This past weekend interview number three was completed. I believe it will take a few weeks to truly capture the essence of the discussion. The man I interviewed is a well known author and consultant. His work was instrumental in how my perspective on leadership is framed. The interview was a study in contradiction yet not. It was actually an authentic leader living his purpose. You see he interviewed me for the first twenty minutes of our conversation. He wanted to be certain to capture the essence of what I was searching for. He wanted to know me first and answer me second.
The conversation was a blur he spoke with such wisdom and authenticity that I found myself just listening. Every now and then I would jerk myself out of the student role long enough to ask another question. I felt as if I were listening to a master story teller, a man of great wisdom. I took a different approach with this interview. I provided my guest with a scenario and asked him to analyze the actions taken against his model. From this discussion I was able to learn even deeply about his model and how it plays out in the real world.
We talked about the motivation for his work. He told me about an injustice perpetrated against the Malay people as recounted in a book by M Scott Peck. His passion was evident even now as he recounted his emotional reaction to a book he read over 15 years ago. It was clear that tragedy was a significant framing concept in his work. His efforts to teach a beacon of how to transcend tragedy in our day.
I know you will want to read this post as much as I want to write it.
Lead well
Ron
Showing posts with label authentic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label authentic. Show all posts
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
What does Leadership, Fedex Ground and the Twilight Zone have in Common?
Fedex Ground
The scene opens in a staff meeting, the charismatic boss opens saying, “we have got to cut costs people, ideas…” A tentative looking employee hesitantly offers, “ uh, we co-could open an account on fedex.com,…save 10% on…express shipping…?” pregnant pause with all the staff looking around to see who might validate or discredit the idea then the manager confidently offers his assessment, “how about this, We open an account on Fedex.com, we save 10% on online express shipping.” The flunkie staffers all nod, smile and confidently affirm their assent to the bosses great idea. The tentative staffer puzzled by this turn of events exclaims, “You just said the same thing I did only you did…this” (wiggling his hand side to side). The boss confidently replies “no, I did this.” (moving hand confidently in a downward motion)
If you want to watch the video you can do so here. Fedex Video
This is one of my favorite Fedex commercials for the way it pokes fun at office politics. From the time I first watched this video I have empathized with the staffer who must feel like he had just entered the twilight zone.
SO what the heck does this video have to do with the subject of a leader’s purpose? Well I am excited to share I just finished interviewing our second featured guest on Material Leadership’s investigation into a leaders purpose. Our guest, an accomplished leadership development coach, walked me through the steps he would take to help a client develop a sense of their leadership purpose. His answers followed my questions with a conciseness I had not expected. Figuring my clumsy interview style would lead to at least a few awkward pauses, I did not expect this at all. Our guest walked through each question sharing a polished elegant model of how he helps a client come to grips with their own purpose discovery.
The video! The video came immediately to mind because to a certain extent I felt like the tentative staffer in the twilight zone. Here I was listening to an expert in leadership coaching offering his process which was remarkably similar to what I have shared with you in previous posts! Of course our guest had been living leadership coaching well before “coaching” was trendy, before I had considered that I might want to devote myself to the study and practice of leadership development.
In the next several days I will post the interview. I know you will like it, this is good stuff! In the mean time let’s talk about the video story above. What takeaways can we glean from this spoof of corporate life?
They are out there
Whether we like it or not, they are out there. People who look at the world differently than we do. People who take the exact same input and see a totally different picture. The challenge is to recognize this for what it is, diversity. Once we recognize that differing opinions and perspectives are potentially a good thing, we have a chance at an even better end result than we had alone. Is this not why a leader depends on his followers in the first place? Remember the old quote (I think it was Henry Ford’s) “If the two of us agree, one of us is not necessary”
Life, surprisingly, is not fair
Sometimes people will take credit for your work, other times they will undermine your credibility behind your back. You may be blamed for actions you did not take. You may be overlooked for a well earned reward.
It will happen yes, but how you deal with it is what matters. In your reaction lies the opportunity for leadership. Do you remember one of the early posts on this site “Are you self serving or selfless? The whole point of being in leadership is that you, for a the chance to achieve a greater purpose, are willing to subjugate your own needs and wants to the greater good of the cause. You are willing to take responsibility for others and to sacrifice.
It’s not easy, it’s leadership.
Bad leaders and even worse followers
It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so it seems is character in the eye of perception. As a leader we need to be on guard to challenge the perceptions, judgments and negative stereotypes we propagate. People are rarely as bad as we might at first think. It is my argument that they are simply not aware of how their words and actions misalign. The leader’s role is to get beyond the exterior and develop a relationship.
Once we have invested the time to know someone, we are in a better position to understand their character. With this knowledge we can either embrace the relationship and go deeper, or the opposite back away slowly. There is always the courageous option to speak into their life what you see. This with the right person can change a life for the better forever. Done recklessly it can create an enemy or worse seriously harm another person. Wisdom and patience are required here so tread carefully.
Some have not found their purpose, or even started looking
This gets to the whole point of this series. The staffers in the commercial are too busy making sure they ride on the boss’s coat tails to recognize that their actions lack authenticity. You cannot find yourself when you are busy making sure you don’t stand out, you don’t make waves, you don’t think for yourself.
Character comes at peculiar moments. Most often we are given the chance to wake up and ask questions of purpose in times of great stress; death, sickness, divorce, layoff etc. It just seems far to comfortable going with the flow. So ask yourself when do you feel most alive? When is it that you are most aware of your senses, your surroundings? Seek to understand these moments. What brought them on? What were the circumstances surrounding them? Short of death defying activities, lean into these moments, stay in them, bask in the emotion, in the discomfort, in the adrenaline. Learn how to wake yourself!
The interview will be posted in a few days in the mean time…
Lead well
Ron
The scene opens in a staff meeting, the charismatic boss opens saying, “we have got to cut costs people, ideas…” A tentative looking employee hesitantly offers, “ uh, we co-could open an account on fedex.com,…save 10% on…express shipping…?” pregnant pause with all the staff looking around to see who might validate or discredit the idea then the manager confidently offers his assessment, “how about this, We open an account on Fedex.com, we save 10% on online express shipping.” The flunkie staffers all nod, smile and confidently affirm their assent to the bosses great idea. The tentative staffer puzzled by this turn of events exclaims, “You just said the same thing I did only you did…this” (wiggling his hand side to side). The boss confidently replies “no, I did this.” (moving hand confidently in a downward motion)
If you want to watch the video you can do so here. Fedex Video
This is one of my favorite Fedex commercials for the way it pokes fun at office politics. From the time I first watched this video I have empathized with the staffer who must feel like he had just entered the twilight zone.
SO what the heck does this video have to do with the subject of a leader’s purpose? Well I am excited to share I just finished interviewing our second featured guest on Material Leadership’s investigation into a leaders purpose. Our guest, an accomplished leadership development coach, walked me through the steps he would take to help a client develop a sense of their leadership purpose. His answers followed my questions with a conciseness I had not expected. Figuring my clumsy interview style would lead to at least a few awkward pauses, I did not expect this at all. Our guest walked through each question sharing a polished elegant model of how he helps a client come to grips with their own purpose discovery.
The video! The video came immediately to mind because to a certain extent I felt like the tentative staffer in the twilight zone. Here I was listening to an expert in leadership coaching offering his process which was remarkably similar to what I have shared with you in previous posts! Of course our guest had been living leadership coaching well before “coaching” was trendy, before I had considered that I might want to devote myself to the study and practice of leadership development.
In the next several days I will post the interview. I know you will like it, this is good stuff! In the mean time let’s talk about the video story above. What takeaways can we glean from this spoof of corporate life?
They are out there
Whether we like it or not, they are out there. People who look at the world differently than we do. People who take the exact same input and see a totally different picture. The challenge is to recognize this for what it is, diversity. Once we recognize that differing opinions and perspectives are potentially a good thing, we have a chance at an even better end result than we had alone. Is this not why a leader depends on his followers in the first place? Remember the old quote (I think it was Henry Ford’s) “If the two of us agree, one of us is not necessary”
Life, surprisingly, is not fair
Sometimes people will take credit for your work, other times they will undermine your credibility behind your back. You may be blamed for actions you did not take. You may be overlooked for a well earned reward.
It will happen yes, but how you deal with it is what matters. In your reaction lies the opportunity for leadership. Do you remember one of the early posts on this site “Are you self serving or selfless? The whole point of being in leadership is that you, for a the chance to achieve a greater purpose, are willing to subjugate your own needs and wants to the greater good of the cause. You are willing to take responsibility for others and to sacrifice.
It’s not easy, it’s leadership.
Bad leaders and even worse followers
It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so it seems is character in the eye of perception. As a leader we need to be on guard to challenge the perceptions, judgments and negative stereotypes we propagate. People are rarely as bad as we might at first think. It is my argument that they are simply not aware of how their words and actions misalign. The leader’s role is to get beyond the exterior and develop a relationship.
Once we have invested the time to know someone, we are in a better position to understand their character. With this knowledge we can either embrace the relationship and go deeper, or the opposite back away slowly. There is always the courageous option to speak into their life what you see. This with the right person can change a life for the better forever. Done recklessly it can create an enemy or worse seriously harm another person. Wisdom and patience are required here so tread carefully.
Some have not found their purpose, or even started looking
This gets to the whole point of this series. The staffers in the commercial are too busy making sure they ride on the boss’s coat tails to recognize that their actions lack authenticity. You cannot find yourself when you are busy making sure you don’t stand out, you don’t make waves, you don’t think for yourself.
Character comes at peculiar moments. Most often we are given the chance to wake up and ask questions of purpose in times of great stress; death, sickness, divorce, layoff etc. It just seems far to comfortable going with the flow. So ask yourself when do you feel most alive? When is it that you are most aware of your senses, your surroundings? Seek to understand these moments. What brought them on? What were the circumstances surrounding them? Short of death defying activities, lean into these moments, stay in them, bask in the emotion, in the discomfort, in the adrenaline. Learn how to wake yourself!
The interview will be posted in a few days in the mean time…
Lead well
Ron
Monday, August 6, 2007
“Ogres are like Onions”
By now you have probably noted that I love to use metaphors from movies to illustrate important lessons of leadership. Well not to disappoint here is another “animated” lesson.
One of my favorite animated movies is Shrek. I love the music video at the end, the wonderful humorous exchanges between Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers and one powerfully metaphoric scene.
Donkey has been harassing Shrek for some time at the start of their noble quest to slay the dragon and rescue Princess Fiona from the fiery keep. In one conversation Shrek is trying to explain to Donkey what it is like to be an Ogre. “Like an onion, Ogres have layers”
Shrek: Ogres are like onions.
Donkey: They stink?
Shrek: Yes...NO!
Donkey: They make you cry.
Shrek: NO! LAYERS! Onions have layers. OGRES have layers. Onions have layers... you get it. We both have layers.
Donkey: Oh, you both have layers. You know, not everybody likes onions.
(From http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shrek)
These layers are a not so subtle metaphor to the way we live our lives.
Leader Know Thyself
Warren Bennis in his seminal book On Becoming a Leader states that a leader must first know himself. To do this requires that we look in the mirror and see what is truly there. This is not what we see initially, we see what we choose to. We see our self perception, our story of who we are. The story is a mixture of our experiences, prejudices, fears, joys, loves, all the stories of our youth. Inevitably this self perception is a layer of our own personal onion. To know ourselves we must peel this back and see what lies within. As we get to the core we will find the layers more and more tender, more and more vulnerable. You see the outer layers are built up toughened to protect us from the pain and disappointment that comes our way. They are like a skin of leather, the back of a crocodile. We must protect ourselves.
Personal Mastery
I am not here to say peel it all away and expose yourself to the trauma of life. Frankly that would be stupid. Much of the protections we use are there for a valid reason. Rather, I argue that spending time exploring who you are at the most intimate of levels is a life changing process. It allows you to see yourself for who you truly are. It helps you to reveal the shadow beliefs that you harbor, the ones that cause you to react in ways that seem unpredictable and surprising at the time. Kevin Cashman’s book Leadership from the Inside Out describes the process of achieving personal mastery. It contains a wonderful set of tools that can guide a would be leader through this process of self discovery.
What resides in the subconscious mind has a profound effect on our conscious behaviors. Trouble is we do not see it or know it. Cashman challenges his reader to attain a state of meditation that will allow you to connect more directly to your subconscious mind. When I did this I found the revelation profound. I was able to see the link between many of my less preferred behaviors and who I was at my core. Armed with this knowledge I was able to begin to accept who I was and look at each behavior objectively for the first time. I chose to change some, accept others and reinforce yet others. Simply, this process made me whole, more authentic.
WIFM Everyone’s favorite radio station, what’s in it for me?!
Why is this so important? It is more than the derailing behaviors that make this journey a necessity. It is the fact that our leadership angst comes from deep within us. To attempt to lead without understanding why you want to lacks integrity and authenticity. There is nothing more powerful than a leader who has faced the fear and pain that resides within and can be at peace with who they are. In fact they can use their own story to engage followers in a noble quest. I am convinced that we all want authenticity in others, especially our leaders. I often think that our cultures fascination with the fall of the debutantes is more about finding out who they are authentically than gawking at their misdeeds. Although voyeurism is alive and well it is a vice that does not honor our noble nature.
This is why this journey is so important; our followers need to know that they are following someone they can trust someone they can identify with someone they can emulate. They deserve to know who they are following.
Lead well…
Ron
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