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The Art of Perception: The ADOPT ME Model of Leadership, with Amy Herman, Lawyer, Art Historian, and Author, The Art of Perception
ADOPT ME
I do a lot of art of perception training for leaders. And they are in a unique position because they are often in designated, special places within an organization, whether they’re team leaders or leaders of the organization. I have a special model that I use just for leaders, because of their position within a company to implement vision and strategy that other individuals don’t participate in. The way that I remember this model is the two words; adopt me.
And it stands for words that all leaders use every day, whether they realize it or not. A stands for assessment. D is delegation O is observation. P is perception. T is tolerance. M is mentoring. And E is evaluating. Leaders have to use that ADOPTME model every day. Leaders, team leaders, organization leaders have to remember that their skills of perception and tolerance and listening to other people’s opinions are part of what makes them a leader. Leaders are where they are because of their achievements within an organization. But again, it’s an ongoing process. You have to be able to assess well and delegate well and articulate and observe and perceive and tolerate. And I think if leaders remain mindful, and again, I want it to be automatic for them to say to themselves, “Am I really being as clear as possible when I’m at the team meeting and articulating the strategy we need to implement this vision?”
Mentoring
Leaders are charged with a very specific responsibility. In their communication of their vision and strategy they have to remember, they are mentors for their organization. People are looking to them. You may have the greatest vision for your company in the world, but if you can’t articulate it effectively and with clarity and precision it does you no good. And it’s a detriment to the company. And I think if leaders remain mindful to say to themselves, “Am I really being as clear as possible when I’m at the team meeting and articulating the strategy we need to take to implement this vision?”
The idea of mentoring is really aspirational. Everyone wants a mentor. Everyone wants to see an example of what they should be doing. They want a model of how I should be acting and how I should be working. And it is very true that time is a precious commodity for leaders. And the first response is often. “I don’t have time to be a mentor.” And what I advocate in my teaching is that you should be a mentor by example. That you should be able to articulate with clarity and objectivity and precision, not only what it is that you want to do, but what are your expectations of others?
And so when I say mentoring, it’s slightly fluid in the sense that you don’t have time to meet with people every day and say, “How’s it going? And what do you want to do?” But to lead by example and say, “I’m going to conduct myself within this company and within this business, the way I want you to conduct yourself. And if you can look to me as an example of how I want the work to be done and the standards that I want to set for my company, I consider that a mentoring situation.” And it could be across the company. It’s not that a leader has time to sit down with 25 different individuals and say, “These are your strengths. These are your weaknesses. This is what I want you to do.” But to lead by example. People should want to, not only work with their leaders and ascribe to the philosophy of the company, but it should really set a wonderful example for everyone on how to do their job.
Evaluating
I think one of the most important elements of the ADOPT ME model is the last one. E for evaluating. It’s not just evaluating situations, but it brings in prioritization. And that’s where analysis comes in as well. You evaluate what problems need to be addressed. Crisis control. You’re evaluating not just situations in the workplace, but you’re also evaluating people. And I think one of the most important things, one of the things that’s often missing in evaluation of individuals within a company and a organization goes back to the concept of the pertinent negative.
I want to know what do I do well, but what am I not doing? So I can more appropriately address the deficiencies in my performance. So evaluating has two sides. It’s what I saw, what I noticed and what I expected and didn’t happen. And that gives people that work for you a much fuller picture of how they’re doing on their jobs, because you’re telling them what they do well, but also what’s expected of them and what they didn’t do. People shy away from confrontation. One of the points that I make, especially for leaders is, we don’t have the professional option of looking away from what makes us uncomfortable or looking away from what we don’t understand or looking away from what we don’t like. We have to deal with those issues head on.
And in the process of evaluating those issues, we need to be objective, clear and precise in talking about them. That’s the reason I use some difficult works of art. I use works of art that make people squirm. I use works of art that people are not going to like, that are very provocative and that make people uncomfortable. Because if you can talk about them in works of art, you can talk about them in real life.