Leadership Conversations E-Book

Alan S. Berson

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 431

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Conversation techniques and tools that can help strong managers become great leaders Often the very same skills and traits that enable rising stars to achieve success "tenacity, aggressiveness, self-confidence" become liabilities when promoted into a leadership track. While managers' conversations are generally transactional and centered on the task at hand, leaders must focus on people, asking great questions and aligning them with the vision for the future. Leadership mindsets and skills can be developed, and Leadership Conversations provides practical guidance for connecting with others in ways that transform each interaction into an opportunity for organizational and personal growth. * Identifies four types of conversation every leader must master: building relationships, making decisions, taking action, and developing others * Provides an action plan for boosting your personal leadership potential, as well for developing leadership skills in others * Draws on the authors' rich experience coaching and working with leaders at a wide range of organizations, including NASA, the U.S. Navy, intelligence agencies, Boeing, Gillette, Bausch & Lomb, and Georgetown University Leadership Conversations is required reading for both high-potential managers looking to make it to the next level and leaders looking to develop their people.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

More Praise for Leadership Conversations

Title page

Copyright page

Dedication

Preface: Are You Having Leadership Conversations?

High Potentials Don’t Know What They Don’t Know

The Challenge of Moving Up

Leadership Conversations—The Book

My Leadership Conversations—The Website

PART 1 THE HIGH-POTENTIAL CHALLENGES

CHAPTER 1 Do You Really Want to Be a Leader?

How Great Leaders Treat Others

Great Leaders Communicate Effectively

Great Leaders Grow Their People

What Great Leaders Believe

Same Playing Field but a Whole New Game—Twice

It’s Never Too Late

CHAPTER 2 What Blend of Management and Leadership Mindsets Is Best?

Conversations Make the Difference

Effective Conversations Create Alignment

Your Generation Influences Your Mindset

Harnessing Generational Mindset Differences

CHAPTER 3 Have You Had Leadership Conversations Today?

A Virtuous Cycle of Leadership Conversations

Three Perspectives in Leadership Conversations

Blending Two Mindsets, Four Types of Conversation, and Three Perspectives

Standards for Leadership Conversations

CHAPTER 4 Where Do You Stand on the Leadership Ladder?

PART 2 CONVERSATIONS TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS

CHAPTER 5 Learn the New Rules

Knowing the Leadership Rules

The Common Thread

CHAPTER 6 Your Relationships Define You

Essential Relationship-Building Skills

Multimedia Relationships

The Increasing Importance of Relationships

Not Having a Relationship Can Be Costly

CHAPTER 7 Know Your Strengths and Their Shadows

Each Strength Has a Companion Shadow

Getting Started on the Right Foot

Developing Unconscious Competence in Relationships

Recognizing the Shadows

Focus on Strengths

CHAPTER 8 People Aren’t Machines

People Have Feelings

The Legends in Your Organization

The Elements of Culture

Changing Relationships Changes the Culture

CHAPTER 9 Don’t Let Them Assume They Know What You’re Thinking

You Are Always under a Microscope

Listening

Transparency

Authenticity

Having the Right Conversations

CHAPTER 10 Embrace Differences

Open Your Mind

Encourage Diversity and Inclusion

Make Diversity Work

PART 3 CONVERSATIONS TO DEVELOP OTHERS

CHAPTER 11 The Battle for Talent

Build Versus Buy

Start with the Right People

Your Responsibility to Develop Others

How Deep Should Succession Planning Go?

CHAPTER 12 The Challenge of Leading Other High Potentials

Assessing Potential

Developing Leadership Skills in High Potentials

Demand More from Your High Potentials

Don’t Miss the Signs of Trouble

Delivering Feedback

Three-Phase Process for Giving Effective Feedback

Building a Feedback Culture

CHAPTER 13 Conversations You Must Have

Baseline Conversations to Set Expectations

Baseline Conversations about Performance Standards

Baseline Conversations about Relationships

Baseline Conversations about Priorities

Feedback Conversations about Achieving Goals

Feedback Conversations When Roles Get Turned Upside Down

Feedback Conversations about Underperformance

Feedback Conversations about Timeliness

Feedback Conversations with Your Boss

When Routine Conversations Do Not Work

CHAPTER 14 What Gets in Your People’s Way?

Are You an Obstacle?

Removing Obstacles That Get in Your People’s Way

Your Role as a Leader

Coaching Managers

CHAPTER 15 Recognition—Making It All Worthwhile

Multimedia Recognition

Recognition Is Inexpensive—Lack of Recognition Can Be Costly

Recognize Behaviors as Well as Results

Celebrate Even Small Successes

Celebrate People

PART 4 CONVERSATIONS TO MAKE DECISIONS

CHAPTER 16 Develop Your Judgment Gene

Five Realms of Judgment

Judgment Is a Process, Not an Event

Keystone Judgments

How Decisions Are Made

Problem Solving Versus Decision Making

Make Decisions Decisively

Growing the Judgment Gene in High Potentials

CHAPTER 17 What You Know Is Irrelevant

Engaging Your Team’s Knowledge

Benefits of a Learning Organization

Group Decision Making

How Much Consensus Do You Really Have?

Finding the Third Alternative

What If a Third Alternative Does Not Exist?

Promoting Teamwork

It’s Not About Winning

CHAPTER 18 Be Curious—Ask Great Questions

Curiosity Pushes the Boundaries

Curiosity Creates Opportunities

Focus on Opportunities

Even Great Leaders Don’t Have All the Answers

Managers Answer Questions—Leaders Ask Them

Questions Go Both Ways

CHAPTER 19 If You Can’t Change, Retire

Staying Ahead of Change

What is Driving Change?

To Change or Not to Change

Working with Different Change Styles

PART 5 CONVERSATIONS TO TAKE ACTION

CHAPTER 20 Moving Smoothly into Action

What Motivates Leaders?

Action or Inaction—It’s a Choice

The Context for Action

An All-Star Team Isn’t Enough

The Plan-Results Gap

CHAPTER 21 Planning Successful Actions

Planning Is an Essential Conversation

Guiding People to Deliver Value

In Theory, Goals are Fixed—In Reality, They Evolve

Tell Everyone What the Plan Says

Making Midcourse Corrections

CHAPTER 22 When Things Change

Change Is the Natural Order

Leadership: The Essence of Change

Forced Change Doesn’t Work

Conversations About Specific Actions

Don’t Assume—Discover

CHAPTER 23 Lessons from Success and Failure

The Comfort Zone Versus the Learning Zone

Conversations About Success and Failure

After-Action Reviews in the Commercial Sector

Let Go of Perfection

CHAPTER 24 Inspiring People in Turbulent Times

The Meaning of Silence

Requesting Action Versus Demanding Action

Putting Leadership Influence Into Action

When Your Team Is Effective, You Become Promotable

Leading in Stressful Times

PART 6 YOUR LEADERSHIP CONVERSATIONS

CHAPTER 25 Conversations at the Top

The CXO Leader’s Role

Conversations by CXO Leaders with Their Boss

Conversations by CXO Leaders with Their Peers

Conversations by CXO Leaders with Their High Potentials

CHAPTER 26 Conversations for Executive Leaders

The Executive Leader’s Role

Conversations by Executive Leaders with Their Boss

Conversations by Executive Leaders with Their Peers

Conversations by Executive Leaders with Their High Potentials

CHAPTER 27 Conversations for Managers of Managers

The Manager of Manager’s Role

Conversations by Managers of Managers with Their Boss

Conversations by Managers of Managers with Their Peers

Conversations by Managers of Managers with Their High Potentials

CHAPTER 28 Conversations for First-Line Managers

The First-Line Manager’s Role

Conversations by First-Line Managers with Their Boss

Conversations by First-Line Managers with Their Peers

Conversations by First-Line Managers with Their High Potentials

CHAPTER 29 Your Personal Action Plan

Guide to Taking the Leadership Assessment

What Comes Next?

Leadership Coaches and Survey Instruments

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Index

More Praise for Leadership Conversations

“Leadership Conversations is an excellent framework for executives to use worldwide in leadership training programs. It encourages grounded thinking around leadership and is a practical guide for developing leadership skills and discovering and forming one’s authentic leadership style.”

—Carol Roche Austin, head of human resources, Permira Advisors LLP

“Leadership Conversations is a practical and valuable book. The leadership and communication principles are presented in a clear manner that is relevant to leaders at all levels. The real-world insights will help readers be more effective leaders, driving high performance and success.”

—Tom Mutryn, EVP and CFO, CACI International

“Cultivating leaders is key to the growth of any organization. Leadership Conversations translates years of experience into an easy-to-follow road map to help identify leaders and push them to reach their maximum potential.”

—Ed Erhardt, president, global customer marketing and sales, ESPN

“Katerva’s rapid rise to a world stage with its thought leadership in sus­tainability could not have happened without following the principles in this book. Leadership conversations are the key to creativity and can spur global innovation.”

—Terry Waghorn, founder and CEO, Katerva

“With multi-national operational challenges, I need practical advice that I can implement quickly. Leadership Conversations delivers with examples and guidance on how to have effective conversations.”

—Wesley J. Johnston, EVP and COO, Americas; Dimension Data

Cover art by Shutterstock and Thinkstock (RF).

Author photo by Gerard/Studio One

Cover design: Adrian Morgan

Copyright © 2013 by Leadership Conversation, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

 Berson, Alan S.

 Leadership conversations : challenging high-potential managers to become great leaders / Alan S. Berson, Richard G. Stieglitz. – 1st ed.

p. cm.

 Includes bibliographical references and index.

 ISBN 978-1-118-37832-8 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-55188-2 (ebk.) – ISBN 978-1-118-55186-8 (ebk.) – ISBN 978-1-118-55187-5 (ebk.)

 1. Communication in management. 2. Leadership. 3. Executive ability. 

I. Stieglitz, Richard G. II. Title.

 HD30.3.B476 2013

 658.4'092–dc23

 2012042025

To all the teachers in our lives—family, friends, and colleagues

Preface

Are You Having Leadership Conversations?

Whether you are the high potential who receives the news or the executive who delivers it, everyone feels good when he hears or says, “Congratulations—we have an amazing new assignment for you. It’s an opportunity to confirm that you are a rising star.”

Exciting? Yes, but any new opportunity also entails new risks. Research consistently shows that nearly half of high-potential executives fail to reach their full potential. The fancy name for it is midcareer derailment. Considering that the derailment usually occurs within eighteen months of a major promotion, perhaps you should wait a while before uncorking the champagne. As the high potential who is being promoted or who is promoting others, you need to be prepared and clearheaded. But prepared for what? Armed with which skills and perspectives?

For starters, look at the subtle messages embedded in the typical statement that follows the promotion of a high-potential executive: “I have no doubt that you’re up to this new challenge. But if you run into a problem, call my assistant, and he’ll squeeze you into my calendar.”

If you are on the delivery side of this conversation, your lack of active involvement is setting the high potential adrift to succeed or fail alone—you have not provided leadership. If you are on the listening side, we hope you realize that you should expect little assistance from your boss—which should scare you because, at a minimum, you need a conversation about expectations, your boss’s and yours. If instead you take the statement as a sign of the boss’s confidence that you can handle the new assignment simply by doing more of what you did in the past, then keep your resume up-to-date, because you may well find yourself among the half who are looking for another job within eighteen months.

High Potentials Don’t Know What They Don’t Know

Most high potentials are derailed not by things they know they need to learn but rather by things they did not even realize had changed. What new challenges do you face when you climb the leadership ladder? How must you think differently? What new actions must you take? The answers to these questions are the difference between success and failure. What we want you to avoid hearing or saying is “Poor Dave, we thought he could handle more responsibility. But it looks like he just doesn’t have what it takes to be a leader. His reputation may never recover from this disaster. That’s unfortunate because we had high hopes for him.”

As they rise in an organization, high-potential executives must integrate management and leadership skills in successively more accomplished ways. The new challenges require leadership conversation skills that few executives instinctively possess and that are only now beginning to be taught in the top MBA and executive training programs.

The Challenge of Moving Up

Each time a high potential is promoted, her job changes in fundamental ways; and if she fails, the hole into which she falls is deeper and the recovery more difficult. The hole is especially deep when she crosses the threshold from individual contributor to manager or from manager to leader, as she must basically change how she thinks and what she does to achieve the same success she enjoyed in the past. She also must accept that other people—her boss, role models, mentors, coaches, and team—are vital to her success.

High potentials who derail usually tell us they wish they could go back and do things the right way now that they have broader experience and deeper skills. This book is about succeeding the first time—helping you and the high potentials who work for you prepare for the future, rather than marching into it only partially equipped to succeed. Conversations that connect and align you with your people, your peers, and your bosses are the straightforward path to success.

Leadership Conversations—The Book

This book presents concepts and practical tools to show high potentials how to hold conversations that align followers with leaders. Most of the case studies we cite are taken from our business careers and our experiences in conducting executive education programs. All the case studies are real. However, we use fictitious names and alter or omit immaterial details because leadership conversations among rising high potentials are inherently sensitive, and we feel obligated to protect these individuals’ identity and respect their privacy. So, except for publicly available information, we have not identified people or organizations by name in the case studies. Our intent is to focus on ideas and actions rather than on personalities and reputations.

The book is designed for high potentials who are looking to make the transition into top leadership roles, and for those looking to mentor and guide their rising stars. A high potential is any executive from first-line manager to CXO who has the desire and skill to advance. The book poses questions that

Invite you to reflect on and enhance how you manage and lead todayChallenge you to develop a vision for how you will manage and lead in the futureEncourage you to assist other high potentials to do the same

The case studies in the book are about leaders in private industry, government, the military, nonprofits, and educational institutions. From a management and leadership viewpoint, these five sectors are becoming more and more alike. Executives frequently migrate among the sectors, and best management and leadership practices are freely exchanged via the Internet and social media.

When you receive a promotion or join a new organization, your direct reports, peers, and bosses will watch your every move. They will listen equally to what you say—and do not say—gleaning meaning from each interaction with you. Will they hear, feel, and do what you intend? How accurately and completely will you understand their goals and desires? How well will you stay in touch with the shifting demands of your market? The power of Leadership Conversations lies in showing you how to have conversations that answer these questions and inspire others to align with your vision and follow you as a leader. Achieving greatness will require you to conduct effective leadership conversations.

We have seen too many high potentials fail because they did not get the mentoring, coaching, and training necessary to succeed. We have also seen, as employees and consultants, organizations where executives defaulted to management activities when a leadership focus was appropriate—and not even recognize the difference. This book will prepare you to communicate effectively and think like a leader to produce results that propel you, your people, and your organization to greatness. Consciously engage in leadership conversations with those around you to incorporate this learning into your leadership persona.

My Leadership Conversations—The Website

The companion website to this book, www.myleadershipconversations.com, enables you to personalize your reading experience and tailor it to specific situations and issues. On the website you will find a brief leadership assessment that will measure your leadership and management strengths and provide you with an individualized leadership profile. As you read this book, visit the website frequently to engage in conversations with leadership experts, with us, and with others who have high potential and are facing issues similar to yours. The website also provides social, community, coaching, mentoring, and implementation resources.

Consider sharing your leadership assessment results with a trusted adviser or some of your colleagues. They can assist you in interpreting your results relative to the specific needs of your industry and your unique professional growth path. Sharing your leadership journey with them will push you to continually reexamine how you show up as a leader, why you are getting your current results, and what your career goals might be, and to define your path to achieve them. In short, you will be pushed to engage in leadership conversations.

PART 1

THE HIGH-POTENTIAL CHALLENGES

Your challenge as a high-potential executive is to motivate people to pursue shared goals, even though their responsibilities vary widely. The image of an ideal leader has swung from the benevolent dictator in the Industrial Age to the servant leader in recent years. Yet those models merely flip-flop the dominant and supportive roles in the leader-follower relationship. When executives attempt to control rather than motivate people, or pander to them by abandoning their leadership prerogatives, they risk losing their people’s respect and allegiance—if not actually losing them as employees.

The leadership conversations model shows you how to engage in effective conversations that create connection and alignment among leaders and followers. Everyone has valuable ideas and experiences that he or she is encouraged to contribute to the conversation. By expecting excellence from the mailroom to the executive suite, effective leaders tap into multiple viewpoints to achieve the organization’s goals while concurrently assisting each person in progressing along his or her own professional path.

Part 1 describes the attributes of great leaders and asks you to consider if you really want to be a leader (Chapter 1); portrays differences between the management mindset and the leadership mindset and explains how to blend the two for maximum effectiveness (Chapter 2); introduces the four types and three perspectives of leadership conversations (Chapter 3); and defines the steps on the leadership ladder that we use to discuss the challenges inherent in rising from one organizational level to the next (Chapter 4).

CHAPTER 1

Do You Really Want to Be a Leader?

If your actions inspire others to dream more, to learn more, to do more, and to become more, you are a leader.

—JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

We challenge you to ask yourself, “Do I want to be a leader?” If your answer is yes, ask yourself a second question: “Am I willing to continually evolve who I am and what I do in order to lead others to achieve great things?”

We have often heard executives say that their jobs would be easy if they did not have to deal with people. You may have had one of those executives as a boss, in which case you know how uncomfortable it feels to work for them. We understand that building relationships and developing others are rarely easy. Yet successful managers and leaders see these roles as a vital and rewarding part of the job—not as a nuisance.

After each promotion, your job will be more complex, the scrutiny more severe, the consequences of failure greater, and the need to align and inspire people more intense. Furthermore, your success increasingly depends less on what you do and more on your vision of the future and how effectively you motivate others to achieve it. For those considering the journey from individual contributor into management, ask yourself the following questions before making a decision:

Will I prefer management tasks to acting in the role of expert?Can I transition from receiving kudos to giving them?Will I enjoy the administrative tasks that managers must do?Am I willing to have my success depend on how well others perform?How effective will I be in working with a rainbow of personality styles?

For those currently in management who are considering the leap into leadership, remember that being an effective manager does not guarantee success as a leader. Leaders operate in an arena that has few boundaries. Many managers struggle when they move into a position where their options and responsibilities become virtually limitless. As a high potential, you will be well served to learn the essential skills at each level prior to jumping to the next, because learning skills and using them at the same time can be risky. To be a great leader, ask yourself:

What are my motivations for being a leader?Will I receive satisfaction from developing the capabilities of my people?Can I provide vision and strategic direction to the organization?Is it important to me that my customers and suppliers succeed?Am I willing to consider new factors like social responsibility and globalization?

For some, leading in an increasingly complex world is second nature; for others, it is an overwhelming challenge. How will you hold up know­ing that the professional survival of hundreds or potentially thousands of people depends on your vision, your strategies, and the relationships you build?

How Great Leaders Treat Others

Simply put, leaders connect with people. The breadth and depth of those connections determine a leader’s ability to influence; and the greater the influence, the greater the alignment and results. Great leaders

Have a style and a voice that fit their organization and enable them to form bonds with their followers and ignite their passion.Beget great followers. Leaders learn their people’s objectives and guide them toward achieving their full potential.Address small conflicts to avoid larger ones later. They know intuitively when things do not seem right, and promptly hold the conversations required to fix them.Know that creativity cannot be forced. They enable creativity in the natural flow of business by providing the time, the space, and the conditions for people to be creative—then they cultivate the fledgling sprouts of innovation.Celebrate their people. They are liberal with praise and realize that their personal success is rooted in their people’s successes.

Great Leaders Communicate Effectively

In a world where time is precious, many executives have become tactical in their conversations instead of strategic, and problem focused rather than opportunity driven. They sometimes use technology to bypass the potential messiness of face-to-face communication and truncate conversations as soon as possible. Yet your job is to lead people and maximize an organization’s success. The fact is, the more time you spend in up-front conversations, the less time you are likely to spend clarifying objectives and solving problems. Great leaders

Cultivate a culture of possibilities and opportunities.Are open to what other people say. They are willing to change their minds and, by doing so, enable others to change and grow.Know that asking questions is an effective technique. Whereas managers usually answer questions, great leaders routinely ask them. They coach rather than command their people toward creativity and innovation.Build a culture of feedback that aligns people behind shared objectives and actions that proceed directly toward the desired result.Focus on what is right (rather than who is right) to defuse tension, reduce resistance, and produce better decisions.

Great Leaders Grow Their People

The business world does not reward high potentials for what they know; the rewards are based on the results they produce by motivating others. Great leaders are catalysts for getting things done—through others. They grow their people’s skills, understand the objectives, and have a willingness to cooperate with each other. Great leaders

Are learners. They acknowledge that they know only a portion of what needs to be known and consciously seek to learn from others before making a decision and galvanizing action.Foster learning in others. They gently push people out of their comfort zones, encourage them to acquire new skills, get them to connect and align with each other, and accept well-intentioned mistakes as learning opportunities.Look for the root causes (not symptoms) of a problem in order to take more effective actions and avoid unintended consequences.Embrace change. They know that world-class performance requires cutting-edge solutions. They tell others how a change might impact them, and maintain alignment by obtaining feedback early in the change cycle.Institutionalize learning in the culture. Great leaders know that by teaching others, they learn as well. They make learning an essential component of every conversation.

What Great Leaders Believe

Like everyone else, executives make decisions based on their own beliefs. Although treating beliefs like facts can obstruct a conversation—especially when people are reluctant to allow their beliefs to be challenged—some beliefs support effective leadership. Great leaders believe that

Good enough is not good enough. They know that if they accept mediocrity, they will seldom achieve more. Great leaders leverage the strengths of high potentials to push the organization to achieve excellence.Any problem can be reframed as an opportunity. Leaders who seek to solve problems tend to see everything as a problem. Great leaders look for opportunities and often find them in situations that others see as problems.They are personally responsible for every outcome. They take respon­sibility for a negative outcome rather than allocating blame. When a mistake is made, they discuss it, minimize the impacts, learn from it, and move on.Their actions speak louder than their words. Great leaders willingly live their values—they do not opportunistically modify or excuse themselves from them.Diversity and inclusion are essential to success. Great leaders do not hire diverse people and listen to their ideas just because it is politically correct. They do so to obtain different points of view that improve results.

The leadership traits listed in the previous four sections are based on simple concepts—but they are not always easy to follow. Once you have a clear philosophy and apply it consistently, it will become the core of who you are as a leader.

Same Playing Field but a Whole New Game—Twice

When you move from individual contributor to manager, even in the same organization, everything changes. All the technical skills you learned and everything you have done to be successful up to this point in your career become less important. You actually could limit your success if you hold on to them too tightly. Your new management position includes such tasks as

Parceling work, assigning it to others, and motivating them to complete itSetting goals and establishing schedules for othersAccurately measuring the performance of others (as well as yourself)Resolving conflicts with and among othersGiving feedback to others—even if it might be perceived as negative

Notice that the word “others” appears in all five tasks. Building relationships and developing others become more important than technical knowledge and skills. Your performance will be measured not by the quality and quantity of work you do but by the actions your team takes and the results they produce. Even if you are a world-leading expert in the area you manage, you must adapt your mindset and use a different set of skills to manage others and lead them to develop their technical expertise.

The shocker for many managers is that moving from management into leadership is a second transformational change. The things you will be expected to accomplish as a leader that are generally beyond what you did as a manager include

Providing vision, direction, and inspiration to othersDeveloping the management skills and emotional intelligence of othersReaching out to external stakeholdersAssessing and responding to an ever-changing world

Conversations become more complex in leadership positions because they extend out to executives in your organization and other key stakeholders. Your focus will be on vision and strategy instead of tactics and schedules.

Success is far from automatic after a promotion because executives must employ a different mindset and use a blend of old and new skills. Surprisingly, most organizations offer support only after a new manager or leader delivers mediocre results or struggles to build the relationships essential for success—an unpleasant situation for everyone. Effective leadership conversations will help you avoid being the recipient or the deliverer of the difficult feedback that surrounds such career derailments.

When asked initially about his goals, Phil, an experienced project manager, said, “Ultimately, I want to own my own company because I like the freedom and perks that business owners enjoy. But I despise the conversations required to resolve conflict, build relationships, and negotiate with clients.”

As an individual contributor, Phil received kudos from everyone and five-figure bonuses from the boss for resolving complex software issues in elegant ways. He often got product out the door ahead of schedule with little help. He was given the project management position when, after working around the clock to finish a large system for a major client, he insisted that the boss promote him.

Floundering and miserable from the start, Phil was two months behind and well over budget partway through an eighteen-month project. His staff’s morale was low, and two of his people had quit. He claimed that the project was failing because his staff was incapable of following instructions. Frustrated, Phil finally realized, “It’s not them—it’s me who is getting in our way. My optimal position is not to lead or manage others. I was attracted by the prestige and financial benefits of a leadership position, but now I realize that my real satisfaction lies in the accolades of being the technical guru.” Phil went back to serving the company well in that capacity.

For some of you high potentials, the best use of your abilities may be in a capacity other than leading people. For example, if your passion lies in being a technical expert, many organizations offer a career track for subject-matter experts that would tap into and develop your technical skills. Or you may decide that you want to be a leader, but not the leader. Others of you will settle for nothing less than the equivalent of CEO. The bottom line is that you have options and must make a choice.

Whether you choose to be a leader or not, determine the role you want before applying compensation and perks as a litmus test. Doing what you love is preferable to working unhappily just for more money. You will feel rewarded every day if you follow your passion. Instead of coming in the form of annual bonuses, your rewards may be simply doing what you love.

It’s Never Too Late

It is your choice to be a great leader, a great manager, or a great individual contributor—and you could even change your decision today. Consider which of the following statements is most true of your long-term professional goals:

Without doubt, my goal is to get promotion after promotion until I become the top leader. I am willing to do whatever it takes to reach that goal.I am content with my current position. I want to learn more about what is needed to be successful here, and then I may stretch for a promotion.I enjoy working in my current position, and, despite the perks and higher pay that would accompany a promotion, my choice is to continue in this position.

In making your choice, be honest about who you are; what skills and relationships you have; and your willingness to continually improve your management and leadership skills, increase the scope of your responsibilities, and work with a broad range of people and organizations. Throughout this book, we provide concepts, techniques, and case studies that will expand your leadership and management mindsets and challenge you to realize your full potential—at whatever level you choose.

CHAPTER 2

What Blend of Management and Leadership Mindsets Is Best?

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success. Leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

—STEPHEN COVEY

Leadership and management mindsets are two sides of the same organizational coin. When you are operating in the management mindset, your conversations focus on quantitative goals, deadlines, and measureable results. Within the leadership mindset, the conversations focus on the future and how people will grow. Combining both mindsets in appropriate ways and at appropriate times will produce top-notch results in your organization.

Figure 2.1 contrasts activities typical of executives operating in a management mindset with those typical of a leadership mindset. Most executives regularly toggle between the two mindsets during a business day to produce the results expected of their position. As you climb to positions of higher responsibility, you will find yourself spending an increasingly higher percentage of your time operating in the leadership mindset, yet some activities in the management mindset will still be necessary to achieve your objectives. This chapter will guide you to consciously make the shift more easily and to hold conversations that blend the two mindsets in a mix appropriate to your position and the situation at hand.

FIGURE 2.1. Management and Leadership Mindsets.

Where on each management-leadership continuum do you currently focus? Where should you be focusing?

All of the management and leadership activities listed in Figure 2.1 are essential for success, yet their focus is different. The management mindset focuses on getting things done through others, whereas the leadership mind­set considers future possibilities for the organization and its stakeholders and how to build the organization to achieve them. Your leadership mindset defines the objectives; your management mindset ensures that those objectives are met.

We have left the era when management and leadership were separate and unequal positions, when managers could operate in silos and concentrate only on tasks within their responsibility, leaving leaders to ponder the future and look horizontally across the organization. As a high-potential executive in today’s world, you must instead consciously know when and how to shift from one mindset to the other to produce results that satisfy the responsibilities of your hierarchical position.

You need to make this shift whether you are in a business, government agency, nonprofit, educational institution, or the military. Only the specific weighting of each mindset varies depending on the type of organization, its mission, and its values. Regardless of your position, you are not either a leader or a manager—you are both a leader and a manager. You, and everyone around you, must blend the two mindsets appropriately in order to create a high-achieving organization and find the optimum balance between meeting current targets and pursuing future opportunities. The unique blend of the two mindsets that is suitable for your position will strongly influence the conversations you have with your people.

Conversations Make the Difference

Executives use conversations to engage, connect, align, direct, and motivate people—but their results vary widely. For example, consider the conversations, strategies, rallying cries, and results of two well-known leaders who gave voice to inspiring visions: John F. Kennedy, president of the United States from 1960 to 1963, and Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2001 to 2006.

After extensive conversations with cabinet members and technical experts, Kennedy felt confident in challenging Congress and the American people: “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single project in these times will be more impressive to mankind; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.”

In the months prior to this call to action, Kennedy held conversations with his top advisers and the brightest scientists in the country, who cautioned him that the United States lacked the fuels, the materials, the engineering skills, and the budget for such a gargantuan project. His answer was, “Now we have a list of things to do. Let’s get started! I’ll get the money.” In giving this famous speech, Kennedy met his commitment to obtain funding for the man-on-the-moon project and ignited the imagination of both young and old about future possibilities.

He also appointed Wernher von Braun, who designed German rockets during World War II, to organize what became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The organization was deluged with applicants for virtually every position; its pivotal interview question was, “Do you believe we can land a man on the moon and return him safely in this decade?” Any applicant who hesitated in answering yes was dismissed. The conversations focused on how—not if—the goal would be achieved. Based on the clear vision broadcast by Kennedy, the interviews were an effective early use of the management mindset. The NASA team became opportunity driven rather than problem focused.

Dr. von Eschenbach approached his grand vision differently. He had a distinguished career in oncology as president of the American Cancer Society, prior to being appointed in 2001 as NIH-NCI’s director. In 2003, in the “Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975–2000,” coauthored by the NCI and the Centers for Disease Control and Preven­tion, von Eschenbach surprised most NIH-NCI scientists by challenging them to erase the suffering and death caused by cancer—and to do so by the year 2015. He said, “One of every two men and one of every three women during their lifetime will hear the words: ‘You have cancer.’ One American every minute is dying from this disease. It is an old and enormous problem. But I want to talk less about the old problem and more about fresh thinking.”

His vision was vigorously supported by Congress and the American Association for Cancer Research. At the time, NIH-NCI was a thirty-year-old organization with a proud history of success. After receiving the challenge, NCI physicians and scientists, in private conversations among themselves, focused almost exclusively on the difficulty of achieving the goal and on their concern about the false hope it might engender in the public. They wondered why such a proclamation was needed and were alarmed that it might divert resources from ongoing programs. They felt neither a connection with von Eschenbach nor an alignment with his vision.

Effective Conversations Create Alignment

Both leaders promoted a clear vision of the future and set arguably clear long-term goals. Let us consider from several leadership and management perspectives the events that followed and the results that were achieved.

First, the goal Kennedy set, though difficult and challenging, had well-defined success criteria that stimulated creativity and passion. The ensuing conversations focused on building a team to achieve the goal based on the clear vision of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth. Further, once that goal was achieved, the technologies and strategies could be applied to exciting future projects. In contrast, the goal von Eschenbach set was open to interpretation. Did he mean no one would ever die of cancer? Did he include all types of cancer? Should people focus their research on cure or prevention? Therefore, conversations among NCI oncologists and scientists questioned whether the goal was achievable, as there were so many strains of cancer, and were concerned that an approach that worked for one cancer might not work with others.

A second pivotal difference was in how the leaders built relationships. Kennedy had the stronger power base on which to build relationships, yet von Eschenbach arguably had a more noble cause. Kennedy’s conversations stimulated focus and enthusiasm in his followers, and he cemented their commitment by delivering on his promise to get money from Congress for NASA. In contrast, von Eschenbach’s conversations were ineffective in dealing with his followers’ doubts and dissention. He left uncomfortable questions unanswered—even basic strategic questions—which caused experienced researchers to fear failure rather than to focus on success.

A third difference had to do with the early decisions made on each project. For example, Kennedy appointed von Braun to lead the mission because of his proven rocketry expertise; von Eschenbach made no analogous appointment. The criteria von Braun used to select NASA employees produced a staff that saw challenge as an exciting adventure rather than as a mountain to climb. Conversely, von Eschenbach did not provide a strategy that was in synch with NCI’s culture and ongoing projects and that would mobilize its extensive expertise and resources toward achieving the new goal.

In the end, of course, the actions these leaders initiated produced very different results. NASA landed men on the moon and returned them safely in 1969, six years after Kennedy’s death in 1963; cancer remains a major health threat to this day. Kennedy blended the leadership and management mindsets effectively to produce an extraordinary result, whereas von Eschenbach and his key people operated primarily in a management mindset. He focused on the goal rather than on motivating people to achieve it. Von Eschenbach’s results are typical of well-meaning high-potential executives who are not effective at blending conversations in the management and leadership mindsets to achieve the desired results.

Your Generation Influences Your Mindset

One challenge facing most organizations in the United States and many abroad is generational mindset biases. The top executives we speak with—most of them from the baby-boom generation—often complain about the work ethics of Generations X, Y, and Z. They are concerned about the in­­ability of older executives to work effectively with high-potential younger employees. (As an indicator of which generational group you are in, ask yourself whether you take a new electronic product out of the box and start using it, or whether you read the instruction manual first. Older generations expect the instructions to be extensive and clear; younger generations feel that if a product needs directions, then it is not well designed.)

The top executives ask the same question of both groups: “What are you thinking—why can’t you connect and align with each other?” Baby boomers describe the younger generations as spending too much time socializing and being creative (the leadership mindset) and not being willing to work hard to get today’s job done (the management mindset). One baby boomer executive bemoaned, “How can they expect to get ahead without paying their dues and learning the fine points of their jobs? They won’t be ready for a promotion until they work the way we always have. They just don’t understand how the system works.” For example, in some high-powered accounting, engineering, and law firms, the younger generations are reluctant to work long hours the way the older executives did to get ahead, and that endangers the business model of using high billing hours from junior associates to support the salaries of seasoned partners.

At the same time, younger workers complain about their bosses’ unwavering focus on getting the job done, about how long it takes to move up the leadership ladder, and about their lack of participation in strategic conversations and decisions. They say heatedly, “At companies like Facebook and Google, my contemporaries are included in strategic conversations, and promotions happen faster than here. I shouldn’t have to wait three years to get promoted just because that’s how long it took my boss and his boss. The world moves faster today—my organization is lagging.”

The two generational groups rarely have productive conversations with each other because they are approaching the discussions from conflicting mindsets. As a high-potential executive, you must bridge these points of view—get each group to look at the issue from the other’s mindset as well as from its own. Previous generations faced this problem too, but it is more intense today because communications across global markets are significantly faster and easier for everyone.

Harnessing Generational Mindset Differences

Unlike baby boomers, today’s high potentials grew up in a connected world saturated with information. Arguably, the younger generations spend more time making connections than completing work. Because the focus on people comes more naturally to them, they tend to be more comfortable operating in the leadership mindset than in a get-it-done management mindset. Conversely, baby boomer executives often have a laserlike focus on producing results and making the numbers. Of course, both mindsets are essential for success, so each group must leave room for the other to express itself. The most ineffective thing either group can do is to demotivate the other by ignoring or minimizing its leadership or management tendencies.

Marcelo, who became a division president in a public company after thirty-plus years with the firm, told us about his experience: “During a meeting, one of my young high potentials—who had been invited to observe the discussion—blurted out an idea during especially tense negotiations with a strategic supplier. At first I was angry because his participation was unexpected and, frankly, unwanted. I felt like firing him. Yet the supplier loved the idea, and it broke the logjam. Later, I realized that his idea was both creative and apropos. It enabled us to complete the negotiations and nail down a win-win long-term contract. I promoted him instead.”

The world Marcelo had grown up in was quite different—concealing information was a way to demonstrate power. Beginning as an apprentice, he copied the methods senior workers used to get ahead, and managed just as his bosses had managed. Creativity was somebody else’s job—someone high up in the company hierarchy. Even though that approach had produced success for Marcelo, the meeting with the strategic supplier changed his thinking: “Now, before every critical meeting with stakeholders, I hold a brainstorming conversation with key executives and high potentials from several areas of the organization. I challenge everyone to leverage one another’s experience and knowledge to come up with the next great idea. This bridges generational gaps and breaks down silos.”

Another complaint we occasionally hear about the younger generations has to do with their strong sense of entitlement. They grew up in a system that awarded trophies for playing a sport rather than for winning a championship. They earned a degree, so the world now owes them a living. This issue, though common, seems to play out more at the individual level than as a true generational trait.

For example, Joyce is an executive who has two adult sons, each of whom is on a different end of the entitlement spectrum. She told us about them: “My husband and I were downsizing, so we asked our sons to take away as much of their childhood things as they could from our old house. One took only two trophies; they were from tournaments where his team was the league champion and he made significant contributions to their victories. He threw away scores of awards that he called ‘showing-up trophies.’ Our other son insisted on keeping every award he had ever received and asked us to continue storing them for him.”

She considers those behaviors when she hires new employees and has conversations with her high potentials. Like Joyce, you must be aware of your generational bias toward either the management or leadership mindset, and harness that bias in your hiring and promotion decisions and in your leadership conversations.

CHAPTER 3

Have You Had Leadership Conversations Today?

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

—GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

You speak with bosses, peers, direct reports, and other stakeholders nearly every business day, but are they effective conversations that blend the leadership and management mindsets appropriately? Conversations in the leadership mindset build respect and trust, encourage bidirectional feedback, create learning experiences, and elicit the best from everyone, including you. Those in the management mindset involve processing information, evaluating alternatives, completing tasks, and meeting deadlines. Together, the conversations create alignment, inspire innovation, mobilize change, and produce superior short- and long-term results.

A Virtuous Cycle of Leadership Conversations

There are four types of leadership conversations:

Building relationships that enhance decision making and coordinate actionDeveloping others in a manner that achieves and perpetuates successMaking decisions that are understood, supported, and executableTaking action to produce the desired results in a timely manner

Figure 3.1 shows that each leadership conversation increases the power of the next in a virtuous cycle. Building relationships and developing others produce better decisions and more effective actions. Successful actions in turn strengthen relationships, and the cycle continues, building an increasingly stronger enterprise. Taken together, the four types of conversations are a foundation for leading and managing through complexity and change. An executive who lacks proficiency in or ignores any of the four is likely to experience inferior results.

FIGURE 3.1. Leadership Conversations Create a Virtuous Cycle.

Effective leadership conversations produce an upward spiral in performance.

Leadership Conversations to Build Relationships

Leaders build relationships that attract, motivate, and inspire followers. How well do you know the desires and abilities of each of your people? How closely do those desires and abilities align with your organization’s goals? How regularly do you provide useful feedback? Would any of your people leave if they received an enticing job offer? People, and your relationships with them, count. If that understanding is not in your DNA, reconsider your desire to become a leader.

For example, Martin received survey feedback that was much lower than before—his people were in revolt. As second in command of a large office in a services firm, he had advanced rapidly and was heir apparent to the senior partner, who planned to retire soon. Martin wanted that job, but the new feedback jeopardized his chances. Considering that Martin had built productive relationships in the past, it was not clear why he was experiencing this problem, so his boss provided an external coach. Early in the first session, the coach asked Martin, “What is your job?” He responded by itemizing the professional services that his staff provided to clients.

The coach continued to prod: “What else?” Martin detailed additional issues his staff resolved and the regulatory filings they prepared. The coach listened silently until Martin blurted out, “Do you mean mentoring and training those ungrateful kids who leave after we teach them everything? If I have to continue doing that, I may shoot myself!” The coach looked on as Martin whispered, “Did I just say what I think I said?” Yes, he had. He was operating in a management mindset entirely focused on project results rather than on building relationships with his people. That mindset did not align with his position, let alone with the promotion he wanted. Martin understood: he could change his attitude and rebuild relationships with his people, or give in to his resentment and potentially lose his job. After bringing significantly more of the leadership mindset into conversations, Martin and several of his people continued to rise as high potentials.