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Tip of the Spear Ventures

Venture Capital | Business Transformation Consulting

leadership challenge

The Leadership Challenge: Burnout

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The Point: As a leader, you’ve experienced burnout. I’m not talking about physical burnout where you can’t take another step from exhaustion. What I’m referring to is the emotional exhaustion that results in depersonalization and decreased personal accomplishment at work. Perhaps it’s the latest project approaching completion, or maybe the promotion that passed you by… We started thinking here at the Javelin Institute and Tip of the Spear Ventures what exactly is behind leadership burnout and what (if anything) can be done to successfully turn a leader from burnout to a blaze again. So, in this post we’ll explore the leadership challenge of burnout… Enjoy!

Burnout: The Good, The Bad and Mostly Ugly!

Leadership burnout is best characterized by emotional exhaustion that results in both depersonalization and decreased accomplishment/results in the workplace. The emotionally exhausted leader is overwhelmed by leading to the point of feeling fatigued, unable to face the demands of leadership, and unable to engage their stakeholders. The burned-out leader often develops a sense of cynicism, detaching themselves from work and viewing stakeholders – especially subordinates – as objects along the way.

Fatigue, exhaustion, and detachment culminate in the leader experiencing burnout to the point where they no longer feel effective because they have lost their sense to contribute meaningfully. The growing trend of leadership burnout should be identified as a threat to strategic plan adoption for most organizations.

Burnout and Safety

Unless you’re in a clinical setting as a leader, your performance is rarely one where decisions made (or a lack thereof) are life or death for individuals or organization… Or is it? Characteristics of the new economy’s leadership environment, including time pressure, lack of control over work processes, role conflict, and poor relationships between groups combined with personal predisposing factors (i.e., bias) and the emotional intensity of work put leaders at high risk. From my executive coaching conversations, I estimate the prevalence of leadership burnout range from 10%–70% among leaders (SVPs, VPs, Directors, Team Leaders, etc.) and 30%–50% among senior leadership (CEOs and CXOs – COO, CFO, CHRO, CRO, CMO, etc.) If you/your organization are not looking at the signs of leadership burnout (Further broken down in the next section), an intervention should be staged to address the topic.  Afterall, my experience shares that most leaders view their burnout as a threat to stakeholder safety because depersonalization is presumed to result in poorer interactions with them (Often causing lower communication effectiveness and poorer initiative results). However, typically the signs of leadership burnout go undetected or unaddressed.

Burnout Perspective

At one of the organizations I work with, 40% of the leaders surveys reported at least one symptom of leadership burnout. Burnout rates (unsurprisingly) were higher for those who rated their leaders unfavorably. My survey also found that even with exceptionally high customer experience (CX), customer satisfaction, and net promoter scores, leadership quality accounted for roughly half the variable in such scores. So, what exactly are the signs of leadership burnout? The following list of burnout signs is from Psychology Today, broken down into (1) Physical and Emotional Exhaustion, (2) Cynicism and Detachment, and (3) Ineffectiveness and Lack of Accomplishment:

Physical and Emotional Exhaustion

  • Chronic fatigue
  • Insomnia
  • Forgetfulness/Impaired Concentration and Attention
  • Physical Symptoms
  • Increased Illness
  • Loss of Appetite
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Anger

Cynicism and Detachment

  • Loss of Enjoyment
  • Pessimism
  • Isolation
  • Detachment

Ineffectiveness and Lack of Accomplishment

  • Feeling of Apathy and Hopelessness
  • Increased Irritability
  • Lack of Productivity and Poor Performance

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve explored the leadership challenge of burnout. Best characterized by emotional exhaustion that results in both depersonalization and decreased accomplishment/results in the workplace, burnout poses a risk to be managed in the workplace. By knowing and recognizing the signs of burnout, leaders can address or seek assistance so as to maintain organizational and career course/trajectory.

Sam Palazzolo

PS – 2020 will be here before we know it, and I see some disturbing Leadership-trends taking place. If you’d like to receive a white paper I wrote on “5 Ways Your Leadership Will Succeed in 2020” CLICK HERE.

PPSS – As we crossed-over the halfway point of 2019, I’ve launched my most aggressive initiative to date. It’s a 501(c)(3) structured nonprofit that provides Executive Education to allow you to become the BEST leader possible (NOT Good, NOT Better… BEST!). If you’d like more information, please watch the following 2-minute overview by CLICKING HERE or plug this URL into your browser: https://javelininstitute.org/welcome-to-the-javelin-institute/

The Leadership Challenge: Decision-Making – Three Tips!

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The Point: We all make thousands of decisions daily. Take for instance your drive into work today; Did you take the same route as you always do? Did you take the road less traveled? Would you alter routes if you heard about the accident ahead that has traffic snarled to a stand still? My point is that decisions are everywhere, but there are some decisions that should have tremendously more weight assigned to them as a leader (Should we acquire our competitor as part of our growth strategy? Is our CXO really the best CXO we could have? Etc.) With all these decisions to be made as a leader, we started thinking at Tip of the Spear Ventures and The Javelin Institute, is our decision-making process the best that it could be? In making decisions, are we really asking the right questions at the right time? So, in this post we’ll explore the leadership challenge of decision-making and provide three tips… Enjoy!

Caution – Decision-Making Zone Ahead!

The University of North Carolina recently conducted research on decision-making as part of a study. Their conclusion was that the typical adult makes on average 35,000 decisions each and every day. These decision-making opportunities range from the simple (Should I brush my teeth or don’t brush my teeth?) to the complex (Who am I and what do I stand for?) 35,000 decision-making moments each day… Researchers at Cornell University estimate we make 226.7 decisions each day on food alone!

If there are 24-hours in a day, and the average person sleeps (or is supposed to sleep) for eight of those 24-hours, that leaves 16 wide-awake decision-making hours. The math boils down to 2,188 decisions to be made every hour, and roughly 36 every minute. That’s a lot of decision-making opportunities!

Are Autopsies Enough?

If you’ve followed me for some time, or even if you haven’t, I believe that decisions should be reviewed afterwards in autopsy-like fashion. The reason for these decision-making autopsies is to identify if in the given moment, with the facts as we knew them, if the appropriate decisions were made. If they were, great! If they weren’t, what better decision could have been made?

I’ve worked with thousands of leaders around the globe on this post-mortem autopsy analysis over the years, but is it enough?

Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director @ Tip of the Spear Ventures | Principal Officer @ The Javelin Institute

I recently was working with a leader on their decision-making abilities. They were labeled within their respective organization as a leader that was “Rarely in doubt, but often wrong!” Convinced that they were in fact making the right decision-making calls, they were at a standstill (and hence I was brought-in to work with them). After a few days, I realized something about our leader. They were extremely bright, well thought-out, and well liked in the organization. However, there was one aspect that struck me as so simple, so straightforward, that I wondered why our leader hadn’t thought of it… The one item was involving others in decision-making.

You alone as a leader cannot and should not look to make your best decisions based in and of yourself.

Decision-Making – Three Tips!

As a leader, there are a lot of decisions to be made. At stake with those decisions are items such as increasing shareholder value, achieving financial targets delivering key results, the employment of thousands, communities that count on you, etc. But decision-making in and of itself is not an insular game played with just one team player within an organization. You alone as a leader cannot and should not look to make your best decisions based in and of yourself.

While involving others in decision-making can become complicated really quick, here are three tips (or questions) that I would encourage you to ask to ensure that you get your best outcomes. Those three questions (or tips) are:

  1. Do you trust others that are providing you with information for decision-making?
  2. Do you argue freely before making decisions?
  3. Are you holding one another accountable for following through?

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve explored the leadership challenge of decision-making and provided three tips to assist. Having worked with thousands of leaders around the globe over the years, according to the University of North Carolina decision-making study I’ve seen somewhere around a bazillion decisions be made. Some decisions were good (lucky?), some were bad (unlucky?)… But overall there were decisions made that all could have been made better. My hope in sharing this post is that you take the three tips provided and begin utilizing them to make the best decisions possible.

Sam Palazzolo

PS – 2020 will be here before we know it, and I see some disturbing Leadership-trends taking place. If you’d like to receive a white paper I wrote on “5 Ways Your Leadership Will Succeed in 2020” CLICK HERE.

PPSS – As we crossed-over the halfway point of 2019, I’ve launched my most aggressive initiative to date. It’s a 501(c)(3) structured nonprofit that provides Executive Education to allow you to become the BEST leader possible (NOT Good, NOT Better… BEST!). If you’d like more information, contact me at sp@javelininstitute.org.

Leadership Challenge Decision-Making Three Tips

The Leadership Challenge: Judgement

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The Point: What type of judgement do you have as a leader? Is it sometimes good, sometimes bad? And in those judgement-times, how do you go about deciding which way to choose? After all, there is a “right” way and a “wrong” way when it comes to judgement (especially when you consider the outcome of your decision making!) We started thinking here at The Javelin Institute and Tip of the Spear Ventures, how are we using judgement to the fullest capacity when it comes to our leadership? So, in this post we’ll explore the leadership challenge of judgement… Enjoy!

You Will Be Judged on Your Judgement Abilities

Larry was a mid-level leader working for a Fortune 100 organization. We were assigned to conduct one of our Centered Executive Coaching initiatives with him (Specifically, our Stakeholder Centered Coaching engagement). Part of our Stakeholder Centered Coaching engagement consisted of conducting a 360-degree assessment, whereby Larry and Larry’s Stakeholders (Those he reported to, his peers, and those that reported to Larry) would all gage his effectiveness as a leader. The 360-degree assessment was conducted, and the results were in… and they were not pretty!

It turned out that Larry’s opinion of how effective he was as a leader differed dramatically from the opinions of his stakeholders. While there were a lot of potential reasons for these differences of perspective being present when it came to Larry, it turns out that the primary culprit for his stakeholders ranking him lower was his judgement (or his ability to accurately judge a situation, assignment, personnel, etc.) Larry was being judged based on his abilities to judge!

The Single Most Important Judgement Topic

I’ve seen a lot of leaders from a consulting perspective. One question that I used to ask a lot (and am considering bringing back out on the road with me) is “What keeps you up at night?” When I asked Larry this question, he had the following to say:

“What keeps me up at night as a leader is my ability to properly judge a candidate regarding when it’s not working, and we need to make a ‘should they stay, or should they go?’ decision. In my mind, this is the single most important judgement topic.”

 It turns out Larry is not alone. According to an Inc. Magazine article, roughly 70% of leaders are concerned about their ability to hire and then effectively decide if they should fire personnel. Most leaders would rather err on the side of “stay” and prove to themselves, as well as their stakeholders, that they did everything they could to keep the individual (Apply resources, provide training, etc.) before sending them packing.

I worked with Larry to not only establish judgement criteria which would significantly alter his success rates, but also revamped their hiring/onboarding process as well. The results were that he soon had less turnover, but the turnover he did conduct was done in a logical/objective manner.

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve explored the leadership challenge of judgement. We all are going to be faced as leaders with those moments where we have to decide. It’s the outcome of these judgement decision-moments that others will look to gage our success/failure rates. Insuring that you have a logical/objective methodology when it comes to applying judgement is crucial to your success as a leader.

Sam Palazzolo

PS – 2020 will be here before we know it, and I see some disturbing Leadership-trends taking place. If you’d like to receive a white paper I wrote on “5 Ways Your Leadership Will Fail in 2020” CLICK HERE.

PPSS – As we hit the halfway point of 2019, I’m launching my most aggressive initiative to date. It’s a 501(c)(3) structured nonprofit that provides Executive Education and Coaching to allow you to become the BEST leader possible (NOT Good, NOT Better… but BEST!). Launched in July 2019, I’m allowing 10 people in my network to “test-drive” the offering. If you’d like more information, contact me at info@javelininstitute.org.

The Leadership Challenge: Surveys

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The Point: We see a lot of surveys at both Tip of the Spear Ventures and The Javelin Institute (We’ve partnered with organizations to even create a few!) But a conversation with a client the other day caused us to wonder; “Why are we conducting surveys?”, “What do we do with the data surveys collect?”, and “Can we actually improve as leaders through surveying stakeholders?”. So, in this post we’ll explore the leadership challenge of surveys and as a bonus, provide three leadership survey questions you should be asking… Enjoy!

To Survey or Not to Survey… Is There Really a Question?

We met with a C-Suite leader as part of a launch of a Business Centered Coaching engagement recently. Part of the launch consisted of a review of their most recent customer surveys. Here was the data reviewed:

  • Customer Satisfaction YTD was 77% (Compared to 88% Region and 90% National)
  • Survey Responses YTD was 18% (Compared to 20% Region and 15% National)
  • Highest Scores were in Product/Service Offering
  • Lowest Scores were in Salesperson Satisfaction and Price Paid

The leader we met with was ambivalent to the survey responses. While they relished the success of product/service offering, unfortunately the leader’s operation had little/nothing to do with this metric. In other words, their offering was provided to them by their headquarter team by large. What they did have control over was their salespeople and ultimate price paid to a large extent (They could offer sales/enhancements to secure sales).

Net Promoter Score Surveys

So, with so much survey data collected, were we looking at the “right” survey metrics? I would argue that we should review Net Promoter Scores. Netpromoter.com states that a “Net Promoter Score®, or NPS®, measures customer experience and predicts business growth. … Use your NPS as the key measure of your customers’ overall perception of your brand. Because NPS is a leading indicator from growth, it provides the best anchor for your customer experience.” Calculating the Net Promoter Score percentage consists of the following series of steps:

  • Enter all of the survey responses into an Excel spreadsheet
  • Next, break down the responses on a scale 0-10 by groups:
    • Detractors (0-6)
    • Passives (7-8), and
    • Promoters (9-10)
  • Add up the total responses from each group
  • To get the group percentage, take the group total and divide it by the total number of survey responses
  • Now, subtract the percentage total of Detractors from the percentage total of Promoters—this is your NPS score

Surveys: Marketing and Sales Best Friend

Reviewing survey results along the Net Promoter Score methodology provided grim results for our C-Suite Leader… Turns out that only 20% of the 20% (4%) fell into the Promoters group. Why does this matter? Surveys can be utilized in a transparent methodology to provide insights to Marketing teams so that they can best create campaigns so as to reach more customers effectively. It’s in the “effectively” moment that Marketing teams can adjust campaigns so that more customers that will act as Promoters will purchase. In turn, Sales teams can glean survey data for training material that matter to an organization’s best customers. NOTE: Surveys should not be utilized as lead generation activities unless transparently sharing with customers such intent.

Three Leadership Survey Questions

In addition to providing insight to Marketing and Sales teams, surveys should be leveraged in similar capacity to provide insight to leaders regarding their effectiveness. As such, here are three leadership survey questions that you should ask/capture data on:

  1. What do I do as a leader today that allows you to operate at your best?
  2. What should I be doing today as a leader that would allow you to operate at your best?
  3. What should I be doing tomorrow as a leader so that you can operate at your best?

SUMMARY

In this post, we’ve explored the leadership challenge of surveys. Surveys can provide valuable insight to leaders so that they can architect successful strategies in Marketing, Sales, and Leadership (to name a few). Identifying key data metrics such as Net Promoter Scores can assist in providing insight into what your best customers desire. Desires that can lead to creating a greater volume of Promoters for the future of your organization/leadership.

Sam Palazzolo

PS – 2020 will be here before we know it, and I see some disturbing Leadership-trends taking place. If you’d like to receive a white paper I wrote on “5 Ways Your Leadership Will Fail in 2020” CLICK HERE.

PPSS – As we hit the halfway point of 2019, I’m launching my most aggressive initiative to date. It’s a 501(c)(3) that provides Executive Education and Coaching to allow you to become the BEST leader possible (NOT Good, NOT Better… but BEST!). Set to launch in July 2019, I’m allowing 20 people in my network to “test-drive” the offering. If you’d like more information, contact me at info@javelininstitute.org.

The Leadership Challenge: Insecurity – 3 Tips!

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The Leadership Challenge_Insecurity 3 Tips

The Point: What do you get when you cross a bully, a know-it-all, an underperformer, a spotlight-grabber, a perpetual reward-seeker, a comparer, an imitator, and tenure? The answer: an Insecure Leader! It got us wondering here at Tip of the Spear HQ just why/how could the trait of insecurity actually take root and grow within a leader in the current workplace. So, in this week’s post we’ll explore the topic of being insecure as a leader along with 3 tips… Enjoy!

So You’re Telling Me You’re an Insecure Leader?

I’m fortunate, in as much, I typically love the consulting work we do at Tip of the Spear (M&A, Sales/Business Development, and Turnaround). However I sometime question my “fortune” when I have an experience that goes sideways, and that’s exactly what happened on a recent consultation visit when insecurity raised its ugly head.

It’s customary during an initial consultation visit to (1) provide introductions, (2) establish a baseline of current activities, and (3) determine desired outcomes for this, as well as future, consulting sessions. Pretty standard stuff, right? Wrong, especially when insecurity is present! Less than twenty minutes into a recent initial consultation session the “Insecure Leader” of the operation voiced their frustration with the process, insisting that introductions and baselines were a waste of time, and that assistance is needed in this/that area (Insecurity?) However, with little/no context provided as to whether or not the “this/that” areas, (Again, insecurity?) were truly where assistance was needed. It left me wondering why I was there if help wasn’t warranted…

What the Insecure Leader is Actually Saying

Insecurity can raise it’s ugly-head in leadership in many ways…

  • There can be the classic bully (I’m the leader and I said you need to do it). There can be the know-it-all (I’ve been there/done that and I know this company/industry/world inside and out)
  • There can be the underperformer (I’m a little behind the 8-ball this month, but it’s the fault of the customers/employees/your visit taking me away from important items/etc.)
  • There’s the spotlight-grabber (Failure is shared by all, but victory is all my doing)
  • There’s the imitator (Just tell me the best-practices going on out there… Pay no attention to our business basics that we fail at)
  • Lastly, there’s tenure (I’ve been here 30+ years…Enough said!)

How to Avoid an Insecure Leader – 3 Tips!

So what should you do when you encounter an Insecure Leader? It’s not a matter of “if” as the saying goes, it’s a matter of “when” you encounter an Insecure Leader. The following are 3 tips to assist you, whether you are managing-up or managing-down with an Insecure Leader:

  • Insecure Leader Tip #1 – Find Pride: Insecure leaders typically share a narcissistic view of the world. What’s not good enough for the goose must be good for the gander. Helping them find pride in themselves and their operation can greatly assist insecurity within the Insecure Leader.
  • Insecure Leader Tip #2 – Celebrate Success: Recognition NOT of how great the Insecure Leader is, but in the potential for greater success is what I’m talking about here. There often is too much coddling of the Insecure Leader and not enough having of tough or difficult conversations. If you’re always telling the Insecure Leader that they’re great, you’re not valuing them, yourself, or your performance potential with them.
  • Insecure Leader Tip #3 – Pull the Plug! I have a friend who is a Psychologist. I asked him once “What do you do when you have a really difficult patient. One where you’ve tried everything and they are making little/no progress. What do you do?” He told me that after he buckles-back and doubles-down to insure that no stone has been left unturned, and once he is satisfied that his efforts have been exhausted, he simply pulls the plug!

SUMMARY

In hindsight, I should have taken “Insecure Leader Tip #3 – Pull the Plug!” and ran instantly away from the insecurity present, and more importantly the Insecure Leader. In a consulting capacity, one of my former principal associates shared that he often felt like he wore a bull’s-eye on his back. In the subsequent days since my Insecure Leader encounter, I noticed a warm/burning sensation in my back (figuratively, not physically). I reached back and touched what turned out to be the handle of an ax buried deeply between my shoulder blades. Yep, should have taken Insecure Leader Tip #3!

Sam Palazzolo

PS – Last year I published my fourth book. Titled “Leading at the Tip of the Spear: The Leader” it’s a look into how you can become the best leader possible. You can check-it out here on AMAZON. All proceeds go to The Javelin Institute, a 501(c)(3) whose aim is to assist families who’ve experienced hardship through death, divorce, disease, or drugs.

PPSS – My next book, titled “Leading at the Tip of the Spear: Leadership Strategy” is due out next month. The work is a look into how you can develop your best strategy for yourself/your organization. If you’d like to receive the Introduction please drop me an email at info [at] javelininstitute.org.