Category Archives: Organizational Leadership

These days it seems harder than ever for leaders to communicate their message.  There are a host of voices clamoring for our peoples’ attention. The phone is ringing, there are conversations around the coffee pot, and they get continuous updates on their smart phones from Facebook and text messages from friends.  On-line media provides short sound-bites that help shape their opinions on everything.

Meanwhile, we hold monthly town halls, send out newsletters or emails, hold occasional focus groups and wonder why our episodic, sporadic efforts don’t get the message across.  What is the one right method?  What should the message be?   It is true that some of our people just aren’t listening.  But the onus is on us to tell the story in a way they’d want to hear.  It is even more important in an organization or industry that is under stress. And in these tumultuous times, which industry isn’t?  Ultimately, it means we can’t just do one thing.  We have to do everything.

The motive.

Simon Sinek in his book, “Start with Why” stresses that the underlying core strength of the most successful corporations is a clear sense of “why.”  The notion of why has to be believable and must inspire action from the members of the organization.  The job of the leader is to believe, understand and communicate why.  “Energy motivates,” Sinek writes, “but charisma inspires.  Charisma…comes from clarity of WHY.  It comes from the absolute conviction of an idea bigger than oneself.”  Communicating “why” is the work of the leader.   “The CEO’s job is personify WHY.  To ooze of it.  To talk about it. To preach it. To be a symbol of what the company believes. They are the intention and WHAT the company says and does is their voice.”  The message must clearly communicate “why” to the intended audience.  President Ronald Reagan was called “the Great Communicator.”  He once said, “I am not a great communicator, I just communicate great things.”  Great communication starts with why. Continue reading →

There is no way to avoid it.  The bigger the organization, the more time you have to spend on the bridge.  I am not a nautical expert, but I have had the privilege of serving very closely with my Navy brethren for two years and I think that the idea of the ship’s bridge is a good one for helping us address the tension inherent to moving up the ladder of responsibility and leadership.

In smaller units and smaller organizations it is less challenging to be out on the floors or decks meeting with and talking with the people who actually turn the dials and move the gears of the organization’s machinery.  No matter how large the organization, a leader can never afford the luxury of completely isolating him or herself from that.  We must get out and talk with staff on a regular, predictably frequent basis.

Although we have to “lead from everywhere” (Admiral Thad Allen) we cannot be everywhere.   The ship is commanded from it’s bridge.  For most of us, the equivalent is our office.  How can demonstrate effective and compassionate leadership from the bridge, and use the “view from the bridge” to help us lead from everywhere?

Keep the inbox empty.  As we talked about a few months back, an empty inbox is an executive’s core competency.  There are very often people attached to the documents stacking on our office or computer desktops, and the people are waiting for their paperwork to return and their issues to be resolved.  Our timeliness is a reflection to them of our dedication to them as individuals.

Answer email.  A quick, “Thank you,” with your initials takes seconds but goes a long way to acknowledging the person who sent the message; a person who is too often left wondering nervously waiting to see what “the Boss” thinks of an idea or feedback.

Develop your personal COMMPLAN (Communication Plan.) Much of your organization will only know you through your messaging.  Only some will get to know you in person.  Some may never even meet you.  How will you communicate with them?  An intentional COMMPLAN will allow you to mix group email, video messages, focus groups, town halls, electronic social media feedback sessions into a strategic matrix to effectively communicate with both internal and external “customers.” Continue reading →

One of my daughters asked me one day what I did at work.

“What do you think I do at work, honey?”  I replied, probably without looking up.

“You answer the phone, do emails and go to meetings.” It was insightful for an early teen.

She had it pretty close.  Those are certainly the things that consume a lot of the day. She missed on one account.  Leaders don’t just get to go to meetings. They have to run them.

One of the key jobs of the leader is to build teams while we conduct meetings.  There is an emerging body of research based on monitoring staff members using small, unobtrusive devices that detect when the person communicates in any way with peers, how often, with what tone of voice, what body language, whether they face them when they speak or are turned away.  The maps that the research group generate from this data demonstrate effective communication patterns of engagement in meetings as well as the energy generated with new ideas and concepts by teams (Pentland. The Science of Building New Teams. HBR Aril 2012.) What’s more, they have accumulated data to demonstrate that when teams have energy, engagement and when they interact with other team members outside their immediate circle (called “exploration” by the authors) they are more productive and successful.  We don’t have the luxury of these sophisticated gadgets (at least not yet.)  What can we monitor as signs of health of our team meetings? Continue reading →

The soul of an organization, its personality, attitudes habits and behaviors, is its culture.  The way that the organization “feels” to the people who work there and to guests is its climate.  Organizational climate is shaped by many forces, but it begins with leadership.  A healthy leadership climate – reflected in the tone and timbre of the organization – begins when every member of the organization shares three things: respect, reason and risk.

The first characteristic of a healthy leadership climate is shared respect.  The most pervasive chill that can fall over an organization or workplace results when members of the team treat others with scorn or disrespect. It is especially poisonous when the leader is the perpetrator.  The leader who knows his or her job will also know the strengths and weaknesses of all employees.  While strengths should be a matter of public discussion and recognition, weaknesses should not.  An otherwise effective workplace is undermined when the leader speaks ill or criticizes a team member or customer in public.  Praise should be given in public, while “proctoring” – especially if it is to correct a mistake or identify a persistent fault – should be done in private.  The leader should always deliver bad news or criticism in person.  Electronic mail is an unsuitable substitute. Continue reading →