Toward More Curiosity

Da Vinci is one of the most interesting characters in the life of the world. Both artist and scientist, he created some of the most loved objects for all mankind. In addition to some of the most revered art, he designed objects like cars, tanks, and planes while just wondering about how things worked. Much of his work is seen as ahead of his time. But more about Da Vinci in a sec.

Over the past two years, I have found myself exploring the art of curiosity more and more. Often overlooked, it may be one of the best tools leadership can harness. We know that curiosity enhances learning, but did you know that it has been found that curiosity has a direct causal influence on job performance. Having taught leadership for 20+ years now, it is clear to me that curiosity is a force we must harnest to be competitive as individuals, teams, and organizations.

There are two main types of curiosity. One, Extrinsic is common and readily available. Just lock your keys in your car or run out of gas.. you will be extrinsically curious as to where the nearest gas station is. When I talk to groups about leadership and curiousity.. I am concerned with intrinsic curiousity. The art of just being curious for no particular reason. Which brings me back to Da Vinci. Of all the amazing things he was able to do in his life, I found his art work of birds and the shape of their wings in motion amazing. With no modern aids, no slow-mo video, just hours of silent observation, Da Vinci captured the mechanics of flight... Man he was curious. Intrinsically! He just wanted to know.

What is the implication for leaders. The next time you have a conflict with one of your peers or direct reports, try to be a little more curious. A little less sure....

"My Anti-Creativity Checklist" by Youngme Moon

Leading Change

I was honored this week to give the inaugural presentation to the National Association of Extension Program and Staff Development Professionals (NAEPSDP) across the Internet. The topic was leading through the sea of change. It is available online if you would like to listen in to what I shared.

https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p32206844/

J.J. Abrams' mystery box | Video on TED.com

J.J. Abrams' mystery box Video on TED.com

If you can do one thing in leading others.. create a context where they can think about mystery boxes!

How vulnerable are you?

Brene Brown does a remarkable job of explaining the importance of being vulnerable from the perspective of a social worker, but you can tell by her conversation that it is also about leading others. Watch the video and then join me for discussion below:

http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html

This video raises so many good questions for executives trying to lead others. It also complements the work of Willaim Schutz who introduced a theory of interpersonal relations he called Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation (FIRO). FIRO sought to explain most human interactiona as being our need for Inclusion, Control and Affection. Affection in his later years became also know as openness and could be another way of talking about one's capacity to be vulnerable. Are you open? What do you pretend at work?

The most profound statement in Brene's talk is the concept that one has to love and accept oneself... Love our vulnerabilties so that we can have joy and satifisfaction in our lives. The very act of diminishing our vulnerabilities leads us to ignore our joys as well. Translated to work world, environments where we fear being vulnerable and transparent teach us work behaviors that ultimately diminish our engagement with work. Work is most meaningful when we can be authentic in our role... show our warts and gifts at the same time. Think about it.. if you have to pretend at work.. your more likely to be disengaged. We also know you're more likely to distrust as well...

We know environments of fear and distrust are 1/3 as productive as trusting cultures. Job one for all executives... "how can you create a culture where your direct reports feel safe to be vulnerable?" Want a hint.. it starts with your own vulnerability...

Retention Model

A collegue and I have developed a pretty good model for retention through research over the past few years. Over the holidays, I refined the model and came away with a slightly more concise model by combining two of the factors. See if this this gives you a sense of what makes you want to stay in your job:

Owen-Safrit Five Factor Rentention Model

Recruit authentically - Communicating accurately to prospective employees the job's professional responsibilities as well as critical aspects of the total organization's and specific workplace's cultures critical to success in the position

Align - Hiring employees who have substantial overlap between their personal needs, interests and goals and those of the total organization and immediate workplace Ensuring that both the employee's career grows and evolves together as the organization's mission/vision and employee's needs/goals evolve

Develop - Providing support and material resources for the continuous professional education (CPE) of the employee so s/he may meet and exceed professional competencies (i.e., knowledge, attitudes, skills, and aspirations) needed to ensure professional success

Connect - Building strategic linkages between people and people, ideas and ideas, and people and ideas so as to strengthen each employee's internal and external workplace relationships.

Appreciate - Using appropriate intrinsic and/or extrinsic resources to effectively communicate appreciation to each employee for workplace excellence

Courage and the long view...

Imagine you have started a company and while the work is exciting, you are not really making money. How many years would you stick it out. You believe in your product, but all the buyers are non believers.. In fact, your biggest customer is trying to hire away your best employee. What advice would you give this company. If you knew they had lost one million dollars a year for the past three years, would you tell them to shut down... How bout five years...

The company: Pixar.
The leader.. Steve Jobs.

Really great work takes time and a commitment to quality... So rare in our world today.

Succession Planning needs a new conversation

In the October HR magazine.. Theresa Minton-Eversole reports that most companies are unprepared for succession at the top. Not to diminish her contribution, but this has been a common theme now for a good 15 years. Just pick through any of the management, human resource, or organizational development mags and you will find articles saying the same thing.

When we coach managers on correcting employee behavior, we tell them that when a pattern emerges of repeat behavior, the conversation needs to change. When an employee is continuously late, it is a different matter than when they have only been late once or twice. Well, the pattern around succession planning has been there 15 years... leaders worry about it and then ignore it. And although HR and OD experts have continuously spoken to the need for better succession planning, I am familiar with few organizations that are even doing a good job with just workforce planning. Just having a staffing plan seems to be a challenge to today's organizations and few if any, once they identify gaps are spending the resources to fully develop their next leaders.

So the question is, what needs to change in the conversation to get leaders to invest in leadership development. What will help today's executive and leaders come to understand that investing a little now in development will save lots later... you tell me.. I have an answer, but would love to hear your thoughts first?

Lessons in Death

I have been honored to serve on my church council now for almost four years. Along with the role of giving leadership to decisions our church has to make, the council gets the honor of also serving the church. What that means is ushering during services, collecting money, even vacuuming after services when the cleaning crew is not available. In a sense, you lead by serving and there is a profound lesson in vacuuming at 11pm on Holy Friday so that the church will look good on Easter Saturday that gives you a great sense of humility. But of all the lessons I have learned serving my church, the best of these lessons have come to me when I have served on duty for funerals. It is a honored experience to help someone who has just lost a treasured loved one even when you don't know them. Over the years, I would say I have attended a number of funerals in which I knew very few of the family. Despite my distance from the family, each was always a moving experience for me. Each taught me the lesson of serving others I don't know. Most recently I watched a small funeral take place at the same time as people were voting in another part of the church.

Now.. I am all for ensuring everyone rights to vote, but I found it quite interesting how individuals who were campaigning were somewhat surprised when I asked them politely to avoid approaching anyone who looked like they were attending the funeral. Inside, the director of the voting process also kept worrying me about making sure the funeral didn't interfere with people trying to vote (I purposely closed doors as the beginning and end when there is a procession with the deceased.. he was nice..but still worried too much about voters and not the family). Now I am old enough to remember when we use to pull over to the side of the road, stop and say a prayer when a funeral procession drove by.. but times have changed. Recently I even saw individuals passing a funeral procession. The lesson in this post is a simple one..

We need to be there for people, even strangers if we hope to be authentic leaders. Leadership is more than decisions and being in charge... it is about serving others even in death. Some three years ago I was asked to be a pall bearer. The gentleman who died had lots of family, but through the years while I was on duty, I had helped him overcome the challenges of his age and his widow wanted me to carrying him his last walk. I was very honored. But above all, I realized that it is at those moments of sadness that people need service most.. To this day she is a special person in my life even though we have never had lunch, never took a walk, or even spent more than a minute or two speaking after church. She remembers my gift.. or really her gift to me. As for her husband, I trust he is somewhere and knows what a great honor I was given, but more important he probably knows I am a better servant today thanks to our last walk...

Does Passion Alignment Affect Trust?

I have become convinced that there is a correlation between employee passion alignment and trust. Even in teams where there is strong ethical values, competence with task, and a high degree of openness, trust can still be lacking due to passion dis-alignment.

Last week I was having a discussion with an executive I know. We were discussing employee passions and how one of her direct report's greatest passion was to be an artist. The employee, I will call him Jim, was quite talented and had actually shown his art work at several events. However, his talent did not translate into a good income stream and so Jim had decided that he would have dual careers. Painting at night and working for the company during the day. He is a good performer at the company, slightly above average. When asked during his performance review what his passion was and where he saw his future going at the company, Jim gave a standard statement.. "I am committed to becoming the best salesperson you have.." but the executive could tell.. it wasn't a passion... just a purpose to getting paid. She knew about his art and had even considered buying a piece from him. Jim had simply told her what he thought his passion should be! Jim has a passion dis-alignment. Most of his job is not really connected in any way to his passion in life. And although he won't be punished for his passion statement, my friend the executive has little trust in the idea of Jim becoming her best salesperson. This dis-alignment is a trust killer.

Now, what is really interesting, is this passion disconnection affects trust over time. The more we trust each other, the easier it is to trust at even higher levels. Likewise, even minor reductions in trust can lead to increasingly levels of distrust. Jim will sense the decline and respond in kind. Over time, trust levels will continue to decline, especially when Jim is forced to choose between his true passion (art) and his necessary passion (sales). One other concern: The trust decline also affects the team. Such a minor disconnect, but everyone will sense the shifts.

What is the implication for my friend the executive. Here was my response to her:

Have you asked him why he wants to be the best salesperson? Maybe that will help him and you to have an authentic discussion on passion. For example, maybe he believes that being the best salesperson will translate into more money to support his passion for art. That might work in the short term. but eventually passionless work is a grind. I would seek to explore why Jim has a passion about art and see if there are roles he can be more passionate about. Ultimately, you need to have a candid discussion about how Jim can build his true passion into his work. Jim might be more suited to designing sales materials, or experimental sales approaches.