Leaders’ Log

Lessons in Survival - A Critical Leadership Skill

by: Andrew Cox

To survive - to hang in there - to keep your head while all around you others are losing theirs - to stay in play - is a critical skill of leaders. Let’s face it - even the most astute, successful person will suffer setbacks, and surviving and overcoming those setbacks is the true measure of a leader.

To some, survival sounds like a skill for a loser. And, frankly, there are many who try to survive by holding back, by not taking risk, by getting as invisible as possible. Those are not the behaviors of leaders - they are not what survival means in this article - and they lead to failure.

An example of survival and leadership:

A client had a business unit that was doing badly. Unprofitable, losing customers, over budget. The business unit leader had been in the job for six months - not long enough to have created the mess, but long enough to be held accountable for it. Her predecessor had held the job for ten years - and then retired with honors. There were many days when she felt like giving up. She felt that she was more a victim than anything else. She had been a top performer in every other assignment given her. She felt she had gone from the top 5 percent in her company to being perceived as a loser by former colleagues. Everyone likes a winner - no one wants to be associated with what looks like a loser. No one was going to rescue her from this situation - she was either going to sink or swim.

She felt she had four choices:

1 - She could quit and find another employer - she was highly regarded in the market.

2 - She could stay and look at who to blame. She could try to cash in on her former accomplishments and get a transfer - or not be held accountable - or be given lots of slack.

3 - She could let the situation tear her down, wallow in self pity and blame fate, and turn into a part of the problem - rather than be part of the solution.

4 - She could do what she had to do to survive the situation - stay afloat, give herself a timetable, work to improve performance, and then decide where her future lay.

She chose the last alternative. She reviewed it with her boss - he agreed with her. For the first time in her career she was faced with stabilizing a losing business, rather than growing a winning one. What a difference! Going from winning as a strategy to surviving - as a strategy - at least as a first step strategy.

She shared her survival strategy with her staff - and watched their reactions. They ranged from acceptance to indifference. This unit was part of a much larger company, and some of her staff had friends in other parts of the organization that could “take care of them.” She let some people transfer to other parts of the business - got rid of some others - and brought in key people who saw their new positions as a chance to prove themselves.

She put together a “stop the bleeding” short term plan with goals and measures that could be quantified and tracked and reported on regularly. No “BHAGS” here ( Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals). Her boss gave his support -while keeping the situation at arm’s length. The plan was shared with the people in the business unit, and every person was expected to establish goals that contributed to the plan. Some did - some didn’t. The plan worked - at least to the extent that the bleeding stopped and the business returned to marginal profitability in six months. No celebrations were held - but the leader and her staff were pleased with their progress -they knew just how much had been accomplished - although no one else seemed to share their emotions.

As the six month plan unfolded, it became clear to her that some significant investments in capital and systems were going to be necessary if the business was to prosper - and there was some risk that, even with those investments, prosperity might not happen. The fight for capital was intense, and other, more successful business units got their share - and hers as well.

She gave it six more months. In that time, steady progress was made, customers were won back, and profitability continued to improve. At the same time, she sensed a growing impatience from her boss with the rate of progress - but no real help in the form of additional resources. At this point she was 18 months into her job, and while she had seen major progress, very little recognition of her accomplishments came her way. She gave it six more months.

At the end of two years in the assignment, when continued improvement went unrewarded, she resigned.

When asked about that experience five years later, she said it was by far the most valuable of her career. When pressed to identify what particularly valuable lessons she had taken from the experience that helped her be successful - and she had become very successful - she listed the following:

- You gotta pick your spots carefully. Every organization has top units and bad units. To decide to survive in a marginal unit with little upside is not very bright. Be sure the survival situation has an upside.

- The decision to fight through a tough situation, and take the risk of surviving, must be a conscious one. And once it’s made, all effort must be directed forward. It’s easy in these situations to adopt a “why me” or victim attitude - and that is fatal. Managing, defining and communicating expectations in a survival situation are absolutely critical skills - more than in a highly successful business. Pressure from above to see progress can lead to commitments being made that simply cannot be kept. And intentions sound good at the beginning of a reporting period - but only results matter. “Hockey stick” forecasts and plans - where all the good news is forecast to occur near the end of the measurement period - are always greeted with suspicion.

- Tolerance for mistakes is much lower in survival situations. And negative outcomes that would be ignored in a successful business are magnified and used as examples of just how bad things are - while good news is received with skepticism. Protecting and insulating the people committed to making it work from harsh criticism and judgment is a major task for the survival leader.

- A survival leader must have a core group of optimistic believers who are committed to making it work.

- Stay in close contact with the Boss - absolutely no surprises are allowed.

- Keep people focused on improvement through widely communicated goals they can share and buy into.

- Don’t let people see discouragement at bad news - and there is always bad news in survival situations. Negative emotions will be multiplied 100 times by those that observe them.

- Survival mode must be a temporary situation - it’s easy to slip into a survival mind set and make it a long term behavior.

- Survival - both personal and organizational - is often thankless. While in survival mode leaders have to see the value of their contribution themselves. Often, there is very little positive recognition given to survival.

- The worst thing a survival leader can do is to stay in place and let the situation grind them down. When the best shot has been given, and it remains apparent that that isn’t enough, move on - that’s always a choice - always. Know when to hold, and know when to fold.

- In the stress of survival situations, it’s easy to personalize all kinds of things. Don’t. The ability to see things for what they are - no more or no less - is a necessary ability. Trying to ascribe motive, or waste time on hidden meanings are great ways to lose control and perspective.

These Lessons In Survival were learned the hard way. That’s the only way to learn. If you see yourself or your organization in survival mode - use these Lessons to inventory what and how you can apply them to get through it better, quicker and more successfully.

About The Author

Andy Cox helps clients align their resources and design and implement change through the application of goals focused on the important few elements that have maximum impact in achieving success - as defined by the client. He can be reached at http://www.coxconsultgroup.com and email at acox@coxconsultgroup.com

Posted by Cameron Price on Tuesday 5 August 2008 | Leadership | No comments
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Leadership: Theory and Practice

Heartened by the positive response to previous editions of Leadership: Theory and Practice, this Fourth Edition is written with the same objective to bridge the gap between the often simplistic popular approaches to leadership and the more abstract theoretical approaches.

Peter Northouse reviews and analyzes the foremost leadership theories, giving special attention to how each theoretical approach can be applied in real-world organizations. It is for anyone seeking to explore how an understanding of leadership theory can inform and direct the way leadership is practiced.

Click here to read Editorial Reviews and Custormer Reviews. If you have read it, click here to comment on what you thought of it.

Posted by Cameron Price on Monday 4 August 2008 | Leadership | No comments
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Leadership 101

by: Colleen Kettenhofen

“If…you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.” Catherine Aird

Do people willingly want to follow you? The real test of leadership is influence. Would your subordinates describe you as an effective manager, supervisor or team leader? Be honest with yourself. Put yourself in their shoes. Would you want to work for YOU?! If your employees’ pay, perks and benefits were not dependent on doing what you ask, would they still want to follow you? If the answer is yes, you are truly a role model of leadership.

In conducting leadership training around the world for over a decade, here are the key traits I hear over and over that employees want to see in their leaders. And most of these employees are managers themselves.These traits will sound familiar to you. Yet, we need to be reminded of them. Many managers confide to me that they’re so overloaded they forget about practicing many of these qualities on a regular basis.

1 ) Supportive/Good listener: It’s been said the average person listens to what you have to say only 25% of the time. Yes, that’s right. Much of the time we’re caught up in our own “stuff” and we’re not always listening. Listen. Think before you speak. Some people just need to be allowed to vent. Vent within reason of course. Then, they’ll be more likely to listen to you.

2 ) Open-minded. It’s hard to listen without an open mind. At least acknowledge what your employees have to say. It doesn’t mean you necessarily have to agree. In order to gain respect and get your team members to follow you, sometimes you first have to show respect.

3 ) Honest. Do you possess personal integrity? Your team members will look to see if you do what you say you are going to do. This sounds like common-sense and it is. Yet, many in a leadership position forget this important trait. The minute you can’t deliver on your promises you lose all credibility. It will be the one thing your employees will always remember. As the saying goes, “They remember your last act.” Under promise and over deliver. Always do what you say you are going to do.

True Leadership = Inspiration:

4 ) Inspiring. True leadership = inspiration. Real leaders have a passion for what they do. They are able to transfer that enthusiasm to their employees. People want to follow someone they respect and admire. In my leadership training, a lot of managers tell me they also want a leader “who is balanced in their personal as well as professional life.” They see a balanced leader as someone who walks their talk. Employees want to follow someone who has what they want.

5 ) Intelligent. I frequently hear the comment, “In our organization, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.” Or, “My manager really has no idea what I do for a living. What my job entails, the challenges and the time constraints.” Please educate yourself on each of your team member’s responsibilities. It’s the only way you can speak intelligently to them and gain respect.

6 ) Future-oriented. Upper management should put their organization’s five year, three year, and one year plan in writing and pass it out to every employee. A lot of employees don’t know their organization’s overall goals and objectives. An integral part of leadership is having vision, and being able to convey that vision in a way that excites and inspires team members. A great way to motivate most of your employees is to show each and every one where they fit in with the organization’s big picture. Most of them want to know their purpose and how they make a difference.

Effective Leadership = Effective Social Skills:

7 ) Excellent communicator. Many people are promoted to leadership positions based on their “hard skills” or technical skills. Yet, most managers describe true leadership as demonstrating good interpersonal skills. Excellent leaders and managers aren’t just good communicators in terms of what’s expected on the job. They also make it a priority to take a sincere interest in their employees. Little things go a long way. For example, know your employee’s birthdays, whether or not they have children, and acknowledge their length of service on their anniversary.

8 ) Fair-minded. Employees and managers alike respect leaders in an organization who are fair, objective, and “don’t play favorites.” They want sincere recognition for a job well done. Most employees want to be judged on their performance, not on whether or not they’ve got friends in high places.

9 ) Flexible with change. An effective leader is open to change, new ideas and taking risks. A leader who is a good role model doesn’t take a “my way or the highway” approach. They’re confident enough in themselves that they can give explanations for WHY a change is being made. Employees always want to know why. Managers and leaders who are secure within themselves don’t need to say, “Because I’m your supervisor and I said so.”

10 ) Leadership starts with service. Effective leadership involves rolling up your sleeves and helping others. The term “servant leadership” was coined in 1970 by Robert K. Greenleaf, former AT&T executive and founder of The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership. He wrote, “It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.”

“A good example is the best sermon.” Anon.

About The Author

Colleen Kettenhofen is a speaker, workplace expert, & co-author of “The Masters of Success,” as featured on the Today Show, along with Ken Blanchard and Jack Canfield. For more free articles and e-newsletter, & to order the book visit http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com Topics: leadership, management, difficult people, public speaking.Colleen is available for keynotes, breakout sessions and seminars. Call 971-212-2412 or email colleen@colleenspeaks.com . http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com .

Posted by Cameron Price on Thursday 31 July 2008 | Leadership, Management | 2 comments
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Leadership Gold

Leadership Gold: Lessons I’ve Learned from a Lifetime of Leading

Leadership Gold took leadership guru John C. Maxwell a lifetime to write, and it delivers his most valuable lessons from forty years of leading.

A leader among leaders, John Maxwell promised himself early in his career that he wouldn’t write this book until he was sixty. And now it’s finally here. Leadership Gold took Maxwell a lifetime to write, and it delivers his most valuable lessons from forty years of leading. With his signature style, Maxwell comes alongside like a mentor, candidly taking readers through what feels like a one-on-one leadership program. Leadership Gold offers the best of the best, the tried-and-true lessons that no one but Maxwell can share.

Click here to read Editorial Reviews and Custormer Reviews. If you have read it, click here to comment on what you thought of it.

Posted by Cameron Price on Thursday 31 July 2008 | Leadership | One comment
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Strategic Leadership

by: Michael Keller

Mission, vision, values, goals, objectives, and strategic planning are just some of the leadership buzzwords of the late 20th Century. Virtually all professional executives have attempted to understand what all the buzzwords mean and make them a reality. Few have succeeded and most continue to search for what bridges the gap between leadership theory and leadership reality. That bridge may well be the new buzzwords for the 21st Century. They are “Strategic Leadership”.

Strategic Leadership is a process that is simple in its basic form, easily applied, and has the potential of yielding significant results. Leading strategically means having a comprehensive strategy for the immediate future. Unlike strategic planning, which is long term for the whole organization, Strategic Leadership is short term designed for the executive and staff.

Since September 11th, “doing more with less” has been the theme of many organizational budgets. With the economic instability, stock market uncertainty, the war on terrorism, and additional military conflicts on the horizon, many organizational priorities have changed. Many organizations are just trying to survive, as budgets have not increased or, worse yet, some have decreased. As a result, leaders are again called upon to be creative as they strive to accomplish their goals. Having to accomplish more than the available resources will allow, many leaders will be forced to try and accomplish more by doing more. Strategic Leadership offers the professional executive the solution to not only accomplishing more with less but by doing less.

“This short passage describes how an early CEO, CFO, HR Director (Moses) is being overwhelmed while leading the children of Israel toward the Promised Land. Help arrives one day in the person of Jethro, the Priest of Midian (who also happens to be Moses’ father-in-law). After a few days of observing Moses in action, Jethro takes him aside to offer some friendly advice. The following is a very loose translation of the conversation between what may well be the first management consultant-client relationship in recorded history.

Jethro: “Moses, your doing it all wrong! You’re wearing yourself out, as well as your people, by trying to do to much.” (i.e. accomplish more by doing more?)

Moses: “You may be right. I’m putting in very long hours and working harder and harder; but what else can I do? My people expect a lot from me, and I don’t want to let them down!”

Jethro: “Here is a better way to get the job done: Select some trusted subordinates, and instruct them to deal with all but the most important issues your people bring to them for judgment. In that way you may actually accomplish more for your people than you can by trying to do everything yourself.” (i.e. accomplish more by doing less?)

Exodus 18:24-27 picks up the story:

So Moses gave heed to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he said. Moses chose able men out of all of Israel, and made them heads over the people; rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And they judged the people at all times; hard cases they brought to Moses, but all the small matters they decided themselves. Then Moses let his father-in-law depart… to his own country.” (Lasagna)

Moses took the first of several steps required to implement Strategic Leadership. Strategic Leadership, similar in some respects to strategic planning, is about action, not just a written document that all to often sits on a shelf or in a drawer and is very rarely reviewed. Strategic Leadership is a daily process that should be reviewed at staff meetings. Effective Strategic Leadership is a fluid, dynamic process that requires constant vigilance. Integral to the success of Strategic Leadership is the P.O.L.I.C.E. Leadership Methodology:

P: Planning
O: Organizing
L: Liability/accountability
I: Information/communication
C: Control/accountability
E: Ethics/integrity

The P.O.L.I.C.E. Leadership Methodology ensures that the Strategic Leadership process is grounded on a foundation of accountability. With all of the scandals surrounding CEO’s of both public and private organizations, accountability to all stakeholders has come to the forefront and should make Strategic Leadership very attractive to the professional executive.

Like Moses, the professional executive must take that first step and come to the conclusion that there has to be a better way to accomplish the mission of the organization. The implementation of Strategic Leadership requires an introspective assessment of the programs, goals, and tasks of the organization. Many executives are biased in their assessment, which can degrade the effectiveness of Strategic Leadership. An outside review offers the best, unbiased assessment, to make educated decisions from.

In the second step, the executive is introduced to strategic thinking. “Strategic thinking means asking, Are we doing the right thing? Perhaps, more precisely, it means making that assessment using three key requirements about strategic thinking: a definite purpose be in mind; an understanding of the environment, particularly of the forces that affect or impede the fulfillment of that purpose; and creativity in developing effective responses to those forces.” (Bryson) In assessing those forces that can affect or impede the success, the executive and staff will determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (S.W.O.T.) to each strategy. In particular, the executive must be cognizant of the budgetary restraints and political implications (threats) to certain strategies and initiatives. The executive will participate in the “I want” brainstorming session. Every executive in every organization has a vision of what they want to accomplish. Some are more realistic than others. “Fewer have a clear, succinct, and useful vision of success.” (Bryson) Sadly, many of their “I want” to accomplish will not come to fruition. Not because their goals are unrealistic but because so many executives are bogged down with the minutia of leadership (Moses) and can’t get many of the important (critical) things done.

During this session the executive is tasked to list the “I want” to accomplish for himself and the staff within the next year. The executive is encouraged to “shotgun” his ideas for the organization regardless of how unrealistic they may be. At this point, Pareto’s 80/20 Rule is introduced. Count Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) was an Italian economist who observed that 20% of his fellow countrymen owned 80% of the country’s wealth. He concluded that their success was dependent upon focusing on the critical few (20%) and they did not waste valuable time on the trivial many (80%). “The Rule and Its Corollary: Pareto’s rule states that a small number of causes is responsible for a large percentage of the effect, in a ratio of about 20:80. Expressed in a management context, 20% of a person’s effort generates 80% of the person’s results. The corollary to this is that 20% of one’s results absorb 80% of one’s resources or efforts. For the effective use of resources, the manager’s challenge is to distinguish the right 20% from the trivial many.” (Hafner) “The leader of an organization must remember that 80% of his problems come from 20% of the workforce; when 80% of your events are not within your control, focus on the 20% you can do something about. Utilizing the 80/20 Rule in tandem with strategic thinking, the executive determines what are the critical few (20%) on the list that he will need to concentrate on. The number of critical few will vary depending on the size of the organization. In addition, the P.O.L.I.C.E. Leadership Methodology is introduced into the process. A major component to the success of Strategic Leadership is the accountability factor. When the critical few and trivial many are established, then who is accountable for the achieving these goals, along with a reasonable timetable, is established.

In the third step, the facilitator will hold a meeting with the executive and the staff. The facilitator will explain Strategic Leadership, the 80/20 Rule, and S.W.O.T. to the staff. The executive will outline his critical few and a roundtable discussion should take place. All of the interactive sessions are informal and directed at achieving consensus through teamwork. All participants will discuss the pros and cons of the critical few. The end result, with the input of the staff, may be that some of the critical few are not feasible. Once a consensus has been reached, the executive will be assigned the task of writing out a strategy (plan) for accomplishing the critical few assigned to him.

In the fourth step, the facilitator will meet individually with each member of the staff. This is the “I will” accomplish development session. “I will” is an action statement. It is not, “I might, maybe, I think so, or I probably can.” The staff member will review each of the critical few that he is assigned and during discussion with the facilitator come up with a strategy (plan) to accomplish the goal. Staff members are not only responsible for their “I will” statement. They are encouraged to be future thinkers and empowered to state what they want to accomplish during the next year. The staff member will be assigned the task of writing out a strategy, and timetable for accomplishing the assigned tasks and the tasks they see as significant to their area of responsibility for the next year. Staff members will have the opportunity to discuss their strategies with the executive.

In the fifth step, the facilitator will meet with each staff member with the executive present. During this session, the executive and the staff member will review each strategy that the staff member has designed. The facilitator will assist the executive and staff member in reaching a consensus as to the feasibility for success of the strategy and the timetable required. As in the previous steps, the executive and the staff member will review each strategy determining the S.W.O.T. for each.

In the sixth step, the facilitator will meet with all the participants to briefly review all the “I want” and “I will” strategies that the executive and staff have developed. A brief overview of the strategies and any final questions should be answered. Each participant needs to bring his or her calendar to establish follow-up dates. The facilitator will take a copy of the “I want” and “I will” document from the executive and staff. The facilitator will draft a final document outlining the tasks and the strategies to fulfill these tasks. Included in the document will be who is responsible for the task, when it is to be completed, the follow-up date, and whether the strategy has a budgetary impact. The final document will be distributed to all of the participants and the governing body. After all, the executive in most organizations is accountable to someone, be it a chairman, governing board, or governmental body.

Strategic Leadership is not a panacea but a tool for the professional executive that wants to be more effective by doing less. Although the strategies for completing the tasks have been established, there is always the unknown. Executives are plagued with incessant time restraints as well as depleted budgets. September 11th taught us a valuable lesson about strategies and planning. Nothing is cast in stone and the professional executive must be flexible and consider contingencies.

Summary

Leaders are experiencing depletion in resources but are expected to accomplish great things. This expectation is nothing new. Moses walked the walk, talked the talk, but was still lost and inundated with the daily minutia of leadership. It’s not until the professional executive comes to the conclusion that he cannot accomplish more simply by doing more, but by thinking strategically. At this point Strategic Leadership becomes a viable solution for both the public and private organization.

The implementation process has numerous steps, during which the participants learn about the 80/20 Rule, S.W.O.T. (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), and the P.O.L.I.C.E. Leadership Methodology in which the process is well Planned; is Organized; the Liability in the decision making process has been assessed; there has been accurate dissemination of Information; Control/accountability measures are in place; and Ethics, “Are we doing what is right?” has been set as the standard for all strategies.

Strategic Leadership is not a panacea for all the woes of leadership but a useful tool. Strategic Leadership is a daily process, not a long-range plan, and requires constant vigilance. Strategic Leadership offers the professional executive the opportunity to successfully accomplish his goals with the resources available and without over-investing his time and energies. Strategic Leadership may very well be the new leadership model for the 21st Century.

John Lasagna, “Accomplish More by Doing Less”, JBL Associates, p.1

John Bryson, “Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations”, A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement, (Jossey-Bass, 1995)

Arthur Hafner, Ph.D., “Pareto’s Principle: The 80:20 Rule, Seton Hall University, (http://library.shu.edu/HafnerAW/awh-th-math-pareto.htm)

About The Author

Michael A. Keller has been in the public safety profession since 1973 attaining the position of Chief of Police & Director of Public Safety. He is the CEO of the Keller Consulting Group. He has consulted with police agencies on issues involving Police Management and Planning, Leadership, Employee Discipline, Internal Investigations, Criminal Investigations, and investigations regarding the Sexual Exploitation of Children. He is a member of Project ALERT and Team ADAM, with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He holds a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in Police Administration, is a graduate of the Leadership Command College, and a graduate of the FBI National Academy 176th Session. He has written numerous articles on Leadership and Policing for various publications. He has extensive media experience and has been a guest on ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS’s Today Show, Dateline NBC, CNN, and Larry King Live. He is an avid saltwater fisherman. http://www.kellerconsultants.com

Posted by Cameron Price on Wednesday 30 July 2008 | Leadership, Management | No comments
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The Effective Executive

The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done

The measure of the executive, Peter F. Drucker reminds us, is the ability to “get the right things done.” This usually involves doing what other people have overlooked as well as avoiding what is unproductive. Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge may all be wasted in an executive job without the acquired habits of mind that mold them into results.

Drucker identifies five practices essential to business effectiveness that can, and must, be learned:

Managing time
Choosing what to contribute to the organization
Knowing where and how to mobilize strength for best effect
Setting the right priorities
Knitting all of them together with effective decision-making

Ranging widely through the annals of business and government, Peter F. Drucker demonstrates the distinctive skill of the executive and offers fresh insights into old and seemingly obvious business situations.

Click here to read Editorial Reviews and Custormer Reviews. If you have read it, click here to comment on what you thought of it.

Posted by Cameron Price on Wednesday 30 July 2008 | Leadership, Productivity, Time Management | One comment
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The Leadership Choice

by: William Frank Diedrich

Every home and every organization has structure. Structure is the invisible field that influences behavior. Systems expert Peter Senge of M.I.T. defines structure as “choices made over time.” Choices made over time becomes the “way we do things”. The way we do things comes from the way we think–our beliefs, assumptions, and perceptions. Every relationship and every organization that you are a part of has a structure. You influence that structure by the choices you make. Structure is what compels people to act in certain ways.

For example, I went to a book store (Schuler’s Books and Music) and asked about a certain book. The sales associate looked it up, led me to it, took it off the shelf, and handed it to me. All of this was done with cheerfulness and a desire to help me. I know that if I go into that store and ask for a book, I will get the same response. That’s structure. All the associates treat customers that way. Why is that? It is because leadership has communicated and modeled that behavior consistently. Leaders consistently send a message as to how to treat customers.

In another example, I decided to visit a chain restaurant called Steak and Shake. I just wanted a chocolate shake to take out. I walked in and stood at the counter. Four people who work there saw me but did not acknowledge my presence. The waitress was pouring coffee but ignored me. There were only three tables with customers. That was a leadership problem. The leaders in this restaurant had not created a clear structure. Ignoring customers was acceptable. Maybe the waitress didn’t want to deal with a take out order. Maybe the two people in the grill said to themselves : “Hey, greeting that guy is the waitress’ job.” Maybe she would have come over eventually, but I noticed she wasn’t very busy. The place felt “dead” so I left.

If poor performance, lack of cooperation, or lack of responsiveness is happening in your organization it’s because it is acceptable. This is not an article about being tough on your employees. It is an article about being honest with yourself. Whether you are the leader in an organization, a family, a church, or a committee, there is no “them”. Your choices set a tone. What you say and what you don’t say send a message.

A leader is an architect. Your mind including your assumptions, beliefs, and perceptions, is your design tool. The behavioral choices you make each day come from the way you think. These choices, combined with the choices of others, become “the way we do things.” Therefore, organizational change and growth do not happen at the level of behavior, but at the level of thought. Behavior originates in thought. Emotion is your body’s response to thought. Emotion is the driving force behind all choices. Negative or positive, excited or bored, emotion is the energy of a group of people. Leaders contribute to the energy of the group via the way they feel. The energy at Schuler’s was caring, helpful, and enthusiastic. The energy at Steak and Shake was apathetic and slow moving. If you are going to be an excellent leader/architect, you need to understand how you think and how your thinking makes you feel.

A great many people see themselves as victims. They are either expecting others to do something to them, or expecting others to do something for them. If you are expecting others to do something to you, you spend time shoring up your defenses, planning your counter attacks, planning your preemptive attacks, or avoiding certain people altogether. If you are waiting for others to do something for you, you are helpless and powerless until someone takes care of you. If you are not being cared for or treated in the way you think you should be, then you feel under appreciated, or mistreated, resentful, or the victim of selfish people.

If you are a leader and you think like a victim, your thoughts and emotions, and their resulting choices will serve to create a structure that encourages confusion and conflict. For example, the manager who avoids talking to the underperforming employee creates a structure that encourages poor performance. The message sent, even though it isn’t intended, is: “Your performance is acceptable to me.” The manager who constantly criticizes someone sends the message: “I expect you to do poorly.” Whatever your opinion of someone else may be, that becomes your vision for them. These thoughts will generate emotions and behaviors that will serve to promote the behaviors you say you don’t want.

Leaders who are self aware recognize when they feel victimized or uncomfortable. They recognize that their discomfort and their behaviors are out of alignment with their vision and with who they are as a person. This acknowledgment and recognition must be nonjudgmental. That is, you don’t condemn yourself for how you feel. You accept it and clarify who you are, what you want, and the vision for your organization. You determine what your next steps will be in order to come into alignment with your intentions. You determine what actions will best serve the highest good for all concerned. As humans, we are always susceptible to feeling like victims. Excellent leaders move themselves out of the neighborhood of victimhood and into the high-rise of personal responsibility.

To summarize, the thoughts, emotions and choices of leaders become the structure of an organization. As structure is reinforced, it influences behavior. The place to begin growth or correction is within yourself. Your shift in thinking radiates outward and influences the structure. Leadership is not about getting people to do things your way. Leadership is influence. Whatever thoughts and emotions you are bringing to the table–that is your influence. This is true at your place of work, in your home, in your spiritual community, and in any other group in which you are involved. Choosing to shift your thinking away from victimhood is not easy. It’s easier to be a victim. Your intention and willingness will move you forward. Your ability to reflect honestly on your own contribution to your conditions and to the conditions of your organization will serve you well. Your commitment to who you are, to the well-being of others, and to the vision of the organization will define you as a great leader. Leadership is a choice that is made moment by moment. Leadership is a practice and this is how you practice it.

About The Author

William Frank Diedrich is a speaker, executive coach, and the author of Beyond Blaming: Unleashing Power and Passion in People and Organizations. William offers keynotes and workshops on leadership and moving beyond blaming. William has developed the Leaders’ Edge, an online leadership class. Learn more about William at http://noblaming.com.

Posted by Cameron Price on Wednesday 30 July 2008 | Emotional Intelligence, Leadership, Organisational Development | No comments
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Managing the Media

One of the most important roles of a leader is to represent your organization to the outside world, and one of the most effective ways to do this to a mass audience is through the media.

However, if you inadvertently misrepresent your organization’s message or convey a poor impression, the negative consequences can be difficut to recover from.

I would like to recommend Managing the Media by Graham Kelly.

Posted by Cameron Price on Wednesday 30 July 2008 | Leadership | No comments
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Leadership Lessons from the US Marines

by: Wally Bock

I was sixteen years old when I decided that if I went to college right after high school, I’d probably party too much and study too little. My plan was: go into the armed forces; grow up a little; and make some money for college.

That’s how I found myself standing in the Marine Corps Recruiting Office. It wasn’t much, just a tiny space, not nearly as fancy as the offices of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The entire space was almost filled by a man with razor-sharp creases in his shirt and the shortest haircut I’d ever seen.

He was looking down at his desk and writing on a form when I came in. I described in detail the educational, job training and assignment offers all the other services had made. Then I asked, “What will the Marine Corps offer me?”

The Marine looked up for a second, his expression serious. “Four years of hell. A haircut every week. And a rifle.” I chose the Marines.

I chose the Marines because it was a challenge. Most people like to be challenged. Give them something that stretches them and they’ll rise to the occasion. Treat them like they’re lazy and incompetent and that’s what you’ll get.

The US Marine Corps is the world’s largest elite fighting force. Marines do great things. But the Marine Corps isn’t great because it chooses the top candidates. The Marines pick from the same pool as the other services. Instead, Marines do great things because they’re Marines and great things are expected of them.

Challenge your people and they’ll do great things. That’s the first of many lessons I learned in the Marines. Here are some others.

I learned that people emulate their leaders. Sometimes that happens in funny ways.

When I was in language school, one of my classmates was a Gunnery Sergeant (we called him “Gunny”) who had been a Drill Instructor. He’d also been in the Korean War and a wound from that time caused him to walk with an odd gait where he swung his right leg out in a half circle with every step.

One night Gunny invited us over to his quarters for beer and home movies. They included movies of graduation ceremonies for the platoons that he’d trained.

There on the screen we saw them, marching in perfect unison. That was like every graduating platoon. But everybody he’d trained walked just like the Gunny did, ninety of them at a time swinging their right legs in a half circle.

If you’re a leader, your people will watch what you do. And they’ll follow your example. You do great work and so will they. You cut corners and so will they. Part of your job is to set a good example, one that you want your people to follow.

A good example is important, but it isn’t enough. You also have to tell people what you want. The way one older sergeant put it to me: “You either tell them, or they’ll guess and you just might get a bad surprise.” So part of your job is learning to give clear directions, but not too many of them.

The Marines are famous for the “mission order.” A mission order is defined as “an order to a unit to perform a mission without specifying how it is to be accomplished.” Let them decide how to do it.

Of course that only works if you’ve got engaged people who know how to accomplish the mission. So another part of your job as a leader is to develop your people.

When I was preparing for my first promotion board I learned that Marine leaders are expected to do two jobs. They are expected to accomplish the mission. And they are expected to care for their people.

Caring for your people means keeping them safe. It means making sure they have the resources they need to do their jobs. And it means helping them develop to become the best they can be.

You do some of that with formal training, but you do most if it with day to day contact, counsel, correction and encouragement. You do some of that with positive consequences that encourage people to continue good practices and try new things. And you do some with negative consequences that encourage people to abandon behavior you don’t want.

The leadership lessons I learned in the Marines have worked for me for over forty years now. They’ve worked for the Corps for over two hundred years. And they can work for you.

About The Author

Wally Bock is an author, speaker, consultant and coach who helps leaders improve the performance and morale of their teams. This material is adapted from Wally’s latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership http://www.performancetalk.com). You’ll also find tips and resources about all aspects of leadership at the Three Star Leadership site (http://www.threestarleadership.com/).

Posted by Cameron Price on Tuesday 29 July 2008 | Leadership | No comments
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Indispensable Qualities of a Leader

The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow

In the tradition of his million-seller The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, author John C. Maxwell provides a concise, accessible leadership book that helps readers become more effective leaders from the inside out. Daily readings highlight twenty-one essential leadership qualities and include “Reflecting On It” and “Bringing It Home” sections that help readers integrate and apply each day’s material.

Click here to read Editorial Reviews and Custormer Reviews. If you have read it, click here to comment on what you thought of it.

Posted by Cameron Price on Monday 28 July 2008 | Leadership, Uncategorized | No comments
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The Three Factors of Leadership Motivation

by: Brent Filson

Leaders do nothing more important than get results. But you can’t get results by yourself. You need others to help you do it. And the best way to have other people get results is not by ordering them but motivating them. Yet many leaders fail to motivate people to achieve results because those leaders misconstrue the concept and applications of motivation.

To understand motivation and apply it daily, let’s understand its three critical factors. Know these factors and put them into action to greatly enhance your abilities to lead for results.

1. MOTIVATION IS PHYSICAL ACTION. “Motivation” has common roots with “motor,” “momentum,” “motion,” “mobile,” etc. — all words that denote movement, physical action. An essential feature of motivation is physical action. Motivation isn’t about what people think or feel but what they physically do. When motivating people to get results, challenge them to take those actions that will realize those results.

I counsel leaders who must motivate individuals and teams to get results not to deliver presentations but “leadership talks.” Presentations communicate information.. But when you want to motivate people, you must do more than simply communicate information. You must have them believe in you and take action to follow you. A key outcome of every leadership talk must be physical action, physical action that leads to results.

For instance, I worked with the newly-appointed director of a large marketing department who wanted the department to achieve sizable increases in the results. However, the employees were a demoralized bunch who had been clocking tons of overtime under her predecessor and were feeling angry that their efforts were not being recognized by senior management.

She could have tried to order them to get the increased results. Many leaders do that. But order-leadership founders in today’s highly competitive, rapidly changing markets. Organizations are far more competitive when their employees instead of being ordered to go from point A to point B want to go from point A to point B. So I suggested that she take a first step in getting the employees to increase results by motivating those employees to want to increase results. They would “want to” when they began to believe in her leadership. And the first step in enlisting that belief was for her to give a number of leadership talks to the employees.

One of her first talks that she planned was to the department employees in the company’s auditorium.

She told me, “I want them to know that I appreciate the work they are doing and that I believe that they can get the results I’m asking of them. I want them to feel good about themselves.”

“Believing is not enough,” I said. “Feeling good is not enough. Motivation must take place. Physical action must take place. Don’t give the talk until you know what precise action you are going to have happen.”

She got the idea of having the CEO come into the room after the talk, shake each employee’s hand, and tell each how much he appreciated their hard work — physical action. She didn’t stop there. After the CEO left, she challenged each employee to write down on a piece of paper three specific things that they needed from her to help them get the increases in results and then hand those pieces of paper to her personally — physical action.

Mind you, that leadership talk wasn’t magic dust sprinkled on the employees to instantly motivate them. (To turn the department around so that it began achieving sizable increases in results, she had to give many leadership talks in the weeks and months ahead.) But it was a beginning. Most importantly, it was the right beginning.

2. MOTIVATION IS DRIVEN BY EMOTION. Emotion and motion come from the same Latin root meaning “to move”. When you want to move people to take action, engage their emotions. An act of motivation is an act of emotion. In any strategic management endeavor, you must make sure that the people have a strong emotional commitment to realizing it.

When I explained this to the chief marketing officer of a worldwide services company, he said, “Now I know why we’re not growing! We senior leaders developed our marketing strategy in a bunker! He showed me his “strategy” document. It was some 40 pages long, single-spaced. The points it made were logical, consistent, and comprehensive. It made perfect sense. That was the trouble. It made perfect, intellectual sense to the senior leaders. But it did not make experiential sense to middle management who had to carry it out. They had about as much in-put into the strategy as the window washers at corporate headquarters. So they sabotaged it in many innovative ways. Only when the middle managers were motivated — were emotionally committed to carrying out the strategy — did that strategy have a real chance to succeed.

3. MOTIVATION IS NOT WHAT WE DO TO OTHERS. IT’S WHAT OTHERS DO TO THEMSELVES. The English language does not accurately depict the psychological truth of motivation. The truth is that we cannot motivate anybody to do anything. The people we want to motivate can only motivate themselves. The motivator and the motivatee are always the same person. We as leaders communicate, they motivate. So our “motivating” others to get results really entails our creating an environment in which they motivate themselves to get those results.

For example: a commercial division leader almost faced a mutiny on his staff when in a planning session, he put next year’s goals, numbers much higher than the previous year’s, on the overhead. The staff all but had to be scrapped off the ceiling after they went ballistic. “We busted our tails to get these numbers last year. Now you want us to get much higher numbers? No way!”

He told me. “We can hit those numbers. I just have to get people motivated!”

I gave him my “motivator-and-motivatee-are-the-same-person!” pitch. I suggested that he create an environment in which they could motivate themselves. So he had them assess what activities got results and what didn’t. They discovered that they spent more than 60 percent of their time on work that had nothing to do with getting results. He then had them develop a plan to eliminate the unnecessary work. Put in charge of their own destiny, they got motivated! They developed a great plan and started to get great results.

Over the long run, your career success does not depend on what schools you went to and what degrees you have. That success depends instead on your ability to motivate individuals and teams to get results. Motivation is like a high voltage cable lying at your feet. Use it the wrong way, and you’ll get a serious shock. But apply motivation the right way by understanding and using the three factors, plug the cable in, as it were, and it will serve you well in many powerful ways throughout your career.

About The Author

Brent Filson is the author of 23 books, many of which deal with leadership. His recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – a consultancy that helps leaders worldwide achieve sizable increases in hard, measured results. Sign up for his free leadership ezine and get a free guide, “49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results,” at www.actionleadership.com.

Posted by Cameron Price on Monday 28 July 2008 | Leadership, Motivation | No comments
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Primal Leadership

Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence

Drawing from decades of research within world-class organizations, the authors show that great leaders - whether CEOs or managers, coaches or politicians - excel not just through skill and smarts, but by connecting with others using Emotional Intelligence competencies like empathy and self-awareness. The best leaders, they show, have “resonance” - a powerful ability to drive emotions in a positive direction to get results - and can fluidly interchange among a variety of leadership styles as the situation demands. Groundbreaking and timely, this book reveals the new requirements of successful leadership.

Click here to read Editorial Reviews and Custormer Reviews. If you have read it, click here to comment on what you thought of it.

Posted by Cameron Price on Monday 28 July 2008 | Emotional Intelligence, Leadership | No comments
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Leadership and Perception

by: Michael Keller

Leaders lead and followers follow, right? What if, as a leader, you believed you were leading but no one was following? What if your employees believed they were being led but in reality there was no leadership? We like to believe we are effective and efficient leaders using our perception of what an effective and efficient leader is as a benchmark. Our supposed followers may have a very different perception. It does not matter whose perception is right or whose perception is wrong — what does matter is that what we perceive, we believe. After all, perception is the truth. Webster defines perception as:

“1a: a result of perceiving: OBSERVATION, b: a mental image: CONCEPT, 2 obs: CONSCIOUSNESS, 3a: awareness of the elements of environment through physical sensation (color ~), b: physical sensation interpreted in the light of experience, 4a: quick, acute, and intuitive cognition: APPRECIATION, b: a capacity for comprehension, syn see DISCERNMENT.”

In the scientific community Berelson and Steiner, in their book Human Behavior, define perception as, “…the complex process by which people select and organize sensory stimulation into a meaningful and rational picture of the world.” In the arena of leadership I would define perception as the acute awareness of the effectiveness a leader has in an organization based on an introspective assessment and accurate internal as well as external feedback.

This author had the honor of attending the FBI National Academy (176th session, almost froze to death) and the Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas. During both of these arduous academic endeavors I was inundated with management principles and theory by some of the foremost leaders in both the law enforcement profession and corporate America. During my subsequent research I came to the conclusion that most everyone agrees that there are three primary skills that a good leader must possess: 1. vision, 2. interpersonal skills, and 3. technical skills. No one ever mentioned perception. I argue that to survive as an effective leader this skill is every bit as important as the other three.

The fact that people can perceive the same thing differently needs to become an integral part of the decision making process of all leaders (Robbins, De Cenzo). The process by which leaders can use the skill of perception effectively has several overlapping steps.

Perception

“We react to a specific object based on what we see rather than on what it really is. Often we see only what we want to in a given situation. Similarly, how we react depends on what we hear, not necessarily on what was really said.” (Whiseenand)

Several years ago I learned that perception was a powerful force to be reckoned with. I heard rumors about me that disturbed me because they were not true. When the opportunity arose, and the guts, I asked others how I was thought of in the organization.

I had heard rumors that I was thought of as the “fair haired boy” should have been no hair as I am follicly impaired. I also heard that I thought I was better than others, that I was a hard ass, black and white, aloof, a guy that could get things done. Some of these perceptions troubled me deeply and the best defense being a strong offense I set out to gather whatever information and data might be available to make an accurate assessment and appropriate changes.

I realized that to be an effective leader I had to know what the employees honestly thought of me. To accomplish this I made appointments to speak with employees that I knew well and others I barely knew. There were only two rules, be honest and be respectful. I approached this not as an opportunity to take a shot at me but as an opportunity to help me learn to be a better leader. If you give your employees an opportunity to take a shot at you, face to face, you will find that they will be less than frank for fear of reprisal. In a constructive criticism atmosphere they can be brutally honest. If you do this with the true intent of learning, you will undoubtedly get your feelings hurt. As people described their perception of me it sometimes made me very uncomfortable because I knew in my heart that they were wrong in their perception. It was at this point that I learned that what an employee perceives, they believe, regardless of what the truth is.

“The probability of developing such knowledge of ourselves and other people is enhanced if the police supervisor: (1) becomes continuously aware of the intricacies of the perceptual process; (2) avoids arbitrary and categorical judgments; (3) seeks reliable information before judgments are made; (4) shifts position as additional information is acquired; and, most crucial, (5) recognizes that we all see things differently because our needs greatly determine the view we have of ourselves and the world. To ignore the importance of the perceptual process is to ignore a major determinate of behaviors.” (Whiseenand)

Having become, (1) aware of the need to recognize and acknowledge the perceptions of employees and (2) gathered data through interviews, it was time to extrapolate from the data the relevant facts, (3) be objective, (4) review the facts for accuracy, and (5) make an assessment on how to change perceptions. Assessing the necessity for change requires a very introspective look at ourselves while attempting to be objective. This is not always easy or comfortable. Taking a systematic approach to perception and the resulting appropriate changes, if any, fosters an objective approach to various issues. This approach also helps put issues into a perspective that is not overwrought with emotion. This sounds likes a very simple methodical system but the reality is that when you introduce your personality and the personalities of your employees the frustration levels will soar, your communications skills and your patience will be tested.

Communication

Communication is the single most important tool a leader has at his/her disposal. Much has been written about communications and it is not my intention to regurgitate what others have said except to speak about communication and perception. You may have the best of intentions, genuine concern for the welfare of your employees, but if you do not communicate this in a fashion that your employees can understand then the perception of the employees may be just the opposite. Effective, accurate communication touches all aspects of leadership. The leader, sensitive to the perceptions of the employees, must use communication as a tool to either reinforce a positive perception or change a negative one.

To accomplish the changing of a negative perception through communication a leader must be very (1) proactive. The saying that “the best defense is a strong offense” is very appropriate here. When communicating with employees administrators must remember to (2) listen to what is being said, (3) be timely in responses, and, (4) provide accurate information.

Listening is a fundamental aspect of effective communication. How can we solve a problem when we have not listened to what the problem is perceived to be? How can we discern the difference between a symptom and problem when we have not listened to the facts? How can we help when we do not hear? “Listening on the job is not only frequent, it is important as well. When 282 members of the Academy of Certified Administrative Managers were asked to list the skills most crucial for managerial ability, “active listening” was rated number one and was placed in the “supercritical” category”. (Adler) Listening to what employees have to say sends a message that you care about their input; they have value.

I don’t know how many times I have listened to my spouse while watching television and retained nothing from the exchange except the score. Interactive listening is an integral part of effective listening. Listening can be mentally exhaustive. When an employee comes into your office to speak with you about some problem, come down from the “Ivory Tower”, grab a note pad, sit across from them and listen, take notes if necessary. This might come as a surprise to some administrators but frequently employees have very good ideas.

Communication with an employee should be done in a timely fashion. If an issue exists that requires input don’t wait so long that the information you disseminate is ineffective. Finding the right moment to interject an idea or address an issue is always a consideration. How many times have employees asked one another “what kind of mood is the boss in today?” They are assessing whether the timing is right to engage the boss in conversation or just leave him/her alone.

When communicating with your employees be sure that the information given is accurate. Inaccurate information will lead to confusion, frustration and impact productivity. Remember, if you’re the leader of the organization, what you say is very often perceived as gospel. Some of the communication we have with our employees is just friendly, idle chitchat that, although seemingly insignificant, can send some very profound messages. How many times have you heard your employees say “well, I thought you meant”? Your employees perception of what you meant was different that what you communicated. If you’re lying to your employees, stop. Once you’re caught in a lie, the perception will be that everything you say is probably a lie. The damage is irreversible in most instances.

Consistency in communication with employees compliments accuracy. Employees want to be treated fairly and we should strive to be consistent in our application of fairness and interaction with employees. Failure to be consistent in how we communicate will send mixed and confused messages to the employees. We should not communicate displeasure to one employee and fail to communicate the same displeasure to another employee for the same issue. It’s very important to remember that employees talk among themselves and frequently compare notes.

The use of E-mail, although efficient, is not always effective and should be avoided when the situation requires face to face communication. Sometimes what we say is not nearly as effective as how we say it. The impact of what we say through the verbal, written and electronic mediums pales in comparison to the perception of our communication through our body language and inflections.

Maintaining a chain of command is critical in this life and death profession we call policing. For the effective leader though, an open door policy can be very beneficial. Your employees should understand the importance of the chain of command and they should never have the perception that their leader is unapproachable. While trying to maintain a chain of command many leaders advocate having an open door policy. On occasion, an employee may be moved to take advantage of your open door policy and engage you in conversation that is to be kept in confidence. When you agree to talk with an employee “in confidence”, you are giving your word that you will not divulge the information. Failure to keep your word will result in the perception that you cannot be trusted. We must also remember that our employees talk amongst themselves and that the grapevine is a very powerful entity. The topic of conversation frequently is our leadership abilities and although employees don’t usually do in-depth analysis, they have significant opinions that they pass among each other. If you fail to keep your word with an employee, in all probability other employees will know within a short period of time resulting in a severe blow to the perception of your credibility

In summary, we as administrators, in hopes of accurately assessing the perceptions of our employees, must open our eyes and ears. There are too many administrators who think that because problems are not knocking down their door that everything is great. When a confidence vote is called for, an association formed, or morale plummets, then these same administrators react with anger and hostility, usually at the wrong people, for issues they, the administrators, should have had knowledge of.

Perception is just another tool, under utilized, that requires an administrator to develop the true desire to be the best he/she can be. Using all of the tools available to us we can achieve great things with our employees for our citizens. We owe it to them. We owe it to ourselves. We took an oath!

END NOTES

R. Adler, “Communications At Work”, Principles And Practices For Business and Professions, McGraw Hill 1992, p.93

S. Robbins, D. DeCenzo, “Fundamentals of Management” Essential Concepts and Applications, Prentice-Hall 1995, p.236

P. Whisenand, “Police Supervision”, Theory and Practice, Prentice-Hall 1971, p.30

About The Author

Posted by Cameron Price on Monday 28 July 2008 | Leadership | One comment
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Total Leadership

Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life

Now more than ever, your success as a leader isn’t just about being a great business person. You’ve got to be a great person, performing well in all domains of your life — your work, your home, your community, and your private self.

That’s a tall order. The good news is that, contrary to conventional wisdom about “balance,” you don’t have to assume that these domains compete in a zero-sum game. Total Leadership is a game-changing blueprint for how to perform well as a leader not by trading off one domain for another, but by finding mutual value among all four. Stew Friedman shows you how to achieve these “four-way wins” as a leader who can:

Be real: Act with authenticity by clarifying what’s important
Be whole: Act with integrity by respecting the whole person
Be innovative: Act with creativity by experimenting to find new solutions

With engaging examples and clear instruction, Friedman provides more than thirty hands-on tools for using these proven principles to produce stronger business results, find clearer purpose in what you do, feel more connected to the people who matter most, and generate sustainable change.

Most leadership development books focus only on your professional skills, while books about personal growth concentrate on your needs beyond work. Total Leadership is different. It’s a unique and long-awaited resource that shows how to win in all domains of life.

Click here to read Editorial Reviews and Custormer Reviews. If you have read it, click here to comment on what you thought of it.

Posted by Cameron Price on Wednesday 23 July 2008 | Leadership, Personal Development | No comments
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Leadership and Self-Deception

Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box

The “disease” of self-deception (acting in ways contrary to what one knows is right) underlies all leadership problems in today’s organizations, according to the premise of this work. However well intentioned they may be, leaders who deceive themselves always end up undermining their own performance.

This straightforward book explains how leaders can discover their own self-deceptions and learn how to escape destructive patterns. The authors demonstrate that breaking out of these patterns leads to improved teamwork, commitment, trust, communication, motivation, and leadership.

Click here to read Editorial Reviews and Custormer Reviews. If you have read it, click here to leave a comment on what you thought of it.

Posted by Cameron Price on Tuesday 22 July 2008 | Leadership | No comments
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Leading Change

In Leading Change John Kotter examines the efforts of more than 100 companies to remake themselves into better competitors. He identifies the most common mistakes leaders and managers make in attempting to create change and offers an eight-step process to overcome the obstacles and carry out the firm’s agenda: establishing a greater sense of urgency, creating the guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating the change vision, empowering others to act, creating short-term wins, consolidating gains and producing even more change, and institutionalizing new approaches in the future. This highly personal book reveals what John Kotter has seen, heard, experienced, and concluded in 25 years of working with companies to create lasting transformation.

Click here to read Editorial Reviews and Customer Reviews. If you have read it, leave a comment on what you throught of it.

Posted by Cameron Price on Sunday 20 July 2008 | Leadership | No comments
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Orison Swett Marden

Dr. Orison Swett Marden Orison Swett Marden has been called the Father of the American Success Movement. His teachings from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s echo through the messages of contemporary personal development speakers and authors. Richard Gorham has captured Dr. Marden’s ideas in an audio series called A Leadership Series For Successful Living. If you’re not familiar with Orison Swett Marden, you can do a free 5-day eCourse.

Posted by Cameron Price on Sunday 20 July 2008 | Leadership, Motivation | No comments
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The Leadership Challenge

The Leadership Challenge is a trusted resource on becoming a leader. This leadership classic continues to be a bestseller after three editions and twenty years in print. It is the gold standard for research-based leadership, and the premier resource on becoming a leader. This new edition, with streamlined text, more international and business examples, and a graphic redesign, is more readable and accessible than ever before. The Leadership Challenge, Fourth Edition, has been extensively updated with the latest research and case studies, and offers inspiring new stories of real people achieving extraordinary results. The authors’ central theme remains the same and is more relevant today than ever: “Leadership is Everyones Business.” Their “five practices” and “ten commitments” have been proven by hundreds of thousands of dedicated, successful leaders. This edition, with almost one-third new material, emphasizes the global community and refocuses on business leaders.

Click here to read Editorial Reviews and Customer Reviews. If you have read it, leave a comment on what you throught of it.

Posted by Cameron Price on Sunday 20 July 2008 | Leadership | No comments
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How to Be A Boss

Chris Jackson has put together a resource for those who are new to management in a corporate environment. Click here to read more about it.

Posted by Cameron Price on Sunday 20 July 2008 | Leadership | No comments
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Laws of Leadership

In The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Then and People Will Follow You, John C. Maxwell combines insights learned from his 40-plus years of leadership successes and mistakes with observations from the worlds of business, politics, sports, religion, and military conflict.

Click here for Editorial Reviews and Customer Reviews. If you have read this book, leave a comment on what you thought of it.

Posted by Cameron Price on Sunday 20 July 2008 | Leadership | No comments
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Leadership Skills: Motivating Others

Harvey Robbins have written an interesting article on motivation, Leadership Skills: Motivating Others, suggesting to keep expectations achievable and short-term.

Leave a comment on what you have found to effectively motivate your people.

Posted by Cameron Price on Tuesday 1 July 2008 | Leadership, Motivation | No comments
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How Successful Leaders Think

How Successful Leaders Think from Portfolio.com by Roger Martin provides a good explanation of integrative thinking.

After reading the article, come back here and leave a comment with an example of where you have exercised integrative thinking.

Posted by Cameron Price on Tuesday 1 July 2008 | Leadership | One comment
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The Seven Demands of Leadership

The Gallup Management Journal has an article summarising the book The Seven Demands of Leadership.

I am interested in your thoughts on this study.

Posted by Cameron Price on Tuesday 1 July 2008 | Leadership | No comments
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Leadership Challenges

This post is not for me to tell you what the challenges of leadership are. You know better than any other what daily frustrations are implicit in your role as a leader of people.

I would like to extend an invitation to you to share with other leaders your experience of the most significant challenges you have faced as a leader and what strategies you used to effectively respond.

Register as a member of Leaders’ Log. Your password will be emailed to you. Login with that password. Fill in your profile including your name and organisation’s website. In the Biographical Info, briefly describe your role and responsibilities so that other leaders will have an appreciation of what you do. Click on Update Profile and then Visit Site. Come back to this post and click on the title of this post (Leadership Challenges). Scroll to the bottom where you can Leave a Comment. In the text box, respond to the following questions:

What are the most significant challenges I face as a leader?
What strategies have I used to respond to those challenges?
What resources have I drawn upon to equip me to respond most effectively?
What is my plan over the next 12 months to further develop myself as a leader?

It is my hope that this will benefit not only other leaders who read your response, but that consideration of these questions will assist your development as a leader.

Posted by Cameron Price on Friday 13 June 2008 | Leadership | No comments
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Coach and be Coached

It is important as a leader not only to be a coach for those in your team, but to seek out those competent to coach you in your role. The coaching relationship is about facilitating change, not simply the transfer of information; so whether you are playing the role of the coach or coachee, it is important to be clear about what you want or need to change.

Coaching is about enhancing performance. When you are coaching members of your team, rather than simply teaching them what you think they need to know, use questions to facilititate their own learning and deeper understanding of the focus of that session. Facts and techniques alone do not improve performance unless there is personal meaning attributed to them by the coachee. Only when information and activity is linked to what is important to the coachee will knowledge be applied and skills used.

The three basic questions that underpin the coaching process are:

What do I want to do with my life?
What is stopping me from doing it?
What am I going to do about it? (Ref 1)

While these are simple questions, it can take a great deal of introspection for the answers to become clear. It can be useful to have a person who understands this process to ask the questions that draw out those answers unique to each individual.

Coaching uses strategies and techniques to:

Clarify what you want from life
Set yourself effective goals
Monitor your progress on your journey of change
Stay focused and challenged
Stick to your commitments
Continually reassess and re-examine your ideas, plans and strategies
Identify your life values (Ref 1)

In the 1960s the business world started to apply some of the practices of sports coaching to improve the performance of employees. Since then the discipline of coaching has evolved and incorporated elements of psychology, psychotherapy, counselling, training, mentoring and consulting. There are a number of different types of coaching, including life coaching, business coaching and executive coaching.

Coaching can help people with issues such as:

Work / life balance
Dealing with conflict
Increasing productivity
Effective leadership
Working as part of a team
Communication skills
Relationships
Parenting skills (Ref 1)

Can you imagine a sportsperson achieving much if they didn’t have a coach? They require someone to steer them towards being the best they can be. If a student doing athletics was one of the best in their school, would it make sense for them to say that they are good enough and don’t need a coach anymore? What if they were the best in their State and wanted to win the Nationals; or the best in their country and wanted to win the Olympics? While it is obvious that beginners can benefit from having a coach, the higher the level of performance, even greater is the need to have the close support of a competent coach. This goes equally for the first year graduate and corporate high-achievers.

The theme to coach and be coached will be a frequent refrain in the Leaders’ Log, as it is both one of the central responsibilities of the leader and required for that leader to take themselves to higher levels of performance in their role.

References

Anthony Grant and Jane Green. 2001. It’s your life. What you going to do with it? Coach yourself; make real change in your life. Pearson Education Limited. London.

Posted by Cameron Price on Wednesday 11 June 2008 | Coaching, Leadership | No comments
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Welcome to Leaders’ Log

This web log is a place for leaders and all those who wish to better understand leadership to share ideas and experiences.

Posted by Cameron Price on Sunday 8 June 2008 | Leadership | One comment
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Leaders' Log is for those with a passion for deepening their understanding of leadership. Please take a moment to add this site to your Technorati favorites and bookmark on del.icio.us.

To most effectively use this blog as a leadership development tool, reflect on each post, read or listen to any resources recommended and then click on the title of the post and scroll down to where you can leave a comment. Not only will you better integrate the concepts and techniques into your own understanding and leadership style by articulating your experience of the topic in question, other leaders may also benefit from your contribution.

In addition to subscribing to Leaders' Log by putting your name and email in the boxes above, if you would like to contribute to this site by leaving comments, please Register as a member. Your password will be emailed to you. Then Login with that password. Fill in your profile including your name and organisation's website. In the Biographical Info, briefly describe your role and responsibilities so that other leaders will have an appreciation of what you do. Click on Update Profile and then Visit Site.

Even if you choose not to contribute to this site, to further develop yourself as a leader, enter your name and email above to subscribe now to Leaders' Log, your free weekly leadership development resource.