Category: Uncategorized

Before you climb a mountain, you want to do some exercises first.

Obvious advice for any would-be alpinist, but the same applies to anyone working in a dysfunctional organization.

The problems facing the organization may seem as impossible to solve as it would be for a out-of-shape couch potato to climb Mount Everest. And when that feeling sets in, change seems impossible and so people disengage.

Just the opposite may be necessary. You need to decide how you will respond to the challenge.

1. Tolerate. Not every problem requires your personal involvement. You only become involved when the situation demands an intervention from you. To do otherwise what we call meddling.
2. Leave. Intolerable situations demand irrevocable decisions. If the problem is so great — and truly beyond your control — you may have to exit the situation. No shame in leaving an organization that you cannot change and, as a result, is making you unhappy.
3. Act. This is the choice for leaders. Seldom if ever can a leader say, “not my problem.” She must confront the problem and deal with it realistically. She must find ways to mobilize others to take action to find solutions. Leadership requires active intervention.

The bottom line is that none of us can control events. We may be able to influence outcomes, but not determine them. What we can control is how we react to such events.

First posted on SmartBrief.com 1/4/2019

Every leader needs to make time to think.

The concept of “think time” is sound. I would prefer the term “reflection time,” but call it what you will. it should be regularly scheduled because if it’s not, it will not occur. That’s a lesson I learned from the late Skip LeFauve, former senior executive at General Motors and president of Saturn. He said that, if you don’t put reflection time on your schedule, you will not do it.

Reflection, as Skip noted, does not need to be done alone. In fact, he would use the time to converse with a trusted aide to hash out issues of the day. Reflection by its nature is an echoing process, that is you are bouncing thoughts around, or words around if you are with another.

The challenge for executives is to make the time to reflect. But many with whom I have worked make the effort. They instruct their administrative assistants to schedule reflection time every week or at least twice weekly, for up to a half day at a time.

The challenge for anyone is to sift through what is being communicated for nuggets that can be integrated into useful knowledge.

Studying the issues is critical. Reflection is a time for such processing.

Reflection time is think time, and that’s something all of us could us more of.

First posted on SmartBrief.com 12/21/2018

What does it mean to be better?

Better for me means being a more supportive friend, relative or colleague. Being there without being asked. That is, where there is a need to pitch in without being asked. Do things to make people happier.

It could be as simple as smiling more, or offering to hold the door for someone.

Do so in a spirit of openness, not obligation.

You might define better as involvement. Pick your topic and put yourself into it. For example, look at your job. If you are deficit in an area, bone up on it, either through study or by asking others for help.

In your community, look around you at areas of need. What could you do to make things better for just one person?

Adding steel to the spine of better, let’s include the admonition: no whinging. It’s a term the Brits use for whining. I saw the two words paired together in something I read recently that made me think, yes that’s a good thought.

Notably, we will fail many times this year, either at being better or at something else, but it we focus on a positive like “better,” we will be pointing ourselves in the right direction.

First posted on SmartBrief.com 12/7/2018

“What is it you really do?”

That question was posed to my wife, a senior health care executive, during a conversation with a student who was interning in her institute.

To anyone in management, the question will raise a smile. Unless you have been a manager, you may not know exactly what management is or what managers actually do.

Here’s my answer: Managers get things done right.

Effective managers are those who succeed by bringing out the best in those who work for them.

My wife provides the resources but expects staff to do their work the best way they can do it. She is there as a backstop, but she hires people she knows can do the job well.

Most importantly, she does right by people.

And, when that happens, people want to do right by their manager. Their desire to succeed becomes intertwined with the team’s mission.

Getting things done right is a manager’s responsibility.

First posted on SmartBrief.com 11/16/2018

Personal defeats can bring on feelings of giving up, especially if we have invested ourselves totally.

The challenge is what to do next. First is to analyze what went wrong. Consider mistakes you made and why there were made. By understanding the problem you can come to a solution.

Tony Robbins once wrote, “I’ve come to believe that all my past failure and frustrations were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.”

Knowing that “failure and frustrations” are part of life is fundamental to deciding to make the best of what happens next.

It requires faith in yourself, a faith in your ability to learn from the past and face the future.

First posted on SmartBrief.com 11/2/2018

When crisis strikes, will you be ready?

That is a question that every senior leader asks regularly. We like to think that we can be prepared when disaster or tragedy strikes, but will we be?

One such person who reflected on what it was like to face tragedy not once but twice was C.J. Price, a hospital administrator at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. On Nov. 27, 1963, he put down his thoughts in a memo about what it was like to have the eyes of the world on his hospital after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and killing of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Not only must you be prepared, you must identify people who will respond well in a crisis. Look for individuals who are studious not rash, practiced not sloppy, and — most of all — self-assured and not wild-eyed.

The thing about a crisis is you never know when to expect them. The only thing for which you can prepare is have the right people with the right plan in place.

First posted on SmartBrief.com 10/5/2018

Presence is an outward manifestation of performance.

This is something that Bruce Springsteen delivers when he is on stage. He feels an obligation to do his best for his audience.

Leaders can learn from performers. First, like a good actor, leaders know that performance is not about them; it is about generating an experience for the audience. A leader’s role is to pull the best out of others in order to deliver on the mission.

Second, also like an actor, the leader invests himself in the performance of others. The leader supports the team, individually and collectively, by setting expectations and then following through with whatever is necessary to get the job done.

The leader delivers the resources but also serves as communicator, coach and occasional taskmaster to keep people targeted and focused.

Presence is the leader’s acknowledgement of another by saying you exist, you matter, you are necessary to our effort. And, most specifically, presence is the cry of “I need your support to do my job better.”

Presence is the act of connecting to those who look to you for leadership. They are counting on you to deliver.

First posted on SmartBrief.com on 9/27/2018

We live in a culture that worships winning. Be it sports, business or entertainment, we love winners.

And by extension we don’t care much for losers. So what’s it like to be on a losing team? A team that didn’t just lose once in awhile, but all the while, winning just 19 of 82 games one year.

Well, that was the life that two NBA broadcasters Tim Roye and Jim Barnett lived for decades. Their team, the Golden State Warriors, routinely finished at the bottom of the league, posting a dozen consecutive losing seasons.

“I always said, ‘OK, here’s how they can win tonight,’” Barnett told the Scott Cacciola of The New York Times, “I think I kept up my enthusiasm that way.”

“We have to be ready to do our jobs,” Barnett added, “because everybody is watching and everybody is listening.”

This was not just words but also an approach. Roye, along with his producer, would take interns out for a meal in order to set them straight on expectations for the season. Be professional.

Then fortune smiled. Their team started winning. So much so, the Warriors set a record for most victories in a season. The Warriors have won two NBA titles in three years.

Roye and Barnett are good examples of remaining professional in losing situations. While their spirits may have flagged at times, they kept focused on doing their jobs and reveling in the opportunity to practice their crafts.

Winning is more than a sum of wins and losses; it’s an approach toward work that demands professionalism and positivity.

First posted on SmartBrief.com 9/7/2018

If you want to help, you first need to listen.

The Rev. Greg Boyle, known as Father Greg, is the founder of Homeboy Industries in East Los Angeles. He says, “If you’re humble, you’ll ask the poor, what would help you? But if you’re led by hubris, then you tell the poor, here’s what your problem is; here’s how you fix yourself.”

Homeboy Industries’ origins date to Homeboy Bakery close to 30 years ago, and the organization offers a means of providing employment to gang members in East L.A. Few businesses would hire ex-gang members, so Boyle, then pastor of Dolores Mission Church, the poorest mission in the L.A. archdiocese, created a business to provide those jobs.

The minute you think you know how to help someone may also be the moment you get it wrong. Your intention is admirable, but your approach may be wrong. No one likes to be told how to get better; they want to participate in the process.

Managers, too, can learn from this approach. As the boss, you set direction, but it is up to individuals on the team to perform the tasks necessary to do their jobs. A manager who is always hovering, say to help out, is doing nothing more than hindering the individual’s ability to learn..

It also helps to be humble.

Humility is that openness to others. It unfolds a pathway of service to others that is rooted in self-knowledge.

First posted on SmartBrief.com on 8/24/18

Generating impact through better management is integral to organizational success.

Here are three questions to evaluate your impact.

1. How are you making things better for people? Put simply, if you cannot manage, you cannot lead. Effective managers set clear goals and help people achieve them. They stand ready to support and to evaluate for results.
2. How are you making things better for the organization? Alignment with strategic intentions is essential to managerial effectiveness. When a department is not in alignment, it gets crosswise with the larger organization.
3. How can you continue to expand your impact? This question gets to the heart of what you can do to improve your ability to manage yourself. Are you keeping abreast professionally?

As a manager, you have influence over others. How you employ that influence creates impact.

Your leadership depends upon your ability to manage well, including bringing out the best in people on your team.

What you do matters to people as well as to the organizations they serve.

First posted on SmartBrief.com 8.10.18