Book Recommendations
from Bret L. Simmons

From Bret's review: "I liked the book so much I might make it required reading for my next MBA class in organizational behavior. I neither like nor agree with everything Pfeffer has to say in the book, but he backs up his points with solid research, which I love. It has a few too many stories for my taste, but this is one of the best evidence-based books on leadership and management you can put your hands on, which is why I am recommending it."

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From Bret's review: "In this book, Nayar tells the story of how he transformed an already successful company, HCLT, into one of the fastest growing IT service partners in the world. The personal story Nayar shares is compelling, insightful, and at times funny and brutally honest. Have your highlighter handy when you read this because it is packed full of wisdom and quotable passages."

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Leaders Are Master Learners

December 27, 2011 by Bret L. Simmons · Filed under: Leadership

I caught this interview with Kaki King on CNN today. I’ve never heard of Kaki King, so I was barely paying attention when she said something that just blew me away:

I play guitar for a living, and this guitar is way smarter than me. I know that, and I say this a lot, but I really mean it from the bottom of my heart. I am a guitar student, and I will be for the rest of my life. There is just too much to learn in a lifetime. There is something beautiful and challenging and humbling about that that I don’t want to let go of.

This is a woman that Rolling Stone magazine named a “Guitar God” in 2006, yet instead of considering herself a master, she embraces the role of life-long learner. Although the art of the music is interdependent on both her and her guitar, she exalts the potential of the instrument over her own strengths and accomplishments.

Gosh, I wish more leaders would view the people they’ve been given the privilege to lead that way. Our attitudes as leaders should be “these employees of mine are way smarter than me. I am a student of the potential of their behavior, and I could spend a lifetime learning how to better partner with them to create an organization where we, our customers, and our community can all thrive. I am humbled by the challenge of what our interdependence can achieve.”

Kaki’s comments about her music remind me that the art of leadership is in mastering the discipline and joy of continual learning. Kaki might disagree, but I think people are more fascinatingly complex than any musical instrument. There is just too much to learn in a lifetime about how to work well with others.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Real Learning

Interdependent Excellence

The Key To Growing Your Business

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Tags: Bret Simmons, Excellence, partnership
Posted in Leadership | 14 Comments »

Performance Talks

December 16, 2011 by Bret L. Simmons · Filed under: Leadership

When I was around 18, I worked as a shift manager at McDonald’s Corporation in Tulsa, Oklahoma. One of the assistant managers that helped me get promoted and then trained me was a man named Don Griffin. I admired Don because he cared about the work that he did and he cared about me and the rest of his employees. He was also very focused on producing results for the company. Don had a huge influence on my work ethic and basic management philosophy.

Over the years, I’ve never forgotten Don telling me “Performance talks, bullshit walks.” I could count on hearing it every time I tried to give Don an excuse for poor performance. That simple concept still influences how I interpret almost every interaction I have with people in my various work related roles.

I’m OK with folks dropping the ball and making occasional mistakes, and I’m OK with people not delivering as promised from time to time. We all do it – including me. But I have a very low tolerance for folks that won’t accept responsibility for their mistakes. I’ve never known anyone commit to fixing a problem without first admitting “I screwed up.”

Don still lives in the Tulsa area, and he and his wife have a son named Bret.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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Making McGood On A Service Failure

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Don’t Be Compromised By Compromise

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Tags: accountability, Bret Simmons, employee performance, leadership development, learning, performance, responsibility
Posted in Leadership | 16 Comments »

Thanking People You Lead Makes Them More Helpful

December 12, 2011 by Bret L. Simmons · Filed under: Leadership

The ability to say “thank you” to people that perform well or otherwise advance the shared purpose of the organization is a character strength that I believe we should require from those that we grant the privilege to lead. Expressing gratitude for the contribution of others is a type of reward power that can make us more influential with others.

The evidence on the power of gratitude in the workplace is meager; however, a very well done study published in 2010 helps us better understand why a little thanks goes a long way. Adam Grant and Francesca Gino proposed that when we express gratitude, people are more motivated to be helpful because it increases their feelings of self-efficacy (capability and competence) and social worth (appreciated for making a difference).

Through a series of four separate experiments (see below for full citation) they found that when people received expressions of gratitude for their work, it increased both the frequency and duration of behaviors intended to help the organization. When people were thanked for their efforts, it enhanced both their feelings of self-efficacy and feelings of social worth, but only social worth was a significant predictor of helping behavior. According to the authors “when helpers are thanked for their efforts, the resulting sense of being socially valued, more than the feelings of competence they experience, are critical in encouraging them to provide more help in the future” (p. 953).

If all your people ever do is only what is in their formal job descriptions, your organization will be mediocre at best. For your organization to excel, your folks need to be good citizens and do more than what’s simply required to help the organization and their co-workers. Leaders that express gratitude to their employees make them feel valued, and this evidence shows that when employees feel valued they behave in ways that the organization values.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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Full citation: Grant, A.G. & Gino, F. (2010). A little thanks goes a long way: Explaining why gratitude expressions motivate prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98 (6): 946-955.

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Tags: Bret Simmons, citizenship behavior, evidence-based management, gratitude, leadership development, organizational citizenship behavior
Posted in Leadership | 6 Comments »