The Power of Positive Standards

OK, it’s YES! Leader Pop Quiz Time!

You’re sitting in your office when an employee of yours named Chris marches in and launches into the following rant about another of your employees named Ed:

“You won’t believe what Ed just did! I thought we said the whole team had to agree before taking on any new work. But now I hear that Ed promised Chandra in Accounting that we’d create some new reports for her by the end of the week! So we all have to bust our behinds while Ed comes off looking like a hero! What kind of guy would pull a rotten stunt like that??!! I’ve just about had it with him!!”

Which of the following would be the best thing to say to Chris?

(a) “Wow, that was a pretty rotten thing to do!”

(b) “OK, OK, just calm down. Let’s do some problem-solving here.”

(c) “I know how you feel.”

(d) None of the above.

You probably know not to select Option (a). Besides not having the full story, you don’t want to be seen as taking sides in the issue. Otherwise, Ed may feel as if you’re ganging up on him, which could poison your (and Chris’s) subsequent relationship with him.

At first glance, Option (b) may sound good, as a way to get past Chris’s emotion and tackle the issue in a coolly rational way. However, ignoring emotions won’t make them go away, and in fact may aggravate the issue if Chris feels that you’re patronizing him and dismissing his concerns. And no matter how much you tell him to “calm down,” he’s still likely to be under the influence of his emotions – and thus won’t be in a problem-solving frame of mind anyway.

So if we don’t want to take sides or ignore Chris’s emotions, then Option (c) might seem to be a good choice. Unfortunately, it also risks running afoul of the downsides of either (a) or (b). Chris might react (at least internally) in one of two ways:

·         “If you know how I feel, then you’re agreeing that I’m justified in feeling that way” – which means he thinks you’re taking his side.

·         “You don’t know how I feel! Nobody could know how I feel right now!” – which means he thinks you’re patronizing him.

So that leaves Option (d) as the best answer – which still doesn’t tell the YES! Leader what to do. To supply the answer, I'll suggest the following four-step process:

(1) Check for Understanding. “You say Ed made a commitment without consulting the team.”

(2) Name the Emotion. “This is about as angry as I’ve ever seen you.”

(3) State a Positive Standard. “We need to make sure we’re all working together as a team.”

(4) Test for Coaching Readiness. “What’s most important for you right now?”

This approach has the following benefits:

(1) Check for Understanding. This lets you validate your understanding of the facts of the issue and shows Chris that you’re truly listening.

(2) Name the Emotion. This lets you test whether you’ve grasped Chris’s emotions of the moment and shows that you care as much about the impact on him as the impact on the team’s work.

(3) State a Positive Standard. This lets you establish the standard that any resolution of the issue will need to meet – regardless of what the “true facts” of the matter turn out to be. By stating this, you maintain your neutrality while also subtly reminding Chris that he might also have contributed to undermining the teamwork principle (by, say, leaping to conclusions about Ed’s behavior rather than working things out with Ed directly).

(4) Test for Coaching Readiness. By asking what’s most important for him right now, you’re essentially testing Chris’s readiness to put his emotion aside and start focusing on a solution. If he’s open to problem-solving, you can then engage him in coaching so he can devise an appropriate course of action. If he’s still in the grip of his emotions, you may find you can best serve him by just acting as a sounding board and letting him vent. (That may be all he wants to do anyway.)

REFLECTIONS FOR THE YES! LEADER

Notice the connection between the Positive Standard concept and the “position-interest” distinction I described in my previous article.  Basically, a Positive Standard represents an attempt to get Chris and Ed past their conflicting positions by framing a common interest that can serve as the basis of a mutually acceptable agreement. As long as each holds to his position (Chris: “Ed’s actions were rotten!”; Ed: “I was helping another group!”), the two will never reach a satisfying resolution.

A Positive Standard can also be thought of as a norm, i.e., a shared principle that guides the group members in their interactions. What are your team’s norms? What would happen if you individually asked your team members to identify the team norms? How much agreement would there be? What would happen if you then conducted a full team discussion and attempted to reach consensus on the key norms of your team?

How to Engage in Positive Disagreement

I’ve pointed out a number of times how taking a Yes, And approach can help the YES! Leader maintain a positive, collaborative atmosphere.  I’ve also mentioned that saying Yes, And doesn’t necessarily mean Agreeing with another’s Position, but it does mean:

·         Accepting the Person;

·         Acknowledging the Possibilities in what he says; and

·         Advancing with Positive Purpose.

But it still seems as if we have a paradox here: What does it mean to say “Yes” to someone while disagreeing with his position?

A classic example can help illustrate this point. Let’s say that I’m scripting a scene involving two people (whom I’ll cleverly call Person A and Person B) who are eagerly eyeing an orange sitting in a bowl on a table. Imagine that I begin writing dialogue that goes something like this:

PERSON A: I want the orange!

PERSON B: No, I want the orange!

PERSON A: I want the orange!

PERSON B: No, I want the orange!

PERSON A: I want the orange!

PERSON B: No, I want the orange!

OK, this scene is going nowhere fast. I’ll wad up that attempt and try again:

PERSON A: I want the orange!

PERSON B: No, I want the orange!

PERSON A: OK, you say you want the orange – but why?

PERSON B: I want to make juice.

PERSON A: Well, I want to make marmalade.

PERSON B: In that case, here’s an idea: Why don’t I take the inside of the orange …

PERSON A: … and I’ll take the rind!

PERSON A & B (together): Brilliant!

Ah, yes, that’s much better – and let’s see why.

In Version 1, the two characters had fallen victim to what’s called Getting Stuck on a Position. As long as each character presents his “want” in terms of acquiring the only available orange, there’s no way to satisfy them both. The result is impasse and stalemate – and a complete block to further progress.

However, in Version 2, Person A decided to get unstuck from his position. He chose to Advance with Positive Purpose by exploring what interests lay behind Person B’s position. By asking that key question – Why? – he was able to find common ground with B and thereby discovered that the availability of only one orange was not a barrier to both of their interests being met.

This is how you can disagree with someone else’s position while still saying “Yes”! You don’t have to look for agreement only at the “position” level. By asking “Why?” you open yourself (and the other) to the possibilities for saying “Yes” at the “interest” level.

REFLECTIONS FOR THE YES! LEADER

Have you ever been in a business meeting where two or more participants engaged in dialogue that sounded like Version 1? Where they just repeatedly batted the same position back and forth, with maybe a few word variations but basically the same message? Was it about as productive – and as interesting – as Version 1? What would have happened if one of the participants had asked “Why?” And – shades of picking up trash in the forest – what was stopping you from asking “Why?”

Steady in the Wind: The Benefits of Consistency

In recent articles, I’ve been dealing with the question: Is it better for a leader to be flexible or to be consistent?

I think the answer is: There’s a time and a place for each. A simple answer on paper, of course, but not so simple in practice.

I’ve described some of the reasons why flexibility is a hallmark of the practice of leadership for the YES! Leader. I’ve also noted some of boundaries that must be placed on the YES! Leader’s flexibility. Today I’d like to address the question: What are some of the benefits of consistency?

I think there are at least three areas in which consistent behavior by a leader is not only beneficial but essential:

1) Predictability and Safety. Each of us has probably worked for someone with an erratic personality. He might come through the door in a calm, laid-back mood one day, screaming and yelling the next.  He may respond to a critical situation in a level-headed manner, then be set off by a small issue. You never know exactly “who” this person will be at any given time. This kind of leader creates an unsafe environment which often causes people to withhold or parcel out information for fear of the reaction it might provoke.  A leader must keep control of his emotions and reactions in order to maintain a consistent demeanor upon which others can rely.

2) Trust. In order to build trust with others, a leader needs to send a consistent message. If she communicates conflicting opinions and factual characterizations to different people at different times, or if she fails to follow through on what she says she will do, then she will quickly undermine her credibility.

Of course, consistency isn’t a matter of saying “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it” – no matter what. There may be times when she recognizes the need to vary from a previous message – say, because she learns new information that indicates the need for a course change.  In that case, she must openly and honestly acknowledge the variance, explain the reasons behind the change, and admit to any mistakes on her part.

3) Decision-Making. An effective leader must have a reliable internal compass – a sense of True North, as the author Bill George puts it – in order to provide an underlying coherence to his decisions and actions. If he seems to bend with the prevailing winds when it comes to making decisions or forming opinions (a syndrome known in the political world as “flip-flopping”), then people will quickly question whether he can be depended upon to keep a steady hand on the wheel. (And - to carry the metaphor one step further – they may well ask: Can his actions and decisions provide calm in any storm that might be encountered?)

Consistency doesn’t mean rigidly applying a set of simple rules in a black-and-white manner. Instead, it means possessing (and living) a firm set of values and principles that serve as a guideline to dealing with the sometimes gray areas of life.

REFLECTIONS FOR THE YES! LEADER

I’ve observed the ways in which flexibility is important for the YES! Leader. But consider the following:

·         Are you so flexible that you keep people off guard, not quite sure from minute to minute “who” you are – or how they should interact with you?

·         Do you sense that people are being less than totally open with you for fear of how you’ll react?

·         Are you trying so hard to be everything to everybody that nobody can take what you say at face value?

·         Can you point to a set of personal core values that guide your day-to-day (and even moment-to-moment) decisions and actions?

Can You Play a Role *and* Play Yourself?

Many times in this blog, I’ve said that an effective leader must be flexible in his behavior. Indeed, for the YES! Leader, the ability to flex is the (literal) centerpiece of the ExploreFlexSupport model.

In a recent article I dealt with the question: Rather than flexing her behavior – i.e., acting differently around different people – shouldn’t a leader be consistent in her behaviors?

In that article, I pointed out that I didn’t believe there was an inherent incongruity between flexing one’s behavior and behaving consistently. And I recently ran across a passage in the book The Art of Woo, by G. Richard Shell and Mario Moussa, that reinforces this point.

Shell and Moussa emphasize that a person must be able to shift his communication style in order to effectively influence others. Some listeners you’re trying to persuade may respond to a high-level, just-the-facts approach, while others may want to see more in-depth details and rationale. Some listeners just want to know WIIFM? (What’s In It For Me?), while others have a concern for how your idea will impact others. Your ability to shift the emphasis of your message and to adapt your own communication style will help you sell your idea (and yourself) to a greater variety of people.

But Shell and Moussa also recognize the “apparent paradox” at work here:

“Won’t you lose credibility and self-respect if you become a shape-shifter, changing yourself for each new audience? … Your personal credibility, which has its roots in perceived consistency and trustworthiness, provides the foundation for influence. Yet effective persuaders are, [certain] authors say, ‘like chameleons, capable of adapting to the demands of the situations they face.’”

Shell and Moussa then pose the basic question: “Is it really possible to be a ‘credible chameleon’?”

Their answer: Yes - but only within limits.

“You play many roles in your life such as spouse, parent, professional, employee, boss, sports fan, customer, community leader, student, and teacher. And in each of those roles you naturally display different aspects of yourself…. Nevertheless, it is always just ‘you.’ There is a core set of traits, commitments, standards, and impulses that connects you in these various roles.” (emphasis added)

The leadership expert Marshall Goldsmith also echoes this theme about the various roles we play in our daily lives. In his article “The Born Identity,” Goldsmith points to the example of the Irish singer Bono, who went from being a regular bloke hanging around with his mates in Dublin to being a world-famous rock star and a tireless humanitarian. Goldsmith observes:

“He was still a regular guy, with a wife and four kids at home, but when he was in public, his identity was clearly rock star. Without being arrogant, he was smart enough to recognize this as an important part of his identity.”

Bono also figures in an example cited by Shell and Moussa in The Art of Woo.  They describe an unlikely meeting between Bono and conservative U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, whom Bono wanted to persuade to support a program to help African countries fight AIDS. During the meeting, Bono quickly shifted from statistics-speak (to which Helms was not responding) to a more personal (and more effective) appeal to Helms’s Christian concern for the poor.  Inauthentic? Manipulative? Arguably so, except that Bono himself was a born-again Christian and a student of the Bible – yet more “roles” of his. Bono's religion-based argument was an authentic expression based on a faith he shared with Senator Helms.

I think these examples show the importance of possessing a core set of traits and values that inform your actions in all of your encounters. This core, this essence, comprises your consistent, authentic self. And as you go about your life, you will wrap this core in a wide diversity of roles that guide your behaviors as you interact with the different people who inhabit your world. You may choose to reveal more of your self in one role, less in another. But no matter what role you're leading with, it's still you.

It’s only when the different roles you take on conflict with certain aspects of your core – when the role of the moment becomes the person of the moment – that your “shape-shifting” crosses into inauthentic behavior.

REFLECTIONS FOR THE YES! LEADER

·         What are the various roles that you play in your life?

·         Which of these do you play most often?

·         Which are the most comfortable for you? The least comfortable?

·         How does each of them track with (or not track with) what you consider to be your core self?

·         What would happen if you played your most comfortable role more often?

·         In what ways (if any) are you undermining your roles by not making them reflect your core traits and values?

Encouraging Collaboration by Saying "Yes And!"

Organizations can learn a lot from the world of improvisational theater – especially about what it means to work together in a truly collaborative way.

Above all, improv performers are taught to say “Yes And.” “Yes And” means that a performer must not deny the reality asserted by an onstage partner but must accept it and build on it during the scene. If your partner says there’s a net strung across the stage, you answer “Yes” and immediately start “playing tennis.” Saying “No” leads to onstage power struggles among the performers and blocks a scene from ever getting off the ground.

Similarly, adopting a “Yes And” attitude in an organization reminds people to keep an open mind and work together to discover the opportunities in each others’ ideas. “Yes And” doesn’t necessarily mean Agreeing with the Position, but it does mean:

(1) Accepting the Person (that is, treating each other with respect);
(2) Acknowledging the Possibilities (that is, being curious about where an idea could lead); and
(3) Advancing with a Positive Purpose (that is, incorporating everyone’s best thinking to create a great result).

Collaborating with others in an organization isn’t just “like” improv – it is improv! Reflecting the “Yes And” attitude in our team interactions can let our collective brainpower thrive, leading to successful “scenes” for us and our customers.

REFLECTIONS FOR THE YES! LEADER

Many leaders have a strong, constant urge to control what happens in their organizations and their work groups. To what extent is this true for you? What would happen if you “gave the spotlight” to your fellow team members and let their ideas, actions, decisions, perspectives, approaches, experiments, etc., truly shine through?

Want a Bigger Paycheck ... Today? Consider Your Psychological Salary!

Is another company dangling a big paycheck in front of you? Are you tempted to leap after it and leave your current job behind?

Many people focus on money as the primary driver of their career decisions – even in the face of other factors that can contribute to job satisfaction. For example, surveys conducted by Career Systems International show that people repeatedly cite the following items as important factors in their decisions to stay in their current jobs:

·         Career growth, learning, and development

·         Being recognized, valued, respected

·         Having exciting, challenging, or meaningful work

·         Working with great co-workers or clients

·         Fun, enjoyable work environment

However, if you’re one of those people who would immediately jump ship from your current job if your magic dollar figure were offered, let me ask you this: Would you still accept that other offer if the following were true of your new workplace?

·         Movement within the company is discouraged

·         Training opportunities are limited

·         You do the same thing day in and day out

·         Your work is taken for granted – and so are you

·         A “reward” consists of the privilege to come back to work tomorrow

·         Your co-workers engage in backbiting, rumor-mongering, and bad-mouthing among themselves

·         You have little say in how you do your work

·         You work long hours under high stress in a deadly serious environment

If any or all of these factors were present, you might think twice about making the leap. Indeed, what you are doing is “factoring” each of these things into the overall value proposition. Viewed in this way, each of these factors carries a “psychological cost” that needs to be deducted from the salary in order to compute the true amount of the offer.

Now, let’s look at it from the perspective of the job you’re thinking of leaving. Even though your current paycheck might not meet your magic dollar figure, how is it being supplemented by the presence of other factors (such as those in the first list above) that provide a “psychological salary”? How could you quantify the benefit you’re receiving by working in a job where (say) you’re respected and valued, you have flexibility, your voice counts, and your work makes a real difference in others’ lives?

Everyone would probably assign a different psychological value to each of these factors. For example, some people might not mind the lack of variety or autonomy, whereas others might feel stifled.  The important thing, though, is to do the work of reflecting on each of these factors and compute its true worth to you.

You might conclude that you're really "making" more than you think!

REFLECTIONS FOR THE YES! LEADER

Many leaders who regularly ask their people about the factors that motivate and engage them report some frustration with an answer they frequently hear:

“Pay me more money!”

As a YES! Leader, what would happen if you discussed the “psychological salary” concept with your people, as a way to have them consider the full amount of their current “paycheck”?

The Red Boulder on the Tracks: Dealing with Barriers (Real or Imagined) in Your Path

You’re a train engineer. You’re at the controls of a locomotive when you suddenly see a large red boulder on the tracks ahead of you.

A situation pitched to an improv troupe by a particularly creative audience? Well … it could be. After all, performing improvisational theater is all about solving “problems” (i.e., incongruous situations) posed by audience members. The fun comes from watching the performers try to perform a scene that deals with the problem in a seamless way.

In this case, though, the “red boulder” scenario is a thought experiment I created to help prime people’s creative problem-solving juices, especially with respect to career planning. This activity can help people overcome those internal tape loops (“I’m too old,” “I’m a victim of circumstance,” “I can’t do anything about it,” etc.) that paralyze and disempower them.  The activity works like this:

I first pose the scenario described above while drawing on a flip chart a (decidedly rough) picture of a boulder on a set of railroad tracks. I then ask, “If you were the engineer, what options could you think of to deal with this situation?” People usually come up with the following:

·         Find (or build) a parallel track.

·         Ask other crew members and even passengers to help you move the boulder.

·         Grab a pick-axe and start chipping away at the boulder.

·         Stop the train and back up to where you started.

·         Just ram into it!

I then ask how all of this relates to career planning. At this point, most people see that the red boulder represents a barrier preventing them from moving ahead on their career path. They then can usually grasp the connections between their red-boulder options and their career-planning options:

·         The parallel track. If your planned career direction is blocked, look for another similar path that might get you to the same destination – even if it isn’t as direct or as quick.

·         Ask for help.  In your career planning, don’t feel that you have to go it alone. Be open to enlisting the help of others – managers, mentors, peers, friends, family members – to provide assistance, advice, and support.

·         Start chipping away. Begin taking small steps on a regular basis to begin removing the obstacle. You may not be able to overcome the barrier all at once, but taking steady action is better than making ready excuses.

·         Stop and back up. A barrier is insurmountable only if it’s bigger than your will to overcome it. If it feels too big to tackle, that might be a sign that you need to reconsider whether your chosen path is really in line with your inner desire. Even retrenching and starting again is better than just sitting there and cursing the rock.

·         Ram into it! If anyone proposes this (and they often do), I then ask “If you choose that option, what are you assuming about the boulder?” Answer: “That it really isn’t as solid as it looks!” I then observe that it might just be a big red balloon that could be flicked aside with little effort.  I then suggest that many of the barriers that we perceive on the path ahead might not be real barriers after all; they may just appear that way to us (and often just in our own minds). If we don’t test our assumptions about their true nature, though, we might sit immobilized for no good reason.  As the saying goes, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”

REFLECTIONS FOR THE YES! LEADER

As you encounter your own (supposed) barriers on your career journey, do you keep your mind open to multiple strategies for dealing with them? Are you improvising “scenes” that creatively deal with the (supposed) incongruities you’re facing? Have you considered some of the following ways to regard and deal with some of the common (supposed) problems in your career development?

·         “I’m too old.” -  What are some examples of other people your age who succeeded in a similar situation? How can you connect with others of your generation to lend each other support and advice? What unique value can your experience and perspective provide?

·         “I don’t have enough education.” – What education do you need? What can you do short of entering full-time study (e.g., taking a community college class, doing self-study) in order to start working toward a degree or certification?

·         “There aren’t any promotion opportunities in my area.” – First, what will a promotion provide to you? What other options – a lateral move, special projects, service in a professional organization outside of work – might help you develop key skills and contacts to put you in a good position for the next promotion opportunity that does come available?

Everything's Negotiable (or Is It?)

Last time I discussed how the YES! Leader needs to demonstrate flexing behaviors in order to be effective in her interpersonal interactions. I also pointed out how flexing lies at the core of many different leadership models – specifically, Situational Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, and the Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders (as described in the book The Leadership Challenge). These and many other models emphasize the importance of the YES! Leader’s shifting her behaviors with different people in order to appeal to each person’s unique set of needs and internal motivators.

I was discussing this concept with two different audiences lately and was struck by an interesting question that arose in both sessions. In essence, the question was:

Rather than acting differently around different people, shouldn’t a leader be consistent in his behaviors?

Implied in the question, I think, is the sense that a leader who’s continually shifting his behavior to achieve a certain outcome is being inauthentic at best, manipulative at worst. I think it also reflects a feeling that a leader needs to be grounded in certain core values that he (and others) can always rely on and that don’t change with the weather.

As I consider this question, it occurs to me that we have another example of a (seeming) contradiction between two different points of view. And as I’ve mentioned before, rather than make an “either-or” choice, we might look for a “both-and” path instead.

To start down this path (and I emphasize the word “start”), I’ll observe that there isn’t necessarily a contradiction between holding core beliefs and values and flexing your behavior in order to reach a principled outcome with another person. A principled outcome is much like a Win-Win result, in which both parties work together to seek a mutually positive outcome rather than engage in a game of “King of the Hill” in which the most powerful party (or the best arguer) prevails over the other. To achieve a Win-Win, each party needs to let go of entrenched positions and open himself to the viewpoints, interests, and needs of the other.

Certainly, engaging in a collaborative search for a positive outcome doesn’t render a person inauthentic or manipulative. And holding to an entrenched position in the name of consistency wouldn’t be a particular virtue in such a joint endeavor.

But does this mean that everything’s negotiable? That the leader should never draw a line in the sand and say “Do not pass”? No – and this is where the leader’s core values and beliefs come into play. There is virtue in a leader’s knowing when to make a stand, when to insist on having her way, when to be influential and not influenceable. 

For example, if the other party is advocating something unethical or illegal, the leader shouldn’t just treat the other’s view as an interesting idea worthy of further development. She should just say “No.” This is where consistency has its place – to show that the leader is principled, dependable, and guided by bedrock values upon which others can rely no matter what.

REFLECTIONS FOR THE YES! LEADER

·         What are your “non-negotiables” - the core values that guide you?

·         Do you know your non-negotiables well enough so that you can instantly determine when to draw a line in the sand?

·         Do your non-negotiables extend so far that they make you rigid and unbending rather than dependable and principled?

·         Do you leave yourself enough room for flexing so you can adapt your behaviors to the needs of the moment – or do you continually fall back on legalistic rules of conduct that you uniformly apply in the name of consistency?

Gaining Power by Flexing Your Style

The YES! Leader can use the ExploreFlexSupport model – derived from the world of improvisational theater – as a guide to thriving in the modern organizational world of “permanent whitewater.”  Exploring new possibilities, flexing your attitudes and behaviors to meet each new situation, supporting others on the journey … these are essential skills for the performance improviser and the YES! Leader alike. (You can learn more about the ExploreFlexSupport model here.)

The Flex part of the model is echoed in many other models of effective leadership, communication, and interaction – for example:

Situational Leadership. The Situational Leadership model is premised on the concept that one size does not fit all when it comes to leadership.  Situational Leadership recognizes that every individual has different needs that must be met for him to do his best work. For example, some people need close instruction and monitoring, while others need a light supervisory touch and a loosening of the reins. A leader who takes the former approach in all situations will quickly (and deservedly) get a reputation as a micromanager. A leader who always takes the latter approach in all situations will gain an equally strong reputation as an “abandoning” leader. A Situational Leader continually shifts her style and applies the right mix of task behavior (such as giving direction and setting standards) and relationship behavior (such as providing encouragement and inspiration) to meet each individual’s distinct needs.

Emotional Intelligence. Two components of Emotional Intelligence are the ability to recognize how one’s behavior is impacting others and the ability to regulate one’s behavior when interacting with others in order to achieve a mutually desirable outcome.  By contrast, many emotionally unintelligent leaders adopt a “what you see is what you get” attitude that expects others to mold themselves to the leader’s personality. Rather than do the more difficult work of navigating through the needs, expectations, and emotions of others, these leaders take an inflexible, one-note approach to interactions, not knowing or caring (or both) how they’re coming across.

The Leadership Challenge. In their book The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes and Barry Posner describe the “paradox of power” that exemplary leaders recognize: You become more powerful when you give your own power away.  It works like this: Providing others a degree of autonomy and decision-making authority gives them a chance to develop their skills and leads to more commitment to their work – which in turn creates better results for everyone, including the leader.  Leaders who deny or ignore the paradox of power tend to become nearly obsessed with gaining and maintaining control over people and situations. This in turn renders them rigid and intractable – the very opposite of a “flexing” leader.

REFLECTIONS FOR THE YES! LEADER

Certainly there is a time and a place for drawing a line in the sand and holding firmly to your beliefs and opinions.  But whenever you find yourself taking an unbending stand, ask yourself: Am I truly acting from a clear sense of my values? Or am I just refusing to consider an alternative perspective because it will take too much mental “heavy lifting” to incorporate it into my worldview?

Finding the Driver of Your Motivational Engine

In my previous article, I described the way in which external incentives can “crowd out” a person’s natural, internal motivation to act. When the performance becomes all about the attainment of a carrot dangling at the end of a stick, the person can forget about the whole reason he started grasping for the carrot in the first place. If his original intrinsic drive becomes overshadowed, and if he decides a carrot just isn’t worth the effort, he may give up completely.

Last time, I cited some examples of this “crowding out” effect as described by Daniel Pink in his book Drive.  I think another good example can be found in the book Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath.

Made to Stick deals with the crafting of “sticky” messages – i.e., ones that are understood, remembered,  and likely to impact people’s opinions or behavior. The Heaths note that many people equate “persuading” with laying out a rational case for why it is in a person’s self-interest to act in a certain way.  This type of persuasion can take the form of the types of extrinsic inducements that Daniel Pink describes in Drive – do this and you’ll get that (also known in legal-Latin as a quid pro quo). 

However, as the Heaths say, “Always structuring our ideas around self-interest is like always painting with one color. It’s stifling for us and uninspiring for others.” And, as the Heaths might have added, it can also produce the opposite effect from the one intended.

To illustrate, the Heaths describe a marketer who was promoting a new educational film on fire safety that was intended to help firemen. The marketer called several local fire units to see if they were interested in purchasing the film. Their answer: An enthusiastic “Yes!”

But in an attempt to sweeten the pot, the marketer then asked a couple of respondents if they would prefer an electric popcorn popper or a set of chef’s carving knives as a thank-you for reviewing the film. Their response (as reported by the Heaths): “Do you think we’d use a fire safety program because of some #*$@%! popcorn popper?!”

As the Heaths observe, the response made no sense.  If you accept the offer, you get a popcorn popper. If you turn it down, you get nothing. Why would a purely rational decision-maker looking to maximize his self-interest take the latter course?  The Heaths go on to explain the thought process at work:

“I’m a firefighter. You’re offering me a popcorn popper to get me to view a film on safety. But firefighters aren’t the kind of people who need little gifts to motivate us to learn about safety. We risk our lives going into burning buildings to save people. Shame on you for implying that I need a popcorn popper!”

In other words, waving a shiny little gadget in front of them crowded out their previously expressed inherent motivation to consider buying the film. I think this is an excellent illustration of Daniel Pink’s observation that “mixing rewards with inherently interesting, creative, or noble tasks is a very dangerous game. When used in these situations, ‘if-then’ rewards usually do more harm than good.”

REFLECTIONS FOR THE YES! LEADER

(As I mentioned in my earlier article, anyone can be a YES! Leader – not just people managers. So this Reflection is addressed to anyone who wants to find more meaning in work.)

Here’s a little thought experiment: What would you do if you won the lottery tomorrow? If you never had to work for a living again, how would you spend a typical day? Would it be all leisure, relaxing on the beach, hobnobbing with the rich and famous?

Or would you miss putting in the effort to create something, to coordinate and lead a project, to brighten someone’s day, to make the world a better place for others?

OK, in the first few months after landing the winning ticket, you may take that extended vacation in the tropics – but assuming that you’d eventually miss doing something that resembled work, what would that something be?

As simple as this sounds, I think the answer will give you some insight into the true essence of your internal motivation. If the only thing that could possibly move you along is the “interest, creativity, or nobility” inherent in the task itself, then you’ve likely identified the driving wheel of your motivational engine.