Big enough to be rude?

Large companies and important people can be rude. I’m not saying its right but it’s true. They can ignore common people and cut to the head of the line. They can walk past without greeting others. They can discount customer’s who are part of acceptable losses. If you are big enough, you can ignore others.

Are you big enough to be rude?

You’re walking down the hall with next quarter’s budget on your mind when a “lesser” person walks by. You’re preoccupied with “important” issues and you snub them. Are common courtesies suspended because you’re dealing with big issues?

Are deadlines, budgets, conflicts, tensions, and stresses an excuse to be rude? Is your current situation big enough to suspend courteous etiquette?

The great leaders I’ve met focus on others regardless of the “important” issues they faced. They speak calmly, physically face others, and for a moment let individuals know they mattered. Truly great leaders aren’t big enough to be rude.

If you aren’t careful, the million and one pressures you face become both motivation and reason for life to turn inward and become about you.

Rising above rudeness:

#1. Express personal interest in employees or volunteers? If you don’t, the people around you are cogs in a machine. You’re dehumanizing them. Focus on work and people.

#2. Find someone you can dump on? It’s true, you are pressured and stressed. However, buried emotions don’t go away they intensify until they become excuses for rudeness.

#3. Slow your pace. People under pressure and in a hurry can’t afford manners.

#4. Explore what others says when they speak otherwise. Your greatest resource is people not product.

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How can leaders overcome pressure to turn inward? When is it acceptable for leaders to suspend etiquette?

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Leadership Freak

Dan Rockwell

You can receive Leadership Freak in your email. It’s free.  It’s private.  Go to the main page of Leadership Freak by clicking the red banner at the top of this page, look in the right-hand navigation bar, enter your email and click subscribe.  Your email address is always kept private.  Note:  if it doesn’t arrive, check your spam filter for a confirmation email.

Why do people follow?

The question of why people follow isn’t settled. Is following about leaders or is following about followers? Chances are it isn’t an either or question.

Most leadership books focus on leaders but there is a growing collection of books that either include or focus on followership. For example:

Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow [STRENGTHS BASED LEADERSHIP] by Tom Conchie & Barry Rath

The Life of Manny: Discovering Why People Follow a Leader by Ray East

Followership: How Followers Are Creating Change and Changing Leaders (Center for Public Leadership) by Barbara Kellerman

The Art of Followership: How Great Followers Create Great Leaders and Organizations (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) by Ronald E. Riggio, Ira Chaleff, and Jean Lipman-Blumen

Beyond Leadership to Followership by Sviatoslav Steve Seteroff

The Power of Followership, by Robert E. Kelley

A few months ago I read Kellerman’s book, “The Art of Followership.” It’s a broad series of essays that oriented me to this topic.

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Back to the original question, “Why should anyone follow you?”

Three Reasons People Follow

#1. You have direction. You are heading in a direction others want to go. Your preferred world matches their preferred world.

#2. You have ability. You seem able to make a difference in this world and achieve your objectives.

#3.  You are trustworthy. You don’t manipulate for selfish purposes. You’re focused on helping others not yourself.

I’m still challenged by the question, “Why should anyone follow you?”

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What’s your answer to, “Why should anyone follow you?”

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Leadership Freak

Dan Rockwell

You can receive Leadership Freak in your email. It’s free.  It’s private.  Go to the main page of Leadership Freak by clicking the red banner at the top of this page, look in the right-hand navigation bar, enter your email and click subscribe.  Your email address is always kept private.  Note:  if it doesn’t arrive, check your spam filter for a confirmation email.

Performance reviews

Performance reviews are like Grape Nut’s Flakes, neither grapes nor nuts.  They don’t improve performance and they don’t review well either.

Three reasons traditional performance reviews don’t work.

#1. Extended time gaps

The time between establishing goals and reviewing goals may be months. Any performance issue that can wait months to be addressed doesn’t need to be addressed at all.

#2. Goals and objectives aren’t supported

Organizations and individuals act like religious fanatics practicing “name it claim it” beliefs. They believe talking is the same as doing. For example, telling an employees to develop phone skills without training frustrates dedicated people.

#3. They focus on weakness rather than strengths

Organizations go further by focusing on the strengths of employees rather than weaknesses. Yes, everyone needs to improve and weaknesses roadblocking organizational efficiency and effectiveness must be addressed. However, focusing on weaknesses creates negative work environments and  isn’t as effective as leveraging and enhancing strengths.

A note on performance issues: Any skill gap or performance issue that negatively impacts an organization’s mission should be addressed quickly. It becomes fodder for performance reviews when an employee resists improvement.

If there is a layer of dust on last year’s performance review, your organization wasted its resources.

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How would you improve performance reviews?

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Related Posts:

Burn Your Job Description – An article advocating for Vision Descriptions

Strengthen Strengths – A real life example of the power of focusing on strengths rather than weakenesses

Here’s an author who advocates for doing away with performance reviews. http://blogs.bnet.com/mba/?p=2199&tag=col1;post-2238

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Leadership Freak

Dan Rockwell

You can receive Leadership Freak in your email. It’s free.  It’s private.  Go to the main page of Leadership Freak by clicking the banner at the top of this page, look in the right-hand navigation bar, enter your email and click subscribe.  Your email address is always kept private.  Note:  if it doesn’t arrive, check your spam filter for a confirmation email.

Top down thinking

In top down organizations information flows up and decisions come down. The military is an example of a top down organization.

People in top down organization exercise top down thinking. They aren’t designing creative solutions and exceeding expectations because top down organizations require and honor conformity.

We should expect top down organizations to produce conformists.

If you’re a leader in a top down organization the natural tendency for followers to tell you what you want to hear is nearly insurmountable.

The sad truth is people in top down organizations naturally shift from an outwardly focused vision to self-advancing, self-protective personal agendas. Top down organizations turn inward, develop sluggish bureaucracies, and require customers to adapt to them.

Top down organizations include; religious denominations, governmental and political agencies, and educational institutions. I believe top down organizations eventually suffocate themselves. The only times top down organizations create something bold and beautiful are during life threatening crisis. Only a crisis transforms conformists into innovators.

If you’re creating a top down family, business, or organization, expect conformity. Expect others to tell you what you want to hear. Expect your followers to fear failure and embrace the status quo. I think you’re developing dependent followers.

Three Problems with top down organizations

#1 – Leaders in top down organizations create and affirm people that comfort each other by clinging to the status quo.

#2 – Leaders in top down organizations never get the real picture because people tell them what they want to hear.

#3 – Followers in top down organizations live in bondage to bureaucratic hierarchy.

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You’ve just read an opinion. Do you share this opinion? Can you advocate in support of top down organizations?  What other down sides of top down organizations can you list?

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Leadership Freak

Dan Rockwell

You can receive Leadership Freak in your email. It’s free.  It’s private.  Go to the main page of Leadership Freak by clicking the banner at the top of this page, look in the right-hand navigation bar, enter your email and click subscribe.  Your email address is always kept private.  Note:  if it doesn’t arrive, check your spam filter for a confirmation email.

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The power of Ignorance

According to the free dictionary, stupid people make poor decisions and careless mistakes. On the other hand, ignorant people are unaware or uninformed. You’ll need these two definitions to understand what follows.

Careless mistakes and poor decisions (stupidity) are made by the uninformed (ignorant).

Ignorance leads to stupidity.

If you assume you are ignorant you won’t be stupid.

Last Friday a young leader asked for advice. As they began talking, I began assuming I knew the situation. However, I’ve learned that ignorance results in stupid advice so I kept asking questions and restating their replies. Four questions later I was thankful I didn’t go with my first impression because the information I gathered changed the recommendations I made. Assuming my own ignorance protected me from stupidity.

Anger is a symptom of ignorance.

Have you blown up only to discover your anger was based on partial or misinformation? You acted in ignorance and apologized later. Stated bluntly, ignorance made you stupid.

Three steps to solving ignorance.

#1 – Assume you are ignorant.

#2 – Embrace your ignorance by withholding judgment.

#3 – Ask the best questions.

The best questions are the ones you
think you’ve already answered.

Embracing ignorance protects leaders from stupidity.

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Can you offer other symptoms of ignorance? What techniques can you add that help solve ignorance.

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Leadership Freak

Dan Rockwell

You can receive Leadership Freak in your email. It’s free.  It’s private.  Click on the banner at the top of this page, look in the right-hand navigation bar, enter your email and click subscribe.  Your email address is always kept private.  Note:  if it doesn’t arrive, check your spam filter for a confirmation email.

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High Potential Collisions

I had lunch with a leader whose style is opposite mine. He is quiet and reserved. I tend to be energetic and outgoing. His strength’s are gentleness and compassion. Qualities I admire but don’t always display.

Seeing him, let me see myself.

Seeing him, let me see qualities I want.

The problem: Leaders tend to connect with those who possess similar qualities not opposite. For example, managers tend to hire employees with qualities like theirs. This means we tend to become narrow and myopic.

You’re richer, more effective, and able to connect with broader ranges of people by reaching out to opposites. During a vision training session I told students, “My value is seeing otherwise.” I’m not here to confirm what you know. I’m her to confront it.

Reaching out to those going where you are going only confirms your current trajectory. Reaching out to your opposite creates a high potential collision.

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Have you experienced high potential collisions with an opposite? What happened?

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Leadership Freak

Dan Rockwell

You can receive Leadership Freak in your email. It’s free.  It’s private.  Go to the main page of Leadership Freak by clicking the red banner at the top of this page, look in the right-hand navigation bar, enter your email and click subscribe.  Your email address is always kept private.  Note:  if it doesn’t arrive, check your spam filter for a confirmation email.

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Changing your vision

Ben asked, “How do I know when I should change my vision?” It’s a great question that potentially impacts everything we do.

Here’s what I think.

Values drive mission and vision. Richard, a LF reader correctly observed in the comment section of, “Into the Unknown,” that values change infrequently and never on a wholesale basis.

Since mission and vision are driven by values, I’ve made this conclusion. When your values change – change your vision.

I value generous knowledge sharing and relationship development. Currently, my greatest opportunity to express those values is by leveraging Internet technology. Leveraging a blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and E-mail are components of a vision that expresses my values.

The only thing with the power to change vision is re-vision of values.

Changing vision without changing values is like dressing a pig in a tux. He might look good for a while but not for long.

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What do you think?  When should individuals or organizations change their vision? How?

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Leadership Freak

Dan Rockwell

You can receive Leadership Freak in your email. It’s free.  It’s private.  Go to the main page of Leadership Freak by clicking the red banner at the top of this page, look in the right-hand navigation bar, enter your email and click subscribe.  Your email address is always kept private.  Note:  if it doesn’t arrive, check your spam filter for a confirmation email.

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Into the Unknown

Win a free, signed copy of “Courting your Career.” Read Shawn Grahams guest blog and see how.

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Embracing personal vision-driven goals is counter intuitive because letting go of certainty doesn’t make sense.

Vision-engineering always takes individuals into the unknown.

Vision-driven goals can’t be achieved using current methods, current resources and current skill sets. Vision goes beyond the present. Vision always goes beyond comfort. If you know how to achieve your vision-driven goals, they aren’t vision-driven.

Two truths about vision-driven goals:

#1 – You’ve never achieved them before.

#2 – You can’t achieve them now.

S.M.A.R.T goals may be achievable but vision-driven goals aren’t.

Let me illustrate. My vision-driven goals for Leadership Freak originally included 500 email subscribers in the first year and 1,000 views per day.  Those are numbers I pulled out of a hat. I thought they were unattainable. However, they became attainable so I upped the email subscriber count to 3,000 in the first year and the views per day to 2,000. Honestly, I’m still pulling numbers out of a hat. For me, they are uncomfortable numbers.

Reality check: Leadership Freak page views rapidly grew to an average of 400 to 600 per day, excluding weekends. However, over the last 6 weeks, LF page views leveled off. If I continue using current strategies I won’t achieve my vision-driven goals.  I’m in the unknown and the unachievable.  It’s exciting, challenging, uncomfortable, and motivating.

Vision-driven goals always pull you away from the known and push you into the unknown. Success depends on letting go of current strategies and embracing strategies that haven’t worked yet.

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I think vision-driven goals may apply to individuals but not organizations. Organizationally, it’s not S.M.A.R.T. to pull numbers out of a hat. What do you think? What are other qualities of vision-driven goals?

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Leadership Freak

Dan Rockwell

You can receive Leadership Freak in your email. It’s free.  It’s private.  Go to the main page of Leadership Freak by clicking the red banner at the top of this page, look in the right-hand navigation bar, enter your email and click subscribe.  Your email address is always kept private.  Note:  if it doesn’t arrive, check your spam filter for a confirmation email.

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Manage Your Message

Here’s a hearty Leadership Freak welcome to Shawn Graham today’s guest blogger. Enjoy!

Win a FREE, signed copy of, “Courting Your Career.”
Keep reading to learn how.

Shawn Graham

As an undergrad studying economics, I remember a professor telling me about “Fed Watchers”—people that hang on the Chairman of the Federal Reserve’s every word and react based on their interpretation of whether the Fed will raise or lower interest rates. Talk about pressure!  Ben Bernanke isn’t the only one who has to carefully manage his message. Whether you’re managing up, down, or sideways, you’re success depends largely on your ability to control reactions by meticulously managing your message.

Like Fed Watchers, coworkers, direct reports and your boss watch how you react as a leader. When you’re leading you’re always “on.” Small slip ups can cost you credibility that may take months to rebuild. Unless you decide to make a run for the Presidency in 2012, it’s unlikely you’ll have the resources to hire a personal “press secretary.” Luckily, there are other less costly strategies you can employ to manage our message.

Assess your audience. For example, some people process large chunks of information quickly while others prefer bite size pieces. Surprises energize some while others shut down.

Watch for reactions to your message.  Do they look confused, disinterested, or anxious?

Adapt and vary your methods to suit the audience’s learning styles and need for information. Are you providing too much detail? Not enough?

Ask for feedback. Was the information you provided helpful? Was your delivery effective?

You may be a subject matter expert or a genius at project management but that’s not enough. Effective leaders create and deliver messages that inform, direct, and motivate. Failure to manage your message could cost you credibility, a promotion, or even your job.

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Shawn Graham is Director of MBA Career Services at the University of Pittsburgh and author of Courting Your Career: Match Yourself with the Perfect Job (www.courtingyourcareer.com)

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How to win a signed copy of “Courting Your Career?”

1. You must leave a comment on this blog.  You can comment on the blog’s content, explain why you want the book, or leave everyone a bit of leadership wisdom.  Be creative.

2. Promise to tweet, Facebook, Linkedin, email or otherwise tell others about Shawn’s post.

On April 23, three Leadership Freak readers, who meet the requirements above, will be notified that Shawn is sending them a signed copy of his book.

Read my review of Shawn’s book – Read it

Purchase “Courting Your Career” on Amazon

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Leadership Freak

Dan Rockwell

You can receive Leadership Freak in your email. It’s free.  It’s private.  Go to the main page of Leadership Freak by clicking the red banner at the top of this page, look in the right-hand navigation bar, enter your email and click subscribe.  Your email address is always kept private.  Note:  if it doesn’t arrive, check your spam filter for a confirmation email.

Courting Your Career – Book Review

I began reading Shawn Graham’s book, “Courting Your Career” on a flight from Harrisburg to Chicago. Even though I’m not looking to change my career, it was good company.

It might surprise you that I’m saying a book subtitled, “Match Yourself with the Perfect Job,” was good company.  However, Shawn’s innovative use of courtship as a metaphor and framework for finding your perfect career resulted in an entertaining and enlightening read. Chapter titles include; Playing the Field, The Meet Market, and Dinner and a Movie.

In addition, Shawn seasons his book with wit and humor that draws readers along and lightens the mood. While reading about the importance of networking, you’ll come across this gem. You should be networking everywhere except, “police stations and prisons.”

“Courting Your Career” may be funny but it’s not frivolous. The night before my flight, I returned a call from a college student who asked if he should follow-up a job interview with a phone call. I told the student that I appreciate a follow up call after I interview potential instructors and suggested he do the same. The next day, somewhere over Ohio, Shawn confirmed that 82% of executives think you should follow up within two weeks.

Furthermore, I loved the sample scripts. For example, you’ll learn how to keep the door open at the end of a short conversation that didn’t go as well as you hoped. Finally, Shawn adds value by identifying a wealth of career-search-resources found outside his book.  Locating external resources completes this tool chest for career hunters.

I’m recommending “Courting Your Career” to at least two groups of readers, those searching for careers and those helping others find their “Perfect job.”

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Tomorrow, Shawn Graham is guest blogging for Leadership Freak and we’re giving away three signed copies of his book.

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What career hunting advice have you given or received that enabled you to land your “Perfect job?”

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Leadership Freak

Dan Rockwell

You can receive Leadership Freak in your email. It’s free.  It’s private.  Go to the main page of Leadership Freak by clicking the red banner at the top of this page, look in the right-hand navigation bar, enter your email and click subscribe.  Your email address is always kept private.  Note:  if it doesn’t arrive, check your spam filter for a confirmation email.