Category:

Leadership

Listening With the Intent to Understand

by Ron Potter January 15, 2015

Image Source: shorpy.com

The next time you’re listening to something, especially on a topic where you don’t necessarily agree, try this experiment: Use part of your brain to pay attention to what you’re thinking when listening to the other person. It’s okay. Your brain has a lot more capacity than your think. You can actually listen to another person at the same time as you act as an observer to watch what your own brain is doing. I know you can.

If you’re like most of us, you’ll find your own brain developing some sort of checklist:

Those two points support my side of the argument so I’ll immediately respond with those.
That point is not supported by fact, so I can instantly discount that.
That reminds me I need to pick up dog food on the way home.
I can’t believe they actually think that point is valid. How could they be so naive?

Then the moment happens. The other person pauses; they may not even be finished with their point of view, but just pausing a moment to collect their thoughts or even pausing a moment before presenting their obviously convincing closing statement. It makes no difference; it’s a pause.
So you jump in:

“Let me reinforce a couple of statements you made earlier because I believe they make my point exactly. And let me also clarify another conclusion you reached that is counter to all the facts we have.”

And on and on and on until you’re forced to pause and the cycle repeats.

If this scenario reflects in any way what you are experiencing while “listening” to other people, then you listen with the intent to respond. Most of us do it. Most of us do it most of the time. It takes a conscious effort and some practice to actually start listening with the intent to understand. But what a difference it will make in your life if you even get marginally good at it.

When you listen with the intent to understand, your curiosity kicks in. You’re not trying to catalog the points you’re hearing. You’re wondering:

I wonder why they believe that?
I wonder what experience they’ve had with this in the past?
I wonder who they trust on this and why?
I wonder what they believe will be the best outcome?

If you’re truly curious and wondering, then your response when that inevitable pause comes will be totally different.
Your first reaction to the pause may be to simply wait to see if there is a conclusion or further thoughts.
You may actually ask if there is a conclusion or further thought.
You may express your wonderment and curiosity and begin to ask questions or clarification or deeper understanding or more background.

Whatever you’re response. If it’s driven by curiosity and wonderment, the other person will immediately know that you’ve been listening to understand. You want to understand, you want to know their viewpoint. This sparks a very different reaction on their part.
A few key things happen from their point-of-view:

Once they realize you’re trying to understand their point-of-view, they become less rigid in their stance and more willing to admit it’s just their point-of-view.
They become more open to questioning their own point-of-view because you’re honestly questioning it in an attempt to understand and not with the intent to control or discredit it.
And most importantly, once you’ve fully listened to and attempted to understand their point-of-view, they’re much more willing to listen to and be open to your point-of-view.

Steven Covey, in his The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, indicates that one of the seven habits is to “seek to understand before being understood.” This is what he was talking about.

Listen with the intent to understand. Practice it. Use it often. You’ll be amazed at how much people are willing to share with you and how much they’re willing to listen to and understand your point-of-view.
Try it. It will be refreshing.

And one more solid point: In my book, Trust Me: Developing A Leadership Style People are Willing to Follow, the number one trait of great leaders is humility. The foundation of humility is the willingness to listen with the intent to understand.

What’s your reaction when someone actually listens to you and truly wants to understand?

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Lessons from a Professional Organizer

by Ron Potter January 8, 2015

My wife is a very organized person in most of her life. But like all of us, there are a few areas that just get out of control over time and you usually need help to get it back under control. She hired a personal organizer.

For the most part, I tried to simply stay out of the way, but I admit I was curious. I thought the organizer did a good job of seeing what the issue was, stepping back and looking at the overall picture; noting what was working overall and what portion of my wife’s life felt like it was under control and what portion was not, gaining the bigger picture.

Then she began to dive into the issue and started to ask the very direct, tough questions:
• How long have you had this?
• When was the last time you used it?
• What do you want it for?

After several pointed and pertinent questions, she calls for the decision:
• Trash it?
• Recycle it?
• Donate it?
• Keep it?

If she gets the “keep it” answer, she immediately recycles through some of the previous questions and then comes back to trash, recycle, donate, or keep.

Now here’s what I found interesting, she had provided bins for the three “non-keep” answers and the item would immediately go into one of those bins. At the end of the day, she put all of those bins in her vehicle and she made sure they were trashed, recycled, or donated.

Image Source: Katie Chao & Ben Muessig, Creative Commons

At first I thought this was a nice service she provided, but then she began to explain why she did it. This way the decision was final. No turning back, no rethinking the decision, no second guessing.
This is exactly the issue I was getting at in an earlier blog, “Decide: we’ve got it all backwards.” In that post, we explored the word decide and learned that it didn’t mean figuring out what to do, it means figuring out what to kill.

My wife had made the decision to “kill” certain items into the trash, recycle, or donation bins. The organizer wasn’t going to let those items be an issue any longer—they were gone!

All too often in our corporate decision making, we let things linger, be second guessed, never really put them in the trash or recycle bin. Because of this lack of decisiveness uncertainty thrives. It consumes the resources you need for top priorities. If you will actually “decide” and make sure the paths you’ve decided not to follow are actually killed off, publicly executed, thrown in the trash, you and your organization will become much more productive, nimble and responsive to current needs. We waste a lot of resources because we don’t finally decide.

I remember one CEO saying to me “I’ve tried to kill that initiative three times and it keeps coming back.” His frustration was caused by the continued wasted resources and people’s attention that were being dedicated to a project he thought they were over and done with. But he had never “Publicly” killed the program. He had never made the global announcement that “We are no longer pursuing this initiative!” He simply turned his focus and his team’s focus to the things they had decided to pursue.

I can’t tell you how important this concept is. My clients are constantly looking for resources to pursue much needed projects, changes or new initiatives. But they never really put the needed energy or public face behind killing off the old, outdated, or lower priority issues. Figure out how to decide. It will pay huge dividends.

Take a look at your personal life, home or work; would you share with us some areas that would save you a lot of grief and energy if you simply publicly ended the pursuit? Maybe you do have a very clear corporate situation that emphasizes this very issue. Share with us what caused it and what helped alleviate it (or what should be done to alleviate the issue).

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Blog Leadership

Email Overload

by Ron Potter December 18, 2014

Scott Adams, the creator of the cartoon, Dilbert recently said on CNBC’s Squawk Box,

“I’m pretty sure [email] has destroyed my soul.”

He described email as a job in itself, which no longer enhances productivity. Although still useful and productive in many ways, Scott’s point is all too obviously valid.

But here’s a trick that will quickly eliminate a substantial portion of email overload and will improve your team at the same time.

You’ve gotten to be a leader because you’ve been good at what you do. You’re a problem solver. You’re efficient. You see the issues clearly. You’ve been the go-to person. You’re the leader.

So when that email comes in, what’s your first instinct? Solve the problem! Give the answer! Clarify the issue! Do what you’ve always done to be successful! But none of that is leading. All of that is doing. You need to lead!

Image Source: BuzzFarmer, Creative Commons

So here’s the trick that will eliminate a large percentage of email very quickly. Your first reply should be, “Why are you sending me this email?” You’ll quickly see that many emails are sent to you because people don’t want to be accountable for their actions. And they’ve discovered if they send you an email, you quickly solve the problem; Clarify the issue; direct the resources; etc.: instant solution. Problem solved. They don’t have to do any of the heavy lifting. If things go wrong, they have the email showing that you took the action. And at review time, they claim credit for the successful completion of projects.

Your first reaction to any email is to ask yourself (and them) why am I receiving this email? If you simply solve the problem by answering the question, you’ve accepted the accountability. You’ve “lost your soul” to email, as Scott says, and your people have not developed because they’re not accepting accountability. You’re a doer, not a leader.

How have you used (or stopped using) email to develop people or increase productivity? Or if you just want to vent about email, send us a comment.

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Blog Leadership

I Am Angry

by Ron Potter December 11, 2014

I recently suffered a minor heart attack during a weekend golf outing with my buddies. On my first day home my wife, daughter and I were taking an evening walk in the woods. My daughter asked me what I was feeling. Notice she didn’t ask “how” I was feeling. [future blog post?] The word that came out of my mouth was “angry”. That surprised me. I wasn’t necessarily feeling angry but when she asked what I was feeling the honest answer was angry.

It immediately reminded me of the sequence that Elisabeth Kübler-Ross taught us years ago about five stages of grief. I’ve used this sequence many times with my clients to help them understand that the stages are very natural and will happen every time we receive impactful feedback. The stages are:

Denial/Shock
Anger/Emotion
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

So if I was experiencing the anger stage, that means I must have gone through the Denial/Shock stage. As I thought back it became very clear to me that as I was standing over a six foot putt for birdie on the 18th hole and experiencing chest pain I was going through the denial stage.

Image Source: RedTail Panther, Creative Commons

“I’m sure I’m just winded from the long walk up to the elevated green.”

“Actually it’s pretty hot out here, I’m probably just overheated.”

“As soon as we finish I’ll be able to get a cool drink, sit down for a while and it will all go away.”

All complete denial thoughts. I left my birdie putt a few inches short. Of course I later blamed that on my heart attack. All a natural part of the anger/emotion stage.

What’s interesting to me is that knowing the stages of grief instantly makes them easier to deal with and work through. I know that I’m yet to face the bargaining, depression and acceptance stages but it’s critically important that I eventually get to the acceptance stage because only then will I be able to take appropriate actions. The sooner I can work through the stages in a healthy way the sooner I can take actions toward a better future.

As a leader, you and your team are constantly dealing with feedback about performance both good and bad. Your job is to help your team and yourself get to the stage of positive, productive action after receiving the feedback. Knowing the stages of grief and what we will be feeling during each stage is the best way to move through the stages quickly and constructively. If you or your team reaches a point of arrested development, stuck in a particular stage, you’ll never get to the action step that comes after acceptance.

Good leaders know the stages and help their teams get to acceptance quickly. People never remember what the feedback was; they will always remember how you reacted to it.

What stage is the hardest for you or your team to get through?
What have you learned that helps you through your most difficult stage?

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Blog Leadership

Listening

by Ron Potter July 9, 2012

Image Source: Kristina D.C. Hoeppner, Creative Commons

In previous blogs you have heard me talk about the difference of listening with the intent to understand versus listening with the intent to respond. So often while we’re “listening” our minds are working rapidly trying to figure out how we are going to respond to what the person is saying rather than trying to figure out what they’re trying to communicate.

Two of my readings recently touched on the power and aspect of listening. One comes from an HBR blog by Ram Charan of June 21, 2012 titled “The Discipline of Listening.” In the article Ram gives several good practical approaches to improving your listening skills but I want to share a few words with you from the end of his blog:

“For leaders, listening is a central competence for success. At its core, listening is connecting. Your ability to understand the true spirit of a message as it is intended to be communicated, and demonstrate your understanding, is paramount in forming connections and leading effectively. Truly empathetic listening requires courage – the willingness to let go of the old habits and embrace new ones that may, at first, feel time-consuming and inefficient. But once acquired, these listening habits are the very skills that turn would-be leaders into true ones.”

Notice that it’s the difference between “would-be” leaders and real ones. So many people believe that it’s what they know that makes them great leaders. In reality it’s what they continually learn that make them great leaders. You can only learn through listening.

I’ve also just begun reading The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed by Adam Bryant. In this book Adam interviews some 70 CEO’s and other corporate leaders to listen and learn what he finds in common with people who make it to the top. The very first trait that Adam identifies is “Passionate Curiosity”. Guess what it takes to demonstrate curiosity?

Adam poses an interesting question at the beginning of the Passionate Curiosity chapter:
“Imagine one hundred people working in a large company. They’re roughly the same age, around thirty five. They’re all vice presidents and share many of the same qualities that got them where they are. They’re smart, collegial, and hardworking. They consider themselves team players. They have positive attitudes and they’re good communicators. They’re conscientious about their jobs. They have integrity. If everyone shares these qualities, what is going to determine who gets the next promotion?”

Adam goes on to discuss a few key principles that allows some of these hundred people to eventually make it to the office of CEO. Number one on that set of principles is Passionate Curiosity. He says of these people:

“They wonder why things work and the way they do and whether those things can be improved upon. They want to know people’s stories and what they do.” Adam goes on to say “The CEO’s are not necessarily the smartest people in the room, but they are the best students. They learn, they teach, and they understand people and the business world, and then bring all that knowledge together to drive their organizations forward.”

In all the research that has been done in the world, we have never found any correlation between success and being smart. However, we find great correlation between success and listening.

Are you truly listening today or just trying to help other people see how smart you are?

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Blog Leadership

Kicked in the Head: Overcoming Fear

by Ron Potter April 1, 2012

Image Source: Azhar Khan, Creative Commons

My recent blog on Getting Past Failure reminded of me an experience I had with a client years ago.

I was working with a new president of a major company. He had taken over an organization that had just seemed to be stagnant for many years. His first instinct was to spend time out in the field riding with his sales representatives to find out what their daily experiences were like. He was looking at the organization from the ground up. His early impressions were that the organization was simply hesitant to make any decisive moves. He thought there were sales to be made and market share gains to be had but the entire organization was simply too cautious, afraid to make any major mistakes and not even willing to ask customers for a commitment.

At the same time, I had seen a National Geographic special that had followed a pride of lions. The lead female is the hunter for the pride. She will decide which prey to attack and direct the hunting party how to help her gain an advantage over the targeted animal. But she is the one who makes the kill. As she was in hot pursuit of her targeted zebra she rapidly moved in to make the kill and leaped for the attack just as the zebra came to a fallen log. The zebra jumped over the log and at the same time kicked hard at the attacking lion and caught her right in the side of the head. This kick sent the lion tumbling through the brush and the kill was lost. For the next several weeks the routine seemed to be exactly the same as it had always been but just as the lioness came to the moment of kill, she shied away. She was obviously afraid of being kicked in the head. Over the coming weeks as the pride became more and more hungry, younger females and even a few of the younger males began to challenge her dominance and position as the lead hunter. Rebellion was increasing when she finally regained her confidence or more likely overcame her own fear and finally made another kill. She and the pride quickly returned to their normal and successful routine.

The company above had experienced some of their own “kicks in the head.” They had received a regulatory citation about some of their sales practices. They had experienced some product failures as well as some competitor products gaining great advantage over their own. And they had experienced their own leadership failing to help them out of this funk. They were acting like the lioness who had been kicked in the head.

As the new president began to instill a level of confidence in their sales ability, in the quality of their products and in their strategic plan for being successful in the market place (through a combination of face-to-face meetings as well as large scale meetings) you could see the “pride” begin to return. Sales began to climb (even with no change to the product mix or market conditions) and by the time they launched a new product the following year (that product became the largest selling product in its category) the team was pumped up and ready to go. He had helped them recover from their kick in the head. In overcoming fear, the new president was able to lead his team to success.

Where have you and your team been kicked in the head? Things happen beyond our control. I’ve mentioned before a great book titled The Road Less Traveled, Timeless Edition: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth by Scott Peck M.D. The opening sentence of that book is “Life is difficult.” Life (and business) is difficult. We get kicked in the head occasionally. But, we don’t need to let the pride starve because of it. We can overcome our fears and regain our “pride.” Be aware of kicks in the head. Identify them. Talk about them. Figure out ways to deal with and overcome the natural fears that are a result. Life will still be difficult but it can also be encouraging and productive at the same time.

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Blog Leadership

Effective vs. Efficient

by Ron Potter August 28, 2011

Image Source: · · · — — — · · ·, Creative Commons

Peter Drucker often spoke of being effective versus being efficient. His simple definition was: Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things. Much has been written by leadership and management gurus as well as Drucker himself about this concept and you can find many wonderful pieces on the web about this subject. But I would like to focus on one particular aspect that I often see relating to this topic; the development of people.

I have had many leaders and managers (including myself) say something to the effect of “It’s just quicker to do it myself.”

Often the reason or excuse is that:

I don’t have time right now to teach someone.
It would take me just as long to teach them as it would to just do it myself.
And, even after I take the time to teach them, they won’t be as efficient or effective as if I just do it myself.

That’s being efficient: Get the job done. Get it done now. Get it done “right”.

Notice that getting the job done efficiently is not necessarily being effective. We live in such a rapidly changing world that we can no longer afford to be dependent on efficiency. Efficiency is the price of admission these days. Over the last decade or more I have observed my clients wring every ounce of efficiency out of their production, supply chain, and logistical systems. Efficiency simply keeps you in the game. Efficiency is no longer a game changer.

However, when it comes to people leadership and management, much of our effort is still focused on efficiency, not necessarily effectiveness. I posted an earlier blog on victim versus creator. Highly efficient systems can induce a victim environment by dictating every aspect of getting things done efficiently. Effective/creative systems tend to be messy, particularly on the front-end. Our effective desires and measurement systems don’t often have the tolerance for starting down that effective/creative path. But, without an effective/creative approach we won’t survive. The world is changing too rapidly to depend on efficiency.

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Blog Leadership

Afraid of Failure

by Ron Potter July 3, 2011

Image Source: True New Zealand Advent, Creative Commons

I am not a trekker. Although I do own a trekking stick (very high tech with a camera mount on the top) and for a while I did subscribe to a trekking magazine with wonderful, high gloss photos of small groups of people in their hiking boots, cargo pants and trekking sticks walking across pristine landscapes in Scotland and Ireland with periodic stops for wine and cheese and their porters ferrying their luggage to be waiting for them at the next B&B. While adventuresome is portrayed a very serine and safe journey.

But recently, I read an article about Carmichael. His day time job is the CEO of a high-end coffee supply company. His avocation is Trekking. Real Trekking! Having accomplished treks across some of the most remote and inhospitable places in the world, his latest challenge is Death Valley. Hard-core trekkers regard Death Valley as undoable and there is no known record of any human being accomplishing the task. He had just failed at his second attempt to trek across the valley. Listen to some of his words:

“Everyone focuses on risk and failure. What happens if you fail? How do you mitigate the risk? I look around and see people who live in the safest places in the world, and they are preoccupied with anxieties and fears because they don’t know what risk is anymore.”

Once he said it I realized that I observe this exact behavior in all of the people I meet and even in the corporate cultures that I work with. Some people take on entirely new careers in their lives while others make one shift to a different team in a company they’ve worked at for twenty and think “phew, I made that leap without failing”. Some corporate cultures are moving into emerging parts of the world with processes and technology totally different from what they’ve used for fifty years while others will make a merger offer and then back away from it as too risky when a slightly increased counter offer is presented. We seem to use the same scale for measuring risk as if we are a kid contemplating jumping across a puddle or if we’re walking steel 200 feet in the air (a personal experience of mine ;-).

After his second failed attempt to trek across Death Valley, Carmichael said “That’s it. It’s over dude.” At that moment of failure he didn’t see any way that he would ever attempt this one again. But later he had begun to absorb his experience.

“The word that goes through your mind is fail, fail, fail. But once you get some perspective you realize that you learned something important. In the end, it’s not about how many tries you needed to get something done. It’s about not quitting and keeping at it until you achieve the goal. So, no, I didn’t fail. Failure is if it broke me. I just didn’t make it – this time.”

How do we break out of our own ring of risk? That bubble that we live in where the most risky thing inside our bubble looks like the riskiest thing anywhere? We get outside of our bubble! We get to know people who live in other bubbles. We learn of their efforts, failures, successes, heart aches, joys and start seeing the world through a different set of eyes. Suddenly when we look back into our own bubble, we realize that that daunting risk that we’ve been facing is nothing more than a little puddle. If you only see the world through your own perspective, it can become a very risky place and you will become very risk averse.

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Blog Leadership

Opposite of Victim

by Ron Potter June 1, 2011

$Image Source: /\ \/\/ /\, Creative Commons$

Image Source: /\ \/\/ /\, Creative Commons

Some people I’ve worked with have what we might think of as that victim mentality. The Leadership Style instrument I use (LSI from Human Synergistics) measures two areas titled Dependent and Avoidance that collectively describe a style that starts with the assumption that they are the victim in most circumstances. Some of the descriptions include:

A tendency to be easily influenced, not taking independent action
A strong tendency to deny responsibility or accountability
A passive attitude
Feelings of helplessness and/or guilt over real or imagined mistakes
The presence of rapid change or traumatic set-backs
A lack of self-respect
Extreme fear of failure

Someone asked me the other day what was the opposite of the victim mentality. That ignited a lively dialogue which came to the conclusion that Creativity is the opposite of victim mentality. Isn’t that a great picture? If we eliminate policies, procedures, governance, or leadership styles that create or assume a victim mentality, we unleash creativity. Although my work is focused on leadership within corporations, the first thing that came to mind was our law makers. Start evaluating all of the bills that are coming through congress (or ones that have been part of the landscape for many years) and begin to evaluate them in terms of “Do they create victims or do they instill creativity?” Many of the laws of this nation seem to start with the assumption that you are (or should be) a victim. And then they tend to perpetuate that belief. Our only opportunity in this rapidly changing global economy is to be creative and innovative. Shouldn’t we stop passing laws that push us toward or assume we are or should be victims?

But, closer to home, can you evaluate your or others leadership style on this victim-creativity balance beam? It’s always easiest to see it in others but the first step in great leadership is self-awareness, self-assessment, and humility. Have a discussion with your team. Maybe start by evaluating the group of people that work for you. Do they behave as victims or creators? What about our leadership style is causing that? How do we change the way we lead to increase the creative nature of our company?

My wife and I recently had the opportunity to listen to Condoleezza Rice when she made a speaking engagement in our home town. During the question and answer period one of the first question was “How did a young person of color from Birmingham, Alabama make it all the way to Secretary of State?” The first words out of her mouth without hesitation were “We were never allowed to be victims!”

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Blog Leadership

Mentors are important. Be one.

by Ron Potter July 26, 2010

Image Source: Victor Nuno, Creative Commons

How important are mentors?

I’ve experienced a few true mentors through my life, the first being my dad and mom. Dad seems to still influence me today, over 35 years after his death.

Then there was my high school physics teacher. He always seemed to demand more from me and I didn’t fully understand until years later what a great gift that had been. I returned to see him after I had graduated from college and he had retired just to thank him for mentoring me. We had a great conversation.

My list would also have to include Bill Bottum. The opening chapter of my book Trust Me, tells the story of Bill and how he set the foundation for my belief system about work and how that has become the basis for my consulting career.

But, there has been one other couple who have truly been life-long mentors to me and also my wife. Keith and Gladys (affectionately known as Rusty) Hunt. From them has come discipleship, training, encouragement, correction, love, care, hospitality, rescue and the list goes on and on.

From this list you might assume that Keith and Rusty have been in our lives nearly every day along the way. They moved into a home down the road from me when I was a teenager. Even though they had careers that included a great deal of travel they always seemed to have the time to invite the local teenagers into their home for stimulating conversations and thought provoking Bible study. Later, after they had moved I ended up at university in the same town their relocation had taken them. Once again they were influencing my life in many positive ways. Later in life when my family needed to move across country, they were there with an extra room for me to bunk in and the advice and encouragement for a new stage of my life. Through their moves and ours, there were always changes. Sometimes there were great geographical distances between us, sometimes we lived in the same town. But they were always close and there was always the discipleship, training, encouraging…. well, you get the picture.

Just the other day one of those high school teenage friends tracked us down to ask if we had Keith and Rusty’s number. He was just thinking about them and wanted to call or visit. Their mentor-ship touched many.

We lost Rusty recently. After a long battle with her heart she went to be with the Lord. The loss is deep. And even though I know her influence will continue through her memories and her books this world won’t quite be the same without Rusty.

Who are you mentoring? When I’ve thought about those who have mentored me, I often feel selfish that I fully accept, appreciate and enjoy the fact that they have cared enough for me to provide the role of a mentor and yet wonder if I have given anything near that effort to others.

Who are you mentoring? Beyond that child and grandchild or even that employee where we are placed in natural mentoring roles, who are you mentoring? Keith and Rusty have never been our parents or our boss (well, I did mow their lawn during those teenage years) but they have definitely been our mentors.

Maybe it’s that teenager down the street. Maybe it’s that mail room clerk. Maybe it’s the young couple at church. Maybe…. Don’t let the list always be a list of “maybes”. Think about whom you could be mentoring and come along side that person.

And yet that leaves us with the bigger question of “Do I feel worthy to mentor another?” Good question and one that we should ponder and work through. However, I’ll suggest that if you’re just willing to truly listen to another person, you’re on your way to being a good mentor.

Mentors are important. Be one.

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Blog Leadership

Humility (AGAIN!)

by Ron Potter June 21, 2010

A few weeks ago IBM’s Institute for Business Value released the results of a survey they had conducted with 1,500 CEO’s across 60 nations and 30 industries. They asked these CEO’s from both the corporate and public sector to identify the one leadership competency they valued above all others. Here is the rank order of the results:

• A photo by Kelly Sikkema. unsplash.com/photos/KkDWcP7gYXE Creativity
• Integrity
• Global Thinking
• Influence
• Openness
• Dedication
• Focus on sustainability
• Humility
• Fairness

Within days a colleague (thanks Chris) sent me an email asking what I thought about the ranking (knowing my belief that humility should carry a very high ranking). My reaction was that you can’t enjoy the top seven without first having humility.

It’s likely that their understanding of humility is probably skewed. From our book “Trust Me”, Wayne and I make these points about humility:

• Being humble and teachable means learning to trust others and their opinions and instincts.
• It means listening with the intent of learning instead of simply responding.
• It means seeking personal development from every situation, experience (both good and bad), and transaction.

I don’t think it takes a lot of imagination to see how humility is the basic foundation for achieving nearly every one of the competencies listed higher on the list.

Humility still rules.

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Blog Leadership

Time Management

by Ron Potter May 31, 2010

Image Source: Nick, Creative Commons

I was scheduled to teleconference with one of my clients last week. We had one hour for our conference call but were not able to connect until 15 minutes before our time was up. What do you think the topic was that he wanted to talk about when we finally did connect? Time management!

This client is actually at the top of his game and in many respects at the peak of his career. He’s doing wonderful things at the top of a company that is improving quarterly and is a highly respected leader and team member. But he was feeling overwhelmed and over run. What could he do to improve and get back on top of things?

When we did talk a week later, these are a few of the topics that were discussed:
• Meetings
• Quadrant II – Urgent vs Important (discussed in an earlier blog)
• Planning and early execution
• Empowerment/Delegation
• Systems and Support

Let’s discuss meetings.

How much of your time for the week or month is pre-booked in meetings before you even start? Even if you’re working 50 or 60 hour weeks, if 90% of your time is booked in meetings before you even start your week, than you really only have 5 or 6 hours for the week to get your non-meeting work done.

I hesitate to call non-meeting work your “real work” because much of your real work is conducted in well run meetings. But, if you have more than 60% of your available time pre-booked in meetings before you even start the week, you should probably question if you need to be in the meeting or not.

Efficiency and Effectiveness of meetings

Even if the meetings are important, how much effort is put into analyzing the efficiency and effectiveness of the time spent in the meeting? This topic can have multiple sub-headings but a couple right off the top should be:
• Who’s running/facilitating the meeting?
• What’s the purpose of the meeting? Information? Prioritization? Decision making?
• If a decision is to be made, what type of decision? Consensus? Consultative? Unilateral?
• If it should be a unilateral decision, why are we having this meeting?
• If it’s to be consensus, who are the right players and are we willing to take the necessary time?
• If it’s to be consultative, who owns the decision?

You might enjoy a book titled: Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable…About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business

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