Bosses and Leaders

A boss creates fear, a leader confidence. A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all, a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting. A boss is interested in himself or herself, a leader is interested in the group.
(Russell H. Ewing)

Don’t meet, work!

On his blog Remarkable Leadership, Kevin Eikenberry cited an interesting study result in his article “Leadership and Meetings“: Almost no manager expects productivity to drop if meetings got banned for one day a week. About half of them even think productivity would increase!

In the OfficeTeam survey, 150 executives were asked “How would employee productivity be affected if your company banned meetings one day a week?” The results:

• No change: 46% (blue)
• More productive: 45% (green)
• Less productive: 7% (yellow)
• Don’t know: 2% (red)

My subsequent question would be: “So, why do you think those meetings don’t add value, and what are you going to do about it?”

Meetings have the purpose of fostering efficient communication. But just coming together in a room to talk doesn’t cut it. That’s the time, money and drive sink we all dread. As always, you have to do things right to reap the benefits.

Brian lists the most important things you should take care of to stop the waste by ineffective meetings:

• Have clear desired outcomes for every meeting that are communicated before hand.
• Use, and follow an agenda (that is focused on those desired outcomes).
• Hold people accountable for the action items.

So, there are two documents that are crucial for effective meetings: an agenda, sent to everyone in advance, and the meeting minutes (complete with action items and deadlines), sent to everyone after the meeting.

And hey, if you make your meetings really effective, you can have that no-meeting day anyway!

You’re not leading when…

Reading some of the many books on leadership that are out there, you get a picture of how it should look like when you’re leading. But are you also aware of how it looks when you’re not in the lead? You better are, because your subordinates certainly do.

Jon Ferguson made an insightful list in his blog article

You know you are not leading when…:

• You wait for someone to tell you what to do rather than taking the initiative yourself
• You spend too much time talking about how things should be different
• You blame the context, surroundings, or other people for your current situation
• You choose not to speak the truth in love
• You are more concerned about being cool or accepted than doing the right thing
• You seek consensus, rather than casting vision for a preferable future
• You aren’t taking any significant risks
• You accept status quo as the way it’s always been and always will be
• You start protecting your reputation instead of opening yourself up to opposition
• You sleep a little too sound
• You procrastinate to avoid making a tough call
• You talk to others about the problem rather than taking it to the person responsible
• You don’t feel like your butt is on the line for anything significant
• You think what you say doesn’t matter
• You ask for way too many opinions before taking action

In short: You’re appointed the leader, so act like one. You’ll not be judged on your preparations but on your results.

Mountaineer Leadership

In his German article “Was ich als Führungskraft durch Bergsteigen gelernt habe”, Rainer from the HaFAWo blog (“have fun at work and life”), describes how the lessons he learned as an alpinist can also be applied to his work as a manager:

1. Know your goals and their nature, for your job as well as your private life. (= Define your goals.)
2. Have a map and learn to read it right. (= Have a vision.)
3. Have a compass. (= Have reliable orientation points.)
4. Make sure to start at the right time to avoid time-dependend dangers. (= Have good timing.)
5. Expect the worst and be ready to handle it.
6. Be prepared regarding your shape, food, clothing and equipment. (= Have everything ready you may need.)
7. Know your skills and with how much of the impossible you can cope. (= Know your limits.)
8. If there are problems ahead, you maybe have to resort to teamwork. (= Have a supporting team.)
9. When problems arise, you depend on your equipment. (= Have reliable tools and know how to use them.)
10. You should know when to turn your back on the mountain and postpone summit victory. (Admit defeat in time, try again later.)

Thanks for the great analogy, Rainer!

Leadership tips

In “Ten Top Tips for the Innovative Leader“, Paul Sloane gives valuable recommendations to everyone who wants to be more of a leader than just being some levels above in the org chart.

He recommends:

1. Have a vision for change
2. Fight the fear of change
3. Think like a venture capitalist
4. Have a dynamic suggestion scheme
5. Break the rules
6. Give everyone two jobs
7. Collaborate
8. Welcome failure
9. Build prototypes
10. Be passionate

Many of his tips remind me of the concepts explained in “First, Break All the Rules“, a great leadership book I read recently (and have to review here ASAP). And looking at the fifth point, this doesn’t seem like a coincidence.

Especially the first two points resonate with me at the moment because I’m going to undertake a big change effort myself with my department.

Thanks to Paul for his great summary of important leadership qualities and practices!