ITLP Tuesday Readings

In the current issue of Fortune Magazine, Jim Collins is interviewed by Fortune Senior Writer Jennifer Reingold for the article How Great Companies Turn Crisis Into Opportunity.

Collins has spent much of his career in understanding how companies succeed. For the past several years, he has been focusing on how successful companies navigate through turbulent times. Much of this work on successful companies is very relevant to the university. This interview provides information that is no less so. As I read the piece, there were three points that held my attention:

1. What really matters in getting through tough times is that you have core values that you preserve, consistently over time and particularly when times are difficult.

2. That it is the caliber of an organization’s staff that gets the organization through the tough times. Collins says that you know these people because they know what to do, they make commitments, and they deliver on those commitments. These are the “keepers�? and also the ones you should be seeking to hire.

3. You have to ensure that you set aside the resources that that you need to prevail, not just to survive. That means you have to set priorities, and act on them, that not only preserve your core businesses but also enable you to more forward.

Reflecting on Collins’ points would be a worthwhile task as you seek to identify next steps for your turbulent times.

. . . . . jim

Posted by Jim Hall at 6:00 PM | Permalink

How often have you laid out for your team, perhaps in a presentation followed by a clearly written document, a future state for the team as well as the strategies for getting there. And, you wait, and wait, and nothing happens.

This is the situation that Marshall Goldsmith addresses in Don’t Just Check the Box. Though written four years ago, his advice is as timely today as it was in 2005.

Goldsmith notes “We all want to believe that our comments have great meaning. We usually assume that the people around us are smart, and they can understand what we’re saying and see the value of our remarks. We’re often busy and overcommitted. We all wish we could just move on to the next item on our list.�? But to do that, we need the team to act.

What’s missing? Follow-up! After communicating, we must follow-up to make sure that people really understand, that they are bought-in, that they will do the work necessary to reach the future state. Follow-up takes time but is absolutely necessary if our goals are to be reached.

. . . . . jim

Posted by Jim Hall at 12:41 PM | Permalink

Power is a subject that is not often discussed in public. Yet, an individual cannot be a leader without having power, "the potential to influence others." In this week’s Tuesday Reading, Power Plays: How to Use Your Power Wisely from the December 2008 Issue of the Center for Creative Leadership’s Newsletter Leading Effectively, outlines nine strategies for levering your power more effectively:

1. Make relationships a priority. To improve relational power you need to: – invest time and energy in existing relationships, spending more time with others. – identify specific individuals with whom to build relationships. – repair damaged or neglected relationships, focusing in particular on creating more trust and repairing your image if damaged.

2. Don’t overplay your personal agenda. Don’t be seen to be self- serving or not a team player or deceitful.

3. Maximize your communication network. Expand your network to include people who represent untapped sources of information.

4. Be generous with information by: – playing the role of a central node for information you then convey to others. Doing this effectively, you create a reputation for being the one to come to for the best/most complete information. – informing others, providing data analysis to information a decision, providing options. – influencing others by proposing a solution or backing up an idea.

5. Be the expert. Be forthright with your experience and expertise.

6. Tailor your power to reward others. Try to give your team members what they would find rewarding.

7. Reward with words. Research shows that you need to average four positive feedback comments to every negative one for for a team member to believe that your feedback is fair. So, remember to acknowledge the good stuff. (For a spouse or significant other, it’s five to one.

8. Punish with purpose. Be explicit about the consequences for behavior or results that don’t meet expectations and consistently follow through.

9. Teach others. Teach your team members how to use the power that they have available to them.

In the paper from which the newsletter summary was drawn, the authors report that the three most frequently leveraged sources of power are the power of expertise, the power of information, and the power of relationships. Their research indicates that within five years, the most important way to leverage power will be relationships. (This paper can be downloaded from a link at the end of the reading.)

. . . . . jim

Posted by Jim Hall at 12:39 PM | Permalink

Today’s Tuesday’s Reading is “Where No One Sees – Character and Leadership in an Age of Image".

This paper which admittedly is long, is adapted from remarks made to the Rhodes and Marshall Scholars at Rhodes House, Oxford on November 8, 2008 by General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, the professional head of the British Army.

In the paper, Dannett covers a lot of ground discussing leadership from a number of points of view and from his personal experience. I think you'll find a number of useful ideas there, both to think about and to put into practice, ranging from

– Dannatt’s quote of Viscount Hambleden (the founder of WHSmith): “Character and integrity are as important in a … leader as capability,�?

– to his thoughts about Strategy (developing the “big�? thoughts), Operations (the place where the big ideas/thoughts are turned into actions), and Tactics (where the boots are on the ground and the action gets carried out),

– to his reference to Lighton's view that 20% of a "business" is about strategy and 80% is about delivery, with communication, "successfully communicating the big idea to those who have to make it happen," being the glue that holds it all together, and

– on to the concept of Mission Command which he defines as a three- step process that (1) converts strategic goals into an outline of an campaign plan; (2) delegates the work to staff in terms of a statement of what is to be achieved (outcomes) along with the resources necessary to carry out the tasks; and (3) supervises (but not micromanages) the execution of the tasks. Dannett notes here that “while tasks can be delegated, responsibility can never be delegated – the buck always stops with the boss.�?

If you have limited time, do read the Conclusion (about half a page) as it provides a good summary of his thinking and serves as a challenge to always have both character and integrity to lead in the ways we know are right.

Happy New Year. . . . . jim

Posted by Jim Hall at 12:34 PM | Permalink