Patti Cotton

Executive Coach & Career Strategist

communication

The Clockwork of Excellent Leadership: 3 Essential Gears

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What makes up excellent leadership?

The workings of excellent leadership are essentially the same, whether you are a small business owner or a large corporate executive. It doesn’t matter what the industry, in which country or countries you do business, and whether your staff is comprised of millennials or seasoned mentors (and I hope you have both!).

What constitutes excellent leadership remains constant.

Imagine, if you will, the business of leadership to be a finely-tuned clock. With this picture in mind, now imagine you are looking at the inside of the clock and that you see three interlocking gears, well-oiled, all turning together to support the clock’s movement. That’s good leadership.

Let’s go further with this analogy. Suppose one of the gears stops working. It gets rusty, or wears down so that one of the teeth breaks off. What happens then? Of course, the gears stop turning, or they turn for a while, begin to misbehave, and then slow to a halt.

Leadership is the same way. The essential components that go into leadership must all work together, or they begin to wear on one another and bring things to a stop.

What are these three “gears”? And how do they work together?

The First Gear: Vision

Vision is the answer to “what’s possible.” It’s where things start – and indeed, one cannot move forward without some kind of vision, some sort of mental picture of what ultimate success can look like.

For an enterprise, vision is the desired future impact the entity aspires to make. It represents the overall goal and global direction of the business, and this rarely changes.

You can see what I mean by the examples of some well-known visions here:

Disney:                        To make people happy.

American Express:      To be the world’s most respected service brand.

Hilton Worldwide:       To fill the world with the light and warmth of hospitality.

In the world of leadership development, much focus has been given to the ability to vision.

Being able to visualize and articulate what is possible for the future of an enterprise is considered a vital component of successful leadership. By the same token, many leaders have been known to fail because of their lack of vision. Indeed, first being able to capture vision, then inspiring it, holding fast to it despite constant change, and keeping one’s eye on it while doing the work required to get there is a huge challenge.

Here are just a few reasons why you and your enterprise require vision – and why it must be defined before you make any moves forward.

  1. Focus

     If you have the end goal in mind, you can focus on it, and thus eliminate shiny objects and other distractions along the way. In the workplace, focus helps you give attention to the right things that will help you reach vision.

  2. Direction

    Vision is your ultimate destination and, when you don’t know where you are going, you might as well drive down any road and just keep traveling. In the workplace, no direction means you are liable to land anywhere – and nowhere specific. That’s death knell for business.

  3. Meaning

    Vision gives context to what you do. It reminds you of the “why” of your enterprise, why it exists. In the workplace, executing your work without understanding why you are doing what you do means disengagement and dissatisfaction.

  4. Motivation

    When you know where you are going and why, this is motivating. You can see as you take action and get closer to goal, and this energizes you. When your employee base is motivated, you will see high engagement and productivity – the stuff that keeps a business going well.

  5. Inspiration

    Vision is inspiring. It’s a lofty and attractive goal that may seem unattainable, but that keeps you climbing toward the top. As you are energized and engaged, so is your staff. They “catch” the vision through your ability to visualize it and articulate it to them so that they can also strive to get there with you.

The Second Gear: Strategy

Strategy is the plan of action for going after the vision. It’s the question, “What is the best way to get there?” Strategy is key to driving direction, and seeks to take the best path to get to the vision. Best ways “to get there” can change, depending on unpredictable market conditions, competitors, disruptive technology, and many other factors.

If you work in a large enterprise, your company or organization is comprised of business units, and these may have multiple teams. Each of these units and each of their teams has a set of strategies to support the larger, more global corporate strategy, which supports the entity’s vision. If you are an entrepreneur or smaller business owner, you will have equally important strategies defined, but less of the strategy “layering” that a larger entity would have, in order to support your enterprise’s vision.

The Clockwork of Excellent Leadership:   3 Essential Gears

What makes up excellent leadership? The essential components that go into leadership must all work together, or they begin to wear on one another and bring things to a stop. Learn how to keep them running like clockwork. Sign up to receive the  complimentary infographic.

Here is how one company redefined a key business strategy because of a changing marketplace.

For years, there were just a few large credit card companies to service the population, and American Express was one of these. However, in the early 2000s, competition rose, with newer companies worldwide offering online payment processing. This meant that American Express risked losing its market share and revenues, compromising the future growth and sustainability of the company (“American Express Redefines Its Strategy,” ICMR IBS Center for Management Research, 2015).

American Express was in a pickle. It had no more premium products it could offer its current customer base in order to offset this. So American Express leadership sat down and analyzed current trends, examined its target market, and reviewed its strategy. Leadership realized that in order to remain competitive and minimize any possible loss, it must branch out to target additional populations, and by doing so, adopt a different business strategy to reach these groups.

Previously, the company had targeted customers based on how much they spent, and not on how many transactions they made. It had built its reputation on being the “elite” card in the credit world. Now, leadership was forced to redefine itself as a more accessible company to the general population. It added a new business strategy by targeting a market that spent smaller amounts than the first group of customers, but made many more transactions. In 2014, it launched a new credit card for housewives and students called the “Amex Everyday” credit card and some other products for the mass population.

As you think about the American Express story, recall that its vision is “to be the world’s most respected service brand.” Notice that this did not change. Leadership simply made sure that the business strategies used changed to adapt to marketplace demands so that it could still meet the vision.

To visualize this a bit more easily, let’s say that your vision is to reach the city of Rome. One of your key strategies is to take the fastest and most economical routes in order to arrive at your ultimate destination more quickly and with a lion’s share of the money you have put away for your trip.

The Third Gear: Execution

Henry Ford once said, ‘Vision without execution is just hallucination.” Execution is implementing the actions dictated by the strategies that will support the vision. Obviously, if strategy isn’t executed in order to support reaching the vision, nothing gets done.

This is more common than you might think. I have encountered many a leader whose head is stuck in the clouds all day, dreaming of the vision, while unaware of what strategies his workforce is carrying out, and whether they are executing effectively. Once in a while, these leaders are confronted by real problems in the real world (theirs!), and it is difficult for them to make good decisions and take the right action, since they haven’t been in touch with what is happening in their business to meet the vision. They model what the rest of the enterprise eventually adopts – and down goes another business.

But execution – the carrying out of actions dictated by strategy – must be effective in order to work. This requires implementing in the right way – with the right thoughts and behaviors. This is where a lot of leadership calls me for help – and quite often for themselves.

You’ve probably experienced a leader who cannot communicate well. He or she delivers nebulous messages that no one can understand. Not wanting to ask repeatedly for clarification, people go away, trying their best to guess what the leader wants as they go back to put plan into action. They will no doubt make mistakes that could have been avoided.

Perhaps you have worked with a leader who doesn’t listen well, or doesn’t have a strong empathy quotient. This person can offend others easily and cause rifts in relationships.

What about a leader who cannot stay focused? This leader may change directives at whim, causing confusion and conflict among groups and teams. These are just some behaviors that get in the way of sound execution.

Although there are quite a few more, here are five common problems that may hold a leader back because their behaviors don’t support good execution.

Have you worked with someone who needs more of the following?

  1. Personal Agility

     The ability to flex well and deal with change to support the situation, whether interpersonal or organizational.

  2. Building Trust

    The ability to conduct self with consistency and integrity to develop solid trust with others.

  3. Conflict Management

    The ability to manage conflict effectively so that the problem and its root cause are solved, and so that relationships are strengthened.

  4. Initiative and Bias for Action

    The ability to take initiative in timely decision-making and action-taking to benefit the enterprise.

  5. Communication

    The ability to convey clear and concise messages, and to do so in a way that all levels of the enterprise understand directives, feel informed, and are confident as to the intended direction and outcomes.

If you or a leader you know has a behavior that gets in the way of his leading, take heart. This can be successfully shifted through executive coaching with the right methodologies and approach, to benefit the person’s execution and the future of his enterprise.

Why Vision, Strategy, and Execution as Three Gears Need to Work Together

Imagine a vision without a way to get there. Imagine strategy without an ultimate destination creating the right pathway. And think about actions that have no meaning or reason to implement them.

Many enterprises tell me they have a clear vision, strategies to support this, and good execution. Yet, many times, I find there are no processes to make sure that these three gears remain viable and aligned.

Often, I encounter an executive team who insists its strategies are right for the company. “These have always worked for us,” I may hear. This is good. But beware – what works today will not work tomorrow. You are endangering your enterprise if you are not continuously assessing your strategies and how these meet demands and changes.

Then, I’m likely to hear how a company has the right vision and strategies, and that people are busy. Leadership cannot figure out why the enterprise isn’t seeing better outcomes. If this is you, it’s time to investigate!

As an example, I talked with a middle manager about putting together an action plan to help motivate his team. He responded, “Oh, we know how to put an action plan together. We have one, and we are busier than ever. But I’ll tell you, nothing good will happen until we get permission to take the right actions. Our projects and initiatives don’t often support the larger goals in the first place. And I ask myself, ‘Why are we here?’”

Do you have your vision, strategies, and execution aligned? Is your enterprise where you want it to be? I can promise you that if your response is no, the answer lies in a needed realignment in at least one of three areas.

Excellent leadership begins now – with an intervention to bring all back into clockwork order.

How to Raise Your Influence in Less Than 5 Seconds

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How to Raise Your Influence in Less Than 5 Seconds

You can raise your “influence quotient” with someone in just five seconds.

This may sound unbelievable, but it’s true.

In the past three articles, we have focused on raising your ability to influence others. Although these tips have focused on sending the right “outer signals” – making an emotional connection, using appropriate verbal and non-verbal language, and asking for a favor – it is important to remember that these “outer signals” must come from the right “inner motives”.

In the best of worlds, influence should be used for good – it should be borne out of genuine passion for something you believe will make the world (or at least your world) a better place.

These tips I’ve been sharing are really about being able to marry the “outer to the inner,” to show the other person that you care about them as a human being and that you are willing to be vulnerable and real with them. In reality, many people really care, but they simply don’t know how to show it.

There’s one shift that requires the inner and outer parts of a person to work together, that really brings congruency to your motives and outer behaviors, and that is listening.

Deep listening.

There is a big difference between hearing and listening. And it is listening that will cause you to become more influential.

Pauline Oliveros, an American composer, actually devoted her life’s work to deep listening, and coined the term after descending 14 feet into an underground cistern to make a recording. She then designed a like setting to inspire both trained and untrained performers to practice the art of listening and responding to environmental conditions in solo and ensemble situations. What she was after was the deep and empathic understanding that comes of truly connecting at the visceral level.

Oliveros instructed her listeners to “walk so silently until the bottoms of your feet become ears.”

Oliveros went on to form the “Deep Listening Band,” to allow new and experienced musicians to practice this art of deep listening, “integrating principles of improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation” (Wikipedia).

Extrapolating from this, one might say that we should still our personal agenda to truly connect to understand. This is deep listening.

Without listening, we cannot communicate. Listening requires at least two people because there will be an exchange of information, a synthesis of that information, and feedback. True communication is a continuous loop of these processes. How we listen determines the extent to which we can connect to make great things happen.

How does this relate to increasing your influence? Think for a moment.

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In the coaching world, we say there are five levels of listening.

Here they are adapted from Stephen R. Covey‘s “Listening Continuum,” in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Level 1: Ignoring, or Not Listening

The Ignorer does not appear to be listening. They may not hear you or, if willfully ignoring, are sending the message that they do not want to acknowledge you. There is no exchange of information, much less communication. Their personal agenda is clearly something else! This can be very irritating to the speaker because he knows the listener is not paying attention to anything but is merely thinking of what he will say when he gets a chance to talk.

This means the conversation follows the listener’s (or non-listener in this case!) agenda, not the speaker’s agenda. An example might be when you are talking about a business matter, and when you finish your thought, the listener speaks up and asks how you enjoyed the party last weekend.

Level 2: Pretend Listening (Patronizing)

The Patronizing Listener may occasionally nod their head or make a gesture in your direction, but they also show you they are paying attention to other things or allowing distractions to become their focus instead of you. Their personal agenda is to judge whether or not they need to pay attention to your message.

Level 3: Selective Listening

The Selective Listener will indicate they are listening at times, but hearing only part of your message. They will often pay attention to only those parts of your message with which they agree, and may often interrupt you or cut you off to ask, “So what’s your point?” Their personal agenda is to hear your story so they can respond with theirs.

For instance, you might be saying that your son really enjoyed soccer camp this summer and the listener responds by saying that her son went last year, and he didn’t like it much.

Level 4: Attentive Listening

The Attentive Listener wants to hear you, but will use their frame of reference to communicate with you. They will often respond by offering advice. Their personal agenda is to hear you, to apply any information they glean from your message, and to see if it is appropriate to apply within their own frame of reference.

Now we are getting into real listening. In this case you might be saying that you have had some difficulty getting your manager to buy into your ideas about something and the listener asks you to tell her more about it.

Level 5: Empathetic Listening (Mirroring or Active Listening)

The Empathic Listener seeks to listen beyond your words, to put themselves in your shoes to the heart and feelings that lie behind the words. This requires stepping out of their own frame of reference, values, personal story, and tendency to judge. This means that the listener has left their personal agenda and bias behind to seek to understand you. It is at this level that a true empathic exchange occurs, building trust, safe space, and an arena where true change and resolution can occur.

With the first four levels, the listener hears while operating from their own frame of reference. The fifth level of listening requires that the listener leave this personal agenda to truly connect empathically.

Here you might be saying that you’d better not go out for drinks after work, and the listener asks if you are worried about your kids being home alone. He hit the nail on the head, and you admit that you really are worried about that and would rather go right home.

How many people in your life can you identify at each of these levels?

It’s rather easy to think of people who exhibit levels 1-4, but it’s rare to know people who reflect level 5.

Why?

Because listening at level 5 means putting one’s own agenda completely aside to become neutral and caring. When we do encounter these people who listen at level 5, we fall in love with them.

Why is that?

It is because we feel heard. We feel understood and acknowledged as a human being.

Developing such a high level of listening takes time, patience, a willing heart, and a whole lot more that is quite another article! But if you are with someone else and you truly want to connect to become more influential in their lives, then this is what you must strive for. Because in the end, even if you seek to influence someone else toward your own agenda, true listening in the process may bring to light something you didn’t realize – and which may turn your own agenda on its head.

How do you increase your influence with someone in just five seconds?

It is with a shift in thinking: putting your own agenda aside for just a brief moment.

I’ve outlined a conversation to follow this shift that will truly acknowledge both you and the other person. The results from such a conversation can be not only rewarding, but relationship-changing for you both. (This outline assumes you’ve proposed your agenda, and you have made the 5-second shift to put this aside, now, to listen to the other person):

  1. Remain silent while the other person speaks. Tell yourself that whatever you are thinking right now can wait to be said, and really try to hear what they are saying.
  2. When they pause, you can say something like, “Tell me more,” or “What’s behind that?” And listen. Listen with the soles of your feet – put yourself in this person’s shoes and try to see through his eyes, from his perspective.
  3. Once the person is done talking, instead of rebutting, or giving advice, mirror back what he has just said as you show you are seeking to understand and acknowledge his point of view. “Here’s what I hear you saying, John…you are really worried about taking this course of action because it may place you in a position of vulnerability with your current project. Is that right?”
  4. As John acknowledges or edifies what you have just mirrored back, keep listening – go deeper into a mental space that is like Oliveros’ 14-foot cavern. Try not to formulate what you want to say – just listen. Reflect back what you have heard, again.
  5. Then finally, after you feel you have really listened to John, you can say something like, “John, I really hear what you are saying, and I don’t want to put you in a vulnerable position. Is there a way that we can solve this larger problem we are addressing together? What might that look like?

I challenge you to try this conversation out with a colleague or loved one. If you can do this, and begin to develop the art of deep listening, the results for you will be life-changing.

A Multi-Million Dollar Company with No One Leading

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A Multi-Million Dollar Company with No One Leading

Mediation and Conflict Resolution

All names and other identifying information have been changed to protect confidentiality.

I was called to work with one of the largest construction companies in the Midwest, which was a recent merger of three very successful smaller construction companies.

“I want you to find out what’s wrong with these employees of mine,” said the president, looking at me across the desk. “These people aren’t putting in the sweat equity they should. In fact, I think a few of them are lazy – some need to be fired. Most are complaining that they haven’t gotten a raise in a long time, but before I go handing out candy, they need to show their stuff and get these back orders out.”

“Back orders?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “We have $40 Million in back orders we cannot fill, and the bank is telling me I have 90 days to get it fixed, or they are calling in the loan. We may fold before spring if these lazy employees don’t get cracking.”

The president (we will call him Max) gave me a bit of background about the company. He was formerly the owner of a smaller construction business. Two years prior, he had purchased another construction company, and then invited the president of a third company, Jim, to join him so that together, they formed the largest company in the industry in the Midwest.

As Max gave me more details about this very critical situation, I proposed that we meet with the other owner, Jim, as well as their new COO, Tom, to design a quick, impactful plan to get the back orders out and avoid the bank’s loan recall.

“Oh, no, I don’t want Tom in this. I’m still teaching Tom the ropes of the business, and I want to see how well he does before I give him more responsibility. And Jim and I aren’t, uh, talking to each other right now. He isn’t interested in this side of the business, anyway. He just stays out in his warehouse office and works on his invention.”

“His invention?”

“Listen,” Max shot back, “The co-owner doesn’t care about anything but sitting in his office down the street all day playing with some new product that is supposed to revolutionize the industry. I hate to admit it to you, but he hasn’t seen the financials for more than a year. I’ve been busy putting out other fires. It would be a little embarrassing for me to let him in on what’s happening right now.”

“You mean your co-owner doesn’t know the bank is threatening to recall the loan? That you have $40 Million in back orders you can’t fill?” I stammered.

Max just grinned sheepishly and stared at me.

At this point, dear Reader, you may be thinking this story is fabricated. After all, a real company cannot operate like this, can it? Yes, it can. I was there.

But it was due to fold – with problems obviously starting and ending at the very top.

“Max,” I said, “Before we do anything else, we have to let the co-owner and the COO in on the problem – you are going to need help and buy-in with the solution.”

“It’s all over, then,” he buried his face in his hands. “You don’t understand these guys – they don’t know how to run a business like I do. And they are difficult to deal with.”

I sat in stunned silence. Of course, you know that what was running through my mind was that Max didn’t know how to run a business either – and he was difficult to deal with, too.

How did the company come to this point? It starts and ends with leadership, doesn’t it? The health or lack of health in leadership is felt at every level of any enterprise. And there are several key factors that fell short in this particular case.

But I’ll talk about three important ones here:

1. Lack of clear roles and responsibilities.

Max and Jim had decided that Max would operate as CEO, but they didn’t know what this meant. And they never defined any responsibilities for either of them. Max fell into running the company because he liked being the boss. Jim busied himself with doing what he loved best – tinkering to invent a product that would put the company on the map. Max brought Tom in to fix the “employee problem,” but hadn’t allowed him to get near any employees, yet, except for a small satellite office at the other end of the state. Max said he “wanted to test Tom’s abilities, first.” This had been going on for months when I got there.

2. Lack of accountability.

As you can see from #1 above, none of the executive team was holding themselves or each other accountable. Max loved to sell and make deals, so this is what he was doing with investors – and yet, he wasn’t managing the directors and managers so that the company could run effectively.

Tom, the new COO, had tried to insert himself several times by proposing to oversee the management team, but Max shut him down each time, saying “You need to do what I’ve given you to do first so I can cut you loose.”

Max had, in fact, made the fatal mistake of assigning Tom to a small area of the company that had little to do with production and the problem at hand. And Max wasn’t investigating the real problem, either.

And then, there was Jim. Jim loved to tinker. Alone in his office all day. I still don’t know how he survived his original business before Max brought it on to combine it with his own.

3. Lack of communication.

How in the world did three men who held such high responsibilities find themselves in a place where no one knew what the others were doing – and the company was going down?

A multi-million dollar company with no one leading.

Why didn’t Max communicate? Max claimed that he couldn’t talk to Jim because the latter had a temper, so Max avoided keeping Jim up to date with financials, challenges, and other vital pieces of information. And Max claimed that Tom was too new to know what he was doing and so withheld information from him that could have helped Tom to help the company.

Why didn’t Jim communicate? He told me he thought Max was an arrogant idiot who was so hard-headed that it was impossible to talk with him. Jim said that Tom was a nice fellow, but he wasn’t sure he trusted him because Tom was always in Max’s office.

And Tom? Tom didn’t communicate with Max because he had asked too many questions too many times and been shut down to the point where he was silently contemplating quitting and moving his family back East. And he didn’t communicate with Jim, because Jim always had his door closed down at that warehouse office.

At every turn, there were unspoken conversations and unresolved conflict because people weren’t asking the hard questions, and providing tough information to each other.

Avoiding these critical conversations had resulted in one giant fiasco.

You can guess that the initial meeting with the four of us was not a gentle one. Tempers and voices flared, and it took some mediating to reach an agreement as to how to talk with each other and work through the problem so that we could get to the issues at hand. We finally reached consensus on what strategies to take, who would be responsible for what, and how to hold self and each other accountable through this critical process.

I frankly breathed a sigh of relief. Mediating and coaching conflict in such a situation are not easy, but we came out linking arms.

Sometime later, after leadership diverted the crisis, I would fire Max (yes, I have fired a couple of clients). I would have loved to stay on to help shift culture, and help the company excel. But Max was not willing to be transparent with Jim and Tom about some critical issues, and he wasn’t willing to work on his own leadership. He just kept blaming everyone and everything else. Shortly after I fired him, his board fired him as well.

I’m glad to say that Tom has taken over running the company, and has really turned things around. And Jim? He is still inventing things in his warehouse office that are bound to revolutionize the industry.

What poor style of leadership have you witnessed or heard about in the past?

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Patti Cotton is a CEO and former foreign diplomat. A sixth generation business owner, Patti not only coaches leaders – she has extensive experience in actually being one. Her experience, record of unprecedented success, and extensive training and certifications make her uniquely qualified to bring value to you and your team in the areas of leading self, leading others, and leading the enterprise.

Patti’s areas of focus include leadership and talent development, with specialization in leadership behavior and communication, conflict management, executive presence, succession planning, and strategic personal, leadership, and organizational growth.

With over 25 years of proven leadership experience, Patti works with individuals, teams, and organizations across diverse industries. As an executive coach, trainer, and Fortune 500 speaker, she will inspire, influence, and impact your organizational leaders to reach new heights of success in their personal and professional growth, and to improve performance across your organization.

For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.