In This Issue:
PROFILE: Roy Bigge
Each month we will profile someone in the business, non-profit
or government sector who has shown superior leadership or management
skills. If you know someone who should be profiled, please send the
person's name, title, organization and contact information to edgeline
@leadingedgeassociates.net.
ROY BIGGE
Director, Alchemy Search Partners, a recruitment firm based in San Jose, CA
Roy, 55, is a well-known entrepreneur and community leader in Silicon Valley.
Describe someone who is a hero to you, or mentor or role model?
My role models are people in their 70s or 80s who continue to set goals in their lives. They are still taking on challenges and giving back more than they receive. I think that if you want to be like them, it is important to start today no matter what your situation may be.
What two or three traits or qualities will leaders need to be successful in the future?
Hire good people. Don't be afraid to bring people into your organization who are better than you or different from you. ... Know that not every decision you make has to be popular.
What personal strengths have led to your own success?
I believe in myself and the people around me. I make decisions about people very quickly.
Tell us about your outside community interests, hobbies and activities.
I enjoyed my two years as Chair of the Santa Clara Valley YMCA and working with people who were all about making lives better.
Packing into the wilderness on my (three) horses is my favorite activity. There is nothing better than sitting around a campfire at the end of a day with friends and family enjoying your beverage of choice. The second best thing is waking up and enjoying that first cup of camp coffee.
What are three tips you would offer to aspiring managers and leaders?
1) Enjoy what you're doing. 2) Make time for yourself and your family. 3) Make your best effort as often as possible.
ROY BIGGE
Favorite quote: "Better to have a horrible end than an endless horror."
Favorite book: "Lincoln," by Gore Vidal
Movie you found inspirational on the topic of leadership: "Gladiator"
MANAGEMENT TIP
Develop an "on-boarding" plan for newly hired staffers: Design a personalized tour so they will meet key people they'll need to know to get their work done; send an introductory e-mail within the department with a personal profile (e.g. marathon runner, dog lover); ask team mates to initiate get-acquainted lunches; free up work time to complete forms, organize workspace, learn systems, etc. Then, schedule monthly coffee meetings for the first three months so they can ask questions and you can offer feedback on initial performance. Share unspoken work culture "rules" and discuss your preferred communication style.
-Jacqui Love Marshall
Are you on a Great Team?
Take this test to find out
A Great Team is one that is capable of extraordinary accomplishments—feats that would not be possible if its members were individual actors. Whether in sports or in the business world, Great Teams have 10 characteristics in common. They are:
1. Leadership throughout Great Teams generally have a strong leader. But what makes them different from other teams is that many members in the group are capable leaders in their own right. They exert leadership in their own sphere, and step up to leadership of the entire group if the situation demands it.
2. Driven by vision and mission Great Teams are inspired by a higher calling. Their goal isn''t to punch a clock or simply "get the job done." They want to achieve something bigger than their own individual aspirations; something lasting and memorable.
3. Possess skills necessary to do the job If Great Teams lack these skills at the outset, they will do whatever it takes to acquire them—including putting egos aside to accommodate new members with the necessary new skills.
4. Diverse and complementary strengths and skills Great Teams recognize that it is sometimes harder to mesh a diverse group, but see the potential payoff; complementary background and skills allow the team to execute bigger tasks more quickly and in a coordinated, synergistic fashion.
5. Members understand their roles, which play to their strengths People on Great Teams don''t waste time waiting for marching orders and worrying about turf. They know what is expected and they are pleased to do work that plays to their strengths and is valued by the rest of the team
6. Interdependent—but members also can act autonomously Because of superior communications, a common sense of mission and a learning mentality, Great Team members can fill in for each other when the occasion demands. They also can act in an autonomous manner, because they all have bought into the group''s vision and they have confidence that each will act in support of that vision.
7. Clear lines of succession When the leader is away, there are no power struggles; everyone knows who will step up in the leader''s absence.
8. Members challenge one another to succeed, improve On a Great Team, members push colleagues to improve their skills and contributions, both for the benefit of individuals and for the team. Members have the confidence to "get in the face" of a colleague if necessary, knowing that the agenda is simply to help the team do better work.
9. When chips are down: "I''ve got your back" Like a good family, folks may squabble internally, but when a large challenge presents itself, team members know they can count on one another for support.
10. Rise to the occasion Great Teams somehow are at their best when something important is on the line. While others drift to the back; Great Team members fearlessly step up and execute. If they fail, in the words of Teddy Roosevelt, at least they "fail while daring greatly."
Think about your team—the group of people you supervise, and/or your boss and the group of people the boss supervises. Go down the list of characteristics. Note the ones that describe your group -- and work on the others to help lead your team to greatness.
Questions or thoughts? Contact me at larryo@leadingedgeassociates.net
WOMAN TALK: Understanding the female brain
By Dinah Eng
Women who want to advance in their careers have long known that they
need to understand how men think. Now, scientific research is showing
that the way women think is an advantage we should also be developing.
Neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine, founder of the Women's and Teen
Girls' Mood and Hormone Clinic at the University of California, San
Francisco, has written a bestselling book, "The Female Brain" (Morgan
Road Books, $24.95), which explains how our brains and constantly changing
hormones create every woman's reality.
Yes, it's true that women talk more than men (about 13,000 more words
per day, on average), and that the majority of men think about sex once
a minute, while women think about it once a day. But did you know that
both sexes start life with a female brain for the first eight weeks
of life?
"A surge of testosterone changes the brain in a male fetus by killing
off some cells in the communication centers and growing more cells in
the sex and aggression centers," Brizendine explains. "In the female
brain, more cells are devoted to emotional expression. Understanding
the differences between the way males and females process information
and emotional content can be critical for either sex in managing the
other."
Female brain circuits, for example, spend more time thinking about the
emotional details of interactions between people. Such insights, Brizendine
says, leads women to be more creative in their approach to tasks, and
to negotiate more creative solutions to conflicts, than men.
"At the same time, because the female brain picks up emotional nuance
so astutely, a woman may be more prone to look for signs of approval
or disapproval from others," Brizendine notes. "This can inhibit her
from bashing through barriers like a man would.
"For example, a woman might be hoping others will notice her good performance,
and not act as forcefully as a male in seeking a promotion. Not because
she's not as strong as a man, but because she's concerned with the emotional
nuances of when and how to ask for that promotion."
Brizendine's book outlines different stages of a woman's life, discussing
major hormonal changes that occur from the fetal months to postmenopause,
female-specific brain changes that happen during those times, and the
life priorities that shift because of both.
"The issue for women in their 30s with young children at home is trying
to juggle as fast as she can," Brizendine says. "Mommy brain alarms
are going off all the time, and the menstrual cycle is going up and
down, which can get dicier in the perimenopausal years (ages 35-50)
when your level of feeling at the top of your game physically and mentally
is constantly in flux."
After age 50, she notes, a woman's ability to focus on work without
the distractions of brain circuit and hormonal changes can be a welcome
break, putting women at the top of their careers from age 50 to 65.
"I think women can now relax and use the skill sets they've always
had in the workplace, and not feel like they have to de-feminize themselves
to make it in a man's world," Brizendine says. "It's clear that women
at the top are terrific negotiators in a world where many CEOs have
to be culturally sensitive, and sensitive to emotional nuance. It's
not that men can't learn these skills. It's just harder for them to
do so."
MANAGING DIVERSITY: Tips for mentoring across cultures
By Jacqui Love Marshall
Mentoring or coaching across ethnic or gender lines may not feel natural at first, but it need not be unsettling for the persons involved. Unless mentor and mentee already know one another well, it takes genuine effort from both people to build rapport, trust and understanding. Diversity factors simply add to the challenges of the relationship.
For example, a white male executive in your company is asked to mentor a black female of high potential. Let's suppose, for a minute, that you are the mentor. What might you do to prepare yourself?
First, conduct an early self-examination:
- "Why am I doing this?" Be clear about your motives and intentions
in taking on this role. If the only reason that emerges is the company
is making you do it, reconsider. To sustain a meaningful mentoring relationship,
you've got to see it as a mutually beneficial and rewarding experience.
- "What can I offer?" What of your unique achievements, successes, blunders
and perspectives would be valuable to another professional? What of
your personal and career background is worth sharing with a high-potential
woman of color?
- "What perceptions/assumptions do I carry?" Do you harbor any racial
or gender stereotypes? Do you see your mentee's diversity as an asset
or a liability? Will you be comfortable confronting (or being confronted
on) diversity issues? Challenge yourself on any potential "blind spots."
What more can you do to help build an exchange in which both of you
are contributing and learning?
- To build honesty and trust, mentors and mentees must respect one another
and the ground rules they establish. Confidentiality and boundaries
must be discussed. Agree on how, when and where you will interact, then
honor those agreements.
- Be open. Don't ask a mentee to divulge personal information you wouldn't
share yourself. Discuss common interests to find points of shared experience
but be willing to explore areas of divergent experience, behavior and
values. Seek diversity-broadening experiences (e.g. a gospel concert,
a woman's TV movie) that expand your diversity range.
- Aim for authenticity. Some people mistakenly talk and act like members
of another's cultural or age group to appear comfortable with the differences.
Most often, the behavior is laughable, if not offensive. Be yourself
and invite the mentee to be authentic too.
- As trust builds, seek feedback from your mentee about your diversity
"quotient" and be honest in offering the same. Continue to challenge
your intentions, assumptions and comfort level in the relationship.
BOOK NOOK
The Tao of Personal Leadership
Author: Diane Dreher
HarperBusiness, NY 1997
East meets West in this effective book that blends the ancient wisdom
of the Tao Te Ching and lessons from successful leaders, past and present.
Dreher provides a new angle of vision and new approaches to conflict
resolution, community building, empowerment and growth and renewal.
There are enough practical steps to anchor these topics in the day-to-day
operations of the workplace. There are equal doses of sheer poetry to
inspire the weary corporate leader. Dreher is a San Francisco Bay Area
writer and consultant. She currently chairs the English department at
Santa Clara University.
- Rebecca Kuiken
ETHICS DILEMMA: Be part of the solution
Jerry Ceppos will answer questions about ethical issues every month. Along with two others, he received the first Ethics in Journalism Award of the Society of Professional Journalists. Write Jerry at jceppos@aol.com. Tell him if you don't want your name used.
Q. With the economic situation deteriorating at so many media companies, it's clear that ethical lines will blur. As an employee, what can I do about that?
A. First, be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Keep an eye out. Don't let ethical violations slide by; others will do that. Watch for situations that bother you, then suggest solutions to the boss: "To avoid another problem with advertorials, maybe a few of us should sit down with Advertising and draft some guidelines. We'll show them to you when we're finished."
Second, be clear with yourself about what's an ethical problem. For example, as much as I hate section-front ads—and especially front-page ads—I see them as an irritant, not an ethical issue. You'll lose credibility, and you'll get the boss's back up, if you cloak everything in the ethics robe.
What do I worry about in these tight times? Strangely, political advertising
strikes me as an issue that will cause problems as revenues get tighter.
For example, my hometown paper carried a front-page "Post-It" ad for
a mayoral candidate two days before the primary election last spring.
I doubt that would have happened in the past. In addition to the timing
question, the sticker didn't carry an "advertisement" bug.
Our Contributors
Jerry Ceppos is a consultant for Leading Edge Associates.
Dinah Eng is a syndicated columnist for Gannett News Service and a freelancer based in Los Angeles. She also works as a diversity consultant and trainer.
Rebecca Kuiken is a consultant, diversity trainer and an ordained Presbyterian minister.
Jacqui Love Marshall, a former human resources executive, now is a writer and consultant.
Larry Olmstead is president and executive consultant for Leading Edge Associates.