What is leadership?

A leadership position is, for many, a professional goal. You’ve pursued your passion, kept up with advancing technical skills, the next step is to rise within your field in a way that allows you to guide a dedicated team to do the same. At Forte Designs, our philosophy is to develop a foundation of four pillars: trust, integrity, purpose and critical thinking.  These four pillars help to grow the human capital of a company.  Leadership is about expanding your field of vision. You'll want to see the details, but you've also got to see the mid-field, and beyond.

As Michael Malone of the Wall Street Journal writes, your “secondary skills” are significant in that they allow you to shift your focus from your own individual productivity to being a buoyant supporter of a team. These are your “people skills” and they make you a most effective leader. Writes Malone:

“Shifting focus from personal productivity to supporting subordinates is a major part of the transition to management. Similarly, good managers must turn their attention away from the measurable metrics of the present toward a vision for the unpredictable future. For an employee looking to grow into a leadership role, these changes in perspective are as important as learning to communicate.” (Michael Malone, “The Secret to Midcareer Success,” Wall Street Journal, February 11, 2018)

It is so important that both technical and interpersonal skills are in full play, especially when individuals within a company move into managerial positions and higher.  One must be thinking about succession all the time across all departments. 

We believe that those who chose to grow in their area of expertise, perspective and outlook must constantly enhance their secondary skills and empower others to be "WE" leaders. Fostering the future of individuals on a team translates into the longevity of a company. 

Pick Up the Phone and Call

In recent posts, I’ve talked about ways to build collaboration, identify expectations for meetings, how to allow for time in your daily calendars to think, and how to discuss challenges and develop solutions human to human. If you are one of my regular readers, you’re developing a good kit of practical business tools and tips to help you grow your business attributes as a leader with the foundation to build a successful team.   

One of your most valuable tools is communication. I find it ironic that one of the reasons people live by their cellphones is to be available anywhere, at anytime to take a call and yet, people tend to do anything possible to avoid picking up the phone.

One of the most important business tips I can give is to “pick up the phone” and call the person or client. 

The trouble with this fast-paced, technology-revolutionized modern world we live in is that we are all trying to find ways to be more efficient and save time, but we are all inundated with communication.  I’d like to suggest that instead of sending so many emails and texts, practice making a phone call (or meeting someone in person).

More and more studies in business reports and journals show that the key to being more efficient in your day-to-day operations is to pick up the phone and call.  With so much electronic noise, no one is taking the time necessary to read through a chain of emails and synthesize what is really being discussed. 

When trying to schedule a meeting, people will spend hours going back and forth to secure a date and time. Why not just pick up the phone to call the person, compare calendars and schedule a time to meet—which generally takes around five minutes?  With that, you have an opportunity to interact in conversation with the person and ask them about their day. (Remember how great that feels, fellow human?)

I listened to an interview recently with a notable doctor of psychology who has spent the last decade researching the rapid growth of depression and anxiety in our culture.  He found that, as humans, our number one necessity is the need for interaction with others. He asked this question:  If you had a problem, how many people in your immediate circle of business colleagues or friends could you talk to? Several years ago, the majority of subjects could easily list three to four people. Today, the overwhelming response was zero among the people in the study!

In a recent team meeting, we were discussing the workflow of a project—schedules and deadlines with the various departments involved—in order to achieve successful completion and implementation.  I asked if all the department leaders and team members had been contacted, via a one-on-one meeting or phone call regarding the final schedule. Immediately, the response I heard was, “Yes, they were included on the email chain, so they should have read the plan.”

I then asked the lead of this project if they had actually contacted the other department leaders to verify that they had read the email and were prepared to implement the schedule for the project.  Silence took over the room, followed by a quiet “No.” No one had had a direct person-to-person meet or talk with leaders from the other departments or their team members!

I suggested that we pick up the phone and call the other department leaders on the spot. Some were able to take our call during our meeting.  We learned that they had looked at the email but were waiting to hear form the leader of another group to discuss the next steps forward to better prepare their schedules to meet the deadlines. 

What a great lesson for everyone. Issue solved. No unnecessary delays or miscommunication.  Direct person-to-person communication can actually save time, improve communications and allow everyone to take ownership of a SUCCESSFUL project.   

Sharing in conversation and truly listening builds a trusted and time-effective, collaborative environment for both one’s internal and external clients. 

·      Pick up the phone and call.

·      Leave a message if they are not there.

·      Make sure your message is specific about why you are calling.

·      Have a purpose for the call and be mindful of their time and schedules.

·      Be genuine in your conversation—talk about other topics beside a work item or deadline.

Take the time to pick up the phone. Too much gets lost in email translations.

Spring ahead, it's about time!

We are about to turn our clocks ahead (on Sunday, March 11th to be exact).

The optimist says, “Finally, longer stretches of sunlight!”

The pessimist says, “We lose an hour of time.”

Everything we do takes time. Yet do we really give ourselves the time to do what we need to do in a given day? Many of us have embraced the mechanics of Outlook calendars to plan our lives. The simplicity of planning our schedules and, oh, those pop-up reminders (!) appear to relieve us from the stress of the day. Yet, they really don’t. 

The myth of electronic calendar tools is that they create efficiency.  Yes, you are expertly planning, but you are not leaving time for the free flow of life – for interaction and collaboration with others. No time is factored in to debrief oneself after a meeting, solve a problem or, most importantly, create a solution.

For the last couple of decades, we have been told that the means of modernization and technology would give us more free time to stop and smell the roses, yet, as I talk to many of my colleagues, it seems that the future we live in now is racing by us at the speed of light – and we are all caught up in it. (Ever wonder why this is an exceptionally bad flu season? Human immunity is outpaced.)  

Electronic calendars control how and when we do things. They are not assisting us in our productivity.

Recently, I worked on a collaborative project with colleagues from different areas of a company. The project had several moving parts. While each of us went around the room sharing our updates and next steps forward for the implementation of the project, there appeared to be a gap of time for completion.  One of the team members asked me how long it would take to meet with the other members of the team who were responsible for implementing the project. I thought for a few moments about his question, and realized I could not answer it with a calculation of minutes or hours.  In today’s work environment, we have become so accustomed to electronic calendars, that we don’t factor in the time to work with others and have discussions.

Many people focus on the completion of their individual tasks, yet do not think to build in the time to interface and collaborate with others to complete a project. Because of this, we rush to meet a last minute deadline.  

Yes, scheduling tools can help you be more productive, but be sure to revisit your calendar often to:

1) Build in time for a break---to think on your own or, collaboratively, with others.

2) Try different planning tools to slow down the chaotic race for completion.

3) Build thoughtful meetings around agendas with a little wiggle room to complete goals.