Posts by drjbnewman

A Virtual Legacy Leadership Summit

Jay Newman, PhD, Founding Partner, Culture By Choice

The best way to grow as a leader is to associate with and engage in meaningful dialogue with other leaders. This is often difficult because leaders are frequently incredibly busy and finding the time to carve out a few hours for these beneficial activities becomes a daunting task. One way to remedy this situation is to conduct virtual leadership summits.

So, how about it? Who’s up for a Virtual Legacy Leadership Summit? I will be very happy to organize a summit and seek some sponsors if there is any interest. When we can share ideas and seek input for situations we face, the combined wisdom of several leaders can help all of us grow and get better. Respond with a Like on Facebook or LinkedIn or send me an email at jaynewman@culturebychoice.com. I really hope we can put together a group of leaders who want to share and be shared with. Thanks for being part of the tremendous success we’ve experienced with this Blog.

November 26, 2019 has been set for the first Virtual Legacy Leadership Summit. The link for the meeting will be sent to all who register for the event.

Leadership Myth # 1: I am in Control

Jay Newman, PhD, Founding Partner, Culture By Choice

I have heard so many managers say I just have to get this __________ ( you fill in the blank) under control and then everything will be better. The concept of us controlling anything is actually a myth. The only thing we can really control is ourselves. Everything that is out there must be collectively managed by people who have a common desire for conditions and situations to exist in a certain way and then, that group of people must be willing to accept less than perfect outcomes. As a leader, thinking that you can control people, the environment, circumstances and situations sets you up for a battle you cannot win. So, how can a leader lead without control? Through influence!

There four basic ways to influence others. These are fear, safety, reliability, and love. To motivate people to do something you need done, you can threaten their sense of safety and security and if they truly believe you can and will do them harm, they will do what you demand. How well they do it will always fall on the side of minimal compliance and never achieve anything near what would be considered quality. If you offer people safety in return for their efforts towards achieving an outcome, you will most likely see some people jump at the chance and they will work hard for you until they reach a state of comfort and then they will work hard enough to remain in that comfort zone. Reaching the highest levels of achievement will be difficult. If you offer people reliability, you will most likely find a number of people who will work hard enough to establish a system of operations that creates consistency and predictability but your organization will have trouble adapting to a rapidly changing world. If you offer people love you will most likely find that almost everyone will respond positively. Together you will have to learn to succeed and that will require understanding one another. As is the case with any loving relationship, maintaining the the relationship requires hard work.

What does an organization influenced by love look like? The first thing to note is that the love I’m talking about is not a soft, mushy love. This love has high expectations and standards for one another. This love has core values and principles with an expectation that all who sign on for the journey will strive to live up to those values and principles. This love is unconditional in that it accepts that we are all imperfect and will all fall short but the expectations are that we will never give up our pursuit of excellence.

When an organization is influenced by this kind of love, it collectively understands that all people are unique and that there are numerous ways to get to the same destination. Taking advantage of the diversity of styles and world views that this leadership approach fosters is an excellent way to find ways to better meet the needs of every member of the team. Teams are not monolithic. Members will not all be motivated by the same incentives nor will they approach problem solving in the same way. This style diversity allows teams to have people handle different tasks according to their own strengths. And, because the foundation is love, no one task category is seen as being more important than any other task category. Sales, is not more important than design nor is production more important than customer service. This leadership approach understands that if any part of the entire process is short changed, the entire system can fail.

If we want to create an organization that truly has a Legacy Culture, our source of influence must be love. As I contemplated writing this Blog, I thought very hard about whether I should use the word love. I thought of alternatives such as caring or compassion, but I stuck with love because it was the more courageous choice. Being a Legacy Leader requires a great deal of courage because being driven by love will too often be seen as being soft. Even when we know that having love as our fundamental influencing factor is the hardest road to take, we will still hear people refer to it as the soft approach. It is anything but soft. The easy way out is to take one of the other approaches. With any of the other 3 approaches you only want people who are the way you want them to be and any other way is wrong. The Legacy Leader knows that those approaches are so limiting that huge chunks of opportunity will be missed. So Legacy Leaders, fasten your seatbelts, the road ahead will be bumpy but the product of your work will be extraordinary!

Do You Want to Learn More?

Jay Newman, PhD, Founding Partner, Culture By Choice

I have been experiencing an excellent response to my last several blog posts. I am seeing thousands of people reading what I have to say. Some people are telling me they want more and one reader suggested that I offer a course on Legacy Leadership. So this edition of the Legacy Leadership Blog is being devoted to finding out if there is a broader interest in a course on Legacy Leadership. If you would be interested in participating in a 6 session course on Legacy Leadership, please either send me an email to jaynewman@culturebychoice.com or simply like this post on Facebook or LinkedIn. On Facebook it will appear in the Legacy Leadership Blog page and on LinkedIn it will appear as a post on my Jay Newman LinkedIn page. I will contact those that indicate an interest and we will develop a schedule for the 6 sessions. I hope to hear from many of you soon!

So I Need to Improve, How do I do That?

Jay Newman, PhD, Founding Partner, Culture By Choice

You’ve read my last 4 Blog posts. Now you are trying to figure out how to become a Legacy Leader or improve your Legacy Leadership skills. But, how do you do that? I’m writing this article to give you some guidance in that effort. You may not like what I’m going to tell you but my last 45 years of experience tells me there’s no better way. In fact, there’s no way that even comes close. The way forward must include a Coach.

For some reason business professionals think they can dramatically improve their performance all by themselves. The elite professional athletes, actors, musicians, and singers all believe in acquiring coaches. Why do the best athletes and entertainers seek coaching but business leaders don’t? It’s a bias we seem to have. Physical skills need an objective observer to provide feedback and suggest improvements but the more complicated mental and emotional skills don’t? This bias keeps way too many potential Legacy Leaders from even taking the first step down the path towards Legacy Leadership.

Becoming a Legacy Leader will require you to get some coaching. The quality of that coaching will determine the quality of the progress you make but quality is not equal to cost. Some coaches might not cost you anything, some will be very reasonable in their cost, but some may be more expensive. Not every leadership coach can help you become a Legacy Leader, so how do you know what to do? The rest of this article will focus on finding the right coach.

Of course, I would be remiss if I failed to mention that the professionals at Culture By Choice are very skilled at coaching leaders and have helped several leaders on their Legacy Leadership journey but we do that as part of a complete cultural development program for our clients. There are many other ways to find the right coach for you. Sometimes there’s a coach right in front of you and all you need to do is ask for them to help. Some people will not have the luxury of having someone close by that can coach them and they will need to hire a professional coach. Finding the right coach is critical to your success.

What should you look for in a coach? First of all, the coach should be able to offer you some type of personal assessment. At Culture By Choice we provide what we call our Core Advantage Report which takes the results of the DISC, Motivators, and Hartman Values Profile and compiles them into a single integrated report that describes how a person is most likely going to behave, think, and make decisions under normal and stress filled conditions. There are several other assessments that could be used but your coach should always create a baseline based on your results to one of more of these assessments.

The second thing a coach should do for you is help you discover your own controlling idea. What is the fundamental value that determines what decisions you will make? When this is revealed, you can decide if that is what you want guiding your decision making or if a change in mindset might not be a good idea. Our controlling idea can change depending on what circumstances we find ourselves in and sometimes the subconscious changes we make are not in our own best interest. It is necessary to dig deep to find the primary motivation behind what we do, think, say and decide if we really want to be the best we can be. A skilled coach can help you do that.

The third ingredient of a good coach that I will mention in this article is the ability to provide honest yet helpful feedback. These three ingredients are not everything but they are fundamental for any coach. To help you on your journey towards Legacy Leadership, a coach will need to help you course correct. By watching you interact with your people or through conversations with you and your people, a good coach can help you see what you’ve done that was on track and what you’ve done that has missed the mark. Along with that performance analysis, a good coach will help you figure out what you could have done differently and the good coach will help you figure out how to do it better.

If you’re hiring a coach, insist on these three aspects of their coaching program. If you are using a coach that is already with you, have a conversation about these three things. You can make your life as a leader better by doing this and who knows, someday you might just be recognized as a true Legacy Leader. If you want to find out more, send me an inquiry at: jaynewman@culturebychoice.com.

The Big Don’t Be for All Legacy Leaders

Jay Newman, PhD, Founding Partner, Culture By Choice

I’ve taken the time to point out what Legacy Leaders need to be, so I thought I’d point out what Legacy Leaders should never be. To me, this is so obvious that I didn’t consider writing about it until a conversation with a client proved me wrong. There are many people who have this trait and don’t recognize that they are this way. What is this big don’t be? Legacy Leaders should never be arrogant.

According to Dictionary.com, arrogance is an “offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride.” Alaina Love of the Bloomberg Business Week identifies 12 signs that arrogance is running a company. These are:

1) You hire and develop great people but refuse to listen if their input represents non-conformist thinking.

2) Rather than learn from your mistakes, your company rationalises them.

3) Your company focuses almost exclusively on financial success with little attention directed towards legacy and social impact.

4) Your company objects to sound regulations because they may increase complexity to the way you operate.

5) Your leaders congratulate themselves when the company achieves financial success, even though that success is as a result of market forces rather than performance.

6) Your leaders refuse to believe that the company could fail.

7) The company’s leaders dictate more than they listen.

8) The company underestimates the competition and downplays the success achieved by competitors.

9) The company restricts access to top leadership through layers of bureaucracy.

10) There is a focus on amassing the trappings of success (well-appointed offices, chauffeured cars, etc).

11) Your company takes over in a merger rather than becoming a partner, losing the value of the culture and knowledge of the other organisation.

12) Your company suffers from “not invented here” syndrome, thinking that any innovations coming from the outside are of little value.

If you desire to be a Legacy Leader you must guard against arrogance. Sometimes in our attempt to project confidence we make the mistake of thinking that being humble is a weakness. Nothing could be further from the truth. An arrogant leader commands and demands. A Legacy Leader humbly inquires and in so doing guides followers towards ends that are consistent with the organization’s values and principles. Some have said this just takes too much time. The pace of business is to fast to use that approach. The arrogance of leading without gathering input and carefully considering information from knowledgeable people often causes such distress in an organization that had the leader just taken the time to listen and weigh the possibilities, time, money, and the goodwill of staff could have been saved.

All the reasons given for behaving in an arrogant way are hollow when compared to the wealth of data that tells us that humility is more productive. But, too many don’t believe the research. In one business school class after another, when students are asked why they want to become a boss, their answer is almost always; “so I can tell people what to do rather than be told what to do.” Somehow we have to get the message across that commanding and demanding is an ineffective management style.

If we can build an ever growing cadre of Legacy Leaders we can begin to change the landscape. We’ve suffered through too many arrogant leaders. They’ve made a shambles of too many companies, communities, and government entities. We can and must do better. Join our growing group of Legacy Leaders. Send me an email if you’d like to learn more. (jaynewman@culturebychoice.com)

The Value that’s a Close Second to Integrity for Legacy Leaders

Jay Newman, PhD, Founding Partner, Culture By Choice

Integrity is critical for all Legacy Leaders but it’s not the whole story. Being of high integrity is great but followers also want to know that their leaders care. So caring about the wellbeing of people is my very close second to integrity as a required value for all Legacy Leaders. In fact, followers really don’t care how much their leaders know and can do until they know how much their leaders care!

According to the research of Stanford University’s Emma Seppälä, “Being a tough, distant leader often adds stress to your employees, which is proven to harm your employees’ health and increase the likelihood of them quitting. A report from BMC Public Health shows that health care expenditures were 46 percent greater for employees with high levels of stress. Another study shows how occupational stress leads to employee turnover.” “Harvard Business School’s Amy Cuddy explains that leaders who project warmth earn their employees’ trust and as a result are more effective than tough leaders.” Both of these quotes are from an Inc This morning newsletter published on NOV 25, 2014, written by Rebecca Borison.

Caring and consideration of followers is essential for being a successful Legacy Leader. When we see that integrity results in greater trust and also see that caring leads to trust, we are left with a question. How can two seemingly different values both lead to trust building? It appears to be quite a complicated matter but it becomes more clear when we realize that trust is not a one dimensional concept. There is trust that stems from knowing you can count on someone. Then there is trust that comes from a feeling of acceptance and personal connection. There’s also trust that is a product of a confidence in the honesty and integrity of a person. When a leader has all of these qualities, the level of trust reaches an amazing height.

I’ve written about the impact of integrity on Legacy Leadership and this Blog addresses the power of caring in Legacy Leadership. Either one or these can help you be a better leader but both of them together cause an exponential increase in the power of that leadership. This certainly is Legacy Leadership.

You might ask, how do I make sure my leadership style is truly a Legacy Leadership style? I’ve spent the better part of my career focused on this very notion and for the last 10 years I have made serious progress towards understanding how to do it. I am more than willing to share what I’ve learned with as many people as I can. If you’d like to learn more, send me an email at jaynewman@culturebychoice.com and let’s start a conversation. I am always eager to learn more and help wherever I can.

Legacy Leadership and Integrity: Part II

Jay Newman, PhD, Founding Partner, Culture By Choice

After yesterday’s Blog post I was asked so how has integrity impacted profitability? The answer to that question is complicated. It’s easy to show how serious breaches of integrity negatively effect profits but much harder to show how the highest levels of integrity positively effect profits. I can provide three excellent examples, however, of companies that have the highest levels of integrity and have been recognized by their industries as such, and what’s happened to their profits over time.

The first company is in the food service industry and they have been highly recognized for being straight shooters and for being caring, giving, and a pleasure to work with. They are clear about what they stand for and what they will not stand for. Over the last 10 years this company has grown from approximately 50 million a year in revenues to a projected 500 million for 2020. Is that phenomenal growth a direct result of that culture? It’s hard to say with certainty but I am willing to bet that it didn’t hurt.

The second company is in the contracting business and they’ve been around for over 100 years and they too are recognized as being of the highest integrity. Not too long ago they had a major set back and it cost the company a great deal of money. The company had many options available to them to deal with a huge financial hit. But the company knew, based on their values and history, that they had only one real option. That option was to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and get back to work. They evaluated their procedures that lead to their failure and made the necessary changes. The next year started off slow but as people began to see how the company was taking steps to improve without needlessly blaming others and doing everything on the up and up, clients, for the most part, said now that’s a company I want to do business with. I’ve been told that 2019 is shaping up to be a record year. Once again, can we prove that their integrity led to their recovery and record profitability? No, we can’t but we’re pretty sure if they had gone against their values and principles during this recovery year, many clients would have looked elsewhere for a contractor to meet their needs.

The last company I want to mention is a broker. They connect manufacturers with retailers so that the manufacturers don’t have to have a sales team and retailers don’t have to have buyers. They’ve been in business for over 30 years and last year they lost a big chunk of business as a manufacturer they had represented for many years decided to go with a different broker. It was one of those changes that they could see coming but couldn’t stop without violating their values and principles. They took a huge hit and everyone, from the CEO to the office staff took a pay cut. But that CEO told the entire team that everyone would keep their job and the only way anyone would be let go would be if they violated the company’s values and principles. He went on to tell them that he would work tirelessly to find manufacturers to represent that could replace the lost revenue and that he would do it this year. He didn’t have to do it alone. The response he got from everyone was an overwhelming, let’s get to work. Now, nearly a year after disaster struck, the company will not only replace their lost revenue but they will exceed that amount resulting in a net increase in revenues.

Why has this happened? Why did the first company grow so much and these other two companies recover so quickly? Well, it probably won’t happen for every company that is faced with these challenges but companies with the highest levels of integrity have a unique advantage over companies that lack that integrity. That advantage is the trust that employees and customers have. They all enter into the relationship with those companies believing they will get a fair shake. When you really believe in someone you are far more willing to give them a shot. That’s why I think these companies have accomplished what they have. People believe in them.

The Number One Value for Every Legacy Leader: Integrity

Jay Newman, PhD, Founding Partner, Culture By Choice

There are many possibilities for values that drive a Legacy Leader but one is a nonnegotiable. That nonnegotiable is Integrity. Integrity, according to Dictionary.com means, “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness: the state of being whole and undivided.” Just think about how important that is for anyone we entrust to lead us.

In today’s world, the personification of that definition of integrity seems in very short supply. Our political leaders appear to embrace the opposite position, and that goes for both parties and both national and state level elected officials. And business leaders aren’t much better.

I totally understand that no one is perfect and that we all make mistakes. The occasional failure to live up to the ideal can be forgiven and if our leaders own up to their failure and seek followers forgiveness, the rank and file will, most likely, be quick to forgive. But leaders who continuously break the trust of the rank and file or who are excessively secretive and inaccessible, those leaders will not be trusted.

One thing too many leaders fail to realize is that without the trust of the people, productivity will be limited. To supercharge organizational productivity requires trust and belief in a vision. Legacy Leaders understand this and they know how important integrity is. If you want to be a Legacy Leader, you should remember one important thing; it’s all about building trusting relationships. Integrity is the fastest route to building those trusting relationships.

The path of the Legacy Leader is a hard path. If it was easy to follow all leaders would be on that path. It’s not complicated but it takes more dedication, energy, patience, and persistence than most people are willing to invest but the payoff is huge. When the day is done and you look back on where you’ve been, you will have the satisfaction of being able to say we did great things together and we accomplished so much. Being a Legacy Leader is hard work but more satisfying work will not be found.

Legacy Leaders Care About Who gets Credit

Jay Newman, PhD, Founding Partner Culture By Choice

I’ve heard leaders say that they don’t care who gets credit as long as important things get done and they get done well. This seems like a great idea and it is admirable that they are willing to not take all the credit for an organization’s success, but, they are missing some golden opportunities. By recognizing everyone who contributed to a successful endeavor, the Legacy Leader builds confidence in followers, systems, and processes. The Legacy Leader also shows support for the efforts people have made towards key goals, what we call Big Target Goals. This can also encourage those who were not involved to make sure they are involved when the time is right and the situation is appropriate to be involved.

Sometimes leaders will do things because they want to look good in the eyes of their followers. Although these actions might be the right choice, if the motivation is wrong, followers will catch on to those errant motives. So recognizing the work done by others because it will help the image of the leader will be seen for what it is, manipulative and shallow. Giving credit where credit is due must always be done with the utmost sincerity. Anything less is disingenuous and lacks integrity. This is why this article is titled “Legacy Leaders Care About Who gets Credit.” That word in the middle is the key; CARE!

Caring is a critical attribute of the Legacy Leader. According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, the word care means: “the process of protecting someone or something and providing what that person or thing needs…. ” The people who follow you, as a Legacy Leader, have been placed under your care. It’s your responsibility to see after their needs. Legacy Leaders do this willingly and with purpose and compassion. There is nothing contrived or artificial about this act. It is the essence of caring that exemplifies every action of the Legacy Leader.

I also say this is done with purpose. Every organization has a purpose; it’s controlling idea. The actions of the Legacy Leader are always focused on that purpose. If some followers are not aligned with that purpose they are in the wrong place. The Legacy Leader still cares about these people but understands that they can never be satisfied or fully engaged in an organization that is not aligned to their own values and principles and purpose. The Legacy Leader will want those followers to find a better path and a better fit for what they want. Keeping someone around that is not a good fit for the organization is harmful to both the person and the organization. Even if the person is very talented, because the Legacy Leader cares so much, the change will have to be made.

This ethos of caring is critical to the success of any organization. When leaders don’t care, the culture becomes toxic. Toxic cultures are far less productive and profitable than are healthy cultures and our experience tells us that Legacy Cultures are the most productive and profitable of all. Legacy Cultures are hallmarked by credit sharing. Everyone who contributes to success on each Big Target Goal gets recognition and rewards. And the rewards are not a one size fits all reward. Because Legacy Leaders care about their people, they know that some will want material rewards Lbut others may want more opportunities for learning or opportunities to volunteer or perhaps some type of improvement in their workspace. The Legacy Leader is tuned in to the people.

Saying it doesn’t matter who gets credit may seem like a good idea but that idea ignores what people really want. Everyone wants recognition. Some may want public recognition while others may want private recognition but everyone wants to be appreciated for a job well done. That’s why is does matter who gets credit. Legacy Leaders get it. Legacy Leaders want their people to know they really care.

ARTICLE 11: LEADERSHIP AND LEARNING:

This article is one of the 51 articles/chapters in my new book, Practical Leadership.

PREFACE:

The best leaders are always learning.  This is the one factor that does not waiver no matter who the leader is.  How the leader learns  depends on the leader and what drives that leader.  Some leaders love to read.  Others may enjoy listening to experts though recordings, seminars, or webinars.  Still others will like to “get their hands dirty” so to speak; they learn best by doing.  And still other leaders will learn by studying the data, facts, and what has been observed.  It doesn’t matter how they learn but it is critical that leaders value learning.

The best run organizations are often thought of as learning organizations. Peter Senge, author of the Fifth Discipline, sees it like this:

People with a high level of personal mastery live in a continual learning mode. They never ‘arrive’. Sometimes, language, such as the term ‘personal mastery’ creates a misleading sense of definiteness, of black and white. But personal mastery is not something you possess. It is a process. It is a lifelong discipline. People with a high level of personal mastery are acutely aware of their ignorance, their incompetence, their growth areas. And they are deeply self-confident. Paradoxical? Only for those who do not see the ‘journey is the reward’.  (Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, 1990, p 142)

Seeing the world as a laboratory, a place where we can constantly upgrade our knowledge and understanding of our world, that is the true essence of a great leader.  It’s not about being set in your ways or set in your knowledge and understanding. Learning something new is not just a good idea, it’s the foundation for organizational and personal survival. It is even more important that we not be set in our means for applying that knowledge.  Being closed to innovation puts anyone at a disadvantage.  No matter how much we’d like everything to stay the same, to have real predictability in our day, the inability to adapt and modify what we do is a death sentence for any organization.  Agility is critical.  Being able to adapt to a world that is changing so fast that life is a blur and being able to create when nothing is certain, these are key to our success.

This article takes a specific look at some ways a leader can make the organization a learning organization.  It is important to maintain perspective and as much as some of us want perfection, leadership is not nor has it ever been a safe haven for perfectionists.  We will all make mistakes.  We will all fall short.  If we have 5 tasks to complete and only complete 4, we must guard against feeling like the entire effort was a waste of time.  For those of us who look first at the negative and have trouble seeing the positive, failing on 1 out of 5 objectives can be hard to swallow.  But, that is an 80% success rate.  That would be an amazing feat for a Major League Baseball hitter, an NBA field goal shooter, or even a NASCAR driver. Think of a teacher getting 80% of his or her students into an Ivy League College or a dance instructor getting 80% of her or her students accepted into a prestigious Ballet Troup.  If you were a coach in the NFL, you would be setting all kinds of records having an 80% success rate.  The best ever was Guy Chamberlain and he had a 78% success rate.  The great John Madden only hit gold 76% of the time.  And the Vince Lombardi— “Winning isn’t everything…it’s the only thing!” only won 74% of the time.  But those success rates are phenomenal.

A great leader can put all of this into perspective. It’s not enough to just count the wins and losses.  Leaders must learn from every experience.  Don’t just pick apart the losses; Pick apart the victories as well. 

THE ARTICLE: Leadership and Learning:

      Learning is an essential aspect of building the confidence to lead.  With every action there must be an after-action review.  The purpose of the review is not to beat ourselves up over what went wrong but to learn.  If we had 10 tasks to accomplish and we were able to complete 7 at a satisfactory level, our after-action review will have us examining all 10 not just the 3 we see as not having been accomplished.  The reason for this is we want to learn from the 100% successes, the 90% successes, the 10% successes and everything in between. We can learn what we ought to keep on doing, what we need to improve, what we should do less of, what we should stop doing, and what new things we ought to incorporate into our processes.

      One part of the learning process that is critical for every leader is to learn about the people you lead.  What do they value and believe?  What motivates them to do their best?  What are their most comfortable behavioral traits?  Are they influencers, commanders, steady eddies, or compliers? Do they prefer working with people, things, or ideas?  Once  we know who we are working with we can do a better job of having those people involved in activities that will suit them best.  It would be a waste of time and energy to have a systems person trying to build a collaborative team as it would having a real people person go off into a room all alone to develop a system for implementing a new organizational structure.  It’s all about having the right people on the bus, in the right seats, engaged in the right activities.

      Each of us has a certain amount of talent.  There are some factors that we will never be able to overcome.  If my body type is short and stocky, the chances of ever becoming an NBA Center are essentially, for all intents and purposes, nil!  If I have a gravelly, nasal voice my chances of becoming an opera star are one in a zillion.  But beyond these so obvious handicaps, most of the talent we need to be a good leader is at our disposal.  We simply have to be willing to do the work necessary to develop the skills we will need. Leaders, in my humble opinion, are not born, they are made.

      In the next article we can start talking about how to turn an ordinary person into an extraordinary leader.  My approach may surprise many.  I do not advocate a formulaic approach.  I believe that each person has qualities that can be help them be effective leaders and they have certain aspects of their belief system and certain behavioral traits that can get in the way.  It all begins with knowing yourself, being yourself, and not trying to be something you are not.  By fully deploying our own strengths and then recognizing and utilizing the strengths of others we can go from being quite ordinary to quite extraordinary.

SUMMATION:

      Learning is critical to leadership and our learning needs to begin with us.  The bottom line is that what do or do not accomplish is about us.  It’s not about the world around us as much as it is how we deal with the world around us.  To be as effective of a leader as possible we will need to have an intimate knowledge about ourselves.  Too many people ignore themselves as the most critical component of the leadership act.  Knowing who we are and how we most likely to behave and knowing how who we are and how we behave impacts others gives us insight into the best way to effectively carry out the leadership act.

      Being a “good leader” is not affected as much by our nature as it is by our nurture.  Indeed, there are some essentials that are more biological, but we can all become better leaders through learning.  If we start with ourselves, we can move out into the world but starting in the world and trying to become more introspective can create attitudes and beliefs that are difficult to countermand. If you have ingrained in your mind that a group of followers is either incompetent or subversive, you will have an immediate prejudice that can prevent real achievement from taking place. If you are inclined to blame others for the where you find yourself in the world it will be difficult to navigate that world.  But, by grasping a real knowledge and understanding of yourself, you can turn an important corner.  You begin to see that you have amazing control over the world around you.  You begin to see that if you don’t like the way things are you can change them. And, as Gandhi said, “be the change you want to see!”

      Changing yourself as a leader has profound impact on the entire leadership act.  I am often reminded of a dear friend who was the CEO of a major US Corporation.  He relates the story of how he saw his role as being one of “shooting first and taking names later.”  He went to the office everyday looking for who fouled up yesterday, so he could make an example of the person to the rest of company. He said he went to work with his “Six Guns Blazing” and came home each night knowing he’d done his best to weed out the dead wood.  He instituted change after change based on all the best research on quality and productivity.  He told all of his managers and executive team members that he was holding them personally responsible for improvements in both.  But after months and months of efforts to improve the company, nothing seemed to work.  Then one morning as he was shaving, getting ready for another day of “murder and mayhem” it hit him.  The problem wasn’t everyone else!  It was the “Man in the Mirror!”

      This CEO began that day to try to undo the months and months of damage he had done to the company.  He began to look inside himself to see what he was all about; what made him tick.  He realized his misery over the past few years was his core values bumping up against what he thought he had to do to run a Fortune 500 Company.  He began to connect with his own values and beliefs.  He knew he really liked people and really wanted to trust them to do what they did best.  He realized that he enjoyed listening to them and allowing them to share what they believed in and hoped for.  He instituted a Delta Team; a team of employees that represented every aspect of the company’s operation. These Delta Team Members helped reshape the future of the company and maintained a constant vigil designed to ensure that the company never lost focus again.

      This leader had to first learn about himself.  Who was he?  What did he believe in? What was important to him?  And then he could start learning about the people who made the company work.  The proof of the value of this approach can be seen in the ultimate outcome for this company.  Over the next 10 years the company underwent enormous growth.  It became a company that people wanted to work for.  The company built a major learning center in its “home town.” And a few years ago, this CEO, leader of his family, and principle owner of the company sold the entire operation to an International Conglomerate for well over a billion dollars.  This now retired CEO found that all learning starts with “ME” and continues with “ME” for as long as we are learning, we are growing, getting better, and thriving.  The “me” of learning is not a selfish me but a connected me.  It is the “me” that is at the core of all we are.  Great Leaders Are Great Learners and the foundation of their learning always begins with a better knowledge of self.