Trick or Treat Leadership

This... is... classic. A Halloween leadership bonus.

If you didn't see or hear Mike Singletary's post-game conference last week: it's must-see TV.

Mike is the new coach of the San Francisco 49ers. In his first game as coach, he sent one of his own players to the showers.

Some of my favorite quotes from the press conference.

• "It will change"
• "We hit people in the mouth, number one."
• "Number two: We cannot give them the game"
• "Number three: We execute"
• "I will not tolerate players that think it's about them when it's about the team"
• "Cannot play with them. Cannot win with them. Cannot coach with them... Can't do it."

As a leader, is this 'trick'? Or 'treat'?

He's positive. He's got clear values.

He's got a mission and vision.

And he scares everyone in the room...

So, what do you think? Trick or Treat?
Personally, I'd love to play for this guy...

Unconditional Positive Regard in Action

This is one of the three most impressive videos I've ever seen, and I can't even name the other two (yes, I'm sandbagging, just in case I think of any others).

It's a clip that's featured in the two-day Egonomics workshop. It's used to show what 'Unconditional Positive Regard' looks like in action. I found it on YouTube today and wanted to share it.

Watch it and then we'll continue.



Fred (Mr. Rogers) Rogers is clearly a hen facing a wolf, but he wins anyway.
How is that possible?

It's possible because Fred Rogers sincerely holds Senator Pastori in Unconditional Positive Regard. UPR was a term coined by well-known psychologist Carl R. Rogers (no relation to Fred Rogers). The term means that you suspend judgement and listen to a person with the belief that they can change.
It has to be sincere, or it's meaningless.

Now watch the video again, and see how Fred Rogers trusts Senator Pastori to do what's right, and allows him the space to do so. I'll wait.....

How impressive is that? It's like a superpower, isn't it?
On a scale of 1 to 10, what's your ability to invoke UPR with your worst antagonist?
Can you do better next time?

What are the Six Thinking Hats?

Today marked the start of our summer workshops for the learning center and human resource departments.

I've organized two weeks of teaching new tools and practicing old ones. We kicked off today with Six Thinking Hats.

If you're not familiar with this thinking framework, you should check it out immediately. I never get tired of singing its' praises.

Here's a google search for 'six thinking hats pdf'. This will give you plenty of info to choose from. Or you can order Edward de Bono's book from Amazon.

The class is excellent. I enjoy putting strong tools into the hands of people who need them.

We had a good session today, with a lot of practice exercises. I'm looking forward to seeing it rolled out. It's amazing to see the shift from an exercise done without the Six Thinking Hats, to one done with them.

The basic concept is that debate results in an 'arm-wrestling' mentality that reduces any possibility of finding the best answer through synthesis. Any election shows how true this proposition is.

Instead, Six Thinking Hats proposes that we work through the six types of thinking together. The six types are:

• Blue/Process, 
• White/Information, 
• Red/Emotion, 
• Yellow/Positive, 
• Red/Negative, 
• Green/Creative

This way, we can leverage the intelligence of all participants. Sounds a little Utopian, I know, but it works!

If you think your group would benefit from reduced debate, better ideas, and more engaged participation, then take a look at Six Thinking Hats.