Leadership

Leadership Lessons from the Road

When I travel, I tend to catch up on my reading. I’ve been traveling a lot lately and have read dozens of articles about leadership. Several ideas have appeared as themes throughout the readings. I thought I would share them with you so you don’t have to read all of the articles. I hope you find them useful.

Yellow balloons

Relationships, creativity and collaboration are key elements of effective leadership. (Photo illustration by Cynthia Price)

Negativity will wipe out creativity. Too often I’ve been to brainstorming sessions where participants begin to shoot down ideas. The key is to put all the ideas out first. Eventually, you will have to winnow the list. But don’t do it too soon, because sometimes, others will build from an existing idea. And if someone already has poked holes into it, the other person may scratch their idea before sharing it.

Employees are people. Sometimes we forget that the individuals with whom we work or lead are people. We often think of them as employees or workers. When I taught media relations to law enforcement officers, it’s a lesson I repeated about reporters. I reminded the officers, who often did not think highly of the media, that reporters are human beings with families and fears and dreams. And by putting it in those terms, the officers often chose to cut the reporters some slack. By the way, I did the same with reporters.

Relationships matter. When I first joined the organization for which I currently work, I didn’t spend much time getting to know people because I was already buried in work. But then I realized, that if my team was going to succeed, I needed to know more about the people I worked with and they needed to more about me. I spend a few minutes throughout each day talking with team members. Sometimes the conversations are personal, sometimes they’re about work, but they’re always about the relationship we have.

Aim for collaboration. When you are launching a new product or designing a publication, it’s good to ask for feedback and to collaborate with others. What won’t work, though, is aiming for consensus. When I start any project, I explain that I hope the process will be collaborative. I encourage feedback – positive and negative. At the end of the day, though, a decision will be made and it may not please everyone. But everyone will at least have had an opportunity to have been heard.

Take a stand. One of my CEOs once told his top commanders that he didn’t care if they made the wrong decision, but he wanted them to make a decision. That really resonated with me because too often I’ve been in meetings where no one takes a position. Everyone is posturing, hoping they will align with the boss. Or they’re afraid to speak their mind. But it’s important to share what you think and to be clear about it.

Cash Mob Strikes Wichita

NFPW member Jill Miller is known for great ideas and providing businesses with what they need to thrive.

Jill Milller organized a Cash Mob in Wichita, KS.

She took that to the next level when she organized Wichita’s participation in international cash mob day. Cash Mobs are similar to Flash Mobs, but instead of dancing people go to predetermined businesses on a specific day and spend a little money to help support locally owned businesses.

Wichita joined 200 other cities around the world participating in the first International Cash Mob Day on March 24. Jill was inspired by stories she read about how small businesses were being impacted by Cash Mobs in other cities. “One night I asked my Facebook friends if they thought the Cash Mob would go over in Wichita,” she said. “The response was enthusiastic!”

At midnight she started a Facebook group and within 36 hours, more than 1,500 people were ready to go shopping at stores that were selected because they had been open less than one year, sell products for men and women, give back to the community and agreed to be mobbed.

Jill was tired of seeing local businesses “that were awesome” go out of business. After talking with a client about it, she was more encouraged to spearhead the effort. “I just had to go for it and do it,” she said.

She leveraged her social media network. “That really helped me pull it off,” Jill said.

Cash mobs were started by Buffalo, NY, blogger and engineer Chris Smith in 2011 to bring financial relief to small, struggling local businesses and to bring communities together. That is exactly what happened in Wichita March 24. “I found that people want to support local businesses but they aren’t sure what they should do,” Jill said. “And there is a lot of pent up demand to go out and buy stuff.”

That’s a good thing because Jill already is planning the next Cash Mob for April 21.

4 Steps to Running a Successful Meeting

When you hear the word “meeting” do you groan?

Many people do, and they shouldn’t. Meetings are intended to allow a group to do something that couldn’t be done alone. Meetings allow for communicating, administering and deciding.

The problem is often in the structure and length of the meeting. I attend many meetings. The most successful ones have five key elements in common:

1)      They have an agenda

2)      They start on time and end on time

3)      They stay on point

4)      They have action items for follow-up with identified due dates and responsible parties.

Agenda An agenda provides purpose and structure to the meeting. Distributing the agenda in advance of the meeting enables participants to prepare. For the meeting organizer, it provides focus and direction.

Time Meetings should start on time. It’s disrespectful to those who do arrive on time. If you are known for starting your meetings on time (and not repeating what you already said to the late arrivals), people will show up on time. Why should you start on time? So you can end on time. People have busy schedules. It’s important to respect that they have other commitments. I serve on several boards. I’ve met some great people and enjoy catching up with them. The time to do that, though, is before or after the meeting. Not during.

Stay on point It’s easy for meetings to derail if the discussion goes off point. Use the agenda to stay on track. Summarize key points and ask for agreement. Acknowledge constructive contributions.

Action items Most meetings are intended to bring about a decision. If it does, the next step is to determine a due date and who is responsible for implementing the decision or next step. Too often, that piece gets left undone and the next thing you know, you’re having another meeting to figure out.

Bonus Here is a bonus tip for running a successful meeting: Be sure to thank members for their participation and contributions.

Touch Points Provide Leadership Opportunities

In the preface of TouchPoints author Douglas Conant, president and CEO of Campbell Soup Company, explains that he doesn’t get tired of “ceaseless interruptions” because he doesn’t see them as that. Instead, he says, “They’re opportunities to touch someone and improve the situation.”

That really resonated with me. I have many interruptions in my day, and I often viewed them as disruptive. But after reading this book, I have a new perspective on each of these interactions.

Conant and his co-author Mette Norgaard argue that through these interactions leaders are able to increase their impact and promote their organization’s strategy and values.

In the book the authors discuss the TouchPoint Triad: Listen, Frame, Advance. A good starting point is to ask the question, “How can I help?” Framing the issue ensures that we have the same understanding of the issue. Advancing means deciding what steps to take next. A final point, they make is to follow up to see how things worked out.

This isn’t a weighty book, but it definitely changed my approach to the opportunities I have to interact each day.

How do you spend your day? Do you have interruptions or opportunities?

 

Coaching Provides Opportunity for Recalibrating

For the past year I’ve been working with a coach at work. It’s impacted my professional life as well as my personal life.

When I mention this to colleagues and acquaintances, most say, “I want a coach.” Some say it would be great to have someone telling them how to solve work problems. But that’s not what happens.

Being coached is hard work. The person who has the answers is me, and my coach works hard to get me to think about the problem and possible solutions. After a year, I’m almost at the point where I can identify the issue and almost have it identified or resolved before we begin a coaching session.

Jack Zenger and Kathleen Stinnett describe coaching in an article this way:  “The best business coaches  act as a valuable mirror for their direct reports and help them to better assess what they are doing and how they are doing it.” The statement comes from their article, “Coaching as a Management Style: An excerpt from The Extraordinary Coach: How the Best Leaders Help Others Grow.”

Coaching helps me with the complexities of today’s changing environment. For example, I started out learning that directing a team is the way to go. Today, however, the emphasis is on collaboration and negotiation. Before coaching, I established the agenda of team meetings. Now, I ask team members what should be on the agenda. My role is as a facilitator. Everyone is able to bring issues to the group and seek input from all. That doesn’t mean that we are all in agreement. The phrase we use is that we reach an approach or solution through collaboration, but we aren’t striving for consensus.

One of the best aspects of coaching for me is that it provides me with an opportunity to step back, reflect and reprioritize. Otherwise, sometimes I don’t think I would do this, and yet I need to. When I do it, I may realize I’m off course, and need to recalibrate.

I realize that not everyone has the opportunity to be coached. But we can all benefit from taking time to step back, reflect and reprioritize.