Jobs and CareersLeadership Lessons From the Comedy of French and Saunders - Leader As a Teacher
By Jay Koch
One important part of being a good leader is to also be a good teacher. In a very funny video titled "Ponies" by the comedy team of Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, we see two hapless, but happy, riders trying to teach their horses how to jump. Because they are ineffective at teaching, their horses perceive them as leaders that can be ignored.
Dawn's character is riding Peter Pan. She walks him up to a jump and asks him to go over. We had seen earlier in the skit that she had little control over Peter Pan. He's just as happy to ignore her and graze. Dawn's first mistake is to try to teach something when she doesn't have Peter Pan's attention or respect. She should work on that before she even tries to teach him something.
Jennifer's character is riding Jigsaw. In comparison to Peter Pan who wants to just graze, Jigsaw wants to go. Jennifer ask Jigsaw to go over a low jump, and he just runs around it. Apparently, he is not ready to do this jump. She could ask him first to just go over the rail with it on the ground. When he is happy doing that, she can go for more by going over a slightly higher jump. This allows Jigsaw to gain confidence in himself as well is in Jennifer.
At one point, Jigsaw knocks down the rail of the jump. Jen calls him a "stupid bugger." As a leader, she is not taking responsibility for her own actions that cause Jigsaw to "misbehave." Jigsaw is just doing the best he can with what he knows. It's the rider's responsibility to make sure that her horse is ready to perform the tasks she asks him for. When she doesn't take that responsibility, she fails as a leader.
When you watch these comediennes in this video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWd_r2sOPhs, look for how lack of leadership makes their horse experience much more difficult, even though they seem to have a good time.
You don't have to have a horse to learn how horsemanship will help you be a better leader. Let me share my life lessons I learned while astride my horse. Get FREE instant access to my e-book, "10 Leadership Secrets Whispered by Horses," at http://SecretsWhisperedByHorses.com
Jay Koch
The Best Horse Sense
Our horses will teach you how to be a better leader.
==============================================
A Case For Leadership Instinct
By Patrick Smyth
In the early 1970s, a young technician at an automobile assembly plant in Tennessee had been furloughed several times. He spent several months out of work waiting for the company to call him back as production volumes increased. He was a young hard working man with a burning need to earn a good living. This waiting was more than this young technician could stand. With no formal education beyond high school, he believed his options were limited. He knew he was a good worker with a lot of common sense. He found a small metal works shop not far from home and decided he could run it better.
Thirty-six years later, his products can be found in millions of vehicles of leading automobile manufacturers. He is now a key supplier to the industry, highly profitable, and growing. The metal works shop's business performance speaks for itself. So many manufacturing related businesses are moving off-shore, or they struggle to compete and become industry consolidation targets. This shop continued to compete effectively and even built and occupied a larger facility funded entirely from cash from operations. In fact, refreshingly unlike many small business owners, the CEO recognizes the importance of cash flow: "Cash is the grease that keeps the cogs and gears of the engine running smoothly".
In addition to being a high quality and highly reliable supplier to their customers, the metal works shop also seems to be a great place to work. The CEO's steady hand is still at the helm of this company. His key team of managers and supervisors has been with the business for between 10 and 15 years. Employee turnover at this company is practically nonexistent. That is remarkable in an industry where shop floor workers jump from job to job. Companies struggle to hire reliable, skilled, and drug free workers.
"My mom told me as a little boy that I must have a 10 year plan, and write it down. If you don't write it down, then your brain comes up with lots of other ideas and thoughts to distract you from your plan", the CEO told me. He has stayed true to this excellent advice throughout his business and his personal life. How many small businesses develop long range plans? How many large businesses are able to commit reliably to a long term plan that doesn't change at least every eighteen months? All too often they are driven by short term goals or the need to drive shareholder returns higher faster.
I asked the CEO how much has changed over the years, since the employees are so stable, and everything about his business seems so rock steady. A few things have change: he has an entirely new customer set; built and moved to a new facility; new plant metal working technology and equipment; and new operating processes several times. But wait - he's doing it all again! He recently opened another new facility nearby and already that facility is planned to expand.
This metal working shop and its CEO are shining examples of how small (and large, for that matter) business leaders can be very successful in the face of major challenges. As I listened to the CEO tell his story, four key principles emerged:
1. Develop a long range plan and declare it to your employees. A clear mission and purpose communicated plainly with every employee on the direction of the company empowers them all to reach for the same dream. Stay abreast of new developments in the industry, with customers, and with suppliers. Proactively build changes into your business. Your long range plan needs to be updated each year and refreshed. Keep your eyes on the horizon.
2. Live and work and lead by a clear set of values or principles that set a good example for your employees. This will guide their behavior as well. Communicate regularly in both formal and informal ways to maintain a pulse and develop trusted relationships with employees.
3. Maintain financial discipline. Determine the optimal operating model for your business. Relentlessly focus on ensuring every function of the business operates within those parameters. Maintain careful control over spending, debt and investments to expand and grow your business. Cash flow is like grease.
4. Operate with quality. From the start, the CEO recognized there was a better way to run a metal shop. His focus on continuous improvement is as intense today as it was in the beginning. His shop is ISO 9000 certified, and he continually examines new technologies, supplier relationships, workflow processes, customer operations and integration, and employee productivity.
"The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are, what you are about and what you value", Stephen R. Covey
What is the CEO's dream for this business? In a very typical altruistic fashion, he replied: "The business dream has already happened. I'm doing this for them". Who is "them", you ask? His family and his employees, and sometimes it may be difficult to tell the difference. He talks about either with equal pride and respect. His primary concern is to provide long term prosperity for "them". That caring attitude, along with the instinctive leadership factors discussed above, are the key ingredients that enabled this CEO to create and maintain this impressive example of a successful small business with a big heart.
Patrick Smyth.
Leadership Navigator.
Serving business leaders in managing change to achieve success. Developing compelling visions, business strategies, and leadership practices.
615-261-8585
http://www.innovationhabitude.com
===============================================
Any Five Year Old Can Lead
By J Randy Hall
I asked a good friend of mine who also coaches executives what the three most important attributes of a leader were. She listed the following three things:
• Ability to communicate
• Ability to inspire
• Ability to keep an open mind
Now I might argue some other attributes could be in the top three but all in all I thought it was a pretty good list. So my next question was this - can't a five year old do all those things? I've got three kids and from my perspective a five year old does those things better than most adults. They communicate constantly and don't apply any filters to their communication, so their feedback is genuine. They also listen without filters and often get the message you are trying to send much quicker than adults. In fact at five, they still think you are smarter than they are and so they listen to everything. Now that isn't the same at 10 but its nice while it lasts.
If you've ever seen a group of grown people standing around a five year old playing silly games and doing things they would never normally fathom doing in public, its hard to argue with a child's ability to inspire. In fact, my kids inspire me on a daily basis.
When it comes to the open mind, kids are far superior in their ability to do that. As adults we have all kinds of perceptions, reactions and beliefs that make it very difficult for most of us to be truly open minded.
So if a five year old can do these things, do they already have the skills to be a great leader? And if they do, should we focus on teaching them leadership skills in order to make them better? Or is it that skills are not the issue at all?
I believe most of us early in life can do all the things that great leaders do. Somewhere along the line though we watch other managers or people further up the corporate ladder doing things a different way. We see them focusing on things rather than people, we see them putting a high priority on activities like email, meetings, and other managerial tasks that sometimes don't drive the performance of the team at all. Slowly we come to believe that these are the things leaders do to be successful. What's more, if our boss is paying attention to these kinds of things then that just reinforces our sense that these must be the right things for us to spend our time on. Maybe we even see someone who spends all their time on these kinds of activities get promoted, and rewarded for "getting things done". All this adds up to create a very different picture for us of what good leadership looks like.
And yet, whenever I ask people what makes a great leader they absolutely never say "is very attentive to email" or "has lots of meetings". They always talk about things just like the ones my friend suggested - communication, inspiration, and an open mind. Somehow though, we manage to teach ourselves that the tactical elements of management are more critical and we will spend time communicating and inspiring when we get around to it. There's no question that the tactical things need to happen to keep the machine running but are they really the most important?
What could we accomplish as leaders if we spent 70 or 80 percent of our time inspiring our people, listening to them, motivating them and really understanding what they wanted out of life, this job, their career? Would we be more like the leaders we've all seen who are able to change the way we think every time we interact with them? Maybe, just maybe, we could capture the same sense of wonder, determination, and resilience that we see every time we catch ourselves stopping and smiling - at a five year old.
Randy Hall is the founder and principal of 4th Gear Consulting. He is passionate about developing amazing leaders and thriving, principled organizations. He believes that nothing will have greater impact on our economy, our communities, our lives and our kids' lives.
For more than a decade Randy has worked for and with organizations to help them realize more of their potential. His most recent roles in the corporate world were Senior Vice President of Learning and Leadership Development at Bank of America and Global Director of Learning and Development at Pfizer. Prior to moving into leadership development, he spent several years in sales and led his own high performing teams.
You can contact Randy at randy.hall@4thgearconsulting.com or visit him on the web at http://4thgearconsulting.com You can also read more of Randy's articles at http://bit.ly/info/22A0QZ
By Jay Koch
One important part of being a good leader is to also be a good teacher. In a very funny video titled "Ponies" by the comedy team of Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, we see two hapless, but happy, riders trying to teach their horses how to jump. Because they are ineffective at teaching, their horses perceive them as leaders that can be ignored.
Dawn's character is riding Peter Pan. She walks him up to a jump and asks him to go over. We had seen earlier in the skit that she had little control over Peter Pan. He's just as happy to ignore her and graze. Dawn's first mistake is to try to teach something when she doesn't have Peter Pan's attention or respect. She should work on that before she even tries to teach him something.
Jennifer's character is riding Jigsaw. In comparison to Peter Pan who wants to just graze, Jigsaw wants to go. Jennifer ask Jigsaw to go over a low jump, and he just runs around it. Apparently, he is not ready to do this jump. She could ask him first to just go over the rail with it on the ground. When he is happy doing that, she can go for more by going over a slightly higher jump. This allows Jigsaw to gain confidence in himself as well is in Jennifer.
At one point, Jigsaw knocks down the rail of the jump. Jen calls him a "stupid bugger." As a leader, she is not taking responsibility for her own actions that cause Jigsaw to "misbehave." Jigsaw is just doing the best he can with what he knows. It's the rider's responsibility to make sure that her horse is ready to perform the tasks she asks him for. When she doesn't take that responsibility, she fails as a leader.
When you watch these comediennes in this video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWd_r2sOPhs, look for how lack of leadership makes their horse experience much more difficult, even though they seem to have a good time.
You don't have to have a horse to learn how horsemanship will help you be a better leader. Let me share my life lessons I learned while astride my horse. Get FREE instant access to my e-book, "10 Leadership Secrets Whispered by Horses," at http://SecretsWhisperedByHorses.com
Jay Koch
The Best Horse Sense
Our horses will teach you how to be a better leader.
==============================================
A Case For Leadership Instinct
By Patrick Smyth
In the early 1970s, a young technician at an automobile assembly plant in Tennessee had been furloughed several times. He spent several months out of work waiting for the company to call him back as production volumes increased. He was a young hard working man with a burning need to earn a good living. This waiting was more than this young technician could stand. With no formal education beyond high school, he believed his options were limited. He knew he was a good worker with a lot of common sense. He found a small metal works shop not far from home and decided he could run it better.
Thirty-six years later, his products can be found in millions of vehicles of leading automobile manufacturers. He is now a key supplier to the industry, highly profitable, and growing. The metal works shop's business performance speaks for itself. So many manufacturing related businesses are moving off-shore, or they struggle to compete and become industry consolidation targets. This shop continued to compete effectively and even built and occupied a larger facility funded entirely from cash from operations. In fact, refreshingly unlike many small business owners, the CEO recognizes the importance of cash flow: "Cash is the grease that keeps the cogs and gears of the engine running smoothly".
In addition to being a high quality and highly reliable supplier to their customers, the metal works shop also seems to be a great place to work. The CEO's steady hand is still at the helm of this company. His key team of managers and supervisors has been with the business for between 10 and 15 years. Employee turnover at this company is practically nonexistent. That is remarkable in an industry where shop floor workers jump from job to job. Companies struggle to hire reliable, skilled, and drug free workers.
"My mom told me as a little boy that I must have a 10 year plan, and write it down. If you don't write it down, then your brain comes up with lots of other ideas and thoughts to distract you from your plan", the CEO told me. He has stayed true to this excellent advice throughout his business and his personal life. How many small businesses develop long range plans? How many large businesses are able to commit reliably to a long term plan that doesn't change at least every eighteen months? All too often they are driven by short term goals or the need to drive shareholder returns higher faster.
I asked the CEO how much has changed over the years, since the employees are so stable, and everything about his business seems so rock steady. A few things have change: he has an entirely new customer set; built and moved to a new facility; new plant metal working technology and equipment; and new operating processes several times. But wait - he's doing it all again! He recently opened another new facility nearby and already that facility is planned to expand.
This metal working shop and its CEO are shining examples of how small (and large, for that matter) business leaders can be very successful in the face of major challenges. As I listened to the CEO tell his story, four key principles emerged:
1. Develop a long range plan and declare it to your employees. A clear mission and purpose communicated plainly with every employee on the direction of the company empowers them all to reach for the same dream. Stay abreast of new developments in the industry, with customers, and with suppliers. Proactively build changes into your business. Your long range plan needs to be updated each year and refreshed. Keep your eyes on the horizon.
2. Live and work and lead by a clear set of values or principles that set a good example for your employees. This will guide their behavior as well. Communicate regularly in both formal and informal ways to maintain a pulse and develop trusted relationships with employees.
3. Maintain financial discipline. Determine the optimal operating model for your business. Relentlessly focus on ensuring every function of the business operates within those parameters. Maintain careful control over spending, debt and investments to expand and grow your business. Cash flow is like grease.
4. Operate with quality. From the start, the CEO recognized there was a better way to run a metal shop. His focus on continuous improvement is as intense today as it was in the beginning. His shop is ISO 9000 certified, and he continually examines new technologies, supplier relationships, workflow processes, customer operations and integration, and employee productivity.
"The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are, what you are about and what you value", Stephen R. Covey
What is the CEO's dream for this business? In a very typical altruistic fashion, he replied: "The business dream has already happened. I'm doing this for them". Who is "them", you ask? His family and his employees, and sometimes it may be difficult to tell the difference. He talks about either with equal pride and respect. His primary concern is to provide long term prosperity for "them". That caring attitude, along with the instinctive leadership factors discussed above, are the key ingredients that enabled this CEO to create and maintain this impressive example of a successful small business with a big heart.
Patrick Smyth.
Leadership Navigator.
Serving business leaders in managing change to achieve success. Developing compelling visions, business strategies, and leadership practices.
615-261-8585
http://www.innovationhabitude.com
===============================================
Any Five Year Old Can Lead
By J Randy Hall
I asked a good friend of mine who also coaches executives what the three most important attributes of a leader were. She listed the following three things:
• Ability to communicate
• Ability to inspire
• Ability to keep an open mind
Now I might argue some other attributes could be in the top three but all in all I thought it was a pretty good list. So my next question was this - can't a five year old do all those things? I've got three kids and from my perspective a five year old does those things better than most adults. They communicate constantly and don't apply any filters to their communication, so their feedback is genuine. They also listen without filters and often get the message you are trying to send much quicker than adults. In fact at five, they still think you are smarter than they are and so they listen to everything. Now that isn't the same at 10 but its nice while it lasts.
If you've ever seen a group of grown people standing around a five year old playing silly games and doing things they would never normally fathom doing in public, its hard to argue with a child's ability to inspire. In fact, my kids inspire me on a daily basis.
When it comes to the open mind, kids are far superior in their ability to do that. As adults we have all kinds of perceptions, reactions and beliefs that make it very difficult for most of us to be truly open minded.
So if a five year old can do these things, do they already have the skills to be a great leader? And if they do, should we focus on teaching them leadership skills in order to make them better? Or is it that skills are not the issue at all?
I believe most of us early in life can do all the things that great leaders do. Somewhere along the line though we watch other managers or people further up the corporate ladder doing things a different way. We see them focusing on things rather than people, we see them putting a high priority on activities like email, meetings, and other managerial tasks that sometimes don't drive the performance of the team at all. Slowly we come to believe that these are the things leaders do to be successful. What's more, if our boss is paying attention to these kinds of things then that just reinforces our sense that these must be the right things for us to spend our time on. Maybe we even see someone who spends all their time on these kinds of activities get promoted, and rewarded for "getting things done". All this adds up to create a very different picture for us of what good leadership looks like.
And yet, whenever I ask people what makes a great leader they absolutely never say "is very attentive to email" or "has lots of meetings". They always talk about things just like the ones my friend suggested - communication, inspiration, and an open mind. Somehow though, we manage to teach ourselves that the tactical elements of management are more critical and we will spend time communicating and inspiring when we get around to it. There's no question that the tactical things need to happen to keep the machine running but are they really the most important?
What could we accomplish as leaders if we spent 70 or 80 percent of our time inspiring our people, listening to them, motivating them and really understanding what they wanted out of life, this job, their career? Would we be more like the leaders we've all seen who are able to change the way we think every time we interact with them? Maybe, just maybe, we could capture the same sense of wonder, determination, and resilience that we see every time we catch ourselves stopping and smiling - at a five year old.
Randy Hall is the founder and principal of 4th Gear Consulting. He is passionate about developing amazing leaders and thriving, principled organizations. He believes that nothing will have greater impact on our economy, our communities, our lives and our kids' lives.
For more than a decade Randy has worked for and with organizations to help them realize more of their potential. His most recent roles in the corporate world were Senior Vice President of Learning and Leadership Development at Bank of America and Global Director of Learning and Development at Pfizer. Prior to moving into leadership development, he spent several years in sales and led his own high performing teams.
You can contact Randy at randy.hall@4thgearconsulting.com or visit him on the web at http://4thgearconsulting.com You can also read more of Randy's articles at http://bit.ly/info/22A0QZ
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