leadership – Page 4 – In Search Of

Competency Vs. Excellence

Posted on September 20, 2011Leave a comment

We can train people to be competent, but excellence is a result of an individual being given the freedom to make mistakes, to learn, and truly incented to grow without fear of retribution – not without accountability but without loss of reputation. Excellence develops when an individual recognizes his own adequacies and inadequacies, and is willing to grow by following, learning, and failing.

If “Failure is not an option!” – then the best you will get is competence.
If you must “prevent them from making mistakes” – then the best you will get is competence.
If the following the process is more important than developing the people – then the best you will get is competence.

Practice, Rehearsal or Exercise

Posted on April 29, 2011Leave a comment

As leaders, we need to better distinguish between these three activities.

In three domains that are "performance" domains, these words have somewhat different connotations.

Professionals: Doctors and Lawyers practice – that is they perform their profession. They do not rehearse, nor do they exercise, at least they do not differentiate between the performance of their profession and the preparation for performance.

Artists: Musicians and Actors practice – that is they spend time preparing themselves for a performance event. This can be in the form of a rehearsal, a planned unattended performance of all or part of some body of work that is to be performed. They also do exercises or drills – repetition of non-performance work designed or selected specifically to improve technique, capacity, or dexterity.

Athletes: Virtually all athletes practice, that is they spend time preparing themselves for a performance event. Their practice is in the form of simulated play or drills, repetition of simulated performance activities designed or selected specifically to improve technique or agility. They also exercise, but this is primarily to improve or maintain capacity or flexibility.

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So leaders, when you coach your teams, are you conscious of the difference? How do you help your teams build technique or agility? How do you help your teams maintain or improve capacity or flexibility? How do you help your teams prepare to perform? Practice, Rehearsal and/or Exercise?

Impact Owners

Posted on February 8, 2011Leave a comment

How well do you own the impact of your actions, decisions, and
communications?

How frequently does the impact of our actions, decisions, and
communications not closely reflect our intentions?

You intend to partner with someone, but you end up alienating them instead.
You propose an aggressive schedule for a project to get people focused
quickly, but end up making commitments that you cannot deliver against.
You select a technology pattern that is common in the industry, and easy to
find resources to staff, but your organization fumbles the implementation
of the required infrastructure, delaying your project, and reducing the
perceived quality of your application.

These are examples of situations where your intentions did not match the
outcomes. How easily do you own the impact? How much easier is it to own
your intentions and assign the impact to others? How easy is it to blame
my colleague for being “difficult” to work with? To blame the project team
for the delivery failure? To blame the infrastructure team for your app
problems?

Leadership demands the trust of those you are leading. Whether you are
leading your reporting staff, a project team, or some other organization or
group, trust is required. Whether leading from a position of authority,
influence, knowledge, or savvy, trust is required. Leadership without
trust is a form of tyranny.

Leaders can be trusted when they are willing to own the impact along with
their intentions.