Wally Bock recently compared high flying CEOs to Icarus and provided three classic examples.

In case you’ve forgotten, Icarus’ wings melted when he flew too near the sun.

Icarus’s father warns him first of complacency and then of hubris, asking that he fly neither too low nor too high, so the sea’s dampness would not clog his wings or the sun’s heat melt them.

Unfortunately, both traits often find a home in founder MAP.

Hubris: extreme pride or self-confidence… Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one’s own competence, accomplishments or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a position of power.

Sound like anyone you know or have read about lately?

Complacency seems more unlikely in a hard charging founder.

While Wikipedia considers it synonymous with contentment, Merriam-Webster provides a more accurate and commonly accepted definition.

Complacency: self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies; an instance of usually unaware or uninformed self-satisfaction

That probably brings a number of people to mind.

The synonyms listed will surely clarify any questions you have, but what’s most interesting are the antonyms: humbleness, humility, modesty.

But here’s the real kicker. A new study finds that the most effective leaders by several different measures are those exhibiting the antonyms.

As you might expect, leaders who overestimated their own competence were the least effective. But the surprising finding was that leaders who underestimated their own competence were the most effective. Likewise, leaders who underestimated themselves had the most engaged employees.

Now you not only have a choice, you have enough information for it to be an informed choice.

Flickr image credit: Dan Moyle

How do you describe your culture?

Most bosses describe theirs as more positive and in more glowing terms than their people do.

Which makes sense, given that most people see their own actions in the best light and culture is a reflection-made-real of the boss’s own MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™).

Is it really a cause for concern if your team describes it differently, more negatively or as downright horrible, especially if their complaints seem nit-picking or sound more like whining to you?

Even if you see nothing wrong with it; even if it reflects most/all your previous managers, you had better pay attention to other opinions if you want to have a strong, productive, high retention/low turnover organization—whether team or the entire company.

Or, in the shortened version of what Douglas Adams so famously said, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it most likely is a duck.

Flickr image credit: USFWS Mountain Prairie

Consider this a Valentine message from me.

Last summer I wrote that the solution to having employees who care about their work and company was to look in the mirror, since their caring was a direct result of your management and the culture it engendered.

A few days ago Jeff Haden wrote in Inc. magazine about eight things people want that are a function of your MAP as opposed to your budget.

1. Freedom
2. Target
3. Mission
4. Expectations
5. Input
6. Connection
7. Consistency
8. Future

The words and explanations vary slightly, but this is the same advice I and dozens of other culture mavens have been saying for years.

Culture matters; it matters more than strategy, planning and even compensation.

Culture is your responsibility.

Culture is how you show you care.

Culture is you.

Whereas it’s barely possible to effectively live a personal lie, it just isn’t possible to propagate a culture based on one.

Not in ten lifetimes could you implement a culture that deviates from your basic values, your MAP, your essence.

You can provide what people crave, because you can change at any time you choose.

That’s the key, the choice is yours; it can’t be made for you by someone else or made by you because another desires it.

You can change, but only if you want to change.

Valentine’s Day is a good day to choose to start changing.

It won’t be easy; it will take more than a day; but it will take longer if you don’t start now.

Flickr image credit: AForestFrolic

Lot’s of talk about creating a culture of innovation, but often that’s all it is—talk.

The most important factor in a culture of innovation is the ability to fail.

India’s Tata is a leader in creating a culture of innovation and Sunil Sinha, an executive in Tata Quality Management Services, discussed its approach recently at Harvard.

Sinha described a culture of innovation at Tata that includes employee-awards programs for both successful and unsuccessful ideas. What’s important, Sinha said, is that employees feel comfortable in bringing forward ideas, even ones that don’t pan out, and that they feel they work in a place that values fresh thinking.

The innovation culture has produced several notable products, he said. One is a water purification system that costs just $20 and produces enough water to keep a family of four supplied for more than a year.

Not only that, but in 6 short years, from the time its CEO publicly mentioned the idea in 2003, Tata Motors produced a $2500 car for sale in developing worlds; it’s a small, two-cylinder car that gets 55 miles per gallon and meets all of India’s vehicle emissions and regulatory requirements.

Done in spite of all the global pundits who said it couldn’t be done.

I speak with managers all the time who talk about their desire to enable a culture of innovation and when it doesn’t happen, whether through laziness, benign neglect, or more active negativity, take no responsibility and place the blame squarely on their people.

A culture of innovation starts not in talk or even actions, but in MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) and its willingness to change.

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zedbee/103147140/ and Tata Motors

Are you familiar with the old sayings, “don’t trouble trouble unless trouble troubles you” or “don’t go looking for trouble?”

More and more often I hear from and about managers at all levels who seem to be making this attitude central to their management approach.

Not just managers, but workers, too, have absorbed the message into their MAP.

They tell me that they are so overloaded, so busy, with so many fires to fight, that they can only deal with what is actually happening.

They claim there is no time for preventatives; no time to “nip [whatever] in the bud.”

I tell them that if they made time to stamp out the sparks now they wouldn’t be fighting so many fires next week/month/year.

What about you?

Are you a firefighter or Smokey the Bear?

Flickr photo credit to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/billmcdavid/3840647521/

I had lunch with a guy friend this week and I almost threw my margarita at him, except that would be a waste of a good drink. Here’s what happened.

March is Women’s History Month and we had been talking about various women who had been written up in one place or another. “Rich” mentioned several he found very impressive; I asked if he ad ever read anything about Maya Angelou, because I like the way her mind works and she is wise.

Rich said he didn’t read poetry; he also reminded me that he wasn’t into sentimental stuff.

And that’s when I thought about throwing my drink, but my self-control held and instead I told him he was an idiot and to read today’s post.

Maya Angelou has a tough, practical side and I freely admit I connect with it more easily than what Rich calls the ‘sentimental stuff’—but above all, the woman is wise and it is that wisdom which draws people in and teaches almost anything you want to learn.

So, Rich, in honor of you and Women’s History Month read these and recognize real wisdom from a woman who can make words sing.

In these days of 24/7, totally wired living it’s important to take these words to heart, Making a living is not the same thing as making a life.

Someplace back in the Seventies the idea that life was a series of challenges that needed to be overcome took hold. I never could stand that attitude; my own approach is better summed up in Angelou’s words, You shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back…

Maya Angelou is a firm believer in the power of MAP, although she’s probably never heard of it; but I know it’s true because she said, If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.

That’s right, most of the time we try to change what’s outside and forget to change what’s inside, but, as this wise lady tells us, Nothing will work unless you do.

Even for Rich I can’t leave out two of Angelou’s statements that are deep life lessons; absorb them into your MAP and I can guarantee you will reap the rewards long after you’ve forgotten the source.

The first to remember is this, People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

And finally, real wisdom, the kind you don’t hear very often, Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

I wish you many breathless moments in your life.

Image credit: adria.richards on flickr

Is there someone in your world who you consider your leader?

Think about it. Whether at work or in your personal life, do you follow this person’s lead?

Do you follow because of their title/position or because you trust their judgment?

Do you follow blindly because you share an ideology or do you think beyond the words and consider MAP and motivation?

Do you question, suggest, discuss, offer up your ideas and thoughts?

If not, why not?

If so, does this person welcome the input?

Or does she, by word or action, tell you to keep quiet, keep your head down, stop making waves and follow?

If so, what do you do?

Image credit: lumaxart on flickr

Last Monday I laid out a do-it-yourself plan for mangers to juice growth among their people. Beth Miller asked why I didn’t include coaching; I responded that I believed that line managers needed to take responsibility for professional development, especially in the current economic climate.

Beth asked,“So what holds back managers from coaching?”

My response is what I want to focus on today.

“I think it’s partly language. I know a number of managers who have implemented what I described in the post, do a terrific job developing their people, but don’t consider any of it coaching or even mentoring. One even scoffs at “coaching,” yet he’s known for building his people.

In working with my MAP coaching I’ve found that what holds many managers back is terminology. If they relate to the descriptive terms there’s no problem, but if they don’t relate they can’t implement what they’ve learned. I change the language and bingo, they take off like a rocket.”

People are far more word-sensitive than most realize. They’re more aware of it in politics, religion and advertising, but less so in general business, even less when talking to their team and it’s almost non-existent when it comes to their own ‘hearing’.

The nice thing, as I said, is that it’s an easy fix once you notice. Noticing is easy, too. Just keep an eye out for a blank look when you’re talking. It’s that look of incomprehension that is the key to repeating, but in different words. There’s nothing that drives people nuts faster than having the same thing repeated over and over; if it wasn’t understood the first time repeating it or saying louder isn’t going to help.

And don’t start the change with ‘what I mean is…’, because many people will tune out at that point focusing on figuring out what you already said.

Instead, wait a bit (depending on context) and then present your thought from a different angle or change the phrasing of the thought that accompanied the blank look.

This isn’t about dumbing down what you say (or write); it’s about presenting it in a wholy different way; a way that the other person can hear.

The manager mentioned above detested the word ‘coach’ as some touch-feely new-age notion, nor was he enthralled with the term ‘mentor’.

To him, he was just doing what any manager worth a damn did—make sure that his people developed new skills and used the ones they had fully to the benefit of both the company and themselves.

As he once said to me, “developing people is part of a manager’s job, not something extra“—and his employer paid him to manage.

Gee, if I could bottle his MAP I could probably retire.

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Image credit: YOdesigner on sxc.hu

The world is full of acronyms and many are part of corporate culture, but all acronyms are not created equal.

Many are benign, as in executive titles,

• CEO – Chief Executive Officer, COO – Chief Operating Officer, CFO – Chief Financial Officer, CTO – Chief Technology Officer;

or defining the legal entity,

• DBA – Doing Business As, LLC – Limited Liability Company, LLP – Limited Liability Partnership;

or general business terms,

• COB – Close Of Business, COGS – Cost of Goods Sold, PL – Profit and Loss, PO – Purchase Order, QA – Quality Assurance, QC – Quality Control;

or oriented to customers,

• CRM – Client Relationship Management, CSR – Customer Service Rep.

And, of course, the hundreds that are used in the technology world.

Common acronyms or those used within a particular industry are relatively harmless, as long as they’re used sensibly and not to confuse—people who overuse acronyms are PIBs (pain in butt).

There are acronyms that identify dysfunctional people, the ones that aren’t pulling their weight because they’re using,

• OPT – Other People’s Time, OPR – Other People’s Resources, OPM – Other People’s Money.

Then there are the ones that identify actions and MAP that spell big trouble for any culture and need to be eradicated immediately.

• NIMBY – Not In My Back Yard
• NIH – Not Invented Here
• WAM – What About Me
• WIIFM –  What’s In It For Me

NIMBY thinking can stifle innovation when it causes discomfort to an individual, group or even division under the corporate umbrella.

NIH also stifles innovation by blinding people to events and new products produced by the competition or other changes in the marketplace.

WAM is different than WIIFM. WAM is usually in response to something good happening to another person; it may be as minor as a compliment from the boss or as substantial as a raise or promotion, whereas WIIFM is the desire to know what personal benefits accrue in return for doing what’s asked. WIIFM isn’t always bad; it can be put to good use by channeling it into positive VSI.

What about your workplace? What acronyms do you hear? Which do you use?

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One of the hardest things that growing companies face is the need to stop shooting from the hip.

I hear the reasons not to all the time, from startups, small biz, entrepreneurs, et al:

• It will ruin our culture.
• It stifles creativity. It’s for larger companies.
• It’s bureaucratic. It’s too time consuming.

“It” refers to the underpinnings of all successful companies. “It” includes the following in order of importance:

• Financial controls that include
  • monthly statements of revenues by product;
  • discounts;
  • costs by department;
  • cost of goods sold;
  • inventory;
  • receivables aging;
  • stock issuance;
  • cash flow;
  • manufacturing yields;
  • hiring by department
• Annual operating plan covering the above financial measures
• Organization charts and definitions of responsibilities
• Hiring process
• Long-term planning
• Centralized information technology implementation and planning

Whether it’s just you, or one, ten, fifty, or more employees, whether full time, part time or virtual, you need viable processes to keep you focused—think of it as coloring inside the lines.

Everything on this list can, and should, be scaled for applicability, but all are important to every business endeavor.

Those that don’t directly apply may be tweaked, e.g., manufacturing yields can change to productivity measures; a very few, such as “stock issuance” may be completely discarded if the action is truly warranted.

Sure, they can’t all be implemented at once, but none of them will happen as long as your MAP rejects or begrudges them—after all, you’re the boss (CEO/president/managing partner/owner) and people will follow your lead.

Finally, don’t confuse process with bureaucracy. Process is like MAP, it gets you where you want to go, whereas bureaucracy stifles whatever it touches; process, like MAP, is ever-growing, while bureaucracy is carved in stone.

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Image credit: flickr