Tough Times Leadership

I'm hearing whispers from all fronts that the economy is starting to turn around, but it won't happen overnight, and the tough times aren't over yet.  So, how can you keep your teams engaged and inspired as they continue to weather this adverse environment?

I've recently been working with our assessment tool, the LFL Leadership Checkride, and I would like to share a few of the criteria that directly relate to leading in tough times.  For those of you who aren't familiar with our Checkride assessment, it was developed by Colonel (ret'd) Ron Guidinger, our Lead Consultant, who was a leader in both the military and business worlds.  He took his experiences with life or death leadership and transformed them into a tool to help businesspeople to become the best leaders possible.

BT1: Communicate Openly, Transparently, and with Conviction

Trust is one of the staples of effective leadership, and to lead your teams through difficult times, you need their trust.  One way to foster that trust is through communication.  A lack of communication leads to rumours of layoffs and plummeting morale, but this can be combatted with open, transparent, communication.  Maybe layoffs are coming, maybe not, but at the very least you can be open enough with your teams to let them know what to expect, and that though there are challenges ahead, they can pull through as a team.

BT5: Be Human

Fear is not a logical state.  As a leader, it can be exceptionally difficult to combat fear through logical analysis and reasoning.  Your teams don't need a robot leading them, they need a human!  It is important to show that side of yourself, to let your teams know that you have fears and concerns, but that you can also transform those fears and concerns into resolve.  Showing your own vulnerability will help to build trust, and makes the difference between telling your teams how to navigate these tough times, and leading them through.

BC7: Technical Skill

Trust will help people to follow you, but Confidence helps people to know that you will lead them where they need to go.  By developing your own technical skills your teams will be re-assured that by following you, you will do the best for them that you can.  This kind of confidence can replace the paralysis of fear, with inspiration.

These are but a few of the criteria we look at, but if you can communicate openly, demonstrate your humanity, and your technical proficiency, people will follow you through the darkest recessions.

Question to the crowds: What other characteristics should a leader have, or what actions can they take to help lead their people through tough times?

-Alexander C. Cook MEng, MBA, PEng, PMP

Photo Source: https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5179/5426040081_480d891bcf_o.jpg

Taking flight: What fighter pilots know that business leaders can learn from

Leading others to achieve specified goals can be challenging, but leading them at high speed carries its own challenge. In the picture above, I am standing beside Captain Terry "Cherry" Colgrave after a CF-18 Hornet Flight we completed in August 2012 as part of my Investiture as Honorary Colonel of 419 Tactical Fighter Training Squadron. "Cherry" was the Flight Lead for this two-plane mission and I was his 'back-seater'.

Our mission included a range familiarization, Basic Fighter Manoeuvres, Close Formation, and Low Level Navigation-all at speeds ranging from very slow to transonic (that's very fast!). In thinking about this flight, I am struck by the resonance I sensed between the Leadership qualities "Cherry" demonstrated and those I see in the Business Leaders I work with in Calgary. The critical difference is that "Cherry" and those like him lead others, sometimes many others, to accomplish difficult objectives in dangerous places at great speed. Mission Success comes with careful mission planning and preparation, high Situational Awareness, Clear Communications with all Team Members and Fast Forward Thinking. Mission Success is defined in the pre-flight briefing; assessed during the flight by the Instructor Pilot; and constructively critiqued in the post-flight 'debriefing'. As this process has proven, Fighter Pilot Students who can translate the lessons learned during each phase of this learning experience into higher levels of performance in the next flight are the ones who make it. Those who cannot quickly integrate these lessons, self-identify by their performance and do not progress on to become full-fledged Fighter Pilots.

None of this happens by accident and Leaders like "Cherry" take many years to develop only after they demonstrate that they can be the 'best of the best'. In my capacity as Honorary Colonel, I have a privileged vantage point to witness this development process every time I engage with the Instructors and Staff of 419 Tactical Fighter Training Squadron. Their tremendous results are a reflection of the continued development of the Mission Preparation skills, Flying skills, Leadership skills, Teamwork skills and Communications skills of their aspiring Fighter Pilot Students.

This causes me to ask you, as Business Leaders, what you are doing to foster the development of the Business Skills, Leadership skills, Teamwork skills and Communications skills of your aspiring Leadership Team Members? Are you seeing the development you and your business need and want? If not, why not?

A measurement that I apply to myself is the answer to the following questions:

• Are the people that are meant to follow me reaching their potential contribution level?

• If not, what part am I playing to ensure that they do?

-Lieutenant Colonel (ret'd) Ron Guidinger BEng, MBA, PEng, PMP

Sometimes the best way to motivate, is to not

In my experience, I have found that most people want to do a good job.  They go to work and they want to do their best.  There are some who are just floating by, but they seem to be the exception and not the norm.  In general, we have a decently motivated workforce going about their business and doing their jobs.  So, what goes wrong?

Leadership.

It's not that the workers aren't motivated, it's that they are de-motivated.  I've seen this, a lot.  There are leaders and managers out there that like to check up on their teams, to see how they are doing, even when there is no new information to give or to receive.  Sometimes that is just how people lead, and sometimes they feel like they aren't making enough of a contribution, so they go and push the team a bit, trying to "motivate" them, or get that 110%.

There's the problem.  If you don't have anything to offer, and there is nothing you need, think twice about trying to motivate your team.  Remember, in general, we have an already motivated workforce.  If they are already at 100%, pushing them to 110% is really like pushing them to 70%, and if you have nothing to offer, and don't need anything, well, not many people like to be micromanaged.

As leaders, sometimes a few well-placed words or a little information can drive a team to succeed, but our words can also do just the opposite if we aren't careful.

-Alexander C. Cook MEng, MBA, PEng, PMP

Image Souce: https://despair.com/products/leaders

Improving Team Performance Through Connection

Leading others is not without risk, nor is it for the faint of heart. As important as it is for you as a Leader to set the goal to be achieved, it is more important to sense how things change as your Followers begin to align their efforts to support you. In some cases, this alignment among Team Members generates a momentum towards successful achievement of the goal that is unstoppable. Other times, factors of mis-alignment, significant changes in the environment, and unforeseen constraints pop up that are signals for you to review your approach. The key to any such review is to connect with your Followers.

Staying closely and personally connected to those who follow your lead will provide the early warning signs of emerging problem areas. Taking a moment to embrace the points of view expressed by your Followers will arm you, as their leader, with rich and immediate understanding of root causes for mis-alignments in the Team, surprises in the surrounding situation and shortages in resources or other constraints that will affect goal achievement. Not only will this close connection to your Followers enable you to act early but, also, to act in a manner informed by the collective experience and expertise of your Team.

Experience has taught me that my best and most immediate source of validation for any Leadership approach I take, is my Team. When I have embraced them, sought their feedback about what is working and what is not working, I have been able to accelerate performance. When I have relied on my own counsel, without a close personal connection to my Team, I have floundered and lost my way. A Team needs a good Leader. Leaders need to embrace their Team to be good.

-Lieutenant Colonel (ret'd) Ron Guidinger BEng, MBA, PEng, PMP

Let them Lead

I know that somewhere on this site I wrote that "we are all leaders."  The skeptics out there might be saying that we aren't, but I'm not talking about managers, or bosses, I'm talking about leaders.  We are all leaders, and for that matter, we are all followers too.  We all alternate between leading, and following, based on our skills and circumstance.

The question is, how can we foster leadership?  Not everyone can be the boss, so what does it take to make everyone a leader?  We have a generation of Baby-Boomers sitting on the tops of organizations, ready to retire.  They are the bosses, but they had better have leaders under them ready to take over.  So, we need to foster that leadership, and one easy way is just to provide a little space, and flexibility.  We all have core duties, which we need to complete, but if there is a little bit of wiggle room, then there is enough room to innovate.  Look at the Google's of the world, Google leaves a lot more than a little wiggle room, and there is innovation everywhere.  I'm not saying we all need to do it like Google, but if we give people room to imagine, and take initiative, we are giving them room to become leaders.

Its not just ideas, and innovation, but practice.  Weeks of intensive offsite leadership training often cannot replicate a little practical experience*.  Let them take their initiative, and when their idea becomes bigger than themselves, let them lead — give them some resources, and let them run with it.

You don't need to be the boss to lead a project, you don't even need formal authority.  All you need, is a little wiggle room, and a team to back you up — a team for you to back up.

Question for the crowds:  What would help you to lead, or to become a better leader in your organization?  Or your life?

-Alexander Cook MEng, MBA, PEng, PMP

*Through the use of the Leadership Check Ride assessment, Leading in the Fast Lane creates conditions that closely mimic practical experience, while providing a safe environment for learning.

Followership: leadership can't happen without it!

Many volumes have been written about great Leaders and how to become a better Leader. Very little has been written about Followers and how to be a better Follower. Followership seem to be a neglected area in the many studies of Human Interaction. My experience has repeatedly demonstrated that there are two things that are essential to willing and eager Followership: Trust and Confidence.

Trust between the Follower and the Leader is fostered differently for each individual, yet there are questions common to most Followers that must be answered affirmatively before they are willing to follow a Leader: Do I know what the Leader stands for? Do I believe in the Leader's integrity? Do I believe that the Leader will do the next right thing?

Confidence between the Follower and the Leader rests upon beliefs in each other's skills, reliability, and judgement. Again, the levels of confidence stem from perceptions that vary from one individual to the next but some questions common to most followers must be answered affirmatively before they are willing to follow a Leader: Does the Leader have a vision that I can share? Does the Leader have the skills, support and energy to effectively lead me to the achievement of the stated goal? If things start going wrong, does the Leader have the ability to help make them right?

If Trust and Confidence between the Leader and the Followers is the minimum requirement for willing and eager Followership, where do you stand? Do you enjoy a high level of Trust and Confidence with your Followers? With your Leaders? What can you do to strengthen these two vital elements of Followership?

-Lieutenant Colonel (ret'd) Ron Guidinger BEng, MBA, PEng, PMP