“Leadership is about managing relationships.” Michael Feiner keeps emphasizing this critical point in his book The Feiner Points of Leadership.

This is an important principle especially when serving as a leader among equals/peers!

Feiner’s Seven Laws of Leading Peers…

• #1 The Law of Equality – In every organization/environment there will be more leadership influence given to particular individuals due to their role. It is possible to be equals and yet one of the equals possess more organizational influence due to his/her role. Feiner says, “A peer relationship will only be successful if neither party feels he or she is the boss of the other. You must adopt a partnership mentality.” People recognize that some roles/positions within the organization come with more influence, and they will be okay with that UNTIL “a colleague’s [influence] morphs into swagger and hubris…. When people don’t feel equal, the foundation for a productive relationship is removed.” It is CRITICAL to remember in leading among equals that “everybody’s effort is equally important.” Without your peer’s contribution to the effort, your contribution will be lacking.

• #2 The Law of Push vs. Pull – There are two ways to get your team to act… PUSH (declaring; mandating; asserting; etc.) or PULL (involving; questioning; listening; discussing; etc.). It’s basically the hard art (Push) vs. the soft art (Pull) of leadership. Feiner says that “The main problem with push… is that while it might elicit compliance, it’s much less good at encouraging commitment.” Effective leaders are capable of using both methods AND they know when to engage each method! “Both approaches can be effective depending on the person involved and the situation at hand. It generally takes more time to use pull (and when the leader takes this time, that is in itself a signal of commitment), so at moments of crisis, or when the time to ship has arrived, push can be entirely appropriate. The point, however, is that High-Performance Leaders use pull on some occasions and push on others, never relying on just one pitch to advance their argument. Because their colleagues know these leaders can use pull effectively, they recognize push, when they see it, as necessitated by circumstances, not as a signal of arrogance.”

• #3 The Law of the Good Samaritan – This law basically states that friends don’t let friends fail without a fight! I won’t stand back and watch you flounder and fail, and I will expect the same from you!

• #4 The Law of the Mirror – When there is a disagreement between the two of us I will look in the mirror before I look at you! Feiner says, “Don’t assume evil intent unless you’re sure of it, unless you see it. Instead, begin by looking in the mirror and asking what you’ve done or said – or not done or said – that has contributed to the problem. And if your automatic response is nothing, keep looking in the mirror. Each of us always contributes in some way to a problem with a peer. It’s so much more productive to move from blaming another to thinking how each of you has contributed to the problem.”

• #5 The Law of Feedback – Again – “Too often a leader will complain to a subordinate or another peer about a problem with a colleague. Yet it’s the peer who’s the last to know – or who never knows. For partners to work well together and trust one another, it’s essential to be open with feedback, to display commitment to the team’s success by voicing it, and to demonstrate courage by raising what could be a sensitive issue.” Feiner wraps up the chapter with these summary words, “…if you’ve got a problem with a peer, you must step up and speak up, confronting the issue directly with him or her. Remember – feedback is a gift.”

• #6 The Law of Trust – “Trust is the single most important element of peer-to-peer relationships.” The question then is how does a leader develop trust? “Being trustworthy develops trust.” The bottom line here is that talking behind people’s back, not following through on promises, being irresponsible, etc. all compromise trust. If you are going to effectively lead in the context of equals… you must be trusted!

• #7 The Law of Tell Your Cat – DON’T gossip! “If you’re not willing to see it on a bulletin board or in an e-mail, don’t say it and don’t write it.” If you have to tell… tell your cat! “If leaders don’t uphold values, then no one will.” When you have the opportunity to talk negatively about someone else… DON’T!

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I love these verses of Scripture from the wisest man who ever lived!

Ecclesiastes 12:9-11 Because the Teacher was wise, he taught the people everything he knew. He collected proverbs and classified them. 10 Indeed, the Teacher taught the plain truth, and he did so in an interesting way. 11 A wise teacher’s words spur students to action and emphasize important truths. The collected sayings of the wise are like guidance from a shepherd.

Effective teachers:

• Read much and organize what they’re reading/learning. Is there a point to your reading? What’s your system for organizing what you’re reading? (This blog is one way I’m organizing what I’m reading.)

• Present truth in a simple and engaging way (For more on this check out Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath & Communicating For a Change by Andy Stanley).

• Motivate to action and give clear instruction for how to achieve the vision.

Good stuff from a GREAT teacher (for more of this good stuff… check out the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon in the Bible.)

At some point we’ve all been on a team, and most of us at some point either have or will have the opportunity to lead a team.

I’ve  consistently said, about teams, that if the leadership team gets it right then the organization will get it right. Michael Feiner says it like this, “High-Performance Leaders understand the inextricable link between team effectiveness and the success of the organization.”

And with no further ado… a summary of Feiner’s six laws for leading teams taken from his excellent book The Feiner Points of Leadership.

• #1 The Law of First Among Equals - Every team needs a leader! Feiner writes, “Without a single person who can own the outcome, the team is in great danger of under-performing.” He makes the point that if you are selected to lead the team… DO NOT APOLOGIZE for that assignment! When you apologize for being the team leader “you demean yourself… and you deprive the team of one of the most important things it needs in a leader – a figure who is comfortable in her own skin.”

• #2 The Law of Winning Championships – If you’re team is going to be maximally effective you must recruit the best players! “In forming [teams], leaders select for the skills they need, not the constituencies they feel they need to represent; they take risks in choosing the best people, even if the choices may not always be politically safe.” Feiner addresses the issue of individual competence and he also addresses the issue of motivation and need – great leaders identify their individual team-member’s motivations and needs and lead from that knowledge to create a higher impact team.

• #3 The Law of Building Cathedrals – Again – “High-Performance Leaders create an environment in which everything connects to the overarching goal” (e.g. meetings, goals, plans, etc.)! Keep connecting the dots from what your team is doing to why they are doing it!

• #4 The Law of the Nitty-Gritty - While leaders are responsible for the “20,000 foot view” they also must get involved, to some extent, in the nitty-gritty, daily grind of leadership. Feiner says that leaders do this by clarifying the “rules of engagement”:

• How decisions will be made – “…if people buy into a [decision-making] process they are much more likely to buy into its outcome. It’s generally easier to obtain support for a process up front than it is to obtain support for difficult decisions later on, so the value of establishing the decision ground rules as the first order of business can be huge.” He suggests that we should stay away from trying to reach consensus on every issue but rather, we should “strive to create a process for reaching a decision whereby every team member was heard.” ONE MORE QUOTE… “If the process is fair, team unity will follow. Unity should be the objective. Unanimity is unrealistic.”

• Areas of responsibility – Your team should be clear about roles, accountabilities, and consequences.

• How differences will be resolved – The leader MUST ASSUME that there will be differences on the team! Feiner says, “If differences are not expressed overtly, the leader should presume that they exist under the table.” Encourage your team to be open about their differences and to discuss them in an honest and fair manner.

• Once these “Rules of Engagement” have been clarified, Feiner suggests two more steps before tackling the project…

• Develop a plan with “explicit timelines and milestones” and then… expect the unexpected! “Good leaders recognize that course corrections are the norm. The team must be prepared to replan the plan. Without this mind-set, teams become stuck in quicksand and are at the mercy of an out-of-date plan. Worse, they get into the habit of ignoring the plan, as it’s never current. Leaders must recognize that even the best plans must be revisited and reset, in order to adapt to unanticipated events, forces, and situations.”

• Have an agenda for each meeting! This gives structure to the meeting. Feiner gives a great idea for setting meeting agendas… at the end of every meeting his leadership team would take 30 minutes to discuss, debate, and formulate the next weeks agenda! Without team-shaped agendas, meetings become mindless, useless data dumps.

• #5 The Law of Communicating Up - Good leaders keep their leaders in the loop! “The more information you give bosses, the more reason you give them to trust you….” Another Feiner point of “communicating up” = “Communicating up effectively is one way to distinguish yourself from your peers.” A hint for doing this… “Choose frequency over length. A two-sentence e-mail every three days is much more valuable than a six-page memo every three weeks.”

• #6 The Law of Team Together, Team Apart - “If a team member lacks the courage to say something in a meeting, it’s not acceptable for him or her to say it outside the meeting.” Do not allow your team to act one way in the meeting when you’re together, and another way after the meeting when you’re apart! Refer to the “Rules of Engagement” and consistently enforce them!

• Feiner gives a GREAT idea – after every meeting the team would craft an “Elevator Speech” summarizing the key points and decisions made during the meeting. This is called an “Elevator Speech” because it can be communicated, concisely in a brief period of time. He says, “Whenever there’s a meeting involving more than a couple of people that lasts more than a couple of hours, anyone remotely associated with the people in the meeting knows that it’s going on, knows what’s on the agenda, and is keen to find out what has been decided. If participants emerge from the meeting with differing views of what took place, these differences are seized upon by the eager spectators, and are very quickly magnified a hundred times. [...] It wasn’t always a positive summary – this is not a Pollyannaish prescription, and besides, most people can tell the difference between spin and truth – but over time the consistency of the messages stopped the rumor mill at its source….”

P.S. If you’ve come to this blog through the Northgate website… this week is the last week you will be able to do that! Sign up to get this blog in your e-mail by clicking on these blue words and following the two step process or get it in a reader by clicking on one of the icons on the right hand side of this blog (Bloglines, Google, Yahoo).