Norms – Blanchard LeaderChat

Emotional Technology: Innovations That Could Change Leaders

Hart Lee — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 14:00:58 +0000

There’s currently some fantastic technology out there, from wearables and self-lacing shoes (yes, like the ones in Back to the Future) to VR and spectacular advances in science that will someday make it to consumer products. But what about beyond the current advances? And what about tech that can help us become better leaders?
Currently, there doesn’t seem to be any fancy tech piece that can suddenly make you a better leader. And with more and more Millennials entering the workforce who are tech dependent, it’s becoming harder and harder for them to perform when they are promoted.
And yet, the technology is on its way. One such prediction is the rise of “Emotional Technology”, as outlined in the following:

Particularly with the the first (mood reader) and third (Socrates) pieces of tech, leaders will better be able to understand themselves and regulate their responses. This will drastically improve their leadership skills by providing on-the-spot feedback, insight, and recommendations.
What do you think? Would you find technology like this useful as a leader?

Praise Where Praise is Due

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 08:10:53 +0000

Who doesn’t like positive feedback?
It’s great to feel you have done a job well, beat a target or helped others. Being recognised boosts our confidence, self esteem and drives us to perform well.
According to a study in Forbes complimenting workers can have a similar impact and incentive as cash rewards. They found ‘scientific proof that a person performs better when they receive a social reward after completing an exercise’. The striatum area of the brain is activated when this happens, the same area of the brain activated when you are given a monetary reward.
So, when was the last time you gave positive feedback or praised a colleague’s performance?
The link to performance seems obvious, yet excuses and busy schedules get in the way of this kind of feedback being given regularly or becoming a workplace norm. There is a stigma associated with praising colleagues; maybe it will be seen as a weakness and how often should we really be giving positive feedback?
According to Business Zone giving positive feedback improves performance, quality of work, accountability, strengthens relationships and ‘prevents destructive information gaps’. Evidence enough of the power of praise.
How much of an effort would it be to commit to praising one team member a week and making sure that feedback is timely, constructive and genuinely heartfelt? Does sticking our neck out and giving someone the feedback they deserve really dent our ego and make us weaker? Or does it show that we are strong individuals, comfortable with recognising others and respectful and grateful for the hard work others put into their jobs every day?
These are all rhetorical questions as I think we all know the answer. Let’s give a colleague the gift of praise and make their day – I can assure you it will be appreciated!

I couldn’t find a great quote on feedback; let me know if you find any. I will leave you with my thoughts on giving praise:
Being able to give praise purely, simply and honestly to others is the greatest gift you can give. Be the person who steps forward and has the strength to give this gift where it is deserved. You will inspire and bring joy and appreciation to those who are giving their best.

British vs. American Culture!

Hart Lee — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 23:36:05 +0000

Top 5 Office Pet Peeves (Leadership Quote)

Hart Lee — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 15:26:53 +0000

Intentional Leadership—3 Timeless Narratives for 2014

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 19:10:59 +0000

“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.” —Aristotle
January is littered by a multitude of good intentions! That new number at the end of the Roman calendar, blindly promising to bring us prosperity and success, does often become a distant memory by the time the groundhog raises his weary head from a winter slumber. But the start of something new—a year, a friendship, a work project—can be a great opportunity to lead yourself and others to great success through three simple narratives.

High Intensions

High Intentions
The giddy hope and high expectations of a new year often outpace our ability to align old habits with those new intensions. However, high intention is the heart beat of any personal or social revolution. It is woven into the tapestry of humanity, to naturally hope for higher levels of happiness and purpose in our lives. High intensions do not mean that a person who has them need be dissatisfied with the life they are living, but rather are open to challenges and disappointment as they seek meaning and purpose at work, at home, or at play.
Sincere Effort
However, the highest intentions are but a thought in the wind without sincere effort to make those intentions a reality. An athlete or an artist does not become excellent without sincere effort. Effort is easy, sincere effort is meeting of the cruelest of tasks with the same zeal for the things we love to do. Sincere effort requires us to do more than put one foot in front of the other; it requires us to take each step, each daily task, as an opportunity to align it with our highest intensions.

Success

Intelligent Execution
Our highest intentions and sincerest efforts must be driven by more than just arbitrary motion or aimless daily activity. It’s one thing to have a workout scheduled on your calendar, but it’s another task to lace up the shoes and complete that workout. If you have made resolutions, or have a set of goals for yourself this year, they will ultimately be measured by the intelligence of their execution, not the height of your intensions or the sincerity of your efforts. Forming an intelligent execution strategy promotes real goal achievement. With intelligent execution, you are moving from intensions and knowing, in to action through doing.
***
Excellence at work or in life is more than a thought or an idea, it is a purpose driven effort. Make your choices wiser and more productive this year through high intentions, sincere effort, and intelligent execution of those efforts. Live the life you intend to live!
Jason Diamond Arnold is a leadership consultant at The Ken Blanchard Companies. He is Coauthor of Situational Self Leadership in Action a real time, real work, leaning experience that develops effective communication and collaboration skills for individuals in the workplace. He is Co Producer and Director of Stepping Up to Leadership with Scott Blanchard, a lynda.com and Ken Blanchard Companies production.

Speakeasy Leadership

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 12 Jul 2013 17:30:14 +0000

Seakeasy Leadership

The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a cultural rebellion against classic traditions, inspiring social revolutions around the world. Everything seemed to be possible through the modern technology of automobiles, motion pictures, and radio, which all promoted ‘modernity’ to the world.
One of the most mysterious trends that came out of the Roaring Twenties was the establishment of Speakeasies—hidden sections of an establishment that were used to illegally sell alcoholic beverages and feature new artistic expressions of music, dance, and risqué behavior. To enter a speakeasy, one would need to say a password to the doorman, indicating that the person-seeking entrance was welcome by the owner or other members of the “business within the business.”
In many ways, today’s workplace resembles the spirit of the twenties, with a rapidly evolving workplace, cutting edge technology changing and shaping the culture norms of organizations around the world.
Unfortunately, one of the dangers of today’s workplace is Speakeasy Leadership—the hidden sections of an organization where only a few people in positions of power make decisions that affect the rest of the organization. The practice of exclusive leadership, rather than inclusive leadership practice is alive and well in today’s organizations. But the reality is that the old school leadership hierarchy is an ineffective novelty in a knowledge-based economy.

Outside Looking In

Today secret societies and “good ole’ boy networks” only work at your local grocery store or coffee shop as a special promotion tool. In a Knowledge base economy, where individuals are empowered through the Internet, smart phones, and social networking that empowers a variety of information and connections that naturally drive higher levels of collaboration and success.
One new workforce member expressed it this way, “I am used to being so connected to my colleagues and playing off each other in the office, via social media, and creating ideas together with high levels of synergy everyday…” The open organization, without the Speakeasy executive office on the second floor, is a robust place where individuals create new best friends instantly and in days create a strong network with everyone on the team, as well as the friends made at their last organization.
Speakeasy Leadership promotes the opposite atmosphere at work where a few gatekeepers of ideas, formulate a plan from the top of the organizational pyramid, then pass it down to the people on the frontline to try and implement—void of passion and intimacy.   “I feel like there is a secret group of people running the organization,” says another frustrated employee. “It’s like were sitting in a meeting, and there are two or three people sitting at the table, speaking their own language, giving each other a wink and a nod to each other when I present our teams creative solutions to our organizational challenges.”

Collaborate for Success

Speakeasy Leadership will kill today’s knowledge based company, because today’s leadership model and workplace formula for success is one based in wide-open communication, effective collaboration, social networking, and truly empowering individuals that are encouraged take ownership in the vision—not just contribute to it. Touch the untouchable by bringing energy and productivity to work, breaking down the interior walls of Speakeasy Leadership, creating a community where people work and play together, stimulating innovation, connection, and wild success.
Jason Diamond Arnold is a Leadership Consultant and New Media Producer at The Ken Blanchard Companies. He is Coauthor of Situational Self Leadership in Action, a non-linear learning program that promotes individual empowerment and collaboration.

Leadership Failure

Gus Jaramillo — Fri, 21 Jun 2013 08:00:55 +0000

Not too long ago I was put in charge of a couple sections of soldiers who were working on some military intelligence products for an upcoming mission. Since the teams were working on separate products, I assigned myself to one team and had a Lieutenant take charge of another team. The LT had been in the army for a few years, so I had no qualms about giving the team to him. I spoke with him privately and told him that he had “full autonomy” over his team and gave him full discourse over what his team did and how they finished their products. The next morning I come into work at 7:30 fully expecting everyone to be there for unit physical training. They weren’t. When I asked the LT where his team was, he said that he told them that they could do physical training on their own and that they didn’t need to show up until 9:30am. “What? Why did you do that? We always show up at 7:30.”

So, of course, they decided to sleep in and didn’t do any physical training for the day.
And of course my team was upset that they didn’t get to sleep in and come to work at 9:30. The last thing I wanted to create was resentment across the two teams. I thought that maybe a “team building” exercise was in order, but I didn’t carry it out because I felt I would probably screw that up too. I was upset about the whole situation, but mainly I was irritated at myself.
After looking back on the incident, here’s what I learned:

I never really gave him full autonomy

Here’s what I really said: You can have full autonomy unless you do something I don’t want you to do or something that I disagree with you on. What I told him he could do and what I wanted him to do were two separate things.

I shouldn’t have given him full autonomy

Giving full autonomy over everything is not really leadership at all. I thought I was doing the right thing by giving him autonomy, but what I should have done in that situation was to give him more direction as to what is expected and necessary. Autonomy has its place and limitations; using it correctly is when it’s the most impactful.

My communication was not aligned with my expectations

I was never clear on my expectations. What was standard and status quo for me was not necessarily the same for him. Talking through each other’s expectations would have been helpful for minimizing conflict and building trust.
For any further information or questions contact me at gus.jaramillo@kenblanchard.com

The End of Innovation

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 13:36:25 +0000

“Innovation is dangerous!” says Yawn Fearman, Gatekeeper of Ideas at Acme Corporation—an international consulting firm that provides executives and managers the tools and skill sets needed to maintain power and balance within organizations. “Innovation is an unruly attitude that ignites revolutions and unwillingly forces change upon the slow and steady hand of the status quo.”
Fearman asserts that there several simple mindsets to avoid disruptive an inconvenient ideas within an organization:
Isolate Innovation
When a child acts up or misbehaves at home, the best discipline is to give them a Time Out and send them to their room. You don’t have to kick them out of the organization, but isolation will make them think about the real vision and values of the company in more detail. It will encourage them to align their hopes and dreams with the hierarchy of the organization who own the vision and values.
But if you do want to innovate within your organization, keep it limited to one or two departments that are led by individuals who have a degree from a prestigious school and who are in close collaboration with you as a key leader.
Just Say No
Hey, if it worked for Nancy Reagan in the mid-80s (and look how far we’ve come since then), it can work for leaders when individual contributors come up with creative and new ways to serve clients. When ideas come up from the front line, just say, “no.” You probably don’t have the resources or money to implement the ideas anyway, so no real harm can come from this approach. It’s clean and effective and eventually, people will stop coming up with their own ideas so that you can do your job—implementing your own.
Show Them Who’s Boss
When the first two strategies don’t work, flex your Position Power. You have the degree, the experience, the complex title, and the pay grade—so use them!
If employees discover that they have other avenues of power, such as personal experience, knowledge, relationships outside the organization, or a specialized ability to perform specific tasks that the executives may or may not, this could become very disruptive to an organization. Don’t shy away from the fact that you are getting paid the big bucks to drive the organization into the future—not them. You have the title and the authority to make the first and final decision.
Enjoy the Silence
Don’t allow the loud distractions of individual or collaborative innovation to drown out the brilliance of your leadership ability. You’ve earned the corner office, and you were born to lead. The future of the world depends on you—don’t leave it to chance by putting its fate hang on someone else’s wild ideas.
** The views and opinions expressed in this fictitious article do not necessarily reflect sound advice or the views and opinions of  the author, or The Ken Blanchard Companies.
Jason Diamond Arnold is a Leadership Consultant at The Ken Blanchard Companies and Coauthor of Situational Self Leadership in Action, an asynchronous learning experience for Individual Contributors within Organizations.

Want to be productive? Stay home from work

Gus Jaramillo — Fri, 17 May 2013 08:00:42 +0000

Absenteeism (not showing up to work) is a well-documented and researched metric. However, the evil twin brother of absenteeism is presenteeism, and it’s now starting to get some more attention. Presenteeism is defined as showing up for work when one is ill, and it is literally a productivity killer. It is estimated that the costs associated with presenteeism due to poor employee health is at least 2 to 3 times greater than direct health care expenses. The total cost of presenteeism to US employers has been increasing, and estimates for current losses range from about $150 to $250 billion annually. Consequences to presenteeism can be loss of productivity, major health costs, inaccuracies on the job, and spreading of illness to name a few. We all have done it, but we should really think twice about coming into work when we are sick. However, it’s just not that simple, and there are many reasons why just can’t say no.

There are many antecedents to presenteeism but here are some major reasons:
1) Our culture/manager fosters this behavior
I’m probably not the only one has been praised for being a team player and coming in when I was extremely ill. In a recent survey by the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO), researchers found that employees who indicated that their employer was not supportive in helping them become emotionally healthy were 320% more likely to have high presenteeism. A 2010 study by the Work Foundation found that more than 40% of employees were under pressure from managers and colleagues to come to work when ill.
2) Fear of losing your job
In research done in 2012, nearly a third of employers have reported a rise in the phenomenon of “presenteeism” in the past year. With the economy slowly turning the corner, employees are worried about losing their job or falling behind in the rat race. Dr Jill Miller, research adviser at CIPD, said, “Continuing economic uncertainty and fears over job security appears to be taking its toll on employees. We are seeing employees struggling into work to demonstrate their commitment, suggesting presenteeism can be a sign of anxiety.”
3) Pressure to perform
For some reason we equate our perception of the seriousness of the illness in direct proportion to justifying taking time off. “It’s probably just meningococcal so I should be fine; I doubt it’s contagious anyways.” Let’s leave the diagnoses to the professionals and see if we can’t rest for a little bit. In a recent conversation with an old friend he told me, “I have worked for my company for 20 years and I have never ever taken a sick day.” Well, why not? He said he had maintained the “old school” mentality of work, work, work. This never made sense to me; if you are sick, then why don’t you just stay home? Now I’m being a little hypocritical here because I have often got to work when I really was too sick to go. But the worst part about it was that he worked in a hospital!
4) Little or no sick days
Increasingly, employers have minimized the number of sick days and most of the time; we just can’t afford to miss work. Also, with the increasing amount of households turning into a dual income family, many parents are using their sick days to care for their children when they become ill instead of taking care of themselves.
There doesn’t seem to be any extreme changes on the horizon in the way employers handle presenteeism, however we owe it to ourselves to take care of our bodies and be present when we can afford to. Sometimes urgent can just wait until tomorrow.
For any further information or questions contact me at gus.jaramillo@kenblanchard.com

The Look of Ethical Leadership

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:00:18 +0000

Call me idealistic, but I want more from Gen X and Gen Y when it comes to leadership. I want to see us go beyond the standard leadership stereotypes to something more global, accepting, and inclusive. To encourage non-typical leadership types to emerge and develop.
Can you imagine what it might look like if high-potentials weren’t chosen based on how well they fit the corporate image, but instead on how well they treat others? Have we gone overboard with making sure leaders present themselves a certain way as seen in the following video?

Sure, they all have the right corporate image, but is that what the leader of the future should be? What if these guys in the following video were the most ethical leaders you would ever met…

What about those people you work with right now who might not say the right corporate buzz-words, wear the right clothes, or graduate from the right schools?
What if instead, true leaders naturally emerge because everyone whom they come into contact with experiences a solid trustworthy person. When faced with the decision between right or wrong without hesitation he or she takes the ethical high-road. They might not have the right hair, but go out of their way to give credit to the entry-level employee with the bright idea that just made the company millions.
Maybe leadership looks more like the quiet co-worker who detests public speaking and back-to-back meetings, but whose character is unmistakable. Maybe it’s the guy who knows nothing about golf and can’t stand wearing polo shirts or it’s the girl who really doesn’t want to hide her tattoo because it’s part of who she is.
What if tomorrow’s leaders are more about the inside than the outside? Less about the look and more about how they make you feel. Can you imagine? What if tomorrow’s leaders make good decisions, treat people well, and have brilliant ideas, but don’t look or sound the part.
I realize that in a global context, defining what it means to be an ethical leader will differ slightly, but the idealist in me once again asks whether we can move to a broader view of what an ethical leader should look like…
…to a leader who treats others with respect at every given opportunity, someone who is inclusive in encouraging dissenting opinions and viewpoints. Someone who really hears the thoughts and ideas of others, who doesn’t hold an employee’s title over his or her head as a mark of competence, and instead encourages all people regardless of background to lead at all times in everything they do.
All regardless image. Can you imagine…something different?

***

Cheryl DePonte is a Human Resources Learning and Performance Specialist at The Ken Blanchard Companies and has over 15 years experience in the fields of organizational effectiveness and human resources development.

Know Yourself

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 03 May 2013 17:23:58 +0000

“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” —William Shakespeare

When recently opening a package of Green Tea, the quote, “It’s not a privilege to know others. Know yourself. That’s a privilege,” was attached to the string. Perhaps the tea manufacture was having a caffeinated paraphrasing of a Lao Tzu philosophy to push the notion that you’ll some how be more enlightened when you drink this potion.

Self Reflection?

As random as it may have seemed at the moment, I gave fate it’s due because I’ve recently been discovering behaviors about myself and how I work under pressure that have been most curious. In full confession, I wasn’t immediately enthusiastic or inspired to act on the words of encouragement from the Teabag—knowing oneself can be a very frightening proposition, and may cause even more stress than we are ready for.
On one hand, the business of getting to Know Yourself may at first seem as if it could turn into a narcissistic escapade into an investigation of your own perceived flaws or perfections. Today, where we can turn every smart phone application into our own personal news network, status updating everyone on our trip to the gym, the food & drink we are consuming at any given moment, or snapping off a half dozen “Selfies” at arms length or in the mirror. The business of Knowing Oneself has the potential to quickly turn into how we want others to see us—not who we truly are.
And as daunting as the Tea Leaf’s proposition was to me, the notion of Self Knowledge is as ancient as cave paintings. The great philosopher Aristotle proposed that everybody has a rational and irrational side of their Self, used for identifying our own needs then making decisions according to those needs.
One of the greatest failures in the today’s workplace, and even more destructive in a knowledge based economy, is the inability for individuals to effectively determine our own needs, leading us to make less quality decisions while executing our daily tasks. The core reason we don’t know what our daily needs are is that we fail to read the tea leaves—we rarely stop to take account of what our strengths and weaknesses are, what perceptions we have about our own needs and abilities, and when we need to reach out to others for the proper direction or support of the goals or tasks we’re working on.
Taking a moment to look at yourself and your own needs is not some vain exploration into how you can serve yourself better, but rather a reflection on how you could more effectively serve others when you Know Yourself better.
Jason Diamond Arnold is a Leadership Consultant at The Ken Blanchard Companies and Coauthor of Situational Self Leadership in Action.

What’s wrong at work? You may need an Alberti

Gus Jaramillo — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 08:00:07 +0000

As a kid, I watched the movie Renaissance Man with Danny DeVito. Some of you may remember the film. Danny DeVito is this Advertising Executive with an Ivy League background who is fired from his job. He gets a temporary teaching position and is given six weeks to teach low-achieving soldiers the basics of comprehension and use of English language. He uses Shakespeare, the Renaissance, and other avenues to teach his students. Yet, only one of the historical figures covered in the film has mesmerized me ever since: His name is Leon Battista Alberti.
When I was in Spain a few years ago I had the opportunity to see some of his work at the Prado in Madrid. That’s when I knew, Leon Battista Alberti was the quintessential Renaissance Man. He was the Renaissance Man even before we knew what it was. In fact, Alberti is largely credited with actually defining the term Renaissance man as “men can do all things if they will.” He grew up pre-Renaissance in Bologna because his family was ousted out of Florence by the republican government, run by the Albizzis. His mother died as a result of the Bubonic Plague and he and his brother were raised by his father. He studied architecture and painting, he was a self-taught composer and musician, and he was a heck of an athlete, particularly known in the area for his fine horsemanship. A legend of Alberti states that he could stand flat-footed, look into a man’s eyes and leap right over his head. This legend is exactly why I still remember Leon Battista Alberti today.
“No crime is so great as daring to excel.” Winston Churchill
Often times in our work we become overrun with responding to emails, balancing projects, and stressing over the unknown that we hardly have time to develop certain skills that will set us apart from our peers. Or even leap us beyond our peers. Here are some questions to ask yourself for self-evaluation and reflection to help you find your “Alberti”:
What am I good at? Be honest here. Don’t overvalue your stock on this because others won’t see the same value and you might end up trying to sell a stock that’s overpriced.
What does this organization need/lack that I could champion? Your Alberti needs to be aligned with the organization. In order for it to be value added it must correspond with the vision of your organization.
Do I have the resources? If not, how can I get them? Look at your own career. What is the next step? A degree? A certification? If you can’t access any resources where can you go to get them? Getting stagnate on your skills is one way to have a mediocre career.
Does this matter to me? In a recent interview, former President Clinton was asked if he was selfless for committing so much time to his non-for-profit organizations. He said, “It’s because I’m selfish. I do it because it makes me feel good about myself.” If it doesn’t matter to you, your motivation to prioritize it and work on it won’t be sustained.
So, what’s your Alberti? Are you known in the office for doing something that adds value? If not, then find your Alberti and pursue it.
For any further information or questions contact me at gus.jaramillo@kenblanchard.com

Are You Handcuffing Yourself with Process?

Matt Youngblood — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 13:00:58 +0000

Process can be a great thing. It gives you a roadmap to get something from “point A” to “point B”, whether that something is a product/service/request/etc… Generally speaking, it’s usually scalable and can be used by multiple employees and customers. However, it can also present a road block to your employees and customers depending on whether they are allowed to deviate from procedure in special circumstances. Where do you find the balance?
I am a big fan of Consumerist, the blogging arm of Consumer Reports. If you aren’t familiar with the site, the authors report both positive and negative stores regarding the actions of companies and organizations. Usually, when I see a negative posting about a company, it’s not because the employees of the company in question wanted to wrong a customer. In most cases, you can clearly see that a lot of the complaints in these stories are about customers having to jump through hoops and spending hours trying to get their problems resolved simply because the frontline employees (and in some cases, the supervisors and managers) cannot do what needs to be done to make the situation right. They are required to follow established process, which isn’t always a one-size fits all solution.
Not only is this bad practice when it comes to customer service, it can create a negative perception about an organization. I’ve personally cancelled services with companies simply because they wouldn’t make exceptions in extreme cases. I would then recommend to my friends/family that they avoid these companies so they wouldn’t have to deal with the hassles I did.
It’s so much of a trend that Consumerist came up with what it calls the EECB, which stands for “Executive Email Carpet Bomb”. When customers have exhausted all other avenues to resolve a problem, they can put together an email and send it to top-level executives following the tips Consumerist outlines on their site. In the majority of cases where a complaint is escalated using the EECB, the customer’s complaint is usually solved in a satisfactory fashion.
While it’s great that this solution does exist, it shouldn’t take the involvement of executive offices to resolve these types of complaints. Employees need to be given enough leeway to make the executive decisions in cases that fall outside the norm.
When crafting a process or even re-examining an existing process, consider the following:

Can the process be duplicated by others with relative ease? (i.e. is it scalable?)
Is the process efficient for your employees and/or customers so they don’t have to jump through hoops?
Are there potential holes in the process where the ball might get dropped by one or more individuals?
Does the process give a desired outcome in the shortest possible timeframe?
Most importantly, can employees/customers move forward outside of the establish process under special circumstances?

Leave your comments!

The Edge of Leadership

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:57:26 +0000

Five Smooth Stones

Made from old wires and glass bulbs. With almost nothing, Edison made the impossible happen! –Oz, The Great and Powerful
Ever since a little shepherd boy knelt down to pull five smooth stones from a quiet brook to strike down a loud and defiant giant, the small but efficient approach to life has had tremendous value. In fact, now as we move from the Goliath factories of the assembly line Industrial Age, and into the rapid currents of change in the technology-driven Information Age, small is the new big.
Today’s organizations need employees, leaders, and strategies that are lean and agile to maintain a significant competitive advantage in today’s rapidly evolving workplace.
A small software firm in Denver, CO, Providigm LLC, has been employing the agile approach to their daily workflow with great results. Matthew Emge, the Quality Assurance Lead is a central figure in the wildly successful agile collaboration exercised daily at Providigm. The long and lanky tech guru, in his blue jeans and black t-shirt, looks like he just stepped off a college campus rather than serve as double-decade tech vet. “Agile manages stress,” Emge says, and it’s helping him and his colleagues excel through the small but efficient approach to their projects.
Agile Development
“I like agile because it’s a great way of adapting to constant change, minimizing rework, encouraging communication and giving value to every member of the team,” he reflects.

Agile Collaboration

Each morning Emge and his colleagues participate in a scrum. In rugby football, a scrum refers to the manner of restarting the game after a minor infraction. The scrums at Providigm are short meetings with the Development Team to circle up around the project. During the scrum, the team gathers with the Product Owner (who represents the client’s interests) for an open meeting that lasts five to ten minutes. Each member of the team becomes a short storyteller, describing what they did the previous day, what they plan for the current day, and what potential obstacles or roadblocks are in the way of a productive day. After the meeting, the group collaborates on shared tasks, evaluates where they are at in the learning process, clarifies any uncertainty around shared goals, and resolves any outstanding conflicts.
Iterations
The day-to-day work at Providigm is part of a short work cycle called an iteration. Ideally, iterations last two to four weeks.
“We begin with a planning meeting to assign tasks,” Emge describes. “We complete the work, and when it’s finished, we hold a demo to show the product owner what we’ve done.”
In the demo meeting the agile team documents any requested changes, which are included in the planning meeting for the next iteration. Shortly after the planning meeting the development team meets for a retrospective meeting where each member of the team tells what worked or didn’t work. Under the guidance of a manager, the team collectively commits to making the small adjustments needed for improvement and efficacy in the next Iteration.
Collaborative Communication
But agile collaboration is not only about working in small iterations; it’s about collaborative communication every step of the way through the project. Rather than isolating teams in cubicles or offices, only to come together for long and often boring information dump meetings, where people pound their chest like proud Philistines, the agile team at Providigm works in the bullpen—a close quarters setting where anyone can be called upon at any moment.
“We talk to each other and collaborate throughout the day. But we keep documentation to a minimum because we know false assumptions can easily creep in if we overthink things. The manager and product owner are always close by if we need to speak face-to-face in order to make quick decisions for moving forward.”
The Agile Difference
To appreciate the benefits of agile collaboration you have to understand how software used to be developed. In the past, there would be months of planning, long tiresome meetings, mountains of project documentation, more months of seemingly endless coding. Finally, at the end of the lengthy development cycle, the product would take more months to be tested and approved for release.
“Back in those days,” Emge recalls, “We worked with a great deal of assumptions. While we were scrupulous in addressing those assumptions, inevitably there were too many assumptions to address all at onc. And we would often be wrong. When the product was released, we’d have to revise months of work just to get back on course. It was like trying to turn the Titanic, and if we were too slow for the market, we’d have to scrap the project and start over with something new.”
The Cutting Edge

Cutting Edge

To understand the agile approach, imagine you are making a pocketknife for a client. With the old development methods, business analysts would talk to the consumer and draw up lengthy plans for a smart knife with a camera, wi-fi connection, gps, apps, and cheese grater for that special moment. After the documentation and meeting marathons, developers would dig in and code the knife to the analysts’ specifications. Upon release, consumers would try it out and say most of the features were useless and got in the way—but the cheese grater would be nice if they actually made dinner at home. What’s more, the blade was too dull to cut anything.
In agile development, the process would start by releasing a knife with one single blade. The agile team would see how consumers are using it and not using it, make adjustments, and then add another essential feature.
“Before continuing, we listen to our users and make changes to meet their needs. We proceed one step at a time with constant consumer review,” Emge summarizes.
That’s how agile works—sharp as a well-made Swiss blade–with small but efficient steps that lead to an amazingly effective and refreshing approach to producing goods and services. Who knows, perhaps it’s even simple enough for a little shepherd boy facing a giant.
Jason Diamond Arnold is a Leadership Consultant and CoAuthor of Situational Self Leadership in Action, a virtual leadership program for individual contributors in the workplace.
Register Now for the Blanchard Leadership Livecast “Doing ‘Still’ More With Less” to see Jason’s video on The Lean Approach to innovation. This is a free online event with guest commentary from Ken and Scott Blanchard!

Narcissism and How We Perfected It

Gus Jaramillo — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 14:00:45 +0000

I’m taking a rather ambitious stab at clearing the name of an entire generation with a single blog post. I have not been chosen by my generation to represent us, but by definition I’m entitled so I deserve a shot. Many have called Gen Yers as Generation “Me”, but I see it more as “Generation Y Not Me?” We’ve been called rude, entitled, lazy, narcissistic, and smart – ok, I snuck the last one in there, but you get the point.

Ok, so we like to watch a little TV and play video games, so what’s the big deal? We live life on the edge (of reality) and love to surf (the web) and socialize (on Facebook) all day. We are the doers. We seek not war, but peace. We love reality television and hang on every word they say (even the illiterate ones). We are not better than any of you, but we are special. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are just extensions of our inner self. We love rap music, iPhones, and Dancing with the Stars (my wife made me put that in here). We are not all about ourselves; everyone is just all about us.
This is our motto.
Tom Brokaw accurately named the World War II generation as the Greatest Generation. After reading the book, watching the Band of Brothers series, and hearing the stories from WWII vets themselves, I can’t deny this. These men and women were some of the purist of Americans—hard-working, dedicated, and loyal to their values. I remember visiting Normandy about 10 years ago and seeing the crosses of the buried soldiers neatly displayed—such a beautiful display of sadness and pain. In my own experience as a captain in the Army and a combat veteran serving in Afghanistan, I hardly saw any sense of entitlement among the troops. There were men and women who were generally unhappy to be there (I admit even sometimes I wondered why we were there), and hated everything about the war, but they still wanted to fight. There was a sense of pride about them and they fought long and hard. While in Afghanistan, I had a West Point Captain tell me about his 18-month deployment. He said the length of the deployment really hit him hard at the first Thanksgiving dinner. They were just about to start eating when one of his soldiers said, “Hey sir, don’t worry about saying grace. I’ll do it this year and you can say grace next year.”
I don’t claim we are the Greatest Generation but I do think Gen Y has contributed significantly more than just TV and video games. We are a young generation, but like many others we adapt, overcome, and move on. I never liked the label, “entitlement generation” because frankly I don’t think we deserve it. I hope this generation can rid ourselves of this brand and demonstrate the core American qualities that have been delivered to us from previous generations.
For any further information or questions contact me at gus.jaramillo@kenblanchard.com

Lead Your Team To Effectively Use Technology To Learn

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 12:00:48 +0000

Ensuring employees have ample opportunity to learn and develop is crucial to organizational success. Yet, leaders can be bombarded with messages to increase the use of technology if they want the most effective means for their teams to learn.

As a leader, how do you judge which learning modality will lead to the most effective, quality learning experience? How do you appeal to learners on your teams at differing levels of technological savviness without discouraging their development? Or, worse, avoid humiliating anyone who is not as technologically savvy while simultaneously avoid disengaging your digital learners? Preventing yet more training materials being set up on a shelf never to be used again is key!

Steps you can take to lead your team to effectively use technology to learn include:

1. Understanding how your team learns – Become intimately familiar with how your team learns. Do you offer a learning product on a flash drive only to find you run out before you can order more or are you scheduling face-to-face classes on their behalf with little resistance? Are your most productive employees viewing recording links from live stream workshops because they want to learn in their own time in the comfort of their office? How your employees learn will help you intuit in what form content should be delivered to increase learning. Don’t discount your own observations regarding what your employees seem to gravitate toward.
2. Determine their favored modalities – Fit how the content is offered to the learner by offering it in various forms such as audio, video, face-to-face, and asynchronous. Have a workshop that you know learners on your team will love but know it’s in a format they won’t be interested in learning from? Encourage your employees to determine if they would be interested in learning the same content in a different modality. If the content is off the shelf, inquire as to whether it is offered as mp3, asynchronous, and face-to-face format. Purchase and offer multiple forms and see which format your team seems to prefer. Learn from your purchases and take note of what your employees want more of and most often request.
3. Then…limit options – mp3 audio books, asynchronous learning groups, virtual book clubs , CDs, DVDs, hard-copy libraries, face-to-face workshops…the list goes on as to how employees learn and you could potentially intimidate and confuse learners by creating modality overload. Most important after determining how your team learns is to introduce new technology and options slowly by choosing their favored modality. Then, let them get comfortable with change by limiting the options offered to those two or three favorite modalities the team gravitates toward. Don’t get caught up with the new, shinny technology if you know your employees will most likely not be interested in learning in that particular format. Perhaps you have determined your team enjoys reading hard-copy books, listening to CDs, and asynchronous learning. Invest in these three modalities by allowing your employees to show you this is how they most feel comfortable learning. If the content is then offered as a webinar with live chat, don’t spring it on the team. Wait to allow them to lead you in their own learning.
Understanding how your employees learn will help increase the benefits derived from learning in modalities that best fit the learner and resultantly most benefit the organization.
***

Work Less

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 23:34:13 +0000

If you want to be great at work—work less!

Hair on Fire!

Organizations around the world are struggling to keep up with the complex demands of their clients and constituents while restrained by reduced budgets and limited resources. Individuals and teams are frantically trying to come up with the next big idea that will drive revenues or reduce costs but are overwhelmed by the process. Hysteria abounds, projects flop, and market share flickers like a candle in a cold dark room with cracks in the mortar.
In a world where people are struggling to do more with less, the answer is not to fuel up on Starbucks, set your hair on fire, and simply work harder with fewer resources. The answer is to manage the fire by working smarter with what resources you have—caffeine is optional.
Lean times call for lean ideas.

The Lean Startup

In his book, The Lean Startup, Eric Reis discovers and explores a concept called a Minimal Viable Product (MVP), an idea generation process that requires minimum amount of effort within the least amount of development time. In the world of Startups, an MVP helps entrepreneurs and business leaders go through the product development learning curve as quickly and effectively as possible. A Minimal Viable Product doesn’t mean that it has to be a tiny project or product, it simple means that you accelerate your learning cycle on what will or won’t work in the market place by testing a piece of your idea with minimal time and resources.
A fundamental mistake leaders often make, at all levels of an organization, is that they attempt to solve a big problems and challenges all at once. Good leaders of self and others understand that for every major responsibility they have, there are sets of goals that can help guide them toward success. Further more, within those goals are a series of tasks that can be broken down into manageable, executable projects, while testing the solution theories for reliability and effectiveness. The smaller the task, the less energy expanded, and the more likely you will be able to make quick adjustments that drive you toward an effective resolution of the larger problem, one small step at a time.
Creating Minimal Viable Products or Tasks is not just a means to find answer to technical or finical questions; but also a means to test fundamental business or social ideas before wasting too much time and talent creating a solution that nobody will invest in. Today’s leader of self or others needs to put out minimal viable effort. In other words, today’s leader needs to think lean—to work less in order to achieve more.
Jason Diamond Arnold is a Leadership Consultant and Learning Media Specialist at The Ken Blanchard Companies. He is Coauthor of Situational Self Leadership in Action, a virtual learning experience that helps individuals collaborate with others more effectively.

Personal engagement: it's a relationship thing!

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:00:07 +0000

As so many of us focus on the newness of setting goals and resolutions, I find myself looking back over various relationships with friends, coworkers, and others that were once new and have now matured to be strongly connected and bonded.
The day-to-day work I do is something routinely accomplished within hundreds of organizations. Although some of these organizations may have more resources and are perhaps more sophisticated in their processes than my own, what these organizations don’t have are my friends and those who I have come to care about.
I used to believe a job that allowed me to accomplish meaningful work, utilize my talents, and recognize my accomplishments was the real key to career happiness…to true engagement. I pictured myself accomplishing goals and completing projects much to the delight of my superiors and earning that ego-affirming bonus or raise. Truth be told, these things are important and something I strive for. Yet, when I find myself completing a task that can be, shall we say, less than fulfilling, it is my coworkers-turned-friends that make the job more meaningful and fulfilling.

It was not always this way. Like any new hire in any organization, at first I spent lunches alone, felt awkward at company events, and had to endure hearing the “who is she?” question just out of earshot. Over time, I saw how people in the organization built bonds with one another and how they eventually did the same with me.
In previous jobs, I interacted with those I worked with, attended the obligatory coworker’s family event, and said hello as necessary. Years after, there are a few people from each of those jobs who I consider to be friends…but only a few.
What I have come to realize is that engagement often seems to be a term employees believe an organization should own. For example, engagement is a word often mentioned as part of “problem” for an organization to solve.
Instead, I have learned how to create my own personal engagement by bonding with those I work with.
I created my own sense of engagement by:
1. Sharing personal stories with coworkers, like what funny things a parent said and how my dog chewed my favorite pillow. I became comfortable with laughing a little…and connecting by sharing the most mundane topics.
2. Stopping the multitasking when a coworker offered to share a personal story with me. I gave him or her my full, undivided attention, making the moment about them.
3. When coworkers or others in my organization (or industry) did not reach out to me, seemed to ignore me, or for whatever reason do not connect with me, I tried my best to keep it in perspective. I realized that some people are slow to trust, have personal issues, or are simply not ready to be vulnerable with newer organizational or industry members.
The more bonds I built, the more I found I was inexplicably, personally engaged in my work.
Try it, but don’t get discouraged if it takes time. The rewards are worth the effort!

Times Like These

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 17:52:08 +0000

I’m a little divided. Do I stay or run away and leave it all behind? —The Foo Fighters
There is something different to ponder, on a more intimate level, this holiday season. Slight of hand and a twist of fate have befallen our world, again, in ways we weren’t meant to imagine. With every moment of silence, (something we are not very good at, in our opinion driven, mainstream and social media networked world) I am left search for answers to questions I can’t even begin to understand. I have found very few this past week.

Times Like These

But somehow there, in those moments of silence, a thought, inside of a tune played by an American Rock band, The Foo Fighters, Times Like These, has hung on me like smoke from a camp fire that lingers on one’s clothes—reminding you of a place remembered.
I’m a wild light blinding bright burning off alone.
Some of the most destructive moments in life come from a bright light smoldering in isolation. A disillusioned soul that has some how forgotten or been allowed to retreat to an island and become cut off from others. There, in those places, are no political, theological, or philosophical commentaries—only the burning embers of what used to be or could be again.
Individuals are to be connected to others, collaborating on ideas that make the world a better place. And even though cultivating real and intimate personal and professional relationships is hard, it’s our calling as leaders and individuals to reach out and show compassion to those in isolation—even when we lack understanding.
One of the most vivid moments in Charles Dickens classic tale, A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge wakes up after a harrowing evening of being visited by three ghosts who show him what he was and what he has become. Ebenezer recommits himself to reaching out to others and being more compassionate. And in one of the most touching moments of the story, he shows up to his nephews house for Christmas dinner, after rejecting his invitation the day before. After a gasp of surprise by the estranged uncle’s presence, family and friends warmly welcome the recently reformed soul back into the loving arms of community and fellowship.
There in those moments of silence this past week I have been reminded that, “It’s times like these you learn to live again. It’s times like these you give and give again. It’s times like these you learn to love again. It’s times like these time and time again.”
Don’t wait for a holy day—a day set apart from the others—to reach out to others who’s wild light may be flickering. It just may be the one light the world needs right now.
Jason Diamond Arnold is a Leadership Consulting Associate with The Ken Blanchard Companies. He is the Co-Author of Situational Self Leadership in Action, a virtual learning experience that helps individuals effectively collaborate with others at a higher level.

Leadership is Luck

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:51:11 +0000

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times… —A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
The opening lines to Charles Dickens classic, A Tale of Two Cities could not have expressed any better, my eleven year old son’s feelings about his favorite football team, the Indianapolis Colts, one year ago at this time. The Colts had gone from perennial Super Bowl contenders each year for the past decade, led by a future Hall of Fame quarterback, Peyton Manning. It was the best of times for Colts fans.

Luck

But that all went away when Manning had to go through a series of operations on his neck that left him sidelined for the entire 2011 season, and his professional football career in doubt. The Colts could only muster two wins out of sixteen games under the leadership of a variety of quarterbacks that couldn’t elevate the team to even a respectable showing. The Colts missed the playoff for the first time in a decade, the head coach was fired, and the end of an era for Manning in Indianapolis was coming to an end. It was the worst of times for Colts fans.
However, the worst of times was short lived. In one of the most ironic twists of fate in modern sports history, the Colts became the luckiest team in the league. As a result of the worst record 2011, they were aligned to have the number one overall pick in the 2012 NFL draft. And in a controversial move, they dropped their Hall of Fame quarterback, uncertain if he would be able to play again, and choose the All American quarterback out of Stanford, Andrew Luck, to replace the legend at the helm of the Colts offense.
Since then, the rookie quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts has resurrected an organization from the ashes of the National Football League, not only by his decision making abilities and skill sets on the field, but his attitude and inspiration off the field of play. Nine games into the season, the young quarterback has led his team to a 6-3 record mid-way through the season, tripling their win total over last year and positioning them for an improbable shot at the playoffs.
A great quarterback is like a great leader in the workplace. It doesn’t take long to be in the workforce before you realize that there are good leaders (managers, bosses, supervisors) and there are bad leaders. We’ve all probably had at least one awful leader that we’ve had to work for. And of course, there are the disengaged managers who are neither good nor bad—they are just there to make sure that the organizational chart is up to date and protocol is followed.
There is an obvious difference between a great leader and a terrible leader. But there is also a significant difference between a great leader and an average leader. The difference between a great leader and an average leader isn’t about how much smarter they are or even the quality of the decisions they make day in and day out. The difference between a great leader and an average leader is what they do to make the people they work with better!
Andrew Luck is often only credited for the way he runs the Colts complicated offense, and his knowledge of the game that are far beyond the years he has been in the league. But there is so much more Luck does for his team that goes beyond the offense. The longer he sustains a drive, coming up with key third down conversions, and eating up time on the clock, the more the Colts defense gets to rest on the sideline.
Andrew Luck’s character goes beyond his skill sets. When the Colts head coach, Chuck Pagano, was diagnosed with leukemia only a few games into the season, Luck took the lead in support for his coach by shaving his head—a show of solidarity for the coach who would loose his hair due to the chemotherapy treatments. Most of the team followed the young quarterbacks lead and the team has rallied around their ailing coach to rattle off four wins in a row—one of the most inspirational stories in recent years.
For whatever reason, many individuals are content with the status quo. They come to work; they put in their time at work, pull their paycheck, and are satisfied with a job that’s good enough. They may have run into roadblocks or constraints in their career that keep them from taking risks or thinking of ways they could do their job better—the multitude of individual contributors who have settled for average. This doesn’t mean that they are bad people, they’ve just settled into a lifestyle of mediocrity and aren’t really pushed to be better.
Great leaders inspire those individual contributors on the front line of organizations to rise above the temptation to settle for average. They inspire the people they are leading to find, cultivate, and develop the personal desire for excellence within. Great leaders take average contributors and make them good contributors, and they take good contributors and make them great. The entire organization benefits from this type of leadership.
That is exactly what Andrew Luck does. He has taken made his teammates better as a young leader of a proud franchise that has a rich history of success. He has diverted a long winter of discontent for that organization and has inspired Colt’s players and fans alike to hope for the best of times again. Leadership isn’t just about knowledge and skills, sometimes it is Luck.
Jason Diamond Arnold is a Leadership Consulting Associate at The Ken Blanchard Companies and is Co-Author of Situational Self Leadership in Action, a virtual learning program designed to develop personal and professional excellence.

Excellence in Action

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 15:00:56 +0000

*Part Two of a Six Part Series on The Excellent Employee

“Can you hear me when I sing?

You’re the reason why I sing …

You’re the reason the opera is inside of me!”

—Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own, U2

Nike’s Find Your Greatness Campaign

Consider the summer blockbusters at the movie theater or Nike’s latest add campaign during the Summer Olympics. The movies we watch, and sometimes, even the shoes we buy, reveal this appetite for greatness. At times, we vicariously live through others who do what we wish for ourselves: superheroes fighting villains, sports champions, ordinary people overcoming impossible circumstances, and others achieving glory in extraordinary moments of greatness.
We are drawn to greatness because the desire for greatness is within us! The pursuit of excellence is as natural a human desire as love and hope and a desire for peace.
Our human nature is manifest in both our desire for a greater goodness in the world as well as the capacity to possess that goodness within ourselves—in our relationships, our work, our communities, and our own personal satisfaction in being alive.
Our greatness is not meant to be merely potential greatness, like the notched arrow in the potential energy found in the archer’s arm and the bent limbs of the bow when the string is drawn tight. Our greatness is meant to be released into motion, like the arrow that is released from the bow and swiftly, efficiently, travels toward its target with power, becoming kinetic energy that makes an impact and serves its purpose.

Release Your Greatness

In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, he argued that the end purpose to life, what every human truly desires, is to pursue excellence or greatness that leads to happiness and joy. In fact, Aristotle went further than saying humans simply desire this greatness, they are naturally inclined to hope for it, dream of it, and ultimately pursue it. Humans can’t do otherwise.
So then, why doesn’t everyone achieve greatness or happiness? In fact, the sad reality is that many people become disillusioned about their own greatness. They suffer set backs and failures, develop insecurities, and believe in assumptions that constrain them from excelling. They stop learning when the learning becomes difficult. This happens in people’s personal and professional lives and it’s a human tragedy, because they’ve lost their voice—their sense of purpose.
Others pursue something they think will bring them happiness, without the intimacy and moral compass that excellence requires. They pursue money or status, and use relationships or projects to elevate their own needs above the needs of others. They lose a sense of self-reliance and self-worth, ignoring the desire that beckons them to be great. They forfeit their own personal greatness and become dependent on others to create greatness for them.
In one case, people give up. In the other, they pursue the wrong things. In both, they fail to achieve excellence.
In order for greatness to be actualized, it must be released in individuals and organizations for a greater good. We are meant to train, be disciplined, gain more knowledge, and learn new skills in order to use our greatness in the most excellent way possible, given the reach of our experiences and opportunities—excellence in action!
The capacity for greatness needs to be acted on if that potential is to be realized and success attained at work or in your personal life. The mergence of personal and communal greatness is created through action—the art of intentionally developing and exercising the greatness within.
Greatness is not found in a cool new product, it’s found in the process of creating a product or process or relationship that will make people’s lives better—lead them to a greater happiness—allow them to hear that opera inside of them again.
Excellence in action begins with releasing potential greatness into a targeted and focused purpose that serves and helps others become great with you. Train in certain behaviors until you build them into habits. Learn new skills until you master them. Mature through periods of disillusionment and doubt until you actually see your greatness come out moment by moment, project by project, relationship by relationship.
Jason Diamond Arnold, Co-Author of Situational Self Leadership in Action
Todd Willer, The Ken Blanchard Companies

The Excellent Employee

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 17:59:39 +0000

*Part One of a Six Part Series on The Excellent Employee
Excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts. —Aristotle
Nobody willingly pays a person to be average or mediocre. Or at least, they shouldn’t! And individuals shouldn’t be content being paid to be average or mediocre either!

Imagine going into a job interview or pitching a new project with the premise of retaining an individual’s services through the commitment to a steady dose of procrastination and indifference toward key tasks and reasonabilities. It’s an absurd notion. That organization would be foolish to hire for such a promise. It would be foolish for a person to settle for being average as an employee.
So then, why do organizations hire for excellence and settle for mediocrity? Why do teams within organizations get away with doing just enough to “get the job done?” Why do so many individuals settle for coming to work and being average, at best?
While modern thinkers like Jim Collins, in Good to Great, have evolved the meaning of the word “good” to mean something less than great, ancient writers, teachers, philosophers like Aristotle defined “good” as something extraordinary – exceedingly great. The classic notion of good is manifest excellence—actively pursuing behavior that excels beyond the normal, everyday basics of our mere existence—encouraging us to thrive, rather than simply survive. The pursuit of excellence has led individuals to a greater happiness in living and working throughout history.
The Nicomachean Ethics is one of the most important books in the whole history of philosophy and certainly the most influential works of Aristotle. It is a collection of his most profound thoughts and was based on an exhortation to his son to live the best possible life.
Though taught thousands of years ago, Aristotle’s thoughts on excellence—becoming exceedingly good, still serves as a call to action for those who desire and are willing to lead themselves at a higher level. Although there are many narratives that can be culled out from Aristotle’s epic work, there are a several broad narratives that have practical application in our modern workplace.
A Greater Good
For an individual to perform exceedingly “good,” they must believe that “good” is something beyond just their own need, but also the good of the community, organization, or society they live in. According to Aristotle, excellence is a mindset rather than just a set of activities. Most activities are a means to a higher end, or at least they should be, and our work is no exception.
When individuals start showing up to work just to pull a pay check or organizations get too focused on the profit margins, they loose site of why they exist—to serve a greater good. Excellent employees focus on using their skills and knowledge to serve a purpose greater than themselves and in the process meet their basic needs while achieving excellence.
Virtue, Vision, and Values
Excellence depends on living in accordance with appropriate virtues, vision, and values. A virtuous individual is naturally inspired to behave in the right ways and for the right reasons, finding happiness in behaving according to a set of higher standards of excellence—personal standards as well as the standards expected of them by their community.
The Excellent Employee performs all of their duties with clear expectations of their role and responsibilities, in alignment with the core values of the company. Aristotle is not referring to some imaginary notion of perfection, and neither should organizations expect that of employees. But striving for higher levels of behavioral excellence, creating a greater value in products and projects, should be the goal of every employee.
Know Thyself
The phrase, Know Thyself was inscribed above the entrance to the Lyceum that Aristotle attended as a young man in Athens. Most historians attribute the phrase as an admonition to those entering the sacred temple to remember or know their place before entering into the learning process. Modern philosophies and leadership theories have expanded the notion of self awareness as a means to become more in tune with one’s own personal strengths and weaknesses, beliefs and behaviors.
Excellent employees are committed to knowing themselves through a daily process of understanding the vision and values of the organization, and then aligning them with their own Key Areas of Responsibility. They are also keenly aware of their own assumptions about the organization or a project that may be holding them back. They are aware of where they are at in their own learning process, and what they need from others to successfully complete their daily tasks. Most individuals struggle to move beyond periods of disillusionment and conflict, settling for something less than exceedingly good. The Excellent Employee is equipped to understand their own needs and move through those periods of doubt and disillusionment efficiently and effectively.
Relationships
Aristotle believed that the bonds that tie citizens together are so important that it would be unthinkable to suggest that true happiness can be found in a life isolated from others. This understanding applies to the modern workplace as well. But excellent employees aren’t just good at building effective social and professional networks on Facebook and Linked In, they are dedicated to building intimate and meaningful relationships through personal one on one communication. They’re also aware of the fact that there are more ways to getting a job done by gaining the support of people in positions of power, but rather influencing peers and colleagues through other types of personal power in order to meet the needs of the greater good and do an exceedingly good work.
Action
Aristotle did not think that virtue could be taught in a classroom down at the local Lyceum or simply by means of a “good” argument, but rather by applying virtue and values to your daily actions. His claim that virtue can be learned only through constant practice implies that there are no set rules we can learn from in just a workbook or a presentation alone; rather we must find a means of transferring that knowledge into action. The Excellent Employee is committed to training in the skills sets that will help them excel beyond average. They are consumed with creating solutions and meaningful results, rather than wallowing in the challenges, setbacks, and conflicts that arise in the workplace.
Become Excellent
The Excellent Employee has a strategy to consistently align their vision and values to the organization’s vision and values, through a clear understanding of themselves and their needs. They also utilize key relationships and apply their knowledge and skills to their everyday workflow, aligning it with the greater good of their company and their clients.
Life is short. Be activly committed to living and working at a higher level, for yourself and the greater good. Aristotle would challenge today’s modern employee to become excellent by doing excellent acts.
Jason Diamond Arnold
Co-Author of Situational Self Leadership in Action

Don't Lead With a Lead Foot

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 13:00:14 +0000

Stop for a second and picture yourself cruising down the highway behind the wheel of your dream car. The window, or perhaps the top, is down and the wind is blowing through your hair. The engine is purring like a kitten. At the moment, everything is running smoothly, as it should. You then decide you want to see what this high precision automobile can do.
So you give it a little more gas. You can feel the power as you accelerate. Sure, you can hear the engine working a little harder but it’s nothing to be too concerned about. You give it even more gas. Now you’re flying. The faster you go, the more exhilarating the ride. The engine is revving hard to perform the way you want it to, but there still doesn’t seem to be any immediate concerns. Now, the ultimate test…you push the pedal to the floor.
At first you’re impressed at how well the engine is performing and how much ground you’re able to cover. However, the longer you keep your foot to the floor, the more “normal” it seems. You think to yourself, “the engine is working hard but it can handle it so I’m going to drive like this all the time!”
You continue along with the pedal to the metal. The car makes you look and feel like a rock star. But you begin to notice some warning signs. You glance at your tachometer and see your engine is redlining. Then you look at your gas gauge and realize you’re depleting your engine’s fuel reserves much faster than normal. That once proud roar of your engine is beginning to sound more like a lion with bronchitis. In the beginning, the smell of burnout was caused by tire rubber, now the smell of burnout is a result of failing engine components. The engine hasn’t completely failed you yet so, despite the warning signs, you keep your foot to the floor.
The incredibly high and unsustainable demands you’ve placed on your engine finally catch up to you. The engine completely gives out and stops functioning. Even though you had all the warning signs, you still seem surprised. Your initial response is to go on a tirade placing blame on individual engine components when in reality you should be acknowledging the role your driving style played in the engine’s breakdown. The cost to replace the engine is tremendous and it will completely destroy your budget. All of this could have easily been avoided had you placed reasonable expectations on your engine and paid attention to the warning signs when your rising expectations started to become unreasonable.
Every manager dreams of leading a team that runs like a well-oiled machine. But even the most finely tuned, high-performance engines have limitations. Leaders, are you leading with a lead foot?
Follow me on Twitter: @adammorris21 | Add me on Google+: gplus.to/AdamMorris21

Lead UP!

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 19:00:13 +0000

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same…

—If by Rudyard Kipling
Work is hard! If it’s not, you’re probably not working hard enough. Every good employee who pushes to higher levels of success goes through major challenges in the pursuit of worthwhile work. There are dreams and shattered dreams, hopes and hopes deferred, projects launched and projects crashed. The one easy certainty in today’s workplace is that nothing is certainly easy.

Lead Up

Compound that challenge if you’re an individual contributor with little to no decision making authority—no corner office, no big budget to use at your discretion, no direct reports to delegate to. Yet deep inside every good organization are good individuals who rise up to meet these challenges, greeting the impostors of triumph and disaster with equal tenacity.
In fact it is here, in the process of leading oneself through the pitfalls, set backs, and politics of the workplace that great leaders are born. Tomorrow’s great leaders are born out of today’s challenges, victories and defeats, on the front lines of organizations all around the world. They are the individuals that Lead Up when the going gets tough, rising above to meet the vision and values of an organization, by influencing others, without decision making authority, through effective habits and skill sets.
Four Basic Skill Sets to Lead Up
Every effective individual within an organization shares some common habits or traits that make them successful. There are four basic skill sets for individuals to engage in regularly, in order to effectively Lead Up within an organization.
Be Responsible
Excellence begins with understanding what is within your realm of capabilities, experiences, knowledge, and skill. Continually defining, refining, and reviewing Key Responsibility Areas (KRAs) is the first step to meeting daily and weekly challenges at work. Getting agreement on your job description with your manager and members of your team will ensure clear understanding and expectations of your role, as well as help you define your day-to-day priorities.
Be Aware
Everyone goes through learning curves at work. Each new project, goal, or task produces a whole new set of variables. Knowing who you are and where you’re at on the learning curve of any given goal or task will help you understand where you are going. Managers and other colleagues aren’t mind readers—they usually don’t know what you need to get the job done successfully. That’s why being aware of your own needs by assessing where you’re at in the learning process is a vital skill in Leading Up successfully.
Be Proactive
Once you know where you’re at, you have a better idea where to go to get the direction or support you need to successfully negotiate the gauntlet of daily challenges. Ironically, being proactive in seeking the right type of leadership you need, makes it easier to work with you. Proactively seeking out the leadership style you need, rather than reactively waiting for someone to give it to you, creates stronger relationships with your manager and other colleagues.
Be Accountable
Even the most successful individuals need to continually be held accountable to something higher than themselves. Accountability works best when you as an individual take the initiative to Lead Up by having consistent and effective One on One Meetings with your manager. Consistently scheduling and conducting short, half hour, meetings not only keeps you and your manager on the same page, it creates an intimate opportunity to communicate your development levels on critical goals, tasks, and skills—ensuring that you receive the right type leadership to help you achieve excellence at work.
People don’t wake up Excellent—it takes hard work and consistent routine. The Four Basic Skill sets to Lead Up at work should be a part of your daily and weekly routine! The effort is minimal, but the reward is exponential. When you’re ready to Be Responsible, Be Aware, Be Proactive, and Be Accountable—you’re ready to excel to higher levels of meaningful work and satisfaction in a job well done.
The world needs effective leadership, and you need to Lead Up, by beginning with the most obvious source of leadership—Yourself.

Jason Diamond Arnold

Consulting Associate, The Ken Blanchard Companies

Co-Author of Situational Self Leadership in Action

JoePa’s Leadership Faux Pas

Blanchard Associate — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 01:59:42 +0000

***Special Why Lead Now Blog Article
As a Central Pennsylvania native, raised among the peaceful valleys that are nestled within the beautiful rolling Appalachian Mountains, there was always the notion of a glorious kingdom that lay just beyond the northern range of the Cumberland Valley. A place where all the boys in my neighborhood recognized as Camelot—let by King Author himself and his band of Knights in shining armor.

Weeping Nittany Lion

Of course we called it Penn State football and its glorious leader was a man named JoePa—who led his mighty warriors on to the field of battle every autumn Saturday in simple Blue and White throw back football uniforms. He was a mythological figure throughout the entire region.
For over four decades, since my birth, one man has remained a constant symbol of timeless honor, connecting me back to what seemed to be an eternal youth. Today that age of innocence has come to an end. Camelot has fallen and King Arthur has gone down with it as the University’s image smolders in the court of public opinion.
As a father and a coach of youth sports, as well a devoted thinker on the practices of leadership, I am suddenly forced to confront my own romantic notions of that ideal world I once believed in as a boy. The dark clouds of reality that have stormed across The Happy Valley now revel an epic institutional failure, and the mythological figure at the center of it, who reigned over it for nearly half a century, is now faced with a bitter end.
Penn State football, the great University it represents, and the entire nation, is now left with the task of making some sense of the terrible abuses of power and innocence that took place on it’s campus within the shadows of one of the most storied programs in American sports.
It would be premature to make any assumptions about the necessary outcomes of such a horrible situation. But all legality aside, we would be stuck in nostalgia if we were to overlook the leadership lessons that are arising from the smoldering rubble of a fallen dynasty.
Deal with Conflict Directly
The one thing we have learned since childhood is, the longer we wait to deal with a crisis, the worse it always gets. This is an even a greater truth for leaders. Joe Paterno and Penn State brass had nearly a decade to deal with this issue, and not only rid the source of the issue from the institution, but take the source to higher levels of authority, beyond the means of the University’s by laws and policies. This was not only a failure of leadership on the part of Joe Paterno; it was a failure at nearly every leadership level of the institution.
When organizations ignore conflict, and don’t seek to resolve it through proper resources and reasoned accountability at every level, with fair justice, they under mind the very purpose for existing. Having the means to deal with conflict, on a personal or professional level, is an essential part of growing and maturing into excellence as an individual and an organization.
The days of brushing issues under the rug, particularly for leadership figures as popular and public as Joe Paterno, is a thing of the past. It’s old school thinking and a naïve approach to solving tough issues in a technology driven culture that has the instantaneous ability to publish thoughts and opinions to a world wide audience, as well as access information at anytime—driven relentlessly by a 24-7 multi-level news cycle.
Hail to the Chief
Another glaring lesson from the Penn State crisis is the absolute power Joe Paterno had at the University and throughout the region. A grand illusion, all be it a romantic one, of American culture is the notion of the Commander in Chief—the central figure that is the face of an organization or institution, a charismatic leader at the head of a mighty organization leading the masses to glory.
But even this notion is a bit mythological, because the very foundation of American culture was based on a rejection of this type of idea—that one man has all the power. The founding brothers of the United States of America rejected the tyranny of a king, so much so, the drafted timeless documents that protected against this taking place in a new world—the balance of power in the branches of government—not too mention term limits for the Commander in Chief.
Joe Paterno has been the face of Penn State for over four decades. Paterno was the chief architect of a multi-million dollar revenue resource for the institution and rose to preeminent power at Pennsylvania State University because of it. But this type of great charismatic, larger than life leader can be dangerous for any organization or culture.
A balance of power through a plurality of leadership can help stabilize the longevity and production of an organization and stimulate more empowerment down through the ranks, ultimately generating more productivity and ownership of the organization from the bottom up.
This is even truer in today’s flatter world, leveled out by knowledge and instant access to information through technology. People at all levels of an organization need to be empowered; not only do their jobs in the most effective way possible, but to also have no fear to make the right decisions and resolve disruptive behaviors head on within the organization.
There are so many lessons to ponder in this heartbreaking saga that has exploded in Central Pennsylvania and shaken the American sports scene the past week. But this moment is too important in American history to allow our selves to ignore and grow from—especially as parents, coaches, and leaders. Today, I’m left trying to answer my 10 year-old son’s question, “What happened?” My only answer, “A tragedy.” And it is a tragedy that could have, and should have been avoided through effective leadership throughout the entire institution. Instead, lives have been shattered and a noble brand tarnished—a legend has fallen and innocence has been lost in a once happy kingdom.
Jason Diamond Arnold
Co-author of Situational Self Leadership in Action

Leadership Lessons from the 2011 World Series

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:29:05 +0000

The drama unfolding in the 2011 World Series of Major League Baseball is nothing short of epic. The Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals have been engaged in a week long back and forth battle that I’m sure even the Greek gods would envy. Now last nights, dramatic, Game 6, instantly known as one of the most dramatic games in Series history, will ensure that the championship will be won on a final and decisive game. This Fall Classic will become an instant historical gem in the minds of baseball fans and sports enthusiastic alike.

2011 Fall Classic

And if you are willing to looking just beneath the surface of all the towel waving, paw clawing, praying hands, squirrel wearing, fanatical behavior of the massive crowds attending these games, you will find some interesting leadership lessons unfolding during this duel for the ages.
Embracing the Past
All championships are won long before they are played. The two teams gridlocked in this epic battle have been assembled by some of the brightest minds in baseball through the general management of John Mozeliak (Cardinals) and Jon Daniels (Rangers). But perhaps the brightest front office star in all of baseball is the principal owner, president and CEO of the Texas Rangers, Nolan Ryan.
Ryan is considered by many to be the greatest pitcher in baseball history, pitching a record seven no-hitters and is MLB’s All Time strikeouts leader. Having a Hall of Fame player, who was an important part of the Rangers team history, now serve in an executive capacity has produced great success on the field. Ryan’s old school, competitive attitude, has been contagious in the locker room and on the field.
Good organizations would do well by honoring past associates that served them with excellence. Founding associates of an organization not only bring an important historical perspective to the current employees of an organization, they have a lifetime of experience that may be extremely valuable in motivating the current workforce of an organization to embrace the original principles that made them great at it’s inception.
Embracing the Future (Through Technology)
One of the storylines in this World Series was the Phonegate saga of Game 5, when Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa tried calling out to the bullpen to warm up some of his key relief pitchers that were needed in the close game. La Russa asked for pitcher Jason Motte, and instead, the bullpen coach claimed that he heard, pitcher Marc Rzepczynski’s name called in by La Russa. “Can you hear me now,” became the battle cry of Game 5.
But the bigger question for baseball, and manager Tony La Russa, is the fact that there are phones from the Mid-70s in the dugouts and bullpens—even in newer ballparks like the ones in Arlington and St. Louis. Management may want to buy La Russa and the coaching staff a new Smartphone for Game 7, so that they can be on the same page. He could even use iPhone 4s Siri application to help him manage the game.
“Who should I bring into pitch next,” La Russa could ask Siri. “Based on the next three hitters in the Rangers line up,” she would respond in her robotic tone, “I suggest you go with the Lefty, Arthur Rhodes.” And then she would ask, “Would you like me to place a call or text your Bullpen Coach, Derek Lilliquist?”
Organizations need to embrace technology. Not just recognizing that there are certain trends you need to be aware of, but a systematic strategy to integrate new technologies into the way you do business. Your clients and Raving Fans need to trust you’re delivering service and products in the best and most effective means to meet the current needs of the people using those products and services.
Living in the Moment
After the rainout of Game 6 on Wednesday evening in St. Louis, many members of the press were asking Manager Ron Washington whom he would start in Game 7 of the World Series if the Rangers were forced to play a final game. The question itself was very odd, considering the fact that Game 6 had not even been played yet, and many people were thinking ahead to Game 7. But what’s even stranger is that Washington engaged the question by saying, “It’s Harry’s game. I’m going to stay consistent. That’s Harry’s game. Matt Harrison earned it.”
It’s hard to imagine that a manager could get sucked into answering questions about a game that would not happen if they went out and won Game 6. The right answer should have been, “I’m not thinking at all about a Game 7. Our focus is going out there and winning Game 6 and bringing a championship back to Texas.”
Good leaders honor the past, plan for the future, but are focused on seizing the moment. The moment an organization takes their eye off of the ball it affords opportunity to make little mistakes. A fundamental characteristic of great leaders are their ability to get their people focused on the moment, completing the task at hand with excellence—not fretting about what tomorrow may bring.
Baseball needed a great Fall Classic and they finally got one this year. Tonight’s Game 7, no matter what the outcome, will be the final chapter of a classic duel between two classy organizations. And if you read between some of the storylines, you may just find something that can drive you and your people toward organizational and personal success.
Jason Diamond Arnold
Co-author of Situational Self Leadership in Action

Profile in Future Leadership—The Rise of Marco Rubio

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:00:26 +0000

Like it or not, the 2012 race for President of the United States is on! No matter your political point of view, there is an air of excitement (if not at least some curiosity) to see who will rise through the ranks of their party as the nominee for President. Of course, the 2012 election will not quite be the primary Bracketology Madness we see every march in the NCAA basketball tournament. The 2008 election saw one of the most exciting presidential races in American history where a host of candidates vied to represent their political party in the national election due to the lack of an incumbent President or Vice President running for office.

Sunrise on Washington DC, courtesy of 'katieharbath'

During the span between national elections, it is interesting to scan the political landscape from a leadership perspective to see if there are any new young leaders on the rise. The thought of spotting a potential future leader of the free world before they are known on a national level is as exciting as seeing a young prospect for baseball playing in the minor leagues before he makes it big in “The Show.”
Many of us remember the energy sparked by a young State Senator from Illinois during his campaign for US Senator, highlighted by a memorable speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention. Only four years later, Barack Obama would become President of the United States of America. Looking back, it was fascinating to learn of the type of leadership that matured him into making successful runs at the United States Senate and eventually, the White House.
Over the past year, there has been a rising star in the Republican Party whose stock may be climbing in a similar fashion as our current POTUS, the Jr. United States Senator from Florida, Marco Rubio. Though Rubio is not making a run for President in 2012, he has positioned himself as a promising leader who has reached out to the people of Florida in one of the most unique and creative ways in recent political history.
Prior to his two years becoming Speaker of the Florida State House in 2006, Rubio traveled around the state hosting “Idearaisers” in an effort to solicit Floridians’ input on ways to strengthen Florida’s statehood. The 100 best ideas were then published in his 2006 book entitled, 100 Innovative Ideas for Florida’s Future—A Plan of Action, which served as the foundation for his two year term as the State Speaker, before being elected to the US Senate in 2010. What’s even more impressive is that the Florida House passed all 100 ideas. Fifty-seven of which were ultimately implemented into law—a powerful leadership model, driven by ideas for the people, by the people, under the innovative leadership of Rubio, and put into action!
One of the key ingredients to effective Self Leadership or Self Citizenship in any organization or community is the ability of the people to present their solutions and ideas to the leadership of that community—partnering for better performance that serves the greater good. This concept is embedded in the founding values of our nation—where We the People, strengthen our organizations, communities, nations, and world, in partnership with those who are responsible for leading.
What’s really exciting is that Marco Rubio’s Idearaisers are not only rooted in our nation’s traditions, but they are an indicator of what the future of leadership must become. In fact, leadership now, demands a willingness to involve the people they are leading through innovative ways of engaging individual contributors and citizens. Regardless of your ideologies or political worldview, creating an environment for collaboration and partnering for excellence, not only produces great results, it creates a greater freedom and accountability in the process.
Jason Diamond Arnold, Co-Author of Situational Self Leadership in Action

Think Different—An Ode to Steve Jobs

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:09:28 +0000

Steve Jobs is the Thomas Edison of our era!
There, I said it. Now all of you Apple haters can stop reading the rest of this post and go back to texting or your version of surfing the Web in bitter disgust. Regardless, Steve Jobs is one of the most prolific visionaries of our era. His influence is cross-generational and has transcended time and space as the leader of one of the most innovative companies in American history, Apple, Inc.

Think Different, Steve Jobs

When Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of the world’s largest tech company late Wednesday, I felt compelled to offer an ode to his career—a salute to the inspiration he has been to many people over the years. But rather than make this article a cheap commercial for Apple products, we should focus on the genius behind the products—not the actual iconic imagery we think of when we think of an Apple product.
One of the most impactful quotes on my career was found within a February, 1996 Wired magazine interview with Steve Jobs. I still have the magazine in my office to this day and remember it well because I was a young dreamer living in the Silicon Valley, just starting my career during the height of the Internet revolution, when I came across this article—and the essence of what he said within that article still drives me at work to this day.
“Design is a funny word,” Jobs said. “Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.” Apple’s attention to the design of its products has been as revolutionary at the turn of the 21st century as Edison’s communications advancements were at the turn of the 20th century. Nothing short of epic!
Apple’s uncompromising pursuit of simple and effective designs of communication devices, under the visionary leadership of Steve Jobs, has transformed the computer, Internet, film, and music industries. The sleek and savvy look and feel of their products are only surpassed in their ease of use and practical application to professional and personal life. While the MacBooks, iPods, iPhones, and iPads are sexy in their look and feel, what has truly made them so successful is how they work on the inside. Simplicity, without being overly simple.
When it comes to designing ideas, stories, products, or projects you need to think different! You need to think from the inside out. You need to start with the essence of what you are trying to achieve for greater good and then add the look and feel later. If the inside of your project doesn’t work, than it won’t matter what you make it look like on the outside. Whether you’re designing a Website, creating a video, writing a book, or developing a product, how it works will ultimately determine how effective it will be.
Thank you Steve Jobs for your inspiration and unshakable will to think different. I wish you the best and lasting health in your new role as Chairman of the Board of Apple, Inc. “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
Jason Diamond Arnold
Co-Author of Situational Self Leadership in Action

A Brave New World of Knowledge

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:39:20 +0000

O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world! That has such people in it!
—Shakespeare‘s The Tempest, Act V, Scene I
While driving down a Southern California freeway recently, my son and I observed a billboard promotion of a major league baseball team. After some debate on which featured player was on the advertisement, we exited the freeway, picked up my “smartphone,” and consulted the Oracle. Not the classical antiquity, nor the modern software firm; but rather the postmodern, one touch, voice activated, portal to an eternity of information—my Google App.
“Number 16, Los Angeles Dodgers,” I spoke loudly into the speaker of the phone, half irritated at the possibility of my son already having the correct answer and half uncertain that it would translate my words exactly as I spoke them. I anxiously anticipated the results of my quick search. Within a few moments my fears were confirmed; my son was right.
“But what position does he play?” I grasped for one last shot at redemption.
“Not sure about that,” the ten year old was finally humbled. “Somewhere in the outfield, I think.”
“Right Field to be precise!” I proudly proclaimed, feeling useful for something. He, of course, shook his head in disgust at how happy I was to know something more about Andre Either than he did. I’m sure what was more appalling to him was that I needed the help of my iPhone to gain a knowledge advantage over a ten year old.
Yet, I knew it wasn’t really my knowledge, just an ability to quickly link to a world of information. It has become easier than ever to access nearly any piece of information imaginable.
The whole experience made me stop for a moment, and wonder how my grandfather, an avid Dodger fan, would have known exactly who it was, when he played, what position he played, as well as his batting average since his rookie season—and a whole lot more. This incident came immediately to mind when I heard about a study released last month, in Science Magazine, entitled, Google Effects on Memory, by Dr. Betsy Sparrow, which explores the changing nature of learning due to the creation of highly effective Internet search engines.
“When people expect to have future access to information, they have lower rates of recall of the information itself and enhanced recall instead for where to access it. The Internet has become a primary form of external or transactive memory, where information is stored collectively outside ourselves,” Sparrow wrote.
The article then hauntingly harkened my mind back to a book I had read in my Undergraduate program in college, Aldous Huxley’s, Brave New World in which he explored a fictional world that was loaded with miles of information, but lived by people that had an inch of depth in knowledge. Through his narrative, Huxley was able to use the setting and characters from his science fiction novel to express fears over the eventual loss of personal excellence in the expedienancy of a future world.
While Google is an extremely helpful tool to get us information, when we and, where we need it; I fear that we may be missing something more. If we rely only on Google for our learnings about people, new concepts, ideas, or philosophies, without exploring them more intimately, than we may fall prey to trivial pursuits of information, not a dedicated quest for knowledge and intimacy.
At home, at work, or at play, let us remain dedicated to the quest for knowledge by engaging the information we seek, and applying it to our higher pursuits. You might even want to take the time to Google the phrase,
“Two Tickets. Dodger Stadium. First Base Side”
Once your there, just follow the smell, and you’ll find the Dodgers Dogs without any help from your PDA.
Jason Diamond Arnold
Co-author of Situational Self Leadership in Action

The Conditions of Unconditional

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:29:58 +0000

“Love is supreme and unconditional; like is nice, but limited.” –Duke Ellington
I recently took on a media project at work that would be both challenging for me as an individual, as well as an exciting opporunity for my team. The scope of the work was well within the range of my experience and area of expertise and I felt comfortable accepting the task with a high level of confidence. Yet, I admittedly had a hint of uncertainty up-front. I had never attempted to execute this new and cutting edge approach to a media production.
The project’s producer expressed her confidence in our team to achieve the task with excellence and timeliness. During the initial creative meeting, we scoped out the big picture of what we wanted to accomplish and then came to some agreements on the specfic premise we wanted to communicate with our video.
As the meeting came to a close, she rose from the table with a smile on her face. As she exited the room, she looked back and reassured me, “Let me know if you need anything. You have my unconditional support!”
[Squealing rubber tires on the hard asphalt of my mind]
Unconditional support? What was joy and excitement near the end of the meeting, turned to cold sweat and fear in a heartbeat. Her comment haunted me for the next several days as I prepared the project details for the team. I couldn’t bring myself to ask her to clarify her comment about “unconditional support.”
As I scoped out the project, I became even more nervous when we got into the details of how we would attempt to execute its production. The task had a lot of moving pieces and would require a great deal of scheduling and planning before the project actually even kicked off. Once the project actually began, we were faced with the prospect that we would have to learn some things as we went along. A great deal of trial and error would be necessary to learn what we needed to learn before making any final conclusions on the production. We had plenty of transferable skills for the project, but there were some twists to this request.
Every detail began to feel like one more step down into a deep canyon of doubt, where the only sound that echoed off of its walls were,
Unconditonal..onall…onall Support…orrt…ort…
At this moment, I faced the horrifying notion that this project could fail. What if I screw this thing up? What if she doesn’t like what we create? What if we don’t meet her demands?
It was there, down in the valley, within the shadow of failure, her words became clear to me. There are conditions for unconditional. She would unconditionally support me—on a couple of key conditions—I got the job done right, on budget, and on time!! Ughhhhh!!!
The reality is, there are always conditions to unconditional—certain expectations that one person has for another person in a business or personal relationship. Only after we understand the core conditions, norms, and values of that relationship are we truly free to excel and become all we can be. Freedom certainly isn’t free; it comes with a cost. Unconditional support or love has a certain conditions—it comes with a certain set of norms and expectations, which if not met, can strain the trust of a relationship.
Clients and managers can’t read your mind, and don’t always know what your strengths or weaknesses are. Sometimes we don’t even know what will get us in over our heads. This is why a good Self Leader gets clarity up-front about norms and expectations, or conditions, on a given project or task. If at any point in the process you become unclear about your role on a project, ask for clarification and understand the conditions that apply to “unconditional”—then experience the complete joy have having unconditional support.
Jason Diamond Arnold
Co-Author of Situational Self Leadership in Action

The Curse of Anonymous Feedback

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 21:17:24 +0000

“Et tu, Brute?” -William Shakespeare
Best selling business book author, Ken Blanchard often says that, “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” It is the fuel that provides us with information that helps redirect our efforts, driving us to become the best we can at a given skill or task.
Motivational research clearly shows that constructive feedback is a gift, and helps increase passion for our responsibilities—at work and at play. Thoughtful, well-intentioned, and timely feedback provides individuals with critical input into the adjustments we need to make as self leaders.
While feedback can be a gift, there can be a dark side to feedback that should be avoided at all costs within organizations and teams. The curse of anonymous feedback can have the opposite effect of constructive feedback, serving as a destructive force to positive change.
One of the most difficult and demotivating forms of feedback we can receive in the workplace is the type of information that creeps into our minds under cloak and dagger. The email or instant message sent to a third party, which in turn is sent to a manager or colleague, in hopes of making a person aware of some abstract dissatisfaction with a person’s performance or personality, is a difficult and sometimes dangerous form of communication.
The primary problem with anonymous feedback is that it lacks direct and clear feedback. In the three degrees (sometimes more) of separation from the author’s lips to the recipient’s ears, is a deep canyon of incomplete information and perceptions that may dilute the meaning of potentially helpful feedback—regardless of how accurate the feedback really is.
Secondarily, anonymous feedback is demotivating for teams and individuals, because it has a tendency to keep important and potentially creative conflicts off of the table of resolution and sets them adrift into a valley of disillusion. There is no proper path to resolutions. The more organizations and leaders are afraid of conflict, and don’t address it head on, the less opportunity they create for themselves to use that conflict as a creative driving force to better solutions.
When serving up a hot dish of feedback at work, or at home, take the time to overcome any assumptions you may have about giving the feedback. Season the feedback with your best assumptions about the person you are giving the feedback to. Be direct and clear and keep an open mind and ear for potential solutions or ideas to help make the learning process more efficient and effective.
Jason Diamond Arnold
Co-Author of Situational Self Leadership in Action

Back to Basics!

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 22:29:02 +0000

First Sign of Spring

Forget what that silly groundhog in Pennsylvania has to say about the arrival of spring—it officially began this week! That’s right, pitchers and catchers reported for duty this week to their respective spring training facilities in Arizona and Florida. Major League Baseball is just around the corner, and that means the fresh hopes and dreams of a new season for many fans of America’s pastime.
But spring training is not just about the dawn of a new season, it is a return to the roots of the game where players, coaches, and management, not only set a vision for the year, but even more importantly, they get back to basics of the game. Whether it is a new player in a youth baseball league, a professional rookie, or an all-star veteran with decades of experience, spring training is an opportunity to get individuals and teams back to a core set of ideas and practices in an effort to make their organization great.
Baseball, like any art, is a host of fundamental skill sets developed through consistent practice and endless repetition—a foundation of drills that must be repeated over and over for it to become part of natural and unconscious skill set. Spring training is used as a time to get hearts, minds, and bodies into shape, through proper preparation.

Spring Training

Organizations would do well to look closely at baseball’s annual rite of passage from winter to spring. February is a great time for individuals and teams in the corporate world to get refocused on their personal and collective goals for the year. It’s also a great time to get back to basics, making sure they are executing the fundamentals of their responsibilities in the workplace, ensuring that they are aligned with the overall efforts of the organization.
Just this past week, The Ken Blanchard Companies celebrated what we call our Week of Excellence—an annual week to get together in departments and teams to briefly celebrate the accomplishments of the past year, but more importantly get focused on what we are trying to set out and accomplish for the coming year as an organization and as individuals. In years past, we would hold workshops that would orient newer employees to our core offerings and how those offerings fit our day-to-day operations.
It is also a great opportunity to hold workshops on emerging technologies and trends that may affect our business over the course of the next year, and how we might engage those trends and make them work to the benefit of our organization and clients. We are also often blessed to hear from our Founding Associates and remember our history that naturally reminds everyone what the purpose of our business is.

Common Focus

These annual celebrations are a great time to see friends and colleagues that we may have not seen in sometime. It’s a time to praise each other for a job well done in the previous year. But even more importantly, it helps us all get back to the basics of our work. It is our annual spring training!
Organizations and individuals around the world would do well to take a week each year to hold a “spring training” for their people to get their people refocused on why we do the work we do, and how to do it best. Excellence never comes easy, but it does start with a foundation of work ethic and fundamentals that we should never take for granted. Let us be properly prepared to answer that age-old spring call, “Play Ball!” Or is it, “Get to Work!”
Jason Diamond Arnold
Co-Author of Situational Self Leadership in Action

The Resolve!

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:51:31 +0000

Tis the season for resolutions—a fascinating tradition that occurs at the beginning of every New Year and inspires our imaginations with hope, possibility, and a new will to power. A season when we have an opportunity to wipe away the old and raise up the new, with one stroke of the clock.
If it sounds too simple, than it probably is. We know that when the party ends and the vacation is over, and most of the college football bowl games have been played, the real New Year begins. We get back into the daily grind, returning to work, to school, to life and all of the issues that did not seem to disappear with the toll of the twelfth bell just a few nights ago.
We are a week back into reality now. How are your resolutions fairing? Or were you too stubborn to make any resolutions?
Whether you testified to anyone regarding your resolutions, or you’re the Scrooge of the New Year and are above such petty traditions, there are some key insights on one’s self, through the idea of resolutions that may be worth pondering before you get lost in the whirlwind of this new year.
Conflict
The very term, resolution, implies that there is some sort of conflict in our lives. Some habit or trivial pursuit that does not align with our core values and seeks to threaten our good will and service to others. Before a person can begin to set and keep a resolution, they must first clearly define the conflicts of their personal or professional lives, before they can set any course toward setting a reasonable resolution.
Resolution
Unfortunately, many of us treat resolutions like a penny being tossed into a wishing well, a blind hope that perhaps that some miracle will occur by casting our burdens upon a streak of time in the night sky, as if the new number on the year of our calendars will magically help us achieve our wildest dreams. Often, we begin setting goals that aren’t measureable, trackable, or even reasonable—a lukewarm prayer at best. But good Self Leaders are able to come up with a simple plan on how they will achieve their goals/resolutions for the year, and then find a means (a project at work or a hobby in your personal time) applied toward that end. In fact, it is through the means that resolutions are most effectively achieved.
Cinderella
Recently my teenage daughter (that is as much a confession as a proclamation of joy) boldly announced that she was going to audition for the lead role in a local performance of the classic tale, Cinderella. The competition was steep, and she knew it, but decided to step out in faith and resolve that she would give it her all in achieving this goal, and allow destiny to take its course. What she learned from previous auditions is that the dream cannot simply be a declaration of your resolution. There were many hours of voice lessons, dance lessons, acting lessons, and strange gargling sounds from some healing potion that would come from her room at all hours of the night. Through hard work, a few set backs, consistent effort, and a dedication to the end goal through a variety of means, she achieved her goal.
Resolve
Resolutions are good! But as all things that are good, they are also hard. It’s not too late to set a resolution for this year. But even more importantly, set your mind on resolving the major or minor conflicts in your personal and professional lives through productive and consistent means. Learn to love the process of achieving the resolution. Be persistent, even after failure to achieve your resolution with some silly notion of perfection. This is the very notion of a resolution—a resolve or determination. In every great story, there is a great conflict, and often even a great battle or two before the lead character resolves that conflict and achieves a new level of goodness—for themselves and those that serve. Be resolved this year!
Jason Diamond Arnold
Co-Author of Situational Self Leadership in Action
The Ken Blanchard Companies

Transcending Time!

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 18:13:18 +0000

“Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!” –John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale

image courtesy of einstein's lock

I recently celebrated what many in our culture may call a “milestone birthday.” Though some of my acquaintances may as well have called it a “mill-stone birthday”—a heavy number hung upon my personhood, just before being cast overboard into an ocean of time.

After all, a well-rounded age certainly should beckon us to pause, at least just a little, and encourage us to not only contemplate the number of years we have experienced in our lifetime, but how well we are prepared to live that experience going forward.
While celebrating this particular anniversary of my birth, what was once a group of abstract words by a bard named Keats, who had written about some ancient bird being timeless while sitting in a plumb tree signing some abstract melody, finally became clear to me.
We are mortal; our work is temporary, because we live with a knowledge of the past—a time when we did not exist within our organizations—a time when we did not exist at all. And yet, in the very same breath, we cannot help but hope for a better tomorrow, because we think forward toward a time when we may no longer be able to contribute as effectively as we can today. “Life is a very special occasion,” as Ken Blanchard would say.
The truth is, our work, as well as our lives are made up of thousands of moments, within thousands of days, within a host of years. However, our personhood is not defined as a number, nor is it simply a climb toward some peek whereby we reach the top only to rapidly descend down the other side.

photo by J. Diamond Arnold

If anything, it is a canyon full of wonder and mystery, adventure, discovery, and eventually we will get to it’s core, it’s source, and we will drink from it, and we will rise, because we were meant to rise, up the other side to graduate into glory because of what we discovered within it. And down there, within the canyon walls, we will have left a worthy legacy for our friends, our family, our clients—and perhaps even for a person or two who may not have understood us.

We were not meant to flippantly celebrate, nor are we to adamantly deny the number of years we have lived—but rather we should embrace the capacity to transcend time and sing a melody we were always meant to sing before human notions of time existed. Songs of a worthwhile project at work that has the potential to change a client’s life for the better, songs of a tender moment with a child, or a chorus announcing the discovery of some great idea or purpose that will make things more productive for a greater good.
So sing immortal birds, for we were not born to die, but rather to live beyond the boundaries of time and leave a legacy that cannot be defined by a number!!

Don't Take it Personal; Don't Make it Personal

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:55:50 +0000

I stared at the computer screen one last moment, fingers poised to pull the trigger on the Send icon, firing my message, Ney, my rebuttal—a careful defense of my character, into cyberspace. I would Reply To All so that they will know that I am an innocent man. That these half-truths, disguised as feedback, were not only misleading, but they were hypocritical—achieved only last week in a similar fashion by the crafty accuser herself.
But something’s just not right. Something feels very amateur—something is unprofessional about all of this, I thought to myself. My index finger slowly retreated from the mouse pad and sat back in my chair and glanced out the window, thinking about the mess.
Breathe.
I poured over the email one more time, looking for a clue, some insight, as to why I felt so unsettled about sending this message.
The first paragraph was fine—a clear and concise summary of the main issues at hand. Issues that the team had been struggling with for over two months now. My blood pressure stabilized and the soreness in my throat subsided.
Then the second paragraph began to burn bright blue, like a new star, hot with passion, where responses to the so-called feedback streaked across the screen in a blur and my emotions welled up from my belly, through my neck, and into my eyes.
There in the blur, like a cryptic message evolving into your native language, it became clear to me. I was focused on the earth’s shadow cast across the moon’s face, rather than taking delight in the bright side that reflected the sun’s light. I had taken it personal.
Not only did I take it personal, I spent the last several lines of the email making it personal, by needlessly pointing out all of the behaviors that were similar to what I was being accused of. I envisioned innocent by standers, caught in the cross fire of two co-workers emotions, rolling their eyes in disgust.
There I sat, like a little boy that had been sent to his room for getting into a ticky-tacky argument with his sister. Silent and surprised that I had gotten worked up so easily. I’m glad I took that moment to reflect before sending out that piece of correspondence. As I went back through the email and deleted all of the unnecessary comments and unnecessary defenses, I felt a great sense of relief in knowing that I don’t need to take it personal, nor do I need to make it personal.
Jason Diamond Arnold
Co-Author of Situational Self Leadership in Action

Give Me Training or Give Me Death!

Blanchard Associate — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:42:41 +0000

I say: take no thought of the harvest, but only of proper sowing. –(Famous Dead Poet), T.S. Eliot, Choruses from The Rock
You want to be better! It’s not a question. If you’re reading this article, you have a desire to perform on a higher level—at work and in life. You’re the fraction of the workforce and society that is ready to perform, learn, and live a better tomorrow than what you’ve achieved today.
But how do we get better? How do we really make worthwhile contributions to our family and friends, our organizations, and our clients, day in and day out?
WE TRAIN!
And I’m not talking about that old dinosaur called Two-Day Seminars or Workshops. The days of one- or two-day classrooms as “training solutions” are ineffective and dying. That’s teaching; that’s not training. I’m talking about a consistent effort to purposely get better at your job through a series of activities, experiences, and acquisitions of knowledge, skills, and competencies that are integrated into your workflow as the actual learning process—not a 15-minute follow up to some mountaintop experience you had last week. Training is a long distance race! It’s not a few toe touches and jumping jacks.
While the classroom itself still holds some meaning, the idea that you only get better in a classroom simply is not true anymore. There era of Dead Poets Society has moved beyond standing up on your desk and shouting about seizing the day, it’s a continual effort outside the classroom, in the real world, actually seizing moments. You can learn theories and skills in a classroom, but you can’t be trained to use them. You can’t create a habit in a Two-Day Workshop. With technological advancements, the idea that Soft or Off-the-Job training takes place outside of your normal workflow (in a classroom, away from your desk, pontificating some abstract leadership philosophy on a mountaintop) is Dark Age thinking. Seminars may be events, but they’re only events. Seminars and workshops don’t make us better; they only make us think about getting better.
Your colleague who is going to run in a marathon this fall doesn’t go to a one-day motivational seminar, or runners’ workshop, and think that he’s prepared to run 26.2 miles tomorrow—he trains for the event by exercising daily on a strict schedule, eating the right foods, getting the proper rest, and shedding a few drops of blood, sweat, and tears as prepare for race day.
If you’re not training, you’re dying from a slow and painful mediocre contribution. It’s not meaningless work, but it could become so much more if we take the leadership, the people, and the technical skills seriously enough to put them into action and apply them directly to our everyday real work and real lives. The next generation of leaders and learners want training, real sustained training, and through that training they want to make great contributions to the world and the workplace.
Jason Diamond Arnold
Co-Author of Situational Self Leadership in Action

Assume the Best Intentions

Blanchard Associate — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 19:10:34 +0000

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to a simple yet revolutionary concept. It is one that has changed my life and allowed me to view people and situations through an entirely different, more positive, lens. It is called, “Assume the Best Intentions.”
This mantra was introduced to me when I joined the Coaching Services department here at Blanchard. It is one of our team norms and actually reads like this, “We give people the benefit of the doubt and assume the best intentions.” Simple? Yes. Revolutionary? If you don’t already approach your daily interactions with this in mind, then yes.
Like many of you, I was taught a different saying about what happens when you “assume.” I’m sure you know the one I’m talking about. Therefore, I rarely assumed anything. But, when I was introduced to this team norm, I was intrigued by this new idea and decided I’d buy in to it. I’m so thankful that I did because it has greatly improved my mental approach when encountered with challenging interactions and situations.
Now, when I get THOSE e-mails, I no longer immediately jump to the conclusion that the sender has it in for me or is trying to make my life difficult. I admit I used to go there and admit it, you sometimes do too. When I’m faced with one of these moments, I take a deep breath and briefly attempt to understand where the other person is coming from. I give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they have the best intentions. In most cases, they actually are coming from a good place and, surprisingly, really don’t have it out for you and aren’t trying to make your life difficult. I know, hard to believe but trust me on this one.
Keep in mind that in most cases the person that you are dealing with is trying to do what they believe is best given the knowledge that they have on the issue in question. Here’s the kicker…in most of those cases, that person’s knowledge is either limited or different than your own. That’s not a bad thing. However, it does require you to be a bit more patient and understanding.
Adopt this as one of your norms. When you give people the benefit of the doubt and assume they have the best intentions, you will be rewarded with a healthier mental outlook and more positive and productive interactions.