Center for Values-Driven Leadership

Leaders Manage Meaning

When we connect with others through our framing, we shape reality. What’s more, if we “manage meaning” when others are unable, we emerge as leaders. ~Gail T. Fairhurst

This past week I experienced one of the many perks of living in downtown Chicago – a night at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). The musicians casually filed in, warmed up their instruments, carefully tuned following the first violin’s lead, and then quietly and reverently waited for the conductor to enter. He enters and is welcomed with applause. The conductor could have turned his back to the audience, raised his arms, and began the first piece. But he didn't.

Instead, the conductor turned to the audience and described the first piece in great detail. He told us about the composer, Dvorak, and how the piece was written toward the end of his life. He went on to describe the visual images throughout the piece, what we would sense, how it would flow, and what was being communicated throughout the music.

All of this reminded me of the very important and artful skill of leadership that we many times rush past – framing. As Fairhurst states, we shape reality when we take the time to connect through framing. Framing might be accomplished through a story, a metaphor, visual images, or group exercise. As an example, it's taking the time at the beginning of a meeting to set the stage. On several occasions when I've known that those in the meeting have varied opinions and the discussion could create tension, I tell the fable of Three Blind Men and an Elephant. It acts as a reminder that even though we may see the situation from different perspectives given our individual experiences, that doesn't mean any one of us is right and all others are wrong.

Framing can better prepare individuals for an effective meeting and framing can also communicate vision and priorities. I recall a meeting with a college strategic planning committee that was struggling to articulate their collective vision. At one point, the president (finally!) stated his vision through framing and it seemed to connect with the committee members. Then the president, somewhat stunned at their surprise, said, “That's what I said in my inaugural speech three years ago.” Somehow, he thought he could frame his entire tenure as president in one speech at his inauguration. Framing vision and priorities is something that leaders must do constantly, not once a year at an annual meeting, or once in a career.

One of the most effective examples of framing might be Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech. The vast majority of the speech was framing. He was "managing meaning" when others were unable. I'll admit few of us are orators even close to the likes of Dr. King. But we can each find our individual art of framing. My church has a periodic guest speaker who uses visual aids in the form of props to an extreme. But he uses those props to "manage meaning" and frame his message. I recently heard a speaker who artfully used fables to frame complex ideas. I frequently facilitate meetings with leadership teams and I try to come up with a participative exercise that sets the tone and direction for the meeting.

Back to my evening with the CSO. Because the conductor took the time to "frame" each piece, I have no doubt I that my concert experience was much richer had he not taken the time to shape reality for the audience. Bravo, CSO, bravo!

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Dr. Kathryn Scanland is the president of Greystone Global LLC, a consulting firm focusing on strategic planning, leadership development and organizational design. This post is republished with permission from Tuesday Mornings.

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Four Things Strong Leaders Always Do (Plus an Invitation to Learn More)

There was a time when I looked forward to December as a time to slow down a little: sure, there were always extra parties to attend and shopping to be done, but my work calendar thinned out in the weeks preceding the end of the year. And on my emptier work days, I could look forward to a lighter To Do List and a few less meetings.

Not so anymore. If your schedule feels like mine, you're on a collision course with end-of-year deadlines. The To Do List is growing by leaps and bounds.

Through our research at the Center for Values-Driven Leadership, we spend a lot of time asking leaders how they spend their time. One CEO of a Inc. 500 company recently told us he spends 75 percent of his time, or more, on developing a positive culture. Not on spreadsheets, or dashboards, or metrics (though he watches all those things carefully as well). The result is a fast growing company that outperforms its closest competitor by 40 percent.

Dr. Kim Cameron, of the University of Michigan’s Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship has found that positive leaders are often exceptionally invested in people and culture. His research indicates that positive leaders always have these four items on their To Do Lists:

To Do #1: Foster a positive work climate. Specifically, positive leaders focus on creating environments that welcome compassion, forgiveness, and expressions of gratitude. Such expressions help transform people, which in turn helps transform the organization.

To Do #2: Foster positive relationships among members. Kim and his colleagues found that creating positive mentoring relationships, and helping people find the right fit on the right team, went a long way toward achieving extraordinary performance.

To Do #3: Foster positive communication. When given information about their best-self, their strengths, and their unique contributions, team members are able to capitalize on these strengths to the benefit of the organization.

To Do #4: Associate the work being done with positive meaning. When people experience a sense of calling in their work, performance is elevated and individual well-being is enhanced. Leaders can help people see how their contribution is meaningful and supported.

Whatever is at the top of your end-of-year To Do List, make time for these four items. You can learn more about positive leadership practices from Dr. Kim Cameron at our upcoming Senior Executive Roundtable:

January 11, 2013 | 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
(with networking reception to follow)
Tellabs Campus, 1415 W. Diehl Road, Naperville, IL
Registration (including two books): $50/person | Teams welcome

Our speakers are global experts on positive leadership: Dr. Kim Cameron of the University of Michigan’s Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship; and CEO of the Beryl Companies and Inc. Magazine columnist Paul Spiegelman. Learn more and register today at www.cvdl.org/Roundtable.

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Amber Johnson is the Center for Values-Driven Leadership's corporate relations and social media advisor. She is a non-profit and small business communications professional. In addition to blogging about business for the CVDL, Amber writes about marriage and other topics on her personal blog.

Positive Relationships Spur Exceptional Performance: Three Tips on Connecting Appreciation and Performance

This post originally appeared in our
November eNews.

Most of us know how to show gratitude and appreciation to friends and family, but it can be tougher at the office. Yet, research from a variety of sources confirms the link between gratitude, appreciation, and improved performance. You can expect more from people when you take time to say thanks. Here are three examples.

Positive relationships spur exceptional performance. We know instinctively that people work harder when they are appreciated. What you may not know is that it will make you happier too. In his book Positive Leadership, Dr. Kim Cameron of the University of Michigan shows that it’s what people give to a relationship, rather than what they receive, that accounts for the relationship’s positive effects. Give gratitude, and you’ll feel better about yourself, your employees and their performance.

Note: Kim Cameron will be joining us on January 11th for a Senior Executive Roundtable, Positive Strategies for Extraordinary Leadership. Registration required. $50/person, teams welcome. Learn more.

People who feel valued will work for meaning rather than just money. Author Daniel Pink’s book Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us, concludes that most of us aren’t purely motivated by our salaries or bonuses. Give people tasks that require intelligence and compensate them fairly, and they’ll be motivated by what they find meaningful. Show appreciation for your team by helping them connect their tasks to meaningful outcomes. “Thank you, Ryan, for your exceptional work in serving that client. She told me you made a great impression - we’ll likely get her business, and it’s due in large part to your great work.”

Learn more: See a quick video summarizing Pink’s book in our blog post, Carrots & Sticks are So Last Century.

Engaged employees are the future of your business. The four authors of It’s My Company Too!, a new book published by Greenleaf Press, introduce a new pinnacle of employee engagement: entanglement. Entangled employees, they write, are what drive the business forward: they innovate, they lead, they push back. And how do employees get entangled? They work in a strongly positive culture that offers autonomy: in essence, they’re appreciated. Entanglement may at first sound like a negative term, but as it’s been redefined, it’s the best business leaders could hope for in employees, and it revolves around gratitude.
Hear more: Read a review of It’s My Company Too!

This holiday season I plan to make a daily point of expressing gratitude to my colleagues. I hope you’ll find inspiration to do the same: and let us know the effects of gratitude in your company.

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Jim Ludema, Ph.D., is the director of the Center for Values-Driven Leadership and a Professor of Leadership and Change at Benedictine University.

Restrictions Will Set You Free!

We're paralyzed by infinite possibilities. Give yourself some intentional restrictions in life and you’ll finally get inspired to act. Restrictions will set you free. ~Derek Sivers

We tend to think that a blank canvass will spark creativity. That if we remove enough barriers employees will suddenly become inspired and innovation will flourish in every corner of our organizations. Could it be that the exact opposite might be true?

Derek Sivers is a musician and the creator of CDBaby.com, which became the largest online seller of independent music. Derek provides this example:

I say to you "Write me a piece of music. Anything at all. Go." "Umm…anything?” you say. "What kind of mood are you looking for? What genre?"

There are too many possibilities. The blank page problem. How do you begin with infinity?

Now imagine I say, "Write me a piece of music, using only a xylophone, a flute, and a shoe box. You can only use four notes: B, C, E, F, and only two notes at a time. It has to be in ¾ time, start quiet, get loud, then get quiet by the end. Make it sound like a ladybug dancing with an acorn. Go."

Ah…your imagination has already begun writing the music as soon as it hears the limitations. This is easy!

Those of us in developed countries have a blank page. We can do anything. Anything we want. And that's the problem. We're paralyzed by the infinite possibilities.

I've seen this thinking within organizations frequently and I've done it myself. Give people lots of freedom and they'll be creative. Instead, they become paralyzed. They return to their offices and keep doing what they've been doing; nothing innovative or even new or different materializes.

Testing has shown that restrictions actually aid creative thought. An art guild in Colorado took that finding literally and created an entire show based on restrictions. Each artist was limited to a 1' x 1' canvass. They believed that if they put certain limits on things, it would force artists to see things in different ways and stretch their abilities.

Disney believes that when you have unlimited resources, you can afford to be sloppy with your designs. Restrictions introduce a set of rules that you cannot change so you are forced to be creative in order to come up with a solution.

Think about something you have wanted to accomplish but it's stalled; it's not moving forward. Identify specific restrictions, work within those restrictions, and then watch your creativity and innovation soar. Your restrictions will set you free!

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New Book Redefines "Entangled," Sets New Framework for Building Strong Corporate Culture

Is employee entanglement the way to build an exceptional organization? At first glance, the idea is a bit disturbing. I squirmed a little when I read this use of the word "entangled" in It's My Company Too!, a new business book published by Greenleaf Book Group Press.

Entangled has messy connotations to me: maybe they meant engaged? I wondered. Or embedded? But no, three pages in the authors make it clear: they mean entangled. Why that word? Because entangled implies a state of tension, of being stretched - a familiar state for small businesses, like those featured in the book, in the current economic environment. But, as the authors describe it, for entangled employees in entangled organizations this tension exists because of their clear vision of where they want to be, and a firm knowledge that they aren't there yet. The entanglement tension creates a drive that helps organizations out-perform their peers.

"Entanglement is the critical force that separates world-class from common performance, providing an organizational competency that makes leaders among peers," write the authors. "It's these distinctive competences that make imitation impossible and competitors irrelevant."

Eight Not-So-Easy Pieces
Using the analogy of a puzzle, the authors identify eight "not-so-easy" pieces that great companies put into place to gain employee attention, build discretionary thinking, and excel in the marketplace:

Having leaders who do extraordinary things
Building an ethical organization
Focusing all the human capital
Using process to guide performance
Increasing an individual's self-efficacy
Giving employees freedom and responsibility within a culture of discipline
Hard-wiring discretionary thinking and actions
Guiding the transformation process to remarkable performance

None of these concepts are original to the book. What is original is the chemistry created by the combination of these ideas: when functioning together, it creates exceptional organizations. This is evident in the examples of the eight organizations featured in the books.

One company that especially works against the odds to create an entangled workforce is Mike's Carwash, an Indiana company with revenues around $60 million annually. In a business that often experiences high turnover within its lower-educated workforce, Mike's has decreased turnover by 25 percent, achieving exceptional standards within their industry, by concentrating on discretionary thinking, a trait they select for in the hiring process and train for once a new employee is on board. Team input drives strategic planning and shapes important customer service decisions. The Mike's workforce, writes the authors, "knows it can not only make suggestions and utilize discretionary thinking but also exercise its right to do what will delight customers."

Combining Practical Knowledge with Researched Insights

Delight is a concept that repeats itself throughout the book - customers are delighted, employees are delighted, results are delightful. But It's My Company Too! is not just a book of anecdotal stories and insights. Author Ken Thompson, Ph.D., is a professor of management at DePaul University; authors Tom Walter (CEO of Tasty Catering and a regular contributor to this blog) and Ray Bendetto, DM, are business owners and members of the Academy of Management. Co-author Molly Meyer helped launch creative firm NuphorIQ. Together they combine well-researched insights with observations from the inside of exceptional companies. The result is delightful.

It's My Company Too! is available on Amazon or through the authors' website.

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How to be a Good Coach: Tips for Employee-Focused Leaders

by Tom Walter

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Tom Walter is a "serial entrepreneur" who has launched nearly 30 companies. He is the CEO of Tasty Catering, named one of Winning Workplaces best small companies in 2010. He is the author of the forthcoming book, It’s My Company Too! This post is republished with permission from Serial Entrepreneur.

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Being a good coach means putting others before yourself and always making decisions for the good of the team. Here are a few tips on how to take coaching principles into the workplace in order to be an employee-focused leader.

Listen
This is the most important part of communication. Part of your job as a leader is to optimize your employees’ time at work. This might mean allowing them to vent for a few minutes to you in the morning if it helps them clear their heads and get on with the rest of their day. Otherwise, they might have a nagging thought constantly interrupting their work, or worse, they might end up complaining to a co-worker and simultaneously disrupt other people’s work.

Support
Show your employees that you support their decisions. When your teammates know that you have their backs, they are more empowered to make decisions on their own and challenge themselves to take on more of a leadership role.

Mentor
As a leader with experience, offer your point of view when you see employees faced with certain dilemmas. Coach them to a higher emotional intelligence and toward greater problem-solving skills, and offer them perspective when their particular dilemma grows out of proportion.

Photo by Eddie~S via Flickr.

Jeff Talbert* was the CEO of a fledgling company when, in an instant, he made a troubling discovery. More than a third of his 17 person staff was actively engaged in bullying another colleague.

The revelation came when Talbert scrolled through an email and found a chain of messages that had been inadvertently forwarded. Here was proof that six members of his team - some of them his most competent staff members - were sending anti-Semitic, degrading messages about the targeted colleague. They'd gone so far as to create a daily email of the target's offenses and short comings.

"The tone was hateful," says Talbert. "It was truly ugly stuff. I couldn't believe what I was reading."

Just a few years out of business school, and with a rapidly growing business on his hands, Talbert was faced with an ethical dilemma: do I fire some of my best staff and possibly sink the company in the process, or do I turn a blind eye?