Peter Drucker: Stop Focusing on What’s Wrong

You can learn a lot about a person in a short time. That’s how I feel about my conversation with Dr. Justin Menkes, bestselling author and executive assessment expert. Our call was briefly interrupted when his car arrived – he was flying home early from Spencer Stewart offices in NYC to surprise his wife.

When I asked why he doesn’t go by Dr. Menkes, he said his family teases him about not being a “real” doctor – there are Medical Doctors in his immediate family. His comment made me imagine family banter bouncing around the dinner table.

Justin studied under the late Peter Drucker and earned his Ph.D. in organizational behavior from Claremont Graduate School.

Drucker told Dr. Menkes he focused on what’s wrong in organizations too much and not enough on what they are doing well.

Justin pushed back by saying if he went in telling them how great they were they wouldn’t need his consulting services.

Nearly 20 years later, Justin writes in Better Under Pressure that high performing CEO’s possess realistic optimism. He said it took him several years to fully appreciate what Drucker was trying to teach him.

Realistic optimism is confidence without self-delusion; the ability to pursue audacious goals while remaining cognizant of challenges.

6 Capacities of Realistic Optimists: (From Better Under Pressure)

1. See the world as it is –don’t hide your head in the sand.
2. Let the world see you for who you are. Don’t feel shame around personal failure and imperfection.
3. Be sensitive to and aware of others.
4. Reject overconfidence.
5. Enjoy self-reflection.
6. Embrace agency – confidence your experiences and outcomes are within your control.

Can you become a realistic optimist? The thing that makes the biggest difference is believing you can make a difference.

How do you cultivate realistic optimism both personally and organizationally?

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Overcoming the Six Dangers of Flip-Flopping

Lack of confidence creates foolish urgency which blocks your ability to withhold judgment, gather information, and explore options.

One cause of too much urgency:

Questions from others pressure you to decide quickly. You don’t take enough time to gather information and explore options. The end result is you end up changing your mind. There are at least six dangers when leaders flop like a fish on the dock.

Six Dangers of flip-flopping:

1. Lost credibility. You can’t lead if you aren’t trustworthy. The ability to change your mind is admirable and necessary when new information or contingencies emerge. Pig-headed leaders aren’t respected either. You’re a joke, however, when you frequently change your mind because you decided rashly.
2. Neediness. Losing credibility creates pressure to gain it back. The more you try to gain credibility the needier you seem and the less credible you are.
3. Second guessers. All leaders deal with second guessers. Flip-flopping leaders invite more second guessers.
4. More rash decisions. Second guessers make inexperienced leaders feel pressured to make more decisions which results in lost credibility, again.
5. Delay. Flip-flopping causes everyone to wait around for the next change. While they wait nothing gets done.
6. Confusion.

Solutions:

In a dynamic environment, skillfully changing your mind is necessary. Everyone understands changing because circumstances change expresses wisdom.

Train yourself, on the other hand, to make considered decisions so you don’t rashly reconsider.

Five ways to overcome flip-flopping:

1. Listen and ask questions. John Wooden said, “Go slow to go fast.”
2. Consider the impact of your decision on all parties.
3. Talk through your decisions privately before going public.
4. Stay the course unless important factors change.
5. Focus more on targets and less on methods.
6. Make minor course corrections that keep you on target.

What causes leaders to flip-flop on their decisions?

How can leaders effectively change decisions without becoming flip-floppers?

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More articles on making decisions:

Microsoft’s Chief Security Officer on Decision-Making

10 Decision-Making Power Tips from Dave Ramsey

Ten Tactics that Produce Brilliant Solutions

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10 Tactics that Produce Brilliant Solutions

Courageous leaders do more than listen to constructive dissent, they encourage it. Hot conflict not comfortable collaboration produces brilliance.

Encouraging constructive dissent:

1. Don’t answer first. Tell people you expect hard truths and practical answer. Don’t settle for yes.
2. Share all the information. You discourage feedback when you toss out information you withheld that invalidates what someone just said.
3. Embrace and honor great feedback. Say, “I hadn’t expected that answer; what are you basing it on.” Push back without pushing away.
4. Change your mind. A community leader once told me they never led a meeting they didn’t already knowing the outcome. I started avoiding their meetings. Does it surprise you they didn’t enjoy rich feedback? Once people realize you don’t really care what they think, they stop telling you what they really think.
5. Ask tough questions. One of the saddest things I’ve seen leaders do is listen to bull crap. Exposing smoke-blowers motivates people to prepare for meetings and discussions.
6. Terminate drifters and butt kissers. They just take up space and drain vitality from real workers. Spend time with honest hard thinkers.
7. Publicly honor constructive dissenters. When constructive dissent ends up rejected, honor the person. Disagree without being disagreeable.
8. Focus on solutions not people. Balance #6 with #7.
9. Assign groups to defend positions regardless of their personal point of view. Tell the people to your right they are defending option “A” and the ones on your left are defending option “B”.
10. Make decisions.  Vigorous discussions without decisions demoralize. Great people want to participate and they want responsible decisions that establish clear direction.

Bonus: Get the creative dissent ball rolling by planting a dissenter who publically dissents.

How do you encourage constructive dissent?

What dangers are associated with encouraging constructive dissent?

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Other practical posts on decision making:

Microsoft’s Chief Security Officer on Decision-Making

10 Decision-Making Power Tips from Dave Ramsey

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10 Decision-Making Power Tips from Dave Ramsey

I’m convinced that indecision along with poor decision-making is the reason organizations and individuals languish and fail.

Dave Ramsey

I was Dave Ramsey’s guest at a one day EntreLeadership Seminar in Nashville, Tennessee when I heard him say, “Your business, ideas, and team are paralyzed by an indecisive leader. Indecision is caused by one thing: fear.”

Dave said, “Fear will get you killed; think of the indecisive squirrel in the road who becomes road kill.”

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10 Decision-making tips I enjoyed at EntreLeadership:

1. Take time proportionate to the impact of the decision; the larger the impact of the decision the more time you take.

Before I learned better, I led teams that wasted time on low-impact decisions while high-impact decisions were delayed. Placing low-impact items at the top of a meeting agenda so that you can quickly get over them is a golden opportunity to waste time on insignificant items.

1. Procrastination can be avoided by setting a self-imposed deadline, or by recognizing the reality of an actual deadline.
2. Write the deadline on the calendar.
3. Gather options. 90% of making the correct decision is gathering information.
4. Train your team to bring several solutions, not just problems.
5. Options and walking through worst-case scenarios can virtually eliminate fear.
6. What do your guiding values tell you about this issue?
7. Is there a way to minimize risk by making each part of the decision bite-size?
8. Ask experts – someone who has done it lately.
9. Ask your spouse.

Bonus: Write yourself a letter or report describing the problem, the solution, and the timeline.

Someone said, ““It’s better to be boldly decisive and risk being wrong than to agonize at length and be right too late.”

What decision-making techniques help you pull the trigger?

Which decision-making tip most helps you?

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Related: Gather information by encouraging constructive dissent. “Microsoft’s Chief Security Officer on Decision Making“

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Top 25 Dumb Mistakes Leaders Make

Yesterday I asked the Leadership Freak Coffee Shop on Facebook: “What’s the dumbest thing you’ve seen a leader do?”

This morning while going for coffee with a local business owner, I ran into a friend and asked them the same question. In a short time they easily listed three dumb things. It got me thinking about mistakes leaders make so I wrote down my own list for your perusal.

After reviewing the list, let me know what you think the top three mistakes are. Feel free to add your own dumb mistakes to my list of twenty-five.

1. Creating complexity.
2. Losing sight of vision while focusing on details.
3. Using the same relational-methods with all employees.
4. Assuming people know what they’re thinking.
5. Giving conclusions without explaining thought processes.
6. Interrupting.
7. Relying too heavily on email for communication.
8. Blaming.
9. Lying.
10. Listening to critics that don’t share organizational values.
11. Talking while in the heat of emotion.
12. Creating urgency and then not following through.
13. Focusing on problems rather than solutions.
14. Hiding in the office.
15. Wasting time in unfocused meetings.
16. Intimidating.
17. Not managing others emotional energy.
18. Neglecting their energy.
19. Postponing tough conversations.
20. Paranoia.
21. Partiality.
22. Not providing timely feedback.
23. Preaching teamwork while rewarding individual performance.
24. Focusing on low performers while neglecting high performers.
25. Tolerating behaviors that create office drama.

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Five Proven Steps to Tomorrow’s Win

“Bold moves in the second and third quarter of your tenure tend to accelerate your career,” Pam Fox Rollin for newly promoted leaders.

Short-term wins are like fireworks they’re breath-taking but fade quickly. You need long-term wins too.

Plan next year’s win today.

1. Plans identify resources and control budgets.
2. Plans clarify staff development. Something’s wrong if you aren’t enabling people today to meet tomorrow’s challenges.
3. Plans require timelines and timelines ignite urgency. Nothing gets done without urgency.

Be bold.

“If you want a mediocre career play it safe at every turn. If you want to gain the resources to accomplish more and more, you must take risks,” from 42 Rules for your new Leadership Role.

For the newly promoted, the first quarter is too soon to be bold; by the fourth quarter you’re a ho-hum leader. The boldness sweet-spot is the second and third quarter of your new position.

Make your own decisions.

Other executives want you to adopt their causes. Your staff and team want you to make decisions with them in mind. There is a place for both. But, you lose your future when others make your decisions.

Leverage true change points.

Short-sighted leader fix problems. Look in the shadows for causes. Systematically find opportunities to improve processes. Fixing problems is good; improving processes is great.

Build surprising relationship.

Be nice to the CEO’s gate-keeper and other support staff. Perhaps the person in accounting can uncover a pocket of discretionary spending.

A Senior Technology Executive said, “The higher you go in an organization the more people want you to fail. Best antidote: Become known as a powerful ally as well as a high performer,” Pam Fox Rollin.

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This post is an adaptation of Rule 18: Plant Seeds for Future Wins, in Pam Fox Rollin’s concise, smart book, “42 Rules for your new Leadership Role.”

The things that make you exceptional hinder your success if they block connections. – From my interview with Pam: 9 Questions that Create Connections.

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How can leaders build future wins while facing today’s challenges?

 

How to Refuel Your Own Tank

Busy people grow empty and eventually lose touch with the meaning of their busyness. Being coached may be a way for you to refuel your tank.

Last week I had my first coaching session with Bob Hancox from Tekara. To be clear, he coached me, I didn’t coach him. A few days before our appointment he sent some questionnaires to help me uncover topics I might want to discuss.

Shifting gears:

I love listening; I’m naturally curious. The higher up you go in your organization the more you’ll listen. I had to shift gears when Bob listened to me. He asked me questions that invited me to explore my own thoughts and feelings on the topic of relationship building.

Energy:

It’s energizing when a disinterested party shows interest. By disinterested, I mean someone without an agenda. Most conversations have agenda’s. We’re seeking agreement, gathering information, or making decisions. That’s as it should be. Leaders work to get things done.

I found it energizing to take time to think my own thoughts.

Encouragement:

You need to refuel your tank, to manage your own energy. You may find it useful to find a disinterested party to help you think your own thoughts.

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How do you practice self-reflection?

How do you refuel your tank?

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15 Techniques That Build Loyal Followers

Surround yourself with people who will walk through hell with you.

Lost loyalty:

“I used to love my job, they said, but not anymore.”

“What happened,” I asked?

“The old boss left. I’d do anything for the old boss. Now, I’m just putting in my time.”

You earn it:

Loyalty is always earned, it is never a gift. You can, in addition, invite loyalty but you can’t demand it.

How to earn loyalty:

1. Enable other’s success.
2. Leverage other’s strengths.
3. Improve other’s performance.
4. Adopt high standards.
5. Correct and discipline.
6. Answer public challenges publicly.
7. Give meaning to tasks.
8. Stand behind people when they screw up.
9. Admit when you are wrong.
10. Be emotionally steady.
11. Clearly describe what you want.
12. Model behaviors you expect.
13. Share the spotlight.
14. Don’t be a buddy.
15. Make it easy to get things done.

Bonus: Believe you deserve loyalty.

People want to be loyal to a person, cause, or organization that deserves loyalty. Expressing loyalty is a noble act that enhances our feelings of worth and gives meaning to life.

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What invites loyalty?

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Moving from Operations to HR Helped Microsoft’s Chief Security Officer’s Career Path

The term “best” is best understood in context. When I asked Mike Howard to talk about the best things he’s done, it was in the context of choices that best helped his career path.

First, the Chief Security Officer for Microsoft said, “getting involved in Martial Arts was a good choice. It taught me discipline and provided a cultural connection because my mom is Japanese.”

Second, “Becoming a Police Officer was a good decision,” Read about the value of Mike’s police experience, “Microsoft’s CSO on Decision Making.”

Pushing Papers?

Third, Mike explained, “Moving to Human Resources was a great decision for my career.”

After seven years in operations at CIA, Mike said he took a break and moved to HR for a non-traditional rotational assignment away from Operations. He later returned to Operations.

We were on the phone so I felt safe to say what I was thinking. “So you moved from Operations to pushing papers?” I went on to say, “Up until HR, your story is a story of action. I don’t understand.”

Mike said that his friends within CIA didn’t understand either. They warned him that moving to HR would slow his career.

Moving to HR and other areas within CIA did not hinder Mike’s career path – it helped. “It expanded my skill sets, Mike explained, and broadened my perspective. It was a most rewarding experience.” For one thing, he learned about mentoring; something he’s still active in today.

Analysis:

Discipline from marital arts lifted Mike. Furthermore, it connected him with his culture and, in my opinion, at 14 years old, it gave him a point of identity.

Decision making ability was useful.

Diversity of perspective and skill sets aided Mike’s career path and opened doors of opportunity.

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Thanks to Mike Howard for a great interview. I’m glad we connected.

Part 1: Microsoft’s CSO on Decision Making – Three suggestions for making great decisions.

Part 2: The Leadership Secret – What it takes to become a leader.

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What choices have you made that enhanced your career path?

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The Leadership Secret

I love asking leaders to talk about tipping points in their lives – when their leadership trajectory started or shifted.

Mike Howard’s leadership course found clarity when his manager at CIA took an interested in him. His story is like many others. Someone believed in him and life shifted.

While Mike talked, I thought about the opportunity you and I have to lift others on their leadership journey.  Your greatest opportunity isn’t products or projects its people. People change people.

“What did your manager, I asked, see in you?”

Mike listed three career enhancing qualities that create opportunities.

1. Hard work.
2. Step up.
3. Ability.

Mike’s three part formula for success is; enhance your abilities, take on challenges, and work hard. But there’s something more.

The Essential Shift

There is a fourth necessary component in the puzzle of leadership: Individual contributors believe in themselves; leaders believe in others.

During our conversation, the Chief Security Officer for Microsoft, said, “Individual contributors have the right to promote themselves and their career. Leaders, however, shift from more selfish to more selfless. Leaders promote others.”

Mike added, “The success of the troops leads to the success of the leader.”

Military metaphors are easy for Mike. He love’s reading biographies of great leaders. When he let Churchill’s name slip out, I resisted the temptation to start talking about one of my favorite historical characters…

Secret Ingredient

Stepping up, working hard, and enhancing your abilities won’t make you a leader.

There’s a secret ingredient in the soup; something that moves you from an individual contributor to a leader. Shift from more selfish to more selfless by believing in others.

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Microsoft’s CSO on Decision Making – Part one of my conversation with Mike Howard. Yesterday Mike responded to some of your comments.

How Pushing Papers Helped Microsoft’s CSO – Choices that enhance careers.

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How can you pour from your cup into another’s, today? Help us by being as specific as you can.

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