Leadership Archives - Jeff Cassman

A Colossal Failure to Anticipate

It’s a colossal failure to anticipate when you solve the same problems repeatedly. You maximize the present when you expect the future.

Lack of anticipation causes frustration to settle in. When you expect issues to rise and do nothing to prevent them, urgencies rule.

Glory:

Failure to anticipate is an ineffective leader’s path to glory.

There’s a way to prevent the check engine light from coming on in your car. Do regular undramatic maintenance.

Some leaders ignore systematic preparation because they have fallen in love with being needed. Solving problems early makes solutions less dramatic.

When problems get big, solutions inflate ego.

On September 5, 1970, Dr. Constantin Paul Lent wrote a letter to Vice President Spiro Agnew regarding how to prevent hijackings. He proposed changing cockpit doors. It would have been harder to fly airliners into buildings if his proposal had been adopted.

No one knows your name when you prevent problems.

Develop the skill to anticipate:

Anticipate the future by observing patterns. Use the past to anticipate the future.

Notice…

Recurring topics of conversation, especially topics of concern.
Repeated frustrations. History shows that staffing is a challenge. Don’t ignore history. Use it to prepare for the future.
Nagging fears. Fear invites foresight for the wise. Make a plan that prevents your fear from happening.
Successes. Lessons learned from success are less painful than learning from failure. Reinforce success.
1. What’s working?
2. Why do think it’s working?
3. What were the essential behaviors that made this success possible?
Failure. Do the next best thing when you can’t learn from success; learn from failure.

Inevitable:

You can’t anticipate everything. Surprise is inevitable. But if recurring issues consume your energy lack of anticipation may be the cause.

How can leaders use the past to prepare for the future?

What would you add to this post?

Still curious:

Anticipation as Leadership Advantage

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10 Practices for the Leader as Coach

Leaders who tell people what to do can’t coach. The use of authority creates conformity.

The leader as coach ignites vitality.

10 practices for the leader as coach:

#1. Learn and grow.

Know-it-alls make lousy coaches. Self-development is the first development.

#2. Notice.

Command and control leaders are blinded by their agenda.

The leader as coach notices:

Shifts in energy. What causes energy to go up? What drains?
Positive and negative emotions.
Recurring issues. Patterns signal character. Solving the same problem over and over means people are stuck.

The leader as coach means others are the center of attention.

#3. Ask more than tell.

Curiosity drives coaching. Knowing gets in the way. Even if you think you know, ask questions like you don’t.

#4. Provide space for response.

Silence is the space where change begins. Don’t interrupt a person who is thinking.

#5. Don’t compete.

Don’t out-do, one-up, or make yourself the center of attention. Good coaches are salt and pepper, not the meal.

#6. Have your own coach.

If you want to coach have a coach. It’s hypocritical to think others could you use coaches but not you.

#7. Challenge bull crap.

Challenge one-sided perceptions, inconsistencies, and helplessness.

#8. Move conversations from aspiration to action.

Success distills into simple behaviors that produce desired results. Talking about results is easy. Describing behaviors leads to action.

#9. Turn toward the future.

Coaching is forward-facing. You aren’t a psychologist or an analyst. You begin where people are and build the future.

#10. Feel optimistic.

Coaches believe growth is probable. You can’t coach someone you don’t believe in.

Bonus: Hold people accountable for the goals they set for themselves.

Which of the above practices do you find most useful for the leader as coach?

What would you add to the list?

Still curious:

Solution Saturday: How to Coach to Build Confidence

8 in 10 Struggle Holding People Accountable

Successful Leaders Are Great Coaches (hbr.org)

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Chew the Gristle: Taking Responsibility Like a Leader

Churchill said, “The price of greatness is responsibility.”

Taking responsibility is the warmth of sunrise. Without it life loses its melody. Avoiding responsibility is tumbling into the grave.

You lose it when you don’t own it. When you don’t own your marriage, it dies. When you don’t take responsibility for your team, it flounders. Taking responsibility is vitality.

Taking responsibility:

Failure you don’t own returns like a nagging pimple. Own it or repeat it.

Take charge of your responsibilities before someone else does. Own it or lose it. Face the disappointment you cause others. Don’t explain why you’re mediocre. You insult yourself when you trample the people who trust you.

Taking responsibility means chewing the gristle when it’s easier to spit it out.

Responsibility for failure:

It’s self-centered to take failure personally. “See how I’m struggling.” You lower yourself when you beat yourself down. Lift yourself and inspire others.

Say three things when you fail.

I’m learning to…. (Remember you are always learning. You have never learned anything.)
I’m learning not to….
Next time I’ll….

Excuses:

Someone said an excuse is the skin of a reason wrapped in a lie. No excuses. No blaming.

An excuse validates failure and drags incompetence into the present. Everyone who tries fails. Our trouble is we don’t fail enough. Lack of failure empties life of vitality.

An excuse is another way of saying don’t change anything. Don’t expect much from me.

Fear of failure:

Those who don’t fear failure – at least a little – end up failing. A little fear brings you to life.

Fear of failure is concern for reputation. You don’t want to feel embarrassed. More important you don’t want to disappoint yourself.

What idea in today’s post can you carry with you through the day?

What would you add to today’s post?

Still curious:

How to Navigate the Gap Between Responsibility and Ability

An Elegant Accountability Practice for Today

Developing Personal Accountability – Taking Responsibility to Get Ahead

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5 Things Leaders Say – Leadership Freak

5 Things Leaders Say

The first step to becoming a leader is in the heart. You learn to love people. A person who loves people turns their focus outward.

The second step to leadership is practicing things leaders say from the heart.

Words without heart are meaningless irritants. Leaders say things that reflect a heart that has turned outward.

5 things leaders say:

#1. How can we simplify?

The easiest way to do something is also the most complicated. Simplicity is harder than complexity.

One way to simplify is by stopping unnecessary things. You simplify when you put an end to drama. You shorten the path when you eliminate unnecessary steps.

A straight path is easier to walk but harder to create.

#2. How can we be better?

It’s good to talk about doing better. It’s remarkable to talk about being better. Excellent performance is important, but the way we show up for each other determines if we’re exceptional.

#3. How does it feel to work here?

‘Me’ talk makes the world small and fearful. There’s too much “I’m” stressed, I need…, I’m taking care of myself.” The purpose of self-care is reigniting your ability to care for others.

Concern for others includes caring about emotions.

#4. What are we learning?

Average leaders tell. Remarkable leaders ask.

A leader who always knows is filled with decay.

#5. What’s next?

Celebration is energy to continue, not relax. Victorious athletes say, “We’re going to enjoy this victory tonight. Tomorrow we prepare for what’s next.”

Life apart from ‘what’s next’ is over.

What are some things leaders say?

What do you want to practice saying today?

Still curious:

Why Self-Care isn’t a 4-Letter Word

28 Words Every Leader Needs to Thrive

15 Things Great Leaders Say To Create Engaged Teams

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Stop Working For – Give Yourself To

Thoreau wrote, “The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life, which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or over the long run.” (Walden)

You determine value when you subtract cost from benefit.

Some things don’t cost anything. Good investments return more than they take.

To not for:

Working for something is the pursuit of gratification.

Give yourself ‘to’ not ‘for’. Working for something is an exchange of life for benefit. Giving yourself to something goes beyond material exchange. It’s simple to ask, “What are you working for?” The challenging question is “What you are giving yourself to?”

When you give yourself to something you express purpose.

2 things leaders give themselves to:

#1. Give yourself to personal development.

The benefits of personal development exceed cost when you multiply your ability to impact others.

Enhance your ability to manage your calendar. You manage yourself when you manage your time. A person who doesn’t control their calendar is out of control.

Develop your ability to develop others. You multiply the impact of your life when you develop your ability to coach. You extend the value of your life when you improve your mentoring skills.

#2. Give yourself to people.

Live a life worth remembering. I’m not talking about climbing mountains and visiting beautiful places. Live in a way that people miss you when you’re gone. They remember your generosity, kindness, and drive to excel.

Live as if your reputation matters. Your reputation is the way people talk about you when you’re not in the room.

E. B. White expressed the challenge, “I arise in the morning torn between desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

What can you give yourself to today?

Still curious:

7 Powers of Life Purpose

4 Simple Reasons Your Calendar is Out of Control

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Pour Energy into Energy – Leadership Freak

Pour Energy into Energy

Every organization has hot spots. Work is easy. People feel joyful. Stuff gets done.

Pockets of energy are the future.

Every organization has black holes. Everything’s hard. People are negative. Getting stuff done is like flogging dead donkeys.

Focus on energy:

Pour energy into energy.

Leaders can’t ignore black holes, just don’t feed them. Focus your time and resources on success.

Develop, marginalize, or remove:

It’s hard to develop a black hole. It sucks everything in and gives nothing back. If you can’t develop, marginalize, or reassign poor performers, send them to other organizations.

What area of your organization makes you feel like you’re pushing a rope? Protect yourself and others from that area.

Spend time with people who are chomping at the bit.

Black hole responses:

The success of others brings black holes to life.

Black holes love to point out what’s wrong with success.

Black holes say, “Why are we spending so much time on that project and neglecting this one?”

Don’t get sucked in by pseudo-concern. They weren’t doing much. But, when vitality erupts, they want to kill it.

Black holes want you to pull back.

You can’t move forward while pulling back.

When fire flames up pour gas on it.

Follow success. Don’t listen to voices that encourage you to pull back by suggesting you aren’t doing enough for black holes.

Follow the fire.

Both:

Don’t neglect problem areas. One powerful way to energize people is to fix nagging issues. Bad is stronger than good. When you remove bad you do lots of good.

Do both; fuel fires and resolve energy drains.

How can you focus on success instead of failure?

How can you pour energy into energy today?

Still curious:

3 Ways to Energize People during Conversations

How to Energize Colleagues (hbr.org)

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Beyond the Wilderness: 4 Strategies When Life is Uphill

Positive thinking is a crushing burden when you believe it prevents adversity, resistance, and uncertainty. Everyone navigates the wilderness.

Moses spent 40 years in the desert. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison. In the 1930s, Winston Churchill was marginalized because he warned England about Hitler.

The wilderness is an inner experience, not a place.

You’re in the wilderness when:

You’re in the wilderness when you can’t find the crest of the hill. Our home is surrounded by hills. You sigh when you make it to the top of steep hills. Your feet feel lighter.

In barren lands your knees shake, and you moan more than you sing. The future feels dark when you can’t find the shade.

4 strategies when life is uphill:

#1. Small acts of defiance.

Nelson Mandela asserted his power by walking a little slower than his guards wanted. Our need for dramatic results defeats us when hurricanes persist.

#2. Slow down – don’t sit down.

There’s a three-mile loop from our house that feels all uphill. I remember one windy day when it felt like the gods opposed me with headwinds. It felt like a battle. When possible, keep going.

#3. Change course.

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a fool about it.” Attributed to W.C. Fields

Life changes when it must. Don’t throw in the towel. Adjust the sails. Adapt.

#4. Clarify values.

Disconnecting from values is barrenness of your own making. Know what’s important and bind it to your heart.

It’s hard to stand when you lose touch with something to stand for.

Warning: The deadliest wilderness is self-imposed by self-accusation. Write the words of your inner critic on a piece of paper and throw it away.

Which suggestion listed above seems most relevant to you today?

What suggestions to you have for navigating the wilderness?

Still curious:

Master Your Inner Critic

Tom Rath on Getting the Most From Adversity

10 proven ways on how to overcome adversity in life (tonyrobbins.com)

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Leadership Lessons from a Dishwasher

It’s another great book giveaway.

20 copies available!!

Leave a comment on this guest post by Glen Van Peski to become eligible for one of 20 complimentary copies of his new book, take less. do more.: Surprising Life Lessons in Generosity, Gratitude, and Curiosity from an Ultralight Backpacker.

Deadline for eligibility is 04/21/2024. International winners will receive electronic version.

After I retired from a successful career in engineering and business, I ended up washing dishes at The Sparrow Bakery, near my home in Bend, Oregon. I did not think I would continue to learn leadership lessons in my new role. How wrong I was…

3 Quick Lessons from My Time at The Sparrow Bakery:

#1 – Leave Work at Work

The first week at work, co-worker Kyle told me to leave a pair of old shoes at work. That way, I wouldn’t track the debris from being in a busy kitchen all day into my house. In the same way, don’t contaminate your family relationships by dragging in the dirt from your day at the office. Leave all that at the office so that you can focus on them.

#2 – Except When it’s Good!

One of the benefits of working at a bakery is the ability to take home stuff off the “staff rack,” or day-olds at the end of the shift. Walking home from Sparrow, I would text neighbors to see who wanted some treats.

Bringing some joy from the workday, good news from a coworker, or praise for a finished project is a GOOD thing to bring home from work.

#3 – Everybody Counts!

Pastry bakers are the stars, baristas are the artistic geniuses, but without clean dishes, everything grinds to a halt. In the workplace, it’s easy to forget that even the unsung, unseen, and lowly-paid people are essential to the overall effort. In fact, if the dishwasher calls in sick, it might have more impact than if the boss can’t make it in. At Sparrow, everyone knows that, and treats the dishwashers with the same respect as other team members and helps out when they have a few minutes.

Questions for Leaders:

How can I bring something GOOD home from work—something good that happened, people stepping in, upping their game? Recognition from management for success on a project?

Who is the dishwasher at my work? Is it the secretary, the mail person, or the janitor? How can I do something to see them today, to acknowledge their essential role?

Glen Van Peski is a dishwasher/philanthropist living in Bend, Oregon. His book, take less. do more.: Surprising Life Lessons in Generosity, Gratitude, and Curiosity from an Ultralight Backpacker (Forefront Books, April 16, 2024), contains the stories of how he accidentally started a successful backpacking gear company, became a dishwasher at The Sparrow…

From Boss to Leader: How Perspective Taking Energizes People

Taking perspective is more important than giving perspective when leading. Gain influence by learning how others see the world before explaining your way of seeing.

Perspective taking is at the heart of servant leadership.

Positive influence:

A person’s perspective is the right perspective from their point of view.

In one way or another we long to be seen. When we feel understood we feel…

Energized.
Respected.
Grateful.
Connected.
Empowered.
Motivated.
Willing to listen.

Leaders have thin influence when they give perspective but don’t take it. Perspective giving apart from perspective taking is command and control. Servant leaders help people flourish by seeking to understand how others see the world.

Influence demands perspective taking.

How to practice perspective taking:

#1. Stop fixing.

The #1 behavior that prevents leaders from coaching people is fixing. You rush to give your perspective on someone’s situation. You disempower people when you jump to advise before taking perspective.

Practice taking their perspective before giving yours.

#2. Indicate interest.

People are fascinating.

Perspective taking begins when you ask, “What’s going on for you?”

Express interest by saying…

What are you trying to accomplish when you…?
Would you help me understand how you feel about…?
What do you want me to understand?
Could you tell me more about…?

You know someone when you understand their perspective.

#3. Learn stories.

The way people see the world is best understood through their stories.

Explore another person’s…

Experiences.
Upbringing.
Values.
Influential friends.
Cultural surroundings.
Personal goals and priorities.
Faith/religion.
Education.
Current needs.
Priorities.

Which perspective taking approach could you practice today? (Stop fixing, indicate interest, learn stories?)

What would you like to add to this post?

Still curious:

A New Question That Invites a Story

The Power of Perspective Taking

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7 Questions to Declutter Your Day

The unexamined life collapses into trivialities.

Declutter your day before distraction defines you.

Every sunrise is your opportunity to declutter and begin again.

7 questions to declutter your day:

What matters most today?
Record one meaningful thing you will do today – beyond pressing issues and deadlines.
What will you not do today so you can do what matters most?
Look for something ‘less good’ to take out of your basket. You are busy doing ‘good’ things. When a good thing blocks what matters most, it’s a bad thing.
What could you do today that gives you a sense of personal satisfaction?
Imagine saying, “I feel really good that I did ___________ today.” Go do that.
How will you energize others?
Low energy people drain your vitality. Don’t do their work. Energize them to do their own.
How are you sabotaging your fulfillment, progress, or success?
Reflect on destructive attitudes that might pop your balloon. The way you see life determines the way you feel about life.
What behaviors reflect the life you admire?
Do things you admire. Think about a person you admire. Don’t think about what they have. Think about what they did. What’s one thing you can do today that bolsters your self-respect?
How will you start fresh with people and projects?
People fail until they begin again.

Clear endings enable new beginnings. Work on a project until you reach a good stopping point. Set it aside. Take a quick walk. Get coffee. Do something that signals an ending. Now go begin the next thing.

Tip: Several of the above questions stand alone. Questions one and two go hand in hand. Question three, for example, can stand on its own.

Which of the above question(s) will help you declutter your day today?

What suggestions do you have for eliminating clutter in your day?

Still curious:

7 Ways to Break Destructive Patterns

How the Power of Focus Protects You

The Focused Leader (hbr.org)

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