Donald Trump ESTP Hillary Clinton INTJ - Leadership Styles
Presidential Politics and Personality Type

By Ross Reinhold September 2016

More Politics & Personality Type Other articles you might enjoy. Bernie Sanders - INFP Donald Trump - ESTP Barack Obama INFJ and Mitt Romney ISTJ Multi-faceted nature of Hillary Clinton INTJ I also have an article you may find interesting onPolitics and Personality Type which traces the link between our value priorities and our mental hard-wiring. Hidden Faces of the 16 Types

The first Presidential Debate is over. Clinton's natural management style, emphasizing planning and preparation, served her well. She seemed well-prepared for the questions and comments that came her way. Trump, whose style emphasizes flexibility, spontaneity, and making things happen, wasn't on his game. Like an all-pro gunslinger quarterback, you sometimes miss a wide-open receiver or throw an untimely interception.

Watching the debates and media coverage of the candidates offers some insight into the contrasting personality and styles of the two Presidential candidates. But we also get a good deal of partisan spin, portraying what ought to be more neutral mannerisms and characteristics into something unflattering or negative.

What I endeavor to do here is contrast the leadership styles of the two candidates using the lens of Personality Type to better understand the character, temperament, and behavior of the two candidates in an unbiased and non-political way.

Hillary Clinton - INTJ - Director
In another article, I suggested and examined what I believe is Hillary Clinton's Personality Type: INTJ. While I am not aware of Hillary Clinton "owning up" to a particular personality type, I believe most experienced "Type Watchers" would agree with my speculations. So for the purposes of this article, I'll be speaking as if these designations are accurate.

Donald Trump - ESTP - Entrepreneur

I've also opined that Donald Trump's Personality Type is ESTP and I believe most students of Personality Type would agree with that assessment.

INTJ vs ESTP
Only one letter of the Type Acronym is shared between them (T for Thinking) and as I'll reference later, there is a difference here too in that Hillary extraverts her Thinking (making it more apparent to others) whereas Donald introverts his Thinking, making it less apparent to others and in particular in the media and in public situations. As anyone who has watched both candidates on TV we know that their personality styles are quite different from one another and this difference is indeed reflected in their Personality Type.

If the reader is not familiar with these Myers- Briggs type letter designations (They refer to mental processes and mental orientations first identified by psychologist Carl Jung and later more fully developed by Isabel Myers and later many psychologists and students of Personality Type who were inspired by Myers work.) I recommend a review of our articleIntroduction to Personality Type.

To follow is an examination of the differences in these two types and the degree each candidate seems to represent classic characteristics of each of these personality types.

Hillary is an Introvert (I), Donald is an Extravert (E)
This one polar opposite primary orientation greatly affects a person's leadership and management style. And I believe the contrast is more magnified because Trump seems very Extraverted and Clinton is clearly Introverted. Her biological introversion is why Hillary tends to play her cards close to the vest, is guarded, and more cautious. His biological extraversion is why Donald seems to lack a filter on voicing his thoughts. Extraverts, particularly those we'd describe as "very extraverted," have trouble examining thoughts until they are voiced out loud - in the public domain as it were.

Hillary is an Intuitive (N), Donald is a Sensor (S)
Hillary's Intuition is the centerpiece of her personality. In INTJs, their dominant Intuition is Introverted so it is not easily seen by others.

Introverted Intuition reflects on patterns, relationships, symbols, meanings, and perspectives on matters from complex phenomena to magical connections to practical problems. The Introverted Intuitive mind typically creates a unique vision and arrives at unique insights about things, phenomena, or people. It strives to discover the essence of things and fill in the missing pieces of a puzzle. Introverted Intuitive types frequently will have complex visions or perspectives that they are unable to explain with clarity to others.

Donald's Sensing is the centerpiece of his personality. In ESTPs, their dominant Sensing is extraverted so it is easily seen by others.

Extraverted Sensing is about seizing the moment, becoming immersed in the here and now, pleasurably and spontaneously interacting with people, things, and situations of interest. It is being aware of, fully tuned into, and energized by the options and impulses of the moment. It is making "work" into play, learning by doing, and enjoying the creative process. It is being attuned to the variety, quality, and esthetic appeal of sensory experiences. Extraverted Sensing notices tangible realities and relates to them in a pragmatic fashion.

Hillary has a Judgement (J) Style, Donald has a Perceiving (P) Style

Hillary's default orientation in dealing with the outside world emphasizes planning and being organized, looking before leaping. The fact that she extraverts her Thinking makes her even more methodical in how she approaches people, things, and situations. As an Introvert, her Thinking is subordinate to and a tool to support the visions of her Introverted Intuition.

A typical INTJ leadership style would emphasize competence in Planning, Organizing, Directing and Controlling. Being Prepared and Being Competent are important to doing one's best work. That's why Hillary isn't a fan of press conferences as it is difficult to control what might happen and because it usually is a TV recorded event any missteps will be recorded in posterity eroding confidence in competence. Being spontaneous and interacting competently in front of large groups are learned skills for an INTJ and mastery of them is challenging because it's the flip side of their strengths which are tied to Introversion.

Drawing upon her strengths, we can expect a huge amount of preparation and organization will go into preparing for Presidential Debates. She'll need to create an organized mental collection of touchstones to draw upon, a huge data base of responses for a variety of questions and situations.

Hillary's inner vision is her energizer but what the outside world sees of her leadership style is her planning, organizing, directing, and controlling nature. Her website articulates well her Vision for America as well as demonstrates her comprehensive & organized management style (note the bullet points in each of 38 issue content sections).

Donald's default orientation in dealing with the outside world emphasizes tuning into the moment, being flexible, adapting, and spontaneous. This orientation draws upon his dominant Sensing, experiencing and interacting with the outside world of people and things. This interaction, with all of his senses, is Donald's life blood. It is how he works best, talking and being engaged with others, and physically moving from place to place. A person like Donald Trump would die as desk jockey.

So Donald loves press conferences, loves public events, and loves sparing with people. This sort of interaction is his life blood. Spending an inordinate amount of time in relative isolation planning and preparing for a debate isn't the cup of tea for an ESTP. While Hillary's preparation will be building that important database of potential responses, Donald's debate preparation will be more like sharpening skills, warm-up exercises, and working from general game plan. While Donald's advisors and handlers certainly want him "prepared" for a wide variety of questions, he could not temperamentally tolerate the kind of extensive and detailed preparation that Hillary will go through.

As mentioned earlier, Donald's Thinking is introverted so it is hidden as well as being subordinate since Donald is a clear extravert. Facts, ideas, opinions need to be aired out-loud, hear and experience them before they can be digested by his Introverted Thinking. However, the media reinforces the idea that expressed thoughts ought to be well-thought out before being expressed. In this manner, the media biases expectations towards Introverts.

Trump's leadership style will be highly interactive, engaging the thoughts and ideas of lots of people. Negotiation and coming to agreement are important components to this style. But once things have been aired out, some shape has appeared, and has passed testing of his inner Thinking, he's ready for action.

Potential Liabilities INTJ Leadership Style of Hillary Clinton

According to Danielle Poirier Dominant Introverted Intuitives (INTJ and INFJ) have:
". . . perceptive minds that travel the breadth and depth of universal mysteries, contemplating its multilayered complexity, seeking the trends that will define the future. With time, clarity of vision comes. When it comes, they are propelled towards the vision and all their actions lead to it."

Hillary's Vision on how things are and how things should be, are both deep and complex. They involve sophisticated concepts, full of nuances. They've been formed and sculpted over a long period of time. Her introverted Feeling adds an emotional commitment to these understandings, a loyalty to and belief in her own vision. Hillary's introverted Feeling also adds the "idealistic" component to her Intuition; helps explain the roots of her "idealism."

Flip side of Loyalty to the Vision.
In the Tech world we see lots of examples of innovative, visionary INTJs who had the right vision, combined with perseverance and command of the logic, details, and organizational skills to achieve the vision. But there is a flip side to this key success combination of the INTJ personality pattern. It happens when The Vision is wrong or when circumstances have changed to make The Vision no longer accurate. That emotional inner Feeling connection to the vision, that helps propel and energize action towards achieving it, can keep an INTJ on the wrong course far too long. INTJs are most effective when they are task focused, laser-like on an objective. Unfortunately, this strength can create tunnel vision. Things that ought to be noticed aren't due to the focus.

If Hillary surrounds herself only with people whose strength is competently completing the mission there will be no built-in check to plunging in the wrong direction. The lemmings will plunge well-organized and confidently into the sea!

Skill in negotiation, persuasion, and other "extraverted people skills" can be valuable Presidential Leadership Skills. While she has been working on developing the "people" side of her personality, it's not her natural strength. Her choice of Tim Kaine as her VP running mate shows evidence she understands the need to supplement her natural strengths through using others on her team.

Potential Liabilities of ESTP Leadership Style of Donald Trump

According to Danielle Poirier Dominant Extraverted Sensors (ESTP and ESFP) have:
". . . Always on the alert for what needs immediate attention or what might provide a bit of action, excitement or entertainment, they engage quickly with their environment. They seek and enjoy freedom, are good-natured, direct, and tolerant and are often the ones who provide levity. . . They have a way with dealing with people on a very equal platform and are not easily star struck. Rank, celebrity and status mean little when they are face to face with another individual."

Trump's action orientation and tendency to "shoot from the lip" get him in trouble. When he has thought something out and arrived at a conclusion, he is quite unshaken in his confidence. To him everything seems logical and ready to go. But sometimes action-oriented people can confidently launch ships prematurely. Even with the right kind of people surrounding him, willing to offer contrary views, and also possessing some more deliberative skills (similar to what a Hillary would offer), he can be expected to make a few mistakes. Without the right kind of people surrounding him, the mistakes could be more costly.

But the vision of Trump getting his nose out of joint and pushing the nuclear button is comedic fiction. No action that serious would ever be taken without extensive involvement of lots of competent people. Despite claims to the contrary, he has a brain and is a logical thinker . . . not an emotional thinker. In our media environment we don't see that side of The Donald, but there is plenty of evidence to infer that it is there.

Trump's candor and willingness to engage with others (often and spontaneously) has brought him lots of supporters. But also lots of critics and opposition. Trump seems to particularly enjoy jousting with the media in general. And when attacked he responds loud and clear. Those opponents who are among the intellectual elite and pundits are manageable challenges. The ones that present the real challenges are more average people who have an emotional and visceral dislike or distrust of him.

Just as Hillary needs to surround herself with people who can help her avoid the downside of her strengths, Trump needs to temper his interactions with the Press, letting others whose temperament tends towards more diplomacy do some of his speaking. His ego loves the limelight and he enjoys the game but the mainstream media is a 1000 pound gorrila you can't afford to have as an enemy.

My intuition tells me that the guy who considers negotiation a vital leadership skill and is the champion of the "Art of the Deal" will morph into a kinder, softer version of what we have seen during the campaign. Up to this point, he's been in a winner-take-all battle which has brought out all of his competitive impulses. But the job of President is a different ball game, where things like consensus, cooperation, negotiation and win-win are important to success. There is evidence in his past and in what is known about ESTP personality types, that these skills are within his repertoire. So can he control his mouth and allow the emergence of Donald Trump 2.0?

What is My Myers Briggs Personality Type? Take our online self-scoring "Personality Test" and learn more about Personality Types

Whose Leadership Style is Right for the Times?

Do you buy into Hillary's vision of what American should be and value her directorial skills at marshaling action towards that vision?

Or do you buy into Donald's vision of what America could be and value his entrepreneurial skills at getting things done?

Leadership lessons and your Landia

Prologue

Leadership learning is and continues to be a challenge. The latest Atlantic magazine contains an article titled: The Charisma Effect – How to bend people to your will.  While the title sounds a bit subversive, the article approaches the topic from a leadership perspective. The first paragraph states: “In tough times people want more that intelligence, integrity or the ability to build really tall walls.  They want someone to make a compelling pitch and inspire a sense of urgency – someone with charisma.” This issue of UPDATE, while a bit tongue and cheek, explores one’s inner self and the land they live in.  Years ago we would start our workshops with a short saying: “If you take things personally, all opportunity to see the data is lost – you become deaf, dumb and blind to everything except for your constructed reality.” We all have a constructed reality – leadership involves knowing, controlling and managing one’s constructed reality in world of other people’s realities.

Introduction

We’re going to depart a bit from our traditional approach to things and throw out a concept founded on a beach on the east coast of Africa in Kenya.  It’s a long story and these folks had time to think about “stuff.”  They came up with an idea they coined as Landia.   What is a Landia, and what is your Landia? In this tumultuous campaign season, we thought we might take a lighter look at the world around us, but still in the context of leadership, teambuilding and people working with people.  So here goes, hope you enjoy.

All of us have had times when we are in our own world.  A world that is only ours, where we daydream about lots of things that may or may not relate to the real world we live in.  That is part of your Landia.  The other part of Landia exists based on the factors listed below.  It is a more visible part of you, some of which you may not even be aware is visible.  A Landia is you – your land, your borders, your topography, your shape, and everything in it and around it. You own it, it is you.  Your Landia is your constructed reality of who you think you are or who you want to be or who you think you should be. You are your Landia.  Everyone has their own Landia; “the land that is theirs.” 

When we first heard about the idea, we were intrigued because in our leadership programs we focus quite a bit on understanding oneself in a rather programmatic manner; assessments, personal interviewing and coaching, etc.   The Landia concept seemed to need some dissecting, so in the interest of doing something a bit out of the norm, Larry and I thought we might try to zoom in on the concept of Landia.

What makes Your Landia?

Several things can make up your Landia.  The below items are a sample of the wide range of factors that make up ones Landia.  Think about the list below, and how these factors shape your Landia. 

Your MBTI (Myers-Briggs) type – The MBTI is a gauge of your personality type. It’s a good start in learning about your Landia.  There are other instruments (DISC, etc.) that can also provide insights into who you are.  We also learn how to effectively interact with other “types”.

Your self-perception – this is a huge part of your Landia, because you own this.  It is who you think you should be, how people should perceive you, how you want to be perceived. You are your self-perception.  For you, self-perception can become your reality.  (We’ll leave it at this for now.  We could probably do a whole article on this factor.)

Your upbringing – this too is another major contributor to the formation of your Landia.  The influences impacting people at young ages stick and sometimes things play out as one might hope they would, and other times they don’t, but be assured, what happens during your formative years impacts your Landia.

Your values – along with upbringing, values are established throughout life, but begin at a young age.  Your system of values, what they are and how you define and live them contribute to your Landia.  Your values are influenced by your family, your life experiences – both good and bad, where you live and work, your friends and a whole host of other factors.

Your beliefs – building on values, you form beliefs.  How you measure or compare your values to beliefs can cause internal strife or reinforcement.  This in turn contributes to your Landia.

Your desires – much talk is given to setting goals.  There are short term, medium term and long term goals.  Your Landia is many times based on long term goals.   Your desires, those stretch goals that you construct in your mind, and believe in them, in your constructed reality. These can be a driving force in the formation of your Landia.

Your dreams – these are even more difficult to achieve.  Dreams and aspirations impact your Landia in many ways.  The world of fantasy, dreams rule, and in your Landia, dreams can become reality.

Your view of the world – all of the above begin to paint a picture of the world as you see it in your Landia. 

Your work – while work may appear to have a rather direct influence on your Landia, it does but only for the time you are in that situation.  If your job changes in 5 years there is a good chance your Landia will become reshaped. 

Your colleagues – colleagues flow with jobs and work, some stay for a while longer than the job, but colleagues have a similar effect on one’s Landia as work does because of the culture of the environment.

Your skills – skills are a special case in the formulation of your Landia.  We all think we are skilled at certain things and not so skilled at others. When we really believe we are skilled at something we tackle it with more enthusiasm.  When those skills are real and applied appropriately, a person’s Landia becomes better defined.  When the skills are perceived skills and one’s Landia has convinced the person that those are well honed skills or unattainable skills, then the efficacy of one’s Landia is suspect.  Closely examining one’s Landia can reveal the truth.

Your attributes – while similar to skills, the application of one’s attributes contributes to the success at convincing oneself and others of one’s Landia.  When skills and attributes converge in a cohesive manner one’s Landia takes shape in constructive ways.  When these two diverge the Landia becomes less defined from the outside looking in and the constructed reality of the person becomes more distorted as does the Landia.

Your experience – experience is applied using skills and attributes, so when skills and attributes converge and experience is overlaid, the Landia takes on even more shape, and when they diverge as discussed above the distortion becomes greater.

Knowing one’s Landia

Is it difficult to know your Landia – sometimes – actually most times, you are unaware that you have a Landia, let alone know of your Landia.  How often have others asked you where you have been when you “check out” of a conversation or meeting?  Or have you had someone ask you a question out of the blue that doesn’t appear to be part of the conversation but it’s based on what that person knows or perceives about you.  It’s who you are, and without knowing who you are, you really can’t know your Landia. Introspection and external honest assessment can shed insights, but depending on how strong the influencers above are acting, one can revert to their preferred Landia.

Can others know your Landia and can they get to know it? It may be difficult for others to know your Landia in any extensive way unless you openly share it with them; short of you sharing your Landia others may only suspect they know how and what you are thinking and why you think that way.  People tend to know when your Landia is solid or when its perceived reality is suspect.  If people begin believing that your Landia is suspect they will challenge it, mostly indirectly, in the areas above. 

What happens when someone comes into your Landia and threatens your Landia? This depends on the integrity of your Landia, and your understanding of your Landia.  If you know your Landia, its strengths and its limitations, and follow the rules, you are better suited to defend your Landia or even allow people more access to it.  If you have become so much of a victim of your constructed reality, your Landia is vulnerable, and you will tend to not let people in, try to defend it or if very vulnerable escape the situation.  Their perceptions become their reality then honesty and trust are in jeopardy.

Do you protect your Landia? If you believe in your Landia, you protect it, like a reputation.

Others Landia

What about other people’s Landia? Everyone has a Landia.  Consciously or unconsciously people tend to look at other people’s Landias.  They are trying to understand the other people by trying to look behind the surface of what the others are just saying or doing.  The difficulty is knowing the difference between what is real and what is some form of a constructed reality based on the factors above.  It has been said that “you have one chance at making a first impression” which is quite true.  Knowing one’s Landia and assessing another person’s Landia can help bridge gaps, break ice and build rapport.  Recognize that everyone has their own Landia.

Overlapping or colliding Landias

What happens when Landias overlap or collide? A lot of talk has been devoted to interpersonal relationships, team building etc.  We discuss ways to build teams based on personality profiles, as well as other assessments.  These are valid tools and methods.  But, they are only one part of the effort.  Landias include motivations, positioning, perceptions, as well as very real competitive issues.  When Landias overlap the potential for great things to happen exists.  This does not infer that everything goes smoothly, but it does mean that people with overlapping Landias can work through issues, achieve defined goals as a group, and build on that success.  When Landias collide, not so good things can happen.  Suspicion, lack of trust and a host of other non-constructive interpersonal things can happen.  The interesting point here is, it is not a binary situation.  There are stages in between. 

Commentary

The situation is never one of all bad or all good.  All knowing or all fake.  The challenge is to know how to deal with the strengths as well as the weaknesses.  If one’s constructed reality is harmless, but makes a person feel better about themselves, so what – let it go, and when this person has a strength that can contribute and has value, understand the weakness, reinforce the strength and move forward.  There may be situations where it is beneficial to let the person know that you understand their Landia and if necessary call them out in a constructive manner.  That tends to bridge the gap of trust and honesty.

Human interaction is never entirely smooth.  The Landia is a somewhat humorous attempt to show that there is so much more to how and why people think and act the way they do.  We all have a complex set of internal factors that motivate us and cause us to act the way we do.  People we deal with regularly try to get a better understanding of us, beyond what they see on the surface.  That understanding helps them deal with us more effectively.  My Landia has developed from so many factors in my life and drives how I act and what I say to a large extent.  My Landia also provides me a place to go to, to escape all the pressures of life. 

Landia Rules

Along with the Landia concept, this same group came up with a set of rules.  These rules we imagine were part of how to begin living the concept of Landia.  Again, keep the perspective.

#1	Think before speaking
#2	Revert to rule 1, but think harder
#3	‘No’ is not an answer
#4	Don't throw anyone under the bus
#5	Drive your own problems
#6	[Open – for your own rule]
#7	Coffee at 10 and 2
#8	Don't be a hater
#9	If you outwork the other guy you will win
#10	You will be dirty, sweaty and wet; embrace it
#11	Humanize yourself
#12	[Figured you’ll need one more rule sometime]
#13	Believe in your own Landia

Takeaway

Perhaps the most important take away here is to realize you have your own Landia as does everyone else. Understanding that and being aware and tolerant will help in preventing Landias from colliding and to allow you to better deal with those who frequent your life. Cheers!

What Can You Do About Those Distractions?

Prologue

Welcome to our final article in this series about leadership distractions. We began this series discussing several common leadership challenges that, while resulting from distractions, diminish leadership effectiveness.   Distractions cause reactivity, and reactivity is not only difficult to manage, but more difficult to stop and reverse.  This article presents components that leaders can implement both to stop and reverse the impact of distractions.  As always, we welcome your comments and thoughts.

Introduction
When we first introduced the idea of distractions, we framed them in the context of leadership surveys showing a declining or status quo condition of organizational leadership.  We also discussed what we refer to as ‘self-imposed/self-created’ distractions where leaders create several of the distractions befalling them.  Those self-imposed/self-created distractions include:

•  Micro-management
•  Lack of trust of their people or their superiors
•  Lack of ability to delegate
•  Lack of focus
• Poor decision-making
• Good intentions (to a fault!)
•  Unmanaged conflict – running issues/conflicts up the flag pole or ignoring them and hoping they will go away
• Weak hierarchy

Our second article in the series dissected each of the self-imposed distractions, where we drilled into each of the distractions to better understand them, and to highlight the relationship between distractions and the cycle of reactivity.  In this article, our focus is to provide ways to exit the cycle of reactivity and to manage distractions in your work and personal life.   The eight components discussed below are challenging.  They require effort and commitment, from a leader who truly wants to eliminate the distractions.  It won’t be easy, but it will be worth the effort for your career and your peace of mind.  

Forces or obstacles within the organization pose challenges, too.  Will the organizational culture support self-assessments?  Will the HR policies readily support building the right team?  Will peers participate openly in an Inner Circle?  While these are real organizational challenges, they can be overcome with effort.

We identify eight components necessary to break the cycle of reactivity and manage distractions:      

1.  Perform self-assessment, introspection and self-discipline
2.   Have an Inner Circle
3. Build the right team
4.  Take a careful and objective look at your organization
5. Make a plan with metrics and milestones
6.  Communicate – communicate
7.  Get people involved – create ownership
8.  Celebrate successes

These components are not arbitrarily listed, but in a specific order, emphasizing the priority of #1 and the finality of #8.  Numbers 2 through 7 are listed in a sequence we feel is best to implement our suggestions.  If this order doesn’t work for you, please adapt to your situation.

#1 Self-assessment, introspection and self-discipline

This is number one for good reason.  Before any leader can begin his or her journey toward effectiveness, it’s essential to know oneself, internalize the knowledge gained, and then manage one’s ability to control the negatives and exploit the positives.  The point is first to gain an objective perspective of oneself.  Without this objective insight, people become victims of their own constructed reality.  The intention is to learn more about oneself as a person, as others see you, your strengths and weaknesses, plus your predicted behavior when stressors impact you.  We believe most of our readers are familiar with the most common instruments.  Taking the step to participate in an assessment is important first and foremost, followed by taking time to learn as much as possible from the report.  Most of our clients find this an interesting and fascinating experience—people enjoy learning about themselves.  Interestingly enough, these instruments provide a validation of things most people already know. The beauty is the independence of the process: non-judgmental and objective.

Once the assessment has been completed and reviewed, the introspection part begins.  Sometimes the feedback is not what was anticipated, and may take some time to accept and internalize.  Most instruments include areas for improvement.  This is where it gets difficult; while a leader may know about his personality/behavioral weaknesses, understanding how those weaknesses impact his daily life is more difficult to understand.  Similarly, regarding strengths, knowing when to leverage strengths as a leader in the proper context takes finesse.  Introspection is an ongoing vigil.  Furthermore, one of the most important leadership characteristics is self-discipline.  The ongoing vigil involves harnessing the requisite self-discipline and the leader’s internalization of knowledge from the assessment toward true improvement.  Too often the assessment process ends with a cursory understanding of whatever report is provided, followed by a return to business as usual.  An Action Plan based on improvements needed is an important tool in keeping the vigil.  Along with the changes a leader realizes he should make, we urge and insist on his creating his own metrics and timeline. 

In conjunction with the Action Plan we also suggest a journal, to record both the good and the not so good events of the day, as well provide an opportunity to reflect and determine those things the leader did as expected and how old behaviors crept into the situation.  Journaling is valuable both in the near term and the long term.  As a leader, make a commitment to use the journal and a commitment periodically to review your entries.  The review reveals where you were, how you have progressed, and if any course corrections are needed.  It is a daily, informal reminder and reinforcement of the Action Plan. 

#2 Have an Inner Circle

Leadership is a lonely endeavor.  One of the biggest leadership challenges is getting candid, objective, qualified inputs and feedback in a non-threatening environment, to help in sorting out issues, ideas, problems, and strategies.   We know this because we have been there and have helped those who are there now.  An Inner Circle becomes even more important for senior executives and CEOs—often the loneliest members of the organization.  Decisions impact employees, clients, customers, families, stockholders, and stakeholders.   Leadership at any level is a difficult role, constantly requiring assessment/feedback, adjustment in style, methods, and measures.  Objective input prevents narcissism, builds and retains effectiveness and authenticity as a leader, and ensures ongoing support of those being led.

An Inner Circle is a group of experienced and knowledgeable people whom you trust.  Some of the characteristics of this group include:

·            Common Sense

·            Experience

·            Honesty

·            Knowledge

·            Proven Track Record

For mid-level managers, an Inner Circle might include a mentor, sponsor and senior person who knows the organization in its entirety.  More senior managers’ Inner Circles are a bit more challenging.  In lieu of mentors, they may draw on colleagues from other organizations who are in similar positions with similar challenges, as well as friends and/or colleagues from outside the work environment.  The challenge here is the ability to ask the right questions and vet the answers, because advice can be a dangerous thing if not qualified.  Finally, for the CEO, her Inner Circle must be external to the organization.  While most CEOs have Boards of Directors, the issues a CEO would bring to her Inner Circle she, in most cases, would not bring to her board. 

In summary, an Inner Circle becomes the go-to resource for objective, honest and candid insights in a safe and confidential environment.  Examples of what a leader can expect from a solid Inner Circle include:

·         Providing thoughts, assessments, and insights on issues you wish not to share with others in your organization, your Board or with close colleagues.

·         Being a sounding board or providing detailed contributions and tangible actionable plans.

·         Possessing unique capabilities or experience, including individualized coaching, mentoring and/or assistance.

Effective leaders surround themselves with key individuals who can act as their support mechanism across the various facets of their leadership responsibilities.  An active Inner Circle is the mechanism.

#3 Build the Right Team

The next logical progression to managing distractions is to build your team, those who will be the standard bearers of your leadership.  Building a team is not a new concept, but for some reason it seems to be a stumbling block.  We have talked about protecting ‘loyal’ employees because they are close to retirement—one of several reasons to keep a team that may not be best suited for the task at hand.  A weak team can create major distractions for a leader.  Some of the fundamental issues include getting the right people in the right jobs—more fundamentally, knowing what the right jobs are. For new hires, matching culture is keenly important; before then, leaders should work to ensure the hiring process can predict the success of the new hire.  Hiring and firing people is expensive.  Once the right people are in place, the building process begins.  Teams just don’t happen, they have to be developed and built.  There will be stumbling blocks, which is normal and to be expected.  What is not normal is to expect a team can develop itself.  A team built from “the ground up” is an easier process, but transitioning an existing team into the right team takes work.  Existing team members have to be assessed.  Some will require training and mentoring to become the team members you need.  Some may just not fit.  For these situations, work with the HR department to seek places where existing team members who don’t fit can be moved.  Easier said than done, but persevere to get the team you need for success.

The advantages of a good team are tremendous.  They do the blocking and tackling.  They divert distractions, they make their boss successful so their boss can do what he or she should be doing – leading the business.   This component, along with outsourcing advice from an Inner Circle, can be difficult for micro-managers.  As much as they may say they agree and support this concept, when it comes to details and control they tend to take over.  We reemphasize the importance of self discipline.

#4 Careful and objective look at your organization

As much as we stress it, objectivity is often overlooked.  Companies become organisms with a life of their own; in some cases, they’re quite different than what the original founders had envisioned.  The shift can happen so slowly it becomes barely recognizable through changes in personnel and evolving culture.  While this “culture creep” may sound ominous, it doesn’t have to be.  The issue here is to be aware of your people, the culture and changes over time.  We have seen organizations, for any number of reasons, end up being ineffective, stagnant and non-motivational.  People who came to work excited to produce and be part of something exciting have become benign and do just as they are told.  This is closely tied to the strength of the team.

 

Here’s what to look at carefully and objectively, in a flow:

•   the organization
•   your people
•   what they do
•    your customer
•   whether the customer is happy or just there. 

Yes, numbers and spreadsheets speak to sales, profits, etc. but it’s the people who make it all happen; losing contact with those who are the organization is a huge mistake. 

For an organization to prosper, there must be a periodic review of the evolution of policies, procedures and programs.  They tend to grow and expand, becoming a burden to efficiency, creativity and organizational health.  When we ask our clients if any policies, procedures and/or programs ever go away, the answer is typically no.  It is amazing how over time a good, effective policy or program expands until it becomes so cumbersome or convoluted, people search for ways to circumvent it or get so bogged down by the policy that nothing gets done.

Bob Lutz, the former Vice Chairman of General Motors, wrote a book titled: Car Guys vs Bean Counters, the Battle for the Soul of American Business.  One of the major points he makes is how engineering requirements of years past were affecting current design.  We excerpt from his book:

“In the 1920s and 30s, for instance, there was a problem with tires blowing out against rocks in the wilds of Alaska.  Solution: create a test at the GM Proving Ground so severe that this could never happen again.  It’s called the ‘curb test,’ whereby the car is driven over a four-inch steel edged curb at normal speed. The tires and wheels must survive the brutal impact.  Good! But to achieve that performance, tires must be fat and pillowy and the steel or aluminum wheels small: exactly the opposite of today’s style trend to large wheels with tires of much-reduced height.  So, no eighteen-inch (or, heaven forbid, nineteen inch) rims for us.  I asked about competitors who routinely sold cool-looking when and tire combinations in the U.S. market and was told, “Oh, they all fail the test! In fact, [German competitors with a great reputation] actually suffers front suspension failure.” So, we had ugly wheels because of a problem we experienced seventy years ago.”

It is not difficult to periodically take a process, pull together people who are part of the process, and flow chart the process.  Doing this type of review will invariably show all of the “dumb” and redundant steps that have become part of the process.  By eliminating redundancies and steps that are no longer necessary, a streamlined process emerges. 

On the people side, periodic reviews of what one’s employees are doing is also necessary.  Particularly in large organizations, people get into a routine of why and how they do what they do.  It’s prudent periodically to ask people why they do what they do, what’s the driver behind what they do, how much time they spend doing what they do, what they produce and for whom.  Then ask the recipient if what he is getting is what he needs and if he uses it.  When we did this the outcomes were startling.  We found excessive amounts of time were spent on activities and producing documents recipients rarely looked at.  When we asked the recipients what they really needed, we were able to capture an amazing amount of wasted staff-hours. 

Periodic drilling down into an organization by its leaders is essential and can yield significant benefits.  The proactive leadership inherent in this review can minimize or eliminate low value distractions.

#5 Make a plan with metrics and milestones

Distractions take you off the current path.  Returning to whatever path you were on can be difficult depending on the distraction.  When we talk about a lack of focus, imagine distraction upon distraction and how the path of chasing distractions becomes the norm, at the expense of those activities leaders should be attending to.  This behavior is the essence of reactivity and is notoriously difficult to reverse.  For these reasons we suggest a plan.  Plans mean different things to different people; there are Strategic Plans, Operational Plans, Implementation Plans, etc.  This plan is an overarching one, which defines the focus such that the leader can respond to the daily disruptions but then get back to the plan.  We also suggest setting metrics and milestones associated with the plan.  Metrics and milestones help with keeping the focus and providing tangible indication of progress.  If distractions become the norm, the metrics and milestones will reveal their impact, and aid in making adjustments to return to the plan.  Progress in the chosen direction is important and being able to keep perspective and control is leadership’s role.

#6 Communicate – communicate

We include this because it is important, not because it is a profound concept.  Almost anyone who has been in any form of leadership workshop has heard about the importance of communicating with her people.  Included is an old organizational development mantra of managing by walking around.  Leaders must be in touch with their employees.  It is important to know what they are doing as much as it is for them to see their leaders and have them be available and approachable.   Sharing information is critical to engaging a workforce.  Several studies recently indicate a high level of ‘disengagement’ on the part of employees.  With disengagement comes complacency and complacency can become insidious within an organization, manifested by lack of motivation, performance and involvement.  Keep in mind some of the best ideas are resident in the people who work for you.  Keep them informed and engaged, it become contagious throughout the organization.  One of the goals we suggest is to create a culture where problems are solved at the lowest level within the organization.  Imagine how distractions could be minimized if they are run up the flagpole to upper management?

#7 Getting people involved – create ownership

The concept of getting people involved is so simple, yet doing so seems to take a huge leap of faith.  Giving up control is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strong leadership and trust.   One of the last things we want employees to feel is their job is just a job.  They show up, put in their time and leave it all behind as they walk out the door.  When employees feel as though they are part of the process, their contributions are valued, and they feel they are vested, behavior changes.  Advertisements that promote ‘Employee owned’ and ‘Family owned’ are sending the message that “We care.”  Our employees are valued and they value the company’s customers.  Quality is important because it says who we are.  Let’s think about this in the context of distractions, and the above items.  We talked in #4 above about doing a flow chart of a process.  This flow involves people who are part of the process and gives them a sense of ownership in process revisions.  It may even get them doing reviews of their own processes.  Getting people involved and vested builds teams; everyone is looking out for the best interests of the organization because it reflects back to them and for them.  Problems are resolved before they become bigger problems; conflicts are minimized or resolved locally, reducing involvement from HR or managers; finally, a sense of esprit-de-corps builds, work no longer is drudgery and employee engagement increases.

#8 Celebrate successes

Success begets success; when success is achieved and employees are engaged, celebrate sincerely.  The celebrations don’t have to be elaborate; clear recognition of accomplishments can be a great motivator.  A public “thank you” is invaluable.  Of course, chocolate chip cookies or donuts can’t hurt either.

Closing

We began this series suggesting that some of the downward trends reported in leadership series may actually be traced to ’Leadership Distractions’:  the things that happen on a day-to-day basis within organizations requiring leadership attention away from a leader’s focal points.  We also suggested several forms these distractions take.  We then dissected the distractions to shed insight into each.  To leave it at that would be remiss.  In our concluding article, we posit leadership components/activities we believe can and will minimize distractions.  Please note, these components are not short-term fixes.  Neither are they easily achieved.  But, over our 30+ years of working with organizations, we have found that when a commitment is made to these activities, positive outcomes result.

We would gladly speak with you about specific ways to implement these activities, as well as relate specific experiences.   If you have some examples to share with us we would be happy to hear from you.