Ain’t Maturity Grand?

Senior citizens may cringe when being referred to as mature, but hopefully the rest of us will take it as a compliment rather than a slight.  I don’t know about you, but I love dealing with people who are able to:

***receive constructive feedback without being defensive.

***be genuinely happy for someone who may not be their favorite.

***learn through others experience.

***say “I was wrong”.

***speak of accomplishments in ‘we’ terms, not ‘me’ terms.

These are signs of maturity—the good kind!  They’re also signs that you’re dealing with a professional.

 

Applying The Mind-Sets To Tough Meetings

Got a tough meeting coming up—one in which involves critical problem-solving, or one in which emotions may run high?  If you’re like me, you’ll need all the help you can get.  Here’s a tip.

Assuming you’re dealing with a group that’s familiar with the seven mind-sets, at the beginning of the meeting ask the group two questions:

*** “Which mind-set is most critical in ensuring we achieve our desired outcome?”

*** “Which mind-set (or its absence) is most likely to trip us up?”

If the two questions are properly facilitated, a lively discussion will ensue.  Ultimately the group will settle on a mind-set that pretty much fits the bill for each question.  Post the questions and answers on a white board or on a flip chart where they can be seen over the course of the meeting.  Don’t assume everyone will agree with the mind-set that ultimately gets chosen for the two questions.  In the end, it doesn’t matter.

This brief exercise (which should probably take less than five minutes) will have accomplished three important things:

1)      By default, it provides an invaluable review of each of the seven mind-sets…so in the meeting the mind-sets become top-of-mind.  It informally nudges people to be their ‘best-self’ in an atmosphere that may well prove to be highly-charged.

2)      It provides a great prevention that materially aids in keeping the meeting on-track.  The group will naturally circle back to the two questions (and corresponding answers) should the meeting tend to get off-track.

3)       It reinforces a laser-like focus on the desired outcome.  Of course the meeting’s desired outcome is—by definition—a first-cousin to mind-set #1 (having a bias for results).  Mind-set #1 was chosen to be number one amongst all the mind-sets for a reason…namely, that when people hold this mind-set, a lot of good things naturally follow.

I’m confident that this approach, if well executed, can help you.  The point isn’t what mind-set gets chosen in conjunction with the two questions.  The point is that this process appeals to people’s ‘best-self’ —largely because of their desire to ‘show up’ as a professional would.

‘The Best Five Players’…Congratulations To The University of Kentucky

Richard Kovacevich, the retired chairman of the board of directors
and former CEO of Wells Fargo (who was also an avid athlete) , once noted that, “You learn very quickly playing sports that it’s all about team. It’s the best five players that win the basketball game, not the five best players.”

The University of Kentucky certainly demonstrated that this evening–winning yet another NCAA national championship.  Congratulations to the Wildcats and coach Calipari.

The Right People…Do You Have Them?

A great organization is dependent on great people. Yet, even someone who is ‘great’ may not necessarily be right for your organization.  Jim Collins reminds us the right people:

***fit in with the company’s core values

***don’t need to be tightly managed

***understand that they do not have ‘jobs’, they have responsibilities

***fulfill their commitments

***are passionate about the company and its work

***display “window and mirror” maturity (e.g. they shine a light on others while taking little credit themselves)

This is a great summary–whether you’re hiring or evaluating your organization. For many of you, this is a reminder–hopefully a helpful one.

For those of you familiar with The Power of Professionalism you’ll notice a gazillion correlations with the seven mind-sets amongst Jim’s list. Again, that’s not surprising–after all, the book is all about personal leadership!

 

 

Status Quo–Part Three

Recently I mentioned that if there’s ever any confusion as to who the leaders are and who the managers are in your organization—just watch how they treat the status quo.  Managers tend to make the status quo more efficient while leaders tend to make a new status quo.

Here’s a few closing thoughts on status quo…lest there’s any confusion from my first two posts on the subject last week:

***the status quo, per se, may not always be a bad thing—especially for a successful company who is dominating their niche.  Growth (an allure for most leaders) for growth’s sake may not prove to be a smart move.  Be aware of what Jim Collins refers to as the undisciplined pursuit of more.  What’s undisciplined?  1) Taking action inconsistent with your core values. 2) Discontinuous leaps into arenas for which you have no burning passion. 3) Launching into activities that do not fit with your economic or resource engine. 4) Investing heavily in new arenas where you cannot attain distinctive capability.  The complete list is contained on page 55 of Collin’s 2009 book How The Mighty Fall.

***consistent with the previous item—sometimes the best decisions turn out to be those so-called opportunities you elect not to pursue.  Instead you chose to focus on those things you believe you can do exceptionally well.  For instance when Steve Jobs returned to Apple as CEO he killed any project that did not fit into one of four categories he decreed as company priorities. The categories were those that Jobs believed Apple could become a leader in. He created a new status quo—in that Apple would no longer chase growth in areas where they had little chance of differentiating themselves.    

***a new status quos (one with BIG impact) isn’t a one-and –done type of thing.  The new status quo of  ‘everyone an innovator’  that was introduced at Whirlpool in 1999 for example, took time before it was fully integrated and bore fruit.  Introducing another major initiative during that time would have created havoc.  It was only after the ‘innovator’ status quo was mature could Whirlpool consider introducing the next one.

***a good manager and a good leader can both introduce change—the difference being in the degree of impact.  Change for the manager is typically more incremental in nature, for the leader it’s more analogous to a breakthrough (because it creates a new status quo…which typically requires a higher level of thinking).  Remember when we say manager or leader, we’re not referring to someone’s title.  Rather, we’re looking at their impact. There are a lot of wonderful leaders out there who have ‘manager’ embedded in their title.

***making the status quo more efficient (what managers do) is analogous to “doing your job really well”.  Creating a new status quo (what leaders do) speaks to a higher purpose, looking at the bigger picture, and creating even more “greater good”. The level of thinking between the two is vastly different.

***we don’t mean to suggest that all change associated with the status quo is good.  Sometimes the proposed change backfires (because it’s fundamentally a bad idea) or muddies the water (because of bad timing—i.e. there’s already too much churn in the organization) or becomes a distraction (a good idea that provides short-term benefit but drains focus, energy, and resources away from an initiative      that’s expected to provide a bigger long-term benefit).

Hope these thoughts help.

 

Status Quo—Part Two

In yesterday’s post we noted that managers tend to focus on making the status quo more efficient.  In other words, whatever changes they make typically are more tactical in nature. These types of folks tend to act as custodians.  The expectations of a ‘caretaker executive’, for example, is to keep things running, minimize risk, and basically not screw things up.

This doesn’t suggest that these types of individuals don’t demonstrate leadership—because they do.  For instance, a manager who defends a company value (rarely a fun experience) is performing an especially important aspect of their responsibilities.  However, an isolated act of leadership doesn’t make one ‘Lincoln-esque’. Regardless of whatever lofty title the ‘caretaker executive’ was given, their basic role is managerial in nature.

Likewise, even the most transformative leader typically has traditional ‘management’ responsibilities. For example, bringing in the operating budget five percent below target is a short term imperative for the director who is accustomed to shaking things up.  Yet even though leaders have responsibility for comparatively pedestrian tasks such as managing budgets, their larger contribution is changing the unproductive aspects of the status quo.  That means forging new policies, breeding expectations for  better processes, revitalizing the culture—all in the name of improving results.

In other words, leaders manage, and managers lead.  What makes them one or the other is determined by the per ponderous of what they do—not by an envious title or by the power they hold.  How they impact the status quo becomes the acid test in determining whether they’re a manager or a leader.

There is nothing so obvious as the manager (labeled as such through their decreed title) who leads effectively by thoughtfully and stridently advancing an agenda that keeps the organization ahead of the curve in a time of dynamic change.  Likewise, there’s nothing more maddening than the leader (that adjective being implicit with a lofty title) who fiddles (i.e. manages) while Rome burns.

If there’s ever any confusion as to who the leaders are and who the managers are —just watch how they treat the status quo.

 

 

Adversity Trumped–Progressive Avoids Its Waterloo

In November 1988 California voters passed Proposition 103 which mandated sweeping reforms within the insurance industry. In effect, it meant 20% reductions in rates and significant refunds were in store for policy-holders.  The Proposition’s passage was California’s voters way of punishing an industry they were fed up with.

Progressive Insurance, which at the time ranked #13 in the American private-passenger auto-insurance market, had a quarter of its business in California. The Proposition’s passage took a big hit on Progressive.

After the initial shock, CEO Peter Lewis called his staff together and challenged them to built a  better company.  What resulted was nothing short of remarkable. Progressive instituted new innovative claims service with roving claims adjusters that work from a fleet of vans and SUV’s which could be immediately dispatched to policy-holders homes or even the scene of an accident. By 1995 80 % of the time Progressive adjusters were issuing claim checks within 24 hours of an accident. This improvement was one of many.

By 2002 Progressive’s industry ranking had risen to #4. Lewis later called Proposition 103 “the best thing that ever happened to this company”.

It would have been easy for Lewis and his people to whine about life not being fair.    They didn’t. Instead they saw it as an opportunity. It proved to be just that. They were committed to results (MS #1) and knew things would only get better when they did (MS#3).  It’s a remarkable story that Jim Collins memorializes in Great By Choice (page 168).

It’s a life’s lesson for all of us.

 

 

Breakthroughs Aren’t For The Faint of Heart

Robert Shiller, a Yale economist, is probably best known for having written Irrational Exuberance—the 2004 book that was prescient in foretelling the nation’s debilitating  housing crisis. He attributes the approach he took in his book to advice his father had given him—namely to “pursue things that sound [and feel] right to you”.

Shiller notes in Fortune (Dec 12, 2011) , “I said in the preface I was worried that the boom in home prices might collapse,bring on bankruptcy in both business and households, and lead to a world recession. I remember thinking that this sounds kind of flaky–nobody else is saying this.  I can’t prove it, this could be embarrassing.  But I learned from my father not to care what other people think. This was my book, and I believed this, so I just said it.”

I really relate to Shiller…having taken on some sacred cows myself in The Power of Professionalism.

Like Shiller, there are aspects of The Power of Professionalism that I can’t prove. And, like Shiller, no one in (or outside) of my field was advocating what I was. Yes, I believed…so, like Shiller, I just said what I had to say.  It felt right to me.

Turns out, a lot of people (many experts in my field) believed in the ideas that I was advancing.  That’s really validating; but also can lend itself to an inflated ego (believing one’s press clippings usually proves self-defeating).  The social acclaim and ego rush of being right (when that’s the case) isn’t the point.

What is the point is how your point-of-view helps people or things that are bigger than you.  It’s all about Mind-Set #2 (being a part of something bigger than yourself).

Got an idea or point-of-view that you think warrants advancing?  First, do your homework. Think deeply about it.  Scrutinize it from every angle.Tear it apart.   Challenge your assumptions. Then make ‘little bets‘ (see the book of the same name by my friend Peter Sims) …test the premise out with friends, with adversaries…write about it.  Soon enough you’ll know whether or not you’re on to something.

You’ll know it’s right when it sounds and feels right to you. At that point, if you’ve still got something to say, go ahead….say it!