Labrador Leadership

Bob welcomes Todd Uterstaedt of the From Founder to CEO podcast to talk about executive coaching. Leadership is not a one flavor concept and shift from being the founder of a business to becoming that business's CEO is a matter of degrees.  Todd sees this as a matter of degrees and a journey for that person.  They are used to doing things themselves to delegating key tasks to one another.  Bob suggests this comes having a pride of authorship for the founder.

Entrepreneurship is at a record low according to Kauffman.  Many founders are finding themselves as CEOs with a huge lack of the breadth of experiences needed for the CEO job.  Todd calls leadership 'the sharing of a journey together."

Two common themes that CEO's struggle with include hiring and its subtleties and delegation which is a counter-intuitive concept for the entrepreneur.  They need to be sure that their team members are using their God-given strengths.

Bob points that research reveals that 100% of CEOs would like to have coaching but only 65% are getting it.  Todd says it used to be the result of a punitive action but now it is more of a perk.  Most of this used to be delivered face-to-face, but now it is delivered virtually.  Some things still need to be done in person, such as working on executive presence.

Bob says that the number one skill that CEOs work on with their coach is communication.  Todd says we make assumptions about the skills that people have in their roles but that often there are gaping holes.  It takes a while to develop an executive.  There is also a demand for them to learn more about handling conflict.  Empathy is also on the needs list as a key coaching need.  Todd has seen this often confused with sympathy.

Todd suggests that CEOs developing their internal talent need to remember the phrase "Life is a debrief-able event."  Shaping someone for the future is spending time with them and asking them questions about what they do well and where they thing their blindspots are.  People enjoy learning, creating, and developing.

Todd's advice to a new MBA: "Know Thyself."  Interview ten people that know them very well.  Work on aligning their own self-image with the way they are seen by others.

Contact Todd on Twitter  or at [email protected].

 

Bob chats with Talmar Anderson, host of the Business Side of Business podcast, about the leadership challenges folks face in getting their new initiatives launched.

She started the Business Side of Business with the idea of getting business easier for people from the operations and management perspective, It is not intuitive and people always get stuck about trying to figure it out on their own.

She loves the art of the conversation and being able to help people through that medium.  She was very excited to hear from listeners early in the game. However, she also has a blog at her website TalmarItUp.

Bob says that the crises of confidence that often derail start ups comes from the mountain of tasks that need to be accomplished.  Talmar agrees that start up owners need to set small goals to help keep themselves on track.

Bob mentions his point that commitment management is the key to establishing successful relationships with your customers and clients.  Talmar says she also focusses on consistency and the setting of expectations.  List making is not moving forward.  Managing commitments is.

Talmar mentions the importance of perspective and being sensitive to that  in your business relationships.  It can be a great differentiator

Her clients at TalmarItUp are in some phase of transitional growth, where they are adding staff or locations and need the infrastructure and business process to get it done.  One of her services  is titled the "Ass Kicking Muse" which helps them establish this change environment in ninety days.

Quote

"Business is not innate. It is a learned process."

Links in this episode

Talmar's website is TalmarItUp.com

The podcast website is The Business Side of Business and on Twitter at @bizsideofbiz.

You can find Talmar on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

 

 

Bob and Alex talk about the wildly popular photoblog Humans of New York and the leadership lessons to be learned from Brandon Stanton.  His Facebook page has well over 15 million likes, but there are leadership lessons to be learned from his art and his approach as suggested by Henna Inam.

The ways in which Brandon connects with the people he photographs is rooted in the leadership traits that we have talked about and find to be super important.

HONY Leadership Skills

* Authentic connections

* Body Language

* Being Present

* Build Trust

* Importance of Stories

Listen to how Brandon connects with is subjects and why the authenticity that he brings to the engagement could also be the leadership skills that you need.

Links Mentioned in This Episode

Henna Inam's article.

Humans of New York blog.

Humans of New York on Facebook.

Bob talks today about the leadership and the concept of plausible deniability.  This is in light of the recent news out of the University of Louisville that recruits and players attended parties at which girls were available for sex that had been paid for by a team graduate assistance coach.

After setting the context for this item within the leadership discussion, Bob reports that subsequent coverage has moved toward whether or not head coach Rick Patino was aware of this or did his staff not tell him in order to have him keep plausible deniability.

Plausible deniability has been defined as the ability for persons (typically senior officials in a formal or informal chain of command) to deny knowledge of  any actions committed by others (usually subordinates in an organizational hierarchy) because of a lack of evidence that can confirm their participation, even if they were personally involved in or at least willfully ignorant of the actions.

Leaders in organizations of any size should take care that their staff does not embrace this concept.  It has the ability to crumble the entire organization.

Links Discussed in this Episode

ESPN's break of the story is here.

Rick Patino's response is here.

Pat Forde's interview on The Dan Patrick Show is here.

The book Breaking Cardinal Rules is here.

 

 

Bob and Alex review a list of the ten worst leadership lies.  It is important to be aware of them and sensitive to them showing up in interactions on your team.

Bob reviews and discusses a list from Liz Ryan, Founder of Human Workplace.

The Top Ten Biggest Leadership Lies

* The boss is always right because they are the boss.

* If employees get too comfortable they won't deliver their best.

* Your team needs to be closely supervised.

* Carrots and sticks still work as the best motivation.

* Only tell your team what they need to know.

* Idle time is a big waste.

* The role is more important than the person.

* Continuous feedback keeps people sharp.

* You should set goals...and drive your team toward them.

* You need to be able to measure it to manage it.

Bob and Alex put their perspective on each of these and alert leaders to the traps they represent.

Liz Ryan's post in Forbes is here.

Bob wraps up the discussion of project management and leadership be reviewing symptoms that may indicate you really don't want to work in this role.

Project Management May Be Tough For You If:

* You are not comfortable with change.

* You have difficulty handling tough conversations.

* You would rather deal with the tools than the people.

* You can't multitask.

* You have to be the smartest person in the room.

As the mini series of episodes on project management wraps up, it is no surprise to see that the traits and strengths of a good project manager align with the qualities of superior leadership.

Kiron Bondale's article can be found here.

Bob continues the leadership discussion in the context of project management with a look at the qualities of communication that are needed.

Bob talks about the comparison of core leadership skills and those that are needed in the realm of project management.

In an post for PM Times, Timothy Barry lists his take on the top ten qualities of a project manager.  These are

* Inspiring a shared vision

* A good communicator

* Integrity

* Enthusiasm

* Empathy

* Competence

* Ability to delegate

* Being cool under pressure

* Team building Skills

* Problem solving skills

Bob's Take on the Project Management List

* It is not so much inspiring the shared vision as supporting it.  In the project management role, you re rarely creating the vision as much as you are implementing it.

* Communications may be at the top of the list.  Look for a future episode just on this.

* Competence is super important.  This is why the PMP designation is so sought after.

* It is good to see that the universal leadership number one trait of empathy makes this list.

* Problem solving skills in the role of the project manager seems to deserve a spot higher than tenth.

Timothy Barry's article is here.

Bob reconnects with high school and college friend Marc Halpert to catch up on life, his multipreneurship and  the possibilities of LinkedIn.

Marc started his post college career to get an MBA and immediately moved north He started with Manufacturers Hanover, Manny Hanny, a banking name from the past.  He was a multinational corporate lender in New York and Chicago.  He came back east to jump into the corporate side in the treasury function.  He ended up being the corporate Treasurer for AC Nielsen. During their acquisition, he declined the chance to move abroad and decided t was time to start his own business, and did so just weeks prior to to 9-11.

While this brought the end of that endeavor, Marc did resist returning to the corporate world and kept pushing the idea of developing and promoting electronic payments.  This was at a time when folks were reticent to be paid by direct deposit.  The recent events made businesses risk-averse, but one prospect he called on did suggest that he should focus on non-profits.   He helped them accept member registrations and event fees electronically, and he started to make a huge number of contacts in this niche.  It was at this time that he was made aware of a platform that would allow him to keep up with current prospects as well as those folks (like Bob) that were in the distant past.  This was LinkedIn.

He started taking a lot of classes on LinkedIn and started to realize that he knew more that many people that were teaching classes about it. As a favor to an acquaintance he visited their accounting firm and  gave a great presentation on the topic, after which his friend came up and handed him an envelope with an honorarium that was unexpected.  On the train home he opened the envelope and looked at the check was was very pleasantly surprised.  This was the moment he recognized he could be a multi-preneur.

Of all of these businesses the LinkedIn work attracts him most because it allows him to connect with people that are doing fascinating work that don't quite know how to express themselves. When they tell him about a great business opportunity they were able to land through LinkedIn, it is quite rewarding.  He works with pre millennial generations that are very successful but they can't easily talk about themselves.

In this interview, Marc talks about the need to be flexible in choosing your channel of communication.  He also says it is critical to ask for help and more importantly to appropriately show gratitude when it is given.

Marc says that the CEOs need LinkedIn because they can never know how their next great customer will ever find them.  He also says job seekers need LinkedIn because recruiters need their profile to complement their resume.  Their resume represents their past while their LinkedIn profile is about their present and what they want to do in their future.

Marc's post on Reflections on His Business Anniversary

Marc's website is Connect2Collaborate.com

Having spent time discussing getting yourself through finding yourself on the street and working through a job search, Bob talks today about the things you as a leader absolutely don't want to do your first few days on the job.

At time you should be thinking about ways to build your brand in the workplace.  Be visible, start to network, and consider these things:

* Don't eat lunch in your office.  Get out and connect.

* Don't multitask during meetings.  It is easily seen as disrespectful.

* Don't sit back and wait for direction.

* Don't be silent.  Ask thoughtful questions.

William Arruda's article can be found here.