Leadership Challenge

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: caitlinclarke@gmail.com.

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.

C.A.K.E.

I love cake.  No, really, give me a large piece of double chocolate cake smothered with dark chocolate gelato and cover it with melted, dark chocolate syrup and I’m in seventh heaven, as they say.

Just don’t give me that often.  It’s about the waistline.

Although there are probably dozens of ways to do so, I don’t usually combine my love of chocolate cake with messages about leadership.

However, I was having a discussion the other day with a client who operates a restaurant chain and the two words mingled.

The client, knowing my affinity for using acronyms to anchor a point, challenged me to create a way to use the word “cake” in a leadership lesson.

Challenge accepted.

You may be familiar with my mantra: “leadership is a moment-to-moment choice.”  Well, that’s our starting point.  Let’s grab a fork and dig in to our C.A.K.E.

C= Choice…Real leaders know it’s all about the choices they make each day.  Leadership takes Courage to be yourself and allow others to do the same.  Clarity of purpose and how your values affect the world you walk in is instrumental.  Creativity is essential.  Real leaders love to stretch their thinking and create new avenues for success.  And, of course, Commitment is crucial for yourself and others. Without commitment, nothing changes. Not you. Not them. Nothing.

A=Action… Real leaders don’t sit around and wait for the action to come to them. They go after what they want with Audacity. They use the Law of Attraction to Ask, Act and Accept that the outcome they desire is only a matter of time. They have the Ability to see the perspective of others and inspire them. They see Adversity as a challenge to their vision only to be overcome.

K=Kindness…Real leaders lead with grace. They are Kind to themselves and others. They offer Keys to success to those who join with them.

E=Energy…Real leaders derive their energy from their passion. They jump into each morning with childlike wonder knowing they create that day with their attitude. They offer Encouragement to others and Enable them to aspire to great heights. Real leaders are always learners. Whether each action creates success or not, they learn from every outcome and Evolve.

That was a piece of cake. (He said tongue in cheek.) Next up? C.H.O.C.O.L.A.T.E.

Robert H. Thompson is the author of The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable. You can reach him and subscribe to his Leadership Path newsletter at www.leaderinsideout.com

Seven Steps to Becoming a Shovel Ready Leader

We've heard quite a bit lately about "shovel ready" projects usually framed as "construction projects ready-to-go" but just in need of a bit of "stimulus."

Well, in these difficult times, with perhaps more to come, the hour has arrived for our leaders to become shovel ready. It's time for you to get shovel ready. It's time for all of us to become a part of the stimulus.

To me, the term shovel ready means that some advanced thought and effort has precipitated the ability to be ready.

With that in mind, I have devised Seven Steps to becoming a Shovel Ready Leader^TM.

1. Passion: Even amid all of the chaos swirling around you, your family or your organization, you must find a few moments to reflect on what you really are passionate about. Ask yourself why you care about this? Without knowing this key ingredient, you might dig in the wrong direction. Write your responses down. Reflect on them often, especially during moments of hesitation.

2. Presence: This does not mean propping yourself up with your shovel as others do the work or plopping behind your desk in your favorite pinstripes. Leadership is a moment-to-moment choice. To be a Shovel Ready Leader^TM you must be authentically present to those around you at all times. You need to completely close the gap between your beliefs and behaviors. To do this you must be aware of what you stand for and why. Your core values are key to your success. Dig too far away from your core and a bottomless pit of dismal outcomes awaits you. Please not, presence includes listening, not just hearing. Shovel Ready Leaders^TM are active listeners.  They use questions as teaching tools. When you listen deeply, you create a credibility path so others not only want to join with you, but lobby for the honor.

3. Voice: This is not about raising your voice over the din. It's about discovering your true voice and helping others find theirs. Storytelling is the key. Shovel Ready Leaders^TM find elements from past stories about overcoming adversity that help him or her make sense of what is ahead and how to frame the future Vision Story. Moreover, your Vision Story must offer a terrain map of a positive future and everyone's role in it. Speaking from your heart will attract others who will join you in this new quest moving them away from chaos and towards commitment. However, in your workplace, where change may be greeted with anything but open arms, people my need to be personally and warmly invited. Just because they work in the same organization doesn't mean they feel a part of what's next. Invite them personally and share the benefits of picking up a shovel with you.

4. Action: Grab your shovel, dig a deep trench and shove those "never been helpful" limiting thoughts deep into the ditch and bury them for good. Your mind is your most valuable ally. Yet, it can be your most ardent adversary. When you take charge of your mind, you begin to take charge of your life. Shovel Ready Leaders^TMunderstand leading is about doing not just talking. Question everything, especially those redundant systems and those deep potholes potentially masked as your policies and procedures. When you do that, you will help others see obstacles as opportunities.

5. Service: Being of service is a way of life. Choose it. Being a Shovel Ready Leader^TMmeans not looking at those around you as tools in your "Tim the Tool Man" belt. You don't call them "my people." You are note the "boss" of them; you are their servant leader. You honor them as individuals and refuse to use them as a "most pit" of automatons. You purposely create a diversified cast of talented fellow leaders. Many of them should be smarter than you and preparing to succeed you if you're lucky. When you recognize and reward, you think about it in advance. You don't just toss thank you bouquets to the masses as you mosey down the hallway. You acknowledge them meaningfully, and not with an "Attaperson" print out from the copy machine either. Learn about the people who have rolled up their sleeves with you and acknowledge them personally. Your goals should include focusing on helping them create their masterpiece.

6. Evolve: Incremental or giant leaps. You choose. The Shovel Ready Leader^TMis a rabid learner. SRL's never plateau. They are always stretching themselves and others. Read voraciously and encourage others to do the same. Seek out other learners as well. Create a Book Club at work and use all types of books (like The Offsite) to ignite a leadership conversation with your team. Always be ready to try new things. "It's the way we've always done things" is not the battle cry of Shovel Ready Leaders^TM.

7. Demonstrate: Exhibit the above behaviors every moment by using my simple but effective The Four Commitment Questions^TM "What Can I Do More Of? What Can I Do Less Of? What Can I Start Doing? What Can I Stop Doing?" Commit to this new way of living. Without commitment, nothing changes. Not you. Not them. Nothing.

Well, there you have it, The Seven Steps to becoming a Shovel Ready Leader^TM. I'm sure there are more. Let me know if you come up with an eighth, ninth or tenth. I'd be glad to post them. Send to Robert@leaderinsideout.com

Robert H. Thompson is the author of The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable. You can reach him and subscribe to his Leadership Path newsletter at www.leaderinsideout.com.

Show Me the Money

In one of the most popular scenes from contemporary film, Jerry Maguire, played by Tom Cruise, is on the phone with football player Rod Tidwell, played by Cuba Gooding, Jr., begging to remain Tidwell's agent. Tidwell tells Maguire that he'll keep him on, but then says, "That's what I'm gonna do for you: God bless you, Jerry.  But this is what you gonna do for me." Tidwell then insists Maguire repeat after him, "Show me the money." Maguire's first several attempts to please his client are half-hearted and feeble, but Tidwell continues to egg and cheer his agent on until Maguire is screaming into the phone, "Show me the money!" at the top of his lungs.  Here's the clip; take a look and listen.

No doubt a few of you have gleefully used that line a time or two as I have, but right now I'm not finding it very funny. This entertaining and silly scene seems an apt portrayal of what's happening at AIG and in many of our other financial institutions and major corporations.  It's all about the money, even though the money happens to have come from someone else's pockets. And when it becomes all about the money, people lose sight of other important values—little things like fairness, justice, personal responsibility, and the welfare of their fellow citizens. 

Stanford Professor, Jeff Pfeffer, one of the best business professors in the country and perhaps the most grounded in hard research on soft subjects, recently wrote a brilliant commentary on the AIG mess in Washington Post's On Leadership online blog. In it he cited research by Kathleen Vohs of the University of Minnesota, reporting that "In  a large number of experiments, Vohs and her colleagues show that participants primed with the idea of money—for instance, by seeing a dollar bill on a screen saver or constructing sentences with money-related concepts as one of the words—are less likely to ask for help with a task, less likely to offer help to others, and to sit farther away from compatriots in the study. Money, simply put, makes people behave more independently and, of course, engages their competitive spirit. Meanwhile, numerous others studies show that people with economics training are more likely to defect in prisoner's dilemma games, to take more resources for themselves, in ultimatum games, to give less to charity—you get the picture."

What we learn from Pfeffer and Vohs is that by focusing on money we become blind to other important considerations. We are less likely to want to be part of a team, less likely to collaborate, less likely to help others, and less likely to be good to our neighbors. This may make for more intense and entertaining sports competitions—yes, show him the money, Jerry—but when it comes to restoring our economy, getting people back into their homes, putting people back to work, and restoring consumer confidence it's exactly the wrong thing to do.

While in the short run it may be necessary, and we may be able, to do something to bail out financial institutions and auto companies, there won't be any long-term fixes to the more pervasive and pernicious threat a "show me the money" culture presents to our way of life until we engage in a serious reexamination of the values that are promoted and reinforced in business schools, consulting groups, Wall Street firms, professional sports, and entertainment media. And while we're at it, let's also reflect on the values we stress at home with our kids. As long as "show me the money" is the mantra of the day, we'll be reading about a lot more AIG-like scandals in the future.

Posted by Jim Kouzes

Credibility Is the Foundation

The current issue of Harvard Management Update arrived in my inbox today, and the lead piece was an interview with well-known business guru Ram Charan, whose new book, Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty, was released in December 2008. Interviewer Christina Bielaszka-DuVernay, editor of Harvard Business.org editor, asked him this first question: "What's most important for leaders—not just CEOs and senior executives but leaders throughout the ranks—to fous on right now?

Charan's response: "In these times more than other times, first and foremost is demonstrating personal integrity and maintaining your personal credibility. They are so important in tough times, yet many leaders lose their integrity and destroy their credibility by giving into the temptation to cut corners when they have to do unpleasant tasks like downsizing."  This should come as no surprise to anyone who has read our books, The Leadership Challenge and Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It.  Barry and I have written about this for over 25 years. Our research continues to demonstrate that credibility is the foundation of leadership. If people don’t believe in the messenger, they won't believe the message. It's one of the enduring leadership truths, in good times and in bad times.

And Ram Charan is absolutely correct in saying that in tough times credibility and integrity are crucial. When you have to act quickly and decisively under very adverse circumstances, and at the same time maintain the highest levels of commitment, you had better have lots of credit stored up with your constituents. The dilemma is that if leaders don't earn it over the years, then why all of a sudden should someone want to believe them when times are tough? Credibility isn't something leaders can turn on and turn off. It's got to be on 24/7/365.

The tragedy now is that there are so many egregious examples of excess and greed in business that it's tough for even the most saintly leaders to be seen as having high integrity. The Maddoffs, Stanfords, and AIGs of the world have caused a torrent of outrage, and they're just making it exceedingly tough for the rest of us to lead. 

But there is some reason to be optimistic that things can change. Confidence in major institutions was at a ten-year low in 2008, but surprisingly, according to the Harris Poll the overall confidence rating of major institutions actually went up 10% in February 2009 compared to a year ago, with confidence in the White House surging 21%! Other organizations that gained significant ground are educational institutions (up 8%), the military (up 7%), medicine and television (up 6%), and organized religion and organized labor (up 5%). 

However, the very institutions in which we need greater confidence saw their numbers decline. Only 11% of the public express a great deal of confidence in major corporations (down 3%) and a minuscule 4% express a great confidence in Wall Street  (down 7%). A similar pattern can be seen among the honesty ratings of bankers as measured by Gallup. The positive honesty ratings of bankers fell from 35% to 23%, making it a record low since Gallup has been gathering the data.  Thirty-five percent is not exactly anything to brag about, but at 23% they've got serious credibility problems.  It's no wonder that people are fumingly furious about bonuses and bailouts.

It's time for leaders in major corporations, especially financial institutions, to do a little soul searching. Having worked with many leaders in these firms, I know they aren't evil people out to steal from their customers or the American people. Still, they can't just huddle amongst themselves telling themselves that they really are decent folks. These issues have to be addressed out in the open, in the full light of the day if these leaders ever want to see faith and confidence restored.

Credibility takes a lot of time to build, but it can be lost in an instant. In order to regain it, leaders in these organizations are going to have to address the issues directly.  They need to begin an internal dialog, as well as a national conversation, about how we got into this mess in the first place, and how we can prevent it from happening again. It's time to tell the truth, and that begins by first being honest with ourselves. 

Posted by Jim Kouzes

Validation

My good friend, and Master Leadership Challenge Facilitator, Steve Coats of International Leadership Associates alerted me to a wonderful video on YouTube, and I just couldn't resist sharing it with everyone. It's entitled "Validation," and the clever double entendre in the title is meant to refer both to the parking variety and the kind when we demonstrate that we truly value others. It's a wonderfully uplifting little show that's made over a million people smile. It also reminds us that we all can have a positive, and a negative impact, on the attitudes and behaviors of others just from very small gestures. 

During these really tough economic times, it's vitally important to remember how essential it is to tell others how valuable they are to the success of our efforts. The research makes it very clear that when people feel valued in their work they are more engaged and more committed. And, as an added bonus, we get to feel good about ourselves as well.  Take 16 minutes and lighten up your day.  And forward this on to others so they can smile, too.  Even more importantly, remember that in every interaction with others you have an opportunity to, as Phil Turner once remarked to us in an interview, "uplift other people's spirits." Go ahead, make their day!

Posted by Jim Kouzes

A Leader for All Time

Jack Covert, founder of 800-CEO-READ, and company president Todd Sattersten, have written a new book, The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: Whay They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You. Jack and Todd used three criteria in selecting books for their list. The first was quality of the idea put forth. The second was the applicability of the idea for someone working in business today. The third criterion for inclusion on the list was accessibility. We're very pleased to announce that The Leadership Challenge was one of these 100 titles--and one of 10 on the topic of leadership--chosen to be included in The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. Check it out!

-Marisa Kelley, Assistant Editor

Failure: The Secret to Success

Barry and I have been advocating failure as a necessary part of a leader's journey ever since we published the first edition of The Leadership Challenge. That's because over and over again people in our studies tell us how important mistakes are to their success. This doesn't mean for a moment that failure is the objective of the endeavor. It's just that failure is a natural "byproduct of pushing the envelope," of attempting something extraordinary. So, I was excited to come across a cool 8-minute video from Honda that's posted on YouTube.  It's entitled "Failure: The Secret to Success," and in it you'll hear Takeo Fukui, President and CEO of Honda Motor Co,. Ltd., say that "All the demands from Soichiro Honda (Honda founder) were to take risks and fail.  The idea is that you can fail 100 times as long as you succeed once. 'Trial and Error' sums up Soichiro Honda's ideas. We can only make fantastic advances in technology through many failures." When you have 8 minutes, take a look and listen to what one of the leading companies in the world has to say about the subject.

Posted by Jim Kouzes     

The Origins of Leadership

A client recently asked me how I would explain the difference between "management" and "leadership."  It's a question that Barry Posner and I are frequently asked, and it may also be a topic of conversation in organizations in which you work. My client found the following observations useful. I hope you do, too.

1. When you look up ‘manage’ and ‘lead’ in the etymological dictionary, you’ll note that the words have very different root origins. Manage, as well as management and manager, derive from the root word ‘manus,’ meaning ‘the hand.’  (Interestingly, the words ‘command’ and ‘demand’ also come from that same root.)  There is a clear connection between managing and handling or controlling things. The words ‘lead,’ ‘leader,’ and ‘leadership,’ on the other hand, share as their common root the word ‘to go.’ Leading, at its roots, is about going places, about movement, and about guiding. I especially like the second definition in Merriam-Webster Unabridged which reads, "to guide on a way: show by going with or in advance of."  I often ask people to reflect on the differences between the two concepts by thinking about the differences between handling things and going places.  People get the distinction pretty quickly. 
2. In the classic management literature, the functions of management are frequently described as ‘plan, organize, staff, direct, and control.’  Contrast these with our Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership described in our book, The Leadership Challenge—Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. (Other leadership models may use other terms, but the descriptions are quite similar.)  Management is much more about the practices that get existing things to run efficiently and effectively. Leadership practices are about changing the way things are and creating new futures.
3. All managers must be leaders, but not all leaders must be managers. There are a lot of leaders — scout leaders, community leaders, teachers, coaches, parents, athletic team leaders, club leaders, etc. — who aren’t in managerial positions. Most universities, for example, now offer a number of student leadership development programs, but they don’t offer management development programs to those same students.

There may be other distinctions that come to mind for you.  Please let us know what you think.

One note of caution: While it's useful for a number of reasons to illustrate the differences between leading and managing, we also need to stress that both are important.  Organizations need managers, and they need them to be the best they can be at the fundamentals of "handling" things. We need both exemplary managers and exemplary leaders.  The importance of making the distinction is to draw attention to the fact that there are a lot more people who can exercise leadership than those in formal management positions. In fact, we'd maintain that the very best organizations liberate the leader in everyone.

Posted by: Jim Kouzes