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Jim Clemmer's Leader Letter
Practical Leadership: Inspiring Action, Achieving Results
Permission to Reprint: You may reprint any items from the Leader Letter in your own printed publication or e-newsletter as long as you include this paragraph:
"Reprinted with permission from the Leader Letter,
Jim Clemmer's free e-newsletter. Jim Clemmer is a bestselling author
and internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, workshop/retreat leader,
and management team developer on leadership, change, customer focus,
culture, and personal growth. His web site is www.clemmer.net."
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We Can't Lead Through E-mail
E-mail
is out of control. The amount of time that many managers now spend
chained to their computers or PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) like
the "CrackBerry" (those highly addictive BlackBerry devices) has become
a gigantic time and energy sinkhole.
I
love and hate e-mail. It's a highly effective tool in so many ways. But
like any tool, it can easily be misused and abused. The first few items
in this Leader Letter will look at the critical distinction
between Information (management) and Communication (leadership) and
e-mail pet peeves and protocols.
Information versus Communication
Excerpt from The Leader's Digest
Many
managers are great at supplying information, but they're not so good at
communication. In this "information age," our organizational lives are
overflowing with e-mails, voice mails, phone calls, newsletters, books,
articles, manuals, and web pages. Like the sailor marooned in a
lifeboat on the high seas, we have water, water everywhere, but not a
drop to drink. We suffer from a profound lack of communication. Too
many managers over-inform and under-communicate. The differences
between information and communication underscore those between managers
and leaders, as shown in this table:
Information
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Communication
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In
our "information age" e-mail is a great tool for keeping each other
informed. It's not a good tool for true conversations that engage the
heart and build community through communication.
E-mail Peeves and Protocols
Most
managers are doing far too little to mitigate the destructive and
wasteful effects of e-mail misuse. Like a B-movie, the e-mail monster
keeps growing larger and consuming more time and resources ("E-zilla:
The Insatiable Beast"). Some of the more common abuses I hear about in
my workshops are:
- "CC-ing the World"
– far too many people are copied on far too many messages that are
either of remote or some interest or a classic case of CYA (cover your
bum).
- Hiding Behind E-mail – difficult news or tough feedback is cowardly delivered through this impersonal channel.
- Flaming E-mails
– insensitive, inflammatory, or negative comments are fired off with an
aggressive or hostile tone that wouldn't be used in a personal
conversation – like some mild-mannered people who become aggressive
drivers behind the wheels of their big honking SUVs.
- Over Reliance on One Message/Channel
– important decisions, "discussions," or directions are fired out and
everyone is expected to give this one e-mail the immediate attention
and urgency the sender feels it needs.
- Stringing the Pieces Together – recipients are expected to follow a long and convoluted discussion in reverse chronological order.
With
the huge amount of time being sucked down the e-mail sinkhole each day,
teams can get a fast and large return on their time investment by
getting together – in person – to establish e-mail protocols. Here are a few ideas your team might consider:
- Get an idea of how much time everyone is currently spending each day on internal versus external e-mails.
- Set a target for the number of e-mails you would like everyone to have to deal with each day.
- Have
everyone do an analysis of their inbox for the next few weeks and
categorize the e-mails as to type, importance, relevance, etc.
Aggregate those individual logs to see the overall trends.
- Agree
on the criteria for when e-mails are not appropriate. This might
include whenever an issue is sensitive or difficult, has potential for
conflict or misunderstanding, needs discussion, calls for collective
brainstorming, personal feedback, etc.
- Agree
on the criteria for categorizing e-mails by level of urgency,
information only, decision needed, who should be copied, etc.
- Learn
(or review) how to lead and participate in effective meetings with
agendas showing the purpose (information giving, decision required,
problem-solving, input needed, etc.), desired outcomes/objectives,
decision-making process to be used (command, consultative, consensus),
and time allocated for each agenda item.
- Periodically
review your team's e-mail usage by asking everyone what you all should
keep doing, stop doing, and start doing to ensure e-mail is an
enabling, rather than enslaving, tool.
I have just scratched the surface. Please send me (Jim.Clemmer@Clemmer.net) your pet peeves, protocol suggestions, and experience with taming the e-mail beast.
Tips and Techniques for Inspiring Through Verbal Communications
Selected from the new Leader's Digest: Practical Application Planner
- Build
a repertoire of teachable stories. Collect and catalogue the best
examples of your organization's key principles in action. Circulate
those stories inside and outside your organization through the media
(where appropriate). Write up collections of case studies illustrating
tough decisions, trade-offs, outstanding performance, dealing
effectively with changes, etc. Embed the stories in training and
orientation programs and in your or your team's key messages.
- Incorporate
story-telling into your management or staff meetings. Devote a section
(usually best at the start of the meeting) to having participants
relate a recent example of successful change, values-based
decision-making, heroic performance, etc. Capture those stories for
your repertoire.
- Develop
a strong cause and case for change. Make it "logic on fire" that
appeals to the head and the heart. Speak in their terms of experience
and what's in it for them. Connect to the organization's values and
past successes.
- Take
communication skills training or coaching, especially on public
speaking or giving presentations. Learn how to use stories, examples,
and metaphors that speak to the heart. Never make a point without a
story or example and never tell a story without a point. Get ongoing
feedback from professional speaking coaches, mentors, peers, and your
audiences.
You can get more information on The Leader's Digest: Practical Application Planner (and listen to a 60 minute free teleconference I gave on it) at http://www.clemmer.net/books/tldpp.shtml. You can also check out my new Growing the Distance: Personal Implementation Guide (and listen to my archived 45 minute teleconference) at http://www.clemmer.net/books/gtdpg.shtml.
We
are offering a limited time introductory 50% discount on these new
management team development and personal growth tools along with Growing the Distance, and The Leader's Digest books. See http://www.clemmer.net/books_main.shtml to explore any one of these publications.
More on Traveling With the Wind in Our Hair
I
put in a fun summer playing with my new toy (a two seat convertible
sports car). Although the weather in this part of Canada has been
unseasonably cool and somewhat rainy, there were some "top down" days
for cruising through the scenic countryside (even if the heater needed
to be on, along with a jacket – I would finally put the top up before
resorting to a parka and gloves).
I
was continually struck by how often we can choose the much faster
expressway and get to our destination much more quickly. But when the
top is up, the wind doesn't ruffle our hair, and the scenery is bland.
Another choice is to put the top down, get off the busy highway and
take our time. Along the way we can take in the scenery (perhaps
through new eyes), smell the countryside air, hear the birds, and stop
to explore interesting places. We won't get to our destination nearly
as fast, but we've had much more memorable fun along the way.
Here is one reader's response to last issue's story on my day of playing "hookey" with Carl Hiebert (click here to read that story):
Hi Jim,
Thanks for your August Leader Letter.
I very much enjoyed the story about "traveling with the wind in our
hair" as it really struck home with me. Late last fall, I bought a
Harley Davidson motorcycle. Getting out on the road this spring on my
bike has been wonderful. After work, I go for a ride with no particular
destination in mind; just following wherever the bike happens to steer.
To some people, this is probably a waste of time and gas. To me, it is
an awesome way to relax - especially finding a road with new pavement,
no traffic and the right amount of corners and hills. Sometimes I
travel alone and sometimes with other bikers. On one trip a magpie flew
alongside me for quite a stretch of road no further than 10 feet away.
I felt I could just reach out and touch it, but I didn't as I didn't
want to scare it away as we traveled down the road together. It was one
of those moments I'll always remember.
But
not all my relaxing is done on my Harley. Even more magical was my last
hike in the Rocky Mountains. I led a small group up the north-east
ridge to the top of Mt. Hamell a few weeks ago. We were treated with
spectacular views all along the way and came upon an abundance of
wildlife on that trip - mountain goats, bears, moose, numerous deer,
gold-mantled squirrels, a marmot, coyote, and spruce grouse. Another
one of those days I'll always remember.
Take care and keep on traveling,
Greg Scerbak
Grande Prairie, Alberta
How Do You Define Leadership and Motivation?
In the last issue of the Leader Letter I printed an exchange with a reader on defining leadership and motivation (click here to read this). Here's another response to that discussion:
Hi Jim,
I
think leadership drives motivation. Based on my view, here is what I
have learned over the past 15 years in Leadership Development:
Only once we are grounded in self-leadership behavior can we then begin to motivate others through our actions and behaviors.
Bernie McNeill
VP AchieveGlobal
I
heartily agree with Bernie. Leadership is an inside job! We lead from
the inside out. Please send me thoughts you have on this topic (Jim.Clemmer@Clemmer.net).
Top Improvement Points from August
Of the short quotes with links to full articles that were e-mailed out as complimentary Improvement Points last month, the most popular with subscribers were:
"Pessimists
fall into the trap of the three Ps when faced with negative change or
setback. They make the issue Permanent, Pervasive and Personal. They
avoid wearing clean underwear because it will only tempt car accidents."
- from Leaders Inspire Their Teams With Optimism
www.clemmer.net/excerpts/leaders_inspire.shtml
"Leaders
develop and bring out the best in people. This dramatically expands the
performance capacity of an organization. With a strong leadership
foundation, management systems and processes, as well as technology and
technical expertise, expand to their full potential."
- from A Coach's Playbook for Leaders
www.clemmer.net/excerpts/coachs_playbook.shtml
"Of
all the principles, there is one that is central, one from which the
others emanate, much as spokes radiate from the hub of a wheel. That
core principle, Focus and Context, consists of three interrelated
parts, which are defined by the answers to three key questions:
- Where are we going (the vision or picture of our preferred future or outcome)?
- What do we believe in (our guiding values or principles)?
- Why do we exist (our reason for being, mission, or purpose)?"
Subscribe or view the archives by topic area here:
www.clemmer.net/improvement.shtml.
Thoughts That Make You Go Hmmmm...On Verbal Communication Skills
"It is not sufficient to know what one ought to say, but one must know how to say it."
- Aristotle, Rhetoric
"We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us."
- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
"No
matter how intellectually brilliant we may be, that brilliance will
fail to shine if we are not persuasive. That is particularly true in
fields where entry has high hurdles for cognitive abilities, like
engineering and science, medicine and law, and executive ranks in
general. As the director of research at one of Wall Street's largest
brokerage firms put it to me, 'To get into our business you need to be
highly adept at numbers. But to make things happen, that's just not
enough - you have to be able to persuade.'"
- Daniel Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence
"...the
great majority of effective leaders have an excellent command of
language, either spoken or written or both. Words are the primary
stock-in-trade of leadership, and all leaders use them to attract,
hold, inspire and galvanize their followers.
To
be sure, the written word can sometimes be very effective in motivating
people. But the spoken word is by far the most powerful form of
communication. Any leader who thinks that a memo is as effective as a
face-to-face meeting, or that an e-mail is as effective as a phone
call, is still playing in the minor leagues."
- Steven Sample, The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership
"We
assume that the opportunity to edit our written words means we put our
best foot forward, but a recent study suggests that communicating via
e-mail alone can doom a relationship," reports Psychology Today.
"Janice Nadler, a social psychologist and Northwestern University law
professor, paired Northwestern law students with those from Duke
University and asked each pair to agree on the purchase of a car.
Researchers instructed each team to bargain entirely through e-mail,
but half the subjects were secretly told to precede the negotiation
with a brief getting-to-know-you-chat on the phone. The results were
dramatic: Negotiators who first chatted by phone were more than four
times likelier to reach an agreement than those who used only e-mail."
- Michael Kesterton, The Globe & Mail
Expiring Soon!
Introductory Special on New Leadership and Personal Growth Tools
The Leader's Digest and the Practical Application Planner
are powerful tools in building stronger leaders and leadership teams.
The book and planner are designed and priced for distribution in
quantity for leadership development programs, executive retreats,
seminars, meetings, management team building, or new promotions.
Growing the Distance and the Personal Implementation Guide
are powerful and popular tools in building a "leaderful" organization.
They are invaluable personal growth resources for everyone - from
senior managers to frontline staff. Personal application ideas,
self-assessments, implementation exercises, and suggestions for action
planning provide the opportunity to journal thoughts, guide reflective
learning, set improvement goals, vision for the future, clarify core
values, identify key strengths, check life balance, measure personal
growth, plug energy leaks, reframe pessimistic thinking, and make
concrete plans to improve personal, career, and family success.
Feedback and Follow-Up
I am always delighted to hear from readers of the Leader Letter
with feedback, reflections, suggestions, or differing points of view. I
am also happy to explore customized, in-house adaptations of any of my
material for your team or organization. Drop me an e-mail at Jim.Clemmer@Clemmer.net.
I hope to connect with you again next month!
Jim
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Copyright © 2004 Jim Clemmer and The CLEMMER Group
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