Are Your Secret Superstitions Holding Back Your Career?
By Kelly Goldsmith and Marshall Goldsmith | October 6, 2010
Walking under a ladder. Breaking a mirror. A black cat darting across your path. So what, right? As a worldly business person, you probably scorn superstitions as silly beliefs of the primitive and uneducated. Deep down inside, you assure yourself, you’re above these antiquated notions.
Not so fast. To a degree, everyone is superstitious. And in many cases, the higher one climbs up the organizational totem pole, the more superstitious one becomes.
Psychologically speaking, superstitious behavior comes from the belief that nonfunctional activity followed by positive reinforcement is actually the cause of that positive reinforcement. Years ago, psychologist B.F. Skinner showed how hungry pigeons may repeat nonfunctional behavior when their twitches and scratches are reinforced by small pellets of grain. From our experience, hungry corporate leaders may also repeat nonfunctional behavior when their behavior is followed by large pellets of money and recognition.
Superstition is merely the confusion of correlation and causality. Any human (in fact, any animal) will tend to repeat behavior that’s followed by positive reinforcement. The more one achieves, the more reinforcement one gets. One of the greatest mistakes of successful leaders is the assumption, “I behave this way, and I am successful. Therefore, I must be successful because I behave this way.”
Almost everyone we meet in our work is successful because of doing a lot right, and almost everyone we meet is successful in spite of some behavior that doesn’t make any sense. One of my greatest challenges is helping leaders avoid the “superstition trap.” This occurs when they confuse because of and in spite of behaviors.
Consider Jim. He was a brilliant, dedicated executive who consistently made his numbers. He wasn’t just smart; his creative ideas led to groundbreaking new procedures. Everyone agreed that he had been instrumental in helping turn around his organization. He sincerely cared about the company, employees, customers, and shareholders. On top of all that, Jim had a great wife. His two kids were enrolled in top colleges. He lived in a beautiful home in a great neighborhood. Overall, life was very good for Jim.
Except for one thing. Jim was a remarkably poor listener. Even though his direct reports and coworkers respected him, they felt that he didn’t listen to them. They were somewhat intimidated by his genius and creativity. At times, they felt that if Jim had made up his mind, it was useless to express another opinion. His wife and kids loved him, but they also felt that he didn’t hear a word they said. If his dog could speak, it would have said the same thing.
We suggested to Jim that he was probably successful because of his talent, hard work, and some good luck. And we also suggested that he was probably successful in spite of being an appallingly bad listener.
Jim acknowledged that other people thought he should become a better listener, but he wasn’t sure that he should change. He had convinced himself that his poor listening actually helped him succeed. Like many high achievers, he wanted to defend his superstitious beliefs. He pointed out that some people present awful ideas and that he shouldn’t just pretend to listen to those stupid suggestions to make them happy. He proudly asserted that he didn’t suffer fools gladly.
When asked whether he really believed that his coworkers and family members were fools, he grimaced and shamefacedly conceded that his comment was stupid. These were people he respected. Upon further reflection, he concluded that perhaps he sometimes acted like a fool.
Jim then went into defensive reaction number two: fear of overcorrection. He expressed concern that he might start listening too much and that the company might not benefit from his creative ideas. Perhaps he would become too unwilling to share his opinions. We pointed out that the danger that a 55-year-old man who had been seen as a bad listener for his entire life would overcorrect and become excessively interested in others’ opinions was extremely remote. We assured him that he could remove this concern from his things-to-worry-about list. Ultimately, he decided it was more productive to hear people out than waste time justifying his own dysfunctional behavior.
Think about yourself. What are you doing because it actually helps you achieve results? And what are you doing because of some irrational superstitious belief that may have been affecting your life for years?
We’ve never met anyone who was so perfect that there was nothing on his or her in spite of list. What’s on yours?
MY THOUGHTS
this article calls it being superstitious.i call it being stubborn. we get stubborn about changing what we think is right because it worked so many times in the past. we forget that times change, circumstances change. what worked for us 10, 15 years ago will not hold water anymore.
Showing posts with label gut feel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gut feel. Show all posts
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
10 Things That Good Bosses Do
10 Things That Good Bosses Do
By Steve Tobak | October 22, 2010
As we discovered in 7 Signs You May Be a Bad Manager, bosses aren’t usually aware that they are bad bosses. The fact is that nobody wants to believe they’re the problem. Nevertheless, there’s a bell curve for all things involving people, which means there are few really bad bosses, few really good bosses, and most of you fall somewhere in the middle.
To me that says, for the vast majority of you, there’s lots of room for improvement.
So, if you’re not exhibiting any of the 7 Signs, that’s great, pat yourself on the back. Still, if you really want to up your management game, maybe even vault into the executive or ownership ranks someday, you’d better start doing at least a few of these 10 Things That Good Bosses Do.
Incidentally, this isn’t from some academic study. These are real attributes of real bosses, culled from decades of observation, which motivate and inspire employees to perform at their best.
1.Pay people what they’re worth, not what you can get away with. What you lose in expense you gain back several-fold in performance.
2.Take the time to share your experiences and insights. Labels like mentor and coach are overused. Let’s be specific here. Employees learn from those generous enough to share their experiences and insights. They don’t need a best friend or a shoulder to cry on.
3.Tell it to employees straight, even when it’s bad news. To me, the single most important thing any boss can do is to man up and tell it to people straight. No BS, no sugarcoating, especially when it’s bad news or corrective feedback.
4.Manage up … effectively. Good bosses keep management off employee’s backs. Most people don’t get this, but the most important aspect of that is giving management what they need to do their jobs. That’s what keeps management away.
5.Take the heat and share the praise. It takes courage to take the heat and humility to share the praise. That comes naturally to great bosses; the rest of us have to pick it up as we go.
6.Delegate responsibility, not tasks. Every boss delegates, but the crappy ones think that means dumping tasks they hate on workers, i.e. s**t rolls downhill. Good bosses delegate responsibility and hold people accountable. That’s fulfilling and fosters professional growth.
7.Encourage employees to hone their natural abilities and challenge them to overcome their issues. That’s called getting people to perform at their best.
8.Build team spirit. As we learned before, great groups outperform great individuals. And great leaders build great teams.
9.Treat employees the way they deserve to be treated. You always hear people say they deserve respect and to be treated as equals. Well, some may not want to hear this, but a) respect must be earned, and b) most workers are not their boss’s equals.
10.Inspire your people. All the above motivate people, but few bosses have the ability to truly inspire their employees. How? By sharing their passion for the business. By knowing just what to say and do at just the right time to take the edge off or turn a tough situation around. Genuine anecdotes help a lot. So does a good sense of humor.
All this adds up to an environment where people feel appreciated, recognized, challenged, and appropriately compensated. So what do you think? How do you measure up on the good boss scale?
MY THOUGHTS
one of the things i will never forget about a leadership training i attended is the principle shared by a great Christian leader - that you have to have the right people on board first. all these 10 things that good bosses do are doable. and effective. except if you have the wrong people - people who do not have the right skill nor the desire to learn, people who are only there for the paycheck and passion for them is a fruit, people who cannot be inspired because despair is so ingrained in them,they need a shrink, people who think they are better than anyone else including the boss. when i'm hiring people, i take my time. it's very easy to have someone sign an employment contract. but it's so much harder to let them go.
By Steve Tobak | October 22, 2010
As we discovered in 7 Signs You May Be a Bad Manager, bosses aren’t usually aware that they are bad bosses. The fact is that nobody wants to believe they’re the problem. Nevertheless, there’s a bell curve for all things involving people, which means there are few really bad bosses, few really good bosses, and most of you fall somewhere in the middle.
To me that says, for the vast majority of you, there’s lots of room for improvement.
So, if you’re not exhibiting any of the 7 Signs, that’s great, pat yourself on the back. Still, if you really want to up your management game, maybe even vault into the executive or ownership ranks someday, you’d better start doing at least a few of these 10 Things That Good Bosses Do.
Incidentally, this isn’t from some academic study. These are real attributes of real bosses, culled from decades of observation, which motivate and inspire employees to perform at their best.
1.Pay people what they’re worth, not what you can get away with. What you lose in expense you gain back several-fold in performance.
2.Take the time to share your experiences and insights. Labels like mentor and coach are overused. Let’s be specific here. Employees learn from those generous enough to share their experiences and insights. They don’t need a best friend or a shoulder to cry on.
3.Tell it to employees straight, even when it’s bad news. To me, the single most important thing any boss can do is to man up and tell it to people straight. No BS, no sugarcoating, especially when it’s bad news or corrective feedback.
4.Manage up … effectively. Good bosses keep management off employee’s backs. Most people don’t get this, but the most important aspect of that is giving management what they need to do their jobs. That’s what keeps management away.
5.Take the heat and share the praise. It takes courage to take the heat and humility to share the praise. That comes naturally to great bosses; the rest of us have to pick it up as we go.
6.Delegate responsibility, not tasks. Every boss delegates, but the crappy ones think that means dumping tasks they hate on workers, i.e. s**t rolls downhill. Good bosses delegate responsibility and hold people accountable. That’s fulfilling and fosters professional growth.
7.Encourage employees to hone their natural abilities and challenge them to overcome their issues. That’s called getting people to perform at their best.
8.Build team spirit. As we learned before, great groups outperform great individuals. And great leaders build great teams.
9.Treat employees the way they deserve to be treated. You always hear people say they deserve respect and to be treated as equals. Well, some may not want to hear this, but a) respect must be earned, and b) most workers are not their boss’s equals.
10.Inspire your people. All the above motivate people, but few bosses have the ability to truly inspire their employees. How? By sharing their passion for the business. By knowing just what to say and do at just the right time to take the edge off or turn a tough situation around. Genuine anecdotes help a lot. So does a good sense of humor.
All this adds up to an environment where people feel appreciated, recognized, challenged, and appropriately compensated. So what do you think? How do you measure up on the good boss scale?
MY THOUGHTS
one of the things i will never forget about a leadership training i attended is the principle shared by a great Christian leader - that you have to have the right people on board first. all these 10 things that good bosses do are doable. and effective. except if you have the wrong people - people who do not have the right skill nor the desire to learn, people who are only there for the paycheck and passion for them is a fruit, people who cannot be inspired because despair is so ingrained in them,they need a shrink, people who think they are better than anyone else including the boss. when i'm hiring people, i take my time. it's very easy to have someone sign an employment contract. but it's so much harder to let them go.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Using your Gut in Decision Making
When It Feels Wrong To Be Right
Remember these rules when you're tempted to 'trust your gut.'
By Bill Bartmann | September 17, 2009
'I trust my gut.'
That sounds so alpha-male cool, I know. It's also a very dumb approach to running the major aspects of your business.
Here's the problem: The concept of gut feeling contains the word "feeling." It often feels uncomfortable when you're on exactly the right track. Stick with me here as I explain this important concept by way of four rules:
Rule No. 1: Don't succumb to 'surface logic.'
Some of the best opportunities seem to be the worst at first glance. In my case, I made more than a billion dollars by buying loans that multiple collection agencies had written off as "uncollectible."
It was a multi-billion-dollar opportunity in plain sight for anyone to pursue, but very few people did. Why? Because most people succumbed to surface logic. You can tell that kind of reasoning because it often starts with "Everyone knows that…" or "It's always been true that…
You may be headed toward a great opportunity if you can discern some excellent potential underneath a layer of logic that repels your competition from trying to pursue it.
In my case, I had been on the receiving end of debt-collection calls for years. I knew from personal experience that the conventional collection-agency approach made me never ever want to cooperate with those abusive people, even if I had some money to pay back their loan.
Therefore I created a company where we took the unconventional step of treating delinquent borrowers with dignity and respect. They responded by paying back the debt they owed us--usually before they paid anyone else.
Rule No. 2: Thicken your skin.
Let's say you decide to pursue something where you see opportunity and all anyone else sees is problems. Get ready to be ridiculed.
Some of your closest advisors, friends and even family may think they're doing you a favor by saying things like:
"It'll never work."
"You're kidding, right?"
"Don't you know it's been tried before?"
"What makes you think you can pull it off? Do you think you're so much smarter than everyone else?"
Oh, it gets better. If your venture doesn't work, you’ll hear "I told you so, but you wouldn't listen!"
If your plan does in fact work, don't expect to gloat: Your former detractors will merely say: "He got lucky."
In my 40 years of running businesses, I've found that the greatest comfort is often found in the middle of a vast herd of sheep, all moving in the same direction. They can all console themselves that their judgment was no worse than everyone else's. However, the greatest opportunities and profits are found on paths least traveled--or where there was no path at all before you came along. Are you in business for comfort or for profit?
Rule No. 3: Sometimes it feels wrong because it is wrong.
I just finished saying the most profitable course of action may be uncomfortable and lonely. Make sure you don't justify a purely emotional decision by thinking: "It feels wrong, so I must be on the right track."
You can get too comfortable with being a contrarian. I built a company that was so utterly different from the rest of the collection industry that it was tempting for me always to be different, just for the sake of making another splash. Instead, I retained some industry-standard structures like accounting, and innovated only when truly necessary.
Bottom line: Follow that unpopular path only for the right reason.
Rule No. 4: Trust your brain, not your gut.
When I bought my Gulfstream IV jet with $30 million in cash, I made sure it came with a pilot who was "instrument rated." That meant he could fly in almost any weather.
He had developed two skills: First, he knew his instruments cold. Second, he was trained to follow those instruments even when his gut feeling was deadly wrong about which way he should steer the plane.
You must become instrument-rated in your own business.
Make no mistake, I trust my gut all the time for certain business decisions like which of two candidates to hire or how far to push a negotiation.
But I had bigger decisions like how much to bid on billion-dollar loan portfolios. In those situations, I was so familiar with bid prices that my numbers told me when the market was “bidding crazy” for loans. I knew the facts and economics cold, so I had no problem letting someone else outbid me.
Take the time to build a great instrument panel you can trust. On the really big course changes, study those instruments and trust them. They’ll protect you and allow you to fly above your hand-wringing competitors.
Bill Bartmann is the foremost expert on helping entrepreneurs profit from buying bad loans and a leading authority on entrepreneurship in America. His book Bailout Riches recently became #1 on Amazon's Best Seller List. Bill offers free educational materials for entrepreneurs at www.bailoutrichesnow.com and can be reached via email at askbill@billbartmann.com.
My thoughts
I agree that when it's decision making time, you need to use your brains, to see the pros and cons, to bank on your head knowledge. But logic is not everything. Most of the time, decision making will impact people and this means thinking is not enough. I think it's good to start with the brain and then cap off your decision making steps with "feelings". Is this good for the majority? Am I hurting anyone? If so, is this fair. I believe God gave us all senses so we can make use of them. In decision making, it pays to use all faculties.
Remember these rules when you're tempted to 'trust your gut.'
By Bill Bartmann | September 17, 2009
'I trust my gut.'
That sounds so alpha-male cool, I know. It's also a very dumb approach to running the major aspects of your business.
Here's the problem: The concept of gut feeling contains the word "feeling." It often feels uncomfortable when you're on exactly the right track. Stick with me here as I explain this important concept by way of four rules:
Rule No. 1: Don't succumb to 'surface logic.'
Some of the best opportunities seem to be the worst at first glance. In my case, I made more than a billion dollars by buying loans that multiple collection agencies had written off as "uncollectible."
It was a multi-billion-dollar opportunity in plain sight for anyone to pursue, but very few people did. Why? Because most people succumbed to surface logic. You can tell that kind of reasoning because it often starts with "Everyone knows that…" or "It's always been true that…
You may be headed toward a great opportunity if you can discern some excellent potential underneath a layer of logic that repels your competition from trying to pursue it.
In my case, I had been on the receiving end of debt-collection calls for years. I knew from personal experience that the conventional collection-agency approach made me never ever want to cooperate with those abusive people, even if I had some money to pay back their loan.
Therefore I created a company where we took the unconventional step of treating delinquent borrowers with dignity and respect. They responded by paying back the debt they owed us--usually before they paid anyone else.
Rule No. 2: Thicken your skin.
Let's say you decide to pursue something where you see opportunity and all anyone else sees is problems. Get ready to be ridiculed.
Some of your closest advisors, friends and even family may think they're doing you a favor by saying things like:
"It'll never work."
"You're kidding, right?"
"Don't you know it's been tried before?"
"What makes you think you can pull it off? Do you think you're so much smarter than everyone else?"
Oh, it gets better. If your venture doesn't work, you’ll hear "I told you so, but you wouldn't listen!"
If your plan does in fact work, don't expect to gloat: Your former detractors will merely say: "He got lucky."
In my 40 years of running businesses, I've found that the greatest comfort is often found in the middle of a vast herd of sheep, all moving in the same direction. They can all console themselves that their judgment was no worse than everyone else's. However, the greatest opportunities and profits are found on paths least traveled--or where there was no path at all before you came along. Are you in business for comfort or for profit?
Rule No. 3: Sometimes it feels wrong because it is wrong.
I just finished saying the most profitable course of action may be uncomfortable and lonely. Make sure you don't justify a purely emotional decision by thinking: "It feels wrong, so I must be on the right track."
You can get too comfortable with being a contrarian. I built a company that was so utterly different from the rest of the collection industry that it was tempting for me always to be different, just for the sake of making another splash. Instead, I retained some industry-standard structures like accounting, and innovated only when truly necessary.
Bottom line: Follow that unpopular path only for the right reason.
Rule No. 4: Trust your brain, not your gut.
When I bought my Gulfstream IV jet with $30 million in cash, I made sure it came with a pilot who was "instrument rated." That meant he could fly in almost any weather.
He had developed two skills: First, he knew his instruments cold. Second, he was trained to follow those instruments even when his gut feeling was deadly wrong about which way he should steer the plane.
You must become instrument-rated in your own business.
Make no mistake, I trust my gut all the time for certain business decisions like which of two candidates to hire or how far to push a negotiation.
But I had bigger decisions like how much to bid on billion-dollar loan portfolios. In those situations, I was so familiar with bid prices that my numbers told me when the market was “bidding crazy” for loans. I knew the facts and economics cold, so I had no problem letting someone else outbid me.
Take the time to build a great instrument panel you can trust. On the really big course changes, study those instruments and trust them. They’ll protect you and allow you to fly above your hand-wringing competitors.
Bill Bartmann is the foremost expert on helping entrepreneurs profit from buying bad loans and a leading authority on entrepreneurship in America. His book Bailout Riches recently became #1 on Amazon's Best Seller List. Bill offers free educational materials for entrepreneurs at www.bailoutrichesnow.com and can be reached via email at askbill@billbartmann.com.
My thoughts
I agree that when it's decision making time, you need to use your brains, to see the pros and cons, to bank on your head knowledge. But logic is not everything. Most of the time, decision making will impact people and this means thinking is not enough. I think it's good to start with the brain and then cap off your decision making steps with "feelings". Is this good for the majority? Am I hurting anyone? If so, is this fair. I believe God gave us all senses so we can make use of them. In decision making, it pays to use all faculties.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)