You Are The Institution

It has happened twice now.  It’s a similar conversation each time.  It’s a good reminder of the programming we allow in our brains.

Each time the conversation goes something like this:

Gen Y Guy – I worry about where to look for a job.  I can’t go work for a big company because people of my generation don’t trust the institution.

Me - What are your career goals long term?

Gen Y Guy – I’d like to be a manager.

Me - Then, Poof.  As soon as you are a manager, you are the institution.

Gen Y Guy – Huh.  I hadn’t thought of it like that.

Companies are not humans. They are made of humans. Naming it “the institution” is another way of skirting accountability for taking personal actions to improve a situation.

So next time you hear someone talking about the institution, the man, or corporate America…help them think about the story lines they tell themselves.

Seven Ways to Lead In 2010

Did you make a resolution this year?  If not, consider focusing on your leadership.  Here are seven things you can do to boost your leadership effectiveness.

1. Do the right thing consistently, especially when you think no one is watching.
2. Lead by example, not by threats and demands.
3. Bring out the best in your team. Spend time figuring out each person’s gifts.
4. Think uniquely.  Don’t fear going against consensus – offer unpopular ideas with mutual respect and conviction.
5. To get genuine respect…earn it, don’t demand it.
6. Risk more than seems safe, and dream more than is practical.
7. Work for your team and customers, not for self interest.

What are you doing this year to be a better leader?

Tips for Landing an Executive Role

If you’re an MBA clamoring for your first executive post, read on.  This interview with Bob Bradley touches on peer executive networks, career coaches, and international business.   Bob’s company, MD2MD, links up Managing Directors in the UK so that they can network and learn from peers.

LISA:   You’re an MBA with experience in several c-level positions.  For those who aspire to be a CXO, what advice can you offer?

BOB: Use the tools the MBA gives you to the fullest, but remember that they are simply that, ‘tools’ to help your understanding and provide insights.  If there were a right and wrong answer to every question, all the well qualified MBAs would identify the same best opportunity in the same best sector and use the same best people to follow the same best strategy.

That is not really how the world is, so complement the insights you get from tools by testing your thoughts with a range of personalities inside and outside your business with a range of experiences and intuitions.

And one final point.  Whilst normally the wisdom of crowds applies, there are times when the crowd is wrong and you need to lead.  If most people and tools suggest a different decision than the one you feel is right, then you should be questioning why you feel the way you do, but it doesn’t mean you are wrong.  There are times when it is right to trust your own intuition. All of my best decisions have been the ones where I was the sole voice and where I went against the crowd.  With hindsight, many of those who felt at the time I was wrong have since acknowledged that I was absolutely right and they are pleased I stuck to my guns despite the opposing pressures at the time.

LISA:    Do you recommend having an executive coach?  If so, tell us more about the value you find in coaching relationships.

BOB: Yes – you won’t find a top sportsperson who doesn’t have someone to help them develop their skills.  Why should business be different? A good coach is someone who helps you step back, work ON the business not IN it and see the wood for the trees; who helps you gain clarity and confidence; and most importantly someone who challenges you to perform at a higher level.

LISA:    What is the difference in a coach and a mentor? How can a professional find a mentor who is a good fit?

BOB: The terms are used in various ways by different people, so it is always best to clarify expectations of how it will work for both (all) parties at the outset.

The definitions I find most useful are that a coach deliberately and with great skill helps their client to develop their thinking, solely by great questioning and challenging.  They help their client to understand based on information and beliefs they already have and to reach decisions based on models they already know.  They take great care NOT to add in their own information, ideas or opinions.

In contrast a good mentor will do much the same as a coach, but will also, when they judge it appropriate introduce new information, ideas, and opinions from their own training and experience.  Similarly, they will educate their client with tools, models and analysis techniques they find useful.  Finally the mentor will usually also provide contacts and introductions where they are relevant.

What is critical to both roles is that emotional ‘ownership’ of any analysis, information and decisions is left with the client.  Neither the coach or mentor will, if they are behaving properly tell their client what to do, as to do so would disempower their client.

LISA:    When you ran the academy for chief executives, what is the one skill or experience that most executives wanted or needed?

BOB: I still run a similar group called MD2MD and I think I have to answer by saying it is not one single skill or experience, although maybe it is a single feeling.  I’ll come back to the feeling point later, so first to deal with the skill or experience point.

The main thing I found was that most executives value the ideas and thoughts of other executives far, far more than they value experts.  They value real world experience.  And if they can get a range of (often vastly differing) real world experience based advice, then that is great.  It is that very variety of views that enables a business leader to make better, more informed, more insightful decisions when the decision is, as I discussed earlier, one that has no simple right or wrong answer.

And to answer the question in another, slightly oblique way.  I do think there is a single feeling that they crave.  That feeling is the confidence that results from feeling you’re not alone.  The confidence that comes from realising that there are many other business leaders out there wrestling with similar challenges.  The confidence to do what you know to be right, expecting a lot of flak, but knowing that you’ve reviewed it with a group of peers and remain convinced it is right.

The confidence from understanding that it is in the face of tough challenges and tough opposition that the very qualities that define leadership emerge and distinguish the good from the great – in business and in life.

More than anything else I believe that the value of organisations like the Academy, like Vistage their direct competitor, like my own MD2MD or like any other peer group process is in developing and inspiring leaders to be true leaders that make a difference in the world.

LISA:    Our group loves international business.  Tell us something unique or interesting about doing business in the UK.

BOB: I’m probably playing to stereotypes here and no doubt will tread on a few toes by doing so, but having worked for and with a few US companies, the biggest difference that strikes me is the degree of cultural comfort with self confidence.

It is slightly difficult to explain, but we Brits like people to be quietly confident. I’m afraid sometimes we even like backing the underdog, but that’s another story!  What I’m getting at is that in the US, being confident in your own abilities and expressing that confidence clearly and openly is good and valued and an accepted part of doing business.

In the UK, we are, I’m afraid, a bit strange and undoubtedly a bit difficult to deal with because we operate with subtleties and hints and less directness.  Don’t misunderstand me, we do want people to be confident and to know their stuff, but we don’t like them to show that confidence too directly.

We’d much rather hear how wonderful you or your product is from someone else, and then have you say  “Oh that’s very kind of them but …” and then say something to change the subject.  To us that displays confidence by not needing to discuss yourself!.

In other words if you want to do business with a Brit, then you need someone else to provide the evidence of your capability.  If you show too much confidence yourself, you will be dismissed as …  er… am… an American!  Not that there’s really anything wrong with that of course.  It’s just that we will dismiss your confidence as just something that comes with the stereotype,  assume it is misplaced and you’ll come second to someone who displays their confidence in more indirect ways.
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Twenty years after his MBA and having run a number of major training companies, Bob now spends his time helping other business leaders become more successful leaders through his Managing Director Group MD2MD, as an independent Business Mentor near Oxford and as a non executive director.  He also has his own blog “Provoking thoughts and insights for (business) leaders”.

Do Ethics Really Matter at Work?

Desperate times call for desperate measures, right? Does that mean we should throw out what we know is right for something that seems best for business in the moment?  Ethical debates seem to be popping up in the workplace more than usual, so I thought it was time to talk about it here.

Have you ever found yourself being ‘not quite honest’ or deciding to omit facts because the truth was uncomfortable?  If so, you’re in luck.  I met with Christopher Bauer, an expert on ethics in the workplace.  His career is actually devoted to helping people build and maintain ethics.

LISA: As an author and speaker on ethics, what is the most common
ethics quandary you see in corporations?

CHRISTOPHER: I’m not sure I see quandaries nearly as often as I see outright disagreements. Of those, there are two I see more or less equally often. The first is about how much transparency is really good. Everyone will tell you that they’re all for complete transparency in today’s climate but, behind closed doors, there are heated discussions regarding how much information really should be given to whom.

The other argument I hear repeatedly has to do with who, if anyone,  actually ought to have ethics and values training. Research shows over and over that this training really needs to occur for everyone to obtain the maximum ROI. In many circles, though, there is still the outdated and empirically unsupported belief that ethics and values training is somehow something that only senior managers can really use. Worse still, ethics and values training are often seen as simple exercises in ‘soft skills’ development and presumed to have no real bearing on the bottom line. Unfortunately that’s a destructively  ‘penny-wise’ and uninformed point of view.

LISA: You believe that preventative maintenance applies to ethics. Give us two or three simple steps we can take to avoid ethics disasters.

CHRISTOPHER: There is certainly no question that preventing ethics problems is far more cost-effective than paying the financial, legal, and public-relations costs of cleaning up after them. From my first answer, you already know that one step towards preventing ethics problems is to assure that everyone in the organization gets well-conceived and well-implemented ethics and values training. Here are three more:

1. Review your ethics code. Is it just a set of rules or, perhaps, really just a poorly-disguised risk management document? To be useful, it needs to do more than tell employees what the rules are; it also needs to help them know what to do when there isn’t a rule for something.
2. Don’t bet the farm on audit and oversight programs. No matter how well they may help you catch problems that have already occurred, more problems and potential problems will always be discovered by informal collegial interaction and observation. Be sure that all employees know what to look for and how appropriately respond when they see goings-on that concern them.
3. Remember that ethical and legal problems are primarily caused by otherwise-fine people who have a lapse in judgment, self-control, or both. The moment we turn a blind eye to our own risk, or the risk of others we trust, we have lost the battle. The goal isn’t to be eternally paranoid, just to be persistently watchful for the personal issues, as well as the organizational pressures, that can increase anyone’s risk for straying over the line ethically or legally, no matter virtuous they may be otherwise.

LISA: Tell us about an ethics blunder you’ve seen, and help us understand what could have been done to prevent it.

CHRISTOPHER: I wish there were fewer examples choose from!

A common issue I see is inappropriate behavior of all kinds – everything from harassment to fraud and embezzlement – that is either overlooked or excused because the perpetrator is so well respected for other positive contributions he or she makes to the organization.

One part of the lesson is that, again, no one is immune from crossing the line, no matter how good or respected of a person they may be. The other part of the equation, though, is that we all need to know how to appropriately intervene when we see something that doesn’t square with our understanding of what the right thing is to do. It’s easy to forget that if we become aware of an ethical problem and don’t intervene appropriately, we automatically inherit a portion of the ethical culpability. Once again, it all comes back around to the need for thorough, easily retained, and easily applied ethics and values training for everyone – not just for senior management but for everyone from the person answering the phones all the way up.

LISA: As leaders, how can we support a culture of ethics at work?

CHRISTOPHER: To risk stating the obvious, the first step is of course to model appropriate behavior in absolutely every move we make. Beyond that, though, it is as important both to champion the noticing and conspicuous reinforcement of ethical behavior in others as well as the assurance that all employees, regardless of their job title or status in the organization, are held to the same standards of ethical behavior.

You hopefully have plenty of leaders peppered throughout your organization and not just among the folks who have senior level management positions. Those other leaders also have to remember that even if there doesn’t seem to be ‘tone at the top’ ethically, as leaders in departments, divisions, or even workgroups, they can still effectively champion ethical behavior locally.

LISA: What is “values driven management”, and how can we identify behaviors that are not in alignment with our values or our company’s values?

CHRISTOPHER: Values-driven management, at least as I define it, is simply seeing to it that you have extremely well-defined values that capture the most important, most persistent values through which every business decision should be filtered. Though this is an incredibly simple sounding process, it is actually every bit as difficult as it is simple-sounding. I’ve learned that there are a number of essential ‘do’s and don’ts’ for this process that few companies actually attend to and yet which absolutely make or break its success.

If the values statement has been appropriately developed and implemented, it’s actually incredibly easy to determine at any given moment whether or not one’s actions – or the actions of the organization – are aligned with those values. The trick is to make those values clear enough, and to provide sufficiently instructive ‘real world’ behavioral examples of using them, that any employee can know how to align their behavior with those values. The value in this process is huge, though. Done correctly, it will not only drive better management but leadership, customer-service, and branding as well.

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Christopher Bauer helps companies build cultures of ethics as well as helping them improve their bottom line through the development and implementation of values-driven management, leadership, customer service, and branding initiatives. Information on his programs, as well as a free subscription to his Weekly Ethics Thought, are available on his website.

 

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Do Work Life Balance Programs Really Work?

This interview is written by MBAs for MBAs. This week, I interviewed Lisa Sansom. She’s an MBA, a leadership coach, and an expert speaker. She even facilitates the team building process for new MBA cohorts at the Queens School of Business. As a fellow student of organizational behavior, I couldn’t wait to get started.

LISA C: You’re an MBA in Organizational Behavior and an expert on interpersonal communications. Give us a tip or two for increasing our self-awareness at work.

LISA S: When you encounter a frustrating situation or conversation, the first thing to do is take a disempassioned deep breath and ask yourself “How am I contributing, intentionally or unintentionally, to this situation?” Take a minute, ponder, and then the next thing that comes out of your mouth should be a question that will honestly help you to understand the other person’s point of view – a meaningful and open inquiry. Spend some time, as Stephen Covey says, seeking first to understand the other person. Set your own ego and opinions aside – just for a moment. you don’t have to relinquish them entirely, but ask a few questions to turn on your own light bulb first.

LISA C: You’ve facilitated 360 reviews. What can be gained from participating in a 360 process?

LISA S: 360 reviews provide two very interesting opportunities – one is for you to receive feedback from other sources in an honest fashion, and the second is for you to compare your own perceptions with those around you. It is important in 360s to remember that this is all about perceptions. Often, the 360 recipient, when seeing the results, focuses on the negatives and says “What can I do differently?” I would suggest that there are two alternative questions that would enrich the 360 experience: 1. “Where are my strengths that I can leverage?” and 2. “What are the perceptions that I can change?” The second question is subtly different in that it focuses your attention on the perceptions of the other person, rather than your own actions. It may be that your actions are fine, but you are not managing the relationship well enough that the other person is clear on your actions and intentions.

LISA C: As a writer for Your Workplace magazine, you’ve touched a lot on change management and work-life balance issues. What’s your take on work-life balance? Can it be done? If so, what does success look like?

LISA S: Work-life balance is highly individual and the challenge comes when an organization decides to make this a corporate value or to impose work-life balance requirements across the board. For some, working 35 hours per week is work-life balance, preferring more “life”. For others, believe it or not, 70-80 hours per week is work-life balance, preferring to shift the emphasis to “work”. Neither of these are wrong, and it is difficult, if not impossible, for a corporate strategy to accommodate and support both. The best way to tackle work-life balance, I believe, is through individual attention. It is incumbent upon the management and leadership of a company to somehow craft a method through which managers are empowered to enable work-life balance for each individual team member. This is often not done because of the perception of unfairness – that someone who is working 35 hours is “getting off easy” compared to the person who is working 70, but if the work is getting done to high standards, and communication is clear across the team that there is organizationally-approved individual choice at play, then the discomfort with the apparent “unfairness” should be minimal.

LISA C: When a new, ‘big thing’ gets implemented in the workplace, how can we use early adopters to support change management success?

LISA S: Turn your early adopters into Change Champions. And cultivate early adopters who are the informal leaders in the organization – the people who work next to your potential change recipients, the people who are respected and recognized, the people who are good communicators and represent the organization professionally. Give those Champions training on how to be Change Champions – teach them about the project, seek their input and feedback, help them craft messages to send to the larger population.

LISA C: At the Queen’s School of Business, you facilitate the process of new MBA students becoming a team. When these teams are ‘norming’, what’s the most interesting dynamic you see?

LISA S: At the QSB, we have teams actually create norms documents – what are the guidelines or rules by which they will operate as a team in the MBA program. So, when teams are writing their norms in the MBA programs, there tends to be a great deal of harmony and alignment – most students come into the program as professionals with a certain work ethic, and so the norms creation process tends to be smooth, if a little wordy. However, what truly distinguishes the “high performing teams” from those that are just average is how the teams make use of their norms. The higher performing teams not only live their norms, but they openly and intentionally discuss the norms. They create times to actively review the norms documents that they created, and the team members intentionally refer to the team norms during debriefing sessions, working meetings and individual conversations with other team members. For these strong teams, the norms are meaningful and incorporated into the team’s DNA. For less effective teams, the norms are, at best, words on a page and, at worst, ignored entirely after their creation.

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Thank you Lisa for participating in our interview series.

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