A new video from Bluepoint Leadership Development.
0
by Jon Thompson |
I have had the opportunity to visit many wonderful places on this planet, however, I believe that I have the privilege of living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Vancouver, Canada. Here on the West Coast we live in a coniferous rainforest populated by spectacular cedar, spruce and fir trees surrounded by the ocean and mountains. The majestic Coast Mountain Range begins here, forms the northern perimeter of the city and extends north along BC’s coast right through to Alaska. Framed by two of our local mountains, Mt Seymour and Mt Fromme, is a fifteen-mile paved bike trail through the heart of the forest with undulating hills and sweeping corners. I do this ride often and find that I do some of my best thinking when biking this trail. I find it a much-needed distraction from the continuous commotion and clamor of my office. However, during one of my recent rides, this all changed for me. I was trying out the new helmet I had recently purchased and as I picked up speed I experienced an annoying, loud whooshing sound as the wind blew past my ears. This unwelcomed addition to my usual peaceful ride soon went from being an irritation to a maddening intrusion. Just as I was about to remove the offending helmet, I realized that if I just turned my head slightly to the side, the noise would disappear. Ah…relief! I could once again take in the tranquility and beauty of the woods while cruising at a high speed and, most importantly, I could think again. And now that I was back in my peaceful zone, I was immediately struck by how the process I had just experienced was such an apt metaphor for the challenge most organizational leaders face every day and I found myself wondering, how can leaders turn their heads to shut out all the noise of the organization so they can fully utilize their minds to enhance their leadership?
Organizations are inherently noisy and we are engulfed in a world of sound from the moment we wake until we close our eyes and fall asleep at the end of the day. Do you ever listen to your organization? This may seem like an odd question; however, I would encourage you to try it sometime. On a daily basis, we are bombarded with noise from alarm clocks, email notifications, meeting reminders, horns, background music, cell phones, and TVs, and they all create a constant buzz that leaves little room to focus on what is most important to us and our daily processes.
So, what is a leader to do? Many books and articles have been written praising the virtues of long, reflective walks, abandoning one’s cell phone, and spending time behind closed doors in meditation and quiet contemplation – all good stuff, however for many leaders, not always practical when deadlines loom, staffing challenges arise and everyone seems to be competing for your time. How can leaders today “turn their heads” to cut though all the noise of organization life and hear what they need to hear?
Here are six potent actions you can take that I have learned from our wonderful clients and my colleagues at Bluepoint.
- Don’t touch that keyboard. And, if you must, don’t hit that email icon. Give yourself time every morning uninterrupted by the events of the past twelve hours to plan your day, contemplate your important challenges and opportunities and make the choice that this will be a great day for you.
- Listen for your top priorities. Discipline yourself to put extra effort into listening for what is most important to you. Maybe you need to listen for ways to make your organization more effective to seize market opportunities and/or to create product innovations? Our minds love routine and given a chance, it will create “thinking habits” and automatically tune you into a frequency that will increase your effectiveness.
- Stop talking so much and be more intentional of what you are saying and how you can focus on saying what is truly important. It can be difficult to accept, but you are likely adding to the volume of noise for yourself and those around you. Many leaders talk about hundreds of unimportant things because they lack the will (and, possibly, the courage) to talk about the very, very few important things. A good rule is this: if you have nothing to say, say nothing at all.
- Get present with people. Most leaders live in a near constant state of divided attention and, ultimately, spread themselves too thin to be truly present with others. However, to truly hear someone, you need to develop the ability to bring your full attention to another person and temporarily putting aside distractions and be fully in the here and now.
- Welcome silence into your conversations. Step into any elevator anywhere in the world and you will quickly recognize that people are often uncomfortable with silence. We will talk about the weather or any other unimportant topic just to break the tension. If you want to hear what someone is really saying, pause for a few seconds after every time they speak. You will be able to listen beyond the words and will be able to truly absorb, process and respond to what they are saying to you.
- Eat a Frog. Mark Twain’s quote “If you eat a frog first thing in the morning that will probably be the worst thing you do all day.” This is often recommended as an antidote for procrastination (do the tough stuff first) but it is really more than that. By getting the difficult, often emotionally-draining things out of the way, we quiet the internal noise of worry and concern.
Leaders, ask yourself these questions: how loud is your organization? How creative are you at work? How much deep, fresh thinking do you do in a typical day? Taking the time to actually listen to your organization can give you the ability to navigate through the distractions, it can provide one with clarity and, ultimately, it maximizes your effectiveness of what you can accomplish in a day. I challenge you go out and find your space to dampen the noise around you and take your leadership to new levels of effectiveness.
Articles
by Gregg Thompson |
I must say from the outset that when the words “leadership” and “emotions” are used in the same sentence, I cringe. (Actually, a minute electrical signal is passed from my brain stem to a little almond-shaped thingy in my brain called the amygdala whereupon it is quickly compared to my personal library of weird and wonderful emotional responses created over a lifetime so that it can select one and use it to tell me how I feel about the sentence. Strange as it may seem, I – think of “I” as the rational, conscious, smart part of your brain – have little to do with the decision to cringe). This reaction was likely formed early in my career when, as a young engineering technologist, all of my projects were horrendous failures, not because of their lack of technical merit, but rather because of the irrationality, foolhardiness, idiocy (I could go on but I’m sure you get the idea) of equipment operators. Apparently an insidious, deep-seated mental weakness rendered them incapable of recognizing the sheer brilliance and elegance of my ideas. The Director of Engineering apparently shared this weakness since he arranged a most unwelcome transfer to Personnel Records six months into my job. That foolish move cost him a brilliant young technologist who graduated near the top of his class. It nearly cost me my career.
Leaders today rarely fail because they back the wrong product or make a misstep in an acquisition. They fail because they are insensitive, critical, selfish, arrogant and negative. They fail because they are emotionally weak, like that young technologist. They fail because they are unable or unwilling to harness the power of their own emotions and those of others.
The single most powerful force in the domain of leadership is emotion; the emotions of the leader and his or her constituents.
Some of us are born with natural leadership charisma, but I have never met a natural born, emotionally powerful leader. In fact, just the opposite is true. By nature, we are superficial, self-absorbed creatures. To become emotionally powerful leaders takes a real concerted effort…but it can be done. When one simply decides to study and master one’s emotions, connect with and positively influence others, it’s like turning on a light switch. The change is immediate. Overnight your leadership power will increase tenfold. It is remarkably straightforward and doable.
1. Get up close and real personal with the real you.
Recognize and embrace your emotions. These are not simply outcroppings of your personality. Emotions are you. Think of spending your life swimming in a pool of your emotions. They are everywhere, and you are always under the influence of at least one of them. While you may think you know yourself well, most of us really don’t. Knowing your MBTI personality type is not enough. Get up on your own balcony. What really makes you tick? What makes you happy, sad, glad and mad? Watch yourself interact with others. Become aware of your emotions as they occur. Note the events that trigger significant emotional reactions. (Remember the amygdala thingy? That’s where all your historical emotional patterns are stored. These can be changed but it takes lots of introspection and hard work. This is where the most profound leadership development starts. This is where you create a foundation on which your leadership power sits.)
2. Become the master of your own emotional ship.
Stop being ruled by old patterns of feeling-thinking-acting that no longer serve you well. Get into the habit of pausing and reflecting. Ask yourself, “What’s really happening here? Regardless of how I feel, what’s the next best step for me, as a leader, to take?” (Give your neocortex a chance. This is the “I” part of you that resides in the upper part of your brain. It is the smart, cognitive part where you make rational, informed decisions. Don’t leave the amygdala on its own or you will end up with the same old reactions. Introduce your neocortex to your amygdala. Get them talking. This will allow you to create the habit of fully experiencing your emotions while consciously selecting your reactions. This will be the main source of your leadership power.)
3. It really is not all about you.
Great leaders seek to create selfless, personal connections. This can only happen when people feel good, not about you, but about themselves in your presence. It really is not all about you. Practice seeing the world through the eyes of others. Practice being totally present with others, even for a short time. Great leaders invest considerable time and energy in understanding others and seeking ways to serve them. Others are not simply pawns in their game but real people with unique needs, fears, aspirations, and, yes…their own amygdalae! (that’s plural for amygdala…btw)
(Speaking of amygdalae, these little items make being truly empathetic quite difficult. We naturally see people through our own emotional patterns, which are formed from our experiences, values, beliefs, etc., and it takes a concerted effort to shut the amygdala up for a little while to really see others as they see themselves. Great leaders gain tremendous personal power by making this effort. Weak leaders don’t.)
4. Stop sucking the light out of the room.
Are you a pervasive, positive influence on the people in your organization? When you walk into a room, does it become brighter or do you suck out all of the light? Moods make all the difference. And the leader’s mood is especially infectious. Great leaders have a contagious optimism about their organization’s future and constantly convey a strong sense of confidence in themselves and others. (Yes, you can choose your mood. When your neo-cortex and amygdala are on good speaking terms, you can engage that part of you that smiles, sees the best in others, is joyful and is nice to be around. This is how your leadership power influences others.)
If someone has passed along a copy of this article to you, you might want to sit up and take notice. There may be some learning for you personally in the above points. The good news is this: Someone cares about you and your effectiveness as a leader. They believe in you and see the potential of you becoming a much more powerful leader. You can. And it will make all the difference.