Accountability Earns Credibility

Politics aside … and leadership front row and center.

You probably heard that earlier this week President Obama asked for, and received, the resignation of the acting commissioner of the IRS.

Apparently the IRS leader was responsible for “putting extra scrutiny on Tea Party groups’ applications for tax-exempt status.” This is considered misconduct.

According to this USA article, President “Obama called the misconduct by IRS officials inexcusable.”

He also said, “It’s inexcusable and Americans are right to be angry about it and I am angry about it. I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency, but particularly the IRS given the power that it has and the reach that it has in all of our lives.”

Here are 3 – brief leadership lessons from this incident:

1. Treat all of your employees, customers and vendors with respect

2. Implement policies and procedures with consistency

3. Do not tolerate misconduct – accountability is critical to preserving credibility

The most challenging one for many leaders is ‘holding others accountable’ … yet it is extremely vital to preserving your own leadership. President Obama did good with this one.

Think about what would happen to your credibility if you looked the other way when someone in your organization was doing / saying something that was inconsistent with your stated values and / or principles.

If you’re not prepared to act, regardless of who the violator is, then your leadership is weakened … and everyone knows it.

As an example, I once had to let a senior member of my team go for deceit and terminated the employment of one of our best sales professionals for violation of our basic business values.

Due to the high profile of the individuals, they were both difficult dismissals. However, the action sent a signal to the rest of the organization that our values meant something, and no one was exempt from living them every day.

My leadership tip this week is to encourage you to take a tough stand on misconduct and integrity issues in your organization … hold people accountable.

How you ask? … Set realistic expectations … communicate them … live them … measure / monitor them. Now, if we could only get to the truth of Benghazi.

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Avoiding the Bad Hire

One of the most costly mistakes that an organization can make is that of a ‘bad hire.’

A bad hire to me is the person who was hired to fill a position in your organization that didn’t have the right skills to do the job or for a variety of reason, just wasn’t a good fit for the position they were hired for.

Believe me when I tell you that I’ve made a number of bad hires in my career.

Bad hires have a significant cost associated with them. Think about the wasted time and cost of the damage done by a bad hire. Productivity, customer satisfaction, morale, wrongful termination and duplication of effort to name just a few of the typical fallouts of a bad hire.

My leadership tip this week is to draw your attention to the hiring decisions being made in your organization … because this routine task should be far from routine.

When making the hire, ask yourself and others in your organization that are making hiring decisions these tough questions:

Do they fit into your culture and how do you know?

Do they really want the job or do they really need the job?

Is there good chemistry with the rest of the team and how do you know?

Do they have the skills to do the job, plus some?

How long before they start generating a return and can you wait that long?

Do they have the potential to grow within your organization and what makes you feel that way?

What baggage is the highly experienced industry person bringing with them? Every single one of them has some baggage; you just have to decide if you want to add it to your team.

Are you being objective? If you ever needed to rely on objectivity, making a hiring decision is the time.

What other questions do you think you should ask yourself … because when hiring people to your organization, you must remember that you are adding to your most important resource … and you absolutely must get it right.

Don’t Be Afraid To Laugh

Do you laugh a lot?

It seems to me that there isn’t as much laughing going on in the world as there once was.

Maybe it’s just the seriousness of the times; we try not to offend so we stay fairly conservative in what we say. Or maybe there’s just nothing funny enough to make us laugh ?

Laughing is healthy. After all, laughter is regarded as the best medicine. It is, among other things supposed to reduce stress, increase blood flow, Improve memory and creativity.

Comic Mort Walker says, ‘seven days without laughter makes one weak’

In ‘Laughter’s Healthy Benefits – The Healing Power of Laughter’ the author does a nice job of outlining health benefits and helping you think about what makes you laugh.

We all need to laugh more. I don’t mean smile, or chuckle or be happy I mean belly laugh out loud more.

We have too much stress and tension going on every week … its killing us. We need to laugh more and make others laugh more … it’s healthy.

Think about it, when was the last time you had a good laugh? How about the time before that? … and the time before that?

If you have to think too hard about those recent laughs then you definitely need to laugh more … you need more medicine.

I think we’ve become afraid to laugh at work. We’re afraid of offending someone, we’ve been stifled by political correctness. I agree that we need to be sensitive to our surroundings … but we still can laugh.

My leadership tip for you this week is to encourage you to consciously seek out the things that make you laugh and make an effort to make others laugh more … it’s healthy.

Be mindful of others, but as leaders let’s not be afraid.

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Take Time to Evaluate Your Time

How is your personal productivity ?

Do you accomplish everything you set out to do in a day?

Most people don’t, but great leaders do because they develop their skills to become a ‘personal productivity champion.’

One of the attributes of a personal productivity champion is the ability to crush time-wasters. If you can identify and crush time-wasters, you will accomplish more in a day.

Another attribute of a personal productivity champion is the ability to allocate their time in the most effective way.

After updating a personal productivity workshop for a client, I thought I would share these 3 – suggestions for effective time allocation with you.

1. Spend your time in a way that contributes to your goals, mission and / or vision.
2. Constantly ask yourself, “Is this what I should be spending my time on right now?”
3. Take time to plan and prioritize your day, week and month.

My leadership tip this week is to have you take the time to evaluate how you spend your time.

Are you focused on the right priorities?
Have you been procrastinating about finishing or starting an important task?
Are you leaving enough time for your family?
Are you more reactive than proactive?
Are you having fun?

I don’t have to tell you about the importance and value of time, but I’ll share these words from Michael Altshuler, “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.”

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Great Leaders Prepare For Disaster

Our hearts go out to the victims and their families impacted by the recent events in Boston.

As we observe the scene unfold from Boston we see preparedness at its finest. First responders looking after victims, law enforcement securing the crime scene, officials communicating with the public, the coordination of so many different activities … preparedness saved lives and prevented a chaotic situation from getting out of control.

Let’s learn from this.

My leadership tip for you this week is for you to be prepared for the top 3 – disasters that could strike your business.

Scenarios like … losing your biggest customer – or funding gets cut-off – or a key employee leaves to work for a competitor or worse.

Don’t worry about the things you can’t control but there are 3 – important things to do:

1. Take inventory of the potential disaster scenarios that surround you
2. Review the action steps necessary to avoid the disaster – implement
3. Review the action steps to properly handle the situation if it does strike – practice

You’re probably thinking, who has time for this?

I’m thinking, if you don’t have time now … you will likely have less time when disaster strikes

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Quotes To Lead By

I liked Margaret Thatcher as a leader. I also liked many of the things she reportedly said.

Here are my top two favorite Margaret Thatcher quotes:

1. “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”

Translation … there’s no need to flaunt your title or your position … if you’re any good at leading, anyone interested will figure out that you’re the boss.

2. “If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.”

Translation … don’t worry about being liked. Worry about doing the right thing for the right reason. Work towards earning respect and trust, then likeability becomes a by-product.

Good stuff – thank you Ms. Thatcher.

My leadership tip this week is to encourage you to lead in the spirit of these two quotes.

As you do, think about this:

1. Great leaders stand out from the crowd because of what they accomplish

2. Regardless of how great a leader you are, not everyone is going to like you

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Unwavering Character Is Serious Business

If you live in Atlanta, you are probably aware of the mess surrounding the leadership of the Atlanta School Board system … oh what a web we weave !

In the story, there are allegations of cheating, lying and intimidation … and there are a variety of criminal charges (including racketeering and theft by taking) levied against school board officials and multiple teachers.

It’s been in front of us since 2008 … I included it in one my weekly tips in 2011 and turned it into a blog post you can read here if you’re interested.

Here we are in 2013,and now we have indictments in this sad case. Sad because, there is evidence that many of the kids are still behind in grade appropriate skills … all because the teachers and administrators adjusted failing test scores to passing test scores advancing the student through the system.

Many of the cheating teachers received bonuses and recognition for the remarkable work they did in educating the students.

You really need to read this New York Times article to truly appreciate the magnitude of what has allegedly gone on.

My leadership tip this week is to remind you about the seriousness of maintaining your unwavering character. Some people in this story will go to jail and lose everything they have because they did the wrong thing … they wavered from truth and honesty – essential make up of a successful leader – don’t do the wrong thing !

Although they’re not the first, nor will they be the last people in this country do try and get away with something that lacks character, we can learn their mistakes … and there are plenty of ‘never lessons’ in this story. Here are five for you:

1. Never lie

2. Never cheat

3. Never bully or purposely intimidate people

4. Never reprimand someone for telling the truth or for doing the right thing

5. Never manipulate the system for personal gain

You probably learned these common sense lessons in elementary school … believe it or not, they still apply in business today.

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