Ingredients to Successful Teams - Trust

There has to be trust between team members, and trust between staff and their manager. Without it information won’t flow properly, productivity will suffer as people go into Chess mode trying to out maneuver who they view as their “opponent”, protectionism sets in and information becomes well guarded keys to job security,  etc…

Trust comes through honesty. Being able to openly say what you have to say in a constructive manner,  being able to voice opinions without fear of reprisal, and being able to admit to ones mistakes.

Trust also needs to be earned; but the nice thing is that most people are initially willing to give the benefit of the doubt and afford another individual a high degree of trust.

Trust is also easily lost and extremely difficult to  earn back once that occurs. If a person trusts someone and that trust is compromised, it will take an enormous amount of effort to regain that trust as now the shields are up, precedence has been set, and that person will always be suspicious of that someone again. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me…

Being Right

There is a significant difference between being “right” and having the ability to articulate and persuade others that you are right.

When the Death Star was built, I’m sure some low-level engineer tried to mention the exhaust ports are vulnerable to proton torpedoes, but he was unable to persuade others that he was right.

If you aren’t naturally articulate and persuasive, then you must spend time preparing and practicing your talking points in order to get your point across.

Five Leadership Tactics To Make 2008 a Pivotal Business Year

A great article was posted today on 5 leadership behaviors for teams and companies to be successful.

Check it out… 

Why don’t people want to take leadership?

If you say the word “Leader”, the first things that come into your mind are thoughts of a hero, these fearless commanders in the face of adversity, or the well polished smooth talker that can give inspirational speeches to a crowd of thousands.

A Leader can be anyone, and you don’t need to have direct reports to be a Leader as we’ve written before.

Yet despite how everyone admires leaders, aspires to be one, and how relatively easy it is to be one… why is it that so few people actually take leadership?

The question is: can leaders be made, or are leaders born? The Sith are of the position that the root essence of a Leader begins with the instinct to Lead; it’s not a conscious decision where you wake up and go “I’m going to Lead today.” A Leader never even has this thought, they continually evaluate the playing field and see gaps for improvement or potential opportunities, and just make a move on it.

The execution of making those improvements or jumping on opportunities varies greatly, and young leaders will make a lot more mistakes than seasoned ones. So when people say Leaders can be made, all you can really do is mold, tweak, and refine those Leadership skills. But that essence, that drive, and that desire to do the right thing while bringing others along for the ride is there to begin with.

And what prevents a lot of people from being Leaders is the fear of failure, and fear of accountability for decisions. Like most things in nature (water, electricity, etc…) the path of least resistance is often taken, and this exists within human nature as well. It’s so much more easier to point out problems, or delegate the decision up, rather than to make the decision yourself. Because if that decision doesn’t work out, hey you at least did your job, so you can sleep at night knowing that it wasn’t your fault.

Leaders aren’t afraid to make decisions. Ok, maybe in some cases they are – but they’re willing to make them, and that’s the key.

So is there a moral to all this? Not really; not everyone is a Leader, and that’s fine. But at least accept that you aren’t if you’re not one, and support those who are.

Leaders Don’t Need to Lead - they just point the way…

Leadership isn’t so much of “hey follow me”, but rather pointing out where to go. Have you heard of the saying the blind leading the blind? As a Leader, you don’t want people aimlessly following you regardless of where you go.

Leaders carve out that Vision, point a beacon of light towards the solution, and clear out the path for where people need to go.

If you want to be a leader, or are a leader, make sure your mindset is less “follow me” and more “this is where to go”.

Decisions: Don’t ask for Permission

You’re working with an ally of the Republic to land a deal on a order of Star Destroyers, you present a great proposal, and at the end you ask “does that sound ok?”

You’re pitching a project to Management about some I.T Infrastructure that should be put into place; by doing due diligence you evaluate a few options, and document the options along with a recommendation. When presenting the document, you say “review the options, and let us know what you want to do?”

You’re in a team meeting and you feel a new process needs to be implemented to handle dealing with an issue. You mention to the team what you’re new process is all about, and at the end ask “what do you guys think?”

There are a multitude of such scenarios whether it’s in Project Management, Sales, and even within your team. By default, when you don’t have final authority your instinct is to get approval; and indeed that may actually be the documented policy.

But when you ask for that approval, you’re inviting the answer of no, which is not what you’re looking for. The approach you want to take is approval by default; people are welcome to disagree if they want, but if nothing is said you assume it’s a go.

After I got the separatists to attack the allied forces under the guidance of Count Dooku and General Grievous, I went to the Senate as Senator Palpatine and announced how it’s all going to go down. That in order to survive this assault, I’m going to take over and lead the Empire to victory. I didn’t ask if that would be ok, I just did it.

So if you want to be a Leader, just say what you’re going to do. If there’s any objections, they’ll say it and you can then discuss it. As a sales person, you go forward assuming the deal is on, unless the customer says no. Etc…

There’s a reason why this works so well. People don’t like making decisions, don’t like being accountable for decisions, and don’t like confrontation. You’re using this psychology to your advantage by making the decision for them.

Even amongst slaves, there are leaders…

Earlier this month we had an uprising on the slave planet of Tiyuk, a place we reserve for rebel scum that we’ve captured. Many rebels had escaped in a well coordinated plan, that I definitely will give kudos for. This wasn’t a mindless emotional uprising, but a well planned and executed feat - all because of one guy who rallied the slaves together.

And even throughout history, such as the slave gladiator Sparticus who led the escape of his fellow captives and even successfully fought against their pursuers… this demonstrates that even a slave can be a leader. People who by all intensive purposes have had all their rights and ability to make choices stripped away from them.

You don’t need to be a manager, or titled as someone that is indicative of leading people… Anyone can be a leader. Leaders aren’t nominated to lead, and they don’t wait to told to lead. They see the need, step up, and just do it.

What’s holding you back?

It Starts From The Top

Almost all problems in an organization can be traced back to the CEO.
Take any problem, and trace it through the layers of management.  Any poor decision from an employee was supervised or should have been by a manager.  That manager has a manager and so on.  Everyone is responsible for those who are under them, and ultimately that leads to the top executives, who answer to the CEO.

From poor service, poor products, poor marketing or poor sales.  Poor decisions are can be made by anyone in the organization.  It’s up to their manager, and the next layer of management to correct errors and keep things on track.

I’ve heard employees complain about glaring problems in a company, and as blame gets pushed from employees to managers, the question I keep asking is “And who is their manager and why do they allow X?”, the excuses and blame continue all the way to the top and the final question becomes “and why does the CEO tolerate X executive?”

A good CEO surrounds him/herself with winners, and hopefully that spreads down to all the layers of management.

 

Make Empires, Not Star Destroyers

It’s important that leaders do not narrowly define their company. One must broadly define the enterprise so the company is prepared for the future. The classic Earth example describes a company that made drills, and consultants told them “You don’t make drills, you make holes”, implying their tools are drills today, but their core business is actually making holes, and if a new technology such as lasers comes along, they must be prepared to make lasers, not drills. Defining your company too narrowly also applied to the classic Earth railroad companies who saw themselves in the “railroad industry” vs. the transportation industry. If they had that vision, they would have branched out into the trucking and air-cargo industry.

In today’s modern world, Kodak is a prime example of a company who defined themselves too narrowly and almost faced bankruptcy because of the digital camera revolution. Kodak made film, but in reality they should have positioned themselves as a company that “captured memories”, which was film in the 1980’s, digital camera’s today, and will be holographic in the future.

Apple is a company who had vision to leap beyond being a computer maker, to a company that provides technology for our lives, illustrated by the iPod, iPhone and other consumer electronics.

Whatever industry your company is in, take a step back and broadly define what your core business is. Keep an eye out for future trends and technology to make sure your drills don’t become obsolete. We don’t make Star Destroyers, we make Empires.

Lack of Vision results in Blindness

The difference between a Vision and a Mission is debatable – some say they are the same thing, and they definitely serve a similar purpose. However a Mission Statement is more towards your purpose…why do you exist?

A Vision Statement is more towards how you’ll achieve that purpose. With that said, most believe these are top level corporate things, and indeed they are, but they aren’t limited to that.

Every strategic initiative, project, and application should have one. Those of you who wallow in the land of short sightedness truly lack Vision; people such as these believe that feasibility studies need to be done, and requirement and scope documents to be drafted before a Vision exists.

This is the exact opposite of what you should be doing – it’s some kind of “Vision by default”, and whatever happens, happens. And whatever will happen.

Unless you enjoy the myopic results of mediocrity you must realize that everything starts with a Vision.

A Vision is a guiding light, and helps you focus priorities. Yes, prioritize by ROI, but keep in mind that corporate objectives support the Vision, so projects that do not support the Vision have no value at that point in time.

But a Vision goes far beyond the pragmatism of prioritization; it rallies people to do things that most people feel were impossible.

Look at some of the past predictions of the blind:

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” - Ken Olson, president, chairman, founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

“I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year.” - The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

“But what is it good for?” (commenting on the microchip). - Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968

“The logistics required to make a death star make it impossible to build” – General Yukuzu, 4023 (he was later electrocuted)

Yet, look at Visionary quotes.

And one very famous Visionary quote of the past is by Earth President John F. Kennedy, “…before the decade it out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely…

At the time that was said it was believed to be impossible, but Earthlings did it anyways. A Vision unites people towards a common cause. It keeps people focused. It keeps priorities in line. It ensures that all projects are steps towards one direction.

Without a Vision you are blind. You have no focus. No direction. Everything you do is a result of controlled chaos.

Without direction it’s all random, so if you travel through life with your eyes closed where will you end up?

Open your eyes, and see where you want to go.