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Busting Barriers: Two Tips To Activate Leadership In Others

Phil Larson, Director Shepherd Consulting and Community Transformation Initiative

Every leader is challenged to develop leadership in key followers. It is frustrating to look out and yearn for true leadership in our team. Yet, we find that people today don’t stay with any company for any length of time. Leadership takes time. You can get long term commitment. It is possible. You have to do things differently.

One of the greatest managers of all history, Solomon, put it this way in his comprehensive book on managing life, relationships, business, and government, Proverbs:

To know wisdom and instruction,
To perceive the words of understanding,

To receive the instruction of wisdom,
Justice, judgment, and equity;
To give prudence to the simple,
To the young man knowledge and discretion—

Good Goals: Seems like a good objective. For centuries others have read Solomon’s snippets of wisdom. Solomon transmitted what he knew to others that were managing his affairs.

Sun Tzu attempted the same objective from the Chinese war lord perspective and penned, The Art of War. It really is much more about living than dying. It is about managing and relationships in a turbulent society. He was intent in training others.

Others have done the same. My bookshelf is full of snippet books from great managers and leaders. The lessons of great men and women can give us guidance in tough situations.

Time Counts: But, if no one stays the task to work out the wisdom and be developed in the fine nuances, you simply lose your investment. They move on and build another business that may in fact take away from your business. Astute business managers are not happy when they lose the value of an investment in either people or property. People are not property. They have wills and emotions and desires and must be treated differently.

Tip One:

Be Loyal: Handle Conflict Up Front and Fast The common business practice of today is to demand loyalty from staff, yet make decisions without being loyal to them and their families and lives. Making the legal decision is not always a loyal decision. Listening to accusations and gossip concerning staff without direct clarification and consultation is not a position of loyalty but fear and low self-confidence and politicking of the negative kind.

“The first job of a leader—at work or at home—is to inspire trust. It’s to bring out the best in people by entrusting them with meaningful stewardships, and to create an environment in which high-trust interaction inspires creativity and possibility.” ― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

Greatness: A great leader for whom I worked early in my career came into my office with an anonymous letter. It accused me of some indiscretions. The letter had gone to the president of the company. We had been in a turnaround organization situation where hard decisions were being made daily. Of course people were not in 100% agreement. Of course people are people. The prior management of the company had been prone to politics and finger pointing. Everyone knew that and knew how to trip the wires to get what they wanted. This new management had better integrity; otherwise, I would not be working for them.

Openers: The leader’s opening comment set the stage. “Phil, before you read the letter you need to know that both the CFO and I told the president that this does not sound like you.” He started from a position of loyalty and honesty and open communication. We discussed the contents, who might have sent it, why they might have sent it, was there anything I needed to adjust in managing, and moved on. The company came out of a chapter 11 situation in record time and we all enjoyed our time together. Loyalty and trust were the words of the day and the owners received great benefit. I would go to work beside this man again in a minute if the opportunity arose that was mutually beneficial.

Dear Failure, I am writing today…. Failure on this point costs dearly. Typical management style would have been to have secreted the letter into the unofficial personnel file, brooded over the contents, discussed it with others, and promoted politics. That is how most organizations roll. Yes, you do. Admit it and quit it. Little birds leak that style into the hallways and the entire organization suffers loss of key staff at the most inopportune moments. Disloyal behavior in the board room promotes disloyal behavior at the point of customer contact. It is not a secret. Get real and get honest.

Tip Two:

Go Ahead And Share Insights: All of us have insights gained in leadership. Most of us hold them close to the chest and make upcoming leaders dig them out like some buried treasure. Why are you leaving leadership undeveloped by forcing them to guess? Are you afraid you are wrong about what you know is right? Take a few minutes every day to intentionally leak leadership.

An Amazing Gift: Last year my team brought me an amazing gift. It was thirty-one leadership wisdoms they had learned from me over the course of the prior three years. They could repeat them and could apply them. They made them into a flip calendar. I was amazed and humbled. It shocked me that they had discerned so willingly tips of leadership and management and relationship and had integrated them into their work and home habits. Somehow, great leaders had taught me to be open with wisdom and it was building other leaders. Pass it on.

Starting Right: My mind goes back to my first assistant supervisor position. One day I went into the manager’s office somewhat nonchalantly for a meeting. He looked me direct in the eye from across his desk. “Phil, go get a pen and paper and come back. Don’t ever go into a meeting with a leader without expectation of receiving instruction, noting it, and being responsible to follow up.” Now, he probably said something different, but that is what he communicated. Wow! I listened and have repeated that wisdom hundreds of times to those for whom I’ve had responsibility to develop as leaders. Leak leadership. Do it intentionally.

To Work, Two Work: Do these two and you’ll increase your leadership impact. These are core items. They can guide you and prevent major mishaps. Sure, I can tell you stories of when I’ve violated them or seen others violate them and the destruction it caused. You know those stories. None of us are perfect. But perfect practice might just result in better performance as a leader, longer relationships with other leaders, and some real fun and satisfaction watching development of trusted leadership and sustained organizational progress.

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Lead with Solutions: Five Key Phrases To Lead

There is power in your words, Leader.

Leaders lead. We lead with our words, our actions, our intent, and our example.

Leaders lead. Leading flows from the inner core of a leader outward for followers to follow. Wisdom literature intrigues and builds me. Two principles that regurgitate in my meditative time apply here.

What is in your heart comes out your mouth.
Words carry life or death.

Uncomfortable as that may be for some, it is life and energy for leaders. Those that deny they are being led are fools looking for a place to fail. Those that accept they are both being led and leading others have matured to a grasp of reality needed for contentedness and success. Watching words is a key necessity of leadership.

One of the ways leaders lead is with the entry words they use in conversations and meetings and personal engagements. So let’s look at five phrases that lead well and lead to impact and influence.

How can we lead effectively with our entry words?

Lead #1: How do you feel about this situation? Leaders fail many times by leading with precooked answers. Try leading with a question. The conversation is headed a positive direction based on your quick and thoughtful lead. Watch out for asking how people think. That will get you 80% less response than asking them how they feel. They will tell you what they think in response to asking them how they feel. For the most part, people are less threatened when asked how they feel than asked how they think.

Lead #2: There could be some amazing benefit to this approach. You just opened the other person or group up to a positive view of what follows. Yet, you have not committed anyone to a position of yes or no. The engagement is now open to include a description of the issue being addressed, but with an expectation of a positive outcome. Lead on.

Lead #3: What worries you most about our issue? Wow. You just posed an emotional tie to the others in conversation. It is not someone else’s issue, but our issue. You’ve entered into a supportive stakeholder position and communicated you will be there to help work through the blips. At the same time, you gave the other person influence in the next steps.

Lead #4: Have you considered a possibility of option X? This is an enticing lead that suggests a solution without forcing compliance. Leadership contains an element of power along with authority. By opening with consideration of an option, meaning there are other options, you give power to the others in the conversation. It can be a big win when working with a strong leader. Some leaders place themselves in defensive stance over a position they have taken in the past. You just graced them with a way out that saves face for them and could bring them better success than a present entrenched option.

Lead #5: Having considered many options, here is one I’d like to bring to the table for discussion. Okay, this is a lead based on research prior to this moment. You’ve opened the discussion to include consideration of other options and problem barbs and even rabbit trails. It is an empowering position for all included. Sometimes an entire room will just go quiet at this point and let you lead forward. Be ready for that. After all, you are a leader.

Summary: Notice none of these leads starts with the issue at hand. All of these communicate co-ownership of the issue and the solution and confidence in a positive outcome. Avoid leading with the issue. My days are full of conversations that start, “Phil, I have a problem.” That is a position of weakness. Sometimes the individual just wants to discuss their ideas. Many times they are looking to offload the problem and responsibility. Take responsibility by leading into a solution. Leading with the solution in today’s environment can be considered pushy and too strong. Lead with compassion and listening and strength with some key phraseology that reveals intent to engage along with intelligence and ownership. Lead on, Leader.

Five Leadership Tips for Tough Times Every Mature Executive Needs to Learn.

Five Leadership Tips for Tough Times Every Mature Executive Needs to Learn.

Working as an agent of change in support of executives comes with scars and stars. The stars are the memories that have power to change us for the better. The scars are best left as lessons learned and give time and attention to heal. But, wow, when you work beside a star boss or on a star team, your life is never the same.

There are five top performing bosses and the teams that surrounded them that have taught me powerful lessons in living and management. Let me share these with you. You can grow in a minute under the right coaching. It would take a book to list all the lessons each of these leaders taught me, so I’ll just highlight five lessons that I believe every mature executive should learn.

Schille’s All Stars: Hard Times Bring Growth: John Schille is an incredible coach and leader. In 2004, John was distinguished as the number one CIO in the United States and his organization received the same accolade. At the time, I wa honored to be a director on John’s direct report team. The performance level of the organization was tops. The responsiveness to technical disruption was specific and on target. The vision for the future, while working with John was unending.

During one incredibly hard season of growth of a department I had been assigned to improve, I remember sitting and discussing with John. He looked directly into my eyes and said, “Phil, you’ll find that under the hardest times you look back and realize you grow the most.” He was right. I’ve remembered that lesson among many others ever since.

Guida’s Good Days: Reward When No One is Looking: John Guida has a hard compassion about him that molded me. He believed in me in extreme circumstance. We had some tough discussions as we worked alongside a great team to pull a company out of chapter 11. In 18 months, it was accomplished through amazing team effort. After a pressing year, John came into my office with a sizeable surprise bonus. By company regulation I was not eligible for bonus. It was just not that company’s style. But, here it was. John had gone up the chain for me when I had no idea what was happening.

McCreery’s Mountain: Be Gracious In All Seaons: Mike McCreey is one of the most grateful men for whom I have worked. As CFO of a struggling company, he exampled kindness and gratitude. Every Friday, when the key operational management team would meet, Mike was first to have the coffee made and served. He exemplified servant leadership.

One afternoon, I was in Mike’s office waiting for the third person to join us in a decision. His secretary came in to serve us. Mike made sure he thanked her for her act. I’m sure he must have said thank you many times a day. He turned to me and spoke in a calm and deliberate voice, “Phil, this world would be much better if people just learned to say thank you.” It was a real strength in his life.

Heil’s Salvation: Build the Man With Care: Bob Heil was a mountain of man. Heil means salvation in German. Bob lived to serve others and assist them in rescuing themselves from themselves. For two years, I was honored to study under Bob in a school he and Linn Haitz started to develop young men into movers and shakers. It was leadership intensive.

At one point, Bob and I crossed swords. I was young and impulsive and wanting to run out on my own and take the world. He was mature and sensitive and giving me ample rope to hang myself but not so much to die doing it. When I realized how stupidly I was acting, I went to Bob and asked his counsel. He immediately understood, forgave me my stupidity, and gave me great counsel. He could have responded in many ways to my mistakes. He chose to respond with wisdom in order to allow me growth. He chose to build the man in me with care and firmness.

Dryden’s Dynamics: Rest Stop Ahead: Ron Dryden has a sense of compassion and marketing and team dynamics not seen in many. I think of many of the great coaches of national champion teams when I think of Ron. Keeping a stable of stallions in motion is an art and a craft. He did it well.

Our team took on an amazing challenge. How do you take a white non-profit organization and move it to become multi-cultural while tripling the size? This was a hard task. There were many days of pains and problems. The community in which we served was racially divided and antagonistic to these ideals. My office was full of complaints and finger pointing as were the offices of the other team leaders. As the Director of Operations, I handled everything from plumbing to prisons.

Big events were common, time consuming, exhausting, and rewarding. Ron taught us to be rested going into a big event versus thinking we would rest on the other side. That wisdom has served me well over the years. Our tendency is to believe we can push to the max and then rest. Yet, what if the big event works and we harvest big on the other side in sales, people, whatever we looked to accomplish? Then we will be exhausted and unable to work the harvest of our efforts. Rest up ahead of a big thrust.

Summary: These five lessons can serve any leader. As a change agent for most of my career, I’ve been called upon to work through tough situation after tough situation. In each I’ve been able to act with growth, reward, graciousness, care, and rest. It was these leaders that developed that into me by example. Leadership is example. That is another lesson.

Contact Phil Larson, Director of Shepherd Consulting phil@shepherdok.com 405-388-8037…

Phil is a dynamic speaker, author, mentor, and agent of change. His organization works to help executives and managers achieve their goals and dreams through decisive dynamics. he is available to help you achieve your dreams.

What does exceptional service look like? #subway

We purchased a few 12″ sandwiches for a family gathering at Easter weekend. “May I put them on trays for you?” Subway service “May I add some condiments for you?” Subway service “May I add some vegetables on the side for you?” Subway service “May I do all that for no added charge for you?” Subway exceptional service on Mustang Road in Yukon Oklahoma Proud to give a shout out to Subway.

Building Your In-Plant Business….Some thoughts from the past.

Advice to Success: Empowered In-Plants

What advice would you give to success?

What Are You Planning Next? In Plant Professionals

What are you planning next?

The People We Serve… Consider Well..

The People We Serve… Consider Well… This is a great comment on the Print Production Professionals group from one looking for great service.

Jayne Bennett • I believe solid relationships are built on positive working experiences, mutual education and growing trust. Suppliers can create those positive working experiences through performance and service. They can also earn my respect when they bring me up to speed on something they offer or can offer ways to enhance what I do for my clients/end users. Brownie points if they try and understand my clients’ needs and industry/marketing challenges. They can establish, nurture and grow trust through performance, honesty and integrity.

Yes, folks, price is important! It always will be. But it’s not the only game in town and buyers who look solely to price aren’t adding ANY value as a buyer. As a buyer, I try and hold up my end of the teeter-totter by sourcing judiciously (let’s face it–as a supplier, you do NOT want to get another quote you know you aren’t suited for–it’s a waste of your time), communicating thoroughly and honestly and being a fair, but admittedly demanding, customer.

In my opinion as a buyer, you can build strong relationships and still get the pricing and service you need–there is no need for browbeating and haggling. I source to those who are equipped and able to do the job–the competitive pricing flows from there. My vendor pool is bidding on work that suits their shop, not to try and put a number under my nose and hope I bite this time. In fact, when you have to perform the impossible, isn’t it great to have someone in your corner who WANTS to make you look good vs. one that grudgingly has to do so because it’s a “good job to get in this market?

Excellence Starts Here! Three Tips For Top Performance. Engaging Ingenuity.

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These two gentlemen represent a great event in a production shop. What really is the beginning of such powerful events? Oh, the event? The team had kept key equipment up and running and productive for 30 days with no vendor calls. Amazing. Especially considering the fact that prior to this the equipment required calls every 2-3 days for many years. They are holding an award for the historic event. Now, back to the question. What really is the beginning of such powerful events?

Think about why you need these events? A friend used to call them “Big Days”. Big Days build strength in an organization, overcome defiant obstacles, and release energy of the team in a positive manner that is brooding in a negative manner. For those reasons alone, you need to engage the next three points.

One: Get dissatisfied. Yes, that is the beginning of all great change. If you are comfortable and content, change is a threat. You must engage vision for the future with passion and be dissatisfied with the status quo.

Two: Spread your dissatisfaction. Now, you don’t need to get people upset over nothing. But if the people you are serving can’t get their jobs done or their product delivered or their services received on time, you need to get some partners in your dissatisfaction. Other managers, co-workers, staff, key customers, executives and others probably are already dissatisfied. Let them know you understand and listen to their view points.

Three: This is where real change starts. Pick a key point over which everyone is dissatisfied and attack it with passion and purpose. Dig for a root cause that will help everyone in the process. The theory of constraints explains that when you dig out a major point of constraint, you loosen up other constraints to become visible so they can be resolved. In other words, break the dam!

You will be amazed. This team went into overdrive for customer satisfaction when they found this one barrier to productivity resolved. They annihilated this bothersome downtime issue on key machines, developed new procedures for maintaining the equipment, gained independence from the vendor, improved production turnaround times, and improved the entire shop morale.

Just a thought today for those looking to do something good for themselves and those they serve.

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