Guest blogger Gary Runn has served with Cru for over 30 years. For the past five years he and his family served in Florence, Italy where he focused on leadership development for the national ministry. He currently serves as National Director for Leadership Development of Cru City in Austin, Texas. He’s also my brother-in-law and blogs at garyrunn.wordpress.com.

We live in dynamic times regarding culture and the mission of extending God’s kingdom. New leadership paradigms and fresh learning are necessary elements in stewarding well the resources that God has entrusted to His people.

In a previous post on this blog, Ken Cochrum has argued for Shared Leadership. I think Ken is correct in his estimation of what it is going to take to lead in ever increasing complexity. Ken quotes Marshall Goldsmith in defining what is meant by shared leadership. At the heart of the definition are three key components: maximization of resources around you, empowerment of others to contribute well and opportunity for true leadership out of expertise. This is not leadership by committee. This is leadership at its highest level that can navigate the complexities and steward critical resources towards the best possible solution-all the while raising the leadership culture around them to new heights. But ultimately what a leader does will never outpace who a leader is. This style of leading requires some growing character qualities to ensure both a good environment and a good result. It requires letting go of one’s ego — the exaggerated sense of self. I will suggest three character qualities for your consideration.

Humility
For the Christ-centered leader humility is always required. But in a command and control style this can be feigned and expressed in measured doses. If a leader is aiming for a shared leadership style this is the starting point and must prove consistent day in and day out. Humility is not thinking less of yourself — it’s not thinking of yourself at all. Humility is the character trait that allows you to get out of the way so others can succeed-again, shunning any form of egotism. Humility actually lends itself to bold ideas because there is nothing personally at stake. The mission and God’s agenda are the only things at stake. Humility is what allows the leader employing this style to empower others. Humility by definition does not have to be the epicenter of power. It rightly shares power with qualified others. A right estimation of self and God is at the epicenter of humility.

Determination
The error of a command and control style of leadership is that it is extremely limiting. You are limited to the best and worst of who you are. But the potential error of a shared leadership style is a watered down, fluffy solution with no visible impact. You could end up with leadership by committee and greatly reduce impact. Determination is needed to keep God’s agenda and organizational calling in the forefront. The idea of shared leadership is to get to a better, more impactful solution through partnering efforts. But this requires a leader who can keep connected efforts on track and moving in the right direction. This is knowing when to provide accountability, correcting insight and a refocused vision.

Authenticity
This one might surprise you. But good partnership requires safe relationships. There has to be a leadership environment where divergent opinions can be freely expressed. The best way I know to create safety is if the leader demonstrates true authenticity. This means that the leader is able to admit mistakes, weaknesses, and limitations. This also means that the leader can freely encourage and praise the contributions of others. People readily follow gracious, authentic leaders. Leaders should always be conscious of the working environment around them and the development of leaders around them. An authentic leader fosters a safe, energetic collaboration environment.

Where are these traits nourished and grown? At the foot of the cross. Our constant recognition for the grace of the gospel is the soil for growing these qualities. A helpful fertilizer is regular feedback from peers, superiors and those you lead. A deadly weed is letting egotism run rampant. Shared leadership in all of its varied expressions is the way forward. Will you strive to become this type of leader?

Which group has a higher success rate in collaborative work: B-school grads, kindergartners, or CEOs?

Watch the video to find out. “Build a tower, build a team,” declares Tom Wujec in this fascinating explanation of why multiple iterations are one key to successful collaboration efforts. Unfortunately, most of our training in strategic planning has taught us to plan-plan-plan, assess options, choose the “best” alternative, and execute on that one idea. Annual budgets are then set, personnel reassigned, and we forge ahead while hoping for the best.

In a dynamic networked world, we don’t have to lock ourselves in to such linear plan/produce models. Rapid try/fail/learn/try again cycles are winning the day. This rapid learning approach seems less forced and more organic to leaders in many cultures.

I’m going to try this Marshmallow Challenge with my teams the next time we have some development time. I wonder what we’ll learn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0_yKBitO8M

This fourth post in our series on Distance Leadership comes from my good friend Erik Butz. Erik has been serving as an Operations leader in East Asia for over a decade.

How to Improve Any Virtual Team Meeting

We all know that running an effective meeting is tough, even with a group from the same culture that is sitting in the same room. But even more things can trip you up when you’re trying to lead a virtual meeting with people across multiple locations, time zones, languages and cultures.

I’ve been a team member or leader of distributed teams for nearly a decade now. Although technology has been making it easier and easier for these teams to have virtual meetings, there are still many challenges – including the use of all the new technologies! The last few years, most of my time has been spent working with people over distance. I feel like I’ve been in the virtual meeting school of hard knocks during that time. The following is a list of best practices that I’ve found helpful for holding fun and effective virtual meetings.

1. Establish a strong foundation of relationship and trust by having initial (and occasional ongoing) face-to-face meetings with your virtual team. Solid relationship and trust are crucial to help overcome the inevitable miscommunications that happen over distance, emails and time (see Do you trust me?). If the team is a short-term work group, face-to-face time might not be possible, but you can still do initial relationship building over a video call. Take time to have people share about themselves, their strengths, working style, passions, vision for the project, etc.
2. Develop and follow virtual meeting norms. All meeting norms that a face-to-face team would use will still apply, i.e. start and end on time, have an agenda, come prepared, etc. In addition, you might find it helpful to clarify some additional “virtual meeting norms.” This could include practical things like having remote participants sit in a quiet room (i.e. not a loud coffee shop), be online 10 minutes early in case of IT issues, make eye contact with the camera, or raising your hand (on video, or virtually on a chat window) if you’re having trouble breaking into the discussion.
3. Involve all participants in virtual meetings. If all participants have a specific role in the meeting, I find they will be more engaged overall. In addition to facilitating specific topics of discussion, participants could also be assigned a “meeting role,” such as taking meeting notes, action point recorder, norms enforcer, or timekeeper. Related tip: The action point recorder can type action points directly into your online shared document and then everyone can review, clarify and confirm those action points (see Tip #4 below) at the end of the meeting.
4. Keep priorities and action points visible to all and promote group accountability. Leveraging shared document technology like Google docs can really help your team communicate and focus. We use a Google doc action point list that we add to and review at every meeting. Team members mark tasks complete or add progress updates in real time. An example of how you might do this is shown here. We also have shared planning documents and priority lists that everyone can easily reference as they do individual planning and work.
5. Leverage collaboration tools to save discussion time. We often think of virtual meetings as being less efficient as being face-to-face. However, in some cases, a team can gather information and “think together” more quickly using online tools. Try having everyone type his or her input or answer to a question into a chat window. The facilitator can review answers and follow up on key points or questions.  The Google doc feature of having multiple people type into one document simultaneously is an extremely efficient way to quickly gather and refine ideas. Have everyone type in brainstorming ideas, answers to evaluation questions, or other small group or individual work that you want to compile, review and refine in real time.
6. Test your meeting technology and tools. My teams and others I’ve observed have wasted WAY too much time on IT issues at the start of meetings. These issues could have been worked out by just 2-3 people testing the technology in advance of the meeting. Starting a meeting with tech problems can easily put a wet blanket on the mood and make people feel like your meetings are a waste of time. Related tips: (1) Use a video solution if possible as I’ve found that being on video significantly increases engagement. (2) Have a backup connection method available for the meeting in case your primary method fails.
7. Train your team on meeting technology and collaboration methods. As you adopt new virtual meeting technology (like a new video conference system) or practices (like online document sharing or project management tools), make sure to train the team on how to use these tools. If you don’t, you might see engagement drop and frustrations rise.
8. Adjust for language and cultural issues. Many distributed teams will have people from different cultures and language backgrounds. Those realities must be taken into account for the team to truly be effective. The current team I lead operates bilingually, with some stronger in one language than the other. As a result, we take meeting notes in both languages simultaneously (thus we have two note takers – see Tip #3). That allows someone who gets lost to quickly read up in their mother tongue.

These are just a few ideas that have worked for my teams. What practices have you used to make your virtual team meetings more effective?

This is the third post in a series on Distance/Virtual Leadership. Read the first two posts here and here.

“Can I trust you?”

It’s a question that rumbles around inside our minds each time we as leaders are faced with a conflict or a fresh opportunity. But how often do we ask ourselves, “Can you trust me?”

The Link between Trust and Collaboration
Trust is listed at or near the top of the list of team-building essentials in every book and journal article I surveyed on the topic of distance/virtual teams.

What is trust? Marquardt and Horvath offer this definition: trust is the team members’ reliance on one another to protect their joint endeavor.[1] Fourteen of 28 chapters in the very helpful Handbook of High-Performance Virtual Teams deal with the topic of trust. The lending and earning of trust is particularly crucial to distributed teams.

Why is trust so crucial? Because trust is the cornerstone of genuine collaboration. In their most recent work, Kouzes and Posner identify ten truths about leadership based on more than two million responses to their Leadership Practices Inventory from over 70 countries in the past two years. “Credibility is the foundation of leadership” is the second truth; “Trust rules” is the sixth.[2] Rath and Conchie answer the question “What will people follow in organizational leaders?” with four clear research-based responses: trust, compassion, stability, and hope.[3] If we define leadership as influence, trust leads the way.

For team member A to trust team member B, member A must be able to see and experience specific behaviors and non-verbal clues in member B. Pat MacMillan categorizes these core issues as Competence (Can you deliver?), Character (Are you trustworthy?) and Concern (Do you care about me and my stuff?).[4] Clark, Clark and Crossley identify the same critical three issues respectively as Ability, Integrity and Benevolence.[5]

It is helpful to examine the origins of the term “virtual,” which comes from Latin virtus meaning valor or moral excellence. Virtual doesn’t mean invisible or not really there. Taken this way, virtual means that I can trust you, and you can trust me, because of our mutual commitment to excellence, ability, and mutual concern.

Finally, a distributed team must develop “swift trust,” which is where each team member acts as if trust is present from the beginning. It’s like offering everyone a hundred dollars in a “trust account” that they are allowed to make a few withdrawals on, rather than starting everyone at zero where the first misstep in communication results in negative balance of suspicion or distrust. This prevents the first offense from instantly blocking future productive interactions. I have found it helpful to explicitly ask a freshly forming virtual team to loan trust and grace to one another.

What have you encountered that builds or breaks trust on a virtual team?

So, you’re getting work done with a group of people. If you’re communicating using a private Facebook group or sharing numbers on a Google Docs spreadsheet, you may have just wandered into virtual territory.

When does a conventional team become a distributed virtual team?

Twitter has become the new watercooler. Four decades of research by MIT professor Tom Allen indicate that geographic separation begins to significantly influence member-to-member interactions with distances as small as 50 feet.[1] The idea of conventional, colocated team members who sit within shouting distance of one another for 8 hours each day is rapidly going the way of the hard-wired telephone and the CD-ROM. Also, many core business processes demand involvement from people working in different parts of the organization. Rarely do all these people report to the same boss, yet these virtual teams are expected to deliver real work. In a global work environment, it is not uncommon for an employee to participate on two or more distributed teams or workgroups simultaneously. Teammates based in different countries often know more current personal information about each other via social networking sites than they do about their co-workers in a department one floor above them.

Cultural differences also play a significant role in the complexity of distributed teams. These differences are frequently overlooked, as discussions tend to focus on the technology rather than on value differences and cross-cultural barriers. These pressures exert extra weight in Christian missions because of our assumptions that we share the same core values and because we expect everyone to “be nice.” Due to space limitations we cannot explore all the cultural implications here, but will simply reflect some counsel from James Plueddemann:

For God’s people to work together effectively, implicit assumptions about leadership need to be made explicit. They must be evaluated in light of sound social science research and biblical principles. The church in the North and South, the East and West acts out of unconscious and often confusing assumptions about leadership. We must appreciate the differences and challenge some of the misconceptions in order to work together as the worldwide body of Christ.[2]

Virtual teams seeking long-term effectiveness will learn how to manage cultural diversity by explicitly talking about differences such as high and low power-distance cultures, high and low context cultures, individualistic and collectivist cultures, linear and holistic cultures, and whether we prefer sushi or Subway for lunch.

Differences Between Conventional, Virtual and Global Teams[3]

Virtual teams can amplify the normal problems most colocated teams face. For instance, 600 professionals who manage or work on virtual teams reported that common problems such as not following through on commitments, questioning team decisions, backbiting and avoidance of conflict occur far more frequently on virtual teams.[4]

Distributed virtual teaming supports the trend in institutions and organizations seeking to become more responsive to today’s social media environment. In a June 2011 blog post, John Kotter highlights the creative tension necessary for today’s organization to maintain a good balance between hierarchy (whose strengths are standardization, stability, maintenance and optimization) and network (whose strengths are seizing opportunity, rapid knowledge and expertise acquisition, and adaptability).

If you’re serving on a virtual or global team, how are you making it easier for your team leader to lead well? 

Sources:

Ann and I recently celebrated two major milestones – 25 years of marriage and a newly emptied nest – by taking a week on the Greek island of Kos. It was so awesome that I think we’re going to start taking silver anniversary trips every year. You can view a few pix here.

It costs time and money to celebrate well. Each day we did something special that reminded us of fun activities we’ve pursued at different times in our lifelong friendship. We rented mountain bikes, sailed a catamaran in the Aegean Sea, strolled on the beach, hiked in the hills and ate lots of great Greek food. Near the end of our week we took in the island’s breathtaking views by moped.

A nearly perfect day concluded with a small blip. While climbing up a fairly steep hill, the switchback was too slick and I laid the bike down on our turn. Bam! I vaguely remember apologizing to Ann on the way down: “I’m sorryyyy…” Though we weren’t moving fast we landed hard. Picture 450 pounds of bodies and bike simply falling over in your driveway – you get the idea. Ann bunged up her knee. I absorbed most of the impact with my right shoulder and a split second later felt two dull ‘pops’ in my chest. Thankfully I walked away with only bruised – and extremely tender – ribs. The doctor said they would be sore for 2-3 months.

“I Need Help”

Those three words are some of the most difficult for independent, healthy, self-sufficient people to say. Yet, they have come out of my mouth more in the past week than probably in the past six months. Bruised ribs hurt. They hurt when I stand, walk, turn, lie down, sit up, sleep, eat. Shoot, they hurt when I breathe.

So, it’s easy for you to picture us traveling through five airports on the way home. I have to ask for help. Ann has her knee bandaged up and limps through the airport, hoisting our luggage onto the check-in scales. I, the ever chivalrous husband, deftly handle the tickets and passports. When we board, Ann takes off my backpack and puts it in the overhead bin because I can’t lift my arm that high. I am hyper-aware of people looking at us, probably thinking: What a jerk. Dude, help your wife. All I want is a t-shirt that reads “I have severe internal injuries – you just can’t see them.”

Of course this doesn’t end with our trip. Yesterday I went to Lowe’s to buy two 40-pound bags of salt for our water system. Dani, a very friendly young cashier, takes my credit card. I find myself saying those three words again to her: “I need help. Can you call someone over to help me get these bags into my car?”

“Don’t worry,” says Dani. “Just back your car up and I’ll get them for you.”

Ouch.

Lesson: True humility flows from a sense that I need others. People can’t read my mind and often can’t see where I hurt. I need to verbalize my need and ask for help.

Recently I listened to a wonderful 10 minute HBR interview with 85-year old leadership guru Warren Bennis. Opening question: What are two or three of the characteristics of really great leaders?

1. Great leaders build great teams. “You can’t win this contest without a lot of help. It ain’t just one man.”

2. Great leaders have good judgment. Great leaders have the ability to select people who have the capacity to get things done AND play well with others in the sandbox.

I am impressed with Warren’s insights into the crucible of war and the crucible of age, sacrifice, generosity, respect and what he calls “leadership grace.”

Warren’s final question was: “If you want to be a great leader, you need to….”

How would you finish that sentence?

Leadership is hard work. Good leadership is really hard work. Today’s dynamic, rapidly changing knowledge economy provides an ever-shifting landscape that requires multiple perspectives to navigate well.

Exit the know-it-all, do-it-all leader.

Enter the self-aware, in-touch connector that can share leadership by pulling people, resources and ideas together to get the job done.

What is shared leadership? Marshall Goldsmith describes it this way in an excellent post: “Shared leadership involves maximizing all of the human resources in an organization by empowering individuals and giving them an opportunity to take leadership positions in their areas of expertise. With more complex markets increasing the demands on leadership, the job in many cases is simply too large for one individual. Sharing leadership isn’t easy, but it’s definitely possible, and in many cases, highly successful.”

Goldsmith suggests ways to share leadership and maximize talent. Here are a few:

• Give power away to the most qualified individuals to strengthen their capabilities.
• Define the limits of decision-making power.
• Cultivate a climate in which people feel free to take initiative on assignments.
• Give qualified people discretion and autonomy over their tasks and resources and encourage them to use these tools.
• Don’t second guess the decisions of those you have empowered to do so.

As leaders, our job is to constantly move those people our organizations touch from strangers to acquaintances, from acquaintances to friends, and from friends to partners in our common mission. Sharing leadership usually provides the best pathway to true partnership.

How are you learning to share leadership?

What’s the number one quality followers look for in leaders or peers they allow to influence them?

Trust.*

Trust is confidence based on previous experience. Trust is the foundation that must bear the daily load of bumps and bruises in every personal and working relationship. Trust often takes months or even years to build, but can be destroyed by a single act of irresponsibility, immorality or perceived betrayal. More commonly, trust erodes over time due to lack of attentiveness and self-awareness.  Since trust is so critical, how do we build trust?

Here are three gauges I use to monitor the balance in my trust account with others:

1. Character. As a 7th generation Texan, I grew up in an environment where a person’s handshake was usually as good as a contract. I vividly remember a couple of times when I broke my word and had to go back to make it right. Sometimes it involved redoing shoddy work. Sometimes it involved financial restitution. There were a few embarrassing confessions and requests for forgiveness. I didn’t miss the lesson, though: Pain forges character. Can others believe what I say? Will I follow through on those things I’ve committed to? Is my “yes” a yes and my “no” a no, or will others have reason to believe that I will waver on commitments I’ve made?

2. Competence. Work done well builds trust. When I need a plumber or a mechanic, I ask my neighbors who they would recommend (or not recommend). Perhaps you’ve got some technical expertise that’s in high demand. Maybe your EQ is off the charts and you provide the critical relational glue for a group. Maybe you’re responsible, organized, diligent, networked, or service-oriented. Whatever it is, the more you bring it to bear with consistency and humility, the more rapidly your trust account will grow. Also, unless you’re a rock star or pro athlete with a multi-million dollar contract, technical excellence coupled with arrogance usually increases resentment and undermines the trust-building process. What skills and abilities do I offer to my boss, my team, my family or the larger community? How am I developing my level of proficiency in these areas?

3. Concern. We’ve all heard the maxim: People don’t care what you know until they know that you care. When it comes to building trust, demonstrating authentic concern is key. I quickly trust people who I perceive care about me and my stuff. Call it empathy or call it love, trust grows rapidly when each party knows the other person is looking out for their best interests. Misunderstandings and vain imaginations vaporize when I know you’ve got my back. What level of genuine concern am I expressing in this relationship?

Action points for leading well:

1. Do what you say you will do.

2. Do it well.

3. Do it with others’ best interests in mind.

*Source: This intuitive fact can be verified by any number of sources. Two of the broadest representative surveys of managers, employees and business leaders that reveal trust (or its counterpart, honesty) as the #1 factor are Strengths-Based Leadership by Rath & Conchie and The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes & Posner.

Yesterday I rode my Cannondale road bike 170 miles coast-to-coast across the state of Florida in 11 hours and 1 minute. It was harder and easier than I had envisioned.

This would not have been possible (for me, anyway) without the dynamic, organic teamwork that occurs within a cycling group. It would have been unthinkable in the mid-90′s heat and 40 miles of hills without roadside encouragement and support from my wife and others. They provided water, food, fresh electrolyte-laden bottles, cold towels, and lots of smiles urging us to keep pedaling.

Executive Summary

Fresh and ready

We rolled out of Cocoa Beach on the east coast at 6:30 a.m. sharp. Only 72 riders registered – 69 men and 3 women. The entire group moved at a good pace during the cool morning hours, averaging between 21-22 mph. Our first stop was at 46 miles. That’s when the faster riders broke away.

At 85 miles Todd and I were in a nice paceline with a dozen riders hitting about 20 mph. The sun was up and it was getting hot. I found myself thinking “We’re halfway done. I think I might make it.”

The peloton rolling along

At 120 miles we had lost a few to heat exhaustion. I saw one rider with an IV hooked up in the back of a van. We were still optimistic, though we were about to enter 40 miles of hills. Ouch. On some climbs we averaged 5-7 mph hitting 37 mph coasting down the backside.

At 150 miles my right thigh began to cramp and lock. Ann noticed that I wasn’t emptying my water bottles as quickly as I had been and urged me to drink more. I began opening up Endurolyte capsules and taking the salts straight on my tongue with a water chaser. “Only 20 more miles – I don’t want to quit now!” I backed off the group’s pace and went solo for awhile. I rode on. Rather than stopping to rest, I tried letting my left leg do 3/4 of the work while I did deep tissue massage on my other thigh with my right thumb. I also prayed: God of the universe who created the stars, can you prevent these muscle fibers from locking up for about one more hour?

Rest stop @ 110 miles with my supporting angel

After a few miles, my good friend Todd circled back to pull me in for the final 10 miles. Zach and Bill joined up after fixing two flats and we picked up one more stray rider. The five of us rolled across the finish line on the west coast at 5:31 pm with nearly three hours to spare before sunset. Stopping felt great. So did the dip in the lagoon.

Done. Todd, me, Bill and Zach. Scratch that one off the bucket list.

Thanks are due to my Creator, Ann, Todd, Zach, Bill, the Eastside Cycling Club and the Spacecoast Freewheelers. I couldn’t have made it without your help.