Author: John Baldoni

Aspiration is about setting goals that push the organization to strive to become better than it is now. Aspiration is a process of reaching for the stars. But before you can reach for the stars, you check the ground upon which you are standing.

Aspirations must be feasible –and attainable. It’s one thing to reach for the stars, but if you trip on the stairs you could end up hurting yourself — and your organization.

First posted on SmartBrief on 2.01.2013

“How can I feel confident when I am speaking?” asked a participant in a recent workshop I conducted. While the question was specific to public speaking, the answer I gave is relevant to any leader, whether she is on stage giving a presentation or working with her team on an important project. The answer lies within you.

When it comes to leadership in the workplace, the primal spring of self confidence is an understanding of what you have accomplished and what you feel you can do next. This is not happy talk. Consider what has enabled you to achieve what you have achieved to date. When it comes to finding sources of accomplishment, you want to focus on the positives, your moments of triumph — those opportunities where you shone, helping yourself and your team achieve a goal.

Isolating your moments of strength is not the same as writing your curriculum vitae; graduating from college and landing a good job are highlights, of course, but when it comes to self-confidence you want to dig beneath the surface. Here are three related questions you can ask yourself to help you uncover your triumphant self:

What do you do well? This question opens the door for you to itemize the abilities that have enabled you to succeed to date. Focus on your talents: what you do well. For example, you may possess strong conceptual skills. You may be one who can think strategically, a person who can look at the big picture and see opportunities where others see only blue sky. Such abilities are your strengths; you owe it to yourself to recognize them.

Why should people follow you? You need a strong sense of self to lead others, so consider how you assess problems and find solutions. Look at occasions you have mobilized yourself and your team to tackle a tough assignment. Perhaps you took on a failing project and turned it into a winner. Or perhaps you found ways to reduce costs and improve efficiencies when others said it was impossible. In these instances, and in others you can remember, you have given people a reason to believe in your ability to get things done.

What have you done to earn the trust of others? This question should provoke a recall of what you have done to instill followership. You may have defused a conflict between two colleagues, or took the lead on nasty assignment that no one else wanted to handle. Or perhaps you went out of your way to see that senior management recognized the efforts of your team. Maybe you always accept accountability, not just for what goes right, but for what goes wrong.

The search for the inner source of confidence is neither an excuse for overlooking your weaknesses nor an invitation to hubris. Rather it is an identification of the strengths that make up the authentic you. Self-awareness is an attribute vital to leadership effectiveness. While leaders know their weaknesses all too well, even good ones sometimes overlook their strengths. That mindset can lead to an erosion of self-confidence.

“Confidence is like a muscle,” said a colleague of mine, Scott Litchfield of WJM Associates. If you don’t use it, you will lose it. I like that analogy for two reasons. First, it connotes that confidence comes from within ; it is something we can work on. Second, it puts leaders who must demonstrate confidence in order to attract followership on notice that it is their responsibility to nurture it.

It’s a leader’s job to set direction and determine outcomes; that only happens when leaders feel confident in themselves.

First posted on HBR.org 7/13/2009

Getting a presentation ready for prime time can sometimes be frustrating. Content is seldom an issue; organization is. So let me share some advice I received from a Jesuit speech teacher who learned it from Aristotle.

Simple, direct and memorable, Aristotle gives us a handy method to employ whenever you need to make a presentation, long or short, that you want people to remember.

First posted on SmartBrief on 2/15/2013

I know two CEOs: one in publishing is a friend; the other in manufacturing is an email correspondent. There is a common bond between the two; both are in their sixties and both act as if they are closer to twenty-two. Their sense of vitality springs from their passion for what they do.

Each feels a sense of pride in the businesses he leads; more importantly, each is pushing his respective organization to new heights with a vigor found typically in much younger men. Their can-do attitudes seem almost corny, as if sketched from an earlier age or at least from musicals like The Music Man. But both men are in exactly the right positions at the right time.

Generating enthusiasm, or passion, for what you do is essential. It is doubly so in perilous times. When everything around us seems to be coming apart, a leader who has a passion for what he does is essential. Such a spirit fuels the engine of enthusiasm needed to spark the enterprise. More importantly, such passion is vital to convincing others that the work matters. It is easy to get discouraged by today’s market news and so it is vital that someone, be it the CEO or another senior leader, serves as the organization’s designated cheerleader.

Ultimately instilling passion for the work is not an exercise in rah-rah; it is a search for meaning and significance. So how can you cultivate passion for work in others and do it in ways that have significance? Here are some suggestions.

Focus on the positive. Passion in leaders can be palpable; you know in an instant that the executive cares about the company. In my experience, those senior leaders who stroll through the halls with a nod or good word to say to all are those executives who get things done. And it is because they are out and about, not cloistered in their offices on mahogany row. Rather, they are meeting with employees and customers, vendors and investors, getting to know issues and concerns. They also use these times to talk up the good things.

Address the negatives. Passionate leaders are not Pollyannas; they know the score, precisely because they spend so much time out of their offices. They see firsthand what is working and what is not, and because they have a relationship with people in all levels of the company, they can more readily mobilize employees to solve problems.

Set high expectations. Those who care about the work and set a high standard challenge others to do the same, but they should remember to balance their approach — knowing to sometimes ease up on workloads but never on expectations.

As much as generating passion for the work matters, it is no guarantee of success, or even survival. Radiating passion is no excuse for ignoring attention to the fundamentals.

Yet successful organizations are more than the sum of fiscal prudence. Good ones are the collective values and aspirations of dedicated men and women who have made a choice to work there. Such organizations, be they in healthcare or manufacturing, consumer goods or government, ultimately depend upon the commitment of individuals pulling together to make things work. That’s why you need leaders who have a passion for what they do and are able to spread that passion to others so that people feel better about what they do, and ultimately, what they can do better.

First posted on 7/16/2009

Leaders who value humility are the ones other people want to follow.

Humility is not something taught in business schools, but it may be one of the most powerful attributes a leader can utilize. But leaders who do not readily accept it may not always be to blame.

Humble leaders are those who others not only want to follow but enjoy following because of strong leadership as well as strong humanity.

First posted on Smart Brief on 3/01/2013

The Pew Research’s News Interest Index for a week in Julyconcluded that people surveyed were actually more interested in stories about Michael Jackson’s death, as well as the economy and health care reform, than news media’s coverage provided.

With the glut of coverage and cries of overkill for these stories, this is a surprising revelation. The lesson for leaders? If you want to know what people are thinking, don’t rely on second-hand reports from others. Ask employees yourself and listen to what they have to say. Political campaigns are particularly expert in this area when they test market messages and conduct tracking polls. By measuring impact and understanding, they are able to shape and re-shape their messages for greater impact. (Some may call this pandering; others may regard it as responsiveness.)

Corporate leaders do not need to hire pollsters but they do need to be more cognizant of the impact of their messages. Most managers are very good at giving messages; following up with repeated iterations is more of a challenge, but a greater challenge is often gauging the effect of the message. We see this most evidently during organizational transformation efforts. There is a lot of energy and enthusiasm expended in getting the word out about the “big change” but relatively little follow up in terms of listening and evaluating impact. To address this, consider these suggestions when crafting your next communication plan.

Walk the halls. Make yourself visible to your team by spending time in their work areas. Be approachable so people can engage you in conversation. Be prepared to begin conversations about new product launches, service improvements, or efficiency initiatives. Ask people how these things are working for them.

Listen to feedback. Give them time to respond. Ask follow-up questions related to their experiences so you get beyond the seventh-grader’s answer to how are things at school — fine! When you hear such responses, people may be too timid to voice an honest answer. Be conversational to encourage folks to share more information.

Report on feedback. Let your colleagues know what you are hearing and what it means. For example, if you are discovering that customers hate the service upgrade, report on it. Likewise if employees are enthusiastic about an initiative, you can be heartened, but stay tuned for further updates. Many initiatives are well received, only to die later from lack of support.

Report on revisions. If you make a major change, or even a minor one, communicate it. Also, do more follow up to see how it is working. This is especially critical when there is initial resistance. Few things are more powerful than a senior executive saying, “we heard you and we are making changes.” That gives a leader instant credibility, as long as there is appropriate follow through.

Conduct a communications audit. Corporate leaders do not need to conduct tracking polls but communication audits around what people are thinking, feeling, and doing related to company initiatives can be useful. Such audits can be done quickly and cost effectively online. Again, report the results to everyone so you keep the organization up to date.

There is an additional point about the prevailing news coverage that is relevant to communicating in tough times. While economic news is generally bleak right now, there are periodic bits of good news, “green shoots” as pundits are fond of calling them. If those green shoots are related to your business, make certain you make a point of linking that good news to what your team does. Do not assume people will figure it out; connect the dots for them. For example, if you are in the alternative energy field, talk up federal funding as well as an uptick in consumer awareness and corporate demand.

Leaders need to keep their fingers on the pulses of their organizations. Many executives fear being blindsided by what they do not know — like lack of capability, resources, manpower and talent that will affect business growth. Those executives who spend time out and about with their people have few such fears. They know the score and as a result, can steer their organizations with a greater sense of awareness.

First posted on HBR.org 7/22/2009

Emma Sky is a British pacificist dedicated to getting the U.S. out of Iraq. In 2007 she also became a key aide to General Ray Ordierno, the operational commander of U.S. forces. “People always thought we were funny,” she tells Thomas Ricks in his book, The Gamble, “this huge man (Ordierno is 6’5) and this tiny British woman who went everywhere with him.” Sky represented a civilian sensibility and voiced oppositional views that she felt senior officers needed to hear. Ordierno once referred to Sky has “my insurgent.”

Credit Ordierno, as Ricks does, for realizing that he needed someone who could be “his opposite” (Sky’s words). In this instance, Ordierno was following the example of his boss, General David Petraeus, who surrounded himself with an assortment of military and civilian aides. This “brain trust,” as Ricks calls it, would provide him with the different perspectives so vital to running a counter-insurgency operation.

Leaders who solicit opinions from people who disagree with them are smart enough to realize that they do not have all the answers. Such leaders also must make it safe for others to disagree; otherwise the exercise is moot. Here are some things to consider when hiring for difference.

Look for character. From a leadership position, character is the willingness to do what is right for the team. Every team needs people who will stand up for their ideas. That requires backbone. Integrity and virtue are also essential, but what matters is not what you are, it is what you do . Character is leadership put to good purpose.

Look for strength of ideas. It is not enough to disagree; executives need alternate viewpoints that are based on facts as well as reason. Good ideas that are contrary to the boss’s ideas must be carefully thought-out, supported by data, and argued from a viewpoint of doing what is best for stakeholders.

Look for ambition. When bringing on someone who disagrees with you, or at least is not afraid to do so, make sure they have an ambition to move up in the organization. They aren’t just contrarian; they want to make a positive difference, and they’re in it for the long haul.

Look at their track record. I have yet to see a recruitment advertisement that says, “Wanted: People to Disagree with Boss.” So look for managers who have shepherded projects to positive ends when the odds were against them. For example, if they achieved something in the face of new competition, diminished resources, or even organizational change, these are indicators of an ability to think and act for themselves.

Hiring someone who is opposed to your ideas is not the same as hiring someone who is opposed to you. The former is a good thing; the latter is a threat. The latter will disrupt the team in order to achieve his personal ambitions at your expense. Such a person will cause more grief than glory — so keep him on a short leash or ask him to find work elsewhere. In any organization, the designated leader must have the final say in strategic decisions, otherwise the organization loses focus and direction.

Having a strong oppositional voice is the mark of good leadership. Rather than a sign of weakness, it demonstrates force of character and the ability to think and act strategically. More importantly, oppositional views can clarify the leader’s own thinking, sometimes changing his mind, other times sharpening a course of action.

And while ultimately, the leader still has to make the final call, encouraging others to voice opposing views enables the organization to be more adaptable and more agile — and will help you make better decisions as a leader.

First posted on HBR.org 7/27/2009

Do you trust the people who report to you?

That question is not just about right versus wrong. It’s also about competence versus incompetence. Sometimes managers let things slide because they “trust” their employees will perform.

Trust is a bond between individuals or between teams and their supervisors. It can never be expected, nor imposed. It is earned through example and reinforced through success as well as recognition.

First posted on SmartBrief on 3/29/2013