80 Years of Leadership

Dear Managers and Leaders!

Today I am leaving for Quebec City to celebrate my father’s 80^th birthday on Saturday. I just want to take this opportunity to celebrate 80 years of leadership with you! Hope you will not mind the more personal tone of this post...

My father was born in 1929, the year of the great depression! He was living on a farm and he quit school when he was twelve to work on the farm. Guys in his family had two choices, really. Either they would become a priest or work on the farm. My father was not the best in school, so the priesthood was out of the question! The farm needed some arms, so my father started working full time for his father.

That lasted for a while, but when my father turned 19, some family event made him leave home with just a bit of money and a lot of courage. He went away, looking for a job. He ended up in northern Quebec where he learned the profession that would allow him to earn his living. He became a plumber! This is quite simple, you’ll say, but my father had a plan... After learning the ropes he got his licenses to become an entrepreneur and he started his own business. You see, he had to provide for 6 kids at the time and the 7^th was coming. He needed to find a way to make more money.

So he became an entrepreneur and grew his business. Up to 30 people worked for him at different times. Oh, it was not Enron or Microsoft, but it was his own business! It must not have been too too bad because he was able to retire at 58 years old. Not bad if you ask me!

You know, it is funny because what I told you above is the success path. I deliberately omitted all the setbacks, the numerous issues, the 24 hour shifts, the pain, and the suffering. It is funny because this is actually what makes the story really interesting! We always focus on the success path and we always want to avoid the mistakes and the suffering. However, all the problems that we face are actually what make us better persons, where our values are tested, where our entire personality is shown to the entire world. I believe we should embrace our issues as chances to grow, as opportunities to shown our worth. We should not try to avoid these challenges at all costs...

The problems that my father went through and how he managed them is really what showed me how great a leader my father was and still is! Let’s toast to my father’s 80 years of leadership!

And what about you dear leaders? Are you trying to escape your problems at all costs? Are you facing challenges with courage and determination?

Until next time,

Remi Cote

Reasonable Leadership: A Lesson from the Little Prince

Dear Managers and Leaders!

I am re-reading the Little Prince from Saint-Exupéry at the moment. I am reading an excerpt every night to my son at the moment. He likes it, but I love it. For some reasons, I find this book so simple and so rich at the same time. It is always a joy for me to read this book!

Last night, I was reading chapter 10 of the Little Prince. It is describing the Prince visiting the planet of a king. The king tells the Little Prince that he reigns over the entire universe. The Prince, missing his sunsets, asks the King to make one happen. Here is what happens...

"I should like to see a sunset... do me that kindness... Order the sun to set..."

 "If I ordered a general to fly from one flower to another like a butterfly, or to write a tragic drama, or to change himself into a sea bird, and if the general did not carry out the order that he had received, which one of us would be in the wrong?" the king demanded. "The general, or myself?"
 "You," said the little prince firmly.
 "Exactly. One must require from each one the duty which each one can perform," the king went on. "Accepted authority rests first of all on reason. If you ordered your people to go and throw themselves into the sea, they would rise up in revolution. I have the right to require obedience because my orders are reasonable."
 "Then my sunset?" the little prince reminded him: for he never forgot a question once he had asked it.
 "You shall have your sunset. I shall command it. But, according to my science of government, I shall wait until conditions are favorable."
 "When will that be?" inquired the little prince.
 "Hum! Hum!" replied the king; and before saying anything else he consulted a bulky almanac. "Hum! Hum! That will be about-- about-- that will be this evening about twenty minutes to eight. And you will see how well I am obeyed."

I thought this excerpt was a really good lesson of leadership. If you want people to follow, you have to ask them things they can accomplish. And, if they fail, you are responsible for their failure! 

And what about you, dear leader, are you always asking reasonable things to your followers?

Until next time,

Remi Cote

Pareto on Time Management

Dear Managers and Leaders!

In my previous post, I discussed the importance of focusing on what is really important for your business. I was saying that people are trying to do way too many things, often avoiding what is most important to them and their business. The essence is when you can eliminate everything that is not necessary from your agenda and focus only on what brings the most value to your life, business, team, or project. Doing things that do not bring value will simply waste your time and send you away further from success!

Of course, this is good in theory! What is a lot tougher is to decide what to remove from your agenda and what to keep! To help you do that, I’d like to explore a simple rule with you today that, I’m sure, you have heard about before. The rule is the Pareto’s rule, which is better known as the 80/20 rule. Vilfredo Pareto demonstrated in the 19^th century that 80% of the wealth and income is produced and possessed by 20% of the population. Pareto’s law becomes more shocking when you find out that it also applies outside of economics! Pareto himself found that 80% of his garden peas were produced by 20% of his peapods. So, more generally, this law is known as “80% of the outputs result from 20% of the inputs”.

So, how does this relate to the problem of removing un-necessary things from your agenda? Well, according to Pareto’s rule, you can say that 20% of the action items currently on your agenda will bring 80% of the results! So, start asking yourself the question: what are those actions? If you can identify those 20%, then you are golden! Here are some Pareto statements to help you thinking through your junk removal activity. Hopefully this will make you look at the world from a different perspective...

• 20% of your staff brings 80% of your results (please focus on them!)
• 20% of your customers will bring 80% of your revenue (please focus on them!)
• 20% of your actions will bring you 80% of your results
• 20% of the time spent working will get you 80% of your goals
• 80% of your crises are created by 20% of the people you interact with

I have not verified these statements scientifically but they feel right to me. Do you agree that they make sense?

So, I suggest that you go through your agenda, that you observe yourself and ask what can be these 20% of anything you do that brings most of your results and successes. Once you identify those items, it will become much easier to toss the rest aside or put less emphasis on it. What do you think, dear manager and leader?

Until next time,

Remi Cote

Perfection in Simplicity

"Perfection is not when there is no more to add but no more to take away" - Saint-Exupéry

Dear Managers and Leaders!

I would like to take a few moments to reflect on these words from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I think it is quite profound and is counter-intuitive to the way we live our lives nowadays. Most people these days want to do as many things as possible in the shortest time possible. They really push their limits and the limits of those surrounding them to succeed in their quest for numbers, their desire to destroy competition in the saga of achievements.

We often see this in the workplace. Tim Ferriss mentions with humour in his “4-Hour Work Week” that a good way to get promoted in corporate America is to walk around the office, constantly speaking to your cell phone and carrying documents. Of course, this is exaggerated, but it points to the problem of the importance people give to being busy even if what they do is irrelevant, or does not bring them closer to success.

Saint-Exupéry has a clear way of pointing you in the right direction of success. He tells you that doing more and more will never get you to success. What you have to do is rather to remove everything you can on your agenda or to-do list to be left with what is really important to you at the moment, what is essential, and then give these items all your focus! The tough thing, of course, is to define what is most important to you at the moment. I will discuss that topic some more in my next post.

Until next time,

Remi Cote

Working On Your Team

Dear Managers and Leaders!

A manager may have three different types of focus:

1.  Managers can work in their team.
2. Managers can work on themselves
3. Managers can work on their team

Managers work in their team when they focus on project management, defining new products, or do some technical work themselves. Managers work on themselves when they develop their leadership or management skills through training sessions, readings, spending time with a mentor or a coach, etc.  Managers work on their team when they build and share a vision for their team, when they research ways to optimize the team’s activities or the team structure, when they develop a culture for their organization, when they coach their employees, etc.

Of course, at any given time, the amount of effort spent on one focus or the other will vary. However, a successful manager is aware that he must spend at least a bit of time on these three spheres of activity. He cannot leave one alone for a long time without impacting his performance. A manager who does not manage projects efficiently will fail. A manager who does not develop his leadership skills will fail. A manager who never thinks about optimizing his organization will fail. We all have seen managers forgetting about one of these three areas and we have seen them suffer or fail.

I believe a lot of managers forget to work on their team because they are too busy working in their team. However, working on their team is what would free them up the most! When a manager has a good staff that is trained and empowered, a sound strategy for the future that is understood by everyone on the team, and optimized processes that are well controlled, he can really sit back and relax! When this is achieved, the manager only needs to control what is going on and can spend a lot less time working in the team. He can trust the team members to do the right thing when faced with a new challenge. He can trust the team members to act properly even when “the boss is not around”. Can you imagine yourself going on a vacation and be assured that things will run smoothly while you are gone. To achieve this, you really need to spend time working on the team.

What about you dear leader, are you working on your team? Could you leave for a week and feel you can totally forget about work and know that you do not have to be afraid that things will go wrong while you are gone?

Until next time,

Remi Cote

Leader or Manager?

Rick: “What is your job?”

Frank: “I manage a team of software developers.”

Rick: “So you are a manager?”

Frank: “Yes.”

Rick: “So, what is your work exactly?”

Frank: “Well, I define the projects we tackle and then I lead the team to make sure we are successful.”

Rick: “So you are a leader!”

Frank: “Yes.”

Rick: “I thought you said you were a manager. How come you now say you are a leader? I am lost!

Frank: “Well, as they say, good managers lead and good leaders manage!”

 

Dear managers and leaders!

As you can see, sometimes it can be confusing to distinguish between managers and leaders. The theory says that managing is applying techniques to conduct or supervise something (as a business) while leading is defined as being at the front, showing the way. Those are quite different, but as you probably understand, they are inter-related.

Take a leader for instance. The leader is at the forefront, showing the way to people following him or her. How can he makes sure that the people following him are going in the right direction and doing the right thing if he does not know and apply the right set of techniques to manage his followers. A leader who does not manage is just a poor visionary without much chance to succeed in his enterprises.

Now take a manager. A good manager will know the art and science of ensuring that everyone on a team goes in the same direction. He will know how to ensure that the right work is done, that the business is running smoothly. However, if he does not know where to go, if he cannot be at the forefront and define success for his team, then his team will lack purpose, focus, and will never attain a goal that is significant.

As you can see, managing without leading, or leading without managing, are both driving a team to failure. If you are managing a team, you must be able to define strategic goals for the team and communicate them to the team. Also, if you are leading a team, you must be able to put in place the right mechanisms to supervise your team, ensuring that it performs to its maximum capacity and is really following your lead!

What about you, dear leaders and managers? Are you leading without managing? Are you managing without leading?

Until next time,

Remi Cote