The author asked Col. Casey Haskins, the former Director of Military Instruction at West Point, what his recommendations might be. His comments included:

“When we make decisions very quickly under stress, we don’t usually have access to a full understanding of the situation, and we don’t have access to all of our calm, rational resources.” He goes on to note: “Even if you don’t know the specifics, your odds are much better if you act than if you don’t.” Why? Because, “If you’re already acting, that by itself helps you remain calm.” And more…

“You have to train so that what you’re really practicing is staying calm, thinking quickly, and problem-solving. Deliberate thinking itself becomes a drilled, automatic response. Your decisions will still have a very high error rate — your error rate making decisions under stress is much higher than when you’re calm, rational, talking like we are right now — but that is still better than the error rate you’ll have if you do nothing.”

Character Moves:

1. We need to PRACTICE staying calm, thinking deliberately, and critically taking action. By doing this, we will be practicing leadership. The key thing is to practice when we don’t think it counts. Practicing in “smaller” situations will prepare us for the moment the “big one comes.” And that big moment, which hopefully does not involve violence, will come to all of us. We need to be ready.
2. If we look for it, there are opportunities to practice taking deliberate action. It may be a stressful meeting, a traffic jam, a loved one needing emergency medical attention, etc. The key thing is to recognize that there is a space or gap between stimulus and response. (See my previous blog on utilizing the space). When we effectively use that space to measure our response, we are likely to make more deliberate and better action-based decisions. 
3. Remember that taking action under stress is much better than paralysis and taking no action, (the proverbial “deer in headlights”). As Col. Haskins states above, if you’re already in motion, (but NOT panicking), that by itself contributes to being calmer and more deliberate. If we make the space noted above too big, we might become slow and stuck. 
4. Practicing to take advantage of the “space” between stimulus and response, will also help you take into account others in your presence. The brave, beautiful, loving, teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School, practiced for a school lock down and as a result took deliberate action that saved many lives. And that is heroic leadership under the most extreme, and deadly stress.

Leadership under extreme stress in The Triangle,

Lorne

I heard a great story today about the President and CEO of the Canadian airline WestJet. The storyteller was on a flight from Toronto to Calgary. As the flight begins to take off, Gregg Saretsky (WestJet’s número uno boss), takes the audio system, introduces himself and welcomes all 130 passengers. During the flight he helps flight attendants serve the passengers, and even pick up all the trash. He then says hello to all the people on the plane. He thanks them and asks for any input on how WestJet can get better. He concludes the trip by hosting a contest for all the passengers. The person closest to guessing the weight of the airplane fully loaded wins a free trip to anywhere WestJet flies. Wow. When the passengers and entire flight crew landed, they exited as raving fans. So what was the benefit for the CEO? He captured all the learning from applying the five actuals. Like Saretsky, you can be an “actual” leader regardless of where you work and what role you have. If you aspire to actually becoming one, apply the following.

Character Moves:

1. Actually get out of your office/cube, go down to the floor or where the work is being done, and talk to the employees there. It’s extremely important to do this and find where there’s waste, inefficiency and identify/encourage the people doing things well.
2. Actually observe the processes in action. Don’t listen to somebody else and have him or her tell you how processes are working. You really need to watch it yourself, because unfortunately in others transferring the message you’ll be surprised what gets lost in translation.
3. Actually engage the people doing the work. They’re the experts and know the answers if you ask them and genuinely listen.
4. Actually collect data on what’s going on with the processes. Observe what the situation is and what the problems are. Use the metrics as evidence.
5. Actually understand how value is being delivered from a customer point of view! Challenge the processes.

If you apply the above you will be actually in touch. When people working with or for us think we don’t actually know what is really going on, they lose faith and become less engaged. If you don’t know or care what’s actually going on, why should they care?

Actually in the Triangle,

Lorne

- Dr. Seuss, The Lorax. 

Just one wonderful thing about having a 5-year-old grandson is the opportunity to snuggle up with him in a big leather arm chair, and watch a “kids” movie (like Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax.) The iPad and iPhone are out of reach. It’s just him, Dr. Seuss and me. The Lorax has many messages worth reflecting on; greed, purpose, exploitation, the environment and much more. But I think the heart of the movie is prefaced by the adverb, “UNLESS.”

The challenge inspired by the word “unless” hits me on the noggin literally every day. While I never want to absolve others… Management, governments, or any other group from their obligations, things only become better for us because of what we do individually. And the root of much of what we decide to do stems from whether we really care or not. It is easy to wish for something but ultimately one has to really care to inspire action for change. 

I recently watched Stanley McChrystal (four-star general, former Green Beret and top commander of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the U.S.,) present to a packed auditorium of Stanford MBAs. The message was about leadership and at the core was McChrystal’s view that leadership is not about talent or a gift. It’s about choice. It about caring and UNLESS you and I determine what to actually focus our efforts on, nothing really changes.

Character Move:

1. Watch The Lorax. If you can, watch it with a kid. Let yourself wonder what “seed you want to plant and grow.”
2. Give yourself some quiet time to reflect upon what you tell yourself and others when discussing what you really care about. Then check how much you have devoted to your “care.”
3. UNLESS you care… Really care… And choose to act, nothing will be better for you on that matter. Recognize that caring… Really caring… Is hard work. 
4. And deeply caring and acting on something with conviction is true leadership. 

UNLESS in The Triangle, 

Lorne

Key Point:

Boris Groysberg is a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Michael Slind is a writer, editor, and communication consultant. They are the coauthors of Talk, Inc.: How Trusted Leaders Use Conversation to Power Their Organizations. They have some great research and work on leadership through conversation. Their model, which you will find at the end of this blog, will provide additional guidance.

Character Move:

1. Be Intimate. Great conversation means finding a way to be personal and authentic. Even in large groups we can have a more personal discussion. Top-down pronouncements and being on transmit just isn’t very effective. Associates become good at taking mental vacations while sitting back looking at a monitor and/or watching us standing at a podium. We have to find ways of connecting personally. I would love to see organizations filled with real or metaphorical kitchen tables and a lot more old-fashioned “family dinner” settings.
2. Be Interactive. It is important to have a conversation WITH colleagues and not just at them. Face-to-face is the best. Yet even with all the work mobility, workplace variety, and employees scattered everywhere, interactive tools like Yammer or others allow for more open and interactive dialogue. Blogs and discussion forums need to be common discussion tools for all of us. We can be interactive at a distance.
3. Be Inclusive. The best way to engage others is to involve them in understanding and building the message. Everyone in the conversation has to work at it. In today’s world, informing does not necessarily mean that we’ve communicated. Dialogue means we are active with each other. How often do you see people sitting back, arms crossed while some executive is out in front trying to be profound, sweating and doing all the work as the transmitter? Everyone has to be involved in telling the company story and/or communicating the key message.
4. Be Intentional. What is the intended outcome of your conversation? Does everyone you’re communicating with know what the expected result is? How do you know? Make sure the agenda and outcome is clear. Sometimes the communicator thinks it’s obvious. That is often not the case. Verify the target audience gets the intention. Check in with them before, during and after the conversation.

Being on transmit and exclusive top-down communication is a telling process. It is not necessarily effective communication. Email is often a lousy surrogate for communicating and a long email string is rarely representative of a great conversation. It certainly is not using conversation and dialogue as part of the leadership system. So when you’re about to send that email and/or give that big speech and think you’ve communicated, you may want to test it against the framework of an organizational conversation and supplement it accordingly.

More conversation in The Triangle,

Lorne

Inspiring in the Triangle,

Lorne

Character Move: Enjoy learning from the best by reading the January 2012 edition on me. And, by the way, I’m proud to be included on page 17. :) I do have permission to share this issue with my followers (and I apologize for not making it available last month, but the material is still timely and very relevant). Seriously consider subscribing – this magazine is worth it.

Leadership Excellence in the Triangle,

Lorne

Real leaders know that business effectiveness is about balance and that getting great financial results ultimately depends on what PEOPLE do and how they do it. However, to make those more attracted to just the financial metrics, note the following.

Jack Wiley is the founder and Executive Director of the Kenexa High Performance Institute. Last year his team surveyed more than 30,000 people who work in the biggest economies—including Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. and learned that workers across job types, cultures, industries, and pay scales don’t want to just be paid. While a quarter of employees rate pay as their highest priority, 75 percent of what employees most want has nothing to do with taking home a bigger paycheck—they want RESPECT: recognition, exciting work, security, pay, education, conditions, and truth.

RESPECT Makes Financial Sense

Wiley’s group contrasted companies that have high and low ratings for all of the RESPECT items defined above and found that high-RESPECT companies outperform low-RESPECT companies. The following is an excerpt from Wiley’s article in the October issue of Leadership Excellence magazine:

• Employee Engagement. Employees who get what they want from their organizations are more engaged than their unfulfilled counterparts. Their scores are 40 percentage points higher when it comes to workplace pride, satisfaction, advocacy, and commitment.

• Operation Performance. High-RESPECT employees outscore their low-RESPECT counterparts by more than 25 percentage points when asked about their companies’ product quality, customer satisfaction, and competitiveness.

• Customer Satisfaction. High- RESPECT companies achieve excellent scores, and greatly out perform their low-RESPECT competitors on the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

• Financial Performance. By correlating RESPECT scores against Diluted Earnings per Share, Return on Assets, and Total Shareholder Return, we found the high-RESPECT companies outperformed their low-RESPECT competitors across all three financial metrics.

Character Move:

1. Recognize that most elements of RESPECT don’t cost much to improve. BUT it takes conscious and focused action. You need to be aware where you stand on the RESPECT continuum.
2. Read Wiley’s work and the Respect chapter in The Character Triangle to better understand the behavior that supports building respect.
3. Take action yourself. If you’re a manager, determine what action you can take in your area to drive reinforce it. Measure for it. If you are an individual contributor, lead by your action.
4. Remember that RESPECT pays!

Respect as a dividend in The Triangle,

Lorne

I know that I’ve been extremely fortunate to have been married for 40 years to a partner whom I can openly discuss anything. Her insight and feedback has been instrumental to my leadership and decision making. As a voracious reader, most of my important ideas have been uniquely built on the many thoughts of others, genuinely soaking into my own belief and habit system.

Former Yale professor William Deresiewicz, who was the source of my recent Jane Austen blog, pointed me to a lecture on leadership he gave to West Point Cadets in 2009. That speech had a huge impact, including a note of recognition from General David Petraeus. I strongly urge you to read it. Deresiewicz’s lecture essentially reinforced concentrated solitude and personal intimacy as crucial ingredients to drive authentic and powerful leadership. His premise is that we have too many “sheep leaders”, people exceptionally smart but short on having the ability to authentically think through complex issues while developing creative solutions.

Character Move:

1. Make it an integral part of your personal development system to invest in solitude and concentration (without distraction of outside influences). Make it a point to increase self awareness by having crucial conversations with YOURSELF. This will support an evolution of an authentic self and personal leadership framework. Thinking for yourself means finding your real self.
2. Recognize that having an intimate mate or mates, to engage in meaningful conversations that can help you develop and test your guideposts, is a vital part of one’s life. We need real friends not just Facebook friends. One of the best ways, as Deseriewicz points out, of talking to yourself is talking to an intimate other, someone with whom you can unfold your soul.

Creating Intimate Solitude in the Triangle,

Lorne

Because we are currently in an internet content blizzard, I am attracted to trusted aggregators like G5 Leadership Training, an on-line purveyor of leading authors, leaders, academics. They bring the world’s best thinkers to our business and personal computers in the most efficient and powerful way. I want everyone I know to have access to these superb training and development modules. They are great examples of the “good stuff.” As an example, Tim Sanders and his key messages from Today We are Rich is one of the workshops available to you through G5 Leadership Training. Even better, for you THE GOOD STUFF IS FREE!! Here’s how to get access to content of the highest nutritional value for our minds.

Character Move SPECIAL OFFER: Feed your mind the good stuff. Invest in yourself! Just click here to sign up for unlimited access to G5 Leadership Training live, online workshops. Enter promo code “g5lornerubis”. Leadership Training will waive the annual membership fee (normally $129) for one year. Sign up and participate – you will feel like you are at the world’s best personal development courses without leaving your laptop or tablet.

The membership expires June of 2012, so you need to sign-up by the first week of July. The sooner you sign up for membership the sooner you can take advantage of G5 events.

The Good Stuff in the Triangle,

Lorne

To help me sort through the content clutter, I have chosen a trusted aggregator of the world’s best training and development leaders, authors, and gurus. G5 Leadership Training is one of the premier live web training companies in the world. They bring us New York Times bestselling authors like Stanford Professor Bob Sutton, Fast Company founder Bill Taylor, Marshall Goldsmith, David Allen, and Tim Sanders to name a few. Every year they add new, insightful, thought leaders on the most important topics in business.

Character Move SPECIAL OFFER: Take that ticket to ride. Invest in yourself! Just click here to sign up for unlimited access to G5 Leadership Training live, online workshops. Enter promo code “g5lornerubis”. Leadership Training will waive the annual membership fee (normally $129) for one year. Sign up and participate – you will feel like you are at the world’s best personal development courses without leaving your laptop or tablet.

The membership expires June of 2012, so you need to sign-up by the first week of July. The sooner you sign up for membership the sooner you can take advantage of G5 events.

Invest in yourself (for free) in the Triangle,

Lorne