You may have heard that the Oxford Dictionary has identified its Word of the Year for 2013: selfie. Yup, snapping a photo of oneself has an official place in our lexicon and as well it might, what with its use being up some 17,000% in the past 12 months. So kids,imagine taking a selfie today and staring back at you is an image of you as a leaderof others. What might that look like? If you’re unsure or curious, you can turn to Justin Menkes, expert in executive assessment and placement. His book, Better Under Pressure, represents a collection of data from interviews with dozens of name CEOs. We’re not talking about the head of the nice company a couple suites or buildings over from yours (not that there’s anything wrong with that); he cites folks named Dell, Kelleher and Smith (as in FedEx Fred). If that doesn’t get your attention, Menkes’sound advice on creating context in which your followers will internalize the importance of the shared mission surely will. He quite powerfully uses Jesus’ “let he who is without sin…” message to drive this point home. Good Lord, the Book Report has gone Biblical. Jesus can help you be a better leader and, what, you’re gonna argue with that?
Menkes tell us that there are three critical attributes you’ll find among top performing executives: 1. realistic optimism; 2. subservience to purpose; and 3. finding order in chaos. So we have to be upbeat but not delusional while sticking to the mission and calmly maintaining clarity of thought. Next topic! Clearly nothing is as easy as it sounds or seems and yet the author does a fine job of making this simple for the eager reader. Are you likely to end up quoting Better Under Pressure at cocktail parties, having crowds gather ’round begging to hear more? Well, no. But Menkes was a student of Peter Drucker’s and his mentor did have a knack for the sticky quote. Drucker’s famous quip about deadwood is celebrated: “Were they underperformers when you hired them, or did they become so once they started working for you?” What a wonderful trap question, from which you’re forced to admit that you did a lousy job of either screening this person upfront or inspiring them to high performance. Feeling badly? In an increasingly competitive world where we need to be held accountable to performance, perhaps it’s that feeling that will drive us all to improve in hiring and leading others.
Timid about hitting people with direct feedback? Former Honeywell head Larry Bossidy says that if so you’re robbing your people of “one of the most important reasons they have for coming to work.” Need a creative way to spark ideas for product improvement? Procter & Gamble chairman and CEO A.G. Lafley, “crazy gringo” that he is, recently spent time in Brazil studying women doing laundry by the river. (Yes, he probably did look like a creeper, but it produced a terrific lesson for the consumer products giant: when your new detergent doesn’t require a rinse cycle – perfect for the developing world lacking clean water – it still has to get sudsy for the end user to think it works!) Want one thing to avoid? Kroger head Dave Dillon claims his people would say he makes himself and his ego subservient to the grocer’s mission, but incredibly he does so referring to himself in the third person. Um, Dave – doing so sort of demonstrates an ego problem. At least that’s what Chris Bond thinks.