How Can We Save the Working Class? Give Them Digital Skills.

Posted on by Real Leaders

America’s workforce is on the brink of crisis, and if our country’s leaders — both newcomers and incumbents — don’t prioritize workforce development now, the working class will crumble.

Companies large and small have increasingly turned to automated technologies in the quest to do more with less, leaving more Americans jobless. This trend has been so persistent that, last year, the Brookings Institution predicted a quarter of Americans could soon lose their jobs to automation.

The Pandemic Hit the Working Class Even Harder

Today, quite unexpectedly, many of the roughly 53 million Americans already trapped in a cycle of low-wage work now face unemployment. This is the same segment of the workforce most vulnerable to the threat of automation — and that threat now looms even larger.

The nearly universal pivot to remote work has fueled private-sector digitization efforts and will accelerate innovation advancing automated technologies. While this could ultimately lead to a more efficient, resilient national economy, it makes the future of the American worker uncertain.

Transforming Into a Tech-Driven Society

The pandemic will subside, but many of the jobs that disappeared upon its arrival won’t come back. The newly elected Biden administration must grapple with that reality now and implement policies that empower the working class to thrive in the digital economy of the future. It’s time for leaders to focus on tangible, scalable strategies for moving workers out of low-wage hourly employment and into digital roles that will soon define the workforce. The most critical component of any such strategy? Accessible, accelerated digital training.

Tech careers aren’t launched overnight. In order to be productive in important digital roles, millions of Americans will need to develop new skills and expertise. For that to happen, the country must shift away from the traditional learning pathways that have resulted in ballooning college tuition costs and a national student debt crisis and toward more affordable training pathways.

Before we can make this shift, we must think seriously about the implications of our transformation into a tech-driven society. Some already have: The demand for technical knowledge has fueled the rise of countless online education platforms, massive open online courses and other alternative learning outlets.

New Digital Pathways for the Working Class

Younger, tech-savvy Americans are especially keen to ditch traditional classrooms in favor of more practical learning experiences. According to an Insider and Morning Consult survey, 44% of Millennials with a college degree don’t believe obtaining that degree was worth taking on loans.

So what does a viable alternative to college look like? In order to support and encourage participation in alternative training programs that match the needs of modern workers and the future workforce, the Biden administration must establish incentives — especially for training providers.

Most job training programs get federal workforce funding in a similar way. First, an organization gets on an eligible training provider list managed by a local workforce board. When a trainee enrolls, the program gets half of the agreed-upon cost of training and then receives the rest of the money around the halfway point. In exchange for the funds, providers have to issue regular reports detailing participant graduation rates and success. Generally speaking, programs that don’t maintain an 80% graduation rate can be kicked off the list.

Although these rational requirements intend to ensure funding doesn’t go to programs producing undesirable outcomes, they do come with a couple of damaging consequences:

• The requirements unintentionally discourage providers from attempting to offer more difficult courses — the kinds of courses that could actually prepare unskilled workers for high-skill, high-demand jobs.

• They also push training providers to adopt smaller class sizes with more individualized learning at higher costs. If providers are incentivized to ensure nine out of 10 participants graduate, they might focus on teaching relatively basic career skills or on developing programs that spend intensively on each enrollee.

How to Better Arm Workers With the Skills of the Future

If we want to equip many workers with sophisticated digital expertise, the Biden administration must change how it allocates public funding. Instead of requiring providers to create elaborate reporting systems to receive federal funds on the front end, workforce agencies should allow programs preparing participants for high-difficulty, high-demand careers to collect payment on the back end — but only when a graduate gets a job.

This arrangement incentivizes providers to place as many people as possible into new roles at the lowest possible cost while taking the public system off the hook for the cost of unsuccessful participants.

Of course, there’s more than one way to approach worker training, but there might never be a better time. When again will the federal government distribute billions to state and local governments to invest in human capital?

Workforce development has never been considered a sexy talking point — in fact, it was conspicuously absent from media lists of key campaign issues leading up to the 2020 presidential election. The election results are in, but the leaders who focus on and provide viable workforce policies still have the unique opportunity to gain new supporters from a multitude of unemployed and underemployed Americans.

10 Leadership Lessons Learned on a Unicycle

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Ever try riding a unicycle?  I had to agree with most of my friends who call it “terror on a stick,” but I wanted to teach my grandkids that it was important to try new things even when you are afraid. 

My friends thought this sixty-year-old had lost his mind and, in truth, after my first fall, I thought they might be right. Admittedly, the learning curve for riding a unicycle is steep. It consisted of several major falls, picking myself up, dusting myself off, and trying again. After those failures — that resulted in many sore muscles — my grandkids saw me successfully riding the unicycle. In the process, they learned some important life lessons, and I was reminded of several that I’ve used in business and life.

1.    Some of life’s lessons are painful, but keep trying.
2.      Determination helps you overcome your fears.
3.      You won’t go very far without balance in your life.
4.      Breathe naturally – even when you are scared.
5.      Talk is cheap – action pays the bills.
6.      Don’t be concerned about what others are thinking.
7.      Goals help you push through the pain.
8.      You’re as old as you think you are.
9.      To reach your goals – you must be willing to stand out in a crowd.
10.     It’s important to get out of your comfort zone.

Fear can hold us back from reaching our full potential. However, it can also be an excellent motivator and teacher.

Good Luck! You are a WINNER!

If You Love Your Best Performers, Set Them Free

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Are your top executives disenchanted, disengaged, and considering leaving your corporation for more challenging opportunities? Encouraging them to head up a spinout gives them a purpose, inspires them to nurture something new, and could potentially help your company make millions.

It’s no secret that things move more slowly and methodically in corporations than in startups. That’s the nature of the beast. It also means that great ideas can fall through the cracks as quickly as they surface. Considering how vital innovation is to lasting business success, this is unfortunate.

Instead of letting ideas languish and die, a spinout can be an effective way to give those novel ideas the space and structure they need to grow. As enterprise-sponsored startups, spinouts can prioritize development and experimentation that will benefit your entire corporation. Thanks to their smaller size, spinouts speed up the innovation process. 

This sounds great, you might be thinking, but how can I run my current company and a spinout? Fortunately, you don’t have to. It might sound like a challenge, but there is significant value in allowing your best and brightest performers to move on from the corporation and run startups spun out from your original business. 

Your Best Performers Are Your Best Leaders

Everyone wins when you hand the reins to your best performers. Not only will you give your spinouts the best opportunity for success, but you’ll also bolster talent retention and acquisition by giving your top performers room to grow. High performers usually shift around to different roles as they develop their skills, so giving them a shot at leadership and an opportunity to push themselves benefits everyone.

If your best executive talent has been doing the same thing for some time and feels a bit disenchanted, they might become disengaged and leave your corporation for more challenging opportunities. Encouraging them to head up a spinout gives them a purpose, inspires them to nurture something new, and saves your organization from potentially having millions of dollars walk out the door if they leave. Only 45% of corporations engage with the startup space, which means you’ll have an instant competitive edge and a better chance of longevity as a company.

The Risk vs. Reward Conversation

To get high performers on board with your spinout idea, you might need to have some tricky conversations regarding risk versus reward.

The risk/reward ratio is fundamentally different when shifting from working inside a large enterprise to founding a startup. For corporate executives, there’s usually a generous compensation package, vacation time, and maybe a 401(k) match or bonus — but the compensation is often capped at a certain point. 

Some executives, though, thrive in high-risk, high-reward environments. Running a corporate spinout is riskier, but there’s also an outsize reward potential. Startup founders typically get 10% to 15% equity in a new venture, which could be worth a ton of money if they do well. Let’s say the spinout gets a $200 million valuation with a 10% equity; that’s $20 million for the executive if he or she secures funding or if the company gets bought out. 

Ultimately, this approach creates value and better prospects for the firm, the spinout, and your customers. A great case study is the Australian auto insurance company Suncorp. Its crash repair vendors were overcharging it, so the company leaders decided to buy out body shop chain Capital S.M.A.R.T. The chain ultimately became the largest auto repair company in the country, and Suncorp sold it for nearly $300 million. Suncorp’s $50 million investment yielded a sizable profit and allowed the company to understand the crash repair business much better. As a result, the company was able to choose more effective partners in the future and could offer its customers reduced rates. 

Starting the Conversation

Think of corporate ventures as part of your high-potential executive development program. The executives you choose to head your spinout will gain an immense amount of experience and knowledge, and you’ll benefit from the significant value they’ll add to the new venture. Even if they fail, the involved executives can bring their experience back into the parent company.

Here’s what the process of developing a spinout might look like:

1. Call for ideas. Ask everyone in your company to share their best ideas for company growth. Maybe you start with 500 and narrow it down to the best eight for a “Shark Tank”-style competition.

2. Engage execs during the sharpening process. Have executives judge the event. This will get them invested in the ideas and give you a good sense of who has the passion and risk tolerance to lead one of these new ventures.

3. Look for matches. Which venture ideas inspired which executives? Linking the right people to the right ventures will help set both the individual and the spinout up for success. If those leading the spinout are passionate about the idea, they are more likely to stick with it and propel everything forward.

4. Provide resources to maximize success. No matter how great your executives might be, they still need the proper resources to succeed. Ask them what you can do to support them, whether it’s by providing training, talent, funding, or all of the above.

5. Let your spinout behave like a startup. Strike the right balance between providing enough guidance along the way (e.g., mentors, funding, buy-in from high-level players) while still fostering freedom. Just like any other startup, your spinout will need space to experiment and grow.

A spinout might be just what you need to strengthen and progress your company’s innovation efforts. For it to truly flourish, though, you must be willing to have those tricky conversations with executives about the risk and reward they could see moving away from the corporation and into the world of startups. Give them the freedom to lead while ensuring they have the resources they need to be successful, and the innovation will flourish.

4 Reasons Why a Frictionless Business Will Ensure Your Survival

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Imagine dealing with a business that offers products that always work, deliveries that arrive as promised, instructions that are clear and understandable, and self-service that’s easy to use. Their customers never have to contact them for the wrong reasons. They’ve created a frictionless customer experience.

Frictionless companies work hard to reduce customer service issues in every aspect of the business, so it’s no coincidence that they’re market leaders in their categories, such as Amazon in retail and online services, Apple in consumer electronics, Dyson in household appliance production, USAA in financial services, and Xero in SaaS accounting software.

These successful companies have long worked out that becoming frictionless has four undeniable benefits:

1. Being Frictionless Reduces Cost

For many years, the media has promoted the view that companies that want to cut costs will offer lower or inferior service by cutting staff or slashing hours. While it’s true that having fewer checkout staff or a lower contact center headcount saves money, doing so creates queues that quickly impact a business’s reputation.

In contrast, a frictionless strategy cuts costs in ways that are more sustainable by removing the need for customer contacts in the first place and reducing processing times.

For example, if order processes are streamlined and effective, customers will receive what they want accurately and on time; they won’t need to call or email the company about delays or errors, and the cost per transaction will fall.

When companies reduce friction, they save a huge amount of money because they’ve:

  • Streamlined processes so they take less time.
  • Reduced returns and refunds, thereby saving effort and costly make-good concessions.
  • Met customers’ expectations, cutting the need for queries and contacts.
  • Built more effective websites, apps, and other channels that reduce contacts, complaints, and queries about how these channels work.
  • Replaced assisted contacts with self-service channels that customers want to use.

Yes, there’s a cost to reducing friction. For example, an organization may have to build the functionality to allow customers to track their orders and be notified of major changes to a delivery schedule. However, that cost will be repaid many times over if it prevents customers from having to ask for help or express their frustration.

2. Being Frictionless Drives Customer and Revenue Growth

Studies have shown that customers who have good experiences buy more. It seems intuitive that customers who’ve had on-time delivery from a company, when and where they expected it, are far more likely to place another order with that company, while customers who had to chase their orders or received them late will probably shop elsewhere next time.

According to one study by the Temkin Group, “77% of customers would recommend and provide a referral to a company to a friend where they’ve had a great experience.” The growth of Amazon is a testament to this. It could not have been achieved if Amazon’s processes didn’t work so well.

Amazon’s ACSI scores remain some of the highest, and being frictionless has meant that customers have turned to Amazon for an increased range of products and services.

3. Being Frictionless Delivers a True Competitive Advantage

Companies that reduce costs through less friction create a sustainable advantage via low cost and high recurring revenue. In contrast, organizations that reduce service levels (such as speed of answer, speed of delivery, or length of checkout queues) put themselves in a difficult place, since customers will leave and revenues will likely fall.

The lower costs delivered by becoming frictionless also drive other advantages. Amazon, at one point, compared its CPO (contacts per order) with that of another major online retailer and found its own to be 75% lower. This meant that the cost of each transaction enabled the company to reinvest these savings in lower prices (to drive more revenue) and greater marketing benefits like free shipping. A strategy that delivers both revenue and cost savings is clearly a winning one.

Yet being frictionless isn’t just about cost. Frictionless businesses have created new ways to share value with customers.

One example is Netflix, which, like other digital media sites, offers a different experience from traditional TV. With Netflix, deciding what you watch and when to watch it is a low-friction and more controlled experience. The customer can select the viewing device and tailor the watching experience—no more cable and antenna constraints.

Netflix’s flexible experience enabled the company to invest heavily in original content, further deepening its must-watch reputation with millions of subscribers.

4. Being Frictionless Enables Business Survival

One of the impacts of digital disruption and the emergence of digital-only innovators is that low-friction business models are now essential. Older-style businesses are burdened with high-cost physical networks and clumsy processes, and they face possible extinction if they don’t reduce this friction.

Consider these examples:

  • Zoom has gobbled up market share from Cisco’s WebEx by being simple to use.
  • Many regional high-touch banks are now challenged by new “fintech” players.
  • Amazon has forced many conventional retailers, including BestBuy, Target, and Walmart, to add online channels (with various degrees of success).
  • In insurance, disruptive businesses are emerging that price risk more precisely to each customer’s need and offer low-cost channels and self-service.
  • In wealth management, digital or robotic advice models are emerging that undermine high-cost financial advice models.
  • The airline industry was disrupted by low-cost carriers with simplified business models and self-service facilities, forcing incumbents to adopt innovations like self-serve check-in and online booking.

The outlook is clear: being frictionless is key for a business to survive. Will your business embrace these changes and thrive, or be left behind?

Leaders: Protecting Abusers – Not Victims – Is a Costly Mistake  

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Why do far too many leaders cover up for abusers? Why is there so much institutional complicity enabling abuse to continue? What’s going on in the brains of leaders who protect abusers rather than victims?    

Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics protected predator Dr. Larry Nassar for decades instead of safeguarding his many victims. Notably, the FBI did so, too. The gymnasts’ lawsuit against the FBI is $1 billion. The years-long scandal involved many reports of abuse against Dr. Larry Nassar, with none resulting in his removal. This is one example among many that reveal how covering up and enabling abuse is a serious and costly failure in leadership.   

In the last decade, leaders have failed to stop abuse at Penn State, Rutgers, Baylor, University of Maryland, Boy Scouts, Catholic churches, Soccer Canada, Canadian residential schools, and in Hollywood.   

My theory as to why leaders protect abusers is two-fold. Both theories involve the brain.  

First, imagine that you’re the leader of an organization and you receive a report that an employee is abusive. You confront the employee, he or she denies it, and now it’s a case of “he said, she said.” Your brain is stuck on the fact that the alleged perpetrator doesn’t behave like an abuser in front of you or many others. Your brain can’t make sense of the perpetrator’s two different personas.    

The confusion leads the brain to generate counter facts in order to make sense of the impasse. You start to think: The victim is exaggerating, is too sensitive, has another agenda, misunderstood, or caused or deserved the abuse.  

Alongside these counter facts, you might also think: I’ve worked with the alleged perpetrator for a long time; I’ve never seen the alleged perpetrator be abusive; I have dinner with the alleged perpetrator and his or her partner; plus, the alleged perpetrator is popular, charismatic, and a pillar of the community.  

Once your brain has generated these counter facts, you decide to victim-blame and give the alleged perpetrator the benefit of the doubt.   

This approach falls apart when you get the second, third, and fourth reports of the perpetrator’s abusive conduct. The problem is, it’s too late. You’re now in the position of being negligent. You were informed about his or her abuse and you didn’t protect victims. How do you cope with this crisis?  

You cover up.   

My second theory about why leaders protect abusers and not victims relates to the brain’s capacity for empathy. Empathy is when you feel someone’s pain. How does a leader’s innate empathy run amok so that it guides her to protect abusers and become an accomplice to their crime?     

Psychiatrist Dr. Helen Reiss found that there’s an inverse relationship between power and empathy. The more power, the less empathy. Reiss explains that our brains are tribal when it comes to how we feel empathy. Our tendency is to have empathy for those who most resemble us in appearance, station in life, and experience.   

Our brain puts those we don’t resemble into an “out-group” for whom we have little or no empathy. This tendency explains our tragic history of dehumanizing and destroying human beings who appear different, come from different backgrounds, and have less power than we do.   

Now, imagine how these empathy impulses in the brain surface in an abuse scenario.   

An abuse report comes in. The leader’s brain hits the impasse of “he said, she said” and begins to generate counter facts to make sense out of the confusion. Empathy arises in its tribal form and the leader puts the victim in the “out-group.”   

Victims, especially if they’re children or young adults, are easily put into the out-group because they don’t reflect the leader. But the alleged abuser, who is an adult, does.  

The leader can rationalize and dismiss the victim’s suffering as something temporary that he or she will get over or move beyond. But if the alleged perpetrator is held accountable, he or she will lose their reputation, lose their job, and possibly go to jail. These are deep fears that the leader shares with the alleged perpetrator, increasing his sense of empathy.   

Ironically, leaders who cover up and enable abuse are far more likely to ultimately lose their reputation, their job, and perhaps go to jail. They’re far more likely to ruin the reputation of their institution and cost it vast amounts of lost funds. These are all outcomes of the recent abuse scandals noted at the outset.     

How can leaders protect themselves from being led astray by their brains into enabling abuse?  

1. Put in checks and balances to protect against counter facts. Leaders need frequent practice in testing their counter facts against objective facts and research. Leaders need to question the validity of every counter fact that dismisses, questions, doubts, and otherwise holds the victim to account for reporting abuse.   

2. Learn to identify the traits of an abuser. Leaders need to be well-versed in the split personality that’s common among abusers. They need to know that being popular, charismatic, and having a following are textbook traits of those who abuse. Abusers are known to ingratiate themselves with powerful figures. While they groom their victims, they also groom the leaders.    

3. Recognize the damage to victims. Leaders need to be knowledgeable about the ways in which victims’ brains become damaged by all forms of harassment and abuse. It’s not an easy recovery. Victims don’t grow out of it. For many victims, it destroys their health, happiness, and productivity.   

4. Understand the way the brain unfairly parcels out empathy. If empathy diminishes in the brain as you become a leader, work relentlessly to retain empathy for everyone in your organization. Train yourself to avoid the tribal tendency to have empathy for those who reflect you and callously disregard those who don’t.  

Succeeding at this challenging aspect of leadership means not letting your brain lead you astray. Instead, use your mind to manage your brain. 

High Employee Turnover? Solve Talent Issues By Aligning Your Leadership

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At the core of every successful business are reliable products or services and an effective team of employees. Unfortunately, the latter is where many business owners and executive leadership struggle.

Without exceptional employees, your business won’t operate smoothly. It will always be halting and grinding, stumbling and starting as you pursue new talent, onboard them, and train them, only to lose them and start all over again.

In short, it’s an exhausting process that drains resources and keeps businesses in a perpetual downturn.

Some businesses and organizations may consider high turnover rates or problems maintaining top talent as an unavoidable aspect of “normal” business. They take it on the chin as part of the job. But it doesn’t need to be that way.

High turnover rates usually indicate deeper problems within the business—red flags that there are core issues driving employees to leave at a high rate. Rather than relying on new talent recruitment to somehow fix this problem, your goal should be to create an environment that encourages employees to stay for as long as it’s practical for them and you, the employer.

You can solve these talent strategy issues—and more—through leadership coaching that takes a talent-centric approach. You won’t have to spin your wheels regularly looking for recruits. Instead, you can focus on your people and grow your business.

Defining the Problem: Why Employees Leave

To resolve high employee turnover, you need to determine why you have the problem in the first place. Getting to the root of the issue can fix it more efficiently than putting on a Band-Aid.

One of the main reasons employees leave is because company leadership isn’t aligned with one another. When leaders don’t have a firm grasp on the company’s culture, high employee turnover becomes inevitable. Everyone in a leadership role must be on the same page to promote continuity. A lack of leadership alignment, conflicting expectations, and poor messaging only push employees to leave.

Another reason employees leave is that their skills are a poor match. An effective interview process aims to weed out candidates whose skills don’t align with the job requirements and company strategy. However, an interviewer won’t catch a candidate’s mismatched skill set unless there is a robust competency discovery process.

It’s not easy to discover how and why one candidate is less qualified than another, especially if interviewers are unsure of what makes a good fit for the business. To make matters worse, sometimes candidates aren’t upfront about their skills⁠—or lack thereof⁠—and that causes problems. These uncertain candidates can become uncertain employees.

Remember that your employees are people with emotions who will respond emotionally to the surrounding environment. If your culture promotes a positive, healthy workspace, your employees will be more likely to stick around. This may require higher levels of executive coaching to ensure that corporate leadership exudes respect, openness, gratitude, value, and alignment.

Finding the Solution: Leadership Alignment

When your leadership is aligned, your employees will be, too. It’s one thing when employees perform the work they’re hired for and do it well, but it’s entirely different when they do their jobs with a sense of purpose and mission. Employees who have adopted the company’s mission will be driven by something more than just a paycheck.

By aligning your employees with the leadership’s vision, mission, goals, and strategy, your business and entire work environment will reap the benefits. Leadership alignment will:

1. Solidify the Company Vision and Mission

Sometimes a business may not be clear on what its vision is. Maybe the vision is vague or undefined. By emphasizing alignment, leaders will be forced to reassess the company’s vision and strategy. Reviewing the business’s goals will strengthen and solidify them. Vague or undefined areas will be found and cleared up promptly.

2. Strengthen and Redefine Your Culture

Focusing on leadership alignment can help you create a culture of feedback. An open culture is vital for ensuring your employees are content and business operations keep humming along smoothly. Employees need to know their concerns and criticisms are valid. Leadership can advocate for this by allowing an open environment that solicits feedback.

Your employees are humans with real emotions who will thrive when they can healthily express those emotions. Realizing this, and using it as a foundational strategy, will also help you attract and retain new employees who contribute positively to your workforce.

3. Help Build a Cohesive Team

Alignment within your leadership will bring everyone onto the same page. As employees embrace the leadership vision and business strategy, they’ll develop shared goals and work toward the same ideals. Your leadership vision will be solidified as employees get on board and make it their own. They’ll carry the company mission forward as part of their own mission.

4. Resolve the Core Problem of High Employee Turnover

Leadership alignment is the answer to high turnover rates. With alignment, you can dial down your talent recruitment strategy and reduce your spending on recruiting. By resolving the core problems of why employees leave, you’re fostering more reasons for employees to stay.

Implementing the Strategy

How do you implement a talent strategy that makes leadership alignment front and center? Some businesses start with leadership development and executive coaching. While this is helpful, it’s not the end game. A business needs both leadership development and a talent-centric strategy. However, it must always start at the top with leadership alignment. A strategy formulated at the top level, where the executives are, will be the most successful.

The Different Ways of Being a CEO

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“When I look back on my life nowadays, which I sometimes do, what strikes me most forcibly about it is that what seemed at the time most significant and seductive seems now most futile and absurd. For instance, success in all of its various guises; being known and being praised; ostensible pleasures, like acquiring money or seducing women, or traveling, going to and fro in the world and up and down in it like Satan, explaining and experiencing whatever Vanity Fair has to offer. In retrospect, all these exercises in self-gratification seem pure fantasy, what Pascal called “licking the earth.” — Stephen Covey

There are different ways of being a CEO.

‘Licking the earth’ is one of them: a relentless, depleting pursuit of avoiding risk, getting by, and surviving.

There are other ways, but an entirely different orientation is required.

To who you are. To what matters to you. To how your vocation shapes your broader life. To what you aspire to. To how you show up to the people around you.

Interestingly, that change in orientation is not hard-won. It’s right in front of you with clear best practices and easy-to-apply tools shaped by new and fresh ways of thinking.

But the change of direction is all on you. It’s a choice. These changes will happen naturally, organically, and joyfully if you become open to them.

A great CEO balances performance and humanity. Many CEOs neglect the latter, particularly their own humanity.

6 Hard-Learned Leadership Lessons

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My leadership style has developed over three decades through learning from others, trial, and much error.  I continue to evolve – and hopefully improve – as a leader. Still, at this point, at least a few elements are foundational to how I approach the task and responsibility of leadership daily.

1. Structured Autonomy

I manage through philosophy and a system of “structured autonomy,” which attempts to strike a balance between direction and freedom. In practice, structured autonomy means that employees are given explicit annual goals called “Key Performance Indicators” (KPIs). These are simple, bullet-pointed metrics that the employee can refer to daily – the “structured” part. It’s then up to the employee to determine the best way to achieve those goals – that’s the “autonomy” part. My job as a manager is to be available for regular and impromptu check-ins, monitor progress, and provide advice and assistance when needed.

2. Employee Career Management 

One of my first supervisors taught me the lesson that my #1 job as a manager is to take care of the careers of my employees. I have never forgotten this lesson and try to treat the careers of my employees as if they were my own. I meet with every staff member and map out their career aspirations in one-, three- and five-year increments. We then plan the work at GNO, Inc. in service of those goals within the context of the overall GNO, Inc. strategy (we don’t “make work” if it’s not on strategy). Sometimes, that means planning the next steps beyond our company – that’s OK if the timing and the reason are right. In my experience, this elevation of the employee’s career leads to several positive outcomes: employees feel valued and are engaged; Our company builds a reputation as a great place to work; and GNO, Inc. alumni go out into the world as partners and ambassadors for our organization. In short, taking care of your employee’s careers leads to good HR karma. 

3. Delegation

This was a hard lesson for me to learn. I used to not be very good at delegation; I’m not sure if it was because I was a perfectionist or a martyr. Maybe both?  But then, one day, someone told me, “Anything that anyone can do 80% as well as you, they should be doing. Delegate it.” I have followed this rule since then, and it works beautifully.  

4. Looking Down + Looking Ahead 

More than ever, it seems that we are managing in a perpetual state of crisis. Whether it is a pandemic, weather event, financial crisis, or even war, uncertainty is the only sure thing. Leading under these conditions requires one to deal effectively with the crisis at hand while ensuring that progress continues towards long-term goals and opportunities. I liken this to walking on a trail in the forest: on the one hand, you have to keep an eye on the ground to make sure you don’t trip on a rock; on the other hand, you have to keep an eye on the distance, to make sure you are following the right path. For example, during the depths of COVID, GNO, Inc. helped craft the PPP program that provided immediate financial assistance to companies across America; at the same time, we developed a long-term strategy to attract remote workers who, post-COVID, would no longer be tied to offices in places like NYC and California.  

5. Modeling Behavior

This is a basic one but necessary. As a leader, you are modeling the behaviors that your organization values. The behaviors that I try to model are hard work, productivity, creativity, collegiality, and what we call “honest optimism” – an optimistic but grounded outlook on the future.

6. The Team is the Leader

Often in America, especially in the media, we focus on “The Leader” and neglect the team’s critical, symbiotic role. A leader is just one part of a greater whole, and no leader will succeed without an outstanding team.  “We > I” when it comes to leadership, the team leads, and the “leader” steers.

What Would it Take to Fall in Love With Your Business?

Posted on by Real Leaders

Those who know me, know that I’m the expressive type. I like language, phraseology, and metaphors and I believe that life can be lived in technicolor.

I believe the same to be true of a business. I am relatively alone in this thinking. In fact, sometimes my views are considered to be ‘light’ or esoteric because of it.

I think that trends are on my side, however. Go back as little as 20 years. You won’t see much evidence of path-blazing CEOs, of different ways of doing culture, of unorthodox organizational designs, of new ways of business learning.

As recently as two decades ago, most businesses were relatively similar and the range of difference from one business to another was fairly narrow. Not so anymore. Businesses now are highly elastic and there is no single template of how a business is constructed.

Given all this new richness, this might be an opportunity to ask yourself a (beautifully) challenging question:

As a CEO, are you capable of loving your business?

Not ‘like’ or ‘respect’ or ‘believe in’.

Loving.

Whether you can or can’t is for your contemplation. But what I’d like to draw attention to is what might be blocking you from doing so:

  • A dulled spirit after to years of toil?
  • Not fundamentally believing in what you’re doing?
  • Not feeling that what you’re doing is going to succeed?
  • Not being around people who believe in greatness?

It’s not for me to persuade you that loving your business is possible. But what I would offer is that the possibility of loving a business is now on the table. It’s doable and I’ve seen many examples of CEOs who are in love with their business and who can get to a place of having such intense feelings about what their business is, or does:

  • Cultures so authentically conceived that bring about profound collaboration
  • Leadership that moves people to great acts
  • Transformational training programs that fundamentally change someone’s trajectory in life
  • Innovation initiatives that unearth fantastical new ideas
  • Community outreach programs that truly move the societal needle

I could go on for ages, such is the diversity of love-worthy forms of business currently in existence. This article is not about content, however. It’s about a question. Are you open to seeing your business as love-worthy?

If you are – or if you can become this way – can you imagine the impact it would unlock? Can you imagine the energy levels you’d unleash? Can you imagine the loyalty you would earn? Can you imagine the knock-on effects your inspiration would have on your spouses and children?

There are two paths: leading in technicolor or leading in grey. Light yourself up.

9 Practices All Great Leaders Share

Posted on by Real Leaders

We often use the term leader to refer to the individual who heads up a team or organization. But leadership is more about a set of skills and practices than it is a position. Great leaders influence how people think and feel to the point that they take responsible and decisive action.

Most leaders are made, not born. What they pick up along the way is wisdom and experience, and they never back down from learning and adapting when they are amidst something new.

Great Leaders Share These Nine Practices. So Can You.

Great leaders are “students of people” and learn early in their careers that helping others succeed opens opportunities that would never otherwise exist.

1. Listen with intent.

Listening is one of the most important skills to build credibility and relationships. Listen with intent. Clear your head. Don’t plan your answers in advance. Restate what someone describes to make sure you understand. Good listening skills never go away, no matter where you go or what you do. People want to know you’ve listened – that they’ve been heard and their opinion counts.

Replay one interaction you’ve had this week. On a scale of 1-10, how good a listener were you?

2. Ask probing questions.

Listening opens the door to better understanding. Getting below the surface of a conversation takes probing questions and examples. Sometimes a simple “tell me more about that” is all that’s needed.

Try it out tomorrow.

3. Study people.

Understand what’s important to them. Avoid judging, knowing it isn’t easy to do.

Think of a recent situation when someone reacted in a way that you didn’t expect. How could you find out more about their reaction?

4. Share observations about the broader horizon with your team, colleagues, and senior leaders.

What are today’s trends and patterns that could impact tomorrow?

Plan a one topic meeting with your team: Trends and how they could impact the organization.

5. Look for opportunities to engage in a dialogue.

Most often conversations at work are about work situations or resolving problems. Sometimes people will reach out for feedback. Engaging in a dialogue, however, is a willingness to go deeper. Digging for details and examples by using “how” and “why” questions elicits emotional reactions, touching the nerves for what people need and want. Over time, dialogues create a level of trust and respect that daily conversations don’t achieve.

  • Think about one person to have a deeper discussion with to get their perspective on a situation or project.
  • Design 3-4 open-ended questions to discuss. They talk, you listen.
  • You’re not solving a problem. You’re looking to learn more about them. Ask for examples.

6. Practice translating a project or concept into the language of the audience.

Think about an upcoming meeting where you’re presenting. Who is the audience? How much do they understand what you’re working on? How much do they know about the concepts? Get input. Prepare to give details or the big picture overview, depending on who you’re talking to.

Talk with someone in advance who will attend. Afterward, ask for their feedback.

7. Translate vision into individualized responsibilities for your team members.

Great leaders will not leave a new direction or strategy in vague terms for individuals to figure out on their own. People want specifics. Work with them. Figure out the details. At your next one-on-one meeting with a team member, get their perspective on: Are they spending time working on the right assignments with the right people? How have their priorities changed?

Make clarity the issue, not judgement.

8. Trust that your success is based on your ability to create the conditions for others to succeed.

It’s not about you. You are not the center of the universe. Ask for feedback from your team on how things are going. Listen.

Ask yourself, “What do I need to do more of or less of to make the team successful?”

9. Focus on impact and meaning.

Great leaders believe personal success and career success overlap. Take a few minutes each week to write if you’re working on making a difference or just doing the work. I’m serious.

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