Hang Tight Everyone

Hey everyone

Workin It

A quick note to say that I am working it. It has been a while since I had to coordinate interviews with busy people. This is taking a while. I am certain my persistence will pay off in some valuable insights to share with you. I have four interviews in the works currently. Two with very talented bloggers, another with a professor and the fourth with a well known author. Each of these individuals I respect greatly and am hopeful to start posting the interviews within the week.

I can envision a number of others beyond this but lets stay in the moment.

I am as constant as the northern star...

Did you see Star trek IV? This is my favorite quote from that movie. I suppose Shakespeare and Julius Cesar should also get credit for it. I love the metaphor. Every time I think of the importance of consistency in purpose, I think of this quote. Luckily I do not consider the ill fated gentlemen who uttered it . The quote gets a bad egotistical wrap. Regardless, constancy of purpose is critical to a leader.

Constancy of Purpose

As I dig in and work toward realizing these important interviews, I am reminded of some wisdom around this concept of constancy of purpose.

What's todays Vision?

I once followed a leader in a volunteer capacity who had a new vision every couple of weeks. This used to drive me nuts. Just pick one I often exclaimed in frustration. The people who want to follow you need to know where you want to go. They don't want a new constantly changing vision.

If you think about communication and how remarkably difficult leadership communication is in the first place, you will see the impossibility of this position. They have not even understood the last vision and now you are painting a new one. MAKE UP YOUR MIND! Decide upon a clear direction and immerse yourself in it.

Communicate Communicate Communicate!

Once a leader has a relatively clear sense of purpose, of vision, of process they should communicate it. They should communicate it often, repetitively and in many forms, with pictures, in stories, in metaphors, in simple understandable language. Just when you are getting sick and tired of saying it, they will start hearing and understanding.

Scope Creep

No, not weirdo in need of mouth wash, the inevitable growth of a purpose as peripheral good intentions are added onto the purpose until it is unrecognizable. A leader must stay true to their leadership purpose and learn to respectfully and empathetically say no to those things outside the scope of their purpose.

The Never Ending Story...

All good things must come to an end. Unfortunately many things just die a horrible death of neglect and guilt. The next time you lead a group to achieve a purpose, when you have achieved your desired end, celebrate the achievement and at the same time the funeral of the team that achieved it. Dignified endings are in! It is the only way out of the never ending story...

Well thats it! I am back to investing in the process, you to your own leadership purpose.

See you soon with a great interview...

Lead well

Ron

Going, Going, Gone! 756 Homeruns!

How can I resist the opportunity to talk about leadership and 756 homeruns?

Barry Bonds….

Steroids yes or no?

Does it matter?

Regardless of your opinion on this debate these questions matter. They matter for the theme underlying the questions as much as the questions themselves.

What is really being asked is Can we trust Barry? Did he achieve this record with integrity?

That is the underlying theme, integrity. It is not my intent to take a position on how Barry achieved the homerun record. I don’t believe it is any of my affair. I am a hockey fan anyway. Talk about beating Gretzky’s scoring records then I might get interested. What I want to address is the importance of integrity in the life of a leader. I mentioned in “Are you a leader” that integrity is one of the foundational bedrock qualities of a leader. It is upon this rock that trust, respect and even faith are forged. Undermine your integrity and you will find it an uphill battle to just return to the height you fell from.

Transparency

One of the most elegant aspects of integrity is the concept of transparency. I once tried an experiment at a social event during my masters program. Instead of wearing one name tag, I wore two. The first was on my chest reading “Ron” The other was in the exact same spot on my back reading “NOR”. People would ask what on earth are you doing? I would respond “I am working on being transparent. What you see is what you get.” I am a little peculiar like that. For me there is always room for a lesson. In a room full of aspiring leadership experts, I sought to teach a simple lesson, be transparent.

What does this really mean? For me transparency is the congruence of thought and action, of intent and behavior. When I say I will do something, I do it or explain why I cannot and apologize. When I have something to say I say it with respectful intent and dignity in the delivery. When someone is not present I chose not to speak about them. When I am tempted to stretch the truth, I stop take a breath and say no, and tell the truth. I have always loved the fact that telling the truth greatly uncomplicates life. You simply don’t have to remember everything you say since it won’t change anyway.

Presence

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. Shakespeare

I think Shakespeare’s Macbeth was dead wrong on this point and a bit too morbid. A leader is always on stage and their actions are very important. Those who forget or chose not to acknowledge this simple truth can undermine their own credibility. Leadership is a responsibility not an entitlement and must be honored as such. In January 2006 I attended a University of San Diego leadership course taught in the Tavistock tradition. This thing was bizarre. The faculty talked but did not interact. The 200 students interacted with each other but only partially with the faculty. Faculty would interject comments about the process how we were not doing the work of the event. This course made brainwashing sound like a welcome escape. The deeper we went in the weekend long event, the more my brain felt like Gumby on a blistering hot day. I am being melted and stretched in ways a brain just does not want to be stretched.

In the end what astounded me was not the weirdness factor but rather the students. How sobering was it when a faculty member interjected an emotion charged accusation complete with a choice expletive and the whole crowd, the herd per Nietzsche, immediately degraded their vocabulary to a learned cussing match. I could not believe my eyes and ears! Had 200 graduate students and professionals been led to cuss because of one comment? Amazing! They had. Throughout the rest of the course I took charge to change the context of every space I was a part of. I gathered a group who instinctively had an affinity toward me and we led sections of the course. Our outcomes were amazing and incredibly insightful, we changed the context because we chose to be present in the moment and own our influence on the larger group.

A leader’s presence is bigger than he realizes. This is our opportunity, this is our challenge. Leadership is born in the space of our influence. Every interaction, every moment is precious to a leader. Use them well.

Commitment

People need to know how much you care before they care how much you know.

Someone very close to me once shared a frustration they were dealing with. They had recently gotten into a community group that was somewhat disorganized. This person made numerous attempts to offer their assessment and their help solve the problem. At first as this story unfolded I first considered maybe the group was so disorganized that they could not see that they had a problem and looked at the advice as unnecessary criticism. Then I realized, this person was new to the group and had not yet proven their commitment to the effort or demonstrated any value. So efforts to help were politely and at times not so politely rebuffed. The challenge, this person was not an equal member in the enterprise, they were an outsider.

Until we physically demonstrate that we care about others and care about the cause people will not chose to follow us. We must through our words and deeds clearly demonstrate our values and our commitment to the shared purpose.

In the end integrity for me is very closely allied with authenticity.

How authentic was Barry in his quest to break the homerun record?

How authentic are you in your leadership role?

Lead well

Ron