This short and concise TED Talk video beautifully breaks down the definition of leadership.
Derek Sivers encourages us to have the courage to follow, and show others how to follow.
“The first follower is actually an underestimated form of leadership in itself. … The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.”
Posted in Leadership and Team Building
Tagged business, Derek Sivers, Leadership, Management, TED Talk, video
No one really leaves a job just because they have found a better opportunity or better pay. The number one reason people leave is because they fail to connect with their bosses as leaders and as people. Think about it. Most people in their careers can share in this experience. Although missteps can happen, the best leaders strive to make their actions consistent with the philosophy of having an engaged and excited team.
I interviewed Cameron McNeill, owner of MAC Marketing Solutions, on what it means to lead. Here’s what Cameron said on this subject: ‘As a leader, I am constantly challenging myself to think about my team’s enjoyment in their career with my company. There is one test we have- when people wake up in the morning, are they excited about working with our company? If they aren’t excited then I have failed. This philosophy is the driving spirit within our business and permeates all levels of the company. It boils down to two things: every person is driven by different circumstances, and you, the leader, must care about each individual as a fellow family member in the context of the vision of the company. Everyone then looks after each other and their collective well-being. It is hard to create this and impossible to fake. No marketing team could ever produce this spirit. It requires champions big and small to express this in an individual way. It is done with a common set of core values that everyone knows. They all know which way they are going and are pulling in the same direction. I never stop thinking about nor ever get tired of saying, “when you wake up in the morning…” ’.
And this theme is true with every executive of some of the top Canadian business’s I’ve had the pleasure to know. An effective leader lives and breathes the company’s core values. They obsess over the clarity of these core values. Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. Repeat. Repeat and repeat.
The best leaders have tremendous passion for what they do. Yet they operate with a level of genuine humility and with the sole purpose of their company’s welfare. It’s not about them, rather, it’s about the company as a whole. These leaders protect their teams aligned with their vision at all costs. Lose your core team and you lose the heart and soul of the company.
Okay managers, time to get out from behind your desk, and start wandering around. When you walk around you learn things but most importantly you get on the same level as the rest of your team by doing this basic step.
Here is a quick video on Tom Peters recounting the day he stumbled onto MBWA. You might just want to MBWA. Get out from behind your desk. Try it. See how it feels and the results you get.
Are you leading the way you want to be led?
Are you really that good? We’d be kidding ourselves if we thought we were perfect leaders.
The M word. Nothing can unsettle a competent employee more than when a manager takes their title name too seriously. The title ‘Manager’ for tradition’s sake should be made extinct along with its sidekick, ‘micro’. The most common theme I hear in human resources is the growing frustration of leaders oscillating from task management to accountability metrics with no apparent awareness of the bigger picture and it’s tie in to the company’s core vision. It’s kind of like treating the symptom not the cause. A knee jerk reaction not only applies to medicine but also to management. When operated in such a manner ‘A’ players eventually leave the organization.
It’s a simple as this. An effective leader’s primary concern should be the ability to acquire and retain the best people. Once you have them, the key objective is to grow and develop your top talent. The juggle today is that you must do this and also create a very real connection to these individuals. And it’s a delicate balancing act. Too much of one and not enough of another could shift the experience of whether or not an individual will thrive under your leadership. (Or lack thereof). The rock star CEO is so over. Just like the internet has made companies more transparent, great companies require their leadership to be real, and to truly be human.
Show don’t tell. It’s an age-old statement that goes back to primary school. No one likes to be told just as no one likes to be managed. No competent leader I’ve ever known enjoys the proverbial ‘management’ part of managing. Who would really? It’s kind of like glorified child minding except children are much sharper now and far more fascinating. When you ‘manage’ someone you are saying that ‘you’re not capable of managing yourself’ and ‘you’re not responsible to do what you say you’re going to do when you said you were going to do it’. It essentially shows a vote of non-confidence to their commitment to action.
Tom Peters made famous, ‘manage by wandering around’. When you walk around you learn things but most importantly you get on the same level as the rest of your team by doing this basic step. And do you ever learn about the pulse of the organization and it’s closeness to the company’s core values. If there is one piece of experience I have learned over the years as a business owner it is to do just that – walk around. I love to walk up to an individual’s work space and ask the question, ‘What’s happening in your world right now?’ From there I am able to learn not only where they are at, but how they are approaching or considering their challenges. In many instances I will also learn something about what’s happening in their personal world too, leaving us both feeling better connected.
When you put yourself as a leader into one that is more of an approachable, getting ‘into the trenches’ role, you grow abilities and remove the roadblocks that might demotivate an employee. And the neatest thing is when I say something that really catches their attention that is relevant to them and they say ‘that was so helpful! I’m glad we spoke!’ Listening to them, by acting as a coach, looking at the framework of the world that employee lives in, you start to see more and have a better connection to that individual. Try to put yourself into their paradigm. Their lens is their reality. It’s their paradigm, not yours. By setting strategy in this context you achieve a complete picture and not the bits and pieces found in task management. And best of all, being closer to your team lets people feel more comfortable to speak and make comment. They are most likely going to feel that their opinions and feedback may be heard. Spontaneous time with your team is so important. It’s those times together where I think, on reflection, I’ve learnt the most and received some of the most valuable feedback or ideas from individuals.
Jim Collins’ quote, ‘Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.’ Is dead on. Leadership ‘greatness’ is a skill that takes mindful practice. Here! Here!
Posted in Management Excellence
Tagged corporate culture, Human Resources, Jim Collins, Leadership, Management, Tom Peters
In a time when the workforce is increasingly transient, your ability to identify high-performing and high-potential employees—and that of your managers—is critical. And yet, many struggle to distinguish one from the other, negatively impacting their ability to develop and retain top talent. In many organizations, performance is the primary measure of an employee’s value in the organization. Star performers are promoted and rewarded, while diamonds in the rough become disengaged and move on.
Don’t get me wrong–you should definitely value performance. But if your end goal is to build a more robust talent pipeline (and it should be), performance can’t be the only point of entry. To that end, there are strategies that any manager can apply to develop high-potentials and high-performers effectively.
Step One: Identify
High-performers stand out in any organization. They consistently exceed expectations, and are management’s go-to for difficult projects. They take pride in their accomplishments, but may not have the potential (or the desire) to succeed in a higher-level role.
High potentials can be more difficult to identify, especially for line managers. That’s because most valuable attributes (e.g. stress management, adaptability, business sense) aren’t catalytic in entry-to-mid-level roles. Potential is subjective to what a company values, of course, but there are innate attributes that distinguish them from high-performers.
Line managers’ observations are often limited to the most obvious traits (time management, communication skills, attention to detail). By working with leadership, however, managers can profile the skills that ensure success in key roles—and be on the lookout for examples of both high performers and high potentials from day one.
Step Two: Assess
An established standard of the attributes and competencies of model employees is also an essential part of objective assessment. And though there’s a distinct difference between potential and performance, experts agree that employees should be assessed on competency in both.
![Figure 1 - Hyper v Hypo[1]](http://mcnak.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/figure-1-hyper-v-hypo1.png?w=500&h=180)
Each category requires a different development strategy. With a clearer picture of who falls where, managers can make more informed decisions in how to effectively develop them. For example: High Po/ Low Per employees may need to improve their ability to perform consistently, or may be moved into roles better aligned with their natural abilities. And High Per/Low Po employees would be ideal candidates for soft skill development–or for roles that require more technical skill.
Step Three: Engage and Develop
The important thing about development and engagement strategies (especially for high-potential vs. high-performance employees) is to tailor your efforts to drive the results you want. Typical engagement strategies could look something like this:
Recognition is key for High Per/Low Po employees. They need constant encouragement and challenging assignments. Rather than promoting them to roles they don’t want (or aren’t ready for), give them the independence and engage them with projects that they can take full ownership of.
Alternately, while High Po/Low Per employees are hungry for more high-impact work, they need seasoning. On the job training is a great way to accomplish this, especially when pairing them with high performers. As they develop a stronger understanding of the organization and their role in it, give them projects to manage, new hires to train, and offer cross-training opportunities.
Set Your Line Managers Up for Success
Your line managers are the gatekeepers to your talent pipeline, and they’ve got their work cut out for them. While most will have some natural ability in identifying, assessing, and engaging performers and potentials, few will be adept at all three. If you want to improve your ability to retain top talent, it starts with your line managers. Set them up for success, and invest in their development.
This guest post was written by Kyle Lagunas.
Kyle Lagunas is the HR Analyst at Software Advice—an online resource for HR software comparisions. He reports on trends, technology, and best practices in talent management, with work featured on Forbes, Business Insider, Information Weekly, and the NY Times.
Posted in Management Excellence
Tagged business, high performance, Human Resources, Leadership, Management, Team building
Whether it is called coaching, managing, or supervising if it is not done with the right persons in mind, then maybe the person doing it shouldn’t do it at all.
That may sound pretty harsh, but let’s think it through before making any critical judgments.
The “manager” works under someone, perhaps a supervisor or the business owner. They have been entrusted to instruct, guide and inspire those that they oversee.
I can remember back to the first business I ran: I was new to a leadership role and everyday I realized how much more I didn't know about people and how to lead. One of my key learnings was a few techniques that actually helped give me the freedom and flexibility to focus on my strengths.
It started one day when I realized that almost every customer service decision in the business had to flow through me in some way.
Posted in Leadership and Team Building
Tagged Advice, business, empowering, human capital, Leadership, Management Excellence
CEO, therapist and life coach, Dr. Laura Trice shows us in this 3 minute TED Talk video below that genuine praise is what we all need and should not be shy to ask for.
We can all learn to apply this in the workplace, as Laura has done in her own company. The following is how she praises her employees into three categories:
1) Verbal praise, recognizing a job well done. This is also effective with vendors and customers;
2) Compensation-based praise happens here twice a year; and
3) Individual spontaneous gifts or benefits based on exceptional performance, so long as they are not overused.
I think we can all benefit when we take the time to thank someone for the work that they do.
Thank you.
Posted in Inspiration
Tagged employee engagement, Human Resources, Laura Trice, Leadership, TED Talk, Thank you, video
On the 23rd of September 1996, Sarah McNeill and Cheryl Nakamoto founded McNeill Nakamoto Recruitment Group, affectionately known as McNak. Recently, I met with Sarah and Cheryl separately to ask about the road they have traveled these past 16 years. Interesting how in sync these two are.
Sarah: I think I love McNak more with every passing year. It truly only gets better!
Cheryl: Pretty incredible given most partnerships don’t endure the test of time. We have been able to create a strong brand and have lots of fun doing it!
Sarah: To stand out in the vast sea of staffing agencies and provide the best staffing experiences for our customers.
Cheryl: To be a great recruitment firm in terms of getting the RIGHT FIT from the onset. Also, an agency that cares equally about exceeding the expectations of our clients as well as the candidates. Having been a candidate at one point I know the struggles of looking for work and having some compassion – care to treat them with respect was top on my list.
Sarah: Cheryl and I are very different people with complimentary skill sets. We make a perfect yin/yang partnership. And we share a love for fun and for seeing the ‘glass half full’.
Cheryl: Really listening to each other and playing to each others’ strengths then trusting the other to make the right choices when implementing decisions that were made jointly. Not acting unilaterally without consideration for the other.
Sarah: It’s a shark tank out there. Put your best ideas forward and hire the best people to execute your plan.
Cheryl: Have passion for what you are wanting to accomplish otherwise it becomes too difficult to push through those tough times. You need to know it’s going to be hard work and some long hours and seek out help in areas where you know you need direction.
Sarah: Without corporate culture the business is just a machine with no soul. The best employees want to be a more of something greater than just the product or service. We wanted to create even just 10% of what the best brands have with their teams in terms of corporate culture.
Cheryl: Corporate culture is so important in that is defines the company. With the enormous growth around using social media, corporate culture is even more important now. People can get a sense of your culture and share this information with others, make opinions quickly and you are even more “exposed” to the public. Brand and corporate culture are so closely tied together. If you build a strong corporate culture then it can attract and help to retain top talent!
Sarah: We embrace our inner quirks and let others do the same. It’s never ‘just another day’ at the office.
Cheryl: We laugh at least 10 times a day…I just laughed at a joke right now with my team! We harness and embrace all our inner quirks and it makes it a fun place to work!
Sarah: To always remain true to our original McNak vision and to keep having fun!
Cheryl: Excited about building in our 2 areas of expertise- Finance and Real Estate and a new partnership formed that will allow us to offer Global Recruitment to our clients.
Image via CrunchBase
Last week I was inspired…
I had the good fortune to listen to two strikingly different yet exceptional leaders: General Richard Hillier, Retired Chief of Defense Staff of the Canadian Armed Forces, the Forces highest rank and Sir Richard Branson, Founder of The Virgin Group.
I found it so interesting to hear a common theme in both their messages around leadership: respect for people.
“To be an effective leader you have to care about people. You have to make it personal”, said General Hillier.
“Having a personality of caring about people is important,” says Branson. “You can’t be a good leader unless you generally like people. That is how you bring out the best in them.”
What else was compelling was their “down to earth” nature. Both extremely accomplished people yet they never lead with their titles. Both leaders don’t take themselves too seriously.
They both have passion for their work. They are 100% committed to what they do. They know where they are going and they enlist other competent people around them, listen to them and let them take over- they delegate and truly empower them.
Define your leadership style. Respect the people who work with you. And take care.
Posted in Leadership and Team Building
Tagged Leadership, leadership style, Richard Branson, Vancouver, Virgin Group
