Define Your Signature Leadership Qualities

What is your greatest asset?

When I ask that question, what is the first answer that comes to your mind?

What frame of reference did you choose?

If you chose your own personal qualities as a frame of reference, you may have answered "my intellect".   Or perhaps "my ability to organize", "my integrity", "my ability to accomplish so many things in a short amount of time", "my creativity".  You no doubt have a lot of assets, or strengths, and it may be difficult to choose a “greatest” one.

Or, you might have thought “my eyes”, “my smile”, “my skin”, or something else more physical. Nothing wrong with that.

If you chose to answer that question from the frame of reference of accounting, then maybe you thought “my house” or “my 401K” or something else that could be converted into cash if you so desired.

If you answered that question from the frame of reference of a company leader, you may have answered with something like “my customers”, “my employees”, “our track record of stability, growth and service” or even "our intellectual capital".

So how did you answer that question?

Why did you choose the frame of reference that you did and what does that tell you about where you are right now?

Whatever frame of reference you chose, I challenge you to choose a different one.

Answer the question from the perspective of your child, your boss, your customer, your employee, your closest friend. What would they say your greatest asset is?

Understanding what your greatest strengths are can help you define yourself as an individual and a leader. What are your 'signature' qualities? What do you want to be known for?

When I do 360 interviews for my clients, I ask that question in two different ways. I ask their direct reports, manager, and a customer, “What 3 or 4 descriptive words immediately come to mind when you think of (my client)?” The answer to this is not always strengths, and sometimes can be interpreted in more than one way: “strong-willed” for example. The answers to this question reveal the signature qualities that my client is known for.

The next question I ask is “What are (my client’s) greatest strengths?” Ideally, you want the answers to these two questions to be the same, or at least to overlap.

If you know what qualities define you to others, and what your natural talents are, you can decide whether they are leadership qualities that you want to build on or are qualities you want to minimize.  You can define which of your assets you want to be known for, your 'signature leadership qualities'.

Understanding what your greatest talents are can help you identify where you want to put your time and effort.  Spending time, energy, and money to strengthen your natural talents builds them into assets that are unique to you and increase your likelihood for success.

Understanding how you are viewed by others gives you an opportunity to choose to either emphasize those qualities and make them your own, or change them if they are not the impression you want to leave. By deliberately identifying the assets you want to be known for, you are proactively defining your own signature leadership qualities.  Don't allow yourself to be branded by default.  Be conscious of how you convey yourself as a leader, what you stand for, and what your leadership philosophy is. 

So what is your greatest asset? By knowing it and strengthening it, it will become one of your definitive signature leadership qualities.  Make sure that's what you want.

Everyone Has a Talent
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Model How to Ask For and Receive Feedback Gracefully

When I became a parent, I suddenly became very conscious of my table manners. I religiously buckled my seat belt. I watched my mouth. Being a parent is a lot like being a leader: you are under constant observation. You are a role model and your behavior is the best illustration of how you want others to behave. You aren’t perfect, so acknowledging that by asking and acting on feedback goes a very long way toward building trust and respect on your team.

Observing leaders welcome and act on feedback is inspiring to those around them. One of the skills you can model to your employees is how to ask for and receive feedback. Three simple questions should be the standard for your discussions with your employees, both one-to-one and in team meetings:

1. What I can do differently that will help you (us) succeed?
2. What can I stop doing that will increase your (our) chances of success?
3. What can I start doing that I haven’t been doing that will make you (us) more successful?

Ask these questions during their performance reviews, before starting projects, when debriefing projects, and at least twice a year to each employee.

When you get their feedback, model how to receive it. Simply say, “Thank you. I appreciate your honesty and thoughtfulness.” You don’t have to make promises that you will change. You don’t have to say you will think about what they have said. The best way to respond is by your actions. Do make sure you understand the feedback and ask for clarity or examples if you don’t. Then next time you sit down with them let them know what you have been doing differently in response to their feedback. That lets them know that you listen well, take what they have to say seriously, and are committed to personal and professional development. And as a result they will be more likely to be honest in their feedback to you.

By showing that you welcome constructive feedback, modeling how to receive it in a non-defensive manner, and then acting on it, your team members will be more open to it too. They will learn how to ask for and expect feedback from their colleagues as well as you. And that makes for a more productive team.

How To Find More "You" Time

Stress and it’s ill effects are often in the news, and entire books are written on the topic. Perhaps too much stress is one of the reasons why the US has dropped to number 49 in the world in longevity. In the 1950’s, we were 5th.

The Center for Disease Control reports that 85% of disease has an emotional component to it. Stress is emotional yet it affects our physical bodies in measureable ways: brains shrink and nerve endings (dendrites) disappear from brain neurons. The stress hormone cortisol causes increased fat around organs. Stress weakens our immune response and causes changes in antibodies. There’s more, but I am not a doctor or scientist so it quickly gets too overwhelming for me.

Where are we supposed to find the time to exercise, relax and spend time with our loved ones? How can a leader take the time off that’s essential to reducing stress?

If you are a leader it is vital that you can handle stress, and you may think that you can handle more than most people. That may be true. But what is also true is that if you don’t manage your stress well, your organization will suffer from your poor decisions.

According to Henry L. Thompson, author of The Stress Effect, stress is often the reason for poor leadership performance. High stress compromises the ability to access our emotional intelligence and our cognitive abilities, leading to impaired thinking and behavior choices. Brain scientists such as John Medina tell us that stressed brains can’t learn as well either.

Here are two (just 2!) tips that will help you find the time to do the relaxing things that help manage your stress:

First, make sure you have your priorities straight. General George C. Marshall said “save (your) ammunition for the big fights and avoid a constant drain of little ones.” General Marshall, who as Army Chief of Staff during WWII built up troop numbers from 174,000 to 8 million, regularly rose at 6 am to exercise on horseback – to give him thinking time, he said – and quit for the day at 4 pm. From 4pm to his 9pm bedtime he relaxed with his wife dining, walking and canoeing. Sure, occasionally he worked late, but he knew the value of incorporating sleep, exercise, and recreation into a regular schedule. If you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of your team members and your projects very well.

By reviewing your projects to ensure they are aligned with your organization’s strategy, mission and values, you will probably be able to scrap a few that aren’t. Enlist the help of your employees to identify and eliminate the draining little tasks that don’t directly support the projects that are priorities. One of the questions you can ask to help identify vital tasks is, "Would our customers be willing to pay for that?"

Second, trust others. Delegate, ask for help, and relax knowing that your team members can take care of things as well as if not better than you can. Keeping information and responsibilities to yourself creates a downward spiral leading to dysfunctional teams. Micromanaging is detrimental to everyone, stressing out you and your subordinates unnecessarily and causing them to feel distrusted. Let go a little, and maybe let up on yourself a little too.

These two tips will help you manage your time better. In Good to Great, Jim Collins says “Most of us lead busy but undisciplined lives. We have ever-expanding 'to do' lists, trying to build momentum by doing, doing, doing—and doing more. And it rarely works. Those who built the good-to-great companies, however, made as much use of 'stop doing' lists as 'to do' lists."

If you prioritize thoughtfully and delegate more, you will have time to regularly schedule exercise and relaxation. In global research from the Center for Creative Leadership, it was found that executives who exercise regularly are rated significantly higher on leadership effectiveness by their bosses, peers and direct reports than those who exercised sporadically or not at all.

So take a tip from General Marshall, who wrote this in a note to a new brigadier general:

“Now I counsel you to make a studied business of relaxing and taking things easy, getting to the office late, taking trips, and making everybody else work like hell. It is pretty hard for a leopard to change his spots, but you must cloak your new rank with a deliberate effort to be quite casual….I woke up at about thirty-three to the fact that I was working myself to death, to my superior’s advantage, and that I was acquiring the reputation of being merely a pick and shovel man. From that time on, I made it a business to avoid, so far as possible, detail work, and to relax as completely as I could manage in a pleasurable fashion….”

It may be hard for you too to “change your spots” but the benefits are far more vast, and the detriments far too serious, for you not to take the time, every day, to relax.

In US, 40% of Managers are Women - And Pay Has Increased!

In a report released Tuesday by the US Government Accountability Office, not much change has occurred in the number of female managers, their pay or their key characteristics in the period between 2000 and 2007, the years of the study.

The average pay increased by 2 cents: “When looking at all industry sectors together and adjusting for these factors, we estimated that female managers earned 81 cents for every dollar earned by male managers in 2007, compared to 79 cents in 2000. The estimated adjusted pay difference varied by industry sector, with female managers' earnings ranging from 78 cents to 87 cents for every dollar earned by male managers in 2007, depending on the industry sector.”

The number of managers with bachelor’s degrees or higher has increased for both males and females – from 53% to 56% for men and from 45% to 51% for women. 59% of female managers are married, compared to 74% of male managers. 63% of women managers have children compared to 57% of male managers. The percentage of female managers increased from 39% to 40%, and the number of female non-managers remained the same at 49%.

Generally, women were under-represented in upper management. However in several industries, they were proportionate or even over-represented: construction, public administration, transportation and utilities. The widest under-representation was in education and the retail trade where the majority of non-management workers were women, and most managers were men.

This study didn’t address the reasons for the gaps. I know there are many. From my own experience and the experiences of some of my clients I know that one reason for the pay gap is that women are less confident about negotiating for higher pay when first getting hired.

As a personal example, in applying for a management position, I accepted the first offer because it was higher than what I had set in my mind. Of course I would accept! However, later during a company-wide equity review, my salary was bumped up considerably to reflect the pay of other managers in my grade. I was both happy and depressed at the same time. I had missed out on higher pay for two years simply because I had not asked for it from the beginning. When I accepted a severance package from this same company a few years later, I was told “As a manager at your level you should have received stock options. We are going to give you the cash equivalent of the stock options you should have received.” Thank God this was an extremely fair and generous company. Most companies would not do either of those things. But it taught me a lesson. ALWAYS negotiate; never accept the first salary offer.

The reasons behind women’s promotion challenges are varied. Studies have indicated that women have a higher need for connection, authenticity, and balance. They are often held to a higher standard. Agentic behaviors (“typically masculine” leadership behaviors such as ‘command and control’) are often reinforced in traditional leadership cultures and that type of behavior is not expected from women.

Truly, the above paragraph could apply to many men as well. They may be overlooked for leadership roles because they do not lean toward agentic behaviors but work in that type of organizational culture. The male executives I coach appreciate a work environment that has more connection and balance, and where people can work according to their values and behave authentically. They know, as women need to understand, when it is sometimes appropriate to use agentic behaviors and when it isn’t.

I believe that the American work environment is slowly evolving to embrace the leadership of men and women who do understand the value of connection, authenticity and balance. When these humane and balanced leadership styles are more common, we will see more women in leadership positions.

We’ve come a long way – at least in hair styles!