The 8020Info Water Cooler

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The 8020Info Water Cooler
Issue #104 - Vol. 7 No. 07
28 May, 2007

1. Building Ethical Leadership

Shortly after Jawaharlal Nehru was elected to a second consecutive term as president of the Indian National Parliament, a savage article appeared in Modern Review. "He has all the making of a dictator in him -- vast popularity, a strong will directed to a well-defined purpose, energy, pride, organizational capacity, ability, hardness, and with his love of the crowd, an intolerance of others and a certain contempt for the weak and efficient," the anonymous critic wrote. "His conceit is formidable. He must be checked. We want no Caesars."

The author of the article was actually Nehru himself, and in Executive Excellence, Ronald Berenbeim, of the U.S. Conference Board, said it showed Nehru had an intuitive grasp of the essence of ethical leadership and the importance of power being limited. The lessons we can draw are:

Ethical leaders don't hide from debate: An ethical leader understands that open and contentious debate is essential to making the best possible decisions (and even, like Nehru, might have to stoke the dissent).

Ethical leaders are active participants: They don't sit back waiting for committees to send them recommendations but are actively involved in developing and thrashing through the alternatives. Good leaders have a zest for intellectual combat, testing out their ideas.

Institutional sustainability comes first: The best test of a leader is the state of the enterprise 20 years after the leader has left. That will show whether the leader built for the future.

2. Learn More With A Learning Journal Top

To accelerate your learning, consultant Kevin Eikenberry suggests starting a learning journal. It can be a steno pad, fancy leather-bound journal, a three-ring binder, or a computer file. On it, you want to capture important moments of your day, ideas you have, and decisions that you have made, and reflect on the lessons those offer.

That requires asking yourself questions like:

What happened?

Why?

What is the lesson?

How can I apply this to another situation?

What could I do differently next time?

How could this problem/challenge/issue be solved or removed?

"There are as many questions as there are learning opportunities, but this very short list should at least get you started," he writes in his e-zine.

Aim for regular entries in your journal, preferably every day. When you write regularly, you'll likely find a difference in your attitude, energy level, and productivity. And don't begrudge the time. It doesn't mean 30 minutes less sleep a day, he stresses, but just taking the time to stop and record important thoughts and reflections as they occur.

"Keeping a learning journal is one of the most underutilized tools today," he concludes. "It can be very low cost and not require much time, yet the rewards are huge."

3. The Power of Clichés Top

Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn warned to "avoid clichés like the plague." He fell back on a cliché to warn us against them, and in that he was showing both their power and danger. When we have just a short time to make a pitch, consultant Sam Horn notes in her Take Action newsletter, too often we fall back onto a cliché or patter that is so obvious people decide they don't have to pay attention because they have heard it all before.

The alternative, she says, is to surprise them by re-arranging a cliché instead of repeating one. Avoid a tired truism and replace an anticipated word with an unexpected variation. Avon did that with its breast cancer slogan: "Good things happen to those who… walk." A bakery has a sign on the window advertising its bread: "Give yeast a chance." PR consultant Marilynn Mobley gives a keynote on communications called "I heard you twice the first time." So reinvent clichés, and avoid the plague of others not tuning you in.

4. The Lure of Conventions and Meetings Top

Why do people in business attend conferences or meetings? Consultant Donald Cooper, in his newsletter, gives five reasons that can serve as a checklist if you are hosting an event designed to attract businesspeople or evaluating whether to attend a conference. Those reasons are:

To learn -- new ideas, new techniques, or new ways of applying what they know so they can gain competitive advantage or new skills.

To network -- to create leads or contacts and to feel connected in this increasingly disconnected world.

To re-energize -- to laugh, to believe and to be uplifted and inspired in this demanding and stressful world.

To celebrate their accomplishments, to recommit to their continued success, and to have fun!

To be heard and to contribute.

5. Zingers Top

After hiring a new assistant, don't be too quick to judge him or her. Remember that one of the most common movie plots starts with a disastrous encounter between two totally incompatible individuals who 90 minutes later end up sharing a Nobel Prize, or collaborating on a hit musical, or finding conjugal bliss in Seattle.
(Source: Management Today)

Technology writer Joel Bruckenstein had avoided reviewing tablet PCs because of their software limitations, until recently. After a test of the Fujitsu Lifebook T4215, he decided that the convertibility such models offer -- to be used as a tablet or light laptop PC -- makes them worth considering for financial advisors and others who take notes in meetings with clients. He found "writing" on virtual lined paper within OneNote 203, part of the pre-installed Microsoft Office suite of applications, was as comfortable as writing on paper, and with OneNote you can embed audio within a note, recording your client conversation.
(Source: MorningstarAdvisor.com)

Giving a one per cent raise boosts employee performance by roughly 2 per cent but offering the same money in the form of a bonus that is strongly linked to a job well done can improve performance by almost 20 per cent, a Cornell University study found.
(Source: Science Daily)

Before sending your boss or colleague a note asking for an approval or advising them what is happening on a project, ask yourself if you would drop by their office to tell them that or consider it a waste of their time, columnist Jason Fry suggests. Treat their time with the same care in email.
(Source: Wall-Street Journal)

Know your influencers: Las Vegas hotel mogul Steve Wynn has special bathrooms and vending machines set up in his hotels for cab drivers and invites their families to special events at his hotels.
(Source: 1 to 1 Weekly)

6. Q & A with 8020Info    Top

Question: What can we do to make summer hires more worthwhile for students?

8020Info Associate Harvey Schachter responds:

Try to remember the boring moments you had in your early jobs. Then ask how you can avoid that for them. Think challenge. That's what they want.

Call a meeting of the staff members who will deal with the students -- and any young people you have on staff -- and ask for suggestions. Keep it to work matters, though. The issue is not whether you should go barhopping as a group some night. Think challenge.

Call a second meeting, and discuss delegation. What is the best way to delegate to young people? Discuss it. Maybe even do some research, and meet to discuss it again. Think challenge, but how to present it in do-able stages.

Develop a plan for getting started effectively, so the summer employee is properly integrated into work on the first day. Make sure all the pass codes are ready when he or she arrives at work, the appropriate tools are on the desk, and the people he or she needs to deal with to get started are actually ready and properly prepared. Avoid sending a sour message on opening day.

I've stressed challenge because it's critical, but there's another equally important word to stress: mentor. Throughout the summer, think how you or a senior staff member can be a mentor to the individuals you hire, which will help to make their summer memorable.

7. News From Our Water Cooler:     Top

Over the past nine months 8020Info has led more than 130 planning sessions, workshops, public consultations and focus groups to help managers make decisions and plan for the future. Many of these projects involved strategic planning, as boards and management teams revisit their missions and visions or develop new directions for their organizations. Our focus groups or public consultation sessions have helped clients make better decisions by gathering honest feedback from customers, staff, stakeholders or community residents.

8020Info would be pleased to discuss your needs for research or a streamlined process to develop new direction and focus. We welcome your enquiries at (613) 542-8020, or by email at watercooler@8020info.com.

8. Closing Thought    Top

"Pay your people the least possible and you will get from them the same."
-- Malcolm Forbes