Creating Magic

As I’ve gotten back into blogging, I’ve been looking back at my favorite book reviews and realized I never wrote an actual review on my, probably all-time, favorite, Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies From a Life at Disney, by Lee Cockerell. I’ve mentioned it more than a few times but it deserves more.

Creating Magic probably took me twice as long to read, just because I did so much highlighting throughout. I have a good size personal library of leadership and customer service books and it is, by far, my most loaned out book.

This is the perfect book for any leader working in, or interested in, the service industry, and for that matter, any industry. After starting out his career as a much more hard-nosed manager, Lee has become the model of great leadership building immediate rapport with employees. He holds nothing back in this book, describing each job along his path and what he had to change about himself to become a successful leader.

One of my favorite quotes is actually the very first line of the book, “It’s not the magic that makes it work; it’s the way we work that makes it magic.” Following the 10 strategies of the book, Lee was able to become a highly-skilled, efficient, and admired leader as Executive Vice-President, Operations of Walt Disney World Resort. Those 10 Strategies are:

#1 - Remember, everyone is important

#2 - Break the mold

#3 - Make your people your brand

#4 - Create magic through training

#5 - Eliminate hassles

#6 - Learn the truth

#7 - Burn the free fuel

#8 - Stay ahead of the pack

#9 - Be careful what you say and do

#10 - Develop character.

These strategies can easily be implemented by the smallest business owner all the way to the Fortune 500 CEO. It’s the way that people are treated that makes any business, and Lee Cockerell gives you the common sense approach and inspiration to make it a reality.

Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go - Revisited

Still, one of my favorite leadership and culture books. Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go, by Beverly L. Kaye and Julie Winkle Giulioni, is a book that all leaders should have, not on the bookshelf, but on your desk as an ongoing reference. Below is my original review of this must-have book.

It only happens every few years. I’m talking about leadership books that come out that I like so much that I read it with a highlighter. I use them in staff development and lend them out to others who want to improve themselves and/or their staff.

A few years back it was Creating Magic by Lee Cockerell. Then came From Bud to Boss by Kevin Eikenberry and Guy Harris. Now – I've had the great privilege of reading a pre-launch copy of Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want by Beverly Kaye and Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Help Them Grow is the type of book that makes you think, “Hmm, why haven’t I been doing that?” It’s a straightforward roadmap on how to help your staff develop without you having to take control of the reins. Let your employees grab hold of those reins and become responsible for their own growth. Wow . . . what a concept, right? Can you see your time being freed up?

Kaye and Giulioni say that “your role is more about prompting, guiding, reflecting, exploring ideas, activating enthusiasm, and driving action”. This book shows you ways to incorporate these career conversations in your everyday work life. 

Notice that last sentence that says “everyday”. Leaders don’t have time to hold extended annual appraisals that package up everything from the entire previous year – and shouldn’t – heck, they don’t remember about what you’re talking about half the time anyway! You’re already having everyday conversations with your employees (hopefully), so just change the tone a bit. You don’t need a bunch of checklists and forms. Conversations and asking questions are the keys to development.

This book gives you actionable steps to “focusing on what the employee needs to experience, know, learn, and be able to do”. Too often, leaders think they have to have all the answers (and they avoid the topic if they don’t), when what they actually need most are the questions, permitting the employee to be a first-hand participant in their own successful development.

There’s so much more to this embracing book than I have time for here, so my suggestion to you is to go to Amazon to order yourself a copy or two – others are going to want their own.

And So It Begins Again!

Soooo, I'm baaaack. It's great to be getting back in the saddle again. I've been away from reading and blogging for too long. With a little inspiration from the right person, here I am, diving back in. I've had a great time in the past connecting with everyone and hope to be able to continue.

For my first entry I'm going back . . . a number of years, to one of my first book reviews. This in honor of Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, who gave me the opportunity and who also passed away this past week. What a big loss for the business/customer service industry.

This week I’m breaking with “tradition” a bit in order to write a review of a new book. Like I’ve mentioned before, I received an advance copy of Tony Hsieh’s (CEO of

Zappos.com) upcoming book – it’s actually released today – Delivering Happiness: A Path To Profits, Passion, and Purpose. Let me just tell you this – it’s a must read. Many books on business jump right into the business at hand without a lot of early background. Tony takes us on a journey from his early childhood entrepreneur beginnings to the billion dollar success of Zappos.com. He tells us about his money making ideas as a child, including making buttons (which he advertised in Boys Life) and selling greeting cards. He manages to take us “mid-agers” right down Memory Lane. We get an inside look at how Zappos grew, following Tony’s sale of LinkExchange (to Microsoft) in 1989 for $275 million dollars. Eventually all of the money would be gone as a bunch of friends tried (and succeeded) to keep afloat a company they dearly believed in. During that time, Tony would grow a relationship with a friend that may be seen accompanying him, to this day, to “breakfast, lunch, and dinner”. That friend being a little drink called Red Bull. The ups and downs that the Zappos team went through prior to becoming a real success story would have been enough to cause most mere mortals to give up. Not so here. Zappos has a close, family-like, relationship that embraces every employee. They work together, play together, drink together, and basically have fun together. Zappos’ main focus has always been on customers. The customer experience is literally number one on their list. I challenge you to find another company that allows returns, with free shipping - for an entire year. Do any of the internet companies you work with automatically upgrade to next day shipping? Free of charge? Sure Tony and friends have made mistakes along the way. But they learned valuable lessons with each one of them. Most notably was that you “never outsource your core competencies”. If you want the best warehouse – run it yourself. If you want the best customer service – take the calls yourself. Probably the best example of all of how important and transparent the customer experience is, is the Zappos Culture Book (I have one). They put together a hardbound culture book that includes comments from employees, customers, partners and even vendors. Included are the good AND bad comments. Again – how many companies do you know that would do that? Needless to say, most comments ARE good. The book is described as a short-term expense for a long term investment. Get one for free at www.zapposinsights.com/main/culture-book. Now I could go into so many more examples and stories, like the 10 Core Values, or the leadership training available to everyone, but I don’t want to take anything away from your reading experience. If you’re interested in employee motivation, leadership development, corporate culture, or just Zappos in general, do yourself a favor and head out to your local bookstore (or go to www.amazon.com/deliveringhappiness) and pick up a copy. Then grab a Red Bull, sit back, and enjoy.

Goals of KPIs? Why Your Culture Needs Both

I think this may be my most anticipated book of the year so far. Culture Works: How to

Create Happiness in the Workplace, by Kris Boesch, is for every CEO and HR Director out there. You CANNOT have ultimate success without a great culture. I know. I've worked at places that don't have it. I'm sure you have also. Kris gives you concepts, tools, and real examples to put into motion, a culture that help your employees and business grow. All of the usual barriers, and more, are discussed and planned out. Even one of the most missed opportunities - continued learning - is addressed. So if you want to take it a step further, there's a workbook and book club available also. This book launches today, and is available on her website, but will be available on Amazon on May 15th. I suggest you pre-order. To wet your whistle a bit, Kris Boesch is my guest blogger today. Enjoy.

Goals or KPIs? Why Your Culture Needs Both.

I’ve seen many organizations make the cultural mistake of either collapsing goals and key performance indicators (KPIs), or focusing on just one.

You need both.  If you just have goals, you’re missing daily motivating momentum and focus.  If you have only key performance indicators, you’re missing inspiring strategic progress. Goals are aspirational, strategically taking on inspiring opportunities or problem solving breakout challenges.  KPIs measure the health and success of each position through weekly, and in same cases daily, metrics.

• For example, in a bakery goals could include:
• Purchase a new oven by March 31st
• Add cinnamon raisin bread to our line by October 1st
• Open a new location by July 4, 2018

While KPIs could include:

•          Ratio of number of loaves baked to number sold
•           Scrap ratio – number of loaves burned or rejected
•           Batch cycle time

Hopefully you’re well on your way to making progress on your second quarter 2017 goals – having funneled clarity from big picture organizational goals to team goals to individual goals. If you’re not well on your way, don’t despair, make a goal to get it done!

This culture tip focuses on developing KPIs for each position in your organization.  KPIs are one of the many tools that support an extraordinary workplace culture.  Think about it–as an employee it’s incredibly empowering to know both where to focus my efforts and where I stand in relationship to expectations.  Similar to goals, KPIs should funnel from the organization to the team to each position.

How to Create Meaningful KPIs:

•          Should answer – how do we know this position (vs person) is accomplishing the mission critical work and is being successful?
•          Set weekly measurable expectations for each performance indicator. What reasonable number or range would indicate success and healthy on pace progress?  Sometimes the KPI is measured by a simple yes or no.
•          Employees have to have (almost) complete control over the number being measured – in some cases you may need to focus on LEAD indicators (actions, efforts, number of calls) rather than LAG indicators (results).
•          The KPI has to be KEY. There should be no more than three KPIs for each position.  When you find yourself wanting to create four, ask which of these is truly the END measurement?

Have employees self-report their numbers each week in a shared spreadsheet. This simple dashboard should quickly reflect the health of the organization.  You may even want to color code measurements red/yellow/green.  High-five greens.  Seek to understand and address the challenges behind yellow or red.  It’s not enough to measure, you have to witness and care about what you measure and then align next steps.

This is an ongoing process. If you find your dashboard is primarily green, but the organization is struggling, reevaluate what you’re measuring.  Uncover more pertinent key indicators and replace the prior ones.

***

Kris Boesch is the CEO and founder of Choose People, a company that transforms company cultures, increases employee happiness and boosts the bottom line. Her new book, Culture Works, and accompanying workbook are available now on her website and will be available on Amazon around May 15.

Plan Every Day in Advance

What a fantastic guest blogger I have today. Brian Tracy has been a huge influence to so

many people in achieving personal and business goals. His 3rd edition (out this week) of Eat That Frog is just one part of that mold. Here's a great book that's going to help you to stop that procrastinating. Admit it. We all do it. With Brian's book, with 2 new chapters, you'll learn that you don't need to do everything to be successful and that in trying to you lose focus and begin to drop the ball. Share this book with your entire team.

Plan Every Day in Advance

By Brian Tracy

The following post is an excerpt from chapter 2 of Eat That Frog.

A word about frogs… It has been said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long. Your “frog” is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it. It is also the one task that can have the greatest positive impact on your life and results at the moment.

Plan Every Day in Advance

You have heard the old question, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is “One bite at a time!”

How do you eat your biggest, ugliest frog? The same way: you break it down into specific step-by-step activities and then you start on the first one.

Your mind, your ability to think, plan, and decide, is your most powerful tool for overcoming procrastination and increasing your productivity. Your ability to set goals, make plans, and take action on them determines the course of your life. The very act of thinking and planning unlocks your mental powers, triggers your creativity, and increases your mental and physical energies.

Conversely, as Alec Mackenzie wrote, “Taking action without thinking things through is a prime source of problems.”

Your ability to make good plans before you act is a measure of your overall competence. The better the plan you have, the easier it is for you to overcome procrastination, to get started, to eat your frog, and then to keep going.

One of your top goals at work should be to get the highest possible return on your investment of your mental, emotional, and physical energy. The good news is that every minute spent in planning saves as many as ten minutes in execution. It takes only about 10 to 12 minutes for you to plan your day, but this small investment of time will save you up to two hours (100 to 120 minutes) in wasted time and diffuse effort throughout the day.

You may have heard of the Six-P Formula. It says, “Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.”

When you consider how helpful planning can be in increasing your productivity and performance, it is amazing how few people practice it every single day. And planning is really quite simple to do. All you need is a piece of paper and a pen. The most sophisticated Outlook system, computer app, or time planner is based on the same principle. It is based on your sitting down and making a list of everything you have to do before you begin.

One of the most important rules of personal effectiveness is the 10/90 Rule. This rule says that the first 10 percent of time that you spend planning and organizing your work before you begin will save you as much as 90 percent of the time in getting the job done once you get started. You only have to try this rule once to prove it to yourself.

When you plan each day in advance, you will find it much easier to get going and to keep going. The work will go faster and smoother than ever before. You will feel more powerful and competent. You will get more done faster than you thought possible. Eventually, you will become unstoppable.

Brian Tracy is one of the top business speakers in the world today. He has designed and presented seminars for more than 1,000 large companies and more than 10,000 small and medium- sized enterprises in 75 countries on the subjects of Leadership, Management, Professional Selling, Business Model Reinvention, and Profit Improvement. He has addressed more than 5,000,000 people in more than 5,000 talks and presentations worldwide. He currently speaks to 250,000 people per year. His fast-moving, entertaining video-based training programs are taught in 38 countries.

In addition to Eat That Frog, Brian has written more than 80 books that have been translated into 42 languages, including Kiss That Frog!, Find Your Balance Point, Goals!, Flight Plan, Maximum Achievement, No Excuses!, Advanced Selling Strategies, and How the Best Leaders Lead. He is happily married, with four children and five grandchildren. He is the president of Brian Tracy International and lives in Solana Beach, California. He can be reached at briantracy@briantracy.com.

Got Leaders?

So who's an author whose books I most look out for? Mark Miller is right about the top of

the list. His new book, Leaders Made Here, was just released and I happen to be hosting his blog this week.

So many leadership books talk about theories . . . sorry, dozed off there for a second. Mark writes in a way that keeps your interest and makes it easier to sink in. Want to learn quickly? Tell stories. That's exactly what Mark does. Through parables, he tells leadership stories that strike a cord. Here, we learn about building leaders - not one at a time or as needed - so there's always a leadership pipeline . . . a real culture of successful leadership.

My favorite quote from the book sums it up and goes like this: "A leadership culture exists when leaders are routinely and systematically developed, AND when you have a surplus of leaders."

Got Leaders?

Mark Miller - originally published on GreatLeadersServe.com

What do you talk about at work? Recently, I’ve come to appreciate how many conversations I have every week about leadership issues… dozens, scores – probably thousands of these discussions over the past decade.

What do you believe about a leadership pipeline? Do you think this is something only big companies do? Do you wonder why you don’t have one? Do you want to know the secret to creating a never-ending supply of qualified leaders? Keep reading…

I’m more convinced than ever when it comes to leadership, an organization has only two real choices: Hire leaders or grow leaders. And, over the long haul, I believe the right answer is a combination of the two.

I want to address the more challenging and probably more productive method – Grow your own.  Here are a few questions for your consideration if your current pipeline is not producing enough leaders to satisfy demand.

How do you define leadership? This is the most common mistake I see in organizations struggling to develop leaders. Without an agreed upon operational definition of leadership, creating a pipeline is virtually impossible. What do you want your leaders to be able to do? What character traits are you looking for in leaders? These are non-trivial questions! They represent the foundation for any legitimate attempt to systematically grow leaders.

Who are your emerging leaders? You cannot, nor should you, invest equally in the development of all your people. Targeted and strategic investments will pay the greatest dividends. Where do you place your bet? Emerging leaders. Before you can move forward with this approach, you must know who they are.

What stretch assignments can you give them? After you’ve identified emerging leaders, you can begin to shape their development. One powerful approach is to match individuals with appropriate stretch assignments. If selected carefully, these can be opportunities to test and strengthen future leaders.

What experiences do you want emerging leaders to have? When we think about developing leaders, our first thought is often about the skills of leadership. This is important. However, experiences can add depth to a leader’s resume and contribute greatly to his or her confidence. Experiences can include such diverse situations as working in a union environment, turning around a struggling division, launching a start-up, and more. You decide.

Who can you ask to mentor or coach emerging leaders? I am a fan of mentoring and coaching. There is something that happens in the context of a relationship that rarely happens when we attempt to go it alone. When done well, coaching and mentoring can unlock vast reserves of untapped potential in people. I realize you may not be able to afford external coaching for all your people, but you can assign an internal mentor to guide, challenge and encourage emerging leaders. You’ll be glad you did. Oh, before I finish here, I did promise you the secret to a successful leadership pipeline…Leadership.

You will never find a successful leadership pipeline without leadership. A vibrant process for developing leaders will not emerge spontaneously. When leaders decide to make leadership a competitive advantage and invest accordingly, that’s the day the construction of your pipeline begins.

How strong is your process for growing leaders?

Mark Miller is the best-selling author of 6 books, an in-demand speaker and the Vice President of High-Performance Leadership at Chick-fil-A. His latest book, Leaders Made Here, describes how to nurture leaders throughout the organization, from the front lines to the executive ranks and outlines a clear and replicable approach to creating the leadership bench every organization needs.

Who Are Your Employees Playing For?

This week, we're celebrating the paperback release of the 2014 best-seller, Why

Motivating People Doesn't Work...and What Does, by Susan Fowler. I liked it so much when it first came out that I just got done reading it again. The "traditional" ways of motivation just don't cut it anymore. Through real life examples and process Susan shows us how to understand the reasons people are motivated and to capitalize on them.

Today, I have the honor of hosting Susan Fowlers blog post, Who Are Your Employees Playing For? I know you'll get as much out of it as I did.


Who Are Your Employees Playing For? by Susan Fowler

As the young man ducked his head getting into the elevator, I recognized him immediately as a new face on my favorite pro basketball team. I don’t seek out celebrity sightings and have never asked for an autograph, but like most people, I think it’s fun to see someone in person that you’ve watched on television.

I couldn’t help but ask him about the dismal circumstances of his team. “You must have been thrilled to be drafted by such a legendary franchise to play with the most winning coach in history,” I began. “But what’s it like now that he’s been replaced with a different coach, to have a losing record, and to learn this week that your teammate, who was known as the heart of the squad, has been traded to a conference rival?”

After a pause, where he must have been considering the risks of being honest, he told me, “It’s hard. You tell yourself it’s just a game and have fun. But, it’s also a business and my life and livelihood. My family depends on me.”

“How do you keep up the physical and mental energy needed to be a professional athlete under these circumstances?”

As the elevator stopped at the lobby, he shook his head as he ducked getting out, and said, “To tell you the truth, you stop playing for the name on the front of your jersey and you play for the name on your back.”

Of course, on the front of the jersey is the team’s name. On the back of the jersey is your own name.  I often think of that promising young player, caught in a situation he couldn’t navigate effectively. Currently, he’s playing on teams overseas, unable to take advantage of his untapped potential in the NBA.

I was reminded of this chance encounter again last week. I was on a coaching call, listening to an employee describe changes going on in her organization and how her sales territory is being rearranged and her clients being parceled out among other reps. I asked how she was handling her frustration, and she said, “I’m just playing for the name on the back of my jersey, not the front.”

My heart sank. I could hear the anguish in her voice. It is in our human nature to thrive through meaningful work in concert with like-minded people. Feeling alienated or unable to trust her tribe was threatening her sense of well-being.

As leaders, we need to help employees understand the reasons for their anguish. Then, we need to help them satisfy their psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Employees can’t thrive when their psychological needs are thwarted at work. When employees don’t thrive, they suffer–and so does the organization. Disengaged employees, who are so overwhelmed by circumstances that they simply give up and begin looking after their own best interests, are costing organizations billions of dollars every year.

As our coaching call continued, three lessons emerged that might help you deal with a disenfranchised employee.

1. This employee’s sense of autonomy was nonexistent. She felt she had no control over the changes “being done to” her. My question to her was, “What do you have control over?” We identified three areas of her role where her choices would make a difference in the quality of her experience.
2. She felt her sense of relatedness with the organization was compromised. She didn’t trust her company or the reasons for the changes being made. When I asked her why, she replied, “The changes are unfair.” Nothing erodes an employee’s psychological need for relatedness like injustice. My question to her was, “Have you discussed why the changes are taking place with your manager? Have you asked for a rationale so you can understand the reasons for the changes?” She admitted she had not. Should her leader have provided the rationale for change? Sure. But, even the best-intentioned leaders usually share an organizational perspective. People need a personal rationale–they need to understand why the changes are “being done to” them, their job, role, and world. I encouraged her to be a self-leader and seek out the answers she needed. With information in hand, she could then determine if the reasons for the changes were unjust or just unclear.
3. The employee’s sense of competence was diminished because she didn’t know how to navigate through ambiguity and uncertainty. But, she realized that identifying ways to refocus her autonomy and relatedness needs already made her feel more confident about moving forward.

I will continue tracking her progress. My hope is to hear about the success and flourishing that both she and her organization experience as she plays for more than the name on the back of her jersey.

*****

Susan Fowler implores leaders to stop trying to motivate people. In her latest bestselling book, she explains WHY MOTIVATING PEOPLE DOESN’T WORK… AND WHAT DOES: The New Science of Leading, Engaging, and Energizing. She is the author of by-lined articles, peer-reviewed research, and six books, including the bestselling Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager with Ken Blanchard. Tens of thousands of people worldwide have learned from her ideas through training programs such as the Situational Self Leadership and Optimal Motivation product lines. For more resources, including a free Motivational Outlook Assessment with immediate results, visit www.susanfowler.com.

A Leadership Kick in the A**

Do leaders sometimes need a kick in the ass? You bet they do . . . even if they don’t think

so. I’m referring to the new book, A Leadership Kick in the Ass, by Bill Treasurer. It's been awhile since my last post but a perfect time to start up again. I’ve been waiting months to be able to read this book, and I was NOT disappointed.

Bill’s book should be a wake-up call and a learning experience for any leader. You’ll learn a lot about yourself and how to make much-needed corrections (kicks) to become the leader you were meant to be.

In addition to realizing that mistakes are GREAT opportunities to learn from and to improve, there are other things to look at. Case in point is Bill’s definitions of two types of leaders, Pigheads and Weaklings. We all know those people, and we probably fall into one or both categories at least on occasion. Sometimes we need a kick to get realigned. To fall into one of these categories causes damage to yourself, your team, and your organization. In addition to discussing all of the ins and outs of each, Bill gives us types of “butt kicks needed”.

Pigheads

• Kicks that shatter the oversized ego.
• Kicks that instigate humility.

Weaklings

• Kicks that expose the withheld potential.
• Kicks that inspire assertiveness.

This should be an eye-opener for some of you or people you work with. Realize what went wrong, fix it, learn from it, move on.

No matter where you are on the organizational ladder, this book WILL open your eyes. Do you have a book club where you work? This would be an excellent read to be able to share with others.

Leaders Ready Now

Last week saw the launch of a highly anticipated (and deservedly so) book, Leaders Ready Now: Accelerating Growth in a Faster World, by Matthew J Paese, Audrey B. Smith, and William C. Byham.  If you get half out of what I did, you'll be well on your way in your growth as a leader.

My guest blogger this week is actually by three.  The three authors of this great new book.

Why Are You Pursuing Acceleration?

The business reason for acceleration is often summarized like this: “We’re running

desperately short of leaders, and if we can’t get more of them—good ones—very soon, we’ll be in trouble. It’s not an option to buy talent from the outside, so we have only two options: grow from within or fail.”

This usually causes management to sit up straight and pay close attention to the next part of the meeting: How to solve this? What most executives are thinking at this point is basically what’s going through their heads when the organization faces a quality problem or a service problem or a cost problem: We need to analyze the causes, develop solutions, and execute a plan.

Except that acceleration is different. An organization can fix a quality, service, or cost problem with new and better processes that people learn to execute with discipline. But a leadership shortage will be filled only with energy for growth—fear and excitement—which then fuels the process and discipline that an acceleration system also requires. So, aiming to solve the talent problem demands a plan to solve the energy problem.

Energy will grow as you take on more risk with developing your people. But bigger risks require bigger whys. Why grow? Why accelerate? For management, the why is the business case for acceleration. In the absence of a strong one, it is difficult to convince senior executives to take any risks (much less big ones) with development. In fact, acceleration isn’t appropriate for every organization (e.g., companies in rapid start-up mode may need to emphasize talent acquisition, while others may be stocked with so much talent that the main challenge is retention).

For individual leaders, the why is the personal case for acceleration. Without one, it is difficult to convince individuals to take big chances with their own development. The typical conversation with an individual leader highlights the potentially exciting, lucrative, and influential future that acceleration can bring; the leader can—if the process works—learn, earn, and determine much more in the organization. For most, this would be enough to garner full interest and enthusiasm for whatever may come next. But interest and enthusiasm are simply not enough. Remember that the most powerful learning experiences— the ones that truly transform leadership capability—are characterized less by design than by necessity. When asked how they came into their moments of rapid learning, leaders routinely report reasons such as, “They needed me, and I was the only one available who could do it,” or “I thought I could make a big difference,” or “My boss believed I could do it, so I agreed.”

When it comes to creating energy for acceleration, there is a vast difference between “You could benefit from this” and “We need you.” To create a more powerful why for both management and individual learners, it is insufficient to make a case on behalf of only the business or the person. You will need to appeal to both. “We (the business) need you (the person) to take a big chance.” Your case must be compelling to both management and each individual, conveying why the organization needs leaders to step up, what it needs from each leader, and why it’s worth taking big risks to achieve faster, more significant growth.

*****

Matthew J. Paese, Ph.D., is Vice President of Succession and C-Suite Services for Development Dimensions International (DDI). Matt’s work has centered on the application of succession, assessment, and development approaches as they apply to boards, CEOs, senior management teams, and leaders across the pipeline. He consults, coaches, speaks, and conducts research around all those topics and more.

Audrey B. Smith, Ph.D., is Senior Vice President for Global Talent Diagnostics at DDI. Audrey's customer-driven innovation and global consulting insights have helped shape DDI's succession, selection, and development offerings, from the C-suite to the front line. She has been a key strategist and solution architect, encompassing technology-enabled virtual assessments and development aligned to current business challenges.

William C. Byham, Ph.D., is Executive Chairman of DDI. He cofounded the company in 1970 and has worked with hundreds of the world's largest organizations on executive assessment, executive development, and succession management. Bill authored Zapp!® The Lightning of Empowerment, a groundbreaking book that has sold more than 3 million copies. He has coauthored 23 other books, including seminal works on the assessment center method.

Under New Management

Times and technology are always changing. With these changes must come

process and management style changes. The problem is, that what we need to do to keep up doesn’t always happen. A new idea here and there is too slow and dispersed.

A number of things that I see in David Burkus’s new book, Under Management: How Leading Organizations Are Upending Business as Usual, I’ve seen before. But what’s great about it is that he gathers these things - and much more - shows great examples, and puts them into one easy to read, understand, and implement reference.

Including research and case studies, Burkus presents examples of organizations that have successfully implemented each of these practices. Zappos paying people to quit. Whole Foods hiring as a team. Wegmans putting customers first. Adobe eliminating yearly performance appraisals. McKinsey & Company celebrating employee departures (and keeping contact).

This is the book to read if you’re ready to make a positive change in your organization or even if you’re just starting out and building from scratch. Leave the past in the past. Let go of the old ineffective methodologies. Create an organization that will provide the base for success.

The Serving Leader

The newly updated edition of The Serving Leader: Five Powerful Actions to Transform

Your Team, Business, and Community, by Kenneth R. Jennings and John Stahl-Wert is one for your bookshelf.  Better yet, keep it on your desk.  It’s a small (154 pages) read with a big message.

The authors take you through their leadership model via parable, stopping throughout to discuss in more detail the five actions of transformation,

• Upend the Pyramid - You qualify to be first by putting other people first.
• Raise the Bar - To serve the many, you first serve the few.
• Blaze the Trail - To protect your value, you must give it all away.
• Build on Strength - To address your weaknesses, focus on your strengths.
• Run to Great Purpose - Arrange each person in the team to contribute what he/she is best at.

This all adds up to becoming the serving leader.  It’s time to step away for self-centeredness.  The book provides the traits and actions that are needed.  All that needs to be done is take it all to heart (there’s a lot of heart in this book) and put it into play.  This is a caring and sharing book for your team, family, and colleagues.

Out of the Question

This could be the 2016 winner of best leadership books - Out of the Question: How

Curious Leaders Win, by Guy Parsons and Allan Milham.  Two words in the title sum it up - Question and Curious.

In this new book, Guy and Allan discuss the difference between Knowing Leaders and Learning Leaders.  Knowers know what to do and how everyone should get there.  Learners are open, creative, and foster collaboration.  Which one do you think is more effective?

Today’s workforce is nothing like that of the past.  The, my way or the highway days are over.  Try that with your younger workers and see how long they stick around.  Leading with curiosity brings out questions and collaborative learning.  Just because you may be in a leadership role doesn’t mean you have all the answers . . . although we see many people who still think that.

I love the section on the Power of the Pause.  Yes, pause.  I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count how many “leaders” I’ve known who never pause during a discussion or planning session.  They always have THE answer - immediately.  How many times have we run into that and ended up reworking?

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to take themselves and their teams to the next level.  Read this book and use it and you’ll probably end up multiple levels ahead.

The 3 Gaps

I knew there was going to be something special about the new book, The 3 Gaps: Are You Making a Difference?, by Hyrum W. Smith, once I realized that he was one of the original co-founders of Franklin Covey.  I surely wasn’t disappointed.

Just reading a short description of each of the 3 gaps was an indication that I needed to read this book.  Unless you actually sit down and realize what these gaps are, and how big they are, you’ll never live up to your potential.  Without action, the gaps will stay open.

Within each chapter are personal accounts from people throughout Hyrum’s life that drive the messages home.  The Beliefs Gap shows the difference between what we believe is true and what actually is.  The Values Gap shows the difference between what we most value and what we actually do.  The Time Gap shows the difference between what we plan on doing and what we actually do.  It sounds so simple, but we all have gaps that need help closing.  I can see it in myself, in my friends, and in the people I work with.

We constantly hear people saying they want inner peace.  Here’s your chance. This is a book that everyone should read as a guide to managing ourselves to be our very best.  It would be a great book to add to book club or to share with others.

Mastering Leadership

Wow, how time flies.  It's been about a month since I posted last, but what a way to come back, with a guest

post from Bob Anderson and Bill Adams.  Their new book Mastering Leadership, was released yesterday.  You should definitely pick one up.  I'm sure you won't regret it.

From Taxi Team to Team Captain

The most powerful beliefs are the beliefs and internal assumptions by which we establish our identity. These powerful self-defining beliefs get incorporated into the core of our IOS throughout our life from emotionally powerful, positive, or painful experience. They also are installed by important people in our lives—parents, teachers, coaches, bosses, mentors, political leaders—and by institutional, national, and cultural affiliations. As we adopt these assumptions, we live by them and reinforce them. The brain puts them on autopilot so that we do not have to think about them anymore. They are just seen as true.

Bob: One of my deeply embedded assumptions is that I must be perfectly successful in order to be okay. I come by this belief honestly, and most of the experience that created this belief was positive. For example, when I was 13, I tried out for the football team. I had never played football, and most of the guys on the team had been playing for a few years. I did not know that you needed to work hard to get noticed by the coaches, so I stood patiently on the sidelines waiting to be put on the practice field. As such, I was not seen as a player. Since the coaches did not have the heart to cut me, I ended up on the “Taxi Squad.” The few of us on this squad practiced together on another field. The real team had eight male coaches. We had Mrs. Dixon, a nice lady who knew nothing about football.

At this time, I was not moving in the circles in which I wanted to move. The cool kids were on the football team, and as long as I was on this Taxi Squad, I had little chance of getting accepted into their group. To make matters worse, all the cheerleaders practiced near where the team practiced, and I did not have their attention either. I was a nobody.

One day, Mrs. Dixon did not show up and the coaches were forced to allow the Taxi Squad to practice with the team. What happened that day changed my life. I was playing left defensive tackle and after a play in which I must have done something right, one of the coaches picked me up, lifted me up above his head and screamed into my face, “That was great! Do that again.”

I was so unaware of what I just did that I asked him what I had done.

He took a personal interest in me for the rest of the practice. He taught me how to play that position. Soon, I was wreaking havoc on the offense. That week I went from Taxi Squad to captain of the team. I started on offense and defense for the rest of the season. I also moved into the center of the boys with whom I wanted to be friends. I even piqued the interest of the cheerleaders. I went from nobody to somebody in one practice.

I learned that day that I am somebody if I am first string, captain of the team. I learned that I had to be the best, first string or else I would be a nobody.

This story illustrates how the driven nature of my personality began to form. I could tell other stories about how this drive was refined into the need to be flawless at everything I did. So, I entered adult life believing that my worth and self-esteem, the success and security of my future, depended utterly on being flawlessly successful all the time.

Of course, I assumed I would be a good mentor; however, that was not the case. My perfectionist standards and fear of failure combined to make me inept at letting go to others so that they might learn. What made this so difficult for me was that I had to let go when we were working with key clients. I did not do this gracefully. Every time one of my colleagues was not performing well enough, I became terrified that I would lose the client. Consequently, I took over the session and later pointed out all the ways my colleague could have done better. This approach so undermined their confidence that no one could learn from me, and I was failing to scale the business.

My perfectionism and need to be successful had me. I did not have them. I did not start to face this belief until after two years of failing to scale the business. Once I saw how I was the problem, as I dropped into this belief structure to see its illusion, and as I began to see my fear-driven perfectionism as resulting from another irrational belief, I began to mentor more effectively and the business began to scale nicely.

These beliefs form the core of the Reactive operating system—the mechanisms by which we form our externally validated identity. Because we need to be seen by others as X, our self-esteem, security, and future are in their hands. They make us up. How they see us defines us. We depend on external validation, living within the confines of a Socialized Self, as the Self-Authoring, Creative Self lives beyond the bounds of these Reactive beliefs. We tend to oscillate and return to normal as we react to meet the expectations of these beliefs. This is how Reactive Mind is structured and, since structure determines performance, how it performs.

*****

Excerpted from Mastering Leadership: An Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results, by Robert J. Anderson and William A. Adams (Wiley, 2015)

Bob Anderson is Chairman and Chief Development Officer and Bill Adams is CEO of The Leadership Circle and the Full Circle Group. They are coauthors of Mastering Leadership (Wiley). Visit www.fcg-global.com or http://www.theleadershipcircle.com.