Are You Intentional with Your Emotional Intelligence Gifts?

My staff gets together every two weeks. We are a virtual team and the very first agenda item is to “check-in.” The goal is for us to build interpersonal relationships that are mutually satisfying and gives us some idea of what to anchor our empathic caring on. Business is tough. Time is both precious and expensive. People are more precious and valuable.

If we are not doing something to connect with one another and intentionally build the relationships in our organization then it is too easy to make the urgent task or agenda item priority over the people in the room. 

Daniel Goldman, the author of the New York Times best-selling book Emotional Intelligence and Primal Leadership says, “When it comes to technical skills and core competencies, the ability to perform depends on the relationships of the people involved.”

My team meets virtually every two weeks at 10 am on Fridays for an hour. When I see that meeting on my calendar my knee jerk reaction is to write down what I need from each of them. Because of our schedules, primarily my travel, we just do not get to spend enough time together, so I crave the information from the projects they are working on.

Even though I am a natural connector and love to interact personally, I have to intentionally take my to-do list for each person and set it aside, and instead start the meeting by saying, “so who would like to check-in first?"

Sometimes this takes 25 to 30% of our meeting time

Frankly, it's the best part of the meeting! I believe we are more effective in the remaining 70% of the meeting because we take the time to connect in the first 20 minutes.

I enjoy our weekly check-ins because not only do they bring us closer together as a team, but it also shows me a little more of the big pictures of each of their lives, and how our realities fit together. This is key because so much of our planning and strategy begin as abstract, so hearing about the actualization of our plans is a good indicator of how the plan is playing out.

Hearing about how implementing our plans affect my team members’ larger stories shows me not only how well our plans are working out, but how our plans are contributing to the health of our team.

If someone on your team is struggling why not do a gut-check on how well you are connecting with them and see if this has any link to their performance? This connection is not a nosey way to gauge their work progress, but a way to hear about their lives and worlds.

SHARE

I invest in my team by sharing my own big-picture reality with them as often as possible. I tell them not only my business-related dreams and goals but about how those fit into my personal life. The reality I shared with the team this week is that I am busy, and not the brain-work, creative kind of busy. I'm so busy that there are days my staff sees my calendar and can't find half an hour that isn't full of activity. I'm not complaining, I love my work, but it is key for me to balance working with clients and investing in my team. It's worthwhile to prioritize both because they work together, not against each other. The more I invest in my team, the more we are able to fill in each other's gaps to smooth out the process, minimizing everyone's stress. By sharing my reality with them they are able not only to see their role in my business more clearly, but engage with my vision, and add their own.

REVISIT

Our check-ins are not left at the meeting table (virtual table in our case) after our meetings. We write them in the minutes, and we follow-up. Sometimes following up just means asking for an update from someone about whatever we know is going on in their life, but sometimes we get to really engage. In the past six months, we’ve been able to follow along as two of our team members took service trips abroad, and not just compartmentalize our roles in their lives to work-life. Instead, we were able to cheerlead for their adventures because we knew how amazing their service has been to us, and how much joy their service would bring to those they went to serve abroad.

Additionally, sometimes our follow-ups require change, and that’s key to maintaining and growing our synergy. Giving my check-ins the past few months, it became clear that although my team is a very organized group, we needed to change how we handle my busy schedule. Check-ins were key here because if I were not in the habit of them, I would not think to ask for help in this area because I am used to it. Instead, I shared my reality often, and my team responded. Now, we have an amazing new calendar system that synergizes us better and streamlines my schedule.

WHAT IF I'M NOT A SHARER, SCOTT?

As leaders, sharing pieces of ourselves and asking our followers to do the same may feel vulnerable, and it is. Yet, this is something so valuable to not only create a positive environment, but also help our team develop together a larger picture of reality: the state of ourselves, each other, and our work. This week, try to think of one thing about your life that your followers may not know about you and share how it impacts your life and work. When we make time to share and do it repeatedly we can use it for growth that can better the synergy, output, and wellbeing of our teams.

This Rocked My Leadership World

Are you watching for critical inflection points in your leadership life?

I can certainly tell you that in my own life this last week I had two distinct events cause independent revelations that have come together to wake me up and help me to realize that I need to make a change in how I lead.

And I need to make the change NOW!

Story #1

The first event happened as I listened to a presentation by best selling author Stephen Arterburn. Stephen was a guest lecturer at Concordia University Irvine, one of the schools I adjunct faculty with. The presentation was about the creation of a marriage love plan and how to keep your marriage relationship vibrant, exciting, and alive. 

Here are the notes from the outline I made from mine and my student Jared Moorad's notes, as well as my reaction to each of them as it relates to my own marriage: 

1. Play and Have Fun together-Kim and I have a ball together. The other night our power went out and we lost our internet, TV, air conditioning, and lights. Kim said, “Hey, let's play a game." So we sat on the couch and used her iPad to play Quirkel. For those of you who care about performance, she kicked my tail, and it was still fun. CHECK! Stephen, we do this one.

2. Enjoy laughter and humor in the relationship. This to me means that I can laugh at her and she can laugh at me and we can laugh at ourselves. Those of you who know me know I am a pretty easy target to laugh at. CHECK! Got this one too.

3. Savor food together. I am headed home tonight and we will go to one of our local favorite eating places. I think many couples do this, but the point here isn’t to eat out, but to really savor the food. Allow the meal to become part of the conversation. Notice the flavors and talk about the feelings and notice the joy you get when this happens. CHECK! OK, Stephen, I am feeling a little cocky here….

4. Enjoy beauty together (art galleries, nature, and creation). While we are not big art gallery people, we do enjoy going to the more famous ones when in places like NYC, Chicago, Paris, or Madrid. We love God’s creation and spending time just walking through the woods or sitting on our back porch drinking coffee and looking at the nature preserve behind our house. So Yeah, Stephen, CHECK, perhaps one that could use a little more intentionality, but CHECK none the less!

5. Intentionally create a lifestyle that leads to longevity. Look, tomorrow is never promised. But if I get a tomorrow I want to share it with Kim. My brother and I have had conversations about this over the years. The woman I have is the one I want to grow old with. This means that we eat healthily and exercise together. CHECK!

6. Create beauty and adventure together. Do it on purpose. Okay, so this one challenged me a bit with the "beauty" piece, but Kim and I certainly adventure together. In October we are running our first back to back half-marathons. On the second Saturday in October we will run the Grand Canyon half and then the following Saturday we will run the Lake Powell half-marathon. I think this counts as an adventure, so CHECK!

7. Experience the sexual and the sacred. Okay, so this one is none of your business. But Stephen put it in, so I thought I would at least add it to the list and let your mind wander in your own relationship.

As I went through this list I thought, Dude, you are 7 for 7. Nice work at creating a marriage love plan. You are amazing! You are doing something the world renowned author Stephen Arterburn says you should be doing…..

Then it hit me. This was my evaluation of my “performance” at executing my marriage love plan.  I wonder what Kim would say….

Then it hit me again a little harder and with a little more sting: What if she doesn’t feel the same way? Do I have the wrong plan? Am I really doing as good as I think I am doing? 

All of this fear and negativity just started to creep in. The good feeling I had about the marriage love plan execution went right out the window and the negative self talk started: Maybe your not doing as good as you think you are. Maybe Kim feels different.  Should I ask her or just pretend she feels the same and keep living whatever fantasy world I want to live in?

Story #2

I was sitting with a coaching client recently who received feedback through a tool we use called Emotional Intelligence 360 Feedback. Using this tool, my client's supervisor, peers, direct reports and family provide input as to how they see this person behave across 15 distinct competencies. This data can then be compared to what the client thinks of his own behavior looks like and if he wants to make a change then he can put a plan together to make that desired change.  In the coaching world, pretty basic stuff.

Overall, the client was really pleased with the results, but one area stood out to him as having a big difference between how he saw himself and how others saw him. 

The EI trait called Optimism needs development in his life. Optimism is equivalent to resilience. It is how we respond to setbacks in life. It is our ability to remain hopeful in the face of adversity.  

He thought he was really, really good at this. The people giving him feedback thought differently. There was a huge gap between his self-perception and others' perception of the way he handles adversity. 

Talking about it, he said to me, “You know, I thought I was pretty good at this. I thought I had this thing together, but maybe I don’t."

Then the negative self-talk started, “Maybe I am not as good as I think I am." “These people who really know me think a lot differently than I do.” “I can’t ignore this but I really don’t know what to do….”

The Inflection Point

Well, I think you can probably see the inflection point.  All of a sudden I am sitting and coaching my client and I really feel like I am coaching myself. The thing I am being paid to help him see is exactly the same thing I am experiencing in my own life.

Does this ever happen to you? It is just a reminder to me that we are all on this journey of life together. The more we share and seek to understand each other the more human we feel. And the more human we feel, the more we realize none of us are perfect and we all need to take some time and laugh a little at each other.

I can tell you this, the meal Kim and I savor tonight will have at least 7 questions for us to ponder together...

Bon Appetite!

The Emotional Intelligence Paradox and the Top Books I Use When Coaching on Emotional Intelligence

What are the behaviors you see in leaders that cause you to say, “…now there is a lack of emotional intelligence”?

I have to be honest, over 80% of the time when my phone rings and someone wants to talk about my availability for executive coaching there is some element of emotional intelligence (EI) in the equation.  

Sounds of Diminished EI

Most of the experts in the emotional intelligence field say that the discipline starts with self-awareness. 

Self-Awareness is the conscious ability to know, think critically, and discern your character, motivations, desires, and emotions at all times. Now that is a tall order, but a discipline that is vital for us as leaders to master!  

My initial question to lead off the blog is premised around a “lack” of EI. In my experience, however, it isn’t that leaders are “train wrecks” when it comes to EI overall.  Far from it. For the most part, the leaders are bright, articulate, show good (if not great) executive presence, and can even be charming.  What I experience most often when going into an executive coaching opportunity is really just a strength overplayed.  In some cases, a strength overplayed on steroids.

I have really started to pay close attention to this “imbalance” of emotional intelligence and what it sounds like in organizations. Here are a few examples:

• The hyper-competitive VP whose desire to win overtakes their care and compassion for others. They don’t know when to stop competing. The passion for winning becomes a mean streak and they just want to punish others even after they have clearly won the day.
• The young leader who is so bent on high performance that they have no ability to attune to others concerns and hear where the “pitfalls” are. They have been rewarded for individual contribution their entire career and now find themselves in a leadership position, still feeling the huge need to do everything themselves.
• The pastor of a church whose congregation is dwindling and they blame it on the economy, the lack of programming, or the worship leader. They look at everyone else and everything else as the problem but fail to ask themselves how they are the issue.
• The perfectionist who throws a tantrum when things are not done exactly as they asked for it. They like power and success, but mostly they like control. There is a huge fear of failure that frames things not being exactly right as a collapse of the entire process rather than a learning of what doesn’t work.
• The leader who cares so much about valuing people and how others feel that they can not make a hard decision.  Empathy is often misrepresented as sympathy, so difficult decisions become impossible to make because others feelings might get hurt in the process.
• The IT leader who is so focused on process and guidelines that they can’t partner with others in the organization to even hear what their needs are. The default is always to a rule or a process or a guideline that takes precedence over understanding the user's needs.

Okay, so I think you get the idea. I could go on and on with these as I am sure by now you are either catching yourself in one of the above descriptions or just glad I didn’t type your particular “EI Imbalance” for all to read.

I think we all have these EI breaks from time to time, and becoming self-aware is the first step. Do you know this about yourself? Can you honestly accept your own feedback and recognize your need to change? It is a quite difficult aspect of leader development and frankly the reason most seek a coach to help them see what they can not.

My 7 Top Reads for Developing Emotional Intelligence.

I think one of the questions I get ask most often is framed around what people can read to get better at a certain aspect of emotional intelligence. So, here are my top picks using the Bar-On Model published by Multi-Health Systems as the framework. 

If you are wanting an overall increase in knowledge about emotional intelligence, my go to books are:

The EQ Edge & Primal Leadership. EQ Edge gives you an overview of a model for emotional intelligence and some practical development action steps. Primal Leadership is a classic in my opinion and emphasizes the importance of the mood and tone of the leader. Four styles are presented that are valuable in understanding how EI is expressed.

Self-Perception

This realm really is about how you see yourself from a confidence and life goals perspective. My two favorites here are Executive Presence by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and The Gift of Being Yourself by David Benner.

Self-Expression

This domain is about how one goes about communicating. I like Conversational Intelligence by Judith Glaser, which is about how to build trust and get results.  Another favorite here is a book of fiction by one of my favorite writers Fredrick Bachman. My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She Is Sorry is a great story of how a young girl learns to express herself. Even though the protagonist is only 8 years old, I think there are lessons of articulation for us all.

Interpersonal

This category is so broad so it really is really hard to pick. I think the two I recommend most often are Boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Thompson and Humble Inquiry by Edgar Schein. Boundaries because often people are searching for “the lines” in interpersonal relationships and Humble Inquiry because the problem is often one person’s pride that drags relationships into the tank.

Decision Making

Necessary Endings by Henry Cloud is a favorite for this domain. This book really emphasizes the appropriate assertiveness side of communication and when leaders need to make tough choices with processes or people.  Because so much of our decision-making is about controlling impulses, one of the more practical self-help resources I have found is Zoe McKey’s Unlimited Mind: Master Critical Thinking, Make Smarter Decisions, Control Your Impulses. 

Stress Management

My go-to resource here is The Stress Effect by Henry Thompson. This book gives a basic understanding of where stress comes from, how our bodies react to it and some really good practical suggestion on both management and elimination of stress.  The other classic in this arena is Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman. Since the Bar-On model puts optimism in the stress management domain I would be remiss if I didn’t mention this one.

What Are Your Recommendations?

Please let me know if you pick one of these up and if you find it helpful or encouraging. I guess you can let me know if you hate it too, but I will probably still keep it on my list.  Also, if you have favorites that would be helpful, let me know. I am always looking for a good read and to update my list.

If you are interested in emotional intelligence and want to become certified in a valid and reliable instrument click here and you will be directed to my website for more information.

Are You Being Intentional with This Aspect of Leadership?

How many things can you think of that are better than knowing you have other caring, credible, and wise people who believe in you?

There is a real sense of value and self-worth gained when other people acknowledge who you are and not what you do. 

I don’t want to minimize performance in organizations, but in many ways, it is just that: performing. And if I have learned one thing about performing, it is that you are only as good as your last show, and the audience expects more and more from you on stage. Let your performance slip too much and you can find yourself sitting on the outside looking in. 

Which is why I would like to zero in on the topic of self-perception.  However, not mine and not yours. I would like you to think about a person in your organization who needs to know that you value them and that you see potential in them. Sure, they might have some things to work on, but who among us doesn’t.

Let's think about someone in your organization in whom you see some leadership potential that needs your care and your nurturing.  This is a person who if they just got the sense that you believed in them could, on their own, take your organization, department, or team to another level of performance.  

Here is my premise: If you are not investing in developing and nurturing the leadership in your organization you will someday wind up with a rudderless ship.

For years we have been sold the message that to fill a position we must look for certain skill-related criteria in workers.  While I am sure skills are important to do a job, they say little about a person's ability to lead in your organization.  I have several clients right now who are faced with the reality of wanting to promote a talented person to the next level of leadership only to look one level below and realize that there is no one to promote into the vacancy that will be created.  The people at that lower level down all have the skill to do their jobs, they just don’t have the ability to be promoted and lead a team or a department. The entire promotion process comes to a halt because no one has either invested in the talent to groom them for the next level, or the person was hired for their skill to work in the role with no thought at all about if they could some day work two or three levels higher in the organization.

Look no one has a crystal ball. We don’t know how people are going to perform. We don’t know how they are going to adapt to more responsibility or interact with others as tension and pressure increase.  I don’t think anyone in the organization is asking us to be Las Vegas odds makers on these people.

But just because you can predict the next CEO from your sales organization, or the next Lead Pastor from your youth group doesn’t mean that you can completely abdicate your responsibility.  

Think About the Investment

The question for all of us is who are we taking the time to invest in?

The investment you make in others, just like the investment you make in your 401K or IRA is a strategy.  It takes a deposit every month and then month after month and year after year. If you don’t invest enough in your retirement then you will end up short when you are ready to retire. According to the Employee Research Institute, the average American at age 65-69 has only $212,812. According to Bankrate’s investment calculator if the average person started at age 20 and invested $5,500/yr at 7% they would have $1.57 million at age 65.  

This is a difference of $1.35 million. Now you can say that some of that might be due to income and so forth but I don’t believe it. I think it has to do with not being intentional when it comes to saving and investing for a time we all know is inevitable. What is says to me is that we as Americans don’t have a retirement strategy. We live for the moment.

Link to Leadership

I think many of us approach developing leaders in our organizations the same way we approach investing for retirement.  We know it is a good idea. We know we need to do it. We just don’t have the discipline to make it happen.

Before you read any more, I would like for you to STOP: Take out a pen and a pad and write the name of a  person who you need to be thinking about and intentionally developing.

After identifying the person you want to invest in you need to ask yourself, what do I do to invest with them? Why not assess what their personal level of self-perception is? Self-Perception in the emotional intelligence world determines how in touch the leader is with their feelings, and how good they feel about themselves. Success in the area of self-perception means you are confident in pursuing your life’s goals.

Here is a little quiz to get you thinking about the level of self-perception your intentional investment candidate possesses. 

Am I Unintentionally and Purposefully Rejecting You?

Does it ever feel like you are a second or third option when you are talking with other people?

I had an experience last week in which I felt both rejected and reflective at the same time. What I encountered from the other person was both unintentional and purposeful at the same time. These mixed feelings put me in a state of self-reflection that really made me stop dead in my tracks and think, I hope I never leave people feeling the way I am feeling right now.

Spoiler Alert: There is a short relationship quiz at the end of this post if you like that sort of thing!

Here is the story

I walked into a meeting room a bit early for the meeting and made eye contact with Mr. X (obvious name change insertion) who walked over to me with his hand extended. I gave his hand a firm shake, maintaining eye contact and leaning in a little, just like my dad taught me. So far so good. We settled into our chairs and he asked me a socially acceptable personal question, again, so far so good.

Then it happened. That devastating and traumatizing event occurred at the hand of Mr X, the hand I just had shaken about 3 seconds ago, reached into the breast pocket of his shirt and grabbed his cell phone.

And while I was trying to explain to him “how I was doing that day," with his non-shaking hand he started opening apps on his phone. Now check this out: He was nodding his head like he was listening to me while at the same time making eye contact only with his phone.

What's a Leader To Do?

Now I know that relationships can be tricky. Please hear me, I am not asking to be the center of anyone's universe other than my own, but am I off base here? I felt completely isolated and alone in a conversation with a guy I really enjoy being with.

If I were to stop and ask him if his intention in that moment was to cause me harm, or ill-will, or even to feel like a puppy at a shelter who just can’t get picked to go home with a family, I know he would have told me I was crazy and that I was completely misreading what happened.

I even went and asked a really good friend and an executive coach his opinion of what happened to me because I was thinking, how could such a cool guy unintentionally reject me like that on purpose? 

So I think what is going on here is not only indicative of the times we live in but the balance we as leaders need to be aware of.

Look, I don’t for one minute think that Mr. X intentionally meant to make me feel like a second or third option in his life at that moment. I know he didn’t mean it. I know if I made him aware of it in the moment he would say to me, “sorry man, I had this one thing I needed to….” and he would have put his phone back in his pocket. But it isn’t his intention that caused my feeling of rejection. It might have been unintentional but he did what he did on purpose.

It was the impact that his purposeful behavior had on me that was so uncomfortable. He prioritized that “one thing,” whatever it was, over me in the moment. And BAM the feeling of rejection came over me like when I didn’t get picked to play on the all-star team in little league.

Your Team

Communities and teams are built on the backs of interpersonal relationships. The stronger these relationships are between people, the better the team develops trusts and the better the performance.

While I am sure you have all had experiences like I did with Mr X, certainly one interaction does not define a relationship. I think the bigger point here is good working relationships need to have components like empathy and mutual satisfaction along with a good balance between the tasks that need doing. 

As I thought about these components and a few others, I thought of three different types of relationships that I have observed in organizations. There is the Rapport Builder, the Alliance Crafter, and the Social Dissenter.

Fun Activity

Using the descriptions below, think about a member of your team and the types of relationships they seem to have. Then click the button at the bottom of this post and take our little 5 question quiz with that person in mind and see which of the three relational types your team member falls into. It is fun, I know we had some fun putting it together. I hope you enjoy it and that it might give you some language to have development discussions with different people on your team. Here is a thought, why not take the quiz yourself, and have the person you are thinking about take it and see if you come up with the same conclusion?

3 Relational Types

Rapport Builder - People are great and a priority. Relationships tend to have three stellar attributes. First is that rapport builders have a way to connect emotionally so that there is a full mutual attention. They can read the emotion of the other person and can mirror that emotion causing the other person to feel calm and safe. Second, after you leave the rapport builder you have a genuinely good feeling about what just happened. Finally, when you are with a rapport builder you feel like the relationship is headed somewhere. There is a huge sense of satisfaction and accomplishment even with small talk. These folks add life and energy to a room.

Alliance Crafter - There are times when relationships take priority and there are times when the job just needs doing. For these folks, the balance can be a bit hard to find. They know and understand the importance of relationships but it seems to be for the purpose of the task getting done rather than for the sake of the relationship. These people do not have a hard time building networks and see the value in having relationships in a community, but the purpose usually is not for meeting and enjoying others as much as it is accomplishing a goal. Once the goal is complete they often struggle with what to do with the relationship

Social Dissenter - A quote I heard recently said, "Don't make people a priority who only make you an option". These social dissenters are folks who just can’t seem to find the value that other people or relationships bring. It is not that they are shy, or even introverted. Social dissenters go beyond this and just don’t seem to care for, or about, anyone other than themselves. There is little to no satisfaction from being in a relationship with social dissenters. They are task masters and policy hounds. Not task or policy for the sake of others or relationships but tasks and policy for the sake of the rule. These folks suck energy from a room and others usually can’t wait until an interaction is over.

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Quiz Yourself: Are You Using this Important Coaching Skill?

I am blessed in my coaching practice to be able to work with a lot of coaches. Everything from students who are learning the craft to executive leaders who use coaching as a leadership tool. 

I Have an Observation

The skill of observation is underdeveloped.  Here is what I mean.

This morning I am sitting having some quiet time of meditation and prayer.  As I was sitting in contemplation I noticed the breeze that was whisking through the trees in the conservation area behind my house at varying rates of force.  At times the leaves in the trees were hardly moving, and then, with no warning, the speed would increase to a gust force. After a minute or so the air would return to a more moderate flow.

This is the skill of observation. Blocking out all other inputs and paying attention to this one thing, and then not making any judgment about it. Don’t turn it into a metaphor, or think about how to explain it. Just observe it and practice describing it.  

This skill is harder to do than it is to read about, I can assure you. As leaders, we are constantly making cause and effect assumptions.  We become skilled at what is rewarded, making decisions or explaining things so that others can understand them.  All very important skills. I am not trying to say that your decision-making is not important, it for sure is. In fact, I often tell young leaders what they get paid to do is make judgments.  However, if we believe that quality inputs are critical to good judgment then perhaps observation trumps outcome.

Give It A Try

The next meeting you go to, or one-on-one interaction you have with a colleague, write down 10 things you observe from the interaction. Just make the observation and pay attention. Dial out all the distractions that might come your way and observe behavior. Notice things like tone of voice and inflection. Notice body language. Become aware of the “presence” the person exudes. 

The better we become at the skill of observation, the better coaches we will be.  We will notice things such as hurt or pain in people. We will notice when they are not on their “A” game. We might notice the exuberant joy that is written all over their face. The better we are at observing, the more skilled we will be at connecting with others emotionally.

Take a Quiz

One of the reasons I like to use assessments in my practice is that they help me, as a coach, make observations.  Sure, the person gets great feedback around important competencies. For example, in the EQi 2.0 assessment that I use, leaders get feedback on stress management. According to Dr. Henry Thompson, author of The Stress Effect, emotional intelligence is critical in determining the likelihood of the success of a leader. 

While the EQi 2.0 can give leaders feedback on competencies like stress management, often times it is the observation of the leader in the moment that can give the information that will allow the leader to make necessary judgments. If leaders don’t observe what their followers are feeling in the moment then they are more liable to react poorly. For example, an associate comes into your office and explains they have just made a mistake that could be costly in terms of dollars and customer satisfaction.  Are you able to manage your own emotion in the moment and observe what is going on with the person?  Are they anxious? Is there body language closed and distant?  Are they sweating? 

So let's play this out. What happens if:

A. You don't observe any of the associates “presence” in the moment

B. You do observe the stress the associate is under

Answer A: It is possible you will go right into fact-finding mode. Try to find out what happened, and then your natural next step is to go into problem-solving mode and to start giving orders you want the associate to execute with precision, clarity, and focus.

What is the problem with Answer A?  It isn’t physically possible when stress has hi-jacked the associate for them to focus on anything. In fact, there is a really good chance that they will walk out of your office and not remember a thing you said.

Answer B: You see the associate is stressed out, so you have them sit down. You go get them a bottle of water. You have them take a few deep breaths and perhaps you tell them a story that has a bit of self-deprecating humor. The goal here is to get the associate to relax so that you can trouble shoot and problem solve together.

What is the real skill in Answer B? You took the time to observe the situation. You notice the wind in the trees. You know the end result you need to get to but you also know you need your associate to have a clear mind when you need information.

Take Another Quiz

For this quiz, you are going to need to think about a recent interaction that you have had with an associate where there was some stress or tension in the situation. Keep this interaction in mind as you take this quiz. Use the quiz and your memory to reconstruct the events. 

This quiz is not meant at all to be diagnostic.  We are not trying to make you clinical psychologists. The purpose of this quiz is to help you dial in your skills of observation so that you notice more how your associates are showing up in your interactions.

I hope you enjoy the quiz. If you know others who might like to work on the skill of observation, why not forward this to them.

Have You Ever Made this Emotionally UNINTELLIGENT Response?

Last week I wrote an open letter to a “friend” in Clarksville Tennessee. If you missed that post you can see it by clicking here.  In that post, I wrote about a guy I came across recently who totally lacked self-awareness.

I have a confession to make. 

In less than a week, I became like that same guy. Not at all proud of it.  But it did happen. Here is the story:

My wife and I were flying home from a wonderful Memorial Day weekend in Columbus Ohio. We were able to spend the weekend with our granddaughter, who, just for the record, is perfect in every way. My son dropped us off at the airport, we checked our bags and headed to the TSA screening area. I often say in the classes that I teach that the best place to observe what poor emotional intelligence looks like is in an airport.

I put my backpack on the conveyor belt to be screened like I do several times a week, almost every week. In my pack, I have a couple of books, my laptop, business cards--nothing unusual. 

The agent at the computer looks into my bag, shouting, "Whose black bag is this?” I look over and my backpack has been rerouted for physical inspection. I hear the agent tell one of his partners, “There is liquid in that bag." I thought to myself, “There is no liquid in that bag. I don’t carry liquids.”

A bit puzzled, I walk over with the agent to his station. He takes a black stick and rubs it over the outside of my bag and then on the inside. I am thinking, oh, this is just a routine screen for gunpowder or drugs or whatever it is that TSA uses that little black stick for. The agent asks me, “Do you have anything sharp in this bag?”  Again, pretty routine. I say, “no."

So he opens the bag, reaches in and pulls out a jar of peanut butter. I remembered that as we were on our way out the door this morning my wife asked me to put the jar in our suitcase. I stuck it in my backpack, thinking, no big deal people take peanut butter on planes all the time.  Since 50% of my flights are to Orlando, I see kids at the airport quite often; they eat PB&J all the time.

The agent then said to me, “This is a liquid and you will have to take it out and either check it or throw it away.”  

This is the point when I became like my friend in Clarksville.

I instantly reacted to the TSA agent by saying, “Peanut butter is not a liquid, it's a solid!" I feel pretty confident I am right about this. My reasoning is:

1. Mr. Volosio, my 8th-grade chemistry teacher, was excellent and taught us the difference between solids, liquids, and gasses. I paid really close attention in that class and am reasonably sure I grasped the concept.

2. My Inorganic Chemistry class took Mr. Volosio’s lesson even further and I passed that class too.

And if those aren’t enough then I ask you this: when is the last time you sat down to have an ice cold, refreshing glass of peanut butter?

The next thing I hear is, “Peanut butter is considered a liquid and you can check it or throw it away." So my statement and all of my logic are being challenged and I can feel myself triggering, which is where this story differs from the one about my friend in Clarksville.

I recognized my trigger. I stop, take a deep breath, and ask the agent just to go ahead and dispose of the peanut butter. I guess some of my training in emotional intelligence kicked in, and my mind told me to not let my emotion get the best of me. There is no way I am going to win an argument with a TSA agent who is convinced that peanut butter is a liquid. Not because he is right, but because he has the power. 

In that moment I had to decide if it was more important for me to be right than to end up on a no-fly list.  I decided it was much more important to fly again and so the peanut butter went into the trash and my wife and I went and had a bite to eat at the Chili’s restaurant in the airport....where I sat down and ordered a tall glass of peanut butter on the rocks with extra ice.

The waitress just looked at me with a puzzled look. I said,“Didn’t you know that peanut butter is a liquid, and so could you pour me a glass?"

My wife said to the poor girl, who was just there trying to make a living, “Just ignore him, he just got his feelings hurt. We will both have water with lemon.” The waitress left with our drink order, and my wife said, “I thought you taught emotional intelligence, you're  not showing any right now.” The truth hurts!

Embarrassed, I looked at her and said, “You're right. That waitress probably didn’t have Mr. Volosio for Chemistry so she might not know the difference between a liquid and a solid.” 

I can’t tell you my wife's response to that. Sometimes what happens in a marriage, stays in a marriage.

So, a trigger for me is when I know I am right and what I perceive to be an injustice occurs.  

How about you? Do you know your triggers? Are you aware of what sets you off? Can you control your emotion, or does your emotion get the best of you and you end up making poor decisions because of some strong need you have to be right, or be heard, or be seen?

Having good emotional intelligence requires both self-awareness and self-management. 

Having good character is knowing when you are wrong and being able to apologize. I did. To my wife, the waitress, and the TSA agent.

PS. The next time you are in Orlando, send me an email because my wife and I would love to have you over to our house for an ice cold glass of…. your favorite liquid beverage.

An Open Letter to my Friend at the Fairfield Inn, Clarksville Tennessee

So, I am sitting eating breakfast this morning at a Fairfield Inn in Clarksville Tennessee with my lovely wife Kim. I am having my usual powdered eggs and overcooked bacon and Kim has chosen her much healthier granola and Chobani Greek Yogurt. The place is packed with people who have that look of road exhaustion even though they just woke up.

The tables are so close together in this dining space that sardines would have been envious. Kim and I can’t carry on a conversation because of all the chatter around us. So as we sit and try to enjoy the meal that comes with the price of our room, we also become observant of the conversations around us.  Not evesdropping you understand, just unable to avoid the sound waves bouncing around the room.

The first conversation is coming from a couple who seems to be traveling with the man's mother. The guy is a know-it-all. I mean, you know the type: has an uninformed opinion about everything. Mind you, we only sat at our table for about ten minutes, but this guy has commented on everything, including how bad a president Donald Trump has been versus the eight great years under "Barack." He actually just used the former President's first name. My first thought was how disrespectful we have become as Americans. How have our freedoms have been taken so for granted that respect is something only recognized when Aretha Franklin is singing?

Mr. Know-it-all then goes on to solve the healthcare crisis by telling his mom, “I know exactly what we should do. We need to tax the rich and take away…. Hold on, Hold on," he says, "I have a call coming in." He presses a button on his smart watch and tells the person on the other end of the line they are at breakfast, then turns to his mom and starts telling her why his Google watch is better than her Apple watch when it comes to the phone app.

I was actually beaming a bit nauseous just listening to this guy when I heard a little chirp from the table behind us.  A young family sat down and the mom was busy pouring milk over Cheerios when her little girl says, “Thank you, Mommy." I mean, my heart just melted like butter in a microwave. 

Then it hit me. Each of these two scenarios had main characters. Each of the main characters had a choice as to how they are going to show up for breakfast. The little girl sure could have told her mom that the kind of milk she had wasn’t right or that she didn’t need anyone to pour her milk for her. There were probably dozens of responses the little girl could have made, but she chose to be thankful.

To my know-it-all friend I just have to say: I don’t think that many people at the Fairfield Inn in Clarksville Tennessee care about your opinion. Even if you are 100% right about whatever it is you are pontificating on, your opinion just doesn’t matter that much.  

Perhaps being a little bit more like the Cheerios girl would make this world more like the place we all really want it to be.

Leader Challenge

Leaders, I know you have opinions and I know you have problems to solve and decisions to make. 

People are not doing things exactly as you think they need to be done. I know you would never say that you are the center of the universe, but sometimes, as leaders, we don’t we act like it.  It is all about our vision, our agenda, our goals, our, our, our.

Maybe this week as leaders we spend less time on our own personal agenda and we become more appreciative of those who are on our teams and really make things happen for us in our organizations.

How about this Memorial Day Weekend, instead of complaining that the Affordable Care Act isn’t that affordable for people anymore, or that your Facebook news feed just isn’t loading fast enough, just be thankful.

Be thankful that:

• You don’t have to work on Monday
• You have a job and get to work on Monday
• You have a family
• You have friends
• At some point in history a soldier cared enough to die for you so you could have a profile on Facebook.

Just watch yourself today. Practice some self-awareness, and if you find yourself starting to complain, or pontificate about a subject, show some impulse control and turn your self-aggrandizement into gratitude.

Perhaps we can all use the Memorial Day for its true purpose: to remember those who have died so that we can complain if we choose to. 

Now, I don’t want to come off too heavy or seem like I am preaching. That really isn’t my intention. So, after you have really thought about your choice, and being thankful for all you have, then by all means do something frivolous.  Have a BBQ with your family, go play 18 holes, take your kids or grand kids to the park, or join me in watching the Greatest Spectacle in Racing…."Gentlemen start your engines."

"Speaking" of Leadership

This past weekend I was honored to speak at the Exalt Conference that was put on by a coach training organization called Lark's Song  (If any of you are interested in becoming a certified coach you should check out this program. All I can say is: quality people doing quality coaching work.)

Being an extrovert's extrovert, if I am not taking care of myself 36 hours before the event, I will either run out of energy before I get on stage or during my talk. So, I thought I would put down some thoughts on how I practice “self-care” prior to speaking at an event or just preparing for a full day of training (I will say, the better I know the material, the more I may sway from these ideas.)

Scott’s Rules for Self-Care Prior To Public Speaking

The day before/the morning of:

1. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. I drink at least 100 ounces of water (half my body weight in ounces) the day prior, and the day of the event. If I am giving the first talk at 8 or 9am, then I will probably only get in 16 to 24 ounces. Hydrating prevents my body from pulling energy from other sources. It is also important to flush any cortisol-related to stress from my body.

2. Eat right. That means balancing carbs and proteins and limiting my fat intake. I have reflux from time to time that is totally dietarily-triggered. So, I need to make sure I am getting both the protein I need for strength, and the carbs I need for energy.

3. One last look. I like to go over my talk one last time prior to going to bed. I make sure my presentation delivers the message I want within the time given, and the stories I am using make sense.

4. Sleep. Even if I am with a client at dinner, I try my best to be in bed early. A good night's sleep is so important for a number of reasons. In a 2014 article in Sleep Science, author Mindy Friedman concludes, "Sleep deprivation results in objective changes in effort including reductions in the speed of task completion, work rates and the number of solutions attempted. A preference for lower effort tasks, less challenging non-academic tasks and the selection of only high priority tasks have been observed.”

5. Morning routine. When I wake up the next day, after my devotion and meditation time, I open my presentation and go over it one more time. I find this combination of good rest the night before and revisiting my presentation in the morning vital to my preparation. I don’t cloud my thoughts with TV or news. I might glance at a headline so I am current, but I don’t bog myself down with items that I can’t concern myself with prior to a talk.

15 minute Warning

1. Opening Visualization. I write out my opening 3 minutes. I then visualize myself stepping onstage, smiling, and delivering the first 3 minutes. I find if I rehearse and memorize my first 3 minutes I am able to get into an unstoppable flow.

2. Use the restroom. About 10-15 minutes prior to going on stage I use the facilities for two reasons. I have drunk 200 ounces of water over the past 36 hours, and I want to do one final appearance check. I know I am not much to look at, but I want to make sure my shirt is tucked in and my fly is zipped up. This is just a last minute quality check.  (Hint: If you are already mic’ed up make sure the power is off so that if your sound is live everyone in the “house” will not hear you.)

3. Find a mirror. This one is all about me pumping myself up. Sometimes there is a mirror in the green room or restroom. So after I make sure I look presentable, I look myself in the mirror and say:

   1. You are a child of God

   2.  You are using your unique giftedness

   3. Have some fun out there.

4. Take deep breaths. About 3 minutes before my music is queued I try to take about 10 deep, yoga style breaths. Often even those around me will not know I am doing this. This breathing both calms me and centers me on my topic.

5. Smile. My goal is to be smiling and relaxed before I go on. I want everyone around me to be relaxed. If they are relaxed then I am relaxed. If there are tense people, I try and avoid them. I want nothing but positive energy and smiles prior to going on stage.

These are just some things I have noticed the last few times I presented. I would be interested in hearing from you. What do you do prior to making a presentation that allows you to be successful?
 

Read to Lead

Since writing these articles for the past couple of years, I have found it so interesting to find which posts get the most comments. To my amazement, some of the most popular musings are when I talk about what I am reading. I am heading out on a two-week vacation tomorrow, so I thought I would share a short list of some of the better books I have read since Christmas and what I am taking with me on vacation.

Since Christmas

• A Man Called Ove (Fredrick Backman) I think my favorite book this year is this fictional story of a man who could have lived next door to me as a kid. This book is so well written that you experience what it means to be a simple man who oozes authenticity. The emotion in the book is amazing. Seeing the growth that a human can experience while not changing the core of who they are is one of my biggest enjoyments from this work.

• The Road to Character (David Brooks) I absolutely love to read anything by David Brooks. He has such a magical way of weaving intelligent observation into historical characters that are interesting and thought-provoking. Brooks covers topics like struggle, dignity, ordered love, and self-examination in this book. While he only covers 10 ideas, they are unexpected ideas for a book on character. I think this is why I liked it so much. I really felt stretched while reading this book.

• Mountains Beyond Mountains (Tracy Kidder) I love biography of leaders who are making it happen in the world and this book fits that bill to the “T”. This is the quest of Dr. Paul Farmer. Kidder does a masterful job of showing the communication of Dr. Farmer's soul. I was challenged by this book because Dr. Farmer really views humanity as one nation. His love for man, his relentless pursuit of alleviating poverty and suffering made me step back and ask myself how I could have more of an impact in my world. This is a must read.

• Ask Me (William Stafford) This is book of poetry that William Stafford’s daughter pulled together from thousands of poems he has written. I guess you could call it his 100 most impactful poems. To be honest, poetry really stretches me. I don’t always get it, but I know that it is a good exercise for me as I work on improving my emotional self-awareness. As I read poetry I am working hard on trying to understand the emotion behind what Stafford is trying to say.

• A Truck Full of Money (Tracy Kidder) This is another book by Tracy Kidder, the biography of the man who is responsible for the wildly successful travel website Kayak.com, Paul English. This is a good read if you want to understand what goes on in the mind of an entrepreneur. The title has such an interesting origin, too. A friend who started many companies with Paul once said he always wanted to be close to Paul because he just knew that with his brilliance he was bound to get hit by "a truck full of money." A fun read for those wanting to be more entrepreneurial in their own life.

• Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (Carlo Rovelli) Okay, so don’t be freaked out by the title. This book is so well done. It is only 81 pages long and summarizes the 7 most important facets of physics, like quanta, particles, and black holes. I think books like these are so important for leaders because they stretch our thinking and connect us to bigger ideas. I always learn something that informs my coaching practice when I read anything like this. For example, as humans, we are both observers of reality and creators of reality at the same time. As a leader, can I separate myself from the action and be an integral part of the action at the same time? How does this inform things like the values I bring to my organization or the value in listening to others on my team? I know it is a stretch, but why read a book that already tells you what you know? Why not read one that extends your mind?

• 40 Day Journey with Parker Palmer (Parker Palmer) I used this book as a devotion/meditation tool. I found Palmer to be deep in his thoughts. I was challenged to expand my thinking. This is an excellent tool for any leader who wants to expand their thinking, especially as it relates to self-development and social justice.

Taking on Vacation

Not sure I will get through all these, but here is my reading list:

• The Way It Is (William Stafford...again) Hey look, I know I need to read more poetry and I like Stafford’s approach.

• My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She Is Sorry (Frederick Backman) This is my fiction read for vacation. It is by the same author as A Man Called Ove and I loved that book so much I just had to try another by Backman.

• The Power of The Other (Dr. Henry Cloud) This is my read for coaching skills improvement. It is by one of my favorite authors in the coaching space, Dr. Henry Cloud.

• Neuroscience and the Soul (Gregg A. Ten Elshof) This is my metaphysical-stretch-me-out-of-my-mind book. Over the past 6 months I have been on a quest to describe the human soul. Maybe I will blog on that some day. When asking people to define the soul I have received some fascinating answers. This book is an intellectual debate between those who believe in the soul and a group of scientist who say there is no neurological basis for this part of the human. I am really fascinated to see how the argument forms and what results.

So, that's my list. If you decide to pick any of these up, I would love to know what you think. Also, if you are reading something cool, let me know. I love books and would love to know what you are reading.

That's it. I am now officially on vacation. I am so excited to rest and recharge my batteries.

How to Use Child's Play to Find Giftedness in Your Leadership

No matter what reason we were hired to coach, one topic that most of us in executive coaching will hear clients bring up is vocation.

As clients go through some of the deep work that coaching often entails, they start to question the choices they have made that landed them in their current careers. When I ask leaders how they came to be in their current job I often hear things like:

• It was my next logical step for promotion.

• My boss thought it would be good for me to get experience in this area.

• There was an opening, I interviewed, and here I am!

• I always had an interest in ____________. (fill in the blank…science, math, the arts, dance, music)

Because my role as a coach is to help people explore the choices they have made and the choices they see in front of them, I rarely offer advice about what clients should do. I am asked all the time, "If you were me, what would you do?" Most of the time I say, “I am not you. I have not had your experiences. I don’t have your skills. I don’t have your unique giftedness. So I can’t tell you what to do."

About a month ago that exact scenario happened.  ”Scott, if you were me, what would you do?" was the question posed. I did my little duck-and-weave maneuver described above and helped the client think through options they saw in front of them, as well as presented some other options that may not have naturally occurred in the conversation, and all was well. This is how it usually goes. Then, the session ends and the client goes on to make decisions and from time to time they keep me posted along the way.

As I finished my time with that client, I spent some time reflecting. This is something I do a lot after a coaching session. I like to think about things like:

• What kind of energy did the client show up with?

• What words did they use?

• Where did the conversation lead?

• What issues were brought to the surface?

• Did we get closer to achieving whatever goal has been set?

• What was my energy?

• What words, stories, analogies did I use?

• If I was the client, would I have valued the time I spent with me?

While in this reflective mood I remembered the client asking what I would do if faced with their vocational choice. I thought a lot about what I said and the words I chose...and then the thought hit me: I wonder if the client understood what I meant by pointing out their unique giftedness? I am sure he understood that I meant that he had unique experiences and skills, but unique giftedness is a term many may be unfamiliar with. In fact, it is a term I use often and even I wasn’t sure I knew exactly what I meant!

So I did what comes naturally to me, I started studying.

Unique Giftedness

As it turns out, the idea behind unique giftedness has been explored in some detail over the last decade or more by career counselors and those interested in vocation. Its genesis and thesis are derived from what is known as depth psychology. Clinical psychologists use depth psychology to explore the unconscious mind. By paying attention to things like dreams, slips-of-the-tongue, sarcastic humor, spontaneous humor, and meaningful coincidences, clinical psychologists are able to chart an exploration of the unconscious mind.

Depth psychologists probe areas of the mind looking to help their patients unlock the unconscious or discover things that have been trampled over and subdued from the past. While most people thinking about vocation don’t need to explore any repressed memories, career counselors have starting using some depth psychology techniques to help those they work with explore their giftedness. It turns out that as we progress through life some of us may find ourselves in a job or career that has us scratching our heads wondering, “how in the world did I get here?"

Using this vocational depth psychology approach, people are encouraged to explore career, not from their credentials, their job title, or any organizational function they are attached to, but instead explore vocation by asking the question “What are my leading gifts and abilities?”

While there are several techniques I found for uncovering answers to this question, the one I found most intriguing is called The Childhood Autobiography. It is a simple exercise where you write your own biography of what it was like for you growing up as a kid. Then you search for things within your autobiography that point to what you really loved as a child. These first loves and interests are the sparks for your unique giftedness.

Childhood Autobiography

I was really fascinated by this idea of childhood autobiography and how it could link me to unique giftedness, so I thought I would give it a try.

Here are the questions I used to help me write mine, and here is a link to my childhood autobiography if you are interested. (it's only a page or so, but I did find it very informative in exploring my unique giftedness.

• What are the earliest memories you have from your childhood?

• How did you spend your time as a kid?

• What kinds of things brought you pleasure?

• Are there things you tried to avoid?

• What kind of people did you really enjoy being around?

• What kind of people annoyed you?

My next step was to read through my childhood autobiography to see if I could pick up any unique giftedness.

Any you know what… I did!

I found out that my vocation really isn’t about skills, talents, or even intellect.  My big discovery was that it does not matter what vocation I choose if I am able to have fun and be curious. I could be happy and find fulfillment in many vocations.

Homework

Why not create your own Childhood Autobiography? You can use my questions above to explore this for yourself. If you do learn anything fun in this process, drop me a line. I would love to hear about any impact this little exercise had on you.

Are You Having This Kind of Fun as You Lead?

Spoiler Alert…There is a free offer at the end of this blog so if you like free stuff make sure you read through it. Hey, who doesn’t like free stuff?

I am traveling home after a great day yesterday with a very energetic group of young leaders. We spent the day discovering how our core values influence how we show up as leaders, how they inform our fundamental leadership principles, and ultimately how we want to be viewed as a leader by those we have impacted over the course of our career.

 It was a really impactful day!I know the course really had an impact on those who attended because of the comments they shared at the end of the day. However, I was personally impacted by the beginning of the day.

As is pretty common when a group of people doesn’t know each other, the leader of the organization asked each participant to take a moment and share their name role in the organization, where they live, and the most fun thing they did the past 7 days. It was really cool hearing 30 people introduce themselves and share what was fun for them. The stories were as diverse as the people in the room. Some went mountain biking, others went on dates with their kids, still, others had been to a concert or civic event. I wish I had space to list all 30 of them because I was just thinking what fascinating lives these folks live.

How about you? What is the most fun thing you have done in the last 7 days?

I have to admit it was fun just thinking about it. So, then, after about 15 minutes, everyone in the room had shared, and the leader introduced me as the facilitator for the day’s program, “Developing Your Leadership Story”.

I stood there smiling at them all, and before I said a word, I tried to make eye contact with each one of them. After about a 5 second pause I said,

“So what do you need to know about me that will help make your learning safe?”

Immediately someone in the audience responds, “Scott, what did you do fun in the past 7 days?” I thought, Yes! I am so glad they asked me that first instead of my education background or something boring like that. But then I had a choice to make because I had done two really cool things over the past 7 days!

• My wife and I completed our first Dri-Tri at our Orange Theory Gym. It is a “Triathlon” of sorts where a team of three people compete in three events and then the total time to complete it is recorded.  My wife Kim took the toughest segment, completing a total of 300-floor exercises (40 pushups,40 squat taps, 20 Burpees, 80 step-ups, 40 crunches, 80 running man exercises.) Our friend Alecia did a 5K on the treadmill, and my contribution was a 2000 meter row.  It was fun to compete against 9 other teams, most of whom were at least 20 years younger than us. Kim and I really enjoy interacting with these folks at our gym and learning about their lives. 
   
• My second choice was nothing but pure joy as well.  After the Dri-Tri, Kim and I went to Walmart (trust me that isn’t the fun part) to go Easter basket shopping for our granddaughter. We had a ball going through and picking out items, thinking about her, and what she likes to do. She is only 18 months old but already likes to color and use stickers, and loves Minnie Mouse. Kim and I must have spent at least an hour in Walmart just thinking about our precious granddaughter and what might make her happy. The experience was pure joy…and I really don’t like Walmart all that much.

What a choice! No bad option, but I had to pick one. I chose the Dri-Tri and had a lot of fun telling them about the experience.

But that meant the other great experience got left on the proverbial “editing floor,”

Until now.

So, since I didn’t get to tell the “Shopping For Easter Basket” story until now, I would like to do to make up for that loss. But how? I called my team, and my assistant, Brandi, said,“Why don’t we let our readers hunt for an Easter Basket on our new website?” I thought it was a great idea.

So, we are giving away TWO $25 Amazon cards for you to put in your Easter Basket!

Our Rationale

We are launching 3 new leadership assessment certification courses that I have been blogging about over the last 3 weeks.

Using Leadership Assessments with a Virtual Team

What Do Leaders Want From Their Followers?

What is Your Change Style?

We’re launching our new website to celebrate these new certification opportunities. This new site will contain all of our services, including the new assessment certifications.

How Do You Win?

• Go to www.DrScottLivingston.com
• Click around the site and search for the Easter Basket icons. There are two of them.
• Once you find one, click on it and give us some basic information (Name and email)
• We will randomly select one winner from each Easter Basket and send you an email so we can get your prize to you!

Leadership Link

By now some of you might be saying, “So Scott, what does this have to do with leadership?” I read your blog to get an insight or tidbit regarding some aspect of leadership and this blog seems to be talking about nothing but having fun and giving prizes.

And that’s the point.

Let’s put some fun back into leadership.

Happy Easter!

What is Your Change Style?

Stop and think for a minute. No really, slow down…take a deep breath...and think for an entire minute on this question:

As a leader, what is the single most important thing you are trying to change in your organization?

Okay. Do you have that ONE thing in mind? Now write it down.

In my work as an organizational consultant and executive coach I often work with leaders who have several things they are trying to change at the same time. They are trying to make their organization more efficient, more focused, to think in a new or different way.

It would be fairly easy to lead if you only had to make one change at a time, and you could do this in a linear and synchronous fashion. No one I know in leadership has this luxury. Change is all around you, coming at you from every side:

• Budgets change

• People change

• Expectations change

• Visions change

• Customers change

• Products change

• Regulations change

• Bosses’ minds change

And often all these types of change happen at the same time. Sometimes you are in complete control of these changes, and other times you feel like you are in more of a reactionary position.

No matter the type or the position you find yourself in, as a leader one thing is clear: Part of your calling is change! No one these days is interested in people who can lead the status quo.

Style Preferences

One of the things I have been thinking more about over the past several months is not necessarily the types of changes or even my level of control, but more so about how my team members and customers approach change. In our organization we have a lot of change going on:

• We have added 2 new team members.

• We are launching a new website the first week of April

• We have taken on more organizational consulting projects (mostly team culture work)

• We have added a new Stress Management course to our teaching repertoire.

• We are doing executive coaching in new industries and with new clients.

Change is everywhere!

But I have been trying to focus less on the “what” that is changing and more on the “how” each person on my team responds to change.

Let’s face it. Some of you are change junkies. Change gives your brains a huge dopamine rush and you get an overwhelmingly positive feeling when things are changing. Some of you like to move so fast that you end up getting several steps ahead of everyone else and you are forced to slow down or lose others completely. Others of you realize change is eminent, but have more of a slow-and-steady-wins-the-race-approach.

Experts on change agree that while there is no “one-style-fits-all," each of us has an approach or style that we are more comfortable with when it comes to change.

Changes Style Indicator

A new tool that I have been using to better understand the change styles of the folks on my team is the Change Style Indicator. This is a simple and easy-to-use assessment that gives people a glimpse into their style preferences when they are faced with change. The assessment takes less than 10 minutes to complete, then you are scored on a change style continuum of three styles that represent distinct approaches when responding to change. The continuum ranges from Conserver Style to an Originator Style, with a Pragmatists Style occupying the middle range of the continuum.

I have found that working with my team in light of this assessment has really helped us to manage all the change we are facing in a more productive way. While this tool does not give any indication of whether or not we are good at change, or even if our styles are effective for the type of changes we are facing, what it does for me as a leader is:

• Allows me to approach everyone on my team as an individual in the ways THEY like to approach change.

• Get a much better feel for the underlying emotion and anxieties associated with the change.

• Better understand some of the natural conflicts that arise between team members based on the changes they are facing.

• Get better at responding, helping to enhance collaboration and even encourage the team to innovate.

But hey, don’t just take my word for it. I asked Michelle, who is new to my team, to answer a few questions on her perspective on the Change Style Indicator.

Michelle, how easy was this assessment to take and how long did it take you to complete it? The Change Style Indicator assessment was simple to take and only took me about 15 minutes, including the time to read the instructions. The questions are straightforward and ask you for the response that immediately comes to mind. There are no "right" or "wrong" answers, you are just asked to be candid in your responses.

What is one thing that you learned about yourself from the assessment that you didn’t already know? I have utilized several personality and communication style assessments, but I've never taken one directly related to dealing with change. I enjoyed reading the detailed results report, which indicated I am a "Pragmatist" with a "Conserver" orientation. This means that I prefer the kind of change that happens for practical reasons, and I want to make sure any change is a group effort, keeping in mind what is best for the team.

How do you see using this assessment as you Influence others on our team? The results report provided a useful outline of my strengths and weaknesses when dealing with change. This is a helpful for my work in the future as it gives me tools to explain to other team members how I can best contribute to change within our organization. If everyone on my team utilizes the Change Style Indicator, it can help us when planning our work so the assignments and expectations are tailored to suit the strengths and weaknesses of each team member.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to be more influential as a leader in their organization? Self-awareness is an essential skill for any leader. When working with a team, you not only have to understand yourself, but also be able to adapt your style when necessary to get the best results with your group. The Change Style Indicator is a useful key to self-awareness in managing organizational change.

Thanks, Michelle! As you can see, simple tools like this can be quite effective in helping us as leaders to assess our teams and what the best approaches might be to maximize our change-opportunities.

Homework:

I want you to go back to that change that you wrote down initially. Now think about all the people on your team who are affected by that change. What words would you use to describe the way they approach changes. I think really taking some time and assessing how people respond to change can make all the difference in how effective we are, as leaders, in making change happen.

If you want to know more about how you can become certified in this simple instrument to use with your team send me an email at info@drscottlivigston.com and we will get some information your way.

What Do Followers Want From Their Leaders?

I have been thinking a lot recently about the dynamic relationship between leaders and followers. Primarily, my thoughts have centered around the fundamental concept of what it means for someone to lead me and what words best describe me as a follower, what I want a leader to contribute to my life. I don’t expect that what I am about to share will rock your world in any way. In fact, prior to reading on. why don’t you answer these questions for yourself, and then compare your thoughts to mine?

• What does it mean for someone to lead me?

• What word or words best describe what I want a leader to contribute to my life?

Let me tackle the second question first:

Contribution

As I spent some time contemplating what I want a leader to contribute to my life, these four things came to mind:

• Trust in the vision they are creating. I think there is an inherent assumption that if I am going to allow someone to lead me in some way, then I am going to invest my time, talent, and/or my resources working toward whatever picture of the future they have. For me, if I am allowing someone to have influence over my life in any substantial way, I have to have some assurance that they are credible and have access to the knowledge and skill to get us moving toward our desired future state.

• Hope that the future is safe and abundant. While risk is inherent in any leader-follower relationship, I do think the Hippocratic Oath has merit not only in medicine but in leadership: First, do no harm. Resilience and optimism are both integral parts of the faith that we all put in leaders that have influence over us. We do not expect them to be perfect. It is reassuring that as we journey we will do it together and watch out for each other.

• Love me for who I am and how I was created. I am not talking about romantic love, but a brotherly love. A kind of love that recognizes the influence a leader has over me and yet respects my value and recognizes how I fit into the organization. No matter what happens this leader will have my back and I have theirs. This love values my strengths and accepts my weaknesses, a love that shows compassion.

How about you? What words did you come up with that you want a leader to contribute to your life?

As I reflected and examined the question above I noticed that in each of the descriptions I wrote another word kept surfacing that is a perfect one-word description of what it means for someone to lead me:

Influence

Influence is the sum of positive (I choose to focus on positive rather than coercive) behaviors that you as a leader exhibit that have an impact on the choices I have as a follower.

As a leader, you have a vision you are trying to implement, and an idea for how to get there. As a follower of yours, I recognize that you have some kind of authority over me. You don’t need to flaunt it. You have some idea about the direction you want all of us to go. You recognize that we have choices and hence you must be adept at getting your vision clearly articulated. You must be skilled at getting your thoughts and ideas integrated and communicated into the social structure of the organization. Influence is the idea that I “buy in” to your thoughts and ideas and am choosing to come along with you. As time moves on you continue to have some degree of power over my choices in the form of increasing my faith, knowledge, experience, and my integration into the community you are leading. As leaders, we must never forget that while it may seem desperate at times for some followers, they do have a choice whether to remain under your leadership or not.

Influence is the idea that I “buy in” to your thoughts and ideas and am choosing to come along with you. As time moves on you continue to have some degree of power over my choices in the form of increasing my faith, knowledge, experience, and my integration into the community you are leading. As leaders, we must never forget that while it may seem desperate at times for some followers, they do have a choice whether to remain under your leadership or not. As a follower of yours, I really desire to align myself with the social norms you create. You don’t need to degrade me in public. As your follower, I know you are going to do things for me and expect things in return. Share what you expect and then work with me to see if I can hit your expectation.

What Is Your Influencing Style?

As you might have guessed, psychologists have been studying this idea of influence for almost 100 years. While some of the terms have evolved, the ideas supporting the original make-up of what it means to influence have remained fairly constant.

Using an Influencing Styles Inventory Assessment leaders can discover the style they prefer to use most often, the benefits of that style, and some of the traps that overuse or misuse can cause.

Click here to download a free example of an Influencing Style Assessment

This Influencing Style Assessment gives leaders the opportunity to obtain a certification to use with followers in their organization. This certification gives leaders and coaches a tool to find ideas and strategies for those in those in their sphere of influence to make them more effective.

Using The Influence Style Indicator

Angela is a new member of my team who is responsible for our marketing and social media efforts (you are reading this article, thanks to the hard work of Angela to get it out over many different media platforms.)  I asked Angela to take the assessment and answer some questions about the Influence Style Indicator so you could learn more about it

Angela, How easy was this assessment to take and how long did it take you to complete it?

It was very easy, I received an email with a link directly to the assessment, and I completed it in about 15 minutes.

What is one thing that you learned about yourself from the assessment that you didn’t already know?

I learned that it does not come naturally to inspire others when I am trying to influence, and I actually learned that I was wrong about what I thought it meant to inspire others with my influence.

How do you see using this assessment as you influence others on our team?

I want to be more inspiring when influencing our team. The assessment showed me what it means to inspire with influence, which brings unity to a team. I was given many practical examples for how to inspire in a constructive way that moves things forward. I learned that even though the style of influence I most often tend to use is in making rational appeals for why my leadership should be followed, I really feel that inspiration is something I'd like to work into my influence style. I would love to be someone who leads others in ways that make them feel hopeful about not only my leadership but also their personal well-being.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to be more influential as a leader in their organization?

After taking this assessment, I would tell someone who wants to be more influential that they should really listen to themselves more closely when they are presenting their opinion on anything, not just in the workplace. Good influence is not just self-aware but requires a thoughtful care that often comes out through our words. There are many ways to influence, negative and positive, and when we are trying to influence others to go along with our plans, we can get so caught up in wanting to get our way that we do not stop to think about the best way to go about making that happen, and how to behave if that does not happen.

If you are interested in learning more about this assessment and how it can be valuable to your organization or your practice as a coach we would love to connect with you. 

Using Leadership Assessments with a Virtual Team

This article is the first in a four-part series for those who develop leaders to have more confidence and credibility.

Over the past 9 months at Livingston Consulting Group, we have been working on something pretty cool that I think many of you might find interesting, and possibly applicable to the leadership work that you do.

Here is Our Story

It all started with some conversations I was having with both my coaching clients and a few of the university students I teach in leadership development and executive coaching. At the end of my classes, I would get at least 3 emails from students saying something like, “I am getting a great education and will have a firm foundation for the direction I want my life to go. However, I feel like I am lacking the tools and resources to be successful.”

After having many phone conversations with these students about coaching, which often involved questions of process and procedure, coaching skill, sales and marketing, and practical development tools, I quickly saw needs and desires for leaders of all types:

• those who coach others

• those who shepherd others

• those who counsel others

• those who train others

• those who consult with others

• those who facilitate groups of others

The main message I heard as I talked with students and clients alike is that they desire to increase their credibility with those they serve. However, budgets are tightening, travel is becoming more restricted, virtual meetings are becoming a reality, and yet the leaders I talk with still lack quality tools to develop their followers.

Fast-forward to October of 2016: I am meeting with my virtual team (Brandi lives in Tampa, Angela lives in NYC, Michelle lives in Grand Rapids, Gretchen lives in Madrid, and Madison lives in Indianapolis,) and we are discussing Clayton Christensen’s book Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice. In the book, Christensen outlines his "theory of jobs" that details how organizations should decipher what job it is that they actually do for their customers.

As we are discussing this book, someone on the team asked, "So, what job are our customers really asking us to do?"

This was an easier question to answer in regards to the training and executive coaching that I do. But when it came to providing tools and resources to those who develop others we felt like…we were missing the boat.

So we worked on it.

And we decided that our mission and the job we perform is: to provide confidence and credibility to those who develop others.

The Next Step

I will not bore you will the details of launching this new endeavor, but the real highlight is that we will be offering certification in 4 new leadership assessments starting in April of 2017! Over the next few weeks, I will be giving you a peak into what these tools can do for you as a leader, as someone who develops leaders, or someone who is interested in becoming a leader.

Emerging Leader Profile 360

This week I will be highlighting an assessment called Emerging Leader Profile 360 Feedback (ELP 360.)

This assessment is an electronic 360-degree assessment for those in an organization who are showing leadership promise and want a development plan that takes them toward this vision. This tool allows their superiors, peers, and subordinates to give the emerging leader competency-based quantitative and qualitative feedback.

Click here to download a free sample of the Emerging Leader 360 Report!

Brandi’s Experience

Brandi has been on my team for about 18 months now. She is responsible for all of our internal operations. While she has been in leadership roles in the past, the experience she had was not as positive as one would hope. So we decided to provide her with the ELP 360 as she is quickly emerging as a real leader on our team.

I asked Brandi a few questions that I thought you might enjoy her response to:

What was your overall impression of the Emerging Leader Profile 360?

I was pleasantly surprised by the comprehensive evaluation of my leadership that the Emerging Leader Profile 360 provided. Not only was the feedback I received from my manager, peers, and direct reports insightful and helpful, but I also found the self-evaluation to be incredibly valuable as it forced me to slow down and really think about how I interact with my work responsibilities, my colleagues, our clients, etc.

How did you initially feel when I approached you about taking the Emerging Leader Profile 360?

When I was approached about taking the Emerging Leader Profile 360 I was both excited and a bit nervous. Self-evaluation of my leadership is one thing, but to open myself up to the evaluation of others on my team was a bit intimidating. Feedback is often the catalyst for growth, so I was grateful to have the opportunity to learn about my leadership from the perspective of those who work closely with me on a day to day basis.

What is the most significant thing you learned about yourself from this feedback?

The most significant thing I learned about myself from this feedback has to do with my confidence as a leader. Both my self-evaluation and the feedback I received showed that I tend to “panic” when confronted or challenged by others. In the workplace, there will inevitably be times of unavoidable confrontation. As a leader, it is important that I develop the confidence necessary to express my thoughts in a healthy way, even in challenging times, rather than shutting down or avoiding the conflict entirely.

How do you see this feedback accelerating your leadership abilities?

The insight from the 360 feedback has given me clarity around a few key areas where I can focus on maximizing my strengths as well as developing areas where improvement is needed. The feedback I received has given me a fresh and energized perspective and I look forward to the ways I will grow and develop my leadership as a result of this experience.

Brandi, thank you for your transparency in sharing what you learned about yourself and this process.

How about you, leader?

Do you need to have confidence and credibility with those you develop? If so stay tuned, we have more stories coming over the next few weeks, and in April you will be able to register to get certified in these exciting leader development tools!

When Negative Self-Talk Creeps In

A good friend of mine (and an avid reader and commenter on this blog,) Ken, submitted my name as a speaker for an organization he is affiliated with. He emailed me asking if I would consider giving a talk and facilitating a dialogue on the value of emotional intelligence (EI). I am always humbled when anyone thinks that I might have something valuable to say when it comes to EI. It is one of my favorite subjects to talk about, and I often use the EQi 2.0 in training programs I do and with almost every coaching client I work with does a self-assessment that shows them what their leadership habits may appear like to others.

Now, here is what you need to know about Ken. His job is to serve as a hospice chaplain in Polk County Florida. His request was for me to come and speak to a group of his peers and his boss on the subject of how EI can be of value to a hospital chaplain.

Gulp! I have to admit, the email produced mixed feelings in me. Like I said above, I was humbled for sure, but scared out of my pants as well. Hospice chaplains...really?! While I might know something about EI, my immediate “knee-jerk” reaction was, I don’t know anything about hospice chaplains!

Then the negative self-talk started to creep in:

• You’re no expert in hospice care.

• What do you know about how to fit EI into their world?

• You have never even studied EI in this context, what if there is no data?

• Your not a very good public speaker.

• Maybe you should call him up and back out.

Now, am I the only one this happens too? When you are hit with a complex, tension-filled situation what do you do? Do you immediately become filled with fear, anxiety, and self-doubt? How do you stop the negative self-talk from creeping in and taking over your thinking?

Here is a quick and easy method that I use when this happens to me: I use an acronym I call "STOP." It is a four step method that helps me turn my negative thinking into a more positive and constructive use of my time and energy.

STOP

Stop: Do something to interrupt the cycle of negative thinking.

Take a deep breath: Breathing relaxes your tension, releases dopamine, and calms you down to think more clearly.

Other focused: Exercise empathy and become curious about what it is like to be in the other person's shoes.

Purpose a question: Asking questions can have a calming effect and bring you more into a zone of safety than one of fear.

Here is how the model helped me get rid of the negative thinking and increase my confidence in this situation:

When I first noticed the negative thinking creeping into my mind with the thought, you’re no expert in hospice, I should have taken the time to put this model into effect. Unfortunately, even though I teach this stuff, I got all the way down to, maybe you should call him and back out before I put this into practice.

Stop: Psychologists call this pattern interrupt. I noticed the negative thinking and I did something physical to draw attention away from the negative thought. In this case, I was sitting down when I read the email. When I finally noticed the negativity, I stood up. I concentrated on doing something different. Distract yourself away from the source of negativity.

Take a deep breath: When I stood up, I took several yoga style breaths. Focused on bringing my belly button to my spine. I actually could feel myself starting to calm down. This is often when I will also say a prayer, asking God for wisdom as I navigate these treacherous negative waters. I distracted myself from the negativity for a moment. That is the goal with this step.

Other Focused: I tried to take the thoughts off of myself and my shortcomings. I put my thoughts onto Ken and his team instead. I began to think, what might they need from a model like emotional intelligence? What value could it bring them? Notice the questions starting to form when I start to turn my thinking from self-referential to other-focused.

Purpose a question: I crafted an email back to Ken asking him, what are some common situations that hospital chaplains find themselves in where they need more EI? What had other speakers done that the chaplains found valuable? How had he used EI in his work as a hospice chaplain?

I noticed, then, that my fear and anxiety were dissipating into curiosity. I was moving from a lack of self-consciousness into a state of confidence by focusing on the value I could bring to this group of dedicated servants.

Self-Actualization and Optimism

According to authors Steven J. Stein and Howard E. Book, EI always exists in balance. This is pretty easy to see when we think about a leader who is very self-confident but lacks any empathy or interpersonal ability. We often put a label on a leader who has this balance of qualities as being someone who is arrogant at best, and a real narcissist on the more clinical side of the psychology

In my case, I am usually a fairly self-perceptive person. This means that in part, I get a lot of meaning and purpose out of my life and the work I do. This is a real strength for me.

Most of the time I am optimistic, which means I have a positive outlook on the future and am fairly resilient in the face of setbacks. However, this ability can come into question, especially when fear or anxiety enter the stage. My optimism can turn into a negative downward spiral of self-critical thinking.

What I need when I am faced with these fears and anxieties is to balance my self-actualization and my waning level of optimism.

The STOP model helps me to put the brakes on the negative thinking, so I can use all the meaning and purpose I get in my life to teach and coach emotional intelligence, regaining my level of optimism.

I am happy to report that Ken and I have a call scheduled to talk through what value EI can bring to the hospice chaplains and the talk is scheduled for mid-April.

Homework: Where do fear and anxiety creep into your leadership? Can you anticipate when these events occur? When you feel your thoughts going negative, try using the STOP model to see if it can bring you back into emotional balance.

Are You Listening to This Voice In Your Leadership?

Every leader needs a voice who will speak truth to and help them see things that are not obvious. Henry Kissinger is famous for saying that one of the most difficult things for a young leader to do is to “speak truth to power;' to go up the power gradient with information that is contrary to what the hierarchical, authoritative, and referent, position believes to be true. We have all been there at points and felt the emotion of that moment. There is inherent organizational danger in communicating things to a leader that they are not seeing in the moment:

• You could be rejected which leads to embarrassment

• You could be dismissed which leads to self-doubt

• You could be humiliated which leads to isolation

• You could be discounted which leads to demoralization

The young leader has information that someone in a decision-making position needs to hear, and is frozen in the moment by these potentially negative outcomes.

The other side of the proposition is, all things being equal, there is huge upside in communicating to a leader what they are not seeing in the moment:

• You could be celebrated for the input

• You could be included in the decision-making process

• You could be honored for your courage

• You could be valued for your contribution

Whether a part of reality or a figment of our imagination as a young leader “speaking truth to power” can seem overwhelming. This is the risk tension that the young leader faces. Some of the mediators that go into the “speak truth to power" equation are:

• Culture of the organization-What is the level of freedom that truly exists for information sharing?

• Young leaders' personal-risk tolerance-Where do they fall on a spectrum between “wary” and “adventurous”?

• Receptivity of the leader to feedback-What is the historical behavior elicited when contrary opinions have been shared?

Receptivity of the Leader

I think we can all pretty easily agree that the young leader when faced with a decision to speak truth to power, has a burden that can feel like wearing a shirt made of lead.

However, as more senior leaders in organizations, how much of the burden falls on us to create an atmosphere where much of the risk is mediated for a young leader? How much of the responsibility is ours to create the environment in which others feel a freedom to be able to share?

I argue that much of the speaking-truth-to-power-dichotomy rests not in the hands of the deliverer but the receiver. And yet the senior leader is the one who often times has the most to lose by missing key information that was never brought to them. In the fast-paced, get it done now, microwave culture that organizations exist in today many of us cave into our survival reptilian brain that tells us to do whatever we can to survive.

Many times these environmental and personal factors are not acting in our favor. As leaders, we have to put effort into creating a persona and a culture so that the voice we need to be able to hear in our organization comes through.

5 Actions you can work on today

Here are my top 5 tips for leaders who want to improve their chances of hearing all the information they need to hear to be able to make an informed decision:

• Slow down your cadence-Most of the leadership mistakes I have made were because my world was moving fast and I did not slow down to see more possibilities. The faster I went, the more convinced I became that I was right, and the further away I got from the truth. Take a deep breath, count to 10, silently sing a familiar tune very slowly (I like; “Row, row, row, your boat), pray, do whatever you need to do to slow your reality down.

• Become curious-The practice is to suspend your need to be right or heard and to work really hard to understand the other person's position. Before you jump to conclusion or shoot them down because of what you know that they don’t, spend some time to really discern the message they are bringing to you.

• Always say thank you-So before it feels like I am your mom or kindergarten teacher, just hear me out. You would be surprised at how often I observe leaders in interactions where they turn and walk away without expressing gratitude. I don’t think it is an intent to be mean or degrading, the pressure of the moment takes the brain to the next thing rather than finishing the relationship with the current interaction. Researchers at USC found that simple acts of gratitude provide benefits ranging from feelings of reward and satisfaction to just helping people to hold on to their humanity.

• Spend time reflecting- At the end of your day take the time to review the day. Play back the interactions you had with others. Resist the temptation to become defensive and ask yourself questions like: I wonder what they were really trying to ask me? Why did I feel such a strong need to defend myself? Why did I feel such a strong need to exert power in the moment? What unintended consequences could the action I took cause?

• Do the inner work of developing your soul- The psychology data says you are as intelligent right now as you will ever be. Your personality is fully formed, so you know if you are extroverted or introverted. You have most of the skill you will ever need. So what is your next step in development? Do you need to work on developing the soul of your leadership?

If any of you would be interested in joining a group on what it means to develop the soul of the leader send an email to Info@DrScottLivingston.com. My assistant will coordinate a time for us to talk about your interest and what a group like this will look like.

Homework:

Pick one of the 5 Actions above and work on it every day for a week. For example, in every personal interaction and every email you send, say “thank you." Work on making your attitude heartfelt and not rote. If you try any of these let me know how they go for you, I would love to hear.

How to Undo Your Stinking Thinking

I have to thank my younger brother Eric for sharing the term “Stinking Thinking” with me. To me,  Stinking Thinking is that place we all get to from time to time that cannot quite be called foolishness, but you can sure see it from there. You can actually feel that your logic is off, but you have been too loud or too insistent, and now you are stuck in your line of thinking. Those times when folks might say to you, “have you been drinking?” and you haven’t had a libation in weeks. Stinking Thinking is when others are trying to get through to us that our line of reasoning just isn’t resonating. Have you ever been there?  I know I sure have.  I can remember years ago when I really wanted a sports car. I talked it up at work and convinced my wife we could afford it. I looked and looked for just the right car that made just the right statement.  I finally found a jet black, low miles, 5 speed Mazda RX7 that I could not live without.One Saturday my wife took our minivan and left me at home with our 3 adorable children, which mean that when I had to leave the house I needed to get myself and all three kids in the 2-seat sports car….I think you get the picture.

WHAT WAS I THINKING? A relatively intelligent, socially functional, hard working person just made a decision to buy a car that didn’t fit into his lifestyle at the time…this is Stinking Thinking.

Since our thinking has such a profound effect on our judgment, I researched how many decisions the average person makes in a day. The popular number on the internet is 35,000. This number is quoted by sources like the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Stanford University.  I couldn’t validate that number from any recent study that was peer reviewed. Since I can not support the number 35,000 from the literature, can we agree, for argument's sake, leaders make lots of decisions every day?

The actual number of decisions we make in a day is not nearly as important as the quality of the important ones.

Regardless of the decision-making model you use (there are hundreds of them), they all begin with some input. Decision-making processes are active and continually evolving.  Since leadership brings with it both responsibility and accountability, there is no one better than you, the leader, to assess and clarify the kind of data you want to bring into your process.

“It is possible to obtain a high score on an intelligence test and then turn to astrology or palm reading when making decision” -Diane Halpern

The time to really assess if a decision is good or not is at the beginning of the process. Decision making should not turn into PowerBall Lottery where you just pull in some random data points and check your numbers in the morning. And yet in my work with leaders, I see this all too often. Really smart, highly educated, likable folks do really silly things. Often times the quote I hear behind closed doors is, “I can’t believe I really did that." While the assessment is of the decision result, as we dig deep into the situation we find that at the core of the misjudgment are often faulty input assumptions.

Since we all succumb to this irrationality from time to time, I wonder what your Stinking Thinking usually looks like.

Take this Decision Making Quiz

Which of these Stinking Thinking traps do you fall into most often?

1. I am good at predicting the future

2. My opinion matters more

3. I have an excellent memory

4. I am reacting to a single data point

5. I am being completely rational

Here are some of the more common pitfalls I observe from the quiz above.

I Can Predict the Future

In the book The Undoing Project author Michael Lewis does a masterful job of describing the work of Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman.  In the first chapter of the book, he tells the story of Daryl Morley whose job it was in 2006 to predict how a 19 year old  basketball player would perform in the NBA. Morley equated this to predicting where the price of oil will be in 10 years. Even though Morley had a statistical mind and the tools of an expert, his boss would want certainty from him for the decisions he was making on the team's draft choices. “I have to tell him certainty ain’t coming."

So many leaders, who have had so much success can fall into the trap that based upon past experiences when they got it right.

My Opinion Matters More

The person with the most ____________ (money, experience, knowledge, positional power, authority, credibility) knows the best.  You start to think that since you are the most influential your opinion carries more weight. Bringing biases to the input part of the decision-making process is where it gets off track. While on the surface few leaders would ever make any of these self-proclamations, the evidence to support this kind of thinking is all around.

The same result can occur in groups. The psychological term is “enclave deliberation.” What happens during enclave deliberation is that as a group of like-minded people discuss opinions with each other, the conversation becomes more extreme. I recently entered into a climate change discussion with a small group of folks where a vocal supporter of the issue started the discussion with “anyone who disagrees with the evidence that science brings is just a fool.” How is that for starting an open dialogue with a team?

Experts suffer from this pitfall as well. Noted psychologist Amos Tversky (of Prospect Theory fame) said, “whenever there is a simple error that most laymen fall for, there is always a slightly more sophisticated version of the same problem that experts fall for.”

My Memory is Perfect

This one probably speaks for itself.

Ten years after the brutal attacks on the twin towers on September 11, 2001 researchers asked people what they remembered about the events of that day. While the details of the memories were better than on an “ordinary” day, they were not completely accurate. Turns out humans fill in missing information with what fits their own belief system.

The Issue Has Become My Identity

Research has shown that people are more confident about being right when the events are highly emotional. People believe that their memory for highly emotional events is better than it is. As the issue at hand becomes more personal, the emotion increases, people start to identify with their issue. I think we are seeing this as a dividing factor in our own country right now. Rather than stepping back and thinking they are becoming emotionally attached to a single issue that is defining them, the thought now is that if you attack the issue, you are attacking me personally. This causes polarity.

I Am Being Completely Rational

"It's not how smart you are that matters, what really counts is how you are smart." -Howard Gardner When our thinking has evolved to the point that we have become so prideful that there is no space to be wrong, we rationalize to support a preferred conclusion.  As leaders, when we get to thinking that there is no possible way we wrong, all sorts of warning lights should flash in our heads.

It turns out that rationalization is not always deliberate. People don’t intend to do it, but it is insidious and can creep up on you. Thinking we have omniscience is a dangerous human fallacy that can quickly lead to foolishness.

Undoing your Stinking Thinking

Here are 5 methods that you can use to undo your Stinking Thinking

1. Let go of the past - Just because you were successful in doing something 15 years ago doesn’t mean that the world stopped turning. Use your experience to inform your decision about what is different in the situation and circumstance from your past achievement.

2. Identify the real problem - My friend Dr. Patricia Scott wrote a great book called, “Getting a Squirrel to Focus." It is way too easy for us to become distracted on ancillary issues that we forget what the real thing is we are deciding.

3. Stop and ask - Barbara Kingsolver says, “Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin." Practice the art of humble inquiry. Stop and ask others if the way you are remembering events is the way they remember it. It probably won’t be exact, but it might be one step closer.

4. Separate yourself - Psychologists call this dissociation. Try this. Take the point of view opposite of yours. Create arguments for it. Research it. Study it. Separate the emotion from the information. Now come back to the issue. Do you still feel as strongly as you did before?

5. Practice humble listening - When you feel that you are at the end of your rope with someone, murder is not an option, and you can’t avoid the relationship, humbly set your ego and pridefulness aside and try to gain the other person's perspective.

How about you? Do you have any successful methods to share that you use to undo your Stinking Thinking?

Is This Leadership Question on Your Mind?

It happens every year. Around the second week in January, just when I am recovering from my holiday vacation, my lovely wife of 32 years will ask me a very pointed question. It is a question that comes from her desire to know me and connect more deeply with me. Her question is:

“Scott, what is your word for the year?”

The answer gives her peace about where I am in life. I do not see it as a nagging question. Her intention is not meanness, nor is it meant to put me on the spot, although, it is direct. Her intention is to to get me to focus. To be honest, I like the question, it is deeply reflective of where I am at the moment, and what I am thinking about our future.

If you read this column with any regularity, you know I like to talk and write on a number of leadership-oriented topics. I am interested in many things. I love sports, reading,  running and walking, and sitting around. I like sushi and steak (hamburgers are my favorite!) I listen to smooth jazz and “that Old Time Rock and Roll.” I love God, and people who screw up all the time. I guess you could say I am a classic Jack of all Trades, Master of None. I tend to bounce around a lot.

That said, it is totally fair that my wife wants to focus my attention. She deserves to know a single avenue I am going to go down in any given year. What am I going to concentrate on? What can she ask me about from time to time to see how I am doing?

In years past I have had words like:

Family Vacation Perform Read Persevere Wisdom

Last year my word was commit. I had a lot of business opportunities, and I really needed to focus on the next step to take in growing my business. The biggest need I had to meet as a leader was to commit to something and stick with the plan. I am the kind of guy who has an idea for a new book about twice a day, but who gets bored easily so that the book I thought about writing in the morning doesn’t seem nearly as interesting as the book I thought about writing in the afternoon.

2016 was a year I needed to commit to something and see it through to the end.

Powerful Leadership Question:

Why is having a Word For The Year such a powerful concept?

Perhaps the idea is best summed up by something I read recently about presidential inauguration speeches. After analyzing all the inauguration speeches given by the 44 U.S. presidents, researchers found an inverse correlation between the length of the speech given and the historical success of the president. In simple terms, the shorter the inaugural speech, the better the president. For example, Washington’s second speech came in at just 135 words. Jefferson, Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson all are credited with short speeches. After a quick Google search, I found that the longest speech belongs to William Henry Harrison who spoke for 1 hour and 45 minutes using over 9,000 words. He also delivered the address in a snowstorm, came down with pneumonia, and died a week later.

Brevity Has its Benefits

A Word of the Year can be a pin-pointed theme for your year. These attributes are what I look for when I am choosing my Word of the Year.

• Focused. This word keeps me grounded and centered. Since I have such an ability to stray off topic and chase rabbits down trails, The Word For the Year gives me a central point to return to often.

• Measurable. I can easily set goals around my word of the year. This allows me to be intentional and look for examples of how I am displaying my commitment in my life.

• Simple. Since it is only one word, I do not get distracted by complicated plot twists. It is easy for me to remember what I am trying to focus on in that given year.

• Memorable. While I am not completely losing my mind (some on my staff might disagree with this,) I find that it is easier and more efficient to search my mind for one word I want to remember than for some phrase or quip.

• Communicable. My word of the year is easy for me to communicate to others. The message is much less likely to get lost in translation if I keep my thoughts to one word.

My Word for 2017

This year the focus of my leadership life is contentment.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear this word? Lazy? Complacent? Comfortable? Peaceful?

For some, this word probably sends shivers up your spine. You may be saying something like, “interesting word for a guy who runs his own business!”

However, when I was researching this word I started with its definition. Contentment is defined as a state of happiness and satisfaction. This does not mean that I stop trying, it does not mean I won't try my very best. In our company, we have adopted a verse from the Bible that says, “Whatever you do, work at it as for the Lord and not for men.” It reminds us that we need to have an attitude that reflects the work we do, which has an element of spirituality to it.

So, in no way does the word contentment mean complacent, or indifferent, or even comfortable!

What it does mean to me is that at the end of the day, when I finish the work I set out to do, or even if I don't get everything done that I hope to….I will be content. When I really want to meet with someone for an hour, but who only has 15 minutes instead, I will be content with the time I get. If I put a bid in on a project I really want to do and I don’t get the work, I will be content.

My real goal here is to put my very best effort in, knowing that I can be happy knowing I did my best. I don’t think contentment excludes self-examining where I could do better, nor does it mean accepting mediocrity. That is not my best. I will NOT be content if I do something without giving it my all.

The reason I chose contentment as my word of the year is to remind me that if I have done a good job, finished the race, and done the best I could with the talent and effort I have, then I should be content.

Homework:

What is your word of the year? Have you ever thought through something like this? What kind of focus would this bring to your leadership life if you committed yourself to defining your year by one thing? Comment with your word and definition below so that we can connect throughout the year about how our words of the year are shaping us in 2017!