Leadership Trends and Realities

Leadership Extreme Makeover

Jan Mayer-Rodriguez and Mike Kublin

When you hear “extreme makeover”, you’re likely to think of either the home edition where Ty Pennington and team rebuild/enhance an existing home, or the weight loss edition where individuals are fighting to get back in shape.What would you think about an “extreme makeover” for a leader? Does anyone come to mind that would benefit from a makeover? How would you feel if you were nominated?

“Change is always impossible until the moment we are willing to acknowledge that things are not yet perfect.” –Norman Schwarzkopf

Leadership Extreme Makeover

If someone came to mind, can you clearly state why? Was it because of a particular behavior? Their attitude? An inability to build and sustain relationships? Something they did or perhaps did NOT do? Work ethics and values you can’t relate to? Lack of support?

The 5 most common mistakes leaders make are:

1. The absence of a clearly defined vision and meaningful goals
2. Insufficient communication
3. Not holding others accountable
4. Inconsistent recognition for goal attainment and performance
5. Over managing

Do any of those apply to the leader you’d like to see get a “makeover”? Keeping that same person in mind, how would you answer:

The desired end result is . . .

I would like . . .

(S)he should start doing . . . (

S)he should stop doing . . .

Would you recommend anyone for a leadership extreme makeover? How receptive do you think they would be? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Michael W. Kublin is the founder and President of PeopleTek, Inc., a leadership coaching and development company specializing in helping leaders and organizations thrive.

By examining behaviors, leveraging preferred styles, and by removing fear from leadership, organizational growth occurs and results improve. Prior to founding PeopleTek, Michael worked for Electronic Data Systems and American Express in a variety of leadership roles managing technical teams and interfacing with internal and external business partners and vendors.

Jan Mayer-Rodriguez is editor-in-chief for PeopleTek's weekly leadership tip, assists with developing and enhancing business relations, and identifies developmental opportunities for organizations and individuals. Prior to joining PeopleTek, Jan had a 27 year career at American Express where her positons focused on enhancing internal/external customer satisfaction levels, delivering superior products, and building effective cross team behaviors. 

Related articles

Top Companies - Top Leaders

A Call To Action or to Collective Action?

You Must Work Onsite!

Jan Mayer-Rodriguez and Mike Kublin

 To that we say poppycock! Whether team members work from home, or in the office, a team can be productive and successful. We understand this is controversial and open for debate, but we feel strongly “one size does NOT fit all”.

Trust is critical for creating high performing teams,  whether working side by side, or virtually. 

Should Your Team Work Remote or Be Onsite? 

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer made a brave decision and instructed remote employees to return to company offices by July.  Some reasons included: working side by side fostered collaboration, improved communication, and inspired innovation, with the intent to grow the business.  Best Buy appears to be following suit.

Do you really need to work side by side to have a high performing team, or even be considered a team at all?  

Merely bringing team members to the same location does not address what it takes to improve results and build camaraderie.

What you do need is the ability to identify what it is that’s preventing your team from providing the results you desire. Is not being in the same locale really having a negative impact? Maybe, maybe not.

We suggest reviewing the processes you have in place for your team. Teams commonly derail when there are unclear goals and purpose, when individual accountability and holding each other accountable are not priorities, when open lines of communication do not exist, when conflict is not managed in a healthy honoring and respectful manner, and the number one issue:  when there’s the inability to build TRUST.

Increasing integrity and creating trust may be developed from remote locations as well as in person. It’s what we say to each other and how we say it, it’s validating our interpretation,  it’s looking for positive intent.  It’s also speaking up and providing feedback to help individuals and teams grow.

Roughly 5 years ago we started running coaching programs for teams via telephone. Initially not everyone on the PeopleTek staff agreed with the concept, but we’re happy to share that it does work when team members and their leaders are committed to it.

Most innovation, creativity and growth can occur by any means if the elements of teams and leadership are aligned.

 Even Agile (in person teams) have issues with creativity and implementation when they lack the basics of being a team and moving aggressively towards the same targets.

We’ve also discovered that some individuals are better team members and are stronger performers when they don’t see one another! (Body language and stimulation actually detract from the person’s productivity, their ability to “open up”, and gain trust).

Whether you work in person, over the telephone, or via teleconference, what really impacts performance are the elements of effective teamwork. These include:

• Sharing and supporting vision, mission and goals
• Aligned and agreed upon behaviors
• Building and maintaining trust
• Diversity and appreciation of participants (work styles, skills, talents, abilities)
• Not fearing healthy conflict
• Ability to handle constant change
• Processes for innovation and reinvention
• Rewards and recognition which are consistent across the team

Eliminating workplace flexibility may not be your solution for improving results; we do however guarantee that embracing the elements of effective teamwork will improve results!

Michael W. Kublin is the founder and President of PeopleTek, Inc., a leadership coaching and development company specializing in helping leaders and organizations thrive.

By examining behaviors, leveraging preferred styles, and by removing fear from leadership, organizational growth occurs and results improve. Prior to founding PeopleTek, Michael worked for Electronic Data Systems and American Express in a variety of leadership roles managing technical teams and interfacing with internal and external business partners and vendors.

Jan Mayer-Rodriguez is editor-in-chief for PeopleTek's weekly leadership tip, assists with developing and enhancing business relations, and identifies developmental opportunities for organizations and individuals. Prior to joining PeopleTek, Jan had a 27 year career at American Express where her positons focused on enhancing internal/external customer satisfaction levels, delivering superior products, and building effective cross team behaviors. 

Related articles

3 Things Marissa Mayer and Yahoo! Did Right (And 3 Things They Did Wrong)

Top Companies - Top Leaders

Top Companies - Top Leaders

Jan Mayer-Rodriguez and Mike Kublin

Fortune magazine and the Great Place To Work Institute just announced the Top 100 Best Companies to work for.

259 firms and more than 277,000 employees were surveyed and asked to rate management credibility, job satisfaction, camaraderie, pay and benefits, hiring practices, communication, recognition, and diversity.

A common theme for the winners?  Making their employees their priority. 

"If this place got any better, I might not go home at night."--SAS employee

Employees are the priority . . .

Most of the top 100 companies have a voluntary attrition rate of < 5%, most are in the top quartile for compensation, and most offer domestic partner benefits.

The other big differentiator was that almost all did a variety of "things" to keep employees happy. Here are some that were highlighted:

• On-site massages, fitness centers
• Promoting a work-life balance and tracking hours to ensure there was a balance
• "Catch" and reward others for a job well done; opportunities to appreciate others
• Formal idea sharing forums and regional gatherings
• Paid hours to volunteer or for sabbaticals
• 10% of work time allowed for pursuing a work project of their choice
• Training, development, job rotation, job shadowing, mentoring
• Flexible work hours
• Having a sense of purpose; working toward shared goals

And one we thought was especially interesting, was where a CEO posted their personal development plan for all employees to see, and track results.

Depending on the company you work for, and your individual role, you may be in the position to influence some, and actually implement others. Which do you already have in place? Which are you willing to influence or implement? 

Michael W. Kublin is the founder and President of PeopleTek, Inc., a leadership coaching and development company specializing in helping leaders and organizations thrive.

By examining behaviors, leveraging preferred styles, and by removing fear from leadership, organizational growth occurs and results improve. Prior to founding PeopleTek, Michael worked for Electronic Data Systems and American Express in a variety of leadership roles managing technical teams and interfacing with internal and external business partners and vendors.

Jan Mayer-Rodriguez is editor-in-chief for PeopleTek's weekly leadership tip, assists with developing and enhancing business relations, and identifies developmental opportunities for organizations and individuals. Prior to joining PeopleTek, Jan had a 27 year career at American Express where her positons focused on enhancing internal/external customer satisfaction levels, delivering superior products, and building effective cross team behaviors. 

A Call To Action or to Collective Action?

Jan Mayer-Rodriguez and Mike Kublin

On Monday, January 21st, the United States held their Presidential Inauguration. During the Inaugural address, many references were made to leadership actions and behaviors required for success.

“Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” –Conrad Hilton

A Call to Action or to Collective Action?

Comments were made about “collective action”, not simply a “call to action”. Think in terms of COLLABORATION! For those familiar with Thomas-Kilmann, collaboration means being both assertive and cooperative. It means working together to find a solution that fully satisfies the concerns of both, and it includes digging in to an issue to identify underlying concerns and finding an alternative that meets both sets of concerns. It’s a win-win solution!

Successful leadership also requires embracing differences. We say not only embrace the differences, but leverage them! We all have our own unique set of strengths; making use of everyone’s strengths can only make us a stronger “whole”, and increase the chance for obtaining the results we desire.

Leaders must set the tone and direction. We need to set and clearly communicate our goals. We need to identify our priorities, and as change is required, we cannot resist it. Rather we must lead through and manage the obstacles and resistance we encounter. “When times change so must we.”

Leaders work hard; they display ownership, responsibility, and accountability. We need to work smart, not just hard. Too often we respond to urgent issues and make them a priority over important issues. We need to not only display behaviors associated with ownership, responsibility, and accountability, we need to instill them in others.

Leaders must be willing to take risks. Risk has been defined as “undertaking a task involving a challenge for achievement or a desirable goal in which there is a lack of certainty or a fear of failure.” This means we will make mistakes; we will learn from them and we will grow.

We must take pride in what we do, we must harness new ideas and technology, and we must invest the time to assess what’s most important while maintaining our focus. Which of these leadership actions and behaviors do you consider as your strengths? Which could be further developed? Now’s the time to take action!

Michael W. Kublin is the founder and President of PeopleTek,Inc., a leadership coaching and development company specializing in helping leaders and organizations thrive.

By examining behaviors, leveraging preferred styles, and by removing fear from leadership, organizational growth occurs and results improve. Prior to founding PeopleTek, Michael worked for Electronic Data Systems and American Express in a variety of leadership roles managing technical teams and interfacing with internal and external business partners and vendors.

Jan Mayer-Rodriguez is editor-in-chief for PeopleTek's weekly leadership tip, assists with developing and enhancing business relations, and identifies developmental opportunities for organizations and individuals. Prior to joining PeopleTek, Jan had a 27 year career at American Express where her positons focused on enhancing internal/external customer satisfaction levels, delivering superior products, and building effective cross team behaviors.