Month: June 2018

Tyranny: Leaders can become cruel. They can use their power to oppress, abuse, and cheat workers.  Ultimately, tyrannical leaders can destroy an organization. On the other hand, great leaders lift their workers to create great organizations with people who enjoy professional success. What elements create great leaders who instill confidence and workplace engagement?

Tyranny in leadership infects the brain of an organization and creates destruction as it spreads throughout the entire organizational body.
~ www.jaywren.com

Leadership

Leadership is a trait that can start from any place in an organization.  Usually leadership starts at the top and runs throughout the entire organization.  By picking and developing winning teams, great leaders create great organizations.

Tyranny in Leadership

However, bad leaders, especially leaders who practice tyranny, can create failure in any organization. The Caine Mutiny is a novel about a commanding officer, LCDR Philip Francis Queeg, whose endless mistakes and tyrannical command create such desperation among the officers that they commit mutiny.  Herman Wouk, the author of The Caine Mutiny, drew upon his knowledge from World War II experiences aboard a similar vessel, the USS Zane.

The book dramatically portrays leadership failure.  The mistakes, tyranny, and dishonesty of Captain Queeg result in mistakes among the officers and crew and create dangerous and embarrassing situations for the ship under his command, the USS Caine.

As I said in an earlier post, there is a saying in the United States Navy, “So goes the captain. So goes the wardroom. So goes the ship.”  A bad captain creates bad performance among the officers who in turn create bad performance among the people who work for them.  On the other hand, great commanding officers raise the performance of their officers and in turn their crew.

The same principle applies in any organization.

Brilliance Exists at All Levels

Great leaders know that brilliance exists at all levels of their organization. Furthermore, great leaders have left great quotes to instruct us on leadership.  During World War II, Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz was the Commander-in-Chief, US Pacific Fleet.  Additionally, he was Commander of the Pacific Ocean Areas for U.S. and Allied air, land, and sea forces. Here are two quotes from Nimitz that show his view of leadership.

“Leadership consists of picking good men and helping them do their best.”

“Some of the best advice I’ve had comes from junior officers and enlisted men.”

Rather than abuse the people who work for them, great leaders see these future leaders as sources of creativity and inspiration.

My Experience with Excellence in Leadership

The greatest leader I have known is Admiral Sylvester R. Foley, Jr., who, like Nimitz, was Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. I knew him earlier on when he was my captain aboard the aircraft carrier the USS Midway.  He would say things to encourage and to simplify the job for the people under his command. He clearly stated what he expected of you.  Furthermore, he gave you credit when you performed with excellence.

Great leaders like Nimitz and Foley influence lives. The leadership I experienced under Admiral Foley gives me confidence and direction to this day.  Tyranny destroys leadership.  However, the best leaders create great leaders to follow them.

Self-awareness: Some people become victims of their feelings and thoughts. How can developing self-awareness change victim thinking to action thinking?

Self-awareness is knowing and understanding how our feelings and thoughts occur inside our own mind and body.  Furthermore, this knowledge and understanding can show us effective ways to act on the things that trigger the way we see and respond to the world.

The Negatives of Lacking Self-Awareness

In response to pain from the past, present, or future experiences, we often turn our focus on what’s happening in our mind and in our body. We have a sensation of lack of control over our circumstances.  We don’t focus on solutions. Instead, we turn painful thoughts over and over in our mind.

The most difficult thoughts are those about things beyond our control.  By focusing on our faults, we add to the frustration and fear that we experience.  When these feelings become intense enough, they blind us to options and solutions. We feel trapped.

The Benefits of Self-Awareness

On the other hand, people who are self-aware know that feelings happen inside themselves. They turn their focus away from their feelings and thoughts and toward the world around them. These people live in the present moment. They don’t think about the past or the future. Additionally, they trust that however things turn out, they have the ability to develop to tools to deal with them.  In short, they have confidence and know freedom from fear and frustration.

Relationships: A Higher Level of Self-Awareness

Furthermore, people with self-awareness are available and engaged with others.  They have a higher capacity to listen and a greater capacity to respond appropriately.

Self-awareness empowers people to be more successful leaders and better friends.  They realize the effect their actions have on the people around them.

Furthermore, people who are aware of how their actions affect other people become more effective in motivating others, in changing public opinion, and have the potential to direct large masses.

Ending Perfection Paralysis: How do successful people end the compulsion to rework projects and move on to create new ones?

My Personal Struggles with Ending Perfection Paralysis

I have worked on drafts of articles so many times that I have lost track of what I had in mind when I started writing the article.

Additionally, in reviewing older blog posts, I see ways that I could have written the post better.  However, few people will ever see those posts. Taking time to continually review and rewrite old material takes away from my time to create new work.

The Perfectionist as a Manager

The worst case of perfection affecting performance I have seen was the case of a former supervisor.  He placed so much emphasis on everything being exactly the way he wanted that everyone struggled through countless changes to meet his expectations. Whether dealing with correspondence, maintenance, or production, he would continue to look for flaws in everything.  He would insist that things be done to meet his idea of how they things should be done.

When this person left, his replacement was just the opposite in his management of people and requirements for perfection.  He knew that he had intelligent, conscientious people working for him.  He would carefully review the finished products and perhaps make changes.  However, he also knew that countless unnecessary revisions were just a waste of time.

Peak performance comes from knowing when to move on to the next project.

Money Saved and Money Earned.

The first obvious benefit of ending perfection paralysis is that people become more productive.  However, there are other benefits.

The principle of ending perfection saves money and builds businesses to make more money.  Every time a company revises or reworks anything, the company spends money and creates delays in profitable productivity.

Reduced Risks of Mistakes

Additionally, some products may undergo changes that introduce errors that must be caught before the revised product can be released. Every time I revise my material, I risk making errors in the new material.

Changes of schedules or procedures in groups of people create risks of confusion.  Inevitably the more changes to a schedule will result in an increase in the likelihood that more people will fail to know and meet the schedule.

I first observed this when I was a young manager and there was a flight change involving eight people.  No one got the information about the change.  All eight people missed the flight. Having been involved in countless scheduling situations since that time, I have made it a practice to hold people to their commitments to stick to schedules.

Solutions to Ending Perfection Paralysis

Some people may need professional help to end their endless perfection. These people have a compulsion.  Consistent with compulsions in drinking or taking drugs, people with a compulsion to rework their projects may have an addiction. These people may need professional help to overcome their addiction to perfection.

On the other hand, learning the signs of perfectionism can help you let go of the desire to rework a project.  Here are some techniques that may work for you.

Get feedback. Work in teams where consensus can help you release your work and move on to new projects.

Establish parameters.  State the purpose of a project.  Layout out the details. Once you have completed a project so that it fulfills its purpose, you can know when it is time to release the project.

Set the project aside for a day. Backing away from a project to let yourself view your work objectively will help you recognize when you are reworking a finished project.