Leadership is a long-hailed topic that has commanded individual as well as organizational interest for years.  Global professionals search for magical answers or formulas that will solve the countless daily challenges surrounding leadership.  Leadership is very complex and multi-faceted.  Webster defines leader as a principal performer or one who acts first.  That definition describes the term leadership; but there is no constant, definitive offering that describes the leadership process.

To that end, there are two focus points that cover significant ground.  Those focus points are results and relationships.  A leader prefers results or relationships based on personal “hardwiring.”  Hardwiring determines leadership delivery as well as typical responses to people and situations.  These responses are based on behavioral factors that guide leader personality preferences such as control, interaction, conflict and pace (harmony), and order.

Results leaders are visionary and strategic.  Their responses are geared towards control and order.  They communicate very directly while giving clear expectations to team members.  Results leaders are great problem-solvers that communicate decisive and firm directions.  They have very high standards for themselves as well as others and they hold people accountable. In contrast to these positive attributes, results leaders may struggle with being very opinionated, controlling, poor listening skills, lack of flexibility, or rigidity.

Relationship leaders are good listeners and people-builders.  Their responses are geared towards harmony and interaction.  They genuinely care and are concerned about their people.  They trust their people to do their jobs and are supportive as well as willing to assist if needed.  Relational leaders tend to show respect and give encouragement and feedback.  In opposition, relational leaders may struggle with lack of focus, too much compromise, the need for approval, or passivity.

All leaders often find themselves “squeezed” between results and relationships.  The key is to focus on both building people while accomplishing results.  Talented team members may be attracted to organizations because of a results oriented leader, but they tend to stay at that organization based on their relationship with their immediate supervisor.  The most productive team environments are tough as well as supportive.  A leader’s charge is to find balance with both focal attributes.

Results leaders are directing and methodical while relationship leaders are interactive and engaging.  Effective leaders work hard to create a balance between the two.  Developing emotional intelligence aids the leader in accomplishing this balance.  Creating balance takes developing self-awareness and responding appropriately to others.  When leaders develop this skill, they are well on their way to creating a healthy team culture founded in trust, collaboration, and mutual respect.

Leaders and team members are different and desire significance in the workplace.  Collaborative organizational cultures, or environments that celebrate those differences, are statistically more productive.  It is rare for leaders to celebrate opposing views; however, balanced leaders work hard to deliver environments that celebrate results as well as relationships.

I wish you and your team, “A Polite Situation”

Source:  RightPath Resources. (2008). RighPathing Your Leadership.  Suwanee, GA: Author.

Kimberly Polite

Anyone who has been a leader longer than a day can attest to the fact that leaders are often torn between results and relationships.  The truth is that we cannot produce results without first building relationships.  Team members who feel accepted, appreciated, and safe are productive.

A positive social capital aids productivity and eliminates distraction.  Have you ever worked with that one co-worker so filled with negativity that you dreaded communicating with them in any way?  You ignore their phone calls.  You cringe when you see their emails.  You would rather write a 10 page report rather than sit across the table from them at a meeting.  The unfortunate thing about these team members is that they are often very talented; however they also tend to be very talented at turning people off?

In contrast, do you have a teammate whom everyone loves but that person fails to get things done?  These teammates are very good at building people, but very bad at building results.  These leaders are typically unorganized and struggle to get results.

In all of my time as a leader, I have learned to work hard to combine relationships and results.  Relationships build people.  People create results.  Results accomplish goals.  Goals produce sustainability.

I have often been squeezed between results and relationships.  When I am squeezed, I ask myself these questions:

1. Will my actions create a stronger team bond and a positive social capital?
2. Is it legal?
3. Is it moral?
4. Is it ethical?
5. Will my actions preserve the organizational “greater good”?
6. Will I fulfill the organizational mission and vision?
7. Will my actions move us towards team goals?
8. Will my actions make others experience a deeper organizational bond?
9. Will my actions demoralize or antagonize?

Try to minimize actions that produce negative results.  I realize we sometimes may have to make hard choices, but the consequences should never compromise the “greater good”.

I wish you and your team:  “A Polite Situation.”

Kimberly welcomes your feedback and questions!  Please post your communication at www.ecstrains.com/blog.  Kimberly is available to speak or train at your organization.  Thank you so much for joining Kimberly each week for “A Polite Situation”.  Her new eBook Managing Diversity as a Forbidden Topic is here!   Visit www.ecstrains.com to purchase the book and for more details!

Reserve your copy today!

My new eBook is officially launching in January 2012, but you can pre-reserve your copy right NOW for only $9.99!

You will learn:
1.  how to overcome reluctance to diversity training;

2. why diversity training hasn’t worked in the past, and how it will work in the future;

3.  current trends on how our workforce is changing and how to accommodate those trends in a global market;

4.  practical education on the necessity of diversity and inclusion and how it affects your sustainability and globalization;

5.  7 steps to implementing organizational diversity and inclusion;

6.  how to access resources that keep you in legal compliance; and

7.  follow-up eCourse opportunities to my Corporate eBook clubs for ongoing training and growth!

Pre-order your reserved eCopy in December, and I will give you a FREE registration to my Diversity Training eCourse event ($199 value).  eTraining for an eGeneration!  Your ePub file and PC digital reader download will be delivered after the January launch!

It's Almost Here!!

Laughter is good for the soul—but not at the expense of someone who suffers from bad business etiquette.  You know, those things that somebody should tell you, but they don’t?  It’s alright, I’ve been guilty of a few business faux pas myself; but I implemented a few small changes that made all the difference!

Let’s be clear.  Etiquette is intended to make others comfortable.  Unfortunately, some of us use it for just the opposite.  We use it as a weapon to make others feel uncomfortable.  We use it as if to say “I know something you don’t”.

There is no need for alarm.  I have great news for you.  There are a few simple steps you can take that will make you feel comfortable in any circle.  Please note, business etiquette is about more than using the right fork at a formal dinner.  It is about maintaining grace and decorum in the most challenging circumstances.

Below are some of the top areas of concern:

Office Behavior

Follow protocol.  It is very upsetting to team balance when we have to constantly “right the ship” as a result of inappropriate actions that can easily be avoided.  Nothing screams bad etiquette like nosy, manipulative, pencil-tapping, loud talkers who steal coworker’s lunches from the office refrigerator.

Attire

Every office has an expectation or dress code.  As a rule, always dress a little bit better than is expected.  Not too short, tight, or flashy.  Remember, outdated is just as bad as short and tight—stay classy but current.  I understand the need to express personal style.  I like a little “bling” myself; but you can dress any way you like on your personal time.  Work should be about work, not your clothes.  Men, this includes you!

Communications

With the advancement of technology, face to face communication has declined, and unfortunately, so have our manners and regard for people.  Email and text messages are not the place to confer about difficult situations.  These tools are designed for convenience and brevity.  If a challenging situation arises, please make an effort to pick up the phone or talk to that person or persons face to face.

Don’t antagonize or patronize in your communications.  Keep it real, but professional.

More on business etiquette next time.

“Cognitive Diversity:  Free Your Mind and the Rest Will Follow”

In the words of the singing quartet Envogue, “Free your mind, and the rest will follow.”  A couple of weeks ago, we talked about diversity as a forbidden topic.  Let’s review.  Diversity is more than the usual suspects.  It can also refer to social status, weight, height, gender, appearance, or any characteristics with which we use to discriminate against others.

What about discrimination of the mind? I think one area that is almost always overlooked is cognitive diversity.  How long have you worked here? How long have you been professional?  How long have you been in this department?  What generation do you represent?  What is your educational background?  It may be a lot easier to work with people who “think” like us, but we stifle creativity, when we fail to embrace differences.  Diversity is “work”, but it also “works” to our advantage.

We are the sum of our experiences.  We sometimes form biases against others for those same reasons.  I call that “cognitive diversity.”  Anything we act on starts in our minds.  That is why it is so important to “mind” what we think about others.  If we cannot alleviate biases in our mind, we will never be free to embrace diverse people and ideals.

Stay with me please.  Diversity is not about surrendering your personal beliefs or extinguishing who you are. It is about extending to others the courtesy and the space to maintain their own beliefs and personal identities.  It is about giving others room to be who they are, and not trying to stick them into “slots” where they don’t belong.  Those differences make organizations unique, sustainable, and global.

Consider where you are in your professional journey.  With the awareness of our own needs being met, how can we expect our teammates to perform at optimum capacity when they are not afforded the courtesy of maintaining personal identity?  Such a distraction is completely unnecessary, and impairs our ability to do our jobs effectively.  Free your mind and the rest will follow.

I wish you and your team:  “A Polite Situation.”

Coming soon to amazon.com!

There is absolutely no need to kill a mosquito with a cannon!  I am a firm believer that conflict can be resolved; however, the best resolution is prevention.  In the words of the great Ben Franklin, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

In every organizational leadership training I have conducted, I have always stressed the importance of protocol.  It builds mutual trust and respect, and saves relationships.  We just need to follow it people.  And why is it that you want to color outside the lines or drive out of your own lane, and have the nerve to get angry when called on it. SHAME on you!

Even worse, you now plot retaliation because you somehow feel wronged as a result of self-inflicted trauma.  I am seriously scratching my head over this one.  All I have to say is “get it together”!

That, my friends, is classic negativity.  Who has the energy to keep that up?  I sure don’t, and I would think that you don’t either.  What a disregard for the spirit of camaraderie, a monumental waste of productivity as well as a direct hit to the organization’s financial bottom line.  This kind of unsavory social capital is a huge distraction; and every time it is unresolved, adds fuel to offender’s fire.

Whether such behavior is a mark of malicious intent or the result of ignorance; either scenario is scary.  The result is the need for education and training.  Most of all, our leaders should take a stand in creating a team structure where such behavior is convincingly not tolerated.

There is no need to kill a mosquito with a cannon.  Some actions are simply unnecessary.  Excelling in your work life is not about bringing other people down on your way up.  We make our workplace environment a lot friendlier and more productive when we take responsibility for our adverse actions.

Take a moment to reflect on how your actions affect your relationships and colleagues.  Are those actions based on necessity; or are they all items in a checklist entitled “personal agenda”?

I wish you and your team:  “A Polite Situation.”

Coming soon to amazon.com!

Click herefor the ECS web store!

“Diversity: The Forbidden Topic”

Diversity—shhhhhh—it is such a forbidden topic.  Why is diversity so taboo?  I have trained in many organizations, and whenever the training topic is diversity, I can almost guarantee a low attendance turnout.  Diversity training is a necessary evil; but why do we continue to “go through the mandatory motions” without truly embracing the intended ideal?

Maybe the topic of diversity is considered unsavory, because we fail to process it past cultural and racial connotation.  It is so much more than that.  Diversity is more than meets the eye; well, maybe not, because our eyes tend to be a large part of the problem.  We see skinny or overweight, attractive or not as attractive, young or old, rich or poor, man or woman, and I can go on, but I know you would like to finish the article before this time next week.

Let’s face it, the ship is still not “right-side-up” in many regards; however, there are no excuses in the absence of excellence.  Let me make it plain.  We should all pursue excellence, regardless of the challenges we face.

Diversity and inclusion applies to the whole person.  That includes our personalities as well as the outer appearance packages.  The most successful organizations are those that recognize and practice that paradigm.  For example, there are baby-boomers squeezed out of the job market because of generation “z”; new professionals that struggle for promotion; and women who are still locked out of the executive suite.  Unfortunately, we live in this professional world.  It is what it is.  We all have a cross to bear.

Yes, it makes us uncomfortable; and no, we do not want to touch it.  We think that if we go to diversity training, we might be exposed—I am talking to ALL OF US.  Consequently, we all have some biases that extend beyond culture and race.  To say otherwise would be dishonest.  We just do not want other people to know about them.

Yes, it is hard to change people.  No, it is not possible to get everybody to embrace everything.  The key is working daily towards growth, change, and tolerance.  We should all work at measuring others on individual merits alone.  After all, the world is our pallet.  We should try to envision it past our personal limited views.

Excellence transcends bias, in most cases.  That fact rings true.  None of us can afford the luxury of giving less than our best.  Your gifts make room for you.

I wish you and your team:  “A Polite Situation.”

Kimberly D. Polite

Do you remember your first professional job?  Yes, you brought some great core skills to the table, but you still could have used the help of a trusted, more experienced colleague, to show you the ropes-right?

We have had some continuous exchange these past few weeks concerning the importance of employee engagement.  That makes sense, because people alignment and engagement is the key to organizational success.  So let us review the specifics.  Employees engage because of emotional attachment and commitment to their jobs.  That attachment and commitment stems directly from two-way communication with colleagues and leadership.

Strategic mentorship can create a positive social capital worth years of organizational loyalty.  Loyalty is the most powerful antioxidant that fights that ugly disease called turnover.  Is it starting to make more sense now?

As a reminder from last week’s conversation, employers spend an average of $10,000 per vacancy on employee replacement.  I would say that mentorship and organizational ascension programs are definitely worth a strong look. 

Well, what is mentorship?  I am glad you asked.  Mentorship is a way for novice team members to learn from those who are more experienced.  Effective mentors shorten the learning curve.  They have been where those new members are trying to go, and they pay it forward by helping them get there. 

In spite of all the benefits, there are some spoilers to great mentorship programs.  Mentors should be unguarded and confident to share in unbiased leadership.  Many “would be” mentors feel threatened, and feel that sharing information may cause them to lose professional footing.  Translation:  it would be a definite deal-breaker to train someone who ends up being your boss.  Consequently, executive leadership should remove this element via strategic organizational mapping.   

How to Build a Mentorship Program

1.  A great start to building effective mentorship within your organization, is recruiting qualified mentors to which mentees pose no professional threat.
2. Ensure that mentors provide positive social capital for mentees.  
3. Establish milestones and accountability.
4. Measure the results.

I wish you and your team:  “A Polite Situation.”

Kimberly Polite

Many of us view strategic alignment as a checklist of tasks, tweaks to the organizational chart, and budget talks.  In a way it is, and in another way it really isn’t.  Simply put strategic alignment and planning is an organization’s complete consideration of desired outcomes.

This still brings us right back to PEOPLE!  Even if the self check-out at the supermarket fails, a “person” has to fix it.  To that end, I have a question:  what makes us think that our goals are not connected to people outcomes?

For the past few weeks I have been a squeaky wheel sharing facts about the bottom line effects of employee engagement.  Well, so have the rest of my industry colleagues along with academic researchers as well as professional associations.

Here I go again with the employee engagement talk—did you know that Gallup tells us that disengaged workers cost U.S. businesses an estimated $350 million per year?  I would say that this issue definitely warrants attention.  Engagement channels to every area of our workplace.  Engaged team members have a positive outlook, and the disengaged do not.  The absence of employee engagement is the easiest way to squander organizational funds.

When mapping any strategic goal, two levels of consideration apply:  individual and organizational.  Both have to be committed in order to create the desired results.  There are some strategic alignment influencers that can make a difference in meeting organizational outcomes:

Job Alignment.  Focusing on individual skills instead of weaknesses increases employee productivity.  Strategic goals should be aligned with team abilities.

Resources and Leader Support.  Leaders, be available to your team.  Back them, and give them appropriate resources to achieve success.

Conditions.  Employees perform better when given true empowerment and autonomy.  A flexible, sensible workload alleviates stress, burnout, and exhaustion.  Employees need to know that leadership is committed to taking care of people.

Organizational Culture.  High trust and collaborative environments create the best working conditions.  Community efforts make the healthiest workplace based on values instead of punishment.

I wish you and your team:  “A Polite Situation.”