Susan’s Blog

You must have a philosophy to hold the decision to and the decision must make sense based on that philosophy and secondly you must be able to be fully transparent. If you are able to make decisions based on these two general tenants you will more likely make good decision than not. They will be consistent and will be the type of decisions your followers will be comfortable with.  This approach also builds the most important thing any leader can have and that is the “trust of his or her followers.”.

The last 180 days has produced perhaps the most turmoil in corporate America has seen since the Great Depression.  As leaders, we ourselves can feel extremely distracted, confused, unsure and quite possibly angry depending upon the circumstances.  These feelings are substantially heightened for those we lead.  In times like this I have found that the best approach is to pause, study, listen and communicate.  I would say in that order too.

• Pause – slow yourself way down, watch what is going on around you, get your own bearings.

• Study – gather all of the information around the situation(s) as possible.  You have to understand the circumstances as well as you possibly can.  In the current environment that can be very challenging due to the complexities and multiple variables of the credit crisis, weak real estate, a failing economy, two wars…need I go on?  You will need to narrow the focus and decide what is key to your organization and its objectives and focus there.  This helps give you confidence in the situation and the direction in which you wish to lead.

• Listen – listen not to what people say, but both what they say and do.  I have had just this week an experience where I thought that I understood how someone felt about a specific situation and found that their emotional state was completely hiding how they really felt. It took listening to their words and encouraging them to speak their mind completely; it took a quiet demeanor on my part and a lot of space for them to fill as I listened to really get to their concerns.

• Communicate – Just as you would when communicating a new goal or objective; communicate key points as often and in as many venues (meetings, sidebar conversations, one on one’s) as possible.  People are watching you.   You must communicate with confidence and with clarity.  Know your points, be well prepared and if you don’t know something tell them so and then find out.  Here you must get back to them as soon as you can. If it is simply an answer that has not been decided yet, you simply say that and that you will keep them appraised on progress in the area.

Again, this is an extraordinary time.  If you are able to stand back and take a higher view, it is an interesting time.  It is uncomfortable for all of us, but as the leader, your people are counting on you.  They find their confidence in yours.  Keep these steps in mind and you will lead your people well.

With so much going on in the world, credit crisis, financial industry venturing near its brink, war(s) and a political campaign, are we doing enough to grow new leaders? I am asking you this? I would like for you to respond to me with your thoughts.  

I am frankly, very worried that we may not be growing the tough leaders we need. We may not be challenging our young people enough.  Most of our young learn about leadership in school through their course work and participation in leadership positions in their extra-curricular activities. This is all very, very good. The questions I ask myself are as follows:

• Do we solve problems for them? Won’t they learn more if they have to solve them their-selves?

• How far do we let them go down a path that will not work out? Or, do we worry about that at all as long as they or anyone else will not be hurt physically?

• Do we take the time to discuss with them why they made one decision over another? Are they learning how to make leadership decisions and why they make one over another?

You see, I believe we need tough leaders who can make the tough decisions and the only way most of us learn how to do that is through experience, failure and reflection.

Working through an imminent crisis. 

I had the experience of leading my organization through a major hurricane; Ivan in 2004.  It was one of the most challenging things I have ever done so I wanted to share what I learned to be the key items to focus on when a leader finds himself in a situation like this, which I hope you never do, but that is unlikely.

Here are is what worked for me:

• Listen - you must listen to all that is happening around you - the spoken and unspoken.
• Make decisions - People look to their leader to make decisions.  They do not want you to be perfect; they want you to do your best to work hard to serve their best interests under the circumstances.  Determine what is most important at any point in time.  More than anything; however, they want you to LEAD.  Be very clear in direction.
• Focus on the people - If you get the people right the rest falls into place.  Are they safe, bring them together, are their basic needs met, create a picture of next steps - as I say a lot “the end game”, create for them the ability to engage in the future, act/react with an open heart (be real).
• Communicate - you cannot communicate too much.
• Bring your team into the picture - keep them informed and let them perform.

These are the things that helped me the most.  I hope they help you if you ever find yourself leading in a crisis.

One might ask what I believe is common to great leaders or “elite” leader… If you notice the focus of my work, in my research and observation, truly elite leaders show a high degree of certain traits, some more than others, but all of these traits are present. 

It is important to add that I believe that these traits are part of who the person is; they are embedded into their being.  These traits must be present to some degree in anyone who aspires to be an elite leader.  The basic traits however, can be developed or drawn out in order for one to enhance their leadership capability.

• Charisma – the ability to attract others, build trust quickly and develop relationships with others in such a way that they are easily followed

• Environmental Sensitivity/Emotional Intelligence – the innate ability to put one’s self in another’s shoes and the ability to understand how those around him are affected by all that is impacting them

• Strategic Thinking/Outsider Perspective – defined as having an outsider’s perspective and an insider’s knowledge of the situation and then the ability to make decisions, set policy and lead based on the combined perspective and knowledge

• Flexibility – willingness to take risk, make sacrifices and continually adjust to the environment

• Empowerment Orientation – (critical to operating in a dynamic environment) – this leader respects the input of others as well as works to seek it out.  Further, is able to relinquish control while maintaining responsibility) to others so they may react more quickly in the service of the overall goals of the organization

• Vision – the ability to look out to the horizon and identify the direction that must be taken, turn it into a story (a picture of the end-game) and articulate it clearly

• Grit/Drive – personal resilience, the ability to come back time and again against obstacles in the way of one’s success and overcoming those obstacles

• Maintains a Learning Organization – The leader is in constant learning mode in an effort to stay in front of her followers and is able to be the commensurate teacher, coach and mentor to her followers so that the organization is constantly evolving forward.

It is through the conscious identification and development of the traits that one moves from aspiring to elite!

I like to ask clients to answer the following three questions of themselves as the beginning place for our work together:  What do I stand for?  Whom do I wish to impact?  Why do I work?  I believe that with honest answers to these three questions, we would all be living from the springboards of clarity and intent.

I recently received a copy of Dr. Jim Loehr’s new book, “The Power of Story”.  I believe Dr. Loehr gets to the very heart of the type of very basic thinking we must do in order to be truly and completely successful.  If we all understood the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, what we are trying to do and why, we could clearly see what is inhibiting us from becoming all we can possibly be. He is right on target here!

Check out his book: The Power of Story