Patti Cotton

Executive Coach & Career Strategist

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3 Essential Shifts Every Leader Must Make – Part 3

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3 Essential Shifts Every Leader Must Make Part 3: Leadership and Brain Trust
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Leadership and Brain Trust

How well prepared are you to lead into the future?

The world now requires that you lead at a higher level to navigate change and complexity.

It demands that you have a greater capacity for the kinds of decisions and challenges that confront you now and in the future.

This requires a powerful three-pronged approach to support your leadership.

Over the last two articles, we talked about two of these elements, and they are:

Without these two abilities, you as leader may be close to your expiry date.

This week, we’ll talk about the third and final element to developing your leadership capacity: brain trust.

What is brain trust, and why do you need it?

The term “brain trust” is a term that was first coined by James Kieran, a New York Times reporter. He used this term to describe the group of leaders assembled by Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his presidential administration. President Franklin brought these “brains” together to advise him, decode problems, and design new solutions for America.

It is critical that a leader has a brain trust for several reasons. Here are the top five:

  • Perspective

Because leading requires complex decision-making, being able to see and understand a problem or challenge from all angles is necessary.

Albert Einstein’s quote reminds us that you can’t solve these with the same mindset that created them. However, it is often difficult to step outside oneself to see these additional angles. Having a brain trust made up of people who come from various industries and backgrounds means you can tap into a vast pool of experience for greater perspective and creative solutions.

President Roosevelt’s brain trust helped him to enact 19 laws to meet America’s challenges in just the first 100 days of him being in office. He freely admitted this was due to having an intellectual powerhouse to bring ideas and perspective that he could not bring to the table alone.

  • Powerful Support

It gets lonely when you carry big responsibilities. You balance many demands and set the standard for your organization.

Carrying all this alone can cause isolation and stress, as you feel you must face and meet these challenges by yourself. In fact, a recent survey shows that 60% of all leaders express feelings of isolation and they report that this hinders their performance.

Unburdening and processing with family, friends, or direct reports often creates greater stress on these relationships and can’t provide the right kind of support the leader needs to meet life and work effectively.

It is important for you as leader to have a safe and powerful support system that is trustworthy, confidential, and one that can receive and help process the complexity of your challenges.

  • Challenge

If you want to continue to grow so that you lead both your life and work solidly into the future, you need input.

What are you not seeing that you need to examine?

How is not leading at a higher level affecting your life and work?

With great responsibilities, you can operate from “stress mode” as you address the immediate and urgent. This can develop tunnel vision, and you will lean on familiar approaches that cannot meet more complex problems. This dynamic will keep you from being able to solve these, and to meet the important goals that will truly make a difference for you and the others around you.

A brain trust will challenge you where you might be playing small with limited thinking or approaches. It will provide that safe space for you to confront where you are holding yourself back and decide how you want to move forward.

  • Accountability

Change is hard; growth is hard. Without an accountability mechanism, the biggest goals and commitments are seldom met successfully.

As you process and make the decisions you need in order to move forward in both your life and work, a brain trust will keep you accountable to yourself and your commitments. And because a brain trust’s only agenda is your agenda, you can count on your brain trust as an unbiased and supportive group that has your best interests in mind.

This will help you to stay on track and to focus where you need in order to meet goals.

  • Community

How edifying and uplifting is your community?

If you are like most, you have little time to enjoy the nurturing benefits of connection and community. In fact, your responsibilities and pace as leader can limit your ability to form meaningful community and to enjoy the gifts and benefits of bonds and belonging.

Sadly, if you are like most leaders, your community feels fragmented and might be made up of some or all of these:

  • Frantic seasonal socializing to reconnect with old friends during holidays
  • Networking and brainstorming with peers
  • Industry or business-specific meetings with colleagues
  • Connections with families of your children and grandchildren during sports season
  • A weekly (if even that!) church experience

An intentionally-focused community that encourages intellectual improvement, supports personal and professional growth, and genuinely cares about you is an invaluable and rejuvenating asset to the leader. What’s more, being able to connect with this kind of community in time of crisis or celebration is priceless.

“When we live our lives in isolation, what we have is unavailable, and what we lack is unprocurable,” wrote Basil.

It is time to admit that going it alone doesn’t work anymore.

As you seek to meet the challenges of the future more effectively, having a solid brain trust is a not a “nice to have,” but a necessary component to your life and work.

© Patti Cotton and patticotton.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that attribution is made to Patti Cotton and patticotton.com, with links thereto.

3 Essential Shifts Every Leader Must Make

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3 Essential Shifts Every Leader Must Make
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Are you prepared to lead into the future?

Most leaders are not.

The world is increasing in complexity, and you as a leader must grow to support change effectively. The problem is that most in leadership have reached the top and stopped growing. They have given in to the false premise that, because they have the ability to meet today’s demands, they can certainly meet what the future brings.

Are you a leader who has reached the top – and stopped?

You may think you have what it takes. However, there are three shifts that, unless you make them, will quickly render you ineffective in the future.

What are these? And why should you pay attention when things are fine the way they are right now?

This week, we’ll talk about the first shift – why you need to make it and first steps to take.

Shift I: Relational Abilities Must Increase

Relational skills are now taking a front seat to all other leadership competencies. Your ability to relate well to others may work well today, but tomorrow’s leadership will need to call on more and to sharpen their emotional intelligence (“EQ”) on a consistent basis.

Why?

Emotional intelligence (“EQ”) is what helps you have high relational skills, and these are paramount to effective leadership.

Here are just some of the ways that EQ facilitates this:

  • EQ allows you to understand how your emotions and actions affect the people around you. This is necessary to regulating the way you interact with others so that you can create bonds and team.
  • EQ provides you with the ability to put yourself in the shoes of others, to understand how they feel, and to consider their perspectives. This ability to empathize can draw people to you and influence them. It can serve to power negotiations in tense times, and to promote compassion, which is a necessary component to embodying powerful servant leadership.
  • EQ promotes good communication. If you have forged bonds and trust with others, you tend to communicate better and more often, avoiding conflict and misunderstandings that poor communication fosters.
  • EQ provides you with the ability to mentor others and shape a healthy culture. Your ability to model high relational skills will serve as the prototype for your entire organization.

And in a world where constant change has become the norm, your ability to relate well to others is what will instill confidence in you and commitment to you on the part of those around you.

The problem is that we relate to others as we have been taught. This means that we bring with us a host of older experiences that color how well we are able to show up with and relate to others. Sharpening your EQ so that you up-level your ability to relate is more important than ever.

Are you already a pro in relating? Is your EQ high? You still need to make the shift to lead successfully into the future.

Here’s why: Emotional intelligence needs consistent exercise to remain effective. Your EQ is a “muscle” that needs flexing on a regular basis, or you will lose it. What’s more, just like working out at the gym, you can’t focus only on bicep curls and expect that the rest of your body will become fit by osmosis.

Use it – or lose it.

In fact, if you neglect your EQ for an extended period, you place yourself in danger of developing what we call Hubris Syndrome. If this is the case, you are now in imminent danger of losing your leadership position and perhaps your company.

How do you avoid this?

Here are 5 steps to systematically strengthen your EQ to support your relational skills.

1. Tap back into your own emotions. For example, how do you typically respond when someone delivers bad news to you? Criticizes you unfairly? Cuts you off on the freeway? By recognizing your emotions, you will be better able to regulate and control them so that you manage your relationships and interactions with others better. Tapping back into your emotions also allows you to recognize these emotions in others and to empathize with them. When you exhibit empathy, you build rapport, as others feel you care.

2. Ask others for their perspective. Leaders develop tunnel-vision when it comes to decision-making. After all, putting out fires all day long, dealing with the unexpected and the myriad of pieces that make up the organization requires fast thinking and acting. However, 60% of all decisions that leaders make are wrong, and this is primarily due to “either-or” problem-solving. “Either we do this, or we do that.” Asking others for their perspective on various issues that arise can give you added insight to expand your options. At the same time you widen your perspective-taking, you also allow others to feel they can contribute to the larger picture. And that’s a great relational skill.

3. Be curious instead of quick to judge. You think you can put yourself in someone else’s shoes, but can you really know how they feel? We bring our own experiences to the mix, and it is wise to ask questions rather than assume that you understand how they feel or what they want. Replace phrases such as, “I know just how you feel…” with ones like, “This feels devastating to me, but tell me how this affects you. I want to understand…”

4. Develop deep listening skills. There is perhaps no greater gift than that of being heard. Exercising deep listening skills is to hear beyond words, to ask questions instead of assuming, and to attune with another so they feel recognized and validated. Developing your skills in this area takes consistent practice, and it is well worth your time and effort. For more on this, see my article “How to Raise Your Influence in Less Than 5 Seconds.”

5. Decide to confront conflict courageously. There is perhaps nothing more damaging to our ability to relate than to allow unresolved conflict to fester. To feel a rupture in a relationship without repair is to foster stress, negative feelings, lost opportunities, and poor modeling for others. The cost of inaction – of allowing the rupture to fester – touches many, affecting the quality of your leadership and the lives of those around you. Want to fall in love with conflict so that you improve the quality of your relationships on a systematic basis? Read here.

I invite you to begin sharpening your emotional intelligence today so that you enjoy more influence, better decision-making, more productive and fulfilling relationships, and a healthier leadership future. How might having higher relational skills benefit you, your team, and your organization?

Next week, we will explore the second of three shifts you need to make: Vertical Development 2.0.

HOW MUCH

DO OTHERS REALLY TRUST YOU?

​Learn the two vital parts to trust and how they can help you become a more highly effective leader.

GET THE INFOGRAPHIC

© Patti Cotton and patticotton.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that attribution is made to Patti Cotton and patticotton.com, with links thereto.

Holding Others Accountable

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Holding Others Accountable
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Is it easy for you to hold others accountable? Even the most seasoned leaders can find this difficult.

Yet, accountability is the very thing that makes everything work.

Holding others accountable was indeed challenging for Randy, CEO of Andes, Inc., and this meant that the company wasn’t getting the results it needed. What’s more, Andes had begun to lose market share. Would it survive?

Randy was missing just one ingredient in order to turn things around.

Accountability.

Randy had brought in a bevy of consultants to review the company’s challenges. His drawer was full of strategic plans, and employees had undergone training in a number of programs meant to help them work better, smarter, and get greater results. Yet, nothing had worked. Meanwhile, it was discovered that some teams were duplicating efforts, and others weren’t delivering on what was expected. Randy was frustrated, and sometimes lost his temper, wondering why people weren’t just doing what they should do.

The fact was, he simply wasn’t holding his team accountable. And in turn, they weren’t holding their own teams accountable, either.

Things were a mess.

Holding others accountable is what is necessary to helping others to deliver on their commitment so that the work gets done. If you are responsible for organizational or team outcomes, it’s necessary to learn how to do this well so that you get the results you need. Holding others accountable is also a way of saying, “Your contributions matter,” which motivates employees and helps them to be more engaged.

Holding others accountable, however, can feel awkward.

And that’s what Randy felt. He was great at inspiring and motivating others but helping them to follow through was where he fell short. He thought that providing clear feedback felt like criticism, and so he avoided giving others the feedback they needed in order to know they were on track. Left to their own devices, the executive team simply interpreted what they thought should be done, did the best they could, but failed miserably because of a lack of information. They passed on this unfortunate culture of murky mediocrity to the rest of the organization – and this is why it started to fail.

Fortunately, with coaching, Randy turned things around. He met with his team, agreed on what was needed, and shared the 5 steps to hold others accountable. Over time, Andes moved into a position of excellence.

If you feel you need to strengthen your accountability game, use these 5 steps to put in place a system that works:

1. Be clear about your expectations.

In order for others to be able to deliver on your expectations, they need to understand what these are. Be sure that as you share what you expect that you ask them if they have questions and let them know that they will have access to you for questions as they move forward.

2. Help identify the skills and resources needed to support them.

What will they need in order to perform well? Who are the people they need to work with, and what are politics, protocols, and processes of which they need to be aware in order to succeed?

3. Follow up regularly.

Agree on the way in which your reports will keep you updated on their progress. Do you want them to meet with you regularly to report to you, or provide a written report? How often? What elements do you need to see in the report?

4. Give clear and timely feedback.

Honest and ongoing feedback is critical to the process. Be sure you are timely so that this becomes a powerful mentoring experience. And be clear in your feedback. If you are not, you should not expect to see the progress you expect.

5. Clear consequences.

Have you made sure you have done everything you can to help the person succeed in performance?  If they have succeeded, reward this in a way that is appropriate to the outcome such as acknowledgment, recognition, or even a bonus or promotion. If there has been a lack of clarity on your part, be sure you course-correct this by repeating the steps above. And if the person shows signs of inability or commitment to perform, then it’s time to release them from the assignment or role with any other appropriate steps needed.

I challenge you to make accountability a chief focus for the coming season. Your leadership will be even more effective, and your results will help the organization to thrive.

HOW MUCH

DO OTHERS REALLY TRUST YOU?

​Learn the two vital parts to trust and how they can help you become a more highly effective leader.

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When Servant Leadership Doesn’t Work

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When Servant Leadership Doesn’t Work
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It is said that servant leaders – those who truly lead from the heart – are the most effective.  

Indeed, inspiring and influencing others to rise to their personal and collective best yields much greater results. And frankly, this makes a significant impact in the lives of those who are part of this, as well as those clients who benefit.  

But there are situations when such leadership does not work. 

How can you tell whether to adopt this style or not?

First, servant leadership is a philosophy that genuinely puts people first, takes a keen interest in their development, and embraces shared power rather than a hierarchical style.  

In fact, leading from the heart – another way to describe servant leadership at its finest – requires embracing and modeling 7 traits: 

  1. Trust  
  2. Authenticity 
  3. Empathy 
  4. Compassion 
  5. Humility 
  6. Courage 
  7. Motivation  

The problem is, when leaders don’t incorporate all 7 traits, the power of leading from the heart is compromised. 

The question becomes, “Are you willing to work on adopting all 7 traits?”

Ask yourself the following: 

  • Trust – do my directives and communication reflect integrity? Are these consistent, and if not, am I willing to course-correct this with others so that I build trust with them? 
  • Authenticity – do I come from “center” with ease, not trying to emulate the style or persona of others?  
  • Empathy – can I easily detect the emotions of others, place myself in their shoes, and affirm them? 
  • Compassion – do my decisions and actions reflect that I put people first? 
  • Humility – do I respect others as much as I do myself, and can I recognize their gifts and talents as much as my own? Do I realize that without my team and the employee base that we could not accomplish what we do? 
  • Courage – am I willing to confront the tough stuff, even when the topic and decisions I may need to make are not popular ones? 
  • Motivation – am I motivated first by what is best for the organization, or am I preoccupied with what is best for me? 

If you are willing to sharpen these 7 traits, you will find that your team and culture will reflect greater satisfaction, higher engagement, and the innovative spark to help you and the organization meet the future. 

Which of these traits is most important for you to work on as you begin to up-level your leadership?

HOW MUCH

DO OTHERS REALLY TRUST YOU?

​Learn the two vital parts to trust and how they can help you become a more highly effective leader.

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The Perils of Living by Transactional Goals

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The Perils of Living by Transactional Goals
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Goals are powerful. Reaching these culminates not only in great reward, but also a sense of achievement, confidence, and moving ahead.

But goal-setting can also be perilous.

In my practice, I generally partner with the CEO or a member of the senior team to work through transitions of all kinds. If they approach me about doing organizational work, they generally seek success in helping the enterprise expand or realign to keep up with current and future demand. If I am brought in to help them or a member of their team on a personal level, they focus on goals such as higher productivity, better performance, or a greater ability to meet company objectives.

The challenges for which these leaders engage me are important. The world demands that we show up and keep up if we are to remain competitive and viable. But these goals are transactional.

And transactional goals can actually be harmful and counterproductive unless these are tied to a bigger transformation.

Before I explain why and how, it’s necessary to explain the difference between transactional and transformational goals.

First, the word transaction relates to the action of conducting business. It calls to mind those tasks and activities that are required to ensure smooth operations. The word transformation, on the other hand, connotes a metamorphosis or life change.

Here are some examples for comparison:


The goals in both columns can be worthy. However, unless you set your transactional goals with the following in mind, you may get into trouble.

Ask yourself the following:

1. Does this goal align with my values?

Unless you begin with your values in mind, you may wind up setting goals that conflict with what you hold most important. For example, if a chief transformation you desire is to become a more attentive and devoted parent, but all of your transactional goals keep you from being with your family, this is a conflict. Before you set any goals, revisit your top values and use these as your compass.

2. Does this goal support my own priorities?

Transactional goals may be subconsciously chosen to please or impress others, instead of being in your own best interest. I have coached executives who seek to achieve more so that they meet an ideal that their deceased parents held dear. Living your life for someone else will eventually wind up as a life “un-lived.” Ask yourself why you have set a particular transactional goal and whether this is truly a priority for you, regardless of others.

3. What transformation does this goal support?

Your transactional goals should support a sought-after transformation. Quite often, we can become addicted to reaching transactional goals and treat these as the “end game,” or tie this to self-worth (“I achieve, therefore, I am worthy”). Either is a dangerous and misleading path. Make sure that your transactional goals are simply milestones toward a larger transformation you desire for yourself. A good example would be, “I will lose 10 pounds (transactional) because this is part my goal to adopt a healthier lifestyle (transformational).”

In addition to these cautions, be sure to respect the journey as you work toward your goals. This is where great growth and transformation – the process of becoming a better version of yourself occurs.

Note: With appreciation to a great friend, Dennis del Valle for inspiring this topic. Dennis is a well-known marriage and family therapist, thought leader and speaker. Part of his practice entails leading small groups of highly successful business leaders to achieve exponential personal and professional growth, and I am privileged to be a part of one of them.

HOW MUCH

DO OTHERS REALLY TRUST YOU?

​Learn the two vital parts to trust and how they can help you become a more highly effective leader.

GET THE INFOGRAPHIC