RealTime Leadership

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow with our families, now is an appropriate time to take account of the many things to be thankful for at work.  As a leader, what comes to mind for me is the debt and gratitude I have for the people I have the honor to work with everyday.  So how do I, as a leader thank the many people around me who not only contribute to my success, but more importantly to the success of the organization?  One way is to simply say “thank you.”  But another more powerful and sustainable way to say thank you is to treat people with respect and acknowledge and encourage their full commitment and contribution throughout the year.

There are times, however, when the pressures of work kick in and deadlines need to be met, and it is easy to slip back into the mode of barking orders.  It is times like this when I try to remember a simple rule; “Treat your people as if they were volunteers.”

I did not come up with this rule, rather it was given to me as a “gift” by Vice President at a major global company, who I was interviewing for a leadership development project.  When I asked this individual to characterize his approach to leadership, he summed it up this way;

“In my mind, I like to lead people as if they were volunteers.  The fact is, the great people who work for me, the high-performers,   can leave at any time.  Their skills and expertise are in demand.  If I don’t lead them and treat them as volunteers, all I get is what I ask of them.  But if I ask them what they think and how they approach a situation, I get their full input, energy and passion.”

So let’s be thankful for the people who work for us this Thanksgiving, and let’s acknowledge the gift of their presence by treating them like the volunteers they truly are.  Happy Thanksgiving!

A much discussed article by Tony Bingham, the President of ASTD, appeared in the August 2009 T+D Magazine under the title “Learning Gets Social.”  In the piece, Tony delivers a shot across the bow for many learning and development departments, saying basically, if we all don’t get on board and start leveraging and supporting Web 2.0 technologies for learning, we’re simply going to be deemed irrelevant by the businesses we support.   The article quotes Karie Willeyard, CLO of Sun Microsystems, saying:

If the learning organization doesn’t get into that 70 percent and use social media, they’re going to get left behind.   They’re going to become irrelevant because people are going to be able to post and share knowledge with one another without the learning function.

The fact is, most employees are already embracing web 2.0 collaboration and sharing tools without the learning function, and the numbers are growing every day.   Two major trends t are fueling this shift to informal learning:

1. The Millennial Generation – those born between 1977 and 1997, essentially grew up with the Internet and are familiar with learning and sharing information online.  As the Baby Boom generation retires, this is the generation that is currently moving into the workforce and changing the landscape.  By 2014, it is estimated that the Millennial generation will comprise 47% of the workforce.  
2. Technology – continues to make it easier to share, collaborate and learn online.  Today, if someone wants advice on how to become a better leader, they use Google, Wikipedia , Twitter, LinkedIn or other Web 2.0 technologies to address their unique learning need immediately.  They don’t sign up for the management training course offered next quarter.

The collective force of these two trends is transforming how employees learn, shifting the model from a didactic model to a collaborative model.  Tony Bingham makes the case for how Millenials are changing learning landscape:

In education, they are forcing a change in the model, from a teacher-focused approach based on instruction, to a student-focused model based on collaboration.

I refer to this as a shift from the “Sage on the stage” model to the “guide on the side.”  Web 2.0 technologies facilitate the sharing of information and make it easier to collaborate with colleagues.  The widespread acceptance of these new technologies is rapidly increasing the shift to delivering learning at the point-of-need, giving employees the information they need when they need it.
Although the Bingham article is a great wake-up call to the learning profession, it fails to address the critical question of what can or should be done to address informal learning.  Bingham ends the article by saying:

“The pieces are there, and now is the time to connect those pieces to create a learning masterpiece that meaningfully demonstrates the critical importance of each and every one of your roles.”

Huh? This sounds to me like he is encouraging the learning profession to continue with its command and control attitude of dictating learning.  What’s needed, in my opinion, is for the learning profession to focus on supporting and fostering the technologies and experiences that will allow and empower employees to collaborate, share and learn on their own accord.  The “learning masterpiece” Bingham refers to will evolve on its own if we give employees the tools to share and collaborate, and then trust them to do the right thing.

Soccer is by far the world’s most popular sport.  In many ways, soccer, or football as it is known outside of America, transcends the sports world and is deeply embedded in the culture of most countries.  The hype and media saturation of soccer is going to increase steadily as we approach World Cup 2010 in South Africa.  The Confederation Cup Final, June 28th featuring the United States versus Brazil, was an exciting prelude to what we can expect next summer. 

Given the popularity of soccer globally, it is surprising that the metaphor of soccer and language of the game has not permeated the culture of business and the body of work that makes up leadership development.  That may be about to change with the recent publication of “The Collaborator: Discover Soccer as a Metaphor for Global Business Leadership” by Winsor Jenkins.

In the United States, the use of sport metaphors in business is quite common, but they tend to be related to American Football (“we really need to ‘punt’ on this one”) or baseball (“it’s better to hit lots of singles and doubles.”)  The author makes a great case for leveraging soccer as a tool to teach managers how to lead in a global business environment.  Soccer has several advantages over football and baseball, at least when it comes to serving as a business metaphor:

1. It’s global.  You don’t have to “translate” your baseball metaphor so your team members in India and Dubai understand what you’re trying to say.  As Winsor Jenkins says in the book, “Soccer is imprinted in the world’s DNA.”
2. A soccer team is the ultimate self-directed work team.  Unlike most sports, a soccer team receives very little communication or direction from the manager or coach during the game.  Soccer teams don’t wait for the “play to be called in” or the “manager to change the pitcher,” rather the team is forced to respond to changing conditions as they happen on the field.  This requires a high level of trust, communication and collaboration from team members, exactly the kinds of conditions we expect of our global business teams
3. Soccer is not position driven.  A soccer team consists of 11 players, and they are called upon to play both offense and defense for the full ninety minutes of the game.  So a good soccer team, like a good business team, consists of well-rounded players who can be called upon to perform various skills and roles.
4. Just about everybody can play soccer.  To play soccer one does not need to be extremely tall, or extremely large, or even small for that matter.  Although it certainly helps to be in good physical condition, great soccer players come in all shapes and sizes, and that is one reason, the sport appeals to a much larger audience globally than any other sport.  Soccer attracts diverse players and a good soccer team is able to leverage the diversity of their team members (skills, talents, functions, personalities, age, race, gender and cultural) to achieve results and win games. 

When you add all of this up, the author says, ” Soccer provides the best example of what the interdependent nature of the team experience looks like.”

As you consider creating the next “high potential” program or leadership development experience, take a moment to reflect on how the metaphor of soccer might advance the learning objectives you set out to achieve.  People tend to assume that “what works in America is the appropriate way to deal with people working in Europe, South America and Asia for example.”  Given that most people around the globe grew up with soccer and already understand the leadership principles embedded in the game itself, why not leverage that knowledge to help new managers lead business teams that “score goals” for your company?

SOCCER’S GLOBAL BUSINESS OPERATING PRINCIPLES:
1. Focus On Team – Not Position

2. Understand That Everybody Can Play

3. Embrace Diversity

4. Rely On Each Other

5. Promote Both Individual and Team Values

6. Seek Skillful, Adaptable Players

7. Charge The Team To Perform The Work

8. Empower Players To Win

9. Coach Teams To Respond To Changing Conditions On Their Own

10. Develop Partners On The Field

11. Achieve Cross-Cultural Agility

Source: The Collaborator – Discover Soccer as a Metaphor for Global Business Success