Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

Not so fast: Recession Woes Remain

Many investors are pleased with July's stock market rally....me, included.  Personally, as of July 31, I doubled (on paper) my Ford Motor Company investment when its stock hit $8 a share.

Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. gross domestic product.

Gross domestic product (GDP) is the market value of all final goods and services from a nation in a given year.

For example, Baby Boomers were responsible for a 78% share of GDP growth during the bubble years of 1995-2005.  However today, Americans have abruptly switched from living beyond their means to saving more and working down the debts they incurred during the bubble years. 

The Commerce Department's gross domestic product report today shows a contraction of about 1% for the second quarter.  That marks a less severe decline than the first quarter's 5.5% figure, possibly prompting some to declare that an economic bottom has arrived.

But a 1% decline still would mark the first time GDP has contracted for four quarters in a row since at least 1947, when the Commerce Department began measuring GDP.

A Jobless Recovery is an oxymoron

Employers have been cutting roughly 500,000 jobs a month this year.  Some maintain payrolls are a lagging indicator.  But job losses in this recession have been much steeper than in the previous two.  And weekly paychecks become much dearer when consumers can't or won't take on more debt.

When 79 million boomers--nearly a third of Americans--start spending less and saving more, you know it won't be pretty.  According to consulting firm McKinsey, boomers' conversion to thrift could stifle the economy's hoped-for rebound and knock U.S. growth down from the 3.2% it has averaged since 1965 to 2.4% over the next 30 years.

Wages, excluding stimulus benefits, continue to slide, industrial production has fallen every month this year and capacity utilization is at a low of 68%.  The elements that will drive a recovery--rising wages, consumer demand, production and sales--haven't appeared.

Despite the July stock market rally and investors' satisfaction with earnings that top low-ball estimates, sustainable profit growth might not arrive for some time.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, July 31, 2009

Be sure to visit the August Leadership Development Carnival hosted by Mary Jo Asmus

 

Leadership in Government Funded Basic R&D

For decades, governments around the world, including Japan, Germany and China, have lead in critical technology research and development to spur on commercial product development.

Here in the U.S., the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) describes itself as an incubator of long-shot technologies too risky for almost anyone else to take on.  DARPA developed the military network, the ARPANET, from which the Internet later emerged.  Launched with four connected sites in 1969, it eventually linked universities and think tanks before an international network was commercialized in the mid-1990s.

Typically, DARPA requires contractors to come up with solutions that are orders of magnitude superior to current technology.

For example, the night-vision, laser and GPS devices work well but the batteries that power them weigh some 25 pounds per soldier, heavy enough to hurt some of the troops.  So, DARPA solicited bids for a new device that would power a soldier's gear at a tenth of the weight and a fraction of the $100 cost of the batteries.  Today, the original 18 companies that took up this challenge have been whittled down to two: Livermore (CA)-based UltraCell and Adaptive Materials of Ann Arbor (MI).  Their solution: small, sturdy fuel cells that can power a soldier's clutch of mobile devices for a week on a gallon or so of methanol or propane.  Battle-ready versions of the fuel cells will be available this year.

It is expected that consumers and businesses will someday gain as well.  Both companies are testing models for the U.S. commercial market.  First targets: remote power generation for police forces and makers of recreational vehicles (RVs).

Without Government Basic R&D Innovation is a Slippery Slope

Back in the 1980s, I was a corporate officer for Stirling Power Systems Corporation (SPS), a Stirling engine development company for military and commerical mobile power applications.  Ann Arbor, MI based SPS was an alternative energy R&D venture partially funded by the Swedish government and the State of Michigan Strategic Fund.  The product development firm designed and tested cogeneration (electricity and heat) homes with funding from the Gas Research Institute, quiet mobile power for the U.S Army and as a cogeneration power source for RV motor homes with Winnebago. 

Because the Swedish government nor its U.S. investors didn't have the resources necessary to put the Stirling engine into commercial production, SPS was sold to McDonnell Douglas Energy Systems, Inc. in 1986...and...McDonnell Douglas was never able to get this alternative energy technology to fly commercially.   

Source: BUSINESSWEEK, August 3, 2009

Becoming Vigilant, Trusting & Transparent

Board Vigilance

Changing a system that encourages information-hoarding is the board of directors’ responsibility.

Truly independent boards should provide a much-needed check on executives’ egos and truth-telling.  If they fail to assess transparency at the uppermost levels, they’re not functioning appropriately.

“Boards are the last line of defense against ruinous self-deception and the suppression of vital truths,” write authors Warren Bennis and James O’Toole in a recent Harvard Business Review article ("A Culture of Candor," June 2009). “If they’re not vigilant in the pursuit of honesty, the organizations they serve are unlikely to have a free internal or external flow of information.”

Trust

As a species, we are hardwired to trust others, especially those who appear similar to ourselves and who have similar interests.  But as recent financial scandals reveal, we sometimes trust too easily and trust the wrong people.

To trust wisely means starting with small acts that foster reciprocity. By communicating your willingness to trust, you give others the go-ahead to do the same.

Transparent Communications

Open and honest communications support the decision to trust.  Lack of communication and transparency creates suspicion.

To increase transparency:

·         Increase the frequency and candor of your communications.

·         Build a relationship beyond the constraints of your official role.

·         Use the word “we” more often than “I.”

·         Emphasize common values and goals.

·         Be clear whose goals and interests you are promoting.

·         Be sure your actions support your words.

·         Demonstrate a clear concern for others.

·         Under-promise and over-deliver.

·         Ask more questions.

·         Really listen to the answers.

Steps Toward Building Trust and Transparency

In a recent Harvard Business Review article ("A Culture of Candor," June 2009), Warren Bennis and James O’Toole offer seven steps for developing a culture of transparency:

 

1.     Tell the Truth

Each of us has the impulse to tell others what they want to hear.  Instead, keep it simple, and be honest. Candid leaders tell everyone the same thing, and they have no need to revise their stories.

2. Encourage People to Speak Truth to Power

It’s never easy for us to be honest with our bosses.  It takes courage to speak up.

But encouraging people to share their honest opinions is crucial if leaders want to build trust and open communication.  Of course, this sometimes means executives will hear unpleasant information.

3. Reward Contrarians

If you make it acceptable, are willing to listen to opposing points of view and promise to consider the merits of others’ arguments, you pave the way for a culture of transparency.

Find colleagues who tend to be oppositional, listen to them intently, and create conditions for thinking differently.

4. Practice Having Unpleasant Conversations

Few people excel at delivering negative feedback during performance appraisals. Offering negative feedback upward, to one’s boss, is even more challenging.

The best leaders learn how to deliver bad news kindly so people don’t get unnecessarily hurt.  It’s certainly not easy, unless practice opportunities are provided.

5. Diversify Information Sources

Communicate regularly with different groups of colleagues, workers, customers and even competitors to gain a nuanced and multifaceted understanding of others’ perceptions.

6. Admit Mistakes

Candor is contagious. When you admit your shortcomings or errors, it paves the way for others to do the same. Simple admissions can disarm critics and encourage others to be transparent, as well.

7. Build Organizational Support for Transparency

Protect whistle-blowers—but don’t stop there.  Other norms and sanctions should encourage truth-telling, including open-door policies, ethics training and internal blogs that give a voice to people lower down in the hierarchy.

Evaluating Business Leaders

We need a better way to evaluate our business leaders, assert James O’Toole and Warren Bennis in a recent Harvard Business Review article (“A Culture of Candor,” June 2009). It’s no longer prudent to judge American corporate leaders’ performance solely on the extent to which they create wealth for investors.

Moving forward, a new metric is proposed: the extent to which executives create organizations that are economically, ethically and socially sustainable.

Wise leaders recognize that increased transparency is the fundamental first step. Broadly defined, transparency should mean the degree to which information flows freely within an organization, among managers and employees, and outward to stakeholders.

Roughly half of all managers don’t trust their leaders.  Exact figures and study results vary, but no data compiled over the last 7 years have shown more than 50% trust for company leaders.

Human Resource Stress

A woman, anticipating an impending layoff, makes claims of sexual harassment against her supervisor and sends them off in an email to corporate headquarters.  An investigation later determines the claims are unsubstantiated.

A terminated IT employee embeds a virus into the company's computer system--timed to go off two weeks after his departure so it wouldn't look like he did it.

An employee--permitted to pack up his belongings after being terminated--flips a switch behind a panel that everyone else had forgotten about and shuts down the business' operations for about three days, while company leaders try to address what they thought was a "virus."

These are all actual examples of employee sabotage and retaliation that took place after terminations.  In the tense environment of layoffs, cost cutting and lost retirement, the pressure is on Human Resources (HR) to get wise to the risks and prevention strategies.

"Companies should recognize that people are very, very tied into their jobs and that, while this [letting someone go] might be an economic decision for the company, it has very, very real emotional consequences for the workers," says Merrily Archer, a labor and employment attorney in the Denver office of Fisher & Phillips.  "[Employers] have to expect that there is going to be a subset of their workforce or the people they're laying off who are not going to respond particularly well."

The dismal economy may be driving your HR manager to drink.

That's one finding in a recent survey of 372 human resources professionals by industry publication Workforce Management.

Global Economy = Virtual Team Leadership

Because today's economy is tipsy and global, many companies are having their employees work virtually.

Managing a global team brings another set of leadership challenges.  You have to be sensitive to nonverbals, language differences, business protocols and time zones.  That means scheduling regular calls at mutually convenient times for team members...which may not always be possible.

It is important to listen carefully to every team member on phone calls by focusing on how the person is speaking.  It's also important to listen to everything, particularly any silences.  Silence can mean consent, or it can mean the person you're not hearing from disagrees with the team's strategy or is disengaged.  As leader, you need to hear from everyone to make sure the team is moving forward together.  It is a good practice to send an email after each meeting documenting and confirming discussions, conclusions and next steps.

If you sense that a team member is lacking engagement--not responding, not participating, or missing deadlines--call him or her as soon as possible after the team meeting to find out what's going on.

"Mobile workers are far more organized, personally, than their office-bound counterparts," says Stuart Duff of the British consultancy Pearn Kandola who helped Cisco Systems and its clients better understand the psychological issues at play on virtual teams.  He says, "They have to be on top of their game the whole time."

It turns out extroverts/social capitalists--the office gabbers, the life of the break-room party--thrive in the land of virtual work.  Left on their own, these types of employees are the ones who work closely with clients, chum around with colleagues, and talk it up with bosses.  They stay connected no matter where they are.

Bottom Line: Team leaders have to be visible in their activities, especially in this environment, but visibility doesn't have to be face-to-face.  Those who can demonstrate how to do more with less money are the leaders of today and tomorrow.

Source: BUSINESSWEEK, July 27, 2009

The Big American Challenge

A series of studies conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, known as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, began during the Eisenhower Administration and have been carried out periodically ever since.

According to the first National Health study, which was done in the early nineteensixties, 24.3 percent of American adults were overweight.  By the time of the second survey in the early 1970s, the proportion of overweight adults had increased by three-quarters of a percent, and, by the third survey in the late 1970s, it had edged up to 25.4 percent.

During the 1980s, the American gut, instead of expanding very gradually, had ballooned: 33.3 percent of adults now qualified as overweight.  In 1994, published findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that in just ten years, Americans had collectively gained more than a billion pounds.  "If this was about tuberculosis, it would be called an epidemic," another researcher wrote in an editorial accompanying the report.

During the next decade, Americans kept right on gaining.  Men are now on average 17 pounds heavier than they were in the late 1970s, and for women that figure is even higher: 19 pounds.   the proportion of overweight children, age 6 to 11, has more than doubled, while the proportion of overweight adolescents, age 12 to 19, has more than tripled.

Something big must have changed in America to cause so many people to gain so much weight so quickly.  But what, exactly, is unclear--a mystery batter-dipped in enigma.

Why Personal Coaching?

Comments from people who have been coached:

"I have come to learn that to cancel a coaching session is to lose energy for a week and to lose focus. My coaching sessions are a way of clearing out any feelings or uncertainties in my week. They are a way of moving any negative energy from within me as talking out loud helps how I am feeling and where I am at and to stay present.

I often hear myself telling my coach that it’s painful sometimes to have to be brutally honest with myself and as he always explains, it’s best to be honest with your coach as they are a sound board for you. Let’s think about this concept for a moment. If I didn’t have a coach then this conversation would be going on internally, with my inner self talk. As we all know inner self talk goes round and round and doesn’t actually go anywhere except in a negative energy field. It spirals down into a conversation of justifying and explaining why I shouldn’t do something. Controlling our inner self talk takes great skill.

Thus is the purpose of a coach. It is a conversation that is directed outwards and when we hear ourselves speak we gain clarity as to where we are going and what we are thinking and feeling. My coach asks me questions that get me to explore depths to my thoughts and to my feelings. He allows me a safe and supportive space to test ideas and thoughts.

In the last 12 months I have achieved more things than I have ever achieved through regular, decisive coaching. To not have coaching feels like not eating or nurturing myself. Its just not possible."

Coaches Have Coaches

"Sometimes when I talk about "my coach," people are puzzled. Why would a coach need a coach? A coach needs a coach so she can be the best that she can be. But also so she can stay out of the way of her clients' progress. John has been my coach for the last three years, and I honestly cannot imagine what my world would look like now had I not been coached by him. He creates a safe space within which a person can sort out what's happening, discover what's important while helping his client become aware of when strengths are being overused. I thank you John, and because of your work with me, I can stay ready, able and willing to bring value to my clients."

What is Your Life Signature?

"Have you ever watched, listened, and felt someone tuning a guitar or other string instrument? That is what it is like to have the good fortune of connecting with John Agno. He is a living tuning fork and you're that string instrument. Today, I have greater self awareness, am more in step with my calling, and better able to appreciate the journey, including the valleys, than ever before. Thanks, John for helping me get attuned with my life signature."

Check out more coaching success stories at www.CoachThee.com and search This Leadership Blog for how to choose the right coach for you.

 

Blood Type and Personality

Each blood type waged a difficult, and very distinct, battle for its existence some far time ago.  The driven loner Type 0 would have failed miserably in the orderly, cooperative environment of Type A--a big reason for the blood type adaptation in the first place.  Would it be such a surprise to find many of these primitive characteristics hidden in some deep remove of our psyches?

The belief that personality is determined by one's blood type is held in high regard in Japan.