Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas



Merry Christmas

Worry

This time of year tends to reveal worries about things that cannot be controlled.  Some reminders from throughout the ages are below.

Followership

"I can't wait until I'm the boss and don't have to answer to anyone."

We've all heard something similar, either in business, in the community, children, or perhaps in our own voices.  It's a consistent refrain echoing across all ages, from the very young to the very old:  one day I'll be in charge.  For all of us, that day never comes - no matter our upward trajectory in an organization.

Too much of the wrong thing

As individuals matriculate through careers, it is quite common for blind spots to develop.  Some common blind spots have to do with interpersonal relations, focus and direction, and delivering on hard-to-quantify soft skills for the good of the organization.

Decathletes (Jump the Curve)

In his book Jump the Curve, visionary Jack Uldrich shares his "50 essential strategies to help your company stay ahead of emerging technologies." His focus is on what he calls the exponential executive, the successful forward-thinking leaders in the future.

4S Model: Steps

The final S of the 4S Model is Steps:  taking the steps to actually move the new, prepared you towards your career goals and aspirations.  The first three (Self, Surroundings, Skills) are about knowing yourself, understanding the environment in which you operate, and assessing and improving your unique skill set.  The fourth S is about creating your personal marketing plan.

4S Model: Self

At many large malls, large conspicuous maps are posted showing the many different stores, attractions, and points of interest throughout.  When the typical individual approaches a map like this, the first inclination is to look for a red dot, a big arrow, or the words “You Are Here.”

The first step in the 4S Model is Self, and focuses on creating your guiding mission and vision.  To get there, you have to understand who you are, where you’ve been, and where you want to go from a career perspective.

4S Model: Skills

In the same way organizations must continuously improve, you must also continually increase your capability to become more valuable to employers, clients, and other stakeholders in your career.

Capability is the overall combination of your knowledge, skills, abilities, and the other intangibles you possess.  Increasing this capability is the Skills step of the 4S Model, and is driven by your personal development plan.

4S Model: Surroundings

“No man is an island.”  This is the first line of John Donne’s famous poem “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” written back in 1624 as part of his private notes, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions.

Also popular in corporate circles is the story of a butterfly flapping its wings causing a hurricane:  a small event far away that creates a large impact.  While some of the nuance is usually lost, the point remains that we can be affected by events outside ourselves.

Surroundings are important, as they determine in large part what the effect will be of actions we take.  The better we know our surroundings, the more effective we can be.

Coaching

“Hey Coach!”

In little league, the NFL, and in soccer camps around the world, a coach is someone that teaches, consoles, trains, offers a shoulder to lean on, and can be counted on for swift correction.  The coach is the one that teaches teamwork, fundamentals, and how to win in style.

4S Model

In thinking about a career, it’s important to define exactly what that means to you as an individual.

At many universities, career is about getting a first job using the new skills from an undergraduate or graduate program.  Some organizations define career as more of a retention tool – focusing on keeping the individual engaged to drive organizational success.  Individuals at nonprofit and religious organizations might interchange career and calling, intimating that what they get up and do every day is driven by a larger force outside of themselves.

What is a career to you?

Elevator speech

Marketing and advertising can teach us a lot about creating a personal brand.

In advertising the challenge is to deliver a memorable and actionable message in thirty seconds to a minute.  On radio, these messages are a mixture of words and background sounds.  With television and streaming media, sights and sounds combine to deliver the message.  At an amusement park, all of the senses are stimulated to deliver the message in the first thirty seconds:  bright lights, bells ringing, the scents of tasty food drifting through the air – so sugary you can almost taste it, and the bustle of people.  The message that primes the rest of your experience is “you’ll have a great time here!”

In How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less, Nicholas Boothman writes:  “Believe it or not the attention span of the average person is about 30 seconds! 

Go to sleep

My three-year-old is starting to transition out of naps and into a 7:00 fussiness that stretches each evening into long ordeals as we march towards bed.  Once he’s down, he tosses and turns for a while, finally working his way to sleep.  Because of my schedule, he’s often starting his day earlier than some other children his age.

Advice at the coffee shop

At a coffee shop, a man is talking with his wife about how he is “repositioning” their finances for the “crazy market we're in right now.” Then he proposed to:

• buy gold because the price is really high and lots of people are talking about it


• liquidate their stock and bond holdings, including retirement accounts, because they've lost so much money over the past few months


• keep cash at home instead of in the banks because "another one could go under at any moment, and who knows if it's ours?  And with inflation about to skyrocket, we have to be ready."

Strangely, he has no issue in using the Starbucks card to make the transaction - after all, when the Starbucks card is used to pay for coffee, you get a free shot of flavor with it.

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Little Book of Leadership

Enjoy The Little Book of Leadership.  After reading about leadership in this presentation, slide 43 is my favorite:Best,Bryan

Aspire Higher, by Avery Johnson

Often I read a book simply because of the author’s personal journey and characteristics – not seeking literary genius but instead insight into the individual experience.  Looking across the landscape of best-selling books, it seems I’m not alone.

Mapping your Future: 4S Model

Thinking about how to move forward in your career?  The 4S Model is a way of crafting your career approach in discrete, actionable steps.

GE: serious about leadership

In most large organizations, leadership is affirmed as a key contributor to organizational success.  Typically there is some form of leadership model, special programs for high potentials, and perhaps rotational programs to move high performing or high potential leaders through the experiences needed to lead and perform at the next level.

Leadership models come in all shapes and sizes, and most are helpful in keeping leaders (and aspiring leaders) focused and developing.  NASA offers an excellent graphical representation of leadership behaviors arranged on a disc, moving from large dimensions in the middle to more granular areas towards the outside.  The MIT Leadership Center promotes FCF (Four Capabilities Leadership Framework), which points to four critical components of leadership:  sensemaking, relating, visioning, and inventing.  Leadership powerhouse Lominger (part of Korn/Ferry International) has developed 67 leadership competencies and publishes a book called FYI:  For Your Improvement that’s now in its 5^th edition.And then there’s GE.

Marathon Leadership

Just back from an excellent OD on the Edge event in Charlotte, NC.

David Knapp of Marathon Leadership (creator of The 21^st Century Leader curriculum) shared his 26.2 Tips for Modern Leaders.  He connected leadership success to distance running success, showing that both required similar traits that can be taught.  David is an avid marathoner, and ran 40 marathons the year following his 40^th birthday to celebrate the milestone.

He was joined by Molly Barker founder of Girls on the Run, author of two books, and an accomplished distance runner as well.  Girls on the Run is tasked with educating and empowering girls at an early age in order to prevent the display of at-risk activities in the future.

I also came home with a copy of The Situational Leader, by Paul Hersey – and a strong desire to start running again. :)All that to simply say this:  there are opportunities to learn, grow, and give back all around you.

Best,

Bryan

Actualized Leadership

Here's an interview of Will Sparks, talking about actualized leadership.  Exciting work, and can't wait for his book, Actualized Leadership, to come out soon.

• Part I
• Part II

Enjoy!

Strategic Workforce Planning (by any name)

Back in 2007 I described leadership development in a speech as “ensuring we have the right people, in the right place, at the right time, and at the right cost, now and years into the future.”  When I coined the phrase, it felt like a winner– very easy to explain and understand.  I still use this description in conversation, and even in recent posts! :)

For a year or two I felt original, then found that several others must have been generating similar ideas and thoughts for years.  The U.S. Department of Interior came up with it in 2001 to describe Workforce Planning (WFP).  The County of Fairfax in Virginia presented “Strategic Workforce Planning” in 2003 – noting at the link that “planning begins with the organization’s strategic plan.”  In 2006 NOAA used the phrase in describing “workforce planning,” considered much more strategic than simply “succession planning.”  The effort was called “One NOAA,” an effort to “develop, value, and sustain a world-class workforce.”  In 2009 GFT used the phrase to describe “flexible resourcing.”

Today, Human Capital Institute, highly regarded in Human Resources circles, offers the SWP certification with this quote:  “Strategic Workforce Planning is the most sought after skill in talent management today….”

Case study: the annual review

Kaitlyn is a process engineer. She has worked for Jeremiah for quite some time, and feels like he understands her contributions to the team.

Several days ago, she had been looking forward to her annual performance review. She had saved the company $4 million in March of this past year, and remembered the praise Jeremiah had heaped on her in front of the company president. Shortly after this big win, the president asked Jeremiah to broaden her responsibilities. Kaitlyn expected a glowing review and a nice bonus check to cap off a stellar 2010.

Blockers

When I speak about talent management, I describe the work as follows:  talent management is about ensuring the right people are in the right roles at the right time.  It's easy to say - rolls right off the tongue.  However it's very complex, and not so easy to implement.

Most large firms have a formal review of talent at least once per year. A component of this conversation is to discuss individuals in three broad dimensions: performance against goals; behaviors that benefit the individual, team, and firm; and the potential to develop and contribute at a higher level in the organization.

Sun Tzu for Execution: How to Use the Art of War to Get Results

When I'm reading, I like to highlight passages and important nuggets of information that might be interesting or helpful to read again in the future. It directs the eyes and helps me maximize my reading based on my learning style.

At the end of Sun Tzu for Execution: How to use The Art of War to Get Results, by Steven W. Michaelson, I noticed that a great deal of the text had been underlined, something on just about every page.