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Innovation | Strategy | Leadership

strengths-based leadership

Are you a coach… or just a caddie?

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Last week I had the chance to collaborate with some great minds in management and leadership at a leadership conference for the firm that pays me for my day job.

I have been a “Strengths Geek” for several years, as I often note, so I was excited to work with Paul Berg and Diane Obrist from Gallup as they led 130+ wealth management leaders through their StrengthsFinder results.

I have also long been a fan of the work of Tim Freeman from Efficient Marketing, so I was happy to finally meet with him in person. I also discovered a great new source of thought leadership in Kristie Van Leeuwen from The The Next Stage Group, LLC.

The closing keynote speech was from General Stephen Lorenz, USAF (retired), CEO of the United States Air Force Academy Endowment.

A senior leader is responsible for self, people and results.

— General Stephen Lorenz

It was a great blend of leadership and management. A mix of doing the right things, and doing things right, as Peter Drucker would put it.

But my takeaway headline was actually from my colleague Jerry, who said something to the effect of:

You know, I’ve always thought of myself as a coach, but if I’m honest with myself, I’ve really just been a caddie. I know the course, and I know which clubs to use, but I’ve really been letting the players play their own games when I should be helping them get better.

Jerry is brilliant, successful, frenetic and sometimes prone to pontificating as he thinks aloud, but he is consistently sincere in trying to make himself and his team better.

He captured in a well-turned phrase the thread running through it all, and something I have seen a lot– the mistaken notion that a good manager simply  ‘hires good people and stays out of the way’.

In my experience, managers who cite that as their overarching principle often aren’t that good at hiring, and ‘staying out of the way’ is usually an excuse for not holding people accountable.

…there’s an enormous difference between leading an organization and presiding over it. The leader who boasts of her hands-off style or puts her faith in empowerment is not dealing with the issues of the day. She is not confronting the people responsible for poor performance, or searching for problems to solve and then making sure they get solved. She is presiding, and she’s only doing half her job.

— Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, Execution, The Discipline of Getting Things Done

This is not to advocate micromanagement, no one likes to be micromanaged. But great coaches hold their players accountable. More importantly, they cultivate teams of people who want to win and a culture of continuous improvement.

Great players seek coaching because they want to get better.

Are you a coach… or just a caddie?

Be Remarkable- Word Cloud

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In this season of rebirth, renewal and new beginnings I am reposting one of my most popular posts, Be Remarkable, in a word cloud. Thanks to everyone who has joined me in exploring the intersection of leadership, advice and technology.

I started this blog as a creative outlet for me. I did zero market research to determine an audience and have done nothing special to promote it.  In just a few short months, it has been read thousands of times in more than 35 countries, and I have discovered scores of bright people making an impact on the world around us. I look forward to our ongoing exploration.

This was a speech I gave to coworkers about turning their day to day “jobs” into a rewarding career by connecting to the strengths and passions within themselves. You can read the original post here.

Five Leadership Lessons From The Godfather

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Godfather

Today Paramount and Cinemark are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the release of The Godfather with a one day showing of the iconic film in 55 Cinemark XD theaters. The movie is my all-time favorite (with the possible exception of The Godfather II). In honor of the anniversary (which is actually later this month), I offer these five leadership lessons from the film:

You need a wartime Consigliere

When Michael was plotting his revenge against the other families, he announced that he was replacing his own step-brother as trusted advisor: “Tom Hagen is no longer Consigliere. He’s going to be our lawyer in Vegas. That’s no reflection on Tom, it’s just the way I want it.” Then to Tom: “You’re not a wartime Consigliere, Tom. Things could get rough with the move we’re making.”

Loyalty, history and track record are important factors in keeping people on your team, but don’t confuse them with having the right people with the right skills and experiences in the right positions at the right time.

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Just because some businesses might be OK for other people, they may not be right for you

When Don Corleone sits down with Sollozzo, who is seeking financing and political protection in order to expand  his illegal drug business, Don Corleone tells him: “…I must say no to you and let me give you my reasons. It’s true I have a lot of friends in politics, but they wouldn’t be so friendly if they knew my business was drugs instead of gambling, which they consider a harmless vice. But drugs, that’s a dirty business.”

Credit unions buying fintech companies. Fintech companies getting bank charters. Banks and credit unions partnering with fintech companies to create new offerings. None of these are necessarily bad ideas, but expand your offerings because it makes sense strategically, and because you are sure you understand the risks and are sure you can execute.

Don’t do it because it’s an appealing source of new revenue. If you’re simply looking for a new source of revenue, why not sell hamburgers?

 

“Never tell anyone outside the Family what you are thinking again”

After Sollozzo exits the above scene, Don Corleone tells this to his hot-headed oldest son Sonny, after Sonny had asked a question of Sollozzo about his proposal, revealing a potential rift in the family.

In this era of social media communications and 24/7 open-source networking and crowd sourcing, remember to keep some things just within the company. That’s how competitive advantages are created.

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“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”

Experienced hit man Clemenza offers this simple advice to Rocco after he kills the traitor Paulie along an abandoned stretch of highway.

The leadership lesson: Know what’s important to keep close and what is expendable. Sometimes it’s time to move on, and sometimes it’s time to hang on. Know the difference.

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Make them an offer they can’t refuse

When the singer Johnny Fontane comes to Don Corelone for help in getting a movie role he covets, he is worried that it is already too late since the movie starts shooting in a week. The Godfather confidently reassures him that he will be able to influence the film’s producer: “I’m gonna make him an offer he won’t refuse.”

The old horse’s head in the bed routine is typically not recommended, but you should understand that dealing in the currency that’s important to the other party is the key to influence. Understanding their true wants and needs and worries. If you can help them achieve what they really want, you may very well make them an offer they can’t refuse.

Be Remarkable

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In October 2011 I had the chance to share the stage at Safeco Field with Seattle Mariners Manager Eric Wedge at a large professional development event for my company. Eric spoke passionately about the need to challenge yourself to be the best you can be, to play your best game every day and to always focus on getting better.

With Seattle Mariners Manager Eric Wedge. October 2011

Below is the text of my speech. I try not to cross over too much from my Day Job here, but this represents some of my core beliefs as a leader.

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Our internal theme for this year is “Be Remarkable”. Tonight I’d like to talk about what that means to me.

Our CEO Richard Davis likes to talk about how most of us are “accidental bankers”– how this probably wasn’t a childhood dream for most of us, and how we probably didn’t major in “banking”. Yet, here we are…

That was certainly true for me– I was one of the first people in my family to finish high school and the only person in my family to go to college. After a few years of nights and weekends in the retail industry, I started in banking as a branch manager, and then I got a chance to become a private banker. After a few years of that, I was given a chance to manage a small team, then a large region, then eventually the entire business line. Most importantly, I was able to help my daughter begin to pursue her dreams, as she became the SECOND person in my family to attend college, just two months ago.

Why aren’t you happy?

We have industry-leading financial performance, we have industry-leading client satisfaction scores and absolutely WORLD class employee engagement scores. We are one of Fortune Magazine’s Most Admired Companies, and we have a rock star CEO. This is truly the kind of place that INSPIRES you to Be Remarkable.

Despite all of that– and I dont know everyone here tonight– but I know that some of you just might not jump out of bed in the morning thinking about how to “Be Remarkable”. You might not even JUMP out of bed at all, you might kind of roll out with a grumble. Why is that?

In fact, you may be asking yourself “If this is such a great place, why aren’t I even enjoying myself most days?”

Well let’s be honest, not too many people jump out of bed with a smile on their face and skip to work whistling zip-a-dee-do-dah EVERY morning, but if you can’t at least look forward to your day the MAJORITY of the time, you have a problem.

Maybe you’re just not a happy person. My words tonight might help you rethink that a little bit, but I am fully prepared for the fact that I just might not be able to help you…

But I’m going to assume that you’re all at least as happy as the average person. I’m also going to assume that MOST of your days OFF are at least PRETTY good days. But, like I said, if you can’t say that for the MAJORITY of your work days, you have a problem.

And if that’s the case; your customers, your boss and your coworkers also have a problem– so by extension our shareholders have a problem too. Even worse, so do your friends and your family– and that problem is you!

Because whether you are full time or part time, you spend a significant amount of your waking hours at work, and if you aren’t enjoying yourself, you’re slowly making yourself– and those around you– miserable.

And here’s the bad news: Nobody can change that for you. YOU are responsible for your happiness.

But, here’s the good news: YOU are responsible for your happiness.

You have more freedom and more power than you might know or believe. Our forefathers wrote that right into the Declaration of Independence–our unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The even better news? The leadership here WANTS you to love your job– and we want you to make this your career! We want you to Be Remarkable… And we’re here to help!

It all STARTS with you.

Marcus Buckingham wrote a great book called The One Thing You Need to Know, and its broken down into three sections:

  1. If you’re a senior leader– if you have people reporting to people who report to you– the one thing you need to know is how to tap into what everyone has in COMMON, and speak to that.
  2. If you are a manager of other people, the one thing you need to know is to find out what makes each person UNIQUE and manage them as the individual person that they are.
  3. But, the one thing that ALL of you need to know, whether you manage anyone else or not, is to figure out the thing that you most HATE to do and find a way to stop doing that. To stop doing the thing that you hate is even more important than doing more of the thing that you love, because doing the thing that you hate saps your energy. It destroys your soul, little by little.

You see, THAT’S the thing that’s making you miserable to be around!

Now, I’m not saying to show up to tomorrow and tell your boss that you aren’t going to balance your cash drawer any more because you hate it….

You might not be able to make the changes you need in your life overnight, and I can’t even promise that we can make it happen here– if your one true calling in life is to bring irrigation and malaria relief to third world countries, that’s awesome, but I’m not aware of any job descriptions here that involve that here…

But you can do that on your time off… and I DO promise you that we will do EVERYTHING in our power to help you put your strengths and your passions to work in accordance with the needs of our customers and our shareholders.

Strengths Based Leadership

Speaking of strengths, Marcus Buckingham also co-authored a great book called Now, Discover Your Strengths. And in it, he says that you can’t ignore your weaknesses– you have to correct them enough to prevent failure– but the only path to greatness is developing your strengths. And more often than not, our strengths are the things we love to do most.

Now, I like people a whole lot more than I like numbers, but numbers are a PART of my job, so I have to have a PRETTY good understanding how our balance sheet and income statement work; but I will never be CFO.

I LOVE the people side of our business. I love developing our business strategies, and hiring and developing the people to execute them, and I spend as much time as I can on that.

I still have to make sure the trains run on time, and I have to make sure we deliver the numbers for our shareholders; and for the most part, I rely on people who love THOSE parts of the business to spend the bulk of THEIR time doing those things.

So, if this is still just your job, and not yet your career, I really want you to think about what you love to do, what you hate to do, and what your strengths and weaknesses are.

If this IS your career, it’s even MORE important!

There’s another great book and a web site called StrengthsFinder, by Don Clifton and Tom Rath, former colleagues of Marcus Buckingham. I encourage all of you to use it to discover YOUR strengths…

The story of “Tory”

I work with someone that some of you know, but she will KILL me if I mention her name,so lets just call her “Tory”.  I sat down with Tory a few years ago and asked her what she loved doing and what she hated doing. This was very hard for Tory, because she has been a top performer forever. She said, “Oh, I’ll do anything you need me to do!” I said, “I know that, but that wasn’t my question”. It took us three meetings for Tory to finally get up the courage to say, “You know, I really want to do more analytical work, I would like to learn project management skills, and I hate to say it, but I really don’t like to manage people”. I said, “Done.” on the spot to the first two, and I said “I think I can help you with the last one, but it might take me a little while.”

Sure enough, within a few months, we were able to shift her management responsibilities to other people, and she took on more analytical and project management duties. Almost instantly, Tory exceeded even her own high standards of performance as she was able to spend most of her time doing the things that match her natural talents. I couldn’t imagine how I could survive without her on my team.

If you can’t truly bring your passion and put your innate talents to work every day, it’s going to be pretty hard to Be Remarkable. In fact, you’re doing yourself a disservice. You’re also doing your customers, your coworkers and our shareholders a disservice. We cannot deliver the world class customer experience we want to deliver without engaged, passionate people who get to put their strengths to work.

Now what?

So– once you’ve discovered your strengths, how can you go about applying them to your job?

  • In a word– ASK!  You’re here tonight, so that’s a great start. Get active with the Development Network and meet as many people as you can, from all over the bank.
  • Secondly, get a great education. Associates degree, bachelors degree, Masters, PhD–  wherever your passions take you, but in this global economy you have to bring your best to the game.
  • Check out the Career Exploration Site on the Human Resources Intranet page. There you can Explore, Learn, Plan and Network. Read the career spotlights and listen in on the conference calls where employees from all over the bank describe what their job is like and what kind of experience you need for it.
  • Participate in MentorConnect. We have what is essentially an internal “match.com” to connect people who want to be mentored with senior people who volunteer their time simply to help you be the best you can be.
  • Talk to your manager! Let them know about your dreams and aspirations. Talk about what you love to do and what you hate to do, but be patient– even if you hate it, SOMEBODY probably has to do it, and its probably YOU, for at least a little while…
  • And most importantly– perform the HECK out of your current job.  I gotta tell you– as a manager, I’m INCREDIBLY motivated to help top performers build their career, even if it means I lose them to another part of the organization. But I don’t really have a lot of patience for someone who’s not performing in their current job who tries to tell me that it’s not their fault– that they would do a great job if only we would promote them…

That may be true, but we all have to do the job we have today to have any chance to get the job we want tomorrow.

So before you head home to your loved ones, before you come into work tomorrow and start thinking about how to take great care of your customers– think just a little bit more about yourself… about your job… about your career…

Discover your strengths… follow your passions… and Be Remarkable.

The Intersection

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The Intersection

Welcome to my blog!

I’m here to explore the intersection of innovation, strategy and leadership to improve financial services.

 

Innovation

I’ve been a fan and early adopter of technology for as long as I can remember, but technology is just a tool. I can barely a wire light switch and I have never written a line of code in my life. When I was in high school, my “Computer Math” class consisted of entering strings of arithmetic into what was essentially a programmable calculator with a paper tape. The only thing I remember from that class was that every string was supposed to start with “To (0): Load”, whatever that meant. That, and the time my friend Jim and I conspired to slow down the smartest guy in the class. We each occupied one of the two available “computers” while I switched the + and x keys and then volunteered my keyboard to our unwitting victim. It took him two days to debug his formula.

Computer classes in college consisted primarily of carefully rubber banding slippery stacks of IBM punch cards lest they get out of order and cause you to spend the night in the computer lab. At least, that’s how it appeared to me. I avoided computer classes like I avoided brussel sprouts. Even though my engineering major roommate was easily able to infect me with lustful desire for an Apple IIe (with pen plotter) or even a Tandy TRS-80, my main technology fix at that time came from synthesizers and audio and lighting equipment.

After college I discovered the IBM PCjr, with MS-DOS 2.0 and SuperCalc on 5 1/4″ floppies. My job at the time required me to do simple but repetitive arithmetic with pen and paper to calculate a payroll budget. The mere fact that my results were being printed in stunning dot matrix grey on green and white tractor-fed 14 7/8″ paper seemed to quadruple my credibility compared to the same numbers on the old handwritten sheets. I was forever hooked on the possibilities of technology to improve jobs and lives, and a lifetime of exploration lay ahead.

Strategy

Most of my professional life has been in the financial services industry, I have seen a lot of fads and trends pursued in the quest for growth and profit. Acquisition binges justified by “the need to diversify” followed by divestitures justified by “the need to focus on our core business”. An increased emphasis on variable advisor pay and commissions to “pay for performance” followed by flatter fee and pay structures to “better align interests” (or sometimes simply to “cut costs”). The optimistic splurges on technology to “revolutionize the client experience” (and/or “increase advisor productivity”) followed by the inevitable crash to the reality of disappointing ROIs. None of these strategies are necessarily misguided, but the key driver has to be advice.

Whether you are a bank teller suggesting that a customer might want to open a savings account to hold some of that excess cash in their checking account, or a superstar CFA portfolio manager recommending the latest structured hedged debt solution to improve alpha and reduce volatility, if the person on the other side of the desk from you doesn’t perceive you to be a trusted source of true advice that will solve their problem or achieve their goal, your personal success will be limited.

In my opinion, one of the leading authorities on the art and science of being a Trusted Advisor is one of the co-authors of the book by that very name, David H. Maister, and it seems like every financial firm I’m familiar with has had their advisors read the book. Not that it’s typically very apparent to their clients.  True Trusted Advisors remain as elusive as four leaf clovers in the vast meadows of financial services. Many advisors remain either salespeople or reactive servicers.

Leadership

Innovation and strategy don’t just happen on their own, they take a leader to make them happen. I am particularly fascinated with the research and writings of Marcus Buckingham who describes himself as dedicated to “…understanding what makes world-class managers tick, bottling it, and sharing it with the world.”  As the co-author of Now, Discover Your Strengths, he helped create StrengthsFinder to help people look deep within to find their unique combination of inherent talents.

(My Top Five:  Strategic | Achiever | Futuristic | Learner | Communication)

I have been lucky to work for, with and around some outstanding leaders (plus a few clunkers), and I’ve learned a lot from each of them. The best leaders know their strengths and leverage them to get outstanding results from themselves and from others, yet they know how to access different styles within themselves to provide the right leadership in the right situations. They harness the power of Strengths-Based Leadership and Situational Leadership. Regardless the industry, regardless the challenge, the need for effective leadership is always a critical ingredient for success.

 

About Me

I consider myself an “embedded entrepreneur” with a day job with a Fortune 150 financial services firm, but everything here is my own work and my own opinion. I have been an individual contributor, a manager and a senior leader, and I have always thought of myself as a serial intrapreneur. I love to build high performance teams to create and execute winning business plans. I’ll do my best to share the best thinking of those whom I feel are making important contributions to the intersection of innovation, strategy and leadership. I invite you to join the conversation.