How Leaders and Organizations Get Healthy

Jon Gordon is a bestselling author on leadership and positive culture.  On this episode of his Positive University Podcast, Gordon talks with Patrick Lencioni.  Pat and his team at The Table Group help leaders improve their organizational health.  Here the entire podcast here:  https://player.fm/1yJMHr

Below are my notes from this great episode about establishing and maintaining a healthy culture.

Dysfunctional Teams Don't Work
A team can't be successful if it is dysfunctional.  We have natural dysfunctions because we are human and we are imperfect and broken and we have a natural tendency to focus on ourselves before others.  We have to learn how to be a part of a team.  Caring about others and loving others is not natural, but that is how teams find success and wholeness.

Other-Centered View - The Low Hanging Fruit of a Team 

When you take attention away from yourself, when you think about the whole, and when you better understand each other - then the light bulb will go off.  Have an 'other-centered view' where you think about what your team members want, what they go through, and what they are feeling.  

How many relationships are broken because one person doesn't realize that the other person is just wired a certain way and that they are not intentionally trying to annoy the other?  Having an 'other-centered' view allows you to better understand others and get along with others.

Being a part of a family helps you become a better coach and leader because it teaches you how to be 'other-centered' and be more in tune with the thoughts, feelings, and wants of people you care about and people you work with.

There are fundamental principles of human behavior that apply at home and at work.

Table Group

The best piece of technology is sitting around the table and talking with others.  Sitting at the table and talking is simple, reliable, timeless and more effective than any technology.

The Healthy Family is Going to Win

As a leader, you have to be smart and know what you are doing, but if your team is unhealthy and filled with politics and confusion, this is no good for organizational health.  Organizational health is not always measurable, but it's practical and real, and when it's combined with being smart, organizational health and having a great culture can be a real difference-maker.  If people don't get that, you are just rearranging the depth chart.  It's simple, but its powerful and real.

The Sophistication Bias

If sophistication bias is the idea that if something is simple and not sophisticated, it's not valuable.  

The most successful people in life do the simple things well:

1 - Humble - Make it about others and not yourself. 

2 - Hungry - Work harder, not less.  Don't take shortcuts and have a strong work ethic. 

3 - Smart - Be smart about people and learn how your words and actions affect others.

The Art and Benefits of Humility

The opposite of humility is arrogance and pride is the root of all sin.  We are called to be humble.  Humility is not a lack of confidence.  Humility is deference to the truth.  Have confidence and stand up for what you think, and defer to what is true, not others.  If you have a strength or a talent that is good, denying that is not being humble.  

Humility is not thinking less of yourself; humility is thinking about yourself less. - C.S. Lewis

Be selfless, but if you are good at something, denying that is actually a violation of humility.

Being humble is knowing that there is God and that it's not you.  If you are humble, what are you humbling yourself to?  If you think there is nothing bigger than you, you might think you are the biggest thing.  It's really hard to be humble if you think that you are the biggest thing.

How Do You Make Yourself More Humble?

We have to receive the positive stuff but realize and remember how broken we are and realize what are flaws are, accept them, and strive to be better.  We all have things that we have to get better at.

How Do We Achieve True Success And Joy

'I thought achievement was the thing and that we have to prove ourselves, but then we realize our ladder is leaning against the wrong building.'  Real joy comes when we realize that success is not just about us.  Achieving life goals is pretty empty without perspective.  Don't chase stuff that won't ultimately make you happy.

CEO of fortune 500 Company: Do you have kids?

Pat: No, we just got married.

CEO of Fortune 500 Company: Ok, when you do have kids, my best advice is that you spend time with them because I have a 16-year-old kid and I don't really know him.  And it's a bummer.

Don't let your job take you away from your family.  If you are denying your family and living only for yourself, you will eventually implode.  You are a better leader when you are a better father/mother, husband/spouse.

What Are The Biggest Mistakes That Leaders Make?

Many leaders think that being vulnerable in front of the people that they lead will cost them credibility, so they pretend to strong when they are not, they pretend to have the right answer when they don't, and they believe in the saying, 'don't let them see you sweat.'  

They don't realize that hiding their flaws and vulnerability is actually stealing from their credibility and is breaking trust with the people that they lead.  So many leaders grow up thinking, 'Be cool, be calm, and be collected,' but the truth is, when you are feeling something or an emotion, or you feel worried or you feel like you aren't on your game, the best thing that you can do with the people that you lead is to ask for help or admit your mistakes.  When you do that, people will follow you through walls of fire.

What happens when the outside forces hammer you when you make or admit mistakes?  How do you maintain that strength on the inside while you fight those outside forces?

The most important people to be vulnerable with are your people, the people you lead, and the people on the inside.  What your people on the inside think matter so much more than what the people on the outside think.  The worse thing is when you gain credibility with the people on the outside but you lose credibility on the inside.  The most important people that you should be vulnerable with is your people.  It's the credibility of the people you lead that matters most.

What Are The Keys To Organizational Health?

Every person on the team has to be willing to be vulnerable.  Once you get a team who can acknowledge their strengths and their weaknesses, who can admit when they're right and they're wrong, it changes everything.  Then make sure that those people can answer the most basic questions about your organization and that there is no daylight.  Too often leaders allow for a little bit of daylight because a little bit of daylight between leaders is like a blinding headlight to other members of the organization.  

Make sure your team is behaviorally together, vulnerable with each other, and on the same page about what you all want to do.  It just comes from conversation.

What Do You Do Or Say When You Are Positive But Your Boss/Leader Isn't?

Don't assume that your boss/leader is doing what they are doing on purpose.  Realize that they would like to be better.  You have an opportunity to love up to your boss.  Share with them the kind truth by sharing with them things that can help them.

Sometimes they will hear it and they won't be able to act on it, and often they will seek you out for more.  Don't be a jerk, but don't be a butt-kisser.  Most leaders want to get better and are desperate for someone who is willing to tell the KIND TRUTH.  Sure there is risks but the rewards are great.  It's an art, not a science.  Do and say it without hurting feelings.  Make it about helping them and not about helping you.  Consult them and help them so that they can help others.  Leadership is a ministry in life and a great way to serve and love others.

What Is The Most Important Responsibility of  Leader

Leaders need to realize that they have the hardest job in an organization, and they should be GLAD for that because it's about others.  Some leaders get it, and others feel like they have arrived and put the work on others.  

A coach that is reward-centered gives all of the hard work to others:

• I avoid tough conversations. 
• I don't want to repeat myself all the time.
• I don't care to have interesting and engaging meetings.

A responsibility-centered coach says:

• It's my job to have the toughest conversations.
• It's my job to do the hard work.
• It's my job to make practices interesting and engaging
• It's my job to teach and re-teach until they learn what they need to learn.

A responsibility-centered coach takes pride in doing the jobs that nobody else wants to do but only the person at the top can do.  Be a leader for the right reasons.