Become a Shovel Ready Leader™

We’ve heard quite a bit lately about “shovel ready” projects usually framed as “construction projects ready-to-go” but just in need of a bit of “stimulus.”
Well, in these difficult times, with perhaps more to come, the hour as arrived for our leaders to become shovel ready.  It’s time for you to get shovel ready.  It’s time for all of us to become part of the stimulus.
To me, the term shovel ready means that some advanced thought and effort has precipitated the ability to be ready.
With that in mind, I have devised Seven Steps to becoming a Shovel Ready Leader™.

1. Passion: Even amid all of the chaos swirling around you, your family or your organization, you must find a few moments to reflect on what you really are passionate about.  Ask yourself why you care about this?  Without knowing this key ingredient, you might dig in the wrong direction.  Write your responses down.  Reflect on them often, especially during moments of hesitation.
2. Presence: This does not mean propping yourself up with your shovel as others do the work or plopping behind your desk in your favorite pinstripes.  Leadership is a moment-to-moment choice.  To be a Shovel Ready Leader™ you must be authentically present to those around you at all times.  You need to completely close the gap between your beliefs and behaviors.  To do this you must be aware of what you stand for and why.  Your core values are key to your success.  Dig too far away from your core and a bottomless pit of dismal outcomes awaits you.  Please note, presence includes listening, not just hearing.  Shovel Ready Leaders™ are active listeners.  They use questions as teaching tools.  When you listen deeply, you create a credibility path so others not only want to join with you, but lobby for the honor.
3. Voice: This is not about raising your voice over the din.  It’s about discovering your true voice and helping others find theirs.  Storytelling is the key.  Shovel Ready Leaders™ find elements from past stories about overcoming adversity that helps him or her make sense of what is ahead and how to frame the future Vision Story.  Moreover, your Vision Story must offer a terrain map of a positive future and everyone’s role in it.  Speaking from your heart will attract others who will join you in this new quest moving them away from chaos and towards commitment.  However, in your workplace, where change may be greeted with anything but open arms, people may need to be personally and warmly invited.  Just because they work in the same organization doesn’t mean they feel a part of what’s next.  Invite them personally and share the benefits of picking up a shovel with you.
4. Action: Grab your shovel, dig a deep trench and shove those “never been helpful” limiting thoughts deep into the ditch and bury them for good.  Your mind is your most valuable ally.  Yet, it can be your most ardent adversary.  When you take charge of your mind, you begin to take charge of your life.  Shovel Ready Leaders™ understand leading is about doing not just talking.  Question everything, especially those redundant systems and those deep potholes potentially masked as your policies and procedures.  When you do that, you will help others see obstacles as opportunities.
5. Service: Being of service is a way of life.  Choose it.  Being a Shovel Ready Leader™ means not looking at those around you as tools in your “Tim-the-tool-man” belt.  You don’t call them “my people.”  You are not the “boss” of them; you are their servant leader.  You honor them as individuals and refuse to use them as a “mosh pit” of automatons.  You purposely create a diversified cast of talented fellow leaders.  Many of them should be smarter than you and preparing to succeed you if you’re lucky.  When you recognize and reward, you think about it in advance.  You don’t just toss thank you bouquets to the masses as you mosey down the hallway.  You acknowledge them meaningfully, and not with an “Attaperson” print out from the copy machine either.  Learn about the people who have rolled up their sleeves with you and acknowledge them personally.  Your goals should include focusing on helping them create their masterpiece.
6. Evolve: Incremental or giant leaps.  You choose.  The Shovel Ready Leader™ is a rabid learner.  SRL’s never plateau.  They are always stretching themselves and others.  Read voraciously and encourage others to do the same.  Seek out other learners as well.  Create a Book Club at work and use all types of books (like The Offsite) to ignite a leadership conversation with your team.  Always be ready to try new things.  “It’s the way we’ve always done things” is not the battle cry of Shovel Ready Leaders™.
7. Demonstrate: Exhibit the above behaviors every moment by using my simple but effective The Four Commitment Questions™ “What Can I Do More Of?  What Can I Do Less Of?  What Can I Start Doing?  What Can I Stop Doing?”  Commit to this new way of living.  Without commitment, nothing changes.  Not you.  Not them.  Nothing.

Well, there you have it, The Seven Steps to becoming a Shovel Ready Leader.™ I’m sure there are more.  Let me know if you come up with an eighth, ninth or tenth.  I’d be glad to post them.  Send to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Offsite Book Club

This month another question arrived in my mailbox about Joe Vanderson, the most difficult character in The Offsite (and one of the most popular to despise), and his Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) results.
A Book Club reader from New York asked “how can we get the Joe’s in our organization to do the LPI and share their scores so improvement can be measured.”

First, let me tackle the “doing.”

I would suggest that the LPI information be shared as widely as possible before the instrument is used.  The importance of the information gleaned for each individual should be maximized and the privacy of the results should be reinforced.  If everyone takes the process seriously, your results will be far more valid.
Next, senior (including the most senior) executives not only tout their support for the instrument, but take part in the process as well.

Leaders go first, so they should share their results and let everyone know that they are serious about getting better at “this leadership stuff.”  (Their scores may not be as flattering as you might think.)
Everyone needs to understand that this is a process.  The organization must make a commitment to it over the long haul.  The LPI is a nice “one-time-and-you-are-done-device,” but it is at its best when used over a period of years.  (Once a year is great, and not as a performance tool for compensation.) 

This longer view takes commitment to the content and the process.  If the organization is not willing to make a leadership commitment about the leadership commitment…well you see where that leads.
The LPI can be used as a self-directive learning tool.  However, I would suggest that an expert who knows what the instrument is “saying between the numbers” facilitates the process in the beginning.  Once the usefulness and credibility of the instrument is secured, in-house talent developers can take the reins.
Now, let’s wrestle with the “sharing” aspect of the reader’s question.

Since the LPI is touted as being a private and anonymous (for raters) source of information, sharing should never be mandated.  It should be modeled.

Most people, I have found are not reluctant to share in workshop sessions even with those they work with everyday.

However, there are always a few Joe’s in the room.  They quickly cover their scores with their hand as they read them checking to see if anyone is peering over their shoulder.  Even though I am slated to coach them days later, some even resent me looking at their reports.  (I guess they’re just shy.)

In sessions, I try to make everyone feel comfortable with sharing by giving them some time alone for reflection.  After they have had a reasonable amount of time, I ask them to partner with someone and chat about their scores (not necessarily look at each others reports.)  Once that is accomplished, I then turn to the larger group and ask for questions.  The Q&A time usually stirs the group up and they begin to talk more openly (even the Joe’s).

However, the LPI can’t be just discussed and filed.  It needs to be acted upon.  The best way to do that is with what I call the LPI Meeting (how creative is that title?).  I ask everyone to commit to doing an LPI Meeting as soon as possible.  It can take many forms, but the most effective is to get your respondents (and any other's you like) in a room and let them brainstorm specific ideas for you.  (With you out of the room).  Since this may not always be doable, you must be as innovative as possible.  The last option should be to meet with people individually.  Generally, I only suggest you do individual sessions with the person you report to directly if possible.

However, let me stop right there. Instead of me telling, let me show you by sharing a real-world email Shannon Venturo, of The Cheesecake Factory sent to her folks after a recent coaching session with me.  Shannon used my Four Commitment Questions™ plus some of her own specific thoughts. 
It is a perfect example of what to do to learn more about how the LPI can start a great conversation and become more than a one-way process.  (The questions Shannon asks should become a part of the fabric in everyone’s interactions, no matter what their title).

As an area director, Shannon’s reports and other respondents are spread all over Colorado, Utah and Nevada, so getting them all together was not doable in the short-term.  Take a close look at the language she used to earn everyone’s trust for the individual LPI meetings.

“Thank you very much for participating in the 360 Leadership Practices Survey for me.
Your commitment to my growth as a leader is much appreciated.  I got a lot out of the process. 
Next week I would like to set aside some time with each of you individually to gather more candid information and actionable feedback.  I ask you to be brave and bold in your thought process of what you would like to say.  I have a genuine desire to be a team builder and a legendary leader.  Any way you can help in my development on my journey will assist me in getting better.

I am sending you some thought provoking questions designed to open up our time together.  These will act as a platform and starting block but by no means are the only things we may discuss.  This is your time to talk and my time to listen.  There is really no “one size fits all” approach to leading people that has ever been effective.  This will help me tailor my style better to your own personal needs as a General Manager. 

• What can I do more of for you?

• What can I do less of for you? 

• What can I start doing for you?

• What can I stop doing for you?

• What have you done that went unnoticed and possibly unrewarded?

• How do my actions affect your performance?

• What would you like to learn in 2009?

I am sending you these questions ahead of time to give you enough time to put some thought into your answers.  I appreciate your honesty and development and look forward to our conversation.”

Sincerely,
Shannon L. Venturo

Well done, Shannon.
The only thing I would like to add to the above is please consider allowing individuals to get some LPI coaching after finishing the instrument, at least for the first time.  A half hour to an hour is all it takes.  If they wish to dive deeper into the coaching process, as Joe requested in The Offsite, so much the better.

If you have other ideas on how to make the LPI Meeting even more effective, please share and I will be more than happy to post your comments.  Send your ideas to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Until next month,

Lead with Grace…Robert.