Among negative behaviors afflicting leaders, micro-management may be the most difficult to overcome. That’s because the underlying driver is fear, and the fear body has a powerful survival instinct. But it can be overcome. And it must be to lead effectively over the long term. Otherwise, team members feel devalued and disrespected. They avoid taking risk. They take out frustrations on other team members and customers. They look for new jobs. In the end, the only ones that stay around are sub-A players because A players will not allow themselves to be micro-managed.

So how do you stop micro-managing? Here are some tips:

Redefine your role. Staff for a maximum of three to five direct reports. Write your own current position description, being completely candid, which should reveal where you are micro-managing. Then draft a vision statement for how you will lead without telling anyone how to do his or her job.). Offer support. Set accountability schedules. Detach. Commit to the discipline no matter what. Remember, if it’s not working, it’s because you are not leading an “A” player or there is a breakdown in leadership.

Lead by objective. Set goals. Set and assign action steps. Clearly define expectations (who, what, when, and why…not how

Hire and retain only “A” players. They won’t allow you to micro-manage.

With every task, ask “Who else can do this?”

Take it in steps and pieces. Don’t expect to overcome your tendency to micro-manage overnight.

Distinguish between helpful and meddlesome. Err on the side of not helping, at least until you are no longer micro-managing.

Prioritize rigorously.  Have no more than five priorities and don’t work outside them.

Communicate your intent to no longer micro-mange to key constituents. Describe the behaviors you’re working on. Ask for suggestions. Make a commitment. And provide a “safe space” for them top provide you feedback.

Meet frequently with your team. Daily (15 minutes) to discuss what’s up, metrics, and where stuck. Weekly (1 hour) to focus on priorities. Monthly (4 – 8 hours) to address big issues and for learning.

Practice intention. See Chapter 4 in The Source of Leadership.

We are in the green age, the age of sustainability.  A core principle of sustainability is the avoidance of waste.  This covers many facets of the organization, but one, of course, is in spending.  Conservative spending, in addition being a key practice of sustainability is a key practice of survival.  Cash is an organization's oxygen, its lifeblood.  When it runs out, your organization is dead. 

 

I recommend a policy, indeed a culture, that asks every team member to run through this analysis with every potential expenditure:

 

In considering this expenditure…

 

·         Is it necessary?

·         Can I delay it?

·         Have I shopped around?

·         Is there a way I can repurpose an asset we already own?

·         Have I avoided waste?

·         Is there a way to leverage it?

·         Have I solicited input from team members?

 

…understanding that we will not materially compromise our commitment to our customers or to speed, efficiency and

   excellence.

 

From Lee Schweichler, a premier executive search professional (he placed John Chambers at Cisco) serving the high-tech industry and a good friend of mine:

All CEOs have five tasks: (1) define the business; (2) recruit the team, (3) arrange financing, (4) set the culture, and (5) shape the product strategy.

And the 11 traits of a successful CEO in an early stage company are:

1.       Judgment needed to make tough calls in novel, complex situations with no roadmap;

2.       Ability to define the business strategy beyond the original product concept and capture the support of internal and external audiences for that strategy;

3.       Ability to recruit a high quality team;

4.       Understanding of how markets work: what products to make, how to get customers, and how to get customers to buy them;

5.       Ability to establish a value set and culture that promotes desired results;

6.       Capacity to manage talented people effectively and generate high levels of performance from them;

7.       Consistent focus on the few critical variables that make the business work;

8.       Constant attention to the critical importance of cash;

9.       Strong intellect, coupled with pragmatism and pure common sense;

10.   Built-in, unrelenting drive to succeed; and

11.   Magnetic personal style that motivates people throughout the company.

Check out “The Alchemy of Leadership,” a wonderful essay by James Huling, and a great challenge to those who believe leaders are born into it.

The high-impact leader is inspiring. He or she listens deeply to others to discover a common purpose, then gives life to his or her vision by communicating it so that team members see themselves in it. 

If you are a leader and have never listened to the collections of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches, do yourself a favor and either download them from iTunes onto your iPod or buy the collection at Amazon.

We all know his “I Have a Dream,” but some of these others, like his sermon at the Mason Temple in Memphis the night before his assassination, is the epitome of inspiring. You can’t help yourself from getting goose bumps and, likely, shedding some tears.

I'm a fan of meetings that are done right.  If they are done right, they are critical to maintaining the flow of communication in a fast-moving organization.  If they aren't done right, I hate them, hate them, hate them.  They are a waste of time.

10 Commandments of Meetings

1.      Make sure it’s absolutely necessary.

2.      Include only the essential people.

3.      Circulate an agenda prior to the meeting, stating the objectives and the topics, with a leader assigned and time allocated for each topic.

4.      Strictly adhere to start and end times.

5.      Stay on topic.

6.      No side-conversations.

7.      No interrupting.

8.      Be efficient with words.

9.      No laptops, phones, PDAs.

10.    Conclude with a clear statement of decisions made, next steps, and individual accountabilities.

If you haven’t read A Whole New Mind, by Daniel Pink, run out and get it now. Or have Amazon expedite it to you. It’s the book Po Bronson, Tom Peters, Seth Godin, and scores of other leading edge thinkers are raving about. It explains how the era of “left-brain” dominance - and the Information Age it engendered - is giving way to a new world in which artistic and holistic “right-brain” abilities distinguish between tomorrow’s winners and losers.   In this new world - one of high concept and high touch - creators and empathizers end up with the long end of the stick.

If you haven’t yet tried meditation, Pink is another in a growing army of authorities saying that it is a powerful tool in driving right-brain functionality.

The reality is that we can’t eat anything we want, whenever we want, without becoming obese or sick. So what’s the next best thing? And can it be simple so that I don’t have to count calories, buy food from a diet or nutrition company, adhere to a regimen, be a slave to a cookbook, and avoid restaurants? The answer is YES!!!! In the last three books I read, I found the answer and it agrees completely with my own many and diverse experiences as a raw vegan, a vegetarian, vegetarian plus seafood eater, and an all-out carnivore.

These books, one by Gary Taubes (Good Calories, Bad Calories) and two by Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food), are a must read for everyone. When you’re done, you’ll be absolutely convinced of the following:

Don’t think hunger is a solution. Any diet that involves you being hungry is bound to fail because you will inevitably consume the calories you sacrificed.

Exercise because it’s good for your health, but don’t expect it to take off pounds. It’s not a silver bullet. The more you exercise, the more calories your body needs to keep you feeling satisfied.

Avoid sugars and starches. This is the hard one, at least for the first couple of weeks. But once the carb cravings go away, it’s a breeze. Sugars and starches (wheat- and other gluten-based foods, rice, beans, corn, potatoes) are easily and almost immediately transformed by the human body into fat. Sure, you can slow it down somewhat by mixing them with proteins and fats, and you can avoid the full impact by exercising like a demon so that you burn some of the energy before the transformation, but they are the bad elements of our diet.   

Eat mostly plants. Eat them in whole form, as fresh as possible, and, by all means, pay extra for organic.  Re fruit, don’t overeat because even though their sugars are natural, they still turn to fat if you have too much.

Eat fish. Their omega 3’s are great, but avoid farm-raised fish and mercury-laden species (e.g., tuna)

Eat meat, poultry, and cheese. There is simply no compelling research proving that the consumption of these will cause heart disease, obesity, cancer, or any other disease. The key is being smart about it. Eat organic, grass fed product so that you aren’t ingesting antibiotics and growth hormones. Cholesterol? There’s a whole lot of hype out there, but no research to prove high cholesterol causes heart disease or any other sickness.   

Eat slowly and small portions. This is the real lesson from the French. They do it so well, they can even eat a little bread with it.

Drink red wine. Yes, it is carb-laden, but the health - and yes, emotional - benefits are too great to ignore.

The result of all of this: I lost the last 15 pounds

Method's attack on P&G territory (see February 19, 2008 post) is all the more impressive when you consider that P&G is not your normal, staid, wallowing-blindly-in-the-mud corporate behemoth.  After its stock tanked in 2000, chief A.G. Lafley figured he had to discover a way to innovate faster.  So he launched the Connect + Develop program that encourages the work of outside developers.  According to Fast Company's March 2008 issue, today 42% of P&G's products have an externally sourced  component.  And P&G is doing very well.   

Nouveau wisdom says, "Yeah, gramps, those were the old days!"  Witness San Francisco start-up, Method, a maker of green cleaning products.  A year ago, founders Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry, decided to pit their company directly against Procter & Gamble's blockbuster Swifter mop.  Method's Omop incorporates sleek design with 100% biodegradable sweeping cloths.  This was after, the year before, carving out a piece of the dryer sheet market for themselves, at the expense of Unilevel and P&G.  Result?  In 2005, the company had $15 million in sales.  In 2007, it rang up nearly $100 million.