Marshall Goldsmith tells an interesting story about the behaviors and actions of a CEO, Bob — and how these combine to impact on Bob’s effectiveness as a communicator. Bob had fallen into the well worn trap of believing that those in his team liked being managed in the way that he enjoyed being managed. This presented a challenge:

My job was to make Bob see the problem, which I like to call the “golden-rule fallacy.” He assumed that his people were just like him and, therefore, liked to be treated the same way he did.

As we go about building our businesses, we find natural affinities with some people. We are drawn to them. We may even nurture those who demonstrate capabilities that are like our own. But what of the rest of your village? Sometimes we need to look into a different kind of mirror to understand how to inspire, drive and deliver high performance.

Professor Teresa Amabile conducted research that showed a powerful link between a leader’s behavior and the high performance, innovation and creativity shown by her teams. It boils down to five (yes only five) elements:

1. Emotional support: Clearly, if you consider your team as part of your village, you need to provide some form of emotional support.
2. Positive feedback: Leaders need to provide constructive feedback in a positive manner and also provide additional context to help your team members produce better work.
3. Recognizing good performance: It sounds trite, but publicly acknowledging good work is essential for high performance.
4. Consult with your team: Your village is a vast knowledge base. Use it to the advantage of your business.
5. Collaboration: One of the most powerful roles of the leader is to pitch in. Roll-up your sleeves and help your teams close the deal.

And while each of these elements seem to be “every day”, take a look into a different mirror. Think about what your team see when they work with you. What will they take away? How will your words and actions impact their performance both today and through the week? It is the every day, ordinary touches that can create an extraordinary team performance.

One of the critical things that a leader must possess is honesty. Not only in the sense that they ought to be honest in their behavior, but also in that they must call things as they see them [see If You Can Only Focus on One Thing...]. Without doubt, leaders will come upon countless situations in which they must figure out the “right” way to say something to an employee or group of employees. For me, the easiest way to address these situations is to ignore the politics and just say what you believe to be the clearest, most honest communication you can put together. Often, people try to couch things in certain ways hoping that the desired message will be interpreted by the recipient.

I live by a philosophy that when a situation arises, I have a couple of choices to deal with it. One — I can say something about it; or, two — I cannot say something. For example, if an employee charged with an assignment does not perform to my expectations, I can tell them or I cannot tell them. For sure, the best thing that I can do to prevent similar situations from reoccurring is to tell them. After all, how would they know that they missed expectations or know how to correct things in the future without a clear, unambiguous communication telling them so? Some people find such communications difficult to hear — mostly those that have committed the undesirable performance. However, more often, people respond to such communications with appreciation for the honesty and the opportunity to correct course going forward.

Now, there can be no doubt that delivering such open, honest criticism can open one up to being labeled with less than desirable names. But, in a classic risk-reward trade off, it also can lead to being considered a clear, candid communicator. Without such communications, individuals who perform less than ideally, would not be given productive, fruitful criticism and, therefore, would not likely modify their future behavior or performance. Then, if such comportment is tolerated, others in the organization can witness this and come to the conclusion that senior management simply doesn’t care about the quality of employee performance. This belief, if allowed to fester and pervade an organization, can undermine myriad prospects.

So, in order to ensure the best team performance and outcomes, be sure to speak clearly, openly and as honestly as you can. To me, the risk of being negatively labeled is far worth the rewards of overall organizational performance gains to be had, as well as the respect which can be earned for demonstrating a focus on candor and integrity.

Nina Nets It Out: As I have stated in prior entries, “it is better to be respected and not liked than to be liked and not respected” [see Democratic Dictatorship]. In this vein, I strongly encourage those around me to speak open and candidly with the focus being overall performance. Sometimes, it may create negative feelings, but when couched in the choice of “(1) saying something to make the person aware or (2) not saying something and hoping for positive change”, there can be no clearer answer than to say something as clearly as possible.

So what can we do to honor ourselves and those we lead? Some suggest that the key to sound leadership lies in providing gateways to success, ongoing opportunities to advance and excel. Steve Farber, best-selling author of The Radical Leap and The Radical Edge, writes, “Your own greatness as a leader… lies, paradoxically, in your ability to cause others to be greater than yourself.”

What are you doing to empower your teams? How do you demonstrate faith and drive inspiration? These are questions you can and should ask. Your management style will often dictate what your teams deliver, as well as the extent and spirit with which they push forward. Are you providing the tools they need to make the most of their efforts? Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, thinks you should expect more than others think possible. What is your philosophy?

Brent Filson, author of more than twenty books on business and leadership, believes there are three key factors to leadership motivation and its daily application:

• Motivation is physical action. Follow up leadership discussions with specific physical action, whether a handshake, personal visit or interactive e-mail exchange.
• Motivation is driven by emotion. When you want to move people to take action, engage them personally and ensure emotional commitment.
• Motivation is not what we do to others. It is what others do to themselves. The bottom line is that while leaders communicate, people ultimately self-motivate. Your job is to create an environment which fosters development and results beyond the expectations of yourself or your teams.

We embrace the spirit of Labor Day as we celebrate our teams and inspire them to achieve, advance and excel.

Nina Nets it Out: “The real leader has no need to lead - he is content to point the way.” — Henry Miller. Provide an environment in which your teams can grow and thrive, and the motivated will deliver.

The sure fire way is to ask a simple question — “what would you do?”

Now, I have found that almost everyone has an answer to this question. Try it out. Frame a question and then check your organization chart — fire off half a dozen emails to your direct reports and others across your business unit. Then listen to the answers. What you are listening for is not a solution to the problem (ie there are no right and wrong answers here); you are listening for the response of a leader. What you will find is that the responses generally fall into two categories:

• Management responses: the discussion will focus on processes. A good manager will establish a process for solving the problem. They will organize, prioritize and delegate tasks. These folks are important to the functioning of your business.
• Leadership responses: the discussion will start conceptually but will also focus on substance. The leaders within your organization will get involved with the issue and drive towards a resolution of the problem.

As Steve Roesler points out, great leaders “… all do what the situation demands”. Finding those leaders across your organization helps you build a much more adaptive and resilient business — and sometimes all it takes is a simple question. Try asking it today.

Nina Nets It Out: Not all of the leaders in your business are executives. But in their own way they can add tremendous value to your organization. Asking some simple questions can help you identify and develop them.

Some executives survey their org charts with a sense of achievement, while others look for ways to cut costs; but often a more productive path is to identify new synergies and think through ways to bring those synergies into the business.

When you head up a large business unit, it can be difficult to learn the names of everyone on your team; never mind trying to understand their skills, aspirations and abilities. But if you do pick up that org chart, look through the names that appear. Try to put a face to the name. How far down can you go? Do you know the intern? What about the new sales exec?

Now, you may not know the particular blend of skills that each person has, but most leaders will have a sense of the challenges that people face in achieving their daily, monthly and yearly work goals. Why don’t you reach down through the org chart and provide one of these people with a stretch goal or a special project? Pair them up with a mentor. Introduce them to someone from another part of the business.

Using the org chart as a tool, in this way, can yield unexpected benefits. And you can never go wrong when building the skills and capabilities of your teams — remember, your people are your competitive advantage.

Nina Nets It Out: Leadership means proactively developing the resources of your business — this includes people. Take a look at your organization chart and see how you can activate the hidden skills and under-utilized capabilities that you find there.

Now, of course, there are some great blogs and articles that provide leadership advice. One which was recently voted as the best leadership blog is Steve Roesler’s All Things Workplace. Take a look through the archives on Steve’s blog and read through some of his posts and you will soon realize he not only brings a depth of understanding to his thinking around leadership, he also provides practical tips for how you can begin applying this to your own approach to leadership.

In this article, Steve discusses how you can boost the impact of your communication by thinking in threes — facts, emotions and symbols. It is a great read. But what he explains so well is the importance of the power of leadership stories to humanize the leader and to engage your teams. Remember, especially if you work in a large organization, many of the people you come in contact with will only know you by your announcements, “communications” or presentations (or worse, because of the box with your name in the org chart). One of the most important aspects of learning to lead is to bring a sense of authenticity to your dealings with people across your company. As Steve explains:

The word Authenticity is used frequently as a trait to be desired and valued. But you can’t possibly connect authentically without acknowledging how you feel about the situation you are describing. If you stick to the numbers or the steps in your plan, you aren’t connecting.

Perhaps a good example of this in action is background-foreground communication — where you share something that has been pre-occupying your thinking. But no matter how you decide to activate a factual, emotional and symbolic relationship with your teams, one thing is clear — the aim is to create a leadership story in which you can allow your colleagues to play a role. This perhaps, is the hardest lesson of all!

Nina Nets It Out: No matter where you are in your career, we can always learn more about the art of leadership, and Steve Roesler’s All Things Workplace blog is an excellent resource for all leaders.

However, over at Michael Krigsman’s blog, Mike Kavis has a guest post on bad leaders. And while he is writing about IT project failures, there is still much for the aspiring, experienced and even bad leader to learn here (in fact, a failed project may be the single strongest learning experience of one’s career). Mike provides a ten point list of why large IT projects fail, but sums it up as follows:

This list boils down to three categories: technology, business, and people. You can probably count on one hand the number of folks that you’ve come across who excel in all three areas.

The challenge for leaders is not so much straddling these competencies — for sure, even the best leaders cannot master every leadership skill. And, anyway, there is no need — as long as our village is strong. As Mike points out, success lies in communicating vision, managing change and aligning the project (yes, it could be any project) with business outcomes. Not delivering in any one area is likely to see your overall project fail.

But if bad leadership boils down to these three elements, surely is makes it easy to be a good leader? Not so. We are measured mostly by our successes — and those successes generally take the form of projects, and projects only yield outcomes when teams work as teams. As Erika Andersen suggests, the minute that teams start to lose their focus on the problem and their role in the team, the alarm bells should start ringing. In these situations, it is the leader’s responsibility to come back to the three category areas driving the project — people, business and technology and rise to the challenge that they represent.

Brick walls are not there to keep us out. They let us show our dedication.

– Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch was an extraordinary leader. This is his “last lecture” on achieving childhood dreams. The idea for this lecture is based on a series of lectures by recognized academics where they are asked to consider personally important topics and to prepare a presentation as if it was their last public lecture. Learn more about his life and work here.

This exuberant presentation covers many important aspects of leadership. Not only does he cover the importance of leaders recognizing and acting upon their past, present and future; he walks through some of the opportunities and challenges that he faced throughout his career. From his desire to become part of Disney’s Imagineering team through his work at Carnegie-Mellon. But one of the key messages is that leaders succeed when they provide opportunities for others to succeed.

You may know, that Randy Pausch passed away on July 25, 2008.

Nina Nets It Out: “To the extent that you can live on in something, I will live on in this”. Randy Pausch created a lasting legacy not only in his achievements, but in the number of talented leaders that he inspired. Be sure to heed his advice and do all that you can to foster opportunities for those around you. This will prove to be very valuable and rewarding to both you and those around you.

Just as hearing is not listening, looking is not watching. For sure, looking at someone does not indicate a measure of attentiveness to that someone, but rather merely that your gaze is focused in their general direction. Watching someone with attentiveness, on the other hand, involves looking at them, making eye contact, exhibiting appropriate body language and other non-verbal cues that demonstrate attention to and consideration of what is being spoken.

Reflecting upon what someone has said to you prior to responding is also critically important in achieving effective communication. This requires suspending judgment, not to mention, fully listening to what is being spoken without simultaneously attempting to formulate a response in your head … at least until the speaker has concluded any statements. This is not to suggest that you must agree with what has been stated, but at least give the speaker the courtesy of hearing them out fully before jumping to a reply.

Finally, be sure that the response given or reaction (which is completely within our own control) is one that is respectful and considerate, despite whether or not you agree with the statements being offered. To be clear, a response is far more than just what you might say verbally in reply…it also includes facial gestures, body language and other non-verbal gestures. We’ve surely all been there … something is said and we simply roll our eyes, cringe or throw our arms up. And just so I’m up front about things, these gestures, as much as they are funny to think about sometimes and even funnier to witness on occasion, are most definitely not “respectful and considerate” as true, active listening would recommend.

To be a great communicator, one must master both speaking and listening. Don’t ever become complacent with your communication skills, as I can guarantee that each and every one of us will forever be able to improve our respective skills and thereby enhance the effectiveness of how we communicate. And without a doubt, success is strongly correlated to effective communication.

Nina Nets It Out: Communication is a two-sided activity –- the speaker and the listener. To be an effective communicator, it is necessary to master the skills required on both sides. Be sure to review the tips on “10 Tips to Effective & Active Listening Skills” to master the listening side and use the communication approaches I previously wrote about to help out on the speaking side. I know I was amazed at the results when I began using these approaches. Climbing the corporate ladder will undoubtedly demand a solid command of communication skills and make the journey that much easier and faster.

Increasingly, I am beginning to see “group” websites starting to bring together like-minded authors around a topic. Slow Leadership is one such site which I have just added to my reading list. Slow Leadership aims:

… to provide interesting and challenging articles to help you think through the issues and find ways to enjoy your life and work to the full. This is a blog about ideas, not quick tips.

I am pleased to let you know that I will, from time to time, be contributing articles to the Leadership section of the Slow Leadership site.

In other news, I have also been asked to contribute to the Leadership & People section of the UK-based ChangeBoard.com.

Both of these sites have some excellent leadership writers onboard. Do yourself a favor and spend some time there. After all, leaders never stop learning!

Nina Nets It Out: I am often asked for reading recommendations. One of the best sources of current leadership thinking and learning is right at your fingertips — check the list of the blogs available here on my blog, and then follow through to the blogs that these writers recommend.