The New Gold Standard of Leadership: A Counterintuitive Approach to Rising from Adversity

By Steve Farber, Author of Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership

A while back, I received a distressed email from Ken, a young manager at a high-tech company.

Ken and I had never met, but he had read my first two books and had done his best to apply the ideas and practices of Extreme Leadership to the way he'd led his team. To their culture, their work ethic, their camaraderie. When necessary, Ken told me, they would band together and work hard -- 10 to 20 hours a day at times -- to solve a problem or meet a pressing need. Ken's wife would cook food for everyone and bring it to the office. They felt like a family, he said, committed to doing great work and devoted to one another's success. No one ever complained, least of all Ken. At one point, he'd even forgone his bonus so his employees could collect theirs.

And then something happened. A downturn, a re-org, a shift in the management structure -- we all know the drill. Ken still had a job, but his position was eliminated. New management full of old ideas came in to oversee the department's function and the emotional fibers that connected Ken's team to each other and to their work unraveled.

"Now," Ken wrote, "for the last 4 weeks I sat at my cubicle, web surfing for 8 hours a day at the same company where I once worked 39 hours straight with my team to make things right, never going home.

"I'm not a quitter; I don't want to leave. But -- just or unjust -- I feel stripped of everything we've done" he said. "So the advice I'm looking for is this:

"How do you get back up?"

Even though I've spent the last 20 years coaching leaders and consulting to management teams, I was still loath to respond. After all, I had only the sketchiest of details about Ken's situation, and it was just presumptuous of me to assume I could help him with a few pithy words of advice. Nonetheless, I did have an idea for him, and I instinctively felt that it could make a huge, positive difference in Ken's life -- and in the life of those he worked with.

And it wasn't the kind of management or leadership advice you'd expect.

It's already become a cliché to say that we live in unprecedented, challenging times. We all know it. But the truth is, the world of work is always challenging. That's why they call it "work."

No matter the industry, market, or type of company you work in, you've had to deal with some combination of the classic work-place obstacles, issues, and barriers to a successful leadership experience.

At some time or another, for example, you've reported to bosses or people in positions of "greater authority" who were self-centered at best, and idiotically egotistical at worst. They took all the credit and none of the blame and could care less whether or not you succeeded or failed. Or worse, they preferred that you'd fail, and took great pleasure in your struggles because they felt it made them look stronger.

Or perhaps you worked in a company that, even though populated by terrific human beings, was so obsessed with the bottom line and shareholder value that you were forced to make strategic decisions that compromised your own employees' abilities to serve the customer. And as your employees grew more frustrated, the customer sat levels plunged, which made you and your employees more frustrated. And so on.

You may have been in an environment that was hyper-competitive to the point of paranoid, risk-averse to the point of stifling, or so political that it made you consider running for local office just to get some relief.

We've all experienced some combination of these themes with varying levels of intensity. And we've all spent some amount of time and energy navigating our way through the challenges that come from trying to lead in those conditions. It's just the price we pay for being managers. And human beings.

Now, add to that the current, sucking implosion in the economy, and it's easy to see why, with all our efforts to be positive, productive leaders, we still get knocked down from time to time. Sometimes way down.

Our knee-jerk reaction in times of crisis is to hold on tighter, to be more cautious in our actions, and more protective of our resources. We think that our way out -- or up -- will come by virtue of shoring up and hoarding what we have.

There is, however, a much more powerful course of action, which -- though counterintuitive in these hyper-competitive times -- is based on a timeless reality of true leadership:

Your own greatness as a leader lies, paradoxically, in your ability to cause others to be greater than yourself.

Said another way, your (and my) best way out of a leadership challenge or crisis is not to focus on your own peril or rut, but, instead, to reach out and try to boost someone else over your head.

The idea should sound familiar. It's really just a variation on the "do unto others" sentiment of the Golden Rule, a philosophy that exists in virtually all religions, schools of thought, and philosophies on the planet. And in none of those versions -- not one -- will you find a footnote saying, "Does not apply Monday through Friday between the hours of 9 to 5 or in any situation where a paycheck is involved."
So the solution I offered to Ken was this:

Instead of wallowing in your own despair, pick someone at work to invest in, with the intent of making that person greater than you are. Be a coach, guide, or mentor in the truest, most personal sense of the words by choosing someone to be your GTY (Greater Than Yourself) project, and see what that does to your own predicament, your own state of mind.

Maybe it was out of desperation, but as surprised as he was by the curve ball I'd thrown him, Ken took my advice and agreed to the challenge.

Two weeks later, Ken wrote to say that he'd thought deeply about our conversation and had come to realize that before he could lift someone else up by sharing his knowledge and experience, he needed to be sure that he had learned the right lessons from the recent team trauma. So he'd met with his boss, and asked for feedback on how he could have acted differently, what he may have done to contribute to the problem, and how he could be a better leader in the future. "The 30 minute meeting turned into a 2 hour confessional," said Ken, which resulted in him learning some hard, "gold lessons" about himself.

"Now," he continued, "I've already started to work with a tech on my team who wants to be a manager. And I'm taking a vow," he said, "to make the people around me better -- as I continue to grow myself. I'm going to teach my children about this, too." Ken, it seems, has gotten his energy back, and he's well on his way to getting back up -- by lifting someone else.

We're all human, just like Ken. And just like him, we all get bashed down from time to time. Next time, try to resist the temptation to pull yourself up by the proverbial bootstraps, and reach out to pull someone else up, instead. Go find someone to be your GTY project, and ask them to do the same.

And don't be surprised if -- through your example -- your whole organization, company, or team rises to establish itself as the new gold standard of leadership.

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Copyright © 2009 Steve Farber

Author Bio

Steve Farber, author of Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership, the president of Extreme Leadership, is a leadership consultant and speaker, and the author of the national bestseller The Radical Leap, and The Radical Edge. He lives in San Diego, California.

The “Vision Thing” -- Critical to Accelerating Women’s Careers

By Suzanne Bates, Author of Motivate Like a CEO: Communicate Your Strategic Vision and Inspire People to Act!

In today’s economic environment, companies need great leaders. Yet lately much public conversation has focused on whether our economic crisis has been partly the result of too much “leadership testosterone,” both on the trading floors and in the boardrooms of banks and investment firms. Would a more balanced male-female presence have made a difference in averting the current crisis?

Many, many experts agree that ideal corporate leadership teams and boards consist of a balance of women and men. Male and female traits, they insist, are essential to the success of an organization. Last year for example, in separate studies, Catalyst, an organization that supports expanded opportunities for women at work, as well as the venerable management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, have both concluded that companies with more female executives and directors perform better. For such reasons, women right now enjoy tremendous opportunities to move up to top jobs.

But the argument for more women isn’t simply about personality traits that impact the culture of a company. Judy Rosener, a University of California (Irvine) professor emeritus, reports that brain scans prove that men and women actually think differently. In her research, Rosener found that a company with a mix of male and female leaders, with their differing attitudes regarding risk, collaboration and ambiguity, will typically outperform a competitor that relies only on the leadership of a single sex. Today of course the vast majority of companies are dominated by men, although Rosener says they wouldn’t perform any better if they were dominated solely by women. Her point is that a balance is what companies need, with women bringing something to the table that companies absolutely need to thrive.

So it appears the likely way out of this economic turmoil could well include a better balance of men and women at the top. However, this doesn't mean that any and all women leaders will be capable of capitalizing on today’s developing opportunities. Women still have to have the “right stuff.” Women who develop and cultivate very specific skills will stand out and become top leaders in their organizations.
What “very specific skills” am I suggesting? How can you stand out if that’s your goal? Start by reviewing your strengths and personal areas for development. Perhaps you’re already good at motivating your team, inspiring people, fostering teamwork, encouraging creativity, building a collaborative atmosphere. These are all very valuable, and will help you because if you’re this kind of leader, talented people will want to work for you and will do great work. They will overcome obstacles, accelerate results, get the job done. This will be key to both your success and the success of your company.

One very important skill you also need to focus on is articulating a vision for your organization. You won’t get promoted to the top unless people ultimately see you as a visionary who can help chart a new course for the organization. In the January 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review, a 360-degree feedback study by Herminia Ibarra and Otilia Obodaru finds that female leaders are typically seen by all around them to be strong in such traits as tenacity and emotional intelligence. However, women seem to trail men in one important aspect: the ability to conceive and communicate clear "vision."

Thus to become CEO, a C-level executive or other top leader in your company, you need to be able to develop a talent for seeing and talking about the future, i.e., not just how things are but how things could be. This requires spending time developing a point of view, speaking not solely about tactical issues but strategic issues as well. You need to engage with your colleagues about the challenges faced by the whole company, a behavior that will require you to stretch and learn about areas outside your comfort zone of expertise. This will be accomplished by delving into all aspects of the company’s business including getting yourself appointed to committees, panels and projects that provide exposure to a wide variety of corporate and industry challenges.

As an example, I once worked with a client (“Jane”) who was a respected VP of technology in a large financial services organization, a women who was widely respected by the firm’s team of engineers, software developers and support staff. Yet when asked to join a cross-functional committee of her peers, Jane immediately became marginalized by the leader of the group who told their boss, “I don’t know what she stands for. She doesn’t belong here.”

To correct this, we went to work first discussing her experiences with the organization and her views on challenging issues. After 20 years in the organization, Jane did have strong opinions about how to move the organization forward but just wasn’t accustomed to expressing them. Initially she had felt intimidated by the group of extroverts in the cross-functional committee, folks who were never shy about broadcasting their own opinions. So we prepared and planned contributions to these meetings in the beginning, and then, as Jane learned how to think through a situation–what was, what could be, and how to get there–she eventually became a full and forceful participant. A mere year later, she was promoted!

Once you get comfortable speaking at a strategic level like this, you need to next make sure that you’re inside those circles where you can be heard by your colleagues and superiors. Do what you must to become highly visible in your organization and industry. Visibility is a strategy that women often ignore but today they do so at their peril because, while dutifully working away like a good “doobie” knocking off the tasks at hand, a counterpart may be sitting in the conference room giving his or her opinion to colleagues in a way that is going to help him/her move up. So you too have to be out there, being both seen and heard. Don’t be lulled into thinking that simply doing a good job and working your tail off is all there is!

A few years ago, for example, a prospective partner in a law firm came to us because she was, well, a great worker but apparently all but invisible to the firm’s managing partner. Though on the radar because of her brains, she lacked personal power or charisma. Thus most people didn’t see her as someone who could become a rainmaker for the firm. Realizing after working with us that visibility was vital to her career success, she began to get serious about taking on strategic roles, speaking at events, abd contributing significant ideas to the firm’s development. Today she is one of the best known, most highly regarded attorneys in her firm and her field as well.

But it’s not just about getting involved and becoming invisible, it’s about developing strong speaking skills as well. As a woman, it’s vital you be clear, direct, compelling… and concise. Combine powerful ideas with a comfortable, natural, authentic style. As a good (and, one day, great) speaker, you’ll be seen as a great leader too. You’ll soon be asked to contribute, to serve on panels, to speak about important issues to employees, the board and other audiences. This is where you will make your name so that the people who count will begin to appreciate your strategic mind and view you as uniquely qualified for top roles.
Overall, here are some tips on how to achieve all of this, not just survive today’s economic downturn but how to make a name for yourself, accelerate your career and get on the fast track:

Raise your visibility: Visibility is power– no matter what your role. When people know you and talk about you in a positive way, word gets around that you are a woman to watch! You can have the world’s most brilliant ideas but if you don’t make it a point to raise your profile then nobody will ever know.
Create a “Make-a-Name-Strategy”: The most effective way to make a name quickly is to give presentations to senior management, stakeholders and boards. Determine where the up-and-coming people in your industry are, where they’re meeting, what they’re doing, and how you can join them.

Make time for speaking and appearances: Put events and practice time on your calendar and prepare like mad. Don’t view the speaking role as an “after hours” activity but rather as part of your job and essential to your future. If you don’t set aside time to prepare and practice, you may as well not do it because you won’t shine. Get serious about it.

Put up your hand: Take leadership positions, join committees, give speeches, do brown bag lunches, join professional organizations, get on the boards of non-profits. You’ll also want to consider writing articles and books and doing media interviews. All of this gives you the aura of a leader and expert in your industry, and also helps you meet the people you need to know.

Speak up, speak well: Delivering a great presentation is about substance and style. You need to master the podium, appearing confident and well prepared and at ease and in control. Speaking is not a natural-born skill, you learn by doing. So start early and spend a lot of time perfecting this at-first awkward, hard-to-master activity. One main reason that Caroline Kennedy lost public support so quickly in her quest for the US Senate in 2008 was a silly little vocal habit – saying “you know” too much. In contrast, Sarah Palin almost became Vice President and Hillary Clinton almost became President in large part because both could speak smoothly and connect with voters. To become a polished, confident speaker, speak in public so often that you end up enjoying standing at the front of a room and connecting with an audience.

Find mentors and consult with them often: You need savvy male and female mentors, people who support you, believe in you and are able and willing to help you navigate the challenges of corporate life. They will teach you the inside story of your company, help you recognize key players, teach you how to communicate with them, and help you get the visibility you need. Also, they’ll help get you out speaking a lot, and in front of the right people.

Walk around the office and get to know everyone: It’s still true, unfortunately, that women tend to go into their offices, put their heads down and just work and work all day. We emerge only to grab lunch from the frig or to depart at the end of the day. Break this natural hermit-like tendency by moving around, getting to know people, developing relationships… and joining in.

Dress for the job you want: Nothing undermines a woman faster than wearing the wrong clothing. Often, in fact, the fashion industry is not your friend. Yet you can be very fashionable without succumbing to some of the mistakes that make men want to date you but not promote you. Find a wardrobe consultant or shop where in-store consultants understand the importance of “professional dress.” Purchase high quality, high impact pieces that fit into your business, your industry and your lifestyle. Maintain your clothes, hairstyle and makeup in a way that ensures your non-verbal communication says "leader."

Take professional development seriously: Women are still incredibly reluctant to spend the time and money in professional coaching and training. Yet I have yet to come across a male executive who doesn’t believe it’s worth it to invest his budget and time in executive coaching. Get with it, get help, go to seminars, find a coach… accelerate your career! Executive coaching today is regarded as a sign you’re on the fast-track, so you need the help of an outside professional who’s on your side with no agenda.

The central message here is to take your career development seriously by seeking out opportunities that can move you forward and keep up your momentum. By expanding your visibility, articulating the “vision thing” and speaking clearly and powerfully before the right people, you’ll move to the top. The choice is yours today, a choice that’s new and, if you do it right, here to stay.

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Copyright © 2009 Suzanne Bates

Author Bio

Suzanne Bates is the author of two business best-sellers, Motivate Like a CEO: Communicate Your Strategic Vision and Inspire People to Act! and Speak Like a CEO: Secrets for Commanding Attention and Getting Results: Secrets for Communicating Attention and Getting Results
(both published by McGraw Hill). She is President and CEO of Bates Communications: www.bates-communications.com and she is author of www.thepowerspeakerblog.com Suzanne’s books and products include How to Make a Name in Business, and The Power of Adversity, Communicating with Clients and Customers in Challenging Times.

Tweet Etiquette

by Joel Comm with Ken Burge, Author of Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time

Every conversation has rules. We know not to interrupt someone when they're talking. We know not to use bad language when we talk. We know not to talk too loudly.

And we know too how and when to break all of the rules.

Exactly the same is true for a Twitter conversation. The site hasn't been around for long, but Twitterers have already tried to figure out something like a Twittering etiquette.

Some of those etiquette rules are smart, sensible, and should always be followed. Others are smart, sensible, and should usually be followed.

While it's important to know the rules, it's just as important then to know when to break them -- and what happens when you do.

1. Don't spam.

This is one rule you can't break. Spammers don't survive long on Twitter. They don't build followers. Any followers they do get don't read their tweets and the number of conversions they can generate will be so tiny that as a marketing method, you'd probably be better off printing a thousand flyers, folding them into paper airplanes and tossing them out of your office window.

There are all sorts of different ways to spam on Twitter.

As we've seen, one way is to follow lots and lots of people in the hope that some of them follow you in return. That's not just ineffective, it also turns up clearly in your bio.

Whenever someone's bio shows that they're following several thousand people but only being followed by a handful, that's a pretty good sign that they're looking to spam. They're trying to build up followers who will follow them out of politeness rather than because they have interesting content.

Twitterers often steer clear of people like that.

The spamming itself though is done by constantly sending out tweets that say things like: "I've just put up a new blog post -- check it out!" or "Sign up for my RSS feed!"

You can send out tweets like this occasionally. But as we'll see later in this section, they have to be mixed in with other tweets too. Otherwise, you're just spamming, and that's annoying.

Worse, it doesn't work.

2. Follow style rules.

Twitter's founders may have had mobile phones in mind when they designed the service, and plenty of users may be typing their updates from their handheld devices, but Twitter isn't exactly the same as SMS messaging.

That means the language needs to look more like real words than the usual SMS-style abbreviations.

It goes without saying that typing in uppercase letters looks like you're shouting, but in addition to avoiding all uppercase, you should spell out words completely and avoid using numbers instead of letters whenever possible. (For example, "late" is not spelled "l8" and "to" is two letters, not one number.)

That might mean more typing, but the reasoning is sensible. "Heading 2 town l8. Dont nowot 4" is hard for the reader to understand. It's only good manners -- and good marketing sense -- for you to put in the work so that your readers don't have to.

There are exceptions, of course. If you're really strapped for space, this is a rule you can break, but understand that you're forcing your followers to make an effort. What is permissible, though, is to use symbols such as @ and=and to skip some of the grammar. The question Twitter asks might be "What are you doing now?" but you don't have to begin your answer by saying "I am . . . "

Sentence fragments such "About to start watching the football. Can't wait." are fine.

3. Give credit for retweets.

One of the things that makes Twitter such a powerful tool is the fact that information placed on the site can quickly go viral. When one person spots a good tweet, they can pass that message on to their own followers, and soon it's spreading right across the Twitterverse and beyond.

For a marketer, that's like hitting the jackpot.

On Twitter, it's done by retweeting.

Twitterers can simply copy someone else's tweet and tweet it themselves . . . but they must give credit to the original Twitterer. The format for retweets, then, looks like this:

"Retweet @username: original tweet."

So if you wanted to retweet this post from my timeline:

"Spontaneous LIVE broadcast! join me now with special guest! http://tinyurl.com/jclive" then you would tweet:

"Retweet @joelcomm: Spontaneous LIVE broadcast! join me now with special guest! http://tinyurl.com/ jclive"

Any comments you want to add to the retweet can go at the beginning or in brackets at the end:

"Not missing this! Retweet @joelcomm: Spontaneous LIVE broadcast! join me now with special guest! http://tinyurl.com/jclive"

"Retweet @joelcomm: Spontaneous LIVE broadcast! join me now with special guest! http://tinyurl.com/jclive (Not missing this!)"

The etiquette is simple enough. Sharing tweets is easy to understand, too. It might not be original content, but if your followerswould find the original tweet interesting, why shouldn't you share it?

The tricky bit is to get other people to retweet for you. While you can ask specifically for retweets -- and some people do -- it's not really good form.

If your tweets are interesting enough, people will share them with their friends and followers -- and those friends and followers will come to your page to find out who you are.

4. Stick to 140 characters.

You have to stick to 140 characters, right? That's all they give you, and they do it for a good reason. Being starved of space stops you waffling and sparks your creativity. It's what Twitter is all about.

Well, yes and no.

Twitter gives you 140 characters because that's all that can fit through SMS systems. If mobile phone companies could handle messages of 200 characters, then that's probably how long our tweets would be.

Even though the limit is fairly arbitrary, it does make sense to keep to it as much as possible.

The alternative is to show half-complete tweets and offer links for people to continue reading or break messages up so that they're sent over several tweets.

You can see this happening sometimes on Twitter, and it rarely looks good. Readers expect the content on Twitter to be small. They expect to be able to read and absorb it in one bite. These are content snacks, not three-course meals with coffee.

Writing a thought that takes more than 140 characters and spreading it over three or four tweets is giving people more than they want. It also makes you look like you're dominating the conversation.

Chat with a friend, and you'll take turns speaking. You'll speak, your friend will respond, and then you'll continue. Keep talking without giving your friend a chance to offer his response and you'll start to sound rude.

Multiple tweets can have the same effect upon Twitter. Again, this doesn't mean you should never break up a long tweet. And it certainly doesn't mean that you shouldn't post one tweet after another.

What it does mean is that you should be aware of the effect you can create in your timeline when you do either.

5. Follow people who follow you.

How many people you should follow on Twitter can always make for a great discussion point. Follow thousands of people and you're not going to be able to read all of their tweets. Inevitably, you'll miss tweets you'd really like to read, and you'll look like someone who has lots of acquaintances but no real friends.

In practice, it doesn't alwayswork this way. I follow more than 1,700 people. That's a lot less than the 4,500 or so who follow me, and while I know I'm missing tweets, I love the fact that when I look at my Twitter page I can see a huge variety of different conversations taking place.

It's a bit like strolling through the lobby during a break at a conference. I can choose which conversations to join and which to walk past. I find it very valuable, but I also don't want to overdo it so I don't follow everyone who follows me.

That makes me a feel a little rude, but I do feel that I have to control the number of tweets that pass across my home page and keep them focused on conversations that relate to Internet marketing.

You might feel different.

You might want -- at least at the beginning -- to reward everyone who follows you by following them in return. There are plenty of top Twitterers who do this.

Similarly, you might prefer only to follow close friends and people you already know. That will make you look antisocial and cliquey, which is not the best image for a marketer, but it's possible.

Ultimately, I think this is one place where eventually you have to skip the etiquette and do what works. As your follower list grows, you'll have to start being a little bit choosier about who you follow in return -- and your followers will just have to understand that you're being selective, not rude.

Spend any time on Twitter and you're going to come across plenty of other rules too. Some purists, for example, argue that your tweets should only describe what you're doing, not what you're thinking or planning to do. I think that's far too restrictive: if it sparks a conversation and entertains your followers, it's a fair topic. If they don't like it, they should read someone else's tweets.

And that's really the ultimate test of tweet etiquette: how other people react and how you would react to the same kind of thing.

If you're building followers and they're responding to what you're writing, you're following the right rules.

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The above is an excerpt from the book Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time by Joel Comm with Ken Burge. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Copyright © 2009 Joel Comm with Ken Burge, author of Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time

Author Bio

Joel Comm is one of the world's leading experts on strategies for making money online. He is an in-demand speaker at conferences on Internet marketing and business, and also the author of The AdSense Code and Click Here to Order.

Ken Burge is an eight-year veteran of Microsoft and is currently Joel Comm's business partner and President of InfoMedia, Inc. As an expert in online marketing and strategy, Ken is responsible for the direction and management of more than fifty profitable online properties.

For more information, please visit http://www.joelcomm.com/twitter_power.html

How the Best Leaders Build Trust

By Stephen M. R. Covey,
keynote speaker at Linkage’s Eleventh Annual Best of Organization Development Summit in Chicago, IL, May 12-14, 2009

Almost everywhere we turn, trust is on the decline. Trust in our culture at large, in our institutions, and in our companies is significantly lower than a generation ago. Research shows that only 49% of employees trust senior management, and only 28% believe CEOs are a credible source of information. Consider the loss of trust and confidence in the financial markets today. Indeed, "trust makes the world go ‘round," and right now we're experiencing a crisis of trust. This crisis compels us to ask three questions. First, is there a measurable cost to low trust? Second, is there a tangible benefit to high trust? Third, how can the best leaders build trust in and within their organizations to reap the benefits of high trust?

Most people don't know how to think about the organizational and societal consequences of low trust because they don't know how to quantify or measure the costs of such a so-called "soft" factor as trust. For many, trust is intangible, ethereal, unquantifiable. If it remains that way, then people don't know how to get their arms around it or how to improve it. But the fact is, the costs of low trust are very real, they are quantifiable, and they are staggering.

In 2004, one estimate put the cost of complying with federal rules and regulations alone in the United States -- put in place essentially due to lack of trust -- at $1.1 trillion, which is more than 10% of the gross domestic product. A recent study conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimated that the average American company lost 6% of its annual revenue to some sort of fraudulent activity. Research shows similar effects for the other disguised low-trust taxes as well.

Think about it this way: When trust is low, in a company or in a relationship, it places a hidden "tax" on every transaction: every communication, every interaction, every strategy, every decision is taxed, bringing speed down and sending costs up. My experience is that significant distrust doubles the cost of doing business and triples the time it takes to get things done.

By contrast, individuals and organizations that have earned and operate with high trust experience the opposite of a tax -- a "dividend" that is like a performance multiplier, enabling them to succeed in their communications, interactions, and decisions, and to move with incredible speed. A recent Watson Wyatt study showed that high trust companies outperform low trust companies by nearly 300%!

I contend that the ability to establish, grow, extend, and (where needed) restore trust among stakeholders is the critical competency of leadership needed today. It is needed more than any other competency. Engendering trust is, in fact, a competency that can be learned, applied, and understood. It is something that you can get good at, something you can measure and improve, something for which you can "move the needle." You cannot be an effective leader without trust. As Warren Bennis put it, "Leadership without mutual trust is a contradiction in terms."

How do the best leaders build trust?

The first job of any leader is to inspire trust. Trust is confidence born of two dimensions: character and competence. Character includes your integrity, motive, and intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, skills, results, and track record. Both dimensions are vital.

With the increasing focus on ethics in our society, the character side of trust is fast becoming the price of entry in the new global economy. However, the differentiating and often ignored side of trust -- competence -- is equally essential. You might think a person is sincere, even honest, but you won't trust that person fully if he or she doesn't get results. And the opposite is true. A person might have great skills and talents and a good track record, but if he or she is not honest, you're not going to trust that person either.

The best leaders begin by framing trust in economic terms for their companies. When an organization recognizes that it has low trust, huge economic consequences can be expected. Everything will take longer and everything will cost more because of the steps organizations will need to take to compensate for their lack of trust. These costs can be quantified and, when they are, suddenly leaders recognize how low trust is not merely a social issue, but that it is an economic matter. The dividends of high trust can be similarly quantified, enabling leaders to make a compelling business case for trust.

The best leaders then focus on making the creation of trust an explicit objective. It must become like any other goal that is focused on, measured, and improved. It must be communicated that trust matters to management and leadership. It must be expressed that it is the right thing to do and it is the economic thing to do. One of the best ways to do this is to make an initial baseline measurement of organizational trust and then to track improvements over time.

The true transformation starts with building credibility at the personal level. The foundation of trust is your own credibility, and it can be a real differentiator for any leader. A person's reputation is a direct reflection of their credibility, and it precedes them in any interactions or negotiations they might have. When a leader's credibility and reputation are high, it enables them to establish trust fast -- speed goes up, cost goes down.

There are 4 Cores of Credibility, and it's about all 4 Cores working in tandem—Integrity, Intent, Capabilities, and Results. Part of building trust is understanding -- clarifying -- what the organization wants and what you can offer them. Be the one that does that best. Then add to your credibility the kind of behavior that builds trust. (see the 13 high trust behaviors below). Next, take it beyond just you as the leader and extend it to your entire organization. The combination of that type of credibility and behavior and organizational alignment results in a culture of high trust.

Consider the example of Warren Buffett -- CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (and generally considered one of the most trusted leaders in the world) -- who completed a major acquisition of McLane Distribution (a $23 billion company) from Wal-Mart. As public companies, both Berkshire Hathaway and Wal-Mart are subject to all kinds of market and regulatory scrutiny. Typically, a merger of this size would take several months to complete and cost several million dollars to pay for accountants, auditors, and attorneys to verify and validate all kinds of information. But in this instance, because both parties operated with high trust, the deal was made with one two-hour meeting and a handshake. In less than a month, it was completed. High trust, high speed, low cost.

13 Behaviors of High-Trust Leaders Worldwide

I approach this strategy primarily as a practitioner, both in my own experience and in my extensive work with other organizations. Throughout this learning process, have identified 13 common behaviors of trusted leaders around the world that build -- and allow you to maintain -- trust. When you adopt these ways of behaving, it's like making deposits into a "trust account" of another party.

1. Talk Straight
   
2. Demonstrate Respect
   
3. Create Transparency
   
4. Right Wrongs
   
5. Show Loyalty
   
6. Deliver Results
   
7. Get Better
   
8. Confront Reality
   
9. Clarify Expectation
   
10. Practice Accountability
    
11. Listen First
    
12. Keep Commitments
    
13. Extend Trust
    

Remember that the 13 Behaviors always need to be balanced by each other (e.g., Talk Straight needs to be balanced by Demonstrate Respect) and that any behavior pushed to the extreme can become a weakness.

Depending on your roles and responsibilities, you may have more or less influence on others. However, you can always have extraordinary influence on your starting points: Self-Trust (the confidence you have in yourself -- in your ability to set and achieve goals, to keep commitments, to walk your talk, and also with your ability to inspire trust in others) and Relationship Trust (how to establish and increase the trust accounts we have with others).

The job of a leader is to go first, to extend trust first. Not a blind trust without expectations and accountability, but rather a "smart trust" with clear expectations and strong accountability built into the process. The best leaders always lead out with a decided propensity to trust, as opposed to a propensity not to trust. As Craig Weatherup, former CEO of PepsiCo said, "Trust cannot become a performance multiplier unless the leader is prepared to go first."

The best leaders recognize that trust impacts us 24/7, 365 days a year. It undergirds and affects the quality of every relationship, every communication, every work project, every business venture, every effort in which we are engaged. It changes the quality of every present moment and alters the trajectory and outcome of every future moment of our lives -- both personally and professionally. I am convinced that in every situation, nothing is as fast as the speed of trust.

Copyright © 2009 Stephen M. R. Covey author of The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything

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Author Bio
Stephen M. R. Covey is the author of The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything and keynote speaker at Linkage's Eleventh Annual Best of Organization Development Summit in Chicago, IL, May 12-14, 2009 - the world-renowned meeting for OD practitioners, line leaders, as well as HR generalists and executives. The Summit will provide best-in-class tools, case studies, techniques, and skills to address the needs of practitioners at every level. Register by March 13th and SAVE $200! Simply mention Priority Code ODC09-XX. For more information or to register call 781-402-5555 or visit http://www.linkageinc.com/offerings/summitsandinstitutes/organizationaldevelopment/Pages/Overview.aspx

Strategic Presence: The Power that Fuels Leadership!

By Tony Jeary,
Author of Strategic Acceleration: Succeed at the Speed of Life

The goal of leadership is to produce superior results on purpose and that makes leadership a results contest. The challenge of leadership is to persuade and motivate those they lead to produce the results they want. When people voluntarily and enthusiastically do what their leaders ask them to do and the desired results are achieved, leaders are considered to be effective and successful! The question is how do leaders really get others to voluntarily and enthusiastically produce the desired results? There are many parts to this puzzle, but there is none greater than a condition I describe as Strategic Presence.

Here is a great story that illustrates Strategic Presence and also illuminates its effect. A student from a foreign country was enrolled in the middle of a school year. During the first day of class, the other kids in the class were doing what kids do. There was a lot of giggling and staring and posturing for the new arrival. The new student was dressed in a way that did not meet the expectations of a few of the other children and eventually one of them (the class clown) began to make jokes about the new student's appearance.

As the scene was progressing toward chaos, the teacher was about to intervene when a girl stood up and told everyone to stop picking on their new classmate. The girl reminded them that it was scary to be new in a school and they needed to be kind to the student and make them feel welcome She reminded them they should treat this new person as they would want to be treated if they were in a new country and a new school. After class, the teacher called the girl aside and said, "That was a very brave thing you did. Why did you do that?" The girl replied, "Because that is what my Mom and Dad would expect me to do!"

This story powerfully illustrates the essence and the effect of what I call Strategic Presence. The girl had merely done what she knew her parents would want her to do. Her parents had succeeded in creating a positive presence in her mind, which gave her the willingness and courage to do what she did. Most importantly, the presence of her parents was so authentic that they did not have to be physically present to inspire their daughter's good behavior.

Leaders create impressions that exist in the mind of every person they lead. It is a presence that defines the perceptions people have of their leaders and what they believe about them. It is this overall persona that I am referring to when I use the term Strategic Presence and there are two types: Positive and Negative. Leaders are constantly creating and presenting images of influence that produce both.

The most important fact about Strategic Presence is that it produces two possible reactions in others. It either produces voluntary cooperation or it produces various forms of resistance. If leaders generate positive Strategic Presence, people will be more likely to support what they want, most of the time. However, if perceptions of leadership are negative people will substitute resistance for cooperation. The possibilities of how people will respond to Strategic Presence are limited to cooperation or resistance. There is not much middle ground between them. As someone once said, "you are either for us against us!" It is easy to see why creating an authentic, positive strategic presence is critical for the execution of a vision.

Creating positive Strategic Presence is not a strategy of manipulation. The positive strategic presence leaders project must be authentic. Failing the test of authenticity means the very image leadership hopes to establish will be perceived as deceptive and disingenuous, or worse. People are very perceptive and they will see through efforts to project a phony persona for the purposes of manipulating their behavior. So, why shouldn't a leader's strategic presence just be allowed to be what it is?" That is a great question and the answer is simple. Many leaders are misunderstood and create perceptions that really don't match their intent. So, understanding how Strategic Presence is created will minimize the possibility of being misunderstood.

So, how is strategic presence is created? What are the things about leadership that speaks the loudest about it? What creates the perceptions that combine to produce Strategic Presence? There are two components that contribute to strategic presence: values and behavior.

Our values are established by what we believe to be right, wrong, true, false, acceptable, unacceptable, appropriate and inappropriate. Let's face it, we have all developed deep, strong opinions about many things as we live our lives. Our opinions spring forth from your values and your values influence what we actually do.

Our values and beliefs impact 5 categories of that drive our behavior, and it is our behavior that creates Strategic Presence. The five categories that drive behavior are:

1. Work ethic
   
2. Integrity
   
3. Judgment
   
4. Courage
   
5. Willingness to help others
   

So, if you want to be a great leader, you need to have great values and your values must be demonstrated in the action you take. This is the essence of Strategic Presence and it is truly the power that fuels leadership.

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©2008 Tony Jeary, author of Strategic Acceleration: Succeed at the Speed of Life

Author


Tony Jeary, author of Strategic Acceleration: Succeed at the Speed of Life, has been and continues to be the coach to the world's top CEOs and high achievers for more than 20 years. His clients include the Presidents of Wal-Mart, Firestone, Shell, Samsung, New York Life, and the United States Senate, to name only a few. An advisor to many, Tony Jeary has invested his life and career in helping others discover new clarity for their vision, develop focus on direction, and create powerful execution strategies that strategically impact achievement and results. Tony is happily married and blessed with 2 great daughters.

Learn more about Strategic Acceleration at www.strategicacceleration.com
Visit Tony Jeary at www.tonyjeary.com

The "Communicator-in-Chief": What CEOs Can Learn from Barack Obama's Communication Style

By Suzanne Bates (Author of Motivate Like a CEO: Communicate Your Strategic Vision and Inspire People to Act!)

All indications are that our new President has in mind a "New Deal" when it comes to Presidential communications. He certainly knows his way around the technology. He fought with government lawyers and security agencies to keep his own BlackBerry for personal and private messages. He welcomes opportunities to meet the press. His rhetorical flair and unflappable confidence on the platform catapulted him onto the national stage four years ago; he just kept getting better. It isn't all about style -- it's the way he thinks about communication. Running a tight campaign ship (No Drama Obama) set a pattern that most expect will continue in the Oval Office. Mr. Obama even created something heretofore unheard of -- the office of the President-Elect -- complete with a media room and a presidential-worthy podium. As Gerald Seib, Capital Journal columnist for the Wall Street Journal observed, our Commander in Chief apparently intends also to become a "Communicator-in-Chief."

It would be easy to pigeonhole Barack Obama's style as charismatic. He certainly commands the room, no matter the venue, and connects with audiences in every situation. He adapts with ease -- a comfortable, conversational, hipster, down-home style for a reporter sit-down, which contrasts with his confident, motivational way of delivering the rhetoric of hope on the platform. He does have some annoying vocal habits -- I noticed after awhile that the phrases "as I've said," or "I've made it clear," frequently crept in, just prior to the answer to a tough question. Still, you cannot help but admire the way he can work a crowd into an absolute frenzy.

Having said all that, there is certainly more to Obama's effectiveness than charisma. The fact that he has carved out so much precious time for press conferences during the transition is an indication of how he sees his role. It isn't just his relationship with the press -- it's the overall message that communication and leadership are one. Sure, he always prefaced remarks on policy and news events by saying we still have one President at a time, and yet, by becoming so highly visible, Obama gained control of the national dialogue, anyway, filling the potential news vacuum during the Bush to Obama transition. Had Mr. Obama chosen to stay behind the scenes, the nation would not necessarily have expected him to be out there, but it would have made us feel restless and leaderless. Instead, there was this perception that someone was already in charge.

What can leaders learn from Barack Obama's approach to communication? It really isn't about style. Every leader has to develop his or her own style, from interpersonal to platform skills. You find a way of communicating with people that is honest, effective, and authentic to you. The real takeaway from watching Mr. Obama begin his presidency is that in challenging times, leaders know that communication is everything. Sheperding your organization through the turmoil our economic meltdown requires you to put yourself at the center of the communication universe. You cannot view the communication "function" as such -- something that "other people" manage and execute. You have to stand right there and make sure it happens -- position yourself in the middle of the loop.

This can be difficult on a personal level. It's hard to communicate when you don't have the answers. In times of stress we are inclined to retreat and wait. If you don't feel like you have something good to say, perhaps you think you should say nothing at all. Yet what is really required -- is a full court press. You have to communicate more often, with greater purpose and passion than ever before. While you don't have all the answers, you get an honest, open, creative dialogue goiung with your employees and customers, and keep it going. You look for real signs of progress and give them hope.

People are comparing Obama to FDR, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan, and these comparisons are real and noteworthy. These were leaders who made people believe. They didn't come by it naturally -- Martin Luther King was a mediocre speaker who aspired to be great; Reagan fashioned his style in Hollywood; Winston Churchill practiced his speeches incessantly. All knew the importance of honing their skills to becoming great leaders. In addition they surrounded themselves with people who could help them - they hired great speechwriters who employed writing techniques such as parallel structure ("I have a dream", "Ask not what your country can do . . . ") and they practiced over many years to develop a highly effective style, using pace, pauses, and timing.

So leadership and communication go hand in hand, and in challenges times, you have to deliver a message of hope. You must motivate and inspire people by communicating with purpose and passion at every opportunity. Connecting people with a message of hope may be the highest definition of leadership. As a leader, you can change the course of your business by making people believe in themselves. People who are motivated and inspired will overcome the obstacles, defy the odds and accomplish more. And this will have a direct, undeniable impact on the bottom line of your business, and the future of your company.

What is the leader's challenge? It is to recognize first that you are the Communicator-in Chief. You must clearly communicate the mission, purpose and plan so that it inspires people. This allows them to connect with their own sense of purpose, to be a part of the solution. Just as Barack Obama intends to harness the power of communication to spark creativity, ingenuity and purpose, so too, must business leaders set this intention.

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Copyright © 2009 Suzanne Bates, author of Motivate Like a CEO: Communicate Your Strategic Vision and Inspire People to Act!

Author Bio


Suzanne Bates is author of Motivate Like a CEO: Communicate Your Strategic Vision and Inspire People to Act! (McGraw Hill 2009) and the best-seller Speak Like a CEO: Secrets for Commanding Attention and Getting Results. President and CEO of Bates Communications, www.bates-communications.com she also writes The Power Speaker Blog www.thepowerspeakerblog.com.

Coaching, managing, instructing

by Matt Somers

Coaching v Managing



It is difficult to decide on a single definition of the word management and this is not helped by the modern trend in organizations to label almost everything and everybody as management in some way. Arguably, everybody in an organization is a manager to the extent that management is about deploying resources to get the job done, however, most would agree that a manager in an organization has some degree of responsibility for people and some say in how those people go about their work.



With this in mind it follows that managers are coaches and always have been; it's just that not all managers realize this and many would prefer it were not the case. However, if you are a manager with responsibility for people than you need to understand what good coaching is all about and should be congratulated for investing time in researching it!



The most prevalent management style - even now - is a command and control type approach. Management structures for most of the last century were modeled on the military and despite the advent of 'flat structures', 'matrix management' and the like; this is still the most common approach and feeds the appetite for command and control. Command and control - or telling people what to do and how to do it - work well in dangerous situations, emergencies or where there is no time for anything else. However, it does little for learning and enjoyment at work and thus becomes hard to sustain and causes resentment and poor performance in the end. Why does it persist? Because so many of our role models behave like this, reward structures are geared towards short term results and because, until recently, there was a lack of a viable alternative.



Coaching has changed all this and gives us great cause for optimism. Coaching is still about mobilizing people to get things done, but in a way that recognizes that people are complex, living, feeling human beings and that these factors cannot be ignored.



Managers are coaches and coaches are managers. It is perfectly possible to combine both roles though not always wise to do so. There is an imbalance of power with managers having more power and resources than the people in their teams. This is not an insurmountable barrier to coaching but it cannot be overlooked.



Coaching v Instructing



Within the manager's role lies the task of enabling the people whom they manage to do the job and further developing those talents so that they do the job well. This is most commonly achieved by a teaching, instructing type approach. By this I mean the manager will sit with their member of staff explaining what they need to do and how they need to do it. Perhaps this is so common because we are programmed from school to believe that telling and instructing are the most appropriate way of passing on skills. There is a time and a place for instructing of course, but in the modern world of work this orthodox approach has three flaws.



Firstly it requires that you, as a manager know how you get results yourself. You probably do for the technical aspects of your role, but what about subtle behavioural aspects of performance? If you're naturally assertive, intuitive, likeable, confident, bold or whatever it can be virtually impossible to identify how it is exactly that you're good at those things and frustrating to try and help others become adept at things you find easy. Some of the best football players become the worst managers.



The second problem to overcome is then finding words to pass that knowledge on. Let's say you can identify how exactly you behave in an assertive way or go about accessing your intuition, how do you communicate that in words? Imagine trying to explain snow to an Arab or sand to an Eskimo. The problem is that other people seldom share our frame of reference; sometimes referred to as our 'model of the world'. We have to explain things in a way that fits with other people's experience, but do so by drawing on our own unique experience. The chances of getting this right are slim, and the likelihood is that something will get lost in translation.



The third challenge is recall. There is a host of research that shows it's very difficult for people to remember what they have only ever been told or shown. One study suggests that people have forgotten almost all of anything only ever explained to them after about 3 months. This improves if we tell and show, but in order to demonstrate to our staff what we need them to do; we have to be able to do it ourselves. With the pace of change these days that's virtually impossible and is not the wisest use of our management time anyway.



Even if you are able to overcome these obstacles an instructing type approach to people development results at best in people who do it like you do. Who says that's the best way? Who says they couldn't find a better way, or at least a way more suited to their own particular skills and talents?



With the advent of coaching in the business world in the early 1990s things have got a lot better and many managers acknowledge the need for a coaching approach. However there is still more telling and instructing than we need and I felt it was appropriate to record the shortcomings of this approach here.

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Matt Somers is a coaching practitioner of many years' experience. He works with a host of clients in North East England where his firm is based and throughout the UK and Europe. Matt understands that people are working with their true potential locked away. He shows how coaching provides a simple yet elegant key to this lock. To get your FREE guide "Coaching for an Easier Life" visit www.mattsomers.com