Speaking of Leadership
Dan on Twitter- danmulhern: Manage ur mind in the recession. Grt post by @ellenfweber http://bit.ly/bHSQR9 See why I'm having her on Sat's show http://bit.ly/8krEqu
- danmulhern: Got some good ideas for this week's radio show for #LaborDay. Share YOUR ideas or good ????s on my FB fanpage http://bit.ly/bsYBss
- danmulhern: RT @SocialGuide When is the Best Time to Tweet? http://bit.ly/cAaxdZ
- danmulhern: @mcort What do you think of this small-sample-research on the best times to tweet? http://bit.ly/SwLtd Are there better sources?
- danmulhern: What do you think would be good questions 4me to raise on radio 4 #LaborDay? Future of the middle class? Of org labor? plz RT
Oct
27
3-C’s to Psychological Hardiness
Filed Under All Posts | 12 Comments
Friends,
What is constant in our world: personal and organizational uncertainty, and constant need for improvement.
What’s the result: stress
What’s the prescription: build your “psychological hardiness”
Psychologists Salvatore Maddi and Suzanne Kobasa coined the term “psychological hardiness” and spawned much research into the relationship between it and physical health. They concluded and others have largely affirmed that hardiness promotes physical health under stress. Maddi and Kobasa identified three dimensions that tend to promote this sense of hardiness and in turn physical wellness. As you read them, you might ask: how do I promote this both in myself and in those experiencing stress around me. They are:
1. Commitment. People with psychological hardiness tend to have and hold a sense of purpose in what they do. Meaning seems to be part of their game. So, if they are on the sinking Titanic, they are working with purpose; if in a downsizing company they are holding to purpose. Personally, this measure invites us to reach to our deeper values, which exist no matter what the context. So, if dignity, respect, honesty, love, or creativity (not to mention God) matter to me, I can invoke these core values no matter where I am.
2. Control. People who have a sense that there are things they can do, and people who focus in the domain of what they can do, rather than what’s outside their control, tend to be more hardy and less painfully stressed.
3. Challenge. People with hardiness, enjoy challenge. They generally see themselves as capable of change and expect life around them to change. They don’t respond in the mode of my friend Charlie Ross’ line: “Change is great; you go first.” Instead, mistakes are cause for learning, losses are preludes to winning, weaknesses create opportunities to grow better.
Maddi and Kobasa in their original research found that people who possessed the three C’s were flat-out healthier. But their research begs two questions, which are the challenges for each of us in these tough times: How do I build my psychological hardiness? And: How do I build a team, company, culture, family where others continually increase their given level of hardiness?
Re-commit to your values and purpose this morning, keep fixed on your sphere of control, and grab an attitude that says: I’m gonna keep learning my way to success. And that’s a heckuva good start to
Lead with your best self!
Dan
Oct
20
Hope in Political Leadership – Yours
Filed Under All Posts | 16 Comments
Friends,
What does John McCain have to do to turn around this election? What does Obama need to do to hold on to his lead? Better yet: What do we have to do as everyday leaders to emerge as better citizens with a stronger democracy? Start, I suppose, by asking that question: What do WE do?
As we took a break from visiting my mom after her successful heart surgery, two of my sisters – the political extremes among the seven of us siblings – engaged with each other about the race, abortion, racism, and experience. Wow, that was precarious! And heated. It’s hard when our models for these conversations are people like Rush Limbaugh or Keith Olberman who are great at ranting and exaggerating and distorting, but mostly listen only to find a word or phrase they can twist and turn to their advantage. Remarkably, my sisters managed to fight the inevitable human and familial tendencies to fight or flee, to try to overwhelm the other or to flat-out give up in frustration. I believe that just such conversations are essential for all of us, critical for our democracy.
The negativity and inaccuracies emerging in the final weeks of campaign TV are absurd. The dumbing down to Joe the Plumber, and (seriously), Al the Dairy Man, aren’t just insulting.* If unchecked by us, we will ensure that we’ll get more and worse thrown at us. If we don’t create a sensible middle, a common sense discussion, a more honest dialogue, then we will only make ourselves more vulnerable next time to distortion and ridiculous pandering. Would a candidate PLEASE tell us where we’ll have to sacrifice, or where they’ll truly cut? Well they will, but only if we show – or create – enough sophistication and maturity among ourselves to give them hope that Colonel Jessup (Jack Nicholson) was wrong in A Few Good Men, when he said, “you can’t handle the truth.”
So, talk, but especially LISTEN to a neighbor in these last two weeks. See if you can handle their truth. See through honest, unaccusing questions if they can handle their truth when it’s tested by someone who takes their words seriously. Maybe we can find some common ground and some courage to face the really challenging issues that lies in front of us!
Open-eyed and open-minded,
Lead with your best self,
Dan
Oct
13
Everyday Leaders Face HUGE Problems
Filed Under All Posts | 6 Comments
Friends,
On the Everyday Leadership radio show on Saturday, “Doug from Mason,” couldn’t remember who said it, but he loved the line that the reason America is great is because of the strength of the American people. Of course, our capitalism and our democracy both derive their strength from one fundamental source: freedom. Any individual can play! And individual action leads to innovation and to communication and collaboration. “Everyday Leadership” and “Reading for Leading” are celebrations of people who don’t feel like passive victims but instead act!
Now, this financial crisis lends itself so marvelously to passivity and victimhood. It’s complicated as all get out. Who can understand it, let alone act on it (besides Bush, Bernanke, Frank and Paulson, and do they even understand it)? There’s lots of frustration and heaps of blame to throw around. Still I ask: Why not act? Yes. You and I . . . Act. Like these two everyday leaders did last week.
Jonathan Smith wrote an email to the 60 or so people in his Leadership Detroit class entitled “It’s Our Turn to Lead.”* How cool that he would reach out to his peers with ideas on how to lead in times of crisis and change! He had no authority, appointment, salary, expectation. He simply took it on himself to share constructive thoughts.
The other proactive leader that caught my attention was my wife, Governor Granholm. You might ask, “Are you really saying a governor is an everyday leader???? Come on!” But in this case, she’s leading up, much like Jonathan Smith was. I heard her on the phone last week, telling staff “I need to talk to Barney Frank today.” They set it up. And she told me she was talking to the Director of the National Governors Association about how to mobilize governors. And over the weekend she was talking to financial experts like Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, asking how governors could play a helpful role in this enormous undertaking. I don’t often publicly brag, but I was so impressed that she wasn’t hiding behind complexity, or saying “it’s a federal issue,” or waiting for direction. She was on it – an everyday leader, being proactive.
Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People remains one of THE best books around. The first of Covey’s seven habits is “be proactive.” Don’t give in to the complexity and distance this week. Ask what you (and yours) can do! Invest. Save. Help somebody else out. Inform yourself. Call a talk show. Be involved. The country is great to the degree we all act with greatness – especially in challenging times:
Lead with your best self,
Dan
Oct
6
Monday Morning With Biggby’s Coffee
Filed Under All Posts | 11 Comments
Friends,
It’s Monday morning, and you’ve got tasks, assignments, projects, deadlines, and to-do’s on your mind. (Wait, wait, don’t quit this yet 
) Focus for a minute on this – what Daniel Goleman calls the “primary task of leaders” – you’ve got to “prime good feeling,” and activate the energy in your peeps.* Hopefully you got your kids jazzed before they left this morning, maybe got your spouse pumped up, but even if you missed those chances, pay attention now to the energy levels at work. Every person you touch, you want to leave a little bit more energized.
One of the tried and true ways to generate energy in others is to connect. Walk with me into the Biggby Coffee headquarters in East Lansing, and imagine how you might come up with your own adaptation of their leadership practices. I gave the guy at the reception desk my name and told him I was there to meet with Tom Butz, Vice President for Operations. Tom brought me in to his office and started telling me about the Biggby culture – growing fast, but staying way close to the customer. “I’d introduce you to Bob, the co-founder, but he’s almost never here,” Tom said. “He’s out visiting stores and talking to franchisees, employees and customers.” The co-founder is quite literally touching people in the field, listening, and even blogging all about them. You can find little movies of the Biggby’s people he’s met at his “Where’s Bob” blogsite, www.biggbybob.com. Might not mean tons to you, but I bet it gets them psyched.
Tom Butz continued with his excited talk: “Did you meet Mike, our president?. He’s the guy who was sitting at the reception desk,” he went on. “We all do two or three six-hour shifts answering the phone, so we get unfiltered contact.” I was impressed with that. Mike had been so low-key when I’d met him, so matter-of-fact. On my tour a few minutes later, Mike and an employee were doing a conference call from right there in the reception area. What a message they’re sending: my work, like your work, is just work. We all matter here.
Then the coolest part of all was the orange phone sitting on a table in the inner office. “That’s the complaint phone,” Tom said. We all pick it up. Mary, the co-founder, Mike, me whoever’s around.” He said it makes for some comical moments when someone disappointed that the wi-fi wasn’t working says, “the president should know this,” and Mike says, “well, I am the president and I appreciate your calling and telling me.” The phone is an energizer. It shows that the boss is pitching in – one of the tried and true ways to motivate. It also tells customers they care and are really being heard. Finally, it keeps a once-small business in touch.
Maybe you can’t work the front desk, but you can always stop by and ask the receptionist what’s going on, how he’s doing, and what he’s hearing. Maybe you can’t handle the orange phone, but you could ask the customer service people how they’re doing and what they’re hearing. And maybe you’re not Bob, but these days anyone can blog about the cool people they’re meeting and working with and wanting to encourage. Pay attention to energy, as you
Lead with your best self!
Dan
Product Specials
Everyday Leadership: Getting Results in Business, Politics, and Life (7 Disc Audio CD)
Everyday Leadership offers strategies to improve leadership skills, achieve results, and gain greater satisfaction in these hectic times. It speaks to the everyday leader, whether that person is a principal, pastor, parent, or CEO.
$34.99
$24.99