Jann's Blog: November 2009

Coaches are Leaders?

Are coaches--athletic coaches-- leaders? Since I consider anyone who has influence over someone else as a leader, then I certainly think athletic coaches are leaders. So why am I writing about this topic?

One of our sons plays college soccer and it has been a big part of his identity since he was in kiddie soccer. This year he was particularly focused because last season he tore his ACL and was out for most of it after his surgery. He felt this year was a good year with a good team and he was designated as one of the co-captains as a junior. The same thing was true for his roommate and good friend. They love to play soccer and they play with all of their hearts.

Two days before the biggest game of the season, the coach tells both of them that they will not be starting the game--they had lost their starting positions. According to both of them, the coach did not explain why they would not be starting. Needless to say, they were both devastated and broken hearted for reasons you might imagine.

As parents know, nothing hurts as when your children are hurting. It is hard to explain to people without children, but it is so hard to see your kids hurting. I can remember when one of my kids was being left out by the "clique" at school or someone was not being nice to one of them. It hurts as nothing else hurts. You try to comfort them because you know from experience how bad it feels. But some times there is not much you can do or say to make it feel better or to make the feeling go away. It seems to be a part of growing up that just comes with the territory. When their hearts are breaking, yours is too!

As my husband and I were processing this recent soccer situation and trying make sense of it all, I made the statement that "as a leader, this coach needs to explain why they were not starting so that they can understand." To which my husband replied, "This guy is not a leader. He is only a soccer coach."

Then I quickly replied that at "Central College we expect our coaches to be teachers and teachers are leaders. Anyone who influences someone else --positively is a good leader or negatively is a bad leader. But coaches are leaders."

My husband totally agreed.

We did not necessarily question the decision. We can accept that the coach did not want to start these two people for whatever reason and perhaps that was the right decision. But I find it unacceptable that the coach did not communicate enough or in ways that could be heard by these young impressionable lives. With some introspection and wisdom, this coach could have made the situation into a teachable moment that leaves everyone as better people.

They always say that participating in sports contributes to building character. But the lack of communication was misleading and hurtful. Hopefully, this leads to character because we can learn from bad leaders as much as from good leaders.

What do we not want to do when we have a chance to influence others?

What do we want to remember to do?

People usually can accept the decision if they know why it was made. This requires clear, consistent, and constant communication. As one college president told me in an interview, "When you think you have communicated, then communicate again and again. You can't communicate enough. When people lack information, they make it up and rumors begin."

I only wish the soccer coach, who has years of life experience, would have done so.

Since my son was one of the co-captains, he felt he had earned the respect of the coach. So why do you think the coach did not explain?

Please enlighten me. I am still puzzled by the lack of communication which leads all of us to guessing what happened. How can people learn if they don't know what it is that went wrong?

Posted by Jann Freed on November 28, 2009 in Leadership | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

El Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead)

Image via Wikipedia

One of my favorite traditions is the Day of the Dead which is typically celebrated around the first of November. This is an important time of the year when Latino communities and families gather to remember spirits of relatives and friends. The celebration emerges from the indigenous people of Mexico who believe the souls of the dead return each year to visit with their living relatives. It is a time of reunion, when the living remember and honor their dead.

Altars are an important part of the celebration and they may be simple or elaborate, but the purpose is the same--they are created to honor loved ones. Skeletons are often used to symbolize the spirits and if you came to my office or home you would find skeletons all over doing such fun and interesting things.

I like this celebration because it reinforces my belief that what is important about life is that we are making a difference on others. The celebration reminds us to ask ourselves if we are living our lives and spending our time in ways that others might remember us after we are gone.

One of the key elements to living a quality life is to embrace our mortality so that we are freer to live. Living on in someone else's memory is a great testimonial that we made a difference. Pausing to remember people who positively influenced our life is a wonderful way to reflect and to give thanks for having them in our life.

In fact, they are with us always as long as we take the time to remember them.

So what do you think:

Are we spiritual beings on a human journey or are we human beings on a spiritual journey?

Posted by Jann Freed on November 26, 2009 in Life Renewal, Living Life, Positively Aging, Sage-ing | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

A Time for Giving Thanks

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

It is that time of year for the Thanksgiving assignment. In my leadership and organizational behavior courses, I give students special postcards and give them "the assignment." They are to handwrite a card and send it or deliver it to someone they want to thank at Thanksgiving time. Since they also keep gratitude journals in one course and they write journals in the other, they are to tell me who they gave or sent the card to and what the reaction was upon receiving it. This part of the assignment is due before the holiday break.

The hope is that in the three weeks between sending the card that they would have a response from the recipient. Then they can write about how they felt completing this assignment and the response it generated. While there are many things I am trying to accomplish with this exercise, the main idea is to develop an attitude of gratitude. This attitude makes us better people, better leaders.

I am old fashioned in this way, but I like the written word in someone's handwriting and I like "snail mail." A personalized note makes me feel like putting it in a drawer whereas a nice email I might even forget to print off so that it eventually gets lost.

While we don't have to wait until Thanksgiving to have an assignment such as this, Thanksgiving is a nice time to remember to give thanks to the people who have helped us on our life journey.

P.S. I complete the assignment too and then I share my response with the students.

Posted by Jann Freed on November 22, 2009 in Leadership, Living Life, Positively Aging, Sage-ing | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Does Talent Matter to Organizations?

Geoff Colvin author of Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else discovered that it was not necessary to be born with natural talent or intelligence to excel, but it is important to have a strong desire to be the best or at least to become better at whatever it is we want to do.

Cover via Amazon

Colvin summarized the key element as deliberate practice which he defined as constantly practicing what needs to be improved usually based on feedback from a mentor or coach. This is easy to understand when referring to professional athletes or musicians, but what about leaders and organizations?

“Not all organizations want to be great,” says Colvin. In the global economy that is intensely competitive, the abilities of the people in an organization will determine the organization’s success or failure. “In a world of forces that push toward the commodization of everything, creating something new and different is the only way to survive.”

At a time when creativity and innovation may give a firm a competitive advantage, organizations should want everyone performing at the highest possible level. Yet, many companies are quick to cut training and development budgets. High performing employees want firms where professional development is a priority. Likewise, firms that are known for developing people are said to have a “first-pick advantage.” Talent may be overrated, but becoming a world-class performer and organization full of top performers is based on learned behaviors.

According to Colvin, there are principles of great performance that organizations can follow:

* Understand that each person in the organization is not just doing a job, but is also being stretched and grown. Push and stretch them through job assignments, mentoring, and coaching.

* Encourage leaders to be active in their communities. Leadership roles in charities and community activities are opportunities to practice skills that are valuable at work.

* Understand the critical roles of teachers and of feedback. At most top-performing organizations, coaching and mentoring programs with candid feedback are embedded into the culture.

* Identify promising performers early. Developing future leaders as early as possible creates a competitive advantage years into the future.

* Understand that people development works best through inspiration, not authority. Command and control leadership will not work with knowledge workers. The best-performing companies help inspire their workers.

* Invest significant time, money, and energy in developing people. CEOs at top-performing companies believe that people development is at the center of their jobs. For example, at McDonald’s, CEO Jim Skinner personally reviews the development of the top 200 managers. At GE, Jeffrey Immelt reviews the top 600.

* Make leadership development part of the culture. Applying these principles is “walking the talk.”

Based on Colvin’s research, “Developing leaders isn’t a program, it’s a way of life.”

Since most people don’t work alone in organizations, it is just as important to develop effective teams where members trust one another. Colvin says that this is not difficult because it is based on applying the principles of great performance to team development: well-designed practice activities, coaching, repetition, feedback, and building knowledge of the company and industry.

As Colvin discovered, top performance either as an individual, team, or organization is not based on natural talent or intelligence. It is based on understanding the principles of great performance and having the desire to commit to the discipline needed to engage in deliberate practice. Even if we are good at what we do, we can always get better.

But are we willing to do the work to get better?