Tag: proactive leadership

Categories
BLG Leadership Insights Proactive Leaders

It’s Never about the “I”

Yesterday, my beloved Red Sox pulled off a great comeback. Down 6-0 after 5 1/2 innings they stormed back for a walk-off 8-7 win. It was quite the victory, especially for a team that has underperformed much of the year. At the same time their arch-rivals, the New York Yankees, have been falling apart lately thanks to internal strife and uninspired play. Both teams are flush with cash, both teams have rabid fan bases, both teams have talent laden rosters. Why then the current divergent paths?

While there are many different reasons, one stands out: a lack of cohesion.  Whether you are Major League Baseball’s #2 most valuable team ($912 Million) or a small business with five employees, having a common vision is one the true keys to success.

In the case of the Yankees and the Red Sox, we can get a feel of how they are heading in two different direction by looking at two very different player quotes.

Following last night’s aforementioned game, the Red Sox’s Dustin Pedroia told the Boston Herald:

“The game plan’s winning, that’s it…I tell…all the guys, we’re here to win. It doesn’tmatter if you hit .270, .280 with the personal stuff…It doesn’t matter what you do. It’s what we all do. It’s been fun lately. We’re climbing, man. That’s what we’re going to do. Get on the elevator and go.”

At the same time following their 6th straight loss the Yankees’ Rafael Soriano, who has been sidelined with an arm injury, was asked if it’s been hard watching all the losing from the sidelines, he responded:

“Right now, I don’t think the bullpen (is) the problem. It (is) the hitters. A lot of games we’ve been losing by two or three runs, I wouldn’t be in those games anyway.”

When you have true continuity, when you have a true sense of commonality, it shows. As a pragmatic and proactive leader it is this level of togetherness that must be attained to succeed. You want more “we” and less “I”.  It works in baseball, it works in business and it works in life.

Right about now you might be asking, “Hey Sean, it’s easy to be a positive, team player when things are going great, how about when you’re in the pits?” Glad you asked. When the Red Sox started the 2011 season 0-6, Dustin Pedroia responded to doubters by telling reporters:

“You’re either two feet in now or you’re two feet out. Let us know now because we’re coming.”

Even in the roughest of times, it’s about a shared sense of responsibility and accountability. If this message never wavers, then you have a better chance at success.

As far as the Yankees go, it’s now up to their leader/manager, Joe Girardi, to get his team on the same page. No more “I” and “me” and a lot more “us” and “we”. As simple or as difficult as it might sound, if you can gather your direct reports into a tight, cohesive team, then no amount of six-game losing streaks can keep the whole from succeeding.

Categories
BLG Leadership Insights Proactive Leaders

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

It’s never easy to say goodbye. The graceful and perfectly timed exit is an act mostly reserved for movie screens and potboiler novels. In the real world, most of us are pushed out the door many hours, days and years after we should have left by our own accord. Leaders can be especially susceptible to this most awkward of foibles.

Even if you’ve done a perfectly fine job, there comes a time when you have to cede your position to someone younger and more energetic. It’s not so much that you have failed, but that you risk tarnishing your many successful years of service with a few less than stellar years of mediocrity or worse: out and out failure.

The list of business and political leaders who have overstayed their welcome goes on for miles (Tony Blair, Fidel Castro, Hosni Mubarak, AIG’s Maurice Greenberg, Bear Stearn’s James Cayne, etc.) Yet there is one industry where we get to see leaders go from heroes to goats quicker than any other: Professional Athletics. A political or business leader might make a bad decision which leads to a problem or disaster a few months down the road, but when a 42 year old Willie Mays stumbles trying to catch routine fly balls during a nationally televised World Series game that a 23 year old Mays used to chase down effortlessly, the world gets to see his fall from grace in real time.

Recently most sports fans had the misfortune of watching Brett Favre stay a few years too long at the party. In Favre’s case his denouement came as a result of a devastating, concussion-inducing and most likely life-shortening sack. This brutal exit is an over-the-top example of why all leaders must know when to say when. Yet it’s important to understand that very few careers end with such violent exclamation points.

In the past few days the New York Yankees’ Jorge Posada has been facing this very conundrum. After 16 amazing seasons (including 5 All-Star Game appearances, 5 Silver Slugger Awards and 4 World Championships) Jorge has nothing left to prove, he is a champion and according to most reports a gentleman’s gentleman. Unfortunatly his 17th season has started horribly. His .165 batting average is the lowest in the league and this past weekend he actually removed himself from the starting line-up because he was slotted to hit 9th, which in baseball circles is a slap in the face to anyone of Posada’s pedigree.

As I write, Posada is still soldering on but I can only imagine what is going through his mind. It’s moments like these where a leader is forced to make a decision that can affect not only how they are seen for years to come, but also the future success and/or failure of their organization. I do not envy Jorge Posada’s fast approaching choice. Despite all the difficulties and embarrassment of the past weekend, Jorge Posada still has the chance to walk away near the top and not only sustain his legacy but also give the current Yankee team a chance to succeed in the present and the future.

The bottom line is that proactive leadership is not only about getting things done; it’s also about sustainable and lasting success. And not just your own success but also about the success of those you lead. A true proactive leader is in many ways self-less. They know it’s not all about them. They want the best for those they lead and will do what it takes to guarantee a high level of future achievement.

Categories
BLG Leadership Insights Proactive Leaders

How To Save An Hour A Day (video)

Do you ever wish you had 25 hours a day to get things done? These days thanks to layoffs and cutbacks, many of us are doing the jobs of 3 or 4 people. It’s overwhelming and disruptive on so many levels. But now there might be a way to gain the upperhand on Mr. Time. Michael Heppell, a best-selling  author who has advised Microsoft, RBS, WH Smith and Britian’s National Health Service, just released a new book called  ‘How To Save An Hour A Day’. In an informative interview with the UK’s Daily Mail, Heppell not only gives some free advice and tips, but he also guarantees his methods will save you an hour a day because if you are not satisfied his website offers you a way to get your money back.

We’d love to hear what you think of “How to Save an Hour A Day” , so read the article or check out the video below and if you decide to pick up the book, try out Heppell’s tips and give us a holler if they actually work.

Categories
BLG Leadership Insights

4 Funny Workplace Cartoons from 1.00 FTE’s Stuart Richie

In the modern corportate environment, you often find that hackneyed and often meaningless buzzwords like cross platform and low-hanging fruit fill your pained head as you try stifle the urge to run through the office telling everyone where the can shove their action items. It can be a demoralizing experience, so when you get the chance to laugh you’ve got to take it. Here at the Bacharach Blog, we have noticed that a lot of you love our cartoon based posts so today we would like to offer up some great stuff from Stuart Richie over at 1.00 FTE. For more on Stuart’s thought-provoking work please check out 1.00 FTE.  Enjoy!

(thanks to Andy Klein over at The Fortune Group for the tip!)

Categories
BLG Leadership Insights Features Managerial Competence Political Competence Proactive Leaders

Charisma Can Die

Once in a while an event occurs that triggers a plethora of articles and an overwhelming amount of thoughts about a topic.  It should come as no surprise that the surgical elimination of Osama bin Laden has suddenly stimulated a rush of articles and op-eds about leadership. Indeed the entire event, when looked upon outside of it’s overblown dramaturgical frame, raises some wonderful points about different types of leadership.

The first issue is whether or not organizations can survive the demise of a charismatic leader. In this particular instance I have non-theoretical bias and hope that the answer is NO! I think we will all be much happier if in this instance if the empirical test fails. But beyond that what can we speculate?

Max Weber spoke about the transformation of charisma: The challenge of transferring charisma from one leader to another. For this transfer to occur there needs to be a development of ritual mythologies and legends that legitimize the continuation of the mission laid out by a charismatic leader. Obviously it’s too early to know if this core of cultural activity will emerge, but if it does it may be so diffused as to be ineffective. For charisma to succeed, to really be transferred, there needs to be a continued organizational structure that can take the mythology and transfer it into concrete organizational mission tactics.

In this particular instance the mythology may continue but it’s unlikely that a loose structure will ever be able build an organization without the continuous presence of a charismatic leader pushing the agenda. This of course means that the free world needs to assert continuous pressure to make sure that the organization’s structure and stability are never allowed to emerge. The way you make sure that the mythological head on the snake does not reattach itself to the body, is by making sure the body remains dismembered.

While the transference of charisma is one of the issues raised by this event, the other is one of our favorite themes: pragmatic leadership. In this instance President Obama’s capacity to keep his focus on the mission, to sustain the goals, to keep his team together, to maintain momentum and not drop the ball is one of the best examples in recent years of the capacity to get people on your side and keep them there. This balance of political competence and managerial competence is clearly what is necessary for execution. In many ways it is the exact opposite of the charismatic approach. It is grounded in the tradition of keeping your mouth shut and keeping your eyes on the ball. In that regard we draw a very simple but important lesson from this: execution is everything, execution demands a leader that can make sure his team can go the distance.

So what have we learned from this event? What are the leadership lessons?

  1. Don’t be overwhelmed by charisma
  2. If you want to get something done keep your mouth shut and focus on execution

photo: Orin Zebest