The 10 Point Test of Leadership

Not everyone can or should become a leader. Simply wanting to be a leader doesn’t mean a person has the character, skill, and courage necessary to be a leader. “I never cease to be amazed by the numbers of people in leadership positions who shouldn’t be,” says Mike Myatt, one of my favorite leadership experts, writing for Forbes magazine. “Likewise, I’ve stopped being surprised when those charged with leadership development can’t seem to figure out what constitutes a leader. I hope this list will eliminate the confusion about why someone isn’t a leader.” 

You’re not a leader if…

1. You don’t get results: Real leaders perform, they get the job done, and they consistently exceed expectations. No results = no leadership.

2. You get results the wrong way: If the only way you can solve the deficit described in point #1 above is through lying or cheating, you’re not a leader. The ends don’t justify the means. If you abuse your influence, don’t treat people well, or confuse manipulation with leadership, you may win a few battles, but you’ll lose the war.

3. You don’t care: Indifference is a characteristic not well suited to leadership. You simply cannot be a leader if you don’t care about those you lead. The real test of any leader is whether those you lead are better off for being led by you.

4. You’re chasing a position and not a higher purpose: If you value self-interest above service beyond self you simply don’t understand the concept of leadership. Leadership is about caring about something beyond yourself, and leading others to a better place – even if it means you take a back seat.

5. You care more about making promises than keeping them: Leadership isn’t about your rhetoric; it’s about your actions. Leadership might begin with vision casting, but it’s delivering the vision that will ultimately determine your success as a leader.

6. You put people in boxes: Stop telling people why they can’t do something and show them how they can. Leaders don’t put people in boxes; they free them from boxes. True leadership is about helping people reach places they didn’t know they could go.

7. You follow the rules instead of breaking them: Status quo is the great enemy of leadership. Leadership is nothing if not understanding the need for change, and then possessing the ability to deliver it.

8. You churn talent instead of retain it: Real leadership serves as a talent magnet – not a talent repellent. If you can’t acquire talent, develop it, or retain it you are not a leader.

9. You take credit instead of giving it: True leadership isn’t found seeking the spotlight, but seeking to shine the spotlight on others.

10. You care about process more than people: But for the people there is no platform. Without the people you have nothing to lead. When you place things above the people you lead, you have failed as a leader.

Do you have what it takes to be a leader? Does your boss?

Want That Promotion? Stretch Yourself

As the new year unfolds – and with it the inevitable wave of self-improvement plans– Cal Newport, writing for the Wall Street Journal, identifies strategies for advancing your career.

Not all work is equal, he says. “There’s a difference between doing things you already know how to do and doing things that force you to stretch and improve your skills.” Psychology professor K. Anders Ericsson, a leader in the field of worker expertise, explains that a person in a new job usually spends some time training or shadowing someone else to get up to speed, but after that, his or her abilities tend to plateau. Beyond this point, they don’t get much better at their job, though they grow more experienced.

To get better—and to win the promotions and opportunities most of us say we want —we must set out to intentionally improve our performance. In studying why some people develop remarkable careers, this is a key unheralded distinction between the average knowledge worker and the stars at most companies: the former work hard while the latter systematically learn harder skills. Ericsson called this type of structured activity “deliberate practice,” and in his decades of research on the topic, he’s found it to be the key for expert performance in every field he has studied — from elite scientists to elite jugglers.

Here’s how to integrate this strategy into your work day:

Deliberate practice requires clarity. Set a clear goal slightly beyond your current abilities, but not too far beyond, and list specific actions that advance you toward your goal.

Deliberate practice requires feedback. Assuming you don’t reach your goal on the first try, you need a source of objective feedback so you can improve on your next iteration. Without frank, even harsh, feedback, your progress will likely stall.

Deliberate practice is unpleasant. You have to stretch yourself beyond where you’re currently comfortable — not a pleasant feeling. Most knowledge workers inadvertently end up avoiding deliberate practice-style activities because they retreat to checking email the moment a task gets too difficult. To make deliberate practice work, you must not only tolerate unpleasantness (and stick with the task, regardless of your urge for relieving distraction), but learn to seek it, like a bodybuilder seeks muscle burn.

Success in a career requires more than simply showing up early, staying late, and responding quickly to every email. True standouts systematically develop rare and valuable skills. Building these skills requires practice, and it is not something that most people seek naturally.

Do You Look the Part of a Leader?

Succeeding as a leader requires hard work, intelligence, determination, and luck. While those may be important, it turns out they may not even approach the impact of one other key dimension: executive presence.

In a recent study conducted by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and a team of researchers at the Center for Talent Innovation, the senior leaders surveyed listed executive presence — being perceived as leadership material — as the essential factor in determining who gets ahead in an organization.

According to a summary by David Burkus for smartblogs.com, the study surveyed 18 focus groups, 4,000 college-degree professionals, 50 personal interviews and 268 senior-level executives and concluded that leadership positions are most often given to those who look the part. Attributes such as hard work and past performance are important, but the study’s biggest finding was that executive presence is a requirement for top leadership positions.

But what exactly is executive presence?

Hewlett and her team deconstructed executive presence by defining the three components that help a leader look the part:

Communication. Excellent speaking skills, active listening and assertiveness are required skills for leaders. In addition to interpersonal communication, leaders need the ability to read an audience or situation and craft the appropriate response. Perhaps that’s why 28% of senior executives agreed that communication predicts your leadership potential.

Appearance. Looking polished and put together was found to be an important element of presence. While only 5% of senior leaders considered it to be a key factor, every leader surveyed recognized appearance for its potential to derail high-potential talent.

Gravitas. Leaders with executive presence must project confidence. In high-pressure situations, members look to their leader for confident, decisive action. Keeping one’s poise under stress is vital for those in senior leadership, which is why two-thirds of the leaders surveyed agreed that gravitas was the core characteristic of executive presence.

Hewlett notes that the study’s findings have some interesting implications for developing women and multicultural professionals into senior leaders. While the traditional explanations like work/life balance or a lack of available high-level mentors were seen as reasons for the talent gap among these potential leaders, the survey also found that the impact of executive presence may play a role as well.

Women and multicultural professionals felt they were held to a stricter standard and tended to feel a higher intrinsic tension between remaining true to oneself and assimilating with the dominant organizational culture. Over 80% of women and people of color said they were unclear as to how to act on feedback about their own executive presence. In addition, 56% of people of color felt they were held to a stricter code of executive presence than the average organizational member.

Potential leaders should examine this study’s implications for their own development. Ask yourself: How well are you demonstrating poise under pressure? Is your appearance polished and put together? Can you effectively read an audience and communicate your ideas?

How to Master a New Skill

Mastering new skills is not optional in today’s business environment. “In a fast-moving, competitive world, being able to learn new skills is one of the keys to success. It’s not enough to be smart — you need to always be getting smarter,” says Heidi Grant Halvorson, a motivational psychologist and author.  Joseph Weintraub, an author and  management professor, agrees. “We need to constantly look for opportunities to stretch ourselves in ways that may not always feel comfortable at first. Continual improvement is necessary to get ahead.”

Here, reported by Amy Gallo for Harvard Business Review, are some principles to follow in your quest for self-improvement:

Check your readiness.
When working on a new skill or competency, you need to ask yourself two things. First, is your goal attainable? Second, how much time and energy can you give to the project? Recognize that learning a new skill takes extreme commitment. Unless your goal is attainable and you’re prepared to work hard, you won’t get very far.

Make sure it’s needed.
Make sure the skill is relevant to your career, your organization, or both. Unless you absolutely need the skill for your job, or for a future position, it’s unlikely you’ll get money for training or support from your manager.

Know how you learn best.
Some learn best by looking at graphics or reading. Others would rather watch demonstrations or listen to things being explained. Still others need a “hands-on” experience. Halvorson says you can figure out your ideal learning style by looking back. “Reflect on some of your past learning experiences, and make a list of good ones and another list of bad ones,” she says. “What did the good, effective experiences have in common?

Get the right help.
Eliciting support from others can greatly increase learning. Find someone you trust who has mastered the skill you’re trying to attain. And look beyond your immediate manager who has to evaluate you. Weintraub suggests you ask yourself: “Who in my organization, other than my boss, would notice my changes and give me honest feedback?” Then approach that person and say something like, “You are so comfortable with [the skill], something I’m not particularly good at. I’m really trying to work on that and would love to spend some time with you, learn from you, and get your feedback.” If there is someone in your organization who is able and willing to provide quality mentoring, then great. If not, find help outside” suggests Halvorson.

Start small
Self-improvement can feel overwhelming. “You can’t take on everything. If you do, you’ll never do it,” says Weintraub. Instead, choose one or two skills to focus on, and break that skill down into manageable goals.

Reflect along the way.
To move from experimentation to mastery, you need to reflect on what you are learning. Otherwise the new skill won’t stick. Halvorson and Weintraub both suggest talking to others. “Always share your goals with those individuals who can provide informational or emotional support along the way,” says Halvorson. “Talking about your progress helps you get valuable feedback, keeps you accountable, and cements the change.

Be patient.
“Too often, we approach a new skill with the attitude that we should nail it right out of the gate,” says Halvorson. The reality is that it takes much longer. “It’s not going to happen overnight. It usually takes six months or more to develop a new skill,” says Weintraub.

Principles to Remember

Do:

• Select a skill that is valued by your organization and manager.
• Divide the skill up into smaller, manageable tasks.
• Reflect on what you’ve learned and what you still want to accomplish.

Don’t:

• Try to learn in a vacuum — ask others for guidance and feedback .
• Rely solely on your boss for advice — you may want to involve someone who isn’t responsible for evaluating you.
• Assume it’s going to happen overnight

Defining Your Life’s Goal

“You have 15 seconds to answer this question: Looking back on your career 20, 30 years from now, what do you want to say you’ve accomplished? Go.”

Jeff Weiner, chief executive of LinkedIn, was interviewed recently by Adam Bryant for The New York Times, and he was asked what career advice he gives to recent graduates.

He starts with that 15-second question, adding, “If you can’t answer it in 15 seconds, it probably means you haven’t thought about the answer before that moment, or you don’t have a definitive answer. That’s fine, because for some people it’s a lifelong journey. But many people don’t have the answer to the question. They either never asked themselves that or they got swept up in a stream of opportunity that led from one thing to another — more titles, more money — and they didn’t stop to ask themselves that simple question.

You can’t realize your goal if it’s not defined. So the most important piece of advice I can give folks who are coming out of school, even people who’ve already begun their careers, is to know what it is you ultimately want to accomplish. Once you know it, the moment you know it, you begin manifesting it. You manifest it in explicit ways by virtue of knowing and then pursuing it, and you manifest it in implicit ways — just in the way you talk, in the way you think and the things that you say to others and the people you attract to yourself.

And if you don’t know the answer to the broader question, my advice is to optimize for two things: passion and skill, not one at the exclusion of the other. You have to optimize for both. So that’s the first piece of advice.

The second piece of advice is to surround yourself with amazing people, only the best. In this day and age, in this more global society, in this more networked, interconnected world, it’s all about the people you work with. I used to think it was all about the person you worked for, having the right mentor, the right leader, someone who believed in you, someone who would allow you to make mistakes and take risks and teach you and coach you. It’s not just about the person you report to, though. It’s about the people you work with and the people who report to you. It’s about everyone you’re associated with, day in and day out. Surround yourself with only the best you can find.

And the third piece of advice is to always be learning. Joi Ito, the head of the M.I.T. Media Lab, loves to refer to the word “neoteny.” It means a delayed state of adolescence. With animals, it’s not a good thing because the animal has not fully matured. But with regard to people, it can be an incredibly positive thing. Joi likes to talk about maintaining a childlike sense of wonder throughout one’s entire life.

Weiner ends the interview with a powerful quote from Albert Einstein: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” He goes on: I like to lean toward the latter, and I’m definitely drawn to other people who do the same.

Teach Yourself to be Optimistic

It’s often said that optimistic people are born with the tendency to see the glass as half-full. That may be true. But there’s another truth that’s more important: Optimism is not just an innate trait — it’s also a skill that can be learned. And optimistic people are happier, more productive and better performers.

Jason Selk,  a consultant who was director of mental training for the St. Louis Cardinals during their 2006 season (the year they won their first World Series championship in 20 years) offers four easy-to-learn and highly effective skills to learn how to be optimistic.

1. Develop a relentless solution focus (RSF). Within 60 seconds of having a problem-focused thought, replace it with solution-focused thinking. This is the first step to learning optimism, says Selk. It takes practice, but once one gets into the habit of adopting an RSF, it makes success inevitable. The link between optimism and success comes down to expectancy theory, which says: Whatever you focus on expands. Expectancy theory has proved over and over again that when people focus on problems, their problems actually grow and reproduce. Focusing on solutions generates more solutions.
2. Find one improvement to the situation. Learning to be solution-focused is easier than being relentless and consistent about it. Here’s a tool for becoming relentless: Anytime you catch yourself focusing on a problem, negativity or self-doubt, ask yourself this question: What’s the one thing I can do differently that could make this situation better? This technique is known as “replacement thinking.” Replacement thinking is a way of seizing control of one’s mind — in this case, negative, problem-centric thinking — and erasing those thoughts.
3. Acknowledge any improvement in the current situation. Most people want a solution that produces complete resolution. That’s like trying to climb a mountain in one step, says Selk. Learn to see any improvement in the situation as a solution. When people become accustomed to looking for improvement, it trains them to focus away from the problem and toward the solution.
4. Recognize your “done wells.” Get in the habit of recognizing your “done wells.” Take a few seconds per day to ask the question, “What have I done well today?” This simple gesture reinforces optimism on a daily basis.

Selk says that mastering these four simple techniques will make an enormous difference in your performance, workplace attitudes and happiness.

The Top Reasons Your Decisions Fail You

In any business career there will be lots of decisions: good, bad and ugly. Kathy Caprino, writing for Forbes, asserts that good decisions have noticeable traits in common. And the reverse is also true. 

“The decisions that fail us, that take us away from who we are and where we want to go, and cause unhappiness and regret, have the following five traits in common,” she says. 

These decisions:

1)  Don’t support your intrinsic values
No decision can be a good one, if in making it, you’re going against what you value and respect.  When you make a decision that goes against your values, it almost never comes to a good end.

 Lesson: Without exception, align your decisions with your values — honor what you hold dear, what you know to be true, and your highest standards of integrity.

2)  Are communicated poorly or without proper reflection
Even potentially good decisions can turn out badly if you fail to communicate them in a thoughtful, confident and clear way. 

Lesson: A decision is only as good or positive as the way in which it’s shared and communicated.

3)  Come from a place of weakness and disempowerment
Decisions that emanate from weakness, fear, or running away from something, almost never move you forward.  You can’t get to the next level of success or fulfillment if you don’t do the inner and outer work of overcoming your fears and addressing what’s missing.

Lesson: If you run away from something (which is a decision, after all) or when you act from a sense of fear, powerlessness, or victimization, you’ll find that the decision you’ve made won’t resolve the problem — the same challenges will reappear in your next situation.

4)   Haven’t been properly vetted
One necessary ingredient to great decisions is that you’ve gathered all the necessary information from the most diverse and inclusive perspectives possible, and evaluated each alternative scenario before you choose one option.  Many terrible decisions come from an incomplete decision-making process.

Lesson: Develop sufficient boundaries so you’re not being overly reactive, emotional or analytical in your decision making.  Use an integrative style that incorporates as much feedback and data possible, and allows you to brainstorm all possible solutions, and vet them in an effective, integrative way.

5)      Are focused on the wrong problem
Numerous bad decisions people make in their professional lives emerge because they are looking at the “wrong” problem, writes Caprino.  Too often, people know they have to make a change, but instead of pinpointing exactly what isn’t working and taking a long, hard look at the root cause, they focus on an ancillary issue – one that isn’t as deeply challenging to explore and deal with.  Thus, the decisions made can’t possibly bring about the desired outcomes because they didn’t address the right problem.

Lesson: When you know you have to make a change, make sure you identify the deepest root of the problem, and address that. Don’t take the quick way out of the decision-making process by bypassing the most critical issues and problems you need to resolve.

Decision-making is a fundamental tool that helps you face life’s challenges, uncertainties and opportunities.   And the quality and efficacy of your decisions will determine how successful, fulfilled and productive you’ll be.  Take the time to explore and improve your decision-making process so you can make decisions that honor who you are and what you really want.