Episoder
-
What is the difference between blame and accountability in leadership?
Often these two things are either used interchangeably or confused altogether. We know that we are all responsible for what we do, and that we can trace results or lack of them to what we do when we work together.
But people react differently depending on how a leader describes and handles behavior and performance, and your team or business reflects that in productivity, profitability and employee engagement.
Mike, Shaun and David discuss three different perspectives on the difference between blame and accountability and how a leader can differentiate between the two with his or her team.
Positions
Mike: Both are similar on paper, but how they are delivered and the motive behind them is what makes the difference - is it moving you to successful outcomes or away from them?
Shaun: Solution based cultures look at the problem and not the person.
David: Blame is expensive, and accountability is profitable.
Quotable
MM: âYou can only hold someone accountable to a standard that they are aware of.â
MM: âThe whole aim of accountability is to keep people and processes in line to achieve a certain outcome.â
SP: âA lot of times blame is emotional and reactive. Itâs a coping mechanism for insecurity.â
SP: âItâs easier to blame because itâs an easier conversation. Itâs emotional and downhill.â
DF: âImagine that the default is when you or someone else makes a mistake, everyone gets together and says, letâs put our heads together and figure this out.â
DF: âIf youâre in a leadership position, really examine the language that you use, that you allow, and that you discourage, because that affects how your team operates.â
-
What can a leader do about being isolated?
When youâre a leader, you get fewer inputs from the people around you because âyouâre the boss,â and fewer of those inputs you do get are honest, so fewer are actually that useful.
There isnât the shared suffering and connection that there is in the less isolated ranks, and to be blunt, work gets a little lonely.
When you get lonely, your perspective shifts, and that can affect the decisions that you make, especially if you are not getting the complete story from employees who are not fully inclined to be completely honest with you. (We can call this - in the end of 2022 - the âPutin Effect.â)
Thereâs two effects of isolation on a leader: emotional, which is difficult personally, and then thereâs the practical, that your choices may not be as good as they could be if you were fully informed.
Our positions:
Mike: Connecting work to charitable and getting off social media can help, although isolation is inevitable.
Shaun: Most of us would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.
David: Isolation can be mitigated by intentionally maintaining and creating relationships with those around you who are good for you.
Quotable:
MM: âIn some ways itâs unavoidable, youâre never going to spend 10 years as a CEO and say you never felt alone. Thatâs never going to happen.â
MM: âYou find something that is good for you to do, but you also find something that is good for the team to do, itâs both.â
MM: âA lot of isolation is fueled by a lack of trust.â
SP: âWhen you take a position of leadership, you almost always take your significant other with you into that position, because you canât have all the significant discussions you need to have inside the building.â
SP: âYour introspection as a leader needs to be off the charts.â
SP: âYou have a great employee when they are honest with you, not just tell you what you want to hear.â
DF: âEmployees often default to answering âgreatâ or âfineâ to almost every question a boss will ask and real human connection is based on something based in truth.â
DF: âYou have to go out of your way and demonstrate that youâre honest and demonstrate that you value someoneâs feedback, even when the feedback isnât in the end valuable. Itâs truly the connection that is valuable.â
-
Manglende episoder?
-
What is the role of forgiveness in leadership?
We know that forgiveness is supposed to be a good thing for us personally, we learn âforgive and forgetâ when we are young, and maybe some of us have been through that.
But what about when you are a leader in business - how does forgiveness affect your leadership and your business results?
In this episode, we each comment on this question, touching on missed opportunities, the power of example and modeling, the cost of not forgiving others and yourself, and how forgiveness looks to others.
As with previous shows, each of us describes our position and the other two field questions and comments.
Our Opening Positions:
Mike: âForgiveness is a necessary part of being happy.â
Shaun: âThe challenge that trips leaders up is that forgiveness is weakness, its not - forgiveness is strength.â
David: âLeaders need to focus on forgiving themselves as much as forgiving others.â
Quotable:
MM: âThatâs what we are talking about - isolating incidents, being able to forgive and not let them bleed into everything else.â
MM: âMy grandmotherâs voicemail message says that forgiveness is the key to happiness.â
MM: âThere are all these things in life that can weigh you down and slow you down, if you are focused on how people have wronged you, you miss so many opportunities.â
SP: âForgiving people is forgiving people who put their best foot forward. Itâs not realistic to think that every single one of our employees is going to throw a no-hitter every single day.
SP: âForgiveness is what enables people to keep showing up and making their best effort.â
SP: âForgiveness fosters risk-taking.â
DF: âWith more forgiveness, people have more creativity, more running room and they come up with better answers, and that just increases productivity.â
DF: âWeâve talked about all the ways that things can go sideways when you donât forgive other people, but when you donât forgive yourself, all those things still happen, they just all happen inside you.â
DF: âLeaders donât think that itâs right to forgive themselves, they say things like âI should have known betterâ but the people who work with you can tell that you donât forgive, and that affects them and they imitate you.â
DF: âWhatever cognitive power youâre using to obsess about past failures, thatâs power that you canât use to figure out what youâre doing, to come up with new ideas and solutions.â
-
Have you ever wondered about the happiness and fulfillment that comes from being a leader? Most of what we talk about here and most of what. you find in leadership guidance and coaching is how to deal with the problems and challenges of being a leader.
This is natural and really just a fact of life. There are only garages for broken cars, and most doctors in Western medicine only treat people with health problems.
But Mike, Shaun and I have talked about the positive parts of leadership guidance completely missing in todayâs world. While this may be true for many messages in the media in general, we are going to start to add positive commentary to the mix.
Spoiler alert: the positives arenât in getting a company car, the right to talk over someone in a meeting without repercussion or a raise. Undoubtably some of the life benefits of being a leader are real, but we will discuss the meaningful aspect.
Our answers to the question:
MM: âHappiness in leadership comes from focusing on the process, not the outcome.â
SP: âLeaders will find happiness in the place that they least expect it.â
DF: âHappiness comes by voluntarily and intentionally taking responsibility to help those people around you.â
Quotable:
MM: A bad process is one that is singularly focused on we have to chase this one thing.
MM: âHow can you really be successful at something when you donât actually enjoy what you do?â
SP: âPurpose is the precursor to happiness, and your purpose canât be just this number in this quarter.â
SP: âWe all want to get to that big moment, but that moment is years in the making.â
SP: âIf you have purpose in your life, you have a chance at happiness. If you donât have purpose, you have no chance.â
DF: âThe best way I can describe what type of responsibility that gives happiness in addition to the hard deadlines of business is that you know, you know the things that you can do. Look at the people around you and figure out what you can do that would be helpful to them.â
DF: âAs a leader, you probably have a fairly good idea of what you can do and how to do that, so start there and do that.â
-
What place does humility have in leadership?
This week we discuss three different viewpoints on what humility means to leadership, how it affects a leaderâs outcome and what can go wrong with it.
Each of has a different view on the question:
Positions:
Mike: âItâs impossible to grow and mature as a leader without humility.â
Shaun: âThereâs a very fine line between humility and imposter syndrome in leadershipâ
David: âItâs valuable for a leader to realize that humility and confidence are not opposites.â
Quotable:
MM: âWithout a leader being able to go to someone and ask for help, I just canât see a way forward.â
MM: âWhy is it so easy to lack self-awareness and be overconfident?â
SP: âHumility is the thing that allows you to think that maybe youâre wrong.â
DF: âIf you surround yourself with people who have to do what you say, you can have a little pod of blissful ignorance that you can stay in for quite a long time. Thatâs not good.â
SP: âHumility isnât something that shows up on your Whoop or your Garmin.â
DF: âHumility gives you the ability to model accpetance, collaboration and teamwork, but also the after effects of doing those things.â
-
Do you need a title to be a leader?
Many people often donât have the formal power as a leader and wonder what they can do to help themselves, help others, or make the business better. Others have a title, but may struggle with having enough influence to make progress.
Our new format: each of us takes a position on our topic, discusses it, and takes questions from the other two.
It works well, and we hope you like it.
Our positions:
Mike: âTitles can be a blessing or a curse, a multiplier or divider.â
Shaun: âNever lead with your title, let others discover your achievement.â
David: âThe unofficial org chart determines how well your business performs just as much as the official org chart.â
Quotable:
MM: âTitles can be curse if you think âIâve made itâ and I donât have to do those things that got me here.â
MM: âThe higher the title you have the more opportunity you have to help people.â
SP: âIf you are tethered to a title and that title gets taken away, it can wipe out your whole identity.â
SP: âI think thereâs so much magic when a person in position of power doesnât lead with that power, but leads with kindness or how they can help you.â
DF: âWhen you get a promotion, youâre necessarily agreeing to work with more difficult problems than you had at your previous job.â
DF: âKnowing the combination of what you can do officially in a practical senses and unofficially will help you the most and it will help the people around you the most.â
-
Our culture often says that leaders should be the smartest person in the room - any room. This puts a lot of pressure on a leader to not hire someone who is smarter or more skilled in certain ways.
To do so is a mistake, for the employee, the leader, and the business.
David, Shaun and Mike discuss what stands in the way of making the best hiring decision, how to deal with those things, and why hiring the best person for the job isn't a threat to a leader's position.
Quotable:
SP: âGreat leadership doesnât mean you have to be the best trumpet player, the best flute player, or the best at the drums, it means youâre the conductor.â
DF: âWho you hire has a massive effect on company culture, and we all know that you canât execute a great idea with bad culture.â
MM: âOne of the stories we tell ourselves is that if I hire someone who is smarter than I am, Iâll lose my position, look bad, or lose my authority. Thatâs just not true.â
-
Uncertain times increases the amount of stress a leader feels, and creates new challenges virtually every day.
The recent pandemic and the threat of economic uncertainty creates an environment for leaders that will require adaptability, patience, and understanding.
David, Shaun and Mike discuss ways to deal with uncertainty, how to help yourself and help those around you when times are unsteady.
Quotable:
SP: âSometimes as leaders we have information that we think is trivial but itâs not.â
MM: âYou need to adjust some goals but not adjust your standards.â
DF: âItâs the feeling that there might be more that you donât know in times of uncertainty that really affect us.â
-
Leaders often have predetermined reactions to an employee's failure, request for change, or uncommon success, and many of those reactions weaken the business and the relationships in them.
Mike, Shaun and David discuss how leaders' reactions and behavior with employees greatly influence an employee's productivity and satisfaction at work, and how a leader can improve the team's performance by remaining connected and human during an employee's time of need.
Quotable:
DF: âAs a leader, try as hard as you can not to confuse acceptance and support with agreement and punishment.â
MM: âWe have a responsibility as leaders to help our teams focus, and sometimes that means the heats on us.â
SP: âMore often than not we default to letting our emotions take us in the wrong direction and look that the person instead of the problem, even when the problem was out of their control.â
DF: âIâm here to not just tell you that you failed, but why, and Iâm here to help you figure out how to do it better next time. Iâm going to stand by you, and we are going to figure this out together.â
MM: âThereâs responsibility that needs to be completely owned by the individual.â
SP: âGreat leadership is holding someone responsible but shielding them from the unnecessary stuff.â
www.davidafoster.com
www.deckleadership.com
-
How does a leader communicate expectations successfully?
We could all do a better job communicating expectations, and as leaders, those expectations are critical.
Mike, Shaun and David discuss the critical role of expectations in leadership, where they go wrong, how we communicate them unintentionally, unsuccessfully and what melting ice caps have to do with them.
Quotable Quotes:
SP: âThe second distrust creeps into the organization, its slows the whole thing down.â
MM: âGood expectations bring unity, clarity, alignment, and focus.â
DF: âA big piece of good expectations are clear and well-coordinated job descriptions.
www.deckleadership.com
www.davidafoster.com
-
Your first day as a leader in a new position is a huge opportunity to make moves that will either help or hurt you.
Mike, Shaun and David discuss practical approaches to your first day that will help you not only survive, but thrive in your new position. We talk about our own experiences in relation to the ideas that work for someone who is starting their first day leading a team.
Quotable:
SP: âI knew there was some level of disfunction there, but I didnât think it was going to be 20 punches to the face back to back to back, all day long.â
MM: âYou working on your craft doesnât make you a better leader.â
âWhat kind of attributes do I need to lead this group well, since every group is different.â
DF: âItâs a tough call to have a complete, well-thought out practical vision on your very first day.â
-
Why do we hesitate to have tough conversations?
All of us have had that sinking feeling that comes from knowing we should have a tough conversation, but we resist.
Mike, Shaun and David discuss tough conversations, what makes them hard and ways to approach them so that you get the best benefit for your business and yourself.
Quotable:
MM: âSometimes when people find out that you knew something but didnât say it, it erodes trust.â
DF: âAs leaders, we all tend to be a little towards control freaks, but if youâre about to have a tough conversation, let it be messy for just a minute and listen to the other person.â
SP: âYou always look at the problem and not the person.â
-
You can't execute a great strategy with bad culture. What can a leader do to improve it?
Mike, Shaun and David discuss culture from a leader's perspective, what culture is, and how a leader can consciously and deliberately act so that business culture thrives.
Quotable:
DF: âItâs almost as if culture is an employee, or a part of the team.â
SP: âCulture is fragile and itâs becoming harder and harder to protect,, so more intention has to be made around it.â
MM: âCulture is driven by leaders, it is up to us to make the difference.â
-
Huh?
Listening well can improve both your performance and the the way your team performs, but itâs a big challenge in leadership - especially in todayâs world.
In this episode, Mike, Shaun and David discuss those challenges, how not being heard is a both a human and a business problem, and ways to overcome our habits and the influence of technology and remote work.
Quotable:
SP: âThereâs nothing worse than trying to give energy away to a blank computer screen.â
DF: âIt takes humility for a senior person to receive a new idea from a junior person and give it weight within the organization.â
MM: âA lot of times we are hearing with our ears but we are not listening.â
Reach Shaun and Mike at www.deckleadership.com and David at www.davidafoster.com
-
What if you were doing something that was praised all-around but was bad for business, your health, the people around you and your employees?
In this episode of Driving Leadership, Mike, Shaun and David talk about burnout: how our culture supports what we do that causes it, how it hurts and practical things that you can do to heal and keep it at bay.
Quotable:
SP: âItâs all these things and if we arenât grinding or hustling, itâs not moving the needle - and thatâs a complete fallacy.â
MM: âWe are an accomplishment-driven society, especially for the younger folks who got participation awards for showing up and breathing.â
DF: âIf youâre a leader, you need to stand in the face of our culture that normalizes overwork and help those people that you serve limit their load.â
-
We know hiring is a critical part of leadership - but what does puking, lying, and online dating have to do with it?
Shaun, Mike and David discuss the art (and not the science) of hiring, how gut feeling, tests, bias and connection are a part of making a successful addition to your team.
Quotable:
MM: âMaybe we hire somebody who didnât work out, but maybe we didnât continue to build our relationship after we hired.â
SP: âIf you look at the hiring process, a ton of our implicit bias gets involved even if youâre aware of it.â
DF: âThe idea behind the interview is trying to form a connection with somebody, almost as if you are both human beings.â
-
What is a leader in business responsible for and how does it affect your business performance?
Shaun, Mike and I talk about the difference between responsibility and accountability, formally and informally measuring responsibility, and how a leader can look at personal responsibility and his or her public responsibility to help employees succeed.
Also: grocery carts, trash and house building.
You can find David at davidafoster.com and Shaun and Mike at www.deckleadership.com
-
How we think about what we do affects our ability to lead, the quality of our decisions, and how effective we are.
How can a leader improve his or her mindset? How does your mindset change the way you act?
Quotable moments:
Shaun: "What you're doing is giving yourself a better chance because you showed up with intention."
Mike: "I think our brains think we are doing a good job."
David: "Practicing mindset grows that muscle stronger."
David can be found at davidafoster.com and Shaun and Mike are at deckleadership.com
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Mindset by Carol Dweck
-
How does a leader deal with failure - not only personally, but when an employee or a team fails? What can you do in a position of leadership so that you and your team learns, adjusts and achieves more success.
Quotable quotes:
DF: "A big sign of failure is not accepting that failure is a part of life."
SP: "We look up at successful people because they stand on a mountain of failures."
MM: "We are all going to fail, now how are we going to handle it?"
-
There is more to diversity than the legal definitions in business. How can you and your company benefit from considering different types of diversity?
- Vis mere