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Art of Leadership Blog

Leading Progress

9/28/2011

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A Guest Review of "The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work" by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer

By Andrew Moses, MorganFranklin Corporation

For my inaugural "guest blog" on Monica Thakrar Inc.'s website, I have chosen to review "The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work." The book, just released in July, shares groundbreaking research on what truly separates successful leaders from the masses. Through the years, countless leadership and management books have attempted to provide the answer, but few authors have done so in such a tactical manner as Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer. 

According to the authors, the answer to the age-old question of what separates successful leaders from the masses is that they are able to foster great "inner work lives" for each of their employees. More specifically, Amabile and Kramer have concluded that the ability to create "conditions that foster positive emotions, strong internal motivation, and favorable perceptions of colleagues and the work itself" is the key to successful leadership. 

Are you currently doing things to create great "inner work lives" for your employees? What can you do as a leader to promote more positive "inner work lives" for those on your teams? Fortunately, Amabile and Kramer have more answers.

Leveraging their collection and analysis of 12,000 diary entries written by 238 employees across seven companies, the authors have concluded that the most important ingredient in motivating people is the facilitation of progress—even small wins. 

The results of this study are extremely relevant to any leader. The research indicates that as a leader, the first thing you should do each day is identify what you need to do to facilitate your team's progress. But how can this be accomplished? Fortunately, Amabile and Kramer have provided a roadmap here as well. The authors cite "small wins, breakthroughs, forward movement, and goal completion" as keys to progress.

As a leader, are you actively working to facilitate your team's progress each day? Are you designing your team's projects with the achievement of progress and interim successes in mind? For example, do you start with the low-hanging fruit and set up measurable and attainable checkpoints along the way, or do you simply ask the team to set out with one end result in mind? If you already have a project underway, it's not too late to bring the team together and set forth some interim milestones. If you are starting a new project, the most important factor in your success will be designing the project to facilitate and continuously achieve progress. Once projects are underway, as a leader, you should work to establish a strong affiliation/connection between the team and the interim milestones and end result. Track and celebrate small achievements along the way, even as you work to attain larger goals. 

Leading to facilitate progress may require that you entirely rethink the way you lead. But rest assured that you don't need to undergo a transformational change overnight to begin managing to facilitate progress. To get started, think of one thing you can do today or tomorrow as a leader to facilitate progress. By doing just one small thing to facilitate your progress as a leader, you will go a long way toward achieving your own success and your team’s success. That's the "progress principle."

This "Guest Blog Entry" was written by Andrew Moses, a Senior Associate in MorganFranklin’s Financial Management and Performance Improvement practice. For more information on MorganFranklin, visit www.morganfranklin.com.
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Review of “Linchpin” 2

9/21/2011

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In the second part of Linchpin Seth Godin talks about the Powerful Culture of Gifts. Godin describes the Powerful Culture of Gifts as a way to give your “art” or your creative gifts away so that you are being generous with your creativity. He says the more you give it away the more people will see the benefits of them and you (“the artist”) will not be tied to the return you get from sharing the gift. 

As a leader or as a human being the more that you are tied to a particular outcome the more resistance you are creating to actually creating that particular outcome. If you are putting in your best effort – or creating “art” as Godin would say – then you are present. You are in the now and putting your best effort forward without any intention of return. The minute you tie your desire to make money or reach fame or achieve prestige to the act, the intention of it gets muddled creating a less than stellar result. The best results are always achieved when you are giving all of you to the action you are performing in the moment without any intention around the results.

As a business leaders or entrepreneur you need to have goals that you are working towards, of course, but when you are performing actions to reach those goals you need to let go of the attachment to the results. For example when a leader is creating a speech to give to his company employees with the intent to increase his stature employees will be able to tell that. In fact they may get turned off by that particular speech instead of one where he is open and genuine and in the moment sharing who he is as a leader and as a human being. Instead he can engage them in his a vision that is compelling which could naturally increase his stature The more you give as a leader the more that your employees or “tribe” will want to give back to you. So trust in the ability to be generous with your talents and skills without being depleted or taken advantage of. Build your community by giving and giving generously.

As a leader are you giving more than you what you get? Are you being generous with your time and energy and skill? What can you be more generous with today?
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Review of “Linchpin” by Seth Godin

9/14/2011

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This is the third book by Seth Godin that I have read and am reviewing. This blog post focuses on the first half of the book. I pick his books because I believe his ideas are thoughtful and take into account current day technology, trends, and ideas. 

Linchpin discusses how to be indispensable. Seth Godin says that to be a linchpin means that you are creating value. By focusing on creating “art” or thinking outside of the normal “shoulds” and “processes” that organizations typically stay within one can create value in a way that is outside the norm. 

This reminds me of the difference between a manager and a leader. A manager stays within the “box” of what currently is and makes it better and more efficient. A leader thinks creatively about what currently is and begins to see possibilities which have never been thought of before. The leaders not only see the possibilities, but actually acts on them. 

Godin says that a Linchpin does the work of “emotional labor” or creating a path when it is not laid out in front of them. He discusses making choices and creating a way when it is not created for you. I also believe this is a true hallmark of a leader as they are consistently taking risks and pushing the envelope by creating new visions and new processes that other people can then follow. It is inherently risky to create a new path than to follow the one that everyone else seems to be taking, but it is so much more fulfilling and worthy of an endeavor.  When you can look back and say I took the risk and it paid off or even when it fails for you then have some lessons learned for the next time that you take a risk!

The third thing that Linchpin discusses is the “resistance factor”. He says that people have the rational mind and the “lizard mind” or the emotional mind which feels fear and anxiety and constantly wants to bring you back to doing things that you are comfortable with. In my mind true leaders feel the resistance and do it anyway. They take the risk. They know that they will fail sometimes, and that not all of their ideas will be brilliant, but they still take chances. For not to do it and stay small takes so much more work. 

So are you willing to stand up and create your own vision and path? Are you willing to feel the resistance and do it regardless? Are you willing to be a linchpin? 

To be a leader can be learned, but it takes implementing some of these lessons step by step. The more you practice these steps the easier they get!
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How to Handle Resistance to Change?

9/7/2011

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If you are going through a large scale change in your organization - be it a technology implementation, a change in strategy, or new legislation - there will inevitably be some resistance to from your employees. Why? Because each person reacts differently to a change, stress, or moving out of their comfort zone. There are some typical reasons, however, that employees resist change. Here are the top five:

1.They don’t know why the change is happening - if an employee does not understand why a change is happening and how it could be important for the organization as a whole they will often not accept or be resistant to the change. By making and communicating out a “case for change” employees can understand why the change is needed.

2.They don’t think that the “rewards” outweigh the “cost” - often people like to stay in their comfort zone. They want to keep doing what they are used to doing unless the benefits of the change can be made for them. With the case for change, leaders need to clearly state the benefits of the change and why the new change will be better than the old one. Then employees will begin to feel more comfortable with the change process.

3.There is not enough clarity around the change - often when there is change information is not provided as frequently or as well as is necessary. Openness and transparency are important when going through a change process. It is imperative to share information down from the leadership on why, when, and how the change is happening and keep employees informed about the progress of the change.

4.They don’t feel part of the change - If employees are not asked for feedback as part of the change process then they don’t feel part of the change, which can lead to resistance. Feedback is an integral pat in of creating buy-in and having employees feel like their input and feelings are being heard and integrated into the change process.

5.Past change efforts have failed - some employees can feel like this effort will be just like the others and therefore are not supportive of it. Communicating why this one is different and why and how it will be successful will go a long way to reassuring people as well as showing “wins” during the implementation time frame.

Are you seeing any of these behaviors exhibited from your employees during change efforts? What have you done to alleviate resistance to change in your organization?
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Managing Up

9/1/2011

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Managing up is a skill set that is needed for anyone who wants to be an integral part of their organization. It is about building a strong relationship with your boss, building trust, and bringing up issues when needed. So how do you successfully manage up? Well there are four main components that allow you to build a strong relationship with your boss:

1.Understanding what is important to your boss - knowing what are the major priorities and goals of your leader is critical for you to be able to take initiative, show support, and get involved in those areas. By taking steps to further the goals of your leader you will show him/her that you are aligned with his/her vision and wanting to contribute to those goals.

2.Helping them to prioritize your work - by understanding what is important to your boss you will be able to strategically think through what are the highest priorities in your work. You will then be able to focus on those tasks earlier than others and raise questions to your boss about them as needed. This will show that you are proactive, have drive, and are able to think strategically.

3.Raising issues to your leader - as you are closer to the ground than your boss you will be able to determine if there are any barriers to success in the making sooner than they will. As a result a good way to manage up is to raise issues to your boss which could be potential problems so that he/she can can deal with them in a timely and appropriate fashion.

4.Taking initiative to raise ideas and opportunities to your boss - being proactive shows your boss your enthusiasm, commitment, and desire to progress in the organization. It will also show them that they can delegate more work onto you and that you can bring up new initiatives that support the organization as a whole. 

Is there anything from this list that you can add or improve upon in your day to day work?


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    Monica Thakrar

    Monica Thakrar has over 18 years experience in business focused mainly on strategy, change management, leadership development, training and coaching resulting in successful implementations of large scale transformation programs.  

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