Self-awareness is fundamental to getting more out of life and work. Evidence suggests it's a predictor of leader and company success. That goes for life too. Leadership creates dilemmas between right and right. Consider the often-competing responsibilities between your well-being, family, friends, and work. It doesn't stop there. It can be a struggle to keep track of your responsibilities. It is helpful to understand that the quality of your life is defined by the quality of the routine practices performed automatically in daily life. It is easy to get the need for better habits in theory, but in practice still fall into unintentional patterns and accidental habits. No leader I know sets out to develop bad habits. Also, I don't believe the most significant barrier for many leaders is creating a greater desire for better habits. The answer can be found in greater awareness of proven leadership principles, reflection, and practical tools that busy leaders can successfully apply. Here is one leadership development tool that creates the clarity you need to achieve your goals. Not sure where to start? An essential insight is to understand that work and life are interrelated. Each affects the other. Stress at work doesn't vanish when you walk out of the office. It can drain physical and mental health and tax the most important relationships. It's the same for stress in life. True self-awareness means seeing yourself objectively and knowing how you are doing from the perspectives of principles that apply in life and work. Easier said than done, right? It's challenging to keep a focus, especially given the nature of the fast-paced, ever-changing workplace. Unfortunately, self-awareness is rare in leaders. According to a global study by the Hay Group involving 17,000 leaders, less than one in five women and one in twenty men had a sense of self-awareness. Some leaders don't even try, pursuing whatever is perceived as most urgent at the moment as they move from meeting to meeting. It's a real struggle to keep focused in a fast-paced digital workplace. However, most habits do not get better on their own. A saying I heard in the food distribution industry is that we are all either ripe and rotting or green and growing. You will unlikely gain traction as a leader without focusing on what matters most. One tool that can provide awareness of what matters most in life and work is the Accidental Habit Assessment. This tool allows you to rate yourself on ten proven principles. It then calculates your score for each life-changing leadership habit displayed as a low, medium, or high score for each principle. How far can you go? The customized report and guide will provide you with an "aha" moment as you reflect on your leadership to understand your strengths and accidental habits needing improvement. Without reflection, perspectives quickly become blurred in a fast-paced workplace with potentially devastating consequences. Reflection facilitates learning, provides perspective on self-limiting beliefs when used purposefully, and improves productivity. Evidence suggests spending 15 minutes daily enhances productivity by as much as 23% more than those without reflection time. This is the first year for the assessment, and I love hearing how the assessment provides surprising insights into ways leaders can better elevate people, profit, and purpose. How far have you come? Getting from where you are to where you want to be is based on knowing where you are starting from and where you are going. The score provided in the Accidental Habit Assessment not only tells you where you are, it lets you know how far you have come. Habits contribute to the actions you will take tomorrow. But with a good understanding of your current habits, you can make better decisions informed by enhanced self-awareness and reflection. Improving your Life-Changing Leadership Habits score over time also helps provide the motivation and engagement needed for building better habits. How far will you go? During this 10-minute quiz, you'll answer 24 multiple-choice questions and choose which answers best describe you. Once you are finished, you'll receive a customized Life-Changing Leadership Habits report and guide to help you focus on what matters most. Best of all, this is totally free. Additionally, your report becomes a personalized reading plan to access researched and field-tested leadership resources and transformational tools in my new book, Life-Changing Leadership Habits: 10 Proven Principles That Will Elevate People, Profit, and Purpose. Don't miss this chance to discover your accidental habits. It's fast, free, and gives you the visibility you need to achieve success and significance in life and work. References Doolittle, J. (2023). Life-changing leadership habits: 10 Proven Principles That Will Elevate People, Profit, and Purpose. Flaum, J. (2018). When it comes to business leadership, nice guys finish first. Green Peak Partners and Cornell University. KornFerry. (2016). New Research Shows Women Are Better at Using Soft Skills Crucial for Effective Leadership and Superior Business Performance. Wilson, T., & Gilbert, D. (2005). Affective forecasting: Knowing what to want. Current Directions in Psychological Science: A Journal of the American Psychological Society, 14(3), 131-134. Zes, D., & Landis, D. (2013). A better return on self-awareness. Korn Ferry Institute.

Think back to the last big decision your team faced. What were the options considered? How was the choice made about what to do? A recent extensive survey conducted by PWC revealed that data-driven companies are three times more likely to make better decisions than businesses that are not. Decision-making is a significant part of leadership; many depend on the decisions. Without good choices, companies and leaders can't thrive. But studies reveal that more than half of us rely on intuition to make significant personal and professional decisions. The problem isn't with using intuition. The problem is when your intuition comes at the cost of data and is the only or default way you decide. While most companies are investing significantly in building analytics capability, the benefits can't be fully realized until the company culture supports data-driven decision-making. Here are the seven characteristics of a data-driven culture and practical steps any leader can take to architect culture. The value of data-driven decisions Advances in technology create a significant advantage for organizations that can leverage data to make better decisions and take the right actions. Data-driven decision-making (DDDM) has become somewhat of a buzzword as many leaders and organizations aim to be data-driven. A good working definition of what it means to embrace data-driven decision-making is: Using facts extracted from data and metrics to guide business decisions that support business goals rather than relying on experience, intuition, and stories alone. A study involving more than 1000 executive leaders demonstrated that 80% of organizations with a mature approach to data analytics exceeded their goals, and 48% significantly exceeded their goals. Making data-driven decisions is not the only way leaders can succeed. However, there are many advantages, such as: Enhanced decision speed and sophistication. In a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous digital workplace, leaders need to find insights and speed matters. Businesses need to make good decisions quickly. A better understanding of what is and is not working. Testing and data collection enable leaders to fail fast and learn from making decisions. Reduced costs and increased revenue. Using data enables organizations to optimize operations. Predictive analytics goes one step further, allowing organizations to transform during market change quickly. Improving strategic foresight. The goal is not to predict the future but enable better decision-making and preparedness so that leaders can grow revenue amid uncertainty. Data-driven decisions can be descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive. While understanding why something happened and what will happen is helpful. Understanding what should be done provides the most significant organizational value. The following video gives a real-world example from Google of how businesses can make better data-driven people decisions. Seven Data-Driven Culture Characteristics A recent 2021 Fortune 1000 executive leaders survey revealed that 99% are investing in data initiatives to transform their companies. These investments in technology are producing a deluge of available data within companies. But are these investments leading to better decisions? According to this same report, 96% of executives report that they are achieving measurable business outcomes. However, these leaders identify culture as the most significant deterrent to becoming a data-driven organization. "Culture is more powerful than anything else in the organization," and often why good management ideas fail." Upadhyay & Kumar To maximize data, analytics, and AI value, organizations need a data-driven culture orientation. However, this represents a sizable shift for many cultures that often rely on stories and experience to make decisions. Here are seven attributes and behaviors of employees working you would expect in a data-driven culture:⁠ Characteristic #1: Desiring to find the truth W. Edwards Deming is attributed as saying, "in God we trust. All others must bring data." This saying is something you would likely hear in a data-driven culture about using data to find the truth without bias. When seeking truth, employees are often surprised, and it sometimes leads to politically incorrect actions that result in innovation. Characteristic #2: Looking for patterns and root causes Data-driven cultures aggregate data to identify patterns that can lead to predictions and root causes. In a data-driven culture, problems are considered symptoms of deeper issues rather than being 'swept under the rug.' Identifying root causes protects the business from recurring systemic errors. Characteristic #3: Developing detail-oriented analysis Averages are considered flawed and a distortion of truth in data-driven cultures because averages ignore inevitable variations. Granular data is used for decision-making. A detail-oriented analysis allows stakeholders to determine causation more effectively and present solid arguments for decisions. Characteristic #4: Using data to analyze questions Stories and anecdotal evidence provide a personal connection, but alone, they are not often representative. Data-driven cultures use data to tell stories and make decisions. Data stories are the annotations of crucial data insights. Characteristic #5: Appreciating both positive and negative findings in the data Finding out something doesn't work is just as valuable as finding data that supports an idea. Data-driven cultures adopt an experimentation mindset and seek to learn from the data about predictions. "The unexamined decision isn't worth making." Davenport Characteristic #6: Making decisions and following through on actions Power and politics are not driving forces in a data-driven decision-making culture. Emphasis is on the value of results from decisions rather than a confirmation of senior leadership ideas. Authority is vested in the data quality rather than the positional power of the person with the data. Characteristic #7: Being realistic about when and where to use data analytics Data-driven cultures are practical about the need for velocity, veracity, volume, and variety of data before making decisions. Decisions are based on experience and available data and avoid analysis paralysis. "Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Drucker If you recognize your culture doesn't demonstrate the seven characteristics of a data-driven culture, you will want to work on architecting the desired culture ahead of or in parallel with your data analytics investments. How to architect a data-driven culture orientation Organizational culture is the one thing that influences every aspect of a business. It directly impacts organizational success, employees, customers, and communities. An organization's underlying cultural values affect employees' behaviors and decisions. Executive-level sponsorship is vital for investments in data analytics. However, leaders at all levels play a vital role in shaping organizational culture in business. Organizations are likely to resist the need for culture change. Although architecting corporate culture is challenging, changes often don't require considerable investments or physically co-located employees. Leaders can leverage the following primary and secondary actions and tools for leaders to embed the desired culture: Primary Actions and Tools Pay attention to metrics that matter and provide regular updates Respond to organizational crises with data Allocate resources to support data-driven decision making Provide data analytics training and development Provide rewards and recognition for data-driven decision making Make selection, promotion, and termination decisions in support of data-driven decisions Manage change created by shifting to data-driven decision making Secondary Actions and Tools Organization design Policies and procedures Rituals and events Workspaces Traditions and stories Vision and mission statements Organizational culture typically varies to some extent across teams, departments, and geographies. When trying to architect a data-driven culture, it is best to understand your culture at a granular level. To do this, you will need a data-driven actionable measure of your current and preferred company culture. What's the real data-driven decision-making challenge? References: Bartlett, R. (2013). A practitioner's guide to data analytics: Using data analysis to improve your organization's decision-making and strategy. McGraw-Hill. New York. Davenport, T., Harris, J., & Morison, R. (2010). Analytics at work: Smarter decisions, better results. Harvard Business Press. MA. Deloitte. (2019). Deloitte survey: Analytics and data-driven culture help companies outperform business goals in the age of with’. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/press-releases/deloitte-survey-analytics-and-ai-driven-enterprises-thrive.html Greenstein, B., & Rao, A., (2022). PwC 2022 AI Business Survey. PWC. Upadhyay, P., & Kumar, A. (2020). The intermediating role of organizational culture and internal analytical knowledge between the capability of big data analytics and a firm’s performance. International Journal of Information Management, 52, 102100.

Have you ever hesitated to share a suggestion or challenge the status quo at work? Yeah, you are not alone. A memorable crucible experience of mine was early in my career when I needed to give some critical feedback to a division president. But I didn’t, and the company missed an opportunity to improve. Silence is expensive. But a natural tendency is to play defense when times get tough. In a rapidly changing digital workplace, the benefits of cultivating a climate of psychological safety are well established. Overcoming the fear of failure and blame is necessary for companies to adapt and innovate. A recent Pew Research Center survey of US employees found that 89% believe it is the responsibility of business leaders to create a safe and respectful workplace. We all share a need to belong. Shared identity is a fundamental aspect of effective communication and belonging. Here are the four leadership dimensions and practical ideas for creating a shared identity at work. Why a shared identity matters Social Identity Theory suggests that we share identity with individuals with whom we associate. And as a result, we are more likely to trust and influence those individuals compared to individuals and groups with which we do not associate. Academic research suggests that the benefits of shared identity include: Productive conflict Wellbeing Inclusion and belonging Improved performance Enhanced knowledge management In conversations, we tend to find communication more comfortable and productive with those we consider “us” versus “them.” According to social identity theory, as individuals, we are more motivated to be receptive and mentally able to process more fully communications with those we identify. Numerous studies have revealed that shared social identity improves team communication. Perceived similarity increases communication quality, and perceived differences lower communication quality. Shared identity leads to shared understanding resulting in effective communication. When it comes to communication and social identity, perception is reality. 4 Stages of psychological safety and the leadership challenge Psychological safety is the degree to that you feel included and able to learn, contribute, and provide critical feedback without fear of being embarrassed, excluded, or penalized. Psychological safety is different than trust. Trust is if you will give others the benefit of the doubt, and psychological safety is the environment influencing if others will give you the benefit of the doubt. Psychological safety helps you and others work better together. The leadership challenge is to increase intellectual friction while decreasing social friction. There are four defined sequential stages of psychological safety: Stage 1: Inclusion Safety We are constantly dividing the world between them and us. Inclusion safety is creating a shared identity so others are viewed as being in the same group. Stage 2: Learner Safety This is feeling safe enough to experiment, ask questions, and fail as a part of the learning process. Stage 3: Contributor Safety Is participating as an active full-fledged member of the team supported by autonomy and encouragement. Stage 4: Challenger Safety This is the last stage when others can provide constructive criticism and engage in productive conflict without fear of exclusion or retaliation. This is the stage where teams and individuals can adapt and innovate. It is extremely dangerous in a competitive marketplace not to have a culture of psychological safety. Psychological safety is a tool for leaders to help care for followers. Also, when it is emotionally expensive in the workplace to share what you think and feel, it triggers a self-censoring instinct that shuts down and blocks collaboration and innovation. “The presence of fear in an organization is the first sign of weak leadership.” Timothy Clark In a defensive and virtual climate, how can leaders best create a shared identity? In a complex and crisis-driven marketplace, leaders need employees that take risks. Identity leadership research has identified the following four dimensions of leadership that moderate shared identity: 1. Being one of us. Exemplifying the unique qualities and what it means to be a member of the team and distinct from other groups. Are you a model member of the team? 2. Doing it for us. Standing up for and championing the interests of the group rather than the leader’s interests. Acting in ways that overcome challenges and prevent team failure. Are you acting as a champion of the team? 3. Crafting a sense of us. Making a diverse team feel that they are part of the same group and increasing cohesion and inclusion. Clarifying what the team stands for and what it does not by defining core values. Are you creating team cohesion? 4. Making us matter. Designing and clarifying team roles and responsibilities in ways that maximize coordination and value visible to the team and organization. How well have you defined team roles in ways that are helpful to the team and business? Where you begin and how you approach creating a shared identity makes a difference. Studies have revealed that creating a shared identity is best introduced at a grassroots level versus a top-down approach. It is more effective to begin developing a shared identity within your team versus the organization. Also, evidence suggests team participation in the development of shared identity makes it better. “A change imposed is a change opposed.” Spencer Johnson Creating a shared identity begins with a conversation. Try asking the following questions in your next team or one-to-one meeting: Why is this team important to you? What is the value this team brings to the business? If you want to take it up a level, using an assessment can be a powerful tool for starting a good conversation and providing additional insights into a shared identity. The DISC temperament inventory or the Clifton StrengthsFinder are two low-cost proven tools that enhance clarity, commitment, and contribution within a team. What is the real shared identity challenge for you and your team? References Ashforth, B., & Mael, F. (1989). Social Identity Theory and the Organization. Academy of Management Review, Vol. 14, 20–39. Eckel, C. , & Gorssman, P. (2005). Managing diversity by creating team identity” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization Vol. 58. 371–392. Clark, S. M., Gioia, D. A., Ketchen, D. J., & Thomas, J. B. (2010). Transitional identity as a facilitator of organizational identity change during a merger. Administrative Science Quarterly, 55(3), 397-438. Dick, R., Ciampa, V., & Liang, S. (2018). Shared identity in organizational stress and change. Current Opinion in Psychology, 23, 20-25. Greenaway, K. H., Wright, R. G., Willingham, J., Reynolds, K. J., & Haslam, S. A. (2015). Shared Identity Is Key to Effective Communication. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(2), 171–182. Krug, H., Haslam, A., Otto, K., & Steffens, N. (2021). Identity leadership, social identity continuity, and well-being at work during COVID-19. Frontiers in Psychology. Nagle, J., & Clancy, M. (2012). Constructing a shared public identity in ethno nationally divided societies: Comparing consociational and transformationist perspectives: Constructing a shared public identity in ethno nationally divided societies. Nations and Nationalism, 18(1), 78-97. Parker, K. (2018). Many Americans say women are better than men at creating safe, respectful workplaces. Pew Research Center. Rink, F., & Ellemers, N. (2007). Diversity as a basis for shared organizational identity: The norm congruity principle. British Journal of Management, 18(s1), S17-S27. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8551.2007.00523.xvan Steffens, N., Haslam A., Reicher S., Platow, M., Fransen, K., Yang, J., Ryan, M., Jetten, J., Peters, K., & Boen, F. (2014). Leadership as social identity management: Introducing the Identity Leadership Inventory (ILI) to assess and validate a four-dimensional model. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(5). 1001-1024.

It’s that time when people start to talk about a new year. You might be entirely on board and curious about how work and leadership will be different in the future. But maybe you are feeling a bit resistant. Especially given the unpredictability of this past year, it is no surprise that you may feel skeptical about preparing for the future or even a bit exhausted by the idea. No matter if you find yourself resisting or embracing change in the workplace, more is coming. Disruptive innovation, increased global competition, and evolving market pressures are converging. Businesses are responding by speeding up transformation. No leader sets out to become obsolete, and developing leadership habits is a competitive advantage. Now is the time to 'bet the farm' on you. Here are two timeless leadership skills and four low-cost, high-impact leadership development ideas to keep you growing and bring out your best in the new year. Why develop future-proof leadership skills? Every business is vulnerable to threats. But too few businesses and leaders stop to consider the possibility of becoming irrelevant. Harnessing the potential of company growth takes well-equipped leaders. "If you believe that training is expensive, it is because you do not know what ignorance costs." Leboeuf Well-equipped leadership makes a difference. Here is how: Team Performance: Several research studies have investigated the connection between the leader and business performance. Studies have demonstrated that effective leadership improves follower performance and promotes higher business results, follower job satisfaction, and follower organizational commitment. Innovation and Creativity: Evidence suggests that leadership is essential for driving innovation in a company. A study involving over 400 executives from 48 companies connected strategy and innovation performance directly with good leadership habits. Trust and Change: Studies have demonstrated that the level of trust in leadership directly correlates to employee retention, organizational commitment, and support for organizational change. Furthermore, when executives build trust, evidence suggests that organizational change readiness increases. Internal Communication & Relationships: Words shape worlds. Studies have revealed that influential leaders enhance two-way communication, creativity, collaboration, job attitudes, and organizational commitment. Leadership Transitions: Leadership transitions, whether successful or not, are costly. Evidence suggests that, on average, 35% of internally promoted executives fail, and direct reports spend 10-20% of their time helping a new leader transition. Successful leadership transitions increase company revenue, have 13% lower attrition rates, and are 90% more likely to achieve long-term performance goals. Leadership development is a leadership transition acceleration tool. 2 Future-proof leadership skills Future-ready leaders need the right skills to be effective. In a complex and fast-paced digital workplace, leaders need to be able to quickly discern and apply the appropriate leadership skills to bring out the best in followers. Leaders need employees that go beyond what is expected in ways that contribute to the organization’s results and make the communities where they operate better. Leadership Behavior – is how a leader responds within the leadership system. A behavior is something that can be seen and described. Leadership Attribute – is an inherent quality of a leader as perceived by others. When you think about the future of work and consider the leadership behaviors and attributes needed, it is likely that technical and analytical skills will come to mind. According to a study by McKinsey & Company, it is projected that by 2030, the time spent during a workweek on information technology and programming tasks will increase the most. Leadership is a relationship, and technological innovations change the work, worker, and workplace. While some skills will likely be less in demand, it is important to consider the human leadership skills that remain in the technology-driven workplace. Evidence suggests that more dynamic leadership skills are the most effective. Idealized influence and inspirational motivation are two key leadership behaviors and attributes to help leaders meet today’s and tomorrow’s complex organizational challenges. Future-Proof Leadership Skill #1: Idealized Influence Leadership is achieved through others rather than by a leader alone. Establishing idealized (positive) leadership influence is vital. Idealized influence increases trust, enhances learning, increases emotional connection, and empowers followers to think independently and express their individuality. Leaders that can display idealized influence tend to possess a high degree of moral behavior, virtues, character, and work ethic. These leaders reflect the organizational culture, impart pride in followers, and reinforce the importance of teamwork and shared success. Idealized Influence Behaviors: Talk about their most important values and beliefs Communicate the importance of team trust Reinforce the importance of purpose Evaluate the ethical consequences of decisions Reinforce the need for teamwork and its possibilities Idealized Influence Attributes: Infuse pride in others Make personal sacrifices for others Create respect Demonstrate confidence Encourage others about the future A modern example of a leader that displays idealized influence was Jack Welch. He was the former GE CEO known for achieving tremendous organizational results by developing others. Future-Proof Leadership Skill #2: Inspirational Motivation Leaders in a volatile and uncertain marketplace need to adapt and motivate followers toward a challenging and aspirational vision. Human nature focuses on what is missing or needs to be fixed. However, inspirational motivation behaviors involve creating and effectively communicating a shared positive vision and purpose for followers. Inspirational Motivation Behaviors Optimistically communicating about the future. Enthusiastically communicating about what needs to be achieved Communicate a compelling vision of the future Provide an exciting image of what is essential to consider Express confidence that goals will be achieved Like idealized influence behaviors, inspirational motivation enhances the leader-follower relationship by increasing trust and emotional connection. Additionally, inspirational motivation behaviors heighten the willingness of followers to excel. Jack Ma is a modern example of inspirational motivation leadership behaviors and attributes. He is the former Alibaba CEO known for his ability to communicate a small business eCommerce vision, leading Alibaba to become the world's largest retailer and online marketing company. Are your leadership skills future-proof? Taking time to self-assess is a valuable means of deepening your awareness to ultimately enhance your leadership capability. Here are a few questions to consider that encompass the idealized influence and inspirational motivation leadership skills: How often do I build trust and act with integrity? When have I experienced positive or adverse trust outcomes? When have I experienced positive or adverse integrity outcomes? How often do I encourage others? When have I experienced positive or adverse motivation outcomes? 4 Low-Cost, High-Impact Leadership Development Ideas Many leaders recognize a need to develop their skills continuously; however, they often lack the resources to make it happen. Leaders wanting the best chance to thrive in the future need to be continuously developing. Here are four ideas to keep you growing: Development Idea #1: Reflection It is easy to move quickly from one task to the next and miss opportunities to learn and grow from experiences. Simply try asking a question to create the space for focused reflection. The following powerful questions come from an after-action review process used by the military to provide a structure for reflection: What was expected to happen? What occurred? What went well and why? What can be improved and how? Development Idea #2: Executive Coaching An executive coach is not a counselor or mentor. Counseling deals with past or current trauma, mental health, and symptoms, to restore emotional wellness. Executive coaching focuses on the future and not the client's history. A mentor, unlike a coach, sets the agenda for their client using their experiences to guide the relationship. While that approach can be helpful in reality, we are all created with different strengths and backgrounds. A coach draws out the executive's desire and works to co-create options to achieve the executive's goals with individual and organizational benefits. In a literature review of 81 executive coaching studies, researchers found that executive coaching positively impacts the leader and the organization. These benefits range from becoming more confident to contributing more effectively to empowering employees and improving employee retention. The confidence and growth from a creative thought partnership can't be beaten. Now more than ever, executives need coaches to support their continuous development due to the complexity placed on leadership roles. See how our goal-oriented executive coaching turns your aspirations into your future. Accelerate your career - Coaching keeps you challenged and increases your blind spot awareness. Live life to the fullest - Coaching facilitates experimentation and self-discovery. Shift your mindset - Coaching helps you challenge your assumptions and views. Development Idea #3: Networking Results-driven leaders have a bad habit of working harder and longer hours. Hard work isn't bad, but isolation is hazardous. If achievement-oriented leaders are not careful, their drive can limit career opportunities, professional success, and the joy of living. In an increasingly uncertain world, executives need high-quality relationships with followers, but also peers, and others outside the workplace. Relationships impact the leader's effectiveness and ability to get help and information necessary to innovate and solve complex issues. In one study, high-performing leaders were found to establish high-quality networks and use those connections to establish better priorities and obtain necessary resources, support, and approvals for their team. The study also revealed that leader networking effectiveness of low-performing leaders was attributed to a lack of awareness associated with a lack of relationships. Development Idea #4: Thought Leadership Books, articles, and assessments on leadership can enable leaders to examine a particular situation from different points of view. Thought leadership grounded in research provides leaders with proven solutions that can be applied and short-cycle the learning process. If you are not a skilled speed reader, you may be surprised that you can learn how to read a book in an hour. Like any skill, there are tips and tricks to increase your speed and retention. Here is a bonus link to an assembled collection of my top five favorite books from thought leaders on change management, coaching, culture, innovation and creativity, leadership style, servant leadership, and strategic planning. As a word of caution, while leadership skills are essential, they are insufficient. The effects of your character, the company culture, the quality of your leader-follower relationships, your traits, and the traits of your followers are all elements that directly impact leadership effectiveness. What do you do to keep growing personally or professionally? References Conger, J. & Fulmer, R. (2003) Developing your leadership pipeline Harvard Business Review. IBM (2014) The value of training IBM Corporation Sosik, J. & Jung, D. (2018). Full range leadership development: Pathways for people, profit, and planet. Routledge. Acemoglu, D., & Restrepo, P. (2020). Robots and jobs: Evidence from US labor markets. Journal of Political Economy. McKinsey Global Institute. (2016). Skill shift: Automation and the future of the workforce. McKinsey & Company.

Have you ever found that it never seems possible, despite your best intentions, to be strategic? For most leaders, as pressure and stress increase from the urgent needs of the business, they put in more hours. The tyranny of the urgent comes at a high price for leaders and businesses. When businesses focus on winning the day, it is easy to fall behind, which can be disastrous in a highly competitive marketplace. Studies show that 85% of executive leadership teams spend less than one hour a month discussing strategy, and up to 95% of employees are unaware of or do not understand their organization's strategy. In reality, some leaders don't know how to lead strategically, and some company cultures reward leaders for saving the day. Being strategic is not easy for busy leaders. Market myopia is the lack of ability to see the bigger picture. It is very real and has come into focus because of the increasing volatility and complexity in the workplace. Here are three leadership practices to free yourself and your organization from market myopia. Why being strategic makes matters Leaders create influence through shared understanding and organizational alignment. Organizations create value by capitalizing on individual actions toward worthy goals. Nothing in the workplace is certain. No rational person would argue that the modern workplace is predictable. Leaders are forced to respond to disruptive change and ambiguity in the world. Being strategic is not to predict the future but enable better decision-making and preparedness. Strategic leadership reduces costs and increases revenue. A large global study of the empirical research on strategic leadership concluded that the positive impact on organizational performance is consistent regardless of the industry and whether the business is private or public. The complications associated with a lack of strategic leadership extend beyond the organization’s performance. When followers become confused about the company's direction, it leads to lower levels of engagement and creativity. Also, over time a lack of strategic leadership can contribute to a toxic culture with significant misalignment. Escaping market myopia involves the leadership practices of strategic thinking, acting, and influencing. Strategic Leadership Practice #1: Strategic Thinking Strategic thinking is about the present and future. It also includes logical and creative thinking aspects. It needs to be continuous, adapting to the shifting markets and organizational capability rather than a once of year activity. When rushing from one meeting to the next, it can be hard to find time to listen. Strategic thinking is not something best done alone or only with the board/executive leadership team. Leveraging multiple perspectives improves strategic thinking and organizational buy-in. "It is impossible to formulate a strategy, let alone a "best" or preferred strategy, without engaging in strategic thinking." Abraham Strategic thinking involves: Assessing Internal and External Environments Clarifying the business Mission, Vision, and Values Discovering and Prioritizing Key Strategic Drivers Strategic thinking is not strategic planning. The following video breaks down the difference between strategic planning and strategic thinking. Strategic Leadership Practice #2: Strategic Acting Gaps between the created strategy and the realized strategy put performance at risk. Strategic acting is both short, and long-term focused. You need to be able to set strategic priorities. Then manage the tension between daily issues and bigger-picture tasks. Strategic acting encompasses creating awareness and desire for change as well as finding ways to reward appropriate risk-taking to sustain the change. Strategic acting includes reflecting on decisions made and continuously learning from individual and company actions. “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” Warren G. Bennis Strategic acting involves: Creating Business Strategies Developing Business Strategies Executing, Performing, and Learning Leading Change Strategic Leadership Practice #3 Strategic Influencing Strategic influence isn’t just about influencing others. It includes also being open to influence from others. Like all healthy relationships, strategic influence involves trust. How leaders approach strategic thinking and acting will moderate their strategic influence. In an increasingly uncertain workplace, executives need high-quality relationships with followers, peers, and others outside the workplace. Networking is not a distraction but an essential strategic influencing capability. Strategic leadership involves the willingness to be vulnerable to discussing difficult topics with conflicting points of view when you don’t have all of the information. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” John Quincy Adams Strategic influencing involves: Architecting Culture Decision Making Leveraging Priorities Direction, Alignment, and Commitment If these three strategic practices were made into a commercial for market myopia, it would go something like this: Is your business suffering from disengaged employees? Confusion? Loss of creativity? Does your team lack commitment? Do you ever wonder to yourself, what happened? Then you might be suffering from market myopia. Nearsightedness affects 10 out of 10 leaders and businesses worldwide that lose sight of the big picture and focus only on winning the day. It can lead to a toxic culture and cause slow growth. Being strategic helps your company gain a competitive advantage. The results of leading strategically may vary. Side effects include reduced stress, employee turnover, and burnout. Don’t attempt strategic planning if there is no desire to grow. Talk to your team before you start. You can escape market myopia and achieve strategic targets. It all begins with your strategic thinking, acting, and influencing. What's the real market myopia challenge for you? References Abraham, S. (2005). Stretching strategic thinking. Strategy & Leadership, 33(5), 5-12. Amrollahi, A., & Rowlands, B. (2017). Collaborative open strategic planning: A method and case study. Information Technology & People (West Linn, Or.), 30(4), 832-852. Folkman, Z. (2021). Strategic thinking: The pathway to the top. Forbes. George, B., Walker, M., & Monster, J. (2019). Does strategic planning improve organizational performance? A meta-analysis. Public Administration Review. Hughes, R., Beatty, K., & Dinwoodie, D. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader: Your role in your organization's enduring success. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. Kaplan, S., & Norton, D. (2005). The office of strategy management. Harvard Business Review. 83(10). 72-80. Nwachukwu, C. E., Chladkova, H., & Olatunji, F. (2018). The relationship between employee commitment to strategy implementation and employee satisfaction. Trends Economics and Management, 12(31), 46-56.

Leaders face an unprecedented talent challenge with no immediately obvious solution. Most companies have record-high voluntary employee turnover rates, and more than half of employees only do the minimum required at work. Recently economists have connected what is now labeled Quiet Quitting to a fall in US labor productivity output. Looking ahead to the new year, futurists point to an accelerated digital transformation trend that will force leaders to overcome increasing employee skill gaps. Without challenges, there aren't opportunities. And without opportunities, businesses cannot experience growth. It is easy to logically think of the talent challenge as attracting and retaining the right people. But inevitably, there is also a creative thinking aspect. Edward de Bono, an international authority on thinking, suggests the challenge is to avoid simply reacting to a problem. Let's take a closer look at what he calls lateral thinking and a German concept behind one of the world's most innovative supply chain. Creative thinking makes a big difference No organization is looking to stay the same. Driving creativity within an organization's culture is increasingly vital for leaders. A study by McKinsey revealed that companies with creative leaders outperformed peers by 67% in revenue growth, 70% in total returns to shareholders, and 74% in net enterprise value. Likewise, a lack of imagination constrains organizations. Kodak, Blockbuster, and Sears are well-known for the devastating consequences of innovation failure. "Creativity is decided by what you choose to do or refuse to do." Michalko Identifying worthwhile ideas requires the ability and will to see new patterns in the same data everyone else is seeing. As simple as this appears, the challenge is that individual expectations shape perceptions. To break these perceptions, leaders need a new way of thinking. When faced with a problem or obstacle, do not dig deeper. Dig elsewhere. Edward de Bono presented that vertical and lateral thinking are the two fundamental approaches to thinking. He described lateral thinking as the capability to solve problems by imagining solutions not possible with logic. Metaphorically, digging a hole somewhere else. Lateral thinking is dependent on rejecting assumptions by shifting perspectives and suspending judgment. It is helpful to test assumptions, adopt a different point of view, challenge habits, and search for ideas outside your industry or function. One of the world's most innovative supply chains BASF is a German multinational chemical company and the largest chemical producer in the world. Like me, you may have first learned about this company from their marketing campaign: "We don't make a lot of the products you buy. We make a lot of the products you buy better." Verbund (/fɐɐˈbʊnt/) – to combine or to cooperate. At BASF, chemical production sites are highly interlinked product flows resulting in efficient uses of resources. At these verbund sites, production, energy, logistics, and site infrastructure are integrated. BASF reports that the results are higher product yields and resource conservation. Beyond raw material, energy, and logistics savings and reduced emissions, this integrated concept generates a competitive advantage through enormous amounts of data. The BASF Global Know-How Verbund supports the interlinked product flows. It is an alliance of strategic process and systems research, universities, industry partners, innovative startups, and operating divisions. These closely bundled partnerships each have a specific focus and competency to support the supply chain. How is the talent challenge like a supply chain challenge? You get what you plan for when it comes to supply chain management. For too long, organizations have approached talent management with ad-hoc talent strategies. As companies struggle to answer questions like, how do you build talent pools for the future? How do we help employees learn quickly to close increasing skill gaps? How do we engage employees feeling burned out? It is increasingly evident that companies need to change how they plan regarding talent. What if you developed a verbund talent strategy? Creating highly interlinked talent flows and collecting enormous amounts of data to improve your talent management processes and systems. Your company could create mutually beneficial partnerships between universities and industry research associations to help: faculty develop programs for students with job-ready skills job-ready students to find careers in your company aligned with their passions industry associations discuss relevant issues and set standards for best practices Don't waste time trying to solve challenges with only vertical thinking. What is the real creative thinking challenge for you? Our creative thinking development solutions equip leaders — and, in turn, your organization as a whole — to become “creative thinkers.” We do this by helping leaders work collectively to develop the capacity, skills, and culture needed for innovation in service of organizational goals. Whether you’re looking for a facilitated brainstorming session, customized executive coaching, top-to-bottom solution tailored to uplift and transform your entire organization, or scalable programs designed to strengthen your individual leaders’ creative thinking effectiveness, we offer a variety of research-based leadership solutions both virtually and in-person. References Banker, S. (2018). One of the world's most innovative supply chains. Forbes. BASF. (2022). BASF at a glance. BLS. (2022). Productivity and costs: Third quarter 2022, revised. US Bureau of Labor Statistics Broderson, M., Heller, J., Perrey, J. & Remley, D. (2017). Creativity's bottom line: How winning companies turn creativity into business value and growth. McKinsey & Co. Michalko, M. (2006). Thinkertoys: A handbook of business creativity. Berkeley, Calif: Ten Speed Press. Runco, M. (2014). Enhancement and the fulfillment of potential. Creativity. Shavinina. (2003). The international handbook on innovation (1st ed.). Elsevier Science. Sloane. (2006). The leader's guide to lateral thinking skills unlocking the creativity and innovation in you and your team (2nd ed.). Kogan Page.

We all have experienced a lack of motivation at work. It's not that something is too difficult, but we procrastinate. How do some employees seem to develop the motivation to change while others struggle to start or persevere? Intentions without actions are only aspirations. You can't be successful in life or work without motivation, yet finding it is a struggle in some situations. So, can you motivate yourself to do something you don't want to get a result you really do want? A significant amount of behavioral psychology evidence suggests that the Premack Principle provides the key to unlocking motivation. Psychology is the same whether starting a more challenging workout, an advanced leadership certificate, or an undesired task at home or work. Here are four steps you can take to develop more motivation when you find yourself or those you lead procrastinating. Why work motivation matters Developing motivation is crucial because it allows us to change, grow, innovate, achieve big goals, make plans, and enhance our engagement. As a leader, motivation is a catalyst for business growth and organizational effectiveness. "Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action." William James Procrastination comes at a cost, and in this short video by Tim Urban, he explains the mind of a master procrastinator. Work motivation is the force within (intrinsic) and beyond (extrinsic) an employee to initiate work-related behaviors. The degree of an employee's motivation influences the intensity and duration of work behaviors. Evidence from numerous studies suggests that increased work motivation leads to the following: Improved performance Increased productivity Enhanced innovation and creativity Decreased absenteeism Decreased employee turnover Understanding motivation One of the earliest and most discussed models of motivation is Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. Maslow suggested that physiological needs motivate employees. The requirements for food and water are at the most basic level, and self-actualization is at the highest level. Another early model from Herzberg suggested that work motivation is mainly influenced by challenge and reward reinforcement. Motivators increase job satisfaction, such as performance achievement, recognition, job status, and development. Hygiene Factors decrease job dissatisfaction, such as salary, working conditions, physical workspace, and supervisor quality. More recent studies have led to the categorization of work motivation into four categories: Positive-Negative. Positive motives include things perceived as pleasurable. Negative motives are those things perceived as punishment or fear. Intrinsic-Extrinsic. Intrinsic is doing something because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable, and extrinsic refers to doing something because it leads to a reward. Cognitive-Affective. Cognitive includes doing something for knowledge and mental or intellectual development, whereas affective is doing something for feelings or emotions. Economic-Moral. Economic motives are to achieve a goal associated with a fundamental need or support a desired standard of living. Moral motivation is to do something right or avoid doing something wrong. Evidence suggests that intrinsic motivation is more effective in the long term than extrinsic motivation. The Premack Principle is based on intrinsic motivation. What is the Premack Principle? The Premack Principle states that you will perform a less preferred (low probability) behavior to gain access to a more preferred (high probability) behavior. This might sound vaguely familiar if you are like me. I remember hearing my parents say that if you eat your vegetables, then you can have dessert. This principle explains how you can arrange contingencies to motivate yourself and others. However, the most significant leadership challenge often comes from accurately identifying the high-probability behavior. For example, you may enjoy reading versus watching a movie in your free time. But if you just finished reading a lengthy book, you may choose to go for a walk. Intrinsic motivation can change depending on the situation, how we feel, or what we have been doing. Here is a short video from leadership and behavior management expert Dr. Daniels on productivity and the Premack Principle. 4 Steps to develop more motivation at work Here are four steps to help you accurately implement the Premack Principle for yourself or others to develop more motivation in the workplace. Motivation Step 1: Make a list of what needs to get done. Start by creating a list of what needs to get done. Take about five minutes and write down everything you need to accomplish that is on your mind. When working with others, have them complete this task rather than attempting to guess. If implementing this principle with a new employee, it may help to have them use their job description. Motivation Step 2: Pinpoint the low-probability and high-probability behaviors. The more precisely you pinpoint a behavior leads to a more accurate and reliable behavior ranking. Rank the list from what you most like doing to what you least like doing. Get curious about what is motivating. When working with those you lead, you may find it helpful to create a structured reinforcement survey to learn about how employees spend their free time outside work. Although motivators are not always good reinforcers, they help enhance understanding. Motivation Step 3: Effectively communicate the contingency. Effective communication moderates implementation effectiveness and typically involves more than sending an email. The contingency refers to what follows a low-probability behavior to increase the probability of that behavior. Don't expect this to be obvious, and check for understanding. Motivation Step 4: Start at the bottom. Start with the item at the bottom of the list (low probability behavior) from step 2. When working up the list, each task becomes more desirable. Working down the list of tasks becomes more punishing. Studies have shown you will get two to three times more done by starting at the bottom of your list. One caveat is that if the bottom of your inventory is full of extreme drudgery, you will benefit by making the desired behavior the immediate following action for every third or fourth drudgery task. Motivation matters, especially for achieving big goals in life and work. As a leader, when you leverage the Premack Principle using the steps listed above, developing more motivation in others becomes easier. But let's be honest; we don't always get these steps right in the real world. It is essential to maintain a mindset of experimentation rather than simply success or failure. What is your real challenge with implementing the Premack Principle at work? References Daniels, A. C. (2000). Bringing out the best in people: How to apply the astonishing power of positive reinforcement (New & updated.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Dalphonse, A. (2022). Premack principle: A guide to using the first/then rule. Master ABA. Fishbach, A. (2018). How to keep working when you're not feeling it. Harvard Business Review. Klatt, K. & Morris, E. (2001). The Premack principle, response deprivation, and establishing operations. The Behavior Analyst, 24(2), 173-180. Reed, C. (2022). The truth about motivating employees to be more productive. National Business Research Institute. Vo, T., Tuliao, K., & Chen, C. (2022). Work Motivation: The Roles of Individual Needs and Social Conditions. Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland), 12(2), 49.

"You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run." The message in the lyrics popularized by Kenny Rogers is clear: There is a secret to knowing when enough is enough. This classic card game advice highlights the growing tension in the minds of employees fueling the great resignation. A recent Gallup survey revealed an alarming trend. More than 50% of US employees are quietly quitting, and 18% are actively disengaged. You hate the lack of clear expectations and feedback. You think finding a work-life balance is out of reach. You believe career growth opportunities are woefully inadequate. No leader or company culture is perfect, but when do you take action or walk away? Here are a few tips for wisely choosing when to take action, three battles worth having, and giving critical feedback you won't regret. How to wisely choose your workplace battles It's normal to experience difficult situations in life and at work. But you can't fight every battle. There is a fine line between being a problem solver and being the problem. Here are three points to discern the difference. Control vs. Concern: It helps to understand the difference between your circle of control and your circle of concern. The circle of control includes things you care about and can actually control, and your circle of concern contains stuff you care about but have very limited to no control over. If the challenge is with something outside your circle of control, the first step you take needs to build your influence over the situation. You will be more likely to be successful with battles in your circle of control. Solution vs. Problem: Next, you want to ensure a constructive solution. Awareness of the challenge is the beginning of taking action, but awareness alone isn't all that helpful. You can build political capital by being seen as someone with a solution vs. someone with a problem. Who wants to be around someone that always has a problem? Small Scale vs. Large Scale: Adopt a mindset of experimentation. Large-scale fixes are slow and more difficult. Identify experiments that can be tested and modified based on what you learn. Also, find early adopters. It is not essential to have everyone on board initially, so start small, where there is the least resistance to the change. 3 Workplace battles worth having Notice I am not implying three reasons you should quit. Let me be very clear; it is important in difficult situations to keep your focus on why. You want to look for reasons to do something difficult rather than look for reasons to avoid a challenge. Battle #1: Toxic Culture Company culture is the one thing that influences every aspect of a business. It directly impacts organizational success, employees, customers, and communities. An organization's underlying cultural values affect employees' behaviors and decisions. A recent study by MIT Sloan identified that a toxic organizational culture is more than ten times stronger of an influence on employee attrition than pay. Sadly, the effects of a toxic culture extend beyond the workplace. Employees working in a toxic workplace report experiencing decreased well-being and increased work-family conflict. Detoxing the company culture begins with being the change you want to see in the world. Often bad leadership habits trickle down and become acceptable ways of behaving. Model good behavior and ask for feedback from followers about what you do that bothers them. Second, actively architect and manage the workplace culture. Hire and fire employees to create and reinforce the desired company culture. Teach leaders and employees through stories about how they should respond in different situations and the costs of tolerating toxicity. Reinforce and communicate the importance of trust and teamwork. Reward employees that live the desired culture. Measure company results and the preferred company culture. Battle #2: Leadership & Organizational Entropy In our ever-changing world, there are many theories but few laws. Entropy is a fundamental concept governing life and work. Entropy is defined as disorder and randomness in a natural system - the second law in thermodynamics states that, left unchecked, entropy increases with time in closed systems. Leaders with closed minds and organizations closed to new ideas quickly fall behind and become obsolete. One proven way to battle against workplace entropy is for leaders and organizations to continually develop and evolve at a pace consistent with the change in our exacting world. The bad habits of leadership that we have all witnessed or engaged in are not destiny. One of the greatest myths I encounter in coaching leaders and business owners is that their current reality reflects a permanent reality. We don't stay the same. Even passions and proficiency can change. You can learn how to apply proven solutions to create life-changing leadership habits. Battle #3: Transactional Leadership Leadership is a relationship, and people are the most significant resources within an organization. Transactional leadership is centered around a paradigm in which leaders give employees something they want in exchange for getting something in return. Transactional leaders approach the workplace with the belief that most workers are not self-motivated and require structure, instruction, and monitoring to achieve organizational goals correctly and on time. Compelling evidence indicates that leadership moderates company performance and results. Controlled studies involving leaders across different markets have found a positive correlation between the leader's effectiveness and employee retention, sales, margin, labor costs, and net profit. Contemporary employees are looking for leaders that possess the following characteristics: listening to self and others empathy healing self and others awareness persuasion conceptual thinking foresight stewardship of other's needs commitment to development building community As the adage goes, what got us here will not get us there, and it is vital for today's leaders to learn more about new emerging leadership styles and theories. Servant leadership, transformational leadership, authentic leadership, and spiritual leadership are four new emerging leadership styles and theories gaining increased attention globally and stand in stark contrast to transactional leadership. Have you ever wondered if you are a servant leader? Maybe you already understand the basic concepts but are unclear on how servant leadership differs from other contemporary leadership styles. This Servant Leadership Style Checker answers these questions and provides your Servant Leadership Style Score. The benefits of a servant leadership style are evident to followers, teams, and organizations. Giving critical feedback, you won't regret Masters of critical feedback create a gap between action and response to choose what conversation matters most. Like a ship approaching an iceberg, what alerts a leader of a potential problem is often what is seen, but what lies below the surface presents the most incredible opportunity to be addressed. "Don't let the truth run faster than love." Erwin McManus Regardless of leadership level or amount of experience, all leaders struggle with the tension of being vulnerable or not. When receiving critical feedback, followers want to know their leader cares about them. But, concerns about managing perceptions can keep leaders from showing vulnerability. And when leaders are guarded, it promotes distrust. To identify your tendency—to be vulnerable in difficult conversations —take the following free five-question quiz and learn your vulnerability leadership score. Fail to plan and plan to fail. To avoid regret, your communication plan should include checking personal motivation, vision, and perspective (MVP) before giving critical feedback. Motivation. Is your motivation about caring for others first? Or is your motivation to be right? Reasons for a conversation matter. It is less likely that the conversation will lead to positive changes without a positive reason. Vision. How do you see the result of the conversation going? Is it the best of what might? Or is what you see a list of all the things that could go wrong? When you anticipate a positive step in the journey, it provides a sense of purpose and direction to inspire your best and achieve success. Perspective. When the lens through which you perceive the difficult conversation is off, your results will turn out poorly. Is your paradigm for the difficult conversation that real transparent conversation will provide the best foundation for a healthy culture and your relationship? Or is your perspective that it is best to avoid difficult conversations because you need to manage your image? The truth is there is a lot you can learn when you don't walk away. It is in these difficult conversations that you can grow, and good things can happen. Where are you tempted to walk away or run? Why are you going to take action? What is at stake if you do or don't? References Bartell, R. (2011). Before the call: The communication playbook. Hudson House. Brown, B. (2022). The power of vulnerability: Teachings of authenticity, connection, and courage. Grenny, J., Patterson, K., McMillan, R., Switzler, A., & Gregory, E. (2021). Crucial conversations. McGraw-Hill Education. Harter, J. (2022). Is quiet quitting real? Gallup. Hayes, J. (2008). Workplace conflict and how businesses can harness it to thrive. CPP Global Human Capital Report. Spears, L. C. (1998). Servant-leadership. Executive Excellence, 15(7), 11.

Economic downturns are inevitable. They make companies more competitive and create sustainable business growth. But only if leaders proactively take steps to prepare. Bain & Company found that 47% more S&P 500 businesses moved from the bottom quartile to the top half, and 89% more dropped from the top quartile to the bottom half during economic downturns compared to periods of strong economic growth. It is easy to find out what doesn't work. Reactive workforce reductions, burn-the-furniture cost-cutting, and spray-and-pray strategies out of desperation have historically led to considerable losses. If you immerse yourself in the daily news, the future appears dire – supply chain constraints, geopolitical conflict, inflation, and historic labor shortages are projected to persist. Even the World Bank is suggesting that stagflation is a real possibility. So, what can leaders and companies do now to emerge stronger? Here are three proven tactics to accelerate company performance despite an economic downturn. Performance Accelerator 1: Scenario Planning Only operating in the short term or taking too much risk and gambling on one specific future are frequent traps leaders fall into when facing economic uncertainty. Scenario planning enhances the focus on likely and critical external factors. The benefits of scenario planning include: Creative thinking Informed narratives or stories about possible or plausible futures Improved decision-making about the future Enhanced human and organizational learning and imagination Rather than predicting the future, scenarios help organizations plan for various likely futures, such as economic predictions of stagflation and persistent labor shortages. Wind tunnel testing is the term for the basic concept embedded with scenario planning that allows an organization to be tested in a variety of different turbulent times. There are five fundamental phases of a scenario planning project: Identification of a focal question Scenario exploration of external perspectives and forces with the potential to dramatically change your business Scenario development of multiple potential stories about what the future might look like Scenario implementation of options and priorities. Implementation typically involves experimentation, analyzing the existing strategies, and creative experiential learning exercises. Ongoing project assessment of changes taken with defined early indicators "The most threatening competitor leadership teams face is themself." Tibbs Without a good implementation strategy and effective implementation, scenario planning is nothing more than an intellectual exercise. Change management should be presented in a way that leads to different ways of thinking and acting. Organizational Development can support the implementation workshops with change models and activities for the workshops. In the following video, Dr. Chermack provides an overview of the process using a small business case study. This video provides some practical insights into scenario planning. Performance Accelerator 2: Organizational Change Resiliency Organizational change resilience is responding productively to significant disruptive change and transforming challenges into opportunities. One theme with organizations that are resilient amid change is sharing data with decision-makers openly. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) suggests that organizational resilience (ISO 22316:2017) is dependent on knowledge and information that is: accessible, understandable, and adequate to support the organization's objectives effectively shared to enable decision-making recognized as a critical resource for the organization created, retained, and applied through established systems and processes shared promptly with all relevant interested parties applied in organizational learning “In God we trust, others must have data.” — Ronald D. Snee Evidence suggests that big data holds a key for helping organizations detect and respond to disruption. Descriptive data analytics improve sensing, and predictive data analytics enhance a company's ability to change and seize new opportunities. Descriptive Data Analytics: The interpretation of historical data to better understand business changes. Examples include social media usage and engagement, organizing survey results, and operational efficiency data trends. Predictive Data Analytics: uses historical data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning to identify the likelihood of future outcomes. Examples include predicting customer preferences based on past purchasing behaviors, predicting employee retention risk based on assessment data, and predicting workforce staffing levels based on seasonal trends. Improving your company's organizational change resilience is also connected to company culture. Culture mediates the knowledge and information-sharing capability. When building organizational change resilience, investing in culture change makes a difference in adoption and utilization. Performance Accelerator 3: Strategic Leadership Ambiguity creates confusion and limits a leader's influence. Businesses are collections of individuals, and an organization's competitive advantage comes from capitalizing on a collective benefit from individual behaviors. Strategy can unify people within an organization toward an organization's purpose. Effective leaders win the hearts and minds of employees, and an organization's survival is tied to optimizing the head-heart balance. Strategies must instill confidence within people during times of turmoil in organizations, creating a sense of ownership. A shared vision that creates benefits for the group is essential to guiding an organization during value conflicts created by organizational changes. A practical approach to strategy leads to employee engagement through participation, communication, and leadership behaviors. “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality” — William Bennis There are five competencies often underdeveloped in leaders and connected to the challenges of strategic leadership: Scanning. Looking for weak signals that may not immediately affect the business. Visioning. Clarifying the organization's shared purpose and dreams with group benefit. Reframing. Challenging current assumptions and fresh thinking about future possibilities. Making sense. An intellectual process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating data. Systems thinking. A holistic way to investigate how different parts interrelate and contribute to specific potential outcomes. Interestingly, in addition to competence in these areas, strategic leaders need a conscience focused on helping others for the greater good. The character of the leader plays a vital role in unifying a team. During times of complexity and uncertainty like today, when leaders create a vision focused on group benefit, it allows employees to navigate conflicts created by change. Developing strategic leadership requires a leader's motivation and deliberate practice to shape habits, experience-rich learning opportunities to provide challenges, time for self-reflection, and coaching. Self-assessments and 360-degree surveys can help leaders and leadership teams observe their strategic leadership capabilities and better focus development investments. Combined with leadership development, assessments can create a sense of urgency and motivation for change. So what is your real challenge in preparing now for an economic downturn? References: Ackermann, F., & Eden, C. (2011). Making strategy: Mapping out strategic success (2nd. ed.). SAGE. Beerel, A. (1997). The strategic planner as prophet and leader: a case study concerning a leading seminary illustrates the new planning skills required. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 18 (3) pp. 136 -144. Bennis, W. (2008). Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. Journal of Property Management, 73(5), 13. Chermack, T. (2011). Scenario planning in organizations: How to create, use, and assess scenarios. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. Douglas, R. (2019, September 12) How AI and machine learning are transforming business planning. Adaptive InsightsBlog. Gallup. (2022). State of the global workplace 2022 report. Gallup. Hughes, R. L., Beatty, K. M., & Dinwoodie, D. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader: Your role in your organization's enduring success. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. Knowledge@Wharton. (2009, July 22). Eyes Wide Open: Embracing Uncertainty through Scenario Planning. Tibbs, H. (2000). Making the future visible: Psychology, scenarios, and strategy. Global Business Network. Witmer, H., Mellinger, M. S., Faculty of Culture and Society, Urban Studies (US), Malmö University, & Centre for Work-Life and Evaluation Studies (CTA). (2016).

The warning reads: "Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear." While driving, you likely don't think twice about it as you have probably seen and read this warning hundreds of times. It's a realistic warning about the dangers that can come from a distorted point of view. We see the world through a lens shaped and molded by culture and our experiences. Are you aware of your performance management blind spots? In a complex and fast-paced workplace, leaders need to be able to recognize and avoid the performance management pitfalls that come from common organizational dysfunctions and cognitive biases. Why recognizing performance management blind spots matters Cognitive neuroscience research over the past few decades confirms that our biases are normal and flawed. Many decisions we make, especially those about people, are heavily influenced by our cognitive biases. Research has also demonstrated that noticing cognitive biases takes intention and awareness. Left unchallenged cognitive biases result in inaccurate views of performance. These blind spots have invisible yet powerful effects on our lives and those we lead. The following popular video demonstrates the impact of blind spots. Watch the video of two separate groups passing a basketball and count how many times the white team passes the ball. Recognizing cognitive biases requires deep self-awareness. Generally, leaders find it challenging to achieve a higher level of awareness because they spend much of the workday rushing from meeting to meeting, having too much to get done, or taking shortcuts with decision-making for the sake of time. Setting clear expectations and providing fair, honest, and timely performance feedback is essential for bringing out the best in people. A lack of feedback can either launch or shortcut a career. Also, most leaders recognize that their followers are the company's greatest asset. Every result is the direct contribution of someone, somewhere, doing something. Effective performance management has broad personal and organizational implications requiring leaders to account for the powerful impact of cognitive biases and organizational dysfunctions. How to recognize cognitive biases Everyone experiences automatic thoughts triggered by the environment and emotions. These shortcuts are often highly believable. Sometimes these subconscious algorithms are helpful. Like when I saw a wild grizzly bear this summer, I knew to stay in the car at a safe distance because it could attack. However, unlike our computers, none of us are entirely logical. Sometimes these automatic ways of thinking reflect inaccurate judgments in processing. These errors are described as cognitive bias, an assumption that is skewed. Sometimes we might jump to the worst conclusion for a meeting or blame ourselves for things that were not our fault. Here are a few of the more common assumptions that lead to performance management cognitive biases: Positive and Negative Stereotypes: Past performance is how performance is always going to be. These broad generalizations and assumptions can be negative performance presumptions, such as incompetence in one area or another or presuming a lack of character or trustworthiness. The stereotypes can also be favorable performance presumptions, such that the leader doesn't follow up on performance or always blames others and the environment for poor performance. Recency Effect: When the last few weeks or current event influence perceptions of how performance is for the entire evaluation period. Halo or Horns Effect: A strength or weakness in one area shifts perceptions of how performance is in all areas. Employees are given the benefit of the doubt, success is assumed, or employees are put in a box, and failure is assumed. All or Nothing: Performance is either one extreme or the other for aspects of performance. Feedback on one part of performance influences how all performance is viewed. One exceptional strength or weakness seeps into ratings across different areas. Elitism: Individuals are perceived as superior or inferior to others because of certain aspects such as longevity with the company, degrees held, previous positions, or visible characteristics seen through a positive or negative filter. Jumping to Conclusions: Rushing to give numerical scores for a speed advantage rather than wasting time considering performance as a whole. Scoring generates a number; therefore, it must be rational and objective, right? This data closes minds to new or contradictory evidence. Contrast Effect: A leader compares performance only to the last person evaluated instead of performance standards in a series of evaluations. Attribution Error: A leader interprets the performance of others based on beliefs and opinions rather than rational facts. The following Cognitive Bias Codex graphic identifies over 180 identified cognitive biases: How to recognize organizational dysfunctions There is no perfect leader, and there is no perfect organization. It is best to consider them works in progress. Organizational dysfunctions are systemic and affect every leader and follower in the organization. A fast-paced digital and complex workplace creates situations that can impair leadership perceptions making them more vulnerable to cognitive biases and developing bad habits. Common organizational dysfunctions include: Absence of feedback culture: Organizational culture is the one thing that impacts everything. Performance management requires fair, balanced, and honest feedback to be effective. Workplace cultures that can't accept interesting failure or have high leader-follower power distance create barriers for leaders to receive and give feedback. Role overload: Doing more with less and working leader roles keeps leaders rushing from meeting to meeting and spending enough thoughtful time soliciting and providing meaningful feedback. Lack of training: Organizations wanting to reduce costs cut performance management training investments and make a flawed assumption that every leader knows how to handle performance management. Lack of process: To avoid having one more process or a policy that no one follows, companies avoid establishing the criteria between what is preferred versus required performance management standards. Lack of monitoring and accountability: No updates or companywide reporting to create check-ins and organizational alignment on performance standards. Lack of continuous improvement: No after-action reviews with leaders and employees on the performance management processes to understand what is working and is not. Leaders are left to re-create the wheel repeatedly. 3 Helpful Performance Management Thinking Habits The first step is becoming aware that you, like everyone, experience automatic thoughts that, if left unchallenged, can profoundly impact your leadership and those you lead. Next, here are three helpful performance management thinking habits: Reflection is a powerful tool for helping you create helpful thinking habits. Consider the list of cognitive biases and organizational dysfunctions. Do you recognize yourself or your workplace in any of these? Examine the evidence for and against your thoughts in each performance management situation. What is the evidence for believing that your thoughts are true? It is easy to create reasons why a thought you hold is true, but you may find it helpful to get help from others on why a particular view might not always be accurate. Conduct performance calibration meetings. Invite peers and your leader to review and critique your performance reviews before they are finalized. This can help you rationally consider the evidence for or against a perception you hold. You may find it helpful to ask them to play the "devil's advocate" so they know it is OK to challenge your thinking. So what is your cognitive bias or organizational dysfunction challenge? References Kahneman, D., & Egan, P. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Korteling, J. E., Brouwer, A. M., & Toet, A. (2018). A Neural Network Framework for Cognitive Bias. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 1561. Moody, J. (2015). Rising above cognitive errors: Improving searches, evaluations, and decision making. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Rachman, S., & Shafran, R. (1999). Cognitive distortions: Thought–action fusion. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy: An International Journal of Theory & Practice, 6(2), 80-85. Whalley, M. (2019). Cognitive distortions: An introduction to how CBT describes unhelpful ways of thinking. Psychology Tools.

Organizations desire certainty, success, and efficiency, and it is uncertainty, failure, and inefficiency that are sources of innovation. Leaders fail as much as they succeed. However, the pervasive positive gaslighting that dominates social media feeds and company communications hides this reality. An inaccurate widely held assumption is that successful leaders succeed in spite of their failures. But failure, although uncomfortable, is not always bad, and an unhealthy fear of failure puts results at risk. Leaders and organizations that are not improving are falling behind. Many organizational cultures are designed to keep employees from taking risks. But it is embracing failure that creates space for innovation. Here are three practical ways leaders can support interesting failure and realize surprising success. Why would you want to do something that could lead to failure for you or your business? The word "failure" has different meanings to different people at different times. What constitutes a failure is not always clear and is usually personal. For example, walking across the finish line of a marathon can be viewed as success and failure, depending on your perspective. A leader's perception and response to failure determine and shape success for followers in any given situation. Typically, failure is considered a lack of success in some effort or a situation in which something does not work as expected. Using this definition, it is counterintuitive to think that a business leader should support failure. However, the inability to change leads to business failure, and an unhealthy fear of failure threatens success. According to the bureau of labor statistics, approximately 75% of all ventures fail in ten years. Avoiding failure in the workplace reinforces continuous improvements over innovation. While this approach results in high-quality and low-cost products and services, the hidden financial and non-financial costs of avoiding failure are severe. Beyond the obvious competitive threats from a lack of innovation, a failure to learn and grow leads to repeat errors and avoidable mistakes. Failure creates the space to reconsider the task and envision a more successful outcome. Healthy vs. unhealthy fear of failure Fear of failure is characterized by feelings of embarrassment, a perceived threat to a leader's value, future uncertainty, or others' perceptions of the leader. The fear of failure causes anxiety, avoidance, loss of control, helplessness, and powerlessness at a personal level. Leaders with a dominant fear of failure avoid opportunities to develop and grow. At an organizational level, the complications that arise from that culture are increased repeatable errors and a lack of necessary experimentation and risk-taking for innovation. Businesses that do not innovate and change fall behind and ultimately fail. Fear of failing can be a rational and irrational response to a real or perceived consequence of a leader's actions. Without a rational fear of failing, leaders lack the desire to evaluate the potential pros and cons associated with a new idea. A healthy fear of failure improves a leader's success. An irrational and persistent fear of failing is referred to as atychiphobia. It can range from mild to all-consuming daily life. Individuals that also struggle with perfectionism can struggle with this persistent fear of failure. Three practical ways leaders can support interesting failure Supporting failure does not imply that leaders ignore the fear of failure. Instead, leaders need to recognize the negative influence of fear and turn it into an advantage. Leadership Support 1: Clarify excusable vs. inexcusable failure It is relatively easy to differentiate between achieving or missing a goal. However, embracing failure requires keen awareness and the ability to distinguish between excusable mistakes and those resulting from carelessness. Reinforcing differentiation encourages risk-taking to achieve stretch goals. Leaders reward risk avoidance when well-thought-out and executed plans that fail are punished. Positive risk-taking behaviors need to be recognized and rewarded even when not directly resulting in achieving the desired goal. Training is an effective tool leaders can use to set expectations and reinforce desired behaviors by removing the negative consequences associated with taking risks. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill Leadership Support 2: Be vulnerable When leaders practice vulnerability, it creates safety where followers are more willing to be open to failures. Leaders that support failure are transparent about their failures and don't blame others when they occur. Although leaders are expected to convey an image of competence, confidence, and power, followers already know you are not perfect. In addition to being transparent, vulnerable leaders are good active listeners. Actively listening is your ability to hear and improve mutual understanding. Hearing is not a synonym for active listening. When you actively listen, you pay attention, show interest, suspend judgment, reflect, clarify, summarize, and share to gain clarity and understanding. When practicing active listening, you are available to the other person. “The great leaders are not the strongest, they are the ones who are honest about their weaknesses." - Simon Sinek Leadership Support 3: Create a culture of collaboration Leaders that are supportive of failure create a collaborative culture where risks can be analyzed, and good ideas utilized no matter where the idea originates. Collaboration builds confidence and courage to express thoughts and take risks. Leaders who embrace failure encourage a growth mindset and empower risk-taking behaviors to achieve personal and professional success and significance. Establish team operating agreements that encourage collaboration, such as: Commitment to putting the company first Value one another's contributions Practice patience Strive for consensus and a willingness to use disagreement as a tool for stronger decisions Seek first to understand Silence is not golden - everyone can speak up and constructively challenge one another and the status quo “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together”. African Proverb How Nelson Mandela responded to failure Most consider Nelson Mandela, a successful leader. He spent much of his life ending a system of legislation upholding segregationist policies against non-white citizens of South Africa, becoming the first democratically elected president of South Africa, and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize and many more honors. Mandela is also known for being sentenced to life in jail for conspiring to overthrow the government. Amidst what most would consider a devastating defeat, he spent his time in prison focusing on things within his control. He studied and served as a leader for improving prison conditions. During this time, he also inspired others by reciting the following line from William Ernest Hensley's poem Invictus, "I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul." To find surprising success, like Mandela, leaders must overcome an unhealthy fear of failure and focus on what they control to support interesting failure. What is your real challenge in supporting failure? References: Berkun, S. (2010). The myths of innovation. O'Reilly Media, Inc. Farson, R., & Keyes, R. (2002). The failure-tolerant leader. Harvard Business Review, 80(8), 64-148. Kollmann, T., Stöckmann, C., & Kensbock, J. (2017). Fear of failure as a mediator of the relationship between obstacles and nascent entrepreneurial activity—An experimental approach. Journal of Business Venturing, 32(3), 280-301. Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2007). The leadership challenge. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. Luhn, A. (2016). The learning organization. Creative and Knowledge Society, 6(1), 1-13.

Most leaders want to become better leaders. But it’s normal to have objections and doubts about investing in developing better leadership habits. When I talk with executives, I hear about how they are grappling with new workforce challenges, strategic concerns, and increasing demands for innovation. Observing these leaders in action, they often rush from meeting to meeting, fight one fire after another and respond to endless emails. The speed of the typical workday is a blur of activity. It's easy to get stuck in a pattern of doing the same things and hoping for better results. When you feel captive to a habit, it’s time to reevaluate. Here are five common objections to developing better habits and what leaders should keep in mind. Why striving for better habits matters Leaders must continually transform, adapt, and innovate or fall behind. Research constantly reminds us that the best and most creative leaders populate the most successful organizations. Leaders with closed minds and organizations slow to adapt to new ideas quickly fall behind and become obsolete in a fast-paced digital workplace. All leaders need to continually develop and evolve at a pace consistent with the change in our exacting world. Business leaders naturally desire to achieve both success and significance in life and at work. However, privately, they question if it is possible given the expectations from their board members, shareholders, and key stakeholders. In today's business environment, success and significance appear to be competing priorities and opposite ends on a continuum. Striving for better habits is a competitive advantage available to any manager or executive looking for a powerful point of differentiation. In the review and analysis of four separate studies in different industries, it was discovered that leadership effectiveness could account for up to as much as 45% of an organization's performance. According to Jim Collins in the book Good to Great, a review of 1,435 companies studied over more than forty years revealed that leadership effectiveness accounted for up to 6.9 times greater stock returns than market averages. Effective leadership makes a crucial difference in the personal and professional results you achieve and the life you live. Objection 1: I do not have the time to change my habits. One of the most common legitimate objections I hear is that “I don’t have time for this.” It takes time, practice, and consistency to create good habits and break bad habits. A common myth is that it takes 21 days to break a habit. The number of times you have to perform a healthy habit before it becomes a habit can vary substantially by the person and the situation. One study concluded it typically ranges from 18-254 days of consistency. The key is repetition, and eventually, it will become a habit. We all get the same amount of time in a day. As leaders, finding time to invest in personal development is challenging and often comes with feelings of guilt from the tradeoffs you have to make. However, how you choose to spend your time is visible to others and sends a message to the rest of your company. When you invest time developing yourself, you are reinforcing a learning culture where individual development is valued. Also, it is important to remember that your bad habits are costing you in ways that impact your success and significance. “The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.” – Samuel Johnson Objection 2: I have real work to get done. Similar to the objection of not having enough time but with the twist that an either-or decision must be made. For example, “I only have so many hours in the day, and I can either get the work done that our customers need or spend time developing myself.” This argument takes a nearsighted view of value. It minimizes the costs of bad habits on the leader, team, and business. It is similar to the belief that taking the time to sharpen a saw is too costly when compared to the value of continuing to cut wood with a dull saw. Creating new healthy habits increases your capacity and effectiveness with long-term returns on the initial investment of time. "If you believe that training is expensive, it is because you do not know what ignorance costs." Leboeuf Objection 3: These so-called bad habits were good habits in the past. These good habits will soon become bad habits as well. A topic like leadership means different things to different people. There are competing points of view on what makes for good leadership that creates confusion. Also, there are more than a few ideas in leadership books based on smoke and mirrors to sell ideas rather than research. The same leadership approach can have different results in different situations and with other people. For example, suppose I am about to make a life-threatening mistake. In that case, I appreciate direct and forceful communication to help me stop. However, when the stakes are not that high, I interpret that same behavior as obnoxious. Confusion typically comes before clarity. Rarely in business and in life do you have all the information you need before making a decision. If you are feeling confused, turn to peer-reviewed journal articles, and talk to others to gain a deeper understanding of effective leadership based on proven practices. Objection 4: I have tried to break habits in the past and failed. Most of us have experienced trying to break a bad habit before, only to keep doing what we don’t want to do. Although not the most common objection I hear, this is a common experience. When you view the process of breaking habits with a pass or fail mental model, it sets you up for frustration. Breaking strong bad habits is a learning process that needs to be viewed as the only failure is giving up. If you are struggling with this objection, spend some time clarifying why you are trying to break this habit in the first place. Ask yourself the following two powerful questions: What do I want to be remembered for in life and at work? This question requires considering why and what outcome you want from your personal and professional investment of time and energy. To answer this question, you have to factor in the impact you will have on others, what you stand for, and how you want to show up daily. What does personal and professional success look like this year and over the next five years? When thinking about the answer to this question, consider the following: material, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, physical, commercial, organizational, environmental, time, and team. "Failure isn't fatal, but failure to change might be" - John Wooden Objection 5: My situation is different, and this leadership practice won't work in my situation. It is essential to know your habits and routines. However, leadership is not something that you are born with, and we are much more alike than at first we may appear. I say that because, in my experience, I find leaders from all walks of life, in all sizes of companies, across diverse industries, that believe they are the only ones struggling with a bad habit. Negative self-talk about a good leadership practice failing before you even give it a try can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you find yourself a skeptic and unwilling to get started, consider expanding your network and talking with others that share your situation. Find someone that has successfully tried or is using this practice. Also, spend time visioning what implementing a good leadership habit would look like. See this practice as a positive step in your leadership journey. What is the real objection for you to start creating good leadership habits? References: Collins, J. (2001). Good to great: Why some companies make the leap--and others don't. HarperBusiness. Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, Cornelia H., Potts, H., & Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998-1009.