face-to-face meetings, and also leverage technol- ogy, such as our internal iChing social-media plat- form that is designed for employees to share global learnings that drive the business. We use a variety of formats to continually share know-how, from webcasts to conference calls to town-hall meetings at all of our Restaurant Support Centers around the globe, so employees can ask questions or voice their opinions about what’s going on in our company.
Can you take one of the tools in the Taking People With You leadership program — perhaps Step- Change — and explain it, and what that might mean for setting big goals for a conference? Setting the right goal is the key to achieving suc- cess, and leaders often fall short in this area by not aiming high enough. Aiming for small improve- ments to the way you already do something is not going to change the way you think, and therefore will not open up your mind to new possibilities. I use the Step-Change tool to help ensure that
I’m thinking big when setting goals for myself and my team. For example, think about a current target, and then double it. Think about a current timeline, and then cut it in half. What ideas spring to mind about what you would have to do to double your target? What could you do to halve the timeline? When you picture Step-Change, you are forced to come up with new methods with more potential.
What do you hope PCMA Convening Leaders attendees will take away from your presentation? One of the privileges of leadership is to be able to share with others what you’ve learned. For the past 15 years, I’ve taught my Taking People With You leadership program to 4,000 managers and fran- chisees around the world. I wrote Taking People With You in order to scale the program and reach a much broader audience. It captures everything I’ve learned about how to build and align teams to get results, and gleans the best know-how in the world from what I’ve learned from top change experts, coaches, and CEOs. I hope attendees will walk away wanting to apply these lessons that will help them become not just better leaders, but also make them more self-aware and show them how to build up others in their organizations.
. Michelle Russell is editor in chief of Convene. 138 PCMA CONVENE DECEMBER 2012
Book Excerpt
‘Nothing Gets in the Way of a Good Idea’
your potential for taking on more responsibility.
Keep your big goal top of mind: In the information age, knowledge is everywhere, so you have to be strategic about it. Have you ever noticed that when you decide which car you want to buy, you suddenly see that car everywhere you go? Well, that’s not because everyone has the same car; it’s because identifying what you want gives your brain a focus and a filter. You have to do the same for your Big Goal. Keep your antennae up … and you will suddenly see ideas for how to reach it everywhere you look.
When people ask me what I look for when hiring someone, an avid learner tops the list. People who are avid learners love what they do and seek out know-how wherever they can ... which makes them a whole lot smarter and their results a whole lot better. … Our companywide commitment [is] to always be learning, to being “know-how junkies.”
Four Tactics for Being a Better Know-How Junkie
Eliminate “not invented here”: The phrase not invented here refers to an unwillingness to adopt something because it didn’t originate with you. As a leader, it’s your job to make sure that nothing gets in the way of a good idea, no matter where it comes from.
Act like you own the place: If you owned the company where you work, you’d be concerned with all aspects of it. You wouldn’t just think about your own role or your department; you’d think about the total picture. Adopting this attitude will force you to look at and learn about more aspects of the business, which will give you a broader perspective. It will also demonstrate to others
Seek out knowledge holders and sources: Be proactive about gaining knowledge by searching for expertise. Who knows something about what you’re working on? Go talk to those people. You’d be amazed how many doors you can open just by telling people you’d like to learn from them. In addition, where can you find information about what you’re working on? Go look up those sources, whether they are case studies, books, business magazines, or what have you.
Tactics for Wiping Out ‘Not Invented Here’
If you want to take people with you and reach your goals more eficiently and effectively, you need to learn to see every person and every experience as an opportunity to expand your knowledge base. The tactics below will help you ensure that you are truly wiping out “not invented here”:
Model the behavior by being a know-how junkie yourself: When I was in marketing, I read Ad Age every week cover to cover. In fact, anything that had anything at all to do with marketing, I was all over it. ... If you want your people to be learners, you have to show them that you have a passion for learning.
Actively listen to and learn from others: One of the best things I do every year is attend meetings of