Archive for the ‘Insider List’ Category
Jan
3
Holiday Thank you
I do love this time of year. Cheesiness and over-commercialization notwithstanding, it seems to me that there is a spirit of hopefulness, appreciation and mutual support sparkling through this season.
And in the spirit of that, I want to thank you for your wonderful and immediate response to my “subtitle” question in the last Insider List. We heard from many of you, and the strong favorite was “Becoming the Leader People Will Follow” (although “Timeless Secrets of True Leadership” had its passionate advocates!).
I took your response to my agent, Jim, and my publicist, Barbara, and after more conversation and thought, we decided to go with a version of your preferred subtitle as the main title – and not have a subtitle at all. So, the manuscript went to the publisher yesterday, and the proposed title is simply Leading So People Will Follow.
In Praise of Collaboration…
It’s a much better, stronger, more evocative title than I would have come up with on my own. This is the beauty of collaboration. I’m kind of a late-onset collaborator. Earlier in my life I was much more of a do-it-yourself-if-you-want-it-done-right sort of person. And, like many converts to a new way of thinking or operating, I’m now quite passionate about the power of collaboration. On a daily basis, I observe how ideas are improved in conversation – and how understanding and buy-in soar when people’s thoughts and contributions are fully welcomed. I’m still learning, of course – there are definitely times when I default inappropriately to my overly self-sufficient Driver weaknesses. So it really helps to be surrounded by people, including all of you, who are so smart, thoughtful and honest that I’m constantly reminded why collaboration is valuable.
In the new book, you’ll find that collaboration is strongly woven into each of the six leader attributes. For instance, being Far-sighted isn’t simply about having a clear vision for the future – it’s about articulating it in a compelling and inclusive way, and inviting people to weigh in, make it their own, make it happen. And being Generousincludes sharing power and authority…the essence of real collaboration.
So that you can see what I’m talking about, I’m offering you a little holiday gift: the six leader attributes from the book, and the behaviors we’ve determined best demonstrate them (you’ll see how collaboration shows up throughout). I invite you to use this simple page to reflect on your own leadership (at work or in other areas of your life) and think where you’re strong and where you need to develop.
I want to support your success as you support mine. In the spirit of the holidays -
Very warmly,
Erika
Jan
3
A New Book in the Works
Just about five years ago, I was waiting with bated breath (whatever that means – if any of you know, please fill me in) for my first book to come out. I really had no idea what impact it would have on me or on Proteus to have Growing Great Employees in print, but it was exciting! As it turned out, it was nothing like I expected. For one thing, Jeff and I thought that lot of people would immediately call us up, after reading the book, and want to become clients. That happened exactly three times.
However, a lot of other cool stuff happened instead. More credibility, a great “calling card” with potential clients…and thousands of people helped to be better managers who I would otherwise never have had the chance to support.
One completely unexpected development: having a book offered a new way to connect with people. I started my blog right around the book’s pub date, and immediately started meeting a whole new set of smart, funny, thoughtful people online who were interested in managing people well – in fact, in making work as fun and productive as possible. As time went on, and the second book came out, and I kept blogging, startedtweeting, began my Forbes.com blog, created a professional facebook page and began the Insiders List, my online community continued to grow.
Making It a Community Effort…
If we were a nineteenth century farming community, I’d be inviting you over to my place to help me raise my barn. But as we’re a twenty-first century virtual community, I’d like to invite you to help me raise my new book. I’ve just finished writing it; my agent Jim is reviewing it. If all goes as planned, it should come out next fall or winter. And I’d love to include you in the process.
So here’s my first invitation for your thoughts and insights. The new book is calledLeading (at least, that’s my working title – we’ll see what the publisher thinks). It focuses on the six qualities that people look for in their leaders: how I came to discover them, what they are, and how to develop them in yourself. For a little more background, here’s a blog post that briefly explains the six attributes.
We’re considering two subtitles at the moment: “Timeless Secrets of True Leadership”and “Becoming the Leader People Will Follow.” Here’s my question to you: If you saw the book in a bookstore or online, which subtitle would make you more interested in reading it? If you have another idea for a subtitle you think would be more compelling – please share that, too.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts and for being part of the community!
Very warmly,
Erika
Jan
3
Seeing Patterns
For those of you who are newer to the List, I started a series of “Protean Profiles” last Valentine’s Day, with a work-appropriate love letter to my partner, Jeff. Since many of you know and have worked with me, or me and one or two of my colleagues, but may not be familiar with the rest of the team, I thought you might enjoy ‘meeting’ them through this medium.
Today I want to introduce you to Cindy Franklin. Cindy has been with Proteus longer than anyone else on the team, other than me. She and I met 13 years ago, at the suggestion of a mutual friend: I was drawn immediately to her quiet intelligence and warmth, and her keen insight into the human condition.
The Queen of seeing patterns…
Cindy began working with our clients as an executive coach. For those of you who haven’t worked with us in this way, the process generally includes interviewing a group of 6-8 people who work closely with the ‘coachee.’ We then create a two-page document that summarizes what we’ve heard: one page noting the 6-8 key strengths and one with the 2-3 key growth areas.
I noticed right away that Cindy had a unique talent for this part of the work. She created such a safe, fully confidential environment, and is such a gifted listener, that people were able and wiling to share their complete and honest sense of the person being coached. Skilled as she was in interviewing, though, I saw that Cindy’s real gift lay in what she did with the information she heard. Someone once told me that a true mark of genius is “seeing patterns where others see only randomness.” If that’s true, then Cindy is definitely a genius: she unerringly finds the essential patterns in the information she’s given, and frames them up in a simple and compelling way. Cindy was so good at doing this – and it was so helpful to those being coached - that I asked her to do the interviews and summaries for my coachees, as well. We’ve teamed in this way ever since.
And we’ve since made broader use of Cindy’s diagnostic super-powers for the benefit of our clients. She conducts focus groups and interviews, and then creates summaries based on the information she gathers, to help our clients better understand their organization’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, we often bring Cindy in to interview employees before a Vision and Strategy session, to get their sense of what’s working and not working. Her masterful summaries are extremely helpful to the senior team during the session, when they’re working to build an accurate picture of the current situation as a foundation for their visioning.
Cindy is also incredibly generous with her time and wisdom within Proteus. She’s helped many of us to become more skilled in interviewing and in patterning the information we hear. She’s also helped us see ourselves more clearly as an organization – both by gathering and summarizing our clients’ perceptions of us, and by sharing her own insights with us throughout the years.
I’m so glad to have met Cindy, all those years ago, and so proud to have her as a colleague. I’ve mentioned before that our Proteus brand insights are “strengthening, illuminating and trustworthy.” Cindy is the essence of all three; if you haven’t had the chance to meet and work with her yet, I hope you do at some point – it will enrich your life.
Very warmly,
Erika
Nov
10
Dear friend,
I always loved Halloween as a kid – what’s not to love? Dressing up as some make-believe creature, going out at night without your parents, all the candy you can eat plus permission to eat it? I even liked all the pseudo-scariness associated with it: the neighborhood haunted houses, and stories told with flashlight-illuminated faces.
But there’s delicious shivery nothing-really-bad’s-gonna-happen fear and then there’s real fear. And I thought Halloween seemed like a good time to talk about the truly scary kind and what to do about it.
The Downside of Fear
Mild fear can actually be a good thing. Let’s say, for instance, you’re scheduled to make a big presentation to your boss and some other senior people. If you’re a little anxious about it, you’ll probably be motivated to do everything you can to assure it goes well: find out what’s expected; prepare your materials and remarks carefully; practice till you feel reasonably comfortable; make sure you have the finished materials and technology you need on the day of the presentation. You still might be a bit nervous, but you will have done everything to assure your nervousness translates into energy and focus during the meeting.
Now imagine that same situation with a lot of fear. Significant fear tends to limit our perceptions and our response. When we’re really scared, our mental field of vision narrows, making it hard to see anything beyond the current threat. In the grip of fear, we focus only on defense, protection, or escape. This ancient fear response is a survival mechanism. When a threat is immediate and physical, it’s completely appropriate: if a saber-toothed tiger is trying to make you into dinner, you want to be utterly focused on saving yourself. Unfortunately, we’re wired to respond to fear in the same way even when the threat is very different.
So if the idea of presenting to your boss and his or her colleagues evokes this kind of deep fear in you…throwing your computer at them and running away might seem appealing, but it won’t give you the result you’re looking for in this situation!
Fortunately, you have some modern-day mental tools to help you. You can begin to manage your fear through physical means. Simple relaxation and breathing techniques can help disrupt your body’s chain of stress responses. Once you’ve calmed your physical symptoms, you can turn your attention to your interior monologue.
How we talk to ourselves about events is a powerful determinant of our emotional and physical responses. Managing your self-talk can help you get past your fears.
For instance, in the situation we’re talking about here, imagine you start by saying to yourself, “Oh my god – this is going to be awful. I’ve never done this before…I’ll be a huge flop…these people will think I’m an idiot. There’s no way I can pull this off!!” And imagine you then manage your internal monologue to something far more hopeful (and probably more accurate), but still realistic and believable – something like: “This is scary – but I’m a reasonably good presenter and I’ve prepared well. I know my boss likes and supports me, and I have no reason to think the other people in the room want me to fail. I’ll do my best.”
I’ve often written about how to manage self-talk, and the folks at Detroit Public Television were so enamored of the idea, they had me do “bonus material” about self-talk on the Being Strategic DVD. In fact, that’s my gift to you this week – the script I wrote for the self-talk section of the DVD. If you’ve seen the DVD, you’ll recognize how closely Jeff and I followed the script – we wanted to make sure the segment was as clear and helpful as possible.
Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. Have a happy – and not too scary – Halloween.
Very warmly,
Erika
Nov
10
Dear friend,
If Proteus were a person, it could drink legally. And we just had a party to celebrate. On Monday night, the Proteus team and a great group of clients, friends and colleagues came together at the Proteus NYC offices for a combination office-warming/coming of age party.
You were there in spirit
Some of you attended (in fact, a few introduced themselves to me as “Insiders”, which was cool), and I thought about the rest of you at various points during the evening. In fact, in between talking to old friends, meeting new people, eating the amazingUnion Square Events appetizers, and drinking the wonderful wines my partner Jeffselected, I reflected on those who weren’t there physically – our ever-more far-flung community of clients, staff and like-minded world citizens. I felt both happy and proud thinking about all the great folks we’ve helped and supported, and who have helped and supported us in turn; the people whose lives and companies we’ve benefitted, and who have referred us to others, advocated for us in their companies, and taught and enriched us in countless other ways.
We threw the party when all of us “Proteans” were in town for our yearly company meeting (we thought it was a great opportunity to celebrate as a group, and to introduce our team to clients who’ve been working with us for years and yet who may not have met many of us). My main take-away from the meeting itself was that we truly are “growing up” as a company; putting in place the systems that will help us serve our clients even better and more consistently, developing our capabilities, and getting better at taking full advantage of the skills and strengths we each bring. During the meeting, a number of my teammates expressed the same sentiment. I believe we’re seeing Jim Collin’s “flywheel effect” at Proteus – as he describes it, “a down-to-earth, pragmatic, committed-to-excellence process–a framework…the victory of steadfast discipline over the quick fix.”
For the past 21 years, we’ve had one mission: to help our clients clarify and move toward their hoped-for future. And every day, we work to fulfill our brand promise: to be illuminating, strengthening, and trustworthy. It’s exciting for us, and we hope increasingly helpful to all of you, to see and feel our “flywheel” gain momentum.
So, here’s to another 21; thank you so much for being with us on the journey.
Very warmly,
Erika
Nov
10
Dear friend,
One aspect of our business in which I take the most pride: the quality of the relationships we build with our clients. We’ve been serving a number of our client organizations, and individuals within those organizations, since the early nineties.
I love how those relationships grow and change over time. Quite often clients become friends; sometimes they become business partners. As with Kathy Dore and Therese Miclot, Mike Rowe began as a Proteus client, and over the years became a friend and then a member of our team.
A great HR pedigree…
Mike spent 25 years as an HR leader before joining us, filling increasingly senior jobs at GM, Pepsi, and Disney before becoming Head of HR for Activision, where he designed and built a human resource function that supported a 2000% growth in the business over a seven-year period.
I once asked Mike how he got interested in HR as a profession. He told me about the summer job he got after his senior year in high school that turned into an opportunity to design an employment program for inner city young people. “I was hooked,” he said. “I realized I could do something practical to help people and help the economy. From that point on, HR was what I wanted to do.”
I met Mike twenty years ago when he was working in learning and development at Taco Bell; he and I designed a management training program for new store managers. We really enjoyed working together, and over the following fifteen years, Mike brought Proteus in to all the companies where he worked.
About five years ago, after leaving his job at Activision to semi-retire and move back to his home state of Michigan with his family, Mike called me again. He could only mow his lawn so many times, he said – and we started discussing the possibility of him joining the Proteus team.
Over the past three years, Mike has become essential to our growth and success. He’s better than anyone I’ve ever known at helping companies strengthen and simplify their human resources processes to support good business results. And he’s so smart, clear, and easy to work with that he can make even the knottiest, most complex problems seem straightforward and solvable. Recently he’s been applying this ‘superpower’ to helping a number of our clients upgrade and streamline their existing Performance Management systems. Mike uses a simple but powerful ‘lens’ in his HR systems work to assess the alignment of key organizational elements; I thought you’d find it useful and interesting, so I’m sharing it with you here.
I feel honored when the clients I most respect ‘jump the fence’ and join our team. They bring a fresh perspective; having been our clients, they’re uniquely suited to helping ensure that what we offer is truly useful and relevant. I love that Mike is here to raise our game and keep us moving toward our own castle on the hill; I hope you all get a chance to meet and work with him over the coming years.
Very warmly,
Erika
Nov
10
Dear friend,
When I was younger, I was a quite solitary person. Twenty-five years ago, if you had asked me who I was close to, I would have said my siblings, my dad, my (then) husband, my baby daughter, and one or two friends. I was very work-focused, and didn’t really understand the power (or the point) of having lots of relationships.
If you had asked me to stand up in front of 500 people and present on some topic about which I felt passionate or knowledgeable – no problem. If you asked me to go to a party and mingle with 20 people I didn’t know – no way!
A big ah-ha
Then I learned the Social Style model. I found out that I was a “Driver” in that model: fast-paced, goal-oriented, not outwardly emotive – focused on tasks much more than relationships. It all resonated. But I also learned about the three other styles – Expressive, Amiable, and Analytical – and started to try to understand what they brought to the party, and to try to see the world from those different points of view. At around the same time, I learned another – for me – critical skill; Listening. I realized there was a connection. As a Driver, I’d been doing too much ‘telling’ and not enough ‘asking,’ and I was over-focused on my goals and my point of view, at the expense of others’ perspectives. Listening seemed the perfect antidote.
I began to exercise my listening and relationship “muscles,” and, over time, started to understand the benefit of deeper connection with others, and the truly amazing power of listening (I became such a fan that I dedicated an entire chapter of Growing Great Employees to the skill – and I consciously practice becoming an ever better listener each day).
Now, all these years later, I’m definitely still a Driver – but I have many close friends, all over the country, and good, deep, supportive relationships of fun and mutual benefit with colleagues, clients and friends. I love building and being on teams, and I feel continually nourished and strengthened by others’ knowledge, insights and support.
My point: there’s no limit to our individual potential to learn; we can expand our perspective and our capabilities indefinitely. Age is no barrier, and where you start from is no barrier. We can each become more and more the person we want to be throughout our lives.
Go for it.
Very warmly,
Erika
Nov
10
Dear friend,
One of the exciting things about Proteus these days is the rapid expansion of the training part of our business, the part we call Building Skills and Knowledge. We’re in the process of looking for more truly world-class trainers to fill the need. Fortunately for us, some of our executive coaches are also excellent trainers, so they’re helping us serve clients in this way while we continue to build our training ‘bench.’
Ken Kesslin is a key example; if we were giving prizes, Ken would definitely win our “most willing to travel anywhere in the world to train” award. As our training business has grown, Ken has traveled to India, China, Mexico, and Australia (just to name a few of his far-flung destinations) to teach people how to be better managers and leaders.
But thats not all…
Besides being a globe-trotting trainer, Ken is also a gifted executive coach. When people ask me about Ken’s coaching specialty, I always tell them that he’s extraordinarily skilled at giving tough feedback in a way thats “hearable,” and at helping executives (particularly the hard-driving “type-A” sort) understand any negative impacts of their style on people and on the business – and what to do to change that impact.
Before coming to Proteus, Ken’s professional life included both a stint on Wall Street, in management and sales, and 14 years as a psychotherapist – a combination that gives him great insights into the interplay of business and personal factors in any situation. He’s told me that he decided to go into coaching because it provided an opportunity to help people improve and succeed – which is what he liked about being a therapist – in their professional lives; that it would allow him to apply all he’d learned throughout his career.
Just recently, Ken was training a group of managers in Singapore. Part of the course he was teaching included the Social Style model, which we almost invariably use in our executive coaching, and have also found invaluable as a tool for helping people manage and team more effectively. He sent us some wonderful pictures of flipcharts from the course, in English and Mandarin. If you’re not familiar with Social Styles, here’s something you might find interesting and useful. It’s an article based on the Social Style chapter in Growing Great Employees.
I really enjoy having Ken as a member of the Proteus team. He’s thoughtful, smart, team-focused, and – as you might imagine – flexible! And he’s helping us all to understand how the skills we offer translate across cultural and geographic boundaries. Now, if we can just get him to share his frequent flyer miles….
Very warmly,
Erika
Nov
10
Dear friend,
A few weeks ago, an executive I’m coaching said she liked the fact that I’m a business owner: she felt that running a business gives me important insights into her world and the challenges that face her daily. I agree. Running Proteus with my partner Jeff definitely gives me a different frame of reference than I would otherwise have.
One thing I think about and deal with every day – like most of the executives we coach – is how to grow our business. Fortunately, we ‘eat our own caviar,’ as Jeff would say, so we’re being strategic about that growth: we have a clear vision for our future, and a good plan for getting there.
Part of our castle on the hill
One critical element of our vision for the past few years has been to have a Proteus office in Manhattan. We have a beautiful office in Minneapolis in a historical building downtown. It’s our operations office, and all of our training programs and group sessions are administered from there. But because so many of our key clients are located in or near New York, and a number of our consultants live in the area, as well, we envisioned the NYC office as a place to meet with clients, to conduct coaching sessions, and to work together on client projects. New York has been a big part of our history and our growth, and we saw this as a way to create a strong foundation for the future.
Just recently we realized that part of our vision. We opened Proteus NYC at 276 Fifth Avenue on May 27th. We had the chance to design it from raw space, so that it truly feels and looks “Protean.” It’s wonderful having a place in New York City that we’re proud to share with clients and with each other.
I wanted to share it with all of you, too. So, aided by the miracles of modern technology, we created a video tour of the new offices just for you, the Insiders. It’s informal – Dan and I (with Mike Rowe pressed into service as the camera man) at the end of the work day – but we hope it gives you a feel for what we’re creating here.
We’re also going to be having an office-warming party/open house in October – and you’re all invited! Dan will be sending you an e-vite at the end of September.
So here’s to the future. I hope you’ll be there with us as we keep building our future, and I hope you’ll be living the life you truly want.
Very warmly,
Erika
Nov
10
Dear friend,
I am an optimist. In fact, one reviewer of Growing Great Employees called me “a relentless optimist.” I don’t think he meant it as a compliment.
I’ve noticed that many people view optimism as naïve and old-fashioned these days. The prevailing sentiment seems to be, “Given the state of the world today, how could any reasonable, intelligent person be excited and hopeful about the future?” And certainly a quick online tour of the major news sites would tend to reinforce this point of view!
While I understand that CNN, Fox News, CNBC, the NY Times, et al, are in business to engage consumers, and that “Debt Crisis Looms!” is a more compelling headline than “Congress and the President Seem to Have Worked Something Out” – still, the outcome, aside from higher ratings, is unfortunate: the media’s continual sky-is-falling focus only reinforces our pessimistic bias.
In Defense of Optimism
Even though it seems to be somewhat out of vogue, there’s a lot to be said for optimism. For one thing, research shows that optimists tend to live longer and be healthier than pessimists.
I’ve also seen that leaders who are optimistic about the future tend to get better results and build stronger teams. I believe it’s because their hopefulness communicates a sense of possibility that inspires people to commit more fully and to do their best work.
Now, let me be clear here; I’m not talking about blind, unfounded optimism, or a refusal to acknowledge challenges or difficulties. I think Jim Collins got it right in Good to Great, with what he called “The Stockdale Paradox” true optimism is believing that you will prevail in the end, while confronting the ‘brutal facts’ that surround you.
I call it reasonable aspiration.
One way we can get more optimism into the mix is to celebrate stories of success. I try to do that here, and in both my blogs – and I certainly do it when I’m working with clients.
And I found a website that focuses entirely on finding and sharing ‘good news’ stories.
So I thought it would be fun and optimism-supportive to put out a call to all my Insiders to share your own good news. I’d love to hear stories of optimism fulfilled: things you believed you could do – and did. Triumphs of fact and of spirit, at home or at work. Bring ‘em on! Email them to me, or message me on Facebook, and I’ll share them here or on my blogs.
I look forward to hearing your good news!
Very warmly,
Erika
