Leadership qualities do not go on trees. How do I know this? I don't. But I heard it at a really expensive seminar on leadership qualities. Every book, article, pamphlet, note, memo or post-it I have ever read about leadership has simply been self-aggrandizing bullshit. Consultants and seminarians who style themselves as leadership experts, I've found, have little to offer other than anecdotal evidence and half-truths.
This book is different. One thing about me, I like to use data. Data-free discussions are the ever-flowing marrow of corporate society these days. How many times have you heard flavor of the month terms thrown around loosely in your organizations? What are you doing this month? Are you transitioning from Good to Great? Are you thinking outside the box this month? Are you moving cheese? Are moderately inept people trying to adopt 7 habits of highly effective people?
More importantly, when your organizations are finished making these transitions are there ever any data to support that Good has, in fact, become Great? You're outside of the box? The cheese has been moved? The moderately inept people have become even slightly effective? The answer, I find in my continuous, scrupulous research, is "no."
Folks, effective leadership isn't something you learn by reading a book. The best method for becoming an effective leader is to examine a successful model and apply it to your own organization.
One of my favorite, and most used models of this is the current make up of the NBA's Utah Jazz, specifically Matt Harpring. Harpring is an interesting specimen because he does not seem to fit the dominant paradigms of effective leadership. His leadership does not come by example, rather it comes from a higher (possibly divine) mandate. On the surface Harpring is an average to sub-par basketball player. However, for the average Utah Jazz fan, the name Matt Harpring evokes a powerful response. Ask a Jazz fan about Matt Harpring and you'll often hear the words "football," "tough," "defense," "grit," "hard worker," and "energizer bunny."
That's pretty powerful stuff. How does he do it? I'll not only show you, but I'll provide you with some examples that you can apply to your day to day life. Remember you don't need to be an NBA player to achieve these results, but you can use the same strategies and start down the path of being an effective leader.
Chapter 1: The Smaller the Potatoes, The Bigger the Steak Looks
We'll start with one of the most effective, applicable examples of Harpring Style Leadership: The scowl. An effective scowl is a definite leadership builder. In Harpring's case, it gives off the appearance of being tough, angry, determined or any combination of the three. To break this down more effectively, let's use a visual aid:
The scowl is an excellent communication tool. Spend some time looking at the picture above. Practice your scowl in the mirror. Careful not to overdo it, though. Too much scowl can give you the image of being pouty, while not enough scowl can give others the impression that you're a pushover.Once you've determined that your scowl is effective enough, start putting it to use in real life situations. Remember, once you go to work, do not take the scowl off of your face. From the time you arrive at the office, that scowl must be there. As soon as you sit at your desk, I'll guarantee you'll notice that others will start treating you differently.
One client of mine, a file clerk at a cosmetics company (and is now director of blabbity-blah blah) saw immediate benefits from an effective scowl. Evidently, my client had been having trouble getting a raise. He was producing an average amount of work and was tired of not getting raises due to his average work output. Not wanting to increase his work output, my client decided to increase his leadership quotient in the office.
My client was subtle at first with his scowl technique. As soon as his manager handed him a new project, my client would look his manager in the eye, scowl and determinedly march off to perform his mundane duties. It wasn't long before my client's co-workers noticed that something was different. "You approach your work with such grit," one co-worker noticed. "Did you play football?" another co-worker would ask. The more he scowled while working, the more his co-workers felt beneath his contempt. My client was elated, however, it was just the beginning.
It was time to take the scowl to the next level. Co-workers had noticed the change and had begun to take my client more seriously, but his manager still hadn't noticed. My client decided that he would add a little more scowl to his daily duties. Sure enough, it came time to give a status report to the company CEO, my client used his scowl to effectively walk down the hall to the CEO's office. While giving the report to the CEO, my client would scowl at the end of every sentence. The CEO was so impressed with this, he pulled my client's manager into his office and told him that my client had the kind of toughness and leadership that the company was looking for. The CEO then informed my client's manager that he'd be moving my client over the department and moving the manager into sales.
My client was just beginning his ascension to greatness. While the scowl had gotten him this far, he found that he needed to employ other Harpring tactics. For instance, we have yet to cover running hard to every meeting, looking pissed until it is your turn to speak in a meeting and calling other employees out in the company newsletter - all of which will be addressed in further chapters.
In the meantime, use this list below to practice your scowl techniques.
Harpring's Keys to an effective scowl:
1. Purse lips enough to look tough. Careful not to do it too lightly. Slightly pursed lips will give you an effete effect and have the opposite results you're looking for.
2. Tense up. Red in the face is good. Too red might give others that you ate too much cheese the night before. Also, be sure to consult your doctor if you start to experience sharp chest pains.
3. Focus on something trivial that really pissed you off. People who drive too slow, that guy who told you about the ending to "The Sixth Sense" before you saw it, whatever it takes. Fixate on that moment and your face will follow suit.
4. Make eye contact when you scowl. Not only does it keep others around you guessing, it also ensures that everyone you come in contact with will walk on eggshells. It's a great distraction technique as everyone will focus on what you're pissed at rather than what you're actually doing.
Enjoy putting the Harpring techniques to work in the field.
Next week:
Chapter Two: How Matt Harpring Runs His Ass off to Give the Impression that He's Actually Doing Something
2 comments:
Please tell me that chapter 2 is coming soon.
Sometimes you just have to gather the herd together and "show them your rings," figuratively speaking.
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