Posts Tagged ‘executive development’
Generation Flux and Communication
I think I’ve read every issue of Fast Company since it’s inception and there’s always something of value in their forward thinking pages. In the November 2012 issue (#170) there’s an article, Secrets of the Flux Leader by Robert Safian that reinforces my writing and thinking about fluency in communication (read the full article here).
Safian says (p. 98),
Generation Flux is a term I coined several months ago, in a Fast Company cover story that explained how the dizzying velocity of change in our economy has made chaos the defining feature of modern business.
Generation Flux describes the people who will thrive best in this environment. It is a psychographic, not a demographic—you can be any age and be GenFlux. Their characteristics are clear; an embrace of adaptability and flexibility; an openness to learning from anywhere; decisiveness tempered by the knowledge that business life today can shift radically every three months or so.
He goes on to say that many assumptions previously held in business will no longer work. One of those assumptions is that hierarchies provide desirable stability. “Creation comes not from stasis but from unpredictable movement.” I’ve argued for years that creativity thrives under structure and withers under control, which means the right kind of hierarchy can grease the skids for innovators. Structure that helps the creative know who’s up, down and sideways can provide the resources and support necessary to get ideas executed; whereas control sucks the life out of good ideas and once-creative people.
That’s where communication fluency comes into the picture. The old top-down, “I tell, you listen” model is irrelevant. What is effective is collaborative inquiry. “Here’s the problem, what are your ideas, what do you know, what am I not seeing, how might we look at the situation, who else can provide expertise…” GenFlux communicators have those conversations with peers, reports, bosses, vendors, customers—they’re constantly scanning the horizon for what’s dawning and who in their network to listen to.
Our focus at Listening Impact is for listeners to be able to flex to different people and to different situations. We help people understand what they listen to/for, what they ignore, who they are most likely to listen to, how their body language gives them away, and what types of questions they both ask and respond to. We don’t try to say if someone is a bad or good listener, instead we help them understand how to listen deeply and broadly, to listen with the fluency of someone who can speak all listening languages—no matter where they are, who’s talking, or where expertise lies.
Further in the article (p 102) Safian John Landgraf, president and GM of FX Networks. “You can’t have people siloed in their particular areas of strength. You have to value all styles, because you will never know which type will solve a problem.” That’s being a GenFlux listener.
Listening Skills and Executive Personal Development, Addendum
There were some lovely gems from the cadre of leaders that are worthwhile to share. The responses didn’t fit into any of the three questions asked, but they add insight from the people who took a few minutes to be with us.
Before we get to those gems, following are some answers to queries about the group’s average age, gender, geography, kind of jobs, how I know these folks.
- While I don’t know everyone’s age, I’d say the range is early 40’s to mid 60’s and the average somewhere in the 50’s.
- Seven males and four females.
- European and North American by current location, although most of the group has worked or resided in every continent (well, not sure about Antarctica) during the span of their career.
- Their current job titles are listed with their names, but I’d venture to say there’s hardly an organizational job that hasn’t been held within the group.
- I know each person well enough through coaching, collaboration or referrals, to be confident that these are the right leaders to interview about personal development.
The gems:
- Oh, and I like myself better too.
- The more I work on myself the more positive the atmosphere around me.
- I went on a retreat, no phones, computers, music—you get it, no technology. I nearly bailed, but I’m so glad I stuck it out. For the first time in my adult life I looked inward, didn’t necessarily like the future I saw, and resolved to be a much more compassionate person and conscious, caring leader.
- Listening to other’s views whether they are colleagues, customers or family members is often missed.
- This work opens up new doors—everywhere.
- When I retired (the first time), I heard over and over, “You are the best boss I ever had.” I know that’s true because when I moved from job-to-job some people came with me and others asked if they could.
- My job security comes from the success of others.
- Every time I’m in a new role I have to do more to adjust my style to others than to expect them to adjust to me.
- My son, just one year out of college, is in a management program and they’re starting him on this journey. He’s so fortunate.
- I never thought that awakening could happen in the workplace—it has.
- For twenty-five years I’d say I was committed to the job. I still am, but this year, 2012, the focus is on me.
- Everyone should live and work in another country some time in their careers. I can’t even begin to tell you all the things I learned, but a big one is that my job was to translate centralized organizational decisions to the local customs. Some goals from corporate cannot/should not be applied locally. Try to sell that upstream—that takes skilled leadership!
- Don’t turn away from the gifts that are presented to you.
Listening Skills and Executive Personal Development, Part 3 of 3
The three questions posed to eleven executives who I know to be high-functioning, well-regarded, and thoughtful leaders:
- What prompted you to engage in a personal development journey?
- What did you learn about yourself?
- How has your personal development journey impacted your work?
During the interviews, I noticed that the respondents gave more complex answers to the third question. I’m not sure if it was because they were on a roll thinking and talking about personal development, or if it required more reflection in order to answer. Personally, I found it more challenging to slot the responses into categories, and I’m not so sure that the categories are what you, the reader, might have created. What’s most important is that we “listen” and relate their words to how we might answer the same question.
A great quote from one of the participants:
Diplomatic. I now say things like, “What might we do?” rather than “Here’s what we’ll do.” I guess those subtle changes have a big impact because I notice that people come to me with better and better ideas and questions. And the quality of work is steadily improving.
Question #3: How has your personal development journey impacted your work?
Building Relationships
- I started with good knowledge, and I was promoted because of it and my ability to develop others. With a lean organization, every person has to work at 100% of capacity.
- I believe I am much more tolerant of other people’s process of learning and am aware that others usually are not like me. I used to feel betrayed when people didn’t do tasks the way I would have or even wanted.
- One must recognize in others all that we see in ourselves, and visa versa.
- Level of comfort with me and me with others is better.
- I’m more of a mentor or coach than I was before I went on this journey.
Developing Skills
- Everything I learn I put in my tool kit.
- It’s influenced my messaging—not as abstract and more human-to-human.
- Working with you, my coach, was a turning point. I’m always aware of balancing advocacy with more inquiry. I guess I’m more conscious of what I’m doing.
- I began to ask the right questions to understand if the question posed to me was right in the first place.
- I absolutely changed from being a micro-manager to being a guide. Performance soared.
- Re-emphasis on goal setting—it’s the foundation for focus.
- Moved from telling to selling—my influencing skills are used to motivate others.
- Whew, it was hard to receive straightforward feedback, so in the past I lobbed it like a hand grenade. I thought people were out to get me. Now I know how to provide feedback in a positive manner—so many employees thank me for my honesty and care. Pretty much we’ve learned to talk about how to be at our best.
Changing Culture
- Building teams, developing others, and constantly seeking out experiences…became my motivation. Why? Because it worked.
- There’s a more human aspect that I bring to work in a very rational organization.
- Always had good thinking with people, now I have both good thinking and good feeling.
- When something goes awry, instead of acting shocked or angry, I see it as a point of perturbation and try to understand what might be the cause of the setback, not “who screwed up?”
Unexpected consequences
- Developed an appetite for learning and I always want more, often learning from what others do wrong is just as valuable.
- It’s given me an advantage over peers.
- Conceptual models help me understand–they are like a flashlight in the path of darkness.
- When you asked this, I thought first about skills, but really my personal development is to bring passion back to me and to my workplace. I love the work I do.
- I look back to my footprints to see where I’m going.
- I’m more than just a head going from meeting-to-meeting.
- I’m much more empathetic, less de-sensitized, and not nearly as exhausted.
- It’s so natural to go back to “obnoxious” tendencies, so my own development is to be aware and constantly modify behaviors.
Following are the names and titles of the executives who shared their insights:
- David Carder, VP, Executive Consultant, The Forum Corporation
- Ralph Chauvin, Vice President of Sales, North America, Perfetti van Melle USA
- Iain Duffin, Chairman Origo Service Group Edinburgh, Non Executive Director of the Scottish Leather Group, Director of IDD Associates Ltd.
- Carol Ryan Ertz, AVP, Enterprise Leadership Development, Unum Corporation
- Ron Griffiths, CEO Network Green Deal Ltd and RG Direct Associates Ltd.
- Larry Hart, Chair, Vistage International
- Jim Mikula, Managing Director, Hotel Madeline and Inn at Lost Creek, Telluride
- Susan Moseley, VP Member Service Corporation, NFIB
- Vivien Price, VP Solutions Design, The Forum Corporation
- Helaine Suval, President and Founder, Suval Consultants
- Frank van Dijk, Regional Marketing Leader, GE Oil & Gas
Listening Skills and Executive Personal Development, Part 1 of 3
During my debrief conversation with a senior executive who took our Hear! Hear? Your Listening Portfolio® assessment I was amazed at how much he knew about the brain. He told me that he decided some time ago to make changes in the way he interacted with people, and to do that he had to learn about many aspects of human development.
Our conversations so piqued my curiosity that I wanted to know what factors caused many of the leaders I’ve worked with to travel on their own personal development journey. So, I asked a dozen successful leaders I know if they would answer a couple of questions, and I promised it would take about 15 minutes.
Following is a compilation of their answers, without identifying who said what. There are recurring themes as well as one-offs. My goal is to share their interesting reflections for others to be able to examine how they might answer the questions.
The names and titles of the people who responded are at the end of the document. We all owe them a big “huzzah” for taking the time and effort to reflect and share a bit of their stories with us.
The questions:
- What prompted you to engage in a personal development journey?
- What did you learn about yourself?
- How has your personal development journey impacted your work?
Note: Some people stuck to all three questions, others went off in a different direction. Everyone answered the first question. Each of the three posts will address one question.
What prompted you to engage in a personal development journey?
Themes and quotes:
“Personal development occurs when you are exposed to new people and new challenges.”
Being a better person
- The more responsibility I have in my job, the more I want to be a good human being, father, husband/wife, manager
- I must learn about myself to be a role model for others
- I can’t stand executives who send others off to training without diving in themselves
- When I help others, I feel so much more valuable
- I had a boss (another said mentor) who made me realize I want to operate in a way that is beyond the norm
Lifelong commitment
- I don’t remember ever being any different
- Not one single thing prompted the journey, but I knew I was ready
- Life is a learning journey—that’s my philosophy
- I get a THRILL out of learning especially when I come upon something I don’t know so I can go learn it
- Einstein said his success was less about brilliance than about passion
- When I was a kid and in sports I did what the coach told me, and that lead to success, so I’ve done that ever since. Now I continue to earn the right to coach others.
Turning point
- You get to a point you want to learn more because there’s something propelling you to do better
- I switched out of teaching where I had the authority into HR working with front line people where I was not an authority. I had to help them succeed while learning to go from “sage on stage to guide on side.”
- I got to a point where I needed to know/learn more. It was like I entered a hallway and six doors opened, then they led to six more—like a Pandora’s box of learning
- Being put into new scenarios that are new/foreign. You have to develop, personally and professionally
- When I was 6-7 years old my grandfather said I was too young to saddle-break a horse. I had to show him I could—I’m still at it—conquering challenges
- I concluded I needed to be a different person to do the kind of work I wanted to do
- I took a job at a company that was #1 in sales training, and then I was tapped to be a sales trainer for them. That opportunity offered a lot of personal development for me and everyone I came to manage.
- I’d say that a super-challenging event often propels people towards self-examination. It could be a role in transition, derailment, surprising failure, no longer having all the answers—the trick is to recognize it’s happening
Feedback
- It’s hard to hear someone say you’re not very approachable or flexible. Those words, plus being told I had the makings of a great manager, propelled me into personal development.
- There’s no easy way to say this, but my boss told me, “You act like a jerk sometimes. Fix it if you want to be here next year.”
- I took a workshop, and when we were deep into it, the leader said, “You don’t flex your curiosity muscle.” That shifted everything for me.
- To recognize strengths and flaws in others, I had to see into myself first
- When people have gone through a good bit of a career with little disturbance, and then those reliable behaviors aren’t working anymore, they need to ask: how do I adapt, what do I need to change, what happened?
No option
- When I was nine I was sent off to boarding school, on my own and cut off from parents—sink or swim, and swim I did. I learned how to be self-reliant. Now I’m having to unlearn some of those behaviors to function at a higher level.
- Management sent me to a workshop that had a lot of personal development built in. While there I learned about myself and others. As a result I sought out a coach and continue the efforts.
- Immersion into another culture leaves little choice. The new culture can be another part of the world, department, company, and that change presents a whole other world to examine.
And a couple mentioned by only one person:
- Unplugging. Stepping away from the hyper-plugged in world allows something else to drop in. That changed direction.
- Many people will not admit to being quite lonely as a CEO or as President. It is refreshing to meet with Peers from sometimes very different backgrounds. One can hear from others what their main challenge and successes have been and more importantly how they dealt with these.
Following are the names and titles of the executives who shared their insights:
- David Carder, VP, Executive Consultant, The Forum Corporation
- Iain Duffin, Chairman Origo Service Group Edinburgh, Non Executive Director of the Scottish Leather Group and Director of IDD Associates Ltd.
- Carol Ryan Ertz, AVP, Enterprise Leadership Development, Unum Corporation
- Ron Griffiths, CEO Network Green Deal Ltd and RG Direct Association Ltd.
- Larry Hart, Chair, Vistage International
- Jim Mikula, Managing Director, Hotel Madeline and Inn at Lost Creek
- Susan Moseley, VP Member Service Corporation, NFIB
- Vivien Price, VP Solutions Design, The Forum Corporation
- Helaine Suval, President and Founder for Suval Consultants
- Frank van Dyke, Regional Marketing Leader, GE Oil & Gas