Leadership Demands Authenticity
Filed under: Core Values, Leadership Callling, Leading Churches, Personal Development, Servant Leader
There are many generational issues that have to be resolved between the Baby Boomer generation of existing leaders and the Next Generation workforce that is coming onto the scene. The old positional power model of simply telling everyone what to do and they automatically follow with no desire for involvement in the process is gone.
Potentially the single greatest leadership quality new leaders are looking for from those in positions of responsibility is authenticity. They place a high value on working with people that are real and genuine compared to others who like to play mind games.
A leader must know who they are personally and what they believe are the core values for themselves and the organizations they lead. Then when the hard decisions must be made and there are many of them today, everyone on the team will trust their motives instead of questioning them.
Jack Welch placed a very high value on authenticity for his top leadership team. In his book Winning he wrote, “Leaders can’t have an iota of fakeness. They have to know themselves-so that they can be straight with the world, energize followers, and lead with the authority born of authenticity.”
There is nothing better at the end of a long day than to look back and know that all your actions were consistent with your character. No more playing games just keeping it real.
The Leaders Legacy
Filed under: Leadership Callling, Leading Churches, Personal Development, Servant Leader
In a day when markets and shareholders demand short term rewards for their financial investment it is extremely difficult for leaders to have the courage to lead with the long term as a priority. The temptation to make easy decisions that will make the leaders bottom line look good today are setting up good companies for failure down the road.
This mentality usually results in a strong almost dictatorial leadership style that builds the business around the charisma and determination of the celebrity type leader. There is very little delegation and certainly no succession planning taking place because that does not serve the crisis of the moment mentality.
The real test of any leader’s success must not be simply measured by the timeframe when they are working but by what happens to the organization when they leave. If everything seems to fall apart and all positive momentum is lost then you cannot believe the leader set the team up for future success.
John Maxwell makes the point when he writes, “Achievement comes to someone when he is able to do great things for himself. Success comes when he empowers followers to do great things with him. Significance comes when he develops leaders to do great things for him. But a legacy is created only when a person puts his organization into a position to do great things without him.”
When we value the success of others over the long haul over any short term success we may have for ourselves then we are leading with integrity. Anything less than that is nothing more than selfish ambition and that is not true leadership.
Leadership Demands Courage
Filed under: Core Values, Leadership Callling, Leading Churches, Personal Development, Servant Leader
A legend from India tells about a mouse who was terrified of cats until a magician agreed to transform him into a cat. That resolved his fear until he met a dog, so the magician changed him into a dog. The mouse-turned-cat-turned-dog was content until he met a tiger—so , once again, the magician changed him into what he feared.
But when the tiger came complaining that he had met a hunter, the magician refused to help. “I will make you into a mouse again, for though you have the body of a tiger, you still have the heart of a mouse.”
Courage is defined as the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger and pain without fear. In the economic environment we find ourselves in today there are many things that we could choose to fear.
What we desperately need today are leaders who possess the character to make the hard calls that will help us move through this crisis and into a brighter future. In this day when the pace of change seems to be moving at the speed of light there will seem to be a new danger around every corner.
When Jim Collins describes the type of leaders that led their organization to greatness they possessed two key qualities. They are individuals with extreme personal humility and an unwavering resolve to do whatever must be done to produce the best long term results, no matter how difficult.
Great leaders are certainly human but on the inside they possess the heart of a lion and not of a mouse.
The Five Practices Of Leadership
Filed under: Goal Setting, Leadership Callling, Leading Change, Leading Churches, Personnel Development, Servant Leader
I am constantly reading new materials on leadership and occasionally I review great books from the past. One of the all time classics is The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner.
This very exhaustive book centers around these five simple but very powerful practices:
Model The Way-Find your voice by clarifying your personal values and set the example by aligning actions with shared values.
Inspire a Shard Vision-Envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities and enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations.
Challenge The Process-Search for opportunities by seeking innovative ways to change, grow, and improve and experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from mistakes.
Enable Others to Act-Foster collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust. Strengthen others by sharing power and discretion.
Encourage The Heart-Recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence and celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community.
Don’t Shoot The Messenger
Filed under: Leadership Callling, Personnel Development, Servant Leader
Every leader likes to hear good news. We all want to be positive people who inspire others through our can do attitude. If we are not careful though we will surround ourselves with team members who will start to tell us what we want to hear and not what we need to know.
When you create a culture within your organization where the truth can be told you must not make the mistake of reacting every time you hear bad news or something negative. If you do, you are shutting yourself off from critical information that you must know and you have created an environment where your best people will eventually leave.
Jack Welch calls the lack of candor the biggest dirty secret in business. Avoiding conflict and hoping things will get better is the formula for failure especially in the realities of the new economy.
I am not talking about chronic negative whining people who never really want to solve the problem. They should not be tolerated within any organization because they are a cancer to your creativity and morale.
So the next time that person walks into your office who you know is drop dead loyal and they need to talk about a problem that must be addressed be grateful and listen they have got your back.
Situational Leadership
The one word that best describes the leadership model of the last century is positional. Most of the major decisions were made at the top and the role of the team was to merely execute the plan.
When you move to the new models of leadership today the one word that best describes these styles is participative. This simply means the team is involved in helping form the priorities and strategies in addition to execution.
When hiring a leader for the old model you found the best person that fit the job description. Then the team would adjust to the style of the new leader.
Today situation leadership is the key model in these highly participative team dynamics. It is now the responsibility of the leader to shift his or her style to the needs of each team member and the chemistry of the team as a whole.
The needs of the team members and the team as a whole will shift based on their competency and commitment levels. These levels will always change depending upon the task or project at hand and that is the whole point of validating the need for situational leadership.
If a person has very low competency based on lack of experience then a more hands on directive approach is needed. On the other hand if there is high commitment and high competency then the leader should shift to delegation.
The poor communication that is produced by misalignment between leaders and followers is the major factor in decreased productivity within our organizations.
Can’t We All Get Along
Leaders have always been evaluated based on the two extremes of the tasks that must be done compared to the relationship skills involved in motivating the people who will actually do the work. The theory was some leaders are born project managers and others are great in customer service.
In the old industrial age model of the last century based these either high task or high touch leaders were placed in jobs that maximized their strengths and overlooked their weaknesses. So if someone could always hit their numbers but had higher rate of turnover they were viewed as someone who was not too good with people but they could always get the job done.
Today in the more highly participative style of leadership that is required to be successful in the 21st century it is an absolute necessity that all leaders prioritize their people skills so they can positively interact with wide range of constituencies.
Marshall Goldsmith is one of the top Executive Coaches in the market. His latest book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There is a great read for all leaders who want to reach their maximum potential. He identifies twenty habits that can completely destroy your influence as a leader.
The amazing thing that he confirms for all of us is that the most critical problems related to executive leadership have very little to do with core industry specific competency or even the expected qualities of productive leadership.
The overwhelming majority of smart, disciplined, experienced and passionate leaders are failing in the one major area of basic people skills. They do not relate well to their superiors, peers, subordinates and sometimes even customers.
They do not listen, make negative comments about people when they are not in the room, and always tend to punish the messenger when bad news is delivered just to list a few. Almost always these potential fatal flaws are obvious to everyone but the leader who does not even see them as an issue.
An absolute priority for any effective leader today is to establish a culture within their organization where the truth can be told and they will get the relational feedback they need or these extremely negative blind spots will never be revealed and the organization or team will fail.
When To Light The Fuse For Change
Filed under: Leadership Callling, Leading Change, Personal Development, Servant Leader
Most leaders understand there are powerful forces in place to maintain the status quo both on a personal level and with an organizational culture as well. Therefore choosing the timing of when to start a change process that you want to be successful is critical.
If you don’t have any of the following priorities in place then do not light the fuse because it will blow up in your face:
1. Problem to be solved—at the very basic level of motivation for any change is the reality that something is clearly wrong and you know it needs to be fixed. I am overweight and if I do not start an exercise program and change my diet I am going to be in serious trouble.
2. Opportunity to be taken—sometimes doors seem to open that we were not expecting and the benefits gained far outweigh the risks involved. A good friend offers to pay my membership in the health club for a year if I will commit to go.
3. Crisis to be avoided—in this situation you recognize the perfect storm is brewing and if you don’t act immediately the consequences of my inaction could be catastrophic. I have now had a heart attack and my doctor says without major change I will have another one and it will probably be fatal.
4. Need to be met—this moves the motivation point high up on the scale because there are hurting people involved and the change process will directly benefit them. If I am not willing to act based on what I need surely because of the people I love the most I will do whatever is necessary to be there for them.
5. Calling to be followed—as a Christian I am called to represent Christ to the world in all that I do with my life. If I do not take care of the body He has given me to be used in His service then I can lose my testimony and damage my effectiveness in helping other people.
These priorities also apply in our professional lives as we seek to lead the change process in the context of a company culture that tends to react after it is too late rather than respond to what should be obvious. Leaders must be willing to cast a clear vision that the benefits of leaving the current reality behind far outweigh any pain involved in moving to a new and better place for all involved.
Priority Of Personal Development
Filed under: Core Values, Leadership Callling, Personal Development, Servant Leader
I was attending a conference many years ago and heard for the first time this life changing quote, “You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” I made a commitment on that day to apply this principle in my life.
The people you meet part of this development applies to all of life. There is great wisdom in finding people who know more than you do about your area of expertise or interest and asking them for a meeting so that you can learn all that you can from someone who has already been where you want to go. Every year you should have a list of at least ten new individuals that are successful and willing to invest in your life.
Please do not limit this to your professional life because you can find people everywhere who are great spouses or parents or involved in church and community work. Some of the greatest connections I have ever made were in the normal flow of life because I was always looking for someone who could teach me something.
In the area of reading I have found that for every ten books that I read on a particular subject I will find at least one that will permanently change my life for good. These become the books that you read at least once a year just to remind yourself of all the truths that you need to make sure you are applying in your life.
One of the disciplines I have developed over the years is that I will write the power statements or great quotes on the inside flyleaf of every good book so that I can always go back for a quick review. If you will set a goal of at least one new book a month to start you will be amazed by how much your life will change because as you read your capacity to understand and develop new skills will be exponentially multiplied.
I am sure if this quote were made today it would include some reference to the incredible amount of information on the web. Today you can read blogs and watch videos by some of the greatest communicators on life’s most challenging subjects whenever you want and usually without any cost but your time.
All learning that enhances personal development is an investment in your future that will give you an incredible return on your investment.
In Search For Silver Bullet
Filed under: Crisis Management, Leadership Callling, Leading Change, Servant Leader
In Jim Collins latest book How The Mighty Fall he talks about companies that start on a systematic downward spiral that leads ultimately to total failure as an organization. One common problem he found is that when they finally realize they are in serious trouble rather than dealing with real problems they search for the quick fix approach of finding the right silver bullet.
When full blown panic sets in there is a frantic search for several silver bullets that can be dramatic big moves such as game changing acquisitions or a risky new strategy or an exciting innovation or new leadership, anything that can save us. The following is list of several silver bullets observed:
1. Grasping for a Leader as Savior: The board responds to threats and setbacks by searching for a charismatic leader and an outside savior.
2. Panic and Haste: Instead of being calm, deliberate, and disciplined, people exhibit hasty, reactive behavior, bordering on panic.
3. Radical Change and Revolution with Fanfare: The language of revolution and radical change characterizes the new era: New Programs! New cultures! New Strategies!
4. Hype Precedes Results: Instead of setting expectations low—underscoring the duration and difficulty of the turnaround—leaders hype their visions initiating a pattern of overpromising and under delivering.
5. Initial Upswing Followed by Disappointments: There is an initial burst of positive results, but they do not last; dashed hope follows dashed hope; the organization achieves no buildup, no cumulative momentum.
6. Confusion and Cynicism: People cannot easily articulate what the organization stands for; core values have eroded to the point of irrelevance; the organization has become just another place to work.
There are no quick fixes or silver bullets for organizations that have complex long term problems that have built up for decades. The new realities of the global economy did not create these problems it merely acted as a catalyst to reveal them.