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Do You Lead Your Organization To Meet Or Exceed Expectations?

Tanveer Naseer — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:00:59 +0000

If you had to save something from a neighbour’s house that was on fire, what would you retrieve to help them out – one of their prized possessions or a coat?

For most of us, the answer is obvious since we view this scenario in terms of what we’d like others to help us save when faced with the risk of losing our home to a fire. However, as revealed in a story shared by Mark Bezos, sometimes these assumptions can obscure our vision of what’s really needed by those we’re trying to help.

During the work week, Mark heads the Development and Communications department at the non-profit organization, Robin Hood, but in his off-hours, he also serves as the assistant captain for a volunteer fire company which provides support to the town’s fire department.

As Mark points out, when you’re a volunteer firefighter, you have to get to the fire scene as soon as you can if you’re to have any chance “to get in on any action” and he certainly managed to get himself an interesting piece of that at his first fire scene.

When Mark arrived at the scene of this particular fire, he found the fire chief talking with a woman standing under an umbrella wearing pyjamas and no shoes, someone he’d later find out was the owner of the burning house. Before he could reach the fire chief to offer his assistance, another volunteer firefighter approached the fire chief and was given the task of saving the woman’s dog. When Mark got to the fire chief and asked what he could do to help, the fire chief looked at Mark and told him he needed Mark to go into the house to get the homeowner a pair of shoes.

Mark and the other volunteer firefighter went into the burning house and searched for the items they were told to locate. As they exited from the house, the other volunteer firefighter understandably received all the attention as he handed the saved dog to the homeowner while Mark gave the woman the pair of shoes he ‘rescued’ from the flames.

A few weeks after the fire, the fire department received a letter from the homeowner in which she expressed her gratitude to the firefighters for their work in trying to save her home. In her letter, the homeowner also made a point of expressing her appreciation for something she hadn’t expected – that one of the firefighters had thought to go into that burning house to get her a pair of shoes so that – on one of the worst days of her life – she at least wouldn’t have to stand barefoot on the cold, wet pavement.

Certainly, Mark’s story is a great example of how all of us have the ability to make a difference to those around us through gestures which, while seemingly simple and ordinary, can end up being the most meaningful. His story also serves to illustrate the impact we can create when we strive to exceed the expectations of those we serve.

To ascertain whether your organization is meeting or exceeding expectations, here are three questions you should consider.

1. What do your employees expect from their leaders?
Over the course of the past decade, one theme that’s become a growing reality in business is that the old command-and-control style of leadership is becoming less and less effective in fostering thriving workplace environments. Indeed, it’s becoming clear that leadership is shifting more towards a function that is defined by those who would be served by the leader than it is by those who elect to fill these positions.

This is why we’re hearing more about fostering collaborative and team environments as being critical to an organization’s success, as employees no longer require leaders to tell them how to do their jobs. Instead, what’s required are leaders who can inform employees as to why their contribution matters in the context of their organization’s shared purpose.

When the fire chief told Mark to go into the burning house to retrieve a pair of shoes, he wasn’t concerned about whether Mark would question the assignment because the fire chief knew his team was expecting him to guide them in helping this homeowner in her time of need. The letter the woman wrote to the fire department weeks after the incident demonstrates that the fire chief not only fulfilled that expectation, he exceeded it by giving Mark an opportunity to make a difference in the life of someone he wanted to help.

2. What do you expect from your team?
When it comes to handing out assignments or tasks, it’s understood that leaders need to provide their team with clear directions on what to do and when. But if you want your team to go beyond simply completing the minimum requirements of their job, you need to communicate and describe to your team what it would look like to achieve greatness as an organization.

Looking at Mark’s story about his first fire, we can see that the fire chief made it clear to his team that a successful outcome for their collective efforts was not simply putting out fires with minimal damage and loss of life. Rather, he expected them to go beyond that in doing whatever they could – no matter how small or trivial – to lessen the pain and fear people grapple with when faced with these circumstances.

By assigning Mark the task of retrieving a pair of shoes for this woman, the fire chief modelled the behaviour he wanted to see in his team. Namely, that despite the numerous logistics and issues he had to manage on-site, he never lost sight of the importance of taking measures to provide some form of comfort and assurance to the frightened homeowner standing next to him.

Remember, everyone has their own understanding and perception of what it means to be successful. As the leader of your team or organization, it’s important that you regularly communicate to your employees what success looks like for your organization. This way, they will not only have a clear vision of what they need to do to achieve success as a team, they will also be empowered to contemplate ways of how they can exceed those expectations.

3. What do your customers expect from your organization?
If we look at Mark’s story from the vantage point of an organization providing a service to their customer base, it’s easy to see that what this woman expected from this team of firefighters is to do whatever they could to save her home and her dog. And yet, it’s clear from the decisions made by the fire chief that he saw an opportunity for his team to do more than that in an effort to ease the pain, confusion and fear homeowners undoubtedly have whenever they call his team for help.

Indeed, the fact that this homeowner expressed her appreciation for Mark’s contribution of retrieving a pair of shoes for her to wear affirms the fire chief’s vision for his department – that they have the ability to do more to help those they serve, even if it might seem trivial or insignificant at that moment.

Through simple actions and orders like the one he gave Mark, this fire chief demonstrated not only his awareness of the expectations his community has for his team, but of how they can exceed them in a manner that’s meaningful both to his team and their community.

The fire chief’s actions also illustrate how organizations can exceed the expectations of those they serve by developing an understanding and awareness of the challenges their customers face and what measures they can put into action to improve those conditions.

There’s no question that, in light of the growing challenges and opportunities found in an increasingly global market, aiming for average or ‘good enough’ simply won’t cut it anymore; that we need to commit our talents, our resources and ourselves to something greater and more meaningful if we are to remain competitive and relevant.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we need to develop some bold new vision for the future of our organization. Indeed, as Mark’s story so eloquently illustrates, the ability to attain some measure of meaningful success is not dependent solely on our ability to reach some shiny, bright milestone. Instead, it can come from simply shifting our focus towards those little details that we’d otherwise brush aside, gleaning from them some insights on how we can start today to foster a sense of purpose and meaning in what we do.

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3 Leadership Lessons To Keep Your Organization From Running Aground

Tanveer Naseer — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:00:57 +0000

As a leader, one thing you must be vigilant about is keeping an eye out for any process or culture creep which might lead to complacency or a disconnect with the present-day realities found just outside your office walls. While there are many examples in today’s headlines of organizations which have drifted so far off-course that it’s hard to see a viable turnaround in their near future, few illustrate the risks and fallout from such situations as the ensuing drama around the capsizing of the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the coast of Italy.

In the piece “Seven Tips for Becoming a Better Boss”, leaders from several organizations which were recently recognized as being one of the “Best Small Workplaces of 2011” share what they found to be the key steps which were behind their organization’s success and positive workplace environment.

In light of the actions of the Costa Concordia captain and his superiors, this piece ironically also reveals how the current culture and workplace attitudes at Costa Cruises set into motion actions which not only lead to this fatal maritime disaster, but which also played a role in defining how their employees responded to this crisis.

Consider, for example, the following three lessons these leaders ascribe as being key to their collective success as an organization, and how the Costa Cruises leadership’s failure to do the same has now cast some serious doubt about the future viability of their organization.

1. Put your organizational values front and center by holding everyone accountable to them
“Hold everyone accountable to your core beliefs and values, including you. No ‘license to kill’ is allowed no matter how much money someone brings into your business. Otherwise, a double standard develops which will derail the creation of a great workplace.” – CEO Jim Rashe, Kahler Slater

2. A leader must exemplify the behaviour they want to see in those they lead
“In order to build a great workplace, you must first build yourself by gaining a deep understanding of your strengths and weaknesses as a leader, and you must completely commit to developing yourself into the best leader and person you can be. At the same time, you must hire outstanding people who are as committed as you are to build a great workplace.” – Robert Pasin, Chief Wagon Officer, Radio Flyer

3. Inform your employees how their actions connect to your organization’s vision
“It’s said that eight out of 10 people come to work in the morning wanting to make a difference, but by lunch it’s down to four. That’s usually a result of the environment more than anything, not just the physical but the interpersonal. Lead your employees with a clear vision, support them with adequate resources, and possibly most important — reward them for treating others with respect. Motivate everyone in a positive, constructive way, and your biggest problem will be having to build more office space sooner than you thought!” – CEO Tim Hohmann, AutomationDirect

As much as the Costa Concordia will be remembered because of the captain’s cowardice and lack of ethics, the lessons shared in “Seven Tips for Becoming a Better Boss” also demonstrate how this tragedy can serve as an example of what happens when we fail to honour and respect the obligations and responsibilities that comes with leadership.

Disclaimer: My blog is a part of an online influencer network for Business on Main. I receive monthly incentives to share my views on content I find noteworthy and relevant for my audience.

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Leadership Biz Cafe Podcast #5 – Marlene Chism on Stopping Workplace Drama

Tanveer Naseer — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:00:24 +0000

How do we stop or curb drama in the workplace? That’s the basis of the conversation I had with Marlene Chism in the fifth episode of my leadership podcast series, “Leadership Biz Cafe”.

Marlene is a speaker, author and founder of The Stop Your Drama Methodology, an eight-part empowerment process to increase clarity and improve productivity and personal effectiveness. Marlene has a master’s degree in HR Development from Webster University and is the author of “Success is a Given: Reading the Signs While Reinventing Your Life”, as well as recently published “Stop Workplace Drama – Train Your Team to Have No Complaints, No Excuses and No Regrets”

Over the course of our conversation about how to manage workplace drama, Marlene and I discuss the following:

Learning to appreciate the difference between the drama that arises at work and the drama that comes out from your reaction to that situation.
How a lack of clarity leads to workplace conflict and what we can do to regain clarity when our perspective about what’s going on around us becomes obscured.
How to identify the gap between your goals and where your team is and the relationship this gap has in creating drama in the workplace.
Why we need to take responsibility for what we can control in order to resolve workplace conflict.
That workplace drama in itself isn’t the real problem; that it’s something more personal and more within our control that we can address.

As I mentioned at the end of the show, I’d love to hear what you think about this episode, as well as what other topics you’d be interested in hearing more about in upcoming episodes of my show. You can share your thoughts/ideas by leaving a comment below or by filling out the contact form on my website.

Click on the player below to listen to the podcast:

[Visit my website to listen to this podcast]

Noteworthy links:
Buy Marlene Chism’s book “Stop Workplace Drama – Train Your Team to Have No Complaints, No Excuses and No Regrets” on Amazon.com (or Amazon.ca for Canadian readers)

To learn more about Marlene’s Stop Your Drama Methodology, visit her website at www.stopworkplacedrama.com; you can also check out Marlene’s personal website at www.marlenechism.com.

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Have You Tied Your Organization’s Goals To Your Noble Cause?

Tanveer Naseer — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:00:25 +0000

Why do the goals that you’ve set out for your team to accomplish matter?

At first, the answer to this question might seem obvious – the goals you’ve established are meant to ensure your organization’s continued profitability, to increase or sustain your market share, create a new demand for your products or services, and so forth.

And yet, if we examine this answer closer, it becomes clear that the measures above are merely the outcomes of your organization’s shared efforts and not the real driving force which motivates your employees to contribute their full talents and abilities. For that, employees require something deeper and more meaningful – a noble cause which they are internally driven to rally around and bring to fruition.

Our noble cause is that shared purpose that allows us to move past focusing only on the ‘how’ and seeking to answer the ‘why’, fostering a deeper sense of meaning in what we do and an understanding of how our efforts can impact others beyond our office walls.

It’s the reason why some companies have managed to thrive and expand their market base despite the uncertainties present in today’s global economy, because they’re not simply reacting to what’s going on around them. Instead, their efforts are based upon a reflection of how to respond to current conditions in a manner that holds them on course to their shared purpose.

And it’s thanks to this kind of focus that these organizations are successful, not just in terms of various industry or financial benchmarks, but in how their employees have taken ownership of the collective efforts and accomplishments being made by their organization.

So how can you make sure the goals you’ve set out for your organization are aligned with your noble cause? Here are three key guideposts to help you evaluate whether you’re staying on track or shifting off-course from your shared purpose.

1. Is your focus solely on how to achieve goals and not addressing why they matter?
While most of us understand that a key element to achieving a goal is being able to devise and implement a plan for how we can reach it, few of us spend time communicating to our team the message of how these goals serve to fulfill our shared purpose. This is no doubt why we’re seeing this growing myopia on short-term goals/forecasts as from this vantage point, the ‘how’ becomes easier to focus on than the ‘why’.

It’s thanks to this short-term focus that we’re seeing a rise in both workplace stress and employee disengagement because employees lack the context and deeper understanding of how their collective contributions tie into an organization’s long-term vision.

By including an understanding of how these goals will serve to guide your team towards achieving your shared purpose, you will not only be able to fully engage employees in the process, but you will also be providing them with the context of how to address the challenges they will inevitably face by changing their approach, and not their destination.

2. Do you set goals mostly in response to what your competition is doing?
When it comes to the ability to create unique offerings or services, few companies can match the success and reputation garnered by such companies as Amazon, Zappos, and Apple. Of course, the factors behind their success are not the result of their responding to challenges made in their niche by their competition. Rather, their success is a result of their setting goals that would help them to achieve what they envisioned for their organization, regardless of what their competition opted to do under the same market conditions.

Indeed, if we look at many of the iconic brands which are now struggling to stay alive, one common fault they all share is their inability or unwillingness to commit to and communicate clear goals of what they wanted to accomplish – irrespective of what their competition was trying to do – to ensure they continued to fulfill their shared purpose.

Their current fate serves as a warning for others of what happens when you create goals in response to what your competition is doing, instead of determining what you alone could offer to your customer base in light of the changing market conditions.

3. Have you defined for your team what success means for your organization?
In most cases, when we define success, we tend to rely on market-based metrics such as profits earned, market share and so forth. While these measures are important for your organization in terms of understanding your continued viability and future growth, it’s important to remember that for your employees, these are simply the outcomes from their shared contributions and not a measure by which they will feel any particular level of success or accomplishment.

To illustrate what I mean, let’s say we randomly select 10 employees from any organization that you view as being the model of success in today’s global market. What do you think they’d answer in response to the question of why they think their organization is successful? Will it be how much profit their company has made last year or last quarter? Or how much their company’s market share grew?

Unless they work in the C-suite or the finance department of their organization, it’s unlikely that they’ll be using these as their own measurements of success. In fact, I would surmise that while they might share one common theme for why they think their organization is successful, if you ask them why they personally feel successful as employees of that organization, you’d get a number of diverse answers for why they are proud of their collective accomplishments.

The reason for this is that in addition to communicating to their team what they wanted to accomplish, these leaders understood that they had to define success not simply in pragmatic terms, but in a manner that also makes it meaningful to those involved.

They painted a picture of success which was not only specific, but personal so that their employees could adopt it as their own. In so doing, they connected the organization’s success to their employees’ sense of purpose and drive to contribute meaningfully to their shared cause.

Thanks to the faster pace and growing interconnectedness found in today’s world, leaders can no longer simply focus on short-term targets or aiming to fulfill projected forecasts of their organization’s profitability and growth. Instead, to successfully navigate today’s global market requires leaders who are willing and able to foster a culture that inspires, empowers and sustains a sense of purpose in the collective efforts of those they lead.

When asked about the human potential, Albert Einstein said:

We have to do the best we can. This is our sacred human responsibility.”

In light of the evolving changes going on in the business world today, it’s becoming clear that the ability to connect your organization’s goals to your noble cause is critical not only for your organization to be successful, but for it to remain relevant to those they serve in the years to come.

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Finding The Talent Your Organization Needs To Grow This Year

Tanveer Naseer — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:05:37 +0000

As the new year continues to chug along, there’s been a noticeable amount of discussion going on in trying to decipher or anticipate what businesses can expect over the course of the next 12 months. In what’s sure to be music to the ears of many leaders and their employees, most business pundits are putting forth predictions of a turnaround year, with the focus shifting from recovery back to growth.

Whether these predictions turn out to be true or not, one thing that there’s little doubt about is that an organization’s chances for growth and prosperity is tied to their ability to attract and retain employees who can help them to achieve their goals.

Of course, in light of the need for quicker responses to market changes and more innovative thinking, leaders need to look beyond the familiar, tried-and-true selection variables used both to locate new talent, as well as gauge leadership potentials within their ranks.

As I’ve discussed several times here on my blog, it’s becoming clear that a narrow focus on specific skill-sets will not be enough to ensure an organization’s success against its competitors. Instead, what’s required now is a whole-person approach to deciding who we bring into our teams; that we look not only for those who have the right stuff, but who get what the organization is all about.

This is especially true when organizations decide which employees should be groomed for future leadership roles. Indeed, a look at some of the organizations that are thriving today demonstrates just how important it is to ensure that those who given the responsibility to lead others have a deep and clear understanding of the organization’s culture and shared purpose.

Naturally, the first step in this process is to ensure you have the right people on board who can help your organization fulfill its objectives. In the article “How to Uncover Exceptional Talent”, you’ll learn about three approaches that will help leaders move past the traditional approaches of the previous decades in order to find the kinds of employees you need to help your organization succeed and thrive in today’s challenging market.

Disclaimer: My blog is a part of an online influencer network for Business on Main. I receive monthly incentives to share my views on content I find noteworthy and relevant for my audience.

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How To Catch And Solve Problems Before They Become Insurmountable

Tanveer Naseer — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:00:02 +0000

The following is a guest post by Tom Salonek.

In technology, a big part of our job involves solving problems. Perhaps we’re trying to figure out how to integrate a new software package into our existing architecture, or maybe we need to find a way to make a program run faster. But no matter what the work situation, problems are always challenges to be met with creativity, energy and persistence.

Some think that problems in a business are evidence that people are doing something wrong. Sometimes leaders deny or ignore dealing with problems because they’re afraid of such negative judgments. Others simply feel too busy to focus on problems until they become big, fat, hairy monsters.

Running a strong business, writing software, working with others. . . or whatever else you’re doing on this planet means there will be challenges. I’ve found if you don’t accept these little monsters, embrace them and meet them head on – early on – they can turn into insurmountable ogres pretty quickly.

Voltaire is usually credited with the saying “No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.” When you change your mindset to one that sees problems as challenges to be conquered, it’s pretty easy to find them and solve them. Although dealing with problems is part of any job, leaders must be particularly skilled problem-solvers.

Here’s a simple process I’ve used time and again to help define problems and slay them early:

1. First, you need to make sure you know what the problem really is. Do some detective work and don’t assume the problem is only what appears on the surface. Personnel issues are often the result of overly difficult processes, for example. If the problem seems too big or overwhelming, break it down into something that’s more manageable to solve.

2. Next, list all the possible solutions or ideas that might help slay this monster. We consider EVERY idea during our brainstorming sessions at Intertech, without judging or dismissing anything at first glance. This helps create a problem-solving environment that is creative and productive.

3. We prioritize our solutions list from “first to worst” and really try to determine the steps or strategies that will work.

4. Finally, we implement the solution, identify a champion who’ll ultimately be responsible and accountable for the solution, and schedule follow-up meetings. This holds us accountable and ensures that the monster really is slayed – not just swept under the rug.

As a services and training firm, our clients are our bread and butter. It’s extremely important that every client issue – whether it’s a simple misunderstanding or a missed deadline – be handled thoroughly and with care.

I try to create a culture where problems are investigated and communicated about in a proactive manner, not just to smooth them over. We’re not interested in playing the blame game. We want to deal with problems and then to move forward in the most positive way possible. This has been key to our growth.

In a weird way, problems are evidence that something is going very right. As my father used to tell me, “Only he who does nothing will make no mistakes!” People who are making an honest effort are bound to screw up now and again. Sometimes, we even learn important things in the process.

Obviously, we’re all busy and it’s impossible to catch every problem in its infancy. But creating a culture that embraces the act of finding, solving and overcoming problems – where baby monsters are slayed on a regular basis – can be vital to the success of your business. It certainly has been for mine.

Tom Salonek is the founder and CEO of Intertech, a successful technology and training company in the upper Midwest. Intertech has been named to the Inc 500 list of fastest growing companies in the nation and is a seven-time “Best Places to Work” winner in Minnesota. Building a Winning Business: 70 Takeaways is Tom’s first book. He also blogs at www.tomsalonek.com.

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4 New Year’s Resolutions To Help Your Organization Succeed This Year

Tanveer Naseer — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:00:55 +0000

With the holiday celebrations now at an end, many of us are returning to our usual daily grind refreshed, rejuvenated and ready to dive into the tasks awaiting our attention. The start of a new year is also a time when many of us make resolutions of what we’d like to accomplish over the next 365 days, and possibly beyond.

Granted, it’s only natural that we’d be motivated right now to create these lists of goals, as the start of a new year often inspires that feeling of a new start; that the turning to a fresh page instills hope for new opportunities and bright possibilities for our future. The buoyant positivity around this time of the year can certainly be quite beneficial as it encourages us to take time for some personal self-reflection, pushing us to define goals of what we’d like to change in ourselves, and what areas of knowledge and understanding we’d like to develop a greater awareness of.

Of course, in order for us to truly reap the benefits of this exercise, we need to review the events of the previous year; of taking note of what we endured, learned and gained from those past experiences which can serve as the foundation that we build upon as we move forward.

Another point to consider when developing these lists of goals is how the focus doesn’t necessarily have to be limited to ourselves. Indeed, the start of a new year is a perfect opportunity for leaders to evaluate how they can help their employees with achieving their professional goals for this year.

Now, before the cynic within all of us dismisses such notions as being the result of an euphoric haze that often comes with celebrating the arrival of a new year, let us consider one of the lessons we learned over the course of the previous one. Namely, how it’s becoming more evident that the troubled waters others find themselves in can cause ripples that hit our shores as well, even if there are no direct links between our industry or country and theirs.

If nothing else, one thing that was made clear last year was the growing complexity of interconnectedness and interdependency in today’s global market and with it, the importance of being able to see beyond our own pursuits to appreciate the context of the bigger picture. One of the best ways to navigate these new waters is by looking to your employees to help you anticipate and respond accordingly so that your organization doesn’t lose sight of your shared purpose.

With this in mind, here are four new year’s resolutions leaders can and should make to ensure this year is a successful one for their team and organization.

1. Provide resources to help your employees with their professional development
Although there are no obvious signs that this year will bring forth better economic conditions, one of the best investments organizations can make this year is supporting the professional development of their employees. Such measures will not only make it clear to your employees that you’re paying attention to their needs, but you’re also giving them the opportunity to become more valuable members of your organization.

This will also go a long way in boosting employee engagement and reinforcing a sense of purpose in their roles, not to mention helping your organization to maintain or gain an edge in today’s increasingly competitive market.

2. Share insights from your own experiences to inspire and guide those you lead
One of the reasons many people are offered a position to lead others is because of what they learned through their past experiences. However, those experiences are of little use if you don’t share it with those you lead so that they can also learn and grow from it.

Remember, the key to being a successful leader is not simply what you were able to accomplish in the past. It’s how you use those past experiences to inspire and mentor those under your care to push themselves to become better and make meaningful contributions to your shared purpose.

3. Use the annual performance reviews to create personalized employee training/mentoring plans
As most of us have encountered at one point or another in our careers, the annual performance reviews are often used mainly as a tool by an organization’s leadership to determine employee bonuses or salary increases.

However, this doesn’t really tap into the real value of the performance review. Namely, as a tool to help leaders understand an employee’s strengths and the value of their contributions, as well as where potential weak spots exist within their workforce.

The beginning of the new year is a great time to pull out those performance reviews and see what you can do to help your employees build on both their past accomplishments and setbacks, by providing them with the kind of support and training they’ll need to succeed in the months ahead.

4. Find ways to help your customers with problems your products or services can’t solve
When it comes to our own products or services, one obvious function should be that they help to solve a particular problem or issue our customers are dealing with. But what about those problems that fall outside of what our products or services address?

Naturally, we can’t expect to solve all the problems our customers may have. But it’s possible that within our network of contacts and other customers that there might be someone else who can help our customers with these problems that we can’t solve. By making the effort of finding possible solutions elsewhere, you will show your customers how much you value the relationship as your focus is not simply on what you can sell them. Rather, it’s on how you can be of service to them, regardless of who provides the solution.

The process of developing a list of affirmative, call-to-action goals is without question a valuable tool for both professional and personal development, especially if we realize that it’s also a fluid and never-ending one.

However, if we also include in this exercise some goals of how we can reach out to help others, the action takes on greater significance as our focus is now on creating positive change and growth beyond our personal boundaries. Given the economic challenges many countries are currently struggling with, it’s clear that what’s needed today is more outward-focused efforts and attention, and less inward-facing, self-serving ones.

So as you make your list of goals for this year, don’t limit yourself to resolutions of how you can become a ‘better’ you. Instead, look also for goals where you can use your knowledge, resources, and experiences to help make a difference to those around you. Trust me when I say the payoff will be worth it.

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What Has 2011 Taught You About Business and Leadership?

Tanveer Naseer — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:00:05 +0000

As this is the last week of the year, many of us are understandably looking back at the past 12 months and discussing what we consider to be the significant events of 2011. In most cases, such discussions tend to focus on the numerous challenges and upheavals we’ve either watched from afar or witnessed first-hand. From natural disasters to political uprisings, there’s no question this year has placed our collective humanity within the frame of adversity and unimagined change.

Of course, adversity in and of itself is not necessarily a good or bad thing. Rather, it’s what we do and whether we’re open to learning from it that should decide whether it’s been of benefit or harm to us.

Certainly for businesses, the state of the global economy and the growing level of competition coming in from multiple fronts counts as one of the biggest challenges organizations and their leaders have had to contend with. And yet, contrary to what we might be reading in the papers, this doesn’t mean that weren’t some bright spots to be found amid all that doom and gloom.

One such example of this comes from the article, “Business Lessons Learned in 2011”, where a number of business leaders look back at the past 12 months and share their experiences of the lessons they’ve learned which will help them to improve and build on their business in the coming months.

Some of my favourite lessons shared in this piece include:

“People often say ‘listen to your customers,’ but that’s not a complete enough process. First, ask your customers what you’re doing right and wrong, and listen carefully to what they tell you. Then, take action. Here’s why. If you don’t ask, many times customers won’t say that their experience wasn’t quite perfect. If you don’t put aside your prejudices, you may not realize that a customer is right when you think they are wrong. If you don’t take action on what your customers are saying, they will simply quit providing you with feedback.”
— Salah Boukadoum, Soap Hope

“One of the main lessons I learned this year is that my best return on investment is through holding free marketing classes and educational seminars. What started out as an idea to give back to the business community has led to new opportunities.”
— Karen Taylor, New Destiny Marketing

“I’ve learned this year not to take on too much work. I have an 18-month-old little boy who is taking up a lot of what used to be my ‘work from home’ time. Rather than stressing about all the stuff that’s not getting done, this year I made it a priority to try and ignore the small stuff, understanding that, if left alone, none of these non-actions would cause the company to go down the drain anyway.”
— Adam Koos, Libertas Wealth Management Group

As you can see, the lessons some business leaders have learned over the course of this tough year include how to listen better, the financial – not to mention social – benefits of giving back to the community, and how to make more time for family without feeling guilty over the loss of time that could be spent working.

There are several other wonderful lessons shared by other business leaders that are worth noting and I invite you to check those out as well by reading the article “Business Lessons Learned in 2011”.

As this is my last piece for the year, I’d like to end by asking you, the readers of my blog, what lessons you’ve learned over the course of the past year? What new understandings did your choices/decisions reveal to you about your business and the teams you lead? I look forward to learning more about your insights and experiences.

Disclaimer: My blog is a part of an online influencer network for Business on Main. I receive monthly incentives to share my views on content I find noteworthy and relevant for my audience.

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3 Ways Remarkable Leaders Get Noticed

Tanveer Naseer — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:00:50 +0000

The following is a guest post by Joel A. Garfinkle.

Being a good leader — or even a great leader — is just not enough if you want to keep moving up in your career. You must be so remarkable that no one can help but notice you. You must do great things — not once or twice, but continuously — in order to stand out, get noticed, and propel yourself to the top of your company.

Three great ways to stand out are by creating new products, solving difficult problems, and actively seeking out opportunities to do something truly remarkable.

1. Create a new product
You can find ideas for new products all over the place, but one of the best ways is to listen to your customers. What do they want that you don’t sell? Is there already a product on the market that will meet their needs? If not, you may have an opportunity to create a revolutionary new product that will fill this gap and satisfy an existing demand.

There are new products being released constantly, so you need something that is either completely different from what is currently available or a huge improvement. You won’t stand out by making minor changes. You need something that people will get excited about and tell their friends about — something that is different enough to create a stir in the marketplace.

That doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be difficult or expensive, though. Take the Starbucks Frappuccino, for example. It was a new drink that got people talking and eventually brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in sales. This drink wasn’t invented in a product development lab at Starbucks headquarters; it was the creation of an assistant store manager who took the initiative to experiment and come up with something new and different — and it ended up being a big hit.

2. Come up with innovative solutions for difficult problems
Declining property values in Genesee County, Michigan meant less revenue from property taxes for the Genesee County Parks and Recreation Commission. Faced with the prospect of having to cut back on staffing to make up for the budget shortfall, director Amy McMillan asked her staff to come up with as many $10 ideas to cut costs as they could. As a result of implementing these $10 ideas, the Parks Commission was able to save $167,000 — enough to avoid making staffing cuts. Amy McMillan solved a $167,000 problem by attacking it $10 at a time.

Every large organization has challenges to overcome. What problems is your company facing right now? There is no reason you can’t be the one to find the solution. You don’t have to be an executive or even a manager to be a problem-solver. You just have to have great ideas and find someone in the company who is willing to listen and has enough authority to take action.

When you consistently come up with innovative solutions to the company’s problems, you’ll gain visibility with the top executives, which can open up career advancement opportunities and help propel you into a top management position.

3. Listening for Opportunities
You’d be amazed at the opportunities you can uncover if you just listen. Pay attention to what your colleagues, bosses, and customers are saying and when you hear something unusual, creative, or even outrageous, think about how you can act on it to create an opportunity to make yourself stand out as the remarkable employee you are.

Katie Dix is a great example of someone who is constantly searching for opportunities. The owner of Capannari’s Ice Cream in Mt. Prospect, IL, she jumped at the chance to make an 18-scoop ice cream cone for Katherine Reutter, Olympic silver medalist in speed skating. Reutter had been quoted in the Chicago Tribune as saying that she’d be walking into the Closing Ceremony with an 18-scoop ice cream cone. Katie Dix made it happen.

Once you start listening for ideas, you’ll find them all over the place. Next time someone says, “Too bad we can’t,” you should be thinking of ways that you can. Approach every problem with the mindset that there is a solution, and it is up to you to find it. Permanently replace the words “I can’t” with “How can I” and you’ll be amazed at the things you can do. Be truly remarkable, and you’ll find yourself moving up the career ladder faster than you ever could have imagined.

Joel A. Garfinkle is recognized as one of the top 50 coaches in the U.S., having worked with many of the world’s leading companies, including Oracle, Google, Amazon, Deloitte, Ritz-Carlton, Gap, Bank of America and Starbucks.

He has written seven books, including Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level, as well as over 300 articles on leadership, team-building, executive presence, and getting ahead at work. Joel is regularly featured in the national media, including ABC News, NPR, the New York Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek.

Visit his website and subscribe to his Executive Coaching Newsletter to receive a copy of his free e-book, “Proven Strategies to Get Promoted Now!”

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Is Your ‘But’ Getting In The Way Of Your Team’s Success?

Tanveer Naseer — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:00:49 +0000

Have you ever had an employee come to you with an idea or proposal to address a particular situation to which you answered with one of the following replies?

“That’s a great idea, but let’s shop this around a bit first.”

“I agree that we need to change this, but I’m not sure now is the best time.”

“It’d be nice if we could offer this, but I don’t think we can afford to right now.”

All of these responses sound understanding and appreciative of the employee’s input. And yet, notice how the use of “but” in each reply serves to effectively stop any further discussion or deeper examination of the proposal beyond this initial encounter.

Granted, there are times when leaders need to hold back eager employees because the measures they are suggesting might not be the best in terms of addressing a given problem the organization is facing. Unfortunately, such responses can also inhibit your employees’ sense of creativity and with it, your organization’s ability to innovate if the motivation behind this resistance is based on factors other than ensuring the collective success of your team.

With this in mind, here are four questions leaders can ask themselves to find out if they are letting their ‘buts’ get in the way of helping their team to succeed and thrive.

1. Are you driven by what you want or by accepting what is there?
One of the reasons why many ideas or suggestions employees present to their leaders are rejected – before there’s even a chance to test and evaluate them – is because we tend to frame these opportunities in terms of what we want, without any regard for what’s the reality our employees face every day.

Consider as an example the current economic environment. Sure, the global economy is in poor shape, but that’s clearly not stopping some organizations from being successful and even growing. Why is this so? Why is it that some companies can charge a premium for their products and reap massive profits while others are struggling to stay in the black?

One reason is because those in charge of these successful organizations are not focused solely on what they want, but instead are approaching the situation from the vantage point of how to make things work within the current realities of today’s economy.

Adding that ‘but’ in response to your employees’ suggestions or recommendations only serves to narrow your focus to waiting for ‘better times’, instead of being open to discovering alternative approaches to tap into the resources and opportunities your organization currently has to overcome the challenges standing in your way.

2. Do your decisions serve to maintain or challenge the status quo?
Regardless of where you are in the organizational food chain, most of us are apprehensive of change mainly because we don’t know where it might lead us. Change often forces us out of our comfort zones with no sure-fire guarantees that it will lead to any tangible improvements in the end. And so, it’s only natural that we resist any alternate approaches or ways of doing things, preferring to stay within the safe confines of keeping things the way they are.

Of course, by challenging the status quo, I don’t mean making such efforts purely for the sake of stirring things up. Rather, this is about reassessing whether the goals you had in place, the measures you’ve been employing, are still relevant both to the overall vision you have for your organization and in the context of what’s going on around you.

In falling for the lull of complacent thinking, it’s easy to shut down ideas or suggestions brought forth by your employees as your drive is not on pursuing goals as it is maintaining the status quo of how things are done around here. And as we’ve seen in many examples lately, such static thinking can have a disastrous impact on an organization’s long term viability in today’s turbulent and rapidly evolving global market.

3. Is your resistance due to the blind spots in your leadership?
Let’s face it, no one can know everything that goes on in an organization and that certainly becomes more evident the further you move away from the front lines. And yet, there’s still this prevailing notion that to be a leader requires you to have all the answers, instead of relying on those you lead to help you find them.

Again, there will be times where your ‘but’ might be warranted when looking at your employee’s suggestions in terms of the ‘bigger picture’. However, it’s important to remember that even at the midway point between the big picture and the reality your employees deal with every day, there are still many details of the goings-on in your organization that you might not be aware of.

Certainly, the problems we face today are becoming more complex and interconnected, which is why they can’t be solved by any one person. Instead, these problems need to be addressed through a collaboration with those who are impacted by it and with those who can bring valuable first-hand insights to help evaluate possible solutions.

When you say ‘but’, you’re not only limiting your ability to ascertain where the blind spots might be in your leadership, you’re also diminishing the input of others who have a clearer understanding of the situation and who can help you to develop the best approach for your organization.

4. What would happen if you said ‘what if’ instead of ‘but’?
In a previous piece I wrote about “The Marshmallow Challenge” and how kindergarten children were more successful than recent business school graduates in completing this experiment. The result is not too surprising when we consider how most education systems tend to focus on teaching and rewarding students for finding the best answer to a given problem. Although it’s vital that we learn how to be effective problem-solvers, in terms of leadership it’s also important that we learn how to ask the right questions to our employees.

Imagine if in those scenarios where your employees come to you with a new idea or possible solution that instead of replying with ‘but’, you ask instead ‘what if’? Now this shift in approach doesn’t mean that you necessarily agree or support their proposal. Rather, what this creates is an environment where employees feel like they can bring forth ideas so that others can help them to assess the viability of their proposal.

Of course, in addition to asking ‘what if’, it’s important that you encourage your employees to dig deeper in fleshing out their ideas and, when appropriate, providing them with some resources to do a limited run of their proposal, both to evaluate the potential of their idea as well as to see what your team can learn from the exercise.

British author and diplomat Sir Harold Nicolson wrote:

We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others, by their acts.”

His words ring especially true for today’s leaders who need to remember that while we might have a vision and sense of purpose behind the decisions we make for the benefit of our team and organization, those we lead are often left only with the outcomes of those decisions to understand and appreciate what truly matters to their organization.

Seen from this vantage point, it becomes clear that leaders must always evaluate and review whether their ‘buts’ are serving to keep their organization moving in the right direction, or whether it’s only preventing their employees from utilizing their full potential in the process of achieving your shared goals.

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