What’s compelling me to get sucked back into the discussion? When a leading authority in HR weighs in on “leaders— born or made?” I take note.  That’s what happened this morning when I saw a retweet by Phil McCreight featuring the First Friday Book Synopsis blog interview with Dave Ulrich. A Professor of Business Administration at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, Ulrich is the author of over 20 books on HR, talent management, competency development and learning. I’ve followed his work for years and admire how he blends his research with actual practice.

Referencing Ulrich’s book The Leadership Code,  interviewer Bob Morris asks Ulrich about whether there’s a “DNA code” for leadership, thus setting up the “are leaders born or made?” question.

Ulrich’s response:

The research on this issue is fairly conclusive: 50/50. We have innate predispositions that affect who we are and what we do (nature) but we can learn and develop and grow (nurture). I am predisposed to being an introvert, but have learned that in teaching I need to become an extrovert to be effective.

So if people’s leadership potential is evenly split between what they’re born with and what they choose to develop, how come we’re still having this debate?  As with many debates, I believe it comes down to words and the meaning we ascribe to them.  In this case, I think the conflicting opinions stems in large part from how people are defining leadership. To some people, leadership is that “something” that a lucky few just simply have.  It’s hardwired and definitely not something you can learn in a training session. Others view leadership in a more comprehensive way—it’s a both/and type thing, consisting of innate traits and teachable techniques. 

Personally, I’m one of the “comprehensive” folks— when I say “leadership”, I’m referring to both the innate and the learnable.  And of course, when there are varying definitions rolling around, we have room for disagreement.

For the sake of clarity, I offer two sides of the “comprehensive” leadership coin:

Side one: Leadership.  At its core, leadership is the ability to attract followers.  It’s that simple.  One can attract followers to further a noble cause, or to create an army to destroy an entire civilization.  In the everyday workplace context, leaders are often seen as people who are driven, charismatic, and persuasive. Yes, these are traits that a person was born with to varying degrees of intensity.

Side two: Management. This is another aspect to leadership that sometimes gets partitioned off into a different category, somehow separate from ”leadership”.  This is the more operational side of workplace leadership: planning, organizing, delegating, coaching.  These functions are important as well, and shouldn’t be discounted. Too often, during discussions on leadership, I see scoffing at the “management” side of things.  In my opinion, that’s a mistake.  True, at the very top of an organization, it’s critical to have a passionate, focused, inspirational leader who can rally the masses towards an outcome that produces value for a constituency. And maybe there are just a select few who are wired for that role.

However, the reality is, there are a whole lot more leader/managers out there who need to do both functions.  They need to lead and they need to manage. They don’t have the luxury of delegating the “administrivia” to someone else to handle.  In these days of flat organizational hierarchies, they are the administrators as well as the motivational speakers.

Which brings me back to the “either/or” format of questions. 

• Leaders: born or made?
• What’s more important: leadership or management? 

When it comes to meaningful discussion, let’s do away with this polarizing structure.  Leave the opposing positions to the debate team.  For those of us interested in developing leaders, we need all the viewpoints we can get. If in fact, leadership is a two-sided coin, we need both sides to achieve the full value of the currency.  Otherwise, it’s just a shiny piece of metal.

Given that these ladies are HR and Leadership heavy-hitters in the blogging world, I felt a bit like the Marisa Tomei of the crowd. But it is an honor to be nominated and I appreciate that Dan selected my blog post as one of the nominees in this fun tribute to the Academy Awards.

 Want to know who won?  Check it out here. Dan hands out 6 awards and showcases a dancing Art Petty.  Now, tuning in to see that would be worth it, right?

People Equation Updates

Activity on The People Equation has been light recently due to my many offline projects. Here’s a quick run-down on what’s been happening and how you might benefit from knowing about them:

The HR Happy Hour Tackles Leadership

Earlier this week I was a guest on the The HR Happy Hour radio show (Episode 35: The Leadership Show).  Talk about a lively discussion!  Well-known digital HR influencers like Jason Seiden and Lance Haun dialed in to give their take on today’s leadership issues. Adding insights to the conversation were callers Deb Exo, veteran Talent Management pro (and a former colleague from my Herman Miller days) and  Steve Browne.

Fellow guest Amanda W. and first-time HR Happy Hour participant held her own with the fast pace and fluid topics.  I’m not giving her credentials online because she was “undercover”—she works as a training manager for a multinational financial services firm and her employer frowns on public displays of . . . um, I’m not exactly sure. But I don’t want to blow her cover.

As is typical with the HR Happy Hour, there was an active backchannel going on Twitter.  One of the strongest tweet threads was “are leaders born or made?” Personally, I’m bored with that discussion, but Ben McCall took the idea and ran with it in Leadership: One Size Does Not Fit All. My thanks to Ben for featuring my post 25 Free Leadership Resources within his article. (Check out the comments section on Ben’s post to see why I’ve grown weary of the debate.)

After the show, I received several Direct Messages and emails from friends who were listening, including one of my former direct reports from 17 years ago! (Thanks for the kind words, Katie.) My thanks to Dan McCarthy, Jessica Miller-Merrell , Stephanie Kempa, Victorio Milian and  Joan Ginsberg for listening in, talking about leadership and most of all, your words of support!

Writing, Research and Interviews

Recently the Managing Editor of Executive Travel magazine contacted me to pen an article for their “Winning Strategies” column in the July/August edition of the magazine’s print version. It’s an article on how leaders can create a customer service culture. So I spent much of my week conducting research and interviewing company owners to uncover their strategies for creating a customer-centric culture. Stay tuned—I’ll let you know when the article is published.

This week, I was also an interviewee when a colleague interviewed me for a book she’s writing.  It’s super-secret— still in the planning phases. But I can tell you this: she’s on to something with an idea that will help those of us who are self-employed.  

Next week, I’ll be interviewed by Barb Giamanco for a presentation she’s doing on social media. Barb and I are both authorized Independent Distributors for Inscape Publishing and she’s been asked to make a presentation at their annual conference.  This has tremendous meaning for me; I credit Barb with being my social media mentor and for helping me get started with Twitter and blogging. So, for her to now be featuring me in her social media presentation is an honor.

Positive Office Politics Takes Flight

It all started with a DM from Jane Perdue asking “want to write an article on office politics?” From there, it turned into the Positive Office Politics Series, which gained the attention of Franke James, Editor and Founder of Office Politics.com. which is the #1 site for this topic.  Both Jane and I have been featured as Guest Advisors on the site.

Now, Franke and I are taking it a step further and collaborating to bring The Office Politics Game to life here in Michigan.  On March 24, I’ll be facilitating an Office Ethics session using Franke’s book Dear Office Politics: the game everyone plays as the basis for workshop. Franke has worked with big names like Tom Peters and Edward DeBono , so it’s a thrill to have her expertise guiding me.

 So that’s what’s happening for us here at the People Equation.

 See anything that’s of interest to you? Want to know more? Email me at jmiller@people-equation.com and we’ll chat.  Hope you have a great week!

Mentors Have Influence

In January  I wrote a post for National Thank Your Mentor Day in which I publicly thanked several of the people who had mentored me over the years. Not surprisingly, they all reached out to thank me for the recognition. Here’s what was surprising: not a single one of them remembered the advice that I so eagerly soaked up and made a part of my everyday actions. Granted, much of the advice was imparted over a decade ago, but to me—I recall it as if it was yesterday.  For them—it was just a blip in the stream of conversations that flow continuously throughout the work day.

Another observation: none of the people whose words made such an impact were a formal mentor to me.  Some were my direct supervisors, some are peers, and some I’ve simply admired mostly from afar.  But all of them had something to say and I was open to hearing it.

It’s a great reminder to leaders everywhere:

• Your words matter. 
• People are listening. 
• The smart ones are even taking note of your advice and doing something with it.

So here’s the deal: even if your company doesn’t have a formal mentoring program, you have protégés. Most likely, these people will not take the time to let you know how much your actions and wise words meant to them.  But even if they don’t clue you in please know that you did make a difference.

a)      We don’t have the time to develop something

b)      We don’t have the money to train leaders

This list is designed to help you with both of these challenges. These resources are a list of white papers, downloads and other great freebies offered by some of the most prominent vendors and thought-leaders in leadership development.  Most of the resources listed have a “for pay” component as well, so if your company is in the market for these tools, please do check them out.

“Many hands make the load light” and that is so true with the creation of this list.  A huge shout-out goes to my fellow leadership development colleagues Dave Brand, Dan McCarthy and Susan Zelinski for adding their favorites to the mix. I’m grateful for their contributions.

A Great Place to Start: Great Leadership by Dan McCarthy

Last year, Dan wrote an excellent post on http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/2009/02/how-to-design-frugal-leadership.html. It is spot-on with practical suggestions and I agree completely that leadership development need not be pricey.  However, his suggestions do cost some $$, and I promised you “free”—so here we go. . .

Free Downloadable Research, White Papers, Podcasts

Note: some of the resources do require you to enter your contact information before allowing you to download, so you may not consider it 100% “free.”

I’m highlighting the well-known vendors because they have a lot of great content that’s easily accessible.  As Dan McCarthy points out in item #3 of his frugal leadership post, there are thousands of independent niche-oriented leadership development consultants out there. If you know of one that provides similar high-quality content, please feel free to post it in the Comments section.

Aberdeen Group

Achieve Global Research Library

Awesomely Simple Resources site; this is by author John Spence who published Awesomely Simple last year. I just read this book and it’s a really great overall management primer. This site provides additional “how to’s” that are based on the book.  

Bersin and Associates Research Library

Center for Creative Leadership Podcasts

DDI.com’s Thought Leadership page

Elliot Masie consortium: LearningTown forums

Fort Hill Company’s Knowledge Center

Interaction Associates: much is subscription-based, but look on the left-hand side of the homepage for free downloads, including excellent white paper on Improving Virtual Meetings

Institute for Corporate Productivity  

Jim Collins Leadership articles

Ken Blanchard Companies leadership white papers (creator of Situational Leadership)

Marshall Goldsmith Library “free resources” tab Example: Athena video clips

Personnel Decisions White Paper on Strengths

Seth Godin’s Free e-book: What Matters Now

Tom Peters Free Stuff

The Leadership Challenge Model

Leadership Blogs

Oh, where to start? There are SO many.  Here are some of my favorites. . .

All Things Workplace by Steve Roesler.  When I read Steve’s blog, it’s clear he does his homework.  His insights are supported by interesting statistics paired with real-life examples.

Aspire Collaborative Services by Mary Jo Asmus. Mary Jo is an executive coach and a former HR executive for a Fortune 50 company. She knows her stuff and writes thoughtful essays on the foundational aspects of leadership. 

Bret L. Simmons Dr. Bret (as he’s known on Twitter) is on the faculty of the College of Business at the University of Nevada, Reno. He’s also a leadership consultant. His blog takes on tough topics; plus I like that he assigns his students leadership blogs to read as part of their coursework—a contemporary take on college homework.

Great Leadership by Dan McCarthy. Yes, I already featured him, but his blog is consistent, balanced and practical.  Because he’s a practitioner (not a consultant) he’s not selling a thing. His content is always worth a read.

Human Capital League This blog isn’t strictly leadership-based. It aggregates many blogs that write on the topic of workforce development.  Each day, several blog posts are highlighted on the Human Capital League’s main page.  It’s worth checking out a few times a week.

Lead Change by Mike Henry. The founder of the immensely popular and active LinkedIn group by the same name, Mike blogs on a variety of subjects, all with the overarching theme of creating character-based leaders.

Mountain State University’s  LeaderTalk blog . Written by Becky Robinson in collaboration with Mountain State University’s School of Leadership and Professional Development, the site explores a broad range of insights, and guest bloggers.

The Weekly Leader features a nice round-up of leadership articles, interviews and podcasts on a diverse cross section of leaders from a variety of industries.

On Twitter?

Check out my  Leadership Round Up post.

[Note: I don’t receive any sort of compensation for the parties mentioned in this list. I also don’t specifically endorse any of the services, products or opinions contained within the respective websites, other than to say, “hey, here’s an interesting site, go check it out.”]

First up—my Twitter Round Up of leadership folks.  Yes, Twitter has the “list” function and there are some great Tweeple lists out there (more on that later), but it’s hard to know if you want to follow them all.  So I offer to you my two cents’ worth on why I follow these folks. If their stories resonate with you, give them a follow.

The Lead Change Group

If you’re serious about creating character-based leadership in your organization, I suggest you check out the  Lead Change LinkedIn group.  It’s an extremely diverse group of individuals who are connected due to their passion about making a difference.  The group was founded by Mike Henry; the Discussion section on LinkedIn is very active. 

Mike has created 1-click Tweeple listing so you can immediately see the whole group and determine whom you’d like to follow.  A technical note: even though you can follow everyone with one click, I suggest you only follow in batches of about 25 people at a time.  Otherwise, Twitter might temporarily suspend your account because they perceive you as “spamming”.  Many of the people listed below are members of the Lead Change group, so check the Tweeple list out first.[Editor's note: see Mike's comment below about Tweeple slowing down the process to avoid this issue.]

The Leadership Development Practitioners

These folks are in the field doing the work within companies.  They have deep professional experience and a generous spirit.  I personally can vouch for them all.  They don’t always tweet frequently, but they’re worth following all the same.

Dave Brand
Dan McCarthy
Susan Zelinski

The Coaches
There are many coaches on Twitter.  I highlight these for both their consistent excellent Twitter content and their high level of professionalism.

Mary Jo Asmus
Mike Myatt
Kate Nasser
Anne Perschel  

The Leader’s Leader
These prolific Twitterers also have leadership titles within their respective organizations.  I follow several C-level players on Twitter, and these guys are the ones that actively engage.

Steve Keating
Michael Hyatt  
Mark Oakes

The Thought-Leaders

Many of these folks are members of the Lead Change group. Authors, professional speakers, bloggers, business consultants, philosophers—their common thread is helping people become better leaders. I’ve had personal interaction with all of them—via emails, phone chats, Skype, guest blog posts and collaborative blogging projects.

Roy Atkinson  
Doug   Edgar
Joan Koerber-Walker
Sharlyn Lauby  
Susan Mazza
Jane Perdue  
Steve Roesler  
Erin Schreyer  
Jason Seiden  
Don Shapiro

This is where it gets fun . . .please help me add to the list.  There are so many fantastic people on Twitter—let me know your favorite Twitter resources for developing leaders.

Kristina Evey, owner of Centric Strategies

A few weeks ago, Kristina Evey of Centric Strategies asked me to provide a guest post on her blog, which I happily supplied. You can see that post, The Customer-Centric Leader, here. In follow up conversations, Kristina and I wondered, “What would front-line customer service employees say to their leaders if they had a sort of  “open mike night”? Kristina’s guest blog post below is a result of that rumination, which takes the form of an open letter to customer service leaders.

Top Ten Wish List to Improve Customer Relationships and Service

By Kristina Evey

www.KristinaEvey.com

Dear Customer Service Leader:

It’s us, your staff.  You’ve been talking to us lately about how we should focus on improving customer service with our company.  So, in order to do that, we’ve compiled a list of things that we need from you to help us deliver excellent customer service. 

OUR TOP 10 WISH LIST TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

1. Tell us what is expected of us. We have no way of knowing what it is you want us to do or how to act if you don’t tell us what you expect.
2. Communicate with us.  By opening the lines of communication as to how we are doing, what you like or what you don’t, we can tailor what we do to the expecations.
3. Empower us.  The more power you relinquish to us, the better able we are to serve our customers needs.
4. Recognize and reward me. We don’t need a party thrown for us every time we do something well, but it is certainly nice to know that you notice when we do things right.  “I noticed how you took the extra time to really help that customer.  I like the way you handled that.”  Those words will carry me for a long time.
5. Treat us the way you want us to treat the customer.  When you give us the service you’d like us to deliver to our customers, we’ll know exactly what to do.
6. Hold me accountable. When I know that my compensation will reflect my efforts to develop positive customer relationships, I’ll do everything I can to deliver quality customer service. 
7. Help me manage customer expectations.  Please work with us to let customers know when they can reasonably expect products to be delivered, to see results, or know what to expect.  When we say, “You should receive this soon.” Soon can mean tomorrow or next week, depending upon the customer’s perception.
8. Support my decisions that we make using good judgement. Know that we make the best decisions we can at the time with the information available to us.  It increases our confidence when you support us.  Yes, we will make mistakes sometimes. We promise we will learn from those and not repeat them if at all possible.
9. Walk a Day In Our Shoes.  Could you take an hour a week and do our jobs?  If you answered the phones once in a while, made the deliveries, scheduled shipments, prepped the procedure, you would know the challenges and needs that we have.  We would also know that you truly appreciate the work that we are doing.
10. Set Customer Service Minimums.  Help us set some Customer Service Minimum standards that we all know are the very least we will do for our customers. This will encourage us to revisit our service and continually increase the level of service that we provide.

These requests are really customer retention strategies that will help us to develop profitable customer relationships.  We know that without our customers, there is no business.  Without the business, we don’t have jobs.  In today’s economy, good jobs are hard to come by and we sincerely appreciate having our jobs.  We would love to work with you to build customer loyalty and improve the customer’s experience when they do business with us.

Sincerely,

Your staff

Kristina Evey helps companies improve the way they connect with their customers. She is the owner of Centric Strategies, a firm oriented toward developing a cultural mindset focused on the customer. Her strategy is to ensure that everyone within a company or group is of the same “Customer Centric” mindset.  You can also find many customer retention strategies by visiting www.KristinaEvey.com and signing up for her free newsletter focused on helping your company become more customer centric.

[Disclaimer: The recommendations below are a result of my personal experiences as a small business owner.   I make no claim to be a social media “expert” but I am a consistent user of several platforms. The list below is not complete. The links below were active when I published this post.  Also, I receive no compensation from mentioning the people/blogs below. These are simply resources that I find helpful and hope that you will too.]

Appetizers: Social Media Starters

Two bloggers that I’ve followed closely that have some great general information about social media are Trish McFarlane, a Human Resource professional who blogs at The HR Ringleader and Michael Hyatt, the CEO of Thomas Nelson publishers.  Their posts on social media are helpful because they come at it from an “every day user” viewpoint rather than as a highly technical blogger or social media guru.

Check out Trish’s blog on how to get started in social media and Mike’s blog category of social media.

Mashable.com. Mashable is one of the most widely read social media blogs. It can be quite technical, but there are still posts that are helpful to the average user.  Keep in mind: when you use the site, the most current blog posts are the ones that are most technically accurate.  Older posts were correct at the time of publishing but may have since been replaced with new information. There’s a tab called “How To” at top of Mashable home page. Check this out for useful social media tips, including the How To Connect with Other Entrepreneurs post.

Salad Course: Facebook

Just like any salad, you need to know how to choose the healthy Facebook items (Fan Pages) and stay away from the fat-laden ones (Farmville). Facebook started out as a site focusing on connecting friends and family, providing an easy way to post photos and find long-lost friends.

As Facebook’s popularity has grown, the business community has latched on with applications allowing business friends to stay connected.  Facebook may or may not work with your social media diet; you need to decide how many social media platforms your company can maintain.  These days, several of the platforms are linked, making it easier to post to multiple accounts at one time, but it still can be time-consuming. Keep in mind that many of your business colleagues may want to keep their personal lives and business lives separate, so they may not want to “friend” you on Facebook  for business purposes.

If you do decide to give Facebook a try, start with Mashable’s guidebook.

Concerned about privacy on Facebook? Fellow HR blogger Lance Haun shared this site with me for Facebook privacy tips.

Main Entre: Linked In

If you only choose one social media platform, start with LinkedIn.  Some social media pundits are signaling the decline of LinkedIn, due to Facebook’s rising popularity with business users, but I don’t think that’s coming anytime soon. Last fall, LinkedIn wisely collaborated with Twitter to make it easy to share updates across the two platforms. At a minimum, small business owners should:

• Have a complete personal profile
• Create a company profile for their business

Another blogger friend of mine, Sharlyn Lauby who blogs at The HR Bartender was featured on Mashable with a very popular post called  7 Ways to Get More Out of LinkedIn.

New more advanced LinkedIn tips? Two social media bloggers, Neal Schaffer at Windmill Networking and Scott Allen at Linked Intelligence have generously agreed to have their excellent summary posts on LinkedIn featured here on The People Equation.  See Neals’s 25 Most Useful Linked In Blog Posts and Scott’s 1o0+ Smart Ways to Use Linked In.

Dessert: Twitter

Most of us love a little “sumpin’ sumpin’ after dinner, even if it’s not strictly good for us. Hey, I say “everything in moderation” and that’s how it is for me with Twitter.  Twitter can quickly become like those gooey chocolates that you can’t stop eating– highly addictive with very little nutritional value. However, using Twitter wisely and in moderation can be a positive addition to your social media regimen if you are displined enough to do so.

Brand new? See Mashable’s Twitter Guidebook .  

In addition to the Mashable guidebook, I recommend the just-released TweetThis! For Business, written by Jessica Miller-Merrell.  Jessica and I met via Twitter. For the past year, she has carefully tracked and documented how to gain leverage for your small business using Twitter. See my book review on TweetThis! here.

So, are you ready to jump in to social media?  Feel free to connect with me in any of the following ways:

Facebook: Jennifer Miller’s profile

Facebook: SkillSource Fan Page

Twitter: Jennifer Miller’s profile

Twitter: SkillSource Twitter page

Awesomely Simple by John Spence

Book Review:
Awesomely Simple: Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas into Action

By John Spence

In the introduction to his book Awesomely Simple, author John Spence declares: “everything in this book is from real life: you’ll find no fluff, no grand theories, no intellectual back-flips.” Readers who want complex organizational theories or a rigorously annotated bibliography will have to look elsewhere.  Spence promises a comprehensive roadmap for ensuring organizational success and he delivers.  To get the most out of this book, you’ll just have to trust that Spence knows what he’s talking about, based on his track record as a successful business owner, strategic consultant and guest lecturer at many prestigious universities.

Spence’s premise is that organizational effectiveness is simple, but not necessarily easy to implement.  He offers up his Six Principles of Business Success:

• Vivid vision
• Best people
• Robust communication
• Sense of urgency
• Disciplined execution
• Extreme customer focus

The above list isn’t ground-breaking. It’s common sense, which Spence acknowledges readily.   In fact, he says that the ideas set forth in his book are “largely common sense, but not common practice.”  Spence asserts that if companies consistently practice all six business principles, they will be far ahead of their competition because most only can manage to be good at just one or two principles.

This book has real “meat” to it.  Spence has a way of presenting the information very clearly, with just enough detail that the reader can envision doing what he suggests, rather than feeling overwhelmed.  That’s quite a feat considering the book tackles very broad subject matter.

I would highly recommend this book to:

• C-level players of small to mid-sized companies
• Leaders in Strategic Business Units of large companies who have the authority to affect organizational change
• Leaders in any organization who want to improve their leadership effectiveness, even if they don’t have ability to implement all of Spence’s ideas

Awesomely Simple is ambitious in its scope, yet pragmatic in its recommendations.  Read it and let me know what you think—which of these Six Principles can you implement in your organization?

[Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book as part of the review process.]

Just tuning in to this fascinating topic?  Start here for the first installment, Politics are Necessary, but Not Necessarily Evil by Jane Perdue at her blog Life, Love, Leadership.

Then, it’s my turn with Networking Inside the Company Walls.

Next up is Mike Henry at the Lead Change Group with Sincerity and Office Politics.

Installment 4 was Susan Mazza on What’s Your Agenda? at her Random Acts of Leadership blog.

Which brings us to the final installment of the series, Influence and Intentions by Jane Perdue. Jane suggests her readers consider their level of personal influence with this question:

Is my word and/or my involvement sufficient to make something happen?

Now that’s a question to stop you in your tracks.  Is the fact that you’re involved in a project enough to get others to join in?  In reflecting on that question, I offer the some follow-up questions:

• Does your track record shine with not only successes, but with recovery from tough setbacks?
• Do people know that when you give your word, you’ll come through?
• If for some rare reason you can’t deliver, will people hear about it as soon as possible?
• Will people listen to your “crazy” ideas because they know that you’ll find a way to make them happen?
• Do you know how to gracefully cut your losses and move on, rather than gripping tightly to an idea so that you can be “right”?
• Do people know that if they follow your lead, they’ll be heard?

If you can honestly answer “yes” to several of these questions, then you are a person of influence. And that, my friends, is what office “politics” should be about.