Do you treat your Members as Passengers in an Airport or as Family

I have the "pleasure" of travelling a significant part of the year for business and so have a unique appreciation of airports and their foibles.  Some of you who may appreciate some insights that one of Seth Godin's recent blogs triggered for me.

As a leader in an organisation that deals with youth in clearly defined age groups, there is a temptation to treat them as passengers passing through an airport, a necessary, but ultimately irritating temporary engagement.

So to paraphrase Seth, there are so many things we can learn from what they (airports) do wrong:

1. No one is (visibly) in charge. The airport doesn’t appear to have a CEO, and if it does, you never see them, hear about them or interact with them in any way. When the person at the top doesn’t care, it filters down to what the members / passengers experience.  What's worse is that when they get special treatment when they engage with the system they don't understand what everyone is complaining about.   Unless the management suffers the positive and negative ramifications of the rules they promulgate, how do they know if the changes they make are positive for the organisation.
2. Problems persist because organizations defend their turf instead of embracing and tackling the problem. The middle manager (DC) blames the operations (Group) people, who blame someone else, and around and around. Only when the member’s problem is the driver of organisational behaviour (as opposed to people attempting to maintain power or the status quo) do things change.
3. The organisational offering (think about all those little stores offering items no one buys in airports or in our case the Scout and Cub Programme)  is aimed squarely at the (disappearing) average of the market. People who like fancy luggage and expensive shirts never have a problem finding something to buy at an airport, but when can you find a package of panado’s or a toothbrush?   Apparently, organisations haven’t realized that we’re all lot more used to being able to get ultimate variation in offerings and have come to expect it from everyone.  The average Joe has gone and we have a million different people in his / her place all clamouring for what they need.
4.  Airports see customers, as sometimes does Scouting its members, as powerless transients. Hey, you’re going to be gone tomorrow, but the organisation will still be here, so your opinion is of less than any value.  Besides you are one of a hundred possible members/customers so why should we value you?
5. By removing spare capacity, airlines create failure. In order to increase profit, airlines work hard to get the maximum number of flights out of each plane, each day. As a result, there are no spares, no downtime and no resilience. By assuming that their customer base prefers to save money, not anxiety, they create an anxiety-filled system.  We take our volunteer base and try to minimise the people in our support structure and try to maximise the people who are supported by them.  We figure that a more efficient service support is “better” for the people on the ground, and sometimes lose sight of the comfort that is lost as we lost the visible people of the support structure for the groups on the ground.
6. The Organisational leadership is ruled by superstition and rumour, not fact. They often act without data and put on a quite serious but ultimately useless bit of theatre to support these. These rumours and beliefs become the reality of the organisation despite the glaring gaps between these and the facts on the ground.
7. The ad hoc is forbidden. Imagine an airplane employee bringing in an extension cord and a power strip to deal with the daily occurrence of travellers hunched in the corner around a single outlet. Impossible – it will never happen. There is a bias in most organisations toward the permanent and improved, not the quick and effective.  Why do we not delegate power to make changes and the responsibility for those changes that are made?  Could it be that we don’t trust the people we appoint?  These actions say more about the organisation than about the people who work in it.
8.  Everyone is treated the same. Effective organizations treat different people differently. While there’s some window dressing at the edges (I’m thinking of slightly faster first class lines and slightly more convenient motorized cars for seniors), in general, airports insist that the one size they’ve chosen to offer fit all.  We all believe in the fairness of dumbing down the system to provide the same standards to every member, but are the needs of a group that serves youth without parents the same as those of a group that has an active and committed parent body?  Does a group of members in the deep rural areas require the same support and systems that a group in a modern urbanised suburb does?  Clearly not and yet we insist on one size fits all.
9. There are plenty of potential bad surprises, but no good ones. You can have a flight be cancelled, be strip searched or even go to the wrong airport. But all possibility for delight has been removed. It wouldn’t take much to completely transform the experience from a chore to a delight.   When was the last time you were delighted by an organisation that actually made your life easier?  What have you done to delight and surprise the people who you support?
10. No one is having any fun. Most people who work at airports have precisely the same demeanour as people who work at a cemetery.   How often have you heard of adult members delighting in the programme they are going to run on Friday evening - it happens but its rare!   When did volunteering become a chore, a job that had to be done, instead of fun for both the adult and the youth members?  I would argue that this is partially that we have lost the community of scouting were we can share our joys and our successes – let’s take a leaf for the cub scouters – for most of them scouting is a game writ large.
11. Lastly Airports and many scout groups are sterile. Everyone who passes through leaves no trace, like every morning starts anew. There are no connections between people, either fellow passengers or the staff. No one says, “welcome back,” and that’s honest, because no one feels particularly welcome.   When a cub goes up to the troop, or a scout finishes and wants to come back either as a Rover or a Scouter, who goes out of their way to make that person feel like they belong and that their on-going committee and contribution is valued?

If we don’t take a lesson from this we as Scouting run the risk of mistaking our (one time and long passed) market domination for a you-have-no-choice monopoly.  And make no mistake there are hundreds of choices out there including people just staying at home.  If we are looking for merely reliable, predictable outcomes, we are losing sight of our actual goal which should be motivating and enabling our members to realise their full potential and excel.  

So next time you sit down to write that Friday programme consider this, when the kids go home will they have had an airport experience or feel like they are leaving a warm family environment.  The choice to make this a reality is in your hands.

Passionate leadership

With my recent run in with a burst appendix and subsequent septicaemia I was given a front row (bed) seat to observe teams and leadership in action. Almost to a person the nursing staff, despite poor salaries, are dedicated trainees and professionals who really care about the treatment they give their patients. But one thing become glaringly apparent; two of the head ward sisters made a point of going to speak to every patient every day to monitor mood and progress. These same sisters were not only window dressing but also available to coach and train and up skill and motivate their teams.

By comparison one of the glaring counter examples was a sister who I only saw once when she came in to dismissively tell the trainee nurse how she had botched a dressing. Her offence in this was compounded in that it was done In front of me, the patient, having previously refused to come coach the trainee in how to do the job despite being requested to do so

For anyone who has ever had an infected wound irrigated and packed can tell you if done correctly it is uncomfortable and if done wrong the pain will have you climbing the walls. And the difference between these lies predominantly in the confidence of the person performing the procedure and to much lesser extent their skills.

So what's the leadership lesson? Do you imperiously dictate instructions to people who are nervous and out of their depth in your organisation and then further undermine them by critiquing that work in from of their client? Or do you monitor the pulse of your organisation and step in, not to take over, but to support your team when they need it, thereby building confidence and comfort in asking for help.

I believe that we all need to step off our podiums to work with our teams instead of working off flawed assumptions of skillsets and competence and then blaming those who never had a chance in the first place. Otherwise we risk stifling ourselves and our teams potential for success in the rarified atmosphere of the ivory tower.

What I Want My Girls To Learn

Our children nowadays are deluged with a flood of information, and much of it has limited value if any in the development of them as individuals.   So looking back over some of my life experiences, here are some of the things I would like my children to learn and have the opportunity to experience for themselves.

This is just a short list, and I am sure as the girls grow up there will the other things I want to add but this is a start for them and a bucket list for me to help instil in them.

Being able to talk to anyone.

The ability to talk and really listen to a stranger in conversation is not only an important life skill but the gateway to rewarding relationships sometimes in the most surprising places.

The power of a simple daily plan.

Figure out at the beginning of each day the two or three important things you want to accomplish, and don't let the chaff distract you from them.  when you figure out how to do the last bit you can teach me.

Work is not about a salary (only).

So many people work for a living, and don't enjoy or have a passion for what they do. There is nothing like the feeling of accomplishment that comes from a job well done regardless of the pay or lack thereof or the acknowledgement or lack thereof that you got for doing it.

You can't count on luck.

Life isn’t a Lotto ticket. You can’t depend on good luck to succeed and be happy. The world is not out to get you but neither is it there to make everything a bed of roses. The only luck you can count on is the luck you make with your intellect and hard work.

The value of lots of experiences.

if you only try some things you only will ever have a chance to succeed in that little pool of opportunity.  The more things you attempt, the more quickly you learn what you really value.

The ability to learn from whatever happens.

No one person will follow you through life to tell you what you should have learned from what happened. sitting back after the success or defeat and reflecting about what can be learned from anything that happens is the key to lifelong learning.

The willingness to confront facts and take responsibility.

You only get full credit when you take responsibility. Facing harsh facts is never easy but is always essential. The question always reduces to “What can I do to positively affect this situation?”

How to spend money (wisely).

Money provides means but it doesn’t provide knowledge. While earning money is something almost everyone learns, learning how to handle it is too often forgotten. The ability to save, manage and invest money is necessary for the accumulation and effective use of money earned.

How to be bigger than circumstances or the limitations of others.

Petty people are never an adequate excuse to be petty. The noble are those who can maintain composure rise above their situation and act with dignity.

Resilience.

That is the ability to bounce back from setbacks and defeats, and to do so as quickly as possible. The ability to get back on your feet when you’ve been knocked down by life is crucial.

Its okay to make mistakes.

Everyone does at some time or the other.  You need to understand the mistake and learn from it, moving beyond the guilt and anger to grow from the experience.

These can all be all lessons taught in word and less directly by example. Some of them I am still learning myself. My commitment is to attempt to live up to being that example to you.

Who would you rather be like?

Much is being written at the moment over the comparison between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and some interesting points are bubbling to the surface.

There is no doubt that commercially both men were successful beyond the dreams of most of us, and if we are to consider purely commercial success or visionary contribution, Steve Job's Apple wins handsomely, and yet leading thinkers of the day, Gladwell amongst them, argue that in 50 years Jobs will be a footnote while Gates will be remembered in statues and history books.  Why you might ask? Well one of the fundamental difference between these gentlemen, neither of whom were popular in their organisations when they led them, was that at some point Bill Gates decided to step away and occupy himself in more philanthropic activities, driving such programmes as Malaria and HIV treatment in Africa and other parts of the world, while Jobs stuck to the  bitter end in pushing the value and growth of his remarkable company.

This transition for Gates was made easier by his leadership style that was always more delegatory, when compared to Jobs far more hands on approach.  Gates recruited and led a team of people who thought as he did, while Jobs managed and refereed fiercely opposed vibrant personalities.  These resulted in very different corporate cultures and the ramifications thereof will stay in those organisations for years to come.

The heritage that Bill Gates has left by consolidating and nurturing a team of like minded individuals speaks to a continuity of thought and to a large extent to a sustainability of the corporate identity.  But, it is unlikely to ever be able to make the kind of leaps that the dynamic Apple group would, purely because the out of the box thinking that that requires doesn't fit comfortably in most "apple pie" teams.  But it does create an organisation that survives leadership changes without trauma.  The fiery alternative is exciting and achieves incredible things, but if the leadership personality who balances and manages the personalties leaves, it can immolate itself in its own passion.

When you lead in your context or community, which of these leadership styles do you use.  I would argue that any living organisation requires both of these types of leaders at different times in its evolution, and that the rare individual who can master both is a treasure.  If, like me, you lack that skill then be alert to the need for the different styles and use them as and when necessary.

Good luck and have fun whether you are changing the world or keeping the home fires burning.

Are you a Leader or a Nag?

Four universal truths about Leadership:

1. Leaders are responsible for the performance of those that they lead.

2. One of the main responsibilities of Scout Leadership is to take action when a volunteer’s performance is not up to par.

3. Confronting a volunteer’s performance problem is one of the most difficult (and also the most avoided) discussions a Leader can have with a volunteer.

4. Many volunteers feel their Leaders micromanage them, pick on them unfairly, or get all over their case for things that really don’t matter. In other words, they feel their Leader is a nag.

So, what is the big gap between a Leader doing what a Leader is supposed to do and the volunteer’s reaction?

It’s often because a leader doesn’t know the differences between legitimate performance issues, bad habits and personal pet peeves.

Often this lack of awareness isn’t just a new leaders issue – you see it just as much with experienced leaders that really should know better.

The best way to illustrate the difference between a performance issue, work habit, and pet peeve is to give a few examples of these

1. Performance issue
This is probably the easiest one to get your head around. Performance issues are the results or outputs of a volunteer’s efforts. It’s what a volunteer is meant to do in the role they have been appointed to. Sometimes it’s measurable, but not always. Some examples:

- Too few kids in the Troop/Pack/Crew
- Too many parent complaints
- Bad (boring) programmes
- Too many complaints from the other volunteers in the unit

Although confronting a volunteer with these kinds of issues can still be challenging, volunteers are less likely to become defensive or take it personally. After all, the issue is the job – not the person.

2. Work habits
Habits are the way a volunteer is fulfilling their role. Although not direct performance outputs, poor habits will impact performance. Some examples are, and I have attempted to correlate these to the performance list above:

- Not following up on recruitment leads
- Being rude to parents and youth
- Not taking the time to prepare adequate and suitable programmes instead dashing them off at work on a Friday afternoon.
- Making inappropriate remarks

When discussing a work habit, you need to take the time to make sure the volunteer understands the clear connection between the behaviour and their performance and the group’s performance and response. “Mark, when you don’t listen to your parents and interrupt them, they feel disrespected, which leads to complaints, which leads to the group loosing kids”.

3. Pet peeves
Pet peeves are those little things a volunteer does that irritate you. Some examples using the same bases are:

- A disorganised Scouter
- deliberately provoking arguments regardless of the sensibility of the objection
- writing emails/programmes while sitting in a meeting
- Making dumb jokes that no one really finds funny
- You say tomaytoe, I say tomawtoe

Some of you probably think the pet peeve list sounds very similar to the work habit list. And in reality, given the role and context, one leader’s pet peeve may be another leader’s legitimate work habit. So how can you distinguish between the two, so you can be sure you’re doing your job as a Leader and not being a nag?

Here are two acid test questions:

1. Can I make a clear connection between the behaviour I am upset by (or lack of) and the performance output?

2. If the behaviour doesn’t stop (or start), are you willing to take progressive disciplinary action, up to and including asking the volunteer to leave as a result of a formal disciplinary?

For example, can you show the effect on the youngster’s development over a year when programmes are planned and when they are scratched together on a Friday afternoon? Probably.

Would you be justified in instituting a disciplinary for the volunteer who refused to plan their programmes? You probably could. Could you make the same connection between volunteers that work on emails/programmes in meetings and those that don’t? Probably not in fact, there might be an inverse correlation in respect of productivity.

However, I know a lot of leaders that would get upset and demand that Scouters do not work on programmes in district meetings even though this activity things have no impact on their outputs and performance. They do it simply because they don’t like it. That’s called nagging at best, or a lack of tolerance. At worst, it’s an obnoxious abuse of power, or discriminatory, that will lead to an unnecessary turnover of talented scouters.

Here’s another non-work related, husband and wife example:

Putting the toilet paper on the “wrong” way (facing up or down, whatever your preference is) is a pet peeve. Leaving the toilet seat up is a work habit. It can lead to a splash in the middle of the night, and ultimately a messy divorce if not corrected.

What about a work habit that’s NOT directly impacting performance? For examples, what about the “toxic scouter” that consistently produces great results but wreaks havoc on the rest of the district team. Or the leader that gets outstanding results but violates the values of the Association. Again, as long as you can show an indirect connection between the behaviour and the organisation’s performance (in these cases, it may be the performance/morale of others), and you are willing to get rid of the volunteer if it doesn’t stop (assuming you have used a progressive discipline process), then it’s perfectly appropriate. In fact, it probably takes more courage to take action in these cases. 

Managing volunteers performance isn’t an exact science, but if your follow these guidelines, you stand a better chance of being known as a “firm but fair” leader instead of the Pointy Haired Boss (PHB). And you will keep the good scouters and parents on your team and make them better.

The Passing of a Scouter

I received the sad news of the passing of another of our Scouting brothers and thought this was an apt verse to share:

He was getting old and paunchy

And his hair was falling fast,

And he sat around the Scout Hall,

Telling stories of the past.

Of a camps that he once organised

And the deeds that he had done,

In his exploits with his buddies;

They were heroes, every one.

And 'tho sometimes to his scouts

His tales became a joke,

All his buddies listened quietly

For they knew whereof he spoke.

But we'll hear his tales no longer,

For old John has passed away,

And the world's a little poorer

For a Scouter died today.

He won’t be mourned by many,

Just his children and his wife.

For he lived an ordinary,

Very quiet sort of life.

He held a job and raised a family,

Going quietly on his way;

And the world won't note his passing,

'Tho a Scouter died today.

When politicians leave this earth,

Their bodies lie in state,

While thousands note their passing,

And proclaim that they were great.

Papers tell of their life stories

From the time that they were young

But the passing of a Scouter

Often goes unnoticed, and unsung.

Is the greatest contribution

To the welfare of our land,

Someone who breaks his promise

And cons his fellow man?

Or the ordinary fellow

Who in times of hardship and strife,

Steps up to serve his country

And offers up his time?

The politician's stipend

And the style in which he lives,

Are often disproportionate,

To the service that he gives.

While the ordinary Scouter,

Who offered up his all,

Is paid off with a thank you

And not even a pension, small.

It is not the politicians

With their compromise and ploys,

Who won for us the scouts

That our country now enjoys.

Should you find yourself in danger,

With whatever risks at hand,

Would you really want some cop-out,

With his ever waffling stand?

Or would you want a Scouter--

His God, his country, his fellow man,

Just a common Scouter,

Who would do his best until the end?

He was just a common Scouter,

And his ranks are growing thin,

But his presence should remind us

We may need his like again.

If we cannot do him honour

While he's here to hear the praise,

Then at least let's give him homage

At the ending of his days.

Perhaps just a simple headline

In the paper that might say:

"OUR COUNTRY IS IN MOURNING,

A SCOUTER DIED TODAY..." 

Getting the Stones in First!

Many of you will have heard the old time management example in which a cup is filled with large stones and the audience is asked if the cup is full, to which they of course reply it is.   The presenter then pulls out some smaller stones and shows that they can fit more in, This is inevitably followed by successive demonstrations of the addition of more sand and water.  The moral of the story is that, in the gaps between the big important things on your schedule, it is often possible to slip in multiple smaller tasks and in so doing get a lot more from a day.  However this also opens the door to one of the most common leadership mistakes, namely the vicious spiral many leaders get sucked into in which the urgent takes over the important on an ongoing basis. simply put if there is too much sand in the cup you ain't gonna get the stones in.

This spiral leads to goals that are unmet or have slipped past their deadline. It causes a lack of focus for the organization as people begin to question what the real priorities are for the Association. And ultimately, as the syndrome spreads to the volunteers in the organisation, the success of the organization is held back and doesn’t perform, because volunteers, imitating the leadership, are so focused on putting out fires (writing this weeks programme) and not preparing for the future (getting all the kids to Leaping Wolf/Springbok) because the future is so unclear.

So what are the important things a leader should be focused on? And when the urgent hits you in the face, which it does to us all, how can you deal with it so you can quickly get back to the important items, which will make the difference between your organisation surviving and thriving?

The Important

The leader's ultimate job is to move their organization forward towards the organisations long-term vision. So the important things to an organisation are those activities, decisions, meetings, volunteers, and external influences that will impact the organisation in getting to their long -term vision.

And we all know the urgent, a volunteer crisis, a problem with the programme for this week, a parent/scouter/scout not meeting their commitments, a scout requiring quick feedback on a advancement project, and the list goes on and on.

If you look at people who are very effective at managing the important versus the urgent, what you will find is three things that made them effective:

• delegation,
• time management
• and emotional intelligence (the ability to be calm and not over react).

Effectively delegating urgent issues requires that you can trust that the person you are delegating it to, can get the job done on the required timeline and has the necessary skills to deliver the necessary quality in the job. If you find yourself consistently taking on specific urgent issues, for example financial issues, then this probably means you either don't have the right person managing the groups finances or you need to develop the person so that you can offload more finance issues. Or, it may be that you have trouble letting go of control. It this is the case, ask yourself "How will I be able to grow the Association if I continue to fear letting go of the comfortable and non-risky tasks?"

Time Management is the next critical skill to stay out of the trap of being stuck in the urgent.. The point of "big rocks" is that if you keep tackling the small things, the sand and pebbles, and not the important strategic items, then your pot will be full of sand and pebbles with no way of inserting a big rock. The urgent really aren't the rocks; they are like pebbles, which get caught in a bicycle's gears, which can derail an organisation. As a leader your time should first be focused on the big rocks, and when the pebbles pop up and try to derail you spend time to reprioritize so that you can get quickly back on track to address your big rocks.

And finally, having the skill to manage your emotions in times of the urgent is critical to leadership success. Many leaders forget that they are "on stage". The people you lead are always looking to you for emotional and behavioural cues. So when something or someone becomes that pebble, you need to kick up your level of emotional intelligence. Step back and think before you react.

So if you are tired of spending all your time fighting fires and not focusing on the future, take the tips from leaders who have been able to free themselves of the vicious cycle: delegate, manage your time and your emotions.

My thanks to Beth Miller of Executive Velocity for inspiring this Blog.