Category: Leadership

With the economy in a coma, a pervasive unease has settled on businesses. Executives worry about the state of the company; employees fret about losing their jobs. What’s a leader to do?

Lighten up!

Work, especially when the stakes are so high, is serious enough that a manager shouldn’t add to the tension by over-managing or going around with a sour puss. It is up to the leader to inspire hope and confidence and one way to do it is by spreading some good cheer. Here are a few things to try.

Relax your mood. There is nothing a manager can do about the tanking economy, but he can do something about how he reacts to it. Grim-faced expressions do not make people want to work harder, but a frequent smile and a friendly nod can do something about the way they feel about their work.

Create laughs. World War I British troops living in trenches amused themselves by staging lighthearted theatrical productions. It was a taste of home and a reminder that as bad as things can get, we all need to laugh, if only to remind ourselves that we’re human. So find ways to lighten the mood. Spring for lunch, order cake for the break room, pass out movie tickets or DVD rental coupons, or post cartoons on the billboard. Doing these things reminds people that all work and no play makes for dull living.

Keep your door open. Let people know that you are available to chat. Most often people will come by to discuss work, but there will be times when conversation about life in general is more appropriate. This is not slack time; it’s human time. Be available when people just want to talk about things, even about the fate of the company. Be honest and open. You cannot guarantee lifetime employment, but you can promise straight talk.

There is precedence for levity. Abraham Lincoln kept his cabinet and his generals loose by telling stories that would amuse but were also instructive. Case in point. When associates sought to poison the reputation of U.S. Grant by calling him a drunkard, Lincoln famously quipped, “Send whatever Grant is drinking to the rest of my generals.” Grant was winning; the other Union generals were not.

Franklin Roosevelt held regular happy hours in the White House, even during the darkest days of the Depression and the Second World War. It was a time to kick back, gossip, and share some laughs.

No one would call Lincoln or Roosevelt inattentive to their situations; both men knew how to find a moment of distance from reality as a means of refreshing themselves and their aides.

Few would argue for excessive levity — that’s foolhardiness. A manager needs to keep the team focused on the priorities at hand, but she can do it while being professional about the work and appropriately lighthearted with the people who do it, including herself.

First posted on HBR.org 8/21/2009

Change is part of organizational life — inevitable, unsettling and necessary.

Too often when managers are pushed to improve, they make changes without taking stock of the situation and their talent. So, before you embark upon a change process, learn to ask yourself and your team five critical questions.

Knowing what you are now, coupled with the fortitude to push for positive change, is what leaders today need to succeed in our turbulent times.

First posted on SmartBrief on 7/19/2013

“Even the people who wrote the Bible were smart enough to know, ‘tell them a story.’ The issue was evil in the world, the story was Noah…. Now the Bible knew that and for some reason or another I latched on to that.”

That was Don Hewitt, creator and executive producer of one of the longest running show in U.S. television history, 60 Minutes, explaining the “secret” of his success. According to Steve Croft, a 60 Minutes correspondent, Hewitt did not concern himself with issues per se; he focused on stories shaped by those issues, be it war, consumer fraud, health investigations, or celebrity profiles.

Hewitt, who died this month at the age of 86, was fond of saying that every child realizes the importance of “tell me a story” — but when we reach adulthood, we forget. Yet Hewitt’s absolute commitment to story is something leaders, particularly those with big initiatives to push, should remember. Story is a form of person-to-person connection that leaders, as fellow HarvardBusiness.org contributor Stew Friedman writes, can use to connect with their followers.

There are three reasons why a good story can be a useful leadership tool:

To inform. We all want the facts, but if a leader wants the facts to matter he needs to add a little seasoning. Stories can take raw data and give it life. For example, why not use a spreadsheet to tell a story about rising sales, or declining quality? Use the data to make your points. Then, flesh out that explanation with stories about the effect on individuals, teams and the company as a whole.

To involve. If you need to get people on your side, you need to involve them in the process. You need to engage their interest. For example, if an executive needs to persuade people to support an initiative, she can describe how the initiative will benefit the customer but also emphasize how it will improve the lot of employees, too. (More customers, more sales, more revenues, more jobs, more opportunities for promotion, etc.)

To inspire. Employees become jaded; there is only so much “importance” they can absorb, even when their jobs are at stake. So it falls to leaders to find ways to inspire their teams. Stories are the ideal vehicle for inspiring people because successful ones can dramatize the human condition. A story about a customer service representative who drove to the house of a customer to rectify an error, or a sales person who drove through a raging blizzard to close a sale, can quickly become the stuff of corporate legend. These stories give sustenance in times of travail, and say to an employee faced with long odds, “If he can do it, so can I.”

There is another advantage to using stories, and that’s something that Hewitt alluded to with his reference to the Bible. Use stories to make your points rather than relying on platitudes. In fiction writing workshops, they call this “Show, don’t tell.” For executives, this means you have to avoid corporate speak; instead, tell stories about how your initiatives will improve the lives of customers and employees.

Not every issue need be reduced to a story. There are times when a leader needs to be direct and to the point, to lay out the issue and the challenges in clear and precise language. For example, if a company is losing market share to a competitor, the sales manager might want to quantify the decline in sales by percentage and by lost revenue. Yet even in such circumstances, that same executive could drive the message home by naming the lost customers and describing the effect of their loss on the company.

A leader picks the right story at the right time to drive her point home, leaving no doubt about the importance of an initiative and its impact on the organization. It’s up to a leader to use stories to dramatize urgency and humanize events — so that listeners become followers.

First posted on HBR.org 8/24/2009

People often ask me, “What are the essential attributes of leadership?”

It’s a big question — but let me borrow from something I heard from Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s “Hardball.” He said a political pollster told him once that every great leader need to demonstrate three things:

Motive. Passion. Spontaneity.

Motive, passion and spontaneity complement one another. A leader who is motivated, passionate and spontaneous can use these attributes to build what all leaders need: trust, that bond that links followers to the individual and the cause.

First posted on Smart Brief 8.13.2013

Working hard is a laudable American tradition, but so too is working long hours. According to the World Tourism Organization, Americans take the fewest vacation days of any nation in its report — just 13 paid days. Compare that to 42 days for Italian, 37 for French, 35 for German, and 25 for both Korean and Japanese workers.

Enough is enough. Working diligently and deliberately is a must; working through exhaustion is folly. Here are five reasons why you need to take a break.

1. Break from the routine. As much as you enjoy work, there are aspects that become routinized. The positive aspect of routine is that it sets patterns for getting things done in order and on time. The downside of routine is that it leads to staleness and sterility. Getting out of the work routine is vital to maintaining a healthy outlook on work. It can freshen your attitude.

2. Reconnect with family. Work is only one part of your day. For most executives, the most neglected part is time with spouse and children. Road trips play havoc with family life. Setting aside time to be present with loved ones is not only good for them, it’s good for you.

3. Get in touch with self. Kick back and think about where you are in life and what you want to accomplish. Ask yourself what is fulfilling about your job and use the answers to consider making changes. No matter how good things are, we can always make improvements. Also, use the time to think about how you can do more for your direct reports, perhaps starting with giving them more responsibilities.

4. Let your mind ruminate. The pace of work can be unrelenting. So many senior executives tell me that the only time they can think is on an airplane. Use the vacation as your long plane ride without the cramped seating and stuffy air.

5. Smell the roses. Make certain that your vacation isn’t so packed with activities that you don’t have time to sit and reflect.

Leaders are only a phone call away from an emergency, but by taking a break they demonstrate that a change of scenery is in order. It breaks up the work routine and allows the executive a change of pace.

The challenges facing you seldom disappear with time. But coming back to them after an absence allows you to face them with a renewed sense of vigor and purpose. Time spent away from the office may also have given you an opportunity to think of new approaches, or reconfirm your intended strategies.

First posted on HBR.org 8/31/2009

Management can sometimes be an act of faith, particularly when the people you hire have a questionable past.

One approach to giving people a second chance is to sit down with them and ask them to write about what they want to achieve and how they want to be remembered.

The savvy manager who can connect with such an employee not only gives the person a second chance, but he or she also creates an environment where the past can be put into the past and the future can be created together.

First posted on Smart Brief on 8/16/2013

When a leader — be it a president or a CEO —  huddles with a speechwriter to determine exactly what to say and how to say it, he would do well to recall the example of Winston Churchill. As Oxford philosopher Isaiah Berlin wrote in Mr. Churchill in 1940, “The Prime Minister was able to impose his imagination and his will upon his countrymen. . .and lifted them to an abnormal height.”

Furthermore, and here’s the key point, Churchill made the British people feel as if they were part of the action and vital to the cause of victory. Churchill gave voice to personal involvement, or what we might today call “engagement.” That is the challenge that every leader faces when pushing a significant change initiative.

Communication is critical to creating engagement, and toward that end I offer the four-step communications model for creating buy-in that I discuss in Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders.

1. Inform. Explain the situation in terms that are both general and specific. Generality provides context; specifics provide expectations. For example, make the case for your initiative, ask people to support it, and tell them why.

2. Involve. Once people understand the facts as well as what is expected of them, they decide to participate or not. Critical to gaining commitment is communicating “what’s in it for me” (WIFM). You must make the specifics clear, and show what people will gain by supporting your initiatives.

3. Invite. Once people understand what is expected of them, ask for their support. Never assume people will follow you until you ask them. Be specific and persistent as in, “Can I count on your support for this initiative?”

4. Ignite. This final step is not always possible but it’s one that separates the ordinary from the extraordinary. It is when you invoke, as Churchill did, the commitment of individuals to pull together for a cause greater than themselves. Excite the imagination by talking about what will happen when your initiative is a success.

Keep in mind that these steps are dynamic. That is, a leader can move from one to another and back again to inform, understand, and push for commitment. It is a fluid process that requires a combination of will, patience, and fortitude to execute.

One further point: never assume that once people buy into the process, and understand the WIFM, that you can stop communicating. That was the genius of Churchill. His speeches throughout the war years were designed to rally the British and they did that through his use of a brilliant combination of rhetoric and storytelling. Churchill made his followers feel vital to the cause.

That is the challenge facing any leader pushing through a significant change initiative. Make people feel as if they have a role to play and know why their participation matters. Asking people to become involved is essential to getting people behind the leader’s message. Doing this turns support into action.

First posted on HBR.org 9/03/2009

People often ask me, “What are the essential attributes of leadership?”

It’s a big question — but let me borrow from something I heard from Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s “Hardball.” He said a political pollster told him once that every great leader need to demonstrate three things:

Motive. Passion. Spontaneity.

Motive, passion and spontaneity complement one another. A leader who is motivated, passionate and spontaneous can use these attributes to build what all leaders need: trust, that bond that links followers to the individual and the cause.

First posted on Smart Brief on 8/03/2013

What do Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, and Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, have in common? Not only are both shrewd businessmen who have increased the net worth of their respective organizations substantially, both serve as de facto CSOs, “chief sales officers.”

Jones personally makes sales presentations to prospects interested in the luxury suites at the brand-new $1.2 billion Cowboy Stadium. During one pitch, Jones punctuated his spiel with a combination of charm and Cowboy lore. Ballmer is the relentless sales leader for Microsoft who once exhorted his sales staff so vigorously that he injured his vocal chords. Today he is more subdued, but is always pushing the Microsoft brand at conferences, media events, and to customers.

The sales techniques that make these two so successful with customers can also be used to create enthusiasm internally. Energizing an organization begins with selling the dream, and leaders need to employ some good old-fashioned salesmanship to accomplish it.

Link to aspiration. Appeal to one thing that many of us crave: legacy. Effective salesmen, and leaders, connect to people’s aspirations for something more, something bigger than themselves. If you need to generate enthusiasm for a new initiative or product launch, focus on how much better the company will be when the transformation occurs or the new product drops. Savvy leaders make it known that such good things can only occur when talented employees join together to make good things happen.

Address the negatives. There is always resistance in the sales process. From a transactional viewpoint, employees (like customers) may prefer the status quo because even if things are uncomfortable, they are known. You can’t ignore the negatives — deal with them head on. Acknowledge them and defuse them with an effective argument. Also, never over-promise.

Sometimes it’s possible to turn negatives into positives. For example, reorganizations always provoke thoughts of downsizing. Acknowledge that notion then either dismiss it because it is untrue or acknowledge its validity. Then, talk about how the reorganization will cause short-term pain in the interest of creating long-term gain like increased opportunities for individuals to maximize their skills and achieve more for themselves and the company.

Sell from the top. When employees see their leader selling to a customer, or pushing an initiative through the organization, it sends a message that no one is too big or too important to engage in salesmanship. Any member of an organization should consider selling, or more realistically, promoting the work of the company. Do this by talking up the work your organization does, what good products it makes, and how those products help make the lives of others better.

Be forewarned, however, that too much salesmanship can appear to be slickness. Avoid this by tempering your enthusiasm with periodic reality checks and remember to listen to stakeholders. It’s a part of sales process that is often overshadowed by sheer enthusiasm.

Effective salesmanship shouldn’t be confused with leadership. Salesmanship rests on persuasion; leadership is based on good example. Leaders can use sales techniques to bolster their organization, but must remember to then set an example that leads to trust.

First posted on HBR.org 9/10/2009

One question I hear from executives is this: How can I tell if people want to follow me?

The answer to that question lies in your example. The way you communicate, challenge, plan and evaluate. Here are five questions to ask yourself to check if you are on track.

First posted on Smart Brief on 8/30/2013