Each of these steps are inculcated in the Marines, providing the foundation for their identity and remarkable success. The Marine Corps operates in a unique environment, but its principles are ubiquitous, developed and practiced in a demanding environment, to then be practiced under conditions where failure is simply not an option.
The principles underlying the Marine approach, appropriately adapted, are universally applicable. Success requires specificity and intentionality, not vague cultural ideals, nor halfhearted commitments to unmeasurable outcomes. Well beyond that is the single critical aspect: Your people will not give more than you are willing to put into them.
As I look out into the world, and as I routinely see a negative narrative of Millennials and Generation Z, I see wasted people, efforts, and opportunities. I am continually impressed by how these young people are performing in the Marines, whether leading a patrol in the face of an adversary, or simply as part of a crew, refueling a jet on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, at sea, at night, in foul weather.
Look at what you are getting out of your workforce, where you have set your expectations, and how they are being met. If there is a difference, and if that difference has an impact on your mission and success, there may be some things to consider.
I spent 12 of my last 16 years of active duty in formal training and education assignments. I was often surprised by what I saw with our young Marines, sometimes positively, sometimes not. I learned that my opinion did not matter; rather, what was required was an understanding of Millennials and Generation Z, and adjusting what we were doing to ensure the success of our units deploying to combat and the institutional sustainment of the Marine Corps.
This was a sacred duty, and although we adjusted to the dynamics of the new operating environment of those joining the force, what was rigidly retained were those institutional standards built through remarkable effort and epic sacrifice over two centuries of the Marine Corps. A conclusion from my 37 years on active duty, and with respect and reverence to those who served as Marines in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, is what is being fielded today is the finest force in the history of the Marine Corps.
If you are unable to say the same for your organization, I offer this: The answers lie within the organization, not outside of it, and are driven far more by what the organization is willing to do to alter that outcome than by those who are being hired and brought into the workforce.
Something to consider.
Reflection Questions
If you work with any young Millennials or members of Generation Z, what do you see as your biggest challenges with them?
What can you identify as some of the assets or strengths that this new generation brings to your organization? To the world at large?
What are some strategies that you might employ as a leader to tap into these strengths?
Note
1. David Harder, The Workplace Engagement Solution: Find a Common Mission, Vision and Purpose with All of Today’s Employees (Newburyport, MA: Career Press, 2017).
14
Respect, Courage, Honesty
True Leadership Traits
Jack Zenger
John H. Zenger is the cofounder and chief executive officer of Zenger Folkman, a firm that increases the effectiveness of leaders.
Jack taught at the University of Southern California (USC) and later at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He received a doctorate in business administration from the University of Southern California. He was a trustee and board chairman for the UVU Board of Trustees, and just completed 10 years as a member of the Board of Regents of the State of Utah.
He received ATD’s Lifetime Achievement in Workplace Learning and Performance Award, and was inducted into the Human Resources Development Hall of Fame.
He is the author or coauthor of 14 books, 150 articles and blogs, and he writes regularly for Harvard Business Review and Forbes.
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When CEOs describe what they want most in people they hire, they consistently talk about honesty and integrity. Among the leadership competencies that our firm measures via a 360-degree feedback assessment, honesty and integrity have consistently received extremely high scores, in first or second place in comparison to everything else.
I had an experience that gave me a whole new perspective on this important leadership attribute. The lesson did not come from any leadership guru; it came from a physician.
My son was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He was a practicing physician, specializing in pulmonary care. His cancer was not common and the optimum treatment was unclear to his physicians. He endured extensive chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery to remove half of his stomach, and finally a bone marrow transplant. After months of treatment, they performed a CAT scan that found no trace of cancer cells; his physicians, family, colleagues, and friends were hoping for a complete cure.
On Easter Sunday, his condition took a sudden turn for the worse. He was admitted to the hospital where they again began conducting extensive tests. The following day, I and other family members were in his hospital room when his oncologist came to review the results.
What then transpired was an incredibly honest and yet caring presentation of the facts. The tests revealed that his cancer had returned with an astonishing vengeance, now filling his entire abdominal cavity. His liver and kidneys were totally overtaken with cancer. Blood tests painted an equally bleak picture. At the end of his calm and careful recital of the test results, the oncologist asked if my son understood. After a short pause and in a matter of fact manner, my son quietly replied, “Yes, this means that I am going to die.”
I sat there thinking about the many business leaders whom I’ve known through the years who could not muster up the courage to tell a colleague about the negative consequences of their behavior. Those conversations were about minor blips in a career. This conversation was about the biggest issue anyone could imagine, literally, life and death. It happened that my son and his oncologist were personal friends and esteemed colleagues. But even that relationship did not make the oncologist dilute his honest recital of the truth.
I recall thinking to myself that I had a great deal to learn from those in other professions. The physician had been compassionate and respectful in his delivery, but he chose not to sugarcoat this most painful of all messages. His dear friend and colleague deserved to know the truth, as did his entire family.
Two days later, with all of us at his bedside, my son passed away. There are no words that adequately describe that event and the emotions that came gushing up for me and all in the room. But words are also not adequate to describe my admiration for the doctor who courageously delivered a message that was incredibly painful for him to convey.
One of the fundamental principles of good leadership is the willingness to treat others with respect. Our ability and courage to speak honestly with one another are most certainly at the heart of treating one another with esteem. Indeed, our research1 on leadership integrity paints an interesting picture. We found that leaders who received high scores on honesty and integrity also received high scores on five behavioral indices:
Approachable
Acts with humility
Listens with great intensity
Makes decisions carefully
Acts assertively
The first four of these describe how someone treats another with great respect. They are not in the mold of the leader who smiles up and kicks down. Nor do they characterize haughty leaders who put themselves into a different category and feel that they need not play by the rules that govern the rest of us. As I observed the oncologist talking with my son, he exemplified each of these characteristic behaviors.
The final item, acting assertively, is a bit odd. Most people would not immediately think of assertiveness being a bedfellow of honesty and integrity. I thought, however, that the oncologist attending to my son could have ducked that extremely difficult conversation in a variety of ways and with countl
ess excuses. But he didn’t, and he taught me a profound lesson about the kindness of true honesty.
Reflection Questions
What sort of lessons can you learn from other professionals, especially from those outside your field?
Why are honesty and integrity such critical traits for leaders?
How comfortable are you dealing honestly with your colleagues? With the people you lead? If ‘not very,’ what makes such interactions difficult?
Note
1. John H. Zenger, Joseph Folkman, and Scott Edinger, “Making Yourself Indispensable,” Harvard Business Review, October 2011.
PART III
Defining Moments
Each of us has a defining moment that has influenced what we see when we look out the window. Some of us have more than one. Defining moments are those experiences we have in which we become aware of something about which we were previously not conscious. These experiences are the shapers of our character, the inspiration for our decisions, and the starting point of our life journeys.
We open this section with an article by CEO of Best Buy, Hubert Joly, who analyzes his initial reluctance to utilize the help of an executive coach in his business life and describes how his life and career were transformed once he began work with Marshall Goldsmith. He is particularly emphatic about the critical importance of being open to feedback in order to grow as a leader. Rita McGrath then summarizes some key themes she has learned across her academic and professional career, concluding with what she has found about Marshall Goldsmith’s advice that “feedback is a gift” and the practical implications of starting with a good theory. In her article, Beverly Kaye explores the importance of acknowledging your “flat side” and finding ways to move outside your comfort zone and do things to challenge yourself to grow and become a more well-rounded and effective leader. Catherine Carr draws on her many years of humanitarian experience serving around the world as part of Doctors Without Borders to explain the importance of opening one’s heart to both joy and sorrow in order to expand and grow and connect to the world in more meaningful ways. Jeffrey Kuhn describes the “strategic myopia” that affects so many leaders and organizations. He draws on Peter Drucker’s concept of looking out the window at what is “visible, but not seen” to suggest new paradigms and possibilities for developing your strategic eye. Prakash Raman draws on his adolescent experiences – both successes and failures – as a world-ranked tennis player to offer advice to business leaders seeking to bridge the gap between inspiration and operation in their own personal and professional lives. And Margaret Wheatley discusses the critical need for leaders to think and reflect on where they’ve been before deciding where they would like to go next, and describes how cultivating a new way of seeing can open up new choices. She emphasizes the need for a new type of leader in today’s world and describes the crucial role of leadership at the local rather than the global level.
15
The Power of Accepting Feedback
Hubert Joly
Hubert Joly is chairman and CEO of Best Buy Co. Inc., the leading provider of consumer technology products and services, with approximately 125,000 employees in North America and more than $40 billion in annual revenue. Mr. Joly joined Best Buy in 2012, and led the company through its much publicized Renew Blue transformation. The transformation resulted in improvements in customer satisfaction, market share gains, revenue growth, and improved margins. Now, Mr. Joly is leading Best Buy into its next phase, Best Buy 2020: Building the New Blue. In this new chapter, Best Buy is driven by a clear purpose: to help customers pursue their passions and enrich their lives with the help of technology.
Prior to joining Best Buy, Mr. Joly was CEO of Carlson, a global hospitality and travel company. Before that, he led Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Vivendi Universal Games, and Electronic Data Systems’ business in France. He serves on the board of directors of several nonprofits and corporations, including Ralph Lauren Corp. Mr. Joly was awarded the Legion of Honor, France’s highest civilian distinction, in 2017.
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I am an avid skier who likes to ski with an instructor; I am an enthusiastic tennis player who regularly works with a tennis coach. I use a coach in both sports not just because I want to get to the front of the lift line or reserve a better court, but because I want to get better at two things I love to do. Oddly, though, it took me a long time to begin working with an executive coach. In fact, if you had told me earlier in my career that a fellow executive was using a coach I might have asked about it, and certainly would have thought, “What is wrong with that guy? What problem does he have?”
My disinterest in personally engaging a coach stemmed from my struggle with feedback. I had sat through the experience many times of receiving three or four examples of what I was doing well, only to have it be followed by areas I needed to work on. I would always appreciate the first bit of feedback and happily agree with it. It was, not surprisingly, the part of the conversation involving personal development opportunities that I didn’t like very much. In fact, my reaction was to be defensive and try to find what was wrong with the people offering such advice. Clearly, these people did not understand me or simply did not agree with me! I was good at rationalizing (and rejecting) their feedback, finding it painful and not fun. It is fair to say that I did not do much with these development opportunities. On the occasion where I did act on the feedback, it was without any joy or real enthusiasm.
All this changed in 2010. I give credit to my then head of HR at Carlson, Elizabeth Bastoni, who introduced me to Marshall Goldsmith. She had worked with him when she was in HR at the Coca-Cola Company. Marshall is, of course, one of the foremost, if not the foremost, executive coaches in the world. One thing that was exciting was that he was actually working with a bunch of other successful executives. In fact, Marshall specializes in helping successful people get even better, a specialty that helped me overcome my disinterest in and distaste for coaching.
Marshall has written a book entitled, What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There.1 At the beginning of the book, he lists the 20 quirks of successful people. If I remember correctly, I exhibited 13 out of 20. They included the notion of thinking I had to be the smartest guy in the room or often adding too much value to a particular discussion or meeting. His correct assessment was that I frequently wanted to make sure people understood how smart I was and how much I could add. So, I was clearly ripe for help. What followed this epiphany was my discovery of the amazing process Marshall uses.
It starts with 360-degree feedback. He talks to the people you are working with, the people who report to you, and your board of directors. Marshall does a great job distilling their feedback and gives you two documents that he sends you separately. One document has all of the things you are doing great. He tells you to read this first and appreciate it. He then sends a second document composed of your opportunities. Now, this process does not look very different from the earlier feedback scenarios I described where you hear three things you are doing well and three things you need to work on. The only difference lies in what Marshall tells you to do next: He says, simply, you decide what you want to work on; you make the choice. This framing is brilliant because, in a sense, he makes it not about fixing a problem, but about deciding to get better at something.
In tennis, I decided a long time ago that I wanted to get better at my forehand, and in skiing, I wanted to be better in the deep powder. There is always something you want to get better at and, for me, deciding that I wanted to work on this feedback – as opposed to being told I needed to – made a huge difference.
One of the reasons I was ready to accept this change was that, over the years, I have worked with a friend, Brother Samuel, a monk in the congregation of St. John. He helped me understand that the search for perfection, whether in your personal or professional life, is evil. Though he was referencing the biblical story of the fallen angel who thought he was perfect and did not need anyone’s help, this framework helped me appreci
ate that I had vulnerabilities and could be loved for them, not in spite of them. As importantly, appreciating and even coming to love my colleagues’ vulnerabilities was a critical component of this spiritual journey for me.
Continuing in Marshall’s process: Once you decide what you want to work on, you then communicate that to your colleagues, either as a group or one-on-one. You start by thanking them for all the great things they have said about you and, importantly, you do not talk about the criticisms. Instead, you say, “Thank you for your feedback and, against that backdrop, these are the things I have decided to work on.”
You then share the three things you are going to work on. In fact, I write them down and give them to my team as a prelude to asking them for their help and/or advice. A few months later, I check in and ask colleagues how I am doing. The obvious benefit of checking in is that you will likely receive more feedback or advice. With this in mind, I will say things like: “So, how am I doing on this?” Or, “Do you have any advice for me?” When you get this additional feedback, listen, shut up, and express gratitude. Don’t be defensive. Remember, the good thing about feedback is that you do not need to do anything with it. You are the decider. In fact, you do not even need to agree with the feedback. You just say, “Thank you.”
Checking in with colleagues has another positive result: Knowing you are going to ask for feedback on your progress is a good incentive to actually do something. As Marshall’s process reflects, human beings need structure. This reminds me of the apocryphal story regarding the difference between a pilot and a surgeon. A pilot always goes through a checklist before taking off or landing. Surgeons may or may not go through a similar checklist, including perhaps not even washing their hands as well as they should. Why do each of these professionals treat a checklist differently? For the pilot, if they do not go through the checklist, they may die. For the doctor, if he or she does not go through the checklist, then the patient may die. That’s a big difference and illustrates why, in the absence of possibly dire consequences, we often need structure. Marshall’s process provides this kind of structure and allows you to rinse and repeat, getting better and better. Remember, there is no such thing as being done with coaching. Just ask tennis champion Roger Federer, who still has a coach help him with his swing!
Work is Love Made Visible Page 12
