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Leaders have to walk a fine line. On the one hand, it's important to leverage the footprint of the role that you're in. As I said in a webinar on leading at the next level for Government Executive magazine yesterday, there are certain things that only you can do given the leadership role that you're in. That brings us to "on the other hand."  On the other hand, as you leverage that leadership footprint, it's really important to remember that much of your capacity to get things done flows from the role and not because you're God's gift to leadership.

This lesson was powerfully brought home to me about 10 years ago when I announced I was leaving my corporate vice president's job in a month to start my coaching business. I was amazed at how quickly my calendar went from being jammed to being able to drive a truck through the white space. Same thing with my e-mail inbox and my voice mail. Empty and empty. Once people knew I was leaving, they moved on to life after Scott.

I read a funny story that illustrates the same dynamic in Al Kamen's In the Loop column in the Washington Post this morning. As a follow up to the State of the Union address this week, Kamen was writing about the tradition of one cabinet member leaving Washington to ensure continuity of government in case disaster strikes during the speech. He shared this story about former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman who was the designated out of towner during the 1997 State of the Union:

For the 1997 speech, then-Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman headed up to New York for dinner with his daughter in Manhattan. He flew on a small Air Force jet with a security detail, the "suitcase," and a doctor, he recalled Thursday. He was taken in a small motorcade to his daughter's apartment building.

The detail stayed downstairs while Glickman watched the speech. As soon as it was over, they called up and told him, "The mission is terminated." They took off and left Glickman and his daughter, unable to hail a cab, to walk 12 blocks to dinner in the pouring rain. "Ah, the fleeting limits of power," he observed.

Great story, huh? Leaders need to protect themselves and the people they lead by keeping their egos in check. Sometimes, like I did or Dan Glickman did, you'll get a cosmic reminder to do so. A lot of the time you won't. So, as a public service to leaders walking that fine line between leveraging the footprint of their role and not letting their ego run away with them, I offer three mantras to regularly repeat to oneself:

• It's not about me, it's about the role. It's not about me, it's about the role.
• The fun stuff that comes with my job doesn't belong to me. The fun stuff that comes with my job doesn't belong to me.
• This, too, shall pass. This, too, shall pass.

For best effect, spend at least five minutes a day with your eyes closed repeating one of the mantras over and over again to yourself. It's probably best that you do this in private. People get nervous when they see leaders talking to themselves.

What mantras do you use to keep yourself grounded?

As promised, over the next several Thursdays I'll be sharing interviews with some of the commissioned and enlisted personnel I met on my recent trip to the aircraft carrier, USS Harry S Truman. The basic question I asked everyone was, "What are you looking for in a leader?"  First up with his answer to that question is the commanding officer of the Truman, Captain Joe Clarkson. If you're looking for insights into how the top leader of a complex operation approaches his job, listen to what Captain Clarkson has to say.

(By the way, the plane launching from the deck in the opening segment is an E-2 Hawkeye.)

Over my ten years as an executive coach, I've come across situations where one of my clients feels like they're between a rock and a hard place because they have someone on their team who produces great results but alienates everyone around them. You know the type. It's what we've come to call the prima donna. According to Wikipedia, the term comes from the world of Italian opera where the prima donna is the "first lady" - usually the leading soprano in the company with a reputation for arrogance, ego and irritability that makes them a real pain to deal with. These days the term has become gender neutral. Males can be prima donnas too. (American Idol's Simon Cowell is the first male example that comes to mind.)

The prima donna dilemma has been on my radar screen a few times in the last year.  These situations usually have some common characteristics. The prima donna is talented in his domain and selectively builds relationships with a few key people who can help him accomplish what he's trying to do. Meanwhile, he treats his teammates poorly and, as he puts more and more points on the board, starts making demands of the boss that have the whiff of extortion. You probably have seen how this plays out.  "If I don't get the promotion, the raise, the big account, the glamorous assignment or whatever, I'll take my services elsewhere and you'll be left high and dry."  He'll usually make this move a few weeks or days before a critical meeting with a customer or in the midst of an important project where he's  a player. Every time he gets what he wants it becomes fuel for a cycle of escalating demands down the road.

So, if you're a leader with a prima donna on your team who keeps playing this game, what do you do?  It's simple. Bite the bullet and fire them. Here are three reasons why you should:

1.    You'll get more from the rest of your team. Prima donnas are productivity and morale killers.  When they're playing their game, everyone around them is miserable, resentful and spending most of their energy griping about the prima donna. Take the diva (or divo as the case may be) out of the picture and everyone else is able to get on with the real work. As a leader, you'll likely be pleasantly surprised by how much more creative the rest of your team is when they get to breathe some of the oxygen the prima donna was sucking out of the room.

2.    You'll send the right message.  While it feels a little strange to quote Karl Marx in a leadership blog, curing a prima donna situation is one in which the good of the many outweigh the good of the few.  By getting rid of the prima donna, you send the message that the health and welfare of the team is more important than the ego needs of any one individual. Most people are motivated by being a part of something that's bigger than themselves. You can't create the conditions for that to happen when one person is demanding all of the spotlight.

3.    You'll save yourself headaches in the future.  If you've had a prima donna on your team, you know that once the pattern of "give me more" is established, it rarely ends. As tough as it can be to let go of someone who is getting results at a critical time, you've got to do it and look at it as an investment in the long term success of your team. The analogy I make is to removing a band aid from your arm. You know that the adhesive backing on the band aid is going to pull some hairs out of your arm when you remove it.  You can just rip it off or peel it off bit by bit. Either way, it's going to hurt. You might as well rip it off and get it over with. It's the same thing with firing someone who's established a history of being a long term source of heartburn and headaches. Get it over with.

OK, all of you leaders out there, let's hear your stories on how you've handled the prima donna situations in your career.  What have you learned that the rest of us can benefit from?  What have I overlooked with my advice here?

Last October, I had the opportunity to speak on leadership to newly promoted admirals and senior executives of the US Navy in their annual symposium. That led to an invitation to join a group of civilians to visit the aircraft carrier, USS Harry S Truman, on a training cruise off the coast of North Carolina last week. As you can see from the photo to the left, I made the trip. (That's your faithful correspondent, front row, fifth from the left.)

I'm not going to lie to you. I was pretty excited to go on the trip since we'd be making an arrested landing on arrival (in a C-2 Greyhound transport plane) and leaving the ship a day later via a catapult assisted launch. As much as I love Disneyworld, they've got a ways to go before they come up with a ride that's as exciting as going from 150 knots to 0 in three seconds on landing or from 0 to 150 when you take off. It was a very cool experience, but I have to say was not even close to being the best part of the trip. The best part was the opportunity to see several thousand men and women of an average age of 24 working together to do amazing things on a round the clock basis. Over the years, I've watched hours and  hours of film on the Navy and thought I had some appreciation for what they do. Last week I learned that there is no substitute for seeing it in real life.

I shot about three hours of video on the Truman and have a lot of great interviews from the sailors about what they look for in a leader that I'll share with you on Thursdays over the next several weeks. In the meantime, I've put together this 3:00 minute highlight video to give you a taste of life on the ship.

Also,  I wanted to share some of the big leadership lessons I learned while aboard the Truman.

People Can Handle More Than You Think:  If you ever have the opportunity to hire someone who worked in an operations role on a carrier, hire them. They probably had more responsibility for life and death situations at age 19 or 20 than most of us will ever have in our lives. In spite of great systems design, an aircraft carrier is an extremely dangerous operating environment. What makes it safe are the people working there.  Most of them are really young. In talking with them and watching them, I was consistently impressed with their knowledge, pride and capability in their work. I kept asking myself, "How does someone learn and take on this much by the time they are 20?"  I would hire anyone I met on the Truman.

Systems and Processes Matter:  It takes a synchronized effort among hundreds of people on at least four different decks and eight locations to land or launch a jet or plane every 45 seconds in a 4.5 acre space for hours at a time. The only way it can work is if the roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and the systems and processes are set up for the different components to work seamlessly together. Watching the crew of the Truman in action really brought home the value of clear operating protocols for me. Just about any organization could benefit from investing time in defining roles and processes and making the effort to follow through on them.

Motivation is Adrenaline: The people on the Truman work long hours (12 to 18 hour shifts) in arduous conditions (noisy, confined and sometimes smelly spaces that require a constant focus on safety). And yet everyone we met or encountered (which was well into the hundreds of people) was motivated, energetic, courteous and, for the most part, seemed to be having fun. I think the leadership and the systems on the ship encourage motivation in much the way that Dan Pink outlines in his new book, Drive. Each crew member of the Truman has varying degrees of three factors that add up to motivation: Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more from my trip to the Truman. There are some great leadership lessons coming up.

As I'm writing this a few days before publication, by the time you read this Conan O'Brien will have probably left The Tonight Show on NBC with a hefty severance package in the neighborhood of $30 million. (See this article from the Financial Times for details.)  I'd leave for that amount and I'm guessing you would too. While it's unlikely that any of us are going to have the opportunity to negotiate for such a lovely parting gift, there is a lot you can learn from how Conan handled his exit. 

As I said in my video book club post on Bargaining for Advantage, life is essentially a series of one negotiation after another. Some are high stakes, some are low but anytime you're trying to reach an agreement with a co-worker, your boss, your spouse or your kids, you're negotiating. (Why do I hear the voice of William Shatner in my head right now?)  In setting up the deal he's getting from NBC, Conan demonstrated three basic approaches that all negotiators should keep in mind:

Know your strategy:  Are you most concerned with getting a particular result, maintaining a relationship or somewhere between the two? Your answer will determine your strategy. Depending on where you are in the process, your strategy can shift. For years, Conan was concerned with maintaining his relationship with NBC so he could eventually get his dream job of Tonight Show host. In those years, he had a strategy of accommodating NBC's desires so he could be positioned to win the grand prize. When NBC wanted him to move the start time of his show to 12:05 am to accommodate the return of Jay Leno to the 11:35 slot, he'd had enough. At that point, he quit caring about his relationship with NBC and shifted to a competitive strategy to get the result of the biggest possible severance (and plenty of publicity to set him up for his next job).

Create leverage:  Once he switched to a competitive strategy, O'Brien created a lot of leverage over NBC by releasing a public statement outlining why he would not move the Show to 12:05 am and making a lot of jokes at the expense of network execs. He moved to seize the high ground and create a groundswell of public support. Fueled by social media, NBC was quickly behind the eight ball with a lot of fans who were angry at the way Conan was being treated. The leverage O'Brien created compelled NBC to make a lucrative deal to make the whole problem go away.

Know your BATNA:  BATNA stands for best alternative to a negotiated agreement. In other words, you need to know your walk away point and what you want to walk away. O'Brien's BATNA point was a shift out of the 11:35 pm slot. Since he was clear on that with himself, he knew when it was time to change his strategy and create the leverage.

What else do leaders need to keep in mind when they're negotiating? If you've been paying attention to the Conan/Jay drama, what's your take on how they've handled their negotiations? Any lessons to be learned that apply to those of us who don't have TV shows?

One of the most fun aspects of my work as an executive coach is the opportunity to work in a lot of different organizations. I enjoy observing what's different and similar in the various cultures. One thing that's more or less the same everywhere is that most people profess a distaste for "politics."  The only problem with that is that there is always politics and if you're going to make a difference, you have to successfully deal with it. When you get down to it, politics is about influencing people to do something. If you're a leader, you're doing that every day, all day long.

Another thing I like is elections. One of the reasons I like elections is that on a given day the outcome of all the politics becomes crystal clear. Someone wins and someone loses. There's usually a lot more ambiguity in organizational politics.

So, this week in Massachusetts, we had a crystal clear political outcome when Republican state senator Scott Brown roared out of nowhere to beat the Democrat state attorney general Martha Coakley to win the US Senate seat that had been held for 46 years by the late Ted Kennedy. Just a month ago, Coakley was the overwhelming favorite to win the race.  In the last ten days, Brown closed the gap and ended up with a decisive win of 52% to 47% of the votes. 

Brown influenced more people to vote for him than Coakley did for her. How did he pull victory from the jaws of defeat? How did she do the opposite? What can leaders who need to influence people day in and day out learn from these two?  Here are three lessons from each:

How to Pull Defeat from the Jaws of Victory -

Assume Entitlement: Coakley's approach to the campaign suggested that, as the Democratic candidate, she viewed herself as the heir apparent to Ted Kennedy.  Far from answering the question, "What have you done for me lately?," she didn't really answer a more basic question, "What are you going to do?"  Leaders who want to influence people have to consistently do the work that matters to people.  Memories are short.  You have to work and keep working.

Phone It In: Coakley literally went on a vacation during the campaign. As Kathleen Parker notes in her latest column, Coakley asked if she was really expected to stand outside Fenway Park in the freezing cold to shake hands with voters. If you want to influence people, you have to demonstrate that you're a leader who doesn't just do the basics. You need to show that you enjoy doing the basics.

Disconnect: If you're campaigning in Massachusetts, you don't, as Coakley did, suggest that former Red Sox ace Curt Schilling is secretly a Yankees fan. Effective leaders establish a genuine connection with the people they lead. That includes striking the right notes on seemingly inconsequential things like what they're passionate about outside of their work life.

How to Pull Victory from the Jaws of Defeat -

Pay Attention: Brown tapped into the independent voters' concern and discontent with what they view as a continuation of the same old, same old in Washington. He said he was running for the people's seat, not Ted Kennedy's seat. Leaders who influence pay attention to and work with what people are most concerned about.

"Work the Room": You could argue that it was optics, but Brown "worked the room," very effectively.  He drove himself around the state to campaign in an old pickup truck with 200,000 miles on it.  He wore a work jacket.  He spoke in plain language. By doing all of that, he established an emotional connection with the people he was trying to influence. Whatever your "room" is as a leader, if you want to influence people to your position, you have to work it in a way that connects with them.

Have a Message: Brown tapped into the majority's opposition to the health care reform bill by referring to himself as 41. His point was that he would be the 41st vote in the Senate against the bill thereby breaking the 60 vote supermajority the Democrats needed to push it through. That is some simple, memorable and highly effective messaging. If you want to influence people as a leader, you have to have a message that resonates and is easy for people to get their mind around.

What's your take? How do you navigate the political environment of your organization? What do you do to influence others while staying true to your values?

Several years ago I was given the gift of the recordings of the sermons and speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.  The sermon set is called "A Knock at Midnight," and the speeches set is titled "A Call to Conscience."  There are companion books of the same title for each set. Over the course of a couple of weeks, I listened to every sermon and speech in the recordings. I learned a lot about King from that experience and came to some conclusions about what made him an effective speaker.

As we this week to recognize King's life and its impact on the world, I thought I'd share six qualities in his speaking that I think all leaders should emulate. If you're pressed for time as you read this, you can skip ahead to the list. If you have eleven minutes more, watch the You Tube clip of King's "I Have a Dream Speech".  Most of the six qualities that I identified in listening to his recordings are illustrated in that speech.

Here's a quick synopsis of some of the qualities that King had as a speaker along with some questions to get you thinking about your own opportunities to be a more effective communicator.

Cadence - Because we usually only see King in 30 second clips of him at the climax of his speeches, we tend to think him of as a very forceful and passionate speaker. Clearly, he was that, but he was more than that. When you listen to the entirety of his speeches, you'll hear that he almost always started out  at a slow, measured conversational pace and, over time, increased his pace and his volume as he drew the audience in. How can you use cadence to bring your audience along when you speak?

Context - King was a master of establishing the historical context for his message. He regularly started with stories from the Old Testament and modern history to make the point that the people in his movement were part of the broad sweep of history. That imbued them with a sense of mission. What do you need to say to establish the context for your audience and help them understand how they fit in it?

Authenticity - In his book, Leading Minds, Howard Gardner writes that all great leaders have two things in common. They have an overarching story and their life embodies that story. King clearly met that definition of leadership. When he spoke, he told that story. Everyone in the audience knew that he was living that story before and after the speech. What's your story? Can people see that you're living it?

Practice - It's well known that King delivered most of the "I Have a Dream" speech without any notes and that he improvised much of it on the spot. What's not as well known is that he had been working with much of the content of that speech in other addresses he gave months and years before the March on Washington. He took the time and opportunity to get very comfortable with his content and experimented with what worked and didn't work in venues that weren't as prominent as the National Mall. How much practice and preparation are you doing before you speak?

Repetition -  King was also a master of using a simple, yet key phrase like "I have a dream," again and again in his speeches. That kind of repetitive structure enabled him to clearly make his main point and at the same time make it easy for the audience to come along with him. What's the essence of the message that you need to repeat again and again?

Connection - In his speaking, King allowed himself to have an almost symbiotic connection with his audience. They drew their energy from each other and he was very tuned into the level of energy in the room. That connection made the event more than a speech. It made it an experience that moved people to act. When you speak are you present enough to tune into the energy of the audience?

I'll be the first to acknowledge that very few leaders (certainly including me) are going to speak with the power of Martin Luther King, Jr. However, just because he set a high bar doesn't mean that we can't learn and improve ourselves from the way he practiced his craft. Of the qualities I noted above, which one would serve you and your organization the most if you were to practice it in your own presentations?  What other lessons can we learn from King as a speaker that I haven't mentioned here?

The tragedy in Haiti is a leadership moment for all of us to step up and do what we can do to help. I was talking with my college junior son on the phone last night and he said he wanted to go to Haiti to help. I know how he feels. I imagine most of us do. When you see or hear the reports of the deep suffering of as many as 3 million human beings, the natural response is to help.

As we've seen on television, the immediate challenge is for the professionals who are on the ground in Haiti to get into Port au Prince and set up the infrastructure and processes needed to provide rescue services, medical care, public health, food, water, shelter, security and more. It's an overwhelming situation with acute needs now that will evolve into a long term recovery process. It will take money and that's where we can all help and lead.

For the past several years, my company has done something just after the new year to acknowledge and thank the clients and colleagues we work with. Last year, we made a donation in their honor to the micro lending organization, Kiva, and I was planning on doing that again this year. Kiva is a great organization making a big difference around the world and they deserve our support and involvement. However, the needs of Haiti are so great that this year our donation is going to Doctors Without Borders for their relief work in the country.

If you haven't already, I encourage you to make a donation to one of the reputable organizations working to help the Haitians and to ask your colleagues, friends, family and clients to do the same. There are about 5,000 readers a week of this blog and you can do the math to see what a difference thousands of $10 or $100 or more donations would make. It could be $50,000, $500,000 or more in relief funds.You can make a difference. Here are some options for you to consider:

Make a $10 donation to the American Red Cross' Haiti relief efforts by texting the word, Haiti, to 90999. Your donation will be billed to your cell phone. It's quick and easy.

Make a larger Haiti relief donation to the Red Cross at this address or to Doctors Without Borders at this address.

Or, for a list of links to other organizations providing relief to Haiti, go to www.helphaiti.msnbc.com.

Thanks for your leadership throughout the year and in this time of great need when your leadership and generosity can make such a difference.

This is the week where the rubber meets the road on all of those grand plans that we have for changing things in the new year. The glow of being out of the office for a week or two has worn off,  all of the stories about what you did on the break have been told and now that big bucket of cold reality has been dumped on your head like a bucket of Gatorade. What do you do to keep the momentum going?  How do you keep hope alive?

I was thinking about those questions yesterday while doing one of my favorite things. That was working with a fantastic group of corporate leaders in our Next Level Leadership™ group coaching program.  Our broad focus yesterday was personal presence which has a lot to do with how you view yourself and how others view you. The folks in the program are high achieving corporate directors who are serious about continuous improvement but who also each have about a ton and a half of stuff on their plate that needs to be accomplished. 

You may find yourself saying right now, "I resemble that remark." Most successful leaders do. You're successful because you're committed to getting better and better. Because you're successful you have a ton of stuff to do which crowds out the plans for improvement you have for this year. How do you handle the competing commitments? 

Here are three simple things that I encourage my leadership clients to do that, based on the follow up research we do, make a difference for leaders who want to keep improving.

Pick one or two simple, granular things to work on:  A lot of new year's resolutions are set at the 30,000 foot level of altitude.  An example would be,  "I'm going to be a better listener." The problem with that is there are so many things that go into being a better listener that it's easy to get lost in a list of all the things you could do to be one. Split your development goal up into its component parts and pick one or two simple granular things to consistently do in your day to day life. Sticking with the listening example, a couple of things you could focus on would be not checking your blackberry during conversations and checking with the other person to make sure you understand what they're saying. You're much more likely to improve if you keep it simple and get down to the most granular and memorable level of behavior possible.

Get a peer coach:  In our group coaching program, we insist that everyone select a peer coach from the group and have weekly 20 minute conversations with each other. The idea is to give your partner 10 minutes a week to just talk out loud about what they're working on and create an opportunity for them to self observe the impact of what they've been doing and visualize how they want to show up in the week ahead. At first, people are skeptical of taking the time to do this but once they start the peer coaching, they love it. How rare is it these days to have someone listen and support you while you go off line to think out loud for a little bit? Pretty rare. Getting a peer coach can really give both you and you partner a performance edge.

Build in some breaks:  As I've reported before in this blog, the lowest rated item on average in our Next Level 360 degree survey is "Paces himself/herself by building in regular breaks from work."  A break doesn't have to be at the level of a three day weekend or a weeklong vacation for it to count. Not working through lunch, taking a 5 minute break for breathing and stretching at your desk or having a cup of tea in the afternoon are all examples of short breaks that can have a huge impact on your focus and productivity.  Many of the people I coach are so tightly scheduled that they don't give themselves the time to step back, breathe and ask a few questions like, "What's the most important thing we're trying to do here?" or "What am I noticing about the way people are reacting to this situation?"  Most people can only ask and process those kinds of big picture leadership questions when they give themselves little micro-opportunities to unplug and reboot their brain for what's next. Building some breaks into your day will go a long way in helping you improve your performance.

So, what questions or suggestions do have around these performance improvement tips? What are some tips that have worked for you that you'd like to share with the rest of us?

The next few weeks are some of my favorites of the year as the NFL playoffs are underway. Highlights from this past weekend include the Ravens ending the Patriots dynasty, the Jets beating the Bengals at home, the Cowboys on a roll and an absolutely crazy high scoring battle between the Cardinals and Packers that ended on a defensive touchdown in over time. As much as I enjoyed the games, what I really appreciate is how some of these coaches motivate their teams.

One vignette was Baltimore coach Jim Harbaugh grabbing a couple of cups of Gatorade from the sideline table as time expired in New England and running on the field to douse some of his winning players. That was a nice twist on the now clichéd routine of the winning coach getting a cooler full of the stuff dumped on his head. The most fun for me as a leadership geek, though, was learning more about how Jets coach Rex Ryan is motivating his team on their unlikely playoff run.

In case you're not familiar with the situation, Ryan is a rookie coach with a rookie quarterback, Mark Sanchez. The Jets haven't won a Super Bowl since the Joe Namath era and rarely make the playoffs. In one stretch earlier this year, they lost six out of seven games. So, if you're Rex Ryan, how do you play it?  Do you define success as just making the playoffs? No way. As reported in the New York Times, on the Tuesday before the Jets first playoff game, Ryan gave his team their schedule for the rest of the playoffs. The last item on the calendar was a parade on February 9.

Is Ryan crazy? Like a fox, maybe. Here's how he explained his approach in a press conference last week:

"I know what our goal is. Our goal is we're trying to win the thing. That's our goal. To get to this point and not have that as your ultimate goal, I don't think you're going to be successful. I think you have to visualize yourself succeeding and then go out and make it happen. I know that's my goal."

Ryan wants his team to visualize themselves blowing right through the Super Bowl and all the way through to the victory parade.

How about you and your team? What does the full and complete picture of success look like? What else can you do to paint that picture for them and make it real? Is winning on your calendar?

I'm old enough to remember the guys who used to come on The Ed Sullivan Show to spin plates. It was an amazing act. The fast music would start and the guy would get about five plates spinning on top of sticks and have another five plates spinning between the sticks. He would be running back and forth spinning one plate while looking out the corner of his eye for the next plate that needed a spin. Just about the time one was ready to crash, he'd give it a spin. That was some great TV.  As Ed used to say, "A really big show."  (For a really fun three minute example of what I'm talking about, click on this authorized You Tube link of plate spinner Erich Brenn on the Sullivan show in 1969.)

Plate spinning came to mind earlier this week when I had lunch with a friend and former client who recently took a senior technology executive role with a well known global company. I asked him how it was going and he said, "Remember when I used to talk about my job being like plate spinning?  Well, in this job there are enough plates to keep me spinning for years so I've decided I'm only going to be spinning about three plates at a time."

Because his company recently moved their headquarters, my friend and his senior colleagues are building teams of people to take over roles in which the predecessors didn't make the move. So, it's almost like a start-up situation and there's just way more to do than can possibly be done in a given time frame. His situation is not much different than a lot of leaders these days. Most everyone is leading in a do more with less environment. That's certainly how things were in 2009 and 2010 likely won't be much different.

So, how do you, as a leader, keep your plates spinning this year?  Here are some tips from my expert plate spinning friend:

Count your plates:  Before you start spinning, step back to assess all of the plates that could be in your act.  You can't spin 'em  if you don't know you have 'em.

Stack your plates:  What we mean here is stack your plates in some sort of priority sequence.  Within in a given time frame, what plates have to spun before you even start worrying about spinning other plates?

Spin a demo plate:  Especially if you're new to the role, like my friend is in his, pick a plate to spin that will be seen as a demonstration of the kind of value that you and your team can add.  A month after arriving on the job, my friend was able to meet the expectations of his board and executive vice president by working with a vendor to install a succession planning software system.  By focusing his attention on this plate, he was able to deliver something important for the company and build some credibility and momentum for himself and his team.

Spin a couple of more plates:  In addition to your demo plate, pick another couple of plates to spin that are clearly important to the organization.

Salad plates are OK too:  Some of the things you're responsible for are going to be dinner plates that are just too big to keep spinning.  When faced with that situation, look for the salad plate that will help you make progress on spinning the bigger plate.  In other words, break big projects down into their component parts.

Share some plates:  Maybe you're not the best person to be spinning a particular plate.  There might be someone else who has an act that's a better fit or there be aspiring plate spinners who could use a developmental challenge.

Leave some plates out of the act:  There may be some plates that, in the greater scheme of things, just are not worth spinning.  Give yourself some time to regularly assess what needs to be in the act and what can be cut.

Take your bows:   Every good performer knows how to take a bow.  In the context of organizational leadership, it's important to let the audience know when you've successfully completed the act.  I'm not talking about braggadocio here.  What I'm talking about is sharing how the good work of your team has positioned the organization to move forward.  Your team and your boss will appreciate it.

So, I'm sure some of you are pretty expert plate spinners yourself. What works for you? What would you add to the list of tips?

Question:  What do former Time Warner CEO, Jerry Levin, former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill and (soon to be former?) Washington Wizard, Gilbert Arenas have in common?  Answer: They each have their issues with saying, "I'm sorry." 

Of course, that trait is not unique to them. Elton John recognized it as such a standard characteristic of the human condition that he and his lyricist Bernie Taupin wrote a song about it. Here's the hook:

It's sad, so sad
It's a sad, sad situation
And it's getting more and more absurd
It's sad, so sad
Why can't we talk it over
Oh it seems to me
That sorry seems to be the hardest word

Elton and Bernie were right.  It's pretty absurd how hard it is to say, "I'm sorry."  

Here's the recap on the three examples mentioned above.  As reported in the Financial Times, Jerry Levin apologized on CNBC this week for selling Time Warner to AOL for $164 billion 10 years ago.  The operative phrase there is "10 years ago."  I think that qualifies as a little late. A few days earlier the Sunday New York Times ran an article on Sandy Weill and how no business people want to play with him anymore.  (The article was titled, "Citi's Creator, Alone With His Regrets." )

Now under partial government ownership, Citi is selling off a lot of the businesses that Weill put together as CEO.  According to Weill, he feels "incredibly sad" about that but assigns the blame mainly to his hand-picked successor as CEO.  Finally, there's the case of NBA player Gilbert Arenas who thought it was a good idea to bring his handguns to the Washington Wizards locker room. Always the joker, Arenas thought it would be funny to suggest to one of his teammates with whom he was having an argument that he select one of the guns and the two of them shoot it out. Strangely, the teammate didn't see the humor in that and drew his own  gun. Fortunately, no shots were fired. For the first four or five days after the story broke, Arenas pretty much blew it off as a big laugh but after an interview with the cops eventually acknowledged that gunplay in the locker room wasn't such a great idea.

Since it's hard to go through life without making a mistake, it's important to know how to say, "I'm sorry."  Those two words are a good starting point but more is needed.  Here, then, are some tips on how to apologize:

Own It:  A credible apology begins with actually believing and understanding that you have something to apologize for.  If you're not there yet, don't apologize.  You'll do more harm than good.  If everyone around you seems angry and you don't understand why, it's time to...

Get Into Their Shoes:  Find some people you trust and ask them, "What did I do wrong and what should I do to make amends?"  Be prepared for some tough responses.  Resist the urge to defend yourself.  Listen and ask open ended, follow up questions to deepen your understanding.  Be sure to thank them for their candor when the conversation is over.

Say It:  A good apology begins with the phrase, "I want to apologize to you for (insert your screw-up here)."  You might go on to briefly explain what you were thinking but be sure to spend more time demonstrating that you understand and regret the impact of your action on others.  A bad apology sounds like, "I'm sorry if anyone was offended or hurt by or misunderstood my actions."  It seems like athletes do this version all the time.  You need to be sorry for what you did, not for how people might have misunderstood or reacted.

Don't Deflect:  Whatever you do, don't deflect the blame to others.  (Seriously, don't you hate it when other people do that?)  No one wants to hear why other people were at greater fault than you.  They especially don't want to hear comparisons that your mistakes weren't as bad as other people's mistakes.

Be Timely:  Sometimes better late than never isn't.  It's really important to apologize as soon as your recognize the mistake and understand the impact of it. 

Fix It:  Conclude your apology with a commitment to fix the situation as much as possible.  Most of the time that fix will begin with the sincere commitment to not make the same mistake again in the future.

What would you offer here?  What are the elements of the best apology you ever heard?  How about the worst?  What are the tell tale signs that an apology is needed?

So one of the wonderful things (for me at least) about the end of year holidays is the opportunity to see a lot of first run movies. This year I saw Avatar (terrific 3D cinematography, weak script), Up in the Air (brilliant rendition of soulless business travel) and Invictus which is the subject of this post.

In case you're not familiar with it, Invictus is director Clint Eastwood's portrayal of Nelson Mandela's first days as president of post-apartheid South Africa and how Mandela used the historically hapless South African Springboks rugby team to bring the country together. When he took office in 1994, Mandela recognized that the Springboks were the passion of white South Africans while black South Africans would cheer for whatever team was playing against the Springboks. As it happened, the 1995 Rugby World Cup was scheduled to take place in South Africa. Embodied by the slogan, "One Team, One Country," Mandela set the goal of the Springboks winning the World Cup. With Morgan Freeman as Mandela and Matt Damon as Springboks team captain, Francois Pinnear, this trailer provides a nice overview of the movie.

If you're a leader or are someone who is working to develop leaders (the two are not mutually exclusive by the way), you have to see this movie. When it comes out on DVD, you have to buy it and then promise yourself you're going to watch it again at least 2 or 3 times a year. It is simply one of the best case studies I've ever seen of how a transformative leader practices his craft. I wish I had taken notes when I saw it, but here's a quick list of some of the ways in which the movie portrays how Mandela established his leadership as President:

Show Courtesy and Grace:  On his first morning as President in his new office, Mandela slowly walked through the suite making eye contact, smiling and saying, "Good morning," to everyone he passed. This included the white staff members of the previous President who were packing their boxes on the assumption that they would be sacked later that day.

Build a Team for the Future: Mandela stunned both his supporters and doubters by building a staff of both blacks and whites. This extended to his personal security detail which ended up including white agents who had been deployed against Mandela's African National Congress in the apartheid era. Mandela wanted a unified country and he understood that his own team needed to reflect that goal.

Back Up Your Priorities with Audacious Goals: Mandela had two immediate priorities as President - reconciliation between blacks and whites and building the economic base of the country. He seized on the goal of winning the World Cup as a means to encourage reconciliation. On the economic front, the movie makes the point that Mandela spent a lot of his time travelling around the globe encouraging other countries to invest in South Africa.

Visibly Support Your Goals: Mandela's team made sure there was plenty of press coverage of him meeting with world leaders about investing in his country. He was diligent and courageous in attending the rugby matches in a stadium filled with tens of thousands of people who were hostile to him personally and to what he represented. 

Leverage Your Footprint: Mandela understood how to combine the power of his office with personal humility to establish connections that powerfully motivated people. To convince the captain, Francois Pinnear, that the rugby team had an important role to play in the country's future, he invited him to tea at the presidential office and then immediately put him at ease by talking sports. In one memorable scene in the movie, Mandela is shown quizzing himself on the names of the Springbok players. A few scenes later, after his presidential helicopter has landed on the practice field, Mandela walks up to each player, shakes their hand, addresses them by name and wishes them luck. The combination of leveraging the footprint of his office while showing personal grace motivated people to do amazing things for themselves and their country.

I could go on and on, but you need to see the movie yourself. If you have seen it, what leadership lessons stood out most strongly for you? Do any of the lessons I drew out here have particular resonance with your own personal experience?