Never has there been a more important time for leaders of organizations, communities, and governments to believe in their people—for each of us to believe in each other.

That’s the world I want to live in, and the organization I want to do business with. Yet it's in major short supply.

People in organizations and communities around the world are yearning to do their best work. What's getting in the way? They simply can’t be at their best when operating with fear, amplified by their leader’s directives, advice, withholding, stoicism and skepticism—by being discounted or treated as simply expendable. You may get good hard work from fear, but greatness requires belief.

I have a few suggestions for you to try out on this topic. Coaching many executives across industries over time I’ve run across these three common habits among the most engaging, highest performing leaders:

1. They know and show they believe in their people.

Wholeheartedly showing someone you believe in them is the simplest, most powerful thing you can do to bring out their best.

How do you do this? Know in your bones your people are capable and intent on doing great things. Give them latitude to do their work their way, and watch carefully for their stumbles. When something goes awry, catch them NOT before they fall, but before they plummet. Then show them where to look for their OWN answers.

Do that by asking questions rather than giving them directives, war stories, solutions or “advice”—questions that help them illuminate what they already know but may be buried, or that challenge them to figure out something new on their own. It takes more energy and patience up front, but pays off by helping people believe in themselves, and thus who come to the table wanting, willing and able to be autonomous and prone to achieving.

Practicing this approach you literally build greater capability and capacity into your organization.

2. They zoom in to the details in a positive way only when, and for as long as is necessary—until things are back on track.

An exec client of mine—top rated consistently in his organization—explained it this way: “When I hire someone, and we have our first meeting, I bring a microscope, and put any old slide in. I explain to the new hire that when they are doing their best, and their people are at THEIR best, it’s just another nice tool on the bench. And when things aren’t so good we’ll zoom in together. See? There’s more detail. Now even further. Huh. Look at that. Now what does it mean? I’ll challenge you to see what you can see / learn / solve on your own. And I’ll stand by you as you do that. I’m there with you, because your business is my business.”

As a top exec, it’s not always wrong to be very far into details, or very high up looking down from 40,000 feet. Doing one or the other without being positive and thoughtful is usually a lower-performing pattern. Rather, knowing how to handle the bumps, failures, and blow ups by knowing just when and how to zoom in and zoom out on your people, and help them do the same, leads to sustainable and positive growth for you, your people, and your organization. Put simply: it works.

3. When believing and zooming thoughtfully yield something less than the person’s best, the leader will help them make a professional change or transition.

People aren’t office furniture to be thrown away when no longer right for the job, or when the stock price is in the crapper. We stand together, or we all fall as a society over time. Believe-in-you leadership means you give someone every opportunity and your own best efforts, and when that fails, or your enterprise fails, it’s time to help them make a change—one that’s right for them, for you, and the organization or community.

If you’ve tried everything, and it’s just not working, then the person isn’t suited to where they are. Shall we dump them, or exercise the golden rule and treat them as we would want to be treated? The best “layoff” I ever had was when my boss proactively helped me find something better—meaning a better fit for the organization and myself. I am always grateful to her, and I know she felt great about it too.

When you practice these principles you are far likelier to have a higher performing organization, not to mention making the world a better place. After all, imagine the leadership embodied in a world where we all believe in each other, and you get my point.

Spend a day, week, or month operating from these principles--starting with the assumption that your people are worthy of being believed in because they WANT to be at their best, and you will create the conditions for the best to happen.

In fact, I know you can do it.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Happy New Year! While no one knows what 2012 has up its sleeve, based on my own post-executive experience working with leaders across industries over the last eight years, no one doubts it’s time for a positive “pivot.”

My hope is that will include a new sense of executive responsibility when it comes to humanism, collectivism, and capitalism with care for ethics and fairness. This, I believe, is the net / net of what protestors are saying, and it will continue to grow in resonance.

Along those lines, and in keeping with my commitment to practice principles of recovery in all my affairs, here's what I hope from the leaders I know, and those I will meet, in the year ahead:

1. Executives make decisions that emphasize ethics and profits equally.

2. Boards help change senior executive compensation such that it has a fair and maximum ratio in relation to the lowest paid worker in the organization.

3. Leaders create / remake their organizational cultures to value their people and the communities they serve just as they value hitting their numbers.

4. When it comes to writing checks for political influence, executives remember that just because something is legal, it doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.

5. Self-reflection and action in equal measure lead to better decisions. Executives who keep too busy change their schedules to find time to balance “doing” with “being.”

6. We each go on our quest for what fires us up—discover who we are at our very best, and align / realign with that.

7. Find a time this year to ask a few people you trust—who know you best, “What are you most reluctant to tell me—that if I knew, it might be hard, but would help me?”

David Peck
The Recovering Leader

Thank you Task.fm for inviting me to answer a reader's question: "How should you run an effective executive management team meeting?" I hope you find my post informative!

David Peck
Principal
Goodstone Group, LLC

The best of the best athletes, scientists, soloist musicians, and executives alike can find themselves dwelling on a snag or difficult situation, as if getting taken hostage by it. If left unchecked, it can get in the way of what could be a good day.

Whether you've had something (or someone) turn your day upside down, are stymied by a problem, or feeling overwhelmed, noticing it in real time is key. Once you see you're stuck in an unwanted "loop," you'll need to step away from it to solve it rapidly.

As soon as possible, get up and walk out on whatever you're doing for a ten-minute break (and leave your smart phone behind): take a walk outside the office, don’t eat lunch at your desk—whatever it may be that will help you NOT to think about the issue, at least for a short time. While this may sound stupidly simple, it's amazing a) how people DON'T do this in the middle of the storm, and b) how effective it is.

Aside from interfering with your stuck pattern of thinking, this practice gives your more powerful non-conscious brain time to work out what, if anything, you need to do to resolve the issue just for today. If you keep trying to power through it with your more limited conscious attention, you’ll continue to hit a wall, and it will take longer to resolve.

Instead, when something is renting too much mental or emotional space, hit the reset button on your day, STEP AWAY by walking out on your own thinking for a quick break.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Go ahead and laugh, as we all know many organizations recode the word “problem” into “challenge” and "opportunity."

Yet when a leader can respond to a loss or setback with an open mind and ability to derive its key lessons, strife becomes the breakfast of champions.

Of course I encourage you to learn as much as possible from self-reflection and trusted advisers, but nothing teaches with the surgical skills of the losses, fumbles, setbacks, failures, conflicts, dramas, and catastrophes. These are, after all, universal. We encounter them more than once ... and if we're not, we need to double check to make sure we're stretching ourselves beyond just “playing it safe.”

From "problem-tunities" we learn much more effective leadership lessons in self-awareness than hundreds of happy days strung together IF we don't get lost in busy-ness, ego, shame, or guilt.

That’s not to negate the feelings—because denying the feelings that go along with setbacks gives them permanent residency as lumps under the rug of our consciousness, waiting there, where we can trip over them again. Self-awareness challenges us to experience something fully, feel it in detail, and then LET IT GO, moving beyond it with the lesson(s) well in hand.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

I published my book, Beyond Effective-Practices in Self-aware Leadership, in early 2008. It's been available through most book sellers since then, but lately I've been thinking about getting it out more widely.

Along those lines, I am inspired by Seth Godin to offer--free--an e-version (in pdf format) to anyone who'd like to download it. I'm hoping by doing that I can spread the word of self-aware leadership more widely, and without the hindrance of cost or the need to buy the physical or kindle or other electronic editions, which of course, are available : )

Click the link below to download the book at your convenience, with my compliments.

David Peck
The Recovering Leader

Download Beyond Effective-Practices in Self-aware Leadership by David Peck

Well over two centuries ago, French author Voltaire wrote, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”

It’s human nature, as relevant today as it was back then--perfectionism is a common trait, particularly among successful people.

Yet if perfectionism were a prescription drug, it would bear a hefty warning label:

“A perfectionist approach may cause your best and brightest people to become unmotivated, devalued, dependent, disempowered, frustrated, and ultimately disengaged. You put them at risk for doing marginal work, and for leaving. It leads to procrastination, and tends to take a toll of stress on yourself and others in your organization.”

Even so, many leaders wear their perfectionism as a badge of honor. When I ask them about it, they will say, almost with a wink, “Maybe it’s a problem.” And the subtext is, “… but probably not.”

In fact, as I dig underneath the behavior I find they believe perfectionism is a part of what got them to where they are. This tends to hold the behavior in place for long periods of time, and makes it harder to address and change. Yet change IS possible.

Three Steps for Managing Perfectionism’s Side Effects

1. Recognize that it’s a weakness masquerading as a strength.

Your perfectionism isn’t a driver to success—it’s a barrier. You got to where you are based on being capable and motivated, and despite the side effects of perfectionism. You won’t ever truly change your perfectionist ways without accepting it’s a liability and not an asset.

2. Catch, then catch and correct your perfectionist behavior.

Once you’ve done step one, above, it’s time to start noticing it. Make notes about when your requests or demands of people are perfectionist in nature. Ask those you trust to help you notice such situations. Next, begin to correct yourself when it happens. Practice, practice, practice. If you’re doing it right, it will make you feel slightly uncomfortable for a while.

3. Set your standards to recognize the distinction between perfect and excellent.

A higher-performing core belief is this: “I have high standards—I strive and help my people strive for excellence, even as I understand that perfect is an unreasonable goal. When we fall short of excellence, we take time to learn from it, and to help each other be at our best in the future. We accept our work and life as less than perfect.

Even after making good progress, when you are under unusual stress, you may revert to perfectionism. It’s but a setback. Stick with it. Do I need to say it? Don’t hold yourself to perfection in letting go of your perfectionism.

Be patient. Practice. Enroll others to help you notice your behavior. For every year you work on this, you’ll get about a second of response time between when you WANT to be perfectionist, and when you actually do the behavior (i.e., send the email, pick up the phone, etc.) And a second is all we need.

David Peck
The Recovering Leader

I feel a great affinity with those protesting on Wall Street and other business centers right now. When I asked myself why, I remembered a key turning point in my own career: my response eight years ago to the then-shocking dehumanizing corporate behavior that’s become the norm in recent years.

I started my business career delivering interoffice mail—yes, rolling around a cart on behalf of the mail room—in 1986. By 2001, I was the COO of a division of a Fortune 500 company. In 2003 I decided to leave, and when I did, felt a tremendous sense of relief.

Ironically, my decision to leave was made on the spot when my boss asked me a single question.

She said to me, “I noticed that your support service levels are really high—your customer satisfaction is above the 90th percentile.”

I said proudly, “Yes, clients love our people.”

She said, “Well that’s too high. How can you reduce your staff so your service levels are in the 60’s, slightly above your nearest competitor?”

Stunned, I think I actually had to ask her to repeat the question.

It became crystal clear: my boss, the president of our division, someone who is now a very senior person at one of the three biggest banks in the world, didn’t give a damn about our people. No, to her, profit wasn’t just important, but it came before people, who, to her, were no more than service levels and widgets on spreadsheets. Sociopathic behavior at its finest.

That was intolerable to me.

Without thinking it through, I impulsively declared, “I can save you some more money,” and she asked me how, and I said, “let me go.”

Unfortunately, I had to stay long enough to do the deed but ultimately got away with laying off less people than she had asked since she was going to save my salary too. After the layoffs I cried. She saw me cry, and I think it actually disgusted her. (Mind you, this was the same woman, who when I was on my way out the door weeks later suggested that I open check cashing stores in impoverished neighborhoods because “those people will always pay a premium to borrow money.”)

So I left. I can’t tell you how many people told me I was "so brave" (which meant crazy.) My father reminded me that I was then 40 years old and that I could be throwing away my peak earning years, etc.,etc.

Yet to me it was not optional. The company had caught the disease of spreadsheet-itis. The invasion of the soul-snatchers was under way—and in a company that had previously been the object of my great admiration and affection.

I went on to learn about Leadership and executive coaching at Georgetown, and now consider myself to be “in recovery” as a leader, helping others to do the same—hence the name of my blog.

It’s the quiet rampant corporate soul-snatching that the protesters have awakened to. They were asleep through the invasion, and now that the body count is measured in the millions, and the greed and dehumanization of "innovation" and a "knowledge economy" are in full tilt, they are stirred and stirring, just as I did on that day not so long ago.

Smell the coffee? Good morning.

David Peck
The Recovering Leader

I’m puzzled by the puzzlement over the growing protests across America.

While the media is stumped at how to cover the early days of a post-conventional, web-era movement, exemplified by the Wall Street "live in," we all know what they’re talking about. As one protester’s sign says, “Dear 1%, We Fell Asleep For A While. Just Woke Up. Sincerely, the 99%.”

As a workforce, they have been shuffled around, laid off, rehired, and laid off again. Their benefits have been cut, their healthcare costs have soared, and they’ve had little or no say in what or how the economy is changing. No matter who they’ve voted for, politicians have practiced brinksmanship, posturing, prostitution, greed, and gridlock instead of leadership.

While the protests so far lack consistent messaging, a single leader or group of leaders, or a slick media strategy, with the endorsement of organized labor, they have reached critical mass. And it continues to grow. By the time their messaging and strategy coalesce into coherence, they will cease to be underestimated or dismissed, and that's probably a good thing.

Get used to it: the message to all leaders is clear, and it’s something core to everything I have written on this blog over the last five years, and in my book. If you are putting your individual interests far ahead of any greater good, you will lose. You will fail because you are not exercising good leadership — a trend that won’t be overlooked in the history books.

How do you want to be remembered?

The best conventional leadership thinking and actions have led us to this point, where too many leaders are out for themselves, and not enough are operating for the greater good.

Here are six questions to ask yourself as a leader:

- Is my work helping, neutral, or harmful to others?

- Am I in service, beyond the products and services I offer, to those I lead and the communities in which I do business?

- Am I creating or eliminating jobs in the U.S.?

- Am I making life easier or harder for those I lead, and those in the communities I serve?

- Are we as an organization creating a more sustainable future for everyone, or are we ignoring the future in order to have a more profitable present?

- Is my work making the world a better place, neutral, or actually harming the world in some way?

Watch for any tendency to rationalize. And if you can show a track record of a strong ethical and values-based foundation for your products, services, and how you treat your people, you are in even better shape than many. If you answer those in the best way possible, then you are leading for a greater good. If not, perhaps you have something new to think about, as the protesters are reminding all of us.

David Peck
The Recovering Leader

Most leaders eventually have a chronically low or marginal contributor among their team. While avoidance and rationalization in such situations are quite common, they simply amplify the problem.

In my experience as a leader and executive coach, clarity, compassion, and consequences are the keys to skillful handling of persistently problematic performance:

CLARITY that you expect their best on an ongoing basis, and the potential positive and negative consequences based on their work. I advocate setting an explicit, high bar for your team members, and for those prone to performance issues, greater up front candor about what could happen for better and worse.

COMPASSION, coaching, feedback, and support for a reasonable period of time, when people are working on it. Also recognition when they are swamped, stumped, or dealing with a life situation. You don’t need to go around threatening to replace someone when they haven’t had enough of a chance to succeed, or there’s some clear barrier in the way.

CONSEQUENCES in a timely way when, despite clarity and compassion, the work remains average or below average. Failure to do so is essentially your permission for them to continue doing a marginal job, and inviting others to do the same. Not the leadership message you want to send. Even worse, it poisons the well, de-motivating your best people, who will eventually tire of pulling the weight for others.

In short, the best leaders love their people, but are prepared to part with them, and are not shy about following through on that.

This is harder when your marginal contributor is likable, or deeply rooted in the group. That said, caring about someone does not mean unburdening them from the consequences of their actions—in fact, as a leader, you are responsible for holding them to it for the greater good. Making good on consequences is healthy for all, including the recipient.

If you have some fear or find yourself rationalizing, join the club of being human. I didn’t say it’s easy. In fact, if you shuffle people in and out like furniture, I’m more worried about you than them—you need to take a look at your own level of compassion.

The best leaders I’ve ever known have a range between being liked by their people, and having no ambiguity among their team that there are clear and fair consequences awaiting those who don’t deliver consistently at their best.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Are you at your best professionally? Are you doing your best work ever? If not, then maybe you need to take a look at your purpose, and the premise behind it...

Talking to the leader of a Fortune 100 company several years ago, I asked: when you fall from the tree of life, how would you like to be remembered?

Answer: “That he ran a profitable company.” I then asked him, “Why is that?” An awkward pause, and answer, “To make a profit ... I don’t understand your question.”

As astronaut Jim Lovell said, "Houston, we have a problem."

Being driven by a goal, and absent an underlying purpose, we are sleepwalking through life and work. When that's the case, we're not going to know why we're not fulfilled, nor what to do about it. It makes being at your best a process of trial and error.

To move beyond that, it's important to understand, as my coach recently reminded me, the distinction between a goal and a purpose:

A goal is the daily stuff of work life—it’s on your to do list: deliver on plan / in budget, meet expectations for the quarter, accomplish this promotion, get that project done, deliver that result, etc. It’s something that can be done and measured, and has a beginning, middle, and end to it.

Purpose is the “why” you do what you do. Purpose is the fuel in the tank, whereas goals are where the car is heading today or tomorrow. When you’re aware of it, your purpose informs your goals—and helps you live and work at your best.

And behind purpose is premise—what will be happening if you are operating in tune with your purpose.

For example, for the seven years since leaving the executive suite and doing my leadership coach training at Georgetown, here’s what I’ve decided on my own purpose and premise:

Peck's 2004 Purpose: To make the world a better place, one leader at a time.

Premise: By coaching leaders to understand and leverage their strengths, and tackle head on their unaddressed developmental needs, they enhance the world for themselves and those they lead.

So when I’m wondering if I’m working “on purpose” I ask myself if I’m helping the world be a better place through coaching leaders in the way I do.

Working with my coach, my answer recently has been: I can do much more to make the world a better place—to have a bigger impact. That explains a feeling of restlessness I have, and the sense that I’m ready for something more. Ultimately, it will guide me to make new choices that help me remain doing my best, and being at my best professionally.

Without being awake to my purpose, I might have just sensed something wasn’t right, but not have the language or insight to know what that was, and left any course adjustment to chance. I might later have wished I “got it” sooner.

If you haven’t considered your purpose—why you do what you are doing—and premise—what you notice in the world if you are doing your purpose, then perhaps it’s time to have a heart to heart with yourself and/or someone you trust, and choose one.

While it may not be exact at first, you are welcome to revise it over time, until your purpose and premise are guiding and informing your goals, helping you be at your best, and inspiring others to do the same.

David Peck
Principal and Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

“Over 100 emails a day, 30 plus meetings a week, travel, 11 people reporting to me—and all of their needs; then try and do some actual work—so many distractions that I worry I might miss something important.”

Most leaders I coach deal with this type of thing, and more. They would agree that it’s critical to understand how you keep an insightful, real-time focus on what's important amid the din of daily demands. How does it work for those who have found a way to do this well?

Athletes call it “Field Awareness,” and pilots call it “Situational Awareness.” It’s also been referred to as “being in the zone.” Imagine it as an ability to monitor, manage, and bypass distractions in a systematic manner. Things then seem to slow down, and perception becomes sharper.

Distractions are the enemy of Situational Awareness. I know, it sounds good when you say it fast, but how do you minimize them? Consider these tools, which can be repeated over time, and adapted to what works for you:

1. Make a picture, map, or list of everything you need to know, manage, or decide about your enterprise at a high enough level for it to be a one-pager. Use larger boxes (or fonts, if you tend to be textual rather than visual) for large areas of necessary focus, and smaller for others. Identify which ones are problematic in terms of clarity, priority, or focus—what inputs are you missing? In what ways is information reaching you in a distracting, rather than clarifying manner? Make changes accordingly.

2. When you have a major issue or problem that’s distracting you from other things, it’s important to put it in its place. Try this: imagine an icon for it—something that represents the gist of it—and put it on your mental shelf, next to other things like it. In your reflection, imagine yourself walking away from it, then coming back to it, taking it off the shelf, considering it, and putting it back. Make sure when your reflection is done, it’s on the shelf. Answers will come when you STOP trying to force them.

3. Spend some time daily or weekly time quietly reflecting, rather than “doing.”

4. Monitor your daily distraction level: on a scale of 1 to 10, where are you? Highly distracted (10) or highly calm and focused (1)? Something in between? Once you track this for a while, try capturing a few words about what triggers increases and decreases in your distraction level. This will help you manage it more effectively.

If you take on the task of actively managing and minimizing distractions, your level of Situational Awareness will increase, and you will find greater capacity to achieve and be more fulfilled as a human being, and a leader.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Is someone on your team operating with fear overload?

Let’s face it: “job security” is now officially an oxymoron. As I work with leaders, I see some people thriving in the less secure work world. The majority, however, are dealing with elevated levels of fear, which at times can get in the way of doing their best work. That in turn can make those fears self-fulfilling prophecies.

While unhelpful, these fears are understandable: potential job loss, another difficult economic downturn, unemployment statistics and competition for jobs and clients--these are the background radiation of the workplace and media today, which has risen exponentially over the last three years.

If, as a leader, you care about your people’s well being, then you can help them to identify and address a layoff mentality, particularly if you keep tuned in to these six warning signs:

1. Too tolerant of issues: Putting up with stressful conditions or issues for too long without addressing them

2. Taking on too much: Saying “yes” to too much / not saying “no” when appropriate

3. Good news or nothing: not bringing up substantive issues to you proactively

4. Avoiding necessary conflict: if people aren’t having healthy conflicts, then the dialogue in your organization isn’t as healthy as it can be

5. Teflon coating: When something inevitably DOES go wrong, blaming, hiding or being overly fearful

6. Me against the world: Every person for him- or herself mentality

Those working with some level of layoff mentality are the vast majority. As a leader you can help, if you are so inclined, by recognizing and empathizing with the fears and helping your people work through them.

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

We humans are basically pack animals. We surround ourselves with many of the same faces day in and day out. Over time, that familiarity tends to limit our clarity and curiosity about our “pack mates.” We inadvertently discount their ideas and contributions, often in small ways that can really add up.

It’s as much a problem for leaders as it is for others.

It’s in our nature that, without extra effort, the better we know someone the less real-time awareness of their value we will have. I don’t like to call this “taking people for granted”—while it may describe the others’ feelings, it’s certainly not intentional.

After all, if you commute the same way to work every day, and stop noticing that grey house with all the cars in the driveway, are you taking the house for granted?

You are not. Since you’re not noticing anything “new” about the house, your brain recedes it into the landscape. But if you looked closely at it again, you might see some interesting features you hadn’t noticed before.

And even when we make an effort to really tune in to our pack mates, we don’t always look for the best in them, even though it's worth the effort. Why? When you actively, deliberately look for the best in others, that’s exactly what you’ll find.

Here’s how to practice:

Over the course of a day or two, look at everyone you encounter in a new way—when you lay eyes on them, imagine everything you like (or love) the most about them right away. Then imagine them doing and being at their best.

What do you notice? First, I’ll bet it’s good.

Next, I’ll bet there’s something worth your while that you may have missed, or forgotten, until you tried this little practice.

It takes effort ... primarily, a little self-reminding. And the rewards are great. When you work at it, others will begin to say you're one of those people who makes them feel important, who truly tunes in, and sees them.

In doing so, you'll know how best to deploy them, and at the same time, inspire them to be at their best. That’s worth some effort, wouldn’t you say?

David Peck
Principal and Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Excuses and blaming have reached epidemic proportions in many organizations. It’s human nature, particularly during high-unemployment, high-uncertainty times like these for people to fear for their families and livelihoods, and for that to translate into butt-covering.

Unfortunately, there’s a tremendous amount of time wasted on such behavior. It's ultimately fruitless, as often those who think they're protecting themselves are doing the opposite.

As an executive coach, I see it in the many organizations I visit, and observe the role leaders have in this unwanted pattern.

Clearly, NOTHING constructive ever came from blaming or making an excuse, something good leaders not only know, but also practice and encourage among their teams.

So what creates the organizationally-acceptable habits of blamestorming and excuse-making? Why, you do, dear leaders, by:

1. Asking (and modeling for others to ask) pointless “why questions”: WHY did this happen? Or, WHY, wasn’t this done when it was supposed to be done?

Questions regarding the unchangeable past are NOT productive, and adding insult to injury, WHY questions, in particular, cause people to make excuses. That makes a tidy little cluster bomb of wasted time as people scramble their creative powers -- not to fix or upgrade or improve -- but for the simple evil of explaining away something that can’t be undone.

2. Letting responsibility-shifting skate by.

Leaders have too much of a role in not challenging their people to take individual ownership when they seem to be stepping away from a bad thing. Don’t let blame behavior off the hook. You can say, “Jack, I’d like to see you step up and take responsibility for this one, rather than imply it was someone in XXX department …”

It’s important then to send the word to your organization: recycle, turn off the lights when not in use, and make your organization a 24/7 blame free / excuse free zone. Don't settle for less.

David Peck
Principal
Goodstone Group, LLC

Couple an active imagination with a healthy amount of pragmatism, and you will move mountains.

Whether you’re a facilities manager, CFO, or running the project to develop the next generation of cancer therapy, all of which my clients have done, doing your best work starts with using your imagination.

What we imagine solves problems, sparks us to do our best, and helps us make a more important and meaningful contribution. It can take you from worker or manager to leader.

It’s deceptively simple to do. Imagine a future better than today based on the question: what’s needed here? Then declare it, engage and guide others to make it a reality by identifying and taking the pragmatic steps from Point A, where you are today, to your desired Point B.

In fact, the more we embrace our imagination, the more resilient our leadership becomes when things change, and when dealing with the inevitable stumbles and failures of being human in the workplace.

For example, a coaching client was a young partner at a large law firm. Her progression through the levels of partnership had stalled, and the feedback I collected said she wasn’t standing out among the crowd of hundreds in her practice area. To make it worse, she showed up at a particular coaching session despondent from a loss on a recent matter. Between hours that were down from the previous year, nothing helping her stand out in a positive way, and this loss, she was wondering where it was all heading.

At that very meeting, I asked myself what was needed here, and it led me to ask my client the question: “What if this loss is not the problem, but it’s the solution for everything you’re trying to do?” After she decided I wasn’t insane, we got into a “what’s needed here?” imaginative brainstorming discussion of our own.

The newly emerging legal precedent that tanked her case was, we noted, affecting others in this global firm. Having lost to it, she was indeed an expert—being smart and motivated, she had of course deconstructed the whole thing in fine detail and knew it oh so well.

How could she, now an expert, become a resource to others in her firm—to help it stand out in this area of the law, and gain a new vigor? She pictured what this could look like (I’d tell you the specifics, but I’d have to kill you!), and over time, established herself and her firm as an expert—a center of excellence. Then, as luck would have it, the precedent went to the US Supreme Court. Needless to say she was quoted widely, helped attract business to the firm, stood out among her group, and ultimately was promoted to a more senior partner.

Remember, this all started with the imaginative spark that asks: “what’s needed here?” A vision of something better followed immediately by the wherewithal to make it happen.

Are you happy and fully engaged in your best work? Is your imagination part of your days? Are your people using their imagination? If not, what would need to change for that to happen?

We are not machines. Some times are harder than others. Energy and positivity ebb and flow, and we get in ruts, routines, or simply coast for a while. I look at these times as having temporarily misplaced our imagination, just like my client had done in the example above. And it’s that spark of “How can things be different?” or “There must be something more than this…like what?” that can turn the tide, and help us through the dark night of what feels like paralysis, to a new beginning, and to leadership.

Without imagination, you can likely manage for a time, but you can’t lead. Leadership—meaning full engagement of people being at their best and doing their best work—requires mind, body and spirit, and you’re not going to get those without something born of imagination.

Yet isn’t it worth it? Would you prefer to manage, or to lead? If it’s the latter, then make sure you access your imagination on a daily basis, temper it with pragmatism, and your return on investment of energy will be very positive indeed.

David Peck
Principal and Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Much ink’s been spilled on how to upgrade team performance. Not rehashing that here, but rather underlining the usefulness of asking REALLY tough questions, and providing several specific suggestions for you along those lines.

When evaluating a group that thinks it wants to be a higher performing team, I always ask three “raise the stakes” types of questions. If you work with teams or lead a team, try these on for size, customizing to your situation, of course:

1. What are you avoiding or reluctant to say to one or more of your teammates? That thing no one wants to say, but it’s about time, and needs to be said? (If I’m the asker, I will go so far as: What don’t you want me to know / what are you holding back about this team?)

2. What patterns of action by individuals or the group are not working well, yet your team seems to hold onto as a sacred cow, or tends to let itself off the hook about?

3. How is this team getting in its own way, or being its own worst enemy?

I didn't pull this out of my hat -- I work with teams regularly, and have developed these questions over many, many interviews. They work: if you really lean into these, you’ll likely find some things that are well worth addressing. All you have to do is brace yourself for stronger / better teamwork.

David Peck
Principal
Goodstone Group, LLC

A very senior client got feedback recently that he should be "more directive" with his people--in fact, to tell them what to do and how to do it more frequently. When contacted for clarification, that person was unavailable because they were too busy.

Of course they are.

Let's go with that notion. Why not be VERY directive? Because:

1. You will be too busy being the puppeteer (i.e., telling everyone what to do and how to do it) to do an effective job with vision, strategy, overall course correction, and good high-level problem solving for the whole organization. You will likely feel like you have a ton of bricks on your shoulders, and wonder why people don't pull their weight, or notice that you have to do everything.

2. You will likely demotivate / shut down your best people, as they need to come to you to check on the simplest things. Eventually, they will leave to go to an environment that values and supports effective, independent action and decision-making.

3. You diminish everyone's capacity to be at their best. Yours because you are too busy pulling the strings, and theirs, because they need to come to you for everything.

I advised my client that directive is definitely NOT the way of leadership. Certainly if a tree is about to hit you in the head, then I'm not serving you best by asking you what you think you ought to do about it. Indeed, I should yell, "Move, a tree is falling on you!" Short of that, delegating authority and responsibility is absolutely the way to go.

David Peck
Principal
Goodstone Group, LLC

One of the biggest problems in leadership today: we have a thinking gap.

Doing your best work -- be it running your embryonic start up or managing a global organization -- is impossible to do well without a regular practice of stopping to think about things.

Seem obvious? Well if you do it -- if you take a daily "time out" just to sit and think -- you're the exception.

Most executives I work with are on overdrive. When presented with the possibility of time to do some heavy thinking, they realize they're starving for it, desperately need and want it, yet don't know how to go about it.

One global executive told me, "I just go from thing to thing on my calendar like a robot, and try and think at night (I'm too tired) or other times. But really I just end up putting off the thinking -- the synthesis of all the inputs I'm getting -- until the last minute."

Solution: The Delta Project

Coaching suggestion: Block off a time every day, every other day, or every third day--whatever you can do--give it a name (I use "Delta Project") for your calendar, and use that time to turn off your phone, computer, and other devices, and just sit and think. I suggest a half hour every day, just to start.

You're not allowed to talk to anyone or answer the door.

Take this time out just to sit and think. Notice the temptation to be in action, to be doing something. Well thinking IS doing, and an absence of thought and reflection is a problem for most leaders, and it doesn't have to be yours.

Just try the delta project -- I'm betting you'll get a lot out of it.

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group

"For a while I loved the role, and did some of my best work. But my CEO was unreadable, and over time, I just lost interest." -High-potential / high-performing exec who jumped ship to a competitor.

Being "readable" is better leadership, and enables greater achievements, than unreadable. If people can read you--what's important to you and why, what fires you up and what kicks you in the butt--they can figure out the all-important WHY they should give 100% or more to YOUR vision, versus their own or that of someone else, over the long haul.

Yet like poker players, many executives are unreadable to those around them. Deliberately or unconsciously, they keep their hopes and fears, and how they think and feel about things under wraps until  who knows what and why. There are those too who ask you a question, you answer it, and they give no feedback about your answer. An absence of further discussion and/or another question is the only signal. Huh. I guess we’re done with that topic.

With such a leader, as you deliver work, it’s puzzling as to where you stand, or why one thing works and another doesn’t. It’s almost as if they are issuing a challenge—daring you to solve the puzzle. I don’t know about you, but that’s a sure way to shut down the power to my self-motivation.  Lights off.

As Bob Anderson’s work with the Leadership Circle has shown, keeping yourself distant is a reactive, rather than creative, leadership strategy, one that detracts from an ability to deliver results.

That's why it's important to take a good look at your own “readability index.”  Try your hand--answer the following questions:

1. Level from one to ten, one being “an open book” and ten being “enigmatic / very hard to read,” what would those who’ve worked with you for less than a year say about YOU in answer to the question, “How hard is s/he to read?”

2. Level from one to ten, one being “trust is completely relational” to ten being “trust is completely situational” which of the two-relationship or situation, do you weight more strongly in granting enough trust to open up to someone?

3. Level from one to ten, one being completely extroverted to ten being completely introverted, how do others most often describe you?

4. Level from one to ten, one being “an asset” to ten being “a liability,” how would you characterize readability as a leadership trait?

5. Level from one to ten, one being “very easy” to ten being “very difficult,” how would you describe your level of comfort letting people get to know your more meaningful thoughts, wants, and feelings?

Put your numbers down in "draft."  NOW, make sure to ask someone you trust for their opinion on how you’ve scored yourself.  Be open-minded, and make lots of notes (and reflect later) on your discussion, as some of this may reside in your blind spot.  Once you reconcile with them about the numbers, add them up, multiply by two, and you’ll see yourself on a scale from 100 (completely unreadable) to 0 (completely readable.)

Based on that, determine (and ask your helper) what steps might help you allow yourself to be more easily known and read by others.

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group

Last week I published results of my yearlong survey on email and the workplace. The bottom line was that email is a tremendous time-waster--no shock there.  Today I address what you can do about it.  Here are 10 tips that I offer my executive clients on how to reduce and better manage unwanted email, based on the top ten complaints from the survey.  If you do these 10 things, chances are you'll SIGNIFICANTLY reduce your email overload.

1. Stop unecesary cc:ing, and help others do the same

Coaching tip: Just say no, starting with yourself. We cc: people to be polite and/or to be able to say we included them and/or because they MIGHT be interested. MUST you copy that person?  Maybe means no.  Reply to emails on which you were unnecessarily cc:ed with a note asking that the sender removes you from cc:’s on emails like this one.

2. Make email content more succinct, and encourage others to do the same

Coaching tip: Less is more in these days of email overload.  Limit yourself to a two-two paragraph-or-less rule. If it's longer, you should probably have a conversation. Make sure the first line or two is the main headline and explains the need for the communication. Reply to lengthy emails with feedback to the sender to this effect.

3. Get less of it

Coaching tip: It starts with you--send less, reply less, and use voice to voice more often. Pick up the phone, find someone in the hall. Coach or provide feedback to people who are large generators of email, asking them to remove you from email, when appropriate.

4. Use software to organize email on your computer

Coaching tip: How do you review and organize your email?  Given that, what are two to three things that could make it more manageable? If you have over 300 items in your In Box then it's time for a change.  If you aren't that familiar with the software you're using, RTFM!  Most programs allow you to flag, prioritize, organize in various folders, and search through large sets of email.  Clicking on column headers will often sort large lists by that attribute (e.g., date received, sender, etc.) Set aside a time each week for "email clean up."

5. Subject lines 1 of 2: make the subject line more SPECIFIC

Coaching tip: A subject line is a headline—and as they say in the news business, “Don’t bury the lead.” Make it concisely suggest why someone should open it.

6. Select better software to manage email on your computer

Coaching tip: Take a look at what, specifically, would you like software to do that it’s not doing for you. If you’re not using email management software like Outlook, Entourage, Gmail, MSN, Mail, or Thunderbird, you may want to consider one of those programs. If you are, and you’re dissatisfied, you may want to look at plug in programs that might help you address the specific issue(s).  For example, there are programs that monitor if and when recipients have read your email, and others that support group mailings, etc.

7. Send and receive less "FYI" email

Coaching tip: Consider why you are copying people on your email, or forwarding it to them. If they don’t NEED it to do a good job today, consider NOT sending it to them. If you receive email like this, my suggestion is always that you reply to it with feedback to the sender, as above.

8. Subject line 2 of 2: make the subject line more ACTION-ORIENTED

Coaching tip: It can really help to answer the questions "what" and "by when" right in the subject line.  Add a “Reply needed by Tuesday” or “Your action required by end of month” in the subject line.

9. Recieve less spam, sales, or marketing-related email

Coaching tip: Rather than just delete that annoying spam email "in the interest of time," use the unsubscribe and/or “add to junk filter” buttons.

10. Get more effective spam (junk) email filtering

Coaching tip: Research (learn about) the tools you already have on your computer, and on low cost other tools. If you have IT support, or a web host / web provider, ask for their help. We’re all in this together.

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group

 At just 21 years old (plus or minus) the email dragon has replaced the paper tiger of the pre-PC era. And beyond that, instant messaging is becoming a part of life in many organizations, while whatever comes next (brain implants?) will probably also be piloted by teens, so just watch what they're up to and you'll see the future. Meanwhile, in the here and now, email remains the reality of workplace life.

So I decided to run a simple survey on the topic of email’s impact on workplace effectiveness. The results, presented here at some length, confirm what I’ve seen in my coaching work with executives: the way email is used makes it a significant time waster.

In fact, shockingly, 63% of respondents said they spend more than 30% of their available work time writing, reading, and responding to email, while the majority (71%) of respondents said that it only “somewhat enhances,” “is neutral to,” or even “hinders,” their effectiveness. 40% of respondents said it decreases their balance between work and life outside of work.

Background

A past executive coaching client of mine who runs a large financial services organization told me he was spending tremendous amounts of time reading and responding to email—middle of the night, planes/trains, etc. Yet even so, people I interviewed around him actually complained that he wasn’t responding quickly enough. At that point how to deal with the volume, time pressure, and uselessness of much email became job one in our work together.

Generally, my work is focused on helping clients be happier and more effective leaders. If the client hasn’t conquered this dragon, it is likely to be part of the work we do.

For this reason, and with my client’s blessing, I designed, launched, and completed a public survey entitled “Workplace Email: Timesaver or Taskmaster.” It received 156 respondents over the year or so it was open, 66% of which were from companies of greater than 100 employees, 58% male, 42% female, and the top three industry categories were Financial Services, Professional Services, and Information Technology (including software development.) Maybe a larger-scale, cross-tabulated survey would be warranted, and I have many ideas about that, but I find these responses "ring true" to my experience with clients.

And before I share the results below, I heartily thank the participants who took their valuable time to complete my survey. THANK YOU!

Results

Email’s relevance to doing a good job: 62% of respondents said that 50% or less of the workplace email they receive is “important to doing your job well.”

Volume sent /received: 62% of respondents said they receive more than 50 emails per day, 24% said they receive over 100 per day. Volume / sent: 73% said they send less than 50 emails per day.

Effective ... or not: 82% of respondents said they themselves use email effectively as a productivity tool, while 48% said others in their organization use it ineffectively.

Reasons for sending email: There were over 1,100 responses to the question of why a leader sends a workplace email—here are the top ten responses

1. Make requests of others (10%)
2. Schedule meetings (10%)
3. Communicate status (9%)
4. Resolve an issue or problem (8%)
5. Delegate tasks to others (8%)
6. Update your boss (8%)
7. As an alternative to a phone call (8%)
8. Create a record for future reference (7%)
9. Give positive feedback (5%)
10. Send pre-reading or preview material for meetings (5%)

Big brother is watching: 55% of respondents think someone other than the recipient is reading at least some of their email, and another 7% think that “may be” happening.

Work/Life balance: 40% say that email decreases their balance between work and life outside of work, while 29% say it has no impact, and 28% say it increases that balance. The remainder don’t know or have no opinion.

Mode of communication: 73% said they communicate most effectively “face to face,” while others put email (14%) ahead of telephone (10%) as runners-up.

Nastygram? A whopping 89% said they “rarely” or “sometimes” send email they wished they hadn’t sent, while 11% said they “never” do that.

Device is nice: While 67% said they find the computer most convenient for reading AND responding to email the majority of the time, 13% said it depends on the circumstances, 9% prefer their mobile device for reading email but their computer for responding to it, and 8% prefer their mobile device for everything. Take note Apple, Blackberry, and Android! You’ve got your work cut out for you.

And finally, let’s make it better: Think of this as “ten tips for making email a more effective workplace tool:” Here were the top 10 responses on improving email’s effectiveness. I’ve added one coaching suggestion (that I use for my clients) for each one.

1. If others cut down on cc:ing you for no good reason (13%)

Coaching suggestion: reply to emails on which you were unnecessarily cc:ed with a note asking that the sender removes you from cc:’s on emails like this one as you are working to reduce unproductive time spent on email.

2. If the content of email messages were more succinct (13%)

Coaching suggestion: limit yourself to two paragraphs or less. If it has to be longer, you should probably have a conversation. Make sure the first line or two is the main headline and explains the need for the communication. Reply to lengthy emails with feedback to the sender to this effect.

3. Receiving less of it (10%)

Coaching suggestions: it starts with you--send less, reply less, and use voice to voice more often. Pick up the phone, find someone in the hall. Coach or provide feedback to people who are large generators of email.

4. Better capability to organize email on your computer (8%)

Coaching suggestion: Take a look at how you review and organize your email, and identify two to three things that could make it more manageable. Consider new / different workflow or process in handling email, try them out, or adapt.

5. More specific subject lines (8%)

Coaching suggestion: A subject line is a headline—and as they say in the news business, “Don’t bury the lead.” Make it concisely suggest why someone should open it.

6. Having better software to manage email on your computer (7%)

Coaching suggestion: Take a look at what, specifically, would you like software to do that it’s not doing for you. If you’re not using email management software like Outlook, Mail, Thunderbird, you may want to consider one of those programs. If you are, and you’re dissatisfied, you may want to look at plug in programs that might help you address the specific issue(s).

7. Less "FYI" email (7%)

Coaching suggestion: Consider why you are copying people on your email, or forwarding it to them. If they don’t NEED it to do a good job today, consider NOT sending it to them. If you receive email like this, my suggestion is always that you reply to it with feedback to the sender, as above.

8. More action-oriented subject lines (7%)

Coaching suggestion: many effective email-users will add a “Reply needed by Tuesday” or “Your action required” in the subject line.

9. Less spam, sales, or marketing-related email (6%)

Coaching suggestion: rather than just delete that annoying spam piece, use the unsubscribe and/or “add to junk filter” buttons.

10. More effective spam (junk) email filtering (5%)

Coaching suggestion: Research (learn about) the tools you already have on your computer, and on low cost other tools. If you have IT support, or a web host / web provider, ask for their help. We’re all in this together.

So what?

In short, it's critical to slay your email dragon by realizing you have an active role in improving your own workplace email habits, and encouraging / coaching / providing feedback to others to do the same.

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group

You're in the flow of leadership when you're 100% in this moment, feeling your feelings, and 75% sure anything good can happen.

Yet life has a way of distracting us from the flow.  Fear, anger, strife, pessimism and crisis are everywhere in the world. The challenge is to accept--and not deny--these tragedies and not to buy into the gloom.  You're on your way to being in the flow when you put your whole self into the "full catastrophe" of the here and now, and do it with some optimism.

I told a friend who was doing what I call a "complain refrain" about family and life conditions recently, "What if you're happy, and just unaware of it? What if you've overbought your own sad story?" which he immediately dismissed in favor of continued complaints. Later that day (literally) I was stunned when he called back and said that he's indeed happy, and had no more complaints. Well, pretty much.  But he sounded very grateful and lighter.

We are sprayed daily with heavy media messages of life's traumas all around us.  After all, as they say in the news biz, "If it bleeds, it leads."

To respond at our best, it takes leadership. You can say yes to all of the pain worldwide, and still be surfing this moment, and 75% positive.  You'll be taking yourself and others toward a future better than today.  That 3/4 full glass is the magic ratio of optimsim to pessimism in higher emotional intelligence.

So stand for the notion that things are better than you imagine them, and when you find yourself fully awake to that, and to the now, you're in the flow of inevitble leadership.  I look forward to that, and give the odds of each of us being in the flow, oh, 75%.  Isn't that great?

David Peck
The Recovering Leader

I love my iPad. That’s not in dispute. In the loo, resting on the couch, airplanes, trains—it’s manna from Apple.

However, if I were compelled to stock-watch, email, game, surf, or otherwise entertain myself when someone else was presenting or leading a meeting, I would leave, or not attend in the first place.

I’m not coaching here. I’m asking you: please put it away during meetings.

iPad-mania is sweeping senior executive suites and boardrooms, and it’s simply rude. Junior people who put the slides, board books, or agendas together, or who have planned that presentation for weeks, are wondering why you can’t pay attention, or are completely disinterested in where you are right now.

I said the same thing about Crackberries a while back. Yet the 20-second furtive, under-the-table glance at those devices now seems positively polite in comparison to the 10 to 20-minute interactive I-Pad festivals going on in meetings nowadays.

Do I sound like a bit of a fuddy-duddy? There’s an app for that, I’m sure, but there’s no good app for your iPad in someone else’s meeting.

Unless you’re planning to share your game of WizzlyWogg with the entire meeting, I respectfully request you put it back in its award-winning and oh-so-tastefully-designed sheath.

David Peck
The Recovering Leader

One of the top lessons I’ve learned in my career of 25 years and counting: the best work I’ve ever done and the best jobs I’ve ever had were situations where I designed the job I wanted to do, then chose my boss. Worst were “getting promoted” into, or “chosen” for a job I wasn’t seeking, and/or working for a boss I didn’t admire or respect. Awful.

Designing your job and choosing your boss address two of the three top reasons, according to studies, good people leave good organizations. More about that in the “how to” steps below. (The third reason people leave is “failure to be coached,” and I don’t feel like I can write about that without sounding just a tad self-serving.)

Designing your job and choosing your boss may, to some readers, seem well and good, but not easy during these turbulent times. Yes, it’s not always easy. YET, tough economic conditions and restructuring make every day even MORE important to do what you love for someone you respect. Also, in some ways, turbulence makes change more “permitted” by the work culture—when things are in flux, there’s a window of opportunity for savvy leaders / execs / people ready to transition to carve out a different situation than when things are status quo.

FIRST, though, decide: do you REALLY want to work for someone else? You may want to design your job and choose yourself as your boss, in which case, the remainder of this article isn’t meant for you.

How to design your job:

One of the top three reasons great people leave an organization is because, “my job isn’t what I thought it’d be.” When someone else has written the job description, and/or the scope of the actual role and responsibilities are different than what's stated, this becomes a problem. When you design your own, this guesswork is gone.

1. Do some reflection and research. Imagine what's right in the middle of a five-way intersection of a) what you love to do, b) what you do best, c) your economic needs, d) an organization you admire / respect, and e) what it REALLY needs. Think about the best work you’ve EVER done—what was true in that situation? What made the goodness of that situation tick?

2. Once you’ve found those elements, write a job description that describes a role that could, if done well, deliver high value in terms of people, dollars, technology, innovation, and a greater, lasting good.

3. Make a headline about it, along with a three-sentence description, all of which answer the questions: why should this get the attention of a potential boss among over 100 other things clamoring for their attention today? What’s exciting / making my heart race about it? What’s it going to deliver to the organization?

4. Run it by friends/family/trusted adviser(s), and shut up and listen to what they say (don’t defend it). Beat it up until it sings and dances.

5. Find the top three organizations (either within your company, or in another one) this job is MOST likely to do the MOST good for all involved, and which you admire and respect. Search and research everything about them. Talk to people who know them.

How to choose your boss:

Once you’ve designed your job and found the organizations, it’s time to choose the boss. Another of the top three reasons good people leave an organization is because of the boss. YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR BOSS IS CRITICAL—it affects every area of your life, and CLEARLY not just your life at work. If you haven’t given this as much consideration as choosing, say, someone to date, then you’ve shortchanged yourself very seriously.

6. Find someone you admire and respect in the “target organization” from step five, above. Don’t idealize them—make sure you consider their downside as well—warts and all.

7. Contact them by voice (either live or via voicemail) and let them know you’d like to make a proposal about (your headline from Step 3, above). Someone you’d want to work for would be open to this, even if it takes quite a while to set up on his or her calendar.

8. Meet with them, and make sure you do as much listening as talking. Does it feel easy to talk to them? Are you like “old friends?” Are you like-minded? If those things are true, then there may be a spark of great chemistry between you. If not, MOVE ON. If so, make sure to discuss the potential role you have in mind.

9. And if that high-chemistry boss doesn’t live at this organization, be prepared to look at the other organizations you identified.

Don’t expect all of the above to happen instantly. It may, but more likely will take plenty of time. Well worth the wait to set your standards high enough to give yourself a shot at doing your best, being your best, and working for a boss and organization you feel great about.

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

There’s nothing worse than behavior from your boss that says s/he doesn’t trust you, particularly if you don't deserve it and they don't intend it. Failure to give you responsibility along with authority, not introducing you to a VIP, and micromanaging are all simple and avoidable ways a leader may be sending a motivation-killing signal on the trust front.

To lead effectively you need to have people you can trust, and to show you trust them. Simple, right? Yet even when you intend to trust your people, it’s easy to communicate the opposite.

What signals do you typically send your team about your level of trust? Do you know? Even the smallest things you say and do send signals constantly, signals that are read with more urgency and volume than you might think.

For example, a seemingly innocuous email that says, “I’d like to take a look at that before it goes to the client,” lacks context from you, and can be over-read as, “I don’t trust your judgment when it comes to a final product going out to a client.” If you intend to give the person that feedback, then maybe you need to have a direct conversation about it.

If however, you trust the person and you just want to be copied then maybe some context would help, like, “no problem to send it, I’d like a copy because I’m meeting him for dinner and want to know what we said in case he asks about it.”

It’s important to realize that generally people tend to “over-read” their leaders. Once you know that, you can be more mindful of the impact you have on others.

Particularly among new leaders and entrepreneurs, it’s important to “own” the impact of your behavior on others. Along those lines, here are five ways you can communicate trust:

1. I don’t need to be informed / updated – take me out of the loop, unless you need my support for something specific later on.

2. There’s no need for me to look at it before it goes out.

3. I don’t need to be (at the meeting / event), and I don’t really need to know what happens unless you need my help with something.

4. When it comes to this (business / proposal / idea / project / initiative) I can tell you what I think, but my suggestion would be you use your own best judgment and run ahead with it.

5. You’ve shown you can handle yourself in tough situations like this – I trust you, and you should trust yourself.

These are great messages to send when you trust someone, and you want to make sure you are sending that message clearly and accurately. And when you do that, you are not only leading effectively, you are giving your people a gift worth giving.

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Those who take on the weight of the world, yet who constantly find their own efforts lacking, are more prevalent than one might think.

One such executive told me, “It’s like I’ve got a ton of bricks on my shoulders,” and the weight keeps being added as issues and needs arise around them ... "I get totally exhausted."

It’s a pupu platter of perfectionism and responsibility on overdrive—and it becomes ingrained as the executive / leader / person feels trapped in it: “I can't let it go -- it's how I got to where I am…”

Research has also shown certain firms actually select for overly-self-critical / overly responsible people, as their obsessive work habits are appealing for a time (e.g., high end law firms, high end professional service firms.) Many years later, though, we’re talking a heavy toll of burnout, family problems, resentment, and illness.

I suggest to such execs that you're not trapped -- it’s NOT how you got to where you are—that you got to where you are because you are smart, capable, and motivated. That you got there in spite of, and not because of, these bone-crushing habits.

Two practices for you to try, if you or someone you know may fit this profile:

1. Manage Your Gremlin: Catch / dismiss the voice that says, “It’s never good enough.” Recognize right in the moment it’s happening that it’s whispering in your ear, and give it the rest of the day off. Good enough is OFTEN good enough, especially on the small stuff.

2. Offload, offload, offload: If you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders, and you’re a perfectionist, it’s time to offload responsibilities to others more often than not—until it’s actually uncomfortable for you. Delegate, and if you can’t then don’t take it on.

If you are a perfectionist on responsibility overdrive, try these practices, and let me know what you discover.

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Where are the companies and organizations that live the mission of making the world a better place, every day, in a big way?

Of course I googled it. All you can tell from that is that's their stated mission.  How do you find the companies that truly are LIVING it, where it's in their organizational DNA?  Speak!

I'm not asking for some lofty or rhetorical reason...I'm simply avoiding what I should be doing right now: prepping to meet with my colleagues on the Goodstone Group leadership team tomorrow, we each have to show up having considered the questions that I usually ask others, and rarely think about for myself, like "What matters most to me at this chapter in my life?"

Ok. Rather than work on that, which is important and good, I started a bit of avoidance behavior:  would I ever go back to a role in a large organization's leadership?  Geez, I love what I do, and do it well, and it's what I was meant to do. Yet I'm designed for other stuff too. From coaching to doing...

I think--or maybe I hope--I'd be a much better leader now than I was when, in my early 30's (a decade and a half ago! wow!), I became an executive at Schwab. I was newly sober, newly transitioned from consulting to doing, and frankly, was very rough around the edges.

What's different now, though, is I'd only be able to help lead a company that's living the mission of trying to make the world a better place, because that's what I'm trying to do as an executive coach, and by writing this blog.

Where are THOSE companies? 

Write me if you know the answer, and I should get back to my prework!

David Peck
The Recovering Leader

Aspiring to “win” works for elections and athletic events, but not for leadership.

The language you use as a leader impacts everything about your organization.

The "winner/loser" approach means MY goals are accomplished at YOUR expense. In a simpler world perhaps that made a great deal of sense.  These days, we need each other more often than not.

So “achieving” is a far better aim, as it takes into account the bigger picture—how we are interdependent on each other--in fact, we are WAY too interconnected for the winner/loser mentality to be effective for more than a flash in the pan.

If you’re using the term “winning”  with your people, or a goal/aim in your organization, I ask that you reconsider. How about “achieving”—and the bigger, more interdependent picture that goes with it?

Let me know what you think…

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Some “experts” go around saying failure’s great. After all, they repeatedly mention, Edison had 999 failed filaments before the one that illuminated the first light bulb.

Let's not kid ourselves: failing professionally sucks, particularly during trying times. As most of us are NOT Thomas Edison, the 10th or so filament might in fact be career limiting / bending / ending, disturbing, and downright infuriating.

So I don’t say failure’s good—I tell my clients it CAN BE a good START, provided it's done well.

Years ago, we then-leaders of Charles Schwab & Co. got corralled in a hotel function room during a quarterly meeting. The “expert” gave us a task: walk up to each other, throw our arms up, grin like we meant it, and holler out “Yay! I failed!!!”

We were told this was to stress that we needed to be much more open to failure in our organizations. After it was over, there was much chuckling and eye rolling.

Why? No one believed it. After all, I DID “Talk to Chuck”—I really did, because he was my boss’s boss. And referring to a high priority business I was running, he told me: “Peck, just don’t screw it up.” Although his name was on the door—every door—I don’t think he got the memo that failure was a great thing.

That said, there’s truth in the madness. I see so much butt-preserving behavior these days—unwillingness even to do anything that won’t please others, that a little more failure pheromones would go a long way.

After all, if you’re intensely averse to the IDEA of failing, to laying a big goose egg, or coming up short, then you’re not going to be generating new things, nor creating an atmosphere where people can come up with innovative change. You’ll be fostering more of the same. Do what you do, and you’ll get what you got.

What, then, is a great way to approach failure?  I suggest three things:

1. Have the right attitude.  Yes, failure sucks, AND it’s a great start.

2. Fail small. No one has the appetite or budget for big ticket / large failures.

3. Failing while doing something poorly is always bad.  Doing your best is "great start" failure. It's up to you and your team, and you know it if you're doing it or not.

Try those on for a start, and let me know how and why failure was a great start for you.  And do me a favor: don't say, "Yay, I failed!"

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Does what we feel drive how we think, problem-solve, and lead others?

I used to think not. I’ve recently discovered it’s time to rethink, or, more aptly, re-feel that.

Going through the Emotional Intelligence (EQ) in Action certification course last week, I gained a new appreciation for how feelings drive everything we think and do. Like it or not, neuroscience research has proven feelings trump intellect for being our brain’s “Chairman of the Board.” Even Albert Einstein realized it when he said: "We should take care not to make the intellect our god: it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality. It cannot lead; it can only serve."

Experience and research have shown leaders who are able to experience the full range of their feelings (e.g., anger, anxiety, fear, joy, love, sadness, and shame) in healthy measures lead more effectively, and lead richer lives.

A while back I had an executive client who referred to his feelings as the "f-word" and told me not to bring them up ... at all. In his own time and way he opened up about them, which I believe led to his promotion and later a better role in a different company, one that helped him to thrive personally and professionally.

How does what I’ve said here make YOU feel?

If this all seems like the “touchy feely” stuff to you, you’re not alone. I get a lot of that. Yet that “stuff” isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s crucial for outstanding leadership.

There’s a ton of research, business cases, and excellent reading on this. So if you want more information, or to discuss what your path to EQ may be, contact me. Unlike IQ, which may be a capacity that's measured and left at "it is what it is," many of us have the opportunity to strengthen our EQ.  With an assessment you will discover which feelings you are experiencing, how that measures versus other people, and what you can do to develop those to optimal levels. Thus you can lead and live at your very best.

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

It’s no secret that fear of losing your job will hinder your quality of work, and even put that job in jeopardy. Yet anxiety about job loss is rampant. Layoffs, changes in job, boss, colleagues, and companies have put many on a mental edge and/or ledge.

In my work with leaders I see that excelling in this “new normal” means having the mindset of an enlightened free agent—one who embraces, rather than fears, the idea they’re expendable. Plant your flag in it.  Use it not as brakes, but as fuel to be creative and do your best work.

The 2008 economic meltdown was the “duh” nail in the coffin for any iota of credence to the idea of job security. For those continuing (or aspiring) to work for organizations, rather than for themselves, I see at least three main ways of living with expendability:

1. A free-agent mentality—as mentioned above, the best leaders thrive despite (or due to) being expendable. Perhaps it revs them up, or maybe they’re more Zen than others. They balance self-interest, results, and organizational achievement. Either way, they are unhindered by fear.

2. A denial mentality—those who’ve either dodged “reductions in force” or whose companies have been stable or growing are not thinking about expendability.  That’s a lost opportunity, in my book, but it may well be a blessing, or may lead to a rude awakening. Your actual mileage may vary.

3. A fear-based mentality—many executives are scared for their livelihood, given this new (mercenary) state of “normal.” Their fear twists decision-making around the notion of not wanting to make too many waves, or managing career risk day to day. Big problem, and likely to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Here are my tips for those of you who may be in the fear-based group:

1. If you are mourning the loss of a previous job or working with former colleagues or boss, which you’ll know because it’s got you bummed even though so much time has passed, and/or you’re comparing people and situations now to then, get some therapy or coaching help to propel you through it.

2. If you are making or skirting decisions/choices to avoid the risk of losing your job, it’s worthwhile to face it, and to understand that those choices can COST you your job. Stop rationalizing your held-back decision-making approach, find coaching / support, and/or a mentor from the FIRST group (above), the ones who embrace their expendability.

Subtract fear and mourning over past endeavors, and you will find, as others have, that your expendability can be a source of strength, which is why it CAN be great that your job’s at risk—it’s up to you.

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

I ask leaders: how can you be of service to your people and your bottom line at the same time, rather than serving one at the expense of the other? It gets the leadership juices flowing.

In contrast, “Hit your targets or you’re out,” which I’ve seen more frequently recently, sacrifices those you lead for results. If this weed-out-the-weaklings way of managing is your approach, then the next time your phone rings, it’s prolly the 1950’s calling wanting its management methods back.

Despite what people may be telling themselves, this outmoded ditty isn’t some skillful use of “consequences”—it’s playground bullying with adult consequences. Childish. If you’re walking around threatening your people, then a) you’re not valuing them, b) you’re not leading, and c) you’re disturbing.

Try a more humane approach, like “You’re fired.” Just kidding. Actually, the important questions:

1. Is the person a CHRONIC underperformer?

2. Are they capable and motivated?

3. Is there something HUMAN going on in their world that needs help / support?

4. Are your people easily expendable to you? (Get help.)

5. Given the answers above, how can you be in service both to your people, and your bottom line in a delicious way?

Give it a try.

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

You're paying your people too much to think for them. Guide them to do their own best thinking, and their contributions multiply exponentially.  Directive behavior does the opposite ... it shuts people your up, and shuts them down.

"Why doesn't she do what I tell her to do?! " This CEO mentioned he was having trouble getting one of his divisional presidents to take a new approach to her role. After several weeks of pushing and prodding on his part, he called and asked me to coach him on how to “get her to do it.”

I rejected his automatic assumption that the problem was hers, and looked at the quality and utility of the question he was asking.

I asked him to reconsider the question in terms of the autonomy versus dependence it might instill in his president.  We brainstormed a different question to discuss with her: "What’s standing in the way here?" to which he replied in frustration that he'd rather ask himself what’s standing in the way of him kicking her butt out the door.

Yet he tried it, and she started explaining problems with the new approach that he hadn’t thought through on his own. In fact, he re-thought the approach he was taking and decided to take a different tack.

When a leader isn’t getting what s/he wants out of someone, it’s important first to look in the mirror and ask "What do I need to change in the way I am leading to launch them into effective, independent action?"

In contrast, a get-them-to-do-my-bidding approach requires constant care and feeding—first you push and prod just to get them to do it. If you look away, they may stop, so it requires constant attention.

It’s a perfect recipe for wasting your time and theirs, marginalizing everyone’s contribution, starting with your own.

If you tend toward telling, try asking questions that draw out answers that propel your people forward on their own.

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

It’s a common belief among high achievers that they are not as smart, talented, or capable as people think they are--something they see themselves as managing to hide from others. It’s been identified in popular psychology as the “Imposter Syndrome.”

When I was newly-promoted to Senior Vice President at Charles Schwab, Dan Limon, then our EVP of Corporate Strategy, gave us the secret handshake speech and addressed the newly-anointed in an interesting way.

He asked, “How many of you feel like imposters—meaning, if they knew you, they’d realize you were a fraud?” Almost everyone raised his or her hand, which I found quite a shock.

It’s a juxtaposition of your beliefs versus reality: you’re actually DOING so well, yet in the head/heart, you’re counting the days before “they find out, and the gig is up.”

So if you or someone you know can identify with this, then I have two messages for you:

1. You’re in GREAT company – many high-achievers feel this way.

2. It’s probably a gremlin, and not reality. Chances are that you are where you are because you’re capable and motivated, and NOT because you’ve somehow pulled the wool over people’s eyes…

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group

Speak the language of leadership--for example, if you tend to say "Help me understand...," then consider that the recipient of this "question" will probably hear it as criticism. They hear you saying: "you don't get it," or "you're wrong," or "I disagree," or "you're slow."

Another variation is: "I'm not smart enough to understand..." (whatever you are saying, proposing, analyzing, or suggesting.)

If you truly WANT to ping someone for understanding wthout telegraphing anything negative, try asking more childlike and direct questions, like "What is this?"  or "How does that work?"  If you want to be critical, then offer some kind, necessary, and candid feedback privately.

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group

“How can my organization be even more effective?" It's a great question from my clients, and one answered first and foremost as an “inside job”—that is, I suggest and help the executive to look at their own leadership choices in 10 practical areas and identify opportunities for improvement.

Thinking about your own leadership and organization, how about giving it a try? Here's how:

Below I explain the factors, and attached, you'll find a do-it-yourself evaluation sheet that walks you through an assessment, and asks you to identify actions you can take. The stronger you are in each of these areas, the higher the likelihood for success for all you hope to achieve.

On to the ten factors:

Factor One: Select and retain highly capable, self-motivated people to do the job, and avoid hanging on to others.

Getting the right people on board and the wrong people out can be a challenge. A VERY common error is to hang on to chronically low-performing people. A capable, self-motivated person can make the difference between a good outcome and a great one, while someone lacking these qualities will drag you down. Setting high standards for the people you choose, and not hanging on to others, is critical to any objective.

Factor Two: Give your people clear guidelines, and then let them deliver in their own way—don’t hover or micromanage.

To get the most out of your excellent people, show them the game, playing field, and the values, guidelines, and milestones required to win. Then, let them play in their own way. This requires trust and verification on your part, but it is more effective than riding herd over them. Your team needs clarity from you about values, deadlines, revenue, cost, and how you define success—what will literally delight you. By combining clear guidelines and good delegation, you increase the likelihood of success, and also retain your outstanding players.

Factor Three: Give your people a sharp picture of the desired outcome from the start.

Projects and businesses can fail because the definition of what you hope to achieve is fuzzy or a moving target. Take all of the necessary time to define up front what measurable outcomes will delight you. Studies show vagueness about key outcomes often leads to failure. Go over it repeatedly with your team until any assumptions are replaced with actual information. Leaders who have the courage to pause and clarify outcomes significantly increase the likelihood of success.

Factor Four: Create a culture where people are rewarded for being brutally honest.

Extraordinary results require a culture in which those you lead are rewarded for telling the grit-your-teeth truth. Take inventory of the culture you are creating, and be on the lookout for hesitation when it comes to full disclosure. By modeling and inviting brutal honesty, you enable your team to detect its own errors, and correct them, while providing you the “real story,” on which you can base smart leadership decisions.

Factor Five: Supply adequate resources to the task at hand.

Problems are often caused by either a shortage or a glut of resources. The fast-paced culture in the workplace tempts us to jump in now and be more precise about resource needs later. It takes leadership to carve out the time to calculate resource needs from the very beginning. By doing great job of allocating resources from the start, you stand a better chance of success.

Factor Six: Challenge your people by setting a high bar.

Capable, self-motivated people tend to work best when they are truly challenged. It is important to understand what motivates each key person, and set expectations within their grasp yet beyond their immediate reach. This keeps it interesting enough for them, producing a positive creative tension. Your best people are then more likely to run at full speed, even as you improve the chances for success.

Factor Seven: Implement simple yet profound measurements for success and failure.

How do you measure success? How do you know if you failed? If it’s not crystal-clear, perhaps it’s time to look more closely at your definitions of each. A great and simple measure for success and failure provide a compass for everyone involved that answers the question: where are we now, and where are we heading? Such a compass sets the stage for your team to act independently and effectively toward a common goal.


Factor Eight: Set up reliable, honest, and concise reporting on current and look-ahead progress, and watch it carefully.

A clear progress report requires three elements: reliability, honesty, and brevity. Low reliability of information causes issues. Incomplete or anecdotal information leads to bad decisions. Too much information creates an inability to focus on what’s important. Careful and ongoing attention to each of these elements greatly increases the likelihood of success.

Factor Nine: Establish clear consequences linked to the success or failure of milestones and outcomes.

The consequences related to interim milestones and final outcomes are often glossed over or ill-defined. Set milestones that - if missed - could threaten the overall effort, and link them to predefined consequences. In this way, success and failure will be clear to everyone, and no one can be surprised when consequences - either positive or negative -follow.

Factor Ten: Create a stream of continuous feedback that helps you detect and correct problems.

Outcome is a result of people, resources, and process. Great processes are designed to self-educate – that is, they are designed to identify and correct errors in a timely way. Building in real-time error-detection and correction feedback mechanisms will improve the quality of intended outcomes continuously. The process should make itself more effective over time, making “ah hah!” moments an ongoing thing, rather than at the end, when it’s too late.

Download Recovering Leader Self-Assessement

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group, LLC

Delegation at its best sets up capable people to do their best work for you in their own way. Low-yield delegation is command and control. Here are five simple steps to delegation excellence, based on many executive coaching assignments where I worked with clients on developing their best in this area:

1. Engage the best person or team. Look with harsh realism at their capability, throughput, level of self-motivation, and current workload. All must be “green lights.” Compromising on the “who” of delegation is a self-limited practice.

2. Crystallize first for yourself, then your chosen one(s), what you want done, and conditions for success. Explain what you need done, when you need it, and what must be true at the end for you to be delighted with the outcome.

3. Contextualize your request or need. Explain why you need it—explain how it fits into the bigger picture. This is often skipped “in the interest of time.” Ignoring or glossing over this step is almost always a mistake.

4. Supply necessary materials and authority. Give the person or team the resources, responsibility and authority necessary to get the job done. When you delegate resources, responsibility for the outcome, and decision-making authority to the same person or team, you create conditions for ingenuity.

5. Verify. Agree on a simple, powerful “push” progress measure and process. You’re busy, and don’t want to have to “pull” information out of the responsible person or team. Agree on a check in method that sends you simple information needed to follow along, and course-correct as necessary, and that raises a flag if/when there’s a break down of communication and/or progress.

Take the time to engage, crystallize, contextualize, supply, and verify when delegating, and you’ll likely get the best from your people and teams.

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group

The leader’s innovation challenge is how to make major changes produce pragmatic results. So much is written about "innovation" that I think misses the mark on actually innovating.  There are way more “great ideas” than can be done, but not enough leaders capable or willing enough to do them.

Leaders and their organizations are used to being and doing things as they are today. This (what I call) status quo fetishism is so powerful that great companies of the past have shown a disinclination to accept what’s plain as the nose on their face and undergo transformative change, adopting new approaches, products or services.

If you accept my assertion about the distinction between innovation and innovating, then it’s important to know in what ways are you a change-maker or change-breaker. This self-test might help:

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, where one is skeptical and 10 is open-minded enough to try something different and see where it leads, rank how you tend to respond to ideas / suggestions from credible people for significant change in your organization?

2. On a scale of 1 to 10, where one is completely satisfied, and 10 is completely dissatisfied, rate your attitude toward the current products, services, people, and organization you lead?

3. On a scale of 1 to 10, where one is "very unwilling to allow for a potential failure" and a 10 is “could weather a potential failure well,” rate your proclivity to deal with a potential failure from implementing change.

4. On a scale of 1 to 10, where one is less than once a month and 10 is frequently each week, how often do the meetings you conduct focus on pragmatic steps to implement options for significantly different approaches to people, process, technology, or all of the above?

5. On a scale of 1 to 10, where one is risk-focused and 10 is reward-focused, how does risk management versus the potential for rewards tend to influence your decision-making?

6. On a scale of 1 to 10, where one is completely passive (interested but not doing anything about it), and 10 is completely active (experimenting, piloting new approaches, people, products or services on an ongoing basis) how would you assess your own engagement in what and how things could be different in your organization?

Now do the math: add up your six ratings, multiply by 1.66, and this will give you a percentage of 100.

If you scored below 70, take a fresh look at those questions you scored lower, and ask yourself what might need to change in how you think about / execute innovation.

If you scored between 70 and 90, bravo, you are more of a change maker than a change breaker. What can you do to shore up the lower scores?

If you score above 90, the question is if you might want to look a tad more carefully before you leap? Just a concern for you to keep in mind.

Consider the factors I’ve queried, above: open-minded, dissatisfied with the status quo, failure-tolerant, attentive to new ideas, reward-focused, experimentation-inclined. Many leaders have rejected tremendous opportunities because they lacked (or shied away from) one or more of these six factors. Such resistance is understandable—after all, transformative change upsets our sense of normalcy. Yet this need not be you. How open are you to these key ingredients in your world? Make any necessary changes to get yourself and / or your team in shape for innovation.

David Peck
Senior Executive Coach
Goodstone Group