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6. Today’s Agenda
Leadership 101
YOU on Leadership
Leadership History
How NOT to Lead
The Leadership Workout
7. Official Disclaimer
The presentation you are about to witness is intended as
general commentary only and should not be relied upon or
construed as legal advice. The views expressed are solely
those of the presenter and not of ManpowerGroup.
Failure to stay awake for the entirety of this presentation
could result in long-lasting side-effects, including leadership
nightmares, litigation headaches and/or severe
gastrointestinal discomfort from having to spend too much
time with lawyers.
Please consult with your own HR and Legal departments
before making any major policy and/or procedure changes.
You have been warned.
8. What do YOU think?
What do HR execs identify as their
absolute #1 concern right now?
A.Lack of talent
B.Lack of engagement
C.Lack of leadership
D.Lack of money
9. What do YOU think?
What do HR execs identify as their
absolute #1 concern right now?
A.Lack of talent
B.Lack of engagement
C.Lack of leadership
D.Lack of money
Source: Right Management
15. Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success.
Leadership determines whether the ladder
is leaning against the right wall.
Stephen Covey
The manager asks how and when.
The leader asks what and why.
Warren Bennis
Management is doing things right.
Leadership is doing the right things.
Peter Drucker
18. Leadership is not a gene
and it’s not an inheritance.
Leadership is an identifiable
set of skills and abilities
that are available to ALL of us.
Ken Blanchard
25. Living Politicians
Evil Dictators
Fallen CEOs
Your Current Boss
You (Past)
26. 1. The Bible (God)
2. The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People (Covey)
3. Good to Great (Collins)
4. Who Moved My Cheese? (Johnson)
5. Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (Seuss)
6. How to Win Friends & Influence People (Carnegie)
7. Leading Change (Kotter)
TOP 10
LEADERSHIP 8. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (Maxwell)
BOOKS OF 9. The One Minute Manager (Blanchard)
ALL TIME 10. Profiles in Courage (Kennedy)
Source: ManpowerGroup Employment Blawg
29. AGE OF INDUSTRY
Command & control
Hierarchical
One size fits all
30. AGE OF AQUARIUS
Reject the old models
Loads of theories
Heavy, groovy & far out
31. AGE OF JACK
BIG is better
#1 or #2 or get out
Shareholders rule
Lean and mean
Stack rank
Celebrity CEO
Sources: FORTUNE Magazine,
ManpowerGroup Employment Blawg
32. AGE OF YOU
Agile is better
Find niche or create
something new
Customers rule
Look out, not in
Engage
Humble CEO
Sources: FORTUNE Magazine,
ManpowerGroup Employment Blawg
38. PRIDE
Pride goes before destruction,
a haughty spirit before a fall.
God
Pride is the first step in people unraveling
and companies unraveling
and relationships unraveling.
Jeff Foxworthy
39. GREED
If we’re looking for the source of our troubles,
we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them
for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.
P.J. O’Rourke
Take heed. Never take advantage of the things you need.
Never let yourself be overcome by greed.
Walk the straight and narrow and you shall succeed.
Shaggy
If you’re not greedy you will go far. You will live in happiness, too.
Like the oompa loompa doompity do.
Anthony Newley / Leslie Bricusse
40. FEAR
Fear is the darkroom where negatives develop.
Usman Asif
FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real
Ken Blanchard
44. What do YOU think?
What percentage of NBA games are won
by the team with the leading scorer?
A.100%
B.75%
C.55%
D.35%
E.15%
45. What do YOU think?
What percentage of NBA games are won
by the team with the leading scorer?
A.100%
B.75%
C.55%
D.35%
E.15%
Source: The RBL Group / Dave Ulrich
50. What do YOU think?
What’s the #1 thing leaders can do to
increase employee engagement?
A.Communicate clear strategy
B.Manage change effectively
C.Reduce inefficiency
D.Show that you value employees
E.Buy a yacht, golf excessively and
generally ignore employees
51. What do YOU think?
What’s the #1 thing leaders can do to
increase employee engagement?
A.Communicate clear strategy
B.Manage change effectively
C.Reduce inefficiency
D.Show that you value employees
E.Buy a yacht, golf excessively and
generally ignore employees
Source: Right Management
54. The of a Leader: JOHN WOODEN
10 national championships - 7 in a row
88 straight wins
6-time National Coach of the Year
Multiple Hall-of-Famers
Presidential Medal of Freedom
55. The of a Leader: JOHN WOODEN
Love is the most powerful four-letter word.
Start with the heart, not the scoreboard.
What you are as a person is far more important
than what you are as a basketball player.
56. EXERCISE
Would those around you describe you as …
CARING HUMBLE? HOPEFUL? ETHICAL?
58. LEARN
LEARN CREATE
CREATE
KNOW
KNOW
DECIDE
DECIDE YOU
YOU
59. The of a Leader: LEARN
Leadership and learning
are indispensable to each other.
John F. Kennedy
We keep moving forward, opening new doors,
and doing new things, because we’re curious
and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
Walt Disney
60. The of a Leader: CREATE
The #1 most important brain quality
COMPLEXITY SOLUTIONS
SOLUTIONS
Source: IBM Global CEO Study
61. The of a Leader: DECIDE
People think focus means saying yes to the
thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it
means at all. It means saying NO to the hundred
other good ideas that there are.
Steve Jobs
62. The of a Leader: KNOW YOU
Before you can hope to lead anyone else,
you have to know yourself.
Ken Blanchard
Most people think they know what they are good at.
They are usually wrong.
Peter Drucker
63. EXERCISE
What % of your time do you spend growing your brain?
LEARN CREATE DECIDE KNOW
YOU
64. What do YOU think?
What do leaders identify as the absolute #1
leadership competency?
A.Inspiring others
B.Strategic vision
C.Business acumen
D.Decision making
E.Smooth dance moves
65. What do YOU think?
What do leaders identify as the absolute #1
leadership competency?
A.Inspiring others
B.Strategic vision
C.Business acumen
D.Decision making
E.Smooth dance moves
Source: Right Management
67. The of a Leader: VISION
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.
Max DePree
A leader’s job is to rally people toward a better future.
Marcus Buckingham
68. The of a Leader: VISION
Apple: Think different.
Disney: Make people happy.
WalMart: Buy in bulk & discount.
Microsoft: Personal computer in
every home.
70. What do YOU think?
What do employees want
leaders to value most?
A.Their appearance
B.Their work product
C.Their communication skills
D.Their opinions
E.Their karaoke skills
71. What do YOU think?
What do employees want
leaders to value most?
A.Their appearance
B.Their work product
C.Their communication skills
D.Their opinions
E.Their karaoke skills
Source: Right Management
76. The of a Leader: WHAT DO THEY HEAR?
Lecture (15%)
Reading (22%)
Demo (32%)
Discuss (45%)
Practice (79%)
Do (90%)
Source: SHRM
77. The of a Leader: WHAT DO THEY WANT TO
HEAR?
Vision
Strategy
Expectations
How I can contribute
Source: Right Management
78. EXERCISE
Smile
Encourage
Clear
Compelling
Truth
Repeat
79. What do YOU think?
What’s the best way for an immediate
manager to engage his or her employees?
A.Have an all-day staff meeting
B.Assign them exciting projects
C.Increase pay 58%
D.Have a career development discussion
E.Make every day “Jeans Day”
80. What do YOU think?
What’s the best way for an immediate
manager to engage his or her employees?
A.Have an all-day staff meeting
B.Assign them exciting projects
C.Increase pay 58%
D.Have a career development discussion
E.Make every day “Jeans Day”
Source: Right Management
82. The of a Leader
Leadership is practiced not so much in words
as in attitude and actions.
Harold Geneen
The dictionary is the only place
that success comes before hard work.
Vince Lombardi
84. The of a Leader: DEVELOP
Leaders aren’t born, they’re made.
And they’re made just like anything
else – through hard work.
Vince Lombardi
The growth and development of people
is the highest calling of leadership.
Harvey Firestone
85. The of a Leader: DEVELOP
If you generally If you focus If you focus
ignore your on employee on employee
employees, the weaknesses, strengths, the
chances they’ll the chances they’ll chances they’ll
be disengaged: be disengaged: be disengaged:
40% 22% 1%
95. INSERT NEW ICON THANK YOU!
Photo Credits: Shutterstock.com
istockphoto.com
96. Did you watch this webinar as a recording?
Please request your certificate at
INSERT NEW ICON www.manpowergroup.us/requesthrci
Editor's Notes
[Lori]
[Lori]
[Lori]
[Lori]
Mark: Thanks, Lori. Hello everyone and thank you for joining us for … THE LEADERSHIP WORKOUT. As of right now there are 89,448 leadership books on Amazon.com. There’s The 1 Thing You Need to Know, The 3 Leadership Imperatives, The 4 Obsessions, The 5 Dysfunctions, The 7 Habits, The 21 Irrefutable Laws, The 100 Undeniable Principles, the 365 Daily Insights and a whole lot more. Our goal here today is to cover them ALL in the next 58 minutes and 47 seconds. Along the way we’ll hear the wisdom of Abe Lincoln, Mother Teresa, Vince Lombardi, JFK, MLK, Steve Jobs, Dr. Seuss and maybe even … God. Here’s our agenda . . .
First, let me say that I am absolutely NOT an expert on leadership. I am, however, an expert on how NOT to lead. I have spent virtually my entire adult life cleaning up after other people’s – and sometimes my own – leadership mistakes. If you think about it, that’s really what lawyers do in a nutshell. Well, To help prepare for today, I conducted an extensive series of surveys, polls & interviews. Thanks to all our loyal Blawg visitors and all their suggestions, I read literally a 47-foot-high stack of books, articles, blog posts, dissertations and other materials. Talked to the leadership experts at ManpowerGroup’s own Right Management, as well as CEOs, HR professionals, IT leaders, marketing gurus, venture capitalists, teachers, students and retirees. All sorts of leaders and -- probably even more importantly – all sorts of followers. So here’s what we’ll cover. First, a few minutes on L basics. Then, the complete history of leadership in 3 minutes or less. We’ll then look at patterns from lawsuits and other workplace disasters to come up with a simple how NOT to lead formula. Then we’ll examine how TO lead with a little something we’re calling the Leadership Workout. But that’s not all. Immediately following the conclusion of our workout, on my Blawg at marktoth.com you’ll be able to compete for valuable prizes in our official Smartest Person in Our Audience Quiz. As always, we’re going to move FAST. This will be a high-impact and quite possibly perspiration-producing presentation. Let’s go!
And now here’s our official disclaimer. The presentation you are about to witness is intended as general commentary only and should not be relied upon or construed as legal advice. The views expressed are solely those of the presenter and not of ManpowerGroup. Failure to stay awake for the entirety of this presentation could result in long-lasting side-effects, including leadership nightmares, litigation headaches and/or severe gastrointestinal discomfort from having to spend too much time with lawyers. Please please please consult with your own HR and Legal departments before making any major policy and/or procedure changes. In other words, you can’t sue me, Lori, ManpowerGroup or anyone else based on anything you hear or see here today. You have been warned.
Let’s start right off by seeing what you think. What do HR executives identify as their absolute #1 biggest concern right now?
Clearly, you are a highly intelligent group. Right on: a lack of leadership. In fact, according to ManpowerGroup’s talent and career management experts at Right Management, it’s the THIRD YEAR IN A ROW that HR execs have identified a lack of high-potential leaders in their organizations as their #1 most pressing concern. In other words, future leadership or lack thereof is at the top of the anxiety list for organizations everywhere. That’s probably why we had over 2,000 registrations for this webinar.
Let’s start with some leadership basics to make sure we’re all on the same page.
So, what exactly is a leader? Great place to start.
Another key question: So, what’s the difference between a leader and a manager?
Steven Covey says: Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall. Another one: The manager asks how and when. The leader asks what and why. And Peter Drucker says: Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things. Stare at your screen and ponder those a moment. Pretty deeeeep.
So, that’s WHAT a leader is. So, WHO exactly is a leader?
Good news is every single one of us is a potential L. Doesn’t matter what your position is. Even lawyers can be leaders. We all have a HUMONGOUS opportunity to influence others. Co-workers. Subordinates. Bosses. Clients. Vendors. Friends. Family. Lots of opportunities to put what hear today into practice.
Another great quote: Leadership is not a gene and it’s not an inheritance. Leadership is an identifiable set of skills and abilities that are available to ALL of us. If we ALL listen with your heads AND our hearts here today we just might change the world.
Here’s an interesting little tool you can use to assess how you reeeeeaaly spend your time. How much time do you spend doing all the routine day-to-day STUFF related to your job versus doing all the basic managerial-type tasks versus actually taking the time to LEAD? Stare into your screen and be honest with yourself. If I’m being honest, my percentages are something like 147.3% stuff, 13.8% manage and negative 43.2% lead. Not pretty.
No matter what you’ve done or not done in your career, YOU can lead and quite possibly become a great leader. To help demonstrate, as you can see on our screen there, it’s time for our first Text-o-rama. I’m going to read off a list of QUOTE “accomplishments” by one well-known leader. The first person to text us at the number on the screen: 414/751-0126, that’s 414/751-0126 -- with the correct identity of the person will win a $50 gift certificate good for any of the fine merchants @ giftcertificates.com. Just type in your first name so we can identify you + the name of the leader. Here we go. What leader had this on his resume? He lost his first job. Then he ran for the state legislature and lost. Then he failed in business. Then he got elected to the state legislature but shortly thereafter had a nervous breakdown. Then he failed in an attempt to become speaker of the house. Then he failed in a run for Congress. Then he failed in a US Senate race. Then he failed to get an expected nomination for Vice President. Finally he failed again in another senate race. Who was this man of many failures? The answer in a few moments …
OK, now it’s time to turn to our true experts on L: YOU.
First, we asked you all a simple question: Who is your favorite leader and why?
Thanks to all of you who took the time to respond. Interesting: #1 choice far and away was … NOBODY. Most people told me they really don’t have a favorite. EVERYBODY’S flawed was what I heard. When you did name someone most often it was some lofty, historical and/or fictitious figure. Topping the list were spiritual leaders like Jesus and Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., followed by dead politicians like Abe Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. A number of you mentioned fictional characters like Harry Potter and others. Then sports giants like Vince Lombardi and John Wooden. Few even mentioned their bosses, but almost always a PAST boss. And a few humbly identified themselves when asked who their favorite leader is. The WHY was just as intriguing. Huge variety but some themes like: communicating an inspirational vision, using influence instead of force, standing up for what’s right even if it’s unpopular, honesty, positivity and over and over humble servant-heartedness – putting the mission and others before themselves.
Things got even more interesting with this question we asked you: Who is your LEAST favorite leader and why?
A few parallels to the last list. But rather than dead politicians, you tended to list living politicians. I won’t mention them by name but let’s just say that no political party was left unscathed. Next were evil dictators like Hitler, Stalin and others too nasty to mention. Fallen CEOs made the list. Unlike your fondest for past bosses your current bosses made the list. And YOU made this list, too – although when people mentioned themselves for THIS list it was often in the past tense before they became the fabulous YOUs that made the LAST LIST. Interesting. As for the WHY behind this list, fascinating: uncaring, unfeeling, unethical and unfair rageaholic micromanagers who never follow thru on promises and are above all self-absorbed, self-centered egomaniacs who love only one person: themselves.
We also conducted an online poll to determine the Top Ten Leadership Books of All Time. Here are the rather surprising official results. Basically, it was God, Dr. Seuss and then everyone else. They were: 1. The Bible (God) – by a landslide, I might add. 2. The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People (Covey) 3. Good to Great (Collins) 4. Who Moved My Cheese? (Johnson) 5. Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Seuss) 6. How to Win Friends & Influence People (Carnegie) 7. Leading Change (Kotter) 8. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (Maxwell) 9. The One Minute Manager (Blanchard) 10. Profiles in Courage (Kennedy) One thing we heard over and over. Be careful what you read. One leader I interviewed: No fave book. No recipe. Minute think there is = not a L. G2G is a “great” example of this cautious approach to reading. Of the 11 supposedly great companies, 1 – Circuit City – has since gone bankrupt. Another – Fannie Mae – was part of the mortgage debacle. Overall as a group they underperformed vs. the average mediocre S&P500 company. Several leaders insisted that books are outdated the moment they’re printed. Recommended reading The Economist (instantly look smarter just from carrying it around), HBR, McKinsey Quarterly and WIRED. But others even corrected that, saying, aww print is sooooo 2012. If want to reeeeeally know what’s going on, read only blogs.
The answer to our first Text-o-Rama is none other than Abe Lincoln. After all the failures we enumerated, he went on to be elected President of the U.S. and one of the few people that most experts – and YOU -- agree was a truly great leader. If you’re one of the 18 people on this planet that haven’t seen the Lincoln movie yet, I suggest you leave this webinar right now and watch it on Netflix. And then watch it again.
Now it’s time for the history of leadership (in 3 minutes or less) …
For more than a century, workplace leadership models have been based on methods developed during the Industrial Revolution. The rise of big organizations led to what you see here. Command and control. Rigidly Hierarchical. One size fits all. Mostly designed to facilitate assembly-line mass production.
Then in the 60s & 70s people started experimenting, questioning the old models more and more. Lots and lots of theories. Situational leadership, consultative leadership, participative leadership, contingency leadership, communal leadership, non-leadership leadership. Things got pretty heavy, groovy, funky & far out and then came …
The Age of Jack. Jack Welch’s name used to come up all the time as the world’s greatest leader. Not so much anymore. In fact, almost no one I interviewed even mentioned him, which would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. What’s happened? A lot . . . 1 CEO I interviewed shared an interesting FORTUNE Magazine critique of Jack Welch’s legacy. Here’s what they described as the Old Rules, still followed by plenty of companies. So what are the new rules?
Here are the rules in the new Age of YOU. Rather than big is better, agile is now #1. Rather than seeking world domination, companies are trying to find a niche where they can excel or create something new that adds actual value. While shareholders are still obviously important, it’s becoming more and more evident that customers are the ones who really rule. Rather than slashing inside, companies are looking out first to see what the world and customers need before making internal changes. Instead of dumping a certain % of employees each year, companies are looking to hire passionate people with strengths the company needs. And last, the era of the celebrity CEO is giving way to a more humble leader who isn’t in it for him or herself.
THIS. IS. THE HUMAN AGE. It’s taken us several centuries but the world is finally recognizing one simple fact: WE NEED HUMANS. It’s all about people. All over the world, access to talent is replacing access to capital as the absolute #1 key competitive differentiator. The bottom line: Companies that have leaders who can find, grow and keep talent will win. Those that don’t, won’t. It’s that simple.
Anyone can tell you how TO lead. Now it’s time for what I’M truly an expert on: How NOT to lead. In preparation for this portion, I analyzed patterns from virtually every lawsuit in the hx of mankind. Here’s what I found …
At the heart of virtually every major lawsuit is a failure in leadership. The higher up the failure, the bigger the lawsuit. To get a little deeper, I looked at companies that went from good to gone …
Here they are. The ?: WHY did all these good companies go bye-bye? Enron was named Fortune Magazine’s most innovative company 6 yrs in a row. $65B in assets. But it’s gone. Then came WorldCom bankruptcy with assets of more than one hundred billion, dwarfing Enron’s. GONE. Bear Stearns was named Fortune’s Most Admired securities company. Three hundred and ninety-five billion in assets. GONE. Lehman Bros, a 158-year-old investment bank, still holds the record as the largest bankruptcy in US history. More than six hundred billion in assets. GONE. So, WHY did all these companies go from … Good to Gone?
In looking at all the lawsuits & facts & data, it all comes down to LEADERSHIP. Specifically, there appear to be 4 clear LEADERSHIP FAILURE FACTORS at the heart of these collapses and basically every other failure in leadership history if you think about it. If want to fail as a leader, make sure you’re filled with each of these: PRIDE, GREED, FEAR AND LIES. Let’s get a bit more specific …
Some stern warnings out there on pride from everyone from God to Jeff Foxworthy as you can see there on your screen. As the age-old Proverb from our audience’s favorite leadership book of all time says: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” Leaders who hog the spotlight, take all the credit, do all the talking, brag, show off and mistreat others because of their position won’t lead for long. It’s the opposite of everything at the heart of great leadership. If you’re filled up with pride, you’ll soon be down. And as the bottom quote says, pride is the first step in everything unraveling all around you. STOP THE PRIDE.
Here’s the 2 nd Failure Factor. With all due respect to Gordon Gecko, GREED is NOT good. As you can see here, political analysts, Rastafarian rappers and even children’s characters agree. You can read these on your own but I personally like the last one. If you’re not greedy you will go far. You will live in happiness, too. Like the oompa loompa doompity do. Or as Shaggy says: Take heed. STOP the GREED.
What about FEAR? One expert called it the darkroom where negatives develop. Or put another way: FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real.
Humans are filled with fear. There are now more than 500 documented phobias. There’s even Phobefobia -- fear of phobias. Here’s a deep question: Sharks or Cows. Which do you fear more? When I was 12 my family prepared for our first trip to Fla by watching Jaws. Thanks, mom and dad. I was terrified for weeks, barely stuck a toe in the water. But guess what? My fear was unfounded. According to the folks at dailyrandomfacts.com, Americans are TEN TIMES more likely to get stepped on and killed by a cow than eaten by a shark. Ten times. In other words, it’s far more dangerous for me to live here in Wisconsin than to go boogie boarding somewhere in Florida. We do this all the time in business. We let unfounded fear govern our decisions. We fear losing our job, we fear looking bad, we fear making mistakes, we fear our boss, we fear being found out for who we really are. Fear, fear, fear. Many execs in the good to gone companies admitted being driven by FEAR which clouded their judgment. Are you?
The final failure factor is LIES. Honest Abe Lincoln said: No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar. That’s backed up by science. According to a USC study, it takes far more brain matter to lie than to tell the truth. It’s harder. As for the second point, about the only Enron exec not in fed prison is Sharron Watkins, its lawyer. She’s the one who blew the whistle on the whole mess. She told the truth internally and eventually externally even though it seemed fatal to her career at the time. I’m pretty sure now she’s glad she did. NEVER EVER … LIE.
So, let’s stop here & ask ourselves a question that gets to the very core of all four of those failure factors: “Is it all about ME?” or “Is it all about WE?” Are you in it for you or for others and your organization as a whole? Give that some deeeeeep thought. Answer honestly – remember, lying is more work.
Here’s a question for you all to further this discussion … express yourselves. What percentage of NBA games are won by the team with the leading scorer? Is the correct answer A 100, B 75, C 55, D 35 or E 15%. We’ll give you some time to answer and then we’ll share the right answer with you.
15%. True for other sports as well and also, interestingly enough, for the Oscars. Only about 15% of best picture winners had either the best actor or actress. The point? WE is more important than ME. If you don’t grasp that as a leader you won’t have many followers.
That’s enough about NOT to lead. Let’s turn our attention to how TO lead with a little something we’re calling The Leadership Workout .
Those of you who have participated in my previous webinars have a built-in advantage on this question. But I’m OK with that. That brings us to our first Tweetorama. The first person to tweet the correct answer to this question using our official Blawg handle you see there on the screen will win a valuable prize. It’s a theme we repeat in basically all of my webinars but we want to see if our message is sinking in. If you had to boil all of leadership theory down to ONE word, what would it be? Again, If you had to boil all of leadership theory down to ONE word, what would it be? Tweet your answer for all the world to see using the handle @manpowerblawg. That’s @manpowerblawg. B-l-a-w-g.
Most leadership books spend the bulk of their pages on externals, on actions, on symptoms, but rarely talk about the real root causes. Well today we’re going to cut right to the very heart of leadership and then work our way outward. As with any workout, you have to strengthen your core first. Here’s the basic diagram. Start with the heart, then the mind, the ears and mouth and hands and then feet. Have to have ALL of these parts working together or you’ll fall flat on your face and can’t lead anyone anywhere. We’ll define each and then give you a set of exercises to strengthen your skills. Let’s begin.
The place to start … is the HEART. If your heart isn’t in the right place you’ll lead people to the wrong place. History is littered with lots of leaders who did just that.
Here’s another question for you. The fine folks at RM surveyed more than 20,000 employees to find out what keeps ‘em engaged. A lot of the choices on the list made the top 10, but which one was #1? (READ)
The #1 answer was: “Senior leaders value employees.” Or put another way …
LOVE! That’s the answer to our Tweet-o-Rama. I know those of you who have been on my previous webinars are probably getting tired of me using this one little word, but it’s the key to everything, including leadership. If you remember nothing else today, this is it. L-O-V-E’s how you spell it live it give it show it tell it. Treat people with dignity and respect. Truly value them. 99.99999% of leadership theory boils down to this one simple word. Want to lead people? Love ‘em. Want to lose ‘em? Don’t love ‘em. Want to stay out of court? Love your employees. Want a union? Don’t love ‘em. Want to make your clients happy? Love ‘em. Want to lose ‘em all and go bankrupt? Don’t love ‘em.
What does the heart of a loving leader look like? Here are the 4 chambers. As we just said, Ls need to really CARE about their employees. If you don’t care, neither will they. The next piece is just as vital. If you aren’t HUMBLE, you’re going to stumble. Humility was the #1 leadership trait ID’d in Good to Great and is at the very heart of Steven Covey’s books, as well as countless other books and studies. In short, great leaders put their org and others first above their own self-interest. WE above ME. Research also shows that the hearts of great leaders overflow with HOPE of a better tomorrow. America’s banking system collapsed a few hours before FDR gave his first inaugural address. Did he panic? Nope. He expressed … hope. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. didn’t preach vengeance but a hope ful dream of justice & equality for all. Hope matters. And last, a company without an ETHICAL heart is rotten to the core. Just think of all the Good to Gone companies we discussed before. This is backed up by hard facts. I’m happy to say that MPG was recently named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. Acc’g to data on those companies, they outperform their less ethical counterparts by a whopping 7.3% each and every year. Their leaders also spend less time in jail, which is nice.
Want more evidence? Sports are a great way to test leadership theories . You get instant results. Perhaps the greatest coach in the history of any sport based purely on results was John Wooden. Here they are. Most coaches would be happy with one national championship. He had 10, including an absolutely unprecedented 7 in a row. People made a big deal of the Miami Heat winning 27 in a row this year. Well, Wooden’s teams won 88 in a row – more than 3 times as many.
But more impressive than WHAT he did was HOW he did it. Insisted on doing things the right way. No cheating scandals. No steroids. Players and even opposing coaches to this day still gush in their praise of him. Here are some quotes straight off what he called his pyramid of success he crafted over his years as a coach. Weren’t just words on a page. Applied ‘em every day. He said that LOVE is the most powerful four letter word. Started with the heart, not the scoreboard. He built great TEAMS by starting on the inside, not the outside. Just one example. As a young coach in the 1950s, his team won its conference and earned an invite to the national tournament. It was his first real taste of success. Could be something that moved him onward and upward to better things. But when he discovered that the tournament wouldn’t let African-American athletes play, he turned the invite down cold. Coach Wooden died a few years ago at the ripe old age of 99, leaving a loving legacy of leaders, including CEOs that played for him, coaches, motivational speakers, asset managers, engineers, business owners, educators and humanitarians. He truly led from the heart.
So, here’s our exercise set for this section. What’s the condition of YOUR heart? Would those around you describe you as CARING? HUMBLE? HOPEFUL? ETHICAL? If you’re like me, people would probably like to see a whole lot more of each of these. Please, exercise your heart every day! There’s nothing more important you can do as a leader. Start with the heart. After the webinar on my Blawg will give you list of recommended reading if you want to go deeeeper in each area we discuss.
The next body part we’ll hit in our workout is the MIND of a leader …
When it comes to your brain, here are the top four things you should do with it as a leader. (READ)
Great leaders are constantly LEARNING. Learning is truly indispensable. Learn about the biz. Learn about customers. Learn about the marketplace. Learn about the past. Learn about the future. Learn, learn, learn, learn.
Leader brains should also CREATE. According to a study by IBM, the #1 leadership quality to cope with the complexity of this world is CREATIVITY. It’s getting more and more important every day to be able to tackle that complexity by setting aside old assumptions and developing new solutions .
The 3 rd brain skill: DECIDE. Want to be a CEO? Decisiveness is one of the key competencies that all CEOs must have, according to Right Management research. You see the quote there from Steve Jobs. Being a leader means actually saying NO. He tells a story about how he took tons of heat for saying NO over and over to Apple entering the PDA market. He was convinced they were on the verge of being extinct. He was right. If he had said YES Apple would not have had the resources to develop a little something called the iPod and we probably wouldn’t be talking about him right now.
Lots of tools out there. [RM?]
Here’s our brain exercise. Look at each of these and honestly assess the percentage of time you spend on each. If I’m honest, some weeks it’s pretty close to 0% for some of these. So busy with the day-to-day that I don’t spend nearly enough time growing the leader parts of my brain. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. If you want to be a leader, spend some time growing yours.
Our last question was from the follower perspective. Here’s the leader perspective. (READ)
Strategic vision is the #1 leadership competency, acc’g to research by RM. Named by 91.7% of leaders – nothing else even close. All the others in our ? made the top 4 except the last one, which should have in my opinion.
So we’ve worked out our hearts and our minds. Next up: the EYE.
Just like the survey said, the first responsibility of a leader is to define reality or to rally people toward a better future.
To lead, your V should be CLEAR. If it’s not, you and others can’t see where you’re going. Here are some well known Vs. There’s Apple in 2 words. Think different. Everything they do. Disney. Make people happy. Vision went from Walt himself down to the janitorial staff at the park, all of whom smile 24 hours a day. Sam Walton. Buy bulk & discount. Simple, clear & direct man w/a simple formula. All it did was lead to the world’s biggest company. Microsoft. Computer in every home. Bill Gates used to repeat this vision every .03 seconds. Became reality.
Here’s some EYE exercise to do when you get back to your work. Look up. Stop your day-to-day and picture the future. Where do you want you and your team to be in a year. 3 yrs? 5? If you don’t do that, won’t happen. Look out. What are your customers going thru? Your competitors? Others around you? Look in. Use your heart and your mind to spell out your V. Write it down. Simple. Vivid. Aspirational. Inspirational. Discuss with your team and get their thoughts. Kick it around.
OK, here’s our next question. What do employees want leaders to value most? Is the correct answer A their appearance, B their work product, C their communication skills, D their opinions or E their karaoke skills.
According to Right Management, what employees want most is for leaders to value their opinions. So ask yourself: Are you really listening to the people around you?
OK, so we’ve worked out our hearts, minds and eyes, now it’s the EARS’ turn.
Here’s every listening skills training in the history of the universe on one slide. Listen first. And maybe second, third, fourth and fifth. Surround yourself with people who will actually tell you the truth. When you listen, make eye contact and restate what you hear to ensure understanding. Put down the dang phone and always follow the 2:1 ear-to-mouth ratio. One other side benefit: listening is actually good for you. According to a University of Maryland study, blood pressure lowers when we listen and rises when we speak. In fact, it’s actually lower when listening than it is when we stare at a blank wall. So I’m actually lowering all of your blood pressure right now. You’re welcome.
Here’s a real-life example. It’s a fact of history that Abe Lincoln had big ears. He sought out advice even when it hurt and he actually LISTENED to it. As anyone who saw the movie Lincoln probably knows, that movie was based on a book entitled Team of Rivals, which focused on the diversity of thought with which Lincoln surrounded himself. Right after he won election for President, Lincoln stunned the nation by appointing his chief rivals to his cabinet. Imagine that. Like having Mitt Romney, John Boehner and maybe even John McCain hanging out around the White House right now. Kind of interesting to think about. Well, when he was questioned about the sanity of the decision, Lincoln responded that he wanted the very best people for his cabinet whether they agreed with him or not. Studies show that listening to groupthink of homogenous opinions can lead an organization in the wrong direction. Awesome lesson on listening to a diversity of opinions. Having diversity in your workplace, diversity on your teams is a STRENGTH if you listen. This country might be a whole lot different right now if Abe hadn’t listened to the right voices so well.
Next up: the VOICE of a leader.
What do they hear? Here are some sad statistics showing that you’re basically ignoring me right now: If all you do is sit there today and listen to me, you’ll only retain about 15% of what you hear. If you’re reading along, you’ll retain up to 22%. But if you discuss the material, practice it and actually DO it, your retention skyrockets to near 90%.
What do employees want to come out of your mouth? After you’ve thoroughly listened, they want to hear your Vision. The strategy behind the vision. Your expectations of them. And how they can contribute to meeting customer needs. Don’t talk about anything else til you’ve got those covered.
Here’s every leadership communication book in history on one slide. The first one is a great place to start. Mother Teresa said: “ Let us ALWAYS meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” That’s beautiful. Encourage one another. Mother Teresa also said: “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” Keep it clear, compelling and creative, otherwise they won’t hear you over all the clutter out there. Show don’t tell. Use stories, analogies, real-life examples. Have FUN. Always always always tell the TRUTH. And repeat. Repeat. Repeat. In his “I have a dream” speech, MLK repeated that phrase 8 times and the word freedom 30 times. As a result, we’ll never ever forget. In fact, if you want to be a better communicator, get on YouTube and watch Dr. King’s entire I Have a Dream speech over and over until you’ve memorized every nuance. True masterpiece of communication.
According to Right Management’s research, having an actual discussion about career dev’t is the very best way to engage your direct reports. (Although my guess is that “E” would be a very close 2 nd .)
OK, now it’s time for ACTION. The HANDS of a Leader.
OK, so after all that touchy-feely stuff, now we move on to what Ls actually DO. Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and actions. And, as Vince Lombardi said, the dictionary is the only place that success comes before hard work.
3 essential things a leader must DO: Take people by the hand and DEVELOP ‘em. Then work as a team to EXECUTE the strategy. And then REPEAT. That’s it. If you develop your people and execute your strategy better than your competitors, you will WIN. It’s that simple. Want proof? One leader that came up over and over in our research was Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the GB Packers. think you have trouble attracting & retaining top talent? Imagine trying to convince professional athletes to play outdoors in the tiniest city in the NFL where the average temperature is approximately negative 79 degrees. But Lombardi did it, following this basic formula. Develop. Execute. Repeat. Won 5 championships, including the first 2 Super Bowls with a team that was failing before he came.
Here’s what Lombardi said about development: Leaders aren’t born, they’re made. And they’re made just like anything else – thru hard work. Or as another leader said: The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.
Some more facts … If you’re the kind of leader who generally ignores your team, they’re 40% more likely to be actively disengaged. No way you’ll win. If you coach ‘em but focus on their weaknesses, 22% chance actively disengaged. Little chance you’ll win. BUT if you focus on strengths, only a 1% chance actively disengaged. WIN. Studies show highly engaged teams are 70% more productive, have 70% less turnover and 44% more profitable. Focus on strengths, not weaknesses and develop develop develop.
So, that’s DEVELOPMENT. But you still have to EXECUTE. The Packers could have developed all they wanted but without execution lose every time. (Unless of course they’re playing the Bears.) Lots and lots and lots of books and courses on how to lead execution. Here’s what a leader MUST do (but very few actually do). It’s really pretty simple. Set clear priorities. 3-4 max. Ask yourself are they really clear? Are they the right ones? Then … DO them. Follow thru. Biz world is littered with literally bazillions of initiatives that never got off the ground. Reward those who actually did what they were supposed to. And then Repeat. That’s it. You will all now be flawless executors. Enjoy winning.
We’re nearing the end. Can’t cross the finish line without the FEET of a leader.
Let’s cut right to the chase . . . No one will follow you unless you actually model what we’ve talked about. Walk the walk. Or, maybe more aptly, run the run. Terrain will be rough. Gotta have balance . Balance is key. If let work life get out of whack like so many “Ls” do, will end up being a lousy L in other areas of your life. As Walt Disney said: “A person should never neglect family for business. Love begins by taking care of the closest ones. The ones at home.” Don’t neglect your family and friends. Can’t be a truly great leader if not a great leader there. People will see right through you. Speed and agility needed now more than ever in our increasingly hyper-paced world. As for perseverance , life is a marathon, not a sprint. As Winston Churchill said: “N ever flinch, never weary, never despair.”
Every good workout has a cool down. Here’s ours …
Summarize each
Final Tweet-o-rama of the day. First person to tweet the correct answer gets a $100 gift certificate. Who said it? Tweet your answer for all the world to see using the handle @manpowerblawg. That’s @manpowerblawg. B-l-a-w-g. Here goes . . . Be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray. or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea. You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So . . . GET ON YOUR WAY !
We’re nearing the end. Can’t cross the finish line without the FEET of a leader.
Visit the blawg at marktoth.com – that’s marktoth.com – where immediately following this webinar you can participate in our Smartest Person in the Audience Contest where thru a scientifically designed quiz we’ll reward the person who managed to stay awake the most during today’s presentation. Winner gets a valuable prize.
If you need help taking the next step and want to talk to a REAL leadership guru, I really very sincerely recommend that you reach out to the fine folks at Right Management, the global leader in talent and career management workforce solutions. Right Management has deeeeep expertise in leadership development, including leadership pipeline development, succession management, performance management and it has more leadership coaches worldwide than any other organization on the planet. You see the contact info there on your screen, along with one of its latest solution papers entitled Talent Management Challenges in an Era of Uncertainty .
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU so much for your time, attention and participation – we really very extremely incredibly much appreciate it! And now, back over to Lori.
