Category: Professional Development

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Trial by Media – Do’s and Don’ts

Phone sowing the different social media platforms for communication.

DON’T make the media your primary means of communicating on pending or current litigation in progress. Journalists are not a reliable means of ensuring that your key audiences receive your messages, nor is it a reporter’s job to make sure everything you think is important gets to the right people.

DO communicate directly with your important audiences, internally and externally, to ensure they have the information you want them to have about matters being tried in the media.

DO consider the option of informing certain key audiences of the probability of media coverage on a legal matter before it appears in the press.

DO remember that employees are a critical audience — all employees are PR representatives for the organization whether you want them to be or not.

DO integrate legal and PR strategy, because you’ll be educating the jury pool while also minimizing damage that could occur to your organization in the short-term, even if you win the legal case in the long-term.

DO explore the use of publicity about generic or related issues relevant to your particular case or client as a legitimate means of bringing attention to issues that might result in pre-trial settlements, or to develop similar examples to illustrate the issues in your case.

DON’T say “no comment” if you haven’t had a chance to review the case. Say “I’d very much like to comment on this as soon as I’ve read what’s been filed.” If appropriate, add: “I still don’t have a copy of it myself, could you fax or email one over?”

DO tell journalists that you want to respect their deadlines, but would appreciate their respecting your need to have the information you need to make an intelligent response.

DON’T attack the media. Ever. Neither directly, nor in communication with other audiences, because it will get back to them. The media can hurt you more than you can hurt them. Most media outlets LOVE being sued or threatened, it sells more papers or air time.

DON’T judge the impact of media coverage by the sensationalism of headlines or length of news coverage. Ask your important audiences, internal and external, how THEY are reacting to the coverage — in some cases, you’ll find they don’t believe it!

DO consider becoming your own publisher, using the Internet to post your perspective on issues of public concern — IF the general public is, in fact, an important audience for you. Or even on a password-protected website for selected audiences that are important to you.

DON’T assume that you know how to talk to reporters about negative news just because you’re skilled at “good news” interviews — get media trained.

DO establish both internal and external rumor control systems to short-circuit rumors early on, before they do too much damage.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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Who Will Choose To Lead?

A group of potential leaders

I live in the Kansas Flint Hills. It’s ranch land, no more than 4 people per square mile. (No surprise, then, that I do most of my coaching by telephone.) But we are a community. And we have no shortage of issues requiring leadership.

Leadership is not the same as Authority.

As we blog about definitions of leadership, I urge you to remember that “Leadership” is NOT the same as “Authority.” Let’s toss the word “leader” out of the lexicon. It doesn’t mean anything. The current habit of talking about “leadership positions” confuses things. Authority is a position. You must CHOOSE to lead.

Leadership is an action.

Leadership is an action. Acts of leadership are exceedingly rare.

Here in Chase County, Kansas, as elsewhere in the country, citizens regularly and dutifully step up to fill positions of authority. We have our Mayors, County Commissioners, Chairs of this and Presidents of that. There’s a Fire Chief and a Sheriff. Each church has its Pastor, each school its Principal.

But tonight I’m reminded of our need for leadership. It’s a beautiful spring night, the wind is calm, and bright orange flames slice across the hills outside my kitchen window. It’s FIRE SEASON in the Flint Hills. Tonight, ranching families are doing what they’ve done for so long that most of them would say, “We’ve always done it.”

But this custom of burning every pasture every year (begun in earnest only 30 years ago) is polluting the air as far away as Louisville, Kentucky. It’s destroying habitat for prairie chickens and other native species. The EPA is cracking down and ranchers are hanging on tight to the culture they’ve been raised in.

There is no Prairie Fire Czar with authority enough to dampen the conflict. We don’t need to create another position. No one need be elected or promoted. Finding a solution that the community can live with will require countless, individual acts of leadership.

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It’s All About Listening

A lady actively listening to a man talking

Everything in coaching hinges on listening – it is the key to the coaching session. Listening is also essential for personal and professional success. Even though we know listening is important – active listening is not always a common practice. Active listening shows respect and that you desire to learn and understand the speaker. Here are some active listening skills:

Summarize or paraphrase – occasionally, repeat back what you heard the speaker say such as, “So I heard what you are saying is…” or “It sounds like…” This will increase your ability to concentrate on what is being said and assure you understand the message.

Use the pause button – let the speaker finish what they are saying. Avoid talking over them or jumping in to finish their sentence. Listen – pause – then express your own points.

Observe for non verbal cues – gestures, body language, emotions, eye movements, tone of voice and inflection offer more than just the words. If on the phone, listen for energy shifts, pace and what is not being said.

Ask questions to get a better understanding – “can you say more about that?” or “help me understand what you mean”.

Focus on the speaker – minimize external distractions and multitasking to capture the full essence of what is being said. For internal distractions, practice re-focusing your attention on the speaker when your mind wanders.

What additional active listening skills work well for you?

For more resources, see the Library topic Personal and Professional Coaching.

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Risky Business

Risk: man arranging wooden cubes on a table

There’s just no way to avoid it. You might fail with your social enterprise. Lose your shirt. Wish you’d never started it. There’s no safety net for social enterprise, and there never will be.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that half of business startups with employees are gone five years later. Social enterprises probably do a bit better than that. So perhaps your odds are a bit better than 50-50. But it’s still risky business.

Yet all is not lost. There are things you can do to reduce risk. Write a business plan. Need help? Review the Free Management Library and blog on business planning. (Full disclosure: I’m the author.) The blog is currently running a series about feasibility testing, a central part of good business planning. That means lower risk.

Also, don’t forget the “enterprise” part of social enterprise. Many nascent social enterprisers behave as if awareness of their social impact will translate into sales and profitability. While in certain circumstances people will purchase, and even pay extra, for something that creates a desirable social impact (think Girl Scout cookies), most of the time they won’t. Or if they will, it’s only if the product meets or exceeds their expectations. Fair trade coffee sells if it tastes great, but if it doesn’t, no matter how much the other stuff exploits indigenous Latin American farmers, it sits on the shelf. That particular social premium ends at their taste buds.

Finally, failing isn’t as bad as it’s cracked out to be. Most successful entrepreneurs hit their stride after failing a few times. But each time they learned important lessons. So my final tip for this risky business is to decide that you’re OK with failure. Stuff happens.

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The I-Reporter

A pair of glasses on some news/ report papers

Welcome to Crisis Management in the 21st Century and to Internet: The Ultimate Medium. A cross between tabloid journalism and a gladiator competition, between Pollyanna and Pandora, where minds meet and merge, clash and clamor, and where you can get more of anything you want than was EVER available at Alice’s Restaurant.

The Internet has become the largest media outlet in our known universe. Interactive print, audio and video communications are all available, with the line between “amateur” and “professional”, “traditional” and “untraditional” media blurred almost beyond ken. This massive medium has spawned what I have been calling “The I-Reporter” since long before CNN started using that term.

Consider these realities:

  • Anyone can be an I-Reporter.
  • While some I-Reporters compete for commercial gain, others compete simply for the joy of recognition. Just as traditional media reporters want to show up on page one of a newspaper, or at the top of the broadcast news, I-Reporters want their material showing up on page one of a Google search and – better yet – staying there for a while.
  • Often, I-Reporters are also their own publishers and site promoters, or work in small teams to provide these functions, and through their skill can get better search engine placement and more attention on the Internet than “competing” entities.
  • Search engine ranking has very little – and sometimes nothing – to do with quality or accuracy of content.
  • Information posted on the Internet propagates virally – it finds a “home” via links or reprinted pages on websites run by people of like mind, and even misinformation is blatantly re-reported at websites operated by supposedly legitimate organizations.
  • Some I-Reporters are constrained by the conditions of their employer, some are constrained by a sense of ethics, and some are completely unconstrained except by law – where it can be enforced.

Throw into that cauldron the fact that the general public still hasn’t fully realized how easy it is to misrepresent information on the Internet, and the witches’ brew has now become the most difficult environment challenging many ethical and honest organizations.

Organizations have always had individuals who disagree with their policies, dislike their products or services, are disgruntled former employees, or just had a bad experience with a receptionist. In the past, unhappy individuals could call or write letters to the company, contact the Better Business Bureau, or even seek the help of their local Consumer Reporter. Today, as or more quickly, they can just launch their own website.

Try this fascinating demonstration, given to me by a client recently. In a Google search bar, enter the word “socks” only substitute a “u” for the “o.” I am being obtuse so that readers’ spam-filters don’t delete this article! There were something like 23 million results as I write this article, and almost all of the first 20 Google pages – 200 entries (which is as far as I looked) – were complaints about companies or products.

How does today’s crisis manager deal with this when his or her organization is under fire? Here are some strategic considerations, offered as do’s and don’ts:

  • Do not depend solely on the Web-based tactics to correct information that has been misreported on websites of any kind (Web pages, blogs, wikis, etc.) Use direct-to-stakeholder communications.
  • Do your best to balance the results of a search for the keywords important to your organization, but remember that a totally balanced search – just like a totally balanced traditional news story – may be, at best, only 50 percent “your side” of a story when there is any controversy already brewing.
  • Do not automatically think that you have to respond to every Internet critic.
  • Do monitor critics to see if they either (a) draw the attention of your stakeholders and/or (b) start to achieve high search engine ranking. Then have your crisis team meet to discuss the pros and cons of PR and legal responses which could force inaccuracies off the Web or demonstrate to concerned stakeholders, on your own Web pages and/or through off-line tactics, why they have no reason for concern.
  • Do not engage in debates with critics on “neutral” sites which allow such interchanges. There are ways to defuse those bombs that don’t make you a target for yet more negativity.
  • Do consider getting more aggressive from a PR and legal perspective if allegations have already propagated widely, with considerable damage and the promise of worse damage.
  • Do insist, as the top executive officer of any organization, that legal actions against hostile websites not be implemented without professional consideration of the PR implications, and that PR actions against hostile websites not be implemented without legal consideration.
  • Do be sufficiently aware of the thoughts and feelings of your stakeholders – internal and external – that you know when and how severely Internet-centered negativity is impacting them. If you do, you will also know when they think you’re doing a good job responding to such negativity.

Virtually all of the crises to which I’ve helped clients respond in the past five years have had a Web-centered/Internet component, with the impact of the Internet on crisis management strategies and tactics growing exponentially every year. While many organizations have “IT people” on staff or on-call, IT expertise often does not translate to “Internet Communication” expertise. With the growth of the Internet, companies were very quick to experiment with it and sometimes learn how to use its capabilities to PROMOTE their products and services, to build brand awareness and enhance their reputation.

But now, just as it was “pre-Web,” the purpose of crisis management is to PRESERVE what has been gained through promotion. To, ideally, prevent crises from happening but, when that isn’t possible, to minimize damage. In the 21st Century, crisis managers need a new paradigm and an expanded skill-set to help their organizations or clients achieve that critical goal.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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What is Spirituality at Work?

Spirituality and work: a woman meditating

In my travels around the country providing workshops on the topic of working spiritually, I’ve found consistently that people are looking for ways to have their work make a difference and to feel energized in a richer way in their work. I want to explore here a few ways that you might examine spirituality in your work.

I provide a framework in my first book, “Path for Greatness”, for aligning your gifts, passion and purpose so you can be of service for the world. (to see more about my book on Spirituality at Work go to: http://www.amazon.com/Path-Greatness-Work-Spiritual-Service/dp/1552124983/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

First idea to explore is – what feeds you spiritually? You need to continually till your spiritual soil so that you can keep energized and inspired. Take some time now and write down 3 things you do each week or every day to renew yourself.

Second, what does spirituality mean to you? What three words do you use to describe times when you feel spiritual? See how you can integrate those words and ideas into your work day. In my workshop I have people write out all the words they can to describe a spiritual experience. Those words may include joy, peace, bliss, serenity etc. I then ask, ‘Would you like to work in a place that has this?’ To a person, they all say yes.

OK then, how do you help create this in your work? What small step can you take to bring such feelings into your workplace? Please share your ideas here on this post of how you work spiritually or how you’ve seen others do this.

Three words that I like to use for working spiritually are: wholeness, meaning and connection. When we feel a sense of our own wholeness, we come from a place of greater authenticity and energy. We generally find greater meaning in what we do when we are doing it for a larger purpose than feeding ourselves or our organization. Think of how you can be your best FOR the world.

Finally, when we connect to others in a deeper way, we often feel greater compassion or joy in our relationship with them. We can strengthen all that we do when we connect with our own Source of inspiration, in whatever ways we connect with this Source.

I wish you many blessings on your journey to find and cultivate spirituality in your work.

Namaste.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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How Much Pain Does It Take?

A business woman going through stress at work.

What do September 11, Enron and the news about sexual molestation by Catholic priests have in common?

They were all what I’ve previously termed “creeping crises,” vulnerabilities, bombs (literally and figuratively) waiting to explode. There were people — the American intelligence community, some employees of Enron and Church leaders, respectively — who had information that could have prevented or reduced the damage from these situations. And who perpetuated and exacerbated the crises by acts of commission or omission.

They were all terrorism if you define it as “parties inflicting suffering on innocent victims as a means to an end.”

They are all the tip of massive icebergs of creeping crises. Who dares to say that there aren’t other terrorism groups poised to wreak unprecedented damage, corporations whose fiscal and legal practices will lead to Enron-like ruin, and criminal sexual behavior by clergy of possibly every major world religion?

They are all crises which strike at our emotional infrastructure: our desires for physical, psychological and financial security.

Human beings have an immense capacity for enduring pain individually and as organizations. And an immense resistance to change. That’s a bad combination, because for most individuals, and most organizations, it seems to take a great deal of pain to motivate change.

There is a psychological concept called “hitting bottom” that refers to the point at which an individual feels so much pain from what he or she has been doing that the fear of continuing “as is” is greater than the fear of change. At that point, the individual is willing to take some direction from someone other than him- or herself.

It has been my experience that organizations, too, usually have to “hit bottom,” to feel enough crisis-related pain from their actions, or lack thereof, that they’re willing to realize that their own best thinking isn’t making them crisis-resistant, versus crisis-prone. And that’s when they start getting proactive about crisis management.

Here’s the catch, however. Sometimes, that willingness to change comes too late. Sometimes, for an individual or an organization, that delay is fatal.

So ask yourselves at your next board meeting: how much pain does it take?

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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10 Myths of Management and Organizational Consulting – Part 2

A manager talking to an employee

In Part 1, we reviewed myths 1-5. In this Part 2, we review myths 6-10.

6. Myth That All Consultants See the Same Problem the Same Way

Each consultant brings his or her own particular view, or “lens,” through which they view organizations. Also each has his or her particular biases and assumptions about how organizations should operate. The unique nature of each consultant often results in a unique perspective on problems and the approaches to solving those problems, as well.

7. Myth That There Is One Way to Solve Each Problem

Organizational change is a complex and dynamic process. Each organization is highly unique, depending on the nature of its environment, products and services, leadership, age and size. That is why there are no “cookie cutter” or one-size-fits-all solutions that work for every problem in all organizations. Similarly, experts in organizational and management development have realized that there is no one perfect way to lead, manage or change organizations.

8. Myth of Best Practices

Best practices are activities associated with organizations that are recognized as high-performing. Performance is the achievement of results and best practices are activities that indicate a high likelihood of achieving those results. The practices often become standards by which we measure if an organization is effective or not. Many of the standard management practices that we mention as capacity building activities are forms of best practices. For example, to discern if an organization is high-performing, we investigate whether and how the organization is conducting Board development, strategic planning, financial management or marketing. However, research suggests that the presence of best practices alone is insufficient to guarantee organizational effectiveness. Of more importance is how those practices are applied. The application should be in accordance with the unique nature and needs of the organization and should maintain continued focus on successfully serving specific needs in the community.

9. Myth of the “Isolated Solution”

Many consulting projects focus on one aspect of an organization, for example, financial management, team building or marketing. It is not uncommon that shortly after a project is completed, the client realizes that another major and related problem has arisen in the organization. Your client might contact you to report that your first “solution” did not take care of all related problems in the organization. In this case, your client is displeased.

A familiar example of this problem occurs when an organization hires a financial analyst to somehow generate more revenue for the organization. However, if the organization does not have a strong Strategic Plan, the analysis might not be successful. The organization might end up hiring a strategic planning facilitator. However, if the Board of Directors and top leadership is not ready for strategic planning, the Strategic Plan might not be strategic or get implemented at all.

10. Myth of the “Final” Project Plan

Usually, after your first meeting with your client, you develop a written proposal that includes a project plan that specifies the goals of the project and the activities that must be conducted to achieve those goals. Often, you are hired based on your client’s perception of the quality of your project plan. However, in the vast majority of successful projects, the initial project plan is changed as you and your client work together to address the issues in your client’s organization. An experienced consultant learns to present the project plan as preliminary in nature and open to change. The consultant helps the client to realize that plans often change and that change is natural.

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For more resources, see the Library topics Consulting and Organizational Development.

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Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD – Authenticity Consulting, LLC – 800-971-2250
Read my weekly blogs: Boards, Consulting and OD, Nonprofits and Strategic Planning.

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Leadership Defined

The word "Leadership" written on a blackboard

Greetings

The plan is to dialogue this week about how leadership is, or might be defined. There are hundreds of definitions of leadership and this is not an attempt to come to a consensus on a definition. The hope is to get readers to reflect on what they believe about leadership. It is also an attempt to give blog participants a general sense of how certain “experts” are describing leadership, in the hope that you may come to your own definition, which can then be used to guide your work. What is leadership? Some view leadership as a series of specific traits or characteristics. Others see it as comprised of certain skills and knowledge. And some, me included, think of leadership as a process. This view of leadership, as a process, places an emphasis on social interaction and relationship. This is the idea that leadership is a type of relationship, one that typically includes influencing others in a certain direction. This leads to my current working definition of leadership: Leadership is a relationship that involves the mobilizing, influencing, and guiding of others toward desired goals. This definition does not assume that the goals are shared or even explicit. The word desire simply means that someone in the relationship, perhaps just the person in a leadership role, wants a particular outcome. The following are some definitions that have a bias toward leadership as a process:

  • “Leadership is a process of giving purpose (meaningful direction) to collective effort, and causing willing effort to be expended to achieve purpose.” (Jacobs & Jaques)
  • “Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of an individual or a group in efforts toward goal achievement in a given situation.” (Hersey & Blanchard)
  • “Leadership is an attempt at influencing the activities of followers through the communication process and toward the attainment of some goal or goals.” (Donelly)
  • “Leadership is defined as the process of influencing the activities of an organized group toward goal achievement.” (Rauch & Behling)
  • “Leadership is interpersonal influence, exercised in a situation, and directed, through the communication process, toward the attainment of a specified goal or goals.” (Tannenbaum, et al)

It has been my experience that many organizational leaders, knowingly or unknowingly, view leadership as a set of specific traits or skills. Below are a few definitions that are grounded in skills and, to a lesser extent, traits.

  • “Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential”. (Bennis)
  • “Leadership is about articulating visions, embodying values, and creating the environment within which things can be accomplished.” (Richards and Engle)
  • “Leadership is the creation of a vision about a desired future state which seeks to enmesh all members of an organization in its net.” (Bryman)
  • “It is a complex moral relationship between people, based on trust, obligation, commitment, emotion, and a shared vision of the good.” (Ciulla)

These definitions are entirely valid perspectives — they are simply different from a leadership as process perspective. Having said that, it is my impression that, overall, definitions of leadership are becoming more process and relationship oriented. How important is it to have a definition of leadership? In my role as a leadership consultant it is not necessary for me to share my clients definition of leadership – but it is important to know whether they have a definition and, if they do, what is included in that definition. If there isn’t an understanding of what leadership entails it diminishes the likelihood that the client will get what they want from our relationship. It is similar to a client looking to hire a consultant to increase employee engagement and, after digging a bit deeper with the client, discovering that what they are actually looking for is a way to improve the efficiency of work processes. What do you think?

Do you agree that defining relationship is a worthy effort…or is this much ado about nothing? What is your definition of leadership? If you don’t have one, and this is an important topic for you, I suggest that you take some time and create a working definition. It would be great if you would share your definition with the rest of us — but coming up with a definition is an exercise that is ultimately meant for your benefit.

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Seven Ways to Build Credibility

Credibility: Trust written on wooden blocks.

Current competency models in the field of Human Resources (HR) share common themes. Among them is the necessity of the HR professional to serve as a credible activist. This becomes even more important to the HR professional who is in an organization that still sees HR as the party planner or the corporate police. Below are some tips on building credibility in the workplace.

1. Learn the Business. As mentioned in my previous post, learning the business of business is essential in gaining credibility. Understanding how the activities of the HR department impact the goals of the organization will help you speak the language of the organization. If you are in a high sales culture, learn what HR activities impact sales revenue and create measures to prove it.

2. Keep Commitments and Meet Deadlines. Doing what you say you are going to do and meeting deadlines builds reliability. If something prevents you from doing so, be sure to keep others informed with updates.

3. Own Your Mistakes. If you make a mistake, don’t try to hide it or place blame on others. Admit when you are wrong. If necessary, ask for feedback on how you can improve or share what you have learned from the mistake. If an apology is in order, apologize.

4. Learn to Ask and Listen. Listening is often one of the most difficult of the communication skills. However, failing to ask the right questions and then listening to understand could result in the wrong message being communicated out.

5. Explain the Reasons and Help Find Alternatives. There are going to be times that the HR professional in the building has to say no. Being charged with the responsibility of mitigating risk is essential to the role. Keep in mind that managers sometimes have the perceptions that HR is there to be the police and find ways to say no. Instead, find ways to say yes by helping managers find alternative solutions. This is where the ask and listen skill becomes critical.

6. Use Empathy and Keep Emotions In Check. Showing empathy to others does not mean that you agree, it simply means that you understand the emotion they are feeling. Not acknowledging this emotion sends the message that you are not listening or do not care.

Further, be careful with emotions. While positive emotions can fuel our success, negative emotions can destroy our credibility. Emotions and logic do not always work together well. For example, it is human nature to become defensive when one feels attacked; however, letting emotion take over for logic in this case increases your risk of saying things that you will later regret. Find a tactic that works for you in keeping your emotions in check. One tactic is to count silently for a few seconds before responding. Regardless of the tactic you choose, remember that objective judgment is another essential competency in the HR profession.

7. Give Credit where Credit is Due. Acknowledge the good work of others especially those who work under you. People feel threatened and lack trust for leaders who try to take credit for their ideas and work.

What else can you add to this list? Your thoughts, comments and questions are always encouraged!

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For more resources, See the Human Resources library.

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