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♦ How we Listen for Trust, or Not

By on May 11, 2012 in Business, Culture, Employee Engagement, Executive Excellence, Perspectives, Synergy, Trust, Values

Based on reputable research, no doubt leaders could do more to warrant our trust. BP’s CEO Tony Hayward admitted the criticism of the oil spill and subsequent inability to stop the damage was ‘entirely fair.’  Ok, it was an event, a mishap.  Let’s look at an ordinary, reoccurring issue in the news lately, CEO pay.

Who is culpable, for instance, for extraordinarily high CEO wages?   Considerable finger wagging has been going on in the press at CEOs about this.  It isn’t the CEO who sets his or her own salary; it is the board of directors.  Yet boards of directors were invisible to the press in these stories.  Often our assumptions may lead us to conclusions that malign others without full consideration for the facts.  This disturbs me greatly but I know I have done it, too.  Why is that?

Walking with a friend, I mentioned a situation that was just this kind of wrongful maligning, and she asked me, “How long does it take to find a witch?”  She was referencing the days in Europe from 1480 to 1700 when legally sanctioned and official witchcraft trials resulted in from 40,000 to 100,000 executions. It was decided someone was a witch, and that person was immediately burned at the stake.  Perhaps it is popular to not trust CEOs because the media are on a CEO witch-hunt.

While we’ve moved beyond flagrantly burning people at the stake, we still do character assassinations every day in the form of judgment and gossip.   Some of this finger wagging and witch-hunting and broad-brush painting is projection — making someone else responsible for what we, ourselves, don’t want to be responsible.  So I ask myself, is my promise about business leaders leading with integrity and love and listening for people’s greatness about convincing leaders to be that?  Or is there some culpability in how I, and others listen for a leader to be great?

I believe there’s a pandemic malaise that creates its own dissonance and a noise within which leaders are trying to lead.  The expectation that leaders should be responsible for all wrongs is abdication of personal responsibility, and in the United States anyway (where I live), it is a serious problem.

I would like for EVERY individual in an organization, be it government, non-profit or for-profit, to SEEK OUT and TAKE UP their part in building successful entity, using the energy they spend criticizing leadership and putting it into taking personal responsibility to own their own accountability for results.

For more on this topic you can request on this website, www.accountabilitypays.com, the larger thesis from which this excerpt was taken.

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Accountability is Access to Vitality. Really?

By on April 20, 2012 in Culture, Employee Engagement, Executive Excellence, Perspectives, Trust, Uncategorized, Values

How do you have conversations for accountability inside your organization?

Personally, I got appointed the babysitter when I was the oldest of 4 children.  It has taken me YEARS of committed introspection into the topic of accountability and what is available out of being accountable, to bring any lightness to this topic.  I did name my company “Accountability Pays,” so I do see a light at the end of the tunnel. Unless we want to suffer the consequences, we are accountable at work and at home, however we define it.

What if we could bring fun, play and ease to the conversations we have about being accountable?  The conversations I’ve usually had were focused on making someone wrong.  And if you’ve gotten to adulthood, you already know how that plays out!  It is not pretty for either party, when being made wrong or making another wrong.  It is the blame game, sound and fury signifying nothing, some version of “If you were different, if you were responsible, if you did things like I do them then all would be fine.”  That conversation does not usually go well UNLESS you are committed to coming out the other side with both people whole and complete, no kidding.  One of my fellow thinkers on this topic said it this way;  “The relationship is committed to workability for everyone.”

If being accountable — all of us being accountable — were fun, playful, easy what would be available?

Some of you think I’ve been smoking some illegal substance.  No, I have not.  What I know from my own experience, and sharing experiences with others, is that when everyone is accountable (clear, focused, results oriented) then the entity (relationship, organization) exudes vitality.

Think about a time when everyone did what they were supposed to do and you experienced what some call “flow.”  Stuff just got done!  People supported the whole with whatever was required, without being asked, even if it didn’t fit neatly into their job description.  Almost every one can think of one experience like that, and it was memorable, but seemingly not repeatable.  Why is that?  What I just described is the experience of being accountable with fun, play, and ease.

Here are a few quick rules that I’ve found work to bring fun, play, ease — and therefore vitality — to conversations for accountability.

  1. Don’t make people feel that they are wrong for doing it the way they are currently doing things, even if you don’t think they are right.
  2. Engage them in a discussion of what is possible if all pull on the oars of the boat headed in the same direction.
  3. ASK for their impression of what could be done, and LISTEN.
  4. Assume that if they do not understand you, it is because you did not communicate fully, not because they were stupid/not listening/whatever you made up about them.
  5. Remind them of how great it will be when celebration time comes around.
  6. Make them feel part of something bigger than themselves, something that is important.
  7. Watch them come alive.  Watch them dip into their inner reserves.  Watch them perform beyond your expectations, as a valued and valuable team member.
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Conscious Leadership is Attained through Intention and Disciplined Practice

By on April 6, 2012 in Breakaway Success, Executive Excellence, Perspectives, Values

A study of thirty-two sustainability leaders and change agents were the subject of a Ph.D. candidate, Barrett Chapman Brown. The study is called “Conscious leadership for sustainability: How leaders with late-stage action logics design and engage in sustainability initiatives.” http://integralthinkers.com/leadership/conscious-leadership/

Practical Implications: The results provide the most granular view to date of how individuals with complex meaning-making may think and behave with respect to complex change initiatives. This provides insight into the potential future of leadership. Social Implications: This study is an initial exploration of what leader development programs may need to focus on in order to cultivate leadership with the capacity to address very complex social, economic, and environmental challenges.

So what is consciousness?  Webster’s top four definitions are “1. a. the quality or state of being aware especially of something within oneself; b. the state or fact of being conscious of an external object, state, or fact; c. awareness; especially concern for some social or political cause. 2. the state of being characterized by sensation, emotion, volition, and thought : mind. “

Consciousness is often associated with a connection to a higher power, an inner knowing that comes from reflective states such as meditation.

Being conscious means you really do not lose your temper when you might have before.  It means attending to the triple bottom line (profits, people, planet) when strategically planning for the company’s future — recycle, give employees time and money to support causes outside the organization.  It means getting involved in the industry to create sustainability practices that shift the entire business model, not just your own organization’s actions.  It means caring about things like the environment, politics and its effects, the global state of affairs.  For example, if your business uses dry ice, find a replacement.  Dry ice pollutes.

It means setting aside your ego’s need to be liked in exchange for something greater than your organization and greater than your self-interest.  Consciousness is access to deeper meaning, deeper awareness.  It is access to fulfillment not found anywhere else.  And yes, it takes intention and discipline.

I would wish it for everyone who leads anywhere, any time.  That means all of us!

Where have you seen it?  When have you practiced?  Have you missed the opportunity and kicked yourself?

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