Everyone
Great news! After a grueling 8 months of leading an organization by day, evenings in B school obtaining an MBA and spare time split between family friends and volunteer leadership roles, I am happy to announce that I finished school and am taking the summer off. Well I am still going to lead my organization, still hanging with family and friends and still building, with your help, the Developing Leaders community.
In the next day or so you will start receiving a new series of emails that are a series of experiential leadership challenges. Not to steal the thunder of one of my favorite leadership books “The Leadership Challenge” no this is a journey of risk and fun we can take together. I tell you what, I will do all the challenges myself as well. Lead from the front… Is there any other way????
If you are wondering how you can participate, join the Developing Leaders Mailing list today! Check out the link in the bottom right side of the website
37. Leaders show up. Ya! That is the whole point, the leader always shows up. They understand the power of relationship, of connection, of presence. A leader will be present. This concept is so fundamental as to be obvious and hard to even write about.Challenge: The next time you find yourself in an uncertain or anxious moment that is shared with others, see who speaks up to lead you and others through the moment.
36. Leaders give respect. Have you ever heard of transformational leadership? It is in my estimation the most effective model. It involves the leader helping followers to transcend their own personal goals for a larger meaningful goal. One aspect of the leader in this model is their ability to see the best of their team. When you look at a follower you look past their faults to their unique skills and abilities. You assure them through your eyes and your words your confidence in them. Yes leaders give respect and so much more they give meaning and purpose.
Challenge: Remember the team member you wrote off? The one that couldn’t do anything right, always the pessimist…Yeah them, identify three things in them that they do well and then share with them these things
34. Leaders know: Energy begets energy.
Way back when I was a teen I noticed something strange. I had certain friends I really wanted to be around. It was like they radiated energy, you could literally recharge yourself in their presence. I never forgot those early experiences. At the time I was too young to realize these gifted people were leaders. As of yet I had no idea what a leader was really. Later in my 20’s, in a leadership role myself I discovered the opposite side of this same coin. When I burned brightly, like a brilliant lamp of energy for a cause or purpose, there came others around me who seemed to feed off of my energy. When I slowed down their interest waned when I ramped up closer they came. This frustrated me at the time as it seemed that these folks were being rather self centered. The thing was I did not get it. This is what leadership is about. Someone people are attracted to for the right reasons. I am not talking about charisma but purpose. When you are connected to your deep seated purpose people will be attracted to the energy you radiate for that purpose. They will want to be near you support you and catch on to the dream of accomplishing something great. Likely they will not even realize they are doing it, they will just want to be around you.
Challenge: Who is it that you just want to be near, be around. Who is it that you feel recharged to interact with. Ask yourself what behaviors do I see that make me feel this way. Maybe even offer them some affirmation of what they are doing
33. Leaders wear their passion on their sleeve
In 2005 I conducted a research study into the origins of leadership. My goal was to understand the early signs and behaviors of emergent leadership. My theory was that if you could identify from new leaders the characteristics and behaviors common in them you might be able to look for these characteristics in younger people and see if the behaviors later correlated to leadership ability and action. Hence predict who might become a leader. Why does this matter? IF you can identify an emergent leader early on you can help them to develop themselves even faster and in the process make them an even better leader. Hey I am a leadership coach after all!
I found some interesting things out in the study and I do believe there is a possibility of predicting who might become a leader. However Tom Peters rule about passion reminded me of one of the things I discovered in the research. Leaders have a deep seated passion that influences their behaviors and interactions with others. They truly do wear it on their sleeves. They become the lightning rods that focus human energy and effort toward a noble goal or purpose.
Passion is like the glue of leadership it holds things together.
Challenge: What is your passion? Have you found it? If yes share, if no take my coaching module on finding your inner passion. In it I will show you a process you can use to discover your passion and purpose
32. Leaders love technology.
Yup they do. I am writing a blog managing a website sharing what I know about effective leadership. 4 years ago I did not think that “blog” was a word. Actually it wasn’t yet! I carry an I Phone that makes me feel almost ready to get on the bridge of the SS Enterprise for its maiden voyage into the stars. Yes it’s that good at convergence!
At the same time we must not get so enamored with technology that we forget that leadership is first about relationships. Pay more attention to your I Phone than your team and you will hear about it, trust me!
Challenge: What technology is changing your life right now? How is it doing it? How are you becoming aware of new technology trends? Is your means of discovery effective or placing you at the back of the crowd with the dust and smells?
31. Leaders honor the assassins in their own organizations.
I think this rule is a load of crap actually. Maybe it’s the wording but I have no intention of honoring assassins. Again it’s in the wording. I do believe in encouraging those with alternate points of view, those who challenge the system. Heck I am one of those. I do not like the implication of an assassin to calculating, too cold too brutal, no I would honor mavericks but not assassins.
Challenge: Would you honor an assassin in your organization? If so why? Post a comment on the blog and weigh in.
30. But leaders have to deliver, so they worry about throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I love Peter’s argument here, the cognitive dissonance between the need for execution order and systems with the need for creative destruction and rebirth. Holding these two opposing needs in one’s mind can be incredibly difficult. A leader must be able to produce results all the while dreaming up ways to produce results in completely different ways.How can we do this? Now there is a question. Look for game changing answers to the right question. Do you remember in the movie I Robot when Professor Landon’s hologram could only respond to specific preprogrammed questions. He would say “ I am sorry my responses are limited, you must ask the right question”Questions are powerful when used effectively. Ask how to make a process easier for the employees if your goal is to make it faster. Ask why we need specific resources in the first place if your goal is to reduce costs.Ask what barriers or frustrations are in the way if your goal is to improve productivity or quality.Ask how a process can be automated, eliminated, transformed.The key here is to ask the right open ended question Challenge:Ask your team each of the first three questions over the next 1-3 weeks. Don’t ask number four without careful consideration of who is in the audience and how they might receive such a risky question. Do we need to talk about emotional intelligence again? Explain that you are interested in learning how to improve things. Do not commit to doing everything, only to evaluate the suggestions and to implement those that make sense in the short term.
29. Leaders never get caught fighting the last war. Leaders see around corners. They have the ability to take seemingly random bits of information, to take interactions in the world around them and build from these a picture in their intuition of what the future can hold, should hold. Then they look for evidence to support their point of view. Then they jump into action to make the future a better more effective place. They do not get caught making a last stand. How could they? They saw it coming and adjusted their strategy to move in a new direction. This is not easy but is the realm of leaders. Challenge: Practice seeing around corners…Take ten pieces of new and random information. Imagine patterns in the data. Come up with a common theme then create a story to connect them all.
