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
May
31
GM and You
Filed Under All Posts, Reading for Leading | 17 Comments
The unthinkable happens today. GM declares bankruptcy. All of my U.S. readers will jointly own over 70% of what’s left of it. And “our” management will be cutting deeper and deeper, making the company smaller and smaller, hopefully leading it back to a new life and a new prosperity. As is always the case, I’m wondering: What’s the lesson for the “everyday leader” – manager, parent, pastor, worker? And if you’re new to Reading for Leading, trust me, the answer isn’t “Rick Wagoner’s an idiot.” I’d say instead three things:
- Corporations – from the Latin, corpus, or “body” – like humans, get sick and die. And like all living beings they tend to be slow to react to subtle environmental changes, and they have great capacity for denial. So, we would all do well to keep a ruthless eye on outside factors, and a skeptical outlook on our own extraordinary capacity for denial and wishful thinking about those threats. GM and the other big autos (Toyota recently said they have only $18.5 billion in cash reserves – about the same amount as Ford – and they expect to lose money this year) are suffering from the “perfect storm:” gas prices that killed their lucrative market, crashing demand, over-capacity, frozen capital markets, and an inability to change rapidly enough. The perfect storm could hit you: whether you’re leading teenagers, retail workers, or a not-for-profit. It would behoove you to coldly and analytically assess the realities and the threats on your horizon.
- There is zero room for internal friction in the engines of our organizations, because change is coming too darned fast and competition is too strong. Labor and management alike need to shift from zero-sum internal battles to the opportunities in synergy and cooperation. Cultures must learn to encourage creativity and risk-taking and then learn from mistakes. Internal political squabbles have to end. Egos have to be managed; they are tremendous fuel sources, but they burn with great inefficiency by generating unnecessary and destructive internal differences. So, find the lubricants for your churches, teams, offices, and even homes. Use a lot of appropriate praise and generate candor so that mistakes can be talked about and differences brought into the open.
- Everyone’s got to contribute. The job banks – where laid off workers remained on payroll – were the most egregious example of a luxury the American economy can no longer support. But more importantly, we all have to generate a culture where people feel like they belong, own a sense of accountability and are looking to contribute every day. Jennifer and I were so excited to hear Kate’s enthusiasm as a “lowly” worker at the delicatessen she’s working at this summer. She said: “I love it there. Their motto is ‘great food, great service, great finance,’ and we are all expected to contribute to the business.” She’s worked other places and made more money, but I’ve never seen her so geeked, because she matters there; they think she makes a difference and she wants to try to do just that.
What can you do today to: be open-eyed about risk, lubricate the system you’re in, and promote total involvement by everyone in the system? Do those things, and you’ll decidedly
Lead with your best self,
Dan
May
26
Duct Tape Leadership
Filed Under All Posts, Reading for Leading | 2 Comments
Friends,
Ever been to one of those retreats where the flip chart that holds our “top 10 opportunities” or our new “mission statement” keeps falling off the sound-insulated hotel room wall? Ever go back to work and watch the same “exciting” ideas glance off people like a puck hitting a goal post?
I handed the book Made to Stick around the table at a meeting to show off its orange dust cover. The strip of duct tape on the cover may have grabbed your eye if you saw the book at Borders, Barnes and Noble, or your local independent. As I passed it around, every single handler tried to find a loose corner to peel the shiny, slightly bumpy duct tape off the cover. It was impossible. Because the cover is the work of a master design and print team: The gray color perfectly matches real tape, the texture shines just right, and the tape part of paper is raised from the rest of the paper cover so it looks and feels like real. The cover catches your attention. The theme of Dan and Chip Heath’s book holds your attention: In leadership we’re always trying to move people, but we can almost always do a better job of crafting messages that stick like duct tape.
So often, ideas stick like masking taped flip chart pages falling from the wall – if they hold that well. The reason is our perceptions are over-stimulated and our memories are totally over-loaded. Can I ask you for a minute this morning to consider the “audience” that you are most trying to engage and influence as you lead? Perhaps it’s moving your manager. Perhaps your team. Perhaps your teenager, or aging parent. Maybe you are trying to move your neighbors or school students. Well, do you have a “sticky message” in play? If you do, they’ll get it. They’ll have it; it’ll hold to their imagination and intention, like duct tape holds to a nice dry wall.
The Heaths offer marvelous examples of messages that have stuck – from getting “Bubba’s” in Texas to stop littering, to inducing teenagers to quit smoking, to getting McDonald’s customers to ask, “Where’s the beef?” They have me thinking differently about a sticky message for my next book, about ways to get our kids to value a clean room, and about how Jennifer can speak in a stickier way about adjusting to our new economy.
I’ve played in this email with a couple of their key points. Be concrete. Be a little unexpected. Tell a story. I had the pleasure of interviewing Chip Heath on my show last week; listen here for the 40-minute interview on iTunes. Pick up Made to Stick or read Dan and Chip’s column monthly in Fast Company. Get sticky with your message(s) to
Lead with your best self!
Dan
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
May
22
You Need Sticky Messages
Filed Under All Posts, Radio | Leave a Comment
Chip Heath, co-author of the very cool book Made to Stick joins me for a full hour on Saturday at 8:00 am EST. Listen then here. For now, listen to this clip talking about how he and his brother Dan came to write the book.:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
May
17
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Friends,
I wrote last week about innovation, and only three people left blog comments. Then I posted a 5-question survey about innovation. Take it. It will take you – about 2 minutes max. When you finish it’ll show you the results. But here’s a major preview.
83% of respondents said that “innovation is extremely important for our economic competitiveness,” and another 15.5% said it’s “pretty important.” But are we doing it? I don’t think I have ever worked at a place where 98% of us were acting like innovation was that important. Do your leaders – both the ones who get paid to lead and the ones who do it without title or position – act like innovation is that important? If we are serious about innovation and competitiveness, then I think we should put this question on every staff meeting agenda: What can we do that (more) customers or clients will feel we are giving them a better product, service, or deal?
And here’s the other primary takeaway from the survey results: people’s answers demonstrate, as Buckingham and Coffman wrote in First Break All the Rules: “managers trump companies.” It’s not corporate policy but manager behavior that creates an innovative work culture. The two most important behaviors for creating an innovative culture, according to respondents are: “my manager values my ideas” (almost 60% say that’s extremely important) and “you don’t get punished for taking risks.” So, if you’re a manager the script is clear: listen to your people’s ideas and let them know how you value them, and do all you can not to punish creative thinking.
Develop a relentless focus on innovating for customers, and
Lead with your best self,
Dan
P.S. Speaking of innovation – follow me at www.twitter.com/danmulhern.
May
17
A Google Perspective on Innovation
Filed Under All Posts, Radio | Leave a Comment
A Google manager joined me to talk about innovation. You can tell from the attached interview with Matthew Neagle that he was still fired up from Larry Page’s visit to the Ann Arbor office of Google:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
.
Hear who Page is holding up as an icon of innovation, and what Google looks for in finding innovative, creative staff.
The Innovation Survey is still live. Take it and immediately see the results!
May
12
Innovation Radio
Filed Under All Posts, Radio | Leave a Comment
This Saturday on the Everyday Leadership show, where we “make work work,” we’ll be all about innovation. Listen live. In the 7:00 AM hour, we’ll hear from Google and ePrize and others about how they improvise. The 8:00 hour, we’ll hear from . . . you! What are you doing to reinvent your methods, systems, products? Opportunities exist, even in these bad times.
May
10
No More Waiting For Godot
Filed Under All Posts, Reading for Leading | 4 Comments
Friends,
In 2009, the idea of a single leader behind whom we follow in one main direction is CRAZY. Instead, great organizations, great classrooms, great churches and families must tap their bio-diversity of everyday leaders, getting contributions from throughout the organization – regardless of rank, seniority, gender, age, etc. Great organizations – and we have some awesome examples in Michigan – seek and expect value and innovation from all their people – their everyday leaders. Hopefully, your organization is becoming more collaborative, freeing, supporting, and challenging, so that you are engaged and important and productive.
But, you don’t have to wait. This is a time for innovation at every level. If you don’t want to get laid off, watch your unit or company go under, or feel frustrated that they keep asking you to do more with less, then innovate and produce phenomenal value. Take it on yourself to move things forward. Here are some great ways to feed your mind to think and act innovatively:
- Read about innovation! Check out last month’s Fast Company It’s about the 50 most innovative companies. Get infected with the spirit of Ideo and Amazon and Hulu. They’ll lubricate your mind. (Actually, every issue of Fast Company gives me ideas and an attitude of innovation. You can subscribe here.)
- Start to Twitter at www.twitter.com. People post little nuggets with great information and leads. You’ll have to learn to avoid people who are telling you things like “I’m petting the cat,” or “I’m going to the bathroom,” but with a little work you can find people who love to share priceless information and innovative ideas. If you want to learn a ton in a week, go to www.twitter.com, open an account (free and takes seconds) and follow GuyKawasaki, or go to his site www.guykawasaki to get started. Don’t just follow:
- Share nuggets of your expertise – information you have: great websites, videos, powerpoints on topics that you know well. You’ll rather quickly start to develop followers (I guess then you’re a leader J ) and build a community of people sharing information. Since you probably don’t have a travel and training budget any more, it’s a great way to meet people and learn new things.
Don’t just learn. Innovate. Act. So, for example, if you want your organization to generate more revenue, then SELL – whether you have the title of salesperson or not. Here’s an example. If you’re a Michiganian or a Michigander and you want Michigan to come screaming back, then invite people to come back to Michigan to vacation. Through email, Facebook, or Twitter, you can share the incredible Michigan tourism ads that make us all remember what it’s like to be “up north.” Invite a cousin, sibling, friend, business relation to come (back) and see why we’re nuts about this place! The MEDC has created a tourism campaign, but we have 10 million salespeople who can help spread the story.
What could you do – from where you are – if you thought, “I am the leader. I do not wait. I am the leader, and I have to learn. I am the leader, the world is changing, and I’ve got to innovate.” Take charge, and
Lead with your best self,
Dan
p.s. For more on innovation, listen to the Everyday Leadership show, Saturday from 7-9 AM. Guests include execs from Google and ePrize!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
May
10
Speaking Topics in Demand
Filed Under All Posts, Speaking | Leave a Comment
Had a blast speaking this week at two Athena awards events (chambers of commerce recognizing a great female leader). The courage of women leading is fascinating to me. Because I am the (slightly) above average man behind a great woman – who is work with a majority of male leaders – I have a curious vantage point on men and women leading. Audiences seem to love it. I’d love to speak to men too, because we are also leading in a whole new world – at home – and need to talk about it more. Thoughts? Opportunities?
The other speech that has been very popular lately is “leading through sustained crisis.” We know a lot about that in Michigan and in manufacturing. But dramatic changes are affecting schools, the recording business, and how about the impact on newspapers!!! This new circumstance requires a different kind of leadership.
May
8
Everyday Leadership, Every Saturday Morning
Filed Under All Posts, Radio | 2 Comments
Everyday Leadership: Making Work Work” gives you ideas and experts – and listens to you – on how we can “make work work” better! We talk about topics that matter: toxic bosses, leading up, flex time and family-work balance, getting promoted or retrained or starting your own business. We’ve had on Covey and Blanchard and Heifetz and Kouzes and Lencione. We’ve had Carol Evans the president of Working Mother, and we feature best practices. Listen to us and let us listen to you! Every Saturday morning, from 7am-9am.
Tune in to WJIM, 1240am, or listen online at www.wjimam.com.
May
4
Of a Hundred Takeaways From Gettysburg . . .
Filed Under All Posts, Reading for Leading | 25 Comments
Friends,
We went around the campfire, each sharing our views. It didn’t matter that some of the boys – or the lone girl, Paris – were 10 or 11 years old. We had all toured the battleground on Friday, most had read the book The Killer Angels, many had seen the movie ‘Gettysburg,’ and everyone had an opinion. People spoke about Stuart and Sickles and Lee whose errors were devastating. A couple of the boys expressed awe at Chamberlain’s heroism. Others talked about the amazing loyalty, the power of the Cause(s), or the suicidal nature of Pickett’s infamous charge.
Sheryl sat a third of the way around the circle of people offering their reflections. I don’t remember her exact words. But unlike my impressions of Gettysburg and the views I heard around that fire, it was her penetrating words that I can’t shake. She began by saying that she too admired the heroism and commitment, but what she could not get over was the war in the first place. How could they accept something that literally tore people and thus their families and their communities – and of course, their nation – apart? In the end, the reason we have united states is that there were more northerners, who had more money, more weapons and shoes and food. The intractable issues were not solved by grand reason or extraordinary feats of . . . negotiation. What a crazy way (six hundred thousand casualties) to resolve a dispute.
Sheryl’s point was barely touched upon as we proceeded around the circle to hear other impressions and views. Her question was perhaps too painful to ask, and too impossible to answer. Aren’t you grateful that you play on smaller fields than Lincoln and Davis, Grant and Lee played upon? But on our fields, how much ongoing pain exists, because we don’t ask the hardest question with our adversaries, or won’t wrestle with it long enough to yield some workable solutions? We instead choose our “wars†that bring many casualties. Companies dissolve as two partners both think they’re the principled one. Marriages collapse where each is absolutely convinced the other is wrong. Parties stalemate over budgets in business and government – where it’s too easy to be right and too hard to fully acknowledge the brutal realities and to engage in the intellectual war of negotiation to capture a shared win. Adolescents and their siblings (and their parents) suffer as they can find no way to bridge the differing world views that give rise to their Mason-Dixon line.
Like all the other guys I was with at Gettysburg, I was taken by the physical heroism, the strategies, the gambles and the gore. But the big takeaway was this: Do everything possible to avoid war – in my everyday leadership world. Perfect (lucky) timing: On this week’s Everyday Leadership radio show, we take up the topic of negotiation, building essential skills and knowledge to
Lead with your best self,
Dan
Audio: Of a Hundred Takeaways From Gettysburg
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