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Steve Arneson
Leadership ExaminerSteve Arneson founded Arneson Leadership Consulting in 2007, and was recently named one of the Top 100 thought leaders in leadership and one of the Top 25 leadership coaches by Leadership Excellence magazine. Dr. Arneson was formerly head of Leadership Development at Capital One, AOL, Time Warner Cable, and a division of PepsiCo, and currently designs corporate leadership and succession planning programs. He can be reached at steve@arnesonleadership.com.
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Leadership lessons: Making a simple behavior change work for you
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by Steve Arneson, Leadership Examiner
This month’s leadership lesson comes from Scott Eblin, Executive Coach and author of the book The Next Level. Scott started his career as a HR executive before becoming an accomplished leadership coach and speaker. Scott writes:
“My best leadership lesson came when I was a Vice President at a large energy company and got 360 feedback that basically told me that my team couldn’t stand me. After getting rocked back on my heels and licking my wounds for about a month, my coach encouraged me to engage with the feedback and start asking people what I could do to be better. In talking with them, I heard again and again that in my drive to get results, I was making my team feel like they weren’t important. When I asked for examples of how I did that, I repeatedly heard about how I was constantly looking at my watch during meetings which made people feel like I had something better to do than to talk to them. (Today’s version of that would probably be constantly checking one’s Blackberry during meetings.)
So, with encouragement from my coach, I set a goal of no longer looking at my watch during meetings. I made sure that my sleeve covered the watch and would sometimes pretend that my wrist was chained to the desk so I couldn’t sneak a peek at it. It was hard at first, but I eventually got better at not looking at my watch. In the process, I actually started hearing more of what people were saying and the follow-up feedback a year later showed that I had moved the needle in terms of connecting with people and making them feel valued. It all started with the simple behavior change of “quit looking at my watch.” I never forgot the lesson: making little changes in your actions can have a big impact on how you’re perceived by others”.
Scott’s lesson is a great reminder that feedback is critical to your development as a leader. As we head into performance review season, take a minute to ask your direct reports how you’re doing as a leader. It doesn’t have to be a long conversation – just ask them: “how am I doing” and “how can I support you even better?” You’re bound to get a few nuggets that you can use to improve your game.
For more information: check out Scott’s book The Next Level at www.eblingroup.com
Top 25 Corrupt Politicians - Part 2: if you follow this column regularly, you know that last week we included a video link from MSNBC's Countdown show about corrupt U.S. politicians. Keith Olbermann finally got around to finishing that list on Monday - here is the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#28244506
Topics: Leadership Lessons
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