Leadership and Orators - It's Still About the People

I find it interesting to listen to speeches of leaders today. Great orators inspire us to great things. President Obama is certainly an example of this. General Electric chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt spoke at the United States Military Academy at West Point recently. The main aim of his speech was to stress the need for leadership today and to focus on ones who have the stamina and courage to change themselves and others in order to catapult us out of the economic times we find ourselves in.

Here are some excerpts:
1) He explained that GE has been working hard to understand what attributes of leadership can make an impact given the challenges of the 21st century. First, “we have to be better listeners,” he said. “21st century leaders listen. They use external inputs as a catalyst. They put their ego in check. They ask more questions than they answer. They welcome dissent and debate, and are constantly seeking more intelligence.”
Note from the coach: Essentially his focus is on people. Without the employee workforce you don't have a company, you have no leadership and essentially you have nothing except for a product. And guess what? Products are also created by people. Without a clear focus on people, very little else will matter in the end.

2)"Leaders must become systems thinkers who are comfortable with ambiguity,” he said. “Success requires problem solving, and connecting the dots. This requires intellectual breadth and tactical depth. We must understand technology, globalization, politics, economics, human resources. We must understand how government, community, the environment, business, academics all connect. And we must apply this to solving problems.”
Note from the coach: A core element of change is being comfortable with the unknown. Most of us hate this passionately. As humans, we consistently look for answers and a serious knowing of something. The only real knowing we have in business (as in life) is simply knowing that the answer will indeed emerge. And yes, work is involved:)

3)"Leaders must build competency and move with speed." GE is a big organization, like the Army. The problem with size is that it can be too slow. At GE, we must push decision-making down in the organization and we must delegate more.”
Note from the coach: There is no leadership without delegation. Even if you work for yourself, delegation is a core element for making your organization more productive. Plus I have found it to be one of the most important development tools around if done well.

4)"Leaders must motivate with vision” — providing the emotional connection that inspires action and commitment...The residue of the past was a more individualistic ‘win-lose’ game. The 21st century is about building bigger and diverse teams; teams that have a culture of respect. ... This new spirit of American leadership — much of which is derived from this great institution — will be the foundation of renewal and change.”
Note from the coach: Mr. Immelt is pontificating a bit here and let me boil it down...people whether individually or collectively is what will move and re-shape organizations in any century. This has not changed throughout the decades. Technology can make us savvier on how to do so. Let's focus on the simple things, building relationships, enhancing our dialogue and having real and true transparency. Without it, you can have all the fancy technology and gadgets and we'll be staring at spare parts, rather than the vibrancy of an organization.

Policing Office Politics

Employees of all ranks within organizations hold a vast range of beliefs. Everyone arrives at a new job with a litany of preconceived notions, based on: past work and life experiences; the organization’s reputation and image; and the word “on the street”. Once these beliefs are set, they are validated each day by the tough boss, immovable management, old policies and procedures and office politics. So what can a leader to do? Bust out of old beliefs!

That’s right, you can eradicate those myths right now and eliminate the mental blocks inside your mind and the organization as a whole. Why bother? Limiting beliefs make us immovable, reducing productivity, profitability, motivation and enjoyment on the job. For the next few blogs, I’ll give you a myth and bust on through it.

Here’s the myth buster for today…

Myth: Nothing changes around here

Aha! It’s common to think nothing moves inside corporations and organizations, everything remaining “the same old same old.” Henry Ford once said, “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” But how does one create and incite change? Start by being proactive and knowing with every fiber in your body that things can shift. When I worked at Disney in publicity, the marketing department was designing incredible projects for programming, affiliate sales and other departments, but no one knew about the plans. Everyone felt out of the loop and expressed frustration with those seemingly pesky marketing folks. So the publicity department lobbied marketing, requesting a monthly meeting to showcase their incredible work. In order to establish the value of this new activity, we had to spend time convincing those around us. We developed the following messages for two key audiences:

1. Outside of marketing – if new and innovative tools were being developed for one department they could surely be used for another. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a holistic way to view all of marketing’s offerings;
2. Inside marketing - since marketing was typically not acknowledged (just like publicity) for its work, this meeting could become a key tool to generate interest and exposure for the department.

Voila! One month later, the first marketing meeting was held and it became a regular activity within the organization, leaving no one outside the loop. You might think this was excessive, and it worked and led to collaboration and increased communication. How are you being a proactive change agent? How do you need to position key points differently? How can you gain support privately first and then publicly? Re-examine your efforts with a proactive and positive approach, eventually, you will engender the masses.