Leading by Looking Back

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Conventional wisdom teaches that leadership is about looking forward. We are all taught that leading means creating a compelling vision for the future and inspiring others to follow us into that future. While I fundamentally share this view, I believe the past plays a critical role in how we lead. Leaders must be able to look back. We must learn lessons from our own experiences and from the experiences of those who came before us.

Philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” His words are especially true in the context of leadership. Either we can learn from the past, or we can continue to commit the same blunders. Many leadership “experts” argue that the problems and challenges facing today’s leaders require new leadership attributes. I contend that the attributes never change. How we use them may change, but the attributes remain constant.

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About the Author

Doug Moran has more than twenty-five years of leadership experience in a variety of industries. Doug is the author of the forthcoming book, If You Will Lead: Enduring Wisdom for 21st-Century Leaders. He founded IF YOU WILL LEAD, LLC to help leaders and organizations reach their fullest potential. The firm focuses on leadership development, organization excellence and information technology. His book, speaking, and consulting leverage the power of story-telling and enduring wisdom to help leaders and their organizations excel and grow.

Relational Leadership and Employee Retention – A Match, part 1

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Even if you do not have an actual figure, most business leaders realize that there is a substantial cost to employee turnover. This series of articles will address relational leadership methods you can employ right now that will tip the turnover scale to your favor.

The Relational Leader: A Revolutionary Framework to Engage Your Team (Course Technology PTR, Cengage Learning 2010)
by Frank McIntosh

 

The Relational Leader presents a framework to use as a compass point so that you can project a consistent message and methodology to your people. The book will expose you to the principles of relational leadership and show you how the principles when applied in tandem, can produce substantial results.

People are the core of this leadership style. How you approach people and the environment that you provide for them to work in revolves around seven attributes called: Fairness, Character, Trust, Fun, Celebration, Attentiveness, and Purpose.

You will understand how these attributes affect people through the eyes and experiences of highly successful leaders. You will learn how to put the attributes in play for yourself in your own leadership situation.

This book will explore how our institutional leaders can make claim once again to ethical, fair, and purposeful practices that underscore the value of human beings as the linchpins of our society. The methods presented in the book will help you build a motivated and responsive team within your workgroup.

You do not want to stop turnover; you want to control it. Not all your hires will perform as you hope and some people will just naturally burn out. How can you mitigate these circumstances?

Today’s article will address creating a ‘learning – thinking’ organization. I will share a few key thoughts to get you started.

Low turnover and effective recruiting go hand in hand. Your business environment and culture bear heavily upon your ability to attract and retain the best people. The following are some of the significant success factors in building a winning environment. Your people:

  1. See themselves as growing.
  2. Feel their contributions – big or small – are valued and recognized.
  3. Appreciate that significance is placed on building relationships through shared experiences.
  4. Observe evidence of an overriding commitment to people in the organization.

It’s a great compliment to invest time and money in an individual’s development. A learning – thinking organization will have development plans for the company and personal plans for individuals (based on their strengths) that increase their capacity. The following is an example to improve organizational needs:

  1. Assess individual and company strengths while also determining the top three or four organizational needs.
  2. Create a Strength Inventory for the company (see Table 1 below) on a spread sheet.
  3. Identify top strengths (individual or organization) that can positively impact needs.
  4. Assemble diverse teams by appropriate strength to address the organization’s needs (e.g. 5 people with technical strengths).

Strength Inventory – Sports Stars, Inc.
 Individual    Strengths    
 Ted Williams    Technical*  Disciplined  Analytical
 Larry Bird    Competitive  Doer  Adaptable
 Bobby Orr    Self-Assured  Developer  Energized*
 Tom Brady    Strategic  Communicator  Deliberate
 Organization    Strengths    
 Sports Stars, Inc.    Blend of Experience*
(range of people with
different times on job)		  Market Share*  Location

* Top 4 Strengths to be used in needs analysis and improvement

Table 1: Strength Inventory Example

In the example below, the organizational needs appear at the top of each column. For illustration there are two strengths from both the organization and the individual. I assigned them to the needs as appropriate. The teams assembled by strength concentrate on improving the need assigned. You will need multiple teams from each strength area. People representing the organizational strengths are selected ‘at large’ and have demonstrated an impact on that strength in their daily work.

Figure 1: Organizational Need to Individual Strength Alignment

The matrix that you have created becomes the key to a functioning thinking – learning organization. It will help you arrive at effective strategic decisions thus maximizing success in your company. The concept of building on strengths is a powerful motivator. People like to do things they do well. By helping them to do them even better, it makes sense that they will begin to contribute to the whole at a much higher level. Also, they will feel a personal commitment to the growth of the business, because it becomes a part of who they are.

A learning structure built on these principles will give you the opportunity to celebrate the contributions of people throughout the organization. You will also create multiple opportunities for meaningful shared experiences resulting in a bond that will give cohesion and a shared will to succeed. Finally, it becomes abundantly clear that leadership is committed, first and foremost to its people.

People in organizations like this do not leave. People who find organizations like this want to get in. This is one example of relational leadership at work; there are many more.

About the Author

Frank McIntosh is author of The Relational Leader (Course Technology PTR, Cengage Learning 2010). During his 36 year career, Frank has worked with many of the most recognized companies and executives in the world. He has provided consulting services for peers across the country and helped initiate Junior Achievement programs in Ireland, the Ivory Coast, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Uzbekistan. Frank was inducted into the Delaware Business Leaders Hall of Fame in October 2008, one of 38 individuals so honored and the first not-for-profit executive to receive this distinction in Delaware’s 300 year business history. To read Frank’s complete biography, click here.

For more information regarding this subject, visit Frank McIntosh at his website www.FJMcIntosh.com.

StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 48 – An Interview with Wendy Powell, author of Management Experience Acquired

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 48 – An Interview with Wendy Powell, author of Management Experience Acquired explores the techniques managers need to know in order to effectively deal with the diverse employee issues that occur in today’s workplace environment. During our discussion, Wendy Powell, author of Management Experience Acquired: Necessary Skills for Successfully Managing Any Employee, shares with us her insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • what companies can do to better prepare individuals for management roles
  • what individuals aspiring to management positions should do to better prepare themselves for the challenges they will face once there
  • whether treating employees fairly means that they should all be treated equally
  • what managers can do to feel more comfortable providing constructive, corrective feedback to employees
  • how to overcome the often self imposed reluctance to approach seniors, peers, and the human resources staff for advice on how to deal with employee issues

Additional Information

In addition to the incredible insights Wendy shares in Management Experience Acquired and this special edition podcast are the resources accessible from her website, www.ManagementExperienceAcquired.com.   Wendy’s book, Management Experience Acquired, can be purchased by clicking here.

Look for Wendy on NBC’s Daytime

Wendy will be a featured guest on NBC’s Daytime Morning Show the week of Monday, October 11. Watch for Wendy and learn more about how to become increasingly effective even in a down economy.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Wendy Powell is the author of Management Experience Acquired. With more than twenty-five years of human resource and management consulting experience, Wendy has spent most of her career at the University of Michigan. She is currently on the business faculty at both Palm Beach State College and the University of Phoenix. A member of the Society of Human Resource Management, she received a leadership award in 2002 from the Midwest College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. She is routinely featured on The Huffington Post and has appeared on Fox Business’s The Strategy Room. Wendy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business management and a Master of Arts degree in organizational management.

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Management and Leadership Best Practice 3 – Demonstrating Commitment

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Buy-in, engagement, support… terms used to suggest commitment to a particular course of action, but are they really? What is true commitment?

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The Five Floors of Relationships

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I know thousands of people, and many of them wield tremendous influence. If life and business were all about “who you know,” then I’d be set. But none of those relationships took on extraordinary value unless I approached them with the idea that they mattered for something above and beyond the transaction.

I think of relationships in terms of a five-floor building. The deeper and more meaningful a relationship, the higher the floor it resides on. My closest, deepest relationships are Fifth Floor or Penthouse, relationships.

Let me be clear – relationships seldom fit neatly into a box (or a building). They’re far too dynamic. Some overlap on different floors, and others seem to move up and down floors like an elevator. But the Five Floor plan helps give me a reference point and allows me to think about the boundaries that define my relationships, so that I can continually work to make them stronger and more rewarding. I try to develop strong relationships at every level. And because my relationships with others matter so much to me, and because I come to them intending to help others, many of these relationships develop into something more meaningful than anything I had imagined.

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About the Author

Tommy Spaulding is president of The Spaulding Companies LLC, a national leadership development, consulting, and speaking organization. Before starting his firm, he was the head of the international nonprofit, Up With People. Tommy is the founder of Leader’s Challenge, which has become the largest high school civic and leadership program in Colorado. He is the co-founder of The Center for Third Sector Excellence and the founder of the National Leadership Academy. Tommy also created Dialogue for Tomorrow, an annual international global leadership conference. He received a BA in Political Science from East Carolina University, an MBA from Bond University in Australia, and an MA in Non-Profit Management from Regis University. In 2007, Tommy received an Honorary PhD in Humanities from the Art Institute of Colorado. To read Tommy’s complete biography, click here.