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Good morning fellow leaders and influencers. It is a lovely morning here in Vancouver, and I hope it is for you, wherever you are.
At lunch last week with a friend and sometime colleague Stephanie Sharp http://www.ferax.ca/ I was re-introduced to a her passion for neuro-leadership. Neuro-leadership is the study and application of the brain and brain research on leadership. The results are really quite compelling and challenging. For example, most if not all of our assumptions in economic theory that humans are rational beings have been completely eradicated by this research in the last decade. One of the places where this work is being explored is in Australia. (Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!) The work of David Rock is just one example. http://www.scarf360.com/index.shtml (There’s a video in this link that is fascinating and about 8 minutes long)
Rock has complied the most recent brain research and rethought motivation models, developing what he calls the SCARF model. Like many other models , SCARF is an acronym, broken down as follows:
Status – how we relate to the people around us; so that when we experience a drop in status the brain lights up like we were experiencing physical pain, and when we experience an increase in status, our brain lights up like we were being rewarded. When we receive negative feedback, our status is threatened and therefore we will fight back. When we provide our team members opportunities to give themselves feedback, to answer questions for themelves about their own performance, we actually increase their status. People experiencing higher status will work to keep that status.
Certainty – The brain is a “certainty creating machine” according to Rock. It is always trying to predict what is going on. The clearer we can be as managers and leaders with our expectations of performance and results, the more ‘certain’ people will be, and the more likely they will be to move towards that certainty. On the flip side, ensuring that people know that there certainly are ambiguous times ahead, the more comfortable they will be in those times.
Autonomy – When we are in a stressful situation, for example an ambiguous situation, and we find that we have little or no autonomy or control, we exacerbate our stress level. The more autonomy our brain experiences, the less the stress level we experience. The more choices I have, the more autonomous I believe I am.
Relatedness – Our brains are wired to see people we don’t know as a ‘threat’. That threat alarm will be reduced dramatically if we simply engage in a short conversation with them; they become, to our brains, ‘like us’. So for example, in a country like Canada, or Australia, where there are people from around the world working in the same office, if we don’t actually speak to each other, we will continue to view ‘the other’ as a threat. Bring people together for meetings and give them opportunities to speak with each other, to share experience and knowledge and the threat (and the concomitant implications) will dissipate.
Fairness – A fair exchange will activate the reward lights in the brain, an unfair exchange will activate the threat lights in the brain. This means that as leaders and influencers we need to be fair and transparent. (I can also suggest this very important article from HBR; http://hbr.org/2003/01/fair-process-managing-in-the-knowledge-economy/ with which to explore this important concept of ‘fairness’) The more fair I am as a leader, the more likely the people with whom I work will work more effectively with and for me. That is how our brains function.
And by applying the SCARF model to our work as leaders and influencers, we can help build and enhance our workplaces. I’m curious about what you think about this model?
Good morning fellow leaders and influencers. It is a lovely morning here in Vancouver, and I hope it is for you, wherever you are.
A correspondent in our Leadership Notes group raised an interesting question in response to last week’s edition where we explored self awareness using the example of a friend apparently blocked from her ‘busy’ path by someone moving at a slower pace. Our correspondent wrote, “The issue here, I guess, is the differentiation of self-importance from justifiable mission, from appropriate standards of service and responses to inadequacies….” First of all, thanks for a great question.
This is a balance game. On the one hand there is the ego with which we all live. I recall for example, a bad influenza epidemic here in this part of the world where the Health Authorities gave priority to the elderly, infants and people with chronic diseases, in short the most vulnerable. One of these folks, a friend of mine, was at the local health clinics and two very healthy men were there, justifying their presence on the grounds that the organizations for which they worked needed their presence. I suggest one of the very first leadership lessons, and perhaps the most difficult is that, “we’ll miss you when you’re gone, but we will survive quite well without you, thanks.” On the other hand, the organizations for which we work have a mission, and as leaders we are tasked with moving people on that mission. It’s why we hold ourselves and each other accountable; it may be for example that it is really important that certain employees be at their workstation, ready to work at a particular time. If someone comes in late for the 3rd time this week, my ego may be involved, but more important is the need to ensure that the standards are being met by the particular employee. It will be important to be as self aware as possible so that I maintain my composure, and that I work towards building and enhancing the relationship I have with that employee, but it is my job to ensure the standards are being met.
How do I find this balance between ego and mission? Some years ago Don Miguel Ruiz wrote a wonderful little book called The Four Agreements. http://www.amazon.ca/The-Four-Agreements-Practical-Personal/dp/1878424319
These Four Agreements help in many ways, and especially in finding a conscious balance between ego and mission. They are;
Be Impeccable with Your Word; and you’ll find holding yourself and others accountable is easier….
Don't Take Anything Personally; and you’ll find your ego sounds off less….
Don't Make Assumptions; find out the story from the person, don’t make up your own and your ego has less of a chance to write it’s version of events…
Always Do Your Best; and then you’re able to lead by example, and gain people’s commitment far more easily…
Thanks for your comments any questions, they are always welcome. And may this week be a place of balance between ego and mission for us all.
Good afternoon fellow leaders and influencers. I hope it is as warm and sunny a day for you as it is for me, inside and out.
I had the wonderful pleasure this weekend of seeing Hamlet with a great friend at Bard of the Beach http://www.bardonthebeach.org/ and I loved every second of it! I was reminded of just how powerful a doorway the arts and story are to our understanding of what it means to be human.
And over brunch on Sunday a friend shared a story that caught my ear in the midst of my Shakespearean reflections. On a very busy day she had a number of business errands to run between meetings, including a stop at the post office. She was thrilled to find a parking metre with about 10 minutes left almost right in front of the post office. This was a bit of good luck in the midst of a very scheduled and hectic day. She literally ran in to the post office and in the line up in front of her was an elderly woman. She was moving quite slowly and ‘chatting’, looking into her change purse for just the right change, and rummaging around in her bag filled with knitting. My friend was getting quite frustrated as the parking metre was ticking down, not to mention the next appointments looming. The story playing in her head was all about how this little old woman was in her way and attaching blame on the woman for holding up her work. And being a professional coach herself she started to ask herself what all of this frustration and blame was actually doing? How was it getting her anywhere, how was it making a difference for her and for the people around her? And suddenly she simply asked the woman, “what are you knitting?”
The woman was thrilled and told her of the shawl she was making, and the two of them became fast friends. In a moment or two it seemed it was her turn at the counter, and having said ‘so long’ to the knitting lady got back to her car only a minute or two late, and the rest of her day went much more smoothly.
What I take from this story, and in fact from my whole weekend, is that I do have a choice. Really bad things happen to us, and sometimes like for Hamlet, they are almost unbearable. And I still have a choice. In fact Polonius says to his son Horatio early in the play, “to thine own self be true.” And at some level, Hamlet is being true to his dead father and not to himself, and the result is disaster for pretty much everyone around him, including Polonius and Horatio. By being true to herself and checking in with herself about where the frustration and blame were coming from and what they might mean my friend was able to change her script and the result was a much happier ending. In fact we are at our best as humans and especially as leaders when we are able to be true to ourselves, to know enough about ourselves that we can change the script.
And of course my friend’s question is a wonderful one for us all on so many levels, what are you ‘knitting’?
Good morning fellow leaders and influencers. I hope it is as wonderful a day for you as it is for me!
I’ve been thinking about ‘other’ in recent days. In philosophical and theological circles ‘other’ refers to ‘the other’ from the subject’s viewpoint. So for example, a few years ago, working in Accra in Ghana on a gig, when I walked through a market place or down the street, as a white, Anglo Saxon male who clearly didn’t live here, I was definitely ‘other’. Think, ‘a stranger in a strange land’. We all have any number of ‘others’; people who are so different from us that we find them literally remarkable, we remark about them. Sitting in this lounge with me right now are people who are other gendered, other linguistically, other weight, other status, other ages, other ancestry to me. There are then billions of possible ‘others’ for us; and therefore billions and billions of implications, some positive and some negative. We tend, for example, to fall in love with an ‘other’, someone who is quite different from us. And we tend to act with prejudice with ‘other’ as well; sexism, racism and homophobia being only three of the social issues we face in this place and time based on our view of ‘other’. A fundamental danger is when the ‘other’ becomes an ‘object’ to our ‘subject.’ In the same way that people are often objectified sexually because of their physical appearance, I was objectified as ‘money’ in the markets of Accra. Few people in the markets there were interested in me as a person, I was an object, and I was objectifying them at some level at first as “poor people.”
And ‘other’ figures prominently in our work as leaders. The best teams we know are made up of ‘others’; we need different ways of thinking, different ways of being. And it is with the other that workplace conflicts often fester. For example, the person who doesn’t work in the same way you do is then ‘othered’ by your judgement that they then don’t work as hard as you. And of course when we ‘other’, we can run the risk of objectifying other people, other subjects. People who work with our technology and systems become IT, and often literally ‘its’. HR becomes an object, Accounting becomes an object, to offer two groups of people who are often perceived not as people, but as barriers. Now, it is clear that we use these acronyms to be efficient in our language, or almost as collective nouns, and there is an innocence at heart here.
That said, there is a simple and powerful tool to lessen the chances of prejudices, judgements, language efficiency or collective descriptions becoming ways of objectifying people; know and use people’s names. It s simple but profound shift. That nerdy so and so from IT becomes Charles. That bureaucratic so and so from HR becomes Roberta. That anal retentive so and so from accounting becomes Astrid. Watch your use of object like language, even in fun, it robs other people, even just a little, of their inherent subjectivity. (And I’m still learning, way too many people who know me hear me use “buddy” or “pal” when talking to them too often!) I’ve found it relatively simple though to do two things to improve my name recollection. First, introduce myself, especially if I am joining a group with a colleague. I don’t leave the introductions up to him or her, I introduce myself, that way I can use the names of the people I’m meeting right away, and the added side benefit of helping out my colleague who may be thinking, “what are their names?!” And I use the names of the people I meet a couple of times; it doesn’t guarantee I’ll remember two weeks later, but it helps. Second, I pay very careful attention to people’s names being used in groups; I keep a little mnemonic note to myself; Julie has jewels, Jack is tall like a beanstalk, Elizabeth is regal, that kind of thing. It doesn’t always work, but it does help. And very importantly, if I’m trying to remember people’s names I’m working on treating them as a subject, not as an object and our conversations will always be healthier and more productive.
May this week we treat ourselves and our teams as subjects not objects.
Good morning fellow leaders and influencers. I hope it is as fresh a day for you as it is for me!
I had the honour and pleasure of participating in an ordination yesterday afternoon. As we all applauded the newly vested clergy, I was thinking about how much work, courage and focus had gone into making this happen, not just for the ordinands, but for the people they served, their families and friends, in fact the whole community. I was reminded of the African Proverb, “it takes a village to raise of child.’’ It got me thinking, does it take a community to raise a leader? And if so, if we have a ‘bad’ leader, what is our role in his/her failings?
One of the lessons from my own journey to ordained life was how long it took. It took about 4.5 years from the first inklings that I might be an ordained leader, to my ordination. In those 4.5 years were the better part of 4 years of graduate education, and at the same time, a couple of small groups who met with me separately over the course of the first two years, as well as interview sessions with senior people, and the careful guidance of mentors, both formally and informally. One of the interesting aspects of those 4.5 years was the number of points where there was what we called a “green light/red light” moment. The small groups for example, both had to write reports that said they either affirmed my journey or not. The same thing happened with the interviews and the mentors. The journey to leadership was one where the community, the other leaders and the people I serve all had a say. Even the ordination service itself had questions of the senior leaders, the community and the ordinands themselves; were we each affirming that these two individuals were now to be leaders in our community, and recognized worldwide by other similar communities as such.
That is not to say that the leadership development process used here is fool-proof, mistakes do happen, but it appears the mistakes were made when someone or a group of people had noticed an issue very early in the process and chose not to ask about it, or give a green light so as not to hurt the candidate’s feelings.
So for us as leaders and influencers right now, and for those of us tasked with the development of the next generation of leaders, what are the processes we are using not just to develop our academic and technical skills, but to ensure that the community (the organization) we serve is involved in the process of selection and learning as well.
There are a number of possible directions we can take to ensure more involvement from a broader base; 360 Feedback processes (as challenging as they can be), asking for feedback in person from the people we serve, including questions like what can I do more of to make this relationship work and what can I do less of to make this relationship work? These processes take a great deal of courage, but over time they are so beneficial for us and for the team. And if you’re looking to hire a new leader, a great tool I’ve seen used to great effect is called the ‘Receptionist Test’. Make sure that there is a receptionist in the waiting room for the candidates, and then ask him or her for their thoughts on each of the candidates. Receptionist like roles can be seen by many as “lower” level jobs and therefore can be treated sometimes rudely by people. Generally, the best leaders treat everyone them meet with interest, curiousity and respect. If the receptionist is treated that way by a candidate that can be an indicator that you have a great person in that candidate. If the receptionist is treated poorly by a candidate, that will be an indicator that they will not be a great people leader.
May this week be a week of courage and learning about how we are perceived by those whom we serve.
Good morning fellow leaders and influencers. I hope it is a beautiful day inside and out today!
My office window looks out over a little deck and a gate to the street. Between about 8:30 and 9:00 am I am treated to the sounds of children’s voices as kids and some parents walk to and fro headed to the various schools in the neighbourhood. My neighbourhood has at least three schools within a few blocks; a public elementary school, a Jewish girls highschool and a French elementary school. What struck me this morning was the wide range of emotions about going to school in the kids that walked by the gate. One of the first was a young boy, his backpack about the size of his entire back. He was leaning forward and marching, he was on a mission. And a few minutes later, a Dad, on the other side of the street cajoling his two young daughters along; neither one of whom was particularly interested in getting to school, it seemed to me. He finally got them moving by saying, “if we go home, neither one of you will be going outside at all today!”
We are an amazing species eh?! How many of us have experienced the same excitement, or the same hesitation about a project, or even, going to work! I’m often reminded of the brilliant short 1979 film from the National Film Board of Canada, called getting started. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7yiHiDDyQc . (It’s about 9 minutes long) The premise is a pianist getting started to rehearse. One of my favorite moments is when he sits down, moves the piano stool up to the piano, and then takes out a measuring tape to ensure it, and he, are in the exact position before he can begin! And that’s in the first minute or so, it just gets funnier from there! All of this to say, as leaders, we are being watched; people notice our excitement, people notice our hesitation, people notice if we’re not really engaged, or wish we were somewhere else.
As I’ve mentioned before in these notes, my friend (and brother-in-law) Paul Alofs wrote a very good book published last year, called Passion Capital. http://www.amazon.ca/Passion-Capital-Worlds-Valuable-Asset/dp/0771007477 As the subtitle names it, our passion is our greatest asset. The young man with the heavy backpack who walked by my front gate this morning was breathing passion. The two young woman were breathing a different passion, a passion for play and a beautiful day outside. When I am passionate about something, almost nothing will keep me from it. One of the keys to this kind of passion is from the old idea of vocation: that is what I am called to do, or even, who am I called to be? The place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet, to borrow from Fredirick Buechner. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Buechner
I believe that we who are leaders have a responsibility to be true to our deepest selves. We have a responsibility to be working passionately on and through our vocation, and not just, doing a job. If you are just doing a job, imagine what you could do, imagine who you could be, imagine what an amazing difference you could make if you were in fact living into your vocation; where whatever it is that makes you happy, meets the world’s deep hunger.
May this week, we find ourselves a little closer to marching to school, even with a heavy backpack, or even learning about life in the midst of a beautiful day.