10 Wise Comments from Wally Bock

As I was writing my last post about lists, I ran into some great comments from Wally Bock and wove them into the  post.  Wally is an experienced consultant, coach, speaker, and management writer and he writes a great blog called Three Star Leadership.  Reading Wally's comments related to my most recent post inspired me to look through the dozens of wonderful comments that Wally has made here over the past few years. I can't quite figure out how to get an exact count from Typepad, but there are well over 100 and the average quality is just wonderful.  The first comment was in 2006 and the last this week.  I picked 10 -- I guess I am into lists this week -- but there are many more gems and I can't promise these are the best. These ten are all Wally:

1. We believe that creative people are different and therefore crazy in some way. So when anyone who is, by definition, "creative" acts like a jerk, or doesn't bathe, or insists on eating dessert first or bringing his pet iguana to work, we shake our heads and say, "Oh, well, you know he's creative." All of which is nonsense.

2. There are three factors that make it hard to stay realistic, let alone humble, as you climb the ladder of success. The Reality Distortion Field effect. The higher you go, the more people tell you want you want to hear instead of what you need to hear. Result: You only hear "news" that agrees with you. The Ass-Kiss Factor. People will jump to do things to please you. "The wish of the commander has the effect of an order." Result: you smallest wishes are instantly gratified. The Competitive Advantage. Most folks who climb high on the corporate ladder are competitive by nature. Often they're too competitive and need to win all the time, even when discussing things with subordinates. Result: people don't push hard, because you have power over them and you get the idea that you're always right.

3. There's a supervisor's corollary to "Nothing strengthens authority as much as silence." It is "You support what you allow."

4. Great organizations like the Marines or GE try to inculcate in their leaders that they have two jobs. One is to accomplish the mission. The other is to care for their people. If you're going for long term competitive advantage and profitability you need both. If all you're after is short term financial results, the "care for your people" part doesn't matter as much.

5.  I have three questions I use to get a quick handle on the culture of an organization. What kind of people get promoted around here? The behavior and performance you reward is what you'll get more of. What "bad" behaviors are tolerated here? This is good for patterns of behavior. What kinds of stories do people tell each other? Stories are the carriers of culture. Beware if all they tell are "dumb boss" stories. Understand that service is a value if what you hear are "heroic service" stories.

6. When I studied top performing supervisors, we found that there were a few behaviors that they did differently from their less-effective peers. They showed up more and had more informal conversations with their team members, including conversations about changing behavior or performance. That enabled them to catch problems early, when they're easier to solve. Thus, they had fewer cases where they needed to do documentation and formal conversations. Their team members had a good idea of how they were doing because they got frequent and usable feedback.

7. There are good bosses and bad..... But there are also ineffective behaviors from good bosses and effective behavior from overall awful bosses. What seems important to me is that a lot of a boss's behavior is picked up unconsciously and practiced without conscious choice.

8. The key to your advice and Wendy's is "during tough times, a good boss gives people as much predictability as possible." It's important when times are good, necessary when times are tough.

9. I love the quote from Woody Morcott, CEO of the Dana Corporation: "Why did we hire 55,000 brains and only use three of them?"

10. Thankfulness is important. Among other things, it helps you stay balanced in a world that exalts the quest for "things." One of the easiest ways to show gratitude is to send thank-you notes. I try match my mother's performance of at least three a day. Once I asked her what she did if there was no one to thank. She gave me her "mom-look" and said, "Wally, there's ALWAYS someone to thank.

On that note, a big thanks to Wally. And these ten quotes only scratch the surface.  Check out his blog and the extensive comments here as well. I find #2 to be especially striking as it is a pretty good summary of hundreds of peer reviewed studies.

The web is still strange to me. Wally is the wisest person I never met. Don't miss Wally's bio here, I love this quote from when he joined the Marines:

A Marine Major was in charge of that panel. He enlisted during World War II and landed at Iowa Jima. That adventure gave him a scar that started above his hairline, ran across his cheek, and disappeared down into his collar. He fixed a steely glare on me. “Don’t worry too much if you don’t make it all the way, son,” he said. “You’re seeking promotion to the most important job in the Marines. Those Generals may win a battle or two, but it’s Sergeants that win the wars.”

Comments

[Wally Bock]

What do you say when one of the people whose work you respect most does something like this? "Thank you," of course, but what else?

What's been running through my head since this post went up, is that not one of those comments would have happened without Bob's posts to spark them. Often other commenters kicked off the thought process.

In Tennyson's poem, Ulysses says that he "is a part of all that I have met." Today we often meet people and their ideas here. The range and depth of those ideas sometimes makes me need to catch my breath.

I believe that what's starting to happen is that we're learning to connect with information and insight and each other in new and more effective ways. That's exciting. Thanks to Bob and all the bloggers and commenters who are making it happen.

[ann michael]

I'm partial to #3. "You support what you allow."

Even aside from decision-making by inertial, which drives me nuts, I can't even count how many times I've run into or worked with top executives that felt behavioral issues weren't their problem. They felt they were above it - yet never corrected unprofessional and demeaning behaviors when they occurred. The cultures that existed at their companies completely mirrored it too.

[Anon]

Is #2 the root of BP's PR problem where an executive makes what on the face appears to be a factual statement only to have it contradicted days later? There can't be much better ways to destroy stakeholder confidence in a company than having your CEO making factually incorrect statements. Or is it a further symptom of complacency or, worse, stupidity?

[DC Jobs]

It's seems so hard for most bosses to constantly "weed the garden", so-to-speak and tweak negative behaviors among their staff.

This kind of vigilance seems especially difficult during tough economic times when managers spend so much time thinking about how to keep their departments afloat financially.

The irony is that it is during these times that such behavior is probably most needed.

[Jenilee Deal]

Thank you for all of this Wally wisdom. After reading through the list (#6 in particular), I couldn't help but wonder whether the mere knowledge of the various obstacles that success/power presents can alleviate some of its negative effects. Just like it's possible to combat stereotype threat only once you are aware of its existence, can the same hold true for "bad boss" threat?

[Daniel Christadoss]

My favorite is Wally's Number 10.
It is nice to reflect at the end of the day about all the people who were part of our day helping us achieve what we set out to do. There is great pleasure in thanking and in receiving thanks. Making a habit of genuine appreciation in verbal or written form is a great quality to have.
This goes for family, friends, co-workers and people we meet on a day to day basis.