Michael Dell simply gets it. He understands that businesses can no longer afford to rest on their laurels while the digital bazaar transforms the world around them. More importantly, however, Dell understands that in order to promote change he must lead by example. No executive has all the solutions to the many questions surrounding the shifting corporate landscape, but at least Dell isn’t afraid to look for the answers.
Using Dell as our model of forward-thinking leadership, I offer these seven traits of what it takes to be an affective social executive. Fidelman has expertly identified the traits of those executives unafraid or incapable of changing with the times, but now it’s time to seek out the antidote.
#1 The Malleable Mind
Think of the “Malleable Mind” as the counter to Fidelman’s “Short Sleeve Fat Tie Executive.” Whereas Fat Tie Execs expect to be sole originators of all ideas, cruelly dictating company agenda from the confines of their office, Malleable Minds value the input of their employees. They aren’t threatened by change—in fact they’re often excited by it, and actively encourage an environment of new ideas and approaches. Malleable Minds recognize that employee initiative and collaboration are essential cornerstones of the social business, and they encourage their workers to utilize social media and discuss new ideas that might improve day-to-day operations. Malleable Minds know that you can’t keep a good idea down for long, and see it as their job to absorb information and help put ideas into motion.
Identifiable Traits – Malleable Minds understand that they’re not the only ones with good ideas. They are unburdened by ego, actively seek feedback on their own initiatives and welcome the opinions of others. They understand that respect is earned not through an iron fist, but through and open mind. They may be the boss, but they do not take their positions for granted.
While most small business owners are starting to realize that social media is a necessary part of any marketing strategy, as a social media coach, the question I get most often is how to add social media to a day that is already way too full. For those of us working as solopreneurs or small business owners, it may, at times, feel like we are working virtually around the clock so when are we really supposed to tweet, post or blog?
I’ll admit creating a social media plan that will stick is like starting an exercise program. You just have to take that leap and do it. You need to look at it, not as a series of social media tasks that need to be done during the day, but more of a lifestyle change that you need to incorporate into your entire way of thinking.
5 tips to make the social media lifestyle change
- Coffee and Twitter: For most of us, a morning cup of coffee is sacred. Without one, our day cannot get off to a good start. Try to incorporate tweeting with your morning coffee, Instead of reading the newspaper, read your stream to find interesting articles to share with your followers. If you still need to read the paper, know that most publications these days are online and make sharing with your networks very easy. In addition to coffee first thing in the morning, take a moment or two to tweet during your mid-morning or mid-afternoon coffee break as well.
- Change the way you look at the world: Instead of walking through your day with blinders on, as most of us do, focused on the tasks we need to get done, try looking at the world with a different set of eyes. Examine everything — images, articles, conversations you have with co-workers — and use it as fodder for posts, blogs and tweets. This doesn’t mean that you need to be online all day, it just means changing the way you think to include a social media aspect to your day. Taking mental notes to save for your social media coffee breaks.
- Blog on the weekend: We all know that blogging for business is one of the most important factors to getting found online. It improves our SEO, increases our professional credibility and lets our audience know who we are and how we interact. Blogging can also be the most time consuming part of any social media plan. During your busy workday, as your taking in everything that is going on around you, take mental notes and save the blogging for the weekend when our schedule is more open. Most social dashboards will allow you to schedule posts to go live at a later time.
Here are 10 key actions to transform employees into ambassadors:
- Ditch social media guidelines for social media training – The internet changes everyday and with it, the norms, behaviors and destinations an ambassador must pay attention to. Static guidelines leave ambassadors with instructions that expire and little direction. The journey from employee to ambassador includes more than a set of rules, it includes the acquisition of skills. Those skills can only come from experience and training.
- Use game mechanics to incentivize participation – Building an organic audience is a long-term commitment. Not every ambassador will be energized by the prospect of daily production, reading, sharing and networking. To maintain momentum, break-down responsibilities into discrete and categorized actions. Weight each action by expected effort and reward accordingly. Make it all add up. Give ambassadors a set of quests that allow them to qualify for a particular specialty — set up a profile, make your first connection, unlock your newbie status. Design digital tools that monitor activities and allow constant feedback.
- Limit your audience to interest groups – The ‘mass web’ is an extremely competitive environment where the latest gossip, extraordinary news events and cat videos fight for attention. The size of the potential audience is huge, but the chance of being drowned out is even larger. Avoid irrelevance by engaging with interest groups. Focus on becoming a valued member of the community, not just a sponsor of it.
- Don’t get caught up in audience size – 100 good friends online can often trump 100,000 acquaintances, especially if those 100 friends are well connected. With a smaller network, the content that you produce and things you have to say become more focused. That focus improves the likelihood of engagement and strong referral. Good friends don’t just ‘pass things along’, they advocate for their circle of friends.
- Choose your speciality – There are many ways to become prominent online. Brands become obsessed with leading conversations and taking the authoritative role. But, not every brand has the qualities to lead audiences like a Seth Godin or Steven Colbert. There are other specialities. For example, Jason Kottke has won the attention of a large audience by exploring the fringe of internet and sharing links that would otherwise remain hidden. It’s not about what he says but, about what he finds.
Town-hall meetings help close the gap between what business leaders see as problems and what front-line employees experience.
A West Coast financial-services company got some good news recently. A survey on communication, administered by my company and Gill Research of Chicago, indicated that employees feel their supervisors do a very good job communicating about business issues. The company’s senior management has a clear business plan, according to employees, and they feel senior management clearly communicates with them about the plan.
This company is in an enviable position. Employees generally trust the business leaders and enjoy a healthy communication environment. Among the good news, however, there was a warning sign: Employees believe senior management could do a better job of understanding the issues and concerns of people in the lower levels of the company.
Even in the best companies, employees perceive a gap between what they experience every day and what senior management sees as the most pressing problems. One of the responsibilities of a leader is to look at all the available information and to make an informed decision about where the organization must focus its attention.
Business leaders and employees will not always agree on the issues. After all, a business is not a democracy. Senior management is accountable first to shareholders or owners. However, senior management also needs the physical, mental and emotional investment of employees for the business to be successful.
That’s why it behooves business leaders to have an ongoing dialogue with employees. The financial-services company with whom we worked holds regular town-hall meetings where business leaders talk to – and more important, listen to – employees about the problems facing the company. Senior management gets high marks for the town-hall meetings, but the survey indicated employees don’t always feel senior management understands the nitty-gritty realities of front-line jobs.
Having worked for several companies in which town-hall meetings were a centerpiece of the communication program, I realize most business leaders have a hard time knowing when to stop talking and start listening. They want to explain the reasons behind business decisions – and they should. Even if employees don’t agree with business decisions, they usually find the decisions easier to accept if they understand the reasons.
But explaining business decisions is not the greatest value of town-hall meetings. Most companies have multiple vehicles through which leaders explain business issues and decisions. The greatest value of town-hall meetings is in the building of affinity between business leaders and employees. That affinity begins with senior management listening to and internalizing what is on employees’ minds.
My hometown of Richmond, Va., has a wonderful example of an executive who understands the power of listening. Mayor Doug Wilder – who once was Virginia’s governor and recently was elected mayor, or the city’s CEO – has participated in numerous town-hall meetings with citizens. The fact that he is accountable to the citizens is a bit different from the relationship between a company CEO and employees. Still, he is an example of a strong leader who does not allow his strength to overpower his ability to listen. As Wilder engages in more listening, citizens feel empowered to get involved in solving the problems facing the city.
I believe any CEO of any company would welcome that kind of self-motivated involvement by employees.
Arunis Chesonis is a CEO who gets the power of communication as a necessary ingredient for success. If only other CEOs followed his recipe.
My radar is always up for examples of CEOs who understand that communication is necessary for business success. It’s difficult finding business leaders who do more than pay lip service to the idea of frequent, honest communication with stakeholders – especially employees.
Arunis Chesonis is a rare find. He is CEO of PAETEC, one of the few startups that survived the great telecom boom of the late 1990s. I first read about him in Fast Company magazine in February 2004. The article caught my eye because Chesonis has created a company culture where information flows freely, knowledge passes from one person to another and the dignity of people comes first. It’s a philosophy that works, too – last year’s article cited a 250 percent growth rate in the previous three years and it’s still growing at a rate of 120 percent.
Chesonis impressed me so much that I suggested him as a keynote speaker for the annual Corporate Communicators Conference presented by Ragan Communications in Las Vegas last week. The conference organizers like to find a CEO who can charge up the corporate-communication professionals in attendance – it can be demoralizing to work for some companies that believe the less communication the better.
My friend and fellow communication consultant Charles Pizzo wrote a blog from the conference and gushed about Chesonis’s address. Believe me when I say it takes a lot for Charles to gush about anything, so I knew the CEO’s remarks were powerful.
“This is a CEO who gets it,” Charles wrote, “who lives, breathes and exudes communication. “Speaking from the heart with no script, he is a communicator’s dream.”
That observation alone tells you how easy it is for a CEO to score points with customers, employees, or whomever, just by being real. So many business leaders are attached at the hip to a script filled with jargon and clichés, it’s no wonder nobody believes a word they say.
Charles summarized Chesonis’s remarks, which focused on his philosophy as a leader. “You cannot over-appreciate your employees. Give employees ownership. Show fairness in wages, perks and parking. Keep balance: work is not the most important thing in people’s lives. Flexibility counts: people have family and friends, birthdays and Little League. The culture is the company: create a sense of family. Support the community: encourage employees to develop pride while chasing their passions.”
What does this have to do with communication? Everything. So many business leaders fail to understand that actions – their individual actions, the company’s actions – communicate strong messages to people all the time. I have a friend who is close to burning out personally and professionally in his job for one of Richmond’s top employers. His boss doesn’t understand how her constant demands and unreasonable expectations communicate that he is a commodity to be used and tossed aside.
“Arunis makes so much sense, and is so refreshing, that we should bottle his essence and pour it over salads in corporate boardrooms all across the land,” Charles wrote. “His message is absolutely palatable.”
And yet, it’s on the menus of so few companies these days.
There is no “normal” timetable to accept a change. Each person in every organization is unique. Things that bother some people don’t faze others. The same is true when it comes to the timetable that people have in terms of experiencing the four stages of a corporate change – awareness, understanding, acceptance and embracing the change. Select employees will understand, accept and embrace it once they are aware of the change, while others will take months, years or may never fully embrace it.
During the strategy development, establish the long-term vision for your change marketing program and short-term checkpoints. By setting short-term checkpoints you will help manage expectations on how quickly you can expect change to happen. You will also be able to reward and recognize your team for short-term achievements. In addition, you will have the opportunity to tweak any communications or programs that are not delivering results.
Corporate Communications often finds itself at the mercy of the organization to sets its agenda for the year. While Communications’ efforts should certainly support company strategy, consider these 5 Communications-specific trends that will influence the function’s ability to have a real impact in 2012.
1. Stakeholders have (even more) power.
The age of individual control over what, when, and how to consume information continues in 2012. New devices, like the Kindle Fire, new services, like Spotify, and new mobile apps, like Zite, that took off in 2011 will further enable people to act in ways natural to them. Chances are, reading/viewing/listening to dry corporate messages isn’t something most people like to do naturally! As a result, Communications’ approach to everything it creates must be stakeholder-centric, not company-centric.
Smart teams will kickoff the year by asking themselves, “Do we know where our key stakeholder groups go for information?” Determine how your stakeholders consume information with CEC’s audience listening guide , and then use that information to develop a stakeholder-centric communication plan .
2. Communicators look to build their business partnership skills.
In 2012, the Corporate Communications function grows up. Once just the PR-engine for the company, Communications is now expected to impact business results in a much different way by coaching leaders to communicate more effectively, developing internal communication systems for employees to connect with one another, and feeding stakeholder insight to business leaders, to name a few roles.
A new set of skills is required for communicators to live up to these new expectations. Clear writing and a solid understanding of channels won’t cut it, but a focus on business partnership skills such as critical thinking and negotiation will enable communicators to grow into the position of consultative business partner.
You must decide – as an organization and as an individual team leader – what spirit you intend to convey with the participation of your employees in social media.
If your intention is for them to be simply mechanical amplification vehicles for a very carefully crafted marketing message, that can work. You’ll likely see some results in terms of absolute reach and volume of short-term message resonance. You will sacrifice a degree of credibility on behalf of your individual representatives and personality and genuineness on behalf of your brand in favor of a consistent, safe(-r) message. You will also likely sacrifice culturally, since your employees will realize they’re part of a marketing machine, not someone who is entrusted to help build and shape a brand.
If your intention is for employees to become individual voices for your organization and unique representatives of your company’s values, personality and diversity, that can work too. You’ll likely see results in terms of trust and affinity for your brand as well as better identification of your advocates, both internal and external. You will sacrifice a certain amount of stability and potential consistency of message in favor of communications that are more unique and individual. You’ll also sacrifice some predictability around outcomes and need to rely on strong education and culture initiatives to guide your teams and hone their own sense of good judgment.
The bottom line: governance and guidance is important. But it’s a means to more scalable social media, not the end.
We’ve said many times here — and will continue to — that social business transformation is far more cultural than it is operational. Getting your employees involved is no different, and your policies and guidelines need to consider not just what you don’t want to happen, but instead what values, vision and intent you want your teams’ social media participation to convey.
INTEL
Always pause and think before posting. That said, reply to comments in a timely manner, when a response is appropriate. But if it gives you pause, pause. If you’re about to publish something that makes you even the slightest bit uncomfortable, don’t shrug it off and hit ‘send.’ Take a minute to review these guidelines and try to figure out what’s bothering you, then fix it. If you’re still unsure, you might want to discuss it with your manager or legal representative. Ultimately, what you publish is yours – as is the responsibility. So be sure.
Perception is reality. In online social networks, the lines between public and private, personal and professional are blurred. Just by identifying yourself as an Intel employee, you are creating perceptions about your expertise and about Intel by our shareholders, customers, and the general public-and perceptions about you by your colleagues and managers. Do us all proud. Be sure that all content associated with you is consistent with your work and with Intel’s values and professional standards.
It’s a conversation. Talk to your readers like you would talk to real people in professional situations. In other words, avoid overly pedantic or “composed” language. Don’t be afraid to bring in your own personality and say what’s on your mind. Consider content that’s open-ended and invites response. Encourage comments. You can also broaden the conversation by citing others who are blogging about the same topic and allowing your content to be shared or syndicated.
Whether you’re writing creatively, for academia, or blogs, one of the most important aspects of writing is often overlooked: the ability to give and receive constructive criticism.
If you know providing such constructive feedback isn’t your forte, you’re not sure if you’re doing it well, or you just want a refresher, you’re in luck! I have some tips and examples for you.
Giving Constructive Criticism
- Please never just say “it’s good” or “I liked it.” Okay, I’m glad… but what made it good? Why did you like it? I need a little bit more feedback. And that includes what you didn’t like. In fact…
- What you don’t like is probably the most valuable information. What is it about this piece that you don’t like? For example, “the voice didn’t seem very authentic,” or “I just don’t feel like this part fits in with the rest of the post.” Help me see where I can improve. That’s important, so let me say it again.
- Help the writer see where he or she can improve. There is no such thing as a perfect first draft. Even thoroughly edited final drafts are often not without their faults. Speak up and let the writer know what you think.
Receiving Constructive Criticism
- Remember that you are not your work. Just because I don’t like your outfit or your taste in music doesn’t mean that I don’t like you as a person. Likewise, just because someone doesn’t like something you’ve written, it doesn’t mean they don’t like you.
- Prompt the critic. When you ask for someone’s opinion, they might not always know how to give constructive criticism. If they say something like, “that’s good,” ask them why they liked it. Ask them where they think you can improve or what they found confusing. The more you prompt them, the more likely you’ll get the information you need (and the more likely they are to provide this information to you up front in the future since they know what you’re looking for).
- Remember that you are the author. In the end, it’s your work. You need to be happy with it. So while you can consider all of the feedback and constructive criticism you receive, you’re ultimately the one who decides whether or not to accept it.
Leadership is about change, but what is a leader to do when faced with ubiquitous resistance? Resistance to change manifests itself in many ways, from foot-dragging and inertia to petty sabotage to outright rebellions. The best tool for leaders of change is to understand the predictable, universal sources of resistance in each situation and then strategize around them. Here are the ten I’ve found to be the most common.
Loss of control. Change interferes with autonomy and can make people feel that they’ve lost control over their territory. It’s not just political, as in who has the power. Our sense of self-determination is often the first things to go when faced with a potential change coming from someone else. Smart leaders leave room for those affected by change to make choices. They invite others into the planning, giving them ownership.
Excess uncertainty. If change feels like walking off a cliff blindfolded, then people will reject it. People will often prefer to remain mired in misery than to head toward an unknown. As the saying goes, “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.” To overcome inertia requires a sense of safety as well as an inspiring vision. Leaders should create certainty of process, with clear, simple steps and timetables.
Surprise, surprise! Decisions imposed on people suddenly, with no time to get used to the idea or prepare for the consequences, are generally resisted. It’s always easier to say No than to say Yes. Leaders should avoid the temptation to craft changes in secret and then announce them all at once. It’s better to plant seeds — that is, to sprinkle hints of what might be coming and seek input.
Everything seems different. Change is meant to bring something different, but how different? We are creatures of habit. Routines become automatic, but change jolts us into consciousness, sometimes in uncomfortable ways. Too many differences can be distracting or confusing. Leaders should try to minimize the number of unrelated differences introduced by a central change. Wherever possible keep things familiar. Remain focused on the important things; avoid change for the sake of change.
Loss of face. By definition, change is a departure from the past. Those people associated with the last version — the one that didn’t work, or the one that’s being superseded — are likely to be defensive about it. When change involves a big shift of strategic direction, the people responsible for the previous direction dread the perception that they must have been wrong. Leaders can help people maintain dignity by celebrating those elements of the past that are worth honoring, and making it clear that the world has changed. That makes it easier to let go and move on.
Full article via Harvard Business Review
While some may be impressed with how well you speak, the right people will be impressed with how well you listen. Great leaders are great listeners, and therefore my message today is a simple one – talk less and listen more. The best leaders are proactive, strategic, and intuitive listeners. They recognize knowledge and wisdom are not gained by talking, but by listening. Take a moment and reflect back on any great leader who comes to mind…you’ll find they are very adept at reading between the lines. The best leaders possess the uncanny ability to understand what is not said, witnessed, or heard. Warning: this isn’t your typical piece on listening – it isn’t going to coddle you and leave you feeling warm and fuzzy – it is intended for leaders and is rather blunt and to the point.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow theorized that people in all cultures have certain genetically-based, unchanging needs. He described these needs in a hierarchal fashion — with some needs being more basic or powerful than others. As these needs are satisfied, other higher needs emerge. The first four are:
- Physiological: not having hunger, thirst, bodily discomfort, etc.
- Safety/security: being out of danger
- Belonginess and Love: being affiliated with others and accepted
- Esteem: achieving, being competent, and gaining approval and recognition
After these are met, the second group of needs comes into play:
- Cognitive: wanting to know, understand, and explore.
- Aesthetic: seeking symmetry, order and beauty.
- Self-Actualization: finding self-fulfillment and realizing one’s potential.
- Self-Transcendence: connecting to something beyond themselves, or helping others find self-fulfillment and realize their potential.
Looking closely at these, it’s easy to understand why people need leaders? They do so because they believe those leaders will help them meet some or all of these needs. For example, a community may elect a mayor who will help bring prosperity to their town, while also going every Sunday to hear a minister who helps them along their religious path, while admiring the Chief of Police who keeps their streets safe, while all individually following leaders at work, and in school.
We follow people because we’re all looking for something more.
We’re looking for sincerity, for authenticity, for meaning and truth, for someone and something somewhere to believe in.
So, as a leader, if you don’t mean it, they’ll know. If you don’t really care, you won’t be able to pretend for long that you do. If you say one thing but do another, they’ll pick up on it. Quickly.
So, the first rule of leadership is to care. The second rule is to communicate in some way that you care – whether it’s in speeches, articles, webconferences, or simply the way you act in a meeting.
If you don’t care, don’t try to lead.
If you do care, make sure they know you do.
Suggested Books
Suggested Resources
http://www.conferenceboard.org
Delegation is a critical skill. “Your most important task as a leader is to teach people how to think and ask the right questions so that the world doesn’t go to hell if you take a day off,” says Jeffrey Pfeffer, the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and author of What Were They Thinking?: Unconventional Wisdom About Management. Delegation benefits managers, direct reports, and organizations. Yet it remains one of the most underutilized and underdeveloped management capabilities. A 2007 study on time management found that close to half of the 332 companies surveyed were concerned about their employees’ delegation skills. At the same time, only 28% of those companies offered any training on the topic. “Most people will tell you they are too busy to delegate — that it’s more efficient for them to just do it themselves,” says Carol Walker, the president of Prepared to Lead, a consulting firm that focuses on developing young leaders. But both Walker and Pfeffer agree that it’s time to drop the excuses. Here’s how.
Watch for warning signs
You may not realize that you’re unnecessarily hoarding work. There are warning signs, however. “A classic sign of insufficient delegation is that you are working long hours and feel totally indispensable, while your staff isn’t terribly energized and keeps strangely regular hours,” says Walker. You may also feel that your team doesn’t take ownership over projects and that you’re the only one that cares. If they use phrases like, “I’m happy to help you with this,” it may be an indication that you’re doling out tasks, not handing over responsibility.Understand why you’re not delegating
There are plenty of reasons why managers don’t delegate. Some are perfectionists who feel it’s easier to do everything themselves, or that their work is better than others’. Pfeffer calls this “self-enhancement bias.” Some believe that passing on work will detract from their own importance, while others lack self-confidence and don’t want to be upstaged by their subordinates. No matter how self-aware you are, don’t assume that you’re immune to these biases, Pfeffer advises. Instead, you need to proactively ask yourself what you’re going to do to counterbalance them. Walker notes that letting go of these misconceptions can be extremely difficult and often organizational culture doesn’t help. “Giving up being ‘the go-to expert’ takes tremendous confidence and perspective even in the healthiest environments,” she says. “It’s even more challenging in the average company, where being a good manager is seen as a ‘nice to have,’ but where producing the core deliverable is what is truly esteemed.” But accepting that you can’t do everything yourself is a critical first step to delegating.
Writers can find inspiration anywhere. Because I write mainly about workplace environments and company culture, I turn to a fairly conventional source- the business sections of the newspaper. There’s usually something in every issue that gets me wondering. This week a business customs column inspired me to wonder about “what’s not spoken’.
Let me explain. In the column a reader asked what to do about cubicle-mates who participate so loudly on conference calls that he or she is seriously distracted. Thrilled to see a question so directly related to the types of interpersonal challenges I see as an Ombudsman, I raced to read the answer. Boy, I was disappointed.
The author offered these suggestions, which are reasonable but certainly don’t promote communication:
Ask your supervisor to tell everyone to be more aware of noise
Ask your supervisor to relocate you.
Listen to music as a diversion.
You see the problem? None of these strategies encourage collaboration. It’s almost implied that it wouldn’t be appropriate for the reader to make her colleagues aware of the situation or engage them in collaborative problem-solving. I wondered if there was a message in what wasn’t being suggested.
Here’s what I heard as the message: avoid talking = avoid conflict.
By not mentioning talking as an option for resolving things, the author is actually discouraging the use of talking. Talking directly to each other is still one of the best ways to solve problems, I think. Yet, the author chose to ignore that tool, saying “I prefer the path of least resistance whenever possible.’ Guess that means communication is the path of most resistance?
I bet many managers and employees across the country share a similar preference for avoidance and silence. The trouble with that stance is that old, unresolved conflicts eventually resurface, often at the most inopportune moments.
Don’t read me to say I think it’s wrong to ask for help to facilitate communications in sticky situations. I’m only saying that open discussion is a better first option.
Here’s my recommendation to the reader: Talk to each other.
Just like the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The quickest way to end a dispute or disagreement is to talk directly and honestly with those involved. Talk is such an effective yet inexpensive tool I wonder why people don’t do it more often.
Dina Lynch
Here are four ideas that will help you become a more inclusive leader:
1. Let Them Build It. To construct and convey key messages, smart leaders don’t always rely on professional communicators or on elaborate messaging campaigns. Instead, they recognize that often it’s front-line employees who know best how to tell a given company story. (For an example of a grassroots project that resulted in an employee-generated book, see our earlier post on that topic.)
2. Lead by Following. The notion that senior executives might maintain a blog or a Twitter feed — one that employees, along with other company stakeholders, can follow — is fairly commonplace. In some instances, though, leaders reverse that equation: In a bid to share the digital limelight, they invite rank-and-file employees to become company-sponsored bloggers.
3. Send a Messenger (Not Just a Message). People today are skeptical of slickly produced brand messages. They’re skeptical of slick official spokespeople, too. Leaders who want to build public trust in their company brand, therefore, often recruit employees to serve as brand ambassadors. Training people who work for a company to speak for that company is a marketing practice that doubles as an engagement-building practice.
4. Lose Control. It’s hard to break free of the mindset that treats communication as a control function. But many leaders find that ceding control over what employees say on company channels — on an intranet discussion forum, for example — means gaining a new way to tap into the talent, the insight, and the passion of their people. They also find that self-policing by employees works to keep such discussion from going off-track.
For an inclusive leader, the term “employee communication” takes on a provocative new meaning. For generations, that term has referred to communication aimed at employees. Today, by contrast, more and more leaders are seeking ways to leverage the value of communication performed by employees.
In 2009 Steven Kaplan, Mark Klebanov, and Morten Sorenson completed a study called “Which CEO Characteristics and Abilities Matter?” They relied on detailed personality assessments of 316 CEOs and measured their companies’ performances. There is no one personality style that leads to corporate or any other kind of success. But they found that the traits that correlated most powerfully with success were attention to detail, persistence, efficiency, analytical thoroughness, and the ability to work long hours. That is to say, the ability to organize and execute.
John Bogle, founder and former CEO of The Vanguard Group, used that simple sentence to debunk the thought that there is a secret formula to becoming an influential business leader. But with the simple premise that business leaders can benefit from observing other leaders and using their observations to nurture their own leadership style, the 2004 book, Lasting Leadership, studied what a group of jurors from the Nightly Business Report (NBR) and Knowledge@Wharton identified as the 25 most influential business leaders of the past 25 years. Lasting Leadership wound up identifying eight attributes of leadership, each of which has its own chapter in the book, that are evident to varying degrees in these individuals.
1. They are able to build a strong corporate culture.
2. They are truth-tellers.
3. They are able to find and cater to under-served markets.
4. They can “see the invisible” – that is, spot potential winners or faint trends before their rivals or customers.
5. They are adept at using price to build competitive advantage.
6. They excel at managing and building their organization’s brand (which in some cases may be their own name).
7. They are fast learners.
8. They are skilled at managing risk.
In addition, the book includes essays describing a major challenge that each leader faced during his or her career, and detailed timelines of each leader’s life.
The authors of Lasting Leadership are Mukul Pandya, editor and director of Knowledge@Wharton, and Robbie Shell, managing editor of Knowledge@Wharton. Three others – Susan Warner, Sandeep Junnarkar and Jeff Brown – made significant contributions in reporting and editing.
Alfred P. Sloan, one of America’s first celebrity CEOs, wasn’t afraid to shake things up in the board room – which might explain how he was able to revitalize General Motions at a time during the 1920s when it was close to bankruptcy. At one meeting of his top executives, Sloan said: “Gentlemen, I take it we all are in complete agreement on the decision we’ve just made.” Everyone nodded. “Then,” said Sloan, “I propose we postpone further discussion until our next meeting, to give ourselves time to develop disagreement – and perhaps gain some understanding of what the decision is all about.”
Just as in Sloan’s time, most organizations today need less complete agreement and more constructive conflict. Rather than discouraging resistance and negativity, leaders should surround themselves with people who can debate passionately before a decision is made – and then unite behind the final decision.
Think that’s easy to do? Think again. An opposite set of dynamics is at work in most organizations. Too many people sit in meetings and keep silent, or gloss over the effect a given proposal will have on their department or co-workers. They sit quietly while the leader proceeds as if everyone is aligned. But this “consensus” is not real. Later (in “off the record” conversations) these same folks undercut or sabotage the proposal.
On management’s side of the equation, too many leaders are like Samuel Goldwyn (the fabled head of Metro Goldwyn Mayer) who once said, ” I don’t want any yes-men around me. I want them to tell me the truth, even if it costs them their jobs.”
Goldwyn’s comment underscores the concern that even if a leader sincerely wants to hear dissenting opinions, most employees — especially at lower levels of the organization — find it difficult and uncomfortable to speak up in a formal setting. They’re unsure whether the leader genuinely wants to deal with conflict. And they fear ridicule or retaliation for “being negative.”
Even a culture of teamwork, based on developing familiarity and friendly cooperation between employees, can result in congeniality taking precedence over the introduction of ideas that might prove unpopular. In an environment that values collaboration as the top priority, employees hesitate to take any action that causes tension or appears to be divisive.
If you want to take concrete steps to build constructive conflict into your decision-making processes, here are a few suggestions:
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Assign someone on your team to the role of “Devil’s Advocate” to ensure a critical eye.
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Ask part of your group to think like the firm’s competitors (or customers or employees) in order to surface and expose flaws in a set of core assumptions.
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Establish “ground rules” that will stimulate task-oriented disagreement — but minimize interpersonal conflict.
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Keep the proceedings “transparent” by making decisions based on what goes on in the meeting and not behind-the-scenes maneuvering.
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Make sure your team members represent a diversity of thinking styles, skill levels, and backgrounds. And if they don’t, invite people with various points of view to offer their perspectives.
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Start out with a question and don’t voice an opinion. Once you’ve said, “Here’s what I’m thinking . . .” you have already influenced your team.
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If you want honest feedback, then be the first person to admit mistakes.
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Listen (really listen) to everyone’s ideas. Let people know that you value their input and are taking into consideration what they have to say.
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Clearly state the behaviors you want during the discussion (constructive conflict) and as a result of the discussion (shared commitment to the outcome).
As a leader, you must understand that your followers are watching you, most every minute, most every day.
And they’re learning.
They’re learning if you care about them.
They’re learning if you believe in them.
They’re learning if you believe in yourself.
They’re learning if you believe what you’re saying.
They’re watching to see if you walk the talk or just crawl a little.
They’re waiting for you to slip up and reveal the man behind the curtain, or the phantom behind the mask.
Because they’ve been taught not to trust leaders lately.
Enron, WorldCom, Steroids and Corked Bats, American Idol, Sarbanes-Oxley, all the fine print, the word “virtually.”
All lies and manipulation, clouding their heads and wounding their hearts.
So they’re desperate for truth. Which is why they’re watching and listening.
Everything you say and do and write communicates. Everything you don’t say and don’t do and don’t write communicates.
So, yes, they’re watching you.
And, yes, it’s an awesome responsbility.
But, if you want to be a leader, you know all about responsibility.
They’re watching you… and learning.
Be aware of that.
And then forget it and just be yourself. Someone who cares. Someone with courage. Someone who gets it.
They’re watching… and I’m guessing they like what they see.
Jim Warda
A woman from the audience followed me into the hallway. “I think we’re married to the same man,” she said. Successfully fighting the urge to fire off the snappy reply, “Could be. I travel a lot,” I simply smiled back. I’d heard this before.
I’m introduced as a change-management expert – married to a man who refuses to change anything. So, during my speech, I tell humorous stories about the resistance my husband puts up – and how I learned, from managers I’d interviewed, different ways to handle his protests.
After every speech, audience members come up to me to comment on my husband. Many people recognize their co-workers or loved ones (or themselves!) in him, and some (like the woman who’s own spouse’s behavior so resembled mine) jokingly commiserate with me. The thing I find most intriguing about this phenomenon is that in my twenty years of professional speaking, no one has ever approached me after a program to say they most appreciated my fifth point. That’s because they don’t remember what my fifth point was. But they do remember my husband and the lessons about handling change resistance that they learned through my stories.
As a communicator, stories can be your most potent allies.
Social scientists note that there are two different modes of cognition: the paradigmatic mode and the narrative mode. The former is rooted in rational analysis; the latter is represented in fairy tales, myth, legends, metaphors, and good stories. Good stories are more powerful than plain facts!
That is not to reject the value in facts, of course, but simply to recognize their limits in influencing people. Stories supplement analysis. Facts are neutral. People make decisions based on what facts mean to them, not on the facts themselves. Facts aren’t influential until they mean something to someone. Stories give facts meaning.
Here is the difference: Trying to influence people through scientific analysis is a “push” strategy. It requires the speaker to convince the listener through cold, factual evidence. Storytelling is a “pull” strategy, in which the listener is invited to join the experience a participant, and to imagine herself acting on the mental stage the storyteller creates. Stories resonate with adults in ways that can bring them back to a childlike open-mindedness – and make them less resistant to experimentation and change.
Compared to facts, stories are better for building community, capturing the imagination, and exerting influence. Stories about the past help employees understand the rich heritage of an organization, stories about early adopters offer successful examples of dealing with change, personal stories are powerful leadership tools for building trust, humorous stories can ease tension and, if you interview key staff, stories can capture their wisdom.
Stories can address universal human themes
Michael LeBoeuf, author of How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life, illustrates the power of making people feel important with the following story:
Jane, recently married, was having lunch with a friend, explaining why she married Bill instead of Bob.
“Bob is Mr. Everything,” Jane said. “He’s intelligent, clever and has a very successful career. In fact, when I was with Bob, I felt like he was the most wonderful person in the world.”
“Then why did you marry Bill?” her friend asked. Jane replied, “Because when I’m with Bill, I feel like I’m the most wonderful person in the world.”
Stories can show how to approach your work
I once asked Sanjiv Sidhu, the CEO of i2 Technologies, what kind of attitudes he encouraged in his work force. Although his is a high-tech company, he told me a story about cleaning houses. It’s the same story he tells employees.
“Most people would think that cleaning houses for a living was a pretty boring job. But I believe that if you had the right attitude, cleaning houses could be intellectually stimulating. Let’s say it takes you four hours to clean a house, and you’re doing three houses a day, six days a week. That’s 72 hours of really boring work and a pretty sure recipe for burnout somewhere down the line. But if you redefined the job, said to yourself that you were going to do each house in two hours, there’d be an innovative component in the work suddenly. You’d need to do a study that asked, for example: ‘Am I going to vacuum the whole house first and then go back and polish the furniture, or am I going to do everything in one room before moving on to the next?’ And if you added to that goal the goal of being the best house-cleaner ever, then you really would be stretching your mind, the job wouldn’t feel boring anymore and you probably wouldn’t burn out because your own innovative thinking would keep you interested.
But then suppose you shifted gears again and said, ‘Okay, now I’m going to clean each house in ten minutes!’ That’s where the real fun would begin for someone like me because I’d know I couldn’t hit that target by merely tinkering with spatial tasking. I’d have to start thinking about new kinds of house-cleaning equipment–or maybe even new kinds of houses that cleaned themselves. That’s the kind of thinking we’re encouraging in our employees all of the time.”
Stories can make values come alive
Nordstrom is one organization that does a remarkable job of using anecdotes about its sales force to communicate its value of impeccable customer service. There is, for example, the often-repeated tale about the saleswoman who took her lunch hour to drive from downtown Seattle to the airport to make sure that her customer received his new business suit. The customer had purchased the suit that morning to wear at a meeting in another city the next day — and then discovered the garment needed alterations. The Nordstrom saleswoman had promised to have the suite altered and delivered to him before he left town. She kept her promise.
Stories can become the symbol of change
There is a story I tell in the book, “This Isn’t the Company I Joined” – How to Lead in a Business Turned Upside Down: Buckman Laboratories has been in the specialty chemical business since 1945. Under the leadership of Robert H. (Bob) Buckman, it also became a world-class, knowledge-sharing organization. Bob would tell you that converting a command-and-control organization into a networked one was not without its challenges and setbacks. Still, by 1994, Buckman Labs had jumped into full-bore knowledge sharing: new software and connectivity had been installed, most of the associates were equipped with laptops, and online Forums were up and running. To honor and reward the top 150 people from around the world who had done the best job of sharing knowledge with the new technologies, a “Fourth Wave Meeting” was held in Scottsdale, Arizona. The meeting was three days of fun, celebration and work – specifically, critical discussions about business trends and strategies. It was also the setting for the following story:
Through the entire conference, a man wearing shorts, a T-shirt, and sandals sat at the back of the room, chronicling the meeting on his laptop and sending live messages onto the Forum for the rest of the company to read. His name was Mark Koskiniemi. About midway through the meeting, one of the organizers (a manager) approached Mark and asked him to stop sending out notes on the meeting. Mark refused by saying he didn’t feel that was appropriate. When the organizer suggested that the request to cease came from the top, Mark countered by saying he’d appreciate hearing it personally.
A few minutes later, a break was called, and Mark found himself face-to-face with Bob Buckman. Here is how Mark recalls the conversation:
Mark: Hello, sir.
Bob: Mark, I understand that you have been posting notes from the meeting on the Forum. I have to say that I have not read them, but are you sure that is such a good idea?
Mark: Do you trust me?
Bob broke into a big smile, nodded slightly, and nothing further was said about Mark’s continued reporting of the events.
As Mark later said: “If knowledge sharing is built on trust, then to me this moment over any other demonstrated that Bob Buckman really trusted the associates of Buckman Laboratories to take the company forward.”
There were two results from Koskiniemi’s reporting:
1. In all, he sent more than 50 Forum or e-mail messages related to the reports coming from the meeting.
2. Koskiniemi (who is now head of Buckman’s operation in Australia and New Zealand) told others the story – and it came to symbolize the desired culture change.