HBR has an interesting view on leadership openness in their June issue, which is worthy of contemplation:

‘….NASA researchers had placed existing cockpit crews – in flight simulators and tested them to see how they would respond during the crucial 30 to 45 seconds between the first sign of a potential accident and the moment it would occur. The stereotypical take-charge ‘flyboy’ pilots, who acted immediately on their gut instincts, made the wrong decisions far more often that the more open, inclusive pilots who said to their crews, in effect, ‘We’ve got a problem. How do you read it?’ before choosing a course of action.

At one level, the lesson of the NASA findings is simple: Leaders are far likelier to make mistakes when they act on too little information then when they wait to learn more. …. the pilot’s habitual style of interacting with their crews determined whether crew members would provide them with essential information during an in-air crisis. The pilots who’d made the right choices routinely had open exchanges with their crew members. The study also showed that crew members who had regularly worked with the ‘decisive’ pilots were unwilling to intervene – even when they had information that might have save the plane’ 

(HBR, June 2009, What’s Needed Next: A Culture of Candor)

I have worked for leaders who were not willing to create a culture of openness, where people held back information or were afraid to speak up – and it definitely hurt the business – opportunities lost, pitfalls not avoided. I much prefer the culture of collaboration. Good article (full version is available free online).

I was taught a philosophy early in my sales career: ‘Good news should travel fast, bad news should travel faster’. I heard another good quote on this topic the other day :

‘The only messenger I would every shoot is one who arrived too late’.

Being new in a role – I ask a lot of questions. I am aIso wary of my own opinion in decision making. Decisions are made based on one’s perception of the situation, and mine is very new. Therefore, when an important decision needs to be made, I ensure that I have all the facts, seek other people’s opinion, so that the best decision can be made.

The other day I was thinking of the danger of organizations that make central leaders the collecting or decision point too often. I then happened on an article which included a note on the ‘fallacy of centrality’:

Researcher Ron Westrum, observing the diagnostic practices of pediatricians in the 1940s and 1950s, spotted what he has come to call the fallacy of centrality. The fallacy is this: under the assumption that you are in a central position, you presume that if something serious were happening, you would know about it. And since you don’t know about it, it isn’t happening. It is precisely this distortion that kept pediatricians from diagnosing child abuse until the early 1960s. Their reasoning? If parents were abusing their children, I’d know about it; since I don’t know about it, it isn’t happening.

One could argue that this is why the British lost on Crete. Sales people, leaders, managers all need to beware this false sense of confidence with regard to knowledge or the belief that they know so much that ‘it can’t be happening’. I remember a piece of advice that I was given by a CIO years ago, he said ‘Do not every become like (the competition). They think they know everything that is going on, they don’t. After all, they don’t know what we are about to do (he laughed)’.

A good reminder that things are always changing, that lots of questions need to be asked and that a central position can have blind spots. After all, look what happened to the political system that was founded on centralized management … Communism.

It seems like new social networking technology continues to pop up. Which should you use and follow? Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging, Facebook, Microsoft Live and their social networking features? How do you keep up? HBR has a great online article on the subject, Don’t Keep up with Social Technology:

So I’m here to let you off the hook. If a geek like me — a woman whose idea of a fantastically fun evening is to try out a dozen project management sites — can’t keep up, what hope is there for folks who occasionally want to close their computers and pick up a book?

There is no hope.

You can’t keep up.

Keeping up is about following someone else’s agenda: the bloggers and tweeters who trot out invitations to the latest beta. The marketers, publicists and journalists who blanket us with coverage about the latest hot tech phenomenon. And yes, the tech consultants who charge tens or hundreds of thousands to add new musts to your already long to-do list.

The minute you stop trying to keep up, you open a far more exciting possibility: getting ahead with what matters to you, your team and your business.

The only thing that she missed in the above line – your family and friends. Interesting read. A few more interesting thoughts from HBR online (yes, I am catching up on some reading):

• An 18 minute plan for managing your day where they talk to Jack LaLanne about his rituals:

At the age of 94, he still spends the first two hours of his day exercising. Ninety minutes lifting weights and 30 minutes swimming or walking. Every morning. He needs to do so to achieve his goals: on his 95th birthday he plans to swim from the coast of California to Santa Catalina Island, a distance of 20 miles. Also, as he is fond of saying, "I cannot afford to die. It will ruin my image."

So he works, consistently and deliberately, toward his goals. He does the same things day in and day out. He cares about his fitness and he’s built it into his schedule.

Managing our time needs to become a ritual too. Not simply a list or a vague sense of our priorities. That’s not consistent or deliberate. It needs to be an ongoing process we follow no matter what to keep us focused on our priorities throughout the day

 

I want to live to 95 … but use GTD.

• Why Jerks are Bad Decision Makers: A fascinating article. I had just read the New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell on the role of overconfidence in the fall of Bear Sterns, which focuses a lot on their jerk CEO. Fascinating article. The final paragraph summarizes it well:

So what are the mechanisms that translate being a jerk into being a poor decision-maker? Jerks tend to think their own perspectives are the only ones worth considering, but good decisions require serious consideration of alternatives. Jerks think they’re never wrong, but good decisions require acknowledging and learning from mistakes. Jerks are consumed with petty resentments and grievances, but good decisions require clear-headed, objective thinking. Jerks alienate other people, but good decisions require collaboration across a social network (as a recent MIT Sloan Management Review article by Rob Cross and Bob Thomas suggests.) This falls short of a complete description of either jerkdom or decision excellence, but you get the picture.

• Four Rules for Effective Negotiation:  I found the fourth point very interesting. In my house negotiation, the other party walked away .. and came back lower. He made a mistake.

To close or not to close: My partner John Hamel always reminds me that the uber golden rule of negotiation is to always let someone else walk away. Whether you drive too hard a bargain, cannot reconcile on key terms, or feel that the deal is just too rich for your blood, make the offer you want and let the other side walk if they don’t want it. This is not to say to be offensive or to low ball, but rather to be honest, straightforward on what you are willing to do and explain that you understand if it does not work for them and that it is the best you can do. A great example to end on is how John Hamel recently purchased his new home. He had found a unit in a townhouse complex that he liked and was ready to close on it at price x per square foot. That said, he thought he’d take a shot on a larger and more recently renovated unit by advising that owner (who he knew was interested in selling) that he was going to be accepting a price on the other unit in 24 hours, but would take their unit at an even more aggressive price per square foot if they were interested with an immediate close. Remarkable thing, he ended up with the larger unit and one of the best units in the complex.

Tonight I finalize my backyard work, lets see if I can put the above to work.

I am a huge fan of the book The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins. I have read it many times and probably given away 100 copies to teammates. For my new role, I presented a 90 day framework to the people who were interviewing me and re-read the book the day before I landed in Canada to start. It is full of great practical advice and provides a framework to structure those first critical months.

As Watkins notes in the article Obama’s First 90 Days (HBR, June 2009):

Leadership is a momentum game – which is why there’s such incredible pressure on business executives in new roles to get it ‘just right’ in their first few months. The senior leader’s early actions end up having a disproportionate impact on everything that follows. Stakeholders parse every word, gesture, and decision, straining to discern intent and assess credibility. Feedback loops, both positive and negative, are established. Momentum for organizational change builds – or doesn’t.

Watkins’ review of Obama is very interesting. For all of us, my many American friends and the state of the global economy, I hope President Obama succeeds.

In February, I had the opportunity to attend a leadership conference where different work groups took different topics to brainstorm. Our workgroup discussed the traits that they found most desirable in a leader. There were many, as we thought about leaders we admired. The ‘most voted for’ traits were:

• Respect for the individual: Genuine interest in the individual. They don’t look at the person as a military asset. The example provided was of Bill Clinton. The anecdote (or urban myth) was that Bill Clinton walks in a room and the person he is speaking to feels like the most important person in the room, regardless of status.
• Inspires you to the next level: Holds you accountable for your results, while helping you set bigger – broader – higher goals. The leader also ensures that the team builds a vision and that everyone knows where we are going and that those goals are inline with the team goals.
• Trusts you and you can trust her/him: You know that they have your back. This goes back to the ‘take smart risks, learn and be encouraged’. While at the same time is open, honest – no hidden agenda, providing the good and the negative feedback. Without feedback from someone we trust, how can we improve?
• Passionate about what they are doing, where we are going and who they are doing it with: You know they love what they are doing, you can just tell.
• Communicates a vision: People thrive on a vision. Give people a destination, that place we are going to and they will help build the strategy to get there. Without that, it is like driving down a highway with no end in sight.

In the next room, another team went through the topic ‘Managing in Tough Times’. It was simply two lists with words under the topics ‘Do More’ and ‘Do Less’. I felt compelled to write it down and here it is:  In tough times ….

• DO MORE: Coaching, collaborating, remaining visible, listening, communicating, humour, transparency, empowering, exciting, optimism, risk taking, clarity, celebrating, stories, challenging, simplifying, caring, inspiring, acknowledging vulnerabilities.
• DO LESS: controlling, avoidance, distracting with internal tasks and spreadsheets, complexity, reacting, isolating, ego, rules, cynicism, 8 hour meetings, 3 hour weekly meetings that cover the same thing, worrying about what you don’t control, bullying.

Thought provoking.

The last speaker of the event had a few insights that I found interesting, focusing primarily on the current global recession:

• A slowdown in growth exposes mediocrity. All of the warts that were hidden during good economic times come out in full force. Don’t waste the opportunity to build a stronger business.
• Hire great people and hire carefully. A wrong hire is a 2-3 year mistake. The first 6 months to realize that it was the wrong hire, the second 6 months to make a change. The next 6 months to find a replacement and the last 6 months to ramp them.
• When the market is not growing, it is all about share. How are you performing against the competition?

And the last thing he shared:

• Love is a given. Trust and respect are earned.