Yet many leaders don’t have the heart for tough conversations; are you one? If so, you might learn the mechanics of stepping into the dialog but neglect all things that can go on in your head about what will take place.

• You might overthink the situation and get nervous about it. Dress rehearsals are fine for thinking through what you will say, but they aren’t the actual event. Just as an actor, as you think about what you will say, you might get nervous about remembering your lines. When the actual “performance” happens, you can go blank or let your emotions overwhelm you.
• You discover you can’t control the other person. So even though you might have rehearsed the words you want to say, when the conversation actually happens in real time, it’s either stilted or nothing like you imagined in your (one-way) rehearsal. It takes two to dialog; even though you have your part down pat, you can’t predict the other person’s reactions in real time. A contingency plan isn’t available when the two-way interaction doesn’t go the way you’d planned.

The problem is that you’ve spent all of this time in your head thinking about the conversation, and it shows. The person you need to have the difficult conversation with sees right through it, and lots of peculiar things can happen. Thinking it through is a great thing, but you also need to be able to go with the flow of the conversation rather than trying to control it.

Have you ever heard “I’m going to have a head-to-head conversation”? Of course not, but this is what often happens in our organizations. Having a “heart-to-heart” conversation is what’s most important when the topic is difficult. The words you will say aren’t enough (those come from your head); you need to also have an open heart.

Remember that the actual conversation is only the tip of the iceberg; there are lots of emotions going on below the surface (words being said). Here are some thoughts on how to make your tough conversations more than a head game.

• Remember that this is about them, too: The heart-to-heart conversation is something that you both have a stake in; it’s not only about you.
• Try empathy: While you’re thinking about the words you’ll say, consider how the other person might feel. Open your heart, and try to see yourself from the other person’s vantage point.
• Start with a question: What would you like to ask the other person? Starting with a question that begins with the other person in mind can let the person know you care and puts the emphasis on that person. This can be a much calmer way to start rather than blurting out your side of it, creating defensiveness.
• Listen to understand: Listen more than you talk. If your emotions are causing your brain to chatter in a way that takes you away from listening, take a deep breath and return to your focus of listening to understand.
• Allow the conversation to flow: Don’t try to control it. Stay calm, listen, ask questions and gently get your points across.

Difficult conversations are best accomplished with your head and your heart. If you aren’t “openhearted,” they can have a life of their own, and often one that isn’t pleasant.

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Difficult conversations require your head and your heart originally published by SmartBlogs

Alan Turing’s computer proved to be a tremendous challenge to translate into engineering terms for a functional, memory-capable device. But contrary to what we might expect, the rapid answers to this problem weren’t found at the big, famous and funded laboratories of the post-World War II era, says George Dyson, author of “Turing’s Cathedral.”

Those labs produced great innovations and inventions, and there’s been the argument recently that we need to return to the Bell Labs era. Dyson points out, though, that sometimes creativity and problem-solving cannot be managed merely by constructing a certain setting. Small groups without backing can do great things when left to their own devices.

“The lesson to take from that, in my view, is, you know, let these small, imaginative groups of people do what they want,” Dyson says. “Don’t get in their way. … Very often, the most creative things happen in the most implausible places.”

Big Think is a forum in which top experts explore big ideas and core skills defining the 21st century. Learn more from its editors, fellows and guest speakers.

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Creativity isn’t dependent on building an expensive research center originally published by SmartBlogs

Last week, we asked: How do you feel about our next generation of leaders?

• They’re going to be better leaders than we’ve ever been: 24.25%
• They’ll be as good as we are: 39.34%
• They’ll be worse leaders than we are: 36.36%

We’ve got some work to do. A leader’s job is to create more leaders. The notion that 36% of you are worried that the next generation of leaders will be worse than we are is problematic. That’s a big number and a scary result. If you answered the question that way, remember you’re charged with turning those folks into better leaders than we’ve ever been. Coach them, train them, and develop them. The generation after them will be glad you did.

Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”

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How do you feel about our next generation of leaders? originally published by SmartBlogs

What have the folks getting promoted over you have learned that maybe you haven’t? That a strong leadership presence is one of the keys to being hired into the executive and C-suite ranks. And that your leadership presence is at the core of your Invisible Resume that helps you land the executive job, and succeed once you’re there.

In this three-part video series, I cover several diverse aspects of your Invisible Leadership Resume, your global perspective and your leadership presence and your authentic leadership style.

Part II: Develop Your Leadership Presence

Your leadership presence may not be what you think it is. It’s not about what you do, it’s about how others feel when they interact with you. Of course, your actions strongly affect how they feel, but the point is that the measure of your success is in how others feel. When people who can help promote you — or give you the big contract — interact with you, how do they feel? Are they energized? Excited? Motivated? If the answer is no, you’ve got work to do. If it’s yes, know that there’s even more you can do to build out your Invisible Resume to earn their respect and trust with greater responsibility.

In the video, I give an example of where I succeeded in building my leadership presence by helping others feel smarter in my area of expertise. There are other strategies to help you build your leadership presence as well.

Building your leadership presence is a lifelong journey, and I hope you’ll join me in a free webinar May 30 to start building your Invisible Resume today.

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Moving from managing to leading: Developing your leadership presence originally published by SmartBlogs

The educators I talk to speak mainly about their passion for helping young minds find a love of learning. They also talk of feeling stressed out, juggling too much responsibility, fearing layoffs, being required to practice methods they don’t support and having criticism heaped on them from every quarter — whether it be unsupportive parents, critical administrators and education vendors who fail to provide adequate product training.

Educators are developing a bunker mentality from feeling constantly under siege. We are in a new era of accountability in K-12 education, and many educators feel that the criteria for success are arbitrary, measure the wrong things, and — in the worst cases — are bad for kids.

It strikes me that our current discourse isn’t very productive. Everyone agrees that there are challenges in education, but disagreement about the best path forward is preventing us from looking at the problem in the same way. For what it’s worth, here’s my advice for having a better conversation about education.

To educators:

1. Lose the defensiveness. I frequently hear educators say, “Everyone thinks he is an expert on education because he went through the K-12 system.” That’s true, insofar as it goes, but it isn’t helpful. It’s a rhetorical trick, meant to shut down debate by discrediting the non-educator who ventures an opinion. Moreover, it misses the point. One needn’t be a concert violinist to hear a sour note struck in a symphony — just as one needn’t be a teacher to see areas in need of improvement in the education system.
2. If you want teaching to be treated like a profession, be a professional. This means knowing your customer — the child, and her parent, of course. Society is also your customer. That cute seventh-grader will need skills and a job; the hiring managers of corporate America are your customer. Listen to their feedback.

To corporate stakeholders:

1. Lose the glibness. If there were easy fixes to be had in education, someone other than you would have suggested it.
2. Have some respect. Teaching is probably the single most important profession, as it makes all others possible. The data show that it’s also one of the most stressful professions, with one of the highest rates of turnover. We feel respect for other careers that are deemed to be both important and difficult (think air-traffic controllers). Teaching should not be the exception.
3. That means listening to teachers, and taking their collective voice seriously. If enough teachers tell you a thing won’t work, pay attention.

Lastly, for anyone who cares about education or has an opinion, get involved. Don’t be an armchair quarterback. Volunteer, donate, run for school board. Put up, don’t shut up. Because what we really need are educators and non-educators talking to each other, sharing perspectives and identifying common goals. We each have an interest in having a healthy, dynamic, world-leading workforce. We will never agree on every detail for achieving that goal, but let us at least agree that a collective effort will afford the best chance of succeeding.

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How can we have a more constructive conversation about education? originally published by SmartBlogs

My next stop was the Software & Information Industry Association Ed Tech Industry Summit in San Francisco, where I joined professional peers in hearing product-development news from some of the smartest minds in education. The two events were alike in theme but strikingly different in tone. The big take-away from hearing about the state of American education from education professionals versus non-education professionals is that the two groups appear to be talking past each other. Indeed, it appears they are hardly having the same conversation.

It’s reassuring to know that K-12 education and workforce preparedness concern hedge fund managers and Fortune 500 executives, but at Milken, the diagnosis was dire: The U.S. is falling behind its Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development peers in achievement in reading, math literacy and science education. As a consequence, our position in the global power hierarchy is in jeopardy. We risk falling behind to a degree that will be impossible to make up, because the education system is broken.

Everywhere was the message that we are under-emphasizing science, technology, engineering and math preparation, that Generation Y doesn’t complete college or does so lacking critical-thinking skills and the ability to synthesize complex information — skills necessary for the 21st-century economy. The prescription? More rigorous teacher training, better testing and game-based learning. (“Find these kids where they are — on their Xbox.”)

That idea of game-based learning was the common thread linking the two events. The SIIA event seemed largely about using technology to make learning fun for kids. Several entrants in SIIA’s annual innovation-incubator showcase are game-based science startups. Overall, the tone of the Ed Tech Industry Summit was more optimistic. Despite budget crunches induced by the recession, vendors are navigating budget shortfalls and helping educators find funding to implement solutions. The diversifying ecosystem of public, charter and independent schools is taking on the challenge of meeting divergent learning needs of all children along the socioeconomic spectrum.

Everyone acknowledges that the environment is tough, but I’m no longer hearing from vendors that “flat is the new up.” There are decent expectations for growth. The main areas of concern at the SIIA event seemed to be a dramatic rise in diagnoses of special needs, particularly autism, and the difficulty of getting students lower down the economic ladder on a path to success in college when parental support is tepid or absent.

There’s another point of view, of course, and that is that of the educator. I’ll address that view, and offer advice for both sides, in my next post.

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The state of K-12 education is miscommunication originally published by SmartBlogs

When I lecture on the topic at Stanford University, 95% of the participating executives conclude that one or more of these Saboteurs cause “significant harm” to them meeting their full potential. What about you and the people on your team? What new possibilities would open up if you could expose and eliminate your mental enemies? The numbers are compelling. Professionals ranging from leaders to salespeople who have successfully reduced the power of their Saboteurs perform 30% to 35% better on average. Even more importantly, they report being far happier and less stressed.

Your Saboteurs were initially your buddies to help you survive physically and emotionally. Even with the best of parenting, children begin to form one or two Saboteurs to help them cope. By adulthood, these characters become invisible and an automatic mental habit for interpreting and reacting to life. I was 27 when I discovered, through tough feedback delivered to me in a Stanford MBA class, that I had a nasty Judge Saboteur. I was shocked, but that discovery changed my life.

There are three key strategies to rid yourself of your Saboteur’s destructive power over you:

1. Expose your Saboteurs. There are 10 types, of which most people are primarily undermined by a couple. I liken this to creating a mug shot of the criminal so you can instantly recognize it as the enemy and protect yourself. It will otherwise continue to operate with impunity, masquerading as your friend. For example, the Judge Saboteur convinces you that unless it constantly beats you up over your mistakes and shortcomings, you won’t amount to anything. The Controller convinces you that unless you control people’s actions, you won’t get the desired outcome. The Victim convinces you that the best way to get affection and attention is by playing the victim. These are all costly but self-fulfilling lies. You need to expose your Saboteur’s underlying belief system, assumptions and costly consequence so it loses its safe harbor inside your head.
2. Intercept Your Saboteurs. Once you create the mug shot of your top Saboteurs, you might be surprised by how often they show up in your head. Many of the CEOs I have coached have gone overnight from “What do you mean? I have no Saboteurs!” to “I can’t believe how persistent this bugger is in my head!” Once you intercept your Saboteur, you don’t want to “fight” it. Getting upset at any Saboteur would only further activate the Judge Saboteur. The trick is to simply label the thought as a Saboteur thought so you can let it go. Notice the difference between saying “I don’t think I can make it” and “My Judge says I can’t make it.” The shift is instantaneous.
3. Shift your awareness to your body. Once you have intercepted and labeled a Saboteur thought and let it go, shift your attention for at least 10 seconds (about three breaths) to a physical sensation. For example, feel the weight of your body on your feet or seat, feel your next few breaths, or hear the ambient sounds that you have been tuning out.

Of course one 10-second shift won’t do the trick. Your Saboteurs are very insistent and will keep coming back. For example, we all know the voice that just won’t shut up at 3 a.m., warning us about the dire consequences of failing at the morning meeting. Or the one that reminds us for the thousandth time how badly we screwed up. Each time the Saboteur thought comes back, repeat this simple 10-second step.

Here’s the really great news: The brain regions you will be building up with each 10-second rep specialize in complex problem-solving, empathic communication, creativity and clear-headed action, in addition to feelings of deep peace and equanimity. This explains the research data pointing to dramatic improvements not only in performance but also levels of happiness and greatly reduced stress. Expect to see significant results, often described as life-changing.

Shirzad Chamine is the best-selling author of “Positive Intelligence” and is chairman and former CEO of Coaches Training Institute. You can do a free 5-minute online assessment to figure out your Saboteurs at his website, PositiveIntelligence.com.

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How to conquer self-sabotage in yourself and others originally published by SmartBlogs

1. What should be the focus of the analytics?
2. Whose job is it?

Analytics is a broad term that encompasses a variety of tools, techniques and processes. In general, analytics can be defined as the science of analyses. It typically involves systems that organize masses of data so tools, metrics and statistics can be applied to derive fact-based information. Business analytics can include applications such as:

• Customer segmentation and purchase patterns.
• Predictive metrics to identify trends and forecasts.
• Market basket data to identify purchase relationships.
• Store or unit performance to identify critical success factors or differentiators.
• Marketing metrics to measure impact and return on investment.

We are drowning in data — we need fact-based intelligence!

In this day and age, companies don’t lack data — they are drowning in them! In the case of retail, the point-of-sale system keeps track of every SKU sold, what else was in the shopping cart and if it was purchased by a consumer using a loyalty card. Subsequently, the system generates mountains of data daily. The question for business leaders: How can we turn all of those numbers into something we can use to compete more effectively?

Analytics: Whose job is it, anyway?

Harvesting the treasure trove of data requires a system, skills and competency. The C-suite expects analytics from such functions.

• The IT department is expected to compile and analyze data into “cubes” of information.
• Logistics and the supply chain apply analytics to understand patterns, make forecasts and reduce risks.
• Marketing is to apply analyses to measure effectiveness — a real challenge with social media.
• Finance is charged with analyzing key business metrics and producing “balanced” scorecards.

Depending on the nature of data and analyses required, there can be various people chasing down and reporting numbers. Beyond analyzing the right data to yield critical metrics, C-suite leaders must understand who is churning the data, how they are interpreting them and that they are aligned to answer critical questions from an overall business perspective.

Why leaders must proactively engage in analytics

There are at least three major problems with all data crunching.

1. Garbage in, garbage out.
2. More data do not lead to better answers.
3. Just because numbers are run through a computer doesn’t make them any smarter.

All too often, individual departments are mining mountains of data to address their functional issues and metrics. The key to successful, practical analytics is who does it, the nature of the system, technique or statistic. What makes analytics strategically valuable is the ability to answer the right questions with reliable, predictable intelligence. The best analytics is not a random search to find a golden nugget. They should be driven by business questions focused on trade-off decisions that can be made to optimize results that count.

The key to analytics is asking the right questions

The purpose of a leader is to guide, direct, create vision and purpose. Said another way, it is the leader’s job to ask strategic questions that should drive analytics. The most talented statistical analyst or IT guru is worthless without a leader to ask critical questions that should be the basis for analyses. Far too many business leaders passively wait for reports to be delivered. Leaders driving innovation are proactively engaging in analytics to drive questions to be analyzed.

To paraphrase a famous quote from John F. Kennedy: “A business leader today should ask not what analysts can provide, but rather ask the strategic questions that analysts should strive to answer.”

Chris Petersen is a strategic consultant who specializes in retail, leadership, marketing and measurement. As CEO of IMS, he has built a legacy of working with Fortune 500 companies to achieve measurable results in improving their performance and partnerships. Petersen is the founder of IMS Retail University, a series of strategic workshops focusing on critical elements of competing profitably in the increasingly complex retail marketplace. For more information, visit IMS.

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What are analytics? And whose job is it, anyway? originally published by SmartBlogs

Flexibility in the workforce is not a new concept, but its definition and applications are widening and misconceptions are still being overcome, said Carol Evans of Working Mother Media during the “Managing Talent and Building a Unified Workforce” session.

This concept is about which hours and days people work, but it’s much more than that, Evans explained. It’s an employee-driven mindset, not something conceived, decided and executed from the C-suite. Two of her other points stood out: Many women value flexibility to the point that they would choose an increase in that work-life quality over a raise, and that men, especially in the younger generation, will be as much a beneficiary of this workplace evolution as women.

What is this concept that is worth more than money to some people, and why should companies be involved? Those two questions are intertwined, Evans said: “Workforce issues are at the very core and heart” of companies, because without a strong, engaged workforce, companies can’t succeed. Her company collects data to help companies analyze their workforce engagement and find ways to address deficiencies — not just for working moms, she emphasized, but for all employees. Then, perhaps most important, it publicly ranks them.

“You have to not just have a program in place, but we also measure you on access to the program … and then we measure you on usage of each program,” she says. Companies that create a program but never roll it out, or have only an executive-level offering, will be penalized in Working Mother Media’s rankings. The competitive nature of these rankings was originally designed to drive male-led companies to outdo each other, she says.

These are some of the best practices that the company has come up with:

• Flexibility: At its broadest, this means “flex your day, your week, your year and your career.” Not necessarily working 9 to 5 or at the corporate office, or a five-day week. This could mean job-sharing, or scaling hours up or down depending on the time of year. The last point is the evolution of flexibility, she said: “You can say to your boss … ‘I am really under a lot of pressure right now, I’m handling the job beautifully, I’m really good at what I do. But I’m just asking you, don’t promote me for the next 18 months, but I’m gonna come back to you in 18 months and say, I’m ready.’ ”
• Mentoring and sponsorship: A mentor directly gives advice and helps the mentee address career and life issues now and looking ahead. A sponsor goes around to other people in the workplace and talks up who’s being sponsored. “The old boys’ network seems to do this as a matter of breathing,” and women need to develop their own ways of doing this, Evans said.
• Creating managers: “Nothing pushes an employee away from a company faster than a bad boss.” Thankfully, managers can be trained and coached to overcome their issues, recognize work-life issues and support their employees.

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From Global Conference: The flexible workforce originally published by SmartBlogs

You discuss in the book how organizations and their members each bear responsibility for creating a positive workplace. Who takes the first step, or is it a matter first of individuals looking within themselves?

Organizations or communities do not change until its members change. Individuals must create their own positive well-being first; without that foundation, their impact on others’ well-being will be null.

Little long-term good comes from placing one’s happiness or self-worth in the hands of others. Each of us is responsible for our personal well-being. If our quality of life, emotions, relationships, achievements or health could be better and stronger, we must invest in our greater well-being without delay.

Leaders support well-being within their workplaces by demanding a culture of civility. To reap the benefits of a fully safe, inspiring, positive workplace, leaders must hold all organizational members accountable for exceeding performance goals as well as demonstrating grace and compassion to each other and customers.

Have American workplaces in recent years moved more toward fulfilling the goals and ideals of this tweet book? What are the biggest barriers?

The recession has caused Western workplaces to invest LESS in employees. Numerous studies have indicated that workers plan to look for jobs elsewhere as soon as the economy improves. Additionally, 25% of all global workers report feeling psychologically unsafe at work. This employee mindset illustrates how little organizations have demonstrated care and value of their most vital asset — people.

Where organizations HAVE invested in their employee’s well-being (and not through extrinsic incentives), the rewards are significant and immediate. One Blanchard client (a seven-state U.S. division of a global retailer) focused heavily in 2009-2011 on creating a high performance, values-aligned culture in every store. The results over that 24-month period: 20-25% gains in employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and increased profits! (Greater during this time period than any of their global markets except Asia.)

Barriers to creating a positive workplace include:

1. A belief by leaders that they must control and micromanage daily decisions and actions, which alienates talented staff who feel leaders don’t trust them to act.
2. A belief by Western leaders that how their people FEEL is irrelevant — success is all about getting stuff done (with little concern about impressions of trust and respect in the hearts and minds of workers).
3. Too few effective role models of leaders or individuals in workplaces who demonstrate positive well-being and treat others with grace/kindness.

The book is intended for people at all levels of an organization. Are there specific thoughts, however, that are especially aimed at certain groups — HR, for example, or people just joining the workforce?

Creating positive well-being is a choice by any organization members. This “positivity revolution” will not take hold if it is seen as a “program” sponsored by HR, talent management or learning and OD [organizational development] functions. A safe, respectful, constructive work environment enables satisfied employees and leaders to deliver quality products and services that inspire customer devotion and revenue that exceeds expenses. Positivity at work makes business sense.

Leaders that create the conditions for individual growth and positivity enjoy not only the benefits above but see lower health care costs (physical and mental health improves in these workplaces), stability of the workforce (talented staff stay), and increased application of discretionary energy from an inspired workforce.

It’s always more difficult for employees to stay positive if the company is struggling, laying off workers or even in danger of failing. How is “Positivity at Work” especially helpful for those employees?

As noted above, placing one’s happiness in the hands of others is a recipe for disappointment.

Business cycles will occur as they have in the past. Organizations that struggle may emerge stronger (post-traumatic growth) or they may disappear. People with high well-being perform better and more consistently, have a positive impact on peers and customers, and understand how their work makes customers’ lives better over time — even when their organization is struggling.

Employees with high well-being see themselves as in control of their impact in the world and of [their] careers. If an organization is struggling, employees’ elevated well-being can inspire others to help the organization succeed. If the organization they’re contributing to does not succeed, those players are highly coveted — and they’ll land on their feet, finding another organization to contribute to.

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Q-and-A: The value of workplace positivity originally published by SmartBlogs