Podcasts – Page 21

Are You Inspiring Leaders or Creating Ringleaders?

One could argue that the most recent findings of the Edelman Trust Barometer suggest that our peers have never mattered more than they do today. The growing influence of our peers has been evident since Edelman reported that trust shifted from authorities to peers in 2005 and, a year later, revealed that “a person like me emerged as a credible spokesperson.” According to the 2017 installment, we trust our peers as credible spokespersons as much as we trust academic and technical experts. Consider also that employees now trust one another more than they trust their CEO or other senior executives. This is powerful information for business leaders – especially those who understand how much culture matters to leading a healthy organization. Harnessing the power of peers properly can mean the difference between inspiring employees who want to be leaders and those who seek relevance by being ringleaders. Let me explain.

Several years ago, Paola Schifino, principal at Florida-based advertising and branding agency Schifino Lee, told me a story about her daughter’s soccer team I’ll never forget. Turns out, there was a girl who wasn’t very happy with the way the coach was leading the team. This girl shared her feelings with her teammates in an effort to build support for her point of view, which then triggered a groundswell of negativity. Upon learning what was happening, Paola gently offered the girl a piece of advice. She said, “Be a leader not a ringleader!”

I’m not sure I can recall hearing a sentence that was so short, yet communicated so much. We’ve all come across ringleaders in organizations where we’ve worked, right? Peers wield enormous power when it comes to influencing their fellow employees. It’s power that can be a force for good (leader) or one that can breed negativity (ringleader).

What do you do to recognize and leverage the power of peers in your organization? How do you approach inspiring leaders as opposed to perpetuating a culture that breeds ringleaders?

Laura Goodrich: Work With Others and Get More Of What You Focus On

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:32 — 34.4MB)

Laura Goodrich is an internationally recognized expert in workplace dynamics and relationships. Her global perspective on business and change has earned her the reputation as a “team fixer” and as someone who can create positive outcomes in any workplace situation. Laura is also a popular keynote speaker and the award-winning author and producer of the book and film Seeing Red Cars: Driving Yourself, Your Team and Your Organization to a Positive Future.

Next week’s guest: Linda Darling-Hammond, Emeritus Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Education and Faculty Director, Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education.

Is good the enemy of great? Or is perfection the enemy of good?

A number of years ago, I saw Cirque du Soleil perform Ka` at the MGM Grand. I didn’t know a great deal about the show until reading about it after the performance. The LA Times review confirmed my belief that it “may be the most lavish production in the history of western theater.” I thought, “Yup. That’s sounds about right to me!” I’ll never forget it. I reflected on how this amazing ensemble comes to work and performs this show twice a day, five days a week – knowing full well that for 95+% percent of the people in the audience, it will be the only Ka` experience they will ever have. They have to “bring it” to each and every performance! No show ever gets “phoned in.” Together, performers and crew members alike are committed to WOWing every audience that walks through the doors of the $220 million theater specially created for this show.

In my post, Peer Group Accountability: Who’s Responsible?, I essentially mentioned that it starts with each of us holding ourselves to high standards and modeling that behavior to inspire and motivate others. In researching and writing about peer advisory groups, I’ve talked to countless members and group leaders who extol the virtues of their culture of group accountability – saying by comparison, that individuals, left to their own devices, primarily dare to be average. I’m sure you’re bristling at the mere suggestion, but ask yourself if you’re doing everything you can do to be at the top of your game each and every day. Do you go to work with the same commitment to excellence as the team at Cirque du Soleil? If you do, you’re a rare bird.

Contrast Jim Collins’ explanation of “good being the enemy of great” (where good is too often good enough), with the concept of perfectionism and the familiar quote from Voltaire, translated literally as “The best is the enemy of good” or more commonly expressed as ‘”The perfect is the enemy of the good.” The quote references the paralyzing effect of the pursuit of perfection. It’s where the hope to implement the perfect solution can result in no solution at all. So is good the enemy of great? Or is the pursuit of perfection the enemy of good? Seems to me, they are two sides of the same coin. Neither is an excuse for mediocrity.

Understanding these dynamics is just one of many ways being part of the right peer group or high performing team will help you discern the difference and inspire you to achieve more than what you could ever do alone. What’s more, it will help you bring a little Ka`into your own life.

Peer Group Accountability: Who’s Responsible?

In workshops I’ve been conducting with CEO and executive peer groups across the country recently, group members are challenged to assess their overall performance (and develop an action plan for improvement) using the five factors common to high performing peer groups as described in The Power of Peers: How the Company You Keep Drives Leadership, Growth & Success. The five factors are 1) having the right people in the room, 2) promoting a safe and confidential environment, 3) fostering valuable interaction, 4) practicing group accountability, and 5) having excellent servant leadership. You’ll find brief descriptions of each of the five factors here.

The richest conversations in these workshops tend to focus on how to create and sustain a disciplined culture of group accountability – what many group leaders regard to be among the most important, if not THE most important, of the five factors. This essentially means that group members hold one another accountable for doing what they say they will do (DWTSTWD) to achieve their goals. It’s not about accountability to the leader, it’s about accountability to one another.

Yet, to address weaknesses in this area, which are quite common, the tendency of some members is to offer recommendations and action items for the leader. Of course, this is antithetical to what group accountability really means, right?. While the leader can set the tone and serve as a backstop when necessary, the leader should not play the role of implementer and enforcer. If the group wants to practice what it preaches, it can’t cede its responsibility to the leader. It’s up to the individual members and the group as a whole. Unless they take the lead, it will never take hold, nor be very effective.

Let me illustrate the point. If I, as an individual member, bring up an issue or opportunity for discussion with my group and take 45-minutes of their time, benefiting from their experiences and guidance, and declare the action(s) I’m prepared to take based on the conversation, isn’t it my responsibility to offer a status update at the next meeting? Shouldn’t I be the accountability driver? Isn’t that the least I can do for the gift I received from my fellow members? Group accountability has to start with me.

Now, let’s say the next meeting comes along, and I don’t volunteer a status update. It could be because I didn’t do what I said I would do at the last meeting and maybe I’m a bit embarrassed by that. I might not say anything in the hope I can slide and no one will notice. Not a good strategy because it only negatively impacts me and, worse yet, eats away at the culture of the group. The right thing to do is for me to own up to it and say I’ll do better next month. (It’s not the end of the world and at least I’m being honest with my group). Or, it simply slips my mind to report on my action items from the last meeting. In that instance, the next line of defense rests with the group. After all, the other members, all of whom are committed to group accountability, should be interested enough in my progress, given the valuable time they spent helping me at the last meeting, to say, “Hey, Leo. Tell us how your new initiative is coming along?”

If neither I, nor the group, offer an update or fail to ask about it, it would then be up to the leader to ask me why I didn’t initiate the conversation and then to challenge the group by asking, “How is it that not one of you thought to ask? You can’t have a culture of group accountability unless everyone in the group is committed to it.” This is what I mean by the leader serving as the backstop.

For group accountability to become ingrained in the group culture, the individual members and the group as a whole have to accept it as their responsibility. If this is not the dynamic in your peer group today, give it a try and, over time, watch peer group accountability improve and see how everyone starts to achieve even better results.

Beverly & Etienne Wenger-Trayner: Inside Communities of Practice

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:37 — 30.8MB)

Etienne Wenger-Trayner is a globally recognized thought leader in the field of social learning and communities of practice. He has authored and co-authored seminal articles and books including Situated Learning, where the term “community of practice” was coined; Cultivating Communities of Practice; and Digital Habitats, which tackles issues of technology, community, and what it means to be together.

Beverly Wenger-Trayner is a consultant specializing in social learning systems. Her work with international organizations such as the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the International Labor Organization, and The World Bank have given her substantial experience in coaching conveners and in supporting multi-lingual groups across cultures, time-zones, and geographic locations. She has published chapters and articles about learning in internationally distributed communities.

Their most recent work together is introduced in their latest book Learning In Landscapes of Practice.

Next week’s guest will be co-founder of GWT Next and author of Seeing Red Cars, Laura Goodrich.

“And the Oscar Goes To”…The Year of the Peer

The prevailing sentiment of the Year of the Peer was evident in its full splendor at the 2017 Academy Awards, as host Jimmy Kimmel opened the show with a monologue, that in part, called for greater civility in our dialogue. I also loved how the attendees celebrated peers who inspired their careers, as well as the way they applauded each others’ work with what I believed to be a heightened spirit of enthusiasm. In this Year of the Peer, Hollywood was pitch perfect.

Several of the advertisers followed suit in impressive fashion by sharing messages about the power of love and understanding to the millions of people around the world following the live broadcast. Here are two of the spots below. Enjoy and let’s be sure to carry this forward in our own lives in the months and years ahead.

It’s a fitting time to remember the words of Jodie Foster‘s character, Ellie Arroway, in the movie Contact, “I’ve always believed that the world is what we make of it.” That it is.

Rahfeal Gordon: “Your location is not your destination.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:57 — 32.1MB)

Rahfeal is a life strategist, leadership specialist, and innovator of inspiration. For more than a decade, Rahfeal has been leveraging the core fundamentals that promote productivity while guiding entrepreneurs and global leaders to success. He provides great insight into the environmental and physical circumstances that impact an individual’s personal and business performance. Rahfeal knows how to create positive work environments that enhance an individual and team’s performance.

Next week’s guests will be social learning pioneers, Etienne & Beverly Wenger-Trayner.

Name-calling and Our Pernicious Public Discourse

When I grew up, kids called each other names for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is they were not particularly equipped to do much else. That’s how they covered for their own lack of knowledge and insecurities. Most of us left this childish behavior behind. Over time, society asked more of us – that we actually had to offer something that didn’t involve name-calling or ad hominem attacks. We were expected to make our case on the merits in a fashion that inspired thoughtful debate. Unfortunately, that’s all changed.

In 2016, we were introduced to “Crooked Hillary” and “Dorito Mussolini”. More recently, U.S. Intelligence veteran Malcom Nance identified Trump senior advisor Stephen Miller as a “Baby Goebbels.” Grown-ups are now behaving like 8-year-olds, and I’m pretty sure that today’s kids are modeling this behavior more than ever. After all, it’s not like the name-calling is just coming from crazy Uncle Dave; it’s coming from the mouths of government leaders and political pundits on every media platform. It’s only a matter of time before we’ll turn on CNN, FOX News or MSNBC to bear witness to a debate that is reduced to the Pee-wee Herman loop, “I know you are, but what am I?”

During the Year of the Peer, we have to expect more of our leaders. Don’t we? Check out James Hoggan’s book, I’m Right and You’re an Idiot: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean it Up. He says, “The most pressing environmental problem we face today is not climate change. It is pollution in the public square, where a smog of adversarial rhetoric, propaganda, and polarization stifles discussion and debate, creating resistance to change and thwarting our ability to solve our collective problems.”

If we’re ever going to turn it around, Hoggan adds, “It is important to recognize that in a time when mistrust and polarization have soared to all-time highs, conversations aimed at injecting information into people in order to cure them of their misunderstanding will fail.”

Have a look at David Biggs’ terrific interview with James Hoggan and consider grabbing a copy of the book. Maybe if we made it required reading for all leaders, they would actually start to act their own age.

What do you think and how can we fix it?

Vitaly M. Golomb: Year Of The Peer Podcast – Accelerated Startup

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (34.0MB)

Vitaly M. Golomb leads global investments at HP Tech Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Silicon Valley’s original startup. He is a serial entrepreneur, a contributing writer to TechCrunch and a consistently top-ranked mentor to a number of startup accelerator programs all over the world. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and travels to over 20 countries each year to consult and guest lecture corporations, associations and universities on entrepreneurship, innovation and design. His book, Accelerated Startup – The New Business School came out end of January and can be ordered at golomb.net/book.

Next week’s guest will be inspirational speaker/author, Rahfeal Gordon.

100 Consecutive Wins – Life in Stage 5!

Moments ago, the #1 ranked University of Connecticut women’s basketball team defeated #6 South Carolina 66-55 for its 100th consecutive victory. To put this perspective, the team hasn’t lost a game since November 17, 2014. Last year, their big three, seniors Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson, and Morgan Tuck were drafted by the WNBA, number 1, 2 and 3 respectively. After losing the players who led the Huskies to four consecutive national championships, this would have been a rebuilding year for any other sports program in America – except for UConn. They’re already 25-0 this season, beating nationally ranked opponents Notre Dame, Baylor, Maryland, Florida State, Ohio State, and now South Carolina, with no one left of the regular season schedule likely to give them a serious challenge until the NCAA tournament.

Why should organizations outside of sports be marveling at the streak and paying close attention to this program? Let me offer this:

Several years ago, I heard Dave Logan deliver a terrific presentation based on a book he coauthored called Tribal Leadership. Among other things, he talked about the five stages of culture. Here are the five stages as I recall them:

Stage 1 – “Life sucks.” Roughly 2% of companies have cultures that represent something akin to a prison gang. (Scary but, true).

Stage 2 – “My life sucks.” The implication here is that people are likely to believe that your life may be okay, but my life sucks. (25%) of companies have cultures where people pretty much show up and do just enough to avoid getting fired. They can’t wait until 5:00 PM – especially on a Friday.

Stage 3 – “I’m great.” (with an implied, “and you’re not.”) This culture is characterized by an egotistical, command and control style leader who creates dyad relationships with the employees. (49% of organizational cultures fit this description, by the way).

Stage 4 – “We’re great.” 22% of organizations enjoy a team culture that wants to be the best as defined by their competition. They’re all about being #1 among everyone else in their space.

Stage 5 – “Life is great.” This is the organizational culture that sets its own standard of excellence. Think Secretariat at the Belmont. Logan noted that roughly 2% of organizations experience this rarefied air, but no one lives there for very long. They typically toggle between stages 4 and 5.

Dave Logan, meet the University of Connecticut women’s basketball program.

UConn players, and the coaching staff who created this culture over the past 30 years, compare themselves to the great UConn teams of the past, not to the teams on their upcoming schedule. They set their own standard of excellence each and every day at practice and with every possession – offensively and defensively – in every game. Rather than pay attention to the scoreboard, they honor the work ethic of UConn’s former players and are committed to making the dream of winning a national championship possible for their teammates. Their accountability culture and support for one another is off the charts. They will lose a game someday, but as long as they maintain their culture, it won’t happen very often.

This is what living in stage five looks like. Close your eyes and imagine your organization playing at UConn’s level. Now open them. Life is great! (Or it could be, if you take the power of their example seriously).

Congratulations to UConn for winning 100 consecutive games and for setting a standard of excellence for all of us to follow.