Six Symptoms Leaders Should Take Seriously

Editor’s note: This post is inspired by a discussion that happened on the Leader’s Cafe Foundation Forum in LinkedIn. The forum can be found here: LinkedIn Forum. And the specific discussion can be found here: LinkedIn Forum Specific Discussion. The author would like to thank everyone who participated in the lively discussion for their knowledge and generosity.

Dear Managers and Leaders!

Most people are aware that there are some health symptoms that should be taken very seriously. For instance, if you start sweating badly and if you feel intense pain in your left harm and having chest pain, then you will likely run to the hospital because you know those are symptoms of a heart attack. Similarly, if you eat nuts and you start to have problems breathing and feel pain in your throat, then you will also run to the hospital because you know that you are probably allergic to nuts!

Similarly, there are some symptoms that leaders should be aware of. I will list six of these symptoms here today and will elaborate on them in subsequent posts. I hope you will find them useful. This is not an exhaustive list and I invite you to add more items to this list by posting comments below. Leaders, like human beings, must be aware of a lot of these symptoms to keep their teams healthy! Sharing your ideas here will help everyone.

• A team member does not produce what the leader was expecting.
• Team members are not coming up with new ideas.
• Team members are unwilling to push their boundaries - Mediocrity is the norm, lack of motivation to move beyond their comfort zone.
• Team is operating from fear - Lack of transparency, sharing of knowledge, or voicing of opinions. People start saying "yes" instead of questioning your decisions.
• No one seems to know what’s urgent and what’s crucial, or at which point we are right now.
• Resistance to change.

What about you dear leader? Are you attentive to other symptoms? Do you have other events or feelings lighting up that light that tells you that something is not right and you need to do something about it? Please share your thoughts by posting a comment to this blog!

Until next time,

Remi Cote

PS: If you find these postings interesting and would like to learn more about what I can do for you and your team, then please visit www.innovachron.com or contact me directly at remi@innovachron.com.

People Development: Learning from a Good Professor

Dear Managers and Leaders!

I believe I already mentioned to you that my daughter plays the violin. Last weekend, she had her end-of-session concert. The concert was a real success with very young performers trying their best to play “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” to the older violinists playing the Brandenburg Concerto no 2.

Watching the concert, I started to think about the leadership required to be a violin professor. In particular, I started to look at my daughter’s violin professor’s ability to develop people. I felt like she could teach a lot about people development to the leaders of the world! Here are the lessons that came to my mind as I watched the show:

• Know the people on the team: where they are, where they can be, and what they can accomplish.
• Define attainable but stretched goals for everyone on the team.
• Define a framework for the development experience. The students know what is coming up for them, the next steps, and the longer term goals – in this context, the framework is defined by the Suzuki method of learning how to play the violin.
• Pushed the people hard all year so that they develop to their full actual capacity. Never accept to slow down the pace or lower the bar if you are convinced that the student is able to achieve what you ask.
• Pair experienced achievers with younger staff for optimal development. At the concert, younger people presented with really experienced ones. This gave them pride and pushed them further, faster in their development.
• Be engaged and committed. The success of your people is also your success.
• Love your people! Establish a close relationship with them and motivate them to attain new heights through the love you give them.
• Celebrate success! Applauds from the audience and your tender look and smile will do magic to motivate your people in the years to come!

To get optimal performance from his team, a leader must always do everything possible to develop his people. People development should be one of the most important activities of a leader. This is why I wanted to share these lessons with you!

What about you dear leader? Are you developing your people? Are you mentoring them, pushing them further by giving them stretched assignments? Are you pairing old timers and young performers to push them even further? Let me know about your experience!

Until next time,

Remi Cote

PS: If you find these postings interesting and would like to learn more about what I can do for you, then please visit www.innovachron.com or contact me directly at remi@innovachron.com.

The Power of the Team

Dear Managers and Leaders!

Have you ever felt totally energized and in perfect symbiosis when you were part of a team? Have you felt the power of the ideas suddenly flowing through your head just because you’re working with someone else? Have you ever felt that with your team you could accomplish anything, that nothing could prevent you from achieving your goals? We can often feel that in sport teams when a team is capable of winning just because they “play as a team”, even when they are weaker on paper than their opponents.

As a solopreneur myself (yes, an entrepreneur working by himself), I rarely experience this team power. I am usually alone in my office, sharing my space and time with my computer. I am the only one who can motivate myself, set goals for myself, celebrate successes, and assume my losses. It is great at times because I have the freedom to set my own agenda, but being a team player myself, I sometimes miss the energy and elation of being part of a team.

However, this morning, I had a long chat with someone I just started to partner with. I really felt this team energy and power while speaking to him. It felt really good to have someone to share my ideas with and get feedback in real time! There was also this feeling of growing an idea together: “we should do this” one says and the other to respond “yes, and we should add that as well to make it more complete” and so on and so forth. A great feeling indeed!

I have read in many places that leaders often feel alone at the top. I think it can be true because having a relationship with your followers is not the same. People will look at you for the final call. They will not tell you many things that you do not want to hear. Even if you have the most open organization, you will not feel the same freedom.

What I would suggest to those lonely leaders is to build relationships with peers. If you are not at the top of your company, then build strong relationships with your peers, people at the same level as you, likely the people reporting to the same boss. Your team of peers is really important. This is where you can feel team work and spirit for yourself. You can also, and this will also apply to those at the top of their company, build partnership with people who are in similar positions as you. You can do that through social networking on the Internet, you can take part in a professional association, or you can create partnerships with other companies! Once you do that, you will start to feel rejuvenated and energized by the simple fact that you feel you are part of a team or of a community. Doing something with someone else, or with other people will really boosts your motivation and focus.

What about you dear leader? Are you one of the lonely leaders I was referring to above? Are you feeling you are part of a team?

Until next time,

Remi Cote

PS: If you are interested by these postings and would like to learn more about what I can do for you, then please visit www.innovachron.com or contact me directly at remi@innovachron.com.

Two Leadership Lessons from Internet Marketing

Dear Managers and Leaders!

Nowadays, I’m studying the principles of Internet Marketing quite seriously so that I can start advertizing my management consulting business effectively on the Internet and reach more prospects. There are two main things that strike me every time I look into the world of Internet Marketing that relates to leadership.

The first one is the power of money and success as extremely strong forces to create a following. The world of Internet Marketing is a world of gurus. You see all these guys who have made millions on the Internet kindly telling you that they will tell you all their secrets so that you can replicate their success. I must admit that looking at these rich guys can become addictive. It is a bit like buying a lottery ticket. “Buy this package from this guru and you will become as rich as him in no time!” This is what most of these people are trying to make you believe:  Internet Marketing is the fast lane to easy money and these gurus are there to testify that it is possible.

Relating these successful gurus to leadership, it tells me that success is a really powerful force to create a following. These Internet gurus create trust by showing that they are highly successful making money on the Internet. No one would trust an Internet teacher that cannot show some previous success. Similarly, if you are a leader and you cannot show that you have been successful in the past, then you will have a hard time convincing people that they should follow you. This is what someone goes through when hired directly in a leadership position. He has to create trust before people start following him willingly. The early wins of Michael Watkins (in The First 90 Days) are exactly there to show your new followers that they can trust you. Once you built your portfolio of success stories, you can rest assured that people will follow you more easily.

The second thing that strikes me when I look at Internet Marketing is the fact that most people fail to succeed in starting an Internet business. They say that most people fail because they simply do nothing or too little. You then see all these gurus yelling at people that they must do something if they ever want to win. I believe most people hope that they will get easy money, but they are not ready to spend the time to actually get to a real return on investment and prosper. Another possible reason for their failure is that people are paralyzed by the amount of things they need to learn. They lack the vision of what needs to be done to really succeed. So they try for a while and then they give up before things start to work.

This relates quite well with the principles of leadership that I’ve been discussing in the “6 Steps to Leadership” mini-course (you can sign up at the right of this post if you are interested by the mini-course). To succeed in an enterprise, you need to create a vision of where you need to go, then you need to create a realistic plan to realize that vision, and then you need to implement the plan. If you do not have the vision in the first place, then it will be very difficult to create a plan and then implement it. I think the people on the internet have a vision of becoming rich, but they lack the vision of what the job of an Internet Marketer is. They want money, but they have no clue what it entails.

I think it also links to the first three habits of Steven Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People). These habits are: be proactive, begin with the end in mind, and put first things first. If these private victory habits were mastered by the Internet Marketing apprentices, they would have a better chance of succeeding.

What about you dear leader? Do you have a good portfolio of successes to easily create a following? Do you have a good vision of where you are going and a plan to achieve that vision?

Until next time,

Remi Cote

PS: If you are interested by these postings and would like to learn more about what I can do to help you or your team succeed, then please visit InnovaChron or contact me directly at
Remi Cote .

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