Change Management News

It was amazing to hear a President or any leader for that matter — say, “I screwed up”. Hearing leaders admit mistakes is rare. At best, we might hear mistakes were made, but that leaves us to wonder just made those mistakes. Another common reaction to a screw-up is to obfuscate with spin so that no one understands what is going on. And a final favorite is to parse the error so minutely that it appears that everything worked out just fine. But to hear someone say, “I screwed up” is as shocking as it is refreshing.

I can tell you, if I ever happen to personally screw up, I might just follow the President’s lead.

Last week President-elect Obama met wit hall the living former Presidents and the current President, George W. Bush. This was an unprecedented meeting and Obama called this meeting. According to Norah O’Donnell, MSNBC, he realized that he needed to be able to build relationships with these men so that he could pick up the phone. So instead of pretending he had all the experience in the world, he had the good sense to begin to ask the counsel of those who have done the job before.

Seems like good advice for anyone moving into a leadership position. Both an act of leadership and humility.

I urge you to read the comments section of Negative Flake Rates. Jake Jacobs offers link that describes how Obama is keep his huge network of supporters engaged. I hate to keep stating the obvious, but there are so many things leaders in organizations can learn from his approach to building support for change.

Campaign planners expect a flake rate among those who promise to volunteer. In other words, they expect a certain percentage of people to flake out and not show up. This past weekend, the Obama campaign experienced the opposite: they got a negative flake rate. They got more volunteers showing up than they had planned for.

That is amazing. Imagine if leaders in organizations could tap the energy of employees at all levels so that people would volunteer to do whatever it took to make major changes a success. (more…)

Or another title: Resistance Fueled by Outrage.

On Monday, the former CEO and Chairman of AIG appeared before a House committee. During their testimonial a congressman revealed that AIG had spent some $440K on a fancy retreat a few days after the US government gave the company billions of dollars.On Tuesday, Senator Obama mentioned that retreat during the debate. On Thursday MSNBC announced that AIG claimed that the retreat was not for AIG executives, but for top sales people. One of the MSNBC commentators said that this was common practice. (more…)

Kevin Eikenberry, author of Remarkable Leadership just posted a survey that asks you to compare the leadership skills of the two presidential candidates. He has invited readers of my blog to take it (and then he’ll be glad to send you a report). Candidate Survey

Did you see the US presidential debate last night? They both lost.

In a town hall forum there is an opportunity to speak directly to individuals and answer their questions. Except for one or two examples of human contact, both candidates failed at that.

The lesson for leaders of change is this: when people ask you a direct question about the change – answer it. Don’t use the question as a springboard for prepared talking points. Answer the question and then move to broader themes.

Answering the question does four things: (more…)