Leadership philosophy that has stuck with me

At breakfast with S this morning, we were talking about leadership training. On the 30 second drive back from that breakfast, I reflected on what has stuck with me for leadership concepts. I have taught a lot of these over the years, but when it comes down to it, only a few remain a part of my own philosophy.

The first one that I spout about all the time is one from Alfie Cohn. He believes that testing kids in school is stupid because you are testing them mid learning cycle. Not all kids learn at the same pace, so the test is mid-way for most of the class. Standardized tests are the same thing. I always told my kids that they were obsolete as soon as you 1) got into college 2) finished that class. Translated to the work environment with a Deming quality concept thrown in, you cannot distinguish performance for 85% of the population. So why do we spend so much time on merit increases, when you cannot distinguish the difference in performance? Pet peeve of mine for sure.

My most recent learning was about brain chemistry, the partial topic of a previous post. I must have used this concept to explain changing behavior, 100 times since that February workshop, as recently as yesterday in fact.

This is the obvious one, MBTI. I revisited a worksheet yesterday and these two comments about my personality jumped out from the page like cold water on my face to remind me of some opportunities for enlightenment: ENFP Stress Behavior - Keeps talking until you FEEL the same way as he/she does AND ENFP Resists Rules by - Relying on the force of personality to overcome laws of physics. I learn something every time I conduct a MBTI workshop. I use it daily to interact better with family and friends and workmates. I laugh at myself daily about my type.

The last one for this post is the book Now Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham. The best thing to do, is to focus on people's strengths and not try to fix their weaknesses. This one is so obvious, however, we are in the middle of performance reviews at work, and I am not sure our system is geared to focus on strengths as much as it is to have "developmental" opportunities.

OK, those 4 are the top of mind for me, today and many of them have been on my radar and in my daily language for at least a decade.

Distracted again

In conversations with a colleague yesterday, we talked about reading business books. His point of view, is that when he had kids, he stopped reading business books. He met 2 weeks ago and in a co-interview with another manager the other manager asked "What business book have you read lately?"

A few years ago, after looking at my bookshelf, I said "NO MORE BOOKS"! I will get them from the library if I am going to read them. Yesterday we were talking about the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team

I read this book 3-4 years ago and it is getting some traction inside my company, so I figured I should go back and read it again to reacquaint myself with the content.

Then I thought about the book Distracted

I talked about this book in a prior blog. Recently I brought the button from that conference into the office and its sits on my computer desk, as a reminder to think about the concepts from the book. So I have read a business book lately, and I am going to reread the 5 dysfunctions as well.

It is important in this day of blogs and twitter and facebook, to do some old fashioned reading, and I do not mean kindle reading.

Not Used to unresponsive people

So Intuit has really spoiled me. At this company, when you send out a request via email or telephone, you usually get a response. When people don't respond right away they apologize. The person who does not respond really stands out. Even people who do not know you reply quickly.

This behavior has trained me to not have to remember that I called someone or emailed them, because they reply.

I take that knowledge into my non-Intuit space and get really disappointed at lack of response. I have sent emails twice to people that I need to find out information from for the virtual work project that I am on at work. I attended a NEHRA workshop that they gave on virtual work. I emailed them 6 months ago and then last week. STILL NOTHING.

Knowing my Myers-Briggs I should be more "go with the flow", it is OK to drop the ball on things. Sometimes the task actually gets forgotten and goes away. My mantra is "wait long enough and people will change their mind on whether they need you to do that task".

So, I am still waiting and if this info was mission critical, I would figure out another way to get it. I am just disappointed and not used to unresponsive people.

OMG - my Brain so full after yesterday

Yesterday, I attended a NEHRA conference. The first 2 sessions I went to were unbelievable. The third one not so good . . .


This one on trust was presented by Michelle Reina. 2 comments that she made caught by attention in the first 5 mintues

"In all relationships trust will be built and trust will be broken" WOW, so this is not an abnormal thing. This is part of doing business with our fellow homo sapiens. The important skill is to learn how to rebuild trust, and acknowledge and name when it has happened.

"90% of behaviors that break trust are unintentional" WOW, so my mantra of ASSUME POSITIVE INTENT gets reinforced again. It is hard for me to always remember this.

The second presenter, I called her the Brain Lady, first went over the brain make-up, and the hormones that work with the brain. The topic was coaching managers, but with the brain stuff as the backdrop. In order for managers and us as well to change behaviors, we actually have to rewire the brain and replace the old habit with the new habit in the pre-frontal cortex (PFC).

I am sure there will be more posts about the conference. Brain is very full and needs to process all I heard.

Virtual work - some learnings

On a subgroup at work we are exploring the whole idea of virtual work

There are 3 broad definitions of workers we slot into virtual work:


1.Distributed Workforce – work out of an Intuit site and spend some portion of their time working with peers, directs or manager across sites or with external partners to get work done.

2.Flex Location – employees who work regularly/frequently off-site part-time (e.g. at home, on airplanes, from hotels) or from some combination of locations during their day or week.

3.100% work-from-home or non-Intuit site – employees working remote all the time…never (or hardly ever) work at an Intuit location.

Once again, I realize what a great company I work for. I went to a NEHRA session on virtual work today, and I had to stop myself from saying, "We do that." too many times.

However, always learning I did absorb a few things:

• Shifting mindset of leaders is very important, and as soon as you show them the numbers they will jump on board
• The legal liabilities are just roadblocks, and can be overcome
• Need to think about career development and promotional opportunities for virtual workers
• Really important; not everyone can work virtual, and not every job can be virtual
• Communication to co-workers is really important
• Measure the business units, and publish who is NOT supportive

TTFN