As 2012 looks us square in the face, we are challenged with many obstacles as leaders in both our personal and professional lives. In their classic book, “The Leadership Challenge,” James Kouzes and Barry Posner encourage us to look back before looking ahead. They write when we first gaze into our past, we elongate our future. We enrich our future and give it details as we recall the richness of our past experiences.

With that in mind, here’s a brief look at leadership lessons I learned in 2011 and a focused approach for 2012.

• Do the hard thing. What does that look like for you? Switching jobs, firing a “C” player on your team, setting new boundaries with relationships that drain you, or maybe pressing the reset button on your marriage?  I did several of the aforementioned and started my own company in 2011 during an economic recession in Southwest Florida and also made some necessary, but difficult decisions in my marriage to win back my wife.
• Be accountable and teachable. One of the traps we fall into as leaders is the tendency to lose our ability to listen and receive instruction. We are looked to for the answers. Be the decision-makers. That’s how we’re wired. I have chosen to surround myself with several men who I’ve given permission to speak into my life both personally and professionally when they see things I am missing. It has helped me immensely in making decisions about business, marriage and family issues, spiritual matters and the like.
• Learn to connect with your family. Yes, I know the saying that our families need our “quality time.” I have learned this year that really means connect with my kids and my wife in the way they desire. With 4 kids, that becomes a difficult charge! I bring them on errands with me, turn off the laptop (fill in the media device here) to be present with them, laugh with them and listen to them. I took my 15-year-old son out for lunch during school on a workday which shocked him. I simply asked, “Are you happy?” It opened up a bright and colorful conversation and after 20 minutes we had truly connected. Try it with your family!

So, what’s ahead in 2012? Start with what matters most to you. What are your values? Mine are Family, God’s will, Hope, Accomplishment and Purpose. Next, plan to step away from the daily grind of emails, phone calls, financials, troubleshooting problems and find a place to think, pray, reflect and write. Start with 2-3 hours and work your way up to half or full days away. I will typically sense a word or two that becomes a theme for my upcoming year like Serve, Purpose or Focus. This coming year the word is Growth. The key is solitude-get away to reflect back and plan ahead. All the best in 2012!

Doug Poll is a Certified Professional Life Coach (CPLC) at his company called The Doug Poll Group. They specialize in coaching executives and leaders and also work with non-profit clients helping them raise money through a unique turn-key golf marathon event. He can be reached at doug@dougpollgroup.com or on his LinkedIn profile as well.

You May Not Have Seen It – or – Are Unable to Yet to Admit It

Don’t kid yourself. Unless you as the leader are on the ball, the perpetrator will have it well hidden from you. You’re being played as a sucker, because they know how to manipulate others and suck up to you when it’s needed. You may even find yourself defending them because they’ve done such a good job of concealing their alternate behavior from you.

Could it Be Possible … You Are That Bully?

(Okay. I know the many of you are saying … “But it’s the boss who is the bully.” You have a good point. Once estimate pegs more than 80% of bullies are bosses. Bosses … wake up. If this is you, if you have even an inkling it might be you, if there is a remote chance someone would even think that of you … consider this a wake-up call.)

Otherwise let’s keep speaking with the rest of you leaders, the 20% who aren’t on any sort of power trip.

Why It Goes Unaddressed

Sure, you’ve heard rumors and some complaints, but you don’t want the conflict. You don’t want to have to deal with crappy stuff. Maybe even some of your best people have tried to warn you but you’ve put it down to ‘personality conflict’ or a tiff between them and the perpetrator. Listen … sticking our heads in the sand will never be the answer to this demoralizing, team wrecking, business destroying, bullying violence.

So terms and comments like this get used instead:

• She’s just a difficult person
• He had a tough upbringing
• Sometimes she’s disrespectful
• You need to take him with a grain of sand
• It’s just a personality conflict
• Every so often she does exhibit some poor conduct
• It will probably get better after awhile

Mamby pamby! She or he is a bully.

What is Workplace Bullying?

The Workplace Bullying Institute defines bullying as follows:

Workplace bullying is repeated, health-harming mistreatment of one or more persons (the targets) by one or more perpetrators that takes one or more of the following forms:

• Verbal abuse
• Offensive conduct/behaviors (including nonverbal) which are threatening, humiliating, or intimidating
• Work interference — sabotage — which prevents work from getting done

Workplace Bullying…

• Is driven by perpetrators’ need to control the targeted individual(s).
• Is initiated by bullies who choose their targets, timing, location, and methods.
• Escalates to involve others who side with the bully, either voluntarily through coercion.
• Undermines legitimate business interests when bullies’ personal agendas take precedence over work itself.
• Is akin to domestic violence at work, where the abuser is on the payroll.

Is it Your Responsibility?

Yes.

Who needs to have their antenna up and detect this behavior?… You … the leader.

That’s what leadership is all about. You may wish it didn’t occur on your watch. Of course you don’t want to have to deal with it. Who would? But the responsibility for leadership rests on your shoulders and you have to address it.

You can’t sweep it away because of all the legal workplace hoops you may have to deal with. Of course this type of person will probably raise chaos and report you to authorities for some kind of employer misdeeds. That’s what they do. But you have to act because it’s the right thing to do. Your people – the people you are supposed to be leading – are getting hurt. Your business or ministry is suffering even if you don’t see it. There is ALWAYS a price to pay. It will probably start with you losing some of your best people. They won’t stay in that type of environment.

What to Do About Workplace Bullying

1. Dedicate a Couple of Hours to Reading and Making Notes

Do your homework. There is an abundance of quality research and insight out there. I’m no expert. I’m just waving the flag. Get on your computer and read about it. Just search ‘workplace bullying’ and you’ll be given all the information you need to take action. Study the laws that govern your workplace. Know what you can and can’t do. Call governing authorities to understand how to proceed. Ignorance is not bliss. It is complicity.

2. Connect the Dots

Start remembering back. What’s been going on in your workplace? What complaints have you heard? What thoughts, feelings and inklings of your own have you pushed down? What’s the pattern? And what excuses and behaviors have the person named put forward. How might they be giving you a snow job?

3. Determine to Act

Unless you are willing to do what it will take to stop this bullying of your employees, nothing will change. You will be complicit in allowing it to continue right under your nose. Take ownership. Step up. Make a commitment to restore a workplace that your people are proud to work in.

4. Create a Plan

Think this through. Given all you’ve learned, how will you go about structuring discipline? How will you deal with what the perpetrator may unleash against you or others? Being prepared ahead of time allows you to be in control of whatever happens. Who needs to be involved? Who is needed to give you support?

5. Take Action

This may be the highest and best of leadership … to do what is right and what needs to be done. Whatever that is, carry your part out with compassion and firmness. Don’t fly off the handle. Remain calm. Push forward regardless of the push back.

In Summary

So much more could be said on this topic. I hope this has served to raise your consciousness to a very real problem. Back in the 90’s researchers were telling us that this century would likely have physical and emotional violence as a very real workplace issue. People are frustrated. They have all sorts of baggage and social ineptness they have never dealt with.  (I don’t want to sound simplistic here. There are all sorts of reasons for bullying.) But the point is they take their ‘stuff’ out on others.

This is where you can take your stand. What’s the right answer to any form of workplace bullying?  …  NO!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT:
Gary Wood, President and Director
Christian Coaches Network
705.687.2711
gary@christiancoaches.com
www.christiancoaches.com

The largest public search platform worldwide that is devoted entirely to finding professional Christian coaches has changed leadership.

On February 1, 2010, Executive Coach, Gary Wood assumed leadership of the Christian Coaches Network from founder Judy Santos, who has provided vision and direction to the organization for the last 12 years.

She says of her choice of Gary Wood as successor, “He has been on the CCN Advisory Board since it’s inception in 1998.  I have worked with him on various projects, taught with him and appreciated his wisdom and friendship over the last twelve years.  I pass the torch to him with confidence and a sense of peace that this is a change that was orchestrated by God.”

Currently Christian Coaches Network supports hundreds of professional coaches from 11 countries and a broad spectrum of life experience, professional background, expertise and denominational affiliation.

Individuals or organizations who are searching for a professional coach can now find CCN members who represent almost every area of personal, business or ministry specialty, ranging from life, relationship and marriage coaching to career, leadership and executive coaching.

CCN provides support,  connection and professional development opportunities to members. This is supported by three levels of recognized certification within the Christian coaching field.

CCN’s new Director, Gary Wood is a professionally credentialed coach who has more than 35 years business and ministry experience. Since 1998, through his executive coaching firm G.E.Wood and Associates, Gary has worked with an international clientele of corporate, government, business and nonprofit leaders.

In recently addressing member coaches, Gary said of his additional role, “I may assume the public face of CCN but I am far from the total substance. Together we make the whole. The very fact that CCN continues forward bears out the fact that God has plans … plans that include each one of us.”

ABOUT – To learn more about Christian Coaches Network and its membership services or to search for a professional Christian coach, visit their website at www.christiancoaches.com.

END

From time to time I am asked to speak to professional groups from the scriptures. Sometimes an entire audience will be made up of leaders who may be spending their day on topics of best practice and professional improvement.

The primary purpose of God’s Word is not to serve as a textbook to teach us about leadership and management. There is a wealth to be learned from the scriptures on those topics, to be sure and I’m happy to teach about it.

The primary purpose of God’s Word is to teach us God’s heart about relationship. God wants an intimate and growing relationship with people, including owners, entrepreneurs, executives and leaders. In giving his Son on the cross, God paid an unimaginable price to have you and me be in a right, intimate and growing relationship with Him. He wants our heart, not our professional curiosity.

If God has our heart, He can influence the way we manage people, advance vision and carry out our own personal work.  His transformative work challenges and changes our attitudes.

Out of understanding how valuable we are to God and how much he loves us and desires to form us and fellowship with us flow all sorts of implications for leaders and leadership.

You don’t have to wait until our paths intersect to hear me speaking about it. Seriously … crack open your own Bible and get reading. But if you haven’t done it for awhile, don’t first go looking for leadership principles. Go looking for relationship. It’s there you will find the heart of God.

It may be that in the public mind there is a skewed image of an executive now days. Since the economic meltdown a year ago the public has only heard about executives milking their companies and their clients for millions,  flying about in their fancy jets and rewarding themselves for getting the public purse to pay for their incompetence.

The public has seen the high and mighty fall from their ponzied perch and they are sick of the image.

But … there is a much different world out there. It’s a world of ordinary men and women who lead businesses and nonprofits, who go to work like everyone else, working hard to make the wheels of business go round or devoting themselves to see that people get services and assistance in times of greatest need.

Not every executive is a greedy man or woman. Yes, they may be paid well compared to many. It goes with the job and it’s not right or wrong, good or bad. In the world of business it just is. Not every leader is self-absorbed and ready to sell their soul for money or power. No, the vast majority of men and women, executives and leaders, work from a position of integrity and ethic. They support their family and their community. They put in the hours to make things happen.

Let’s give a thumbs up for these men and women who keep significant causes, projects and programs moving forward. These everyday executives are the unsung heroes who stand right alongside the everyday worker … both significant in their different but necessary roles.

I know whereof I speak. I get to work with the everyday executive … every day. And I can tell you they are made of the same stuff as you and me. They carry major responsibilities and heavy workloads. Contrary to popular belief, they do care about those who report to them. They care a lot.

So, as you meet the everyday executive today in the parking lot or in the grocery aisle or at the gas pump, nod and say hello. They’ve probably had one demanding day and they sure could use a smile.

Perceptively they note that,  contrary to popular perception, your job as a manager is not to motivate your staff. Motivation is internal. Instead, you are responsible for creating an environment in which people can motivate themselves.

Perhaps one of their suggestions will be of benefit to you or spawn a new approach unique to your organization. I quote and have adapted from their original article.

Operate in an Atmosphere of Open Communication – More companies adhere to the philosophy of minimal communication rather than “open book” management. In other words, senior management often assumes that the less employees know, the better.

This doesn’t make for a motivating environment. A few simple suggestions:

• Research your organization and its competition on an Internet. Get that competitive blood flowing. Have them improve the public presentation of your company.
• Get listed in Who’s Who in Finance and Industry or Ward’s Business Directory. Seeing your name lets you know you matter and are a contributor.

Yes, it is simple, but build on it.

Recognize People with Potential - Nothing says confidence and trust like putting someone in a position of leadership with the ability to make decisions.

• Placing future leaders into management development roles. This is not only good for the individual but for the long term success of the company.
• Give your employees more responsibility to test their leadership skill. Some will rise to the challenge. Others may not. But you will be developing capacity all the while.
  

Respect and recognition are two proven ways to retain employees.

Support External Training Workshops – People are much more inclined to feel like they’re making a positive contribution to your organization if they’re in a learning curve.  Challenge them to challenge themselves.

• Training organizations offer countless one-and two-day offsite workshops. The cost is minimal. Two or three seminars per employee per year may add very little to your overhead budget and allow employees a one-day “sabbatical” to reflect on their careers as well as to reinvent themselves in light of your company’s changing needs.
  

There may be a very good return on investment from providing relevant, practical workshop opportunities. I would suggest having some accountability attached to it. Develop a method whereby the employee provides feedback after the workshop on how the learning will be best integrated into their day to day work or translated into department, team or company practice.

Welcome Opinion -  By empowering people, you telling them that they matter to you and your business. By listening to them, they may even have some good ideas about how to make things smoother or more profitable.

Listen to employees. Listening to people may not always be easy, but it can be very beneficial. And when those gems appear that empower the individual and strengthen the organization, you will understand that the effort put into inviting comment and listening to it was more than worth it.

Some leaders are wired to be bold, but they are hamstrung by politics and procrastination.

To unlock leadership paralysis and avoid mediocrity requires a different way of thinking … thinking that isn’t occupied with looking over its shoulder and watching its backside wondering what people will think and whether or not it’s ‘correct’ or good for your own future.

Executive boldness puts others at the center. It sees possibilities and a better future and goes for it. Boldness puts itself out there … on the line, going for what is best.

Five Starting Points

1. Make your own decision – Don’t be double minded, tossed here and there by every opinion expressed. Listen carefully. Do your analysis. Decide and stick to your decision.
2. Be willing to fail forward – Great achievements have been built on the learning experiences of failure. No leader has made significant gains without having first felt the sting of failure. But what they did different than most was embrace that failure as a stepping stone to the future. They got up and kept going.
3. Don’t analyze it to death – There is a time for everything, including moving forward. Some things can stay so long in the thinking stage that they simply die there. Or the time for them passes. Or interest is lost. Or the original vision blurred and put on the back burner. You get the idea. Once you have the essentials, act.
4. Stand out and stand up for something – If it’s an idea worth being out in the world, take a stand for it. Don’t be mamby pamby. Stand up and be counted. Cast your vision to any who will listen. As articulately as possible make your point in writing, in person and anywhere it will advance your idea.
5. Live above the level of mediocrity – Hum drum leadership abounds. Never, never settle for less than your absolute best. Aim for excellence in all you do. If it’s really that good, then you have products and initiatives in your head that need to be translated into reality. Ride the wave of excitement in giving life and leadership your best shot.

If we are going to unlock leadership paralysis and practice executive boldness in corporate, government, business or nonprofit, it will have to start with you and me. Now go out and find a Coach and talk about your next (or first) big bold move.

Growing professionally will happen in three ways:

1. The Individual Takes Charge – A self motivated leader steps up and develops their own executive learning and development plan. They take responsibility and exercise the discipline to see it through.
2. The Organization Mandates Growth – There is a clear path of expected growth and development generally tied to the desired outcomes of the organization.
3. The Individual Learns by the Seat of Their Pants – The leader does what needs doing, is generally swamped by responsibilities and projects. They pick up what they can when they need it. Learning occurs by dealing with fires and scrambling to assemble what’s needed for daily leadership.

Obviously the first two are more desirable. They will most surely be supplemented by the reality of number three. The vital questions are:

• Have you taken the initiative to develop your own learning and development plan?
• Have you as an organization understood and invested in the real growth of your people?
• Do you need to change something before your pants catch fire?

Everyone benefits from leaders and executives who are deliberate about growing and improving on the contribution they make.

But you and I need to put meaningful thought and action behind them if we truly want to see others reach their greatest potential while contributing to the year over year success of the organization.

I came across an interesting article on motivation by Tim Millett,  Motivating Staff … What’s the Buzz?. The author notes:

The interesting aspect of employee motivation is that there are many workers, both management and staff, who are motivated to succeed, but unfortunately that potential success is not seen as related to their current position or the tasks they are performing on a regular basis.

The symptoms? Staff who feel overlooked, under-appreciated and are looking for ‘the right opportunity’ to come up somewhere else. Meanwhile the organization gets bogged down in buzzword talk, training and motivational speeches. The results?

There is an enormous untapped potential in the labour force of most companies simply because people feel removed from the processes that equate to company success. That leads to a workforce searching for personal meaning (eventually with a position at a competitor!) or a workforce that is not mentally or emotionally connected to the company mission and thus underproductive.

So what’s to be done?

The path to motivating staff is to focus on the mission of the company and then translate that mission into personal success.

How? The author offers several solutions.

• Creating a corporate culture that promotes staff involvement and reduces resistance to change
• Developing responsive management that values employee input
• Encouraging team participation
• Developing team leaders able to motivate others
• Becoming an organization that is able to cross traditional functions and communication barriers
• Creating positive energy that promotes individual success while also advancing company progress

I want to emphasize again what Tim says, The path to motivating staff is to focus on the mission of the company and then translate that mission into personal success.

I think that statement is worth taking some serious time to think about.

1. Organizations aren’t really committed.
2. Individuals aren’t really committed.
3. Personal coaching isn’t a key component.

Organizations Aren’t Really Committed: In business, dedicating people and resources to seeing someone grow isn’t as easily traced to bottom line dollars earned. This is extremely short-sighted thinking. Build your people and you will build your business. Certainly our executive coaching firm frequently uses Return On Investment tracking that makes a strong case for bottom line results from front line human resource investments.

In addition, investment in people takes work. You don’t just subscribe them to a magazine, give them a book allowance and send them off to a conference or two and think you have done the leadership development thing. Most of those in supervisory positions just don’t have the time or inclination to work consistently with their leaders. And even if they are keen, they often don’t really know how to proceed or to follow up on the individual.

It isn’t much different in nonprofit settings. Just because they aren’t engaged in profit making enterprise doesn’t mean they don’t want results. But many nonprofits are so strapped and busy that those who should or could be developing others just don’t have the time. Immediate needs take precedence.

Individuals Aren’t Really Committed: Individual leaders are often hungry to do better and achieve more. But they haven’t got a clue of how to go about it. Busyness dictates that they don’t get much time to think about personal and professional development beyond trying to keep up with the bottom line latest information they need to know for the next day.

Leadership development takes time. And months stretch into years. It’s easy to let something slide. The tyranny of the urgent dictates attention and action. Unless the individual abruptly interrupts their well established patterns and plans for a different approach, things will pretty much stay the same.

People are far more often thrust into leadership than prepared for it. They learn by the seat of their pants. Now that’s not all bad, but it is far from great for them or the company. And sometimes the results can be downright disastrous.

Personal Coaching Isn’t a Key Component: Without one-to-one, intentional back and forth that is focused on the individual and what they are attempting to achieve, there is no focused ‘system’ or approach to fostering real growth. Intentional growth takes conversation. It takes probing and the revealing of potential blind spots. It takes questioning entrenched habits and exploration of as yet unknown possibilities in behavior and performance.

The Coach can take the time to walk alongside the individual with one purpose in mind … helping them think about, plan for and act upon those things which would move them forward in learning, experience, skills and attitude.

Consistent coaching over an extended period of time may be the key missing link in most leadership development programs. With it, the individual can go further faster. In the same way that iron sharpens iron, the coach can sharpen the leader, assisting them to go farther than they might have otherwise thought possible. When that happens the results will show back in the organization.

Bottom Line. If you are going to be serious about a leadership development program, work with an executive coaching firm such as ours. We have a track record. We know what we are doing. We know how to help an individual grow in ways the benefit them and the company or organization. Your investment will be highly targeted and ROI will be real.

Additionally a seasoned professional coach can help you implement a ‘coach approach’ to working with your people. You will have a three-way partnership that is focused both on personal and professional growth and company results.

If you run leadership development programs

• Be committed. Make it part of who you are as an organization.
• Work with committed individual leaders.
• Make coaching a long-term key component of your effort