Eric Jacobson

Archive for January, 2011|Monthly archive page


What We Can Learn About Leadership From Dogs

In General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Books, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Leading By Example, Management, Motivating Employees, Team Building on January 30, 2011 at 7:36 pm

I never really thought much about the parallels between canine and human leadership needs, but Lesley Hunter, the author of, Who Put You in Charge?, has convinced me the parallels are compellingly strong.

In her book, Hunter explains:

  • Like dogs, humans need training, leadership, respect and reward. And most importantly, a sense of belonging.
  • In every pack a dog has its role.  The pack leader is there to provide direction and maintain order.  Harmony happens when pack leaders and followers fulfill their respective roles.

As a longtime dog lover and owner, Hunter reflects in her book about her own leadership successes in business, “Bringing together and leading a group of dogs was no different to leading a group of people — by recognizing the strengths and characteristics of each individual, and by consciously choosing to adapt my own behavior and response, I became an effective leader and got the best out of each of them.”

You can make your way through the 100-page book in a couple hours.  And, I won’t in the posting reveal all of Hunter’s parallels between humans and dogs, but my favorite observations that Hunter makes are:

  • Effective leaders understand and listen to their natural instincts, and use persuasion rather than dominance and authority to achieve their outcomes. 
  • Successful leaders know themselves well enough, and are therefore able to adapt and modify their learned habits, behaviors and responses to get the best out of each person and situation.
  • Being a firm leader is not about power. 
  • The most effective leaders are those who are seen as being fair, approachable and adaptable.
  • Being fair is more about being able to weigh all the options and coming to reasoned decisions and arguments, rather than showing excessive empathy to the views and needs of others, which itself can cause further problems in the long run.
  • Healthy conflict in a non-threatening, constructive and supportive environment is essential for decision making and problem solving.


Share Your Vision Seven To Ten Times

In Employee Engagement, Executive Coaching, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Leading By Example, Listening Skills, Management, Setting Goals, Team Building on January 29, 2011 at 9:13 am

“Leaders need to communicate often, regularly and consistently,” says Margaret Reynolds of Reynolds Consulting, LLC in Lees’ Summit, MO.  “Leaders should share their vision at least seven to 10 times with their employees, and to make it clear to employees what is specifically expected of them to do each day to help achieve the collective mission,” she added.

She adds that it’s not that leaders don’t communicate, but that they don’t beat the drum regularly enough.

“In terms of how to communicate so people get it, it is pretty widely accepted that story telling is the most effective; to be able to paint a vision where people see it often, and then following up with success stories or early wins reinforces it,” said Reynolds.

Reynolds recently shared with me more of her expert advice:

  • “Most leaders’ visions fail, not due to a leader’s inadequacies, but due to the leader’s lack of communication.”
  • To become an effective leader, one should follow these three steps:
  1. Gain knowledge of what it takes to be a great leader
  2. Find an opportunity to practice
  3. Accept feedback from trusted supporters

As the managing partner of her consulting firm, Reynolds has assisted companies with growth planning for over 21 years.  She spent much of career at Hallmark in Kansas City, MO. 

When I asked her, “If a leader wants to be remembered for being effective by his/her employees,  what leadership attributes should he/she have displayed?” Reynolds told me a leader should be one who:

  • listens with respect
  • communicates effectively
  • removes obstacles
  • shoulders the blame
  • shares the glory

“I would call it the golden rule.  Others call it servant leadership or Level 5 leadership — when an executive treats others like he or she wants to be treated,” says Reynolds.


10 Ways To Involve Your Employees

In Company Culture, Employee Engagement, Employee Satisfaction, Leadership, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Management, Motivating Employees on January 26, 2011 at 10:22 pm

Here are 10 tips for how to maximize employee involvement:

  1. Have active ways to listen to your employees.
  2. Check often with employees to see if the information you are sharing with them is what they need and what they want.
  3. Share information about customer satisfaction with employees.
  4. Discuss financial performance with your employees and be sure everyone understands the importance of profitability and how they can contribute to profitability.
  5. Allow ad hoc teams among employees to form to address organizational problems and work with those teams to tackle the identified issues.
  6. Encourage employees to make suggestions for improvement whether those ideas are large or small.
  7. Take an idea from one employee and share it with other employees and teams and let everyone make a contribution to build upon that idea.
  8. Train!
  9. For long-term employees, find ways to keep their jobs interesting through new assignments and challenges.
  10. Conduct meetings around specific issues and brainstorm solutions.

“Involving people in the business is the most effective way to produce an organization in which people know more, care more, and do the right things,” said Edward Lawler III, Professor, University of Southern California, as quoted in the book, 1001 Ways To Energize Employees, by author Bob Nelson.


The Power Of Mentoring: Formal And Informal

In General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Management, Mentoring on January 24, 2011 at 8:07 pm

Sports heroes mention their mentors at award ceremonies. Successful business people thank their mentors at career milestone celebrations. Young adults who later become accomplished acknowledge their mentors when asked who was influential in their success.

Mentoring is indeed powerful.

Most leaders have been both a mentor and a mentee at some point in their careers. Sometimes, though, not everyone understands the important difference between informal mentoring and formal mentoring.

  • Formal mentoring is structured, intentional, and short-termed (typically about three to six months). It also requires the support of top management.

As a leader in your workplace, consider establishing a formal mentoring program to supplement the informal mentoring that is surely taking place at your company/organization. And, to offer employees mentoring options for those who can’t participate outside the workplace.

You can learn about formal mentoring from many sources, but here is one resource/company that can provide you with easy-to-follow workbooks for both the mentor and mentee:


Marriott Follows 12 Guiding Leadership And Customer Service Principles

In Company Culture, Customer Service, Employee Satisfaction, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Leading By Example, Management, Motivating Employees, Team Building on January 23, 2011 at 8:52 pm

Stay at any Marriott hotel and look in the nightstand drawer in your guest room and you’ll find a Marriott booklet that highlights its milestones and recaps the Marriott story.

In the booklet, you’ll also find the following 12 ways that Marriott practices good leadership and customer service:

  1. Continually challenge your team to do better.
  2. Take good care of your employees, and they’ll take good care of your customers, and the customers will come back.
  3. Celebrate your people’s success, not your own.
  4. Know what you’re good at and mine those competencies for all you’re worth.
  5. Do it and do it now. Err on the side of taking action.
  6. Communicate. Listen to your customers, associates and competitors.
  7. See and be seen. Get out of your office, walk around, make yourself visible and accessible.
  8. Success is in the details.
  9. It’s more important to hire people with the right qualities than with specific experience.
  10. Customer needs may vary, but their bias for quality never does.
  11. Eliminate the cause of a mistake. Don’t just clean it up.
  12. View every problem as an opportunity to grow.

These are good practices that any business, large or small, and any leader can follow to ensure success.

Courtyard by Marriott, Fairfield Inn, SpringHill Suites, TownePlaza Suites, Renaissance and Residence Inn by Marriott are also Marriott brands.


“Great Places To Work” Employee Perks

In Company Culture, Employee Engagement, Employee Satisfaction, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Management, Motivating Employees, Team Building on January 20, 2011 at 8:06 pm

StLouis magazine is featuring in its January issue 60 companies that they deemed “great places to work”.

Helping those companies to earn that honor are the perks they give their employees, some of which you might want to consider for 2011.

Here’s a sampling of the perks that cover the vast range offered by the 60 companies:

  • ARCO Construction Company – Paid sabbaticals after every five years with the company
  • Armstrong Teasdale — Women’s career-coaching program
  • Bryan Cave — Backup day-care/elder-care services
  • Build-A-Bear Workshop — Health Insurance for part-time employees
  • Boeing — Continuing education tuition support
  • Centene Corporation — Dry-cleaning pick-up/delivery; on-site car washes and oil changes
  • HOK — Paid paternity leave
  • LarsonAllen — Development coaches for employees
  • Maritz — Health fair
  • Monsanto – Lactation rooms
  • Nestle Purina PetCare Company — On-site tailor
  • Ralcorp Holdings — New jobs listed internally first
  • Scottrade – Matches charitable contributions made by employees
  • Sense Corp. — Work-at-home Fridays
  • Thompson Coburn — Domestic-partner benefits
  • Vector Communications — Eight paid hours per month to volunteer

For companies that lack the funds needed to support the types of programs listed above, they can offer perks, such as:

  • Contests
  • Rewards
  • Opportunities for advancement
  • Opportunities for socializing with co-workers


Halvorson’s Succeed Is A Timely Read For How To Reach Your Goals

In Employee Engagement, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Books, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Management, Motivating Employees, Setting Goals on January 17, 2011 at 8:13 pm

Social psychologist, Heidi Grant Halvorson, wrote Succeed to help you understand how goals work, what tends to go wrong, and what you can do to reach your goals or to help others reach theirs.

Because many of us are struggling to fulfill our New Year’s Resolutions (goals), Halvorson’s book, packed with the findings from her own research, along with the most useful tips from academic journals and handbooks, is a timely read.

In her 260-page book, Halvorson covers:

•  How to set a goal that you will pursue even in the face of adversity.
•  How to avoid the kind of positive thinking that makes people fail.
•  How to create an environment that will help you win.

“Setting goals is important,” said Halvorson, “But that’s not the whole story. Because how you set your goals–the way you think about whatever it is you want to do, and how you will get there–is every bit as important.”

Halvorson recommends:
•  Making your goal as specific as possible.
•  Making your goal difficult, while still being realistic.
•  Being sure you don’t underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal.
•  Making sure you think about both the wonderful things that will happen if you succeed and the obstacles that stand in your way.
•  Filling your environment with reminders and triggers that will keep your unconscious mind working toward your goal, even when your conscious mind is distracted by other things.
•  Remembering why the goal is important to you. Also, choosing prevention goals, focusing on what you could lose if you fail.

She also said that, “One of the most important things you can do to reach any difficult goal is know when to ask for and accept help.”

And, if you are a team leader or business leader and you have the task of trying to get other people to adopt the goals assigned to them, Halvorson suggests you:

•  Try giving your employee or team member a sense of personal control. It helps when people can choose from several options–even a choice between two goals is still a choice.
•  Keep in mind that people are motivated to achieve a goal only when they feel it has value and when the value is clear. So, have your employees participate in decision making and goal setting.
•  Ask employees to commit publicly to reaching a goal. That will increase their motivation.

Halvorson stresses that it’s vitally important that employees understand the rationale behind goals given to them by their leaders. They need to know how to answer:

• Why is the goal worth pursing?
• How will I benefit from it?

“Remember that people are motivated to achieve a goal only when they feel it has value. When the value is clear, you’ll have fewer problems getting people on board and fully committed to succeed,” explained Halvorson.

Perhaps most important, Succeed, drives home the fact that persistence is key when working to reach a goal.

• Persistence comes more easily when a person believes more in effort and the effort to get better, rather than believing in ability.

I appreciate Halvorson sending me a complimentary advance copy of her book.  It’s a good read.


20 New Words Every Leader Should Know

In General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Management on January 16, 2011 at 10:56 am

Each year, new words and expressions become bona fide entries into the world’s top English dictionaries.
Here are 20 of those words that recently made it into dictionaries – many of which you’ve likely heard your younger employees using.  Or, perhaps you’ve heard a vendor use them, particularly if your company is expanding its social media play.

  1. Big Media — Primary mass communications sources, e.g. TV and the press
  2. Exit Strategy — Planned means of extricating oneself from a situation
  3. Flash Mob — Brief gathering for a common purpose, announced by e-mail or text
  4. Flyover States — Central regions of the U.S.
  5. Friend – (verb) To add to a list of personal associates on a website
  6. Green Audit — Analysis of a business’ environmental state
  7. Green-collar – Of or relating to workers in the environmentalist business sector
  8. Heart — (verb) To like very much
  9. Home-shoring — Moving jobs to employees’ homes (from the word “offshoring”)
  10. Meme — Image, video or phrase passed electronically on the Internet
  11. Microblog (verb) — To post very short entries on a blog
  12. Paywall – Arrangement whereby website access is restricted to paying users only
  13. Social Media — Websites and applications used for social networking
  14. Soft Skills — Attributes that enable someone to interact harmoniously with others
  15. Staycation – Vacation spent at home
  16. Toxic Debt — Debt that has a high risk of default
  17. Tweet – Posting made on the social networking site Twitter
  18. Unfriend – (verb) To remove from a list of personal associates on a website
  19. Viral — Circulating rapidly on the Internet
  20. Webisode – Espisode or short film made for viewing online


Reach Communications & Leadership Expert Grossman Via His New App

In Employee Engagement, Executive Coaching, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Management, Motivating Employees, Team Building on January 15, 2011 at 4:55 pm

If you haven’t engaged with David Grossman’s website, Blog and incredibly useful eBooks, make a point of checking them all out at his website for The Grossman Group.

David just launched his new App, called “Ask David.”  Via the App, David promises to bring his communications industry expert advice and wisdom right to your fingertips.

Topics covered include:

  • Employee engagement
  • Internal communications
  • Change management
  • Leadership effectiveness
  • Crisis messaging
  • Diversity and inclusion


Honor The Legacy Of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. By Volunteering

In General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leading By Example, Management, Volunteering on January 6, 2011 at 8:08 pm

As the nation honors Dr. Martin Luther King , Jr. on Monday, January 17, volunteer or make the decision to volunteer in your community.  King routinely asked “What are you doing for others,” and January 17th is the ideal day to ask yourself that question.

The federal holiday was first observed 24 years ago and in 1994 Congress designated it as a National Day of Service, inspired by King’s words, “everybody can be great because anybody can serve.”

Many business leaders turn to Volunteer Match to find volunteer opportunities.  Visit the web site, type in your zip code, and you will be presented with a variety of organizations seeking volunteers.

Then, either volunteer and/or organize a team of your employees to volunteer!

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