#focus4fulfillment

“Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.”          -Roy Rogers

 How embarrassing for the Army National Guard. According to USA Today, over 800 Soldiers are under criminal investigation for unethical behavior and fraudulent payments in the “tens of millions” as part of the Guard Recruiting Assistance Program (GRAP). What began as a successful recruiting initiative is now being called one of the largest criminal investigations in the history of the Army. How did this happen? Perhaps if individuals had focused more on ethics and less on results and personal profit, we could have avoided this situation. One of my leadership philosophy components is to, “Do the Right Thing” which begins as the individual level, and should exist in all levels of an organization.

Doing the right thing starts with an individual choice to be ethically and morally correct as we manage resources, equipment, and the lives and careers of our service members. I don’t know about you, but I often find myself in a situation that isn’t black and white, where the right decision is undefined. A Judge Advocate officer once told me, that when you are unsure about doing the right thing, first ask the question “May I,” and then “Should I.” May I refers to the question of whether ethics rules permit us to take a proposed action, and then Should I focuses us on whether the action will create an appearance of unfairness, impartiality, or cause a reasonable person to question our integrity.

If this doesn’t work, I recommend getting an opinion from someone you trust. We are all responsible to ensure others in the organization are doing the right thing, so others are often glad to steer us in the right direction when we are unsure. Never hesitate to get a second opinion on tough decisions; it may make the difference between going down an unethical path or maintaining the straight and narrow.

We are also responsible to ensure others are doing the right thing. Bound by integrity and honor, we are empowered with the ability to correct and question others. Of course these types of conversations should happen in private, and if they are serious enough we must report them up the chain of command. But if we ignore these situations, we are guilty of allowing that sexual harassment incident in the workplace, not warning a friend when they are ignoring the proper use of company funds, or warning the boss when they appear to have a double standard. Yes, these types of situations have happened in my organization, and unfortunately will probably happen again. It takes personal courage to speak up, but we owe it to our friends, fellow service members, the chain of command, and ourselves to take action when someone isn’t doing the right thing.  

The final level of doing the right thing is with our leaders who are not only responsible for their actions, but also must ensure proper oversight is in place over our resources and processes to avoid unethical situations. Leaders at all levels are expected to have reviews, audits, inspections, or other control measures in place when they entrust their subordinates with managing resources, funds, and processes. Without these checks and balances, we place individuals in tempting situations where they may think they can get away with something that is irresponsible or illegal. Unfortunately, insufficient controls were probably the largest failing in the GRAP program, resulting in the cancelling of a successful recruiting program, an embarrassing investigation, and the end of many careers.

 References:

1.     Recruiting fraud, kickback scandal rocks Army - USA Today Article, 03 Feb 14

“Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.”

~Thomas Merton

Two years ago I made a painful discovery. I had a case of hubris. Now before you start thinking I had a box of a middle-eastern, mashed chickpea food dip, which isn’t bad by the way, please understand that I am talking about narcissism and pride, not hummus. Since this discovery I started to research the topic and found that this problem is more common than you’d think for leaders in our culture, and it is difficult to detect or diagnose on your own. The effects of narcissism can be very negative personally and professionally, and even our beloved Army doctrine doesn’t do much to combat it. The challenge for everyone is to recognize it as a first step to correct the bad habits, if they exist, before they get out of hand.

The fact is, we are experiencing an epidemic of narcissism in America. Authors Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell conclude that the well-intentioned encouragement of self-admiration in our culture has created the destructive side-effects of rampant arrogance and self-centeredness in our current generation, affecting young and old alike. If you don’t know what a narcissist is, don’t worry, you can identify it by its common symptoms like arrogance, conceit, vanity, and self-centeredness. It can also be described as my unfortunate addiction – hubris, which is excessive pride or self-confidence associated with conceit, pride, egotism, and superiority (ouch still hurts to say that). A narcissist has an over-inflated view of their own abilities, and in short, spends much of their time admiring, you guessed it, themselves.

This condition of self-centeredness, arrogance, and selfishness can create some very problematic issues for leaders. Because they see themselves as superior to others, they lack the ability to empathize or value others, so manipulation and exploitation is justifiable for a narcissist. Also, as you can imagine, narcissists are not popular bosses. They often create volatile work environments, rate “average” in problem solving skills, and “below average” in personal skills and integrity, which are a must in the workplace today. 

Since they lack humility, they tend to overvalue themselves and undervalue others, making it difficult for the narcissist to self-diagnose. They often are not able to see or admit personal mistakes, leaving no healthy way to learn from them, or make amends. Also, their day-to-day communication is more of a monologue (you listen, I speak), rather than healthy dialogues (two-way communication), allowing no opportunity to hear and consider other's thoughts, ideas, or feelings - in the end they suffer from their own closed-mindedness.  

Now here is something interesting that gave me pause - our leadership doctrine isn’t adequate enough to combat narcissism in our ranks. You would think that being self-centered goes against our Army Value of “Selfless Service.” However, the description of selfless service in FM 6-22, Army Leadership, only tells us to give up self-interest for the good of our team. It is okay to have a strong sense of self-worth and desire to attain success, but we are told to keep this within the boundary of treating members of our team fairly. Treating people fairly who are outside of “our team” is implied in the explanation, but is not clearly stressed, leaving us a no-holds barred attitude with regards to our peers and others outside our unit/section/team.  

To make matters worse, our doctrine also teaches that "a strong but harnessed ego, self-esteem, and a healthy ambition can be compatible with selfless service.” This sounds like the well-intentioned self-admiration our culture is experiencing, without any safeguards to prevent narcissism. We accept self-sacrifice as a value, but have a challenge equating it to something that is the opposite of hubris, such as humility. Within our current cultural environment of runaway arrogance and selfishness I am not sure how one can keep ambition and ego in check. I know it was a challenge for me, and without opposing doctrine or values how do we teach young leaders to avoid adopting a selfish and arrogant style of leadership?

How do we get better? Don’t worry. As a recovering pride-aholic I have concocted some remedies to cure what ails you. So, if you think you may have some symptoms of narcissism and self-centeredness, you can find some corrective strategies in my next leadership post.

References:

1.    The Narcissism Epidemic by Dr. Jean M. Twenge and Dr. W. Keith Campbell

2.    FM 6-22, para 4-22

I wrote this article several years ago for military officers, but the application is useful for any staff team member!

 “I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow.”

           -Woodrow Wilson

 Welcome to the life of the staff officer! Now you have the opportunity to communicate, cooperate, and most importantly, coordinate. Yes I am being a little sarcastic, but the reality is an officer will spend quite a bit of time on staff coordinating actions, versus in command, providing guidance and intent. It is a necessary broadening assignment we all have the opportunity to endure, um I mean experience. And since nearly every issue or action requires some form of coordination in our organization, this blog features the purposes of coordination, coordination methods, and some tips to ensure the commander’s intent becomes operational reality.

One of my military instructors gave me this definition for coordination (paraphrasing right now, it’s been a while) – coordination is the process an action officer uses to communicate, integrate, and manage information to all concerned or affected agencies involved in an issue or proposed action, allowing them the opportunity to contribute (comment), concur, or non-concur. If done well, staff coordination ensures unity of effort between staff actions and subordinate unit operations, and if you are wondering about the purposes of coordination, a staff officer coordinates to:

1.     Acquire and provide information

2.     Ensure complete and coherent actions

3.     Avoid conflict and duplication

4.     Consider all factors affecting the situation

And let’s face it, good staff coordination doesn’t magically happen, it is hard work, requiring personal initiative, a spirit of cooperation, and a genuine interest to make things happen. However, when done well, either by formal or informal methods, coordination ensures operations happen in a well-integrated fashion.

The methods and stages of coordination are important to consider when beginning a staffing action to ensure a comprehensive approach with the quickest turn-around time possible. Informal coordination consists of face-to-face communication, phone conversations, or correspondence by e-mail, normally used when the action is straight-forward and simple. When the task becomes more complex, formal methods like official correspondence, staffing documents, and briefings are required to resolve issues, concerns, and to solicit final comments and concurrence. As for the stages, here is a breakdown for consideration:

1.     Initial coordination is required first to assemble all materials, initial information and tasks, and to gain your activities’ position with regard to the commander’s intent and a vision or successful outcome. Additionally, you should determine, “who needs to be at the table,” or what other staff activities or units have an interest in the action to determine the appropriate coordination including them all in some form of sequence. Parallel coordination saves time, but sometimes an action requires “in-turn” sequencing, focusing on the activities that have the most interest in the action reviewing and commenting first. This ensures that if their comments require significant changes to the action, you don’t have to re-coordinate the revised action again.

2.     After receiving initial feedback from all activities involved, it is time for the second step, analysis of responses. Congratulations if everyone concurs, now you can make minor revisions and then send the action to the decision maker. However, if another activity or staff section non-concurs, a good technique to resolve the disagreement informally with an objective is to be, well, objective. The staff officer non-concurring may have a very valid point, so too much pride in authorship or a narrow-minded approach can have a very negative effect.

3.     The last stage in this odyssey is final coordination, resolving and addressing any non-concurrences, packaging the action in the appropriate document or briefing format, and sending to or briefing the decision maker. Typically a completed staff action consists of a recommendation, a decision maker concurrence, and an implementing order or formal document.

Goal Setting

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” – Alan Lakein

I have been fortunate to serve with some great planners in the military. In fact, as military leaders, it is part of our professional DNA. From air campaign planning, to the military decision making process, our joint planning process to the strategic planning process, military leaders at all levels learn and practice the benefits of planning.  Unfortunately, as we work the plans for current and future operations for our organizations, we often neglect our own personal and professional plans. So, to ring in the New Year properly, let’s take a look at the benefits of setting personal goals, and the structure of a SMART goal for our and our subordinate’s personal and professional benefit.  

Numerous authors, researchers, and self-help gurus identify three characteristics found in effective and successful individuals. They are accountability, commitment, and writing down personal goals. Since we are focusing on goal-setting, a common definition for a goal is an exact and tangible result you want, for which you are willing to expend specific effort towards in order to achieve.

The benefits of setting goals range from defining real actions vs. wishful thinking, the ability to set priorities in our life, but most importantly, goals provide an azimuth and route to follow giving us a better chance of getting what we want in the future. As Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up somewhere else!” With an idea of what we want, what is most important to us, and a written plan to get what we want, we take control of our future instead of leaving it up to chance and circumstance.

Once we decide we want to create goals for our future, it is important to use an effective format to go beyond the realm of fuzzy goal-setting into an actionable plan for results. The basic formula for a goal includes three key elements: an accomplishment to be achieved, a measurable outcome, and a specific date and time to accomplish the goal. However, a more detailed format for a goal or objective can be found in the five-step SMART acronym which stands for being:

Specific: Effective goals are well-defined and provide focus. Gary Ryan Blair, The Goals Guy, states, “Focus creates a powerful force: goal power. The moment you focus on a goal, your goal becomes a magnet, pulling you and your resources toward it. The more focused your energies, the more power you generate.”

Measurable: Numbers and “keeping score” is an important part of tracking progress. Experts agree that putting concrete numbers and measurement in your goals is a sure way to determine if you’re on track, enabling you to determine when the objective is met. Attainable: Realistic goals are essential in our personal and professional lives. I have worked for leaders who aimed for the stars and understand the reason for dreaming big, but we must also keep one foot firmly on the ground when we set goals.

Relevant: Base your goals on the current conditions of your life, not a false picture of your situation or someone else’s wants or desires. Wanting to please others is normal, but our goals are, well…our goals. This is your life, your situation is unique, and your goals should reflect what you want in relation to your current situation.

Time-Based: Nothing is better than a deadline to make something real. Goals without a ‘no later than’ time will take a backseat to other things in life, so choose a time-frame to accomplish your goal. Using the three step goal format or the SMART acronym, here are some examples of effective goals:

I will complete 50% of my college degree by June 2015.

I will decrease my financial debt by 50% by September 2016.

I will lose 15 pounds in the next three months.

Goals are an effective part of planning for the future, and using the right three to five elements will ensure our goals are clear, realistic, and actionable. I ask you to consider using a SMART format the next time you create or review your goals and objectives, and better yet, share this format with your subordinates to ensure they structure their goals for success. Based on leadership doctrine, developing ourselves and others is a critical leadership competency, and producing a plan to achieve individual and organizational success is a necessary part of preparing our current and future leaders.

References:

Goal Setting 101: How to Set and Achieve a Goal by Gary Ryan Blair

7 Reasons Good People Still Fail by Sid Savara

"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." – President John F. Kennedy

Coasting as a Leader

A friend of mine shared an interesting analogy the other day that led me to think about growth and learning as a leader. It was about coasting while riding a bike. He told me that one of two things are happening when you are coasting. Either you are headed downhill, or you are losing speed – neither is a good thing as a leader. I shared this analogy with another friend, and he agreed and said, “we are like plants, we are either growing, or we are dying.” Since that analogy is a bit too morbid for me these days (I am middle-aged after all), let’s just stick with the coasting thought for this leadership post.

So are you picking up speed and heading uphill, or are you coasting as a leader? Although experts tell us that effective leaders are life-learners, they also warn that it is a normal tendency to coast when things are going well. And if you can honestly answer yes, I am coasting, how do you figure out where to improve? A little honest self-evaluation or request for feedback from friends, superiors, and subordinates can probably point us to the next opportunity for an uphill climb.

If you want to be effective and successful as a leader, you have to grow. Leadership experts Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus conducted a study of ninety top leaders in different lines of work, and discovered that the ability to develop and improve skills separates the leaders from the followers. Effective leaders are life-learners, dedicated to constantly push themselves out of their comfort zone and into new experiences and better self-awareness. However, even though the benefits are obvious, many get stuck in the pitfalls of complacency or arrogance that stagnate their ability to change and adapt.

There are many obstacles that can limit our growth as a leader, but a major blockage to personal learning is arrogance. Let’s face it, if we are gifted with leadership strengths, and have experienced a lot of success, why look for ways to grow and change. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?  Development and coaching experts Michael Lombardo and Robert Eichinger warn against this type of thinking, advising us that, “Many people who have a towering strength or lots of success get little feedback and roll along until their careers get in trouble.” This lack of feedback leads to complacency – not a good place to be as a leader.

I had an opportunity for feedback when I attended a Franklin Covey Speed of Trust training event last year. Part of the training package was a trust characteristics 360 degree evaluation involving my superiors, peers, and subordinates. My overall score was good, but let me tell you, several respondents provided some very honest feedback and real “opportunities for improvement.” The feedback smarted a bit at first I have to admit, but after some reflection I found their comments identified some blind spots and behaviors I needed to change quickly to be a better leader.

The honest truth is many of us fall into some level of coasting in our career. If you are coasting, consider conducting a multi-source 360 degree evaluation, there are many tools available. Or simply poll some close co-workers or friends, asking for feedback on your strengths and weaknesses. This may seem a bit unnerving, but think of the benefits! This constructive feedback can lead you to an opportunity for self-development, and kick-start your ride to achieve a new level of effectiveness as a leader.

References:

For Your Improvement, a Guide for Development and Coaching by Michael Lombardo and Robert Eichinger.

Action Orientation

“Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right.’ Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.” – Napoleon Hill (one of the great writers on success)

Are you action oriented? This may appear to be a silly question for military leaders and managers to consider, but sometimes perfectionism, procrastination, or risk avoidance can lead each of us to be overly methodical, slow to act on an opportunity, or lack confidence to act because the issue is extremely complex. When this happens, we may miss a deadline or avoid presenting our ideas or opinion, resulting in appearing to be either unmotivated or unorganized.

According to experts, most successful senior managers count action orientation as one of their strengths. As we plan for our future leaders in our organization, it makes sense that we will be looking for those who can act quickly, take initiative, and just get things done. Here are some tips I have captured through trial and error, and research on the topic, to help you take quick and timely action.

Capture ideas and tasks in order to act on them. I grew up in a ‘green book’ culture where every junior officer carried a notebook so they could write things down, take notes, and journal ideas and thoughts. This method helps us keep up with ideas, to-do lists, and record what happened with helpful information from meetings. I have also learned that writing things down helps me maintain focus – if I don’t write down a promise or task, it is certainly at risk to be forgotten or missed.

Break down requirements into projects and tasks. I maintain two to-do lists, a Project List and a Task List. As a general rule, tasks are simple things that can be accomplished in 5-10 minutes, such as a phone call, e-mail, or discussion to check on the status of projects. A project then is something that is complex, takes many steps, and can be broken down into simple tasks. Confusing the two can lead to paralysis by analysis or not knowing what to do next. 

Develop a Deadline/Suspense System. For me, capturing tasks isn’t enough; I also maintain a suspense list to ensure I remain action oriented. I like to use the Calendar and Tasks features in Outlook to keep me on-track. A well-organized calendar ensures I don’t miss important meetings or events, and the Outlook Tasks tool allows me to create categories, maintain relevant information, and set task deadline or suspense dates. 

Organize, Organize, and Organize. Spending time organizing with a good filing system for example is one way to ensure you are working on important actions, rather than wasting time looking for that lost piece of information or document. Consider using three filing systems to stay on track, a hard copy filing system (in your desk), a digital filing system (on your computer) and an e-mail filing system in Outlook. 

Develop a weekly personal planning session. Firefighters believe in fire prevention, so they spend a considerable amount of time educating and inspecting to avoid fires, rather than spending more time putting them out. I try to maintain this mindset with a weekly personal planning session, where I review my calendar and projects, update tasks lists, and also file away documents and e-mails. I find that if I can carve out a little time each day to do this, and then spend an hour of ‘personal time’ concentrating on “next steps” each week, I avoid missing deadlines and spend time preparing, rather than reacting.

Coach, Mentor, Counselor

“I‘m firmly convinced that leaders are not born; they‘re educated, trained, and made, as in every other profession. To ensure a strong, ready Air Force, we must always remain dedicated to this process.” – General Curtis E. LeMay, Air Force Chief of Staff, 1961-1965, “Father of the Strategic Air Command”

“Soldiers learn to be good leaders from good leaders.” – Richard A. Kidd, Sergeant Major of the Army, 1991-1995

How do you develop your future leaders? Are you a coach, mentor or counselor? What is the difference?  Providing knowledge, guidance and feedback to our subordinates and future leaders is a principal responsibility for the effective leader, and believe it or not, they want it. Whether they are exceeding standards, or struggling to meet our expectations, we are responsible to coach others towards excellence, mentor our future leaders, and provide feedback and guidance through effective counseling. Here is a brief description of each to consider.

Several months ago I had the opportunity to speak to a group of mostly junior leaders about the role of full-time Administrative Officers (AOs) with the assistance of several other battalion AOs. As we took turns speaking, the other four AOs described themselves as a relay team, passing the baton as they spoke about our roles and functions. When it was my turn, I explained that since the team was complete, my role was to wrap up the presentation as the team “Coach.”

Afterwards, I started to research coaching as a leadership function, and found that the role describes a military leader who, like a sports team coach, is devoted to bringing out the best in their players. Dennis Kinlaw in his book, “Coaching for Commitment,” describes coaching as a key leadership function that everyone should accept. We do this by helping subordinates solve problems, learn new knowledge and skills, and take on more challenges in their life.

Additionally, the coach helps someone understand their current level of performance and challenges them with ideas of how to reach the next level of knowledge and skill. It is a very important role, but it isn’t reserved for just our subordinates in our formal chain of command. We can fulfill this role with our peers, in a staff or “team” situation, and as a mentor working informally with junior leaders.

For the military leader, mentorship is a voluntary developmental relationship that exists between a person of greater experience and a person of lesser experience that is characterized by mutual trust and respect. It is an informal relationship where the mentor is most often considered a role model who serves as an advisor providing support in many ways to assist another person in accomplishing specific goals. Like the coach, the mentor is committed to supporting and guiding the mentee towards excellence through conversations exploring personal challenges, expectations, and goal-setting.

And luckily the coach and mentor have a tool at their disposal to assist with communicating ideas, expectations, and future goals – counseling. Army FM 6-22, Army Leadership, describes counseling as a process used to review a subordinate’s demonstrated performance and potential. It also states that counseling is one of the most important leadership development responsibilities, where we rest the future and legacy of our organization on the shoulders of those we help to prepare for greater roles and responsibilities. Here are the three basic approaches of counseling at our disposal:

Non-directive approach – leaders use their experience and judgment to assist subordinates in developing solutions for problems or issues.

Directive approach – used to correct simple problems, make on the spot corrections, and correct aspects of duty performance.

Combined approach – leaders use both techniques to improve performance, emphasize the subordinate’s personal responsibility for excellence, and challenge them with planning and decision-making responsibilities.

A major challenge with counseling is the fact that many of us are uncomfortable when challenged with addressing poor performance. We do not want to either create conflict or fracture a working relationship, even if it is in the pursuit of what is best for our subordinate and the organization. In order to overcome this reluctance, keep this in mind:

“Inexperienced leaders are sometimes uncomfortable when confronting a subordinate who is not performing to standard. Counseling is not about leader comfort; it is about correcting the performance or developing the character of a subordinate.” FM 6-22, Para 8-75.

Definition: Subject to having to report, explain, or justify; being answerable, responsible. — Webster's Dictionary

For several years we have discussed “Accountability” within the Arkansas National Guard. Our Adjutant General, MG William Wofford stressed accountability upon assuming command of the Arkansas National Guard, and since then leaders have been tasked with assuring accountability at all levels. The challenge sometimes is defining accountability. Several years ago I researched associated values and characteristics of accountability, and wanted to share those definitions with you this week for your leadership discussions in the future.   For military leaders, accountability is defined as, “The requirement for commanders to answer to superiors for mission accomplishment, for the lives and care of their Soldiers, and for effectively and efficiently using Army resources.” Another take on accountability is this definition taken from the book, The Oz Principle: “A personal choice to rise above one's circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving results – to See It, Own It, Solve It, and Do It.“ So for the military professional, we are held accountable for mission accomplishment, lives and resources, but we also have a choice to take proactive ownership of the mission, lives, and resources based on our position as a leader. So how do we do this? Based on research from a leadership survey used several years ago, accountability can be broken down into four categories and characteristics:

Personal Responsibility (Integrity) is the ability to hold ourselves accountable for achieving or not achieving desired results, expecting only the best from our subordinates, and holding ourselves, them and each other to high ethical and moral standards.

Commitment (Duty) is the drive to maintain the momentum of operations to achieve results, the excitement about the daily opportunity to make things happen, and the resolve to do whatever must be done to produce the best results, no matter how difficult.

Candor (Personal Courage) is the acceptance of feedback, the invitation for candid feedback from everyone about their (and our) performance, always wanting to hear the truth, even when it is bad, and the ability to make subordinates feel that they can be honest and open.

Servant hood (Selfless Service) is the ability to display the ability to work with others to accomplish the mission, a willingness to serve our subordinates and others in the organization, and a choice to put what is best for our followers and the organization ahead of our personal agenda/ambition.

Now the real question – how do we measure up to these values and characteristics? Years ago I asked that question in a leadership survey with our full-time officers, Majors and below, and the results indicated that we had some room for improvement; no matter how good we are, there is always room for improvement. If you want to know how we measure up today, I invite you to pose that question to your subordinates. This would make a great professional development session, and may give you and all of us a fresh look at our accountability within the Arkansas National Guard.

References:

Army Leadership, FM 6-22

Army Command Policy, AR 600-20

Mission Command: Command and Control of Army Forces, FM 6-0

Communication and Organizational Crisis, Matthew Seegar, Timothy Sellnow & Robert Ulmer

Developing the Leaders Around You, John C. Maxwell

Becoming a Person of Influence, John C. Maxwell

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John C. Maxwell

Winning, Jack Welch

Patton on Leadership, Alan Axelrod

Real Dream Teams, Bob Fisher & Bo Thomas

Leading in a Culture of Change, Michael Fullan 

Good to Great, Jim Collins

The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes & Barry Posner