Desperation Does Not Work

Given our recent economic woos, Many senior executives are asking their key client facing people to be more aggressive in the market place.  For example, many partners in professional services firms we work with are feeling the pressure to engage their clients, focus on building a pipeline of prospects and most importantly close new sales.  And for many professional services firms whose services where highly valued and utilized prior to the economic crisis and before – consultants are rusty, at best, in ramping up the mindset to sell.  Yet many partners and senior executives being asked to engage in more selling have never had to do it this intensely their entire careers!  This creates a particular challenge for many firms who feel the need to speed up the selling process in order to get results.

Now before I say anything else, it must be reinforced that there is a lot right with reinforcing a sales oriented culture.  To be even more candid – pipeline development and harvesting needs to be your philosophy in good times as well as challenging ones!  Hopefully the wake up call that has been ignited from these challenging times will continue as a standard operating approach.

When your business development efforts are driven from more negative states of mind – your client and prospects will sense this.  When they do they will tend to withdraw and worse yet if they perceive your approach is one primarily focused on your need to sell – it can generate negative opinions about you and your company.  Not only will this approach generate fewer sales – when the economy does turn in a more positive direction (which it appears to be starting to do) and clients begin to invest more in external resources – your approach may have downgraded their trust in your intent and therefore lead to few opportunities over the long term.

Here are a few mistakes organizations make during tough times that get them in trouble:

• As indicated before, we go into “blitz mode.”  Maybe if we were more consistent prior to the downturn – that would not be necessary.
• Sales quotas are driven from the top of the organization and those out there selling your company have no ownership of them.  Many times when this downward pressure is felt without ownership you may get lots of activity but it will be ineffective activity for the most part.
• Ineffective measures like the number of calls made, conacts or appointments generated or time spent selling are used to monitor those in the field and assume that such activity will bare fruit.
• When you don’t have a natural sales culture and you drive the messages above -  you overlook the necessary change management practices that will support the transformation you desire. Specifically this means supporting people with coaching and training as well as helping them deal with the natural time constraints that come from jugging bigger sales goals with their other responsibilities.  Unfortunately, organizations lose site of this and even cut budget on the very things that support people going out to actively sell.

You may say “but we don’t have any other choice – we have done all we can with the bottom line – we need revenues!  Is not setting big expectations a driver for success?” Well yes and no.  The proof is in the results.  I suppose you need to ask yourself how are you doing with your current strategy.   If that strategy is not baring fruit – you may want to take a hard look at what you are doing.  I can almost guarantee you one thing – your best rainmakers do not take a break and they are likely not worrying about the pressure because they have taken care of business all a long and have maintained some level of pipeline.  In any event, if your strategy is not working – your consummate rainmakers are the ones to seek counsel from.

Yet, let’s take a moment and suggest more powerful applications to jump starting your sales.

“The problem with most sales approaches is that at a certain point we stop trying to understand our client’s needs and start focusing on our own needs as sellers to close the sale. When this happens we miss tremendous opportunities because we stop listening and start proposing too early.  The key to success is maintaining focus on your core business(es) and to embrace an authentic conviction in the value you offer. With this foundation the goal is to meet with as many clients and prospects as you can.  When you do meet – go in with a high level of curiosity. Sit side by side – shoulder to shoulder with your clients and prospects then try look out at the opportunities/problem from their perspective.  Seek to understand the impact on them and their organizations.  As important, is taking the time to understand their buying patterns or how they evaluate purchasing a service or product. With this approach we can not fail!”

David Utts

CEO – Executive Skillworks

Women In the Power Mix

• Collaboration and inclusion
• Teamwork
• More authenticity and transparency
• Building a culture the fosters creativity and innovation
• Coaching and mentoring high potentials
• Showing concern for how the organization impacts the community surrounding it

Yet even more impressive is that I have found women also have a strong drive to succeed and more importantly have the ability to achieve great results for their organizations.  This is not to say that women leaders have no Achilles Heels – they do and I will discuss three major ones a bit later.  That being said, my overall experience has been that women are more willing to acknowledge and accept their short comings which allows them to grow faster and increase impact faster than their male counter parts.  For the most part, they are stellar at taking in feedback.  It would be interesting to see a study on ROI with women versus men who leverage executive coaching.  My guess would be that while both would see strong growth – women may have the edge because they are more naturally open to the learning process.

As more women enter the work force and prove their meddle – they are also transforming the work place. Women business executives with families are dogged about protecting their family time.  On top of this they seem to have the ability to manage their work load so that they can make it to their kids softball game, to be home in time to make dinner, to be there if their kid calls, etc. Many organizations and most male executives have a challenging time appreciating the flexibility that many women executives require for job fulfuillment.  Even when a woman is clearly one of the best producers – men seem to wonder why they are leaving work at 3:30 to attend to family needs.  In short, high powered women executives with families have two jobs yet they have the ability to attend to both with a high level of quality.  Let’s take a look at some powerful statistics.

In Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success published recently, Claire Shipman and Katty Kay, ¹ provide some very compelling research.  For example, did you know that:

• Women’ representation in the senior ranks of Fortune 500 companies grew from 10 percent in 1996 to 16 percent in 2002 ²
• 57% of women in the US hold a bachelors degree, account for over 58% of all those receiving graduate degrees and will soon be in the majority over men in the workforce (current women hold 46% of all positions). ³
• At the University of California at Davis, the graduate school of management concluded in 2005 that companies with women in top leadership positions have stronger relationships with customers and shareholders and a more diverse and profitable business.⁴
• In Norway the government has become so convinced of the value of women in business that the minister of trade has demanded that 40 percent of any company board be women‚ not to appear politically correct, but to make their firms more competitive internationally.⁵

Strong Leadership = Powerful Results!

If you really get your arms around  all of this, it quickly dawns on you that:

1. It is essential to be consciously focusing on the development of stronger leadership in organizations through hiring and active development strategies.
2. If you have a pool of talented highly educated women available who naturally embody key leadership competencies then it makes sense to leverage this and promote women to senior positions – especially if you want to add velocity to strengthening your leadership culture.

All of this points to the value of diversity and hopefully moves us away from trying to strike a balance by using quotas and recognizing how diversity strengthens our ability to be profitable and high performing.  On top of this, everyone has to start to realize that women’s efforts to create greater flexibility in the work force has generated something positive for both men and women.  For example, I have had a number of male clients who have taken time off of work when a child is born – taking advantage of new policies supporting maternity leave.  Similarly, men have greater latitude to attend events their children participate in and have the ability to leave work early to take care of a sick child.

What Women Must Learn

While many women have natural leadership instincts – there are at least three development areas that they must examine – these areas can be boiled down to:

• Generating greater confidence
• Not sweating the small stuff
• Reduce the drama

Again, these are generalities and like men – each individual woman will have their unique development journey.  That being said – let’s briefly take a look at each of the items mentioned above.

Achieving Greater Confidence:

Because many women are relational they tend to be concerned about how others are viewing a problem and can see great value in taking into account another’s opinions when making decisions. This is certainly a strength.  The problem comes in when women begin to discount their inner power and natural abilities when it seems others are taking actions that seem to undermine their own sense of value.  Many of my woman clients, and all the rest of us, tend to desire validation from the outside and create rules that this validation must exist for them to be confident.  Yet, ultimately, confidence is controlled by us – not through another’s opinions.   It is an inside out experience that collapses when we start using external opinions as the main basis for validation.  This is a central learning territory for most women.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

I have found that women, like all of us, can get stuck in small issues.  For example, they might fixate on a particular interaction and how they felt leaving that interaction losing site of the purpose of that relationship and the results they are trying to generate with the other person.  At the extreme, this can be perceived as “petty” and hurt their image.  The key to overcoming this is to hold laser focus on key priorities and engage others around the most important outcomes they are aiming to achieve.  This is not to throw the baby out with the bathwater either.  There are times when others are rude, insensitive or just plainly ineffective in an interaction.  The key is to bring this up in the context of the outcomes that are found mutually valuable and provide feedback that the approach they took to the interaction gets in the way of achieving those results.

Reduce the Drama

This trap door builds a bit off the last one.  And again, this can be an issue faced by both men and women.  Reducing drama is not about cutting off emotions.  One of the great things the growing population of women in organizations brings is emotional intelligence.  Yet, when we become overly dramatic when addressing an issue – it takes away from a woman’s impact.  Again, the key is to remain focused – on your personal purpose and vision for impact as well as the key priorities you are accountable for attending to.  Also, taking up something that helps center you whether it be meditation, Hatha Yoga, Thai Chi or some other proven method for finding focus can assist in smoothing out any habit to generate drama.

Certainly the items mentioned above can reduce a female executives power yet no matter how ineffective a strategy or habit is – all of us develop them for some reason.  Yet all habits have a shelf life based on the time in life we developed them.  This is a key understanding in development – how to let go of old habits that no longer have the same effectiveness.  The good news is that I find when a trusting environment is built in the coaching relationship – most women are more than wiling to acknowledge if one of these is getting in her way.

As I have mentioned before – a key to competitive advantage in today’s global market place is enhancing leadership.  Today organizations have a rich pool of talented women leaders ready to answer the call and help your organization move forward towards greater success.

Additional Resource LInks:

• More research on “Womanomics” by Cristian Dezső is assistant professor in the Logistics, Business and Public Policy department at the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland.
• Harvard Business Review – Women in Business Series
• Top 10 Companies for Executive Women
• Fast Company Magazine – The Most Influential Women In Technology
• National Association of Female Executives
• Network of Executive Women
• Executive Women – LinkedIn Group
• Women in The Professional Services Industry – LinkedIn Group
  
• The Multinational Development of Women in Technology
• American Society of Women in Accounting

By Tom Rath

DO YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO DO WHAT YOU DO BEST EVERY DAY? Chances are, you don’t. All too often, our natural talents go untapped. From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths.

“Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong… And yet, a person can perform only from their strength”

Peter Drucker

To help people uncover their talents, Gallup introduced the first version of its online assessment, StrengthsFinder, in the 2001 management book Now, Discover Your Strengths. The book spent more than five years on the bestseller lists and ignited a global conversation, while StrengthsFinder helped millions to discover their top five talents. And with your purchase you will be provided with a code that allows you to “Discover Your Strengths” by taking the assessment yourself.

In its latest national bestseller, StrengthsFinder 2.0, Gallup unveils the new and improved version of its popular assessment, language of 34 themes, and much more (see below for details). While you can read this book in one sitting, you’ll use it as a reference for decades. Loaded with hundreds of strategies for applying your strengths, this new book and accompanying website will change the way you look at yourself — and the world around you — forever.

Follow This link to Order or Click the Image Above

For The Relater – being liked and admired is everything. They can work very hard to bend into the type of person others want them to be.  They can very much become chameleons – constantly adjusting to the environment so that they comply.  Their great value is that they can reduce conflict, keep the organization’s eye on people issues and are strong at building teaming environments.  In their most reactive stance they are very compliant and the tool they use to achieve power is passive aggressiveness.  Bob Anderson’s research has shown that compliance is one of the most destructive behaviors to organizational performance ¹.  Why would this be so?  Because at the compliant stage The Relater has a difficult time prioritizing.  They want to please – it is hard for them to say no.  Even if they are effective technically – because they have difficulty saying no – they tend not to achieve much or tend to prioritize tasks based on those they most want approval from versus what is most important based on the organization’s key priorities.

The Relaters Fundamental Beliefs include the following ²

• I am okay if I am liked.
• If I belong I am valuable.
• I gain power by becoming the right hand of those in power.
• I will do most anything to be admired by others.
• I seek approval by saying yes.
• I avoid sharing my feelings because I do not want to be judged harshly – it feels dangerous to do so.
• I want to maintain loyalty and harmony – I go along to get along

Most people will like the Relater because they tend to be fun to be around.  They can also be the life of the party and can be quite charming.  A great metaphor for The Relater is “water” – just as water forms around the objects it connects with – Relaters do the same thing.  Again, the downside of this comes when a Relater becomes very compliant and passive aggressive.  They live in a paradox.  On one hand they want to please others yet when they realize they are not getting their own needs met they tend to figure a way to manipulate things to get their way.  They may hold an internal belief that “I demonstrate how I support everyone else’s needs but when it comes to me – I don’t feel taken care of.  Therefore – I have to take care of myself.”  This belief can lead to a high level of resentment.  At it’s worst it can even lead to intense addictive behaviors.

Relaters at Their Worst

At their worst relaters are very wishy washy people.  While they are people persons – they have little backbone for standing up for themselves or others.  They may become so compliant that they become door mats for a highly reactive, high controlling achievers and easy targets for the criticism of highly reactive intellectuals.  Highly reactive relaters can be hard to be around because of their neediness.  In addition, if they find what appears to be a sympathetic ear – they can go into along winded litany about all that is wrong with the world.   If they are disapproved of in any way they can become sullen and depressed. Losing an important relationship is a death for them which they can mourn for a long time.  They can tend to either over react to any disrespect they receive or hold it in and respond in passive aggressive ways (i.e. not getting things done on time – complaining they did not have what they needed or even going so far as to sabotage results).  At their very worst they can be manipulative to get their way and can disintegrate into self-destructive behaviors.

Relaters at Their Best

Ultimately at their best – relaters are a joy to have around.  They can be focused on what is most important and serve to bring others on board with regard to the vision and priorities.  As they embrace their more creative selves – they can be key to building high performing environments where people accept ownership for the results.  Relaters have a great sense of humor and timing for using it.  They can lighten up an intense atmosphere that opens people up to new ways of looking at things.  Once they are focused they use their innate interpersonal style to influence others and keep the team focused on what is most important.  They can become excellent coaches and mentors because they truly care about the development of others and understand the direct link between people’s fulfillment and their performance.  With focus they can become truly caring leaders who are laser focused on the right priorities.

The Relaters Development Path

In short, Relaters must find focus.  The key is getting them to stop looking outside for permission and find an inner purpose they deeply want to serve,  In order to be more bold they must have this anchor while letting go of the need to please and tendency to hang back.  There can be a tendency for a relater swing from bending over backwards to preaching from their soap box.  Relaters must see that both of these behaviors hurt their influence with others.  They need to leverage their strength which is to come from passion and direct it towards an outcome that they and the organization values.  From this they will gain discrimination around what to say yes to and learn to say no.  They must also learn to be more direct in their requests for what they need even if it means they will be turned down.  Once they get they embody these lessons they will become a very powerful influencer in the organization.

Key Leadership Developmental Strategies for the Relate

Provide Caring But Direct Feedback Around Achievement

Once you find out what the relater cares about you can use this as context for feedback.  Give them insights into why they are not perceived as great achievers. Provide them with the space to consider what they really care about.

Help them Find an Inner Purpose

Relaters tend to focus on the outside and only notice their inner needs when they are not met on a consistent basis.  Similar to the Intellectual – help the relater to find something inside they care about that allows them to discern the important from the unimportant.  Help them to realize that serving something higher than being liked will enable them to actually gain recognition for true achievement.

Help Them See the Power of Requests

Relaters can fear making requests and tend to hide in their resentment for not having their needs met.  Therefore it is important for them to understand how powerful requests are and that their ability to be more bold in making them will give them the power and respect they desire.  Again, the key is for The Relater to align with some inner purpose they care so much about that they are willing to go through the discomfort of making more bold requests.  Over time when they see the power of making effecitve requests they will become more comfortable and become a powerful influence in the organization.

Encourage Them to Integrate Their Natural Abilities to Support People Initiatives

Relaters can become powerful champions for others, collaboration and teaming.  Given this is a strength of theirs put them in situations where they can leverage it.  Maybe they become the lead executive on your “Best Place to Work” strategy or how to enliven and integrate the corporate values in how we work together to achieve results.

Assist Them with Planning and Time Management

While not all relaters have issues here – the more extroverted ones do.  They tend to be the most distracted and have the most difficult time focusing.  Once they are connected with a sense of purpose and understand how their key organizational priorities support this – help them stay focused by showing them the value of organizing their focus and building a structure that allows them to be more consistent in taking actions around what is most important.

These are but a few things you can do to coach the relater and aid them in rising to more effective leadership.  Again, the key with all orientations is to lift them up to their best.  The most effective way to develop an executive leader is by helping them build upon their strengths so that they come to lead through their most authentic and natural style.  Yet, as I have mentioned each of the mindset’s perceived weaknesses can be transformed into effective leadership behaviors.

• The Achiever’s need to control can be transformed into visionary leadership that is quite inspirational
• The Intellectuals’ need to be right can be molded into to a skill supports innovation and sustainable productivity
• The Relater’s need to be liked (as we will address in this entry) can be developed into becoming a consummate mentor, team leader and influencer.

As with all other mindsets – the key to development is to recognize the personal value and organizational value inherent in expanding your impact as a human being and leader.

Read the following entry that brings this series to conclusion.

I Think Therefore I Am

I have labeled these three orientations as:

• The Achiever
• The Intellectual
• The Relater

In our last entry we took a deeper look at the key qualities and the leveraged developmental path for The Achiever.  In this entry we will examine The Intellectual.

To the Intellectual – Knowing is everything and in the business environment they pride themselves as experts and relish the challenge of solving complex issues. When The Intellectual is acting from a reactive stance they can be described as arrogant, critical and distant ¹.  While you may value the stunning speed at which they can understand and surgically break down and fix the complex – you are likely not to appreciate this when you are the subject of their criticism.  In the later case one can feel “sliced and diced.”

The Intellectual’s Fundamental Beliefs include the following ²:

• I value my expertise and the smarter I am the more worth while I feel.
• If I am right – others will likely be wrong.
• I am safe and acceptable if I am smart enough and able to “fly under the radar”.
• I find value in myself when I am right and can point to the weaknesses of others.
• I do not suffer fools gladly.
• At a deep level I want to connect with others yet fear intimacy.
• Before I engage – I like to hold back so I can understand how things are unfolding.

Again, Intellectuals love to admire the problem – to the point that they can enter analysis paralysis. While Achievers are more ready, fire, aim – Intellectuals are more ready, ready, aim, aim, aim, ready, aim…fire (maybe).  Intellectuals can easily see the flaws in another’s thinking, speaking, and actions.  Their love of learning tends to be in the realm of absorbing more around their technical specialty rather than other areas.  While Intellectuals can show up anywhere – you will likely find many in the medical, engineering, accounting and technology fields.   Most professional services firms find that they have a disproportional population of Intellectuals and this poses a particular leadership development challenge.  I will speak to about this more below.

Intellectuals at Their Worst

At their worst Intellectuals emit a distant, condescending, and cold towards others. They tend to be quite negative – seeing all that is wrong with the world.  They are eternal pessimists and it seems they are unable to appreciate the positive actions others take.  When they speak it can be a fire storm of criticism and those at the top of the organization do not escape their ire.  Intellectuals in a highly reactive space want to keep their heads low, play it safe and are risk adverse.  They see themselves as superior to others and because they can move faster than most others in understanding a problem and seeing solutions they tend to be very impatient. It is very hard to even tolerate being around them at their worst.

Evolved Intellectuals

As they develop an intellectuals power to discern grow up.  If they understand the vision they can highlight the obstacles as well as the assets that the organization can leverage to move closer to the vision.  They have a powerful lense on the details that may visionaries and entrepreneurs lack – therefore they can really help the organization execute.  At their best Intellectuals are also the center in a storm of controversy – helping others find level heads.  If you position them around something they deeply care about – they can become great champions for the cause.  As they season – their expertise turns to wisdom and this can lead to great innovations.  Deep inside they do care for others and while they will never be the life of the party if they can awaken their hearts – the distance people have felt around them can narrow.  As their consciousness raises – they become very loyal, conscientious and dependable.

The Intellectual’s Developmental Path

As with any orientation – the key to development is to place the Intellectual into a circumstance that helps them appreciate their strengths while seeing the limitations of the “trap doors” they can fall into. Again, a primary focus in development must be on an individual’s strengths.  We have highlighted many of an Intellectual’s strengths above but in short they are discernment, detachment, deep caring and a rich interior life.  Ultimately, an Intellectual must come to grips with their desire to be right and which means others are wrong.  This requires an expansion in their self-awareness that allows for an increase in self-honesty and authenticity.  They must learn to look inward at themselves and acknowledge bot their strengths as well as culpability.  Ultimately it comes down to not taking themselves too seriously, learning how to leverage their strengths for the sake of the common good, and realizing the power others bring to the table that compliments their expertise.  Highly evolved Intellectuals can be very keen at understanding the whole system as well as the details that makes it work.  Seasoning these gifts provides insights that help the organization sustain a very high level of execution towards the vision.

As mentioned above, intellectuals pose a special challenge in leadership development and most professional organizations have their share of this mindset.  The key challenge is that intellectuals tend to be quite protected from outside influences and can often be in denial of their longing to connect because there is so much fear around connecting.  That being said, the following strategies can support the Intellectual in bringing out their best.

Key Leadership Developmental Strategies for the Intellectual

Focus on Raising Their Awareness and Embracing Their Whole Authentic Selves

While raising awareness is important for leadership development for all orientations – it is a particularly powerful experience for Intellectuals.  Remember they have razor sharp discernment yet this has rarely been directed towards themselves.  While Intellectuals can judge others harshly – they likely hold themselves to even higher standards and thus are likely harder on themselves. Yet, while they be aware of the stress caused by this – they rarely have done very little reflection on their own self talk. Helping the Intellectual to understand the context for using their expertise and taking action is an important first step.  For example, ask them to think about your corporate values or operating guidelines and ask them what makes sense about them?  Second, look for a method of providing them direct feedback on their behaviors against those values.  In providing feedback to ensure they understand why they are valued while providing them with tough messages about how their behaviors are minimizing their impact.   If you slam them too hard (which can be tempting with one at their worst) they will tend to hide more and become even more risk adverse.  However, if you show appreciation with one hand yet express concern for how they are leading on the other hand you may just open a door way that helps the intellectual develop.  You can do this by:

• • Understand more what are they seeking from leadership and from coming to work each day – recognition will likely be at the top of their list.
  • Help them see how part of their behavior can harm this.
  • Provide 360 feedback that shows how their behavior is negatively impacting others.
  • Provide coaching to help them moderate their pessimistic side and strengthen the positives they bring.

Find Out What They Care Deeply About

By coming to an understanding about what they care deeply about you can redirect their energy to make a difference in this area.  For example, what are their pet peeves about the way business is done, how clients are serve, or how quality is monitored.  Turn this into a positive by asking “If it were different – what would that look like?”  Ask them to take on the role of improving quality, service approach, etc. yet require them to do so in a way that includes and inspires others while moderating their criticism.  Again, coaching can be invaluable to supporting this.

Help Them Lower Their Standards

Help them focus on results – rather than process.  In most cases, the Intellectuals standards are higher than anyone else around them.  Help them see the efficiency involved in achieving more and analyzing less.  Again, look at areas where this actually caused problems.  The more you can ground these situations in facts the better (e.g. after this project we had 5 people ask never to work with you again).  Going forward you or their coach can ask “Let’s look at what we are ultimately trying to achieve here and the time line.”  Get them to take ownership of the outcome and the time line and support them to let go of unnecessary details and analysis.

Help Them to Relax and Be More Spontaneous!

Encourage them to take time off, find a creative outlet and have fun!  Again, they have a natural ability to create a rich internal world and can be very creative.  Finding a way for them to find a place to express this will tend to “loosen them up.”  If they take to this – it will also enhance their own personal fulfillment and turn their immense knowledge into potent wisdom.

Develop Them As Mentors

Intellectuals can create very strong relationships with a few.  Leverage this by asking them to become a key mentor both in their technical expertise AND in how to approach the work.  Helping them apply the former will season their expertise and applying the later will usually help them see the value of walking their talk.

Assist Them In Recognizing Their Caring Nature

It is important that the Intellectual comes to acknowledge they truly do care about others. As they loosen their judgments about the world around them – they will be able to recognize this.  Being in a mentoring role and/or having them support efforts around what they truly care about will help here.  Yet, when the time is right actually getting them to admit this out loud can be a powerful insight that can be used to approach others differently.  When they start doing this and are able to really connect – something very special can occur in their approach to leading.

Metaphorically, Intellectuals show us why soft skills are critical to leveraging technical horsepower.  Ultimately clients and staff could care less how brilliant we are or how technically sound our solutions are.  What customers care most about is that we understand their issues and care enough to do what is necessary to solve them.  Our expertise is merely a ticket that gets us in the room – but our execution and the care we show for the relationship is what keeps us there.  In the same way, our staffs want to be in a context that strengthens their abilities and inspires them.  A seasoned and proactive Intellectual in leadership who gets this adds tremendous value to their organizations.

In our next entry, we will discuss “The Relater.“

For the Achiever - Winning is Everything!

As indicated in my last entry, the development of leadership capacity in an individual is an issue of human development.  In other words, leaders are not born they are made.  Yet, just as one size does not fit all – there is no one style of leadership that fits everyone.  By understanding specific developmental pathways and how they related to leadership enables us to help executive leaders add velocity towards increasing their leadership impact.

In short, the pathway of development into a strong executive leader involves moving from a more reactive stance to one that is more proactive and creative.  It is an issue of evolving and transforming into higher orders of who you already are.  There are three primary developmental orientations: ¹:

• The Achiever
• The Intellectual
• The Relate

Over the next three entries I will take each of these orientations – one at a time – and describe the fundamental beliefs and approaches this orientation has to accomplish tasks as well as working with people.  I will also highlight the most natural developmental path for each orientation. While I will focus on each of these orientations individually – it is important to note that all individuals are unique in a couple of ways.  First, many will feel an affinity for more than one of these orientations and in my experience there are mixes.  Second and most importantly, everyone is at a different level of development.  Some will have broken through towards the more proactive level and others may find themselves more aligned with the reactive stance for each orientation.  Yet, a first step in any leader’s development must taking the time to understand where they are at now.  Looking at these three stances separately will allow you to gain a better grasp of your fundamental orientation.  In this entry I will focus on “The Achiever.”

For the Achiever – winning is everything and business is a competition! In their reactive stance, achievers experience that they are their results and become extremely frustrated when they are not in power or able to control the outcome.  Does that resonate at all for you?  If so, read on…

The Achiever’s Fundamental Beliefs include the following: ²

• I am safe when I am in charge.
• If I win I am worthy.
• My results are me.
• I don’t trust others to do it as well as I can do.
• There are winners and losers – I will do anything to be a winner.
• When others admire me – it proves my value.
• Not being better than others minimizes my sense of success and fulfillment.
• failure feels like death (or is death) to me.

Achievers strive for perfection in all they do.  They also tend to have very high standards and expect others to align with theirs.  Achievers love power and take charge when ever they can.  When out of power they are quite uncomfortable. They also tend to be very direct and blunt in their speaking.

Achievers tend to be quick to anger when things do not work out as expected yet they also let go of it pretty quickly.  They become very focused during crisis and feel a call to arms to solve what ever has emerged.  They embrace change and tend to be averse to rules – especially ones that get in the way of producing results.

Achievers at Their Worst:

At their worst the Achiever demeans those around them and does not take into account the feelings or aspirations of their direct reports.  They are aggressive, controlling, thoughtless, offensive, intimidating and deflect any negative feedback about themselves coming from others.  They believe they are fine as they are.  If they are in a position of authority they are very difficult to work for.

The Evolved Achiever

At their highest and best, Achievers are  are strong, powerful, effective, capable and responsible people with true leadership qualities. People feel safe turning the world over to highly developed Achievers because everyone is sure they are capable of structuring it efficiently and running it well…and they often are. Positive Achievers are great delegaters who get complex projects done. They can inspire great things from those they lead. They are generous and magnanimous and always willing to help someone else succeed in their own right.  Achievers can achieve what Jim Collins calls “Level 5 Leadership.” They can be extremely humble while at the same time extremely results focused ³.

The Achiever’s Developmental Path

The Achiever embodies many inherent gifts.  If you want to get things accomplished especially under fire – the Achiever excels.  They are strong influencers.  They excel in crisies but as they evolve they can also become great visionaries.

Research has clearly shown that in order to succeed in any developmental process we must be able to focus on an individual’s strengths.  Transforming strengths to higher and more effective levels also tends to remove other bllindspots and mitigates achilles heels.  For example, leveraging an Achiever’s focus on results to a more strategic level will help them value relationships more because they realize they can not get things done with others and in order to do that – they must shift their approach.

On the other hand, an Achiever who is on the more negative end of the spectrum is pretty inculcated.  The best chance of helping them embrace development is to generate a positive “shock” to their system that opens them up to learning more.

Leadership Development Strategies for The Achiever

Raise the water line

Achievers love challenges and if the challenge is big enough it will both excite them and open them more up to the learning process.  Achievers appreciate practical approaches that will help them achieve their results faster.  So if you want to support the development of an achiever put them in a situation that challenges their limits and give them support that will push them to try new approaches to improve their impact as a leader. For example, rotating them into a project or position that is aligned with their strengths yet challenges their abilities to achieve the stated results is a good way to get them into a development mode.

Raise their focus

Achievers are very comfortable at the tactical level.  This is the place they shined as individual contributors yet in leadership they enter a larger frame for influence.  If they don’t expand into this view – they will maintain their micro-managing ways.  The key is to help the achiever in a leadership position to grow into strategic thinkers.  The organization needs to challenge them to build a vision big enough that they will not be able to do it on their own.  With a big vision you again tap into what drives the achiever and you also help them appreciate that they need others to achieve their vision.  If they are going to get others to follow them then they will become more open to approaching interpersonal interactions in more respectful ways.

Help them embrace their more positive attributes.

As Achievers develop it is important for them to understand what they can be.  The key is to empower the Achiever by talking to them about how they can increase their influence and impact.  This tends to quiet the concerns that they have to change dramatically to be more impactful and powerful.  Yet, also provides them with new approaches that align with their underlying nature.

Give them the power yet ensure their success includes team and individual development metrics.

We have all heard the adage that people do what they are compensated for.  This is never more true than for the Achiever!  For example, the more you reinforce individual accomplishment – the more you will get.  Not the best way to develop the Achiever – especially in an environment where you are encouraging teamwork, collaboration and shared risk taking.  Therefore make sure compensation and rewards are connected to feedback they receive on their performance as strategists, building positive relationships and team development.

In conclusion, Achievers at their best can become great leaders.  The key is to get them to let go of having their hands on everything and help them realize they can have much more impact by focusing on bigger and broader visions than tasks they have control over.

My next entry will focus on the “Intellectual“

• The Truth About Leadership Development
• The Last Obstacle to Executive Development = The Executive

At the root of all this innovation is the confirmation that as adults we continue to develop our mindset and consciousness as we move through life.  The work of Robert Kegan, Lawrence Kohlberg, Ken Wilber, Sara N. Ross, William R. Torbert and Bob Anderson and others has shown the strong connection between a particular stage of adult development and the competencies of leadership.  In short, it has strengthened the concept that leadership develop is really about human development.

All of this furthers the case that leaders are not born but rather are developed as they increase their awareness and move to a stage of development that contains a leadership mindset/operating system.  Once this “upgrade” in the operating system occurs – leadership competencies naturally boot up.  Therefore the executive development process is not primarily about skill development but rather the focus is on the expansion of awareness.

Bob Anderson’s research at The Leadership Circle has shown that the stage of development prior to leadership is far more reactive than the leadership stage.  In addition, the behaviors and mind sets found in this reactive stage closely mirrors those that executive coaches and development experts must deal with in order to support the development process of most leaders.

When you think about it, every executive leader has been an individual contributor at some time in their career.   For the most part, the strong accomplishments made as an individual contributor usually leads to a series of promotions that ultimately has brought the individual to the executive level.  Unfortunately, the approach that supported the executive’s success at the individual contributor level do not smoothly translate to success at the leadership level.  The biggest quandary executives face in the leadership development process is having to let go of out dated strategies and approaches that have worked for them while they work to take on new ways of thinking and approaching work that they do not have full confidence in and that may fly in the face of their previous views.

Yet, the old adage of “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” is true for executive development.  This is because the seeds of great leadership ultimately lie in the unique nature of each leader and their reactive tendencies provide pathways for development into leadership.  Therefore the goal of executive development is to help the leader embrace their own natural ways while transmuting their mindset and approach to a more powerful level of expression.

The rest of this series will focus on three fundamental reactive approaches that most adults find themselves utilizing as they move into adulthood and ultimately the work force.  These fundamental types are ¹:

• The Achiever
• The Intellectual
• The Relater

Each of these come with their own unique set of fundamental desires and beliefs as well as approaches to working with people and getting things done.  Yet, while it is useful to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves – what is most important is learning what supports your orientation grow in their impact as a leader.  In my next entry, I will begin by focusing on The Achiever.

References:

Articles by Bob Anderson

Seven Transformations of Leadership by David Rooke and William R. Torbert

• Recent research has shown compelling evidence that an evolved executive leader can make a huge difference in expanding profitability, performance, employee loyalty, etc.
• There is strong alignment amongst the many leadership models on the competencies an executive leader must embody to strengthen their impact.
• Based on this clarity as well as the ground breaking work of many – processes and methods have been created that are proven to add velocity onto the development process.

“The study was a real eye opener. Even after adopting the most conservative approach to determining the return on investment, we showed 700% in ROI for the coaching initiative (at Booz Allen Hamilton)”
Ed Cohen
Former Senior Director
Center for Performance Excellence
Booz Allen Hamilton

While executive coaching is only one piece to the puzzle – it is an approach that has proven we can build programs that work.  Given all of this plus the recognition that we find ourselves in challenging times that are crying for more leadership – you have to wonder why organizations and their senior leadership teams are not fully embracing the journey towards greater development of their leadership?

Maybe it is because organizations and senior leadership are not aware of the evolution of the executive development profession.  Yet, I believe there is a more fundamental reason. In short, the main reason is the lack of willingness or even fear on the part of leaders to enter the development journey.  I have heard a number of excuses that point to this – yet most boil down to this one:

“I have worked hard to get to where I am and there is no reason for me to change at this point – anyway I have always been able to figure out what I need to do to be successful“

And there is strong validity in this statement.  It is important to honor the hard work and habits that supported a senior executive to succeed.  There is no doubt that continued success can be achieved without further development.  But, that’s not the point.  The point is human beings have tremendous capacity to expand their impact well beyond where it is today.  If you get your head around that statement – what self-motivated executive would shy away from enhancing their influence?  For an executive to tap into this increased capacity – they must be willing to challenge and transform many of their beliefs about themselves, their approach, and their purpose for being a leader.  While a large part of the development process is exhilarating – there are times of discomfort.

Engaging in the development process requires one to take risks in trying new ways of thinking and acting so that you can expand your effectiveness.  While one can be encouraged – it comes down to the willingness of the individual leader to expand their impact and embrace the risks.  Many executives are rebuffed by this process.  Usually this is not conscious resistance – it is unconscious based on where the person is at in their own adult development journey.  In other words, they would much rather remain in the comfort zone of their current habits – even if some of them cause problems – than take a risk to shift their way of thinking and acting out of fear they may become less effective and ultimately fail.

Recent and extremely compelling research done by Bob Anderson of The Leadership Circle has revealed a strong link between leadership competency research and stages of adult development research.  For those who have not heard about the later – stages of adult development research has shown that human beings continue to grow to higher orders of awareness over their lifetime.  Anderson’s research has shown that there is a strong link between one of those stages of adult development and leadership competencies.  In short this shows, while some may have natural inclinations towards leadership – there is a capacity for all of us to develop a leadership mindset.  Whether we are ready or not for this step is another question.

When one begins to enter this leadership stage of development it is literally an upgrade in the operating system of that individual.  When this natural development process unfolds – one begins to view the world differently.  With this shift – the known leadership competencies begin to naturally “boot up” from the new operating system.  This is a profound breakthrough in the executive development field!  It shifts the focus away from skills training to experiential training that escalates the natural development process.

Anderson’s research also seems to quantify the resistance to development mentioned earlier.  He found that the stage of adult development preceding growth into the leadership mindset is far more reactive.  Individuals at this stage are primarily focused on how they can control the external world through key strategies they have developed over their lives.  Further, individuals at this level tend not to appreciate the full value of leadership competencies seeing them as “soft”, “ineffective” or “a gift of the few (i.e. leaders are born)”

This leads us back to the quandry we began this entry with – what is the real obstacle to executive development.  Bottom line, not everyone is ready or willing for the development journey.  It is important for organizations to realize this in their succession strategies.  Look for people with a balance of strong techical understanding and the willingness to engage in the learning necessary to succeed as a leader.  To help this along it is important that the CEO also sets clear expectations that leadership development is part of an executive’s priorities.  The more CEOs set such expectations and back this up with leadership development support the more likely that they will be to boost the performance and profitability of their organizations.

Marketing Insights for Today (click cover to order)

• Do not even try to sell your service unless your existing delivery is meeting or better yet exceeding client expectations.  If you do – it is sure death!
• The key to success is developing strong relationships that integrate the personal and the business agendas of your buyer.  Clients do not know how to distinguish between your technical skills and those of your “competitors.”  Ultimately, clients do not care how smart you are – they may need to know you have expertise but in the end – your expertise will not do much to strengthen your relationships with your clients.
• Strategic planning is over rated.  While planning has its place, the key is acting on a daily basis to enhance your client’s experience and focus on continuously adding value to your relationships.
• Everyone in your organization is a marketer!  If they have a touch point with your clients – make sure every interaction generates a buzz.

Beckwith provides an excellent forum for thinking differently about the nature of services and how they can be effectively marketed.  I would recommend this book for all levels in a professional services company – Principals, Partners, Managers, Associates and even administrators!

Phoenix Rising

His first lesson is really about how to embrace one’s passion and purpose.  The second lesson is illustrative of what happens when we lose touch with them.  As with many, I have revisited Michael’s work – his music and videos.  I admit I have been a fan of his artistry yet as I watched his performances recently I saw something that I missed before.  As I watched I could clearly see that the Michael on stage seemed at peace, free, and in charge!  He was in his element and his greatness beamed forth.  I encourage to go back and watch him in this light – I guarantee you will see it too.  Listening to his music  – you can also sense there was a purpose in it. Let’s take a look at a few lines in “Man in the Mirror”

I’m Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I’m Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
(If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place)
Take A Look At Yourself, And Then Make A Change

Michael Jackson – Lyrics from “Man in the Mirror”

Michael’s struggle to follow these words was clearly cut short.  Given his life – devoid of childhood, overwhelmed by fame, full of bad choices – he had a lot to overcome.  Yet, Michael, like us, was human and while he had his challenges – we are all the same in that we all have our own demons and struggles.

While I am saddened by what seems like a premature death – there is a second lesson that is equally clear.  When we are not true to ourselves, lack crystal clarity around our purpose, and are unwilling to do anything to uplift ourselves to authentically deliver on this purpose -  Life can feel like we are struggling through a fog – trying to find our way.  Without purpose – it does not matter how much talent we have, how high our IQ is, or how wealthy we are – we are lost.

Michael Jackson had tremendous resources at his disposal.  He had access to life’s greatest teachers and coaches yet he still struggled.  I can not say how Michael took advantage of them – if at all.  Equally, we can not say what would have happened if Michael approached his self-care with as much passion and purpose as his work.  Yet, it seems clear that Michael’s legal struggles drained him.  The video of him showing up sick at trial one day in his pajamas – leaning on his attorney as he walked in – was a sad moment.  You could see that Michael was lost and devastated by the judgment coming his way.  Few would have been able to not have been impacted by such scrutiny and the truth is we all have moments in life when we face the edges of our capacity to cope.  Counter to this – the video of his rehearsal for his upcoming world tour taken the day before his death – showed a man back in his element and passion.

I am the first to admit – I have no clue what was going on inside Michael and what he was doing to reconnect with something deeper inside himself.  Yet, what I do know is on one level this king was facing the human experience in a very intense way.  With all that talent – there was clearly tremendous suffering going on and it seems he lost his rudder in it all.  Maybe his come back tour was a way to reconnect to his soul – yet his demons would not have it.

There are really two ways to deal with suffering.  The first one is to go into a deep experience of resentment, resignation, feeling misunderstood, that life is treating you unfair, etc.  While this is the easier path – it eats us up – mainly because we disempower ourselves and give too much credence to outside forces and our inner self-talk.  The second way to deal with such suffering comes from our willingness to be with the struggle, make friends with it and understand how our relationship with it can strengthen us as well as help others.  This one is a much tougher journey but one that breaths life back into us and unlike the first approach this path strengthens us from the inside out.  The later is driven from passion – the former from a sense that something outside us will save us.

Many with powerful talent and/or tremendous power have taught us this lesson.  I am the first to admit I don’t know what it’s like to be in the spot light – where at times there is no where to hide. It may take even more strength to overcome this challenge yet there are many other cases when digging deep has resulted in great breakthroughs and rebirths.  There are countless stories of people overcoming addiction, dire life circumstances, illness, and the loss of everything to rise to a new level of awareness and impact.  Many express similar principles that helped them to regain their inner strength and have a positive impact on themselves and others.  Here are just a few:

Victor Frankl – who found joy and gratitude during his time in a concentration camp and who became very successful as a psychologist and writer after he left those dire circumstances.

Lance Armstrong, who went from rising cycling star, to victim of testicular cancer, to record 7-time winner of the Tour De France and there may be more given he is back.

Nelson Mandela, who survived 27 years in prison and years of struggle to lead the end of aparteid and became South Africa’s first black president.

Robert Kiyosaki, who became rich, lost the lot, and ended up sleeping in his car before emerging to write Rich Dad, Poor Dad and building an information publishing empire.

Michael Oher who was recently drafted by the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL after rising from homelessness. He is the subject of Michael Lewis’s 2006 book, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, and a movie entitled The Blind Side, scheduled to be released in November 2009.

Now those listed who are still living may yet face other challenges and it is possible they may fall prey to them as Michael did.  Yet, Michael’s gift beyond his musical legacy is the story of his humanity and what happens when we don’t leverage everything we have available to us to transmute both the darkness and light that is within us to strenghten ourselves and support others to do the same around us.  To leverage this support – we must ask and be open to it.  To be sure many tried to come to Michael’s aid but you must be willing to ask for the support and know what result you are seeking from accepting it.

Ultimately, this is part of the journey to leadership and why it is important not to get mesmerized by the position but rather to embrace it as an opportunity to engage it through a deeper purpose.

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.”

Robert F. Kennedy

Many of us wished Michael would have found a way to tap this power.  It was there with him on stage – the question is was it clear to him off stage?  This is in no way a judgment of him – many people stronger have succumbed as well.  Yet, some questions emerge from Michael’s death that are essential questions for us all to answer:

1. How deeply have you thought about your purpose for being and what your are most passionate about?
2. Once you are clear – what are you going to do about it?
3. As you face your own demons and darkness – especially those things that seem to hold you back from expressing your purpose and passion – can you embrace them while allowing those demons to be transmuted in order to support our passion and purpose?
4. What are you willing to do to forward your purpose each day?
5. Are you willing to ask for help so that we can more fully embrace our greatness and forward what is most important?  If the answer is yes – can you fully accept that help?

We find ourselves in a time that is calling for more passion and purpose.  The more people that tap into it the better.  Because there is nothing more powerful than these to transform ourselves and the world around us.  It takes in Michael’s words the willingness to “Take a look at ourselves and make a change.”  That’s because we don’t change for the sake of change – we change when we are compelled to because something more powerful than our weaknesses calls us forward.

In closing – I want to express my gratitude for Michael.  Thank you for all you gave through your talent as well as for what you taught us through your life – both the triumphs and struggles. You were one of the greatest entertainers ever to live and that is your legacy.  Yet, I also hope all of us can embrace your humanity for what it taught us about our own light and the darkness.