by D. Kevin Berchelmann | Mar 13, 2015 | Brazen Leader, Executive Improvement
In this and 3 subsequent blog entries, I’m expanding on the “5 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” I outlined in a recent article.
The second law focuses on open communications; too often, usually in the misplaced interest of correctness or conflict-avoidance, we tap-dance around topics, subjects, and even direction. We assume — often incorrectly — that someone “knows what we mean,” though we didn’t come out and say it.
Law #2. If you want something specific done, say so specifically, using clear, plain language. Employees, generally, have some difficulty doing their basic jobs; adding “mind-reading” to their description is just plain unfair.
No hints, implications, or innuendos. Say what you want, and use English! Directness counts.
I was recently doing some coaching with a client executive who was lamenting the poor “listening skills” of his Operations VP. Seems he had told the VP that one of his director-level staffers was not fully competent, and that the VP should “do something about that person.”
3 days later, that VP fired that director. My client executive was shocked — he told me, “I told him to do something with her, you know, like coach, train, or develop. Maybe even warn her of her performance.” He said, “I didn’t tell him to fire her…”
The VP, of course, simply said, “The boss said ‘do something with her, so I did.”
“Problem fixed.”
Not really… I don’t need to tell those of you reading this the difficulty in replacing an experienced mid-level manager in a specific industry. Especially without even making an effort to change her performance or behavior in some way.
Of course, the senior executive felt his comments were sufficient… obviously, they were not. English would have prevented this misunderstanding… simply telling the VP that he should “improve her performance or behavior” would have been sufficient; perhaps even simply asking the VP what he’s done to work with the director would have jogged a reasonable conversation.
Instead, a miscommunication — caused solely by incomplete/indirect language — has created yet another “situation” at the company.
As if we didn’t already have enough to do, we go out creating challenges to deal with.
So, like the doctor when the patient says, “Doc, it hurts when I do ‘this,’ and the Doc says simply, “Stop doing that.”
Stop doing that.
by D. Kevin Berchelmann | Mar 11, 2015 | Executive Improvement
Leadership Presence–The “It” of Leadership
Bo Carrington
We all want it, seek it in and from others and happily follow it. So what is the “it” that is so desired by most? The “It” we’re talking about is leadership presence. Unfortunately the “it” is hard to define and even harder to emulate because unlike leadership in general, presence is not a series of things we do; it is instead a state of being that impacts others in a meaningful way. Leadership presence is what separates good leaders from great leaders. Research shows that the manager or executive with strong leadership presence is generally better situated for significant career growth than their peers with lower leadership presence. (more…)
by D. Kevin Berchelmann | Mar 11, 2015 | Brazen Leader, Executive Improvement
Leaders–born or made?
I get this a lot. And though it seems like “the question of the ages,” it’s really not.
Leaders are made, not born.
I believe this with all my being, and have evidence of perpetual non-leaders “turning a corner” in their professional lives and developing the leadership presence that many only dream of.
I believe they are made because I’ve seen them made.
Having said that… I’ve been playing golf for 30 some-odd years. I’m a solid “business-golfer,” never embarrassing myself completely (well, there was this one time…), and also never being eligible for a U.S. Open run. I play to a 12-15 handicap, and enjoy the game. Others pick up the sticks, get a few pointers, and then display an immediate proclivity to the game, joining the single-digit ranks in less than a year. I try and run ’em over with my golf cart… wait, did I write that out loud?
Anyway, these “12-month-wonders” weren’t born knowing how to golf. They didn’t grow in the womb with spikes and a leather glove, knowing then that a downhill lie requires a closed clubface. They were, however, born with the propensity to learn the game that I was not. They picked it up faster–it fit their physicality, their mental grasp, even their character or persona.
Here, then, are your born leaders. They knew nothing of active listening, feedback and decision-making during their mom’s first ultrasound; they simply pick up the principles and applications so much faster than we mortals that they appear–like the irritating golfers above–to have been “born” with those traits.
They weren’t. They just learned ’em faster than most of us.
I also think that the “born, not made” mantra is promoted mostly by (a) those who weren’t born with that propensity mentioned above and need some emotional salve to keep their ego whole, or (b) those who were born with that propensity, and can’t understand why others don’t “get it.”
A bigger question, to me, is what can we do to identify those innate leadership learners sooner, rather than later?
But that’s just me…
by D. Kevin Berchelmann | Feb 23, 2015 | Brazen Leader, Executive Improvement, Uncategorized
In this and 4 subsequent blog entries, I’m expanding on the “5 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” I outlined in my most popular article.
This first law is based on decision-making; one of the most significant things we must do, as leaders, is to make decisions. Some will be good, some require further decision-making.
So without further ado…
Law #1: Never delay or abrogate a decision that must be made. Make it and move on. You may have to immediately make another decision; this doesn’t mean your first one was wrong, merely that your second one had the benefit of additional knowledge.
Let me share a story…
I used to work for a 30-year USAF General, a war veteran with a chest full of medals, ribbons, and other colorful accoutrements. Great guy, razor sharp, did not suffer fools lightly. His name was Brigadier General Lawrence Bose.
General Bose was a fighter pilot (F-4) in Vietnam, most notably during Operation Linebacker (the push-back after the Tet Offensive). As it seems with many battle-hardened leaders (military and corporate), he was known to say some pretty profound things. The sorts of things you would tell yourself, “Hey, I need to remember that one…” Some actually stuck, which for me, is nothing short of miraculous. One, in particular…
“Shirt,” he would say (“Shirt” was slang for “First Sergeant” in the USAF–the reason is fodder for another story), “Leaders don’t really make good decisions or bad; they just make decisions. If they’ve done their job correctly, the people working for them make the results of those decisions good.”
Now, never mind whether you agree that decisions are never classified as “good” or “bad.” Set that part aside… more important is the leadership genius behind the comment. Our jobs as leaders is to make decisions. We’ve heard this a hundred times, so here’s a hundred and one: A mediocre decision made promptly and unequivocally trumps a really good decision delayed and hesitant.
Another fairly well known General, George S. Patton, put it this way: “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”
Consider this: If we’ve managed our talent appropriately, and developed our staffs as we should, most of our decisions will result in unmitigated success — those people working with us will make sure of it.
Just make the damned decision…
by D. Kevin Berchelmann | Jan 28, 2015 | Executive Improvement, Kevin Berchelmann, Miscellaneous Business Topics, Organizational Effectiveness
But, Kevin, that’s his job!
An exasperated client exclaimed this to me after hearing—again—that she should get better at recognizing her folks, and to consider using regular accomplishments as the impetus, versus waiting for the one-off spectacular event.
She disagreed strongly, obviously. She felt that if people were just doing their job, they weren’t doing anything exceptional, ergo no recognition warranted or expected. “Their paycheck is a reward for satisfactory behavior,” she said. I’m sure no one reading this has ever uttered those words.
“Wrong,” I told her. “That’s just flat wrong.”
Since she is a football fan (assuming you actually consider the Jacksonville Jaguars “football,”), I used a football analogy…
I started playing school football in 8th grade. Mine was a small school, so most of us played both ways; I played right-side offensive guard and defensive linebacker. This is Texas school football, so believe me, they took it as serious then as they did through later years in high school.
Our starting quarterback was a guy named Gordon Williams, the son of our football coach (I’m sure that was just a coincidence). Gordon and I were friends before football came along, as we lived about 8 houses apart in a town of 4,500 people.
Anyway, we were playing La Grange, Texas (yes, the home of the famed “Chicken Ranch”), and we were trailing by a good margin. Gordon called a running play, handing the ball off to Albert Cubit (at the time, the fastest human being I’d ever seen), who headed straight for my right leg. My job was to pick up the middle linebacker who had been coming across unscathed most of the game.
And pick him up I did. Nailed him in the chest, likely surprising the daylights out of him, since I’d been something of a slug the whole game until then. Ended up laying squarely on top of him, while Albert pranced merrily into the end zone. Touchdown, Luling Eagles.
Now we were all happy, jumping up and down, slapping each other’s helmets (this was well before chest bumps and man-hugs), but Gordon cut through the crowd and the noise to reach me, grabbed me by both shoulders and said — yelled, actually—”Great job! Your block made this happen!” I beamed, I’m sure, like some stupid-looking 8th grader.
It wasn’t that I didn’t know I blocked, because I did. It wasn’t that I didn’t know we scored, because of course I knew. It was because I didn’t know how what I did actually affected the outcome.
You see, I was face down on top of that linebacker, and just assumed that Albert had done whatever magic he did when he had the ball. I didn’t realize that the team’s success at that moment was a direct result of my efforts. And all I had done was what I was supposed to do. I didn’t block two or three people, or chase down some errant interceptor. I simply blocked the one person I was tasked to block for that play.
And the team’s leader made me feel damned good about it. It’s been over 40 years since that game; I don’t remember any other play, game, or conversation. Heck, I have no idea of whether we won or lost to La Grange that afternoon. What I do remember, like it was yesterday, was Gordon Williams grabbing my shoulders, looking me in the eye, and saying “Great job!”
For “just” doing exactly what I was supposed to do.
“That which is rewarded is repeated.” It’s a basic tenet of compensation, and the foundation in changing human behavior. Don’t delay or save recognition in hopes of rewarding some heroic, superhuman event. Remember that blocking and tackling—the business kind, not the football kind—is what makes organizations and their leaders successful today. Show ’em some love.
But that’s just me…
(…and thanks, Gordon)
by D. Kevin Berchelmann | Oct 29, 2014 | Brazen Leader, Executive Improvement, Kevin Berchelmann, Organizational Effectiveness
Recently, when discussing the details of succession planning (uh, oh, here he goes again…!) I was asked the following by a colleague:
What general competencies, skills, attributes or potentials should we be seeking in someone worthy of developmental efforts, and how do we determine them in candidates? Are those things different for potential departmental/functional heads versus those being considered for C-level responsibilities?
My shorter version: “Who the hell do I develop?”
(more…)
