Category: Leadership

Humility and Team Success

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” C. S. Lewis”

Research on Humility and Teams

In an article “The Best Leaders Are Humble Leaders,” HBR.org, Jeanine Prime and Elizabeth Salib reviewed research they had conducted on leadership.

The research involved six countries and twenty-two companies.  It showed that employees who believed that their managers cared for and respected them were more innovative.

The research further showed that humility is one of the four elements that helps employees feel “included,” that is, feeling “unique” yet “belonging.” These employees developed a sense of “citizenship” in the company.

My Personal Experience with (out) Humility

When I am hungry or tired, I can become self-centered and irritable. I want control. I lose patience.

When I focus too much on what I want and what I feel, I am a target for frustration. I can see people as being in the way instead of being there to help me. I lose humility.

I focus on what I don’t like in other people. I focus on what someone else is doing differently from the way I want it done. I am not enjoying my day. I become less available to other people. I lose the benefit of their help.

When I act self-centered, I annoy people. I frustrate people. I make them feel that they are not on the team with me.

I make things harder for myself and for the people on my team.

Humility and Team Productivity

When I can respect and have patience with other people, I feel better. The people around me benefit from my respect and thoughtfulness.

When I stop thinking about myself, working with others becomes easier. I can do my part. I can let other people do their part.

Thinking of others as well as myself, I can get out of my mind and into the present moment. I become more effective. I become more pleasant. I can listen to people. I can help them with solutions. I can benefit from their solutions.

When I am with a team that has members who respect each other’s ideas, everyone enjoys the job more. Even when I am working with a team in dealing with a difficult situation, if we all respect each other and let everyone contribute to the solution, everything moves faster and more effectively.

Do Leaders Need Humility?

I am more effective when I have the humility to listen to other people and to respect their ideas. I enjoy my work more. The people working with me enjoy their work more.

Research shows that companies with humble leaders benefit from employees who feel included and empowered. They are more reliable, innovative, productive, and committed to being members or “citizens” of the company.

Small Business Saturday: Jobs Where You Are the Boss

Small business Saturday reminds us that there is opportunity in working for yourself.

To begin self-employment, start simple. The goal is to do the deal, to sell something.

William Procter, co-founder of consumer products giant Procter & Gamble, started his first business from skills he learned as an apprentice who dipped candles. When he settled in Cincinnati, he started a candle company that he merged with the candle and soap company of his brother-in-law, James Gamble.

Paul Jobs, who was Steve Jobs’ father, bought, repaired, and resold cars.  He was outstanding at bargaining for parts, a perfectionist for finishing mechanical details, and a great negotiator for selling cars for a cash profit.

I have known people who supplemented their incomes through starting yard-care and landscape companies.  I know other people who rigged out a van as a tool truck and turned home repairs into a full-time business.

I have a friend who set up a motorcycle repair shop in his garage.  He was a full-time electrician and a part-time motorcycle mechanic.  Through this business, he extended his love for motorcycles into a revenue stream, and he met other riders who shared his love for motorcycles.

Some people turn yard sales into flea market businesses.  Earlier in our marriage, my fantastic wife made ornaments for seasonal celebrations and sold them over a few weekends at a flea market.  I am really proud to think of some of the terrific things she made and that many people may still be enjoying those ornaments today.

Tim Ferris is the maestro of small business creation.  The message I got from his book, “Four-Hour Work Week” is not how to cut your work week to four hours.  Rather, the message I got is how to run a business from your laptop.  In fact, I challenge Tim Ferris to work only four hours a week.  He has so much energy that what he considers leisure most people would call hard work: vocational skills development, business networking and advising, financial management, new product creation, and business promotion.

Tim Ferris celebrates that he can run his business from any place in the world.  Hello, Tim: the fact is that you keep working, albeit from Tokyo, Rio, San Francisco, and wherever you can connect your laptop to the Internet.  The second fact is, of course, that you challenge other people to live their dreams and to turn a laptop into money machine.

The Internet is a fairly easy place to start.  There are out of the package e-commerce website kits.  Craigslist and eBay offer opportunities to sell things online.  There are at least a half of a dozen million-dollar businesses on eBay.  There are dozens of people making money writing books on how to create a business on eBay.

So keep it simple. Do the deal.  Sell something.  Start your own small business and find out if you love being your own boss.

20-70-10 Employee Stack Ranking

Many companies have used 20-70-10 employee ranking or “stack ranking” as part of the process in performance evaluations.  Some companies once viewed the process as the staircase for success.

Jack Welch used forced employee ranking at General Electric.  He popularized the concept through his writing and consulting.  In a “Bloomberg BusinessWeek article ‘The Case For 20-70-10’“, Jack and Suzy Welch explain the principle for ranking employees into performance categories.

The process of forced ranking includes firing the bottom 10%.  Critics call this process “Rank and Yank.”  Many critics state that “stack ranking” polarizes managers and employees and stifles innovation.

Even though fewer companies use “rank stacking” today (read more via Forbes.com, Peter Cohan), most companies still do annual performance reviews.

According to Fortune/CNNMoney.com contributor Anne Fisher, only two percent of human resources executives say that yearly evaluations are actually useful.
On its company blog, Adobe published an article about its decision to drop annual performance reviews.

“The dreaded performance review? Not at Adobe.”

It’s the bane of managers’ and employees’ existence at corporations around the world — the annual performance review.

Adobe abolished its performance review system in favor of ongoing “check-ins.” The story of how it came about and the way it works is a perfect example of how Adobe does what makes sense regardless of trends — and winds up setting some new trends in the process.”

Adobe did a specific thumbs down on stack ranking.

“In most corporations, managers must divide employees into groups — for example, maybe 15 percent of people can be assigned the highest rating. Those ratings then determine salary increases. Employees are also typically ranked, meaning that every interaction with a teammate could be viewed as a competition rather than a collaboration.”

In conclusion, performance feedback is important.  All companies do use some form of evaluations.  Managers must direct employees to focus on the job and on ways to do a better job.  The method of performance review should vary from company to company.  Each company has different circumstances.   For some companies annual reviews work well.  For other companies such as Adobe, regular feedback alone works well.  Many companies use a combination of methods for reviewing performance and giving employees feedback.  Although some companies still use stack ranking in various forms, many companies have found that forced ranking of employees neither creates better employee performance nor gives an accurate of understanding of the skills and abilities of the total organization workforce. 

The Power and Failings of Leadership: The Caine Mutiny

Power and Failings of Leadership

Leadership is a trait that can start from any place in an organization but usually starts at the top and runs throughout the entire organization.  Great leaders create great organizations through picking and developing winning teams.  Bad leaders can create failure in any organization.

“The Caine Mutiny” is a novel about a commanding officer, Lt Cdr 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 “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.”  The wardroom is the officers’ eating area aboard ship. The point of this statement is simple.  Great commanding officers raise the performance of their officers and in turn their crew.

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, United States Pacific Fleet (CinCPac) and Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CinCPOA), 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.”

The greatest leader I ever knew is Admiral Sylvester R. Foley, who was also the Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet, and 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.  Great leaders like Nimitz and Foley influence lives. The leadership I experienced under Admiral Foley gives me confidence and direction to this day.

Photo by Ivan Bandura on Unsplash

The Power of Giving Recognition

The Power of Giving Recognition

People who give compliments and recognition are people I remember.

For several years, I have sent out a newsletter.  Two people have regularly given me thanks for my work in creating and publishing that newsletter.  One of these people is a senior executive at The Walt Disney Company.  The other person was the Vice President of Sales at Nestle at age thirty-two and today places more C-level executives than any other corporate recruiter in the country.

In the past week, I got a marketing email from one of my favorite clients.  The president of that company has been a loyal client and friend for twenty-five years.  His company did a terrific job on the email.  I sent him a note, complimenting him on his marketing campaign.

The best boss I ever had moved through levels of greater responsibility rapidly.  He was a four-star Admiral.  I once showed him some work I had just completed.  He said that the work was outstanding.  Then he said, “Of course, I would expect no less from you.”

I have read that the words people most like to hear are the words in their name.  When I greet people, I say their name.  Names are great for communication, so that people know that you are speaking with them.  More important is that, when I say a person’s name, I am giving them recognition.

I compliment a person on their appearance to give them self-confidence and to let that person know that their presence adds value to my day.  A receptionist in my office taught me a nice way to compliment people on their appearance.  What she said was most comfortable for her was for someone to compliment something she was wearing.  I try to remember that suggestion whether I am complimenting a man or a woman.

The real winners in giving recognition are the people giving the recognition.  These people attract people to them.  I remember people when they take time to give me recognition or a compliment.  I find that especially is the case when I have done a large job and few people have said anything about the work I have done.  I also find that I remember people who have repeatedly thanked me for my work or told me I did a good job.

Multitasking? Give Me a Break!

The greatest hazard in the multitasking world today is the risk of not getting to the the actual tasks you have set for yourself.

Computers Invite Us to Multitask.

I have always had multiple tools on my desktop.  At one time my desktop was covered with a legal pad, a canister of pens, reference books, a phone book, trade journals, blank file cards, boxes of completed file cards, a hand-written spreadsheet, Roll-a-Dex, a company form for tracking activity, an in-box/out-box, and a phone.

Today, my desktop has a keyboard/mouse, computer screen where I have replaced the physical tools with a word processor, a database, a browser, a mail client, and I still have a phone.  The options of tasks has not been increased.  The browser though does provide the temptation for switch from one task to another and from works task to Internet play.

Obviously, dangerous multitasking is  something like driving a car, or better yet, using a chainsaw while you are trying to do something else.  Impossible multitasking is doing two things in two places at the same time.  For example, juggling six balls is one thing.  Juggling three balls in two places is quite another. Multitasking can be much like juggling three balls in two places.  A person will certainly drop a lot of balls when trying to do two or three or four complex jobs on a computer at the same time.  In the workplace you, just as you may wreck your car by trying to comb your hair, change the settings on your air conditioning, and driving at the same time, you may wreck your business and medical findings suggest that you may wreck your health.

Even before the transition to a computer, I found that prioritizing and staying on task was the important for me.  It was easy to step down the hall for a chat, pull a trade journal out of the in-box, open a reference book just out of curiosity to look up financial information on a company, call someone for social chat, and other things that took me off task.

To stay focused, I have always found it helpful to make  a list of the things I need to get done each day and do those things.  The days for me are less effective when I sit down with an idea of what I need to do and start working as  things come to mind.  I find myself more easily succumbing to distractions when I do not check items off the list as I go through my day.

So multitasking is not a matter of how many balls I am juggling, but staying on task.  If the task is juggling, I focus on juggling.  When I have finished my juggling task, I can start my next task.  When I find that I am flying from one task to another, what I really need is a break.  I clear my mind and return to my list of things to do.  Multitasking?  Give me a break!

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