Twice a month, Lead Change Group authors write a blog post on the SmartBlog on Leadership site. Today it’s my turn with a post called How to Get Your Team to Speak Up. It’s based on my observation that many team leaders create a culture where saying “no” is unacceptable, thereby causing their team members to use the truth recklessly when they say “yes”. Go on over, check it out and leave a comment. Would love to hear from you!

Dan McCarthy, founder of the blog Great Leadership and host of the monthly Leadership Development Carnival keeps it simple this month and offers us a straight-forward carnival. No theme– just 27 excellent essays on leadership. Speaking of keeping it simple, you can see my carnival entry titled The KISS Model of Leadership Development. Other interesting titles include The Cruel, Bitter and Crushing Taste of Dumptruck Feedback (go, Art Petty!) and Tanmay Vora’s Lessons from a Cab Driver.

Check out the latest Leadership Development Carnival here.

Has developing future leaders at your company become a complex web of activities?

With formal processes like talent reviews, individual development plans, and high-potential candidate reviews, it’s no wonder that you feel swamped and put leadership development on the back burner.

There is another way to develop leaders. I suggest that when you are overwhelmed with the formal “to do’s” of developing your team’s leadership skills, go back to the basics: keep it simple.

Using the “Keep It Sweet and Simple” model (KISS), any leader, no matter the size of their organization or the availability of formal development practices, can create simple, effective leadership development opportunities for their team members.

Here’s your four-step plan:

Keep it real. Don’t fabricate a development opportunity. Look for real tasks and projects that people can lead. When people feel they’re making difference on a “real” project, they’ll really step up.

Integrate into daily activities. Leadership ability is developed when people are nudged out of their comfort zone. Opportunities to strengthen someone’s leadership muscles are everywhere. Look around you— where can you delegate tasks that will build your team members’ skills in leading others?

Show them how it’s done. The best way a leader can develop others is by setting a good example. If you are modeling solid leadership practices, you are showing your team “this is what good leadership looks like.” Are you a positive leadership role model?

Start with small wins. “Big win” challenges don’t come along that often and when they do, you want to be sure your team members are ready for them. To prepare your team, start with low-risk leadership tasks.  Be on the look-out for ways your direct reports can achieve small successes that will accumulate into a portfolio of “wins”, which builds their confidence.

Specific suggestions:

• Delegate the leading of department meetings to your team members. Rotate responsibility.
• Send one of your team members as a “proxy” to a cross-functional team you belong to. (Note: run this by the team’s leader first.)
• Help your team members see leadership opportunities. “John, I noticed you didn’t speak up at the XYZ meeting. Why was that? It would have been a great opportunity to showcase your expertise on _____ and to demonstrate your leadership abilities.”
• Have a super-star performer? Train him or her to be a coach/mentor to others on the team.
• When you see leadership, recognize it. Be sure to praise any leadership activity you see. When you say, “Susan, I appreciate the leadership you showed when you offered to help Tom out with that tough customer situation”, it helps Susan envision herself as a leader.   

Developing the next generation of leaders doesn’t need to be complex. But it does need to happen consistently. Use the KISS template and you’ll never lack ideas for ways to grow your team’s leadership skills.

Additional resources: I’ve researched and compiled a list of free leadership development resources. Check them out here and here.

photo credit: istockphoto.com

Are you a person of your word?

As a leader, when you lay out a vision, you are creating a promise— that the future state will be better than the current one. People buy in to that vision based on their trust in you to get them there.   It’s up to you to deliver. Making the vision a reality means you kept your word.

The way you get from “vision” to “reality” is through execution—by getting things done.

Execution is important because it fulfills the promise of the vision.

It’s about planning, analyzing and creating momentum. But before you rush off and “go do”—think about adding another piece to the execution puzzle. What role will feedback play in your action plan?

People need to know how they’re measuring up to expectations. I’ve often said, “In the absence of feedback, people make things up.” When there’s an information void, people can be real creative on the meanings they make. Unproductive speculation threatens the vision. Help your team put their creativity elsewhere by providing feedback.

When giving feedback, you must balance two aspects: addressing problems and offering praise. Don’t be stingy with either. Failing to address problems immediately leads to people getting off track. Not bothering to praise people leads to lower morale.

Is the landscape of your workplace littered with broken promises? If so, you have a real opportunity to be different from other leaders . . . and to make a difference by delivering on the vision you created. Providing feedback to your team will help them keep you true to your word.

photo credit: istockphoto.com

Disclosure: the concept of Execution through Analyzing, Momentum and Feedback come from the newly-released Work of Leaders™ assessment from Inscape Publishing. My consulting company SkillSource is an authorized distributor of Inscape Products.

Would you like to see how you can use these concepts to help lead your project team or work team? I’ll send you a sample report.

Send an email to info [at] people-equation [dot] com with “Work of Leaders Report” in the subject line.

Overhead at my favorite coffee shop the other day: “My boss is a total psycho!”

I wanted to turn around and say, “Oh, really? And just how exactly do you know this? Are you clinically trained to diagnose mental illness?” But of course, someone’s medical credentials aren’t the point.  The point is, humans crave linguistic shortcuts—a “code word” for what people do that’s “crazy”.

We love to toss the word “psycho” about when referring to our boss or co-workers, but the reality is, very few people actually exhibit true psychotic (or, alternately, sociopathic) behavior.  It’s estimated that about 1% of the general population fit the standard description of “psychotic” or “sociopath”. Definitions and assessments vary, but typical behaviors include: restlessness, a hugely inflated ego, a sense of invincibility and a near complete lack of empathy and social conscience. Sound like anyone you know at work? According to one researcher it’s possible that up to 4% of major corporate CEOs would score high enough on an often-used standardized psychological assessment to be considered sociopathic.

So is your boss a true psycho or just a jerk? Any behaviors that are completely outlandish—excessive narcissism, refusing to listen to warnings of failure for themselves or the company, or a person who clearly delights in harming other people (and feels absolutely no remorse in doing so)—  those are dangerous behaviors, and ones that won’t change. Find a new job as soon as you can.

If, on the other hand, you have a boss that generally acts like a spoiled willful child but is able to show genuine remorse (“Sorry I tore you up in the meeting, I had a bad day”), then he or she is a jerk, not a psycho. You probably will still want to consider finding a new role in your company, but you probably won’t need to fear for your personal safety, other than the occasional flying whiteboard marker from a tantrum-prone manager.

I love “people equations”—any formula (scientific or otherwise) that can provide a framework that helps us interact more effectively with clients, peers, suppliers, leaders, and team members. I recently encountered an article that quoted positive-psychology expert Martin Seligman as saying that he uses something called the “Losada Ratio” when talking with people he cares about. 

 Never heard of the Losada Ratio? Me either, so I checked it out.

According to Dr. Seligman, the ratio (named after team dynamics consultant Marcial Losada) should be 5:1. In other words, in deeply committed relationships (spouse, child, best friend) you should make five positive statements for every one negative statement.

According to other research the ratio is closer to 3:1 in the workplace.

Think about this for a moment.

What if, for the next hour of your life, you made a conscious effort to direct your energy into affirming, positive statements? Not a fake, meaningless, “Hey, great job!”, but a sincere, well-thought out acknowledgement. “Sarah, I’d like to compliment you on how you handled that situation with the Purchasing Department update. I could see that tensions were starting to boil over and you stayed calm. It was really helpful when you turned to Jamie and asked for a recap of the budget numbers. That seemed to refocus the group.”

Go through the last 10 emails you sent. What’s your Losada Ratio in your written word? Do your words inspire people to take heart or deflate?

Encouraging words uplift. Judging words kill motivation.

What will you do today to improve your ratio of encouragement?

photo credit: istockphoto.com

Last fall, I chaperoned a group of second-graders on a field trip to the ArtPrize exhibition in downtown Grand Rapids. Picture this: ten 8-year-olds, excitedly dashing around parks and gardens, in and out of exhibition buildings. They were so excited to experience the art displayed throughout our city. Naturally, their first impulse was to run. And touch. And cross streets without supervision.

Their enthusiasm was beautiful. The chaos it created was exhausting.

As their field trip leader, I was constantly balancing the twin needs of safety and exploration. When getting ready to enter a building or cross the street, I’d instruct, “Blue team, line up! Green team, line up!” and they would do so, but only until the next amazing new sculpture (“Look, a dragon made out of pop cans!”) presented itself.  

Getting people to line up— whether it’s a group of second-graders or a team of colleagues— can be challenging.

For team leaders, when it comes to getting great results in the workplace, it’s not enough to lay out a great vision. In order to get people to act on the vision, leaders need alignment from their team members. They need people to buy into the “big idea” that the vision embodies.

How?  Many leaders think that enthusiasm carries the day when it comes to creating alignment. They think, “If I get excited about this project or goal, then others will too.” But enthusiasm is only one-third of the equation.

Best practice research identifies two other facets to getting people aligned with a team vision:

Create clarity

Just because you see the vision doesn’t mean your team does. Head off misunderstandings by doing this:

• Offer a solid rationale for the vision—giving “inspirational” speeches won’t be enough to sway people.
• Identify your key message and deliver it consistently, to all levels of the organization—upwards, laterally and with your team.

Invite dialogue

When you invite others to help you shape the vision, you are showing receptivity to their ideas. Questions to ask:

• Who benefits when we achieve our vision?
• How will we embrace this vision each day?
• What is the evidence that our vision is being realized?
• Why do you think this vision is important?

Fostering enthusiasm for your vision helps generate excitement and build momentum. Creating clarity about your team’s vision provides a road map for how to live the vision each day. Inviting dialogue helps draw people together and provides a forum for open discussion.

What are you going to do today to help get your people aligned to your team’s vision?

Disclosure: the concepts of Enthusiasm, Clarity and Dialogue come from the newly-released Work of Leaders™ assessment from Inscape Publishing. My consulting company SkillSource is an authorized distributor of Inscape Products.

Would you like to see how you can use these concepts to help lead your project team or work team? I’ll send you a sample report.

Send an email to info [at] people-equation [dot] com with “Work of Leaders Report” in the subject line.

photo credit: istockphoto.com © Steve Debenport

I’ve never been much for watching sports. So when my kids started playing organized athletics, I was not very enthused. A friend who has already been there, done that told me “it’ll be different when you’re watching your own kid.”

She’s right.

When it’s my kid (and by extension, the other kids on the team), it is different. The play on the field matters to me because it involves someone I care about. There’s a level of investment that just can’t be replicated when I’m watching strangers.

As a leader, how do you get that same type of emotional investment with members of your team?

Smart leaders know that creating a sense of investment is important. It starts with getting all employees on board with a vision. From there, leaders progress to the daily work of keeping that vision alive.

Here’s a challenge to sustaining shared vision: no matter how compelling a team’s vision, some folks don’t care. They’re just not that invested.

It’s not their kid on the ball field.

It doesn’t mean that you’re a bad leader or that they’re a slacker employee. These folks have simply found themselves in a place where the work no longer matters.

As a leader, it can be difficult to understand why someone doesn’t value something you and your team worked so hard to create. It would be easy to fall into the trap of prescribing what the disinterested people “should” do. That’s not productive. A leader’s goal in a situation like this should be to find another place for unenthusiastic employees– a place where they will feel invested.

Don’t be too quick to write off these employees. That “other place” need not be outside your company. With a change of venue, people can transform from “ho hum” to “Go, team!” if they are plugged into what matters to them. A character-based leader seeks a solution that benefits both the team and the individual employee.

Ask yourself:

Who on my team isn’t invested in the team’s success? As the team leader, what can I do to help influence a different outcome?

Think back to the last project you led. How did you begin? Were you successful getting people on board, or was it more like herding cats challenging than you’d planned? No matter what you’re leading, getting people to line up behind a vision is the first order of business when you take on a new leadership role.

Satirist and author of Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift once said, “Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.” Because “vision” is an imagined future state, it is indeed invisible. For a compelling vision to work, all people must see what’s possible for the team. Here’s the tough part—if everyone is looking at something invisible, and using their imagination to create it, you’re going to get an output that looks something like this:

Vision = Ideas + X (where X = the number of people on the team)

So, 15 people on the team yields 15 different potential versions of the vision.

How’s a newly appointed leader to navigate through that?

Three ideas to consider:

Explore. As the leader, it’s perfectly fine to put your ideas on the table, as long as you invite your team members to do so as well. In this part of the process, you want to encourage people to engage in divergent thinking, which open possibilities, not closes them. Invite people into the conversation with questions like:

• “If we had no constraints in resources, what would we want to do?”
• “What is the best possible outcome for this project?”
• “As we look as this project, what do you see as the big picture?”

Be Bold. At work, many factors conspire to keep people from acting boldly. Resist the impulse to “edit” at this stage of the process. This is about stretching, not acting rashly. Show your team you are excited to be leading them and figure out together where the boundaries of “what’s possible” lie.

• “How can we kick this idea up a notch?”
• “Where is the edge of our comfort zone on this?”
• “I think we can even better than we are right now. Will you join me?”

Test Assumptions. This is where you seek counsel outside of your immediate team to determine the feasibility of your co-created vision. Check in with trusted peers and opinion leaders within your organization—people who have your best interest in mind and will tell you like it is.

• “What are the implications of this vision?”
• “Where are the gaps—what have we missed?”
• “Who else should I talk to that would have a perspective on this?”

Exploring your team’s reality gets all ideas on the table.  Boldness in the right measure helps create excitement. Testing assumptions helps keep you out of the weeds. Try these three tactics and see if you can create a vision that is a beacon that guides your team to project success.

Disclosure: the concepts of Exploration, Boldness and Testing Assumptions come from the newly-released Work of Leaders™ assessment from Inscape Publishing. My consulting company SkillSource is an authorized distributor of Inscape Products.

Would you like to see how you can use these concepts to help lead your project team or work team? I’ll send you a sample report.

Send an email to info [at] people-equation [dot] com with “Work of Leaders Report” in the subject line.

Photo credit: istockphoto.com

The March Leadership Development Carnival is up at Dan McCarthy’s Great Leadership blog. This month’s theme is going “green”, as in celebrating the Irish in all of us. I’m pleased to be featured as a lucky Shamrock– thanks, Dan!

Go on over to the carnival to see 7 things employees want to know in a department reshuffe, how to recognize your star performers, how good leaders become bad bosses and 21 more great leadership essays.

As a bonus, Dan has included a hilarious video clip of the always-entertaining Muppets doing a tearful rendition of Danny Boy.