Recently a coaching client asked me, “How can I get my team to be more proactive?”. Good question. If you asked just about any leader if they want their team to use more initiative and be on the front foot, they’d say “Yes”… but ask them how they can build the sort of team where being proactive is second nature and most leaders will fumble for an answer.

I believe it’s not just a matter of hiring people with a track record of taking action. Sure, some people seem to be initiators by nature but I’ve seen people like that shine in one company and wilt in another. Rather than focus here on finding proactive people let’s talk about how to create a proactive culture that shapes the people who work in it.

If you want proactive team members, give them a B.R.E.A.K.

Backing
Ask yourself the question, “If things didn’t turn out well when one of my team members used initiative, would I back them anyway?”. Say they responded to your call for cost cutting by ditching a popular project. Other team members are frustrated, and it was probably the wrong call, but they acted when you asked them to act. What now? This is a moment of truth. If you back them publicly (even if you bring a little correction privately) they’ll probably grow from the experience. If you don’t back them, the whole team learns that what you actually want is for people to not make mistakes.

Reward
I’m amazed how often I see a blatant contradiction between what a leader says he or she wants from the team and what they actually reward in those they lead. If you want proactivity then promote those that step up. Don’t reward playing it safe, perfectionism, procrastination or people-pleasing. What you reward and what you punish are potent reminders to those around you of what you really want. It also teaches people what you’re prepared to settle for.

Example
The expression “hypocrite” comes from Ancient Greece and was used to describe the actors in their plays who wore a mask. Wherever hypocrisy creates a gap between what we want from others and what we expect of ourselves the impact of our personal leadership is diminished. If you want others to seize opportunities and challenges with decisive action, then ask yourself the honest question “Am I myself a shining example of what I want?”. If your answer is anything less than a confident yes, then make no mistake- you have lowered the bar for everyone.

Authority
There’s nothing worse than being handed a task for which you have all the responsibility without the authority. Successful leaders deputise others. It’s not enough to simply give a person the title, the brief or marching orders. Are they empowered to act? To make all necessary decisions and changes? To carry out their mission without your constant feedback? To gain the buy-in of other team members because their mandate and authority is clear?

Knowledge
Lastly teams become proactive when they have clear knowledge and understanding of what you want, when, how and why. One of the surest ways to create indecisiveness is to withhold information. Without certainty about their goals, roles and boundaries most team members start to flounder. The more effort I make equip my people with the right knowledge, the more likely they are to do the right thing, at the right time, in the right way.

So rather than challenge your team again to “be proactive”, maybe it’s time to take another look at the culture you’re creating.

I’d love to hear your comments and feedback

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While in the USA recently I watched a documentary on the leadership development programs of the US Marines. I was struck by what a senior officer described as their “leadership philosophy”: Know Yourself, Know Your Job, Know Your People.

Undoubtedly, the Marines are an elite and highly effective military force. Their leadership training must equip graduates to make life and death decisions under the most extreme circumstances. Leadership is a complex responsibility and yet they responded with a stunningly simple and potent philosophy. Know yourself, know your job, know your people.

By contrast I’m deeply concerned that so many business leaders can’t describe their plans without a 50 page document and Powerpoint slides. In complex times, every leader must choose to simplify. So here’s how to lead like a Marine:

Know Yourself
Before you assume this is the “easy one”, why not do a quick inventory of your self awareness?

• What are your top five values?
• What have been your key life-defining events and how have they shaped how you see yourself and your world?
• What are your greatest strengths as a leader?
• What are your greatest weaknesses and opportunities for growth?
• What are your blind spots and what are you doing about them?
• What makes you angry?
• What are you most afraid of?
• How do you change when you’re under pressure?
• How do others see you as a leader?
• … and we haven’t even scratched the surface.

Self awareness is foundational to effective leadership. To know yourself is a challenging mission.

Know Your Job
You cannot truly succeed in any role without understanding your job. Not just what activities are you to be involved in, but what results are you there to deliver? Clarity in understanding your role and objectives is critical, and without it you’re like a sportsperson competing without knowing the rules of the game. Lasting success becomes unachievable.

I wonder what would happen if I was to interview you and ask you to describe to your job in detail? What if I then asked your boss how he or she sees your role? And what about those who report to you? What would I get? Consistency? Conflict? Clarity? Confusion?

If you haven’t got clarity on your job- get it or get going elsewhere, because you can’t succeed without it.

Know Your People
Something I have observed often as I’ve coached individual leaders is that many haven’t made the effort to get to know the people they lead. Some believe a convenient myth about keeping people “at arm’s length”. Some have never applied themselves to understanding people with a different outlook or personality to their own. Some are preoccupied with themselves and lead people as resources rather than human beings (which is why “Human Resources” is a sort of oxymoron to me).

To my shame, I’ve led people for years only to discover later that I hardly knew them at all – that they had a painful divorce, a life’s mission, a serious illness… whatever it was, I knew nothing about it. Not because it was a secret, but because I was content with only a superficial knowledge of my team.

But the Marine Commander’s benchmark for leadership was extraordinary. “I will not let a man become an officer that I would not allow to lead my own son into combat”, he said. That’s a serious benchmark for knowing the people you lead.

Recently a friend said to me, “Criticism is the death gargle of a non-achiever”. It’s a great statement and I’ve found it to be true. Many years of leadership have given me the opportunity to see the long-term impact of different mindsets on a person’s life. The truth is that all too often those whose criticism rings the loudest are the very same people who have contributed nothing but words. Non-achievers.

It’s easy to be a critic. To pick apart what others have created. To appoint ourselves as judge and look down on those around us. To deflect attention from our own inadequacies by focusing on what we believe are the faults of others. Sadly in Australia, where I live, it is so common in our culture that we created a name for it – Tall Poppy Syndrome.

We’ve probably all sat in business meetings where the culture made being creative nearly impossible. In that environment you quickly learn that bringing an idea to the table is seen by others as invitation to shoot you down. Those businesses often wonder why there isn’t more innovation coming from their team, but they don’t recognise that their critical culture is the silent killer of creativity.

I just spent seven weeks traveling with my family. While we were in New York City I saw a subway advertisement that read “Stupid creates. Smart critiques. Be stupid”. To me it was a great reminder that there’s a certain risk of appearing stupid that comes with being creative instead of critical. But it’s the risk every achiever must take.

Does that mean that we should never be critical? Do we hold back on feedback? No, I believe it’s really about the overall balance of our communication. It’s one thing to offer suggestions on how something could be improved, and another thing altogether for negativity to be your default setting. What’s the theme of your communication? Do you tend to notice and commend what is good, or notice and condemn what could be better? When my team know I am for them and I give encouragement whenever possible I can bring criticism from time to time without becoming “the critic”.

I recently heard speaker Steve Penny say, “I would rather fail tremendously than live dismally”.

To me that’s the bottom line. I’d rather being defined by my creativity than by my criticism.

I’d love to hear your comments and feedback

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The Leadership Coach tripled in readership in 2009. Thanks to all of you who’ve helped me spread the word!

And along the way here are the 10 most read posts of the year. Feel free to add your comments too.

1. Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast
2. You Lost Me At Hello
3. What Successful Leaders Focus On
4. Who Is In Your Drawer?
5. Do You Lead Through Hindsight, Insight or Foresight?
6. Alignment Check
7. Loan Car Syndrome
8. Think Like Your Successor Would
9. The Trust Experiment
10. Unfollow: Twitter’s Reminder To Leaders

Keep an eye out for the brand new look coming very soon to www.theleadershipcoach.com

What could you stop doing in 2010, to do more of what gets real results?

This time of year most people are setting goals and making plans that revolve around adding things to their lives. New projects. Extra staff. More products and services. The problem is that many leaders are hoarders when it comes to strategies. Over time their teams become burdened beneath the weight of ideas that have outlived their usefulness.

Here’s a new mantra for shaping your new year: Simplify.

Often the most effective plans are marked by simplicity not complexity. So before you rush headlong into planning your new year with the assumption that leaders are supposed to constantly add, why don’t you take stock of what you already have?

Don’t add, subtract to multiply your impact.

My wife and I have been spring-cleaning our house in recent weeks. There’s something liberating about throwing things out. Giving yourself permission to jettison all those items that you’ve hung onto just in case they become useful again at some point. As a coach I’ve worked with businesses that need a serious spring clean. Purge the plans. Rethink what is valuable. Get ruthless with things we’ve outgrown or rarely use.

I believe there’s wisdom in the well-worn saying “less is more”. Often the most creative thing you can do is simply stop doing something that isn’t working. In trimming the deadwood you create the space for the best things to flourish.

The Pareto Principle suggests that 80% of your results in life are produced by only 20% of your efforts, and my own experience seems to prove that true. It’s a great theory that many of us already know, but it’s not until you actually apply it to your plans that it makes any difference. So if you had a life-threatening illness and could only work one day a week because of your health, what would you focus on when only 20% of your week was left? Make 2010 about those things.

• Is a stocktake of your priorities long overdue?
• Is it time to write a not-to-do list, as David Allen suggests in ‘Getting Things Done’?
• Could you de-clutter your mind and your plans with a ruthless spring clean?
• Is 2010 the year to simplify? Subtract to multiply.

I’d love to hear your comments and feedback
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Four frustrating hours on Adelaide roads last week got me thinking about leadership. I must confess that few things in life can test my patience like drivers who sit in the fast lane oblivious to the fact that they are choking up the traffic. I know all the right things to tell myself about how “it’s an opportunity to slow down and develop some patience”. But the truth is I had somewhere I needed to be and three lanes of traffic were crawling well below the speed limit because a few individuals wouldn’t get out of the way.

That’s a picture of many organisations. When those who are in leadership positions don’t lead they choke up the pathway to the future. They’re often unaware of the frustration others feel towards the pace they are setting. But it’s called the fast lane for a reason (or a passing or overtaking lane depending on where you live). What a huge disservice it is to teams when they’re led by people who have forgotten that leadership is not just another lane, it’s a fast lane that should be used purposefully or else vacated so others can lead.

So how do you know if you’re being a Fast Lane Frustration as a leader?

1. Check Your Rear View Mirror
If you look behind you in leadership and people are chomping at the bit to get past you then perhaps you should ask yourself if you’re using the leadership lane effectively. You can tell people to be more patient, blame the next generation for being pushy, or defend your right for it to be “your turn” but there’s no escaping the responsibility that comes with that lane. Do what you want in the slow lane, but if you’re going to choose the fast lane, use it well.

2. Check Your Speed
I’m not saying that every tailgater is evidence that I’m not leading. The truth is some people really do need to slow down and stop being a hazard. But I should be prepared to check my own speed to see if I’ve slowed down without realising it. Perhaps I got into the leadership lane full of vision and ideas but lost some momentum as time went by.

3. Check Your Attitude
Do I see leadership as my right or do I see it as a responsibility? My attitude towards others and towards my position in leadership can create dangerous blind spots. It’s interesting how easily I can judge people as ‘idiots’ for driving slower than me, while labeling others as ‘maniacs’ for driving faster than me. A little self-awareness and a healthy does of humility can serve a leader very well.

4. Check If You’re Getting Ahead
How long since you actually passed somebody? The leadership lane isn’t the place for just keeping pace with the rest of society, it’s designated for progress. Have you got the same peer group as you had five years ago or have you passed some of them and caught up with others that used to be ahead of you on the leadership journey?

As for me, my leadership commitment is clear. I will pursue self-awareness, be aware of the pace I set and check my attitude regularly. And if the day comes when I am not using the leadership lane to make progress anymore, then I will get out of the way so someone else can.

I’d love to hear your comments and feedback
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I met a coach recently who had tried to give away $50 notes on the streets of Sydney. I was fascinated as he told the story about how hard it was to give away genuine money to strangers. Some people apparently thought it was a scam. Some avoided eye contact and just walked past him. Others actually crossed to the other side of the street when they saw him trying to hand out cash. What does that say about human nature? Why is skepticism the default setting for many of us? I wonder how many good things have I talked myself out of because they seemed just ‘too good to be true’.

For better or worse, people don’t tend to trust strangers. Think about what that means for your organisation. Too often we focus on the value of our product or service in the way we communicate with our target audience. We tell them it’s the best, the most, the first, the only. But you’ll have to do better than that to convince strangers who would cross the street to avoid free cash. Regardless of how valuable what you’re offering truly is, without trust it mostly falls on deaf ears.

So what can we do to bridge the gap?

1. Build some trust
Trust is foundational for relationship, and relationship closes the gap between us.

• If your goal in sales and marketing was developing trust (instead of pitching how amazing your stuff is) what would you do differently?
• What could you stop doing that has been eroding their trust?
• Who do they trust already and what could you learn from them?

2. Build a crowd
I suspect the $50 trust experiment would turn out differently in a crowded shopping centre. Instead of confronting individuals with my offer, if I was shouting it to a crowd it would only require a few people to decide it was worth the risk and a tipping point would be reached. As people saw others running to a guy who was handing out cash, more and more of them would override their cynicism for fear of missing out on a good thing. Such is the power of a crowd.

• How could you create the stampede effect with your one-to-many marketing?
• What else could you do to enable your core clients to spread the word to the crowd?
• Do people see a crowd when they look at you? Most people don’t want to go first.

3. Build their dream
A friend of mine called Taki is a marketing guru and he often says, “Education builds rapport, selling breaks rapport”. I write The Leadership Coach every fortnight for thousands of people and give it away free, but education has built rapport. So it’s no surprise that most weeks I receive an enquiry about a speaking engagement or leadership workshop as a result of these articles. In helping others build their dreams I’m seeing my own dream built.

• What could you do to help people achieve their dreams?
• Do they see you as a salesperson or partner in their vision?
• How well do you understand the dreams and challenges of those you hope to influence?

I’d love to hear your comments and feedback
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It’s widely accepted as common sense that increasing transactions is good for your business, but often it just isn’t true.

• Have you ever purchased something at a store and got the distinct impression that you were an interruption to the salesperson?
• Have you received the sort of service that leaves you wondering if that business saw you as a person or a ’sale’?
• Or how about the salesperson who rattles off their script and doesn’t seem to hear a word you say?

The danger for those businesses is that on the profit & loss statement those transactions might have looked good, but the experience left you less likely to choose that business again. So what is the solution? I’m convinced that it’s not just transactions that build your business- it’s interactions. Transactions are ok to a point, but nothing leaves an positive impression on people like great interactions do.

I have three kids and I remember clearly those first moments when each of them were born. I’ll never forget looking into my daughter’s eyes for the very first time. In that moment we had a connection that didn’t require words and that impacted me for life. Sadly though I have found that in the busyness of life, with all of its pressures and to do lists, that it’s easy for those interactions with my kids to deteriorate into mere transactions. Played with the kids? Tick. Got the groceries? Tick. Baths and bedtime? Tick. Transactions.

So if even the most significant relationships in our lives can slip into becoming transactional, how much more is that true of your customers who you connect with for just a few minutes? Sometimes it’s easier to just churn out transactions than to take a moment and connect with people in a genuine way. But interactions are what human beings crave. Sure, we have our busy days when we just want to buy something and go. But at the core of human nature is a desire to matter, to be noticed, to be treated with dignity, to connect.

But how does a leader build the sort of team that deliver on this consistently? Here’s one answer. I spoke at an event for small business owners recently and a very successful franchise owner shared her hiring strategy. It was simple yet profoundly effective. She said “I hire for personality, then train for skill”. While other franchise owners were looking through applicants’ resumes for experience in food service or academic achievements she was looking for one thing – the right personality. “I can train them to operate a register”, she said “but I can’t train them to be nice”. And with that simple formula she was building a winning team.

So perhaps it’s time to do an inventory-

• Where does personality feature on your list of priorities when hiring staff?
• Are you underestimating the number of roles on your team that need to be delivering genuine interactions?
• And what do people experience when they connect with your organization? Transactions or interactions?

I’d love to hear your comments and feedback
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I’m not a gifted sportsman, in fact even ‘competent’ is a stretch most of the time. But one sport I picked up quickly was snowboarding. There’s something exhilarating about hurtling down the side of a mountain strapped to a snowboard with trees and rocks all around you that heightens the senses and reminds you that life is short (and could be even shorter if you don’t take up a different hobby).

Every instinct in my body led me to believe that leaning back in a defensive posture was the way to stay safe. Yet ironically, keeping your weight on your back foot is in fact about the surest way to fall. My breakthrough came when I got out of my defensive stance and shifted my weight to my front foot. My instincts told me that this was dangerous, that I would fall and hurt myself, that this was risky. The reality was that I fell less often and then relaxed and enjoyed myself. Those defensive instincts had actually caused much of my pain.

Leaders have to learn to favour their front foot. Aware of the dangers all around them and sometimes still hurting from the last fall, the leader must choose to override defensive posturing and get on the offense. Their default setting must become action not inaction. To press forward not lean backward. To push through pain and go again. In other words they lead with “front foot favouritism”.

So why don’t more leaders do it? Well for one thing it often goes against our instincts. Unless you have a natural inclination towards risk and action, it tends to be a difficult choice at first to contravene what seems like self-preservation and get on the front foot. But with time and success you slowly form a new neural pathway in your brain until eventually “front foot = self-preservation”. The other reason that leaders stay on the back foot is that once in a while that hesitation and passivity actually pays off and saves them from making a “wrong” choice. But what they don’t tend to see is the enormous opportunity cost – all the times they missed out on real wins while they played it “safe”.

The conservative perfectionist part of me can worry about making the wrong choice. The problem is that it’s often better in the long run to make more decisions, even if a few of them are wrong, than to make only a few decisions but get nearly all of them right. In the scheme of things the decisive leader actually makes many more right decisions than the conservative leader does. And the momentum from all that forward motion enables them to take a few mistakes in their stride.

So what is your default setting? The front foot or the back foot? Of course there are times when it’s appropriate to pause and assess the situation or to wait a crisis out. But for leaders those moments should be by choice, and not by default.

I’d love to hear your comments and feedback
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I was speaking in Singapore last week to a group of marketers from across Asia/Pacific on what it means to be a “Trusted Advisor”. These are turbulent times in the world of marketing. By nature marketing tends to be about longer term strategic direction yet many companies are sacrificing that agenda in the current climate in favour of short term results. Often marketing results take more time to produce and more effort to measure than areas like sales. And on top of all that, Web 2.0 and the likes of Facebook and Twitter are revolutionising traditional marketing and marketplaces.

Simply put, I believe there has never been a more important time for them to be Trusted Advisors. There are six distinctive traits that set Trusted Advisors apart from Typical Consultants. Regardless of your industry, if your role requires giving advice or expertise to others then your goal should be to transcend the Typical Consultant and become the Trusted Advisor. So what are the differences? Let’s talk about three.

Culture Creator vs Adaptable

I heard a respected CEO last week say “Leadership creates culture, and culture creates performance”. I wrote an article recently called “Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast” because leaders must recognise that no amount of strategy will save you if your team culture does not support your goals. The Trusted Advisor sees it as part of their charter to help cultivate a culture that is conducive to lasting success. By contrast the Typical Consultant is simply adaptable – their goal is to fit in. Where one is a thermostat, the other is just a thermometer. One changes the temperature of the room, the other merely measures it.

Lifelong Learner vs “Qualified”

Something I’ve observed about Trusted Advisors is that they treat their education as a journey rather than an event. The Typical Consultant is merely “qualified”. They have degrees, experience, achievements and references. All past tense. But how much of what they learned is no longer true? To what extent does their experience blind them to new possibilities? Are they “qualified” for the future or only for the past? The Trusted Advisor recognises that there is always more to learn especially in an age of constant change. They learn to love learning. The humility to acknowledge their own need to grow is a key reason why others trust their advice.

Innovator vs Mechanic

Innovation is a word at risk of losing all meaning through overuse. My personal definition is: Innovation = Creativity Harnessed To Purpose. The Trusted Advisor is focused on future purpose and possibilities. Instead the Typical Consultant is more like a mechanic – fixing problems and keeping things running. There’s nothing wrong with being a mechanic, but to become a Trusted Advisor we must show that we can move from what is to what could be through innovation. Recently someone said to me that “marketers need to keep up with the developments in social media”. I don’t agree. Keeping up is not enough if you want to be a Trusted Advisor. The Trusted Advisor needs to lead the way.

So, which one are you being for the clients you serve? The fact is that Typical Consultants do good work and tend to get good results. Being a qualified, adaptable, skilled mechanic is a pretty reasonable start. But it’s not enough.

I’d love to hear your comments and feedback
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