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.

Chasing Relevance

So this may be one of the most important business books of the year - Chasing

Relevance: 6 Steps to Understand, Engage, and Maximize Next-Generation Leaders in the Workplace, by Dan Negroni.

Today we live in a world of multi-generational workforces. As Dan says, by 2025 the number of millennials in the workforce will grow to 75%. That's a BIG number and leadership must begin learning from and teaching them now.

Two things struck a cord with me outright. First is his profile of a millennial:

• Days filled with scheduled activities.
• Trophies for everyone on the team.
• Families of all different shapes and sizes.
• Socially connected every minute to everyone.
• Information at their fingertips.
• Multitasking is the norm.
• Center of attention.
• Family technologists.

As soon as I read this, the wheels immediately began turning. This is a great starting point for understanding how millennials fit into our society and office staff.

The second thing that hit me outright is the B.R.I.D.G.E model. Using this model will "build genuine and caring relationships that increase engagement, productivity, innovation, results, and profits". To bridge the gap, the B.R.I.D.G.E model consists of:

• Bust Myths - to break through assumptions.
• Real Deal - to create authentic relationships.
• I Own It - to become personally responsible for results.
• Deliver Value - by understanding and mentoring.
• Goals in Mind - with shared vision.
• Empower Success - with feedback and recognition.

If you're a new supervisor . . . or even a baby-boomer supervisor, you're going to want to read this book and implement the ideology. There's a big difference between the 55+ era and the millennial era. Now is the time to take hold of the reigns.

Wind In Your Sails

I like reading good books about leadership, business, and entrepreneurialism.  I also like sailing.

 Wind In Your Sails, by David Greer is right up my alley.  The thing is, the book doesn’t just have things I like, David puts them all together in an interesting and extremely informative manner.  It’s a new favorite.

Wind In Your Sails takes you through ten strategies for entrepreneurial success.  This includes vision, goals, innovation, sales, products, and people.  Did you catch that last one?  People.  There’s a common thread throughout the book.  Like David said, “People buy products and services. People deliver them. People create products.”  In order to be successful, you must know how to “attract, retain, and motivate the people in your business”.

This book doesn’t rely on a bunch of theories someone threw together in order to get their name on the cover of a book.  David Greer shares his 35 years of experience along with case studies of a number of other successful entrepreneurs.

Each of the chapters include said case study, lessons learned, and action challenges.  So it’s not a book you’re going to just read and put down to attract dust.  If you really want to be successful, you’ve got a great big helping hand right here.  Action - produces success.

Walking the Legacy Talk

So many people can talk the talk.  But how many people can actually, truly, walk the

talk?  I love Mark Miller’s analogy in his new book, The Heart of Leadership.  He uses the example of an iceberg:

As you look at the iceberg, you only see about 10% of it.  The other 90% is below the waterline. The portion you see above the waterline represents leadership skills – reproducible by many.  Below represents leadership character – practiced by few.  The people who talk the talk represent the 10%.  The people who walk the talk represent that, along with, the other 90%.

I’m going to use my favorite example again . . . Disney.  Walt Disney passed away from lung cancer in 1966, before his vision of Disney World in Florida was realized. After much mourning and wondering where to go from there, his brother and business partner, Roy O. Disney, postponed his retirement to oversee construction of the resort’s first phase.

Walt had vision and plans for the company that extended for years.  And, to this day, things are still being developed from Walt’s original visualizations.  In fact, it wasn’t decided until well into the construction process to name the resort WALT Disney World, in honor of the man whose ideas and visions brought it to life . . . five years after he passed away.

A positive legacy is going to require leadership character and vision.  What do you need to do to get it going?

For more on your leadership legacy, see my entire article on Linked2Leadership.com - http://linked2leadership.com/2013/11/15/on-leadership-and-leading-a-legacy/.

Value Stream Mapping

In a nutshell, value stream mapping is a lean-management method for analyzing the current state and designing a future state for the series of events that take a product or service from its beginning through to the customer.  Now I'm not typically too big on theories, statistics, mapping, etc.  But when I read Value Stream Mapping: How to Visualize Work and Align Leadership for Organizational Transformation, I had to rethink a bit as I started to compare it to storyboarding - which I DO like.

Karen Martin and Mike Osterling have taken the confusion out of value stream mapping (VSM) and show how to utilize it in an easy and effective way.  They show us that VSM can not only be used with manufacturing, but also in logistics, supply chain, service oriented industries, healthcare, software development, product development, and even administrative and office processes.  Have you ever thought of using VSM as an effective means to orient new hires?  It can also "provide a clear line of sight to the external customer from every function and work area involved in the value stream".  How can that possibly not be good?

Hey, here's a novel idea from Karen and Mike - go the Gemba.  I love that term/idea.  Gemba, as they describe it, is a Japanese word for "the real place, where the work is actually done".  A critical step in VSM is physically walking the value stream.  I believe that's where most organizations fail right off the bat.  You must be willing to walk the talk.

You don't need to be a big statistics geek to understand what Karen and Mike are talking about here.  The book is well written and easily understood which will help you to quickly understand the basics of VSM all the way through the execution steps.  The historical problem with VSM is that people just don't understand it.  Well after reading this book, that will no longer be a valid excuse.

Lead Positive

Kathy Cramer’s recent book release of Lead Positive: What Highly Effective Leaders

See, Say, and Do, had me from hello.  I don’t often spend too much time reading introductions prior to getting right into the book, but this time I found myself captivated.  Just from those first few pages I could have put the book down and been happy – but I was intrigued.

Within the first short page, she sets the tone with a quote that I’m going to find myself using (with acknowledgement of course) often, “When you Lead Positive, you offer a competing vision of the future by reframing problems into possibilities and appealing to a higher sense of purpose”.

The concepts of this book are so simple to understand and to put into play.  You’ll want to read it with a highlighter so you can go back to review and share.

Positive leaders aren’t as plentiful as one would think.  Many talk the talk but don’t quite walk the walk.  Using Kathy’s ideas will help you walk the talk.  Using asset-based thinking (I’ll leave that for you to read about), you will learn to use the Lead Positive framework of,

·         See – ‘zeroing in on what is working, strong, and possible’

·         Say – ‘speaking to the mind, heart, and spirit’

·         Do – ‘starting a positive ripple effect’.

Using the self-assessments throughout the book will help you and encourage you to better your own positive outlook and leadership ability so it can be passed on to and through others.  It’s a great playbook to use with leadership training or for refocusing your own leadership talents.

Design Your Culture

"But I thought a culture just happens?" Well Skippy, a lot of them do. But a lot of them are baaaad.

The title of this post comes from one of the strategies that Lee Cockerell discusses in his book, Creating Magic, on how to create a culture of INCLUSION. The first line in that section defines a corporate culture (via Disney Institute) as "the system of values and beliefs an organization holds that drives actions and behaviors and influences relationships."

I've actually heard stories of organizations saying they don't need to work on their culture because it will just happen, that that will be their TRUE culture. Alert - Alert - Alert Will Robinson. You're looking at the makings of one of those baaaad culture's.

Leaders of your organization need to work on directing the culture - focusing on your values, beliefs, and relationships - so that it doesn't turn or work against you. One of the best ways to direct your culture is to use INCLUSION. I don't think there's any faster way to derail a culture than to exclude employee's. The less they know - the less they are asked - the less they are "partners" - the worse your culture will be.

Just think about it a second. With a lack of inclusion, comes more opportunity for "grapevine" and "water-cooler" talk. Your culture quickly becomes one that works AGAINST your organization.

Now I could ramble on about many aspects of growing and directing your organizational culture (and maybe some day I will) but if you create a sense of INCLUSION, you're going to be well on your way.

What kind of changes can you make, today, in the creation of a culture of INCLUSION?

Vision At Any Age

I'm honored to have for a guest post, Kevin Eikenberry, author, speaker, trainer, consultant, and the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group . His new book, co-authored with Guy Harris, From Bud to Boss – Secrets to a Successful Transition to Remarkable Leadership launched on February 15, 2011. When you buy the book this week (through Friday), you'll be able to access valuable gifts from Kevin and Guy’s partners.

While I’ve never worn any sort of corrective lenses, at my age, I am becoming increasingly more aware of my vision.

Things that were once perfectly clear are now sometimes hazy. I once took my vision for granted; now it is becoming harder to do so. (Before you all give me the name of your optometrist, know that a new eye exam is already on my list.)

In a literal sense if you don’t see something you can’t react to it – if I am driving and don’t see the deer in the road clearly I can’t apply my brakes or otherwise try to avoid it.

The vision I am writing about today is just as literal, but far less obvious. In fact it might be something you’ve never thought about before now.

If you have ever purchased a new car (or a new one to you) you have probably experienced this situation: when you drove it off the lot and as you drove for the next several weeks, didn’t it seem like your car is everywhere! You had no idea Honda even made that color, but now you see your car model and color everywhere you go.

Now logic would tell you that these people didn’t all conspire and buy the very same car the very same day you did. But didn’t it sort of feel that way?

Of course those cars were on the road before, you just didn’t see them.

The reason for this phenomenon is something in your brain called the Reticular Activating System (RAS). The RAS works as a filter between your all-noticing and very powerful subconscious and your far-less-powerful conscious mind.

When you bought your car your conscious mind told your subconscious that these cars were important to you. So, dutifully, your subconscious with the help of the RAS let you “see” your car like never before – on the road, on the television and even hearing ads on the radio and noticing it being discussed in everyday conversation.

The fact is the RAS allows you to see exactly what you are looking for.

Stop and read that sentence again.

If the RAS allows you to see what you are looking for, then perhaps the most important vision question for us all is … “What am I looking for?”

You are looking for what you are seeing!

Let me get less esoteric.

Have you ever left a movie and talked with someone about it, and through your conversation it seemed like you saw two completely different movies? You each noticed different things, cared about different things and were moved in different ways by different parts of the film? Since we each have our own powerful RAS filters, this is easy to understand. Each person sees what his/her brain was looking for and therefore “wanted” to see.

Let me make this more useful for leaders and high performers:

Feedback. Most people realize that positive feedback is important (if you don’t think so, think again!). The challenge most people find in giving more positive feedback is finding the positive things to comment on. Challenges and problems will always be there, and they will always be noticed. However, if you want to give more positive feedback and support, you need to first adjust your vision! You must begin looking for what people are doing well. Once you adjust your vision, you will see these things everywhere.

Challenges. Many people look at every situation and see only the problem. They see all the reasons things can go wrong; all the cracks in the concrete. Some people look at the situation, and while recognizing the problems, see all the opportunities and notice possible solutions. It all starts with the choice of how to use your powerful RAS and to look for what we want to find. Would you rather find problems or solutions? Which are you looking for?

World view. Many people will tell you to stop watching the news, it will only bring you down. While I agree that a huge inflow of negative images isn’t what you want to continually plant in your brain, you must recognize the power of the RAS here too.

When you watch the news, what do you see and hear? Remember your RAS is helping you filter those words and images. Some people see opportunity, some see strife. Some see change, some see chaos. Some see recession, others, recovery. In every case, the same words create different visions for every person – based on what you are looking for.

These are just three examples, I could cite many more, but these hopefully will open your mind (and your RAS) to think about your context differently and allow you to choose to see the things you want to see in your life.

A final and very important note: while your RAS works most of the time without you even noticing, it is important to remember that you can choose what you want to look for, and therefore improve the chances you will see it.

If you aren’t seeing what you want, adjust your vision and make some new choices.

So, what do you see?

Potential Pointer: To create the future you want you must have a clear vision – and you must be able to see the world you want to create. You can make choices that will allow you to correct your vision and see the opportunities and situations that will lead you to your desired future.