Month: October 2017

Unfiltered Honesty: How 3 Workplace Relationships Can Benefit

Posted on October 5, 2017 by - Articles, Communication, Conflict Management, Leading Others, Meetings, Performance Management, Relational Intelligence, Supervising People

It’s your company’s talent review meeting and high-level leaders are gathered in the corporate board room to share their reports with executives. You’re especially interested to hear from Kyle, a regional manager whose teams have experienced increasingly poor performance reviews over the past year.

However, when Kyle stands to speak, his responses do not reflect what reports are saying.

When the CEO asks specific questions, Kyle remains vague and overly optimistic. The company executives are frustrated that Kyle seems unaware of the need for improvement when the facts indicate things are not going well.

Kyle is what I call a “painter” leader. He takes a real-life situation and filters it through his personal interpretation, creating an inaccurate depiction of the facts.

Think of the French impressionist Claude Monet, who used loose brush strokes and unconventional color schemes to depict images. While most people can identify the general setting in Monet’s artwork, the scene’s specific details require imagination to discern the perspective of the artist.

Similarly, “painters” in the workforce have a subjective view of things. Their specific perceptions, preconceived notions or pre-judgements obstruct reality. Presenting a misguided picture of the truth will undoubtedly result in failure for both leaders and their employees.

Instead of painting their own image, leaders should strive to be “photographers,” capturing the entire truth of a situation and communicating it with unfiltered honesty.

Here are three relationships in which “photographer” honesty is crucial to improvement:

  1. Leader to employee. Talking to an employee about a performance issue can feel awkward. Instead of taking a critical attitude, approach the conversation in a way that shows your employee that you have their best interest at heart. Not only do you want to improve the company, but you also want to improve their personal and professional development. In order to be good stewards of talent, we must provide performance feedback and management of that talent. Employees who have clarity about their role, confidence in their ability to do their work and the support of their supervisors are more engaged to help strengthen a culture.’
  1. Employee to leader. I noticed that an employee seemed troubled, and I asked, “What’s wrong?” She told me about a situation in her department that was quickly getting out of hand. “I’m so sorry,” she apologized. “I feel like I just threw up on you!” I immediately reassured her that she did the right thing by making me aware of the situation. As leaders, we want to solve problems, but we can only solve the problems that we know exist. As a result, it is imperative for leaders to clearly communicate that you are approachable and open to honest discussions. This is not an invitation to complain, but rather an invitation to engage mature conversations about important issues. Opening the employee-to-leader communication channel is one of the best ways you can effectively guide your team.
  1. Leader to leader. Honest communication between leaders is fundamental to creating a compelling culture. Each member of your organization brings unique talent and perspective that is incredibly valuable to the company as a whole. When leaders speak openly with other leaders, sharing honest input with humility and respect, it can have a profoundly positive impact on their personal development and, therefore, the organization’s development. By adopting an atmosphere of “I need your help” rather than “I’ve got this,” leaders create an environment ready for success.

Truth telling is an investment we make in relationships—whether personal or professional. It takes a lot of time and thought, and sometimes, courage. However, when done well, there is probably no  investment of time that pays a greater dividend. In the earlier example, it is imperative for leaders to have an honest and open dialogue with Kyle so he can take steps to improving his team, which ultimately improves the organization as a whole.

The best leaders understand that honest communication is invaluable for ensuring continued improvement and a strong culture. 

How do you practice being a photographic leader?

CEO Channels His Leadership for a Purpose Greater Than Himself

Posted on October 4, 2017 by - Because of the GLS, Business, Calling, North America, Stories

Fred Martin, long time Global Leadership Summit attendee, was recently rated CEO of the month by C-Level Magazine. In his interview about how he leads differently, he credits The Global Leadership Summit for channeling his leadership for a purpose greater than himself. (Read the original article here.)

Fred Martin, founder and lead portfolio manager of Disciplined Growth Investors (DGI), isn’t afraid to stand out from the crowd. He marches to the up-tempo beat of his own drum, and where Martin goes, people follow.

Growing up in a small Indiana town with a father who was a stock broker, Martin squirreled away his boyhood pennies and bought his first stock at 12 years old. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA from their esteemed Tuck School of Business, where, he said, “I remember I didn’t learn much. All I wanted was to figure out stocks.”

[…]

Martin’s genius for money management helped him grow a large and loyal community of clients, and in 1997, he boldly struck out on his own to found DGI. “I wanted to do it right,” he said. “If you’re going to have high performance stats, you can’t do it like everybody else. You do it differently, or you’ll have the same numbers. Being different is perceived as a risk in our business, but I believe it takes good investment with really good client servicing if you want to stay around long enough to work your magic.”

[…]

DGI is intrinsically different in that it has no secretaries, everyone’s work is considered equally important, and everyone’s office is the same size. (The corner office is reserved for storage.) In an environment where humility is fundamental, excellence is free to emerge organically. The company never rests on the laurels of past achievements, but is constantly monitoring its commitment to mission and purpose through surveys conducted by an outside consulting firm. And, as any good financial adviser knows, the proof is in the numbers. DGI tracks its own cultural health on a quarterly basis, and to date, the company enjoys an average employee tenure of 9.75 years; a client tenure of 10.2 years; and a holdings tenure of about 10 years.

According to Martin, success also requires purpose, and he describes DGI’s behavioral values as an unspoken currency that fuels the organization’s purpose – enriching people’s lives through long-term investing. This purpose manifests in a well-articulated culture. “We’ve spent a lot of time and effort on our culture. In our opinion, every firm has one, but the question is, does the culture help to achieve the mission of the firm or hinder it? We’re not only enriching people’s lives monetarily, but in lots of ways. Part of our culture is to serve a cause greater than ourselves. People will work twice as hard if the purpose is greater than themselves.”

Martin is adamant that once defined, culture must come from the top down, and he’s unapologetic about declaring that he learned the art of servant leadership by studying the best – Christ. “Once you say you want to have a culture, the head person has to live by it. You can’t say you want it, but it’s for the rest of you. It’s a privilege for me to lead such a great bunch of people. They don’t work for me; I work for them. With a servant-based model of leadership, I don’t distinguish between serving employees and customers. From a leadership standpoint, Christ has had an incredible effect on me and my attitude toward money. We don’t own the money – we’re just renting it from God for our lifetime. It’s about what kind of steward you are.”

Martin explains that all of this results in a state of relational health that empowers his company to help its clients “handle the vagaries of tomorrow. We’ve made more progress in down markets than up markets because of our process. We don’t waste emotional units on what we can’t control. There’s a lot we can control internally, so we focus on that.”

[…]

Inspired by his association with The Willow Creek Association and its two-day Global Leadership Summit, which regularly transforms faith, business and community leaders in 128 countries, Martin is channeling his 44 years as a professional investor into a purpose greater than himself. “Increasingly, the way clients are being treated by the industry breaks my heart. I’ve watched clients do stupid things, and I’ve watched people take advantage of them. Our industry is ranked dead last for trust. I think when you know a lot about an area, it’s your responsibility to do something about it. I want to change the world.”

[…]

This outspoken, unconventional, high-energy businessman who co-pilots the company jet and enjoys dancing long into the night with the wife he adores, is just the man to lead a good-old-fashioned, grassroots movement for change. He is a man who acts boldly and with purpose.

“I believe we can change the world together,” he said, “one person at a time.”