For Leaders, Every Day Is Showtime

Just like a performer on stage, leaders are under the ever-watchful eye of an audience, The audience constantly makes judgments about the leader’s performance based on what the leader says and does. In effect, leaders step on stage every morning.

They should begin the day, therefore, with the outlook of an actor or actress in their dressing room, making preparation for the curtain to rise. Getting ready for the lights to go up. Setting their focus on s singular objective: being at their very best when it’s showtime.

For leaders, every day is showtime. And they should approach their day accordingly. If they were literally going on stage, they would strive to show the world the very best version of who they are. Great leaders do nothing less on a daily basis.

This episode maps a number of parallels between performers on stage and leaders fulfilling their role. Both play to an audience that can be quite critical at times. And they can’t always determine whose eyes are on them at a given moment. It therefore behooves performer and leader alike to be the best version of themselves when its showtime.

A transcript of this podcast is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast/. Simply click or tap on the link labeled Download Scripts.

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Reputation and Trust Rise and Fall Together

A leader’s effectiveness turns on trust. Trust is the confident expectation that a person will consistently do what is right in every situation. How well a leader lives up to that expectation determines his or her reputation as a leader.

In essence, the trust which people put in a leader rises and falls in tandem with the leader’s reputation. Strong, positive reputations encourage trust. Sullied reputations undercut trust.

Reputations, however, are vulnerable creatures. They are easily besmirched, damaged, or destroyed. And because reputations are fragile, the trust which a leader enjoys is likewise fragile.

Leaders must therefore guard their reputation with determination and tenacity. This begins by recognizing that both a leader’s reputation and the trust people place in that leader are both derived from the same two factors.

The first factor is character. The second is performance. A stellar reputation for character, but a weak reputation for getting things done will impair trust in the leader. So, too, will a reputation for exceptional performance, but a flawed character. To be highly trusted, leaders must build and maintain a strong reputation for both character and performance.

This episode looks at striking examples of how otherwise promising leaders have lost trust either because a serious character flaw was revealed or their performance became subpar. And it highlights how, for leaders, both reputation and trust are fragile. Years of building a powerful reputation and broad trust can be undone in one careless or thoughtless episode which destroys the reputation which has long engendered trust.

A transcript of this episode is available for download at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast. Simply click on the link to Download Scripts.

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A Culture of Trust Requires First a Culture of Truth

As an essential for building trust in our leadership, truth ranks second only to integrity. Integrity of course, implies telling the truth. But the kind of truth which builds a culture of trust goes beyond the simple, but sometimes difficult task of being honest in what we say.

To build genuine, effective trust we must be equally willing to hear the truth. To confront the truth. To keep the organization and its culture grounded in truth and reality.

People come to trust you as a leader by watching you in action. They especially watch to see if you tell the truth. Consistently. Openly. Even when the truth is unpleasant. Even when truth puts you in a bad light.

Moreover, it’s only when leaders model an unequivocal commitment to telling the truth that efforts to create a truth-telling culture are likely to succeed. And without a truth-telling culture, a culture of trust is almost impossible to achieve. Leaders must therefore commit themselves to telling the truth consistently and everywhere that it needs to be told.

Download a transcript of this podcast at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast. Follow the link labeled Download Scripts.

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Your Three Choices In the Wake of Failure

The Choice that Makes for a More Resourceful Future

Nothing says more about a leader’s character than the way he or she responds to wholesale failure. Is the first impulse to make excuses for what happened? To find someone to blame for the failure? Or is it to learn from the failure so that we are more resourceful in the future?

As leaders, we are charged with giving people hope, confidence, and optimism for the future. We are doing none of those things so long as are offering excuses or pointing a finger of blame. Excuse-making and blaming anchor us in the past, not the future.

But when we start asking about what’s to be learned from the failure, we shift our thinking to the future and how we can use lessons learned to make bring greater promise to that future. And the most effective way to draw out those lessons is with quality questions about what went wrong.

This episode looks at perhaps the one question which you should always ask in such assessments. It’s actually a question about questions. It helps us identify questions which, had we asked them, might have averted the failure.

You can obtain a transcript of this program at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast by following the link to download scripts..

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Feedback That Fosters Learning and Development

The ultimate purpose of feedback is to optimize performance. Ideally, therefore, feedback is a learning experience.

This means that in delivering feedback, managers should avoid any wording or tonality which would invite a defensive reaction. Defensiveness upends any learning potential in the conversation.

This episode, the second in a two-part series on providing feedback properly, examines a technique called the SBI Model. SBI stands for Situation-Behavior-Impact. These three words form a structure for delivering feedback in a manner that minimizes the opportunity for defensiveness.

The SBI approach is used in thousands of organizations, attesting to the value which managers attach to it. This podcast takes you step by step through the SBI structure, highlighting best practices in putting it to good use.

This episode continues the guidance begun in the previous episode, which can be downloaded at https://www.leaderpefect.com/podcast/episodes/2213-feedback-done-right-1.htm. For a printed transcript of this episode, follow the Download Scripts link at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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Far too often feedback is done poorly, too infrequently, or not at all. This is the first of a two-part series on providing feedback that is timely, actionable, and motivational.

But first we address some misconceptions. We explain why there is no such thing as “negative feedback.” We also delve into why the “sandwich” approach to feedback does not work.

Then we outline specific, concrete steps for offering feedback that is genuinely effective. We look at the kind of language to use so that your feedback is clear, precise, and straightforward, without causing offense. Importantly we show how to structure feedback that is can be acted on easily.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast. Simple click on the Download Scripts link.

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This episode breaks with my typical focus on leadership per se. Instead, I take a look at the socio-political backdrop against which American leaders do their work today.

I begin with one of my favorite quotes from the famed humorist, Will Rogers. He was one of the first Americans to visit Russia after the Communist takeover. On his return, the press asked him about his impression of the USSR. He answered, “They are the greatest experiment on Earth — except for us.”

In this podcast I share my concerns that this grand experiment may be in danger. Ominous trends pointing in that direction are multiplying. Particularly worrisome — and the theme of today’s podcast — is the diminishing level of respect for the courts.

In this week’s podcast I show how the framers of the Constitution envisioned the courts as the ultimate check on raw power. The Constitution makes all political, social, and commercial power subservient to principles agreed on by all. Constitutional provisions subject even the most powerful government or military figures to the court’s interpretation of the governing principles which we have agreed to. This total subservience of power to principle was the nexus of what Rogers called the American experiment.

The experiment has succeeded thus far because, whatever the issue, disputants have respected and agreed to abide by decisions of the court. Only this respect for the courts has prevented ruthless individualism and competition from ripping the American social fabric apart.

In recent years, however, respect for the judiciary has been plummeting. It’s now the lowest in our history. If this trend continues, how long will it be before people who are dissatisfied with a ruling of the court opt to take things into their own hands and resort to the raw power to settle their differences.

Such a prospect is worrisome, indeed. Once raw power supplants principle as the way to resolve differences, the American experiment is dead. As leaders, we need to do everything in our power to combat outlooks and attitudes which would hasten that demise.

A PDF transcript of today’s program is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast by following the link to download scripts.

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Work-Family Life Balance

A Uniquely Modern Challenge

The challenge of maintaining balance between work and family life is not a new concern. But it is a distinctly modern one.

For most of man’s time on the planet, work and family life were so integrated that there was no clear line of demarcation between them.

Think about American life in the 19th century. The vast majority of people lived in rural settings where agriculture was the dominant way of life. Every family member helped work the fields or tend the livestock. Work time was family time.

In the nearby small towns — and in many larger cities — the businesses were family businesses. Mom and Dad ran the store, and the kids all had assigned tasks such as sweeping, dusting, or stocking inventory. Work time was family time.

But no longer. Modern urbanity now sends Mom and Dad separate ways to work and the kids separate ways to school. Families have to make time for quality family life. And when work schedules are not in sync, finding a time slot for quality family activities is not a simple task.

This podcast traces that development and underscores the importance of leaders maintaining a good balance between their own work and family life and to be equally determined to optimize opportunities for their workers to have that same opportunity.

A transcript of this podcast can be downloaded at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast. Simply click on the link to download scripts.

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Sneaky Beliefs That Limit Your Sense of Possibility

It’s rare for our performance to transcend what we believe is possible for us. Leaders must therefore commit themselves to enlarging their sense of possibility — possibility both for themselves and for their people.

Our sense of possibility, however, can never exceed what we believe to be true about ourselves and about those whom we lead. Knowing this, excellent leaders are conscientious about ridding themselves of beliefs which needlessly limit their sense of what’s possible.

Their best efforts notwithstanding, leaders still frequently remain saddled with disabling beliefs without recognizing it. Why? Because many disabling beliefs disguise themselves by masquerading as facts. Grammatically they look like straightforward descriptions of the way things are. They give no appearance of actually being a belief. That’s why I call them “sneaky beliefs.”

So long as we see them as “facts,” they leave the impression that there is nothing that we can do to change them. By their very nature, facts are impervious to change. But once we recognize these “facts” as beliefs, we can indeed change them and rid ourselves of their their limiting influence. After all, we’ve been changing beliefs for our entire life, right?

This episode outlines a strategy for ferreting out these culprits and banishing them from our thought process. Each time another of these sneaky beliefs is disarmed, our sense of possibility for ourselves and/or for our people grows larger. This episode is a how-to guide on achieving that outcome.

For a transcript of this episode, visit https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast and click on the link to Download Scripts.

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The Organizational Culture War Playing Out in Ukraine

There is a war within a war on the battlefields of Ukraine. It’s a cultural war. Not a war of Ukrainian culture versus Russian culture so much as a war between organizational culture.

On one hand are the Russians, who have maintained the authoritarian leadership inherited from their Soviet past, which in turn inherited it from the czars. By contrast, the Ukrainians have purposefully foregone authoritarianism for a collaborative and empowering style of leadership.

The outcomes which have spring from these opposing leadership cultures provide a monumental case study in the implications which attend one’s choice of leadership styles.

By practicing large-scale empowerment of even small fighting units, the Ukrainians have maximized the speed with which battlefield elements can identify targets of opportunity, initiate engagement, and wipe them out. Thus the amazing ability of the outnumbered and out-equipped Ukrainians to inflict horrendous tolls on Russian personnel, tanks, tracked vehicles, trucks, and artillery — and now even a flagship.

The Russians, meanwhile, are bogged down in a cumbersome decision-making process which does not entrust independent decision-making to those on the front lines. Approval for any action — an attack, a repositioning of assets, or a withdrawal — must come from the top. There are fundamentally no non-commissioned officer corps in the enlisted ranks. And leadership training for lower-level officers is minimal. After all, why train someone in how to act independently if they will never be granted that freedom.

In the podcast, I detail the contrast between the two leadership cultures. I trace the historical factors which have led to the Russian reliance on authoritarianism. And then I map out why the Ukrainians abandoned the authoritarian style of leadership from their Soviet past and adopted a collaborative and empowering approach.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast. Just follow the link to Download Scripts.

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