“My Team Are My Hands and Feet.” – Do you hire people as extensions of yourself? Meaning, you want them to just execute what you have in mind without questions – just to be an “extra pair of hands and feet.” If you have not developed the ability to clearly articulate your vision and goals in a way that is inclusive, everyone else is left wondering and waiting for you next set of instructions. This reinforces your sense of “I should just do it myself,” or, “if I could just do it myself.”

Rather than looking for more hands and feet, the real high leverage opportunity is to hire people who have their own skills, talents, and intelligence to bring to the table. Find people with approaches and styles complementary to your own. Develop your ability to explore their perspectives on what and how to do things. Be slow to understand rather than cutting them off or assuming you already know what they will say. Learn to create a shared vision or Yonder Star with them and them give them the power to execute based on their competence and understanding. If, as a leader, you can’t tolerate, let alone lead, people who think for themselves, bring added dimensions to the party, or approach things differently than you, you will drastically limit your organization’s growth and pay a lot of money for very minimal results.

“Wet Blankets and Naysayers.” – As your team grows, there will inevitably be people who ask questions, ask for clarification, ask for more information and potentially challenge ideas. Do you interpret these folks as “wet blankets,” “naysayers,” or “whiners.” Do you resent having your vision and creativity questioned? Perhaps that is not what is actually happening. Consider the following:

1. People have different styles of learning, understanding and processing information. Rather than questioning you as a person, they may well be going through their process of understanding your thinking.
2. The larger the team, the further you are as a leader from doing the actual work. During the “ideation phase” your team is likely to bring up important potential issues and consequences that are best thought through well in advance of jumping into execution. Since they are closer to the action than you, these conversations can present valuable intelligence and probably avoid serious mistakes later.
3. Some people are just excellent at identifying obstacles. Rather than brushing them off or assuming they are being “negative,” pay attention. A good “obstacle finder” is actually a great addition to the team. They can save you valuable time by helping you identify and address issues in advance.
4. Most of all, remember that what surfaces as a complaint or negativity is generally an access to what the individual is truly committed to and how they feel thwarted in that commitment. Flip the complaint over to a positive statement and you may be surprised by what you learn.

“What Are You Really Good At?” – No matter how gifted, talented, and intelligent you are, you still have a “zone of excellence,” (as author Gay Hendricks would say), and zones of competence and incompetence. Your highest and best use is your zone of excellence.

Richard Strozzi-Heckler of The Strozzi Institute talks about what he calls a “rhythm of excitement.” It is a rich topic that he reviews in his book, “The Anatomy of Change.” To paraphrase and simplify, essentially there are 4 stages where people feel energized or “excited.” The stages are Awakening, Increasing, Containment, and Completion. People tend to be energized largely in one of these stages. “Awakeners” are “idea people.” “Increasers” are people that tend to grab on to ideas and make them even bigger. They fill the ideas out. “Containers” take ideas and say, “let’s move on it.” “Completers” implement and get things done. There are very important skills and strengths in each area. Awakeners and Increasers tend to be entrepreneurs and business owners. This is their “zone of excellence.” It’s important to know where you are energized, know what you are good at, and then fill out your teams with the other stages. Find people you respect and trust who have the skills you are lacking, listen to them, and organize in such a way that each team member is in position to contribute their highest and best.

To paraphrase the Peter Principle, you can expect to be promoted to your level of incompetence, (if you haven’t been already).  This means that at some point,”the success train” of your career is coming to a halt. If you happen to own your own business, and are already at the top, it is likely to happen in the form of business expansion. In other words, your business will expand to your level of incompetence.

How does this happen?  Our belief is that as your work requires broader and broader reach and impact, the very traits and skills that got you rewarded and promoted to your next level of accountability, (or allowed you to create a successful business), can be what defeats you. You will be working with many more people who differ in their perspectives, learning styles, ways of processing information, and ways of interacting with others the bigger your career or business gets. In order to make the leap past the Peter Principle, you will have to expand your own skills and capacities.

Einstein’s oft-quoted statement “problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them” applies here. If you continue to rely solely on your own thinking and way of operating, (and why shouldn’t you since, after all, you are successful and you got here, didn’t you?), then you are in a place of “self-referencing leadership,” and that means the Peter Principle is “in effect.”  To continue to lead successfully, you will be required to think in new ways and benefit from the thoughts and perspectives of others. In other words, cherished self-reliance becomes obsolete. Collaboration, inclusion, openness, the ability to continue learning, respect of others’ skills, expecting others to contribute - these are the traits that are critical to develop.

To collaborate successfully will require opening up to creativity, inspiration, and empowering others. Doing this will require developing the added dimensions of intuition, (gut feel), and heart-centered knowledge to your already highly developed intellect. (See last week’s blog post on using all of your intelligence if this is a new concept.)

So bottomline, when success is at hand, and all the skills you currently possess have gotten you there, it’s time to push yourself to expand. You must increase your capacities to collaborate with others and your “capacities of intelligence” if you are going to overcome the Peter Principle and continue to be a successful, and not merely self-referencing, leader.

This may seem like a funny question, but do you know the answer? Are you using all of your intelligence? We don’t mean “business intelligence” in the sense of consumer data, research and business results. We are talking about your own personal intelligence. You probably believe you “give it your all” and use all of your capacities and capabilities – but are you sure?

The fact is, there are three ways that we as human beings detect, receive and process information. There are three centers of intelligence – the head, the heart and the gut.

Our culture primarily values the head or intellect. Ever since the time of the philosopher, mathematician and physicist, Rene DesCartes, (“I think therefore I am”), the intellect has been prized as the center of our understanding, intelligence and knowledge.

However, at some level, we all know this belief is not quite accurate. For example, we know the heart provides us with key information. We have all heard the phrase, “I followed my heart,” and we all immediately understand what that means. Think about that phrase for a moment. If the heart didn’t provide us with information, how could we follow it? And if the information wasn’t powerful, why would we follow it? It turns out that scientific studies about the power of the heart show there is an extaordinary amount of energy and information coming from and through the heart. In fact, there is now evidence that a type of neural tissue is present in the heart which indicates the heart and mind work together to process information. The Institute of HeartMath has been studying the power of the heart for years and we recommend looking into their work to find out more.

When it comes to the idea of the heart as a center of intelligence, there is some cultural ambivalence. On the one hand, we are suspicious. Isn’t the heart “emotional?” Emotions ”shouldn’t be followed.” They are “irrational” and that’s not a good thing. Right? However, at the same time that we have this cultural concern, there has been alot of work done in the realm of emotional intelligence and its importance. Some have even stated that being “emotionally intelligent” is more important than having a high IQ. So although in some ways we are suspect of the heart’s information, we also seem to understand its value.

How would you rate your EQ or emotional intelligence? Are you able to tune in to your emotions and what they might be telling you? Are you able to recognize what your heart has to say?

The third center of intelligence is our gut. We have all heard the phrase, “I had a gut instinct.” Similar to the phrase about the heart, we all know what “having a gut instinct is” and what it means when someone says that phrase, whether we personally tune in to our gut or not. The gut actually has an extraordinary amount of neurological tissue and activity in it. So much so, that physicians regularly refer to our gut as having a “second brain.”

We can all think of examples of stories where people followed a gut instinct and it was either critical to their survival, or it changed their life, or drove them to make an important business decision. When people are tuned in to that gut information, and they are asked how they knew something or why they did what they did, the response they give is, “I just knew,” and we can tell by the emphasis that the knowing came from a deep and solid place. Being able to tap into our deep-seated inner knowing is something fundamentally human that our culture does not overtly value highly.

How familiar are you with your gut instincts? Can you think of times it has served you well? Are you able to tune in and hear what your gut is telling you?

People have varying degrees of connection to their three centers of intelligence. Some rely almost exclusively on one center. Some may even use two or all three, but much of this reliance can be unconscious. Processing information and decision-making is often very automatic and unexamined.

We suggest you do a little experiment and self-reflection. Watch your decision-making processes this week and see which center(s) you use. If you find you are not using all three, then the fact is, you are denying yourself valuable information. The world has become so complex and difficult to navigate, we all need all the help we can get. Your body gives you three different ways to receive and process information and these centers of intelligence may even have different perspectives on the same issue. Taking time to tune in and listen to yourself is a skill we can all develop. It is likely that if you are disconnected from a center of intelligence it will be your heart or your gut. You can actually build this connection and it’s not terribly hard, it just takes practice. If you want to find out what your heart has to say, sit quietly, put your hand on your heart and ask the question you need answered. This may seem incredibly simple, but it has the effect of dropping our attention and helping us connect. The same will work with the gut.

As leaders, we can’t afford to dismiss or ignore key information. And frankly, who would deny themselves the opportunity to “become more intelligent?”

Excellent companies have Financial Strategies, Operational Strategies, Marketing and Sales Strategies, and commensurate Resource Allocation Strategies (including People, Time, Money, Equipment/Assets, etc.) How many companies actually have a Cultural Strategy? Yet all companies have a culture, implicitly if not explicitly developed on a historical basis. A company culture can be defined as “a cognitive framework consisting of attitudes, values, behavioral norms, and expectations’’ (Greenberg and Baron, 1997), “the collective thoughts, habits, attitudes, feelings, and patterns of behavior’’ (Clemente and Greenspan, 1999), and “the pattern of arrangement, material or behavior which has been adopted by a society (corporation, group, or team) as the accepted way of solving problems’’ (Ahmed et al., 1999).^[1]

A company’s culture dramatically impacts the success or failure of all other strategies, and yet little if any attention is consciously placed on the care and feeding of a productive, learning culture. It is the invisible glue that binds together ever more diverse workforces including people from many cultures and generations. Most executives are not conscious of culture or of the implications of their decisions on the development of or degradation of culture. Without a culture strategy, where are they aiming anyway?

All development and training is built on the platform of culture. It is the ‘context’ that determines whether the financial, operational or marketing strategies succeed or fail. A human resource focus on recruiting, retention and succession planning by definition focuses on the experience and skill building of individuals and often misses the broader perspective of the cultural influence and implications. And whose job is it to develop a conscious strategy for culture? Whose job is it to continually feed and nurture a productive culture? We would say it lands squarely with Leadership!

What is a Learning Culture and How Does it Get Developed?
A Learning Culture is one where the individuals and teams consciously invest in growing and developing themselves. In a Learning Culture executives are purposeful about the impact of decisions and strategies on the fabric of cultural development. There is a focus on reducing friction and waste in communications and developing productive working relationships. People know there is an expectation for growing and learning. Hiring decisions are made with an interest in an individual’s ability to learn, adapt, grow and shift. An atmosphere of curiosity, forward thinking and ‘how can we learn from this’ thinking permeates. It becomes the foundation or platform on which everything else is built.

What Are The Payoffs of a Learning Culture?
For an organization, this type of culture provides much more innovation, creativity, agility, and expedited problem solving capabilities.

For individuals, it provides opportunities for learning and growth. It also provides forums to be challenged, to add value, and to contribute at a high level.

How Can We Develop a Learning Culture?
There are many books and articles about learning organizations including work by Senge^[2] and Argyris^[3] that explain in depth about the what and how of learning organizations. Our 2130 methodology, (and terminology adaptation in some instances), ties to the 5 aspects of a learning organization that are generally accepted by leadership ‘gurus’ as follows:

1. Systems Thinking: Understanding how things influence each other as a whole. Our view is that executives and organizational leadership are accountable to the entire organization and all stakeholders for this larger view, including strategy development, planning, implementation, review and adjustment. In addition to a responsibility for systems thinking on an individual executive basis it is also critical that the entire executive team itself operate as a productive, learning system.
2. Shared Vision/Values: “A vehicle for building shared meaning” from Peter Senge’s “Fifth Discipline.” Unfortunately, this often looks more like the version from Dilbert “A long meaningless statement that proves management’s inability to focus.” Over the last 20+ years we have worked with organizations to develop Vision, Mission and Values in our methodology ‘Vision-Focused Leadership’. Absent a shared vision, individual agendas rule the day and gaining personal power becomes a major executive focus.
3. Productive Mental Framework: We talk about busting mental barriers, increasing mental agility and increasing capacities to deal with the unrelenting pace of change and increased complexity of issues facing leadership today. It is critical to become aware of our blind spots and biases to be able to think clearly in the present to make the best decisions in a complex business environment.
4. Personal Mastery: This is the commitment of every person in the organization to improve, develop and challenge themselves to be more than they are today. Individuals who insist on status quo and structural barriers to communication usually self-select out of a Learning Culture.
5. Team Mastery: Organizations must realize that groups of people, (of any size of 2 or more), create yet another ‘entity’ with its own dynamics and productivity levels. There are group skills and developmental opportunities that build on, yet are distinct from individual capacities. When groups develop these capacities we call that increasing their collaborative capital.

So What Will You Do Now?
Take stock of your culture. What are the stories being told about your organization by employees, clients and vendors? What stories would you like to be told? Where are the gaps? Are you willing to commit to your role in your organization’s culture?

^[1] From  “Developing a Corporate Culture as a Competitive Advantage”;  Golnaz Sadri and Brian Lees

^[2] Peter Michael Senge is an American scientist and director of the Center for Organizational Learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is known as author of the book The Fifth Discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization from 1990 (new edition 2006). (Courtesy wikipedia.com)

^[3] Chris Argyris is an American business theorist, Professor Emeritus at Harvard Business School, and a Thought Leader at Monitor Group.[1] He is commonly known for seminal work in the area of “Learning Organizations”. (Courtesy wikipedia.com)

In our current blog post for Vistage International’s Executive Street, we look at the word and concept of “try” and its lack of power.

However, there are even more statements and phrases common in business today that are unproductive and prevent forward momentum. Many of the conversations that pass for “normal” are filled with words and phrases that have no power and fill the conversational space with the false implication of action. This type of communication seems to keep the speaker from being present to his or her own experience and commitment, (or, more likely, lack thereof).

Let’s start with the word “like.” Admittedly this overused word is mostly in the younger set. It seems to be a substitute for being articulate enough to share one’s own experience accurately and authentically.  As an example, the phrase “it’s like I’m cold,” – does that mean you are? You aren’t? Why not just state “I am cold?”  Including “like” seems to allow a lot of talk without much real connection to personal experience. The words speak to an experience that is similar or “like,” rather than a statement that owns one’s physical state in that moment.

Another set of words and phrases we hear quite regularly are: “try,” “need to,’” “want to,” “should,” “ought to,” and “would be nice if…” Our view is that these, and many more phrases like them, occur constantly in every day management conversations and are worse than meaningless. In fact, it could be said that in these types of conversations both the speaker and the listener are “deluded.” They are deluded because there is an implication of action where there will most certainly be none. We call these words and phrases the “said” portion of a statement. Underneath the “said” is that which is “unsaid.” We find the ”unsaid” is usually some version of, “but I can’t.”  For example, the “said might be” – “we should put a budget together on that.” The “unsaid” might be, “but we don’t have time.” Another example of the “said” might be –  “I’d love to go with you guys.” The “unsaid” might be, “but my wife would never stand for it.”

The third, even subtler phrasing we hear is some version of “my opinion would be…” or “my idea would be…” Said in this way, the speaker never seems to be questioned and yet, what does he or she mean?  “”My idea would be…” but, it turns out what they’re saying isn’t really their idea? Or is it? Another example is “my opinion would be…” So does that mean it’s that person’s opinion unless it meets with criticism in which case they’ll change it? As listeners we really don’t know where the speaker stands. It’s easy to wonder if the speaker knows their own point-of-view or whether they are just testing the waters to see what is acceptable, popular, or meets with approval from the top of the hierarchy in the conversation.

It seems the culture of many organizations today encourages this type of “soft pedal” speak. It leaves people latitude to shift to what is acceptable and to recover more easily if they “step in it.” The issue is that people aren’t encouraged to have a real point-of-view, nor are they encouraged to articulate it if they genuinely have one. From a leadership standpoint, we don’t believe this builds leadership skills, confidence or a healthy cultural paradigm in which team members can bring all that they are and have to the table.

The antidote to all of this unreal or deluded conversation is taking the risk to say directly and succinctly what you are really experiencing/feeling, what your truth is, what you are committed to, what you promise, and what you can be counted on to do. If you are a leader and you begin to communicate in this way, those around you will recognize the authenticity of it. You will likely build more trust within your team. Particularly if you encourage them to also take on this style of communication. An important key is that it will only succeed if people see that they will not be punished, criticized, embarrassed or shamed for doing it. A strong leader builds a safe container for those around them to bring their best thinking knowing they can articulate it and it will be received with respect even when others disagree.

If you take this on and find yourself uncomfortable, make note of what your mind is saying is going to happen to you or how your internal dialogue is criticizing you.  Use your self-awareness skills and you will likely find what’s stopping you is a limiting belief.  Once identified, you can go to work on letting go of it.  Check out Kimberley Heart  or Morty and Shelly Lefkoe  if you need help working through your limiting beliefs.

To become a clear, powerful, and intentional leader, listen to your statements over the next few days and make a record of all the times you say things from one or more of the above groupings.  You probably have your own favorite versions of each!  If you are having trouble self-observing, keep going for it and also start recording what you hear others saying.  What is the “unsaid” in each conversation? Are you willing to restate your comments with real self-awareness, authenticity, and commitment?

This is an opportunity to multiply your and your team’s productivity and effectiveness!

One of the responsibilities of many, if not most, of the people in these organizations is to increase certainty or predictability with the intention of increasing quality and on time, on budget, performance.  An unintended consequence of those efforts is to make the organizations resistant to change and seemingly even resistant to the dynamics of the market itself.

As the rate of change and market disruption accelerates to the pace we see today with the advent of things like social networking and smart phones, this sets up “a destructive clash between whirlwind change and corporate inertia.“ Murray argues that some of the classic failures of once market-leading companies has not been a result of “’bad management,” but because they follow the dictates of ‘good’ management. They listened closely to their customers. They studied market trends. They allocated capital to the innovations that promised the largest returns. And in the process they missed the disruptive innovations…

Murray traces the development of managed corporations back to a 1937 book citing the importance of lowering transaction costs.  We’d like to step even further back for a moment to the very origins of capitalism and organized business. Rodney Stark in his book “The Victory of Reason” provides a very detailed history of the evolution of business, as we know it.  Activity started shifting from barter to cash in the 9^th century and great monastic estates began hiring labor forces to perform complex, well-organized activities.  By the 13^th century, religious and societal issues around profits, property rights, credit, and vending had been resolved. Italian city-states began expanding trade into Europe and the rest of the Mediterranean.

Banks and management evolved to address the issues first of facilitating transactions over these greater distances and then lowering their cost.  By the 14^th century Italian schools were organized to teach required administration and management skills.  Accounting, compound interest, double entry bookkeeping, and insurance were invented, all to facilitate transactions. As trade expanded to England, a nation of shopkeepers and manufacturing entrepreneurs sprang up and, as they say, “the rest is history.”

Fast forward back to today with this historical perspective and we can see that everything we take for granted as we do business today was originally invented by someone to facilitate trade, which in turn was driven by thousands of entrepreneurs in all regions where they were allowed to operate and were not taxed out of existence. Modern management is just a relatively late development to solve the “recent” problems of large operations scattered over great geographic areas and allow them to continue to facilitate trade and lower its cost. Much of the value of that management has been in gathering, organizing, and dispensing information needed by large numbers of people in far-flung operations to get their work done and make the transactions happen.

Now, with the advent of instant worldwide communication, essentially free information, and the ability of large numbers of people to organize and collaborate without hierarchy, creativity and innovation can move far more rapidly than it can through a traditional organization. Individual entrepreneurs are again empowered, as they were in the middle ages, by these “new fangled inventions,” to start and build businesses. To survive and continue to add value to society, existing firms will be called upon to facilitate their employees ability to think and act like entrepreneurs and to find ways to make their collaborative efforts more valuable than “free” individuals can create through open source collaboration.

Bottomline: The game is on! Is your company addressing this enormous historical shift that rivals that which happened in the 9^th to 13^th centuries? Are you recognizing this new game? Are you “all in”?

The idea of “spiritual health” or being spiritually healthy is not about whether you have a religion or not. It’s about whether you have a sense of being connected to something greater than yourself.  How you define and express that connection is highly personal. You may feel connected to God, Divine Spirit, a greater consciousness or the greater good of the planet and its inhabitants. You may express it through religious affiliation, philosophical affiliation, meditation, yoga or another personal practice.

The question is, “how healthy are you in this arena right now?” How you would know is – do you actually feel connected to something larger than yourself? If you happen to be an atheist or agnostic it is still a valid question – do you feel a connection to the planet we live on and its inhabitants beyond just your personal existence?

What are your practices around this connection? If you find the connection is strongest through religious affiliation, have you been able to attend your church/synagogue/mosque lately? If it comes through philosophical contemplation have you read anything new and stimulating recently? If it comes through meditation and/or yoga are you making time for those practices? Do you spend time with like-minded people? Do you discuss your thoughts, questions, concerns and beliefs?

If you lead an organization of some type, have you considered the spiritual health of the organization? In the June 2008 issue of Ode Magazine, the cover story The Gospel According to Adam Smith was about “spiritual capitalism” http://bit.ly/Pdsv  The article reviews some top organizations implementing spiritual values and the positive results that occurred. One of the people profiled was Art DeLorenzo who had been a Group Vice President at Ameriprise Financial. Here is an abbreviated excerpt from the article, “In 2000 after the dot-com stock market crash his team was dealing with especially heavy negativity. DeLorenzo contacted Rick Aberman, a developmental psychologist and founding partner of Lennick Aberman Group…and put him in touch with Fred Luskin, a psychologist who cofounded the Stanford University Forgiveness Project. …The trio developed a program based on Luskin’s “forgiveness” training. Why forgiveness? ‘Interpersonal kindness and goodwill that is almost unlimited…that is the spiritual basis of life’ said Luskin, who says we develop it by practicing what he calls ‘the three tenets’ of compassion, forgiveness and gratitude. “

The article continues, “The results of this training were encouraging. Participants showed an average 18 percent increase in commissions on sales compared to 11 percent for those who did not complete the training. In a sales environment, generating 7 percent more revenue than your colleagues is huge…Since this initial training each year participants have outstripped the average productivity of their peers. In 2008, Ameriprise decided to roll the program out to their Mid-Atlantic Market Group of 1,100 salespeople.”

By learning basic “spiritual health” tools in this program the sales people clearly displayed productivity increases in the workplace, and the company benefited from the spiritual health of its people.

This is just an example of why we are suggesting you evaluate the state of your spiritual health, and that if you are a business owner or organizational leader, you might want to consider the spiritual health of the group. Spiritual health creates a “win-win” for you, the team and the customers.

meaning how healthy and fresh are your thought processes?

When we talk about emotional health we are talking about how you are feeling about your life and the people and activities in it. Are you experiencing joy and satisfaction? Are you having fun? Do you relax? These days most of the people we speak with say “no.” Very few people seem to feel they have time for fun or relaxation. The thing is, if you don’t give yourself a chance to relax and unwind the constant stress is very hard on your body. There is lots of research about the effects of continuous stress on our systems. It’s important to have fun – for your health. If time keeps slipping by, try scheduling it in regularly as a mandatory on your calendar.  Make sure you are actually “cutting loose” – play a musical instrument, practice martial arts, go horseback riding – something that truly turns off your typical daily thought patterns and redirects your attention to something that is refreshing.

Take some time to reflect and evaluate how well you are handling your current levels of stress. If you find that you aren’t as resilient as you would like to be and if stress and circumstances are bringing you down, get support! If you find there are painful incidents in your past that have a tight grip consider seeking some type of counseling. If you are most comfortable with a faith-based approach speak to your minister, spiritual director or trusted spiritual advisor. You may also find a certified psychological professional is best.

If you find you are having trouble finding your passion, designing a future you are excited about or reaching particular goals and dreams then hire a coach. Ask around and find someone who has an approach you are excited about pursuing. Partner with your coach so that you have the support you need to get where you want to go.

The healthier you are physically, the better you will feel mentally/emotionally and vice versa. It’s all interconnected so do yourself, your organization, your family and friends a favor and take action to insure your health is optimized!