Leadership Learning Moments Archive

#33: Eating Emails for Lunch.

In your quest for leadership success you must leverage every minute of every day. Back to back meetings, constant emails arriving, new initiatives, demanding deadlines, uninitiated employees and a personal life. Lunch time is reserved for squeezing in whatever work can be accomplished while rushing to inhale some semblance of food. Catching up on emails tends to be a common theme.

But are you really getting ahead because of your lunchtime investment and are you modeling behavior you’d like your employees to mimic? I wonder.

A lunch break – which we’ll define as 10 to 30 minutes – is an investment in nourishing your body and soul to rejuvenate your energy allowing an increase in stamina. Consider these alternative approaches.

Eat “real food” while reading a novel that takes your mind away.
Take a walk in the sunshine around the block or parking lot or if you’re lucky, in the park like setting next to your office.
Meditate or power nap or maybe it’s a combination of the two.
Take a spiritual break. Use the time to connect with your personal spiritual force whatever form that may take.
Plan the tactical approaches to your personal life. Dissect and solve a home life leadership situation or strategize about how best to help your son enjoy his tree fort.
Laugh with friends. Watch an episode of The Office. Or perhaps find a copy of Bill Cosby’s stand up routines, for example, Bill Cosby is a Funny Fellow. . . Right!

The right nourishment of your body and your soul will improve your productivity and might just model better behaviors for those who follow you.

Take Action: Get started with one lunch break investment per week. Share your success and investment approach on our Facebook Page.

#47: Feel the Beat.

You’ve heard the noise. The car next to you has a booming base radiating out through their closed windows. You can feel the sound in your car. Is it techno or is it classical or is that a pop beat? Are you moving to the beat? Or maybe you’re looking in disgust and pondering the rate of hearing loss on the driver.

Think About It: When managing individuals you must think about their individual music beat much like each person has their preference to different genres of music and varying levels of volume, base, and treble.

While you may be inclined to take a common approach in managing your employees each person needs to be thought of and then managed individually. You need to consider their experience in completing an assignment, their personal style, the relationship you have with the person, their past successes and failures, strengths and weaknesses and then decide how to best manage the person. Some people will require more task direction while others will need more supportive behavior – coaching and encouragement.

It is likely that as a person matures in a position you will be able to decrease your task focus and continue your supportive behavior, ultimately even decreasing this as well. But keep track and pay attention to how someone is responding. You may need to pull back and offer more support if conditions change or if a person faces unexpected roadblocks. Remember, your job as a leader is to lead – not the masses but the individuals.

Take Action

Make a list of your staff and indicate – individually – your management volume level today. Is the employee moving to the beat? What can/should you do? Add a little base? Decrease the volume a bit?

#60: Foggy Expectations

Do your employees ever “miss the mark?” Sometimes, do things get done in a manner you didn’t expect or didn’t want? Those are the times to hold back and first ask yourself – where wasn’t I clear. Our first instinct is to often “blame the employee” and analyze what they did wrong. But as an effective manager you also need to consider what you did wrong.

Frequently we haven’t been clear in our expectations. In addition to telling a person what to do, consider including what behaviors they need to demonstrate to be successful. What else will they need to pay attention to, what a good job will “look like.” With clear and specific expectations, including measurements and feedback, it is much more likely success will be achieved the first time.

Of course, make sure to document your clarifying expectations conversation so that you can offer praise to the employee during your next situational coaching opportunity. Or, if necessary, you are well prepared to take “appropriate corrective action.”

See a PDF version of LLM 60 - Foggy Expectations

#92: Stop. Look. Listen.

We race through our days. Have back to back meetings, answer too many e-mails to count and push to meet the deadlines we are faced with. With this pace we need to be reminded to take some time out to think about the best way to work with each of our employees.

Every employee is a unique individual. They have their own behavioral “DNA” which drives their preferences on how they like to work and what motivates them. Paying attention to an employee’s preferences, and yours, can help you to communicate and structure work in a way to make a person as successful as possible.

STOP, LOOK and LISTEN

Stop – Slow down. Take a few moments to focus on an employee’s behaviors, in addition to the work they are producing.

Look – Look for “cues.” When you are talking and discussing an issue, look at their body language and other behavioral cues. What triggers action? What slows them down? When do they become resistant? When they are working on a project, what do they respond well to? When they are interacting with others, what do you see?

Listen – Listen to an employee’s responses. Listen to the words and more. What are they telling you beyond the words?

Every employee has their own style, driving their preferences. The more we can understand the uniqueness of each individual, the more we can structure work situations to tap into their potential. Take a few moments to read the “cues” an employee gives you and you can increase their success – and yours.

See a PDF version of LLM Num 92 - Stop Look Listen

#2: Play a Game

Looking for a creative and cheap way to practice your leadership skills? Be a kid again and play some games. Here are some game ideas and the associated skill areas.

Blokus or Chess – strategic thinking
Charades – situational agility, team work
Halo – executive politics
Rock Band – team work
Twister – relationship building
Monopoly – winning it all. . . and putting it all back in the box
Nerf Gun Wars – focusing; agility
Scrabble – performance review terminology
Settlers of Catan – budgeting, resource planning
Wii Fit – stamina

Gather a few peers, play a game and increase your leadership skills. And maybe you’ll laugh a bit along the way.

Have a game you’d like to add to our list? Please share it with me:

Via Email: mike@bishophouse.com
via LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mikeatbishophouse

See a PDF version of LLM Num 2 - Play a Game

#101: 38 Days

What can you accomplish in the 38 days?

Over that last 38 days Jacob Shell endured a rare transplant procedure at The Children’s Hospital in Boston. As you might know, Jacob Shell, of ShellStrong fame, is 8 years old and has neuroblastoma, a very difficult cancer. During this 38 day journey, Jacob persevered through a 6th round of chemo (more powerful than his first 5 rounds), received his own stem cells through a transplant process and strived through the miraculous rebuilding of his body’s immunity. Most of the time he was secluded in a sterile room to help protect his body during the rebuilding of his immunity.

Take inspiration from Jacob’s journey. Look at your own performance as a leader and consider how you might benefit from an intensive 38 day treatment procedure.

Destroy Bad Habits – over 7 days acknowledge and eradicate your bad habits
Transplant Day – in a 3 hour, self motivated cleansing exercise, transplant a vibrant outlook unto yourself; feel the inflow of your talents and abilities and happiness
Re-build – Everyday for 30 days begin one healthy habit, skill, phrase to repeat, relationship, thought, action, task

Start tomorrow, December 11th. On January 18th take account of how your professional and personal life is progressing.

Keep a healthy perspective during your journey. Jacob is fighting for his life. You’re just fighting for happiness and success.

Need some inspiration? Read about Jacob Shell and the ShellStrong movement he is inspiring. Learn more at www.caringbridge.org/visit/shellstrong/mystory.

See a PDF version of LLM Number 101 - 38 Days

Bishop House LLM Number 101 -- 12-10-2009

Management Training