Reflection Leadership » Learning to Lead

Leadership Development: Just in Case or Just in Time

Tom Glover — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:15:26 +0000

Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes

The other day I ran across this article from John Cook where he wrote about the difference between “Just in Case” learning and “Just in Time” learning and I’ve been thinking about how Just in Case and Just in Time relate to leadership development.

Very simply, Cook describes Just in Case learning as the type of learning we do in school; we are learning things just in case we need them sometime in the future. Just in Time learning is the type of learning we do on the job; we are learning things right at the time that we need to, as we are doing them.

In a previous article, I describe the three main ways that we learn leadership as being Learning by Reading, where we learn to lead by reading books and attending workshops on leadership; Learning by Observing, where we observes others leading and try to emulate those who do it well and avoid doing things we see others doing not so well; and Learning by Doing, where we learn to lead by actually doing it.

Just in Case Leadership Development

Much of the foundational work that we do in leadership development needs to be Just in Case. Since so much of what we do on a day-to-day basis is situational, it’s really hard to be prepared for everything. When our leadership development includes foundational learning it gives us the tools to build upon our foundation later as we get into different situations.

This foundational knowledge comes from reading about leadership in books, magazines, journals (even blogs like this one), or taking courses and workshops. While creating a great foundation, learning leadership this way is not only one dimensional but we end up learning a lot and sometimes more than we will ever use. So much of what we are learning in this manner we learn just in case we run into situations where we can use this information.

I think learning by observing others is similar to Just in Case leadership development, but the learning is more experiential. As we experience the leadership of others we hold onto all this information until we are in our own leadership situations and might be able to use the information.

Just in Time Leadership Development

As I’ve stated before, I think the most powerful way to learn leadership is to just do it. Learning leadership by doing can create such lasting effects on our development because we are able to see the effects of our learning in real time. When we learn leadership on the fly, in the thick of our day-to-day lives we are developing our leadership skills just in time as we need them.

But the development that we experience just in time when we learn leadership by doing can only be effective when we have a good foundation under us. I’m convinced that we are most effective as leaders when we spend the time and energy to learn about leadership and develop leadership skills Just in Case then use this knowledge and our learned skills to help us further develop Just in Time as we are doing it.

I don’t think that leadership development Just in Case or Just in Time is an either or proposition. I think we develop our leadership skills over time both just in case and just in time and as we move along in our careers we need to continue our development both ways.

Leader’s Reflection: Leadership development needs to be done both Just in Case and Just in Time. Effective leaders are able to continue to develop their leadership skills both ways through out their careers.

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March 7th Leadership Development Carnival

Tom Glover — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:06:56 +0000

Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes

It’s time again for the Leadership Development Blog Carnival. This month’s blog carnival is host by Dan McCarthy at Great Leadership. Since it was posted last night, Dan chose as this month’s theme the Academy Awards, calling this the Academy Awards Edition of the carnival.

This month’s edition has 41 great entries and I’m again honored to be included.

As always, the blog carnival does not disappoint. There are a number of posts that I previously read since they are from my favorite bloggers, but there are also a good number of posts I had missed this month so I’m grateful for the opportunity to have them all in one place.

Each month the Leadership Development blog carnival provides a great service by allowing us to find great leadership writing that we may have otherwise missed all in one convenient place.

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Intersection of Reflection Leadership and #QUALITY

Tom Glover — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:21:13 +0000

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

I’ve been devoting the last several articles to author and blogger Tanmay Vora’s recent book, #QUALITYtweet. I reviewed the book in a previous article and shared my two-part interview with Tanmay here and here. Today’s article is a guest post from Tanmay.

The Equation of Outcomes

The purpose of leading greatly is to generate high-impact results for the organization, its people, clients and their clients. In the equation of high-impact results (especially in the highly knowledge oriented world of work), two most important factors are people and how they are led.

Leadership creates an environment for people to work. It is therefore very important for leaders to reflect on the environment they are creating. I read somewhere that the only legacy of great leaders is the culture they create. Thoughts and deeds of a leader set examples and precedence for others to follow and emulate. Long after a leader is gone, these examples and precedence stay on.

Culture of a team or organization forms an eco-system for people to deliver great results. Hence, culture is at the very core of a quality oriented culture.

Importance of Reflection

Over the years, I have seen leaders who lead by their instincts and leaders who are reflective.

When instincts drive leadership, leaders form a culture in accordance with their personal values. Culture is oriented around “What I think is right”.

When leaders are reflective and carefully think about impact of their actions and thoughts on the organization or team and alignment with values and vision of the organization, they form a culture oriented around “What is right for the organization and its customers”.

When a team starts doing things that are right for the organization and its customers, they automatically start building a customer focused quality culture.

How it Impacts Quality

Thinking leaders also understand the importance of process in forming a quality culture of the organization. They choose to be process-centric without losing focus on people. They understand that if they want to build anything memorable, they have to respect the power of process.

Tanmay Vora heads Quality Assurance & Testing at Gateway Technolabs based in Ahmedabad, India. He speaks and consults on software quality assurance and publishes the QAspire Blog where he writes about quality and leadership issues.

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#QUALITYtweet – An Interview with Tanmay Vora (Part II)

Tom Glover — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:49:59 +0000

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

I’m devoting this week’s articles to author and blogger Tanmay Vora’s recent book, #QUALITYtweet. I reviewed the book in a previous article. Today’s article is part two of this two-part interview with Tanmay. The first part of this interview can be found here.

My experience is that most folks think of project management and quality management as very “hard skill” focused; things are either done or they aren’t. Most of your writing, both in the book and on your blog, seems to focus on the more “soft skills” of leadership. Why do you think it is so important for project and QA managers to pay attention to the soft skills of leadership?

When project and QA managers look for dispassionate compliance to processes from the team members, the binary status (either it’s done or it’s not) may probably hold true. But the moot question is “Does dispassionate conformance to process produce quality?” The answer most of the times is a resounding ‘No’.

Strategic leadership, commitment to quality from top, leadership behavior to form a quality centric culture, ability to motivate people, empower them, engage them to foster creativity and innovation is as important as processes and models.

The “human” factor of modern day service delivery makes leadership and “soft” aspects of work even more important. Empowerment, Empathy and Education are three most important “E’s” to achieve right culture.

Here are a few tweets from my book that address the “leadership” aspect of building a quality culture:

“How NOT to deliver total quality: focus on quality of product without focusing on quality of relationship and communication.”

“People work for a leader who works for their people.”

“QUALITY = HARD + SOFT.

Hard = data, statistics, and information.

Soft = human attitudes, beliefs, and motivations.”

Everywhere we look we find examples of poor, or at best average, quality in products and services. Do you think this is a failure of leadership or something else?

I think that average or poor quality stems from a number of things. The most prominent is lack of innovation. The product that is available as a commodity elsewhere is a mediocre product, in spite of being defect free. Products need to raise the bar and set new standards in “utility” and “innovation” else they are considered average. Lack of leadership vision, right organization culture, poor execution and resistance to changing market demands are some of the most prominent reasons for average/mediocre products.

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#QUALITYtweet – An Interview with Tanmay Vora

Tom Glover — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:48:44 +0000

Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes

I’m devoting this week’s articles to author and blogger Tanmay Vora’s recent book, #QUALITYtweet. I reviewed the book in my the last article. Today’s article is part one of a two-part interview with Tanmay.

Reading the book, I kept thinking how hard it must have been to get across the points you wanted to make and stay constrained by the 140-character limit. Can you talk about your experience writing the book with this constraint?

I have always believed that reasonable constraints can make us more creative. Twitter has taught us all to express ourselves in 140 characters and less. Writing this book was an amazing experience because I was always working against a constraint which led to a deeper thought process and crystallized ideas. It allowed me to think about a topic at its core. I consider #QUALITYtweet as a compilation of my learning on Quality (just like we take notes during a lecture to take only the salient learning points).

The book has three chapters that cover People & Quality, Process & Quality, and Management, Leadership & Quality. Why did you choose these three areas as a main focus?

The purpose of any quality management system is to build a quality oriented culture (internal goal) and deliver exceptional value for money to customers (external goal).

In a knowledge-intensive business environment, people deliver services and products, not machines. Hence they are at the core of the quality equation. Great people deliver great services.

Once you have good people, they need structure and tools to do their job. Processes are tools people use to deliver excellent services. When people consistently use processes, they start conforming to the requirements and expectations. They “satisfy” customer’s needs.

It is only through great leadership that they are engaged and motivated to walk that much needed extra-mile and “exceed” the expectations of customers. Leadership forms a culture in which great people shine and delight customers.

To “satisfy” customer’s needs is quality and to “exceed” them is excellence. These chapters allowed me to share practical ideas on these core areas.

Are there additional “chapter level” areas related to quality that you have liked to have covered but didn’t make it into this book?

I would have loved to also include the following areas in the book and I intend to include them in #QUALITYtweet – Book 2:

Customers and Quality, because your customers directly impact the quality you produce. They are the ones who define quality expectations and hence maturity of quality systems.

Continuous Improvement (of processes, culture and leadership) and how to develop a framework of continuous improvement to consistently deliver exceptional value to customers.

Excellence and Quality, because quality is an ever-changing expectation. Changes in markets and customers perceptions demand constant innovation not only in your core service offerings and how they are offered, but also in the way you approach quality. The key is to ensure that processes do not limit innovation and new ideas.

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#QUALITYtweet – A Book Review

Tom Glover — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:27:21 +0000

Reading time: 4 – 7 minutes

I’m devoting this week’s articles to author and blogger, Tanmay Vora and his recent book #QUALITYtweet. My review of the book found below will be followed by an interview with Tanmay and at the end of the week with a guest post that looks at the intersection of quality and Reflection Leadership.

Tanmay’s book is part of the Thinkaha series of books being published by Happy About Books. Each of the books in this series were written based on the format of Twitter and contains “140 bite-sized ideas” that are all no longer than the 140 character constraint placed on Twitter communications. For the reader, the format makes for a short, easy to read collection of pithy sayings and often profound statements.

For the author, the format must require an acute attention to each idea that needs to be expressed and on this count Tanmay does not disappoint. It’s clear that he has a lot of important things to say about quality. None of the 140 entries felt like “throw aways” just to get to the quota. It was also clear that a lot of thought when into using just the right words for each entry.

Organization of the Book

The book is divided into three “chapters”: People & Quality, Process & Quality, and Management, Leadership & Quality, with the entries in each chapter relating to that specific quality topic. There is an introduction to each chapter and here is the only place in the whole book that was not constrained to the 140 character limit. At first I found this odd, but it really works well since it helps the reader focus each of the entries that follow into a coherent stream of thought.

The People & Quality chapter looks at the people aspect of quality. It focuses on how perceptions can have an impact on every thing that relates to the quality of the experience that organizations deliver to their customers. Two of my favorite entries from this chapter are:

It is easier for you to generate quality outputs consistently if you really love what you do.

Your team is more likely to produce quality when the purposes of your product excites them.

All of the entries in the Process & Quality chapter focus on how processes can be managed effectively in order to build an organizational or team culture that is customer oriented and focused on quality. Two of my favorite entries from this chapter are:

“Quality product” is an assessment your customers will make. Not you.

Never let your processes come in the way of solving your customer’s immediate problem.

The final chapter, Management, Leadership and Quality is the longest of three. The entries in this chapter take a look at what it takes in the way of management and leadership to sustain a culture dedicated to excellence. Two of my favorite entries from this chapter are:

You can think of quality as an initiative or as a way of doing business.

Humility to accept that something is wrong is the first step to improvement.

My Thoughts About the Book

I have to admit, when I first saw the format of the Thinkaha series of books I thought, what a cute gimmick but how meaningful and useful can a book of 140 character “sayings” really be? After reading #QUALITYtweet I’m sold. The format allows for quick and easy reading, but that should not be confused with lacking substance. I was continually surprised throughout the book when entry after entry continued to reinforce much of what I know about quality management and even gave me some new things to think about.

The beauty of the short “micro” entries is that in many cases they are designed to invoke our own thought processes about the topic instead of just instructing. The format of the book also makes it easy to go back and reread.

If all of the Thinkaha series of books are as well done as this one, I think they’ll deserve a place on my bookshelf.

Leader’s Reflection: #QUALITYtweet is a really good read for leaders who want a quick and easy read that helps them focus on creating a culture of quality within their organization.

Tanmay Vora heads Quality Assurance & Testing at Gateway Technolabs which is an offshore software service company based in Ahmedabad, India. He specializes in building independent testing teams from scratch and has experience in software development methodologies, quality management and process-improvement initiatives. He speaks and consults on software quality assurance and publishes the QAspire Blog where he writes about quality and leadership issues.

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February Leadership Development Blog Carnival

Tom Glover — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:14:02 +0000

Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes

It’s time again for the Leadership Development Blog Carnival. This month’s blog carnival was put together by Mark Bennett and is being hosted at TalentedApps. This month’s offering includes submissions from 35 of the best leadership writers that I know and I’m honored to be included along with this group.

The monthly Leadership Development Blog Carnival is a great source of information related to developing leaders. Some of the information that we find helps with our own development as leaders and some helps with our development of others.

Since it’s hard to try to follow this many blogs at one time, the carnival can be used as a way to keep up with some of the most important leadership development writing over the last several weeks. All presented in a single place that previews each article instead of just including a list.

Please take some time to check out this month’s Leadership Development Blog Carnival and all of the posts that are included. It will be time well spent.

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Reflection on Just Ask Leadership

Tom Glover — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:41:51 +0000

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

I’m devoting this week’s articles to author Gary B. Cohen’s recent book, Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions. In previous articles I reviewed the book and shared an interview with Gary. Today’s article is a guest post from Gary on how Just Ask Leadership intersects with Reflection Leadership.

With so many organizations, governments, and industries imperiled by poor decision-making, leadership has come under question. And justifiably so. The knee-jerk response in times of crisis is for leaders to command more and ask less—to entrust decision-making to fewer and fewer people. But exceptional leaders know that it’s time to ask more, not less.

Reflection Leadership asks leaders to put a mirror up to themselves, the environment, their followers, the organization’s vision, and the systems they use. Reflection requires a pause – deliberation that’s not corrupted by a full schedule book. And reflection is by its nature a question-asking process. Witness some of the questions in this blog’s posts:

Do we tend to just be a group working on the same stuff or are we a real team?
Why is it that Erin always seems to be doing work above and beyond, but Julie is content just doing the minimum required and what should I do about it?
What is the current state of governmental regulation related to our organization and is it likely to change?
Who are our direct and indirect competitors?

Questions put us in a thoughtful, open-minded mode. They create an environment that allows meaningful changes – personal, leadership, and organizational – to occur.

Not all questions do this, of course. Some questions can spoil discovery (Why did it take so long to figure that out? Why don’t you give your other work this much attention and effort?), undermine authority (Have you gotten proper clearance for that? Why will they care what you think?), or feel like outright attacks (Are you insane? What makes you think you can encroach on my area of expertise?).

At their best, though, questions lead to more engaged and accountable coworkers. Leaders who ask open-ended questions, customized to their audience (that demonstrate knowledge of their preferences and skills), will attract followers. These followers are more apt to become future leaders because they’re being asked for their opinion on matters that concern them and the organization. They know that they have some control over how they do their work, but must be accountable for and learn from their results.

Just Ask leaders know that asking great questions is the first step. They must also strike the right tone – verbally and with body language – and demonstrate that they are truly listening to the answers their coworkers give.

It’s a big step for leaders to stop being answer-providers and become great question-askers. Leaders pride themselves on successful actions and decisions. These actions and decisions are what propelled them into their leadership positions, and some leaders feel compelled to keep acting and deciding in order to justify their titles and paychecks. It’s tremendously hard for leaders to resist the temptation to do others’ work for any number of reasons (both selfish and self-less), but they must. Leaders should focus on serving as a resource, asking important questions, and providing vision, and allow others a chance to shine, so that their energy and intelligence isn’t wasted.

Leader’s Reflection: Asking sends the message that we’re all in this together. Asking creates cohesion and resiliency, which is critical in these uncertain times. A culture of question-askers will test all answers, rigorously and often. And everyone, on all levels, will be inspired to contribute (both questions and answers), knowing they will receive credit for their contributions.

Gary B. Cohen is Partner and Co-founder of CO2 Partners, LCC, working as an executive coach and consultant. He is the author of Just Ask Leadership. For more information please visit: www.justaskleadership.com.

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Just Ask Leadership – An Interview with Gary B. Cohen (Part II)

Tom Glover — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:33:14 +0000

Reading time: 4 – 7 minutes

I’m devoting this week’s articles to author Gary B. Cohen’s recent book, Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions. In a previous article I reviewed the book. Today’s article is part two of this two-part interview with Gary. The first part of this interview can be found here.

Describe some specific ways that you have used Just Ask Leadership with your clients.

When describing an incident that left them or their coworkers feeling aggrieved, my coaching clients usually provide a sequence of actions and statements. “If you’d asked them a question instead, what would it have been?” I ask. What typically pops to mind is a leading question – a thinly veiled command or judgment-laden statement – such as, “Why didn’t you speak to the customer directly?” My clients and I then try to locate an open-ended, non-judgmental question. Once we have, I ask, “How would your coworker have reacted?” My clients sometimes flash a smile as they visualize a much different and more appealing outcome. If it’s not too late, my clients will ask their coworker this question with almost uniformly positive results.

“What question are you trying to answer?” is another question that helps move clients in a positive, purposeful direction. Often it moves them toward another question entirely. These leaders might be focused on a gap between expectations and outcome, for instance, when they ought to be asking whether the outcome is reasonable or fair.

How can senior level leaders help support their mid-level leaders/managers to use Just Ask Leadership?

Employing and modeling Just Ask Leadership is not enough. According to Howard Gardner, a Harvard professor and author of Multiple Intelligences, adults need much more explicit instruction to modify or change behavior than kids.

Senior leaders should support mid-level leaders/managers by making it clear why good questions are as important and valued as good answers. The best answers are only discovered, they might say, if the right questions are asked.

I believe that leaders can be found in every level of the organization, regardless of title. How can Just Ask Leadership be used by those leaders who don’t have formal authority”?

We come from the same camp. While the best question askers often do rise to the top of organizations—because questions convey respect at the same time that they challenge thinking and processes—low-level leaders must “lead up,” as Michael Useem says. Upward questions may not be properly appreciated by command-and-control leaders, but ask good questions and you will build a loyal following (at the current organization or, perhaps, another).

Are there additional facets of leadership/management where Just Ask Leadership can be applied that you haven’t addressed in the book?

I finished writing the book almost two years ago. Since then, I have developed a Just Ask assessment and on-site training program. The book is a compendium of the right questions to use in specific leadership situations. It’s written for leaders on the go: memorable anecdotes from exceptional leaders followed by clear, concise take-aways. The assessment and training program provide customized instruction based upon a leader’s particular questioning style. They go deeper into blind spots and work with a leader’s specific strengths and skills. To learn more about the assessment and training program, visit www.justaskleadership.com.

Are there circumstances or particular industries where Just Ask Leadership doesn’t work so well?

Should a leader always ask and never tell their coworkers what to do? No. All models, taken to the extremes, tend to fall apart. Just Ask Leadership is a model that asks leaders to trust their coworkers, but within reason. If a leader’s made up her mind, for instance, she ought not to solicit further input. To do ask a question in this context is misleading and disrespectful.

While there are times to tell, asking is usually the best approach, even during crises. Intuition tells most leaders to grip the reins tighter when crises arise, but that’s foolhardy—especially if they’ve groomed leaders on all levels of the organization, who might provide the most astute answer or ask just the right question.

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Just Ask Leadership – An Interview with Gary B. Cohen

Tom Glover — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:32:08 +0000

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

I’m devoting this week’s articles to author Gary B. Cohen’s recent book, Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions. I reviewed the book in my the last article. Today’s article is part one of a two-part interview with Gary.

Why Just Ask Leadership? With so many things that leaders need to focus on, how did you decide that asking the right questions was the most important thing for leaders to focus on?

As a leader, I spent the majority of my time asking questions. I saw firsthand how open-ended questions inspired and engaged my coworkers. Rick Diamond and I grew our business from 2 employees to 2,200, using the Just Ask approach. But when I attended leadership training programs at Harvard Business School, Covey Leadership Institute, Disney Institute, and The Aspen Institute, the subject of question-asking didn’t come up. And when my instructors asked questions, they typically knew the answer in advance.

Why was question-asking so central to my organization’s success and so absent in leadership training programs? I went on a quest to find out. I interviewed over 100 high-achieving leaders about their use of questions—what worked for them, when, how, and why. Some employed Just Ask Leadership skills consciously, but many did it unconsciously. On average, however, these leaders used questions 70-80 percent of the time, rather than commands. The fact that these exceptional leaders spent this much of their time asking questions convinced me that I was onto something big.

How do you propose leaders begin incorporating Just Ask Leadership as part of their leadership practice? How can they create and sustain the Just Ask Leadership “habit” so that it becomes part of their everyday routine?

Just Ask Leadership is incredibly easy to implement. All leaders ask questions; most leaders just need to ask more and better questions. The results – a dramatic lift in alignment, engagement, and accountability from coworkers – will happen almost immediately, which helps sustain the Just Ask “habit.”

It helps, of course, if leaders know their questioning style so that they can let the situation and their coworkers’ needs dictate the questions they ask, rather than rely solely on instinct. Leaders can learn more about their questioning style and how to expand their repertoire by taking a Just Ask Leadership Assessment. I spent two years creating this tool with 4ROI’s Keith Morical, who was responsible for developing the Wilson Learning Styles Assessment and contributed to the Covey Leadership Assessment. Our 360-degree assessments indicate, among other things, that leaders who bump their Just Ask Number up 10% can expect a 20% improvement in alignment, engagement, and accountability with their teams. How do we know? From surveying these leaders’ coworkers.

Certainly there are leaders/managers that are interested in changing and others who aren’t. What kinds of things can you do with those that are not interested in changing to help them understand the value of Just Ask Leadership?

One of my high school teachers often said, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. You can give a student a textbook, but you can make him think.” I like Tom Steitz’s version better. Tom brought the U.S. Nordic Combined team from dead last to gold over the course of his twelve years as Olympic coach. He says, “Maybe you can’t lead a horse to water and make him drink, but you sure can tie him to a post in the desert for a few days and feed him salt and then see what he thinks about drinking water.” His point: If people don’t want to change, they haven’t been given sufficient motivation.

The people most resistant to Just Asking are the ones who feel they have all the answers. They could stand to be reminded of the times they were wrong. I once fired a guy who I thought was going nowhere. He went on to become a frontiersman in the snowboarding industry. He retired in his late thirties and lives happily in the mountains.

All leaders are wrong on occasion, so what’s the harm in asking?

As a leader, bear in mind that your answer, even if it’s the best objective answer, might not work well for one of your team members. And don’t underestimate how much ownership of an idea can motivate your team members. Give them a chance to own their ideas. Ask!

Once leaders have embraced Just Ask Leadership, how do they continue to sustain using it, especially if they are faced with co-workers that seem to be “difficult” (oppositional, un-trusting, enter your own negative here!).

The longer a team has been together, the harder it usually is for them to change and innovate. They know each other so well that they can anticipate what their coworkers are going to say on any given subject. It becomes hard to stray from their roles and known positions.

Questions can help spark innovation and create unity simultaneously. Try asking a proponent of a plan to become devil’s advocate and a naysayer to come to the plan’s defense (to become an “angel’s advocate”). Traveling to another perspective tends to reveal common ground and build trust and understanding. It will allow your coworkers, even the “difficult” ones, to expand their roles and defy expectations.