The Secrets of Effective Leadership (Part 3)

In my opinion effective leadership is partially learnt, partially something that you're born with, and very much something that you can improve upon by learning from others - what I like to call the ‘Secrets of Effective Leadership'. The following is part three of my blog series on ‘The Secrets of Effective Leadership'. Part two can be found here.

"Knowing how to get visibility and give it"

I've seen so many talented individuals who do incredible work, but fail to get the recognition that they deserve. Perhaps they are being modest and don't advertise their accomplishments, perhaps they shy away from the spotlight, or perhaps their boss and colleagues aren't good at creating that visibility for them? Nevertheless, an effective leader will learn the ropes of how to get and give visibility and do so without coming across as arrogant.

Gaining visibility is critical to increasing influence and leverage amongst your peers and subordinates - essential for effective leadership. How do you gain visibility? There's no fixed answer for this because it really depends on the environment you're working in and the type of people that you are working with. Sharing and broadcasting successes, especially when it's a team-oriented accomplishment, is one way of gaining visibility. Taking on high profile projects is also another way. Informing your boss and upper management about your wins, in a manner that isn't considered brown-nosing, is another method. My old manager always used to encourage sending an occasional status update to upper management on a project that was going exceptional in an effort to gain visibility - this always seemed to be good advice. What was interesting was that my boss would always follow-up with an email of encouragement and praise, with my upper management copied on it - those emails would always fire me up and make me want to do better and more.

It's not all about gaining visibility; it's also about giving visibility to those around you. Effective leaders create visibility for those around them. It's not easy for an individual to advertise his/her accomplishments, but it is easy for a leader to advertise it for them. Creating visibility is something that is easy to do and is very much appreciated by others - an easy way to develop a good reputation and following. Further, it encourages others to do the same.

"Managing expectations/Managing your boss"

In part two of this blog series, I talked about quality versus quantity and the importance of not spreading yourself out too thin. Managing expectations and especially one's boss, is critical to getting the right quality versus quantity mix. In my experience, effective leaders are good at managing expectations; they under-promise and over-deliver. They know how to say ‘no' without burning bridges and hurting their reputation, and when they over-deliver on their promise they are praised. How do they do this? I definitely still have a lot to learn on this one but here's what I do know: when you're at that critical moment when your boss is piling on an additional tasks, take a minute to think about things before committing. Think about how it's going to impact your ability to perform on other tasks and whether you have the physical capability and resources to deliver up to your own expectations. A former mentor of mine always used to tell me that it takes a long time to develop a strong reputation, but only one screw-up to lose it all. Under-delivering and failing on a commitment can easily be considered a screw-up and have undesired effects on one's reputation. Another mentor used to tell me that a good leader will protect their reputation at all costs. The point being that effective leaders seem to manage expectations well in order to protect their reputation, and are a good at developing relationships with their bosses such that they can say ‘no' without disappointing them.

"Communicating for your audience"

I am convinced that good communications skills are imperative for effective leadership. What I've noticed is that good leaders not only communicate often but do so with their audience in mind. I always find it humorous when a presentation is made using technical jargon and acronyms that are not understood by 75% of the crowd. Sure, complicated verbiage sounds great and may make you look smart but you may be missing the boat with most of your audience. Effective communication is about getting the message across, about energizing your audience, and about earning trust. Effective leaders understand their audience and will find a way to reach out to everyone - They will tweak their communication accordingly from a content and delivery perspective. What I've noticed over time is that the good leaders communicate in multiple ways, are visible and are accessible via email, town hall meetings, open-door policies, casual drop-by's etc. My old boss, whom I look up to very much, used to walk the floor at least once a day spending at least an hour chatting with all his subordinates; it was a perfect opportunity to voice concerns, give a quick status update, and develop a relationship. My upper management was always captivating at the monthly town hall meetings because they used language that we all understood, and they made sense of complicated business slides in layman's terms. Further, they always understood the morale level of the room and made a conscious effort to find a suitable way to get everyone re-energized.

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As I mentioned at the start of Part 1 of this blog series; perhaps it is premature based on my limited years of experience and young age to have such strong opinions and beliefs about leadership - but I do believe that it is easy to spot out an effective leader because they stand out like sore thumbs. The points mentioned throughout this blog series are my opinion of how and why they stand out and are surely practices I will be carrying forward in my leadership journey.

The Secrets of Effective Leadership (PART 2)

In my opinion effective leadership is partially learnt, partially something that you’re born with, and very much something that you can improve upon by learning from others – what I like to call the ‘Secrets of Effective Leadership’. The following is part two of my blog series on ‘The Secrets of Effective Leadership’. Part one can be found here .

“Having the guts to not follow the herd”

Do you remember a time when you were confident that everyone else had it wrong, or that everyone else didn’t have the confidence to voice an opposing opinion? Humans love to follow the herd. We gain comfort by advancing in numbers. It’s not easy having the confidence to go against the grain, because you know that you if you’re singled out you may be put on the spot and be completely wrong. In my short career, I have observed that effective leaders have the guts to voice an opinion that is contrary to the masses. Even when they are wrong, their discussion and arguments in support of their view often benefit the rest of the group in some shape or form and are therefore value-added.

“Responsiveness”

It is not uncommon for a leader to be flooded by emails, voice mails and other requests. It’s tough keeping up with it all and not realistic to respond to it all in a timely fashion. What I’ve observed however is that effective leaders are responsive – even when they can’t find the time to respond they send a quick note back acknowledging the message and they provide an estimated time for a response. This ensures the receivers’ comments are valued, and generally a delayed response is not minded if the receiver knows when to expect a response. There’s nothing worse than not hearing back. Being responsive is an easy way to build credibility, trust and respect.

“Priority versus urgency”

Time management is such an important skill as one climbs the ranks – you’ve got so much more to do with so much less time. A former director of mine used to tell me that it was all about priority versus urgency. He was a firm believer in Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and would label every task with an urgency (high/low) and a priority (high/low). I admit that I’ve never read the book but he used to tell me that effective leaders would spend most of their time in the high priority/low urgency quadrant avoiding the temptation of constantly fire-fighting tasks in the high priority/high urgency box. He told me that ‘fire-fighting’ was addictive and often necessary but that it was the high priority/low urgency projects that would gain you the visibility and that would allow you to add value to the organization as a leader.

“Following through on a commitment”

There’s nothing worse then failing to follow through on a commitment – you lose trust from those that depend on you and you lose credibility; a leadership nightmare. Many leaders spread themselves too thin and take on too much. Quality is better then quantity in my opinion and effective leaders realize this and will not be afraid to say ‘no’ to a request knowing well that it may take away from the quality of executing on something else. Taking on too much is often the cause of why many leaders fail to deliver on commitments. It’s also a common reason for why leaders lose their energy and passion and even burn themselves out – which is doing no one any favours. Of course saying ‘no’ isn’t easy and it’s really about managing expectations in my opinion (i.e. managing your boss) – described in part three of this blog series to follow.

Stay tuned for part three…

The Secrets of Effective Leadership (PART 1)

I'm 28 years old and I have had a total of about 8 years of full-time work experience. That said I feel incredibly privileged to have worked with many incredible leaders. As such, I make a conscious effort to observe those around me and absorb as much as I can in an effort to improve my own leadership skills.

Perhaps it is premature, based on my limited years of experience and young age, to have such strong opinions and beliefs about leadership - I've come to the conclusion that it is easy to spot out an effective leader because they stand out like sore thumbs. In my opinion effective leadership is partially learnt, partially something that you're born with, and very much something that you can improve upon by learning from others - what I like to call the ‘Secrets of Effective Leadership':

"There is no substitute for hard work"

Some folks are creative but have a hard time keeping focussed on the objectives, some folks are book smart but can't stop their analysis paralysis habits, some are gutsy and will push their way through and some can talk the talk but have little substance behind what they say. And then there are some who will work harder then the rest and execute - I'm not talking about those that put in the long, inefficient hours, but rather the ones that learn to work harder and smarter with time. This is a real leadership quality in my opinion and there simply is no substitute for hard work. At the end of the day every project and every team needs one of them. That said, it is important to note that an effective leader will realize that they may not always be the most creative, or have the best analytical skills, or be aggressive enough to solve every problem, or have the communication skills to charm the audience - an effective leader will recognize the importance of having one of each of the aforementioned in order to build a powerhouse team that has all the tools required to excel.

"Are you confident or cocky?"

I am convinced that one cannot climb the corporate ladder without an incredible amount of confidence. Confidence is the key to leadership success; without it one would have a hard time influencing and leveraging others - an essential skill set for any leader. I believe that confidence is not something that you can just turn on; it is something that comes from hard work, knowledge and experience. The problem is that confidence often turns into cockiness and even overconfidence with time. An effective leader will recognize the fine line that exists between the three and consciously recognize when they cross that line. How do you know when you are becoming arrogant? I think it's when you start losing respect and influence from your peers and subordinates. How do you know if you're becoming over-confident? My former boss would remind me each time before taking a trip to a client's site, that if I wasn't nervous about the trip/project then I was overconfident and not prepared. It was always a message that I would ignore at first but then it would scare me enough to make me work harder in an effort to cover off all possible angles of failure.

"Having the courage to shine bright"

As one climbs the ranks, as one gains influence and respect, as one becomes an effective leader, it's hard not to feel shy about moving past your mates, your colleagues, and even your former bosses. It's hard recognizing for the first time as a progressing leader that you've got enemies who wouldn't mind seeing you fail. It's also hard becoming comfortable with the fact that your leadership decisions will never be liked by 100% of your subordinates/colleagues and that you will never be able to satisfy everyone. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that an effective leader needs to find a way to become comfortable with all of this. A quote comes to mind about this. It's from Nelson Mandela's inaugural speech in 1994: "Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that others won't feel insecure around you."

Stay tuned for PART 2...

Six Weeks Until Relaxation Therapy

I finally finished up my preparations for my two cases for tomorrow, so I thought I’d write a quickie before bed. I’m wired anyhow so there’s no point trying fall asleep when I know it won’t happen.

I’m down to the last six weeks of school before grad, and I’m now taking electives. Over the next six weeks I’ll be taking Corporate Financial Reporting, Portfolio Management, Value Investing, and High Impact Presenting. Up until two weeks ago I had decided that I would not take any finance courses for the rest of the MBA program – I can’t say that finance and accounting are my favourite subjects and having taken two core courses earlier in the year I felt that I didn’t need any more knowledge in these areas. But then it dawned on me – finance/accounting are my weakest subject areas. When I asked myself the following questions ~ What is an MBA graduate without a strong financial background, and do I feel like I am confident to talk finance-speak? – ...I realized that I needed more finance/investing ammunition…. So I decided to make three of my four electives investing/finance/accounting-related.

Last week was March break. Geeta and I spent half our time in London and the other half in Toronto. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law came up to London, and we later met my brother and his family in Toronto. It was a productive break; I got a lot of personal tasks out of the way and it was really nice seeing family. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the ‘break’ I was looking for. While other classmates came back re-charged from their vacations, I came back drained. I think I needed a quiet week away from everyone, and it turned out to be quite the opposite. Not that I don’t love spending time with family….but I think that after two draining months of school I needed a bit of solitude. I was so burnt out by mid-week that I decided to delay studying/writing my P.Eng exam in April. I just can’t heck it right now.

Recognizing how drained I feel, I decided to push back my start date with my new employer to late August. I’m hoping that a few months off will give me ample amounts of time to recharge, and re-learn how to relax and enjoy life again ~ relaxation therapy. I sometimes feel these days that I’ve forgotten how to relax – I’m restless 24/7 and don’t know how to sit still. There is always a million things to do (school-wise and personally). My Outlook to-do list is almost 60 items long and I just feel overwhelmed all the time. When school calms down, I catch up on my personal to-do list ….which these days often involves banking, taxes, dealing with my rental property, finding a place to live in Toronto, employment stuff, and a few other family/personal things etc etc. The only thing that gets me through is being organized, managing my time, and grabbing a workout when possible. Yes – a one year program will make you a fantastic time manager.

So, with six weeks to go and 3.5 months off before I start my new job I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to do this summer. Here’s my list: travel, spend time with friends and family, drive across Canada, get back into sports, discover my new hometown/Toronto, read, use my newly acquired investing skill sets to fix my investment portfolios so I have a chance of recovering from this brutal year, get into shape again, volunteer maybe, do something I’ve never done before, gift myself with a new car maybe….find a place to live.

On a final note, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what makes a good leader. I’m not thinking of the traditional attributes (i.e. strong communication, decision making, organizational skills etc), but rather about the little things, the so-called secrets of leadership success. I think I’ve gathered a pretty good list from my work experience and from my tendencies to observe others. I hope to blog about it soon for my next article for the Financial Post.

Lastly, to my surprise I actually did pretty well last term in terms of marks. I’m happy that the hard work paid off, especially considering that I made it a priority not to focus on marks and rather focus on learning….Luck always has something to do with getting good marks in a case-based school and it wouldn’t have surprised me if things didn’t go as well as they did last term.

Until next time…

Sach

ICP'd Out!

There’s no better time to write a blog entry then when you feel like you have absolutely no time, you’re under the gun, and your head is about to explode. Yup, don’t ask me why I’m doing this right now – let’s just say it’s therapeutic for me in some odd way.

I’m in the midst of finishing up my Integrative Consulting Project (ICP for short - mandatory component of the MBA program), and my team and I are busily attempting to complete our extensive write-up and presentation slides for this project. We are close but not quite there. I’m waiting on some content from my mates, so I found a quick breather to write this. The goal is to finish up by Friday night so that we can all finally enjoy a weekend to ourselves.

I’m pretty beat-up right now. I must say that this month probably takes the cake for being the busiest month of the MBA program. I’m sure if you ask those around me, including my wife, they’ll tell you that I’m half out of it, dazed, always in a crabby mood, and sleep-deprived. Yup; I say that describes me at the moment. Don’t let me discourage you from your one year MBA dreams – as they say; no pain then no gain ;) I’m only 8 weeks out from graduation and nothing is going to bring me down right now.

We recently completed our final exams for Module 2B; Managing Operations, Marketing, and IT. Wow, three exams in three days! I made it through that busy week with the help of my peers, but I’m not convinced I did exceptional. It’s so hard to tell whether you did well on an MBA exam. Some of my colleagues recently came to conclude that all MBA exams are strategy exams and that realizing this earlier would have paid off. I guess I always knew that it was all about strategy and I hope that my emphasis on this aspect will pay off with these final exams.

On a positive note, the new U2 album is finally out. It’s called ‘No Line on the Horizon’. I’m always biased when it comes to my favourite band but I think it’s their best album since Achtung Baby. Song #2, called Magnificent, is already one of my favourites all time. The band has been on Letterman every single night this week, and it has been a real treat coming home each night after an 18 hour day to watch them on television before bed. Poor Geeta is gonna be stuck listening to them for the next few months ;(

Ok, c’est tout. Until next time…

Oh…did I mention next week is March Break? Thank god! No major travel plans…P.Eng exam studying, trip to T.O. to meet up with my brother’s family, lots of time with Geeta, and SLEEEEEP!