For New (and More Experienced) Leaders (Alike)

1. Accept the possibility that everything you think you know about leadership just may be wrong.
2. Have an undying curiosity to validate #1 again and again and again.
3. Treat everyone you deal with, regardless of position, status or station, with unyielding respect and regard.

"Fall Down Five Times; Get up Six"

A Haiku by Barry Zweibel:

How could I miss THAT?!

Things soooo not going as planned.

Resilience is key!

Tabula Rasa and Words of Wisdom

Main Entry:ta·bu·la ra·sa
Pronunciation: \ˌta-byə-lə-ˈrä-zə, -sə\
[BZ Pronunciation: \ˌ ta-BOO-lə-ˈrä-zə\]
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin, smoothed or erased tablet
Date: 1535
1 : the mind in its hypothetical primary blank or empty state before receiving outside impressions 2 : something existing in its original pristine state

I always liked the notion of tabula rasa -- especially as it applies to the Student Mind, ready for learning; a blank sheet of paper ready for Words of Wisdom to be written upon them.

The beautiful thing is that we ALL have the capacity to engage our Student Mind whenever we so choose.

So what is your Student Mind ready to learn today? What Words of Wisdom might you be writing on your blank sheet of paper today?

For that matter, what Words of Wisdom did you write there yesterday?

Simple Checklists Work!

Based on a Special Article published by the New England Journal of Medicine and reported on by Harvard Science:

"A group of hospitals in eight cities around the globe has successfully demonstrated that the use of a simple surgical checklist during major operations can lower the incidence of deaths and complications by more than one-third."

If using simple checklists can help reduce surgical deaths and complications by more than a third, is there any credible justification to NOT use checklists in the work that you and your staff do?!

Sometimes effective leadership is simply about insuring that proven solutions are consistently implemented.

Impact Competencies - Who Gets Listened to and Why?

Ever been in a meeting where you raised what you thought was a really powerful objection to something and everyone else in the room roundly dismissed it as off-point?

Ever been in a meeting where someone else raised what you thought was a totally irrelevant objection to something and everyone else in the room roundly hailed it as amazingly spot-on and insightful?

What's that all about, actually?!

Here's your assignment: Look for this dynamic - when comments are validated or not - and see what you can glean from what you see. Find the patterns.

• Compare and contrast who gets listened to ... and who really doesn't
• Compare and contrast how they say things ... their tone, their rate of speech, their affect, etc.
• Compare and contrast any key words they use that seem to engender, or dilute, the support of others
• Compare and contrast what's said immediately before they comment
• Compare and contrast what preparatory work they have/have not done on the topic

From this exercise, develop a list of Impact Competencies - that which helps people get listened to.

Discuss.

1qtr2009 Not Just Talk! Newsletter Now Available

The 1qtr2009 Not Just Talk! quarterly newsletter from Barry Zweibel and GottaGettaCoach!, Inc. is now available and ready for viewing at http://www.ggci.com/NotJustTalk/.

Enjoy!

Developing Your Leadership Development Plan

Welcome to 2009. Here's wishing it's the best one yet for you - at work and in life! From a work standpoint, what's developing with respect to your leadership development efforts? What are your plans with respect to what I like to call the five Key Domains of Leadership?

Key Leadership Domain #1 - Managing UP the Chain. Establishing and maintaining - and growing - your relationship with your boss and others above you in the organization, is an essential component of being properly recognized (and rewarded) for your results. Too, it helps determine how much of your boss' value-added flows back down to you. That said, take a moment to list out 3-5 new things you can try to meaningfully improve how you manage UP the chain and commit to putting at least one of them in play this week.

Key Leadership Domain #2 - Managing DOWN the Chain. Effectively leading A-caliber players is one thing, but more likely than not, your leadership success will ultimately be determined by how you lead your B- and C-caliber staff. Getting people to consistently over-achieve is a definite leadership competency. That said, take a moment to list out 3-5 new things you can try to meaningfully improve how you manage DOWN the chain and commit to putting at least one of them in play this week.

Key Leadership Domain #3 - Managing ACROSS the Chain. Leading without formal authority is another essential competency in business. Without an ability to influence your peers and get them to willingly follow your lead, you significantly limit your organizational impact. That said, take a moment to list out 3-5 new things you can try to meaningfully improve how you manage ACROSS the chain and commit to putting at least one of them in play this week.

Key Leadership Domain #4 - Managing OUTSIDE the Chain. Vendor personnel, contract employees, consultants, industry contacts and connections ... valuable resources, all. That said, take a moment to list out 3-5 new things you can try to meaningfully improve how you manage OUTSIDE the chain and commit to putting at least one of them in play this week.

Key Leadership Domain #5 - Managing YOURSELF. Although isolated here for simplicity sake, your ability to make meaningful improvements in any of the aforementioned domains is contingent upon your ability to manage yourself ... and the gap between your self-perceptions and how others - up, down, across, and outside the chain - perceive you. That said, take a moment to list out 3-5 new things you can meaningfully try to improve how you manage YOURSELF and commit to putting at least one of them in play this week.

Effective leadership development best happens when it's more than just an ad hoc effort. Taking a few moments you take here, in January, to develop your leadership development plan will likely yield considerably better results than by just winging it.

So what are some things you're likely to list out - and focus on - this year? Who can you encourage to work on this exercise, as well?

(For more on the five Key Leadership Domains, see: http://www.ggci.com/leadership-coaching/scope.htm.)