{"id":4591,"date":"2015-04-30T20:12:35","date_gmt":"2015-05-01T01:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=4591"},"modified":"2015-04-30T20:12:35","modified_gmt":"2015-05-01T01:12:35","slug":"how-i-learned-the-importance-of-tuning-fork-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2015\/04\/30\/how-i-learned-the-importance-of-tuning-fork-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Learned the Importance of Tuning Fork Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated from July 12, 2012 post<\/em><\/p>\n

One of the most important leadership lessons I learned in recent years is to always walk around with a leadership tuning fork.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I learned this in conversation with a teammate who didn’t seem to understand the direction our organization was heading. Sensing his confusion I sat him down one day and helped him get back on track.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I finished he said, “Scott, that was a tuning-fork moment.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

I loved that term. As I thought about it, here’s what I learned.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
An actual tuning fork is a simple tool used as a standard of pitch to tune musical instruments. And like a piano tuner, I learned that my job as a leader is to chime the tuning fork to make sure my team is operating with complete clarity.<\/span><\/div>\n
I soon came to see that there are 4 key components of tuning-fork leadership:<\/strong><\/div>\n
\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>A \u201c6th<\/sup>\u00a0sense\u201d ability to perceive misalignment<\/strong>
\nAs a leader you must be constantly listening and watching for indications of very subtle mission drift among your team.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>A patient, listening posture<\/strong>
\nI learned that a leader must follow up a hunch about mission drift with a casual, inquisitive conversation. I learned that the job is to confirm, or dispel, the notion that a teammate has drifted off course. Such a conversation must be safe and unthreatening.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>An environment of affirmation<\/strong>
\nIf a teammate has drifted, I realized that chances are they are only off-base by 10%. Affirm the 90% they are getting right.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>A clear ringing of the tuning fork<\/strong>
\nNow, I learned, you\u2019re ready to ring the fork. This involves unflinchingly pointing out where the drift has taken place, and ensuring your teammate\u2019s understanding is back on pitch.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to note that tuning-fork leadership is an ongoing, never-ending process. Mission drift is inevitable in every organization. And just when you think you\u2019ve brought everyone back into alignment it will be time to re-clarify things for someone else on the team.<\/p>\n

So\u00a0ask yourself these questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Is everyone in the organization clear on our overall direction?<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • Is everyone clear on our highest present priorities?<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • Does everyone see how their contribution fits into the big picture?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    If the answers reveal any fuzziness it could be time for clarifying conversations.<\/p>\n

    Keep your tuning fork handy..<\/p>\n

    How do you keep your organization in tune?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Updated from July 12, 2012 post One of the most important leadership lessons I learned in recent years is to always walk around with a leadership tuning fork. I learned this in conversation with a teammate who didn’t seem to understand the direction our organization was heading. Sensing his confusion I sat him down one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[738,478,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-effectiveness-2","category-featured","category-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4591"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4625,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4591\/revisions\/4625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}