One key to becoming a great leader is understanding what motivates (and what motivates other people.)  Money is not the only motivator in life!  But that’s a post for another day.

Here is a simple exercise to better understand your motivations…

If you found right now that you had 100 millions dollars (in other words money was no longer a concern) and you had 10 years left to live, what would you do.

Maybe I should ask ‘What would start doing and What would stop doing?’

Take a couple days to do this and then come back to it.  Do you see any general trends?

Is more about people or more about things?  Is it more about going places or more about leaving a legacy?

You will be able to start to shape what you are really all about it.  You will start to understand what motivates you and inspires you.

Remember, everyone can become a leader.  They just have to figure out what field they want to become a leader in.  This simple exercise will help you find your area.

Get a piece of paper and write these things down.

Heck, post a comment on our blog about it.

One of the biggest things that can change an organization is enforcing the use of data in every conversation.

If you as a leader, ignore the ‘I think…’ or ‘I remember when…’ or ‘We already tried that…’ comments.

And, at the same time, recognize people who start the debate with ‘The data shows… ‘ or ‘I used the Pareto Principle to…’ or ‘Statistically it appears that…’

You will completely change an organization.  The people who considered themselves in power just because of tenure may find themselves with an internal struggle and resentment towards you as the new leaders.

While others (typically newer people to the organization) or the lower ranking people love this approach.

Why?

Data levels the playing field.  If a union worker or the new guy comes in and explains to everyone that the data shows this… and the Leader listens, very quickly this person gains credibility with the workforce.

This simple change mechanism is greater than any Six Sigma initiative, Kaizen Event, Lean Manufacturing team, or any other Change Management program of the month.

Committing the organization to use data in every single decision will quickly drive change throughout the organization.

And the best thing about this approach - chances are you are going to be able to make the right decisions because you have the data in front of you that clearly illustrates what to do.

Leadership… it really is easy.

Just kidding.

As previously mentioned, we have assessments that help you understand what your values are.  Remember that values are the reasons why you do the thing you do.

For example, some people may grow roses to sell them whereas other people grow them for the beautification of their garden.  Two different values - utilitarian (money) and aesthetics (beauty).

Sometimes a client will ask - ‘Can will my values change over time?’

My answer to this is:  NO.

To be honest, I still have a hard time believing this answer.

But my own data proved me wrong.  Here is some background into my story.

Over the last ten years, I have taken this Values assessment a total of five times.  I do it about every other year (secretly hoping that it would change.)  During these past ten years, I have had three kids, worked in four different jobs, moved two times, had a parent die, completed an executive MBA, and oh yeah - had cancer.

So, I figured that there would be some sort of change in my values.  Personally, I thought that my values would shift more to a ‘family’ basis given all of the turmoil that I have been through in the last ten years.  It did not happen.  There was no statistically significant difference in the results.

Now, I guess one could say that the assessment is somehow flawed.  It does not actually measure what it should measure.  Well, considering that the results that I have received are dead nuts on and have been for the last ten years.  I can’t really say that is the case.

In addition, I have had many close people to me validate the results.  They say - Yes that is you.

I am certain that every rule has its exception.  But I am not that exception.

You need to understand what your values (and what your employee’s values) are so that you can put the right plans in place to develop yourself and develop them.  Knowing their values will give you some hints on how to motivate these people.

Interested in a Value’s Assessment?  Drop me an email at michael (at) informedleaders (dot) com

Are you able to keep your end of the bargain?

Are you able to look someone in the face and tell them bad news?

Recently, one of our clients had to deliver some bad news about a terminated employee (see previous posts.)  It is my understanding that her company does not allow the manager (or any management) to discuss the specifics of any employee disciplinary action.

I completely agree with this approach.  I do not believe that details of disciplinary action should be discussed.

But here is one for you to think about…

The manager was giving a presentation about the current performance of the business.  At the conclusion of this meeting, an employee asked about the cost reductions and headcount plans.  So the dance began between the manager and the employee.

The manager gave a general statement that cost cuts were expected and that headcount would be impacted eventually.

The rebuttal statement from the audience member was ‘What about the employee that hasn’t been at work the last three days.  What happened?  Does he impact headcount?’

Now there are several ways the manager could answer this question.

1. Not say anything about the termination, while realizing that there was a chance that the audience already knew about the termination.
2. Dance around the subject by making general claims about overall cost reductions, etc.
3. Answer the question directly.

Well, her response was ‘John Doe was terminated yesterday.  His headcount number will be taken into consideration in overall organizational development plan.  We are sorry that it came to this point with John; however, there were never any surprises in this situation.  As a general rule, no one should ever be surprised with where they stand with regards to their performance.  If you have any question about how your performance is viewed by the Company, ask me or ask your immediate manager for details.’

Gutsy thing for her to do.

The feedback that she received from several employees…

Thank you for being honest with us.  Thank you for being consistent.  Thank you for holding up your end of the bargain.

This situation was unfortunate.  However, the way the situation was handled made me proud.  We have worked with her for the last 7 months on accountability and consistency of message.  She just earned her pay two times over with that simple exchange with the audience.  Sure people will be hurt about losing John Doe.

However, she will continue to gain their trust and respect because they will always know where they stand with her with regards to performance.

Someone asked me to give them the silver bullet for becoming a great leader. Well here it is…

• Know yourself - understand your strengths and weaknesses. Capitalize on your strengths and find someone that can help you with your weaknesses.
• Prioritize what it is truly important (this can be in life, work, or whatever you are working on) with solid reasoning (data really helps in this area!)
• Know how to communicate to all different styles of people (you need to be the one to adapt) your vision so that you can be held accountable by them and you can hold them accountable.
• Develop a metric to gage your progress
• Be consistent with all of the above.

You don’t have to be glamorous. You don’t have to be brilliant. You don’t have to be a political tyrant.

You just do those things above… and you will be able to lead a team to greatness.

That’s how easy it is.

Don’t agree… please add some comments.

Its funny.

Over the last two years that I have been working with this client, I have started to see some changes in his business.

Business metrics improving.

People starting to talk about issues with data and directness. No more political stuff.
People holding people accountable.

This last one is being driven by him and his business team. The Director of Human Resources made a comment to him that he relayed to me.

He explained to me that he told his HR person that he was concerned about the number of people being fired. Yes, he said it. During his short tenure of 25 months, he had to fire three people and he just had two more that came under disciplinary review.

His frustration (or maybe concern) was because he did not want to be seen as a dictator or hatchet person. Now, here is what is interesting. The HR Director’s response.

You are the first person to hold people accountable in the facility. In addition, you are the first person to require documentation of all disciplinary actions. Everything is documented with you. You collect and now have the data.

Do you really think that people did not screw up before? Of course they did. They just were not held accountable. And if they were, documentation was hardly ever used.

So now… these same people are being held accountable. They are given corrective action plans to follow; retraining; and encouragement to succeed. If they choose the correct path, they continue to grow.

If not, they are corrected again. The people that have been corrected more than five times (which is the case for each of the employees released) do not deserve to be an employee of the company.

Have you raised the bar?

Maybe or maybe not. But you are definitely holding people accountable to the standard that has been set.

I smiled as I listened to him.

He knows he is a good leader. His leadership has developed over the last couple years.

The most crucial piece to making this happen… consistency over time.

As a leader, we want our team to succeed.  I got a phone call today from a manager in a panic.

It took me a few minutes to calm him down.  No screaming or yelling, just frustration in his voice.

Here are the basic details.

Last week, he had to give discipline to a worker that had several mistakes over the last year.  This person had basically destroyed 5 production lots of material in four different circumstances.   The cost to the business was pushing close to $50,000.

He sat the individual down and got his side of the story for the most recent incident.  Basically, the employee said ‘I got in a hurry (again) and I screwed up.’  The manager pushed trying to figure out if there was a system problem.  But unfortunately there wasn’t.  It was strictly operator error.

So, it was ultimately decided to give this person a ‘last chance warning’.  In addition, the person would have to go through career counseling to try to figure out what the issue behind these repeated errors were.

After giving the individual off a week with no pay, the employee complied and contacted the career coach.

Two days after his suspension, a repeat failure occurred.  The employee walked to his manager and told him.  I know what I did and I am going home.  Please call me when you decide what you are going to do with me.

So, given that the employee has had a rough year at his home and up to this point, he has been a model employee, what do you do with him?

The manager wanted to know my answer.  I think he was looking for an excuse for not doing what we both knew he had to do.

He told me he did not want to have the hard conversation.  He told me, he could not look into the employee’s eyes without thinking about the negative impact this is going to have on his life.

My comment back to him…

“What about the other 200 employees at the site?  Why are you putting this one above all of them?”

Hard conversations are part of leadership.  We have to be fair to the employee, the business, and yourself all at the same time.

At times, this will hurt.  You are human.

Are some people leaders and others not?

There have been many debates on whether leadership is learned or just an integral part of a person.

I would suggest that anyone can be a leader. It just depends upon the area that they have passion.

For example, you may see someone as a leader at your church, but in their job, they are a quiet performer who gets their job done. They don’t want to take the leadership position at work.

Sit down and list the areas where you have a passion.

Know thyself.

I truly believe that anyone can get what they want in life.

The question is how much do you want to pay? And I am not necessarily implying money in this case.

Do you want to become a millionaire overnight? Go rob a bank and hide the money. You will get to be a millionaire but won’t get to enjoy it for 30 or so years.

Want to be a President of your company someday?

Sure it can happen, but are you willing to play the political game; work the extra hours; work weekends; miss Johnny’s baseball game?

You need to understand your values and what is truly important to you. If you are married, you should do the same thing with your spouse. If you and your spouse’s values are not aligned… then the two of you may have a tough time reaching the goals you have set. Which may lead to a sacrifice on some front.

We have some tools that will help you identify the values that are important to you. Drop me an email or post a comment and I will introduce you to these assessments.

Ultimately, understanding your values will help you develop a solid leadership process improvement plan.