A Machiavellian Perspective on Political Super PAC's

Since the election is now over, and the candidates spent over $6 Billion for a job paying $600 thousand a year, we should examine the behind-the-scene tactics as viewed through Machiavelli.

From a Machiavellian perspective political Super PAC's are great. The politician knows who his Super PAC supporters are, and they do the dirty work. They are not constrained by federal limits on donations, or how they use the money. The PAC's seize the moment and attack potential rivals like a virus. Meanwhile, the political candidate, stands in front of the voters and  says, “I am powerless to stop the Super Packs and what they are saying about my competition”. Invariably, an arms race develops when the other side creates their own super pack to retaliate. Eventually, you see mutual destruction rain down on both sides. The winner use to be the candidate who has the most affluent friends who are engaged in his / her candidacy and are willing to invest early in development of the Super PAC.  The Super Pac's must now think more strategically. Chose a side to early and they may get wiped out by investigators who find dirty secrets hidden in the candidates past and have time to further develop the story. Get in to late and the voters may have already made up their minds.  The Super Pac must find new, and previously untapped, pathways to get the message out while containing their opponents message.  The Super Pac must infiltrate the media. It is imperative to have someone willing to run the news stories you want, with the angle you need to get into a favorable light. The media can spin a tail to the public that sounds exciting and realistic.

Social media provides a plethora of communication pathways to beat your opponent into submission. Websites are nice, but anyone with a twitter account can blast messages out 140 characters at a time extolling the virtues, or vicees, of a candidate. A good social media manager, supported by the Super Pac, can use multiple portals to deliver a tidal wave of information that can not be surmounted.   

Today's candidates must utilize a combined arms strategy to not only beat but concur their adversary. It requires the combination of early arrival, combined with the financial firepower, a media elite to carry your message  and a willingness to eviscerate the competition; simply stated, fire early and often with the intent of ruthless destruction.

Ordinary People Doing Heroic Work Everyday

While preparing to teach a seminar on situational leadership and leadership branding, I was approached by a friend offering advice. He stated that I should discuss the techniques professional coaches use to create world championship teams. I thought about the idea for a few minutes and decided "no". Not just “no,” but “Hell No”!

Let’s see, professional athletes are truly gifted individuals, not like mere morals.  They play sports to make money, no problem there. However, both the National Football Leagues and National Basketball Association players just went on strike for more money. Not that earning money is wrong, but when players make comments such as: “This is about putting food on my table and I may have to sell a Bentley,” we have certainly skewed the perspective of the American dream.

The reality of the situation is these players are independent contractors who work for a team. The coach is actually someone who must create a picture that focuses everyone on a single mission: win the game, or your value may decrease. Every year, the average players’ contracts are up for renewal and each one tries to get the most money, because there may not be a next year. They want the ball so they can improve their statistics and use that as leverage in contract negotiations. The team owners want to win; the players want lucrative paying positions. These are not the people I want to talk about as leaders, after all they're playing a game. At the end of the day they all go home safe.  

I want to talk about the firefighter who gets a house fire call at 3:00 AM and jumps out of the bed while saying, “Let’s Rock.” The EMS crewman responds on a hot July day to an intoxicated person who has fallen down and urinated all over himself. The guy should probably go to jail, but he has a laceration to his forehead and must be taken to the hospital. or how about the EMS worker tells they guy, “Its OK, I’ll take care of you.” The rescue crews who respond to an overturned vehicle where the front seat passengers are mangled, but there is a shout that a small child in the rear seat still has a pulse. You hear several rescue members yell, “Come on, I’ll get under there.” Several members slide past the remains of the parents and take care of the injured child as other members use the jaws-of-life to pry open the car. After it is all over, the child will survive and the rescue workers patch each other up from the scrapes of metal and shards of glass. Finally, we have the police officer who makes a routine traffic stop and finds himself fighting for his life to arrest a violent offender. Everyday these events, or something similar, occur across America.

These brave people do not have camera crews following them around, they do not hold out for multi-million dollar contract extensions. They perform these dangerous jobs because they are truly willing to give more than they receive. These are ordinary people doing heroic work everyday. These are the people I want to talk about in a leadership seminar.

Understanding the use of "Power and Force" in modern business

If modern business organizations understood those two principals of “Power and Force” the potential of American industry could again be unleashed for our benefit. In many instances people confuse and intertwine Power with Force. Power and Force may seem similar, but are in fact completely different in how they are generated and applied. There can be no force if a person has no power. If a person has power, but choose not to use it, then they are not going to be effective.

People who head organizations have “Power” based on their positions within an organization - direct power; or, by people wanting to follow and be led by an individual – indirect power. The higher up you go the more power you have. Simply stated, the greater authority the greater the power. Power can then be broken down into hard or soft power. With hard power you make commands and edicts based on your power and authority to reward or punish. With soft power other techniques, sometimes call coercion, are utilized to get a specific task completed. As an individual moves up in an organization and receives more power they must learn restraint. Unloading a lot of power at once only leads to destruction. The careful application of power is a technique that must be mastered through understanding of the principals of force.

Force requires action; greater the action the greater the force applied. With enough force, a large round piece of wood and be shoved through a small square hole.  Force is broken down into positive and negative force, with the effect graded by the amount of destruction caused by its application to any given situation. For example, a middle manager may hate all of his subordinates and want them all gone, but does not have the power to make the decision; therefore, he has no force to use. A CEO of a company has the power to hire and fire people. He or she may fire and individual or the staffs of an entire business unit, depending on the amount of force he or she cares to use. Likewise, the CEO may use targeted power and force and fire the middle manager, thus relieving the subordinates of a potential tyrant who wanted more power.  

It has been said that power corrupts absolutely. This is only true for people who are not disciplined with their power. Someone may have a lot of corrupt power, but if they do not unleash the force of it then it has no impact. Likewise, a powerful person who is benevolent can still inadvertently unleash a plethora of untamed force and harm an entire workforce.

So, which is more dangerous, power or force? Power is more dangerous. Power is the stored accumulation of energy that gets turned into force. The amount of destruction to a workforce is measured by the force applied, but may only be a pittance to the amount of power that could have been unleashed. Therefore, business schools need to develop curriculum that teach and describe how to gain power in one semester. How to force is used for good and bad the next semester. In the last semester utilize a capstone class to test to see if a person can build power and use the potential force correctly.

As people apply power to develop American industries, it must be understood the force from such action will have an impact on other countries and their industrial complexes. Power and Force can not exist without each other. They can be used to ones benefit, but someone else will see their application as destructive. It is always better to be on the positive effects rather than suffer the negative effects.  Machiavelli and Sun Tzu understood the principals and how to correctly apply them centuries ago.  

Leaders Inspire Creative Thinking - Managers Make Rules and Policies

I found the quote “Rules and policies are created to help make jobs easier” in a book about leadership. Clearly the author does not understand what differentiates leadership from management; To protect their ego, I left the name of the author out.

Rules and policies are the tools of management to protect the organization. They set out lines that are not to be crossed. Rules and policies are necessary for organizations to operate and protect employees from harm, each other, and potential criminal and civil penalties for violating state and federal laws. If you need to know how to request time off you “follow the policy”. If you need to fix a widget you follow the “procedure”.  You follow the rules or you pay the consequences. This is about management, period.

The reason why everyone encourages out of the box thinking is it shows leadership through courage and a willingness to break the rules. . Leadership is about freeing people to innovate and use their energies to be greater than they thought possible. Management, on the hand, tries to quell out of the box thinking because of the loose of control. Management is used to rein employees in and keep them following the rules.   Companies that have high performance cultures cleverly integrate management and leadership techniques to create synergy and take their organizations to the next level.

History is filled with organizations that once were innovative and on the cutting edge of technology for that day. Leaders lead and people dreamed of taking the company to the next level through a shared vision of what could be. As success came someone always decides we need more “rules and policies” to keep things running smoothly. Then as more rules piled on innovation was stifled and the most creative people left to start their own companies. The large management centered company then looses product share and eventually closes. Don’t lose cutting edge leadership by becoming a bureaucratic organization centered on management. If you have people who think being a good leader is setting out clear rules and policies then it is time to realize your company’s days are numbered.

  

Encourage leadership that creates motivates, inspires and takes your organization to the next level of success. Never let your company be run by managers who think they are showing leadership by creating rules that stifle your employee’s creativity.

Our biology in how we read impacts how we see our leaders.

How is effective leadership reflective in the way we read? The question is actually very interesting, and one of those ah ha moments, where you see deeper into biology and psychology of everyday life. In the book by Susan M. Weinschenk “100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People”, she explores how we actually read through the use of saccade and fixation patterns. We don’t read smoothly and actually work through patterns. While we are reading, our eyes are using their peripheral ability to scan the letters coming up. So, we are interpreting patterns as information that we use to create images for what we are reading. We are so well tuned to figure out patterns, when reading words that are misspelled, we can instantly figure out what the misspelled word should have been: example wihch bird hsa hte sharp lcaws?  

So, what does my lack of proof reading have to do with leadership? Answer, everything! Everyone has said sometime in their lives, “I wish my boss would be consistent”.  Realistically, you want a great leader over a good leader. You want a good leader over a bad leader, right?  But, I bet you want a bad leader who is consistent over one that fluctuates from good to bad at the drop of a hat. It all comes back to consistency in action. If you have a great boss, you can prepare each day to have a relatively good day. If you have a bad boss, you come in, sit down, strap in, prepare for work, and sharpen your resume. It’s the boss that fluctuates that drives everyone crazy.  Your peripheral vision cannot read the pattern and prepare you for the future. It’s like a roller coaster ride through a dark tunnel. You never know what is about to happen and you don’t know if you are coming or going.

It is easier to improve a bad leader than an inconsistent one. Why, because the inconsistent one sometimes makes good decisions. They have to learn to look deeper into issues and how they would naturally react. Then, they have to learn which action they would normally do is correct. They have to relearn and apply new decision making patterns to become more consistent. Sometimes they become bad leaders, but that can be easily fixed. Hopefully, they become great leaders, and that should be reinforced. But it still comes back to how biology has helped us survive through the use of patterns.           

Ego vs Perspective On A New Job

When you get promoted, or moved to a new temporary position, with more responsibilities you have to look at your reasons for wanting the position. What does it really entail? What is the impact on your family? It is about ego or your conviction that you can make a difference?

Luckily for me, I have the opportunity for a "test drive" right now. I'm responsible for the downtown area of a capital city. I have neighborhoods, a general business district, and protecting half a billion dollars in new hotel development. All with 33 people? Can I make a difference? Absolutely . Am I up to the challenge?Yes. Is it worth the damage to my family spending 12-14 hours a day trying to stop crime, and turn around a demotivated group of people? No, no it's not.

So, what is it really about? Determining what is important in life and setting priorities, that's it in a nutshell. The "ego" drives people for more. People who can facing struggles and coming up with a workable solution have always fascinated me. It's like watching chess, and seeing a master in action. One always wonders if you are really that good. Hopefully you are. Hopefully, you are taking the assignment because you want to make a difference, and believe you have something to contribute. Hopefully, it is not to make a difference in your take home check, because you will loose more than you gain.

The challenge for me it to motivate people who have been neglected for a long time. The key is to do it one small victory at a time. To reach the individual, three layers below, who works the middle of the night, and make them believe they make a impact. Again, the "ego" in action. However, the impact of touching an individual to do their best transcends a single career. They will one day motivate someone else to do their best.

Together we success or fail. The true test is determining if the job is right for you, or is the "ego" that says go ahead and take it. To quote Buddy the Elf, " Some people forget what is important in life, and they end up on the naughtly list."

Leaders Inspire Creative Thinking - Managers Make Rules and Policies

I found the quote “Rules and policies are created to help make jobs easier” in a book about leadership. Clearly the author does not understand what differentiates leadership from management; To protect their ego, I left the name of the author out.

Rules and policies are the tools of management to protect the organization. They set out lines that are not to be crossed. Rules and policies are necessary for organizations to operate and protect employees from harm, each other, and potential criminal and civil penalties for violating state and federal laws. If you need to know how to request time off you “follow the policy”. If you need to fix a widget you follow the “procedure”.  You follow the rules or you pay the consequences. This is about management, period.

The reason why everyone encourages out of the box thinking is it shows leadership through courage and a willingness to break the rules. . Leadership is about freeing people to innovate and use their energies to be greater than they thought possible. Management, on the hand, tries to quell out of the box thinking because of the loose of control. Management is used to rein employees in and keep them following the rules.   Companies that have high performance cultures cleverly integrate management and leadership techniques to create synergy and take their organizations to the next level.

History is filled with organizations that once were innovative and on the cutting edge of technology for that day. Leaders lead and people dreamed of taking the company to the next level through a shared vision of what could be. As success came someone always decides we need more “rules and policies” to keep things running smoothly. Then as more rules piled on innovation was stifled and the most creative people left to start their own companies. The large management centered company then looses product share and eventually closes. Don’t lose cutting edge leadership by becoming a bureaucratic organization centered on management. If you have people who think being a good leader is setting out clear rules and policies then it is time to realize your company’s days are numbered.  

Encourage leadership that creates motivates, inspires and takes your organization to the next level of success. Never let your company be run by managers who think they are showing leadership by creating rules that stifle your employees creativity.

As the leader, do you know your organizations culture?

As a leader, you must understand your organizations culture. Not the vision and mission statements, but the people and how they actually work and behave. In a study, most people in organizations responded that general order / policies and procedures/directives are ignored in order to get things done. Then, when something goes wrong, they are punished for not following the written directives that no one else follows. As the manager, you think all is well once the person had been disciplines. Well, you’re wrong! Nothing really changed. The culture has decided to ignore the directive. Without getting tied into the minutia of how you examine the directive to see if it needs to be modified, I will move the discussion on about culture.

Your organizations culture is all inclusive. It encompasses who gets hired, who gets hired, who excels, and who is getting buy. It is the formal political system, and the informal political system, by which we get things done. It covers how we look at the word, and react to changes in our operating environments.

By creating a culture of leaders, and not simply one leader and a staff of managers, then the culture is better prepared to anticipate and make changes. When your organization faces change, can your culture willing or even able to adapt? Is it flexible? Will people openly question the need for change, find answers, and then make the changes? Or, will they secretly undercut your efforts and find creative ways to prevent the changes from being implemented?

As a leader, you must have your finger on the pulse of your organization to find out what its true culture is. If you are not working to lead through your culture then the culture is actually leading you to success or failure. 

 

Operational and Team Spheres That Impact Your Teams Success

Sometimes you simply scratch your head and wonder if it is you or your company that seems out of whack. Sometimes it is you, but I bet the majority of the problems are caused by the misalignment of core components in your company.  I will make this easy to understand, using the laws of three; you will see how your team fits in with the “big picture” of your company and how easily a misalignment can occur.

Picture your company operating within three core spheres:  

• Organizational Structure
• Priorities & Philosophy
• Human Capitol

Each has a different core function that must be equally balanced to create a successful company. The more overlap between the three spheres the more aligned your organization will be and this increases your chances of success. Think of a helicopter rotor. There is more strength at the center and the blades move slower that at the edges. The farther apart the spheres are in your company the more energy you have to use to be successful. Too much overlap in one area will cause in imbalance.  Now, let’s take a closer look at the operational spheres.

The Organizational structure is the architecture of your organization outlining who is responsible for each system. It also explains the hierarchy from the boss to the bottom person. In some cases there is redundant overlap in one area and not enough assets in another causing an imbalance.

The Priorities & Philosophy provide reason for the existence of your company. In some cases priorities have changed but the philosophy has not evolved to the changing climate of today’s business environment. This leaves people wondering what the overall mission of the company is supposed to accomplish, besides surviving.

The last sphere is your company’s Human Capitol. Your human capitol, employees, is the greatest asset your company has. In times of crisis, your employees can think on their feet and instantly make changes based on observations that modern machines cannot. As an organization you must answer the question, do you have the right people working for you? Do my employees have the correct skills and knowledge to take you to the next level? Ultimately, do they believe in your company and want to be apart of its success?  

From the Operational Spheres, we go to the Individual Unit Spheres. Your team, and its overall success, is directly linked through the Human Capitol sphere In other words, the Human Capital Sphere provides the employees for your team to operate.  All work teams in your company are comprised also comprised of three spheres. Again, the more overlap the spheres the more successful your team will be. The more successful your team the more likely your company will be successful. Now we look at relationships of a smaller set of spheres in which your team operates. These smaller spheres are described:

• Organizational  expectations of my team
• The leader’s needs
• The teams’ capabilities

The first sphere answers the question, “What are the expectations of my team from the organization?” Within this sphere another question is then asked, “How does the effectiveness of my team impact my company’s success?”  If it has no impact then you should be looking for another job because you will eventually be downsized out of your current one.  Your team should be building a competitive edge for your company. If it is not then turn your team around and create one; success is built on the shoulders of the smallest teams.

The second sphere answers, “What does your leader need to be successful?” Do they have all the personnel and equipment necessary to accomplish their tasks?  What skills and abilities do they need to take you to the next level? This one can be answered at www.integritasleadership.net/matrix.

Lastly, the remaining sphere answers the question, “What are the capabilities of your team?” Does your team have the individual abilities to both accomplish the expectations of your company and fulfill the needs of your leader? Do they need additional training or equipment? If the team is not capable of accomplishing their assigned tasks then the company is crippled at the lowest levels. These three spheres need to be aligned and fully functioning before your team can make a positive impact on your company.

As you have just read, it is easy for a company to become misaligned creating confusion among the teams and employees. The next time you question how effective your team is, think about the different spheres and see if you can create a competitive edge for your self by jumping in and fixing the problems.

Laughter at work in Public Safety

In public safety we see it all from the deepest inhumanity to the greatest sites of compassion. However, it is the platoons, their sense of purpose, and most importantly the “Gut Busting” laughter we have at times that gets us through. It is the sense of community at the lowest level that separates us and makes us great! Only the people in public safety will know the benefit of a great laugh after a heart breaking day!

Steps from Self Actualization to Creating a High Performance Team

In order to create a High Performance team, the foundation must be created on a solid base of leadership. I will outline a simple course from individual self actualization to creating a high performance team.

Step One: The leader must become conscious of his or her actions. Take an inventory of youself and and ask, " can I lead myself? Why would others follow me?" Are their actions disciplined or undisciplined? Do the actions hurt the team, or help build it up? Do I have the knowledge skills and abilities for their job? If not, how fast can I acquire them? Leaders biggest mistakes stem from not realizing they need to add to their knowledge base, and then making bad decisions based on that lack of knowledge.

Step Two: Without introspection as to why you behave the way you do, you will never be able to create a cohesive plan of action and become an exceptional leader. Through conscious awareness you can begin to create the self discipline you need to create a vision that people will follow. People will not follow someone who is all over the place, but will follow one who is strait, steady and consistent on reaching the desired goal.

Step Three: Self discipline an creating a steady course for people to follow takes courage. You have to change your own behaviors, and then those of your team. You will have to confront people and make your argument for them to change, for their betterment, and that of the team. It takes courage to try and overcome resistance. Confrontation take courage. Sometime the leader had to have the courage to tell someone they do not fit and need to go. Confrontation is good in that it opens up communication lines. Confrontation does not mean yelling and screaming, but actually discussing difference in opinion, not hiding them and letting resentment build

Step Four: Once you begin to control yourself through self discipline, and created an awareness how individual actions impact the team, you can begin to motivate and inspire. Create your individual vision of where you want to go. How will you get their? You will get there through your team and their willingness to follow.

Step Five: What is the vision for the team? What do you collectively believe? As you build yourself up, your vision of the team may change. As the team evolves and changes, their vision may change. The vision the leader and team create must be consistent with the vision of the organization. As good vision for a team takes the organizations vision and then raises the bar. By raising the bar and meeting those goals you become the "go to" people in the department.


Step Six: Celebrate little victories. Rome was not built in a day. Set the long range plan with short term in initiatives. Celebrate once you have reached the initiative goals. Regroup, when you don't. After a victory or setback, notice I did not say defeat, evaluate what went write or wrong. Adjust course, and then move on. Always look towards to long term future, but remember it is the actions you take each day that get you to fulfill your vision for yourself and your team.

Step Seven: The more successful your team is, the more other teams will recruit away your best team members. Rejoice when a team member moves on to help someone else. It reflects greatly onto you and what you have accomplished. So, now you bring in someone new. Let them know who you are. Find out who they are and what they want to accomplish. Bring it the team, and introduce each one of them. Let the team share the vision with the new person. Together, as a team you use each day as a touchstone for success.

You Inspire Your Team To Excell Or Under Perform

Everyday you inspire performance. Your actions will either inspire someone to go above and beyond their job requirements or barely meet standards. It all starts with you and your attitude. If you are positive, bring it to work. A positive attitude is contagious and can be used to create, or enhance, your team. Try having a team cookout during your lunch periods. Develop a logo just for your team, a symbol to rally around when things get tough. It is difficult for people to meet after work, so use your time together at work to develop a team history. A proud history helps develop esprit de corps. You  know you are better than the other teams.

If you are having a bad day, try to limit your contact with your team. It is easy to turn your bad day into a bad day for everyone in your team. Remember, misery loves company, but nobody loved misery. Try to find something to be positive about around your team, so you can limit the damage. Work through the issues that are dragging you down as soon as you can. If your bad day drags your team down, then your tomorrow will probably be much harder.

As a leader, you have the ability to impact your teams and inspire performance. You make the chooses that either inspire outstanding performance or further misery.  YOU make the call on how you INSPIRE.

Self Discipline: The Key to Success or Failure

Go to any bookstore and you find rows of books on “The Hidden Secret to Success”.  Everyone wants to know how people became rich and powerful. Why don’t you see books titled, “The Key to My Not So Secret Failure”? Success and failure are simply different sides of the same coin. In truth, knowing why people fail is just as important as to the reasons people succeed, maybe more.

Sometimes the best plans fail, and the worst plan succeeds. How much does talent, persistence, and luck play into every endeavor? By examining where people fail we learn more about ourselves than through other peoples successes. As we learn about failure, we have to ask, “Given the same set of circumstance what would I do?” Where the obstacles in the way insurmountable, or did the person simply quit?

Many have heard that Thomas Edison made over 2000 attempts to create the light bulb before he was successful. Edison had both time and financial backing that allowed for his persistence. Edison was also brilliant and had unwavering confidence in his abilities. Now think about the guy who gave up after his 1999 attempt. Maybe he had a better light bulb, we will never know.    

The keys to success and failure are not simply intelligence, finances, perseverance, or luck. The key is self discipline and it sets effective leaders apart from others. A self made millionaire once told me, “When I came to America, I couldn’t speak the language. I had no skills, and look at me now. In America if you are intelligent, have courage, and most importantly have self discipline you can be a success.” Self discipline sets the stage for success. It also allows someone to turn a failure into a success. I have seen people snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory simply because they did not have the self discipline to follow through to complete projects. Sometimes, people have the self discipline to start a project, but go too far, because they don’t realize what success looks like. They reach the pinnacle success and then go over the hill, because they don’t know how to stop.

Self discipline sets the table is the thin line that separates people who are successful from those who fail.   

Organizational Branding: More than a Logo - Its a Way of Life

A Vision and Mission statements describes your organization and where you want to go in the future. When in doubt, it provides a platform for people to make decisions, eg. a potential action is consistent with the values of the organization.

The Brand is much more; it describes what makes your organization special and differentiates you from the rest. The organizations brand strikes at all of the senses. It is more than a logo, it is a way of life.  It answers the question, what does it mean to work for your organization? It should describe your history, customs and traditions that differentiate your organization. It connects and engages current employees to your organization. It energizes and builds pride in your community and potential customers. It attracts potential employees to you, while repelling potential applicants who may not "fit" well within your organization.

The potential impact of your organizational brand is enormous to your organizations success. Every organization has a brand. You can either control it yourself, or someone else will be in control

Leaders in 2012 Must Learn and Embrace Diverse Cultures to be Effective

Leaders in 2012 face new challenges as work force demographics change and employees with different cultural histories begin to come into the workforce. I talk to managers and supervisors notice I did not say leaders, who say “foreigners” need to learn English, or why should I learn about their culture, they should learn to be American.  This is a very short sighted view. First, America was founded by people from somewhere else. Even the original Indian inhabitants came from someplace else. As a country we became diverse because people did not completely give up on their old traditions and cultures just to become an American. You do not, and can not, wipe your memories away when you become an American.  

The effective leaders understand and embrace having a diverse group of people working for them. They inherently understand diversity reduces the chance of “group think”. They also understand that their success is based on the actions of the individual employee. The employee’s actions are based on how they interpret the directions of the leader. Their interpretations are based through the context of past cultural experiences. Therefore, to be effective, the leader needs to understand the cultural history and context which develop the individual expectations of their employees. Then the leader can tailor their message to the individual employee. The overall message remains the same, but the individual meaning is shaped through the cultural lens.

It may sound like a lot of needless work, but it isn’t. By learning a basic level of the cultures of your employees the leader actually builds a greater credibility with the employee. The leader learns something’s that they may not have known, but more importantly, they have a new tool to put in their tool box. Leaders who not only develop their employees but also develop a cultural awareness of their employees become a “hot commodity” for their organization. Opportunities to grow, both inside and outside of their company, will most assuredly follow. So, from even an individualistic point of view, learning the cultural histories of your employees and how to lead them creates greater opportunities for you.  The leader who embraces these ideas will most assuredly create a greater Splash on the Matrix.    

5 Key Words Which Describe Extraordinary Effective Teams

Execute, Perfectly, Flawlessly, With Confidence, Every time

Can you use these words in a sentence authentically reflecting how your team functions?  

The more words you can accurately use to describe your team the more effective you are

Fire Fighter"s Motto

Integritas Leadership Solutions, LLC facilitated a discussion to create a Fire Fighter motto at the 2012, Virginia Fire Chiefs Association Conference and Mid Atlantic Fire Expo.

Through a lenghty procees, together, we created the motto: Courage, Committment, Professionalism

Courage: It takes courage to be a Fire Fighter. You must be willing to go into harms way. You run into danger as most people flee.

Committment: You must be committed to the highest standards to be successful. You must be comitted to you team. station and community.

Professionalism: Your knowldege, training, and ability defines your level of professionalism, not whether you are a volunteer or career Fire Fighter.

Life lessons from Bob

I arrived at my precinct the day after my graduation from the police academy. I walked into the roll call room with my bright shiny new badge pinned to my shift. I nervously introduced myself to the sergeant who just looked at me and pointed to a chair and said sit there. I looked around as the older officer began to come in and take their seats. They were joking about an officer who split his pants while jumping a fence on a call the day before.  None of the officers spoke to me; they would just occasionally stare at the new guy. Eventually, the sergeant, still not knowing my name, came in and asked who would field train me.

An officer with glasses, salt-and-pepper hair, looked up and said, “I’ll do it”. The sergeant said, “Bob” you sure? You are about to retire”. He replied, “I got it”. After roll call, Bob introduced himself and said for me to get my stuff. Before we headed out on my first shift he sat me down and said, “This is a calling for some and a job to pay bills for others. In time they will all become your family. If you make it you will see things that will break your heart, and things that will make you fall over laughing. When you think about giving up, something will happen and you will see the impact you can have on people’s lives.  Above all else, remember you are a professional and the people you come into contact all had the same hopes and dreams as you at one time. Some people made it and some didn’t.  One day your career will come to and end and I hope you look back and think it was worth it”.

For the next six weeks I rode with Bob. At first, he showed me the area and where the problems were. He showed me the places that I must have back up and the places people like to hide. Bob would constantly explain, “It is important that the same number of officers go home alive as attended roll call. But if you aren’t willing to risk your safety to protect your fellow officers and citizens then I should get out before I risk someone’s life”. During the time I reinforced my basic tactics and learned how to start investigations. More importantly, I learned how to really talk to people. The officer walking the beat comes into contact with people determined to commit crime, wealthy people who do not recognize the officer as he walks by, the person who lost everything and is now homeless, and the happy-go-luck person who is simply enjoying life. I learned to blend into each societal group and make the connection.

I learned that Bob had only a few months left before retirement. He had two grandkids and he and his wife were going to visit all of the places they dreamed of over the years. A couple of times his wife would come down and meet us for lunch. He had volunteered to train me because the day he started out an older officer about to leave volunteered to train him. To that day Bob never forgot what his training officer had told him all those years ago. After a while the older officers began to warm to me and I learned their stories. Eventually, the six weeks ended and it was time for me to go to my permanent midnight shift. I would see Bob in only in passing most of the time. If I had a question I would hurry in to see him and he would walk me through the problem.

Understanding Force Versus Power In Leadership Roles

If modern business organizations understood those two principals of “Power and Force” the potential of American industry could again be unleashed for our benefit. In many instances people confuse and intertwine Power with Force. Power and Force may seem similar, but are in fact completely different in how they are generated and applied. There can be no force if a person has no power. If a person has power, but choose not to use it, then they are not going to be effective.

People who head organizations have “Power” based on their positions within an organization - direct power; or, by people wanting to follow and be led by an individual – indirect power. The higher up you go the more power you have. Simply stated, the greater authority the greater the power. Power can then be broken down into hard or soft power. With hard power you make commands and edicts based on your power and authority to reward or punish. With soft power other techniques, sometimes call coercion, are utilized to get a specific task completed. As an individual moves up in an organization and receives more power they must learn restraint. Unloading a lot of power at once only leads to destruction. The careful application of power is a technique that must be mastered through understanding of the principals of force.

Force requires action; greater the action the greater the force applied. With enough force, a large round piece of wood and be shoved through a small square hole.  Force is broken down into positive and negative force, with the effect graded by the amount of destruction caused by its application to any given situation. For example, a middle manager may hate all of his subordinates and want them all gone, but does not have the power to make the decision; therefore, he has no force to use. A CEO of a company has the power to hire and fire people. He or she may fire and individual or the staffs of an entire business unit, depending on the amount of force he or she cares to use. Likewise, the CEO may use targeted power and force and fire the middle manager, thus relieving the subordinates of a potential tyrant who wanted more power. 

It has been said that power corrupts absolutely. This is only true for people who are not disciplined with their power. Someone may have a lot of corrupt power, but if they do not unleash the force of it then it has no impact. Likewise, a powerful person who is benevolent can still inadvertently unleash a plethora of untamed force and harm an entire workforce.

So, which is more dangerous, power or force? Power is more dangerous. Power is the stored accumulation of energy that gets turned into force. The amount of destruction to a workforce is measured by the force applied, but may only be a pittance to the amount of power that could have been unleashed. Therefore, business schools need to develop curriculum that teach and describe how to gain power in one semester. How to force is used for good and bad the next semester. In the last semester utilize a capstone class to test to see if a person can build power and use the potential force correctly.

As people apply power to develop American industries, it must be understood the force from such action will have an impact on other countries and their industrial complexes. Power and Force can not exist without each other. They can be used to ones benefit, but someone else will see their application as destructive. It is always better to be on the positive effects rather than suffer the negative effects.  Machiavelli and Sun Tzu understood the principals and how to correctly apply them centuries ago. 

Using Stories To Engage And Teach

A couple years ago, while teaching a group of public safety professionals, I was asked the best method for me to keep students engaged?  I replied, “For me, I teach through stories”.  That is why I am able to get seasoned professionals to stand on their chairs within five minutes of my opening.  I create the visuals through stories and take my students on a trip that teaches them new information.  After years of research, I found stories are the natural way people process information. By creating stories people create strong images in their minds that help them connect the pieces together. For millennia, people have been telling stories as part of their oral traditions. The first cave drawings were used to tell stories to other members of the tribe. Ten thousand years later, we can still look at the cave drawings, in France, and understand the meaning of the images. Aristotle, two thousand years ago, wrote down the parts we still use today to create a good story. When we watch movies, we wait for the lead character to tell the story that motivates the other characters to action.

The most influential leaders I have ever met spoke to people in ways that allowed everyone to join the overall story. You wrote your own part.  You were a part of the team. You could make a difference. As a leader using stories to motivate employees, you do not have to be a hero, or someone with a spectacular past. Anyone with imagination can tell the story that moves someone to action; you just have to connect at the individual level.

Stories can be used to teach mathematics, science, police science, hydraulic pressure theory for firefighters, or other “dry” classes and still keep people riveted. Imagine Halley’s Comet hurtling past the earth every 70 years. Physics and stories explain why the comet is pulled past the earth on its way towards the sun; however, stories also tell what people thought when they saw it in the sky. In 1066, William the Conquer saw the comet and thought it was a sign to invade England. The ancient Romans thought it was a god riding a chariot through the skies. The Aztec Indians saw the comet as a sign to go to war. The stories suck you in so your mind grasps, and materializes, the images to create a meaningful form to transfer information. You can talk about the science behind Star Wars to help transfer complex theories of physics, engineering, or computer programming. Anyone can come up with a thousand stories to explain how biology works. One only has to make the connection at the individual to keep people engaged.

Remember, “It’s the Story”, the next time you get asked to talk about a subject and want to make an impact.   

Three Lines That Changed Our Perspective Of Engagement

In January 2010 three public safety organizations participated in a ground breaking study on engagement in public safety. In the course of the study over 600 officer and administrative staff responded to questions relating directly to their engagement. So what made this study different? For starters it was developed by actual public safety officers who put their lives on the line with the rest of their team mates. These guys actually know the culture and developed questions that were relevant to the professions. Lastly, unlike most surveys which take a top down approach to the engagement of the employees this study looked at engagement from the bottom up. Change your perspective and new insights arise into the causes of old problems. This allows new solutions to be developed that work instead of applying age old solutions that do not work in this new generation of workers.

The study included 49 questions pertaining to the level of knowledge an employee had of their organization prior to employment through their intentions to stay with their organization, equipment issues, and lastly internal communication issues. Some of the results of the study were published by the FBI in the December 2011 edition of the Law Enforcement Bulletin.

Now to the critical information: Three lines which changed the perspective of employee engagement in public safety. Conventional wisdom says an employee begins work in public safety and as the years go by their engagement slowly drops. Well the research brings a new perspective to light. The problem on the loss of engagement is not solely on the individual but the organization itself significantly contributes to the disengagement of employees through the lack of responsiveness to the needs of employees.  When you look at the PowerPoint, at the bottom of the blog, you will see three lines. These are the three lines which redefine how we look at public safety engagement. The lines represent the question and results of the most important question in the study, what drives your engagement or disengagement:

• My organization is mostly responsive to my ideas and I have increased my performance and willingness to suggest ideas.
• 11.8% 66
• My organization is mostly responsive to ideas and responsive to ideas and I am satisfied with meeting organizational performance standards and do not wan to suggest ideas.
• 2.3% 13
• My organization is not always responsive to my idea, but O continue to suggest ideas and maintain my high level of performance
• 51.1% 285
• My organization is not always responsive to my ideas, but I will continue to maintain an acceptable level of performance and suggest some ideas.
• 27.4% 153
• My organization is mostly responsive to my ideas and I have increased my performance and willingness to suggest ideas.
• 11.8% 66

People do not simply give up when their organizations are not living up to expectations. No, they fight, scream, and kick, before they finally give up and become disengaged. People desperately try to suggest idea and make changes which they believe will improve their organizations. When they feel they are ignored they begin to give up. This reality does not start 10 years into a person’s career, no, we found it begins immediately upon employment. That’s why it is so critical to be honest with applicants about who you, the organization, are and provide a realistic picture to perspective employees. Once someone is hired and they feel they have been lied to they are going to be pissed and get angry. Now you have an angry, disengaged, employee who will be on your payroll for the next 20 years. Congratulations, you met your recruiting goals. 

As individuals move up their organizational charts and take on more responsibility, and take on a more strategic role, they begin to loose connections with the first line officers. As the commander makes long term strategic decisions based on his or her needs, and that of the organizations budget, they forget that their decision has a real word impact on the officers and their willingness to perform. The officers in turn, try to either say, “I’m on board and let’s rock, “or “Hey this is a bad idea and I have a better, cheaper, way of doing something.” As the officers feel they can not get their feeling know to people who can make changes, or worse they feel they are being ignored, they become frustrated. Frustrations turn to anger, and anger turns to disengagement.

This does not have to be the final answer; No, but it required command staffs to open their eyes, and try new things. For instance, give up on out dated managerial ideas that were created during the “greatest generation”, stop listening solely to professors who have no real world experience but simply regurgitate ideas that worked in the past and rehash old studies in order to obtain job security in their university. No, simply think outside of the box. No, create a new box for other to try and thing outside of. Do something radial for command level personnel. Get out of your office and talk to the officers. If they have an idea which make sense, is financial viable, and benefits the organization, let them run with it. Take your egos out of the equation for the benefit of your most valued asset: your officers who do the grunt work everyday.

Take a look at the Power Point, again. If every organization is operating at the same effective level, imagine what you could do if you move simply 15% of the people who said their organization was not listening to them but they were fully engage and move them to the 11% who stated their organization was fully responsive and they were fully engaged. You would be a Rock Star in the world of Performance Management, with only 26% of your organization stating they were fully engaged. People would be beating down your doors to find out how your organization is now the mega-star in public safety.  You can do this by simply changing your top down perspective to a bottom up perspective and make the changes that need to be done.  If you don’t believe me, try it and see. If I am wrong then I guarantee you will have still learned something new about your organization. If I am correct, repair to move into your new home, because your local government is going to raise your salary or a large organization is going to bring you in. It is your choice, remain the same mediocre organization or become the Rock Star Leader you think you are.

“Continuity in Efforts” for more effective police services

With the economy struggling to recover and public safety organizations continuing to battle with shrinking budgets, the implementation of “Continuity in Efforts” programs can help organizations more effectively deploy its personnel.

To understand the significance of a “CE” program, one must first look at the way people are deployed by law enforcement agencies. The “CE” program can work in all divisions, but for this article I will focus on the back bone of police functions, field operations.  In most police departments the field operations are deployed utilizing three shifts, day, evening, and night. These three shifts should be considered individual units, because they operate with different supervision, personnel, and differencing community needs based on their shifts. Each shift / unit has their own priorities that may not overlap with the preceding shift. At the end of the shift, a new set of priorities begin and the previous shifts focus and priorities end.  By sharing overlapping responsibilities through the CE program an organization can eliminate the silo effect cause by current management practices. They can more effectively deploy their personnel and increase overall effectiveness’ and increase employee engagement. 

By sharing responsibility for resolving problems occurring on a 24 hour basis, the individual units become more focused on the larger picture instead of what only happens on their unit’s tours. As a division, area, precinct, or sector commanders can become more creative in developing out of the box solutions, which break the current deployment molds, and be held accountable for resolving issue. By creating sense of ownership and connectedness by all shifts in resolving priority problems an organization is able to focus the efforts of its personnel instead of having three shifts working independently on its own priorities.  

By removing the silos of the three independent shifts and creating a focus for all shifts the officers can then be better deployed, efficiency increased and ultimately having a positive effect on an organizations overall budget. The CE model allows for more creativity from commanders in deployment and overall crime fighting strategies. Some officers may adjust their hours and come in earlier of later. The officers are not simply there to run calls, but assist other shifts in removing the root causes of your crime problems for the area.  This also allows more flexibility in how the officers operate and expands on their ability to use alternative patrols for increased effectiveness.  This has a second benefit, when officers are allowed to expand and do different forms of police work, besides riding calls for their shifts, their engagement goes up. When engagement goes up, their effectiveness rises in proportion. As their effectiveness goes up in one area a department is able to shift valuable resources to handle other problems.

An example of how the “CE” model transforms all three independent shifts into single unit with shared priorities:  An area has a theft from motor vehicle problem in morning, narcotics sales in another part beginning in the later afternoon, and finally, night clubs causing problems late in the night.  By creating shared responsibility to work together all three shifts focus their efforts to resolve the problems.  As one unit prepares to end its shift the next unit then takes its place prioritizing its efforts, along side of running calls for service, on working on a specific problem. The midnight shift will have one or two officers walking the problem area, bicycling, or conducting surveillances in the last few hours of its shift when the thefts from motor vehicle begin. The day shift will then continue to focus on the thefts from motor vehicles during the early part of its shifts and then later transition to resolving the narcotics problem, which starts late in their shift. In the afternoon, the day shift then focuses on the narcotics problem utilizing alternative patrols. The evening shift can adjust one or two officer’s hours to come in early to assist in the narcotics issue. When the evening shifts tour starts they immediately focus their alternative patrols on the narcotics issue, therefore increasing the time focuses on resolving the making an impact.  Later, the evening shift will transition its efforts in preparing for issues associated with the night clubs. When the midnight shift begins their tours, they continue with the “continuity in efforts” by taking over the night club assignment. In the early morning the midnight shift starts the cycle again by concentrating on the thefts from autos.

The key to increasing productivity, reducing crime, and reducing strains on public safety budgets is for all organizations to analyze their organizations to and see how “Continuity of Efforts” can best be utilized to increase overall effectiveness. 

Overcoming An Organization's Primal Fear Of New Ideas

Organizations have learned over the past few years to value new ideas that create competitive advantages and help develop a critical mass for success.  Senior managers look in wonder at the people who can came into an organization, with the next big idea, that transcends them to the top of their industries. Often leaders go to retreats in hopes of developing new strategies that bring thought leaders flocking into their organizations. But let’s stop and back up. Before bringing in new talent, let’s take a crucial look at how organizations already deal with new ideas developed in house.

From the outset, everyone understands that people dislike change, and new ideas bring change. Change upsets people, and most resist even the most straightforward idea, that will lead to success. From a distance, we admire people who can develop and initiate change in other organizations, but may disdain people trying to make changes in our own organizations. We are hardwired, as a part of our evolutionary process, to conform. Through our evolutionary past we learned, people who tried something new and different may have been eaten by the large animal waiting for an easy meal. Today, a new idea brings up the same connotations of fear and trepidation that one company may get eaten by another after it implements a new idea.

Now, at the individual level, we have to examine how organizations treat their own employees with new ideas and strategies to create effectiveness. Have you ever heard some version of the saying, “If I wanted to hear your ideas, I would give you them.” We may bring in a consultant for new ideas, but intentionally over look internal ideas from subordinates. This train of thinking goes back to the heart of the matter in developing organizations. When someone is hired, at a lower level, they are brought on to accomplish tasks set out in their job descriptions. They do day to day tangible activities that in general do not impact the long term success of the organizations. Initially, their job is not to develop long term strategies, which are the jobs held in senior management positions.

When someone in middle management, or below, develops a new idea they have to find a champion at a higher level who is willing to run with the idea, or it will not gain needed traction. However, they must still over come the initial fear that someone at a lower level has an outstanding idea which may create a competitive advantage. How dare a lower person presume to have the next big idea?  Why, because senior managers resist ideas from subordinates. Why, because senior managers fear loosing their jobs to a subordinate. Worse, one may think senior managers would value a person who brings lots of creative ideas that improve effectiveness and efficiency to their attention. Well, yes and no. If the person has already been picked as a future leader in the organization then the ideas have a better chance. If the person is outside of the established developmental pool then ideas are less likely to be listened too; and the person may cause greater fear in the senior management. Why, because he or she is an unknown commodity and sees things that the senior management has missed.  This perception of blindness by senior management creates more resistance to new ideas; especially if they were not looking for new ideas. Again, conformity to ones station in the organization is valued at the subconscious level over conscious level saying we value new ideas.

So, let’s recap and tie it all together. We are hard wired to conform to norms as a way of surviving. In most organizations, out of the box thinking is valued, as long as new ideas were requested from employees, or is occurring in other organizations. Every idea will have some level of resistance no matter how much an impact it will have on improving efficiency. When unsolicited ideas are brought up a champion at the senior level must be brought in who supports the idea for it to have any chance. Ideas from the lower levels are always said to be welcomed, but in most organizations actually cause fear in senior managers who are in charge of long term strategies, over people who handle day to day operations. In short, all organizations who want to succeed need to develop cultures where fears of ideas at any level are over come, and in fact welcomed. The way you do this is through open dialogue. Open the communication pathways both up and down. As the culture of inclusiveness grows, the fear at the primal level of new ideas is mitigated with every success. In the end, managers are still responsible for strategic development, and lower level associates are responsible for day to day activates; however, as a group, they can develop synergy and take their organizations to levels only previously dreamed.