A Conversation Regarding the Character, Skills, and …...i LEADERSHIP FOUNDATIONS: A Conversation...

i

LEADERSHIP FOUNDATIONS:

A Conversation Regarding the Character,

Skills, and Actions for Leaders

Authors:

Olin O. Oedekoven, Deborah K. Robbins,

John Lavrenz, Howard A. Dillon, Jr., and

Rodney Warne

Version 2015

ii

Oedekoven, O. O., D. K. Robbins, J. Lavrenz, H. A. Dillon, Jr., &

R. Warne. (2015). Leadership Foundations: A

Conversation Regarding the Character, Skills, and Actions

for Leaders. Gillette, Wyoming: Peregrine Leadership

Institute.

ISBN: 978-0-9908279-2-4 (Hardcover Edition)

LEADERSHIP FOUNDATIONS: A CONVERSATION

REGARDING THE CHARACTER, SKILLS, AND ACTIONS FOR

LEADERS. Copyright © 2015 by the Peregrine Leadership

Institute, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be

used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written

permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in

critical articles and reviews. For information, address Peregrine

Leadership Institute, P.O. Box 741, Gillette, WY 82717.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Mentoring Moments ....................................................................... iv

Acknowledgements .................................................................................. vi

Forward .................................................................................................... ix

Understanding Our Mentoring Moments .................................................. xi

Part I: The Character of the Leader .......................................................... 1

CHAPTER 1. LEADERSHIP DEFINED ............................................... 2

CHAPTER 2. VALUES OF LEADERS .............................................. 24

CHAPTER 3. THE ATTRIBUTES OF LEADERS .............................. 37

CHAPTER 4. BEING A ROLE MODEL ............................................. 50

Part II: The Skills of the Leader ............................................................... 67

CHAPTER 5. CREATING THE VISION ............................................ 68

CHAPTER 6. UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN DIMENSION ......... 73

CHAPTER 7. COMMUNICATIONS ................................................... 90

CHAPTER 8. TIME MANAGEMENT ............................................... 108

Part III: The Actions of the Leader ........................................................ 132

CHAPTER 9. SUPERVISING .......................................................... 133

CHAPTER 10. COUNSELING .......................................................... 161

CHAPTER 11. ETHICAL REASONING ............................................ 175

CHAPTER 12. COACHING AND MENTORING ............................... 187

CHAPTER 13. LEADING CHANGE .................................................. 207

CHAPTER 14. DECISION-MAKING ................................................. 227

CHAPTER 15. WORKPLACE CONFLICT ........................................ 240

CHAPTER 16. MAINTAINING STANDARDS ................................... 258

CHAPTER 17. ASSESSING ............................................................. 279

CHAPTER 18. LEADING YOUR TEAM ............................................ 297

CHAPTER 19. THE ENDURING LEADERSHIP LEGACY ............... 315

Final Thoughts ...................................................................................... 324

REFERENCES AND SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................. 327

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHORS ............................................ 332

TOPIC INDEX ....................................................................................... 341

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List of Mentoring Moments

Chapter Mentoring Moment Author Page

1 A Personal Definition of Leadership Oedekoven 5

1 What Is a Good Leader? Warne

1 Leadership and Supervision Oedekoven

1 Leader: Take Care of Yourself Too! Warne

2 Ends vs. Means Oedekoven

2 Broaden Your Perspective Warne

2 Growing Leaders Dillon

3 Applying the Value of Diversity Oedekoven

3 Setting the Example Dillon

3 Choosing the Harder Right Lavrenz

3 Influences on the Leader Warne

4 Leadership Choices Warne

4 Abuse of Authority Dillon

4 The Visual Must Match the Audio Oedekoven

4 Playing Favorites Lavrenz

4 Giving is a Way to Receive Warne

5 The Leader’s Attitude Dillon

5 A Leader’s Vision Oedekoven

5 Training and Vision Warne

6 Motivating Leadership Oedekoven

6 Getting Others to Do More Dillon

6 A Multi-Generational Fire Department

Warne

6 Understanding our Biases Robbins

6 Take Care of Your People Lavrenz

7 The Rule of Threes Oedekoven

7 Them vs. Us Warne

7 Understanding Your Team Members Lavrenz

8 Prioritization based on ROI Oedekoven

8 Good Enough Robbins

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9 My Best Supervisor Oedekoven

9 The Rule of Thirds Dillon

9 Supervising for the Future Lavrenz

9 Maybe the Problem is Me Lavrenz

10 If You Don’t Counsel, You Don’t Care

Oedekoven

11 Service Before Self Oedekoven

11 The Right Choice at the Right Time Oedekoven

12 Coaching and Mentoring from Peers Oedekoven

13 Army Guard Transformation Oedekoven

13 How Not To Announce a Layoff Lavrenz

13 Responding After 9/11 Dillon

13 Change Leadership with Acquisitions

Robbins

14 Leveraging Talent for Applied Decision-Making

Oedekoven

14 Financial Planning at Age 10 Lavrenz

15 The Past is the Past Lavrenz

16 My Personal Blind Side Oedekoven

16 Explaining Standards Robbins

17 Spotting Performance Mismatches Robbins

17 An Assessment Guru Oedekoven

18 The Pilger Nebraska Tornado Oedekoven

18 The Team Leader’s Influence Robbins

18 Leading a Diverse Team Oedekoven

19 Touching Your Team Robbins

19 Building the Bench Oedekoven

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Acknowledgements

As we look back on our long and often arduous

leadership journeys, recalling those mentoring moments of

our lives forever etched within us, we would not be where we

are today without our families. Thanks to each of you for

giving us life and showing us the way, instilling within us

values and ethics, the bedrock of knowledge, that we used

to write this book.

Thanks also to our friends, mentors, and peers for

never turning away. When we stumbled, when we let out

moans of desperation and dismay, wondering if there really

was an end, you never left our side. You taught us the

importance of loyalty, trust, and confidence. No matter the

situation at hand, the consequences that took us to that

moment in time, you never left our sides and became our

comfort blanket of hope.

A special thank you goes to Clifford A. Knesel, Jr.

Cliff, along with Olin Oedekoven, co-founded the Peregrine

Leadership Institute in 2004. It was Cliff’s vision that inspired

all of us to focus on applied leadership and to structure our

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workshops, seminars, and training sessions in ways that

promoted values-based leadership with an emphasis on how

to lead in the workplace, the BE (values), KNOW (skills), DO

(actions) concept.

Finally, a very special acknowledgement goes out to

all of our workshop participants during the past 11 years.

The leaders in our workshops have added to our

understanding of leadership principles, and we thank you for

that help to bring this book into reality. While there are many

leaders and mentors we still turn to, the leaders in our

workshops motivate us to learn more. You listen and then

question, you challenge us for more, and then you rise to the

occasion. It is important to note we are only the leaders in

the sense that we control the thermostat and the time we

break for lunch. You are the true leaders over the course of

the day, sharing what you have learned about leadership

during the discussions and guiding your own learning with

your questions, discussions, and feedback. Doing so allows

us the opportunity to step back and once again become

followers as we learn from you, and that only reinforces our

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confidence that what we have to offer really does make a

difference. That is why we wrote this book. It was the right

thing to do.

To complete these projects it takes a team, and we

are thankful to each member of TEAM PEREGRINE for your

support, feedback, encouragement, and leadership. You are

the ones who coordinated the workshops, did the needed

follow-ups, and supported all of us with logistical support.

You also challenged us with your questions and comments –

thank you for making us better so that together, we all make

a difference.

A very special thank you goes to Lois Hankins and

Donna Robbins for what must have seemed like endless

reviews and edits in the development of the Leadership

Foundations and Mentoring Moments manuscripts.

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Forward

We chose the name of this book, Leadership

Foundations, because this title is also the name of the first

leadership development workshop we do with our client

organizations and open-enrollment participants. The term,

Leadership Foundations, comes from a belief that before

one can build anything of consequence, one must have a

proper foundation. We believe that the same is true in

leadership. To build great leaders, we first have to establish

a solid foundation.

At Peregrine Leadership Institute, we believe that the

most important foundation of leadership is character - who

the leader really is when no one is looking. The leader’s

character is based on personal values, leadership values,

and organizational values (and hopefully these are all

aligned). There are generally two types of leaders in our

world: weathervane leaders and compass-based leaders.

Weathervane leaders just go with the flow, changing their

direction as the winds of public opinion change. Compass-

based leaders, on the other hand, demonstrate a clear

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purpose and maintain their course to achieve that purpose

regardless of the changing moods, opinions, and pressures

of others.

Our goal with this book is to promote compass-based

leaders: those who will ground their actions based upon a

solid set of core values. How one leads is a choice. Our goal

is to help you with your choices.

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Understanding Our Mentoring Moments

Throughout this book, we included personal stories

that we call mentoring moments. These mentoring moments

are some of the leadership lessons we learned from our

personal leadership journeys. We have been inspired by

those around us, including our workshop participants, our

peers, our former supervisors, our team members, our

families, and from within our communities. We are delighted

to share these with you in order to help you understand our

leadership perspective and to encourage you to reflect on

your own mentoring moments so that you can also use the

past to improve your future leadership choices.

Some of the mentoring moments are positive,

meaning the story illustrates an example of great leadership.

Others, however, are not so positive and instead, illustrate

what happens when there is a leadership mistake. Our goal,

however, is to show both the upside and downside of the

human dimension of leadership. We know that we learn

more from our mistakes than our successes. We also

remember longer those painful lessons learned from our

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failures. We hope that by sharing examples of our leadership

successes and failures we will encourage you on your

leadership journey.

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Part I: The Character of the Leader

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CHAPTER 1. LEADERSHIP DEFINED

Leadership is the art of exemplifying your core values,

knowing your essential skills, and fundamentally

leading with clarity of action that positively influences

others towards achieving their true potential.

A question that has been a topic of round-table

discussions for many years is what is leadership? The

answers are both diverse and numerous. Some see

leadership as being task directed, an action item requiring

influencing, facilitating, or getting someone to do something.

Others, however, take a more passive approach by

describing leadership as influence, or a natural consequence

of one’s actions.

Regardless of which side of the definitional fence you

are on, one thing is obvious: there is no one-size-fits-all

solution to the question regarding the definition of

leadership. Effective leaders apply different leadership

strategies according to the situation and the individuals

involved. How someone performs depends on the situation

and the actions required at that moment.

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We came across a definition of leadership that

includes several important concepts and principles. During

our workshop, an individual commented that leadership is

the art of leading others to create a result that would not

have happened otherwise. Other definitions of leadership

address the reality that effective leadership leads to changes

in people, and adapts to changes in situations.

What is your definition of leadership? What comes to

mind when you think of all that is involved in being an

effective leader? Take a few minutes to think about this and

perhaps jot down what leadership means to you. This is

what we will explore in this chapter, so keep your notes

handy in the event you need to edit them before the chapter

concludes.

Before we go any further, though, we want to make it

clear that we are being careful to talk about leadership and

not management. There is a definite separation of these two

concepts. When we use the word management, we are

referring to such things as processes, efficiencies, budgets,

payrolls, and organizing people and equipment. We do

4

address these in order to complete jobs effectively and

efficiently. These are an inherent part of any organization

and are all things we must do to keep the organization

running on a day-to-day basis.

Leadership, on the other hand, is concerned with the

human dimension. It is about addressing change, mentoring,

articulating a compelling vision, communicating, motivating,

and inspiring performance. It is also about dealing with

problems and stimulating change through positive conflict

while dealing aggressively with negative conflict as it occurs.

Effective leaders exercise both management and

leadership. In every organization, a leader or manager,

whatever the title may be, has to be adept in people skills.

The people skills are the soft skills, with managerial skills

referred to as the hard skills.

There are many ways to phrase the difference

between the concepts of leadership and management. One

of our favorites is from one of our leadership heroes, Grace

Murray Hopper, who was the first female Rear Admiral (2-

star) in the United States Navy. She was successful as both

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a leader and manager. We use a quote she made during a

60 Minutes interview in the early 1980s: You manage things,

but you lead people. These simple, yet powerful words

separate the two concepts quite clearly. Rear Admiral

Hopper acknowledged the importance of management and

leadership while differentiating the two distinct types of skills

involved.

INSERT MENTORING MOMENT

“A Personal Definition of Leadership”

Our conversation on leadership deals only with the

soft skills. We do not discuss the hard skills, or those

necessary managerial skills. This is because all of you come

from various backgrounds and different professions where

hard skills are unique to your profession. To try to explain

these concepts while differentiating between your unique

requirements would be cumbersome and time consuming.

The soft skills component of the leadership equation

transcends the vastness of your organizations, which makes

them pertinent to your job regardless of your profession. In

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addition, and most importantly, you do not have to be a

manager to be a leader. We do understand that many

leaders may be highly successful in their roles as CEO’s or

company presidents while other individuals without a

leadership job description may be exercising leadership so

effectively that others turn to them for direction. These

unofficial leaders have a clear understanding of the

organization’s vision and values and have led others to

successful outcomes on highly important projects – by

closely adhering to the vision and values.

Most definitions of leadership focus on essentially the

same thing - the human dimension of the workplace. Noted

leadership author and public speaker John Maxwell summed

it up with these words: Leadership is influence, nothing more

and nothing less. While we have the utmost admiration for

John Maxwell, the definition seems a little too brief. We

would clarify and qualify Maxwell’s definition by adding

Leadership is influence aimed towards the right purpose of

supporting and moving an organization’s mission and vision

forward by using legal and ethical values.

7

Another definition of leadership is the U.S. Army’s

definition of leadership. Field Manual 6-22 states:

Leadership is the process of influencing people by providing

purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to

accomplish the mission and improving the organization. This

definition is encompassing when looking at the human

dimension of leadership. It speaks to motivating and

inspiring as well as influencing. It discusses dealing with

people as well as providing purpose and direction to get the

job done effectively and efficiently, and that is what

leadership is all about.


“What is a Good Leader”

As you look back at these definitions of leadership, as

well as your own, there are several key words. To begin

with, leadership is the process of influencing others. How

do you influence people? How do you motivate people to do

what you want them to do? The answer is through effective

communications. Effective leaders have to be skilled in

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written, verbal, and non-verbal communications. You need

all three skills to get people to understand what you want

them to do and to involve them in the decision making

process. More importantly, you need to listen. You need to

solicit their input. It is a proven fact that some of the most

successful projects were a direct result of allowing people to

provide input into the project, from beginning to end.

Success is achieved by listening to what others have to say.

In order to get people willingly to do what you want

them to do, you have to set the example yourself. If you

want people to behave in a certain way, you must model that

behavior to them. The old expression “do as I say, not as I

do” does not work when striving for leadership effectiveness.

People will do as you do, not necessarily as you say. You

need to demonstrate what right behavior looks like. You

have to demonstrate the skills you are trying to bring out in

them. People will emulate whatever behavior, good or bad,

that you yourself model in the workplace. Never

underestimate that value when setting the leadership tone

for your team.

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Another key leadership term is to understand and

agree, which means to give them the reasons for what you

want them to do and then to get their support for it. You

develop understanding and agreement by communicating

the goals, the bigger picture, the organizational vision,

mission, and values to them. Usually, people will generally

do whatever you want them to do as long as they know ‘why’

they are doing it. You have to give them the why piece. Why

are they asked to do it? Why is it important to you? Why

should it be important to them?

Another term in our definition of leadership is done

effectively. This means to accomplish what you want to

accomplish and the way you want to accomplish it. How do

leaders develop effectiveness in the workplace?

Fundamentally, it begins by setting and maintaining

standards and then modeling them. Standards include

standards of performance, standards of quality, and other

essential standards. You then have to maintain those

standards in the workplace. You teach, coach, and mentor

for positive performance. If others do not know something,

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you teach it to them. If a team member kind of knows

something, but you believe they can do it better, you coach

him or her. If you think the person is ready for that next level

of responsibility and authority, you start mentoring and

preparing him or her for advancement and career building

opportunities.

Leadership also involves facilitating individual and

collective efforts. This means developing people’s interest,

will, and desire. One of the quickest and easiest ways to

facilitate effort and pique the interest of team members is to

give them a challenge. Spoon-feeding every task to your

team will probably get you only a spoon-fed response.

However, if you give people a challenge and the flexibility

and authority to figure out solutions, you will be surprised at

what you get in return. If their solution is successful, and this

is a very important point to remember, praise them for a job

well done and let them know how much you appreciate their

efforts. Whenever possible, praise in public. If someone

does not succeed, take the time to teach, coach, mentor,

and counsel him or her on how to do it better next time.

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Never use employee development as a way to

reprimand or punish because your intent is to build them up

and help them improve, not to tear them down and make

them fearful to step out on their own again. It should be a

means of positive reinforcement, a way to let people know

that you still have confidence in them, that you believe that

they will be successful the next time. People are receptive to

that type of response.

On another note, never set your team up for failure by

giving them a task to do for which they may have inadequate

or insufficient resources. Employees do not like to fail. If you

assign them a task and limit the resources available to them,

and they do fail, not only have you let them down, you fail as

a leader. Employees will feel bad about their lack of success,

their will and desire to do more will diminish, and you will

have a harder time motivating them the next time around.

Make sure that you always set your team up for success by

giving them the necessary tools for the job.

The final point on leadership has to do with achieving

shared objectives: the goals, objectives, and vision of the

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organization. To develop an adequate understanding of

these shared objectives, you must let people know what is

going on, why, and how they are doing. Provide timely praise

and feedback. You achieve shared objectives by thoroughly

planning and preparing for the work, which means that you,

as a leader, have to do your homework first. You must

clearly identify what those objectives are in your own mind

so you can communicate them to your team and involve

them in the planning and preparing stages, if possible.

Having the team in on all stages will give you and the team a

better chance for success because they will feel they had a

say in the process from the onset and that they were not

brought in after the fact to do all of the work.

At the end of the project, you must assess how things

went. We will talk about this more in depth later, but

assessing your results is critical for leadership effectiveness.

You do this by asking four basic questions.

1. What were we supposed to do?

2. What did we do?

3. What should we sustain?

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4. What should we improve?

Ask everyone involved in the project for his or her

input and do not forget to provide your own. All too often, we

go from one task to another without ever taking the time to

assess what we have already accomplished. Much of what

we do within organizations involves repetitive work and if we

never look back at how much we have accomplished so far,

how will we ever improve or get better?

As we mentioned at the beginning of this chapter,

leadership has been a topic of discussion on which a

multitude of authors have burned the midnight oil writing

about for thousands of years. In fact, your local bookstore

more than likely has shelves lined with books written by and

about many of the world’s greatest leaders. From these

books, we can study and learn just what made these people

successful leaders. Some of our favorite quotes we use

frequently in our leadership workshops come from Colleen

Barrett, former president of Southwest Airlines. One of her

famous lines is to Hire for Attitude, Train for Skills. Think

about what that means to you and your organization today,

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the impact that may have on you when your mindset is that

you just need to get someone who can do the job. Hire for

attitude and train for skills contradicts the traditional strategy

and suggests that you hire people first based on attitude

(values) and then train them later for the jobs you want them

to do. Where is the practicality in that? How will that help

with work shortages? All too often, we make the fundamental

mistake of assuming that skills and longevity prevail. We

incorrectly assume that an internal job applicant who has

worked in a position for most of their career or an external

candidate with extensive job related experience will make a

good leader.

Measuring attitude, while difficult, can be done.

Colleen Barrett would argue that doing so is the right thing to

do when it comes to filling vacant positions. Think about it.

When was the last time you had to fire somebody due to

incompetence? It does occur, but rarely. Conversely, when

was the last time you had to fire someone due to a bad

attitude or workplace relationships? The latter occurs much

15

more often, which lends merit to her argument of hire for

attitude, train for skills.

Another one of Colleen Barrett’s quotes that people

tend to disagree with but which makes perfect sense after

looking at it from the context in which she is implying is,

Employees first, Customers second. This, to some, is just

fundamentally wrong. We learned early in life that customers

are always right. After all, customers are why and how we

exist. Without them, we would never be able to stay afloat, to

pay our bills, or even to pay our employees. However, if you

take a long, hard look at this statement, while simultaneously

paralleling the importance of valuing your employees, the

customer is always the customer makes better sense then

always putting a customer’s needs in front of your

employee’s needs with the customer always being right.

From that standpoint, the people delivering customer service

in your organization are your employees. If your team is

properly led, motivated, and inspired to do the right thing,

customer service will come because your employees are

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satisfied. Employee satisfaction will drive good performance

and great customer service.

Another interesting and often debated perspective

concerning leadership comes from Warren Bennis, a

University of Southern California management educator and

consultant who wrote that, the most dangerous leadership

myth is that leaders are born, that there is some genetic

factor to leadership. This myth, according to Dr. Bennis,

asserts that people either have certain charismatic qualities

or not. To him, that is nonsense and the opposite is true:

leaders are made rather than born. We are not sure we

agree totally with Bennis’ line of reasoning, however. We

tend to believe that some people’s leadership skills do come

naturally to them. Perhaps that is based on their personality

type, background, upbringing, or their relationship with

others. Regardless, one thing is certain about leadership

development - you do not just wake up one morning and

declare I am a leader. Leadership skills are developed over

time, through trial and error. Practice does make perfect

when it comes to developing leadership skills. Hence, we tell

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people that leadership is a lifelong trip in which the journey

never really ends.


“Leadership and Supervision”

We would be remiss in our discussion of the definition

if we did not introduce one of our guiding concepts into this

discussion: The Eight Universal Laws of Leadership. We

focus on these laws throughout our leadership workshops

and seminars. It is these laws that also help guide and

shape our personal approaches to leadership.

The Eight Universal Laws of Leadership were

developed by William A. Cohen and first published in his

book, The Stuff of Heroes: The Eight Universal Laws of

Leadership. Dr. Cohen is a retired Air Force general and

leadership professor. His laws have contributed greatly to

our personal understanding of leadership and we use them

regularly in our leadership workshops and seminars. We

believe that these laws are a great way to understand

values-based leadership. The laws summarize how each of

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us has thought and learned about leadership over our

careers. We do not intend to re-do Dr. Cohen’s work, rather

we want to provide a brief summary of the laws since these

laws help set the stage for our conversation on leadership

included throughout the remaining chapters.

1. Maintain Absolute Integrity: Keep your word,

choose the harder right over the easier wrong, guard

your principles, and do the right things.

Leaders maintain absolute integrity by:

Treating others fairly and consistently, all the

time

Leading in private as he or she leads in public

Communicating openly and honestly

Following through on commitments

Saying what they mean and mean what they

say

Giving away respect to others instead of

assuming it has to be earned first

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2. Know Your Stuff: Know your people, learn from the

bottom up, learn from every experience, learn from all

team members, and never stop learning.

Leaders know their stuff by:

Valuing and leveraging the diversity of others

Making learning a lifelong pursuit

Engaging others in decisions and planning

Using after action reviews for continuous

improvement

3. Declare Your Expectations: Make your expectations

clear and compelling. Promote and be faithful to your

expectations. Develop and implement your plan, listen

to feedback, and adjust your strategy as required.

Leaders declare expectations by:

Publishing goals, objectives, and strategies so

that others can help hold the leader

accountable

Explaining the why behind work-related

requests

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Empowering others by providing knowledge,

authority, and resources to act without fear of

retribution

4. Show Uncommon Commitment: Meet your

followers face-to-face. Make a public commitment and

accept the risk that goes with that commitment.

Continue even when the going gets rough and think

outside the box when the situation appears

impossible.

Leaders show uncommon commitment by:

Taking the initiative

Supporting others with their pursuits

Helping out where needed, even with the less

desirable tasks

Demonstrating courage by making the hard

choices

5. Expect Positive Results: Develop self-confidence,

become a positive thinker, visualize the results you

want to achieve, and maintain your enthusiasm

through your life in the organization.

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Leaders expect positive results by:

Encouraging others through positive

expectations

Showing confidence with decision-making, but

being willing to adjust strategies should the

decision prove to be unwise

6. Take Care of Your People: Be the leader when

things go wrong. Give employee needs priority, really

care about your subordinates, and assume

responsibility for your employees. Publicly support

their accomplishments and share in the gain of the

organization with all members.

Leaders take care of their people by:

Maintaining a safe work environment

Sharing success fairly and consistently

Building positive, supporting, and encouraging

relationships

7. Duty Before Self: Focus on the mission, rejoice in

the success of others, consider yourself last, share

the gain, and demonstrate high moral courage.

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Leaders place duty before self by:

Taking responsibility when things do not go

well

Recognizing that personal success only

comes from the successes of the team

Choosing courses of action that are in the best

interests of the organization even when those

courses of actions have personal

consequences

8. Get Out in Front: Go where the action is, set the

example, and be willing to do any work required by

the employees. Take charge of the operation and be

an upfront leader.

Leaders get out in front by:

Leading others as you want to be lead

Being willing to assist as needed with the

difficult assignments

Matching what you do with what you say

These laws capture much of what we will discuss in

this book based upon the character of the leader (Part I), the

23

skills of the leader (Part II), and the actions of the leader

(Part III). We encourage you to keep these laws in mind as

we move forward with our conversation on leadership.


“Leader: Take Care Of Yourself Too!”

To summarize, return to your notes and reflect back

on your original definition of leadership. Has it changed now

that you have had the chance to compare what leadership

means with the thoughts of others? We hope that some of

the key words in your definitions include words and concepts

centered on: do the right thing, take care of people, values-

based, communicate effectively, and maintain enthusiasm.

Leadership is about creating change. It is not an

exercise in status quo nor is leadership designed to create

equilibrium. Instead, leadership is a commitment to making a

difference in the lives of people, in the organizations, in our

communities, and throughout the world.

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CHAPTER 2. VALUES OF LEADERS

Values are those core beliefs and ideals that clearly and

distinctly define the character of the leader and how the

leader interacts with others.

As previously discussed, leadership is more than just

leading. There must be a fundamental reason or purpose for

doing what you are trying to do. This goal, rooted in the

values and attributes of leadership, forms the foundation

from which the leader’s skills and actions will then flow. This

foundation, often referred to as leader’s character, includes

everyone’s deeply entrenched beliefs and is the basis for our

most important decisions, whether business related or not.

Values represent the invisible line we absolutely must not

cross; the test is when someone asks us to do something

that our inner instincts tell us is not the right thing to do.

Values are ingrained in us early in our lives and are

the core beliefs that give us purpose and direction in

everything that we do. Stephen Covey, famed American

author and consultant on leadership, promulgates the

degree of importance these values reflect in our lives. Covey

25

maintains that leadership is the process of keeping your

vision and values before you and aligning your life to be

congruent with them. Values truly are that important and

every leader must possess and demonstrate the seven

essential core leadership values.

1. Integrity

To us, this is the most important fundamental value of

all and is what employers look for when hiring new people.

People who have integrity demonstrate the personal courage

necessary to support their leadership and the organization’s

values. Integrity means exemplifying those values at all

times, to treat others fairly and consistently, and to choose

the harder right over the easier wrong. The choice is doing

the right things, not just doing things right. George Patton,

United States Army General, once said that great leaders

have integrity and skill, and if you must be without one, be

without the latter because you can learn skills.

If you lose your integrity, you lose your effectiveness

as a leader. Think back to your own career. Have you ever

worked for someone who violated these basic tenets of

26

honor and trust with you or others? When that occurred,

what was the impact on your working relationship with that

person? Were things strained, tense, or suspicious? Think

about it from the perspective of your own team. How hard

would it be to rebuild a relationship with them if a lack of trust

were to occur?

What if the violator was a team member instead of the

leader? An example of this came up in a recent workshop

we were facilitating. A participant described a situation at

work where a team member, not the leader, was the one

who compromised his own trustworthiness. The workshop

participant described the impact of the extra burden of

responsibility on the team because the leader could no

longer count on that individual team member to do the right

thing. People who demonstrate integrity draw people to them

because they are considered to be dependable and

trustworthy. Leaders who fail to adhere to the integrity

principal diminish the trustworthiness others have in them.

This loss of integrity could take a lifetime to reestablish.


27

“Ends vs. Means”

2. Honesty

Honesty ties directly to integrity. When you are

honest, you also demonstrate all of the attributes of integrity.

You say what you mean and mean what you say. You not

only tell the truth, you live it as well, in thought, word, and

deed. You do not do things that are ethically or morally

wrong. Think about your personal life. Do you always come

to a complete stop at a red light? Do you consistently put in

a full day’s work? Do you sometimes tell little white lies

because you are too busy to explain why things should be

done differently? If so, then you are not being honest. You

are compromising your character and the confidence people

have in you.

Honesty also plays a large part in communications. It

goes beyond telling people what is happening or keeping

them in the loop. Honest means telling someone when

something did not go right or that you made a mistake.

Trying to cover things up or not presenting all the facts is not

being honest. This is especially true when communicating

28

with others during performance reviews. Think about a

recent performance review you either received or had to

give. How did it go? If dealing with an underachiever or less

than stellar employee, did you give him or her honest

feedback specific to their performance? Alternatively, did you

gloss over things in an effort to avoid confrontation or avoid

having to follow up with them later? As leaders, you must be

upfront with your employees and give them the news even if

the news is unpleasant. If you do not, if you withhold or

misrepresent information to them, you misrepresent the truth

and are not being honest.

On a final note, honesty does not mean that you have

to tell everyone everything. Information such as personnel

records, top-level financial records, and even organizational

trade secrets, is classified information and should never be

available to the general workforce. You must hold this

information in strict confidence. You can only share it with a

small group of people who have limited access. If you

encounter situations where people ask you to share

confidential information with them, it is proper to tell them no.

29

Tell them it is classified or confidential and you are not at

liberty to share it with them. You are being honest and it

protects the information and your integrity as well.

3. Loyalty

When you are loyal, you are faithful to the person,

place, or thing. Being loyal means holding true to your

values, your team, the organization, or even a custom or

tradition. Loyalty is demonstrated by showing unwavering

and steadfast support toward someone or something.

Actually, you may have already encountered loyalty and did

not realize it. Perhaps you purchased a new vehicle

(possibly from the same dealer) and when you are about to

sign on the dotted line, you notice a price difference between

what you agreed to with the salesperson and what is actually

on contract. When you ask about it, the finance manager

informs you that you received a $3,000 customer loyalty

rebate because it was the second car you bought from that

particular auto manufacturer. In other words, the dealership

rewarded you for your loyalty. Another example would be

your support of your local sports team. They have not won a

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game in more than a month but you still attend every game

and show your unwavering support for them. You are loyal to

them, win lose, or draw.

Loyalty can be put to the test, especially when you

are in a leadership role or in a mentoring relationship with a

new supervisor or manager. Being loyal means supporting

them through thick or thin, through the good and bad times.

When they make a mistake, you coach them to a solution to

ensure they do not make the same mistake twice, and you

stick with them. However, what about those times when the

mistake they make involves something that is ethically or

morally wrong? What then? If you are truly loyal to them

would you continue to help them out of the situation or not?

Would you possibly go so far as to help cover things up?

Fortunately, the answer is a resounding NO. We do

agree that being loyal does mean fulfilling your obligations to

others. However, fulfilling your obligations does not include

lying and cheating. In fact, we would go so far as to say it

means the complete opposite. When you are loyal, you are

loyal not only to others, but to yourself as well. You are loyal

31

to your values. Those values include being honest, as we

already discussed. Being honest means you let people know

when they have made a mistake or when they have

accomplished good. Your loyalty to your team means always

being there when they need you, providing information and

support when they require it, as well as encouragement

when they falter.


“Broaden Your Perspective”

4. Accountability

We remember watching various newscasts and

movies about Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United

States, and one thing that always stands out was a plaque

on his desk with the inscription the buck stops here. To us,

nothing sums up the definition of accountability better than

those few words. The buck stops here, or as President

Truman used to say, a decision has to be made. This is

essential for every leader to understand. It means accepting

responsibility for your actions as well as those of your team.

32

Remember that while you can delegate authority, you can

never delegate responsibility. You as the leader are always

responsible for the successes and failures of your team.

5. Respect

Respect can be given and received. You build it over

time. As with trust, respect should be a natural occurrence,

something you bestow on others until they give you a reason

to do otherwise. When you respect someone, you hold them

to a higher level of esteem, treating them with importance

and value.

We were taught to respect others at an early age.

That included holding the door for older people, addressing

people by their titles such as Dr. and Reverend or even Mr.

and Mrs. instead of calling them by their first name. We

learned to say thank you and you are welcome, and also

standing and placing our hands over our heart when the

American flag was presented in any venue. We were told

never to interrupt others when they were speaking. In the

workplace, respect comes from treating people fairly and

consistently, as well as actively listening to concerns or new

33

ideas. When you give your team respect, they in turn will

reciprocate by doing whatever it is you need them to do.

6. Trust

Trust is the belief that someone is dependable,

honest, and that you can rely on him or her. Trust means to

be approachable, acknowledging, considerate, accepting,

and respectful towards others. You build trust within your

team through open and honest communications. Also by

showing them compassion and understanding when they

fail, knowing they will do things correctly next time. Trust is

an important part of leadership and, like respect, should be

given away until someone gives you a reason to behave

otherwise.

How many times have you heard the expression a

relationship is founded on trust? It means knowing that you

can believe in the other person to do the right thing and you

do not have to look over their shoulder 24 hours a day. Of all

the values we have discussed, trust is probably the most

critical to a leader’s ability to get the job done. Employees

must believe that you are leading them down the right path

34

and that their efforts are not in vain. If you fail them, by

breaking that bond of trust, you may never get a second

chance.


“Growing Leaders”

7. Unselfishness

Unselfishness is putting yourself last and giving credit

where credit is due. It means to give of your time to help

others with mundane tasks, to make a sincere and honest

effort to examine issues from the perspective of others. You

demonstrate unselfishness by putting the needs of others

before your own needs and you promote the interests of the

team ahead of your own interests. Leadership is not about

you, it is about the success of your team.

Where does your power come from? It comes from

those around you. It is not what you do that counts so much

as what we do together that matters. That is how we solve

problems, make a difference, and improve our organizations.

We create efficiency and effectiveness within the workplace.

35

We have heard the story repeatedly where a leader

announces a new and better way of doing things, a new best

practice that will save the company time and money, and

then takes credit for it but never acknowledging that the idea

really came from a subordinate or peer. When this occurs,

you lose the trust and respect of your employees and again,

this may take a lifetime to rebuild.

In summary, the seven cores values are values

shared by great leaders everywhere. Demonstrating these

values, living them, and demanding others to prescribe to

them are critical to the success of your own leadership.

Integrity has to come first. You must have that personal

courage to exemplify your values and the values of your

organization. You must always be honest in everything you

say and do. You treat others as they want to be treated. You

have to fulfill your obligations to your team and to your

organization. You take responsibility for your actions along

the way.

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Finally, give people the respect they deserve. When

you do, you will build that confidence within your team that

you really will do the right thing, all the time.

37

CHAPTER 3. THE ATTRIBUTES OF LEADERS

Attributes are those defining characteristics that shape

the character of a leader. Attributes serve as a basis for

decision making, instilling confidence, and building

relationships with others.

Coupled with an understanding of leadership and the

values of the leader, the attributes of leaders form the

foundations of leadership. They help shape and define the

character of leaders, serving as the basis for decision-

making and influencing judgment. Exemplifying these values

and attributes helps build relationships with others and

makes leaders effective in the workplace. Values and

attributes are the behaviors you must model and instill in

those you are trying to lead. There are seven key leadership

attributes we will look at that make leaders the most

effective.

1. Self-Discipline

Self-Discipline is the ability to maintain control over

your emotions, desires, temptations, and so forth. Self-

discipline means motivating yourself to follow through with

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what you say you will do, as well as to choose the best

course of action that will support your personal and your

organization’s goals. Self-discipline means to maintain your

enthusiasm and spirit even when the situation is difficult.

History is replete with stories of leaders who, in the face of

adversity, were able to maintain a sense of calm that, in turn,

instilled a level of confidence in others.

Controlling your emotions and temper is difficult to do.

We all want to make a difference both at work and at home.

When things do not go the way we planned, we often

become angry and frustrated. When this happens, be careful

that you do not lose control of your emotions and say or do

things that you will regret later. Do not use inappropriate

language or do inappropriate things such as attacking your

team’s self-worth. This will not only demoralize your team,

but will also set the tone for how your team perceives you as

a leader. They will be afraid to come to you with bad news of

any kind knowing that your past reactions have been to

shoot the messenger. Soon, you will not receive the

information that you need to make the critical decisions

39

necessary to your organization. One thing many of us carry

in our minds is: I can forget what you said and forget what

you did, but I will never forget how you made me feel. That is

a powerful statement and as a leader, you do not ever want

to place yourself in a situation where your effectiveness is

diminished by how you make people feel.

2. Valuing Diversity

Valuing diversity means respecting the differences in

your organization. Appreciating the value that diversity

brings to your organization, as well as being mindful and

respectful of the different generations or cultures in the

workplace is critical to your leadership. Valuing diversity also

entails understanding what is required to successfully

motivate, inspire, and lead the gender, cultural and

generational differences within the organization.

Diversity provides strength to teams and the leaders

who embrace diversity and harness its potential for growth.

Diversity is also no longer limited to such things as race,

gender and religion. Diversity includes the backgrounds,

experience, cultures, and the different generations we find in

40

our ever-broadening globalized workplace. All of these

diversity characteristics, and others, must be taken into

account.

Diversity dynamics are not without challenges.

Employees with different backgrounds will bring new insights

and perspectives to the table, which can result in positive

conflict. Diverse groups, when discussing items of

importance, can provide an organization the edge that

leaders need to outperform the competition.

Finally, valuing diversity is more than acknowledging

that we have differences in the workplace. Valuing diversity

embraces these differences and converts them to your

advantage when you actively seek a variety of perspectives.

That information can be very helpful for future decisions.


“Applying the Value of Diversity”

3. Initiative

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Initiative means taking charge or acting without

having to be told what to do. Leaders are people who seize

the initiative, looking for ways to better their organizations.

They do not sit around waiting for someone else to figure

things out. They act and encourage others to come along for

the ride, to participate in the process, and promote their own

ideas. Taking the initiative begins with the onboarding

process.

An example of initiative was modeled by a new

employee. The new employee went around introducing

himself to others the minute he walked through the door. He

did not appear to be the type to sit there waiting for others to

come and talk to him first. When the Human Resources

team started the introductions in the onboarding process, he

already knew everyone and they could skip over that part.

So what does taking the initiative look like to a

leader? After all, they are the boss already. If taking initiative

means doing something before being told what to do, how

does a boss do that? Actually, as a leader you probably take

initiative more than you could have ever imagined. You show

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initiative whenever you make a decision without having all of

the information you would like to have, or whenever you

reach out and help someone on your team who is struggling.

Taking the initiative to explain clearly new processes and

procedures to your team is a great way to take the initiative

and model this value.

4. Confidence

Confidence is having faith or trust in the reliability of a

person or process. When you have confidence in someone,

you know he or she will perform and he or she will get the

job completed. When you have confidence in yourself, you

act with courage during difficult times. Confidence means

being able to stand in front of a roomful of people and deliver

bad news with conviction and assuredness if necessary.

Think about why this is important. Why is it even

relevant to leadership effectiveness? What if you are a new

supervisor? Confidence is difficult for new leaders because

they are inexperienced. New supervisors have to rely on

history and other people who they may not know for the

information required to make good decisions. If decision-

43

making involves handing out work assignments and wanting

to know someone’s skills, this would not be difficult at all.

What if the decision involved terminating someone’s

employment because of production cutbacks? How much

harder would it become if you had to rely on a stranger for

information about another employee’s performance history.

While this can be stressful, always remember that when

unsure, if you make decisions based on your own and your

organization’s values, you will ultimately make the right

decision. Will there be mistakes along the way? Without a

doubt there will be. We all made them and we will continue

to make them. It is human nature. Nevertheless, it is

important that we learn from our mistakes.

With the knowledge and experience gained through

understanding mistakes, we can then apply them to continue

to build the courage required to act with confidence should a

similar situation occur. When we step back and look at our

surroundings and at the big picture, we can then build and

maintain an overall perspective of the organization’s goals.

Once we are to that point, we can apply what we have

44

learned, build on it, reaffirm, and use our own foundational

values for future decisions.


“Setting the Example”

5. Decisive

Decisive means to make sound and timely decisions

with clarity and conciseness. As we work with employee

groups and our superiors, perhaps no other attribute is

beaten up as much as this one. Employees and superiors

alike look to leaders to make decisions. Even if it is

sometimes the wrong decision, they still expect a decision

from you. While you do not want to yield to wild and rash

impulses, you still must make a decision. Look at the issue,

examine it logistically and systematically, and then act. Make

a decision. If someone wants to know how you are going to

meet the next day’s production goals, go with your inner

instinct and experience of what has worked in the past and

make a decision. However, if the decision they are waiting

on has the potential of life or death to a person or process,

45

while you still need to make a decision, this time around you

need to make sure you take as much time you need to get it

right. You only get one shot at it. Even if the decision you

make takes longer than what others may want, that is all

right. When you make it is not as important as how you

make it, and that HAS to be decisive.

An example of this has to do with a person who was

voted as jury foreperson in our community’s first ever death

penalty case. There was no doubt in his mind that regardless

of what our decision ended up being, the side that lost would

poll the jury individually and ask if they agreed with that

verdict. He explained to his jury that the reason why we

would be polled individually was that the attorneys wanted to

look for some sign of weakness, a hint of doubt in one or

more of them. The jury foreman went on to tell them that he

did not care how long it took to make a decision, whether a

day, a week, or a month. The jury foreman was explicit in

telling them that when they stood one at a time in what he

knew would be a standing room only courtroom and

announced their verdicts individually, do it decisively.

46

6. Empower Others

To empower means to enable others to make

decisions on their own. It means that you give them an

understanding of your intent and the needed information and

then turn them loose. You do not look over their shoulder

every step of the way or step in and make decisions of your

own in the middle of the process. In other words, you do not

micromanage others in order to maintain control, from a lack

of trust, or out of a need to feel self-important.

Empowered employees are free to act within the

confines of the mission, vision, values, and organizational

goals that you have laid out for them. You encourage them

to take the initiative and act. In turn, you promote their ideas,

and give credit where credit is due. It is imperative that you

recognize and reward their achievements. When they make

mistakes, and they will, you coach and mentor them through

the mistake and teach them how not to make the same

mistake twice.

You never ridicule employees or confront them in

public. If you do, you will stifle their initiative and destroy

47

their desire to be called upon and to act in the future.

Remember, as leaders, you can delegate authority but you

can never delegate responsibility. It is all on you. That is

what you signed up for when you took a leadership role.


“Choosing the Harder Right”

7. Humility

Humility means to look at yourself modestly, not put

yourself up on a pedestal. Of all the leadership attributes, we

believe humility to be the most important since it means to

recognize that it is not about you. It is about the success or

failure of your team and the organization.

Humility means that you look outward to attribute

success and look inward when laying blame. If your team

does well and the boss comes down, closes your door and

says good job, your response is to open the door, call your

team in, and introduce them to your boss, letting him know

that these are the people who deserve the credit. On the

other hand, if the boss comes down and starts blaming your

48

team for a failed job, you accept the blame, telling him or her

that you will do whatever is necessary to ensure it does not

happen again. You then thank him for his concern and leave

it at that.

Never lose sight of the fact that it is not about you. It

is about the success of the team. Most importantly, though,

never lose your sense of humor. It is all right to take your

work seriously, but never take yourself so seriously that you

cannot look back and laugh at yourself once in a while for

the mistakes you have made. It is what great leaders do.


“Influences on the Leader”

Now that we have had a chance to look at those

attributes critical to your success, it is important you

understand that the success of the organization does not

hinge on you, it hinges on those that you lead, on your team.

Work to develop these attributes within yourself and

exemplify them in the workplace. You can then teach and

coach others to achieve them so everyone can be

49

successful in the workplace. These are the values and

attributes we must strive for and achieve, in ourselves and in

others.

Are we there yet? Of course not. That is why your

leadership journey is never over. There is always something

to improve upon or something inside of you that needs to be

molded, shaped, mentored, taught, or coached. No one said

leadership was easy. What they did say was that it is the

right thing to do.

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CHAPTER 4. BEING A ROLE MODEL

Role Modeling is demonstrating your leadership values

and attributes and putting into practice your

organization’s mission, vision, and values in a way that

can be emulated by others.

Often, the first thing that comes to mind when the

term role model comes up is a professional athlete. We

cannot begin to count the number of times what we wanted

to be when we grew up changed because of sports.

Regardless of the sport, these guys and gals gave it their all,

leaving nothing behind and that is what made them so great

in their respective sports. However, where they really shine

as heroes was off the field. We can still remember listening

to post-game interviews and whether they won or lost, they

always gave credit where credit was due. They shouldered

much of the blame when they lost but would share the glory

when they won. These athletes were true professionals and

leaders.

Then things changed. While professional athletes still

dominated the headlines, it was for very different reasons.

51

With the NFL we saw some of the sport’s best players being

charged with domestic abuse. In baseball, it was

performance-enhancing drugs. Even professional golf was

not without its own controversy with one of its greatest

players succumbing to the temptations that often accompany

stardom.

It was no different in the business world. We saw the

collapse of companies such as Enron and WorldCom due to

a failure of their leaders to live according to their values. One

thing that did not change, though, were the kids. They were

still looking to professional athletes as role models and we

cannot help but wonder about the confusion these

youngsters must have felt as they watched their role models

being led away in handcuffs or sitting on the sidelines in

street clothes because of long-term suspensions.

Role models inspire others to do the right thing by

setting good examples. Whether teaching a child a lesson

about respect or modeling a new best practice to your team,

the key is to be consistent, true to yourself, and true to your

core values. You have to be honest. While you do not have

52

to be perfect to be a role model, you do have to be

accountable. As discussed earlier, this means owning up to

your mistakes when you make them and then learning and

growing from them.

Who are your role models and why? What have they

done or exemplified over their careers that has stood out for

you. What about those who lost your trust in them? What did

they do or not do that left you feeling betrayed? How did that

make you feel?


“Leadership Choices”

As you think about role modeling, think about your

own leadership actions. How are you in modeling your own

values? Do you have someone who may feel betrayed by

something you have done or said? The following list includes

those things that leaders should and should not do if they

are serious about doing the right thing when it comes to

modeling good leadership to their employees.

53

Loose lips will sink ships. As a leader, you are

always on record. The team is watching you all the time. Do

not say or do anything off the job that you would not say or

do while at work. Role models do not just demonstrate good

behavior while on the job - they do so all of the time.

Have you ever been to a social event over the

weekend and, in the heat of the moment, let information slip

that was really meant to be confidential? Then on Monday,

you got back to work and the place was buzzing with the

same news that should have never gotten out? What did you

do to cover your tracks? What is your responsibility to the

company at that time? How about to your team? What do

you think this did to their trust in you? After all, if you let

loose with company information that was meant to be

confidential, do you think they will trust you to keep their

information private?

Your team members are going to look to you for

answers. They are going to look to you to be the person in

the know. If you do not know something, say you do not

know. Tell them you will find out and get back to them – but

54

then get back to them! It is not a sign of weakness to admit

that. Time after time leaders get into trouble because they try

to make something up, feeling that they will appear weak or

inept if they do not know the answer. When they go down

that path, they say things that end up being incorrect. What

you say does matter. You are a leader, and everything you

say is on the record. So remember, loose lips do sink ships.

Do not show favoritism. Treat people fairly and

consistently. As leaders, even though we may have friends

we work with or who work for us, we cannot show favoritism

because they are our friends. When we do, the rest of the

team will be resentful. If you have to punish someone for

showing up late, then you must hold everyone to the same

degree of accountability regardless of whether or not he or

she is your friend. There are no secrets in the workplace and

word travels fast. If you are inconsistent with your actions

and let a friend of yours off the hook for something he or she

did, word will get around quickly and you will end up with a

very disgruntled group of employees.

55

An even greater danger is that others will grow

disgruntled towards your friend, showing increased

resentment towards him or her for getting what they perceive

as being preferred treatment. The same holds true when

handing out work assignments. If you consistently give your

buddies the best jobs, before long you are going to have a

team of irate employees who will give you only what you ask

for and nothing more.

To avoid the appearance of favoritism, leaders need

to be sure that everyone is valued and that people are

treated fairly. If a friend messes up and then expects

preferential treatment, they are not much of a friend. Explain

your position to them and let them know that you have

values that you are expected to uphold. Tell them you have

values you also want to uphold. Charges of favoritism not

only undermine your effectiveness as a leader, but also in

some circumstances favoritism can cross the threshold of

being illegal if a case can be made that the favoritism led to

discrimination.

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Bottom line is this is not how you want to be

remembered as a leader, it is not the example you want to

set for your team. Friend or not, you have to say no if you

truly want to exemplify your values fairly and consistently.


“Abuse of Authority”

Set the Example. Live according to your values and

those of your organization and model them on a daily basis.

An example of this is integrity. If that is one of your core

values and you consistently show up late for work or take

long lunches, how can you expect anything different from

your employees? What if your employees hear you on the

phone laughing and joking with your friends about something

that happened over the weekend? It would be hard for you to

hold them accountable for doing the same thing even though

company policy states that phones should be used for work

related conversations only.

The examples you set will become the norms that

your employees will ultimately follow, even if it means

57

bending the rules as with the examples shown here with

coming in late and violating the policy on phones. Given the

generational differences that exist in today’s workplace, this

could then become very difficult to manage. An example of

this is when the Baby Boomer has to work past quitting time

or even on a weekend every now and then, it would be seen

as part of the job. Conversely, someone from a younger

generation could look at this as an infringement on family

time and values. Which one is right?

In the overall scheme of things, both are. Even though

both have a different understanding as to what constitutes

good work ethics, neither is necessarily wrong. Everyone is

different. Whether it is a generational difference or

geographical ones, people value different things. As a

leader, you have to find out what those things are and then

learn to treat people accordingly.

You can only do that by talking to them. Let them

know that you value diversity, that you understand the power

that comes from being different. Then talk to them about

what is important to you in your leadership role and ask them

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to support it. Doing so will instill the confidence in them that

you do care about what matters to them and will open them

up to supporting those things that matter to you.


“The Visual Must Match the Audio”

Communication Challenges. Much of leadership

focuses on good communications. Oral, written, and active

listening are all crucial components of the communications

process and when learned and practiced, can help

overcome communication barriers such as not listening, not

responding in a timely manner, or not sharing what you

know. If you do not use your active listening skills when a

subordinate comes to you with an issue, you may not hear

what they are telling you, which could cause you to miss the

underlying reasons for the issues they have. This could lead

to your reacting inappropriately or not reacting to what they

are trying to tell you.

Not listening also means not asking questions. There

have been leaders who, at times and in an effort to avoid

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having to interact with their employees, refused to ask

individuals questions. We encourage you not to do that. It is

good for you to go out and to talk to your team, to ask them

questions and listen to their responses. It does not mean

that you follow through on every suggestion or idea they

share with you, and it also does not mean that you shut them

down and tell them how impractical all of their ideas are. But,

the fact that you are taking the time to really listen to them

will help build relations with them and who knows, you might

just learn something new from them along the way.

Deal with conflict in the workplace. Workplace

conflict can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing. Positive

conflict will stimulate change, challenge old assumptions,

and motivate and inspire people to think outside the box for

creative solutions. When you see your team becoming

complacent, try to bring complexity to their jobs by

introducing questions that you know will generate positive

conflict among them. That is healthy for them, for you, and

for the entire organization. Organizations will learn to

respond better to change and to customer demands.

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Conversely, negative conflict occurs when an

employee has unaddressed problems. Negative conflict can

be the result of an issue between employees, between you

and an employee, between managers, and even with a

customer. Regardless, you need to tackle these issues

immediately because conflict does not get better with age.

On the contrary, it usually gets worse.

Poor communication is often the root cause of

negative conflict. Keep people informed, let them know what

the mission, vision, and values of the organization are, what

the goals are (including your own), and the why behind the

work. When employees see that you are willing to share with

them, to listen to their concerns, they will be more apt to

come to you with an issue before it festers into something

much larger.


“Playing Favorites”

Be aware of stress. Stress is the way most of us, as

humans, respond to events that make us feel threatened

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such as major life changing events, a new boss, financial

issues, or even work overload. Just as there can be positive

and negative conflict, there can be good and bad stress.

Most stress, however, is negative and can affect your health

in ways that will reduce your effectiveness to lead. If left

unchecked, stress can lead to major health issues such as

heart attack, stroke, and in extreme cases, death. It does not

matter what your position or title is. Stress can hit anyone at

any time.

That is why stress management, or learning to deal

with stress, is so important to you and your team. As a

leader, look for signs of stress within yourself as well as with

your team. Signs could include such things as moodiness,

irritability, making poor decisions, and inability to

concentrate. When you sense that you are becoming

stressed, slow down; identify and reduce what causes you to

become anxious. Take time to relax, take a vacation, get

more sleep, change what you eat, or even begin an exercise

program. If that does not help, remove or avoid those things

that are negatively affecting your life. In severe cases of

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stress, you may have to consider taking a different job or

leaving the department. Many supervisors take lessor roles

over time due to the stress associated with managing

people. Regardless, you cannot afford to overlook stress.

One of the results of stress can be poor decision-

making. When it comes to safety, there is no room for error,

and therefore no room for poor decision-making. An example

of one of the hardest things we have had to do is to fire

employees for poor behavior. Even though the employees

were not performing their jobs, it was still difficult because

several of them were close friends. Nevertheless, it was

necessary because their behavior was an intentional

violation of company established safety rules. In one of the

instances, the violation could have easily been a fatality. We

can have no tolerance for that type of behavior and will not

allow any team member to model it to other team members.

If your organization has some very specific policies

and guidelines on safety, you have no choice but to

exemplify them with your actions at all times. Once, there

was a supervisor who always complained that his

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construction site team was not wearing their safety glasses.

Then one day he noticed that none of the managers who

came on site were wearing their safety equipment either.

The supervisor realized that his employees were modeling

the behavior of their superiors. If you are in a manager’s

role, you have to set the right example through your own

actions.

There are no exceptions to this rule. Be aware of your

organization’s safety program. Whether you agree with it or

not does not matter. You still need to follow it, to lead by

example. You cannot let things slide because you disagree

with them. If you ignore any part of it, it then becomes the

new standard for performance and employees will rise to

that level and no higher.

Along the same lines, be aware of compliance issues

in the workplace as well. There are many federal, state, and

local laws and regulations that you are responsible and

accountable for as an exempt employee or as a supervisor.

These include laws pertaining to such things as harassment,

disability, and discrimination. These are a few things that

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could potentially get you in trouble and inhibit your

effectiveness in leading people. You need to follow and

exemplify the rules in the workplace.

As with stress and safety, compliance is also an area

where there is no room for poor decision-making. If you see

a potential case of harassment occurring, for example, you

need to deal with it immediately. You should never counsel

or discipline in public. However, depending on the nature of

what you see going on, this could be one of those times

when you would not follow your own advice. If what you see

and hear is a loud discussion that includes a lot of foul

language, you need to step in and stop the situation. Then

take the person or people engaging in that type of behavior

to the side and discuss why you did what you did. However,

if there was an elevated case of harassment taking place

such as someone bullied or possibly even sexually

harassed, deal with the person exhibiting that behavior

immediately, regardless of who is present. You cannot afford

to wait and talk about situations like those in private.


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“Giving is a Way to Receive”

Remember, all eyes are on you. The same people

who possibly also witnessed the unwelcome behavior are

most definitely watching you to see your reaction. By

stepping in and putting a stop to it immediately is really doing

nothing more than role modeling leadership, which is what

this chapter is all about. If you do not, you could wind up in

court and the organization would have a black mark against

it. However, all of that pales to the fact that you failed as a

leader in the worst of ways. You allowed someone to get

hurt on your watch, you allowed their values to be

compromised by someone else, and worst of all, you let

them down when they most needed you.

In closing, be a leader who goes out and exemplifies

your values and be those attributes of leadership that we

have just discussed. The values and attributes of leadership

are the foundation from which all else flows. Be aware of the

pitfalls, work to avoid them, tackle conflict with confidence,

deal with safety issues as you see them, be aware of things

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that could get you into trouble, and be that kind of leader that

others will look to as their role model of leadership.

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Part II: The Skills of the Leader

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CHAPTER 5. CREATING THE VISION

Envisioning is to develop compelling visions for your

team to inspire collaborative effort. Envisioning includes

articulating the vision often and in detail, explaining the

why behind work assignments, job requirements, and

organizational objectives.

We previously described leadership as being goal and

values-based. Leadership is purpose driven as well.

Employees at all levels of the organization must have an

understanding of why they are doing what they are doing. To

achieve that, good leaders need to have a vision. They must

have a vision that other people want to share and follow, and

they must be able to communicate that vision with absolute

clarity. This goes beyond being of the same mind as the

organization’s formal mission and vision statements. Your

personal leadership vision should be such that it permeates

throughout the workplace and is manifested in the actions,

beliefs, values, and goals in a way that everyone can follow.

There are distinct fundamentals necessary so that a

vision excites and motivates people to follow the leader. The

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vision must clearly set direction and purpose. It should

inspire loyalty and caring by involving all employees. A vision

should display and reflect the unique strengths, culture,

values, beliefs, and directions of the organization. It must be

commensurate or compatible with your values and attributes

and what it is you are trying to accomplish in the

organization. To make money is not a vision. Why we need

to make money is the goal or purpose. To provide security

and a future for our employees and make a difference in our

community is a vision that will help motivate and inspire

people.

Employees will rally around a good vision if it makes

them feel as though they are a part of something bigger than

themselves and their daily work. This is particularly true of

the younger generation as they enter the workplace. All

employees need to feel as though they belong to something

that they can go home at night and be proud of, something

that creates a sense of enthusiasm in them.

Having a good, well-communicated vision will help

with recruiting and retention as well. Word will soon get out

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that your organization is forward thinking with opportunities

for growth along the lines of advancements and promotions

instead of the length of the lines at the local unemployment

office. A well-defined vision will challenge people to outdo

themselves and to stretch and reach for improved things.


“The Leader’s Attitude”

Your personal leadership vision has to be different

from the current one or the status quo, it must embody a

future state of being. Your vision will challenge people to

step out of their comfort zones into the land of unknowns.

Where do you think Microsoft and Apple would be without

the forward-looking brilliance of visionaries Bill Gates and

Steve Jobs?

The purpose for your vision is to give people

something to believe in, work towards, and to identify with.

You cannot motivate employees without providing some type

of purpose or direction for them. They need a vision. They

need to see a reason for their actions, to see a greater

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purpose for responding the way you want them to respond.

A vision does not always provide a direction, but it always

includes a purpose.


“A Leader’s Vision”

Remember that vision is two-fold. There is the

organizational vision and a personal leadership vision. The

organizational vision relates to the greater purpose of the

entire organization. It is your job to help promote this vision

and keep it in the forefront for your employees.

As a leader, you must also have a personal vision that

identifies your role within the organization. It should motivate

and inspire performance of what can and will be if everyone

pulls together as a team and helps shape and mold the

organization into what it needs to become. Your personal

vision should point to a new future, a change in direction, a

new path where people will want to help lead others. It also

needs to be concrete in order to inspire change within an

organization. Vision cannot just be a grandiose statement

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that means nothing, a mere babbling of words. It must be

tangible, real, and achievable.


“Training and Vision”

Leadership is not about doing what is popular. It is

about doing what is right. Good leaders pave the way for

others to follow. Great leaders have vision and all have

dreams and aspirations that others want to follow.

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CHAPTER 6. UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN DIMENSION

Recognize that employees will rise to the level that you

expect from them. Appreciate that most employees want

to do what is right, but that they will make mistakes

along the way. Build confidence and support from your

employees by communicating your vision, intent, and

key tasks required.

We discussed the fact that leadership concerns

people and people-related activities. It only makes sense

that we must have a good understanding of the human

dimension if we are truly to be effective leaders.

Many of the challenges and problems associated with

leadership concern the different personalities that we deal

with. Personality is a complex mixture of knowledge,

attitudes, and attributes that distinguish one person from

another. Everyone is different when it comes to personality.

Human differences can create challenges. If we were all the

same, leadership would be a lot simpler; however, we are

not all the same and that is one of the reasons why it is so

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important to treat everyone fairly and consistently instead of

equally.

There is a lot of literature that addresses the human

dimension of our workplace. A theorist once put forth the

Theory of X and the Theory of Y to explain employee

behavior. Theory X is based on the assumption that most

employees dislike work, avoid responsibility, and must be

coerced into working hard. Theory X says that when you get

a new employee you can assume that the person is lazy,

incompetent and does not want to be there. Therefore, you

have to be a taskmaster in order to achieve success with

that person. Theory Y, on the other hand, is based on the

assumption that most employees truly do enjoy work, do

seek responsibility, and can self-direct themselves if they are

well led, inspired, motivated, and have the necessary

knowledge.

How you choose to look at your employees will set

the tone for your leadership effectiveness in the workplace. If

you subscribe to Theory X and assume employees are

primarily lazy and do not want to take responsibility that is

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what you are going to get. If, on the other hand, you

subscribe to Theory Y, then you are going to look at your

employees in a different light. You will assume that they do

want to be there, assume that they do truly enjoy the work

that they do, that they will act responsibly, become involved

in the organization, and can self-direct themselves if properly

led, motivated, and inspired.


“Motivating Leadership”

We truly believe that most employees do want to work

hard, go home at the end of the day, and feel proud of what

they have been able to accomplish. They want to belong to

something they feel is greater than themselves. You may

disagree, but in discussions with employee groups, sensing

sessions, and focus groups, the following actualities come

out repeatedly: employees want to feel that they are

contributing to the success of the organization. They

want to feel that what they say and do really matters to

others. They want to have that feeling of self-worth and if

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they do not see it coming from you in return, they are going

to jump ship and go find an organization and a leader that

will give it to them.

Certainly a Theory X approach has the advantage of

getting the job done faster because you simply tell people

what to do and they do it and move on. The disadvantage

with Theory X, though, is that there is little to no opportunity

for personal growth, no innovation, and no creativity

associated with the tasks. For a leader working under the

Theory X approach, you have to be there all the time to

direct activities.

A Theory Y approach, on the other hand, clearly does

promote greater individual growth and opportunity. People

are encouraged to take the initiative. You articulate the

vision and goals you are trying to achieve and then let your

team take charge on their own and get the work done. The

advantage of course, is that you can leave from time to time

and turn them loose and let them work. However, to do this

will require more time on your part. You are going to have to

spend more time dealing with people individually and as

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groups. You will be training and communicating with them on

how to do tasks that will take managerial time away from

your leadership responsibilities. In the end, it is going to save

you time because the more responsibilities you turn over to

your team the more freedom you will have. Surprisingly

enough, it takes as much time to sit and supervise as it does

to turn things over to them and let them do tasks

themselves.


“Getting Others to Do More”

There is the need to add some clarity to

understanding the differences with the generations that exist

in the workplace. Perhaps no other issue generates as much

discussion and debate in leadership seminars and

workshops than the different generations in the workplaces

because we have such a diversity within the generations.

The issue we have is we have Gen X supervising Baby

Boomers and Baby Boomers supervising Gen Y, with a

potential for conflict. Therefore, we need to understand the

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human dimension of these relationships and the different

generations that exist in the workplace. It will greatly improve

your leadership effectiveness if you are more in tune with the

nature and character of the employees you are trying to

lead.

A generation is defined as a group of people born and

living at about the same time. Within each generation, the

members of that generation share a common set of values,

behaviors, and work ethics. As they matured, they were

influenced by the economic, social, and political climates at

the time. We are truly shaped by our youth, by the input we

had as we were growing, maturing and forming opinions

about the world, as well as how we view ourselves and

others.

It is the existence of these various characteristics that

tends to create the uniqueness of each generation in the

world today. There are significant differences in worldviews,

work styles, work habits, and how we relate and interact with

others between each generation. These differences, if left

unchecked, can lead to misunderstanding,

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miscommunication, and conflict in the workplace. Conflict will

result in loss of productivity and effectiveness in working

together.


“A Multi-Generational Fire Department”

In our society, there are oftentimes four generations

of employees, and a new generation will emerge shortly.

Different authors will use different names and dates to

distinguish them, but the exact names and dates you

prescribe are irrelevant at this point. For now, the important

thing is that we understand the major differences between

the groups, the things that are truly important to them.

Knowing those things, we can then determine how best to

harness the power of these contrasting approaches and

focus their efforts on one common and unique goal.

Because the differences between the generations are

becoming more and more distinct as the pace of change in

our world increases, there is naturally going to be a gap.

Four hundred years ago, you can imagine that the

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differences between one generation and the next were

insignificant. There was not a lot of change or at least the

rate of change would take decades to materialize.

Things are very different in today’s society and

change is occurring at a much faster rate due to the rapid

changes in technology and worldviews. We predict that in

the future we will see an even greater broadening of this gap

based on the rapid change rate in the world today.

These generational differences and the level to which

you respond to these differences have a direct impact on

your ability to recruit, retain, lead, and motivate quality

people in the workplace. We need to face it, we have a very

competitive workplace today as opposed to a generation or

two ago. Previously, it was an employer’s market and they

had their choice of talent pools from which to choose. That is

not so today. The tables have turned and it is now an

employee’s market and will remain that way for the next

several years because workplace demands exceed the

capability of society to generate new potential workers.

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So, who are these generations and what are some of

the characteristics that define each group? First, we have

the Traditionalists, also known as the GI or the Mature

Generation. Matures were born between 1925 and 1945 and

number around 75 million in the U.S. Next came the Baby

Boomers, a term coined right after World War II. Baby

Boomers were born from 1946 to 1964 and include close to

80 million people. While many of these people are nearing

retirement age, fortunately for their companies they are

choosing to remain employed for now. However, when they

do leave, the mass exodus of knowledge and experience

that will walk out the doors has been cause for alarm for

many employers.

Next, we have Generation X, or Gen X as they are

sometimes called. This group includes about 46 million

people born between 1965 and 1984 within the U.S. The first

thing that jumps out with this group is that they are about half

the size of the Baby Boomer group. This is another cause of

concern to employers. When Baby Boomers and the

remaining Traditionalists in the workforce do retire, there will

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not be enough Gen X employees to fill those openings. As to

why this huge and significant drop in numbers with the Gen

X, it was because many Baby Boomers chose not to have

children and instead, chose their careers over families.

The next and the newest generation is Gen Y or the

Millennials. They are roughly 76 million people who were

born between 1985 and 2005. Once again, the first thing you

will notice is the jump from 46 million to 76 million people.

Just as the Baby Boomers chose not to have children, Gen

X chose to have larger families. Comparing all four

generations from a standpoint of workers, the Traditionalists

makes up roughly 5%, Baby Boomers 45%, Gen X 40%, and

Millennials about 10% (as of 2010). Keep these numbers in

mind as we look at the defining characteristics for each

group.


“Understanding our Biases”

The first group, the Traditionalists, tend to be the

wealthiest group of people within the United States. This is

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not really a surprise since their influences include the Great

Depression of the 1930s, WWII, and the Korean War. After

returning from the war, many war veterans went on to

college and became a highly educated group of employees.

Some of their key characteristics include being very patriotic

and loyal. One defining statement is Waste Not, Want Not.

They have a tremendous amount of faith in institutions

because they saw where institutions prevailed to defeat

Nazism and Imperialism throughout the world. They were

heavily influenced by the military and believe in military

architectures for organizations with a top down approach to

management. They are extremely loyal and influential. They

tend to dislike change and want to retire knowing that they

have built a legacy based on logic and discipline. Their core

values include dedication, sacrifice, patience, respect for

authority, adherence to rules, law and order, and conformity.

The Baby Boomer generation born between 1946 and

1964 occupies about 45% of the U.S. workforce. It is the

largest percent of population ever born within the United

States. WWII veterans returning from the war had many

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children. Some defining events for the Baby Boomers

include the Cold War between the United States and the

Soviet Union, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and

Martin Luther King, and the civil rights movements of the

1960s and 1970s. The prosperity of the U.S. in the 1950s,

fed the growth of the cities, the movement into suburbs, the

advent of suburbia and urban sprawl. The Vietnam War was

one of the most defining events for the Baby Boomer

generation. It was the first war broadcast on the nightly

news, which shaped the view and values of this generation.

The core values of the Baby Boomer generation tend to be

work ethics, personal growth, personal gratification, health,

wellness, team focused, and optimism. They tend to be

idealistic and very competitive, but do tend to question

authority perhaps because they lived through the scandals of

Watergate, the end of Vietnam War, and various business

and government scandals in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

The Baby Boomers have been described as the first Me

generation where they are more focused on themselves

rather than to the betterment of the organization and society.

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They want to build a stellar career and job titles, know how

they fit in the organization, and where they go in their

careers is very important to them, which explains why they

chose not to have children.

Members of Gen X born between 1965 and 1984

currently represent 40% of the United States workforce.

Although the smallest of the four generations in terms of total

numbers, they make up a large percentage of our current

workforce, second only to the Baby Boomers. Unlike Baby

Boomers who grew up with a mother at home, Gen X grew

up for the most part unsupervised, having both parents at

work. Some of the defining events that helped shape the

views of the Gen X include such things as the recession of

the 1980s, MTV, the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s,

and seeing Watergate unfold on television, all of which

helped build a sense of distrust in government for them.

They also saw the fall of the Berlin Wall, the defeat of

communism and the globalization that occurred in the

following years. This was the first generation starting to use

personal computers. Because Baby Boomers put a lot of

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emphasis on their careers, the divorce rate for their group

was high, meaning that many Gen X kids grew up with single

parents. The core values of Gen X include self-reliance and

adaptability, the tendency to think more globally as opposed

to within the United States, and the desire to balance work

and personal life. They tend to be more pragmatic about

things, are much more techno literate than the previous

generation, and they value diversity more. The key word for

Gen X is skepticism. Remember that this generation grew up

in an era plagued by controversy and conflict in government

at the national and international levels. They watched the

end of Watergate, the Iran contra-hearings on television, and

they grew skeptical about institutions and higher authority.

Gen X is probably the most misunderstood generation. While

they are flexible and motivated, they need a balance

between work and home life. They want to build a portable

career, not necessarily a stationary career like their parents

did. They want to spend time with their family and friends.

They saw what happened when their parents did not do that

and they do not want to make that same mistake.

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The last of the generations is the Millennials or Gen

Y, born after 1985 and represent about 10% of the

workforce. They are the most globalized generation and they

have never known a time without the internet. Some of the

defining events for this group include 9/11 and the Oklahoma

City bombings. They also grew up in an era plagued with

school violence with the Columbine shootings in Colorado.

Their core values include optimism, diversity, social ability,

achievement, and confidence. Gen Y tend to be very realistic

in their view of things because they see the world in real time

through television, the internet, and social media such as

blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. They want work to

be meaningful but they want to work in a group environment.

They want to contribute to something that has value, or to a

greater purpose. They have been literally involved to some

degree their entire life. They have been labeled as the most

individualist team centered generation we have ever had

which seems like an oxymoron but describes them very well.

If called upon to lead the different generations,

remember that the Traditionalists want stability. You need to

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recognize who they are, what they came with, and the

experiences they have, and give them a stable work

environment. For Baby Boomers, give them personal

challenges. They need opportunities for individual

development and growth. Gen X needs feedback. They want

to know how they are doing, right or wrong. Remember that

they are the first group to grow up with computers so are

used to the instant feedback they get from the internet and

their social networks. Gen Y desires structure. Be specific in

the tasks you give them to do. Lay the ground rules for

completing the tasks and Gen Y will do the rest.


“Take Care of Your People”

The differences between the generations can be a

wonderful thing for an organization because that diversity will

give them strength and balance if used correctly. To do that

you need to understand that differences do exist between

the generations and be careful not to go down the road of

one size fits all when building on their strengths. You also

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need to understand as a Baby Boomer or Traditionalist that

while Gen X and Gen Y have a different work ethic than you,

it is not necessarily a bad work ethic. They do appreciate the

value of hard work. They just are not willing to put in 50 or 60

hours a week. They want to have time off to be with family

and friends, and that is natural. Regardless of which

generation you are from, the key to success when working

with each group is to respect who they are and understand

what is important to them.

The human dimension of today’s workplace is unique,

diverse, and challenging at times. Key to the leader’s

success is understanding your team members, embracing

their differences, promoting mutual respect and open

communications, and creating an environment based on

trust and honesty.

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CHAPTER 7. COMMUNICATIONS

Communicate with others using a diversity of

techniques and styles in order to reach the largest

possible audience. Ensure understanding with regular

and consistent feedback.

Whenever we lead our group workshops or our client

specific sessions, we ask the group, What are your

leadership challenges in the workplace? In every one of

those sessions, communication has been at or near the top

of the list.

Why communications? So much of your effectiveness

as a leader hinges upon your ability to communicate

effectively. You need the ability to articulate your intent and

your desires. You also need to be able to solicit and listen for

feedback, not only for understanding, but also to learn how

to ask the right questions. With all of that, you can truly gain

the knowledge and information that are essential for

leadership effectiveness. Communication includes both

speaking and listening, and of the two, you are probably

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listening more than talking, that is, if you are truly an

effective leader.

The communication process can be broken down into

three basic elements. There is the sender, or the person who

initiates a message. Next, there is a receiver, or the person

to whom the message is being sent. Finally, there is the

message itself, the information that the sender is trying to

convey to the receiver. Throughout the communication

process, your goal should be the equalization of what you

want to say, what you actually say, and what is heard and

understood. The goal is that they are all one and the same.

However, the reality is that, this is seldom the case. What

you mean to say, what you do say, and what is actually

understood, can often be three very distinct and different

messages. That is due to the normal barriers that

accompany everyday communications.


“The Rule of Threes”

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How many times have you had to communicate

something and it just did not come out right? This can be the

result of the media you choose to use to communicate the

message. For example, if you have bad news to deliver, you

should do it in person. Sending an e-mail is not the most

effective media in this case because you do not receive

instant feedback through body language or facial

expressions. You also do not have the ability to instantly ask

and answer questions. If the message involves a personal

matter, it must be communicated face to face, if possible.

Sending an e-mail could imply that the message or person is

not important and some people could potentially overlook a

message that they really needed to receive.

Another barrier is the lack of retention of the actual

message. Most people only absorb about 20-30% of what

they hear. The rest becomes background noise. When

communicating critical data such as budget numbers for

example, use some type of written communication because

some people can absorb what they read at a much higher

rate (80-90%) than what they hear. The ability to go back

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and double-check or re-read a document is helpful with

detailed data or systematic information.

The third communication barrier is with the nature of

the receiver. Understanding accents, especially over the

telephone, is a challenge for many of us. We often have to

ask for the message to be repeated and can still struggle to

understand. Another challenge can be the use of slang or

jargon when communicating. This is directly related to the

words used. Words are used differently, depending on the

culture or geographic area you grew up in. Proper English,

like the British or Australians use is very different from the

American English used in the U.S. Industries have their own

jargon that we may not understand if we are not directly

involved in that particular industry.

Good communicators have key characteristics that

make them more effective in their communication approach.

These include seeking out and receiving input from others

when preparing a communication. Good communicators ask

for advice and listen for good ideas. They use a variety of

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questioning techniques to gain insight and involve others in

the conversation.

Avoid yes/no questions as much as possible. You will

receive much more feedback and additional information if

you use open-ended questions, questions that cannot be

answered with a yes or no.


“Them vs. Us”

Active listening is an important skill to develop that will

help you become a good communicator. Active listening will

help you notice the subtleties and nuances of conversations.

With that information, you will be able to have an in depth

understanding of the true problems or issues at that time. It

is critical for you to channel new information downward,

upwards, and laterally with your supervisors, managers, and

peers so that everyone is on board with the information

needed to accomplish the task when informed in a

coordinated and synchronized manner.

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Think about the importance of explaining the why

behind work assignments, activities, or policies. Have you

ever worked for a leader who told you what to do and then

went about his or her way without a discussion regarding the

why? If so, how effective was he or she at getting buy-in

from you in order to complete the assignment?

You create understanding and sense of importance if

you communicate the information up front. The task is what

to do and the purpose is why the task is necessary. This way

it gives your team the flexibility of coming up with their own

solutions on task accomplishment. When a team

understands the purpose behind the task, they will more

readily buy into the task and work harder on the task to meet

your expectations.

It is imperative that good communicators identify and

resolve a communications problem between a group

member and themselves as soon as possible. If the team

and you are not communicating effectively or if it seems that

the messages you are sending are not received and

understood correctly, it is your responsibility to solve the

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problem. That problem may be the environment you are

trying to communicate through, your choice of words, or the

media you are using to convey your message.

When communicating, spend close to 50% of the time

listening. If we do not listen well, we risk misreading people’s

intentions and misinterpreting their ideas. Such

misinterpretation could result in arriving at the wrong

conclusion about the individual or what they are doing. The

result could strain relationships and become counter-

productive to team building. It behooves us as good leaders

to listen carefully and listen well.

Recognizing our own barriers to listening will help us

become better listeners. Some common mindsets that limit

our listening include:

1. I have heard this all before. We tune out because we

have had this conversation repeatedly and do not want to

hear it again. Unfortunately, when this happens, if

someone presents a new point of view, we miss it

because we really are not listening.

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2. Motor running/Multitasking. We continue to perform a

task and listen at the same time. We are not giving full

attention to the person and often miss the innuendos or

subtleties that happen in the communication.

3. Preparing an answer. Our focus is not on listening but

on what we are going to say as soon as the speaker

pauses. We miss what is really being said, or not said,

because our focus is on us.

4. Getting hooked on words. We allow words or some

facts to distract us. When this happens we can lose two

or three sentences before we return to listening. Listen

for the overall content and do not get caught on word

selection. If it does happen, politely ask them to clarify

what they mean so you will not be sidetracked.

5. Listening for facts only. This is where we listen for the

words and facts and do not pay attention to body

language, tone of voice, or what is not being said.

Active Listening is one of the tools in our

communication tool bag. It is a communication technique to

reduce defensiveness and loss of self-esteem. It also helps

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defuse emotional exchanges. Active listening is the ability to

pick up, define and respond accurately to the feelings

expressed by another person. When active listening is

employed, people perceive that they are being listened to

and understood. This alone will help diffuse potential

emotional situations.

Active listening is a four-step process. The first step is

to listen intently. What do we mean when we say listen

intently? You probably think that you listen as well as you

can. Listening involves more than just hearing the words. It

also includes listening for the emotions and implications of

what the speaker is saying. It could include rapid speech as

well as a higher pitch of voice. You should focus on the

speaker, make and maintain eye contact as much as

possible. Stay focused on what the person is saying and the

reason for the communication. Avoid planning your

response, do not interrupt them, or try to finish their

statements for them. Just listen with your eyes and ears. It is

very helpful if you use verbal and non-verbal encouragers as

much as possible. Nod your head in agreement, give

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appropriate facial expressions, and encourage the verbal

exchange. Your responses encourage them to speak freely

and openly without interruption, interjection, or argument. It

is difficult when on the telephone because you do not see

the person so you are unable to be aware of the non-verbal

cues. If the telephone is the only option, focus on the

conversation and not on the surroundings.

Once you have listened to the communication, the

next step in Active Listening is to ask questions. By doing

this you demonstrate that you have been listening and it puts

the speaker at ease. Use open-ended questions to gather

more information and obtain clarification on the

communication. The speaker then knows you are engaged

in the conversation. Questions like, tell me more, how do you

feel about that, or then what happened are good common

choices. When you ask these types of questions, you are

demonstrating your commitment to the conversation and to

the individual, letting them know that you truly care about

what they are saying and you want to learn more.

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When you think you have an understanding of what

the person said, the third step is to reflect or paraphrase

what the person said, in your own words. The reflection or

paraphrase will help you capture the essence of the

communication and allows you to state the problem. When

paraphrasing, it is important to capture the content and

feeling of what you heard and put it into your own words.

Phrasing such as, I understand you are upset with me for

how I conducted myself in the meeting today captures both

the content and the feeling.

The fourth and final step is to agree about what is

said. This does not mean that you are agreeing to a

particular solution. It only means that the speaker is

consenting that your reframed communication accurately

reflects his/her intended message. With mutual

understanding and agreement of problem, you can begin to

solve the problem and know that you are truly solving the

right problem.

We have a tendency to jump into the problem-solving

mode and skip the active listening whenever someone

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comes to us with an issue or concern. The danger is that you

may fix something that is not broken. Often employees with

a problem do not tell you the true problem. You may have to

go on a fact-finding expedition to figure it out and then work

on the cause of the problem so that you can solve the actual

problem.

Another tool is called climbing the ladder to better

listening. LADDER is an acronym:

L stands for Look at the Speaker. Consider how the

message is presented. What is the body language?

What is the posture? What are the emotions of the

person speaking? Can you gain any information by

making eye contact with the speaker?

A is for Ask Questions. The quickest way to become a better

listener is by asking open-ended questions. It gives

the speaker the opportunity to clarify the issue and

allows you to gather additional information needed to

solve the problem.

D – Do not interrupt. As it is rude to step on another person’s

toes, it is just as rude to step on their ideas. Do not

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interrupt them when they are speaking. Make sure

they are finished before you jump in.

D stands for Do not change the subject. Active listening is

wanting to hear so you can better understand what is

happening.

E stands for Check your emotions. Leaders must be aware

of the undercurrent or undertone of communications.

Emotions can create a storm that will cause others to

seek shelter. During our previous discussion on core

leadership attributes, one was self-discipline, which is

controlling your emotions. Even if a speaker is

pointing a finger of blame at you, you have to keep

your anger, language, and emotions under control

and continue listening. If you do not, you will never

succeed in working toward a solution.

R is for Responsive Listening. When people feel that their

leaders are no longer listening or responding to their

needs, they will go somewhere else for understanding

and problem solving. When they do, the place they go

may not be ideal for solving that problem.

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Another very important component of communication

is giving and receiving feedback in a timely manner. It is

particularly important to give and receive feedback

frequently. People want and need to know how they are

doing and what is happening in the organization. Giving

good, solid feedback is hard to do. You have to take the time

and provide meaningful information to your employees. You

must give constructive feedback at all times, which when

given correctly, will help identify solutions to problems you

are confronting. Carefully give feedback in a direct but not

blunt manner. Direct and clear communication is offered in a

caring manner. Blunt communication is offered without

accepting responsibility for how the message will be

received. Blunt language causes people to become

defensive and resist feedback.

Feedback is not just about pointing out issues and

concerns. Feedback may also include telling people they did

a great job on a project or that an idea they had was

excellent. It can be as simple as a card, note, or e-mail

expressing what he or she did and its impact. The intent of

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positive feedback is usually two-fold. You want the person to

know that you appreciate their efforts, and you want to

motivate them to continue their excellent efforts.

You want to praise in public and reprimand in private.

When you praise in public it not only lets the employee know

that you appreciate their efforts, but you also let the entire

team know. They all understand that you notice their efforts,

and that you are engaged and supportive of them.

Never reprimand an employee in front of others. If an

employee makes a mistake, talk privately with them. We

have all seen and heard of accounts where a leader

reprimanding an employee in front of the team. Even if the

other team members agree with the need to reprimand,

doing so in public will have a downside. The other

employees will wonder when you will confront them in public

and this will lessen the trust and respect they have for you. It

can also cause the group to band together to support their

team member and you become the bad person. This causes

the message to be totally lost in the emotions that follow.

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Make feedback specific. Hey, you did a good job

today essentially says nothing to anyone. Give specific

examples such as, “Beth, you did a great job on the year-

end report, the data was clearly presented and concise.”

Base your feedback on tangible or objective results so

people have something specific to be proud of, or something

they can brag about when they go home. This holds true

whether the feedback is positive or negative. By being

specific, the employee will know what behavior to repeat or

not repeat.

Another way to provide feedback is through annual

performance reviews. These should be a learning

experience for both you and the employee. This is not the

time to hammer an employee with a boatload of negative

feedback you have saved up over the year. In fact, negative

feedback should never be held back until you have an

opportune time to discuss it with the employee. If a problem

occurs, it should be addressed immediately, that same day if

possible. Use the no surprises approach in performance

evaluations. This means that everything you discuss on an

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evaluation should have been discussed at the time it

happened, positive or negative.


“Understanding Your Team Members”

Receiving feedback can also be difficult. Remember

to accept it in the spirit that it is given. Do not become

defensive or try to argue with the person providing the

feedback and do not try to justify your position. Just listen,

acknowledge them, and ask questions for clarification if

needed. If you think the person is right, say so, and thank

them. If you do not think the person is right, thank them

anyway. This will encourage them to keep giving you

feedback. Think of receiving feedback as being similar to

receiving a gift. Once the gift is received, you decide what to

do with it. You can throw it away, set it on a shelf, take it and

use it or even re-gift it. Valuable feedback can come from

anyone in the organization including employees, peers, your

supervisor or even your supervisor’s supervisor.

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As a leader, you should be soliciting information

constantly. Ask questions regularly, such as: What is your

opinion? What do you think? How would you make it better?

How would you do it differently? By asking questions, you

are engaging people and letting them to know that you value

them and that their opinion matters to you.

Just as important as asking people what they think,

though, is to listen to their responses. Do not go through the

motions of pretending you care. People will notice that

through your body language, tone of voice, and your lack of

follow through. Your actions will let them know that you are

not interested in what they think, and then they will not be

coming to you with problems or for advice. As leaders, the

majority of your time should be spent actively listening to

your team, to family and friends, and most importantly, to

yourself.

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CHAPTER 8. TIME MANAGEMENT

Prioritize tasks based upon their effects on the

organization so that you do those with the greatest

positive impact first. Use technology and other tools to

organize your time. Avoid procrastination and inefficient

use of your time. Resolve negative conflict quickly

before the issue consumes more of your time.

To be a good leader, you must first learn to lead

yourself. This includes being able to manage your time

efficiently and effectively. There is no doubt that businesses

today are time starved. With all the pressures on our time,

we must distinguish between those things that we need to do

and those things we want to do. The dilemma between what

we want to do and what we need to do will cause gridlock.

Because of the nature of today’s busy schedules, it seems

as though we are doing more and enjoying it less.

When your daily activities reflect your governing

values, you will experience more satisfaction with your

progress and be able to manage your time better. To reach

any significant goal you must often stretch yourself beyond

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your comfort zone. Good, consistent, daily planning will help

leverage available time and increase your focus on the

important values or items that utilize your energy and

knowledge. This, in turn, will leave more time at the end of

the day for those things that you want to do.

Time management is often considered a fallacy. You

cannot control time or stop the wheels on the clock from

turning no matter how hard you try. While there have been

numerous books written on time management, there is no

way of adding more hours to your day. What you can do

however, is to make your time more effective and

meaningful. That is accomplished by prioritizing the events

and tasks in your life, both business-related and personal.

Prioritization is categorizing those events you have control

over in order of importance. When doing this, remember that

urgent does not necessarily mean vital. As humans, we tend

to live by emotions. When everything is left to our emotions,

things that were once regarded as merely important can now

magically jump up the list to a new and over-allocated status

of vital. Like any project management guru will tell you, it is

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essential to separate what is truly urgent and what is not if

you are serious about effectively managing your time and

resources. If they truly are urgent, then you need to prioritize

them and rank them accordingly. However, remember that

for every action there is a reaction and that reaction could be

a manager who is expecting a completed project that you

just bumped down your list of daily priorities. When thinking

about the importance of daily planning when prioritizing

tasks, we need to remember that good planning includes

good communications. It involves asking for feedback from

your team and others you work with to ensure all efforts are

aligned in accordance with your list of priorities.

From experience, we can tell you that many of our

time management problems are self-inflicted. Failing to

delegate to others and trying to do it all yourself is just one of

those self-inflicted wounds. This is especially true for new

supervisors. New supervisors want to tackle the world and

prove themselves worthy of the position. This effort to prove

to the boss that he made the right choice can cause great

pressure and stress. You have to be careful of attempting to

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do too much and when you find help available, delegate the

tasks that you really do not need to be doing yourself. That

can help overcome the next common issue.

Leaving tasks unfinished is a common occurrence

and one that is easy to overcome. Accept the task, do it, and

move on to the next task. We know that sounds easy in

principle, but it really will help with your time management

efforts. When you have several tasks open at the same time,

it is hard to decide which one to work on and then nothing

will be finished. That is why prioritizing your tasks is

important. Use your company goals and values to help

prioritize your work. When in doubt, as ask your supervisor

for guidance. In the end, it is better to put one task off for an

extra day and complete several others than to have multiple

tasks started and nothing finished.

That does not mean that it is all right to procrastinate.

It only means that you do not want an overload of half –

finished tasks hanging around your desk. The old cliché of

do not put off until tomorrow what you can accomplish today

still applies. You need to finish everything you can to remain

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committed to managing your priorities and finishing the items

that you and your team have prioritized as essential.

Listening also comes into play with time management.

When we fail to listen to our employees, peers, and

superiors, we may find ourselves concentrating on tasks that

we should not be concerned with or that are not important

because we failed to discern the true issue. Instead of

focusing on the problem, we may have been focused on the

problem’s symptoms, which wastes time and effort. That loss

of time and effort can lead to tension between you, your

team, and/or your supervisor.

In order for you to be effective at time and priority

management, you will have to teach, coach, and mentor the

others around you to also be effective in their time

management. We often ask what effect does poor time

management have on us? For some, it causes stress, which

can result in physical and emotional strain. If these are

unchecked, they can lead to serious health problems. From

a business perspective, stress reduces efficiency, can

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negatively affect morale, and ultimately compromises safety

in the workplace.

How do you practice good time management skills?

There are multitudes of tips and techniques that can help,

but primary to success is letting things go that are not

priorities. Unfortunately, that may include tasks that you

actually like to do. If the tasks are not essential for the

business operation or your team, you need to delegate them

to someone else. Then you can concentrate on items that

are more important.


“Prioritization Based on ROI”

Delegating is an issue that new supervisors tend to

struggle with. While it is easy to say, ‘Let go’, it is one of the

hardest things to do. Let go! We heard our parents tell us

that while we were growing up and now we are faced with

those same two words as leaders. Nevertheless, your

survival depends on it. As a supervisor, it may seem like you

are giving up something that you have worked so hard to

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achieve. But there are now more important fish for you to fry

in your new role, so let go! If you continue to do things

because you like to do them, how will you find time to do the

things your new role needs you to do? If you do not let go,

how will your team develop the skills they need to progress

in their careers?

You also have to learn to say no. Occasionally,

someone is going to ask you to do something that you do not

have the time or the resources to do. Our natural tendency is

to say yes, but be careful. If you honestly do not have time to

do it then you honestly have to learn to say no or at least

delay it to a time in the future.

Finally, learn to manage your distractions. There are

many things that can cause you to fall behind and often they

are simple distractions or sources of chaos. A few years ago,

a facilitator asked us to think about those things that caused

distractions for us. One of the administrative assistants was

particularly disturbed by this question. She was quickly

falling behind at work but just could not understand why.

After some prodding from the instructor, she blurted out two

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words, “candy dish.” She always had a dish full of candy on

her desk and everyone tended to stop in for a daily snack.

However, when they did stop, they stayed and visited which

caused her to fall behind on her daily tasks. Once the candy

dish was gone, so were the daily visits and lo and behold,

she was caught up in short order. What are your

distractions? What are your sources of chaos?

This is just one of many time management traps we

can fall prey to which impact our effectiveness at managing

time. Some other common time wasters include:

1. Plunging in. This means gathering information

and reaching conclusions without first thinking

about the crux of the issue and how you believe a

decision should be made. You are so involved in

the task that you plunge in without thinking of the

long term consequences, which will then cost you

time due to poor planning.

2. Frame blindness. This means to set out and

solve the wrong problem because you have

created a mental framework for your decision.

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That early framework may have caused you to

overlook a better option or lose sight of the

important objectives. Frame blindness is the same

as tunnel vision. We believe we know the right

answer and go down that path without broadening

our perspective of the situation or looking at other

options. One way to avoid frame blindness is to

ask others for their opinions about how to do

something so you are not locked into your own

biases and prejudices about how a task should be

accomplished.

3. Lack of frame control. This means failing to

define the problem or to be unduly influenced by

the frames of others. When you are tackling

problems, it is important to think about other

courses of action or other ways to do the task that

can be more effective and efficient.

4. Overconfidence in your judgment. This means

you fail to collect key information because you are

sure of your assumptions and opinions. Everyone

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is entitled to his or her own opinion, but not

everyone is entitled to his or her own facts. Be

sure to separate facts from assumptions.

Understanding assumptions and how they

influence your decision-making and judgment is

very important so you will be able to effectively

manage your time and priorities.

5. Taking shortcuts. This means that in an effort to

get things accomplished, you rely inappropriately

on the most readily available information without

validating it. It also includes relying on convenient

facts that are not well supported. While trying to

accomplish this quickly, we may inhibit our

effectiveness by forgetting to think outside the box

for solutions. In the end, it will cost you time and

you will end up having to repeat your efforts.

6. Shooting from the hip. This means that you wing

it rather than follow a systematic procedure

towards decision-making. Because you want to

appear as if you have all the answers, you may be

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in trouble in very short order. Instead, take a few

minutes to write down a logical progression or

course of action and then follow through with the

measure.

7. Group failure. This happens when you assume

that because you have smart people on a team, it

will automatically lead to good choices. You can

make the mistake that you then do not need to

oversee the group’s decision-making process.

Teams and groups will generally come up with

better solutions to problems, but you must be

aware of groupthink and group failure. These two

failures can lead to faulty decision making and

may cost time and money to repair. The

Challenger disaster can be traced back to

groupthink.

8. Foolish feedback. This means you fail to look

back objectively, candidly, openly, and honestly at

past performance so you can better predict future

outcomes. Do not be fooled by foolish feedback.

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You may hear that things went well and eventually

you may start believing it yourself. However, the

reality is that there are some improvements that

need to be made, which will help make the project

more efficient next time. By completing a candid

after action review or by taking the time to gather

input from your team on how things went will help

you set things up for the future and avoid foolish

feedback.

9. Failing to document. This means you failed to

keep systematic records to track the results of

your decisions. You need to analyze these results

in ways that reveal key lessons learned. Write the

experience down and refer to it as lesson learned.

This exercise will improve your future decision-

making and help with your time management.

10. Failing to audit. This means failing to create an

organized approach to understanding your own

decision-making. You will need to do it so you can

critically examine the processes and procedures

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used to derive your conclusions. Learning from

those will also help improve time management

skills.

Now that we have looked at some traps that we can

all fall into when learning to manage time and priorities, we

can discuss some tips and techniques to improve those

same skills. First, learn to manage your e-mail. We

recommend establishing set times to read and answer your

e-mail each day. If you try to do it throughout the day, you

will find that you will end up spending most of the day

looking at incoming messages. A large portion of your e-mail

is for information only. You do not necessarily have to

respond to everything. Manage your inbox using rules

whenever possible, delete what you have read, save and file

as needed, and then move on to the next message. We

encourage you to create sub-folders to store and save

critical information and help manage your inbox and save

time.

Keep your mobile phone on vibrate mode whenever

possible. No one likes a cell phone ringing in the middle of a

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conversation or a group activity. It can cause you to repeat

information or even temporarily stop what you are doing so

that person can answer or shut the phone off. A very

effective time management technique is to forward your

office phone calls to your cell phone when you are out of the

office. This will keep you from having multiple messages to

review when you return to the office. It also helps you to stay

current on things while you are away instead of trying to

catch up when you return.

Keep a notebook with you to record your thoughts,

ideas, improvements, and suggestions when someone

makes them. This will save time by not having to recreate

the information or track down what people said later. You

can use the notes to keep yourself on track. Learn to use to-

do lists to help manage multiple tasks and issues. Break

complex tasks into incremental sections and check them off

as you complete them. You will then be able to keep on task

and track your progress effectively.

Another tip is to stay in your lane. Remain focused on

your particular role or position within the organization. Do not

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waste your time working on issues that are outside of your

area of responsibility or authority. So much of our time can

be spent worrying, thinking, or having conversations about

things that are out of our control. Likewise, you need to keep

your crews, employees, and team members focused on their

own responsibilities.

Concurrently, train your team on how to be decision

makers. You do not want a crew that only does what you ask

them to do. If you do not allow them to make decisions or

overturn their decisions, they will then have to come to you

with every question and every decision. You do not have that

kind of time available. Remember to communicate task and

purpose to them and then encourage them to come up with

their own solutions. Support their decisions. If you disagree,

have a private conversation about what you would have

considered in making the decision, but publicly support their

decision.

When you communicate with written media, make

sure you use active voice. Use short, simple, easily

understood sentences. Keep your internal memos to one

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page. Follow up important meetings and negotiations with an

e-mail to make sure all parties agree to what was agreed to.

Avoid jargon and company specific language, especially

when dealing with people outside of the organization. Most

people can significantly reduce the time they spend writing

memos by shortening up what they want to say.

As you prepare your calendar, be sure to share it with

others so they can see your long and short-term plans. By

sharing such information, people will be aware of your plans

and be less likely to overcommit you. It will also help with

your time management efforts. You can also share

calendars electronically, especially if you are out of the office

for long periods of time. Many offices use this technique to

check on office personnel availability while someone is

traveling and this lessens their chances of overscheduling.

Consider scheduling some time for catch-up work on your

calendar each week.

When you work on solving problems or completing

important tasks, you must learn when enough is enough.

Many leaders want to do everything perfectly and, as a

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result, they do only a few things very well while other tasks

never get started. Be careful not to be a victim of your own

self-imposed analysis paralysis. Learn to stop constantly

analyzing, then re-analyzing a project to get to an exact

solution. When you stop that activity, it can be a huge time

saver and will keep you sane. Request input from others on

key decisions and then be confident with the resulting plan

and go with it. Trust yourself and your decisions.


“Good Enough”

Another time management technique concerns

voicemail. When you try to reach another person and they

are out of the office, leave a useful message for them. A

message of “Hey Bill, give me a call sometime. I need to

discuss a project with you”, is not helpful for Bill. He only

knows that you need to talk to him. Convey the what, when,

where, and why of the message so that when Bill gets your

voicemail, he can leave a useful message as well. Instead of

playing phone tag with each other, you will be able to start

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the process of information exchange that you need. Ask

others to leave you useful voice messages as well so that

you can respond accordingly.

Do not be afraid to ask for clarification. If you do not

understand, ask your supervisor for clarification. It is not

uncommon to see staff people and leaders struggle while

trying to interpret what their supervisor wanted them to do.

All they needed to do was to ask for clarification. Asking is

not a sign of weakness; rather, it is a sign of strength. If you

are not getting what you need from your superiors, keep

going back to them until you do. This will help your

supervisor know what type of information you need in the

future and that you are proactive and willing to take the

initiative.

Meetings can be a huge waste of time as well. If you

set meetings up correctly, a good meeting will have an

agenda and a clear purpose. The agenda will let the

attendees know what is going to be discussed and how

much time will be required. Lead the meeting by keeping

people on task. When others stray off target, and they will,

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use a white board or sheet of paper to record items that

need to be addressed later. Bring them back to the focus of

the meeting. You may have to schedule another meeting to

discuss those items later.

To make more effective use of everyone’s time, make

yourself accessible. This does not mean to be indispensable.

Good leadership does not mean others cannot make a

decision without having to come through you first. When you

fail to share information and do not allow others to make

their own decisions, you are setting them up for failure. You

have reverted to micro-management. When this happens,

from a time management perspective you have taken a

mega step backwards, and it will be tough for you to get your

head above water again because others will not be willing to

help. If you rule by authority, all you will ever get is

compliance, nothing more and nothing less. You have to

trust your team to make decisions on their own. Make sure

everyone understands his or her mission and the mission

critical objectives of what you are asking him or her to

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accomplish. Share information freely with them. Knowledge

equals power but only when it is shared.

Learn how to filter information. When you get an e-

mail detailing an important task that needs to be completed,

evaluate if the information and associated tasks are

something that your subordinates need to know or do. If you

decide it does not apply to them or if it is something you are

going to take care of later, filter it out of the e-mail before

passing it on to the next level. It will help avoid confusion

and duplication of effort later. Also, remember that a task

passed on is not necessarily a task completed. You as a

leader are always responsible for the successes and failures

of your team. Just because you tell somebody to complete a

task does not mean it is going to get done. When you assign

a task to an individual, give them whatever information they

need and then follow up throughout the process to ensure

they are successful.

Learn what your prime time is - the time of day when

you are at your best. You must know when the ideal time is

for you to devote yourself to such things as conceptualizing

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important projects, going through your e-mail, or getting your

work done. Some people are morning people while others

work best in the afternoons or evenings. Regardless, guard

this time with a jealous passion and use it for working on

your most critical tasks. Work on the tough stuff first when

you are at your peak and able to think clearly without

interruption. Do not wait and try to tackle difficult items at the

end of your day or when you are fatigued or your mind is in

overload. If you do so, you will be inefficient and less

effective.

Make sure you pick the right tool for the job at hand.

When measuring, suppose that you need to know the

distance between two points in the office. How would you go

about doing that? Think about this and write down as many

ways as you can to accomplish this. We came up with these

options to estimate the distance between two points:

a. You could pace off how many steps it is between

them,

b. You could use a tape measure and measure the

distance,

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c. You could measure a tile on the floor or ceiling

and then multiply by the number of tiles between

the two points,

d. You could even get a laser range finder and

measure the distance electronically

e. Perhaps you could use GPS technology to figure

this out for you.

How many of these did you come up with?

Now comes the million dollar question, which tool

would you use and why? At the end of the day, you could

probably use any of these methods and be just fine.

However, what if you were to think about it from a time and

priority management standpoint? Would that make a

difference in which tool you would use, and if so, why?

Frankly, it really depends on the nature of what it is

that you are trying to measure. If all you are trying to do is

get a rough estimate of the size of a room, it would make no

sense to set up a GPS unit when you could step the

difference off or count ceiling tiles.

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So why do we so often overthink the task at hand or

choose a tool for the job that is overkill and a waste of our

time and resources? This often boils down to not taking the

time to plan our projects thoroughly. As leaders, it is

important to utilize resources wisely and gather enough

information to make informed decisions is the first step

towards saving time, money, and energy.

A final time management tip is to understand and

prioritize your own operating principles and share them with

others. This is commonly known as succession planning. If

something happened to you today, could your team continue

to be productive? How difficult would it be for someone else

to walk in and take over for you? How difficult would it be for

them to provide senior management with updates on critical

projects? If the answer is that it would be difficult, then you

probably want to start thinking hard about identifying one or

more team members with the desire and fortitude to fill your

position and start training them to do so. The time to think

about succession planning is NOT when you are lying in the

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hospital after a serious accident or a month before you plan

on retiring.

One measure of a good leader is having a team

trained and confident to carry on without you. As we

mentioned in the opening chapter, leadership is a life long

journey. It takes time and training to fill the shoes of great

leaders. When spread over time, training the right person for

the job can actually save both time and money. Choosing

the wrong person by taking a short cut and not putting the

necessary time into training someone properly could result in

a mistake that you or others will pay for dearly for many

years to come.

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Part III: The Actions of the Leader

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CHAPTER 9. SUPERVISING

Apply the right leadership style for the situation, the

problem at hand, and the people involved; become a

transformational leader. Effectively, fairly, and

consistently apply the leadership code of conduct in the

workplace.

How you supervise people depends on several

factors. You need to take into account the situation, the

employees involved, and the nature of the problem that you

are trying to solve. Some leaders get in trouble by employing

the wrong leadership style for the wrong situation. If there is

a fire in the building and you need to get the employees out.

Do you call a meeting? Do you organize a focus group to

analyze and study the situation? Of course not. You tell

everyone to get out of the building.

Conversely, if you are trying to figure out where to go

for lunch, you may want to ask others for their opinions and

ideas and then reach a consensus on where to go. Two

different situations, two different leadership approaches to

solving the problem.

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When looking at leadership styles, the first type is a

directing style. This style tends to be very leader-centered

because the leader directs all the activities. This style may

be appropriate when time is short or when you are leading

inexperienced teams and employees. However, a directing

approach does not mean you use abusive or demeaning

language or threats and intimidation. It means that you

outline all the conditions for the tasks that need to be

accomplished and how they are going to be accomplished,

and then you supervise the effort.

Next is a participating leadership style. A participating

leadership style tends to be both leader and team centered.

It is appropriate when time is less critical or when you are

dealing with more experienced teams and employees. A

participating approach also works great when team building

because now the team has ownership in the plan. You

employ this style by asking others for their opinions and

views and then you reach consensus as a group on what

needs to be done. This style works best with dealing with

more experienced teams and those trained for the tasks. If

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you start using a directing leadership style with groups like

this, they will be insulted and will start shutting down.

Instead, ask them for their input and then listen to what they

have to say.

The third leadership style is a delegating style. The

delegating style is team-centered and is appropriate when

you are dealing with very experienced employees. These

employees are usually your go to people and are employees

you know you can trust to get a job accomplished. Using this

style, you delegate tasks to your employees and then set

parameters as to when they need to be finished. Then you

step back and let them go to work. You are now giving the

entire ownership of those tasks or projects to your

employees. Because of that, be sure to follow up with them

at regular intervals to ensure they have everything they need

to complete the job. Just remember that when you do

employ this leadership style, you can delegate authority, but

you can never delegate responsibility. You as a leader are

always responsible for the successes and failures of the

team.

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Consider an example of the differences as to when

we employ each of these styles. Suppose that it has come to

your attention that the team’s work schedule needs to be

adjusted, and you realize you have been relying heavily on

one employee for a specific task. In a directing style of

leadership, you would re-evaluate the schedule, make

changes, and share it with the team. If you had a group of

new employees or inexperienced team members, this might

be the best approach. With a participating style of

leadership, you might discuss with the team, getting their

input and agreement on a new schedule. This would work

with a team that is familiar with the tasks, timing, and impact

of scheduling. With a delegating style of leadership, you

would explain the issue and goal of equalizing the workload

and give it to your team to revise the schedule. This might be

the best idea with a team of very experienced members who

understand the timing issues with the work. In all cases, the

schedule is revised, but you can see how the knowledge of

your team members can play into how you decide to change

the schedule.

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“My Best Supervisor”

Leadership styles have more recently been referred to

as either being transformational or transactional. A

transformational leader is one who rises above their own

immediate needs and self-interests and puts the needs of

the team ahead of their own. They take advantage of the

skills of their team to see the projects through to completion.

Transformational leaders motivate through inspiration. They

encourage others to challenge themselves. They encourage

innovation and they develop empowered employees who are

able to make their own decisions and make improvements

within the operation.

Conversely, we have what we call transactional

leaders. Transactional leaders are those who motivate

primarily through rewards and punishments. They tend to

outline all the conditions for the task, leaving little room for

initiative and judgment. Transactional leaders tend to focus

mainly on people’s failures as opposed to their successes

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and because of this, they tend to be less effective in the

workplace. They are the ones who are out there hovering

over their employees and micromanaging everything they

do. When you do that, you create a workplace environment

that is not open to discuss and debate. The team has no

initiative, and only sees itself as trying to get the work done

to appease the boss as opposed to accomplishing

organizational goals.

As you move ahead in your leadership role you need

to look in the mirror and ask yourself, What kind of leader do

I want to be? The answer is simple: be yourself. Do not try to

be someone you cannot be. That makes you a phony. Be

the boss and do not play favorites. You can still have friends

within the organization, but be careful not to play favorites.

Do not show favoritism in the workplace by assigning tasks

unfairly or inconsistently or by punishing some when they

make a mistake and not punishing others when they make

the same mistake. If you are a new supervisor and you took

someone’s spot who possibly stepped down or was relieved

of their duty, remember them if they are still there. Respect

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what they did, and if still around, involve them in the

leadership process and use them to help you become a

more effective leader of your team.

If there are others who applied for the supervisor’s

role you are now in, respect them as well. It is doubtful that

you were the only applicant for the position. Respect those

who did not get selected and do not gloat. Instead, as time

marches on, work with them to help improve their leadership

competencies so they are be better prepared to compete for

the next supervisory position when it becomes available.

As early as you can, meet with your team. Seek

advice and support from them. Let them know that they are

valued and an important part of this operation. Again, it is not

about you. Instill in them the understanding that you want

them to come to you when they have problems and issues

and not work around you. As a supervisor, remember to

control your emotions. Do not lose your cool or take things

personally. You are all on the same team just as you were

when they were your peers. It is not us against them. You

may have been working alongside many of your team

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members as an hourly employee for many years and may

have very well been part of the us in this equation. Even so,

you still need to establish yourself as their leader now and let

them know what your expectations are.


“The Rule of Thirds”

Do what you can to break down the us versus them

mentality by building on the comraderies and friendships that

you have developed over all the years you worked together

with them. Do not be in a rush to effect change, though.

Remember the old cliché that the new broom sweep things

clean. Do not be that new broom. Take some time to

understand what the impact of your move into your new

position has on your team do not make false assumptions

about your team that things need to be changed to make

them more effective.

Resist the urge to come charging in like a valiant

knight in shining armor. Give your team a few weeks or

maybe a month to get onboard after laying out your

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expectations. Your perceptions of their behavior may have

been very wrong before because you may not have seen the

big picture of why certain individuals acted the way they did.

If you now come rushing in to effect change on those

perceived bad work habits, you may land yourself in a

discrimination or harassment hot seat before you even really

get your feet wet. Do not kid yourself and think that the rest

of the team will jump to your side of the field.

Regardless of the work relationship you had with

them before, a majority of them will automatically side with

their peers. Right, wrong, or indifferent, it is just what people

do as peers. Alienating yourself from them is not what you

need to do early in your new career, either. Again, resist the

urge to start exerting your new power just because you can

and instead give yourself and your team time to adjust to the

new way.

When working on projects, start your efforts slowly

and deliberately and carefully plan things out. Give yourself

some time to think about each task that is critical to the

success of the project. Ask your team for input on options.

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Do not dictate the terms and conditions of the job to them.

Get out in front and stay involved with them. Do not hide in

your office behind your desk. People are more apt to share

with you any concerns they may have when you are on their

turf instead of when you call them in to yours. Gathering

input from them before making any decisions will increase

your confidence in your own decision-making abilities, as it is

now a team effort. You will not feel as though you

shouldered all of the weight in making the decisions.

You will, more than likely, still make mistakes along

the way and when you do, that is fine. Evaluate the process

to see why the mistakes occurred and take the necessary

steps to correct things the next time around, but by no

means should you now become indecisive about your

decision-making. That will only frustrate your team and will

also put a damper on your own confidence building abilities.

Be honest with your team when a mistake occurs,

communicate with them what happened, and then go forth

and lead boldly.

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Even though the concept of leading by walking

around is probably older than the combined age of your

team, there is still merit to it even in today’s workplace. Be

visible and accessible to your team. Walk around and see for

yourself how things are going. If time allows, give them a

hand. If your team sees that you are still willing to get your

hands dirty, it will not take long before the majority of them

will start supporting you and your efforts in the workplace.

Your people will be much more productive if they see you

working as well. They will also see that even though you

have a new position, you are still the same person you used

to be.

Just because you are a new supervisor, do not abuse

the new authority that comes along with it. Remember that

your time is precious and just because you are not punching

the clock any longer does not mean that your obligation to

the organization is any less important than it was before.

Your time is no less important than the time expected from

your team. You still need to give a full day’s work for the

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money you are paid. Enjoy the flexibility you now have, but

learn to respect it as well.


“Supervising for the Future”

Another thing that has not changed is the importance

of good communications when problem solving. You still

need to be a good listener and have an open mind. Ask

good questions and avoid asking yes/no questions. Instead,

ask questions that solicit thought and ideas.

Examine the entire issue. If employees come to you

with problems, ask them to consider potential solutions for

each problem. Train them on the fact that the open door

policy does not mean a problem-dumping policy. That does

nothing toward resolving the issue. All it does is transfer the

problem from one person to the next. Asking them to come

prepared with possible solutions of their own allows them to

be a part of the solution and keeps you from jumping right in

to fix things before giving anyone else a chance to help. It

also ensures you are fixing the right issue. Your employees

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will gladly let you make as many decisions as you want and

do all of the work yourself, but that takes away from their

having any responsibility in the process. In addition, they will

be just as glad to tear apart any ideas that you come up with,

and you will be right back to the us/them issue that you had

before.

Set aside time for listening. Be attentive and do not

allow yourself to get distracted. Understand your area of

responsibility. If you are having a sensitive conversation with

someone, go into a neutral area. Try to sit on the same side

of the desk or table as the employee. This sends a clear

message that you are there to focus on them and what they

have to say as opposed to being distracted by emails that

may come across on your computer.

Have you ever heard the expression the loneliness of

command? It is an old military term that has been around for

some time and is one that may be the wrong term in today’s

global workplace. If you are ever lonely, it has nothing to do

with the fact that you are in command. Instead, you are

doing something wrong. Even though you are the leader,

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you are still part of the group activity that comes with being

on a team. If you feel isolated, seek out a coach or mentor to

help figure out why and to talk things through with you. Look

at others in positions like yours who are happy and try to

emulate what they are doing. Seek someone with whom you

can talk in confidence to. You are human and you still need

a shoulder to lean on now and then.

Leadership should never include loneliness. It is

wonderful to have friends and confidants. It is all right to go

to off-hour social events with both your own peers as well as

with subordinates. Just be cautious of not sharing

confidential things and of not showing favoritism back on the

job.

Make sure you learn to prioritize your work based on

input received from your own supervisor. Set up periodic

(often daily) meetings with your supervisor to ensure that

they are being clear and setting clear expectations about

what they want. Establish a good relationship with them in

order to keep information flowing between you and him or

her. Determine what your critical tasks are, being careful not

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to allow people to pull you from project to project. Learn to

prioritize based on the projects results that give you the

greatest return on your investment of your time, talent, and

resources. Take large projects and break them down into

smaller work units in order to determine a logical, sequential

process for getting them done.

Do not make up excuses. If you find yourself getting

behind, ask for help, because that is what others are there

for. Utilize their help when needed, remembering that they

too were in your shoes at one point in their own careers.

You are a supervisor now and that means that while

you still must treat everyone with trust and respect, things

have taken just a bit of a twist. Things you once were able to

do and say may not be appropriate now and could be

considered as offensive or degrading. Be careful about using

humor to put down others. We have seen leaders use a

humorous situation to set themselves up as the person in

charge by putting down others with innuendos and jokes. All

that does is degrade others, and it sets you up for failure.

Again, just because you could do it as a team member does

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not mean that you can repeat it as a team supervisor. You

are now under a new set of rules and obligations. Saying

and doing some things that you did before could get you in

hot water in your new position. You are now an agent for the

organization and things you say and do reflect directly on the

organization. Similar to a father handing his name off to his

son, you must carry the organization’s name with pride and

respect.

An important thing as a new supervisor is the

importance of being consistent and finding balance in your

life. While you still want to remain flexible and willing to

adapt to new situations as they occur, you have to be

consistent with your actions and reactions at all times. It is

important to let go of your preconceived notions, your

biases, and your prejudices and to listen to your team

members. Believe us, they will teach you things that you

may never figure out on your own. Learning to accept input

from your team and not finding excuses for not implementing

what they suggested, you may be shocked by the success

you are able to achieve as a team. This will give you the

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confidence to empower your team to start making decisions

on their own and will give you more time to focus on the

responsibilities that come with being a new supervisor.

As a new supervisor, you must learn to delegate in

order to survive. Have clear goals in mind and communicate

them to your subordinates or even to peers, but delegate the

work that needs to be accomplished so others can help in

achieving those goals. It is good to jump in and be hands on

now and then, but be careful that you do not become so

engrossed in the work yourself that you lose perspective of

the bigger picture of what is going on within the workplace.

You are ultimately responsible for the successes and failures

of your team. It means leaving your office now and then and

walking around to see for yourself what is going on and

ensure your entire team is pulling their load and working

together towards getting the project done.

Although we have talked about managing and leading

change, it warrants some discussion in relation to

supervision. Keep in mind that many of your employees will

feel uncomfortable with change because change by its very

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nature means some things will be different tomorrow than

they were today.

Human beings take comfort and solace in traditions,

routine, and predictability. Change automatically creates

anxiety and natural resistance. When someone disagrees

with the change, he or she is not necessarily disagreeing

with you. New supervisors tend to take this resistance to

change personally. Do not use your authority to try to force

your team to accept change. Instead, instill a desire within

them to see the change through to the end by getting them

involved in the change management process.

Lead them through the change. Your team will watch

how you react to change and take their lead from you. If you

look for the benefits of the change and work to make it

successful, your team will too. If you fight the change and

call it the flavor of the day, this gives your team permission

to resist the change and work around it, actually causing

failure at times. Be confident you understand the change so

you can discuss it with your team and support it as a leader

in the organization.

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When you have a disagreement with someone make

certain that you address it as soon as you can. Determine

what the issue is, why it is important, and together develop a

reasonable solution that everyone involved can agree with or

agree to. Conflict is not like a fine wine and does not get

better with age. Some of the greatest conflicts we have had

as supervisors were a result of not addressing the issue in a

timely manner.

When an employee brings you a complaint or

concern, you first need to determine whether the complaint

is valid. You determine what the real issue is and make sure

you are dealing with the true problem rather than a symptom

of the issue. Use your active listening skills to get to the root

cause of the problem or complaint. Sometimes employees

will vent to you and not really need any action from you other

than to listen. If you believe the complaint is valid, determine

what, if anything, can be done to settle the complaint or

issue. Determine whether you have the authority or the know

how to resolve the issue. If not, pass it on to the appropriate

level along with your input as to why you feel the issue

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warrants action. By acting and listening when needed, you

will demonstrate care for your team and this will build trust.

When someone on your team does something good,

make sure to let him or her and others know about it. Tell

them what they did right and celebrate their success. Make

sure the praise is specific to what they did. Do not just walk

by and say good job or well done. That does not reinforce

the behavior you want to reinforce. Be specific, like, “Joe,

you did a really great job yesterday on the welding project

we started in the welding bay. It put us back on schedule

and I really do appreciate your efforts.” Also if they were the

only person involved in completing the task, make your

praise specific to them, or you will have lessened the effect it

has by now praising everyone in the room. Depending on the

person involved, do not be afraid to repeat the praise in a

team setting so that all of the team members will see that

you are willing to recognize them for their efforts. At times,

the person may not want public recognition and that is fine.

Knowing your team members well enough to know who likes

public praise and who does not is important. Some people

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are embarrassed by public praise and truly like staying in the

background. Respect that.

Understand the importance of good documentation in

your new role as a supervisor. Having good documentation

is important in many aspects of your job. It could be used to

support a disciplinary action. It could be used as evidence if

your company ever gets involved in a legal proceeding. It

could be used to spot patterns or make decisions. It is

helpful in completing performance evaluations. Keep notes

when you see someone doing something well or someone

not performing as expected. Acknowledge the behavior at

the time, but make a note of it. Note the date, event, and

who was involved. It does not matter if you use a hand

written process or an electronic process, but do keep your

notes confidential. Others should not have access to your

files with personal notes. The point is that good

documentation is one of the most important things you need

to learn to do as a supervisor. Your notes can provide the

necessary documentation when people are not on the same

page about a specific course of action or about something

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that possibly happened in the past. They also help when you

are at a crossroad as to what to do next, and will certainly

help you with your time management. Good notes may help

you see patterns that otherwise go unnoticed.

Corrective action or progressive discipline comes with

supervision. When, not if, you find yourself needing to

counsel an employee over a mistake or performance issue,

use a progressive process. This often means a multiple step

process that begins with a verbal warning and can ultimately

end with the termination of the employee. Choose the least

form of corrective action necessary to get the behavior

change you need. Progressive discipline steps usually

include a verbal warning, written warning, letter of

reprimand, suspension, demotion, last chance warning, and

termination. However, do not overlook the fact that some

actions are so severe that they could take an employee

straight to the termination step, bypassing all of the other

steps along the way.

It is always a good idea to discuss progressive

discipline above a verbal warning with your boss and/or the

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Human Resource Department, depending on your company

policy. If you have given a verbal warning before and find

yourself giving it a second time, it might be a good time to

include your supervisor or Human Resources. They will often

have to approve some steps within the progressive discipline

process anyway, especially if termination is recommended.

Most importantly, make sure you are documenting what

occurred, when it occurred, what the violation is, and why

you took the action that you did. Include what the person has

committed to do to change their behavior. Set specific goals

to help ensure that the behaviors are not repeated or that the

behavior has changed as required.


“Maybe the Problem is Me”

In the US, you are responsible for many rules and

regulations in the workplace such as the Americans with

Disability Act, the Equal Opportunity Employment Act,

Sexual Harassment, and Discrimination. Staying current on

these laws and all company policies as well as state rules

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can seem daunting at times. They also can affect your legal

obligations as a supervisor in the workplace so this is a good

use of your Human Resource department, if you have one. If

you do not have a Human Resource department, find some

legal training once a year to keep yourself abreast of

changes in the law.

You are the eyes and the ears of the organization

now. You are usually the first line of defense for the

company when it comes to dealing with the hourly workforce.

You are also the voice of the organization when it comes to

dealing with your team. Be careful if you say or do

something that is inappropriate or does not uphold the

mission, vision, and values of the organization, whether

intended or not. Your actions represent those of the

organization and the organization will be held accountable

as such. All eyes are on you. Think about that before saying

or doing things of which you are unsure. If your instinct tells

you it could be wrong, then it probably is. Step back, re-

evaluate the decision, and ask for help when needed.

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Finally, have fun. This may sound like a lot of

responsibility, and it is, but there is pride in being

responsible. There is pride in success. As the leader, there

is also pride in going home each night knowing that you

accomplished something that day, and that you and your

team did well. That, and sometimes that alone, will get you

out of bed and back to work each day. Leadership is a

lifelong journey. You will not get there overnight nor should

you stop trying. Nevertheless, enjoy the trip, lead boldly, and

have fun!

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A Leadership Code of Conduct:

How Do You Measure Up?

Be the Leader: Exemplify your values and attributes;

enforce all rules, regulations, policies, practices, and

procedures fairly and consistently.

Treat Others Fairly and Consistently: Do not play

favorites.

Control Your Emotions: Do not lose control and do not

take it personally. Think before you speak.

Practice Effective Time Management: Give yourself time

and think, plan, and communicate what needs to be done.

Follow-through with the work.

Be Confident in your Decision-Making: Do not be afraid to

make mistakes or admit you made a mistake.

Be a Good Listener: Employ active listening skills to

determine what the true issues are and how together you

can find solutions to problems.

Be Visible: Get out in front, meet with your team, listen to

their ideas and concerns, and support your team.

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Set the Example: Remember that your team will respond

based on the example you set in the workplace, good or

bad.

Accept Responsibility: When things go well, recognize

your team; when things go bad, assume the responsibility to

fix problems, not blame others.

Be a Mentor: Help others reach their potential. Prepare

others for leadership responsibilities. Grow your

replacement. Set and support high expectations.

Communicate: Use the right communications tool for the

right situation. Talk with people, not to them. Repeat your

critical messages often and consistently.

Share the Power: Enable others to lead and assume the

authority for the work that needs to be done. Do not

micromanage and do not withhold information as a way to

exert power over others.

Prioritize Your Work: Set your priorities based on the

greatest return on the investment for the effort relative to

your organization’s goals and objectives.

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Delegate: Teach, coach, and mentor so that others can do

the work and take the initiative.

Lead as You Want to be Led: The golden rule applies

equally to leadership.

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CHAPTER 10. COUNSELING

Develop others so they can best reach their potential.

Apply your organization’s performance appraisal

program in order to improve performance. Communicate

honestly and openly with your team members.

A colleague once said, “If you do not counsel, you do

not care.” What he meant is that if you do not strive to let

folks know how they are doing and how they can improve,

then you do not care about them. If you do not care about

your employees or the team, they will soon know and

understand that and in return, they will not care about their

success or the success of the organization. To be a good

leader, you must learn how to counsel.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you

hear the word counsel? Perhaps you think it means that you

have done something wrong and now you will be in trouble

for it. Unfortunately, in many organizations that is how

counseling is used. It is a tool that is pulled off the shelf and

dusted off only when an employee has done something

wrong.

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On the contrary, counseling is something that needs

to take place regularly and can be used in a positive manner.

It is a tool to let people know how they are doing. If they

have done well, let them know. If not, let them know as well.

Counsel in a timely manner and do not hoard things so you

can drop a bombshell later.

There are key elements that you can use to help

maximize employee performance. The first is let people

know what you expect. If people know what you expect of

them, that is what they will do. If they do not know, they will

do something else and it usually will not be what you hoped.

It is up to you to communicate performance expectations

clearly and unambiguously, and then hold people

accountable for achieving them. People will usually perform

to the level of expectations you have set for them, and no

higher. Set realistic expectations for them but also challenge

them to perform better, to go that extra mile for you and for

the organization. When they do, they will soon realize that

they also will have gained something from those extra efforts

including growth, learning, and pride. Once you have

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communicated your expectations to them clearly,

consistently, and often, follow up with them to make sure

they are not sidetracked.

The next thing is to be a systems thinker. Remind

people of their interconnectedness within the organization.

Something that happens with your team can certainly affect

other teams, departments, and sections of the organization

as well. Similarly, things that happen with other crews and

other teams can also affect your team. Remind people that

they are part of a bigger picture, of a greater purpose the

organization is trying to accomplish. If people know and

understand that what they do has a direct impact on others,

they will tend to try harder to do well at their task because

they will understand the relationship between what they

accomplish and what must be accomplished for the entire

organization.

Keep people informed. Do not assume that your team

can read your mind - they cannot. They cannot hear you

think. If there is something going on, let them in on it. As a

supervisor, you are privy to more information than your

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team. They rely on you to be their conduit of communication

from the broader organization. A lack of information is what

feeds the rumor mill and leads to innuendos and

assumptions about what is going on and what management

is up to. Without information, people will invent their own

stories and the human tendency is to think the worst. A well-

timed word of truth can prevent a lot of worrying and untrue

information in the workplace. Communicate regularly and

communicate often. Remember, you can never over-

communicate.

Let people own their jobs. Remember your first car

and how you felt about owning it and how hard you worked

to keep it clean and in good working order? The same holds

true for people’s jobs. If people have ownership in their job

they will try harder, they will work smarter to take care of that

job, and they will ultimately do a good job. Try to instill in

your people that they have more than just a job; they have a

responsibility.

Establish a culture that seeks feedback. Things

usually go wrong about 10% of the time, yet we tend to

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spend 90% of our time belaboring it. Get over it. Learn from

it and move on to the next thing. Conversely, do you only

spend about 10% of your energy thinking about the 90% of

the things that are done well? If that is the case, you also

need to adjust your thinking. Deal with the problems, but

focus the major of your time on the positive.

You must fix the things that are broken, but you must

also sustain the good things that are going on within your

organization and within your team. Spend more time

providing feedback about the positive outcomes instead of

dominating people’s time with the negative things that

occurred. They will then be more willing and open to talk to

you about everything that is going on within your team,

whether good or bad. Passing on a good word about

someone or providing well-deserved praise or recognition

does not diminish you in any way.

It does not take any light away from your candle to

shine that light on someone else. By giving your people

credit for the success of the team, you build them up and

cause their own candles to grow increasingly brighter. They

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can then light the way to continued improvement and

success. It all starts with you and your willingness to provide

the feedback and model the right behaviors for your

employees to follow.

Understand that sharing power is another great way

to maximize performance. Inevitably, when we ask people in

training sessions who has the power, they will often point to

whoever is the workshop facilitator. To an extent that is true

and the formal facilitator does have some power over the

group in terms of what is being discussed or perhaps the

conduct of the class. We are teaching, but the real power is

really within them. They have the power either to listen or not

to listen, to participate or not to participate. John Maxwell

once said the person with the most influence in the room is

the real leader. Shared power therefore goes both ways.

Leaders share power when they share what they know, the

knowledge within them. The rest of the team shares power

by listening to the ideas presented to them and then by

choosing to participate, to take a seat on the bus. Power

shared is power gained. You do not gain your power from

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yourself as the leader. Rather, you gain power from the way

you lead your team or from the success of the team. The

idea that power should be hoarded and wielded when

needed is outdated in today’s environment of teamwork.

Sharing knowledge and brainstorming is where the real

power lies in today’s culture.

When a team performs poorly, the coach loses his or

her job, not the players. When the coach fails to provide the

conditions to motivate the players to perform to their

maximum levels, they end up playing just hard enough to

keep their jobs. However, when just hard enough leads to a

losing season, the coach is usually the first person out, not

the players. Does that make them spoiled athletes? Not

really. The money they make motivates them to at least the

level of just hard enough. It is about more than the money.

Leadership is the key to maximizing employee performance

by setting challenging, yet realistic, expectations. By

communicating clearly and giving feedback to help your

team understand those expectations, you will give them what

they need to gain those extra few yards to the goal line. So

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money keeps them coming back, but in the end it is your

expectations and leadership that will inspire them to want to

perform better.


“If You Don’t Counsel, You Don’t Care”

Have you ever noticed how hard volunteers work and

how dedicated most of them are, how much of their time

they give to their volunteer organizations? Do you ever

wonder why that is? Volunteers tend to have buy-in to the

mission and vision of the organization. They work hard to

support the mission and others recognize and appreciate

their efforts. Volunteers are often given jobs that carry large

responsibilities. They are recognized and provided with

opportunities for personal and professional growth. They

understand that what they do really matters. If you treat your

team as volunteers, you will find that their performance will

rise as well.

Finally, remember that what happens while you are

there does not matter as much as what happens when you

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are not there. The performance you are trying to achieve

from your team is maximum performance when you are not

around. Is your team willing, able, and empowered to take

on those duties and responsibilities even when you are not

there? The best way to judge the effectiveness of your

leadership is how well the team performs when you are not

looking over their shoulders.

When you have an employee whose performance

needs to improve, here are some suggestions to conduct

that conversation. Start the conversation by telling the

employee you want to talk about their performance and

begin with what they are doing well. This helps them

recognize their strengths and be more open to listen to those

areas they need to improve. If you start by focusing on what

the problem is, you will put the employee on the defensive

and they will more than likely shut down and not hear

another word beyond that point. They will want to focus on

what they do well to offset your criticism. When you get to

that point of discussing the poor performance, describe the

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problem clearly and in a non-threatening way. Focus on the

specific behavior or action that needs improvement.

Refrain from talking about them personally or

generalizing personality traits such as telling them that they

have a bad attitude. They will feel attacked as an individual

and that is not the reason why you are there. Instead, talk

specifically about what they did or did not do. Remain

positive by explaining that you will be an active partner in

helping them in correcting the situation and that you are

willing to work with them in order to get their performance to

the levels you need and expect. Put the ball in their court.

Ask them for help in solving the problem. Mutually discuss

alternative solutions and agree on actions that need to be

taken in order to solve the problem. Try to use what the

employee suggests whenever possible. If necessary, steer

the conversation toward a solution, but do it in a way that

allows them to be a part of selecting a solution.

When the employee’s ideas become part of the

solution, they will be much more committed to making it

work. Once you come to a mutual understanding on what the

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solution is, make sure you provide the resources they need

to improve. In some instances, there may be an easy

remedy to the situation. Maybe a better process or

procedure is needed to help the employee become more

efficient. Perhaps some additional training is needed.

Whatever it is, make sure you provide the time and

resources for the employee so they have an opportunity to

improve and to grow. Let them know you are confident they

will be able to sustain any change. Keep the focus positive

and looking forward.

As you continue your discussions about the agreed

upon solutions, make sure you outline a specific action plan

with specific dates and milestones that must be achieved in

order to realize the improvement. Ask questions to make

sure that the employee understands what is expected of him

or her. It helps ensure understanding when you hear the

plan restated in his or her own words. You should also set

checkpoints along the way so that there is an opportunity for

changing the course of action if necessary. While you may

determine that the endpoint should occur within a few

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weeks, you might still want to set some milestone dates

along the way to make sure that the performance

improvement you agreed to is on track towards completion.

Finally, make sure that when you have these

performance improvement conversations with your

employees that you always end on a positive note. It is

important to communicate to the employee that you are

confident he/she can solve this problem and make a

contribution to the organization. By ending on a positive

note, you make the employee feel better about themselves

and keep the person focused on the solution. Most people

will beat themselves up more than the supervisor will, so

ensure they leave with a plan on how to improve. They will

leave knowing they are still a valued part of the team,

especially if you can give them specific examples of where

they have done well. Do not then drop the ball yourself and

fail to follow through on your commitment to them.

Remember to hold a follow-up meeting according to what

you agreed upon in the initial meeting. Recognize any

improvements they have made during these follow-up

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meetings and continue to coach and counsel them toward

continued success. If improvement has not occurred, more

than likely you will find yourself moving into progressive

discipline in order to get their attention to the fact that you

are serious about the need for them to improve their

performance.

In summary, if you do not counsel, you do not care. If

you do not care about your employees they will not care

about you and you are not going to become an effective

leader. Whether or not you care about your team will be

readily apparent to them. The more you care, the more you

will take the time needed to teach, coach, and counsel them

on how they are doing and how they can do even better. If

you ignore performance problems in the workplace, you will

inevitably set a new standard of performance, one that you

may not want. Your team will question the consistency of

your actions and your credibility as a leader will diminish.

Take time to work with each team member and hold all to

the same standards of performance in the workplace.

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Finally, when you see performance slip, deal with it directly

in a non-threatening manner.

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CHAPTER 11. ETHICAL REASONING

Comply with all rules, regulations, and laws. Apply your

leadership and organizational values when faced with

difficult decisions. Make the right ethical decisions.

In Chapters 2 and 3, we talked about the values and

attributes of leaders. Ethical decision-making is the

application of those values and attributes in the day-to-day

decision-making process. Decisions that run contrary to

these leadership values and attributes, as well as to our

organizational values, mission, and vision, should not be

considered at any time. Business ethics is not a luxury or a

choice. It is an essential element to our business survival.

Ethics are essential not only to you, but to your team, the

organization, and especially customers and clients.

Research suggests that 97% of us agree that good

ethics make good business sense; however, 82% agreed

that American managers choose bigger profits over doing

what is right and 67% feel that ethical conduct is not

rewarded in today’s business environment. These figures

are based on a recent Gallup poll of American workers.

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What influences employee behavior at work? Researchers

suggest that 92% of employees based their ethical conduct

on the values expressed or modeled by the leaders of their

company. The ethics of the CEO, supervisors, and leaders,

how they act and respond to ethical situations, all have a

direct impact on the ethical conduct of the employees.


“Service Before Self”

What are ethics? Essentially, ethics is a set of

principles that help determine what is right and what is

wrong. Ethics helps answers questions such as: Am I

treating others with respect? Am I violating the rights of

others? Am I being honest with others and myself?

These are the types of questions that we should be

asking ourselves to determine whether the choices we are

making in the workplace are indeed ethical. Ethics is often

referred to as your conscience. Usually a spontaneous

response or feeling comes from your instincts when

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something is not going quite right and when your values are

being tested.

Ethics reflects who you are when no one is looking. It

is how you behave when no one else is watching you

behave that way. Ethics, however, are not the same as

morals. Morals have to do with how people view values such

as those related to drinking, sexual activity, or gambling.

Morals are reflected in religion, culture, family, and friends.

Ethics refer to how a moral person should behave. Ethics

are not defined by what happens to you, but by your

thoughts and actions. Ethics are also not about placing

blame. Do not judge others based on their personal beliefs,

but judge rather on their ethical practices.

Examples of several typical ethical rationalizations

include: if it is necessary it must be ethical; we are just

fighting fire with fire; or if no one gets hurt, it must be ok.

None of these arguments holds any merit and just because

others are acting unethically is not a license for you to follow

suit. It is your responsibility as a leader to act ethically at all

times, whether others are watching or not.

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So how does one become an ethical person? How

can you be an ethical person in the workplace? First, do no

harm. Avoid inflicting physical, mental, or emotional harm on

others. Offer assistance towards improving the lives of

others even if it may be inconvenient for you. Offering

assistance and improvement for others will not only help you

to become a more ethical person, it will help drive your

ethical decision making as well. Treat everyone fairly and

consistently all the time. Follow the golden rule. Do unto

others as you would want them to do unto you. You also

need to be faithful. Keep your promises, tell the truth, be

loyal, and maintain respect and stability in the workplace at

all times. This will go far in keeping you from getting into an

unethical situation.

How does the ethical decision making process work?

First, you need to identify what the problem is. What is the

ethical dilemma that you are wrestling with? Identify this in

terms of how it relates to your organizational or leadership

values. Identify what you are gaining by acting ethically or

unethically. How does the decision test against your

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organizational values? How does the decision you have to

make test against your leadership values or attributes that

we discussed in chapters two and three? Evaluate options

available to you. Consider the choices that you can make,

consider the options, impact, and consequences. Then

choose the best option that fits within the values and ethics

of the organization, but beware of the rationalizations that

can pop up that will lead you down the path to an unethical

decision.

There is no right way to do a wrong thing. Wrong is

wrong, even if you are not caught. You must be able to

demonstrate moral courage. Moral courage is the courage to

be honest, fair, responsible, and compassionate towards

others. When you witness conduct contrary to this in the

workplace, it is your responsibility to point it out. If you see

people treating employees unfairly, dishonestly, and

disrespectfully, it is your moral obligation as a leader to put a

stop to that.

Again, beware. We have already talked about the

diversities that exist in the workplace. What is disrespectful

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to a Traditionalist could very well be deemed commonplace

by a Gen Y employee. Do not jump to conclusions. Instead,

ask questions to ensure you know what is really going on.

As a leader, it is important to understand and

recognize the risks that are inherent to ethical decision

making. Choosing the harder right over the easier wrong is

the best course of action, but this may mean you have to

endure some hardships along the way. Sometimes the

ethical choices we make as leaders are not always the most

popular choices, but leadership is not a popularity contest. It

is not only doing things right, but it is also doing the right

things. People who have a strong need to be liked by their

team may struggle with ethical decision making more than

other people do. Choosing the harder right will leave some

team members unhappy and that is where the challenge lies.

You must be able to let their unhappiness roll off your back.

Do not take it personally and remember you made the right

choice.

Ethics includes both ethical choices and dilemmas.

We are faced with making difficult choices and decisions

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throughout our leadership lives. When in doubt, refer back to

your values, those timeless principles that guide us, shape

us, and mold us into who we are. They are our standards of

conduct. They define the character of who we are. If we

cross the lines of integrity, honesty, respect, and trust, we

cannot go back. You will make mistakes in your decision-

making, but there is no room for error in your ethical

decision-making.

You must maintain faithfulness to your values. You

must maintain faithfulness to your organizational mission,

vision, and values at all times. When you do not, when you

cross that line, you will fail and you may pull your

organization and your team down with you. The daily news is

full of countless examples of this and the result is always the

same. Laws are broken, jobs are lost, families fall apart, and

people are left broken. In an interview with a London

investment broker jailed for illegal trading, he stated that it all

started with one small error that he did not want to admit to.

He covered it up and the problem began to grow on its own.

He wanted to come clean many times, but there was too

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much at risk. In the end, the bank sold for pennies on the

dollar and he lost his job, his family, and his freedom all

because of one small error and his choice to do the wrong

thing.


“The Right Choice at the Right Time”

How do you lead an ethical team? What are some of

the actions you must take to make sure that your leadership

and the climate of your team is indeed ethical? To begin, be

careful what you say. You might get what you ask for, but

what you are asking for may not really be what you want.

For example, there are certain things you must be

careful about not saying because the results may not be

what you intended. The first of these is I promise. Can you

really follow through on that? Do you have the authority to

follow through on it? Do you even have the time and

resources necessary to commit to what you said you would?

Instead, say things like I will do my best or I will look into it. If

you promise someone something, you are then obligated by

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your leadership values to fulfill that promise. Granted there

will be times when the situation changes and you cannot

follow through. However, if you fail to fulfill a promise that

you made, you will have violated your trust to that person.

You have compromised your integrity and that is probably

not what you wanted to do.

The second phrase that raises concern is: I never

want to see another _____. When you say that to people,

you may very well get what you asked for. You may never

see whatever it is that irritated you, but did you fix the

problem or did you just provide them a license to cover up

mistakes? You are creating an ethical dilemma for them.

You are potentially putting them in a situation that could lead

to an ethical conflict.

Similar to not wanting to see is I never want to hear

about ______. The same thing applies here. Remember, you

need to focus on solutions and solving problems, not

creating conditions that could potentially force others into

ethical dilemmas. The last thing you intended was for that

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behavior to go underground, or be done outside of your

view, but that may be exactly what happens.

Do not shoot the messenger. If employees come to

you with bad news, negative outcomes, missed deadlines,

and so forth, control your emotions. One of our key

leadership attributes is self-discipline. When your employees

come to you and you get angry with them because of the

type of news they delivered to you, they are getting a mixed

signal here. You want this kind of information if you are

going to lead your team effectively. If you get angry,

frustrated, or raise your voice with your employees over

news you do not like to hear, they are not going to bring it to

you in the future. Be conscience of body language. A rolling

of the eyes or exasperated look of disgust will turn your team

away just as quickly as angry or a harsh tone. Again, you are

not solving the problem or finding the solution here. You are

actually giving your employees the message that you want

them to cover it up. Do not react to the message, put on your

poker face, listen, and then choose how you will act upon the

information given.

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The next point on leading an ethical team is that

appearances do matter. Be careful of what you say and do,

even if it is totally on the up and up. Do not contribute to the

rumor mill because of your actions. For example, a senior

leader and one of the people in his department, a female,

happened to be close friends. Once a month they would go

out to lunch together not thinking a thing about it. His team

began to believe that there was an inappropriate relationship

going on. While things were totally on the up and up, the

appearance was of bad behavior given his position as a

senior leader with the company. Think about what you are

doing, and if you believe your behavior could be perceived

the wrong way, either do not do it or communicate your

intentions beforehand to others.

Finally, the best way to lead an ethical team is to talk

about and use your organizational values. When you talk

about your values, whether they be your leadership values

or your organizationally stated values, talk about them by

giving examples of behavior in the workplace. Where did you

see integrity in action? Where did you see quality customer

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service? When did you see trust or respect or open and

honest communications? Find examples of each and

encourage your team to talk about similar examples. Doing

so helps keep the team focused on how to live these values.

If your organizational values are merely in a document

tucked away somewhere in a business plan or a poster on

the wall that no one talks about, they will over time be

forgotten. Live them daily, discuss how to live them often,

and exemplify them every chance you get. Leadership is not

built in a day, but built by daily actions.

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CHAPTER 12. COACHING AND MENTORING

Assess the strengths and weaknesses of team

members, working with them to identify growth and

advancement opportunities. Provide appropriate

feedback to improve performance and use the Power of

Positive Expectations to unlock potential.

If you are not growing your replacement and if you are

not developing your team, then you are failing in your

leadership obligations. One of our charges as leaders is to

make sure someone is there when we leave, whether it be

for a promotion, a transfer, retirement, or a different job. In

some instances, it could even be due to health issues or

death. Regardless, the time to start thinking about who will

replace you is not when you are cleaning out your office. No

matter what the reason for our departure, it is our

responsibility to set up the team for success with good

coaching and mentoring to prepare others to fill our shoes.

Good leaders build good teams. Great leaders build other

great leaders. It is selfish not to build other leaders. By

coaching and mentoring your team, they grow in their skills

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and abilities and become more productive, which makes you

look good. It is a great feeling to leave for a week or two

vacation and know that your team can and will take care of

things in your absence. You may have some things to deal

with when you return, but most issues have been taken care

of by your competent team. The ultimate goal of leadership

is to have your team developed and ready to take a role one

level above where they are currently working. This may

mean taking over for you when leave your position. You

need to feel confident that the work is going to be

accomplished, even in your absence, and that can only be

done through good coaching and mentoring. This is how you

ensure the continued success within the organization.

A team cannot win through the efforts of the

quarterback alone. Once you believe you have become

indispensable, the possibilities for failure have multiplied and

you are now locked in to never being able to have a day off.

The team really can function just fine without you. Teach

them how to work through critical decisions and let them

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know what decisions you want to make and what decisions

they can make and just keep you informed.

When we talk about coaching, mentoring, and

succession planning, we are not necessarily earmarking an

employee to take your job when you leave. Rather, we are

talking about building up the individuals on your team so

they are working at their peak levels. It is about preparing

them for their next promotion, wherever that may be. Be

proud of the fact that you played a part in their development

and success. Set up each team member for success. Give

them the tools they need to succeed. Then watch how far

they can grow.

While there are differences between coaching

(developing employees within their current positions) and

mentoring (developing employees for future positions), there

are also many similarities and for all practical purposes the

concepts of the two are close enough that we will treat them

as identical throughout the rest of this chapter. Instead of

looking at the main points we want to cover in this chapter

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separately according to coaching or mentoring, we will look

at them with the notion that they are the same.


“Coaching and Mentoring from Peers”

Certainly, coaching and mentoring are not low-level

add-on activities. Coaching is a core competency necessary

for knowledge transfer within the workplace. Coaching and

mentoring should never be looked at from the standpoint that

they are available only for a lucky few. Instead, coaching and

mentoring should be viewed as a two-way process of

dialogue and planning used to help everyone achieve

excellence. It is all about people helping each other find their

way within the job and over the course of their careers.

Both coaching and mentoring require careful

observation, continuous dialogue, and an agreement

between the coach and employee about what needs to be

done and how improvements can be made. It is about

building individual and team capabilities. With this transfer of

knowledge, you are building the capacity within others and in

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the team collectively in order to tackle even greater

opportunities and projects.

Coaching and mentoring should never be viewed as

micro-management. Avoid setting that tone in your

organization and never let it turn into that. Instead, they are a

way to help ensure that new employees learn the tricks of

the trade as well as to help prepare people for promotions or

to even enhance their skills within their current job. When a

new hire comes on board and you are assigned as a mentor

to them, do not micromanage that process. You are a

resource for them, a go to person for any questions they

may have or for those times when they become

overwhelmed with things. You are there to guide and give

suggestions on how to make things better. That does not

mean hovering over their shoulder every step of the way. It

might mean observing their performance, but that can be

done without holding their hand throughout the entire

learning process. You have to back off and let them try

things their way, let them make mistakes, and then teach

them and help them grow from those mistakes.

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Coaching and mentoring are not just for the

superstars, either. They are for every employee including

hourly and salaried employees alike. Every employee in your

organization has the potential to be better if you accept the

leadership challenge to help them grow in their capabilities

and competencies.

Coaching and mentoring are not abandonment. You

do not set somebody up for failure. You do not put them in a

temporary leadership position without adequately preparing

them for the job and then, when they fail, give them no

feedback on why they failed. That will cause resentment and

will lead to conflict. People will be angry and rightfully so.

You failed to uphold your leadership commitment to them.

Coaching and mentoring is a partnership agreement

between the leader and the employee to make things better.

You agree to share your experiences and ask the right

questions. They agree to be open to learning from your

information and seeking their own answers. When one party

fails to live according to that agreement, everyone involved

ultimately fails.

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Why do we need coaching and mentoring in today’s

workplace? There are three main reasons, the first of which

we have already touched on briefly. You need to maximize

the transfer of knowledge from one person to another.

As the Baby Boomer generation retires and the

organizations continues, you need to transfer the knowledge

and experience to younger people, newer employees, and

less experienced leaders.

Secondly, coaching and mentoring increase the

skill level of the employees. When you coach and mentor,

you are improving the soft and hard skills of your employees.

You are making them better at what they are currently doing

as well as preparing them for advancement. You are

teaching them skills they have that they did not recognize

they had. You are teaching them how to use skills and

knowledge differently than they have in the past. You are

enhancing their ability to work with others as well. Customer

service goes beyond answering the telephone and taking

orders for a product. It also means working collaboratively

with others on your team and in other departments. Frankly,

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many organizations do not do well with this. The more skilled

your employees are, the more able and willing they are to

take on new projects, new tasks, and new priorities, leaving

you open to focus on other areas.

We saved the best for last: coaching and mentoring

facilitate succession planning. Leaders are going to retire

and when they do, they could do so in record numbers. The

Baby Boomers have stayed in the workforce longer than

expected, but they will retire. In today’s competitive markets,

leaders are also going to leave organizations. Gen X and Y

see jobs as portable with the average time in a position just

over three years. Keep in mind that there will be turnover

and we need to be prepared.

If you fail to provide coaching and mentoring in order

to prepare people to fill those inherent vacancies, you will be

forced to fill them with people unprepared to perform at the

levels expected from that position. That is not fair to the

person thrust into that position (even if it is one they aspire to

fill) and it is not fair to the rest of the team, especially if the

vacant position is a leadership position. The team will be

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forced to pick up additional responsibilities until the person

hired is brought up to speed. This can often be a source of

conflict. The time to think about succession planning is not

during the retirement party for the person leaving. It should

start long before an employee comes in enquiring what their

pension will be or giving their two weeks’ notice. This leaves

huge voids for us to overcome and our team struggles for a

long time as a result of that.

Succession planning is a very detailed process

whereby you identify people who have potential for

advancement and growth within the organization. You sit

and discuss your vision for them and see if it is a position in

which they are even interested. Ask the employee how they

see their career path progressing. Chart a path for them.

This could be a two-month or a two-year plan depending on

the nature of the job. If it is a senior leader position, that

could take much longer. Five-year succession plans are not

unusual, particularly if the employee is rising to a level of

senior leadership.

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Discuss the critical tasks involved with the position for

which you are building the succession plan. This could be as

simple as reviewing the job description of their next potential

job with them. Then identify strengths and weaknesses the

employee currently brings to the table. Identify the resources

available to help continue to build on the strengths, as well

as identify areas of opportunity or growth. This could include

assigning a coach or mentor, attending training classes, or

continuing a formal education program. Then provide

opportunities for them to test-drive these newly found skills

and abilities throughout their growth process. Monitor them

to see how they are doing. This includes observation, getting

feedback from others within and outside the organization,

and discussions with the employee as to how they think

things are going.

Succession planning is already a major concern for

many organizational leaders. What are you doing to prepare

for retirement turnover? Are you doing more than just looking

beyond this year or the next to see who may be leaving?

Remember, key positions with critical requirements can take

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years of preparation. Do not overlook them and sell yourself

or that position short by thinking that you still have time.

Turning back to coaching and mentoring at an

organization-wide level, there are some steps to consider.

The first is to develop a way to draw the talent out of

people. Encourage people to discover their strengths and

areas of opportunity through self-discovery. Depending on

the size of the group you manage, this next step could be

very time consuming. It is important that you take the time to

talk to people about their aspirations, where they see

themselves 5, 10, even 20 years down the road. This can be

done during one-on-one meetings or during annual

performance appraisals. Pay attention to what they have to

say and ask them to list those things that are important to

them and those things that really do not trigger their interest.

If they appear to be stumped, use good questioning

techniques to draw information from them, challenging them

to share their expectations and concerns as well as

experiences they may have had, good or bad.

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Next, be supportive. Enhance their self-image by

affirming their achievements and acknowledging their

potential for continued success within the organization. Offer

helpful suggestions whenever appropriate. If they have

aspirations for jobs you know with 100% certainty they will

never achieve, tell them so. For example, if they list CEO of

the company on a desires list and you know, for instance,

that a MBA or some other advanced degree is required and

they have nothing beyond a high school diploma, with no

desire to further their education, let them know this will never

happen without a major change in their education level. You

may find it necessary to clearly and openly influence and

direct that person’s desires elsewhere. Do not make the

decision for the person, rather, offer suggestions. Use your

experience to guide them down a more realistic path. If need

be, you can provide very specific suggestions when they

really cannot come up with something on their own.

However, if they continue down the path of

unreasonableness be sure to let them know that they are

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being unrealistic and they will not be allowed to participate in

succession training for that position.

If you can come to consensus on a good fit for them,

depending on what the position entails, you may want to get

input from others to see if they also think the person would

be a good fit for the position. If not, spend time to find out

why not. If they have valid reasons, revisit the position with

your subordinate and discuss these concerns. If the reasons

are not valid though, thank the person providing the input for

their time and continue with the coaching and mentoring

process. Once you are ready to commence with a growth

plan, get with the person you have been working with and

allow them help decide on such things as training,

development, and mentoring.

This is critical to the success of that relationship. If

you pair them with someone they cannot connect with and

possibly have no respect for, it is doomed to fail from the

onset. Seek advice from them on such things as check-in

points, factors to consider, and criteria to be used to

determine whether they are meeting goals as decided upon.

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If you are a coach or mentor, remember that this is a

time consuming venture. It requires feedback and support.

Your success in helping to develop the people you coach

and mentor depends on how well you set the proper

environment with each of the following factors.

(1) Climate - Climate is the kind of social and emotional

mood that we create for others. A poor climate includes

being distracted, in a hurry, or otherwise not giving an

employee your full attention. Poor climate is verbally

criticizing their performance or potential especially when

it is done in front of others. This will do nothing but

reduce their confidence as well as create friction between

you and them. A poor climate could also be the result of

using non-verbal cues such as voice, face, and body

posture or body movements that send subtle cues and

signals to the employee that you really do not care about

them or what they are trying to do. A positive climate

exists when you are verbally supportive and encouraging.

Provide positive non-verbal cues through tone of voice,

eye contact, facial expressions, and body posture. These

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cues send a message to the employee that you care

about them and have confidence in their ability to

succeed. Sharing information to set them up for success

may include giving authorization for them to acquire data

or ensuring they know you are available when they need

to bounce an idea around. It is about helping an

employee set challenging goals for themselves and then

helping them achieve them.

(2) Input - We tend to teach more to those from whom we

expect more from in terms of performance, capability,

and competency. Negative input includes behaviors that

communicate a lower expectation of the employee’s

capability. This occurs when you do not give an

employee sufficient direction or guidance or vital

information needed to complete a task. By withholding

information from an employee, you are exerting power

over them, which sends the message that you do not

have confidence in them or do not care about them.

Negative input also occurs when you do not check in

often enough and allow the person to make unnecessary

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mistakes. Share information willingly and openly with the

employees who you are coaching and mentoring. They

cannot make good decisions in a vacuum. When you

withhold or provide limited information without any clear

reason, you are the one failing them rather than vice

versa. Allow them access to you and provide the time to

see how they are doing, to follow up with them and

ensure they are still tracking according to their growth

plan. If you do not provide them access and time, they

will soon lose interest in you and question your ability to

aid them. They may believe they are out of the loop, that

they are not adding value, and that you do not trust them.

In essence, the entire process will be a waste of time and

talent.

Positive input comes from communicating a higher level

of expectation for them. You do this by spending extra

time with the employee to listen to their concerns, provide

additional feedback to them, and to demonstrate that you

care about their success. You demonstrate positive input

by providing the employee with ideas to follow up on or

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additional sources of information to use. You point them

in the right direction. It is not about spoon-feeding them

all the information you know. Instead, you encourage

them to find and discover information on their own. You

provide them with just the right amount of resources

needed for them to take ownership of the project.

(3) Output – This is the amount of output we encourage

from others. It is their opportunity to contribute. Negative

output is often the result of cutting people off when they

are speaking, particularly in front of large groups. When

you cut them off, when you discourage their participation,

you are sending negative signals to them that they are

not worthy of these discussions. Negative output is also

realized when you do not seek their opinions or insights

or you limit the scope of their work. By trying to control or

stifle them, or limiting their opportunities to succeed, you

create a climate where the best option is avoidance and

non-participation.

Positive output, on the other hand, is achieved by

assigning new, varying, multiple, or even incrementally

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challenging assignments to the employee. These

assignments help create the confidence, the will, and the

desire they will need to continue in their advancement.

Positive output is achieved when you provide

opportunities such as training or project leadership for

them in order to learn and practice newfound skills.

Positive output is also achieved when you provide

exposure for them to other departments and senior

leaders. It sends the signal to them that you trust and

care about them. You are also sending the signal that it is

not about you, it is about the team and providing those

opportunities for others.

(4) Feedback - This is the information that we give others

concerning their performance, good or bad. Negative

feedback includes such things as being distracted or in a

hurry, by not giving an employee your full attention.

Criticizing a person and focusing on traits instead of

specific behaviors sends negative feedback and will do

nothing to develop an employee. It is feedback

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characterized by making negative generalizations or

defining a person by using negative labels.

Positive feedback sends a message of high expectation.

You provide them with helpful suggestions about how

they might be able to improve their performance in the

workplace. You are helping them with self-discovery,

growth, and individual improvement. You regularly

reinforce these desirable behaviors with praise,

recognition, or other rewards that are sincere and

specific. You reinforce your belief in their ability to do

better and your desire to see them succeed in the

workplace through positive feedback.

In closing, coaching and mentoring should be

provided to every individual in the organization, not just

those that have been identified to fill critical roles. If you are

not being coached and mentored, go to your supervisor and

ask for a growth plan. Remember, they have a lot on their

plates and you may ask them if they agree with you finding

somebody else to help you grow as a leader. Growth and

development is not a solo activity. It is a group activity. While

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time consuming and at times stressful, coaching and

mentoring are important to you, to your team, and to your

organization. It is the right thing to do.

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CHAPTER 13. LEADING CHANGE

Recognize that people are naturally resistant to change

initiatives and develop specific change leadership

strategies that address the resistance.

Change is not easy. In fact, it can be extremely

difficult to the point of becoming overwhelming at times. To

someone who does not like change, even a minor

adjustment in something as simple as a work shift can seem

like the end of the world. On the other hand, to someone

who has experience and understands change, even large

scale changes seem like routine events. In change

situations, perception and attitude are everything. Someone

who perceives change as being a threat to their job is going

to react differently than someone who views the same

change as a way to move their career forward. At the same

time, someone who displays an attitude of I will never

change is going to feel the pain of that change long after

those who embrace it with an attitude of give change a

chance. The bottom line is that change is inevitable. It is

going to happen.

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If you are a leader in any organization, it is very likely

that you will have to implement change at some point in

time, and probably sooner rather than later. The rate of

change in organizations today is much greater than ever

before. This can be attributed to such things as globalized

markets, the rapid advancements in technology,

demographics, and the simple fact that there is a shortage of

skilled workers. Because of that, how you lead people

through change is probably more critical to its success than

how you manage the change itself.

Your ability to understand, believe in, and model

effective leadership behaviors during change is also crucial

to the effectiveness of seeing the change become a reality.

As you start to think about change, ask yourself the following

three key questions: Where are you now? Where do you

want to be? How are you going to get there? Once you are

comfortable in knowing the answers to these questions, you

can then begin the change process.

Leading change begins with a stakeholder analysis.

This is a process where the stakeholders who will be

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potentially involved in the change process are identified and

their position regarding the potential change established. A

stakeholder analysis will help you understand what the

issues might be, how they may react to change, and any

alternate positions they may have in regard to the change

initiative. It also addresses how they might feel about the

overall change agenda or the initiative itself. Before you

launch a major project or change initiative, look around and

take a head count as to who will be affected by the change.

The next step is communicating the vision, or the

direction that you are taking the organization. This is an

important step because it is your chance to communicate

why you are making the changes. It is very important to

communicate this to your employees early, often, and

throughout the entire change process.

Next, determine who is in charge and what the

reporting structure looks like. In other words, who reports to

whom, who needs to be involved in the decision-making

process, and who needs to be informed. Once you have

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done this, leaders can then communicate information quickly

and to the right person.

You must create and maintain a change management

plan. This plan is typically embedded within the actual

initiative itself, but could be written as an addition also. A

change management plan is necessary because we often

fail to fully understand the impact the change will have on

people in various departments at varying levels within the

organization including the entire organization overall. We

tend to get fixated on the initiative itself and overlook the

outcomes of the change. Concurrently, the plan will

communicate how we are going to make the changes.


“Army Guard Transformation”

Once you have identified your change management

plan, you need to get the proverbial ball rolling and

remember to track and measure progress along the way, as

well as forecast future events. You can do this by placing

charts on the wall that visually show where you are today

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and where you hope to be tomorrow. To ensure that you

accomplish what you set out to do and within the agreed

upon period, list each incremental step you plan to take

along the way including the planned period for each step.

Once you have worked through each step, you have

achieved your goals and the change initiative has now

become a reality within the workplace. You need to

remember to anchor this new approach into future renditions

of change so that it is a lasting legacy for the organization.

There are, of course, barriers to leading change.

These barriers include failing to develop a clear and

compelling case for the change itself. Early on, it is helpful to

involve everyone who clearly has a stake in the change

initiative. By discussing why the change needs to occur,

seeking their input and feedback into the change process,

you are able to incorporate their ideas whenever practical,

and make them a part of the solution rather than a problem.

If you fail to make the case for change and continue to

pursue the change initiative without getting everyone on

board, people will soon become resentful and may possibly

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try to sabotage the process itself. This can be avoided

through proper planning and conducting respectful dialogue

with those impacted by the change. Remember, when

assessing who the stakeholders are, look downstream of the

change itself to see who it might be impacted through a

ripple effect.


“How Not to Announce a Layoff”

Have you ever made the case for change when you

were not very sure what the change was about? Do you

remember hearing a leading member of Congress make the

statement that we just need to get this thing passed so we

can understand what is in it when referring to the

controversial health care initiative?

We just need to get it passed so we can understand

what is in it is not a statement of confidence to the level that

would garner a lot of support and it sure caught our national

attention. However, not understanding the change initiative

itself is another huge barrier toward the success of that

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change item and one that we make quite frequently. Failing

to understand that change is a process and not a single

event or a moment in time action item, that it is a process

including where you are today, where you are going

tomorrow, and how you are going to get there, are huge

negatives when trying to gather support and understanding

for the change initiative.

Do not try to sell the change by pointing out the

failures of the old system. Some of the people on your team

may have been the owners of, or had input into the old

system. When you make that system look bad, you may be

offending those people and that will undoubtedly increase

their resistance to the change. Even though that is not your

intention, you are still sending the message that they made a

mistake with what they created. Instead, discuss the reasons

as to why the new approach is better now and build upon the

successes that came because of the old way of doing things.

Another barrier to effectively creating change within

an organization is failing to involve the employees at the

onset of the process. Involve your employees in feedback

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sessions, through one-on-one discussions, or through other

group activities designed to help identify concerns and

objections. Draw out their ideas, implement them into the

change initiative, and make it better. This benefits the

organization. By involving your teams, who will incorporate

those solutions into plans in order to make the change effort

work, the chance of success increases greatly.

Another barrier to effectively leading change is

ownership confusion. That is, failing to establish clearly,

distinctly who is responsible for what, and who is making the

decisions. Change initiatives need a champion - an owner or

a change leader. Clearly communicate to the employees

who the decision makers are, why they are entrusted with

this change initiative, and who is responsible for the change

initiative. Establishing this early in the process establishes

the necessary conduit for questions, ideas, issues, and

discussions about the change initiative.

One of the final barriers to effectively leading change

concerns being able to overcome the we have always done

it this way attitude that seems to perpetuate its way into

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every organization. As leaders, you will get one of two

things: what you create and what you allow. Think about the

importance of that statement for a minute. When you allow

others to cling to those past ways for too long, you will build

greater and greater resistance to your change initiatives.

Instead, as a change agent, create a stepping stone

necessary to get past the that is the way we have always

done it pothole in the road that continues to slow your

organization down from achieving excellence.


“Re-organizing After 9/11”

During change initiatives, do not overlook the fact that

change can also cause an initial increased workload for your

team and for certain employees. At times, change can result

in winners and losers up to and including people losing their

positions due to business necessity. To cover for those

eliminated positions there will be increased workloads. This

extra work alone may be the very reason why employees will

resist you in your change efforts. They may also feel guilty

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for keeping their job and loyalty to those who lost their jobs.

Leaders must be sensitive to what we call the soft issues

such as the extra workloads that are required, the structural

changes taking place, and the stressors that are associated

with the actual change itself. To a large degree, dealing with

change revolves around good communication, creating

personal desire and will, dealing with anxiety, loss of control,

and other hidden agendas that would prevent you from

effectively leading the change.

Sometimes the extra work is often short-lived and is

the result of bringing on board a new product. Think about a

new software product. When first implemented, there can be

huge learning curves associated with trying to figure out how

to use it that will take time and duplicate efforts to ensure

you are using it correctly. However, once you get more

experienced with it, your workload will actually decrease,

which is the reason for the change in the first place. Again,

good communications will help overcome all of these issues

if you only take the time to talk to people.

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Several leadership behaviors are particularly relevant

as we examine how to lead change. Primarily, communicate

the vision clearly and consistently and the reasons why we

are making the changes that we are making. Demonstrate

your commitment by making those changes yourself.

Exemplify your values that you are trying to create within the

organization. You will then be the champion of change. In

our chapter on communications, we talk about the power

and importance of body language to the communications

process. We can guarantee that if you do not truly buy-in to

the change initiative yourself, your subordinates will notice

that quickly and make it harder to incorporate change. You

cannot hide it; your body language will give you away every

time. On the same note, be sure you treat everyone with

respect, dignity, openness, and honesty as well. There could

very well be winners and losers as a result of the change

initiative, so acknowledge that. Regardless of how much you

may want to hide that, you have to be open and honest and

let people know as soon as you can if they are going to be

negatively affected because of the change initiative. If you

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are not honest, people will notice that as well and then you

may very well lose personal credibility due to a lack of trust.

Watch for the impact change will have on daily

routines and habits. People may make mistakes on things

they have been doing effortlessly for years. How does this

happen? The amount of stress change causes people, the

self-doubt they start to experience from having to learn to do

new things and especially when they had to learn to do old

things a new way, may cause them to lose confidence in

themselves and in their abilities to do their jobs. They may

feel inadequate and in some instances may go through an

emotional roller coaster ride. This, in essence, is what led to

them making mistakes and their natural reaction was to hang

on tightly to the old way of doing things, to resist the change

efforts. Once understood, you can then take steps to help

people overcome their fears and to help them build up their

confidence again. Try to maintain familiar work settings and

surroundings as much as possible and avoid changes that

symbolize the new way of doing business.

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Take whatever steps are necessary to involve people

in the change process, explaining what is going on and how

it will affect them. This will require you to interact one-on-one

with them as well as in team and small group settings.

Schedule communication meetings with them and give

yourself enough time to not only update them on where you

are in the process, but listen to what concerns they might

have with the change initiative. When you are in front of the

group, make sure you are consistent in what you say. Never

speculate. If you do not know the answer, tell them you do

not know but then make an effort to find out and get back to

them with an answer. If they ask you a question that you

cannot answer due to confidentiality, tell them. Tell them that

it would be inappropriate for me to answer this question at

this time due to the confidentiality of the information. People

may not like that response, but it is still better than not being

honest with them and telling them something to the effect

that you will get back with them and then you never do.

You are a role model for change. You must be visible,

listen to concerns, and encourage constructive debate and

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feedback. Just because you created the initiative does not

mean it is set in stone. You will no doubt discover flaws in

the plan because of the feedback you get. When this occurs,

adjust the plan based on the feedback received as long as it

does not change the overall scope of the process. When you

do that, the employees will realize that you are listening to

them and taking their opinions seriously. Even though you

may not totally agree with the requests as provided,

remember that you have a responsibility to help employees

through the process in a supportive, positive, and

constructive way. Again, as long as the outcome of those

proposed changes is still within the realm of what you are

trying to achieve, accept them for what they are and allow

the process to go forth according to those suggestions. You

will be pleasantly surprised at the increase in support you

will realize.

Now we would like to back up a step and talk about

resistance. Why do people resist change? There are many

reasons, but one of the biggest has to do with surprise,

which is directly related to communications. Similarly, people

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will also resist change because they may not be mentally

prepared to accept it. If things have operated as status quo

for a long period of time, people have a tendency of getting

comfortable and when they do, it is hard to get them to

change. Finally, if people know in advance that an

announced change will have a negative impact on them or

their friends, they will resist it even though there is

realistically nothing they can do about the change.

The reason we stepped back to talk about this is

twofold. First, change is not always going to be a bed of

roses. Change takes a plan, patience, and hard work.

Second, and more importantly, regardless of the resistance

you may encounter, it is still your responsibility to ensure that

the organization keeps running smoothly and efficiently

throughout the change initiative. You cannot allow yourself to

become so fixated on the change and resistance that may

accompany it that you forget your core responsibility to the

organization which is to make sure that the business

functions and that people remain safe.

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People have resisted change since the beginning of

time; it is human nature. An example of this occurred when

the Berlin Wall came crashing to the ground years ago.

People who had previously been forced to live under

Communism were now free to experience life from a very

new perspective. They had newfound freedoms and were

able to experience life in ways never before possible.

However, this meant having to make decisions and live with

the consequences and this was a new concept to them. For

so many years, they were told what to do and now that was

not the way it was. As a result, while the change itself was

good, the responsibilities associated with the change meant

doing things they were not accustomed to doing and they

started complaining that they had been better off the old

way.

The lesson is that even though some change is for

the positive, if people do not give it a chance to work or have

not been trained on the new way of doing things prior to the

change being implemented, it is doomed to fail from the

start. Resistance to change is not necessarily a deliberate

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process and it may not even be a conscious one, but the

average employee will resist just because of the human

nature of things.

It is not that employees necessarily dislike change.

Rather, employees do not like being changed. It is important

for you as a leader to understand this and to learn how to

manage through the change process. Explore the reasons

why people dislike change and do whatever you can to help

them work through it, but do not ever lose sight of the fact

that regardless of their reaction or their level of resistance,

change is still going to happen.


“Change Leadership with Acquisitions”

It is also very important not to wait until all the

decisions are made before you announce the change

initiative. Many leaders and organizations make this

common mistake. We can understand wanting to have all

your ducks in a row before walking out in front of a large

group of employees and announcing a change initiative.

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However, if you wait to announce this on the very day that it

is set to take effect, that will once again be a surprise to your

employees and their immediate reaction will be to resist and

fight back. They will be angry with you and you will have lost

their trust in you. Some leaders will actually show surprise at

the resistance they created, especially if they believe they

did their homework and put together a plan designed to

make the change process smooth. Regardless of how much

work you put into the effort, if you overlook the first rule of

team building, which is to communicate early and

communicate often, you have not done your job.

When you communicate early, you get employees

thinking about the change and then, given time, many of

them may actually start agreeing with your proposed plans

before you formally announce and implement them. You

have just created buy-in and now have a cheering section to

help support the announcement when you do make it. We

cannot think of anything sweeter than that. As much as

possible, include your informal leaders throughout the

process and especially during the initial planning process.

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Do not try to do this all by yourself or in a small, isolated

group of management only employees. If you do, you will

most likely build resentment and resistance to the change.

You will redefine the us/them barriers that so many

companies have worked so long to break down.

Perhaps the most inherent resistance to change

within organizations is the institutional memory that exists. In

many organizations, the experience level of a few

employees may be 20-25 years. It is a good news story on

one hand, because there is this wealth of knowledge and

experience, but when it comes to making changes that are

meaningful and relevant for people, it is a bad news story.

The institutional memory, those years of experience, will

help feed a resistance to change because people will look

back and say did not we try this (unsuccessfully) before? To

overcome this type of resistance, make sure you listen to

your employees both as individuals and in groups. Listen to

their concerns and their reasons as to why they think the

change may have failed in the past. Help them see why it

may work now. Use their input to help shape and guide the

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future and increase the likelihood of a successful change

process.

In summary, leading change is an inherent aspect of

leadership. Without question, leading change and leadership

are interwoven concepts. You cannot be an effective leader

unless you can lead change and you cannot lead change

unless you apply effective leadership. Use your knowledge

and learned experiences from both to make a difference in

your organization.

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CHAPTER 14. DECISION-MAKING

Employ a systematic approach to reach a decision that

includes problem analysis, course of action

development, qualitative and quantitative course of

action comparisons, course of action selection, and

decision implementation.

How does one go about making decisions in

organizations? How do you as a leader make your

decisions? Do you shoot from the hip and go with your basic

inner reaction, or do you use a systematic approach? In all

reality, it depends on the situation. You will probably be right

most of time using the shoot from the hip method when

dealing with something simple or something with which you

are experienced. However, what about a problem that is

either very complex or has to do with something new? What

if the decision involves a critical health care decision or one

that could leave you in financial ruins if not correct? How

eager would you be to go with your instinct then? In

situations like these it would be in your best interest to go

through a deliberate decision making process in order to

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make sure you have all of the necessary information to make

a sound decision.

The focus of this chapter is on the deliberate decision

making process, but let us preface this by saying that this

method is not necessary for every decision that you need to

make. If you follow this process with each decision, your

time management ability will go out the window. Your

employees will see you as undependable and unable to

make a decision. The process we will discuss in this chapter

is designed to give you a leadership tool available for your

use for the complex decisions you will have to make at some

point in your career.


“Leveraging Talent for Applied Decision-

Making”

The deliberate decision making process is an activity

that may take from a few minutes to several days to

complete depending on the complexity of the decision you

are going to make. We use an 8-step process and each of

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these steps is designed to incrementally take you through

the decision cycle so that the answers you arrive at will

support the intent of the decision.

This process begins when someone makes a request

to you for something. The sequential decision-making steps

include that you analyze the request, restate the request in

your own words, develop options, and compare those

options to each other. You then select the best option,

implement that option, coach people, and monitor and refine

the option as it is introduced into the workplace.

Step 1: Receive the request. You as a leader,

supervisor, or manager are going to be bombarded with

requests that will require decisions. They can come from the

corporate level, from the senior leaders of the company,

from peers, or from team members. They may even come

from people outside your organization. Where they come

from does not matter. What does matter is that you

understand when a decision needs to be made and what the

result is going to be about.

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Step 2: Analyze the request. You begin this process

by first describing and assessing the operating environment

from which the request comes. This includes looking at

budgets, existing plans, administrative support,

environmental factors, or any other operational

considerations which you need to take into account. You

then identify facts and assumptions associated with the

request including both specified and implied facts. A fact is

something you know to be true, whereas an assumption is

something you think is true, but you need to verify it before

proceeding with the project. These need to be listed and

separated as to whether fact or assumption. When you first

start down the road to decision-making, your list may be

equally split between facts and assumptions. However, as

you get further into the decision making process you will

start verifying assumptions or taking them off the list so that

when it’s decision time most of what you have listed are

facts. Finally, you need to identify constraints that are

imposed on you in your decision making process.

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As you think about the request, identify the specified

and implied tasks associated with the request. A specified

task is something that is stated in the request and is usually

an operational task. For example, you have to determine a

new schedule for moving a large electric excavator from the

east pit into the west pit at a local coal mine. The specified

task is to create a new schedule for moving the equipment.

However, you also have implied tasks to consider. Implied

tasks are often not stated, but are usually tasks that support

the process at hand and need to be completed in order to

fulfill the requirements of the job. Implied tasks can include

the logistics and environmental tasks associated with the

requirement. In the example with moving the electric

excavator, an implied task may include figuring out where to

lay the large electrical cable that will power the excavator for

the move. You also need to determine a maintenance

schedule to check that gear boxes have plenty of oil.

You should check to see if you have any constraints

associated with your requirement. A constraint can take the

form of something you must do (complete the move in 14

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days) or the prohibition of an action (cannot use non-

qualified electricians for the move). Based on your specified

and implied tasks, along with your constraints, you then

circle those items that you consider essential tasks.

Essential tasks are the ones that are critical to the success

of the project. Once you have done that, it is time to move on

to the next step.

Step 3: Restate the request in your own words.

This should include the what, when, where, why, and how of

the request. In our excavator example, the request is to

determine how to move the excavator from the east pit to the

west pit. Making sure to include the what, when, where, why,

and how, the restated request would look something like

this:

We need to move the large electric excavator from the east pit to the west pit beginning on July 1. This move will be completed by July 15 and can only be done between the daylight hours of 6 AM and 8 PM each day. Only qualified electricians will be used to move the excavator and a schedule needs to be developed to allow for periodic maintenance on the machine throughout the move. Cable towers should be installed on the north side of road the excavator will use for the move. The 14,000 volt cable should be strung from the towers 2 days prior to beginning the

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move to ensure the move proceeds with the least amount of delays possible.

You have just taken a very broad request and

restated it according to the specific actions needed, which

gives you a better look at the decisions that will need to be

made. Once you have done that, it is a very good idea to go

back to whoever it was that made this request in the first

place and review the restated task with them. This will help

validate to them that you heard and understood their request

correctly. At this point you may receive some suggestions

from the person who made the request that you may need to

incorporate into your decision making process. Once you

have restated the request and validated it with the person

who gave you the requirement, you then move on to Step 4.

Step 4: Develop Options. This is where decision

making comes into play. Normally you would develop two or

three distinct and unique options for each of the

requirements necessary to complete the request. Options

are based on such things as the different methods that can

be used to achieve each requirement. This is when you and

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your team brainstorm various ideas or options for each of the

requirements. You should identify two or three options for

each requirement that are uniquely different from each other.

Once done, compare these options quantitatively and

qualitatively in order to select the best option(s).

Step 5: Compare Options. There are many different

ways to compare options. Probably the best way is to

develop a decision matrix where you list the options across

the top of the page and the criteria that you will use to

compare the options against down the left hand side of the

page. You either quantitatively or qualitatively compare each

of these options. You might rank-order them 1, 2, 3, 4 for

each of the criteria that you want to measure against.

Step 6: Select the best option. As you select your

criteria look at both qualitative as well as quantitative criteria.

Qualitative criteria include such things as degree of

complexity or challenges involved with scheduling. It is

based more on written data. A quantitative criterion includes

things such as cost, equipment time, personnel time, or

numbers and calculations. Weigh your criteria according to

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what is most important. Not all criteria are equal. If you have

been told that cost is extremely important, you may need to

weight the cost criteria by a factor of 2 or 3. Then you set up

a comparison matrix where you either quantitatively or

qualitatively assess each of options. Regardless of how you

do this, you can rank them as 1, 2, 3, 4 where 1 is the best

and 4 is the worst, or vice versa. Whether you rank 1 as your

highest rank or as lowest does not matter. What does matter

is that you stay consistent throughout your calculations.

As you are comparing your options, stick to using

facts only and if you do find yourself considering any

assumptions you may have, validate them first. Make sure

you consider all the tasks that may come into play, both

specified and implied. Once you determine your options and

the criteria you have decided are important, rank-order and

weight them and then add up the resulting numbers for each

option and criteria. The option that comes out with the

highest (or lowest) number becomes your ‘preferred’ option.

However, that does not mean that it is the option you have to

use. If your instincts are telling you something different, that

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is all right. In fact, it is not uncommon to go back to the team

and brainstorm new options or even combine several options

into one you do not like the results of your matrix. If you or

others around you have experience in the area of the

decision, it is fine to consider those before coming to a

conclusion. That includes your inner feeling. Maybe you

added numbers up wrong, failed to stay consistent with your

rank-order, or used the wrong criteria and then came out

with an option you did not like. Once you re-run your

numbers, if the results still are not what you are comfortable

with, it is all right to choose the next option on the list or go

back to the team and start over with brainstorming new

options. Once you have decided on the best option, though,

go back to the person who made the request, show them

your results including the analysis and data you used, and

ask them for their input and acceptance. Once this has been

completed, it is on to the next step.

Step 7: Implement the option. Once you have

approval for the option you have selected, you need to

develop a plan and start the communication process to make

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sure everyone is aware of what is happening. There are a

couple of different ways to write up the plan. Depending on

how large of a project you are dealing with, you can use a

short project management table or develop a Gantt chart for

more complicated projects.

For most requests, though, the short version will work

just fine. It includes a brief description of the issue, the

original request you received, your restated mission, the

options you chose, and such things as who is responsible for

what and how communications will be handled. Once you

have communicated this to all involved, it is time to move on

to the final step.

Step 8: Coach, monitor and refine the decision.

This begins by providing the leadership necessary to ensure

the project is completed successfully. It includes things such

as mentoring, teaching, coaching, directing, and building

consensus whenever needed. As you monitor the project,

you may need to set up a GANTT or PERT chart in order to

track your progress and show that you are on track with your

project. As the project gets underway, you are ultimately

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going to have to make changes due to unforeseen

circumstances such as weather, absenteeism, equipment

breakdowns, and so forth. If necessary, you may have to

adjust the course of action you selected when there are

minor delays in the process. If something major occurs,

though, you will have to involve the team again to decide

how to adjust or overcome the delays.


“Financial Planning at Age 10”

To summarize, deliberate decision-making is an eight-

step process designed to walk you through the steps

necessary to make a decision in the workplace. In the

example we used, we talked about a specific project within

an organization, but you can use this same process when

dealing with human problems as well. All of these steps

apply to most decisions you will have to make as a leader.

Used correctly, these steps will help you become a more

effective leader and decision maker for your team. One of

our leadership attributes is decisiveness and another is

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confidence in conjunction to decision making. If you employ

a deliberate decision making process to help you with your

decisions on the job, you will build confidence over time and

will gain the respect of your team and superiors as being a

great decision maker.

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CHAPTER 15. WORKPLACE CONFLICT

Use positive conflict to stimulate change, creatively deal

with problems and address negative conflict in an adult-

to-adult manner that focuses on the problems quickly

and effectively before they fester into major issues.

Dealing with conflict is clearly one of the greatest

leadership challenges we face. Conflict occurring within the

workplace can be positive or negative depending on the

nature of the conflict and how we respond to it. Dealing with

negative conflict stretches us emotionally and can be a drain

of our time from a time management standpoint. No one

likes confrontation, but if we are going to be effective as

leaders, we must know and understand the nature of conflict

and how to deal with it quickly, decisively, and

systematically. Otherwise, conflict will be an inhibitor towards

our success as leaders and a barrier that keeps teams from

achieving the goals they are striving for within the

organization.

There are many potential sources of workplace

conflict and we have covered several of the major ones in

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depth already, including change and communications.

Whenever there is change, there is a potential for conflict,

especially when that change comes with new leaders. A

change in top leadership can lead to conflict because every

new president has his or her own priorities and his or her

own ways of doing things. New leadership can result in the

loss of experience and knowledge as people leave simply to

get away from the conflict brought about by the change.

Although we have talked specifically about

communications as a source of conflict, it warrants

mentioning that failing to adequately talk to people,

especially to your team, creates anxiety and tension and

people will tend to fill in communication gaps themselves.

When you fail to keep them updated and informed, people

will create their own stories. They will put their own twist on

what is going on. Before long, what began as a case of

miscommunication will have now turned into a major case of

management misconduct. People only want to know, to be

included in what is going on so they can feel as though they

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belong. That can only come about through good

communications.


“The Past is the Past”

Unresolved employee problems are probably the next

biggest reason why there is workplace conflict. It is

something that most organizations face on a regular basis

and one that we have direct control over. When problems

with employees occur and are not dealt with or are

confronted but left unresolved, they will fester quickly into

workplace conflict. This includes unresolved performance

issues, failure to adhere to standards, and failure to follow

prescribed regulations, polices, and best practices.

Fundamentally, failure to adhere to any company standard

can lead to workplace conflict. It is critical for you to treat

situations fairly, consistently, and immediately whenever

they occur. As soon as you let something slide that should

have really been enforced, it now becomes what many

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arbitrators and administrative judges consider a new

standard.

What that means is that by not dealing with an issue

head on and letting it go, you have now set the new standard

of acceptable behavior. The next time the same issue

happens and you try to enforce it, you will have conflict. You

lose credibility with your team and may end up in front of a

judge. In court, past practice determines what is acceptable

behavior. It is also important to recognize when an employee

issue does not need an immediate resolution. For example,

if an employee is in the middle of a divorce or just

experienced the death of a child or parent, this is a time to

support them. Performance may slip and often their peers

will pick up the slack. Often this works itself out; however,

there may be times when you find yourself needing to

intervene. If the employee’s performance does not return to

previous levels after an acceptable period, you may need to

address the problem. Coworkers who were happy to pick up

the slack get tired of covering for the employee after a few

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months. If you do not watch carefully and act when

necessary, this can create conflict between coworkers.

There has been much research conducted in relation

to workplace conflict. A few years ago a survey asking first

line supervisors and managers how much time they were

spending dealing with workplace conflict showed nearly half

of the respondents spent more than 10% of their time

dealing with conflict, some saying they spent up to 20% of

their time dealing with conflict related issues. Over the

course of a few months, that equates to over 100 hours

dealing with conflict, which is a lot of unnecessary and

wasted time. By learning to address workplace conflict as

soon as it occurs, you can decrease the time you spend

responding to conflict and that can be a huge benefit to your

organization from a time management perspective (as well

as from a morale perspective). Even reducing the time you

spend on conflict by half can potentially free up a week or

two of cumulative time over the course of a year.

In looking at the research on workplace conflict, one

question in particular was designed to uncover what

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situations and behaviors trigger conflict the quickest. By far,

the most frequently mentioned behavior by more than half of

the respondents was untrustworthiness. Trust and respect

are two of our core leadership values. We demonstrate our

commitment to these by making sure we have an open,

honest, and respectful work environment. If we put these

values into action and create an open, respectful work

environment, we can prevent about 50% of the negative

conflict.

This same survey looked at what types of constructive

and destructive behaviors were seen as the most important

to preventing further workplace conflict. With respect to

constructive behaviors, respondents noted that when leaders

took a step back and looked at the organization as a whole

and put things into the proper perspective, what they then

communicated to employees was the big picture rather than

just bits and pieces of what was going on. This increased the

trustworthiness within the company and this went far in

deflecting potential conflict.

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As for destructive behaviors, respondents were

divided, which would suggest that there are multiple

behaviors seen as having the capacity to create conflict in

the workplace. Retaliation or trying to get revenge was the

behavior that most often led to conflict. Demeaning others,

publicly ridiculing them, using harsh and angry words, or

using sarcasm against them also created very high levels of

conflict. Behavior of this type is very unbecoming of trained

professionals in leadership roles and in some cases may be

illegal. As leaders, if you ever have the urge to fight back, to

get even with someone for something they said or did, take

yourself out of the situation until you have a chance to cool

down. Then go back and talk to the employee again but do

so as a professional. That in itself will reduce workplace

conflict and establish your effectiveness as a leader.

What about positive conflict? Positive conflict is

conflict that, in most circumstances, can generate and

stimulate creativity and growth by promoting collaboration

and creating and building upon the synergies that exist

among employees within the team. When managed

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appropriately, positive conflict can help clarify and promote

values and team codes of conduct throughout the

organization. Positive conflict occurs when employees are

free to discuss their concerns and issues out in the open,

knowing they will not be retaliated against. When positive

conflict occurs, any concerns can be addressed and

resolved on the spot and will not fester into negative conflict.

Positive conflict is generated when leaders question

the status quo or create incentives for improvement. This

can create a sense of creative competition among

employees and can have a positive impact on production

rates and costs. Challenging your employees to find more

efficient and effective ways to do things can cause them to

work together differently, but with more collaboration. We

have all seen people ‘stir the pot’ to create tension or

frustration. By responding to that situation immediately, you

can turn a potential negative into a positive conflict. If an

employee has broached a subject that needs discussing,

take the opportunity to brainstorm a solution or provide the

needed information to put it to rest.

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Just as positive conflict can be good for organizations,

certainly negative conflict can be bad for organizations.

Negative conflict tends to polarize people, to distance them

from each other. It detracts from the real issues in the

workplace and you end up spending time focusing on

symptoms rather than problems. It causes stress for not only

you, but for everyone on the team if not dealt with efficiently

and in a timely matter. It also decreases productivity within

your team, making everyone as a whole less efficient and

less productive. This, in turn, affects morale and efficiency. It

also creates resentment among team members, towards

each other, and management, and will create chaos in the

workplace when left unchecked. In extreme cases, it will lead

to workplace bullying and violence, which is a whole other

conversation due to the seriousness of these actions.

Here are six steps to help you manage conflict within

your team:

Step 1: Clarify the issues.

Step 2: Set goals.

Step 3: Consider options to solving the problems.

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Step 4: Remove barriers that are in the way of solving

those problems.

Step 5: Make agreements with each other.

Step 6: Acknowledge that solutions are near.

When you conduct conflict resolution, it is important to

practice a few key leadership actions. First, determine if it is

worth resolving or if you are even the right person to resolve

it. You may be the leader but that does not necessarily make

you the right person to deal with the situation. At times, you

may need to get help from Human Resources, another

supervisor, or even your manager. However, if the situation

warrants it, there may even be times when you may need to

call in professionals from outside the organization. If you

decide to tackle the issue yourself, remember to use an

adult-to-adult philosophy, which is to treat each other with

dignity and respect, to listen to what everyone has to say

without interrupting, and to keep things confidential.

Try to keep things one-on-one or at least reduce it to

the minimum number of people involved. Out of respect for

those involved and to maintain confidentiality, do not deal

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with issues involving only one or two members in a team

environment. If you sense a conflict brewing that concerns

you, deal with the person involved one-on-one and as soon

as possible. Certainly, when you do, be open, honest, and

truthful. Ask them what the issue is and listen as non-

defensively as possible. Use active listening techniques to

minimize defensiveness. Express your feelings without

blame, hostility, guilt, or anger. Tell them what behaviors you

are seeing, the impact those behaviors have, and how you

feel about it. If they deny everything, ask them to watch for

the behaviors you have mentioned and continue to keep an

eye on things. If they agree there is an issue, ask them how

it should it be addressed in order to put it to rest. Stay

focused on the behavior or issue. You want to maintain their

self-esteem and if you berate them or drag them down, this

will do nothing to resolve the conflict as it may cause more

resentment and increase the conflict.

If the conflict involves others, get both sides of the

story. This means that you will want to facilitate a discussion

and put everyone’s active listening skills to work. Give

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everyone time to describe their views without interruption

from you or the other side. Write questions down and when

they are finished, ask your questions to clarify what they

have said. You are not only listening to what the problem is,

but also those feelings associated with the problem. Listen

for changes in the tone of voice and look for changes in body

language.

After each person has had time to share his or her

views, take a break. If emotions are high, you may need a

cooling off period for people to ensure that things do not get

out of control. Once you proceed, reframe both sides of the

issue and ask for suggestions for a compromise solution that

meets everyone’s needs including your own. Even though

you may not be involved in the actual conflict, you still have

to take time away from your schedule to investigate things

and deal with them. The solution needs to consider the time

lost. Once you decide on a solution, make sure you provide

feedback to people on how things are going. This includes

the people involved as well as groups such as the Human

Resource Department. Let everyone know the progress that

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is being made or if no change is occurring. You want to use

positive reinforcement when you see changes made that are

helping to reduce the conflict. Similarly, you want to provide

reinforcement if you are not seeing those changes being

made and let people know that there could be consequences

to continued negative behavior.

When you are confronting individuals about conflict,

state the complaint against them in behavioral terms such as

what they are doing or not doing. Do not make it a personal

attack on them as a person. Make a direct request to them

that something needs to be done about their behavior. Talk

specifically about what changes need to occur for this

conflict to be resolved. It is important to keep in mind that

hinting seldom works. Most people will not get the hint or will

pretend not to understand that there is either a problem or

the potential for conflict. You have to be direct and straight

forward, remembering again not attack the person because

that will only make them defensive. Remember that direct is

describing the issue from a factual basis anticipating how

your words will be received. Blunt is telling it like it is without

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regards to how the person may take your words. Be direct,

not blunt.

Let us now look at a deliberate and systematic

approach to problem solving when dealing with an employee

issue or a potential conflict that is looming in the workplace.

(1) Define the problem. State the difference between

what should be and what is actually happening.

“This is the behavior I’m seeing, but this is what

should be occurring.”

(2) List the facts. State all the facts as you know

them to be. Ask for input from others to see if

there is anything you missed. Focus on the facts

and behavior witnessed and the impact the

behavior has had.

(3) Consider the assumptions. State all the

assumptions you have made about the problem or

the people involved. By doing this, you may find

that some of your assumptions are invalid, or

some of your assumptions may be valid and

should be listed as facts.

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(4) Determine the causes. Determine what you think

are the reasons are that have resulted in the

conflict. Discuss this with the employee and ask

them for reasons as to what they think caused a

change in behavior or the gap between what is

and what should be. Ask them whether it is

something they can control. The key here is that

you are looking for the root cause of the problem,

not just the symptom of the problem. The negative

behavior that is occurring is often a symptom of

the problem and not the actual problem.

(5) Establish the objectives. State what is to be

accomplished when the problem is solved. You

need to be clear and concise about this. Set

specific dates and targets for remedial action to be

taken and what measures you are going to use to

evaluate the effectiveness of the changes you

desire.

(6) Develop solutions. List all possible courses of

action available to achieve the desired results and

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discuss them with the employee. Work together to

come up with the final solution.

(7) Make the final decision. Compare various

courses of action that can be taken and decide

which course best meets your needs or the criteria

involved in correcting the behavior and solving the

problem.

(8) Take action. Convert the solution into an action

plan that specifically spells out the who, what,

when, where, why and the how. Be specific, be

concise, and be direct. Do not beat around the

bush.

(9) Follow up. You need to measure progress,

evaluate results, review the process with the

employee, and determine how to do it better next

time. Use a good assessment technique to

evaluate the effectiveness of not only the problem

solving process, but the leadership you provided

towards solving the problem.

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If the behavior is corrected and the problem is solved,

provide the employee with the appropriate feedback. Let

them know the issue has been resolved and thank them for

their efforts in helping resolve it. If it still has not been

addressed or if no progress has been made, you need to go

back and repeat this process again unless the behavior is

such that discipline is warranted.

Dealing with conflict effectively in the workplace is

important to your success as a leader. Allowing conflict to go

unchecked will decrease your leadership effectiveness, and

in some cases, stifle your career progression. Unresolved

conflict will result in chaos for your team and for your

organization. It will reduce productivity, efficiency and the

morale of your team. The indirect impact will be felt through

higher turnover rates and lower recruiting rates because no

one wants to work for an organization that is loaded with

conflict. Work aggressively to deal with it head on, up front

and in a timely manner. Be decisive and be bold. Deal with

human dimension problems as the kind of leader that others

want to follow, not the kind they want to run from. By letting

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others know you will hold them accountable for their

behavior, they will soon understand that behavior outside of

that which upholds the organization’s mission, vision, and

values will not be tolerated.

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CHAPTER 16. MAINTAINING STANDARDS

Enforce all safety practices, EEO and other rules,

regulations, policies, and practices of the organization

fairly and consistently with all employees in a timely and

appropriate fashion.

As a leader, no other issue will get you into more

trouble than failing to maintain standards for the

performance and conduct of your employees. Failing to

maintain standards, specifically showing inconsistency in

enforcing those standards, is one of the reasons most often

brought up by employees when asked about leadership

issues in the workplace.

There is going to be conflict when leaders or

supervisors fail to take appropriate action when problems

arise with employee performance, or when they deal with the

same performance problem inconsistently between

employees. Such inconsistencies often lead to legal

ramifications depending on the nature of the problem and

the employees involved as well. Therefore, it is critically

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important that you maintain appropriate workplace standards

and treat all employees fairly and consistently at all times.

Do employees really know when their performance

does not meet standard? Roughly, about 10% of your

employees are truly top performers - these are the

employees you never have to worry about, who will always

do a good job, and are always striving for continued

performance and excellence.

The majority of employees, perhaps around 80%, are

very good employees. They do their job day in and day out,

and while not necessarily the top performers, they are still

very good. They are stable and steady and you seldom, if

ever, have problems or concerns with their performance.

Your focus is to teach, coach, and mentor them to improve

performance as you try to move them up into that top

category.

That leaves the other 10%, or what we call our

problem employees. These employees usually create the

most challenges. Our question for you to ponder is this. Do

these problem employees know that they are a problem? In

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other words, do they wake up in the morning and come to

work thinking their performance will be below standard? Do

they say to themselves, I think I am going to be a problem

employee today?

The answer, most likely, is no. While we would never

agree to the fact that they are not aware that they are

causing problems, we could accept the fact that they may

not know that their performance is not meeting standards.

There is a strong chance that no one has ever told them

their performance is below standard and because of that,

they see their behavior as acceptable.

It is your responsibility to discuss how he or she is

performing below standards and how you expect them to

improve. Each of us makes decisions on how to act, react, or

respond to issues and people. If you respond in a manner

that solves the problem, you will most likely repeat that

behavior. If someone tells you the result was not what you

thought it was, then you will have to rethink your response in

the future. It is our responsibility as leaders to have those

difficult but critical discussions.

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“My Personal Blind Side”

When looking at the many types of problems that

exist in the workplace today, those which require immediate

action include frequent or unexcused absenteeism, abrasive

or threatening behavior, theft of company property,

excessive personal telephone calls, unauthorized use of

company equipment, wasting or damaging materials,

reckless or damaging behavior, safety violations, gossiping,

and spreading rumors. There are also those considered

extremely serious such as substance abuse and

harassment, which, if left unchecked, could lead to serious

issues. As a leader, you will most likely be faced with every

one of these issues at some point in your career.

Here are four key actions you can use when having to

deal with an employee issue.

(1) Identify the nature of the problem and why it is a

problem. For example, is the employee violating a

company policy and if so, what is the violation? Is the

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employee behaving inappropriately, and if so, what

constitutes inappropriate behavior? Is the employee

failing to perform the job and how so? Once you

identified the problem and why it is a problem, you next

have to determine the impact it is having on the rest of

the workforce. Some performance issues are only issues

because of how they impact the team. For example, an

employee who sees the negative in things is not an issue

with his/her performance, however, how he/she

discusses their view may disrupt the team and cause lost

work time as you must spend time to calm and reassure

your team that the sky is not falling.

(2) Once you have clearly established that a problem exists,

the next key action is to meet with that employee and

clarify the reasons as to why the problem exists.

Does the employee understand that they are not

performing to the standards set for them? This goes back

to our opening discussion in this chapter where we said

that 10% of employees that are our difficult employees

might not even realize that there is a problem. Does the

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employee know and understand the company policies the

company values? Were they made aware of these during

their new employee orientation or has that been many

years ago? Have they forgotten, have they been

reminded of these, did they not know that it was against

company policy or negatively impacted the team to

behave a certain way?

You should also consider whether there are mitigating

circumstances that could be affecting them? Is there a

reason, or something going on that could be the cause

for why the employee’s behavior is inappropriate? If it is

something as simple as a series of unexcused absences

or being late for work on a regular basis, the issue could

be something at home. Maybe they are a single parent

and they had a child at home who was sick or maybe

their babysitter called in sick. It is important to

understand, however, that these mitigating

circumstances do not excuse the behavior or the fact that

they did not let you know about their issues.

Understanding their situation is helpful in deciding how

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you will respond and how you will get them back to

performing correctly at work.

(3) Direct your employees in a way that they can correct

the problem. Once they have agreed that a problem

exists and you have let them know with clarity and

certainty why their behavior is inappropriate in the

workplace, then ask the employee for ideas about how to

solve the problem. If the employee is struggling for an

answer, then you may offer your own suggestions for

correcting the problem and give some specific examples

or guidelines for the employee to follow. Do not jump too

quickly to suggesting solutions. Give them time to come

up with their own solutions first. This may mean a few

quiet minutes, but do not lose your focus and give them

an answer just because you are uncomfortable with

quiet. More than likely, they know the answer. They just

do not want to admit it or accept it. If it is an

understanding of policy, then you may have to review

company policies with them. Once you have done this,

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you need to agree upon solutions to help get this

employee back on the right track.

(4) The final key action when dealing with employee

problems is to support their efforts in correcting the

problem. Thank the employee for their willingness to

correct the problem and provide encouragement to them

to continue his/her problem solving efforts. If the

employee is losing direction or is stumbling along the

way, provide some additional guidance and direction to

restore confidence in them that they can achieve

success. When they are successful, make sure you

recognize and acknowledge their efforts toward solving

the issue and getting back on track. If they are

unsuccessful, you may have to start the process all over

again. Similar to teaching a child to ride a bicycle, you

may have to instruct them a number of times before they

get the hang of it. If the behavior continues, you may

have to put them into a corrective action program to

formalize the correction that they need to make and set

out consequences if they fail.

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In summary, the first effort towards correcting

behavior is often somewhat informal. It tends to be a one-on-

one conversation where you identify the behavior that is not

up to workplace standards. The hope is that by meeting with

them informally, they will get back on track with their

performance. If not, you may find yourself having to take a

harder stance with them. Regardless, the desired outcome is

that behavior simply must improve. They cannot be allowed

to go on performing as they currently are else you risk

essential setting a new, yet lower standard.


“Explaining Standards”

Most companies have specific guidelines, policies,

and practices associated with corrective action. It is

important for you to follow your company program fairly and

consistently all the time. If, however, your organization does

not have a specific corrective action process, then what

follows is a generic approach toward corrective action that

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you may want to employ. It is a 5-step corrective action

process.

Step 1: Select the appropriate time and place to

discuss the issues. Whereas before you may have been

doing this informally, now you need to pick up the pace and

make it a more formal period of counseling with that

employee. Make sure the time when you do the counseling

is as close as possible to the occurrence of the behavior so

the employee clearly recognizes the event. Do not wait

several weeks or months to come back and address the

problem. Make sure your discussion with the employee is

private and free from interruptions.

Step 2: State in concise terms the event, actions,

behaviors, and the reasons for your concern. You need

to be very specific using supporting facts to illustrate your

points. Tell the employee why you are concerned, what the

issue is, what the impact is, or why it is a problem. Describe

the impact of the employee’s actions on others or its impact

in terms of consistency in the workplace. If the incident is

serious enough to where it could result in termination, have

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another member of management present with you

throughout the entire discovery process.

Step 3: Solicit the employee’s perspective. Listen

to your employee’s reasons, perceptions, and feelings. You

may have to keep your employee focused on the specific

event or events that required the meeting. Do not digress

and go into other issues. Some employees are very good at

distracting you from the real issue or changing the subject.

Keep focused on the problem that you are trying to solve or

correct with this employee. As you do this, it is important to

listen to the employee to hear what some of the mitigating

circumstances or issues might be and then work through

those. Use good active listening skills as you attempt to

understand their perspective of the situation. If the issue

concerns a repeated occurrence of the same violation, such

as coming in late, do not get caught up in an argument with

them over why they came in late that day. Let them know

that you are talking to them today because of the number of

occurrences of the same thing, the pattern of violation. Do

not let them drag you into an argument about what just

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happened. You will lose that argument every time. Instead,

focus on the pattern of behavior that is unacceptable.

Step 4: Seek solutions to the problem and get a

commitment of support for those solutions. If the case

involves a situation deemed as being severe, you may

choose to send the employee home and let them know you

will get back to them once you have reached a decision on

the matter. Tell them they may be called back to answer

additional questions that may come up so they should

remain available until a decision has been made. For the

sake of time, though, we will keep this simple and to the

point where such actions are not necessary. When looking

for solutions, you may need to prod the employee for

realistic and achievable solutions. Some employees may

downplay the seriousness of the situation now by using

humor or by coming up with outlandish or unrealistic

solutions. If they do this or just cannot think of solutions,

suggest some options for them to consider. Again, let them

know the seriousness of their actions and the impact that the

action or behavior has had on overall workplace

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performance. As you do this, set target dates and deadlines

for them to meet in correcting this problem so you have

measurable milestones built into your corrective action plan

which can then be used to document their progress in

working towards the solution.

Step 5: Support the employee in their efforts.

Reinforce your confidence in them that they can be

successful. Remind them that if their performance does not

improve during this period that you may be forced to look at

disciplinary action. If they truly are making positive strides

down the path to success, thank them for their efforts and

encourage them to continue to do the right thing.

Make sure you document everything throughout this

process. This includes behavior you personally witnessed,

conversations you had with the employee as well as those

with other employees, discussions you had with other

members of management, and anything else you think may

be pertinent to the situation. Make sure you document only

the facts and date each note. This is not the time to be

subjective or to add assumptions as to what you think you

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heard or what you think may have happened. Stick to the

facts and be as clear and concise as you can be when

documenting.

You did not create the problem, so do not feel guilty

about having to deal with it. Use an adult-to-adult philosophy

when talking to the employee. Again, it is their problem, not

yours. Therefore, if you are having feelings of guilt or

remorse over having to deal with it, get someone else

involved to help you out. If this is exceptionally difficult for

you, consider attending assertiveness training in order to

deal with future situations of a similar nature. For now it is all

right to call in back up help because the bottom line is that

you will not get the desired results you need if the employee

sees that you are anxious or unsure of your commitment to

upholding and maintaining the standard.

Corrective action means that you correct problems,

not create more. Make sure that you are fair and consistent

in your actions at all times. Remember that the way you deal

with the problem this time around will now become the new

standard for how you should treat all similar events from this

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point forth. As you discuss your expectations with employees

regarding their performance, it is important not to use words

that can be interpreted incorrectly. Do not tell Alice that she

has a lousy attendance record or a poor attitude. You need

to be more specific than that. The word ‘lousy’ means

nothing from a tangible standpoint. Let Alice know that she

has been late to work four times in the past two months.

That is specific and leaves no doubt regarding what the

violation is as well as when it occurred. When you discuss

solutions, make sure you are no less specific. if possible,

show Alice a copy of the company policy where it states that

employees coming to work late more than three times in a 6-

month period will receive an oral warning that will remain

active for 90 days and if late more than five times in a 6-

month period, the result will be written reprimand that will

remain active for nine months. This leaves no ambiguity as

to what the consequences for attendance issues will be.

Ask the employee if they understand what the policy

says as well as the consequences for failure to comply. Use

good active listening skills as they answer you. Restate what

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you heard the employee say to be certain that there are no

misunderstandings about any part of the current situation.

Make sure that you end on a positive note. Ask the

employee for a commitment to change and keep your door

open for future discussions about the problem. Focus on

improvement, and have faith and confidence in this

employee correcting the issue.

When it comes to preventing discipline, you may need

to do more than simple performance counseling with some

employees. You may need to provide additional training or

remove barriers that may be impeding their ability to

improve. You may also need to re-emphasize the

consequences for them if their performance continues to

falter and ultimately fails. If additional training, removal of

obstacles, or clarity of consequences fails to change

performance, then you will need to move into a disciplinary

program with that employee.

Disciplinary problems are classified into one of the

following categories: attendance, poor performance, or

misconduct in the workplace. Examples of attendance

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problems include unexcused absenteeism, excessive

excused absenteeism, patterns of absences (every Monday

after a holiday, the day after a scheduled vacation day, etc.)

or continued lateness for work. Examples of poor

performance are unacceptable or poor quality work,

excessive errors with work, insufficient quantity of work, too

much waste associated with work, or not getting along with

coworkers. Examples of misconduct include violation of

formal work rules, horseplay, or damaging the company’s

reputation.

Before taking any disciplinary action, a thorough

investigation of the situation must be conducted. Make sure

the discipline that you are about to hand down is appropriate

for the violation. Ask yourself if there is substantial evidence

that the employee actually violated a rule? Was it a willful

action or a result of not thinking an action through? Have you

had issues before or is this the first time? Is the disciplinary

action you are about to take consistent with what has been

issued to other employees who have committed similar

offenses? Again, you must be fair, impartial, and consistent.

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If the information that you gather supports taking disciplinary

action, meet with the employee and let them know what your

decision is and what the level of discipline is going to be.

An oral reminder is an informal conversation between

the supervisor and employee about a disciplinary problem. It

is the first level of disciplinary action. Even though it may be

an oral reminder, you still need to document it and give a

copy to the employee for his or her own files. A written

reminder is a more formal conversation between a

supervisor and employee about a performance problem. The

conversation follows a written document describing the

behavior and expectation of correction. It is the second level

of discipline. Many companies then have what is called a

final written warning. This is the last step of the positive

discipline program and sometimes involves sending the

employee home for a day to think about their future with the

company and whether or not they can commit to improving

their performance. This step involves having a very serious

conversation with the employee and letting them know that

this is essentially their last chance to improve their

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performance and the results of failure to comply at this step

is normally termination. This step is usually accompanied

with a probationary period (6-12 months) and if the

employee has another incident of any kind within this

timeframe, he or she will be terminated.

Suspension results in sending the employee home for

a few days unpaid. This is usually in response to a severe

incident that involves some willful neglect or where there is

potential for physical harm. Demotion can be used as well.

Demotion is used when someone has exercised poor

judgment on more than one occasion and management no

longer has faith in their ability to lead effectively.

Termination is not part of the positive discipline

system. Rather, termination occurs after all other steps of

the positive discipline program have been taken and there is

no change in performance or behavior. It also occurs when

an employee commits an act so serious that continued

employment will not be tolerated. In a crisis discharge, the

employee commits an offense, which is so serious that

discharge is appropriate whether any steps in the

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disciplinary system have been taken previously. This

includes such things as substance abuse, sexual

harassment, fighting, theft, willful disregard of a safety rule,

or insubordination.

Many of us fail to take action when we see employee

performance problems in the workplace because we do not

want to get the employee in trouble. Is that really fair? Is it

then appropriate for you to take on the consequences

yourself? Do not the consequences of the performance or

failure to maintain standards rest with the employee? Failure

to take action sends a bad message to the rest of the

employees who did not error. It can send a signal of

favoritism or that you will cover for your friends. Worse yet, it

could send the message that it is permissible for everyone to

bend the rules now and then and that you are not

comfortable dealing with them. This is a sign of weakness to

your employees and you will have lost control of your team

and the respect that comes with being a leader. You will

have let yourself, your team, and your organization down.

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When we began this chapter, we discussed the 10-

80-10 rule concerning a group of employees in that 10% are

top performers, 80% are good performers, and the other

10% are problem employees. The bottom 10% generally do

not necessarily know they are a problem unless you address

it with them. In fairness to the top 90% of the employees,

you must act fairly and consistently all the time. Failure to

maintain standards in the workplace one of the most often-

cited employee complaints about supervisors and managers.

Failure to maintain these standards and failure to address

performance problems when they occur will lead you down a

path of unresolved conflict and cost you time, energy,

efficiency, and leadership effectiveness.

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CHAPTER 17. ASSESSING

Evaluate performance and provide meaningful

performance-based feedback, Use the After Action

Review process for continuous improvement in the

workplace

There are two basic types of assessing that we

normally use throughout our leadership careers. The first

type of assessing concerns individuals, and is most often

conducted as part of the periodic performance reviews we

do with our employees. The second type of assessing

concerns projects or outcomes. In this chapter, we will

examine both assessing types and how they relate to our

roles as leaders.

Assessing Performance

The supervisor’s role in performance evaluations

cannot be over emphasized, since the supervisor is the key

to the success of the entire performance evaluation process.

When you are setting expectations, goals, and objectives for

your employees to achieve, remember that people will

perform to the lowest level of expectation in which they are

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held accountable. If you want higher performance, then you

need to set high expectations with challenging, but realistic,

goals and objectives.

All too often, we condition our employees for

underperformance. We tell them to arrive at meetings on

time and when they show up five minutes late, we assume

they had something more important to do so we say nothing.

Soon, others will also start arriving late for your meetings

because they know the meeting will not start on time. As a

leader, it is important to realize that others are not capable of

reading your mind. You must take the initiative to ensure that

your expectations are clearly understood by all employees.

This includes the day-to-day performance standards as well

as the annual performance standards, typically expressed

through formal performance evaluations.

The objective of performance evaluations is to

strengthen your company/employee resources by clearly

letting your employees know what is expected and where

they stand in regard to their current level of performance.

Performance evaluations provide a means of not only

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identifying those areas where they are excelling so they can

continue to grow their strengths, but it is also a means by

which you can identify areas of opportunity, or those areas

where they are not achieving the goals or core job

competencies established for them. By communicating this

through periodic evaluations, employees have the

opportunity to improve before the annual evaluations roll

around.

Performance evaluations should encourage self-

development and improvement on the employee’s part.

Evaluations help assure that qualified employees, or those

that have been performing to expected levels and beyond,

have the opportunity for promotion and growth within the

organization. There are several simple, yet important,

guidelines when it comes to completing your formal

performance evaluations.

Be as objective as possible when you conduct your

performance evaluations. Base ratings on specific facts and

instances of good and bad performance that occurred

throughout the current evaluation period. Disregard your own

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and other’s biases or favoritism about the employee. Do not

allow yourself to rate an employee good or bad in each

category just because you like or dislike him/her. Consider

everyday performance over the entire evaluation period and

show how this compares with the goals that were identified

at the beginning of the period. This information will help you

prepare your written evaluation.

Rate the results of the work within the rating period

without regard to previous ratings. Rate the job performance,

not the job importance, and be sure to disregard the

employee’s length of service, age, gender, ethnicity,

education, disability, or other factors that do not specifically

relate to performance. Do not compare one employee

against another. Rather, compare each employee against

the standards for the position they hold. It is always

important to recognize the effort an employee provides.

However, performance evaluations should focus on the

results of those efforts. We have all seen employees who

spend time doing busy work and not accomplishing anything

of value to the organization. Rate the results of their efforts.

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Rate each category separately, not allowing a good/bad

rating in one category to influence another category.

One rater bias is the Halo Effect or the Horn Effect.

This is letting your feelings about liking or disliking a person

influence how you rate them. Review notes you may have

taken throughout the evaluation period and use those to site

examples of good/bad behavior for the entire evaluation

period.

There are a few tendencies that we often see from

leaders when conducting performance reviews. One is to

rate everyone toward the high end of the scale which causes

inflated results for all employees. This is not being honest

with your employees. It is also common to see a supervisor

rating their entire team average in most areas. Choosing

your top, average, and low performers is difficult, but

employees want to know what you honestly think of their

work so you ned to rate them according to their true

performance.

Another common bias is just like me, where you rate

an employee high because you can easily relate to them. It

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takes hard work and a conscious effort to remain objective,

unbiased, and impartial as you rate and describe

performance over the past rated period.

Appraisals are often used to determine promotions,

pay increases, and possible layoffs. For those reasons

leaders tend to rate their people higher than what they often

should be. This is just not being honest with your employees

and can lead to very serious issues down the road.

When conducting the performance review with the

employee, make sure that you and the employee both

understand the position’s key responsibilities. Conduct the

performance interview in private and give yourself plenty of

time for discussion. Give the employee specific examples of

why you selected the ratings you did. If your company uses

a self-evaluation form, ask the employee to site examples to

support his/her ratings. This is a time to show the employee

you pay appreciate what they do and to show them how you

value their contributions.

Make sure that you allow enough time to complete

each employee’s evaluation before going on to the next

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employee. Do not quit in the middle and tell them you will get

with them again at another time to complete their review.

You lose the effectiveness of the evaluation if you quit mid-

way and your action sends the message that this really is not

important. Make sure that as you conduct your performance

appraisals, that you are following your organization’s policies

and procedures associated with the evaluation process as

you conduct your reviews.

Give the employee a copy of their written evaluation.

This allows them to refer back to your comments as they

work on areas for improvement. As you conduct your review,

get the employee to discuss ways to improve their

performance. Discuss how you can assist them with

performance improvement. Be certain to document any

feedback that you receive from the employee and add that

information to the form. Employees like to have something

they can refer back to, which is why you must be certain not

to lose any information that both you and the employee

deem as important to their growth and success.

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If your evaluation process requires that the employee

sign the form, this typically means nothing more than the fact

that they have read and understood what is on the form. It

does not necessarily mean that they agree with the

evaluation.

A performance appraisal is more than just a quick fill

out the form and get it done process. In other words, this is

more than just a quick overall assessment of how well the

employee has been doing on the job. It is an overall look at

the employee as a whole that can be used for future

assignments, promotions, and other factors that may have

an influence on this person’s future with the organization.

At times, performance appraisals may also be used to

decide who stays and who goes during workforce

reductions. It is not fair to the employees if one supervisor

takes the time and effort to give their employees a fair

evaluation and another supervisor marked all their

employees in the high range just because he or she just

wanted to get it done. Employees talk, and these types of

inconsistencies cause employees to lose confidence in the

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organization. At times, you may lose good employees and

retain marginal ones when a high performer receives the

same rating as the marginal performer.

Along these lines, remember that the performance

appraisal is a legal record of performance for an employee.

This process becomes even more critical as this document

could very well be used during a termination proceeding.

You must be able to show an employee’s specific faults and

what you did to help correct them, all of which should be

documented on the review.

All too often, when we are hired for consultation

purposes by outside organizations concerned with

performance issues, we look back to their performance

appraisals for the past rated periods. What we find is that the

appraisals tend to be fairly good, but as we then interview

supervisors, they will make comments to the fact that they

did have some concerns about specific employees. Our

obvious question then becomes if there were concerns, why

did they not document that on employee’s evaluation? Make

sure that if you do have concerns about an employee’s

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performance at any point in time that you review it with the

employee and then get it on record.

When conducting the actual review, be prepared.

Plan your discussion, anticipate any questions you think the

employee may have, and make appropriate notes on

important points you want to bring up. As mentioned before,

make sure you set aside time for the interview to avoid

interruptions. Make sure that the time allows for adequate

discussion that will probably occur once you ask the

employee for feedback about their review.

Briefly review the process with the employee to help

ease some of the anxieties they may have. Remind them of

what the company’s policy is concerning the performance

appraisal. Be professional, business-like, and friendly. As

you conduct the interview, use good communication skills

with them.

Many of employees are nervous, so much of what you

tell them may be imparted by your behavior rather than the

specific words you are using. Things such as voice pitch,

volume, stress on certain words, body posture, and facial

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expression supplement, or even change, the meaning of

your words. Use your active listening skills and make sure

that you understand what they are saying as they give you

feedback.

When you do ask for feedback, you need to make

specific non-verbal invitations as well to encourage

employees to talk to you. This includes a nod of the head or

making eye contact. Do not get into an argument with an

employee concerning the rating you gave them as it could

cause a breakdown in communications. If the employee

expresses a concern with which you disagree, make a note

during the interview and return to it later in the process.

It helps to paraphrase what you heard the employee

say. This means re-stating what the employee is saying in

your own words. Paraphrasing helps to assure to the

employee that you are following the conversation in terms of

thoughts and feelings. Paraphrasing also helps to document

exactly what is being said in a very concise way. It is your

way of confirming to the employee that you hear what they

have to say.

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Clarify throughout the process. The employee may

express incomplete thoughts or may say things you do not

understand. Some examples of clarifying include asking

such things as: I am confused about this; Can you help me

understand what you mean by that; You lost me there; or

Can you go back and clarify that for me?

In summary, when it comes to conducting

performance appraisals, here are 10 useful steps:

1. Make sure you understand the appraisal process and

then plan your discussion.

2. Define performance standards on core and common

responsibilities.

3. Evaluate and discuss performance over the entire

rated period, not just over the past few weeks or

months.

4. This is not the time for arguments. It is just a time for

sharing information.

5. Back up written ratings with specific examples of

observed behaviors and performance.

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6. Get input from others, including peers, co-workers,

and other supervisors to help you in assessing the

overall performance of the employee.

7. Evaluate results, not personality characteristics.

8. Be aware of your own bias and how those biases may

influence your ratings for each employee.

9. Reduce subjectivity by having a well-designed and

participatory system.

10. If you need more help, seek training on how to

conduct your performance interview and how to

complete your performance appraisal forms.


“Spotting Performance Mismatches”

Assessing Projects

We sometimes get so engrossed in the process or

project we are responsible for and when it is completed, we

celebrate that milestone and forget to go back and assess

how the project went. We need to ask ourselves such things

as what went well, what should we sustain, where are our

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areas of opportunity, and what can we do better next time.

We then need to evaluate how these lessons learned can be

applied to future projects. This is a critical leadership action

called continuous improvement.

There are many tools available for project

assessment. We recommend using an After Action Review

or AAR. As a tool for continuous improvement, the AAR is

widely recognized as a simple, yet powerful tool that can be

used for many different types of assessment in the

workplace.

Once your project has been completed, you want to

gather as many of the team as possible to conduct an AAR

on the entire process. Ask for input on what went well, what

did not go so well, and what needs to be changed before the

next time such a project is undertaken. The objective of an

AAR is to celebrate successes that occurred and to improve

individual and collective performance on things that did not

go so well by providing immediate feedback on how the

project could have been done better. The results of the AAR

are then used to shape future operations to ensure

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continuous improvement in the workplace. The goal is to use

this tool to help instill a culture of continuous improvement.

The AAR should be conducted during or immediately

after each event, project, or major task. An AAR should

focus on the intended outcome or goal of a specific project

or job and it should be positive in nature. It is not about

lecturing, critiquing, criticizing, or judging performance. It is

not the place to embarrass others or place blame. The AAR

is a professional conversation that we use as leaders to

help ensure continuous improvement in the workplace.

There are two types of After Action Reviews. One is a

more formal AAR that we just discussed. The second type is

one we will often use on a limited or informal basis. These

usually only take around 5-10 minutes to complete and are

often held with the employees when and where the work is

actually conducted. This can occur because you saw an

unsafe behavior, something an employee did right that really

impacted the project, or something that did not go as

planned with the project and an immediate change needs to

take place. Informal AAR’s should also be conducted after

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every significant event or when any other major milestones

in the lifecycle of a project have been completed.

There are four parts to an AAR. The first part is to

review what was supposed to happen, that is, what was the

goal, the objective, the mission, or the desired outcome that

was to be achieved. The second part is to establish what did

happen. This is determined by reviewing the timelines,

events, and activities of what really did occur. The third part

is to determine what went well, or those areas you want to

sustain when you have to do this project again in the future.

You also want to determine what went wrong, to determine

areas to improve on the next time you have to work on a

similar project. Finally, the fourth item is to assign

responsibilities or take actions necessary to make those

improvements as identified in part three of the AAR.

Once you complete an AAR, help maintain the

positive focus that came out of it by using the results to help

with continuous improvement in your workplace. If there are

any good ideas or actions that came out of it, use them to

help develop best practices that could be used in other areas

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and on other tasks when practical. At a minimum, make sure

you use what you learned the next time you have to work on

a similar project. Share those ideas with others throughout

the organization in an effort to help them increase their

efficiencies as well. Similarly, when problems are found,

share those also so others do not make the same mistakes

you did.

As you use and apply an AAR in the workplace, you

are trying to instill a learning culture of continuous

improvement for your team and for your organization. AAR’s

should be conducted in a non-retribution environment. Just

because somebody points out a problem does not mean that

you lay blame or otherwise criticize an employee. Do not

punish employees for trying to make improvements and

consequently making a mistake along the way. The AAR

process, as well as the lessons learned, make a powerful

statement to your employees that you value them and the

work they do, and if you use to AAR to do nothing more than

point out their faults, they will soon grew resistant to using

the process.

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“An Assessment Guru”

In summary, we have examined the leadership

actions associated with assessing, both in terms of

assessing individual performance, as expressed through

your organization’s formal performance appraisal process,

as well as assessing organizational performance through the

use of a post-project assessment tool called an AAR. You,

as a leader, must continually assess both your own

performance as well as the performance of your employees

if you are to realize your leadership vision of making a

difference in the organization.

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CHAPTER 18. LEADING YOUR TEAM

Effectively employ the 6 C’s of Teamwork and lead your

team by identifying the requirements, developing their

capabilities, and implementing the right measures to

move forward.

Teamwork is defined as a group of employees pooling

resources to achieve greater results than we can achieve as

individuals. Teams tend to provide a wider perspective,

develop solutions that are more creative, and make

continuous improvement in the workplace that one person

could not do on their own. Diverse teams tend to have a

deeper pool of skills and information that they can use

collectively in a collaborative environment to make a greater

difference toward organizational outcomes. Teams can

accomplish more by working together than any one person

can do by working individually. As a leader, your charge is to

lead your team toward achieving the results which you and

your organization want to achieve.

A number of attributes characterizes good,

productive, and effective teams. Teams that work well

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together tend to be very comfortable and work in a relaxed

atmosphere where everyone participates and the group

stays focused on the task they have in front of them. All

team members must be committed to the success of that

task, which is the vision for that team.

Effective teams have members who listen to each

other. There can and will be disagreements, but typically

decisions are made by consensus of the group rather than

by the leader. There will be times when the leader does have

to step in make a decision depending upon the sensitivity of

the task, but a well-oiled team will understand the need for

the leader to do so and will not resist that effort.

Effective teams are free to express their feelings and

ideas in a non-attribution/retribution environment and when

they do have a disagreement with something or someone,

he or she will bring it out in the open and provide criticism

that is frank, yet constructive towards achieving results.

When teams are functioning properly, assignments

and projects identifying what needs to be done are clear to

them and are accepted by the team as a whole.

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Occasionally, there may be leadership shifts within the team,

but when these shifts occur; the shift in leadership is without

power struggles.

Good, effective teams tend to be self-conscious and

self-evaluating with their team collectively, as well as on their

individual performance. When mistakes occur or when the

team starts lagging, they are good about self-critiquing and

doing what they can to pick up the slack and have no

problem holding individuals accountable when they are not

pulling their weight.

We need to make sure you know what the term

consensus means since we use that term a lot when talking

about achieving success. Take a moment to define what you

think it means and then think back to those times when it

was used successfully and those times when a group came

to consensus on something and it turned out not to be a

good decision. Consensus means that everyone may not

necessarily always agree on the proposed item, new

process, or decision, but you agree not to oppose it if that is

what the group adopts. You do not necessarily vote, as

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consensus can be reached through open and honest and

communication. Once consensus is reached, you are

obliged as a team member to support the decision and not

play submarine commander and try to sink the decision

outside the confines of the team. We like to say you can

share opposing views in the team discussion, but once a

decision has been made, everyone fully supports the

decision.


“The Pilger Nebraska Tornado”

As a leader of teams, you should always strive to

achieve what we call the Six C’s of Teamwork, which are

Competence, Candor, Consensus, Critique, Cooperation,

and Commitment.

Competence refers to developing and meeting the

standards of performance required for the team and for

individuals. Competence means to improve effectiveness

through training, discussion, and decision making while

striving for continuous improvement in the workplace.

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Competent teams are those that successfully carry out their

work assignments and work productively in order to achieve

results. Competent teams strive to increase the level of

knowledge for individual members as well as for the

organization as a whole.

Candor refers to how team members relate with each

other and as a team. Candid teams are honest with each

other and encourage each other to speak freely. They

actively listen to others with an open mind, seek out new

ideas, and challenge old principles and concepts. Candid

teams confront problems and controversial issues

assertively and aggressively in order to achieve their goals

and more.

Consensus means to use facts to support strong

opinions. Consensus means to develop innovative solutions

to a win-win approach to conflict. Consensus involves

developing solutions, finalizing decisions, and striving for

agreements within the team on critical and important issues.

It is making decisions that the team can understand and

support.

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Critique means to be self-assessing, but sensitive to

other people’s feelings in the workplace. It means to use

examples and facts as a base for drawing conclusions as

opposed to assumptions. Critique is all about finding

improvements and not laying blame. When you critique a

project, you evaluate all of the processes used during and

after the project has been completed. Discussion is not

meant to be taken personally, but understood as part of the

continuous improvement process.

You, as a leader, also want to instill a spirit of

cooperation within your team by having team members feel

that they are all in this together and that all members of the

team are participating and contributing fully and fairly within

the team. Cooperation means to share ideas and information

willingly with each other. It also means to set challenging

goals for themselves and to then reward themselves upon

successful completion of those goals.

Good teams are characterized by their level of

commitment. They set rules, follow them, and then help

hold each other accountable when they see others stray

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from those team rules. Committed teams achieve success

as a team and not as individuals within a team. Committed

teams are also committed to following the six C’s of

Teamwork.

Ideally, you should be focusing your energies on

creating a collaborative and cooperative environment with

your team, where you encourage your team to communicate

openly and honestly, where you encourage learning to go on

from one team member to another, and where you as a team

welcome challenges and opportunities as a way to find

continuous improvement in the workplace. You, as a team,

are working toward a common goal, or the vision set forth

early on in the process for you. Recognize that everyone has

their own strengths and weaknesses, but as a team, you

collectively overcome those weaknesses through the

complimentary skills that other members bring to the table.

For teams to be successful, they must operate in an

environment of trust and loyalty. If that is not present, then

conflict and doubt will creep in and destroy them from within.

This can be the result of a fence sitter - someone who

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refuses to make a decision or participate in the process, but

is willing to accept praise when the team excels. The

examples you set in the workplace will directly relate to how

team members interact with each other and with you. Your

job is to create willingness on the part of every team member

to listen, support, and communicate openly and honestly

with each other. You must be focused on integrity and facts,

not on personality. You can disagree, but when you do, you

respectfully disagree with each other. In other words, you

agree to disagree.

Always be aware of the dangers associated with

group decision-making that can lead to an issue called

groupthink. Groupthink occurs when the belief is that the

group decision has to be the right answer or when groups

strive to minimize conflict to the point of refusing to analyze

critical information that could lead to a more practical or

sensible decision. Occasionally this can lead to faulty

decision making because of a variety of factors that

influence us. When groups tend not to have open and

honest communication with each other, or when they avoid

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looking for answers outside of the group, they can become

prone to groupthink type activities, because they inherently

will start to believe that everything they do as a group must

be right. Groupthink has been studied in history by looking

back on key decisions made by well-rounded groups to find

out just where, why, and how it occurs.

A leader can help their team avoid groupthink by

encouraging candid debates within the team during the

decision making process and by asking challenging

questions in an effort to question assumptions made during

the decision making process. You can also help by getting

with several team members and discussing your concerns

with them and then asking them to play devil’s advocate.

Encourage them to ask the tough questions that challenge

the assumptions of the group when you see team members

discounting negativisms for fear of unwarranted criticisms or

the fear of being ostracized from the group. Groupthink can

and does occur even with some of the most advanced teams

from around the world, so be aware of it and work hard to

keep it from being a destructive aspect of your team.

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“The Team Leader’s Influence”

There are five dysfunctions of teams that we, as

leaders, must work to avoid. Patrick Lencioni, in his book

entitled The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Workbook for

Teams, listed these five dysfunctions as:

1. The absence of trust

2. The fear of conflict

3. The lack of commitment

4. The avoidance of accountability

5. The inattention to the results needed to

achieve success for the team

Lencioni’s book is one of the best we have seen

regarding teams, teamwork, and leading teams. We highly

recommend taking a look at this book to understand more

fully these important team leadership actions. For our

conversation on leading teams, we will summarize Lencioni’s

key points because we have found them to be very practical

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and useful towards understanding the nature of teams and

teamwork.

When absence of trust infests a team, team

members tend to conceal their trust and weaknesses from

each other. They will be hesitant to ask for help or provide

constructive feedback about where to make improvements.

Teams with an absence of trust hesitate to offer help outside

their own areas of responsibility. They tend to jump to

conclusions about the intentions and attitudes of others,

without first attempting to clarify them. They fail to recognize

and tap into each other’s skills and experiences. Instead,

they will waste time and energy managing their behaviors in

order to achieve the effect they want. Team members will

also hold grudges and will eventually dread coming to

meetings.

Conversely, members of trusting teams will freely

admit their weaknesses and mistakes and use them to help

themselves and others learn and grow from them. They will

ask for help, seek it out, and welcome any they can get in

order to provide continuous improvement for their team.

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Team members accept questions and input about their areas

of responsibilities from others, without judgment, so they can

continue to learn more. Team members give one another the

benefit of the doubt before arriving at a negative conclusion

and they will take risks in offering feedback and assistance

to one another. Trusting teams appreciate and tap into one

another’s skills and experiences, which then allows them to

focus on issues that are more important rather than the

politics of the team. Members of trusting teams look forward

to meetings and other group opportunities as a way to work

together, exchanging information willingly and openly, in

order to make improvements and decisions that will help

them achieve success.

The second team dysfunction is the fear of conflict. As

we discussed in a previous chapter, positive conflict can be

healthy for organizations. Teams that engage in productive

conflict know that its purpose is to produce the best possible

solution in the shortest amount of time. Teams that fear

conflict tend to have boring meetings and create

environments where back channel politics and personal

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attacks thrive. Team members ignore controversial topics

that are critical to the success of the team because they

dread the thought of a good fight now and then. Team

members fail to tap into all the opinions and perspectives of

team members and instead rely on a dominant few for

decision-making and opinions. Teams that fear conflict also

waste valuable time and energy with posturing and personal

risk management.

On the other side, teams that engage in positive

conflict have interesting and lively meetings where they will

extract and explore the ideas of all team members, not just a

select few. They tend to solve real problems more quickly

while minimizing politics. Their focus is on problem solving

and achieving results without regard to personal agendas or

politicking. Teams that engage in positive conflict put critical

topics on the table for discussion.

The third dysfunction is the lack of commitment. In the

context of the team, commitment is a function of two things:

clarity of purpose and buy-in for that purpose. The enemies

of commitment would rather make all decisions by

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consensus rather than allowing the disagreements that need

to occur. They cringe at the fear of failure and would rather

not ever take a stand on something than risk being wrong.

This is probably the most common reason why people do not

commit. Lack of commitment also includes the lack of

communication. If someone does not feel heard or listened

to, they will not invest in any decisions or goals. A team that

fails to commit will create ambiguity among the team about

direction and priorities. They will watch windows of

opportunity close due to excessive analysis and

unnecessary delay. They will also revisit discussions and

decisions repeatedly, and they encourage second-guessing

among team members.

You, as a leader, need a team that commits. One

where there is clarity about purpose and direction and

priorities among the team, and where the entire team is

aligned around commonly understood and agreed upon

objectives. Teams that commit develop the ability to learn

from their mistakes as opposed to punishing those who

make them. They take advantage of opportunities before

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their competitors do and they move forward and change

direction without hesitation or guilt.

The fourth dysfunction of teams is the avoidance of

accountability. Accountability refers to the willingness of

team members to challenge their peers on performance or

behaviors that might hurt the team. Teams that avoid

accountability tend to create resentment among team

members who have different standards of performance.

They encourage mediocrity and they tend to miss deadlines

and key dates. They also place an undue burden on the

team leader as a sole source of discipline rather than holding

each other accountable.

Teams that do hold each other accountable help

ensure that poor performers feel pressure to improve by

identifying problems quickly and questioning one another’s

approaches without hesitation. They establish respect

among team members who are held to the same high

standards that they hold themselves to. Accountable teams

avoid excessive bureaucracy around performance

management and corrective action. To help overcome

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avoidance of accountability, establish meaningful reward

systems for exceptional performance within your team. Make

sure that you explicitly communicate goals and have agreed

upon standards of behavior and conduct in the workplace.

Regularly discuss performance versus goals and standards.

Finally, dysfunctional teams tend to be inattentive to

results. Team status can be a distracter towards achieving

results. Team status occurs when people feel as though they

have met their goals by being on the team, and because of

this, they no longer have interest or buy in to the goals,

vision, and mission of the team. The desire for team credit

erodes the effectiveness of collective success. Teams that

are not focused on results will stagnate and fail to grow.

They will lose achievement-oriented employees and will

instead encourage team members to focus on their own

careers and goals ahead of those of the organization or

team. They will also become easily distracted toward

individualism as opposed to team collective capabilities.

Teams that are focused on results tend to retain

achievement-oriented employees. They will minimize

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individualist behavior and instead seek group behavior that

is more dynamic, free flowing, and capable to meet all

workplace challenges. Teams that are focused on collective

results will enjoy success and analyze failure from an

improvement process approach.


“Leading a Diverse Team”

In summary, as a leader, you must strive to lead your

teams to build trust within them, trust amongst them, and

trust between you and them. You also need to aggressively

deal with negative conflict and use positive conflict to seek

improvement and make needed changes in order to improve

the organization. Focus on developing commitment among

team members toward understanding the greater purpose,

mission, vision, and values of the organization. Focus on

accountability by maintaining your standards and

encouraging others to hold each other accountable to your

team rules or governance polices. Focus your team on the

desired results that you are trying to achieve and ensure an

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open, honest, collaborative environment where decisions

can be reached, mistakes can be made, and growth can

occur for individuals as well as the team as a whole.

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CHAPTER 19. THE ENDURING LEADERSHIP

LEGACY

Make a meaningful, productive, and lasting difference

on your team and the organization by ensuring that

others within the team are prepared to move forward

without you and are able to assume their own leadership

role.

What do you want as your leadership legacy? Have

you ever thought about that question? This means the end

state that you want to have achieved when you leave the

organization. What is it you want to be known for and

remembered for? For us, it is about making a difference in

the lives of those we lead and the success of the

organizations that have given us the opportunity to lead.

Our leadership legacy means putting the mission first,

but remembering that it takes the employees to achieve that

mission. It is striking the right balance between mission and

employees, and remembering that our success will come

from what others do in response to our leadership.

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As for the legacy itself, if you spend too much time

thinking about your legacy, then you have probably missed

the whole point of this book. After all, leadership is not about

you, it is about the team. It is not about what you do that

matters as much as the success of what the team does, the

group of people that you are charged to lead. It is about

making a difference in their lives and through that difference,

creating success for yourself and for the organization.


“Touching Your Team”

How do you know that you made a difference for your

employees? How about making the right difference for your

organization? Can you really ever be certain that you are

leading them effectively? In order to understand this you

need to ask yourself a few basic questions.

First off, would you work for yourself? Would you work

for a leader who behaved as you do in the workplace?

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Second, would you follow yourself? Would you follow

the examples that you set? Would you follow your leadership

approaches to situations and problems?

Finally, do you inspire others to be the best that they

can be? Do you inspire people to achieve greatness? Do

you inspire yourself based on your leadership actions in the

workplace?

Paraphrase the Golden Rule: lead others, as you

would want to be led. If you lead others the way you want to

be led, you would definitely work for yourself. You would

follow yourself to achieving even greater things and you

would inspire yourself to be the best that you could possibly

be. If you are doing these for yourself, then perhaps your

legacy is that you have done it for others as well.

As we wrap up this book, we will look at some of the

specific actions you will want to take, as a leader, in order to

answer the questions we have proposed with an affirmative

response.

Share information. People can and will participate in

finding solutions if they understand what the problem is.

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Sometimes what prevents us from sharing information is the

feeling that we will appear weak, indecisive, or unable to

take charge. We are caught in a vicious trap of withholding

information from others because we want the power we

believe information gives us, or we do not want to appear as

unable to make our own decisions. The challenge or the sign

of strength of a leader is knowing when to seek out others to

help you find solutions. When you do, you first have to share

information willingly and openly with people. You then have

to get people involved in the work that needs to be done.

People are more willing to work if they participate in the

decision making process. Through that participation, they

develop buy-in to the solutions they are striving to achieve.

Again, the thing, which most often prevents us from getting

people involved, is our own lack of confidence and fear of

feeling weak in front of others if we do not have all the

answers. Remember courage is moving beyond your fears

to do what is needed for the organization.

We, need to listen to people’s concerns. If people

feel that what they have to say matters to you, they will be

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more willing to listen in response. Listening to others’

concerns, empathizing with their viewpoints, and collectively

working to develop solutions will help people be willing and

ready to work for you. You need to take action that clearly

and consistently says you care about your employees. When

people feel their boss genuinely cares about them, they will

care about their jobs in return and will work hard to achieve

success for the team.

Be sure to tell people what they are doing right.

People are more responsive to positive reinforcement and

are more likely to perform better. Seek out employees who

are making a difference for your organization and let them

know when they are doing it right, preferably in a public

setting. Make sure you tell them specifically what it is you

appreciate that they are doing. That will be meaningful to

them and ensure them that you really did notice.

Focus on the solutions, not necessarily the

problems. The team that becomes more focused on

solutions will ultimately become more productive. Teamwork

is not about laying blame or finding fault. It is about finding

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solutions to make the improvements necessary in the

workplace. When you do have performance issues or

problems with employees, make sure you deal with these

mistakes in private. Both the person who made the mistake

and others on the team will become resentful if you deal with

mistakes in a public setting. Embarrassing people will always

have a negative impact on their performance and the

performance of the team.

When you do find performance mistakes, use

mistakes to help people learn and grow in their jobs so

they can become better in what they do. Do not dictate.

Instead, facilitate a collaborative solution-finding

environment. Be honest and ethical with all your business

practices and employee relations. Going back to the first

three chapters, we defined leadership and those important

leadership values and attributes that include honesty, acting

ethically, and maintaining absolute integrity. Do not hide the

truth from others. If there is an issue and you are able to

share it, share the truth, good and bad news alike.

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Let people do their jobs. Do not micro-manage

them. People do not love a control freak and instead will

grow resentful of you when you tell them how to do their

jobs. Strong leaders recognize the strengths of their team

members and give them space to do things their way.

Respect the professional competencies that each one of

your team members has and let them do their job.

When dealing with your employees and your team,

focus on the positive rather than accentuating the

negative. Do not ignore performance problems, but focus

your energies on the positives that are being developed by

your team rather than always pointing out the negatives. We

like to call this focusing forward. Look to what can happen

and focus on having a positive result.

Make sure that when you communicate tasks that

need to be done, you communicate why the work is

important. Use real world examples. Show teams how they

are interrelated to other teams within the organization and

remind them that they are a team of teams that help make

the organization successful. Make sure you express genuine

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enthusiasm about the work that needs to be done and why

the work is important.

Support your team. Pitch in as a team member

when needed. Remove the obstacles that are preventing

success for your team. Find ways to better resource, equip,

or otherwise give them more information so they can do

accomplish their tasks and mission in the workplace.

Finally, create opportunities for growing people

and growing leaders. Go beyond mere job descriptions and

be aware of the goals of your employees. Creating

opportunities for individual growth and advancement within

organizations will help you retain quality people and help

provide opportunities for others to rise up to the challenges.


“Building the Bench”

Your leadership legacy should be based on creating

empowered employees who are able to lead effectively

when you are away or are able to replace you when you

retire, get promoted, or reassigned. Empowered employees

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who are able and willing to make decisions on their own,

based upon the mission, vision, and values of the

organization are your victory flag that you should feel proud

to have helped create.

You have made a difference as a leader when you

have improved the organization, when you have improved

others, and when you have consistently placed the needs of

others ahead of your own. It is not about you. It is about the

successes of the people and teams that you lead. They are

your leadership legacy.

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Final Thoughts

We mentioned at the beginning of this book that the

name, Leadership Foundations, is based on the first

workshop we conduct for most of our client-specific seminars

and open enrollment workshops. In that workshop, we

examine leadership from the perspective of many current

and historical leaders including Colonel Joshua L.

Chamberlain of the 20th Maine at the Battle of Gettysburg in

the summer of 1863 during the American Civil War. Colonel

Chamberlain’s values and actions model much of what we

discuss. In particular, his leadership during the Battle of Little

Round Top on July 2, 1863 protected the Union flank and

allowed the North to succeed in winning this pivotal battle of

the war.

We ask the workshop participants to consider Colonel

Chamberlain’s values, skills, and actions as demonstrated

before, during, and after the battle in context of today’s

leadership. In other words, what are the lessons learned

from Colonel Chamberlain for us today? We would like to

close this book with their thoughts, reflections, and

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observations. The following is a list of the lessons and

applications from the Battle of Little Round Top and Colonel

Joshua L. Chamberlain, USA.

Lesson Application

Straightforward, inspiring leadership will always win the day

Be confident, decisive, and lead by example

Re-state the vision and values consistently and clearly

Be resourceful and flexible, yet faithful to your vision

Delegate, trust your team, and confirm with feedback

Leverage the talents and capabilities of everyone

Never give up!

Remain calm under pressure

Show that you genuinely care about your people

Be willing to do anything that you ask them to do

Give clear and concise instructions

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

Plan, Organize, Execute, Direct, and Assess

Engaged throughout all aspects of the mission

Earn respect by first giving respect

Compassion and understanding regardless of position

Extend your vision to more than just what is in front of you

Maintain both operational and strategic perspectives

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Remain calm, in the face of uncertainty

The example you set is contagious

Adapt to the situation, but remain faithful to your purpose and vision

Creativity and decisiveness win the day

Fix Bayonets …. Charge!

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Books, Inc.

Barber, B. E. (2004). No Excuse Leadership: Lessons from

the U.S. Army’s Elite Rangers. Hoboken, New Jersey:

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Canfield, J., Hansens, M.V., Rogerson, M., Rutte, M., &

Clauss, T. (1996). Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work.

Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, Inc.

Carrison, D., & Walsh, R. (1999). Stemper Fi: Business

Leadership the Marine Corps Way. New York, NY:

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BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHORS

Olin O. Oedekoven, Ph.D.

Dr. Olin Oedekoven has an extensive background in

leadership, organizational development, higher education,

strategic planning, and institutional evaluation. His

undergraduate degree is in Wildlife and Fisheries

Management (South Dakota State University), and his first

Master’s degree is in Wildlife Ecology (University of

Wyoming). Olin then worked in state government as a

natural resource specialist for 20 years.

Olin continued his formal education with Northcentral

University, earning an MBA and a Ph.D. in business

administration with concentrations in management and

public administration. He later earned a post-doctoral

certification in human resource management. Dr.

Oedekoven has taught doctoral level students for 10 years,

including chairing approximately 40 Ph.D. committees.

Concurrently, Dr. Oedekoven served for nearly 33

years in the U.S. Army Reserves and U.S. Army National

Guard. He retired in 2011 as the Deputy Adjutant General of

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the Wyoming National Guard, leading an organization that

included nearly 3,500 members (civilian and uniformed

employees). Brigadier General Oedekoven has a Master’s

degree in Strategic Planning from the U.S. Army War

College. Oedekoven also served on several U.S.

government councils and committees during his tenure as a

general officer.

Dr. Oedekoven founded Peregrine Leadership

Institute in 2003 and Peregrine Academic Services in 2009.

The Leadership Institute provides leadership development

training, organizational assessment, strategic planning

assistance, and executive leadership seminars. Highlights

associated with the leadership development services include

management training throughout the U.S. with government

and private sector organizations, ongoing leadership training

in Canada, and leadership development work in China,

Tunisia, Mongolia, and Vietnam.

Peregrine Academic Services provides online

assessment and educational services to institutions of higher

education throughout the world. Services include program-

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level assessments in disciplines such as business, early

childhood education, public administration, and

accounting/finance. Peregrine has consulted with both

governmental and academic institutions and organizations

concerning higher education needs, compliance, academic

accreditation, assurance of learning, quality, and reform. In

2012-2013, Dr. Oedekoven conducted several strategic

planning and executive-level leadership seminars for the

Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs.

Deborah K. Robbins, MPA

Deborah Robbins has an extensive background in

Human Resources, leadership development, HR systems,

and strategic planning. Her undergraduate degree is in

Personnel Management and Industrial Relations and she

holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration.

Throughout her years of public service in local government,

her focus was on leadership development, general human

resource practices, and project management.

Ms. Robbins also has extensive experience in the

private sector with general human resources, recruiting, and

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continuous improvement processes. She is an adjunct

faculty member for the University of Mary in Bismarck, ND,

teaching undergraduate and graduate level Human

Resources and Diversity courses. Ms. Robbins holds the

certification of Senior Professional in Human Resources

from the Society of Human Resources in the U.S.

In 2010, Ms. Robbins joined Peregrine Leadership

Institute, focusing on instructional design, human resource

consulting, executive leadership development, and coaching

new supervisors. She currently resides in Mudgee, New

South Wales, Australia.

John E. Lavrenz, MBA

John Lavrenz has 30+ years of experience at all

organizational levels. He has a comprehensive background

in the areas of training and development and has extensive

experience in the areas of leadership, organizational

development, affirmative action, succession planning, HR

management, labor relations, and project management.

John has an undergraduate degree in business

management with a concentration in Organizational

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Psychology and a Master’s degree in business

administration with a concentration in Project Management.

He has served on numerous boards and has been

instrumental in helping with program development for

several local colleges where he spent many years working

with staff members as well as the executive leadership in

building technical education programs.

John served as vice-president of the advisory board

for a local college where his duties entail working with city,

county, and state leadership and government officials to help

build support and funding for the Northwest Wyoming

Community College District in Wyoming.

John retired from his position as Director of Training

from a large mining organization in March of 2012 after

spending 34 years there. While there, he helped develop

and conduct training for all levels within the organization.

This included working closely with various global training

providers to develop, and then conduct, training for all

14,000 employees within the organization.

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In 2010, John entered into an agreement with a

private firm and co-authored a succession-planning program,

which is currently being taught throughout the world. He was

also jointly responsible for the recruitment and hiring process

for the Wyoming operations and worked closely with the

Federal Government to set up and manage apprenticeship

programs throughout the organization. John was often called

upon to help with conflict resolution both internally and

externally.

John joined Peregrine Leadership Institute and

Peregrine Academic Services as Executive Director shortly

after his retirement from the mining industry. John oversees

the daily business functions of Peregrine Leadership Institute

and conducts executive leadership programs to various

clients.

Howard A. (“Art”) Dillon, Jr.

Art Dillon has worked as a leadership consultant and

trainer for Peregrine Leadership Institute since 2006. Art has

a diverse background in leadership, management, and

organizational development in the public and private sectors

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as an educator, public speaker, community volunteer, and

mentor. Art’s leadership training and experience include both

military service and public education. Art was drafted into the

U.S. Army from his home in British Columbia during the

Vietnam War. He became a commissioned officer, earned

his pilot’s wings, and served as a helicopter pilot with the

101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. During 32 years of active

duty and National Guard service, Art held a number of key

staff and command assignments, and graduated from

Command and General Staff College as well as the U.S.

Army War College. Art retired from the military in 2006 as a

Brigadier General and Commander of the Wyoming Army

National Guard.

As an educator, Art served for 30 years as a teacher

or principal. In 2006, Art retired as Principal of Colorado’s

first Core Knowledge School, Traut Core Knowledge School

in Fort Collins, Colorado. During Art’s 13 years as principal,

Traut was designated a National School of Character in

1999, and earned a “John Irwin School of Excellence” rating

by the Colorado Department of Education five times from

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2000-2006. Art’s formal education includes a B.Ed. in

Secondary Education from Simon Fraser University in

Burnaby, B.C., Canada; a M.Ed. in Administration from

Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado; an Ed.S.

in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the

University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado; and a

Superintendent’s license.

Art’s strengths include leadership training, curriculum

development, character education, leading change, and

strategic planning and decision-making.

Rodney Warne

Rod has over 35 years of experience serving in a

variety of capacities within the law enforcement and fire and

rescue fields. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy

and FBI Command College as well as a veteran of the

United States Air Force and the Wyoming Army National

Guard.

In addition, Rod is an adjunct instructor in Stress

Management for the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy

and he has a vast experience in working with and serving on

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both public and private boards. Rod holds an Associate

degree in Criminal Justice from Laramie County Community

College in Cheyenne and a Bachelor of Science degree in

Criminal Justice Administration from Bellevue University in

Bellevue, Nebraska.

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TOPIC INDEX

5 Dysfunctions of Teams

6 C’s of Teamwork

Accountability

Active Listening

After Action Reviews

Assessing Performance

Assessing Projects

Baby Boomer Generation

Change

Change Barriers

Change Resistance

Coaching

Cohen’s Eight Universal Laws of Leadership

Communication Barriers

Communications LADDER

Communications Process

Confidence

Conflict in the Workplace

Conflict Management Steps

Corrective Action 5-Step Process

Counseling

Decision-Making

Decisive

Delegating Leadership Style

Deliberate Conflict Problem Solving

Directing Leadership Style

Empower Others

Envisioning

Ethical Decision-Making

Ethics

Feedback

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Gen X

Gen Y

Generations

Honesty

Humility

Initiative

Integrity

Leadership Code of Conduct

Leadership Defined

Leadership Legacy

Leadership Styles

Leading Change

Leading Teams

Loyalty

Maintaining Standards

Management

Mentoring

Morales

Negative Conflict

Participating Leadership Style

Performance Evaluations

Positive Conflict

Problem-Solving

Respect

Role Modeling

Self-Discipline

Soft Skills

Stress Management

Supervising

Supervision

Teamwork

The 8-Step Decision-Making Model

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Theory X

Theory Y

Time Management

Time Wasters

Traditionalist Generation

Transactional Leadership Style

Transformational Leadership Style

Trust

Unselfishness

Valuing Diversity

Vision

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