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You Must Decide (Increasing Your Leadership Capacity Series — Step 6 of 8)

Daniel Harkavy — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:42:51 +0000

One thing that will hold a leader and his leadership team back is the inability to make sound and timely decisions. We will not only suffer professionally but the emotional drain and stress that comes from having too many decisions pending can really take its toll on us. Note: This post is part of a series on Increasing Your Leadership Capacity. Click here for the previous step.

A few years back, our past COO and Executive Coach, Dan Meub, shared a great analogy with me. He said that I needed to envision that I was sitting in the middle of an octagon shaped room. Each wall had a door, and each door was open. Each of those open doors allowed for the heat in the room to escape — my energy was escaping out all of the doors. He coached me that I needed to close the doors in a more timely fashion. The lesson stuck and since that time I have coached many leaders to improve their decision making ability by “closing the doors.”

Here are 5 steps to help you make better and more timely decisions.

Always know what problem you are trying to solve. Often times, we can lose track of the real issue, opportunity or problem. Fight to gain real clarity on the issue so that you are prepared to gather the right data and input to solve that problem.
Get just enough data. Too many times leaders fail to make the right decisions in the necessary time frames because they think they need more data. The truth of the matter is that most of the time, more data will not cause our decision to change. Leaders need to trust their gut and rely on enough data and be comfortable with their past experiences, their wisdom and their intuition to pull the trigger at the right time. This is true for leadership teams as well.
Get enough input from the right people. Don’t over-complicate the process by thinking that getting more people’s thoughts will bring you clarity. Often times, leaders will find themselves further paralyzed by getting too many opinions and perspectives.
Use your road maps. When making life decisions, take a good look at your Life Plan. When looking at taking a risk or making a big decisions with your company or team, take a good look at your Business Vision and Business Plan. If the problem or opportunity does not line up with your guiding documents, then chances are they will take you off track. You put a lot of thought and time into your road maps. and this is precisely what they are for — to help you make the best proactive and intentional decisions.
Know that there is always a certain degree of risk in most big decisions. If you knew the outcome with complete certainty, then the energy door would be easy to close, the decision easy to make. The best leaders are okay with the possibility of failing if they have done the above and have a track record of making the right decisions. So here is a key: the more right and timely decisions we make, the more confidence we have. Use this confidence (and the steps above) to help you continue to make better and more timely decisions.

Following these steps will help you to close the doors in a timely manner with the outcomes you desire. Ultimately this will enable you to have more time to think about the future and execute the plans to get you there.

Note: This post is part of a series on Increasing Your Leadership Capacity.
Step 1: Own Your Role
Step 2: Be Healthy
Step 3: 6 Steps to Improve Your Thinking
Step 4: Be Hungry and Humble
Step 5: You Need a Road Map

You Need a Road Map (Increasing Your Leadership Capacity Series — Step 5 of 8)

Daniel Harkavy — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:53:06 +0000

One thing that hinders our ability to increase our leadership capacity is a lack of clarity. This lack of clarity can show itself in so many ways. We can lack clarity on our company’s purpose, our primary products, our key differentiators, who on our teams are best equipped to do what, where our strategic wins can be found, what plans we may have committed to in times past and who is doing what and when in order for us to execute with excellence. Sometimes leaders even have a lack of clarity around why in the heck they started leading this thing at some point in the past. Just typing this causes me angst! Note: This post is part of a series on Increasing Your Leadership Capacity. Click here for the previous step.

Now I don’t think that all leaders are struggling with confusion around everything I just listed, but I do know that I, along with many business leaders I have coached over the years, have found themselves not leading with excellence because we have lacked clarity on at least one of them at some point.

So what can you do if you find yourself stuck with very little time, energy and clarity as to how to build your and your team’s leadership capacity? Here are four specific musts do’s that can absolutely increase your level of passion and your direction which will enable you to continue to grow your capacity.

Take a good look at your Business Vision. As you read it, are you finding yourself excited and compelled to continue pushing forward and giving your all to the cause? If your vision does not compel you, then how can you expect it to compel those you lead to stretch and grow?
If it compels you, the next question you must ask is this: “can I plan from it?” If you vision is not clear, it will be very difficult to build plans and strategy from it. Your vision should help you to see who your customer is, what value you will bring to them, what problem your team, service or product will help solve. It should help you to see what your team will become and what you will build at some point in the future.
Now look at your Business Plans for the year and the quarter. Your desired outcomes, disciplines and improvements must be very clear. These three things should fit on one page and should truly direct your actions and impact your calendar.
And then finally, if you have done the previous three things and are still not seeing things clearly, you are wise to understand that self leadership always precedes team leadership. Your challenge might be deeper and bigger than what is happening vocationally. You could really benefit by spending a day reviewing or building your Life Plan. An effective plan is compelling and clear in how it directs your thinking, your actions and ultimately your results.

To your continued growth,

Note: This post is part of a series on Increasing Your Leadership Capacity.
Step 1: Own Your Role
Step 2: Be Healthy
Step 3: 6 Steps to Improve Your Thinking
Step 4: Be Hungry and Humble

Be Hungry and Humble (Increasing Your Leadership Capacity Series — Step 4 of 8)

Daniel Harkavy — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:54:59 +0000

Increasing our leadership capacity requires more than just knowledge. It truly requires us to be fully engaged and passionate in the cause. We must change and grow, which means we must enter into the uncomfortable zone. As leaders, we need to always start with ourselves when we want to make an organization improve. The question of “how must I change or adapt in order for this initiative or improvement to take root” is a great starting point. Note: This post is part of a series on Increasing Your Leadership Capacity. Click here for the previous step.

This step comes from a lesson our Building Champions leadership team learned a few years back during a partner planning and connection session with our friends at Patrick Lencioni’s company, The Table Group. Patrick shared that one of their convictions was to be humble and hungry.

As I look at what is required to truly increase my leadership capacity (and then our team’s), I see that I must be humble and hungry. A while back I did a post titled “How Little I Know.” In it, I wrote about how the best leaders are really comfortable with acknowledging where they need help.

It feels so counterintuitive to most who have bought the old-school command and control leadership mindset. But when a leader is both humble and hungry, you have a leader who is best equipped to grow and to bring others along on the journey. This hunger is to not only learn, but to grow, to serve, to improve, to stretch, to impact others, and to create something of even greater significance.

Here are 5 practical tips for those of you who desire to grow your leadership capacity and see the opportunity to fully embrace humility and hunger as key steps in the process.

1. Ask more questions. Don’t worry about whether they will cause you to appear to not know it all. You don’t — and those around you already know this!

2. Truly listen to the answers and ask clarifying questions to make sure you really have what you need in order to grow. Often this means spending time asking the right questions and really listening to your customer-facing teammates (those on the front lines delivering your products or services), and then spending more time doing the same with your customers.

3. Slow down. Often times leaders believe that they must be the fastest movers on their teams. This is a huge mistake. We need to slow down so we can connect and listen if we want to see the things we would miss when we are moving too fast. This can look like scheduled margin time with nothing on your calendar other than time to respond, to think, and to be available. (This is one key area for me to grow in the year ahead.) We must remember that we leaders are more than thermometers; we are thermostats. Our pace and our interactions with those around us will impact our culture, our customer experience, and our results.

4. Think more — both alone and with those on your leadership team. A humble leader knows she doesn’t have all the answers and that her products or services could be improved, so she has intentional time to think alone and collaboratively with those on her leadership team.

5. Invite sharpening. Ask for those you respect and trust to call you out when your behaviors and actions don’t line up with who you are and your convictions. This can look like being okay and grateful when one of your teammates lets you know that your posture or words are coming across as defensive instead of hungry. (I will do another post on this tip in the weeks ahead.)

Growing means entering into the uncomfortable zone. But by being humble and hungry, the pain is far less severe than the pain and frustration of plateauing.

Note: This post is part of a series on Increasing Your Leadership Capacity.
Step 1: Own Your Role
Step 2: Be Healthy
Step 3: 6 Steps to Improve Your Thinking

6 Steps to Improve Your Thinking (Increasing Your Leadership Capacity Series — Step 3 of 8)

Daniel Harkavy — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:00:10 +0000

As we work on how to best increase our leadership capacity, we must be aware of how our thinking either helps or hinders our leadership effectiveness. You see, our thinking impacts our beliefs, our beliefs impact our actions, and our actions impact our results. Note: This post is part of a series on Increasing Your Leadership Capacity. Click here for the previous step.

As an executive coach at Building Champions, I have seen countless breakthroughs with business leaders as the result of them working to improve how they think.
Here are 6 tips for you to improve your thinking.

Schedule your thinking time. At Building Champions, we call it ON time. Make sure you have ON time as a non-negotiable discipline in your business plan and your time block.
Have a thinking place. In John Maxwell’s book Thinking for a Change, he shares how his best thinking is done in his thinking chair. In fact, this is how John played a role in being our home decorator!
Watch less news and garbage. The media thrives by capturing our attention, and unfortunately what captures most of us these days is the negative. Limit yourself to no more than 10 minutes of the news per day and you will know what you need to know. And as far as TV goes, I am a fan of not watching it at all unless I’m watching a good movie from time to time.
Read the good stuff. What books will cause you to think and believe better? Read what will stretch your thinking, center you and equip you to live and lead better.
Ask those closest to you to call you out when they see you exhibiting bad thinking. This means you must trust a few in your life and on your team enough to be vulnerable with them and ask them for their input on your thinking and actions. This is good accountability.
Hire a good coach. I think that one of our greatest opportunities as coaches here at Building Champions is to challenge, encourage and to stretch the thinking of the business leaders who hire us. As I said above, a leader’s thinking directly impacts his leadership capacity.

To improved thinking in the year ahead!

Note: This post is part of a series on Increasing Your Leadership Capacity.
Step 1: Own Your Role
Step 2: Be Healthy

8 Steps to Increase Your Leadership Capacity (Series)

Daniel Harkavy — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 19:33:51 +0000

This topic is front and center for me right now as the CEO of Building Champions. I know that we must be very intentional with how we tap into and develop those that are on the team. They all have gifts, talents and passions that if intentionally developed will enable them to help the organization grow in the years ahead.

So many times, leaders will make the mistake of looking externally for this needed capacity before really examining who on the team has the potential to fit the need and already understands the DNA and lingo of their culture.

Over the next several weeks, I will share one step per post to help you grow your leadership capacity and expand your organization’s reach and effectiveness.

Step #1 — Own Your Role

Too often , leaders don’t fully understand their role. If you’re not crystal clear on this, you can find yourself filling large percentages of your calendar with activities that should not belong to you. By doing them, you are hindering some on your team from getting to do them and grow. You are also stunting the growth of the organization because you are not focusing on the activities that are truly the high pay off for you as a leader.

The analogy of digging ditches has helped me to understand this. Over the past few years of our economic challenges, all of us in leadership roles here at Building Champions have increased our personal books of business to help stabilize our firm. Digging our own ditches has worked very well for us, but we find ourselves today with limited time to best develop others on the team as well as new offerings and strategic enhancements to our business. It is now time for us to put our shovels down and to lead more.

As a leader, I need to help those on our team to improve how they shovel so that I can spend more time strategically thinking about how and where to best dig ditches in the future.

Now don’t get me wrong — leaders need to still use our shovels (and enjoy doing so), but we need to spend more time leading, developing and influencing. We need to own our roles and make sure we are doing what will truly add the most value to our organization, our team and to our customers.

As I shared with a CEO this week who is a great and humble leader, you must be the guy who is regularly talking about your company’s vision. He is not comfortable being that guy, but his team needs to hear this from him. He knows why they exist, he sees where they are going and he needs to remind his team of this constantly whether he likes doing it or not. He must own his role and so must you.

So what is it that you need to make sure you are doing regularly to lead and build your leadership capacity? It cannot be delegated, it will be difficult to outsource it and you are not only the best but the right person on your team to do it.

Figure it out and make sure it shows up on your calendar with regularity. We must do what we may not be comfortable with if we are going to grow our leadership capacity.

We must own our roles!

How Little I Know

Daniel Harkavy — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:16:55 +0000

I have really enjoyed this year. It has not come without its trials and challenges but the blessings have so outweighed any of the difficulties. There is just so much to be grateful for.

Now this may come as a surprise, but one of the things that I am most grateful for is a deeper awareness of just how little I know. If I leave it at this, many of you might be somewhat concerned. After all, you invest time in this blog looking for insights — not the ramblings of someone who knows nothing.

But this awareness of how little I know has been really freeing and exciting. The truth of the matter is that I am most likely more than halfway through this journey called life, and I still feel like so much of it is an experiment.

There are some things that I am quite confident in, but much of what I encounter day by day and moment by moment has a certain degree of risk or uncertainty to it. I don’t know for certain if what I say or do will lead to the outcome I hope for. I don’t know for certain if this decision or that decision will lead to fruitful results.

Here are some examples:

• Should we hire this coach?
• Take on more space?
• Write another book?
• Move this person in the company to this role?
• Advise my daughter this way?
• Share this thought with my son?
• Make this decision for my family?
• Invest in this project or opportunity?

In years past, I think I believed that I knew more than I actually do. And some of you might be saying, “Finally Harkavy, you are starting to get it, thank God!” But this new awareness of how much I still need to learn has caused me to observe leaders a bit differently.

Here are three big observations that might help you as well.

1. Many of the greatest leaders are the hungriest learners. Examples: Morris at 73 years old, very successful and taking copious notes in one of our recent workshops. Dom, a very seasoned CEO who just retired, and his deep life questions over our first glass of wine. One of my old mentors, Clem, with his constant questions about any and all topics. Questions, learning, listening — all three of them. They are never too proud, never concerned with how little they might know on a topic, always asking, always interested, always learning, always growing, and never posing. They are what I call Life-Long Learners.

2. Many of the greatest leaders move slowly. This has not been me! I have been called Taz in past years and for good reason. The faster I move, the more I get done. Well maybe for a while, but the faster I move, the more I miss. If I move too fast, I don’t give myself the chance to reflect and assess. How am I doing as a husband, father, friend, servant and leader? If I move too fast, I miss the opportunity to allow others to lead, serve and grow — and this stunts the organization’s growth.

Great leaders not only move slower, but they talk slower as well. If I am rushing my conversations, I miss the opportunities to really connect with those around me. I miss the opportunities to hear not only what is being said, but what is behind what is being said (or not said). And as a leader, the clarity of my communication is vital. This is true not only at work but at home as well. My pace of speech can either serve to calm and bring clarity and comfort or it can serve to create angst, confusion and even panic.

3. Many of the greatest leaders are disciplined thinkers. They see thinking time — or as we at Building Champions call it, ON time — as one of their most important disciplines. Not only do they have this thinking time scheduled daily, but they have regular larger blocks of time scheduled for just thinking.

A few of us coaches take what we call “Sabbath days.” I hate when I go for long periods without them because I am running too hard. When I do get them, settling into that quiet place to pray, reflect, assess, question, seek and learn — getting to that quiet state of mind — can be hard work. But I always walk away refreshed and a better leader because of it.

As many of you know, I am striving to live my life on the foundation of God’s Word. For me, it comes down to this: I must draw closer to Him so that I can better serve Him by using the gifts He has given to me to serve and love those around me. That happens when I make the time to slow down, to be still, to reflect, assess, question, challenge, seek, learn and connect.

As we approach the holiday season — which can pull us in many directions — I encourage you to carve some time out to reflect and assess where you are at. Slow down. Be intentional.

Taking time to invest in yourself may be the greatest gift you can give yourself and those you serve this year.

The Right Solutions

Daniel Harkavy — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:00:17 +0000

Coach Steve Scanlon and I recently facilitated a leadership conference for a great national, long-time partner of ours. The desired end result for this conference was that all managers would connect with one another, get clarity on what the current reality looked like (both for their company and industry) and reconnect with the company’s vision. Then, the front line managers would create new strategies to bridge the gap from their current reality to what they see for themselves in the future. This would be no small feat!

Well I am happy to report that the leaders of this firm stated this was by far, the best leadership event they had ever had. Bullseye! Here is what took place that created the magic for this company.

First, we started off with a review of the vision. Your team needs to share a common vision of what you are trying to build. A compelling vision (easily communicated to others) is one of the most powerful tools a leader has to motivate his team and help drive them toward future success.

Like many management teams, this group came into the meeting a bit fatigued and frustrated by the pounding of outside forces and the resulting ups, downs and general uncertainty caused by the current financial challenges. Helping them to re-focus on their vision — and the things they could control — provided the perfect starting point.

Next, we had the participants (about fifty managers who don’t normally work together as they have the same jobs in different geographic areas) identify everything they needed to keep, start and stop doing in order to become the company they all wanted to belong to.
After the exercise, we focused just on the strategies the group thought the company needed to start, and narrowed the huge list of dozens of possible ideas to the most critical five strategies.

We then created a group for each of those five strategies and commissioned them with the task of creating a winning plan that when executed would move the organization forward with great momentum. We coached them through the process, constantly encouraging them to think like strategic leaders in order to create solutions that would have the greatest value to the organization.

Finally, each group made their presentation to the CEO, the VP and to Steve and myself. What they came up with was truly brilliant. Each group mapped out why the strategy was needed, what resources would be required, broke down each of the critical steps and identified potential obstacles (along with plans to overcome them).

One thing that amazed me was that every team stated that the improvements they identified would need to begin with them and the teams they led. No finger pointing. No pissing and moaning about “you people in the corporate office.” They each showed such high levels of leadership maturity by owning the solutions and by acknowledging how they and their teams would need to change and improve in order for the company to become the company they so badly wanted to create.

At the end of the day, there was such a huge change in the attitudes and energy of these leaders. They were heard, felt valued and were able to play a real role in helping the company improve. Next month, the executive team and I will go away for their semi-annual retreat and much of what we will focus on will be the strategies that came out of this conference.

Too many times, those in the C-Suite are investing countless hours working to create solutions for street level, customer-oriented challenges only to find their solutions later being rejected by those who need to carry them out. If this is you, stop this now!

Instead, tap into your talent, have them identify the organization’s challenges and then, don’t stop there — have them think like leaders, work together and own the solutions.

You will be light years ahead when it comes to executing the changes if they own the strategies.

Leadership and Personhood

Daniel Harkavy — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:30:45 +0000

I want to take a look at one of the foundational truths of leadership — leadership is all about a person’s ability to inspire and move people. And when most leaders plateau or fail, it is often not because they lacked a skill or a critical piece of knowledge. It often has to do with their personhood.

I was with a great group of about 50 leaders yesterday and asked them to tell me who was the greatest leader they had ever met. Only a handful of them could share the name of a truly great leader. This tells me one of two things. Either there are not too many of them out there and/or we have such a high standard for what a truly great leader is.

They slowly shouted out the names of Rudy Giuliani, Lou Holtz, Ronald Reagan, John Wooden and others. My next request was for them to share what attributes those people possessed that made them great leaders. Their responses included:
• Character
• Integrity
• Humility
• Focus
• Passion
• Deep Convictions
• Clarity of Purpose
• Courage
• Care
• Great Decision making abilities in critical situations
• Vision

All great attributes that all of us leaders would love to have as our own. But what stands out to me when I read this list is that what makes these leaders great is not so much what they do but rather who they are. It comes down to their personhood. I think we leaders are wise to take inventory of our personhood.

Where are we compromising? Where are we a bit foggy with what we see or believe? How are we doing in the area of passion for the cause or mission we lead? What values are we communicating to our team not through our words but through our actions?

As we finish the year out, I would strongly encourage each of you to spend a day looking at your Life Plan, your Vision and your Business Plan for the year ahead. Then review your calendar and really assess your actions and commitments.

Are they lining up with what you see and who you want you and your organization to become? Have a few people that know you well speak into your life and leadership to make sure you are aligned. If you find that you are not, don’t fret, adjust. Don’t go into the year ahead without making the necessary adjustments.

Our personhood is a moment by moment thing. So is our leadership.

Leadership Moment: You Need Vision to Plan

Daniel Harkavy — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:04:52 +0000

Many leaders are now in the process of creating their plans for 2012. In this Leadership Moment, Daniel explains why you must review your Vision before you put your next Business Plan together.

Unable to view the video? Click here.

7 Steps to Managing Through Unexpected Change

Daniel Harkavy — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:45:49 +0000

It happens to all of us if we lead and live long enough. We wake up on a Monday morning expecting the world to be as it was the week before, but hours later our reality is rocked by the unexpected. During a special breakfast at this year’s Building Champions Experience, my friend and coachee Patrick Lencioni spoke on change. He said that often change is not what is so difficult for us but rather the transitions. The process of going from the known to the unknown is what most of us fear and hate.

I am in the midst of this right now with one of the organizations I help to lead. As I am dealing with the pain from the change and the excitement about what can come, I am benefiting from these seven steps. I thought they might help you should you find yourself in an unexpected (yet opportunistic) transition.

1. Define Reality. Assess the downside first. What are your real risks and costs? Then identify the opportunities in this change. What good can come from it? Where is there opportunity in this new reality? You are wise to have a conversation with your coach, board, team and spouse to gain their perspective on this.

2. Ask for Help. Everyone wants to help and make a difference, especially when they see how they can use their gifts and talents in a time of crisis. Now is not a time for you to play superhero leader.

3. Decision Filters. What non-negotiable decision filters will you commit to? By doing so, you will be much better positioned to make the right decisions in a timely fashion. Here are some real life examples.

Do what’s best for the client.
Be a wise steward of the organization.
Honor the teammate.

4. Clear Your Calendar. Postpone or delegate whatever is not mission critical. This means you will need to put off needed and good meetings, events, calls and projects. Set a time limit for this season and stick to it. This will enable you to get back to your normal routine ASAP.

5. Over Communicate. Let the right people know what is happening. Who needs to know what? If you are not sharing, they will come to their own conclusions, right or wrong. This is never good, so lean toward over communicating even when you don’t have the answers. Being transparent while keeping focused on your vision will help you and the team settle down and confidently do what is needed to get through the transition. So let them know what is going well and not so well. Let them know when they are doing a good job and really helping.

6. Listen. This is a critical time for you to listen to your team, your clients and your gut. Check in often. Take the time to sit down and check on them. How are they doing? Are they moving forward or paralyzed? Listen to them to learn, not defend. Their perspective is their reality, and you need to know it if you are going to help lead them through this change.

7. Think Gates. Looking at all that must be done can be very overwhelming if you don’t break it into manageable steps. What is the first thing that must be done? This is gate 1. When will you go through it? Think about the next two things you need to do (gates 2 and 3). When will you go through each of them? Like a downhill slalom skier, focus on the gate ahead. As you knock them down, you will gain momentum and clarity.

Hard, Energizing, Scary and Tiring. Yup, there is a good chance this unexpected change will be all of these and more! This is a time for vision. Read it daily, share it daily and adjust it if need be but don’t lose sight of it.

It has been said that every great leader will go through at least a few near deaths. The difficult changes bring about the greatest opportunities for learning so don’t shy away from them. Hit them head on and keep your eyes and ears open. Not only will there be blue sky on the other side, but there will be lots of learning opportunities.

To the unplanned,