Five Steps for Making Your Leadership Like a Blast of Fresh Air

by Bill, Leadership

Five Steps for Making Your Leadership Like a Blast of Fresh Air

No Comments 24 May 2013

KPS flower picIn his book, Leapfrogging, Soren Kaplan reminds us that, “the human brain is wired to appreciate positive surprise.” He goes on to say that, when we experience such a surprise, three things happen:

  1. We want more of it.
  2. We want to find out how and why it works
  3. We want to tell others about it so we can take a little credit for the smile that will soon be on their face.

In a recent leadership seminar with a client group in New York, I asked the assembled group of senior business leaders to recount a time when they were positively surprised (make that amazed) by a product, service, or experience.

A few iProducts came to mind along with things like ice cream, Cirque du Soleil, the ability to “swipe” a digital tablet (or other) display page, and, we can’t leave out sex can we? One fellow proudly held up his Windows phone, and even in a room dominated by Seattle residents, I thought for a moment that his life might be in danger.

Then, we posed a related, but different question: How would it impact your business, and indeed your life if people found your leadership to be a positive surprise on that same order? What would it be like if people wanted more of your leadership? If they wanted to better understand it and to tell others about it? How might that affect your ability to recruit, engage, and retain talented staff members? Huh? What about their willingness to part with Discretionary Effort? Interested?

The principle of positive surprise applies every bit as much to leadership as it does to products, services, and other experiences. If we want to achieve it, there are five (5) things we must do:

  1. Understand first and foremost that leadership is NOT about you. It’s about THEM, your team… the folks you’re responsible for leading.
  2. Invest heavily in every team member, not just with organizational assets, but with your own personal store as well – your time, talent, trust, and political capital.
  3. Maintain high standards. No one, least of all high performers wants to work with turkeys.
  4. Be quick to own your mistakes. People don’t expect you to be perfect. They do, however, expect you to be genuine, and that means fessing up when you’ve stepped in it.
  5. Have two expressions on the tip of your tongue, ready to be used genuinely and often: Thank You; and Tell Me What You Think.

And on that last point, tell us what you think. We appreciate your comments, suggestions, and even a little push back now and then.

*******

A pathfinder in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

 

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by Bill, Leadership, Think About It...

Things My Mom Taught Me About Leadership

2 Comments 12 May 2013

MotherOver the course of her life, my mother taught me more about leadership than any class I ever took on the subject, or any one boss I’ve worked for. The lessons were usually prompted by life experiences that she seized on as teachable moments. Her last lesson for me, now permanently seared into my being, took place in the nursing home where she resided, about six months before her death.

 For about seventeen years, my mom, and my dad as her ever-faithful caregiver, dealt with the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease. No matter what, he visited her daily, cared for her, and kept the nursing home staff on their toes with respect to her care.

Nearly every waking minute of her time in the nursing home was spent in a “merry walker”, a wheeled contraption made of PVC that allowed her mobility, but afforded protection against falling. Anyhow, mother was famous (6 years in one of those places allows someone to become famous) for scooting around the home in and out of public spaces and various other folks’ rooms, befriending and talking with them. As time wore on and her disease progressed, the “talking” was reduced to something that gave every appearance of being gibberish. The contents of her “hard drive” had been pretty well erased back to early childhood as the result of cognitive erosion caused by the disease.

One early fall Sunday afternoon, dad and I paid her a visit. Having a visit with mom wasn’t exactly a simple process, as it first involved doing a complete sweep of the building just to locate her. After a twenty-minute search, we finally found her in a hallway not far from one of the nurse’s stations. During our “conversation”, in which it was impossible to decipher anything she was saying, my mom kept pointing at me, more specifically toward my feet. Frankly, I had pretty well written off the entire exchange as gibberish until finally, something made me look down to where she had been pointing, and to my complete shock, noticed that my left shoe was untied. All along she had been trying to tell me that!

The lesson I came away with is that listening, really listening can be hard. It takes work, and it takes suspending judgment if you really want to absorb and comprehend what someone is trying to tell you. The people who work on our teams deserve no less effort and attention in that regard than our mom’s do.

I’m no longer able to tell my mom thank you for all the lessons she taught me over the years. If you have that opportunity, take it… today and every other day.

*******

A pathfinder in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

 

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by Bill, Leadership, Management, Motivation

Optimism is an Essential Requirement for Leadership

No Comments 09 May 2013

Earlier this week, in the first game of their NBA Eastern Conference playoff series, the Chicago Bulls, absent three of their star players, traveled to Miami and beat the reigning NBA champion Miami Heat in their own building. I think it’s fair to say that a lot of basketball fans were stunned by the outcome. They may wind up being stunned by the series outcome, too. Who knows?

What we do know is that the Bulls are being led by a coach, Tom Thibodeau, who is an optimist. With three star players out of action due to injury or illness (effectively 20% of the roster), it would be easy for Thibodeau to say, “Ain’t it awful?”  and effectively foreclose on their slim chances of winning. Au contraire! On more than one recent occasion, Thibodeau, when asked about his short-handed team’s chances, has responded to the effect that, ‘we have more than we need to win.’

What matters is not that Thibodeau is saying this stuff, but that he’s got everyone on the Bulls’ bench buying in, and contributing every last drop of their discretionary effort to the cause.  With effort like that, you can’t help but be impressed, and maybe even like their chances.

Ironically, it was another Chicago coach, an NFL football coach, who many years ago announced early in the season that his team was so lousy that they probably wouldn’t win another game all year. Guess what? They didn’t, not because the coach was clairvoyant, but because the team simply played up (or in that case, down) to the coach’s expectations.

Your team, is no different. If you truly believe that good things will happen, and you do the work to prepare to win, you, too have all you need to win. Like nearly every other aspect of leadership, being an optimist is rather simple. But it can be hard, especially when you’re sailing against a strong headwind. But we have to do it, because people won’t follow, let alone give it up for a leader who is a pessimist or doesn’t believe in them.

Here are a few things you can do to improve your odds:

Check Your Look

Check your look, ‘er attitude in the mirror. Just as you might check your look on the way back to work after lunch, check your attitude every day on the way to work.  In the late 80’s, I helped run FedEx’s wilderness-based leadership development program. Week after week we were engaged with two dozen of the company’s best and brightest leaders in a physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting program in a remote, high altitude location in northern Utah. If the altitude, physical exertion, or the task of keeping 24 city-dwellers safe wasn’t kicking our butts, something else was. Accordingly, the preceptor group (program leaders) had a quick check-in every morning, first personally, and then with the group, just to make sure everyone was upbeat and in the game. If on a given day you couldn’t “spin your hat around” and really engage in a positive fashion, you stepped back and supported someone else who could.

Treasure Your Truth Tellers

Every good leader has one or more “truth tellers” around them – people who care enough about them to come in, close the door, and provide some unvarnished feedback.  It is to your advantage to cultivate those kinds of relationships. That way, if you’re getting a little cranky or narrow-minded, someone will let you know about it before it gets too far.

Have a Place to Go

We all need to have a “place to go to” when our outlook is suffering. Except for chemicals, it doesn’t matter too much what or where it is as long as you have confidence in it. Some people use a good, hard workout to clear the cobwebs and get re-oriented. Others who are musically inclined might spend time with their guitar, piano, or other instrument.   I use music (think aging rockers at high decibels pumped thru earbuds), travel (specifically looking out an aircraft window at 39,000’ at a whole lot of blue sky), and fly fishing to do the job.  The important thing is, in today’s always-on, high speed world, you can’t be afraid to unplug for a few hours or days to reorient. Your team is counting on you.

*******

A pathfinder in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

 

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by Bill, Management, Think About It...

Fat Bastards Please Report to the Corner Office… Bring Your Health Data or Your Wallet

No Comments 04 April 2013

Measuring the beerbellyA recent Huffington Post report highlighted a policy change at CVS Caremark, whereby workers who use the company’s health insurance program will be strongly encouraged, ‘er coerced to get a health assessment (height, weight, body mass index, blood pressure, et. al.) AND to make the results available to a firm that provides benefits support to their employer. According to the HuffPo piece, workers who choose not to participate will be fined $600 for the privilege of keeping their health data to themselves.

Health assessments are neither unreasonable nor new. They represent an effort by employers (who still provide and pay for the vast majority of private health insurance coverage in this country) to encourage workers to take greater interest in their own health. Many of those same employers incentivize (or dis-incentivize, depending on your perspective) people to complete the assessment.

Where CVS appears to be breaking new ground is in requiring workers to turn over the results of that review, or face a penalty. Though companies that take this approach are quick to point out that the personal health data is being held by a contractor and not directly by the employer, that distinction is not particularly assuring.

Our advice to those in the C-suite is that, if they are going to continue providing health insurance for their workers, they should proceed apace in taking sensible measures to yield a better functioning, more efficient, better understood, user-friendly system. Greater cost sharing, and incentivized health assessments for the covered population are part of that, as are much better communication efforts.

But they should be careful not to get heavy handed in their approach. The labor market that has favored employers for the past five years is beginning to shift in the other direction. And, beginning in 2014 with full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, workers, many of whom have felt chained to their jobs by access to health benefits, will have new choices when it comes to purchasing insurance.

It is entirely possible that at the precise moment that organizations are renewing their interest in hanging onto talent, many of their workers, led by the most talented, will be voting with their feet. That”s a challenge we don”t need.

*****

A pathfinder in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

 

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by Bill, Leadership, Management

Back on the Ranch at Yahoo

No Comments 26 February 2013

One needn’t look far this week to hear the cries of anguish, and claims that Yahoo boss, Marissa Mayer is taking the company and its workers back to the stone age with her decision that, in the near future, Yahoo staffers need to get back to work, literally.

Not so fast. Granted, telecommuting has its advantages, lots of them, both of the cost and lifestyle variety. Indeed, each of us maintains a principal office at our residence. We tend to be early adopters of the types of technology that make this workstyle more seamless and effective. Yet, there are times when proximity is more important than convenience.

This week is one of those times for us. We went to considerable trouble and expense to get in the same airspace (Marriott’s Gateway Atlanta hotel if you must ask), to talk about marketing and new books. Not unlike some of the logic that likely backed up Ms. Mayer’s decision, our decision was influenced by the fact that telephonic (or other electronic) communication only takes you so far.

Communicating is about more than emoting. It’s about making meaning. Getting belly to belly affords much greater clarity. You get a better sense not only of what was said, but what wasn’t. It’s more personal. You can see the other person limp from a recent spill at the gym, and empathize with them. You can smell fear in their breath, or see their body language suggesting hesitance, but only if you get close enough to them. These are things that you’ll never get on a Skype or FaceTime session. You never get to shake their hand or give them a pat. I will submit that claiming that electronic communication leaves nothing out is akin to saying that phone sex is as good as the real thing. Chew on that for a minute.

As a leader, dealing with people exclusively (or primarily) on an electronic basis has a lot of shortcomings. One of them is that you have fewer ways to really get to know them and size each other up. That inhibits the trust building process by a huge factor. Just as people can use the technological curtain to mask themselves socially, the same thing happens in the workspace. You never get all the pieces of the puzzle when dealing with someone on a purely electronic basis. Just ask Manti Te’O if he might have been better off having at least one real date.

If working remotely is effective for you, or your organization, we’re all for it. It does for us, too. But let’s not kid ourselves. Sometimes you simply need to put everyone in the same airspace for awhile.

*****

A pathfinder in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

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by Bill, Management

On ObamaCare, Employers, and the Full-Time vs. Part-Time Decision

1 Comment 18 February 2013

With full implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) now within sight, every organization with a payroll and a modicum of good sense is getting serious about determining their strategy and tactics with respect to the act.

Some have already decided to go ahead and upgrade their health care insurance programs to make them compliant with both cost and coverage requirements of the act. Many are taking a “watchful waiting” approach to see how the first few organizations that pay a fine and dump their workforces (in whole or in part) onto the state insurance exchanges fare. Many others, particularly in the retail and hospitality sectors, signal that they will be shifting even more to a workforce constituted of part-time workers in order to escape the act’s coverage requirements. At first blush, the act seems to incentivize some to do just that. Although every management must decide what’s in the best interest of their stakeholders, it is this last group that we’d like to focus on.

In a recent webinar sponsored by People Report and Black Box Intelligence (very credible organizations that provide info. services to the restaurant industry), the unmistakable take-away was that reliance on part-time vs. full-time workers will be a Big.Dot.Issue. 82% of the mostly restaurant managements surveyed indicated that cutting worker hours in order to reduce the number of full-timers with mandated benefits would be their likely approach. Further, 80% of those surveyed indicated that it was their intent to hire a greater ratio of part-timers going forward.

On the surface, swapping one full-time worker for two or more part-timers seems a perfectly sensible thing to do if it helps you avoid a significant expense for worker health care benefits. Yet, managements that make such a move based purely on avoiding the cost of employer-sponsored health insurance are opening yet another, possibly costlier can of worms.

Regardless of the number of hours each person works, the addition of each incremental real, pulsating human being (RPHB), aka “heads” to the beancounters in the crowd, adds significant complexity and cost to the mix. Here are just a few of the factors to consider:

  1. Additional pressure on the physical plant (think bathrooms, parking spaces, work stations, et. al.)
  2. The task of communicating with and leading, directing, guiding the workforce becomes more complex. At some point, additional managers must be hired due to span of control issues.
  3. Recruitment and training costs go up, way up.
  4. Barring some clear and reasonably predictable way to migrate from part to full-time status, you must either recruit from a totally different demographic, or face the prospect of having a bifurcated (and not necessarily enchanted or engaged) workforce. (Think A-scale and B-scale and how well that worked for commercial airlines.)

We don’t advocate one approach over another. Rather, that each management team get beyond the surface considerations and consider all the implications. And, not to put any pressure on you, but you need to do it soon.

*****

A pathfinder in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

 

 

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by Bill, Leadership

Everybody Else is Doing It

No Comments 22 January 2013

Last week, in his coming out confession before Oprah Winfrey and a yawning world, cyclist Lance Armstrong implied that, when it occurred, he didn’t feel that his persistent cheating in cycling competitions was wrong because everyone else was doing it.

A day or so later, invoking the example of her older sister, my three year old granddaughter offered the same reasoning when corrected by her mom for running in the house.

It would be one thing if this were confined to a handful of super-star athletes and young children. But it’s not. Witness the facts that, in corporate America:

    • Precious few organizations are adequately training their new staff members these days, either because “we can’t afford it” (have you priced ignorance lately?), because “they won’t be here long anyhow” and, you guessed it… because everyone else is doing it. Really?
  • Many organizations continue to irritate customers by off-shoring customer-facing call-centers to countries where the language and culture don’t mesh particularly well with those of callers because… A. They think it’s cheaper, and B. Everyone else is doing it.
  • We see managers regularly overlooking meaningful performance and behavioral discrepancies in the workspace because, you guessed it…

Please pardon the rather closed-minded point of view on this, but everyone else is NOT doing it. Moreover, for those of us who are considered business leaders of any stripe, we get paid to set the bar higher, first for ourselves, and then others. Averting our eyes to this reality can, in the short run, be a source of competitive edge. But the problem is, where (and when) do you draw the line? How do you put the worms back in the can? How do you un-do the example that has been set for all those who are watching?

Here are three things that leaders at different levels can do to keep things on a higher plain:

    1. Senior leaders – Make it known throughout your entire organization that those who lie, cheat, or steal will be ejected like a virus. At the same time, be clear that people will not have their employment terminated for doing what they truly considered to be the right thing. (This is distinct and apart from those who, over time, demonstrate bad judgment).
  • Level 2 Leaders – Make sure that your new and emerging leaders get the benefit not only of appropriate training offerings, but of your good example as well. Insist that they always set the bar high, and teach them how to coach their team-members to higher levels of performance and behavior.
  • Front Line Leaders – Never forget that those who look to you for guidance and direction also look to you to paint bright lines about what behavior is in and out of bounds, and then to hold people’s feet to the fire, regardless of who their uncle is, or whether or not they are a star performer.

We are convinced that the cumulative effect of these behaviors actually puts your team in better position to win yellow jerseys that you won’t later have to give back.\r\n

*****

A pathfinder in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

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by Bill, Leadership

Some Advice for New Leaders in the New Year

No Comments 08 January 2013

This week I’m recording an interview with Kathy Tuberville, a University of Memphis Fogelman College of Business instructor who has elected to use our book, Rebooting Leadership in an upper level undergrad course on leadership. As a precursor to our discussion, she posed two questions for me to address in our interview. I did my best to answer them in a fashion that I thought would be most useful to her students, and have shared my thoughts below. To the degree that you have new or young leaders in your organization, or perhaps you are one yourself, you/they may find this of interest:

What are today’s biggest leadership challenges for emerging and newly appointed leaders? The greatest challenge perhaps is that the on-ramp to today’s leadership highway is short, steep, and unforgiving. Less than a decade ago it was still conventional for newly appointed leaders to experience the benefit of some pretty intensive leadership training in their first few months on the job (if not prior), and be on a relatively short leash with their reporting senior during that period. Within reason, mistakes were expected, and were considered part of the learning curve. Today, not so much. Most of the prep work is a DIY proposition, and mistakes are things that your boss may be less able or inclined to provide air cover on, so it’s probably best that they happen to other people.

Not unlike the world of professional football (the U.S. variety), where yesterday’s rookie players (quarterbacks in particular) could expect to ride the bench for a year or more before being inserted into the starting lineup, today’s players are paid (and expected) to be fully productive from day one. And sadly, once on the field, we tend to forget that they are still rookie players, and not fully developed.

I will submit that had a lot to do with the recent re-injury of Washington Redskins’ rookie phenom quarterback, Robert Griffin III during the team’s first (and only) game of the 2012-13 NFL playoffs. As a 22 year old man who, to my knowledge has not spent any time in med school, Mr. Griffin was allowed to be the sole decider as to whether or not his previously injured leg was ready for action. He guessed wrong. It wasn’t, and hopefully he will recover.

Perhaps the most challenging part of this for the rest of us has to do with the fact that today’s newly appointed leaders can’t always count on having a good example set for them. By virtue of having a sour economy for the past five years, it is entirely likely that their boss hasn’t had the benefit of any leadership training either, ergo it’s not unusual to have the blind leading the blind.

The good news (and it is good news) is that, due to the fact that most of today’s workers are more likely to engage with (and on behalf of) their leader rather than the broader organization, the efforts of each individual leader tend to matter quite a bit more. It’s truly motivating when you realize that what you pour yourself into every day is indeed mission critical.

What are your recommendations for students to achieve success as leaders? For better or worse, here’s what I said.

1.    For openers, be bone honest with yourself about whether or not you are up for this particular ride.

  • Do you have the courage to make tough, unpopular decisions, and to deliver bad news without blaming them on someone else? How about telling a friend that they either need to change or leave?
  • Do you have the resilience to take shots and beatings that are intended for other people (your team) without whining? You better be, because that’s part of the job.
  • Are you willing to subordinate personal interest for the good of the team?
  • Are you willing to liberally share credit with others, perhaps even more than what they deserve at times? If so, proceed. We need a lot more like you.

2.    Early on, it’s important that you become a real master of your time and priorities. On day one, and every day thereafter, you’re going to have a hundred fresh emails and other incoming items of varying importance before you even get to work, and a line out the door (oops, doors are a thing of the past) when you do. How you handle that stuff and keep it in proper context will materially impact your success as a leader, not to mention your sanity.
3.    Though you must be ever mindful of the fact that accepting the mantle of leadership means that you are held to a higher standard, you must at the same time, be authentic – be real. People who are not comfortable in their own skin have a habit of becoming petty tyrants.
4.    Be grateful, and show it, every day. Really. Leadership is not about you. It’s about the mission, and it’s about them.
5.    Become a good listener. It’s one of the quickest ways of gaining the respect and trust of others, not to mention being a great path to the answers you need.
6.    Lastly, unless you find that you’ve been blessed with having a really good boss who is both competent and willing to invest a lot of time in your development, get a coach or mentor that you can rely on – somebody who has been around the block a few times, who cares about you, and won’t blow smoke up your nose.

These are my thoughts. You are invited to join the discussion.

*****

A pathfinder in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

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by Bill, Leadership

Sure

No Comments 19 December 2012

Have you noticed lately the regularity with which business and other leaders tend to begin a sentence with the word, “sure”, even if it’s not remotely related to what’s being asked or discussed? I don’t know if it’s a tic, the latest buzzword, or an unconscious effort to reassure themselves or perhaps others. At the very same time, we continue to hear a chorus from those same individuals that sounds a little like this… “We will resume investing and hiring to grow our businesses when there is greater certainty about the future.”

Really. Think about that for a second. Certainty about what? Since when have we enjoyed certainty about much of anything, beyond the fact that the sun will come up tomorrow?

For better than 2 years, we worried about a banking crisis and vicious recession, then, when it was clear that those things were on the mend, we averted our national nervousness to implementation of the healthcare reform legislation, followed by federal elections. More recently, we’ve been consumed by the prospect of plunging over a man-made “Fiscal Cliff”. To be sure, each of these items was/is very real.

But let’s at least accept the fact that we survived the banking crisis, and overcame a potential melt down of the global financial system. We’re recovering from the recession – really. The elections are over, and where there are to be new officeholders (none of whom give the impression of being complete chuckleheads), they will soon be peaceably sworn into office. Now that we have at least begun the process, we will be reforming our healthcare system for many years to come. It’s about time.

Look, I’m not making light of any of these. They are serious events in our nation’s history, and they indeed carry consequences for us. While it’s appropriate to give them thought, and influence the direction of events when and where we can, it is every bit as important not to become paralyzed by the fear of what might happen. As Mark Twain once said, “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”

As for visibility, I will submit that Christopher Columbus, the Wright brothers, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, FedEx’s Fred Smith, Bill Marriott, and a long list of other high achievers didn’t have very good visibility when they set forth on their respective ventures. Indeed, some of the aforementioned businesses were launched in some pretty difficult times.

In an event this week at 92Y in New York, Bill Mack, Chairman of AREA Property Partners and Mack-Cali Realty Corp., after reminding his audience that the U.S. remains a great and good country, indicated that, in his view, the U.S. is still, by far, the best place on earth to do business. When asked about risk, he and Steve Ross, Chairman of Related Companies, Equinox Holdings, and owner of the Miami Dophins suggested that a willingness to do one’s homework and then take the long view mitigates a lot of risk.

One of the lessons to be taken from the recent unspeakable tragedy in Newtown, CT is that we ought not live in fear, but we should hug our kids a little tighter every day. The same holds true for our businesses. Let’s continue to nourish them, hold them dear and then, taking the long view as Mr. Mack suggested, take steps and make the necessary investments to grow and develop them.

These are my thoughts. You are invited to join the discussion.

*****

A pathfinder in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

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by Bill, Leadership, Management

Whether in Healthcare or Elsewhere, It’s the Culture, Stupid!

2 Comments 06 December 2012

Earlier this week, alongside 199 of the brightest, most talented people in the healthcare space, I attended the 2012 Forbes Healthcare Summit. Held at the The Allen Room at Jazz @ Lincoln Center in New York, the conversation and content were as spectacular as the venue. Hats off to Steve Forbes for hosting an event that lived up to its billing, and for allowing me to attend. Given that we frequently coach and train managers and executives from hospitals, big pharma, device manufacturers, and eldercare, I attended the event in an effort to stay current on the trends, opportunities and challenges in their world.

Somewhere late-morning as I furiously scribbled notes, I realized that, despite not being mentioned on the meeting agenda, one word had come up… a lot, almost as much as words I was expecting to hear, like gene, physician, science, payor, and the like . The word – culture. “Its about the culture you need to create.” Mikael Dolston (Pfizer); “The problem is trust.” Peter Tippett (Verizon); “It’s all about culture.” Andy Slavitt (Optum); “The biggest challenges are culture, culture, culture.” Dr. Richard Rothman (The Rothman Institute). “The culture is critical.” Sandra Fenwick (Boston Children’s Hospital). The clear implication from each and every mention was that if you want to innovate, optimize, execute, and get better outcomes, you had better pay attention to getting and keeping the culture thing right. Indeed, sparks flew for a moment or two when one of the presenters suggested that his business might never have gotten off the ground if he had been forced to recruit workers with a public servant mindset from the government sector. Yikes!

Whether in healthcare or elsewhere, I don’t think it’s too big a reach to suggest that the primary burden of responsibility for getting the culture right rests with those of us who occupy a leadership role – generally anyone with a trailing “R” in their job title, like officer, director, manager, supervisor, or leader. So what does that entail? Here are a few thoughts, in no particular order:

In my little pea brain, culture, at least as far as the workspace is concerned, is about expectations, customs, norms, and languages. It lends definition to the tribe. It means we have given serious thought to what it takes to be happy, productive, and successful here, gene mapping the organization if you will. It means that we have set, and abide by certain behavioral boundaries and expectations. It also means that we eject, like a virus, those who prefer to behave outside those lines. It means that, when recruiting, we are as careful about organizational fit as we are talent. Because of these expectations, things like respect and trust are usually in greater supply than elsewhere. As a result, people are more free to perform because they don’t have to waste precious time and energy looking over their shoulder. My questions to you are, how much time and attention are you giving to getting and keeping the culture right in your organization? How stridently do you, as a leader, explain and defend your culture?

These are my thoughts. You are invited to join the discussion.

*****

A pathfinder in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

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Considered thought leaders in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette and Richard Hadden speak to, train, and coach managers on leadership practices for better business outcomes.

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Read "Leadership Means Saying No" by Bill Catlette, in HR Professionals Magazine: Click here