Tag Archives: Kouzes and Posner
Fundamentals of Exemplary Leadership at the May FFBS
At the May First Friday Book Synopsis, I will present a synopsis of James Kouzes and Barry Posner‘s newest best-seller, Learning Leadership: The Five Fundamentals of Becoming an Exemplary Leader (San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, 2016).
Kouzes (left, below) and Posner (right, below) ve become some of the most powerful and influential writers about the subject of leadership, all published by Jossey-Bass from San Francisco. You are aware that The Leadership Challenge (6th edition to be released on May 1) remains one of the best-sellers of all time, and is in its 25th anniversary commemoration. We have presented synopsis of several of their books, including Encouraging the Heart (2003).
I won’t spoil the story for you, because I want you to attend the synopsis, and hear what is between the lines for each of the five fundamentals.
But, here they are:
1. Believe you can.
2. Aspire to excellence.
3. Challenge yourself.
4. Engage support.
5. Practice deliberately.
The authors treat the fundamentals separately, but recognize the strong interdependence among them.
And, please note that they are not talking about just any leader – this book is about becoming an exemplary one!
Empathy Training May Not Be Genuine
We have presented several books over the years that have featured empathy as an important skill for managers to exhibit. Obviously, the Kouzes and Posner best-seller, Encouraging the Heart (Jossey-Bass, 2003), includes many different references to empathy as a management tool in recognizing and reinforcing employee behavior.
I was interested in a recent syndicated article entitled “The Impact of Empathy,” oirignally writtten by Matthew Gutierrez for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on July 11, 2016. You can read his article by clicking HERE.
His premise is that companies often benefit when managers receive and use the tools to become more understanding of their direct reports. He cites an imporant program taken by local YWCA managers, who claim they are more effective after receiving empathy trainilng. Gutierrez state that about 20 percent of employers offer empathy training for managers, and he provides documentation from Development Dimensions International (DDI), that top-to-bottom, the copmanies perform better with this training, as much as 50% more income per employee.
I love the end, but not the means. I don’t have a lot of good to say about people who exhibit the skill of empathy, without the underlying heart that contains it.
Any manager can learn a series of statements and questions that show interest in others. And, there is some likelihood that those behaviors will result in positive outcomes for the employees who receive them. But for how long? When does the facade wear off? How much time will it take for someone who really doesn’t care about another person to finally show true colors?
I’m not too interested in showing anyone how to use a skill such as displaying empathy who does not have cotresponding empathy in the heart. If you really don’t care, then how better off is anyone, if all you do is fool someone into thinking that you care?
I don’t mind this training for people who really do care, but have trouble expressing it. That is worthwhile training for them, for it builds proper skills that they need to exhibit.
But, we’ve already got enough problems in the workplace than do add phony skills for phony people to exhibit who really don’t care. Just be honest – tell us you don’t care, go do your job, and don’t build false hopes and promises by being non-transparent.
What do you think? Hit reply and let me know.
“The Story Needs A Great Storyteller” – Alan Rickman (Severus Snape) Reminds Us Of The Centrality of Story
Severus Snape (Alan Rickman)
It is an ancient need to be told stories. But the story needs a great storyteller. Thanks for all of it, Jo.
Alan Rickman, speaking to/of Jo Rowling, shortly after his “final moments” as Severus Snape
————
There’s a letter making the rounds. Alan Rickman wrote it, and put it in a full-page ad in Empire to say his very sweet good-bye.
In Encouraging the Heart, Kouzes and Posner write:
Marshall McLuhan is reported to have said, “Those who think there’s a difference between education and entertainment don’t know the first thing about either one.”
Good stories move us. They touch us, they teach us, and they cause us to remember. They enable the listener to put the behavior in a real context and understand what has to be done in that context to live up to expectations.
We need more, a lot more!, good communication going on in the corporate world. This is a really nice reminder that story – good storytelling – is at the heart of all good communication.
Here’s the full letter:
Click on letter for full view
When the Person at the Top is a Jerk – a lesson from Aaron Sorkin’s Sports Night (Casey Learns the Names)
Honored and not diminished. That’s how we all want to feel.
James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Pozner, Encouraging the Heart: A Leaders Guide to Rewarding and Encouraging Others
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I have probably presented my synopsis of Encouraging the Heart by Kouzes and Posner more than any other book synopsis. (I presented this again at a conference this week). It is the “perfect book,” the best book I have read for building people, for knowing what to do to help people get better at their work. The subtitle says it well Encouraging the Heart: A Leaders Guide to Rewarding and Encouraging Others.
There is so much great value in the book, but here is one point that is crystal clear, and critically important — a leader has to notice, to pay attention, to give credit, in order to successfully and effectively encourage others.
Recently, I thought of a scene from one of my all-time favorite tv shows, Sports Night, that reinforces a critical lesson from this book. It was the first television show created by academy award winner Aaron Sorkin (he later created The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. He won his academy award for The Social Network). Many still believe that Sports Night was his greatest work.
One of the characters is Casey McCall (Peter Krause), something of a self-absorbed jerk… In this particular clip, you can see his flaws – flaws close to deadly for a man in such a top position on a team:
1) He is totally self-centered.
2) He is oblivious – oblivious to practically all other folks around him He does not see their value; he does not acknowledge their gifts or skills; he does not share the credit.(in fact, he does not give the credit where the credit belongs). In fact, he simply does not see them.
3) And he is “deaf” – he will not listen, and seemingly can not hear.
So how do you solve a problem like Casey? You create a “stasis moment” – you bring him to a standstill, a moment when he is slapped in the face with the reality of his own self-centeredness.
Enter the brave, brilliant, Monica (Janel Moloney). She confronts Casey in an assertive, yet humble, moment as she acts as a champion of others — teaching him a valuable lesson, in just the right way.
If you lead a team, or serve as a leader of manager, this is a great video excerpt to watch. A clip is worth a few thousand words. Take a look. (it is just over 6 and a half minutes. It is worth the look).
• here’s the key moment, from the script (it’s from a truly wonderful episode, The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee):
MONICA
My name’s Monica. I’m the assistant
wardrobe supervisor for Sports Night
as well as two other shows here at
CSC. I think you hurt the feelings of
the woman I work for. Her name is
Maureen and she’s been working here
since the day you started.CASEY
I know Maureen.MONICA
Can I ask you another question?CASEY
I’m sorry I didn’t know your name.MONICA
(HOLDING UP A NECKTIE) Do you know
what color this is?CASEY
It’s grey.MONICA
It’s called gun metal. Grey has more
ivory in it, gun metal has more blue.
Can you tell me which of these shirts
you should wear it with?CASEY
I don’t know.MONICA
No you don’t. There’s no reason why
you should. You’re not supposed to
know what shirt goes with what suit or
how a color in a necktie can pick up
your eyes. You’re not expected to know
what’s going to clash with what Dan’s
wearing or what pattern’s gonna bleed
when Dave changes the lighting. Mr.
McCall, you get so much attention and
so much praise for what you actually
do, and all of it’s deserved. When you
go on a talk-show and get complimented
on something you didn’t, how hard
would it be to say “That’s not me.
That’s a woman named Maureen who’s
been working for us since the first
day. It’s Maureen who dresses me every
night, and without Maureen, I wouldn’t
know gun metal from a hole in the
ground.” Do you have an idea what it
wouldn’ve meant to her? Do you have any
idea how many times she would’ve
played that tape for her husband and
her kids?
(BEAT) I know this is when it starts
to get busy for you, and I hope I
didn’t take up too much of your time.
Please don’t tell Maureen I spoke to
you, she’d be pretty mad at me.
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You can purchase my synopsis of Encouraging the Heart, with audio + handout, at our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com.
Talent Management’s New Assignment – Building Confidence in Anxious and Uncertain Employees
Definition: Talent Management refers to the process of developing and integrating new workers, developing and retaining current workers, and attracting highly skilled workers to work for a company.
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Talent…Management. The two words say so much. One, that everyone who works with you/for you is “talent.” Next, somehow, the talent has to be managed.
But, as we all know, there is no magic formula. There are only guidelines – hints. And many of these are quite good, like:
• only hire people who can to the job at hand very well
• only hire people who can get along well with others
• make sure that each person is doing what he/she is best at
• give people the training and support they need to get better at their job
• recognize and reward excellent work
• praise in public; criticize in private
• if you’ve got the wrong person in place, make a change in the next 3 seconds – every second, every day, you delay, you drag down the morale of everyone. (This is a remarkably consistent theme in many books we’ve presented over our 12+ years).
In other words: hire well; train well; encourage well; recognize/reward well… and keep in touch with the current thinking of your “talent.” Know what their strengths are now, their weaknesses, and their concerns.
These are all wise suggestions/reminders, and we have presented a number of books at the First Friday Book Synopsis over the years to help you better “manage talent.” My favorite is still the classic Encouraging the Heart: A Leader’s Guide to Rewarding and Recognizing Others by James Kouzes and Barry Posner, which I presented more than a decade ago (hard to believe!), and recently Karl presented his synopsis of Make Their Day!: Employee Recognition That Works by Cindy Ventrice – a very fine, practical book.
But here is my latest thinking about talent management. We have to add an element right now that is crucial. People who manage talent have to read the current state/mood/thinking of the talent they manage.
Here is why. This is an era of great uncertainty and anxiety. We all read the news. Companies are reluctant to hire (even companies with plenty of cash available); and joblessness continues to be a pervasive problem. And though the unemployment rate for college graduates is still low (4.5%, much lower than the overall unemployment rate), a growing number of college graduates are “settling” for jobs that are not what they had hoped for/signed up for with their college and/or graduate school education. It really is an age of uncertainty and anxiety.
And an anxious employee is uncertain, tentative – not at his/her best. Uncertainty breeds loss of confidence, thus loss of competence.
Successful Talent Management is going to increasingly require leaders — all those who supervise others — to help people survive and successfully navigate such uncertain waters. People need to feel secure, and then confident in their abilites (and their company).
Talent Management, more than ever before, is going to have to add “confidence building” to its list of practices.
One Size Fits All; Right?! – Not Any More (Motivation 3.0 Has Arrived)
One Size Fits All; Right?! – Not Any More. This is true in so many ways. And one way is “motivation.” In the old days, the days that Daniel Pink calls Motivation 2.0, motivation was simple. Carrots and sticks. Going back to the days of Frederick Winslow Taylor:
You simply rewarded the behavior you sought and punished the behavior you discouraged. The way to improve performance, increase productivity, and encourage excellence is to reward the good and punish the bad. Rewarding an activity will get you more of it. Punishing an activity will get you less of it.
But we have now moved into the new era of Motivation 3.0. This is the premise of the book DRiVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink. For much of the working population, we still need to use the carrot & stick/rewards approach. In fact, Karl, my colleague at the First Friday Book Synopsis, presented a synopsis of the practical book, Make Their Day: Employee Recognition that Works by Cindy Ventrice. One key piece of advice is this: “recognize unique contributions with personalized recognition.” And the book has tangible ways to make this work to maximum effect. This is common, common-sense advice. (It is also a critical part of the plan recommended in the terrific book Encouraging the Heart by Kouzes and Posner).
But, for the newest “heuristic” workers (Pink’s term), there must be a new understanding of and approach to motivation. Here is my attempt to summarize the key findings in Pink’s book:
| The Three Elements
Of Motivation 3.0 |
What This Might Mean/
Might Look Like |
| Autonomy: a renaissance of self-direction | “ROWE” – Results Only Work Environment – everyone is/has to be/wants to be a self-starting, self-directing person |
| Mastery: the desire to get better and better at something that matters (only engagement leads to mastery) (to learn, to create, to better the world) | Individuals always keep learning. With deliberate practice. (the 10,000 hour rule, with deliberate practice — deep, deepening abilities) |
| Purpose: very simply, doing something that matters because it should matter; something done in the service of something larger than ourselves | Either have a product/service that matters; or, provide “work time” to do something that matters… |
And here is Pink’s own “twitter length” summary of his book:
“Carrots & sticks are so last century. Drive says for 21st century work, we need to upgrade to autonomy, mastery, & purpose.”
Who should read the Pink book? If you work alone, and you have to be your own self-starting, self-directed worker, you should read it. If the people you supervise are heuristic workers, you should read it.
And what is a heuristic job – any job that requires creativity, any job that creates something “new.” From the book:
Working as a grocery checkout clerk is mostly algorithmic. You do pretty much the same thing over and over in a certain way. Creating an ad campaign is mostly heuristic. You have to come up with something new…
Whatever your own job, you should read it. Because, more and more, you will have to rely on internal/intrinsic motivation. Because, in my opinion, “carrots and sticks” will slowly disappear from the scene. Because, to quote Pink again:
…in today’s environment, people have to be ever more self-directed. “If you need me to motivate you, I probably won’t hire you.”
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{To watch Dan Pink speaking on the key principles found in this book, from a recent Ted Conference, go here).
(I presented my synopsis of Drive this morning at the First Friday Book Synopsis. The two synopses from this morning will be available soon, with audio + handout, at our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com. And, Encouraging the Heart is available on the site now).
