LeadershipNow 140: February 2014 Compilation

• My 12 Rules for Success by Bill Marriott
• Keys to Success in Business and Personal Success by @kristakotrla
• Your Greatest Source of Influence by @JesseLynStoner
• Personal branding strategies for introverts: connect one person at a time; blog often; and more
• Develop Emotional Intelligence: Are You Using These Steps? by @KateNasser
• 10 Major Causes for Failure in Leadership from Project Eve
• Everything in the school is going wrong.’ ‘In that case’, I replied, ‘find something to celebrate. from @rabbisacks
• CAUTION: A well-crafted rationalization will take you anywhere you want to go.
• An Appetite For Leadership by @LollyDaskal Excellent post.
• What can business leaders learn from ancient philosophers? from The Guardian
• FT: How Lego took to anthropology
• How Thinking About Others Improves Our Creativity by David Burkus
• Presidential Leadership from Lincoln to Reagan > A Speech from @JamesStrock
• The efficient ineffectiveness of control by @dscofield
• Seeing the Big Picture in Sochi by @TimElmore
• How to Develop a Leadership Philosophy? by @ThinDifference
• Five things even the best leaders can do more of by @mjasmus
• Your Bad Boss Didn’t Intend to Be Bad (and How You Can Avoid the Same Fate) by @davidmdye
• The Critical Few: Components of a Truly Effective Culture from @stratandbiz
• The Leadership Life Cycle by @ExecCoachJeff
• 5 Things I Have To Do, But Don’t Like Doing…as a Leader by @RonEdmondson
• Does branding matter? by @TomAsacker
• Leadership and Juggling – the Unlikely Lessons by @KevinEikenberry
• 3 Ways To Steady Your Leadership in a Changing World by Paul LaRue
• FT: A Stanford recipe for bloat-free growth
• What’s the point of all that data, anyway? It’s to make decisions. @TechReview
• At LinkedIn students can pinpoint schools w/best track records of sending grads into fields they're interested in
• The Future of Multigenerational Leadership by @KarenSands @WorldFutureSoc
• How I Almost Died: A Cautionary Tale for Entrepreneurs by @figliuolo Take care of yourself
• Are you a selfless leader, or are you being held back by your own selfishness?
• FT: Five apps for unfocused minds
• Meet people where they are by @thehrgoddess
• 8 Storytelling Tips for Business Leaders from@Stanfordbiz
• Are you called to leadership? by @davelogan1 Good read!
• 100 Day Plans are much more effective than annual ones.
• The ‘Moneyball’ Approach to Hiring CEOs from @knowledgwharton
• SIX things to do do get your day off to a great start!
• Jay Leno: How To Say Goodbye by @JohnBaldoni
• FT: Branson: Behind the Mask by Tom Bower
• 3 Steps to Elevate Your Purpose and Maximize Your Impact by Mike Henry Sr
• Leadership Trait to Ponder: Respect by @ToddbNielsen
• Leadership and the Art of Confrontation by @wallybock
• Is Efficiency Undermining Your Success? by @susanmazza
• Reputation Matters But Character Leads The Way by @LollyDaskal
• The Death Of Expertise via @Mark_Sanborn: This is one of the most important articles I've read in a very long time.
• The art of delivering bad news by @gingerconsult
• The Enemy of Trust and 6 Ways to Defeat It by @RandyConley
• Rosabeth Moss Kanter: An interview by @robertmorris313
• Will This Be The Year Leaders Put Employees First? by @TanveerNaseer
• Habits of Strong Leaders by @peterbstark

Posted by Michael McKinney at 03:54 PM
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The 7 Lenses of Ethical Leadership

Culture Counts

CORPORATE AMERICA has had no shortage of heroes: Kellogg, Hewlett, Disney, Packard, Kroc, Watson, Ash and Iacocca. These leaders come to mind as examples of lions that have emblazoned their names as corporate giants. But far more important than heroic reputations are the values these captains of industry personified and instilled within their organizations.

When reading the news these days, I sometimes wonder if we have completely forgotten the tenets these titans used to shape American industry. While it is true that history can both illuminate and obfuscate, we would do well to remember the past in the case of these great examples.

Several years ago, I had the privilege of spending a summer at Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago as a PhRMA Fellow. There I observed a wide array of Abbott executives, scientists, and managers. I was struck not only by their disciplined approach but also by their freedom to discover, develop and design within broad operating parameters—conditions I did not typically associate with large, for-profit corporations. It was there that I first became fascinated with the question “what makes a successful organization.”

As a manager “on loan” to Abbott from the University of Michigan, I quickly found similarities between the two organizations. While it may be better known to some for its legendary football, winged helmets, and “Hail to the Victors” fight song, Michigan, much like Abbott Laboratories, is one of the world’s premier research institutions where scientific rigor, intellectual freedom, and disciplined scholarship thrive in a lively, entrepreneurial and decentralized university environment. I realized then that the same core principles could apply regardless of industry.

Perhaps the most crucial linking pin connecting great leaders and their vision is the personal value system they demonstrate and teach to others which becomes ingrained in the fabric of the firm, the so-called “corporate culture.” Today’s best leaders realize that a strong corporate culture is the glue that unites people and provides them with a raison d’ etre that’s bigger than any product or service. Profit is necessary, but it shouldn’t be the paramount goal. Results from a seven-year study conducted by the Workplace Research Foundation and University of Michigan investigator Palmer Morrel-Samuels, as reported recently in Forbes, confirmed that, as employee morale improves, a firm’s stock price enjoys higher returns.

Undeniably, today’s global marketplace is a far cry from the insular corporate environment of the past. Perhaps two of the biggest barriers today to establishing and perpetuating an enduring corporate culture are:

• excessive CEO and executive compensation packages, reflective of greed and a short-term mindset; and
• a workforce comprised of increasing numbers of younger employees who do not often remain at a company for more than a few years.

Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:32 PM
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The Problem of More: Scaling Up Excellence

HOW DO YOU scale up excellence? How do you spread constructive beliefs and behavior from the few to the many?

Scaling up can be is messy because it is unpredictable. It’s never clean and well-run. But the best leaders revel in these inevitable moments and months of messiness.

The process requires the mindset of a marathon. It’s like building a bridge as you walk on it. It requires faith and perseverance.

Scaling is akin to running a long race where you don’t know the right path, often what seems like the right path turns out to be the wrong one, and you don’t know how long the race will last, where or how it will end, or where the finish line is located….[And yet] plenty of people and teams find ways to master this mess, take satisfaction in their daily accomplishments, and take pride in spreading constructive beliefs and behaviors far and wide.

The book is centered on seven mantras of scaling up excellence. They serve as signals as to whether your scaling is going well or badly. Here are the mantras and how Sutton and Rao define them:

Spread a Mindset, Not Just a Footprint
Scaling unfolds with less friction and more consistency when the people propelling it agree on what is right and wrong—and on what to pay attention to and what to ignore. It requires relentless vigilance. It requires stating the beliefs and living the behavior, and then do so again and again. Key point: When people get smug, operate on autopilot, take shortcuts, and chose the path of least resistance too often, they lose sight of the essence of their excellence. In their lust to run up the numbers and plaster their logo on as many people, places, and things as possible, the temptation to accept mediocrity—or worse—often proves irresistible.

Engage All the Senses
Mindsets are spread and sustained by subtle cues that activate all the senses. Our beliefs and behaviors are bolstered—and undermined—by the colors and kinds of images we see, the sounds we hear, the smells we encounter, the things we taste, and the objects we touch. We are influenced by the voice tone and facial expressions that accompany the words people say, whether they look us in the eye, their posture, and many more seemingly inconsequential and irrelevant cues in the world around us.

Link Short-Term Realities to Long-Term Dreams
Make sure that short-term stuff gets done and done well, while simultaneously never losing sight of the big picture. Scaling requires the wherewithal to hound yourself and others with questions about what it takes to link to the never-ending now—the perpetual present tense that every person is trapped in—to the sweet dreams you hope to realize later. “Let’s not decide based on what is best now, let’s decide based on what will be best in two or three years.”

Accelerate Accountability
The trick—and it is a difficult trick—is to design a system where this tug of responsibility is constant, strong, and embraced by everyone, and where slackers, energy sucker, and selfish soloists have no place to hide.

When scaling goes bad, three elements are usually present: Illusion, Impatience, and Incompetence. Decision makers think this is going to be far easier than the facts warrant; they are quick to rush the rollout thinking that when they are ready everyone is ready; and they frankly don’t know what they are doing. A related hallmark is that decision-makers don’t recognize when they are on the verge of subjecting victims (and themselves) to overwhelming mental load, distress, and turmoil.

Scaling Requires Both Addition and Subtraction
Strategic subtraction clears the way for people to focus on doing the right things. As organizations grow larger and older, as the footprint of a program expands, and as the consequences of past actions accumulate, once useful but now unnecessary role, rules, rituals, red tape, products, and services build up like barnacles on a ship; to make way for excellence to spread, these sources of unnecessary friction must be removed. Scaling isn’t just a problem of more, it’s a problem of less too.

Slow Down to Scale Faster—and Better—Down the Road
Mastering “the black art of scaling a human organization” requires learning when and how to shift gears from fast to slow ways of thinking.

A few other thoughts to consider when considering a scaling an idea or initiative is to conduct a premortem. Ask participants to imagine that it is a year from now. What success or failure has occurred? Was it a good idea? Are we happy living in the world we’ve built? “Looking back from the future helps people bridge short-term and long-term thinking—a hallmark of successful scaling.”

While excitement may be there in the beginning, it will soon wear off if steps are not taken to live it. “Although creating enthusiasm and spreading awareness about new beliefs, behaviors, and initiatives are useful first steps for mobilizing a mindset, they aren’t enough. People have to live it or it won’t stick.”

Along the way, you need to continue to evaluate your beliefs and mindsets. “You should never stop asking whether the time is ripe to cast them aside.” As part of this approach, it is important to remember that “although more roles and processes are needed as organizations and projects expand, skilled leaders wield their power to eliminate needless friction and complexity—not burden employees with ‘rules, tools and fools’ that make it tougher to do their jobs and waste money and talent.”

While scaling is often thought of in terms of growing a company, it is also about spreading an idea. Scaling Up Excellence is an excellent guide on both counts.

As we grow, how do I build on what worked without being undone by my own success? Scaling Up Excellence deals with the issues of spreading ideas and duplicating success that every leader faces. Sutton and Rao offer valuable insights for your consideration.

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Posted by Michael McKinney at 10:48 PM
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First Look: Leadership Books for February 2014

For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273

Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:08 AM
Permalink | Comments (0) | Books