Leaders work most effectively when they use time as an ally rather than an enemy. Every minute has exactly sixty seconds, even though we perceive it differently. For example, if you're constantly rushing and feeling like you're fighting the clock or calendar, your driving belief may be "there’s never enough time." Altering that is easy, once you notice it, and catch yourself in the moment. If you're always in a rush, consider a more helpful belief, like "there’s plenty of time for what’s most important." You'll find yourself thinking about time more carefully, and using it more effectively. This simple change can upgrade how you lead--you will feel less stress, listen better, and guide your organization more wisely.

Self-coaching Questions:

• What is my default belief about time (e.g., Too much? Too little? Plenty? Running out?)

•  How does my default notion of time drive my behavior?

• What is a more helpful belief about time, and what would it be like to try it out?

David Peck
Executive Coach and President
Leadership Unleashed

Check out our new hourly virtual coaching service.

Note: Over 100 of these tips appear in my book:  Beyond Effective: Practices in Self-aware Leadership. Click on the image of the book for more information.

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Monday LeaderTips are posted here and emailed every Sunday evening to  leaders and professionals worldwide.  For a free anonymous subscription, send a blank email here.  LeaderTips are also carried, from time to time, on Business Week Online.

The members of a true community behave in a way that says, “I watch out for you."  A leader who takes seriously their organization’s responsibility to contribute resources and time to their community enriches life for everyone.  Yet in the fray of crisis and drive for results, it’s easy to put off until tomorrow the needs of those just beyond our front door. Take time to define what you consider to be your own community, and do as much as you can to help. When you make it your mission to support the success of your community, the rewards can be the most gratifying of your career.

Self-coaching questions:

• In what ways does my organization impact the communities we inhabit and serve?

• What are the best and worst potential outcomes for being a more active supporter of our communities?

• What tangible steps can my team and I take in the year ahead to help those less fortunate / more in need than ourselves?

David Peck
Executive Coach and President
Leadership Unleashed

Check out our new hourly virtual coaching service.

Note: Over 100 of these tips appear in my book:  Beyond Effective: Practices in Self-aware Leadership. Click on the image of the book for more information.

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Monday LeaderTips are posted here and emailed every Sunday evening to  leaders and professionals worldwide.  For a free anonymous subscription, send a blank email here.  LeaderTips are also carried, from time to time, on Business Week Online.

Ever thought about how candid you and your people are with each other?

Avoiding candor -- quite common in organizational cultures -- is a barrier to sustainable success. Flattering, people-pleasing or avoiding overt conflict are among the ways people tend to gloss over the truth in order to get ahead, or simply get along. Yet research shows an organization or team is much more effective when its people are expected to be very straightforward with each other.

Take this poll...then you'll see how others responded!

David Peck
Executive Coach and President
Leadership Unleashed

Given the volume of information, I’m breaking it up into four blog posts covering five questions each, over the next few weeks.

Below you’ll see the percentage of respondents for each survey question.  Also, highlighted in yellow, you’ll find the most leader-like answer to each question. Finally, you’ll see my own commentary on the leadership theme(s) associated with each question, and a few suggestions for further reading on that topic.

Your comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome!

David Peck
Executive Coach and President
Leadership Unleashed

1. When delegating work to my folks, I prefer to tell them exactly what to do and how to do it.

2. My role is more to ask, listen, and learn, than to be an authority.

3. If you asked anyone who works for me, they'd know just where I hope my organization will be a year from now.

4. If I want something done right, I do it myself.

5. I've gotten credible feedback from colleagues and my team that they're quite comfortable coming to me with questions, issues, and ideas.

Agree:         79%

Neutral:      16%

Disagree:     6%

Leadership Theme: Candor, Relating Skills, Approachability.  Leader’s who are able to develop open and caring relationship with their people enable them to be honest about what’s truly going on, and therefore to make better decisions.  More reading on this:

Case Study: Leadership Means Letting Them Know You

Stay tuned for the next post on the survey, which will cover questions 6 through 10...

-DP

It's not unusual for highly-talented people to feel their success is a sham, and leaders are no exception.  In fact, our recent leadership survey* revealed that almost a third of respondents secretly feel like a fraud.  When made aware that many successful people share this issue, some stick with it, imagining it helps drive their ability to achieve.  I suggest to clients that success is driven by competence, training, listening / learning, and experience, despite (and not due to) any self-doubt.  Once you recognize that you may be operating with self-doubt, or an all-out sense of being an imposter, it’s important to let it go, which will help your leadership prosper.

Self-coaching Questions:

• What level of self-doubt do I carry day in and day out?

• What situations or people trigger my self-doubt?

• Understanding that feelings of fraud are prevalent among successful people, what steps can I take to be more appreciative and accepting of myself as I am?

David Peck
Executive Coach and President
Leadership Unleashed

Check out our new hourly virtual coaching service.

Note: Over 100 of these tips appear in my book:  Beyond Effective: Practices in Self-aware Leadership. Click on the image of the book for more information.

__________

Monday LeaderTips are posted here and emailed every Sunday evening to  leaders and professionals worldwide.  For a free anonymous subscription, send a blank email here.  LeaderTips are also carried, from time to time, on Business Week Online.

* THANK YOU to the many managers and leaders who completed the "Manager or Leader?" quiz.  I'll be covering additional findings in the months ahead.  Meanwhile, if you haven't taken it, you are welcome to do so by visiting http://tinyurl.com/m2cljg (if the link to the quiz doesn't work for you, please go to leadershipunleashed.com, click the link to "I am an executive / leader," then click "leadership quiz" on the left hand navigation.)  Also, your feedback, questions, suggestions are welcome.

When beginning an initiative, it’s important to design the end state first.  Some call it vision.  Others call it target environment.  Why?  If you jump to the details, the funding, or the “how” of it too soon, particularly when the issues are as complex as those related to health care reform in this country, then you get unfocused and mired in useless debate.  Rhetoric / conjecture become the substance rather than the side show.  Shockingly, that’s where we are already on the topic of a new U.S. health care system, despite the lessons of the past, most notably the failed efforts of Hillary Clinton in 1994 - 1995.

So this time, rather than settle for the lowest common denominator, let's do it right.  In this regard, I like to help my executive coaching clients set a high bar.  I suggest they develop their vision by identifying “conditions of delight” (“COD’s”)—what common ground would have the majority of participants / stakeholders (in this case, Americans) be quite pleased with outcome (in this case, with a new health care system)?

Since politicians, especially the detail-minded President Obama, jumped directly into the “how,” rather than set a vision and obtain our buy in for that, it’s time to back up.  Why do I say that?  Well rhetoric and conjecture were the reaction to his first round of ideas.  Criticism is being leveled before the ink has dried (e.g., “single-payer!”, "socialized medicine!", “giant government-run bureaucracy,” “administrators will get between doctors and patients,” “costs out of control,” etc.)  We have indeed plunged into a derailing debate about the “how” before the “what” is defined. 

What do we want?  Here are my own conditions of delight – the vision / end-state – that I’ve been able to piece together from all I’ve read and watched.  In my view, the list below reflect what must be true for the majority of Americans, including corporate interests that aren’t planning on disappearing anytime soon, to be pleased with health care reform.  Once we decide on specifically what these look like, and how we measure them, only then can we create the “how” of implementing them.

Let’s stop trying to engineer the details before we know what we’re building.  Encourage your representatives to vote against anything that tries to build the “how” before we can begin with the end state in mind


David Peck
Executive Coach and President
Leadership Unleashed
Palm Springs, California

Task overdrive among leaders is all too common. Our leadership survey* last week showed 35% of respondents spend the majority of their time on day to day tasks. 32% said they’d trade off a working relationship to “get the job done." A leader who is too much of a doer marginalizes themselves, their colleagues, and their people. Too much emphasis on tasks means you pay too high a price -- in stress, health, and fulfillment -- for whatever you achieve, and you inflict similar costs on others. Life as a leader gets better when you avoid making tasks more important than why, and with whom, you’re doing what you do.

Self-coaching Questions

• How is my focus on immediate tasks getting in the way of my own effectiveness, and that of my colleagues, and/or team?

• What relationships need my attention and care, such that they can sustain us both over time?

• What can I commit to changing in the months ahead, and what do I need to help myself be accountable to this commitment?

David Peck
Executive Coach and President
Leadership Unleashed

Check out our new hourly virtual coaching service.

Note: Over 100 of these tips appear in my book:  Beyond Effective: Practices in Self-aware Leadership. Click on the image of the book for more information.

__________

Monday LeaderTips are posted here and emailed every Sunday evening to  leaders and professionals worldwide.  For a free anonymous subscription, send a blank email here.  LeaderTips are also carried, from time to time, on Business Week Online.

* THANK YOU to the 103 managers and leaders who completed the "Manager or Leader?" quiz so far.  I'll be covering additional findings in the months ahead.  Meanwhile, if you haven't taken it, you are welcome to do so by visiting http://tinyurl.com/m2cljg (if the link to the quiz doesn't work for you, please go to leadershipunleashed.com, click the link to "I am an executive / leader," then click "leadership quiz" on the left hand navigation.)  Also, your feedback, questions, suggestions are welcome.

Previous LeaderTips have explored key distinctions between manager and leader. Instead of a tip this week, you’re invited to take a look at where you show up on the manager-to-leader spectrum, and how that compares to others. To help you do that, we’ve developed a 20-question quiz, available by clicking this link. Once you’ve completed it, please continue, and the quiz tool will let you review each of your own answers, show you the “leader” answer, and how others have responded (in aggregate) to each question. See what you notice.  We hope it will help you to reflect on, and in some cases, challenge your beliefs / behaviors related to leadership.  Enjoy!

David Peck
Executive Coach and President
Leadership Unleashed

Check out our new hourly virtual coaching service.

Note: Over 100 of these tips appear in my book:  Beyond Effective: Practices in Self-aware Leadership. Click on the image of the book for more information.

__________

Monday LeaderTips are posted here and emailed every Sunday evening to  leaders and professionals worldwide.  For a free anonymous subscription, send a blank email here.  LeaderTips are also carried, from time to time, on Business Week Online.