Everyone needs to stop being so sensitive...AND...Everyone needs to start being a lot more sensitive.
It's all about perspective!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
CAROL BURNETT...THOUGHT LEADER
Well, maybe not. However, her character on a recent episode of Law and Order (yes that is definitely casting against type!) had something to really chew on....
"Nobody said life was going to be fair...just eventful."
How true!
"Nobody said life was going to be fair...just eventful."
How true!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND...OR NOT...
"Seek first to understand, then to be understood."
That’s some very famous advice given by an author who has some truly brilliant tenets in his book the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People…Steven Covey. However, to what level do you need to understand your people?
Stick with me here….When I say level of understanding, I mean do you need to get to where you truly understand in great detail to the point of fully assimilating a reason for a person’s needs? For instance, referencing yesterday's "Cable Bill" post, what if I had not heard the undertone comment...yet the group still insisted that the $40 change was important. Would I have been flexible if I didn't understand the driver?
Sometimes, leaders have to understand that the driver is what their people want...period...even if they don't understand the why behind it, and it may even conflict with their own logic. That doesn't mean applying no analytics or senior-level judgment to a decision, or giving everyone everything all the time. It means making your "understanding" of something perhaps a bit more uncomfortable and nebulous to your own frame of reference!
That’s some very famous advice given by an author who has some truly brilliant tenets in his book the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People…Steven Covey. However, to what level do you need to understand your people?
Stick with me here….When I say level of understanding, I mean do you need to get to where you truly understand in great detail to the point of fully assimilating a reason for a person’s needs? For instance, referencing yesterday's "Cable Bill" post, what if I had not heard the undertone comment...yet the group still insisted that the $40 change was important. Would I have been flexible if I didn't understand the driver?
Sometimes, leaders have to understand that the driver is what their people want...period...even if they don't understand the why behind it, and it may even conflict with their own logic. That doesn't mean applying no analytics or senior-level judgment to a decision, or giving everyone everything all the time. It means making your "understanding" of something perhaps a bit more uncomfortable and nebulous to your own frame of reference!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
CAN A CABLE BILL CHANGE THE UNIVERSE?
Well, it changed mine...perhaps not how you'd expect. One of my favorite activities is having round tables with the front line employees in my organization. I don't get to do it nearly as often as I'd like, but it is incredibly valuable.
In one such exercise, I was sitting with around 12 folks discussing compensation issues, and the possibility of changes to comp plans. This particular group was composed of salespeople, darn good ones too, by and large. If there is anything near and dear to the hearts of commissioned sellers...it's their comp.
Appreciating that fact, I had put a lot of thought (I thought!) into an approach that focused on the big picture. One change that had been considered (but discounted) was a change that would have raised base comp by a mere $40 a month. Being the enlightened big thinker I thought I was, I made an offhanded remark about how that kind of change isn't what these folks would be interested in. Well, so softly she thought I didn't hear, one of my folks said under her breath to nobody in particular...."That would pay my cable bill."
Thunder struck, universe changed.
A trap that is so easy to fall into as a leader is thinking that you know what your people need without asking them...even when you sincerely have their best interests at heart. Are you setting up structures that let you hear their voices...even when they are talking to themselves?
In one such exercise, I was sitting with around 12 folks discussing compensation issues, and the possibility of changes to comp plans. This particular group was composed of salespeople, darn good ones too, by and large. If there is anything near and dear to the hearts of commissioned sellers...it's their comp.
Appreciating that fact, I had put a lot of thought (I thought!) into an approach that focused on the big picture. One change that had been considered (but discounted) was a change that would have raised base comp by a mere $40 a month. Being the enlightened big thinker I thought I was, I made an offhanded remark about how that kind of change isn't what these folks would be interested in. Well, so softly she thought I didn't hear, one of my folks said under her breath to nobody in particular...."That would pay my cable bill."
Thunder struck, universe changed.
A trap that is so easy to fall into as a leader is thinking that you know what your people need without asking them...even when you sincerely have their best interests at heart. Are you setting up structures that let you hear their voices...even when they are talking to themselves?
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
WE AREN'T CURING CANCER HERE (OR ARE WE?)
Since MarketStar is a sales outsourcing company, and not a medical or pharmaceutical organization, some of my fellow executives sometimes put the trials and travails of our business into perspective during tough times with the familiar missive: “We’re not curing cancer here…” That may be the case…directly. However, I just got some incredible news this weekend that a member of my organization got a clean bill of health after a battle with this insidious disease. This person had an incredible story of overcoming obstacles even before they were diagnosed with this latest challenge…but they are as private as they are tough, so I cannot share details.
That being said, moments like this and news like this make me reflect on the responsibility that we as leaders have to our organizations. My leadership team and I have built an organization here that supports people through their difficult times, showing flexibility for their needs while they do their jobs.
But more basically, if leaders in any organization do not manage business aggressively, ethically and professionally, they cannot provide the business opportunities that lead to the jobs that lead to the insurance coverage that lead to the treatment options….that lead to curing cancer.
So, maybe your job description doesn’t involve saving the world. But, what impact will the solid decisions you make today have on your people…and their families? Leadership can be a lonely and frustrating thing, particularly in challenging times when you feel you may not be in control of everything you used to be. But remember, the impact you have can be bigger than you sometimes stop to realize.
That being said, moments like this and news like this make me reflect on the responsibility that we as leaders have to our organizations. My leadership team and I have built an organization here that supports people through their difficult times, showing flexibility for their needs while they do their jobs.
But more basically, if leaders in any organization do not manage business aggressively, ethically and professionally, they cannot provide the business opportunities that lead to the jobs that lead to the insurance coverage that lead to the treatment options….that lead to curing cancer.
So, maybe your job description doesn’t involve saving the world. But, what impact will the solid decisions you make today have on your people…and their families? Leadership can be a lonely and frustrating thing, particularly in challenging times when you feel you may not be in control of everything you used to be. But remember, the impact you have can be bigger than you sometimes stop to realize.
Monday, March 23, 2009
SEINFELD AND SYNCHRONICITY
Pick a TV show, any show. You've got a lot of choices. In the US, the closest I could come was 4,500 different series (http://epguides.com/) but there are likely many more than that. So what does that have to do with leadership?
I was returning from a lunch meeting with Paul Stout, the M* VP who reports to me and is the GM of our Cisco programs around the world. He told me..."I just finally watched that episode of...". But inexplicably for Paul, who is an incredibly gifted storyteller, he couldn't remember the show he was trying to tell me about. Perhaps it was his concern (well placed as it turned out) over his alma mater BYU being about to lose in the opening round of the Big Dance.
Regardless of the reason for his lapse, he could not remember the name of the show. So, not wanting to wait longer than I had to to hear one of Paul's stories, I guessed..."SEINFELD?" Wouldn't you know it...that was the show! Out of literally thousands of series to pick from (trust me, Paul has some eclectic tastes in all things entertainment) I can't really recall Paul ever talking about Seinfeld before, and Seinfeld, as popular as it was, is not really at the top of the American consciousness at the moment. But right there, was a microcosm of the relationship Paul and I have built over some very challenging and rewarding years working together. He didn't have to say it, and I knew it.
Now, I am not advocating that you as a leader should be guessing every single thing that your team members are going to say or do. Far from it. But, more often than not, you should be sensing where your team is heading, even perhaps before they do. How in sync are you with your team?
I was returning from a lunch meeting with Paul Stout, the M* VP who reports to me and is the GM of our Cisco programs around the world. He told me..."I just finally watched that episode of...". But inexplicably for Paul, who is an incredibly gifted storyteller, he couldn't remember the show he was trying to tell me about. Perhaps it was his concern (well placed as it turned out) over his alma mater BYU being about to lose in the opening round of the Big Dance.
Regardless of the reason for his lapse, he could not remember the name of the show. So, not wanting to wait longer than I had to to hear one of Paul's stories, I guessed..."SEINFELD?" Wouldn't you know it...that was the show! Out of literally thousands of series to pick from (trust me, Paul has some eclectic tastes in all things entertainment) I can't really recall Paul ever talking about Seinfeld before, and Seinfeld, as popular as it was, is not really at the top of the American consciousness at the moment. But right there, was a microcosm of the relationship Paul and I have built over some very challenging and rewarding years working together. He didn't have to say it, and I knew it.
Now, I am not advocating that you as a leader should be guessing every single thing that your team members are going to say or do. Far from it. But, more often than not, you should be sensing where your team is heading, even perhaps before they do. How in sync are you with your team?
Friday, March 20, 2009
100 FASCINATING PEOPLE I (DIDN'T) MEET IN AIRPORTS
Traveling across America and Asia in the past decade, I’ve invariably met interesting people on planes. OJ’s lawyer Johnny Cochrane was incredibly short. Management guru Jim Collins was incredibly quiet. Actress Lisa Kudrow was incredibly nothing like Phoebe. However, some of the most fascinating people are actually the people who work in airports. Not the people at the ticket counters or running the security (if you can call it that) checkpoints. No, it’s the cashiers at the shops, the janitors in the bathrooms, the van drivers of the shuttles.
By and large, in the US in particular, these folks are immigrants. I determined one day a number of years ago that I would meet 100 of these people, talk to them for a while, and put together a compilation of their stories. (When you fly 150,000 miles a year trust me, it’s wouldn’t take that long to talk to that many people!) Part of it is realizing that many immigrants come here to the US who were doctors, engineers, etc in their homelands, yet cannot be professionals here without starting all over again with their education…a pricey proposition at best.
The spark that stands out in my mind is a woman in her sixties who was an immigrant from Africa according to her nametag that I saw in the Oakland airport manning one of the gift shop registers. Her manner with people, her professionalism, her sheer charisma made me want to know more about her story. That feeling repeated itself numerous times in numerous airports in numerous cities. Yet, I never pulled the trigger. There was always an email to answer, a call to make, a magazine to read.
Now, with the global economic meltdown, business travel for me, as with thousands of others, has slammed to a near halt. Even when it comes back, I am not in a place where I intend to log that many miles or see that many people in airports. While that means good things for my family and for my lower back, it also means that I can pretty much add that book, and the engagements that I could have had, to the list of things that I could have done.
Now as regrets in life go, it’s fairly lightweight, I know. Yet, a regret it is. What’s your book you might be missing the chance to write? Is it a class you aren’t taking? Is it a sport you aren’t taking up? Things may change before you know it that make it a book you’ll never get to write. Make sure you take the time to make sure which regrets you want to have.
By and large, in the US in particular, these folks are immigrants. I determined one day a number of years ago that I would meet 100 of these people, talk to them for a while, and put together a compilation of their stories. (When you fly 150,000 miles a year trust me, it’s wouldn’t take that long to talk to that many people!) Part of it is realizing that many immigrants come here to the US who were doctors, engineers, etc in their homelands, yet cannot be professionals here without starting all over again with their education…a pricey proposition at best.
The spark that stands out in my mind is a woman in her sixties who was an immigrant from Africa according to her nametag that I saw in the Oakland airport manning one of the gift shop registers. Her manner with people, her professionalism, her sheer charisma made me want to know more about her story. That feeling repeated itself numerous times in numerous airports in numerous cities. Yet, I never pulled the trigger. There was always an email to answer, a call to make, a magazine to read.
Now, with the global economic meltdown, business travel for me, as with thousands of others, has slammed to a near halt. Even when it comes back, I am not in a place where I intend to log that many miles or see that many people in airports. While that means good things for my family and for my lower back, it also means that I can pretty much add that book, and the engagements that I could have had, to the list of things that I could have done.
Now as regrets in life go, it’s fairly lightweight, I know. Yet, a regret it is. What’s your book you might be missing the chance to write? Is it a class you aren’t taking? Is it a sport you aren’t taking up? Things may change before you know it that make it a book you’ll never get to write. Make sure you take the time to make sure which regrets you want to have.
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