Be Real: The Art of Creating Exceptionalism in Modern Business: BE REAL

By Julian M. Allen

This book contains all three BE REAL titles by this author. It provides a comprehensive understanding of the requirements and path to success for those who are responsible for others. It is a collection of "cheats" in the business game that can refine and accelerate the career of someone who is responsible for others.

The Art of Creating Your Exceptionalism presents personal performance concepts and techniques based on generations of mover and shaker mentoring experince. It provides valuable insight for those considering a career in management, or as a development guide for team leaders, supervisors, and managers who wish to improve their effectiveness. We start with the basics of motivating others to support rather than oppose your leadership and management efforts. Career development milestones and personal advancement paths are visited. A discussion of political, bureaucratic, and power grapevine organizational interaction builds understanding that advances your personal career objectives. You will either laugh at or be repulsed by the ridiculousness that creates the need for those who accept responsibility for others.

The Art of Creating Your Exceptionalism explains what your team members want and need from their boss based on generations of mover and shaker team interaction experince. We dive into the basics of individuals and their interactions which affect team dynamics, development, and managment. We start with routine communication, and progress through team member capability and potential growth determination. We conclude with an explanation of the exceptionalism hiring foundations, and how to become the personalized boss team members need to reach their full potential. Valuable team interviewing and hiring guidelines move team leaders, supervisors, and managers toward greater success in being responsible for others.

The Art of Overcoming Exceptionalism Roadblocks provides tools that remove counterproductive team member behavior based on generations of mover and shaker team development experince. We begin by addressing adult learning, and progress to informal team member behavioral discipline. We visit control of unacceptable risk tor the individual, the team, and the organization, Real world case studies in routine business situations provide guidelines to address problems that impede team progress. We end with a method to turn formal dismissals into a positive for both the team and your career. These behavior modification tools ensure team leaders, supervisors, and managers turn a losing team into a winner in the most humane and effective way possible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Julian M. Allen
• Release date: Nov 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781540101921

Book preview

BE REAL

The Art of Creating Exceptionalism in Modern Business

Julian M. Allen

N B S Press

NBS PRESS

CONTENTS

DEDICATION

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1 - Be Careful What You Seek

Chapter 2 - Basics Of Interpersonal Communications

Bad Breath

Natural Gas

Case Study - Ben and Jerry

Written Communication

Perception Is Reality

Communication Credibility

Case Study - Unlucky Strike

Chapter 3 - The Power Of Decision And Indecision

The Mover and Shaker Boogie

Chapter 4 - Holding The Umbrella

Chapter 5 - Establishing Professional Relationships

Case Study - Trimming For Growth

Chapter 6 - Closing Doors

Case Study - Bodiddle

Case Study - Hot Means Hot

Chapter 7 - Frame Of Reference, Audience, And Temperament

Chapter 8 - Motivating Others To Support Or Oppose You

Actions That Motivate Mentors to Support You

Actions That Motivate Mentors to Oppose You

Chapter 9 - Changing The Picture

Chapter 10 - Identifying Root Causes

Expected Root Cause Frequency and Timing

Pure Design Root Causes

Pure People Root Causes

Pure System Root Causes

Hybrid Root Causes

Chapter 11 - The Most Powerful Person In The Room

Attributes Of Those Who Are Part Of The Solution

Chapter 12 - The Power Of Team Decision Making

Chapter 13 - Heard It Through The Grapevine

Case Study - Jason

Case Study - Josephine

Chapter 14 - Butt Chews And Chewing Butts

Chapter 15 - Managing Personal Stress

Chapter 16 - Reading The Tea Leaves

Case Study - The Golden Ring

Case Study - Corporate Restructure Crunch

Case Study - Surfing Dysfunction

Case Study - The Burn

Case Study - The Global Etiquette Emergency

My Headhunter, My Mentor

Chapter 17 - What I Wish I Had Fully Understood

Chapter 18 - What Your Team Members Want And Need

The Pillars of Team Exceptionalism

Chapter 19 - Natural Stones And Square Holes

Chapter 20 - The Capability Conundrum

Emotional Age

Mental Age

Interpersonal Age

Physical Age

Case Study - Jovan

Chapter 21 - Understanding The Individuals On Your Team

Chapter 22 - Interacting With Your Team

Chapter 23 - Factors In Hiring Your Team

Hiring Foundations - The Four Capability Ages

Exceptionalism Hiring Foundation

The Three Exceptionalism Qualifications

Transportation Cleanliness and Lifestyle Consistency

Case Study - Michael

Internal Candidates and Unfriendly Infiltrators

Case Study - Jane

Chapter 24 - The Personalized Boss

High Quantity/Low Quality Boss

High Quality/Low Quantity Boss

Protecting Part of The Solution Team Members

Chapter 25 - Understanding The Adult Learning Process

Chapter 26 - Managing Team Member Risk

Chapter 27 - Informal Behavior Modification

Self-Actualization and Esteem Needs Levers

Case Study - Rob

Case Study - Lucy

Case Study - Ray

Case Study - Buddy

Case Study - Jeremy

Case Study - Dan

Case Study - Jimmy

Chapter 28 - Hard Core Informal Behavioral Change

Case Study - Nick

Chapter 29 - Changing A Losing Team Into A Winner

Chapter 30 - Taking A Shrunken Head

Publically State Expectations

My Bad - First Non-conforming Behavior

Your Bad - Second Non-conforming Behavior

Your Have My Full Attention - Third Non-conforming Behavior

Best Wishes for the Future

POSTSCRIPT

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

RECOMMENDED READING

COPYRIGHT

DEDICATION

I WANT TO THANK all who taught me to handle responsibility in such a way that the individuals who came under my umbrella would find their lives improved.

My Father pounded the importance of morals, ethics, experience, empathy, commitment, perseverance, and teamwork through my thick skull. His desire was that each of his five children become decent, God-fearing, productive, and law abiding citizens.

My First Mentor was the master of finding humor in the simplest communication. If you fail to laugh every chance you get, you will always be less effective with people than you should be.

My Headhunter convinced me that I was cocky and that I tended to motivate others to oppose me.

The Bloodline Prince confided Every word spoken by a superior carries the risk of becoming reality—whether it is good, bad, right, or wrong.

The CFO Ninja drove home the importance of signatures for every expense approved by a superior.

The Turnaround Artist insisted I keep everyone in the loop when working at the edges of my responsibility. The broader your reach and the faster the rate of change, the more important it is to keep those above you informed about what you are attempting to do.

The Prophet pointed out that even the worst superior has at least one great attribute: If you make it your own, one day you will be a combination of the best of all your superiors.

The Big Cheese was adamant: Just because someone is your superior in rank or wealth, it does not mean they should be.

My Literary Mentor made me promise to give her the opportunity to read my work one day.

My Vermont Touchstone demonstrated exceptional intestinal fortitude by guiding me through the editing process.

To each of you, I hope the investment you made in me generated satisfactory returns.

fo·ment

verb \ ˈ f ō - ment \

To cause or try to cause

The growth or development of …

*

*

That which has been is that which will be,

And that which has been done

Is that which will be done.

So there is nothing new under the sun.

-Ecclesiastes 1:9

PREFACE

OUR SOCIETY CONSIST OF three groups of people: those who lead, those who follow, and those who depend on the first two in order to survive and prosper. We inhabit each of these groups during our life; some for an extended period of time, and others only briefly. Within each group you will also find individuals who are either part of the problem or part of the solution. Your commitment to improving your soft people skills indicates your desire to transition from a follower into a leader while, attempting to avoid becoming part of the problem. Accepting such a challenge brings a lifelong commitment to exceptionalism and mastery of soft people skills.

Unfortunately, interpersonal interactions are not always pretty, politically correct or edifying. The only truth about humanity is that we will eventually figure out a way to ruin all of God’s creation. This is my attempt to support those I may never meet in life who are striving to step forward as my generation begins the transition into one that is dependent on the leaders and followers to survive and prosper. Thank goodness there are people who aspire to accept responsibility for the well-being of others and who willingly tackle the unending human-based problems that plague society. Those who are most successful will be thrust forward into greater responsibility by followers who recognize their gift, and willingly follow them wherever they choose to lead.

I was blessed with an unusually broad selection of mentors and experiences during my private sector career. I never found an organization without at least one crippling problem; the only question was where the problem was located and how severely it hindered the organization’s journey toward success. The real world experiences of those who have already carried responsibility can help lay a strong foundation to support the forward progress of others—your forward progress. My greatest hope is that you leave the world a better place than you found it by building on the experience of those who came before you, instead of wasting your lifetime just learning what to avoid.

*

*

*

You are what you repeatedly do.

Excellence is not an event

- it is a habit.

- Aristotle, 384-322 BC

*

*

*

INTRODUCTION

THANK YOU FOR YOUR interest in this book over those more seductively packaged and touted by experts compensated by those who choose writing as their primary focus in life. I have attempted to include only what is important, because we are all far too busy to waste our precious time. Most chapters are self-contained discussions that you can finish during a five minute break. You will find the soft skill tools that deal with those who deviate from the common good stern, but as respectful and humane as possible. Things you will be exposed to as you read will remain relevant until humanity has run its course.

You should know that I consider myself to be a management generalist since I’ve been a team member in four major facility startups, as well as multiple cutting-edge business expansions and advanced manufacturing technology revolutions. We were always tasked with achieving things that were unreasonable or at least yet to be demonstrated, and in the face of challenging odds, all of which forced an ongoing development of my personal leadership skills. My experience in managing change was gained over fifteen industries and nineteen individual sites. I worked on the transition from push to pull operations, the integration of computerized systems in business, and the adoption of formal certified quality management systems.

This taught me to utilize everyday, real world examples that anyone can comprehend and some may find amusing. I admit my plan was to make you laugh as often as possible, in order to keep you focused on your personal exceptionalism development. My sole objective is to pass on information that will give you a leg up if and when you take on responsibility for others. Nothing you find between these covers is a new or original revelation. It is simply a combination of bits and pieces I have gathered and then reshuffled in a way that makes them more effective than each would have been separately.

It has been said my ability to reach solutions to problems before others and become impatient was actually my biggest disadvantage in life. My body language telegraphed my irritation and my choice of words tended to motivate others to oppose rather than support me in order to protect their fragile egos. I had to learn to convert this irritation into a skill by planting idea seeds and covertly steering progress as others nurtured their understanding, eventually arriving at the right solution. This resulted in a soft skill that built analytical capability in others by utilizing leading questions or suggested considerations while enhancing patience in myself. That tool has been polished by years of use, and yet it still has rough edges that will wound on occasion when I am not paying close enough attention. I hope you do not become the next victim.

Do what you can to move the ball down the field as fast as possible without incurring interpersonal relationship penalties. They slow everyone down while generating extra work to overcome the opposition you created to yourself. Keep in mind that any natural gift can and will be turned into a curse if it is not used in a way that moves the entire team forward at the same pace. And most importantly, your family deserves who you really are when you are with them, not who you must be in order to be successful in your career. Interpersonal penalties inside the family can develop into unrecoverable dysfunction that must be avoided at all cost.

THE ART OF CREATING YOUR EXCEPTIONALISM

CHAPTER 1 – BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SEEK

WE HAVE ALL WITNESSED the fallout from those who place their personal interest above everyone else’s. These individuals embody a trait which has been the catalyst for major wars. I have frequently followed behind them, challenged with repairing the damage they inflicted on people, assets, and organizations unfortunate enough to be duped by their resume, interviewing skills, or beguiling charm.

These individuals usually fell into one or more of the following categories:

They had never achieved a life involving people who depended on them

They had made a conscious decision to ignore the people who depended on them because they were a failure at home

They were driven by an overwhelming greed for things and could only be happy if they had more than, outranked, or out-earned their peer group

They were simply bad, dysfunctional, or mentally unstable people who enjoyed exercising control over others

They had striven for and secured a position that exceeded their level of competence

They were part of the owners family and held a position base on bloodline

The only things they could claim to justify their miserable existence were physical trinkets, personal income, how far up the food chain they were, or joy in the pain they had inflicted on others. The truly sickening part of their success was that it had been achieved by forcing others outside their own personal boundaries at a particular point in time. High quality team members refusing to be forced outside their personal boundaries will always leave for greener pastures. Those who stay became Mini-Me’s as they learned to emulate their dysfunctional mentors.

We have these misguided, self-centered individuals to thank for the three years and up or out career pattern. The first year is always full of talk and no action. The second year is focused on placing blame for lack of progress, and in taking action against those who dared to offer workable options to the leader’s misguided decisions. The third year is spent trumpeting the merits of the slight operational improvement achieved through means of the leader’s slash and burn agenda. The sole objective is to claim victory and be off to the next assignment before things began falling apart at the seams.

As I addressed the damage these people left in their wake, it became very clear that the art of successfully handling responsibility for others requires an individual who is moral, ethical, and full of real world experience. Even with those qualifications, the lack of empathy gained from living through certain life events can lead to the unnecessary loss of valuable team members. Life experience, morals, ethics, and empathy development begins with your family, friends, and acquaintances. The individuals who are constantly grooming themselves in order to one day assume responsibility for others usually enjoy the greatest future success. Learning never stops because every individual and situation is unique, making it a very challenging and interesting endeavor. Successful application of your soft people skills to the levers of human change must lead to positive outcomes if you are to maximize everyone’s potential for success.

I have personally been affected by dysfunctional superiors who never acquired these critical attributes. It is inevitable there will come a point when you cannot resolve an issue to the apparent best interest of everyone involved. Usually it is when you find yourself involved in an intervention by one of these superiors, and it is your job that hangs in the balance. This leadership milestone is the most valuable encounter you will ever have in terms of morals, ethics, experience, and empathy. It will bring every aspect of your life into sharp focus because of its effect on those you hold most dear. Even though such events have disrupted my personal life and the lives of those who depended on me, I am proudest of my actions during precisely those moments. The stories which resulted became part of after supper discussions which were invaluable in developing soft people skills, morals, experiences, and ethics in my children, all of which I trust will help them leave the world a better place than they found it.

At the end of the day, if you are not more concerned about the accomplishments of all team members that make up the organization rather than your own, you will fail. The simple fact is, your accomplishments are their accomplishments when you are in a leadership role.

Generating exceptionalism in others requires a specific set of qualification:

Genuine concern for the well-being of others

Taking pleasure as others top their personal best each day

Culture, color, physical attribute and gender blindness

Faith in the fact that individuals can achieve positive change when the right encouragement is provided

You should also be aware that you are considering or have entered a career field that exists because of dysfunction. Without problems, there would be no need for individuals to anticipate and prevent their impact, ensure that objectives are achieved, and that everyone plays well with others. If you have some idealistic notion that you will be able to drive all problems out of your area of responsibility, you will be sorely disappointed. In business, you will incessantly face two categories of problems—good and bad. Be prepared to live a problem- filled life if you continue to seek to be responsible for others.

Good problems are those that come from expansion, growth, entering new markets, positive incremental change, and forward progress across the organizational structure. They force every member of the organization outside of their comfort zone, compete for immediate attention, and create a number of associated problems that make the workplace both a challenging and frustrating experience. You will constantly face an extreme sense of urgency until the organization is stabilized, performing to expectations, and capable of assimilating the level of change necessary to ensure its future success. This process usually requires about three years and twice the work you would expect. While you will be required to invest far more of yourself than you anticipated, the happy result will be your association with an organization that is taking care of all its stakeholders and pulling you upward as it succeeds.

The absence of good problems means the firm is dying and your career right along with it. Bad problems include growth by acquisition, downgrading product quality, restructurings, divestitures, layoffs, downsizings, and all the other nasty events that occur far too often in American business. These problems carry a lower sense of urgency than good problems, but are far more gut-wrenching due to their human toll. If you happen to land somewhere problems seem to be absent, you are simply in the eye of the hurricane, and the wall is approaching. The devastation that will be left in its wake (which may occur years later) will make a hurricanator (offspring of a hurricane and a tornado) look tame. Having experienced both good and bad problems, I can assure you that the aggravation, pressure, stress, and sense of urgency associated with good problems are far preferable to the aggravation, etc., associated with bad problems. The absolute best result of living with bad problems is you have the honor of locking the gate for the last time on your way out.

If you are truly called to this vocation, recognize that it will be an extremely hard path that involves some conflict with problem team members, your peers, and your superiors. If you handle stress poorly, avoid conflict, or if drama causes you great personal anguish, change your career plans now. If you are not feeling stretched, making minor mistakes, or experiencing that heart grabbing panic you have just walked out onto thin ice, you are not progressing in your professional competence as rapidly as you should. When things seem to be going well, you become comfortable in your position, which breeds complacency and arrogance. Complacency and arrogance leads to a narrowing focus that ignores everything that may indicate your career is headed toward obsolescence. While you may hold your position through retirement, you actually left the game the second you felt comfortable, meaning that you did not reach your full potential.

If you are willing to accept the reality that prevention or resolution of every imaginable form of stress and conflict will be the deciding factor in your success, you are on the right path. The end result will be a life filled with the changing of adult diapers and powdering adult butts to keep an organization and its human resources centered on the pathway to success. Remember that your experiences, morals, ethics, and empathy will be increasingly stressed as you move up the responsibility ladder. Don’t lose touch with yourself or what is truly important in life; the rewards gained from losing yourself will never be worth the cost. The greatest compliment that can ever be received by an individual is Good things happen wherever he (or she) decided to get involved.

*

*

Success isn't just about

what you accomplish

in your life.

It's about what

you inspire others to do.

- Unknown

*

*

CHAPTER 2 –BASICS OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

I CONTINUE TO BE AMAZED at how many individuals fail to understand the foundations of effective communication. When your primary job is to get work done through others you must be able to communicate effectively. Any factor that impedes this critical capability must be actively minimized or eliminated. The impacts of these problems begin the second you start toward the office and continue until you make it back to your mode of transportation heading home. Despite your desire for human decency in the workplace, you will be dealing with all of these issues at some point in the future.

Bad Breath

Nothing affects your communication effectiveness with people more than bad breath. When you are the superior in the conversation your victim has lost the ability to respond by addressing or distancing