One of the keys to learning optimism include reflecting on things we are grateful for, and then sharing that gratitude with those around us. By recollecting and expressing gratitude we activate endorphins which have the power to fight fatigue and pain, and increase happiness. Then by sharing that positive experience socially we transmit, through mirror neurons, that experience to others which invokes an endorphin response in them as well. And so we can experience making someone else happy, and that translates to a sense of purpose and meaning. This reinforces our sense of community by affirming that our actions matter.

Also visualizing previous and anticipated positive moments, places and people can elevate our sense of optimism. The reason for this is that our brain has a difficult time discerning between what is actual and what is mentally visualized. In cognition studies researchers have demonstrated that mental practice can be as effective as actual practice. This has been demonstrated to be true in music and athletics, as well as disposition. Mentally rehearsing an athletic activity, or playing a musical instrument, can have very nearly the same performance-enhancing value as actual physical rehearsal. The same is true for events and interactions – by visualizing a positive outcome we affirm and encourage that result in our mind and thus contribute to an actual positive result.

Another powerful optimism-enhancer is meditation and focus. By relaxing your body, calming your mind, and focusing on single mental or physical activities, we gain greater proficiency, talent and task-success. Which then again leads to greater happiness. It should be unsurprising then, that studies have shown that happiness precedes success, not the other way around. A common story propagated in our culture is that hard work will lead to proficiency, which will lead to success, which will make us happy. Much of the research recently suggests the inverse – that behaviors, communities and practices which develop our happiness will contribute then to talent and performance, which in turn will fuel success in all aspects of our lives.

You can test your own Optimism Level here using Martin Seligman’s test – Enjoy!

Ask Carefully. You May Find Yourself There.

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We grow in the direction of the questions we ask. Our line of inquiry reinforces our interests, fuels our curiosity, and amplifies our identity and understanding in that direction. In a world today that is increasingly volatile, ambiguous and complex, the ideas and opinions that vie for our attention have compounded vastly beyond our abilities to digest intellectually, and thus the inquisitive choices we make become increasingly important in directing the shape of our ideas, our identities and our collaborative communities.

We need to follow the positive idea threads that matter to us, in context of our work, our play, and our lives. Appreciative Inquiry is the notion that we appreciate – add value to – the ideas and beliefs that we inquire of, and importantly that our questions are indeed creations. That is, each question we pose begets change, and what we anticipate in the world and in each interaction tomorrow, reflects our behavior and disposition today. Appreciative Inquiry respects Remedial and Diagnostic forms of organizational development, yet also presents a future path of positive change focusing on inspired innovation as opposed to focusing solely on correcting what isn’t working.

Diagnostic exercises such as “autopsies without blame” are surely useful at isolating and excising those practices and processes that failed, but arguably only add to the ever-increasing list of things we should not do. And remediating efforts, like finding the weakest link, can certainly work toward elevating those skills and behaviors that fall below the curve. But in this rapidly evolving economic landscape where next iterations, and emergent inspired-innovation represents real differentiating value, I believe that a more forward, positive and appreciative approach is needed. Basically I believe the world is moving too fast to spend most of our time fixing the old, we need to be creating the new.

We are seeing these developments in the emergence of positive institutions such as IDEO, the award-winning design firm. As IDEO engages their clients in their highly co-creative, rapid-prototyping process of design, they are simultaneously instructing and creating these capacities in the customers they work with. So even beyond the personal level of creating and affecting change by the questions we ask, we see whole organizations positively affect whole organizations simply by manner and behavior of interaction.

And so, craft your questions carefully, for they affect everyone they touch.

What’s Your Mantra?

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Guy Kawasaki has a suggestion for those out there working diligently to build mission statements that matter. Don’t do it. That’s right, drop the two day offsite and the fifty thousand dollar consultant-generated mission statement that no one reads or can remember. Here’s Wendy’s mission statement:

“The mission of Wendy’s is to deliver superior quality products and services for our customers and communities through leadership, innovation, and partnerships.”

I had no idea buying a hamburger at Wendy’s included participating in leadership innovation. You could save yourself the two-day offsite and the consultant fees and try the corporate mission statement generator. I pulled the handle and got:

“We are in the business of improving a long-term commitment to stakeholder value by support through personal goals exceeding all expectations.”

Guy has different advice. Create not a mission statement, but a mantra. A mantra is three, four words tops and goes straight to the heart of what you are all about.

Try these:

  • The happiest place on earth – Disneyland
  • Relax, it’s FedEx – FedEx
  • It keeps going, and going, and going… – Energizer
  • The miracles of science – DuPont
  • They’re g-r-r-r-eat! – Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes

You get the idea. What can you say about yourself or your business that speaks to the heart of who you are. Creating your own mantra requires distilling three things down to something as brief as a haiku: what you believe in, are good at, and can make a difference at.