"Leave Incrementalism Behind"

Interesting piece over at HBR this morning:  "Leading Change in the New Normal."

The whole thing's worth a read, but I love the authors' notion of "leaving incrementalism behind."

Perhaps the biggest benefit of deep and rapid change is that everything needs to be reexamined. When survival is at stake, all the "crazy" ideas that were dismissed earlier resurface for serious discussion. The idea of "go big or go home" is a requirement...

This has implications for not just how we think about change, but how we lead teams through it. Rather than the steady water drip that leaves everyone on edge waiting for the next announcement, have the courage to make (and communicate) the big shift. Your employees can handle more than you think, if you connect the change to a clear narrative and shared goals.

Forget the QB. Here’s the Real Leadership Lesson in Denver.

A few thoughts on leadership and the Denver Broncos, without a single mention of You Know Who (SEO be damned).

The Broncos brass just held their year-end press conference, a couple of weeks earlier than they might have liked, but certainly later than they had any right to expect.

Seated at the table fielding questions were EVP of football operations John Elway, GM Brian Xanders, and head coach John Fox.

Sports execs and coaches are notorious egomaniacs. I can’t recall a single other instance where three of them shared the stage so easily. Can you picture Bill Parcells, Jerry Jones, Mike Holmgren or Mike Shanahan giving their subordinates (or even their bosses) this kind of equal treament?

Here in Denver, Elway, Xanders and Fox all took questions. They never interrupted or contradicted each other. They never even added to what a colleague had to say, letting each other's words stand on their own. Each repeatedly acknowledged where their own responsibilities end and someone else’s begin. They were complimentary and complementary. 

It was extraordinary.

To say that organizational alignment begins at the top is almost a cliché. But this presser strikes me as a particularly helpful example of what that really means. Alignment is about something much deeper than mere agreement. It is not only about wanting the same things, but about wanting to achieve them together. Alignment begins with an admission that we cannot do it alone, that command and control gets us nowhere, that we need to be surrounded by smart, experienced people. 

I spent a couple of days last week with the owners of a company that is about to shake up the beverage industry. Know why I'm confident they'll succeed? Because they are approaching their business the same way Elway, Xanders and Fox approach theirs. The lines of authority are clear, but they are not what makes the organization run. It is a business aligned around a commitment to shared goals, and to each other.

Why Internal Communication is Hard

After working in just about every field of communication over my 25-year career, I’ve come to this conclusion: internal communication is pretty tough stuff.

No offense, Marketing and PR, you certainly have your share of challenges. But internal communicators grapple with some especially complex conditions within an organization that simply don’t plague external communicators in the same way or to the same degree.

Here are three reasons why internal communication can be so hard:

#1: Leadership needs to commit--really commit. I’m not talking about a leader--or even a committee of leaders--signing off on a budget, participating in an event or approving a communication campaign. I’m talking about commitment in the form of daily, aligned action. Leaders and managers--every one of ‘em--play a pivotal role in focusing and engaging employees: articulating the vision, offering clarity, creating the right environment, modeling behaviors. A single renegade leader can translate into tens, hundreds or even thousands of employees working at cross-purposes.

There’s no hope for organizational alignment without leadership alignment.  Internal communication efforts fail when we ignore or attempt to bypass this truth. For internal communicators, facilitating leadership commitment to the message, and then equipping them to carry it forward, must be top of the priority list.

#2: That pesky right-hand, left-hand thing. The process of getting work done in an organization is relational: I do this, then you do that. A new strategy or change effort goes awry or comes to a grinding halt if any one player isn’t in the game. 

Change is messy. It’s a dance of people and process. Helping everyone see their roles and how the pieces fit together can be hard, especially in a global, dispersed, matrixed workforce (and exponentially harder if leadership isn’t aligned and committed--see #1).

It’s not enough to communicate vision, strategy and top-down expectations. Internal communicators must also consider what they can do to free the flow of information across the organization, to facilitate collaboration and conversation among those bringing the effort to life. (AAhhh, here’s where we can point to something that’s making our lives easier: social media tools.)

#3: We make it hard.  It’s rare for internal communications to command the same talent, resources or budget that businesses commit to external communications. Perhaps we’ll never see that inequity shift--and we certainly won’t if internal communicators don’t continue to grow their strategic abilities and value. While the practice of internal communication has certainly become more sophisticated over the years, internal communicators still too often find themselves viewed as the folks who maintain the intranet or write the CEO’s talking points. These are important activities, but they don’t define what should be the meaning of our work: cultivating the engagement, alignment and environment that move the organization towards its goals. Until internal communicators think, talk and act this way, we’ll just keep making it hard for ourselves--not to mention our organizations.

We Should Expect More From Our Leaders

That headline is not nearly strong enough. We should expect a hell of a lot more from out leaders than committing a moral failure of epic proportions.

I just walked in the door from listening to a couple of absolute morons on sports radio actually debating whether Joe Paterno has done anything worth losing his job in the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

"He did everything he was legally supposed to do," argued one of the hosts. "He followed all the proper procedures."

Really? He learned that a long-time friend and assistant coach had been caught in the act of raping a 10-year-old boy and we should be content that he followed proper procedure? That his response was legally correct?

I could care less what Joe Paterno has accomplished as coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions, or how much he's done for the community. I don't care if serves as the usher at church every Sunday and brings the local widow baked bread on Wednesdays.

Joe Paterno knew about the rape of a child nine years ago. His obligation as a leader--as a human being--was not to follow proper legal procedure... not to protect his friend or the institution... his obligation was to do everything in his considerable power to make sure the man could never harm another child. Consequences and personal cost be damned.

Too often, I fear we are measuring the wrong things in our leaders. Wins and profitability are important in their place. But not at the cost of basic common sense and human decency. That anyone is making excuses for Joe Paterno right now is absolutely beyond me.

Paterno's failure is not as a coach, a fundraiser, or a leader of men. He failed at being human. And that on an epic scale.

Through Fresh Eyes

I get to New York maybe two or three times a year on business.

It used to be something I looked forward to, but now I tend to think more about the expense, the noise, and the sore feet than the wonders of the world's greatest city.

And then last week I took my daughter Holly to New York as a gift for her 13th birthday. And I saw the city again for the very first time.

For Holly, everything was an adventure and a wonder and a marvel. The crowds, the cabs, the smells of the subway at rush hour.

We walked for hours and for miles. We ate stinky street food and shi-shi sushi. Had lunch in Chinatown and canolis in Little Italy. Bought gifts in SoHo and trinkets in Times Square. Admired Van Gogh at the MOMA, and graffiti in Korea Town.

And it was All. Freaking. Awesome.

 I really didn't think I ever needed to see another Broadway musical, or stand in line for two hours to get to look at Central Park from the top of Rockefeller Center, or walk through Times Square at 10 o'clock on a Friday night.

But I did. I'd never actually seen those things at all.

*****

I share all of this because I hope it will remind you, like it did me, just how easy it is to become cynical. To lose our sense of wonder. To forget that the things we see and do every day are actually pretty cool.

As leaders, we have to align our employees around shared goals, meaningful work, and imagined futures. We have to paint pictures, create wonders, draw connections.

It's hard to do that when you no longer see it yourself. When you've become cynical, jaded, or maybe just tired.

Find a way to do the equivalent of taking a 13-year-old girl to New York. Find a way to see your work and the world through fresh eyes.

10 Ideas from 2011 World Business Forum

It’s been more than a week since the 2011 World Business Forum in New York. I’m still struggling to capture the event in words. Learning from giants like Bill Clinton, Bill George, Jack Welch, Howard Schultz, Malcolm Gladwell and Seth Godin… it’s a lot to chew on. Aftershocks of aha moments hit me daily.

Ten days after the event, here are 10 ideas that stand out:

1. Bill GeorgeYou can’t lead without vision and purpose. All great leaders have a clear vision of the future, which informs, directs and inspires the present. Former Medtronic CEO and Authentic Leadership author Bill George identified vision as a key differentiator between transformational leaders (long-term commitment and focus) and transactional leaders (short-sided focus on short-term value).


2. Vision can’t be something that exists only in your head. Leadership requires followers. And to follow, people need direction. That direction needs to be clearly articulated in a way that resonates with employees. Cirque du Soleil President and CEO Daniel Lamarre gets it. He said of Cirque du Soleil founder and his boss, Guy Laliberté, “He is a visionary. His mandate is clear. My job is to make his dream happen.”


3. It’s more about EQ than IQ. According to George, after a baseline IQ of 120, emotional intelligence is the defining factor of leadership. He defines emotional intelligence as, “A willingness to be vulnerable. Be open to one’s blindspots. And be one’s authentic self.” The importance of EQ was underscored by global search consultant Claudio Fenández-Aráoz who says it is among the top leadership qualities to look for in a candidate.


4. Howard SchultzFocus on employees. That line about employees as a company’s greatest asset? It’s true. They are the lifeblood of an organization and gateway to every customer experience. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz believes, “The only way you can exceed expectations of customers is to exceed the expectations of your people first.” Amen.


5. To differentiate, be real. There’s great parity in the marketplace. According to Schultz, to differentiate competitors, consumers will look to a company’s values. People want to buy from and work for companies with a shared set of ideals, a company who authentically practices and lives them. Of course I love how Jack Welch put it: “If you’re some pompous ass, you don’t stand a chance.”


6. Tamara EricksonWe each bring our own context. Expert on managing across generations, Tamara Erickson shared that each generation is shaped by the events that happened when they were younger. (For example, the Boomer explosion created scarce resources, which explains their competitive nature. Gen Y is the first generation of unconscious users of technology, which points to their expectation of instant gratification.) These events and our personal experiences shape us and create our personal context, which we bring to work and our relationships.


7. There is possibility within each of us. According to Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and inspirational speaker, “A leader is someone who awakens possibility in others.” In fact, the best leaders tap into that possibility, inspire action and get out of the way. Management consultant Gary Hamel warns, “When you limit autonomy and authority, you also limit a person’s passion.”


8. Benjamin ZanderWords have power. We know this, but we forget it. Zander warns, “The downward spiral lives in our speaking.” Seemingly benign words can limit our thinking – “must” and “need” versus “what if” and “how about.”  So choose words carefully.


9. Like it or not, we need each other. As the world shrinks, our interdependence on one another is growing. Whether its global technologies or local economies, former president Bill Clinton said increasing interdependence is a truth of the modern world. It will be those who can partner and collaborate effectively that will come out ahead.


10. Change is unchanging. Strong leaders recognize the value of change. They put it in context of the business, embrace it and help their teams get on board with it. As he tells it, when Welch first learned about the internet, he didn’t resist it. He quickly found an experienced intern to teach it to him and instructed his executives to do the same. Marketing guru Seth Godin makes change compelling: “Every revolution destroys the perfect before it enables the impossible.

Why Not Go Beyond Engagement...

and aspire to create nerds for your company?

(Thanks to Kinetic Typography for creating this gem.)

A(nother) Reason to Like Justin Bieber

It's okay, you can admit that you watched Justin Bieber's biopic "Never Say Never." 

Believe me, I was hesitant to admit it and I even had my kids in tow to justify shelling out $20 to see it in the theater. I was even more hestitant to admit that a couple of the scenes made me cry...I mean, that's like saying bubblegum makes you cry, right? Or so I thought.

But after reading this insightful post by TwistImage, I realize that my fascination with the biebs is really just proof of the power that social media has to create real connection. (Plus, it makes it sort of work-related.)

Were it not for YouTube (and the unmatched enthusiasm of teenage girls) the world might never have experienced Bieber Fever.

And without Justin Bieber, Twitter might never have reconfigured its algorithms. 

But social media didn't make Justin Bieber a better musician, it just gave him a platform on which to share his music. 

As Mitch Joel quotes the TwistImage blog: "It's not marketing. It's real."

Social media doesn't replace the need for clear and meaningful messages, it simply allows us to use those messages as a starting point for a deeper connection with fans, customers, and employees. Bet you didn't expect Justin Bieber to teach you so much.

Why You Shouldn't Agree to Internal Social Media

If you aren’t already, you need to start some serious thinking about what internal social media can do for your business. Your employees are hungry for it, solutions are becoming increasingly mainstream, and the day is coming when an organization not using employee-focused social media will have trouble attracting talent.

Yes, there are some very good reasons for a leader to embrace internal social media.  There are also some really crappy ones. Here are three:

#1: To get the communication folks off your back. Now that social media is widely used in marketing and external communication efforts, corporate communicators are turning their attention inside. Rightly so--social media may promise even greater benefits within a business, in the form of collaboration, engagement and productivity. Before you give the thumbs-up, though, ask for clarity on the aims of the social media effort, how it aligns with strategy, and what your role as leader looks like. Ask how it will empower employees to drive the success of the organization. Ask how it will help you, as a leader, do your job better.  

#2: To reduce the effort you put into communication. Not so fast--you are still the leader after all. Your responsibility to align your management team and employees around the company vision, priorities and ways of working doesn’t go away. Social media can be another valuable tool in generating conversation around your organizational journey, but it doesn’t diminish the need for you to set the tone, articulate a compelling story, create focus and clarify expectations.

#3: To declare your company a “social organization.” Uh yeah…Remember the whole George W. Bush “Mission Accomplished” fiasco? A single assault doesn’t win the war. Being a social organization is about a mindset, a philosophy, an approach. Every leadership word and action--every employee experience--must demonstrate a commitment to the belief that everyone has something to contribute and that there’s power and velocity in connecting people, their insights, ideas and knowledge. Having an internal Facebook page does not mean you’re a social organization.

Social media is a tool, a means to an end. It can be powerful if it's a purposeful part of a broader strategy for employee alignment and engagement. Make sure you’re using it for the right reasons.

The Muppets as Corporate Communicators

Our leadership team met in Philadelphia earlier this week. Following the meeting, I hopped a train to NYC to catch the Jim Henson exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image. It was there I learned that back in the 60s, before they got their own show, the Muppets starred in films made for sales meetings at IBM. 

A tech company using frogs and monsters to inspire its salesforce...now there's an internal communication tactic that I wish had caught on. 

Reflections on 9/11 from a Communicator

Everyone has their “Where were you on 9/11?” story. I had just started a job as the Electronic Communications Specialist(!) at a Fortune 50 company here in Minneapolis. I had come to work early that day because there was to be a big company announcement and I needed to be ready to post it to the home page of the intranet…using Microsoft FrontPage.

After hearing news of the first plane crash from my cube neighbor, I listened for an explanation on a radio in my cubicle. When the second plane crashed, one of the executives on my floor opened up her office so we could watch her tiny television.

As was true for most people lucky enough to be a safe distance from the crash sites that day, the minutes and hours passed in a haze of confusion and sadness and shock as we waited for the news media to help us make sense of these events.

One of things I remember most about my situation was that it took until nearly 3 p.m. for our CEO to give us – the Internal Communications team – a statement that acknowledged what had happened and said that employees could go home and be with their families…which we then emailed to the rest of the company.

It was that memory that had me wondering yesterday – between tears each time that State Farm commercial came on – how such a crisis would play out today in the age of social media, so I was intrigued to see this blog post suggesting that the chaos of 9/11 would have only been amplified by Twitter.

You could argue either way, of course. Twitter and all types of social media could definitely have fed into the fear we all felt that day. On the flip side, it could have given us a clearer picture of what had happened and allowed us all to come together more quickly to help.

What I know for sure is that should such a tragedy occur today, employees would not sit patiently by for six hours without word from their leader. Social media has not only sped everything up, it's made it unacceptable for leaders to maintain a wall of silence.

It is now within every leader’s power to communicate, in real-time, as a human being – employees not only know it, but they increasingly expect it. Embracing these expectations isn't just important in a crisis, it's important if you want to compete in this new world of social business. 

Want to learn more? Download our position paper on How Social Media has Changed Internal Communication. 

Manipulating Language to the Masses

’Tis the season when political candidates jockey for position and creatively manipulate (or mangle) the English language (Yiddish, if you’re Michele Bachmann) in an effort to sound smart, connect with the public and lead voters to the polls.

This calculated discourse crosses both sides of the aisle. It was evident last night during the Republican presidential debate and we'll see more of it tonight during President Obama’s speech to Congress on job growth.

I’m not criticizing. Really. As a professional communicator, I find it quite fascinating.

I recognize that words have power. I know it's important to use words with purpose.

But at what point do these words and nonverbal gestures become so over-orchestrated that they lose their power? Or better yet, can candidates who are so media trained, scripted and coached to death still come off real and connect with real people?

Yes. And apparently, they hire guys like this: political consultant and pollster Frank Luntz. 

Forget the Company Picnic -- They'd Rather Have Good Work to Do

Some dreary news this week from Gallup, as reported in the Sunday New York Times. Americans have never felt worse about work:

People of all ages, and across income levels, are unhappy with their supervisors, apathetic about their organizations and detached from what they do.

No wonder we're in a recession. You don't suppose all that apathy and detachment has any impact on productivity, do you?

The article goes on to point out what one might hope would be obvious by now--engaged employees are good for the bottom line. According to Gallup, disengaged employees are costing U.S. companies upwards of $300 billion a year. 

What's frustrating--what makes me bang my head on the conference table--is that if you talk with enough business leaders, you'll find that many (maybe even most) still think of employee engagement as "soft stuff." 

Which is why companies tackle it with things like casual Fridays and company picnics or, slightly better, raises and bonuses.  When what really motivates employees is knowing that their work matters. Here's Gallup:

...of all the events that engage people at work, the single most important — by far — is simply making progress in meaningful work.

This isn't expensive, difficult or frilly. It is the simple work of setting the right priorities; communicating clear expectations; providing context so employees can see their work in the big picture; supporting the work by removing barriers and providing resources; and then marking progress in a meaningful way. 

Where we see employee engagement drop is when managers create fire drills. All hands on deck to meet an unnecessary deadline on a project everyone knows is going nowhere. You can't fix that with free pizza and a happy hour on Friday.

With engagement levels at an all-time low, the opportunity for competitive advantage is enormous. Companies that get this right will win the talent war, see an increase in innovation, improve customer service, and get more work done with the same number of bodies.

Alternatively, I suppose you could just not worry about it.  After all, there's a fair chance your competitors' engagement levels suck, too.

Social Business Starts with Internal Alignment

The Altimeter Group recently released a study called “Social Business Readiness: How Advanced Companies Prepare Internally,” which found that companies who are successfully making the transition to social business have several things in common:

1. Guidelines: They set appropriate policies and then trust their employees to participate in social media in a professional manner.
2. Process: They have effective processes in place to respond to customer questions or issues in a timely manner.
3. Support: They are fostering cultures of learning, where social media education is an ongoing effort and best practices are continually updated and shared.
4. Centralization: They’ve created a “Center of Excellence” that is responsible for coordinating social media strategies, governance and support across the organization. 

That last one is what got my attention because it signifies an important shift: Social media is no longer being treated by major companies as an experiment or an “extra” in a marketing plan – it’s being recognized as a strategic function within the organization.

This is a big win for Internal Communications teams, because even if most of the focus is on connecting with people outside the organization, the internal alignment that must take place in order to centralize social media strategies lends itself to greater transparency and more consistent messaging inside the organization as well.

In fact, I’d surmise that an IC leader would be the best one to lead these centralization efforts in most organizations, because he/she would know that any effort to align stakeholder engagement should start with the most important stakeholders of all: employees. 

Leadership as an Organizational Capability

It was to be expected: The blogosphere is atwitter with speculation about whether Apple will continue to thrive--or even survive--with Steve Jobs’ departure as CEO.

I have to say if there’s one business I’m not worried about, it’s Apple.

I think Jobs’ departure prompts a much more important question for a leader: If I left my role (or went on a long vacation, for that matter), is the team equipped to drive the business forward without me?

When an organization does it (and just 35 percent do), succession planning typically focuses on (1) executive and high-stakes positions and (2) the formal leadership structure.

That’s well and good--we mustn’t discount the importance of getting the right folks at the top.

But it isn’t enough. Relying on the skill, personality or charisma of a single leader or executive team is both risky and short-sighted. Leaders are lured away. They mess up, they retire, they die.

A company’s best shot at stable, sustainable leadership comes from cultivating informal leadership across the organization--a critical mass of people consistently demonstrating leadership behaviors regardless of role or rank.  It’s the truly great companies that think of leadership not as a solitary act but a collective practice...not as a select group of people but an organizational capability.

The beauty in all this: Whether you’re CEO or a manager in the field, you can develop this capability on your team regardless of whether your company has a succession planning program. Here’s how:

Inform. Don’t shield people from the goods, bads and uglies of the business--instead, trust them as insiders. Educate them on market pressures, bring them in on budgetary issues, share performance data. If your team doesn’t understand what makes your business or department tick, they’ll never be equipped to make smart, strategic decisions that align with the interests of the organization.

Develop. Supplement technical training with leadership training. If leadership is about seeking out opportunity, taking initiative, articulating vision, and engaging others, then help employees grow these abilities. Present them opportunities to put their leadership skills into action on projects or committees. Establish goals and expectations around key leadership practices.  Model, teach, provide feedback, and recognize desired behaviors.

Empower. Unless there’s a compelling reason to not do so, delegate as much decision-making to team members as possible. Build from low-risk, routine decisions to increasingly more substantive ones, as the employee develops competence and confidence.  Provide guidance where needed while establishing clear accountability. Ensure employees experience the consequences of their decisions or actions--whether it’s having to mop up a mess or being lauded at the team picnic.

Great companies not only have great leaders at the helm, they recognize the power of great leadership in every corner of the organization.

I Guess That's Why it's Called a Consulting Engagement

A friend of mine, also a consultant, recently shared her favorite thing about working with clients: "Stupefying" them.  Presenting recommendations that seem so foreign and new that the client practically falls out of his chair frothing at the mouth in utter amazement.

I have to admit, creating a degree of awe can produce some fleeting delight--especially in those moments when my confidence might be fragile for any number of reasons.  Who, after all, doesn’t like the thought of impressing someone with an original or revolutionary idea?

But when my ego’s in check--as I think it is most days--the real pleasure comes when this is the reaction I get: The client calmly and knowingly nods her head as if to say, “Why, of course, these recommendations make perfect sense.”

That’s a sign I’ve done a dang good job of bringing the client along throughout the project. That I’ve engaged her around the possibilities, given her a glimpse into learnings and levers, invited her to help shape the solution with her own insights and ideas, and helped her see how manageable the solution can be.

There’s no substitute for smart recommendations. But they get elevated to brilliant when they make sense to the client and make sense for the business.  They can be considered exceptional only if--when all is said and done--the client gets behind them, knows how to focus, and is ready and able to act on them.

It’s no stretch to say that engaging employees is a lot like engaging clients.  While there are certainly differences in the relationships, the goals are similar: Inspire them around a goal, purpose or possibility…help them focus on what matters…build commitment to the effort…equip them to act.

So it stands to reason that what I’ve picked up over the years working with clients has direct application to the world of employee engagement.  Here are a few of those learnings:

Listen actively. Naturally, asking lots of questions gives me important information about my client’s mindset, the communication challenge at hand, and the realities and culture of the business. But it also builds the client’s commitment to the end product. 

It’s no less true for employees. Not only will listening to the team deepen a leader’s insight and understanding, it creates a shift in the employees themselves. If they feel confident they are heard, they will more likely support a decision or direction, even if it’s not the approach they might have taken themselves.

Establish checkpoints along the way.  Building in client review sessions at key milestones is a way of creating meaningful exchange over the life of a project. New information is injected, issues are aired and solutions are explored together. As much as we’d like it to be, the conversation doesn’t happen organically; it must be planned. The same idea applies to employee engagement--strong leaders schedule it, prepare for it and are deliberate about it.

Create clarity.  I kid you not: Some clients have actually hired us to make sense of recommendations developed by other consultants who simply couldn’t resist spilling every bit of their knowledge onto reams of paper.  Engaging employees--like engaging clients--is not about impressing them. It’s about helping them see clearly, cut through to the heart of an issue or strategy, and home in on what matters most.

Tell a story.  By relying on elements that make a great story--theme, setting, plot, and character--I’m better able to help the client make sense of the strategies proposed. For employees, too, story creates emotional connection to the organization’s strategy or purpose, and helps them understand the business backdrop, envision success, and recognize their role in the effort.

Unlike my friend, I'm not interested in stupefying clients. I am interested, however, in delighting them with meaningful solutions and strategies that they're fully invested in and deeply committed to.  If I consistently apply a few key principles of engagement and couple it with my very best advice, I virtually assure a successful and fulfilling outcome for my client--and for me in turn. 

I have a bit of advice, too, for leaders: Consider how you might apply these same principles to develop a team of people fully invested in the success of your business.

Leadership That's All Fun & Games

You’ve likely never heard of Cole Lindbergh.

Cole works at Worlds of Fun amusement park in Kansas City, Missouri, managing the games department. You know, standard carnie fare like the bean bag toss, skee ball and guess-your-weight.

The 25-year-old was featured in a recent “Amusement Parks” edition of This American Life. But the segment is less about roller coasters and more a study in how to engage employees with skill, purpose and authenticity.

Cole Lindbergh, it turns out, is a model leader. 

Oh I can hear the cynics already: C’mon, a manager in an amusement park? How hard is that?  True, Worlds of Fun might not be as complex as a healthcare system, an airline or a government agency. But it certainly has its share of operational, financial, regulatory and workforce pressures. (And the thought of working in that sort of hot, sticky setting with a bunch of eye-rolling teens is enough to give me hives.)

It strikes me that Cole does five things very well:

1. He aligns his team around a clear vision and expectations. Cole’s formula is simple. It’s all about two things: fun and selling games. That’s the message he reinforces day in and day out--yet he does so in novel ways that keep his team attentive and energized.
2. He develops his people. Cole hires ‘em right--extroverts reign in his line of work--and trains ‘em well.  Here’s what’s expected when you come to work…Here’s what we’re trying to create for our guests…Here’s how you work the crowd... Cole produced a series of amateurish training videos that are both goofy and surprisingly effective; they feature simple step-by-steps that are particularly useful for young people new to the workforce. And lest you think he doesn’t have to deal with performance issues, the TAL segment exposes Cole’s compassionate but firm approach to offering feedback and guidance.
3. He cultivates the right environment. Cole purposefully creates an experience for his employees that models and supports the key aims of fun and sales. He fosters healthy competition between teams (with the prize often being some good-natured ribbing of the boss). He dresses in silly outfits. He ambushes employees with a Super Soaker. He sings lame homespun songs at team meetings.
4. He empowers his employees. Cole is clearly delighted when his team takes initiative to invent new ways to enrich the experience for park guests. To attract customers to their games, employees wear goofy costumes, offer food-and-drink bribes, issue challenges (I’ll be on this roof until 100 guests participate!) and convert their booths into disco dance parties. They come in early, pull double shifts and invest effort outside work hours.
5. He shows up with intention and authenticity. Each day, Cole walks into the shift meeting ready to lead, guide and inspire.  He leverages his personality and natural talents to get the best out of his people. He demonstrates total commitment.

Is the team actually meeting sales goals? Are Worlds of Fun guests having a measurably better experience?  I can’t be sure what the metrics say about Cole’s success as a leader. But this little tidbit is telling: Team members interviewed for the radio story unabashedly admit that they come back to work at the park summer after summer for a single, compelling reason.

That would be Cole Lindbergh.

What the U.S. Navy Can Teach You About Social Media

The head of the U.S. Navy gets social media. He doesn’t just think it’s important in some abstract way, he actually embraces and uses it as part of his job…his job as the leader of the world’s largest navy.

I know this because the transcript of the speech that Admiral Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations, gave at the Institute for Public Relations Strategic Communications Summit started making its way around Twitter this week (or at least, a link to this blog). Not sure why it took so long – I have to think that everyone sitting in the audience back in June went running back their leaders proclaiming, “If the Navy can do this, so can we!” (I would have!)

The message Adm. Roughead shared has several key points that every leader should hear:

1. Social media is no longer optional. 

For whether we embrace the fundamental communications changes underway today or not, our talented young workforce not only embraces them, they know nothing else. As leaders, then, it’s not enough that we keep pace with these changes, we must lead the change.

Whether or not it’s worth your time is no longer up for debate. The answer is yes. The time is now.

2. Everyone is a communicator now.

I submit to you that in today’s media environment, as leaders – whether we recognize it or not – we are no longer simply leading a workforce of employees or, in my case, Sailors. We are leading a workforce of communicators.

Think about that for a second…how does it change the relationship you want to have with your employees? 

3. If the Navy got past security concerns, so can you. 

There were many within our organization who warned that there were too many risks to the security of our networks to allow our Sailors to participate in social networks…Those risks are real and they have to be mitigated, and that costs money. At first I didn’t know if spending the money would be worth it, but it soon became clear to me that opting out neither guaranteed security, nor served our interests in transparency, outreach, and advocacy. Rather than consider whether we could afford to participate, we came to the conclusion that we couldn’t afford not to participate.

Ensuring network security is a cost of doing business these days. (Next up: Ensuring mobile access to your network for all employees!)

4. Participating in social media can make you a better leader.

Leaders have to lead by example and be part of engaging a wide array of audiences, and they must approach it with eagerness – not defensiveness or trepidation. The key to success as a leader is to recognize that there is an opportunity – indeed an obligation – to listen to your people, to add another dimension to your awareness.

If you choose to approach social media as an opportunity to go beyond talking in order to actually connect with employees, think of what you will learn. Better listener, better leader. 

Retro Social Media Ads

Having trouble convincing key stakeholders of social media's value to your organization?

Of course we suggest that you start by addressing the key questions and making sure that your culture is conducive to the social business mindset.

But might we also suggest a retro ad campaign?

Ad campaign created by Agency Moma São Paulo.

Are You Creating a Workforce of Cheaters?

As more details on the Atlanta school cheating scandal surface, this much is clear: Leadership failed.

There are some who will point to a broken education system that they believe unreasonably punishes non-performing schools and teachers. There are others who will isolate blame to the dozens of teachers and principals who have admitted to wrongdoing.

But I won’t buy any argument that doesn’t acknowledge the responsibility of Superintendent Beverly Hall.  Whether she was deviously and directly involved, complicit or merely clueless, she led the way in creating an environment where fear, dishonesty and secrecy prevailed. 

I don’t know a single leader who intends to set that kind of tone. Yet there are plenty who inadvertently do. 

They and their organizations suffer the consequences.  Research by Corporate Executive Board found that nearly half of executive teams fail to receive timely, negative news that is material to company performance because employees are afraid of being the bearer of bad news.  

The intentional leader seeks out the bad news along with the good.  She gives voice to the truth. She regularly reflects on how she will sustain a climate that breeds openness, trust and honor.  She asks herself:

Have I set ambitious--but achievable--goals for my team that are focused on the right things?

Am I rewarding employees solely for outcomes?  Or am I also recognizing people for progress and productive, ethical behaviors?

What am I doing to cultivate and model open and honest information-sharing?

Am I providing employees constructive, truthful feedback?  Do I seek out, acknowledge and use feedback from them?

When I make a mistake or fail to follow through on a commitment, do I readily admit it?  Do I make good?

Your words and actions carry immense weight in establishing atmosphere and expectations.  The key is to embrace your power--and your responsibility--as the leader.