Strike up the band for leadership

Learning from great leaders including the US founding fathers is the constant theme of this blog. Today, I want to depart and tell you about a close-to-home example that everyone could learn from.

My husband plays clarinet in a community band. It's a mixed group of professional musicians, many of them retired, students, people who only began to play an instrument recently, and those who have played for decades. The average age of the players is probably around 70. From September to June they play a 2-hour concert once a month in a local community center to an enthusiastic audience. They specialize in marches and show tunes.

For the last few years my father-in-law and I sit in the audience and enjoy the show, tapping our feet to the peppy pieces and singing along to familiar songs. It's pleasant and we have a good time. But...the music isn't always that good. Often in the past it lacked a certain energy...a certain polish.

This past Sunday the band blew our socks off and played for 2 1/2 hours and had us all applauding and begging for more. People were out of their seats and very excited.

So what was different? Well, the band had a new conductor. That was the only difference...and what a difference it was.

• Energy and Focus: The new conductor, although a few years older than the previous one, had a spring in his step, a smile on his face, and an energetic conducting style. It wasn't flamboyant but it was active. Great leaders do that. They exude energy and focus. In fact, new research underway at MIT is measuring this to demonstrate the difference between the merely adequate and the great leader.
• Engagement: As the new conductor put the band through its paces, he made eye contact with different sections, subtly bringing them in, building their sound or lowering their volume. He engaged with individuals and sections to bring out the best in them. Great leaders do that. When they are talking with you, you are the only person in the room. Your own energy level increases and your performance moves toward your true capabilities.
• Highlighting Achievement and Talent: The new director composed a program with the usual marches and show tunes but with a twist. Each one highlighted a particular section -- the brass, the winds, the drums, etc. Each tune gave a whole section the opportunity to strut their stuff and shine in front of the audience. He also had several pieces that featured individual members up front soloing and demonstrating their unique talents. Leaders are proud of the talents of their teams and want them to shine. Great leaders don't have to be the center of attention or the best at everything.
• Making the best with what you have: The community band has a diversity of talent. Some members aren't very good while a few are outstanding musicians. But what makes such a band possible is that everyone is there because they want to be. They enjoy playing music whether they are particularly good at it or not. The former band leader used to spend a lot of time fussing at people, trying to get them to play better. The new director talks about the music with them -- its meaning, origin, and subtleties. Leaders do that naturally. They get everyone focused on a goal -- in this case, playing a particular piece of music as well as possible. They have a clear mission -- bring enjoyment to the community through their music making. He keeps them focused on the goal and mission -- they do their best on their own to meet those.
• Challenge the Team to Excel: The former conductor would always include at least one or two 'serious' pieces -- usually a little slow (even draggy.) All they managed to do was highlight the lack of talent in some players when the tempo slowed and individual instruments were harder to hide in the ensemble. The new conductor had a different approach that both challenged the players and, again, got the best out of them. First, he lengthened the program by about 20 minutes, adding more pieces. Second, he had one more challenging piece, still in the genre the band does best. The band was a little apprehensive but they came through with flying colors -- or rather soaring sound. Their energy was a little lower by the end but still higher than all of last season. Leaders help their teams build on their strengths and remind people of the confidence they have in them.

By the end of the concert my 96 year old companion was jumping for joy. "I can't believe how good they sound. They were terrific." And they were. Same players, same audience, same instruments, same sort of music, same hall -- Leadership -- a good band leader -- made all the difference.

His transformation of the band reminded me of a quote from Dr. W. Edwards Deming about work and leadership:

Why are we here? We are here to come alive...to have joy in our work. 

The band leader brought joy to his players, the audience, and to himself. Strike up the band for your own leadership.

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(c) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, president, Advantage Leadership, Inc.

For more about learning from great leaders, check out Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers, available at http://www.conventionalwisdomcenter.com/

Learn more about how Rebecca and her team can help you develop your own strategic leadership and that of your team at http://www.advantageleadership.com/ 

Be Careful What You Ask For: Getting the Mission Wrong

Be Careful What You Ask For: Getting the Mission Wrong
Is your Mission statement leading you to new and greater accomplishments or down the road to perdition?

No, this is not a rhetorical question. Although everyone today is aware that they need a mission for their organization, just having one doesn't mean you will automatically be successful. In fact, many mission statements are simply meaningless. They've been wordsmithed by marketing types and vetted by the lawyers to a point where they no longer really say anything.

The mission should bind the individual to the organization. It should give him or her a clear statement of what the organization is all about. Then the person can make decisions and take actions by asking one simple strategic question:

Will this decision or action move me closer to or further from accomplishing my mission?

No firefighting. No knee-jerk reactions. No crisis management...or at least not as much!

The first step is to have a clear concise mission statement. It should be short and to the point. It should provide guidance for action.

Ritz Carleton Hotels stated in its credo: We are Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen. Every employee can view his or her work through this clear lens.

It's 2 AM and you're the desk clerk facing a disgruntled guest who just got in from a grueling trip. He's tired and cranky and taking it out on you. What do you do? In most hotels the rest of the story would not be pretty. At Ritz Carlton, the clerk goes through something like this in his or her head: 'I'm a gentle person and that guest is a gentle person having a very bad day. What can I do to help?' And then the clerk acts accordingly...the key word is 'act' not 'react.'

A couple of decades ago the city of Portsmouth, Virginia was down on its luck...but not completely out of luck. The City brought in a remarkable and talented City Manager who set a new -- simple -- mission for the city: ‘Clean City, Economic Development, and Customer Service.’ And then George Hanbury spread that mission and it's meaning to every official and employee.

The city turned around under Hanbury's leadership. Eighteen years later they invited him back for a special 'George Hanbury Day.' At the reception a man came up to him. "I'm sure you don't remember me but I drove a garbage truck when you became City Manager. I still remember that mission you gave us, 'Clean City, Economic Development, and Customer Service.' It changed everything."

That's the power of a good mission. It's transformational.

But there is a nasty little problem hiding under the surface in many mission statements. They can contain the seeds of their own destruction. And when you get it wrong and follow it successfully, you can destroy yourself. A major utility company presents an object lesson. The company decided to reinvent itself and implement a new quality philosophy. They stated their road map for action this way.

"During the next decade, we want to become the best managed electric utility in the United States and an excellent company overall, and be recognized as such."

On the surface it looks fine. It is striving to be well managed and excellent. These are admirable goals if a little vague. But the problem comes in the final part of the statement, 'be recognized as such.' At first it seems reasonable. Come up with a measurement that will demonstrate this excellence. Sounds OK. It helps counteract the vagueness.

Here's where things took a wrong turn. The CEO and his team decided that the 'recognition' would be winning the Deming Prize. This was the prestigious Japanese quality award named for the great guru of quality, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, who had been pivotal in helping Japanese industry recover after World War II. A special foreign division prize had just been announced. So the company decided to 'go for it.'

Now this in itself was not necessarily a bad thing. The prize required great rigor, dedication and leadership to be achieved. It would certainly be an important recognition of excellence. So far so good...

They set off on their excellence journey. Without meaning to or even noticing it, the mission shifted to emphasize the 'recognized as such' part of the mission. This happened slowly, imperceptibly despite a lot of good intentions and excellent improvement results that were well documented. As the prize itself slowly refocused people's efforts, a 'quality bureaucracy' materialized. As a former employee quipped, 'you couldn't plan lunch without doing a 7 step storyboard!'

The great day came and sure enough the company achieved its mission measurement -- the Deming Prize. It was a Pyrrhic victory.

First they were attacked in the local paper and then Public Service Commission got into the act. Who was going to pay for all of this? The rate-payers didn't want to foot the bill! This was despite the fact that the company made significant strides and reduced costs. There was that initial investment that people did not want to pay for. Later that year there was a freak storm and service was interrupted significantly. The howling media jumped all over the notion that the company was 'excellent' or 'well-managed.'

It wasn't long before the CEO was out of work and a memo was 'leaked' to the papers announcing the dismantling of the quality improvement program and its infrastructure.

What went wrong? That decision to add 'be recognized as such' led to choosing to win a prize and then to a distortion of the company's focus. No one meant it to happen. These were bright, experienced and well intentioned people. And the media weren't fair but by that time it was really too late. Chasing the prize (which Dr. Deming himself always criticized) did the damage long before the papers got into the act.

The point here is not to 'put down' the company. In fact, I was a great admirer of their efforts and accomplishments. I used much of their methodology to accomplish some great results. The point is to be very careful in constructing your mission. If you use it right, you will accomplish it, unintended consequences and all.

The mission requires regular scrutiny. Is it still leading us in the right direction? Is it as powerful in achieving results as those of the city of Portsmouth and Ritz Carlton Hotels? Have we slipped off the path without noticing it? Does every single person understand it, embrace it and use it every day? Are we on the happy path or the road to perdition?

There's a wonderful old country tune that the Carter Family used to sing:
Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side,Keep on the sunny side of life. It will help you on your way, It will help you every day,If you keep on the sunny side of life.

Keep your mission on the sunny side.

-- Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, Ph.D., President

Advantage Leadership, Inc.

http://www.advantageleadership.com/

* * * * *

Want to learn more about creating a strategic plan that gets robust results?

There are two easy ways to get our best selling book, Success Planning: A 'How-To' Guide for Strategic Planning. It is now used in hundreds of companies world wide and is part of the curriculum at one of the US military War Colleges.

(1) Buy it directly from our website: www.AdvantageLeadership.com/book.html Add on our unique 30-day e-mail mini-course on strategic planning for more practical tips and techniques.

(2) Buy it on Amazon: Search on Strategic Planning -- we are on one of the first few pages

* * * * *

Look for our new book, Conventional Wisdom How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform and Progress Like the Founding Fathers early in 2008 and read more about how leaders handle mistakes and much more.

Based on the US Constitutional Convention of 1787 and interviews with successful CEOs, this unique business book combines history and business. I examine the Convention as an example of typical strategic planning with all of its creativity and messiness. Spring forward to the present and see how today's CEOs use the same techniques to transform their companies and translate vision into reality. Learn from all of the leaders --what works in the real world so that you can improve your own abilities as a strategic leader.

You want to start planning when?

Government Seeks Small Business to Supply Strategic Planning Services
...That headline in an email came to my attention immediately and I kept reading the Request For Proposal. It sounded more and more intriguing as I raced through the details. I stopped for a moment when it said the firm would need top security clearance. But I didn't think that would be a problem. After all, my book, Success Planning: A 'How-To' Guide for Strategic Planning, is used by one of the US military's war colleges...

So I kept on reading and thinking about what they were requesting and how my company fit all the requirements. They also wanted only small businesses to bid on the job. Finally I got to the last line where they let the cat out of the bag...or should I say Baghdad...That's right...the government is ready to do strategic planning in Iraq!

What? Did I read that right? Politics aside, folks, it's a little late...Shouldn't they have had a strategic plan before? But I promised I wasn't going to write about politics...

Wait a minute...Is it really so absurd to engage in serious strategic planning? Even now?

Maybe not...Stick with me. What about your own business or organization? Is everything going 100% the way you want? Are all your results moving in a positive direction? Are you facing some tough challenges or even disaster? Where do you need to be by this time next year? What changes do you need to make to assure your future?

You see, strategic planning can start any time. The key is to do a thorough and excruciatingly honest situational analysis of every aspect of your operation. Be sure to include a SWOT Analysis: What are your Internal Strengths and Weaknesses and what are your External Opportunities and Threats?

Prioritize these based on their levels of impact -- High, Medium or Low. Or, if you need more sophistication, you can assign numbers or weighting factors. Then decide which of your highest External Threats you need to have a contingency plan for and how you can leverage the highest External Opportunities.

As you go through your planning process and set your Goals and Objectives -- the descriptions of the results you want -- go back to your Internal Strengths and Weaknesses. Decide how you will use your Internal Strengths (especially your highest ones) to help you meet your Goals and Objectives. These will be specific tactics that you will execute. Then look at the Internal Weaknesses. Which of them (especially the highest ones) will have a negative effect on reaching your Goals and Objectives? Decide which specific tactics -- actions --
you will need to take to mitigate or minimize these Weaknesses.

Remember, many people remember to look at the 'worst case' and forget to look at the 'best' case to maximize their Internal Strengths. Now all you have to do is execute your plan!

So maybe it's a great idea for the government to start this sort of analysis and planning in Baghdad...Plus, it's a fabulous opportunity for some small business...

And, no, I will not be applying for the job...Facilitating planning sessions in a flack jacket is not my idea of following Dr. W. Edwards Deming's dictum to 'have joy in work!'

-- Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, Ph.D., President

Advantage Leadership, Inc.

http://www.advantageleadership.com/

* * * * *

Want to learn more about creating a strategic plan that gets robust results?

There are two easy ways to get our best selling book, Success Planning: A 'How-To' Guide for Strategic Planning. It is now used in hundreds of companies world wide and is part of the curriculum at one of the US military War Colleges.

(1) Buy it directly from our website: www.AdvantageLeadership.com/book.html Add on our unique 30-day e-mail mini-course on strategic planning for more practical tips and techniques.

(2) Buy it on Amazon: Search on Strategic Planning -- we are on one of the first few pages

* * * * *

Look for our new book, Conventional Wisdom How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform and Progress Like the Founding Fathers early in 2008 and read more about how leaders handle mistakes and much more.

Based on the US Constitutional Convention of 1787 and interviews with successful CEOs, this unique business book combines history and business. I examine the Convention as an example of typical strategic planning with all of its creativity and messiness. Spring forward to the present and see how today's CEOs use the same techniques to transform their companies and translate vision into reality. Learn from all of the leaders --what works in the real world so that you can improve your own abilities as a strategic leader.