sam palazzolo

The Leadership Challenge: Poor Decisions – 5 Tips!

September 12, 2016 By Tip of the Spear

The Point: If you’re a leader undoubtedly you’ve come to the decision tree in the process map of leadership several times… Decide correctly and fame/fortune await you, but decide incorrectly and failure awaits. In this post, we’ll examine the leadership challenge of poor decisions and provide 5 tips to help decide correctly… Enjoy!

Ready, Fire, Aim!

Meet Jane, a mid-level executive for an Inc 500 company that oversees operations. Since joining the company (she’s approaching year 4), the organization has seen tremendous growth. Part of this growth initiative is the result of Jane making what she calls good “strategic decisions” in her role. The nature of these strategic decisions stem from a similar fashion of how the CEO of the organization makes his (Think of these as “Ready, Fire, Aim!” strategic decisions… Or decisions made without any strategic-orientation whatsoever!)

The organization has grown to a size now though that requires a much more strategic oversight. With a 4x growth in employees, approaching 2x growth in customer base, and the inevitable IT support required the future simply will not allow for poor decisions, let alone poor execution of those decisions.

Perfect Solution or Perfect Right Now Solution?

So Jane is challenged with the decision-making that takes place in the organization. On the one hand, she knows that she can do better (She did so in her previous role/organization, which she’ll be the first to admit was 10x more professional and had a rather litigious corporate counsel act as compliance officer for the operation). On the other hand, she somewhat enjoys the Ready, Fire, Aim! decision making process. The benefits as she sees them are less bureaucracy, time consumption, and simple stress associated with conducting due-diligence required to explore decision contingency plans.

A Machiavellian cavalier attitude prevails resting on Occam’s Razor theory, where you can do what you want, when you want and simplicity rules the day. This is what she’s seen the CEO do successfully since joining the organization, and other leaders replicate/follow suit with little/no failure repercussions.

5 Tips to Better Decision Making

But the times, they are a changing. Expectations are higher and as one of the organization’s only female leaders Jane needs to make her best decisions. She’s previously been “called out” for making less than favorable decisions in the past (Read that as the “Good Old Boys” club didn’t like them). The following 5 tips serve to provide you, the leader that might find themselves in similar Jane-like shoes, with decision making guidance:

Tip #5 – Take It Easy

Stress is the enemy of good decision making. Take a few deep breaths, go for a walk, and clear your head. Once you’re in a better position/situation then begin to examine your decision making next steps.

Tip #4 – Take a Step Back

What should you consider that will make your decision the best one possible, aligning with mission, vision, values of your organization. There should be a litmus test applied for each decision that is to be made, starting with taking the biggest picture possible before zeroing in on details.

Tip #3 – Take Data Into Account

Figures don’t lie, but liars figure… Take data that you can trust into account when determining future courses. If you can’t get insight/perspective yourself, call on others to help.

Tip #2 – Decide!

You know that your decision is not going to materialize without a strict action planning process that includes a date which decision is to be made. Establish this target and then move aggressively towards achieving it.

Tip #1 – Follow-Up/Follow-Through with Commitments

You made a decision, so now oversee the implementation/installation of the engagement. While some leaders would look at this as job completed in status, know that it is only the beginning stages of a successful initiative (With much more work to be done in order to be successful!)

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve examined the leadership challenge of poor decisions and provided 5 tips for the leader looking to make their best decisions. Leadership is a difficult job at times, and poor decisions typically upon autopsy provide insight into what should be done next time through learning.

Sam Palazzolo

www.BloodSweatSpears.com

The Leadership Challenge: Charisma – 1 Tip!

September 11, 2016 By Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director

The Point: At the heart of change is inspiration. In other words, if you want those that follow you to heed the new direction set as a result of change, then they had better be inspired to do so. Inspiration in this sense is what occurs when someone is sparked to bring a new idea into being upon learning of the potential to do so. As a part of inspiration, we typically perceive the charismatic leader… A leader that looks the part, sounds the part, and acts the part. But what if you’re just trying to shift or change a minor course correction for your team/department, and not that of the organization/planet? In this post we’ll examine the leadership challenge of charisma and provide one tip to overcome challenges therein… Enjoy!

Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, and You?

You’re in your office early on Monday morning pouring over the metrics from the previous week, and then you spot it. There’s an opportunity to once again “fine-tune” your teams processes. While you’ve made great progress over the year, heading into the remaining months of the year you know that there’s a greater emphasis placed on metric attainment (An emphasis that could spell the difference between budget funding or no budget allocation, period!) So how do you approach this delicate conversation to inspire change amongst the team?

Far too often, leaders believe that their ability to inspire others is derived solely from their ability to present the opportunity with charisma. While being a charismatic leader can make things exciting (especially in those moments where hot air isn’t administered), leaders simply cannot live up to the expectations stakeholders have when it comes to those perceived publicly as charismatic. Let’s face it, if you have to give a Martin Luther King Jr. or Gandhi performance to inspire change you will no doubt have your hands full right from the start.

Does Charisma as a Leader Matter?

In researching the abilities of leaders that either are/are not charismatic I stumbled upon a white paper on how the brain processes the importance of change. Specifically, if surrounded by stimuli that prompts you to focus on the unimportant, somehow the important pieces of the puzzle drop into place. It’s as if the stimulus provided by the unimportant spurs subconscious actions leading towards important process improvement/modification moments.

Furthermore, if those improved process improvements/modifications are put into place, then they spur on further improvements. In other words, you cross over into a creativity meets innovation producing successful change equation!

Charisma Tip #1 – Don’t Be

So here’s the leadership challenge for charisma… If you believe that you should attempt to put on your impression of a leader that inspires you, be yourself. But in that “be yourself” moment look to provide the potential to go forward by first going backwards. How far backwards will depend on how much knowledge/deconstruction you need to conduct. Just remember… You don’t need to be charismatic like the mentor leaders that inspired you.

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve examined the leadership challenge of charisma, as well as provided one tip for successfully navigating a change dilemma. It’s important to note that too often leaders get caught up in “How should I say it?” or “How should I act when I deliver my message?” moments that aren’t appropriate considerations on the road forward.

Sam Palazzolo

www.BloodSweatSpears.com

The Leadership Challenge: Gratitude – 3 Tips!

September 5, 2016 By Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director

The Point: A well functioning team lead by a solid leader has much to be thankful for, akin to the thought that “success” has many fathers while “failure” would appear to be an orphan. So it begs the question what happens when results aren’t accomplished, workloads not distributed equally, and attitudes go right down the drain? In this post we’ll examine the leadership challenge of gratitude and provide the leader with 3 tips to help a leader towards success… Enjoy!

I’m Thankful, Appreciative, and Kind (Aren’t I?)

Meet Jim… A mid-level manager for a Fortune 100 company (Name obviously changed to protect identities!) Jim has an “opportunity (i.e., a problem). Jim’s opportunity is that after years of successfully leading his team of five sales associates towards “best ever” results for the company, this year they are falling short of objective. This “shortness” is causing tension amongst the team, as would be expected.

The largest problem that Jim faces is the level of gratitude that his team exhibits. If the definition of gratitude is the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness, then Jim’s team seems to be running in the opposite direction. While “coffee is for closers” and a certain level of Darwinism is present leading to only the strong surviving, in this situation/place/time it is becoming evident that a change needs to be made… Starting with Jim’s gratitude.

Why Gratitude is a Leader’s Secret Weapon

In working with Jim I recognized that if he was leading the team, he was also leading the team when it came to being thankful for what they had accomplished and progress towards the strategic plan made to date. While the goals were not being accomplished to the desire of senior leadership (or Jim), there still was a silver-lining in that they were steadily progressing down the sales playing field. In fact, they were just a few key accounts away from not only accomplishing sales objectives, but surpassing them. Could there be a way to tap into gratitude to make things better for all?

In researching gratitude I was surprised to see that those that practice frequent check-ins with what they have to be thankful/appreciative/kind in regards to experience more frequent positive emotions, have a sense of being more alive, get more restful sleep, share greater moments of compassion and kindness, and have a stronger immune system so as to ward off cold/flu/allergy viruses. We’d all like to get these, right?

3 Tips to Overcome the Leadership Challenge of Gratitude

So here are three tips that should help you/your team in upping your gratitude game to accomplish results (and feel great while doing it!):

Tip #3 – Journal 10 Gratitudes Daily

Start off each morning by finding a quiet place/time and list out in a journal ten gratitudes that you have in your life right there/then. These could be complex (I am beating cancer) or simple (I put two black shoes on today!) The important part is to develop this journaling habit and listing out what you have to be thankful for.

Tip #2 – Identify Actions To Be Taken

Identify actions that you will take that day to bring these gratitudes developed in Tip #3 above to reality. Look at your calendar for the day to identify meetings to be held and how you can strategically achieve greater gratitude.

Tip #1 – Share at least three (3) of your gratitudes with a peer. This peer could be your work peers, personal peers, or simply expressing these out loud if you choose to not make public your gratitude (but why wouldn’t you want to?)

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve examined the leadership challenge of gratitude and provided 3 tips to assist the leader in creating greater gratitude moments. While some will argue that this creates recognition of glass half full/empty, it also provides the springboard to a better day!

Sam Palazzolo

www.BloodSweatSpears.com

The Leadership Challenge: Love – 4 Tips!

September 2, 2016 By Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director

The Point: We’d all like to love work, but what if you not only love what you do and where you do it, but find that someone special and actually find love in the workplace in the form of a colleague. In this post, we’ll take a look at the growing leadership challenge/trend of workforce love and how to lead effectively with 4 tips… Enjoy!

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue…

With the average employee putting in 60+ hours per week on average, this leads to little personal or private time to pursue love outside of the workplace. With options therefore limited, and the hope/desire for love springing eternal, most look within their own company structure to find love. According to a survey conducted by CareerBuilder, a whopping 40+% of employees admit to having had a romantic relationship with a fellow worker. Additionally, 31% of such co-worker romantic relationships result in marriage (No data exists for divorce rates at this time).

Don’t Crap Where You Eat

A leader at one of the organizations I work with told me several years ago that he recognizes that employees will date, but strongly encouraged them to not “crap where they eat.” The moral of her story was that relationships of the heart can go wrong for a multitude of reasons, and those reasons typically become career limiting. So why limit your career options by searching for love within your current workplace/organization.

But the love equation isn’t as easy as a series of human resource rules carefully developed/laid out in an Employee Manual, annual EEOC/Sexual Harassment compliance training events, or strong encouragement from leaders… The heart wants what the heart wants!

4 Tips for The Leadership Challenge of Love

The following 4 tips should provide guidance/folklore for those looking to overcome the leadership challenge of love in the workplace:

Tip #4 – Right could be Wrong

When in doubt whether or not to date a coworker, recognize that peer on peer relationships might be the best case scenario. If your looking to date the boss, or their peer that probably isn’t going to end well (No matter how great the beginning is!)

Tip #3 – Rules are Rules

If you don’t know the rules regarding co-worker dating, then you had better know the rules before you begin the affair of the heart. Some organizations have very strict rules regarding love in the workplace. Find out what those rules are before you get involved!

Tip #2 – What Could Go Wrong?

Identify the worst case scenario regarding the outcome from your love in the workplace relationship, then multiply it by 100x. This should give you perspective on what could be at stake (and probably will be when things ultimately do go wrong!)

Tip #1 – Business First, Monkey Business Second

Remember that your primary position in the workplace is to conduct just that… work! Important to keep work priorities in place and commitments/deadlines adhered to as you explore your love options.

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve taken a look at the leadership challenge of love in the workplace, and provided 4 tips to help individuals/leaders through moments of love. While it’s not the most ideal climate to explore love options, the workplace is unfortunately the realistic option of least resistance most pursue. Leading through such love moments can be difficult, whether you’re leading a team or simply leading yourself. Remember, it can take a lifetime of hard work to create your work persona… All of which can come undone in mere moments of poor decision making!

Sam Palazzolo

www.BloodSweatSpears.com

The Leadership Challenge: Lying – 5 Tips!

September 1, 2016 By Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director

The Point: If you deal with salespeople, or anyone in the workplace, you know that they have probably at some point lied to you in order to persuade you/your team to take action they desire. In this post, we’ll explore how to deal effectively with liars in the workplace as well as 5 tips to overcome their lying ways… Enjoy!

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

A prominent study found that people on average lie one to two times daily. What? Who are these people? They must not be someone that I work with… hopefully!

When it comes to dealing with people in business, the same study found that roughly half of those engaged in negotiations will result to lying in order to get their way (read that as opportunity + motive=lying).

So what’s the answer? Most leaders will claim to have “Lie Detectors” (or “BS Detectors”) that through their years of experience, EQ+IQ, and just plain old detection abilities lead them to sniff out such lies. Unfortunately, this rarely happens, and the reasons abound for the nearly 50/50 chance at guessing whether or not a lie is happening (That’s the same odds as a coin flip!)

Lying… The Choice of a New Generation

So what can the leader do to better equip themselves so as to diminish the lying experience associated with business? The following are 5 tips to overcome the leadership challenge of lying:

Tip #5 – Reciprocate Transparency

Share your positions with others regarding intentions and/or what you have in mind, and set expectations regarding what you’d like to have in return. The act of setting expectations in a clear/concise manner results in higher outcomes where parties reciprocate transparency.

Tip #4 – Interview Expectations

You’ve properly established what your expectations are, but do you follow-through in conversations or interviews regarding what the other party intends through indentifying their expectations? When conducting such interviews, insure that your questions hit those expectation moments so as to identify whether or not the other party is on the same page with you.

Tip #3 – No Ducking

When conducting said interviews, make certain that you can identify moments where the other party is attempting to “duck” or dodge your question by not answering it. There can be no ducking when answering, because ducking leads to lying!

Tip #2 – Confidential Retribution

A study conducted found that the more a survey stresses the confidential nature of the answers providing anonymity of respondent, the more said respondent felt threatened by providing damning data (and therefore hedged or “ducked” their answers!)

Tip #1 – Hack for Results

With tight lips, there are no sinking of ships… However, today’s version of this classic WWII saying comes with the internet. The internet is where information abounds, so do your homework by hacking different sites to acquire information needed to make best decisions. You may even consider interviewing affiliated resources (i.e., people) to see what information they can share (like through LinkedIn’s “InMail” feature).

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve examined the leadership challenge of lying and provided 5 tips for dealing effectively with a liar as a leader. While you may never be able to extinguish lying in the workplace, you should look to diminish the impact that it has on you/your organizations dealings.

Sam Palazzolo

sam palazzolo

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