Apr

30

Obama’s 100 Days – Your Next Few Days

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While most folks assess President Obama’s 100 days through the lens of politics and presidential leadership, I am, as always interested in the lens of “everyday leadership.” What can you and I learn as we try to lead with our best selves? To me, two clear lessons and one question-mark.

Lesson One: Communicate, communicate, communicate These are challenging times -for the country, but also for our businesses, our cities, our state, our families. In these times, people need both reasonable assurance that things will improve and also clear and repeated messages that help them to interpret what’s happening. Are you talking to your team(s), children, and others with the frequency the President is speaking to us? Are you both continuing to clarify the ends, the vision, the purpose; but also continuing to explain, “dad’s a little anxious because…” or “if we lose the Ford business…” People CAN handle the truth.

Lesson Two: Candor, candor, candor President Obama has pushed the envelope by telling the truth – whether it is releasing CIA documents; or not being too hasty in retreat from Iraq; admitting his mistake on Tom Daschle’s vetting or flying planes over New York; or, to our chagrin in Detroit, pushing Chrysler and GM so very hard. He’s telling it like it is, as he sees it. He gives the rationale for everything he’s doing. It’s a gamble in terms of conventional wisdom to be so very open – even admitting mistakes or changing course – but what a breath of fresh air!!!!

Lesson Three: How many initiatives is too many? Much is foisted on a president, and in contrast to George Bush on e.g., Katrina, President Obama has been quick to weigh in – on pirates to pig flu. He is also pushing ALL of his agenda items. The “yay” from the cheerings fans is: he can do it all, because these are special circumstances in that he has very strong backing, and the public is really paying attention (would that my wife as governor could get people so attentive and have so many vehicles to use). But the boo is that we need a near-relentless focus on the economy – here are my guiding principles, here is my endgame, here’s what I’m doing today about jobs, here’s what YOU should be doing? At some point people are so preoccupied with their own business – and so focused on the central issue of jobs and work – that they will get impatient with all these other initiatives. But for now, he seems to be walking that tightrope with great balance and moving toward the next platform.

The lessons for us: talk to your people ((and LISTEN to them)) til you’re blue in the face. Risk telling the truth all the time. Gauge their level of interest, but by all means stay on the key message, make it sticky and repeat it frequently.

Apr

27

Impostors and the Inner Obstacle to Leadership

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Friends,I had a personal “aha” last week, or more accurately Judith Cardenas offered me a great insight. Hope I can compact it here. Our conversation touched two different issues in quick succession – the way conversations jump oddly sometimes. Judith was talking about massive demographic changes, how thousands of minorities and women – and minority women – are moving up in organizational systems. For many, it’s tough. Judith talked about how challenging it is to walk into a boardroom, for instance, if you were acculturated through overt or just subtle messages that said you had no place in a boardroom.Judith was suggesting I should speak to women-on-the-rise, out of my strength as a leadership expert. She also thought I could speak out of my experience of watching my wife hit speed bumps and shatter glass ceilings. Oddly this discussion bumped into a point I was sharing – an odd synchronicity. I was sharing with Judith my personal and sometimes arduous journey to lead in what used to be the women’s sphere, raising kids and supporting a high-achieving spouse. And so what really struck me was the connection she was making: She helped me realize in a hot second of awareness that I have a really darned good idea what that woman feels like at the board room, because I hear voices all the time that tell me that I don’t belong here, that I’m an impostor as the lead parent in our home. “You are one terrible mom,” the message pops up from within. “You mess up the schedule, forget their lunches, don’t know the other kids’ parents, aren’t as interested as you should be in their homework or field trips” and on and on: “Jennifer would be so much better than you,” the voice goes on. “You’re not doing a tenth of what your mom did.”Adding insult to injury, another internal voice (surely derived from my male upbringing) says, “get over it, loser. Just do the job that you know is important, and that you’re more than good enough at.” I suspect I’m not alone in the cycle of self-doubt and self-recrimination. Indeed, I know I’m not alone. I see kids on varsity who think they don’t belong there; supervisors who are shadowed by self-doubt; and I’ve coached high-level executives who couldn’t shake the fear they didn’t belong. A little web-searching turns up research on what is sometimes called the “impostor syndrome.” This “syndrome” was first noted by high-achieving academic women who fought (themselves) to gain confidence. In our time, I wonder how many men who are the lead parent similarly experience this type of sabotaging uncertainty. Many of us could probably benefit from Hal and Sidra Stone’s book, Embracing Your Inner Critic: Turning Self Criticism into a Creative Asset.Today’s RFL is not prescriptive. It’s just about awareness and self-truth-telling. Perhaps others can offer comments that extend the learning.Awareness always helps you toLead with your best self!Danp.s. I really do love to speak to women about leadership, and we’ve got to figure out how men can start talking about our new roles leading – in the most important leadership place of all – the home!
Friends,
I had a personal “aha” last week, or more accurately Judith Cardenas offered me a great insight. Hope I can compact it here. Our conversation touched two different issues in quick succession – the way conversations jump oddly sometimes. Judith was talking about massive demographic changes, how thousands of minorities and women – and minority women – are moving up in organizational systems. For many, it’s tough. Judith talked about how challenging it is to walk into a boardroom, for instance, if you were acculturated through overt or just subtle messages that said you had no place in a boardroom.
Judith was suggesting I should speak to women-on-the-rise, out of my strength as a leadership expert. She also thought I could speak out of my experience of watching my wife hit speed bumps and shatter glass ceilings. Oddly this discussion bumped into a point I was sharing – an odd synchronicity. I was sharing with Judith my personal and sometimes arduous journey to lead in what used to be the women’s sphere, raising kids and supporting a high-achieving spouse. And so what really struck me was the connection she was making: She helped me realize in a hot second of awareness that I have a really darned good idea what that woman feels like at the board room, because I hear voices all the time that tell me that I don’t belong here, that I’m an impostor as the lead parent in our home. “You are one terrible mom,” the message pops up from within. “You mess up the schedule, forget their lunches, don’t know the other kids’ parents, aren’t as interested as you should be in their homework or field trips” and on and on: “Jennifer would be so much better than you,” the voice goes on. “You’re not doing a tenth of what your mom did.”
Adding insult to injury, another internal voice (surely derived from my male upbringing) says, “get over it, loser. Just do the job that you know is important, and that you’re more than good enough at.” I suspect I’m not alone in the cycle of self-doubt and self-recrimination. Indeed, I know I’m not alone. I see kids on varsity who think they don’t belong there; supervisors who are shadowed by self-doubt; and I’ve coached high-level executives who couldn’t shake the fear they didn’t belong. A little web-searching turns up research on what is sometimes called the “impostor syndrome.” This “syndrome” was first noted by high-achieving academic women who fought (themselves) to gain confidence. In our time, I wonder how many men who are the lead parent similarly experience this type of sabotaging uncertainty. Many of us could probably benefit from Hal and Sidra Stone’s book, Embracing Your Inner Critic: Turning Self Criticism into a Creative Asset.
Today’s RFL is not prescriptive. It’s just about awareness and self-truth-telling. Perhaps others can offer comments that extend the learning.
Awareness always helps you to
Lead with your best self!
Dan
p.s. I really do love to speak to women about leadership, and we’ve got to figure out how men can start talking about our new roles leading – in the most important leadership place of all – the home!
Audio: Imposters and the Inner Obstacle to Leadership

Friends,

I had a personal “aha” last week, or more accurately Judith Cardenas offered me a great insight. Hope I can compact it here. Our conversation touched two different issues in quick succession – the way conversations jump oddly sometimes. Judith was talking about massive demographic changes, how thousands of minorities and women – and minority women – are moving up in organizational systems. For many, it’s tough. Judith talked about how challenging it is to walk into a boardroom, for instance, if you were acculturated through overt or just subtle messages that said you had no place in a boardroom.

Judith was suggesting I should speak to women-on-the-rise, out of my strength as a leadership expert. She also thought I could speak out of my experience of watching my wife hit speed bumps and shatter glass ceilings. Oddly this discussion bumped into a point I was sharing – an odd synchronicity. I was sharing with Judith my personal and sometimes arduous journey to lead in what used to be the women’s sphere, raising kids and supporting a high-achieving spouse. And so what really struck me was the connection she was making: She helped me realize in a hot second of awareness that I have a really darned good idea what that woman feels like at the board room, because I hear voices all the time that tell me that I don’t belong here, that I’m an impostor as the lead parent in our home. “You are one terrible mom,” the message pops up from within. “You mess up the schedule, forget their lunches, don’t know the other kids’ parents, aren’t as interested as you should be in their homework or field trips” and on and on: “Jennifer would be so much better than you,” the voice goes on. “You’re not doing a tenth of what your mom did.”

Adding insult to injury, another internal voice (surely derived from my male upbringing) says, “get over it, loser. Just do the job that you know is important, and that you’re more than good enough at.” I suspect I’m not alone in the cycle of self-doubt and self-recrimination. Indeed, I know I’m not alone. I see kids on varsity who think they don’t belong there; supervisors who are shadowed by self-doubt; and I’ve coached high-level executives who couldn’t shake the fear they didn’t belong. A little web-searching turns up research on what is sometimes called the “impostor syndrome.” This “syndrome” was first noted by high-achieving academic women who fought (themselves) to gain confidence. In our time, I wonder how many men who are the lead parent similarly experience this type of sabotaging uncertainty. Many of us could probably benefit from Hal and Sidra Stone’s book, Embracing Your Inner Critic: Turning Self Criticism into a Creative Asset.

Today’s RFL is not prescriptive. It’s just about awareness and self-truth-telling. Perhaps others can offer comments that extend the learning.

Awareness always helps you to

Lead with your best self!

Dan

p.s. I really do love to speak to women about leadership, and we’ve got to figure out how men can start talking about our new roles leading – in the most important leadership place of all – the home!

Audio: Imposters and the Inner Obstacle to Leadership

Apr

20

Don’t Kick the Issue Upstairs!

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Friends,

A couple weeks ago in the RFL about Jesus, Clinton, and Wagoner, I made a mistake which I’d like to kick myself for repeatedly making. In that RFL I used language that runs totally against my most fundamental leadership belief: I wrote about “leaders,” when really what I meant was “people in positions of authority.” Those two are not the same.* One of my strongest held beliefs about leadership is that you can lead from anywhere, with or without formal authority, and the best organizations are those that cultivate everyday leadership – every day people, who lead every day. And here is a critical point for everyday leaders in these sometimes frightening and turbulent times:

Lead in the charge to end wasting energy on internal “stuff.” Instead, exercise leadership in directing energy out – to better serving clients, customers, vendors, taxpayers, children, or whoever your constituents are. When organizations are under tremendous pressure to improve quality, cut costs, and just stay alive, it is completely natural that such pressure will be turned inside. Under such universal pressure, budget competitions arise, smoldering personality issues erupt, and egos get massively in the way. The back office squabbles with the front; the field with headquarters, sales with production, or the upper school with the lower school. The usual tendency is to look to what we’d normally call “the leaders” to resolve the conflicts. Sometimes direction is truly needed “from above,” but often everyday leaders have the capacity to gain resolution to those internal issues. In so doing they strengthen collaboration and confidence internally. They also free up the authority figure to do the things only he or she can do outside – working with key customers, accessing capital, or building external partnerships. For example, in the state government or at GM, the last thing the chief executive needs to be doing is refereeing internal squabbles.

So, you might look around at your simmering sibling squabbles and see whether you can’t lead: Work with your peers (the “they” in the frequent “we-they” differences). The core principles are simple. First, recognize that most of the grueling choices – and the pressure they create – are no one’s fault. And fault-seeking is generally a major dead end. Instead, fix your attitude on the future. Then execute on the core leadership skills (popularized by Stephen Covey): Seek first to understand. With bosses, we know to understand them first; they naturally get that prerogative. But with peers, seeking first to understand is not presumed. Maybe that’s why it’s so powerful. Then comes the corollary principle: Seek win-win. After you’ve understood their needs, share yours, but then continually stand for a win for both parties. Lastly, seek clarity. Clarity is efficiency. And today, there’s so little room for inefficiency.

Tough times invite you as an everyday leader to step to the fore, and

Lead with your best self,

Dan

* I must credit my mentor and friend Ron Heifetz who introduced “the distinction between leadership and authority” as the first of the critical distinctions in his course at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. I never looked at leadership the same after that very first lecture in his course back in 1985.

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Apr

13

5 Minute video on FAST change

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John Burchett, in a comment on today’s RFL about FAST change, added a link to an incredible 5-minute video. It says what I was trying to say in today’s RFL but vividly. (He says he can’t vouch for the statistical reliability of the facts; nor can I. But I thought it worth sharing anyway.)
Dan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o9nmUB2qls

Apr

13

Are You A Fast Company?

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Friends,

So many things that seemed hard and certain now seem vaporous and tenuous. It’s like there’s no there, there. Consider:

* We in Michigan could hardly imagine a world without a Big Three.

* How could a big city not have a daily PAPER?

* Where was the barrier that my generation thought would always, or for a long time, stop a guy who looked like – let alone was named – Barack?

* How did Bill Gates get to be “old money?”

* How is it possible that your teenage son or daughter could have 373 “friends”? I mean what the heck is a “friend” these days?

The rapidity of change struck me again in reading this month’s Fast Company magazine. (Hmmm, can a monthly be fast?) Despite the name, they still print and mail you a monthly magazine for about ten bucks a year; it’s a great and cheap way to stay up on the major changes in technology, business, and oddly this month – politics. The cover story is about “the kid who made Obama President” – 25 year old Facebook co-founder, Chris Hughes. The Hughes-Obama team built a network through which 70,000 people in turn raised $30 million for the campaign. 2 million people built “profiles” on the site (remember when a profile was a picture of you from the side?). It’s unreal. Unimaginable change.

This extraordinarily FAST change is both the result and in turn the cause of the age of the everyday leader. Whether you’re trying to find ideas, resources, or people – whether for your business, your kids, your church, your faith, art or service – they’re out there. If you expect the world around you to remain the same, you may be setting yourself up for disappointment or disaster. But if you have a dream of creation – of a better product, service, home, heart or world – this is your time. Act FAST! Stay new and alive to

Lead with your best self,

Dan

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Apr

6

Leaders – Jesus, Clinton, Wagoner

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Friends,

I think of Reading for Leading as a community – even a family – of readers. So, I usually steer by the adage of not talking at the dinner table about politics or religion. With the hope of staying non-sectarian and non-partisan, I want to trip that way just a little today.

In the Christian experience, this week lies between two polar experiences of leadership. Yesterday, called Palm Sunday, Jesus is welcomed into Jerusalem like the cult hero he was, a growing number believing he was the long-awaited Messiah. Suddenly his “approval ratings” plummeted, so that at the end of this same week we commemorate his crucifixion.

Leadership is dangerous. Groups love heroes . . . and villains. Think: Madoff to Jewish charities. Think Enron to Houston’s civic world. Think Pete Rose or Barry Bonds to sports fans. I just finished the section on Bill Clinton in pollster Stan Greenberg’s excellent memoir Dispatches from the War Room. If you compress Clinton’s leadership on a timeline you see sharp peaks and valleys, the latest being the sad and ironic campaign experience, where the man referred to as “America’s first Black President” sharply attacked the man who became that first President.

In the annals of leaders’ deaths, and sometime resurrections, this past week brought us Rick Wagoner, the toppled CEO of General Motors. “Scapegoat,” he was called, in a blood-letting that reminds us of an ancient thirst for expiation. The hurt, anger, and fear of “the crowd” still raging, they want Wall Street “scapegoats,” too. I suspect that while you’re reading this, some readers have already clicked the “comments” button on the bottom and are going after Clinton, defending Jesus, or wondering why I don’t see how villainous those Wall Street CEOs are.

So, I only want to make one point: Leadership is dangerous work. Keeping constituents happy is hard work – triply so when you’re pushing them to change in uncertain times. School students, teenage children, government bureaucrats, well-rewarded executives don’t like to be stressed. Be careful. But lead anyway! Clinton and Wagoner may not have done enough, but they brought extraordinary change. And the impact of Jesus hardly needs to be stated. Stick to your convictions and

Lead with your best self,

Dan

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