Fireworks, veterans, and freedom!

Leadership
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality, the last is to say thank you.  In between, the leader is a servant.  ~Max De Pree

I spent the Fourth of July holiday in a small town; something I’ve done for the past eight years.  One of the things I’ve noticed over these years is that I believe the folks who live in smaller towns are more patriotic, at least when it comes to taking time to both celebrate our independence and honor those who have made that independence possible. 

I stood on the sidewalk watching the parade pass by and noticed that I happened to find an open spot next to an older couple who had set-up a card table and two lawn chairs (you know, the kind that have an aluminum frame with the nylon weaved seats) to sell books on the town’s history and some of their more notable veterans.  Then I noted that the man was wearing a cap that boldly proclaimed World War II Veteran.  As the flag passed by to signal the beginning of the parade, the couple stood and it wasn’t hard to see by the expression on their faces that “independence” really meant something to them.  I started to wonder how much “Independence Day” has really become “fireworks, cookouts, and a day-off” day. 

It reminded me of a time when I had listed all of the official holidays for employees and one of my colleagues inquired, “What about the Fourth of July, don’t we get that day off too?”  I responded with, “Yes, it’s listed as Independence Day.”

Do we really forget that quickly the effort, sacrifice, courage, and bravery that allows us to have the freedom we take for granted? 

How often do we do the very same thing within our organizations?  Every organization has employees who are going through difficult personal challenges, who have sacrificed too much of their personal/family lives for the sake of the organization, and who show up for work everyday without complaint.  And how often do we sit down with these people, face-to-face, and simply say, “Thank you.”

I’ve been in the workforce now since 1986 when I started my first job out of college.  I worked for my college alma mater as a recruiter.  What do I remember most about that job?  The college president periodically showing up, sitting down in my office, and asking me about my recruits and telling me how much he appreciated the work I was doing.  It’s 27 years later and that’s a memory so clear it seems like only last year.  I’ve tried to carry that influence with me through the decades and I’m sure I’ve not been nearly as consistent or committed to saying thank you as was Dr. Richard Stephens.  But that memory is certainly still with me.

Max De Pree also said, “How important it is to learn to say thank you! There are many ways to say thank you, but the problem is to find the most graceful and fitting.”
So take a second to think about whom you need to thank.
What is a fitting and graceful way to thank them?
What do you intend to do about it?

Are you mind full or mindful?

Leadership

Mindful: it’s the awareness that arises by paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.  ~Jon Kabat-Zinn

I’ve written about mindfulness before, but I read a blog this week that I thought provided a very relevant example of the importance of learning to be mindful.  This came from Chip Cutter, editor at LinkedIn, who wrote a blog post entitled, “A Harvard Economist’s Surprisingly Simple Productivity Secret.”  The economist is Sendhil Mullainathan and this was his experience.

Mullainathan’s own productivity breakthrough came when he dropped his cell phone in a toilet. 

That night, he went to dinner with friends, and found he had a surprisingly fun time. His friends didn’t get more interesting. The food wasn’t better than usual. What changed was that he didn’t have his phone. 

That meant he couldn’t receive potentially bothersome emails or text messages before or during the meal. “My bandwidth for those two hours was focused on the thing I wanted to be focused on,” he says. 

Since then, he’s made other changes. He no longer receives work email on his phone. Before a meeting, he tries not to get to check email, so he’s focused on the discussion ahead. 

And he’s come to a realization. 

“All those times that I thought I was using my time well — ‘Hey, I’ve got five minutes, let me check my email’ — I was actually using my bandwidth badly.”

We all have a limited amount of mental bandwidth and we all try to stretch that bandwidth as much as possible.  In other words, we’re using every ounce of our mental energy to be mind full.  What Mullainathan discovered is that we’re actually more productive when we are mindful.  Chip Cutter said, “A lack of time isn’t the issue; a lack of focus is.”

Several months ago I was facilitating meetings with an executive team and I noticed that one of the VP’s was frequently closing his eyes.  For a while I thought he was dosing, which surprised me because this was a small group of eight or nine so falling asleep was not going to go unnoticed.  Then later this VP said that he closes his eyes because he’s trying to really think, or I would say, be mindful.  Even though part of what he oversees in the organization is IT, he’s one of the few VP’s who does not sit down at the meeting and immediately flip open his iPad (which is not a mindful practice).  When I step back and look at this VP’s overall personality and behavior, he’s probably one of the most focused and mindful people I know.  He’s mindful; and his department is one of the most efficient and productive in the organization.

Janice Marturano, founder and executive director of the Institute for Mindful Leadership says, “Our minds can become distracted by the urgent at the expense of the important and we can become so preoccupied with yesterday and tomorrow that we are no longer able to excel at leading in the present.”

So I’ll ask again, are you mind full or mindful?

Check your asking-to-telling ratio.

Leadership
Leadership is about allowing others the chance to flourish.  And you do that by asking questions.  ~Gary Cohen

In past decades most supervisors could do their employee’s job, and leaders of the organization could do many of the jobs as well.  But today, far fewer bosses know how to do an employee’s job.  Therefore, moving from telling to asking is no longer optional, it’s essential.  Leaders who default to “telling” as opposed to “asking” and helping staff develop their own critical thinking skills so they can be more self-directed, may actually be reinforcing a sense of shortsightedness or dependence that clogs up the system and makes the organization less agile.

Thinking back to our high school debate teams, we learned that persuasion happened through well-prepared logic using facts and figures.  Many organizations use this same approach.  If you present your logic, complete buy-in throughout the organization is certain.  Not so much.  Unfortunately, we have also been trained to argue when we’re presented with someone else’s logic (just watch a little primetime TV).  Rather than stating logic, ask a series of questions that will lead your staff to work out the logic on their own.  Your staff will reach their own conclusion based on your questions.  They will buy-in to a conclusion they have reached on their own much faster (and longer) than they will buy-in to a statement you make, even if it is supported by logic.

This week I came across an article in Forbes online entitled, Ask Great Questions: Leadership Skills of Socrates.  One of the points I found especially helpful.  The author, Michael Lindenmayer, suggested focusing your questions on three P’s.

The three P’s are: possibilities, probabilities and priorities. These three are sequentially linked. Apply different questions to the different categories. Certain questions generate possibilities. Other questions sharpen the team’s ability to assess the probable outcome of potential decisions. The third set of questions help to empower team members to prioritize. While Socrates engaged in philosophical dialogues over long periods of time, you have a venture to run. And that means taking action. Learn to apply different questions to the three P’s; it will help advance your endeavor.

Gary Cohen, author of Just Ask Leadership says, “Leadership is about allowing others the chance to flourish.  And you do that by asking questions.  This empowers coworkers to find solutions, embrace responsibility, and become accountable. Moreover, it opens the door to greater productivity and creativity. Indeed, more than ever before, leaders can’t know everything. By seeking others’ input, they can inspire powerful and positive change.”

So tomorrow morning, when we wake up, let’s ask ourselves which great questions we will bring to our organization that will advance our mission and allow others to flourish.

Wow, you’re different!

Leadership
It is not our differences that divide us.  It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.  ~Audre Lorde

Lately I’ve been thinking that it’s not the obvious differences that make getting along difficult; it’s the subtle differences that get under our skin, just simply annoy us, and probably make us a little judgmental.  I’ve heard a lot of people say they are accepting of people who are different, but then I see behavior that tells another story.  I’d suggest first that their definition of acceptance may really be tolerance.  And second, I’d suggest that the understated differences in perspective and approach are what make us most irritated at the end of the day.

I was reminded of this recently in a conversation with my financial advisor.  I was describing some of the work I’ve been doing in consulting and coaching and he said the most critical lesson he’d ever learned was that people really are different.  While that sounds simplistic, it’s really quite insightful.  In his case, for example, he recognizes that everyone has their own unique comfort level when it comes to their money.  As he described me, some people like to keep a sizeable amount of money in their money market account so they have quick and easy access to cash, if necessary.  While others, are okay to leave a rather small amount in their money market so they can immediately funnel any excess into their investments (which are not as readily accessible).  He doesn’t tell people what is the right way.  Instead, he spends time learning their comfort level and then does his best to work with them within that framework.  In other words, he recognizes, accepts and then celebrates his clients’ differences.

In organizations I see leaders who get frustrated when others aren’t sharing their perspective.  For example, some leaders want to keep as many options open as possible and not be too confined by a narrow focus.  However, their executive team may have a differing perspective and crave a specific focus so they can attack it.  In other cases I’ve seen the overall pace, or at least perceived pace, cause angst among leadership teams.  And I’ve had leaders say to me, “it would be a lot easier if everyone just thought the same way I do.”

Hillary Clinton said, “What we have to do…is to find a way to celebrate our diversity and debate our differences without fracturing our communities.”  While she was speaking on a more global level, I think the sentiment of that statement can certainly apply to organizations, both large and small.

Do we celebrate our differences or do we tolerate our differences and let them fracture our organizations over time?  Synonyms for tolerate are stand, bear, put up with, endure, and stomach.  Not exactly a culture most of us would want to be part of on a daily basis.  Whereas synonyms for celebrate are rejoice, party, have fun, and enjoy yourself.  That certainly creates an image that would make nearly everyone excited about showing up at work on Monday morning.
As leaders, are we celebrating differences or tolerating differences, even the subtle ones?

Who’s happy?

Leadership
Someone who has a dozen mildly nice things happen each day is likely to be happier than somebody who has a single truly amazing thing happen.  So wear comfortable shoes, give your wife a big kiss, sneak a french fry.  ~Daniel Gilbert

Harvard Business Reviewcover headline, January-February 2012: The Value of Happiness:  How Employee Well-Being Drives Profits.  This cover headline is significant, let me explain. 

In three short weeks I’ll hit my 100th blog post.  Throughout the past nearly two years of weekly writing, I’ve not taken the opportunity to vent a little so I feel like I’ve earned this opportunity.  Last week while watching the national news (I’ll not mention which network), they included a feature story on the IRS.  This isn’t surprising given all of their recent controversy and I’m certainly not going to attempt to defend the IRS’ behavior. 

During this story the reporters highlighted what they believed was gross over-spending by the IRS.  One item they chose to include on their list of over-spending was $11,000 for a “happiness expert.”  I was stunned.  I guess the writers and producers didn’t do any fact checking or research on happiness in the workplace before they decided to scoff at the IRS’ spending for a happiness expert. 

Not only was happiness the lead story for the Jan/Feb 2012 HBR, it was the theme for the issue.  Here are just a couple of examples of actual scientific support.

In a sweeping meta-analysis of 225 academic studies, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Laura King, and Ed Diener found that happy employees have, on average, 31% higher productivity; their sales are 37% higher; their creativity is three times higher. 

Quoting Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, “Psychologists want to understand what people feel, economists want to know what people value, and neuroscientists want to know how people’s brains respond to rewards.  Having three separate disciplines all interested in a single topic has put that topic on the scientific map.  Papers on happiness are published in Science, people who study happiness win Noble prizes, and governments all over the world are rushing to figure out how to measure and increase the happiness of their citizens.”

I suppose the lesson in all this could be to do some fact checking before going on the national news mocking an organization’s tactics for increasing productivity.  But what I’m really trying to emphasize is that happiness matters.  Our mental and emotional health is not only important, it’s critical, and organizations should be investing in happiness.  Seeing this scoffed at on the national news made me feel like we took several steps backwards when it comes to understanding organizations and the people who work within those organizations.
If that’s not enough, in 1776 our forefathers had the foresight to include in the Declaration of Independence, that all men have a right to the pursuit of happiness.  Have we really lost sight of this virtue?