John Mattone

Keynote Speaker on Leadership, Talent & Culture: John Mattone

The Leader’s Role in Motivating Teams: Which Skills Matter Most?

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A leader’s very presence can be a strong motivational factor for their teams – for better or for worse.

Every team member needs to know their efforts are appreciated and contribute to the achievement of important goals.

Competent, committed leaders tend to beget competent, committed teams. There are some basic motivators, like paying people fairly, but beyond that, leadership plays a huge role. Perhaps the most important thing leaders can do to motivate their teams is to be a leader worth following. In fact, leadership effectiveness is evident in teams that are motivated and that get results.

Additionally, there are certain leadership practices that can keep motivation high, as long as you practice them regularly and with sincerity.

The Importance of a Strong, Positive Company Culture

Doing your part as a leader to build and maintain a strong, positive company culture is something whose importance cannot be overstated. Great culture is built on shared goals and values. Companies that hire based on those goals and values and that reiterate them throughout training new people, employee evaluations, and how business, in general, is conducted are the companies that benefit the most from it. Pay attention to organizational culture and do your part to ensure it is rich and intrinsically rewarding.

Show Gratitude Regularly and Celebrate the Big Wins

Firing off empty thank-yous all the time dilutes their meaning, but genuinely thanking people for taking care of things or going above and beyond has tremendous value. When people realize that others see what they do and value it, it’s empowering, so don’t hold back your gratitude for a job well done.

Likewise, be ready to celebrate the big wins: the big new client, the contract extension, or the industry award. Set aside time to celebrate, get a cake, make speeches. Celebrating the big accomplishments helps motivate further ones.

It’s OK to set aside time at work to celebrate accomplishment of important goals!

Give and Receive Constructive Feedback

Constructive feedback helps. Someone struggling with calculations may not realize they have access to a software app that would take care of it for them. Finding out what team members need to do their jobs optimally is important, even though you can’t grant every wish they have. Knowing that you consider their needs helps, as does asking for feedback from them about leadership effectiveness. When employees feel empowered to say, “Sometimes I wonder if you read my emails” it can open the door to honest conversation and positive change.

Articulate Goals and “The Why”

At the beginning of a project, and periodically throughout, people need to be reminded of why they’re doing what they do. It’s easy during the grind of everyday work to lose sight of the goals we’re working toward. And if you assign people work without telling them what role they’re playing in achieving goals, they’re less likely to give their best efforts because they feel like replaceable cogs in a machine. People are remarkably adept at taking care of the “how” if they know the “why” of what they’re doing.

Provide Autonomy and Ownership of Responsibilities

Few things stifle motivation like micromanagement does. After all, if the boss is going to nitpick and correct every little thing, there’s really no reason to try hard. Conversely, allowing everyone on a team appropriate autonomy and “ownership” of responsibilities is motivating. Leadership effectiveness isn’t about controlling behavior, but about eliciting great performance, and you just don’t do that by banning professional autonomy. You might get serviceable results, but you’ll also get an unmotivated team that lacks imagination.

Leadership effectiveness and motivated teams go together naturally. In fact, many leadership coaching clients go into the coaching relationship wanting to learn how to lead effectively so they can help their teams stay motivated. Ultimately, leaders who are trustworthy, transparent, approachable, and grateful tend to have teams that are motivated and eager to give their best. If you’d like to explore these topics further, I encourage you to check out my books.

Anticipating the Views of Others: A Fundamental Part of Self-Awareness

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Self-awareness may be the most important skill of great leaders.

Self-awareness doesn’t require blocking out reality, however.

Self-awareness begins with self-knowledge and then takes that knowledge to monitor and regulate our thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. When a person is self-aware, they are able to evaluate themselves with a certain degree of objectivity. Highly developed self-awareness underlies emotional intelligence, self-regulation, and self-confidence.

It’s no mystery why so many leadership coaching programs emphasize the development of self-awareness because leadership effectiveness depends so heavily upon it. But while the ability to know oneself and use self-knowledge to regulate emotions and actions is the basis of self-awareness, there is another component to self-awareness that we sometimes overlook: the ability to anticipate the views of others.

Strategic Anticipation Often Underrated, Overlooked

World-class athletes and chess players have an uncanny ability to anticipate not only the actions of their opponents but also the outcomes of those actions. Likewise, great leaders are able to anticipate the actions and outcomes of others’ actions, but only if their self-awareness includes appreciation for other people’s viewpoints. Developing strategic anticipation helps leaders accomplish more, better:

  • They can handle multiple issues better while remaining ready for change
  • They are less likely to be blindsided by new challenges
  • They can view crises as steppingstones to levels of greater performance
  • They can discover new pathways to their goals

A Good Starting Place for Developing Better Strategic Anticipation

It’s easy enough to advise leaders to “solicit feedback,” but how can they do that in ways that broaden their self-awareness? Scott Taylor, associate professor of organizational behavior at Babson College suggests deliberately broadening the narrative around ourselves with a multi-step process. Here’s the technique he uses:

  • Ask someone to describe themselves as a leader
  • Ask their direct reports to describe their leader
  • Go back and ask the leader what they think others said about them
  • Discuss what the direct reports actually said about them and see where the gaps are

How does your view of yourself as a leader agree and disagree with others’ perceptions of you as a leader?

This technique expands self-awareness to include others’ perceptions. It’s not an easy exercise, but the results can be transformative. Once you understand any discrepancies between how you perceive yourself and how others view you, you can better anticipate others’ viewpoints and lead more effectively.

Using Skilled Anticipation in Communication

One of the many places that leaders can put skilled anticipation to work is in their day-to-day communications. Some tips for doing this effectively include:

  • Attempting to give more positive than negative feedback
  • Focusing on others’ facial expressions
  • Emphasizing working together to overcome challenges
  • Maintaining eye contact (without engaging in a stare-down)
  • Being authentic in conversation
  • Remembering compassion in communication
  • Thoroughly understanding the context of the communication
  • Not being afraid to be wrong

As a coach, if I had to choose a single skill to work on with clients, it would probably be self-awareness. Leadership effectiveness requires the ability to see the world and one’s place in it honestly and with authenticity, and that’s a big part of self-awareness. But believe it or not, self-awareness isn’t just about the person practicing it: it’s about that person and those they interact with. Learning strategic anticipation of others’ viewpoints opens a person up to new ideas, keeps them grounded in reality, and helps them communicate better.

If you’re interested in learning more about the role of self-awareness in leadership effectiveness, I encourage you to check out my leadership coaching services.

Keynote Speaker Announcements: These 5 Elements Maximize Interest

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Hiring a keynote speaker represents an investment of time and resources, but a great speaker can elevate a professional event like nothing else.

The right keynote speaker can elevate the discourse and make an event more memorable.

Naturally, you have to put significant thought into who you want as a keynote speaker, considering your budget and the speaker’s schedule. You have to choose a speaker who makes sense for the type of event you’re hiring them for. Once you do this successfully, it’s time to drum up interest in your speaker.

The tools and techniques you use to generate buzz for the event and the keynote speech start out with your keynote speaker announcement. Here are the five elements that maximize interest in this announcement.

1. Give It a Great Headline

Put thought into the headline at the top of your keynote speaker announcement. Here are the key characteristics of outstanding headlines:

  • They are specific – so people will know right away that they care about this announcement
  • They are easy to understand – which typically means they should be simple and should avoid acronyms that people don’t universally recognize
  • They promote a reaction – such as joy, surprise, and interest in sharing the news
  • They should avoid being cutesy or clever – which means you should avoid puns or lightweight cultural references
  • They should capture the spirit of the event – whether it’s an industry gathering, a company celebration, or what have you

2. Include One or More Captivating Photos of the Speaker

Headshots are fine, but headshots that give an indication of the speaker’s personality are better. Many keynote speakers have a variety of photos of themselves, including professionally posed shots, and shots of them speaking. Try to choose a couple of photos that give your target audience an idea of not only what the speaker looks like, but that also gives a glimpse into their personality and speaking style.

3. Tease the Content of the Keynote Address

You don’t want to give away the speech in advance, but neither do you want to leave it at a statement of who the speaker is and the name of the event for which the address will be given. When you work with the keynote speaker before signing the contract with them, you will discuss the topic and will gain other insights into the speech. How can you take those insights and make them relevant to the audience at the event?

Give potential attendees a hint of what will be in the keynote address to pique their interest.

4. Include a Clear Call to Action in the Announcement

You may have different announcements with different calls to action. One announcement may encourage readers to sign up as an exhibitor at a conference. Another may prompt readers to reserve their seat for the speech itself (if it’s expected to be a full house). Calls to action may include a phone number to call, a website to visit, a Twitter hashtag to use, or even a QR code to scan for further information. Make your call to action fit the goal of your keynote speaker announcement.

5. Echo These Elements in Other Promotional Efforts

A well-crafted keynote speaker announcement can go a long way toward promoting the event. However, it can’t do all the heavy lifting. You may add pages in your company blog or on your company website or social media pages. You may echo the announcement in event emails. If the event is open to the public, the information in the announcements may carry over to the media promotion package you create. Together, all your promotional activities should work together to build enthusiasm for the keynote speech.

Keynote speakers can be outstanding for kicking off or bringing to a close a company or industry event. They can help set the tone and can ensure that the event is memorable for all the right reasons. After the work and expense that goes into hiring a keynote speaker, it’s important to raise awareness and promote the event so that as many people as possible benefit from it. Put time and effort into your keynote speaker announcement, and you go a long way toward ensuring the event is a rousing success.

If you are looking for a speaker on the topics of leadership, coaching, or cultural transformation, I invite you to check my speaking availability.

New Index Attempts to Quantify and Rank Company Culture: Here’s How

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People in business talk a lot about company culture, but what is it really?

Culture can be positive or negative, and it strongly influences company performance.

Corporate culture is made up of the values and norms that permeate the company and the people who work there. Company culture is multi-dimensional, and because it can be difficult to quantify, there’s no single, all-encompassing definition of what it is and what it isn’t.

It is made up both of what people think (values) and what they do (norms). For example, if a company says it values ethical behavior, one of its norms may be that people feel empowered to speak up when they discover someone is behaving unethically.

Ninety percent of C-level executives believe that improving company culture increases company valuation, and 85% of them believe that unhealthy culture leads to unethical behavior. One way and the other, corporate culture is intricately intertwined with company performance. But how do you quantify culture? MIT Sloan Management Review, along with Glassdoor, recently introduced a tool designed to do precisely that.

The MIT SMR / Glassdoor Culture 500 Tool

The MIT SMR / Glassdoor Culture 500 tool uses machine learning and unstructured data analysis to provide business leaders with tools for benchmarking culture in their organizations. Based on 1.2 million employee reviews on Glassdoor, along with natural language processing (NLP) methodology to provide insights about the culture in 500 leading companies across nine key cultural markers.

The cultural markers are agility, collaboration, customer focus, diversity, execution, innovation, integrity, performance, and respect. By using this tool, companies can gain insights into aspects of their own corporate culture and identify the most effective types of cultural transformation initiatives if necessary.

Strong Company Culture correlates with Market Performance

The main reasons companies should care about quantifying culture is that strength of company culture correlates with strength in market performance. A Glassdoor report titled “Does Company Culture Pay Off?” answers its titular question with a resounding “Yes!”

Working to improve company culture can lead to a stronger bottom line.

The study found that since 2009, a portfolio of Fortune Magazine’s “Best Companies to Work For” outperformed the S&P 500 by 84.2%, while Glassdoor’s “Best Places to Work” outperformed the overall market by 115.6%.  Conversely, the 30 lowest-rated companies on Glassdoor underperformed the market significantly from 2009-2014.

What Influences Company Culture Most?

It makes sense that good company culture correlates with good market performance, but what influences culture? A National Bureau of Economic Research report found that executives ranked their “Current CEO” as the top influencer of their company’s current culture. Additionally, when asked what prevented their culture from being all it could be, 69% said that “Leadership needs to invest more time in the culture.”

In other words, if corporate leadership isn’t paying attention to culture, chances are that culture isn’t what it should be. And when culture falters, performance tends to falter as well.

Cultural transformation is about more than redecorating office spaces or naming an Employee of the Month. While there’s nothing wrong with making the workplace nicer and friendlier, corporate culture goes deeper. Top leaders – particularly CEOs – have the most influence over what company culture is made up of, and it’s incumbent upon them and upon all top leaders to pay attention to culture, gain insights from it, and learn where cultural transformation is necessary.

There is no denying the link between strong company performance and strong company culture because hard data correlates the two. More subjectively, a strong company culture makes people want to work there and helps attract and retain top talent due to both tangible and intangible factors. Leaders who don’t invest themselves in understanding and building a strong company culture do themselves and their company a disservice.

Company culture may not be as straightforward as a balance sheet, but understanding culture is every bit as important to ensuring long term success.

Why Coaching Improves Leadership Development Programs

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The quality of leadership development programs varies widely.

Training programs can be costly, so choose wisely and do what you can to ensure training is put to use.

Everyone seems to be on board with the concept of “leadership development,” and that means there are a lot of programs from which to choose.

And it can be a challenge to wade through the choices and select the program that is the best fit for your organization. Moreover, there’s usually no guarantee that the techniques and best practices learned in leadership development programs will actually be put into practice by training participants.

Your best approach is to either choose programs that include leadership coaching as well as training or else provide coaching for program attendees from others within your organization. Coaching is perhaps the most effective way to turn learned skills into applied skills. Here are some other things to consider when planning leadership development programs.

Battling Prevailing Culture Requires Persistence

A McKinsey study of why leadership development programs fail found that company culture played a pivotal role. Companies that implement such programs tend to do so because they want measurable change. Yet they may not bother to address the root causes of why change is necessary, which is often the underlying culture.

However effective the data, skills, and techniques people learn during leadership development, they can’t gain traction if the underlying corporate culture is constantly pulling them in a different direction. Honestly assessing culture and making changes there beforehand can help create a healthy, beneficial environment in which proven leadership practices can take hold and make a difference.

Tools and Techniques That Make Learning “Stick”

Most executive and HR leaders believe in the value of leadership training, yet few believe they have the “strong bench” of capable leadership necessary to fulfill critical leadership roles.

Future success depends on having a strong bench of leadership-ready professionals.

How can companies in conjunction with leadership development programs ensure that such programs get real results? Here are some proven techniques:

  • Encourage daily learning, training, and practice, and go as far as blocking out time for it in the schedules of developing leaders
  • Encourage leaders to hold weekly one-to-one face time with their subordinates to discuss KPIs, long term goals, and to discuss progress toward goals
  • Mandate practice. Leadership development is ongoing, not an achievement that is proven by a course completion certificate. It can take countless small events over the long term to develop an aspiring leader into an effective, practicing leader.

Top leadership simply can’t expect transformative results from a half-day workshop, or even a weeklong leadership development course if they don’t buy into the process and regularly encourage attendees to further hone and practice what they learn.

Apply Training, Measure Results

Before choosing a leadership training program, you have to define what you want to be different afterward. And you have to come up with ways to measure that change. It may be a cliché that “what gets measured gets done,” but it’s a cliché for a reason. And if you don’t have measurement tools and if you don’t use them, you can’t know the business impact of your leadership development programs.

Evaluate not only behavior changes in leadership development participants, but also company-wide metrics like employee turnover, efficiency, and productivity. Measure the time your leaders spend learning, the time spent by those higher up in executive coaching, and what the outcomes are in terms of innovation, team effectiveness, and morale. If you don’t know whether your leadership programs work, then what’s the point of having them?

Whether or not your company has the resources to invest in leadership coaching for its top leadership, it can put coaching principles into practice. When your emerging leaders undergo leadership training, don’t just assume they learned great stuff and will apply it at the first opportunity. Find out what they learned. Find out how they want to apply their new skills and help them hold themselves accountable. And make sure the underlying culture isn’t working against their interests. I encourage you to check out my corporate culture services if you would like to learn more.

7 Questions Leaders Should Regularly Ask Themselves

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Generally, leaders are supposed to be the ones who know the answers. But we all know that leadership involves as many questions as answers.

Asking the right questions helps keep your thought process fresh and opens you up to new ideas.

Knowing which questions to ask when can improve our leadership qualities. Good questions are ones that help provide direction, increase knowledge, promote engagement, and help with decision-making. Here are seven questions that leaders need to regularly ask themselves and answer with total honesty.

1. What’s the best thing I could do in the next 10 minutes?

Time management and prioritization are two important leadership qualities. This question gets at both these issues. Perhaps the thing you need to do most is “eat the frog” by doing something you dislike so you can have it off your plate. Or perhaps you need to make a list of things you need to do so you can put them in priority order. Either way, you’re preparing yourself for effective action.

2. How can I bring clarity to this situation?

When teams struggle (or even if they’re just having an “off” day), it can help to reframe the vision for what needs to get done. Adding clarity when people are struggling forces you to take stock, defining immediate goals and timeframes, and ensure people have the resources they need. Sometimes turning a difficult day for your team around can be done by bringing clarity to the situation.

3. What would a great leader do in this situation?

If you have a “hero” leader that you have always looked up to, why not ask yourself what they would do in your situation? Not only can this give you courage and inspiration, it can put your situation into perspective. For example, asking how Augustus would handle the changeover to new accounting software can remind you that you’re not conquering Egypt and Dalmatia, but handling something that every business must cope with.

4. How did I enable or hold back my team today?

While there is little to be gained from replaying conversations repeatedly in your mind, there is much to be gained from reviewing the day and being honest about ways you could have done more to facilitate your team’s performance. Or maybe you said something that had unintended negative consequences. Unpacking that and understanding why it happened can help you avoid similar blunders in the future.

We all should review our performance and learn from both successes and mistakes.

5. Who is challenging my way of thinking?

It’s not healthy to be surrounded by “yes-men.” In fact, the best leaders surround themselves with people who aren’t afraid to challenge them. You don’t want to create a corporate culture where people are afraid of challenging their leaders when they feel strongly about something. Who are these people? Are they getting under our skin, and if so, why? What might be gained from trying to see things from their perspective?

6. Who haven’t I met with recently?

If your team is carrying on effectively, it’s easy to assume that someone you haven’t talked to in a while is simply working well on their own. That may be the case. Then again, if you haven’t had face time with someone for a while, it’s a good idea to reach out. Just as the geraniums in your planters may appear to be thriving while actually being choked out by an invasive vine, the dependable team member may be dealing with something where you could help. And you won’t know unless you ask.

7. What do I need to work on?

It’s nice being comfortable as a leader. But comfort may indicate that we need to stretch a little. We need to regularly remind ourselves of new opportunities, new responsibilities, or simply of skills we need to work on. There’s truth in the old joke that says, “If you’re resting on your laurels, you’re wearing them in the wrong place.” The world is changing, and the methods and skills that got you to where you are won’t necessarily equip you for future success. Make continual learning one of your top goals.

Leadership coaching often involves helping clients learn to ask the right questions of themselves and answer them honestly. Doing so can help you lead effectively day-to-day and over the long term. If you’re interested in learning more, I invite you to check out my books. 

The Future of Leadership Development in 2020 and Beyond

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Leadership will not become easier in 2020 and beyond, though technology and automation may make certain processes faster.

Trends in the management of “human capital” have been a topic of leadership development for decades. But today more than ever, effective, engaged leaders have to stay on top of current trends influencing their company, industry, employees, and the world at large if they are to continue to produce results.

Both commercial strategies (including innovation, efficiency, and agility) and “people” strategies are evolving quickly as the world becomes more connected. It’s never been easy to identify and develop talent in next-generation leaders, but today it’s more challenging than ever due to a worldwide market where competition for talent is fierce.

Success in the 21st century requires commercial strategies as well as “people” strategies (which should include leadership development).

The development of effective leadership coaching programs is essential, and the role of leadership coaching is growing as more people realize the effectiveness of coaching in bringing leaders to maturity. In 2020 and beyond, the steps leaders take today will bear fruit.

Knowing how to develop leadership talent and when to implement coaching requires understanding changes in the business world and in the makeup of the workforce. Techniques that used to work may work no longer. Here’s what top leaders must know in order to ensure effective leadership as we move into the third decade of the 21st century.

Multiple Generations at the Top of the Leadership Chart

Around 20% of people age 65 or older are still working, and that’s the highest percentage in more than 50 years. Delaying retirement may happen for a variety of reasons, including not having sufficient savings. But on the positive side, more Americans delay retirement because they like their professional life, and increased life expectancy makes it more practical for many.

At the same time, Generation Z (the younger siblings of the Millennials, born starting in the late 1990s) are entering the workforce in increasing numbers. With up to five generations in the workforce, it’s only natural that leadership will reflect generational diversity as well. This is a good thing! The presence of different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives in the leadership suite helps everyone think outside their own point of view, which is great for problem-solving and innovation.

Making the most of generational diversity in leadership means understanding that everyone is a person and not a statistic. But it also means understanding that different people need different things to thrive in a leadership position. Some ways that companies are maximizing the effectiveness of multi-generational leadership teams include:

  • Recruiting for age-agnostic qualities – those that make sense in your corporate culture and with your goals, regardless of the age of the person possessing them
  • Understanding the balance in leadership that must be struck between stimulation and stability and choosing leaders – regardless of age – who possess the qualities you need
  • Experimenting with a “buddy system” pairing diverse leaders to tackle specific problems
  • Ensuring CEOs make time to talk face to face with top leaders on a regular basis because it’s one of the best ways to get real feedback and understand the company’s leadership culture better

Greater Diversity in Leadership

Executive suites are more closely reflecting the diversity present in the rest of society.

Age diversity in leadership is just one manifestation of diversity in general. The good news is that more companies are trying to hire a more diverse workforce to make the best use of a broad variety of backgrounds, skills, experiences, and opinions. Unfortunately, unconscious bias still exists, and where it does, it stifles talent.

The truth is, in any consumer-focused business, diversity is one of the best ways to unleash the full potential of the workforce because a diverse workforce better understands and better reflects the consumer population. Researchers at North Carolina State University recently found that companies with diverse workforces are better at developing innovative products and services. It stands to reason that when that diversity extends to top leadership, those advantages would be amplified further.

Focus on Accountability, Transparency

Accountability matters. This has always been true and always will be true, but today, businesses simply can’t get away with a lack of accountability (for long, anyway). The world is awash in information and everyone is connected. The chances of engaging in unethical behavior and never being called to account for it are slimmer than ever. Thus, accountability matters because lack of it can lead to bad PR and a tarnished reputation.

But accountability matters for bigger reasons than fear of being caught out. Accountable organizations attract accountable people, and accountable people know that sometimes it’s harder to do the right thing, but that it’s better in the long run. A culture of accountability leads to more honest feedback, forces people to follow through on commitments, keeps us grounded in reality, and prevents small problems from turning into big problems.

Leadership today, tomorrow, and always will require a commitment to accountability and transparency in our actions. Like it or not, people perform better when they know they will be held accountable for their actions. Have you heard of the “Hawthorne effect?” It was coined based on experiments in the 1920s at Hawthorne Works, a Western Electric facility near Chicago.

The experiment was simple, really: would workers be more productive if the factory were more well-lit? Workers in both the “better lighting” and the control groups were more productive during the experiment. The lighting wasn’t the differentiating factor, so what was? It was the fact that workers knew they were being observed. Human nature says we want to perform well when we’re being watched. Mature accountability means we want to perform well whether or not we’re being watched.

AI, Big Data, and Technology in the Executive Suite

For the most part, it won’t be the people in executive leadership who will implement artificial intelligence and big data analysis in their organizations. They hire data scientists and programmers for that. But make no mistake: AI, big data, and technological advancements, in general, will have an effect on senior leadership, and leadership development programs must take these technological trends into account.

AI and big data may not make executive decisions, but they can inform them in new ways.

Both AI and big data analysis inform decision-making, and some of those decisions will take place at the executive level. The important thing to remember is that neither AI nor big data will make decision-making easier. What they do is provide more (and hopefully better) information on which to base decisions.

Actual human leaders will continue to be the ones making judgment calls, despite the impressive advances that AI and big data have made. The ability to make trade-offs, evaluate risk, and exercise good judgment based on values and goals will always be critical leadership skills regardless of technological advancement.

Change Management

Another consequence of rapid technological advancement is a faster rate of change. Resilience, agility, and adaptability are mandatory traits for tomorrow’s leaders. The ability to help organizations manage change will be increasingly important. Change management is the ability to provide a methodical approach to individuals and teams undergoing a transition from the present state to some future state.

Change management is necessary for situations such as:

  • Physical relocation of a team, a branch office, or an entire business
  • A major upgrade to IT infrastructure or software
  • Reorganization of a department, branch, or entire business
  • A merger or acquisition

Disaster preparedness is another type of change management that you hope you never have to use, but that you must be ready for, nonetheless.

When top leaders are trained and coached in change management, the entire organization can meet change with less resistance, better engagement, better performance, lower cost, and most importantly: an outcome where the organization is better than before. Change management requires discipline, and though techniques are unique to the organization, it often includes steps like:

  • Identifying precisely who will participate in the change
  • Identifying how groups and individuals will change
  • Creating a plan for ensuring change participants have the leadership, training, and coaching they need
  • Understanding how change will affect company culture and planning accordingly
  • Monitoring change and addressing problems
  • Tracking outcomes
  • Documenting lessons learned

Innovation Departments and Teams

The process of innovation gets better with practice.

It’s great when innovation happens fortuitously, but companies cannot count on this in order to remain competitive in an increasingly innovative business environment. That’s why more businesses are creating project-based teams, and even entire departments devoted to innovation. Rarely is lack of innovation due to a lack of great ideas. Often, the problem is in evaluating, prioritizing, and executing those great ideas – a Herculean task, but one that must be accomplished to retain a competitive advantage.

There’s nothing new about businesses saying they’re in favor of innovation, but what has changed is the necessity of innovation. And without the buy-in and support of top leadership, innovation on a game-changing scale won’t happen.

Tomorrow’s leaders will have to have a keen understanding of the main types of innovation, which are product innovation, process innovation, and business model innovation. No longer will having a locked suggestion box in the break room pass as a true innovation program. Leaders must devote time and resources to innovation by employing technology (like innovation management software) and actually following up and implementing great ideas.

Succeeding with innovation requires gathering ideas, evaluating ideas, and actually implementing them. 

Companies that have a commitment to innovation built into their DNA are companies that are better positioned to take advantage of opportunities and ideas, and that are in less danger of being left behind. That commitment depends on senior leadership with genuine commitment to innovation and commitment to building a strong track record of putting innovation into practice.

Agility More Important Than Ever

A Forbes Insights and Scrum Alliance survey found that 81% of executives consider agility to be the most important characteristic of a successful business. Rewards of greater agility include faster time to market, faster innovation, and improved non-financial business results (such as improved company culture).

Some businesses are even changing leadership hierarchies to accommodate agility. The same survey found that 44% of businesses have introduced flatter management structures in order to be more adaptable. Clearly, we have entered an age of agility in business, and it starts at the very top.

The CEO and other C-level leaders must play their part in driving the adoption of agile practices throughout the enterprise. This requires that they themselves embrace a mindset of agility and understand the importance of remaining flexible.

At the level of the front-line employee, agility means that some managers will have to change from telling employees what to do and how to do it to focusing on mission-critical initiatives and removing organizational impediments that prevent employees from achieving the best results. It’s not easy, especially for more traditional managers. But embracing agility is no longer an option among organizations that plan to seize opportunities and move forward out of their comfort zones.

Employee Engagement

Employees who are engaged in their work add more value than those who are disengaged.

Why should top leaders care whether their employees are engaged in their work, as long as the work gets done? There are innumerable reasons, but there are two that are especially important. Employees who are highly engaged in their work are likelier to add discretionary effort and go that extra mile to ensure excellence. And a highly engaged workforce has lower turnover, saving the company tremendous amounts of time and money.

Unfortunately, employee engagement is still abysmally low in America: 34%, according to a Gallup survey. But this is actually higher than it’s ever been, which is good news. Here are some of the reasons why leadership development programs must emphasize employee engagement.

  • Profitability is 21% higher for highly engaged teams
  • Most HR leaders agree that peer feedback (a hallmark of engagement) is necessary for successful outcomes
  • Employees who believe they are listened to are 4.6 times likelier to feel empowered to perform at their peak
  • Ninety-six percent of employees believe that empathy improves employee retention
  • Disengaged employees cost companies in the U.S. some $550 billion per year

Succession Planning

Let’s be honest: succession planning isn’t much fun. In the real world, however, organizations always operate in a context that is in flux. Competition changes, the marketplace changes, and there’s no such thing as certainty. The unexpected can happen as well, in the form of an unexpected resignation or an unexpected death. Without proper succession planning, changes are far more disruptive and painful.

Leadership development programs must at least touch upon the importance of succession planning. Executive leaders must commit to succession planning as part of “business as usual,” and they must view top-level leadership as something that is dynamic, not static. Here are steps companies can take to prepare leadership for inevitable changes:

  • Institutionalize a data-driven succession planning process to prevent bias
  • Identify criteria and qualities essential to a new executive leader’s success
  • Create an onboarding and transition process for leaders transitioning to new positions
  • Emphasize the importance of long-term leadership development
  • Revisit leadership criteria as the business evolves

Conclusion

Success tomorrow depends on recognizing and developing leadership talent today.

More is being asked of leadership, and more will be asked of leadership as we arrive in the year 2020 and beyond. Therefore, neglecting leadership development programs and leadership coaching is tantamount to neglecting the entire organization. The era of the monolithic company that remains the same or changes slowly over the decades is over. Never before have we lived in such a fast-paced business environment.

Leadership must be ready, and leadership development programs must identify leadership potential and performance early and offer genuine assistance to those talented people so they can become highly effective leaders. Yesterday’s leadership development programs are insufficient to the demands of today’s leadership. Leadership coaching will play an increasingly important role too, as people enter leadership roles with expectations that they will get up to speed and deliver results as quickly as possible.

It sounds like a lot of moving parts for the leader of the future to manage, and it is! But regardless of how much leadership potential a person has, putting them into a leadership position without proper training and preparation is asking for disaster. That’s why leadership development programs and leadership coaching are absolutely essential to the business that is committed to success in this fast-paced, technologically evolving era.

Glossary of Terms

Accountability – the practice of working with integrity, holding others and oneself responsible for decisions, behaviors, and actions

Agility – the ability of an individual, team, or organization to sense changes and respond accordingly and quickly

Change management – a systematic approach to anticipating and executing change in an organization to minimize problems, maximize benefits, and support affected people throughout

Employee engagement – the emotional connection between an employee and their work, which makes them want to excel and more prone to apply discretionary effort

Innovation management – an approach to innovation of products, processes, or business models that encourages innovative ideas and also puts real support and resources behind development of the best of those ideas

Succession planning – a systematic process of recognizing future leaders and planning for replacement of existing leaders when they leave the organization

Transparency – the practice of “saying what you mean and meaning what you say” in business. It represents the lack of hidden agendas and commitment to honesty

Consensus Building: What Is It and Why Is It Crucial to Leadership?

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Absence of disagreement is not the same thing as consensus. Teams that are intimidated by their leadership may remain silent in the face of a horrendously bad decision by their boss, but that doesn’t mean there’s a consensus (beyond simply “not making waves”).

Just because everyone agrees doesn’t mean they agree for the right reasons. 

Consensus happens when divergent views are brought into the conversation with the outcome of shared goals. Not everyone will get what they first wanted, but the shared goals should meet all relevant interests of the stakeholders.

Executive leadership that values communication and knows how to listen is essential to consensus-building, and some leadership development programs include modules on the topic. There are advantages and disadvantages to consensus-building, and ways to do it to get results that move things forward.

Advantages of Consensus-Building

When true consensus-building takes place, participants agree up front to support the final decision – similar to when mediation is used. When it’s done correctly, participants will all see direct or indirect benefit. It can also result in a unified front, which can be important when, say, a team must make decisions that may not be popular with other teams.

Building consensus among varied stakeholders creates a sense of cohesiveness and a collaborative spirit, which are both important for acting on the decisions that have been made. The process itself attempts to understand different perspectives and solicit ideas from all involved, neither excluding nor condescending to any participants. Ultimately, everyone should feel that they had their say and were heard.

When Consensus-Building Goes Wrong

Perhaps the easiest way for consensus-building to go wrong is for people to make a show of stating their position and then agreeing to maintain the status quo. It’s undemanding and ensures the meeting is over with quickly.

Agreeing for the sake of ending a boring meeting isn’t the same as consensus. 

There are other ways that consensus-building can go wrong, however. Sometimes people don’t take the initiative, or indecisiveness limits progress. Sometimes people give answers that they think others (or their leaders) want to hear. And sometimes groups reach a decision and fail to make an actionable plan for carrying out the decision and its consequences.

And finally, there are occasions when a group is nominally charged with reaching consensus, but they know from past experience with their leaders what the “correct” consensus is, so no new ideas actually get introduced.

Third-Party Facilitators Are a Good Idea

One way that companies avoid stalled-out or ineffective consensus-building is by using a third-party facilitator (someone from a different department, or who is otherwise unaffected by the outcome) to assist in the conversation, lay out the ground rules, and keep the session on track. A facilitator can also help by ensuring that one or two vocal participants don’t drown out others’ contributions. The facilitator may take notes or may bring someone along whose sole purpose is to take notes.

With a facilitator, the cadence of talk, listen, decide can stay on course, and it is less likely that the session will come to an end without the group articulating and recording actionable next steps. And facilitators can be invaluable neutral parties when difficult or contentious issues arise.

Executive Leadership Still Necessary

Even in organizations with outstanding consensus-building performance, executive leadership is as necessary as in any other organization. Executive leadership that understands and supports consensus-building can gain buy-in for changes recommended by consensus groups and helps ensure that the efforts of such groups are not wasted.

Leadership coaching programs that discuss consensus-building or that train participants in the art of third-party facilitation of such efforts are well worthwhile. Consensus-building doesn’t mean there are no disagreements, or that risk has been eliminated, but it does make organizations more cohesive and united, and more likely to deliver on goals that have been developed with fairness and collaboration. If you want to learn more about effective executive leadership, I encourage you to check out my books as well as my speaking and training services. 

Performance Management: Why Honesty and Transparency are Mandatory

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Nobody really likes annual performance evaluations. They’re stressful for both giver and receiver, and leaders responsible for providing evaluations tend to think of them as a chore and a headache.

There are ways to make the evaluation process better and more productive for everyone.

Sometimes it’s enough of a problem that executive coaching is necessary so that top leaders can learn how to tackle this necessary task in ways that benefit everyone involved. Much is asked of both the reviewer and the reviewed, and performance evaluations that aren’t complete, honest, and timely tend to waste time and resources and leave people feeling drained rather than reinvigorated for the new performance period.

Here’s why honesty and transparency are indispensable to an effective performance evaluation program.

Dishonesty in Evaluations Harms the Organization

Dishonesty in performance evaluation usually falls into one of two categories: underrepresenting performance and overrepresenting performance. Both situations ultimately harm the organization.

Underrepresenting performance (i.e. telling people their performance is worse than it really is) causes people to adopt a “Why try?” attitude and can lead valuable employees to leave. Overrepresenting performance (i.e. telling people their performance is better than it really is) can lead some people to “coast” on past performance.

It can also lead to perceptions of “playing favorites” and can make discipline for later infractions tricky. “But you told me I was doing great work!” may be the employee’s answer to criticism.

Key Elements of Good Performance Evaluations

Here are four of the 10 key elements of good performance evaluations outlined in my book Talent Leadership: A Proven Method for Identifying and Developing High-Potential Employees:

  • Employee involvement – because performance objectives should be set with the input of the employee
  • Valid performance criteria – because employees should be evaluated based on criteria that determine success in their role
  • Year-round process – because employees need regular feedback to optimize their performance
  • Preparation – because both leaders and employees need to devote time to preparing for performance evaluations

Include the right elements in performance evaluation and you help your employees create concrete, mutually agreeable goals to work on.

When annual performance evaluations happen to fall during unexpectedly busy times, it’s all too easy for both evaluators and those being evaluated to give the process short shrift. Nonetheless, it’s important for all parties to take the necessary time to ensure that the effort that goes into performance evaluations isn’t wasted.

Leadership Coaching in Performance Evaluations 

Though team leaders don’t usually have “coaching” as a formal part of their responsibilities, basic coaching principles can be applied to help team members improve their performance and maintain good performance levels. Team leaders can apply the following coaching principles without taking on undue burden:

  • Describing what effective performance involves
  • Communicating the importance of effective performance
  • Listening to employee concerns and feedback
  • Offering to help with specific skills and goals
  • Thanking employees for their efforts to improve their performance, citing specific examples where it has worked

The principles of coaching aren’t just for executives undergoing executive coaching. They work for leaders at all levels – and particularly for leaders at the team level who are responsible for evaluating the performance of team members. While this type of leadership coaching is less formal and less intensive than the type of leadership coaching high-level executives engage in, it gets results that ripple outward throughout the organization.

Employee performance evaluations may be one of the less-liked aspects of professional life, but when they are done in an honest and timely manner, using specific, evidence-backed assessment, they can lead to better performance and achievement of goals. Don’t be tempted to tackle performance evaluations as a distraction or simply as a box that must be checked off. Put the proper effort into it, and it can be a prime learning endeavor for leaders and team members alike.

If you would like to learn more, I encourage you to check out my books, especially Talent Leadership: A Proven Method for Identifying and Developing High-Potential Employees, which goes into depth on the process of evaluating employees and coaching them to greater achievements.

How Leaders Can Cope with ‘Crab Mentality’ in the Workplace

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The status quo can be comforting. In fact, it can be so reassuring for things to remain the same that people will actively work to preserve the status quo, even when it goes against their best interests.

Sometimes people block out reality and cling to the status quo – even when it’s to their own long-term detriment.

So-called “crab mentality” is based on the concept of crabs in a bucket. Put a single crab into a bucket without a lid, and eventually, it will escape. But put multiple crabs in a bucket and you don’t even need a lid, because when one tries to escape, another will grab onto it and pull it back in.

In the workplace, crab mentality manifests in people who don’t like others excelling, and who will covertly or overtly do things to prevent that from happening. As you may guess, crab mentality is detrimental to a team or a business.

Why Does Crab Mentality Take Hold?

People are “wired” to find safety in numbers as a protective measure against predators. Our brains reward us with “happy” chemicals (oxytocin, dopamine) when we have social support, but give us “unhappy” chemicals (cortisol) when social support is threatened. And this feeling of being threatened can happen even when the network we want to “protect” is not an especially happy one.

In the workplace, people can be threatened by the success of their peers. What’s more, they can become rattled when a peer makes a breakthrough or discovers a way to raise their productivity, because this can make everyone else look worse by comparison. As a result, sometimes co-workers undermine others’ efforts, discourage innovation, or underplay others’ successes.

How Can Leaders Recognize Crab Mentality in Teams?

If your team has a chronic complainer, you will often find that person is mired in crab mentality. Some other signs that someone has fallen into crab mentality include:

  • Inordinate pride over their own accomplishments
  • Negative comments or attitudes when others succeed
  • All their positivity is designated for themselves, not others
  • They blame others for their failures, never themselves
  • They view colleagues as competition
  • They rarely or never show compassion
  • They’d rather talk about people than ideas or solutions

The “crabs” on your team have a hard time being happy for other people’s successes.

If overall team morale falls and there’s no obvious reason for it, explore the possibility that someone on the team is displaying crab mentality. Discreetly get to the bottom of it if it’s there, so you can fix the problem at its root.

What Can Leaders Do About Crab Mentality?

Recognizing crab mentality is the first step to addressing it. If there is evidence of this phenomenon on your team, trace the problem to its root. If you can identify the culprit, speak with them confidentially one on one to try to get to the bottom of the issue.

There are many other things you can do as a leader too. Sometimes rearranging or splitting teams works. Whatever tactics you use, make it clear to your team that crab mentality won’t be tolerated. Help your team members see the big picture, not the “bucket.” Make clear that success isn’t a zero-sum game where one person “winning” means that someone else has to “lose.” And set an example: call out others’ successes and show that you’re happy for them while addressing shortcomings in private, one on one.

Many leadership development programs help leaders recognize systemic problems like crab mentality and help leaders develop techniques to deal with it. Leadership coaching may also help leaders address issues like awareness of corporate culture, and how to identify problems before they can grow and become unwieldy.

Professional leadership coaching isn’t about teaching people how to lead but helping them unleash their potential and lead as effectively as possible. That’s hard to do when some team members try to hold everyone back. I encourage you to contact me if you would like to learn more about my leadership coaching services.

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