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The Leadership Challenge: Legacy Lessons from My Father – 5 Tips!

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The Point: Today marks the nine year anniversary of my Father’s passing. It seems like just yesterday… And in another sense, it seems like forever ago! My Father is responsible for making me the man I am today (Son to my Mother, Brother to my Sister, Husband to my Wife, and Father myself to my own Children). So in order to honor his legacy, I wanted to share with you five (5) legacy lessons that he espoused to me… Enjoy!
The Leadership Challenge: Legacy Lessons from My Father - 5 Tips! What’s a Legacy Anyway?
Why do you do what you do? How is what you’re doing today going to benefit others tomorrow? If you’re a deep-thinker or ever bumped your head against your own mortality, you’ve probably asked these questions of yourself. Depending upon your answers (and it’s a self-assessment, so honesty counts!), you’ve probably maintained or course corrected your personal/professional direction.
So the legacy you leave behind basically is what you want others to remember you for. What was it that you stood for? What will they remember you for when it’s all said and done and you’re no longer present? And perhaps most important, will anyone even notice if you’re gone? If you contemplate life’s legacy moments as such, then the following tips represent moments shared with me by my Father. While they may/may not be appropriate for you given your station in life, no doubt there is something that may resonate for all so that you are not only remembered after you have departed, but missed as well!

Tip #1 – It’s Up To You!
The great Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius said it, and my Father reinforced it in me. Whether you’re having a good day (Why are you settling for “good” when “great” is available? A topic for another day…) or a not-so-good day, it’s up to you to identify and either accept or change it. It’s up to you!

Tip #2 – What Are You Thinking?
Action without thought leads to disastrous outcomes regardless of age. My Father asked repeatedly (perhaps because of my pension for trouble) what exactly I was thinking that caused me to do what it was that I had done. While not coming from the perspective to gain understanding, so much as to teach me to NOT repeat similar choices. When my Father spoke, I listened… This thought-message was sent/received.

Tip #3 – Keep Your Eye On The Ball
My Father was also my Little League baseball coach. While the legacy lesson may appear to be focused solely on that sport, it actually applied to everything in life. From his perspective, detail and attention therein was perceived crucial for a successful outcome. So keep your eye on the “ball” could easily mean “business” or “relationship with your wife” or everything else as was intended. Think of it as limitless attention to detail and you’ve got it!

Tip #4 – Work is Sh!t
My Father was never big on believing that his work defined him as a person, and more importantly his significance in life. Instead, work was a means to an end for him. I remember telling him repeatedly that he was wrong, and that if you truly do what you love you never work a day in your life (I think Jim Rohn said that or something akin to?) My Father encouraged me to go in that “love” instead of “sh!t” direction then, but to buckle-back with him to tell how that worked out.

Tip #5 – It’s All Right
My Fathers final conversation came as he was in a nursing home after suffering a series of heart attack/stroke combinations (2, 3, 4… Who knows? The doctors could never give us definitive quantity). Throw on top of that deadly series of heart attacks/strokes a severe case of dementia and you’ve got nothing… No comprehension… No reaction to pain… No Father that I grew up knowing and loving. He was simply a shell of a man, hollow inside and an exterior that was far from who I knew/loved/idolized. However, it was in just this state that while eating breakfast one morning he extended his hand, placed it on top of mine, told me “It’s all right” and tapped my hand three times as he had done a thousand times before. He passed within 12 hours of that limited conversation, so it was the last time I ever heard his voice.

SUMMARY
I have cried a thousand tears for my Father since his passing (I’m crying now as I write this!) My hope is in sharing these five legacy lessons learned from him that you are able to live the life you deserve and leave behind a legacy worthy of you/your efforts.

Sam Palazzolo

 

The Leadership Challenge: Nature versus Nurture?

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The Point: Perhaps it’s a “haves” versus a “have nots” moment. Better yet, what if the Jones’s in their perpetual conquest to stay ahead of us all, are just plain better at attaining levels that the far majority of us will never “sniff” as a leader? If such rarified air and leadership levels leave you frustrated beyond all contempt, then this post is for you. Here, we’ll take a look at leadership from a nature versus nurture perspective, and if you were hoping that legacy-leadership moments could be yours “just because” you may have another thing coming… Enjoy!

The Leadership Challenge: Nature versus Nurture?

Leadership Legacy Study

The US National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health report that if you have predisposal to leadership (i.e., a member of the family is a leader in an organization), you have approximately a 24% chance of likewise attaining such leadership capacity in your own career endeavors. They furthermore drill-down to share that the leadership association is with rs4950, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) which resides on a neuronal acetylcholine receptor gene (CHRNB3 if you’re keeping score at home). While the results are predominantly found in twins, there may be the likelihood (however unlikely) that singletons may have such predisposition as well. Score one for nurture!

Huh? The Leadership Challenge is What?

So with all the leadership challenges surrounding the leader of today, pile one more on top which represents the age old debate whether one is born into a leadership role or one can be shaped/prepared for them. While I’ve spent time working with many a leader over the years, some who had formal education and others that had nothing more than emotional intelligence to run on, one thing has proven consistent… It’s not who you were born from, it’s what you’re born of that matters!

Leadership: It’s Not What You Think

While certain leaders have the fortunate situation of being born into the role, the vast majority earn their stripes (or title in this instance). As such, there is little doubt in my mind that leadership is a dish best served with fresh ingredients (Score one for nurture!) In other words, leaders who have no legacy to uphold typically are afforded greater leeway and latitude, whereby those seeking to uphold such legacy are often weighted down by the burden of upholding what those family predecessors have paved (Score another for nurture!)

Regardless of what the US National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health purported to learn about leadership, the simple fact is that leaders typically come from a wide range of geography. As such, they have varied backgrounds and often times escalate the career ladder at their own pace. Without knowing what is, or can be, accomplished typically is up to the individual to pursue. While certain organizations provide for an enhanced leadership learning atmosphere, most leaders lead as a result of being given an opportunity and therefore learning “on the fly” or with the help of those around them.

SUMMARY

If the leadership challenge at hand is nature versus nurture, nurture prevails. In experience after experience I’ve seen leaders that are made, not born into the role succeed.

 

Sam Palazzolo

The Leadership Challenge: Complacency – 4 Tips!

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The Point: We’ve all been there before… Things are going well and perhaps the last thing we should entertain is a moment of change. After all, what could we possibly gain (and only risk loss) by changing? However the go/no go decision regarding change is rarely within a leader’s control, and as such change becomes a necessary contingency planning skill. So how can you, as a leader, offset the comfortable confines of complacency effectively? In this post we’ll take a look at complacency from a change perspective and provide four (4) tips to offset its lethargic state… Enjoy!

The Leadership Challenge: Complacency – 4 Tips!

The J Curve of Change Management

It’s been nearly a dozen years (Yikes!) since I sat with Dr. Jerry Jellison of the University of Southern California (USC) about dealing effectively as a leader with change. His book, “Managing the Dynamics of Change” provided the backdrop for our conversation during a leadership development program I was participating in. The “J” Curve of Change represents five (5) stages of change that can be mapped out from a performance/productivity stance over a series of time (See image). The J Curve of Change Management consists of a series of troughs and peaks, but oddly enough begins with a relatively morose and non-descript path of performance. While this “complacency” phase can best be described as one where action is taking place, there is relatively no performance/productivity change (for better or for worse).

So Why Exactly Change?

With tears in her eyes a participant in a cross-functional (multi-departmental) change team cried out “Why are you making us do this?” It wasn’t me, her leadership team, or my consulting firm (at the time) that was making this organization change possible to create the water works show. What was causing the change-moment (as I liked to call it) occur was the evolving market conditions.

If you can identify the source of the change moment (i.e., the real answer to “Why are you making us do this?”) you have the opportunity to not only overcome the many change obstacles that are presented to you, but also shorten the associated change timeline (and therefore create positive productivity/performance). So what are the possible causes of change? Here is an abbreviated list of what I see most commonly causing change in business today for leaders:

  • Technology
  • Education (Personnel/Consumer)
  • Personnel Skills
  • Competition
  • Product/Service Pricing
  • Product/Service Offering(s)
  • The Customer (Darn them!)
  • Regulations/Laws
  • Leadership ADD/Leadership ADHD
  • Finance/Accounting
  • Leadership Ego/Pride
  • The News/Press

4 Tips to Overcome The Leadership Challenge Complacency

While the list of potential causes of change has been abbreviated above, you hopefully get the impression that there can be an overwhelming variety/scope/scale of change inducing moments. So should you as a leader attempt to get ahead of the change curve and always be refining (or attempting to move in a positive change direction?) I’ve compiled the following 4 tips to overcome the leadership challenge of complacency to help you, as a leader, be successful in your complacency change initiatives:

Tip #1 – Manage by Measuring

It’s important to know not only where you are going (in alignment with corporate mission/vision/values of course), but perhaps even more important to know where you are at (and don’t forget where you came from, but that’s a post for another time!) Capturing consistent metrics will allow you to identify this current state, and establish a game plan for how you will get to where you want to go.

Tip #2 – Contingency Plan

If you are in a complacent state, some would argue that this in and of itself is a problem (after all, you are not getting better or worse). Therefore it’s important to identify current/future problems that could/should/might occur as well as their appropriate solutions.

Tip #3 – Recruit Support (Before You Need It!)

Let’s face it… Change is difficult for a variety of reasons. In the thick of change initiatives it’s important to have support from key stakeholders in the organization (Those that are organization chart superior, equal, and subordinate in location). These support personnel could also alert you to change before your metrics identify them.

Tip #4 – Focus

Keeping your “eyes on the prize” is a great analogy for overcoming complacency in the workplace. Where you want to head will allow you to insure that you keep pointed in that direction, as well as provide you with insight into how to get there.

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve taken a look at complacency from a change perspective and provide four (4) tips to offset its lethargic state. If the overriding goal of change management is to provide a “better” alternative in regards to where you started from, overcoming complacency is a crucial first step.

 

Sam Palazzolo

The Leadership Challenge: Creativity – 3 Tips!

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The Point: The use of a leader’s imagination or original ideas in the workplace has typically been shied away from, primarily because of the “artistic” nature prescribed and partly due to the unmanageable predictability for continuous repetition and outcomes (i.e., results!) But what if the lure of a changed tomorrow is perceived as better than the results generated today? In this post, we’ll take a look at the leadership challenge of creativity and just what you can do to accelerate your creativity as a leader with three (3) tips… Enjoy!

The Leadership Challenge: Creativity – 3 Tips!

Management is Science… Leadership is Art

In the day-in/day-out running of your business, whether it be department/division/organization you might recognize the operation as running in status quo fashion. What was good enough yesterday, should be good enough for tomorrow, right? Wrong! Checking accomplishment boxes and maintaining your open-door policy (or better yet Management By Walking Around (MBWA) methodology could very well leave you wondering just how and when the operation got positioned squarely behind the proverbial 8-ball in the business game world of pool.

While creativity for leaders has long been seen as something focused on in startups or other disciplines (most notably academic fields such as anthropology and neuroscience), the need for consistent improved results requires a more expansive/diverse application of the topic. For example, look at your most recent project accomplishments and gage your execution capabilities and life-cycle timelines. A hindsight/post-mortem analysis typically leaves a leader recognizing results short of potential.

3 Tips to Increase Leadership Creativity

So if true potential is to be realized by the leader, what is the proper mindset and processes to be explored? What follows are 3 Tips to assist you (the leader) with increasing creativity.

Tip #1 – Generate Ideas

Ideas are all around you, but often rarely tapped or heard. Why? If you’re looking to generate creativity you need look no further than your stakeholders assisting you as you strive to achieve your goals. Interviewing stakeholders regarding what their ideas are for improvement, and tracking which ideas are backed (versus those that garner little/no support) can reveal sources and opportunities left untapped.

Tip #2 – Enable Collaboration

We often hear that places of business are high on teamwork and/or collaboration within. However common practice probably leaves stakeholders clinging to existing ways of doing business. When teams are allowed to pursue directions not congruent with traditional ways of accomplishing goals is when creativity flourishes.

Tip #3 – Diversify Perspective

When stakeholders from diverse disciplines, backgrounds, and areas of subject matter expertise creativity blossoms. Act on putting together cross-functional (those from across the organization) together on the next project to provide diverse perspective from their multi-vantage viewpoints.

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve taken a look at the leadership challenge of creativity. While management can be considered a regulated science, leadership often calls for an artful application to overcome project obstacles. Generating ideas from stakeholders, enabling collaboration amongst team members, and diversifying perspective can generate the creativity “spark” needed to deliver future results.

 

Sam Palazzolo

The Leadership Challenge: Recruiting like Harbaugh – 5 Tips!

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The Point: There is a war for talent taking place, with the best candidates going to those organizations that effectively outflank/outwork their business competitors in the recruiting game. So with NCAA College Football’s Signing Day finally here, we thought it would be interesting to compare/contrast The University of Michigan Football Coach Jim Harbaugh’s tactics that could leave you/your organization with a similar top recruiting class… Enjoy!

The Leadership Challenge: Recruiting like Harbaugh – 5 Tips!

Tree Climbing, Sleepovers, and Sledding… Oh My!

Jim Harbaugh’s transition from the NFL (where he acted as head coach for the San Francisco 49ers until unceremoniously being shown the exit in 2014) to the NCAA (currently acting as The University of Michigan’s Head Football Coach) has been well documented. An almost fairy-tale return to his alma mater brought about a return to glory (Full Disclosure: I’m a Michigan Man and Jim was one of the legendary Michigan quarterbacks under head coach Bo Schembechler). He is known for wearing his fiery emotions like a badge of hotheaded honor and $8 khakis he purchases from Walmart.

What Jim is perhaps not given credit for is his recruiting prowess. With an “at all costs” mentality, he has brought this football program legitimately back onto the college football scene (It’s estimated that he’ll bring in the #5 recruiting class according to ESPN this year). Some might argue that his techniques border on the strange and unorthodox (In his pursuit of players he has climbed a tree in a recruit’s backyard, had sleepovers, and offered to go sledding). Say what you will and want, but call him effective in recruiting for the following FIVE (5) reasons presented in “Tip” format for you to implement to offset the leadership challenge recruiting moments!

Tip #1 – Recruiter Energy

Let’s face reality… Your Human Resources department is probably detached from your business at hand. It’s not that they don’t know what you/your company does, it’s that they don’t KNOW what you/your company does. As such, they display a typical “play it safe” and “no skin in the game” exhibition when it comes to recruiting. If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen this played out a hundred times.

Jim is known for his endless energy, raising the recruiting bar and setting precedents to new heights. While your recruiting efforts might not be able to change the players you have conducting the role, there should be an emphasis placed on examining how the recruiting role is changed so as to be conducted with energy.

Tip #2 – Transparent Culture

Typical recruiting tactics have taken the form of that of the applicant heretofore. Both parties want to put their “best foot” forward. However, who’s selling who in the recruiting war? Is the candidate selling the organization or vice versa? Your recruiting efforts shouldn’t shy away from your organization structure nor how you do things (and you should be profoundly proud of both as a leader!)

Tip #3 – The “Finest” of Goals

Harbaugh has gone on record as stating “We’re going to bring the finest student-athletes and character that we can to the University of Michigan.” And so it goes almost without saying that you similarly should be in pursuit of “finest” when it comes to recruiting team members mental capacity and character. Anything short of “finest” shouldn’t be pursued.

Tip #4 – Performance

While most envision the recruiting initiative done/successful once a candidate accepts an offer to join the organization, this is only the beginning for Harbaugh. There is the expectation that performance in the role recruited for not only meet, but exceed expectations. This takes thorough employee engagement and leadership feedback against a backdrop of organizational goals that the employee can immediately tie their performance back to (Your employees know what’s expected of them and can view their actual performance versus goal, right?)

Tip #5 – Expand Your Footprint

Technology has made it relatively easy to expand your geographic footprint in a search for talent. Unlike Harbaugh who has to attract student athletes to a specific geographic location (Ann Arbor, Michigan), you have the luxury of identifying best candidates without geographic boundaries (Are you fully taking advantage of A+ candidates that reside outside your geographic vicinity?)

SUMMARY

In this post, we’ve taken a look at the recruiting process/procedures of Jim Harbaugh and provided 5 Tips on how his success/focus should be yours. If there truly is a war for talent, you can’t afford for a bad recruiting effort to diminish your organizational talent. Remember, your business no matter how technical in nature you might want to believe it is, is still a people business. Having the finest people in the right roles is one of the variables of success you should consider/focus on.

Sam Palazzolo