Patti Cotton

Executive Coach & Career Strategist

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Three-Direction Checklist for Leadership Effectiveness

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Three-Direction Checklist for Leadership Effectiveness
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Your role requires that you lead. You may be in charge of a team, a greater area of responsibility, or even an enterprise.

Yet, if you think your job is to simply lead those who report to you, think again.

You need to manage up, down, and sideways.

Why?

Because strong team leadership is not enough to support the enterprise effectively. Research continues to prove this as we examine what works – and what doesn’t – to align culture, increase business impact, and frankly, to ensure your career success.

Effective leadership means that you need to be able to develop trust, forge shared accountability, and strengthen your influence at every level in the organization.

How do you do this? By managing this up, down, and across.

Here’s a quick checklist – can you identify where you need to strengthen your leadership in managing?

Managing Up

Are you aligned with your leader’s agenda? As you work with your CEO, your board, or other leader, are you focusing on strategic issues and demonstrating financial results? Or does your own agenda distract from these key areas, wasting time, energy, money, and brainpower?

Many a seasoned leader has fallen into complacency with what works for their particular team. In doing so, their ability to see the larger picture diminishes. If you find yourself in the latter situation, you will want to acquire or revive your company-wide lens to connect your role and your team’s charge to the organizational agenda.

Managing Down

Have you aligned your reports’ work to the agenda of the company? Or have the growing demands placed on your area strayed from the larger agenda? When I first begin work with a company in growth mode, I frequently discover that teams may be working on things that have little to do with the current company agenda.

Shifting priorities at the top means close communication at all levels to share this so that all are supporting the enterprise in their focus, responsibilities, and assigned work. When was the last time you re-examined your reports’ roles, assigned projects, and accompanying goals and deadlines, to make sure these align with the company’s direction and focus?

Managing Across

Have you aligned with your colleagues, both intra- and inter-team, so that you support shared accountability and success? Or are you shooting virtual arrows at your colleagues and their teams because they are holding you back or interfering with your ability to deliver?

The lion’s share of productivity problems in an organization result from a lack of commitment and ability to solve problems between teams. Forging strong ties and agreeing to keep communication channels open for this are key to keeping employees engaged and motivated, and your customer’s journey an excellent one.

Where do you stand as you review these three areas? What is the one thing you can do now to move forward in this area so that you can capture greater success?

Three Shifts to Help Your Team Make Better Decisions

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Three Shifts to Help Your Team Make Better Decisions
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Do you ever feel as though your team has the potential for better decision-making power, but it’s just not happening?

Are you and your team stuck in autopilot and missing out on sharpening your creative edge?

What can you do when you need to help your team make better decisions?

Help them to up their game through shifting their mental, emotional, and physical space.

Shifting Mental Space

You will need to pull your team members out of auto mode. Decisions are made two ways: the first is automatic, instinctive and emotional; and the second is deliberate, slow, and logical. Teams, like individuals, can hit a comfort level in their performance and slide into autopilot when making decisions. This is dangerous, because sliding into autopilot does not require our full attention and this means drifting into limited, biased thinking and missing some pretty important stuff.

When I work with teams to sharpen their competitive edge, I often find that they are stuck because of biased thinking. This is not unusual – we all have biases. These biases are formed by making sense of our world so that we can navigate with a feeling of safety and security. But these biases also get in the way of our best thinking – our out-of-the-box, creative, innovative thinking – that allows us to develop a competitive edge.

What is a tip-off that your team suffers from biased thinking? Language.

Statements like, “That won’t work because…” or “We’ve always done it that way…” “We just don’t have the workforce/budget/green light/(fill in the blank with your own) to be able to do that…”

A simple shift in language may be all you need begin stepping into better thinking. Instead of asking the question, “What should we do?” ask the question, “What could we do?”

What if the limiter did not exist? What if the budget problem was not there? Step outside the box for a moment and start brainstorming. Then, only when you have come up with the “what,” do you back into the “how.” Ask the question, “How might we accomplish this with a limited workforce? Other?” Get creative.

Shifting Emotional Space

Personal agendas and turf issues may interfere with best team thinking. However, once your team is in “brainstorming mode,” its members will be less likely to call themselves out on any personal agendas they have which are holding the team back from its best decisions. A case in point is with a recent client’s top executive team that could not seem to arrive at a decision regarding how to proceed with plant expansion. Arguments for over-extension, no budget, and other deterrents kept coming up in conversation.

Finally, I asked the following question: “If these things were not an issue, what would you need in order to feel comfortable about expanding?”

Mumbling somewhat, two of the executives questioned who would be overseeing the process and the new plant. Then one finally said, “Well, it doesn’t feel good knowing that this might pare down my area of responsibility. If that happens, my career track will slow down tremendously.” The other executive nodded in agreement. And there it was – the real issue. The fear of losing political ground and potential for greater leadership was getting in the way.

I’m happy to say that we figured out that situation to everyone’s ultimate satisfaction. But how do you get in front of this kind of scenario so that it doesn’t slow down or interfere with the group’s best decision-making?

Ask the following at the beginning of the process: “What are the concerns each of you has that we will need to take into account as we explore options?” And give time for each of them to explore their thoughts with the rest of the group. This will uncover limiters that even they didn’t know they had until given the opportunity to reflect. Once you have everyone’s feedback, you’ll want to let them know that if they will just face into some out-of-the-box thinking with you, you’ll then make every effort to make the decision a win-win for everyone.

Shifting Physical Space

Take your team out of the office. Get them into a different physical environment.

Let’s face it – it’s tough to change ways of thinking overnight, and you will need to incorporate the approaches I’ve outlined above over time to realize greatest gains. Meanwhile, work calls and decisions must be made now. To get your team members to begin thinking more creatively and with greater attention, get them out of the office and their work attire.

Book a space at the beach, mountains, or other location that removes them from “office think.” Start your time by asking each of them how life is right now, whether they are renovating a home, planning a vacation… In other words, connect on a personal level before business. Then, frame the meeting with a fun exercise to foreshadow creative decision-making before you get into the meat of the meeting.

One exercise for this that I like a lot is Karl Duncker’s Candle Problem exercise. Duncker was a psychologist who developed this exercise in the first part of the 20th century to test functional fixedness and cognitive bias.

Subjects are given a candle, a box of thumbtacks, and a box of matches, and asked to fix the lit candle to the wall so that it will not drip wax onto the table below. Because the objects are so familiar, this makes it difficult for the subjects to think past using them in abnormal ways.

If you would like to learn more, and discover the solution, see this YouTube video or this short Wikipedia write-up that explains it.

The next time you and your team have some important decision-making at hand, try these three shifts, and let me know how this worked for you.

Five Questions to Make a Fulfilling Transition to Your Next Chapter

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Five Questions to Make a Fulfilling Transition to Your Next Chapter
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Since life is not static, your situation is also full of change. You may be seeking to change careers or retirement. Some of you have just sent your child to college for the first time. Your marital status or your role with an elderly parent may be in question. But, no matter what shift in life is occurring for you, most certainly you are asking yourself what’s next.

Many of us plan with new activities in mind. We see empty space ahead, and the natural human thing to do is to quickly fill this so that we have a navigable course for our days. As human beings, we don’t like not knowing what to do with ourselves.

Then, some of you are in a contemplative stage in your life where you question whether you’ve made the contributions you wanted to make. You ask yourself if you can truly make this next chapter count, making sure that it is meaningful and fulfilling.

If you are finding yourself in a position of change and you are drawing up a bucket list for your next chapter, take the time to ask yourself the following five questions in order to make your future story most meaningful.

Five Questions to Make a Fulfilling Transition

1. How do I ensure that this next chapter is most meaningful?

It’s natural to seek meaning in our lives. It answers questions such as, “How do I navigate the world?” and “Why am I here?” Human beings seek purpose to understand how they fit in, and as you shape your immediate future, it will be more fulfilling if you can relate what you do to a purpose.

For example, if you choose to shift careers, how will doing this bring more meaning into your life? If you decide you will climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, what meaning might you draw from this experience? At many levels, these two examples will provide new opportunities to learn and grow.

2. How can I make sure that whatever I choose makes a difference to others?

This question becomes even more important as we age. At a certain point in life, we begin to question what difference or legacy we have truly created. This harks back to meaning and purpose, and links it to how we have been able to positively affect others.

It answers the question, “Has my life been of worth?”

This query can be answered by identifying how we have contributed by bringing value to the world. We need not take on Mother Teresa’s commission in order to feel confirmed in this way. One of the greatest human beings who contributed to my life was a high school teacher who simply cared enough about his students to show them that he did.

3. Where in my life do I need to play bigger?

It may be that in your current situation, you have ignored some personal growth opportunities. Some of you may have something in your personal life that needs adjusting. Others may have identified a specific dynamic in your professional life that holds you back. Are you comfortable confronting conflict? Confident in presenting? Where in your life might you decide to finally tackle that one thing that keeps you in a compromising comfort zone? One of the greatest satisfactions we can find is that sense of overcoming and stepping into the success that new growth brings.

4. How shall I make this next chapter fun?

A lot of executives and business owners I coach are intent on meeting goals and getting ahead. They should be – this is their commission – to support a healthy enterprise and their own careers.

I see the same in others, whether stay-at-home parents or retirees. It can become somewhat of a dry checklist with little enjoyment, unless we ask ourselves how we can approach our work so that it is fun. When you are in a serious situation such as caretaking, this question may seem odd, but it is even more important. Levity feeds attitude, and attitude feeds soul. How can you infuse fun into your next chapter?

5. Is it possible to “have it all” in this next chapter?

What does “all” mean to you? When most ask this question, they are usually addressing that long list of activities. But if you will take a moment to step back and ask yourself what is most important to you in the coming story, what outcomes you would like to celebrate at the end of that chapter, I think you will find that your list becomes smaller, but more meaningful and full of the essential.

The greatest reward comes not from a full calendar, but from fewer, but deeper and more enjoyable experiences.

Here’s to making an amazing next chapter for yourself! Have fun with these questions, and make sure that your new story counts.

Five Principles to Quickly Align Your Leadership with the Future

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Five Principles to Quickly Align Your Leadership with the Future
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Many of you have resonated with last week’s article about Sandra and her need to make her business viable for the future. If you haven’t read it, yet, read here.

Some have asked me how to develop the leadership “flex” or agility that is necessary to meet the future successfully. But how to do this – to develop your leadership to reflect purpose and flexibility, exercising highest creativity for best decision-making, continually learning and changing…well, entire books have been written about this!

My private clients and I work over a period of time to help them develop this agility.

But to give you a quick start in this direction, let me share some foundational principles with which we begin our work. Incorporating these into your approach for the upcoming year will make a profound difference in the way you are able to meet the future successfully.

Where in your work or life do you need more of the following?

1. Acknowledge that change requires responding rather than reacting.

It is first necessary to acknowledge that the world tomorrow will not be the same as it is today, and that the unknown holds exciting possibilities far beyond anything we can imagine. This is more challenging than you think. You may admit that things are changing, but if you introspect carefully, you will note that in certain areas of your life or the way you lead, you expect some things to remain the same. When they don’t, rather than to respond thoughtfully, you find yourself reacting with surprise and defensiveness. When this happens, you eclipse using the creative part of your brain to think through how to handle the situation. Identify the areas that tend to place you in a reactive mode so that you can make the mental shifts necessary to overcome this.

2. Dare to explore new and uncharted territories.

This means becoming comfortable with operating with the unfamiliar, stopping to widen your lens to understand the landscape as you go. Pushing the edge means nothing unless you are willing to look at it and to step out onto it in order to move forward with this new reality. How long has it been since you have met with other leaders to discuss what is happening in the world and how it affects the business landscape – and the way you must lead? Exploring new territories means having an executive team that forges ahead together. As you adopt the mindset of exploration, invite others to come with you, so that you can climb with support, camaraderie, accountability, and best collective thinking.

3. Be willing to flex and adjust your approach as you make meaning of the unfolding terrain.

You must develop leadership agility. This is the one thing that will keep you current in your leadership:  the ability to “take effective action in complex, rapidly changing conditions. Only 10% have mastered the level of agility needed for consistent effectiveness in our turbulent era of global competition” (Joiner and Josephs, Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change). When faced with new and foreign terrain, mountain climbers must weigh carefully the equipment and approach they will use in order to avoid disaster. Don’t fall into the mindset that what you have used in the past will work in future. Weigh and test carefully as you move forward.

4. Get excited about making mistakes.

You should always be making new mistakes – these indicate that you are forging ahead in the unknown, discovering points of learning that can become part of your roadmap to help you to navigate more successfully. If, however, you find yourself making the same mistakes over and over again, this is a clear signal that you have a particular point of learning that has not been addressed successfully. Many persist in approaching something in the same way repeatedly, hoping that after a while, there will be a breakthrough. There won’t. Confront the fact that you need to make a shift – and ask yourself what you have learned from this so that you can up-level your thinking and your leadership.

5. Understand the power and necessity of 360° leadership.

Leadership must be actively engaged in all areas of your life. I often tell my clients that, “You take yourself to work and back again,” meaning that whatever you carry in one area of your life will affect how you show up everywhere and in all situations. Further, leadership must be present at all levels and at all degrees of the team and the enterprise in order to meet and make change effectively. It is generally what people consider “the little things” that count for much. For example, are you an individual, team, or company that promises much and delivers late? You may be saying that this doesn’t matter – that your clients love your product and they will wait for it. However, these are the differences that will make or break you in future vis-à-vis the competition. Do a quick assessment of what improvements need to be made, and tackle the biggest win, first.

As you look at the quick principles above, which one is most pertinent to making a big shift in your own leadership?

How a Silent Marauder Might Be Threatening Your Business Future

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How a Silent Marauder Might Be Threatening Your Business Future
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Sandra was a first-generation business owner. She worked hard for more than 25 years to build a solid company that served customers well.

This was a business that would provide for her family financially, both now and in future.

Or so she thought.

But a business marauder suddenly appeared in the form of new technology that threatened to put Sandra’s company out of business.

Her hard work and her future could be wiped out in the next 36 months unless she took some quick and powerful action.

Sandra was frozen. Her ways of leading and doing were solid – but they were limited, confined to running the business the way she knew how, to what had worked up to this point.

Unless Sandra acquired agility in her leadership, she would not be able to move forward. She could become part of the 90% of executives who currently find themselves and their business obsolete.

If you are an executive or business owner, I can guarantee that technology and other marketplace changes will affect how you lead. You may have a shelf life of just up to approximately 36 months if you don’t have the agility required to work with change. This is about how long it takes before we experience the spiral that results from not shifting with change.

And this happens a lot with excellent leadership.

You are successful for a period of many years, and then suddenly, changes emerge that demand an agility from you and a way of operating that are foreign to your context. These changes and challenges leave you bewildered. You become frozen and overwhelmed, or you dig in your heels and insist on leading in the same way you always have.

You can’t tough this one out. Change is not going to go away.

Sandra had led well. Her company had been a solid contender in the marketplace.

But she was in trouble now. She called me because she couldn’t seem to move forward as she faced this new development.

Having shown herself smart, capable, and competent during her entire tenure, she agreed that the competition was real, but she couldn’t seem to muster the higher gear required to begin wrestling with new structures and processes. She hoped her company product would still be greatly loved by her loyal clients, and wondered if the business simply accelerated some tried-and-true strategies with more sales staff, if she could help the company remain viable.

She couldn’t. The changes Sandra would need to make in order to remain viable demanded a new approach – and an agility to make it happen.

When we met, Sandra pulled out a drawer and showed me several unused strategic plans. She admitted that she had never been able to take the time to figure out how to practically apply any of them. It seemed like there was never enough time, and fulfilling customer orders took precedent over all else. She said that this had served well enough in the past, but she now knew that she needed to take some sort of action fast, in order to save the business from crumbling.

Sandra exhibited what I see in a lot of seasoned leaders.

When one has led for many years, she can become accustomed to focusing on what is working well, and forget to check the horizon for what is coming ahead.

Changing conditions in the marketplace, in the economy, in politics, and in disruptive technology (and more!) can dictate that a leader pay attention. Many, however, just dig their heels in to work harder at doing the same thing, rather than to evaluate strategies and approaches that will best support these changes. This can quickly result in trouble spotted too late.

Sandra was certainly in trouble, admitting that she might need to do differently, but that she didn’t know where to start. It was clear that she not only needed a quick medium-term plan to respond to the looming competition, but that she would also need to develop more behavioral agility in order to flex and adapt to needed transitions and change.

Sandra asked if I wanted to see the strategic plans stored in her office. The latest one was dated two years prior.

“That’s too old,” I said. “These days, you want to revisit and update your strategic plan every year. Changes are coming too rapidly for an older plan to support the future.”

We got busy and went through a quick strategic planning process to accommodate the next 36 months. This plan would need to be clear, concise, and it would need to be actionable. I didn’t want this one to sit in a drawer.

Once we had the 36-month plan in place, Sandra and I worked on a medium-term action plan designed to meet the impending competition.

We were on a tight timeline to stay out in front. With coaching, Sandra was able to develop the necessary agility to execute the plan well.

Those in charge find they operate best if they have someone to help them with this. Tackling a new plan requires not only focus and buy-in from all involved, it also often demands that we operate in new and novel ways to support the future.

This is agility – the one thing that will keep us current in our leadership.

Leadership agility is “the ability to take effective action in complex, rapidly changing conditions. Only 10% have mastered the level of agility needed for consistent effectiveness in our turbulent era of global competition.” (Joiner and Josephs, Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change).

It follows that agility is necessary in company teams and in the entire enterprise, as well.

Acquiring agility demands not only new or improved direction and actions, it also asks that we develop the necessary mental and emotional capacity to implement these actions.

This is why 90% of those in leadership fail. As rapid change and complexity continues to emerge, a lot of very fine business owners and other executives fold. It isn’t from a lack of desire – it’s from a lack of understanding how to meet change effectively and to make the personal leadership shifts necessary to do so.

Back to Sandra: I’m happy to report that after we rolled up our sleeves and quickly got going, she was feeling confident about her direction, her company’s future, and her ability to meet it successfully. We hit some bumps as she expanded her agility, but we laughed a lot and she grew exponentially, setting up the company to meet the future successfully.

Sandra noted that not only was the process rewarding and energizing, she also enjoyed less stress – a great bonus. She decided to invite me to help coach her team and other key players in agility, at that point, as part of her succession planning.

How strong is your leadership agility? Are you able to survey the landscape, identify potential threats and opportunities, come up with a strong plan of action, and effectuate this well?