Name: Andy Kaufman

Title: President

Organisation: Institute for Leadership Excellence & Development Inc.

Andy Kaufman is a recognized expert on leadership and project management, helping organizations around the world improve their ability to lead and deliver. Andy works with leaders at the United Nations, World Health Organization, NASA, and other global clients to improve their ability to deliver on their initiatives. Before becoming an internationally sought-after speaker, Andy started as a software developer and was promoted into management for all the wrong reasons! He is the author of three books and host of the acclaimed People and Projects Podcast, which provides free PDUs through interviews and insights for his global listeners. Andy’s LEAD52 initiative provides free leadership insights to aspiring leaders around the world. Learn more at GetLEAD52.com.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

We’ve gone through the interviews and asked the best of the best to come back and answer 7 MORE Questions on Leadership.

I hope Andy's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. As a leader, how do you build trust with employees, customers and other stakeholders?

I had the opportunity to interview Andres Lares on our People and Projects Podcast. His formula for trust has been helpful. The numerator is Connection + Value + Reliability. It's easier to build trust if we have a relationship, if we're providing value, and if we do what we say we will do.

Interestingly, his denominator is self-interest. We can nullify all the above if we come off as self-interested. No formula is perfect, but I've found this one to be instructive for building trust with employees, customers, and project stakeholders. It can never be about me.

2. What do 'VISION' and 'MISSION' mean to you? And what does it actually look like to use them in real-world business?

Can our team succinctly summarize what we do and what we aspire to be? Regardless of how you define these terms, how our team answers those questions is critically important for our real-world business.

3. How can a leader empower the people they're leading?

A formula that has helped me is 70/20/10. 70% of the way we learn something is to do it. 20% is by seeing it modeled or being mentored. 10% is by reading a book or taking a class. Even if those percentages aren't precisely true in every situation, they're instructive. We empower people by giving them opportunities to "do".

Dr. Keith Murnighan's interview on the People and Projects Podcast taught me we should trust people more than we expect. Most professionals will lean into that to show they can handle the trust. That's empowering.

He suggests giving people more work than they think they can do, which obviously can be abused. But his point is that people often CAN do more than they think. We need to unleash them by building up their confidence and capabilities. I've found that's often done in the "70s", not just sending them to "10" opportunities.

4. Who are some of the coaches or mentors in your life who have had a positive influence on your leadership? Can you please tell a meaningful story about one of them?

A high school teacher was the gatekeeper to our computer lab. He had no reason to allow me to get access. But when he did, I had the opportunity to learn things I never would have gotten in a formal class. He didn't do anything other than get out of the way. There are leadership lessons in that.

When I was a VP, my senior VP was known to be a demanding boss. I didn't enjoy the time I reported to her. But, in retrospect, I grew so much under her leadership. I learned you often get what you expect, and her expectations were high. Could it be that we don't sufficiently expect more out of people, thereby holding them back from more growth?

5. Leadership is often more about what you DON'T do. How do you maintain focus in your role?

Historically, I've looked at "document your values" as a "Sure, good idea, but..." exercise. I now fundamentally believe that a clear understanding of one's values helps guide a leader in more ways than we realize. That includes what we say Yes (and No) to.

6. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Everyone plans differently. How do you plan for the week, month and years ahead in your role?

I use a Kanban board with these columns: Overall backlog, Current month, Current week, Today, Doing, and Done. It's based on my People and Projects Podcast interview with the head of productivity at Google: Laura Mae Martin. I've found it to be transformative!

7. What advice would you give to a young leader who is struggling to delegate effectively?

Trust people a little bit more than you do today. Maybe not in every situation, but in many, you'll find that people will surprise you.