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Wasting Time

by Ron Potter September 10, 2020

This concept was brought to me by my favorite author, Shane Parrish, through his farnamstreetblog.com.

It’s a review of the book “How to Live on 24 Hours a Day” by Arnold Bennett.

While I believe this fits into today’s issues, Bennett wrote this book in 1910.

This is one of the things written about in 1910:

The 1910s were a time of great change in American industry. The managerial side of industry was growing and American corporations were reorganizing and becoming more efficient. Technology was available to make corporations run more smoothly and increase production.

A few of the things happening in 2020:

The 2020s are a time of great change in American industry. The managerial side of industry is shrinking and American corporations are being forced to reorganize and become more efficient. Technology is available to make corporations run more smoothly, increase productivity, and help teams run virtually.

What are you doing with your time?

Shane pulls out a few quotes from Bennett’s book.

You cannot draw on the future. Impossible to get into debt! You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste tomorrow, it is kept from you.

Remember: You have to live on this 24 hours of time. Out of it you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect and the evolution of your immortal soul. It’s right use…is a matter of the highest urgency.

So, what are you doing with your time?

One of our blogs a couple of weeks ago included the following quote:

Executives who were bracing for a months-long disruption are now thinking in terms of years. Their job has changed from riding it out to reinventing.

Reinventing

Our work-life is changing. You may have been “bracing for a months-long disruption” to your work life. But now we’re starting to think in terms of years, or maybe even forever.

How are you spending your time? Another quote that Shane pulls from Bennett’s book says:

Newspapers are full of articles explaining how to live on such-and-such a sum…but I have never seen an essay ‘how to live on 24 hours a day.’ Yet it has been said that time is money. That proverb understates the case. Time is a great deal more than money. If you have time, you can obtain money-usually. But…you cannot buy yourself a minute more time.

You cannot buy yourself a minute more time! Bennett makes another statement:

The supply of time is truly a daily miracle. You wake up in the morning and lo! your purse is magically filled with 24 hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours.

It’s a miracle! Every day you wake up with a new 24 hours that are yours!

Don’t Waste Time

Even though you have a new 24 hours every day, the time that you waste will never be recovered. Again, Bennett says:

You have to live on this 24 hours of time. Out of it you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect and the evolution of your immortal soul. It’s right use…is a matter of the highest urgency.

Do you put the highest urgency on your time?

Don’t Be Busy

I’m not talking about being “busy.” I was once told that the word ‘busy’ is represented by two symbols in the Japanese language. The first symbol represents “people.” The second symbol represents “destroyer.” Therefore, a translation of the Japanese symbols for busy is “people-destroyer.”

Being busy is not productive. Consciously deciding what to do with the time that we have is productive. In fact, the word “decide” means to consciously figure out what not to do.

Don’t be busy. Decide what you are not going to spend your time on and then consciously spend it on the things that are important. Those things should include (but not be limited to):

Health
Pleasure
Family
Your immortal soul
Reinventing yourself

Reinvent Yourself

Just don’t be busy! Reinvent yourself!

Bennett says “You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.”

We all have excuses for not taking the time to reinvent ourselves.

Too Young – not enough experience
Too Old – can’t change my habits
Too Poor – no resources available
Too Rich – need to “protect” the wealth
Too Secure – if I change I might fail. I’ll lose my security

What’s your excuse for not reinventing yourself? Believe me, the world is moving much too fast not to reinvent yourself!

My father’s generation didn’t have the urgency. The country was rebuilding after WWII and he was riding the wave.

My generation has needed to reinvent a few times. I went from engineer to micro-computer entrepreneur to executive coach/consultant to animator.

My kid’s generations have moved even faster as the world changes around them.

My oldest grandson graduated from high school this year and I’m already watching him reinvent himself as he goes.

Time is Limited

24 new hours a day is a great gift. But it’s easy to waste 10 minutes here or 2 hours there. Its right use is the highest urgency.

Don’t be busy. Reinvent yourself.

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Perspective

by Ron Potter September 3, 2020

We’ve talked a lot about perspective lately. Then I saw a short video by Barry Hall II. I thought it was great and decided to make this a short blog by sharing.

Barry started with a video of a person spray painting some graffiti on a building that said

Just Do Nothing

That’s often a perspective that people take. They think “If I ignore it, it will go away. Just do nothing.”

Problems don’t go away. Innovation doesn’t happen. Nothing good comes from a perspective of “Just do nothing.”

His next frame was another person painting more graffiti on the wall around the corner that says

It is Impossible

Of all the possible perspectives, I may have seen this one the most often. It’s just not possible. If this is your perspective than there is no reason to try. There is no reason to search for alternative perspectives. Innovation will never happen. It’s more than being difficult, it’s the belief that it’s impossible.

His final frame steps back at an angle so that both walls can be seen at the same time (an entirely new perspective). Now the viewer sees a much different message than was provided by the first two sketches.

Just Do It, Nothing is Impossible

Step back, take a look at your situation from a different perspective and new possibilities might be seen.

The next time you’re faced with a difficult situation, listen. What are you hearing?

Just Do Nothing
It is Impossible

More importantly, don’t just listen to voices outside your own head. Pay attention to what you’re saying to yourself. Do you start with Do Nothing or It’s Impossible? It’s OK that we start there. I think it’s part of our human nature. But don’t leave it there!

Start thinking about how you could do things differently. What perspective would be entirely new?

There are a few books that can help on this front.

A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas by Warren Berger
Do the Work: Overcome Resistance and Get out of Your Own Way by Steven Pressfield
Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments by Kent Keith

Just do it, nothing is impossible.

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Blog Team Team Series

Riding it Out or Reinventing

by Ron Potter August 27, 2020

“U.S. Companies Lose Hope for Quick Rebound From Covid-19” This was a headline in the Wall Street Journal the other day. Buried in the body of the article was the statement, “Executives who were bracing for a months-long disruption are now thinking in terms of years. Their job has changed from riding it out to reinventing.” On the same day (unrelated to the WSJ article) this cartoon appeared

I thought the cartoon was very appropriate because I’ve seen so many companies in my consulting career say they’re innovative but act like the cartoon.

Leaders Support Innovation

Leaders are not usually the innovators! Good leaders support the innovators on their teams.

Let’s take a look at how innovation happens from a Team Leadership Culture framework.

Team Innovation

Team innovation can be the most difficult to pull off but at the same time the most rewarding as well. However, it does take a few prerequisites for it to work.

Team Size

Many studies have determined that the best size of a decision-making team is seven, plus or minus two.

Once you get above nine people on a team, the ability to reach commitment on any given topic is greatly diminished. There are just too many factions possible with 10+ people.

If you have fewer than five team members, it’s too easy for the team to form factions of three people vs. one person. Even though that one person may have the most innovative idea, they will feel outnumbered and it’s too easy for the faction of three to treat them as an outlier or put pressure on them to go along with the majority.

Either way, the dynamics may be killing the innovation.

Keep decision-making teams to seven people, plus or minus two.

Team Attributes

TREC is the outline that brings the right attributes to an innovative team.

Truth. Being able to speak the truth to each other without fear of reprisal is necessary for innovative teams.

Respect. Each team member must be self-aware enough to know that their perspective is only a perspective. It is not “the truth”. It is not the only way of looking at an issue. It’s only their perspective and each member has a valid perspective. If the team trusts that all perspectives are valid, innovation is more likely to happen.

Elegance. Coming up with an innovative solution that is also elegant (simple, understandable, actionable) is the best solution.

Commitment. If the team is able to share the truth with respect, commitment can happen. Even if your perspective was different (or even opposing) to the final direction, commitment means that no matter what, you express your commitment to the solution. You’re able to do this because you were a member of the team that took all the perspectives into account and “committed” to a team solution.

Team Dynamics

If innovation is the goal, team dynamics becomes extremely important. Teams have been conditioned to come together for a given amount of time (usually an hour), encouraged to follow the agenda, and finally, make decisions depending on the discussion or reports. This feels very structured and efficient. It’s just not good for innovation.

Innovative teams have a different dynamic.

They will start as a whole team to discuss the areas of possible innovation.
All the perspectives are shared, at least in an outline form.
The team then breaks up into smaller teams. These can be as small as two individuals but should never be larger than three.
Deep Work is required. Deep Work requires spending distraction-free time on the topic, pushing your cognitive capabilities to the limit.
Return to the full team with this new Deep Work perspective to hear what we’re learning and then discuss directions we could possibly head.
Rinse and Repeat. Continue this large team, small team (maybe different small teams with each iteration) dynamics until the team begins to zero in on an innovative approach.

Team Decisions

Remember that the word “decide” means that you narrow your options down to a small number of choices (preferably two) and then you put one of those options to death. You kill it. You eliminate it. You stop spending resources on it. The commitment to the team direction should be powerful enough to put all of your resources towards the chosen innovative approach.

A Culture of Innovation

Moving the culture of an organization towards innovation usually centers around one word.

Decide!

As we’ve talked about the word “decide” lately, I hope it has become clear that the word decide means that you put one option to death in order to put your resources toward a different option.

Leaders and leadership teams will often decide on a direction but neglect to let the organization below them know that they’ve decided not to spend resources on other options.

Organizations are full of people who love the security of their job. They’ve spent years learning the job, getting better at the job, and feeling secure that they can go to work every day and do the job. They’re “secure.”

But, if you are now saying to them, “We’re heading in a different direction and we don’t know yet where it will all lead.” They can often feel scared or at least insecure. They may or may not mention this insecurity but they will wonder

Do I have the skill set to do the new job?
Will my job, group, division be eliminated?
Will I be asked to relocate to a different department or location?
Am I back to ground zero in terms of my skills and worth to the company?

Without any clarity on these and other topics, people will tend to come to work every day and continue to do what they’ve always done. They’ll seek security in doing the known rather than be lost in the unknown!

Open, Transparent, Humble

In times like these (which means now, in our current environment) it’s important that leadership is open with the organization. Let them know everything that you know.

Be Transparent. If people feel like they’re not getting the whole story, they’ll either go back to what they’ve always done or abandon ship. Your best people, the ones you need the most will abandon the ship first.

Be humble. Don’t give them the impression that you have all the answers when you don’t. Let them know that you and the team are doing their best with uncertain circumstances. Taking this approach will also bring forth more innovative ideas that you wouldn’t otherwise hear.

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Blog Culture

Mental Models – Part II

by Ron Potter August 20, 2020

Because the first blog on Mental Models was running long, I decided to break it into Part I and Part II.

We’ll finish up the concept in this blog with:

Inversion
Occam’s Razor
Hanlon’s Razor and a final meaningful topic
So What?

Inversion

In general, the inversion model is a tool to improve our thinking. It simply means to turn our thinking upside down. Approach the problem in reverse order. Most of us move forward through a problem. Inversion indicates that we should work the problem backward. I’m also going to suggest that it can be particularly powerful to start with an end that we wouldn’t normally expect. Or start with the conclusion that was suggested by someone that you would never have thought of or may even think it is the wrong conclusion. However, starting with that end in mind and working back through the problem may reveal a perspective or mental model that you have never thought of or used before.

Occam’s Razor

The powerful point of Occam’s Razor is that simple solutions are more likely than complicated ones. The fewer moving parts the better.

Hanlon’s Razor

Simply put, Hanlon’s Razor says that we should assume ignorance rather than malice. Another way of putting this one is to assume the right explanation is the one that contains the least amount of intent. Our human antenna picks up quickly if we think someone is making an argument simply because they have an agenda (or intent). The least amount of malice and intent will often lead to the best solution.

So What?

I can hear many of you now saying “Ok Potter, what’s with all this drivel about Mental Models anyway? You’ve wasted two blogs going on about something that is interesting to you but has been boring trivia to me. So, what’s your point?”

Emotional Quotient

My answer goes back to a blog a wrote a couple of weeks ago titled Success. In that blog it was noted that there is no correlation between success and IQ but there is correlation between Success and EQ. If you want to be successful, increase your EQ.

High EQ people have a great deal of self-awareness. I don’t really care if you know what the mental models are or what they mean. But I really care that you realize there are multiple, legitimate mental models and you can really limit yourself if you are ignorant of which model you use or if you believe the model you use is the only one capable of coming up with the right answer. This last point can lead to alienation, distrust, and dislike of your teammates.

Be Self-Aware. It’s the first step of increasing your EQ that will lead to your success.

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Blog Culture

Manage people like Money?

by Ron Potter June 11, 2020

An Harvard Business Review article was titled “What If Companies Managed People as Carefully as They Manage Money?”

I like the idea because most companies focus a lot of their effort on how they manage money, projects, profitability, and skillsets.

I don’t like the idea because I don’t think we should manage people (It puts them in the same category as the money, projects, profitability, etc.) We should be leading people, not managing them.

IPO Preparation

One of my consulting clients was a high-tech firm that had decided to do an Initial Public Offering (IPO). This means they were moving from a privately held firm to a publicly held firm with shareholders.

They needed to convince investors to put some of their hard-earned money into the new firm, assuming it would generate a reasonable return.

Investment Bankers

There is a sub-set of the banking industry (Investment Bankers) that is solely focused on IPO’s. Once the Investment Bankers were chosen, the company put themselves in the banker’s hands in an effort to generate early and adequate investment.

So what did these bankers focus on?

The finances? No!
The quality of the leadership? No!
The competition? No!

These Investment Bankers focused on the “story.” What was the story of the company? What did the story tell the potential investor about the future? Was the story compelling enough that people would actually depart with their money and invest with the company?

IPO Preparation

The Investment Bankers sent in a team of presenting coaches to help the CEO and CFO prepare to meet potential investors.

For weeks they concentrated on the story. Was it complete? Was it compelling? Did it explain all the required changes and growth for the company? Would people be willing to invest in this company?

Roadshow

All of this was to prepare these two top officers for the “roadshow.” Over the next several weeks they would move from city to city, meet with a small group of investors and hopefully, capture their hearts and minds enough that the Investment Bankers were able to obtain commitments to invest.

Then the Investment Bankers made a statement that made me sit up and take notice.

You have 30 minutes

They told the CEO and CFO that if they didn’t capture the hearts and minds of the potential investors in 30 minutes, they were lost for forever.

30 minutes! They had 30 minutes to get people to invest their money. If it wasn’t compelling enough in the first 30 minutes, they didn’t have a second chance. They would be lost forever.

Invest more than Dollars

Then I began to think about the employees. What are we asking them to invest?

Money? In a sense yes.
Time? Yes. Be here on a regular basis. Be willing to cover any shift. Be willing to work overtime when necessary.
Effort? Be the best. Go the extra mile. Work hard and harder.
Brain? Be quick. Be innovative. Be smarter than the competition.

Invest More

In short, invest more than just dollars. Much more!

If we were willing to build a complete and compelling story about the future of the company for someone who will invest just their dollars, why are we not willing to generate even a better message for those willing to invest a lot more than just their dollars?

Investor not Asset

We often hear CEO’s and other top executives speak of employees as their most valuable asset.

I have assets. My computer is an asset. I’m willing to upgrade it, add more memory or space, install a new operating system. But at some point I say enough-is-enough and I purchase a new computer.

Do we really want to think of employees as an asset?

But, if you think about them as an investor, then you need to be willing to give them your best. You must have a compelling explanation of the future and how you’re going the get there. If you can’t express that clear, well thought out future, why would employees be willing to invest their time, effort, and intellect?

Think of your employees as investors, not assets!

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Blog Culture Culture Series

Culture – Adaptability: Creating Change

by Ron Potter September 26, 2019

One of the more impactful aspects of this Creating Change sections is summed up in the statement:

“We respond well to competitors and other changes in the business environment.”

One of my first experiences with the Denison Culture Survey was with a company that had been the undisputed leader of their industry for over 100 years. However, over the last few years, they had been losing market share to new start-ups in their industry. By the time they needed outside help, things had fallen to critical points, and their profitability had all but disappeared.

First Culture Survey

When we saw the results of their first survey, it was immediately obvious from a consulting point of view. They scored highest in the Consistency quadrant. Meaning they had been doing things in a very consistent way for over 100 years (we’ll look at the Consistency quadrant in more detail in future posts).

They scored lowest in the Creating Change section of Adaptability.

And on the statement “We respond well to competitors and other changes in the business environment,” they scored in the bottom 10% of all companies. They did NOT respond well to competitors and other changes in the business environment.

Why had they not responded?

After gathering the results of the survey, we displayed the overall graph of their results. The leadership team went silent after reviewing the results. It was not because they were in shock. It was because the results revealed what they suspected was the problem all along. They had continued to function just as they had done for over a century in spite of knowing that the market place was rapidly changing around them.

But, this visual representation of their situation allowed them to open up and be honest with each other for the first time.

We’ve always done it this way

Their first response was to admit they knew they were in trouble over three years ago when they first experienced a loss of market share and a drop in their profits. At their annual leadership retreat, they decided that the drop would be overcome if they just buckled down and did a better job. After all, they had been successful for over 100 years. If they just did a better job of doing what they did well, they would pull out of this tailspin.

We don’t have a better solution

At their leadership retreat two years ago the results had continued to drop but they decided it must be a temporary issue and if they just continued to stay focused and work harder, this would be overcome like many dips throughout their history. They didn’t have a better answer.

Now we see the problem

While they were stunned with the results of their culture survey, you could almost detect a sense of relief on many of their faces. They were all exhausted from working hard and long. They had sacrificed their personal lives including family and health just because they didn’t have a better answer. Now they could see the issue more clearly which allowed them to talk about and work toward a more feasible solution.

Coherent Change

Other areas of the Creating Change section referred to issues such as:

Flexibility
Improved processes
New ways of doing things
Lower the resistance to change
Get the entire organization pulling together in the new direction

These things they could begin to plan around. The Culture Survey had added a new vitality to the leadership team. You could feel the energy rising in the room as they began to talk about and plan for change and a new way of doing things.

Improvement

While they never fully recovered the overwhelming market share they once held, they did become a much more competitive force in the market place. They were suddenly fighting for and scrapping for every inch of growth in the market place, and the “new” competitors were fighting a new approach from an old competitor. They were now forcing changes in the industry, and the “new” competitors had to respond.

Blockbuster

If I tried to list all of the companies that were once a force in the industry but no longer existed, there would be too many to include in a blog.

I read the other day that Blockbuster (the DVD company with thousands of retail stores) had a chance to purchase Netflix for a very reasonable amount. They passed. It would have eaten into their retail store, walk-in business.

Today, Netflix is one of the hottest companies in the market place. Blockbuster doesn’t exist.

Change or Die

We’ve used this adage many times in the last several blog posts. But it’s true. If you’re not changing and adapting, you will soon be nothing more than an empty store in a strip mall with a faded outline of your logo and former glory.

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Blog Team Team Series

Team Elements – Commitment: Decision Process

by Ron Potter June 27, 2019

Understanding and using the right process is one key to decision making. It also helps assure that you’ll reach full commitment to the decision rather than compliance.

There have been a number of decision types identified but one simple list includes:

Unilateral
Consultative
Consensus
Unanimous

Unanimous

Leave that to the courtroom. It doesn’t really happen in a corporate environment.

Unilateral

This decision type has the advantages of speed, simplicity, and clarity. However, it will waste a groups intelligence, invites resistance and lowers motivation. It should be used when speed and time are paramount and there is a real danger in not making a decision immediately. It can also be used when one person or team’s decision has little effect or impact on another person or team.

But the real cost of Unilateral decisions occurs with wasted time because of lack of clarity. I have observed team time wasted by putting a “unilateral” decision on the agenda for a team meeting. Unilateral decisions should be made and then the rest of the team informed. Informing is more effective through other means (memos, emails, reports, etc) than making it a topic of a team meeting. Once a decision hits the agenda, it is assumed or at least treated as if it is up for questioning, discussion or debate. If a decision is unilateral, do not put it on the agenda!

Consensus

After observing and working with leadership teams for thirty years, I am convinced that business teams never make consensus decisions. They may talk as if it was a consensus decision but most decisions are unilateral or consultative. Don’t kid yourself.

There may be one or two decisions that must be made by consensus because they are so crucial to the future health and well being of the corporation but you cannot run a business by consensus.

Consultative

Almost all decisions are or should be consultative. However, one major key to consultative decisions is that there is a clear decision owner. I have seen hours wasted in team meetings trying to make a decision when the real issue that is being sorted out is who really owns the decision. Unfortunately, that issue is either ignored or never stated out loud. Consultative decisions must have a clear decision owner. Sort that out first before you continue with the decision-making process.

The second most important aspect of good consultative decisions is a clear process. The consultative decision leader or a good facilitator must help the team through a good process that includes more listening than talking. One of the best processes to learn is the concept of Prudence.

Prudence

Prudence is one of those ancient words that doesn’t get much use today and most people would tell me that it doesn’t fit in today’s modern business world. However, listen to the definition of Prudence:

“The perfected ability to make right decisions.”

As a leadership team, your goal is to perfect your ability to make “right” decisions! Learn to follow the process of Prudence.

The Prudence process is described as Deliberate, Decide, Do.

Deliberate well. Most teams either don’t do it well or skimp on the deliberation process in order to get to a quick decision.
Decide but be sure to use the proper decision type.
Do. Execution of the decision will be much crisper, clearer and faster if the first two steps are properly followed.

Debate, Discuss, Dialogue

Deliberation can be in the form of debate, discussion or dialogue. Let’s take a quick look at each:

Debate. If you’ve ever been on a debate team you know that the goal is to win. Often debaters are asked to take a position that they themselves don’t believe is true but the goal of winning remains. Debate creates winners and losers. Commitment will not be achieved when a portion of the team feels like they lost.
Discussion. The idea of discussion may sound more civilized but the root word for discussion is the same root word for percussion. In other words, he who can beat his drum the loudest will win the discussion. Once again, discussion creates winners and losers.
Dialogue. Dialogue is part of the Socratic method. The Greek origins are “through discourse or talk.” The Unabridged Dictionary says to “elicit a clear and consistent expression.”

Dialogue begins with eliciting, questioning, listening. Everyone must be heard and understood. (See my short book review of On Dialogue by David Bohm).

If you do a great job of deliberation, using dialogue, decisions will be made easier. A decision will not only be made easier, but there will also be a full commitment to the decisions that are reached. This happens even if individuals were opposed to the decision in the first place. Dialogue works through those differences and allows teams to get beyond compliance with full commitment.

Once full commitment has been achieved, decision execution happens. No revisiting. No dragging of feet. No sabotage. Just clean, crisp execution.

Get to full commitment by identifying your decision type and using a good process to reach commitment!

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Blog Team Team Series

Team Elements – Commitment: Building Trust

by Ron Potter June 13, 2019

Building Commitment from Unity is the last element of our TREC to build a great team. Remember that TREC is our acronym for:

Trust
Respect
Elegance
Commitment

Building Commitment requires the following three pieces:

Trust in Purpose, Leader, and Team Colleagues
Diverse Points of View
Good Process

Purpose

Building Trust in the purpose of the team can sometimes be difficult. Often team members don’t feel they have any power to set the purpose of the team or even tweak it slightly. It seems to be dictated from on high.

It’s important to note that you always have a choice.

You can go along with the purpose even if you don’t believe it.
You can decide that the purpose of the team doesn’t align with your personal values or direction and make a move.
You can be a part of building a team that’s open to the discussion about the purpose of the team to help align it with personal and corporate goals.

Going Along

Going along, even when you don’t believe in the goal can be a dangerous route. Going along will make it difficult getting out of bed in the morning and headed out to a job you don’t believe in. Not speaking up when you don’t agree with the purpose and direction has been directly linked to some of the more horrific events in life. Be very careful about making this choice, it will affect your well being and may affect the well being of others.

Make a Move

Making a move can also be a difficult decision. The need for security plays a big part in our lives and making a move means leaving what we know, even if we’re uncomfortable and moving into the unknown. The unknown is always scary. However, I have seen this play out in my life and the lives of many of the people I’ve worked with through the years. If you need to make that move, make it! Dealing with the scariness of the unknown is much better in the end that living with the consequences of staying in a place that isn’t right for you.

Build a Great Team

Being part of a great team gives us much better options in life. Building a great team starts with being able to speak the truth with each other.

All good teams start difficult discussions by being open to everyone’s beliefs and assumptions about the topic. When we understand that we’re not necessarily speaking a “truth” but only our beliefs and assumptions based on our unique lifetime of experiences, it’s easier to state a position that may be very different from the expected purpose.

By starting with beliefs and assumptions, teams can often reach a unique solution that everyone sees as positive and leads to team commitment. However, keep in mind that this process may lead you back to options one or two, going along or making a move. I don’t believe going along is ever a good option but if it leads to the need to make a move, it will be much easier to accomplish and will happen with the support of many team members which will make the decision much easier to make and execute.

Trusted Leader

Having a trusted leader for the team is also key to developing commitment. There are eight great attributes of trusted leaders but the first and most powerful one is Humility. It almost seems like a paradox or dichotomy but humble leaders are very confident and have great self-esteem. They just don’t wield either one of them like a sword. They remain very open to listening and learning from anyone and any circumstance. Research confirms time and time again, that the number one reason people leave a position is because of their boss. If you’re the leader, develop into a trusted leader. If you’re a team member, mentor your boss (mentors are not simply the older person).

Trusted Colleagues

Trusted colleagues possess two great qualities: They are truthful and they are respectful. This combination of truth and respect can be found throughout history and has a great biblical foundation. This series of Team Building started with those two attributes, truth, and respect!

Committed

Teams must be committed to the purpose, the leader, and their colleagues in order to build great teams. When you see it in action, there’s nothing quite like it. And, there’s nothing more thrilling than being a part of it. If you’re not experiencing that kind of joy in your life, figure out why you or others are not committed to the purpose, leader, and members of your team. Today!

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Blog Team Team Series

Team Elements – Respect: Envy, Anger, Grudges

by Ron Potter March 28, 2019

We’re continuing our series on building great teams. Great teams happen when we have

Truth
Respect
Elegance
Commitment

We’re still working our way through the Respect series with the final set of circumstances of Envy, Anger, and Grudges. No, great teams don’t possess these attributes, great teams avoid these attributes. Envy, Anger, and Grudges are team weaknesses that can be lethal to your team’s well-being.

Envy

Envy is the first of the team weaknesses we’ll discuss. Great teams snuff out envy whenever it rears its ugly head. Here are some attributes of Envy:

Discontented or resentful by someone else’s possessions, qualities, luck, or accomplishments, style or attribute.
An emotion which occurs when a person lacks another’s superior quality or achievement.
Desires to deprive another of what they have.
Delights in degrading those who are more deserving.

Envy occurs when someone feels inferior to others and will do what they can to undermine or chop down those who possess more or achieve more than themselves.

At its roots, this is a comparison issue. Always comparing yourself to others is a losing battle. Jordan Peterson in his book 12 Rules of Life: An antidote to chaos states in rule number 4 “Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.” Comparing yourself to who you were yesterday puts you on the path of growth.

I once had a pastor who was fond of talking about the little boy pushing his wagon up a hill. As soon as he sat down in the wagon to rest, he found himself at the bottom of the hill. Never stop growing! Never stop learning! As soon as you give up on your own growth and development, envy creeps in. You begin to be resentful of what others have or what others have become.

Envy is destructive. Its first target is yourself. Its second target is those around you. As Jordan Peterson says, an antidote to chaos is to continue growing.

Anger

As the second of the team weaknesses, Anger that is directed at circumstances or failures can be healthy if it is channeled properly. Eruptions of anger are seldom positive. Expressing anger and disappointment in a safe environment can help everyone deal with the loss and adversity.

I’ve often run exercises with teams that have experienced great loss and disappointment. Working in small groups I allow each person to express their emotions by writing them on flip charts. No holds barred. Get it all out. Once the teams have exhausted the extent of their anger, we take the flip charts that were created, post them on the wall, share them with each other and then hand every chart out to members of the team. They are then instructed to tear the flip charts into as many pieces as possible, throw the pieces into the middle of the floor (expressing as much anger as they can while doing so) and then we all jump on the pile of pieces and stomp on them as viciously as possible. By the time the stomping has slowed to a stop I always witness a moment of somber quiet. But then someone breaks out in a big grin. Another joins them. It soon turns to laughter and people start expressing how cathartic the exercise was. In one form or another people shout out “Wow, I haven’t felt this good in a long time!” The anger dissipates. Calm heads return. And a new determination emerges in the room to move on, work hard, figure out how to overcome and get better.

All too often the anger remains covert. People assume they must hold their head up high, don’t complain and keep going. When things remain covert it’s almost impossible to deal with them. Once we brought out the anger in an overt but healthy way, new energy emerges from the team and it makes it possible to move forward.

Grudges

The third and most subtle of the team weaknesses, Grudges can be caused be either envy or anger but they just keep resurfacing over time. It’s probably because it remains overt until that moment when it erupts once again.

One of my teams referred to the practices as “replaying old tapes.” Something would happen on the team that didn’t seem to make sense to me and finally, someone else would explain, “Oh, they’re just replaying old tapes from what happened a few years ago.” A few years ago? Are you kidding me? People are still holding and expressing grudges after a few years and no one has dealt with it yet? Amazing.

Leaders and teams must call out grudges and put a stop to them. Maybe it will take a team exercise like the anger one described above. Maybe it will take some one-on-one discussions with the leader or a coach. Maybe a leader needs to decide to help a team member move on if they can’t get past old issues. Grudges can be like deep infections. They continue to resurface. Sometimes a mild antibiotic will heal an infection. I dealt with one of those antibiotic-resistant infections a few years ago. It took a direct injection of the most powerful antibiotic every three hours for six weeks.

Infections can be tough to deal with. Grudges can be just as tough because they pop to the surface periodically. You must get to the root of them and deal with them to have healthy teams.

In this post, we’ve talked about the team weaknesses you should avoid to build great teams. In the previous post, we talked about the positive things that need to be present to develop great Respect within teams. We’ll wrap up Respect with our next post to pull it all together with focus.

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Blog Favored Trust Me

Favored Are Those with Unshakable Ethics

by Ron Potter October 15, 2018

In their book Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It, James Kouzes and Barry Posner surveyed thousands of people across this country and around the world. In the process they completed over four hundred written case studies. As they identified characteristics most people desire in a leader, honesty or ethics was identified more frequently than any other trait.

That seems to make perfect sense. People are most willing to follow someone they can trust. They want to know that leaders will be straight with them, will be consistent, will follow through on what they say, and will be true to a set of values. They want leaders with unshakable ethics.

So what has happened to us? As we write this book, corporate America is hurting. Never before have so many executives been under investigation, and never before have so many not been trusted. USA Today reports,

More than seven in 10 Americans say they distrust CEOs of large corporations. Nearly eight in 10 believe that top executives of large companies will take “improper actions” to help themselves at the expense of their companies. In the past nine months, the percentage of Americans who say they see Big Business as an actual threat to the nation’s future has nearly doubled, to 38%.

This lack of trust seems to have resulted from a corporate culture in which leaders have shown a complete disregard for personal ethics.

BusinessWeek Online reported that on February 7, 1999, the audit committee of Enron Corporation’s board of directors heard the company auditors describe Enron’s accounting practices as “high risk.” In response, none of the directors objected to the procedures, requested a second opinion, or demanded more prudent measures. Further, a Senate subcommittee investigation found that similar reports by Arthur Andersen personnel occurred once or twice each year from 1999 through 2001 with the same result: Not one director drilled deep enough into the details or objected to the high-risk practices.

Building trust with employees, peers, and investors starts and ends with integrity. Consciously or subconsciously, all leaders decide what values to adopt. Either they choose truth, honesty, and fairness or they choose “cooking the books,” “image managing,” and winning at all costs.

If integrity is so important to people, why don’t our leaders seek to live it? Is it a quality you seek in your own life? If people do not believe your words or if they doubt the credibility of your actions, how will you accomplish anything of value? Who will take you seriously?

Jesus said that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Integrity represents a great treasure. Seek it with all your heart.

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Blog Team

Teamwork is Hard

by Ron Potter October 4, 2018

I’ve shared in the past that the name of my company, Team Leadership Culture, is in that order for a reason. I firmly believe that building great teams is the key to success for any enterprise. I’ve never really had anyone disagree with me on that issue.

Yes, there have been the hard-driving bosses (notice I didn’t refer to them as leaders) who tell me that “The difference between success and failure it’s about getting people to do what they’re told to do.” There’s really nothing I can say or do in those circumstances. I usually just wait and then help pick up the pieces. Believe me, great teams make the difference.

So why is it so hard and requires a continual process to build great teams?

One of the main reasons is that:

It takes everyone to make teams work and be great—build teamwork
It only takes one person to cause team failure—breakdown teamwork

The tricky part is that it’s not always the same person at any given point in time.

Sometimes the team will enter a high-risk situation. One that will require a decision when there are still a lot of moving parts or there is still a great deal of ambiguity. It might be the most risk-averse team member that causes the delay that brings about failure.

Sometimes it happens in times of great success when one person feels they didn’t get enough credit for the success or their contributions were not appreciated. This can create a smoldering resentment that will cause failure in the near future.

Successful teams are constantly “sharpening the saw.” You might recognize that statement as number seven of Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. His point is that even though you build in the other 6 habits, you need to constantly sharpen the saw. You need to constantly review your effectiveness then learn, grow, and get better. Teams need to do the same.

Truth

Teams need to speak the truth to each other. This attribute falls away quickly by the error of omission. Not saying something when something needs saying.

Respect

Teams need to hold each other in high regard. This disappears almost instantly when someone feels slighted or under-appreciated.

Elegance

Teams need to constantly work the friction out of the systems. As soon as the lack of clarity or ambiguity creeps into the system, friction is created.

Commitment

Teams need to reach unity and reinforce commitment. Without either you haven’t really accomplished team!

Teamwork is hard, but teams are the most important aspect of success. Work hard and constantly on building team.

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Blog Leadership

Circle of Influence – Part II

by Ron Potter September 13, 2018

I was a little surprised by the number of comments and feedback I received recently about the Circle of Influence post.

The point was to be perfectly clear about the part of the organization you can influence versus those you can’t influence even though you may have concern for what’s happening or not happening “over there.”

Wisdom is knowing the difference and acting accordingly.

How should our behavior differ when we’re in a position of influence vs areas where we can only express concern?

Before we delve into the different behaviors, let’s look at one more circle. Our circle of control.

If we think of three concentric circles, the outer circle would be labeled Concern, the next inner, smaller circle would be labeled Influence and the smallest circle at the center would be labeled Control.

Circle of Control

Note that this is described as the smallest circle of the three. Our control circle is much smaller than we think and should be used so sparingly that people are almost shocked if it’s used at all. Great leaders don’t control, great leaders influence. As a kid, I always vowed that I would never use the phrase “Because I said so” when I became a parent. My daughters will tell you that I didn’t stick to that vow. But even as a kid, knowing a parent has ultimate authority, we still don’t like being told to do something simply because power and control are held by the other person. We don’t like it as an adult either. Just like there were moments when our parents needed to play the control card, there are also moments that we need to play the same card as a leader. But with each playing of the card, your actual influence diminishes. Play that card only in critical situations.

Circle of Influence

This is the circle where most leaders and team members should be found. Influence is defined by “the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something.” Notice when someone is having a positive effect on your Character, Development or Behavior. It takes a great deal of trust, respect and caring. Without trust, respect and caring, we have no ability to influence. This is where the best leaders live. The best leaders are influencers.

Circle of Concern

This is a legitimate area in our corporate lives. We should indeed have concern for the entire organization and its success. But, if we treat it like a Circle of Influence rather than expressing our “concern” we can create havoc in the organization. Crossing this boundary between influence and concern causes some of the most disruptions I’ve seen in organizations.

I even worked with one CEO who seemed to use the lack of clarity about these boundaries to push his will on the organization. Causing great destruction along the way.

This was a large company and therefore had Executive-VP’s which made up the Leadership Team around the CEO and then many VP’s below these EVP’s who were responsible for the various departments. There was one strong point of disagreement between two of the EVP’s. The CEO who was a tough, hard-charging type assumed that the two EVP’s would battle it out until someone won the argument. He believed in the survival of the strongest. But, rather than fighting it out and coming to a conclusion, these two EVP’s decided to “agree to disagree” and never solved the issue. They simply never talked about it or dealt with it.

While the CEO was unwilling to push the issue at his Leadership Team level, he went one level down and talked to the VP who had the reputation of getting things done. He seemed to give his full authority to this VP so this VP charged ahead. Unfortunately, he quickly ran up against the “agree to disagree” level and neither EVP would budge. I was working closely with this and became aware that the VP was considering leaving the company because of the inability to push forward with what the CEO was “demanding.” Then I shared the Circle of Influence/Concern concept.

The VP soon understood that this was a no-win situation and was personally frustrated enough to go back to the CEO and place the issue back in his lap to solve at his leadership team level. That took nerve but it also produced clarity and eventually results.

Make sure you’re fighting battles that can be won. If you’re trying to win battles in your area of concern, you’re destined to fail.

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