Lead Without Losing It

I’m writing a small book right now called Refuse – don’t let ‘business as usual’ cripple your great idea. I’m working on my favorite chapter–“refuse to let fear drive compromise.” This is what I’m learning… fear can easily gut a brilliant idea of its excellent points.  Afterward, usually, compromise sweeps in and creates something weird in its stead.  

Sadly, some businesses and organizations are so accustomed to compromising, they’re nose-deaf to their own weirdness.  As always, I’m looking for great stories and illustrations, so I’ve started to inventory some of the weird things businesses do out of fear. Once I started looking… I can’t stop finding them.

For instance, consider the case of a nationwide coffee-and-donut franchise that now has a sign on their drive-through windows instructing their customers to contact management if an employee asks them for more money than the total of their purchase.  

This is craziness.  

First, is this a nationwide problem?  Are there employees running donut-price-hike scams across the U.S.?  Does this reasonably require an organization-wide crack-down?  Is there no better way to deal with this challenge than to announce the problem to customers and ask them to participate in the solution?

The mind boggles.

Believe me, I understand the fear this organization must be feeling.  They want their customers to have a great experience, and they don’t want a rogue employee skimming money off the top and giving their business a bad name.  But in the process of trying to avoid that outcome, they’ve done something worse.  

Now, every time a customer drives up to the donut window, they’re reminded that this business doesn’t appear to trust their employees.  And worse, they’re expected to police this donut shop’s staff for them (as in, “tell management if this happens to you”).

On the way to building trust with the public, they’re reducing trust in their staff.   That’s what I like to call Purpose-Defeating Implementation. The goal is good, but the execution negates the whole point.

Here’s another example: the gym where I work out offers a “towel service.” For a few bucks a month, they’ll give you a “bath towel” when you show up to the gym. That way, you don’t have to bring a towel from home every time you want to shower after a workout. That’s a good idea, and a great goal. But for some reason, the gym doesn’t provide real bath towels, but rather oversized hand towels. Because they don’t come close to actually fulfilling the normal functions of bath towels, they normally give you two.

I’m not sure why the tiny bath towels were selected over large ones–but I have a theory. I tend to think that somewhere there was concern that if they had big fluffy hotel-style bath towels, they’d have the same problem hotels have—towels would start disappearing. That’s a reasonable fear. Perhaps they shouldn’t offer a towel service then. Or, maybe they should offer towels but put an anti-theft device on them. What I know for sure is this–giving customers oversized hand towels and calling them bath towels is weird. That’s definitely not the solution.

And, as a consumer, every time you try to dry yourself with two little towels, instead of one appropriately big one, it accentuates the weirdness.

One of my favorite stories about purpose-defeating implementation is one I heard from my dad years ago. When he was a young adult in the 1970’s, he sold men’s clothing for National Shirt Shop. NSS was a New York chain that sold nice men’s clothes, and dad worked in their Fort Worth, Texas store.

While National did a great business, they did have a weird obsession with bouncing checks. For the time, their initial policy was relatively strict, requiring customers to produce an ID and a major credit card if they wanted to write a check. This was in a day and age when a lot of check-writing customers didn’t carry credit cards. Reluctantly, customers complied. But then NSS went a step too far. In their zeal to avoid bounci

About This Episode

In this episode, I interview Dr. Dale Thompson about the concept of Worthy Leadership.  Dr. Thompson talks about the fact that even leaders who appear to be at the top of their game can experience catastrophic failure without one very important personal quality.

 

About Our Guest

Dale Thompson is a seasoned business executive and consultant, a licensed psychologist, and Founder and CEO of Leadership Worth Following, LLC (LWF). Established in January 2004, LWF helps organizations identify and develop talent with the capacity, commitment, and character to become top-performing leaders worthy of followership. Dale’s more than thirty years of business, consulting, and leadership experience have focused heavily on helping individual leaders, groups, teams, and organizations address critical talent-related issues including top leadership selection, development, and succession; Board and CEO-team effectiveness; and creating sustainable leadership systems and processes. His most recognizable clients have included prominent global firms such as 7-Eleven, AIG, BNSF, Boeing, Federal-Mogul, Freescale, Rackspace, Texas Instruments, and Walmart, as well as dynamic domestic companies such as Advance Auto Parts, H-E-B, Neiman-Marcus, NuStar Energy, PetSmart, SCAN Healthplan, USAA, and Valero Energy, to name a few. His varied business experiences include co-founding a truckload transportation company in 1986 that served as a test bed for then cutting edge Global Positioning technology and operations-research driven business models; directly leading and supporting a leadership consulting-firm’s aggressive global expansion to more than 30 markets in 14 countries and ultimately leading all of its North American operations throughout the 1990’s; and in 2001 co-founding a significant competitor to IBM’s Global Services consulting business. He founded LWF in 2004. Beyond consulting, Dale has made a number of recognized contributions to the fields of business and psychology. In 1986, he published what has been acknowledged as the first formal study of executive coaching. His pioneering research focused on evaluating the emerging practice of executive coaching and its effectiveness, and identifying “who changes, how much, and why” among coaching participants. In 2008, he was first author of the landmark article, “The Search for Worthy Leadership;” one of the most downloaded articles in the leadership literature since it was published. And in 2010, he was co-author of “The Character to Lead: A Closer Look at Character in Leadership;” a critically acclaimed study showing that character in leadership can be reliably defined and measured – and that character in leadership is directly related to important leadership and business outcomes. Dale’s professional contributions were acknowledged in 2004 when The Society of Consulting Psychology presented him with the prestigious RHR International Award for Excellence in Consultation. His contributions to leadership theory and practice were acknowledged by the Society of Psychologists in Management when he was named The 2011 Distinguished Psychologist in Management; and by The Goolsby Leadership Academy at The University of Texas at Arlington when he was named its 2011 Distinguished Visiting Leader. Dale received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He is a Member and Past-President of The Society of Psychologists in Management, and was a founding member of the Advisory Board of the Goolsby Leadership Academy at the University of Texas-Arlington. He has been affiliated with the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University, and the Industrial/Organizational Psychology Programs at the University of North Texas and at The University of Texas at Arlington. He is a Licensed Psychologist in the State of Texas, and a member of the American Psychological Association, The Society of Consulting Psychology, The Society of Psychologists in Management, and Dallas Executi

About This Episode

In this episode, I interview Dr. Ron Riggio, one of the world’s top experts on the theory of transformational leadership.  Ron talks about the key elements of transformational leadership, and how leaders can put them into action.

 

About Our Guest

Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D., is the Henry R. Kravis Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology and former director of the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College. Professor Riggio is the author of more than a dozen books and more than 100 research articles and book chapters in the areas of leadership (e.g., leadership development, charismatic and transformational leadership), assessment centers, organizational psychology and social psychology. His research work has included studies on the role of social skills and emotions in leadership potential and success, empathy, social intelligence, emotional skill and charisma.

Professor Riggio is on the editorial boards of The Leadership Quarterly, Leadership, Group Dynamics, and Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. His books include Multiple Intelligences and Leadership and The Future of Leadership Development (co-edited with Susan Murphy; Erlbaum, 2002, 2003), Improving Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations (co-edited with Sarah Smith Orr; Jossey-Bass, 2004), Applications of Nonverbal Behavior (co-edited with Robert S. Feldman; Erlbaum, 2005), Transformational Leadership (2nd ed., coauthored with Bernard M. Bass, 2006), and co-edited volumes, The Practice of Leadership, The Art of Followership (2007, 2008), and Leadership and the Liberal Arts (2009), Leader Interpersonal and Influence Skills (2014, with Sherylle Tan, Routledge), & Exploring Distance in Leader-Follower Relationships (w/ Michelle Bligh; Routledge, 2012).(Taken from riggio.socialpsychology.org)

About This Episode

In this episode, I interview industrial and organizational psychology expert, Dr. Paul Spector.  Dr. Spector is an internationally recognized leader in this area of science, having written dozens of academic articles and one of the finest textbooks on the subject.  Together, we talk about the elements that make leaders most successful.

About Our Guest

Dr. Spector is a professor who has spent a career teaching and doing research about the human side of organizations. He has taught both industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology and business at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels.Born in New York City, he has spent most of his life in Florida. His initial education in business came from his parents who were entrepreneurs with several small businesses. He received his BA in psychology, and a MA and Ph.D. in I-O psychology. After graduation he spent seven years in various academic and nonacademic positions. He returned to the USF Psychology Department in 1982 where today he is a Distinguished University Professor and director of the school's interdisciplinary occupational health psychology (OHP) program. The OHP program bridges the Psychology Department with the NIOSH-funded USF Sunshine Education and Training Center (ERC), housed in our College of Public Health. He also has a courtesy appointment in the Information Systems and Decision Sciences Department in the Muma College of Business at USF, where he teaches in the executive Doctor of Business Administration ( executive DBA) program. From 2000 until summer 2015 he was director of the USF News and World Report 2nd ranked USF IO Psychology Doctoral Program.(Text taken from Dr. Spector's website)

About This Episode

In this episode, I talk with Dr. Amy Hakim, an internationally respected organizational psychologist, on the topic of dealing with difficult people at work.  I think you'll find her practical insights immediately useful in your work.

 

About Our Guest

Amy is an internationally respected scholar in the field of industrial and organizational psychology, and is a highly sought after consultant. She is the founder of the Cooper Strategic Group a management consulting firm that specializes in training and development, targeted hiring, and survey design and analysis.You can learn more about Amy's consulting at here website www.cooperstrategicgroup.com.

In this episode, I have the joy of interviewing Amy Brann, an internationally respected expert on the topic of neuroscience.  Amy helps us understand some of the ways leaders can leverage the power of neuroscience insights.

 

About Amy:

(from synaptic potential website)

Amy Brann blends her academic knowledge of how the brain works with her experience of leaders’ challenges to share uniquely insightful ways forward.

Amy started studying medicine at UCL before leaving to work with individuals and organizations. She consults, delivers workshops and keynotes globally to companies such as Accenture, EY, and Warner Bros.

She is the author of ‘Make Your Brain Work’ & ‘Neuroscience for Coaches’ published by Kogan Page and ‘Engaged: The neuroscience behind creating productive people in successful organizations’ published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Her organization partnered with Bangor University’s Behaviour Change Centre to enable participation in researching and developing the cutting edge insights that are solidly underpinned by science. These credible approaches mean organizations trust her to partner with them to get results.

Amy has had broad cultural experiences including running sales teams in Asia, managing teams in Belize and Egypt and running culture change programmes globally.

Based in Warwick in the UK, she is frequently described as an inspiring and engaging speaker who shares bite-sized actionable takeaways.

In this wonderful interview, I have the once-in-a-lifetime privilege of interviewing the world’s foremost expert on the science of coping with stress, Dr. Susan Folkman.  Susan has a wealth of wisdom to share in this interview, which I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

 

More About Dr. Folkman (from UCSF website)

Dr. Susan Folkman was the first full-time director of the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. Appointed in 2001, she retired in 2009. From 1994 to 2001 she was co-director of the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies. After receiving her PhD from UC Berkeley in 1979, she remained there as a research psychologist until moving to UCSF in 1988. She joined the UCSF faculty in 1990 as a professor of medicine.

Dr. Folkman is internationally recognized for her theoretical and empirical contributions to the field of psychological stress and coping. Her 1984 book with Richard S. Lazarus, Stress, Appraisal, and Coping, is considered a classic that helped shape the field. From 2000 to2004, she served on the National Advisory Mental Health Council, and in 2010 she was appointed to the National Advisory Council for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. She has chaired or been a member of various NIH review committees and task forces, served on National Academy of Medicine and NIH workgroups, and was co-chair of the American Psychological Association task force on ethics in research with human participants. She was also the chair of the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine from 2005 to 2007.

In 2010, the California Psychological Association awarded Dr. Folkman its Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science.

In this show, I interview Dr. Richard Earle on the topic of Leadership and the Stress of Change.

Dr. Earle is an internationally known and respected scholar and leadership consultant.  He’s written books as well as authored E-learning programs and psychological profiles on this topic. He’s coached leaders of top companies, governments and, I’ve discovered, churches. He serves as one of the founders and the director of the prestigious Canadian Institute of Stress.  Dr. Earle is also the successor of Dr. Hans Selye, who is generally considered the father of modern stress science.  We are so fortunate to have him on the podcast in this series of shows on Leadership and the Stress of Change.

In this episode, I interview Dr. Steve Jex, the director of the organizational and industrial psychology program at the University of Central Florida, and author of the book Thriving Under Stress (Oxford University Press).  Dr. Jex shares his amazing experience and knowledge with us on the topic of leadership stress.

 

 

More about Dr. Jex (from UCF faculty page)

Steve M. Jex (Ph.D. 1988, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, University of South Florida) is a Professor of Psychology at University of Central Florida.  He is also the Director of the Ph.D. Program in I/O Psychology. Prior to joining the faculty at UCF in 2017 he has held faculty positions at Central Michigan University, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, and Bowling Green State University.   In addition to his academic appointments, Dr. Jex has held Guest Scientist positions with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and Walter Reed Army Institute for Research (WRAIR).  For the past 28 years his research has focused on stress in the workplace, particularly the role of individual differences in employee reactions to stressors. Most recently he has focused on the impact of various forms of interpersonal mistreatment on employee health and well-being.  He has co-authored two books (with Tom Britt), including Organizational Psychology: A Scientist-Practitioner Approach (3rd Edition), and Thriving under stress: Harnessing the demands of the workplace.

Welcome to Lead Without Losing It, a show dedicated to helping you lead your people without losing your mind.  In this introduction, I share what this show will be like.