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In The Eye Of The Beholder
Interview with Jim "Gus"
Gustafson,
Vice President & General Manager, MECHdata, Inc.
By Thomas J. Griffin
In the short time I spent interviewing
Jim Gustafson I was immediately struck by the unconditional
positive regard he holds for other people. His indomitable
spirit, boundless energy, and illuminating sense of
humor captivated me as he spoke about his life's most
meaningful experiences. Those experiences were the ones
in which he had an opportunity to positively contribute
to the health, welfare, and personal development of
others and the organizational systems that he is a part
of. It is this appreciative lens that influences his
leadership style and guides his everyday interactions
with others. I knew that I was in the presence of an
appreciative leader whose penchant for bringing out
the best in others is as natural to him as breathing
is to me. During the time we spent together Gus spoke
at length about the need for leaders to create the right
environment so others could flourish, and the critical
role that positive reinforcement plays in shaping and
sustaining people's development. He said, "I have
been successful in bringing out the best in others only
because I acknowledge and appreciate the best in them."
Gus has been both a student and a practitioner
of Appreciative Leadership for his entire adult life.
In his current role as Vice President and General Manager
of MECHdata, Inc., Gus has total operational and marketing
responsibility for the overall performance of the first
and leading, online jobs and resume boards, to the trades.
While many "dot-coms" are quickly becoming
"road kill" on the information superhighway,
under Gus's leadership, his organization continues to
experience profitable and dramatic growth through the
appreciative empowerment of his team.
THE
TASK OF BRINGING OUT THE BEST IN HUMAN BEINGS AND ORGANIZATIONS
According to Gus, the task of bringing
out the best in others begins by tapping into their
innate potential to excel. This capability to excel
is something that often times they aren't even aware
of, so one key role he plays is that of a coach whose
primary responsibility is to help them self-discover
their own true potential. There are three ways that
Gus strives to do this.
First, he believes that you must always
assume the best about the people and the organizational
systems you are working with. He assumes the best even
in situations where he is bombarded with negative assumptions
or feedback going in. In fact, he tells himself, "I
am dealing with world-class superstars and this organization
is absolutely top notch." He says that if you assume
the best up front, people generally rise to and exceed
the expectations you set. So why not set them high and
challenge "what is possible" for them.
To illustrate the importance of this first
point, Gus relayed a story from his past when he had
just been given responsibility to run a new sales and
marketing organization at a leading electrical manufacturer.
As part of the leadership transition process, he had
the opportunity to participate in several of his new
team members' annual performance reviews with the outgoing
leader. In two particular cases, the individuals involved
received poor performance reviews. In addition, the
way in which the reviews were conducted left little
doubt that the outgoing leader did not respect them
or view them as contributors of much significance. Gus
described this as a watershed moment in his leadership
journey. From that moment on, he vowed to assume the
best in others and to come into his role with no preconceptions.
He began to acknowledge the best in these two individuals
and gave them the opportunity to succeed. As a result,
they rose to the new expectations he set for them, and
ultimately were promoted to leadership positions in
other parts of the organization.
The second way in which Gus strives to
bring out the best in others is by creating a safe environment
for them. He defines a safe environment as a generative
learning environment, one in which people can "shout
from the rooftops" the mistakes they make with
the same volume as the successes that they celebrate.
He says that people learn from both their successes
and their failures. Gus works very hard to create an
environment where people understand that as long as
you are giving your best effort and trying as hard as
you possibly can, it is not only okay to make mistakes,
it is expected. He says that you have to cultivate an
environment where people feel comfortable to take risks
and where people know that if the situation doesn't
turn out as expected, they will still be unconditionally
valued and accepted. He said that there were very few
times in his life where he had done things completely
right the first time and that it's an unrealistic expectation
to think people won't make mistakes. In situations where
people are not always successful, he minimizes the impact
of the mistake and maximizes the learning.
Lastly, Gus seeks to bring out the best
in others by catching them doing things right and showing
appreciation for their efforts. He openly recognizes
attempts to go above and beyond what is expected and
says it's important to recognize and reward both strong
effort and strong results. Heaping on the praise and
seeking out the best in others come quite natural to
Gus. He credits his family upbringing for the unusual
ease with which he does it. He says he learned from
an early age how important it is to make people feel
good inside because of the way it made him feel when
others recognized him. He says that all of us come to
work each day with a little invisible sign around our
necks that says Please Make Me Feel Important Today
and he takes every opportunity to do that for others
every day. Higher self-esteem and self-assuredness are
the fruits of his reinforcement efforts.
Gus related a very personal story that
graphically described what it feels like to be truly
appreciated for one's efforts, and why it is so important
for him to recognize and reward the efforts of others.
A number of years ago he was nominated for the People
Who Make a Difference Award - Schneider Electric's highest
award for personal achievement. Supervisors traditionally
nominated their employees for this award. The unique
thing about this experience was that his entire team
of direct reports collectively nominated him. It was
the first time in the history of the award that it was
granted because a group of impassioned employees wanted
to recognize the efforts of their leader. Gus said he
got to read a number of the nominations, which brought
tears to his eyes. Additionally, one of his employees
sent a copy of the award nominations to his parents
and wrote, "Just in case you don't know how wonderful
your son is, here are some things that we, his team,
think about him." He said that it was an immensely
touching experience and unquestionably the greatest
validation of his leadership abilities. For Gus it was
an unforgettable experience, which he tries to emulate
for others as often as possible.
APPRECIATIVE
RELATIONSHIPS
Gus believes that a feedback rich environment
is the lifeblood to any personal growth and development
effort. He stated that as leaders we are coaches and
the primary medium through which we coach others is
our relational conversations. He said that you develop
appreciative relationships through appreciative conversations.
He also believes that in any social context, it is absolutely
impossible to over communicate with people.
Gus shared his secret with me for establishing
effective working relationships with others. It was
no surprise that it involved appreciation and two-way
conversation. He said, "To create a high performance
work environment you have to engage people in meaningful
conversation about what is important to them. In establishing
relationships I like to ask people the following questions.
- What have you done in the last six months that you
are most proud of?
- What is the most challenging part of your work?
What is it about these challenges that you like?
- What is your greatest source of job satisfaction?
- Who appreciates the job that you do? Where do you
get your recognition?
- What motivates you to keep going?
- What obstacles prevent you from being even more
effective than you are today that I could help you
with?"
Gus went on to say that when you engage people in meaningful
conversations you show them that you care, and when
they know that you care, they will do great things.
He also noted that it is not always possible to have
face-to-face conversations particularly in today's environment
of geographically dispersed teams: "You have to
look at creating other social communication infrastructures
that will allow for the easy transmission of feedback."
In order to address this challenge, he cited an example
from his past, of leading a sales channel team at Square
D. He created a series of alternative communication
vehicles that allowed people to communicate and provide
needed feedback to one another. These alternative communication
vehicles included:
- Creating an internal Intranet site that allowed
people scattered across the country to have instantaneous
contact with one another.
- Creating a mentorship program where experienced
team members could coach and tutor newer team members.
- Implementing a 360 degrees feedback process so people
could get a complete picture about their perceived
effectiveness.
- Setting up weekly conference calls to keep the lines
of communication open, and
- Creating, as needed, cross-functional teams that
bring together diverse perspectives to address team
and organizational challenges.
Gus articulated a number of benefits that result when
leaders take the time to create safe feedback-rich environments.
First, people communicate more openly and positively.
People genuinely crave feedback, both positive feedback
and opportunities for improvement, so the creation of
this "safe zone" allows people to give the
constructive feedback that is so essential for personal
development. Second, safe zones create stronger bonds
among group members resulting in people generally working
harder to keep their commitments and feeling freer to
communicate their true feelings about things. Third,
it helps break down any perceived barriers in terms
of hierarchy and structure. When hierarchy and structure
begin to get in the way of effective communication and
interaction, groups and organizations begin to suboptimize.
Sub-optimization then leads to a highly internalized
focus with the loss of the benefits of any synergy that
has been created.
Gus also discussed the importance of valuing diverse
perspectives in fostering appreciative relationships.
He noted, "Part of creating a high performance
work environment is creating the space for people to
feel free to be who they are. As individuals we all
have strengths, gifts, and special talents that differ
and can be collectively used for the betterment of the
team and organization. A successful leader is one who
can bring the diversity together to create a greater
sense of the whole, while at the same time valuing each
individual for their uniqueness and making them feel
special for their individual accomplishments."
Gus fosters the belief that there is no one right way
of doing something. To that end, he provides his people
with as much latitude as possible and encourages freedom
of expression and disciplined risk taking in determining
the best way to get things done. One of his priceless
quotes that helps keep him grounded is "I try to
remain firm on principle (what needs to be done) but
flexible on process (how it get done)."
To promote the valuing of diverse perspectives and
encourage out-of-the-box thinking, Gus does not allow
the not-invented-here (NIH) syndrome to permeate any
aspect of his organization. He said, "I work at
creating an environment where differences in thinking
get celebrated, as opposed to, Hey, you're doing it
differently from me and that's not acceptable or that's
not as good." He says NIH thinking plagues many
organizations today and is the bane of many attempts
to merge or collaborate in a network fashion. When differences
in culture, methodology, or viewpoints intersect, he
sees them as tremendous opportunities to learn new and
possibly more effective ways of doing things. Gus says
that in any situation where his groups or organizations
are merging or restructuring, he appreciatively identifies
those successful elements that should be preserved and
carried forward as part of the process. He says that
people can more easily step forward into a new future
if they can carry with them the best from their past.
This may include core values, systems, practices, processes,
and key relationships. The question that guides his
thinking in these situations is. "How can we most
effectively combine the best of each person, partner,
or constituency and grow exponentially as opposed to
incrementally."
Gus summed up his thoughts on this topic by saying
that he is a true believer in the synergistic outcomes
that results when people work for and together with
one another. As he said a number of times throughout
the interview, "I'm a big believer in one plus
one equals three." Collectively people can achieve
much more than each could separately. When people really
understand this, they will dream bigger dreams and strive
for higher possibilities."
POSITIVE
IMAGE AND POSITIVE ACTION
In organizational settings Gus believes that new, dynamic
and compelling positive images of the future come from
the collective imagination of all the individuals. If
we dream together we can dream significantly "bigger"
and open up the realm of "what is possible"
instead of settling for incremental discontinuous improvement.
He says that most often the best and brightest images
of the future come from those experiences where people
come together and share their personal best examples,
as well as their hopes for a new future, and then collectively
create a compelling vision of that future.
In terms of creating new futures, Gus believes that
the key to success in getting people and groups to push
beyond "what is possible," is knowing what
questions to ask to create generative possibilities.
The goal of these questions should be to shift people's
thought patterns as a way to create new learning about
what leads to success and what is actually possible.
Questions that foster the sharing of examples and stories
of times when people have achieved success beyond their
wildest imagination, is an excellent way of doing this.
Gus specifically encourages his people to look back
introspectively into their own lives and past experiences
for these moments of excellence, cite those examples,
and then ask themselves, "How can I capitalize
on them?"
Positive thinking plays a cornerstone role in the life
of Jim Gustafson. Given the state of the world today
he says it's easy to get caught up in all of the negative
things that are happening because it seems to get the
most attention by the media. He says that when you focus
your inner dialogue (self-talk) on the positive aspects
of a given situation it's amazing how answers come to
you or how obstacles are reduced, minimized, or eliminated.
He said for him, it is a frame of reference issue: "Every
morning when I get up I can choose to be happy or choose
to be miserable. I choose to be happy, to assume the
best about other people, and that things are going to
be wonderful. When you do so, things seem to naturally
manifest themselves that way."
Gus told the following parable that summarized his
thinking on this topic. There was a stranger walking
down the road. He came upon a farmer in a nearby field.
He said to the farmer, "Now what are the people
like in the next town?" The farmer retorted, "Well,
what were the people like in the last town you came
from?" The stranger replied, "Well, they were
all pretty angry, unhappy, and close minded." The
farmer then responded, "Yep, you'll pretty much
find the people in the next town to be the same way."
The next morning another traveler was walking down the
same road, sees the same farmer in his field and asks,
"Now what are the people like in the next town?"
The farmer then said, "Well, what were the people
like in the last town?" The traveler said, "Oh,
they were all very open and giving and caring and warm."
The farmer then replied, "Yep, you'll pretty much
find that in the next town as well." He ended this
topic by saying much of life is what you make of it.
You can choose to frame it either positively or negatively.
Whichever you choose, that's what you'll find.
THE
SPIRIT OF INQUIRY
According to Gus, having a childlike fascination with
the world around you encourages you to live life with
a spirit of inquiry. He says that inquiry is a collaborative
process and is best served when we bring an insatiable
curiosity to learn more about the people and the organizational
systems of which we are a part. This curiousness and
newness, almost an infatuation, stimulates our sense
of inquisitiveness and curiosity and encourages us to
deepen our understanding of the world around us. To
Gus, inquiry with a childlike fascination involves being
willing to look at things with a fresh set of eyes,
with expectations of high learning, and without apprehension
about being taken advantage of. "One of the components
that is critical to being a good leader is to be a good
listener - to be empathetic, to be curious, and to ask
questions. I try to get to know people in my organization
better by asking lots of questions. This helps me to
better understand them and see what their life is like
outside of the eight, nine, or ten hours they are in
the organizational setting. It gives me a better feeling
of who they are holistically and I also get a better
understanding of their jobs and what's important to
them. By doing this I become a better leader."
Gus possesses an ardent belief that teaching and learning
is indispensable to the role of leadership. He cited
three specific ways that he promotes learning: 1) role
modeling, 2) sharing of best practices, and 3) feedback.
He passionately believes that one of the most effective
ways in which others learn is through the examples that
leaders set, by walking the talk. He says, "You
have to be the example that you want to see. If I want
my people to demonstrate positive and helpful behaviors
I must be willing to demonstrate those behaviors myself."
One way in which he fosters and models an appreciative
spirit is to truly celebrate people's successes. He
looks for every opportunity to shoot out a thank you
card or note, send a congratulatory email, create an
award, or put up a banner to praise progress. "And
I carbon copy the world on it!"
To foster and disseminate learning across the entire
organization, Gus looks for unique opportunities to
communicate and share best practices. "I'm always
trying to make new connections about how to apply what
I learn from other people or organizations. I take what
I learn from social situations and apply them to business
situations, what I learn from other industries and apply
them to my industry, and what I learn from other leaders
and apply it to my own leadership style."
Gus described personal feedback as the fuel that drives
the developmental engine. He believes the best way to
develop people is through valuing, appreciative, and
positive feedback. He thinks that specific developmental
feedback is appropriate, and necessary, in the proper
context, but you will get far more out of people, and
bring out the best in them through positive reinforcement.
He says that for feedback to be effective, it has to
be descriptive and sincere. "Whenever I give feedback
to others, I try to be as specific as I can about the
behavior that I saw, and also let them know the impact
that behavior has on our customers, the organization,
our team, and on them personally. For the feedback to
be truly meaningful you have to give them both the how
and the why and do it in a sincere and authentic manner."
THE
ROLE OF POSITIVE AFFECT IN BRINGING OUT THE BEST
A deep interminable sense of camaraderie and confidence
will always permeate any Gustafson-led organization.
As he stated, "It's what moves organization performance
forward most quickly." He said that you engage
people's hearts and minds when you create an environment
where people feel good about the community of people
they are part of, and when they feel good about themselves.
He sees three things that leaders are responsible for,
1) get the job done, 2) build a team, and 3) develop
the team members. When an environment is created where
camaraderie and confidence are present you will maximize
your efforts as a leader in all three of these areas.
He highlighted one particular example at a major manufacturer
where the organization that he just inherited went from
sagging performance and low self-esteem to the fastest
growing and most profitable group within the enterprise
in just over two years. This group became the benchmark
for the rest of the organization as well as a leadership
pipeline for other units within the business. He credits
the sense of camaraderie and confidence that was fostered
as the key to making that transformation. This transformation
resulted in an organization that was more inspired,
more hopeful, and more self-directed.
Gus believes that strong character and personal integrity
shape good leadership. These traits help us to know
what to do during difficult times. It is in those moments
that the foundation of our leadership philosophy is
formed. One such moment for him occurred a number of
years ago when Gus was student body president of his
university. A campus organization was being mismanaged
to the point that a governmental agency was about to
become involved. Gus decided to proactively and temporarily
shut it down and fix the issues before the agency stepped
in and publicized the whole situation, which would have
damaged the reputation of those involved. He personally
took the heat for shutting it down without disclosing
the reasons, because of the discredit to the organization,
the student body, and the university that would have
followed. As he stated, "Giving credit and taking
the heat are things that all good leaders must learn
to do well. If your leadership philosophy is forged
on a foundation of strong character and personal integrity,
you will make the best decision in the interest of your
constituencies."
Developing a foundation of strong character and personal
integrity is no small matter to Gus. To ensure that
he is doing the right thing in any situation where his
leadership philosophy is tested, he always runs an internal
litmus test to guide his thinking and actions. He does
this by asking himself the following questions:
- Am I being authentic and true to my own values?
- Am I letting my own ego get in the way?
- Am I being empathetic to all stakeholders needs?
- Am I allowing myself to be vulnerable?
- Am I being socially responsible by making this decision?
- How will others be affected by the decisions that
I make?"
In the end, Gus said that he always tries to create
an organization that he personally would want to be
part of, an organization where people can have fun,
be empowered to shape their own choices, and are supportive
of one another.
My interview with Jim Gustafson concluded much like
it began with focused reflections about meaningful experiences
and important lessons learned. He said that of all the
many lessons he learned over the course of his leadership
career, perhaps the most important one for him is that
as leader you "must be willing to trust your instincts."
If your foundation (philosophy) is secure and stable,
your instincts will be your best compass and you will
always find your way. He said the path to good leadership
is fraught with potential pitfalls. But if you clearly
articulate your values, have the courage to stand behind
them in the face of possible negative consequences,
and always treat others with the utmost respect and
dignity, you will in turn build more appreciative and
sustainable organizations.
. . . . .
JIM
"GUS" GUSTAFSON | Jim "Gus"
Gustafson has held leadership positions in sales, marketing,
organization development and channel management at Square
D, Honeywell, and Schneider Electric. Currently he is
Vice President & General Manager of MECHdata, Inc.
and is conducting research towards his doctoral dissertation,
"Socially Responsible Leadership: Organizing
to Positively Change the World."
THOMAS J. GRIFFIN
| Thomas J. Griffin is Director of Organization and
Leadership Development for US Cellular, a wireless telecommunications
company headquartered in Chicago, IL. He has extensive
experience in leadership, organization development,
and quality. Tom is a member of the OD Network, the
OD Institute, the Academy of Management, and is a Ph.D
candidate at Benedictine University.
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