The Recovering Leader

Why a Leader's Emotional Impact Matters ... A Lot

“Why do I need to worry about my people’s feelings? Why don’t they automatically just FEEL like doing their best? They’re lucky they have a job! Am I there to coddle them?”

These are bottom line beliefs and questions among my executive clients who tend to be more task / directive / deadline-driven.  Some are thinking these things mainly when there are morale or performance issues, while others face them when confronted with feedback, or after reading the latest book on brilliant leadership.

Talking to the people on their team, I tend to hear:

“She would get a lot more out of us if she would just stop telling us what to do and how to do it, and instead, ASK what we would suggest, or how we would approach it, then let us do it that way—even if it’s not perfect, we’d learn.”

“He’s all about command and control. Get on his good side by delivering results and keeping your mouth shut.”

“She has no idea how many people here—including her best—are looking for other jobs. They’ll be out of here the minute they can get something better.”

“He doesn’t care about us. All he cares about is making sure the investors get their returns, and the board is happy with his numbers.”

“Would it kill her to acknowledge a job well done from time to time? She says doing a good job IS my job, and I’m well paid for it. Thanks!”

So what?

Yes, directive, task-focused leader: you are responsible for their feelings, but probably not in the way you think.

My view—and plenty of research backs me on this—is that it’s not the leader’s job to motivate your people. In fact, it’s incumbent on you to hire self-motivated people, and to weed out the apathetic ones.

Once that’s done, and you have the right team, it IS your job to avoid DE-MOTIVATING them, which you do by holding them too tightly in your fist, and/or micromanaging them, or by failing to acknowledge them.

The need for acknowledgement, after all, is a fundamental human drive. Failure to recognize this isn’t just tone-deaf leadership, it erodes and finally destroys engagement among otherwise motivated people.

If you have self-motivated, capable, experienced people running your organization, the best thing you can do is back off, support them, and get out of their way. It also means noticing HOW THEY ARE FEELING as a potential proxy for your own level of overwrought directive behavior.

Practice: regularly ask each of your key, capable, self-motivated people HOW THEY ARE FEELING, and just listen. You may hear crickets at first, but stick with it. Over time, if they think you care, which you need to do, then you’ll know what you need to change to get out of their way, and in doing so, allow them to do their best work ever.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Land Critical Conversations Right the First Time

Many key discussions end with one or more people in a holding pattern.  Unfortunately, it's often after the fact that we realize something was missed or left unaddressed.

Whether an interview, tough discussion, sales opportunity, executive team or board meeting—the many variables in the room (personalities, agendas, politics, etc.) can take you off course, diverting you from your main objective(s).

Near the end of such important meetings, I’ve found that asking one of the following questions is a surpsingly simple and powerful way to arrive at the right destination in a timely way, without the need for further clarification.  Here are a few examples:

“Is there anything you hoped to get out of this discussion that remains a question or concern for you?”

and/or

“If we stopped here, would you be leaving with something important to you unresolved?”

and/or

“Are we leaving anything unspoken or ignored here that could make this discussion truly a great one?”

If you find these might be helpful to you, feel free to try one or more of them. You may be surprised and delighted by what you accomplish—and land that job, deal, or influential support you needed. 

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

3 Powerful Practices for Aloof or Distant Leaders

If you tend to be introverted, shy, too busy to be responsive, or intentionally aloof / distant, as I posted recently, approachability’s pragmatic leadership value is likely eluding you. That wall you’ve built around you, whether intentionally or not, alienates you from critical ideas, feedback, input, and your people’s higher-level motivation / engagement—needed for them to do their best work.

So what to do about it? I realized in my recent post I talked about the “what” and the “so what,” but not the “now what?” What's the coaching suggestion I'm making here, in the real world?

To “tear down that wall” there are three powerful steps you can begin to practice until they become habits: 1) ask questions of your people that challenge yourself, 2) be responsive, and 3) share more of your own inner thoughts, challenges, and cares with them—so they see you as a real person. Let’s take a look at each one:

 

Practice-to-habit 1: Open a door in your wall.

You’d hope that your people would volunteer important information. But if you’ve been aloof, many won’t. So ask your people questions that challenge yourself, inviting and responding to their input and feedback. Choose from the list, add your own, and try asking questions of your people and colleagues, one on one, and in moderation, over time:

1. What do I need to know that I don’t seem to see or understand?

2. What are you up against?

3. What would you suggest we do differently?

4. What strengths do we have that we aren’t leveraging?

5. How can I be a more supportive (leader / colleague) to you?

6. In what ways can I be clearer?

7. What am I doing that’s particularly motivating / inspiring, and/or particularly de-motivating or uninspiring?

8. If you could change three things about what or how we do what we do, what would they be?

Does this seem like a lot of effort? Just try a few. And if you’re wondering if this is worth it, consider the leader who DOESN’T do this. What’s your thought about them? “They have their reasons, but I don’t get it,” or “Does he value me or my ideas?” or “Does she see what I’m dealing with?” and ”She doesn’t know what’s really going on around here.” Chances are some of this is true.

Ask questions and listen to the answers, and you can avoid cutting off your own knowledge flow, even as you gain greater engagement from your team and colleagues.

 

Practice-to-habit 2: Be responsive.

When hearing from one's people, an aloof or distant leader will often let their email, voicemail, text, IM, or comments go by without response. You can hide behind your position, or rationalize you are too busy, buried, or overwhelmed, etc., or simply answer them in your head, but not in reality. It translates as rude and de-motivating to them, and marginalizes their contributions. Time for change:

1. Don’t ignore emails, texts, IM’s, calls, or ideas shared with you by your people. At least acknowledge them.

2. When people actively offer you their ideas, suggestions, or feedback, take it in, and respond directly to the positive intention with which it was offered.

3. If you choose to go with the idea, then share that, and assign credit to them.

4. If you choose to reject it, explain that you considered it, discovered you had a different view (or different priorities), and be transparent about why you decided not to go with it.

Leadership means being in service to your people's needs should be a high priority. If this seems like a big effort, consider the leader who is so busy (or doesn’t want input) they don’t tend to respond to suggestions, ideas, and feedback. You may feel they heard you, but nothing seems to come of it—a bit of a black hole, right? You start to wonder what it means, and eventually just stop sharing or trying.  Being responsive goes a long way, and isn't a huge effort, particularly once it becomes a habit.

 

Practice-to-habit 3: Share what’s happening with you.

When it comes to this, my aloof executive clients will ask me: really? Do they want me to over disclose? Am I supposed to be Oprah or what?

If you’ve been aloof or distant, your people are definitely doing two things: 1) they are making up their own (usually incorrect) stories about what’s happening in your world, and 2) they are hungry to know you better. There’s little or no chance you’ll have to over disclose—however, a little sharing on your part—starting with one on one with a colleague or someone in your group—on a regular basis, will go a long way to tearing down your wall.

1. Volunteer and discuss a significant challenge or issue you are grappling with, and ask for help or perspective.

2. Talk about a personal obstacle you’ve encountered and what you’re doing about it.

3. Articulate a hope, a concern or fear, or a vision of the future, and discuss.

4. Express an ongoing frustration or source of stress and ask for input / suggestions.

5. Talk about a success or achievement that’s important to you, yet that’s proved elusive, and ask for suggestions or ideas.

If you want your people’s best work, and/or your colleague’s best collaborative efforts, you’re going to have to show more of yourself than you have done so far, to give them the “why” they should be inspired or engaged about where you’re heading them.
 

* * *

Any / all of the above practices-to-habits for aloof or distant leaders can help you tear down the wall separating you from your colleague's and team's highest engagement, and best work. Why not give a few of them a try?

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Over-thinking Challenging Situations

The outcome you achieve after facing a challenging situation—for better or worse—is limited by your assumptions or “story” going into it. In fact, walking into almost any potentially difficult conversation, our understanding is at best incomplete, no matter how much forethought we’ve given it.

It’s human nature to prepare for what may be difficult, particularly if we are under normal stress. We tend to rehearse in our minds what we will say and do, so as not to get caught off guard, which, while understandable, causes its own problems.

For example, an executive client was reviewing one of his service providers. Prior to touching base with his vendor, he thought to himself, "We are spending plenty of money each year on this firm's services, and they are doing a really excellent job. At the same time, my company is going through some changes in our organizational structure. I'm thinking that now's the time for my team to take a fresh look at the existing relationship with this firm." He found himself questioning things like, "Are we using the current relationship as effectively as possible? How does that relationship best fit our current structure? Are we being a good client?” etc. After some thought, he contacted the head of that company to solicit a discussion about these and other questions.

The service company head agreed to a one-on-one meeting. He showed up at my client's office both anxious and defensive. He started off by suggesting ways my client’s people had been less than effective in their work together.

After the face-to-face meeting, we discovered that the service firm had recently lost some of its business. In hindsight, the firm's head clearly folded those experiences into his “story” prior to seeing my client. What expectations, or script, had he walked in with? Apparently, he assumed my client was going to say something like, "We're not happy, and we're not sure we're going to continue working with you..." All told, he'd mistakenly walked into the discussion with a confrontational script, and was playing both offense and defense—all of which was self-determined and avoidable.

The meeting ended up being a turning point in their relationship—and not a good one. Yet with a different approach, that particular conversation could have been a way to deepen and improve their collaboration.

Let’s say, instead, the service provider showed up without a script, in inquiry mode, or at least with an open mind. Imagine he was able to “improvise” and see what happened—a mental preparation framework like: "I’m going to ask questions, listen, and have a great conversation in order to be of even better service to this client in our work together."

Now, that meeting could have really been something to remember—in a good way. It likely would have created new possibilities, rather than creating new issues or bumps in the road in the relationship.

The impulse to walk in with a script rather than a list of questions—whether driven by lost business, fear of the unknown, nerves, a desire to do well (or whatever else is going on in your world)—is natural, but not optimal.

Leaders, when faced with challenging situations, are better off assuming the best and walking into a discussion with an open mind. They've learned that listening, asking and then asserting in these meetings is a much more effective approach—one that reduces negative determinism (or a bias to any particular "story") and creates better outcomes.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Listening to Your Struggle’s Message

In Western culture we tend to think anything worthwhile should be difficult. Along those lines, it’s easy to miss when a struggle is trying to tell you that it’s time for a change. Fixated on our goal, we soldier on, trying ever harder. Then, exhausted, we see in hindsight that the signs were reading, “I need a change” all along.

Thinking about you during times of struggle, let’s consider two scenarios, both with different outcomes.

Think back to a job or time when you were truly fulfilled with something you did: a problem you solved, a project, a company you ran, or even a game of golf or tennis you played. While doing it, time flew by, like you were “in the zone,” and when it was done you felt energized and maybe even proud.

If we could somehow go back and measure in real-time your experience of that event, we’d find that while you put a lot of work into the challenges, it wasn’t a struggle. You faced difficulties, yet ended up feeling fulfilled.

Now consider a job or experience when you worked really hard, yet at the time, were feeling drained, exhausted and/or frustrated. Perhaps the result fell short of your hopes / expectations, or maybe you held on too long, hoping that you could somehow make it better.

If we could measure your real-time experience of that event, we would find that you and/or some aspect of the situation was "off"— unlike the positive experience we looked at above, difficulty became struggle, and ultimately, you were left feeling depleted, disappointed and/or failure.

In reviewing these situations, whether the result was positive or negative, we can see that the amount of struggle was inversely related to the outcome.

When you’re in the flow of things, you know that you’re probably on the right track. If however, you have to force something to happen, don’t wait too long to notice that you’re far better off reconsidering the situation, seeking help, walking away and coming back, deferring or changing your approach, or, if you can, trying it another day.

It’s as true of work as it is in life, that changing the conditions, rather than repeating the same level of effort and hoping for a different result, can be liberating. I’d suggest trying this in next time you’re faced with difficult situations that appear to have diminishing returns. You’ll discover that detecting and correcting your pattern of trying too hard is energizing and rewarding — ultimately leading to more fulfilling outcomes.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Recovering Leader More User-Friendly

Over the last few weeks I've updated 300 of my posts here by adding them to a large category index, directly accessible with a click from the category list in the right column.  My hope is that doing so will now make my content easier to find, and quicker to access for readers and subscribers like you.

Because this process entailed re-posting many items, your feed or subscriber notificaitons may be wonky this week.  So my apologies in advance if your feed from Recovering Leader suddenly looks odd, or you get a bunch of items.  This should be a one-time thing.

Meantime, feel free to give me any feedback about usability, content, or topics to cover in different ways than I have.  Like all of us, I have my blind spots, and feedback from you, my readers, is just the thing to give you what you most want from this blog.

Warm regards,

David Peck
The Recovering Leader

Approachability's Pragmatic Leadership Advantages

Being seen as “warm and fuzzy” is not needed to lead effectively. Yet leaders with higher levels of approachability achieve better outcomes than their pricklier colleagues, because they receive more information.

No matter how well-intentioned they may be, execs that are introverted, intimidating, harsh, or dismissive—or just short on relational graces—make those around them hesitant to come forward. That shuts down information flow, impairing judgment, decision-making, and results. It can also de-motivate even their best people.

Consider the following feedback I’ve received over the years about various leaders with approachability issues:

“He says he has an open-door policy, but he’s harsh, even on a good day. No one wants to give him anything but good news.”

“She’s cold and remote -- not sure what to make of her, and I've known her for years. I just steer clear of her whenever possible.”

“He’s all business. Forget the niceties, if you try and engage him as a person, it’s not going to happen. People do their job, and that’s it. No one’s going above and beyond for him.”

In each case, the leader knew they weren’t exactly “a people person,” but didn’t really worry about it, because “work is work” / “business is business” / or “I’m not here to win any popularity contests.”

So what?

Whether nuance, bad news, or a seemingly insignificant piece of information that might solve a leader’s important problem or puzzle, people will hold back unless absolutely necessary, often too late to be actionable. The cost can be high, and is certainly avoidable.

Now what?

Check yourself. If you are frustrated with not getting important information on a timely basis from your people, it helps to suspect your own level of approachability, even if all you do is rule it out. As this may be in your blind spot, ask those around you whom you trust if they think you might put people off more than you know. Give them extra permission to be frank with you about it.

If you discover you may have an approachability issue, here are a few suggestions to try out:

1. When you get ideas and suggestions, or simply are given information by your people, acknowledge it. Ten words or less can let your people know you welcome what they are giving you. Failure to say, “I appreciate the heads up,” or, “Thank you, I got that update,” telegraphs apathy, adding to shut down.

2. When you decide to ignore input or recommendations, why not take a moment to explain? Absent that, people will read their own story into your silence, which may be, s/he doesn’t want my input, so I’m not going to provide it.

3. Over time, go a level deeper on getting to know your people by investing one on one time with them.

4. Let them know you better by sharing a bit more of yourself, and initiating discussions that go beyond specific tasks and deliverables.

5. Make sure you are asking questions about the other person—both work-related and on a human level.

6. Don’t hesitate to show caring and concern about others when it’s heartfelt.

7. Listen hard. Watch distractions, like doing other things while people are talking to you.

8. Consider making extra effort to be gentle with people who are easily intimidated, or less prone to go “toe to toe."

Approachability and high standards of professionalism are not mutually exclusive. They are, in fact, complementary. Pricklier leaders need to put in a bit more effort to ensure they are open to their people’s ideas. Doing so can make the difference between enduring and achieving.

David Peck
The Recovering Leader
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Excellence in Leadership Means Being Savvy in Four Systems

Results, Self-awareness, Organizational Culture, and Politics: these four “systems” silently but surely surround us in any organization. Understanding each of them is key to maximizing your own contributions … and returns.

I share this because most of the feedback I hear on the up-front interviews I do about executive clients falls into one or more of these areas. If I did interviews about you—among your colleagues—chances are the same would be true for you.

As a result, I developed the “Leading With Savvy / Four Systems” model to give my executive clients a leg up. To show them in black and white the subtleties of what’s expected of them, regardless of what’s being said—or left unsaid—to them.

And as a bonus to my blog readers, I include in this post my one-page graphic I give clients on this (Download David Peck's Four Systems Model), and have elaborated on each item below.

Four Systems Model for Leading With Savvy

1. Achieving and Delivering Results.

Most people get to positions of responsibility based on their ability to achieve results, so I often refer to this system as the ante—the base price to be in the game. In other words, you can do the remaining three systems well, but if you aren’t able to achieve results, the chances are good the others won’t sustain you long term. If this article interests you, you are likely already familiar with this system, which includes:

• Getting your work done consistently and excellently.
• Being knowledgeable in your work.
• Delivering on metrics, numbers, goals.
• Running your enterprise effectively.
• Strategically using products, services, operations, sales, marketing, technology, etc.
• Recruiting and deploying your human resources wisely.
• Zooming in / out on details appropriately—neither micromanaging nor being too removed from the details.
• Being an engaging (and not de-motivating) manager or leader.
• Maintaining a strong and sustainable work ethic, which includes balance between work and home life.

2. Working and Leading with Self-awareness.

Knowing and being candid with yourself, and continuous learning, are proven paths to excellence in life and leadership, particularly in combination with the other three areas I’ve outlined here. My criteria for self-awareness include:

• Assuring you are happy most days at work, and if not, adjusting accordingly.
• Assuring you are doing your best work most days, and if not, adjusting accordingly.
• Working in tune with your professional purpose, and not against it.
• Seeking periodic candid feedback, and using that to clear your blind spots.
• Observing and minding your impact on others.
• Walking your talk / being in integrity / authenticity.
• Self-observing, learning, evolving your skills and leadership.
• Thinking and operating as an owner would do—that is, “If it were my company / my organization, how would I handle this? What would be important to me?”

3. Fitting well with the Culture.

Some have said an organization’s culture is what people know but rarely say—it’s what they may tell you over drinks—about customs and norms—your first week. When I evaluate an executive, I will always ask a question about culture synchronization—that is, in what ways is Jack in sync, and out of sync, with the Acme Company’s culture? The answers to that often fall in these areas:

• Operating within in your organization's norms.
• Being a good “fit” / “fitting in,” and being seen by others as a good “fit” / “fitting in.”
• Understanding unspoken rules, do’s and don’ts.
• Applying candor and consensus skillfully.
• Wields an appropriate style and approach for communication and presentation.
• Teaming and collaborating in ways acceptable to key people in the organization.

4. Operating with Political Savvy

"Politics" in organizations is an overused-and seldom well-defined term. (Example: "I love this company, but hate the politics around here.") It is, however, undeniable.  It's the real-world (rather than what shows up on an organization chart) of power, influence, and scope of impact on events and people someone may have. Regardless of how kind and gentle the culture may be, political adeptness is key to getting harder things done. Consider the following as important factors to acknowledge and understand in the political system of the organization:

• Understanding and respecting power.
• Having gravitas and influence within the organization.
• Understanding whose stock is up, down, or sideways in the eyes of those with power.
• Knowing how and why things truly get decided.
• Knowing whom to trust among colleagues and team.
• Knowing who’s got your back, and who doesn’t.
• Deciding who you will and won’t watch out for.

* * *

I hope you find this as helpful as have some of my best clients. I welcome your comments and thoughts.

David Peck
The Recovering Leader
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

New: The Recovering Leader Congressional Pledge

Most Congressional Republicans have signed an anti-tax pledge. It's time for a new, constructive pledge—one that puts leadership into politics. Here's the idea...

Since 1986 Americans for Tax Reform has “invited” U.S. congress people to sign a pledge they will oppose any and all tax increases for individuals and/or businesses.  They will "publicize" those who decide not to sign it, or who break their pledge. And golly does it work: in the current term, 238 House Republicans—a majority—and 41 Senators have signed the pledge.

I believe in great leadership, and therefore I have my own pledge to propose. Patterned after the succesful tax pledge (succinct and on message), I’ve come up with one I hope will help:

The signer pledges to:

ONE, refuse to accept any campaign contributions over $1 from any individual, corporation, fundraising group, PAC, lobbyist, or entity.

TWO, propose and/or vote only for legislation intended to uphold, protect, and/or defend the US Constitution, and the health, safety, security, rights, liberties, common prosperity, and freedoms of US Citizens, inclusive of every gender, race, religious or spiritual views, sexual orientation, physical or mental capacity, and ethnic origin.

THREE, accept congressional salary and benefits for their services only while in office, and only less than or equal to those of the median salary and benefits in the district or state that elected them.

PLEDGED AND SIGNED,

__________________________

Congressperson

I'm sure there's a ton of things we COULD add, but given money is the big kahuna of corrupting infliuences here, I'm keeping it simple.

And if you are so moved, please send it to your congressperson and ask them to sign it! If they do, they are  welcome to put the “Recovering Leader Pledge” medallion on all their materials. Unlike Grover Norquist, if they don’t, let’s not embarrass them, ok?

David Peck
The Recovering Leader

Reinvention and Fighting the Status Quo Fetish

Like those with power in war, politics, religion, and even charities and greater-good enterprises, business leaders share the strong human need to preserve things as they are … to tinker rather than transform. 

Building modestly on what is, jiggering with it, making small corrections—preserving the status quo no matter what, either deliberately or non-consciously, is the object of our desire. Change, particularly wholesale change is ambiguous and unknown—and like so many of us, leaders of mature organizations (and their boards) hate the unknown, which addicts them to what they know. As is said in recovery circles, maybe it smells bad, but at least it’s familiar.

After all, it’s far less threatening to go to a TED talk or read an e-book about reinventing yourself or your organization than to rip it apart and start again. Just look at any major trend in leadership—like “innovation”—and the more you see it written about or talked about, the greater the problem people have actually doing it, partiuclarly when something is already built and running.

And no matter what domain you look at—where us humans are involved—there’s a powerful magnetic pull to avoid change, or reinvention, even when facing a potentially tremendous opportunity for a greater good.

So it shouldn't come as a shock that there's an inverse relationship between maturity and the capacity / willingness for innovation. The more mature an organization, or entrenched its leadership may be, the less significant innovation is taken on.

Back in 2009 I dubbed this “status quo fetishism”—the tremendous impetus among leaders of mature organizations to tinker with the norms of the day rather than transform their products and services into something better. They see any rapid or major change as a threat: destabilizing, too risky, or too hard.

While the media and politicians (whenever they can make some hay of it) love to demonize corporations and their leaders, I’m inclined to take a more loving view. These execs are generally smart, capable, well-intentioned, solid people, facing the full catastrophe life presents each of us, in their own way.

To know someone well is to understand what he or she fears, and what they desire. They, like all of us, mainly fear not getting what they want, or losing what they have. They desire to love and be loved by those around them. It’s no leap of faith to get why they’re quite cautious about jumping on the reinvention / transformation bandwagon.

When something’s been built and out in the world for a while, self-preservation naturally kicks in. Change is harder. Indeed human nature is such that it takes a LOT of pain to propel a LOT of change.

The need to jigger with, game, and otherwise buy into the way things are versus change the rules altogether is the nature of the corporate jungle, and can be traced through what I see as four stages of an organization’s life:

1. INNOVATION: The birth of an idea or wholesale reinvention of something that can make the world a better place, or simply deliver a tremendous product or service. People involved in this venture tend to say “Oh my god, this is truly ingenuous, and may change everything!”

2. AUGMENTATION: Provided it makes it out of the early stage, there is a natural process of expansion / growth of the ideas into something larger. Those involved in this stage will say “It’s a wild ride! We need to nail things together better, though…”

3. CONSOLIDATION: Once this growth period levels off, there is the desire to consolidate power, revise content, process, and systematize. Here’s where you hear, “Things are taking longer to get done, but at least we have some process.”

4. SELF-PRESERVATION: This is where the shields go up, the hatches baton down, and the wagons are circled around the status quo. Changes made are incremental, rather than fundamental.” Getting stuck in this stage (rather than going back to INNOVATION) presents organizations and society with difficulties, particularly where there is potential for a greater good, or for doing harm. “Too big to fail,” characterizes many Stage 4 enterprises, as they are largest in the world, which means they have tremendous influence on all our lives.

In the U.S., we have entire industries, government agencies, educational systems, scientific systems, policies toward other nations, regulatory bodies, and the list goes WAY on, all in “self-preservation” mode.

Leaders of Stage Four enterprises aren’t typically evil or ill intentioned (evil / ill intentioned takes an innovative approach, which is one of the reasons it can be so threatening)—they’re just stuck, and their challenge is to recognize that status quo fetishism is a long term threat to sustainability for all of us, and get back to the best of what they are: innovators with the vision and resources to change for the greater good. Demonizing them simply isn't helpful, and in fact, just makes them want to dig in further.

Take a good hard look at what you’re holding on to, and keeping as it is, particularly if you are a leader. Realize that you come by your status quo fetish honestly, and don’t shy away from a new, blank whiteboard—the innovation that can come from that is surely worthwhile.

David Peck
The Recovering Leader
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
The Goodstone Group, LLC

 

Doing 'Chief Talent Officer' Right

Even as job growth remains sluggish, a refreshing trend among progressive organizations is emerging: treating and investing in your people--your talent--more as assets than expenses. What a concept!  Previously I’ve posted my views on the importance of the mindset of that, and today I thought it worthwhile to focus on how to turn that mindset into action.

Many are noting the growing prevalence of the Chief Talent Officer (CTO). Success in setting up and empowering this role can make a significant positive impact on your critical human capital.

Doing it Right

Define: At best, this c-level talent head, whether an internal executive or external provider (for smaller organizations), partners closely with HR, Finance, Business Unit heads, and the entire executive team to design and implement strategies to enhance the organization’s talent: hiring, development, promotion, weeding, and leadership succession. In addition, they should play an ongoing role in assessing, enhancing, and steering the organization's culture, a heavily people-oriented key to sustainable achievement.

(As a divisional C O O in a Fortune 500 company, I was challenged by the absence of this function. As an executive coach working with many organizations, I see the strong, positive effect the CTO can have, and what it looks like when it’s not defined well, or empowered.)

Measure: In fact, simply adding this function to your leadership team doesn’t mean it will add significant value. So it’s important to consider it with the same deliberation and clarity as you would view any serious investment—define measures and ongoing expected return on investment (ROI), and even potentially an ongoing P&L view.

Grant authority: Empowering the person or function to do its job, with budget, decision-making authority, a clear charter, and an equal voice at the leadership table are all success factors to consider.

Profile: For those reasons, I think someone with a business leadership background (e.g., General Management experience) is particularly suited to this type of role. That’s not to preclude other backgrounds, but I would be critical (or maybe careful) about putting someone in the role who had NOT demonstrated a track record of ROI, and an ability to influence for change.

The reason I find it so appealing—in fact it’s a job I would enjoy perhaps as much as executive coaching—is what it says AND does about valuing and believing in your people. So much of the talk about “process simplification” and “knowledge economy” and “higher-skilled workforce” has amounted to doing more with less—downsizing, that an empowered CTO is truly refreshing.

Greg Smith’s critical OpEd in this week’s New York Times “Why I am Leaving Goldman Sachs” reminded and inspired me to post about this.

Hire or empower your CTO. Putting people before—or at least on par with—product and profit is not only humane, but also smart business, and a key to sustainability.

David Peck
The Recovering Leader
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Leadership and Getting Real

It's been said, "No plan ever survives its first contact with reality."

Achieving a vision or dream requires a leader to be realistic about plans, expectations, resources, people, and circumstances; pilots call it “situational awareness.”

You need a clear, open mind, and a sharp focus.  It also means standards and milestones to chart your course—and reasonable expectations about progress.

When we hit the inevitable oops, setback, failure, or unexpected twist, realism asks that we accept, forgive, and change direction accordingly rather than hold onto a regret ... or to wish or hope that things would be different.

Consider a practice for this week: Where might a good dose of acceptance and understanding -- realism -- help you be more adaptive and nimble, and for that matter, less stressed?

David Peck
The Recovering Leader
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
The Goodstone Group, LLC

Six Simple Steps to Ensure Your Best

What does it take for you to be doing your best most days?

How do happy, effective leaders, entrepreneurs, professionals, workers, and athletes manage to bring their A-game the majority of the time? It’s simple: either deliberately or not, they have an index—one that acts as a compass to align / realign them to their best.

Before I explain that, none of us can be at our best most days if we’re in the wrong situation. In short, if the economics or work isn’t right for you, your boss (if you have one) or colleagues aren’t good for you, or you are isolated from support / mentoring / coaching / feedback, then you need to take a good hard look at whether a change is needed.

If you ARE in the right situation, but your A-game is the exception, not the rule, then, as I mentioned above, you need your own “peak performance index.” And, you need to check yourself regularly against it. It’s easy--here’s how:

1. Identify your peak all-time personal experience—when you were at your absolute best and most happy in life. It could have been a minute, a day, a year, or a decade…

2. Identify your peak all-time professional experience—when you were at your best and happiest in your work. Again, it could have been brief or prolonged…

3. List all factors that made each of these two experiences great for you, and inspired you to be at your best. They don’t have to be the same for the personal or professional, but you should look at both:

• What was true?
• What were the conditions in your life / your world?
• What was your mindset?
• What was happening for you intellectually, physically, and emotionally?
• What made it so good?
• Why were you at your best?

4. Answer these questions, adding anything else you think is relevant, in simple list form.

5. Sleep on it, then re-look at the list a day or two later. Show it to someone who knows you well, and ask them if there’s anything they observe about it that would be helpful. That will help in case you have a blind spot…

6. Finalize the list, and know that you now have your “Peak Performance Index.”

Compare your current situation to your new “index.” Where do current conditions fall short? Therefore: a) what’s missing for you? B) what do you need to do differently? c) what changes do you WANT to make? d) what changes are you WILLING to make NOW?

That’s the compass you need. Now what are you going to do about it?

Let me know.

David Peck
The Recovering Leader
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
The Goodstone Group, LLC

7 Ways Leaders Inadvertently Say, “I don’t trust you”

Far too many leaders and managers inadvertently do things every day that send the message they distrust even their best people.

Sapping people’s trust is de-motivating, and de-motivated people simply don’t do their best work. I’m not suggesting your role is to motivate your people, but it’s critical NOT to de-motive them. Eliminating inadvertent behaviors that say, “I don’t trust you,” is a no-cost, high-value way to increase the odds they will consistently do their best work.

That said, what may not be evident is what you’re doing that’s telegraphing mistrust or doubt. Below are seven areas for you to consider, and bite-sized coaching ideas on each one, taken from the pages of my experience as an executive coach with many leaders and organizations. I hope you find them helpful!

1. Hovering

Behaviors: Nitpicking, micro-editing, being hyper-vigilant about the details of their work, too frequent check ins, and telling, rather than asking, “better” ways to do what they are doing.

Unintended message you send: I don’t trust you to do your job on your own.

Coaching bites: If there’s an enduring performance problem, greater vigilance may be necessary. If not, and if you think you may be hovering, ask yourself the appropriate question, depending on your pattern: “If I don’t micro-edit this, can it be good enough?” / “What would enable me to experiment with getting out of the details of X’s work?” / “Can I add greater value by asking good questions, and provoking my people to come up with their own answers/solutions?”

2. Delegating the “what” AND the “how”

Behaviors: Saying, in effect, “This is what I need, and here’s how I need you to do it,” or “You should / should’ve done it this way.”

Unintended message you send: I don’t trust you to do our job your own way / to do your job the best way possible.

Coaching bites: Telling them how to do their work is marginalizing, rather than maximizing, your people, which goes directly to your bottom line. If there’s well-grounded concern about whether they will come up with a good solution, then you need either provide greater support, or reconsider the person for their role. If it’s not, then having them figure out on their own the “how” of what you’ve asked them to do makes them add value, and that’s what you pay them to do.

3. Delegating without sufficient context

Behaviors: Making a request or command to do something without explaining why, or where it fits in to the bigger picture.

Unintended message you send: You don’t need to be in the loop of the “why” of this. I don’t care enough about your success to actually increase the odds you will succeed here.

Coaching bites: People do a much better job when they understand the context of your request—it’s needed to tailor the thinking and output in a positive way. Before making a request, try thinking about including them in the bigger picture, OR explaining why they are NOT being given that context. Other things that add context include how their work will be used, why it is the priority it is, etc. Higher-context delegation, even if it takes another minute or two of thought on your part, will yield greater engagement and better output among your people.

4. Taking authority for decision-making too far up the chain

Behaviors: Many organizations say they want to empower their people, yet particularly in difficult times, the reverse is the tidal pull. Pulling too many decisions into committees, or up the leadership chain, making decisions on smaller issues or expenditures and not delegating them.

Unintended message it sends: you don’t trust people to make prudent or wise decisions.

Coaching bite: This may be a blind spot issue. Consider asking your people—which decisions do they feel they can make, yet that are being made beyond or above them?

5. Leading with the mindset that your people are not allowed to fail

Behaviors: However well-intentioned, if people are working at their best, sometimes they will fall down, or fail. Intervening, over-rehearsing, or otherwise being heavy-handedly protective of them.

Unintended message you send: I don’t trust that you can handle yourself well.

Coaching bites: While it’s a good practice to help your people avoid falling a mile, falling an inch or even a foot, can be an important—irreplaceable—learning experience, one that makes them more self-sufficient, and one that you deprive them of if you are being too heavy-handed in their “defense.”

6. Overriding your people’s input or feedback

Behaviors: Taking in input then (apparently to them) ignoring it without explanation. Asking for feedback, then overriding it.

Unintended message you send: I don’t trust the quality or insights of your input.

Coaching bites: If you seek feedback or input, then choose to bypass or reject it, it’s important to share what was behind your decision. “You had good ideas, but we ran out of time / budget, and had to do the minimum,” or “I appreciated what you said, and hope we can take it to heart next time, but this time, X got in the way,” can help. Otherwise, you risk shutting them up / shutting them down, particularly when the stakes are higher.

7. Keeping your people under wraps

Behaviors: bringing your people along with you to an important presentation or moment, and not having them actively participate. Not giving your people opportunities to showcase their work.

Unintended message you send: I don’t trust you to do your best when the setting or stakes are higher.

Coaching bites: Again, if you are worried about your people presenting or showcasing in higher-stakes settings, then it’s important to address what’s worrying you. If not, then you may be in the habit of keeping your people under wraps, and that’s a habit that’s easily changed. Ask yourself: “What would need to happen for me to provide a platform for X to shine?”

* * *

Assuming one or a number of these MAY be an issue in your world, you can ask around, and see if there’s truth to any of them. If so, it probably wouldn’t hurt to try making some changes.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Effective Team Meetings: Subtracting Bad Behaviors

If you’re like most people at work, you probably wish you spent less time in meetings. I remember as a COO, my colleagues and I used to estimate the cost per minute of the aggregate salaries around the table in “leadership team meetings” and wish we could spend the money on something more worthwhile.

Yet search the web for “effective meetings” and you get overkill: 9.4 million helpful ideas, along with everyone’s favorite book or article about it.

Based on my experience as an executive and coach, I approach it a bit differently. I propose there are seven “faces” or patterns of behavior that reduce a meeting’s effectiveness. Subtract those, and you get more productive meetings that people actually want and need to attend.

How to do that? Learn to recognize these seven unwanted behaviors, and pre-agree with your colleagues on how to manage them out of the room whenever they come up. Periodically video your meetings, watch it together, and address what you see.

Let’s take a look at them:

1. The Repeater

Behavior: Repeating, in the form of restating, glomming or echoing.

If someone says, “I have to echo what Barbara said earlier,” and/or restates all or part of it, there’s no value added to the comment. Similarly, glomming on or “voting for” someone else “I have to agree with Peter’s idea here,” when no one’s asking for agreement, it’s similarly no value added. When intervention is needed, because you have a chronic repeater among you, it’s important to address it in a way that has the highest likelihood of changing the behavior. Sometimes a little embarrassment at group level goes a long way, while others may require a lighter touch.

2. The Expert

Behavior: Needing to have a meeting before the meeting, or to be “pre-sold.”

In order to save face, or appear to be expert, it’s all too common for certain people to over prepare. At one former client company, the CEO needed to be “pre-sold” on any new idea, issue, or course change presented at the semi-monthly executive team meeting. In his mind, he was being thorough and getting briefed, yet of course the executives felt that they were dealing with every issue twice. And they were. So if you have someone who “never wants to be surprised” or wants to be “pre-sold” the group needs to address that and decide whether there’s purpose to having the same conversation again at individual—then group—level.

3. The Dominator

Behavior: Talking too much, or having something to say about everything.

Do you have a “dominator” among you? This would be the one who says something about everything--maybe they love to expound, extrapolate, or extrovert their way to greater significance. Again, it’s important not to let this go unchecked. It’s best to make sure they get the feedback privately at first, maybe send an emissary, but make sure they are empowered with the sentiments of the entire group. The ask: “to self-monitor and rebalance to lessen the number of minutes you are talking in each meeting.”

4. The Hijacker

Behavior: taking the meeting in their own direction, or drilling into too much detail.

Often based in a profound lack of ability to read the room and assess what’s needed, I also refer to this person as the “rabbit-holer.” They will drill down into too much detail, or take things off topic. Video will help, and it’s again important to notice the behavior, and be permitted (pre-agree with your colleagues) to call them on the behavior at the time, as in “Paul, we’re noticing you’re taking us off track here…”

5. The Poker Face

Behavior: not participating, holding back, observing.

Much the opposite of the dominator or hijacker, we have the person who remains silent, as if clinically observing the situation. People say, well that’s her way … Leslie is an introvert. Not ok. If you’re there, you should be an equal participant, and if not, let’s talk about whether you need a seat at the table, and whether the table needs you there.

6. The Bureaucrat

Behavior: keeping the meeting’s discussion focused on the past or recent past.

This person’s song, “If I could turn back time, …,” because they want to talk about the unchangeable, frustratingly frozen past. “When we did this last year,” or “We used to…” or “Why didn’t we….” The temporal moment of leadership is the present to the future, whereas the bureaucrat is only concerned with the way things were. Feedback can help, as can a temporal shift by anyone in the room, “That’s great—now we understand the past, what shall we do going forward?”

7. The Bully

Behavior: chronically asking “why” questions or being a bully or interrogator.

Unfortunately, at the more senior levels, there can be bullying behavior that would make a reform school headmaster blush. It’s important to watch what fuels escalations and learn to manage it, as well as address it head on. Often force met blunt feedback can be a powerful approach.

* * *

Certainly the basics are in many of those books and article I mentioned earlier: meet only when and often enough as necessary, check ego and titles at the door, agree on how agendas are set and shared, how participants will handle pre-work/pre-reading, pop-up topics, meeting intervals, attendees, occasional invitees, topics in/out of scope, etc. All good.

Once you have those down, agree to identify and address unwanted behavior within your team. Use video to check your progress and address your behavior.. Not every meeting, but just often enough to get the picture of which of these apply to you. Then do some work on them and video again in six months. What do you notice?

Do these things, and you can’t help but have more effective management team meetings.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
The Goodstone Group, LLC

Self-test: Doing and Being at Your Best at Work

Are you doing your best work and happy at work, most days?

Here’s a tool I use with some executive clients to self-assess what may be standing in the way of being at their best and happiest at work, and what to do about it.

Take a look at the graphic below and place yourself in the square that reflects the level of work you are doing, and how happy you are most days at work. Find your “number” and read the corresponding self-coaching suggestions, below.

Square One: Definitely time for a change

You know, or have known for a while that you need to make a change. What will help you do that? What kind of support do you need? What’s holding you in place where you are? From a risk perspective, it’s important to take a look at what’s at stake, were you to make a change? That’s a critical question for you now. Answer that question, then ask it again: then what? Then what? Work it through to the point you understand the risks, even as the potential benefits of making a change are evident. If you’re not sure, then engage someone you can trust either personally or professionally and open up a discussion about options and your future. It’s well worth it!

Square Two: Coaching, mentoring, or training needed

It’s likely you’d be happier and more effective if you had some additional support to see what your work would be like if you felt better about the quality of what you are doing. Perhaps it might help to engage your direct leader or boss in a conversation about what you need to do that. Seeing you recognize that you can do better SHOULD be enough to gain you some support. If it’s not—in other words, if your leader has an issue with that, then it’s time to ask yourself a more fundamental question about the organization and leader for whom you work: is it the right place?

Square Three: May be time for new professional challenges

It’s wonderful you are happy at work most days, but if your actual output is below your own standards, that happiness may be shorter lived than you might like. While coaching, mentoring, and/or training may help (as it would if you were less happy,) it’s also worth asking yourself if you’ve become complacent, or find the work less of a challenge. Seeking greater challenge, and upgrading your game accordingly can refresh your ability to be effective.

Square Four: Take a look at effort versus benefit

Assess how hard you are working, then consider the toll it’s taking on you and perhaps those around you at work, at home, or both. Is your work as satisfying as it might be? What, if any, barriers or obstacles stand in the way to being happier most days at work? Take an inventory of those obstacles, and look for common threads among them. At the very least, that exercise should begin to point you in a new or more engaging direction.

Square Five: Set higher standards

Is "well enough" good enough for you, or would setting higher standards help you to feel more engaged? It’s important to remember that those who are both very happy and very effective in their work are not the “lucky ones,” but rather those who set higher standards on both axis and don’t allow themselves to pitch their tent anywhere short of those standards. You could be fine where you are, but be cognizant there is something more in store for you, and that's definitely worth pursuing when ready.

Square Six: What’s needed to take the next step?

Certainly you are in a good spot, and should appreciate that for as long as it is satisfying to you. If you’re a bit restless, you might consider, like those in Square Five, the idea that setting higher standards can help. In addition, you may just need a bit more of a challenge, or to find something that is closer to your sweet spot in terms of role, type of work, leader, or level of authority or responsibility.

Square Seven: Find a better balance

Clearly you are working hard, and know that you are making a difference for your organization. Yet something significant is missing. That may be on the work front, or simply in the balance you are striking between work and/or life outside of work. Are your standards for work higher than those for an overall happy / satisfying existence? If so, that imbalance will inevitably catch up with you. So why not proactively evaluate what changes might begin to lead to a happier life overall?

Square Eight: On the cusp

You’ve found some level of balance between work and life, and are consistently doing your best. What’s missing? What’s keeping you on the edge of being very happy at work most days? Imagine yourself a year from now in Square Nine—what would have to be different from what you’re doing and how you’re doing it today, that would ensure your placement there this time next year? What do you need to help yourself be accountable to that change?

Square Nine: Being there

Congratulations. If this is a maintainable situation, then you have set and achieved high standards in work and life. Keep an eye out for complacency, and make sure your next step—or vision of your future—is clear. If not, you may take a closer look at your sense of professional purpose and identify some ideas for the future--avenues that would guarantee you keep moving forward.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Three Key Principles of Believe-In-You Leadership

Never has there been a more important time for leaders of organizations, communities, and governments to believe in their people—for each of us to believe in each other.

That’s the world I want to live in, and the organization I want to do business with. Yet it's in major short supply.

People in organizations and communities around the world are yearning to do their best work. What's getting in the way? They simply can’t be at their best when operating with fear, amplified by their leader’s directives, advice, withholding, stoicism and skepticism—by being discounted or treated as simply expendable. You may get good hard work from fear, but greatness requires belief.

I have a few suggestions for you to try out on this topic. Coaching many executives across industries over time I’ve run across these three common habits among the most engaging, highest performing leaders:

1. They know and show they believe in their people.

Wholeheartedly showing someone you believe in them is the simplest, most powerful thing you can do to bring out their best.

How do you do this? Know in your bones your people are capable and intent on doing great things. Give them latitude to do their work their way, and watch carefully for their stumbles. When something goes awry, catch them NOT before they fall, but before they plummet. Then show them where to look for their OWN answers.

Do that by asking questions rather than giving them directives, war stories, solutions or “advice”—questions that help them illuminate what they already know but may be buried, or that challenge them to figure out something new on their own. It takes more energy and patience up front, but pays off by helping people believe in themselves, and thus who come to the table wanting, willing and able to be autonomous and prone to achieving.

Practicing this approach you literally build greater capability and capacity into your organization.

2. They zoom in to the details in a positive way only when, and for as long as is necessary—until things are back on track.

An exec client of mine—top rated consistently in his organization—explained it this way: “When I hire someone, and we have our first meeting, I bring a microscope, and put any old slide in. I explain to the new hire that when they are doing their best, and their people are at THEIR best, it’s just another nice tool on the bench. And when things aren’t so good we’ll zoom in together. See? There’s more detail. Now even further. Huh. Look at that. Now what does it mean? I’ll challenge you to see what you can see / learn / solve on your own. And I’ll stand by you as you do that. I’m there with you, because your business is my business.”

As a top exec, it’s not always wrong to be very far into details, or very high up looking down from 40,000 feet. Doing one or the other without being positive and thoughtful is usually a lower-performing pattern. Rather, knowing how to handle the bumps, failures, and blow ups by knowing just when and how to zoom in and zoom out on your people, and help them do the same, leads to sustainable and positive growth for you, your people, and your organization. Put simply: it works.

3. When believing and zooming thoughtfully yield something less than the person’s best, the leader will help them make a professional change or transition.

People aren’t office furniture to be thrown away when no longer right for the job, or when the stock price is in the crapper. We stand together, or we all fall as a society over time. Believe-in-you leadership means you give someone every opportunity and your own best efforts, and when that fails, or your enterprise fails, it’s time to help them make a change—one that’s right for them, for you, and the organization or community.

If you’ve tried everything, and it’s just not working, then the person isn’t suited to where they are. Shall we dump them, or exercise the golden rule and treat them as we would want to be treated? The best “layoff” I ever had was when my boss proactively helped me find something better—meaning a better fit for the organization and myself. I am always grateful to her, and I know she felt great about it too.

* * *

When you practice these principles you are far likelier to have a higher performing organization, not to mention making the world a better place. After all, imagine the leadership embodied in a world where we all believe in each other, and you get my point.

Spend a day, week, or month operating from these principles--starting with the assumption that your people are worthy of being believed in because they WANT to be at their best, and you will create the conditions for the best to happen.

In fact, I know you can do it.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Recovering Our Leadership: Seven Intentions for 2012

Happy New Year! While no one knows what 2012 has up its sleeve, based on my own post-executive experience working with leaders across industries over the last eight years, no one doubts it’s time for a positive “pivot.”

My hope is that will include a new sense of executive responsibility when it comes to humanism, collectivism, and capitalism with care for ethics and fairness. This, I believe, is the net / net of what protestors are saying, and it will continue to grow in resonance.

Along those lines, and in keeping with my commitment to practice principles of recovery in all my affairs, here's what I hope from the leaders I know, and those I will meet, in the year ahead:

1. Executives make decisions that emphasize ethics and profits equally.

2. Boards help change senior executive compensation such that it has a fair and maximum ratio in relation to the lowest paid worker in the organization.

3. Leaders create / remake their organizational cultures to value their people and the communities they serve just as they value hitting their numbers.

4. When it comes to writing checks for political influence, executives remember that just because something is legal, it doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.

5. Self-reflection and action in equal measure lead to better decisions. Executives who keep too busy change their schedules to find time to balance “doing” with “being.”

6. We each go on our quest for what fires us up—discover who we are at our very best, and align / realign with that.

7. Find a time this year to ask a few people you trust—who know you best, “What are you most reluctant to tell me—that if I knew, it might be hard, but would help me?”

David Peck
The Recovering Leader

Leadership and Resetting a Tough Day

The best of the best athletes, scientists, soloist musicians, and executives alike can find themselves dwelling on a snag or difficult situation, as if getting taken hostage by it. If left unchecked, it can get in the way of what could be a good day.

Whether you've had something (or someone) turn your day upside down, are stymied by a problem, or feeling overwhelmed, noticing it in real time is key. Once you see you're stuck in an unwanted "loop," you'll need to step away from it to solve it rapidly.

As soon as possible, get up and walk out on whatever you're doing for a ten-minute break (and leave your smart phone behind): take a walk outside the office, don’t eat lunch at your desk—whatever it may be that will help you NOT to think about the issue, at least for a short time. While this may sound stupidly simple, it's amazing a) how people DON'T do this in the middle of the storm, and b) how effective it is.

Aside from interfering with your stuck pattern of thinking, this practice gives your more powerful non-conscious brain time to work out what, if anything, you need to do to resolve the issue just for today. If you keep trying to power through it with your more limited conscious attention, you’ll continue to hit a wall, and it will take longer to resolve.

Instead, when something is renting too much mental or emotional space, hit the reset button on your day, STEP AWAY by walking out on your own thinking for a quick break.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Leadership's "Problem-tunities"

Go ahead and laugh, as we all know many organizations recode the word “problem” into “challenge” and "opportunity."

Yet when a leader can respond to a loss or setback with an open mind and ability to derive its key lessons, strife becomes the breakfast of champions.

Of course I encourage you to learn as much as possible from self-reflection and trusted advisers, but nothing teaches with the surgical skills of the losses, fumbles, setbacks, failures, conflicts, dramas, and catastrophes. These are, after all, universal. We encounter them more than once ... and if we're not, we need to double check to make sure we're stretching ourselves beyond just “playing it safe.”

From "problem-tunities" we learn much more effective leadership lessons in self-awareness than hundreds of happy days strung together IF we don't get lost in busy-ness, ego, shame, or guilt.

That’s not to negate the feelings—because denying the feelings that go along with setbacks gives them permanent residency as lumps under the rug of our consciousness, waiting there, where we can trip over them again. Self-awareness challenges us to experience something fully, feel it in detail, and then LET IT GO, moving beyond it with the lesson(s) well in hand.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Beyond Effective: Free Download of my Book

I published my book, Beyond Effective-Practices in Self-aware Leadership, in early 2008. It's been available through most book sellers since then, but lately I've been thinking about getting it out more widely.

Along those lines, I am inspired by Seth Godin to offer--free--an e-version (in pdf format) to anyone who'd like to download it. I'm hoping by doing that I can spread the word of self-aware leadership more widely, and without the hindrance of cost or the need to buy the physical or kindle or other electronic editions, which of course, are available : )

Click the link below to download the book at your convenience, with my compliments.

David Peck
The Recovering Leader

Download Beyond Effective-Practices in Self-aware Leadership by David Peck

Three Steps to Managing Perfectionism’s Side Effects

Well over two centuries ago, French author Voltaire wrote, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”

It’s human nature, as relevant today as it was back then--perfectionism is a common trait, particularly among successful people.

Yet if perfectionism were a prescription drug, it would bear a hefty warning label:

“A perfectionist approach may cause your best and brightest people to become unmotivated, devalued, dependent, disempowered, frustrated, and ultimately disengaged. You put them at risk for doing marginal work, and for leaving. It leads to procrastination, and tends to take a toll of stress on yourself and others in your organization.”

Even so, many leaders wear their perfectionism as a badge of honor. When I ask them about it, they will say, almost with a wink, “Maybe it’s a problem.” And the subtext is, “… but probably not.”

In fact, as I dig underneath the behavior I find they believe perfectionism is a part of what got them to where they are. This tends to hold the behavior in place for long periods of time, and makes it harder to address and change. Yet change IS possible.

Three Steps for Managing Perfectionism’s Side Effects

1. Recognize that it’s a weakness masquerading as a strength.

Your perfectionism isn’t a driver to success—it’s a barrier. You got to where you are based on being capable and motivated, and despite the side effects of perfectionism. You won’t ever truly change your perfectionist ways without accepting it’s a liability and not an asset.

2. Catch, then catch and correct your perfectionist behavior.

Once you’ve done step one, above, it’s time to start noticing it. Make notes about when your requests or demands of people are perfectionist in nature. Ask those you trust to help you notice such situations. Next, begin to correct yourself when it happens. Practice, practice, practice. If you’re doing it right, it will make you feel slightly uncomfortable for a while.

3. Set your standards to recognize the distinction between perfect and excellent.

A higher-performing core belief is this: “I have high standards—I strive and help my people strive for excellence, even as I understand that perfect is an unreasonable goal. When we fall short of excellence, we take time to learn from it, and to help each other be at our best in the future. We accept our work and life as less than perfect.

Even after making good progress, when you are under unusual stress, you may revert to perfectionism. It’s but a setback. Stick with it. Do I need to say it? Don’t hold yourself to perfection in letting go of your perfectionism.

Be patient. Practice. Enroll others to help you notice your behavior. For every year you work on this, you’ll get about a second of response time between when you WANT to be perfectionist, and when you actually do the behavior (i.e., send the email, pick up the phone, etc.) And a second is all we need.

David Peck
The Recovering Leader

Why Leadership Meant Quitting My Executive Job

I feel a great affinity with those protesting on Wall Street and other business centers right now. When I asked myself why, I remembered a key turning point in my own career: my response eight years ago to the then-shocking dehumanizing corporate behavior that’s become the norm in recent years.

I started my business career delivering interoffice mail—yes, rolling around a cart on behalf of the mail room—in 1986. By 2001, I was the COO of a division of a Fortune 500 company. In 2003 I decided to leave, and when I did, felt a tremendous sense of relief.

Ironically, my decision to leave was made on the spot when my boss asked me a single question.

She said to me, “I noticed that your support service levels are really high—your customer satisfaction is above the 90th percentile.”

I said proudly, “Yes, clients love our people.”

She said, “Well that’s too high. How can you reduce your staff so your service levels are in the 60’s, slightly above your nearest competitor?”

Stunned, I think I actually had to ask her to repeat the question.

It became crystal clear: my boss, the president of our division, someone who is now a very senior person at one of the three biggest banks in the world, didn’t give a damn about our people. No, to her, profit wasn’t just important, but it came before people, who, to her, were no more than service levels and widgets on spreadsheets. Sociopathic behavior at its finest.

That was intolerable to me.

Without thinking it through, I impulsively declared, “I can save you some more money,” and she asked me how, and I said, “let me go.”

Unfortunately, I had to stay long enough to do the deed but ultimately got away with laying off less people than she had asked since she was going to save my salary too. After the layoffs I cried. She saw me cry, and I think it actually disgusted her. (Mind you, this was the same woman, who when I was on my way out the door weeks later suggested that I open check cashing stores in impoverished neighborhoods because “those people will always pay a premium to borrow money.”)

So I left. I can’t tell you how many people told me I was "so brave" (which meant crazy.) My father reminded me that I was then 40 years old and that I could be throwing away my peak earning years, etc.,etc.

Yet to me it was not optional. The company had caught the disease of spreadsheet-itis. The invasion of the soul-snatchers was under way—and in a company that had previously been the object of my great admiration and affection.

I went on to learn about Leadership and executive coaching at Georgetown, and now consider myself to be “in recovery” as a leader, helping others to do the same—hence the name of my blog.

It’s the quiet rampant corporate soul-snatching that the protesters have awakened to. They were asleep through the invasion, and now that the body count is measured in the millions, and the greed and dehumanization of "innovation" and a "knowledge economy" are in full tilt, they are stirred and stirring, just as I did on that day not so long ago.

Smell the coffee? Good morning.

David Peck
The Recovering Leader

Six Questions to Help You Avoid Protestors at Your Doorstep

I’m puzzled by the puzzlement over the growing protests across America.

While the media is stumped at how to cover the early days of a post-conventional, web-era movement, exemplified by the Wall Street "live in," we all know what they’re talking about. As one protester’s sign says, “Dear 1%, We Fell Asleep For A While. Just Woke Up. Sincerely, the 99%.”

As a workforce, they have been shuffled around, laid off, rehired, and laid off again. Their benefits have been cut, their healthcare costs have soared, and they’ve had little or no say in what or how the economy is changing. No matter who they’ve voted for, politicians have practiced brinksmanship, posturing, prostitution, greed, and gridlock instead of leadership.

While the protests so far lack consistent messaging, a single leader or group of leaders, or a slick media strategy, with the endorsement of organized labor, they have reached critical mass. And it continues to grow. By the time their messaging and strategy coalesce into coherence, they will cease to be underestimated or dismissed, and that's probably a good thing.

Get used to it: the message to all leaders is clear, and it’s something core to everything I have written on this blog over the last five years, and in my book. If you are putting your individual interests far ahead of any greater good, you will lose. You will fail because you are not exercising good leadership — a trend that won’t be overlooked in the history books.

How do you want to be remembered?

The best conventional leadership thinking and actions have led us to this point, where too many leaders are out for themselves, and not enough are operating for the greater good.

Here are six questions to ask yourself as a leader:

- Is my work helping, neutral, or harmful to others?

- Am I in service, beyond the products and services I offer, to those I lead and the communities in which I do business?

- Am I creating or eliminating jobs in the U.S.?

- Am I making life easier or harder for those I lead, and those in the communities I serve?

- Are we as an organization creating a more sustainable future for everyone, or are we ignoring the future in order to have a more profitable present?

- Is my work making the world a better place, neutral, or actually harming the world in some way?

Watch for any tendency to rationalize. And if you can show a track record of a strong ethical and values-based foundation for your products, services, and how you treat your people, you are in even better shape than many. If you answer those in the best way possible, then you are leading for a greater good. If not, perhaps you have something new to think about, as the protesters are reminding all of us.

David Peck
The Recovering Leader

Leadership: Loving and Leaving the Chronically Marginal

Most leaders eventually have a chronically low or marginal contributor among their team. While avoidance and rationalization in such situations are quite common, they simply amplify the problem.

In my experience as a leader and executive coach, clarity, compassion, and consequences are the keys to skillful handling of persistently problematic performance:

CLARITY that you expect their best on an ongoing basis, and the potential positive and negative consequences based on their work. I advocate setting an explicit, high bar for your team members, and for those prone to performance issues, greater up front candor about what could happen for better and worse.

COMPASSION, coaching, feedback, and support for a reasonable period of time, when people are working on it. Also recognition when they are swamped, stumped, or dealing with a life situation. You don’t need to go around threatening to replace someone when they haven’t had enough of a chance to succeed, or there’s some clear barrier in the way.

CONSEQUENCES in a timely way when, despite clarity and compassion, the work remains average or below average. Failure to do so is essentially your permission for them to continue doing a marginal job, and inviting others to do the same. Not the leadership message you want to send. Even worse, it poisons the well, de-motivating your best people, who will eventually tire of pulling the weight for others.

In short, the best leaders love their people, but are prepared to part with them, and are not shy about following through on that.

This is harder when your marginal contributor is likable, or deeply rooted in the group. That said, caring about someone does not mean unburdening them from the consequences of their actions—in fact, as a leader, you are responsible for holding them to it for the greater good. Making good on consequences is healthy for all, including the recipient.

If you have some fear or find yourself rationalizing, join the club of being human. I didn’t say it’s easy. In fact, if you shuffle people in and out like furniture, I’m more worried about you than them—you need to take a look at your own level of compassion.

The best leaders I’ve ever known have a range between being liked by their people, and having no ambiguity among their team that there are clear and fair consequences awaiting those who don’t deliver consistently at their best.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Know Why You Do What You’re Doing?

Are you at your best professionally? Are you doing your best work ever? If not, then maybe you need to take a look at your purpose, and the premise behind it...

Talking to the leader of a Fortune 100 company several years ago, I asked: when you fall from the tree of life, how would you like to be remembered?

Answer: “That he ran a profitable company.” I then asked him, “Why is that?” An awkward pause, and answer, “To make a profit ... I don’t understand your question.”

As astronaut Jim Lovell said, "Houston, we have a problem."

Being driven by a goal, and absent an underlying purpose, we are sleepwalking through life and work. When that's the case, we're not going to know why we're not fulfilled, nor what to do about it. It makes being at your best a process of trial and error.

To move beyond that, it's important to understand, as my coach recently reminded me, the distinction between a goal and a purpose:

A goal is the daily stuff of work life—it’s on your to do list: deliver on plan / in budget, meet expectations for the quarter, accomplish this promotion, get that project done, deliver that result, etc. It’s something that can be done and measured, and has a beginning, middle, and end to it.

Purpose is the “why” you do what you do. Purpose is the fuel in the tank, whereas goals are where the car is heading today or tomorrow. When you’re aware of it, your purpose informs your goals—and helps you live and work at your best.

And behind purpose is premise—what will be happening if you are operating in tune with your purpose.

For example, for the seven years since leaving the executive suite and doing my leadership coach training at Georgetown, here’s what I’ve decided on my own purpose and premise:

Peck's 2004 Purpose: To make the world a better place, one leader at a time.

Premise: By coaching leaders to understand and leverage their strengths, and tackle head on their unaddressed developmental needs, they enhance the world for themselves and those they lead.

So when I’m wondering if I’m working “on purpose” I ask myself if I’m helping the world be a better place through coaching leaders in the way I do.

Working with my coach, my answer recently has been: I can do much more to make the world a better place—to have a bigger impact. That explains a feeling of restlessness I have, and the sense that I’m ready for something more. Ultimately, it will guide me to make new choices that help me remain doing my best, and being at my best professionally.

Without being awake to my purpose, I might have just sensed something wasn’t right, but not have the language or insight to know what that was, and left any course adjustment to chance. I might later have wished I “got it” sooner.

If you haven’t considered your purpose—why you do what you are doing—and premise—what you notice in the world if you are doing your purpose, then perhaps it’s time to have a heart to heart with yourself and/or someone you trust, and choose one.

While it may not be exact at first, you are welcome to revise it over time, until your purpose and premise are guiding and informing your goals, helping you be at your best, and inspiring others to do the same.

David Peck
Principal and Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Four Ways to Upgrade Your Situational Awareness

“Over 100 emails a day, 30 plus meetings a week, travel, 11 people reporting to me—and all of their needs; then try and do some actual work—so many distractions that I worry I might miss something important.”

Most leaders I coach deal with this type of thing, and more. They would agree that it’s critical to understand how you keep an insightful, real-time focus on what's important amid the din of daily demands. How does it work for those who have found a way to do this well?

Athletes call it “Field Awareness,” and pilots call it “Situational Awareness.” It’s also been referred to as “being in the zone.” Imagine it as an ability to monitor, manage, and bypass distractions in a systematic manner. Things then seem to slow down, and perception becomes sharper.

Distractions are the enemy of Situational Awareness. I know, it sounds good when you say it fast, but how do you minimize them? Consider these tools, which can be repeated over time, and adapted to what works for you:

1. Make a picture, map, or list of everything you need to know, manage, or decide about your enterprise at a high enough level for it to be a one-pager. Use larger boxes (or fonts, if you tend to be textual rather than visual) for large areas of necessary focus, and smaller for others. Identify which ones are problematic in terms of clarity, priority, or focus—what inputs are you missing? In what ways is information reaching you in a distracting, rather than clarifying manner? Make changes accordingly.

2. When you have a major issue or problem that’s distracting you from other things, it’s important to put it in its place. Try this: imagine an icon for it—something that represents the gist of it—and put it on your mental shelf, next to other things like it. In your reflection, imagine yourself walking away from it, then coming back to it, taking it off the shelf, considering it, and putting it back. Make sure when your reflection is done, it’s on the shelf. Answers will come when you STOP trying to force them.

3. Spend some time daily or weekly time quietly reflecting, rather than “doing.”

4. Monitor your daily distraction level: on a scale of 1 to 10, where are you? Highly distracted (10) or highly calm and focused (1)? Something in between? Once you track this for a while, try capturing a few words about what triggers increases and decreases in your distraction level. This will help you manage it more effectively.

If you take on the task of actively managing and minimizing distractions, your level of Situational Awareness will increase, and you will find greater capacity to achieve and be more fulfilled as a human being, and a leader.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Six Warning Signs of a Layoff Mentality

Is someone on your team operating with fear overload?

Let’s face it: “job security” is now officially an oxymoron. As I work with leaders, I see some people thriving in the less secure work world. The majority, however, are dealing with elevated levels of fear, which at times can get in the way of doing their best work. That in turn can make those fears self-fulfilling prophecies.

While unhelpful, these fears are understandable: potential job loss, another difficult economic downturn, unemployment statistics and competition for jobs and clients--these are the background radiation of the workplace and media today, which has risen exponentially over the last three years.

If, as a leader, you care about your people’s well being, then you can help them to identify and address a layoff mentality, particularly if you keep tuned in to these six warning signs:

1. Too tolerant of issues: Putting up with stressful conditions or issues for too long without addressing them

2. Taking on too much: Saying “yes” to too much / not saying “no” when appropriate

3. Good news or nothing: not bringing up substantive issues to you proactively

4. Avoiding necessary conflict: if people aren’t having healthy conflicts, then the dialogue in your organization isn’t as healthy as it can be

5. Teflon coating: When something inevitably DOES go wrong, blaming, hiding or being overly fearful

6. Me against the world: Every person for him- or herself mentality

Those working with some level of layoff mentality are the vast majority. As a leader you can help, if you are so inclined, by recognizing and empathizing with the fears and helping your people work through them.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Revaluing Your Pack Mates

We humans are basically pack animals. We surround ourselves with many of the same faces day in and day out. Over time, that familiarity tends to limit our clarity and curiosity about our “pack mates.” We inadvertently discount their ideas and contributions, often in small ways that can really add up.

It’s as much a problem for leaders as it is for others.

It’s in our nature that, without extra effort, the better we know someone the less real-time awareness of their value we will have. I don’t like to call this “taking people for granted”—while it may describe the others’ feelings, it’s certainly not intentional.

After all, if you commute the same way to work every day, and stop noticing that grey house with all the cars in the driveway, are you taking the house for granted?

You are not. Since you’re not noticing anything “new” about the house, your brain recedes it into the landscape. But if you looked closely at it again, you might see some interesting features you hadn’t noticed before.

And even when we make an effort to really tune in to our pack mates, we don’t always look for the best in them, even though it's worth the effort. Why? When you actively, deliberately look for the best in others, that’s exactly what you’ll find.

Here’s how to practice:

Over the course of a day or two, look at everyone you encounter in a new way—when you lay eyes on them, imagine everything you like (or love) the most about them right away. Then imagine them doing and being at their best.

What do you notice? First, I’ll bet it’s good.

Next, I’ll bet there’s something worth your while that you may have missed, or forgotten, until you tried this little practice.

It takes effort ... primarily, a little self-reminding. And the rewards are great. When you work at it, others will begin to say you're one of those people who makes them feel important, who truly tunes in, and sees them.

In doing so, you'll know how best to deploy them, and at the same time, inspire them to be at their best. That’s worth some effort, wouldn’t you say?

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Two Quick Keys to Leading an Excuse-free Organization

Excuses and blaming have reached epidemic proportions in many organizations. It’s human nature, particularly during high-unemployment, high-uncertainty times like these for people to fear for their families and livelihoods, and for that to translate into butt-covering.

Unfortunately, there’s a tremendous amount of time wasted on such behavior. It's ultimately fruitless, as often those who think they're protecting themselves are doing the opposite.

As an executive coach, I see it in the many organizations I visit, and observe the role leaders have in this unwanted pattern.

Clearly, NOTHING constructive ever came from blaming or making an excuse, something good leaders not only know, but also practice and encourage among their teams.

So what creates the organizationally-acceptable habits of blamestorming and excuse-making? Why, you do, dear leaders, by:

1. Asking (and modeling for others to ask) pointless “why questions”: WHY did this happen? Or, WHY, wasn’t this done when it was supposed to be done?

Questions regarding the unchangeable past are NOT productive, and adding insult to injury, WHY questions, in particular, cause people to make excuses. That makes a tidy little cluster bomb of wasted time as people scramble their creative powers -- not to fix or upgrade or improve -- but for the simple evil of explaining away something that can’t be undone.

2. Letting responsibility-shifting skate by.

Leaders have too much of a role in not challenging their people to take individual ownership when they seem to be stepping away from a bad thing. Don’t let blame behavior off the hook. You can say, “Jack, I’d like to see you step up and take responsibility for this one, rather than imply it was someone in XXX department …”

It’s important then to send the word to your organization: recycle, turn off the lights when not in use, and make your organization a 24/7 blame free / excuse free zone. Don't settle for less.

David Peck
Principal
Goodstone Group, LLC

Imagination and Leadership

Couple an active imagination with a healthy amount of pragmatism, and you will move mountains.

Whether you’re a facilities manager, CFO, or running the project to develop the next generation of cancer therapy, all of which my clients have done, doing your best work starts with using your imagination.

What we imagine solves problems, sparks us to do our best, and helps us make a more important and meaningful contribution. It can take you from worker or manager to leader.

It’s deceptively simple to do. Imagine a future better than today based on the question: what’s needed here? Then declare it, engage and guide others to make it a reality by identifying and taking the pragmatic steps from Point A, where you are today, to your desired Point B.

In fact, the more we embrace our imagination, the more resilient our leadership becomes when things change, and when dealing with the inevitable stumbles and failures of being human in the workplace.

For example, a coaching client was a young partner at a large law firm. Her progression through the levels of partnership had stalled, and the feedback I collected said she wasn’t standing out among the crowd of hundreds in her practice area. To make it worse, she showed up at a particular coaching session despondent from a loss on a recent matter. Between hours that were down from the previous year, nothing helping her stand out in a positive way, and this loss, she was wondering where it was all heading.

At that very meeting, I asked myself what was needed here, and it led me to ask my client the question: “What if this loss is not the problem, but it’s the solution for everything you’re trying to do?” After she decided I wasn’t insane, we got into a “what’s needed here?” imaginative brainstorming discussion of our own.

The newly emerging legal precedent that tanked her case was, we noted, affecting others in this global firm. Having lost to it, she was indeed an expert—being smart and motivated, she had of course deconstructed the whole thing in fine detail and knew it oh so well.

How could she, now an expert, become a resource to others in her firm—to help it stand out in this area of the law, and gain a new vigor? She pictured what this could look like (I’d tell you the specifics, but I’d have to kill you!), and over time, established herself and her firm as an expert—a center of excellence. Then, as luck would have it, the precedent went to the US Supreme Court. Needless to say she was quoted widely, helped attract business to the firm, stood out among her group, and ultimately was promoted to a more senior partner.

Remember, this all started with the imaginative spark that asks: “what’s needed here?” A vision of something better followed immediately by the wherewithal to make it happen.

Are you happy and fully engaged in your best work? Is your imagination part of your days? Are your people using their imagination? If not, what would need to change for that to happen?

We are not machines. Some times are harder than others. Energy and positivity ebb and flow, and we get in ruts, routines, or simply coast for a while. I look at these times as having temporarily misplaced our imagination, just like my client had done in the example above. And it’s that spark of “How can things be different?” or “There must be something more than this…like what?” that can turn the tide, and help us through the dark night of what feels like paralysis, to a new beginning, and to leadership.

Without imagination, you can likely manage for a time, but you can’t lead. Leadership—meaning full engagement of people being at their best and doing their best work—requires mind, body and spirit, and you’re not going to get those without something born of imagination.

Yet isn’t it worth it? Would you prefer to manage, or to lead? If it’s the latter, then make sure you access your imagination on a daily basis, temper it with pragmatism, and your return on investment of energy will be very positive indeed.

David Peck
Principal and Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC