Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

On Leadership–Placing Blame

April 24, 2015

The results were in. The project had “gone south” as they say. Actual numbers were far from projected. Team members were discouraged. Worse, they were scrambling to justify themselves by placing blame on others. It was as if a serious virus had invaded the body of the organization spreading disease and death.

Now is the time for the leader to step forward. Can she bring everyone together and salvage something in order to move forward into the future. After all, things fail. Not all projects are successful.

But the leader, oh what a narcissist or worse. The leader places blame. 

“If only the economy were better.”

“If only the designer had done a better job.”

“If only the sales people were better.”

“If only….”

How about–“I’m sorry I let people down. I failed to plan adequately. I failed to get the team working together. I failed to make decisions quickly enough.”

One of my spiritual mentors says that when things are bad there are two responses we should never make. These responses to suffering, failure, bad results will prohibit any further spiritual (or other) growth.

These responses are placing blame and festering in bitterness.

Experience comes from making bad decisions. Wisdom comes from learning from those bad decisions.

The leader could go to the team and own up to the mistakes and then leading a reflection on what went wrong in order to position the team (or committee, business, church, non-profit) for future success.

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Leadership | Leave a Comment »

Promoted Beyond Confidence

April 17, 2015

“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” –Walt Kelley, Pogo Seth Godin, famous marketing guru, has written several books, but now he writes short thoughts on his blog. Yesterday, he wrote a corollary to the Peter principle.

The original Peter Principle made perfect sense for the industrial age: “In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence.” In other words, organizations keep promoting people up the organization until the people they promote reach a job where they are now incompetent. Competence compounded until it turns into widespread incompetence. Industrial organizations are built on competence, and the Peter Principle describes their undoing. Consider a corollary, one for our times: “To be promoted beyond your level of confidence.” Too often, the person who wrecks our work is us. In every modern organization with upward mobility, good people are promoted until they get to the point where they lose their nerve.

How often it seems that organizations promote people who were good at something, but they were not good at the new job. The original Peter Principle was derived from education. A teacher is good at communicating with children and controlling a classroom. Promoted to Principal, she must now supervise and motivate teachers as well as deal with more parents. Promoted to Superintendent, she must now deal with the school board and supervise and motivate Principals. Each move up the ladder requires new skills. Maybe in churches, a pastor is good at preaching and dealing with a few committees. Then going to a bigger church, now she must deal with more committees, supervise and motivate a larger staff, do more strategic planning, and upgrade preaching skills. Today in flatter hierarchies, Godin says the problem is confidence. He may have something. We get into something that we are no longer confident of handling. “How did I get into this,” becomes the question of the hour—or minute. It may be mostly the same skills, just on a different level. Leaders lacking in confidence may wind up micromanaging. Or they may withdraw. Either way, they become ineffective leaders. How do we gain confidence?

  • Seek out mentors
  • Study
  • Get over needing to be “the smartest person in the room”
  • Celebrate small accomplishments—both personally and with the team

Tags:, ,
Posted in Leadership | 1 Comment »

Respect For People Key To Leadership

April 15, 2015

There was a person in a leadership role, but he failed to exhibit the least bit of leadership. Isn’t it amazing, yet sad, how often that sort of person exists?

People were like objects to him. Just names on a spreadsheet. Employees who were always trying to beat the system. They were always trying to get out of doing work.

He would even terminate people via email and then publicly humiliate them.

Ideas? He had all the ideas. Initiative? If you stuck your neck out trying to accomplish something in his organization, that just made it vulnerable for his next tirade.

He seemed to care about people at times. In the end, he really didn’t.

Sometimes he would have a flash of insight into himself and the organization and wonder why things were not going well. Why was the organization not growing and thriving? Why did people not seem to be happy at work?

But the feeling would quickly leave. It is hard work to truly lead.

The leader who truly leads the group (company, organization, department, committee) understands the value of people. She respects others and treats them as functioning human beings full of ideas and hopes and wanting to contribute and find meaning in the mission of the group.

Fortunately, these leaders exist. They trust their team members to do their jobs with appropriate follow up. They expect ideas and initiative and reward publicly those who try and communicate privately with those who need help or who fall short. “How can I help?” is the mantra of a leader.

Tags:,
Posted in Leadership | Leave a Comment »

Leaders Build a Great Team

March 27, 2015

Good leaders build a product at a profit; great leaders build a great team.

A great team fits together seamlessly. Each member knows and is great at executing the assigned role. Yet, each member knows and believes in the goal of the organization. The leader need not look over the work of each member in minute detail. 

In this situation, the leader is free to fulfill the role of leader.

  • Reinforce the vision to avoid “vision leak”
  • Be aware of the “big things” so that the little things go the right direction
  • Encourage each team member in growth and development of skills
  • Groom the next generation of leaders
  • Watch the details so that actions may be taken immediately upon changes in external or internal environment

Have you ever been part of such a team?

If you have, you will never forget the feeling. You actually enjoy work. You enjoy relationships with the team.

I have been on both–this type of smooth functioning team and dysfunctional teams. But mostly the latter. So much so, that a friend suggested I write a book on dysfunctional leadership. 

Someone asked me recently about an area where I am leading currently. What should I be doing? I answered, finding a younger person to replace me and then mentor them to grow into leadership and commitment to carry forward (and grow) the mission that I’m on.

Organizing–that’s what I do. It’s second nature by now. Looking out at opportunities for new things–I think about that often. Finding and grooming  a replacement? That is my challenge.

Whatever your challenge–whether it be lack of sufficient trust in your team members to let them be free to do their jobs and suggest improvement areas and new directions or whether it is a state of mind where you feel compelled to watch over everyone’s shoulder–recognize that as a weakness. Then go to work on it. Find a coach to help if necessary. There are many of us out there more than willing to help people grow.

The world does not suffer from an overabundance of good leadership. There’s room for one more.

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Leadership | Leave a Comment »

Travel Makes You A Better Leader

March 20, 2015

From the blog of Kevin Roberts, executive chairman of Saatchi & Satchi: 

Those who have traveled will understand that it provides much more than an escape from daily routine. Roman philosopher Seneca said “travel and change of place can impart vigor to the mind” and how right he was, and continues to be.

Bruce Poon Tip, founder of G Adventures, is a full believer in the value created by travel both personally and professionally, to the extent that he lets his employees travel for free. An article by Lisa Evans on Fast Company highlights the wisdom gleaned by Tip through his globe-hopping, and in particular the profound effect it has had on his company’s operations and his leadership style.

He recalls a trip to Tibet that taught him about decision-making based on spirituality, obstacles and karma, which influenced his approach to decision-making in business. Instead of relying on data like he always had, he started making decisions based on his gut instinct, recognizing that a big part of business is emotional. Big decisions with heart; little ones with head. 

Organizing and leading an international mission trip is a further example of Roberts’ post about learning leadership from travel–especially with a group.

You know where you are going and why. In our case, an orphanage ministry in Tijuana with guidance from Isaiah 58: 7, “is it  (proper fasting) not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house?”

  • recruit a team around their hearts and the tasks you hope to achieve.
  • plan the logistics of travel down to the minute–flights, ground transportation, meals, projects, downtime.
  • budget the trip and raise funds.
  • hold team building meetings to prepare for the trip
  • provide guidance through the travel.
  • make decisions on the spur of the moment as situations change.
  • keep the budget in the back of your mind as you make decisions on spending the money as the trip unfolds.
  • keep the needs, desires, and vulnerabilities of each team member in mind as part of the decision process.
  • remind the team why we are where we are.
  • rejoice at moments when God breaks through the fog; grieve for situations people find themselves in.
  • make decisions based on grace

There are probably more. My travel has certainly broadened my understanding of the variety of peoples, yet also their similarities. I’ve learned to think quickly and with my gut rather than waiting for data to eventually filter in. I’ve learned when you just have to “go with the flow” when situations change. In other words travel helped me grow up. How about you? I hope not like many people in my county who rarely travel more than 50 miles even today.

Tags:, , ,
Posted in Leadership | Leave a Comment »

It Takes Energy to Lead

March 13, 2015

Nehemiah, a leader of the Jews during the time of the Persian empire, had heard about the sorry state of Jerusalem. His brother described how the walls were torn down and the gates burned. About how this made the city a laughingstock among the nations.

Chapter 1 of the book describing his work describes how he was motivated to do somehing about the problem. The next chapter describes how he traveled 800 miles to Jerusalem. He arrived, but said nothing for three days. Then he went out with a small group at night to survey the situation.

Today, I can get into a car and drive a mile over to I-75 then head south for 800 miles and stop at a hotel in south Georgia in one day and be a little tired. For Nehemiah and his troops and entourage, it was a long and physically demanding trip. He took three days to recover and rebuild his energy. Then he could cast his vision for the restoration of the walls to the people.

It takes energy to lead. Energy comes from attitude, fitness, nutrition, adequate rest. People feed off the energy of their leaders.

But, the energy must be positive and uplifiting. Many leaders have an energy that destroys motivation. The energy is perhaps nervous energy. Or perhaps self-directed. Maybe it comes from the “high” pole of bi-polar disorder. Maybe it comes from fear.

On the other hand, have you ever met people who seem to just suck the energy right out of you? They are exhausting!

If you take care of your body–as Paul describes it as the temple of the spirit, then you have the beginnings of energy. Next build prayer into the rhythms of your work. Your work, indeed, becomes prayer in action. Your service becomes prayer in action actually building more energy as you expend it on your service. (Another one of life’s paradoxes.)

Einstein worked out the math to come up with energy=mass times the speed of light squared. Leadership=energy times vision.

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Leadership | Leave a Comment »

How to be a Leader

March 10, 2015

John Quincy Adams, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, then you are a leader.”

I am ever on the alert for quotes to conclude our Yoga class. here is a good one to contemplate and then incorporate into our lives.

You probably have heard someone say, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

I remember the first time I heard that phrase. It sounded ridiculous even to a kid.

We all know that our kids will mimic what we do, not what we tell them. Guess what, so do people in the committee we lead. And people in our department or company.

Someone once said, “Your actions speak so loudly that I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

It is so important that we act as we wish to be. And in so doing help others act in appropriate ways.

Tags:,
Posted in Leadership | Leave a Comment »

He Makes a List and Checks It Twice

March 6, 2015

Want a tip that will increase your effectiveness at work, at home, at church? It will make you more focused, so you can concentrate on the important things.

There is a story from more than 50 years ago about a man who ran a large company. But he never felt like he was working on the important things. He always felt he was behind.

A management consultant visited one day to inquire about how he could help the executive. “If you could help me gain control of my agenda and my day, I’ll pay you whatever you ask within reason,” the executive answered.

Get out a piece of paper, the consultant ordered. Write down the tasks that need to be done. Now circle the most important task and work on it until it’s done. Then do the same thing with the next most important task. If you don’t get the entire list done, that’s OK, since you’ve completed the most important tasks.

Do you make lists? One of my favorite authors, Umberto Eco, wrote an entire book about lists.

Develop a habit of making lists.

  1. Stuff to buy the next time you’re at the store
  2. Things to fix around the house
  3. Reports to write
  4. Books to read
  5. Calls to make
  6. People to pray for

Since I am a geek, I use an application called Nozbe to manage my lists. It is based on the book Getting Things Done by David Allen. But pen and paper works, too.

Well, I can check another thing off my list!

Tags:, ,
Posted in Leadership | Leave a Comment »

Leaders Empty Your Cup

February 27, 2015

Andy Stanley, founder and pastor of North Point Community Church in suburban Atlanta, thinks and communicates leadership as well as anyone speaking today.

He participates in one of those huge, fill-the-arena leadership events that tours the country. I’ve actually spent the couple of hundred dollars to sit in the cheap seats and watch.

Some of his latest thinking focuses on enabling the next generation of leaders. He calls it emptying your cup. You need to share all you know with the next generation. Not all they need to know–something you probably can’t fulfill. But all you know.

Here is a video clip that is actually a teaser for the Leadercast program. But it succinctly captures this one idea.

Enjoy.

Tags:, , ,
Posted in Leadership | 1 Comment »

Leaders Are Observant

February 20, 2015

While I was in an airport last week, a story about a man in Detroit played. Seems he lost his car, couldn’t afford another one right now, but he wanted to keep his job. So he basically walked 21 miles a day to get to work.

I don’t know how a TV reporter discovered him. The result of the story playing was that someone donated a car so he could make it to work.

The result was gratifying. But, I started thinking about all the people around him. Leaders where he works. Church leaders around him. Did no one see his plight, yet with his willingness to persevere, and try to help him?

There was a church leader, a senior pastor,  who seemed to know everyone. Someone need help? He’d point someone in their direction to help out. Trying to start a ministry? He could point out several people who might be interested in that same ministry.

A good business leader is aware of the people in the company, as well as top talent in competitors’ companies. They know whom to ask for which projects. Who to help out when someone else needs a little expertise and guidance.

Where do you fit on the observer scale? Are you oblivious to most people? Or do you see talent, desires, needs, places to help?

Sharpen your observation skills and watch your leadership quotient zoom.

Tags:,
Posted in Leadership | Leave a Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »