Five Leadership Lessons from James T. Kirk

Most of us in leadership positions, or aspiring to them, take leadership pretty seriously.  It’s also important, however, to have fun and today I want to point you to a witty blog post that teaches some good leadership lessons:  Five Leadership Lessons from James T. Kirk.  Trekkies will, of course, enjoy this but the author provides good food for thought -- including why you should play poker instead of chess in leadership terms, the importance of being a part of the "away team" -- whether you like Star Trek or not.  Enjoy!

Good Boss/Bad Boss

You may have heard of a book published several years ago called Rich Dad, Poor Dad, about how differences among people in how they think about money, and the choices that flow from those mindsets, can make an impact on financial success and independence.  I can’t say if this book is true or not, but I do know that supervision, like money management, is largely dependent on the mindset of the supervisor and the choices she makes as a result of that point of view, so today, I want to summarize some of the recent supervision tips I’ve seen and provide you with links if you’d like to know more.  Think of it as the supervision version of Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

First, let’s talk about the things bad supervisors do:

They call too many meetings and then show up late while others wait.  This is according to a leader who regularly surveyed his staff but it is often true in many places.  It’s a small thing but it sends the message that their team’s time isn’t important, and no one works well where they think they aren’t respected.

They actively or passively stymie progress on work projects.  These roadblocks can be created in innumerable ways:  supervisors not understanding the actual duties of their teams and the time it takes to accomplish certain tasks, not providing clear vision or guidance, giving conflicting goals, and not responding to requests in a timely way.   The feeling that their boss is creating roadblocks kills an employee’s desire to work hard and accomplish things.

They lack self-awareness and are clueless about how their actions influence their teams.  Bad supervisors do a lot of things to get in the way and, when the team reacts to this, bad bosses blame them instead of looking in the mirror.  That’s not to say that individual employees who are ineffective don’t exist, but…if a supervisor thinks his entire team is ineffective or dysfunctional, the first step is to figure out how the supervisor is contributing to it.

They blame or retaliate against those who try to speak up about problems.  Shakespeare told us not to “shoot the messenger,” and some supervisors have missed this important lesson.  This punishment of anyone delivering bad news stops the flow of any constructive information and what organization can survive with it?

Now that we’ve seen some of the “don’ts” of effective supervision, let’s talk about the things good supervisors do:

They understand the power of relationships.  They know that the work world is more of an ecosystem, with partnerships and collaborations, than a war that needs to be won.  This approach increases flexibility and information flow, which leads to better decisions.

They treat employees as colleagues, not robots or naughty children.  They set high standards – and, yes, that means holding people accountable – but they understand that every person is important, from the person who empties the trash to the CEO.  They set a vision and direction, hire and train good people, and inspire their teams, not crush them with rigid processes and excessive control.

They help their teams understand change.  They neither worship the status quo, nor change things just for the sake of change.  They preserve effective practices and change the ineffective….and they know the difference between the two.  The also involve people in the change process where possible and explain the changes to make people more comfortable.

They do what they can to make work satisfying.  Work is going to have at least some drudgery or administrivia as part of the day – otherwise it would be called “vacation” -- but good bosses want their teams to be happy and satisfied and they work hard to make that happen.

What other “good boss” or “bad boss” beliefs or practices have you observed?

Want to know more?  Here are the resource pieces for this post.

Four Ways Supervisors Frustrate Their Employees—Are  You Guilty?

How to Completely, Utterly Destroy an Employee’s Work Life

Eight Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses

Whining, Venting, or Problem-Solving?

All of us encounter a stressful or perplexing situation now and again.  Friends, family, and colleagues may bring theirs to us to discuss, and we do the same.  Over years of participating in these conversations, both as the listener and as the speaker, I have observed something that, once I got it, had saved me some time and frustration and I want to share that with you.  That lesson is to consciously categorize your conversations, and only spend time with those that are constructive.

The first step is identifying the conversation.  When a negative or stressful situation is being discussed, the conversation generally falls into three main types: 

1. Venting:  This involves describing the negative circumstance and voicing complaints about it.  Its main purpose, however, is to discharge negative feelings in a safe environment before moving on to more constructive solutions, either in the conversation or outside of it.  It can be positive if it allows the speaker to get out her frustrations, preventing them from blowing up in an inappropriate way or time.
2. Problem-solving:  This conversation acknowledges the concern and then quickly moves toward solutions.  The bulk of this conversation is about making the negative situation right, seeking greater understanding, or reframing the circumstance from negative to positive.  In situations where the speaker doesn’t have much power to affect change, the problem-solving focuses on how he can alter his perception of the situation, create a work-around, accept the situation, or plan an exit strategy.
3. Whining:  This involves describing the negative circumstance and voicing complaints, but the conversation never moves to possible solutions.  When constructive actions or remedies are suggested, the speaker usually shoots down all of them and resists any attempt to brainstorm solutions.  He may even disparage the person trying to help, saying things like, “You just don’t get it.”  Whining’s main purpose is often to reinforce the speaker’s perceived powerlessness, regardless of the reality.

Understanding these types of conversations has saved me a good bit of time and frustration.  It’s helped me focus my energy on problem-solving conversations and prevented me from expending energy attempting to help people who didn’t want it, at least at the time I was offering it. 

Take a moment or ten this week to notice the types of discussions you have.  Whether you are the speaker or listener, set a “no whining” goal and nudge your conversations toward support and problem-solving.  You’ll get more done and feel better about it, too.

How to be a Good Boss in Tough Times

The purpose of this blog is to provide you with leadership knowledge that is useful, whether it’s through summarizing information and experiences for you, or pointing you to powerful resources that don’t take a lot of time to absorb.  Robert Sutton is one of my favorite management resources because his work is based in research and he presents it in a very practical, if earthy, way.  This week, I want to point you to another good piece from him:  a 10-minute video about how to be a good boss in bad times (there is also a transcript of the conversation at this link, if you prefer that format).  There are many good points, but the two to watch for in particular are his discussion of “the toxic tandem” of power and the recipe for being a good boss in bad times.  (Teaser: The ingredients include prediction, understanding, control, and compassion.)

Those two pieces, along with several other points he makes, are immediately useful, whether your organization is experiencing layoffs, budget cuts, reorganization, or any of the other forms of workplace change and stress.  If somehow you have escaped any of these workplace realities recently, hang on, because they are inevitable over the course of a career.  I hope you’ll enjoy the video.

Improving Strategic Thinking

You already know that strategic thinking is important.  Cave men and women couldn’t bring down that mammoth for the tribe or figure out how to use fire without that ability.  It has become an increasingly important skill as the pace of change has increased from millennia (for cave folk) to days (us).  Sharper strategic thinking allows you to see current, unmet needs and emerging trends.  It makes your decisions less reactive and more constructive.  Interested?  Read on.

As I was reading three recent articles about this topic, one thing was immediately clear:  Strategic thinkers have open minds and not only aren’t afraid to be wrong, but also actively seek to prove their ideas wrong.  In other words, they do everything they can to prevent groupthink. 

How do they do this?  According to our three authors linked above, strategic thinkers start by constantly scanning the environment for data and patterns that help them anticipate what may be emerging in their workplaces or in their industry or field.  They spend time figuring out what they really need to focus on, to get to the core questions of any given issue. They listen well and think critically about what they hear.  They understand confirmation bias, which is the mind’s tendency – and yes, everyone does this -- to only attend to information that confirms what is already believed.  They self-monitor to become aware of their own assumptions and seek information that contradicts them.  That may include reading authors with whom they disagree, but it certainly includes seeking a team whose members think differently from them.  Finally, they avoid “analysis paralysis” by understanding that, while information gathering is important, they never have enough and decisions do have to be made. 

The core issue here is that strategic leaders manage their own egos – which tell them that they are always right -- and they reward constructive disagreement within their teams.  (A leadership model profiled earlier on this blog calls this “Consciousness of Self” and “Controversy with Civility.”)

Strategic thinking is a skill and Shaun Rein suggests three ways you can improve it  on a daily basis:  (1) Constantly question your own opinions for biases or untested assumptions; (2) Surround yourself with people who have well-reasoned but different viewpoints than your own; (3) Take time to recharge and get out of your ruts.  See or experience new things in your private life on a regular basis and this will freshen your viewpoint when you return to your leadership role, wherever that occurs: work, home, volunteering, or at school.

Being enrolled in a graduate program and experiencing an election year are both great opportunities for you to do these things.  Any small opportunities you take to strengthen your strategic thinking add up into a stronger professional with better thinking abilities.  Now let's go get strategic!  

Can You Hear Me Now? But More Importantly, Are You Listening?

Think back to your best supervisors, teachers, volunteer leaders, clergy members, or other leaders you’ve come in contact with.  What made them great? Chances are that good listening skills are one thing that made them stand out.  This is not surprising.  One of Stephen Covey’s habits is “Seek first to understand, then be understood” and many prominent leadership educators have focused on this topic as well. In last week’s profile of Michael Mack’s failure and eventual success, listening to others was a key factor. 

Most people think they are great listeners, but they may only be great at hearing.  True listening means hearing with an open mind, with a willingness to be changed by what you hear, and that gets increasingly harder as our lives get busier, our list of devices grows, and our media diet becomes ever more saturated.  Even after you are attentive, you have to be an active listener and that takes practice.  Want to know more? You can find a brief but useful summary of specific skills to practice here. 

Why not spend the weekend practicing these active listening skills?  As you talk with individuals you encounter or even as you do reading or other homework, spend more time asking questions and learning about those you encounter, or the content you are studying, rather than focusing on what you think of the person or material.  When someone tells you a story about themselves, instead of telling one of your own, ask them questions about theirs.  You will gradually increase your skill level and you’ll strengthen relationships, too.  Happy listening!

Garden Fresh Leadership Lessons in Losing it All and Getting It All Back Again

Michael Mack built the company Garden Fresh (which would later become Sweet Tomatoes and Souplantation) from the ground up with a business partner, but in 1990, he was fired as CEO by his board.  Four years later, he was rehired, mainly because of the way he conducted himself and lessons he learned.  You can read a more complete account of his story here, but the main takeaways are:

1. There are no Lone Rangers among successful leaders.  Mack was fired, in part, because he focused too much the numbers and ignored the people.  He always thought his way was best and refused to listen to the ideas of others or involve them much in processes.  By his own description, he was “arrogant, self-righteous, and overly independent.”  We all learned this lesson in kindergarten and it’s true today: to succeed you must play nicely with others.
2. It’s not about you. After being fired, Mack says he learned to focus on the outcomes and not as much on micromanaging the way people got there or on work as an vehicle for his personal ambitions. We know from other research that a sense of autonomy is one of the biggest predictors of workplace satisfaction and productivity.  Mack learned that the autonomy of others mattered as much as his own and a productive, happy team stays longer and produces more.
3. Look for ways for everyone to get what they want.  One of the changes Mack made was to stop shooting out “yes, no” answers and start conversing with people about their priorities.  He found ways for priorities to align and others to get what they wanted, which created better solutions, a happier team, and, ultimately more success for the organization.
4. Unburned bridges are best.  As a founder of the company and investor, Mack stayed on the board after he was fired.   He overcame his anger, stayed professional, and focused on company goals.  This impressed the board and was a major factor in getting his job back.
5. Bad things can turn out to be blessings.  Mack got fired when his wife was 8 months pregnant.  Unable to find work other than consulting, he stayed home with his daughter for several years and built a relationship with her that was incredibly fulfilling to him.  That relationship – which wouldn’t have happened given his previous 100-hour work weeks – and the personal changes he made led him to call the firing “a gift.”