Bob Mason Leadership Development

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“Born Leader.” Those two words always give me a chill.

Two reasons.

First, executives tend to look for who they think are, or who appears to be born with some sort of natural leadership talent. What they find are employees who are outgoing (extroverts) and charismatic. What they miss are employees who are quieter (introverts) and not as charismatic.

Second, when they find these outgoing, charismatic people, executive leaders tend to think those people don’t need a lot of leadership training and guidance. After all, they’re “born leaders,” right?

There are people who seem to have traits that make them more likely to succeed as leaders. These traits have more to do with ability to think and reason, interpersonal skills, and personal drive. Notice though that these are all traits that can, at least partially, be trained and developed.

Loud, charismatic employees may be attractive because it appears that others naturally tend to follow them, and that may be the case. Over time though, that will wear thin and when real leadership decisions are required these types of “born leaders” tend to err on the side of popularity instead of what’s right for the company.

This is not to say that extrovert employees will not make good leaders. They might. Just don’t neglect other potential leaders who are not as obvious, and remember, everyone you move to a supervisor or manager position requires leadership development.

Most likely there are many in your company who can become good leaders so look a little beyond those who appear to be “born leaders” and discover the ones who have the traits necessary to become successful leaders.

Check out chapter five for more tips on selecting and developing your next leaders. Get Don’t Worry, You Can Do This! What New Supervisors and Managers Need to Know About Leadership.

Tags: Born Leader, born leaders, leaders, leadership development

Nov 06 2013

Leadership Reading – Part 1

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This is the first of a 4-part series on books I recommend for leaders. I have hundreds of books on my shelves and it’s really tough to pick just a few, but these will give you an idea of some good reads, and some good authors.

There are plenty more good books out there and I’ve primarily selected more current reading. Just because I don’t mention them here, doesn’t mean other books aren’t good as well.

For this installment, I’ll look at four books I recommend that are pretty easy reads and contain a lot of good information.

The first is Turn the Ship Around by L. David Marquet. This is an interesting story of a submarine commander who decided to try a whole new strategy in leading his ship. The results are a great demonstration of what can happen when a leader is willing to share authority.

Next is The Three Signs of a Miserable Job by Patrick Lencioni. Written as a novel, the book follows a CEO as he sells his company and then takes on new leadership challenges. The story is based on Lencioni’s Three Signs which boil down much of basic leadership into something everyone can understand.

The third book is Start With Why by Simon Sinek. Sinek’s idea of start with why became well known a few years ago after his Ted Talk on the same subject. The book goes into much more detail about how leaders can be more successful when they concentrate on why a course of action is necessary or smart. You may disagree with some of his examples and the conclusion he draws, but you will be forced to think.

Last on this list is Bankable Leadership by Tasha Eurich. This book was just published in October of this year (2013). It’s one of the many books that fall in what I consider the “really obvious” category of books that seem to state what I consider to be the obvious basics of good leadership. That’s why I’ve put it on this list. Especially for new leaders, or leaders facing a new challenge, this book is full of ideas that you may not have considered or might have forgotten.

Next time I’ll talk about some books that present leadership in a little different way.

Tags: leaders, leadership, Leadership Reading

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Nov 04 2013

4 Steps Leaders Must Follow to Start the Discussion

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As I write this the U.S. government has recently gone back to work after allowing itself to be shutdown; well sort of. During that period and for the weeks after there has been no shortage of commentators to tell us whose fault all this is. After all, finger pointing is one of the oldest activities known to man. When we back away from the blame game and examine what’s really going on, we can see a clear example of something leaders must understand.

First, let’s review the program. On one side is the faction that believes the government must reduce spending and stop borrowing so much money. This side also believes that the Affordable Care Act is bad for the country.

On the other side is the faction that believes the government must continue its spending and borrowing in order to recover from recession. They also believe that the Affordable Care Act is good for the country.

For whatever reasons, both sides are quite sure of their positions and have difficulty seeing the other side. In the middle we have – nothing.

That’s where the leadership lesson lies. Everyone involved in the debate has staked out a position and has become so invested in that position that they don’t feel there’s room to maneuver. Any movement to come to terms with the other side is seen as defeat. Some have clearly stated that there is no compromise and no negotiation.

Though this is playing out and the national stage, the same type of situation probably has or will occur in your workplace. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to bring the two sides together and find the middle ground.

Here are 4 steps leaders should use to approach this sort of severe conflict.

1. Treat both sides with respect. Even if you’re violently opposed, these people believe in their position and expect you to give them a fair hearing.

2. Understand your position before you start. Seldom are we as non-partisan as we would like to believe. Chances are you will tend to lean more towards one faction. It’s important to recognize that.

3. Decide where you will not compromise. This doesn’t refer to your position but to your core values. Be clear about this up front with both sides. If you’ve been a good leader up to this point this should not be a surprise to anyone.

4. Here’s the hard part. Remember that you occupy your leadership position for the good of the organization, not for the good of you. That means you must weigh both sides of the argument fairly, even if it means that a previous decision or action on your part must be re-evaluated.

When properly managed, disagreement and conflict are not necessarily bad. There’s an old saying that when two people always agree, one of them isn’t necessary. It’s from disagreement and conflict that great ideas are born and progress is made. Oddly enough, a government can endure a “shutdown” for a period of time with little impact. Your company cannot. Even though it isn’t easy and can be personally painful, as a leader you must be a fair arbiter of disagreement and conflict. Only then will you reap their rewards.

Tags: Conflict, leaders, leadership, Leadership Lessons

Nov 01 2013

Strategic Planning and Leadership – The Critical Link

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The small group of business owners were enjoying lunch and discussing the various issues that always affect business owners. In response to a question I mentioned the importance of a solid strategic plan. To illustrate how critical it was to have a good mission statement and to ensure everyone in the company understands that mission and their part in it, I asked them to go back to their businesses and ask why people work there and what they do that contributes to the success of the business.

One of the group members thought a minute and said, “Wow! I’m not sure I can really answer that.”

There’s a critical link between strategic planning and leadership. As a leader, you want to improve your operations and efficiency. You want your employees to be more engaged and feel at least some ownership of their part of that operation. The plan helps you do that by keeping everyone focused on what’s important.

As leaders you have a lot of those issues Stephan Covey called urgent but not important and it’s very easy to let those issues sidetrack you. When the mission and goals are clearly stated and when people at all levels of the company understand the mission and goals and their part in achieving them, they will stay more focused on what’s important to the company’s success.

But that will not happen, and the plan will not be effective unless the company’s most senior leadership embraces it as the basis for all their actions. A few pages in a plan will not mean a whole lot if that’s all they are. To be effective, the strategic plan must be embraced as the fundamental document for the company and therefore, the foundation for everyone’s efforts. When contemplating other tasks such as marketing or operations, leaders have a guide to keep their efforts on track.

Too often I’ve seen organizations that develop a strategic plan, but then don’t fully implement it. They say things like, “We just haven’t had time to get to it.” My question for them is, “What is more important than the plan you developed that should be the bedrock of the organization? Did you waste time writing a bad plan, or are you wasting time because you’re not following the plan you created.”

Strategic planning and leadership must be inextricably linked.

Planning to Excel: Strategic Planning That Works

Tags: leaders, leadership, Strategic Plan, strategic planning, strategic planning and leadership

Oct 30 2013

Leadership Development Training: Got Problems?

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One of the most important, but least understood skills for a leader is the ability to solve problems and make good decisions. The two skills are inextricably linked. Unfortunately, there a many experts who would have us believe that problem solving is a very complex procedure requiring special techniques and training.

Not so!

That isn’t to say that all problems are simple or that your job, business, or issues aren’t complex. In fact, sometimes you will deal with very complex issues. Sometimes it may be necessary to set up a team or bring in experts to tackle those, but what leaders need to know is an effective way to approach everyday problems and make decisions on issues that arise in the course of normal events.

Effective leaders develop an uncomplicated method to solve problems and make good decisions.

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Tags: leaders, leadership, leadership development, leadership training

Oct 28 2013

The Motivation Puzzle: How The Pieces Fit Together

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Installment number 4 of my series of motivation has been published in the ExtraMILE ezine.

This one, “The Motivation Puzzle: How The Pieces Fit Together” presents a way leaders can achieve better results by helping workers achieve their motivations.

Please check it out here.

You can view previous editions of the ezine, including the first three installments of the series here.

Let me know what you think. I’d really like to know.

Tags: leaders, leadership, motivation

Oct 23 2013

Leadership Development Training: Theory and Styles

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Leadership is probably one of the most studied subjects ever. There are thousands of books on the subject with more published every year. Most of that information can be boiled down to a few important theories and models.

New leaders need not become academics on the subject of leadership. As I said, much of the “new” research is a rehash, restatement, or rediscovery of previous research. There isn’t a lot new under the sun. Instead, new leaders should be exposed to select theories and models and have the opportunity to equate them to their own experience. This is the point when those new to leadership begin to understand what leadership really means as they begin to understand a little more about why people do what they do and why situations tend to evolve the way they do.

With this knowledge as a basis, new leaders will be better prepared to be effective in their new responsibilities.

Tags: leaders, leadership, leadership development, leadership training

Oct 21 2013

4 Steps That Connect Leadership and Innovation

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I was talking to someone recently about my membership in the New Mexico Innovation Alliance when he asked, “How do you encourage innovation among employees.

It’s a good question and one that leaders in all types of organizations should be asking themselves – what’s the link between leadership and innovation?

The answer isn’t magical or complex. Here are 4 steps to encourage leadership and innovation in your organization.

1. Understand what you mean by innovation. Are you looking for leaps forward or just trying to find new, more efficient ways to accomplish those tasks that are part of your organization’s mission? It’s best not to define this down to a gnat’s eyelash. I think of innovation as simply finding new and better ways to accomplish the mission. Along the way you may discover the cure for the common cold; but unless that’s your mission, it shouldn’t be your goal. Once you begin on the path to finding new ways of doing business, it will become normal operations and amazing things can happen if you can…

2. Accept risk. With innovation comes risk which is often difficult for senior leaders. New ideas fail sometimes, but if you, as the leader, can’t handle the prospect of failure your people will quickly become risk averse too. Leadership for innovation requires accepting failure as a component of success. Embrace the effort, learn from the failure, and then try again. Of course it helps if you have established trust between you and your employees which means you must…

3. Hire the right people. This doesn’t mean the person with the most technical qualifications specific to the particular position. Though technical qualifications can’t be ignored what you’re looking for is someone with that spark which will energize everyone else. When I supervised operations in a large aircraft maintenance organization, we regularly moved our branch managers not by technical area, but with an eye towards new thinking. For instance, the jet engine branch manager was an avionics specialist and the metals fabrication branch manager was a ground equipment specialist. They were chosen based on leadership skill and ability to think. The result was a fresh look at standard practices and more innovative branches. Besides the leadership qualities of the people involved, an important reason this worked was that everyone understood the need to…

4. Have good vision and mission statements and live by them. In strategic planning I always encourage the senior leader to develop a vision statement that is a little audacious. Leaders must articulate a vision that is something that encourages people to set out on unchartered waters. With that should go a mission statement that clearly states why the organization exists and what it does. The mission statement must not only be clear, people in the organization must understand how they are a part of accomplishing that mission and they must know that the boss understands their contribution. That understanding goes a long way toward encouraging innovation.

The connection between leadership and innovation is simply that leadership encourages innovation. Do you?

Tags: innovation, leaders, leadership, leadership and innovation

Oct 16 2013

Leadership Development Training: Communication

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How many times have you wished your boss would learn to communicate better? In a leadership position, communication becomes vitally important, both for conveying a message to workers, and passing information to the boss.

To be effective, leaders must develop the ability to communicate with their followers, their peers, and their bosses. For workers, whether to communicate, or not communicate, is essentially their choice. Leaders don’t have that option and must master these three levels of communication, each one requiring a slightly different approach.

For instance, you probably would not communicate with your peers about a disagreement with your boss the same way you would with the boss.

The ability to communicate at all three levels, and understand the difference is a sign of a good leader.

Tags: Effective Leadership Communication, leaders, leadership, leadership development, leadership training