Cy's Blog

Welcome to Cy's Great New Blog

2010-04-15T04:24:10Z

Reality Based Leadership In this blog, Cy Wakeman, introduces a new approach to leadership entitled "Reality Based Leadership" and its many effective tools and applications. Welcome to a whole new world of leadership - one of accountability, inquiry, new mindsets and results beyond your wildest dreams.

The real cause of conflict among colleagues

2010-04-15T04:09:49Z

In Reality-Based Leadership, personalizing conflict is a luxury we can no longer afford! A great number of leaders put themselves in the position of judge and jury during interpersonal or team conflicts – deciding right and wrong, doling out verdicts and issuing consequences. In times of conflict, what your followers need most from you is not empathy. They need you to get real, step up, and help them see their circumstances differently so that they can create better professional relationships and generate better results.

It is extremely easy and tempting for employees to attribute conflict to difficult personalities or the incapabilities of others. It is even easier for leaders to collude with employees in the personalizing of conflict, spending valuable time and energy listening to the stories and mandating that all involved “get along.” What is the reward for an amazing investment of energy, innovation and focus of all involved? Mediocrity, stagnation, and a miserable status quo. Once again, leaders fail their people by mismanaging the energy of all.

Why do so many leaders get caught up in a form of helping that actually hurts? They believe that the root cause of all conflict is, in fact, the people – those who don’t get “it” or work consciously against “it.” This belief is simply untrue. The root cause of all conflict is not the people. The root cause of all conflict is ambiguity or lack of clarity. Good news! Clarity is easily attainable with the right techniques.

But before you can help others, you need to go first! To depersonalize conflict and find a way forward, try to employ the following techniques, and when you have them mastered, pass them on:

Do a Reality Check – A great deal of the conflict we encounter is manufactured in our own minds. When faced with conflict, we tend to quickly move from the bare facts of the situation to create our own mental story that paints ourselves as a victim and helpless, while someone else is the villain. In actuality, it is not the cause of the conflict itself that causes us stress, but the story we devise about the events that causes our stress. Get back to the facts of the situation and put your story to rest.

Get Clear About the Motives – Would you rather be right or happy? Too many times, you may abandon the organizational goals in order to achieve your own motives. Pray that you may be released from your need for love, approval and appreciation. Without those motives, you can lead others to achieve the goals at hand.

Clearly Model the Role you Would Like to See Others Play – Be the change you wish to see in the world. The only thing missing in a meeting or situation is that which you, yourself, are not offering in the moment. The minute you begin judging others, you stop adding value. Seek instead to understand the views of others, practice those virtues, which you have determined to be lacking in others such as open-mindedness, patience, inclusiveness, tolerance and appreciation. Get rid of your double standards, and stop expecting others to excel where you have not yet mastered.

See Others with Great Clarity – When faced with those whose personalities are different from ours, or whose behaviors have reached a stress-induced inappropriateness, work to see through their behaviors in order to identify their actual needs or goals. Ask yourself, “What are they striving for?” Once you identify their goal, ask yourself, “How could I help them achieve their goal?”

Move to a Clearer, Higher Perspective – Learn to sense when the conflict is getting personalized and be prepared to move quickly to a professional perspective by asking the group to clarify the overarching goal of their work together. A common goal is one that is big enough to be common for all, such as customer loyalty, increased sales or organizational growth. With the eyes finally on the prize, bring out the best in each team member by asking questions such as, “Given the goal identified, what is the best way to move forward? What it the best that each of you can contribute?”

Reveal a Clear Way Forward – With the common goal now clear, go one level deeper and have those involved in the conflict identify their more personal goals of their divisions, or roles. Frame the situation as a box with the overarching goal at the top and the individual goals as sides of the box. Most conflicts involve disparate parties truly believing that their individual goals are mutually exclusive and are thinking in terms of achieving one OR the other – or achieving one at the cost of another. Replace the “OR” in this equation with “AND” and engage the conflicting parties in problem solving.

Remember, you rock and Cy rocks!

Lead on my friend.

Feedback at work: Embracing your reality for growth.

2010-04-15T04:03:09Z

If you’ve recently received some feedback from your boss, your co-workers or your client in the form of less-than-desired results, welcome the news! It’s the very next thing to work on to propel your self into the next level of success.

Can’t yet get there – to that happy place?

First, decide if you’re willing to whole-heartedly learn and grow and address the situation. If not, get out now as it will only get worse. Get out, but know that what we don’t welcome and address head-on in our lives and careers will reappear again until we get the intended lesson. This is a yes or no question: Are you willing to do whatever it takes to regain what you lost and more?

If so, then try this.

Depersonalize the feedback. It’s not the feedback you just received that will stall your career – it’s the inability to truly hear and absorb feedback that is the definite career staller. Feedback is the main avenue toward growth.

When you first hear of a development need, you may go through some predictable stages. In the beginning, you are clueless, not having been aware that you may have had the development need at all. Then you may begin to move into awareness by being able to see that, indeed, another person believes that you have a development need, an issue of their perception.

As you move along the path of awareness, you will eventually find the motivation to change. Finally, you work to adapt and then to build the behavior change into your everyday life. Commit to responding to the feedback (from both people and situations) with openness and willingness.

Stop arguing with reality. When faced with a setback, we not only argue with the reality of the situation, but many times, begin to create our own story about the reality – a story that features us as the helpless victim and others as the villains.

Arguing with reality is a complete waste of time, resources and energy. It’s not the setback that causes us stress, it’s the story we write about the setback that causes us stress. Work instead to conserve your precious energy to use as you fully account for and understand your lesson at hand – and ultimately to respond in ways that will help, rather than hurt.

Quickly size up the new reality and move on by asking yourself, “What is the next right action I could take that would rectify my lack of performance or could rebuild my credibility?”

Focus on yourself – stay in your lane. In life there are three lanes of traffic: your lane, others’ lane and reality’s lane. You have successfully gotten out of reality’s lane, now get out of other peoples’ lane. Focus on your actions, assumptions, choices, etc., and resist the need to point out how others were involved in the poor outcome. Focusing on others only slows your progress in learning the fullest sense of the lesson at hand! Get the most out of the experience by focusing only on what you can impact – that is your own behavior. Stay in your lane and you will be on the fast track to recovery.

Drive for results or learning. When faced with a major setback, many are tempted to stick with their version of reality, digging in their heels and justifying why it was right to do exactly as they did. If you are dug in, ask yourself, “Would I rather be right or happy?”

If your choice is that you would rather be right, know that you will be giving up great results and valuable learning for the privilege. When you decide that you are right and someone else is wrong, you immediately become righteous and stop not only learning but taking in any external feedback to the contrary.

If you choose happiness, this is great news, as results and learning tend to follow that choice. Begin accounting for how you got here – to this moment, with the current results. By accounting for how you got here, you move from being a victim of circumstance to a professional who can account for the many actions and thoughts that led to the current results.

Remember, Cy rocks and you rock.

Lead on my friend.

We are all just living here at the Hotel California – Such a Lovely Place…

2010-04-15T03:57:22Z

Great song for times like these… just like reality…you can check out but you can never leave. I am hearing from quite a few leaders that reality at the figurative hotel is pretty rough these days, quite a few major blows coming your way, morale dropping, hope fading, oversight and micromanaging increasing …leadership vanishing!

Yep, that is what I wrote, leadership vanishing. When the going gets tough, those of you who haven’t jumped on the Reality Leadership bandwagon respond in predictable ways, first you quit your jobs as leaders – oh you still come to work and get a paycheck – but you have quit in mind only. Then the BMW driving begins, the Bitching, Moaning and Whining, that is. You spend time and resources driving your BMW’s about how bad economy is, how hard it is to find good dedicated talent, what idiotic decisions are being made at the top, etc. Then comes the list making – documenting all of the things that would need to change in your environment for you to be able to lead again; full staffs, input into decisions, better communication, budgets restored, long term views, upswing in the economy, etc. When the list isn’t fulfilled by the reality Gods, more gas for your BMW’s and more justification to quit your people.

With all your focus on your circumstances and how they need to change in order for you to be able to succeed, you begin over managing and under leading. Your people are going through the same viscous process and they are giving you their lists of what you need to do to make their circumstances better so they can give the gift of their talent. You jump in, longing to be needed and begin to act as if you can change their reality – working to manage logistics, resources, reorganizations, budgets, process improvements – all worthy work, just poorly timed. People do not need for you to “fix” their circumstances, you will only disappoint them and furnish more gas for their BMW’s anyway – they need you to “fix” the way they see their circumstances.

As Einstein pointed out – a problem cannot be solved with the same mindset that created it! Reality Based Leaders faced with challenging times, Lead First and Manage Second. Leading is helping your people to recreate their mindsets so that they themselves can succeed in the current circumstances, truly solve problems and impact their own realities. Your people need you to help them to become more bullet-proof so they have the freedom to succeed, regardless of their circumstances. Stop helping them try and check out of the Hotel California when so much fun can be had while in residence!

The best coaching is that which assists your people to understand their role in the process of co-creation. What one sees is truly what one gets. How? Well, how one perceives another’s actions effects their behavior towards that person which in turn effects the other’s response, usually proving one’s first view of the situation as right. People begin to see themselves as victims, not realizing their impact on the situation and then feeling as if they have been validated in their initial opinion, they become righteous.

Here are some quick ways to recreate mindsets:

Challenge the way in which your people are currently seeing their circumstances. Rather than seeing an event in a negative light – help them to reframe and see the situation in a more positive light. An example – reframe the viewpoint that my coworker just dumped a ton of work on my plate into, how wonderful that my coworker has such confidence in my ability to get all this done. Does it change your workload? No, but it will definitely change the conversation you initiate about the reality of what you are able to do.

Insist that your people to assign positive motive rather than negative motive to the actions of their co-workers. Invite them to give their co-workers the benefit of the doubt. Help them truly understand that it is not the events or actions of others that causes the stress in their lives, it is only the stories that they create about others that causes their stress. Stop the stories, stop the stress. Help them take the energy they are tempted to spend on their stories, assigning motive and planning their next defensive move and expending it on more productive activities such as self-learning, self-mastery, innovation and finding creative ways forward.

Challenge your people to find the lesson at hand and identify the teacher at hand. Rather than begrudging the fact that the universe gave them a flighty, ill-prepared and micromanaging supervisor, welcome them to their next lesson in reality which is learning to manage upward, especially when given such a supervisor. Figure out what the lesson is and get them busy mastering the next necessary competency.

Outlaw the option of judging a team member. It is not our role to judge a team member, it is our role to do whatever we can to help and add value. When you judge, you quit adding value and quit learning. Encourage teammates to simply ask, “What can I do to help?” rather than using their prescious energy to judge.

So, stop longing for a better reality and start capitalizing on the opportunities in this one – especially the opportunities to develop your people from BMW drivers to valuable, successful assets!

Remember,

Cy Rocks and You Rock,

Lead on my friend!

I thought it was for richer or for poorer - Show me the love!

2010-03-31T06:43:13Z

Should you be asking for a raise in a down market? That depends, but not on what you may think.

The market itself has nothing to do with whether or not you are worthy of a raise. That is simply the answer we give to the 75% of the employees who are undeserving for other reasons – mostly the behavior we have seen from them in challenging times. Your value as an employee is not dependent upon the economic conditions of the time; it is dependent upon the value you bring to the organization, the market value of your services and the return on investment that you deliver both economically and emotionally, today and into the future. All of these factors are within your control, not the economy’s.

Even in difficult years, we in HR have a predicted amount of money that we build into the budget for compensation and pay increases. Granted the amount of the budgeted increase may be less in tough times, but is there none the same. We separate out the macro – how we are handling compensation for the entire organization from the micro – how we will use our compensation dollars to turn top talent into top productivity. Individual decisions are made within our realm while organizational decisions are usually made with our consultation by the financial or strategy leadership team and are handed down as budget assumptions. You are attempting to impact the micro level, stay away from editorializing on the macro level or fighting on behalf of employees everywhere – not our realm, don’t need more whining on the topic.

When we are deciding how to use our compensation dollars and which requests from your bosses to suggest we fulfill, we look at the following things:

• Your current performance – Are we getting are money’s worth for what we are paying you today? If you are just an average performer or have a “what’s in it for me” attitude, probably not.

• Your value as a resource on the open market which includes the current demand for you in your current locale and is based upon real data that we collect and update in salary surveys, not your own assessment.

• Your potential for future returns for the company - which is your capability to grow and develop, to play a multitude of positions, to succeed the leaders, and willingness to share information and develop others, etc.

• Your flight risk – how likely it is that we would lose you and how bad that would hurt the organization. Not because you hoarded knowledge and protected your position (we see that in our HR minds as short-term pain for long term gain) but what we truly couldn’t replace such as your technical skills combined with how great you were in relating to people

• Your emotional expense to the organization –beyond your pay and the return on that expense which arises from your skill set – this is how many resources we have to put into your emotional maintenance. How you react to change, do you editorialize on decisions made, do you waste time and energy complaining, do we need to constantly manage your engagement, your buy-in? Bottom line if you are a resilient, personally accountable employee who freely gives their talent to all and is willing to support the organizational direction without drama, you are a great deal.

So, when asking for a raise – build your case based on our thinking, not yours, as ultimately your boss will need to get the raise approved through us in HR or through leaders that think in business ROI terms like us.

So when thinking about making the ask, remember:

• Do not ask for more money to ease your pains during economic tough times and do not base your argument on increased living expenses – cost of living adjustments are so yesterday. Today we pay for return on investment for the value proposition you present to the organization’s income statement and bottom line along with your potential for future returns. You are a resource – albeit a human one.

• When thinking of a raise, remember, it is not about the money, it is about the value you provide the organization today and in the future. By the time you are asking for money, your value statement is on the table from your past contributions and their prediction of your future contributions. In the same day with the same shortage of dollars, I have given one employee a 12% raise and denied another employee of any raise at all for both the near and longer term. So don’t even think about consuming the precious resources it will take to get you a raise if your work of building the base of the argument is not done.

When making the ask, keep in mind:

• It is not about the money and this is not negotiations, or emotional blackmail between two enemies. Take that stance and forget about a raise. No martyrdom approaches about the hard work you have done in the past – we already paid for that on the agreed upon price; no personalizing the conversation – that only proves to us how emotionally expensive you are; no threats to leave us high and dry – we believe that once you threaten no amount of money can truly buy your commitment back and that may just free up some compensation dollars for others more deserving and most importantly, no assigning of motive or character about why we aren’t willing to give you a raise – that just illustrates your lack of personal accountability and ownership of your own results.

• Getting a raise is not an event and is not accomplished in a one-time meeting where you make the pitch and wait nervously for a couple of weeks for the answer. Nor is it where you flavor every interaction with your boss with the topic of a raise. Act as a partner, initiating a series of conversations, the first conversations need to be ones in which you are asking sincerely what can you do to add more value or what can you change in your style and approach to be more high impact and low maintenance employee. As you deliver, begin to state your goal of increasing your compensation package and ask how you can help make that possible. If that value proposition is already clearly stated by your performance and potential, then move on to the next set of conversations.

• Using the terms compensation package when you ask for a raise leaves options for your employer to tap into multiple budgets with great flexibility, which may get you more disposable income without an actual raise. Examples may include tuition reimbursement, commute dollars, parking reimbursement, car lease, or other reimbursements that can come out of the expense portion of the balance sheet rather than the compensation budget.

• If the organization is truly in trouble and dollars are non-existent, suggest some things of value to you that are of little cost to the organization such as more flexibility in your work schedule, the ability to work from home, access to a mentor, greater development opportunities such as attendance at key meetings for learning purposes, or preferred status in being chosen to attend conferences or trade shows on behalf of the company - some way their investment in you and your career.

• Make your case compelling and matter of fact, without personalizing the situation. This is a business deal – create a business like plan. Lay out for us your value based upon your current performance and future potential and commitment to the organization. Get creative and help us help you – if you are afraid that the dollars don’t exist today, show them how we can afford it by giving us a menu of great ideas for cost savings, only a portion of which would go to cover your requested raise. Act as a partner by letting them know that you understand the pressures they are facing and are glad to make it easy for them to find the money and compelling for them to keep you happy.

• If no money exists and your are in a “turn-around or close” situation, forgo the raise and ask for a signed contract that lays out the future payoff for you in return for your investment in this crucial time for the company. Ask for a percentage of the future growth or a pay-off when some key, measurable performance indicators are met.

• Invest in yourself. Don’t wait for your employer to determine your future earning potential or the fate of your career wealth. Don’t ask for your employer to work harder than you are at getting your pay increased. Downtimes are perfect times to upgrade your skill set, volunteer for cross-training, widen your experience by accepting lateral moves within the company, and enhance your value by becoming a great utility player who knows the industry and the business itself. Develop yourself with outside experiences such as key volunteer work, board involvement, continuing education. Be willing to take on additional responsibility, especially when it builds your capabilities and ultimately your resume.

When the answer comes down and it isn’t everything you hoped for and nothing at all, watch your attitude! Your ability to accept reality and continue to succeed will make the loudest statement of all regarding your professionalism and emotional cost and whether or not our decision was the correct one. With no raise, you have a choice to leave or stay although it is a choice that you should never bring up in negotiations. If you stay it is your choice and do it joyfully – or leave. It is not an option to stay and pout, whine, or be a sorry loser. The organization gave you an answer for now, it is up to you to maintain your value proposition by maintaining a great attitude up to the very minute you ask again or leave the organization for a better opportunity.

Should you ask for that raise? That depends, not on the economy but on you and the value you provide. But if you have been a whiny, resistant, high maintenance, emotionally expensive, woe is me, report the news, not make the news kind of employee? Forget about it! Your employer isn’t even getting their money’s worth currently let alone going to be willing to pay more for the privilege.

Getting a Real Job in Really Tough Times

2010-03-31T06:38:07Z

For those of you just facing graduation from college - here are some tips to ensure that you are taking accountability for your future and positioning yourself to get a great job.

Act as if you already have the perfect job – get dressed, out of the house, and hang where you will be in contact with those you wish to join. Don’t underestimate the power or proximity! Looking and feeling familiar gives you a huge advantage, as does the inside information you will pick up and the contacts you will make.

Join the premier association that is affiliated with your chosen field – for instance, HR professionals need to join SHRM (Society for Human Resources) and then get incredibly active – serve on committees, volunteer to help with conferences and events, attend all their meetings and educational offerings. Most importantly, post your resume to the association’s web-site – great traffic looking for the inside track on fellow members in your very field. Don’t have the cash – join as a student now, usually at discounted fees prior to you graduation.

Make yourself your own full time job – half time job hunting and half time working or volunteering in strategic ways.

To volunteer strategically – find groups who have key contacts you would like to meet and impress on their boards or fund raising committees. Volunteer to help not just in mundane duties but with key events such as board meetings – help set up and take notes to recognition or key fundraising events – helping out will assure that you also get to attend.

Place yourself in contact with those you would eventually like to work with and for – wait tables at a popular restaurant where executives in your chosen field will frequent or get a job at the health club or country club visited by key contacts.

Print up business cards with your contact information on one side and key attributes from your resume on the other side – a mini resume so to speak. Hand out at least 20 a day – after you have struck up a conversation with someone and asked for their help or contact ideas.

Get out of your house and the house or apartment of your friends. Get out and become part of the neighborhood you want to work in. Dress up and hang out in the local coffee shop – hand out those cards. When you become a familiar site – people are more comfortable helping you. Ask the coffee shop attendant to make some introductions as you get to know them better.

Practice your “elevator speech” – the thirty second outline of who you are and what you are looking for. Don’t forget to ask for help – people like to help so ask for a name, suggestion, tip or some sort of advice.

Ask everyone you connect with for advice on where to look, to whom to talk, and other ideas for how to get employment.

Keep a journal in your knapsack or purse to quickly jot down contact information given by others. Follow up on the contacts given and send thank you cards or emails to those who helped.

Almost every Chamber of Commerce has a “Young Professionals Group”. Seek out these groups, join and get majorly involved.

Use this time to give back – check out Teach for America or Americorps VISTA for opportunities to grow while you give back. With the new administration in the White House, public service will abound with opportunities. Through assignments in the public service sector, you will fine tune your leadership and problem solving skills. To get the most from your experience – tell your story via a blog. Create an email list of the HR professionals in the companies of most interest to you, invite them to join your network and send them the updated blog of your experiences as a way to stay in touch.

To get a real job in really tough times – get out there!

Want job security? Check your ego at the door.

2010-03-31T06:28:16Z

For those of you praying to keep your jobs and to survive the now rampant layoffs, here’s a tip: Work to make your contributions valuable.

Job security comes from adding value in ways that are emotionally inexpensive to your employer. The open jobs that are left out there will go to candidates who can exhibit their ability to contribute great value in spite of challenging circumstances or “unfair” situations. Your ego affects this equation in two ways:

It keeps you from adding value to your organization and your clients, and it makes you emotionally expensive to your employer.

The ego’s job is to seek approval, accolades, appreciation and validation. It does this at a high cost, many times forgoing the potential for a great outcome in order to be “right.”

This leads many bright and talented professionals to argue the worth of a client’s goal or to critique all decisions or even to withhold their expertise in order to prove their point. The ego consumes a great deal of energy colluding with others debating the merit of an idea – energy that could be used to add value and to make the idea work.

For true job security:

Depersonalize your work environment. You have definitely personalized your work when you are spending any time or energy getting others to believe that you are right, they were wrong or that you should be appreciated more than you are. When you can forgo the need for credit and focus solely on what you could do next that would add the most value, you will receive all that and more.

Why?

Because you are adding value by accomplishing organizational goals, not feeding the ever-starving ego.

Rid yourself of defense. Defense is the first act of war…and defense is the specialty of the ego. Defense will always lead to a fall from employment grace. To move from defense to adding value, consciously agree with the goals of others, immediately and without reservation. Say “yes” and “I want that too.”

Find out where you can agree, validate the goals of others and state it clearly. Join your boss or your client, jump in and improvise with them rather than working to stop the action or attempting to redirect the efforts in a self-serving way.

Want to add value without the emotional drain? Say “yes” a whole lot more and use the word “and” often. Resist the urge to defend. Use great words such as, “oh,” “I see,” “good to know,” “wow,” “thanks” and “here’s how I can help” to keep from defending and to give yourself time to choose your next action wisely and with an eye toward value.

Focus your energies not on what you are receiving, but on what you are able to give, provide and create. A contribution freely given, above and beyond the craziness of who’s right and wrong, whose job it is, who screwed it up, and even whether or not it is supposed to be like this…is one of amazing value without the drain and drama. Those who contribute freely are not only secure in their current jobs, but also extremely marketable to hiring organizations.

Remember, you rock and Cy rocks!

Lead on my friend.

Stupid Idea from the Top? Jump in and Get Good and Negative With Your Team….

2010-03-31T06:17:13Z

Times are tough, the chips are down, your team’s morale is at an all time low and now this – another decision made on high and handed down for your team to implement. You want to be a positive leader and rally the troops, but the idea has obvious flaws and your team is circling the wagons of resistance. Now what?

Resist the urge to storm the powers that be and to make demands for reconsideration. Turn instead to focus on your team. Harness their energy and move them from resistance to flawless execution.

Here’s how…

I call it “Negative Brainstorming.”

First, listen closely to your team as you present new ideas and decisions to your team. Some resistance is to be expected and should not stop the action of moving forward. But if the resistance is large or if even your most positive players are sharing concerns about the idea – it is time to jump in and lead.

Next introduce the “rules” of brainstorming in the negative. Each individual can introduce their concerns, one at a time, while you document them in front of the group. The rest of the group needs to refrain from discussion, critique or disagreement. All “issues” with the new decision or idea are put up in front of the group. Continue until the group has exhausted their list of concerns and all are documented.

Entitle the list of concerns, “RISKS.” Point out that all concerns are simply risks and the power of the team, the true value they can add is in risk mitigation.

For each Risk, use the knowledge of the team to honestly evaluate the probability of the concern actually manifesting itself. For each risk, identify a probability of High, Medium or Low.

Finally, to complete your analysis, evaluate the impact of each risk and again label, High, Medium or Low.

Time for the magic of Reality Based Leadership – take all the energy that the team was putting into their resistance of the decision and use that energy instead to create strategies to mitigate each Risk that is of Medium to High probability or Medium to High impact. You have led the team from resistance (value-depleting) to risk mitigation (value-adding).

Work to build your team’s tolerance of less than perfect decisions made to capitalize on market opportunities or workplace threats by building their confidence in their amazing talent to risk mitigate, delivering great solutions and insulating the customers from any possible downside of the decision.

Teams that can move from using their expertise to resist and editorialize and instead use those same talents and expertise to “make it work” are the teams that successfully position themselves as valuable assets and credible witnesses. As the team that consistently helps the powers that be pull off the near impossible, they are the ones who end up with the most credibility when providing feedback and ways to improve the idea, making it cheaper, quicker, easier, or smarter. Most importantly, teams that consistently implement with great results and little emotional expense to the organization are seen in a very positive light. Pretty good team positioning in a world in which leaders are searching high and low for their next team to cut that will impact the organization the least.

So, wanna do all you can to help your team in these challenging times? Then jump in and get negative with your team, but only long enough to lead them forward to creating great results and succeeding in spite of challenging circumstances.

Try it -use your negative powers for good not evil…oh yeah, now the results are trickling back in – nice save.

And remember

You rock and Cy rocks!

Lead on my friend.

No Retreat, No Surrender – Lead on

2010-03-31T05:58:06Z

Across the nation, in organizations everywhere, there seems to be a new mantra, “Stop all action!”

Leaders and their teams are hunkering down and discontinuing all the basic actions necessary to move businesses forward – producing, implementing, innovating, spending money, traveling, hiring, training, rewarding, recognizing, and the rest - at least until we can be more sure, have more information, trust that we have enough resources. A perfect example of when “helping actually hurts” this new phenomenon is sure to make matters much worse rather than better.

Lack of movement is stagnating everything from the market to our own businesses. Cutting back doesn’t mean holding back, it means focus. Downturns don’t mean don’t move, the mean move and listen more.

Why the temptation to just stop as much as possible, hunker down, play it safe, and wait until the coast is clear?

For one, it feels safe and feeds into our wide-spread illusion that we should wait for clarity and help before we can or should act.

But survivors – those in airplane crashes or economic crashes credit their survival to the fact that they committed to surviving, made a plan in their minds and acted on that plan. Those that stayed back and waited do not generally survive.

We also mistakenly attribute our past failures to quick action, bad ideas, poor judgment and/ or inadequate plans.

When, in fact, our past failures were caused by lack of compelling vision, shaken employee confidence, placing personal motives over long-term organizational goals, and our lack of openness to the feedback from our employees, customers, and the market.

The way forward is not to stop acting and wait for things to improve, the way forward is to create a clear and compelling vision about what we what to create, create a core of believers, act in focused ways, and to enter into an iterative process of feedback and adaption.

It is easy to adopt a mindset of retreat to a smaller world and simpler times. Many organizations are reverting to past and exclusionary approaches, returning to the basics, to the easy stuff. Reality based leaders work instead to adopt a mindset that seeks to maintain the progress and innovation of recent years, the expanded footprint of the business, while conserving resources.

Here is how to resist the urge to retreat and keep your teams moving forward.

The clarity you and your team are seeking is not clarity of “What should we do?” but clarity about “What is it that we are trying to create?”

To get your team staged for success, communicate a clear and compelling vision about what is possible and call people to greatness. Our past failures were in part due to the fact that the visions we laid out were not compelling as they called for short term financial success rather than calling the people to be part of something greater than themselves, creating a better place for all. If the vision only excites those who can personally benefit from its realization, than it isn’t a vision at all – it is an emotional bribe.

Whether your team believes the vision possible or impossible, either way they will be right.

In order to survive and thrive, team members need to be believers not only in the possibility but in the real probability of success, even in challenging times. Keep the vision alive and long-term so that individuals don’t revert to using their own motives as their guiding principles. Work on the building the confidence of your team in the future and most importantly in their ability to deliver that future.

Know that clarity does not come to you through thought alone – it comes from action followed by reflection.

Many are adopting a very dangerous and faulty belief – that action should follow clarity and inspiration, when in fact it is action itself that generates inspiration and leads to further clarity. Reality-based leaders first create believers and then they insist on action – not blind, go forward no matter what, action but action.

Risks created by moving forward with a “good enough” plan rather than a “perfect” plan are mitigated by the talent on the team who are clear about what we are trying to create and are bought into the vision and are held accountable to ensure that the customers do not feel the effect of any plan imperfections. Many of the risks of the past could have been mitigated but were not due to team members who personally experienced the issues but did little to help. Move and listen, paying attention to the risks. Don’t stop movement with the risks appear, move to mitigate the risks and move again.

To even become aware of the risks that need to be mitigated by the application of talent, the leaders and their teams need to eradicate the “I know” mindset and open themselves up to the feedback coming their way on a daily basis – not about how great their plan is but feedback indicating the need for adaption, potential issues, and unwanted effects. All plans need to included a process for iteration, not abandonment of the plan but real-time improvement of the plan. All leaders need to be on high alert for learning, very different from the usual actions of collecting evidence to prove ourselves correct.

So I am calling all leaders to get moving. Be wary of those wanting to stop the action, falsely believing it to be a safe and a great survival strategy. Move forward, listening intently, believe the results when you see them, rely on the talent of team to mitigate risks and adapt your course. You will either get the results you sought or a great deal of learning – which is really just future results.

And remember,

Cy rocks and you rock!

Lead on my friend.

Empowerment without Accountability is Chaos!

2010-03-31T05:50:16Z

Economic downturns are fertile ground for soul-searching and for re-visiting the proposed ROI on all business activities. I am amazed that some HR business activities are immune from the great review. It is almost considered blasphemy to question conventional HR practices such as employee satisfaction surveys or employee relations efforts. Leaders that are questioning the true value and impact on culture of these activities are seen, at times, as demonic in the HR ranks.

And yet, I remain a firm believer in the fact that we must challenge a great deal of what we have been taught as HR “gospel.” Frustrated leaders are finding that many of the approaches that have been endorsed by many are working for few.

Most leaders have jumped blindly on the “empowerment” bandwagon, working hard to give their employees the power to direct their own workflow. Great theory, who would not want to be self-directing and free? Unfortunately, those adopting this philosophy dangerously assume that those being empowered are also highly personally accountable. When in fact, empowerment without accountability is chaos!

The same employees who insist on empowerment, also insist on having a group of employee relations specialist reserved for them in HR to enable them in their relationships with their leaders. If any issue arises, they who are empowered, need not take accountability for their own dissatisfaction and address their manager in a professional manner to engage in problem-solving but can instead, invoke the resources of HR to facilitate that process. Empowerment and accountability are must go hand in hand, when we are funding one without insisting on the other, resources are wasted and dysfunction reigns.

The chaos is heightened when leaders, seeking to empower their employees, conduct an employee satisfaction surveys, weighting all responses as equally valuable. In the survey, the employees all comment on what they would need to be even more successful in their positions. These comments are tallied and followed up by “action planning” sessions in which the manager ends up with a list of changes that they need to spearhead in order for the employees to give them the gift of their work.

The flawed assumption here is that all who are answering the surveys have the same level of personal accountability! The problem is that at least 30% of those surveyed are low in personal accountability and living life as victims. Any action on the suggestions of the victims will only prolong the entitlement mindset and will be a complete waste of time and money.

To make matters worse, leaders have blindly bought into the concept that engagement and happiness come from lack of stress or issues at work. When in fact, engagement and happiness come from the level of personal accountability one exhibits in their own life. So, instead of spending time and resources on surveys to find out how to change the circumstances of your employees, spend your precious time and energy on teaching your employees how to succeed in spite of their circumstances. Work to “bullet-proof” the people instead of attempting to make their world a cozier place. Once your people are resilient, learning agile, and personally accountable, they are immune to the random “shocks” that come their way. Their engagement actually increases with this approach as they gain the confidence that they can succeed in spite of the facts, not from you softening their world.

If you simply must spend resources on satisfaction surveys, adopt a better but radical approach! Leaders in these challenging times need to enhance their survey approach, adding in a second component that will help them to know how much credence to give the responses. I would propose that the accountability level of each respondent be assessed at the time they are surveyed about their satisfaction levels, in a manner that keeps individual responses and accountability levels anonymous. Then to restore sanity to the process, leaders can assign a weight to the responses. So, those responses which originate from those employees scoring high in accountability are weighted at a higher level and deemed more worthy of attention than those suggestions originating from the “victims”.

To the leader that wants to skip the expensive satisfaction surveys and implement this concept tomorrow – ask each of your people, “What is one thing that you need to be more productive in their work?” Then follow up by asking them “What are three things you are willing to do to get that which you have requested.” For example, if the employee answers that they would need access to information and better communication from the leaders. They need to identify three things that they can do to get that which they need such as: ask for updates on a regular basis, when in doubt make a phone call rather than judging their leaders and whining to colleagues, and document what they do know in a knowledge management system and take it viral to their co-workers. Leadership made simple and easy.

Challenge all that you have come to believe as the truth. Change the way you think. Change the way you lead.

Remember, you rock and Cy rocks.

Lead on my friend!

Results vs. Excuses: Which one would you choose?

2010-03-31T05:33:51Z

Many of today’s business leaders are publishing a long list of reasons, stories and excuses about why they aren’t getting the results they desired or even the results they promised. They don’t even have to be creative or dishonest in their attempts to justify their shortcomings: too few resources, talent shortages, increased regulation, declining margins, losses on investments, decreased consumer confidence and demand – all seemingly true “facts,” but not the true cause of why they didn’t get results.

There are two distinct camps in the business world today – leaders whose teams have failed to measure up and instead work diligently to deliver the “facts” in the form of “reasons, stories and excuses” versus leaders whose teams have delivered results in spite of the same “facts.” The difference between the two camps? Not the circumstances of their situations but the path that the leaders chose to take.

The first path leading to reasons, stories and excuses begins when a leader decides that they are “right,” that they know the answer, the way, how the world should be or is. This belief usually arises out of a past experience of success where the leader mistakenly attributes the positive outcomes to their own omnipotent powers rather than more accurately attributing success to the execution and risk mitigation of the team or sheer luck of the draw.

As the world rapidly changes, leaders cannot possibly know the “right” way forward, they can only make decisions and remain extremely open to the feedback from their teams and the marketplace and adjust accordingly. Once a leader becomes convinced they are “right,” their mind closes; they stop learning and become “right-eous.” At this point, leaders become closed to any new or contradictory information that could help them alter their plan and execute it successfully.

When a leader or a team decides they are “right,” a great deal of energy goes into finding and pointing out who is then “wrong” or who is to blame. To reinforce their positions, more energy and resources are wasted to find others who agree with their position and with whom they can collude, further skewing their own view of reality, and limiting any information that negates their convenient view of the world. Together, all of these like-minded people jointly create a story that paints themselves as innocent or helpless victims – with all others as the villains. Instead of results, the leaders have an arsenal of reasons, stories and excuses about why they didn’t or couldn’t deliver the desired results.

The actual cause of their shortcomings is a chain reaction that begins with self-motive and closed- mindedness and ends with a painting of oneself as an innocent victim.

The path to amazing results in spite of the circumstances at hand begins with a simple commitment – a commitment to do whatever it takes (legally and ethically) regardless of role, position or tradition to create the desired results. Such a commitment requires an open mind regarding what’s to come and what will be required – a willingness to be open to and to face the unknown. Results begin with a leader who fully commits to achieving results rather than with a leader who seeks to be “right.”

When a leader fully commits to willingness, he or she must also commit to living in integrity. By committing to be willing to do whatever it takes to get the results, the leader must also act publicly in a way that clearly role-models that level of willingness and openness.

As challenges appear, those on the path to results don’t fall into blaming but instead move into “account –ability,” having the ability to account for why they didn’t get there. “Accounting for” involves each individual on the team owning their own part in the current lack of results, which begins with statements like, “I chose,” “I denied,” “I neglected,” etc. With the ability to account for the choices and actions that are currently leading to the lack of results, each member of the team gains the freedom that comes with “respons-ibility” or the ability to respond differently. Responsibility opens up a grand arsenal of talent, agility, responsiveness, risk-mitigation strategies, and high-end individual contribution.

In short, what starts with willingness and is safeguarded by the lack of blaming on this path to results brings out the best in each team member. Suddenly all are operating at their best and highest performance levels and are not only engaged, but have bought into the effort to deliver the desired outcome or results.

The path of commitment, action with integrity, accountability, responsibility, great individual contribution and stakeholdership begins with a leader who is willing to call up the commitment of others – to ask the team members to publicly declare if they are “in” or if they are “out.” Great leaders believe their team members when they declare their willingness in deed or action. Reality-Based LeadersTM work with the willing and then create an environment free of blame and filled with accountability and agile responses. This path ends with one of two outcomes: the desired results or a great deal of learning that can be turned into future results.

On the other hand, the path of righteousness shuts out the input of the world, the customer, the employees and even reality. To remain convinced of one’s superior position as a leader, a great deal of time and energy must be used to recruit like-minded victims who collude together and convince each other of their own innocence and position, which is at the mercy of the circumstances.

Want results? Want to succeed in spite of the facts? Commit wholeheartedly, seek reality, adjust accordingly, and call everyone on your team to greatness.

Want reasons, stories and excuses? Close your mind, decide you are right, surround yourself with people who agree with you and are quick to blame others, and collude together as victims.

Same challenges. Different leadership. Different results. You decide.

Remember, Cy rocks and you rock!

Lead on my friend.

Leaders, beware: the hottest new excuse for lack of results – “trust issues”

2010-03-31T05:00:12Z

Recent research has cited that employees who trust their senior management bring back 108% value to their shareholders. On the other hand, employees who do not trust their senior executives only bring 66% back to their shareholders.

What the research didn’t ask is whether or not trust is generated by the senior executives’ actions or by the employees’ choices.

Leaders and their employees are attending entire seminars on ways that they can get their employees to trust them. Others are citing that trust among people in organizations is at an all-time low. Evidently, it is up to the leaders to perfect themselves and their employees’ circumstances to ensure that employees experience attention and consistency and are kept informed and secure through high levels of communication, recognition and rewards.

Leaders, beware! Much of the current work on “Trust in the Workplace” is a great utopian idea based on a flawed premise about the origins of trust. Here’s the reality check – creating trust as suggested, is an impossible expectation for leaders and a hot new excuse to explain away the lack of results in the workplace.

Today’s circumstances mandate a whole new perspective on the issue of trust and here it is…

While leaders certainly have a responsibility to act with integrity, consistency, decency, respect and the rest, I can guarantee you that each one will most certainly fail each and every employee at multiple points in their relationship. That’s the reality of it – they are human. If we are basing organizational profit on the perfection of our managers, it is a fragile prospect indeed. To reduce the risk to your profits, reduce employee dependence upon leaders’ behavior to ensure their trust. Bulletproof your employees to succeed regardless of the transgressions of others.

Let’s get clear. Profits don’t come directly from higher levels of trust between leaders and employees. Higher levels of trust consistent enough to show up in the form of profits are the result of personally accountable, bulletproof employees. So to ensure profits, don’t leave it dependent upon the fragile proposition of trust. Reality-based leaders ensure profits by making the choice of granting trust as an expectation of all professionals.

Trust is not something people earn from others. Trust is a choice that professionals make based upon their own faith in their own competencies and abilities. It has little to do with the leader and everything to do with the individual.

When I worked as a therapist with women who had been in abusive relationships, I would often hear the statement, “I don’t trust men.” Just as today, I often hear, “I am unable to contribute my best work because I don’t trust my leader.” As if men or leaders were the deciding factor, a victim viewpoint and one held by those who did not move onto success in their lives. The women or employees that continue to hold this belief based upon the falsehood that trust is something to be earned or deserved by others remain in permanent learned helplessness. Success eludes them and they have no idea why as they continue to be dependent upon the mercy of the choices, decisions and actions of others.

My response to the women who I counseled and those I coach today is surprising to many but the key to incredible breakthroughs – first in their thinking and then in their ability to succeed in spite of the circumstances. “The issue is not that you don’t trust men (your leader). Your real issue is that you don’t trust yourself around men (your leader) to make good choices, listen to your intuition, set boundaries, make good decisions, act ethically, show integrity, engage in robust dialogue or exhibit courage.” People who trust themselves to make good choices around others have a higher level of trust for their leaders and work for companies that are more profitable.

Trust is about your courage, not someone else’s integrity. What a great new perspective! To adopt this new belief is to set yourself free as a leader and as an employee. While you can’t control or change the behavior of others, you can enhance your abilities in the areas listed above. Want to improve trust in your organization?

Start there.

Or for the simple formula to decide if someone is trustworthy, follow these steps:

Step 1: Is what they are doing legal and within company ethical guidelines? If the answer is no, then call the company hotline and report them. If yes, go onto Step 2.

Step 2: Check their badge. Do they work for the same organization, or a chosen partner? Are they operating within their licensure and authority? If no, call your company hotline and report them. If yes, go onto Step 3.

Step 3: Choose to offer them the professional courtesy of trust and get busy producing results together.

If they are acting in concerning ways, choose to act in ways that merit trust – of yourself and your own ability to handle any situation; initiate dialogue, have a robust conversation, show integrity and courage. If things grow even more concerning, go back to Step 1 and repeat the decision tree.

Want to increase trust in your workplace? Work on yourself and your ability to trust yourself to do the right thing in all circumstances in the midst of all relationships. Profits will no longer be dependent upon the actions of others and results will happen because of you not in spite of you.

Sorry to smash yet another excuse, but someone has to lead the revolution in leadership. You’re welcome.

And remember,

You rock and Cy rocks!

Lead on my friend.

Reality Check – Looking for a Few Great Leaders

2009-11-06T06:26:22Z

We are certainly in challenging times in our business world today. We have been in challenging times in the past and let me make a profound prediction – we will be faced with challenging times again at some point in the future. Here’s the reality check - The fact that times are challenging is not the source of our pain. The source of our pain is the absence of great leadership based in reality.

We must be willing to admit that our way of leading is simply not working – not creating the results or the quality of life that we would like. These times are calling for a new type of leader. We need leaders who are willing and able to recreate mindsets in order to change circumstances and lead in a new and revolutionary way.

The revolution begins with a few good leaders practicing Reality-Based Leadership. A Reality-Based Leader is one who is able to quickly see the reality of the situation, conserve precious team energy, and use that energy instead to impact reality. Better yet, a great Reality-Based Leader anticipates the upcoming changes and capitalizes on the opportunity inherent in the situation.

As with all great revolutions, a manifesto is needed, so here it is:

Reality-Based Leadership is a new wave of leadership based on the following principles:

We as Reality Based Leaders Refuse to Argue with Reality.

The average leader spends two hours a day arguing with reality, an argument you will surely lose, but only 100% of the time. Reality-Based Leaders work instead to quickly identify the facts of the situation and focus on following the simple instructions – doing the next right thing that would add the most value.

We as Reality-Based Leaders Greet Change with a Simple “Good to Know.”

Today’s leaders seem to greet each and every change with Surprise, Panic, and Blame. They respond to change with great surprise. Even change that should be anticipated often elicit a reaction of surprise, shock or disbelief. The moment of surprise is followed by anxiety or a low level of panic about how to lead forward, ending with a dose of blame focused on others for lack of leadership, poor decisions, or other’s failures. Reality-Based Leaders greet change with great anticipation for the possibilities and a simple, “Good to Know.” They move quickly to understand the new reality and search for ways to deliver results in spite of the facts or limited circumstances.

We as Reality Based Leaders Value Action over Opinion.

In the past, leaders were encouraged to make sure that employees felt that their opinions counted – as if opinions created value in organizations. Reality-Based Leaders are clear that the highest value the talent under their leadership can offer is to implement with excellence. To deliver results time after time, leaders need the ability to resist editorializing and to move instead to lead in the execution of imperfect plans with excellence. In a nutshell, leaders add the most value when they understand that action, rather than opinion, adds the greatest value.

We as Reality-Based Leaders Work with the Willing.

A leader operating under today’s worn-out philosophies spends, on average, 80 hours each year on a single person in a chronic state of resistance. The average return on this hefty investment? At the most, 3 percent. By working with the willing, efforts move forward and others join up or move outside of the organization either by choice or behavior. Reality-Based Leaders play favorites – they favor those who use their talents to work with, not against the organization.

We as Reality Based Leaders Lead First, Manage Second.

In changing and challenging times, ineffective leaders are tempted to work diligently to perfect the circumstances of their employees. This approach that has put managers in charge of creating engaging environments and has led to a great deal of over managing and under leading. Reality Based Leaders know that engagement is correlated to personal accountability. Instead of working to perfect the circumstances of their people, Reality-Based Leaders work to “bullet proof” their employees, creating employees so resilient that they are un-phased by the challenges at hand.

We as Reality Based Leaders Make the News Rather Than Report the News.

It is easy to report the news, update the team on the challenges at hand and make doomsday predictions about the future. Assessing the situation in the past tense and critiquing others’ responses to the circumstances is easy, but not effective. Reality Based Leaders work instead to solve problems.

Intrigued? Stay tuned to this blog as I delve into the details.

Remember, Cy rocks and you rock. Lead on my friend.

Off with their heads! On to results.

2009-11-06T06:18:16Z

How do Reality-Based™ Leaders best contribute during headcount reductions?

In these challenging times, many leaders are seeking to reduce expenses through the reduction of head count. While it is important to ensure that the resources of the organization are being tightly managed, the organization’s talent still needs to be led. Reality-Based™ Leaders lead first and manage second.

Here’s how:

When making the decision on which employees to impact – focus on talent rather than function or position.

When reducing your workforce, don’t be short-sighted and look to reduce positions or functions that no longer serve the highest good for the organization. Instead, assess your talent and use downtime as an opportunity to transition talent that is no longer relevant and/or change-resistant to outside of the organization. Work to keep employees who are high-performing, learning-agile, utility players and are willing to serve the organization in a variety of capacities. Once you decide which talent to keep, take a look at how they can be utilized to best serve the organization. Use this downtime as an opportunity to fine-tune your talent mix.

When reducing head count, resist the urge to be overly conservative.

If you are in a position that truly merits a decrease in head count, cut a bit deeper than the budget calls for so you can recoup the dollars from additional downsizing to reward, recognize and develop the top talent you have chosen to keep. Such foresight will ensure that you are better able to retain and develop your best people while reducing their risk for burnout. So, for example, if the budget indicates that cutting 10 to 12 people would make the numbers work, cut 15 and use the dollars freed up from the extra three positions to focus on bringing out the best in the top talent that remains through reward and development.

If you are not in the position of decision maker, offer expertise – not editorials.

Editorializing about any decision made by another level of the leadership team, especially when times are tough, is a cardinal sin. In many cases, there are no perfect or right decisions. All decisions have one or many downsides. The best use of your talent and energy is to help identify any risk posed by the decision and rally your team around mitigating those risks. When possible, be proactive. Offer up a variety of options to the decision makers, outlining the potential benefits of each course of action along with the corresponding risks, complete with your team’s plan to mitigate the risks of any chosen option. Resist the urge to favor any option as “right” and instead deliver with excellence on any option chosen.

Think in terms of the income statement, not the balance sheet.

When engaged in cost reduction, many leaders lose sight of the income statement that measures the true return on investment or profit, as they work to simply balance the books and match cost against the budget dollars available. Not all costs are equal when reviewed in terms of the potential income or benefit they will generate. The same dollar cost can return significantly different levels of value, depending upon where in the organization it is invested. Get very clear about the future value of the threatened resource and cut those expenses delivering the lowest return.

Downsize the sales force to increase sales.

Many leaders focus their downsizing efforts on the non-revenue generating portion of the business and resist any decrease in the sales force. These leaders are operating under the inaccurate premise that any and all production is worthy in down times. When the sales force is predominately commission-based, it appears that there is little downside to having a large, under-producing sales force. After all, they believe, the organization is only paying for the business delivered, with little additional cost.

This can be counterproductive as times get tough. First, sales resources do have a cost over and above their commissions – the cost of supporting and managing them. Depending upon a salesperson’s volume, the return on investment of support and training efforts varies greatly. Also, chronic wasting begins to take place, which ensures that you will downsize your talent to the lowest common denominator. Keeping a huge sales force can lead to a wasting syndrome where too many resources are fighting for the same sales and all are starving. The “alpha” sales people will quickly realize the lack of prospects for top performance and will leave. Those less confident in their abilities to produce anywhere else will stay, thus ensuring that not only do you have a smaller sales force, but one of mediocre performers. It’s better to cut even commission-only sales people and focus on the top performers, and insist that they reach higher goals with less and then compensate accordingly.

So, if you must: “Off with some heads and on to results!”

Remember, Cy rocks and you rock.

Lead on my friend.

Does taking a sabbatical equal job sabotage?

2009-11-06T06:14:06Z

BY FC Expert Blogger Cy WakemanFri Jul 31, 2009 at 4:55 PM

This blog is written by a member of our expert blogging community and expresses that expert's views alone.

You probably heard of them in college – many of your favorite professors took a semester off to travel the world, do research or write a book. Now that you're in the real world, you could use a sabbatical, too – but is taking one a good move for your career? From an HR perspective, sabbaticals are a creative and kinder strategy to survey the workforce for those who are able and willing to volunteer for time off in order to avoid being forced to furlough unwilling workers.

Is a sabbatical right for you?
Sabbaticals are a great option if you have income reserves and a clear goal of something of value you would accomplish away from the office, such as writing a book, furthering your education, searching for other opportunities full-time, or taking the trip of a lifetime. The first choice for pursuing such opportunities is to use your vacation days or PTO hours. Sabbaticals are not the best option for those needing to take care of family members or to have elective surgeries. In those circumstances, use FMLA instead so your job is protected. Use a sabbatical to ensure that you are an even more valuable employee at the end of your time away. Stay in touch with the organization to keep up with changes, and be flexible about your return.

Taking a sabbatical in today's economy
In today's economy, employees should be wary of signing up for a sabbatical. Sabbaticals are high-risk ventures for the employee. Time off for a sabbatical does not come with the same legal protection of vacation days or FMLA. You are not always guaranteed a position when you are ready to return. If thinking about a sabbatical, make sure that HR policies have been updated and signed off on that outline how the organization will handle furloughs, layoffs, severances and re-entry into the workplace.

Remember that, in tough times, the organization’s memory grows even shorter, and out of sight is out of mind unless you are an extreme, top talent! Sabbaticals can definitely be career suicide. “Be there when you're needed or you won’t be needed,” is a familiar refrain from bosses, along with, “What have you sold for me today?” – meaning that you cannot ride on past accomplishments to preserve future assignments. Bottom line, accepting a sabbatical temporarily puts you outside the traditional career race track, development experiences and promotions. To compensate and mitigate the risks created by your choice, you must put yourself back in the driver's seat of your career. Create a plan for yourself with a desired ROI from the time off, and have clear goals and specific timelines and follow that plan. You should be able to account for your sabbatical on a resume with documentation of the impressive accomplishments that furthered your competencies – not a travelogue of great pictures.

Remember, you rock and Cy rocks!

Lead on my friend.