In the "About The Leadership Challenge" section of this website you will find a brief description of The Five Practices Model. Here you will find more in-depth discussions of The Five Practices, updated every month with a new, lively point-of-view.
New February 2010: Is Your Key Talent Engaged?
The Five Practices
Making the Connection: The Leadership Challenge Practices and the Seven Habits, February 2009
The Five Practices On Leadership, January 2009
By Shannon Rossman Allen
By Maureen O'Leary Pickard
By Steve Coats
By Craig Haptonstall, February 2008
By Beth High, November 2007
By Beth High, June 2006
By Barry Posner, March 2008
By Charles St. John, September 2006
Model the Way
By Craig Haponstall, January 2010
By Steve Coats, April 2009
By Peter Alduino, January 2006
Inspire a Shared Vision
By Christine Barnes, July 2008
By Steve Coats, May 2008
By Blair Forlaw, May 2007
By Craig Haptonstall, June 2007
By Michael Neiss, April 2008
By Michael Neiss, February 2006
By Valarie Willis, May 2006
Challenge the Process
By Steve Coats, December 2009
By Michael Neiss, March 2009
By Dan Mulhern, November 2005
By Fine Points Professionals, October 2007
By Renee Harness, January 2007
Part I By Steve Coats, March 2007
Part II By Steve Coats, April 2007
Enable Others to Act
By Charles St. John, March 2006
By Dick Heller, July 2006
By Robert Thompson, April 2006
Encouraging the Heart
by Kim Chesky, July 2007
By Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, December 2005
By Renee Harness, January 2007
Leadership Reflections
Leader or Leadership? Which Leader are YOU?, January 2010
Learning Leadership Lessons from History, June 2009
Leadership: An Affair of the Heart by Steve Houchin, September 2007
The Practice of Leadership, December 2008
Other Thoughts on the Model
A Sustainable Leadership Challenge by Daren Blonski, November 2006
Credibility & Leadership: Reflections on the Nigerian Elections by Richard Obire, August 2007
Curiosity: What's out there? Who's in here? by Peter Alduino, June 2008
Is Your Key Talent Engaged?, February 2010
Loving Critics: The Importance of Feedback, January 2008
Me and My LPI by Sharon Landes, February 2007
Other Thoughts on the Model, September 2009
Small Wins by Lisa Shannon, October 2006
The Leadership Challenge and Gallup's StrengthsFinder—What's the Difference? by Craig Haptonstall
The Leadership Challenge® launches in China, December 2006
What Happened to Honor?, July 2009
February 2010: Other Thoughts on the Model
Is Your Key Talent Engaged?
Like many of you, I cannot get through the day without hearing something about employee engagement. It has become the strategy-du-jour for many organizations, with plenty of classes, surveys, and metrics supporting the effort. And there are plenty of firms, large and small, now very active in this arena.
So where are you on this topic? Is employee engagement a vital issue for organizations, or more of an interesting but mostly overhyped notion like so many before it? My advice? It would be wise for you to pay attention because this issue significantly impacts your success--both now and in the future.
One factor of success on which almost everyone agrees is the need to have the right people in the right jobs. Many companies today are spending a great deal of time and effort trying to identify and further develop their key talent so they will have the best people in those important jobs. Although definitions vary, these are the people identified as future leaders of the organization, and those who clearly need to be "on the bus."
There should be no question that developing key talent is a major source of sustainable competitive advantage for everyone. But are they really on board?
Current State of Engagement
Consider these recent findings from Watson Wyatt Worldwide that seem to suggest that there has been a "disturbance in the force" with key talent. The results uncovered the percentage of top talent who:
Would recommend their organization to others: Down 20%
Are satisfied with advancement opportunities: Down 26%
Want to remain with their firm: Down 14%
Believe management has the ability to grow the business: Down 29%
And one last, most interesting finding:
The overall level of engagement of top talent: Down 25%
If you feel inclined to dismiss these findings since they are representative of only one study, I encourage you to look closely at other current research on the topic and you will see similar trends and conclusions from a number of recognized experts in the field.
What Is the Potential Impact?
Convinced yet or not, the meaty question for you to answer is this: what if these findings are indeed accurate? And to take the question even further: What if your own top talent is, in fact, becoming less engaged in and committed to your future? What if your solid contributors, who are not yet prized as key talent, are following suit? Should this be of concern to you?
Let's add another pertinent and perhaps troubling trend to this discussion. There are more and more warning signs indicating that as the economy begins to pull out of its tailspin, many of the top players are going to start making moves to other organizations. Think about it ? if you have not done much of anything to keep talented people engaged during the tough times, why would you expect them to want to stay with you when new opportunities open up elsewhere? The reality may be that when you most need a pool of capable people ready to capitalize on and advance your own new growth opportunities, they are no longer there. Forget about the wasted investment on those who have left, or the excessive costs of recruiting, hiring and training new people. What is the long-term cost of being forced to remain idle, when your competitors are rapidly moving forward with renewed vigor from their highly talented, devoted and engaged associates? Chances are good that your recession has just been extended.
The Leadership Factor
Keeping people engaged is more than a series of activities; it is an important leadership issue. From a leader's perspective, engagement requires you to think carefully about the relationships you build with other people and the decisions you make that affect them. On the relationship side, there are many actions you can take to maintain and even increase commitment. The end game is to ensure that people continue to be passionate about, and have their full hearts into, their work. Letting people know that you value their contributions, providing them challenging growth opportunities, recognizing them, listening to them - these are but a sample of behaviors you must demonstrate as a leader.
For people to remain engaged, especially top talent, they must be led--not just managed. So do not make the mistake of directing all of your energy into determining the very best survey to use to collect data about everyone's level of engagement, while completely disregarding the need to get their feedback on how well you are actually leading them. Remember that your leadership is one of the biggest factors that influence whether others feel engaged or not, and whether they will choose to stay in the long run.
Also be mindful of the decisions you and others make and the messages you send throughout the organization. Just recently, news about the sudden resignation of a highly admired top performing leader hit the hallways of a particular organization. This person's boss, a senior leader, is silently feared and even despised by a growing number of highly regarded people due to his deceitful, oppressive behaviors. And key direct reports who do not submit are soon sent packing. In the minds of many, executive management has chosen to ignore their core values and tolerate this behavior. Do you think this will cause other highly talented people to at least question whether this organization is really the place for them? Your decisions, what you do--and do not do--influence the commitment level of your people in ways you may not fully understand. You must be aware of the kind of fallout which inevitably occurs from situations such as the one just described.
At the present time, many organizations still find themselves in difficult times. This is one of those periods where a number of people, including key talent, are thankful just to have a job. Levels of uncertainty and fear are high, which has led to more hesitancy in risk taking, and more self-imposed pressure to not screw up. When times are tough and jobs are scarce, associates often feel personally vulnerable and much more dependent upon their organizations. It is in this kind of circumstance, when the true leader you are will be most clearly demonstrated.
Leadership Is a Choice
You can choose to take advantage of the situation and exploit your associates: frequently reminding them they are on thin ice and preying upon their job insecurities is one way to get them to buckle down even more. You can capriciously impose higher objectives, force them to work longer hours, and likely disregard many of their needs. After all, they no doubt feel at least somewhat indebted for the chance to still be working and will do whatever it takes to remain on the payroll. Right? Logically, there is really no need to waste time or effort on keeping people more engaged. They will comply, because they have to.
On the other hand, you can make different choice. In spite of the fact that the organization may currently have more leverage, you as a leader can still choose to inspire others, to appreciate and encourage them, to challenge and test them, and to let them know how vital they are to the future success of the enterprise. You can choose to work at increasing their levels of engagement and bonds of commitment.
Leaders know that when it comes to results, commitment trumps compliance. Committed people outperform those who are merely following orders. As the less engaged remain primarily focused on self-preservation, highly engaged and committed people are also deeply invested in helping the entire organization remain successful. And it is your engaged talent that is going to be the best source of the innovative ideas and solutions that will be essential for your organization to rebound.
One of the chief responsibilities of a leader is to build an organization that prospers over time. Growth and prosperity require capable and committed people in the right positions, for today and tomorrow. And there is no better time to be taking a close look at and gathering feedback on the engagement/commitment issue from all of your people, including those you have identified as top talent. Then you must step up as a leader and commit yourself to strengthen their capabilities and buy-in, instead of creating compliance or even animosity.
Regardless of whether you define engagement in a three- or four-piece pie chart or survey associates with a twelve question inventory, you will discover that a real boost in engagement ultimately requires more effective leadership: better ways to interact with individuals and continuous work on creating a more desirable overall environment, if you intend to positively change associates' perceptions and performance levels so they want to stay on your bus. Engagement is much more than popular organization-wide labels, revised performance management categories, and new strategic initiatives. It is personal.
The kind of leadership you demonstrate in today's tough times will long be remembered, especially as overall market conditions improve and external opportunities become more prevalent for your identified stars. Think carefully about the memory you are most likely creating for others through your actions right now.
Steve Coats, a Leadership Challenge® Certified Master, is a managing partner and co-owner of International Leadership Associates, a leadership development education and consulting firm. For nearly twenty years, Steve has taught, coached, and consulted with executives and managers around the world in leadership development, team development, personal growth, change, and business strategy. He can be reached at stevec@i-lead.com.
January 2010: Model the Way
Leader or Leadership? Which Leader are YOU?
It is possible to be a Leader, and yet not demonstrate Leadership. However, the reverse is not true: it is not possible to demonstrate Leadership and not be a Leader. What?
What does it mean to be a Leader, and how is it possible to be a Leader and not be demonstrating Leadership? It begins with the very definition of the word Leader: a person who leads—one who is "out in front" or "first." The focus of this type of out-in-front Leader is the self. For example, think about the sales industry. Many recognition and reward programs are established to identify the "sales leader." This person is acknowledged as the one leading other sales professionals in volume or dollars and is generally identified as "the one to beat." Often the people who are "behind" the sales leader are lagging in numeric performance; they are intentionally not "following the leader." These followers may not aspire to be more like the leader, other than to experience similar sales results and performance. In fact, they would rather be "out in front" themselves and might do whatever is required to achieve or maintain this first place status. Because of this achievement orientation, followers may even personally dislike the leader. Similarly, the sales leader may not want anyone else on the team to exceed his/her own performance level, which would result in the loss of the leader's own personal recognition and reward. So even though there are people "following" the leader (in that they are behind), the leader may not be doing anything to support the follower's growth and success. Being a leader can be an independent, solo initiative, without the care or concern of another's growth and contributions.
Because we typically do not willingly follow hypocrisy, to demonstrate Leadership a person must also be a credible Leader. It is important to followers that a Leader personify the characteristics of Leadership that matter most: honesty, inspiration, foresight, and emotional competence. In other words, demonstrating Leadership requires the Leader to be a behavioral "model" that others aspire to be more like. This Leader type cares deeply about his/her constituents' growth and contributions, sometimes more deeply than they care about themselves. And in demonstrating the dynamics of extraordinary Leadership, people willingly mobilize and follow the guidance this credible Leader provides, even at times contributing more than is required. Followers of this Leader type typically both admire and respect the person. Their desire to contribute is further fueled because they believe in and buy into the cause. Since they can clearly see the intentions, they are willing to take risks in order to achieve the desired outcomes. As a contributing member of a committed team, they are both empowered and enabled to contribute to the cause. Lastly and just as important, they are recognized and encouraged for their contributions and accomplishments all along the way.
In the art of Leadership, the focus shifts beyond the self. As defined by Jim and Barry in The Leadership Challenge, "Leadership is the art of mobilizing others to struggle for shared aspirations." This change in focus—from self to others—does not typically occur without some conscious intention and effort. It requires energy and skill, and dedicated practice to become highly accomplished in making this transition. While most development models focus either on developing Leaders, or on enhancing people's ability to demonstrate Leadership, The Leadership Challenge development strategy incorporates both Leader and Leadership. This development combination of an evidence-based leadership model is a market distinguishing characteristic of The Leadership Challenge! So remember, it means a lot more to demonstrate the art of Leadership, than it does to simply be a Leader! Which Leader are YOU?
Craig Haponstall is president and CEO of Leadership Mechanics, LLC, and a Certified Master of The Leadership Challenge®. An experienced and results oriented speaker and coach whose corporate career has included positions with Southwest Airlines and The Tom Peters Company, he can be reached at www.leadershipmechanics.com.
December 2009: Challenge the Process
The Importance of Competence
There is nothing like a downturn in business to highlight potential weak spots in the level of competence within an organization. It is not that people suddenly wake up stupid one morning and business suddenly drops. What it usually indicates is that something is radically different in the marketplace, and people are ill-prepared to do much about it. So when companies are expecting times to be tough, they naturally cut back on expenses. And often those companies cutting back are your customers – and the expenses they are cutting are for products and services they have been buying from you.
So what do you do? Do you keep attempting to operate in the same way as before, and hope that business turns for the better? Or do you challenge the process and attempt some very ‘non-status-quo’ options. Remember this: when companies are curtailing costs and buying less from you, they are communicating that the value proposition you have been offering them is no longer valid. To keep or even grow the business, you must find new ways to add value besides simply reducing your prices.
So here is the tough question. Are people in your organization competent enough to think up and deliver entirely new and mutually profitable avenues of value? Are your salespeople basically order takers, or do they have the ability to be innovative problem solvers? Do your customer care people have the skills to recognize a golden opportunity for new business when dealing with a customer, or are they basically a traditional complaint handling or fulfillment center? Does the senior team have the experience to lead a top-line, growth-focused turnabout, or are they only schooled in scrutinizing budgets line-by-line, or looking for assets to sell off or write off?
You cannot solve a competency deficiency overnight, but you can take two immediate actions. First, take the shackles off those you know are competent, and aid and support them in proposing and implementing new value-added ideas. Let go of the ingrained notion that valued-added ideas must always mean high cost. That is simply a bad assumption. Finally, start right now raising your own capabilities. Make a conscious and deliberate effort to improve on something important—be it skills in customer relationships, strategic thinking, leadership, collaborating, value chain analysis or whatever. There is nothing that prevents you from being able to increase your own or your organization’s levels of competence, even in tough times.
Steve Coats, a Leadership Challenge® Workshop Certified Master, is a managing partner and co-owner of International Leadership Associates, a leadership development education and consulting firm. For nearly twenty years, Steve has taught, coached, and consulted with executives and all levels of managers around the world in leadership development, team development, personal growth, change, and business strategy. Steve can be reached at stevec@i-lead.com
November 2009: Inspire A Shared Vision
Inspiring HOPE (The Noun)
In a meeting earlier this year with a senior leadership team of a client company, our collective group was discussing how the practice Inspire a Shared Vision provides hope to people in the most challenging times. The idea appeared to be an appropriate, logical assumption. But as we transitioned into a related topic, the CEO stopped us and asked what we meant by ‘hope’. Did we mean that we were “hoping we would meet our targets,” and “hoping that the company didn’t lose money?” If so, we needed action and engagement--not hope--to meet the company’s needs.
This was an excellent question (though I have to admit, I thought “Haven’t you heard Obama speak about HOPE? That’s what we’re talking about!”) Clarity came, however, when my partner, Jo Bell, observed that we were focusing on ‘hope’ as a noun, not a verb. We are not simply hoping that things change in the environment. Leaders act and inspire hope in others and engage them in the future success of the company.
Taking this lesson from the challenges our singular client company was facing and applying it more universally, inspiring hope in others is critical for ALL leaders. This is especially true as companies experience difficulties that are a result of our current economic turmoil, and have had to make difficult decisions about the business they are in or the staff that they can support.
Challenging times like these are the most difficult in which to lead. However, in this environment, it is even more critical that leaders inspire people to give their best. Inspiring a shared vision amid layoffs, downsizing, and radical changes in the way we do business is tough. But as Jim and Barry often say, “that’s why it’s the Leadership CHALLENGE, and not the Leadership Cakewalk.”
Many of the leaders we work with tell us that Inspire a Shared Vision is their most difficult leadership Practice (indeed, it is the lowest ranked Practice across leaders)—especially in the current environment. But the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) can provide a clue to how the best leaders Inspire a Shared Vision in even the toughest times. It provides actions you can take as a leader to become more inspiring and to engage those around you.
First, let’s take a look at some of the key leadership behaviors that define this Practice.
#7: Describes a compelling image of the future
#12: Appeals to others to share dream of the future
#17: Shows others how their interests can be realized
Interestingly, these behaviors also tend to be ranked the lowest of the10 rated on the LPI.
Many leaders find these behaviors difficult, but for different reasons. Some do not see them as part of their role (it’s someone else’s responsibility). Others are not naturally visual learners, so have a hard time visualizing the future.
In our coaching work with leaders, we have found that two other easily actionable LPI behaviors can influence a leader’s ability to Inspire a Shared Vision. When leaders focus on these behaviors, their scores in this Practice (and, indeed, their ability to Inspire) show an increase. These are:
#26: Is clear about his/her philosophy of leadership
#27: Speaks with conviction about the meaning of work
Philosophy of Leadership
At The Leadership Challenge Forum in August of 2009, Barry Posner discussed how he believed that a philosophy of leadership was a critical component of leadership. If leaders do not know who they are or what they stand for, it is difficult to lead and inspire hope.
So what is your leadership philosophy? If someone came up to you in the hallway and asked that question, would you have an answer? If so, wonderful! It is probably clear to others as well, in the way that you discuss what you believe in and why. If not, how can you become clearer on your philosophy of leadership? Ask yourself these questions*:
- What do I believe in? Why?
- What do I stand for? Why?
- How do I want to be remembered….tonight? Why?
- What brings me suffering? Why?
- What makes me jump for joy? Why?
When you have answers to these questions, think about how that translates to your leadership philosophy. Write out a philosophy and begin to share it with others. This doesn’t necessarily mean you state that you want to share your philosophy, but rather that you begin to talk about what really matters to you, what you believe about your people and your work.
Speaking with Conviction about the Meaning of Work
Creating a philosophy of leadership leads to the second leadership behavior that can influence your ability to inspire: to speak with conviction about the meaning of your work. Though you may have difficulty predicting exactly what the future will look like for your organization or department, if you talk about the meaning of your work, you can continue to inspire others. Ask yourself these questions:
- What important work is your group doing for others?
- How do you help serve a need?
- What are some of your success stories with customers (both internal and external)?
These may be difficult changes in “the way we’ve always done things,” and it may take a while for people to catch on to this new “enthusiasm.” But our leadership challenge today is to help bring hope to others. If we can challenge ourselves to step into uncomfortable territory, we lead the way for others and can inspire and engage the best.
This is my hope for you!
Renee Harness is Managing Partner at Third Eye Leadership, where she is engaged in corporate culture change. She also is part of The Leadership Challenge Master Facilitator Network and has played key roles in implementing The Leadership Challenge at companies in financial services, healthcare, and manufacturing. She can be reached at renee@thirdeyeleadership.com.
October 2009: Leadership Reflections
Why Leadership? Why Now? Because the Economy Demands It!
“Budgets are tight; we’re cutting expenses; we’ve laid people off.” These comments are ringing in all our ears, as we talk with current and prospective clients and in-house partners about leadership development during what arguably has been the worst recession in 75 years. No news here. Using a revered strategy called, “Leadership? Not Now!” halting educational activities during difficult economic times has occurred since the invention of the training budget.
But if we can take a cue from the world’s Most Admired Companies, a far better approach—in spite of the economic challenges—would be “Leadership? Especially Now!” Earlier this year, Fortune magazine identified these highly respected companies and sought to determine what they had in common, providing a North Star for the rest of us coveting a position on this elite list. Contrary to what we might assume, the Most Admired Companies do not share common organizational structures or operating models, although they do resist incessant fiddling with either one, in contrast with their less-admired counterparts.
The most common denominator among the world’s Most Admired Companies was a continuing commitment to identifying, growing, and nurturing talent in spite of the challenging economic environment. Of course, these companies review budgets and programs for effectiveness, ensure their development offerings support business imperatives, and design metrics to measure impact. But bottom line, they continue to invest heavily in their people.
We are living in a historic period of chaos and change. Organizations and enterprises face challenges that demand the absolute best their leaders have to offer, including the ability to replace their associates’ fear and uncertainty with confidence and commitment. The world’s Most Admired Companies recognize this truth and, as a result, most likely will exit the far end of this economic tunnel with stronger performance, increased market share, and a more capable and engaged workforce.
The noble title of “leader” is granted to those courageous people who mobilize others to overcome difficult circumstances and accomplish the extraordinary. “Why Leadership? Because We Need it Now!”
Steve Houchin, owner and Managing Partner of International Leadership Associates, has presented the Leadership Challenge Workshop® to mid-level and senior executives in corporations around the country for over 15 years. He can be reached at shouchin@i-lead.com.
September 2009: Other Thoughts on the Model
Starting Off on the Right Foot
On January 24, 2009, at St. George’s University in Grenada, keynote speaker Brenda Stutsky welcomed a new class of students into the four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree program—only the second class in the University’s history—by encouraging the 26 young men and women to begin their education as leaders. Drawing upon the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® and The Leadership Challenge model, she challenged her audience to incorporate these essential principles of leadership into their education and professional careers, noting that if they do, “I know you will be a nursing leader throughout your educational program and your nursing career.”
Grounded in the belief that while many prominent leaders may have helped guide the way for these new students, Ms. Stutsky suggested that each individual was poised on that day to begin to lead nursing into the future. And to help them on this new path, she went on to outline how each young person in the audience could exemplify the Five Practices:
“Going first and setting an example, educating yourself, and doing what you say you will do, are examples of how you Model the Way…As you are only the second class to begin your nursing education at St. George’s University, you will always be regarded as the ones who modeled the way. So make sure that you share your stories of being a nursing student with your sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews. Set an example for them, and let them know that with hard work and determination anything is possible.
To Inspire a Shared Vision, you begin by imagining what could be, by dreaming and creating something no one else has created. As students in a new nursing program, you are in an ideal position to establish a vision for your student body and this nursing program. Maybe your collective vision for this program is to be internationally recognized for producing extraordinary nursing graduates who are able to provide exemplary patient care not only here in Grenada, but around the world. I want my colleagues in Canada to know about you! Many know about your Medical program, but they don’t know you have started a Nursing program. How are you as a student body going to become internationally recognized? Start with small steps. I think one of the first things you have to do is to let the international nursing student community know that you exist. Maybe you do that by starting your own student body Web site or wiki to share your own knowledge and stories with each other. Maybe you then ask nursing students in neighboring Caribbean countries to join in. Maybe your student body president attends a nursing conference in the Unites States, England, Africa, or Canada, and shares your concept of an online community of learning for nursing students in the Caribbean. Nurses in other countries love the idea and join your online community, sharing their own expertise, knowledge, and stories. However you decide to inspire a shared vision, start small but dream big, and follow that dream.
Kouzes and Posner say you must always ask, “Why are we doing it this way?” Since you will be one of the first students to complete the newly established courses, your faculty will rely on you to provide constructive feedback that will continually shape the nursing curriculum. Your clinical practice as students here in Grenada and other countries will challenge not only your own nursing skills and knowledge. It will be expected that you will challenge and question policies, procedures, and practices based on current evidence-based knowledge…Leaders take risks. And although risks can sometimes result in failure, we learn from our mistakes and continue to Challenge the Process.
With Enable Others to Act, Kouzes and Posner equate leadership with team effort. They also say that it is very easy to identify a true leader by how many times a leader says “We” as opposed to “I.” It is impossible to provide quality patient care without working as a team, for each healthcare professional and discipline adds their piece to the complex puzzle. Learn about your role as a nurse and how you can support your healthcare team, and in return, you will get the support that you need.
Encouraging the Heart of your fellow nursing students is extremely important. This is going to be a very demanding time in your lives, and you will need to make sacrifices to be successful. It is without question that you will need the support of your family…but you also need the support of your fellow students. Providing positive feedback and ongoing encouragement to your fellow nursing students is crucial, as there will be many fun and wonderful stories that you will be able to tell for years to come. But there will also be tough and challenging times and you will need that “pat on the back” or that shoulder to cry on from someone who can really understand what you are going through…Your faculty also needs an encouraging word along the way, so don’t forget to tell them when they did a great job, when they helped you understand a difficult concept, or when they helped you get through a challenging clinical day.
…In closing, I wish to show you the front page of the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper from Wednesday morning that shows Barak Obama as he became the 44th president of the United States, and the first African-American president in history. The headline reads, “A Dream Fulfilled!” You have much in common with the new president: you both have a dream that is coming true; you are both leaders; and you are both starting to write a new chapter in your life story.”
A published summary of Brenda Stutsky’s keynote address and a copy of the complete, unedited text are available at the St. George’s University website at: http://www.sgu.edu/news-events/news-archives09-2ndClassNursingProgramCommences.html
Brenda Stutsky is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Manitoba and Director, Nursing Education at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, a major tertiary hospital in Canada employing approximately 7,000 health professionals and support staff. She can be reached at bstutsky@hsc.mb.ca.
July 2009: Leadership Reflections
What Happened to Honor?
I recently had the privilege of attending the graduation ceremony for the class of 2009 at Jefferson Medical College. About 250 students were awarded diplomas and granted the right to practice medicine. Each of them, no doubt, felt a great sense of pride and joy (and relief) when they heard the title “doctor” affixed to their names, as they were called on stage to receive their diplomas and sashes.
While most medical school graduation ceremonies follow a fairly standard format I suppose, to my surprise there was one part of this program that moved me in a most unexpected way: the final assignment these graduates had to complete before officially becoming doctors was to publicly recite the Oath of Hippocrates. Led by the calming and mellow voice of one of the faculty, they concluded their vow and, at long last, became welcomed members of a wonderful and truly respected profession. And even though they do not remember all the words, new doctors know the oath exists and what it stands for.
The Hippocratic Oath is often casually summarized by non-medical types as “do no harm.” Yet, nowhere in the actual text do those three words appear. There are some other remarkable words, however, that spell out the standards of behavior and personal commitment expected of doctors. In fact, it was the Oath’s closing line that truly grabbed me: “These things I do promise upon my honor.” What a powerful statement that was for me. It was the notion of honor that was so inspiring. Yet almost immediately after hearing it, I must sadly admit that the first thought that popped into my head was, “what has happened to it?”
Current State of Honor
I recently worked with a group of Army personnel plus others from a state law enforcement agency. Based on their words and behaviors, it is clear that honor is still of supreme importance in both organizations. But outside of these examples, one could easily make a case that honor has been replaced by greed, self interest, or perhaps even the convenience of taking the easy road, especially if the honorable road is too hard. I began to wonder, how much better off might we be if we knew that everyone truly valued honor, and that it would never be compromised? Might our current circumstances be different if other professions were bound by an oath of excellence, based on honor?
Early in the Hippocratic Oath, a doctor solemnly swears that “into whatsoever house I shall enter, it shall be for the good of the sick to the utmost of my power.” In the very next statement doctors pledge to keep themselves “from wrong, from corruption, from the tempting of others to vice.” Can this be said of other professions today? Pick any one you like. Is the perception that the AIGs of the world, or lawyers, politicians, or journalists have pledged to keep themselves from the temptations of wrong, corruption, or vice? It seems to me that the relentless forces of the Dark Side are especially strong these days.
Whom Do We Trust
The cynics will certainly shout out that doctors fall off the wagon as well. And that is true. However in a number of various survey findings related to trust, doctors as a profession are usually rated toward the top. Business leaders, government, attorneys, and media types are usually toward the bottom. There are, of course, many individuals in each of these professions who do value honor and attempt to live by it. But there are certainly plenty of examples of those that don’t and the havoc they create.
So what do you think? When you reflect on honor in a profession, where do doctors rank for you? How about when you look beyond medicine? Do you see much evidence that in our current world—anywhere— honor is considered important anymore? How about when you look within yourself? Just how important is it to you? In your work today, is there anything you are willing to promise, upon your honor?
The Impact of an Oath
I have no idea how much difference the Hippocratic Oath actually makes, if any. My guess is that not many graduating medical school students remember more than a handful of the words, let alone could they talk in detail about it. But they do know it is there. They know they have something that defines the ideals and values of their profession. They know that it is not just a collection of words on a plaque but is, in fact, a definition of the kind of person they are expected to be in order to be called “Doctor.” And they have pledged their commitment to it.
Who knows? Maybe if every so often brokers or executives, lobbyists or politicians, or the rest of us for that matter had to publicly promise, upon our honor, that “my work shall be for the good to the utmost of my power,” the world might be a less troubled, more trusting place. It certainly would do no harm.
Personally, I hope that honor is not a tired ideal of the past. But even if you are not part of a profession or organization that is guided by a publicly declared promise of honor, you can still choose to live your life by that same noble standard. You can choose to turn away from the seductive temptations of wrong, corruption, and vice, and instead be a role model of acting with honor, in everything you do, on and off the job. That would most assuredly make the world a better place.
Steve Coats, a Leadership Challenge® Workshop Master Facilitator, is a managing partner and co-owner of International Leadership Associates, a leadership development education and consulting firm. For nearly twenty years, Steve has taught, coached, and consulted with executives and all levels of managers around the world in leadership development, team development, personal growth, change, and business strategy. Steve can be reached at stevec@i-lead.com
International Leadership Associates is a Platinum Sponsor of The Leadership Challenge Forum 2009, taking place in Chicago next month.
June 2009: Leadership Reflections
Learning Leadership Lessons from History
History’s greatest leaders have given us tangible examples of living The Five Practices without ever knowing that their actions would translate into important lessons for us so many generations later. Right here in Sonoma (which many people don’t know is the birthplace of the State of California), we have real-life role models to inspire us—leaders who played important roles in California history.
In this beautiful, nearly idyllic town in the heart of the world-renowned wine region, three times a year over the course of four days, we have our Leadership Challenge Public Workshops. And in our orientation exercise we draw from the rich history here, taking the opportunity to learn from leaders of the past.
If you think you have it tough selling your idea to upper management, consider Father Altamira. Founder of the Mission San Francisco de Solano, he was a young, ambitious, and impatient leader who had a controversial plan to replace the existing mission establishments of San Francisco and San Rafael. He was drawn to the Sonoma Valley and called the area "The Valley of the Moon," after the Native American observation that the moon in winter made seven successive appearances between distant mountains. Mission San Francisco Solano was the last and Northernmost of the California missions that was built under his direction in the early 1800s in Sonoma. He inspired a shared vision of dedicating a new mission to God’s work.
Are you finding it difficult to face budget cuts? General Mariano Vallejo, the man credited with shaping California, was sent by the Mexican government to Sonoma in 1835 to secularize the mission and found the pueblo of Sonoma. Under the command of General Vallejo—with virtually no subsidizing from the Mexican Government—barracks were built, troops were trained, and over 100 military expeditions were mounted to subdue the Wappos, Cainameros, or Satisyomis natives who attempted to throw off Mexican domination of the Sonoma area. Vallejo also was charged with mitigating the threat of Russian settlers migrating into Northern California through Mendocino County. He realized that the ties with Mexico were too loose, that California was an isolated outpost of the Mexican government, and that the future of California lay in close association and union with the United States. Because of the isolation of California, Mariano Vallejo learned to make his own decisions, finance his own army garrison, serve as foreign minister in matters relating to the Russians to the north, and monitor and control the American immigrants and foreign traders. General Mariano Vallejo served as a delegate in making the first state constitution, and he also laid out the design of the Sonoma Plaza, the largest in California. Certainly, the growth and progress made in California since that time attest to the great foresight of General Mariano Vallejo, a fine example of challenging the process and inspiring a shared vision.
Using history as the platform, we have created an activity that introduces participants to The Leadership Challenge model by exploring the surrounding environment—the plaza, barracks and Mission—in order to find historical parallels to the challenges leaders face today. Participants get a chance to hear real-life stories that drive home the lessons from the workshop and make the practices of leaders come alive, ensuring that what they have learned in Sonoma stays with them over time.
Jeni Gomez Nichols is president of Sonoma Leadership Systems. In addition to being passionate about developing leaders, she also lives in Sonoma growing grapes and making wine.
Sonoma Leadership Systems is a sponsor of The Leadership Challenge Forum 2009. The company offers The Leadership Challenge© Workshop and Facilitator Training three times a year in Sonoma. The next workshop is November 3-4, 2009. Go to www.sonomalearning.com/leadership_workshop.html for information and registration or call 707-933-3882.
April 2009: Model the Way
Where is the Competence? By Steve Coats
In the ongoing Characteristics of Admired Leaders survey measurements, the attribute of competence has consistently been one of the four most frequently selected items (by approximately 68% of respondents), indicating that people have a strong expectation that their leaders know what they are doing. But with virtually every facet of the business economy plummeting over the past few months, the question of competence has been gnawing at me. Specifically, where is it? Where are the capabilities required to lead companies (and the country, for that matter) forward? Based on recent performance scorecards, competence appears to be lacking.
It is often said that anyone can steer a ship in calm waters, but it takes competence at the helm to navigate treacherous seas—like the ones we now find ourselves in. And my perception is that very few people in senior leadership positions—whether in the public and private sector—are competent to effectively navigate in the crippling times we are currently encountering. During what we once called the ‘calmer’ waters of the early 2000s, growth (or at least the illusion of it) was literally taken for granted. But look what has happened since the economic storms moved in. There appears to be more reactive behavior than proactive, innovative action.
I am likely not the only one disappointed with the current performance of our business and government leaders. But, why should this competence shortage be surprising? Most of those in leadership positions today have never had to deal with the situations they are now confronting. While they may be seasoned leaders, that doesn’t mean they are fully capable of dealing with everything thrown their way. However, keep in mind: we know that the best leaders—TLC-type leaders—take on the task of constantly preparing themselves for unknown challenges. They are continuously learning, experiencing, blundering, and learning some more. I wonder if too many of our current leaders got caught up in the belief that the seas would always be relatively calm and that their positions automatically made them competent to steer the ship.
Consider Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, at the helm when US Airways flight 1549 needed to be brought to safety—in the Hudson River. Last I looked, learning how to fly a glider was not mandatory for pilots, but many people are forever grateful that Sully had taken the time to build his capabilities. The life-threatening, emergency situation he was thrown into was an entirely new and unprecedented challenge for him. Yet, in his interview on 60 Minutes, he commented that he was absolutely certain he could safely land his plane on the water. What a statement! Never forget that competence builds confidence.
Although there are many areas in which leaders must be competent, there are three (perhaps a bit unusual ones) on which I hope future leaders will continue to focus development time and energy.
- Know right from wrong, and courageously act on what is right. (Hmm, there is that Model the Way thing again.)
- Lead for the future, not for the quarter. Think about the number of ‘invincible’ companies that have lost sight of this and have ceased to exist—or are on the verge of collapse—as a result.
- Understand the importance of and find ways to pursue the common good, not just the selfish, immediate win. There are consequences when commission-driven, valueless products that produce immediate wealth for individual companies or people are allowed to trump longer term, value-based offerings that produce enduring wealth for customers and societies, along with profit for companies and their workers.
Let us hope that all leaders will add these three important factors to what they must do well in order to navigate through the treacherous seas of our time.
Steve Coats is a managing partner and co-owner of International Leadership Associates, a leadership development education and consulting firm, and a Leadership Challenge® Workshop Master Facilitator. For nearly twenty years, Steve has taught, coached, and consulted with executives and all levels of managers in several countries around the world. He can be reached at stevec@i-lead.com
March 2009: Challenge the Process
The Leadership Laboratory By Michael Neiss
Challenging the Process during these turbulent economic times can be, well, challenging! Innovation and continuous improvement efforts aimed at cost reductions would seem to be welcome activities. However, many organizations actually become more risk averse during downturns. They seek the comfort of established processes despite the possibility of gains from trying new approaches.
As a leader, it is important to speak up and offer alternatives to traditional budget and head-count reductions. It is doubtful that your organization can cost-cut itself to excellence. If you manage the risk in your approach to introducing novel measures, you may find the organization more open to meaningful and innovative challenge.
A clue lies in the wording of one of a commitment for this practice—“Experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from experience.” A successful challenge is structured like an experiment; that is, you have a hypothesis and defined variables. If you carefully design your approach, you can easily identify which variable veered off course and truly learn from the experiment. This allows for you or organization to make adjustments to the actions to reap the gains from proposed outcomes. Those of us in manufacturing know the design of experiments can eventually inform quality improvements. This approach works on with all sorts of processes, not just manufacturing. Think about the design of a scientific experiment when you craft your proposed challenge to a particular business case.
Small wins are also very important in today’s economic environment. Each win along the way produces growth in your credibility and influence. These, in turn, are the fuel to keep moving ahead with your experiment. You will gain far more support for the challenge when you show it is working!
It is clear that in this time of crisis, something has got to give. So instead of giving staff and innovation the heave-ho, give Challenge the Process a try.
Michael T. Neiss is a Master Facilitator of The Leadership Challenge® Workshop. He is a recognized leadership expert with a decidedly practical approach to leadership and management development. He is currently a trusted advisor on leadership issues for such great organization as Herman Miller, Inc., the U.S. Navy, and Pfizer (Upjohn.)
February 2009: Making the Connection: The Leadership Challenge Practices and the Seven Habits
One of the most seminal works on leadership and personal growth is Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, in which he details a number of core concepts that can be directly linked to The Five Practices of The Leadership Challenge. Among the most relevant: the importance of developing, and living by, a personal set of values; developing a vision for the future; managing emotional responses; and building collaborative relationships. And both of these works are built upon the core belief that change starts from the inside out; it is the leader who must first change from within.
While the definition of effective leadership has shifted over the last 20 years—away from an emphasis on talents or personality traits toward core ethical standards or character traits—Kouzes, Posner, and Covey have consistently promoted a belief in the power we all have to bring about enormous personal change, that we are the masters of our fate, we are free to choose, and we control our own thoughts and emotions. Therefore, it is our choices and responses—not the situation or circumstance—that determines our effectiveness.
With a general understanding of Covey’s work, here are a few thoughts about how trainers, workshop facilitators, and mentors can begin to think about ways to link The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® with the core principles of the Seven Habits.
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Highly effective people take responsibility for every aspect of their lives and are accountable for their own decisions, choices, actions, and reactions. They understand that there are always choices, see alternatives instead of roadblocks, and do not blame the status quo, other people, or the ‘system’. Proactive people are value-driven and committed to clear guiding principles, which override daily events and setbacks. They recognize and acknowledge mistakes, react appropriately, and take corrective action. In using this habit, leaders manage change, keep commitments, and positively influence results.
Being proactive means focusing on those things within our circle of influence, as Covey’s framework suggests: the circle of concern, identifies what you care about; the circle of influence, what we can do something about. When people focus on things they cannot control, their circle of concern grows ever-larger while their circle of influence shrinks. On the other hand, when people focus on the things they can influence, their knowledge, experience, and ability to manage obstacles increases and their circle of influence expands.
Facsimile of Covey’s Circles of Influence
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Highly effective people establish long-term goals based on a real mission. Living by this habit invites development of a personal mission and criteria of what is important, and aligning actions with envisioned outcomes. Leaders clarify their vision, set goals, communicate ideas for the future, and focus on the desired outcomes. Covey describes this as living by design, rather than by default.
Habit 3: First Things First
Covey’s framework helps focus on high-value activities rather than short-term, more urgent tasks, incorporating issues of delegation and time management. Working with the notion of time as a compass, rather than a clock, proactive people make choices based on principle and tackle those projects that provide forward motion toward the end they envision. Their time is spent managing their reactions to unfolding events, not just responding to whatever is making noise.
Habit 4: Win/Win
Seeking to build trust and create partnerships, highly effective people with the win/win approach have an abundance mentality: there is enough work, power, authority, and leadership to go around. Leaders are asked to balance the courage to speak their own thoughts and feelings while offering the consideration of seeking and listening to the thoughts and feelings of others. Making effective use of this Habit, leaders will find a greater spirit of collaboration and richer relationships, leading to improved and faster solutions of problems.
Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood
This habit asks leaders to build the foundation for effective communication by listening with the intent to understand, not only to reply. In living out the second element of this Habit, “then to be understood,” leaders take the time to accurately diagnose symptoms before suggesting solutions, and avoid “autobiographical responses” grounded in one’s own experiences and agendas. Effective leaders work to be understood from the other person’s perspective, recognizing that influencing others requires an awareness of their wants, needs, and points of view. In fact, this Habit links directly to the circles of influence in Habit 1: Be proactive. Seeking first to understand is squarely located in one’s circle of influence—if we do nothing else, we can seek to understand the other’s point of view.
Habit 6: Synergize
According to Covey, all preceding Habits prepare us for synergy. With a firm belief that working together creates a better way, highly effective leaders embrace divergent points of view—seeking them out, not just accepting them. Valuing differences and working collaboratively leads to innovative thinking, better solutions, and enriched relationships. As a leader, embracing and leveraging collaboration and innovation results in a sum greater than its parts.
Habit 7: Sharpen the saw
As lifelong learners, highly effective people seek continual development and encourage and support the development of constituents, in job roles and as a whole person. Leaders regularly engage in renewal of thought and spirit in ways that create improved capacity and stronger relationships, and buffer against burnout.
With this summary view of the Seven Habits, the following table offers a comparative look at the connections that can be made with The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®. Whether in an overall discussion of leadership or incorporated into any number of follow-on activities as part of a Leadership Challenge® Workshop event, this provides a broad context in which to examine the core principles of The Leadership Challenge and to help participants stay focused and recharged as they work to live out The Five Practices.
| Seven Habits | Key Elements | Five Practices |
| 1. Be Proactive | If you do not act, you will be acted upon; use values to drive actions; be responsible and accountable; manage responses Exercise influence Admit and learn from mistakes; see alternatives and opportunities rather than obstacles |
Model the Way Inspire a Shared Vision; Challenge the Process |
| 2. Begin with the End in Mind | Focus on long-term goals and mission/vision. Where do you want to go? Prioritize the important over the urgent |
Inspire a Shared Vision Inspire a Shared Vision;Model the Way |
| 3. First things first | Focus on what is important, rather than what is urgent | Model the Way |
| 4. Win/Win | Build trust and partnerships; see collaboration as mutually beneficial | Enable Others to Act |
| 5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood | Effectiveness comes from gaining commitment, not forcing compliance | Inspire a Shared Vision |
| 6. Synergize | The sum is greater than its parts | Challenge the Process |
| 7. Sharpen the Saw | Continual development of self and constituents | Challenge the Process; Enable Others to Act |
Adapted from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey, S. (2004). New York: Free Press.
Jane Bozarth, Ed.D., is the e-Learning Coordinator for the state of North Carolina. Author of several books, including the new From Analysis to Evaluation: Tools, Tips, and Techniques for Trainers and co-author with Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner of the forthcoming The Challenge Continues Workshop, she can be reached at jane@bozarthzone.com.
January 2009: The Five Practices On Leadership
The dawn of 2009 signals a new age of interconnectedness between aspiring leaders grappling with today’s challenging issues—from global economics and politics to corporate ethics and non-profit governance—and leadership experts with wisdom to share.Online at www.washingtonpost.com, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner are coming together with an elite group of 100 of the country’s most notable leaders and experts to participate in an exciting new venture: On Leadership. Sponsored by the award-winning The Washington Post, this open and lively discussion forum will be hosted by The Post’s current vice-president (and former executive editor) Ben Bradlee and Pulitzer Prize-winning business and economics columnist Steve Pearlstein.
Connecting experts and readers—all with varying background and perspectives—On Leadership will pose a new question each week, drawn from national and world events and ask members of this distinguished panel as well as readers to weigh in with thoughts and comments about what makes for great leadership. Each week also will feature a video interview with a leader or leadership expert who will speak to the personal successes and failures of their experience. Plus, you’ll find a once-a-week Leadership Playlist that highlights essays, books, blog posting videos, and other resources you may find valuable in your own leadership development journey.
So, join the discussion at http://views.washingtonpost.com/leadership. Find out more about how Jim and Barry see the world’s challenges and how The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® can be applied to bring out the best in leaders everywhere.
December 2008: Model the Way
The Ripple Effect--Seton Hall Helped Angie Chaplin ’05 Transform her Life. Now She’s Passing the Favor On.
When the Cedar River’s banks overflowed this June, devastating Angie Chaplin’s Waverly, Iowa, community with a “500-year” flood, she drew upon one of the most critical lessons of her life: how to lead others.
It was a lesson she’d learned at Seton Hall, through SetonWorldWide’s online Master of Arts in Strategic Communication and Leadership (MASCL) program. It’s a lesson she now shares with others, as a nonprofit leadership instructor in Iowa and as a MASCL faculty member.
After the flood struck, Chaplin sprang into action with her husband, Casey, and their sons, 8-year-old Jacob and 6-year-old Jeremy — cleaning out homes and serving meals to volunteers, while hundreds of residents felt the disaster’s impact.
Coping with their losses in the wake of the receding river, many residents placed blame on city officials. “Hearing community members speak out during a public meeting made me think there are lessons to be learned, even in disaster,” Chaplin recalls. “There had to be a way to help the city extract those lessons.”
Chaplin contacted the city administrator and offered to lead a debriefing. Once she received the go-ahead, she sought expertise from SetonWorldWide’s MASCL network. Col. Rob Cerjan, M.A. ’06 offered to work with Chaplin on the project, utilizing a debriefing format used in the Army.
Together, Cerjan and Chaplin facilitated a review of Waverly’s emergency operations center and produced a report that focused on crisis communication. “This experience is a proud accomplishment, and the credit goes to MASCL for the connections made and lessons taught,” Chaplin says. “When I started the program, I never imagined it would make such an impact in my community.”
Chaplin’s journey began when she enrolled in SetonWorldWide’s MASCL program and was introduced to The Leadership Challenge, a book and leadership development program written by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner. “They had me from page one,” she laughs.
Drawn to the practice of “Model the Way,” which encourages leaders to find their own voice, Chaplin made a discovery. “An ‘a-ha moment’ came when I realized I was suppressing my voice,” she explains.
At that time, Chaplin lacked confidence, a situation that stemmed from a personal health crisis — morbid obesity. Encouraged by her fellow Seton Hall students and teachers, she examined her life. “My physical, emotional and psychological health were deteriorating, and I realized I had allowed my weight to inhibit my ability to lead,” she says.
Four months after she started Seton Hall’s program, Chaplin underwent gastric-bypass surgery.
By graduation, she had shed more than 100 pounds, but the transformation was more than physical. “The surgery was a step toward a healthier life, not a solution,” Chaplin says.
Once she committed to living well, Chaplin used her new, confident approach to cross the finish lines of four national marathons, two of them as a charity athlete with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training.
Chaplin also found that she could empower others to release their own leadership voices. Employed by Lutheran Services in Iowa, a nonprofit human-services organization, she helped inspire its entrepreneurial Center for Learning and Leading. There, she designs and facilitates strategies for nonprofit and academic leaders around the country that generate revenue to support LSI’s mission.
Karl Soehnlein, Ph.D., program director for the online MASCL program, jokes that Chaplin is the program’s “poster girl.” But behind his kidding lies deep respect. “When I met Angie, I knew there was something special about her,” he says. “I just sensed it — her positiveness, her excitement, her passion.” So when it came time to bring in a new faculty member, he looked no further than his former student.
As a professor, Chaplin presents leadership lessons during the program’s weekend orientation residency and teaches the very module that changed her life.
“I lead because I’ve been led to find my leadership voice,” she says. “It’s humbling to teach in a program that continues to teach me. I learn as much from students and fellow faculty as they hopefully learn from me.”
Chaplin sings the praises of the program on a nearly daily basis, and her endorsement is genuine. “It sounds like a late-night infomercial,” Chaplin says. “But it’s difficult for me to even imagine my life without MASCL — it fuels a passion for learning, leading and life.
“Leaders can’t do everything, but we can do something,” she adds. “Whether it’s running, teaching, leading or serving, we have an obligation to do what we can, where we can, when we can. It’s as simple as that.”
Shannon Rossman Allen is a freelance writer based in Fort Worth, Texas. This article originally appeared in Seton Hall Magazine and is reprinted here with permission from Seton Hall University. Seton Hall Magazine can be contacted via e-mail: SHUwriter@shu.edu.
November 2008: Building a Foundation for Organizational Change
For the management team, changing an organization can be a matter of choice or a business imperative for survival. Whatever the reason, the only way that change will stick is when it is embraced by others throughout the organization.
While management’s role is to plan and implement a new structure, it takes leadership to guide people through the transition. And how that transition happens is fundamental to the success of the change process.
An involved leader can show people how their interests -- their dreams -- can be realized, and invite them to participate in navigating the path of dream fulfillment into the future. The Five Practices identified in The Leadership Challenge provides a great template to ensure the success of organizational change.
First, ask yourself why someone would follow you, as a leader. In order to follow, we must trust that the future you are framing is where we want to go. It is a matter of credibility -- credibility that is rooted in what you stand for and demonstrated by what you have already accomplished. The competence and values that you have shown in past interactions with people, and the relationships you have built, are the fundamentals of trust. If you have established a solid foundation, your conviction and enthusiasm for a new vision will be enough to influence people to listen to your message.
You must answer questions about the need for change. If people are clear about why change is necessary -- not only for the organization but what it means to them, personally -- it is easier to embrace the new path and release the hold on the old ways of doing things. A compelling picture of what the future can be, along with an invitation to participate fully in the process, will result in a shared mental image.
Listening also is an essential element to make change happen. People need to know that they are part of the solution and feel they have some control over the outcome. It may be in hearing comments about why others are resisting change that a new approach -- one that will be embraced by everyone involved -- can be found. As a leader, your vision of the future is important and it is essential that you invite others to help figure out what needs to be done to move toward that vision.
Respecting the past while embracing the future also plays a critical role. We generally want to do a good job and feel that what we have been doing has been effective. However, change takes us out of our comfort zone. When we are faced with something new, we can feel incompetent and want to seek shelter in old and familiar ways. Some people may even try to sabotage a new initiative, which is why a change in the organization should respect the past and embrace the future. Engaging people in opportunities that build on their strengths and interests will result in more people feeling confident and knowing how to move things forward. By giving people a chance to explore new ways of doing things, experimenting and taking risks, you encourage creativity and innovation.
Trusted leaders take people where they haven’t been before. Change is a process that can be exhilarating for some and very threatening for others. But helping people see that the future is more compelling than the current situation can make it easier for everyone involved. By setting goals that move the organization in the right direction, you not only move the organization forward but build individual confidence as well.
And finally, celebrating milestones of success allows people to see progress and affirm to them that their efforts are making a difference. A celebration acknowledges and energizes people while also anchoring the changes that have been made.
Organizations need to be flexible in order to respond to economic changes, global competition, and unexpected pressures. Creating the future by involving people in the change process sets the stage for a culture that is innovative, by attracting and retaining the most capable and engaged talent.
Maureen O'Leary Pickard is founder of The Performance Group, co-founder of The Leadership Journey, and a consultant with expertise in change management, executive coaching, and organization alignment. A Certified Human Resource Specialist (CHRP) and a Master Facilitator of The Leadership Challenge® Workshop, she can be reached at maureen@performancegroup.ca.
October 2008: The Practice of Leadership By Steve Coats
A few years ago, I bought a piano. I had always wanted to play. Yet, in a relatively short time, I determined that buying this marvelous instrument was most likely a blunder. The truth was that although I very much wanted to play the piano, I discovered that I did not want to learn to play the piano.
When it comes to leadership development, that same perspective is alive and well within many organizations. It is quite common to hear, "we want our managers to be leaders." But this transformation does not occur just because it is a new organizational mantra. People have to learn to be better leaders. And like all learning, it takes time and commitment. But that's not all. . .
You may recall the story of the first-time visitor to New York City who asked a local how to get to Carnegie Hall. The response? "Practice, practice, practice." Besides time and commitment, learning to lead takes practice. Managers do not suddenly turn into leaders because of a new title, promotion, or even self-proclamation. They must learn and practice new skills, and become more confident and competent in applying them. Attending a couple of training sessions each year is not enough, nor is reading a few books on the topic. While being exposed to a wide variety of leadership approaches often is beneficial, exposure to the "latest and greatest" (which seems to change almost monthly) can make it even more difficult to stay focused on those skills that most need to be practiced and refined.
And learning about leadership is not the same thing as learning to lead. They certainly go together, but to earn an invitation to the Carnegie Hall of leadership, you must be able to demonstrate your great talent, not just your knowledge. Becoming proficient in leadership or any other endeavor requires vigilance and hard work: trying, failing, trying again, and on and on. It takes practice, practice, practice.
It is easy to find examples of the relationship between practice and extraordinary performance. As I watched the stunning accomplishments of athletes at the recently completed Beijing Olympics, I was reminded of the time I saw Olympian Michelle Kwan compete at the U.S. Women's Figure Skating Championship. All of us in the arena that night knew we were witnessing a truly world-class athlete. After marveling at her breathtaking performance, I remember thinking how much of her life she must have dedicated to practicing - falling - adjusting - and practicing some more. One can only imagine the number of things-large and small-that she had to master to become the extraordinary performer she ultimately became.
Or consider Pablo Casals, the great cellist. On the day he died, he was reported to have spent the morning practicing scales. There are already legendary tales about the amount of time Tiger Woods spends on the golf course, immediately before and after competitions, perfecting his game. Even pilots-from commercial air carriers to the space shuttle-spend time in simulators, honing the skills they need to be their best.
As natural as practice may be for others who achieve extraordinary performance in professions such as these, that is not the case for many people aspiring to be better leaders. And there is a compelling reason why.
Athletes, musicians, and many others in similar professions practice and practice to prepare for scheduled performance times. Whether a concert or an Olympic competition, these are times when they must demonstrate their best, when they are judged and evaluated. They practice away from the spotlight (and critics) and frequently, if not always, with a teacher or coach close by to help them develop their talent step-by-step. Practice is their safe time to test, make mistakes, struggle, learn and improve.
But for leaders, in what environment do we get to practice? That's right: we are on stage, in the presence of the people we are attempting to lead, and usually without the supporting hand of a mentor or coach. Aspiring leaders do not enjoy a private, safe haven. Practice takes place in the public spotlight, in real time. And when performance comes up short, important people see it. Often without the benefit of private counseling from a coach or the opportunity to immediately try again, mistakes, awkwardness, and appearance of incompetence-all natural parts of learning-are in full view. Not a very comfortable situation, is it!
So 'work-in-progress leaders' are asked to inspire commitment from followers who, everyday, see evidence that their skills are not fully polished. (And, don't forget, it is these same followers that are also a leader's toughest judges and critics.) No wonder a lot of aspiring leaders keep a low profile and make slow progress. Practice is just too risky.
However, there are lessons out of all of this. First, if you are personally striving to become a better leader, take heart! It is going to take great courage and resolve. You must be willing to put your "less than perfect performances" in the spotlight for everyone to see. You are going to make a lot of mistakes as you practice and learn, and those will often bruise the relationships you are trying to build with your people. But despite the discomfort, you must acknowledge your shortcomings, continue to learn from the mistakes, and keep working at sharpening the skills necessary to make you a better leader. Not practicing is simply not an option.
And there also is a lesson here for those who are trying to help managers become leaders. Be very encouraging and supportive. Make it safe for them to try new behaviors and work with them to help them improve. Be aware of the emotional toll that learning takes and help them overcome the feelings of inadequacy they may often experience. And of course, look for ways to recognize the progress they are making and continually reassure them that their struggles are for a truly important and worthy goal.
Steve Coats is a managing partner and co-owner of International Leadership Associates , a leadership development education and consulting firm. He is also a Leadership Challenge® Workshop Master Facilitator. For nearly twenty years, Steve has taught, coached, and consulted with executives and all levels of managers in several countries around the world. Steve can be contacted at stevec@i-lead.com.
September 2008: The Leadership Challenge and Gallup's StrengthsFinder—What's the Difference? By Craig Haptonstall
Given the many resources and training strategies in today's marketplace, we are challenged to better understand the differences between all these various resources. Gaining clarity around what each has to offer will help us determine which tool to apply to a given situation to more effectively achieve our desired outcomes and goals.
Currently, one of the more popular tools used in a variety of training initiatives is The Gallup Organization's StrengthsFinder. As described in a recent article provided by the Career Planning and Adult Development Network, "StrengthsFinder is a talent assessment instrument developed expressly for the Internet. It is built upon three primary discoveries that resulted from decades of research of successful human beings. Skills can be learned, and knowledge can be obtained. However, talent—the key to strength and peak performance - must exist naturally within a person. A talent is a naturally recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied. Talents are spontaneous, top-of-mind, perhaps even subconscious reactions to situations…what one does well "without even thinking about it." They are innate, non-teachable.
Based on 34 StrengthsFinder talent themes, the StrengthsFinder instrument presents 180 paired-choice comparisons in sets that present two potential self-descriptors-each anchoring polar ends of a continuum. Using online connectivity that is fully secure and easy to use, participants are prompted to choose from each pair the statement that best describes them, and the extent to which that chosen option is self-descriptive. Participants are given 20 seconds to respond to a given item before the system moves on.
For those interested in finding their best "fit" among the possible organizational roles and positions, the StrengthsFinder instrument is a great tool. Gaining talent clarity allows us to pursue roles and positions that are best suited to our innate talents, and can offer the greatest opportunity to achieve superior performance and personal satisfaction. With talents, we are not trying to develop anything new; we are simply working to become more aware of what is already there.
So, what about the position or role of leading others?
Different than the StrengthsFinder model, The Leadership Challenge discusses a role that transcends any specific position in an organization: the role or position of a strong leader that demonstrates leadership in the eyes of others.
The 25 years of academic evidence collected and reported on by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner suggests it is possible for anyone-independent of role or talent-to become a better leader, developing our abilities to influence others to achieve extraordinary results. In their best-selling book, The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner identify The Five Leadership Practices®—Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart—as five behavior sets we can develop and enhance with practice.
In over 13 years of applying and practicing the principles of The Leadership Challenge with people and organizations, I have also become convinced that leadership is a learnable behavior set, if three things happen:
- First and foremost, we must make a conscious decision to become a better leader and to become more effective in demonstrating leadership. Until this personal decision is made, no amount of evidence or research will make a difference.
- We need to gain some "outsight": information beyond what we currently have to work with, which can come from research, books, assessments, or any number of places. This is also where The Leadership Challenge book and The Leadership Practices Inventory® (LPI) can really support learning. While the book represents over 25 years of academic research, the LPI is a valid and reliable 360- degree assessment that uses 30 questions to identify developmental benchmarks within The Five Leadership Practices®.
- In order for leadership (or any other skill set) to develop, we must practice new behavior. This is where The Leadership Challenge® Workshop supports development. By creating a safe learning environment, with proven instructional practice, we can document elevated leadership levels as a positive learning outcome. This workshop can be delivered in a variety of ways and days, as best identified by the participating party.
So, if the goal is to increase awareness of innate strengths and talents, the Stengthsfinder is a great resource. With this information we can pursue positions and roles that will enable us to do what we like to do, and will potentially be the best at doing.
On the other hand, if the goal is to develop our skills and abilities in influencing others to achieve extraordinary outcomes, The Leadership Challenge is the very best resource in the market today as a comprehensive set of tools for succeeding in our roles as leaders and demonstrating higher leadership levels.
Craig Haptonstall is president and CEO of Leadership Mechanics, LLC and a Master Facilitator of The Leadership Challenge® Workshop. An experienced and results oriented speaker and coach whose corporate career has included positions with Southwest Airlines and The Tom Peters Company, he can be reached at www.leadershipmechanics.com
July 2008: Start with a Personal Vision By Christine Barnes
When you're stuck in shifting beach sand up past your ankles, unable to tear your gaze from the tsunami about to slam into the shore, the last thing that would be on your mind is, "Now would be a good time to be inspired by a shared vision".
No way.
Instead, you either freeze in place waiting for the inevitable, or you frantically try to extricate yourself, to run in the opposite direction. While neither one is very practical, both are very understandable behaviors, given the situation. However, this scenario is an environmental disaster of a different nature: our 4,000 person company is about to be acquired by a software behemoth almost 20 times our size.
Regardless of whether or not you've ever been "the acquired", imagine yourself facing that tsunami in other areas of your life, and you can relate to the chaos, confusion, uncertainty and fear that follows an event of such magnitude. In addition to an acquisition, such feelings can occur with a job change, a move, death, divorce, or serious illness. And, as much as we yearn for a leader to rescue us-Indiana Jones style-we so often feel alone, helpless, and ineffective.
With little information coming from our new overlords, and not much to do but wait and see, some employees can become paralyzed: "Who will tell me what to work on?" Others become hyperactive, racing to close another deal, finish the marketing plan, get that product release out the door. And still others will leave, preferring to strike out on their own. In such situations, survival skills (e.g., defend territory, look busy) often trump strategy as people begin to shut down, pull back, and play it safe.
Why plan anything when the future is so unknown?
There are two key reasons: Personal. Leadership.
As in: Why not equip our high potential employees with important leadership practices to bring with them into their next role? Why not use this time to help our best talent take a step back, and:
- Explore who they are becoming as leaders
- Look at what's important to them personally
- Develop a personal vision of leadership to share
Based on a successful Leadership Challenge® Workshop pilot we had held the previous fall, I contacted Steve Houchin of International Leadership Associates to discuss next steps. After initial hellos, and an update on the looming acquisition, his first comment was, "I suppose all training has been cancelled." "Why no," I replied. "I want to complete two workshops before we wind down the company." Silence for a heartbeat on the phone. "Really," he said. It wasn't a question; it was a statement. We got to work, planning two workshops over the following two months.
In the midst of the chaos and distractions dealing with various crises and issues related to the acquisition, about a dozen people committed the time and energy to focus on The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®. Although the sessions drew fewer of our high potential employees than Steve and I would have liked, everyone understood that this was an opportunity to focus on developing a personal vision. They stepped up, and stepped into their developing leadership capabilities.
In both sessions, we acknowledged up front how difficult it would be to "Inspire a Shared Vision" about work, when no one knew their role, team goals, or even what team they would be on within two months. Yet, they all "nailed" their personal vision statements. One participant wrote: "I have a dream that I can live with passion, inspiring creativity, productivity and joy in myself and others." What employer wouldn't jump at the chance to hire someone with talent and passion like that?
There are several key lessons to be learned from this experience. While Indiana Jones is an amazing character, he is only fictional, not the real thing. Waiting for a hero like him to bail us out may mean waiting forever-and unnecessarily. When people realize that the leader they are waiting for is within them, they become their own amazing hero. They can stand and face whatever life throws at them, confident in the knowledge of who they are as people and as leaders. From there, it seems a short step to inspiring a shared vision of what's possible, at work and in life.
As I write this article, today is the last day our company exists as is. On Monday, those who stayed become employees of the new company, and I'm inspired just knowing that several of our very best people will be taking on new roles and leading new teams, having delved into The Five Leadership Practices®. I'm especially proud of each of them for taking the time to create their personal vision, as a cornerstone of those practices.
Christine Barnes works in Leadership and Development at a global level.
June 2008: Curiosity: What's out there? Who's in here? by Peter Alduino
If you have seen the reruns for the 1970's television detective series Columbo, or the subsequent made-for-TV movies, you'll remember that oftentimes just as frumpy, disheveled Lt. Columbo was finishing a conversation with a suspect and on his way out the door, he would invariably pause, put his index finger up to his forehead, turn back to the suspect, point his finger, and say, "Oh, by the way," and ask one last question. And it was the answers to those final oh-by-the-way questions that, when woven together, would ultimately help him solve the case.
Curiosity is our determined internal sleuth that regularly seeks out clues, hints and data to satisfy the huge appetite in each one of us that has little taste for stasis or status quo, but prefers instead a plate with generous helpings of answers to our whos, whats, whens, wheres, whys, hows, and I-wonder-ifs!
Even a casual glance around our offices or our homes provides overwhelming evidence of our insatiable curiosity. Substantial sectors of our global economy are designed, dedicated, and depend on creating and supporting technologies that feed our hunger for inquiries and answers, our need-to-know, 24/7/365.
Individually, we spend enormous quantities of time typing queries into search engines, finding out the latest news on our web-enabled PDA, and keeping current by cell phone.
In our various roles as leader-at work, at school, in our communities, even at home-we experiment, take risks, listen to diverse points of view, ask "what can we learn," when things do not go as expected, and search outside the formal boundaries of our organization for innovative ways to improve what we do.
The data suggests that our curiosity is overwhelmingly focused on uncovering the answers to what is "out there."
But what about what is "in here?"
When was the last time you allowed yourself the time and the space to be curious about you? When did you last apply the same energy and determination with which you pursue answers to what is "out there" to the questions about what is "in here": Who am I? What do I stand for? What do I fundamentally believe about the meaning of our work, and the direction in which we are headed?
If your honest answer to the question is something along the lines: "I don't do this, or at least not very much," or "I'm not sure," or "I've got a vague idea," or "I'd like to find out more," you are in good company.
And that is why we devote the entire first day of the two-day The Leadership Challenge® Workshop to an exploration of leader. Leadership is, first and foremost, an internal exploration of who you are. With that foundation, we can then examine and fine-tune what you do.
The first of the three prerequisites for a meaningful exploration of leadership is that you be curious—curious not about what is "out there," but curious about who is "in here."
©Peter Alduino
Peter Alduino is President and Founder of Bridge Group Communications, LLC, a San Francisco Bay-Area based leadership-consulting practice providing comprehensive leadership development seminars. Author of The Citizen Leader™ Seminars, and a Master Facilitator for The Leadership Challenge® Workshop, he can be reached at peter@bridgegroup.com.
May 2008: Inspire a Shared Vision by Steve Coats
How important is Inspiring?
Based on over twenty years of survey research, Kouzes and Posner have shown that there are four characteristics which people most consistently look for in the leaders they admire: honesty, competence, inspiring, and forward-looking.
Over the years I have shared these findings with thousands of aspiring leaders. And there is seldom, if ever, dissenting points of view about this ranking. Many may try to make the case that one of their personal favorites should be high on the list—be it supportive, fair-minded, or whatever. But, in the end, they recognize and concur that these four attributes are the most important characteristics of leadership.
On many occasions, I also have taken these findings a step further. In a completely unscientific fashion, I have asked people to rate themselves on how they believe they are doing in each of these four areas. For example, on a scale of 1 to 10, I ask participants to respond to questions such as, "How honest are you?," How competent?," and so forth.
How do you think people responded? Which do you think they typically rated the highest or lowest? Is there a wide spread between the two? What would your response look like?
The results I've seen form a fairly predictable pattern. The business people I predominately have worked with tend to rate themselves very high in honesty and competence, and much lower in forward-looking and inspiring (generally in that order). When asked directly, very few view themselves as inspiring and, in fact, many readily ante up evidence about how "uninspiring" they are. For some reason, they do not seem to be too concerned. It is as if being considered inspiring would be nice, but it is not anything to lose sleep over. They even argue that not everyone is destined to be a John Kennedy or a Martin Luther King.
I might add that they do not seem so cavalier about honesty and competence. And even though many do not rate themselves very high in forward-looking, they seem to accept that it is, indeed, essential for leaders. For some reason, however, inspiring is usually not viewed in the same light. Could these leaders be attempting to minimize a weakness they don't believe they can strengthen? Or is their perspective actually correct?
Remember that nearly 70% of all respondents to the Characteristics of Admired Leaders survey have indicated that inspiring is an attribute they most admire in a leader. Ironically, most of these self-admitted, non-inspiring businesspeople selected it as well.
So is Inspiring, as a key characteristic of leadership, really important? The answer may come from looking no further than Senator Barack Obama. Here is an individual who in mid-2007 (just 18 months before the Presidential election), was given little to no chance of being elected President of the United States, especially given the prominent position of his opponent, Senator Hillary Clinton. Nine months later, he was the front-runner. And if there has been one word used most frequently to explain his unexpected and perhaps miraculous rise, that word would be inspiring. In many people's eyes Barack Obama is inspiring - and that attribute, above the rest, is differentiating him from the pack and helping him in his run for the White House.
Through March 2008, Senator Clinton's attempts to sway voters in her direction by focusing on the issue of competence have yet to be proven successful. So, is competence important for leaders? You bet. But at least in the 2008 Democratic primary contest, so is inspiring.
No leader of a company or a country can be a one-trick pony. If Senator Obama is perceived to lack honesty, competence, and vision, his inspiring presence will not be nearly enough for him to win. But it will likely be "the difference" if the other attributes are not in question.
As we watch with interest how this all unfolds, there are a few key lessons to be learned. The first is that it is clear that a leader cannot discount the importance of being perceived as inspiring. People want to be inspired and energized about the future, and know that their leaders really care. These are the leaders they will more readily choose to follow. This means that those considered inspiring will have a leg up as leaders over those who are not. So do not overlook or minimize the importance of this attribute, just because it is not one of your strong suits. You will grow in your effectiveness as you work to make it a strength.
The other lesson is also very important and could be the subject of another article. Being inspiring is much more than simply being a gifted speaker. Having a golden tongue certainly is an asset, especially if you are running for public office. But it is not the only criteria for being inspiring. Funny thing, when you ask people to think about great speakers, they are quick to point out some well known names (including Kennedy and King). One name that never makes this list is Mother Theresa yet she is almost always at the top of the list of the most inspiring people. (And I am sure you can cite a number of other examples as well.) Perhaps we should give some thought as to why.
If being genuinely inspiring is not simply great oratory skills, then what else is it?
Examining this leadership characteristic from that perspective will reveal a variety of new options, beyond public speaking, which you can pursue in becoming more inspiring yourself. And that will serve you well on your leadership journey.
One of the leading authorities on The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®, Steve Coats has been involved with The Leadership Challenge for over 20 years. A managing partner and co-owner of International Leadership Associates, a leadership development education and consulting firm, he can be reached at stevec@i-lead.com
April 2008: Inspire a Shared Vision by Michael Neiss
Crafting an Inspiring Vision to Drive Change
In my sessions with managers and leaders, I often ask attendees how much of their time they set aside during the previous week to think about and plan for their area of responsibility—three years out. After the nervous chuckles subside, it is clear that very few value long-term visioning over the demands for short-term results. Yet, in today's turbulent business world, vision or purpose is critical to driving the change necessary for excellence.
For instance, most of my clients identify innovation as a key strategy necessary for them to excel in their business. At the same time they often admit that they fall short in creating real innovation, citing historic practices and structure as the key barriers. To become innovative, substantial change is required. And that's where Inspiring a Shared Vision-one of the essential Five Practices-applies.
A powerful and compelling vision, delivered in an inspiring manner, is necessary to thaw out an organization's entrenched practices and drive the necessary changes in systems, and even, the culture. A great vision provides the courage necessary to change. It engages the discretionary efforts of the team. And most importantly, once it becomes shared, a great vision provides the determination and discipline to actually implement change.
Facilitators provide a great service to workshop participants and the sponsoring organization by setting aside sufficient time for attendees to complete a written draft of their vision statement. It takes time to help participants move beyond the initial tendency to state their vision as a three-year business plan full of metrics and, instead, actually breathe enough life into their vision to create a compelling picture of the possibilities.
For many workshop attendees, functioning in business environments that place the highest priority on execution and operational excellence, the need for a statement of ennobling possibilities can be seen as a 'nice-to-do,' not a 'must-do.' What is missed here is the simple dynamic that people execute when they are passionate about building something together that makes a difference.
Although time is always at a premium in workshops, the feedback I have received continues to confirm that creating an inspiring vision is the most useful takeaway for participants.
Max DePree, past CEO of my client Herman Miller, Inc. said it well, "Management has a lot to do with answers. Leadership is a function of questions. And the first question for a leader always is: 'Who do we intend to be?' Not 'What are we going to do?' but 'Who do we intend to be?'" The leadership journey often begins with answering that question.
Michael Neiss is a 25-year veteran in corporate management, OD and HR, and leadership consulting. A Master Facilitator of The Leadership Challenge® Workshop, he can be reached at mike@michaelneiss.com.
March 2008: The Five Practices by Barry Z. Posner
Be Leaders: Do Leadership
Learning about leadership is not the same as learning to be a leader. This "blinding flash of the obvious" comes after being a leadership scholar for more than 30 years and serving as a leader for much of that time. Too much of what I see in business education is teaching about leadership: leadership theories and concepts or social psychological concepts applied to leadership. What we should be teaching our students is how to be leaders.
Learning to be a leader doesn't happen enough. Don't get me wrong. Students do learn what is required to be a leader. But students—along with executives, public servants, clergy, physicians, etc.—can't be leaders by restricting their learning of leadership to the classroom. Just as medical students can't become surgeons by only operating on cadavers or elected officials can't make budget decisions without prioritizing among competing 'goods', our students can't learn to be leaders until they experience leading themselves.
Of course, that's the rub, and also the source of the familiar refrain, "I can teach about leadership, but only the student can learn it." Therefore, the reason we need to be doing things differently in our leadership curriculum is that leadership development is fundamentally the development of the inner self. Being a leader requires leading from within more than leading from outside.
Organizations can only pay people to manage; there are no intrinsic reasons for leading. In fact, it's hard to imagine people getting up day-after-day and putting in the countless hours required to get extraordinary things accomplished, unless they have their hearts in it.
Leadership is hard work. It is about going beyond a job description-like caring. From a missed meal or night of sleep, leadership also requires sacrifice if you want to make a difference. Does anyone tell their graduates that they can expect to get ahead in their careers or lives by working regular 9-to-5 hours?
In every leadership seminar I teach—whether undergraduate or graduate students, or practitioners—would-be leaders are required to go out and lead, and then come back and reflect on that experience in order to learn how to be a better leader. Of course, I offer ideas, concepts, techniques, and strategies in an effort to make the seminar assignment successful. But what participants don't always realize at the start is that (a) I really don't have anything to teach them that they don't already know, and (b) that becoming a better leader only happens in the 'doing' of leadership. The 'grade' on such an assignment is not a measure of their work output but comes from their reflections on what they learned from the experience (irrespective of the outcome), and what they would do differently given another opportunity.
My co-author, Jim Kouzes, and I talk about leadership practices because we know that it is only through disciplined practice that one can gain mastery. In this regard, talent is over-rated. Organizations will prosper more by gaining a 1 percent improvement in 100 people than they will by getting the most talented individual to do 100 percent better.
Another outcome of asking students and practitioners to 'do' leadership in order to learn to be better leaders is the value of their remarkable accomplishments-most of which would not have happened if these same individuals were not required to do something different. This leads to still another keen insight into leadership: there is no shortage of opportunities to lead and make a difference. (There's wisdom in the old adage, "Where there is a will, there is a way.")
It never fails to anger and frustrate me when asked, "Are leaders born or made?" Leadership is a skill. And while this set of abilities is normally distributed in a population just as any other talent is, it can be made (learned) in the same fashion as any other ability. But no amount of practicing and coaching can make up for the lack of desire, motivation, drive, or passion on the part of the individual to do better than they are currently doing. Which brings us full circle, where leadership begins inside of us as we try to figure out such questions as who am I, why do I do what I do, what's important to me, and the like.
The same challenge is equally applicable to higher education administration. We don't ask department chairs to be leaders, so the outcome is the same as teaching about leadership without doing it and reflecting on what was done as a leader.
We politely call them department chairs (perish the thought that we would be putting them on some pedestal), but they are more like bureaucrats (from a public administration perspective) or managers (using business jargon) than leaders. Where do we use the term "department leaders?" Isn't it true that few of our faculty want to become department chairs (let alone Deans!) or volunteer to "chair" their departments? Indeed, in a great Catch-22, we're mostly suspicious of anyone that would volunteer to be a department chair, wondering what "power trip" they might be on or what vendetta they want to pursue.
As leaders on our campuses we have often decried the "cosmopolitan" norms of the faculty who have been educated to be more concerned with and attuned to professional standards than to "local" or institutional considerations. Let's appreciate that there doesn't have to be a contest between these two orientations. The good work of the faculty in academic and professional communities serves the needs of our students for current and validated information. And the questions, issues, hypotheses and applications that students raise serves to heighten the richness and depth of faculty understanding and knowledge. After all, as often pointed out, if you really want to know a subject, try teaching it to others.
Figuring out what is important inside applies to the faculty, just as much as it does to our students. The plain truth is that most organizations conspire to make department chairs and others in hierarchical positions into managers. And they do this conspiratorially by keeping everyone so busy-barely managing to complete all the tasks already on their plates-that they don't have any time to lead. Putting out fires and dealing with matters that have happened in the past, managers are confined to responding to whatever is happening right now in front of them.
In this way, they deal more with "what" should I be doing than "why" should I be doing (anything). The future is the time domain of leaders: "What should I be doing today that will get us to where we want to be in the future?" is the leadership question.
Language also influences our thinking and behavior. At Santa Clara, we scrapped our traditional undergraduate and graduate policy committees in favor of leadership teams-as in the "Undergraduate LEADERSHIP Team." The same faculty members are still involved, but are now responsible for setting an annual agenda around what will make our program better, rather than simply making decisions around new courses, reviewing prerequisites, admissions standards, etc. (which, by the way, they still do). Just this shift in language has altered their perspective: from holding onto the status quo (managing) to figuring out what needs to be changed (leading). We're working hard to reduce the administrivia connected with department chairs' responsibilities so that they only have two leadership tasks: curriculum innovation and faculty development.
I'm often pointing out, with all due humility, that it is so much easier to write about leadership than it is to do leadership. But in this doing, in the being of leading, I am confident that I have become a more astute scholar about leadership and more insightful about how to liberate the leader within everyone.
Barry Z. Posner is Dean of the Leavey School of Business and Professor of Leadership at Santa Clara University where he has received numerous teaching and innovation awards. He is co-author of The Leadership Challenge.
The Five Practices by Craig Haptonstall
Choosing to Grow!
Growth is a difficult challenge. It is not easy. And it typically never occurs as a single event. Rather, it is a process that happens over time. Although growth can be fast-and sometimes mandated-it is ultimately rooted in the power of choice. It may be an elective but the alternative is maintaining the status quo, or even shrinking.
So how do we grow—in influence, in effectiveness, in skills? There is a clear and concise growth strategy outlined for us in The Leadership Challenge. Let's step through model to see its application in our everyday lives.
Step One: Establish some prioritized beliefs or values to understand our own commitment to development. The leadership practice of Model the Way provides the guidance we need to establish this list. With a little self-examination, we can pick the values we want to live by, and these values can serve to direct our motivation and define our calls to action.
Step Two: Identify and describe the future state we are trying to create. The leadership practice of Inspire a Shared Vision is designed to create this picture for us and to engage our constituents in the growth process. Any great growth strategy is best accomplished by enlisting some support from those around us, and these people want to know where we are trying to go and why. Supported with tools like metaphors, similes, word pictures, repetition, and intonation, we can create a compelling image in the eyes and minds of our constituents.
Step Three: Make a change of some kind. This leadership practice of Challenge the Process provides us with the ideas and suggestions to try something new. Experiment and learn from the experience. Whether it works or it doesn't, we can apply the learning and improve over time.
Step Four: Implement the leadership practice of Enable Others to Act. Here we are able to develop more cooperative relationships with those around us, building trust and trusting intentions while also creating more effective communications among our constituents. Growth is difficult but the more we engage and enlist those around us-with information and resources-our own actions and theirs will be enhanced.
Step Five: The very important and often overlooked leadership practice of Encourage the Heart. This is both the recognition and celebration of the small and large accomplishments we achieve along the developmental growth path. Increasing our awareness of what warrants recognition, and then making the praise or reward visible to others and to ourselves, bolsters our resilience during the growth process. Encouraging our own hearts for taking the steps needed for growth will foster our ongoing commitment to grow.
In a world that is continually changing and evolving, our best option is to choose to grow-or risk being left behind as the world changes around us. Following the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® as outlined in The Leadership Challenge is our practical roadmap to growth.
Are you ready? Are you ready to choose to GROW?
Craig Haptonstall is President and CEO of Leadership Mechanics LLC. With a corporate career that has included Southwest Airlines and The Tom Peters Company, he also is a Master Facilitator of The Leadership Challenge Workshop® and can be reached at craig.haptonstall@leadershipmechanics.com.
January 2008: Loving Critics: The Importance of Feedback by Jim Kouzes
The late John Gardner, leadership scholar and presidential advisor, once remarked, "Pity the leader caught between unloving critics and uncritical lovers." I'm quite taken by this observation. It should be on a poster that hangs over every leader's desk-or a screen saver on their computers-and it should be read and contemplated several times a day.
None of us likes to hear the constant screeching of the harpies who have only foul things to say. At the same time, we never benefit from, nor truly believe, the sycophants whose flattery is so obviously aimed at gaining favor. To stay honest with ourselves, what we really need are "loving critics"-people who care deeply enough to give us honest feedback about how we're doing.
According to research Barry Posner and I have conducted over the years, credibility is at the foundation of leadership. From a behavioral perspective, credibility is about "doing what you say you will do." But how can you do what you say if you don't know how you're doing? If you never ask for feedback on your behavior and on how your behavior affects how others are doing, how can you really expect to align your words and your actions over the long haul?
There's solid evidence that the best leaders are highly attuned to what's going on inside of them as they are leading, as well as what's going on with others. They're very self-aware and they're very socially aware. They can tell in short order whether they've done something that has enabled someone to perform at a higher level or whether they've sent motivation heading south.
Setting up a system for getting regular feedback (the equivalent of the dashboard) and paying attention to that feedback will help a leader more effectively move the organization forward. All leaders want to have a positive impact on performance. It's part of their legacy. The only way they can know if they're having the desired impact is to get regular feedback on how they're doing.
In addition to the annual 360-degree assessment, try this the next time you're in a meeting. Begin by asking, "How am I doing?" More than likely you'll be greeted with stunned silence—a sure sign folks are not used to being asked this question by you (or anyone else) and are uncomfortable in responding. But if you wait long enough some brave soul may venture an honest response. When she or he does, immediately recognize him or her for showing some courage, and tell the rest of the group, "That's what we need more of around here. More loving critics."
Jim Kouzes is a highly regarded leadership scholar, experienced executive, and coauthor (with Barry Posner) of The Leadership Challenge. He also is Dean's Executive Professor of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University and has been cited by The Wall Street Journal as one of the twelve best executive educators in the U.S.
November 2007: The Five Practices by Beth High
Packing for the Journey: Lessons from The Leadership Challenge Leadercast Series
I have a friend who is a Master Packer. She is able to put all she needs for a week-long trip into a satchel that looks like a lunchbox to me. She knows the essentials to bring that will give her flexibility and the confidence she will need to deal with whatever situation occurs along the way.
As I interviewed various leaders for the first program in The Leadership Challenge Leadercast Series, I discovered that they, too, demonstrated the very same qualities as my Master Packer friend. These exemplary leaders were experienced travelers on their leadership journey, continuing to encounter new challenges and finding new ways to address them. And although each situation was unique, what they shared were the essentials they had with them: The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®.
During the interviews, each leader described specific actions they were taking to increase the frequency of one of The Five Practices—one that they identified based on their LPI results. What became clear to me as we talked about their experiences was that in the process of putting a specific plan into action to focus on one specific practice, opportunities for the other practices showed up as well. And they were ready to seize the moment. They had the essential Five Practices to draw upon, whatever the occasion.
Sackeena Gordon-Jones was focused on Model the Way. She intended to walk the talk for the executives she coaches as well as her team members who were looking to her for strategic thinking. In the process of helping the team be more strategic, the opportunity to Inspire a Shared Vision landed in her lap and she took it.
Anne McLaughlin was focused on Inspire a Shared Vision with her team, to lay out a plan for where they were headed as a company. In the process of exploring how to best do that, she Challenged the Process by changing the venue to a location that had greater impact and pulled the team closer together.
Dan Schwab needed to Challenge the Process to shift his company's mindset to think long-range. In the process of finding new and effective ways to get vital information to the decentralized offices, he also happened upon an opportunity to Enable Others to Act by sharing best practices.
John Kurzeja focused on Enable Others to Act in his management program for Epicurean Foods. He recognized the opportunity to reduce turnover if management could switch from a command-and-control approach to one where employees felt ownership in the success of the business. In the process of exploring this practice, they all discovered the role that credibility and Model the Way played in implementing the change. Each manager needed to believe enough in this new approach that they would model the behavior of empowering others consistently. They needed to walk the talk.
Hugo Venegas had his mind set on increasing the frequency of Encourage the Heart. He was focused on creating opportunities for his parishioners to feel appreciated by their community. What he found in the process was an opportunity to Enable Others to Act, specifically his staff. By opening the challenge to them, he created a sense of empowerment that led to idea generation and shared ownership of the challenge.
Because these leaders had packed well for their journey, they were able to reach outside their immediate focus and draw on the other practices. The Five Practices model was close at hand and accessible when they needed it.
So here's the lesson I learned from these fine leaders: Keep The Five Practices in your back pocket. What could be more convenient and more useful than that? You'll continue to grow as a leader and you'll be prepared for whatever the journey offers up.
The Leadership Challenge® Leadercast is series of six podcasts that serve to "continue the challenge" for participants and proponents of The Leadership Challenge.
Beth High is a Master Facilitator of The Leadership Challenge® Workshop. Embracing the metaphor that leadership development is a journey, she focuses on helping her clients establish ongoing development practices that will support them on that journey. She can be reached at highhroadconsulting@mac.com.
October 2007: Challenge the Process by Fine Points Professionals
Challenge the Process and Reap the Rewards
Have you ever been in a work environment where you heard someone say, "That's not my job!" Or perhaps, you wanted to say it yourself. Sometimes restrictions are placed on us by employers and sometimes we are content to stay inside a self-imposed "assumed" role and never venture out to see what lies beyond.
As owners of Fine Points Professionals, we have worked with the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) since 1997 and in 2004 started our present business, an Authorized Service Center for The Leadership Challenge® Workshop. We have grown passionate about the LPI and The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®. Now, we specialize in administrating the LPI. Our initial business vision included three goals: 1) to provide stellar service to our clients, 2) for us and our employees to be blessed by the growth of our company, and 3) to look outwardly for sharing those blessings with others.
Which brings us back to "that's not my job"! In the fall of 2006 we brainstormed whether an LPI administration company could actually promote and present—free-of-charge—a public Leadership Challenge® Workshop to non-profit groups and public servants in our community. Could we challenge the process we had established for ourselves and produce the whole pie instead of one piece of it? We were now motivated to find a location, a facilitator (our good friend and Master Facilitator Steve Houchin), and fill the seats with people who really wanted to be there, but couldn't afford to attend under other circumstances.
That's when "not my job" became "let's do it!" and, eventually, the vision became reality. Gathered in a meeting room were fire fighters, police officers, clergy, professors, community center directors, teachers, missionaries, city officials—most of them from jobs where they serve their communities and fellow citizens. At Fine Points, we had attempted to expose these types of leaders to The Five Practices in the past, but felt like money was always the proverbial brick wall for them. To finally see 22 people who give of themselves selflessly on a daily basis learn about leadership was truly a dream come true for us.
A common practice at the workshop is to provide participants a choice of fun toys/rewards to use creatively to acknowledge people for something they've done. The first afternoon a woman presented us with a mini basketball hoop and ball and said "If this afternoon is anything like this morning, you've made a slam dunk." Inside, we breathed a huge sigh of relief—YES! Finally, we had received the sort of response for which we had been hoping. More comments followed after Day 2:
"The LPI was a wonderful way to hear helpful and constructive criticism in a non-threatening and yet honest way."
"To be honest, this was one of the most practical approaches to leadership. It was fantastic and enlightening."
"It's the best leadership seminar I have ever experienced."
The participants engaged in learning and for many it was life changing. Fire fighters went back to work with a renewed sense of team building and appreciation for their counterparts in the police force. Teachers returned to their troubled school districts with new ideas of how to enable parents to be more involved and more positive influences in their childrens' lives. Clergy went back to their places of worship inspired to take further action to encourage their parishioners. Community leaders returned to their organizations with a renewed desire to help their communities engage with each other to solve problems. For all of these people, change had occurred.
Whatever sacrifices we made as a compan—financial resources, time, energy—were immediately worth it. It is interesting to realize that when we push ourselves to do something that is somewhat uncomfortable or unknown, we end up feeling empowered. For Fine Points Professionals, "that's not my job" has changed to "let's do it!" And for all of those who attended the workshop, we strongly hope that they will have the courage to venture out of their self-imposed "assumed" roles as well, and impact those around them in a positive way.
Amy Savage, Carol Wolper and Cheryl Boys are co-founders and owners of Fine Points Professionals, Ltd. The Leadership Challenge Authorized service provider for administration of The Leadership Challenge® Workshop. For more information, visit www.finepointsprofessionals.com.
September 2007: Leadership: An Affair of the Heart by Steve Houchin
For years we have stated that while management is an affair of the head, leadership is an affair of the heart. Today, neuroscience is proving us right!
When we have a direct experience, nerve impulses travel first to the enteric nervous system—literally a second brain in our intestines—that produces an instant gut reaction (what we might call 'butterflies'). Next stop for the impulses are the baroreceptors in the heart, or the third brain. The brain in the heart communicates to the rest of the body in a number of ways, one of which is a chemical messenger in the hormonal system called atrial peptide, a principle driver of motivated behavior (the goal of every leader!). Neural messages travel to the brain in our heads to be "thought about" after they have been sensed and interpreted by the intestines and the heart.
What does this mean for leaders? First, whenever you confront important issues and before deciding on a course of action, ask yourself what your gut and heart are telling you in addition to what your head might think. Purposeful, committed action requires an alignment between your head and heart.
Second, messages to constituents must be connected to the heart and gut, reflecting your true feelings. Since behavior is so heavily influenced by what we feel, any perceived disconnect between words and real feelings often makes us appear untrustworthy and damages our credibility—the essential foundation of effective leadership. Constituents believe in the authenticity of leadership when true feelings and beliefs, spoken and written communications, and actions are all in sync.
Third, important messages about vision, strategy, or change must first invoke a positive feeling in the guts and hearts of constituents. If not, your words likely will be interpreted negatively by the message centers in their brains, resulting in the all-too-familiar "resistance to change" syndrome.
Finding your unique leadership voice-one that consistently inspires high levels of performance by constituents&151;is a significant "leadership challenge" but one worthy of your best efforts. One way to get started is to reflect on the following thought questions:
- Do you characterize yourself as a rational decision maker or someone who tends to go with your gut feeling? The next time you are making an important decision, listen to what both your gut and brain may be telling you and try to bring them into alignment.
- Am I an authentic leader? Do my constituents really know what I feel and believe what they hear and see? Is there anything about me that I could change to improve my credibility in the eyes of my followers?
- Recall the last important message you received from your leader(s). Did you understand, agree, or even care? Did you enthusiastically take the appropriate action called for? If yes, what about the leader or what did the leader say or do that inspired your positive response? How can you use this experience to improve your own communication? If no, what specifically can you learn from the experience to avoid or change?
Successful leaders have discovered that they must first listen to their own heart, be comfortable with who they are, and ensure that their words and actions are consistent with both what they believe and their authentic selves. Only then can they can win the hearts and minds of their constituents.
Steve Houchin, an 18-year veteran of corporate HR and executive leadership, is an owner and Managing Partner of International Leadership Associates, the leadership development firm that has presented The Leadership Challenge® Workshop to organizations, large and small, for over 15 years. He can be reached at shouchin@i-lead.com.August 2007: Credibility & Leadership: Reflections on the Nigerian Elections by Richard Obire
As a student of leadership, I am always on the lookout for lessons from everyday events to improve both my understanding and practice of leadership. The recent elections in Nigeria, held April 14 and 21, 2007, have provided me with one such opportunity.
Following the international news reports, you may already be aware that most local and overseas observer groups have suggested that the elections were flawed. Ballot box stuffing, reporting of results where elections were not held, and falsifying voting results-incidences such as these were said to have been widespread.
Going by those accounts, then, one might say that many of the newly-elected State and Federal Legislators, State Governors-and even the President and Vice-President-have questionable electoral mandates. These elected officials, who have now assumed office since May 29, have done so with a heavy credibility deficit.
As students of The Leadership Challenge and its principles, we know that credibility is a basic requirement of leadership, without which the task of mobilizing people to want to struggle and make the sacrifices required to reach lofty goals can become Herculean, if not altogether impossible. In Nigeria, this task is even more challenging: often the only thing that seems to occasionally unify her 250 or so ethnic groups is a soccer match involving the national team.
So the question is, are there leadership lessons to be learned from these recent events? How can the basic principles of credibility help us gain insight into what the implications might be for the newly elected officials in Nigeria and anywhere around the world where leadership truly matters? To answer these questions, I will use a few examples from the actions of the country's former president, Olusegun Obasanjo:
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Midway into his second term, Obasanjo sought to personally benefit from a constitutional review process-which he initiated-that would extend his rule beyond the current limit of eight years (two terms of four years each). It also has been reported that he deployed significant State resources toward ensuring its passage. Described locally as the "third term project," the effort failed in large measure due to strong opposition from a coalition of civil society groups with support from some members of the national legislature. Obasanjo also lost substantial credibility. Going forward, every action he took was viewed with great suspicion by the public and opposition groups: his credibility account with the people was in the red. For example, as a run-up to the election most people did not believe that the electoral commission he formed would deliver a free and fair vote. Apart from repeated assurances, Obasanjo did not take any meaningful steps to address voters' concerns. It also was widely alleged that the Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) was a card carrying member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The result for Obasanjo? His credibility plunged even further. Obasanjo, it was widely believed, had used the anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to target anyone who might present a credible challenge to his hand-picked successor. Most people did not consider the fact that these EFCC-targets might actually have had corruption cases from which they needed to clear themselves. The guilt or innocence of the targets didn't seem to matter. What mattered to the public was that Obasanjo, having failed to get a constitutional amendment to secure a third term in office for himself, now wanted desperately to have a puppet to succeed him. The opposition parties themselves did not help matters. While they were clamoring for a transparent, free and fair electoral process and demanding that Obasanjo and his ruling PDP show the way, they were themselves guilty of imposing selected candidates in their primaries, disallowing competition, and forcefully shutting out dissenting views. |
It is really no surprise that by most accounts the elections turned out to be anything but a democratic process whereby citizens were able to freely express their choice of who should govern them. An important question, however, that has yet to be asked is the role that the perceived lack of credibility played. Were the conclusions reached by the election observers influenced by a perceived lack of credibility vs. substantial irregularities in the actual elections? We may never know for sure. My personal guess would be that the perception factor in the equation could be over 70%.
What this may suggest is that most candidates who should have won were those who actually did win. The current president, Umaru Yaradua, for example, would still have won a freely contested vote. This is not to say, however, that any form of election irregularity should be condoned. The real point is that once credibility is lost even a largely representative outcome gets rubbished.
So what are the take-away leadership lessons to be learned? First, a leader or one who aspires to be one must not only be credible but also must be seen as credible. Second, for leaders to benefit from credibility their actions must be totally credible; credibility does not come in fractional servings. Finally, when leaders lose credibility, they run the risk of losing everything else as well—including favorable credit for contributions and good works that are truly theirs.
Richard Obire is founder and CEO of IRIS Consulting, an African management consulting firm based in Lagos, Nigeria focusing on leadership development, business strategy and organizational learning. A certified facilitator for The Leadership Challenge® Workshop, he is currently vice-president of the Nigeria-Britain Association and a member of the Executive Council of the Lagos Business School Alumni Association. Richard may be contacted at richardobire@irisconsulting.info.
July 2007: Generation Me: Encouraging the Heart by Kim Chesky
Workforce of the Future
Everywhere you turn there is another article written about the looming impact of retiring baby boomers. According to the Conference Board, as many as 64 million skilled workers will be eligible to retire by the year 2010. That is a staggering number, to be sure.
I don't know about you, but this impending labor crunch keeps many of my clients awake at night wondering just who will replace this mass of retiring baby boomers. Their children (or in some cases grandchildren) will, that's who.
Often referred to as Generation Y, the Millennium Generation, or Generation Me, these 18- to-24-year-olds are the newest members of the workforce and represent the future of leadership for our organizations. Bringing to the workplace vastly different expectations about work, life balance, social conscious, and what it means to succeed in a career, these twenty-somethings stand in stark contrast to the boomers they are replacing. Although sometimes maligned for lacking loyalty and the work ethic of their parents, nothing could be farther from the truth. Members of Generation Y are very knowledgeable, have spent their lives surrounded by technology, are well connected to information and a vast social network, and are capable of being highly productive.
So what makes this group different? Like generations before, Generation Me has been shaped by experience. They witnessed 9/11 and the shootings at Columbine which, together, demonstrated how vulnerable life is to unpredictable events and how suddenly tragedy can bring life to an abrupt end. Their views on loyalty have been shaped by the corporate "right-sizings" that victimized their parents, friends and neighbors. Global warming and other environmental and health issues have raised their social conscious. Often raised in dual income households in relative affluence, Gen-Yers were taught to believe that they could do or become anything they wanted. Instead of punishment, boomer parents worked to build self-esteem in their children by showering them with coaching, attention, and praise.
Kim Chesky is the founder and learning partner for Human Performance Solutions, an organization dedicated to helping clients enhance individual, team, and organizational effectiveness. He is also a Master Facilitator of The Leadership Challenge® Workshop. Kim enjoys spending time with his family, cooking, reading, coaching, and refereeing youth athletics and continuing his pursuit of life-long learning. Email him.
The Implication for Leaders
Generation Me can be high maintenance. Their expectations are high. They want interesting, well-paying jobs. They demand life-balance, flexible work arrangements, and want to live life to the fullest. They will leave a job if they feel they have stopped learning and growing. They are very productive, knowledgeable, independent, and technologically savvy. They see work as a job and not a career. And most importantly, they want and expect frequent, positive praise and encouragement for their work.
To win the war for talent, it is critical for leaders and organizations to understand and meet the needs and wants of this Generation Me workforce:
- Build a great place to work where associates are satisfied and engaged
- Deliver challenging and interesting job assignments and create opportunities to learn and grow
- Create and communicate a compelling vision of the future
- Provide regular, effective, frequent recognition, praise and encouragement
Isn't it Amazing?
Encouraging the Heart practices not only meet the needs of members of Generation Me, they address a universal need for recognition. In study after study, employees at all levels and generations indicate that they value, need, and want recognition.
One of the fundamental practices of an outstanding workplace, Encouraging the Heart is essential for retaining quality associates. And yet I am continually amazed by leaders who tell me that they don't believe in encouraging associates. Their list of reasons and excuses are endless . . .
"Why should I do that . . . it's their job, I pay them for it."
"Who has time for that fluffy stuff?"
"I don't see people doing anything all that worthy of encouragement"
or my personal favorite . . .
"If I do it too often it will lose its effectiveness" . . . as if recognition was something to be rationed and horded.
How do the leaders in your organization view encouraging? Do they embrace and model the right behaviors? Or do they think of it as soft fluffy stuff?
Making the Case for Change
What keeps leaders from encouraging the heart? What is the fundamental difference between leaders who encourage and those who don't? The answer lies in the leader's beliefs about recognition.
Changing beliefs changes behaviors. My leadership coaching experience shows that in order to get a leader to become better encouragers I first have to change this leader's beliefs about encouraging. A leader who believes that recognition is unnecessary (i.e., soft fluffy stuff) will have a hard time becoming an effective encourager.
So, how do you change beliefs about encouraging the heart? One way is to appeal to our rational side and paint a straightforward, practical, and compelling business case for Encouraging the Heart. The argument is simple: associates drive customer satisfaction and loyalty in organizations, and the secret to taking great care of customers starts by taking excellent care of associates. Creating a compelling place to work is essential to taking care of customers as well as attracting and retaining talented people. Research by Gallup Inc. and others has shown that encouraging the heart is an essential ingredient for a great workplace.
Another approach is to provide opportunities for leaders to learn from their Encouraging the Heart experiences. If taking care of the customer isn't enough reason to become an expert encourager, think about the impact that encouraging has on reinforcing the behaviors and values you need and expect from associates. How do associates know what is expected of them? How do they know that they are delivering what you want? How do you get more of the behaviors you want and less of the ones you don't? The answer is simple. Get out from behind the desk, catch people doing something right, and tell them about it. It is that straightforward and that effective.
I often give leaders who are struggling with Encouraging the Heart a simple assignment: for two consecutive weeks, their task is to find at least two opportunities each day to encourage others-either in the workplace or in their personal life. Leaders are instructed to practice the seven essentials and then reflect and journal their experiences. It is interesting what leaders discover when we talk about their insights and observations. They find that encouraging doesn't take a lot of time and the impact on others is very positive. They discover that the more they do it the better and more effective they become and that there are benefits to providing ongoing encouragement.
The case for Encouraging the Heart is compelling: greater associate and customer satisfaction combined with the ability to attract and retain the best talent. Whether using these fundamental practices to nurture and support future Gen-Y leaders and innovators or to bring out the creativity of current workforce Baby Boomers, leaders and managers that can demonstrate often a sincere appreciation for individual and team excellence will move their organizations forward in creating an employer-of-choice workplace and win the war for talent.
This article was inspired by an NPR broadcast by Chana Joffe-Walt that aired in late May. Listen now.
JUNE 2007: INSPIRE A SHARED VISION BY CRAIG HAPTONSTALL
To go, to guide, to TRAVEL!
As an advocate of personal growth, traveling is a great passion of mine. Traveling inevitably presents the possibility for opportunities and adventure. There is usually something unexpected, unforeseen, and unplanned that happens along the way, creating the chance to spread one's wings. But it is also possible to experience fears that can inhibit growth during a trip to a foreign, unfamiliar place. Let's face it, the fears of being wrong, losing, rejection, and the unknown often test the limit of personal growth. Being in a strange land, with a different language, culture, and society is scary.
So why is it that we willingly place ourselves in such an uncomfortable situation? I recently went to Egypt because of the magnetic pull of a clear and compelling vision—a vision of riding around the pyramids at Giza on top of a willing camel. My exciting vision was of course created without the knowledge or experience of actual camel-riding. Their long legs create a rocking gate as they walk, and this motion resembles that of a small boat bouncing in choppy water. (I was gently reminded of my 2-hour ride for the next seven days.)
As I was being led away from the busy streets of Cairo on top of this strange animal, there were many thoughts passing into my mind—What if I was really being led away to be mugged? What if I was to be held as a hostage? What if I would be left at the pyramids, with no way to get back to the hotel? Still, the vision of having this experience pulled me forth, and provided courage to not break and run for help, which is what my panicked inner voice suggested. My heart was pounding as the adrenaline flowed. Then I realized it was not pounding with fear, but with the sheer excitement of fulfilling my vision. The sky was incredibly blue, contrasted by the dull grey of the desert sand and I was riding a camel!
A clear vision is one of the first steps in overcoming our fears when you find yourself in an uncomfortable position. And this position is often where you experience the most growth. Let's go!
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Craig Haptonstall is President and CEO of Leadership Mechanics LLC, a Leadership Challenge® affilitate. His travels will next take him to Buenos Aires and Zurich. |
May 2007: Inspire a Shared Vision by Blair Forlaw
Harry Houdini and the Art of Breaking Free
Isn't it amazing the way important themes emerge in different places, simultaneously? In late March, twenty of us were sitting at tables in the St. Louis Hyatt Regency talking about how to get out of the box, just about the same time that authorities in New York were deliberating whether to exhume the body of the famous escape artist, Harry Houdini.
Harry Houdini still makes headlines 80 years after his death because he appeared to be able to defy the limits that frustrate ordinary human beings. He did what the rest of us want to do but usually can't figure out how to do—to free ourselves from constraints (the exhumation notwithstanding, of course). Few have come close to matching what Houdini seemed to have been able to accomplish.
Back over at the Hyatt, our discussion followed this same theme, but with a significant departure. We had gathered to talk with Jim Kouzes, an author and lecturer on the topic of leadership development. Leaders are the people who help us get out of the limiting confines of our present situations and move purposefully toward a vision of a brighter future. But the ability to do so is not the private reserve of a select few superhuman men and women, Kouzes said. In fact, leadership requires a set of skills and abilities that can be mastered by almost anyone—given proper training and the opportunity and discipline to practice, practice, practice.
There went one illusion.
Here's another one that Kouzes and his co-author Barry Posner dispel in their 2006 publication A Leader's Legacy. "The future doesn't just belong to the leaders. It's not just the leader's vision that leaders are accountable for enacting. Leadership isn't about selling your vision; it's about articulating the people's vision."
"OK then," said one of the senior HR leaders in attendance. "But what do we do when we invite our people to participate in planning for the future of our organization, but they keep coming up with the same old ideas? It's like they are stuck in the box; how can we help them get out?"
Kouzes' response may be a little surprising-becoming forward-focused doesn't necessarily result from sitting through leadership development courses or visioning sessions, as we traditionally think of them. Our employees need a steady, sustained diet of things to read and opportunities to talk that expose them to different ideas and vantage points that stretch them and gently push them out of their comfort zones. A broadened view of the present leads to an expanded sense of the future.
In A Leader's Legacy, he puts it this way. "As counterintuitive as it might seem, the best place to start creating the future is by being more mindful in the present. Our failure at being forward-looking may result more from our mindlessness in the present than from any other factor. We operate on automatic pilot, not really noticing what's going on around us, believing we know everything we need to know, viewing the world from established categories, and operating from a single point of view."
This last bit about established categories and a single point of view really hit home with me, in part because of an experience I had immediately before the gathering at the Hyatt. Thanks to my uncanny knack for getting lost, I had gone to the wrong end of the hotel when I arrived, and I wandered the whole length of a concourse packed with corporate training sessions before confirming that I was in the wrong place. I'm not one to be deterred by an occasional blind alley, but by the time I made it out, my shoulders were scrunched inward and my gaze was fixed firmly on the floor. It weighs you down to try to decipher row after row of signs written in acronyms of bold capital letters, with hyphens and decimal points in unfamiliar places. Such is the language of people who talk only among themselves, labels on the boxes we put ourselves in. If you've ever been in a situation where everyone around you was speaking jargon that you didn't understand, you can probably relate to my incredible shrinking feeling.
This is one of the things we're working on through WorkforceStLouis2.0. We strive to bring business leaders together to find common language with which to articulate and communicate a shared vision of a bright future for St. Louis - a metro region competing in a global talent marketplace in which agility, flexibility, critical thinking, team-work, and leadership are essential tools for getting ahead. If Jim Kouzes is right, then the key to anticipating this future lies in a closer examination of where we are right now. It would be amazing if, like Houdini, we have everything we need already in our grasp-we just need to look extremely carefully to see it.
Blair Forlaw is the Director of WorkforceStLouis2.0, a program administered by the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL). WorkforceStLouis2.0 supports business leadership to strengthen the regional human capital value chain by encouraging strategic investments in employee learning and development, enhancing the dynamic exchange of information, experience, and best practices, and building skills and competencies at all occupational levels in companies of every size and sector throughout the St. Louis metro economy. For more information, contact Blair at 314-623-6550 or bforlaw@cael.org.
April 2007: Challenge the Process Part II by Steve Coats
Over the years, I have asked hundreds of people to identify role models who have been successful in Challenging the Process within organizations, and then to describe how those people were able to succeed while so many others struggle. From this research, I have created a list of six factors for raising the probability of success in the difficult work of Challenging the Process. I hope you find them useful in your own efforts.
1. Respect the Culture
How would you like it if someone barged into your home and started lecturing you on how to raise your kids better? Most parents would be offended to some degree. In organizations, similar resistance can occur to those who Challenge the Process. You must be careful in how you confront and challenge accepted processes, systems, or behavioral norms.
It is crucial that you understand and appreciate the environment in which you are attempting to challenge the way something is currently done. You just cannot barge in and criticize the other people for their use of a process you believe to be inefficient or archaic, or send the message that you are the savior of the organization. Simply because you believe you have a better way of doing something does not mean that it is better in everyone's eyes.
Respecting the culture does not mean caving in and demonstrating unwillingness to push back with innovative ideas and changes. It does mean recognizing the past accomplishments of the people in the organization and not belittling those efforts because of a system or process that is no longer serving its purpose in the best way today. In order to be most effective, you need to be mindful that there are appropriate ways to have your "Challenging" (vs. "condescending") voice heard.
In spite of how well an organization is performing, there will always be an aspect of immense importance that is not performing well. It might be a compensation system, an internal overhead allocation process, the way new people are on-boarded, the means by which customer information is gathered, or a host of other processes or procedures. Leaders are willing to step up and take responsibility for addressing these opportunity areas. And they realize and communicate that working to improve certain processes which may have flaws, does not imply that the entire organization is broken or poorly managed.
2. Understand the Process You are Challenging.
Resist the urge to Challenge Processes you know nothing about.
This leadership practice requires homework. A process can have many parts that touch many people in many ways. A change to one part of a process can have unknown or unintended consequences in another part. You must understand a process in its current state, so you can determine the impact your changes will have. Remember that a solution to one problem often creates many new problems.
In addition, you must expect that you will likely offend or upset others when you initiate change. The quote "reform is usually not popular with those who are in charge of that which needs reform" is something to think about. Other peoples' reputations may be tied to the original process you are trying to change, or they might be most effective in their work with the way the process functions today. You need to know who may be negatively impacted by your proposed changes in order to figure out how to ultimately earn their support.
3. Build a Compelling Business Case (if you can)
This one is obvious, but not as easy as it appears. In our cost/benefit focused world, you must be able to prove your point. However - and this is crucial - often, you cannot present a rock-solid case for the change you may be proposing. Several years ago, I was working with a scientist from Bell Labs, back when it was a pure research lab. He told me that if a solid business case for development on the transistor would have been required, the research may have been scrapped. At that time, he said, no one could envision the varied uses that led to the transistor's ultimate commercial value, so its development costs would likely have far exceeded the currently identified, expected value.
Whether this was fact or just one scientist's opinion, his point of view provides a lesson we should grasp. Part of your role as a leader, is to help people go to places they have never been before. That means you will be frequently blazing new trails, with great ideas for doing things differently, which have never been fully proven. You still have to find and present evidence to convince people that a new and different approach is worth pursuing. Gut feel or personal opinion is seldom enough.
Finally, be reminded that you may have to rely on evidence other than facts, because sometimes indisputable facts just don't seem to pan out. For instance the cost advantage for a high tech company to outsource its customer service might be relatively easy to prove. But in another example, recall the surprising response when Southwest Airlines announced they were going to trial a dramatic change in their boarding procedures by offering pre-assigned seats. (Given that every other airline does it this way, wouldn't it be fair to say this process has proven to be most desirable?) Who would have thought that SWA customers would raise such an outcry, when their airline wanted to adopt the industry norm?
4. Build Advocates Inside and Beyond Your Current Circle.
Challenging the Process is hard and lonely work because it leads to change that can create discomfort and produce opponents. You need to be able to build a ground swell of support for your process or procedure innovations. Having key people throughout your organization carrying your message forth is a necessity to make progress. If you are unable to get others to join in, you can easily run out of energy and your novel idea will forever remain simply an idea, not an implemented improvement. A critical mass of supporters, from a wide variety of levels and interests, is often all you will need to be successful.
5. Build Credibility Through Small Wins.
In most organizations, being associated with a big idea that is a success is a great lift for your reputation and your career. But you have to earn the right to be heard on the big, important items. The second commitment in the definition of Challenge the Process refers to "generating small wins." Small wins allow you to build a track record with people, and to show that you can be counted on to deliver what you promise. Following through on promises and commitments is at the core of credibility. When you are viewed as credible, others will have more confidence when you propose a new way of doing something that is currently unproven. Do what you say you will do everyday, deliver consistently on the small things, and very soon you will be involved with - and trusted with - some very large opportunities about which you are passionate.
6. Choose Your Battles Thoughtfully.
It can be easy to become seduced by the dark side, where you become a constant critic of everything in hopes of demonstrating how smart or valuable you are. Don't become known as a whiner or complainer. Accept the fact that you cannot Challenge every Process. You must be selective and apply your time, talent, and energy toward improvements or breakthroughs that are an investment for you.
Like all aspects of leadership, Challenge the Process is about results. It is easy to Monday-morning quarterback and call out problems or inefficiencies that need attention. It is much harder to inspire and mobilize people to figure out and implement better ways of doing things. Focus on a few opportunities where you can take some real and measurable action.
Steve Coats is a managing partner and co-owner of International Leadership Associates, a leadership development education and consulting firm. He is also a Leadership Challenge® Workshop Master Facilitator. For nearly twenty years, Steve has taught, coached, and consulted with executives and all levels of managers in several countries around the world. His expertise is in the related areas of leadership development, team development, personal growth, change, and business strategy. Steve can be contacted via e-mail.
March 2007: Challenge the Process Part I by Steve Coats
Challenge the Process is one of my favorite practices for a couple of reasons. First, it is just great fun to see or read about some of the remarkable improvements and breakthroughs that people have made. I love the imagination of selling pre-cut lettuce in a bag or $300 iPods® in a vending machine. Some ideas work and some don't, but innovations like these sure keep the world interesting.
It is also a favorite because of its relevance. Challenge the Process is the practice of business growth, and growth is one of the most perplexing dilemmas facing organizations today. If they are unable to adapt, change and grow, it is impossible for organizations of any kind to produce solid results over time and literally survive. Yet, as crucial as this practice is, it may also be the most misunderstood of all. I continue to find people misinterpreting the meaning of Challenge the Process in a variety of ways. In fact, in some circumstances, the practice is misapplied as a defense for almost any kind of disagreement ("You're an idiot, but don't be personally offended since I am merely Challenging the Process!") One way to better understand what it is, is to ensure we know what it is not.
Challenge the Process does not mean challenge the values or standards, just because uncompromising integrity or flawless quality are too hard to live by. It does not mean attacking other people when we don't agree with their ideas or points of view. Nor does it mean seeking to dismantle what is working well, or attempting to eliminate something that is simply a personal inconvenience for you. Challenge the Process is about finding and implementing new and better ways of doing things in order to constantly improve to grow.
People in most organizations today have some pretty ambitious objectives to meet each year. The waters are choppy and the wind in their faces is strong, which means that hitting the numbers takes a lot of hard work. But hard work by itself is seldom the answer. It also takes a lot of different work. I frequently ask people if they think they can meet their goals for the coming years by continuing to do their work the way they are currently doing it. Without exception, the answer is no. This is one reason why organizations need more leaders. They need people who will cease the ongoing complaining about how outrageous goals might be (and some indeed are beyond reason), and start rallying people to figure out what can be done to accomplish them. Isn't it ironic that so-called unachievable or impossible goals are accomplished all the time? Somehow, people do figure out an answer.
In another article in this occasional series, we will share with you some of the proven to-do items that enable people in organizations to be more effective in Challenging the Process and implementing innovative ideas and methods. Be mindful how demanding this work can be, because it is seldom easy to convince others to let go of that with which they are comfortable and accept something different.
In the meantime, there are a couple of things you can immediately start practicing as a leader, in order to lay the groundwork for helping others embrace the need to challenge the way things are done. First, do not allow new ideas to be immediately discounted with little or no consideration. Intervene by prompting rich and open dialogue to ensure that ideas get a fair hearing. Second, never allow invalid assumptions to rule the day over proven facts. Ask people to justify their beliefs about whether something new will work or why it won't. Innovation and growth require discipline and thoughtfulness. Finally, spend less time reviewing and reporting on results already in the bank and more time on pursuing new possibilities. And remember the practice is Challenge the Process, not "Talk about Challenge the Process," so this pursuit requires more than simply surfacing and discussing new possibilities. You must allow people the opportunity to do some experimenting, tinkering, creating of prototypes, and so forth, before you can hope to achieve the results you are seeking.
Steve Coats is a managing partner and co-owner of International Leadership Associates, a leadership development education and consulting firm. He is also a Leadership Challenge® Workshop Master Facilitator. For nearly twenty years, Steve has taught, coached, and consulted with executives and all levels of managers in several countries around the world. His expertise is in the related areas of leadership development, team development, personal growth, change, and business strategy. Steve can be contacted via e-mail.
February 2007: Me and My LPI by Sharon Landes
I recently participated in a Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) Clinic offered by The Leadership Challenge® Workshop Master Facilitator Peter Alduino. I hadn't taken an LPI in more years than I can remember, so figured it was time to reassess. As a result, I'm feeling a great deal more empathy and kinship with workshop participants these days. And my personal LPI analysis led me to some key points that have influenced how I present and coach the LPI.
I often use a version of the SARAH model (Shock, Anger, Resistance, Acceptance, Help/Hope) when I introduce the LPI and lately I've been emphasizing the point that Acceptance does not necessarily mean Agreement. That is, that although a respondent, or even several respondents, may see you in particular way, you don't have to agree that it's the "God's honest truth" about you. You can even disagree . . . strongly. All you have to do is accept that's the way they see it, and then make your own decisions about what you want to do differently.
The choice is yours! What you do in response to your LPI is "between you and you." You get to decide what to work on, what to leave alone for a while, how to proceed. And although we, as facilitators, can offer up lots of 'best practices' suggestions about how to choose and how to proceed to follow up, ultimately, what makes the most sense to the individual, for his or her own reasons, will engender the greatest commitment and motivation for behavior change.
I've also started asking folks to consider the question, "Where does the responsibility for behavior change lie?" It's easy and natural to assume that when a respondent reports low frequency in a given behavior, it's up to the leader to find ways to engage in that behavior more often, notwithstanding the other side of the relationship. That will likely raise the score, but it may not be the best thing to do. Here's an example that comes up a lot. Let's say someone gets a low score on the Encouraging the Heart behaviors from one or two respondents, and in discussion, they complain that, in truth, they have a couple of Direct Reports whose performance is lacking and, "they'll be !**#!'ed if they pat someone on the head for just showing up!" Perhaps, in that situation, the responsibility for change lies with the Direct Reports; and that rather than focusing primarily on finding ways to give more praise, the leader needs to look at Enabling Others to Act behaviors; and on setting clear performance standards and opening dialogue to insure that expectations are clear and staff are accountable and take ownership for results. Just be sure to caution folks to be honest with themselves, rather than using the 'convenient excuse' that it's always the respondents who have to change!
Another way I've started to think about the key point above is this: the 'right' question is not necessarily the most obvious one. So when I coach and consult with folks on their LPI's I try to remember not to start with a conversation about how to raise behavior scores or how they interact in relation to individual behaviors, but with a more general inquiry into what's going on in their area and in their work relationships. With that insight, we can interpret the LPI data in context together, understand the unique situation more fully, and more successfully zero in on the critical issues and the behaviors that will offer the most leverage for improved relationships and results.
The Leadership Challenge® Workshop Master Facilitator Sharon Landes' expertise includes leadership, ethics and diversity. She has collaborated with recognized thought leaders in these areas and has led and designed programs based on Terry Pearce's Leading Out Loud and Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner's The Leadership Challenge and Credibility. She can be reached at shlandes@comcast.net.
January 2007: HopeLab Encouraged the Heart to Challenge the Process by Renee Harness
The following is a sneak peek at a case study from the upcoming fourth edition of The Leadership Challenge. Look for it in stores August 2007!
It has long been my belief and experience that when individuals' personal values are aligned with organizational values, great things can be achieved. HopeLab, a non-profit organization that helps young patients with chronic illnesses, demonstrates the power of both personal and organizational values in delivering breakthrough results for their organization, employees, and most importantly, for their clients.
While studying immunology at Tufts University, Pam Omidyar began to think about how to help young cancer patients "fight back" against their cancer with video games. In 2001, she founded HopeLab, where she now serves as board chair. In creating the game Re-MissionTM, HopeLab has achieved cutting-edge results by balancing the rigor of scientific research and the technological creativity of video gaming to manage health-related outcomes for children. The game challenges the player on a journey through the bodies of young patients with different kinds of cancer. Players control a nanobot named Roxxi who destroys cancer cells, battles bacterial infections, and manages realistic, life-threatening side effects associated with cancer.
Using values as their guideposts, HopeLab has achieved a delicate balance between science and creativity, which has led to great success with Re-MissionTM. In scientific trials completed in 2006, the game had a positive impact on adherence to treatment that resulted in significant increases in the quality of life for young cancer patients.
Along with Pat Christen, the President of HopeLab, Pam has created an environment where Encouraging the Heart and celebrating values, is a part of the fabric of the organization. Their values are at the center of what they do and how they do it, and you'll often find them asking "is this in line with our values?" in order to make decisions. The organization has even gone as far as getting staff input on whether the compensation programs are aligned with their values.
While organizational values are very important in setting the tone and providing a guide for what is important in an organization, research cited by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner shows that commitment to an organization is even more dependent on individuals' values. Pat and Pam recognize that personal values drive not only commitment, but passion. Their goal is to help the staff feel comfortable in expressing those passions while ensuring that it is done with respect to differing opinions. In developing Re-MissionTM, HopeLab staff often had differing opinions, among themselves and with the scientists, game developers and other collaborators supporting the project—but balancing these differing opinions to achieve shared goals have made Re-MissionTM and HopeLab successful. According to Pat Christen:
"You have to have difficult conversations. The place to go is the place of heat. Where the heat is most intense, is where the creativity is. My job is to put the systems in place to allow people to walk right into the fire and come out on the other side." Valuing "compassionate efforts based on scientific evidence" is critical in helping ground the conversations between the staff members as they "walk through the fire."
The uncommon mix of staff competencies and expertise, which includes research, psychology, game development, nutrition, communications, health law and policy, and organizational development, has undoubtedly led to HopeLab's ability to Challenge the Process. The organization believes in "continually challenging the highest standards," as well as "creative experimentation." But they challenge not only their own standards, but also commonly held beliefs outside of the organization—beliefs that video games have only a negative impact on young people, and that scientific rigor cannot go hand in hand with creativity.
HopeLab has challenged these beliefs, and more, in the development of Re-MissionTM. Now they Challenge the Process as they work to identify other innovative solutions that will address childhood obesity, sickle cell disease, autism, and major depressive disorder, in addition to their ongoing work in cancer. Go Roxxi!
Renee Harness is the co-founder of the Meridian Leadership Center and has led organizational development, leadership and effectiveness initiatives in corporations and academia for nearly 15 years. She is a part of The Leadership Challenge® Master Facilitator Network.
December 2006: The Leadership Challenge® launches in China
Recently, the principles of The Leadership Challenge® were put to into action by….The Leadership Challenge®. The workshop and assessment tool based on Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner's landmark book, were translated into simplified Chinese and published in a new corner of the world, The People's Republic of China. Wiley Asia, our Chinese publishing partner, Century Wave, (an imprint of PHEI, Publishing House Electronic Industry), and Master Facilitators Lily and Peter Cheng Modeled the Way for a group of 90 trainers, consultants, HR professionals, and media at the October 23rd launch in Beijing. The launch included a speech via video from Jim Kouzes, background on The Leadership Challenge®, The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®, the LPI, and the workshop, and the success stories of clients. The hosts felt they were successful in Inspiring a Shared Vision. According to Adeline Lim, Senior Manager of Channel Development for Wiley Asia, "The success of this launch expedited our plan to expand the workshops and products with strategic marketing of the brand and products into the various industries in China, driving a series of Leadership Fairs, building strategic training partners, and local Master Facilitators as well as establishing local editorial research team to look into various aspects of leadership development that may subsequently lead into the publishing of local supplements or books to compliment and enhance The Leadership Challenge® brand."
The launch was followed by the country's first Leadership Challenge® Public Workshop, conducted over two days by Master Facilitator Craig Haptonstall. The participants included executives and consultants from such corporations as Nokia, HP, and Motorola. Students were very enthusiastic and eager to participate at the workshop, but Challenged the Process as they raised important questions regarding cultural differences in the assignments and case studies. Ultimately though, their feedback was encouraging thus abating previous worries that Chinese culture would not be receptive to interactive learning. As Haptonstall said, "This represents a huge amount of change that is taking place in the country, especially over the past five years. The people who are taking on the challenge of bringing leadership development to the country are true pioneers, and being a pioneer is no easy challenge…it's not for the weak of heart. It takes great courage to forge a new direction, to take steps not in the shadow of another." By the end of the workshop, the attendees were already discussing the possible ways of Enabling Others to Act through the implementation of The Leadership Challenge® Workshop and LPI in their organizations or with their clients.
Next in China, we will be publishing the Student LPI and holding Leadership Fairs in various cities, as well as the education and certification of local trainers and Master Facilitators. Haptonstall Encourages the Heart by saying, "The Leadership Challenge® is a catalyst for future growth and development of leadership in China."
November 2006: A Sustainable Leadership Challenge by Daren Blonski
For those of you who haven't seen the documentary, An Inconvenient Truth featuring Al Gore, it highlights the Earth's immediate climate crisis. With all due respect, the film is moving, but it should not take a dramatized documentary for us to realize the crisis we face. Clearly, we have an effect on our environment-scientific data leaves no other conclusion. Part of the problem is that we utilize our environment with no regard for it. In addition to the consequences of global warming, environmental resources will become scarce as the world's population increases. Census data tells us that the world's population is currently six and a half billion and is expected to reach nine billion by 2050. At what point will the earth no longer be able to support its population? No one really knows.
For Generation X, there are many impending catastrophic issues. Unless we change "business as usual" and take a collective global stand against the degradation of the environment, our doom is sealed. Although I believe greatly in the resilience of the human spirit and our ability to intervene, one cannot help but wonder if we will reach a point where there are no more opportunities for intervention.
The only solution to the environment/population collision starts with you and me. Whether a CEO of a Fortune 100 Company or a member of the local community action group, you should have a vested interest in finding ways to shift our current path. The solution is complex, and each of us needs to be a leader in the process. As The Leadership Challenge states "Leadership is Everyone's Business." Leadership is the ticket to a sustainable future.
The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®, provide us with an ideal framework to enlist others to want this sustainable future:
- Model the Way - Learning to Model the Way is essential to any leader's success. To be an effective leader you must be a shining example of the message you intend to deliver. Leadership is inherently about relationships and is experienced through various forms of communication. Modeling the Way is about communicating your message from a place of integrity. Leading others to a sustainable future means that first we must live in a sustainable way.
- Inspire a Shared Vision - Changing our attitude toward the environment is going to take an incredible adjustment in the way we currently think. No longer will we be able to wash pollutants downstream and think that they will never show up in drinking water. Nor will we be able to continue to cut down our trees and think that it does not have an effect on the ozone layer and eventually temperatures around the world. We need to understand that we live in an interconnected world. The leaders of today and tomorrow must Inspire a Shared Vision of interconnectedness. A simple solution that would provide some relief would be to buy the things we need, and not the things we want. Ninety percent of what we think we need is more realistically only what we want. I envision a world where we all lust after a little less, knowing that we will, in the end, all get a little more.
- Challenge the Process - Each of us has the power to adjust how we live. In The Five Practices® this is called Challenge the Process. Creating a sustainable future is all about challenging our current patterns of behavior. We can all make a little difference in our day-to-day lives. It is no secret that many companies create products that they know will be obsolete in a short amount of time. It is time to start creating socially responsible products that will not intentionally end up in land fills. Perhaps you are the head of a large company, faced with making a tough decision that would decrease your profits slightly, but would greatly benefit the climate. Will we step up to the challenge, or will we wait until the world is no longer inhabitable?
- Enable Others to Act - When I speak of sustainability, I am not talking about left or right political agendas. In order for an effective sustainable movement to take place, all parties need to embrace the values of sustainability. Consuming less simply needs to become the "cool" thing to do. All who depend on air and water to live have a vested interest in embracing principles of collaboration and "green-ness." We need to empower each other to act responsibly, helping others to understand and to behave in ways that give thought for the future.
- Encourage the Heart - The first unit of change is the heart! In The Leadership Challenge this practice is called Encourage the Heart. Effective leaders must recognize, appreciate, and celebrate the success of those whose efforts have made a difference. Doing so will build the desire to continue along a path that re-creates a world that will sustain us for generations to come.
One of the Master Facilitators for the Leadership Challenge® Workshop, Sharon Landes, concludes her two day sessions by reciting a piece from the Hopi Elders. This powerful statement provides a few moments of self-reflection and consideration of personal responsibility.
You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is The Hour.
Here are the things that must be considered:
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know our garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time!
There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel like they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off toward the middle of
the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.
See who is there with you and celebrate.
At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all
ourselves! For the moment we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.
The time of the lonely wolf is over.
Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we have been waiting for.
The Elders,
Oraibi, Arizona
Hopi Nation
We have a pending crisis on our hands. Waiting for others to solve it will not work. What legacy will you leave? Will you step up to make a sustainable difference in your community?
Daren Blonski is a consultant working for Sonoma Learning Systems, an authorized affiliate of the Leadership Challenge. Daren studied at UC Davis where he received his bachelors in Organizational Studies. His passions are leadership philosophy and entrepreneurship. He enjoys spending time with his wife Shae and finding adventures outdoors. He can be e-mailed at daren@sonomalearning.com.
October 2006: Small Wins by Lisa Shannon
Small Wins and One Red Paperclip
I'm the kind of leader that struggles with small wins. Generally obsessed with the big picture and often impatient with what I feel like are the tedious steps necessary to reach the end state, Small Wins just seem like hurdles, when I'd rather be pole vaulting. Still, I understand the concept (as well as being acutely aware of my shortcomings as a leader), and it certainly makes sense to me. In fact, when I think about Small Wins a smile appears on my face as I hear Mickey Rooney singing, "Put one step in front of the other" from the childhood holiday classic Santa Clause is Comin' to Town. Of course, I say to myself, one step in front of the other.
I recently gained a whole new appreciation for small wins after a hearing a report by Adam Davidson on NPR. The story begins just over a year ago with 27-year-old Kyle McDonald who wanted to revive a childhood trading game. In the ultimate internet barter, Kyle started with one red paperclip and in just fourteen trades, ended up with a 3-bedroom house in the Town of Kipling, Saskatchewan. The story goes onto say how he has become a "media sensation," flying around the world for media interviews and appearing on Good Morning America, CNN, and 20/20 here in the United States. In his report, Davidson goes onto say that "inspiring" is the word most often used to describe Kyle McDonald's quest. His story is causing people to wonder about their own red paperclip in the context of the first step toward a goal or dream.
Kyle's story is a bit too gimmicky to inspire me, but it has become a powerful testament to the power of Small Wins. He not only got the house, but he got the world rooting for him to get the house. Total strangers from around the globe began to share his vision as one trade led to another, led to another, led to another. In The Leadership Challenge Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner put it this way, "Successful leaders help other to see how progress can be made by breaking the journey down into measurable goals and milestones…. Leaders keep the dream in mind; then they act and adapt on the move."
September 2006: The Five Practices by Charles St. John
It's About Life
Bill Daniels, the billionaire "father of the cable TV industry" once said, "Leadership isn't something you leave on your desk at night - it's something you do in all aspects of your life."
Janice, an international bank vice-president and a coaching client of mine, truly exemplified Bill Daniels' thought. Our coaching work initially centered on her role as a leader in her organization and specifically on her LPI feedback. But it became clear rather quickly that the most important, immediate application of our exploration of The Five Practices® was in her personal life with her husband and two young children.
In seeking a better work/life balance, Janice could see that there were problems brewing in her family that, if left unattended, could lead to serious negative consequences for her and her loved ones. She also realized that if these family matters weren't handled they would end up weighing her down and reducing her effectiveness as a leader on the job. She suddenly made the connection that the leadership practices which before she had only thought applied to her work life, in fact applied directly to her family situation.
As she reflected on her family she became aware that they never talked about their values and what was important in how they treated each other (Model the Way). Similarly, they had no vision as a family - no common aspirations to look forward to (Inspire a Shared Vision). Janice knew that if her family was to make needed changes they would have to take a hard look at some long-standing behavior patterns (Challenge the Process). She also observed that she was part of the problem. She mistakenly tried to "do it all" and thus was holding her children back from assuming more responsibility as they grew up (Enable Others to Act). And, while feeling very loving and caring toward her family, she realized that her "busyness" had caused her to begin to take for granted the things that her husband and kids did well. She was forgetting to give the small "thank you's" and hugs that are vital in loving relationships (Encourage the Heart).
Janice understood that The Five Practices couldn't be applied at home the exact way she could apply them at work. She effectively translated them into her personal life and, over a six-month period, was able to make dramatic changes that brought her family together in new ways. She also gained insights and energy that made her a more effective leader on the job. She commented, "I used to think of leadership as something I did at work. Now I realize that it's about life. I'm a leader in all of my life."
JULY 2006: ENABLE OTHERS TO ACT BY DICK HELLER
Leadership Maturity
I recently came across a fascinating story on leadership and maturity in The New York Times (April 2, 2006). The article recounted the tale of Erika Sunnegardh, a 40-year-old soprano who was about to make her debut at the Metropolitan Opera. It was, in fact, one of those dramatic moments in the arts. As the understudy, Ms. Sunnegardh, had received the call to step in as Leonore, the lead role of Beethoven's "Fidelio," and replace the ailing star, Karita Mattila. On top of the challenge of debuting at the Met as a leading player, Ms. Sunnegardh's performance was scheduled for Saturday, the day of the Met's radio broadcast. An audience of about 10 million people from around the world would be listening.
Erika Sunnegardh's story was an interesting one. Raised by musical parents in Sweden, she had studied singing and modern dance. She had come to New York City to seek her fortune at the age of 19. Lacking success she began, like so many other would-be performers, to wait tables. This work in restaurants and for catering groups continued for twenty years. But she also continued to sing, primarily performing in church choirs.
Frustrated by her stagnation Ms. Sunnegardh eventually resumed her training, this time returning to study with her mother. Her earlier training in New York had left her without the assurance, the confidence necessary for success. ''Vocal technique is like money or sex,'' she explained in the article, ''If you don't have it, it's all you think about.'' Her focus as well as her abilities improved and after an audition with Music Director James Levine, she was offered the opportunity to understudy and eventually play roles on the Metropolitan Opera stage.
Jonathan Friend, the artistic administrator of the Met, commented, "We were amazed at how big the voice was, especially at the top.'' He added that she had both beauty and maturity. ''She was, as a human being, grown up,'' he said. ''She had had another life, and knew what she didn't know.'' On her website Ms. Sunnegardh puts it this way, "Clearly, we re-visit old territory to learn more deeply, or to refresh our humility, and maybe most of all, gain clear insight into our magical, mystical and blessed stat of 'non-knowing.' It is after all then, and only then, that we can learn and grow at all!"
Daniel J. Wakin interviewed the singer only a few days before she learned that she was to star in "Fidelio." He wrote, "The humbleness of waiting on tables, she said, prepared her to deal with the pressure of a big career. Singing at funerals taught her that musical performance was not a celebration of the ego but something to be transmitted to other individuals. Years of struggle freed her from the debilitating fear of failure."
The New York Times review of the performance was less than glowing, but it pointed out "after intermission, in Act II, she seemed more relaxed and took greater chances, especially in the climatic scene when she defies the tyrannical governor of the prison and saves the day. She grew stronger as the opera swept forward to its joyous conclusion… she has talent, grit and determination."
By now you may wondering how this story relates to leadership. But let me assure you that Ms. Sunnegardh's story carries some very solid leadership lessons. The first, of course, is persistence. Eventually, the strength of her vision caused Ms. Sunnegardh to return to her love of music and seek out the opportunity that would give her true career a rebirth. It was her life experience, however, that really made her a better singer. She came to realize, through her singing at the church and at funerals, that "it wasn't just about her."
Ms. Sunnegardh had developed "artistic maturity." I believe that true leaders have to develop "leadership maturity." Great leaders realize that their role is not about themselves, but "something to be transmitted to other individuals."
As leaders, we must always Enable Others to Act. The key to success is not found in celebrating our own ego and individual accomplishments. It is, however, in creating confidence within the people we are counting on for great performance.
June 2006: The Five Practices by Beth High
The Five Practices—Latin Style
I recently had the privilege of conducting The Leadership Challenge® Workshop for SAS Mexico. SAS Mexico is a subsidiary of the parent company based in the United States and, as such, is a fully independent group. The president of the group, Jose Luis Sanchez, is a past client and had requested the Workshop for his management staff as well as other key positions. Most of the participants hold customer-facing positions within the company and some work on cross-functional teams focused on selling software solutions.
Sanchez had chosen leadership development to serve as a foundational piece of their business plan. He strongly believed that each and every member of his team had something valuable to contribute to the success of the company, and he wanted that "something special" surfaced and put to work. Using The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®, we anticipated that each member of the class would be able to explore and then articulate the things they could do to lead from their position. Neither of us anticipated that the Workshop would cause a big shift in their thinking. We were wrong. The Five Practices model enabled learning at a much broader and deeper level than was expected by all parties connected with the class: the participants, the president, and me.
I arrived a day early to set up class and prepare. Mr. Sanchez and I met so we could go over his opening remarks as well as his thoughts about the dynamics of the group-who would sit with who, who would talk the most, who I might need to draw out, etc. At the end of the first day of the Workshop he told me that he was hearing lots of feedback...and all of it was enthusiastic. He had anticipated that there would be push back from several in the group; this was the first assumption that didn't hold true. Assumption number two was that the ones he anticipated would be withdrawn were not. Assumption number three was that they would be prone to working in specific groups. As is often the case, when we mixed them up, they continued to be equally engaged.
During the debrief at the end of the class, I mentioned these assumptions to the group and asked for their thoughts. They told me that the class had allowed them hear the original thoughts and ideas of people whom with they normally only experienced one type of role-centered conversation. During the class they gained the insight that each member of this team had unique values, a vision for how things could be, and ideas about the challenges they might face. They said that sharing these things enabled them to see each other in a new light which was sparking lots of ideas and making them feel more like a team. I asked, "Have you not felt like a team before?" There was a pause then one woman raised her hand. "You need to understand that in our culture we have been raised to defer to leaders and authority. Since we were children we have been told to hold our tongues when a leader speaks, to be good followers. The Five Practices model has shown us that we can be good followers and good leaders at the same time, and that it is our responsibility to do so." This shift enabled them to commit to President Sanchez's request to "develop yourselves as leaders to help us continue to develop as a company."
Sharing The Five Practices model in that Mexico City class provided a rich learning experience for all of us. The participants gained a fundamental understanding of the expectations and confidence their leader had for them. They felt enabled by that and by the discovery of new dimensions of their co-workers, representing additional resources available to them. The president learned that his vision of having his team be a strong group of leaders was sound. The Five Practices model aligned well with his favorite sports metaphor: "When you are on a team, you need to be ready to step up when someone passes you the ball." I discovered that the true power of The Five Practices model is in helping individuals and teams, in any culture, reveal the capacity they have as leaders. How it happens may differ from culture to culture, but the possibilities are there to be discovered.
MAY 2006: INSPIRE A SHARED VISION BY VALARIE WILLIS
All Aboard!
Getting a team to change their old habits and begin moving in the same direction is a huge Leadership Challenge. The degree of difficulty became very clear to me after listening to a managing director of a software company. Responsible for international sales and marketing, she faced a big challenge: how to create the same success internationally that had been achieved in the domestic marketplace.
The secret to their domestic success had been the organization's unwavering stance for "Customer-Driven Innovation." And they didn't just give this lip service to this slogan; they lived it out daily. They followed their customers around, watched how they used their product, and from this they learned what worked and what didn't work. Experimentation and risk taking was always encouraged and more importantly everyone was asked to get on board with customer-driven innovation. " It was so deeply ingrained in our operations that it became a part of our very fabric," she explained. This innovation state of mind made this software company quite successful, even though they were small.
One key ingredient to embedding this level of service and attention was to require every person, regardless of their position to spend time on "customer contact activities." This meant helping employees to understand the customer's needs by involving them in listening to customer feedback after a product launch. In this organization, everyone felt connected to the product and to the organization. Everyone was on board!
Replicating this kind of magic globally was not going to be an easy task. Arriving at one of the international locations, the managing director didn't want to waste any time. She went to the office immediately after getting off the red eye flight, driven to make a difference. The local office faced crushing deadlines and long work hours, but the managing director was anxious to set aside business as usual so that she could meet everyone and begin addressing the challenge they all faced. She did the unthinkable. In the midst of this great challenge, she shut the company down for a day.
She spent that day doing two things: building relationships so that she could gain their trust and asking employees to start partnering with their customers. This approach was unheard of at that location. However, she knew that everyone from the engineers to the janitors had to get on board. As she put it, "so the engineers got out of their pajamas (they worked from home), the janitors hung up their mops, and the managers stopped managing for the day."
She asked her team to suspend judgment for one day and invited them to be open to the possibility that they could turn the company around and become profitable. She believed in their ability to make this happen, although it had not occurred as of yet. She explained that the only ingredient missing was the customer. People who were designing the product had never spoken with the customer. This team could use a little 'outsight' to move the project along.
She shared a compelling vision with the team and then she spent time teaching them customer-contact techniques. After training, she handed everyone a phone list with their designated assignments. She challenged the team to make calls and find out how they could make a difference in the customer's lives. She modeled the way for them and then she encouraged them along the way. As she put it, "by the end of the day, the place was on FIRE!." They re-grouped, shared their stories and what they had learned, generated ideas for immediate improvement, and most importantly, they came to realize how much people cared about what they were doing. This gave the team the fuel to burn through the project. Within seven months the division became profitable for the first time in their history. Results can happen when everyone is invited to come aboard and make a difference!
April 2006: Enable Others to Act by Robert Thompson
What Does Your LPI Say About You?
Most people would agree that The Five Practices model and the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) are widely accepted as tremendous business tools. While he book has sold over a million copies from the "Business" bookshelf, I often think that it would fit just as well in the "Self Help" section of a bookstore. Moreover, after years of delivering The Leadership Challenge Workshop and coaching individuals using The Five Practices model (rarely held in anything other than a business setting), I can assure you that the biggest gain from the work for most everyone is personal. Of course, this personal growth tends to leak and often pours into their professional life. Here is a quick real life story that illustrates the point.
At a senior level TLC workshop some time ago, a Vice President came up to me rather forcefully at a break and complained about the efficacy of the LPI.
"This instrument that you just gave me shows that I am a control freak, and I know I'm not. So what does that mean?" he asked alarmingly close to my face.
"Having a score on the Enable Others to Act that is low may mean that you are perceived as being overly controlling and not good at delegation," I said stepping back to catch my breath from his arrogant approach. "It also shows that you are not necessarily concerned with growing your talent."
"Does this mean I am a control freak at home?" he scoffed while punching at his report.
"Go home and ask your wife," I responded, knowing what the answer might be.
He stomped off like a lion that evening, but early the next morning he slithered into the room a little more sheepishly.
"So, how did it go last night," I chuckled with a slight smirk.
"I told my wife that I was at this workshop and the 'yahoo' who was leading the seminar said I was a control freak based on my LPI scores. Was this true? She stared at me for a moment and then blistered me with her questioning eyes and verbally shrugged 'Hellooo'!"
"So, I asked her if this meant that I was over-controlling with our son. And," he relayed, after the longest pause, "she looked at me again with those piercing eyes and blurted with a more commanding tone 'Ya think'?"
He couldn't believe what he was hearing. So being the legendary "big-deal" executive of his imagination, he decided to check it out on his own. He did a mini focus group.
Heading off to his son's bedroom, he told his boy the story about the workshop and even defined the word "controlling" to his 12-year-old so there would be no mistake in the answer.
"As I was sharing the information with my boy and asking the question, I saw his eyes fill with tears as he muttered, 'Dad, you hurt me all the time'."
As a waterfall of emotion tumbled down his son's red cheeks, the father, with his head slumped into his palms, finally understood what the LPI was telling him. He was not helping his son grow and he realized his workmates were probably feeling like spare parts as well.
That day, the "big-deal" executive got it. Using The Five Practices model, he began to appreciate and nurture his relationships in all areas of his life. Today, keeping his updated LPI nearby, he has become a credible CEO as well as a more trusted father and husband at home.
Make the choice. Use The Five Practices and the LPI to get a true glimpse of how the frequency of your behavior is perceived in all of life's situations, not just the workplace. It might make all the difference in your world.
March 2006: Enable Others to Act by Charles St. John
The Dilemma
In The Leadership Challenge Workshop Participant's Workbook, Jim and Barry say:
- "Leaders nurture self-esteem in others and make them feel strong and capable."
- "Leaders strengthen and develop their constituents by sharing power and information, and by giving others visibility and credit. As coaches and teachers, they give constituents challenging tasks and support them with the tools they need to be successful."
I'd like to share a story about a dilemma one manager faced that beautifully illustrates these thoughts. And while this article focuses primarily on "enabling others to act" it also touches on all of The Five Practices.
Several years ago I conducted a university-sponsored, high-level leadership program that occurred in three, intense, residential weeks spread over a four month period. High-level managers from organizations around the world attended with the intent of being challenged and having their leadership skills ratcheted up several notches. In order to promote full participation, we required participants to clear their calendars while they were in residence. This requirement also served as a small test of their willingness to delegate—could their shop run effectively for a week without their constant attention.
One of these managers was a woman named Sue from a large public utility. In getting to know her in the first residential week, she told us that one of her many responsibilities was to present a quarterly business status report to the CEO and senior management team. She had done several of these presentations and had received kudos from the top executives on what a great job she did. We also learned that one of these meetings was scheduled for the week following the program's second residential week - approximately two months later.
Upon return to her job after the first week of the workshop the CEO informed Sue that the quarterly meeting had to be rescheduled which meant the new date fell on the Thursday of her second residential week. Sue had a dilemma. She now had conflicting commitments - to be in the leadership program or to present the quarterly report. In the real world of course the CEO wins such a "yes - no" conflict. But Sue paused a moment and considered whether there was a "yes - and" possibility here.
She chose a creative and potentially risky way to honor both of her commitments. She decided to delegate the quarterly report presentation to two of the top people on her team. And she did a great job of setting them up to succeed.
When Sue asked them to take on the presentation task they blanched and said, "But Sue you are great at this and…it's the top brass…are you sure about this?" Sue replied, "Yes, I know you can do it. You have seen me do the presentation so you know what happens and you know the content as well as I do. You'll do great. But I don't want you to just present the information, I also want you to prepare the material you will present - and I'll help you." Sue could feel their apprehension but she knew they were ready for this next big step.
Over the next few weeks Sue coached and supported them, but made sure the responsibility for the presentation stayed in their hands knowing that ultimately she would be still accountable for the outcomes.
When Sue returned for her second residential week she told us of her dilemma and what she chose to do about it. On Thursday we paused the workshop and said to Sue, "We have to know what happened. Go call and find out how it went." Sue returned with a glowing report. The presentation had gone well and the senior staff was pleased. The two presenters felt as though they had won Olympic gold. The CEO had left a voice mail for Sue acknowledging her for her courage to delegate the task and for setting her people up to succeed so well. By enabling her people in this way Sue had created wins all around.
But there was another, possibly bigger, win in this experience for Sue. She said that had she not been faced with this challenge she never would have delegated the presentation task - she saw it as part of her "special stuff that only I can do." Now Sue was challenging herself on all of her tasks to see what else she could delegate. With her new perspective she found several other "plums" that she could hand off. There were several positive results - a boost in morale on the team, people feeling good about new challenges, and opportunities for team members to get exposure in new ways. The result for Sue was that she was able to free up precious time to work on some higher-level strategic ideas that she had. Two months later Sue received a promotion. She was told that one reason why she was promoted was how well she had developed her team and created effective backups.
What do you have on your plate—right now—that would enable someone else?
Charles St. John is an internationally experienced management coach and consultant on leadership and organizational effectiveness. His firm The Results Group, Inc. is based in Denver. Learn more about Charles St. John.
February 2006: Inspire a Shared Vision by Michael Neiss
Let's Talk About Our Noble Future
I remember a colleague relating to me that Jim Kouzes reminded her that The Five Practices represented a pentathlon, not an individual event. A leader could not be his/her exemplary best by concentrating on any one or two given practice. From my vantage point here in the Midwest of the USA, with our rich heritage of rust belt enterprises, I see more comfort with some practices. And at times, I see a real struggle with the practice of inspiring a shared vision.
Let me be very clear about my biases here. Before my consulting career, I spent years in operations. I love metrics. I love operational excellence. Great execution still trumps great ideas in my lens. I want my leaders to have dirt under their fingernails. I want them to model the way by showing through their behavior a respect for hard work. I want them to challenge the process, sometimes knocking down barriers by brute force and determination. I want them to enable others by realizing we are all in this together and trusting others. I want them to encourage by recognizing hard work and excellent results. However, I am concerned that we may have taken our eyes off a most critical practice, inspiring a shared vision. Working hard, working fast, eliminating waste, improving operations are all important, but without clearly defining the purpose of our labors, or the meaning of the work, we may end up questioning our future rather than celebrating its arrival.
I spent years with the auto industry as a manager for General Motors, and as a consultant to Ford, DaimlerChrysler, and Nissan Motors. I love the business and I love the people I have worked with. General Motors has done outstanding work in improving manufacturing efficiencies, controlling costs, and building a more competitive culture. Without their inherited legacy costs of pensions and retiree healthcare, they would be the low cost producer of vehicles. The problem seems to be that they have become more efficient building vehicles that customers do not want. Market share is tumbling. As consumers, we haven't been inspired to be part of the GM vision.
More importantly, when I ask my neighbors about where their company is headed, most respond, "I don't know, but I hope it is better". Napoleon said, "A leader is a dealer in hope." To my friends in the big three (or the former members of the big three), I would suggest there is wisdom in his words. Now, more than ever, is it the leader's job to engage the full potential of the workforce by communicating what possibility are they going after? Yes, continue to be vigilant to the competency of execution, but share your forward-looking views and most importantly, your passion for the possibilities of the future. Engage them in the pursuit of greatness, not the avoidance of failure.
I do have a client that gets this. They work hard at clarifying and inspiring a shared vision. Herman Miller understands that an organization works differently when they are "creating great places to work, live, learn, and heal" as opposed to becoming the low cost producer of office furniture. Yes, they work hard at operational excellence. It is stated, and practiced, as one of their criteria for each customer solution. But they are also very mindful of their history of design and innovation, and how to turn that into value for their customers. Herman Miller employees know that what they do is an important part of building great workplaces for others. A focus on metrics keeps them on the competitive road, but a well-espoused vision tells them where the road is heading and why it is a noble place to be. Herman Miller has a great legacy. The DePree family's concern for people and community, the Eame's, Nelson's, Rhode's design heritage, Dr. Frost's counsel on employee ownership, are just a few gems from their revered past. Herman Miller leaders recognize that the past is a foundation, and not an anchor. Leaders are challenged to further the legacy by focusing on new and more ennobling possibilities. The past is viewed as a gift not to be squandered. Look at it, admire it, tell its story, but do not be satisfied with it. To my friends in the big three, I recall the words of Dr. Edwards Deming when he spoke to us at a GM conference. "Past success is not predictor of future success".
I do not mean to criticize from the sidelines here. I do mean to share what years of work with The Leadership Challenge has taught me. Hard work without vision is a formula for getting to mediocrity faster. Hard work without hope destroys motivation. In the 80's, Toyota called GM the sleeping giant. There is no greater call to battle than a great, inspiring vision.
We can all learn from our past. I focused on the Midwest, but I believe the same lessons apply to the other giants across our great country—Microsoft, Nike, Starbucks, Nordstroms, to name a few. Talking about our noble future should become a habit. It is the fuel necessary to getting there.
Michael Neiss is President and Founder of Michael T. Neiss and Associates, a consulting practice in South Haven, Michigan providing customized leadership development seminars, executive coaching, and strategic consultation for executive teams. You can reach Mike directly at mike@michaelneiss.com or 269-637-7092.
January 2006: Model the Way by Peter Alduino
PAPER CUTS
So let me talk about paper cuts. You know how when you get a paper cut, you bleed a little bit and it hurts. What happens if you get another paper cut and it bleeds a little bit and it hurts? And then you get another paper cut and it bleeds a little bit and it hurts. And again and again and again and again and again. Soon it's going to hurt a whole lot, and one of two things is going to happen: either you are going to be in great pain, or you are going to bleed to death. Now, why isn't that exactly the same every single time we violate one of our closely-held values. Every time we violate one of our closely-held values, it's like getting a paper cut. Now perhaps it hurts just a little bit, and you bleed just a little bit, and you say you will get over it. But if the pattern persists and you allow yourself to continuously violate closely-held values, sooner or later it hurts so much that something happens that fundamentally changes you—either because you are in such great pain, (unless you can live with that pain), or because you bleed to death. No, you don't literally bleed to death, but you figuratively bleed from the spirit, so much so that you cease to have a conscience around that value. It disappears. You know the expression, "that is a bloodless guy" or "that person is bloodless." What does that mean? It means the person is unfeeling. So, in our case, it means that we have lost the ability to feel, to connect spiritually and consciously with that closely-held value.
Here is an example. A few months ago I went into the Apple store at the Oakridge Mall in San Jose, California. I was going to buy a battery for my laptop, a carrying case for my iPod and a new power cord. And just as I was approaching the register, the gentleman who was helping me asked: "Are you an educator?" I hesitated, and I said "well no; well yes." I said, "Listen, I am in private business, but my business is education," which is what I do. And he said, "Well do you teach at university?" I said, "Oh yeah." And he said, "can I see your university ID?" And I showed him my ID from University of California, Berkeley from which I have an ID card as a member of the faculty. Now that ID card had expired. I was no longer member of the faculty; that had been 2 years earlier.
But I got away with bending the truth. No, knowingly misrepresenting the truth. My faculty ID card allowed me $5 off on one purchase and $8 off on another. Total was a $13 discount. So I got a $13 discount on a $260 purchase because I was willing to bend the truth about whether I was currently teaching at UC Berkley. You might say, c'mon, so what, it's no big deal. And maybe it isn't a big deal, but it's a paper cut and I felt it. I felt the hurt. I felt the hurt for having intentionally and knowingly lied for the sake of $13. Basically I was willing to compromise one of my closely-held values—daring to be true—for $13.
So let me tell you what I did to try to regain a personal semblance of integrity. I went back to the store, back to the salesman, and said that I was really only a lecturer, and I was not really employed by UC Berkley. What I did not do was just fess up and say "I just lied to you." That was my pride kicking in. That was my lack of humility kicking in. I did not say, "I'm not really entitled to this."
I am able to relate all of these events and thoughts so vividly because I recorded them on my iPod literally 5 minutes after this happened. As I re-listen to my voice, I can hear that I am in pain for having violated the value that I hold most dear—daring to be true. I hear myself shouting, "for $13, I am in pain." Were you to hear the tone of my voice, you would know and hear that I am extremely mad at myself.
Was that worth $13?
Now, I eventually got over this. But this reminds me once again that there are some things, some guiding principles that really are not negotiable. And it hurts a whole lot more to violate them than it does to hold them with tremendous and utmost respect, and to honor them.
If my pattern were such that I had just said: "well, that's not such a big deal," I would probably not think twice when I repeated the same kind of small cheating elsewhere and then elsewhere and then elsewhere. I would probably not think much of it because in the grand scheme of things, I might think that it wouldn't amount to anything.
But it does amount to something. In the grand scheme of things, each time I repeat the same kind of small cheating, I am cutting myself. I am bloodletting. I am bleeding to death spiritually. If I don't love myself, or care about myself enough to hold myself to a standard that I admire, it is going to negatively affect the way that I think of myself.
If I don't admire myself, if I don't love myself, and if don't care about myself, then it is also entirely probable that other people will feel and experience my personal lack of love and caring and commitment. So, if I am in a position of leadership, am I going to be somebody who is going to inspire other people, or am I going to be somebody who gives them pause? I suspect that I would be somebody who would give them pause because they would not quite be sure if I am real or credible. From my own perspective, looking inwardly, I would be sure that I am not credible if I were repeatedly unwilling or unable to hold myself to the standards of my values and guiding principles.
So what is the lesson I draw from this incident? I don't intend for this to become a pattern. What I do intend is that this small incident once again remind me that I and every one of us is fallible, that everyone of us trips up and every one of us is prone to these small paper cuts. What I implore myself to do, and what I implore all of you to do is to take heed when it hurts. Take heed when you cut yourself and ask: "what did I do here to contribute to this hurt?" Learn from it, grow stronger from it. Grow stronger in your resolve and your commitment to adhere to your closely-held values. Grow stronger in your resolve and your commitment to model the way of being and living for which you want to be known and remembered. The result will be a strengthening of yourself that other people around you will feel and sense and admire and want to emulate.
This is how each one of us creates a stronger world, a more principled world, a more purposeful world - the kind of world we want to work in, the kind of world we want to live in, the kind of world we want our children to live in. That is how each one of us models the behaviors we want our own children to embrace and defend. Living, behaving and acting consciously and purposefully in accordance to our closely-held values is not the easiest thing to do. It is hard. But the rewards are tremendous-the rewards of feeling solid and feeling whole and feeling integrated—mind, body and spirit.
"Be the light that you want to see in this world" as Gandhi said. Behave, speak and act consciously and purposefully in accordance to your own closely-held values. Be the person that your children, your colleagues, your friends, and you would choose to emulate. No paper cuts.
© 2005 Peter Alduino
Peter Alduino is President and Founder of Bridge Group Communications, LLC, a San Francisco Bay Area-based consulting practice providing customized leadership development seminars, executive coaching, and custom design and facilitation of mission-critical internal and off-site meetings for executive teams, management teams and project groups. You can reach Peter directly at peter@bridgegroup.com or 800-762-4027.
December 2005: Encouraging the Heart by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner
Courage. Encourage. Two words, same origin. Heart. You gotta have heart. Miles and miles and miles of it. There's no bravery or boldness without heart. There's no spirit or support without heart. There's no sacrifice or soul without heart. Nothing great ever gets done without heart. You gotta have heart.
And at the heart of leadership is caring. Without caring, leadership has no purpose. And without showing others that you care and what you care about, other people won't care about what you say or what you know. As a relationship, leadership requires a connection between leaders and their constituents over matters, in the simplest sense, of the heart. It is personal and it is interpersonal.
We need heart because the struggle to the top is arduous. Our research tells us that is we're going to make it to the summit we need someone shouting in our ear, "Come on, you can do it. I know you can do it!" It's not something we easily admit-a lot of times we think we can do it alone. But we all really do need encouragement. Encouragement boosts performance, strengthens our resolve, and improves our health. Otherwise, why perform to an audience? Why not just sing to an empty room, play to an empty arena, or sell only to yourself? We need the applause and knowing that we're connecting to others in order to do out best. We need the enthusiasm and the energy from others.
We need to feel connected to others and, in turn, they to us, because greatness is never achieved all by ourselves-alone. Encouraging the Heart is the leadership practice that connects us with one another. It signals and documents that we're in "this" together-whatever this project, program, campaign, neighborhood, congregation, division, and so on, may be. Social capital joins financial and intellectual capital as the necessary ingredients for organizational success. In creating social capital leaders encourage the heart so that people will want to be with and for one another. When leaders commend individuals for achieving the values or goals of the organization, they give them courage, inspiring them to experience their own ability to deliver-even when the pressure is on. When we recognize women and men for their contributions we expand their awareness of their value to the organization and to their co-workers, imparting a sense of connectedness that, being social animals, all humans seek. While we may all be connected, leaders make sure that we're in touch.
Excerpted from Encouraging the Heart: A Leader's Guide to Rewarding and Recognizing Others Copyright © 2003 by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner. Published by Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint. All Rights Reserved.
November 2005: Challenging the Process by Dan Mulhern
Friends:
I continue this series with a quick dive into the second commitment* from Kouzes and Posner, under their leadership practice of "challenging the process." The authors suggest you "experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from mistakes." (The Leadership Challenge, 3rd ed., pp. 205 ff.). It's a good Monday morning message, because it's really all about getting into gear and making things move.
Newton's First Law of Motion applies not just to physical objects, but to the world of groups, organizations, teams, bureaucracies:
"A. An object [read: "organization"] at rest will remain at rest unless an unbalanced force causes it to do otherwise.
"B. An object in motion will continue in motion in a straight line with constant speed unless an unbalanced force causes it to do otherwise."
"A" tells us that if someone (that's you) doesn't exert force on a stopped organization, it will not move. And "B" tells us that an organization moving in whatever direction will continue in that direction unless an "unbalanced force" (yep, that's you again!) alters its movement. (Of course, the other "unbalanced force" working on the movement of your organization is gravity, which may well exceed the force of the movement of the organization on its set line, thus slowly dragging it back to a stopped position, i.e., see "A" above, "an object at rest (again) will remain at rest. . . ").
Leaders get things moving. One of the Marines' principles is that when you're 70% sure, you go. Things will change anyway. You can't see it all from where you sit now. So, move and keep looking. Kouzes and Posner suggest that you get 'em moving, then keep cycling back, "What did we learn? Did things turn out the way we expected? Why (not)?" The momentum of small wins allows you to keep moving, for people get enthused by movement and they gain a sense of direction.
It may not be the precisely perfect direction. Yet, momentum also allows you to turn in a different direction more easily than you could standing still. But, organizations intuit the opposite about whether movement allows corrections; they "think" movement might be in the wrong direction, so they don't move, change, or experiment. It seems there is some instinct in us as social animals -- that functions just like gravity works on physical objects. We like to hunker down, with some fear that movement will be bad. We feel safe in not changing. Yet moving (as the otherwise somewhat vapid "who stole the cheese" stuff points out) makes it easier to change direction than if you're standing still. It's worth quoting Henry Ford on the centennial of the founding of his company: "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." So, get it going. Give it a shove. And learn from failures.
Peace,
Dan
Reading for Leading is a weekly reflection on leadership written by the First Gentleman of Michigan, Daniel Granholm Mulhern. It is available free of charge to all who desire to lead better. Learn more about the First Gentleman's service to the State, subscribe to RFL and read previous messages at www.danmulhern.com.
