Leadership Challenge

Best of 2010: The Truth About Leadership

Congratulations again to Jim and Barry, on making another Best of 2010 List for The Truth About Leadership!  On his blog, “Leadership and Learning with Kevin Eikenberry”, Eikenberry lists The Truth About Leadership as one of his six favorite books of the year, calling it “their best book” and that “every leader needs to read it.”  Read the full article here.

LeadershipNow's Best Leadership Books of 2010

Congratulations to Jim and Barry—The Truth About Leadership made LeadershipNow’s list of The Best Leadership Books of 2010!  LeadershipNow’s list focuses on books that help readers find ways to change his or her approach to leadership in order to become a more effective leader.  The Truth About Leadership joins a list that also includes biographies as well as other leadership development reads, for a well-rounded selection of leadership inspiration.  Read the full article here.

Personal Values Lead to Commitment

“Values influence every aspect of our lives: our moral judgments, our responses to others, our commitments to personal and organizational goals.  Values set the parameters for the hundreds of decisions we make every day.”  --James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, The Leadership Challenge

 

How do you keep a good manager motivated?  What will drive a good manager to emotionally commit to an organization?  This question is at the root of Stan Slap’s article, “Fully Committed?”, published in the fall issue of The Conference Board Review.  The answer is one that devotees of The Leadership Challenge will find familiar: know your personal values and commit to them in order to commit emotionally to your organization.  Recommitting to your personal values, not just the values of your company or organization, is in fact the core of what it takes to be a good manager.  However, a organizations are often at odds with the very thing that will lead to this success—allowing managers to become leaders.  Slap goes on to highlight “the great fear of the corporate organism: If I set you free to pursue your own priorities, you’ll leave me and I’ll die.  The problem is, managers are already free.  They’re free to detach, which is about as free as one can get.”  Slap points out that corporation’s great fear, that too much freedom will lead to abandonment, is only facilitated by the enforced emotional detachment of refusing to let individuals align core values with company values. 

 

So what does one do to combat this management/leadership dilemma?   Define your values.  The first two commitments from Model the Way direct participants to clarify values  and then align these values with one’s actions.  By doing this, you are working to create a better workspace for you and for your corporation. By becoming a leader and crusading for those values most important to you, you will become a more productive manager, with a greater emotional commitment to your organization.  It’s exciting to see more research corroborating Kouzes and Posner’s findings on values and commitments—how important they are to an organization, how to implement them, and what really drives leadership.  As Slap states, “It’s not what leaders do that’s important—it’s why they do it.  Leadership is a motivation.  It’s a purpose before it’s ever a practice.  The worst thing in your own development as a leader is not to do it wrong—it’s to do it for the wrong reasons.”  Figure out your “right reasons” and then figure out how to apply them to your company.

 

Read Stan Slap’s article.

Contributed by Halley Sutton.

How to Use The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable To Keep Your Leadership Lessons Alive During Turbulent Times

I’ve written a lot over the last couple of years on how to use The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable as a teaching/learning tool in your everyday work-a-day world. Sometimes a good listen is better than a good read. Here’s how one savvy organization used The Offsite to enhance and keep their leadership lessons alive in turbulent times. Take a listen and let me know what you think. If you, too, have used The Offsite in your workplace, let your results ripple out to others. Please let me know how it’s working so I can pass your Best Practices along.

 

Audio can be found here: http://leaderinsideout.com/rants-and-raves/ 

 

 

 

 Robert Thompson is the author of The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable. Contact Robert at [email protected] and subscribe to his Leadership Path newsletter at www.leaderinsideout.com  Follow Robert on Twitter: @RobertHThompson.

If Patience is a Virtue, We're Doomed!

"It is also helpful to think of adversity not as much as a threat to our peace of mind but rather as the very means by which patience is attained." -the Dalai Lama

While reflecting on a collection of quotes the other day, the above roused me from my sleepy studies.

I have been working on patience for many years now. Okay, full disclosure...many, many years. (Lately, with better results though. It must come with age.)

However, I think I am running out of patience with our politicians. (Some of them old friends.) Perhaps you are already beyond the point of no return, but I'm tittering on the bitter edge. You might be able to prop me up a bit. Read on.

A colleague sent me a comment the other day after reading an article I tweeted. She lamented that Obama is using the "us versus them" language. My quick response was he didn't invent it. It's been in use for many decades now. And it's not owned by one political party, they are all guilty.

She encouraged me, with good humor of course, to go to D.C. and set them straight. "Tell them they work of all of us, not just some of us. And report back." I would love nothing more, but the task is obviously much larger than that.

I actually liked how Obama stood front and center with the Republicans and then did a repeat with the Democrats as well. My understanding is that, in that setting, it was a first. I think an interaction like that should be mandatory once a month from this point on for all presidents.

Obama challenged both groups to lead. (Fine, that forces him and his crew to Step Up [TM] as well.)

That's where my patience, or lack of it, comes in.

Unless you've been hiding under a large, mossy rock for decades, you know that our political system is under the weather. It has a virus far more virulent than the Swine Flu. Bed rest and plenty of fluids is not the answer. A couple shots of real leadership might break the impasse.

California is a great example of where the country is headed from a political perspective. What seems like a group of educated, informed adults appear unable to tie their shoes and chew gum at the same time. Their business is all about obfuscation and stalemate. Status quo. Zero change. Zip. Nada. If you challenge anyone of them, they point at the other guy.

Individually, they might be great to have a beer with at the end of a long day. I'm positive that some have great ideas we should be chewing on and debating. However, constructing a workable budget and governing appears to be an impossible dream. Some Californian's lives and businesses have become nightmares because of our elected officials immaturity and intransigence. California, the Golden State and former pride of the West, has fallen and can't get up.

Is this what we want for our country? Most, I suspect, would say no. They don't vote for that.

However, it appears there are enough folks out there who want nothing less than drowning government (except for the parts that selfishly served them). And it is those folks, with their colorful ways, who get the media attention that keeps the negative messages afloat. Our radio waves and cable outlets are filled with diatribe and flotsam.

Of course, I could fill a few pages with this and that about leadership being the answer. Moreover, please understand I am not politically naive and I am very aware of the great things that are being done out there by real people (like you) in the real world. (Follow me on Twitter @RobertHThompson to stay abreast.)

However, today, I'd rather know what you think about the ever-growing political stalemate and what might be done to banish it forever.

Don't be shy. Talk to me. Be serious or be funny, but please don't tell me to just be more patient.

Robert H. Thompson is a Certified Master of The Leadership Challenge and the author of The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable. You can reach him at [email protected] or sign up for his newsletter at www.leaderinsideout.com.

The Leadership Challenge Coaching Workshop?

We are currently hard at work with Elaine Biech on book entitled The Coach's Guide to Developing Exemplary Leaders, due to release in Summer 2010. In conjunction with the release of the book, we are considering a TLC Coaching Workshop. Please let us know your thoughts on this exciting idea!

Other TLC Activity in the Blogosphere

Members of The Leadership Challenge community are lighting up the blogosphere. TLC Certified Master and International Leadership Associates Managing Partner Steve Coats maintains the No Box Book Blog. His most recent post discusses the single language of leadership--Truth.

Over at Leadership Perspectives from Barry Posner, keep up with adventures of the co-author of The Leadership Challenge who is currently on sabbatical. Barry has chosen to spend his year abroad and his most recent posts muses on his experiences as a Visiting Professor of Leadership at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Kowloon.)

Leveraging Leadership Across Generations

The Leadership Challenge Forum 2009 kicked-off this morning with Barry Posner's final stateside keynote for the next year. That's right folks, Barry is off on a tour of the world. Together with his wife, Jackie Schmidt Posner, Barry is headed to teaching gigs in Hong Kong, Australia, and Turkey, in addition to visits to multiple other countries where he will be collecting data on and case studies of leadership for the fifth edition of The Leadership Challenge.

But before we get to that book, Jim and Barry are currently at work on their next book, tentatively to be published next summer.The initial writing process and the seedlings it produced were the subject of Barry's speech.

Barry started out by referencing his speech at last year's event, when he and Jim were just starting to ponder this book--it was to be a book about millennials and what leadership means to them. However, their research over the last year has led them to understand that leadership doesn't really mean anything different to millennials than it did to prior generations. So the new book has evolved into Enduring Leadership Truths.

So far, Jim and Barry have determined Five Leadership Truths:

Truth #1 - Leadership development begins with self development; it’s about the individual; what is the first question most people want to ask a new leader?

Truth #2 – You can’t do it alone

Truth #3 – The foundation of Leadership is Credibility

Truth #4 – You either lead by example or you don’t lead at all.

Truth #5 – Being forward-looking most differentiates leaders.

Barry closed the session by inviting everyone to join us in San Diego next year to learn how this book will conclude.

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

Congratulations Jim and Barry!

Kudos to Jim and Barry, recipients of ASTD's (American Society for Training & Development) 2009 Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning and Performance Award. Read the press release here.