February 2015

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“Like most people in management, I spend a good deal of time in pursuit of the skills associated with leadership. I read books, I take seminars, I watch TED talks, I read my Bible, I pray…But recently I began with Dave Anderson….small group sessions with different layers of management from local companies. Not an inexpensive investment on the surface, but I received more value in the first session than in all of the seminars and workbooks from the last 20 years put together….Make the call. Call me if you’d like an endorsement. Those that know me, know I don’t endorse often.”

-Jim Nipp, President of The Genesis Group

Who would you rather follow? A gray haired veteran who has two kids in college or a recently promoted 30 year old former cheerleader? To me, neither of these descriptions gives me enough information.

I have seen both types lead well and both types act like spoiled adolescents. The differentiator between leaders is often maturity. Maturity is not measured by age or experience. Maturity is measured by behaviors.

My goal here is not to put together an academic argument about the definition of maturity. My goal is to compare and contrast the behaviors of the mature leader versus the immature leader.

The veteran may have experience and the 30 year old may have a lot of energy. But, neither of those things necessarily describes what a mature leader looks like.

The best way to define someone is by analyzing how he or she behaves.

Immature Leaders Versus Mature Leaders

I have been both of these leaders at one time or another.  Sometimes in the same week!  See if you can pick yourself out among these ten examples of maturity versus immaturity.

Leader #1

Immature Leader: Is concerned the people below him want his job.

Mature Leader: Develops the people below her to someday do her job.

Leader #2

Immature Leader: Distrusts her subordinates and carefully monitors the smallest details of everyone’s work.

Mature Leader: Trusts, but verifies the completion and quality of an individual’s work. If someone proves untrustworthy, then he becomes closely involved in the details of that individual’s work.

Leader #3

Immature Leader: Half-heartedly implements a strategy because it was not the one he argued for.

Mature Leader: Gets behind a strategy that was not her favorite and implements it like it was her idea.

Leader #4

Immature Leader: Blames the team if they leave a meeting and the majority does not implement the tactics she laid out.

Mature Leader: Knows that if the majority got it wrong, he is to blame as the communicator and is responsible as the leader.

Leader #5

Immature Leader: Repeatedly gives “another chance” to someone who has proven to be unwilling to change their behavior.

Mature Leader: Believes in second chances, but does not enable someone who proves unwilling to change their behaviors. After insuring she has done everything she needed to coach the employee, she decisively ends the person’s employment.

Leader #6

Immature Leader: Has too much to drink at the bar with his subordinates.

Mature Leader: Shows up and socializes with subordinates for a short and defined period of time and then excuses herself.

Leader #7

Immature Leader: Allows people on her team to blame other departments for missing their goals.

Mature Leader: Allows his team members to vent, but will not allow continued complaining. He expects them to take ownership of their performance and offer solutions for improvement.

Leader #8

Immature Leader: Believes he does not need to learn any new ideas because he has already read a lot of books or gone to a lot of seminars.

Mature Leader: Knows she has never “arrived” as a leader and actively seeks out growth opportunities.

Leader #9

Immature Leader: Believes a newly promoted leader should not be offering ideas in meetings until they have more experience.

Mature Leader: Realizes the newly promoted leader could be the breath of fresh air that breaks the mold and spurs on innovation precisely because they do not have the experience.

Leader #10

Immature Leader: Leaves a new employee to learn their job on their own because that is how he had to learn it.

Mature Leader: Lays out specific expectations, coaches and models critical tasks for the new employee because she knows the faster they get up to speed the better her team will perform.

The Bottom Line:

When I reread this list of behaviors, it is apparent that either the gray haired veteran or the 30 year old cheerleader can be a mature or an immature leader.

The differentiating factors are often humility, wisdom, and courage.

The mature leader has:

• The humility to know leadership is not about him.
• The wisdom to realize she has a lot to learn and actively pursues growth.
• The courage to step up, speak up and change when necessary.

The old saying: “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover.” is true when we look at the gray haired veteran or the 30 year old cheerleader.

When we are evaluating people, it is a person’s behaviors that best illustrate whether he or she is a mature leader or an immature leader.  Their behaviors are the best indicator of who they are inside.  It’s what is inside the book that counts.

Question:

What is another mark of leadership maturity or immaturity you would add to this list?

My boss had some pretty high standards.  In fact, he often bragged that his standards were higher than those of his peers.

When I came onto the team, I liked his approach.  I truly believed that a leader who set high standards got more out of people and had better teams.  I was wrong, and he was wrong. 

Where The Standard Is Set

Unfortunately, I learned that my view and his view of standards were too simplistic.  That team was average despite his high standards.  Why?  His high standards were not the team’s real standards.

Who Sets The Standards?

Leaders do not determine what the team standards are, the worst performing team member does.  The old saying applies:

“A chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link.”

Just because I say I have high standards does not make it so.  Just like claiming to be a man of integrity does not make me one.  The key to both is my actions.

If a leader leaves the weak link alone that weak link sets the real standard for the team.  Just like a man’s willingness to lie when he is late for work proves he is not a man of integrity.

What actions should I take to ensure my standards are in fact the team’s standards?

Defining Standards

Standards are not goals.  Standards are minimums.  They are the lowest bar someone must clear to be a productive part of the team.

I must be sure my team understands this point and doesn’t settle for less.

Set High Standards

Wherever the bar is set, people tend to clear it.  In the Olympic high jump competition, even the world’s best jump only as high as they need to clear the bar.

Set a low bar and they clear it.  Set a high one, and they clear that as well.  But, it is the high bar that wins them the gold!

Communicate The Standards

Standards are not like self guided missiles.  You don’t shoot them and forget.  When a leader sets standards, those standards need to be over-communicated and clarified frequently.

Enforce The Standards

This is often the biggest shortfall for leaders.  Standards without enforcement default to the performance of the lowest common denominator – the weak link.

Without enforcement, the formerly high standards of others on the team will begin to slip as well.  Even the top performers will be tempted to only jump as high as needed to clear the bar.

Even if they do maintain their own high standards, the top performers will resent the inconsistency of the leader.

The leader will lose the respect of his best people because he is unwilling to hold his weakest people to the minimum expectations.  Does anyone else see the futility in that scenario?

Coach The Standards

When a person is not performing to the standards, it is the leader’s responsibility to coach that person to get them up to speed.  If they lack training, the leader provides it.  If they lack motivation, the leader provides that as well.

A leader who ignores either situation is not doing his job.  The leader’s job is to strengthen the weak link.  If the team has a list of 5 team standards and a person is unwilling or unable to perform all 5 to the standards the leader sets, then the leader must act.

The leader should provide both the training and the motivation until he realizes he is working harder at them achieving the standards than they are.  Then it is time for the next step.

Fire If Below Standard

Once the leader realizes the person is unable or unwilling to meet the standards of the team, the leader has a responsibility to the team to fire the weak link and hire a stronger one.

The Bottom Line:

Claiming high standards is only the first step in leading a team with high standards.  The leader must have the courage, the determination and the integrity to ensure the standards are his and not those of his weakest link.

As a leader, I must own my standards and take responsibility for the people I hired who are failing to meet my standards.  If I am not willing to do that, I am allowing my poorest performer to do my job!  The weakest link is setting the standards, not me.

Question:

Have you ever seen a weak link bring down the standards of a high performing team?

Courage is a buzzword I defined previously as:  To act without regard for perceived or actual personal risk.

Is there anyone alive who does not wish to be courageous?  For courage to be part of my character, I must develop to the point where I am habitually acting in a courageous way in both the big things and the small.  I have written that character:

• Begins with our thoughts.
• Our thoughts become our words.
• Our words lead to our actions.
• Our actions become habits.
• Our habits determine our character.
• Our character determines our destiny.

Based on this premise then, the first step in developing into a person who habitually acts in a courageous way, I must begin by thinking about what courage looks like in practice. Continue Reading…

I learned many things during 15 years in sales leadership.  I took over teams that were high functioning and low functioning.  I took over teams that were full of rookies and teams that were full of tenured people.  No matter the situation, I always learned more from my mistakes than I did from my successes.

Last week I began a series based on lessons I learned taking over new teams.  In that post, I laid out 5 Key Steps for new leaders taking over new teams.  They are:

1. Communicate With The Previous Leader
2. Meet Face to Face With The Influence Leaders
3. Bring The Team Together Physically
4. Build Trust With The Team
5. Bring The Team Together Culturally

Step 1:  Communicate With The Previous Leader Continue Reading…

Headline:  West Point, The Best Public College in America — US News and World Report in 2011. 

My alma mater opened in 1802 as an engineering school.  In 2011 it was ranked third in the nation for undergraduate engineering, still lockstep with its 200-year-old original purpose.  But at its heart, West Point is a leadership school.

The primary mission of West Point has been to provide leaders of character for our nation.

The question, “Can character be developed?” is answered every May when a new group of 1,000 second lieutenants complete four years of character development.  In June of 1984, I began my journey from typical high school graduate to trained Army officer four years later.  West Point changed my attitude about what the word character means.

Continue Reading…

Though I was trained to lead at West Point and led men in combat as a lieutenant in the Army, I was still a baby when it came to recognizing a problem on my team, coaching it and documenting it appropriately in the corporate world.

The Story

I hired Tory myself (name changed).  He had the talent to be a top salesperson.  He had the gift of gab and people were naturally drawn to him.  In fact, we were a lot alike, and I enjoyed spending time with him.

The first time I noticed it, I raised an eyebrow and forgot about it.  A month later, there it was again.  I was thinking it through when my cell phone rang and I moved to a more urgent issue. Continue Reading…

Organizational or personal values describe HOW we operate. Many organizations claim to follow certain values because they list them on their websites, or they are on a poster in their offices.

However, many employees will say their organization has values published, but admit those companies do not live by them. Why?  I believe there are two reasons:

1. The values are not defined. In other words, no one ever lays out exactly what each value looks like in practice.
2. The values are not consistently communicated. Organizations and individuals must be marinated in their values consistently to make them part of their character.

I was caught in the trap of my own making.  I watched my company cut leadership training from its training curriculum in the early 2000’s.  As the years went on, I began to bark about this lack of training for leaders.  I believe that an organization that does not develop its next generation of leaders begins to stagnate and eventually staggers.

Then it hit me, complaining is not leading.  I had complained for too long. Continue Reading…

Direct TV warns us:  “Don’t have a grandson with a dog collar.”  While I am tempted to blame my issues on the cable television industry, especially their “customer service centers”, I believe my issues, particularly my character issues are internally derived.

Continue Reading…

Becoming a leader of character is a process that never ends.  It is a never ending road towards a destination you can never completely reach.  But, leaders must take this road daily in order to grow and lead well.

I had the benefit of my father, General Jim Anderson, and four years of training at West Point to guide me towards being a leader of character.   One of the reasons I began to blog, consult and coach on this subject is I realized how blessed I was compared to most aspiring leaders.  I had guides! Continue Reading…

 I really don’t care what I hear on the news.  We do not have an issue with self-esteem in America.

My proof?  The American Idol auditions!  The fact that some of these people can gripe, scream and even cry on national television because Steven Tyler (Aerosmith: My favorite band!) told them they were not ready for the big time makes my case.  Most people have too much self-esteem.

Continue Reading…

Most corporate sponsored leadership training is ineffective. Why?

1. Many consultants attempt to jam their round peg of a program into the square hole of an organization.
2. Most training has a short half -life because there lacks accountability within the client organizations to actually implement the ideas generated at training events.
3. Leadership training often focuses on what a leader needs to do to others versus what the leader needs to change in himself/herself.

Continue Reading…

What is the definition of character?

Character is our habitual way of operating.

HOW we are is WHO we are.

Our character is ultimately determined by our habits.  If I am in the habit of doing what is moral and right, I am a person of high character.  If I am in the habit of cutting corners, telling “small lies”, or any other morally questionable act, that is who I am as well.

This video is a clip from a training session on leadership I did for a group of salespeople.  It is only a few minutes long.  Take the time to watch it and see how your habits stack up towards forming your character.

Question:

How do the words you hear me speak cause you to evaluate your habits?  Do you see changes you can make at work or at home?  Do you see a path to teaching your kids about character?

Who doesn’t love the Navy SEALs?  Answer:  The enemy’s of freedom.  But to the rest of us, these warriors are heroes.  They are the elite of the elite.

I say I love the Navy SEALs even though I am an Army guy.  The Army has Delta Force and the Navy has the SEAL Teams.  One thing these two groups live by is the concept of teamwork.

In a recent discussion with a new friend, he told me of a quote from a leadership boot camp he attended that was run by a former Navy SEAL.

Selfless acts towards a common goal.

The Definition of Teamwork

At this boot camp these business people were exposed to the military concept of teamwork.  This definition should be how we all see and live teamwork.

Teamwork:  Selfless acts towards a common goal.

These are simple, yet powerful words.  There is no fluff in this definition.  That is why it works.  Often academics will take a concept and over complicate it.

It has been said that communicators take the complicated and make it simple.  While educators take the simple and make it complicated.

The Navy SEAL who shared this concept with these business people was a communicator.  Each word in this definition means something.  Together they create a powerful message.

Selfless

In the military, loners are not welcome.  By the end of my Beast Barracks at West Point I knew that I would never let my squad mates down.  It was beyond the realm of possibility in my mind.  The success of every military unit revolves around selflessness.

To this day, I know I can rely on my West Point classmates if I am in need.  They would drop everything to help me, and I would do the same for them.

Concern for inconvenience, personal discomfort, or personal agendas has no role on a team.  The best teams have individuals who are selfless.  The former SEALs who gave their lives to protect the American Ambassador in Libya gave us a vivid living example of selflessness on September 11, 2012.

Acts

Actions, not words are what counts.  I believe we all have implanted in us by our creator, the knowledge of right and wrong.  Most of us will even go so far as to talk about what is right and wrong.

But without action, the knowledge and the words are worthless.  The SEALs exemplify actions instead of words.  Words do not accomplish a mission, save a hostage or safeguard our country.

If I claim to be selfless but rarely act selflessly, or if I claim to be working towards the same goal as my team yet my actions do not move my team closer to that goal, I am a hypocrite and not a worthy team member.

Towards

The teamwork the Navy SEALs exhibit is not characterized by random activity.  Every action they take is meant to move them towards their goal.

Unfortunately, too many of us believe that being a busy and active member of a team is good enough.  That attitude would have gotten me in trouble at West Point and kicked out of SEAL training.

If I am to be an effective team member, my actions must be focused on the desired results of the team.  If I am not working towards something specific, I am filling a spot on the team that should be occupied by a person who is driven to move the team forward.

A Common Goal

The goals that matter on a team are team goals.  Athletes more worried about individual stats, or business people only worried about their own department’s are a detriment to the team.

Once a common objective is laid out, a Navy SEAL does not care whether they are the one who gets to save the hostage, or they are the one operating the radio.  The goal is the safety of that hostage.  No role in that mission is more glamorous than the rest.

A common goal for an effective team transcends individual goals.  For that to happen, the leader of that team must be sure all the team members understand the common goal.

The Bottom Line:

Selflessness is perhaps the most important element for an individual on a team.  Once the individuals in the group begins to act selflessly, the goals of the team are within any team’s grasp.

The Navy SEALs are an elite team.  I may be biased, but I believe West Point creates an elite group of team leaders.  Both organizations will not allow individuals to be part of their team unless they buy into:

Selfless acts towards a common goal.

This is a great quote to apply to my work life.  But, as I think it through it is a great quote to apply to my marriage as well.

Question:

Who have you allowed to remain on your team that does not embrace this concept of teamwork?  Is that you?