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Every Wednesday this October, I am sharing one thought or idea from Dr. Henry Cloud. I wouldn’t be the leader I am today without Dr. Cloud’s books, teaching, and guidance from afar. This content comes from the EntreLeadership Podcast. Not only do I listen to the EL podcast every Monday morning at the gym, I strongly believe you should as well. The content is simply can’t miss material!

Accountability

Early in his interview with Alex Judd, Dr. Cloud has a different take on accountability. Rather than fixating on the fact that something wasn’t done, Dr. Cloud instructs leaders to ask why it wasn’t done in the first place?

If you are like me, you might dismiss this advice because it seems simple.

It isn’t.

Getting to the root cause often takes asking simple questions over and over. Asking why something was done might uncover a problem you did not know you even had.

My encouragement this week is to ask the questions the smart leaders won’t allow themselves to ask because they’re “too obvious,” or “too basic.”

The next time someone on your team does not get a task done in time, uncover what held them back from doing so.

Next Wednesday, I’ll share what Dr. Cloud thinks is the one question every team-member asks before following others.

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This week’s #Baldinbusiness post of the week examines partnerships and was written on an airplane after a week in Europe developing partner relationships. Tip of the day: Always reflect in real-time. I have found that writing down my reflections make them last.

What makes a good business partner?

I asked myself this question over the summer as we have been exploring different international partnerships. What follows are some ideas that I jotted down during that process, which as I write is still ongoing.

You will notice that very little of what follows has to do with the “what” of the partnership (i.e. injection molding for our industry). This portion IS important in any industry, for you want to partner with someone capable. But capability does not make a good partner, it only makes a partner capable in that given field. So without further ado, here are some of my thoughts —Feel free to add your own in the comment section.

I always want to examine a potential partner’s worldview. For instance, how do they talk about challenges? Are they always the victim? Or do they talk about conflict, event defeat, from a personal accountability standpoint? For example, are they blaming policies, the President, bad luck, or their team? An occasional rift aside, a pattern here is problematic because the first time something goes wrong in the partnership —and things always go wrong at some point —they will blame you!

If the person has any kind of authority, how do they talk about people that report to them? Do they belittle them? Do they come across as someone sitting on a throne? Depending on your views, and your company’s culture, that may not be a deal breaker. For me, however, it is because it does not coincide with our core values of family, integrity, service, and trust. And make no mistake about it, two partners with dissimilar core values will NOT thrive together.

Another indicator of values is how they talk about their spouses, assuming they have one, or their loved ones. Do they represent the best of those not present, or the worst? Again, this is most likely how they will represent you, and your company, when you are not there. And 90% of the time, you won’t be there!

Finally, pay close attention to how a potential partner behaves when they are not necessarily “on” (while driving, at dinner, etc.). This is where they may potentially let the guard down and show you their true character. Do they obsess over the smallest slight on the road? Are they committed to working hard, or partying hard? Are they self-controlled, or do they spill the beans?

The trip I was on when I created this list was with a potential partner who is an incredible human being. They spoke about others with grace, worked hard, and were a tremendous host to our team. Their expertise was apparent when we visited their plant. But more importantly, I witnessed them shaking hands with everyone, and knowing the names of everyone. It not only felt like “us,” but I also liked being around this person. And that’s the last point of this post…

Don’t become partners with someone you do not like. Whatever you are partnering in will, at some point, have challenges. So, is your partner someone who will make those challenging situations more challenging? Choose wisely.

Please subscribe to Bald in Business so that I can send encouragement directly into your mailbox.

One of the tenets of leadership should be constant improvement as people tend to follow those who are always getting better. Thus, every situation has potential to teach you lessons that apply to leading other human beings if you are willing to learn from them. This is especially true in parenting. Here are examples of lessons I have recently learned from parenting, and how I will implement them into my own leadership. I am sharing them here to give you an example of how I do this in hopes that you begin to glean lessons from the situations you experience.

The first scenario I’ll share is applicable to all three of our kids, but I’ll share it from Will’s perspective because he is the “Energizer bunny.” “Dad, after dinner can we play ____ (insert golf, baseball, hockey, or some other high energy activity here)?” is a common question he asks. This summer, this has meant that I have had to choose to find energy when being jet-lagged, change clothes to something I can sweat in when it was hot outside, and often be okay with multiple showers per day —thank goodness I don’t have to do my hair! While this is hardly revolutionary —kids have wanted their parents’ time and attention since the dawn of time —the point is applicable to leadership. I don’t know about you, but I often have so many tasks to get completed in a certain day that I don’t feel like I have any extra time to spend with others, especially others who haven’t scheduled an appointment. So this summer, when someone has been standing at my door wanting “just a few minutes,” I have intentionally chosen to say yes more frequently. Often, people just need a few minutes and this validates their worth on the team.

The second scenario perhaps only applies to parenting as words do not mean that much to adults —I hope you read that statement with the sarcasm that it is intended! Our middle child, Ben, is changing a lot over the last few months. Baseball, Kindergarten, and other new abilities that he is discovering—it is all exciting. As with all change, however, it also comes with moments of frustration, difficulty, and even setbacks. There have been swings and misses, and even creative attempts to come home from school via suspect “stomach pains,” all because school was getting boring, or as he put it, “because he missed Mommy” (probably both true and a pretty good sales tactic, but I digress). There have also been moments where he has demonstrated that he is “getting it,” like when he was at Will’s birthday party and he never complained about not getting anything himself, and instead was genuinely happy for his brother’s happiness as he opened gifts from all his friends. Not only were Sarah and I humbled, even challenged by this demonstration of loving others, we were proud. So we told Ben this in front of his two siblings that night at dinner. We did this by naming exactly what he did, thanking him for it, and then added our emotion to it. “I am proud of you Ben.” The question I asked myself that night as I put Ben to bed was, when was the last time you caught someone doing something you were impressed by at Hoffer Plastics? Did you tell them you were proud of them? Did you name the behavior and share the insight? In a society constantly growing more at odds with one another, affirmation is becoming a rare commodity. To be someone worth following, you need to be someone that is loving. So I challenge you to ask these questions of yourself.

Finally, the lesson I have learned with our independently minded three-year-old named Sadie is to always ask questions. The question that I often ask Sadie —and not one I would recommend leaders to ask at the office! —is whether I can hug her? To my unbiased opinion, she is the cutest three year old on the planet. She is also my only little girl. I’ll blink twice and she will be 13, and probably will hate the rules I have about social media and whatever device is cool in ten years. So I have to milk this for all it’s worth right now! What I have learned is that asking her for permission shifts the power to her. Naturally, she says no to me a LOT —and I always encourage her to keep saying no to boys for the next three decades. But then I ask the follow up question, “how about in 30 minutes.” To Sadie, 30 minutes might as well be 2023 so she always says yes, but this allows Sadie to “hug” on her time and only when she is ready. The point here to leaders is that authority can sometimes be used to get what you want, but this isn’t the sort of thing people worth following do. Rather, they ask questions and solicit buy-in. After all, a big hug 30 minutes later is preferable to a forced hug now.

Lessons are all all around us if we just pay attention. So pay attention and learn this week.