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BlogCulture

ABC or DEF. Which Grade do you receive?

by Ron Potter

Based on our grades from school most of us are going to think that ABC is probably the place we want to be. However, that does not apply to this set of circumstances. In this case, I define ABC as Always Blaming and Complaining.

ABC.

What do you hear from the ABC crowd? Blaming.

  • blaming others
  • blaming circumstances
  • blaming family situations
  • blaming traffic situations.

Plenty of blame to go around. They never seem to hold themselves unaccountable.

Along with blaming, complaining is a very close relative. Complaining about the circumstances that they seem to have no control over.

One of my favorite adages through the years is something called The Serenity Prayer.

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

With the complainers, everything seems to fall into the “I cannot change” category but there is no serenity. There is a lack of courage to identify and change the things that are possible to change.

In many cases, they seem to want to accomplish great things or tackle some new entrepreneurial endeavor. But the first thing out of their mouth is complaining about why that’s not going to happen.

  • Government regulations are going to keep them from succeeding
  • Nobody will listen to them
  • Investors won’t invest in them

Always blaming and complaining is not where you want to be.

DEF.

DEF stands for Dependable, Effective, and Friendly.

Being dependable means doing the things that you have committed to do. It has as much to do with integrity as it does anything else.

  • When you commit to something
  • When you agree to something
  • When you say you will do something

Do it!

Can people depend on you? People figure that out quickly. If they can’t depend on you:

  • They’ll stop turning to you
  • You’ll do less and less work over the time (becoming expendable)
  • Those who are dependable get more and more assigned to them because they can be counted on.
  • Over time, this causes great disruption within organizations.

Are you effective? We all tackle our work, both individually and in teams, but how effective are you?

All kinds of issues can come into play here. One is perfectionism.

Do you have to have everything absolutely perfect? Does everything have to be perfect before you release it? Perfectionism usually gets to a self-esteem issue and really doesn’t do the organization any good. Do the work that you need to do. Figure out what’s important. Stay focused on those key important issues and be effective at what you accomplish.

Friendly. This may sound a little out of place here, but one interesting experiment I run with teams is titled The Perception Exercise.

I share one list of characteristics with half the team and another list with the other half. Once they’ve each observed their list, and understood it, I start asking them about the characteristics of this individual.

  • Are they dependable?
  • Are they effective?
  • Are they honest?
  • Are they trustworthy?
  • Will they be successful in life?
  • Do you want them on your team?

And one half of the team typically scores that individual much lower than the other half. The interesting difference is that the lists are identical in terms of characteristics, except for one word.

One list contains the word warm. “This tends to be a warm individual.”

The other list contains the word cold. “This tends to be a cold individual.”

Those two words, whether we perceive the person to be warm or cold, friendly or not, shapes our whole view of their performance, contribution and future success. We even decide if we want them as part of our team or not. Psychologists tell us that we will make a warm or cold judgment in the first 15 seconds of meeting a person.

Sometimes it’s very difficult to figure out where we are ourselves, and we need to get some feedback on this. But quite honestly, I believe that if you are very thoughtful, intentful and honest with yourself, you can decide whether you fall more on the ABC side or the DEF side. Keep in mind that if you fall on the ABC, always blaming and complaining, you may be attempting to avoid some immediate pain, but in the long term, none of that will lead to success or happiness in your life. However, if you’re one of those people who fall on the DEF side of the scale, dependable, effective, friendly, we can predict with good accuracy much more long-term happiness and success and productivity in your life.

Give yourself a grade, see where you come out on this one.

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5 Steps to Standing for Something GreaterBlogLeadership

5 Steps to Standing for Something Greater – Part III: Elevate People to a Higher Purpose

by Ron Potter

People do not like to be put in boxes, and just as important, people do not like to be in the dark, outside the door where company values and vision are shaped. People are less energized and tend to drift when they are unsure of how they should be operating within an organization. People need to see their leaders’ commitment to values, and they want a part in helping to shape their organization’s core values and vision.

So how do you show this? There are five steps to helping your company and your team stand for something greater and this week, we’re digging into step 3.

Elevate people to a higher purpose

Lincoln motivated people by leaving his office and spending time with everyone in the government and military hierarchy. One hundred and twenty years later, Tom Peters dubbed this kind of management style as “management by walking around.” When a leader gets out and interacts with all the people, the vision is communicated, the values are acted upon, the leader is observed, and the people are inspired.

Whether or not leaders literally walk around, the important factor is elevating and transforming people to serve a higher purpose. People respond by seeking higher moral standards for themselves and the organization. A higher purpose serves to develop common ground, and the common ground leads to energy in attaining goals. It creates a center of importance around which the team can rally and be unified.

How are you seeking to develop common ground for your team or organization? Have you seen any benefits to “management by walking around” in your own management style?

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BlogTrust Me

Team Vision

by Ron Potter

Abraham Lincoln united his followers with the vision of preserving the Union and abolishing slavery. Lincoln successfully gathered people to his vision, based on a strong set of personal values, and he accomplished an incredible feat. How was Lincoln able to do this? How is any leader able to set vision into reality?

Consider the following suggestions:

Establish a clear direction

Have you ever taught someone to drive a car? As teens learn to drive, their first instinct is to watch the road directly in front of the car. This results in constant course correction—the front wheels turn sharply as the car swerves from roadside shoulder to the center divider, back and forth. When you approach a curve, the swerving worsens! But when young motorists learn to look as far down the road as possible while they drive, the car’s path straightens out. They are then able to negotiate corners, obstacles, and other dangers much more smoothly. A distant reference point makes the path straighter.

Focus your attention

We often focus on too many methods and alternatives. Building vision means focusing our attention on that vision. Focus is necessary so that lower priorities do not steal time from the central vision. If the vision is deeply planted in your heart and mind, you can proactively, rather than reactively, respond to outside forces and issues.

Articulate values

Leaders need to clearly express their inner values. On what values is a vision based? Team members need to know—and leaders need to share—this basic insight. People knew that Abraham Lincoln was a man of integrity, honesty, hard work, and fairness. These basic values supported his vision of a unified country.

Enlist others to help with implementation

In his book Leading Change John Kotter writes:

No one individual, even a monarch-like CEO, is ever able to develop the right vision, communicate it to large numbers of people, eliminate all the key obstacles, generate short-term wins, lead and manage dozens of change projects, and anchor new approaches deep in the organization’s culture. Weak committees are even worse. A strong guiding coalition is always needed—one with the right composition, level of trust, and shared objective. Building such a team is always an essential part of the early stages of any effort to restructure, reengineer, or retool a set of strategies [or, I may add, move a vision to reality].

Communicate, communicate, communicate

Leaders who want to create and implement a vision need to start a fire in the belly of the people they lead. They need to use all available forms of communication to get the word out. It is akin to brand management. A company that wants to launch a new brand will use every form of communication available to get people to try the new products. The same is true with implementing a vision. Leaders cannot overcommunicate what they see in the future.

Empower followers

In order to implement a vision, leaders need to encourage clear buy-in from the people. This requires moving beyond communication to collaboration. The goal is to develop a supportive environment and bring along other people with differing talents and abilities. It also means that when the followers truly understand the vision, the leader needs to step aside and let them do the work to “produce” the vision. The leader needs to give them the authority and responsibility to do the work necessary in order to bring his or her vision to fruition.

I witnessed a meeting recently in which the leader brought together a crossfunctional group to brainstorm some marketing campaign ideas for the company. People from different departments assembled and were led through a planned exercise on corporate marketing focus for the following year. The best idea came from a person far removed from the marketing department. She quite innocently blurted out just the right direction and even suggested a great theme for the entire campaign.

If the leaders of this organization had simply called together the “marketing types,” they would have missed a tremendous idea. Or if the leader had done the work alone and not opened it up to input from others, he might not have secured the necessary buy-in from the staff to implement the project. Studies show that when people understand the values and are part of the vision and decision-making process, they can better handle conflicting demands of work and higher levels of stress.

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BlogLeadership

Poke in the Eye with a Sharp Stick

by Ron Potter

How much does your point of view affect the conversation?

Joshua Spodek, author of Leadership Step by Step was about to interview me for a podcast episode on his website. Or so I thought.

Josh and I had spoken a few times and I had recently read his book. Josh is good at putting together his own podcast on his website and I wanted to learn. But after a few minutes into our conversation with Josh asking me what I wanted to talk about and me asking him about how he would like to conduct the interview, we both realized we had made different assumptions. Josh thought I wanted to learn by conducting an interview with him. I assumed he would conduct an interview with me and I would learn from the experience.

But, those misaligned assumptions left both of us thinking about where this thing was going and what was wrong with the other person. When we both realized what was happening we had a good laugh and even told some stories of previous experiences of misaligned assumptions. It ended well because both of us had a desire for it to work and both appreciated the value that the other person brought to the conversations. Business meetings don’t always go that well.

The assumptions we start with shape our understanding of the conversation.

What’s the point of your point of view?

  • Defend your position?
  • Win the argument?
  • Gain power over the other person (your victim)?

Or

  • Learn?
  • Listen?
  • Share your assumptions so that we can build a new outlook together?

When you finally realize that your assumptions are just that, assumptions, you then have a fighting chance for something good to emerge.

Each person is so unique in their background, experience, education, learning method and any number of variables, you should naturally assume each person will have a different assumption on a given topic. All of them valid.

The validity of assumptions is a complicated topic and is tied up in the complexity of assumptions. What makes an assumption valid for you?

  • Facts, logic?
  • A good feel for correctness?
  • Conceptually valid?
  • Promotes good will?
  • Maintains relationships?

All these reasons are valid. But only one may be valid for you. That’s OK unless you begin to assume that your judgment of validity is the only valid approach. Then you’re dead wrong. All assumptions are valid for the person who holds them. Our job as leaders and team members is to listen to and understand the diversity of assumptions and then build a team view that will create team commitment.

If the point of your assumptions isn’t to build toward a joint, collaborative team assumption and commitment, then you’re just poking people in the eye with a sharp stick.

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BlogLeadership

You’re About to Get Fired

by Ron Potter

Clients have asked me to deliver that message. I’m often seen as the last chance to correct a leadership issue that has derailed a leader. On one hand, they see me as an investment in trying to save the leader. On the other hand, they’re hiring me to deliver the message that wasn’t heard: “Either change or lose your job.”

A few times I’ve had the opportunity to look back over several performance reviews. I’ve found it fascinating that the issue is always there, in writing, in past reviews. Why wasn’t the message heard?

“Why hasn’t anyone told me this before?” This is the response that I always hear. They just heard from me that they may lose their job and they’re shocked. “Nobody ever told them before!” When I point out that I see the issue in their performance reviews they still seemed shocked. “Yes, it’s there, but I didn’t know it was that bad.”

Bill Benjamin with IHHP speaks to this issue in a course called “Difficult Conversations” as part of “the Performing Under Pressure series”.

Here is a distinct pattern we see over and over again in the leadership development training programs we run: when leaders face a difficult conversation, a feedback conversation or a performance review, most cover 85, 90 or 92% of the content of what they want to say in the conversation, but a funny thing happens when they get to the more difficult part of the conversation, what we call the Last 8%. When they hit this part of the conversation—where there are consequences to what they are saying—they start to notice that the other person is becoming more anxious and (because emotions are infectious) they themselves become more anxious.

It is at this stage when many, out of anxiety, avoid the last 8% of the conversation and never tell the other person the entire feedback they have for them. The conversation ends and both individuals leave thinking they had the full conversation. Of course, they never did.

Yet neither fully comprehends it. First, the person on the receiving end can’t read the leaders mind and so walks away thinking they had the full conversation. The leader thinks they talked about most of what they wanted to talk about and deludes themselves into thinking they had the full conversation.

That description of the missing 8% explained a lot. The leader would always say to me, “Of course I talked to them about the issue. I made it very clear they needed to correct this.” The receiver would always say to me, “Why didn’t anyone tell me this before? Why didn’t they make it clear to me?”

The last 8%. Are you finishing your conversations? Are you pushing through to the end? Does the other person understand? Just because you said it doesn’t mean you communicated it. Did the other person hear you? Do they understand the gravity of the situation?

By not finishing the feedback you may be avoiding pain and suffering at the moment. But the future pain and suffering far outweigh avoidance. Avoidance of pain and suffering leads to mental illness. That’s what Dr. Scott Peck taught us in his book The Road Less Traveled.

Don’t avoid. Persevere.

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BlogCulture

What’s the point of your point of view?

by Ron Potter

The world doesn’t change but your point of view changes the world.

Leadership Step-by-Step by Joshua Spodek is one of my recent book reviews. Josh and I were able to get acquainted over the internet and phone and decided to work on a podcast together. Josh had been doing podcasts and I was anxious to learn from experiencing the process.

We corresponded over a couple of weeks leading up to the interview for the podcast. And even though we exchanged a few emails about topics, the start of the process turned very awkward.

Being cordial, Josh asked me a few questions and then hesitated.  He was waiting for me to kick off the interview process.

I was enjoying the early exchange but then seemed to run out of things to say.  I was waiting for him to kick off the interview process.

It dawned on each of us that we were expecting the other person to lead and record the interview. We approached a very simple and enjoyable situation from different points of view.  It became awkward for both of us.

We persevered and had a wonderful exchange of ideas and thoughts.

Josh must have been thinking “This is awkward and this guy doesn’t know what he’s doing. Am I about to waste an hour of my valuable time?” What if Josh had turned those questions into a point-of-view?

  • This guy is a loser.
  • I’m not going to get anything out of this exchange.

The interview would have ended ugly with no real value to either of us.

But Josh came into the interview with a good point-of-view. He believed there was

  • Value in learning from other people (maybe questioning this particular person)
  • It was always worthwhile to listen and learn.

With that point-of-view, Josh lives in a much more positive world that many of us.

I could list dozens of different point-of-views that Josh may bring  to the interview.  8 out of 10 of them would have led to a negative result.

But that didn’t happen. Josh starts each day with a point-of-view that the world is an amazing place full of amazing people. He believes that we can learn so much from each other if we

  • understand and lead ourselves before we
  • understand and lead others (check out his book for lessons on this concept).

We had an enjoyable interview (that ran overtime) and I look forward learning more from Josh in the future.

What point of view do you bring to the table?

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BlogLeadership

How to put your audience asleep in one easy step

by Ron Potter

Over the last few weeks with different clients from different industries I’ve suffered through similar and equally bad presentations. The presenters themselves were not bad or boring. Quite the contrary, they were highly competent and enthusiastic about their topic. But they all made one fatal flaw. They used Docuslides instead of presentation slides.

Docuslides are documents but they’re thrown up on the screen for a presentation. You’ve all seen them. They usually include some form of the following:

  • Title
  • Sub-Title
  • Four to six boxes with headings and either four bullet items each or a full paragraph of information.
  • Or worse, the four to six boxes are down the left side of the slide with a chart on the right side with all the same words arranged into some sort of graph or icon.
  • Plus, all of the bullet items or paragraphs are down to 12 point font or less to fit everything in.

Document! Handout. Pamphlets. Anything but slides.

I’m not the best presenter in the world, Steve Jobs may hold that title. But I do spend my days attempting to get concepts and ideas across to my audience of corporate leaders in a way that is remembered after they walk out of our session. When I’m at my best I follow three simple steps for slide preparation.

Step One

Capture all of my thoughts and ideas onto as many slides as it takes. Put some organization to the slides as I create them but the main point is to capture all of my thoughts in as many words at it takes. These slides are a little rougher in format but they look similar to the docuslides that I often see.

Step Two

Eliminate 90% of the words. Boil down what I’m trying to say to a few, very clear descriptive words. I should be able to put these in a fairly large font (24 point) and it shouldn’t clutter the slide.

Step Three

Move the words currently on the page to the note section of the slide (which the viewer never sees) and replace the few words with a single word, icon, image or short video. Something that makes a clear visual image of your main point. Large font, easy to see from the back of the room. No doubt about what the word or image is. When half the audience has gotten out of their seats and are standing along the side of the conference room so they can get close enough to the screen to read the words, you know you’ve completely failed as a world class presenter.

I remember reading a quote from a Silicon Valley investor that went something like this: If you cannot describe what you do in ten words or less, I’m not investing, I’m not interested, I’m not buying. When you’re in front of an audience with a slide presentation, you’re selling. It may be an idea or presenting your case for a decision but you’re selling and you need your audience to buy. If you can’t do it in ten words or less, they’re not going to buy.

Get rid of the docuslides. Get better at presenting. Leadership is selling; ideas, beliefs, visions, directions. Work at presenting with as few words as possible.

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Rocket feedback systems
Absurd!BlogIn-Depth Book Reviews

Absurd!: We Want Not What We are Missing, but More of What We Already Have

by Ron Potter

Rocket feedback systemsFeedback. That word alone strikes fear in some and appreciation in others. The word was originally coined during the early days of rocketry. When the rocket scientist pioneers were trying to figure out how to design, build and fly rockets, they quickly found that they could generate enough thrust to make the rockets fly. What they couldn’t do was hit a target. They had to spend more time and brain power developing what they termed “feedback systems” so they could adjust the thrusters to hit the desired target.

If you look around any corporate team, thrust is not usually the problem. There is enough education, experience and drive to accomplish almost any goal. The problem is aligning all of that thrust to hit the desired target. Feedback is needed.

So why do we resist or ignore feedback? Farson tells us “One study shows that people wanted for themselves not something that was missing in them and that others might think important to them to have – but more of what was already their special attribute. When people described what they wanted for themselves, they seldom mentioned qualities that others would later suggest were missing from their personality or performance.”

Leadership teams are filled with people who have been good at what they do. It’s their expertise, knowledge, and productivity that has rewarded them through the years and brought them to a leadership role. The problem is that leadership requires trust, influence, and alignment of goals. Farson puts it this way “The difficulty for all of us is that our absorption with what we do well may blind us to what will enable us to do even better.   The particular challenge for managers is to remain mindful that organizations can set themselves up for trouble when they rely solely on the things they are already doing well and fail to see what they really need to do.”

We seldom need feedback on our technical skills or expertise. We need feedback to get better at leadership which includes building trust, aligning goals and creating a commitment to the overall good of the team and company.

Feedback is required to hit a target. What’s your target? Are you soliciting the needed feedback?

I’m continuing my series on an in-depth look at a wonderful little book that’s twenty years old this year. The title is Management of the Absurd by Richard Farson. You may want to consider dropping back and reading the previous blog posts about ABSURD! I think it will put each new one in great context.

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Conversation Interpretation
BlogCulture

Assuming Positive Intent

by Ron Potter

Conversation InterpretationThis has been a stalwart statement in many corporate environments for many years. It’s written on many walls as part of the values list that many corporations generate. It’s spoken often. Assume Positive Intent! It’s just seldom followed.

Why do we have so much difficulty assuming positive intent? I have some theories and even some science that explains why our brain often has difficulty assuming the best. What is clear, it’s a vicious, self-fulfilling prophecy. Once we believe we experienced bad intend, that belief system continues to reinforce the perception by filtering behaviors and circumstances from that point of view. It’s known as confirmation bias. Every behavior begins to confirm our bias.

The Most Respectful Interpretation

My favorite blogger, Shane Parrish of Farnam Street blog speaks to this concept when he references Brene Brown. Brown speaks of Dr. Jean Kantambu Latting, a professor at University of Houston. Dr. Latting says “What is the most generous assumption you can make about this person’s intentions or what this person said?” Notice what the question changes. We are no longer trying to assume positive intent, especially when we don’t assume it in the first place. We are now asking ourselves a question. What will we do? What is the most generous assumption we can make?

Our first reaction probably doesn’t reflect much generosity. But that’s the point. If you’re not being generous, you’re not answering the question. Take a deep breath, let you anger subside and ask yourself again, what is the most generous assumption you can make? While you may not be feeling generous, the question is still asking you to be generous in your assumption. “Well, to be generous I might assume that they had a family emergency and therefore couldn’t respond to me when I needed it.” A family emergency? I hope everything is OK. Now you’re even feeling generous, not just acting generous. How do you think the other person would respond if you expressed genuine concern about their well-being as you inquire once again about your need?

What is you most respectful interpretation? It can change the dynamics completely.

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