Author archive

Profit Goals Can be Unprofitable?

December 23, 2011

Posted by Thomas Despres in Blog, Thought Leadership with no comments

Most companies are in it for the money. And
why shouldn’t they be? After all,
without profits, how would the company survive?
Well, I believe that profits come as a result of providing a needed
product or service. Providing it with
high quality, on time and at a competitive cost improves the chances of making
a profit. Now I know that sounds simplistic,
but profits come as a result of meeting a need or doing something. We don’t just create corporations or LLCs and
expect to be profitable. Read on for a
great example to help prove my point.

In the decades after World War II, Boeing had one overriding purpose: to make the
best, most advanced planes. In the words of Bill Allen, Boeing CEO from 1946 to
1968, the purpose of Boeing was to “eat, breathe and sleep the world of
aeronautics.” By the early 1990s, Boeing was the world’s dominant civil
aviation company. Under new CEO Phil Condit, however, the goal of the company
changed dramatically. Success was now defined in terms of profits, not
aviation. “We are going into a value based environment where unit cost,
return on investment, shareholder return are the measures by which you’ll be
judged,” Condit explained. “That’s a big shift.”

In the years that followed, Boeing lost its lead in civil aviation to rival
Airbus, the stock market turned sour on the company and, in 2003, Condit was
forced out. Boeing returned to aeronautics and aviation goals, and, with the
success of the new 777 and with the groundbreaking Dreamliner on the horizon,
the company was soon putting itself once again in position to dominate the
world aviation industry.

In short, when Boeing focused on aviation, it was a profitable and successful
company. When it focused solely on financial measures, its bottom line
suffered.

Why are companies who have the No. 1 goal of making profits often unprofitable?
And why, paradoxically, are companies who have different, more qualitative
goals often quite profitable? The answer, writes London
School of Economics professor John Kay in his new book, Obliquity,
is simply stated: broadly defined or complex goals are best achieved indirectly
— a phenomenon that Kay terms “obliquity.”

For example, in the same way that the most profitable companies are not those
whose goal is to pursue profit, the wealthiest individuals are mostly those who
are less interested in pursuing wealth. Their wealth is a byproduct of a
different mission. Henry Ford was passionate about cars and bringing cars to a
mass market. Sam Walton wanted to build the world’s best retail company. Bill
Gates was fascinated by the potential of computing to change people’s lives.
Their No. 1 mission was not to become rich — although they all amassed
fortunes.

Adapting and Learning

Obliquity is not an argument that goals are useless — that you never reach what
you strive for. Instead, Kay explains, obliquity is the recognition that we
cannot plan and control every step of a path toward a complex goal.

Broad, complex objectives are achieved through a process of risk-taking,
experimentation and discovery, a continuous circle of learning and adaptation.

The direct approach doesn’t work, Kay writes, for a variety of reasons. One
reason is what he terms “pluralism.” There is often more than one
answer to a problem. Also, most real-life, high-level objectives problems are
broadly defined and can’t be broken down in advance into specific goals or
actions. There are many paths to building a successful business or even
becoming financially secure. A third issue with the pre-planned, direct
approach is the unpredictability of interactions with others. Will others react
as we plan for them to react? Probably not.

In the final section of the book, Kay lays out some of the ways we can use the
concept of obliquity to make better decisions and to solve problems more
effectively. For example, make a determined commitment to overall high-level
objectives, but do not stubbornly cling to specific intermediate or basic goals
or actions. Franklin D. Roosevelt achieved two
major objectives: preparing for and leading his country to victory in World War
II, and securing the survival of American capitalism through the New Deal. He
achieved those high-level objectives, Kay writes, “through pragmatic
improvisions in the face of circumstances that neither he nor his outstanding
advisers could predict or control.”

Another application of the concept of obliquity is to admit that we cannot know
everything about a situation. Both Warren
Buffett and George Soros are legendary investors, but both acknowledge that
they cannot plan for investment success. “In many industries,” writes
Buffett, “I cannot be sure if we are dealing with a ‘pet rock’ or a
‘Barbie.’”

Intellectually stimulating and filled with vivid, pertinent examples, Obliquity is a
thoughtful analysis of how the world truly operates. It brings home reality.

Is Creativity a Learned Behavior?

December 13, 2011

Posted by Thomas Despres in Blog, Thought Leadership with no comments

I think creativity
can be learned. One thing we can do is
to think about creativity on an everyday basis. In other words, it’s just like
cramming for a test. If you’re up against a deadline and you haven’t cracked
the book, it’s hard to do well on the test. If studying is part of your regular
life, then it makes it much easier. What I encourage people to do is to be on
the lookout for creativity along the way. There are some exercises we talk
about in the book to inject creativity as part of an everyday pattern. So then
when you’re on a deadline, you’re not under some crazy burden to produce
something out of nothing, you’ve been creating all along.

I’ve always encouraged my teams to take the Five Percent Challenge. If you work
a 40-hour workweek, five percent of 40 hours is two hours per week. Taking a
Five Percent Challenge is taking two hours per week and instead of working on
your to-do list and transactional type work, you’re going to close the laptop, get
out of the office and just reflect. You’re going to use that as thinking time.
It’s time for imagination and exploration. The other 38 hours, you can do your
to-do list.

What I’ve found is that when organizations try this, every single time there is
a zero percent drop in productivity. In other words, magically people are able
to get their 40 hours of work done in 38 hours. Then, more importantly, that
two hours becomes a gift. It becomes a gift to the organization because now
it’s filled with new, fresh thinking, and it’s a gift to the individual.
Creativity is truly one of the most important sources of human
fulfillment. I believe we all have this
capability to an extent. We just have to
commit to use it.

Talk the Talk

December 5, 2011

Posted by Thomas Despres in Blog, Thought Leadership with no comments

I really believe that what we say every day really matters. It’s not just because we want to get it right in the moment. It’s also because we want
to get it right for a long time to come.
People working around us will be willing and able to do great things for
us when we “talk the talk”.

Ask any executive what comes to mind when the phrase “business
communication” is mentioned and one would likely receive responses that
include references to client meetings, e-mail etiquette or negotiation. As
author and executive coach Jodi Glickman indicates in her book Great
on the Job: What to Say, How to Say It. The Secrets of Getting Ahead,
these are all segments of business communication that, despite receiving the
most attention, are a fraction of an employee’s daily regimen. Glickman, the
founder of Great on the Job, LLC, brings her expertise in the subtlety of
workplace communication to a workplace that needs laser-like clarity to cut
through the digital haze.

There will be reviews of Glickman’s book that will no doubt label it an
essential read for people at the outset of their careers. The same theory would
likely be held by executives who scan the flap copy of Great on
the Job. It would be a mistake if Glickman’s book suffers
this fate. Any executive, regardless of tenure, should pick up a copy of this
book because it is one of the few titles on workplace communication that can
address the 360-degree aspects of the art of navigating a job. No reader should
assume that he or she is a master of some of the simple skills Glickman describes.
It is a fact to which Glickman is sensitive. She points out that during the
early days of Great on the Job, LLC, several people, including her husband,
raised concerns that some of the communication techniques she taught, such as
mastering “the hello and goodbye” while on the phone, would be
dismissed as time-wasters. Glickman does an excellent job of countering all
naysayers by stating simple facts about the need for the skill. She asks
readers how many times they’ve been interrupted with a phone and have searched
for the best way to quickly terminate the conversation without causing any
residual damage. If readers take a moment to think about their own experiences,
they will end up continuing on to read the solutions Glickman offers.

Those solutions deliver one of the most rewarding aspects of Great
on the Job: the combination of theory and practical examples.
Unlike many of her peers writing about workplace communication, Glickman
provides multiple scenarios for every strategy, and her conversation examples
could be overheard in any workplace regardless of industry. She doesn’t suffer
from the “C-Suite syndrome,” a writer’s crutch in which the author
assumes that every reader is a chief executive within his or her organization.
Her leveling of the playing field gives the book an applicability that would be
difficult for readers to find in another title.

Glickman’s book is as much about achieving success in the workplace as it is
about improving one’s communication abilities. If there is one massive takeaway
that no executive should miss, it’s Glickman’s instructions on how to be a
“can-do” person in a company without falling prey to the pitfall of
saying yes to every person’s request. Regardless of a person’s position in a
company, there is the prevailing logic that saying no to assignment or request
will cause a person to be labeled as ineffective or incapable. As she does in
so many instances throughout the book, Glickman uses clever logic to prove her
point. Executives should consider her notion that no one appreciates a
“yes” person who turns in shoddy work. It is far better to learn
Glickman’s method for managing multiple requests because she teaches readers
how to make turning down a request into a position of strength.

Great on the Job is the obvious product of Glickman’s years of consulting
work, as well as her hundreds of presentations on the subject matter. She takes
steps that other authors do not and the results are rewarding for the reader.
Each chapter includes sections on troubleshooting where she addresses the
legitimate questions that any reader would ask. For example, in the chapter
“Manage Expectations,” she provides some interesting advice for
people who suffer under micromanagers. Even if readers have received similar
advice from other books or seminars, Glickman’s presentation of the information
is such that she will likely get through where others have missed the mark. The
one expectation any reader has of a business book author is that he or she
lives and breathes the principles about which he or she writes. Glickman outpaces
all rivals in the business communication market, even if she didn’t include
numerous examples from her own career, which she does. It’s a testament to her
conviction to the principles and it’s reflected in every page.

I’d work for Jodi Glickman any day. It’s not just about what we’re doing at work It’s
also about how we do things. She’s “hit the nail on the head” with this
book and it’s a worthwhile read.

I’m Sorry

November 28, 2011

Posted by Thomas Despres in Blog, Thought Leadership with no comments

Sorry seems to be the hardest
word… so says Elton John. When was the
last time you said you were sorry? Most
of us avoid it like the plague. The good
news is that we don’t need to make apologies if we don’t make any mistakes or
have the need to say we’re sorry. Right. Making mistakes is an important part of being
human; therefore, we’re obligated on many levels to apologize for things both personal
and business-related.

Personal apologies: We use these because it’s the right thing to
do, but also because we have a moral obligation to do so. When we apologize, it shows that we care
enough about the other person to make the effort. To very few people, it comes easy. To all of us, it’s needed.

Business apologies: Some believe these are also because it’s the right thing to do. I believe it’s more and more because it’s the
smart thing to do. The apology is often offered because the
business relationship can be improved by it.
In other words, it’s in our self-interest to do so.

In either case, the apology must
be sincere. You see, we all have these
built in BS detectors that go haywire when someone is apologizing and they don’t
seem to mean it or really own it.
That can even make things worse. Here’s
a checklist on what I’d consider a good apology:

- Do it right away.
This will serve to get things out there and rebuild the relationship
more easily than allowing it to fester into something bigger.

- Acknowledge the issue and the impact of it. This is the first step toward regaining trust.

- Own the issue. Take responsibility.

- Express sincere and authentic regret about it.

- Explain what you’ll do to make it right. Or sometimes it’s best to ask the other
person for ideas on how you can make it right… then be prepared to do it, no
matter how small. I say small because most people won’t push you
too hard when you’re making an apology.
They’ll normally appreciate the gesture and allow you to “bow out
gracefully”… that is unless it’s a repetitive thing for you.

The apology, after all, isn’t about you. It’s
not to help you with the guilt, although it may help with that. It’s for the other person or the business
partner that’s been wronged. The next time you have the opportunity to
apologize, be empathetic. Ask yourself “how
would I react to this apology?” Then
make the investment in the personal or business relationship and say it like
you really mean it. Or they’ll know
better.

The Small Things

November 21, 2011

Posted by Thomas Despres in Blog, Thought Leadership with no comments

While working for Nortel Networks in Raleigh, North Carolina, I hired a retiring
Colonel from the Air Force. His message
about leadership was simple. “Do the
small things well when it comes to connecting with your team and you’ll go far”,
Colonel Larry Hinton used to say. Colonel
Hinton wrote in Air Force journals often.
My favorite was an article he wrote called Leading from the Soul. In
it, he stresses the simplicity of doing small things well. Take birthdays for example. That day is very important to the person
celebrating it, but only marginally important to others… unless they’re family
members or close friends of course.
Colonel Hinton was a Wing Commander with more than 15,000 people on his
team. He’d still take the time every day
to personally sign birthday cards and deliver them to the place of work for
each employee. This took him about 30
minutes per day, but he realized over time that this was the one thing he did
that made the biggest difference to his team and helped build their support of
the mission.

To this day, I owe much to Colonel Hinton with respect to importance of doing the
small things for those that you depend on to get the work done. I did the same thing with birthday cards in
Mexico and Puerto Rico. And I have to say
that something this simple was a big reason for many of the successes I
enjoyed. This practice was mentioned countless
times on employee surveys as one of the key factors people enjoyed about working
in my factories.

So take the time to find ways to connect with your people. The birthday card is but one example. As a leader, it will be the small things you
do well that will make the biggest difference.
In a future post, I’ll bring this point home with more examples of ways
you connect.

Play the Game

November 7, 2011

Posted by Thomas Despres in Blog, Thought Leadership with no comments

As we grow older, we are taught that games are distractions, a playful break from serious
activities. Thirty-something consultant Aaron Dignan, part of a generation that
has been raised on constantly changing games and gadgets, disagrees. In Game Frame:
Using Games as a Strategy for Success, Dignan
persuasively argues that games can lead the way to success, achievement and
fulfillment in business and in life.

This book reminds me of a situation I faced while planning to build a new factory in
Monterrey, Mexico in the late 90s, I recall the advice of the Senior Manager of
Manufacturing. “Land is inexpensive”, he
said. “So we should build a soccer field
and a barbeque pit as well as a pavilion for outdoor parties”. At first, I couldn’t believe it would make
much of a difference. I later realized
that taking these steps would be a major factor in attracting and obtaining the
workers needed to meet our goals. It was
one of the reasons that employee turnover was less than 9% yearly in our
factory when most maquiladora operations faced more than 30%. I learned that playing, in a way, is inseparable
from work and completely agree with the assertions in Dignan’s book. Well, it’s not just about what employees do
outside of the pace of the manufacturing floor.
Dignan also touches on a methodology to make work more interesting.

Rather than being time-wasters, Dignan writes, games can offer opportunities to
resolve two basic issues that undermine our efforts to achieve: lack of
volition (I don’t want to do it) and lack of faculty (I don’t know how to do
it).

With lack of volition, people are unmotivated, disinterested and disconnected,
Dignan writes. They don’t see the value in an activity or behavior. They refuse
to become involved. Games address lack of volition because they are designed to
engage people, to interest them, and to offer the promise of fun and
excitement. Games also offer autonomy and control, Dignan notes. When you play
a game, you are in charge. What happens depends on you. Fun, control, autonomy
— these are the types of elements that engage and motivate people.

Games also put us in a learning mode, Dignan writes. When you first play a
game, you are not very good. You make mistakes. The more you play the game, the
better you become. Eventually, you master the game and are ready to move on to
the next level.

How Grokking Leads to Flow

Dignan quotes game designer Raph Koster, who uses the term “grok”
when talking about the game learning process. “To grok something,”
Dignan explains, “means to understand it so thoroughly that it becomes a
part of you.” Grokking applies to the workplace, too. For example, a
cashier who has been on the job for five years probably knows everything there
is to know about the job. The problem is that once you’ve grokked something,
you become bored. There is no more learning or discovery involved.

In his seminal book, Flow,
author and professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi illuminates why games are so
attractive, Dignan writes. Csikszentmihalyi shows that people are most
effective and happy when they have the exact right level of skills to meet the
challenges they face. If they don’t have enough skills, they will be anxious.
If their skill level is above the challenge, they will be bored. To progress in
an activity, people need to have challenges that are just beyond the level of
their skills and abilities. They will be motivated to grow just a bit to enjoy
the perfect balance of skill and challenge, which gives them a feeling of
exhilaration and achievement. Games, notes Dignan, “provide us with what
we crave: a set of escalating challenges, feedback on our progress and the
thrill of victory.”

Designing Games

In 10 chapters (called levels, an echo of the learning process of a game),
Dignan explores the multifaceted implications of games in today’s society.
Topics include the rise of interactive technology, the misunderstood concept of
play and the future of games. In one chapter, Dignan shows readers how to
design behavioral games for success based on 10 building blocks, among them:
objectives, skills, resistance (the opposing force that creates tension in the
game), resources, actions, feedback (some kind of response to the action taken)
and outcomes.

Game Frame is a unique and insightful read. Dignan not only successfully advocates on
behalf of games, he offers his readers an actionable tool for designing games
that readers will want to use for the next major challenge that they face.

The Thank You Economy

October 31, 2011

Posted by Thomas Despres in Blog, Thought Leadership with no comments

AN AGGRESSIVE LOOK AT SERVING YOUR CUSTOMERS

In 1997, Gary Vaynerchuk, the owner of a family liquor store who had just
launched an online wine retailer called WineLibrary.com, explained
to a local Chamber of Commerce audience why Internet retailing was the next
great frontier in business. Vaynerchuk had been preceded on stage by a
corporate VP who, using a sophisticated powerpoint presentation with scores of
statistics, explained why e-commerce would never amount to much. “How many
of you have heard of Amazon,” the VP asked the audience. A few raised
their hands. How many people, he continued, would really end their
relationships with their local bookstores or the local Barnes & Noble in
order to buy books online? Most of the audience sat motionless. At the end of
the presentation, the VP introduced Vaynerchuk with the following words:
“This kid’s now going to tell you how he’s going to sell wine on the
Internet. How many of you here would ever buy wine on the Internet?” One
or two people raised their hands, to the smug satisfaction of the VP.

Reading the following message by Vaynerchuk reminds me of developmental feedback from
superiors I’ve received on occasion for investing time, attention and energy on
the environment in which we worked in organizations from North Carolina to
Mexico to Puerto Rico to Colorado. My
direct manager would ask something like “why bother with putting a $2000
barbeque pit in the back yard? It just
seems like a waste of time and money to me…”
The very question itself told me I was swimming upstream by even making
them aware of the things I was doing to improve employee commitment. I would employ a “seek forgiveness rather
than ask permission” approach on occasion, but would always look for ways, no
matter how small, to let the employees know I was there in large part to
support their success. Vaynerchuk is
onto something here and I’m sure you’d find it a good read.

Vaynerchuk recounts the story of “Mr. Powerpoint,” as he calls the
VP, in his new book, The Thank You Economy.
Of course, Amazon did not disappear, despite the fact that Mr. Powerpoint
predicted that people would soon be saying, “Remember Amazon?” And
Vaynerchuk’s own Web site continues to thrive. Vaynerchuk is the author of Crush
It! and is now a principle in Vaynermedia, a consultancy specializing in
social media branding.

It’s easy to chuckle at the shortsightedness of the smug VP, but, as Vaynerchuk
passionately argues in his book, too many businesses are making the same
mistake today with social media. Using a variety of excuses (social media is
too young, there’s no ROI, etc), many businesses underestimate or dismiss the
impact of Facebook, Twitter, iPhone apps and all the other tools that have empowered
customers in ways that have not been seen since the heyday of small town
commerce in the early 20th century.

Vaynerchuk draws the title of the book from the concept that, just as when most
people did all of their shopping at the stores on the main street of their
small towns or in their city neighborhoods, today’s businesses can no longer
afford to treat customers badly. Word gets around — not through small town
gossip at the PTA meeting or country club, but through the growing multitude of
social media channels. Word of mouth lost its voice when people moved from
small towns to sprawling suburbs and severed their connection to local
merchants, Vaynerchuk writes. It has found its voice again — and businesses
better start paying attention.

The Thank You Economy Culture

According to Vaynerchuk, surviving in the Thank You Economy requires a culture
that puts employees and customers ahead of everything else. This is a point
that Vaynerchuk repeats on numerous occasions. Although it is one of the
guiding principles of his philosophy, readers may tire of Vaynerchuk’s pounding
this point.

He doesn’t suggest that all companies should start to act like Silicon Valley
start-ups. If you’re a conservative company, act like a conservative company.
As Vaynerchuk explains, “I care more about my employees than I do about my
customers, and I care more about my customers than I do about breathing.”
The Thank You Economy company empowers its employees so that they, in turn, can
offer better one-and-one customer service — with social media playing a key
part in the effort.

“Create a culture of openness,” Vaynerchuk urges. “Let your
employees blog and tweet as much as they like… And let them be themselves.
Authenticity is a huge part of what makes social media initiatives work.”

Is Mr. Powerpoint Listening?

Traditional media still plays an important role in the Thank You Economy. In
fact, the best companies will layer social media on top of traditional media —
running a television ad that refers viewers to a Facebook page, for example.

Bolstering his arguments with scores of examples from his own companies and
from nationally known corporations, as well as in-depth case studies of lesser
known but successful enterprises, Vaynerchuk provides compelling illustrations
that social media is a vital component in the success of today’s businesses.

Leadership Formula for Success

October 17, 2011

Posted by Thomas Despres in Blog, Thought Leadership with no comments

Have you ever
taken a course and placed the workbook on the shelf, never looking at it
again? If your answer is “yes” just as
it is for most of us, it just means you haven’t either held yourself
accountable or you haven’t been held accountable by your manager. The following leadership formula for success
is a way to get more out of your training investments. Since taking a workshop delivered by
Introspect International in 2003, I’ve been able to better reinforce effective
use of training, but it was more about the changes in me rather than the
changes in others.

According to Scott
Crandall, Principal of Trinity-Lincoln
Consulting, starting around July every year, training departments begin
receiving e-mails and phone calls around the same topic:

“Such-and-such
course is on my annual plan, and I need to get signed up.”

This should remind
us of a statistic from the British consulting firm Lane4:

At least 80% of
all corporate training cannot be linked
back to any performance improvement, let alone a business-related improvement
resulting in Return on Investment.

Considering that
over $134 Billion is spent annually, that’s a staggering
implication.

The
Secret Formula

However,
there is a solution.
Consider this equation:

ET + LR = BC
–> ROI

It means Effective
Training (ET) and Leadership
Reinforcement (LR) result in Changed Behavior
(BC), which leads to Return on Investment
(ROI).

The corollary is
also true: Effective Training (or development) without
Leadership Reinforcement will NOT result in Changed
Behavior or ROI.

Ideally, the equation
would read: ET + IA = BC –> ROI, where IA stood for “Individual
Application”.

In other words, if
people came back from training, eager to apply the new techniques
they learned (and actually did it!), effective training (or development) might
be all that was needed.

Instead, isn’t
this the more common post-training response:

Back from 2 or 3
days away, people realize they’ve got 90 or 100 e-mails to wade through, two
dozen voicemails, and they’re behind! They glance wistfully
at the training notebook, swearing to look at it “as soon as things calm down a
little,” and up on the shelf it goes, never to be seen again.

Honestly, isn’t
that what most post-training becomes?

The evidence says
this is common for over 80% of us.

Two
Conversations and a Follow Up Plan

So how
can we change it?

Knowing that the
“IA” – by itself – is unrealistic. As leaders. we must provide the
“LR”.

One question we
need to look at then is what exactly makes up “leadership reinforcement.”
Leadership Reinforcement, at its essence,
consists of three things: two conversations and
an accountability plan.

Conversation Number
1

The first
conversation should be an outgrowth of the annual plan. What training or
development actions did you agree upon with the person? Assuming that the
plan itself is effective, within a week or two before the person attends a
training course or developmental opportunity, you need to have a conversation.

This talk should
initially:

Discuss the developmental
issues with the person
Agree why you
want them to attend the training in the first place
Express your expectations for what
you want them to get out of the training
Tell them to what they should pay
particular attention
Discuss their
reaction and expectations
Convey how you expect their behavior
to change when they return.

In other words, if
you want a particular output, you must ensure that the inputs
are correct.

The bottom line,
however, is this: When your employees leave to attend training, they must know
precisely what your joint expectations are, what to pay particular attention
to, and they should begin thinking – during training – about how they’ll apply
it.

In this way your
employees will be more focused when they attend training or participate in
developmental activities. They’ll be more engaged, listening and watching
more intently, asking better questions, doing their homework, and making sure
they’ll meet your joint expectations. People at training courses would be
there for a purpose (one they understood and agreed with.)

Everybody wins in those situations.

Conversation Number
2

The second
conversation happens once the employee gets back.

You should ask them to identify
the “Big Rocks” that they got from the training.
What were the major
impacts they received?
What are they going
to do about them?
Specifically, how are they going to perform
their job differently than before they went
away?
Have this conversation
in detail
Make notes
Set dates for specific accomplishments
Then follow up!

If Action A was to
be completed by September 15, check in with them on the 15^th (not
the 16^th) to see how they did. Hold their feet to the fire,
closely verify the details. Check randomly after that date, but make sure
the committed actions or changes are truly completed, and implemented to your
satisfaction. Praise their efforts and reward their
accomplishments. Don’t allow their completed commitments to pass in
ignored or overlooked silence.

This silence is
deafening in the corporate world.

The Plan

This reinforcement
method is a golden opportunity to do several things.

It improves your people’s
performance (and the business performance of your team)
and makes them more productive employees.
Praise and feedback are the
greatest motivators there are
Motivated employees have higher
morale and productivity
Satisfied people stay, so your
attrition, recruiting, and related
costs are lower
Higher morale and productivity
brings improved business results

I don’t know about
you, but I don’t see any downside to “Leadership Reinforcement.”

Naturally Selected

October 4, 2011

Posted by Thomas Despres in Blog, Thought Leadership with no comments

In the overcrowded field of leadership literature, Mark Van Vugt and Anjana Ahuja
present a fascinating and unique look at how evolutionary science explains why
our leaders act as they do, why we as humans are programmed to be followers or
leaders, and why we pick the leaders that we pick.

I’ve always believed that people don’t leave businesses or companies, with some exceptions
of course. People leave people. People also flock to people they like to work
for or around.

The Basics of Evolutionary Leadership Theory

Building on leadership insights from a variety of fields, including psychology,
biology, neuroscience, economics, anthropology and primatology, Van Vugt and
Ahuja contend in this book that our patterns and behaviors related to
leadership and followership evolved over the course of human evolution.

As explained in their prologue, the themes and conclusions in the book, which
together form what the authors call their evolutionary leadership theory (ELT),
are not “balanced precariously on a froth of anecdotes and parable but
built on a solid foundation of rigorous observations and experimental
data.” Much of the research was conducted by Van Vugt, a professor of
psychology at VU University Amsterdam and a research associate at the University of Oxford. The book benefits greatly,
however, from the participation of journalist Ahuja, a science columnist and
feature writer who also holds a PhD in space physics. Whether revealing the
politics behind chimpanzee behavior or using game theory to explain how prehistoric
hunters on the African savannah survived, the writing is clear, compelling and
involving.

One of the many insights offered by the authors is that humans are programmed
to be followers. It is a question of life or death. On the African savannah two
million years ago, those who “followed” were more likely to survive.
And since our going-it-alone ancestors often died, it was those with the
follower genes who reproduced, creating more and more people with follower
genes, the authors write. When you have followers, of course, you need leaders:
someone to follow. Thus, the rise of followership gave birth to the rise of
leadership.

The Mismatched Hypothesis

If the psychological foundation of leadership evolved from the needs of our
human ancestors on the African savannah two million years ago, how does that
help us choose the leaders we need for our 21st century lives? The answer from
the authors: It often doesn’t. That is the reason for what they call the
Mismatch Hypothesis. Our brains are hardwired to use criteria from the savannah
that no longer applies. Today, a person who is tall has a great advantage in
seeking a leadership role over a small person. How many U.S.
presidents, for example, have been short? Yet stature hardly plays a role in
the keen intellect, decision-making capabilities and relationship skills that
are at the heart of good leadership.

Finding Natural Leaders

The authors conclude the book with a series of lessons to be learned from their
evolutionary leadership theory. The most successful leaders today will be what
the authors call Natural Leaders: those who can appeal to the positive elements
of our ancestral psychology while disarming the negative elements of that
psychology (leaders rely too often on dominant behavior). The practical
applications of the book, however, are not confined to this final chapter.
Every chapter in Naturally Selected
offers readers a new perspective on leadership that will guide and enrich their
leadership decisions, both as leaders and as followers.

In my opinion, natural leaders are those that are able to get people to follow them
willingly. As the authors, I believe
that these leaders are born in most cases.
I also believe that one can learn to emulate their style and approach. This explains why successful coaches are able
to graduate eventual head coaches under their leadership. It also explains why ex-CEO Jack Welch was
able to retire while GE continued to flourish.

I my case, I can’t claim that I was always the leader I am today. Before I turned 30, I had been known to copy
poor leadership behaviors. I didn’t feel
right in the moment, though, when I was getting upset in the workplace. Watching and learning from the impact of my
behavior on others and learning from different cultures over time helped to
reinforce the right way to bring out the best in people. That was more comfortable for me personally
and I grew to enjoy the role of a leader as I approached 40.

What Matters Most: Leadership Lessons from Maj. Gen. “Burn” Loeffke

September 14, 2011

Posted by Thomas Despres in Blog, Thought Leadership with no comments

While I wouldn’t
pretend to have worked a career and lived a life that compares to Major General
Loeffke, I will say that many of the lessons I learned while on international assignment
in Mexico and Puerto Rico serve me to this day.
From laughing to serving to being humble, his lessons in his life’s work
are similar to those I experienced when working alongside some of the most
capable and driven people on the planet – Latin Americans. Upon reading this, I just had to share it!

Major General Bernard “Burn” Loeffke likes to say that he goes into any
situation armed with two weapons: the FIRO-B^® and the MBTI^®.
For the uninitiated, the two are personality assessments that can give leaders
great insight into how to work effectively with others.

Burn Loeffke discovered his most powerful leadership weapons when, as a young
General, he attended a CCL program. During a recent visit back to CCL’s campus
in Greensboro, NC, he said he carries CCL lessons with him
every day — and relies on the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations
Orientation-Behavior and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

“Perceptions and emotions matter,” says Gen. Loeffke. “We can’t solve the rational
part of a problem until we deal with the emotional.”

Both the FIRO-B and the MBTI help people to understand their leadership style and
preferences and to consider the different needs and perspectives of others.
According to the general, the insights from these tools allowed him to better
understand his own colleagues — and his competitors.

Three-and-a-half combat tours, rapid promotions and deep love for his fellow soldiers marked
Gen. Loeffke’s early career. Later, as a diplomat in uniform, he served inMoscow during the Cold War and as a defense attaché inChina.

When he retired from the military in 1992, Gen. Loeffke pursued several passions,
including leadership development. He returned to CCL as Visiting Fellow in
1993-94. He later earned a medical degree that allows him to practice and teach
preventative medicine. He now travels the world on medical missions. He writes;
teaches at medical universities; and fosters partnerships, friendships and
connections across cultures. Recently, the general was invited to teach
leadership fundamentals to 1,000 future leaders inChina.

In all he does, Gen. Loeffke draws on the insights he learned at CCL – and shares
some of his own:

Seek and share health, music and laughter. A sense of humor, a dedication to fitness and a love of
music have sustained the General personally. He’s also found that a desire for
better health, music and laughter are common to any place, any culture.
Everyone wants to be healthier and anyone can be a healer, he says. Music gives
energy and singing brings people together. And nobody wants to be around glum
people, so find humor and laugh more often.

Help others. The needs are great. Much of the world is a disaster. The challenges facing nations
and individuals in the next decades are extraordinary. In your work and through
your life, make a commitment to helping others.

Gen. Loeffke adds that science has proven what he has long known: Helping others is
good for you. An antibody called SIgA increases — boosting your immunity — as
you do things to help other people. “If you do things to help others, you
are healthier,” he says.

Be humble. Gen. Loeffke is a decorated military officer, distinguished statesman, humanitarian
and scholar. Impressive on paper; inspiring in person; and incredibly humble.

As a new medical officer serving on a medical mission in a remote combat zone in Sudan, he
wasn’t able to rely on his past success and training. When his supervising
physician fell ill and was suddenly sent home, Gen. Loeffke was the only
trained medical professional in the area, working with two local men who
assisted in the makeshift clinic.

“We were seeing 120 wounded a day, and I had to take over surgery,” he
recalled. One assistant offered to help; the general gratefully accepted.
“This man cannot read or write, and is uneducated by Western medical
standards. But he knew what to do; he did the surgery. He taught me how to do
internal sutures,” says Gen. Loeffke. “I learned humility inSudan.”

I’d say that Gen. Loeffke is a true role model in how to live the life of a leader. His experience is unique. His appreciation for what it takes to get
things done against all odds is admirable.
His willingness to give back distinguishes him. Above all, in my opinion, his ability to
connect with those around him is the key to his success.

Author archive

Profit Goals Can be Unprofitable?

Is Creativity a Learned Behavior?

Talk the Talk

I’m Sorry

The Small Things

Play the Game

The Thank You Economy

Leadership Formula for Success

The
Secret Formula