John Hersey Leadership Blog

Leaders are just as inclined to be resistant in certain areas and issues as anyone else. The difference is Contagious Leaders work through their resistance.

We can work through our resistance by:

1. acknowledging the resistance in the first place
2. calling it what it is, resistance to something we should be doing or working on
3. stop avoiding it and work in the resistance, nothing else, just the resistance we are experiencing
4. share our resistance with others
5. journal about it, meditate on it or otherwise do whatever we have to do to begin calling it out
6. change the story we have about that which we are resistant to. How do we do that? Simple, create a new one with a happier ending.

Working harder and longer and demanding more of our people is not always effective leadership. Sometimes Contagious Leaders know to practice doing less to achieve more.

The “Why We Can’t ” Conversation is all around us. We must create a supportive environment to exercise the “How We Will” muscle.

“Why We Can’t” is an attitude that exists in every profession, every organization. Our job as Contagious Leaders is to make ourselves so fit that it does not get through to reduce the effectiveness of our organization. We must stay in the “How We Will” conversation all the time by surrounding ourselves with “How We Will” thinkers, doers, believers. Otherwise, our “How We Will” muscle atrophies, we become weak and we revert to the “Why We Can’t” conversation.

The good news is that with some time the “Why We Can’t” conversation just doesn’t stop by anymore. Defeated and deflated it just goes away leaving us and our teams to achieve greatness.

Be Well and Be Contagious,

John

Sometimes even the best contagious leaders find themselves waiting for inspiration even though we know that the best tactic is to just get on with getting it done. Read what our friend and mentor Steve Chandler says about waiting for inspiration– go to http://tinyurl.com/yf2bzg5

During the past couple of years I have become more serious than usual (and I tend to have a serious nature). In April of this year my life and business had gotten so serious that I decided, much to Beverly’s relief, that it was time to make some changes. Since then I have been on a mission to learn to have fun again. Not only has it made me a better person (at least more tolerable to be around), but it has made me a better leader as well. I have discovered that really great leaders are broad thinkers, not narrow minded. Great thinkers have diverse interests. And, really great leaders enjoy leading.

John and Bev dancing at EuroRhythm

In my pursuit to learn to have fun again I have engaged in as many wonderful and new experiences as possible. We’ll share some of them with you from time to time. Beverly and I have taken up ballroom dancing (this is amazing fun,; check out EuroRythm Studios) and photography while expanding our interests in learning about wine, cooking, travel and Opera.

This weekend we engaged in several of these activitites. A ballroom dancing event Friday evening, Tosca at The Met at the Movies (fabulous and you must try this) on Saturday, and a musical Saturday evening. Sunday was the topper. We took a helicopter to Four Peaks Mountain and toured one of the finest (certainly the hardest to reach ) Amathyst mines in the world. The pictures below say it all.

Boarding Helicopter for Four Peaks Mine

Entering the Mine (From L-R; Doc, John, Garrett, Bev and Donna in front)

John Having Fun, Hard Hat and All

We got to keep the minerals we mined and the people at Sami’s Fine Jewelry will process, cut and polish the best of our stones and give it to us. Bev had some pretty huge rocks so maybe we’ll retire soon.

Finally, Just in case you are thinking this was looking like lots of work and very little fun check out the picture below.

John & Bev

You have no doubt heard the saying about all work and no play making John a dull boy. Learn to have fun again and the work and play will make us all better leaders. Besides, it makes for Unforgettable Weekends filled with Unforgettable Experiences.

Motivation Through Micro-Management

One of the hazards of these challenging times is that we are seeing a significant upswing in micro-management. There are three problems with this.

First, if you absolutely feel you must micro-manage then you really have more of a talent problem than a management problem. Jim Collins, Author of Good to Great, recently said, “The right people don’t need to be managed. If you need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake.” Instead of micro-managing, your time would be much better spent by getting on with the business of either training your people or replacing those that need to be micro-managed.

Second, micro-management is, often, a self-fulfilling prophecy. We think people need to be micro-managed so we do so. By micro-managing we remove all of the fun and creativity from people’s jobs. They settle and stop contributing, giving rise to the need for micro-management. If we would just get out of the way, be specific about expectations and the consequences of not fulfilling on these, people would just do their jobs.

Finally, by micro-managing we create an environment that is simply unattractive to good people. By micro-managing we actually create turnover, costly turnover and not superior results.

Please, share your thoughts on micro-managing by adding a comment below. And, pass this on to a friend.

John

gyne-lotrimin

Here is a really good one:

Sue (name changed to protect the innocent) is responsible for planning and managing the many employee meetings, particularly off-site meetings, for her large company. Recently, her “boss” told her she could not attend a meeting that was her responsibility for “cost cutting reasons”.

I thought she was joking!

Her job is to plan and run the meetings but she could not attend because the company wants to save money. She has a job to do but the “boss” won’t let her do it! I can’t help but wonder how the annual performance review conversation will go. When Sue leaves the company in favor of one that encourages her to actually do her job well I wonder what the “boss” will say then?

My guess is she/he will not much care. His/her commitment is to “get through” the next year or so rather than contributing to the company by allowing the developing leaders to actually lead.

Perhaps the “boss” could have said to Sue, “you know we have challenges during this economy. So, please use your best judgment on which of your meetings require your attendance and which do not.” How difficult would that be? The “boss” allows Sue to apply leadership thinking, Sue learns about making tough decisions and perhaps even delegating to others. Instead of wanting to leave, Sue gets inspired, engaged and involved while the company saves money by Sue not attending certain meetings.

How many “bosses” are just doing what they are told and loosing aspiring leaders in the process? Are there any companies out there that are actually developing leaders rather than just talking about it?

Nido in action

Nido Qubein has been a friend and business coach for John and me. He has a strong vision of leadership. Nido came to this country at 17 years old, with $50 bucks and unable to speak English. He is now a multi-millionaire. He is a sensitive and insightful leader who creates success in every project he takes on.

• You cannot give that which you do not possess.

• Relationships break down when there is a preoccupation with self.

• Winners compare their achievements with their goals, while losers compare their achievements with those of other people.

• The practical side of dreaming is being willing to pay the price to make those dreams come true.

• If you work only on days you feel like working, you’ll never amount to much.

• Are you a thermometer or a thermostat? A thermometer only reflects the temperature of its environment, adjusting to the situation. But a thermostat initiates action to change the temperature in its environment.

• Those with a strong self-image realize that the only way to keep from making mistakes is to do nothing — and that’s the biggest mistake of all.

• The process of growing and learning always involves risk. No one ever becomes perfect; but anyone can improve.

• Whether you are a success or failure in life has little to do with your circumstances; it has much more to do with your attitude.

• If you could view your life as you do a highway from an airliner, many of the detours and curves would make more sense.

• The practical dreamers know the harder they work, the luckier they get.

• No failure, misfortune, or mistake is ever so great that nothing good can come from it.

• Only when your memories are more important to you than your goals are
you old.

• Fixing the blame is never important, and fixing the relationship is never unimportant.

• You can’t think your way into acting positively; but you can act your way into thinking positively.

• People who are looking for something to make them happy, somehow never seem to find it. Yet those who find a way to be happy while they are looking for something, typically find what they are looking for.

• What matters is not so much how you got to be the way you are now, but what you do with the person you have become.

• A strong awareness that you are loved by God provides the most solid foundation for building high
self-esteem.

• Your best bet for a good job is to do the best you can with the one you have right now.

• Those who spend their lives searching for happiness never find it, while those who search for meaning, purpose, and strong personal relationships find that happiness usually comes to them as a by-product of those three things.

Dr. Nido R. Qubein is president of High Point University and
chairman of Great Harvest Bread Company.