Steven Sonsino asked:

One of the skills that successful leaders need to master is a bit of a dirty word these days. It’s not the sort of thing they offer leadership training courses on, but it lies at the heart of most business relationships. What I’m talking about is office politics.

When we call someone ‘a political animal’, we’re often not being complimentary. We tend to mean that they’re manipulative and untrustworthy, maybe even immoral or dishonest.

A person who’s good at politics, in our eyes, is someone who likes to score points over others, who tries to scramble to the top of the heap over his or her colleagues.

But politics isn’t all about manipulation. There’s more to it than that. And whether we like it or not, politics is everywhere in the workplace and a good leader needs to know how to make the most of it.

So what does politics have to do with good leadership? Well, to start with, politics involves being aware of the effects your words and actions have on others. And – even more importantly – it also means knowing how to influence people.

In an earlier article, we touched on leading change as a political process, but let’s focus for a moment on your interpersonal political skills in leading change negotiating, persuading, influencing. These leadership skills are essential for success and survival.

In a way, introducing change into an organization is like running a political campaign. If you get it right, your people will support you and your decisions.

How to get your people to accept change:

1. First, set up your campaign team. This isn’t just your fellow leaders, who’ve helped you draw up the plan behind the scenes, it’s also the movers and shakers in your organization. You need to identify them carefully and well. These are the people who can influence OTHER people. Perhaps the people that you can’t reach. If the movers and shakers know about and support what you’re doing, the job will be that much easier.

2. Now prepare yourself. You and your fellow leaders have been working on the plan for a long time. You know how much work has gone into it, and you know how vital it is for your business. Now is the time to get everyone else on board. But be prepared: not everyone’s going to like it.

3. Let the debate go on. Listen to what everyone says: be careful not to spend all your time with people who agree with you. Your fiercest opponents are valuable people: they help you gauge the level of resistance, they set out the arguments you need to defeat, and, if they eventually come round to your way of thinking, they will be some of your most valuable supporters.

The politics of business:

1. Find allies in ALL parts of the organization: you can exchange vital information that you might otherwise not have access to. And you can form coalitions, so together you can influence current and future developments.

2. Intervene in the political processes of the organization: share agendas, influence decisions and decision-makers.

3. Make sure you’re not simply surrounded by ‘yes’ men and women. You need to listen to the devil’s advocates – that way, you’re less likely to make mistakes.

There’s more, of course, there’s more. But deal with office politics on a project by project basis and you won’t go too far wrong. Leadership is sometimes described as a contact sport. It isn’t so much what you know as who you know.

So let me ask you this: who do YOU know?

Tom O\’Dea asked:

Introduction

Leaders need to seek better communication skills not only for themselves and their leadership teams, but as part of the organization’s culture.  Successful change management requires getting everyone moving in one new direction.

People will be talking with one another while you’re trying to drive change.  As a leader, you want to make sure those conversations are out in the open so that objections can be addressed and people will grow confident in your leadership.

Better Communication Skills at the Organization Level

What do we mean when we talk about the communication skills of an organization?  At the individual level, we know how to describe communication skills.  We talk about someone’s style, their subject matter knowledge, their ability to adapt their message to their target audience, their preparation, etc.

In an organization, better communication skills are something we seek to build in the culture.  To be specific, we’re seeking to create a cultural norm of frequent, open dialogue.  When that’s the norm, people feel safe in raising concerns and objections, knowing that they will be heard.

They also recognize that they are obligated to participate in dialogue, whether in meetings or less formally among their peers.  It’s part of their job, making sure they are contributing not only their labor but their expertise, insight and ideas whenever possible.

Leaders need to look out for the two biggest barriers to better communication skills in an organization: silence and violence.

Recognizing Silence

Very simply, silence means people are not participating in the dialogue.  Said another way, important conversations are not happening because people are choosing not to engage in them.

Why is silence a problem?

Hopefully you’ve hired smart people.  It only makes sense, then, that you want and need the insights of those smart people when you’re leading a change program.  Smart people always have thoughts and opinions.  When they go silent, you lose the benefit of knowing those thoughts and opinions.

Besides not having the input, when people are silent you don’t know where they stand.  Do they understand what you are trying to accomplish?  Are they committed to working with you and your team, or do they have reservations?  Without clear understanding and commitment, how will you bring these people along with you?

Addressing Silence

First and foremost, make sure you’ve created an environment where it’s safe to speak out.  Many people who turn to silence do so because they feel they may be ignored or worse yet criticized for speaking up.

Examine your behavior — what do you do when you are challenged?  Do you fight back right away?  Or do you give considered answers and act respectful when you disagree with the challenger?  Check the same behaviors in your leadership team, and within the organization in general.  You’ve got to make it safe for people to engage.  Your behavior will set the tone.

If you’re sure it’s safe and you see individuals are still reluctant to add their input to the dialogue of the organization, coach them individually.  Let them know how much their input is valued and needed, and thank them when they open up.

Recognizing Violence

In this context, violence can be described as the tendency of one or a few individuals to dominate conversations.  When there is violence, there is no chance for open dialogue.  The dominators, if there are more than one, may argue their points without effectively listening to one another.  And those who are not dominating the conversation will end up going silent, out of frustration or boredom.

So in the end, violence begets silence.  How do you address violence?

As a leader, maintain your own objectivity.  You’re a participant in the conversations taking place, but you must also be an observer.  Learn to step out of the discussion from time to time and assess what’s happening.  If you observe individuals dominating to the point where others are checking out, you need to intervene.

The degree of intervention depends on just how “violent” the dialogue is getting.  It can be as simple as reminding someone to ease up a little and open themselves up to push back from others.  Or it can go all the way to having to call a time out and taking people aside to help them see that their passion is overwhelming others and suppressing good dialogue.

The Result of Silence and Violence

One of two things is going to happen when you don’t have open dialogue in which everyone is actively engaged.

You’ll stall. Some strong people will argue and debate ad infinitum, while others check out.  And your change strategy goes no where.

You’ll move forward.  Not everyone will be participating, but strong people will drive and dominate the dialogue and the resulting actions.

Stalling will be very clear to you, and you’ll need to intervene to create safety, get people engaged, help break logjams, etc.

Moving forward might not seem so bad, but beware.  Depending on just how many people have gone silent, there may be a time bomb in your implementation plan.  When things go wrong, as they do in any change initiative, there will be a number of people who will have effectively positioned themselves to wash their hands of all responsibility.

As we noted earlier, just because they go silent doesn’t mean they don’t have input and opinions.  When the plan goes forward and they’ve been shouted down, or chose not to engage because they felt it wasn’t safe, they will be in a position to say “that wasn’t my idea”.

Even though such behavior should be unacceptable, it happens way too often.  Prevent it by setting expectations around organizational communication, specifically creating a shared value for open, honest dialogue without repercussion or disrespect.

Jacqueline Moore asked:


As a business leader, one of the most important leadership skills you’ll ever demonstrate is knowing how to communicate. When you think about it, most business leadership consists of communication of one sort or another.

You hold meetings with staff or board members or suppliers, you interview potential managers, you meet customers and shareholders, you chat in the corridor or on the phone. All of these formal and informal moments offer you the chance to influence, to enthuse and to inspire.

So how can you make the most of these moments – how can you become a truly successful communicator?

Communication involves a variety of interactions. It involves discussing, and listening, and debating. But communication also often involves a senior executive passing on some information. This may seem a fairly simple task. But it’s amazing how often business leaders don’t give enough information, or shroud it in jargon, or tell the wrong people.

HOW you pass on information can significantly affect what happens next. If you want people (whether your staff or your suppliers or customers) to act on the information, you need to make sure they understand it. And that’s not as simple as it sounds.

There are several lessons we can learn here from people whose whole business is communication. Journalists depend entirely on their words. And journalists are taught a range of tips and techniques for making their information compelling, interesting and easy to understand. Many of these techniques are just as useful for business executives, and are well worth exploring.

I’ve found that thinking about how news stories work in newspapers, for example, can help executives communicate complex messages in a simple, brief and yet memorable way, both in print and in person.

News stories are designed to grab our attention from the opening sentence. They try to tell us the news in simple, easy-to-understand language. And they don’t assume we know much about the subject already. So when you as a business executive have some information to pass on, it’s worth trying to compile it as a news story – that way, you won’t miss out anything vital.

So what makes a good a news story? In an ideal world, the opening paragraph should:

- sum up the story

- have the most important facts first

- be short and punchy and contain only essential facts

- use emotive words early on

- possibly contain an appropriate quote

- appeal to the reader in his or her area, in his or her business, or because it affects his or her pocket or way of life.

That’s a lot to fit into a few lines. So the easiest thing to do is make sure your opening paragraph answers all the questions a reader may have:

Who? What? How? Where? When? Why?

Take an example of a news story from a business newspaper:

Who? Former senior executives at X Corp

What? were arrested

How? by FBI agents

Where? in New York

When? today

Why? on suspicions of tax evasion.

This works equally well when you’re announcing something to your staff (the order in which you answer the questions can vary):

Who? I (John Doe, CEO of Y Company,)

What? want to thank

Where? all of you in our Toronto division

Why? for raising sales an impressive 5 per cent

When? in the fourth quarter

How? and invite you all to a celebration lunch next week.

In a news story, it’s important not to venture your own opinion or comment. The above item may appear to cross this line – it describes the sales increase as ‘impressive’ – but further down in the story (or in the internal memo or in the email to staff) the writer could justify the use of the word ‘impressive’ by comparing it with the target or with increases in previous quarters.

If the fundamental purpose of news is to inform, it’s essential that you allow your readers to make up their own minds on the information you provide. Do not try to sell your own opinion as fact.

To sum up, the crucial point to remember when you’re communicating information is that the most important information should appear first. If you do that, answering all the questions as suggested, there’s a good chance that you’ll get your message across and that everyone will understand it.

Simon Oates asked:


Aging is a process that we must all navigate through in life. Even though its the only challenge that we must all face – it often feels like a terribly personal one, and is often a challenge that we face alone. As we grow older, our leadership skills change, but do they improve or worsen?

How getting older reduces our leadership skills.

Firstly I shall look at the side of the debate that puts forward the notion that as we grow older, our ability to lead others actually deteriorates. I investigate possible reasons below.

1. Our control over children deteriorates as we are seen as out-of-touch

2. Our authority in public becomes questioned for the first time, as issues of our cognitive ability and other physical consequences start to affect the perceived quality of our judgement.

3. As memory starts to slowly deteriorate, we become less on the ball and may fall behind in fast moving areas of life, resulting in us not being seen as a leader.

How aging increases our leadership skills.

1. Our age makes us automatically seem experienced and wise in the workplace. We have a better understanding of what can go wrong, and how plans can fall apart – so our guidance is appreciated by those who are attempting a project for the first time.

2. Our appearance causes others to take us seriously. While youthful individuals may have all the energy in the world, they struggle getting places because people simply don’t have the faith in them. Older people receive respect that reduces this risk.

3. Long-standing relationships with others mean that we have far more influence over these people than young strangers could ever have, (when taking love out of the equation anyway!).

4. Knowing thoroughly how the world works, and having experience in so many parts of life means that we become more confident as we age, and in many cases become tougher as a result of life’s toils. It’s a statistical fact that older people are more likely to fight back against muggers than young people are. I think this demonstrates more clearly than anything else – that older people have a great spirit that potential ‘followers’ see in them too.

5. As life starts to slow down, we are able to see the big picture of life. For teenagers, life all too often is simply about getting through school as fast as possible and drinking as much as they can. It’s fast paced and many individuals lose sight of what matters in life. With this perspective in mind, older people have a greater ability of appealing to the good side of people, and often take the time to do nice things that wins colleagues and subordinate’s respect.

I hope these thoughts help you make your own mind up about whether Leadership is something that comes naturally with age or not, and whether older people actually have an advantage over younger individuals when it comes to having leadership potential. In my opinion, it does. And this gives me just another reason to smile on my birthday. Add your thoughts below by leaving a comment!