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A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHORS
Hello, and welcome to the third issue of our Trust and
Leadership newsletter and the second installment in
our "Leadership Dim Sum"
series.
While
the dog days of summer may be upon us, the issues of
trust and leadership don’t seem to have gone on
vacation. Based upon some recent observations, we offer
some thoughts on dealing with prickly people.
Please
forward this newsletter to your colleagues and friends
who are interested in organizational and leadership
issues. Your feedback is always welcome at info@thetrustedleader.com
-Rob and Anne-
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Previous Issues:
How
Intimate is Your Inner Circle?
It
will take courage to restore investors' faith
Next
Issue:
Dim Sum: Meddling with Mediocrity
Rob
and Anne were recently interviewed by WeLEAD magazine.
read
the complete interview>>>
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LEADERSHIP DIM SUM, PART II: SURVIVING
THE PORCUPINE
You
have a new colleague – a fellow division head. You don’t
know him that well, but he and you will now have many occasions
to interact, as your divisions are closely linked. A trusted
colleague comes by and says “My condolences. I’d
count the silverware after he leaves your office. Especially
the knives. And I wouldn’t turn my back.”
Things
to think about: Can you build trust with someone who may not
be very trustworthy? Why is that person where he is? How are
you going to work with him? (Q: How do porcupines make love?
A: Very carefully.)
Most
CEOs assert that there is no room on their leadership teams
for someone who doesn’t represent the core values of
the company (and we will assume that trustworthiness or some
proxy for it is one of your core values). Yet we’ve
seen some of these same CEOs make compromises when a member
of their leadership team creates exceptional value to the
business. (For example, we’ve seen a CEO promote someone
into his inner circle because that person was a brilliant
strategist, even though that person was verbally abusive with
her own direct reports.)
Think
carefully about Aspirations and Alignment
before you make such a move. If the behavior of your senior
executives is inconsistent with your aspirations, then you
lose trust and credibility across the entire leadership team.
If one of your players moves in ways contrary to what you
would hope, it looks VERY obvious to the rest of the organization.
And don’t count on “coaching” to fix things.
When coaching is imposed upon someone, the result isn’t
satisfactory nearly as often as you would like it to be. In
addition, there are LOTS of coaches out there, and they vary
dramatically as to quality, impact and value.
If
you’re thrust into a situation where you’re expected
to deal closely with someone you believe is untrustworthy
(or who has that reputation), tread carefully. You’ve
heard the phrase from the Reagan years “Trust, but
verify.” That would apply here. So would “tread
carefully.”
WORKING
WITH THE AUTHORS OF THE TRUSTED LEADER
Please contact us at info@thetrustedleader.com
for information about having us work directly with you and
your organization.
© 2003 Robert Galford and Anne Seibold
Drapeau All Rights Reserved
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