Stephen H Baum Leadership

During the webcast Q&A we spoke about leaders like Gordon Bethune who has developed an extraordinary ability to engage and inspire others. He distills down to a few basic beliefs: where people are in their hearts and minds and where they need to be to accomplish great things. Then he speaks to them in sound bites that resonate and takes actions which speak even louder than his words. That is how he turned Continental Airlines “from worst to first.” 

Gordon also gave his people a vision that appealed to their hopes and fears, defined credible first steps toward that vision, engaged them in planning more steps and celebrated early wins. This is a pattern common to great leaders. It is true at all levels from first line supervision upward.

Much of the job market has evaporated in recent months. But still today, attraction and retention of high potential individuals requires all of the above and more. 

“What are some of the key leadership motivators today?”  Sam DiPiazza says he never intended to stay more than three decades at Price Waterhouse Coopers where he has risen to CEO. But each time he looked around to see if there was a better job elsewhere, the personal growth he experienced at PWC stood out and kept him there. A key motivator of leaders at all levels is the company’s growing them and making them more marketable every year. And at each level, the supervisor can play a role in providing or finding shaping experiences (personal growth opportunities) for his or her people. 

Several of the questions focus on people with little or no motivation:

“How do you inspire entry-level employee’s who are not looking to grow?”

“How do you deal with apathy?”

“The folks on my team are largely unmotivated slackers. Are there any exercises or team building tools you could recommend?”

If these are your key people, then either there have been hiring mistakes or a lack of leadership on your part. Hiring for attitude is at the top of the list for many CEOs I know. Hiring someone with great ability but poor attitude is a bad bet. And make sure you have communicated the role your people play and its value in achieving results for the organization and for them. Have you created opportunities for fun? Yes, fun. Have you found opportunities to create contests and competitions? Do you regularly compliment people for their good work? These can tear out the roots of apathy and lack of motivation. Especially at the level of front-line employees. But even higher level professionals need to be engaged. The Gallup Organization has the data: an engaged workforce outperforms all others. 

And how you do things matters. “Do you believe in the saying ’you can accomplish anything in the world, as long as you don’t concern yourself with who gets the credit?’ How important in connecting is it to be humble?” A secure leader has enough confidence to let others have the credit for accomplishment. 

On the webcast I spoke of the “Androcles strategy.” For those of you not steeped in mythology, Androcles faced the fearsome lion that frightened others, found the thorn in the paw, removed it and the lion became his friend. Do the same for one of your people and do not take the credit. See how fast word travels about your behavior and who would rather work for you than for someone else. 

“Do you believe support constructive candor to an employee to help them grow is better than dancing around worrying about keeping them happy?” My view: what would you rather have from your boss? Great leaders are tough and demanding, but build trust respect and fair and open and direct. Good people get it, want to know where they stand. 

Grant me a brief commercial: more stories and suggestions are to be found in my book and in entries in the archives such as Signal Acts. 

In our next edition, we will provide our view of other motivation questions related to daily interaction with your direct reports and others, motivating people when you are at a junior level, team-building and connecting with people whose background may be different from yours.

As always, please let us have your comments. And your stories.