The Tillmar Connection

February 2011

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Do I Have to Like People to Be a Leader?

By Steve Riege, For Tillmar Connect

One of the 12 behaviors of the Rare Leader™ is to be “high in relationships.” The quick response from some is: ”So, if I don’t like to be around people, then I can’t lead?”

I’ve heard feedback on candidate assessments for executive leadership opportunities:

  • If my MBTI shows me as an “E” rather than “I,” am I doomed to be in the trenches, rather than leading troops?
  • My DiSC profile shows me as a lower “I;” is that as an indication I cannot influence people I lead?
  • My Culture Index profile indicates I am a lower “B.” I like to think and focus on tasks rather than socialize, so don’t interpret that I cannot lead.

Now What?

While there is great reality that leaders interact with people and establish mutual trust, it is not intended the “relationship” behavior of the Rare Leader™ be an emphasis on social skills and desires.

The Rare Leader™ is always working with people, displaying the ability to listen, to understand and to respond. The Rare Leader™ uses intuition to sense what people are feeling and thinking. The Rare Leader™ will recognize different behavioral styles proving he or she can focus on others rather than himself or herself.

Sometimes, “E’s” or higher “I’s,” or higher “B’s” struggle leading others. Perhaps their personal focus is on the social side of working with others rather than actually leading.

High “sociability” might even mask the inability to establish a trusting relationship, disabling intuitive skill to sense what motivates the team, or to understand and appropriately respond to differing styles of behavior.

After all, the key to utilizing these assessment profiles is understanding how you can affect others, and how to sense and interact with others.

So Let’s Make a Deal ...

Don’t take the popular assessment tools at face value as an indicator of leadership. We need to understand what they really mean.

Social skills are not the same as “relationship” behaviors and abilities.

Consider these important “relationship” questions:

  • Do you have the ability to listen to people?
  • Can you understand what others are trying to communicate to you?
  • Are you able to respond effectively to others?
  • Are your intuitive skills heightened?
  • Can you sense what people are thinking or feeling?
  • Can you recognize differing behavioral styles in people you lead?
  • Do you focus on the success of others as well as your self?

If you want to learn more about the Rare Leader™ in you, or if you are interested in retaining Steve Riege as your Executive Coach, contact Steve Riege via his website at www.ovationleadership.com

 

How About Letting the Health Care Market Work?

In the past 12 years we have been repeating the same tired dribble about health care, with no discernible action.
"In most of the U.S., health care can be confusing, uncoordinated, and expensive," writes Susan DeVore in Bloomberg Businessweek. "What if we were to emphasize cooperation, communication, and prevention?
Read her insights at Bloomberg Businessweek.

 
So You Think Your Data is Safe?

What would happen to your organization if you lost data or access to your data?
It happens. And it's costly to American businesses and organizations, according to Mike Coakley at C.H. Coakley & Co. in Milwaukee.
Mike notes the following information that should have all of us making sure our information is secure and reliably backed up.

  • 15% failure rate for backups
  • 10 to 50% failure rate for restores
  • 34% of companies back up their data to tape but do not test their backups
  • 77% of companies that test their backups discover backup failures
  • 90% of small companies that experience a major data loss go out of business within a year
  • The cost of data loss to U.S. businesses is $12 billion annually

C.H. Coakley & Co.'s Secure Data Services division handles the data security for meat packer Patrick Cudahy. The day of the massive fire at the plant, company executives were worried that the fire was going to reach the IT department of its corporate headquarters, thereby destroying the company’s most current and vital records. 

C.H. Coakley maintains Patrick Cudahy’s back-up data in its highly secured, strategically located fireproof  “FIRELOCK” vault, which is temperature and humidity controlled. The FIREBLOCK vault is designed for a multimedia computer tape storage environment. In addition, Coakley’s FIRELOCK vault has a 24-hour monitored security system, including motion detectors and surveillance cameras, to protect the vital business information of its customers.

“We met with department heads of Patrick Cudahy at a predetermined off-site location throughout the fire to manage their current backup tape rotation from their internal computer systems,” said Dick Block of C.H. Coakley & Co.  “We were able to save and store their accounting, sales, inventory control, records, payroll and other vital data.  If destroyed, Patrick Cudahy would have had to recreate these files, as well as they could, which would have taken a huge amount of time and money.”
 

Who Said It?

"A magnomania for tough-minded, cold blooded competitive correctness has breed the spiritual sensuousness out of most of our human enterprises. That leaves us with a reality of synthetic personas and pasteboard passions, an epedemic of barren careers and a wasteland of workplaces devoid of flavor."
Can you guess who said that? 

Read our December 2010 issue of Tillmar Connection

Read our November 2010 issue of Tillmar Connection

Read our October 2010 issue of Tillmar Connection

Read our Summer 2010 issue of Tillmar Connection

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