Lighthouse management: Are you visible to your people?

As a leader of your organization, think of yourself as a lighthouse. You provide direction and assurance in the dark. People look up to you. Everything you do is very visible. The higher you get, the more attention your actions and decisions attract. Being a lighthouse is not for the faint of heart. Is all the scrutiny and responsibility worth the rewards? Make up your mind, because a lighthouse without a light is quite useless.

Light up the vision

The lighthouse manager brings clarity to the team or the organization. Every initiative and task has a purpose and is connected to the overall goals of the company. The leader is the one who reminds the team of the ultimate purpose when it’s hard to prioritize, and pulls people back from the tactical noise when it gets in the way of what really matters.

Light up the values

The lighthouse manager walks the talk. S/he leads by example and illustrates the core values of the organization with every action and decision. People notice what managers disapprove, tolerate, approve or encourage, so the lighthouse manager is very intentional about it.

Light up in tough times

In stormy weather, lighthouses are more important than ever. People need assurance that everything will be OK, that the company will survive this. They need a clear vision of how to get through the worst and what their role will be in it. Lighthouse managers will make themselves even more visible in times of change or trouble.

You don’t need to be with your people every second of the day. You just need to provide a frequent cadence of brightness, enough to provide confidence that they and the organization are on the right track.

Leading with courage

We read books and watch movies of the great war-time commanders, the adventurers and the founding fathers, and fantasize about inspirational leadership. Yet, we see excellent leaders and good managers all around us. They perform small acts of courage every day and command a devoted following by their teams. These are the leaders who are followed by top performers from one company to another.

True vision

It is one thing to create and articulate a vision. It’s a whole other ball game to faithfully follow your vision. There are temptations and distractions, and true leaders know when to stay the course and when to make a correction. Visionary leaders put a stake in the ground. When it’s time to adapt the strategy, the courageous leader is not afraid to put the past behind.

True values

Courageous leaders use the company values to really guide day-to-day decision making. If the core value is Quality, the company will not ship a product until it meets the standards everyone can be proud of, even if it means a delay in delivery. If the company has to do cost cutting, leaders with courage might look at trimming the workforce equally among their own staff as they would in the front lines.

True connection

Courageous leaders are not afraid to expose their egos and form true relationships. I once heard a senior VP tell his managers to LOVE their employees. It means to be interested in them as persons with real lives, not merely as resources to be allocated. When you care enough, you put more effort into developing them and pushing them to their potential. It also takes courage to make those tough discussions when they need them. True leaders also stand up for their team, when junk rolls downstream. They take the heat so that their team can work in peace. They fight for resources and speak up when requirements on the team are beyond reason. Courageous leaders are also willing to take on challenges to stretch the team’s capabilities.

True words

Courageous leaders are transparent. They don’t exaggerate, neither do they sugarcoat news. They tell it like it is, with compassion. When the team needs to know what’s going on, they can go right to the source. The courageous leader is also not afraid to say “I don’t know.” Courage builds trust.

Have you met courageous leaders?

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How to heal a toxic culture?

We hear stories of workplaces with backstabbing, blame games, taking the credit from others, kiss up -kick down antics and worse. Unfortunately, some of you spend your work days in this kind of environment. In some cases, there are pockets of suffering teams caused by individual bad managers that are allowed to continue their pillaging. In other cases, the poison has permeated the whole company culture. Is there anything to be done when the problem has reached this level of severity? A culture can be healed; it takes time and intentional steps.

Start from the top

One could argue that the most important task of the leadership team is to manage the company culture. Everything else follows. As the top team has such an influence on the culture, you are often part of the problem as well. Do you have the guts and self awareness to put the stake in the ground and turn the company around, even if it requires some significant soul searching and behavior change on your own part? If you can’t resolve your simmering conflicts and passive aggressive positioning, there is not much hope for the rest of the organization.

Trash to treasure

Assess your existing culture. There is no culture that is totally rotten. Identify the legacy you can build on and be proud of. Perhaps among all the stings and arrows flying everyone ended up being very punctual and concise in communications. Or, even though it is totally overboard, everyone says what they mean. Once you are able to articulate what you are dealing with, define what you aspire for. Create a vision for your new culture and share with your employees.

Open feedback

Although easier said than done, the only way to build a new culture is through open feedback. Leaders, managers and employees must learn to express to each other how they perceive each others’ behaviors and how they would like to shape them towards the new culture. The goal is to make it a safe experience, thus it is a delicate, arduous and exciting journey. As many mistakes will be made, the company must also develop a learning focus where learning from mistakes will be celebrated. This concept itself will be hard to grasp for employees who have lived in a company where coworkers were looking for opportunities to pull the rug from beneath their feet at the first opportunity.

Manage out the toxic behaviors

Managers’ role will be to slowly guide the teams to the new behaviors using informal feedback and coaching. Those who are too entrenched in their old toxic behaviors need to be managed out to show to the workforce that the new culture is for real.

Long term maintenance

As the culture gets traction, it is important that the new blood in the company reinforces the new culture. The selection process must be aligned with the new cultural values. The stricter the selection, promotion and reward decisions are made based on the cultural values, the stronger they are adopted by the rest of the population. Track the progress by using cultural surveys and focus groups. The metrics and stories will both tell you when the toxin levels will start decreasing. The business results will show it too.

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Be Yourself, Everyone Else Is Taken: 5 steps to begin the journey of authentic leadership

This week I have a guest blogger: Michelle Braden is the founder of MSBCoach in Virginia and is a remarkable leader and an inspiring business coach.

Written by Michelle Braden:

Something that I have often found amusing regarding human behavior is our tendency to find something we like and then overuse it.   A good example of how this happens is with music.  There is a great song, the radio station picks it up and proceeds to play it about a million times a day. Before you know it, you do not like the song anymore or it loses its appeal.  Unfortunately, we see this happen in business trends as well.  A word that has become very popular and almost overused in the business and leadership realm is “authentic”.

In the last year authentic has become a “posh” word used in connection with leadership.  I must admit, I use it a lot.  I love the word “authentic”.   It is all over our website, in fact, our annual conference is the “Authentic Leadership Summit“.

When you look up the word authentic, you see words like:

• bona fide
• reliable
• unquestionable
• worthy of belief
• genuine
• and the list goes on…

These are traits that I want to emulate as a leader.  My guess is you do too; otherwise, I doubt you would be reading this blog.  I am convicted every time I use the word “authentic”.  I want to ensure it carries the “sacred” meaning that should be attributed to it. I do not want to throw it around as a careless, popular adjective next to the word leader.

The challenge is not whether or not we want to be “authentic”.  I believe the challenge is in how we apply being authentic and living it every day in all aspects of our lives.  If you are asking, “what do you mean” then I suspect you do not have children.  I am kidding of course; however, going through challenging situations, such as raising children or leading an organization through a merger will squeeze you to discover what you are really made of.

There is so much good Information out on authentic leadership that I will not dare to compete with it; however, I have found a few things that have helped me and maybe they will help you as well – I feel confident #1 will:

1.       Read, ask and learn all you can from books, coaches, mentors and friends and then sift through all the information to figure out what works for you.  It is important that you learn from others, but in the end, you figure out if it applies to you or not.

2.       Identify your personal five values.  You can do this by:

• reflecting on what is important to you
• asking how you want to be remembered as a leader
• asking what would you like for your children or significant other to say about you when talking to their friends
• knowing and understanding  your hot buttons
• When you identify these areas, you will begin to unfold your own values.

3.       Keep it real – what I mean by this is, work on yourself as a person and a leader but do not try to make yourself someone else.  There have been many great leaders in the world that you can learn from, but you will never be them.  I read a book titled, “The Enemy Called Average” several years ago.  The author made a statement I will never forget, “We are all born originals, but most of us die carbon copies”.  Be the best original you were created to be.

4.       To improve your authenticity in leadership, pick one thing to develop at a time.  Often leaders are over-achievers, I know, I am one myself.  As an over-achiever, you will probably want to pick several things to work on; however, I encourage you to pick only one.  Choosing one thing will help you have focus.  A Hebrew proverb says, “finishing is better than starting”.

5.       Practice self-observation activities.  Once you pick the one item you are going to work on you can begin to observe yourself.  For example, let’s say you chose to develop better listening skills.  You begin observing yourself, watching for situations where you are not practicing good listening.  Do not do anything just begin to take notes.  After a few weeks, review your notes.  You will see patterns emerge.  Your goal is to become self-aware.  When your “normal” pattern of poor listening arises, your self-awareness will kick in and you will practice to create a “new normal”.  In this case, it is full, undivided listening.  As with anything new, it will take practice.  Nevertheless, if you continue to practice it will become a part of who you are.
There are other things I could add to this list; however, I would like to hear from you.  What have you done or what are you doing to develop yourself as an authentic leader?  I look forward to learning from all of you.

As the founder and CEO of MSBCoach and the Emerging Executive Leader’s Program, Michelle has coached and trained business owners, executives, non-profit leaders, teams, managers and individuals in transition for over 17 years. She is an advanced certified human behavior consultant, certified business coach and facilitator of GET CLIENTS NOW!  As adjunct faculty at Piedmont Community College, she teaches leadership development and high performance team building.  She is a freelance writer for The Business Networker and has a column in Forward VA Magazine titled “Ask Coach Michelle”.

The magic of commitment to core values

I am just back from a family vacation at Disney World in Orlando, FL. Despite my aching feet from walking miles across theme parks, each with different flavor of attractions and shows, I can still feel the Disney magic. Every experience Disney creates is just a notch above the rest. With the masses of people everywhere, things work out smoothly; it’s all meticulously planned and practiced. No matter what you ask, the cast members, as they call their employees, are happy to fulfill your request. Nothing is done grudgingly. You get a wave with a smile, a hug, a high five, and for a moment, even a grown up can feel like a school kid again.

Disney’s values are innovation, quality, community, storytelling, optimism and decency. What differentiates Disney from most other companies is the pervasiveness of these values in their organization. When Disney talks about quality, they invest in additional people to make sure that there are no glitches in the guest experience. The rest rooms shine and traffic flows, even with millions of visitors. Our friend asked a cast member where he could find extra napkins, and she offered to run downstairs to get some. In other companies, this would be considered above and beyond performance; at Disney, it is a basic expectation.

Disney spends a great effort in selecting the right people that fit their culture. They are clear about their expectations from the start. Once the cast member is in, they invest in their training and development through proven programs. A survey on management effectiveness in administered on an on-going basis, to make sure that the values are upheld at all levels.

What differentiates the best from the rest is the fanatical commitment to the vision, mission and values of the company. The magic will follow.

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Do you LOVE your job? Rediscovering passion at work.

What keeps puzzling me is how some people are passionate about their work and some are not. Look at the healthcare workers who dropped everything to go and help the victims in Haiti. There are scientists who spend nights at their labs to find a new solution to our energy crisis and Olympic athletes who sacrifice their normal youth for one chance to be number one. But these jobs are so alluring and have a higher purpose, we say. But what about the lady at my grocery store who packs my purchases faster than anyone else? She sorts them by kind to make it easier to unpack, and does all this with a smile. You can tell she is proud of her work. And I know software developers who love coding so much they take their laptops to bed. There are also doctors, scientists, media personalities and athletes who are not passionate about what they do. My claim is that it’s not about the job; it’s something else.

In the old days, we used to have artisans and craftsmen, who learned their profession through apprenticeship and years of practice. They even assumed their last names based on their trade. They marked their work with their initials and made sure it was well done. In the age of mass production and standardization, employees can still carry the mark of ownership and pride to their work. This is a personal choice. You can be today’s craftsman of your own trade.

We also have our natural skills and talents. Some of them are more obvious and transferable to a career than others. The greatest gift parents can do for their children is to let them explore their gifts and interests and guide them to the right path, not necessarily the one they had in mind in the first place. If we get to do something that comes easy for us, the passion follows. Maybe it’s not the whole job, but a part of your job.

When we talk about a calling, it has to do with making a difference. If I work for a charitable organization or an emergency room, the impact is easy to see. However, every organization is necessary and has a purpose in its own way. Find out how your company’s products are used, how customers experience the solutions, and what is needed to strive towards the company’s vision. Make sure you see the connection between your line of work and why your company exists. Then decide to be the best that you can be.

The most intense moments of recorded happiness are experienced at work during flow. When we set challenging goals for ourselves, avoid interruptions and give our best, our chances to get into the flow increase. That is passion. It can happen in any job.

In today’s economy, it may sound a bit arbitrary to talk about passion. Those who don’t have a job feel stuck and forced to take whichever job they may get. Those who are already in a rut are painted in a corner and can’t leave in the fear of not finding a more fulfilling position. Even in this situation, job passion can be achieved. Make a long term plan to get to your final destination that matches your natural gifts and the work environment you desire. In the meanwhile, create opportunities to get into the flow and take pride in whatever you do in your current trade.

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Copyright 2010 Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks, all rights reserved.
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Do you manage your organization culture, or does it manage you?

Toyota has recently been under fire due to its recalls and quality issues. It is drawing additional attention because the Toyota brand used to represent quality. What happened? Quality and industry experts suggest that Toyota management veered away from its own corporate culture based on respect for people and continuous improvement – the Toyota Way – and it’s now paying the price.

Organization culture is such a nebulous concept. The visible parts are quite obvious for the new comer, such as the dress code, how punctually meetings start, or how fast paced the work is. But the invisible norms and values you have to learn over time, e.g. how people work together, how they share information, and what the level of trust is between people and departments.

Every organization has a culture, whether it’s stated or not. Sometimes the articulated culture in printed brochures can be in conflict with the actual informal culture. When this happens, leadership efforts to manage the culture lose credibility. It’s fine to be aspirational in culture statements, but it’s not OK to be totally clueless.

These are the steps to manage organization culture:

1. Assess the current culture. Know the baseline. A combination of focus groups and surveys typically accomplish this task most efficiently.

2. Articulate the desired culture. This should have a connection with the organization’s vision, with respect to its past. The desired culture is often a mixture between realistic description of the actual culture and the description of the ideal culture the organization is striving for.

3. Weave the culture into everyday actions and decisions. Start with the selection and promotion criteria. Reinforce it in all training and development. When people are recognized, it is done based on cultural values. In any organization, employees note that resources are allocated to the most important priorities. Thus, resource allocation should also be true to the cultural values.

4. Measure the culture development. Do frequent checks on how your workforce perceives the culture. Annual surveys are a good yardstick to create trending data. At the launch, you may even measure the culture twice a year, as long as you are prepared to act on the survey feedback.

Equally as important as strengthening the culture is to be aware of actions and decisions that are counterproductive. Every time a decision is made where the cultural values were not used, it puts into question the organization culture. For example, if a company declares that work life balance is one of its core values but frequently recognizes employees who put in long hours, it contradicts its own values. Or, if a company who promotes a customer-focused culture cuts customer service resources before touching other departments, it may have to rethink its priorities.

Usually, compromises and tough times bring out the true colors. Those that are true to their values will have a guiding star for their decision making and will be able to make consistent decisions and strengthen their external brand as well as their employment brand.

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Copyright 2010 Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks, all rights reserved.
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How big of a chunk of your company’s talent is underutilized?

The CBS post-Super Bowl show Undercover Boss thrilled or further jaded over 38 million viewers. The Waste Management President and COO Larry O’Donnell spent five days on the ground learning the ropes of the basic operations from the first line employees. Who wouldn’t enjoy watching a corporate big wig scrubbing latrines?

The outcome of the show was that Mr. O’Donnell ordered some changes in the local practices and a task force to look into their productivity policies that seemed to override all other company values. Having worked side by side with five employees, he also ended up promoting three of them. Now, three out of five makes 60%. It took the company President to notice that 60% of the employees he met did not work to their fullest potential.

Waste Management has 45,000 employees. With O’Donnell’s quick sample, 60% of talent being underutilized would make 27,000 missed opportunities. Yikes! Something to talk about with Jay Romans, Senior Vice President, People.

When a company grows past 400-500 employees, the CEO can’t know every employee. The VP of HR can’t know every employee. It is time to put in place talent management mechanisms that ensure that the CEO’s eyes reach all the way to the front lines to recognize and move the right people to the right opportunities.

The selection process should reflect the qualities that make the company culture successful. Sometimes, the culture is not quite there yet, so the management must find the pockets of excellence, and start building the desired culture by replicating the top performers’ attitudes and aptitudes, starting with hiring.

With the talent already in the organization, it is important not to let it go stale. The company loses opportunities, the employees lose motivation. There must be a process in place that frequently checks where the opportunities are, and where opportunities can be created. You also must create visibility into the strengths and talents of your existing employees. How else can you match talent to opportunities? The market provides many options for skill inventory software, or better yet, integrated talent management software.

And even with the fanciest software, keep this age-old rule in mind: garbage in – garbage out. It applies even at Waste Management. If the managers and employees don’t take the talent management process seriously, your software is not worth a byte.

Managers a the key to spotting talent are the managers. If they are only interested in and rewarded for getting today’s tasks done, there will be no talent management. They must have the skills and confidence to have in-depth conversations with their employees about their motivations, strengths and career goals. The company culture must also promote resource development and allocation beyond one’s own turf.

Many employees don’t even realize that they have opportunities beyond their current position. With a supportive company culture and a manager who knows how to develop their skills and coach their careers, they can look beyond the dead-end job, even if the President doesn’t come for a visit.

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