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First, let me apologize for implanting Subway's Five (five dollar), Five Dollar Foot Long ear worm in your head for the rest of the day. I hope that you'll agree with me that it was worth it to learn five lessons about winning support for change from the top leaders in your organization.

The lessons were inspired by a story in the current issue of Business Week on Miami Subway franchise owner Stuart Frankel. He owns a couple of Subways close to Jackson Memorial Hospital and five years ago was tinkering with ways to boost his sales on Saturdays and Sundays. From that, the original five dollar foot long was born. Since then, the sandwich has generated $3.8 billion in sales for Subway and put the company on pace to surpass McDonald's in worldwide store locations.

So, you'd think it would have been easy for Frankel to win everyone over to such a great idea, right?  Not so fast, my friends. Even though he was raking in the dough (bad pun intended), Frankel had to work hard to convince the top brass at Subway that the five dollar foot long was the way to go. In reading between the lines of the Business Week article, I've come up with five (what else?) lessons for anyone who is trying to convince senior leadership to take a good idea and run with it. 

Here they are:

1. Run some small experiments off the radar screen: Remember, the five dollar foot long idea started in two little stores as a way to boost sales on the weekend. Frankel, the store owner, was trying things out with no particular intention of going huge. What problem are you trying to solve that could use a fresh approach?  What small experiments could you try to see what else might work?
2. Collect compelling data:  As the Business Week story reports, Frankel was surprised that the five dollar promotion turned out to be more than a simple loss leader to get customers in the stores.  Even though his food costs rose as a percentage of sales, his overall volume increased and employee productivity rose because the stores were busier.  He made money on every five dollar sandwich.  Those numbers were the beginning of a story that he started sharing with others in the company.  What data could you gather to begin to prove your case for change?
3. Recruit some early champions:  When you've got a good idea, it's important to share it with some well placed allies who can champion the idea and spread it.  In Frankel's case, he brought in a development agent who oversees 225 stores in South Florida and another franchisee who owns 50 stores in the area to take a look at what he was doing.  Both of those guys ran their own small experiments.  When they almost ran out of bread in their stores, they knew they were on to something.  Who are the champions that you need to recruit to try their own experiments with your big idea?
4. Show them, don't just tell them:  In spite of the big success Frankel and others were having, the top brass at Subway just couldn't get their minds around the five dollar foot long idea when they heard about it.  The Subway franchise marketing board initially rejected the idea of investing in a five dollar marketing campaign.  So Frankel and his allies kept bringing store owners and marketing officers to Florida to see the lines of customers stretching out the door and down the sidewalk.  Word spread among other store owners and the five dollar foot long promotion started showing up in markets around the country.  When it comes to your own idea, what can you do to visually demonstrate its effectiveness to more and more influencers?
5. Stick(y) with it:  Four years after Frankel first ran his five dollar deal, Subway put marketing dollars into the promotion and that jingle that you can't get out of your head. There are two lessons about stickiness here.  The first is to get an idea across, you have to be committed to it and stick with it.  Not everyone is going to immediately get it and erupt in cheers and huzzahs.  The second is if you can come up with a sticky, memorable way to describe the idea, it's much more likely to go viral. (Type "five dollar foot long" into the search box on You Tube to see what I mean.)

So, two questions for you in conclusion.  Question #1:  What else has worked for you in convincing senior leadership to pick up on a good idea?  Question #2:  What are you having for lunch today? (You're singing that song in your head right now aren't you?)

If you were looking for any news on health care reform, Afghanistan or the President's trip to New Orleans on television yesterday afternoon or most of last evening, you were out of luck. Everything else was pushed aside by the story of the 6 year old balloon boy, Falcon, flying over Colorado in his dad's big helium balloon. Of course, he wasn't actually the balloon boy. Turns out he was the garage boy because when the balloon took off he climbed up into the rafters of his garage and hid in a box. Or, as it may be turning out, (see this update from the New York Times) maybe his dad told him to go hide in the box so they could gin up a media frenzy and regain some of the glory that the whole family was wrapped in when they appeared a few years ago in the reality TV show, Wife Swap.

So, it's not every day that you have the possibility of a six year old flying along at 10,000 feet in a balloon.  I can see why the cable news channels might run that live. But wall to wall for three hours and then for lots and lots of time after the boy was found OK? Why would they do that? Two words - great video. Anytime you've got footage of a giant Jiffy Pop bag sailing across the sky, you've got great video. Let's run it on a continuous loop!

Much as I was after a quick trip to Canada earlier this year, I'm suffering from a case of reimmersion into the American pop news media following a four day trip to London earlier this week. Whether it's the BBC, ITV or even the SkyNews Sports channel, there's one word for the Brits' approach to TV news - sedate. No swooshing graphics, gee whiz maps or sound effects. Just people talking about what's going on. That's talking and not shouting or interrupting. A big part of the Sunday morning news shows there consist of the broadcasters sitting together with stacks of newspapers on the tables and floors, reading and commenting on the news of the week. 

One thing I've noticed about my British friends over the years is that they all seem incredibly well informed about what's going on in the world. They usually have an informed point of view on what's going on in China or Africa or Eastern Europe or just about anywhere. Now I think I understand why. They grew up with print and broadcast media that actually cover those stories and, as such, they developed a knowledge of and curiosity for what's going on in the rest of the world. I'm not saying that there isn't any lowest common denominator media in Britain. It seems like at any given time of day there is a Ricki Lake or Sally Jesse Raphael type talk show on TV. (The most popular of these appears to be a British hybrid of Dr. Phil and Jerry Springer called The Jeremy Kyle Show. Truly awful stuff based on the five minutes I was able to withstand.)  My observation, though, is that thoughtful and serious news coverage and conversation seems to be easier to come by in the UK.

So, what does any of this mean for leaders? I'd relate it to one of the basic laws of computer programming - garbage in, garbage out. We need to be careful and aware of the information diet we're feeding ourselves. The good stuff is out there, we just have to look for it (with the Internet, it's easier than ever). I think the other thing we have to do is watch out for getting sucked into the noise machine. I don't realize how easy it is for that to happen until I'm away from it for awhile and come back to it.  

We've got a lot of serious work to do in the United States. Approaching that work from a thoughtful rather than a frantic state of mind will be an important determinant of how successful we are. If you're a leader who wants to make a difference, please don't let the balloon boy stories bombard your brain. Feed your mind with important and useful things.

In the category of "Man, I wish I'd written that,"  my blogging friend Mike Figliuolo had a great post last week called "Ten Reasons Your Team Hates You."   It was a brilliant piece with so true they might hurt items such as you don't fight for them,  you micromanage, you're a suck up and you're above getting your hands dirty.   It's gotten a lot of well deserved attention, is definitely worth a read and is a post you'll likely want to share with others.

So, it was with Mike's post in the back of my mind that I watched Brett Favre lead the Vikings this week to a 30 - 23 win over his old team, the Packers, on Monday Night Football.  If you follow football at all, you understand why I'm making the connection between Mike's "Why Your Team Hates You" post and Favre. Even non-sports fans are likely aware and completely sick of Favre's multi-year act of will he retire or not retire, who will he play for, when will he play, etc., etc., etc. He's done about as much as he possibly can to make his colleagues skeptical of his motives and intent. And yet, the Vikings at 4 and 0 so far this season seem to be gelling around him. 

If you take the publicity, the uniforms and the bone crunching hits out of the equation,  Favre appears to be successfully doing what you'll likely have to do at least once in your career - stepping in to lead a team that for whatever reason is skeptical of your motives and has their doubts about whether or not you're the right leader. In spite of all the drama baggage he carries with him, Favre is winning the Vikings over. How is doing it? Here are a few things he's doing that I think apply to leaders in fields other than football:

Win:  Winning games - whatever that looks like in your context - can solve a lot of problems. Favre brings the skills and the experience of a winner to the Vikings. He's getting it done.  It's a lot easier for a leader to win the team over win he or she brings the talent and experience needed to help them win.

Spread It Around:  Prior to his Monday night win, Favre had changed his game plan of firing off passes to one that got a lot of other players involved in the game. The Vikings running back, Adrian Peterson, has been a key part of their offense this year. When a leader sets things up so everyone gets to contribute at the full extent of their talent, there's a much better chance of full engagement from the team.

Throw Some Blocks:  On a fairly regular basis, you can see Favre throwing a block downfield to help clear a path for one of his runners. This is his way of counteracting Mike Figliuolo's point about not getting your hands dirty.  By throwing a block, Favre is stepping out of his role to help make his team successful.  Leaders in every field need to look for and act on their own opportunities to "throw a block" for their team.

Keep It Light:  Say what you will about Favre, when he's on the field he looks like he's a lot of fun to play with. He jokes, he jumps around, he bumps his teammates in celebration, he gives noogies. I'm not suggesting that you give noogies to your teammates, but there are ways to keep it light. Look for them. (Just don't go over the line. Michael on The Office offers weekly examples of what over the line looks like.)

Passion:  If you're still playing in the NFL at almost 40 years old, it's safe to say that you have a fair amount of passion for the game.  Favre clearly does. The presence of the leader influences the presence of the team.  Favre's passion is infecting the Vikings in a positive way. Showing your commitment and passion through your words and action is a great way to win over your team. Watch out though.  If passion is all you bring to the table, you're likely to lose them.  Remember the first Favre lesson. It helps to win.

Any week you can check something off your bucket list is a good week.  This was one of those weeks for me as I checked off a long held goal of seeing U2 in concert. Bono and his band mates are on a six week tour and they stopped at FedEx field here in the DC area to rock the house. Thanks to some really nice long term planning on my wife's part (she bought tickets for my birthday back in April), the two of us  were there.  I've been to countless concerts in my life and (I don't think it's just the recency effect speaking here) this one was the best.  (In case you're wondering what they're playing on this tour, here's a very cool web site with the set list and links to performances of each song.)  The show that U2 put on was a combination of rock concert, multimedia extravaganza,  political rally, massive party and religious revival.  And, oh yeah,  anytime somebody is keeping 90,000 people standing up for two and a half hours singing, dancing and completely engaged there's probably something to be learned about leadership.

While it's unlikely that most of us are going to be global rock stars anytime soon, I saw some great leadership lessons from Bono and the band that I want to pass on for your consideration.

Think Big:  When you see U2 in a setting like FedEx Field on a 160 foot high stage set called The Claw  completely holding the audience rapt, they seem bigger than life. The day after the concert I was listening to some of their songs on my IPod and the cover art that was displayed was a picture of the band in their late teens or early 20's. Were they thinking about being a global force back then?  Who knows, but I doubt it.  As Steve Jobs is famous for having said, you can never connect the dots in advance, it's only in reverse that you can see how one thing led to another.  The point with U2 is they clearly haven't put any limits on themselves in terms of what they can do with their music. One thing has led to another and here they are - absolutely huge. Leaders think big.

Keep It Fresh:  It's kind of hard to believe but U2 first came together 33 years ago and you could argue they're as successful as they've ever been.  How have they done it? The first thing is they have a ton of talent but I think the second is they've kept themselves fresh over the years by playing with different styles of music, new technologies and working with different producers.  In the language of business, they have continuously innovated while staying true to their core competency. Leaders keep it fresh.

Have a Mission:  These days U2 is known almost as much for their activism on behalf of Africa and the politically oppressed in countries like Burma and Iran as they are for their music. Bono has leveraged his platform as front man for one of the world's most popular bands to get donor governments to forgive African debt so that that money can be used for health care, education and other purposes on the continent.  At FedEx this week, the band dedicated one song to Iranian protesters and another to Aung San Suu Kyi a Burmese leader and dissident who has been under house arrest by the military junta in her country for the past 20 years. Leaders use their platform for missions that matter.

Recruit People Who Can Help:  Since this concert was in DC there were a lot of politicians in the house and Bono spent time from the stage to thank the ones who have helped in the band's work for Africa.  So, as the Washington Post pointed out, only in DC would Nancy Pelosi and Bush chief of staff Josh Bolten both get shout outs from the stage at a rock concert. There are two points for leaders here. The first is recruit the people who can help you with your mission and don't get hung up on their points of view on other issues as long as they're willing to help. The second point is when they help you, thank them and thank them in public.

Make It Fun:  Most leaders are not going to have the multimedia resources that U2 does to make things fun and interesting for their audience.  While all of that was cool, I think the real fun of the show was the way Bono and the band interacted with the audience and they way they got the audience involved. It's more fun when you get to participate at some level and feel like you're a part of it.  Even if you don't have a state of the art 360 degree jumbotron at your disposal, there are things you can do as leader to make it fun for your people by getting them involved in ways that connect with them.  Even in a tough economy, work can still be fun. Leaders figure out how to make it fun.

Earlier this week, I was talking with an executive who's recently been promoted to run a business unit that earlier this decade was generating a few million dollars a year in revenue and this year will gross a few hundred million dollars. Through acquisitions and organic growth, the business could be twice its current size in a few more years. As we were talking about the changes she might have to make in her leadership style as the business grows, I remembered a conversation I had last year with another executive who was facing the same sort of situation.

In this earlier case, a senior executive of a real estate company explained to me that he was responsible for properties that generated $500 million in revenue and that because of reorganizations in the company he was going to now be responsible for $1 billion worth of properties. He told me that in the previous year he had travelled 225 days to appear at one property after another and he didn't know how he was going to pull off overseeing twice as many properties. My response was that one thing we knew for sure was that he wasn't going to travel 450 days in the upcoming year.

That was the ah-ha moment for him. He recognized that the natural limits of time were going to force him to change his approach. Oftentimes leaders get so caught up in the doing that they don't stop to assess whether or not what they're trying to do is actually physically possible. In his case, being personally present at every property in his business unit over the course of a year just wasn't possible. My observation that you can't travel 450 days in one year was the trigger for him to step back and reassess.

Maybe you're in a similar situation. Here are five questions you can ask yourself to assess your leadership situation and determine what your options are around the highest and best use of your time as a leader.

Question 1: 
What am I trying to do that extends beyond the actual time available to me to personally do it?

Question 2: 
What am I trying to accomplish by doing that?

Question 3: 
Given the role that I'm in, what should I be trying to accomplish instead?

Question 4: 
What resources (people, systems, processes) do I need to acquire or develop to cover whatever still seems worthwhile in my answer to Question 2?

Question 5: 
What opportunities do I have to shift from retail leadership (being personally present or involved in everything) to wholesale leadership (leveraging and involving others to act on the overall plan)?

What are you noticing about limits lately? What are you doing to adjust?  I'd love to hear your thoughts and stories about changes you're making to deal with the limits leaders face.

One thing I've learned in my years as an executive coach is that you can't convince a leader who is heavily focused on results to work on relationship building skills just because it's the "right thing" or a "nice thing" to do.  To motivate the client to change, you have to make a direct connection as to how stronger relationship skills will support the client in getting the results they're looking for. The results oriented leader usually needs evidence of how relationships can help him achieve what he wants to achieve.

So, it was with great interest that I read David Rock's article, "Managing with the Brain in Mind," in the latest issue of Booz and Company's Strategy + Business magazine.  Rock is an executive coach specializing in the connections between neuroscience and leadership. He is the author of Quiet Leadership and the forthcoming book, Your Brain at Work. In his S+B article, Rock opens with the story of recent MRI based research that demonstrates that people who feel rejected or treated unfairly activate the same regions of their brain as people who are taking a literal blow to the head. The brain's responses to relational and physical attacks are quite similar.

Rock quotes a neuroscientist who says the link between social discomfort and physical pain makes sense  "because, to a mammal, being socially connected to caregivers is necessary for survival."  In an economic environment where people are naturally worried about the future, this strikes me as a very important thing for leaders to pay attention to. Rock offers a helpful acronym, SCARF (which stands for Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness), which can help leaders better understand and act on the relationship factors that people naturally need to have addressed.  He outlines a number of ideas in his article about how to act on these needs. Building on Rock's model, I'll offer a few of my own here:
Status:  Perceived differences in status can make people feel threatened and, as a result, their performance can drop. Leaders can counteract this natural tendency by setting up systems and processes to encourage internal collaboration rather than competition. An even simpler approach is to offer praise and recognition for good work at all levels of the organization.

Certainty:  Particularly in uncertain times, leaders cannot over communicate. Be clear in your communications about what you do and don't know.  Keep people engaged and informed along the way.  If you're leading a larger organization, make sure your leadership team keeps ongoing communication with the troops at the top of their list of priorities.

Autonomy:  People feel agitated and threatened when they're micromanaged. Once you've set the goals, give people the space to come up with their own solutions. This is in line with my own prescription for next level leaders to pick up defining what to do and let go of telling how to do it. People will be more productive and learn more as a result.

Relatedness:  People need to know and trust each other to work effectively together. As Rock points out, you can't expect people to work well together without devoting some time and effort to helping them form as a team.  Take the time to help them understand how they relate to each other as people and teammates and not just a group of people working on the same task. There's an old saying that you have to go slow to go fast. Invest the time up front in forming the team and you can shorten or skip the storming stage to get to the norming and performing phases.

Fairness: One of the biggest reasons that people feel a situation is unfair is when they are unaware of what criteria were used to make a decision.  (That seems to be equally true for situations where people either gain or lose something.)  Whenever you can, share the criteria that you and the leadership team have used to make major decisions. Of course, to share the criteria, you have to be clear in your own mind first as to what they are.  If you can't figure out a way to explain the criteria to others, that's a pretty good indication that you're not ready to implement the decision.

Thanks to David Rock for his work and an interesting article. What were your takeaways from his SCARF model?  What tips do you have for dealing with the needs of others around Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness?

No, I'm not talking about some schlocky movie that didn't make it into theatres this summer.  I'm talking about Brad Garlinghouse, a former Yahoo Senior Vice President who was hired this week to be a key part of the leadership team charged with spinning AOL out of Time Warner over the next year. For fans of memorable business communication, Garlinghouse is best known as the author, in 2006, of a memo to the top executives at Yahoo that came to be known as "the peanut butter manifesto." 

Among other points in the manifesto, Garlinghouse wrote:

"I've heard our strategy described as spreading peanut butter across the myriad opportunities that continue to evolve in the online world. The result: a thin layer of investment spread across everything we do and thus we focus on nothing in particular.I hate peanut butter. We all should"

His memo, which was eventually featured in a front page article in the Wall Street Journal, was a clarion call for Yahoo to get its act together and recapture its leadership position in the Internet space. That hasn't happened yet (and may never happen), but the memo set off a chain of events which led to a change in top leadership and the implementation of many of the strategies that Garlinghouse wrote about.

So, as Garlinghouse joins AOL to help lead what is a combination of a turnaround and a start-up, I thought it was worth taking a look at the peanut butter manifesto to see what we can learn about how leaders can influence their bosses through highly effective communications. Here are a few takeaways:

Be Credible: If you're going to push top leadership for a change, you have to have the credibility for them to take you seriously. Garlinghouse had established his through his past performance and for his clear commitment to and passion for Yahoo. (The guy shaved a Y in the back of his haircut at one point.) He opens his memo by restating his passion and commitment.

Keep It Simple: Garlinghouse writes in clear, conversational language. No 25 cent words and no industry jargon. His sentences are short. He laid out his diagnosis of Yahoo's problems in three short paragraphs with bold face headlines.

Be Visual: What made Garlinghouse's memo memorable was the visual image of peanut butter being spread too thin. Most everyone gets that metaphor because most everyone has had the experience of running out of peanut butter before the bread is covered. Use simple metaphors to make your points.  People will remember what you're saying because you're getting more of their senses engaged.

Make Sense: When Garlinghouse moved to his call to action, he kept it to three simple points with a bit of detail on each:

1.    Focus the vision
2.    Restore accountability and clarity of ownership
3.    Execute a radical organization

When I read his memo for the first time, I immediately got his points and his plan even though my closest experience with Yahoo had been using it for some list serve groups I belong to.  His action plan completely matched up with his diagnosis earlier in the memo.  It hung together and it made sense.

Take the Risk: It would have been easy for Garlinghouse to do what a lot of managers do which is to gripe off line about the "obvious" problems that need to be fixed without ever actually calling the issues out and offering a plan to fix them. Doing that requires taking the risk that top leadership may not appreciate what you have to say. But if you don't say it, who will?  Someone told me once that what doesn't get said, doesn't get heard. If your motivations are for the greater good, take the risk and say it.  You might be the catalyst the organization was waiting for.

Based on your experience or observation, what advice do you have for leaders trying to influence the top of the house?

What are you doing to celebrate Labor Day? Like so many three day weekends in the U.S., the original point of Labor Day has sort of gotten lost in the shuffle. (President's Day mattress sale anyone?) I spent a little time this morning looking up the history of Labor Day and found this on History.com.

A couple of things strike me about that story. One is how much history we overlook in our focus on the now. We forget where we've come from. The other is that people shouting at health care town halls, however rude their behavior is, is a long way from sending the Army in to break up a strike. A little historical perspective can be helpful in evaluating what's going on today. The cable news culture can make history seem like whatever was caught on video tape a few hours ago. That doesn't exactly encourage thoughtful reflection or dialogue.

But, I digress. Back to the opening question - what are you doing to celebrate Labor Day?  Here are some suggestions:

1. Thank Your Co-Workers:  Before you leave work today, thank some co-workers for what they do.  Tell them what you appreciate about their contribution and why it matters.  They'll appreciate it and you'll feel better having done so.


2. Go to a Parade:  If there's a Labor Day parade in your community, go watch it.  It will reconnect you with our country's history and your own.


3. Unplug:  Spend some time with friends and family having fun.  Go for a walk.  Watch some baseball or football.  Declare Monday an e-mail free zone.   The day after Labor Day represents the start of the sprint to the end of the year.  Take the time to recharge your batteries for the next leg.

Most Americans alive today cannot remember a time when a Kennedy of the generation of John, Robert and Ted was not playing a major public role in the life of the nation. The passing of Ted Kennedy this week literally marks the end of an era and is, I think, one reason why his death has moved so many people.  It is the clear end of an era in all of our lives.

There have been so many perceptive and thoughtful commentaries and remembrances written about Ted Kennedy in the past few days that it feels somewhat redundant on my part to add to the mix. Still, there are three quick things I want to address in this post.

First, I want to point you to some of the columns on Kennedy that I've found most thought provoking.  They include David Broder's in the Washington Post, David Brooks' in the New York Times and John F. Harris's and Alexander Burns' on Politico.com. 

Second, I want to share a couple of leadership lessons from Kennedy's life that I think are important and that I have not seen clearly stated elsewhere (with complete acknowledgement that they may have been. I haven't read everything.)

The first of these lessons is about resilience and personal redemption.  The record of Ted Kennedy's life is a mix of significant legislative achievement and, for much of his adulthood, poor and sometimes tragic choices. As he himself acknowledged in a speech at Harvard in 1991,  "I recognize my own shortcomings.  I realize that I alone am responsible for them, and I am the one who must confront them."  Given everything that had happened in Kennedy's life up to that point - some of his own making and some not - it wouldn't have been surprising if at age 59 he had continued on the path he was on. If that had turned out to be the case, it's unlikely that we would be seeing the level of tribute and remembrance that's taking place this week. From that speech forward, Kennedy began to reshape the way he lived his life. You could make an argument that his last 18 years were his most admirable and productive. It is because the man had the resilience not to quit and the courage to seek redemption that he finished his life as well as he did.

Which brings me to the second lesson which is about the power of giving and accepting unconditional love in our lives. Kennedy was fortunate and blessed in his life to marry his second wife, Vickie, in 1992.  You can read more about her and what she did for him in this article in the Washington Post but the summary description is she loved him unconditionally and in doing so enabled him to find peace. We have an affection in the United States (and I'm as suspect to it as anyone else) for the myth of the heroic leader that is out there doing great things on his or her own.  Often the leaders themselves become entrapped in that myth. The reality of our interdependence is ignored or overlooked. 

If we're lucky in life, we find someone who loves us for who we are and we allow them to do that.  And, in turn, we give that love back. The result is that we become not just more fully realized leaders but human beings.

In his first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul wrote:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails... When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me... And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

When people speak of unconditional love, they often cite those words from Paul whether or not they are Christians or even people of faith. I sometimes think about how different the practice of leadership and the quality of public discourse would be if we were all intentional in following the direction of those words.  Who knows what we might accomplish?

Through the gift of unconditional love, Ted Kennedy was the only brother in his generation to move past the myth of the heroic leader standing alone.  Rest in peace, Senator Kennedy. Thanks for what you accomplished and, in the last years of your life, what you taught us about the power of resilience, redemption and love.

A lot of the clients I work with in our group coaching program are middle managers. They've moved beyond the level of front line leaders and supervisors, but have not yet reached the ranks of the most senior executives. They're the directors, senior directors and vice presidents in the private sector and the GS-15's and SES - 1's in federal government. And, based on my experience in working with them over the years, I would say that more and more they are the meat in the sandwich. By that, I mean they're constantly squeezed from pressure above them and below them in the organization.

Over the weekend, one of my colleagues from the Georgetown Leadership Coaching program, Marijo Puleo, shared a McKinsey survey report, Leaders in the Crisis, on the alumni list serve. In that same daily digest from the list serve there was an extended conversation sparked by another colleague who has a client in crisis. Like a lot of people these days, this client simply has too much work to get it all done and still have a semblance of a life. About ten coaches responded to that issue and said they're seeing the same thing with their clients.

How much more evidence do we need that middle managers are the meat in the sandwich? The McKinsey survey had some interesting results that illustrate the point. Here are a few factoids for you.  Middle managers, compared to the top execs surveyed, are:

• Less committed to staying with their organizations
• Less enthusiastic about their work
• Less satisfied with their own performance and
• Far less satisfied than the seniors with how their bosses are doing. (Ouch!)

Does anyone else see a problem here? These are not just the people responsible for keeping things running during the current economic challenges, these are also the leaders that organizations are counting on for long term growth and success. The stakes around keeping this group engaged are pretty high. Here are a few ideas based on the McKinsey research about how to do a better job with that.

Don't Just Focus on the Numbers:  80% of the executives surveyed by McKinsey said that their organizations have taken steps to reduce costs and half talked about decreasing capital investment.  The executives who feel best about their performance, however, said they were taking extra time to motivate their people.

Talk About What They Care About:  So, how are the top leaders motivating the troops? Over 70% of them are talking about company values and financial performance. Nothing wrong with that, but back to the sandwich analogy, it's not a complete meal. Only 31% of the leaders surveyed said they're motivating through creating opportunities for career growth and 27% said they spend time showing interest in employees' lives outside of work. (What, you mean they have lives outside of work?)

Encourage Down Time (and If They Don't Encourage It, Take It Anyway):  The McKinsey research indicates that 65% of executives who aren't at all satisfied with their own performance are spending less time on social, religious or athletic activities they enjoy. In contrast, 64% of those who are very satisfied with their performance are taking time for the non-work renewal of their energy and perspective. Here's a tip. If you've got a boss who's in the 65% group, you're going to have to set some boundaries for yourself to take the time you need to renew and show up at your best. It's rare when a leader who's running flat out until they crash is going to have enough presence of mind to encourage others to take some down time. Don't wait to be asked. Take it.

A lot of the findings in the McKinsey survey remind me of one of the things that I think is most true about leadership skills. They fall into two big categories. The first is the skills that drive results. The second is the skills that build relationships. Great leaders have rich skill sets in both categories. Leaders under pressure (as are a lot of the leaders surveyed in this study) tend to over focus on the skills that drive results. The irony is that the conditions that cause the pressure make strong relationships that much more important.

What's your ratio between driving results and building relationships? What are you doing or what do your leaders need to be doing to practice effective leadership in this prolonged crisis? What have you done lately to take some pressure off the meat in the sandwich?