Are You a Halloween Leader?

Photo by William Warby

Leader / Manager Masks

Many managers and leaders show up each day in disguise. Here are just a few examples of the masks we wear. Do they look familiar?

• The Boss [Because I'm the boss - that's why!]
• The Hulk [Don't make me angry - you won't like me when I'm angry.]
• The Royal Bureaucrat [I haven't got time for your petty concerns - what I'm doing is important!]
• The Indulgent Parent [There, there, it doesn't matter - I'll take care of it for you.]
• Mr. Perfect [I've never made a mistake in my life - did you??]
• The Mystifying Manager [I'll talk gibberish until they're confused and leave.]
• etc etc.

When we wear masks with our teams it's often because we either feel like we have to in order to be effective or because we just don't know what else to do.

But wearing these masks lessens your credibility. They keep people at a distance - which may keep you safe, but it doesn't help you lead. It really is about credibility - the people you're leading are real and they need you to be real too. 

Effective leaders bring their authentic self to every situation.

Take Off the Masks

Here are a few ways to take off some of the masks we wear:

• Explain the reasons for requests. Invite people to participate in your vision.
• If you experience frequent outbursts of anger with your team, talk with a trusted coach, mentor, friend, or therapist.
• Make time to talk with your team and find out what's important to them. If you really can't meet with someone when they ask, make an appointment with them and honor it.
• Treat mistakes as learning opportunities, focus on next time, and reinforce the need for results.
• Periodically share some of your own learning journey. When you screw up, admit it.
• Speak clearly and to be be understood. If you can't say something because it's confidential, either don't bring it up in the first place or else, be direct, and acknowledge it is not something you can talk about.

Authenticity doesn't mean throwing out wisdom - of course you don't share everything all the time. But in every situation, you bring your real self and are present with the people around you.

What other leader/manager masks have you seen (or worn yourself)?
How do you practice authenticity?

David M. Dye

If you know someone who would benefit from this post or the entire blog, please retweet, like, share, +1, or email it on. Thanks!

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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: QBQ

For emerging leaders, the idea of personal accountability can be uncomfortable - particularly if you come from a background where "being accountable" meant being in trouble.

Real accountability, however, is an empowering experience. It's about realizing and owning your own responsibility and ability in the world - the exact opposite of the blame game that so often passes for accountability.

Personal accountability is the topic in today's book review subject: QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and In Life by John Miller.

The Question Behind the Question is a clever way of talking about how often we automatically cast ourselves as victims and how we can reframe our situation by asking a different question. Specifically, Miller suggests a formula for asking questions that puts you at the center of the action and highlights your ability to act.

This way of asking questions about our circumstances is transformational. At first, you might feel like a powerless victim of circumstances, but reframing your circumstances in the form of the QBQ puts the power to act firmly back in your hands. It is a simple process that yields huge benefits.

The QBQ is not a blame-shifting device. It is not a "blame the victim" way of thinking, but a "hey, I don't have to be a victim - I can do something here" change in thinking.

I recommend the Question Behind the Question if you:

• are a newer leader or manager
• feel trapped or helpless to outside forces
• feel overwhelmed
• feel ignored, taken for granted, or abused
• feel like you're going in circles

This book is a very quick read and it doesn't take long to grasp the main idea and method. Don't let the ease of the idea fool you. If you regularly experience the feelings I've described, this can be a life-changing book!

For an even more in-depth resource on personal empowerment and responsibility, you might try: The Oz Principle

Happy Reading!

If you know someone who would benefit from this post, please retweet, like, +1, or email it on. Thanks!

Subscribe today or join the discussion at: http://davidmdye.blogspot.com/
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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.

Are You Throwing Away Influence?

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Every day aspiring leaders have multiple chances to increase their influence, but these opportunities are often ignored.

These vital missed chances speak volumes about the leader and their sense of entitlement or ignorance of others. It can be an epidemic of lost leadership!

You can reverse the trend and increase your influence if you simply:

Show appreciation.

That's it! Effective leaders understand that no one owes them a thing. Even a parent taking care of their child, while clearly right and moral, is still optional. Leaders consistently take advantage of opportunities to demonstrate their appreciation for others.

People give their best effort when they want to do something. So go ahead - show some appreciation.

• Say thank you. Regularly. Whenever anyone does something for you...can we ever express enough gratitude?

• Celebrate accomplishment. Take time to acknowledge the things you want more of. If someone does an exceptional job, but it doesn't seem to matter to you - you're much less likely to see it again. Even the most internally motivated like to know they've done well.

• Find out how people like to be acknowledged. Some prefer a quiet thank you in private. Others are motivated by public recognition. Still others by an afternoon off, or lunch on you, or a dinner with their spouse. There are many ways to encourage and thank others - just be sure to do it in a way that matters to them.

• Celebrate values. If someone lives out an organizational value - even if the outcome isn't what they hoped - honor them. Tell the story! 

• The five bean technique. This one has been around a long time, but is a great system for developing a personal habit of encouraging others. Place five beans or other small objects in one pocket. Each time you encourage someone for something meaningful, transfer one object to your other pocket. Don't leave for the day until you've got all five objects transferred. Several weeks of this and you'll be a regular encourager!

How do you show appreciation for your team?

For more, read: It Never Gets Old

Thanks for reading,

David M. Dye

If you know someone who would benefit from this post or the entire blog, please retweet, like, share, +1, or email it on. Thanks!

Subscribe today or join the discussion at: http://davidmdye.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @davidmdye
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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.

15 Tips Every New Leader Needs

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If you're new to leadership or a veteran looking to build on a strong foundation, here are 15 tips to get you started. Each of these is something I learned early in life and I hope they are helpful to you on your journey!

1. Your first job is to build your replacement

Leaders invest in others. If your goal is to change the world, you simply can't do it on your own. Leaders build leaders. In addition, you cannot assume more responsibility if you're the only one who can do what you're doing.

2. Never believe your own press release

Success can easily turn sour if you start to assume all the good things you hear about yourself or your organization are automatic...that things will go well because they have in the past. Enjoy accolades when they come, but remember the work it took to get there. That work usually takes place where no one sees it.

3. People don't argue with their own information

It is critical to involve stakeholders in problem solving. We are all more likely to implement solutions into which we've had input.

4. All of us are smarter than one of us...(sometimes)

Crowd-sourcing has demonstrated this one in many ways. No one person has all the answers or knows all the facts. I say (sometimes) because crowds can also make pretty dumb decisions. Your job as a leader is to set clear criteria and a vision of what we can accomplish. Leaders help all of us to be smarter than one of us.

5. The greatest are the least

Humility is fundamental to leadership success. Humility can take many forms, but at its core:

humility says "we are both human beings with value"
humility says "I know enough to know I may be wrong"
humility says "I'm here to help"
humility says "Come and do this with me" not "go do this for me".

People intuitively know if you think you are better or more valuable than they are. No one follows that.

6. We, not I

Leaders say "we", not "I". It's not about you, it's about the team.

7. Bring people with you

Once I was leading a group of fifty or sixty people from outside an arena through doors, around the concourse, and down to a bank of seats on the arena floor. We each put a hand on one another's shoulder and I set off. When I got to the chairs, however, only three people had made it with me. I had gone too fast and the entire team did not arrive. I was a great scout that day - I found the chairs. But leaders take people with them.

8. No responsibility without authority

This one I learned very early in life. I was the oldest of six and was asked to make sure the house was clean by the time my father returned home. I was given responsibility...but I was 12 - not a lot of authority there. Effective leaders try only to take responsibility where they also have or can create authority. Likewise, leaders do not give responsibility without also giving authority to go with it.

9. Say Thank You

No one has to do anything for you.

They choose to.

Acknowledge it!

10. Apologize

When you're wrong, own it, apologize, and make it right.

11. Flowers bloom in their own time

As a child I would be so eager for the first spring roses or peonies to bloom that I sometimes "helped" them along. I would pry open the green leaves covering the blossom and try to coax the interior petals into the semblance of a flower.

Of course it ruined the whole thing.

Flowers bloom when they are ready and you cannot force them. People also have natural seasons and you can frustrate or lose good people by moving too quickly. Sometimes you have to go slow to go fast.

12. Honey, not vinegar

An early leader of mine was fond of saying, "you can catch more flies with a teaspoon of honey than a barrel of vinegar". Generally, encouragement and kindness (honey) are more effective leadership tools for drawing people in and helping them to grow. Criticism and anger (vinegar) are effective for tearing something down.

13. Learn everything you can in the time available

You'll never know everything about anything...but effective leaders use the time available to get as much relevant information as they can before making a decision.

14. Protect people's dignity

Extend worth to everyone. Celebrate their contribution to the world. Do not partake with those who detract from another's dignity.

Even in difficult situations such as ending someone's employment, extend dignity. There is never a reason to belittle or make someone feel small. If you do, you will lose credibility as well as lose the person and their network.

15. Stay healthy

Your health - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social - is the foundation from which you lead. If you are not leading yourself, you cannot effectively lead others.

Most of these are lifetime practices - some I've made a habit and others I continue to work out each day.

Be patient with yourself and focus on just one thing at a time - don't try to pry open those flower petals!

Take care,

David M. Dye

Know someone who would benefit from this post or the entire blog?

Please retweet, like, share, +1, or email it on. Thanks!

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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: Management

The Book

A book with a one-word title like Management had better be the end all authority on the subject.

The subject of today's book review, Management by Peter Drucker, is exactly that. It has been hailed by many as the management bible. When he taught his university executive management courses, Drucker used this book exclusively for the entire course.

Such a weighty resource (608 pages!) is difficult to do justice in a single book review and I'm not even going to try.

I write this blog to help new and developing leaders and managers to grow in their skill and effectiveness. The entire text of Management is more than a beginning leader or manager needs or would find helpful. 

However, there is one section that I believe can be a huge benefit to all emerging managers. The section is listed as:

Part X: New Demands on the Individual

Chapter 45 Managing Oneself
Chapter 46 Managing the Boss
Chapter 47 Revitalizing Oneself
Chapter 48 The Educated Person

This is the best I have read when it comes to practical material on being effective at what you do.

Managing Yourself

Drucker begins this section by addressing self-knowledge. Who are you? What are your strengths? How do you work? Based on those answers, where do you belong? What are your contributions? How can you take what he terms "relationship responsibility"? 

Of particular interest is his discussion of whether you are a listener or a reader. There are so many practical applications of good self-knowledge...this may be the most valuable chapter in the entire book!

Managing the Boss

However, if one chapter is possibly as valuable - it is the very next chapter about managing the boss. In a compassionate turn of the golden rule, Drucker suggests we work with our supervisors in ways that play to their strengths, keep them informed, and protect them from surprises. 

After all, we would desire the same courtesy (and our supervisors are key to our own effectiveness).

In some organizations it may seem like a distant dream, but Drucker envisions a workplace where managers know themselves well and help others to work with them in their strengths AND the manager in turn learns the strengths of their team and supervisors and treats them according to their strengths. 

The idea is that everyone knows and works with the strengths of the other, regardless of position on the organization chart. It is a practical outworking of servant leadership principles in a management context.

Remaining Effective

The final chapters are also worth reading - they focus on the process of remaining effective over many years of knowledge work, through changes in technology, culture, and environment. Drucker shares stories from his own life that taught him principles of self-revitalization and can help us remain effective as the world around us changes. He concludes by underscoring the importance of being educated and helping our society to educate its members.

Overall, Section X is a great introduction to Drucker's magnum opus. If you are a serious student of management, purchase Management - you will read the remainder some day and it's inexpensive on Amazon. If you want to maximize your own effectiveness today, borrow this one from a library and read chapters 45-48.

More Resources

• If you are interested in more Peter Drucker, check out: The Effective Executive
• For more on servant leadership, check out: The World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle

Happy Reading!

If you know someone who would benefit from this post, please retweet, like, +1, or email it on. Thanks!

Subscribe today or join the discussion at: http://davidmdye.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @davidmdye
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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.

Do You Commit These 5 Management Mistakes?

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Mistakes are only natural - it's one way we learn. The key is to actually learn from our mistakes, to identify what happened and what we will do differently next time. With that in mind, let's look at five critical mistakes managers often make and how to correct them.

1) Expectations are unclear or nonexistent.

The first mistake most managers commit is failure to set clear expectations. If you're a frustrated manager, examine your internal expectations. Now go ask your staff what they believe the expectations to be. Is there a significant gap?

To remedy this mistake, take time as a team to create and go over expectations, put them in writing in an appropriate location (depending on the area of focus this might be in a policy handbook or simply in a project-related email), and encourage questions.

Once the team has discussed the expectations, check for understanding by asking team members to verbalize or explain the expectations back to you or another team member. This critical step will immediately help you and your team realize if there is a gap in understanding. For bonus points and to avoid mistake #2, ask team members why the expectation exists.

Photo credit

2) Expectations are irrational or misunderstood.

If the team is able to articulate the expectations, but aren't acting on them, it's time to reexamine what is expected. Most of us have experience with an irrational policy. They are aggravating and despite our best intentions, sometimes we can create expectations that made sense in a team discussion, but which are self-defeating in reality. These tend to be ignored.

If the expectations are rational, ask team members why they believe the expectations exist. Often, the meaning behind policies is lost or circumstances change. An important part of management is ensuring that everyone understands the consequences of their actions and that these consequences are missional and productive.

3) Staff are not trained or equipped.

So you've got mutually clear, rational, and agreed upon expectations, but things still aren't working. Now what?

The third management mistake is failing to train and equip staff to meet their objectives. Sometimes people don't know what they don't know, so it's important to examine the processes and resources of under performing teams.

Ensure your people know how to do their job and that they have the resources to do it.

4) Expectations are not reinforced.

Last year you and your team agreed that equipment would be rotated every thirty days...or that reports would be submitted by the second Tuesday of every month.

But that was last year. Have you revisited the expectation? Has it every been mentioned since the time you talked about it? We all have an incredible amount of information competing for our attention.

Expectations that aren't revisited from time to time and in multiple different channels are unlikely to have a toe-hold in our day-to-day awareness. If need be, schedule yourself to revisit vital expectations every 30-45 days.

5) No accountability or celebration.

We take time to ensure expectations are rational, clearly understood, everyone is trained and equipped, and revisit them from time to time.

And then we ignore what actually happens.

Most of us have been in this situation. Transgressions are ignored and those doing things well...are also ignored. This is recipe for low morale and poor results.

To remedy this mistake, intentionally look for opportunities to acknowledge when the team fulfills their expectation and quickly and professionally address problems when they happen. Everyone wants to feel that what they do matters. Failing to acknowledge success or deal with problems sucks the life out of team members.

So there they are: Five management mistakes and how to avoid them. To restate in a positive form...

Effective Managers:

1. Ensure teams have clear and rational expectations.
2. Ensure staff are trained and equipped.
3. Regularly revisit and reinforce expectations.
4. Intentionally celebrate success and practice accountability.

I am available to help - if you would like to talk further, please contact me!

Take care,

David M. Dye

Know someone who would benefit from this post or the entire blog?

Please retweet, like, share, +1, or email it on. Thanks!

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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.

Stop Leading in Circles!

Photo by Rogiro

Do any of these situations sound familiar?

• You deal with the same problem over and over.
• It's been a long time since you saw any real team progress toward results.
• You feel stuck.
• For a while now, when you talk with your support network, you just end up shrugging your shoulders in frustration.

If any of these resonate, I would encourage you to do just one thing:

Begin looking for a leader who has succeeded in doing what it is you are trying to do. When you find them, offer to buy them lunch, build a relationship, and learn from them.

I've worked with many emerging leaders who either try to do everything on their own, without advice or wisdom from others, or who exclusively get advice from people who are just as stuck as they are. It takes  humility to admit to ourselves and to someone else that we don't know how to do something.

But it's essential.

Effective leaders and managers consistently find mentors or coaches who are farther along the journey and who have demonstrated ability.

If you're stuck "leading in circles", get help! You have amazing resources at your fingertips (remember to look for demonstrated ability!):

• Your own leaders and managers.
• People in other departments / teams in your own organization - stay positive and solution-focused.
• People in your industry.
• People outside your industry with similar responsibilities.
• While you're looking, use other learning resources including books, articles, and blogs.
• Professional coaches. Whether face to face or online, look for demonstrated ability - not just opinions. 
• I am also available to help - let me know if you would like to talk! 

Wherever you go to learn, make the effort to break the circle. Remember Einstein's definition of insanity: "Doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results."

Good luck!

David M. Dye

If you know someone who would benefit from this post or the entire blog, please retweet, like, share, +1, or email it on. Thanks!

Subscribe today or join the discussion at: http://davidmdye.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @davidmdye
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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: Good to Great

This week's book review is really a two-for-one. Jim Collins' Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't was a follow-up to an earlier work called Built to Last. In part, Good to Great is the focus of this review, but really, of all the books in this series, the most powerful may be Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great.

Collins wrote the Social Sectors Monograph after many nonprofits asked how he would apply the concepts of Good to Great to Social Sector organizations where shareholder profit is not available as a metric.

His answer to that question is page-for-page one of the most richly packed 35 pages you'll ever read. I recommend the monograph for any manager or leader, whether engaged in nonprofit or for-profit business.

In Good to Great and the Social Sector you will find a distillation of Collins research of thousands of organizations and his team's conclusions about the critical factors that help organizations make the transitions from "good" to enduring quality and impact. 

One of the most critical points Collins makes in this monograph is that a vital key to lasting organizational impact is discipline - and that discipline is not an automatic characteristic of for-profits or nonprofits.

Rather, discipline is a characteristic of great organizations - and is too often lacking from businesses of any stripe.

He goes on to suggest that social sector organizations can assemble a core set of metrics to which they consistently hold themselves accountable. I once heard Collins express the idea like this: You want to assemble a body of evidence such that a jury would have to find you guilty of being effective.

In my opinion, this principle works as well in for-profits as nonprofits. Impact is more than profit.

Good to Great (and the Social Sector) emphasizes a combination of leadership and management principles found in enduringly great organizations. These businesses feature leaders with a "paradoxical combination of humility and professional will". 

The organizations' management is very clear and stays focused on what drives their economic engine - the thing they are able to do better than anyone else in their sphere, yet they change quickly and firmly when innovation is required.

Leaders and managers work together to create a culture of excellence, discipline, results, and impact through a series of small wins which build into momentum with a life of its own.

There is something for nearly every reader in Good to Great and the Social Sector. The section of leadership and results-oriented accountability alone is worth the price of this very small book for any growing leader and manager.

Happy Reading!

If you know someone who would benefit from this post, please retweet, like, +1, or email it on. Thanks!

Subscribe today or join the discussion at: http://davidmdye.blogspot.com/
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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.

Can You Use Five Bonus Resources?

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This week I've got a bonus post for regular readers. If you are looking for some additional blog resources related to leadership, management, and personal effectiveness, I would like to recommend:

• Dierdre Maloney's Make Momentum Blog. Dierdre does amazing work, writes tons of great material, and has a wonderful attitude. A personally meaningful post from Dierdre:  The One Question You Need to Ask Yourself. Twice.

• Leadership Freak. Dan Rockwell offers a leadership nugget of 300 words or less - everyday.

• Lead Change Group. This one is like a mutual fund of leadership blogs - written by a variety of bloggers with a variety of perspectives.

• Khojy.com. Written by Santu Mahapatra, "khojy" refers to a person who wants to grow to the fullest potential and contribute to the world. This blog features some interesting perspectives and though provoking posts. A timely contribution: Five Little Known Facts On How Apple Operates

• Rounding out today's bonus resource list is The Unmapped Path, an eclectic blog dedicated to creativity and featuring a variety of posts on everything from art, to minimalism, to world travel. There are some useful tidbits for leaders and managers seeking to stretch their mind and soul beyond the traditional.

Happy Reading!

David M. Dye

If you know someone who would benefit from this post or the entire blog, please retweet, like, share, +1, or email it on. Thanks!

Subscribe today or join the discussion at: http://davidmdye.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @davidmdye
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmdye
****
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.

Lincoln's Rule of Four

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"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend four sharpening the axe." - Abraham Lincoln

If you've never had the opportunity to use an axe, it really is much less effort when the blade is sharp. A dull axe results in hours of work and an aching back - if the tree ever does fall down.

Effective leaders and managers understand that they are the axe.

Maintaining your influence and credibility over time require you to take care of yourself - to keep yourself sharp. It is all too easy to neglect self-renewal and learning. Often, we do it to ourselves - in our desire to appear productive to others (or ourself!) we continue whacking away at the tree with a dull blade.

The symptoms of a dull leadership axe can include: you're no longer a half-step ahead of your team, you keep doing the same things, but aren't getting the same results, you're frustrated because your skills aren't sufficient for your vision, you experience extreme fatigue, unusual irritability, anger, depression, rapid weight gain/loss, sleep disruptions, etc.

There are many ways to "sharpen the axe"; here are a sampling:

• Reframe everything on this list as healthy and necessary. In reality, failing to learn is letting our team down. Inadequate sleep is poor leadership.

• Commit to self-learning. Read a book (start with some of my book reviews if you're not sure where to begin), read a magazine, or read a blog.

• Apply what you learn. Once a month, incorporate a specific action from your learning into your life.

• Rest. Our bodies and minds are not made to function continually. We need rest to be our best. For me it's 6.5 - 7 hours per night.

• Exercise. Simple things work wonders - most of us can take a walk and stretch.

• Reflect. If reflection is not a part of your personality, build 30 - 60 minutes a week into your schedule where you can think about what you are doing, what you are learning, and how it works together. Sometimes it helps if you occupy your hands (cooking, knitting, gardening, wood-working, etc.).

• Journal. For many, the act of writing their observations, thoughts, and feelings helps make sense of events and provides insight.

• Work with a mentor. Look for people who have successfully done what it is you are trying to do and regularly buy them lunch or a cup of coffee in exchange for their wisdom.

The goal here is not to simultaneously do everything on this list. What one thing can you begin today that will help restore your mind / soul / spirit? Just focus on that for a month, then come back for another.

How do you keep yourself healthy and effective for your team?

David M. Dye

If you know someone who would benefit from this post or the entire blog, please retweet, like, share, +1, or email it on. Thanks!

Subscribe today or join the discussion at: http://davidmdye.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @davidmdye
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmdye
****
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.

How to Hear Voices

Photo by Kristin Andrus

"How can everyone be heard? There's no decision we can make that will satisfy everyone!"

When leaders and managers first become aware of the value of team input into decisions, they can grow frustrated or anxious as they realize that they can't satisfy every opinion in the room. I have even seen exasperated leaders quit asking for their team's input because they don't know what to do with it once they get it.

If you are experiencing this frustration or fear, the first thing to know is that yes, decisions are healthier when everyone affected is heard - but "heard" doesn't always mean the decision satisfies the opinion expressed.

Think about your own experiences with group decision-making. Even if the decision doesn't ultimately go your way, if you know you were genuinely listened to and the values of your position were taken into consideration, it is often easier to move forward.

I like the way facilitation expert Roger Schwarz says it: The goal is an environment where anyone might lose an argument, but they never lose their voice.

Here are 7 ways to be sure you hear the important voices on your team:

1. Clarify up front how the decision will be made - consensus, majority rule, or input then leader decision.

2. Define clear criteria. Get input from everyone at this step so that no hidden criteria sabotage decisions.

3. Create space to hear from everyone. Invite the quieter team members to share their opinions and observations.

4. Ask. Don't assume that every voice will volunteer to be heard. Sometimes you must seek out the voices that need to be heard.

5. Check for understanding. A good goal here is to be able to articulate someone's position even better than they can.

6. Explain. When circumstances allow for it, take time to explain the reasons for a decision.

Bonus #7. Use real life case studies to help teams learn how to evaluate criteria and deal with real world constraints. As much as possible, help team members to experience real world constraints and consequences. This provides valuable experience for them, helps their input be valuable, and can create understanding when decisions don't go their way.

How do you create a culture where everyone has a voice?

For more on this topic, you may be interested in reading:

• Four Habits to Make Better Decisions
• Six Ways to Not Walk Naked Down the Street
• Help is Available!

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: Influencer

"But I told them!"

Many of my coaching conversations with leaders and managers eventually give rise to those words. The frustrated leader is confused as to why the team is acting as they always have despite a conversation or two about doing things differently.

Just about all of us have been a part of a good idea that is never really implemented - it might be talked about, maybe a few goals are set, and perhaps the group even takes action...and yet it soon fizzles out and things return to the way they were.

This weeks' book review subject, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything by Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan, and Switzler, tackles this challenge head on - and it does so on a massive scale.

Before getting to Influencer's content, I'll begin by saying what this book is not. It is not an easy or schmaltzy self-help, "think positive", or manipulate-your-way-to-success, type of book. The title makes some big claims (the power to change anything) and so can easily be misunderstood. In reality, the authors are out to help the reader learn how to influence large-scale organizational behavior. For example, one of the most powerful examples used throughout the book involves fighting a parasite in an African village. The principles discussed in Influencer are not quick-fix approaches. They require significant effort for those leaders and teams who really want to make meaningful changes.

Through a combination of research in psychology and organizational theory, as well as their previous work in Crucial Conversations, the authors present a theory of influence that goes something like this:

Change requires both motivation and ability. (Or will and skill). Both motivation and ability each have three centers: personal, social, and structural. That's a total of six different categories of influence (personal-motivation, personal-ability, social-motivation, social-ability, structural-motivation, structural-ability).

The bottom-line of Influencer is that if you want to maximize your chance for successful change, you will use at least four of these influence categories...and all six if you can. The concepts explained in Influencer are very powerful, but they require real effort and thought. You will not find quick fixes in the effort to create lasting and meaningful change.

If I have any criticism of Influencer, it is that the book could use better editing. It does drag in sections. The material can be incredibly powerful and deserves to be presented in a more focused style. If you are able to find it, the authors published a summarized version of their findings in the MIT Sloan Management Review. Once you've read the book, that article serves as a good summary tool.

In closing, I point you to a youtube video that demonstrates the power of the Influencer concepts in an easily understandable demonstration involving kids, cupcakes, and dirty hands. I should also note that the authors have released another book packaging this material for use by individuals seeking to use the six categories to influence their own individual behavior.

Happy Reading!

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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.

One Word to Freedom

Photo by Dr. Pat

Are you busy?

So busy you feel like you can't accomplish the meaningful things?

Is your team full of activity, but empty of results?

If you're struggling personally or as a team with lots of activity, but little to show for it, I have good news. One word can cut through the fog of busy and begin to help you reclaim your time. It's even a short word:

"Why?"

When activities are piled up and you find yourself struggling to do the things that matter most, you can begin to reduce the load and anxiety by quietly asking yourself, "Why am I doing this?"

You'll discover all sorts of reasons why. Write them down. A starter list of "why's":

"Because it's what I do."
"Because I want that person to like me."
"Because I'm scared what will happen if I don't."
"Because it feels good."
"Because I have to."
"Because it's what everyone else does."
"Because...because...because...umm, why am I doing this?!"
"Because it's important to me - it aligns with my values."
"Because it helps me accomplish my mission."
"Because it keeps me healthy."

For some of these, keep asking "why" until you get to a fundamental answer.

Now, I'm realistic - I won't propose eliminating every activity that doesn't have a "why" you feel 100% good about.

What I will suggest is to prioritize the activities with "why's" that are most important to you. Typically these are behaviors that keep you healthy, help you accomplish your mission, and align with your values. If you start with these activities, you'll find some of the others fade into the background and you soon learn the world doesn't end if you forgo them altogether.

Many new leaders and managers begin by addressing questions of "what" and "how". What shall we do? How will we do it?

Effective leaders and managers start by asking "why". Why should we do this? Why would this be beneficial? Only when the answers to "why" are compelling will they move on to questions of what and how.

A small word. Giant impact.

David M. Dye

If you know someone who would benefit from this post or the entire blog, please retweet, like, share, +1, or email it on. Thanks!

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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.

Why Can't I Find What I'm Looking For?

Photo by Henry McLin

Some birds have a fascinating ability to see certain food at certain times and ignore other sources. It's called search image and it works like this: if grasshoppers are abundant, the bird forms an image for grasshoppers and will actually ignore other perfectly edible food sources. This search image ensures that the bird efficiently finds what it's looking for. The disadvantage is that it only finds what it's looking for.

As leaders and managers, we often do the same thing. We form images of what we expect to find, then we go out looking for it and, guess what? We find it.

Too often, we look only for things that are wrong, for problems, or for weaknesses in people. And we find them...every single time.

Effective leaders manage their "search image" - they intentionally look for people's strengths, help team members build on those strengths, and position people to work from their strengths.

Einstein once said, "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

We can have so much more positive impact on the world if we take time to make sure fish are in water, encourage them in their swimming, and don't expect them to climb a tree. If we need a tree climbed, better to find a squirrel - but we have to be on the lookout for those strengths as well.

When it comes to your team members, what is your "search image"? How can you become intentional about looking for strengths?

David M. Dye

PS: My apologies to Bono and U2 (and my daughter) for misquoting their lyrics in the title.

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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: Salsa, Soul, and Spirit

I hope that each of us eventually comes to that dawning moment where we realize that the world is a much bigger place than we ever realized. When it comes, it can be very humbling as we come to understand that our way of doing and thinking isn't everyone else's way, that our own personal history isn't entirely accurate, and that there is so much more to learn than we ever before realized.

If we are willing to listen and work at understanding, we enrich ourselves, can live more fully, and can become far more effective leaders. Today's book review subject, Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age - New Approaches to Leadership from Latino, Black, and American Indian Communities by Juana Bordas is one tool to help growing leaders along that journey.

A little transparency: Years ago, when I first picked up this book, I was concerned that Bordas was committing a blunder in reductionist labeling. After all, none of my brown-skinned friends reduce simply to a label of "salsa" and some of my african-american friends would not take it well if you assume they've all got "soul". However, I would encourage the reader who is concerned about simplistic stereotyping to move past these conventions. They are simply useful concepts for representing generalized culturally-relevant concepts. After reading Salsa, Soul, and Spirit, I do not for a minute believe Bordas would commit or countenance such stereotyping.

With that out of the way, let's talk about the book. Salsa, Soul, and Spirit is about effective leadership. Bordas describes her own life journey moving from Nicaragua to the United States and her experience growing up in the United States, learning the ways of her new home, and succeeding while remaining close to her own roots. Throughout the book, she draws out leadership values from various cultural traditions. At the top of the list are principles such as:

• Real leaders serve their community, not just themselves
• Leadership credibility derives from the people being led
• Effective leaders learn from the past and honor the values of those they lead
• Effective leaders value generosity, hope, thankfulness, and forgiveness
• Effective leaders work with the collective of which they are a part (the collective does not work for the leader)

Each of these concepts is examined through the lens of a cultural tradition where it is particularly valued and practiced. Put together, the list is not just a list of good multicultural leadership - it's good leadership, period. These are characteristics of true servant leaders. In fact, while the book's title describes these as "new" leadership approaches, they're not really new as much as neglected.

I recommend Salsa, Soul, and Spirit for any leader or manager who wants to lead effectively and particularly for those from any background who are just starting to realize how big our world really is.

For more on servant leadership, read: The World's Most Valuable Leadership Principle

For more on a practical application and the value of teams, read: Help Is Available!

Happy Reading - and here's to that journey!

If you know someone who would benefit from this post, please retweet, like, +1, or email it on. Thanks!

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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.