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Wally on Leadership

I regularly read Wally Bock’s blog.  He is always coming up with great insights and ideas.

In a recent post he reminded us that:

1. Leadership is behaviour.
2. Theory doesn’t count unless it turns into behaviour.
3. Principles don’t matter until you incarnate them.
4. If it doesn’t find its way into what you say or what you do, it can’t be leadership.
5. Leadership is situational.
6. One size doesn’t fit all.
7. What works in one situation may not work in another.
8. Your choices of what you say and do depend on the situation.
9. If you aspire to leadership, understand that leadership is about actions measured by results in a specific situation.

Much the same can be said of management. I even agree with the situational nature of leadership – although I also believe that a single, simple management system can provide the basics of good organisational practice in the vast majority of situations.  A system where you:

• communicate personally and frequently with each team member
• give and receive great feedback with courage and compassion
• coach every team member to improve performance, and
• use delegation to provide opportunities for professional growth and personal development

Thanks Wally.  You can read the full post here.

Personal e-mail and reflections on transformation, humanity and compassion!

I got  a wonderful e-mail this morning from an old friend, Jim McLaughlin.

In it he said:

“I love this marriage of science and heart.

It’s where the human potential movement meets good organisational practices.  In fact, if people in organisations were enabled to be their best human selves – loving, forgiving, caring, open, courageous – there would be wonderful organisations.  But somehow we change the rules of what is expected when someone brings their work self into the office/hospital/factory.”

Now why didn’t I put it like that!

One of the real sources of advantage is the ability to retain humanity and compassion while developing excellent organisational practices.  However this is a trick that many organisations with ‘transactional’ rather than ‘transformational’ cultures have managed to miss.

On a good day I would like to think that the compassion and humanity that attracts so many of us to third sector would make this transformation trick a straightforward one to play.   However the evidence suggests that many organisations in third sector quickly become as transactional as so many of their private and public sector cousins

Thanks Jim!

People Do Not Resist Change

• People do not resist change.
• Nor do people hate it.
• They do not fear it either.

If you are trying to lead a change process and are experiencing resistance, hatred or fear of change consider this:

It is not change that people resist/hate/fear.  It is the way you are trying to change them that they are reacting to.

They are not the problem!

It’s not them – It’s you!

Your management is perfectly designed to produce the results that you’re currently experiencing.

Teachers and Managers – Spirit and Method

Michael Marland, a visionary London headteacher wrote “The Craft of the Classroom” which has had a profound effect on the development of effective teachers.

In it he wrote:

“The craft won’t work without a spirit compounded of the salesman, the Music Hall performer, the parent, the clown, the intellectual, the lover and the organiser, but the spirit won’t win through on its own either. Method matters. The more “organised” you are, the more sympathetic you can be.”

Teachers and managers are both paid to help individuals to explore and develop their potential and I think that Marland’s quote about the teaching craft probably also holds true for management.

If this is true which facets of ‘spirit’ and ‘method’ do you most urgently need to develop?

Money and Stress

As the legendary Bruce Springsteen said back in the 1970s when he just started to win recording contracts – ‘When they pay you $400 a day you get to have $400 dollar a day problems’.

I found a great blog yesterday that quoted some research on the relationship between wealth and stress.

The following five types of deal were offered:

1. The Bum Deal: Being stressed out, overworked, and making less than $100,000 per year.
2. The Really Bum Deal: Being stressed, overworked, and making less than $25,000 per year.
3. The Submission Deal: Making around $20,000 per year, but accepting your dirt-poor status. Your dire situation, in turn, leads to a sense of resignation that allows you to relax and enjoy your free time.
4. The You’re-An-Idiot Deal: Being ultra-rich (making more than, say, $3 million per year off interest income), having nothing to do, and stressing out over golf games, financial managers, and all the poor people trying to bilk you out of your fortune.
5. The Sweet Deal: Making more than $3 million per year off interest income and relishing your liesure time with hedonistic pleasure. At the same time, you’re conscious enough to avoid misogyny and gambling addictions.

Now I think that sometimes the deals people settle for are a reflection of their self worth, as much as of their potential or achievement.

• What deal have you got?
• And why?

You can read the original post here.

The Fine Art of Progress

I get fired up about management because it the best tool for helping both organisations and the people that work in them to make progress.

Outstanding managers are able to facilitate the progress of both the individual and the organisation and to connect these in a way that results in win/wins for both.

They do this by:

• regularly creating time and space to allow people to understand what progress looks and feels like right now – for them and for the organisation
• building a consensus around the ‘direction(s) in which progress lies’
• enabling people to make things happen in pursuit of progress – they promote a ‘bias for action’
• by building the skills and confidence of people to act creatively and pro-actively in pursuit of progress within the mission, vision and values of the organisation.

One of the greatest opportunities for performance improvement is to take more time to explore these questions about progress in some depth and then to link them to immediate next steps – practical things that individuals and groups can do to close the gap between where we are now and where we want to be.  And this is what Brilliant 121s are all about.

And Peter’s Rewards…

To enjoy this in its full glory make sure you checked out the previous post on The Motivation Problem first.

Sue Wiley on Why and How PMN Works for Her

Sue Wylie is the office manager at re’new in Leeds.

She has attended four PMN workshops and has used much of what we have covered in her work.  In this podcast she talks about PMN and how it works for her.

Sue explains why;

• she thought she would never have enough time for 121s – but now would not be without them, and
• how 121s actually save her time and avoid interruptions in her working day
• how the principles and practices have driven progress in her team
• the impact that 121s with her manager have had in her

You can listen to the podcast here.

Enjoy!

Many thanks Sue!

If you have attended PMN training and benefitted from it, and would like to make a podcast with me – just let me know!  You could become an iTunes star!