How do you defeat the “Not my job, Man!” complex?

This is an organization and company culture problem. Oh, you say: “there’s always some bad apples!” Well, maybe that is true. But if you practice ‘management by walking around’ (MBWA); you just might find that the problem is bigger than a few bad apples.

The answer to the problem starts at the top and drives itself all the way to the lowest rung on the totem pole (organizational chart). I top management does not outwardly hold to the principle ‘it’s everybody’s job’ nobody will. The practice has to be an integral part of the fiber that holds the organization together. If the practice is not everybody’s job; then it is nobody’s job.

Everybody has to be responsible to everyone else in the organization and open communications must be part of your answer. This is not to say that the CEO’s door has to be constantly swinging. It has to start at there; but real results are experienced through empowerment and action at the lowest level of supervision – the guy on the shop floor that is tightly involved with the real problems – he//she is the best source and the best answer. Spend time training, reviewing and evaluating this asset and you will not be disappointed.

Leadership gurus on the web

I recently commented on a well followed lady’s leadership blog website primarily because she had said something that I wholeheartedly agreed with – I don’t often agree with the guys//gals expounding leadership theory on these sites. Quite often, they have no idea about what they speak and more often they don’t really say anything close to the edge – maybe it’s a fear of being challenged if they do say something definite or more likely, they don’t really have the background, experience or knowledge to be discussing the topic they have just regurgitated mumble-jumble throughout the internet.

In any event, after checking back a day or so later, I found that the self-professed leadership expert (her website’s claim – not mine) had misunderstood my point. She had even gone so far as to speak my point for me (incorrectly, mind you) and then tell me where she differed with me in this area. If she had understood my point, it would be one thing, but to not have understood and then correct me, that’s another thing entirely.

I have a huge problem with these wanta-be-leadership-gurus. Most I find have never worked a day in real leadership positions, but have taught a numerous seminars here and there, maybe took a class and some even received a degree that allows them to squawk on leadership – but generally, they know not. The particular guru I communicated with claims to have “personally coached over 100 senior leaders” and has a background that allows “her to provide valuable insights about individuals and organizational systems.”

These people are dangerous especially if their followers believe strongly in them. The followship has only the very basic understanding of the subject as the gurus are never really clears and absolutely don’t answer any specific questions that would lead to better understanding of the role of a leader. My fear is that some will try to put these half-baked truths into practice and pay the penalty for the shallowness of the guru. A real misfortune in any event. Nobody is gonna learn LEADERSHIP over the internet – NOBODY!

Be careful who you follow, subscribe to, and put your faith in. There’s a lot of shallowness involved in the guru level of expounders on leadership.

As I peck this into my computer, another thought came to mind concerning these short answer//short idea//short advice websites. They just may be dumbing down their information and advice for the generation they see as their audience – the short attention spanners of today’s world.

Let’s hope the situation improves over time.

Introduction to Leadership

Over the last two years I have been recalling and documenting my professional career and the strife, trouble and opportunities that presented themselves to me and just how I handled each of these. I have thoroughly enjoyed this task. It has brought back some great memories as I tried to recall the exacts of what actually took place during each of these moments.

Some of the events were not that hard to recall as I had found opportunities to use the stories over and over all during my civilian career. These stories were tagged about one third of the way through my tenure in manufacturing as Moose Stories by a young man who worked for me in multiple capacities at several organizations. I discovered Warren Sanford as he jumped up and down and hollered at me from behind a production line during my time at Tandy in their Personal Computer Division in Ft Worth, TX. Warren was just the guy I needed for a come-in-late and stay-late printer and PC specialist during a software implementation project converting Tandy from a homegrown system to a standard MRP system. Warren also worked for me as my Network Administrator during the time we spent at Sun Engine, a remanufacturer of automobile engines in Dallas, TX.

During the twenty-five years I spent working in numerous manufacturing assignments; I found opportunities to use what I had learned from the people and situations I had previously been associated with. Many of the learning points were associated with my experiences while in the Army. While they were military in nature, the situations were still all about people. These adventures with people resulted in a much more basic understanding of those people and their thought processes. While most of those I was associated with in the manufacturing arena had little if any military experience they all related to the characters and the predicaments in the stories. The people lessons that I took away from these stories helped in making both me and those around me understand better what we could do to improve our lot in life. People, their actions and the results of their actions are the major time consumers that take up the majority of most manager’s and supervisor’s time; both good and bad people are the real players in the continuing story of our daily endeavors.

When a particular situation presented itself that I thought the relating of a previous experience with a core theme aligned with the current situation might be appropriate I would gather those on my staff and do just that. I told them a story. Then we discussed the predicament that I had just related to them and through our discussion I pulled from them the outcomes I desired. They worked out their trouble and routinely were better off as a result. As it seemed to work each time I tried it, I continued to use this tactic more and more.

Usually after working with an organization for some time and recognizing the need to relate one of these adventures, I might start in and then be interrupted by one of those that had been there for some time asking: “Is this gonna be another moose story Howard?”

I should digress a bit here and give the reader some background.

During the earliest years of my career, I was serving in the United States Army and stationed at Fort Richardson (Fort Rich), just outside of Anchorage, Alaska. Initially I was assigned to B Company (Maintenance & Supply) in the 172^nd Support Battalion of the 172^nd Infantry Brigade (Separate & Light). In an attempt to improve operations the platoon I was assigned to was detached from B Co. and attached to the 54^th Transportation Company to form a Supply & Transportation unit; my first stint in a provisional//test unit - this remained a central theme throughout my entire military career. I started as the Section Leader of an element in the Supply Platoon. Having the dubious luck to follow two First Lieutenants who were relieved as platoon leader and petroleum officer, I being the only Lieutenant remaining who had not yet wandered into tragedy and trouble, found myself as the Supply Platoon Leader with the additional responsibility of being designated the Accountable Officer for all supplies coming into and going out of the Brigade.

172nd Infantry Brigade (Separate & Light)

172nd Support Battalion

The platoon’s mission was to provide supply and service support in the areas of rations (food), petroleum (POL), ammunition, clothing, general supplies (tents and the like), construction and barrier material (building material, concertina wire and other like material), and major item re-supply (weapons, vehicles, helicopters, etc). The only classes of supply not provided by my organization were repair parts and medical items; these came from two sister units within the Support Battalion. After almost three years of testing the organization the unit was designated as Delta Company (Supply and Transportation) and assigned to the Support Battalion. Change didn’t always come in a timely manner in the Army of the ‘70s.

Support operations conducted while in Alaska

Oh yes, the Moose connection. During the four years I spent in Alaska, I experienced more than several sightings, encounters, confrontations, happenings, run-ins, arguments, disagreements, quarrels, rows, conflicts, clashes, and skirmishes with moose – many more with moose than any other animal in Alaska.

An animal that takes up as much room as your run-of-the-mill Bull Moose and weighs in at as much as twelve to fourteen hundred pounds demands attention and most of the time, the right-of-way. In the far, far woods, as my son would come to call the area adjacent to our quarters, I would frequently find myself during the deepest part of the winter playing tag with a bull or cow moose in and around Ship Creek which passed just one hundred yards or so behind the home the US Army was so grateful to allow us to utilize during our stay.. These encounters would routinely make my wife furious as you might imagine – at me, not the moose. Tapping a moose on the nose and dodging behind a tree was akin to the same game we would play with a bull or mean white-eyed momma cow back in Texas during my teen years.

Moose out our back door

These encounters might also involve a run-in with a moose in the morning formation just outside the Battalion’s barracks area. Or maybe the incident might take the moose through the glass doors into the building itself. Once observing a confrontation between a moose and a VW Bug on the highway into Anchorage gave me a real healthy appreciation for these antlered obstructions. We even experienced a hungry bull that had crawled on his knees under our back porch in order to get to the only grass available that winter just outside the dryer vent coming from the basement of our quarters.

Well, not everything revolves around a moose experience, it’s the people who work with and for you that step into, instigate, or cause a problem that makes up a manager’s day. During the thirty-seven years I spent in the management, supervision and consultation of operations, both in manufacturing and the military; I continually found myself in the study of these people who cause the situations to happen to and around me. While a good deal of the stories are somewhat military in nature, largely due to the fact that I spent time at more than sixty posts, camps and stations; they are primarily just stories of people, the situations they find themselves in, what got them there and how we//they sometimes resolved the dilemma(s) that we found ourselves in.

Ft Greely Alaska, Feb 1974 -98°F

Ft Greely Buffalo herd in area later the same day Feb 1974

Eventually I realized that often I really had to watch out for that guy, Warren, knowing that I enjoyed telling the stories maybe even more than they enjoyed listening and learning from them. During routine meetings he might say something like: “Tell us another moose story Howard.” This was sure to lengthen the meeting’s duration and kept managers and supervisors away from their intended responsibilities.

2LT Brown & Sgt Garcia standing on top of 10,000 of Jet Fuel

The adventures I have documented are all true. I know that for a fact. I was there when they took place and often was the one that they took place to. Usually they all had reasonable endings; some more reasonable than others. The situations I intend to relate in the book (should it ever become such) taught me more than I could have ever learned in a management or supervision class tucked away somewhere on a college campus or a one-two-or-three day seminar taught by the very successful presenters of that type material. Just like many of you out there; the lessons of life are much more real than the case studies that professors will ever cause you to study. You all have been involved in just as many as I have and through this volume of work I will endeavor to spur just the slightest amount of memory and realization that you may know more about what leadership, management and supervision is all about than you previously thought you did.

I had this same jeep the entire 4 years in the command

I hope you find the stories and information to be enlightening, helpful, sometime even humorous, and at least interesting – the original cast and their actions were just that. Some of the names will have to be changed, but please remain assured that the stories are true and the dubious names may be factious only to save embarrassment; a point readers will subsequently understand. This understanding of people and their reasoning is what I took away from some very interesting, sometimes stressful or physical demanding but always memorable people experiences.

Leadership - Part 14 – 12 Aug 09 – Leadership Maturity

How do you, as a leader, recognize when your leadership has matured?

Are you making better decisions? Can you react quicker and better than you did yesterday, a month ago, a year ago and how do you know?

An evaluation of the record is called for and most of the time it is only you that can provide that evaluation. Oh, you might be lucky enough to have a mentor that keeps you posted on this area of your development; but most do not. They have to rely on the old routine “yearly evaluation” by a supervisor who hasn’t kept track nor has just too many evals to do at the same time to put the appropriate effort into each one.

Here, let me point out, that I am fully behind hire-date evals or anything approaching a eval schedule that does not call for all evaluations to take place at the same time of year. If management is gonna use evals for a purpose, then make them worthwhile and worth the effort.

Take time to routinely evaluate your actions. I have mentioned before the use of “logs” and this is an especially good area where a log comes in handy. Routinely write down some notes of the “who-shot-John” variety and be especially critical of yourself when doing so. Often, the notes will come in handy later on when there is a need to fill in some details of the goings-on. You just never know. If you don’t have the notes, you just may be SOL. I always found the logs to be beneficial.

Logs may also be handy to use as weekly//monthly activity report feeders. Recording actions and the who did best//worse can often document subordinate evals also.

I believe it was Mark Twain that once said something like the following: “Experience is what allows me to recognize a mistake when I make it again!” This is credited to Twain and a few others; it really doesn’t matter who said it first - it still bears consideration. Evaluate your leadership routinely and see where you stand.

Leadership - Part 13 – 24 Jul 09 – Evaluate and Plan for the future

Continuing our discussion that we started in “Part #12”; are you into a career that you find is not living up to your expectations? Have you made a choice that has not worked out like you thought it would?

How do you respond? Is the career not taking you there?

This is a difficult position to be in; but the most has to be made from the bad situation. At least, lets hope what you are doing is putting the bread on the table. How long can you survive in the position you currently hold? The current economy will not last forever. The ramp-up could be just around the corner. Plan you next moves now and be positioned for the future. It will come; just like tomorrow morning. Be ready to execute.

Are you “burning out”, to use an all to frequently used cliché, in a career path that initially challenged you, but no longer does? Is this a real problem or a matter of interpretation? Might it just possibly be just some sort of mid-career slump? How would you go about rejuvenating the ole career if this is the situation?

Consider discussing this with your management. They might just have the answer you are looking for. Maybe the direction is a tangent to your current duties and responsibilities. Maybe there is room for additional responsibilities that can be added to your existing load that would tend to breathe new life into the somewhat routine day you find yourself facing. Sometimes what is needed is some sort of refresher training or just some “cutting edge” approaches to the current routine.

If there aren’t other avenues open due to size or maturity of the organization; this could be a hard nut to swallow. Tough decisions might have to be made. Pulling up the stakes, dislodging the roots and moving elsewhere at mid-career is a real tough decision to make; especially in the market we are currently in. If this avenue is not an option at the present; look at taking up a new outside interest. Search for one that requires somewhat “great” effort and considerable attention to detail. The “burn” has to be stroked no matter where the fire source comes from.

Leadership - Part 12 – 13 Jul 09 – What’s Important to You?

How long have you been doing whatever it is that you do?

Are you enjoying yourself; not necessarily every day and every little bit of the day. But, in general; do you like what it is that you do?

Do you get up every morning with a burn that can’t wait until you get to work because there is something you just gotta get at? This may not be your routine but ask yourself if it should be.

Here’s another question you might ask yourself. Are you doing what you really want to do? I don’t mean “are you on permanent vacation?” Of course, we all would like to be in that rare air that allows us to get up every day and fish a different hole; but no, that’s not what I’m getting’ at.


Does what you do allow you to do what you want to do when you are not at work? There is just so much leisure time available to any of us. You have to bank it and spend it wisely. They will not let you buy anymore than your allowed allotment.

While you are at it; here’s just one more question you need to consider. Is what you do gonna get you where ever it is that you want to go professionally? If the answer to this is no; buddy, you need to start thinking and planning right now. There isn’t enough time on this earth to spend any where you don’t really want to be. Oh, I know this may not be the time to walk away from a paying gig; but it is always the time to think and plan to be able to walk away from a paying gig that isn’t getting you where you want to go.

Leadership - Part 11 – 06 Jul 09 – Integrity is Integrity

Several time over the 4th of July weekend, I heard someone refer to an individual’s level of integrity. I have seen this recently on resumes and have heard politicians spout off about their level of integrity.

Integrity, as defined by “The American Heritage Dictionary”, the second college edition, on pages 667 & 668, published by the Houghton Mifflin Company of Boston in 1985 is (1) the rigid adherence to a code or a standard of values, (2) the state of being unimpaired, soundness; (3) the quality or condition of being whole or undivided, completeness. OK, so the dictionary is a little old; but I’m here to tell you: integrity is integrity.

Look back up there at the definition. Tell me now; just where do you see any line of demarcation that allows one to have a degree of integrity? Right! There isn’t any degree of integrity; it just doesn’t exist. See the words: rigid, unimpaired, soundness, whole, undivided and completeness. You can’t get there without going all the way. There is no path to integrity that takes you half way; it’s all or none.

Look around and see if you can find integrity. I bet you have a hard time locating what might even be considered something close to integrity.

To borrow from Henry Ford, integrity is not just doing the right thing when others are looking. It’s doing the right thing all the time.

Let us also borrow from Mark Twain while we are at it: “It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” from “Mark Twain in Eruption”.

Oh, I guess one might make allowances for politicians. To my knowledge, these days no one expects a politician’s integrity to measure the whole nine yards. I don’t understand or know why that isn’t true anymore; but that’s the way it seems.

But, back to the meat of the subject, when you hear someone refer to their level of integrity; ask them to be more specific: “Just how did you obtain your level of integrity?”

Maybe there’s a school out there that presents classes in integrity and gives out “grades” at the end of the instruction based on the attendee’s level of understanding. It’s probably one of those internet diplomas from the University of Integrity headed by the Prime Minister of Nairobi and you can complete the instruction in three easy emails; but first you must send them your first born and six fifths of you Social Security check for the next twenty-three and a half years. There’s just a chance that you might be able to qualify through a FBI website; that scam is running around the net again.

First, before you apply, make sure you understand the fine print. Be sure to get the entire program. Don’t get short changed and obtain less than the entire “integrity” certification. You owe it to yourself.

Leadership - Part 10 – 30 Jun 09 – Relating Military skills to Civilian

I was listening to an interview with LTG William G (Gus) Pagonis, author of “Moving Mountains” and the overall logistical commander during the build-up and conduct of the Gulf War in the early 90’s. He had some interesting points to make that very well parallel my own thoughts.

The interview was directed to former military members who are trying to land jobs or just relate their experience to civilian employers. This has always been a very hard accomplishment. It is next to impossible for one that hasn’t served in the military to understand just what a military logistician can do and has done during their tenure.

During my twenty-five plus years in manufacturing operations at every level of those organizations, junior to very senior management; I never once came close to the level of authority and responsibility I had even as a very junior Second Lieutenant in the United States Army. I worked in organizations from as few employees as eighty to well over six hundred and fifty.

There just isn’t any real correlation to the levels experienced by most military logisticians to that of their civilian counterparts. The routine scope of civilian operations is just too narrowly focused to begin to compare.

LTG Pagonis stressed that those with military backgrounds should “emphasize their leadership traits and abilities. This is somewhat hard to do and must be thought through very carefully. One must be sure that the degree of aloofness is not so condescending to put off the hiring manager in a way that it works against you.

Remember that any organization’s most important asset is its people-strength. The hardest obstacle to overcome in the civilian world is the “time to train”; it hardly exists. In the civilian world, they want to buy in the “trained” and not spend the time doing so. I believe this to be, in mot cases, a major mistake. The time spent in training and mentoring is much more important than the dollars spent in getting there. The bonding and camaraderie that takes place is of vital importance and pays off for long periods of time. Don’t underestimate it!

Leadership - Part 9 – 17 Jun 09 – Better and Efficient

As follow-on to yesterday’s discussion, I would like to briefly comment on “getting better” and how one goes about doing so. Part of that idea of being consistent has to be the effort a leader puts into “getting better”.

Leading an organization indicates that the group is going somewhere; not necessarily geographically, but somewhere other than where they are today. That could be somewhere philosophically, somewhere software wise, somewhere in the direction of new products; but never standing still, so to speak.

Hopefully, the direction the organization is headed is better than where they are today; always better. Maybe a more efficient operation is the only current goal. That’s lofty enough for anybody at any time. But more efficient at what cost, you might ask. Cost is always a relative term and only applies to the here and now. Costs are constantly changing; technology improves, costs come down, competitors go out of business – whatever the case, costs are always changing.

Leaders must never, never be satisfied with the status quo. They must always be looking forward. Sometimes forward is not straight ahead. It is often off on a tangent to the current direction.

Change must be the guiding light, somewhere out there in the future. Hopefully, its not accompanied by a train whistle at the other end of the tunnel; but a beacon out there in the stratosphere of the unknown world of “better”.

Heading down a new course, leaders must consistently be observing and evaluating the process and results. They must be ready to change course when the time is right. Constant changes in course are not always good. The followship may begin to believe the plan is “not up to snuff” and decide to jump ship, at least in believability – this is not good. Constant reinforcement is required. Information becomes king and is deserved by one and all.

Change, for the better, should be one of the organization’s central goals.

Leadership - Part 8 – True, Fair and Consistent

What part does truth play in leadership?

For my money; it may just be the number one element. My experience has shown me that when told the truth about the goings-on, those that follow will do so almost unquestionably. When “leaders” don’t tell the truth and the followship discovers this to be the case; it can take next to forever to turn the situation around, if at all.

Tell them the truth. If you aren’t able to relate the entire truth, due to confidentiality or some other hindrance; tell them that you are not able to divulge the entire situation. I have found that in these cases, if you have been telling the truth all along, the followship will understand and accept your offering and not press any further. But, if you have a record of not being forthcoming consistently; they will be very wary and this leads to a bad situation that is also hard to overcome.

Can you be fair?

Of course you can. It takes very little to be so and the rewards are great, intangible, but great. It is almost always possible to be fair and followers expect it; in fact they demand it. It may not be evident on the surface, but its there nonetheless. When the circumstances limit your ability to be fair; explain it to the followship. In most cases they will understand; that is if you have been truthful all along. There’s that “truth” sneaking in again.

How does consistency play a role in leadership?

Consistency is the long term report card of leadership. This wraps up the “truth and fairness” aspect of leadership into an umbrella trait. If you are consistently the truthful and fair player; followers will always know what to expect from you in these arenas. This takes a lot of the “gamesmanship” outta the entire world of management. When you play the role consistently, you inspire others to do so also. Play the role less than consistent and your subordinates will do so also; an unacceptable situation one might add. Consistency can also rub off on peers and other managers//leaders in the organization.

Leadership - Part 7 – A Leader’s Effect on Attitudes, Beliefs and Values

What effect can leadership have on attitudes, beliefs and values? This all depends on the quality of leadership and what you are working toward.

We all know that managing people is not easy; but when you also have to deal with attitudes that are a little different, beliefs that are not your own, and values that don’t come near matching yours; it becomes a real chore. Most experts will tell you that you can change these three areas of individual viewpoint only the slightest.

If this is so; where does that leave the leader in today’s “split down the middle” workplace? To repeat: it’s a chore.

People come into the workforce with a whole bundle of preconceived attitudes, beliefs and values. These have been developed over long periods of time and passed on by those that they have held dear to them, some more and others less. These outside influences have no place in your workplace; but they are there and do exist no matter how hard you might try to ignore them. They can not be set aside. You must face them straight on.

What you might be able to do is weaken the influences by setting an example that can not be competed with. The strength of the outside influence is the only thing appropriate to challenge.

The best attack is to establish skill sets that encourage the individual to be just that; an individual. This is only the beginning. Time is not on your side; but the longer you have their attention, the better progress you will be able to achieve.

Attitude is probably the easiest of the three to influence comparatively. A positive attitude is contagious and takes very little work to propagate. Just work at it everyday. The spreading effect is also on your side. The example you set here is truly important. Don’t ever let down. The slightest setback can undo a world of progress. Make the most of each setback as a learning experience and expand the knowledge of those affected by the happening. Never miss an opportunity for the group to learn.

Don’t forget: slipping backwards is a lot easier than going forward; its just human nature to do so. People have to be removed from an undesirable environment for a long period of time for real change to take place and hold on.

Beliefs can only be changed by success and it has to be continued success at that. Short term success will have very little impact on beliefs. A belief that come around over time will be set in stone; that’s the same way they developed the other belief. Don’t look for miracles and be pleased with minor advances.

Stress is the biggest deterrent to allowing progress to be maintained. Look for ways to release stress as it builds. One of the best ways to combat this that I have used over the years is the “group lunch”. People tend to open up more over food mixed with camaraderie than any other situation I have found. Try it.

Leadership - Part 6 – Got it Tough?

As a leader; do you think you got it tough?

Consider those in the military who contend with as much as a 33% turnover in personnel every year – year in and year out. How would you like to train or operate in that environment? With the standard enlistment and normal personnel rotation, they survive with a turnover rate that would drive a civilian operation batty.

So what is it that makes their situation tolerable and yours not?

I call the answer to this situation: the Pontiac model – GTO.

Right, GTO; that’s guidance, training and organization.

The military works off guidance. How can this be one might ask. Leadership, or management depending on your viewpoint, gives out mission oriented orders that realistically stand as guidance. This guidance is then put into practice up and down the chain of command gaining more and more detail the further down the chain the orders travel. There is absolutely no room for micro management here. They relay the guidance and then get out of the way and allow subordinates to operate. A certain level of authority is passed along with the guidance, it has to be, that allows the subordinates to make decisions on the spot and refer up the chain only that that needs to be referred.

They can operate this way because they have trained to do so. From the basic training structure, right through the advanced individual training courses post basic and then into the unit training environment; while doing their job, they are always training. Training, then training, and when that’s finished; they train some more. Yes, and it’s all accomplished while doing their job. There is absolutely no room for micro management here. They train and then get out of the way and allow subordinates to operate.

The next logical question is: how can they afford to train constantly? Well, the answer is in the way they are organized. Isn’t it great how Pontiac, even though they might be going away, gave us an acronym that just perfectly fits this model? Organization is where the entire ability is derived from. They know and understand the organization; everybody up and down the chain understands the organization. Everybody knows their job and how doing, or not doing their job, fits in with the overall unit’s accomplishment of its mission.

The intangible here is the camaraderie that is built up by the closeness that these units operate under. This is extremely difficult to duplicate in the civilian environment – next to impossible one might think. Not necessarily so. Consider the times and how close an organization becomes once they have been through a few reductions in force, or layoffs? There is a bonding that takes place. It comes after they have breathed a sigh of relief and then achieved a frame of mind that allows them to think about work and not about those that are no longer around. They have to go through this process; it’s natural. The quicker leadership gets them through it the better. They bond, they pull closer, they are more open to others that they might not have been open to before and the entire organization benefits from the experience.

This time is the perfect time to organize better for the coming future. Some organizations will not make it and that’s OK. Most that don’t make it will tend to be the weaker of those that existed prior to the business downturn. A certain culling always takes place during a downturn; a sorta thinning of the herd and redistribution of assets and opportunities. It’s to be expected.

Leadership - Part 5 – Have a Good Time

For my money, having a good time is at the top of the list in consideration for positions requiring leadership. If you aren’t having a good time, or better; there is hardly any reason to be there. You just gotta enjoy what you do; not necessarily every little bit of the day. You have to be able to look back at EOD and say to yourself:”Wow, how about that ……….?

They wouldn’t call it work if every single part of the day was totally enjoyable. There has to be some tough times, some stress, some strife mixed in with what you do. I will bet you that when you look back in retrospect the times you remember the best and most fondly are the tough times. That’s what made you who you are or can be.

It doesn’t make much different how tough the times were; somehow they turn out to be the good times.

You will also find that there is always a “we” that made the times memorable.

We all get our real excitement from different angles. Don’t be timid about looking for that next challenge. Regardless of where you have to go to take it on; seek it out. Expand your horizons; look to where you have never been before. Don’t be afraid to go where you haven’t been before. You have no idea just what might be around the next corner.

I was lucky enough to have made that exact decision when I accepted my first assignment in the Army and spent the next four years in Alaska. The lessons I learned there and the friends I made will last a lifetime; if only in my memory. The times were tough and the lessons weren’t always easy to learn or endure; but I survived and so did those I had the opportunity to lead.

Leadership – Part 4 - Cycles in Business Leadership

If you aren’t watching, the “stuff” you fixed a year or so ago can become unraveled. You have to continuously go back and check on the “Fixed Stuff”.

Due to the constant change that takes place, subordinates will tend to forget policy and end up ignoring rules and procedures put in place that kept things right in the past; it’s only human nature. What is important now is what is important now.

Think about posting a board where everyone can observe the “what we just fixed” areas of concern and periodically refer to certain items during staff meetings. Review their importance and why they got put on the “board” in the first place.

What’s broke today is important, but what used to be broke can be just as important if you don’t keep it in sight.

Leadership – Part 3

What’s the danger of going outside the organization to find a departmental leader? This is a tough task and one that can not be taken lightly. Usually, you have only the word of the candidate to base decisions on. Unless you just happen to have a mutual contact that will shoot straight with you on qualifications and background, you are stuck with one viewpoint – the candidate’s.

So! What are your options? There aren’t many.

I was once tested using the method I am going to describe to you as a possible option for the hiring manager.

I reported to the interview on a Friday morning around 8:30 AM. The hiring manager was the Vice President of Operations. I have no real idea how many other candidates he had discussed the position with prior to my interview; but I discovered later that there were more than a few.

I sat down with the VP for about an hour discussing one thing and then another. He probed my background while I probed the organization, the reason for the vacancy, and the organization’s future. This phase of the interview went fairly well; I thought at the time. This is when he must have decided that I was worth a longer look. He told me he wanted me to stay the entire day, spend time with each department and several of the key players within the company. Well, I had to do some quick rearranging of my expected day. I had not planned on the interview lasting any longer than three hours at the most. I had lunch plans and another place to be that afternoon. I made a couple of calls and we were off to the rest of the day.

The next hour I spent in the warehouse learning their procedures and asking questions on how and why they did certain things certain ways. After the hour, the warehouse supervisor ushered me on to the purchasing department. I found out later that he reported to the VP just as soon as he had dropped me with purchasing.

On it went; next production control, then to shipping and receiving and right after lunch I was dropped with the production departments. Later in the afternoon, I spent time with sales, customer support and then time with HR. Each department picked my mind and then reporting to the VP with their thoughts.

Just about 4:00 PM, I was returned to the VP’s office, where we discussed the day, what I had learned and what ideas I had that could help improve the operations of each department. I was very frank with the guy and told him just what I thought in each case: where the strong points//players were and where I thought there was room for improvement.

The organization was on the verge of a huge expansion and I must have said the exact right things because he offered me the position before I left for home. I had basically worked the entire day “off the clock” and gave direction where I thought it was needed. I had met and passed the “can we work together” test with a wide variety of the organization’s vice presidents, directors, managers and supervisors. I had made my thoughts and ability to think ‘on my feet” very evident. I passed the test; good thing I was wide awake when I arrived there.

This is probably one of the best methods of working out a candidate from the outside I have every come across and have been put through. It works; but your interviewers have to be somewhat skilled to be able to test the candidate and have a great deal of openness to both sides of the struggle. Openness is of extreme importance in this interview process. You have to weight some areas greater than others unless the skills of each are just as strong as the skills of the others.

If you have the opportunity; give it a try.

Leadership – Part 2

I am sorry that some of you out there do not know of Alvin York or even Audie Murphy. Those of my generation grew up reading about them in our history books. They were leaders of the first order. Their actions inspired others around them, and those that heard of them, to undertake actions that they would normally let pass. But, maybe not just let pass; they would not even consider. Look them up. Wikipedia has short pages on each; it doesn’t take long.

Let’s get back to what I started to say yesterday: skills versus talent. Skills are traits that can be taught in some fashion or another: seminars, role playing, and revolving positions come to mind as good methods of developing skills. Talent, you can not teach. You can have a hand in developing it, just don’t try to teach it. Talent is a factor of the environment where the individual develops.

How do you test for leadership? This is hard to answer. You can put candidates in situations, challenge them with tasks under some pretty difficult conditions and evaluate results. But, if you haven’t discovered the difference between skills and talent; how do you determine who passes the leadership quiz? Some need the challenge of stress, some need the challenge of thought, and still some need the challenge persistence.

Skills, especially skills honed over a sufficient period of time, will allow the trained to out perform the true leader sometimes. I have been in situations where groups have been tested, you know like in the ropes course layout; and having experienced some of these layouts many times, the answer comes too easy. This is an unfair situation to those without the experience or opportunity.

So, in the short space we have here; how do you test leadership. If you are a hiring manager and are looking for a leader for one of your subordinate units; how do you go about selecting someone to fill that position? Will you settle for the best you have and try to develop over time. This is often the mistake that managers make. Even more often, they do not posses the leadership talent to do the development themselves. A bad situation!

Even worse, if you have to go outside the organization to find a leader; how can you tell that he//she actually posses the talent to do the job? This is a real conundrum that faces many executives today.

Think about the opportunities that will present themselves over the next two to five years. Assuming a ramp up post economic recession and the retirement of hordes of baby boomers leaving the workforce; how will management fill the coming opportunities with true leaders?

This is where we go next.

Leadership – Part 1

How do you get to be a leader? Are you the leader already? Are you a leader or just a manager? Maybe you aren’t either, but wanna be! So, how do you get there?

Leaders aren’t trained; but managers and supervisors can be. Leaders are products of their environment, not of some training school or academy. People can be trained skills and behaviors; but leadership is a talent. Talent is a development of the environment and surroundings that have formed you over a number of years and experiences.

Some leaders are easy to spot; you just can’t miss them. Then there is the leader who pops up outta nowhere. He//she wasn’t a leader before being forced into being one. The talent was always there; simmering just under the surface. Military history gives us the two best examples: SGT Alvin York and 2LT Audie L. Murphy. No one would have ever taken either of these two to be the leader they demonstrated that they were until the exact right set of circumstances called them out, so to speak. They then lead. Both were recommended for and awarded the Medal of Honor. Each also was the most decorated individual of their respective conflicts (WWI & WWII).

Products of their environment!

So, who out there is a leader. There has to be some around. In the everyday world that most of us play our daily game in, it can be hard to tell a leader from those that aren’t. Oh yes, there are the CEOs, presidents, directors and the such of the organizations we each earn our daily bread from; but just because they have a title, it doesn’t necessarily make them a leader.

Look around and give it some thought. Where are the leaders of today?

Leadership Development

I am working on a story today that primarily concerns leadership development. There seems to me to be very little of this going on, especially in industry. I don’t know why. There is too little time set aside for developing the leaders of tomorrow; both in the interview//hiring phase and the on-the-job development phase.

How does management plan for the viability of the organization structure? This contingency is as important as any other. When the ramp-up starts from the current economy//business cycle, there will be more movement of management and leadership talent than one might initially imagine. The movement will not come from the ranks of the unemployed. Oh no! They will be looking for proven talent and that will be first and easiest found in the ranks of the employed.

The organizations that ignore the opportunity to develop those that they already have just may find themselves in a real hurt. The proposition of looking for experienced talent when everybody else is also in the hunt should jump out as a real motivator to management to get in gear and train, develop, train again and develop those under their own roof where possible.

The time required to accomplish an in-house training program is minimal compared to searching, finding and orientating new talent.

Leadership and Moose Stories

I spent a great deal of the morning thinking about what I have been writing about and the people who joined with me during the endeavors that took place of which I write.

The events, often humorous to look back on, were often, at the time, anything but humorous. Most of the time these happenings took place under some of the most extreme circumstances that can be imagined. Everything from -112ºF to +112ºF, bears in the mess tent, hurricanes to earthquakes, aircraft excitement and mishaps; you name it and we were probably there.

Actions by people like David (Fitz) Fitzsimmons, Martin Snyder, the Pillsbury Dough Boy, Dickey Love, SSG Jones, SFC Toric, Herr and the rest made the adventures all worthwhile.

Great hunting stories: scrambles downhill, pilots in the mist, and the game warden laughing his &%**# off.

They’re all getting down in digital remembrance; then we’ll see.

Leadership and the Alpha Male

I’m sitting out on the patio watching my two dogs act up in the back yard when I realize that I have seen this before. Not before when I had the older dog, Buck and his sister Maggie; but long before that.

I have been watching this action take place, over and over, through out my entire career. It’s the same thing you see in any pack, group, and a bunch of people together or a work group for that matter. Somebody is the “alpha male” and the others aren’t; no matter the size of the pack//bunch.

Somebody is leading and the rest aren’t. Watch the others and see just exactly what they are doing. As I watch my two in the back, the pup, Gus, is trying his best to get Buck to play. Buck isn’t having any of that. Buck has bigger and better fish to fry. He won’t give in and ever once-in-a-while lets Gus know that he won’t. How does he do that? Well, its not a pretty site and Gus doesn’t feel real good about it for a short period of time – he has a real short attention span and memory also.

Suffice it to say, Gus is learning. Buck is teaching. How many times have you witnessed a group where the “non-leaders” want to play and the leader is mentoring them to follow the path of his leadership – do it the way I show you to do it!

Yes, I’ve seen this play out, over and over, through the years and I am watching it take place again. Right in my own back yard. It’s somewhat amazing how far we have come in domesticating ourselves. Did ya think I was gonna say our pets? No, ourselves.

However long it took, we have domesticated ourselves to fit the pack mentality and have learned to lead and how to follow. We all fit into one or the other category. Which do you fit into?