Working to Be a Leader

“Who was your model?” one of my students asked me after I had posed the same question to the class last week during “A Management Approach to Organizational Development” at the Zicklin School of Business.  We were discussing the topic of  “Motivation Concepts” and specifically “self-efficacy,” an individual’s belief that she is capable of performing a task.  One of the ways to develop self-efficacy is “vicarious modeling.”

 Vicarious modeling is a process during which you can gain self-confidence while watching others perform a task similar to the one you are doing.  Through observation, you can picture yourself performing that same way.

 “Prof. Ogletree,” was the answer I gave to my students.  Although I’ve had many good professional role models in my career, Charles J. Ogletree topped my list that evening.  Today, Ogletree is the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and the Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School.  Former instructor of President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle when they attended Harvard, Prof. Ogletree is an esteemed and prolific writer and public speaker involved in sometimes controversial and embarrassing situations.  Yet, his style of conducting a college class has remained my model for almost twenty years.

 In 1990, I transitioned my master’s degree in early childhood education into a career as an Adjunct Faculty member in the City University System.  Sometime in the 1990’s, I watched a weekly program on PBS that featured Prof. Ogletree conducting a class of what were probably his law students.  I forget the name of the program but I can’t forget his “in the face” type of approach when educating his audience.  He sat down on a desk near his students, he called on everyone, and he relentlessly challenged the answers and the assumptions they offered.

 Watching Prof. Ogletree over a long time, I vicariously became him in not just college classrooms but corporate classrooms where I would teach employees how to use technology, manage workplace relationships, or engage in innovative exercises.

 During my “performance” each evening when I’m teaching students at Zicklin, I am “in their faces,” moving around the classroom to be physically close to individuals while challenging them to provide “stretch” answers that expand their horizons.  I call on every one of my almost 30 students in each session, requiring them to state their opinion on a topic, explain a concept, or come up with another idea on how to deal with a difficult employee.  I push them out of their comfort zones and they answer back with a willingness to be in-the-moment and to perform on the classroom stage.

 While watching Prof. Ogletree on TV, I incorporated his style into my training as an educator.  I felt capable of performing the role because I earned positive feedback from my students and on faculty evaluations.

 I love teaching and I thank Prof. Ogletree’s style of teaching during his shows on PBS for the vicarious modeling he provided.

On Thursday, March 18, I had the honor of being the moderator for the Women in Business (WIB) Fourth Annual Pearls of Wisdom Women’s Leadership Conference at Baruch College.  “Envision, Empower, Succeed” was the theme for the evening when close to 200 young women and men spent time listening to and interacting with inspiring speakers.

Sufia Farha, President of WIB,  and her team of dedicated, organized, and helpful students made the evening an enjoyable one for everyone.  I did not want to turn down the opportunity to be the moderator for the third year in a row but I also had a class in “Organizational Behavior” to teach during the exact time of the panel.  A resolution was to assign “Women in Leadership” as my students’ next written assignment, require my class to attend, and give these achievement oriented students the opportunity to be part of an event that evening students do not often get the chance to attend.

Leigh, Virginia McNeil Montague, Lenore Janis, Heather Maloney, Dr. Barbara Lawrence, Diane Garnick

One of my students came up to me at the close of the program and said, “I’m grateful that you required us to attend.”  Later that evening, another student wrote me an e-mail in which she said, “Thank you for inviting us to such an invigorating event.  It was way better than I thought it would be.”

Why was it ”way better”?  The inspirationalprofessional  knowledge the guests offered. 

The keynote address by Diane Garnick brought audience members—and panelists—to tears when hearing of the adversities she overcame and how she challenged herself to enter the world of finance.   One “Pearl of Wisdom” Diane shared was, ”If your palms aren’t sweating enough, your game isn’t big enough.”  Today, after sweating a lot, she is an investment strategist at Invesco, an investment management company.  To read more about Diane and her volunteer work, here’s a link to her facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Diane-Garnick/188133090053?v=info 

The WIB committee had developed a series of questions for the panelists and I had the opportunity to ask these inquiries (with a little embellishment) on behalf of the young women just starting their careers.

Panelists included Heather Maloney, Executive Director, Hope & Heroes Children’s Cancer Fund; Lenore Janis, President, Professional Women in Construction National; and Virginia McNeil Montague, President of The New York Coalition of One Hundred Black Women.

Each response from the panel brought helpful insights into the lives of women who hold executive leadership positions.  One particular question from the audience brought this series of replies:  “Do whatever scares you.”  “Life is a series of trials and tests.”  “Go to the gym.”  What was the question?  I don’t remember.  What I do know is that the answers represent the ways that these women faced, managed, and overcame the obstacles in their careers.

Near the end of the question and answer period from the audience, I noted that about one-quarter to one-third of the audience were males.  Yet, not one male asked a question.  “Okay,” I said.  “It’s time for a man to ask a question.”  One of my students raised his asked and asked the panel, “What can men do to help women succeed?”  The overall answer from the panelists was, “Men need to talk to women to hear what they need.  And men need to talk to talk other men about what women need.  They also need to work with women so that they can understand and help women get the respect and acknowledgement they have earned in the workplace.”

Leigh with the wonderful Women in Business team

It was a great evening for so many reasons.  One of which is that after stepping off the dias at the end of the panel, I was invited to be the moderator for the Fifth Annual Pearls of Wisdom Women’s Leadership Conference.  I’m looking forward to the event already.

“How can I make sense of such a tumultuous evolution—and have a smile on my face today?”  

“The Bull Pissed in My Living Room:  Prof. Leigh’s Guide to Recession Resilience,” LTR’s latest level playing playing field special report, is my way of putting together the pieces of what I experienced and the process that brought me to a really good place in my life.

“Bull”  will be formally introduced at today’s meeting of the Employee Assistance Professionals Associaion (EAPA)-New York Chapter.  I chose this opportunity to let others know about my report because it explains the complex factors that can impact workplace intelligence.  It’s also a good venue  because I’ll be the moderator of a panel discussion on “It’s Not Over Yet!  You Still Have a Chance:  Resilience and Reinvention in the Older Worker.”

 Like others who have been dramatically impacted by the worst economy since the Great Depression, I wondered how I had the strength and resiliency to survive my “worst case”—the downturn of business and sale of sale of my recently renovated co-op apartment on Manhattan’s tony Upper West Side.  Using a format similar to that in “Temping with Tycoons” and my other well-received special reports, I tell the story of not just how I reinvented myself but what I learned during the process.  And how, now, I’m enjoying a “best case.”

A natural educator (strangers on the subway ask, “You’re a teacher, aren’t you?”), I use what I experienced as a platform from which to inform, inspire, and instill in readers greater awareness to face their own “bull.”  At the end of each chapter, I include “Resilience Guideposts”— helpful suggestions on how to navigate succesfully on your evolutionary highway.

To download your copy of “The Bull Pissed in My Living Room,” click on the link below.  After you read it, contact me with your feedback.

The Bull Pissed in My Living Room by Leigh Henderson

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There:  How Successful People Become Even More Successful! written by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter (Hyperion, 2007, 256 pgs.) contains practical wisdom from one of the world’s premier executive coaches and author on executive performance.

Since I just read Goldsmith and Reiter’s newest book:  Mojo:  How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back If You Lose It  (Hyperion, 2009, 205 pages) and realized that before I write my review of that one, I wanted to post this entry. 

 Goldsmith’s methods for changing behavior are straightforward.  For instance, one of the 360 assessments he uses consists of gathering feedback on an executive’s behavior from meaningful colleagues and constituencies.  The client is asked to listen carefully to how others experience his behavior, formulate ways to improve interactions, give thanks for the feedback, apologize where needed, and practice feed-forward.

There are other parts of his book that I will highlight in future posts, but I want to focuse on the group exercise in feed-forward that Goldsmith conducted at a meeting I attended of the New York City Chapter of the International Coach Foundation.  I also used this exercise during one of the management classes I teach at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College.  In both cases, I found the exercise to be a worthwhile endeavor.

Here’s how the feed-forward process works.

1.  Identify one behavior you want to change in your life.  The behavior change should bring about a positive difference in your life.

2.  Describe the behavior you want to change in a one-on-one dialogue with someone:  a spouse, child, best friend, or coworker—or in the case of the ICF-NYC meeting, a perfect stranger would do.

3.  Ask that person for two suggestions for the future that might help you achieve a positive change in your selected behavior.

4.  Listen attentively to the suggestions.  Take notes if you like.  Your only ground rule:  You are not allowed to judge, rate, or critique the suggestions in any way.  And you are not even to say anything positive such as, “That’s a good idea.”  The only response you’re permitted is, “Thank you.” 

You can then repeat the process with someone else—until you have a good sample of ideas to improve your behavior.

One book that I found very helpful—especially for those at the beginning of your careers—was one written by Goldsmith—and other well-known executives.  The book is Learning Journeys: Top Management Experts Share Hard-Earned Lessons on Becoming Great Mentors and Leaders by Marshall Goldsmith (Davies-Black Publishing, 2000).  Read a chapter at a time, do the exercises, and reflect on how you can be a better leader.

If you practice feed-forward, let me know how effective it was  by sending an e-mail to Leigh@ltr-nyc.com

When a Colts fan was on her way out of the restaurant where I was watching Super Bowl XLIV, this woman made it a point to stop next to me, touch my shoulder and say with a big smile on her face and a smirk in her voice, “The Colts really are the best team.  The Saints don’t have a chance in hell to beat the Colts.”  Obviously, she hadn’t read the e-mail I had received from a friend in NOLA.

“It is hard to express the wonderful effect the Saints have had on our community – it has brought us all together in the glow of their achievement, and we are awash in black and gold and ‘Who Dat’.  I am sure the intense and widespread emotional involvement is directly related to the depth of commitment we have made to the recovery and improvement of NOLA. So many things are coming back but not there yet, but here is one area where success is palpable and was a long time coming (43 years!).  And it’s wonderful Lagniappe that Drew Brees is such a fine  human being – not just a great quarterback.”  Suzy Mague, a woman I met when volunteering in NOLA after Hurricane Katrina, pinpointed what was going to help the Saints win the Super Bowl:  the collective belief in success by those in the Gulf Coast region.

Lagniappe is a term used in Louisiana which  means “”something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure.”  What the Saints gave the city of New Orleans were gifts of hope, commitment to a goal, and success against great odds to even reach the Super Bowl.  What the city of New Orleans gave back was their enthusiastic support and hope that the area’s recovery would be as successful as that of their Saints.

 The consensus was that the Colts were the better team, Peyton Manning the best quarterback ever, the defense so strong that Manning had only been sacked 10 times all season, and on and on.  My clapping and cheering for the Saints when they were behind 10-0 in the first quarter did give me pause.  Yet, as is the nature of a 60-minute game, there was still a chance.  In football, you have to play the game to the very last second even if your team is losing 54-0.  The Saints went the distance in great form.

To lead off the second half of the game, Saints’ Coach Sean Payton used a tactic that brought his team success:  a practiced  surprise.  For the first time in Super Bowl history, a team started the third quarter with an onside kick.  The Saints punter made a short kick (more than 10 yards) to the Colts, a Colts player touched then lost the ball, a Saints player recovered the ball, and the Saints earned very good field position.  The Saints had practiced this surprise over and over again during the week leading up to the big game.  The timing made history, shifted the momentum to the Saints, and helped them come away with a 31-17 victory.

Today I wish that I could call the Colts fan who told me to give up on the Saints because they didn’t have a chance.  There is always a chance, always an opportunity to succeed whether on the football field, a baseball diamond, or the workplace playing field.  Give yourself a chance by practicing a surprise that can get you noticed,  realize the potential you have as a leader and become an outstanding team player for your followers while working to be a leader.

A leader’s position carries with it responsibility to inspire followers and use power wisely.  It also includes teaching others to jump barriers and give up their silo thinking in order to explore new possibilities.

A few years ago when I was at a friend’s apartment, I noticed that her dog, a big German Shepard that stood maybe 24” high, was confined to the living room by a piece of wood placed at each doorway.  The barrier was only 18” inches high – a height the dog could have walked or jumped over with ease.

I knew this because my dog Emelie, a mix of Border collie and Samoyed raised exploring beaches and mountain paths, easily jumped the piece of wood.  In fact, she roamed all over the house, jumping or knocking down the barrier if it got in her way.  The other dog, who only got out to a small yard three times a day, looked at Emelie, whined, and after a couple of times testing her freedom and being disciplined for doing so, was too afraid to venture forth into risking another jump.

An executive coaching client recently commented to me that she values my creative input because her staff can’t see or won’t speak up about the ‘possibilities’ of a situation.  She is a ‘roamer’ but her staff uses what I call ‘silo thinking’ – confining their perspective to a narrow column of influence.   A silo is a structure used to store materials, in this picture it is grain on a farm.

Grain silos on a farm

Silo thinking in followers means that instead of looking out to the horizon, employees see the walls of the job description, the risks of speaking up, and the fear of going out of their comfort zones to explore unknown territory.  They’ll share ideas with peers but won’t speak up at meetings or with their managers.

The influence of their corporate climate, consequences of making a mistake in front of others, and their own ‘mental training’ are just some reasons for their ‘silo’ thinking.  It could be age – never being asked before for creative ideas – or conditioning over the years by being told what to do, how to do it, and when to do it instead of being empowered to individualize their work.  Or the fact that people don’t want to expand for fear of the repercussions of what new activities they might be asked to participant in or that they would have to move out of their usual role to take on leadership themselves of an initiative.

My client consistently strives to inspire, model creative thinking, and provide opportunities for staff input.  She is persistent in efforts to overcome her staff’s ‘silo thinking’ and resistance to jump barriers.  However, with each subtle shift in behavior from individuals, my client gains confidence to continue her efforts to engage her staff in barrier jumping behavior.