Unfortunately, if you are like me, you've experienced many examples of terrible leadership. 

I've listed my top 7 favorites traits of a terrible leader (and if you are interested in becoming a great leader, you guessed it, just do the opposite).

1) Be arrogant - after all you are "Kinda of a Big Deal", don't let anyone forgot how important you are.

2) Never ask for feedback - why? Read number 1.

3) Always find fault in what others are doing, and let then know how much they are messing up.

4) Don't ever try anything new. 

5) Punish failure and creativity from your staff.

6) Don't ever plan for the future, it will take care of itself.

7) Don't ever take responsibility for anything going wrong, assign blame immediately.

There it is in 7 simple steps. Hopefully none of these apply to you and your team. If I've missed any, let me know!

At the technical Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood, the Associated Press reported that it wasn’t the gorgeous host, actress Jessica Biel, who attracted the most attention.  Instead, it was an understated, bespectacled, computer engineer named Ed Catmull.  When Catmull’s name was announced to receive an Oscar for his lifetime of work in computer animation, the crowd went wild, whistling and whooping. And rightly so.  The impact of Catmull and his collaborators on Hollywood may last for decades to come. I’m not referring to his contributions in computer animation though.  More lasting will be his contribution to improve corporate cultures.   

Catmull, of course, is the president of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. He has rejected the Hollywood star system and replaced it with a community environment. Catmull described it this way in a Harvard Business Review article he wrote last year: “[Pixar has] an environment that nurtures trusting and respectful relationships and unleashes everyone’s creativity…the result is a vibrant community where talented people are loyal to one another and their collective work, everyone feels that they are part of something extraordinary, and their passion and accomplishments make the community a magnet for talented people…”(italics mine).

What is it about Pixar’s environment that attracts talented employees and helps them produce outstanding movies such as the blockbuster hits Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and WALL-E that have made Pixar the envy of Hollywood?

The element that Pixar’s environment that sets it apart is it’s intentional inclusiveness toward all employees. In most organizations only 20 percent of employees – managers and the stars -- feel included.  At Pixar the percentage of employees who feel included is certainly much, much higher than the norm. 

Inclusiveness begins with what management says about its employees. Catmull says that great movies are made from the tens of thousands of ideas that go into them from beginning to completion.  As such, everyone needs to contribute their ideas and opinions, everyone’s work matters and everyone makes a difference in the quality of a film. Pixar employees know senior management values their contributions whereas in most organizations the overwhelming majority of employees feel their contributions are not valued by senior management.  As a result, Pixar employees are more engaged in their work than employees of the average organization. And because they are more engaged Pixar employees put more effort in their work, they are more trusting and more cooperative, all factors that affect productivity, quality and innovation.

Another aspect of Pixar’s environment that contributes to inclusiveness is the Pixar University. It offers numerous courses related to filmmaking, the arts, health and other topics of interest to Pixar employees.  Employees can take up to four hours of classes each week.  In class participants develop acquaintances across the firm that strengthen their ties to the organization.

Pixar’s office design also contributes to developing loose ties across the organization. The cafeteria, meeting rooms, employee mail boxes and restrooms are centralized to make it more likely Pixar employees will interact with one another.

As a leader and advisor to leaders I have learned that practices, such as those above, are not sufficient to produce an environment that will help make an organization great.  It’s more than just what leaders do that matters.  Just as important is who leaders are.  Ed Catmull doesn’t just talk and act inclusive.  He deeply believes in it.  His business partner John Lassiter, Disney and Pixar Animation’s Chief Creative Officer, does too. They in turn select leaders who embrace these values such as director Brad Bird and his business partner, the producer John Walker (who worked together on “The Incredibles”). 

Late last year I met John Walker at Pixar’s headquarters in Emeryville, California. Listening to Walker it was clear to see that he embodies the values of inclusiveness. He has a the sort of bridge-building personality that helps people amicably resolve conflict and keep them feeling like a part of the community. During the course of our conversation, Walker told me how he insisted on gathering the entire team of more than 200 people who worked together on a movie at least once a week so that the extroverted artists and their more introverted technical counterparts came together as a community.  In the meetings, Brad Bird, Walker and others keep team members informed about the film’s progress get them thinking about how to solve the present set of issues facing the team. 

So long as Pixar’s leadership preserves its environment, I would expect it to continue leaving the rest of Hollywood in its wake.  In time, Catmull and Lassiter will return the magic to Disney Animation too.  

Sadly, research shows that approximately 75 percent of employees are not engaged in their jobs, which clearly indicates that the importance of the work environment is not on the radar screens of most leaders.  That’s tragic.  Work environments need to be healthy today, perhaps more than ever.  In the current economic downturn and shakeout that it will result, leaders will need the best environments in order to survive.  Pixar’s example has awakened Hollywood’s leaders from their slumber. It should be a wake up call to leaders in other industries too. 

What are you doing to make all of your organization’s employee feel like a valued member of your organizational community?   

Michael Lee Stallard is the president of E Pluribus Partners, a leadership training and coaching firm.  He is the primary author of Fired up or Burned Out.  For additional information, see www.MichaelLeeStallard.com.

As anyone who has ever managed knows, hiring is among the most important responsibilities of any business setting. Bringing the right person in can add great value to any enterprise; hiring someone who doesn’t fit the job or the organization can lead to all kinds of problems. There’s a lot at stake. Effective management can make the difference between an organization that is fired up and highly competitive and one that seems preoccupied with its internal problems. For the very small business, having the wrong person in a job can be so distracting that it may seriously jeopardize that business’s existence.

The best preparation for avoiding employee problems is to be aware of four basic issues of managing and hiring: 

1.     Understand your own business style.

2.     Be clear about your position as an employer.

3.     Choose the people you work with carefully.

4.     Manage with the “big picture” in mind.

Questions to ask yourself to determine your business style:

·         Do you like to jump into things or take my time to research every detail?

·         Whether you jump into things or research them carefully, do they usually work out as you hoped?

·         Do you rely a lot on your intuition?

·         Do you prefer tried and true ways of doing things?

Questions to ask yourself to see if you present yourself as an employer:

·         Do you seek friendship from your employees?

·         Are you clear about your own position?

·         Are you inclusive or authoritarian?

·         Do you present yourself as a mother/father figure?

·         Do you like to teach or preach?

Questions to ask yourself about choosing people you work with:

·         Do you tend to surround yourself people who are just like you?

·         Do you have patience with different approaches to things?

·         Are you clear of what you need from a potential employee?

·         Are you impressed by degrees more than presentation?

Questions to ask yourself about keeping the “big picture” in mind:

·         Do you have a mental or actual list of priorities?

·         Do you have exit strategies in mind as well as hiring?

·         Do you know the state and federal government rules on hiring and firing?

·         Do you have a written business plan?

If you know the answers to the above questions, you are more apt to avoid mistakes with hiring and work with your employees. This is one area of management that it’s best to have a plan and avoid trial and error approaches. With this set of questions and answers you’re goal of hiring the right people and keeping them is greatly improved.

The Pets.com icon, the Sock Puppet, became famous and a reminder of when I closed the company to return money to shareholders the same day my husband told her he wanted divorce. The combination of the two resulted in a spiritual journey.

I am now the founder of SmartNow.com, which is dedicated to giving women the best health, nutrition and fitness information.   I have appeared on all major networks including ABC, NBC, CBS, and the BBC.  I have also been featured in many magazines from those with a business slant to lifestyle magazines such as InShape and Town and Country.  I was honored to speak at the 2000 California Governor’s Conference on Women and Family.  I have spoken at Harvard and Purdue universities and have sat on many business boards including: Wizards of the Coast and Baker and Taylor; and not-for-profit boards including the San Francisco Art Institute, Magic Theatre and Headlands Center for the Arts.

Remember the character Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street? Michael Douglas won an Oscar for his portrayal of this rude, larcenous wheeler-dealer. Well, I worked with a real-life investment banker who in some ways could have inspired the Gekko character.

A significant part of my practice as an executive coach is working with supremely successful people who may need to change some behaviors to achieve the next level of success. The man I coached -- let's call him Jim -- wasn't amoral and unethical like Gekko, but he had the same competitive fires.  He sometimes treated people like gravel in a driveway. They were the pebbles; he was the SUV. Jim's score for treating direct reports and colleagues with respect was an astounding 0.1%. That is, out of 1,000 managers rated, he was dead last!

But Jim put up equally astounding numbers with his trades. His profit contribution was so vast that the CEO promoted him to the company's management committee. This should have been the apex of Jim's young career. Instead, it exposed his bad side as well. The firm's leaders, who had been insulated from Jim's behavior, were suddenly in a position to get a firsthand dose of his "lead, follow, or get out of my way" style. In meetings, they saw that there was often no checkpoint between Jim's brain and mouth. He was surly and offensive to everyone, even mouthing off to the CEO (his biggest supporter), who finally called me in to "help Jim change now."

When I met Jim, he was clearly delighted with his success. He was making over $4 million a year, so professional validation was coursing through his veins like jet fuel. I knew that breaking through to Jim by challenging his performance would be tough. He was clearly delivering financial results. So I sat down with him and said, "I can't help you make more money. You're already making a lot. But let's talk about your ego . How do you treat people at home?"

Jim insisted that he was totally different outside the office, that he was a great husband and father. "I don't bring my work home," he assured me. "I'm a warrior on Wall Street but a pussycat at home."

"That's interesting," I said. "Is your wife home right now?"

"Yes," he said.

"Why don't you give her a call and see how different she thinks you are at home than at the office?"

He called his wife. When she finally stopped laughing at her husband's statement, she concurred that Jim often acted like a jerk at home, too.  The kids agreed as well!

"I'm beginning to see a pattern here," I said. "As I told you, I can't help you make more money. But I can get you to confront this question: Do you really want to have a funeral that no one attends other than for business reasons?"

For once, Jim looked stricken. "They're going to fire me if I don't make my numbers, aren't they?" he asked.

"Not only are they going to fire you," I said, "but several people will be dancing in the halls when you go."

Jim thought about that for a minute and then said, "I'm going to change, and the reason I'm going to change has nothing to do with money and it has nothing to do with this firm. I'm going to change because I have two sons, and if they were receiving this same feedback from a person like you in 30 years, I'd be ashamed to be their father."

Within a year, Jim's scores on his treatment of people shot up past the 50th percentile, above an already high company norm. He probably deserved even better, since he started so far down in the ditch. He also doubled his income.

The lesson: Our flaws at work usually don't vanish when we go home.

The moral: Anybody can change, but they have to want to change.

Sometimes you can deliver that message by reaching people where they live, not where they work.

The action plan for leaders (and followers):

If you really want to know how your behavior comes across to your colleagues and clients, stop looking in the mirror and admiring yourself.

Let your colleagues hold the mirror and tell you what they see. If you don't believe them, do the same with your loved ones and friends -- the people in your life who are most likely to be agenda-free and who truly want you to succeed. We all claim to want the truth. This is a guaranteed delivery system.

Life is good.

Marshall