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                                             October 2011                                         1.3

Greetings! 

This third issue of the Unfolding Leadership Newsletter focuses on personal mindsets and how they support or interfere with leading. You'll find:
  • Reflective Leadership Practice -- the new psychology of success
  • Leadership Links -- stimulating articles, videos and tools from across the web
  • Leadership Edge -- links to essays from the Unfolding Leadership weblog
  • Leadership Conversations -- Q & A with reflective leaders about their practices
  • Leadership Rescue -- a client story
  • The Art of Leadership -- links to art and artists that facilitate learning
If you would like to review the first two issues, you can find them in the archive.
 
Thanks for joining me -- your feedback, comments, and suggestions for content are always welcome. 

Wishing you the best for your own reflective practice!
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REFLECTIVE LEADERSHIP PRACTICE
The New Psychology of Success

Stanford's Carol Dweck in her well-known 2009 book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success makes a crucial point about accurate self-assessment, one based on her idea that some people see their intelligence and talents as fixed traits while others see them as a malleable resource for growth over time. She writes:

 

"Well, maybe the people with the growth mindset don't think they're Einstein or Beethoven, but aren't they more likely to have inflated views of their abilities and try for things they are not capable of? In fact, studies show that people are terrible at estimating their own abilities. Recently, we set out to see who is most likely to do this.  Sure, we found that people greatly misestimated their performance and their ability.  But it was those with the fixed mindset who accounted for almost all the inaccuracy.  The people with the growth mindset were amazingly accurate."

 

"When you think of it, this makes sense.  If, like those with the growth mindset, you believe you can develop yourself, then you're open to accurate information about your current abilities, even if it's unflattering. What's more, if you're oriented toward learning, as they are, you need accurate information about your current abilities in order to learn effectively. However, if everything is either good news or bad news about your precious traits -- as it is with fixed mindset people -- distortion almost inevitably enters the picture.  Some outcomes are magnified, others are explained away, and before you know it you don't know yourself at all."

 

This graphic image by Nigel Holmes beautifully illustrates the two mindsets. 

 

I can certainly identify, and perhaps you can too, with times when the fixed mindset and its rigid self-judgments has upended a personal opportunity to learn. The good news is the growth mindset is always available; we aren't locked in. What it takes, as Carol Dweck points out elsewhere, is the ability to notice and challenge inner voices.  That defines an essential reflective practice -- with payoffs in lower stress, a more encouraging and accurate view of self, and the satisfaction of achievement in spite of the obstacles. 

 

Given the economy, the politics of polarization, and all the rest of the risks and challenges we find in our lives, could there be a better time to renew the practice of liberating ourselves from voices that tell us we are only "this much and no more"?  The future is out there -- and also within us. We are learners and we'll make mistakes, but why not believe in the world and our own possibilities? Branford Marsallis, the great jazz composer and saxophonist said recently in an interview that he breaks out of the box of musical theory and fixed views of his own talent by not acknowledging these boxes in the first place.  He "hears the music first," and then writes it down, rather than trying to construct a new song according to the rules.  Good advice: listen first for the music -- your own -- that no one else has ever heard. Then learn to express it fully in your life and work.  

 

(Catch the link to Branford Marsallis' interview in The Art of Leadership section below.)

 

 

LEADERSHIP LINKS
Readings & Tools to Help You Lead  

 

� Here's Where An Open Mind Helps.  Brain expert, Ellen Weber, explores our need for well-being when relationships go wrong in her elegant article, "A Brain on Forgiveness." 

Not Necessarily Bad People. Former Medtronics CEO, Bill George, examines "Why Leaders Lose Their Way" and offers solutions through systems that support values-centered leadership.

 

How to Think for Yourself. Essayist William Deresiewicz's speech to the 2009 plebe class at West Point is an eloquent tour de force on the value of introspection, concentration, reading, deep conversation and moral courage.  Here is "Solitude and Leadership: If You Want Others to Follow, Learn to Be Alone With Your Thoughts."

 

� It's All About "Yeses" and "No's." From the Oxford Leadership Journal, a beautiful short reflection by William Ury about "The Power of a Positive No."  Even better, this pdf contains a link to Ury's inspiring 2010 TED Talk about the "third party" to even the biggest conflicts and how to make "The Walk from 'No' to 'Yes.' Exceptional. (And for further discussion of "yeses" and "no's," check out "The Arc," listed in my contact block at the bottom of this page.)

 

� Overcoming Your Own Resistance. Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey's 2009 book on ways to create personal and organization breakthrough is nicely summarized (with supportive case studies) in this dossier on "Immunity to Change" from Business Digest.

 

� The Illusion of...Say What?  Author of You Are Not So Smart, David McRaney's longer, highly informative blog post, "The Illusion of Asymmetric Insight" explains the dangerous mind-game that keeps polarized attitudes and big wars going.

 

 

LEADERSHIP EDGE
Personal Essays from the Unfolding Leadership Weblog

"In the Mountains"  My most preferred intelligences, according to Howard Gardner's model, are interpersonal (self-reflective inner search) and naturalistic (appreciation and learning from natural forms).  This means that when I want or need to think in creative ways, I like to look for wisdom both through my inner experiences and in places of outward natural beauty. This summer I have had more time than I wanted to think creatively...Read More...

 "What is 'Wholeness'?"  This is a term that is often thrown around to describe a goal of individual growth and development, and so it shows up in wellness, psychological, and spiritual literature. But what does it mean, really, and how does it apply in terms of readiness to lead others?  One way to look at this is that wholeness has four aspects, each a complementary "power." A leader who is "whole" can...Read More...

 

LEADERSHIP CONVERSATIONS
Bob Berntson Makes the Complex Simple and Effective
 

Bob is President and Co-Founder of Berntson-Porter PLLC, a public accounting firm in Bellevue, Washington. He and partner Greg Porter founded the company 25 years ago. It now employs 75 principals and staff.  BP regularly wins awards for quality and professionalism, including a 2008 award as one of Washington State's best places to work.

 
Bob Berntson1 
 

Q. Bob, how has your mindset about your own leadership changed over time?

 

A. Just focusing on the last two years, I would say the economy woke me up to the fact that to be a good leader I needed to be better.  It's not that I was not good before, but I realized how easy it was to get caught up in the illusion that just because times were good and everything seemed to be working somehow that meant I was a good leader. My personal journey was to realize a number of things.  For one, I needed to take care of myself better, physically and mentally, and for another, it was clear I had to help people - clients and employees - deal with fear.  I needed to be realistic, positive, and show up in the world making the choice to not let fearful circumstances control where things would go.

 

Q. How did you get started applying that mindset?

 

A. The biggest thing I saw was that my past leadership philosophy of being "unique" and "creative" about the company and my work simply wasn't going to be enough; those qualities had to be married to especially sound business practices. We got started by pulling together as a company to examine how to improve ourselves in the midst of the challenge. We started systematically working on the processes we used to get things done.  We looked at everything from the skill and interest match of employees with their jobs to how we made sales calls.  And we decided - perhaps counter-intuitively, based on the economy - to make some big investments: hardware, software, some new, high-caliber positions, and more training.  We went from area to area looking for improvements.  And when I say, "we," I mean we.  It wasn't me.  It was all of us as a team.  We have a lot of smart people, and one of my clear learnings has been how to give people the resources they need and then let them do it themselves.

 

Q. Can you share an especially meaningful new practice that came out of that review and investment work?

 

A. Yes, one of the biggest changes was to start a practice of explicit individual and collective goal-setting.  I personally had not only to improve in that area for myself; I also had to learn to help other people establish meaningful goals and plans, even for stuff that was softer, more perceptual in nature. We had goals in the past, but often people didn't get the right kind of coaching because those goals were not well understood by the person's coach or mentor. So now we have our "GASCAP" program, which is an abbreviation for five core values: goals, accountability, support, appreciation, and performance.  We have a tracking system and about sixteen of us in the firm get together to talk regularly about individual progress.  Am I "green," because I am meeting my personal goals; "yellow," which means I am not meeting them but have a plan to get back on course, or "red," off course without a plan and need help?

 

Q. I've seen systems like this not work so well because the conversations never get real.  How have you created enough safety for honest conversations to happen?

 

A. It does take some time for people to get comfortable.  Of course, everybody wants to be "green" all the time. As a key leader, I participate just like everybody else with my own goals, and I learned early on to call "yellow" on myself - people expect my honest self-evaluation as I expect it of them.  There were also some moments when I put on the table that I thought some team members were at "red" but not owning it. As a group we had to have conversations about what each of the colors meant, and we've learned that "red" means it's time for all of us to pitch in and help, so that is the point where we stop, divide in sub-teams and brainstorm how to get things genuinely back on track for one or more of us. It isn't about calling anyone on the carpet or embarrassing each other.

 

Q. What are your core beliefs about people and performance?

 

A. The core, of course, is that people really want to be successful. I think we've learned to build on that by recognizing and supporting peoples' strengths.  I have been strongly influenced by the book, Flourish, by Martin Seligman, about strength-based psychology.  We may have been told what we should or shouldn't be, but that's not what it is about in life; it's about what we

want to be, and as a team we try to help each other with that, including occasionally getting to the point of helping someone realize that the work demands certain strengths that he or she simply doesn't want to build or is not interested in. At that point there is a reassignment according to the person's real strengths and interests, or it can result in someone's departure but even that is in support of the person's life; it's not just a performance rating.  This brings up another area where I've had to grow - being honest and direct with people.  You can kill people with your perception of "compassion." Compassion isn't about whether you tell the truth to others; it's about how you tell the truth you owe them, and it is clear to me now that most people crave having someone genuinely level with them.

 

Q. What's been a major breakthrough for you?

 

A. The main thing for me is learning.  Neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to change itself, to grow new circuitry, is fantastic.  When I read about that a couple years back it felt like taking the harness off.  Along those lines, we've been able to think of our processes as helping us learn and grow, and as a result we can see and celebrate the tangible differences in performance.  Looking at and improving our processes simplifies stuff that seems like it might be too complex - but that in a way is exactly how we now define being "good professionals," people who can take the complex and make it simple and effective.  That takes work and is a kind of mastery, and that's what I'm all about right now, finding simple, effective processes, turning them over to people and watching others continue to improve them over time.  Along with the other steps I've mentioned, we've also started LEAN initiatives and the only problem we face is the attractive illusion it will ever come to an end.  There is no end.  We just keep getting better.  In this sense, what I've learned in the last two years totally supports succession, including my own.  I'm not ready to go, but I don't fear succession the way I once did.

 

Q. What would you say are a few of your personal practices that support you and your very demanding role?

 

A. Well, here are three.  First, I calendar everything, not just my work.  If I calendar just my work, my family can suffer, so I make sure I block the time for them. I also schedule time for my physical well-being.  Second, I like to include time for reading. I'm a voracious reader and that has been inspiring and helpful.  And finally, I spend time considering how lucky I am every day.  Like many people I have a little process each evening - people call them gratitude journals - where I mark down the three moments I am most grateful for that day and why they happened. 

 

Q. Why they happened?

 

Yes, I find patterns there.  Often something good occurred because somebody, me or someone else, saw a positive possibility and made a decision. But then there are those other moments, one's that I can't figure out at all, the mysterious ones that make me feel truly blessed and happy to be alive....

 

 

 

LEADERSHIP RESCUE
A Client Story

How to Beat a Blind Spot.  Here's how one leader in the banking industry addressed a challenging transition. I'll call her Susan -- the story is several years old, and some details have been changed.

As an accomplished middle-manager, Susan expected to be on the fast track for an executive role, but one day after a period of tension, the VP she reported to suggested Susan take a not so voluntary transfer to another part of the organization. She had "burned too many bridges" the VP told her, citing complaints from her peers about her abrasiveness. In other ways a stellar performer, Susan was also offered coaching support to "find out what the problem is." Devastated but with no real alternative other than resignation, Susan took the transfer and got the coach -- me.  Since neither Susan nor I had any idea what the real problems were and the VP had removed herself from the situation, our first task was to determine exactly what had gone wrong. Susan saw herself as a skilled manager, and upward evaluations from her employees were universally positive, so of course she was confused. We had to look deeper.

We began by identifying half a dozen peers that Susan had worked with closely, and we also developed a series of questions together that would help us understand what had eroded her reputation. Susan asked her peers' permission for me to solicit their feedback. I spent about half an hour on the phone with each person, collecting responses to the questions we had devised. By the time I had talked to everyone, clear patterns had emerged.

It wasn't something dramatic -- no single incident stood out.  Instead, Susan was displaying behavior she later named "the mother hen syndrome."  While she was a great boss and advocate for those who worked for her, she was like an combative mother hen with her peers, protecting her employees and their work. Being an advocate for one's team is natural, but she'd taken it too far. Her unconscious and (when called to her attention) rationalized negative comments, her defensive tone, and her lack of cooperation left key players with whom she needed to collaborate feeling deeply disrespected. Her peer group had "given up on her" because she "was simply not listening." She was viewed as "coldly competitive" in a way that separated her from a management team that needed to be largely self-governing.

When I reported these patterns, Susan was surprised and challenged by the data, especially the alienating impact her behavior had on others. Susan confirmed her sense that she had to be especially assertive to maintain stature and power with her peers, but she could also see the problem. As we explored its roots in her past experiences, the personal reasons behind the combative approach became clearer to her, along with the ultimate severity of its impact -- on her.  

Among many forward steps we brainstormed, she decided on her own to ask one of her former team mates to be her 'peer mentor' as she took on her new assignment. This turned out to be enormously successful for her, as it addressed two issues with one action, and it showed her to be both genuine and courageous in her commitment to improve.  Because the 'mentor' she chose had been one of her fiercest critics, this step restored an important relationship while also providing Susan specific advice on how to change her behavior in peer situations that were particularly confusing for her, such as high stakes peer negotiations.  

What at first seemed like "transfer as punishment," turned out in the end to be a most generous gift, one that actually enhanced her credibiity.

How would you respond, if you were in Susan's place? If you are interested in learning more about customized feedback processes to restore a career or to get a powerful boost toward leadership success, please see this short brochure.



THE ART OF LEADERSHIP
Links to Art and Artists that Facilitate Learning

� "I Don't Acknowledge the Box in the First Place". In this 4-minute excerpt from a radio interview with Branford Marsallis, the great saxophonist relates composing music to Carole Dweck's model of two mindsets. If you would like to hear the full interview by Steve Scher of KUOW Radio, you can find it here. Branford Marsallis' latest album, Songs of Mirth and Melancholy, which includes the melody heard in the excerpt, is available from his website and the usual sources.

� What Does the Face of Leadership Look Like? Here is a stunning interactive portfolio of portraits of world leaders by Platon, an award winning photographer working for the New Yorker, with commentary by the photographer. Don't miss Hugo Chavez, Muammar Qaddafi and many others. But for one more extraordinary image, check out this short video as Platon explains how he took his portrait of Burmese dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi for the cover of Time Magazine; an "image for freedom," he says, "an image for humanity."  Be sure to watch it in HD full screen to get the full effect of his portrait.

� Hey, Where's the Levity in All This?  Okay, okay, last but not least, "First Follower: Leadership Lessons from the Dancing Guy." 3 minutes -- to make you smile and the lesson isn't half-bad either!
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