Leadership Challenge

Leadership Lessons On-The-Go? We Have an App for That!

Piano players with a desire to improve their skills must practice. Actors who aspire to reach a higher level of performance must rehearse. Basketball players hoping to play in the state championship spend hours in the gym.

What about leaders? We’ve been espousing the merits of practice for years – the notion that it takes 10 years and 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an expert. If you strive to be a better leader, it’s critical that you find ways to work leadership practice into your daily lives.

 In our years of research and data-gathering through the Leadership Practices Inventory®, there is one specific behavioral statement that consistently ranks as the lowest behavior overall:  statement #16 – “I ask for feedback on how my actions affect other people’s performance.”

 THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE MOBILE LEADER TOOL, a new mobile app available for $4.99 through CNET or in the App Store for the Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, offers a feedback request function to help leaders monitor the frequency of this and 29 other leadership behaviors. Enter your Leadership Practices Inventory® (LPI) scores, request regular feedback from your observers, and track the increased frequency of behaviors consistent with The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®.   

Whether you’ve studied the book, or are just becoming introduced to The Leadership Challenge®, the app offers practical features that get you started on becoming a better leader. Leaders at all levels benefit from ways to integrate deliberate practice routines into your daily work, be inspired by quotes of the day, and stay current on the latest news feed from The Leadership Challenge®.

 “I was very excited to learn about TLC Mobile Leader Tool, and my expectations were high,” says Kyle Taylor, Center for American Indians at Bacone College in Muskogee, Okla. “I was pleasantly surprised to find the tool very beneficial to research and writing in my graduate work in leadership."

"Because the sharing of knowledge is crucial to any leader and learner, the app allows me to quickly refresh my mind with specific knowledge I can use immediately. In my work with college students, we have implemented the app in our dining and discussion times as the learning component in our program. I have not been disappointed!”

 

Head, Heart and Soul: Lessons from The Leadership Challenge Forum

It's been nearly 30 days since The Leadership Challenge Forum held in Chicago. By this point, we hope attendees have applied what they learned in addition to strengthening connections with others in their communities. 

It's difficult to describe the power of an experience such as The Leadership Challenge Forum. Year after year, its impact increases; not only for participants, but also for us. The Leadership Challenge and Student Leadership Challenge families continue to expand and we invite you to join us.

Remarkable lessons were shared from participants, keynote speakers and session leaders. Slides from keynotes and presenters are posted here. This year's Forum was designed to be learner-centered. Attendees contributed to our shared learning as much as the speakers. It's amazing to witness and be part of the outcomes when leaders come together to share, learn, and grow.

Our research over the past year regarding the Characteristics of Admired Leaders indicate what we've known from previous years: the number one characteristic people seek in leaders they would willingly follow is Honesty, which leads to our first law of leadership: If you don't believe the messenger, you won't believe the message. 

Do What You Say You Will Do (DWYSYWD) has evolved to DWWSWWD - Do What We Say We Will Do. Leadership is not about you - it's about us. Making leadership about us is dependent upon our credibility. Are we worthy of being followed?

To sustain credibility, a leader must follow six fundamentals: 

• Discover Yourself
• Appreciate Constituents
• Affirm Shared Values
• Develop Capacity
• Serve a Purpose
• Sustain Hope

Steve Dellaporta from the United States Department of Defense, Manpower Data Center, shared with us: "Without knowing who you are, you cannot lead with integrity." Do you know WHO you are? Can you articulate your personal values?

Who contributes to the organization's success? Appreciation is not just about successes, but also failures that become learning events. When you and your team can extract lessons learned from a failure, then it can lead to your next success. 

If you don't know your own values, how can your team develop shared values? Our research shows that shared values make a difference. When constituents align their values with shared values, they are more personally successful, more committed to organization and stakeholders, more willing to work harder and longer, and more clear about the alignment among their values and the organization's values. 

HOPE. One of our nation's greatest needs. What gives you hope? Our upcoming generations of leaders give us hope, which is why we've developed The Student Leadership Challenge. Today's students are tomorrow's leaders, and if we don't invest in them today, we won't have prepared them to lead us into the future. Many colleges and universities realize the importance of building the leadership needs of the next generation. 

Each of these fundamentals are explored in greater depth in our newly released second edition of Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It. 

We leave you with the same powerful message we shared at the conclusion of the Forum:

Be careful of your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words.

Be careful of your words, for your words become your deeds.

Be careful of your deeds, for your deeds become your habits.

Be careful of your habits, for your habits become your character.

Be careful of your character, for your character becomes your destiny.

Be careful of your leadership,  for your leadership becomes your legacy. 

    

Credibility: It Still Matters

"You cannot follow someone who isn't credible, who doesn't truly believe in what they're doing -- and how they're doing it." - Gayle Hamilton, chief of staff for the senior vice president at Pacific Gas & Electric

Indulge us as we go back to one of our fundamental beliefs about leadership: leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow. As we took a deeper dive into the research we've conducted over the past 30 
years, we found the same crucial attributes year after year that people seek in leaders whom they would willingly follow: honest, forward-looking, inspiring, and competent. And these results hold true around the world. 

As we examine these characteristics one by one, each is a realistic attribute for a leader to possess. When viewed through a broader lens, the four descriptors combine to create a richer meaning as the foundation for leadership. 

Credit and credibility come from the same root word: credo, meaning "I trust or believe." In whom do you trust or believe? Who has earned credibility in your perspective, and why?

Credibility is not universally inherent; it must be earned over time. Some leaders earn it sooner than others based upon the quality of their relationships. Others must prove their worthiness to be deemed credible, perhaps based on previously broken promises or a lack of honesty, inspiration, or competence. Ultimately, credibility is determined by those who surround a leader. A leader who lacks the aforementioned crucial ingredients is one people are less likely to follow.

Credible leaders possess the ability to leave a long-lasting, postive impact on people's lives. Consider your answers to the questions above. Did the person who came to mind as a credible leader make an imprint on you? Have you made an imprint on others?

We cannot address credibility without referring to what we heard from Irwin Federman, venture capitalist and former CFO and CEO, when speaking to students at Santa Clara University:

"You don't love someone because of who they are, you love them because of the way they make you feel. This axiom applies equally to a company setting. It may seem inappropriate to use words such as love and affection in relation to business. Conventional wisdom has it that management is not a popularity contest... I contend, however, that all things being equal, we will work harder and more effectively for people we like. And we will like them in direct proportion to how they make us feel."

And just how do credible leaders make people feel? Our research of over a thousand case studies shows 10 descriptors used most often:

• Valued
• Motivated
• Enthusiastic
• Challenged
• Inspired
• Capable
• Supported
• Powerful
• Respected
• Proud

We leave you with this final thought: put yourself in the shoes of those you lead. How many of them would use these descriptors when sharing how you make them feel? What can you do to increase the frequency of leaving people feeling this way as a result of your leadership?

We'll have more to share about Credibility at The Leadership Challenge Forum, July 28-29 in Chicago. Hope to see you there. 

Until then, love 'em and lead 'em. 

The Best Leaders are the Best Learners

Leadership is not a one-time event, it's an ongoing process of growing, evolving and developing. One of the fundamental truths in The Truth About Leadership: "The Best Leaders are the Best Learners." We believe that we (and others) can learn to lead, and that we can become better leaders tomorrow, than we are today.

This statement seems fairly straightforward; and may be easier said than done. Many leadership development facilitators and coaches focus on developing and strengthening the leadership behaviors of others; it can be easy to lose sight of focusing on ourselves and our ongoing leadership learning.

In their Harvard Business Review article, "The Making of an Expert," K. Anders Ericsson, Michael J. Prietula and Edward T. Cokely say it takes 2.7 hours of practice per day to improve at a skill - whether playing tennis, honing your golf swing or learning keys on the piano. And not just routine practice - the article says "...you will need to invest that time wisely, by engaging in deliberate practice."

We found in our research that those leaders who engage more in learning are more effective as leaders. That is, their constituents see them as more effective. What does this look like?

• They spend more time in learning activities. Literally, they engage in learning by reading, talking with others, experimenting with new ways of doing things or reflecting on their own leadership behaviors.
• They ask more questions.
• They don't assume they know everything.
• They aren't afraid to admit mistakes.
• They ask for feedback, and when they get it they say "thank you" and accept it as a gift by taking it seriously, whether the feedback is positive or negative.
• They encourage others to experiment, take risks and accept failure by asking "What can we learn?"

How do you fit 2.7 hours of deliberate practice on your leadership skills every day? It's likely we do many of these learning activities already, yet we don't transfer learning from the activity into deliberate practice on leadership.

We invite and encourage you to invest in your leadership learning. Join us at The Leadership Challenge Forum, July 28-29 in Chicago, where we will explore "The Anatomy of a Leader."

Joining us as speakers will be Steven J. Stein on emotional intelligence, Ann Herrmann-Nehdi on the whole brain advantage, and The Chicago Comedy Company on creativity. In addition to learning from the line-up of speakers, you will learn by engaging in experiential activities with fellow members in The Leadership Challenge community. Take advantage of early-bird registration rates through April 30.

In what ways are you learning to lead? What activities do you do regularly to deliberately practice and improve your leadership skills?

 

Seeking Exemplary Leaders for Video Case Studies

We’re sure you all know some wonderful leaders and we’re in need of subjects for our new video case studies.

The most important part of this search is receiving stories about the leaders we feature, as well as finding 2-4 people who know the leader, can say why they're a good leader, and can bear witness to the featured story. 

We plan to have two new cases for each Practice. We’re looking to highlight concrete examples of ways in which someone has put The Five Practices into action…transformed an organization, a process, a way of thinking. The best way to show leadership qualities in these case studies will be with a "before and after" theme revolving around the leader's story.

The leaders we're looking to work with will ideally:

1. Be a part of medium to large-sized companies and organizations. We’re looking for contacts in a variety of industries, including the health and education sectors; it would be great if the organizations are well-known, but not essential.

2. Be located in the SF Bay area, the Chicago area, or the NY area (again, ideal but not required).

3. Be articulate and comfortable in front of the camera.

These aren't the only things We’re looking for -- non-profit, small business, every kind of company and people at every level are welcome, including people who aren't managers -- students, assistants, etc.

Please send us a story about a great leader you know, and tell us why you're recommending them, along with which of The Five Practices® they exemplify (if they exemplify more than one, that's great). All submissions and queries should be directed to the Video Project Manager Caitlin Clarke: [email protected].

Thanks so much everyone! Feel free to send us suggestions or places to look if you think of it. We look forward to hearing from you.

Best,
The Leadership Challenge Editorial Team

2008 Corporate Issues Survey Released

The Ken Blanchard Companies have released the 2008 Corporate Issues Survey.  This report "pinpoints the needs and issues of organizations seeking to develop their people to their fullest potential.  The findings in 2008 represent the feedback from more than 1,800 executives, line managers, and training and HR leaders from a range of companies, industries, and countries.  Since 2003, almost 4,900 leaders have participated in this ongoing study."

Reading through the survey, I didn't find many surprises.  The organizational and management challenges that keep me awake at night are very similar to the ones that rank at the top of the Blanchard list.  I did find one piece of data very interesting: "creating an engaged workforce" ranked #1 in the Top Management Challenges list.  Then I read that this particular issue has increased in importance every year since 2003.  It ranks higher than "managing change," "developing potential leaders," and "selecting and retaining key talent."  That seems to contradict the leadership buzz that has been growing louder and louder over the last year: the retiring Baby Boomers and the leadership shortage that they will leave in the wake of their mass exodus.  It looks as though most HR leaders are more interested in the proverbial bird in the hand.  I wonder if this is a good thing (it's certainly good for current employees who want to be engaged!) or if this group is not spending enough time "envisioning the future."  Your thoughts?

Posted by Lisa Shannon