~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LEADERSHIP WIRED John C. Maxwell's FREE Semimonthly Newsletter Designed To Maximize Your Leadership Potential. October 2003 - Volume 6, Issue 19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In This Issue: * Maxwell Moment - Check Your Ego at the Door * Leadership@Large - Surveying the Leadership Landscape * Interview – Unconventional Leadership * Quick Quotes - Measuring Success ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Maxwell Moment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CHECK YOUR EGO AT THE DOOR By Dr. John C. Maxwell When the New England Patriots went to the Super Bowl in 2002, they did something that no other team has done before: Before the game, when every other team introduces its starters individually, New England came out as a team. "No introductions. No names. No stars. Just 53 teammates coming onto the field as a single unit," wrote Sean Gormley, a columnist with Georgetown University's newspaper, The Hoya. "The significance of that entrance said more about this Patriots team than any analyst ever could, the ultimate sign of team before individual in an era of me-first go-where-the-money-is professional sports." I was at the Super Bowl that year, and when I heard the Patriots were going to be introduced as a team, I decided right then and there that I was going to root for them that day. Yes, I'm a fickle fan, but I liked the idea of them being introduced together, with nobody standing out. The message the players sent was clear: "We're a team--we win together, we lose together." (As it turned out, they won together, eking out a 20-17 victory over the heavily favored St. Louis Rams.) The Patriots didn't decide to enter the field as a group because they lacked star players who deserved individual recognition. They did so because those top players possess a quality common to effective leaders in every arena--they know how to check their egos at the door. Small egos are especially critical in today's ever-changing business world. Larry Bossidy, chairman of Honeywell International and co-author of the best-selling book, "Execution", put it this way: "There used to be days when the people at the top 'knew everything.' Today, being a CEO is a humbling job. And the more you learn, the more you recognize every reason that you have to be humble because the competitive environment is so fierce and there's so much more to do out there all the time." Of course, when you're the ultimate boss, it's tempting to take credit for the successes of your organization. This tendency is magnified by the increasingly star-struck media culture in which we live. When a leader is positive, successful and engaging, it's only human nature for employees to lionize him or her. But the best leaders refuse to let such adulation--however justified--go to their heads. Instead of taking the glory for their organization's accomplishments, they are much more likely to attribute their success to hard work, good timing, a healthy dose of luck or the efforts of family members and colleagues. Because these leaders are not driven by their egos, they are quick to turn the spotlight away from themselves and on to the people who actually make their organizations tick on a daily basis. As a result, when a great leader's work is done, the people say, "We did it ourselves." Mark Twain once remarked, "It's amazing what can be accomplished if the leader doesn't care who gets the credit." It was true for the New England Patriots, and it also can be true for your organization--as long as you're willing to check your ego at the door. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Leadership@Large ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SORRY APOLOGIES When is the last time you heard a scandalized business leader sincerely apologize for his or her actions? In recent months, well-known personalities ranging from U.S. Senator Trent Lott to country music's Dixie Chicks have found it necessary to issue very public mea culpas. But although the top folks at Enron, WorldCom and Tyco have been accused of breaking laws (as opposed to making inappropriate or insensitive comments), we have yet to see a shred of true contrition from any of them. Sadly, as Fast Company's Linda Tischler puts it, corporate executives seem to have "mastered the art of the anti-apology." "They twist, they bob, they weave," she writes in the magazine's September issue. "They blame others, they blame circumstance. They read from carefully crafted press releases. With doleful faces, they admit nothing. Or they lash out at their accusers. Shocked—shocked!—they are." So what's a good leader to do when his or her company makes a big mistake? For starters, own up to it--and fast. "The longer you wait to apologize for a wrongdoing, the quicker a weakness is seen as a wickedness," says Ken Blanchard, author of "The One Minute Apology". Of course, such apologies must be followed by changed behavior. Otherwise, an embattled leader will never even come close to regaining the trust of unhappy employees, angry customers, disgruntled investors or an outraged public. For more information, see: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/74/apology.html _________________________________________________________________ TRUE TEAMWORK Although more than one in three Fortune 500 companies publicly proclaim teamwork to be a core value, author Patrick Lencioni says only a small minority of senior-level leaders truly understand and embrace this important concept. "Most groups of executives fail to become cohesive teams because they drastically underestimate both the power teamwork unleashes and the painful steps required to make teamwork a reality," Lencioni writes in the Summer 2003 issue of Leader to Leader magazine. If a group of leaders truly wants to work as a team (such an arrangement may not be right in every situation, Lencioni says), certain key elements must be embraced. Here are a few: * Vulnerability based trust. "This means that members of a cohesive, functional team must learn to comfortably and quickly acknowledge, without provocation, their mistakes, weaknesses, failures and needs for help," writes Lencioni, author of "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team". "They must also readily recognize the strengths of others, even when those strengths exceed their own." * Healthy conflict. "CEOs who go to great lengths to avoid conflict often do so believing that they are strengthening their teams by avoiding destructive disagreement," the author says. "This is ironic because what they are really doing is stifling productive conflict and pushing important issues that need to be resolved under the carpet where they will fester." * Unwavering commitment. "To become a cohesive team, a group of leaders must learn to commit to decisions when there is less than perfect information, and when no natural consensus develops," Lencioni writes. "And because perfect information and natural consensus rarely exist, the ability to commit becomes one of the most critical behaviors of a team." For more information, see: http://leadertoleader.org/leaderbooks/L2L/summer2003/lencioni. html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Interview ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNCONVENTIONAL LEADERSHIP From time to time, a book comes along that is so compelling, it becomes an instant classic. "First, Break All the Rules" by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman is such a book. Released by Simon & Schuster in 1999 and now in its twenty-eighth printing, this cutting-edge look at "what the world's greatest managers do differently" remains a favorite of businesspeople around the world. Key topics include the importance of hiring the right talent from day one, focusing that talent by setting clear outcomes for each role instead of outlining a series of performance steps, motivating employees by focusing on strengths (as opposed to trying to improve or eliminate weaknesses) and redefining career development to include self-awareness and using strengths in a role, rather than simply climbing the career ladder. We recently spoke with Coffman, The Gallup Organization's global practice leader for employee and customer engagement consulting, about the book's enduring message. Leadership Wired: "First, Break All the Rules" continues to be a bestseller, four years after it was released. What is it about the book that readers continue to find so intriguing? Curt Coffman: If you're honest with yourself, we have not changed how we manage people in the workplace for over 100 years. Very few management models have come out that are truly based upon empirical data in regards to what it takes to manage successful, productive people. I think that this book brought a new model to the table. And it wasn't just a model that said, "go with me" from a theoretical perspective. It was a model based upon looking at millions of employees, what is different in today's workplace vs. the past, and ways in which we can help managers manage effectively vs. how they were taught with conventional wisdom, which is, "I have the power over you, you'd better do what you're told." This began to give people a glimpse of what it takes to manage successful, talented, productive people, not just at looking the whole population. There were some very different findings there. LW: Is there anything in the book that people tend to resist initially? Coffman: One of the findings of great managers is they spend the most time with most productive people. They don't do that because they want to ignore the stragglers. They do that because one, the most productive people have so much to teach you and two, they have the most potential. Obviously, if you take below average to average, you've got average. If you take good to great, you've got great. They want their best performers to be the bar-setters for the whole organization, not the average. Frankly, your best deserve your attention. So that was one controversial thing. Another was that great managers don't view this thing called inclusiveness as treating everybody the same. They actually believe that is the ultimate discrimination in the workplace. Great managers treat each person as they deserve to be treated based upon their individual strengths and talents and who they are. That's true inclusiveness. LW: You take particular care to point out the differences between managers and leaders. Briefly explain those differences. Coffman: Popular management thought would suggest that anyone can be a leader. And frankly, that's not true. There are some people that have incredible vision and futuristic thinking that we find to be in existence in great leaders. But with managers, we tend to find a very different set of talents which is focused on more specific, getting-things-done kinds of issues. I like to think about it in terms of an orchestra director vs. a person who's head of woodwinds. The orchestra director is focused on the integration of all the pieces to create the best outcome. The woodwinds director, who is the manager, is really focused on that particular scope of vision, their performance, how they come together as a group. So it's a different focus. We do find some people that have talents for both, but they tend to be rarer than they tend to be common. I do believe that outstanding performers within a role are leaders from the perspective that they set a norm for performance standards of a group. But in the traditional sense of leading people and leading organizations, that tends to get more narrow in terms of the people who have that talent. We do know that however you lead, whether it's through outstanding performance in a role or impacting others toward a compelling vision, great leaders do it through their particular strengths in a very wide range of styles, not a prescribed means. Many leadership books have tried to prescribe the way vs. realizing that great leaders achieve the same outcomes using very different styles. It's not about finding that one right style that fits everybody. LW: In light of those differences between managers and leaders, are there ideas or concepts that you bring out in the book that are relevant to leaders? Coffman: Very much so. The first one that is rather controversial is that a company does not have one culture. That is a very seductive idea. But you probably have as many cultures in an organization as you have managers and supervisors because the true onus of culture exists at a very local level. A group of nine people that work together every day under a manager has its own unique culture. And leadership must begin to realize that to set forth a global productive culture, they have to make sure every culture at that local level in the organization is managed very well, that the employees are very engaged, and there's a working definition of what culture means. LW: Are there any other principles that would be of major importance to leaders? Coffman: Yes. Great managers trump organizations; bad managers destroy organizations. And great managers are the key ingredient that will actually leverage talent into lasting performance or, frankly, chase it out the door. A leader should be focused on that local manager--the degree to which they're hiring very talented people that will truly attract, retain and make very talented people productive because 70 percent of the people who leave a job today don't leave the organization: They leave a relationship that's gone bad with the manager. And that role of the manager is absolutely paramount to an organization's value and where they're going in terms of their success criteria. LW: In your opinion, what is the greatest challenge facing leaders in the marketplace today? Coffman: To create and, more importantly, sustain the purpose of the organization, while insuring each manager and employee can readily connect to that purpose through their individual contributions. Employees want to make a commitment to something they see as significant and purposeful. And if we are not clear as to the destination this organization is trying to move toward, how can I ever connect what I do every day to help us get there? In times of extreme economic change--and face it, we're never going to have times without pretty significant challenge and change in this new global economy--how do we keep the purpose clear and still adjust strategy to where it doesn't confuse what the purpose is? Great leaders keep that purpose as their cornerstone and then equip every manager to help every employee know how they can connect to it and make a difference. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Quick Quotes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MEASURING SUCCESS "You can use most any measure when you're speaking of success. You can measure it in a fancy home, expensive car or dress. But the measure of your real success is one you cannot spend--it's the way your child describes you when talking to a friend." - Martin Baxbaum "The man who lives for himself is a failure; the man who lives for others has achieved true success." - Norman Vincent Peale "Success is a journey, not a destination." - Ben Sweetland _________________________________________________________________ Leadership Wired is written by Dr. John C. Maxwell and is available via e-mail on a free subscription basis. You can subscribe at: http://www.INJOY.com/Newsletters. Questions about document transmission or editorial comments? Contact mailto:feedback@INJOY.com. Visitors may use the information contained in this e-newsletter by placing the following credit line: "This article is used by permission from Dr. John C. Maxwell's free monthly e-newsletter 'Leadership Wired' available at www.INJOY.com." This information cannot be used for resale in any manner. Copyright (c) 2003, INJOY, Inc.