I had a little “incident” at home.  I tried to open a jar and couldn’t do it.  Actually, it’s happened a few times recently and each time, my eight year old son comes to my rescue.  I hate to admit that getting older can mean that I lose certain abilities such as strength or dexterity.  I was also reluctant to have someone help me, let alone someone so much younger who was then able to do the task with ease. Then I realized, it’s the way the world works.  The techniques that he was using were different than my approach and ultimately, his way worked better for me.

As we age, there are many things that the younger generations can do that we cannot.  I’ve experienced it on the other end of the spectrum too, where someone more senior to me may be resistant to my help or expertise.  It’s human nature to want to do things for ourselves, in the way that we are used to doing them.  However, by doing this and not capitalizing on the skills of others, we are only limiting ourselves.

Benefits of allowing others to teach you

• Learning new skills to aid in your job or personal life
• Exposure to new technologies to improve inefficiencies you experience
• Allowing yourself to be inspired by the “spark” or passion that another person can share when they teach you something

It’s well known in the business world that if you find a mentor who is more senior to you, they can share their experience with you.  This leads to improved skills and knowledge and ultimately to higher level positions or pay increases as you develop.  Lesser appreciated is the reverse, when a younger, less experienced individual shares their knowledge with you, it can also lead to increased skills, revenue or higher level positions.

My point today is open yourself up.  Regardless of age, having teachers and mentors of all ages will help you become a more well-rounded leader.  Do you have people in your life who mentor you?  Does their age or experience level impact your development?  Share about them in the comments.  I’d love to hear some great mentor stories!

When you work in human resources, you become part advisor, part therapist, part enforcer.  You are constantly presented with situations where leaders and employees need advice on how to communicate more effectively or how to relate to people who think differently or approach life differently.  In my role, I keep my eyes open to new techniques that can inspire people to become better communicators.  What I’m realizing is that for each new technique I find, they really all go back to some simple principles of getting along.  I recently had something remind me that good advice and good manners never go out of style or effectiveness.

How To Win Friends and Influence People

If you have not read the famous book by Dale Carnegie,  the basic premise of the book is that if you are nice to people, if you listen more than you speak and if you praise and help others keep their dignity, you will have successful relationships.   Written in 1936, the advice still largely holds true and has even been updated recently to how to win friends and influence people in the digital age.  It’s been many years since I read the book but it was one of the books my father recommended for me while I was still in college and had not started down my career path.

If you read this blog, you have likely been working for some time.  As you think back over your career, what books have inspired you or helped shape how you interact with other people?  What is the main message of the book?

Put yourself to the challenge of a little word association game.  I want you to read each word then think of the opposite:

• Teacher
• Creative
• Innovative
• Strategic
• Leader

I’m sure as you read through the list, you had a word jump to mind for each of them.  Here’s what I came up with:

• Teacher- Learner
• Creative- Destructive
• Innovative- Complacent
• Strategic- Tactical
• Leader- Follower

I notice is that if I spend some time really looking at the original list of words, I would not choose many of the “opposites” had I been given more time.  In fact, my list seems to have words that have a more negative connotation to them or at least a more passive tone.

Take the word “leader” for example.  My guess is that many people would automatically say “follower” is the opposite.  In our society though, the connotation of the word follower gives the sense that it is the less desirable position to hold.  However, no one is a leader all the time.  We each need to embrace being a follower so that we are stretched to learn.

When I looked up synonyms for the word follower, I found many that were positive such as supporter, enthusiast and fan.  Those are all positive.  Don’t they apply to leaders too?

Isn’t a leader a supporter?

Isn’t a leader an enthusiast?

Shouldn’t a leader be a fan of the people he is leading and guiding?

The way we use words in our business writing matters, yet we often go with a quick response and may not be setting the best tone or sending the most positive message.  The challenge is to stretch ourselves when we communicate.  The words we use to refer to an employee, a project or a proposal may determine the level of success you are having with your team or with an entire organization.  Are the words you use instilling confidence and trust?  Do they demonstrate transparency?

I’m looking at words in a new way.  Yes, I am a leader, but that also means that I am an enthusiastic supporter of the team I am guiding.  They are not followers, but supportive contributors.

Word game? Maybe, but I’ll take it.

Employee engagement remains a focus for most leaders.  After all, especially in an economic downturn, business leaders are trying to find ways to keep their teams energized, motivated and feeling valued.  One of the first ways to address any area of employee engagement is low is to look at the overall culture of the department.  Do employees feel heard?  Trusted?  Included?

Most leaders think the culture is what it is though.  Or they mistakenly think the culture is a supportive one when it is not.  Even organizations with high levels of employee engagement and commitment can make improvements that will have an impact on their teams.

Starting today, you can Rock Your Corporate Culture for $19.97.  Author Ben Eubanks has put together an e-guide that will help revolutionize your approach to culture.  The guide is broken down into three main pieces:

• Defining culture at work
• Leveraging culture for business success
• Making changes to organizational culture

Rock Your Corporate Culture, you will learn how to inject culture into the recruiting process, how to hire and fire based on culture fit and how to influence and even change the embedded culture of the organization.  So don’t wait- download your copy today and start rocking your corporate culture!

As a speaker at The Conference Board’s recent Senior HR Executive Conference, I had the opportunity to hear several other HR leaders speak about their approaches to development of their leaders. One speaker that caught my attention was Susan Schmitt.  Susan is the SVP of HR at Rockwell Automation.

While most organizations focus on leadership capabilities as they develop their management team, Susan shared a story of an exercise she went through in which several HR leaders from various companies found that the leadership capabilities they used at their organizations were almost identical to each other.  With that knowledge, Rockwell decided to look beyond the capabilities they were using and determine what ultimately drove successful leaders.

Instead of focusing on just the core leadership capabilities, they added elements that focused on fit:

• Skills, knowledge, experience and education-  These are traditional core leadership capabilities you look for in any organization.  Still highly important, but you need to take it a step further.
• Information processing capability- Ability to manage the complexity of the work.  This element determines if the leader, or potential leader, can handle increasing levels of volitality, uncertainty, complexity and abiguity in their work.
• Temperament- This is the point that Rockwell began to diverge from the traditional leadership capabilities.  They use specific techniques to focus on extremes in behavior that can inhibit or derail the leader’s success.  If it is found that someone has a temperament that is not conducive to successful leadership, they work on that capability or they are not promoted to the next level.
• Commitment-  Does the leader value the work and demands associated with the role?  If you cannot answer this in the affirmative, then you will not have long-term success with this leader.

While not widely used grouped in this way, I believe that Rockwell Automation is on a path to building successful leaders.  What elements does your organization use to determine the temperament or commitment of your leaders and people on the leadership track?  Would you prevent someone from being promoted to a leadership role if they did not have the temperament to deal effectively with people?

Share your ideas, I’d love to hear your thoughts.