Orchestrating Success

You have inherited a lifetime of tribulation. Everybody has inherited it. Take it over, make the most of it and when you have decided you know the right way, do the best you can with it. – Murray Bowen

Over the past 8 years of study of Bowen Systems, I have gained specific knowledge that helps me with my work with organizational leaders in many fields. What I didn’t use in my work previously, is defining Guiding Principles. I used to work with people defining organizational and personal core values. Now I realize that core values are great, but they are static definitions and not active statements for decision making, both personally and for teams.

I’ve adopted the following top 10 list for going one more step in defining the principled leader.

Ten tips for being a successful principled leader:

1. Develop and follow personal Guiding Principles: Leaders are primarily influencers. This step is crucial in being the person of influence. Creating and utilizing guiding principles in writing is the key. By the way, when these are shared with people who matter, they are more effective. Accountability is empowerment and collaboration.

2. Align personal core values with organizational core values: Over 90% of the leaders that I begin work with cannot define their core values. These are the foundation for strategic planning and the start for developing guiding principles. Define personal and organizational values and then compare. If these are not in alignment, then you cannot be successful.

3. Always remain in integrity: Integrity means always doing the right thing and doing the right thing when nobody is looking. Once perjured under oath in a court of law, all your testimony is worthless. It only takes once of not being in integrity to cancel out your reputation.

4. Manage conduct and language: You are the leader and you can do whatever you please…not exactly true! You can choose to conduct yourself in a nonprofessional manner or to use abusive language or to swear. There are consequences in those choices, however. If you are a person of influence, then how do you want to be perceived and who do you want to influence? Every action and every word counts. There is no eraser for bad conduct or bad language.

5. Focus on giving value: Nobody likes a person who must win all the time, and nobody wants to listen to a person who only talks about themselves. There’s a reciprocity in giving value to others. Good and bad things come back around to each of us. Ask what others need and soon they will be asking you the same.

6. Take responsibility for personal mistakes: Blame is not a good leadership tool. Typically leaders cause problems that they blame others for. Step up to owning your own gaps and consider mistakes a learning opportunity. Be transparent or your team members will show you that they know you aren’t perfect. Remember, perfect is the enemy of good.

7. Seek consensus and not compromise: Consensus is a decision worked out through group process and backed by relationship. It’s not win/lose. It’s not a power play. It’s not demanding your own way. It’s not compromise. In a compromise, everyone gives up something and it is perceived to be a lose/lose result. Consensus is win/win or no deal.

8. Associate with people of integrity: We become like the top 5 people we associate with. Our income reflects that of the crowd we hang with. Our influence is amplified by the friends we keep. Is your sphere of influence adding value to your end game? Are you bringing value to theirs, as well?
9. Make principled decisions and not feeling decisions: Murray Bowen has been quoted as having said, “It’s ok to have empathy for someone, but you must get out of it quickly.” Feeling sorry for someone doesn’t help you or them. We get anxious when guided by emotions, and make feeling decisions rather than thinking decisions. Always check yourself when making important decisions.

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The Transformational Leader Effectively Delegates

A common leadership challenge is defining how to empower teams to function at a higher level, producing more quality results. This is an opportunity to effectively manage one’s own schedule by getting things off the schedule that someone else can do.

Delegation does not mean delegate it and forget it. Delegation does not mean micromanaging, either.

Delegation is a high-level leadership competency that continues to improve as the skill is rehearsed over time. Do not expect instant perfection. Do not expect every delegation to work out flawlessly. Do not give up or give in. When you delegate, do not let the item come back to you.

Steps for effective delegation:

1. Shelve your ego – You are not the only person who can do everything the best way possible. Delegation is a strength of leadership and not a weakness. Embrace delegation and master the skill.
2. Define what you should not do – This is Transformational Leadership trait #1. Now is the time to practice what you preach. By getting things off your list of responsibilities and to-do list, you become more efficient with your work and can support others as well. Some things, however, cannot be delegated. Those things that cannot be delegated are typically fewer than we first think, so spend time defining what you want to delegate.
3. Ask for what you want – You have defined the goals for the organization and know what needs to be done. Do not assume that others are clear on what you want done. Do not assume that people will automatically fill in the gaps. Wasting time is the result of waiting for people to “get it.” Just ask.
4. Delegate the deliverable – Do not dictate the process. You have capable leaders on the team, so let them create the process. You can, however, ask if they need ideas or information to be able to complete the deliverable.
5. Set parameters and limits – Identify the boundaries as to the person’s authority, responsibility, and accountability. Define what they should do and what they should not do.
6. Set check-in points – This is not micromanaging. Setting times to measure benchmarks along the way allows for coaching and affirmation during the process. Sometimes team members think that asking for information is a weakness. You are promoting collaboration, not dependence. Define these check-in times when the task is delegated.
7. Show appreciation – People will be personally invested in the result and in the process they create.
8. Be patient – Manage your own anxiety. If you are anxious, that negative energy will infect the team, and your ability to think clearly, as well. Observe how things are working. Nurture the process. Give it time to work.

Tips:
1. Give it time – Remember that you are the expert and the person with the assigned task may not be as capable. Give them time to succeed. Give them time to learn. It will take more time at first. It’s worth it in the long run.
2. Believe in positive results – Most people function at a higher level when they know that there is emotional support. Believe in the person and let them know that you care and believe in them.
3. Keep relationship as the key connection – We all have a different sense of responsibility when the relationship is important. Always work on relationships with everyone on the team.

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Effective leaders are not always right. They ensure that leaders on their teams are. Leading is empowering others. – Hugh Ballou

As leaders, we follow what we have been taught by habit, and mostly out of ignorance of what else to do. We respect those who have impacted our lives, unintentionally feeling obligated to do so. In my case, it’s a part of that inherited behavior of desiring to please others, whether it’s the right decision for me or not.

Being transparent means being vulnerable in many instances. If we are insecure about anything, then being transparent and vulnerable is a challenge.

There is a sense of false security in being autocratic, in that we control the flow of information, make the decisions, manage how things happen, and lead by the influence of power and, not, personal influence.

It’s far more difficult to lead collaboratively than authoritatively. So, why change?

Being transparent fosters energy in any group and allows others to own the outcomes and to establish peer-to-peer accountability. Transparency is, in fact, a primary leadership skill.

Transparency is a valuable leadership skill:

1. To build trust: This is aligned with the Transformational Leadership trait of authenticity. Being authentic includes being transparent, if you adopt this style of leadership. Team members can trust a leader who doesn’t pretend to be something that he or she isn’t. This trust allows for relationships to grow organically, like ensemble happens with intentionality in musical groups. The leader must guide and nurture that process, but not control it. The musical conductor guides the process and allows space for others to function up.
2. To focus on relationships: Insecure and autocratic leaders are focused on themselves and not on others. When leaders pay attention to team members and constantly work on relationship, it’s apparent and brings energy to the team. Reversing this paradigm allows the leader to have the bandwidth to pay attention to what others are doing, how they function, and to observe behaviors.
3. To reframe influence: The leader who leads from the position of power and authority (I’m the Chairman and I make decisions) stifles group thinking, sidetracks creative collaboration, and intimidates others. We reframe from “Push” to “Pull” leadership.
4. To encourage collaboration: If the leader has all the answers, then there’s no reason for others to participate. Transparency is knowing and sharing the truth, which is that you don’t have all the right answers. Rather than always being right, ensure that the team is always right, or that they learn from mistakes so that their competency is constantly growing.
5. To foster authenticity: The last, and most impactful Transformational Leadership trait is to model what you preach. Being authentic means showing how to be authentic. When you don’t know, share that with the team. Nobody can have all the right answers. Model this trait and it will impact how others respond to you and other team members.
This is certainly not a comprehensive treatment of the topic. It’s intended to stimulate thinking and inspire a new paradigm for leading.

Do you agree?

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Hugh Ballou Interviews Dave Lucas about his Misfit Entrepreneur concepts and systems.

The Interview Transcript

Ep 53, Interview with Dave Lukas
Hugh Ballou: Dave Lukas has this podcast called the Misfit Entrepreneur. Dave, you and I met virtually, and we are getting acquainted. What I have seen so far is quite impressive. Say a little bit about your background and your business, and then about this podcast, this Misfit Entrepreneur. Talk about yourself and your background and what the inspiration was for launching this great podcast you have.
Dave Lukas: Thanks, all good stuff. Thanks for having me, and thanks everyone for tuning in. A little bit about my background just so you guys know. I have always ben an entrepreneur, ever since I was a kid. Like most people, I did the lawn thing, but I did a direct sales business at my college and took it to another business after college that I brought to Columbus, Ohio, where I live now. I split time between Columbus and San Diego. I am in the health and wellness arena. I did that for a year. Then I had this crazy idea. I either wanted to run or own a Fortune 500 someday. So early 20s, right? Everything you can accomplish. I got to get up from the ground floor with one of these and really understand it.
One of the best places to do that is on the sales side of things. If you look at a lot of CEOs, a lot of them are salespeople. Sales is a skill that no matter who you are in life and no matter what you do, you really need to understand and utilize. One of the things I talk about when I do speeches is that sales is one of the most innate, natural abilities we all have. If you have a spouse or a significant other, you sold yourself to them, and they sold themselves to you. It’s something that we do naturally. We don’t think of it to be more deliberate at it.
I went to school essentially. I worked for a top 50 training program, Fortune 500. Spent a number of years there. Had a lot of success. I was Rep of the Year and all that in my early days. Then I became a turnaround manager and a trainer nationally for all of their rookies. During that time, I continued my entrepreneurial efforts. I continued to invest. I continued to build up other businesses. When you are successful in sales, that gives you autonomy, which allowed me to do that.
One of those companies I invested in and helped to guide and mentor in my free time was a company called Grass Technologies. It was a very unique company in the data intelligence space in the travel industry. Anything can be learned. That is one thing I learned. Going from where I was and going to the travel sector is a completely different world. We grew that business from basically nothing to- Nowadays I spend a lot of time there, and it is my largest business. Inc 5000 multi-year winner. We do business in over 100 countries. It’s been a lot of fun. We have that.
I do some other things, where I teach and speak and train. I work in the investment side of things, and I am part of a small hedge fund. Then I started this podcast. It’s called the Misfit Entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur, that makes sense. People are like, “Oh yeah, you’re an entrepreneur. You started a podcast to learn the unique traits of entrepreneurs.” The reason I did it is not what most people think. The reason I did it came about three years ago when my wife and I went to China to adopt our daughter. We adopted our daughter, and we get home, and she is 18 months old at that time. In my youth, I spent a lot of my extra time, weekends and evenings, learning. I trained with Zig Ziglar, God rest his soul; Brian Tracy, who wrote the cover quote for my bestselling book; and Tony Robbins, all of these guys, billionaires and millionaires. I spent about five years spending every waking moment that I had learning from these people. That is how that book came about.
Fast forward multiple years later, and I have this 18-month-old. I am a dad now.

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Envision the Future
Everybody has a dream. Only 3 out of every 100 people will actually do something about that dream by acting on the vision. Unfortunately, 9 out of 10 people attempting to launch a new enterprise, whether a business or a charity, will fail without achieving that dream.
 
What’s the difference? It’s having a plan and surrounding yourself with a competent team to implement that plan. The first priority, however is equipping yourself for the journey. Develop your skills to lead, implement the plan, and build the right team. And, by the way, equip yourself to build the income that you deserve with this enterprise.
 
I have been glued to the television every night for the Rio 2016 Olympics and have been massively impressed with our American athletes! They are highly skilled, masterfully trained, and consequently highly successful. Each successful athlete has a very competent coach.

Take Action
This is the same for professional athletes, actors, musicians, and business professionals. They all have a coach and train for success. We would never consider running a 26.2 mile marathon without training our bodies and minds for the task. Then why do we even consider starting and running a business or charity without having a coach and a content specialist mentor? That’s why over 90% fail…they lack the ability to lead the enterprise, as defined in the D & B research in 1995.

There’s an alternative. I have coaches, therefore I do what I teach.

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Continuous improvement requires systematic evaluation. Continuous improvement requires unfiltered evaluation. – Anonymous

Mastering the Evaluation is a Valuable Leadership Skill

Often I interview a potential client and hear that they have a strategic plan…more often than not, it’s put away somewhere and dusty. In other conversations about creating a strategic plan, I hear the same story…we have completed the previous plan and need a new one. Both of these paradigms are very curious to me.

Once you create a strategic plan, it becomes an organic process which migrates over time. It’s really not very efficient to stop and regroup as if starting all over again. If there’s a long-term strategy, then it’s always a long-term strategy, if the leader commits to regularly evaluating the plan, revising and updating the plan, and recommitting to the plan. It’s an ongoing process and not a stop and start process.

I’ve also written about the most dysfunctional systems in organizations, and one of those is the annual review*. Instead of waiting for a full year to evaluate, set up an ongoing system of evaluation and course correction.

Set Aside Time for Evaluation

We do not set aside time to plan and evaluate. Let’s face it. We don’t do it. Most of us don’t do it. I teach this and I must still force myself to do it. Our lame excuse is that we don’t have time. We don’t have time because we haven’t defined the value for the evaluation and we haven’t defined the cost for lack of evaluation. It’s very costly to have to repeat, undo, or redo things and it’s very destructive to the morale of the people.

A tradition in strategic planning is to do a S.W.O.T. (define the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). That’s a broken model which puts us back into the traditions that have caused us problems in the first place. It’s time to rethink evaluations.

I have used a simple model for many years. It came from my training as a meeting facilitator. It’s an efficient use of time and resources and exposes things that need attention. Simple is good.

Here are the Key Steps

First, define what you and the team are evaluating: Is it the plan? Is it the process? Is it the team? Is it the organization? Is it the skills? etc. You get the idea. If you are conducting an evaluation, then define what is being evaluated.

Next, define the protocol for team interaction. Be sure to include everyone who has information to share. Often, I include the janitor or phone receptionist in an organization because they know things that nobody else knows. It’s important to get the full picture when evaluating things. Certainly the data intake and the planning are not both appropriate for everyone in the organization, so separate the functions and invite the appropriate participants. Then define how the group will interact. Declare that the session is a safe space to speak the truth kindly. It’s important to get data and not important to blame people. Address the facts and don’t blame. This way you will get more useful and accurate information.

It’s important to separate the evaluation and the planning. The evaluation provides perspective for the planning. Allow time for gaining perspective, to think about the information, and to regroup for moving forward. Information overload and rush to implementation can both be problematic.

Here’s my simple three-step evaluation:

1) What’s Working: Or what we do well. Define the valuable skills and processes to KEEP. When making changes later, it’s important that we don’t throw out the baby with the bath water, as the old expression goes. Define the core competencies and systems that are valuable and build on those.

2) What Needs Changing: This is not a negative, a critical activity like we get when defining weaknesses in a SWOT. This is honestly identifying things that could be better or things that we might want to STOP doing.

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Without Discernment, Leaders Fail

We learn, then we digest that learning; finally we discern the appropriate application of the learning.– Hugh Ballou

Leading is Applied Wisdom

I’ve just finished presenting to people this week in 5 separate groups. Some of the presentations were keynotes. Some of them were workshops or lessons. The common thread was leaders wanting to gain wisdom. Some were leading from middle management and others were CEOs. Many were early stage or startup enterprise ventures.

I commend people for wanting to gain knowledge. Knowledge precedes understanding which precedes wisdom. Wisdom is gained over time with experience. Failure is a learning opportunity only if the failure is unpacked, understood, and crystallized into applicable thinking.

All too often, visionaries attempt to start up a company or charity without the necessary experience or mentorship. All too often, the visionary is not a leader and invites failure without gaining the wisdom for true discernment.

There are many right answers, however, finding the next right answer for a particular situation is elusive when we are attempting to make decisions in a vacuum.

Inventors, authors, coaches, brilliant thought leaders have the ability to change lives and create better communities. Those skills are not the same skills needed for launching and sustaining a healthy, profitable enterprise.

John Maxwell says that collaboration is multiplication. I say that collaborations are discernment where wisdom is multiplied.

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“Being listened to is so close to being loved that most people cannot tell the difference.” –David Oxberg

The Leadership Skills of The Musical Conductor

Listening is a primary skill for the Transformational Leader. My model for great leadership is based on the skills of the musical conductor, who is a great listener. Success is directly and immediately experienced as a result of effective leadership by the conductor. When the conductor does not get the desired result, then it’s time to change whatever technique or cue that’s not bringing the intended results.

The conductor knows what’s wrong because he or she is listening intently. To be able to draw out the best from the musicians, the conductor must listen to what’s going on in the room and respond appropriately.

Listening is key to understanding what’s really going on. The conductor has developed a rehearsal plan for achieving the desired results in a specific period of time, however thing happen that can’t be predicted when developing the plan. The competent leader pays attention to what’s happening and responds accordingly, just like the conductor.

Listening is an Underutilized Leadership Skill
Many leaders are not fully aware of the power of listening. Many are too busy attempting to activate their personal agendas to be aware of the necessary information available around them. The Transformational Leader builds strong leaders on teams. As in a symphony orchestra, the high-performance team is comprised of highly skilled individuals. When these highly skilled individuals function together as a unit, they must be able to fully access their individual skills and acquire an additional skill set, as well…the ability to listen and respond to others on the team. The finest orchestras in the world rehearse continuously in order to maintain the highest level of ensemble status. This is a skill set developed over time by rehearsing together.

Leadership is a Culture of High Performing Leaders – An “Ensemble”
So, why don’t business and nonprofit teams rehearse best practices? Why don’t team members learn to listen intently to what’s going on around them? It might be that the leader is setting an example of talking and listening. Leaders model, and team members receive – good or bad.

Just like a musical ensemble, the team is a reflection of the leader.

See What Others are Saying About Listening
In his blog post, “How To Listen”, Seth Godin points out that there are 4 times the amount of Google searches for speaking over the number of searches for listening. We are obsessed with speaking and lose sight of the fact that listening is at least twice as important (clue: we have 2 ears and one mouth).

In his book, Tao of Leadership, John Heider says, “But what cannot be said can be demonstrated: be silent, be conscious.” Listening is a skill that engages the whole person. Helen Kemp teaches children’s choirs the following, saying, “Body, mind, spirit, voice: it takes the whole person to sing and rejoice.” One could say similar things about leadership.

Transformation Begins with the Leader
The Transformational Leader is a fully present leader utilizing every sense and every skill. Leaders are present as a whole person.

Being fully present means that you are aware of what’s going on. Listening is the key to understanding.

Let’s be quiet and see what happens.

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