Top Executive Coaching with Tony Mayo

Wired Magazine published a fascinating photograph of the high-technology, luxurious bridge aboard the world’s longest cruise ship, the 1,187 foot Oasis of the Seas. Even more interesting is the leadership wisdom the ship’s captain shared.

How does the captain steer? “The port and starboard command chairs have built-in joysticks for controlling the ship,” Wright says. But those are typically operated by other officers. “Captains should be mentoring and teaching.“

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Could a simple five-minute interaction with another person dramatically increase your weekly productivity?

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employees who know how their work has a meaningful, positive impact on others are not just happier than those who don’t; they are vastly more productive, too. … “Even minimal, brief contact with beneficiaries can enable employees to maintain their motivation,” the researchers write in their paper, titled Impact and the Art of Motivation Maintenance: The Effects of Contact with Beneficiaries on Persistence Behavior, published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

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the one-two punch of knowing the beneficiary’s needs and meeting him in person generated the largest impact on motivation.

 

–The Art of Motivating Employees
Knowledge@Wharton

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Revolution is in the air around the world. People everywhere are fed up with having arbitrary power exercised over them, with impractical limits placed on their everyday actions, with living in constant fear that someone in power will frown at them and destroy their livelihood without warning or objective justification. This global revolution differs from the Marxist model of the dispossessed and disaffected rising up from poverty to overthrow the business class. This time, educated professionals are actively engaged in the resistance. As a result, people long accustomed to wielding authority and position are rapidly changing the way they run things. Suddenly, leaders in many countries are peacefully giving up some of their power in hopes of participating in a new, more prosperous and humane community.

I am not talking about foreign countries. I am talking about where you work.

For as long as I have been in the business world employees have been mystified and upset by the performance review process. The managers conducting the reviews find them arbitrary, uncomfortable, and Read the rest of this entry »

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I just read a talk by the head of the US government’s Office of Personnel Management, John Berry.  He provides a concise and cogent summary of the new management thinking that I hope will become a major influence in organizations around the world. This shift in management is, I believe, the result of two major trends. First, the crash of 2008 made it very clear that we had been placing too much emphasis and confidence in our top leaders while day-to-day quality of life for the rank-and-file stagnated or declined. Second, a huge wave of research in behavioral economics and positive psychology is shifting management practice toward methods that are tested and proven rather than anecdotal and heuristic.

Below are excerpts from the speech that illustrate some of my favorite points, the practices I emphasize with my own CEO executive coaching clients.

But don’t read my excerpts.

I recommend that leaders of organizations, particularly chief executives, read his entire speech by clicking here. Try to forget that he is speaking about government employees. Ignore references to the President and Congress. Imagine, instead, that you made this speech to your managers and employees. What would the impact be of making these changes in your own leadership style, in your company’s performance review process, in your day-to-day life?

Selected remarks of OPM Director John Berry
Interagency Resource Management Conference
Kellogg Conference Center

What if, when setting performance standards, we engaged our employees and got clear about expectations? What if we made sure performance standards were detailed, objective, aligned to agency mission and goals, and had employee buy-in – that they weren’t just dictated from on high?

Consider the four essential pieces of how we currently manage performance: Read the rest of this entry »

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What personality type is more likely to succeed in a leadership position? If you go by popular culture — television, movies, and books written by hero CEOs — you might think extroverts are natural leaders. Research summarized in an excellent article published by Wharton suggests a more nuanced answer.

Employees who are proactive and eager to have their ideas considered will be more productive with an introverted leader, who has the humility and patience to accept employee feedback. Extroverted leaders seem able to get more from passive, less group-oriented employees. This may explain part of a common business mistake, promoting a top salesperson into management. The extroversion that made the salesperson so successful may make her an inappropriate leader of other extroverts.

As a leader, know thyself and select followers that complement your style. As a business executive, consider the personalities of the people to be led when selecting their supervisor. If you already have an extrovert in charge of a group of proactive employees consider some executive coaching to help the extrovert become a better listener and more receptive to the ideas of others. If you have an introvert in charge of a department full of passive people you may need to find some other ways to motivate them to exert themselves and bring useful new ideas forward.

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I believe that leaders have three main roles.

1. They are responsible for interpreting the organization’s shared values and principles.
2. They are senior advisers to everyone in the organization. And,
3. They are the collective conscience, pushing the organization to reach its goals and live up to its ideals.

The idea that top executives or financial experts should make key decisions is so ingrained in our corporate cultures that it is nearly impossible for leaders to delegate important roles and decisions. Leaders who want to increase joy and success in the workplace must learn to take most of their personal satisfaction from the achievements of the people they lead, not from the power they exercise.

–Dennis Bakke
Joy at Work:
A Revolutionary Approach to
Fun on the Job

Fast Company

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