Management Psychology Group

Tag: executive development

  • Action Learning: One Stone, Many Birds

    “I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand.”     – Confucius

    What if there were a way to fully engage your best people to solve crucial problems quickly and creatively without the usual conflict, ambiguity and inefficiency of typical group interactions? And what if, while engaged in this process, the participants also could gain deeper insights into themselves, develop their leadership skills and learn to function more productively and positively as team members? Further still, what if the technique were applicable to almost any problem, issue or crisis? Finally, what if it could result in significantly higher quality decisions and solutions than any other group problem-solving or strategic planning format? My guess is that you’d say this is typical consulting BS (Blue Sky, of course). Actually, such a technique exists and is widely used by many of the largest and most successful global corporations. There are many variations to the format but it goes by the somewhat less-than-exciting term Action Learning.

    Action Learning is a structured problem solving practice first developed by British physicist, university professor and consultant Reginald Revans in the 1940s. Early in his career, he had the good fortune of working with many world-class scientists, several of whom were Nobel Prize winners. He reported that he was struck by their ability to acknowledge and discuss their own ignorance by questioning and reflection, and then to share their observations with one another. His first application of the insights he gained from these scientists was in the nationalized coal mines of England, where he was able to increase production by an incredible 30%. Since that time, these principles, now known as Action Learning, have been applied worldwide to help organizations successfully improve their performance and solve some of the trickiest and most difficult problems they face.

    Author Jim Collins and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, among many other successful leaders and scholars, have noted that the great leaders ask great questions. They engage people in conversation. Great coaches, therapists and counselors know that the right questions are more powerful for generating deep insight and learning than received wisdom, prescriptions or solutions. This is the core of the Socratic method – asking the right questions to open our minds. Thoughtful and reflective questioning is central to a great conversation and is the heart of action learning. It is an educational and developmental process that encourages dialogue by focusing people on real world problems they experience, not by dealing with case studies describing things others have experienced.

    Action learning provides the platform for people to gain knowledge, insights and solutions through questioning, action, practice and reflection, not traditional educational methods. It doesn’t seek to find the right specific answer (like, for example, Six Sigma). Rather, it is described by authors and Action Learning scholars Skip Leonard and Art Freedman as more like an operating system. That is, it connects inputs (problems and opportunities), applications (tools and techniques) and outputs (solutions). It is central to the idea of the learning organization and continuous learning. It can be a key tool to help change a culture to become quicker, more responsive and better able to deal with crises and quickly shifting business/technology landscapes.

    Action learning is deceptively simple. There are six components and two major principles:

    • Components
      • There is a problem, challenge or opportunity to be addressed. It should be of high importance and urgency to the organization so that it pulls for maximum engagement.
      • There is an action learning team consisting of 4 to 8 people who have diverse backgrounds.
      • There is a specific process of questioning, listening and reflection.
      • Actions are taken in response to the process.
      • There is a commitment to learning. In the short term the process solves the problem. However, there is an important and valuable long-term learning component that helps develop individuals, teams and organizations over time.
      • There is an Action Learning coach, who may be internal or external to the organization, to help keep the focus and to assist in reflection and learning.
    • Principles/Format
      • Statements are made only in response to questions, and questions can be asked by anyone to anyone else.
      • The coach can intervene at any time to increase performance and assist in learning.

    The Action Learning process can be employed in an almost endless variety of ways to solve an almost endless variety of crucial problems and challenges. Types of problems or opportunities that can be addressed by this process include:

    • How to successfully assimilate an acquisition.
    • Determine the best way to cut our costs by $1 million.
    • Figure out the best way to handle a problem employee.
    • Find the best ways to ensure that we get the right parts on the floor on time so that we won’t miss shipping dates.
    • How to create better a performance management and feedback system for employees.
    • Determine whether we should offshore. Or whether we should bring some operations back from offshore.
    • Develop an appropriate strategy for cutting across the silos and getting people to work more collaboratively.

    Michael Marquardt, in his book Optimizing the Power of Action Learning, offers a good framework and insights for introducing and institutionalizing this tool into organizations. Although many of his examples come from large organizations (Boeing, Sony, Lockheed Martin, and Dow Chemical to name a few name a few), these principles can be applied and adapted to almost any type of organization. They work well with cross-functional teams in large organizations to help cut across silo lines and to generate solutions that will work in the real world. However, they also work well with intact executive teams charged with making crucial company survival decisions.

    In fact, this process is particularly useful for executives expressly because they are typically strongly biased towards action and solution generation than towards reflection. Because reflection is crucial to the development, they can learn more about leadership and about themselves by participating in Action Learning than by attending seminars or workshops. As the name implies, this process balances action with learning.

    Action Learning focuses and defines the problem to make sure everyone sees it, understands it and agrees that the right problem to solve. In so doing, it fosters team development. It reminds everyone that their success depends on that of the others. It helps to build trust and it helps to even out participation. The structure makes it exceptionally difficult for one person to dominate the process.It’s very useful for Apollo Teams and teams with one or more smartest-people-in-the-room members, because it enables everyone to be heard and engages everyone in the conversation. And, as many leaders come to realize through painful encounters with reality, when everyone is engaged and participates, the chances for a high quality outcome are greatly increased. When that’s not the case, train wreck.

     

    Hodges L. Golson, Ph.D.

     

    Readings

    Marquardt, M. (2011). Optimizing the Power of Action Learning

    Marquardt, M, Leonard, S. and Freedman, A. (2009).  Action Learning for Developing Leaders and Organizations

    Revans, R. (2011).  ABC of Action Learning

     

     

  • The Swing Thought

    Golfers know about the swing thought. It’s that pithy, focused nugget that helps you achieve a positive outcome. A proper golf swing is one of the most difficult accomplishments in sport. There are so many things that can go wrong. And if you start thinking about them at the wrong time, like in the middle of your swing, you’ll miss the ball completely. By focusing on just one major success factor during the swing, you can avoid many troubles. For instance, my tendency has always been to look up to see where the ball is going. This causes me to lift up just enough so that my club hits the ball high, and sometimes misses it altogether, rather than keeping my posture and head aligned to follow through and finish the swing appropriately. I need to keep my head down and my butt out to maintain the proper angle of my spine, or I’ll have a frustrating and embarrassing experience on the tee. But I’ve found that if I consciously think “head down, butt out” during the swing, I can hit the ball. Sometimes even reasonably well. I don’t always remember it, but the more I can make it my mantra, or “swing thought”, the better I’ll play.

    The swing thought is also useful beyond the golf course. For instance, my “head down, butt out” example was a great way to avoid trouble during the months leading up to my daughter’s recent wedding.

    Joking aside, the swing thought is a way to keep people attuned to the basics that will help them be successful over time. In coaching, we often counsel leaders not to try to do everything at once. If they can focus on just one behavior that needs to change or one thing that needs to happen, their chances for success will be increased. If one is overly introverted, the swing thought “louder” during an important meeting may help him to speak up rather than take a back seat to the more vocal and gregarious extraverts in the room. And someone who usually jumps in with a solution too quickly, shutting off discussion, may keep the swing thought “listen” in mind during that same meeting.

    The swing thought is a practical application of the Buddhist meditation concept of mindfulness. This has to do with focusing intently on the present and paying attention to a specific thought or purpose. But there’s nothing mystical about it. It’s a manifestation of how we’re wired. There is an increasing body of scientific research showing the value of mindfulness in the management of stress, pain, depression and anxiety, and many athletic coaches use it to help athletes focus on the present and consequently perform at their best. If we change the way we think, we can change the way we feel and consequently the way we behave. So it behooves us to choose the thoughts, and swing thoughts, that will help us improve.

    Now about that slice…

    Hodge Golson

  • Intro and Chapter One: Active Leadership

    I’ll upload excerpts from the book periodically. So if you’re patient … and really frugal, stay tuned. Or you could just go out and, you know, actually buy a copy (hey, the paper version is only $7.99 — the Kindle is really cheap at $2.99).

    ——————————————————————————————————————————————————–

     

    Introduction

     

    Do you want to be a successful leader? Then hire smart people who get along well with others, who do what they’re supposed to do, and who work hard. Then set a great example and reward the right behavior. Simple con­cepts: difficult execution.

    Not everybody wants to be top dog: and that’s fine and fortunate, but if you work in an organization, much of your life depends on what the top dog does, so you need to understand the world in which he or she lives.

    Some of this material is based on academic research. The rest is the result of practical observations and in­sights, gained over the course of a career in assessing, coaching, and consulting with top executives in some of the most successful organizations in the world.

    This is a practical roadmap of useful insights for any­one who works in organizations, especially those who must lead and manage. If you use these guidelines actively, you’ll be a more successful leader at any level. Leadership, however, is not about mechanically following a set of instructions to get people to do what you want. It’s about getting people to want to follow you. That’s more about who you are. And how you behave ultimately determines who you are. This blueprint describes the behavior of successful leaders and highlights some of the important concepts to consider in your leadership journey. It presents some of the realities you face, with practical suggestions for succeeding, and staying effective, in any leadership role.

     

    ONE

    Life’s tough: life at the top

     isn’t always easier

     

    John decided early in his career that he wanted to run an organization, or at least to be one of the senior decision-makers. Through a combination of diligent study, hard work, business acumen, interpersonal skill, and sometimes more than a little luck, he finds himself with a seat at the table quicker than he anticipated. He realizes that the top spot might not be in the cards, due to the relative youth of his CEO boss and his own runway. As his limo driver skillfully navigates around various bottlenecks on the way to the airport, he has a rare chance for reflection. Having just been instrumental in highly successful negotiations that will have a major positive impact on the company, he allows himself to feel a justly deserved sense of pride and accomplishment about his career. In reality, he is further along than he ever expected to be, and it’s nice to know that his family will be comfortable and secure no matter what might happen to him now. He enjoys his work and his life. With the maturity and insight that comes from successes and failures, he rarely has those Peggy Lee “Is That All There Is?” moments anymore; but still remembers some of the not-necessarily-pleasant surprises he encountered soon after his “arrival” as a senior leadership team executive.

     

    Unexpected consequences

    If you want to become a top executive, it might be nice to know what it’s like in that role before you get there. Forewarned is forearmed.

    Most executives are too busy trying to stay on top of the severe demands of their jobs to think about some of the unanticipated facts and phenomena of life in a key leadership position. Before embarking on this journey, you need to know yourself:  your strengths and limita­tions. And be careful what you wish for. There are real costs to gaining and maintaining power, so look at what life is really like at the top and prepare for it. The fol­lowing points describe some of the surprises typically hidden from view on the way up.

    The executive amplifier

    As you move up in an organizational hierarchy, your public organizational life becomes a product of sound bites. You don’t have time to build relationships throughout the organization as you move up. People can’t get to know you the way they did when they worked directly with you and saw you more often. So they decide what you’re like as a person and as a leader by what they see in short, infrequent samples of public behavior. And because what you do now can have a major impact on them, they read a great deal into your words and actions.

    If you make an effort to smile and to talk to people, you cultivate the image of being an approachable, con­cerned, and people-oriented leader. If you show no emotion, people see you as detached, or are likely to project things from their own backstories onto the blank screen you provide. If you scowl, snap at someone, or otherwise look unhappy, they see you as negative, irritable, and unfriendly. It only takes a few times, some­times just once, for the image to emerge and stick. Company cultures reflect shared values displayed through the behavior of the leaders of the company. Much of a leader’s impact on the troops is through the symbolism of his or her behavior, even the little day-to-day things. Success requires managing the optics.

    The executive as rock star

    The larger your organization and the less often people see you, the more you become like a celebrity. Some people enjoy this, but many are surprised and uncom­fortable with it. Few anticipate the demands it places on them, or the downsides of the executive fishbowl. Charismatic rock star executives, who really enjoy this aspect of the role, tend to build personality-based cult followings. This doesn’t help the company over the long term. In fact, companies usually suffer in the market­place after the rock star leader has left.

    The executive as energy spark

    People look to the leader for their own inspiration and energy. Your job sometimes includes keeping the troops pumped when your own energy and attitude are waning. Providing the spark for others can drain your own re­sources, especially if you’re not a natural extravert. Extraverts typically recharge their batteries by contact with others, while introverts tend to renew their re­sources by having time to themselves.

    The cognitive elite

    There are plenty of smart people  to be found at all levels of most organizations. But, on average, executives score higher on standardized tests than do people at lower organizational levels. That’s often the reason they’re in the executive role – they’re good problem-solvers. This is not to imply that any one individual executive is brighter than any one individual from a lower level; but as a group, they perform better on measures of general mental ability than people in the supervisory or individual per­former roles.

    An unexpected phenomenon that emerges when there are many clever people at the top is the Apollo effect, described by psychologist Meredith Belbin from his experiences running large-scale management simulations in the UK and Australia. When he stacked the deck by concentrating a disproportionate number of exceptionally bright people on the same team, expecting them to outperform groups composed of a more random assortment of ability, he found that these “Apollo teams” always under-performed compared to the others. They suffered from too many ideas in these groups, too many clever people to find fault with those ideas, analysis paralysis, and too much intellectual arrogance and com­petitiveness. He observed that the most effective groups were those with a great deal of heterogeneity and variety in talents, traits, and aptitudes of their members. This is not to say that you shouldn’t hire smart people (more on that later), but you need to know how to manage them.

    The imposter phenomenon

    This term was coined by psychologist Pauline Clance, in her book of the same name. It refers to the feelings of inadequacy and guilt many successful people encounter because of, or in spite of, their accomplishments. The internal dialog goes something like, “I’m above average, but not particularly special. I’m not sure I really did any­thing to deserve being where I am, and I’m worried that people will figure it out. I sometimes feel like an imposter.” Most people have occasional feelings of inadequacy, but they derail you in a leadership role if you don’t manage them appropriately.

    The paradox of feedback

    The higher you go, the more you require information and feedback. But the higher you go, the less likely you are to get it. People are inclined to tell executives what they want to hear, not what they need to hear. They don’t get many honest reflections of how they really come across. Issues of power (this woman can fire me), politics (I think he’s a lousy leader but he sure responds to flattery), and socialization (kids don’t tell Dad what they really think), keep the executive from acquiring good information. In addition, some aspects of the executive personality interfere with the ability to hear bad news. Executives have been reinforced for knowing the answer and being strong in the face of op­position. A good source of unbiased critique is invaluable for a leader’s development.

    The executive as villain

    Many people assume that if you’re highly successful, you must have cheated. There is a media and entertainment industry bias against business people, especially those in large corporations. The “greed is good” stereotype colors the lens through which many people view the execu­tive suite, and allows politicians to manipulate public opinion. When a few crooks get caught, the press has a feeding frenzy, reinforcing that narrative. The widely shared bias in academia, entertainment, the media, and government is that if you’re in business, you need to be regulated or you’ll do bad things. And the “you didn’t do this yourself” denigration of success is more widely shared than you may imagine at first. Get used to it.

    High visibility but no one to talk to

    Lonely-at-the-top is a cliché, but it’s true. At each succes­sive level, the peer-group support network becomes progressively weaker. Executive group interactions are not typically characterized by openness and trust. Con­sequently, there’s little opportunity for the executive to relax and receive easy give-and-take inter­action, feed­back, and counsel more commonly found at lower organizational levels.

    Ambiguous or non-existent reinforcement

    At this level, outstanding performance is expected. The bar of expectations is raised with every success. Early in your career, you were recognized for your strong per­formance. Each time you are promoted, however, you’re judged by your peers, who were also selected into this faster lane because of their own strong performance. So at each level, you begin to look more and more like the pack. Everybody in the pool is a great swimmer.

    You’re expected to be successful, so no one’s going to notice unless your performance is not outstanding. Most top executives and CEOs provide inadequate reinforce­ment and supportive critique as a matter of course. If you don’t have a clear set of internal standards, and a pretty good sense of your performance against those standards, you’re likely to become anxious in the short haul, and miserable over time in high level roles.

    How to fail

    Knowing what it’s like at the top, to include the potential disappointments, warts, and blemishes, helps prepare you to deal with the difficulties and obstacles you’ll encounter. Knowing what not to do is sometimes as im­portant as learning what to do. This will help you avoid unnecessary heartburn and glitches along the way.

    One of the earliest studies of the causes of executive failure was published by psychologists Morgan McCall and Michael Lombardo. They identified a number of fatal flaws that lead to a person’s eventual derailment on the way up the organizational ladder. As I recall, their initial research sampled males only. However, this seems equally applicable to women. Listed below are the causes of executive failure they identified.

    • Insensitivity to others and abrasiveness
    • Coolness, aloofness or arrogance
    • Betrayal of trust
    • Overly-developed ambition
    • Specific business-related performance problems
    • Over-managing, resulting in the inability to delegate or to build a team
    • The inability to hire good people
    • The inability to think strategically
    • The inability to adapt to bosses with different styles
    • Over-dependence upon advocates or mentors

    It might seem odd to start out on a somewhat negative note, but none of this is meant to scare or de­moralize you. A realistic job preview is one of the best ways to help ensure a good fit. So if the be-careful-what-you-wish-for message hasn’t given you pause, if you’re prepared to avoid things that derail people, if you still want to move up in the organization, and if you feel that the rewards of leadership are worth the sacrifices, keep reading. Next are some first-things-first observations to consider.

    Key concepts

    Life in the executive suite can be quite rewarding, but it also has its surprises, not all of which are pleasant. Being in a high visibility position means you must deal with some of the unanticipated and potentially negative side effects of success. You need to be prepared for them and for some of the pitfalls on the way up.

     

     — Hodge Golson

  • Life’s Tough; Life at the Top’s a Lot Tougher

    This article was originally part of an orientation for new hires into a fast-track rotational program. The participants were MBAs from the nation’s top business schools.

    The musings on leadership at the executive level won’t tell you anything you don’t already know. But most executives don’t take the time to fully explore some of these issues. Think about some of them against the backdrop of real-time business situations you face. Some phenomena of executive life at this level, especially in a large and geographically dispersed organization include:

    The Executive Amplifier. As one moves up in an organizational hierarchy, one’s public organizational life starts to become a product of sound bites. You don’t have the time to build relationships throughout your organizations as they become larger and as you move up. People can’t get to know you the way they did as you were coming up, so they decide what you’re like as a person and as a leader by what they see in short, infrequent samples of public behavior. And they read far too much into the leader’s words and actions. If you make an effort to smile and to talk to people, you’ll have the image of being an approachable, concerned and people-oriented leader. If you show no emotion and act in a neutral, unexpressive manner, people will see you as detached or will project things from their own psyches onto the blank screen you provide. If you scowl, snap at someone or otherwise look unhappy, they’ll see you as negative, irritable and unfriendly. And it only takes a few times for the image to emerge. Therefore, think about how the little things you do day-in and day-out affect the image you project to the troops. Company cultures are based on shared values which are displayed through your behavior. Much of an executive’s impact on the troops is through the symbolism of his/her behavior.

    The Executive as Celebrity. The larger your organization and the less often people see you, the more you become like a celebrity. Some people enjoy this but many are surprised and uncomfortable with it. Few anticipate the demands it will place on them or think about the downsides of the executive fishbowl before experiencing it.

    The Executive as Energy Source. Many people look to the leader for their own inspiration and energy. The leader’s job sometimes includes keeping the troops pumped when his/her energy and attitude are waning. This need to provide the spark for others can drain the executive’s own energy, especially if he/she isn’t a natural extravert. Extraverts typically recharge their batteries by contact with others while introverts tend to renew their resources by having time to themselves.

    The Cognitive Elite. Executives are usually a little brighter than are people in the general population. That’s often the reason they’re in the executive role — because they are good problem-solvers. Most of the executive’s peers are also smart and most of the people they deal with are smart. There are plenty of smart people at all levels of large organizations, but on average executives score higher on measures on intellect than do people at lower organizational levels. Keep in mind that this is no guarantee that any one individual executive will be brighter than any one individual person from a lower level. However, the best executives will keep in mind the necessity of clarifying and simplifying messages that go to the whole organization. They also remember to include the emotional component of the message. People in the ranks as a group won’t understand or get behind such concepts as “increasing stockholder value” without a sense of what’s in it for them. Also, when there’s bad news, they need to know you understand the hardships and that you really do care. But be careful because that’s hard to fake.

    A second aspect of the brainpower factor is the Apollo Effect. This refers to the phenomenon of having too many bright people on the team. An Apollo team is characterized by too many ideas, too much criticism of those ideas, and very little agreement about the direction the team should take. This was first observed by English psychologist R. M. Belbin who ran a series of large-scale management simulations in the ’70’s. He tried stacking the deck by creating a number of superteams (or Apollo teams, named after the Apollo Project). He did this by populating those teams with only the brightest individuals on the theory that there would be certain synergies resulting from the exceptionally high intelligence levels of the teams. In all cases, the Apollo Teams crashed and burned if they ever even got out of the gate. The teams with a balance of talents regularly ate their lunch. Too many executive teams are Apollo teams populated by bright but egocentric, stubborn, and insensitive people. You can guess what effect that has on teamwork.

    The Imposter Phenomenon. This term was coined by psychologist Pauline Clance in her book of the same name. It refers to the feelings of inadequacy and guilt many successful people encounter because of their accomplishments. The internal dialog, whether conscious or beneath the surface, goes something like “I’m above average but not particularly special. I’m not sure I really did anything to deserve being where I am, and I’m worried that people will figure that out. I sometimes feel like an imposter.”

    The Paradox of Feedback. The higher one goes in an organization, the more one needs information and feedback. But the higher one goes, the less likely he/she is to get feedback. People aren’t inclined to tell executives how they really come across. Issues of power (this woman can fire me), politics (I think he’s a lousy leader but he sure responds to flattery), and socialization (kids don’t tell Daddy what they really think) interfere. Also, many aspects of the executive personality work against his/her hearing bad news. They’ve always been reinforced for knowing the answer and being strong in the face of opposition. Having a good source of unbiased critique is invaluable for an executive’s development.

    High Visibility but No One To Talk To. It’s a cliché to say that it’s lonely at the top, but it’s true. At each successive level, the peer group support network gets weaker. Executive group interactions typically aren’t characterized by openness and trust. Consequently, there’s no arena for the executive to relax, to get the easy give-and-take interaction, feedback and counsel more commonly found at lower organizational levels.

    Ambiguous or Nonexistent Reinforcement. At this level, outstanding performance is expected. When that’s the norm, all you get is negative critique or nothing at all. You’re at the top of the scale, so no one’s going to notice unless your performance is not always outstanding. Besides, most CEO’s, presidents, and executive level people give inadequate reinforcement and supportive critique. If the executive doesn’t have a clear set of internal standards and a pretty good sense of his/her performance against those standards, that person is likely to become overly anxious in the short haul and miserable over time.

    So what’s the beleaguered executive to do? First, find out whether you’re really suited for this kind of work. Many very bright and competent people don’t have the unique combination of drives, interests, and characteristics for this work. Second, assuming that you’ve decided you are suited for executive responsibilities, you need to decide if your current role is a good fit.

    Beyond answering the basic questions of suitability, the following suggestions may help:

    Define the Goal. This is basic. You need to know where you’re taking your troops. We’ve seen leaders’ ratings from their subordinates improve across the board when the only thing that really changed in their behavior was the development of a clear goal that captured the imagination and support of people in the ranks.

    Communicate the Goal. The obvious is easily overlooked. It does no good to define the goal if people don’t know what it is. The message should be clear and consistent, and you need to be prepared to repeat it often. And don’t discount the need for persuasion.

    Be Optimistic but Realistic. Make sure the goal is a stretch but reachable. Communicate in an upbeat, positive manner but don’t be a Pollyanna. Answer questions directly and acknowledge a lack of information when necessary. Give clear feedback about progress and performance against the goal, and be sure to reward good performance.

    Model Openness and Trust. Absolute integrity is essential. Once a person has done something to lose trust in an organization, he/she may be able to regain some of it over time, but it never rises to the original level. It would be naive to ignore political dangers, but it’s a disaster to become cynical or to make decisions based only on your own political gain. Executives usually live in a world that encourages predatory behavior. That won’t change overnight, but it won’t change at all if you don’t make the effort. Don’t neglect political dangers but set the example of dealing in a straightforward manner. The more fair and consistent you are, the more likely others will be to deal with you in the same way. If you do enough of this, eventually you’ll establish that solid support network most executives lack.

    Seek Feedback. You may have a strong game plan, but you need to know where you are to know how to get where you’re going. Objective feedback is hard to come by but if you don’t seek it, you won’t get it. You need to know how your people see you and what they need from you. Structured methods such as upward or 360-degree ratings are helpful but not infallible. Ask people who have had a chance to observe you what you do well and what you need to improve on. Your own boss is a good starting place.

    Get Good People and Let Them Go. Yeah, it’s a cliche. But it’s true. Empowerment’s fine as a value and as a pop-psych management term to toss out now and then, but if you empower the wrong people, you and your organization will go down the tubes. To make your life easier over time, don’t make compromises on selection. Remember, the old adage “A’s hire A’s and B’s hire C’s” is very true. The worst thing you can do with marginal people is to let them operate without structure or direction. The worst thing you can do with good people is to manage them too tightly. Once you know they’re good and they’re with the program, give them broad goals then get out of their way until they need help.

    Take Care of Yourself. If your needs aren’t getting met, if you’re running yourself into the ground, if you’re not taking enough time to replenish your reserves, you’ll lose effectiveness. Balance is important. Remember that in order to regain control, it’s sometimes necessary to let go of control. Be sure your stress management skills are well-developed and that you’re taking the time to do the things that make you happy.

    Hodge Golson