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the leadership challenge

The Leadership Challenge: The Yoda Process to Meeting Success – 4 Tips!

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The Point: Have you ever been in one of those meetings where the leader ram-rod home point after point, only to have everyone participating withdraw further and further from the team’s mission? How about if your meetings just don’t have a high level of candor/commitment present? If so, then this special May 4th Star Wars themed leadership challenge tip is for you… Introducing the Yoda Process to Meeting Success along with 4 tips. May the force be with you… Enjoy!

The Leadership Challenge: The Yoda Process to Meeting Success – 4 Tips!

Our Meetings Suck!?!

So you’re sitting through yet again another boring meeting at work… What makes the meeting so boring? Why do you keep on putting up with such time sucks? In my advisory services, I’ve noticed a lot of meetings taking place where nothing of importance gets reviewed, discussed, and resolved (if need be). Conversely, I also see a lack of meetings take place on topics that should be reviewed to realign stakeholders.

If you’re like me, you’ve read countless creative ways in which to make meeting success occur through the use of what I can only call “cute” techniques. Think a meeting is going too long? Implement an egg timer so that when the timer runs out, the meeting is over (or everyone gets paroled!) How about coming up with an agenda that dictates not only topics that are allowed to be discussed, but the individual who will be “telling” instead of “discussing” the topic at hand. Now don’t get me wrong, an egg timer can be useful (if you’re making hard-boiled eggs) and an agenda can keep you on-time/on-target (if your leader had ADD/ADHD). But what you might need to do is let the “force” guide you by implementing the Yoda Process.

The Yoda Process

Who can forget that scene in the swamp where a young Luke Skywalker is training under the Jedi Master Yoda. With failure after failure occurring, and frustration mounting, Yoda attempts to guide Luke to use the force to help him. Just like a lot of young leaders (young is a state of mind), Luke replies “All right, I’ll give it a try.” To which our Jedi Master explodes “NO! Try not! DO or DO NOT. There is no try.” So what if you had a Jedi Master in each of your meetings? Do you believe things would better? Better decisions would be made? More authority would be gained? Projects and goals would be achieved? If all of these sound like a good moment, then the Yoda Process is for you.

The Yoda Process consists of appointing a Yoda for each meeting. The role of this Yoda is to keep stakeholders in line (on topic) and engaged during the meeting. The Yoda also helps keep professionalism in play (Sometimes honesty has a price to play in hostility and disrespect). A key question to ask the Yoda during meetings are:

– What are we not talking about that we should?

– Is this the most useful utilization of the stakeholders time?

The Yoda can then report back on the meetings “State of Candor” and insure that meeting results are achieved.

Four Tips for The Leadership Challenge of the Yoda Process for Meeting Success

Here then are four tips for the leadership challenge of the Yoda process for meeting success that I would look for you to employ in your next meeting:

Tip #1 – Select Yoda Carefully

You just can’t pick anyone as the Yoda for your next meeting, or can you? I would implore you to have a “rotating” Yoda chair in which each team member is allowed to play the role of Yoda. Not only will this strengthen team dynamics, but should increase individual accountability!

Tip #2 – ID Yoda Questions

While I mention two questions to ask your Yoda during a meeting, your particular meeting might require different ones. Ask your stakeholders to develop/come-up with questions that are specific to your project at hand either prior to or at the start of your meeting.

Tip #3 – Keep Track of Yoda Progress

Monitor your Yoda progress by measuring milestones associated with the implementation of your Yoda Process. Remember, what gets measured gets managed.

Tip #4 – Meet with Yoda Post-Meeting

You should plan on debriefing with Yoda after your meeting, NOT to talk about the meeting that just was met about, BUT instead to identify what worked well/not so well, what should be continued/discontinued, and what should be done the same/different next meeting. These Yoda Post-Meetings should be shared with the next Yoda so that meeting faux-pas don’t repeat themselves.

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve taken a look at the leadership challenge of the Yoda Process to Meeting Success and provided 4 tips. If there is a dynamic in the room where you perceive that someone is holding back, try to encourage them to speak openly. Hence the Yoda Process was born. This process/methodology consists of designating one (or more) individuals to monitor meeting conversations to insure that they stay on-topic/on-reality. In the event the monitor senses someone that is holding back, they will call that individual out, requesting that they sense the holding back moment as such, and speak on behalf of said individual. Remember, while May 4th might only come around once per year, the force should always be with you!

 

Sam Palazzolo

 

The Leadership Challenge: Trumped!

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The Point: When you think the leadership challenges of the universe are conspiring against you and failure is at hand, you had better figure out a way to gain advantage so as to leave stakeholders trumped. In this post, we’ll explore the trumped phenomenas at play so you can overcome just such leadership challenges… Enjoy!

The Leadership Challenge: Trumped!

Divided Company

It’s “Go Time!” for you and your team as a leader… But exactly “where” are you going? If you’re like most leaders I work with, you have your opinion regarding direction to be taken that aligns with your organization’s mission/vision/values. But guess what? So does everyone else on your team. As a matter of fact, they might very well want to go in a multitude of different directions in support of the organization’s goals (let alone their own individual goals).

Sometimes leadership should be looked upon as a playing card game of bridge. In bridge one has the opportunity to use a playing card of the suit chosen to rank above the others, which can lead to winning a “trick” where a card of a different suit has been lead. In other words… Trumped!

Healing the Divide – The Rule of 3’s!

So what’s the best practice of a leader when facing such a multitude of different perspectives from their team? How do you balance or insure that everyone feels as though they are being heard? How will you pick the “right” or “right at this moment” direction to be taken?

While there are several different decision trees you could employ, one that I’ve seen successfully implemented is called the Rule of 3’s. The Rule of 3’s consists of “hearing” everyone out at a high level. When everyone of differing opinion is heard (or has the opportunity to present their opinion), the team can then vote (three votes maximum) for their favorite ideas. They can use their three votes individually spread across three different recommendations, or pool all three on one recommendation. The top three recommendations in quantity of votes are then more thoroughly developed/researched and then re-presented again to the group. Another round of voting occurs so as to produce one consensus direction decision to move forward on.

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve explored the leadership challenge of being trumped! Division of stakeholders is never a good strategy to employ, especially when considering sound business decisions. However, if collaboration is one of your company’s cultural moments, the Rule of 3’s can be implemented so as to alleviate the unlikely outcome of a decision coming out of nowhere to not only be elected but implemented as well.

 

Sam Palazzolo

www.BloodSweatSpears.com

 

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

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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!

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

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

The Leadership Challenge: Innovator or A$$hole – 5 Tips!

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The Point: In a constant drive for success and achievement, most leaders find themselves challenged with how best to spur on the creativity of their team to produce innovative results. However, 9/10 (but who’s counting?) this drive for innovation is misconstrued for a$$hole (Yes, that’s the word you’re thinking of – ahole!) behavior. In this post, we’ll examine the leader’s drive for innovation and provide five tips to avoid the ahole innovation trap… Enjoy!

The Leadership Challenge: Innovator or A$$hole – 5 Tips!

In Steve Jobs We Trust

Meet Susan (name changed to provide anonymity), a hard-driving mid-level manager for a Fortune 100 organization. Susan recently graduated from a top-tier Executive MBA program and is on career path fire in her organization (Even though it is an extremely BIG pond as far as companies go). Having made the half-way point for the year, she finds herself in the luxurious position of being ahead, well ahead, of her individual and teams goals. However, there is one small problem with Susan… She’s an A$$hole according to her team members.

In reviewing results for a recent Behavioral 360 Degree Assessment (One where not only Susan, but her stakeholders – Superiors, Peers, and Subordinates – provided feedback on her behavior/performance/leadership qualities) it was not surprising to see Susan ranking her self higher (at times significantly higher) than that of the stakeholders who she invited to provide feedback. The results were brushed-off by Susan with a simple shrug and accompanying statement of “They [stakeholders] just don’t understand my ‘Steve Jobs’ persona replication… I’m ahead of goal, right?”

The Drive to Innovate

The fine line between leadership innovation and aholery is an easy one to cross, criss-cross, and/or stay on one side as a leader. “Those that innovate survive!” is Susan’s motto, but is it all there is to the road to successful innovation attainment?

I would argue that establishing course direction and accompanying correction upon identification of off-course moments is crucial. However, technique for original goal development, implementation and adaptation is crucial to your stakeholders identifying you as either innovator or ahole. If as a leader you think your stakeholders are misreading the situation, then do something about their perception because their perception is the reality!

5 Tips to Avoid the A$$hole Innovation Trap!

The following are five tips to avoid what I have come to term the “Ahole Innovation Trap” as a leader:

Tip #5 – Goals 1.0

Establish goals with your superiors for what high performance results should be. These should include not only desired results, but metrics that will be captured along the way so as to verify goal attainment (Think of the all too popular ‘dashboard’ and you get the picture).

Tip #4 – Goals 2.0

Review goals established in Goals 1.0 with your team, and with your team’s input identify how these goals should/will be accomplished.

Tip #3 – Delegate Responsibilities

If in Goals 2.0 you’ve identified the desired course forward towards goal attainment, delegate responsibilities to your team members. Establish who will precisely do what by when. IMPORTANT: Review with the team what has just been developed a the conclusion (This might take more than one meeting!) NOTE: You as a leader are not void of responsibility here… Insure that you provide goals for yourself as well in addition to Tip #2 and Tip #1 as follows!

Tip #2 – Accountability

Establish accountability to achieve delegation responsibilities at frequent time intervals with the team. This way, not only can you police activities, but fellow team members can help keep each other on-time/on-target as well.

Tip #1 – Monitor/Measure/Modify

Lastly, as the leader it’s important that you monitor what was established through non-judgmental measurement intervals. If you are on-time/on-target identify how you can accelerate through the timeline. If you are off-time/off-target identify where you came off-track and how you can quickly get back on-track.

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve taken a look at the leadership challenge of innovation or ahole, along with five tips for success in being known as an innovator. Regardless of your level of leadership, the skill of innovation can distinguish you from your peers. However, the ability to conduct goal attainment with accompanying ahole recognition can be career limiting.

 

Sam Palazzolo

 

PS – Susan turned out just fine… Through a series of executive coaching sessions with stakeholder feedback she quickly regained “Innovator” title!

The Leadership Challenge: Title Dilution – 3 Tips!

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The Point: If you’re an achiever in your career, your title not only represents what you do BUT your accomplishments as well. So what happens if you’re at an organization that elects to water-down or dilute titles so that everyone appears to be harmonious/at the same level operating as an entire team? In this post we’ll examine the leadership challenge of title dilution and what you can do to elevate yourself from mediocrity as you escalate the org chart on your career path… Enjoy!

The Leadership Challenge: Title Dilution – 3 Tips!

The Elevator to the Top!

Every once in a while I find myself in a situation that bears repeating. Case in point this past week in an elevator riding to the top floor to spend some time with a client. Enter onto the elevator two young women also traveling to the top floor. Their conversation could be captured as follows:

Woman #1

How are things going for you over at Company XYZ?

Woman #2

They’re going fine, but I’m so concerned about our policy of title dilution. While I’ve never been concerned for me, or my abilities to achieve, the fact that we dilute company titles makes me feel like I’m not being recognized for my achievements. I mean, I know I could go over to Company ABC and make more money, but I’m not certain they’d even give me an interview because it looks like I do the work of an entry-level employee. I’m concerned…

 

We’re All One Team, Right?

Title Dilution is the concept that all members of a team are provided with equivalent titles. Leaders and Team Leaders not only sit/work together with their teams, but they all have the same title to boot! So what if you work for an organization that chooses to similarly title dilute? How will you be recognized? What will you do to not only stand apart from the team crowd, but remain a valued member of the team?

While you may not have to worry about title dilution as you ride the career elevator in your current organization, I see a trend of more and more organizations wanting to equate equals as part of the team as opposed to different (or same as but different).

 

3 Tips for Title Dilution

So what is the career savvy achiever to do so as to avoid title dilution? I provide the following Three Tips to overcome title dilution regardless of where you are at on your career path journey:

 

Tip #3 – To Thine Own Self Be True

Shakespeare spoke of a clever conversation between a father and son regarding escalating the org chart (or as good as career advice could be provided back in his day). It all starts with knowing who you are and what’s important to you… Here’s the passage from Hamlet (Act 1, scene 3, 78–82):

Polonius:

This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Farewell, my blessing season this in thee!

Laertes:

Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.

 

Tip #2 – Fish Determination

Are you a BIG fish in a little pond, or a little fish in a BIG pond (or does pond size matter?) I meet with a lot of leaders that either struggle or excel depending on the situation that they find themselves. Know this much about yourself: You probably have greater comfort in one setting versus another. With that in mind, identify what your best setting is and look to maximize your impact.

 

Tip #1 – GOALS

If you don’t have goals, you’re either (A) dreaming or (B) letting someone else determine your fate/destiny/outcome. If titles are important to you (either for ego purposes, marketing your brand, or the perception of greater income – either real or imagined) then an organization that dilutes the titles of achievers may or may not be the right place for you.

 

SUMMARY

In this passage we’ve taken a look at the leadership challenge of title dilution and presented three tips. Important to note that while careers aren’t built/realized overnight, they can come unwound in a relatively short time period. Identifying who you are (and what’s important to you), where you are at, and a plan for success should assist you in overcoming dilution moments in your career regardless of whether you are just starting your journey, midway, or looking for a way to “ride off into the sunset” as you leave your legacy for others to marvel at.

 

Sam Palazzolo