Message of the Day - Leadership without Communication

Good Morning,

 

Leadership is a pretty well known and well studied topic. Not to mention it is all the rage in business and organizational circles these last few decades. All you need to do to see that is look at the vast endless array of book titles showering the bookshelves in bookstores, libraries and on the web. Add to that the nearly limitless leadership trainings and seminars available in person, via telecast, the web and on CD or other medium.

 

Yet, no matter how well versed someone is in leadership, how many courses they take, how large a team they lead, no matter what resources are at their disposal, one huge roadblock can short-circuit this crucial skill in its tracks.

 

Lack of effective communication.

 

How is that?

 

A leader shares their vision with their team, gets them to buy in and helps them grow and develop while achieving their shared goal, while developing the team to be leaders in and of themselves.

 

The communication is riddled throughout this. A leader shares a vision, communication. A leader gets the team to buy in, communication. A leader helps the team grow and develop, communication.

 

What if a member of the team simply does not get it?

What if the leader is a visual person and their team are mostly tactile learners. Showing without the holding, touching and feeling is not true communication to those tactile learning team members.

What if the leader picks us new concepts immediately, and their team need to mostly sleep on the training and can run with it in a day or two. That leader will have a hard team training and going.

What if the leader and teams are from different cultures and the method of communication used by the leader is not valued or even understood by the team members?

What if leader sees the big picture of the goals, yet the team members only see themselves and their personal goals? They see the vision, but from their own perspective, and not the leaders.

 

These and many more examples can be shown to stop a leader in their tracks. Unless there is clear communication from end to end, there is room for failure in leadership. Just having a vision and sharing it, or giving direction to a team are meaningless unless there is true communication where everyone is on the same page. Likewise, re-explaining a point over and over again where the leader and the team member are not in agreement is not going to solve the problem.

 

The leader and their team need understand the same baseline information, and this can often be accomplished by simply asking questions, ask the team members what the goals mean to them, finding out what are their best learning styles, what the values mean to them, what their cultural viewpoints are.

 

By effectively communicating, and having free-flowing information in a form everyone understands, where everyone KNOWS what is expected of them, why, how, etc. a leader can truly lead.

 

Leadership, no matter how good, without effective communication is worthless. Just someone up front spouting off words.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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Message of the Day - Surrounded by the Togetherness We Make

Good Morning,

 

My family and I enjoyed a cozy Christmas morning this year, getting up early, opening presents and then enjoying a large home-cooked breakfast. It was a fun time, with plenty of laughs and happy memories.

 

I would like to think that all of my Christmases have been so heartwarming. That, though, is not the case.

 

Flash back to 1989, in Buffalo, New York. I had dropped out of college and worked at the Church of Scientology. It was a snowy day and every member of the staff vanished to be with their families. My family was back on Long Island or western Connecticut and would not see them for a few weeks yet. I was slated to work the morning shift to around 5 PM and then someone would come in and work the evening shift from 5 PM to 10 PM.

 

In the morning, some friends came by with a warm breakfast for me. I was delighted to be thought of. I had no money, and lived literally hand to mouth those days. Outside of that breakfast, I ate stale crackers and jelly in from the break room. I wandered around the office all day, nothing much to do. I kept getting calls from the regional office checking to see how well I was doing on selling courses and getting people to come in. You can laugh, I did.

 

Around 5 PM, my relief called in and said they were not coming in, that I had to cover their shift too. Well, why not, I was there and doing nothing anyway. Around 7 PM, one of the staff members who was currently living in the building itself, there were two at the time, came around and invited me to a movie and dinner. He too had no one to spend Christmas with, and together we went to the movie theater in downtown Buffalo (one of the two or three places actually open in the evening in Buffalo).

 

That Christmas was a time was one of sadness and joy, of being alone, remembered by friends, and abandoned. It was a time where I truly rued my choices that led me to that day. I much rather have been with my family celebrating the holiday, but I had to live with my choices.

 

That evening, at the movies and at dinner, we had a family of two. We celebrated Christmas together, and made a happy ending to an otherwise sad day.

 

This experience taught me that no matter where you are, you can create a family experience with whoever you are with.

 

And in that togetherness, there is some of the best experiences we may come to look back lovingly upon.

 

Enjoy the Christmas holidays with whomever your are with, family, friends, pets, etc.

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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Message of the Day - How Hard IS it?

Good Morning,

 

This past Sunday morning, arriving at Olive Garden for lunch with Karen at shortly after 11 AM we encountered just another sign of devolving nature of our culture. We walked up to the hostess station and when asked how many, we simply said “Two Please”. Then it happened. The hostess, a twenty something youth remarked that she never hears that word ‘Please’ anymore. People come up and say the number of seats they want, and hardly ever say ‘please’, much less ‘thank you.’  The fact that she brought it up, knowing the traffic Olive Garden’s get, it is sad.

 

Earlier that day, someone in my Bible study class commented that when leaving the church one day, he held the door for nearly a dozen youth. As the last one passed by, he mused that not a single one said thank you, much less looked back at him and smiled or something.

 

Worse yet, Karen tells me of times when kids have come up to her while she was by a door waiting and the stood and stared at her until she opened the door for them. They went through, and not a single ‘please’ or ‘thank you’.

 

Common courtesy is disappearing. Worse yet, we are expected to serve other’s expectations without so much as any positive response. What is that about?

 

In 1991 during the release of the movie remake of the Addams Family, we were shocked at the scene in the dining room when Wednesday asks Uncle Fester for something, and Morticia corrects Wednesday with ‘what do we say’ and Wednesday snaps ‘Now!’

 

That sort of rudeness and lack of culture, class or manners was outrageous in 1991, so much so, it made a funny scene in a black comedy.

 

Sadly, it is becoming the norm today.

 

I remember at work a members of the leadership team shared what he felt what were the strengths of each of their team members. One of mine was that I said ‘Good Morning’ to my coworkers every day.

 

Folks, how hard is this?

 

‘Please’

 

‘Thank You’

 

‘Good Morning’

 

We need to fight the pop culture and bring these words back.

 

Say them loud, and say them often. You can say them in church, at work, at the mails, or wherever you are.

 

PLEASE!! It’s not difficult.

 

Pass it along and lets bring back a little more culture, class and manners to our society.

 

How hard is it?

 

Thank you!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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Message of the Day - Making Due

Good Morning,

 

After having a conversation with an associate the other day where we talked about the adversities they currently faced, I realized the relative comfort that I now live in has not always the case. Back in the late ‘80s I found myself living in an abandoned office. I worked at a place which owned a four story building and for staff who could not afford a place of their own, they moved into abandoned offices on the upper level of the building while they got a restart on life.

 

The room I called home for several months was part of a small office suite with a endless pile of paper files and office supplies strewn all over the floors. After a few hours of cleaning and moving everything out of the room I would live in, I set up a futon and presto, instant home. I was not alone, there were two others who also took up residence in other offices in the same suite.

 

I look back on those days and give thanks for all the blessings I have had since those days. While I hope to never have to relive them, the memory of them has helped give me perspective on how to better survive where we are today.

 

No matter where we live, be it in the Taj Mahal or in an abandoned office, we have the ability to make due with what we have. If we get passed the social veneer and our own ego’s we can help improve our lives by hunkering down when we need to and prepare for better times.  Looking down our noses at those less privileged is just plain ignorant, as one day, that could be us.

 

Having an open mind on how to survive tough times is then key.

 

This may be eating beans and rice for a few months to save money to pay down our debts or making coffee in our own houses instead of hitting Starbucks or the local java joint every day. It may mean moving in with a relative, it could be giving away or selling much of our stuff. Making due is a strength we all have when we need to face tough times.

 

No matter where we are in life, we can find ways to make due if we just look . And if looking for solutions doesn’t help, call a friend or do some research. There are many out there who have also had to make austerity changes over the years, and would be happy to offer solutions during our tough times.

 

In the end, the skill and knowledge on how to make due will serve us well, even when we live in high levels of affluence, as life is always full of change. It is not a matter of if the change is coming, it is when.

 

Being able to make due gives us the ability to survive the tough times, which opens the doors to future prosperity and success.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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Message of the Day - Need Versus Want

Good Morning,

 

Each morning as I stumble out of bed and make my way down to the kitchen I am surrounded by three meowing cats wanting their morning canned food and two dogs who want to go outside and take care of their business. It is just like being surrounded by vultures and its a challenge to collect my thoughts amid the whining and constant movements around me after being awake a mere five to ten minutes.

 

Usually I check their big water bowl, which all of the cats and dogs share to see if there is water in it. If not, or if it is nearly empty, I fill it first as the cacophony of meows and doggy whines continues. Filling the bowl with water is not what any of them want at the moment, but it is something they need. The cats have dry food in the basement, they won’t starve. The dogs usually have been out some time in the middle of the night (another enjoyable time for me….) and can wait another hour or two before they go out, so two minutes is not going to kill them while I fill the water bowl.

 

It’s an interesting dynamic, to fulfill a need, water, which if they don’t have, will cause a lot more problems than not having food. Yet, the current want is more powerful and more easily heard. The need, completely ignored. That is, until the need becomes a want, and the pets want water.

 

Isn’t this true in our lives? We have needs and wants, and often our wants drown out our needs. Especially during the Christmas, Hanukah and other holidays, we have dreams of what we want, but often overlook what we need.

 

We make fusses for what we want, and ignore, if we are even aware of what we truly need.

 

It makes sense then to look at our lives and at ourselves to see what we need. What are our needs? We may want that 40 or 50 inch LCD internet TV, but we need to have family time. We may want that latest book or CD, but what we need is to balance our budget. We may want tickets to that big game, but what we need is to get on an exercise program for our health.

 

One of the challenges is that needs are not as sexy or desirable as our wants. Family time is not as flashy as a new big screen TV. But, without family time, the family falters, splinters, crumbles and collapses. We get that latest CD, but when the checks start bouncing and the overdraft fees mount, it may be a long time before we are able to go buy the next hot CD. We may get to go to the game, but as our health gets worse, the ability to go and do things wanes until we become shut ins who can’t go anywhere.

 

Ok, I admit it this sounds a bit morbid, but it is to prove a point. Needs are more important than wants. They have a greater impact on our lives.

 

Taking a good look at our needs and making them our wants, now that is a recipe for success. When we fulfill our needs, we strengthen our foundation, our core. This allows us to build ourselves upward with a far less chance of internal problems.

 

Focus on our Needs, and the wants will can be dealt with when we are able. They will always be there. There will always be another gadget, CD, book, game.

 

Fulfilling needs strengthens the core, fulfilling wants is fluff.

 

Enjoy and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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Message of the Day - Stonewall's failings are lessons for us

Good Morning,

 

One of my recent reads was a biography of General Thomas J. Jackson, better known as ‘Stonewall’ by Byron Farwell (http://www.amazon.com/Stonewall-Biography-General-Thomas-Jackson/dp/0393310868). Throughout the book you could see Jackson’s genius, strong personality and his ability to formulate solid plans in seemingly chaotic environments and lead large units which made him as successful and famous as he was.

 

A man so smart, educated and skilled as General Jackson is often going to have skills and abilities that other folks like you and me will have a hard time replicating. Genius is hard to reproduce. Weaknesses, or challenges are a bit more easy to replicate, or better avoid.

 

As such its within Jackson’s weak suits that we find some interesting failings which then translate into lessons for us on what not to do.

 

1. Jackson had a tendency not to communicate to his leadership team. He would not share his plans, even the destinations of where he was marching his army was a complete mystery to everyone, even to those who directly reported to him. This sometimes caused issues when opportunities were lost due to unclear direction, and at the Battle of Chancellorsville, where Jackson was shot, his back up leadership were unaware of his full plans and had to make due, costing time and two different leaders to get it done.

 

Whether this was due to a lack of trust, or fear of failure, or whatever, this lack of communication limited the ability of Jackson’s Army to more fully operate efficiently due to not knowing the goals or destinations. In our society with the speed of change and the overload of information, secrecy can be much more devastating.

 

2. Jackson held grudges. He brought up more charges on his subordinates and other officers than pretty much any other Officer in the Confederate State. He at one point had his second in command under house arrest for failure to fulfill an order, only to have him report back to duty because no other subordinate General could carry out the currently needed military operation.

 

While leaders should be critical of those who work for them (in the sense that they want them to do the best, and debug any issues), going for a constant stream of reprimands and punishments is not going to build an organization of trust. Doubtless there were many who felt Jackson to be the best General in the Confederacy, and there were others who had to work with him, knowing that they were about to be court-marshaled for what may have been minor issues (some had their charges dropped after Jackson’s death, as no one else could find supportive evidence worthy of a trial). I don’t know about you, but I don’t tend to give it my best when my boss or upper management are holding corrective action or worse over my head as a method of organizational control.

 

We need to be up front with those we work with, and also fair. When we instill a culture of trust and mutual support, we can build a far better organization than one run by strict discipline. Reference Captain D. Michael Abrashoff’s book ‘It’s Your ship’ for an excellent example of open, supportive leadership building a culture of trust and high performance.

 

In all, General Stonewall Jackson was an amazing man with genius for his business. He fell at this high point and many still conjecture what would have happened at Gettysburg had Stonewall been there.

 

In all of that wisdom and skill, we can find many lessons from his failings, as these traits are more common to others. These become a roadmap to help us not make the same mistakes, and ultimately improve our game.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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Message of the Day - The Lost Art

Good Morning,

When I was growing up, playing in sports or in gym class (which I was pretty terrible in either) or just palling around in our neighborhood, when someone got hurt, the coach, parent or whomever was in charge would often give us the sharp words of wisdom: ‘Suck it Up’. Meaning, deal with the pain, the hurt and keep playing, or doing whatever we are doing.

In today’s world when that same hurt comes, the approach has changed dramatically. The world must come to a stop, and we must make sure everyone is okay, both physically and mentally. When someone gets hurt, its all stop, and add more padding, more protection, reduce risk to the point of absurdity. Heck I have seen cases where folks who were not directly involved had to be helped out because they witnessed something which ‘bothered them’.

It makes me wonder if the kids of today are going to be tough enough when real life hits them after their leave their parents house. I say this because even though I had been told to ‘Suck it Up’ as a kid, I was often reminded of how our parents and grandparents had it much worse than us. That what we endured, no matter how bad, was nothing compared to what our forefathers had to live with.

This all indicates that our younger generations are getting progressively ‘wimpier’ and unable to face the rigors of life with the same aplomb their predecessors have come to achieve.

And if this is the case, then it becomes even more important, then, to help change the cycle, to help toughen up our youth to help prepare them for the austerity times that some have said are just around the corner.

Our future are the youth, and if they cannot stand up to the face of tough times because we have lost the art of ‘Sucking It Up’, then we will have to stay in the game long enough to either help them, or step in for them when the going gets rough. And if you doubt me, think of our hero’s in days past compared to those of today. Is there a hero in today’s world like John Wayne anywhere today? Yeah, I haven’t seen one either.

What do we do?

One suggestion is to let our kids and our youth wallow in the pain and suffering in the situations they created and have fallen into. Even for just a little bit and not dive in to save them from the next unpleasant experience, which they caused and rightfully deserve. Not so much for our morbid amusement, but rather as a training tool so that they learn to toughen up and be able to take the blows in life which come to us all.

The apparent sheltered generation here today is on a collision course with upcoming economic and social crises is not a good recipe for our future.

Let’s help them toughen up. Call it’ Manning Up’, or ‘Cowboy Up’, or whatever, but it is imperative that we help our future generations by showing them it is okay to face difficulty and adversity, and how to learn from it.

Every so often, tell them to ‘Suck it up’. And move on.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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