What Kind of Leader are YOU (Actually)?

In this issue: A Skeptical Leader’s View of Leadership Assessments, Latest Work Updates (some really cool things I’m working on lately :) ,?Plus:?A Powerful Lesson from Nature

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What’s Cookin’ in the Commander’s Kitchen?

Well, it’s always a rough landing back on earth after the ether of a good vacation.

But it’s not all exactly downhill.

Thank G-d, I really do love my work :)

Alright, so what’s happening lately, you ask?

1. After an insanely long, twisted, expensive — and incredibly fulfilling journey…The real-life, honest-to-goodness, hardcover book, “Be Your Own Commander-in-Chief” is FINALLY GETTING RELEASED ON MAY 12TH.
2. Did I mention it’s actually 4 (WHUT?!) books in one set?

i. Yeah, you bet it’s been one twisted journey through two years of COVID and 2 more of outlining, developing, writing, interviewing CEOs, editing, refining, (and of course, newslettering and podcasting ;) - NOTE TO SELF:?WRITE A POST JUST ON THIS (OR LIKE 5 POSTS).

ii. Basically, the publisher couldn’t publish one book of more than 850 pages, so… yep, 4 books.

iii.?Did I mention the new cover design is gorgeous? Ok, stay tuned…

3. Some really awesome?consulting work, incidentally based on the book…

i. Just extended an AWESOME client in the?Telecom?space to build up their performance management and entire Learning & Development function from scratch.

ii. The book sure was a long and painful process (even if I truly LOVE this stuff), but has quickly become my platform for both my consulting work, content creation (newsletter, podcast, writing for Fast Co./Entrepreneur, etc.).?IN CASE IT’S NOT CLEAR, WRITE A BOOK or plan on it soon!!

1. Working with a brilliant MG100 coach (that’s Marshall Goldsmith) to deliver a?High-Potential Leadership Development Program?for a well-known investment manager with $18B AUM.

5. Finalizing some PR/Media Strategy/Content Creation work with a couple fast-growth startups through Commander-in-Chief Media Group.

And in addition, since I’m honestly not great at business processes, I’m getting some great coaching help from?Malcha Miller of Southwestern Coaching ?, tell her I sent you :) .

There’s also other coaching going on in the background, brand refining, building, planning, plus frankly catching up on life and work (and damn skippy, having a but of fun) after a GRUELING 5 months (hardest of my life, no exaggeration).

STAY TUNED for more about the book launch (and to learn how to join the launch team and get the book and swag before everyone else). Or just PM me about it, if you can’t wait…

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Much Ado About “Everything” (in Assessing Leaders)

If you’re somewhere in your mid-career, not hiding under a rock and not working in chaotic startups or backward orgs for your entire career, you’ve probably heard (and cringed at) the words “Leadership” and “Assessment” at some point.

Double that, when they’re combined in one phrase.

I mean, come on, why are you forcing this root canal on me?

You know, some sort of DISC or MBTI or Hogan, maybe something more obscure.

Get my Spider Web chart of some sort, measuring my leadership capabilities…

(Notice that terribly self-unaware note at the top left)

Or maybe you just took one of those?16 Personalities? tests online (free, takes a few minutes, if you haven’t), so you can get your 4 letters, like a brand on the forehead.

Why you gotta hate on a whole industry, Commander?

Let’s just say that within the course of 2 years, I took 16 Personalities 3 times… and received 3 (3!!) different personality types.

I mean, who can seriously think that my personality changed THAT much in just 2 years? Sure, personal development galore, but?come on.

Oh yeah, and who can forget the?long-running fraud that’s MBTI? (an open secret)?

Look, I’m not saying none of these tests have value.

BUT… (very important BUT) the advertised accuracy percentages and thoroughness, as if a crystal ball into someone’s entire personality and POTENTIAL (this one, especially, gets my goat)?are… quite often, most of the time, downright… (how do I phrase this politely…?) pseudoscientific BULLSHIT.

And did I mention, they’re insanely expensive, often going for $400+?per test.

Oh yeah, and results are released ONLY to trained facilitators. Let’s charge each one $5K to be our salespeople! Deviously brilliant!

Multiply that by hundreds and you get… FAT contracts Fortune 500 companies LOVE to pay for. DAMN GOOD business, if you ask me! LOL.

[NO, I’M NOT SAYING ALL ASSESSMENTS ARE BULLSHIT. THEY’RE JUST BY DEFINITION INCOMPLETE AND FLAT-EARTH VIEWS OF 4-D BEINGS, WITHOUT CONTEXT AND, YOU KNOW, ACTUALLY SPEAKING TO THE PERSON, NOT JUST TO THEIR 4 LETTERS.]

My own story is just an n of 1, but quite illustrative.

If my personality supposedly changed so much (and I know it did, as I learned not to be a victim, found myself and my mission, then put the pedal to the medal for a few years), then logically, at the beginning of my journey, most or all of these assessments would have adjudged my potential to be limited (because victim’s mentality, chip on the shoulder, etc.), my personality to be unstable and unsuited for leadership (lacking maturity, changing careers several times, lacking focus), relegating me to second- or even third-class corporate citizen.

Sure, I’ve always been great at intuiting the test-maker’s intent in asking certain questions in a certain way to reach a certain conclusion, but these assessments supposedly have no right or wrong answers (uhhuh, of course).

And on the other side of the tunnel (HR consulting, coaching, learning and development), knowing how the proverbial “sausage” of these assessments is made, it’s not difficult to tip the scales in my own favor, if I were myself tested in the same manner.

Ok, but aren’t you delivering these programs for high-potential leaders at companies?! How do you measure people? How do you know what they actually need?

Glad you asked!

Since I kept seeing the same stuff everywhere, repackaged and over-sold, I…

created my own assessment. I called it the?4 Pillars Assessment ?(listen to my Work Life podcast episode with Wharton Prof. Emeritus Stewart Friedman from a few years back for a deeper explanation).

It’s open-ended and centered on narratives (internal and external), pushing the person [gently] to give, in their own words, the strongest clues about the critical elements of their life story, career, self-image and personal/professional brand.

Since the basis of all my work is the premise that language (and its close bosom buddy, psychology) is at the center of both self-perception and perception of self by others, I’ve found it incredibly more useful to guide clients (1800+, to date) to tell their own stories in their own language than to “bucket” them into some overly simplistic type.

As for how this relates to leadership style and development?

Let’s start with the premise that every single person of decent intelligence, drive and life experience is and has been a leader in some regard.

It’s just that if you judge everyone by the same standards of A-type, large bank account, sharp language and elbows, tall white male in politics or media or finance or academia, then of course everyone else feels anything?but?a leader.

So…?the point of a coach or trainer or workshop facilitator doing leadership development is… yep, exactly,?to help people see and understand how and where in their lives they’re already leaders, how they’re showing up as leaders, and how they can be more uniform and confident in showing up as leaders in their work, not just in their home, hobbies and private life.

And yes, assessments do have a place in that conversation. I happen to favor the?Leadership Legacy? assessment, which is?forward-looking?and makes a person think about how they want to be seen, not how they’re currently seen.

The picture of Leadership Development — and Learning & Development, as a whole — is much more complex than just administering some tests and giving a few workshops.

Companies are waking up to the urgency of doing this well, because they’ve F-ed it up by over-relying on the usual L&D approach and personality tests over the years, often with ruinous results (leaders mis-identified, top-heavy High-Potential Programs without objective selection criteria, etc.).

I’ve written a great deal about the importance of the?“You Are What You Learn” ?approach that’s accountable only to oneself (not just one’s boss), which fits under the “Total Learning & Development” subject.

My conclusion?

Corporations are up Schitt’s Creek with L&D. They have to do?something, so they rush toward the market leaders, who are essentially rent seekers because they appear like insurance for clueless C-suites.

But employees have long wised up to the game of shells and diminishing returns.

In other words, new approaches are long overdue.

Caring enough to actually?speak?to people about their lives ad personalities and work and leadership styles turns out to be more burdensome in the beginning, but?actually?brings results, because in a world of insincerity and quarterly thinking, people feel like someone actually cares — or doesn’t care, and choose to stay or go, accordingly.

So, if you’re a leader trying to overhaul your L&D, so it actually works, you better slow down and think long and hard about your approach.

There are no Band-Aids left.

There is no more wool over the eyes, throwing money at a problem without getting involved with sincere care and direct feedback, then acting on it.

Easier to ask now without an agenda than try to sweet-talk people into staying later.

If I can help you think through this subject for your organization, you know how to find me :)

Signing off,

(ex-INFP… I think, LOL) Commander-in-Chief

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Alright, time for that lesson from nature…

My 6 and 2 year-olds came with me to a beautiful little town just north of us called Kiryat Tivon.

It’s basically a dairy town. As in many places in Israel, there are some ruins of an ancient city, Beit Shean, in this case.

So we drove 20 minutes and found ourselves down the mountain from Beit Shean, among a wheat field on the left and a tree orchard on the right, covered with red and yellow and pink flowers all over.

There were two beautiful horses there, one white, one splotchy beige, a girl and a boy. Kids LOVED the horses (of course).

We walked a ways down one trail and I noticed something very interesting that never came to mind before.

You know how we always talk about “lucky 4-leaf clovers” in America (I guess it’s an Irish import)?

Well, I looked around the field and realized… basically ALL the clovers in Israel have… 4 leaves!

Does that mean we’re all super lucky to live here? I certainly think so, despite all the challenges and enemies all around us, wanting us dead.

But what struck me even more…

Two three-leaf clovers are joined in the middle with a SHARED 4th leaf, through the middle of which, the flowers grow!!

Not to wax all poetic on you, but this made me think… our “luck” and our “flowering” is based on OUR UNITY.

We create our own luck by joining with others like us in a common fate, in building up the land, by working together (without seeking enemies amongst ourselves).

It’s a very simple and profound lesson.

Where in YOUR life can you join with someone like-minded and create your own “luck” and flowering?

I bet you would find a few places, if you tried :)

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Executive Coaching Office Hours (EXCLUSIVE FOR READERS)

Ask me ANYTHING career- or business-related for free, 1-on-1 ?(REALLY)

Click the link to schedule a time.

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Are there any other subjects you want me to cover??Hit “Reply” and tell me!

I love hearing from you guys :)

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If you enjoyed this newsletter, please forward to a friend (or 5 :) or someone you feel would benefit from reading it!

Yuri Kruman

+1 (347) 415-0265 (Whatsapp)

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