This past weekend I had the chance to serve as parliamentarian for a local political convention of about 240 delegates. In these lower level conventions there are always two things delegates are most interested in accomplishing: Endorsing candidates for local races and getting themselves elected as delegates to congressional and state level conventions.

As parliamentarian my job was to help the co-chairs enforce rules and make myself generally useful so that the convention would be expedient and orderly. Between consulting with the chairs and occasionally dishing out some unsolicited advice, I had the chance to pay attention to what was happening during this six hour convention. Regardless of the type of meeting I attend, if I’m not leading it, I am learning from it. Here are four insights I took away from this one.

Spell out the rules

In this particular convention, there were eight and half pages of rules that every delegate received when registering. One of the first items of business is the approval of the rules and agenda. On this day they did. At other conventions I’ve seen battles break out over the rules that took more than an hour to sort out. At another convention that happened on the same day, they got into a three hour rules fight at the beginning of the convention. Ouch!

In most meetings I lead, we start with a list of 4-5 behavioral guidelines. In this meeting there were pages of detailed rules. Every meeting has a right amount of rules. Be thoughtful about what they should be, make sure everyone knows what they are, and get an agreement from people to follow them.

Use the wisdom (and power) of the group

During the voting for endorsement, a delegate made a motion to suspend the rules. He wanted to give each candidate a chance to address the convention for a second time, presumably so that delegates would have more information with which to make their decision. This wasn’t a bad idea, but the problem was that a vote had just been taken, and the results had not yet been announced. If one candidate prevailed, the motion would no longer be of value. Because the vote was still open, the chair declared the motion out of order.

The delegate got angry and appealed the decision of the chair. Without missing a beat the chair quickly stated something like, “The delegate has appealed the decision of the chair that the motion was out of order, all those in favor of sustaining the decision of the chair please signify by saying ‘Aye’.” A resounding “Aye” echoed through the hall, and the matter was quickly settled. It was a much better path than having the chair and delegate argue with each other from competing microphones.

Mix it up

During a lull in the action while waiting for the voting results, one of the chairs decided to recognize a delegate who was celebrating his 90th birthday. She led the hall in a joyful chorus of the birthday song. It was the perfect way to bring a sense of unity and release some tension during what was a hard-fought endorsement contest.

Know your process

Early in the day, I found out I would have to chair part of the convention that is the day’s most complicated, rule-laden activity. It’s a proportional voting method called walking subcaucus. It’s used to divide a hall of delegates into smaller affinity groups and then electing a certain number of delegates from each. The alternative is to elect people at large. If you’ve never seen it before; it involves lots of shouting, arm-twisting, counting, strategy and ultimately a fair amount of math.

Here’s one thing I knew before leading the activity. About half of the delegates have done this before and have a general understanding of how it works. The other half start off clueless, but do their best to catch on and generally fill their roles just fine. There are; however, a small number of campaign organizers that have studied the process and thoroughly understand it and how to use it to maximize their campaign’s advantage. Because of this, I wanted to make sure I was thoroughly updated on the process and used breaks in the action to bone up on the rules.

When it started, I felt confident and things seemed to be going well. At one point, I thought I was home free. Then I announced we would proceed to the next step and someone informed me we did not need to take that next step. The nine pages of rules I had and all my experience said we should take the next step. He told me there was a new rule in another document that would supersede our rules. Of course neither of us had that document. After some scrambling, I was able to find a copy of the document and sure enough, the rule was there. Note to self, don’t agree to do that again unless I have had a chance to confirm all the process rules myself.

Heavy process and rules can be helpful to control a group. They can also be used by savvier members of the group to achieve their own goals. If you have them, you need to understand them.

Keep on learning

Effectively leading meetings means continually learning what to do and not to do. In our work lives we all attend a lot of meetings. Some of us crazier ones even attend them in our free time. Look at each as an opportunity to develop your skills, whether from observing or practicing. With time, you’ll get better at leading great meetings.

Image credit: Tom LaForce

We often think of leaders as the people who are officially in charge.  A boss, a CEO, and a project manager are a few of the leadership positions that easily come to mind.  We would expect that people in formal management positions have skills and personal qualities necessary for making them an effective leader.  Many do, but not all.

Just because you don’t have the title doesn’t mean you’re not a leader.  Some of the coolest examples of leadership come from people who take charge in situations when a leader has not been appointed.  These are people that simply start doing and saying things that others in the group want to support.  These actions move the group forward and help them succeed.

Sometimes there is a person officially in charge, but isn’t able to effectively lead the group.  These are situations that call for the most talented leaders of all.  Someone steps up and helps the group succeed AND manages to do it in a way that doesn’t embarrass the person who was supposed to be leading the group.

Leaders can be found in any situation.  If you are the boss, being an effective leader is critical to your success.  If you aren’t the boss, great leadership skills will likely one day make you one.

Watching a skilled leader in action is always instructive. It’s particularly interesting when the leader doesn’t have any formal authority to accomplish the task at hand.

Leading without authority is a tough job.  It requires skill, courage, patience, and often a little luck.  While there are no sure-fire tricks to make it easy, there are things you can do to get better results.  Here are three I would consider first.

• Build commitment. Why should people be excited about this project?  Why should they care?  If you are unable to answer these questions, this is the place to begin.  One way to do this is to ask your team members why they wanted to be part of the project.  If it was assigned to them, then ask how they can make the best of it.  In other words, what would make this project worth their time?
• Address resource constraints. Organizations are notorious for assigning people to projects without relieving them of other responsibilities.  Not surprisingly, people become overloaded and are forced to prioritize.  When the resource crunch results in a decision between something the boss wants and something a project team leader wants, most people choose the boss.  Help the people on your team establish boundaries with their bosses so that they can commit to the project.
• Expect follow-through.  You might not have formal authority, but this does not mean you have to lower your expectations.  When someone says they will do something, expect that it will be done.  If it does not get completed, find out why.  Raise this issue with the team or individual.  Do not overlook it or accept it.  Doing so simply makes bad behavior acceptable within the team.  Expect more and you are likely to get more.

One of the most interesting findings was that great managers share the following beliefs.

• People don’t change much.
• Don’t waste time trying to put in what was left out.
• Try to draw out what was left in.
• That is hard enough.

After reflecting a bit, these seemed true enough, and yet they gnawed at something deep inside of me. Maybe it was my save the world mentality. Perhaps it was my version of the American dream. Whatever it was, these ideas challenged my belief that people can learn and do whatever they put their minds to.

It was after some time that I realized these ideas aren’t about what people can do, but rather about what people choose to do. People can change; they just don’t most of the time. Maybe that’s why I so enjoy stories of people who do transform themselves against long odds.

This insight raises an interesting question about the role of a manager. Is it to develop employees or is about helping people discover their gifts, talents, preferences, etc. and then finding a good match for them? It’s probably a little of both.

Many argue that the ultimate measure of a senior leadership team’s success should be the organization’s performance results. And yet there are companies that due to favorable market conditions do quite well in spite of their dysfunctional leadership teams. Imagine what could happen if the team at the top was able to get its act together.

Is your leadership team effective? To find out assess the team against the following nine characteristics.

1. A meaningful purpose: There is a clear and compelling reason to be working together. Most executive teams are comprised of members with distinctly different responsibilities (IT, Finance, Sales, Ops, etc.) One could argue the CEO should be the glue that coordinates the activities, but everyone’s primary concern should be his/her areas of responsibility. In high-performance teams a commitment to the team’s purpose should be at least as important as the commitment to the purpose for the area each member leads.
2. Shared goals: The team needs to be focused on a set of outcomes which all members are committed to achieving and which require contribution by everyone. If it’s truly a team goal, everyone should feel equally responsible for its achievement. These are not necessarily the same as the company’s goals.
3. The right mix of people: The team’s members have a complementary set of skills, experiences, and styles necessary for fulfilling the needed roles and responsibilities. People know a lot about each other; including strengths, weaknesses, preferences and aversions and use this knowledge to create synergy. If someone’s on the team, everyone believes he/she should be on the team. There’s a sense of equality among all the players.
4. Strong interpersonal relationships: People can be themselves because they genuinely like each other and will do what they can to look out for and support their teammates. Members trust each other and are trustworthy. The cohesiveness of the team is obvious to people outside the group.
5. Helpful operating principles: These are agreed upon ways of pursuing goals and working together. These might include a shared set of values, processes for making decisions, ways of communicating within the team and to other employees, tracking activities, and many others.
6. Problem-solving: The team can recognize when a problem exists, analyze it, identify alternatives, and work through conflicts. Once the decision is made, everyone commits to supporting it. Often this is best demonstrated by someone’s willingness to raise a thorny issue in the first place and in the members’ willingness to fully engage in finding a resolution to the problem.
7. High levels of candor: People say what needs saying in a direct and respectful manner. Members are receptive to hearing tough messages without becoming defensive. Heated discussions are not viewed as a problem, but rather a positive activity as long as the discussion stays focused on issues/behaviors rather than on personalities.
8. Mutual accountability: Members hold themselves and others to the commitments they have made. While the CEO often has the primary responsibility for holding his/her team accountable for keeping their promises, in a high-performance team this activity is shared by all.
9. Measure the important. Whether it’s progress on key initiatives, performance results, or even behaviors expected of each other; effective teams track those things that are most important to their success and take action when things are not meeting expectations.

Okay, you’ve formed your opinion. But what does everyone else think? And even more importantly, what should you do about it?

I’d suggest carving out time at your executive team’s next off-site to do some work on the idea of becoming a high-performance team. We can help. Whether you’d like us to structure and lead this discussion or facilitate the whole meeting, we’d be happy to offer our experience.

Sometimes they tell me directly. Often it’s more indirect. For example, when doing workshops on managing stress, I usually talk about the importance of taking regular breaks. Oddly, my suggestion is typically met with laughter. Who would guess that the idea of regular breaks would be a laugh line?

When working with your staff I tell them that their managers are programmed to keep asking for more. That’s just what they do. I also suggest that if those managers are not being reasonable in their requests, it’s the employee’s job to respectfully raise the concern. In my experience, less than half of your team will actually say something to you.

Do you want to be an exceptional leader? When assigning work start proactively checking in with individuals to make sure you aren’t pushing too hard. While you might live to work, that doesn’t mean everyone else does too. And while pushing a bit is not a big deal, pushing hard over extended periods almost always creates serious problems that would be best to avoid.

Here are some things you can say and do that will help ensure you don’t inadvertently push people past their limits.

• Pay attention to signs of stress and inquire about the causes when you notice it. Once discovered, work with employees to remedy the situation.
• Say the following, “I don’t always know when I’ve asked too much of you, so please let me know if I do.” This is a message worth repeating on a regular basis.
• When assigning a task you might ask, “Is this doable considering everything else that’s on your plate right now?”
• Communicate priorities daily, especially if they shift frequently. Let your staff know that as the priorities change, they should adjust the tasks you’ve given them to align with the current priority. Offer to help re-prioritize those to-do lists if team members aren’t clear about how to do so.
• In those (hopefully rare) instances when you know you are pushing people too hard, give people a chance to recuperate afterwards. Also make sure to show your appreciation for their extra effort and make it clear that level of expectation was an exception and not the rule.

While employees are ultimately responsible for managing their own work level, many aren’t comfortable pushing back when too much is being asked of them. Help make it easier for them to speak up in order to head off future burn-out and morale problems.

Photo by Montage Communications

One evening I was driving home after a long day of facilitating. I was tired and hungry. Suddenly down the road my oasis appeared. McDonald’s was at the next exit.

I had stopped at this same McDonald’s on a busy Friday evening a couple of weeks earlier. My experience then was mediocre at best. My expectations on this night were not high, but my choices were few and my stomach was empty.

As I placed my usual order, I noticed three baskets of uncooked fries hanging above the deep fryers. I also saw a few fries remaining under the heat lamps. Suddenly a little warning signal went off in the back of my head. I was going to get cold, soggy fries. Of course I couldn’t know for sure, but I was already preparing myself for disappointment.

The young boy who was helping me placed my burger and a soda cup on the tray and then went for the fries. I saw him hesitate ever so slightly. He scooped up some fries and began to walk towards me. Again he paused. Suddenly, he stopped and said, “These fries aren’t good enough.”

He turned to throw them away, along with those under the heat lamps. He put all three baskets into the fryers, and we began to wait those long three minutes.

The folks running the drive-up window started frowning as cars backed up. The rest of the front-end staff shuffled aimlessly as they waited for fries. I watched the timers move down from three minutes towards zero. It seemed as if time was standing still.

We all waited because a boy who appeared to be no older than 14 “pulled the cord” and stopped the line. It seemed like a brave thing to do. It was also the right thing to do. Those were the best fries I ever had.

Photo by evelynishere

A couple years ago I had a chance to play golf with my Dad. Not having played yet that year and not a single time the previous year, I was a worried I might have lost what little skill I once had.

The first tee box confirmed my suspicions as my ball went almost straight up and landed in a grove of trees off to the right. Finding my ball I noticed a little alleyway through the trees. Every ounce of logic I had said there was no way I could make the shot and that I should just punch it back out into the fairway. And yet another voice was prodding me on, “Go for it” I heard it say.

Thinking about it for just a few seconds, I reached in my bag for a 3 iron and fired off a rocket, just as straight as could be, right down that narrow little alley among the trees. It was the perfect shot.

Was it the smart shot? I suppose if the game actually mattered, it would not have been. But that’s the point, there wasn’t a lot to lose. We were just out for a fun afternoon. My expectations were low. Going for it seemed kind of exciting. And in this particular case, I got lucky and made the shot.

It seems that life offers up all kinds of opportunities like this. And in each instance we are faced with the question, “Should I go for it?” If we say yes too often and constantly run into loads of trouble, we may want to step back and examine our decision making abilities. But for me that’s not an issue. Usually I say no far too often and later regret not going for it.

On the golf course I’m constantly attempting shots I have no business trying to make. And most of the time, the results are pretty ugly. But I do it anyways because it’s fun. I do it because I might make it. I do it because the risk adds excitement to the game.

I’ve learned that pushing up to and often past my abilities on the golf course makes the game more interesting. I wonder if taking a similar approach off the golf course might be just as rewarding. It seems that there is only one way to find out.

Now hand me that driver and watch yourself. This could get interesting.

And yet many organizations treat it like a simple solution to a wide range of problems. They are constantly redrawing lines and putting new names in the boxes.

In some cases, these changes are the right solution. In others, it masks an underlying problem that people either haven’t yet identified or do not wish to address.

Whether appropriate or not, these changes cause stress. Leaders have new responsibilities and new employees. Employees have new bosses, coworkers, and tasks. With people not comfortable with what they are doing and with whom they are doing it, productivity and team spirit may decline in the short-run. The question for you to consider is what needs doing to prevent turning this into a long-run result.

Here are seven questions you may want to consider prior to doing a reorganization.

1. What’s the root cause for the problem you are trying to address and will a reorganization correct it?
2. What will individuals perceive they have lost (Status, turf, relationships, competency, security, etc.) if you make this change?
3. Who will be the perceived winners in this change and what impact will that have on morale and trust?
4. How might you gain input from people prior to making this change so that it doesn’t come as a surprise?
5. What’s your plan for communicating the reason for the change?
6. How can you involve people during the implementation of the change so they feel more part of it?
7. How will you handle people who aren’t happy about this?

Making the change will never be easy or without consequence. Still, by thinking carefully about these questions and acting appropriately on the answers, you’ll raise the odds that your change, after some adjustment period, will produce better results.

Photo by commanderjaygold

• They don’t care about the goals.
• They don’t get along with their co-workers.
• They don’t do their jobs.
• They don’t measure up in terms of skills and abilities.
• They create a toxic atmosphere.

What’s odd is that both managers and well-performing co-workers are well of this and aren’t willing to do anything about it. The usual excuse is that it’s just too hard to fire someone. Too much paperwork, too many legal challenges, too many hassles. While there may be a lot of all three of these, the question is whether it’s really too much. To answer this question we have to identify the costs of doing nothing. This list is easy to make.

• Low morale
• Low productivity
• Turnover of the people you don’t want to leave
• Poor customer service
• Law suits

If your gut is screaming someone needs to go, and you’ve done everything you can reasonably have done to help the person succeed but have not seen any improvement; then it’s time to make the change. Your team members want you to and it’s your responsibility. Do the right thing. Do it now.