John Baldoni's Blog

All of us have heard negative comments when a new initiative comes our way. We are good at coming up with reasons for avoiding new work. It’s part of human nature. So if this is true, then why not address the concerns in the room at the outset?

Let your people vent their feelings first before giving them a new assignment. It is good to confront the issues in the room — head on.

Once the explaining is done – by the manager, the employees or both — it will fall to the manager to make things happen by handing out assignments. Before doing so, however, it would be wise to ask employees what they can stop doing so they have time to focus on the new project.

Asking employees to give up work to take on other work is not novel. Such an approach is rooted in lean thinking, where you pare away tasks that have no added value. Eliminating them frees up employees to do more without adding to their workload.

One final note. Be positive. Position the new project as an opportunity.

So next time your team is tasked with a major undertaking, consider opening on a negative (allowing people to vent) as a means to getting to the positive (a fully engaged team).

First posted on SmartBrief on 11/10/2017

“I may not be very good at my job, but I know it makes me happier when I do it.”

That sentiment emerged from an interview that Kerry Egan, a hospice chaplain, gave to Terry Gross on NPR’s “Fresh Air.”

Health care chaplains, as Egan describes them, are not affiliated with a particular faith. The job of hospital or hospice chaplain is to work with people where you find them in their life’s journey.

In a sense, chaplains are like coaches, those who help their clients find meaning in their work, their lives, and their relationships with others. At the same time coaches, like the rest of us, make mistakes.

The world needs self-aware people who know their limitations and resolve to improve. Living in ignorance is no solution. You need to learn from your mistakes.

First posted on SmartBrief on 10/27/2017

We can learn to make time to reflect.

Here are three questions to get you started.

1. Do our people know what’s expected of them? Make certain your people know their jobs and how they connect to the overall job of the organization. Be careful that when new assignments arise they are consistent with the mission.
2. Do our people have the resources to do their jobs effectively? Manage resources including time judiciously. Find the right balance.
3. Am I giving our people the support they need to carry out their jobs? The job of a leader is to point people in the right direction. Some need little of it; others may need too much.

Stepping away from time to time — either on vacation or a weekend — gives you a perspective necessary to leading with a clearer head and a more.

First posted on SmartBrief.com 9/29/2017

Putting thoughts down in a journal is a useful leadership exercise. When doing so, it is important to include more than what is happening now but also what could go wrong.

This kind of journaling is revealed with the publication of “The Godfather Notebook” that director Francis Ford Coppola kept while making this iconic film. As revealed in an interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s “Fresh Air,” Coppola used the notebook to record his thoughts on the meaning, intention and pitfalls of every scene.

Film directors are leaders on the set. Good ones plan every scene in advance so that they can capture the spirit of the script on screen creatively as well as efficiently.

Management is something like that. Executives are bombarded with many details at any given moment. They must focus with clarity on what is important so they can keep projects on task and on budget.

Organize your thoughts in advance. It will prepare you to take action, be it talking to your team or finding additional resources.

The challenge is to make time to think and document your thoughts as words, pictures or diagrams.

Journaling will sharpen your thinking and, in turn, focus on your leadership on what’s most important.

First posted on SmartBrief.com 10/15/2017

“If you want to manage more effectively, you need to be present and accountable.”

That adage gets to the heart of a key theme of “Kitchen Confidential,” Anthony Bourdain’s memoir about learning to cook and learning to manage a kitchen, sometimes effectively and sometimes disastrously.

Here are a few lessons that translate well to management in any field — food or sport or even government.

• Know your trade. A chef prepares the day in advance and stays on his feet much of the day. One mistake and you will disappoint some diner.
• Know what your people expect of you. Restaurants make headlines due to the chef. They stay in business to the hard work of everyone in the operation, from the general manager to the busboy and dishwasher.
• Know that your mistakes are opportunities to learn. Be humble when you screw up. Learn from the good example as well as successful operations of others. Pay attention and learn from the best people around you.
• Know the risks. You must love what you do, but you must also surround yourself with people better and more capable than yourself.

Learning management from the example of others is no shortcut to the top, but when you pay attention to people who have paid their dues, you may save yourself a step or two on the ladder to your success.

First posted on SmartBrief.com 9/15/2017

What’s the secret to a long-term relationship?

“Overlooking the negative and focusing on the positive,” says Helen Fisher, a best-selling author on relationships and a fellow at the Kinsey Institute.

Speaking on “The Diane Rehm Show,” Fisher says that brain scans of couples averaging 20 years revealed the parts of the brain that were active were those linked to empathy, self-control, and an ability to overlook negative, that is, “positive illusions.”

Maintaining “positive illusions” is an outlook that leaders can employ.

Leaders should look on bright side as a means of giving people hope. By nature such hope is rooted in a leader’s faith in his or her followers. It is an affirmation therefore of people for whom the leader is responsible.

None of us is perfect and everyone will, from time to time, do stupid things. Better then to assume the better nature of an individual who reports to you.

When a leader finds something negative, and which threatens organizational harmony, it is time to become involved. Dissent over issues is a positive; it encourages freedom of thought. Dissension over people that undermines the effectiveness of a leader cannot be tolerated.

A leader who can put aside petty slights in order to achieve intended goals is worthy of respect and followership.

First posted on SmartBrief.com 9/01/2017

It is necessary to know what you are and what you can do. Sounds simple, but too often we don’t take the time – or, more precisely – make the time to understand our role.

In my coaching practice I work with executives to help them define their leadership selves. Here are three questions that can help you, too.

• What do I do well? Consider your core competency — what you do for your job. Then think about the skills you execute to complete your job duties. Beyond competency consider how you interact with people.
• Where do I need help and why? Tough question, certainly. How well do you serve your team? Think about what you may be avoiding because you don’t want to do it, don’t like to do it, or feel incompetent in doing it?
• How can I better serve my colleagues? Focus on what other people need from you. Are you fulfilling their needs? It doesn’t hurt, and in fact, it may be wise to check what you think you are with what others are receiving? Is there alignment?

These questions are thought-starters; they serve as a means to an end of discovering what you do best and how you can continue to do it.

First posted on SmartBrief.com 8/11/2017

One was called Mr. Hockey. The other they called the King.

Gordie Howe and Arnold Palmer

Each was the best of their era, as well as the best of men.

Gordie Howe  played 25 seasons in the NHL more than any other player. Big and tough as well as graceful, Howe scored more goals and assists than anyone in his time and served as the game’s greatest ambassador and one of its most beloved characters. Howe was Mr. Hockey.

As famous as he became, Gordie remained humble.

Arnold Palmer won many golf tournaments. Along the way, he popularized golf in ways it had never been popularized. His winning ways, and his winsome smile and swashbuckling golf style, made him a hit with advertisers.

A key to Arnold’s passion for the game as well as his love of people can be attributed to his father, Deke, who taught him to respect fans because they were the same as he was.

It should be mandatory for anyone becoming the head of an organization to study the examples of Gordie Howe or Arnold Palmer, not simply to get a taste of their competitive fires, but more to learn how to act “normal” when everyone wants a piece of you.

First posted on SmartBrief.com on 7/28/2017

What’s the secret to a long-term relationship?

“Overlooking the negative and focusing on the positive,” says Helen Fisher, a best-selling author on relationships and a fellow at the Kinsey Institute.

Speaking on “The Diane Rehm Show,” Fisher says that brain scans of couples averaging 20 years revealed the parts of the brain that were active were those linked to empathy, self-control, and an ability to overlook negative, that is, “positive illusions.”

Maintaining “positive illusions” is an outlook that leaders can employ.

Leaders should look on bright side as a means of giving people hope. By nature such hope is rooted in a leader’s faith in his or her followers. It is an affirmation therefore of people for whom the leader is responsible.

None of us is perfect and everyone will, from time to time, do stupid things. Better then to assume the better nature of an individual who reports to you.

When a leader finds something negative, and which threatens organizational harmony, it is time to become involved. Dissent over issues is a positive; it encourages freedom of thought. Dissension over people that undermines the effectiveness of a leader cannot be tolerated.

A leader who can put aside petty slights in order to achieve intended goals is worthy of respect and followership.

First posted on SmartBrief.com on 9/01/2107

It is necessary to know what you are and what you can do. Sounds simple, but too often we don’t take the time – or, more precisely – make the time to understand our role.

In my coaching practice I work with executives to help them define their leadership selves. Here are three questions that can help you, too.

• What do I do well? Consider your core competency — what you do for your job. Then think about the skills you execute to complete your job duties. Beyond competency consider how you interact with people.
• Where do I need help and why? Tough question, certainly. How well do you serve your team? Think about what you may be avoiding because you don’t want to do it, don’t like to do it, or feel incompetent in doing it?
• How can I better serve my colleagues? Focus on what other people need from you. Are you fulfilling their needs? It doesn’t hurt, and in fact, it may be wise to check what you think you are with what others are receiving? Is there alignment?

These questions are thought-starters; they serve as a means to an end of discovering what you do best and how you can continue to do it.

First posted on SmartBrief.com on 8/11/2107