Jan Richards

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Change management

Four decision making mistakes to avoid

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Being able to make good decisions, at all levels of your organization, is vital to your company’s success.

It’s also vital to your professional and personal success, no matter who you are or what you do.

Decision making skill, one of the top ten characteristics of great leaders, is more difficult than many people realize.

Consider this thought:

“Some problems are so complex that you have to be…well-informed just to be undecided about them.”

Laurence J. Peter

Great decisions can have deep, lasting and positive effects on many people.

Think about the far-reaching impact of these three decisions:

  • Columbus’ decision to seek the New World
  • John F. Kennedy’s decision that the US would land a man on the moon, and do so before the decade was out
  • Rosa Parks’ decision not to give up her seat on the bus one day in Montgomery, Alabama

Poor decision quality is equally powerful, but in undesirable ways. It can have devastating effects on people, organizations, and even entire countries.

Here’s just one example (and there are many, including many current examples):

Think about the impact on US and world financial markets of a few false assumptions about market risk and how to best manage it in 2008 (and in the years leading up to it). In addition, what was deemed adequate oversight of financial institutions turned out not to be.

It all added up to very big, very bad, very sudden surprises for many people and institutions, with long-term repercussions.

What are some of the primary problems?

Here are just a few:

1. Being unable to decide without a lot of information.

And then, being unable to swim one’s way through the sea of data, information and opinions to reach a valid, effective and timely decision.

2. Being decisive – but too much so.

Decision-makers may reach conclusions quickly, based on too little information, or inaccurate, deceptive, or untimely information.

3. Simplifying information so much that it’s stripped of significance.

Data and information may be overly simplified – or it may be unwieldy.

Either way, it may be difficult to synthesize information, or to understand the deeper meaning the data could have provided. In addition, it may not be possible to draw meaningful conclusions with information stripped of significant detail.

4. Disowning one’s decisions.

This can occur if a leader fears the pushback that naturally happens at some point in almost every change or transition process, and then overreacts to it.

We’ve touched on significant ways that decisions can go wrong.

How can decision making go right?

First, great leaders ensure that they have the reliable, accurate, timely information that they need.

And they make sure that their process for making decisions is effective and continually improved, as needed.

These are characteristics of good decisions:

  • Timely
  • Well-informed
  • Take into account the needs and desires of the various people who will be most affected by the outcomes
  • Prioritize and use criteria that will yield a good result

Decision making comes easily to some people, but for others, it is a continuing challenge.

These skills can be learned and improved, with focus and practice. And they are absolutely, positively essential for leadership excellence. 

You place your bets when you set strategy

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Strategy. Strategic.

Do those words make you feel excited, eager, energized? Or does your heart start racing a bit in fear, at the mere mention of strategy, and the responsibility it brings?

Leaders’ reactions to strategic opportunities run the full gamut from fear and apprehension to eagerness to take on the challenge.

Some people like the excitement of sizing up the future and placing their bets on a particular course of action and events which strategy setting really represents.

For others, the word “strategy” and “strategic” make them break into a fearful sweat. For this group, the risks of getting it wrong seem far higher than the thrill of getting it right.

Strong strategic skills – strategic thinking, strategy setting, and strategic management – are among the top characteristics of great leaders.

The essence of strategic ability is that, of the many paths of action open to an organization, great leaders can see, and then take – or make – the strategic course most likely to lead to success.

They can find their way through uncertainty to high customer satisfaction, product, service and process excellence, and maximum profitability.

When you set strategy, you’re placing your bets – and committing your resources – to what you believe will happen in the future, and what your best response is likely to be to the anticipated future.

What’s really involved in being a great strategist?

You must be able to envision playing the game out completely, rather than to just hope things will work out, magically and effortlessly.

You must have alternative paths figured out in case the paths you envision are wrong, or eliminated for some reason.

You must have or be able to get the resources you need to turn the strategy into effective action.

You must have good information, and know how to use it for effective decision-making, having considered those decisions from many different points of view

You must have the confidence to choose the best course, and stay that course or adapt, as you see what’s happening, as conditions continue to change.

You must keep your eyes on the ultimate prize, the vision of success, given the circumstances at any point, and what may still lie ahead.

Taking the risk, and placing your bet on how you think the uncertain future will play out is not an easy task.

Strategic skills are essential as a leader, however. As with other leadership skills, you can build and refine strategic skills, too, through learning, focus and practice.

Leadership excellence: Courage is power

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cour·age, noun

The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, or pain without, or in spite of fear; bravery.

We admire courage when exhibited by others.

Yet do we want to be in situations where our own courage is called for?

In a word, no – or most people don’t.

Such times center around high-risk circumstances that could so easily go wrong. But for so many reasons…and because they may affect many people…situations that call for courage really must go right, somehow.

Not surprisingly, great courage is one of the top characteristics of great leaders.

What does courage really involve?

Courage is the ability to look beyond one’s own fear, to find and draw on one’s strongest reserves to get a critical job done, no matter what stands in the way.

It is the ability to assess risks and reduce them however possible, and yet to carry on with integrity in the face of the risks that still remain.

Courage, as a leader, is also the ability to incite a group to move forward and to continue to work toward a goal in spite of what may be their natural desire in a risky situation to freeze in place, or retreat.

When you hear the word, “courage,” what people and situations come to mind?

Is it Captain Sullenberger and his co-pilot, who brought US Airways 1549 down safely in the Hudson River, and the team of many people on land and in rescue boats who rapidly coalesced, moved into action, and ensured that everyone from the downed plane was saved?

Is it Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first men to walk on the moon, and the achievements of many other people, over many years, that led to those first lunar steps?

Is it Marie Curie and other scientific explorers who forge on despite uncertainty, doubt and resistance, making discoveries that benefit many people in countless ways?

Perhaps the courageous people and circumstances you think of involve world leaders, whether elected or personally inspired to act based on the strength of their beliefs.

Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and many other leaders in history led people they inspired through sometimes dark and difficult days.

Of course, there are many other courageous leaders who may inspire you. And more will emerge through the course of history.

We can also see courage in people around us, in our daily lives. These may be people who are not widely known so their acts of great courage may be quiet, even subtle, but still significant, and deeply inspiring.

You, too, have surely exhibited courage at times.

Think back to times when you had to press on – and did – even though you might have wished to give up and admit defeat.

In those circumstances:

  • What were your beliefs – before the danger or difficulty arose – about what you were capable of handling?
  • When pressed by circumstances, what did you discover that you could, in fact, handle?
  • Did tapping your courage strengthen it, and enable you to be courageous again in the future, when needed?

Here are guidelines to help you increase your comfort and preparation for uncertainty…and to prepare you to be courageous when needed:

1. Anticipate and prevent problems from occurring in the first place.

That’s easy to say, and not so easy to do, but it works much of the time. It requires good foresight, planning and follow-through.

It also calls for, among other things, strong risk assessment, problem analysis and prevention skills.

2. When, despite your best efforts, danger arises, do your best to size up the risks, and quickly control the things you can control.

This may also enable you to reduce, as much as possible, the impact of factors that you are less able to control.

3. Also, set up systems to monitor key aspects of the situation you are facing to help you decide as early as possible what actions to take.

In circumstances requiring courage, conditions are likely to be changing rapidly.

Create an early warning system of some type, if you can, and do so ahead of time if you can anticipate that a situation is volatile, unpredictable.

Know, however, that you won’t have perfect information at times such as these.

Just get the best information you can, as quickly as possible. Then use that information to guide the best decisions and actions, moving forward.

4. Check in with your team in simple but effective ways.

You need to stay in close touch with others on your team. However, keep the information exchange simple, and focus on the most important decisions and details.

5. Stay the course, as long as you can tell that it is working.

Don’t be blind to what you find. At the same time, this isn’t a popularity contest. There’s a risky, and possibly even a physically dangerous circumstance to be fought.

Pay attention to the information you have, as well as your own intuition, and prior experience if you or others on your team have experience that’s relevant. And, of course, as always, use your good common sense.

At times when courage is called for, your quiet inner strength and wisdom is an invaluable asset.

Leadership excellence: How to use clarity to cut confusion

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Clarity is one of the top characteristics of leaders who excel.

These are the leaders about whom inspiring stories are told for years, long after they’ve led their organizations through extreme circumstances or uncertainty, and met great challenges honorably.

Why is leadership clarity so important? It’s because people can’t follow what they don’t understand.

And because circumstances are constantly changing, ensuring clarity, as a leader, is a never-ending job.

Think of leadership clarity this way. Trying to follow a person who’s not clear about where he or she is leading a group is like trying to follow someone while driving in thick fog.

People on a team, in such a case, don’t know where the road is, or if there’s one at all. They don’t know where the dangers are, or how to handle them. They don’t know if, in that fog, they’re still traveling as a team, or eventually, on their own.

Teams immersed in uncertainty proceed nervously, slowly, trying to move as safely as they can. Or, metaphorically speaking, they may pull over to the side of the road, waiting for the fog to lift, the way to become clear, safety to be ensured.

In the meantime, time and opportunities are lost. Costs increase. Profits fall. Team cohesion falls apart.

Being clear, as a leader, may sound easy to achieve. It’s not.

It requires clear thinking in every circumstance – when the best way forward is apparent, as well as when the best path is not yet known and must be created, as you and the team move forward.

To reach this level of clarity, a leader and his or her team need good information, effective collaboration, clear and effective processes for prioritizing and decision-making. They also need a strong and accurate sense of who their customers are, and what those customers need and want.

Great leaders build strong organizations, which may include many people.

The work of everyone involved must be integrated and coordinated in some way. That may be done loosely, organically, or it may be accomplished in much more formal, structured ways.

The net effect, however it’s done, is that with the right direction, information, and other signposts along the way, individual employees can make the right decisions and choose the right actions in their daily flow of their work to create progress on shared company goals.

Combined with the other top characteristics of great leaders, leadership clarity turns good intentions, and precious limited resources into the best results possible for customers, and all company stakeholders.

Visioning: How to create a powerful team vision

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Discover, express and focus on a future for your team that’s clear, positive, compelling. To do that, capture your team’s vision.

Visionary leadership is one of the top characteristics of great leaders.

A vision that works for you is one that’s honest, customer-focused, and inspires and empowers your group. It enables them to take action cohesively and creatively to make the vision come true, no matter what obstacles they find ahead.

A vision this powerful will be one that appeals to your team’s emotions, as well as their intellect.

When you think about creating the vision together, think of it as a way to “pre-experience” success, in detail. The final product of your visioning work is, in a way, a snapshot and preview of the future you are creating.

Here are ways you can capture or create your team’s powerful, positive action-inciting and guiding vision:

1. Create the time and space for it.

Your team needs time to relax and let their ideas flow. That requires time and space away from the pressures of the regular workday. Schedule the time in advance with your team.

Create an environment for the visioning work that’s free of interruptions and enables the team to think expansively, clearly, honestly, creatively.

Engage a good facilitator, if the support of someone experienced in managing group processes would help. The facilitator can also help you create the final vision product you’ll post.

If you’re working on your own, make sure you have the space to stretch out. That includes plenty of wall-space to post butcher paper or easels and flip charts on which the team can record their ideas.

2. Envision a compelling future.

Start by setting a target date by which you hope your vision will have become real. Perhaps that’s 5, 10 or more years away. Whatever it is, make it a specific date.

Next, imagine what you will have achieved, as a team, by this time. Imagine it in detail, as if you were living in, and enjoying the benefits of that future situation. “Be there now.”

Imagine what your customers, collaborators, and competitors are saying at this future time about your results and how you created them:

– When you imagine seeing and hearing their reactions to your results and the way you got there, what do you like?

– What do you want to change about what you imagine they are saying about you, your work, and how you achieved it?

Now, as you imagine being in this future, imagine how you feel about what you have achieved by this time:

– What do you like best?

– What do you want to add or change about the results you imagine, and how you created them?

3. Capture and sort the group’s input to create the shared vision.

Capture the group’s work on your vision in writing or graphics. That way they can see and share the experience of having their ideas emerge, and their shared vision coalesce, and ultimately be expressed in a compelling way.

There will be a lot of information you’re producing, and processing as you create the vision. Capture it as you work in some way that’s easy for you to stay true to the ideas being expressed, and yet find it easy to work with. You can use mindmaps, clustering techniques, or structured brainstorming exercises.

You can also create a graphic template ahead of time, using a visual metaphor to catch and organize the team’s ideas. For example, some teams use a visual metaphor of taking a journey together, mountain climbing, surfing, or building a city. There are also many others you can use for a graphic template, depending on what metaphors resonate best with your team.

A variety of useful tools are available in good facilitation books and resources. In addition, an effective facilitator will have her, or his, own visioning process and tools to suggest to you.

If you’d like my help with this, of course, let me know.

4. Refine and post the vision. Then follow up.

Take the visioning work you’ve done, and distill it, as a group.

Produce a simple final vision statement or a graphic of it.

Post the vision in a prominent place where your team works, or will somehow see it regularly. That may be a physical space, or if you have a virtual or dispersed team, post it on an online space you share.

You can also create an individual version of the shared vision that employees post at their desks, or on their computers. Some teams use these like worksheets so team members can keep their eye on the “big picture,” and capture their own notes, as the year unfolds.

Ultimately, your vision will turn out to be more powerful for your team than you – or they – might guess (Visions are always powerful, whether they’re positive or negative).

When you’re vision-led, you’ll find it easier to stay on track, and find your way back if you’re pulled off course for some reason.

 

Top ten characteristics of great leaders

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When you think of great leaders, who’s the first person who comes to mind?

And what characteristics make (or made) them a great leader?

These are the top ten characteristics of great leaders identified by a group of colleagues and clients I surveyed. See how this list compares to what you believe is most important for a person to excel as a leader:

Vision

Great leaders see things as they can be, not just as they are. They work toward a clear and powerful picture of the future they’re trying to create, no matter what circumstances they find themselves, and the people they’re leading, in now.

Clarity

A clear understanding of present conditions is also part of the great leader’s repertoire. These leaders can face the facts, whatever they are. What’s more, they insist on finding and using the facts in order to see what the organization’s challenges really are – not just what they’d like to believe, or have the people they lead believe – are the challenges ahead.

Courage

Fearlessness without brashness, foolishness or rashness is a hallmark of the excellent leader. He or she is not afraid of the gap they must close, leading an often fearful group across it. In fact, highly effective leaders are very motivated by the disparity between “what is” and “what can be, what will be.” They convey a sense of mission powerfully to the people who must close the gap with them.

Strategic

Of the many paths open to the organization – if many paths are available – great leaders can see and choose the actions that are most likely to succeed. They can envision and anticipate what is likely to happen in the future, often as a result of the course of action they choose now.

Decisive when the time is right

Great leaders ensure that they have the best information possible to guide them through the decisions they must make. Their decision-making processes are well-tuned, and highly effective, the result of continuous improvement of the decision-making process, itself.

Action-oriented

Highly effective leaders have a bias for action. They work in a focused, purposeful way, changing the organization, step by step, leading it steadily to far better circumstances and results in times ahead.

Strong

Plans are an organization’s intended path of action, its desired use of available resources directed toward reaching a goal. But if circumstances require change while the work is underway, effective leaders have the strength to move their organization to a better course of action instead.

Resilient

Great leaders are driven by their vision, yet it is their ability to rise above great uncertainty and to lead in the face of uncertainty, that creates legendary tales of leadership. Their greatness may not always be fully appreciated until long after the work is done, and the battles are fully won.

Inspires respect

Excellent leaders lead with integrity, and lead by example, as well as by inspiration. They expect the same of themselves as they do of their followers.  They’re not “above the law” just because they create the rules and work structures in the organization. The rules they advocate for others also apply to them – and everyone sees and knows it.

Great communicator

Powerful, effective leaders know when and how to communicate, no matter what’s going on with their followers, and what pressure they are under. Such leaders know when to observe, when to listen, when to talk. They use all the vital communication skills of leadership well. They also know that the most powerful communication of all is their attitude and their action – far more than what they say in any circumstance.

Harness the powerful emotions of change to move forward

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Change brings many emotions, often strong ones. Each one packs its own kind of power.

If you’re facing, or working through change, use whatever emotions you have. Harness and put that strong energy to work for you.

These are some of the emotions you may experience during change, and ways you can use them to move you forward:

– Excitement

Use excitement to drive you ahead, ever closer to the future you desire and imagine…and to propel you through the sometimes unnerving, sometimes exhilarating process of not quite knowing how something new will work out.

Focus on the benefits of the new circumstances to pull you most powerfully forward.

– Fear

Use fear to help you anticipate things that could go wrong with the change process. Then plan and take actions to prevent those circumstances from occurring.

Fear can direct you to a safer path through change than you might take if you did not heed its cautionary call.

– Patience

Use the power of patience to summon your ability to attend to planning and the details of implementation.

Use it, also, to increase the confidence and focus of those around you who aren’t seeing the change process as charitably as you are, at the moment. (You may need them to return the favor later).

– Impatience

Impatience is going to be there at some points in the change process, so when it is, use it.

The power of impatience can help you delegate or sweep away low priority tasks, so you can focus on what is most essential.

Impatience carries a lot of power…which can be destructive if turned on yourself or the people around you. Just as powerfully, used positively, it can propel you forward, often rapidly.

– Discouragement

Discouragement often means that plans were too aggressive, or that not enough time was factored in for periodically recharging, regathering energy, and renewing focus.

Or maybe plans for the change process assumed that everything would go perfectly…and that’s not happening (frankly, things usually don’t go “like clockwork.” There’s going to be at least one surprise somewhere in the process).

Use discouragement to pause and step away for a bit, if you can. Refresh, renew, even if briefly.

Then remind yourself why the change is being made, and how you may benefit from it in some way.

– Confusion

This can occur if the purpose or path through change is obscured, or was never spelled out well in the first place.

Sometimes uncertainty can’t be completely cleared away, of course…it’s just part of the change process…yet there are things that can be done to reduce it.

Focus on the goal, set interim milestones and concentrate on reaching each one. And celebrate in some appropriate way when you do.

– Bargaining

The desire to bargain (and before that, maybe, the desire to emote or complain) can occur if you feel you’re not being heard.

It can also occur if you’re concerned that plans are not realistic, or the resources needed for change are not being provided.

Express openly, honestly – and respectfully – what your fears and concerns are. Listen with an open mind. Negotiate or renegotiate agreements, if need be, and if possible.

– The desire to give up

Don’t fight it. This feeling may occur at some point, and maybe at multiple points, in the change process.

Just knowing that quitting is an option can take the pressure off. Usually, though, you realize that you’ve come too far, made more progress than you realized, and really don’t want to turn back, after all.

The uncertainty and energy required for change will clear eventually.

You may even find you’re bored when certainty does return, believe it or not. There’s a lot to be said for the growth that occurs for almost everyone during a change process, whether sought, or forced by circumstances on you.

– The drive to keep going, no matter what

Use this drive to push over, around, or through barriers that appear as if they could prevent you from reaching your goal.

And use this powerful energy, if need be, to prove that it’s possible to do what naysayers said couldn’t be done.

This short list has covered just a few of the emotions that are likely to occur at some point during the change process.

Did I cover the emotions you experience most during change?

If not, add to, or adapt this list.

Notice, also, the ways in which you already use emotions well to help you move forward.

Consider how you can use each emotion – whether it’s one you like experiencing or not – when it arises during the change process.

Just by anticipating what may occur as you go through the ups and downs, highs and lows, successes and failures that accompany change helps you to prepare for, and to make the best of it.

Harness the energy of change to help you move forward.

If you’ve found this post valuable, please share it with others. If you’d like more information of this type, join my email list at Jan-Richards.com.

Try this quick “Ten A’s” exercise for focus, energy, action, results

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On a whim one recent Monday morning, I brainstormed a list of words to inspire and challenge myself as I tried to get the day and week off to a great start.

It was an accolade and aggravation-filled list, as you’ll see, below. It helped me prioritize and refine my plans…and amused me, too…all in the space of about 3 minutes.

See if this brief exercise works for you, too. If the words I chose don’t work for you, replace them your own.

Here are a few guidelines to make this exercise work best:

– Keep the list short.

It’s a rapid-cycle brainstorming exercise to get yourself warmed up for the day or week.

– Use words that you react to, either positively or negatively.

Success is made up of the ability to respond well to positive and negative situations. You’ll be better prepared or more adaptable if you consider both types of circumstances, right from the start.

– Fill out the list quickly.

You may be surprised at what you learn in this rapid-cycle check-in with yourself. That surprising information may be the spark of energy, or the note of caution that makes all the difference in how you focus and invest your day or week, and the results you produce.

These were the words and questions that I used. Use these, or create your own list, if you like the idea of this exercise, but know that other words and questions will work better for you:

1. Admiration

What can I do to earn my own admiration today? This week?

2. Aspiration

What do I aspire to do, be, or achieve today? This week?

3. Accomplishments

Do I have any accomplishments that I’ve overlooked, or taken for granted so far?

4. Accolades

Are there accolades I should be giving myself for great work done recently…even if the work is not yet complete? What’s an appropriate way to recognize or celebrate them?

5. Action

Are the actions I planned for today still the right actions for moving ahead, given what’s most important right now? What are the 1-3 most important things I must get done, if nothing else?

6. Angst

Are there things I’m worrying about? What can I do to make the situation better?

7. Acceptance

Are there things I need to accept but which I have not actively accepted yet? (Acceptance is a far more active state than many people think of it as being. It’s far from passively giving up).

8. Admonitions

Are there warnings I need to pay attention to, or information I need to get? Are there assumptions I’ve made, but had better double-check?

9. Aggravations

Are there problems that I need to clear away in some way, such as through a process improvement? Is there a task that I need to delegate?

10. Avoidance

Are there things I’m avoiding that I really need to attend to? Is there important information that I’m trying to ignore?