Your Last 10%

A number of years ago I was with a great friend at his workplace where he was speaking with a member of his team about a difficult topic. He sensed she was trying to be diplomatic and was not being completely forthright as she answered his questions.

Then he said, "what is your last 10%?"

I'm sure I had a puzzled look on my face as I watched this exchange, as I had absolutely no idea what his question meant.

His team member paused...flashed a bit of a nervous smile...and gave a completely honest answer to his previous series of questions.

Once this impromptu meeting ended, I asked my friend about the last 10%, and why it shifted her answers to the core of the issue.

He explained that he has a rule with his team. They are required - like most teams - to be honest and thoughtful about their communication. But in case something gets too complicated, politically sensitive or just a bit awkward, they can ask for the other person to give their "last 10% of what they're thinking."

I love that.

A culture whereby even the most challenging of topics have a clear path to be discussed without fear of retribution because you are given the freedom to share that final bit of information on your mind.

How About You

What culture have you created in your workplace? The real one. Does it have clear paths for your team members to be completely honest? 

Maybe the last 10% help?

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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Tell Your Organization's Story

The world is filled with lots of voices. Many of those voices are determined to tell inaccurate stories about your organization. 

Maybe it's a former employee who was held accountable and has moved on, and is now looking to save face.

Maybe it's another organization trying to spread misinformation about you.

Maybe it is simply a series of events that appear to position your company in a negative light.

Stop Wishing for Good News
In an era of unlimited opportunities to share information, I'm not sure why every organization isn't aggressively telling their own story? 

Do you have fantastic people working for you? Talk about them!

Do you do good work that adds value? Share those stories!

Do you have a thought leadership message to share to inspire others? Get started!

When we wait for good stories to be told about our organizations we need to tell ourselves that old phrase..."don't hold your breath." The only people that will intentionally tell an accurate story about all of the good things you do is...YOU!

Get Started
Kicking off this strategy is not nearly as difficult as you might think. 

1. Decide to drive the message instead of being a victim.
2. Identify a team..and a leader of that team..to own the process.
3. Develop and implement your plan with clear accountabilities to sustain the effort.

Find the talented people in your company who have a passion for what you do. Identify a leader who will ensure your strategy comes to life and moves the narrative forward.

You can do it.

How About You
What fears are holding you back? Stop making excuses and write them down. 

Rip apart each one, and move forward. We are not victims as leaders, we make a huge difference in the lives of our organizations. You can too.

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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Employee Voice as a Strategic Priority

We've all heard, and most of us (hopefully) have adopted employee voice strategies in our organizations, right? We've built formal systems that allow our 'most valuable assets' to participate in our success.

More Than Talk
Plenty of organizations wrestle with the concept of the war for talent, addressing culture change, empowering staff, and on and on. 

It is the precious few though, that put those words into action. 

Policy changes that formalize employee voice channels...leadership visibility on a massive, sustainable scale...and taking action based on employee feedback are hallmarks of the most successful organizations. 

Do you have these systems in place yet?

Head In the Sand
If you are not one of the organizations that has committed to a positive employee culture, be warned. Simply because you have a long list of justifications as to why certain things need to be done (which oddly enough lines up exactly with your way of thinking); that does not mean your team is blindly following along.

Do you believe all of your employees simply follow you regardless of their insights?

How About You
Right now is the perfect time to pause and consider how you can provide a new level of leadership for your organization. What communication channels can you establish to create the culture you desire? What are you afraid of hearing from your people? 

It's better to be proactive now, instead of facing a dramatic shift in morale later, right?

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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There's No Such Thing As Weak Leadership

Have you ever heard the comment..."oh, he's a weak leader." Maybe you've said it yourself. Candidly, I have too. Ouch.

Expectations
We all talk about...or should talk about...setting proper expectations with our leadership teams. 

What should they focus on? 
Where should they put their development time? 
How will their success be measured? 
What can they expect from us as their senior leaders?

Friends, I've heard these questions asked for years, literally. Yet somehow they keep coming up again and again. How is that possible? In some instances I've been exposed to sophisticated onboarding and leader pathway processes. In others, I hear the tired excuses of leaders who want to do well, but just don't know how to be effective. 

Accountability
I'm convinced the secret to weeding out the failing leaders is simply to hold them accountable. Be firm and fair. But, they must be held accountable. 

Here's the tricky part...most of these leaders believe they are doing a good job. They have convinced themselves they are above the fray and untouchable. Imagine their shock when they are provided coaching that does not continue to inflate their already overinflated egos?

Look out!

How About You
What is to be done when a leader is struggling? Do we...coach them....have an off-the-record pep talk with them...fire them...hmmm?

How about we step up and handle it directly? It's harder this way, but you can do it. Oh, and it's also the "leader" part of leadership.

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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Everything You Can Imagine

What is it about how we see the world? Some see the negatives, live in fear, and move so cautiously they miss any realistic chance of making a difference.

Others move so rapidly that they don't pause for even a moment to consider the impact of their reckless decision-making style.

Still others are so full of confidence that they are sure their approach is the right one. Until it's not.

Finding Balance
As someone who has a...shall we say, healthy ego...finding the sweet spot between confidence and arrogance can be challenging at times. 

Maybe you struggle with that too. Since I've been around the block more times than I care to count, that elusive thing known as experience has suddenly become an ally. 

It guides me...protects me...and spurs me on when I see opportunities that others don't see.

Blind Spots
But where is that balance? How do we find it when we know, whether we would like to admit it or not, that we have blind spots...even with all of our 'experience?'

Having a team that you trust around you makes a big difference. When you trust your team, ideas can be shared, different perspectives can be examined, and the best plan can be executed.

In the absence of that culture, you are destined to fall prey to those blind spots. Right?

How About You
Lead the way and build the culture in your organization that allows for growth, camaraderie and trust. Just imagine what could be possible!

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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Do You See Them?

This week is one of my favorites of the year. Why? It's the week of our annual meeting at Kinetix. We bring all of our employees together from across the country to our corporate office in Atlanta for training, team-building, and celebration of an incredibly successful year.

Moments
One of the best parts of the week each year is the series of individual moments I have with our team. Quiet sidebar conversations about work, life, career aspirations, or challenges happening right then.

It is a privilege to have these moments actually. They are important to the team members who are kind enough to value my opinion; and they are important to me because the team trusts me enough to be involved in what's happening in their world.

That's not just "work." That's trust, and respect, and how it should be.

Seeing Them
During our company photo shoot I was chatting with one of the other executives here, and they said to me...

"...just look at our group...we have an unbelievable team of people here now...I'm not just saying it...

they truly are incredible..."

That's powerful.

...and that's one of the things I love about being a member of the leadership team here at Kinetix. 

Our employees are not FTEs, or staff, or commodities. 

They are people, who work hard, have good values, and add to our culture far beyond their performance of 18% productivity growth. 

They are people who we have the privilege to have on the team.

How About You
How do you see the members of your team? Are they replaceable, or maybe simply a seat that needs to be filled? Or, are they much more than that?

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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The Great Unsaid

"Oh, yes...he has always acted that way. It's just part of life here."

"She does that all the time...her team has learned to work around her."

"When he gets in one of his moods, look out!"

"She's always rude and interrupts..yet we hold everyone else accountable for that."

All Quiet on the Corporate Front
We've all experienced this bizarre phenomenon. Leaders are allowed to behave poorly, yet we're fast as lightning to hammer employees who act the same way.

What holds us back from speaking up? Do we actually believe our career path will be compromised by leading? Could we be ostracized from our peer group for addressing the very public skeleton in our shared corporate closet? 

"It is perhaps the greatest failure of leadership...that is... to passionately espouse the values of the organization, and fail so miserably to hold it's leaders to that standard."

Speak Up or Fail
Consider what happens to the front line employees when leaders are allowed to behave like fools:
- morale tumbles
- engagement evaporates
- turnover rises
- revenue dwindles

Why would we ever wish for these things to happen to our organizations? Yet, when we remain silent on leadership behavior, we are stating quite loudly that we WANT these terrible things to happen. 

There is no in-between stance...if you do not speak up and coach, counsel, or discipline poor leadership behavior, you are in fact endorsing a dark and painful course for your company.

How About You
I don't even have to ask...you already have the name of the person in your head that fits this post. So, what will you do the next time they 'do their thing?" Perhaps stare at your shoes and hope they stop talking; or, have a very direct, professional, and purposeful discussion with them?

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

Failure Is Not A Competency

Proclaiming one's failures seems to be a trendy thing to do these last few years. It's an odd thing though, at least it is to me.

I get the whole "learn from your mistakes" angle...but, really...relishing in one's failures?

Lower the Bar
I'll be honest here. I don't want to fail. In fact, I get upset with myself when I stumble, let alone fail. I'm sure you do too.

Maybe, we have embraced failure as way to limit expectations of ourselves and our colleagues?

Maybe we have socialized failure so heavily, it is now more important to "own it" when we fail vs. being held accountable?

Maybe we need to stop making excuses about weakness, incompetence, and yes, failure?

How does that sound?

Harsh or Honest?
If you've written off today's post as a rant, think again.

How is failure treated in your organization? Do those leaders who struggle continue to stay in their roles, all while your senior leadership team preaches accountability and upholding corporate values?

You can't have it both ways.

Maybe what's happened to the corporate world is that we're all so fearful of employment litigation, that we've made it okay to hide behind excuses to be weak and indecisive? We see it a lot...so...it must be true.

Right?

How About You
How are you addressing failure and driving accountability into your organization? Is it working? What has made your approach successful?

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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Invisible Boundaries

Balance.
Crossing the line.
Setting expectations.
Role clarity.

Boundaries.

Work/Life Boundaries at Work
Okay, I need to say right away...I struggle with this. In my mind, I need to be available, on-call, and ready to jump into the action at any moment. That's what leaders do, right? 

We're available!

We've decided to forgo a large part of our personal life for the greater good of the organization!

We're role models of leadership effectiveness!

Well, I do love being all of those things...but I'm learning that I don't love being all of those things, all the time.

Boundaries at Home
Where is the balance point between committed leader, and committed person outside of work?

Where is that fine line that separates "dedicated" from hurtful intrusion? 

Is there a sign I should be looking for; or, perhaps that sign comes in the form of a tangled plan that is influenced by our work?

There is no easy answer. One of the thrills of leadership, for me, is the action and drama and sudden intensity that requires a savvy response as the "world" is getting all worked up. But when that world is always worked up it can begin to negatively impact our personal lives.

That's not good...for us as people, or as leaders.

How About You
How do you find the 'life balance' that integrates all of your responsibilities? Where do you draw the lines that ensure you don't give too much of yourself away?

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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I Saw, Today

I saw commitment today.

I saw dedication to patients.

I saw a team completely focused on a goal.

I saw preparation.

I saw real-time accountability.
I saw transparency.
I saw energy.

I saw follow through.

I saw transparency.

I saw communication.

I saw passion.

I saw priorities.

I saw teamwork.

I saw action.

I saw results.

How About You
What did you see today?

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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Senior Leaders, Cheap Talk, & Being Present

"Culture is to recruiting, as product is to marketing."
- Hubspot's Culture Code

Culture, Culture, Culture
The word culture sure gets thrown around a lot, don't you think? For me, it's right up there with values. If I hear one more executive espouse their organization's values, without taking action to prove they matter, I think I might spit.

Every organization obviously has a culture. However, many organizations do not have the culture they claim, or they secretly know in their "heart" that theirs has unlimited room for improvement.

If we all know these things, claim our employees are our most valuable asset, and continue to preach our culture message over and over yet still have major gaps relative to reality, what is the missing piece?

All You Do To Me is Talk Talk
For many leaders, landing that big title or breaking into the executive ranks feels like the end of a long journey, when in fact, it is only the beginning. They often feel as if they can ramble on and on simply because they must be the smartest person in the room, just look at their title!

Think of leaders as the six players on a hockey team during a game. 

Six players, but twenty-thousand fans staring at them...watching every move...hoping for good decisions, and the effort to back up what they say when they are off the ice.

It's the same for us in leadership. There are only a few of us compared to all of the employees who work in our companies. 

They are watching every move...hoping for good decisions, and the effort to back up what we say during meeting after meeting after meeting.

Are you with me?

How About You
Words are incredibly powerful tools for leaders. They inspire, motivate, encourage, reward, hold accountable, recognize and fire up the people around them. But in the absence of action...or follow through...

...the words damage the credibility of that leader. 

It's time to back up the culture talk with culture ACTION!

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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Carved In Stone

Regardless of the size of the organization.

Let's agree they are all complex.

Right?

Many Parts
People.

Problems.

Wins.

...but...

My eyes only see a fraction of the whole.

What part am I not seeing?

Which employee am I missing?

What issue is just beyond my line of sight?

Who is struggling that I can help, but I just don't notice them?

How About You
Am I inflexible and carved so deeply in stone that I'm missing...well... everything around me? 

What, or more importantly, who, might you be missing in your world?

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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Aspect

I see the world in a certain way. I don't think that's a bad thing; in fact, I'm not sure how I could see it any other way. I'll always have those unconscious biases playing in the background and influencing how I think, speak and act.

The challenge, of course, is what to do about those biases as I become aware of them? 

My Lens
The lens I use to see the world is clouded with high expectations, little tolerance for excuses, and even less patience when it comes to repeated leadership failures. I'm not trying to be cute here...failings in these areas send me right over the edge. 

That clouded lens of mine has served me well, but it has also been a source of much frustration. So, where is the gap?

Savvy
The value I place on being a savvy leader is not merely because it is important. Quite the opposite...everyone who is actually paying attention to the practice of effective leadership understands it's importance. 

The challenge lies in helping those leaders who don't understand what it means to be savvy. You know who they are in your organization. They use lots and lots of words, yet somehow for all of their "knowledge" they fail miserably when the moment comes and they have to be savvy.

In the moment.

Without thinking.

Without running to a supervisor for guidance.

Acting with the full knowledge of what is at stake, and the accompanying dynamics that will play out.

...and they have to do it instantly.

Is this difficult to do? Of course it is.

Are we supposed to wait and wait and wait and wait while our "leaders" take an inordinate amount of time to "get up to speed" and be savvy?

Absolutely not.

How About You
Achieving results for our organizations does not happen because we make excuses. We do not grow, open new jobs, pay our people, or create an employer brand that is second to none while simultaneously justifying why the same errors are repeated.

Be the savvy leader your organization needs. Push yourself to be what you've always wanted to be. If you're not ready...don't pretend. Everyone can see through your talk. Instead, be humble, listen, learn, ask questions, and give yourself a chance to take your career to the next level.

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

Propaganda, Culture & Employer Brand

You spend so much time telling me your culture and people are the most valuable assets of your organization....but you don't round, you don't invest precious resources in employees, and you spend your whole day in meetings claiming to be busy.

You don't have the culture you think you do.

Your turnover hasn't improved in a meaningful way for years

You don't dare take risks to move your organization from old school to a cutting edge contemporary company...but...

...you care about your organization and your employees.

Please. Stop. Talking.
All of this has happened on your watch.

If you believe that your press releases, HR policies, and "Memos to Staff" are even remotely based on how your employees, and potential employees view your organization you are kidding yourself.

You can not hide from reality.
You can not hide from indecision.
You can not hide from how the world sees you.

Please. Start. Doing.
Here's the good news. You have the ability, today, to turn your excuses into a well thought out plan of action. It will require effort. It will require perceived risk...and it will require your leadership.

No one else can do it but you.

Step One
Take a look at your value statements, your messages to your employees, and (if you have anything) the messages to prospective candidates about your organization on your career site.

Now, align your behavior, the time on your calendar, and the words you use with your colleagues to match these messages.

Step Two
Build a comprehensive employer brand strategy to immediately begin using your employees as both retention and talent attraction tools.

Step Three
Ignore the noise. Your senior leadership colleagues will not understand what you're doing. Your Marketing department will feel incredibly threatened because they will have no idea what you're doing either.

Keep pushing. Only you can make this happen. 

It will be lonely...and nerve-wracking...and...

...IT WILL WORK!

How About You
Are you ready to finally get rid of all of those tired excuses you've been using since the 1990s?

There is a reason HR does not get the respect it deserves, and that starts with us.

You can do it...and I will help you if you need me.

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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Bleed the Fifth

"If you are a boss, ask yourself: When you look back at how you've treated followers, peers, and superiors, in their eyes, will you have earned the right to be proud of yourself? Or will they believe that you ought to be ashamed of yourself and be embarrassed by how you have trampled others' dignity day after day?"
- Robert I. Sutton

Fear
For those that believe they are "great leaders" and have so much experience and "always know the answers" I have some bad news for you.

You have created a corporate culture rife with fear. 

Yes you have. 

Your arrogance and "coaching" are not perceived the way you've convinced yourself that they are. Your teams are not being honest with you, they are worried about losing their jobs, and the fact that you are "always right" simply adds fuel to the culture bonfire you've created.

You Can't Change
Well, maybe you can change. But I suspect it will be the most difficult thing you've ever done in your career, and here's why.

You have to actively infuse humility into who you are as a leader.

I'm not talking about dropping a bunch of leadership jargon on the team. I'm not talking about employee feedback sessions that you facilitate and get the comments that you were expecting all along.

Newsflash! They are not going to tell you their truth. They will continue to bleed quietly and "accept" your reality.

As the high value team members slip away, and you continue to behave in the exact same way year after year, it makes me wonder how much longer the tired excuses can be used to justify the same results?

How About You
What would it take for you to really change your style? Perhaps if you were threatened with your position? Maybe if you publicly fell flat on your face and your team, despite their feelings about how you treat them, rallied to support you?

What would it take for you to get over yourself?

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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Generation 'Leadership-Do-Your-Job'

"Parents [and leaders] often talk about the younger generation as if they didn't have anything to do with it."
- Haim Ginott

The People
I'm not a big fan of focusing exclusively on one generation or another when I think about job satisfaction, leadership behavior, or strategic workforce planning. However, there are some realities to the world we live in that can not be ignored.

For example, there are a heck of a lot of people turning sixty-five every day (as in, 10,000!) We affectionately call these folks baby-boomers and seem to hold them in high regard. 

Deserved for some, but not for all.


We also have another group of employees that are making a huge impact in our hiring, leadership development, and retention activities.


There are a heck of a lot of them turning twenty-something every day. We not-so-affectionately call these folks millennials.

This negative stereotype speaks volumes about the insecurities of the leaders uttering them.

The Research
Glassdoor has published an interesting report on recruiting and retention statistics for 2017 that is loaded with neat little facts, 

What I found most impactful includes:

- we need to respect our employees
- we need to focus on creating an amazing place to work to retain our employees
- we need to be progressive, competitive, and thoughtful on pay, benefits and culture

Do Your Job
So, what does all of this *new* insight tell us? It's quite simple actually.

1. Leaders are focused far too much on themselves.
2. Leaders spend too much time labeling others.
3. Leaders are threatened about their positions so anything new or different is bad.
4. Leaders lose good people because they don't practice the values that they preach.

You aren't that special..but your team members are. Stop talking, start showing them how much they matter to your company.

How About You
I know every leader isn't stumbling around like a management dinosaur. But if the Glassdoor report tells us anything, it's that there plenty of those dinosaurs left alive who are still tearing down their organizations from the inside out.

Don't be a dinosaur.

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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The Corporate World's Hot Mess

I'm not one of the young guns anymore. I'm not that 'rising star' (in my mind) that takes bold action, launches new strategies, or sets the world on fire. Wait a second, who am I kidding, of course I still do all of those things! 

However, I view the responsibilities of executives differently now.

Pushing the envelope will always be how I roll...but being so caught up in covering my ass, or feeding my fragile ego at the expense of the amazing people around me, is just about the biggest sin in the executive bible that I can think of. Yet I've seen it happen all too often.

I Wish I Had One of "Those Jobs"
It's actually pretty easy to be an executive...under one basic premise:

Every single thing,

about every part of the entire organization, 

in every circumstance, is perfect in every way, 

at every moment.

The rest of the time, it's hard as hell.

Do Your Job
When you consider the "priorities" that many executives focus on, they are often quite far from the reality of successfully operating their companies. Political infighting, building alliances, scolding direct reports for issues that have no real impact on the business but do impact the warped view the executive's have of leadership, all add up to failure. 

These massive insecurities result in catastrophic damage:
- loss of credibility for the executive 
- loss of focus on the drivers of success (or failure) for the organization
- hours of wasted time addressing the behaviors of executives who have potential, but move down a path that is counterproductive

Is all of this harsh and offensive? Out of touch with reality? Um, no it's not. If I were to spend a few minutes with the leaders who report directly to executives, I would have more than enough "proof."

I've also been hearing it from these same folks (as well as other frustrated executives around them) for years and years...

Solutions
Oh, where to begin! While it is easy to blame our colleagues across the many organizations we encounter in our careers, that doesn't actually help. 

The real opportunity here is for HR to play a far more bold and active role in the operational life of the company.

Some questions to consider as you step up your game:

- When executives get caught up in protecting their position and power instead of focusing on the most important challenges ahead, do you speak up or remain silent?

- When you see high potential leaders being promoted too rapidly, do you speak up or allow it to happen?

- When political agendas start to impact organizational decision making, do you expose it or try to join the club?

How About You
We must be proactive.

We must be internal executive coaches.

We must take control of dysfunctional situations, not just slide into secondary roles.

We must be the executive role models for our junior executive colleagues (regardless of their 'senior' titles) to help them develop into truly effective leaders.

...and we must start today.

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.


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The Secret Talent Weapon You're Wasting

Every organization I speak with "wants" to be a contemporary player in the ongoing struggle to attract talent. However, most have no idea how to leverage social or digital tools to make that desire a reality.

Sadly, one of the most powerful and frequently overlooked weapons available is walking in and out of the front door every day.

The employees.

Brand Ambassadors
Whether we call them brand ambassadors, employee advocates, or formal members of the recruitment marketing team, there is no voice more powerful than the voice of the those that have already committed to representing the employer brand.

Let's leave the whole "building an employer brand strategy" discussion for another post, and focus on the massive amount of horsepower that is ready, willing and able to launch that strategy right now.

The first step is easy and effective: identify the employees who are already on social, or who have expressed an interest in being more active on social platforms.

If you think it is impossible to find these internal superusers, you are actually saying more about how out of touch you are vs. expressing frustration with the process. If you haven't kept up with the changes in the world of work, of course it will be difficult to identify your own brand champions.

Start Small, Go Big
A simple search of the various social channels will help you identify who is actively supporting your employer brand. Set up a twitter list to help keep track of the team's efforts quickly and efficiently.

Next, reach out to those individuals and draft them into service as part of your overall employer brand strategy.

Formalize the support you provide your initial core group of brand champions with training, guidance, content recommendations, and support. From there, you can add new employees to the group in a thoughtful and coordinated way.

How About You
There really is no excuse to hide behind the fear of social media. It is a core component of every industry. In fact, your employees are probably wondering why you don't ask them to help. They are already advocating for your company, you just don't know it!

The only thing standing in your way...is you. Let me help!

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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