Want to Connect? Try the Power of Story

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You walk into a sandwich shop, order the yummy-sounding special and turn to the cooler to grab a drink. The usual representatives are there from major beverage providers. And then a cool photo and unique label catches your eye – something called Can of Whoopass by Jones Soda. This particular label is a photo of a horse taken by her owner in Manassas, VA, neat! You look again and each label and photo is different. And every photo label is contributed by a Jones Soda fan somewhere around the world. The labels are cool, unique, intriguing, and the soda isn’t bad either. You buy it. And the next time you come in to the sandwich shop too. It turns out Jones Soda is building the customer storyline into the product itself. You can go to their website, submit your own photo and contribute to the community experience. In his book, A Whole New Mind, Dan Pink highlights the story of Big Tattoo Red, a fine and affordable red wine made and sold by two brothers who are also donating 50 cents from each bottle sold to Hospice of Northern Virginia honor their mother who died of cancer. When presented with three equally drinkable and price-competitive wines, which one are you going to buy?

Enter the power of story. One of the greatest challenges you face as a manager, as a leader of other people, is making sure they remember the priorities that you have for them. Your goal is to get people around you to remember the core values and the way you would like them to behave, decide and perform on critical issues when you aren’t around them – which is most of the time. The problem you face, though, is the way the brain is wired. It is not wired to hold onto things. And the dilemma is that while you stand up and communicate your goals, your values, your vision for the organization, people are actually not retaining that easily. Now we know a lot from neuroscience about how the brain is wired to store information or memory. Despite the brains astonishing powers, it has a limited capacity for retention of message, depending on how it’s delivered.

Michael Hammer used to say, “The first fifty times you say it, they won’t hear you. The second fifty times you say it, they won’t understand you. And the third fifty times you say it, they won’t believe you.” Your challenge is to actually get your message, your goals, your key priorities to stick in their memory during those times when they are far from you in client meetings, strategy sessions, etc. One of the most powerful ways to communicate lasting messages is through the power of story. Stories can capture ideas succinctly and translate them to the listener through emotion. Consistent studies reveal that emotion drives behavior, which in turn creates belief. Not the other way around – it’s not that once you believe something, your behavior changes. The consistent behavior comes before belief. And one of the surest ways to ensure your message is both remembered, and acted on, is through the power of story.

Finding a Hero in DeMaurice Smith

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DeMaurice is my new hero. I was lucky enough to sit and interview DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFL Players Association, who just completed a 9000 mile tour to visit every one of the NFL’s 32 teams and the 1800 players who make the game as great as it is today. With an average career lifespan of 3.4 years, rising statistic of bankruptcy five years after retirement (DeMaurice doesn’t like the word ‘retirement’, but more on that in a moment), 100% injury rate, increased fines, and reduced benefits, it’s no wonder DeMaurice is a busy man.

DeMaurice calls the likelihood of a lockout this spring 140% because he is simply unwilling to compromise on the health and benefits of the players. NFL players have a 100% injury rate. That’s right, everyone gets hurt, it’s just a matter of when. And DeMaurice will always be in your corner. Put it this way – if you were ever in a legal negotiation you want DeMaurice on your side. He’s that tenacious.

He visits every team and player to have that personal and direct touch, and he is also on a mission to teach them something else: financial literacy. In his words, if you fail to prepare for life after the NFL, you have failed as a businessman, a leader, and a father. It is the responsibility of every player to educate themselves and prepare their family for their future after the game.

And now you get why he doesn’t like the word ‘retired’ because it suggests they have left the game and the league, and DeMaurice wants you, the former player, to know that he will never leave you.

He also focuses always on the positive. While mainstream media wants to talk about bar room fights and DUIs, DeMaurice wants the fans to know that players also helped rebuild villages in Africa, provided labor and relief efforts in Haiti and donate time and energy to their communities. It is with tireless passion and energy that DeMaurice works for the players each and every day.

Take a lesson from DeMaurice and recognize that life is wonderful indeed when you find that intersection of passion, integrity, and sense of purpose. As DeMaurice put it, “Every job I’ve had, I felt at that moment it was what I was born to do”

Be Careful What You Expect

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James K. Harter, Ph.D., the chief scientist of workplace management at Gallup has been investigating the manager-employee relationship and the role stress plays for some years now. His team has found that the quality of our relationships with our managers, and our perception of our workplace as a positive or negative environment can predict, and contribute to, up to 30% of the heart disease that we actually develop. That’s how powerful these relationships are, such that they affect our own health.

A related Yale School of Management study revealed that simply by changing very small things about how managers interact with their teams, and the expectations they have, they can create immense performance differences. For example, in one phase of the study managers were asked to deliver a script read in a negative, neutral, or stressful tone. A second group of managers was asked to deliver the same message in a cheerful or positive tone of voice. As you might expect, the first group not only participated in a more negative and less productive discussion following, but they also understood and comprehended less. The other teams not only were more productive, but they reported enjoying their work more. Imagine that. And remember, both groups were told the exact same information.

Shawn Achor and his team at Harvard conducted another related study in which they identified individual managers in a large group as having either a “theory x” disposition or a ‘theory y” disposition. Theory X managers believed that employees essentially found work to be toiling, only performed for the money, and had to be constantly watched or they wouldn’t perform. Theory Y managers believed that people were intrinsically motivated, creative, and could best decide how to get their work done with little supervision. What they found was that Theory X managers had Theory X employees, and Theory Y managers had Theory Y employees. Interestingly, as they followed these managers over time as they moved into leading different teams, the researchers found that the managers had the ability to change the orientation of the people on their team. That is, a Theory X manager could inherit a Theory Y team and turn them into Theory X employees.

This is the Pygmalion effect in which you get what you expect. Some of the more classic experiments by Robert Rosenthal involved telling teachers that particular students (selected randomly) were exceptional and very intelligent. The teachers then changed their attitudes toward those children, expected them to perform better, and they did. It turns out, the teacher’s biased expectations had real-life actual effects.

Expect the best.

The Both/And Equation

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The ultimate leader is one who is willing to develop people to the point that they surpass him or her in knowledge and ability – Fred A. Manske, Jr.

We have an upcoming interview with Tom Griffin, Chief Teaching Officer of U.S. Cellular, and in preparation I was reading some of his articles and work. One of the key tenets of leadership philosophy at U.S. Cellular is the belief that developing people is as important as business results. It’s the both/and relationship between both accomplishing the target objectives and developing the skills and capabilities of those who work in the company. They recognize that only by increasing their own people capabilities can they continue to develop innovation and advantage. Because of course, as the market continues to shift and change so rapidly, new solutions will always be needed. If the company becomes satisfied with accomplishing business objectives alone, without developing new ideas and skills simultaneously, you’ll quickly find yourself at a loss to compete.

That, plus remember what studies have shown people want most from their companies and leaders:

  1. Senior management’s sincere interest in employee well-being
  2. Opportunity an employee has to improve skills and capabilities
  3. Organization’s reputation for social responsibility

Creating opportunity for people to develop skills isn’t just providing increased competitive advantage for the company.   It’s also valuing and respecting everyone’s innate interest in personal and professional growth.  It’s a positive loop – develop people and they will naturally apply those skills and ideas to develop your business too.

Conversations with Leaders Down Under

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We recently had the honor to learn from some of Australia’s leading thinkers, authors and executives, all offering unique insights on leadership, on the challenges of change initiatives, on the power of socially responsible efforts, and even the positive effects of waking up each day with a smile.

Nick Kugenthiran, CEO of Fuji Xerox Australia, described the importance of allowing, even encouraging, risk taking on teams of high trust. He strongly believes positive team environments attract like-minded people. And like minded people feel more enabled in taking constructive risks to further innovation. A leader’s role is to make sure risk-taking is considered safe within the shared values of the team.

Lincoln Crawley, Managing Director of Manpower Australia, told a wonderful story about the power of the expression, “If it were possible” when wrestling with new challenges. That simple phrase – if it were possible – gives the team permission to speculate, and opens a whole new conversation around potential, without being loaded with accountability. It’s an invitation to dream.

John Grant, Managing Director of Data#3, had a great line about how he believes we should abolish the phrase, “people are our greatest assets,” because of course, who wants to be thought of as an asset. As he likes to say, “people are our greatest people.” And the culture certainly reflects it. The people of Data#3 are at the heart of their growth and innovation. As Lindy MacPherson, General Manager People Solutions, understands very well in the competitive Australian labor market, “Understanding what drives your employees is critical in addressing issues that may lead to increased turnover.”

We also sat with David Penglase, a fantastic speaker, writer and entrepreneur based in Sydney. He introduced the phrase Intentionomics to describe how our intent drives all results in life interactions. Our customers, colleagues, (certainly our children) and pretty much everyone we interact with have keen detectors of our intent. If, as a salesperson, your primary intent in prospect interaction is to maximize a contract value instead of honestly solving a client puzzle, they’ll recognize it. Even if that recognition isn’t immediate, your later actions by either conscientiously adding superlative value, or not, will come back in spades. This is the karma effect, the what-goes-around effect.

Let’s not forget our interview with Sue Langley, who has been a student and mentor in the world of emotional intelligence. I’ll never forget her simple advice to start each day with a smile. Because studies reveal smiling releases serotonin and dopamine in your brain which make you more relaxed and happier, and because Gretchen over at the Happiness Project, knows from experience that the best way to be happy is to make other people happy; and the best way to make other happy is to be happy yourself.

Five Expectations of Great Managers

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“The culture defines the outcome.” – Eric Schmidt, CEO Google

I recently had an interview with Nick Kugenthiran, CEO of Fuji Xerox Australia who poses five expectations of his managers. But before the big five, everyone needs to be on the same page. Nick first creates a sense of shared vision with a short collaborative exercise: with your team write the headlines, the press release you want to see in five years.  Each should start independently and then compare notes. In his experience, once you reconvene, the team will immediately see intersections of vision once each person shares their personal perspective of the future. Next build on these points of intersection until the intended outcome becomes crystallized, shared and sincere. In such an exercise, with gentle non-intrusive guidance from senior leadership, the vision quickly becomes once of shared construction. Everyone had a part in the vision creation.

It’s at this point that a senior leader can build upon a shared vision to deliver the five great actionable expectations of managers:

  1. Lead Change: Take the lead.  Leading the change toward the shared vision will entail taking chances, and that needs to be expected. Make it clear that you expect both risk and tolerable failure – above the waterline failure. Above the waterline means the scope of the risk, and potential downside, remains above the waterline and unable to sink the ship.
  2. Act on Principle: The second expectation is that the initiatives and correlating risk and behavior is founded in the values and integrity of the team and organization. It should be abundantly clear that risk and initiative is expected and always safe if executed in full faith of the team’s articulated values. In Nick’s case at Fuji Xerox, their mandate is that business initiatives should be servant to What is Good for People (to be an employer of choice), Good for Planet, and Good for Profit (their target is 80% recurrent business)
  3. Build Capability: On the path to innovation and value development, the best managers continue to build company capability. Be it new solution options for customers, new tweaks to the delivery code… In Nick’s case, as the General Manager of a global Fortune 500 company, his vision includes gestating new leading capability which can be tested on a regional basis and then elevated to a global community of solutions.
  4. Be Clear About What Is Not Changing: People need to understand there are solid underpinnings upon which we base our change initiatives – the rock-solid things we can count on. It’s fine to emphasize bold decision-making on the frontiers of growth but people need to understand they are indeed supported by sound business integrity, and team values.
  5. Reward Execution: Make it clear we reward execution and results. Period. After the values talk, the engagement and collaboration emphasis, it must be clear that since we are the owners of our destiny, execution becomes the highest expectation and reward of valued managers, business owners, and contributors.

Nick reminds us that these expectations require continual renewal – it’s not a one-shot exercise and conversation.  Nick is one of the best EchoLeaders around – one who has found his own voice, recognizes his strengths, and builds powerful echoes within his team.  Echoes only sustain when reinforced.

Opening Possibilities

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Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

-Paul Hawken

I learned a powerful lesson recently in an interview with Lincoln Crawley, Managing Director of Manpower for Australia. I asked him if there was a watershed learning event in his career. He pointed to a moment over fifteen years ago while trying to win a services contract. He was the lead on a proposal competing against a company with an enormous infrastructure advantage. Basically his competitor had the necessary systems in place to serve the client, and his company didn’t. The client required a redundancy system in place for security and he just didn’t have it, while his competitor did. He seemed sure to lose the contract, as the task to replicate their infrastructure seemed nearly impossible.

During the proposal process, the people around him described the obstacles and cost, and then in one meeting his boss said, “I understand the issues and concerns you are raising, but tell me: If it were possible, what would the solution look like?” That simple phrase – if it were possible – gave the team permission to speculate, and opened a whole new conversation around if it were possible. It’s an invitation to dream.

Lincoln and his team conceived of a plan, proposed it to his prospective client, and they won the contract. But here’s the interesting part – he said he didn’t fully recognize the power of the suggestion “If it were possible” until years later when he started using the expression with his own team in a leadership role. Only then did he recognize the power of opening the capabilities and imagination in his team. If you think your team is stymied, try it.

EchoLeaders: How Our Intention is Echoed Back to Us

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I had a conversation the other day with David Penglase, a fantastic speaker, writer and entrepreneur based in Sydney. He introduced the phrase Intentionomics to describe how our intent drives all results in life interactions. Our customers, colleagues, (certainly our children) and pretty much everyone we interact with have keen detectors of our intent. If, as a salesperson, your primary intent in prospect interaction is to maximize a contract value instead of honestly solving a client puzzle, they’ll recognize it. Even if that recognition isn’t immediate, your later actions by either conscientiously adding superlative value, or not, will come back in spades. This is the karma effect, the what-goes-around effect.

The travel policy at NetApp is Do the Right Thing. Officially it’s “We are a frugal company. But don’t show up dog-tired to save a few bucks. Use your common sense.” And by providing the latitude for employees to exercise their own discretion, they also self-select for continued employment there. Because, of course, they are working within a social contract, not a policy one. I had an interview with John Grant, CEO of Data#3 who believes strongly in offering people the autonomy and freedom to take strategic risks for the sake of furthering innovative design and results, all within their signature process they call PDO2. Or consider Disney, at which cast members have the authority and discretion to solve any customer dilemma on the spot as they choose – they can comp a penthouse suite if they choose. Later their peers and colleagues provide the social feedback mechanisms to allow cast members to understand the extent of reasonable customer remedies, but there are no punitive measures.

These are the characteristics of the EchoLeader, who value initiative over compliance, while expecting people behave with an aligned moral compass. EchoLeaders emphasize what they can give to the world and bring forth a point of view, a perspective and intent of construction – a will to build stronger communities of collaboration around a resolved vision. An EchoLeader has the ability to galvanize teams and create results because their purpose is beyond personal success. The purpose becomes pursuit of significance for the vision we serve.

Have another read of The Giving Tree – you’ll be reminded of gratitude and the power of giving.

The Red Velvet Rope Policy – Choose your Customers, Find your Vision

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When your by-product becomes your product we have lost our vision. Money is a by-product. Your product is what you can give to the world.  
– John Hope Bryant

Ever heard of the Red Velvet Rope Policy?  Ask Michael Port about being particular about who you decide to work with.  That is – the practice of aligning your business core competence with the customers you can best serve while simultaneously growing your own capabilities.  It’s about not allowing the customer to wag the company.  So choose carefully who you choose to do business with for both competitive competence building and depth of relationship.

I encountered this in spades yesterday.  We had an interview with Michael Byrne, CEO of Linfox, the largest logistics company in Australia.  Check this out: in about 2003 they made a concerted decision to selectively decommission 2/3 of their customers.  That’s right, they consciously chose to let go about two-thirds of their customers over time, because they didn’t fit the vision of what Linfox intended as its own design, future and core competence.  In some instances customers may have asked Linfox to sacrifice service integrity to ensure delivery of goods, or maybe some customers were trying to redirect Linfox into business areas they didn’t feel they wanted to build market share or product expertise.  They probably suffered dearly for this noble decision right?  Wrong.  They tripled their revenue while gaining significant business capability.

I’m not done.  Linfox is a logistics and freight business – a trucking business.  their primary overhead and environmental impact is around fuel and energy use so it stands to reason that the pursuit of profit and market share might motivate them to marginalize their emissions concerns.  Not so.  They now teach eco-driving for their truck drivers, capture facilities rainwater runoff for re-purposing, build libraries in India, pursue zero emissions, and are leading safety initiatives in Australia instead of waiting for government mandate.  That’s right – these initiatives aren’t to be legally complaint, they are all to do good, while doing good for their business.  The community wins, and the environment wins, all while building the conscionable company – which becomes then the killer talent attractor.  Think about it.  What kind of company do you want to work for?

Smile and the world smiles with you

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We know from science that nothing in the universe exists as an isolated or independent entity. – Margaret Wheatley

Didn’t your mother tell you to give a firm handshake, smile and look them in the eye when you meet someone? Gotta make a good impression right? That smile was supposed to convey your own confidence and likability. Turns out that smile didn’t just help people to like you, it also made them happy – made them smile. The inverse is true – as Shawn Achor describes, just watch in a crowded airport as one person approaches a boarding gate nervous, anxious, and expressing the human indicators of tapping toes, and checking their watch. Within minutes more than half the people around them will exhibit the same symptoms of nervous anxiety. Try this experiment with caution – only if you want to intentionally create negative tension! The mirror neurons in our brain are so powerful that it’s nearly impossible to not smile when smiled at, feel emotional anxiety when you see someone crying, and of course yawn when you see someone yawn – even when you’re not either tired or bored.

Our mirror neurons are so powerful as not only emotional and performance emulators that we can improve our batting swing, our dancing, our piano technique – all by simply observing someone else performing these skills with a high degree of excellence.

Just this morning at our Perspectives conference in Orlando, Shawn Achor gave a riveting (and pretty funny!) talk about positive psychology and the power of mirror neurons in our daily lives and interactions. At any given interaction in life we have the opportunity to choose to share joy, and little did we know the immense impact of that interaction. In a live, real time experiment, Shawn demonstrated that not only is happiness contagious – you knew that of course – but that we are nearly powerless to deny emotions presented before us. He asked us to pair up, then person #1 smiles at person #2 who attempts to remain expressionless. Impossible, or nearly so. Thus is the power of empathy and connection to one another.

Sort of ups the ante on showing up as a leader, doesn’t it? The old proverbs about model the way, or smile and the world smiles with you, take on new meaning because now we understand that whatever emotion or intention we are conveying, consciously or not, people are nearly powerless not to follow. Dear friends, use your new found powers for only good.