Next Level Blog

Video Book Club: Difficult Conversations

The Video Book Club is back from a brief hiatus with one of my favorite books,  Difficult Conversations.  It’s full of practical and proven ideas for moving from talking past each other to talking with each other to solve problems. It’s also a book that can help you learn more about yourself and your unconscious tendencies. My copy is full of notes in the margins.

In this video clip, I talk through one of the main ideas in the book.

How to Apologize When Your Candid Comments Show Up on WikiLeaks (or Somewhere Else You Didn’t Intend)

A good piece of conventional wisdom for leaders used to be to never do, say or write anything down that you wouldn’t want to read on the front page of The Wall Street Journal.  Times have changed though. As this week’s WikiLeaks release of more than 250,000 U.S. State Department documents shows, there’s a pretty good chance that your recorded thoughts and actions can end up all over the internet in no time flat.

As reported in the New York Times and other major publications, the State Department memos contain some rather embarrassing details of how diplomacy gets done and some very candid assessments of individual world leaders.  For example, according to a summary in the Financial Times, the documents describe French president Sarkozy as having a “thin skinned and authoritarian personal style,” Russian president Medvedev  as “Robin” to Prime Minister Putin’s “Batman,” Afghan President Karzai as “an extremely weak man who does not listen to facts,” Italy’s PM Berlusconi as “feckless and vain,” and North Korea’s Kim Jong Il as a “flabby old chap.”

Since most of those observations could be made firsthand by anyone who follows international news, you sort of have to wonder what the value was in writing them down.  In any case, they were and now the apologizing is underway.  While it’s unlikely that your closeted skeletons will suddenly appear on WikiLeaks (although the probability of someone’s Facebook page or blog is much higher),  you’ve likely faced situations as a leader where your true thoughts inadvertently come out (You’ve probably learned the hard way that the recall button on that e-mail you just sent by “Reply All” doesn’t actually do anything).  In spite of all the lessons you’ve learned, it will probably happen again in the future.  If not that, then you may end up on the receiving end of someone else’s unintended candor.

Here are some suggestions on how to apologize in the first instance and why and how you should accept the apology in the second:

Lessons from the TSA on Communicating Change

So, yesterday, I went through airport security for the first time since the full body scanning machines and enhanced pat down procedures were put into effect.   Honestly, it was no different than it was the other twenty or so times I’ve gone through security at Dulles this year.  If anything, it was faster. (That might have had something to do with going through security at 5:30 am). Took my shoes off, coat off, put them in the bin, briefcase on the belt, walked through the traditional electronic portal and was directed to the belt to pick up my stuff.  Zip, zap, out of there.

There was a guy in front of me who was pulled into a private cubicle for a pat down but it looked like everyone else was sailing right through.  Which, I have to say, was quite a bit different than what I would have expected based on the media coverage over the past couple of weeks. You would think everyone going through security was having a close encounter of the TSA kind.  Not the case.  What is the case, however, is that the TSA could have done a better job of preparing their staff and the public for the changes.  Since leaders have to navigate their stakeholders through change on a more or less continuous basis, it seems worth it to take a look at the body scan/pat down controversy to see what we can learn about communicating change.

Seven First Steps for New Members of Congress (That Apply to New Leaders in Any Field)

The orientation process of newly elected Members of Congress started this past week.   A long time ago, in a more bipartisan age, I helped organize a week long orientation program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government for the freshman congressional class of 1986.  If I remember correctly they had spent an orientation week in Washington and them came up to Cambridge for a week of policy briefings.   I haven’t heard whether or not this year’s class is headed to the Kennedy School.  One thing I’m pretty sure of, though, is is that after a week of meetings and briefings in DC this past week, a lot of the new members heads are spinning from learning about all the things they have to get organized in a short amount of time.

A lot of what they’re facing is similar to what faces any new leader coming on board in a large, complex organization.  To succeed, you’ve got to get your feet on the ground quickly, determine your priorities and line your resources up against them.  The research shows that most new executives have about 18 months before they’re deemed a success or failure.  Since new members of the House will be up for reelection in two years, they’re operating on a similar time frame.

Earlier this year, a colleague shared a book with me called Setting Course, that’s produced by the Congressional Management Foundation.  It’s a guidebook for new Members of Congress and provides a step by step plan for getting up to speed quickly.  I was thumbing through it this morning and paying particular attention to the Do’s and Don’ts summaries at the end of each chapter.  There’s a lot of sound advice there.  Here are seven first steps I pulled out that, with some situational tweaking, seem to apply to any new leader, not just new Members of Congress:

Leaders Can Change the Weather

Lately, I’ve been in a lot of conversations with leaders about what’s different about moving into more senior and visible executive roles.  One guy in a group last week summed it up by saying, “I change the weather.”  When I asked him to explain, he said he’s been noticing that his team and extended organization take their cues from him and reflect whatever he’s projecting.  If his outlook is sunny and bright, the organization is sunny and bright.  If his outlook is stormy and cloudy, the weather in the organization is pretty much the same.

While you may not have thought of it in terms of a weather forecast, you’ve probably experienced this phenomenon from one end or the other. Most people who have been around organizations for any amount of time have worked for a boss where the question on everyone’s mind was, “What kind of mood is he in today?”  It’s the same dynamic. The boss controlled the weather.

So, if you’re the boss, it’s worth thinking about what kind of weather system you’re creating.  Warm front or cold front? Sunny and pleasant or stormy and blustery?  What kind of impacts do your weather systems have on the team’s results? Have you even been aware that you’ve been creating the weather?

If you’re interested in becoming a more effective leadership meteorologist, here are a few things to pay attention to: