Leadership Solutions

Leadership: Three Questions

You can plan an effective meeting if you answer these three questions.

They are:

1) What?

This question expands into: What is the vision for the project? What result do you want from the meeting? What do you want to change, fix, or resolve? What do you want people to do after the meeting?

All of this is summed up in a statement of the goal for the meeting.

2) Why?

This question asks: What is the purpose of the meeting? What is the benefit of having the result? Why should anyone care about this meeting?

All of this is summed up in a statement of the purpose (or outcome) for the meeting.

3 How?

This question asks for the steps that will be taken to accomplish the goal. Ideally, this includes a time budget, descriptions of the process, and the names of the people responsible for key roles in each step.

All of this is summed up in the agenda.

Once you have these three answers, review them to make sure that they represent the result that you want from the meeting. Then send copies of them (i.e., the compete agenda) to the attendees at least a day before the meeting.

Key Point: A meeting is a business project and should be planned like one.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: Examine Backward

Welcome to Friday.

If you're reading this on Friday morning, you're at the end of a full week.

Before you continue with your work, pause a moment to evaluate how you spent the time.

Recall that on Monday of this week I suggested having a vision and a plan for the days ahead. Did you develop these? If so, how did your accomplishments compare with what you wanted to do? Did you accomplish more? Less? If so, why?

Today's blog and the one that I posted on Monday describe a process that I've been using for many years. It consists of giving myself a performance review every week.

This review has two parts:

1) A summary of what I accomplished.

This consists of: a) a list of what I did, followed by b) an analysis of how that compares with what I expected. In this I identify areas for improvement and I congratulate myself for successes. I write this through the voice of a firm yet kind boss. So it's both candid and supportive.

2) A description of what I want to accomplish during the next week.

This includes achievements, actions, and behaviors (or expectations). Then I check this daily during the week when I plan each day. And of course, if something changes, I change the plan. For example, I received a request for a proposal this week, so I added preparing a proposal to the list.

I write these out in a journal book. Typically, each fills a page.

This process has helped me significantly. As an entrepreneur, I'm responsible for everything in my business. And so this helps me focus on tasks that matter, set priorities, and make continual improvements.

I urge you to adopt a version of this process for your work. You'll be impressed by the results.

Key Point: Leaders set directions and evaluate progress -- for their staff and for themselves.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: Rampaging Controversy

Two days ago I made an outrageous claim.

If you scroll back, you'll find an article titled, "The Manager's New Idea."

It seems that I suggested taking the long way to finding answers.

So some of you must be wondering, "Why can't I start with the One Key Experiment?"

First, let's recognize that working smart is always a good idea. That helps us make efficient, effective progress toward our goals. So we always want to start working as close to an answer as possible.

On the other hand, we also know that some steps must be completed before other steps. For example, we must put shoes on before socks (unless you're a rock star). And we must travel before we arrive (unless you're in a science fiction movie).

There's an important point here, however.

If we become too intent on starting with the correct answer, we may never start. This often stops people who strive for perfection.

The art in accomplishing anything involves giving oneself permission to make mistakes. In fact, sometimes we must begin with any step because we have no clue about what the correct answer may be. The only way we can find out is to try something. Then if we like the result, we continue; and if we don't, we start over with a different approach.

This brings us back to the beginning. That is, perhaps, we could conclude that there is The One Key Experiment after all.

It's the first one.

Because without it, nothing happens.

Key Point: Every creative solution is found by a process of mistakes.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: Tale of Two Tomatoes

A few weeks ago, in early August, I added two tomato plants to our garden.

We can do this in Southern California because it results in a fall corp.

And something remarkable happened.

One of the plants is now almost twice the size of the other.

Why?

The larger plant is in a place that receives more sunlight. So, of course, it's doing better.

The same thing happens in your office.

The employees who receive more sunlight outperform the rest. In business, that sunlight appears as praise, training, and encouragement.

So here is an amazing possibility: What if you gave everyone a generous amount of sunlight? Could this make a difference? Is there any chance that adding some praise, training, and encouragement might make your employees more effective? More productive?

Could this make your business more profitable?

At this point there's some critic who's thinking, "My people have to earn these rewards."

I suppose, I could have used the same approach in my garden. I could have told the tomato plants that I'd give more sunlight to the one that produced the most tomatoes. Of course, you know what would happen. I'd end up with two small plants and few tomatoes.

PS > I added a third tomato plant two days ago. This time, I put the plant in the best possible location (i.e., most sunlight). I did that because I'm growing tomatoes, not trying to ration sunlight.

Key Point: Leaders inspire greatness by being a source of light.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: The Manager's New Idea

Once upon a time, a few decades ago, in a land more familiar than far away, there lived a manager who had a new idea.

His idea was: Conduct the last experiment first.

That way the research staff could avoid wasting their time on nasty time consuming experiments that failed to produce a spectacular result. Instead they could conduct the great "Eureka!" experiment first.

He called his idea "The One Key Experiment."

He was so proud of his remarkable idea that he told everyone.

And since he was a manager, everyone listened because managers only have good ideas. At least, that was the case in this office.

Other managers began agreeing that this was a good idea, too. Some asked their scientists to adopt it as a research strategy.

It sort of became a popular parade of new thinking.

This went on for a few months until a crusty old scientist stood up and told this manager that he was nuts.

And that ended the grand parade.

Notice the parallel here between this real story and the fable about the emperor. It's another case of honest, open communication.

So, here's an encouragement to do two things.

1) Examine the popular thinking in your organization. How realistic is the current new idea? Is anyone promoting a novel shortcut? Has someone found the long lost secret to business success?

2) Evaluate the work environment for open communication. Are challenging questions welcomed? Do people seek out critical thinking? Are people asking good questions?

That is, do you have someone advocating "The One Key Experiment" in your office?

Key Point: Success in business is the ultimate reality show.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: Imagine Forward

Welcome to Monday.

If you're reading this on Monday morning, you're standing at the beginning of a full week.

Before you continue with your work, pause a moment to imagine ahead.

What do you want to have completed by Friday afternoon? For example, is there a report waiting to be finished? Do you have a deadline to meet? Are there ways that you could invest your time to prepare for the next challenge?

How do you want to feel at the end of the week? That is, do you want to feel proud of what you accomplished? Do you want to feel satisfaction knowing that you spent every moment well? Do you want to feel that you earned a victory?

What do you want to tell people five days from now? For example, do you want to be able to tell your boss that you completed the project early? Do you want to be able to talk about having overcome obstacles? Do you want to be able to show others how you accomplished something extraordinary? 

Notice that these are forward thinking questions.

Once you answer them, then you can plan actions that will give you the results that you want. You can also set goals for critical task milestone through the week to guide and measure your progress.

Of course, this approach to planning works within any timeframe. You can use this for any period starting on any day of the week. You can also use this for longer periods, such as for a month, for year, or for decade.

Key Point: Every plan begins with a vision.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: The Meeting

The donuts are gone

                        and

the coffee is cold

but the boredom

                  continues.

My brain

            escaped

         hours ago

and refuses to return.

So I’m drawing

   doodles

while someone

                  stands

   at the projector

             mumbling

in a monotone

about a slide

      no one

            can read.

Before this we

discussed

            something

that must have been

   important

because everyone

                  had

billions of reasons

      why

it wouldn’t

            work.

I just wish

   there were a less

                     painful

way to avoid the job

   I was hired to do.

- - -
  

From Crackers

Key Point: Bad meetings can be a poetic waste of time.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: Silver Lining

This has been exceptionally difficult.

I'm finishing a new book on leadership. As part of this process, I have been using a grammar checking routine to polish the text.

Fortunately, this routine has found a ton of things to fix. (If each one of these things cost a pound of time, they would end up weighing a ton because there have been a huge number of them.)

Some of these things were style quirks. Some were oversights. Some were ordinary typos.

As you might expect, I have not enjoyed spending a couple of days working through this mess. Each correction was a puzzle, requiring a solution. Some were easy. Most were difficult. Sometimes I had to rewrite an entire paragraph to fix one word.

This experience has taught me some lessons about writing.

1) Each revision brought me closer to the result that I want. I found it useful to remind myself of this when the size of the task felt overwhelming.

2) I had to write the original draft with all its mistakes before I could improve upon it. Thus, the original draft was actually a successful effort, instead of a big failure.

3) Finding mistakes makes me more alert to what mistakes look like. Thus, I improved upon my ability to avoid making them in the future.

Notice how these lessons apply to the things that we encounter as we work our way through completing our projects.
 

Whether it's work, writing, or life, it's all the same.

Key Point: We're always working on a rough draft of the next version, which then becomes our rough draft of the next one.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: Wrong Way Strategy

There it is again.

Another magazine has featured a headline claiming that some company plans to "trounce" their competition.

Other publications have praised companies that claimed similar strategies based on crushing, fooling, beating, destroying, and ruining their competition.

There are even consulting firms that specialize in showing companies how to do this.

All of this suggests that annihilating one's competition is the key to running a successful business.

How pathetic.

You see, all of these strategies have the same intent at their core: Fool the customer.

Any strategy that eliminates competition, deprives customers of choices. That often results in customers being stuck with inferior products.

So here is a better strategy: Strive to make something that is significantly better than anything sold by anybody else. Then there is no competition.

Of course, this strategy is difficult. It requires investing in research. It requires developing outstanding employees. It requires creating extraordinary solutions.
 

It also requires ethical leadership.

Because ethical leaders only use strategies that build instead of destroy.

Key Point: The real measure of success is defined by what you did to achieve it.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: Something in Common

Most people would claim that artists are different.

It's an easily noticed characteristic of those who work at being creative.

Yet, artists may be similar in a critically important way.

I noticed this while reading a feature in The August 2009 issue of HOW Magazine titled, "17 Young Creatives You'll Love."

The interviewer asked these artists to describe what they do when they get stuck. From the fifteen who replied to that question, I can report:

1) Each of the fifteen admitted to being stuck. So this is a human experience that happens to all of us.

2) Each of them had a system that they used to become unstuck.

3) Their recovery techniques involved either detachment from work or exposure to something new. For example, they would do things such as take a walk, workout, organize their studio, read a book, visit a museum, and so on.

Point two contains an important lesson for us.

It reveals that creativity is a managed process. Thus, the people who earn a living by being creative have developed systems to optimize the performance of the activity that drives their business.

Since we also depend upon being creative, this point leads to some questions that might help us.

That is, do you have personal systems that you use to drive your productivity? If so, what are they? For example: a) How do you break out of a rut? b) How do you inspire and motivate yourself? c) How do you manage your learning?

Since this is Friday, we have a weekend ahead. For most of us, this provides an opportunity to renew our thinking by detaching from our work.

We can also use the weekend to reflect on our personal systems.

Recognize that there are significant benefits to having such systems.

If we know what they are, then we can use them purposefully. We can improve upon them. And, as leaders, we can teach them to others.

Through this we can increase our effectiveness, both personally and professionally. And as a result, we'll succeed in making our lives a work of art.

Create a masterpiece.

Key Point: Develop personal systems to manage the key activities in your life.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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