Jumping Into the Deep End of Leadership by Donna Karlin

10:23 am | 0 recommendations | 4 comments

Scheduled to Death?

My clients used to work 10 hour days. They left work at the end of a very long day exhausted, with the feeling they hadn’t accomplished a fraction of what they’d set out to do. And that was before the era of handheld devices. Now, many of them are working a minimum of 12 – 14 hour days, when you take into consideration the hours they put in at home weekdays and weekends. Now incorporate handhelds, i.e. BlackBerries, and even when they are off, they’re ‘on’. They are scheduled to death and when they aren't scheduled for a meeting, they are interrupted more times than one can count.

They feel they have absolutely no control of their days, are scheduled beyond what’s humanly possible to sustain, and the powers that be expect them to maintain that lifestyle (or lack of) indefinitely. How can you lead an organization if you’re killing your people one jam-packed day at a time?

A question for organizational leadership, what in the world do you think would motivate your staff to want to sustain a life like that? Or should I say lack of private life altogether? I hear all the excuses in the book from “We have a responsibility to the shareholders” to “Competition in our market is fierce and we have stay 10 steps ahead of them”. etc

One has to set personal boundaries. If you’re in an organization that won’t let you, time to rethink the kind of life you’re buying into. The point of building a career used to be to create a life you love, a day that challenged yet energized and let you build a lifestyle you’ve always dreamed of. This scenario describes a life with no lifestyle, no personal time….no life. Money without time (or subsequently health) to spend it isn’t a life.

If you’re a leader that promotes this, stop for a moment and take stock of just how many rising stars are staying and how many are running out the door, screaming “Enough!” and if everyone in your organization is working more than 10 hours a day, that’s a red flag that should be waved in your face. Time to consider resources, whether or not the right people are in the right places. Are your priorities clearly articulated or is the staff doing 10 things at once, not getting much of anything completed on deadline?

There are many factors. Bottom line is, many studies show you will retain your people…your best people if you value them as human beings, care for them, their health, intellect, ways of being. If you become known as the “Chew them up and spit them out” kind of organization, that will always come back to haunt you and you’ll be getting the bottom of the barrel when it comes to talent…not the cream of the crop.

Don’t fool yourself by thinking you can cram more into a day and be the most effective person there. You’re not benefiting your organization when you show others their health and well being is secondary to everything else.

De-schedule. De-commit. Focus on the top 3 priorities you have right now. That’s the first step towards creating a successful, enthused environment. When mentoring your new rising stars, show them how to do that first, and it will be the most valuable lesson they will ever learn, how to create a sustainable work/lifestyle within which to grow.

Donna Karlin • Executive and Political Shadow Coach™ • Ottawa, Canada • donnakarlin@abetterperspective.com •www.abetterperspective.com

02:45 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

You Do What You Are

"You do what you are...You're born with a gift. If not that, then you get good at something along the way. And what you’re good at you don’t take for granted." - Morgan Freeman

Most people equate themselves with what they do for a living. How many times have you asked someone "Tell me about yourself" only to hear volumes about their work and nothing else? And in the scheme of things, how many are living their passions and doing what they are? Living and working in alignment with their talents? How many have unique talents and never get a chance to use them?

That is taking your gifts for granted. True leaders who lead with passion are living their dreams, their passions and have limitless energy in doing so. They can't wait to jump into the deep end of every day and see what unfolds. I tell many clients "If at first you don't succeed, try something you've already been successful at and build on it".

If you're going to be working most of your waking hours, why in the world isn't it at something you love to be doing? What's stopping you? Or, a better question might be, when is the right time to be doing it? Are you waiting for 'the perfect time' to make changes? And how do you define 'perfect time'?

A leader lights a fire in people. Can you truly do that if you have little enthusiasm for what you yourself are doing?

Leaders need to be a visionaries....to be able to see where they and the organization is going, but if they aren't able to articulate and communicate it in a way that shows they believe and live it, that vision is of little value and won't instill commitment or verve. Those who can spread the enthusiasm virus are leaders who do what they are.

Donna Karlin • Executive and Political Shadow Coach™ • Ottawa, Canada • donnakarlin@abetterperspective.com •www.abetterperspective.com

03:57 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Real and True

"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are" - Anais Nin

That's where a Shadow Coach™ comes into play. We don't work with you based on your interpretation; we work with you based on what's real and true. If you can't find the truth right now, right where you are, then where in the world are you going to find it?

People see things through filters, through their past history, cultural background, 'programming' and experience. They rarely see things are they are and once they are interpreted, they fit these experiences into the context of their past history, not experience them for what they are as the moments unfold.

Many of my clients, extraordinary individuals who are in positions of leadership, learn at an amazingly fast rate, however how they integrate what they learned into their ways of being is usually my challenge. They can learn but do they use what they learned to move forward? It's the context and content of their lives that make the difference between what they learn and what they'll use, oftentimes a matter of comfort zone, many a time fear to try something radically new.

Have you taken a moment to think of what your filters might be? For example, judging individuals based on anecdotal history shared by a third party, cultural or linguistic differences, your level of energy or just how much effort you'd put into any initiative. What might you be assuming? That's the biggest filter of all. There are filters such as your belief system, expectations of others (another huge filter), fears, leadership style or how open-minded you are. I could go on forever as there are hundreds of filters at play. different filters on any given day, and we all filter information. You won't get rid of them. You can, however become aware of them, not only for yourself but to better understand those around you so you can communicate with them accordingly.

I'd love to hear what filters come to mind for you as sharing them with others will help them take notice.

Donna Karlin • Executive and Political Shadow Coach™ • Ottawa, Canada • donnakarlin@abetterperspective.com •www.abetterperspective.com

07:12 am | 0 recommendations | 5 comments

Are Leaders Born, Made or Appointed?

OK, so I might push some buttons here but let's face it, too many people are catapulted into positions of leadership by virtue of being there...already being in an organization, meeting hiring quotas according to gender etc. But are they leaders? And can they lead a staff, an organization successfully?

I agree that leaders can be made and many, put into positions to lead in times of crisis for example show their true colors (to themselves and others) and just fly. Others don't even have managerial skills never mind organizational leadership skills and kill the staff one employee at a time. Retention becomes a myth and people run out the door as fast as they can.

So if you're thinking of promoting a relative just because they're a part of the family and you trust them, or someone from within because it meets your quota, think good and hard at the cost of that move. Statistics are blatant and the cost to your organization is huge!

For example, for people who make $150,000 a year, the financial expense for wasting time due to lack of leadership, absenses, people leaving and having to be replaced etc. runs in the range of $25,350. No, that's not per year, it's per month! If there are multiple cases like this, well, you get the picture.

Choose your leaders wisely. Make sure they're a good fit not only for the organization but its internal culture. I share this criteria with my clients when they're looking to fill leading positions and ask them "Which category is each person (who is competing for the job) in?

1. Will the staff be dependent on that person to get the job done (inter-dependent)? 2. Will the staff develop by working with that leader (inter-developmental)? or 3. Will the relationship between staff and this leader be inter-magical? i.e. the energy and passion within the organization will be tangible. People will want to work there and with this individual because they know they'll fly and will fight to work with this person.

Who do you want in your organization? Someone who creates the inter-magical or someone who's convenient?

Donna Karlin • Executive and Political Shadow Coach™ • Ottawa, Canada • donnakarlin@abetterperspective.com •www.abetterperspective.com

06:42 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Feedback

def. knowledge of the results of any behavior, considered as influencing or modifying further performance.

Are you acting on it or parking it?

Leadership is changing from 'power based' to 'human based. I see organizations move towards interactive dialogue as opposed to bosses dictating what the staff will do, i.e. 'no ifs ands or buts'. When people in management roles aren’t managing as well as they could, they are often asked to do a 360º feedback exercise to determine their strengths and weaknesses. All too often the results are a surprise, if not shocking. What’s done with these results will determine how successful leadership is.

Feedback should be acted upon, not just shared and forgotten. Much too often I see a manager look to his/her leader to help them evolve into leadership within the organization only to hear "You’re not leader material" or "There’s no way your staff would want you to be promoted. They complain to me all the time about your leadership style or lack of." What has the leader done with that feedback? Validated it? Investigated it? Or had a conversation with the individual about it? Usually not.

Leadership doesn’t mean be in charge when everything is working perfectly and ignore the rest. Leadership means helping people evolve, wrap their heads around the vision of the organization and grow their talents at the same time. It doesn’t mean ignore what isn’t working until you have an issue on your hands that has to be fixed and fast!

Some Tips:

If you send a staffer for 360º feedback, do yourself and everyone else a favor and arrange to have a coach step in to work on the discovered weaknesses and strengths otherwise the individual who went through the exercise will just make excuses for poor results without doing much about it. Or, worse case scenario, go on stress leave because they couldn’t handle the results.

Figure out why you’re arranging for a 360º feedback in the first place. Is it to grow individuals into positions of higher leadership or to fix a problem? You need to first determine what you want out of this and what you’re going to do to get it. The 360º is just a tool, not a magic wand.

Lastly, once you’ve seen the results, what assumptions might you have been making that you’ve acted upon as fact? If you act on assumptions, they will become true. But I’ll leave that for another blog.

Donna Karlin • Executive and Political Shadow Coach™ • Ottawa, Canada • donnakarlin@abetterperspective.com •www.abetterperspective.com

04:27 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Jumping Into: Yes...No...Maybe?

How many work for leaders who can’t make a decision come love or money? Unfortunately that seems to be a state of affairs way too often, especially in smaller businesses. In the corporate world, a leader who can’t make a decision won’t last long enough to waffle, but in smaller businesses, where leaders second guess where they should be and where they need to go, the staff flounder and eventually (sooner than later) leave.

Many wait for direction, for the markets, professional trends and the trades to give them some sense of what’s to come in their marketplace however in these days of constant change, that’s not necessarily a wise move. Stop looking for direction and just get on a path. You have to start something to finish something and paralyzing yourself without choosing direction isn’t any way to go. It’s more like stop! Either you’re going to create your vision for the future or circumstances will dictate what it will look like. As a leader which do you want?

Take that first step. See it as if it’s tangible and ask yourself "What will it look like"? The moment you can answer that question watch the energy and momentum increase. Those that follow you, will be jumping right in.

Donna Karlin • Executive and Political Shadow Coach™ • Ottawa, Canada • donnakarlin@abetterperspective.com •www.abetterperspective.com

06:13 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Jumping Into: High Performance Culture

How do you define true leadership? Many define it as a position within an organization, though that more defines a level of power rather than someone others will follow. Leadership can be found at every level of an organization by virtue of a person's way of being. It's a matter of paying attention so you discover these individuals and then do something to grow them into their level of excellence.

The concept or term of leadership is bantered about, debated and dialogued from more perspectives that I can count, but as an Executive Shadow Coach™ a major focus is to identify leadership capabilities in every level of an organization, and who the rising stars might be. It's also figuring out the dimensions of leaders and followers and who needs to get out of the way to make sure that evolutionary flow happens. Leadership is not defined by position of power. I know way too many people in powerful positions that paralyze an organization. From an Executive Coach's point of view, and in order to look at the dynamics that will help evolve both the organization and the individuals within it, I have to look at what will develop a high performance organizational culture and that is determined by it's leaders.

A piece of that puzzle is stoking a fire within people, not under them. Once I help them align with their passions, that fire is lit and nothing will stop them. The resulting energy and momentum automatically creates a high performance culture. If that isn't the status quo within your organization, what are you doing to change it? How often have you seen someone shine and didn't acknowledge them or do anything about it? Staff retention is one thing, but what caliber of staff do you want to retain? Those who fly or those who coast?

Donna Karlin • Executive and Political Shadow Coach™ • Ottawa, Canada • donnakarlin@abetterperspective.com •www.abetterperspective.com

07:32 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

"What Would Your Life Look Like If?"

When reading Doug Sundheim’s excellent post on "The Gift of Risk" I was looking at the other half of the equation as how we inspire someone to take that leap of faith outside their comfort zone and attempt taking that risk.

Often, when working with clients, we’ll go to the future and work backwards. Some would call it doing a visualization, however this is different….subtle, but different. It takes what you might visualize as far as an experience or place to be in life and looking at the impact it would have in your life. So the question I ask clients is “What would your life look like if….? and end the question with what would complete a lifelong goal for them. For example “What would your life look like if you got that promotion?” What would your life look like if you started your own company rather than work for someone else?” What would your life look like if you gave up your current lifestyle as you know it and jumped into a new career with both feet?”

For some it spurs them on to push themselves just that little bit more and to take that chance or risk, and for others, once they can see it, taste it, and feel it, they decide not to go ahead as that’s not the lifestyle they want for themselves. Either way it’s a reality check and alters their lives in a profound way.

The same goes for leaders who are taking the organization through unknown territory. “What would the state of the organization look like if….?”

It’s jumping into the deep end of each day.

Looking forward….
Donna Karlin

Executive Shadow Coach • Ottawa, Canada • donnakarlin@abetterperspective.com • www.abetterperspective.com