You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. 

I am convinced that yelling and screaming is actually a sign of weakness rather than strength. Strength uses ideas, solutions, influence, and accountability rather than demeaning demonstrations of power and position.

Great leaders courageously use the power of choice.

Alan Mulally, the famed CEO who saved the Ford Motor Company from bankruptcy without using a government bailout, responded to employees with, “it is ok if you do not want to do what I am asking. In fact, it does not make you a bad person if you do not want to do it. However, you do need to make a choice if you want to be on this team.”

Yelling and screaming actually creates the opposite from the desired effect by causing cortisol to flow through the veins of people. Cortisol is a hormone that our bodies produce in response to a stimuli that catches us by surprise or threatens our safety. Cortisol shuts down our thinking brains and puts us into fight, flight, or freeze [reactive] mode. In other words, yelling and screaming generally shuts people down in a business environment, rather than spurring them on to greater feats.

Neuroscience tells us that the brain comes alive when given a choice. A choice allows us to buy-in or buy-out so that the remaining team is more aligned around the goals, objectives, challenges, and vision. And bought-in teams tend to produce more because they experience more positivity chemicals being produced by the brain—like dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphin—which stimulate great creative brain functions.

So, the next time you have the urge to yell and scream at a subordinate, take a breath and consider the cost such behavior has on you, the employee, and the organization. Then find a better way to communicate your message with a positive effect.

Herb Mast is a Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.

If a picture is worth a thousand words…how much more when it comes to assembling jigsaw puzzles?…and building organizations?

Some puzzles [and organizations] are more enjoyable than others. And while most people assemble puzzles for the challenge of the exercise, imagine trying to put one together without knowing what the final picture was supposed to look like. Yet, when it comes to business it is surprising how many organizations [choose words and] give instructions for what they want their people to do, rather than painting a picture of what the final result is to look like.

When it comes to jigsaw puzzles the front of the box [picture] not only provides clues as to where the various pieces fit, but plays a significant role in which puzzle is purchased in the first place. The same is true when it comes to [authentic] vision statements in business—people are smart and will figure out what goes where if they know what the final result is to look like. Further, attracting better people is easier when people identify with and are inspired by the picture.

In its most fundamental form a vision statement is meant to paint a picture of a brighter future that inspires people to join the journey. Unfortunately, when leaders fail to paint the picture it leaves followers with the challenge of attempting to put together a blank puzzle, which becomes a futile exercise of trial-and-error.

Just like how you continuously reference the front of the box when assembling a puzzle, great leaders recognize that they must continuously paint the picture [vision] of the organization, so that their people have a reference point—making the effort quicker, easier, and more enjoyable. 

Herb Mast is a Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.

Great leaders recognize they can’t do it all themselves, so they distribute control to extend the capacity and motivation of their team.

People in authority need to be less like chess masters or puppeteers, controlling every move, and more like farmers, creating good soil conditions, planting in season, and doing all they can to support growth.

Neuroscience tells us that the brain flourishes when it is given an appropriate amount of control—appropriate to our level of competence and confidence. On the flipside, the brain shuts down when it is stifled by unnecessary controls.

David Marquet, former US Nuclear Submarine Captain, learned that superior results can be achieved when giving up control in an environment of high competence and high clarity. In other words, he made sure he had a team of highly competent individuals who had the information and clarity needed to make the best possible decisions and take the best possible actions without him controlling every move.

Marquet admits that giving away control will feel unnatural and uncomfortable at first, but over time it becomes easier, especially as superior results are achieved.

Marquet defines leadership as embedding the capacity for greatness in the people and practices of an organization and decoupling it from the personality of the leader.

Marquet shares his effective approach in the following 10 minute video:

Herb Mast is a Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.

Where does ability come from? And what leads to greater success?

In her 2006 book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck, says individuals can be placed on a continuum according to their implicit views of where ability comes from. 

If you believe that success comes from innate ability you have a “fixed” mindset. If, on the other hand, you believe that success is based on hard work, learning, training, and persistence you have a “growth” mindset.

This is important because individuals with a growth mindset are more likely to work hard despite setbacks. Fixed mindset individuals dread failure because it is seen as a negative statement on their basic abilities, while growth mindset individuals don’t mind or fear failure as much because they realize their performance can be improved and learning comes from failure.

In a fixed mindset students believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that’s that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb. In a growth mindset students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence. They don’t necessarily think everyone’s the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it.

Great leaders praise effort rather than intelligence.

They will say things like, “good job, you worked very hard,” rather than, “good job, you are very smart.” The former develops a growth mindset, while the latter contributes to a fixed mindset.

Herb Mast is a Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.

Your team cannot achieve more than what the individual players have the capability and capacity to achieve (i.e. their collective potential). Too many sales teams throw “Hail Marys” and try to get their players to run after and catch the pass. Without assessing the collective potential of the players the monthly sales effort can, and often is, an exercise in futility, if not insanity.

It is more effective to assess the true potential of each individual compared to their current performance and then work with the individuals to achieve their potential. One way to do this is to undertake the Potential-Performance Exercise (see video below which explains how to do so).

The collective potential of the players determines the team’s sustainable capability and capacity. If the collective potential is less than the desired goal it is time to expand the team.

Herb Mast is a Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.

The 2^nd habit of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Covey) is to begin with the end in mind. I believe this speaks not only to destination, but to intent. 

Great leaders not only clearly define their vision (their prospect for a brighter future), but declare their INTENT for how this will be accomplished and WHY it is important. 

Using customer satisfaction surveys to demonstrate how this works, positive intent suggests providing customers with a great experience and using the survey as a feedback tool to assess how close the experience came to the expectation—then tweaking the process to raise the level of experience. Negative intent suggests coaching customers as to how to complete the survey so as to simply achieve a higher score. If true customer experience leading to loyalty is the desired outcome then positive intent is the only way to get there.

The concept of a team is to get like-minded people working together to achieve a common goal. In practice it is undeniable that more closely aligned teams achieve more than groups of talented people simply working together. Patrick Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, says “if you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.”

The first step in getting all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction is for the leader to declare intent. This is why it is so important to have a written vision statement and a written [core] values statement. Writing it down ensures that it is purposeful, defined, clear, actionable, and non-changing. Further, unless it is written it is virtually impossible to execute consistently and hard to keep the team aligned with it.

Your Vision and Values statements should be the first two pages in your Playbook and all of the subsequent pages, detailing the plays (processes), must be in alignment.

Herb Mast is a Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.

The Law of Thirds is a simple concept that explains why some organizational cultures are more positive whereas others are negative and why some organizations have higher employee turnover than others.

The Law relates to where leaders focus their effort—on problem employees or highly engaged employees. Attention is like a magnet that draws others in its direction and influences culture.

When operating properly culture is intended to attract the right employees and reject the wrong ones.

Great Leaders obey the Law of Thirds by focusing their effort on the top third of [highly engaged] employees and in the process build a positive culture that supports higher productivity and retains better employees.

Scenario A: When leaders give more attention to problem employees. In the process many of the average performers and half of the top performers lower their standards and productivity.

This happens when leaders are afraid of conflict and don’t deal with issues as they arise. Instead they allow negativity to prevail rather than nipping it in the bud. Other times, when it is hard to hire replacement employees , like in the case of sales staff or service techs, leaders tolerate negative behaviors in fear they will lose the employee. Unfortunately, the effect of tolerating negative behaviors results in lowering the productivity of good employees whose attitudes is negatively impacted, to the point where many of them leave to find an environment they find more fulfilling and rewarding.

Scenario B: When great leaders focus their efforts on the top performers. In the process the average performers and half of the low performers increase their own efforts and adopt higher standards.

Great leaders follow a vision and uphold the values of the organization. They nip negativity in the bud so that it does not spread to others in the organization. This takes tremendous resolve and courage, but ultimately allows the leader to shape the organization into a positive and productive powerhouse where top performers thrive and low performers self-select for environments that tolerate their negative behaviors.

Here is a brief video from Patrick Lencioni that explains how the Law of Thirds works:

Herb Mast is a Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.

It is hard to imagine true leadership without empathy.

In fact, by definition it would seem that leadership without empathy would be more akin to a dictatorship. For isn’t the act of leading one of taking a group of people where they want to go (alignment around vision and values)? And why would people follow unless they feel the leader hears them, is sensitive to what is important to them, and acts in their best interests?

Empathy helps people feel safe and more willing to be vulnerable–key ingredients to building trust, which is foundational for all kinds of relationships.

Research done by Bal and de Jong (From Human Resource Management to Human Dignity Development) has shown that when people trust each other at work [because their relationships are strong] they are more committed to the organization and more willing to make a positive contribution.

Three thoughts Great Leaders can adopt to practice empathy with intentionality:

I notice you (cognitive empathy)

I feel your pain (emotional empathy)

I act to help you (practical empathy)

Herb Mast is a Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.

I had the privilege and honor to meet Donna Hicks, Ph.D. and to hear her as she shared insights from her research around dignity and what dignity really is. Dignity is such a simple attribute that is largely misunderstood and often violated out of ignorance. I had an epiphany as a result of what she shared, together with a deepening of my dignity consciousness. My leadership will be forever enhanced as a result. Thanks Donna.

From Leading with Dignity (Donna Hicks):

Regardless if our concern is leading our personal lives or leading an organization, a key to being successful is dignity coconsciousness: a deep connection to our inherent value and worth and the vulnerability that we all share to having our dignity violated.

But dignity is not the same as respect. Dignity is an attribute that we are born with—it is our inherent value and worth. Respect is different. Although everyone has dignity, not everyone deserves respect. Respect must be earned. Dignity is something we all deserve, no matter what we do. It is the starting point for the way we treat one another.

Dignity is the source of priceless power—it enables us to develop mutually beneficial connections to others and to create positive change in our relationships.

In my research, I have found that one of the most pervasive violations of dignity is that people do not feel safe to speak up with they feel they are not treated well, especially by their managers and supervisors.

One of the necessities of hierarchical organizational structures is the concentration of power in the hands of a few at the top. There is nothing inherently wrong with hierarchies, but if those who are in leadership positions don’t understand dignity, power can easily be abused and misused.

One of the greatest temptations that leaders have to avoid is believing in their superiority. This is where dignity provides a counterbalance, for we may differ in status, but we are all equal in dignity.

Leading with dignity demands that we pay close attention to the effects we have on others. Without such knowledge, relationship problems that plaque the workplace will continue.

Understanding the powerful forces that are unleashed with a violation of dignity (anger, resentment, and the desire for revenge) as well as when dignity is honored (love, loyalty, and the desire to give of oneself freely) will make it easy for leaders to do what is right.

When such consciousness is part of a leader’s repertoire, not only do people thrive, but the organization thrives right along with them.

~ Donna Hicks, Ph.D.

Herb Mast is a Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.

There was a man who punished his 3-year-old daughter just before Christmas for wasting a roll of wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a cardboard box to put under the Christmas tree.

On Christmas morning the little girl brought the gift to her father and said, “This is for you, Daddy.”

The man became embarrassed by his overreaction earlier, but his rage continued when he saw that the box contained nothing and was empty. He yelled at her; “Don’t you know, when you give someone a present, there is supposed to be something inside?”

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and cried, “Oh, Daddy, it’s not empty at all. I blew kisses into the box. They’re all for you, Daddy.”

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness.

Only a short time later, an accident took the life of the child.

Her father kept the box by his bed for many years and, whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the innocent love of the child who had put it there.

A timely reminder that the heart of the giver is always more important than the gift itself.

There are stories, there are good stories, and then there are stories that transform, like the one above. Great leaders understand the difference and use emotional stories to connect with and move their audience.

Its biological and research has proven that emotional stories have transformative power. Emotional stories connect better with the brain, hold a person’s attention longer, and enable greater retention of the information and concepts communicated.

Great leaders become great communicators by following a simple formula for the content of their messages:

65% emotion (pathos), 25% evidence (ethos), 10% logic (logos)

Herb Mast is a Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.