True Grit

This week's post comes from Scott Peterson.

 

Sure, True Grit is a great western movie. It is also something that we have at Interstates. Grit is about facing challenges with courage and strength and working through them. It is about leaning into challenges and tough situations, no matter how difficult they are. It is about doing the right thing and getting the job done (and done well).

 

Grit is about tenacity and having an open mind, which sounds like an oxymoron -- but it is true. That open mind is about having a growth mindset and having a passion to learn and to improve. It is about not being scared or avoiding situations that you might fail. Embracing the situation and potential failure - "I don't have it figured out, YET!!" It is truly one of the best qualities of Interstates' employees and leaders.  

 

I could stop there, but that would not be the Interstates Way. In order to pursue a better way, all of us should think about what the next level of Interstates Grit would look like. For me, and I am guessing for a lot of leaders at Interstates, it is adding the "We" to the grit mentality. It is about asking for help, offering help, leaning into tough IPD issues and giving feedback across business units. It is applying something we are already great at ("GRIT") to "One Interstates, One Service".  

 

As leaders, we have the responsibility to teach and develop grit in our teams and new team members. We have hired a lot of talented people in the last couple of years, and we will be hiring more. If we, as leaders, can model, teach and develop grit in our team members -- that would have huge impact on our employees, teams, and clients. It would be about carrying on the Interstates Way to the next generation.  

 

Your challenge: 

• Show your passion to figure challenges out (passion to learn) 
• Show your passion to recover from failure (tenacity and perseverance) 
• Lead with vulnerability - "I need help" 
• Lead with the "We" -- We don't have it figured out, yet.  

 

As leaders, lets leverage our grit. We need to continue to model grit; we need to live with grit; and we need to teach new people grit…that True Grit and is the Interstates Way.  

 

Continue Leading the Interstates Way!

Scott Peterson   

 

** This video was a reference for me as I wrote this article and may provide you with more insight on grit (on.ted.com/psuF).

Servant Leadership Margin

This week's post comes from Doug Post.

We technical leaders are often our own worst enemy. It’s likely we were promoted to lead because of our ability to get things done. Often we find it tempting to keep ourselves too busy doing, or jumping into, our past job (our “occupational hobby”). The problem is that we don’t prioritize time to be effective servant leaders helping others excel at the work we once did.  In other words, we often do not get to what is now our most important role.

Ask yourself this, have you built enough leadership margin (available time) in your day to serve?  Here are some quick test questions for you:*

1. Do you put your direct reports first?  This means finding out what others need and making those needs your priority, not your own. Putting the interest of others first involves finding out what matters to them. It is not serving –although it might feel more efficient—to impose your own grid on others! We need to understand their situation and their needs accurately, and this comes from listening to them, not coming in with our assumptions.

2. Are you eager to meet your peoples’ needs?  When they stop by do you see it as an interruption or an opportunity? Do you respond with eagerness and joy, or with grudging reluctance?

3. Are you proactive, not reactive, in helping your stakeholders? A servant leadership ethic is being on the lookout to identify needs proactively and then take action to meet those needs. We should look for opportunities to do good for our people.

4. Are you willing to make things harder on yourself to make them easier on others?

While these questions might be cause for reflection on one's character, our focus in this article is on leaving enough margin in our day to be available for others. That is, making time to be servant leaders.

I’ve found that building routines into my  calendar is very helpful in prioritizing time for others at work.  For example, I like to get up early and complete my top personal assignments before I go into the office. This helps alleviate the personal deadline pressure that can make me treat people like interruptions. It helps me be more available for others than when I let myself get too busy.

If this approach interests you, an excellent podcast and article on finding leadership margin through routines is available at http://michaelhyatt.com/081-how-to-create-more-margin-in-your-crazy-busy-life-podcast.html. It includes a helpful Excel template to get started.

What are your challenges and wins in finding time to be fully present for others? Please share, I’d love to hear from you on this topic.

*Questions adapted from What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done by Matt Perman, p. 89-92.

Continue Leading the Interstates Way!

Doug Post

The Power of Being Wrong

This week's post comes from Dave Crumrine.

What's really going on here?  Am I seeing this properly?

Recently I watched a TED video on "being wrong" and why most of us generally avoid it so much that it is making us far less effective than we could be.  If we would just take a minute and get real about how much we know and don't know, we would be much more effective as leaders.  To simply acknowledge that our mind dramatically affects what we "see".  Or that our own personal filters are different than those around us and "the truth" looks different to just about everybody around us.  In other words, our perspective is unique. (and so is everyone else's by the way)

For me, one leadership responsibility is instilling confidence on the direction. This means that I often am not 100% sure of something but I believe the followers need to be confident and we need to get going. So I step out there, set direction and take action. The problem is, I often do it in a way that doesn't leave enough room to be "wrong" and make proper adjustments. Not too far along, I don't want to be wrong (even though I wasn't 100% sure when I started) and certainly the followers don't want to tell me I'm wrong. Will that keep any of us from making the important, quick adjustments to be successful…..?  Almost certainly.

Many of us understand that any journey takes a huge number of adjustments. Heck, a good casual family vacation at my house takes dozens. Why would complex business be any less so?

This forced me to consider how well I, and we at Interstates, test our ideas. Are we comfortable with telling people we aren't sure? We believe we have an edge and can be "more right" or "right more often".  Is that true? Or is it just for own ego that we need to be right?  If we set out on our direction with "this is how we are going to start, and we are going to look for ____ " to know we are on track, would we be better at making adjustments? With everyone looking for the signs and basically set-up to adjust, would we be better?

Many productive and accomplished people throughout  history have said that failing faster and failing "better" is the secret to making progress and doing great things. So why is being wrong so hard on us?  Why do we avoid it?  Don't we get it?  Or don't we get it way down deep, where it really counts?  Do we understand all this on an intellectual level, but when it comes time for us to be wrong...we would just as soon let someone else step out and volunteer for that?

I'd propose that we should all get better at knowing that we will be wrong and setting out looking for it. We need to get great at listening to each other to "see " when it it isn't working and adjust.

As leaders, we can't set out to be perfect. That's for elementary school spelling tests.  Our work as leaders would be way more effective if we set ourselves up to expect to be wrong and get great at seeing it and making timely course corrections using the people around us.

Challenge going forward... Ask yourself "where am I wrong and am not admitting it?"  "Where could my being wrong and not seeing it, be holding back my team?"

The 18 min. video I watched if you are interested is found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QleRgTBMX88

Continue Leading the Interstates Way!

Dave Crumrine