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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

www.BloodSweatSpears.com

The Leadership Challenge: Agile Talent – 3 Tips!

August 23, 2016 By Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director

The Point: If you/your organization rely on external experts to develop transformative products so as to (1) better understand how people think and use your products/services or (2) aim to benefit from external expertise as a strategic extension of your resources you probably understand that agile, fast, and lean strategies require you to think in new ways about (a) accessing and leveraging key strategic talent and (b) filling critical gaps in strategic capabilities… The answer may lie in your ability to identify/secure agile talent. In this post we’ll examine the leadership challenge of external agile talent and propose 3 tips… Enjoy!

Agile Equals External, Project-based, and Flexible

An estimated 20-30 percent of today’s workforce is comprised of talent which is based outside the organization’s full-time, permanent employee-employer relationship. Another study reflects upwards of 40 percent! And yet a third study reflects that nearly 25 percent of the US Workforce is comprised of independent contractors engaged in work for more than one organization.

While these financial expenditures help keep labor costs low (The all important expense found on an income statement), they also represent a leadership challenge working with such agile talent because by their very nature, external talent is just that… External the organization, especially when considering the agile talent’s individual mission/vision/values in comparison with that of the sponsoring organization.

How to Effectively Manage Agile Talent – 3 Tips!

The following represent three tips when working with such agile talent:

Tip #3 – Manage the Relationship

When sourcing and recruiting agile talent, most organizations assign the task to purchasing departments (not even human resources is consulted). This leads to the implementation/management of talent to those operating managers that were not even involved/present with hiring decisions. The obvious discord between purchasing and operations leaves a “gap” between expectations and engagement pursuits. In order to overcome such gaps, best practices include joint sourcing of agile talent whereby skills and talents are identified and allowed to execute according to organizational guidelines.

Tip #2 – Competitive vs. Cooperative Environments

While securing agile talent external to the organization can bring an influx of subject matter expertise to initiatives, these subject matter experts may be looked at as competition to those internal the organization. Best practices include creating an environment of cooperation, where internal talent and external agile talent combine for successful project execution.

Tip #1 – Results Focus

Selecting, engaging and managing agile talent is at the heart of successful change initiatives. However, most operations look upon external talent as those that are “separate, but not equal” in stature to those internal talents. Therefore, the results are often askew of intended results. Best practices consist of hiring for short, as well as long-term goal attainment. Such a broadening of goal attainment vision won’t allow for a “separate, but not equal” atmosphere/attitude.

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve examined the leadership challenge of agile talent, as well as three tips to improve best practice outcomes. Important tips to remember when engaging external talent include managing the relationships, creating a cooperative atmosphere, and maintaining a results focus on organizational mission, vision, and values.

Sam Palazzolo

www.BloodSweatSpears.com

The Leadership Challenge: Holacracy (like Zappos) – 5 Tips!

August 22, 2016 By Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director

The Point: What would your organization be like if your employees lead themselves? Would it be better, or would it be worse? Tony Hsieh of Zappos after hearing Brian Robertson (a software company CEO and therefore people expert) bet that his organization would be better… Considerably better! In the short term, Holacracy at Zappos appears to be a recipe for chaos, calamity, and turnover in its ranks (In other words, the opposite of success). So the question remains “Will the success-ship be righted at Zappos in the long-term?” In this post we’ll take a look at the leadership challenge of Holacracy along with 5 tips… Enjoy!

Zappos Holacracy

The Zappos Culture can be described as an obsessive focus on creating a culture that embraces the idiosyncrasies of each individual should leave few wondering why they’re continually a stalwart on Fortune’s annual list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.” However, many are now wondering how to implement their human resources ranking system simply known as “Holacracy” (a system that has replaced hierarchies and bosses with “self-management” of organizational teams and individuals therein).

While securing “100 Best” attainment would be viewed as “Great” or even “Good” for most organizations, Zappos is looking to identify how they’ve slid from 48 to 58 (Digging deep into the results yields two particular questions showing dismal results: Do employees think management has “a clear view of where the organization is going and how to get there”? And do managers “avoid playing favorites”?) Seems like a small problem (“Who cares?” or “Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered” should come to mind!)

Teal replaces Orange (Which replaced black, right?)

Zappos can, and should be looked at as an enterprise that embraces risk-taking. Having taken the “tour” last year (You can too if you plan a visit: https://www.zapposinsights.com/tours), I can honestly say that the place is ripe with transformation. Memories of stuffed animals, ball pits, and individualization were everywhere… Think of it as if Willy Wonka transitioned from making candy to selling shoes!

5 Tips to Holacracy Success?

After viewing the Holacracy in play at Zappos, I offer the following 5 Tips to Holacracy Success:

Tip #5 – Embrace Change

While huddling up and having meetings is nice, identifying where change is at (Along with Where it came from? What you are doing about it? Where you want to go?) is crucial to short/long-term success. While you can’t guarantee successful outcomes to each/every change episode, properly diagnosing and setting a course of action can guarantee shorter episodes of change failure.

Tip #4 – Someone Must Lead

While it’s a nice idea to have zero leaders in an organization (as well as establishing high expectations), expecting peers to hold each other accountable can/will lead to moments from “The Lord of the Flies” to be played-out. If leaders do what others won’t, someone must step-up and lead.

Tip #3 – Recognize Shortcomings and Correct

If you don’t measure, you can’t manage effectively. Whether you take on a task such as Holacracy or not, managing by measuring is a must. “Measure what?” you might be asking… The answer is “Yes” (Measure everything important to driving towards your organizational mission/vision/values).

Tip #2 – Turnover Kills People Businesses (You Do Have People, Right?)

Zappos reports 29% employee turnover during their Holacracy efforts. Now whether that is high/higher than normal, one thing is shared and that is the majority of that number was made up for the first-time by leaders looking to lead (only this time somewhere other than Zappos). Do the right thing when facing turnover and conduct exit-interviews (Interview those exiting the organization to identify why they are departing, and modify if necessary).

Tip #1 – Recognize Performance (and Individuals)

There is no “I” in team, but there is in “Win”… While recognizing performance that drives towards aforementioned mission/vision/values for your organization should be considered a given, is there really no-need to recognize individual team member contribution to said importance?

SUMMARY

In this post, we’ve examined the leadership challenge of Zappos Holacracy, along with 5 tips to Holacracy Success. I loved my time at Zappos, and I think that if you go on the tour or work with the organization you will too! The culture is one that I only wish existed when I started my career (In case you’re wondering, I could see myself spending considerable time in the ball pit!) The challenges of the future of your business could very well be in adopting similar Holacracy moments (However, I would imagine first-to-market leaders such as Zappos will establish a solid benchmark to measure from).

Sam Palazzolo

sam palazzolo

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