Musings from a Leadership Career: Recent Episodes
Richard Haviland, Certified Center for Creative Leadership Coach; Registered International Organization Development Consultant
Each episode in this series will discuss a different aspect of leadership and provide coaching tips to help you use the insights in your leadership role. The topics are drawn from the speaker's 40 year career working in 14 countries, lessons he was taught by his coaches and mentors, research on leadership and requests from his over 2000 social media contacts and followers.The weekly Podcast will be available on Tuesday mornings, Eastern time zone in the USA and will be between 10 and 20 minutes in length on average.You can contact Dick Haviland at either:richardmhaviland@gmail.comLinkedIn: Richard HavilandFacebook: Musings from a Leadership Career
In every company, there is, formally and/or informally, an expected leadership style based on company culture and core values.
This podcast looks at the experience of several leaders whose style did not match the company's and the difficulties those differences created for them.
The topic also deals with the question: what do you do if you need to adapt your style to one that doesn't seem natural or comfortable, but unless you do, you likely won't be viewed as an effective leader?
Lastly, the podcast reviews the importance of defining desired leadership style and behaviors clearly and descriptively on a regular and consistent basis
Managers are typically overloaded and the problem can be worsened if employee aren't doing their job.
This podcast shares a coaching process from an actual situation in which a manager's lack of ability to break a problem into manageable parts caused him to create many avoidable problems and damage his reputation as a leader
Effective coaching reinforces employee talents and abilities and also helps develop an understanding of how the person can develop and grow even more.
But there is a difference between a development and a weakness that we have to emphasize when coaching others and are being coached ourselves
One is part of learning and growing, the other is a self-inflicted and career limiting behavior.
It can often be difficult to determine what the REAL level of agreement and support for a decision is across a team. It be equally difficult to determine if people agreed to something simply because someone thought it was a good idea
GroupThink helps us understand 8 dynamics that tend to close down valuable debate and discussion of differing views
The Abilene Paradox helps us understand the dynamics of people taking actions that show agreement when, in fact, they disagreed but didn't speak up
The ability to deal with information, facts, data, events and feelings that are contradictory to our existing mental models and emotional make up is an essential leadership ability
This podcast looks at dissonance from both a cognitive and emotions level and offer a series of reflective questions to enable listeners to recognize if and when dissonance is interfering with or limiting the decision making, behaviors or actions
This podcast expands the understanding of closed mindedness by redefining it as
The act of ceasing further evaluation or consideration of an idea, fact or opinion
Drawing from research and personal experience as a leader and coach, several real situations will be shared and questions provided that will help listeners reduce the impact and occurrences of closed mindedness in their leadership work
Influence skills are an essential part of a leader's "tool kit"
Building on the published work at The Center for Creative Leadership, this podcast looks at 5 typical populations of relationships we sometimes need to influence and them describes 6 different approaches available for any of those populations and the value and benefits of each
For centuries, Machiavelli has been viewed as the classic politician, power hungry person and master of manipulative relationships
This podcast draws on research related to the necessary and beneficial uses of influence leaders need in order to be effective, while still being driven by the right values
Trying to manage stress is simply dealing with a symptom while allowing the root cause to continue
Too many organizations offer stress reduction and stress management classes without addressing the causes of stress in their company
This podcast talks about the typical process, structure, organizational culture and interpersonal behaviors that are the root cause of stress.
Unless we learn to proactively try to, at least, reduce the level of stress any of these factors cause, we will not help reduce the levels of stress that adversely impact our employees.
Striking a balance of oversight, coaching, delegating and being supportive is a daily challenge for us as leaders.
This podcast provides a checklist to help you find that balance.
Several actual experiences will be shared to provide perspective on how to create that balance with your direct reports
In this 2nd podcast, Dick shares memorable comments made in meetings during his career that became valuable lessons for work as a leader, team member and person building relationships
Meetings aren't always productive but they sometimes include discussions or comments that become valuable, life-long lessons for us as leaders and people
This is the first in a two part series in which Dick Haviland shares some of his "most memorable" lessons from meetings during his career.
This easy to use tool was created by the consulting firm Senn-Delaney and was invaluable in helping our leadership team understand each other at a feeling and emotional level. It made us all human and encouraged respect and empathy when we worked together.
This episode will explain how to create a tangible mood elevator, place it in your office or work area and let people know "how your day is going"
Drawing from personal experience and training and the work of Dr. Arnold Lazarus this podcast provides an easy to use process for visually successful outcomes in difficult or uncomfortable situations.
The podcast provides questions and a process guide for visualization exercises
The opportunity to grow a business by means of strategic alliances, partnerships, licensing or acquisitions is becoming increasingly important in today's dynamics.
This eighth and final episode in looking at different business environments will predictable challenges you will face, what you will need to focus on and the leadership competencies you and your team will need to be able to demonstrate.
This episode in the series will look at situations in which you have to use data to identify where you have assets that are not performing to the levels necessary. We'll also look at the various forms of assets and their impact on creating a sustainable business. The leadership attributes needed in this environment are important because, in many cases, decisions that have to be made might negatively impact people%.
This sixth in the series of eight podcasts, we'll explore the attributes, important areas of focus and essential leadership competencies needed to succeed when you are entering new markets and other areas in which you haven't tried to compete.
A common mistake in business is to rush to reducing price to keep a customer rather than looking internally at how to reduce costs resulting in keeping the customer and improving profits. this podcast looks at how to do that, what leaders need to focus on and the leadership skills that make it happen
This episode looks at how to identify what are called blank spaces and white spaces in using company core competencies to grow its business. We'll also look at the attributes of that environment, areas of focus and leadership competencies required.
This episode looks at the leadership challenges, areas of focus and competencies needed to successfully sustain a business during times of financial constraints.
In this episode we'll look at the characteristics of the business environment in which you are creating brand awareness, marketing presence and customer base. This environment isn't limited to start ups, but also applies to new product introductions, mergers, acquisitions, strategic alliances, rebranding or entering new markets
Drawing upon the Gerstein-Reisman study, this is the first in a series of eight podcasts that will explain the seven different business environments all businesses encounter over time. Each podcast will discuss the attributes of the environment, the predictable challenges in each and the critical leadership competencies required to sustain that business during that environment.
This podcast provides an overview of the study and how to use the diagnostic tool. Listeners will be encouraged to answer a few questions before the next podcast, which will deal with the first of the seven environments.
Using insights from the book Crucial Conversations, this podcast explains 3 types of conversations we sometimes neglect or avoid and, by doing so, we fail to help others, damage our credibility and fail to show good leadership
We'll look at each of the 3, discuss examples, think about our responsibility to have those discussions and the impact on us and others if we continue to avoid having them
Career discussions are important for all of us.
This podcast provides a list of career questions you can use to start those discussions with your employees and, in fact, you can use them to think about your own career goals
Managers and employees often experience things at work that impact us emotionally, behaviorally and/or cognitively. They wound us and, like all wounds, need time and treatment to heal
This podcast shares some work experiences that have caused lingering and often long-term post-traumatic stress. How to deal with those situations, how to learn from them and come out "stronger on the other side" will be discussed
All businesses, whether for profit or non-profit need the important process discipline of confirming they are clear on WHY to address a problem or opportunity AND to recognize when problems or opportunities exceed organizational resources or capabilities, which demand discipline of what to say yes or no to at any given time
This podcast provides a user-friendly process and series of questions that help you make informed decisions in those circumstances
This podcast shares the consultant's experience and collaborative work in helping clients expand their understanding of sustainability and the many aspects of a business that need to be part of a sustainability mindset and strateg.
Several models and checklists are provided to enable listeners to identify sustainability opportunities in their organizations and implement action plans
Building our networks is an important skill and use of our time. This podcast explains how the often misunderstood Machiavelli recognized the benefits of networking, and how centuries later research at The Center for Creative Leadership taught us about those benefits and offered guidance on how to build the networks, spheres of influence, sounding boards and support systems
We're always evaluating, formally and informally, an employee's demonstrated ability in their job as well as their demonstrated willingness (motivation) to do the job.
But are we able to clearly explain what ability and willingness look like at the necessary level of clarity and detail?
This podcast explains the 12 indicators of ability and the 12 indicators of willingness in clear, concise language AND explains how to use a simple rating system for all 24 indicators. The rating results allow you to identify the best use of your time with the employee, what you should delegate, who needs your teaching and coaching support and who might be ready for more responsibility.
Previous podcasts have talked about the power of storytelling and have shared some of the speaker's important lessons learned by telling his personal stories
This podcast provides a list of questions you can answer that, by doing so, will create the stories you can tell
Surprisingly the World Economic Forum magazine looked at what Shakespeare plays teach about leadership
They focused on these 6: Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, Henry V, Othello and Julius Caesar
We often fall into the trap of thinking of delegation as an "all or nothing" leadership action; we either delegate or we don't
When faced with the need to delegate using that common trap, we find all reasons not to delegate
The Delegation Checklist helps us understand that there are 6 levels of delegation; each level adds more responsibility to the employee while maintaining an effective progress review mechanism
The podcast explains each of the 6 levels and walks through a real example of how to use the checklist
GroupThink is a dynamic with 9 indicators that it has infected a group's relationships, interactions, decision making and problem solving
Leaders and team members can, and should, monitor these indicators and speak up when they experience or observe the
The dynamic can cause teams to make not just bad decisions, but as history shows, catastrophic ones.
This podcast provides a user friendly description of each of the 9 indicators of the dynamic
Teams have a variety of followers and how they behave. Each of them can contribute to team success. We also know that behaviors can change under conditions such as change, stress, uncertainty, etc
This podcast describes the behavioral patterns of each of the 5 types and explains how to identify which employees fall into each of the 5 behavioral patterns.
We will also talk about how a person might fall into one pattern under "normal condition" but behave in a different way when change occurs or they feel stressed.
GE introduced a performance management and evaluation process that looks at both the measurable outcomes of employee performance and the behavioral aspects and shows it in a four-quadrant visual. This podcast explains how to set up this process, identify which category each employee falls into and how to coach, develop and manage employees that fall in each of the quadrants.
We all have our "worry factor" This podcast provides an easy to use process that will enable you to manage your worry factor by learning to look at potential problems related to anything you're trying to accomplish by looking at 2 simple factors:
what is the impact on results if it actually happens?
what is the probability of it actually happening?
when you finish the exercise in the podcast, you're worry factor will definitely go down and you'll be ready to make things happen
Multiple studies in developmental psychology indicate that 7 traits, when demonstrated in childhood can be reliable indicators of leadership potential
This podcast discusses two of those studies and how to use the finding to identify, coach and develop leaders
Change will always encounter some form of resistance. That does not necessarily mean people are against the change. In many cases, the resistance is a human defense mechanism when confronted with something new, unknown or unclear.
This podcast describes the 15 most common sources of resistance to change and how to help people work through it and eventually support the change
This 3 part series will equip with a "leading change toolkit" for use in your organization.
Part 1 focuses on creating the 4 conditions for successful change
Part 2 helps you understand the emotional and psychological aspects of dealing with change
Part 3 covers best practices in leading change
In this 2nd of 3 podcasts on Leading Change we'll focus on the psychological and emotional stages people go through when dealing with change and discuss how to understand where your employees are in these stages and where you are as their leader
We will also discuss the 3 ways people typically react to change; called the 10-80-10 dynamic, and how to understand each of those 3 reactions and how to engage those populations
Leadership Lessons often come from unexpected places, this time from a children's book, The Phantom Tollbooth
Join Milo on a journey that teaches him many lessons every leader can use
Drawing upon the research of Jim Collins at Stanford University, this podcast explains the 13 processes, practices and organizational culture attributes of the market leaders across the world. It will enable you to compare your organization's processes to those that Jim has identified as the best performers globally
Investing time in personal reflection is important for leaders. This simple exercise will enable you to understand the career experiences you've had that shape your management practices, how you lead teams and how you provide coaching, mentoring and feedback to develop others
In his book Managing by Storying Around, David Armstrong, former CEO of Armstrong World Industries explained the power of personal story telling as a leader and person.
Stories have great power in sharing more of yourself as both a leader and as a person.
We often under-estimate the value of our own life experiences as being helpful to others.
This podcast provides many personal stories that the speaker's co-workers and clients have shared as well as several of his own life stories that equipped him with leadership skills and insights
Providing effective behavioral feedback is difficult and often uncomfortable to give. It requires more thought and preparation than most forms of feedback.
To effectively provide behavioral feedback requires us to understand that the meaning of words are in the people who use them, not in the words themselves.
This podcast will provide you with a 4 step process for effective behavioral feedback discussions and will also include a mock behavioral feedback discussion using the 4 step model.
In addition, you will learn the 4 questions you need to ask yourself in preparing to conduct a behavioral feedback discussion
Why do smart, well-educated people sometimes reach career dead ends or even fail in their jobs?
This podcast looks at the key learnings from decades of research and shares a list of the common causes of career derailment.
The list can be used as a coaching and feedback took as well as a personal reflection tool for the listener
An essential part of a learning organization is its process discipline in conducting post-mortems at the individual, team and company level. They create insights and lessons learned that will improve performance and the bottom line.
This podcast looks at the process at the individual, team and company level and uses actual examples from the speaker's business experience
Best in class companies have 8 specific processes and practices that are part of their culture, thinking and decision making. This podcast explains each of them, their benefits and impact on sustained performance
Success can be its own worst enemy. This podcast reviews the research findings on the mistakes and blind spots success can cause if not monitored and guarded against
Business dynamics, now more than ever, require thinking and problem-solving skills that are diverse and often outside of our educational backgrounds and experience.
This podcast explains why whole brain thinking is important at the individual, team and organizational level and how to cultivate it starting with you as the leader.
The podcast will share a summary of the results of a 2019 study by Accenture regarding the impact of whole brain thinking and what companies are doing to develop it across their businesses
Drawing upon several sources of research and thought leadership, this podcast explains 8 changes organizations and leaders have to understand in order to sustain a competitive advantage and create strong customer partnerships
All teams need people who are willing to contribute to its success in both tangible and intangible ways. This episode describes each and explains the important role they play in team performance. In addition, it discusses how leaders can cultivate each type and also helps listeners think about how they can contribute to their team of peers and the leader they report to
Learn about the 12 attributes of the Servant Leader as described by Robert Greenleaf and Jim Collins. Explore how to make each of the attributes part of the experience of those you lead and how to demonstrate those attributes in your leadership work
Studies show that there are 4 individuals who shape our leadership styles, core values and behaviors. This podcast will discuss each one and share Dick's personal lessons learned from his of the 4 in his own career
Global dynamics, events and trends have changed the core competencies needed by leaders and organizations
This podcast explains the 10 competencies that are particularly important for leaders and the companies they manage.
There is also an exercise suggested that will help listeners and their companies determine the current strength of these competencies in their organizations.
The perspective we bring to a discussion or situation impacts the outcome as well as our relationship with others.
Like most things in life, we need to be willing and able to change perspective when necessary
This podcast discusses 5 different perspectives that can be helpful in communications, resolving differences, better understanding each other and building mutual respect and trust.
Each of us has a preferred way of receiving information. Too often, we use our preferred approach without considering how others prefer to receive information and have discussions.
This podcast explains 4 different preferences, encourages you to meet people where they are in connecting with them and helps you identify which people in your network of relationships match up with each of the 4 preferences. It will also enable you to better understand which of the 4 style you prefer
We use common words every day without realizing they often mean different things to different people. The communication concept that reminds us of this is: the meanings of words are in the people who use them, not in the word themselves.
In this podcast, we will use the word TRUST to understand how this concept works
Drawing from the work of Henry Mintzberg, this podcast will discuss the 10 key role that leaders fill on a regular basis. You will be provided with a user friendly list of questions that can help you allocate your time most effectively on a given day. There is also an exercise you can complete with your manager and team to better align their expectations of your most important roles with your perspective.
Research shows the importance of mentors throughout our careers. This podcast will talk about ways to develop mentoring relationships, with or without your employer's help. In addition, lessons my mentors taught me will be shared along with some of the ways they did their mentoring
When you become the manager of former peers, you are experiencing one of the most challenging and important career changes. This podcast guides you in how to have a discussion called The 3 Rs which will enable you to reframe the relationship and help your former peers understand the changes that will take place
Leaderships need to draw upon 4 aspects of "who they are". This podcast reviews those 4 in what is called the Gestalt of Leadership: the whole and complete leader as a person. The model presented is useful for both personal effectiveness and as a coaching and development tool with employees
Behaviors shape the experience we create for those around us. Those experiences create consequences that impact not just the immediate interaction, but the long-term health of the relationship.
This podcast discusses the 3 factors we control when interacting with others and the consequences they create
This podcast describes and provides examples of two very different behaviors in the same type of situation as a way to help you understand the 3 factors and the consequences they create for all involved
Time is one of our most valuable resources. In the midst of your daily work lives we constantly make decisions regarding how to use that time
Studies show that 2 of the most neglected uses of our time as leaders are, in fact, that most valuable in helping us become great leaders who are trusted and respected by those we lead
This podcast discusses those 2 investments and provides an easy-to-use method to get important insights from that investment of your time
Be prepared to start to "look in your leadership mirror"