Leadership Post : Management and Intergenerational Leadership Coaching, Employee Engagement, and Performance Management Training

Below is a post I was going to post a few weeks back and didn’t. I don’t know why.  Now that The King’s Speech won the Academy Award for best picture I’ve decided to resurrect it. I’ve reread it and like it.

Peggy Noonan in her article, The Captain and The King in The Patriot Post, talks about the lack of maturity rampant amongst leaders today.

I agree with Ms. Noonan. We live in an age where anything goes and being seen, as a “one of the guys or gals” is more important than showing authority and leadership.

The example Ms. Noonan gives is the relieving of the captain of the USS Enterprise, Owen Honors, of his duties because of his “lewd,” “raunchy,” “profane,” and “ribald” behavior.” Honors is a man who couldn’t distinguish his role from those he led, acting more like a deck hand than a leader.

Ms. Noonan cleverly contrasts Capt. Honors’ despicable behavior with the glowing reviews being given to the movie “The King’s Speech.” The movie portrays King George the VI unselfishly showing the ultimate in maturity as he reluctantly accepts the throne when his brother abdicates. With war impending, this is a time of crisis and England needs maturity.

A shy man with a hopeless stammer, in the movie King George sobs, “I am not a king;” he is by training and nature, a naval officer. Although not groomed to be king, throughout his reign, he was the symbol of leadership.

Here are some lessons learned on acting mature and as a leader from the notebook of King George VI.

He led by example by remaining with his wife at Buckingham Palace throughout the war despite nightly German bombing raids.

He did not have a personal agenda. He gave up the private and personal family life he would have preferred for the well being of his country.

He kept morale up by sharing the same deprivations – food rationing restrictions - as everyone else.

He was a role model and showed indefatigable determination by visiting citizens throughout England and was seen as a symbol of national resistance.

He remained optimistic by letting the people of Britain know that he believed in them and their ability to withstand hardship.

He communicated often and directly and plainly never shielding Britain from the realities of war. He began one message with, “The decisive struggle is now upon us” and ended it with, “It is life or death for all.”

He showed courage and that you can be “one of the boys” yet remain a leader by visiting Allied armies on several battle fronts and toured the home front extensively showing symbolic leadership in Britain which was crucial during WWII.

So, let’s hear it for King George and what it means to be a true leader!

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The words management and leadership are often used interchangeable, which makes me crazy. For starters, they aren’t. They are similar, yet different and it’s important to understand the difference for 3 reasons:

1. To clarify roles and responsibilities

Knowing and understanding the difference will help managers and leaders get clarity about what is expected of them so they can be successful in their positions.

 2. Help managers successfully transition to leadership positions

Many managers, when they transition into a leadership role, continue to manage.  Why? They simply don’t understand the difference. So, we have a lot of leaders who continue to manage and not lead. To quote John Kotter, author and Harvard Business School Professor, “most U.S. corporations today are over managed and under led.”

3. To build a leadership pipeline

Understanding the fundamental differences can help a company give potential leadership candidates the exposure and developmental experiences they need to prepare them to assume leadership positions.

So, now that we know the WHY, let’s look at the WHAT.

A Closer Look At Management and Leadership

According to Kotter, management promotes stability and copes with complexity and leaders press for and cope with change. One is not better than the other as both are necessary for success.

Management and leadership both involve what needs to be done, finding the right people to do what needs to be done and then finally ensuring that it gets done. Although complementary, they each go about doing things in different ways.

A Look At How They Differ

Management

Management’s focus is on complexity and avoiding chaos by putting things in order. Management does this by developing a plan with an accompanying budget that is in line with the goals of senior management. Their plan is usually short term – a year at most – and outlines specific objectives, due dates and steps to take along the way.

To support the plan, management creates an organizational structure and begins staffing it with qualified people. During this time, managers delegate tasks, coach and develop their people and handle anything having to do with the day-to-day management issues.

Finally, management focuses on controlling and problem solving. They monitor the results of their plan by way of reports, meetings and dealing with problems as they arise. Their ultimate goal is to support leadership.

Leadership

Leadership, on the other hand, begins by setting a direction and developing a vision for the distant future. Leadership is much more strategic and looks toward what could be.

Next, leaders focus on aligning the right people against their vision. They must ensure that they clearly communicate their vision and that it is understood and that people are committed to it.

Finally, motivate and inspire people to ensure their continued commitment to the vision and making sure obstacles don’t get in the way of achieving their goal.

We Need More Leaders

Suffice it to say, that there is a need – even though we are in an economic downturn - for more leaders. Companies need to “walk the talk” and really focus on developing talent by implementing an integrated talent management process.

At the same time, they should keep in mind a warning from John Kotter - that strong leadership with weak management is not good and is sometimes actually worse than the reverse. Kotter fells the real challenge is to combine strong leadership and strong management and use each to balance the other.

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“There are going to be times when we can’t wait for somebody. Now, you’re either on the bus or off the bus.” – from The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

The morning the news broke about the “rift” between General McChrystal and President Obama, my husband asked me what I would advise the President if I were his coach.

At first I thought this is the President of the United States we’re talking about and not just any leader in a Fortune 500 company.

Then I realized that there is very little difference between the advice I’d give the President or anyone else.

So, here’s my advice to both leaders and followers and, especially to you President Obama, should you read my post. Hey, you never know!

Differing Views

A leader should always listen, acknowledge and carefully weigh what everyone on the team has to say and then make a decision that he or she feels is the best decision based on the information he or she has received.

This process should never be rushed as often happens when leaders feel pressure to respond quickly. Leaders need to make and take time to reflect and stand firm about this.

 On The Same Page

In order for any initiative to succeed – whether it is a war or to do an acquisition - everyone involved has to be on the same page.

They must not only share the same vision, they must be committed fully to its execution – and I mean fully committed. From my perspective it was clear that was not the case between the President and General McChrystal.

 Be Transparent

Once the decision has been made, thank everyone involved for giving input and make it crystal clear (no pun intended) as to why you believe your decision is the best way to go.

Speak individually to those who disagreed. This will make them feel that their input was heard, considered and acknowledged. It’s also an opportunity for you to assess who is really with you or just giving “lip service.” Did President Obama miss the signals?

Don’t Say It Unless You Mean It

If you don’t agree with the decision and know in your heart that you cannot support the decision then you must say so.

As Jim Collins says in Good to Great, “are you on the bus or off the bus?” If you’re not, then you must leave.

Don’t Air Your Dirty Laundry In Public

Followers should never, ever say they support a decision and then do everything they can to undermine the leader and the decision, as was the case with McChrystal.

The most egregious thing the General did was to air his disapproval of the President’s agenda to his troops as well as not stopping them from sharing this information in public and in his presence.

Who Has The Final Word?

In the end, the leader is the leader and he or she makes the final decision whether you like it or not. You don’t have to agree with it, you just have to support it.

It was apparent that General McChrystal had to go and I was not at all surprised when he resigned. He should have done it sooner.

If you are reading this President Obama and you like what I’ve written and want a coach, let me know.

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“Know Thyself” – Oracle at Delphi

One of my favorite sections to read in the New York Times on Sunday is Adam Bryant’s Corner Office. Each Sunday there is a condensed version of an interview with a CEO talking about leadership.

This weekend’s interview was with Rachel Ashwell, founder of Shabby Chic, and he asked her a great question, “What would your employees say you’re like as a boss?”

Ms. Ashwell had no trouble articulating what she thought they would say but the question is how accurate is she?

The research is pretty clear on this according to research by Lombardo and Eichinger - The Leadership Machine. Self-rating is less accurate than all other rater groups. Actually, most people rate themselves higher than others do. This is understandable as it is difficult to be an unbiased observer of yourself.

So what is a leader to do to meet the challenge of “Know thyself,” the description over the Oracle at Delphi. The answer is simple - ask for feedback. For many CEO’s this can be a humbling experience but also a growth opportunity.

It can get pretty lonely at the top and it’s easy for a leader to become isolated and cut off from how their behavior is helping or hindering the troops.

Until you truly know yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, underdeveloped areas that need bolstering and what you stand for you cannot be a truly authentic and effective leader.

Here are six things a leader can do to increase self-awareness and effectiveness:

1. Create a feedback loop by having your HR department or preferably an outside consultant conduct a yearly evaluation of you by your team, have them write it up and debrief you. Depending on the level of trust, which will increase over time, this can be anonymous or attributed.

2. Let your team know how important this is to you and that you welcome negative feedback and criticism. This may sound scary but in my experience leaders who do this are held in higher esteem and respected more by their followers.

3. Rather than using a 360 instrument to gather feedback (I’m not a big fan of them) one-on-one interviews should be conducted with each rater, which can help go beyond general awareness and cover a deep level of understanding with specific behavioral examples.

4. Keep it simple - as my colleague Marc Effron former head of talent management at Avon would say - by asking four key questions and then probing for specific behavioral examples:

A. What does Ms. CEO do that they should continue to do?
B. What can Ms. CEO do that could be more effective?
C. What does Ms. CEO do that should be stopped?
D. What does Ms. CEO do that helps/hinders the organization to move forward?

In A through C, you are probing for behavioral examples. For instance, one executive I coached who was extremely impatient found out that he had a tendency to stifle constructive debate by cutting off discussions and coming to a premature decision. Upon hearing this, he was able to be more Socratic. D has to do with business issues.

5. After receiving the feedback, thank your raters and share the two to three themes that came from the feedback. Let them know that you heard what they said and that you plan on working on modifying your behavior so you can be more effective and ultimately help them to be more effective. Ask them for additional suggestions on how you can improve.

6. Behavior change is extremely difficult so give yourself time and don’t get discouraged. Keep in mind that under stress, it is easy to revert back to your “default” style. Monitor your progress and continue to show your commitment to the process by having informal check-in with your team throughout the year.

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I’m always fascinated to hear how leaders lead, how life’s experiences affected their style and what criteria are used to hire employees. The New York Times Sunday’s Corner Office column gives me insight into their thinking. 

Recently Meridee Moore founder of Watershed Asset Management shared her lessons learned.vI like the fact that for hiring she goes beyond school, grades and scores and looks at experiences people have had. The Center for Creative Leadership has documented the importance of learning from experience and Ms. Moore relies on that when she asks candidates to talk about rough patches in their past. The adage “it’s not what happens to you that’s important, but it’s what you do with what’s happened to you that’s more important” should be ingrained in all managers and leaders.

Learning from mistakes is the hallmark of a well-developed person and someone I believe will make a good employee.

It’s too bad that organizations don’t see the benefit of this. They talk out of both sides of their mouth when they say they want innovation and “out of the box thinking” and then severely reprimand employees for trying something new and getting it wrong.

Here’s my recommendation for leaders:

• Encourage open and honest discussions and then listen to what people have to say
• Take a risk and try something new and if it fails, conduct a lessons learned session
• Gather your team together and talk about what worked, what did not, why and what you could do differently in the future

Engage and motivate your employees by not stifling their creativity.

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Alan Murray, Deputy Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal has written a management book titled the WSJ’s Essential Guide to Management full of sage advice from the best leadership minds of our time. Excerpts from the book have appeared in the Journal. I particularly liked the piece on What Makes a Great Leader in which he discusses the various leadership styles from the bombastic Patton to the soft-spoken Lincoln.

Murray refers to Jim Collins’ book Good to Great to do an analysis of styles. Here’s an excerpt

In the early stages of the project, Collins, who was inclined to believe that the importance of leadership was overstated, urged his team to "ignore the executives." But he says the team kept pushing back, saying there was something consistently unusual about the leaders of the good-to-great companies.

Compared to high-profile leaders with big personalities who make headlines and become celebrities, the good-to-great leaders seem to have come from Mars," Collins writes. "Self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy – these leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. They are more like Lincoln and Socrates than Patton or Caesar.

Keep your eyes out for its release this August. From what I've read so far it has all the makings of an engaging and compelling management book for anyone interested in leadership.

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