Suicidal Leadership

If you’ve been in the work world long enough, you’ve undoubtedly encountered a leader who was destructive or toxic.  In a presentation called “Suicidal Leadership,” Dr. Patricia Daugherty describes how leaders in business, education and government sometimes turn their initial successes into ultimate failure, leading to termination.  Dr. Daugherty presents research about suicidal leadership, teaching listeners about the definition and phases of the suicidal leader in a real world, case study format.   You can find the presentation here (with video) and here (without video).

Dr. Daugherty is Assistant Director for Training and Development at the University of Georgia Health Center.  She has worked at Mercer University and the University of Alabama before coming to UGA in 1997.  She earned a BA in English from Clemson University, an MA in Student Personnel Work in Higher Education from The Ohio State University, and a doctorate in Higher Education Administration from the University of Alabama.  

Eat a Live Frog First Thing in the Morning, or How to Manage End of Semester Stress

It’s the time of the semester when everyone in higher education feels additional stress, but especially graduate students who are also full-time employees, and often parents and partners.  Everything is due, seemingly on the same day, and if any procrastination has crept into your semester, it’s starting to come back to haunt you.  Since stress management is such an important leadership skill, here are some high impact tips to use now and in the future.

 

 

Change your perspective. Mark Twain said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.  Unless you enjoy frog sushi, you may not want to take Mr. Twain literally, but he clearly understood the role of perspective. Most people think of stress as being an inevitable reaction to the number of stressors in your life.  That’s not totally true.  Your stress level is largely dependent on you mindset, your perceptions and beliefs about your circumstances, so, for example, if you believe you must always be perfect, you will be constantly stressed because you will almost never hit that mark.  The good news is that you can change that by changing those perceptions.  One tool is reframing, so practice noticing your stress-inducing thoughts and changing them in a positive direction.

 

Exercise.  I know, I know.  You don’t have time to breathe, let alone break a sweat.  The fact is, exercise is such a powerful stress reliever that it should be one of your top priorities on a regular basis.  It should be scheduled in like any other appointment.  So make time to get some exercise and you will feel better and most likely be more productive.

 

Take breaks, preferably to laugh. In addition to exercise, laughter is one of the best stress relievers around.  Also, we know from research that working for too long without breaks reduces our productivity.  So take a few minutes to find something funny and see if you are not refreshed and more productive.  Humor is highly individual, but you can try these sites for a few chuckles:

http://www.funnyordie.com/

http://icanhas.cheezburger.com/

 

Prioritize.  Oprah once said, “You can have it all, just not all at once.”  Given your likely overloaded schedule, you must make choices.  That’s what prioritizing is about.  Take a moment to think about the values and goals that are most important to you, and make sure to limit yourself to three or four. Write them down, post them where you can see them, and use them as a decision filter.  Spend your time on those things that are most important to you and put the other things that don’t directly serve those goals in a “later” file.  So, if you have two papers and a presentation due this week, a full-time job, and other family duties, focus on the things you must do to maintain your health, well-being, and progress…and let go of the others.  You can make homemade cookies for the bake sale next time. 

Take a few moments to manage your stress and you will reap the return on your investment immediately.  

Lessons in Social Media from Best Buy’s Brian Dunn

Best Buy’s CEO Brian Dunn is well known as an effective social media user and I recently read a piece he wrote called “Best Buy’s CEO on Learning to Love Social Media.” He mainly outlines his social media evolution and the point of the article is not to give advice, but a close reading reveals some helpful tips:

                                                                                                                                                                                                

If you think social media is a fad or only social, think again.  Dunn tells several stories of how he was able to connect with customers and employees to really get a sense of what they needed or wanted.  He also was able to address an issue or two quickly because of his presence on Facebook and Twitter.  Social media is here.  Get used to it.

Make it meaningful.  Dunn says that he was initially frustrated with the mundane things he read on Twitter, and who hasn’t read one too many “I’m in line at Starbucks” tweets?  So think about what you’re posting and make it meaningful to people. A few mundane posts are OK here and there, but think about what value you’re adding before posting.

Accept that there are risks….because everything has risks.  A Best Buy employee posted several videos where he made fun of the customers he was supposed to serve and on another occasion Dunn’s Twitter account was hacked.  Everything worth doing in life has risks.  Manage your risk well – create passwords that make hacking difficult, for example – and understand that the benefits of well-used social media outweigh the risks. 

Help people make good decisions. One of the ways you can manage risk is to provide guidelines and training for your team members who use social media so that they don’t use it in a way – either personally or professionally – that creates problems.  Best Buy’s summary is “Be smart. Be respectful. Be human.” and Dunn adds that he doesn’t post anything that he wouldn’t want to see published in a newspaper. (This is excellent advice for email use, as well).

Stay in touch with the grassroots.  The further you go up the managerial chain, the more disconnected you become from the front lines of your operation, whether that is students, customers, or constituencies.  Social media can provide an invaluable tool for people at the grassroots level to contact you directly with issues, compliments, suggestions, and many other things you should know about.  Put another way, insulation is good for buildings but not for leaders, and smartly-used social media helps you combat it.

Ask the right questions about social media use.  Dunn says he’s frequently asked how he’s going to monetize his social media activity.  While that may not be an issue in non-profits, it is still a question that could be asked: How is your investment of time in this benefiting the organization?  Dunn says this is the wrong question.  He says the question really should be: “How am I going to deepen my relationship with customers and employees and deepen the conversation that goes on where they are?”.

Kenny Rogers Was on to Something: How to Decide when Persistence is Worth the Effort

Kenny Rogers sang a song in the 1970s that gave some great advice: “You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.” The song was about a gambler but you can apply this to leadership as well. Major projects usually produce change and change can bring resistance that makes you question your efforts. Some projects just take a long time to see results. How do you know when a project isn’t working out and should be scrapped or when it just needs some persistence to get through to the payoff? Rosabeth Moss Kanter provides us with 12 ways to know when to persist and when to give up on a hopeless project. The entire article is worth reading but here are her 12:

1. Are the initial reasons for the effort still valid? 
2. Do the needs for which this is a solution remain unmet, or are competing solutions still unproven or inadequate? 
3. Would the situation get worse if this effort stopped? 
4. Is it more cost-effective to continue than to pay the costs of restarting? 
5. Is the vision attracting more adherents?
6. Are leaders still enthusiastic, committed, and focused on the effort? 
7. Are resources available for continuing investment and adjustments? 
8. Is skepticism and resistance declining? 
9. Is the working team motivated to keep going? 
10. Have critical deadlines and key milestones been met? 
11. Are there signs of progress, in that some problems have been solved, new activities are underway, and trends are positive?
12. Is there a concrete achievement – a successful demonstration, prototype, or proof of concept? 

After thinking through these points, as well as anything else relevant for your particular setting, you will likely be clearer on whether to “hold ‘em or fold ‘em.”

Your Turn

This blog is dedicated to providing you with information about leadership and management in a brief format suitable to busy people.  But this week, I’d like to hear from you. 

What leadership or management topics would you like to know more about?

What leadership problems or barriers would you like solutions for?

Do you see yourself as a leader, whether at work or in your personal life?

If not, what keeps you from seeing yourself that way?

Thanks in advance for your input in the comments section below.  The feedback will be put to good use to bring you information that you can use!

Your Morning "Ritual"

I recently listened to an interesting podcast called “Become More Productive by Reengineering Your Morning Ritual” by Michael Hyatt.  Michael’s point was that everyone has a morning ritual or routine that influences what comes later and intentionally creating this foundation will enable you to get what you want out of your day.  He recommends seven steps that I’d like to summarize for you here.  His entire 40-minute podcast is worth a listen because he provides more detail and answers to some very good questions that will flesh out what I’m providing.   (Full disclosure:  Michael is a Christian and discusses his faith practices when describing his personal morning routine, but he doesn’t proselytize or dictate that this be part of your routine.)

Step one: Acknowledge that you have a ritual and be intentional about it.

The first step in changing anything is becoming aware of what you do currently.  It’s the first step in becoming more intentional about the connection between what you do to start your day and what comes after that beginning.

Step two: Document your ritual. 

Write down the things you do every morning.  Be honest about the positive parts and the not-as-positive parts, so write down, for example, that you eat breakfast every morning and also that you hit the snooze button three times before getting up.  This will help you see and understand what you currently do.

Step three: Evaluate whether your ritual is getting you what you want.

Take some time to think about the rest of your typical day and see if you can see connections.  Do you commonly feel rushed and stressed as you get to work?  Could it be because you only allow enough time to do the bare minimum of preparation and allow no time for unexpected realities?

Step four: Determine what you want and what you don’t want.

This step corresponds to Stephen Covey’s Second Habit, “Begin with the end in mind.”  Think about what you do (or don’t) want to get out of the beginning of your day before you make changes to what you're currently doing.  So, do you want to feel relaxed or connected spiritually?  Do you want to have a clear idea of the priorities for the day or be organized? 

Step five:  Reengineer your current ritual.

Once you see what you’re currently doing and what you’d like to be getting, brainstorm a list of alternative activities that help you get there.  So, if you want to feel calm and centered, you could add ideas to your list about taking time to be still, meditate, listen to calming music or sounds, etc.  Next, you will need to identify how much time each part will take and then arrange the order of the parts, so that they make sense – you don’t want to shower before you work out, right? -- and flow naturally.

Step six:  Implement the ritual.

In the words of the iconic Nike ads, “Just do it.”  You will need to practice the new routine for awhile in order to give it a chance to work and overcome the initial resistance to change that many of us feel. 

Step seven: Tweak the ritual as necessary.

Your life will change depending on your life stage and other realities.  Don’t get stuck in something if it is not working the way you thought it would or has stopped working for you over time.  Add new practices, delete old ones, rearrange the order, expand some parts or shorten others, and make other tweaks to change what you do to get the results that you want.  

In the podcast, Michael answers questions about what to do if you are a night owl, get distracted by other things, experience a disruption, and so on.  I encourage you to take some time to look at how you set up your day to get more of what you want from it.  

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!