As I was writing my last post about lists, I ran into some great
comments from Wally Bock and wove them into the post. Wally is an experienced consultant, coach, speaker, and management writer and he writes a great blog called Three Star Leadership. Reading Wally's comments related to my most recent post inspired
me to look through the dozens of wonderful comments that Wally has made
here over the past few years. I can't quite figure out how to get an exact count from Typepad, but there are well over 100 and the average quality is just wonderful. The first comment was in 2006 and the last this week. I picked 10 — I guess I am into lists this week — but there are many more gems and I can't promise these are the best. These ten are all Wally:
1. We believe that creative people are different and therefore crazy in
some way. So when anyone who is, by definition, "creative" acts like a
jerk, or doesn't bathe, or insists on eating dessert first or bringing
his pet iguana to work, we shake our heads and say, "Oh, well, you know
he's creative."
All of which is nonsense.
2. There are three factors that make it hard to stay realistic, let alone
humble, as you climb the ladder of success.
The Reality Distortion Field effect. The higher you go, the more people
tell you want you want to hear instead of what you need to hear. Result:
You only hear "news" that agrees with you.
The Ass-Kiss Factor. People will jump to do things to please you. "The
wish of the commander has the effect of an order." Result: you smallest
wishes are instantly gratified.
The Competitive Advantage. Most folks who climb high on the corporate
ladder are competitive by nature. Often they're too competitive and
need to win all the time, even when discussing things with subordinates.
Result: people don't push hard, because you have power over them and
you get the idea that you're always right.
3. There's a supervisor's corollary to "Nothing strengthens authority as
much as silence." It is "You support what you allow."
4. Great organizations like the Marines or GE try to inculcate in their
leaders that they have two jobs. One is to accomplish the mission. The
other is to care for their people. If you're going for long term
competitive advantage and profitability you need both. If all you're
after is short term financial results, the "care for your people" part
doesn't matter as much.
5. I have three questions I use to get a quick handle on the culture of an
organization.
What kind of people get promoted around here? The behavior and
performance you reward is what you'll get more of.
What "bad" behaviors are tolerated here? This is good for patterns of
behavior.
What kinds of stories do people tell each other? Stories are the
carriers of culture. Beware if all they tell are "dumb boss" stories.
Understand that service is a value if what you hear are "heroic service"
stories.
6. When I studied top performing supervisors, we found that there were a
few behaviors that they did differently from their less-effective peers.
They showed up more and had more informal conversations with their team
members, including conversations about changing behavior or
performance.
That enabled them to catch problems early, when they're easier to solve.
Thus, they had fewer cases where they needed to do documentation and
formal conversations. Their team members had a good idea of how they
were doing because they got frequent and usable feedback.
7. There are good bosses and bad….. But there are also
ineffective behaviors from good bosses and effective behavior from
overall awful bosses.
What seems important to me is that a lot of a boss's behavior is picked
up unconsciously and practiced without conscious choice.
8. The key to your advice and Wendy's is "during tough times, a good boss
gives people as much predictability as possible." It's important when
times are good, necessary when times are tough.
9. I love the quote from Woody Morcott, CEO of the Dana Corporation: "Why
did we hire 55,000 brains and only use three of them?"
10. Thankfulness is important. Among other things, it helps you stay
balanced in a world that exalts the quest for "things." One of the
easiest ways to show gratitude is to send thank-you notes. I try match
my mother's performance of at least three a day. Once I asked her what
she did if there was no one to thank. She gave me her "mom-look" and
said, "Wally, there's ALWAYS someone to thank.
On that note, a big thanks to Wally. And these ten quotes only scratch the surface. Check out his blog and the extensive comments here as well. I find #2 to be especially striking as it is a pretty good summary of hundreds of peer reviewed studies.
The web is still strange to me. Wally is the wisest person I never met. Don't miss Wally's bio here, I love this quote from when he joined the Marines:
A Marine Major was in charge of
that panel. He enlisted during World War II and landed at Iowa Jima.
That adventure gave him a scar that started above his hairline, ran
across his cheek, and disappeared down into his collar. He fixed a
steely glare on me.
“Don’t worry
too much if you don’t make it all the way, son,” he said. “You’re
seeking promotion to the most important job in the Marines. Those
Generals may win a battle or two, but it’s Sergeants that win the wars.”
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