That Didn't Work Out

Photo by Sally Cummings

My wife and I recently sent our daughter off to her second year of college...and her first year living in on her own in an apartment. She texted yesterday to tell me she was baking macaroons for the student group she leads. She wanted to know how I thought they would taste dipped in caramel.

Now, I love macaroons and have been known to bake a few myself. I love them plain and I love them dipped in chocolate. But I've never had them dipped in caramel. I've never even thought to try them in caramel. This is something I respect about our daughter - she's creative and will try all sorts of things I wouldn't dream of - as long as I don't screw it up.

Many leaders and managers, in their desire to be helpful (or show off their vast knowledge) give quick answers when team members ponder "what ifs". When we act as if we must have all the answers, we prevent natural learning from taking place. Real learning grasps the essential elements, it understands "what happens if". It makes new connections, finds new solutions, and creates new visions. Be careful not to squelch creativity and risk-taking by trying to help when exploration is needed.

I got lucky this time and did not rush in with my own opinion about caramel-dipped macaroons. Later that night, I asked how she liked them. "That didn't work out - I prefer them simple."

Nothing I could have said would be as poignant or as lasting. (But I still want to try one!)

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Four Habits to Make Better Decisions

Photo by canopic

A recent New York Times article discusses research around "decision-fatigue" - the idea that we have a limited amount of mental energy with which to evaluate information and make decisions. The implications for leaders and managers are significant. Making good decisions requires us to manage this energy or we can easily find ourselves expending all of it in ways that don't help us accomplish our mission. Here are four habits to help manage your decision-making energy:

1) Conserve. Don't make decisions other people can (and should) make.

2) Develop people. Help others learn how to evaluate and make decisions.

3) Use a personal management system. Be sure you know what needs to be done and how it fits into the larger picture. There are many systems to choose from. David Allen's Getting Things Done and Stephen Covey's First Things First are both useful.

4) Renew. Provide yourself time to regain mental energy. This is more than just getting a good night's sleep (although that's a good start!). We can restore our decision-making energy by providing ourselves some time each day to simply think, meditate, pray, or contemplate. A good walk, a good book, or a peaceful cup of tea - these also help me renew. Find what works for you.

Of these four strategies, which one can provide the greatest benefit for you? How can you implement it today?

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: Leadership and the One Minute Manager

Last week's book review included the concept that effective managers treat different people differently. This week, we look at a resource that suggests effective leaders and managers also treat the same person differently. The book is Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness Through Situational Leadership by Ken Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi, and Drea Zigarmi.

Anyone familiar with the One Minute Manager will be familiar with the format of this book. It is short - easily readable in one sitting if you are so inclined. As with the other books in the One Minute... series, the principles are communicated through a story where a struggling business person visits with a mentor and various people in the mentor's organization. The format is always a little contrived - yet it works. It is readable, easy to understand, and communicates a significant amount of information in a very short amount of time.

In Leadership and the One Minute Manager, Blanchard shares a basic premise about leadership and management: an individual requires different things from their leader or manager in different situations. Effective leaders and managers help team members grow by using varied strategies depending on the team member's demonstrated abilities, recent performance, and goals.

This may seem like an intuitively simple concept, yet in practice I have observed many emerging leaders and managers struggle because they have not yet learned that different situations require different strategies. It seems that most have learned how to successfully use only one or two of these concepts to help their team. If you've heard the old saying "When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" - then Leadership and the One Minute Manager is access to a full tool belt and a concise explanation of when and how to use each tool.

One final thought about this book: I appreciate how the authors demonstrate that effective managers are also effective leaders in their development of people. I recommend this one for new managers as well as managers frustrated in their leadership and people development.

Happy reading!

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

The Only Way Out

Photo by Mahatma4711

"Remember, you chose this."

Those words were spoken to me nearly twenty years ago. I was complaining about a difficult leadership situation that called for personal sacrifice on my part. The friend I was talking with listened quietly and then responded with those few words.

I think about those words when I encounter emerging leaders who are hungry for power. Accepting a position of leadership or management does not increase one's power. It does, however, increase our responsibility. Choosing to serve in these roles means voluntarily accepting responsibility for a variety of issues that not everyone else wants to deal with.

Effective managers and leaders both know an important truth about dealing with these responsibilities - to quote the 12th century poet, Akka Mahadevi, "The only way out is through."

When I start to feel a little thorn of discomfort and that all-to-human tendency to avoid what is uncomfortable...it is most likely THAT issue that should have my immediate attention. The only way out of the problem is to address it. Particularly for leaders and managers, the responsibilities we've accepted are unlikely to resolve themselves and will only grow worse if ignored.

Remember, you chose this.

How do you motivate yourself to tackle the uncomfortable responsibilities?

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Two Leadership Power Words

Photo by John Morgan

Two of the most powerful words in a leader's vocabulary are also some of the most difficult for many leaders to speak.

Last week I wrote about how to ensure we hear the truth. If we commit to hearing the truth, we inevitably discover we screwed up. No leader is perfect - no one I know is perfectly consistent with their own values or treats everyone perfectly all the time. Despite our best efforts, we will let someone down or make a mistake.

When someone brings this to our attention, it is one of the most vital leadership opportunities we ever have.

Two of the most powerful words a leader can ever say?

I'm sorry.

A sincere apology has many benefits:

1) It models accountability. If we want others to take responsibility, we certainly need to do the same.

2) It builds trust and credibility. Leaders sometimes fear that admitting a mistake will undermine their credibility, but the opposite is generally true.

3) It builds relationship. When we apologize, we acknowledge the dignity and importance of those we have hurt.

4) It makes it easier for others to apologize. We've opened the door so others can step through it.

5) It gives us a chance to start over or move on. When we try to move on without an apology, we introduce unresolved issues that can taint the results we're after.

6) It extends grace to ourself and to others.

These are just a few benefits...what else does a good apology do?

David M. Dye

PS: If you find yourself needing to apologize constantly, that is a sign that you may need to develop your competency in a particular area. Find someone to help you acquire the skills you need. Email me if nothing else!

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: First, Break All the Rules

Today's book review features a title specifically targeted at managers: First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

One distinguishing feature of this book is that it's based on a huge sample of interviews conducted with managers - over 80,000 of them, as it says on the cover. From this huge data set, the authors analyze the questions and answers which most strongly correlate to great organizational performance.

It turns out, there are only twelve key questions. If an organization's employees can answer these in the affirmative, odds are you have a very effective organization / team. The authors identify these twelve questions, discuss their meaning and significance, and, most important, the practices managers can undertake to create alignment with these twelve principles.

Effective veteran managers have probably picked up many of the lessons in this book. However, if you are a newer or struggling manager, First, Break All the Rules is full of helpful wisdom. There are two bits I want to highlight because they are so foundational to effective management.

The first idea is simple, yet many managers struggle with it for years. The concept is simply that you don't change people. Natural consequences might help a person decide to change, but most behavior change in adults occurs at the margin. So hire for what you need - don't expect an introverted engineer to excel at sales and don't expect a highly social marketer / net-worker to sit quietly at a cube for days on end managing a database. The authors illustrate this concept with a memorable folk-tale involving a fox and scorpion.

The second concept relates to the title of the book. The "rules" that are supposed to be broken are those social conventions which might be "common sense", but aren't effective. Chief among these is the idea that managers should treat everyone equally. The authors argue that managers need to dispense with this "rule" because people are not the same and trying to treat them the same is ineffective.

Applications are easy to make. For instance, most everyone likes affirmation of some kind, but privately acknowledging the team member who craves public recognition or publicly recognizing the person who prefers a quiet pat on the back are equally ineffective. Trying to treat both people the same will quickly end in frustration.

For emerging or struggling managers, concepts like the two ideas I've shared are invaluable. First, Break All the Rules is full of this kind of practical wisdom. It's a little like sitting down with a group of effective veteran managers and getting to soak up their experience. I strongly recommend this book for new managers or those looking to increase their effectiveness.

Happy reading!

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.
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6 Ways To Not Walk Naked Down The Street

Photo by Eric Pakurar

Leaders and managers often need to make difficult and important decisions. In order to make the best decisions possible, we need to have as much meaningful information as possible. Unfortunately, people in positions of power often sabotage themselves and create environments where no one will tell them the truth - often difficult truths about themselves.

The old Hans Christian Andersen story of the Emperor's New Clothes is based on this unfortunate tendency of leaders to no longer hear truth. In this tale, the Emperor ends up parading naked down the street after two tailors take advantage of him.

Here are six ways to ensure you have the truth you need (and don't end up walking naked down the street):

1. Ask for the Truth - Regularly encourage dialog in your team. Ask people to teach you one thing you didn't know. Become a person known for caring what's really going on.

2. Say Thank You - When someone shares a hard truth, especially about you, thank them for having the courage, taking the time, and caring enough to share it with you.

3. Respond - If you ask for input, take time to respond. Even if not every idea is actionable, acknowledging that the ideas were heard and considered increases the likelihood of hearing more in the future.

4. Never Ever Shoot the Messenger - If someone has the heart and courage to bring you a difficult truth, even if you vehemently disagree, bite your lip. If you attack them, they probably will never bring you another concern.

5. Find Your Truth-Tellers - There are people who understand their team, environment, or processes and are willing to voice their observations. Find these people, keep in regular communication, and let them know you value their observations.

6. Look In the Mirror - If you suspect you are not hearing the truth from those around you, it is time to look in the mirror and examine how you are interacting with others. I would bet at least one of 1-4 above is not happening. If you are struggling to see it, ask others for input.

It may take time, but if you begin asking for the truth, showing gratitude for input, and responding to it, you will earn trust, gain credibility, and have the information you need to make the best decisions.

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Effective...or "Right"?

Photo by broodkast

In my first years of teaching, I had a class of students who consistently came to class, were engaged, and worked to learn the subject matter, yet when it came time to display their knowledge, they struggled to do better than F or D level work. My team and I labored over our review sessions, making sure we were not missing any content. Nevertheless, the class as a whole did not improve. Concerned about my effectiveness as a teacher, I began experimenting with different instructional and review methods. With one of them, student performance improved overnight from Fs and Ds to Bs and a few As.

What had happened?
As it turned out, this group of students almost uniformly learned best through the act of guided writing than any other technique. The students did not know it themselves, and my team and I only learned it through experimentation. What I remember most about this incident was the response of another teacher. When I related my discovery to her, she indicated that she was covering the necessary material, her instructional methods were perfectly sound, and she didn't see a reason she should change. In her opinion the students should take responsibility for their own learning.

Of course, she was "right" - "right" in so far as yes, her instructional methods were good, and yes, students ultimately should take responsibility for their own learning. But what bothered me, and ultimately became a foundational element of my leadership and management, is that she was not effective.

Whether managing or leading, our goal is results - visions accomplished, people growing, or the world improving. In short, we want to be effective.

Many new leaders and managers get stuck because they cannot see past their own "rightness" and do the things that will help them be effective. Some examples:

"Why should I have to tell them again...I said it once." Yes, you did - 3 months ago. People have many priorities competing for their attention and important items often need multiple repetition in multiple forums.

"Why should I encourage / thank them...they're just doing their job." Yes, they are. Yet people generally like to feel appreciated and that they are more than just a part in a machine.

"Why should I hear opposing view points...I'm an expert in this subject and I've looked at all the options." Yes, you are and I'm sure you did a thorough analysis, but if you want your team to be committed to the idea, their voices need to be heard. Besides, you might be surprised by someone else's perspective.

Emerging managers and leaders wishing to be effective can often increase their influence by looking at areas where they have clung to being "right" and let it go in favor of being effective.

How do you view the difference between being effective or "right"?

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: The World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle

There are two books I recommend for leaders who are starting their journey and want to get moving in the right direction. The first is The Leadership Challenge for its down-to-earth and accessible practices which help develop influence and credibility.

The second book is the topic of today's book review: The World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle: How to Become a Servant Leader by James C. Hunter. This one is a great combination of heart and results. What core are we leading from and what do we hope to accomplish? For Hunter, the answer to both these questions is simply: people. He contends that effective leaders care about people and develop influence-based authority because of their service to others.

There are many quotable lines in this book - good ones that will haunt you and float around in your head, calling you back to authentic, meaningful leadership when you start to get off balance. One of my favorites in the entire book is what Hunter calls the Ultimate Test:

"The true test of the effectiveness of the leader is this: Are your people better off when they leave than when they arrived?"

"Your people" can be teams, employees, or children. Are they growing? Are they more capable? More healthy? There are many ways to look at this question and it is a powerful lens through which to examine our own leadership effectiveness. Hunter's "ultimate test" of leadership provides the basis for the remainder of the book. In conversational and easy-reading style, Hunter examines leadership motivations, how to implement servant-leader principles, and leadership motivations.

This is a powerful, life-changing book and I recommend it for any growing leader or for those veterans looking to recharge their battery or refresh their soul.

Happy Reading!

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

"Unstuck" Your Team

Photo by Horia Varlan

I had the honor of serving as part of a Colorado city council led by then-Mayor Joe Rice. Joe went on to serve two terms as a representative in the Colorado State House and has served five tours of duty in Iraq as a U.S. Army Reservist.

Even on matters where our opinions differed, I respected Joe for his vision and, in particular, for his ability to quickly refocus teams. When the council and city staff would get bogged down in criticism of valuable ideas, Joe would move the group from "stuck" to productive with one statement:

"We can find many reasons this idea won't work. Let's talk about how it can work."

The simple statement worked because it refocused the team on solutions, rather than problems. Every idea can have problems, obstacles, and unintended consequences. Leaders don't ignore these issues - they help their team focus on how to overcome them.

If we want to find solutions, we have to look for them.

Thanks for your many years of public service, Joe!

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Help is Available!

You've been given a responsibility. Your deadline is looming, the demands are significant, and you're not sure how to solve the problem. Alone at your desk, you wonder if you even have it in you to figure this out.

Many developing leaders (and not a few veterans) go through these times of anxiety. I have been there many times. It can be easy for leaders who take responsibility and who passionately care to feel like the world is on their shoulders and that they are all alone.

The good news is that help is available - and more than likely, it's just waiting to be asked.

When faced with problems bigger than ourselves, one of the first places we can turn is to our team. Bring the situation to them, define the criteria that must be met to reach a workable solution, and ask how they might do it. Consulting your team on these tough problems has several benefits:

1) They own the solution. People have greater commitment to their own ideas than to someone else's.

2) You are developing leaders. Team members are empowered by learning what problems must be solved and how to solve them.

3) New ideas. All of us get stuck inside our own head. There is no substitute for a group of smart, committed people getting together to share ideas.

A few guidelines before getting your team involved on tough challenges:

1) If the team solves the problem, the gets team the credit. Taking personal credit for your team's ideas is a quick way to lose all credibility.

2) No team? No problem. Pull together a small group of experts you trust. If you don't overuse the privilege, people are often willing to share their thoughts.

3) Don't abuse your team. Don't use this approach to shirk legitimate decisions you should be making, to play politics and blame-shift, etc.

4) Be clear on the decision making process. How will the decision be made: consensus, majority, or consultation and the leader decides? You should clarify this before discussion begins or it can undermine the integrity of the process.

Team problem-solving can be one of the most rewarding aspects of leadership. Next time you face a problem bigger than you, see if it's bigger than your team. I bet it's not.

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: The Oz Principle

Today's book review is The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual and Organizational Accountability by Hickman, Smith, and Collins.

The Oz Principle is an entire book thoroughly exploring one concept: responsibility. I appreciate this book for its laser-sharp focus on helping individuals and organizations recognize that they are responsible for their own reactions, decisions, behaviors, and ultimately, results. The Oz Principle's greatest strength is in the methodology it gives the reader for assessing a situation and determining what action they can take to produce the results they want to see. This is a valuable and needed process - especially for emerging leaders who haven't yet grown into their own influence.

The "Oz" reference is a metaphor for those who abdicate their own responsibility and hope that a wizard (such the one Dorothy seeks in the Emerald City) will solve their problems for them. In the end, the lion, tin-man, and scarecrow realize that they provide their own solutions. The power of the metaphor comes in realizing that we can have amazing influence on the world around us and on the results we desire.

If I have any criticism of the book's message, it is that the personal/organizational responsibility mantra can be taken too far if removed from a context of strong personal and organizational values. For instance, I may very well be able to take action on one hundred different issues that concern me. However, just because I can doesn't necessarily mean I should. The Oz Principle's message is incredibly valuable - if you have done the work to prioritize your own values and know what is most important. Without doing that work, the message of personal responsibility can be overwhelming.

I recommend The Oz Principle for leaders and managers who have a strong internal compass and want to increase their influence.

Happy Reading!

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Between Today and Tomorrow

There are two traps that can act as whirlpools and suck the life out of aspiring leaders.

Both of these pitfalls involve extremes of hope. The first, and more obvious of the two, is hopelessness. It is all too easy for a leader to look at today's circumstances, begin to wonder if things will ever really be any different, and become discouraged. As you might expect, a leader with no hope for the future will find it difficult to inspire others or find the internal motivation to persevere through difficulties.

The second danger, however, is not always so obvious. This second danger is an extreme of hope - ungrounded optimism that ignores reality. When a leader dreams, but ignores the challenges their team faces today, the leader can quickly lose credibility. In the worst case, a leader who dreams without regard to reality can lose faith in their own vision and give up.

Effective leaders are aware of these dangerous extremes of hope. They acknowledge today's very real difficulties. At the same time, they persist in believing that tomorrow can be better and they match that belief with positive action today.

How do you maintain your hope in the future while living in the present?

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

I Looked for the Dry Places

Photo by Tim Ellis

When I was a child, a mentor told me the story of two boys walking home after a heavy rain. Their mother had given them strict instructions not to ruin their new shoes by getting them wet. Both boys tried very hard to do what their mother asked. However, when they arrived home, one boy's shoes were sopping wet while the other's were dry.

Naturally, the mother questioned her sons. How did they both walk the same route, both take her request seriously, yet arrive with such different results? The brother with wet shoes answered, "I don't know mom, I tried to avoid all the puddles."

The brother with dry shoes answered, "I looked for the dry places and I put my feet there."

I always imagined these two boys on their journey home. One of them jumping back and forth, reacting to every puddle, trying to avoid them, but splashing in the edges despite his best efforts while his brother calmly ignores the puddles and steps only on dry patches of sidewalk.

What a powerful metaphor for leaders.

There are leaders who, like the boy with wet shoes, react and try to avoid every threat, zigging or zagging, and creating confusion in their teams. Effective leaders, on the other hand, maintain focus on their vision, on the needs of the team, and on meaningful results. These leaders produce clarity. Their energy and the energy of their team flow naturally to what is most important.

The difference between confusion and clarity is often to simply change our focus from "What I don't want" to "What I do want".

And it keeps our feet dry!

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.