ICON LEADERSHIP

After a few months away from writing, I'm back.

Since my leave, I've welcomed a new baby girl into the lives of my wife and I, and have began a life changing transition at work. With these incredible milestones happening, the common question I've had to ask myself is: What separates good from great Leadership? Since the topic is so subjective, I did a lot of research. Below, is a compilation of the most common characteristics. Wrapped up in The Four Keys of Great Leadership.

Integrity.
Find your values from the start and remain consistent in exemplifying those values every day with every situation. This is the only way you will build trust for long-term effective leadership. Having integrity doesn't stop with walking your talk, it's about being honest with others in complete transparency, and not just being reliable but diligent in your actions.

Question to ask:
Do I perform in a way that makes people question if my actions are inline with my values?










Courage.
I've shared a little bit about courage and vulnerability in past posts, but this takes courage to the next level. Courage in leadership requires a willingness to take risks while remaining open-minded to the perspectives of others. It can sometimes be scary to speak up when faced with decisions that negatively impact your team members, but having the courage to listen to the backlash will allow your followers to understand that you're in the trenches with them.

Question to ask:
Am I the bearer of bad news, and do I listen and stand up for my followers' values, or do I send someone else into the trenches wearing my hats?









Authenticity.
An attribute that is most commonly forgotten. You've fought the good fight, but weren't able to win this one for your followers. That's okay, because it's now time to show your empathy through your well-intentions. Being truthful and sincere when it comes to providing negative criticism will display the authenticity in your leadership. Authenticity is more about recognizing your imperfections, owning mistakes, and having the teachability as a life-long learner.

Question to ask:
Do I recognize that leadership requires action ownership, and lift others up during times of failure or hardship?










Humility.
Great leadership is often most recognized in the most humble.

"It is humility that behooves us to remember that simplicity is the sign of greatness and meekness is the sign of true strength."

– Vince Lombardi

Be proud of your effort and humble in your accomplishments. Great leaders show their humility through a unique respect for others. The humble find pride in other's accomplishments. They are realistic in their abilities, are always readily available to help others overcome obstacles, and rarely take credit for the contributions they've made on a collaborative team.

Question to ask:
Do I openly share the skills I've acquired along my own journey, and recognize that the work is attributed to by a collective and the only thing i can control are my actions?

There is no Key more important than another. They must all be exemplified to go from good to great leadership.

Key images credit:
www.graphicsfairy.com
sweetly.weebly.com (Edited by myself)

From infographics to seminars, we're presented with management versus leadership contrasts, and what makes a great leader diagrams. Why have we focused so much energy on leadership? What is it about leadership that is so critical to the success of teams and organizations? Let's take a look at what famous leaders have said.

"We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone."
– Ronald Reagan, 40th U.S. President

"The way you delegate is that you first have to hire people that you really have confidence in."
– Robert Pozen, former Chairman of MFS Investment Management

"The essence of leadership is building the bonds of trust in your organization."
– Colin Powell, four-star U.S. General

These quotes help lay the foundation to the importance of leadership. After all, the numbers are inspiring enough, but we should be asking what about leadership causes such significant improvements?

Source: DDI Global Leadership Forecast 2011 Executive Summary

It was shocking to see how responsive the students were to this symbol of structure. Their motivation to follow these rules came from their integrity to follow-through with their collaborative boundaries, and a mutual sense of accountability. It was a sense of ownership. Just like the first quote by Ronald Reagan, and the first rule; Work as a TEAM.

An excerpt from an article by Forbes says:

Preston Tucker shares a story about his childhood heroes in a closing argument against "the people". Below is an excerpt of the end of his statement taken from the movie Tucker: The man and his dream.

"Rags to Riches" - that's not just the name of a book, that's what this country was all about. We invented the "free enterprise" system, where anybody, no matter who he was, where he came from, what class he belonged to - if he came up with a better idea about anything, there's no limit to how far he could go.

I grew up a generation too late, I guess, because now the way the system works the loner, the dreamer, the crackpot who comes up with some crazy idea that everybody laughs at, that later turns out to revolutionize the world - he's squashed from above before he even gets his head out of the water because the bureaucrats, they'd rather kill a new idea than let it rock the boat!! If Benjamin Franklin were alive today, he'd be thrown in jail for sailing a kite without a license!...if big business closes the door on the little guy with a new idea, we're not only closing the door on progress, but we're sabotaging everything that we fought for! Everything that the country stands for!!

And one day we're going to find ourselves at the bottom of the heap instead of king of the hill, having no idea of how we got there, buying our radios and our cars from our former enemies.

Preston Tucker - Closing Argument

Love songs are my guilty about pleasure. And, after an amazing twitter chat (#tchat) with The Disney Institute about Guest Service (#custexp #custserv "Talking Point" The Disney Institute Blog), I figured this would be a great teaching resource. These love songs really put it into perspective what people are seeking in fantastic customer service. I'm going to be using a few top love songs from the 2000s as examples.

First up. Justin Timberlake's "My love". His ballad hits every point relating to going above-and-beyond. He shares the story about how the kindest gestures can go a long way. Holding hands, just hanging out side-by-side, or walking on the beach. Just like love, it's sometimes the little things that capture our customer's attention. It's about catering our service for each individual. In "My love", JT is certain this is the only woman in the world for him. We should be making our customers feel the same way. Lesson number one: Individualize your service. Sometimes it's the little things that make a customers feel special.

Next up, "Cater 2 U" by Destiny's Child. The song really is what the title makes it out to be. S-E-R-V-I-C-E it's really not difficult. If you don't know the answer, don't say "I don't know". Don't even make up an answer. No one likes to get lied to. So, go out of your way to find an answer. If your out of eggplant for that signature eggplant Parmesan dish, GO BUY SOME EGGPLANT. Take time to listen to your customer's needs. Lesson number two: Cater to your customer's every need. It's not customer service without service.

Another great song, "Promise" by Ciara. Let's skip to the end on this one. It can get a little hot. But, I want to point out her promise to her man. A relationship needs a covenant, and a business needs to respect (and I always think they should occasionally reward) a customer's loyalty. Guaranteed, you bring a genuine and integrity filled service, you'll find a lifetime customer. Lesson number three: Service should be genuine. Own your product. Own your service. That's the promise you make to your customers. Keep your promises.

Let's not stop there. "U got it bad" by Usher perfectly describes the goal of every business. We want our customers to have it so bad for us, they just keep coming back. They love us so much, they tell everyone they know. My wife acts like this for a skin care company, Lush Cosmetics. She's got it bad. So bad, she never leaves the store without a sample of their new product. So bad, she takes friends and family there when they visit us. So bad, she thinks about her entire skin care line add we drive by...you know... in case she needs to pick up anything. Oh yeah, she's got it bad. The challenge for any business is finding out how to make every customer that walks in get hooked as bad as my wife. In Usher's song, he says, "I'm fortunate to have you girl. I want you to know. I really adore you." And, that's why my wife keeps going back. They show their appreciation for her business. The team members ask how her current products are doing, if she's considers adding to her line, or if she would like some samples of current or new products. Lesson number four: Ask your customers for satisfaction feedback. Find out they are looking for, and get them to coming back again and again.

Last song, "Don't you remember" by Adele. I know. It's sad. This is probably the most important lesson in all customer service. Just like love, it doesn't always work out. This song is one that we should all sing to the customers we've lost, but the thought provoking lyrics make us question what happened. How do we react when customer service fails? What do we do when we absolutely cannot compromise to make the customer feel special? These moments open opportunities for process improvement. In love, we need boundaries. In customer service, we need boundaries. Lesson five: When service fails, you must ask how you explain your boundaries to the customer.

Hopefully you enjoyed this post. Please follow The Disney Institute Blog: Talking Point. Also, check out the next #DThink #TChat on September 4th. Set your reminder via G+ : Disney's Approach to Leadership Excellence.

This is a topic that took me a long time to consider actually writing about. Fortunately, recent events have built up the drive within myself to discuss the dreaded "culture" topic. Some of those recent events include coming across articles written by recognized leaders such as: Todd Nielson, Shawn Murphy, Ted Coine, Dave Ulrich, Lee Cockerell, and John C. Maxwell. I love following them on Twitter, reading their articles and books, and watching keynotes on YouTube, if they have them. They all have a lot of different topics, but I just want to focus on business or organizational culture for this post. This may even turn into a muli-part post. So, stay tuned.

Great leaders all agree on three main focuses toward followers or employees: Vision, Inspiration & Engagement. I'm going to use an analogy of baking a cake (Our culture), and these focuses are each layer of the cake. Because, culture isn't just defined (noun) as the behaviors that make up the social environment of an organization, but culture is also defined (verb) to cultivate, nurture or grow. We can't ignore the culture of our work-group, department, company or industry for a second, because it is how we are able to find top-talent in a dense market, retain the top-talent within our organization, and remain innovative against competition.

While working in one of my previous roles, I experienced a culture that encouraged innovation, independence, ambition, persistence and life-long personal development. The departments there were very large, and had lots of opportunities for growth. Whereas working in a different department, but within the same company, there were signs of deep bureaucracy, which inhibit growth and development opportunities, including chances to showcase your innovation. Since departments are grossly smaller; little examples of ambition could be quickly taken as over-ambition or aggressiveness, confidence is thought of as arrogance, and if you're independent (or a self-starter) then you're not a team-player. These statements are not just from personal experience, but from connecting with other employees who have shown loyalty to the company for more than 5 or even 10 years, and, the kicker, they aren't even all from the same departments. This shows the organizational culture differences down to the micro-organizations, the departments and work-groups.

So, how about we get back to our cake.

Vision.

Being the foundation of leadership, the leader's vision should be effectively communicated to the team. How you execute (flavor) that vision is completely up to you, but keep in mind that every team member is different, and individual feedback is the best flavor (for me, it's strawberry) in most cases.

I experienced a great example of this when I watched an episode of Restaurant Stakeout, hosted by Willie Degel (Owner of Uncle Jack's Steakhouse in New York City). After visually confirming various business, and leadership, flaws by watching hidden cameras, Willie addresses the entire team about the areas of needed improvement. Afterward, he meets with each individual and provides constructive criticism and development opportunities, and advancement opportunities for the strong individuals.

In the particular episode I was watching, Willie apologized to one of the employees during their individual meeting. He said, "I wanted to first apologize for coming off a little strong and maybe harsh in the team meeting. I'm sure you can see my passion for the subject-matter at hand. I really wanted show how serious of an issue this is." (A little background: The business was losing significant money because of a low-priced all-you-can-eat special where customers were taking food home and sharing, and the employees were not reinforcing the rules of the business.)

This example really shows how all three layers of the cake are needed to establish our culture, but first focus on how Willie executed the new vision. This style will help establish the culture of team accountability, because everyone on the team was in the first meeting. So, everyone on the team knows exactly where they should be, and where they shouldn't be.

Inspiration.

My past experiences have given me a great perspective on what inspiration looks like, and how it is expressed. Think of inspiration as the filling to your cake. Sugar and cream are your base ingredients, just like passion and tenacity are the base to inspiring others.

John F. Kennedy made his speech about the space program, and our efforts to put a man on the moon in 1962. His passion and enthusiasm for the subject-matter encourages those involved to accomplish the mission first and within the decade. Another incredibly inspirational speech is Martin Luther King Jr's, "I have a dream." This same passion, drive and enthusiasm is exemplified in another TV show I watched recently, Treehouse Master's. Where they follow master tree house builder, Pete Nelson, as he and his crew designs and constructs some very incredible tree houses. You can just feel his passion through the TV screen. "To the trees!"

Engagement.

How you engage your team members will provide the framework to how you want your team members to engage you. Your engagement is what will truly compliment your vision (Like this chocolate layer of cake compliments the strawberry base). Employees who are engaged in the workplace are more likely to 'own' their work and align to the vision of the organization, according to research by the Gallup Organization. Glassdoor.com recently posted an article, by Trish McFarlane, about what Millenials look for in a company's environment, and one of them was: How are employees recognized? Although bonuses and other perks are great, Millenials just want to get recognized for doing good work. An article in Forbes, by Ty Kiisel, cites research by MTV titled, "No Collar Workers". The analysis points that because of the immediacy of social media, “…80% of millennials said they want regular feedback from their managers, and 75% yearn for mentors.” With numbers like that, effective engagement is critical.

An article posted last year, by Todd Nielson, "Are You Making Your Employees Stupid?" points out a statistic by Merrill Lynch that "50% of employee skills become outdated in 3-5 years." So, why aren't you developing, and diversifying your team?

In the show, Restaurant Stakeout, Willie returns to the business just a few short months later. Allowing enough time for the restaurant to implement the suggested changes, and ensure that everything is still aligned with the initial vision. Willie also verifies whether the weak team members took his development advice.

The attached video is not the episode I watched, but it's a fantastic example of the three focuses. I cut out the middle portion of this episode.

Now, let's ice our cake.

It really is as sweet as it sounds. This chocolate frosting will add the perfect final touch to our chocolate covered strawberry cake. By identifying, recognizing and rewarding the performers who are working toward the vision, and heeding any developmental advice, you are able to better influence this new constructive culture. This outer layer is so important. It protects your cake (vision, inspiration & engagement) from getting dried out and stale. Sometimes there's a shell that falls into the mix when we crack the egg, and the solution still stands: Get rid of it as soon as possible. You don't want to mix that into your cake. It will spoil all your hard work.

An organizational, or micro-organizational, culture takes nurturing. Constantly tending to the three focuses; your vision for the project or mission, inspiring your team, and engaging team members with frequent feedback to ensure the success of achieving your vision. After all, isn't that why we call it culture? Because of its convenient double meaning? The norms and practices of our environment, and the constant work it takes to maintain that desired environment.

I hope this post was helpful in identifying three focuses to correct and align to a productive culture. Please share and follow me @AlexGaskins on Twitter. Hopefully you didn't get too bad of a desert craving.

The word initiative comes from the base root of initiate. It's etymology; latin prefix in- means to innovate, review, bring a new idea or method, or begin, and suffix -ive means to make or to cause. By breaking down the word 'initiative'. It will help draw a clearer picture, and outline how important it is for leaders to exemplify this characteristic. Before taking initiative you must recognize, and overcome three barriers: Knowledge, Fear, and Stress.

Knowledge. Probably the most common barrier preventing initiative, is knowledge. This requires the confidence and humility to ask questions. When you feel like you lack knowledge, think...learn and leverage. This is a great opportunity to look at your team to use their strengths in areas where you may have a weakness. Can you learn the necessary task quickly? Can you leverage other individuals to use their skills for you? For example: You're leadership team has tasked you with creating a Keynote presentation, but you don't know how to use Keynote software. Good news! Someone on your team is familiar with the software. You can take advantage of this opportunity by asking for a quick training from them, or leverage their ability to help you complete the task. (Don't forget to provide them with due credit for helping.)

Fear. If you are consistently experiencing lackluster, it may attribute to fear. A very common emotion associated with initiative. Fear of failure, embarrassment, and/or rejection. By embracing your emotion of fear, asking for help, and opening up to utilize the gifts of others within the team, you're able to turn this weakness into a valuable strength. To overcome fear, you must become vulnerable. Brené Brown explains the power of vulnerability in her TED Talks video and book titled, Daring Greatly.

Stress. When affecting initiative, we associate stress with overwork, overwhelm, pressure, and too much responsibility. If you're feeling overwhelmed, it's time for some reevaluation of current projects and delegation on new initiatives. Take a step back and review what energize and which exhaust you. Then pass along the tasks which exhaust you onto team members who's strength will be best utilized. A great example of this team work is the ant. When they come across food that is to large for them to carry, they recruit other foragers from their colony to assist them. They proceed to dismantle and carry the food together, in manageable sizes.

There are many articles that write about underrated qualities in a great leader. Nearly all of them describe the same qualities; accountability, innovative, subject acumen, or flexibility. I never seem to hear people talk about two characteristics that I'm always looking for in my leaders. Development and diversity are, in my professional and personal opinion, the most underrated character traits in great leaders.

Development

Keep in mind that I am looking at development from a coaching perspective. Great leaders are lifelong learners, and always find ways to inspire their followers to have the same passion for learning. Leaders with this attribute are difficult to find, because their entire clan is keeping up with their pace. They're able to pinpoint weaknesses in their followers, provide them with development resources, and motivate and inspire them to follow through on the opportunities to grow.

Tony Robbins has a great quote on growth, "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten."

The truth of this is that great leaders find ways to encourage, grow and develop their team members, because they realize they will only get the same results if they don't progress, change and adapt. While good leaders are trailing behind, motivating their team to develop on their own. Great leaders are tracking the progress of their team's development, and forecasting to prevent the next hiccup.

Diversity

Something that I've always cherished in an individual on my team, diversity as a characteristic is someone who holds a wide range of experience to provide a, jack of all trades if you will, range of skills, knowledge and abilities. This quality is something that I feel is only view under race, gender and creed. Great leaders are not only teachable but great teachers too, not only good talkers but great listeners, not just good at time management but they're great under pressure when things don't go as planned. They have both blue collar and white collar skills, not afraid to get a little dirty if needed, but are also on top of their administrative duties.

In my experience, I've only ever met one person who was truly diverse. He showed empathy, but knew exactly when to draw the line. My dad would try his best to learn and master a new skill, but he knew when it was time to delegate. His level of ambition, and integrity, for a project was contagious. It developed a sense of pride, and ownership, for a project within everyone involved.

This type of diversity is the very thing bottom line employees seem to complain about in their managers. The most common complaint: "My boss doesn't even know what I do." Being diverse means; you understand the basic duties of the people involved on your team. This allows you to recognize their hard work, while helping to brainstorm through inefficiencies.

I can only hope that by now you understand the importance of being diverse and driving development. These two attributes really do make good leaders great.

Let me know your thoughts or experiences.

In my experience, many organizations work under the mantra; Change is constant, yet purposeful. Although, the purpose can be something as simple as experimenting with a new idea, or extravagant as an implementation based on statistical strategic forecasting and planning. An innovative team must be
adaptable to the change to sows.

When discussing change and leadership, we need to look at change as an opportunity to show how strong and adaptable the team is. It is up to you, as the leader, to be the motivation and encouragement to your team. John C. Maxwell said, "Change is inevitable. Growth is optional." How you react to change is what will inspire others to either be an advocate of change, or an adversary. Good leaders grow, but great leaders grow with everyone together.

John Kotter writes several book on leading change. He breaks down change leadership into 8 steps: Create a sense of urgency, Create a powerful coalition, Create a vision for change, Communicate the vision, Topic Remove obstacles, Create short-term wins, Build on the change, and Create a change culture.

Creating urgency requires the team to have "buy-in" and own the vision of change. The entire team should be supporting one another in accountability toward the change. To build a sense of urgency, have genuine and convincing conversations about the topic with the influencers within the workgroup. This will also help build a needed coalition.

These advocates for change must work together. Constantly increasing momentum surrounding the topic of change. A great way to build momentum is to have your team gain ownership in the vision. Creating a clear vision for change is absolutely critical. Share the vision through core values, credible support (by your coalition), and providing an execution strategy.

How you share your vision is up to you. It can be in a morning meeting, a formal presentation, or in one-on-one conversation, but be sure to let you passion for the change shine through. This is how you will drive the change. Connect everything back to you're vision, and talk about it frequently.

As you've gained the necessary momentum, you'll be able to identify change barriers more easily. Quick and swift action will be needed to remove threats and obstacles preventing change. Lift up those who are the advocates for your change vision. Remove, and redirect, those who are not supporting your goals and vision. Reward those short-term targets that have been met.

Share the "wins" with the entire team, and organization (if needed), to motivate and maintain change momentum. By acknowledging the short-term goals, you will be ensuring the team's focus on the vision. Continue to instill the drive for change by building on the change.

In my experience, change comes to an abrupt stop when the team celebrates the achieved vision, but doesn't know where to go next. So, identify the strengths and weaknesses during the change process, and address them with the team. Allow them to grow. Have the team provide criticism for future change, and a new vision for the future. This will give them ownership in the change culture.

Don't forget to recognize and inspire key change leaders, and share their success stories to inspire others to partner in the change culture. Leaders within teams should be advocates of an adaptable workgroup.

Innovation requires bottom-line inspiration, completely understanding the scope of your industry and the skills of your team. Innovative leaders are master delegators. They are able to hone the skills and abilities of each team member, blend highly productive workgroups, fully utilize all available resources (including those within their team members), and inspire each group to stay ahead of industry trends.

Staying ahead of the pack requires a willingness to entertain ideas, take calculated risks, and allow the freedom to fail. Constant SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats) helps to provide a deep understanding of why something failed, what was good/bad, and what could be better. These types of analysis allows the ability to answer the necessary, "What if?", questions that inspire strategic thinking.

Performing on a worldwide stage at the 1968 Olympic games in Mexico City Dick Fosbury revolutionized the sport of high jump when he performed an incredible risk, jumping head first. His technique became known as "The Fosbury Flop". This level of innovation took his jump to 2.24 meters, higher than any other attempt.

Streamlining communication helps harbor innovation in workgroups. Teams and departments need to have the opportunity to communicate frequently for innovation to thrive. The days of tall organizational structures are gone. In my personal opinion, it's because we live in a fast world where our attention span averages less than 10 second. Because of our demand for frequent change and the new, we've had to flatten structures, streamline processes, and increase the importance of time and efficiency. Flatter structures allow for teams, partners, and departments to collaborate seamlessly.

This seamlessness is best demonstrated when a hockey team performs an on-the-fly line change. Typically, when the puck is sent to the other end of the rink, teams have an opportunity to change out players without stopping the momentum of the game.

This video of the Gwinnett Gladiators Head Coach, Jeff Pyle, explaining a line-change is a great example. Note how he puts and emphasis on streamlining communication. He also recognizes the scope of his players' abilities, and then places a time boundary to ensure the tempo of the game is not delayed. At 01:22 Coach Pyle emphasizes, again, on the importance of communication, and how the lack of effective communication could result in a penalty.

Leaders of workgroups should strive to create a strong collaborative momentum. Taking a lesson from something like a line-change in hockey, or a high jump technique, proves that innovation is everywhere. It is up to us as leaders within our workgroups to take advantage of the benefits offered through innovating.

Being innovative is not just about bringing new ideas to processes, procedures and/or products. Being innovative is also about utilizing the people within your team the their full potential. By putting certain people in the right place, you're taking advantage of a potential opportunity to develop team members. Great leaders stand out when they are leading other leaders.

“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” -- Ronald Reagan

“Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.”  -- John C. Maxwell

For the first blog post, I wanted to write about something extremely common in the workplace, but never talked about. Various educators, and researchers, around the world have said stonewalling should be considered as a toxin in the workplace. I call it the unspoken sin. It's that thing that holds back progress, but no one seems to know what the barrier is.

You might be able to pinpoint stonewalling when you experience meetings that never solve anything, constant changing of topics, project partners "dropping the ball", or false rumors around the office. A stonewaller is usually someone who is only out to protect their own image and interests. They could be silent, or they could be extreme. A person usually becomes a stonewaller when they feel threatened. Or, maybe they don't want to lose a valuable member of their team.

There are 3 things to keep in mind, if you feel like you're being stonewalled:

1. Remain positive. Giving off that positive vibe will encourage people to follow and support your actions. It will also show your leadership that you are resilient, and can remain focused on completing your job duties or projects.

2. Be assertively ambitious. This requires you to take initiative, but be careful not to be aggressive in your actions. Make sure you ask before handling a task you weren't directly assigned. You don't want to put affirmation to the words of your stonewaller.

3. Have integrity. Don't feed the drive of your stonewaller by falling into the workplace gossip trap. In fact, don't even fall into the gossip trap outside of work (that includes on social media). A co-worker of mine once said, "Think of every day as an audition for your future job." It's true. You want everything you do, to give you the image your future job is looking for. I may touch on this topic in the future, but this is called your personal brand.

Here are a few links to some good reads:
Signs you're a horrible boss - Forbes
Being positive improves your career - Forbes
Secrets of leadership success - About.com