I suspect that many business and professional leaders do not consider themselves artists. Their education, training and experience ostensibly fall on the left brain side, and cultivation of the right brain side has, in the past, not been seen as practical or worthwhile.

Enter Seth Godin’s Linchpin, his 2010 book exploring what makes someone indispensable to an organization…what makes them a “linchpin.” Like all seminal thinkers, Godin has taken ordinary ideas and made us see them sideways, so we can mine new meaning and value.  In his e-book companion to Linchpin called Insubordinate, Godin refers to Art as “the way you see the world” and the ability to put existing things together in new ways. Here’s his formula:

creation of a juxtaposition that generates a reaction and touches an emotion + lack of compromise + drive to ship = makings of Art

Throughout his book, he refers to “shipping” as that step in the process that gets an idea from brain to delivery, a step that can be sabotaged by everything from fear to procrastination, to lack of vision, to poor systems.

He goes on to say that the best artists exhibit a bias for growth and the courage to try something new. They demonstrate “daily creativity combined with relentless persistence.”

This process isn’t always neat and clean. In fact, it’s usually vibrant and messy–that’s what I had in mind when I chose the photo to go with this post.

So embrace your inner Artist! And remember what Godin says about Jerry Colonna and Fred Wilson, co-founders of Flatiron Partners:

Anyone could have done it.

Anyone didn’t.

They did.

So whatever it is that you do…Just Go Do It!

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Elizabeth H. Cottrell is the principal of RiverwoodWriter, LLC, a writing and desktop publishing business, and of Heartspoken.com: Speaking from the heart about the Power of Connection. She is a Senior Consultant for AvoLead.
LinkedIn Profile |  Facebook URL |   Twitter: @RiverwoodWriter

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“For nearly a decade the idea of maximizing strengths rather than fixing weaknesses has captivated HR professionals, coaches, and managers alike. What fueled this trend? What unintended consequences could result?  For answers to these questions, the Center for Creative Leadership recently interviewed Rob Kaiser.

“Kaiser’s latest book, The Perils of Accentuating the Positive (HoganPress), explains the rest of what you need to know about strengths-based development. In this book, Kaiser assembled a host of thought leaders who shared concerns about focusing on strengths while ignoring weaknesses.

“The CCL interview addresses the popularity and appeal of strengths-based development, the dangers of focusing only on strengths, and the important role of strengths, weaknesses, and continuous learning in leadership development. See attached for a transcript of the interview.

Regards,

Preston Yarborough
The Leadership Versatility Index (LVI) Team”

One of Godin’s gifts is taking every-day things and turning them sideways from the way they are usually used to extract more value and function. He’s done this with PowerPoint in a recent blog post called “Really Bad Powerpoint.” It’s worth reading the whole post, but his key points were so simple and so compelling that I thought members of the AvoLead community would find value for themselves and/or their clients:

• He reminds us that in any presentation, we must transfer emotion and sell our topic. “Logic is not enough,” and neither are boring bullet points or cluttered slides with too much information.
• Use cue-cards to capture the essence of what you want to say (i.e., don’t read your slides).
• “Make slides reinforce your words, not repeat them.” He suggests using quality photos to add emotional depth to what you’re saying.
• Create a written “leave-behind” document with details, notes, and references. Tell people up front that you’ll give it to them at the end so they don’t have to write everything down. Then they can concentrate on getting the emotional and intellectual gist of your message without being distracted by writing, and they’ll have something to take home that reinforces what you’ve said.
• Don’t be vague about what you want from your listeners…ask them. Do you want them to take action? Buy something? Sign up for something? Remember something? Be sure to be clear what this is.

Here are Godin’s five rules for a great PowerPoint presentation:

1. Always use fewer than seven words on a slide. He feels VERY strongly about this.
2. Avoid trite graphics – spring for quality stock photos.
3. Forget the transitions (dissolves, spins, etc.) that PowerPoint offers.
4. Use sound effects strategically and pick your own, not the built-in ones.
5. “Don’t hand out print-outs of your slides. They don’t work without you there.”

Keep the end goal in mind: an audience that is engaged and interested and will be more likely to remember the core part of your message. Godin loves to buck the status quo and always encourages his readers to be unique. That’s how we become memorable. He knows it’s hard, but his message is, “It’s worth it!”

Step one is acknowledging deep within you, really and truly, that “your truth” is not “THE truth.”  No kidding!  It’s amazing how many of us lose sight of that simple idea in the heat of the moment.  Your truth is important (remember–”honor your heart”!), but it is very different from “The Truth.”  [Sidebar tip: A ground rule I often suggest to client teams is "Offer your observations as your perception rather than fact."  That single ground rule can be powerful for improving team communications. ]

Once you’ve taken responsibility for your own perceptions, step two is sorting out how to present your truth without also placing blame and judgment on the others involved.  For example: “Rich, when you raise your voice in meetings like you did today, I feel really tentative about offering my opinions” is very different and much easier for Rich to hear and respond constructively to than “I hate it when you yell!  Leaders aren’t supposed to yell–can’t you get it through your head that everyone shuts down when you do that?  You’re ruining the team!”  In the first example, the person has spoken his own personal truth about the impact of the yelling, owned his reaction as his rather than generalizing to a group, and has done so without blaming or judging Rich, the yeller.  The latter example just pours gasoline on the fire. Sure, perhaps Rich can hear the passion and distress in the speaker and step back from that to listen, but it takes a big person to unhook from that kind of blame coming at him.

Another example: “Bill, the last three weekly reports you’ve given me have had errors in them.  I use your reports to build the reports I give to our boss.  When you give me inaccurate information, it spreads upwards leading to poorly informed business decisions and makes us both look bad to our boss.  It may even have implications for how we are treated during the budgeting process.  I am not willing to let this continue.  What is going on here from your lens?”  There are no accusations of carelessness or stupidity, no histrionics or drama. Simple facts, personal reactions and perceptions of the implications form “your truth.”  An invitation for the other person to share his view of the situation opens up the space nicely for significant progress to be made.

These techniques work in a dynamic way–once Rich and Bill have heard the feedback, they are likely to offer a reaction, calm or otherwise, which is when Showing Up and Honoring Your Heart come back into play again.

When we are acting as coach, peer, friend, spouse, partner, or parent, these tools encourage and allow you to listen more clearly to what is happening for the other person and to speak your piece as well, all in service to problem-solving and relationship-building.  From that place of broader understanding, without blame or judgment, solutions are much easier to identify.

Give it a try and write me back here to share your stories!

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The Financial Times (12-4-09, page 9: “Why Obama does not want a multipolar world order” by Zaki Laidi) has an excellent article on the uses and aspects of power in today’s global mix.  Deep within the article is an idea:

…”the world currently shares three global agendas:  the strategic agenda that continues to be massively dominated by the US, the economic agenda, which is more widely distributed, and the climate agenda, where the US is clearly on the defensive….”

What this suggests is a position can be taken within the US community that lagging in sustainability mind set, interests, and capability is further weakening its strategic and economic interests globally.  While a “values” argument has slower traction in our culture as yet (although rising in attractiveness in many quarters), a business case might be constructed by learning leaders for off setting a diminishing power base and a diluted economic one as reason to consider the green agenda.

It also suggests we have a large potential audience (within the US — not so much credibility abroad) for influencing a shift in mind set, creating critical mass within over time, towards sustainability as good business.

We are a pragmatic nation.  If we can craft a pragmatic argument, building momentum around it, there is vast potential yet to be unleashed and harnessed for prosperity in all respects.

Powerful ideas Beth–thanks for putting your thoughts out there.  What do you all think?  Do you have examples of strong cases for sustainability?

The ultimate snake-bite kit: When you are clear within yourself about the key values you want to exemplify in your interactions, it is far easier to listen and respond calmly, no matter what the situation.  Far too often we get caught up in “what if” scenarios–what if she says this?  what if he does that?  what if nothing happens at all?  I joke with my clients that I sometimes feel they’re asking me for a snake-bite kit with a wide array of anti-venoms for every single species of snake imaginable!  When you only respond to the external environment, you’ll never have all the answers.  Never.  There will always be a new situation for which you can’t prepare–a new snake who will strike without warning.

So what’s the answer?  Go to the heart of the matter–inside yourself.  Who do you want to BE in these different situations?  Decide the answer to that question before you walk in, be willing to act in accordance with those core values, and you possess the anti-venom to anything that comes.

Part One:  Show Up!!

This may seem like a simple thing, and I challenge you to try it!  When done well, “Showing Up” will have a huge impact on your personal effectiveness as well as improve the outcomes of meetings and individual interactions.

“Showing Up” means more than just arriving on time or being physically present in a meeting or conversation.  It means being mentally present and focused as well.  When you “show up” you are not replaying the conversation you just had in the prior meeting; you are not wondering if your admin put the international conference call code in your BlackBerry for the meeting after this one; you are not wondering if you’ll be out of this conversation in time to catch the last quarter of your child’s soccer game or make it to the dry cleaner before they close.  You are definitely not checking your BlackBerry or laptop for messages.

So what are you doing?? (This list is not exhaustive and not in order of importance!)

• You are making eye contact
• You are listening to what the other person is saying without formulating your response while they are still speaking
• You are attending to their body language and seeking to understand all of what they are saying.
• In a larger meeting you are looking around the room to see what other dynamics are going on–who is paying attention, who is grimacing, who looks surprised …?
• You are paying attention to your own reaction to what’s going on–am I feeling defensive, suspicious, relieved, intrigued, engaged, invited …?
• You are demonstrating to the other(s) that you have “shown up” by reflecting back your understanding of what they’ve just said and gaining clarity on their view before moving forward with your own response.
• You are focused and present to the people and situation you are in.
• You release the distractions of what came before, what’s waiting for you after, and all the people and tasks vying for your attention now in order to pay full attention to what is in front of you.

As Stephen Stills sings, “Love the one you’re with!”

So try really showing up at your next conversation or meeting and feel the difference your full and true presence can make. And by the way, this is one you CAN try at home!  I’d love to hear about your experiences with “showing up!”

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. -J.K. Rowling, author (b. 1965)

I find this to be an excruciatingly true statement for myself, and I hear many of my clients struggling with the same thing.  They ponder the dilemma–”How can I understand and motivate those around me without coming to know them well … yet once I know them well I struggle with delivering difficult messages about poor performance.”  I think there are probably volumes to be written about how, as a society, we have come to  equate agreement and lack of challenge with support and nurturance.  That is a dangerous equation.

When faced with the need to give developmental feedback/coaching to someone on our team (or in our family) we often treat it as if it will, by definition, be a negative confrontation.  On one hand we develop our “what if ”  strategies to prepare ourselves to counter any argument, and on the other side we create a list of “softeners” to remind the person that we really are still caring and supportive.  We don’t want to hurt anyone, or worse, have them think badly of us for having spoken up on the topic.  I’ve even heard of strategies to “sandwich” negative feedback in between two compliments–that’s fine as long as the sandwich isn’t too heavy on bread without enough meat!

Years ago I picked up a little word shift that has been helpful to me and many clients.  Instead of looking on developmental, difficult conversations as confrontation, try thinking of them as CAREfrontations.  Think about it–what is the purpose of telling someone they’ve underperformed?  Usually it’s to help them learn from mistakes and get them back on a high performance path. That concern for their success in itself demonstrates a caring attitude.  How much support are you really giving by letting them continue to make career killing mistakes while smiling and pointing out only the positives?  Handled with respect, a caring conversation about improvement opportunities is what any good friend and great leader does.

So try looking through the lens of CAREfrontation rather than confrontation, and see if it relieves your own heartburn and increases the effectiveness of your coaching conversations.